Hong Kong: Testing checks done in 2 districts

The Government today completed joint enforcement operations at Kam Pak House of Hong Pak Court in Lam Tin and Hung Yuet House of Hung Fuk Estate in Yuen Long, which were earlier included in compulsory testing notices.

The enforcement action at Kam Pak House was conducted by the Commerce & Economic Development Bureau, the Intellectual Property Department, Invest Hong Kong, Police and the Department of Health. Out of the 358 people whose test records were checked, 14 failed to comply with the notice.

At Hung Yuet House, staff deployed by the Housing Department, Police and the Department of Health checked 383 peoples test records and found that three people violated the compulsory testing notice.

A fixed penalty notice of $10,000 was issued to a total of 12 people.

This story has been published on: 2022-11-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi

16:38, November 08, 2022 By He Yin ( People's Daily

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his official visit to China on Nov. 4.

Xi 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.

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)

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.

Xi's words indicated the future direction of China-Germany relations and China-Europe relations.

Scholz is the first European leader to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The trip also marked his first visit to China as the Federal Chancellor of Germany.

Xi briefed Scholz on the 20th CPC National Congress, with a particular focus on the essence of Chinese modernization.

"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," said Xi, demonstrating China's firm determination to advance win-win cooperation with the rest of the world.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations. It is significant because the two countries will build on past successes to further advance their ties.

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.

Xi said 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.

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 benefit of both countries.

Scholz said Germany wants to maintain communication and coordination with China to better safeguard regional and global peace and security, stressing a multi-polar world is needed in which the role and influence of emerging countries can be taken seriously.

He noted Germany opposes bloc confrontation for which politicians should be responsible, adding that Germany will play its role in furthering Europe-China relations.

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. That's why the German business community was expecting Scholz's visit to China.

The 20th CPC National Congress drew a bright blueprint for China's development, and China's efforts to advance high-quality development will create more opportunities for China-Germany practical cooperation.

Xi said 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.

Amid rising unilateralism and protectionism, a few countries are fanning decoupling and building "exclusive yards with high walls," which creates new risks for the world economy that has already been in trouble.

Scholz reiterated that 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.

As two major economies, China and Germany will work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and create momentum for global recovery by jointly resisting protectionism.

A well-developed China-Germany relation not only benefits the two countries, but also is significant for the stable development of China-Europe relations.

Changes of the world, of our times and of history are unfolding today in ways like never before. Xi stressed 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.

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, Xi pointed out.

Xi said under the current circumstances, the international community should support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis. He 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.

Xi stressed that there is no change in China's commitment to developing ties with Germany, no change in China's sincere wish for closer cooperation with Germany, and no change in China's conviction that China and Germany can make greater differences together.

Working together to further consolidate political mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation and strive for the new development of China-Germany and China-Europe relations, the two countries will make more contributions to world peace and development.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Du Mingming)
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Republican Ryan Zinke will represent the newly drawn western congressional seat in Montana, according to a race call from the Associated Press.

Zinke beat Democratic challenger Monica Tranel, a Missoula lawyer, with 50% of the vote to Tranel's 46%. Libertarian John Lamb, who saw an elevated role in the race, took 4% of the vote.

Turnout in Montana was at 60% with nearly all votes counted by Thursday morning. Zinkes margin over Tranel was 8,014 votes.

On Wednesday evening as more results came in from Flathead, Missoula and Gallatin counties, Zinke declared victory as the path for Tranel dramatically narrowed. Several large counties took much of Wednesday to complete their tallies, pushing the determination of the race to Thursday morning.

Id like to thank everyone who voted for me on Election Day and all those who volunteered with our campaign to get the word out. For those of you who did not vote for me, my door is always open and youll find me to have an open ear, open mind and shoot straight when we disagree," Zinke said in a press release Wednesday evening.

Addressing supporters at the Union Club in Missoula on Tuesday night after polls closed, Tranel reiterated her pitch to the "middle" of the state's electorate.

"We've been divided, but that doesn't mean we have to stay divided. We don't have to be defined by the path that we've had over the last six years. We can be better than we've been. We can move forward together, we can connect, what I have heard over and over and over again is a yearning for community, a yearning for connection," Tranel said.

Zinke took Flathead, Lake, Ravalli, Beaverhead, Granite, Lincoln, Madison, Mineral, Pondera, Powell and Sanders counties. Tranel had secured Missoula, Gallatin, Silver Bow, Deer Lodge and Glacier counties.

This is the first time in nearly three decades Montanans will elect two U.S. House representatives. Republican Matt Rosendale won the eastern House race.

Political analysis projected the western district race tightening as Election Day drew near, moving its ranking from solidly Republican to leaning toward the GOP.

Zinkes campaign for a return to Congress began more than a year ago when he publicly announced a run in the newly formed district. While both candidates lamented a deeply divided country, both the primary and general elections have turned markedly contentious.

Some Republicans have attacked his resume as not conservative enough while Democrats and Lamb have targeted his record that includes his resignation from the cabinet of former President Donald Trump amid multiple investigations.

Zinke spent his election night at a party in Whitefish where he greeted supporters and watched as national results rolled in. He did not make a speech before the evening ended.

Tranel campaigned on a pitch to appeal to the middle  what she identified as voters in Montana tired of extreme political polarization. She touted her background as a lawyer, saying she stood up to corporations that didn't have Montanans best interest at heart and that she would be an advocate for workers and women's rights.

Lamb saw an elevated role compared to past Libertarian candidates. He participated in forums held around the district organized by Tranel's campaign and drew criticism from Zinke during debates.

Zinke and Tranel have clashed throughout the race, as he tried to brand her a liberal who would be an ally to Democrats in Congress often demonized by Republicans. Tranel repeatedly highlighted investigations into Zinke's tenure as Secretary of the Interior.

Zinke has defended himself against the investigations, calling them politically motivated. In his press release late Wednesday, he said voters saw through the attacks.
Incumbent Warren Daniel won the race for the North Carolina Senate District 46 seat, beating challenger Billy Martin with all precincts reporting, according to unofficial results.

Daniel, a Republican from Burke County, received 47,250 votes or 60.4% while Martin received 31,158 votes or 39.6%. District 46 includes Burke and McDowell counties and eastern portions of Buncombe County.

Im looking forward to representing a new district, Daniel said. Im just really thankful to the voters for giving me the opportunity to represent them again in the North Carolina Senate.

Daniel, who has held the seat since 2013, is a Morganton native and a graduate of U.S. Military Academy who earned his J.D. from UNC Chapel Hill. Daniel has practiced law in Morganton since 2000.

During his time in the N.C. Senate, Daniel has served on several committees including the 2019-20 and 2021-22 Redistricting and Elections Committee, which is responsible for redrawing North Carolina election maps.

Billy Martin, of Marion, is a retired educator and current member of the Marion City Council. Martin advanced to the general election without a primary after running for the Democratic nomination unopposed.

Redistricting proved to be a challenge for Daniel whose margin of victory was short of his nearly 40-point win over Art Sherwood in 2018.

Any time youre running in a new district you just kind of have to learn the demographics, Daniel said. Im going to learn a lot from the results tomorrow and itll help me going forward.

After his primary victory in April, Daniel told The News Herald primary results revealed he had work to do to shore up support in McDowell County and portions of Buncombe County that are new to his district for this election cycle.

Tuesdays results show Daniel made considerable progress in McDowell, winning that county by more than 43%. Buncombe was another story, however, as Martin outpaced Daniel 54.7% to 45.3%.

In the end, Daniels strong showing in McDowell coupled with his 40-plus point win in his home county of Burke was more than enough to erase his slim Buncombe County deficit and catapult him to a double-digit win.

Election results wont be official until canvassing Nov. 29.

Federal Race

Rep. Patrick McHenry is heading back to the U.S. House of Representatives for a 10th term.

Republican McHenry, 47, defeated Democratic opponent Pam Genant in the race for the North Carolinas 10th Congressional District, which includes all of Catawba and Burke counties.

With 173 of 177 precincts reporting in the district, McHenry had 192,174 votes (72.7%) compared to Genants 71,940 (27.2%).

In Catawba County, McHenry had 39,754 votes (72%) to Genants 15,283 (27.7%).

In Burke County, McHenry had 21,195 (70.10%) to Genants 8,586 (28.80%).

During the campaign, McHenry criticized spending policies supported by President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats.

We must rein in the Democrats out-of-control spending to reduce these inflationary burdens that have made life so much more expensive for families here in western NC and throughout the country, McHenry said.

On abortion, McHenry reiterated his pro-life stance. In an August interview, he voiced support for the United States Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade while also saying policy decisions concerning abortion should be left to the states.

In a response to a questionnaire last month, McHenry wrote: I have always voted to protect the Hyde Amendments prohibition of federal funding for abortion and have cosponsored federal legislation to ban partial birth abortions and to outlaw infanticide.
Dignity. Pride. Sanctuary. Safety. These are all words East middle-schoolers used when asked what the American flag means to them Tuesday morning during the Its My Flag presentation at East Middle School.

Election Day was a fitting one for the Butte Exchange Club and Buttes United Veterans Council to visit East to hold the It's My Flag assembly and commemorate the installation of the Freedom Shrine.

Doug Rotondi, co-chair of the Butte Exchange Clubs Its My Flag and Freedom Shrine programs, led the students in the pledge and explained what each word meant and why it was important. He also explained to them what each fold in the flag means as two members of the United Veterans Council folded the flag onstage in the auditorium, and talked to them about the responsibilities of US citizens.

Near the end, he asked the students what America meant to them, what the flag meant to them and a variety of other questions to get their voices in the conversation.

The students were eager to participate.

It was very neat and it taught us a lot about what the flag means, said eighth-grader Kendallyn Schad. I didnt know a whole lot about it before.

Schad was one of a few dozen students selected to participate in the presentation, including others active in the school and community, and those working as office aides, in student council, in Builders Club and in the student ambassadors club.

After the It's My Flag presentation, Tom Goyette of the United Veterans Council talked about his time in the Navy and answered many questions from East students ranging from what young people can do to support veterans to why he joined the military.

The Freedom Shrine is a collection of replicas of 29 different documents from US history, including the Mayflower Compact, speeches from figures like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

Keith Miller, East Middle Schools principal, said that before his and his predecessor Larry Driscolls tenure, East had a Freedom Shrine hanging near the school's office.

The shrine was replaced one day for reasons unknown to Miller, and he said that before Driscoll retired, he told Miller that he had to get the Freedom Shrine back on Easts walls because it shows our commitment to the community and our commitment to giving back.

The document is not only important to have the history of the country on our walls, which is number one, Miller said. The other part is learning that people sacrificed for that history, and for that story, so its really important to pay it forward by putting it out again, and by ourselves serving our community and serving our country.

Miller said the shrine has been a top priority of his, and getting it back in the school was part of a more than two-year conversation having to do with the schools multi-million dollar remodel.

Now the shrine adorns the walls outside Easts auditorium, complete with a plaque given by the Butte Exchange Club after the Its My Flag presentation.

Students Nimalka De Alwis, Kacie Woolverton and Bridger Garrison all helped put a screw in the plaque, and so did the Butte Exchange Club president-elect Father Tom Haffey.

Rotondi said the club visited elementary schools for the last seven years or so until it had to take a two-year break when COVID-19 hit. When the club was able to start again, it decided to turn its focus to middle school and high school students.

Our thought behind that was that the kids from grade school, theyre going to forget pretty much everything they learned back then, Rotondi said. And that it was time we started bringing this to more mature students that can have a better grasp on what the flag is all about and what it means.

The club has established Freedom Shrines in several places like Butte High School, the Maroon Activities Center, the Whitehall Community Center, Butte Silver Bow Courthouse, and Butte's Bert Mooney Airport.
Bill Andersen narrowly won a fourth term on the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners on Tuesday and Tommy Walker was elected to the District 11 seat that Cindi Shaw has held for 16 years, unofficial returns showed.

In a closely watched state Senate race, Republican Terry Vermeire of Anaconda defeated Democrat Jesse Mullen of Philipsburg in District 39 to flip a Democrat seat into the GOP column.

Democrat Mark Sweeney of Philipsburg narrowly won a four-year term in the district two years ago but he died in May at the age of 62. Vermeire got 55% of the vote Tuesday and will hold the seat in 2023 and 2024.

In a very close contest for Montana House District 77, Republican John Fitzpatrick of Anaconda had a 44-vote lead over incumbent Rep. Sara Novak, D-Anaconda, out of 4,864 votes cast. But there were 57 provisional ballots in that race in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County alone that by rules wont' be opened and accepted or rejected until Monday afternoon, a county election official said.

Most of those were "provisional" ballots because people registered late on Tuesday and then voted and it takes time for election officials to determine if the votes meet criteria to count. And like all races statewide, totals are not official until certified days from now.

If the final totals are within one-fourth of a percentage point, the losing candidate can ask for recount. As of Wednesday morning, Fitzpatrick had just slightly more than 50% in the House District 77 contest.

In other area Montana House races, incumbent Butte Democrats Derek Harvey and Donavon Hawk coasted to re-election and Democrat Jennifer Lynch of Butte won easily in House District 73. Rep. Tom Welch, R-Dillon, won big to re-election in District 72.

According to results reported after midnight, Andersen got 52% of the vote out of 523 cast in District 10 to defeat Silver Dollar Saloon owner Brian McGregor.

In the District 11 council race, Walker got 53% of 847 votes cast to defeat Nate Watson. Shaw was first elected in 2006 but did not run for a fifth, four-year term.

On Wednesday morning, Walker thanked everyone who voted and also thanked Watson for running a good campaign. Shaw was first elected in 2006 but did not seek a fifth, four-year term.

I look forward to serving the constituents in my district and being able to continue the work Cindi has done in our district, Walker said. I look forward to hearing from voters in my district and helping them with any issues they may have.

Six of 12 council seats were on the ballot in Butte-Silver Bow but only Districts 10 and 11 were contested. Four incumbents on the ballot  Shawn Fredrickson, Michele Shea, Josh ONeill and Eric Mankins  were unopposed. The other six council seats will be on the ballot in 2024.

The only countywide office on the ballot in Butte-Silver Bow was for justice of the peace and incumbent Ben Pezdark was unopposed.

In Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Kenneth Walund got 71% of the vote in a race against Kevin Morley for justice of the peace. Also in that county, Tom Gallagher was elected commissioner in District 4 by getting 56% of the vote to 44% for Paul Smith. District 5 Commissioner Mike Houtte was unopposed.

There were numerous legislative races on the ballot in southwest Montana, including Senate District 39. Vermeire, a commissioner in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, trailed early but surpassed Mullen, a business owner, when more results came in. The district includes all of Granite County and parts of Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Butte-Silver Bow and Powell counties.

Going into Tuesdays election, Republicans had a 67-33 majority in the Montana House and a 31-19 advantage in the state Senate.

In House District 73, Lynch got 62% of the vote against Republican Jason Freeman of Butte. Longtime Butte legislator Jim Keane, a Democrat, did not seek re-election in the district and fellow Democrat Art Noonan, who was unopposed in the primary, died in late September.

In a rematch from two years ago, Harvey again faced Republican challenger James Kephart of Butte in House District 74. Harvey won easily in 2020 and did so again Tuesday, getting 68% of the vote. Hawk got 63% of the vote in defeating Republican Suzzann Nordwick in House District 76.

Welch won big over Democrat Holt Gibson of Dillon in District 72 and three Republican House incumbents were unopposed and were formally re-elected Tuesday. They were Ken Walsh of Twin Bridges in House District 71, Marta Bertoglio in House District 75 and Gregory Frazer of Deer Lodge in House District 78.

There were several marijuana measures on the ballot in southwest Montana.

In Madison County, voters approved a 3% tax on recreational sales by an 80% to 20% margin. They also OKd taxing medical marijuana, with 58% voting in favor.

Residents in Granite County decided for a third time whether to allow recreational marijuana sales. Voters approved them in 2020 but in the June primary, a push to get them banned again got 53% of the vote. On Tuesday, it went down again, 52% to 48% with final results in.

There were three contested sheriffs races in the region, including Jefferson and Madison counties where incumbents Craig Doolittle and Phil Fortner, respectively, did not seek re-election. The candidates in those races all work for their sheriffs departments.

In Jefferson County, Chad Cross was leading big based on early returns but when all results were in Wednesday morning, Tom Grimsrud was elected sheriff with 55% of 5,018 votes cast.

In Madison County, deputies Chris Tenny and Duncan Hedges were on the ballot for sheriff and Hedges won with 65% of the vote.

Three were running in Beaverhead County to replace retiring Sheriff Paul Craft. Republican David Wendt, a deputy with the department, coasted to victory with 85% of the vote. Independent Chris Brozell got 10% and Libertarian Jack Nicholas got 4%.

Granite County Sheriff Scott Dunkerson and Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles had no opponents and were officially re-elected Tuesday.

There were numerous other offices on the ballot in Beaverhead and Powell counties and a few were contested among Republicans in the primary, but none were contested on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in southwest Montana on Tuesday:

In Madison County, Jordan Allhands got 56% of the vote to defeat incumbent Marc Glines in a race for justice of the peace. In a race for District 2 commissioner, incumbent Ronald Nye coasted to re-election, getting 59% of the vote in defeating Heidi Woods. Bill Todd won the District 3 seat, getting 686 votes to 615 for Brian Conklin.

In Granite County, Justice of the Peace Debbie Fratzke easily defeated faced Jason Aaron.

In Jefferson County, Dan Hagerty and Mary Jancaro Hensleigh, both of Whitehall, were running for District 1 commissioner. Hagerty won big with 68% of the vote.
In his bid to win an open state Senate seat in southwest Montana, Republican Terry Vermeire of Anaconda kept it simple.

My philosophy with campaigning has always been face-to-face with people, Vermeire said Wednesday morning after defeating Democrat Jesse Mullen of Philipsburg in Senate District 39. If theres an event going on or something, show up. All you have to be is polite. You dont have to get on a soapbox.

Democrat Mark Sweeney of Philipsburg narrowly won a four-year term in the district two years ago but he died in May at the age of 62. Vermeire got 55% of the vote Tuesday, flipping the district from the Democrat to GOP column, and will hold the seat in 2023 and 2024.

In a very close contest for Montana House District 77, Republican John Fitzpatrick of Anaconda had a 44-vote lead over incumbent Rep. Sara Novak, D-Anaconda, out of 4,864 votes cast. But there were 57 provisional ballots in that race in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County alone that by rule won't be opened, and accepted or rejected until Monday afternoon, a county election official said.

Most of those were "provisional" ballots because people registered late Tuesday and then voted, and it takes time for election officials to determine if the votes meet criteria to count. And like all races statewide, totals are not official until certified days from now.

If the final totals are within one-fourth of a percentage point, the losing candidate can ask for recount. As of Wednesday morning, Fitzpatrick had just slightly more than 50% in the House District 77 contest.

In other area Montana House races, incumbent Butte Democrats Derek Harvey and Donavon Hawk coasted to re-election and Democrat Jennifer Lynch of Butte won easily in House District 73. Rep. Tom Welch, R-Dillon, won re-election by a big margin in District 72.

Going into Tuesdays election, Republicans had a 67-33 majority in the Montana House and a 31-19 advantage in the state Senate. Republicans appeared to add to their totals Tuesday but several races were still up in the air.

In local races, Bill Andersen narrowly won a fourth term on the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners on Tuesday and Tommy Walker was elected to the District 11 seat that Cindi Shaw has held for 16 years, unofficial returns showed.

According to results reported after midnight, Andersen got 52% of the vote out of 523 cast in District 10 to defeat Silver Dollar Saloon owner Brian McGregor.

In the District 11 council race, Walker got 53% of 847 votes cast to defeat Nate Watson. Shaw was first elected in 2006 but did not run for a fifth, four-year term.

Andersen and Walker were gracious on Wednesday and each thanked his opponent for running a good campaign.

And a big thank you to everybody who voted for me and I will try to work harder to win back the trust of those who didnt, Andersen said. Im very happy and relieved but I realize I have quite a bit of work to do. Its been a great honor to be up there.

Walker will succeed Shaw in January 2023.

I look forward to serving the constituents in my district and being able to continue the work Cindi has done in our district, Walker said. I look forward to hearing from voters in my district and helping them with any issues they may have.

Six of 12 council seats were on the ballot in Butte-Silver Bow but only Districts 10 and 11 were contested. Four incumbents on the ballot  Shawn Fredrickson, Michele Shea, Josh ONeill and Eric Mankins  were unopposed. The other six council seats will be on the ballot in 2024.

The only countywide office on the ballot in Butte-Silver Bow was for justice of the peace and incumbent Ben Pezdark was unopposed.

In Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Kenneth Walund got 71% of the vote in a race against Kevin Morley for justice of the peace. Also in that county, Tom Gallagher was elected commissioner in District 4 by getting 56% of the vote to 44% for Paul Smith. District 5 Commissioner Mike Houtte was unopposed.

There were three contested sheriffs races in the region, including Jefferson and Madison counties where incumbents Craig Doolittle and Phil Fortner, respectively, did not seek re-election. The candidates in those races all work for their sheriffs departments.

In Jefferson County, Chad Cross was leading big based on early returns but when all results were in Wednesday morning, Tom Grimsrud was elected sheriff with 55% of 5,018 votes cast.

In Madison County, deputies Chris Tenny and Duncan Hedges were on the ballot for sheriff and Hedges won with 65% of the vote.

Three were running in Beaverhead County to replace retiring Sheriff Paul Craft. Republican David Wendt, a deputy with the department, coasted to victory with 85% of the vote. Independent Chris Brozell got 10% and Libertarian Jack Nicholas got 4%.

Granite County Sheriff Scott Dunkerson and Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles had no opponents and were officially re-elected Tuesday.

There were numerous legislative races on the ballot in southwest Montana, including Senate District 39.

Vermeire, a commissioner in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, trailed early but surpassed Mullen, a business owner, when more results came in. The district includes all of Granite County and parts of Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Butte-Silver Bow and Powell counties.

Vermeire said he met voters face-to-face in all of them.

When youve got four counties to cover, man, thats a big job, he said. Running for a Senate district isnt like running for the commission. I was kind of overwhelmed with the whole idea in the beginning but I just kept my nose down and my butt up and just kept plowing through.

In House District 73, Lynch got 62% of the vote against Republican Jason Freeman of Butte. Longtime Butte legislator Jim Keane, a Democrat, did not seek re-election in the district and fellow Democrat Art Noonan, who was unopposed in the primary, died in late September.

In a rematch from two years ago, Harvey again faced Republican challenger James Kephart of Butte in House District 74. Harvey won easily in 2020 and did so again Tuesday, getting 68% of the vote. Hawk got 63% of the vote in defeating Republican Suzzann Nordwick in House District 76.

Welch won big over Democrat Holt Gibson of Dillon in District 72 and three Republican House incumbents were unopposed and were formally re-elected Tuesday. They were Ken Walsh of Twin Bridges in House District 71, Marta Bertoglio in House District 75 and Gregory Frazer of Deer Lodge in House District 78.

There were several marijuana measures on the ballot in southwest Montana.

In Madison County, voters approved a 3% tax on recreational sales by an 80% to 20% margin. They also OKd taxing medical marijuana, with 58% voting in favor.

Residents in Granite County decided for a third time whether to allow recreational marijuana sales. Voters approved them in 2020 but in the June primary, a push to get them banned again got 53% of the vote. On Tuesday, it went down again, 52% to 48% with final results in.

Elsewhere in southwest Montana on Tuesday:

In Madison County, Jordan Allhands got 56% of the vote to defeat incumbent Marc Glines in a race for justice of the peace. In a race for District 2 commissioner, incumbent Ronald Nye coasted to re-election, getting 59% of the vote in defeating Heidi Woods. Bill Todd won the District 3 seat, getting 686 votes to 615 for Brian Conklin.

In Granite County, Justice of the Peace Debbie Fratzke easily defeated faced Jason Aaron.

In Jefferson County, Dan Hagerty and Mary Jancaro Hensleigh, both of Whitehall, were running for District 1 commissioner. Hagerty won big with 68% of the vote.
MUSCATINE  The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors approved allocating $100,000 over two years from the countys American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency fund.

During the boards regular meeting Monday, Muscatine County Budget Coordinator Kala Nabar said that $100,000 has already been allocated to Muscatine County, but in order for the county to receive the funds, it has to apply for them. She said the fund is less restrictive than ARPA and the funds dont need separate recipients.

The supervisors also approved signing at ARPA agreement with the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine for the Mulberry Corridor Revitalization Project.

Also during the meeting, Muscatine County Auditor Tibe Vander Linden gave information regarding the Nov. 8 election. The supervisors are scheduled to canvass the election during its Nov. 15 meeting.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Follow along for real-time, on-the-ground updates on the 2022 U.S. midterm elections from The Associated Press. Live updates  all times Eastern  are produced by AP journalists around the country.

You can find updates from Election Night itself at this page.

WHAT'S NEXT

2022 isn't over, yet eyes are already on 2024. On the heels of Tuesday night's disappointing results for Republicans, allies of former President Donald Trump were calling on him to delay his planned announcement of another White House run, AP national political reporter Jill Colvin reports.

Trump sought to use the midterms as a chance to prove his enduring political influence, endorsing more than 330 candidates in races up and down the ballot. While he notched some big wins, his candidates also lost high-profile races. Trump insisted publicly he was happy with the results, but his setbacks were animating the hopes of a long list of potential rivals waiting quietly in the wings.

Republicans biggest victory lay in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis easily won reelection and cemented his status as a rising star while eyeing his own potential 2024 run.

THEY SAID IT

I believed that the people would choose freedom over slavery, if we gave them the opportunity, by taking the slavery question away from the legislators and putting it into the hands of the people. And they proved us right, he said.

 Max Parthas, campaigns coordinator for the Abolish Slavery National Network

Ballot measures approved Tuesday will change the state constitutions in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, AP national race and ethnicity reporter Aaron Morrison reports.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Louisiana  one of a handful of states that sentences convicted felons to hard labor  torpedoed their own, similar measure because of ambiguous language.

VOTECAST

If Tuesdays vote defied the durable history of presidential parties taking heavy losses in a midterm election, it also reinforced an often-forgotten fact: These campaigns are a patchwork of thousands of races, not a nationwide contest, AP's Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut report.

Inflation, abortion or fears about democracy may have swayed the votes of many Americans, but they did so in myriad ways depending on the state, district or the candidates. That was clear in AP VoteCast, an in-depth survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide.

Its numbers tell a story of how demographics, cultural issues and the quality of candidates were central to the outcomes of many contests.

ROLL TAPE

Ted Johnson, the Senior Advisor of New America, provides analysis about the Black candidates making waves in this years election.

THEY SAID IT

If they lose, that just reaffirms beliefs that the whole thing is rigged. And if they win, you have people running elections who have pretty wild thoughts about how elections should be run.

 Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, on candidates for offices that have power over elections who spread misleading claims

AP's David Klepper reports on Election Day misinformation, offering examples of how misleading claims emerge and travel, and how innocent events can be spun into the latest viral election hoax.

He also delves into the kind of baseless rumors and conspiracy theories that were reverberating around the internet Wednesday as candidates and far-right influencers sought to explain away losses and closer-than-expected races.

THEY SAID IT

We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country.

 Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, said in a statement

Despite a few state and local governments appearing to be hit by a relatively basic form of cyberattack that can make public websites unreachable, federal and local officials said none had broken through vote-counting infrastructure, APs Nomaan Merchant and Emily Wagster Pettus report.

THE EXPECTATIONS GAME

Republicans, according to the narrative, had a disastrous night  even causing Fox News to call for soul searching in the GOP. But how big of a disaster was it if Republicans remain favored to retake the House and still might manage to flip the Senate?

Democrats battled tough circumstances and political history to dilute the dreaded red wave. But the relief could obscure growing weaknesses in the partys position and a tough road ahead for President Joe Biden.

The power of those pre-election expectations fueled the national conversation and the media narrative after election day.

Associated Press media writer David Bauder looks at whether the bad for GOP, bad for Trump instant analysis is as clear cut as it seems.

And Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Hannah Fingerhut explore why the next two years might still be an uncertain slog for Biden.

4:20 p.m.

President Joe Biden, in his first public comments on the outcome of the midterm elections, said his takeaway is that voters were clear that theyre still frustrated with record inflation, crime and other issues. I get it, Biden said at the White House.

SNAPSHOT

Buu Nygren ousted Jonathan Nez as president of the Navajo Nation, a position that wields influence nationally because of the size of the tribes reservation in the U.S. Southwest and its huge population, AP's Felicia Fonseca reports from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Nygren, 35, positioned himself as the candidate for change in the nonpartisan race and as someone who could get the ball rolling on long-awaited projects. He has a background in construction management but has never held political office.

ANALYSIS

Democrats had plenty to savor in the morning light. But as they exhaled and Republicans lamented big gains that didnt materialize, there were larger problems that both political parties will need to address  and soon, AP chief political writer Steve Peoples writes in an analysis of the midterm results so far.

DID YOU KNOW?

In Tuesdays midterm elections, records were broken and history was made, AP's Adriana Gomez Licon reports. In states across the country, women, LGBTQ and Black candidates were elected to congressional seats and governors offices as part of a new generation of political leadership.

Those firsts include the countrys first openly lesbian governor, Marylands first Black governor, and Vermonts first woman in Congress. Candidates also smashed records  12 women will be governors, hitting double digits for the first time.

STAY TUNED IN GEORGIA

It might be another month before we know who controls the Senate. Georgias closely watched race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will go to a Dec. 6 runoff because neither candidate took more than half of the vote.

Democrats or Republicans would need to win both of the other pending Senate races, in Arizona and Nevada, to control the chamber without winning in Georgia. APs Meg Kinnard explains how the runoff will work.

GROUNDBREAKERS IN ARKANSAS

Arkansas has never had a female governor. Or lieutenant governor. On Tuesday night, they got both.

Voters elevated former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the states top role, a position her father held from 1996 to 2007.

Arkansas voters also picked current Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to serve as lieutenant governor. She becomes the first woman to serve as the states No. 2 and essentially swaps roles with current Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, who was elected attorney general.

All are Republicans.

Sanders faced Democrat Chris Jones, a nuclear engineer who would have become Arkansas first Black governor. In a statement Wednesday congratulating Sanders, Jones said: History was made. Sarahs election has shown women, including my little girls, that being a woman is no longer a barrier to becoming governor in our state.

WHATS IN A NAME?

With Sean Patrick Maloney losing his race, New Yorks congressional delegation goes from having two Maloneys to zero. Carolyn Maloney lost her primary for the 12th district earlier this year.

For the first time since 1993, when Carolyn Maloney was first elected, New York will have no Maloneys in Congress.

1:15 p.m.

President Joe Biden completed a final round of calls to lawmakers on Tuesday's ballot. Amid the many congratulatory and conciliatory calls to fellow Democrats, Biden also called Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio.

The two have certainly had their policy differences  DeWine even ran campaign ads attacking Biden's policies  but they have also found areas of common ground and mutual interest. Biden pushed for the CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion measure intended to boost the semiconductor industry and scientific research. Passage of the law was crucial to Intel Corp. agreeing to build a new $20 billion facility outside of Columbus, Ohio.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Pennsylvania Rep.-elect Summer Lee replaced Mike Doyle, a Democrat who did not seek reelection after nearly 30 years in Congress, AP's Brooke Schultz reports. But to nab the seat, Lee had to face Mike Doyle  a completely different person and a Republican.

The identical names were the source of some puzzlement, and the Republican Doyle tried to capitalize on it by using the tagline #TheRight Mike.

In her speech to supporters Tuesday night, Lee nodded to the name conflation.

When we were up against a wall  every single time when it looked like it was getting bleak: friends came from all over, she said. When we got into the name confusion and people started wondering, Whats going on? We had friends come up.

THE UVALDE VOTE

Despite outspoken activism by some families of the children killed at Robb Elementary School, voters in Uvalde County backed Gov. Greg Abbott over challenger Beto ORourke in the governors race.

Unofficial results show about 60% of voters in Uvalde County backed the Republican Abbott.

ORourke made the Uvalde attack a centerpiece of his campaign, at one point interrupting Abbott during a press conference shortly after the school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.

On the local level, the acting Uvalde police chief  who has been suspended  won a county commissioners race, prevailing over challengers that included the father of Jacklyn Cazares, who died in the school shooting.

READ MORE

The winner of Alaska's U.S. Senate contest is yet unclear, but whoever it will be, we know it will be a Republican. AP's Mike Catalini explains how the state's ranked choice voting will ensure either Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski or Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka will nab the seat.

THEY SAID IT

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

 GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won reelection Tuesday despite an array of controversies, including disciplinary action by the state bar, an FBI investigation and a long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges.

DID YOU KNOW?

Summer Lee has made history as Pennsylvanias first Black congresswoman with her election. AP called the race for the open seat Wednesday morning.

Lee has served as a state representative since 2019. Speaking to supporters at a watch party, she called their event a scaled down thing, because weve been through it.

We had to go through ugly to get here, she said. There is a reason why there had never been a Black woman, ever, serving (in Congress) in the history of Pennsylvania. So I can assure you theyre not going to let up on us. Theyre not going to relent.

Lee defeated Republican Mike Doyle, who conceded Tuesday night.

THEY SAID IT

Saddle up.

 Doug Mastriano, Republican gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania

The AP called the Pennsylvania governor's race for Democrat Josh Shapiro on Tuesday night, but Mastriano has yet to concede. He posted a photo of him on a horse with the above caption Wednesday morning and told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night that he would wait until every vote counts,

Meanwhile, Republican Mehmet Oz said he called John Fetterman to concede the race for Pennsylvanias open Senate seat Wednesday morning, saying he wished him well both personally and as our next United States Senator. AP called the race in the early hours Wednesday.

We are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done, Oz said in a statement.

12 p.m.

Abortion rights advocates in Kentucky saw clear vindication in that states rejection of an amendment that would have provided legal protections for a ban on abortions approved by the state legislature.

Weve been making the case throughout this campaign that Kentuckys abortion laws are very extreme and are out of step with the majority of Kentuckians values, said Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Protect Kentucky Access, who also coordinated a successful fight against a similar amendment in Kansas earlier this year. And I think that the results that we are seeing from the Amendment 2 vote are a repudiation of the policies that have been in place in Kentucky so far.

Sweet, who spoke on a Zoom call organized by opponents on the amendment, said the fight is far from over, in Kentucky or anywhere else: It is still an issue that we do not anticipate will be settled in any way, shape or form."

THEY SAID IT

Theres still a beating heart to American democracy.

 U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Wednesday morning

Maloney, who represents a New York district, acknowledged his own defeat after conceding to Republican Mike Lawler, a state assemblyman. The AP has not declared a winner in that contest.

Maloney said Nov. 8 would stand as a signature day in American political history.

If we fall a little short," Maloney said of his party, "were going to know that we gave it our all and we beat the spread.

STATUS UPDATE

In a series of statewide ballot measures, voters affirmed abortion rights in the first major election after the overturning of Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

In Michigan, California and Vermont, voters enshrined the right to abortion in their state constitutions on Tuesday, APs Lindsay Whitehurst reports. And in Kentucky, a heavily Republican state, voters declared there is no state constitutional right to abortion.

THEY SAID IT

Let me say the message so it can be loud and clear  so that the radical left-wing teachers union can hear it, so that Joe Biden can hear it. Folks, Oklahoma wont go woke.

 Ryan Walters, Oklahomas newly elected superintendent of schools who as a candidate targeted teachers over banned books

STATUS UPDATE

Why hasn't the AP called control of Congress yet? Neither party has reached the thresholds required to win the House or Senate  and it's not quite clear when that might change, AP's Mike Catalini explains.

DID YOU KNOW?

Here's the difference between two phrases often bandied about during elections, from AP national political reporter Meg Kinnard's glossary:

Too early to call: Races in which the vote count is active and ongoing and a winner is not yet clear are too early to call. That includes races in which the vote count may take several days.

Too close to call: Races in which the vote count has reached its primary conclusion  all outstanding ballots save provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots have been counted  without a clear winner are too close to call. AP formally declares a race too close to call via our election reporting system and in our news report.

STATUS UPDATE

Backers of recreational marijuana scored wins Tuesday night in Maryland and Missouri but in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota legalization efforts went up in smoke.

Recreational pot use will be legal in 21 states following Tuesdays results, APs Andrew DeMillo reports.

The votes come a month after President Joe Biden announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

In Colorado, recreational pot has been legal for a decade. A ballot measure that would decriminalize certain psychedelic substances including so-called magic mushrooms remained too early to call Wednesday morning.

READ MORE

The AP has tallied votes and declared winners in U.S. elections since 1848. AP's Meg Kinnard and Mike Catalini take you through how we made the calls in 10 key races so far:

MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA

The weather in the nation's capital is cool and crisp on this Election Morning After, as control of Congress still hangs in the balance.

AP's Brian Slodysko in Washington identifies the takeaways so far:

 Republicans hoped for a sweep that never came  but they could still wrest control of the House and Senate

 The increasing redness of Florida, a traditional battleground state, was reinforced by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio's reelection victories

 At $16.7 billion, the midterms themselves are on track to be the most expensive ever, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets, nearly doubling the cost of the 2010 midterm elections
CALISTOGA  Calistoga City Councilmember Gary Kraus led the race to become the citys next mayor in early results Tuesday night.

In early returns released at 8:01 p.m., Kraus had 53.88% of the vote, leading his fellow Councilmember Donald Williams, who had 46.12%.

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In Calistogas City Council race, Kevin Eisenberg and Scott Cooper had taken a large early lead over Curtis Winslow for two open seats. Eisenberg and Cooper had 46.53% and 39.6% of the vote, respectively, ahead of Winslow with 13.87%.

"I'm very happy," said Kraus, who viewed election results with family and campaign supporters at an election night gathering in Calistoga. "Ask me when I'm in the job a year if I'm still happy; the answer may be different," he added, laughing.

Earlier, neither Kraus nor Williams anticipated a declaration of victory Tuesday night. "I thought it was going to be a little closer than it is right now," said Kraus.

"The numbers are preliminary. We'll see," Williams said after voting closed. "At this point I'm glad for the support I received."

With Calistogas current mayor, Chris Canning, not seeking another term after 10 years in the post, Kraus and Williams are vying for the two-year term.

The mayoral candidates share similar positions on strengthening Calistogas climate change response efforts, creating more equitable water rates, protecting local businesses, and providing affordable housing for city staff and employees.

Both candidates are looking to complete the acquisition of the Napa County Fairgrounds property, which depends on city voters approval of a tax in 2023, but differ on how the fairground site should be used.

Competing for Kraus and Williams soon-to-be-vacated council seats are technology services provider Curtis Winslow; former Calistoga teacher and principal Kevin Eisenberg; and Calistoga Planning Commission chair and Realtor Scott Cooper.

Cooper and Eisenberg were to host a joint election night party with Kraus at Evangelines, a local bistro.

"We're at an inflection point in Calistoga; we have some huge issues," said Eisenberg after refreshing a computer screen to view the first election returns. "We have a real opportunity with the City Council to make a real different and make Calistoga the best city in all of California."

The council hopefuls, all longtime Calistoga residents, have all cited high living costs and the citys water supply as major local issues. If rates for the proposed special tax and purchase of the fairground are approved next year by a two-thirds majority of Calistoga voters, the incoming council will determine how the property is used.
Exterior repairs began Nov. 1 at Scout Hall, the first step in a community-wide effort to restore a St. Helena landmark.

A crew from St. Helena Construction is replacing the exterior siding, replacing installation, checking studs and repainting the building, according to Jim Sweeney, committee chair for the Friends of Scout Hall.

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The facade will be repainted in its original color, along with the historic Boy Scouts of America sign and the lettering of California Olive Oil Factory and D.B. Martinelli.

Construction will take about six weeks, depending on weather. Work paused on Monday due to heavy rain. Scouts can still use the building while the exterior improvements are underway.

The work is being done thanks to $200,000 in donations. Sweeney thanked the community for its incredible generosity.

The city owns the building, which is used exclusively by St. Helena Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. It was last renovated in 1979, and it became clear in the last few years that the building needed another major overhaul.

The city replaced the roof and stabilized the parapet in 2021, and the newly formed Friends of Scout Hall pledged to do the rest.

Originally an olive oil factory, the building was donated to the city by Nellie Smith in 1936 to be used exclusively as a meeting place for Boy Scouts.

Sweeney, who is also assistant scoutmaster, said St. Helena Boy Scouts Troop 1 has 40 registered Scouts, the highest number in 15 years.
Monday, Oct. 31

0505  Police cited a driver near Main/Elmhurst.

0521  Police cited a driver near Main/Elmhurst.

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0608  Report of a vehicle blocking one lane of Spring Maountain Road.

1148  Police cited a driver during a traffic stop.

1226  A dark gray Mustang or Corvette was seen doing doughnuts in the intersection of Sylvaner/Riesling. It was last seen leaving Sylvaner toward Spring.

1623  Two bikes had been abandoned in a bike rack near Tainter Street. One is a green Novara Corsa and the other is a gold and blue Crosswind.

1806  Non-injury hit-and-run on Main Street.

1857  Dispatch handed out treat bags to trick-or-treaters.

2215  A drivers license, cards and other items were found at Meily Park. Police contacted their owner.

Tuesday, Nov. 1

0922  Report of a drunk or distracted driver near Main/Adams. Police stopped the car and cited the driver.

1431  Police took a hit-and-run report on a company vehicle that was reportedly hit by a truck.

1925  Police cited a driver near Main/Crinella.

Wednesday, Nov. 2

0941  Police cited a driver on Spring Mountain Road.

1610  Police cited a driver on Main Street.

1723  A woman said she used her Venmo account to buy a twin bed and got defrauded of $300.

1731  Police received a report of identity theft.

1840  A witness saw a red vehicle back into a trash can at Crane Park and then drive away. Police took a hit-and-run report.

2053  Report of a family fight on Spring Street, with knives being taken out. Officers contacted the people, who refused to press charges and agreed to separate.

2141  A caller said their vehicle had been parked across from their house but it wasnt there anymore. Police said it had been towed after being marked as abandoned.

2207  A dog was briefly reported missing from Stockton Street, but it was found safe.

Thursday, Nov. 3

0222  A tow company employee asked for an officer to help transport three people from the cemetery to downtown.

0922  Report of possible drug sales on school grounds on Grayson Avenue. Police took a report.

1519  Medical aid on San Juan Court.

1526  Non-injury accident on Main Street.

1710  An officer was flagged down by two men asking for information about DMV paperwork.

1808  Medics were asked to check on a fall victim on Sylvaner Avenue.

1901  Police were asked to be on the lookout for a pickup involved in a hit-and-run in Calistoga.

2023  Medical aid on Del Campo Court.

2200  Police arrested someone during a traffic stop on Fulton Lane.

Friday, Nov. 4

0000  Following a traffic stop on Main Street, police arrested a 22-year-old San Jose resident for an outstanding felony warrant.

0813  Police took a report on elder neglect.

1217  Police took a report on a matter involving a juvenile.

1249  A small brown terrier was reported missing from Kidd Ranch Road.

1337  A bus had illegally crossed the Pope Street Bridge.

1600  A notebook found at the Main/Pine bus stop was returned to its owner.

1623  A caller got locked out of their vehicle on Main Street. Police provided phone numbers for local tow companies.

1643  Report of a faded and bent traffic sign near Pope/College. Public Works was notified.

1726  Someone got locked out of their vehicle on Spring Street. An officer helped find a local tow company to help.

1838  A bike was reported stolen from in front of a Main Street home.

Saturday, Nov. 5

0453  Police cited a driver in the elm tunnel.

0630  Medical aid on San Juan Court.

0911  Police cited a driver near Grayson/Main.

1112  Police took a report on a dog bite on Main Street.

1247  Report of reckless driving on Highway 29 that also involved a man punching and denting a vehicle. Police took a report.

1703  Report of an ongoing problem with a leaf blower on Stockton Street. An officer contacted the worker.

2046  Police cited a driver on Main Street.

Sunday, Nov. 6

0116  Police cited a vehicle parked in a blue zone on Main Street.

0146  Police cited a vehicle with expired registration on Allyn Avenue.

0209  Police issued a parking citation on Church Street.

0242  Police issued a parking citation on College Avenue.

0252  Police issued another parking citation on College Avenue.

0446  Police issued a parking citation on McCorkle Avenue.

0455  Police issued another parking citation on McCorkle Avenue.

0508  Police issued a parking citation on Brown Street.

0751  Report of an abandoned vehicle on Vallejo Street.

1009  Medical aid for a possible stroke victim on Madrona Avenue.

1136  Report of reckless motorcyclists coming into town on Main Street.

1303  Police cited a driver near Main/Sulphur Springs.

1520  Police cited a driver near Main/El Bonita.

1653  A man got a suspicious call regarding the sale of his vehicle. He said hasnt given permission for anyone to drive or sell the vehicle, which is registered in his name.

1904  Police issued a parking citation near Main/Spring.

2039  A drunk guest leaving a Main Street restaurant was offered a cab but refused and said he would walk home to Calistoga. He was seen stumbling on Main Street, and the caller was concerned he would try to drive home. When officers arrived, they learned the man had just gotten into his car and headed north on Main Street. Police checked the area and notified Calistoga police.

Monday, Nov. 7

0246  Police issued a parking citation on Dahlia Street.

0252  Police issued a parking citation on El Bonita Avenue.

0308  Police issued a parking citation on Kennedy Court.

0321  Police issued a parking citation on Olive Avenue.

0331  Police issued a parking citation on Pinot Way.

0339  Police issued another parking citation on Pinot Way.

0343  Police issued another parking citation on Pinot Way.

0353  Police issued a parking citation on Sylvaner Avenue.

1257  Police cited a driver near Charter Oak/Allison.

Monday, Nov. 8

0910  Medical aid on Hillview Place.

1136  Police cited a driver near Main/Sulphur Springs.

1332  Report of two men with a rifle shooting at a fence on private property near Bella Vista Court. The primary and high schools were briefly placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure. Police confirmed the gun had been an airsoft pellet gun, and the schools were given the all-clear to reopen.

1542  Police cited a driver near Fulton/Main.

1750  Police were asked to check on a possibly intoxicated man who'd been screaming and yelling near Pine Street.
Lewis Station Park at the corner of Hunt Avenue and Church Street is getting a major makeover.

City workers recently cleared trees and other vegetation from the park and plan to restore it with new landscaping and improved amenities.

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A tree assessment found that three of the parks oak trees had poor structure and were growing into the street. One pear tree was dead and the other two pears had reached the end of their lifespans.

In accordance with city policy, staff held a public hearing for the tree removals. No members of the public attended.

Staff removed the trees and bushes and installed a lock on the bathroom door that limits access to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Further excavation is on hold pending this weeks rainstorms.

According to staff, the next steps are to plant new trees, update amenities like benches, picnic tables and possibly shade structures, and remodel the bathroom. The park will be the site of St. Helenas next Arbor Day celebration.

According to a 2020 article by Mariam Hansen of the St. Helena Historical Society, the park was established in 1975 on land donated by Rosa Lee Lewis, who lived next door.
"  for two centuries supporters of the Electoral College have built their arguments on a series of faulty premises. The Electoral College is a gross violation of the cherished value of political equality. At the same time, it does not protect the interests of small states or racial minorities, nor does it serve as a bastion of federalism. Instead the Electoral College distorts the presidential campaign so that candidates ignore most small states  and many large ones  and pay little attention to minorities."

 George C. Edwards III, leading scholar of the U.S. presidency

Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution established the role of "elector." How and why did "electors" come to be such a political influence in the outcome of the presidential election?

First, a look back in history. In 1787 delegates at the Constitutional Convention debated who should elect the president  the Congress or a nationwide popular vote. Darrel West, author of Its time to abolish the Electoral College, opines that the founders explicitly rejected a popular vote for president because they did not trust voters to make a wise choice. In addition, there was concern that larger states, with a greater population, would affect the outcome. In order to create an equal playing field, a compromise proposed by Alexander Hamilton (Federalist Paper 68) was accepted by the delegates. It guaranteed electors votes in proportion to the representation of their state in the House and Senate.

The Brennan Center for Justice posits that the Electoral College had racist origins  when established, it applied the three-fifths clause, which gave a long-term electoral advantage to slave states in the South  and continues to dilute the political power of voters of color. It incentivizes presidential campaigns to focus on a relatively small number of 'swing states.' The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral College as 'archaic' and 'ambiguous.'"

These dynamics continue to spur debate about the systems democratic legitimacy. There have been several contested Electoral College results since its inception. In 1800 Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes. Jefferson was elected by the House of Representatives. In 1824 no candidate received the necessary 131 votes; thus the House of Representatives made the decision. The most egregious outcome followed the 1876 election in which neither Rutherford B. Hayes nor Samuel Tilden (who won the popular vote) won a decisive electoral vote. The compromise: If Hayes agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, then the House of Representative would elect him president. This lead to the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow laws.

The 2000 election was another memorable moment: Al Gore (who won the popular vote) versus George W. Bush. Hanging chads and the intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Florida Supreme Courts decision to continue counting the votes were the headlines.

Over the past 200 years, more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. In 1934 a proposed amendment to the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College lost by only two Senate votes. In 1979 a vote to establish a national popular vote failed by three votes. Amending the Constitution is no easy task. It requires a two-thirds passage by both the House and the Senate, and ratification by 38 states. The 116th Congress introduced three amendments to end the Electoral College. None made it to the floor for debate or vote. Given the current political polarization, passing an amendment seems unlikely.

Enter the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which first came about in 2006.

This state-based approach preserves the Electoral College, state control of elections, and the power of the states to control how the president is elected. Their goal is to abolish the need for an Electoral College without amending the Constitution. Simply put, states award their votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.

According to the National States Legislatures website, the National Popular Vote Initiate has been passed in 23 states for a total of 196 electoral votes. Its an uphill climb as the majority of states who have signed on are Democratic. The compact goes into effect when enough states sign on to total 270 electoral votes. Hence, the popular vote winner WINS!

A national popular vote would help ensure that every vote counts equally, making American democracy more representative, said Tim Lay from the Brennan Center For Justice.

The Founders had it wrong in 1787. We the People are quite capable of making wise decisions about who should be the president of the United States of America. Support the National Popular Voter movement. Be a voice. Stand up. Speak up. Thank you for voting!
Several candidates took narrow leads Tuesday night in Yountville races as town voters cast ballots to select a new mayor and two new council members.

Four candidates were vying for the mayoral seat. Residents had a choice between longtime Councilmember Margie Mohler and former Councilmember Pam Reeves, as well as Robert Moore and Ken Clarke, residents of the Yountville Veterans Home.

As of the initial 8:01 p.m. count, just 14 votes separated Reeves from Mohler in the mayoral race. Reeves had received 277 votes to Mohler's 263.

Its a close margin, admitted Reeves. Im looking forward to more votes being counted, she said.

Reeves thought that her emphasis on community participation and the value of Yountvilles residents was one factor that resonated with voters.

With 41% of the votes, Mohler said she was feeling very optimistic.

So many people have been very clear that they want some leadership and someone with experience and thats why they are supporting me," said Mohler.

Election 2022: Yountville voters to choose new mayor, two new council members Much like in Calistoga and St. Helena, Yountville voters will have to decide on a new mayor and two new councilmembers this election season.

Fiscal responsibility was very important to many of the voters I talked to. Supporters like that we have a very robust economy and we manage it well.

Ken Clarke, a Veterans Home resident, said he enjoyed running for mayor, even though he had received only 40 votes so far.

While he was in last place, somebody has to be there, he said with a laugh.

When asked about what he might have done differently, Clarke said, I probably could have gone out and did more knocking on doors.

Realistically, I think Ive just about had it with politics, said the senior citizen.

As for the two Town Council seats, Yountvillians chose among Scott Owens, Robin McKee-Cant and Hillery Trippe, all of whom have experience on various local boards and commissions but would be newcomers to the council.

Trippe is a former business attorney and risk management expert; McKee-Cant is a Napa native whos had a long career in tourism and hospitality; and Owens works for the California Health Care Foundation.

As of 8:01 p.m., Trippe and McKee-Cant led with 400 and 329 votes respectively. Scott Owens had earned 255 votes.

Reached by phone Tuesday night, Trippe said she was pleased with the tally so far.

Its a time of change for Yountville and Im really excited to be part of it, said Trippe. People liked the fact that I had specific ideas, she added, citing examples like relaxing some rules about building accessory dwelling units and increasing funding for the town recreation department.

McKee-Cant said the early results were exhilarating. Its been a good race with dedicated people (and) to be in the top two is exciting, said the candidate.

Im glad my voice resonated with people in town, she said. I feel very positive that people trust me to collaborate as a team and with all the stakeholders.
Though the long campaign  a multiyear effort for some candidates  is now done, the results from Election Day will take a bit longer.

Napa County residents will have a clearer picture of the winners of the various local races and measures in the coming days. Leads in some will become insurmountable, making certain candidates or measures the de facto winner.

But the final, definitive answers are about a month away  partly because of state law and partly because of the different ways Californians can cast their votes.

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When you submitted your ballot for Tuesdays election  and whether you mailed your ballot, slipped it into a drop box or handed it in person to an election worker  determines how soon the Napa County Election Division records your vote.

The county issues a series of updates on its running vote count, starting almost immediately after the end of California voting at 8 p.m. Election Day and continuing through most of November. But under state law, that process is not complete, and election results are not official, until a countys registrar of voters certifies the outcome, a decision the state says can take place up to 30 days out from the end of voting.

The early returns Napa County posts online within a minute of the end of California voting at 8 p.m. Tuesday include mail-in ballots received through Sunday, two days before Election Day, according to John Tuteur, the county registrar of voters.

While mail-in voting began Oct. 10 and the county election office began receiving ballots in sealed envelopes shortly afterward, counting of ballots waited until Saturday, when election workers began feeding envelopes sent by mail or dropped into ballot boxes into a special machine, which sorts the envelopes and photographs their signatures. The images are sent to workers who verify the signatures by comparing them to voters signatures from previous elections.

Still havent voted? Heres where to cast your ballot in Napa County. You still have time  and places  to cast your ballot for the 2022 elections. Learn where to vote in Napa County.

This first set of results will include between 16,000 and 18,000 of the roughly 56,000 Napa County ballots  or about 30% of the total  expected to be cast in this falls races, Tuteur said Monday.

Next to be tabulated are the ballots that have been hand-delivered  either to the seven voter assistance centers the Election Division opened from American Canyon to Calistoga, or directly at the election office itself in downtown Napa. Such live ballots factor into the countys second and third election-night updates, which are released at 9:45 p.m. and between 11 and 11:30 p.m., as ballots submitted at voting centers are brought to the county election office.

The counting will then turn to ballots that were mailed in the final two or so days before the end of voting. California ballots must be postmarked no later than Election Day, but can be counted if an election department receives them within seven days of the close of voting.

Counting of later mail ballots will begin Monday, Nov. 14 (Napa County offices are closed Friday for Veterans Day), and the county will release updated results at about 4:30 p.m. that day. The process will then continue through Nov. 17 or until 95% of ballots are counted.

The remaining handful of ballots to be counted afterward include those that are stained or otherwise damaged and must be duplicated to allow votes to be optically scanned, according to Tuteur. Other late tallies include conditional voter registration ballots  cast by people who registered at a voting center but whose envelopes were held to ensure a voter has not cast a ballot in another county  as well as those whose signatures either are absent from their envelope or do not match signatures on record with the county. (California law calls for counties to notify voters of such issues and give them until Nov. 26 to resolve the problem, either by submitting a new signature or visiting the county election office.)

All ballots from Napa County are expected to be in hand and counted by around Nov. 28, 20 days after Election Day, according to Tuteur.

But state law requires one more step before a county can certify election results  a hand count of 1% of the total ballots.

"One person reads the ballot, a second person watches them read the ballot, and two people tally what the reader said on big tally sheets," said Tuteur of the manual tally.

When he is satisfied that the results of the hand count and the machine count match  typically after three or four days of manual tallying  the registrar certifies the outcome of the November elections.

Tuteur said this years certification would likely take place around Dec. 2, although California gives counties until Dec. 8 this year to do so and make the peoples new choices of leaders, at last, official.
Updated at 10:56 p.m. Tuesday  One of Napa Valley Unified School Districts two bond measures, which would serve American Canyon Schools, is ahead in early election results released Tuesday evening.

But the other bond measure, which would serve city of Napa schools, is behind.

Additionally, the Calistoga Joint Unified District bond measure  the $41 million Measure B  is ahead, according to the second round of results released shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday. So far, 58.99% of Calistoga voters have cast votes in support of the measure. That's the result of 829 total votes, which represents 25.49% of the potential vote.

The school bond measures require a 55% majority of votes to pass. NVUSDs $200 million Measure A1, voted on primarily by city of Napa residents to fund construction projects for city schools, had reached 53.23% approval as of Tuesday night, with 7,603 voting to approve and 6,680 voting against. That represents 26.26% of all ballots mailed to voters.

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"We would need a miracle to happen, and I'm afraid we're going to miss the mark," said Napa City Councilmember Liz Alessio, a signee on Measure A1 in favor of the Napa bond, after the first release of results at 8:01 p.m. "I'm sad, but we'll try again another year."

Meanwhile, the $25 million Measure A2, voted on by American Canyon residents for schools there, landed at 63.95% approval Tuesday night; 1,320 voted to approve and 744 voted against, representing 15.98% of the potential vote.

NVUSD Superintendent Rosanna Mucetti said the district was very proud of the efforts volunteers made to educate people about the need and purpose of the bonds, particularly since "a small percentage of voters have their children in schools."

"We knew if we were to build support for a new bond measure we needed to do it right, right from the beginning," she said in a statement. "Our thorough evaluation of each school's needs was the first step. We then made difficult decisions as to which projects were the most critical and which schools needed the most attention. We were honest, transparent, and mindful of keeping the cost to homeowners affordable."

Bond measures are essentially loans that incur a debt upon local property owners that must be paid back over years. California school districts regularly pursue such measures because the state doesnt typically provide a revenue stream for facilities.

Measures A1 and A2 would incur an annual tax rate of $20 per $100,000 of assessed property value. The Calistoga Measure B would add on an average annual tax rate of $32 per $100,000 of assessed value.

In past years, NVUSD has put forward bond measures to all voters that fall within district boundaries. That included the $269 million Measure H, NVUSDs largest and most recent bond measure, which barely passed with 55.99% of the vote in 2016.

This time around, the district decided to split the bond measures after deciding that American Canyon and Napa schools had different needs. The ask for the measures is also less than half of the districts identified facilities need, because the district identified tax sensitivity in the community.

Proceeds from A1, should the measure pass, would go toward various upgrades across 21 schools in the city of Napa. A2 would fund upgrades across five schools in American Canyon. Calistoga's Measure B would largely be used to finish up work started with the 2010's Measure A, with money going toward classroom upgrades, technology improvements and more.

Supporters of the measures have argued for the need to upgrade the districts aging facilities, both for safety and health reasons, and because upgrades would benefit NVUSD academics. Though no official opposition was filed with the county, opponents have argued that the district is asking for too much money too soon after the previous measure.
Jeff Cook, founding member and legendary guitarist of the supergroup , founding member and legendary guitarist of the supergroup ALABAMA , has died. Cook, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Musicians Hall of Fame, Fiddlers Hall of Fame and Gibsons Guitarist of the Year, passed away peacefully yesterday, November 7, with his family and close friends by his side at his beach home in Destin, Florida. He was 73. The multi-award winning guitarist was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in 2012. Cook was a champion in all he attempted and he courageously faced his battle with a positive attitude.

Jeffrey Alan Cook was born in Fort Payne, Alabama on August 27, 1949. He began playing lead guitar and keyboards in bands at the age of 13. Securing a broadcast license only three days after his 14th birthday, Cook went to work as a disc jockey at a local Fort Payne radio station. The broadcast bug had entered his blood and later resulted in him owning radio and TV stations. After graduating from Fort Payne High School, Cook received a degree in Electronic Technology from Gadsden State Community College in Gadsden, Alabama and was named Outstanding Alumni by the American Association of Community Colleges. Cook loved that radio combined two of his favorite things, music and electronics.

One of Cooks lifelong dreams came true with the construction of Cook Sound Studios and his home, Cook Castle, based in Fort Payne. The studio was a way for him to help musicians share their music with others. Outside of music, one of his favorite hobbies was bass fishing. He was proud to be an official Fishing Ambassador to the state of Alabama, as proclaimed by five Governors.

Cook is credited for introducing the electric double-neck guitar to country music. He was also an accomplished musician with the ability to play piano, guitar, fiddle, bass guitar, banjo, mandolin and anything else thrown in front of him.

He married the love of his life, Lisa Williams, on June 9, 1995. The Cooks resided in Cook Castle atop Lookout Mountain in Fort Payne, AL, Guntersville, AL and Destin/Miramar Beach, FL.

As a member of ALABAMA, Cook enjoyed one of the most successful careers in country music history. Over 50 years ago, Cook, along with cousins Teddy Gentry and Randy Owen, left Fort Payne to spend the summer playing music in a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina bar called The Bowery. It took Cook, Gentry and Owen six long years of tip jars and word-of-mouth to earn the major label deal theyd been dreaming of. Then, seemingly no time at all to change the face of country music forever. Cooks iconic guitar licks, unique fiddle style, exceptional vocals and harmony, along with his bandmates, went on to sell 80 million albums and charted 43 No. 1 hits, becoming the biggest group in the history of the country genre.

Due to Cooks health battle, he ceased touring with ALABAMA in 2018. With his encouragement and well wishes, ALABAMA went on because Cook never wanted the music to stop or the party to end.

With his profound desire to help others, The Jeff and Lisa Cook Foundation was formed along with The Jeff and Lisa Cook Childrens Home to house orphaned children worldwide, starting in the Philippines.

Cook is survived by his wife of 27 years Lisa Cook, beloved puppies Blazer and Blakely, his mother Betty Cook, his brother David Cook, Crystal Cook, his father-in-law Jerrial Williams, his brother-in-law Randy Williams and many nieces and nephews. Cook was pre-deceased by his father James Cook and his mother-in-law, JoAnn Williams.

Jeffrey Alan Cook will always be thankful for his loving family, many close friends and especially his FANS.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to THE JEFF AND LISA COOK FOUNDATION:

P.O. BOX 680067, Fort Payne, AL 35968 or through the foundation website: thejeffandlisacookfoundation.org
According to information published by the US DoD on November 8, 2022, Naval forces from the United States, United Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia completed a weeklong maritime exercise called Nautical Defender in the Persian Gulf.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Mine countermeasure ship USS Devastator, front, and guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black sail in formation with Royal Saudi Naval Forces ships during exercise Nautical Defender. (Picture source: US DoD)

The multilateral training event involved U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), Royal Saudi Navys Eastern Fleet, UKs Royal Navy, and observers from regional nations.

Partners focused on maritime security, vessel boarding procedures, explosive ordinance disposal, and other training drills ashore in Saudi Arabia and at sea.

In addition to personnel from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Coast Guard, participating U.S. ships included USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119), USS Devastator (MCM 6), USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC 1141) and USCGC Robert Goldman (WPB 1142).

NAVCENT is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, and includes maritime forces operating in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean, and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal, and Bab al-Mandeb.

About the USS Devastator

USS Devastator (MCM-6) is an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship of the United States Navy. Construction of Devastator began on 9 February 1987 when her keel was laid at Peterson Shipbuilders in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Construction was finished and the vessel was launched on 11 June 1988. Devastator was commissioned into the US Navy on 6 October 1990.

The hulls of the Avenger-class ships are constructed of wood with an external coating of fiberglass. The wood used is oak, Douglas fir and Nootka Cypress because of their flexibility, strength, and low weight. This construction allows the hull to withstand a nearby blast from a mine, and also gives the ship a low magnetic signature.

The Avenger-class ships are equipped with four Waukesha-Pearce diesel engines (MCM 1 and 2) or Isotta-Fraschini ID 36SS6V diesel engines (remainder), which are designed to have very low magnetic and acoustic signatures.

Each engine develops 600 horsepower (447.4 kW) (combined 1.79 MW) sustained power, providing a cruising speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) with controllable pitch propellers.
American B-21 called sixth generation aircraft

US First Lady decorates White House for holidays

Greece parliament delegation visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

Stoltenberg once again says that 'one day' Ukraine will become member of alliance

Politico: The world wonders what the 'surprise' means with the public appearance of Kim Jong-un's daughter

Cavusoglu: EU enlargement should extend from the Balkans to Georgia, including Ukraine and Moldova

Eurasian Development Bank economist calls to avoid euphoria on Armenia 2022 economy growth rate

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Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh are separatists, Armenia is Western Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani MP claims

Philip Reeker urges Armenia, Azerbaijan to schedule further talks

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EDB: Armenian GDP is expected to increase by 12.5% by the end of 2022

Armenia ambassador-at-large: Its legally justified for Russia to use Nagorno-Karabakh place names

EDB: Dollar exchange rate to Armenian dram will significantly grow in 2023 and 2024

Ukraine embassy in Baku publicizes video in honor of Azerbaijani soldiers who liberated Karabakh (VIDEO)

Iranian authorities say more than 300 dead in protest

One of 2 Artsakh soldiers wounded by Azerbaijan is discharged from hospital

EU ambassador: It's time for Armenia to ratify Istanbul convention

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Iran is ready to support the solution of problems between Armenia and Azerbaijanin bilateral and trilateral formats. This was stated by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Iran, Nasser Kanaani.

"Our principle policy is based on good-neighborliness and expanding relations with all neighbors, and strengthening relations with a neighbor does not mean that these relations are directed against the other neighbor," Kanaani emphasized.

According to him, Iran has always emphasized the protection of the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the peaceful settlement of their differencesand adhering to the rights within the framework of international rights.

"That is why Iran has condemned the occupation of Azerbaijan's territories and supportedat the highest levelthe liberation of lands," Kanaani said.

Also, he reflected on the recent statements made by the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, regarding Iran's relations with Armenia.

"For nearly two years now, the officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been holding bilateral and multilateral meetings at various political, military and security levels, on the path of permanent peace and reconciliation, which Iran supports. But the reasons for Baku's concerns regarding the neighboring meetings are incomprehensible," Kanaani said.

Speaking about the military exercises of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran near the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Iranian diplomat called them routine and pre-planned, about which the two neighboring countries were informed in advance through official channels.

As per Kanaani, the way to resolve the Caucasus issue goes through the capitals of the countries of the region, not by turning to extra-regional forces.

Iran, Kanaani added, once again declares its readiness to support the resolution of unresolved issues between Azerbaijan and Armenia in various formats, including bilateral and trilateral formats, as well as the cooperation mechanism in the "3+3" format in which the three countries of the South CaucasusArmenia , Georgia, and Azerbaijanplus Russia, Turkey, and Iran participate.
Mogo Armenia, member of Eleving Group  an international fintech company  celebrates 5 years of its activity.

Entering the Armenian market in 2017, Mogo offered its customers a car loan service from the secondary market, different from all other offers existing in the market at that time, thus bringing a new service to the Armenian financial market.

Thanks to its professional and knowledgeable team, during these years Mogo Armenia managed to take a leading position in the car loan market, offering simple, fast and convenient solutions. For Mogo, every customer is an important asset, and the company does its best to identify customers requirements and offer appropriate financial solutions. In this regard, Mogo stands out by its flexibility and experience to quickly respond to existing requirements.

During these 5 years, Eleving Group has invested more than AMD 3.5 billion in Mogo Armenia. Continuously improving the quality of its services, Mogo offers the top products of Eleving Group. From 2022 it has also introduced the new Primero loan (a new product launched for car lovers with a stable income, who cannot use car loan services offered by banks due to lack of down payment or other reasons).

Eleving Group was founded in Latvia in 2012. Today it is a powerful international fintech organization operating in 13 countries on three continents, offering innovative and ambitious projects for these markets.

Hakob Manukyan, General Director of Mogo Armenia, noted that as a member of Eleving Group, Mogo introduces innovations, principles and methods of fintech sector in Armenia.

The innovative technological solutions offered by the Eleving Group, enable Mogo to provide the fastest car loan options, with the use of the leading automated system of evaluation of creditworthiness. The latter significantly optimizes the decision-making process, giving customers an opportunity to receive the necessary funds in a short period of time, Hakob Manukyan said.

Edgars Kokins, member of Mogo Armenia Board, noted that Armenia has always been and remains a very important and promising market for the Group.

We think that it has great potential for development as a company. The Group strongly believes in the dynamic development of Mogo Armenia, based on principles of responsible financing and contributing to the financial well-being and success of customers, Edgars Kokins emphasized.
Denial of Artsakh's self-determination will automatically label Armenia an "aggressor," Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan noted.

Making an excursus to the origin of the concepts of territorial integrity and right of nations to self-determination and their reflection in the UN Charter, the former deputy minister said that, contrary to popular opinion, these concepts do not contradict each other.

Kocharyan noted that the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have two diametrically opposed positions.

"Azerbaijan responded to Artsakh's realized right with massacres, deportations and large-scale aggression.

"However, attempts to turn this into a "territorial dispute" put Armenia in an extremely difficult position. If Armenia lowers the bar and gives up the right to self-determination, it automatically takes the label of aggressor.

"What are the consequences? The aggressor must be punished. In international practice, this is the expulsion of the population of the aggressor, both from the occupied territories, and the territories taken away and given to the victim of aggression as compensation for the damage.

"Germany is a typical example, 12-14 million Germans were displaced by World War II from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Kaliningrad was lost to Germany.

"Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, and Poland gained territories. Poland, at the expense of part of the reparations received territories. Holland also got the territories, but Germany bought them back later," Shavarsh Kocharyan noted.

"Then there are reparations, i.e. compensation for the damage. For the first time it was applied after World War I.

"Forced labor of prisoners, this was practiced after World War 2, when German prisoners were serving their labor service. Even in Yerevan, there are facilities built by German prisoners. Restrictions in the military sphere, which apply to the army, equipment, quotas, including for the purchase of weapons. Japan and Germany, a member of NATO and the EU, have been under these sanctions since 1945. The search and trial of war criminals. Control over domestic life so that revanchism does not raise its head.

"What we see in Aliyev's statements is the beginning of this process. Rejecting self-determination means taking the label of aggressor with all the dangerous consequences. We see that Turkey and Azerbaijan have directed all their steps toward trying to recognize Armenia as an aggressor, and the authorities are helping them to do so," said Shavarsh Kocharyan.
Anti-Iranian tendencies are gaining momentum in the Azerbaijani media and Internet space. After the news item about the posters in support of Ilham Aliyev that allegedly appeared in the Iranian provinces, the Azerbaijani media started to replicate the story of an "innocent murdered" Azerbaijani.



The story is retold by a resource close to the Aliyev administration, titled the fantastic narrative "Iranian security forces shot 18-year-old Azerbaijani Esmail Heydari."



"According to information published on the IranWire website, Azerbaijani Esmail Heydari, a resident of the settlement of Tonekabon on the Caspian coast, was born in Meshkinshahr, Ardabil province. On the day of the murder he was on his way to the bakery where he worked and was fatally shot when police opened fire on the demonstrators. According to the brother of the deceased, the bullet hit the young man in the heart.



According to an Azerbaijani human rights activist, the family of the deceased did not immediately demand Esmail's body because they were threatened by security officials.



"The family was threatened that if they reported the incident to the media, they wouldn't get Esmail's body at all. The family of the deceased young man simply did not know where to turn," the human rights activist said.



According to the human rights activist, Sardar Heydari, Esmail's father wanted to complain to the Tonekabon prosecutor's office about his son's murder, but could not do so because he did not speak Farsi. The assistant prosecutor himself drew up the document, and Heydari senior signed it, although he did not know what it said.



Esmail Heidari is one of dozens of young men shot dead by Iranian security forces during mass demonstrations. Reportedly, security forces often threaten the families of the victims, forcing them to present what happened as an "accident."



For example, the authorities put pressure on the family of 22-year-old Nasim Sedghi, who died during an anti-government protest in West Azerbaijan, forcing its members to lie that the girl died in a car accident.



Last week, the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP) reported that Sedghi's father had been pressured by the Intelligence Bureau of the city of Shahin Dezh, where the family resides.



In particular, Sedghi's father Nasim Sedghi was demanded to state in a TV interview that his daughter was allegedly killed by a guy she was dating and who fled to Turkey after the 'murder,'" the newspaper writes.
The Armenian authorities legitimize the goal of regime change at any price, Armen Rustamyan, a deputy from the "Armenia" bloc and a member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, said during the discussion on Wednesday.



He noted that the authorities are urging to unite to surrender together, whereas Turkey and Azerbaijan want to achieve their goal of destroying Armenia at any price.



Given the current status quo in and outside the country, he thinks that no document favorable to Armenia can be signed, it will be destructive.



Rustamyan recalled that due to the weakening of Russia, which itself has faced the existential problem of fixing its presence on the world map, the military-political balance has been upset in favor of Armenia's adversaries, so it is pointless to expect anything useful for Armenia.



"There is talk that the document can be signed by the end of the year, but during this time the military-political situation will not change, and Armenia may face irreversible consequences. Therefore, we need to work with those countries for whom concessions to Armenia are also vital. Iran knows that this is a "red" line for it and will defend it at any cost. No work is being done in this direction," the deputy added.



According to his assessment, a considerable part of the society accepts the thesis that after surrendering Karabakh we will live in peace. " Capitulation is a concession of vital interests, which the authorities call "the only possible solution." But the denial of Karabakh's right to self-determination would turn Armenia into an aggressor, which would be obliged to constantly cede something, including territories, financial compensation, ethnic cleansing. What will be left of Armenia in this case? The public does not realize that this is what awaits it in the case of the renunciation of Karabakh's right to self-determination. That's why we have to move away from the primitive struggle between the authorities and the opposition," Rustamyan added.



He believes that Armenia has always been of interest to external players by three factors: Karabakh, Syunik (as an obstacle for Turan) and the NPP.
Tehran has expressed its readiness to play a role in resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and contribute to efforts to end the war, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said at a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Tehran, Tasnim reports.



"Iran welcomes and supports any initiatives for a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine through dialogue and is ready to play a role in ending the war," he said. Shamkhani also called regional and international cooperation and dialogue the only solutions to existing crises and problems in the region and the world. Warning of the threats that terrorism and extremism pose to regional and international security, Shamkhani stressed the need to maintain and strengthen collective cooperation to combat these threats. "Promoting bilateral and regional cooperation, especially with neighboring states in the economic sphere, is one of the country's strategic priorities."



Shamkhani also stressed the importance of cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in energy, transportation, agriculture, trade, banking and the environment, calling for the removal of obstacles to cooperation in these areas.



He also stressed the need to form joint and synergetic institutions to counter sanctions and boost the international capacity of organizations against sanctions and the countries that impose them.



For his part, Patrushev welcomed the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran in various fields, saying that the four meetings between the presidents of the two countries in one year testify to the determination of Moscow and Tehran to take their relations to a strategic level.



Pointing to previous agreements between the national security councils of Russia and Iran and the development of a road map for strategic cooperation, especially with regard to economic and technological sanctions, the Russian official said he had visited Tehran to accelerate the implementation of joint projects and provide dynamic mechanisms to launch new activities in economic, trade, energy and technological fields.



He also noted that the rapid completion of the North-South corridor would also improve the quality of trade and economic cooperation at bilateral and international levels.



Pointing to a joint initiative to form a Friendship Group in defense of the UN Charter with the participation of countries subject to illegal sanctions by the West, Patrushev said that Western states, particularly the United States, have violated UN provisions and resorted to hybrid warfare to impose their political will on independent states.



Patrushev also briefed Shamkhani on the situation in Ukraine.
The commander of the United Group of Russian Forces, Sergey Surovikin, said in a report to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the situation in the special operation zone had stabilized.



According to him, the Ukrainian army lost more than 9,500 people killed and wounded between August and September, RIA Novosti reported.



At the same time, in the Kherson direction the enemy is hitting local government facilities, schools, hospitals and other socially important objects. "Kherson and adjacent settlements cannot be fully supplied and function, people's lives are constantly in danger," he said. According to him, more than 115,000 people were able to be evacuated from the region.



According to him, the losses of Russian troops in the Kherson direction are 7-8 times less than the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). "As you know, the offensive side incurs greater losses than the one on the defensive. In this case, our losses are 7-8 times less than those of the enemy. We think first of all about the lives of every Russian serviceman."



Surovikin stressed that the AFU continues shelling the Kakhovka dam - this could provoke flooding and cause significant casualties. "It is advisable to organize the defense along the barrier line of the Dnieper River, along its left bank," he said.



"The decision to defend on the left bank of the Dnieper is not easy, at the same time we will save the lives of our military and the combat effectiveness of the group of troops."



He noted that the situation in the area of special operations had stabilized, the combat capabilities of the combined grouping and forces had significantly increased, the combat staff had been increased at the expense of mobilized troops, and reserves had been created. In some directions Russian troops resumed offensive actions, but despite the high losses in manpower and hardware, the enemy does not abandon offensive attempts, all its attacks are suppressed in a timely manner.



The defense minister agreed with Surovikin's suggestion. "Proceed with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River," Shoigu said.
The State of Israel must support its allies in their fight against Iran. One such ally is Azerbaijan, writes former Israeli Minister of Communications Ayoob Kara in an article for Jewish News Syndicate.



"Azerbaijan already cooperates closely with Israel in many fields. Because they share a border with Iran, the Azerbaijanis are well aware of the threat posed by the Islamic republic and have excellent intelligence on its malign and extremist activities. Intelligence sharing with Azerbaijan is a boon to Israel and other countries that oppose Irans imperialist foreign policy.



Iran has a long history of threatening Azerbaijan. Recently, it held a military drill along the border between the two countries and opened a consulate near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Iran also opposes the establishment of the Zangezur corridor between Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which Iran knows will weaken its axis in the region.



The Israeli ex-minister goes on to note that Azerbaijan can provide decisive support to the "protest movement" in Iran. "Moreover, if we strengthen Azerbaijanis in Iran itself, they can finally gain independence from Iranian domination and create their own country alongside the Ahwaz, the Baloch, the Turkmen and many other peoples. This will further weaken the mullahs regime. The time has come to stop talking. We must act against Iran. Israel and Azerbaijan should do so together. This would turn the tables on the Islamic republic, which has attempted to encircle Israel by creating bases in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, as well as supporting Palestinian terror groups. Through an alliance with Azerbaijan, Israel would have its own forward base right on Irans border.



Azerbaijan is a natural ally of the State of Israel. That is why I have traveled to the Azerbaijani-Iranian border and sent a loud and clear message. I proclaimed that we will no longer tolerate Iranian-sponsored terrorism and we stand together with Azerbaijan against Iranian imperialism across the Middle East and the world." he said.
France is ending its military mission in Africa after more than a decade. French President Emmanuel Macron announced this, noting that a new strategy will be developed with African partners, AFP reported.



"I have decided, in coordination with our partners, to make official today the end of the Barkhane operation," Macron said. The move was "consequence of what we have experienced" in recent months, and a new strategy will be developed over the next six months, he added.



"Our military support to African countries will continue, but according to new principles that we have defined with them," Macron said.



He said the future strategy will be based on much closer cooperation with African armies to make France's own deployment easier and more dynamic. "Our engagements with our partners in Africa will be focused on a logic of cooperation and relying on their arms," Macron told senior members of the armed forces and diplomats aboard the French helicopter carrier.



French forces have faced growing hostility from those who see them as an occupying force of the former colonial power, and Macron withdrew troops from Mali this year when relations with the country's rulers soured.



Some 3,000 French soldiers remain in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger. There are no immediate plans to reduce the numbers.
Poland will significantly increase defense spending to 3 percent of its GDP, Slovakia is also investing heavily in its armed forces, the two NATO prime ministers said, AP reported.



Polish and Slovak defense ministers Mateusz Morawiecki and Eduard Heger visited multinational military exercises in Poland and said their countries are increasing their deterrence capabilities and military cooperation amid war in neighboring Ukraine.



Morawiecki said the Polish government will spend more than 100 billion zlotys ($21.4 billion) next year or maybe even 130 billion zlotys ($27.8 billion) to modernize its armed forces. He said this would amount to 3 percent to 4 percent of Poland's GDP, one of the highest defense budgets among the 30 NATO members. Poland currently spends just over 2 percent of GDP on its armed forces.



The best strategy is to deter the enemy with the strength of your own army and through cooperation with others, Morawiecki said.



Heger noted that the Slovak government is intensively modernizing the armed forces, adding that the war in Ukraine showed the need for regional defense cooperation.



Morawiecki and Heger observed maneuvers by nearly 2,000 Polish, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, American and British troops. The PUMA-22 exercise was held at the Nowa Debe training ground in southeastern Poland, about 150 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.



Heger said they want to establish peace and show that they have enough forces to defend peace.
Kiev believes it is too early to talk about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson.



"It's necessary to separate words from deeds," Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Reuters.



"Until the Ukrainian flag is flying over Kherson, it makes no sense to talk about a Russian withdrawal. Ukraine does not take these statements (by Russia) into consideration," he said. he said.



"It is still too early to talk about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson: a grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is being maintained in the city, and additional manpower is being pulled into the region."



"Our armed forces work according to their plan: reconnaissance, risk assessment, effective counterattack," he added.



As previously reported, the commander of the Combined Group of Russian Forces, Army General Sergey Surovikin, said that the decision was made to defend on the left bank of the Dnieper to preserve the lives of the military and the combat effectiveness of the group of troops, the maneuver will begin in the near future. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu instructed Surovikin to take all measures for the safe transfer of troops in the Kherson direction from the right bank to the left bank of the Dnieper.
Samvel Babayan, former member of the Security Council of the Republic of Artsakh said in his conversation with Azatutyun radio station that as he said earlier Russian peacekeepers will leave Artsakh in 3 years.



"Despite all the statements that they won't leave, that they will preserve Artsakh at any cost, etc., I think this is far from reality. The interests that Russia has today with Turkey, with Azerbaijan, etc., etc. These concessions will be made at our expense, that's why I say in advance that we should change our minds and solve these problems in a different way," he said.



According to Babayan, Russia said that there is a Karabakh problem, it must be solved, while Azerbaijan said that the Karabakh problem was solved two years ago, which Russia did not contradict. "Russia has some economic interests, which it would prefer to the Karabakh issue," he believes.



Asked if the withdrawal of the peacekeepers would mean Russia's withdrawal from the Caucasus, Babayan said:



"We are the ones who think they are leaving the Caucasus, they think Armenia is theirs, they don't think they are leaving the Caucasus," he said.



According to Babayan, in order for Artsakh to remain Armenian, we need to create our own defense and economy in Artsakh. "This is our way, and the issue of maximum independence should be solved through international courts."
In the months leading up to the Nov. 8 election, Emory experts provided commentary on a broad range of topics  including polling, voting behavior, health care policy, gender and politics, and race and politics, among others  for international, national and local media.

Earlier this week, Emory political science professors Alan Abramowitz and Bernard Fraga provided a briefing on campus for the U.S. State Departments Foreign Press Centers. An international group of about 20 foreign correspondents came to Emorys Convocation Hall for the Nov. 7 event, where Abramowitz and Fraga shared insights about local and state politics, the impact of Georgias election nationally, and voter rights/ballot protection efforts.

On Thursday, Nov. 10, Candler School of Theologys James T. and Berta R. Laney Legacy in Moral Leadership will welcome a panel of scholars and experts to campus to discuss the midterm election results. This event is free and open to the public, with advance registration required.

The Future of American Democracy: Post-Election Reflections will be moderated by Bill Nigut, executive producer and host of Georgia Public Broadcastings Political Rewind. Panelists include Andra Gillespie, associate professor of political science at Emory; Eric Tanenblatt, global chair of public policy and regulation at Dentons; and DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond.

Insights from Emory political scientists

Pearl Dowe serves as Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Political Science in Oxford College and Emory College.

Her research includes African American political behavior, gender and politics, and African American political leadership. Most recently, she has focused on political ambition and public leadership in African American women.

A needed point of discussion moving forward is the challenge that Black women face in running for statewide office, Dowe said the morning after the election. Black womens voting strength and their ability to mobilize voters have been lauded, but these same women as candidates are often not supported or viewed as viable candidates.

In this election cycle Black women candidates checked the boxes in the areas that are necessary for statewide success, they raised record-breaking amounts of campaign funds, had name recognition and previous leadership experience. But these factors still did not transcend to victory. In reviewing exit poll data, there still exists stark racialized voting. Unfortunately, Black women candidates are not viewed as an option by many white voters. For Black women voters and politicians this fact will likely influence when and how Black women use their political strength in the future.

Bernard L. Fraga, associate professor of political science, researches American electoral politics, racial and ethnic politics, and political behavior. He has conducted a statistical analysis of voter registration records and election results. Broadly, he studies how group identities and electoral contexts impact individual political behavior.

The red wave that was predicted by pollsters and pundits was more of a ripple. While it looks like Republicans will reclaim a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, in many high-profile contests voters either stuck with incumbents or punished Republican candidates who were closely aligned with former President Trump, Fraga noted.

Here in Georgia, Stacey Abrams and other Democrats running for statewide office got a lower share of the vote than they did in 2018, despite what will likely be a similar level of voter turnout, Fraga said on Wednesday morning. The one exception for Democrats is Sen. Raphael Warnock, who greatly outperformed other Democrats in the state likely due to ticket-splitting by Republicans who voted for Gov. Kemp but couldnt support the Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Herschel Walker. That said, Walker probably did well enough to force Warnock into a runoff election that will be held on Dec. 6.

Editors note: With all precincts now reporting, Georgias U.S. Senate seat will be decided by a runoff election on Dec. 6 between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Herschel Walker, a Republican.
The Bankruptcy Clinic, directed by bankruptcy expert Patricia Redmond, gives the opportunity for students with an interest in business law and litigation to gain hands-on experience representing clients.

LL.M. to J.D. student, Ana Paula Carrijo Barroso from Brazil, successfully argued a Motion to Reinstate clients bankruptcy case in Bankruptcy Court. Working under the supervision of local attorney Jeffrey Bast, who serves as a clinic mentor, she represented the client in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

Lawyering Skills in Action

The Brazilian attorney chose the Bankruptcy Clinic with a purpose.

I decided to apply for the Bankruptcy Clinic because I wanted to challenge myself. I had never studied nor worked with bankruptcy before. I was also looking forward to improving my writing and oral skills, and I had heard about the excellent preparing offered by the Bankruptcy Clinic, says Carrijo Barroso.

For this case, she dove in and worked hands-on from day one. She not only drafted the Motion to Reinstate the Case and prepared the schedules in a 3-hours in-person meeting with the client by herself, but also presented the motion in the court hearing.

Clinic Benefits to a Foreign-Trained Lawyer

Carrijo Barroso, who attended Universidade Positivo in Curitiba, Brazil and was trained in civil law, appreciates how the Bankruptcy Clinic offers her full immersion in the common law system.

I learned how to develop my arguments, considering not only the applicable statutes but the caselaw. I also, learned how to write and present myself orally following the American standard.

She also went an extra mile to prepare to present in court, on the day before, I discussed the key points with my mentor and practiced my presentation by recording it on my phone. As the hearing was over the phone, I needed to make sure my language was clear enough to avoid misunderstandings. Therefore, I recorded myself until I was satisfied with the result.

On the hearing day, she was sure to print the key documents and organized them on a binder with labels for easy reference. When the moment arrived for her to speak, she was confident and prepared.

In the end, Carrijo Barroso vividly remembers the moment when the judge announced his verdict and recognized her participation, It was thrilling hearing that our motion was granted.

Life as a Law Cane

Beyond the clinic, Carrijo Barros plays an active role in various student organizations at Miami Law. She serves as a Senator for the Student Bar Association (SBA) and is a member of both the Brazilian Law Association and the Miami International Arbitration Society.

She also argued cases via Miami Laws International Moot Court Program where she represented the law school at the Moot Madrid competition in April of 2022.

Carrijo Barros started at Miami Law in the White & Case International Arbitration LL.M. program and transferred to the J.D. program.

She is looking forward to graduating with both her J.D. and LL.M. in 2023.

More on the Bankruptcy Clinic

More on Litigation, Arbitration, and Dispute Resolution at Miami Law
Most alums wait until they are settled into their careers before giving back to their alma mater. Not Miguel Perez, J.D. 22. Perez, who originally hails from Medellin, Colombia, decided to establish a scholarship fund while still a student at Miami Law.

The Miguel Perez Law Award will provide an annual award to first-generation, second-year law students who have an outstanding academic performance during their first year at the School of Law.

Perez, who is passionate about education, wanted to give back to his alma mater because his experience at the University of Miami placed him on an exciting path of growth and opportunity. The award is also the first philanthropic endeavor of an organization that Perez developed, called Destiny by Demand. The organization is geared toward helping young professionals who want to catapult their growth by creating or breaking long-term habits, understanding themselves on a deeper level, and immersing themselves in a community that will help them succeed and remain motivated in the pursuit of their ambitions.

After I developed Destiny by Demand, I wanted to use a portion of the profits to contribute to Miami Law because it has had such a positive impact on my life, said Perez.

Perez moved to Florida at age four and eventually received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida. He decided to pursue a law career and attend Miami Law. As a student, Perez was involved with LawWithoutWalls, the Transactional Skills Program, and served as a staff editor for the Race & Social Justice Law Review. He also worked as a research assistant for Professor of Legal Writing Annette Torres.

My grandfather inspired my decision to become a lawyer because he was able to help his community as an attorney working for Colombia's family subsidy system while creating a great life for himself and his family, said Perez.

He would like to help other law students discover the same excitement for learning by easing any financial strain they might have.

My goal is to recognize first-generation students for their hard work and contributions to Miami Law through this gift, said Perez. He intends to continue to be active in the community and expand his philanthropy as his career develops.

After graduating from Miami Law cum laude, in May, Perez started working at the law firm Baker Donelson in Fort Lauderdale in the business litigation and corporate transaction practice area.

I want to learn as much as I can from my mentors at Baker Donelson, while pursuing my passions for personal development, philanthropy, and fitness, he said.

Make a gift to Miami Law
Hong Kong's only Sikh temple reopens its doors

Hong Kong's only Sikh temple reopens its doors

Hong Kong's only Sikh temple on Tuesday officially reopened its doors to the public after a five-year renovation.



The Khalsa Diwan temple in Wan Chai was completely rebuilt over the past five years, after cracks were discovered at the old building in 2013.



Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chief Executive John Lee said Hong Kong respects freedom of religion, and his government is committed to building a caring and inclusive society.



Lee, who wrapped his head in a Sikh turban, added that the reconstruction project has made it possible for the Khalsa Diwan to serve a wider community.



"All of us are delighted to see the successful completion of the new temple today, and every bit of the five-year wait has been worthwhile. With the temple revamped, Khalsa Diwan Hong Kong will have better hardware to provide a diverse range of services for Sikhs and non-Sikhs in Hong Kong," he said.



The revamped temple will feature new facilities such as a digital library and language classrooms, as well as a larger kitchen.



It will also expand its services to include free Cantonese classes and medical consultations.



The temple has been offering free accommodation for new migrants to Hong Kong, while its community kitchen, known as "Langar", provides around 5,000 free meals per week.
At least six dead in Nepal quake

Nepal's seismological centre has set the earthquake at a magnitude of 6.6. Photo: AP

An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck Nepal early Wednesday, killing at least six people, destroying multiple houses in the western district of Doti and shaking the Indian capital New Delhi, some 350km away, officials said.



Five other people were seriously injured as eight houses collapsed, said Bhola Bhatta, deputy superintendent of police in Doti, confirming an earlier figure shared by home ministry official Tulsi Rijal. The injured had been rushed to a local hospital, police said.



Nepal is still rebuilding after two major earthquakes in 2015 killed almost 9,000 people, destroyed whole towns and centuries-old temples and caused a US$6 billion blow to the economy.



"Expressing my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who died in the earthquake," Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba wrote on Twitter. "I have instructed the relevant agencies to arrange immediate and proper treatment of the injured and the victims."



Narayan Silwal, a spokesman for the Nepali army, said a ground rescue team has been rushed to the site and two helicopters were on stand by in nearby Surkhet and Nepalgunj towns.



Kalpana Shrestha, a senior bureaucrat of Doti district, said details were being collected from villages near the epicentre and that one child was among those rescued from under the debris.



Nepal's seismological centre set the earthquake at a magnitude of 6.6. It was centred about 158 km northeast of Pilibhit, a populous city in the neighbouring Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and occurred at a depth of 10 km. (Reuters)
Model Economic Township Limited (MET City), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is developing a world-class Greenfield Smart City near Gurugram. MET City is a Japan Industrial Township (JIT) and houses four leading Japanese companies in its integrated industrial township. Nihon Kohden, one of the four Japanese companies and manufacturer of medical devices, recently conducted a dround-breaking ceremony on its plot at MET City. This facility of Nihon Kohden will be its largest manufacturing facility in India, which will further enhance the position of MET City as a leading location for setting up companies in Haryana and North India. Panasonic, Denso and T-Suzuki are the other Japanese companies in MET City. On the occasion of this ground-breaking ceremony, S.V. Goyal, CEO and WTD, MET City, said, "We are very happy to have the facility of Nihon Kohden starting construction at MET City. With 400+ industrial customers, walk-to-work masterplan and world-class infrastructure, MET City today is one of the fastest growing Greenfield Smart City in North India. Being a Japan Industrial Township, we are very happy to have more Japanese companies coming to us and selecting MET City as their partner in India. The plug-n-play infrastructure of MET City is an added advantage for any company coming to us for their requirement." Vaibhav Mittal, Vice President and Head of Business Development, MET City, said, "We feel immense proud in having this world class facility from Nihon Kohden being set up at MET City. As we grow, we continue to strive to get more and more Japanese companies to MET City and make it one of the most sought-after business cities of North India." Kentaro Kusano, Managing Director, Nihon Kohden India Pvt. Ltd., said, "We are very pleased to announce the opening of our new haematology analyser reagent factory. This 8,900 square-meter factory will be built on 16,135 square meters of land at Model Economic Township (MET City) in Jhajjar district of Haryana which will be almost four times bigger than our current factory in Gujarat. This facility marks an important milestone for our commitment to growing our business in India and positions Nihon Kohden well to achieve our vision for India to be a trusted partner and provider to improve healthcare in the country." Anil Srivastava, Chief Operating Officer, Nihon Kohden India Pvt. Ltd., said, "With the opening of this new manufacturing unit, our focus continues to be providing the latest Japanese technologies and quality products in Indian market. This facility will allow us to further expand our manufacturing capabilities and meet the growing local needs of haematology reagents. This step is building on Nihon Kohden's long-term commitment to the Indian market. We would like to express thanks our customers for their encouragement and overwhelming support to Nihon Kohden India in the journey so far. India is one of the most important markets for Nihon Kohden Corporation, Japan." Sameer Sehgal, Chief Finance Officer, Nihon Kohden India Pvt. Ltd., said, "There is a growing demand in the in-vitro diagnostic industry created by the expansion of the healthcare market in India. By adding another manufacturing plant, we expect to increase our production capacity multi-folds and drive ongoing commitment to support our existing and new customers and serve them better." --IANS san/arm ( 558 Words) 2022-11-08-22:44:03 (IANS)
The crisis at Ranchi-based public sector establishment, Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), seems far to be over as the company despite having orders worth Rs 1,500 crore from ISRO, the Ministry of Defence, Railways, Coal India and the steel sector, its 80 per cent work is pending due to shortage of fund. The officers of the company have not received salary for an entire year and employees for eight-nine months. HEC has requested the Ministry of Heavy Industries several times to provide working capital of Rs 1000 crore, but the Ministry has already made it clear that the Central government cannot help the factory in any way. The company management has to stand on its own feet. The company, which started with about 22,000 staff in 1963, now has only 3400 employees-officers. The debt and burden are such that even the company is no longer able to pay their salaries. HEC officers have been agitating for the last five days demanding payment of 12 months' arrears of salary. They are protesting daily at the company's gate. In December last year, all the employees of the company had carried out a tool-down strike for several days in December last year demanding salary. Later the strike was ended by paying one month's salary, but after that the situation got worse. This company has been passing through the toughest phase in its history for the last two years. The crisis of HEC and the apathy of the government towards it can be understood from the fact that even the permanent CMD has not been appointed in the company for the last two years. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) CMD, Nalin Singhal, who also holds the charge of HEC CMD, has never come to visit HEC till date. Meanwhile, HEC directors Rana S. Chakraborty and M.K. Saxena will coem to New Delhi with the request of the agitating officers and staff. They will talk to the Industry Secretary from the Union Industry Ministry on important issues including salaries. According to experts, the biggest challenge before the company is upgradation of machines and core capital. There has been a steady decline in production for the last five years. Only 25 per cent of the machines are being used in the factory. There is also a shortage of raw materials including coal. HEC has to supply the launching pads for ISRO's satellites by March next year, but the company does not have the steel for this. SAIL supplies the special steel required to make the equipment. But HEC already owes Rs 5 crore, SAIL has refused to supply steel without clearing the earlier dues. In such a situation, it is feared that if the company does not get special steel, launching pad will not be supplied to the ISRO till March 2023. --IANS snc/anm/uk/ ( 483 Words) 2022-11-08-23:12:02 (IANS)
Assam got a 5,000-tonne capacity cold storage unit in the Chaygaon area which is by far the region's largest, along with a fruit-processing centre at the food-processing park at Satabari under Kamrup district. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma inaugurated both projects on Tuesday, an official statement from Chief Minister's Office said. The 5,000-metric-tonne cold-storage facility has been constructed by the Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board at a cost of Rs 24.75 crore. The "chiller" and "freezer" rooms of this facility are likely to benefit farmers of Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup (Rural), Goalpara, Nalbari and Barpeta districts. "While the "chiller" rooms would be meant for storage of agricultural items such as potatoes, fruits and other vegetables, the "freezer" room would be of use in storage of milk and milk-produces," the statement said. The fruit-processing unit has been built at a cost of Rs 2.89 crore. Speaking at a public meeting held at the Chaygaon College playground, Chief Minister Sarma appealed to the youths of the state to focus on the processing and packaging of agricultural produces and items. Further, stating that the State's produce such as ginger, pepper, lemon, and joha rice had great demand in the national and international market, the Chief Minister said the farmers of these items should be able to reap remunerative values only if the produce is further processed and packaged, which will add to value-addition. This, he said, would have a huge positive impact on the ongoing process of strengthening of the State's economy, the statement added. Owing to the State government's initiatives, there has been annual export of horticulture produce to the tune of Rs 200 crores in the past couple of years and the Chief Minister exuded confidence that in days to come this figure can easily cross the Rs 1,000-crore mark. Moreover, he appealed to the Department of Agriculture to take necessary measures in this regard. Stating that the State's economy is still highly dependent on agriculture, the Chief Minister spoke about the initiatives towards modernization in the agricultural sector, expanding the market for farm produce and attracting the youths towards the sector, among others. At the event, the Chief Minister also appealed to the people of the State to come forward and get involved in agarwood, teak-wood cultivation, etc, and move towards the path of self-reliance and economic independence. (ANI)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 9 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Columbia Sportswear is proud to announce the launch of its new store in Palladium Mall, Lower Parel, Mumbai. With its fourth store in all of Mumbai, the store offers a first-hand unique & top-of-the-line experience with top-notch gear for outdoor enthusiasts. They opened in October 2022, and the outlet hosted its official launch on the evening of 2nd November. The store launch hosted fitness and lifestyle enthusiasts from across the city for an experience of the space and Columbia Sportswear merchandise. The evening was celebrated over healthy indulgences, including beverages and light bites and a leading female DJ took over the evening. The store which has hints of silver subtly brings forth luxury and lives up to its presence among the top brands in Palladium. At the same time, it stocks the most useful and apt outdoor adventure gear which is an essential segment for the fitness and trekking enthusiasts of Mumbai. Mumbai and its suburbs house challenging hikes and treks like The Harihar Fort, at a short distance. The brand's growing presence in Mumbai encourages the budding outdoor culture in and around the city, for both a novice and an expert. "With the advent of our fourth store in Mumbai offering a grandeur of mountain trekking and hiking merchandise, we aim to be the number one outdoor brand house in India that is omnipresent at a click or in the immediate neighborhood. The outdoor industry is growing at an exponential rate and enthusiasts need gear that is backed by superior technology. Mumbai provides that perfect landscape where our gear keeps our customers protected against incessant rain, heat and ultraviolet exposure. For customers travelling to colder regions, there is ultimate warmth on offer," says Mr. Ankur Bhatia, CEO, Chogori India Retail Limited, the company that retails Columbia Sportswear and a plethora of more international outdoor brands in India. He adds, "The Chogori family is working towards building a web-like network of stores in the coming years, attempting to bring closer the adventure chasers and gear that is recognized, awarded and used globally. Our store in Palladium opens gates for us to reach out to the segment that just won't compromise on quality and would choose technologically backed outdoor adventure gear, ensuring a safe and smooth experience in the outdoors." Timings: 11am to 10pm, 7 days a week Address: Unit no 25, Lower Ground Floor Palladium Mall, Lower Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400013 This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
A three-day international gems and jewellery show organised by the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) of India has begun in Dubai. The second edition is being organised from 8 to 10 November 2022 at the Intercontinental Dubai Festival City, Dubai. A range of products including plain gold jewellery, diamond & gemstones studded jewellery etc are being exhibited at the show. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Sunjay Sudhir, Ambassador of India to UAE; Laila Suhail, CEO of Strategic Alliance and Partnerships Sector, Dubai Economy and Tourism; Kirit Bhansali, Vice Chairman GJEPC; Chandu Siroya, Vice Chairman, Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group (DGJG); Nilesh Kothari, Convener International Exhibitions, GJEPC; and Milan Chokshi, Co-Convener International Exhibitions, GJEPC. UAE has been a critical market for Indian gem and jewellery exports accounting for 14 per cent of its overall exports in FY 2021-22, and post the India-UAE CEPA, it has further gained traction, GJEPC said in a statement Tuesday. A platform like IGJS in Dubai will further help members from both countries to understand their strengths and take advantage of the CEPA. Another advantage is that the UAE serves as India's gateway to the WANA (Western Asia and North Africa) region. It helps strengthen trade ties with other Gulf Cooperation Council members such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, the GJEPC statement added. "This reflects the spirit of the recently signed India-UAE CEPA, and the importance of Dubai as a valuable platform for business and permanence of this show," Ambassador Sudhir said was quoted as saying in the statement. "The Indian gem and jewellery industry is one of the largest contributors to the global market and enjoys a similar position back home, contributing substantially to the economy of India," the Ambassador added. According to Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC: "Today India stands at the pinnacle of the jewellery pyramid, and the IGJS show demonstrates a depth of product design that is sure to delight this global audience. Post the India-UAE CEPA, India's overall gem and jewellery exports to UAE have grown by 12.36 per cent to USD 2.9 billion for the period April-September 2022 as compared to the previous year. The IGJS is a crucial platform for building trade relationships and capitalising on the trade opportunities provided by CEPA." (ANI)
Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], November 9 (ANI/NewsVoir): How is digital marketing changing in 2023? What steps can you take to make your online business succeed? Get answers to these and other pressing marketing questions at Digital Asia Summit, Asia's biggest virtual digital marketing conference, back for its second edition this November. The conference will present live masterclasses, panel discussions, and expert talks over the course of three powerful days, from November 10-12, 2022. This event is perfect for marketing professionals who want to keep their skills on the cutting edge and their fingers on the pulse of what's happening in the online world. Featuring renowned global experts, like Rand Fishkin, AJ Wilcox, and Frederick Vallaeys, as well as India's top content creators, like Vanshika Mehta and Piyush Kukreja, each session at the summit, is carefully curated and is sure to be highly informative and offers attendees breakthrough strategies and actionable insights that they can use immediately in their businesses. "In today's digital era, it's more important than ever to keep up with the all-new trends and technologies - something that can be difficult to do when things are constantly evolving. The Digital Asia Summit is designed to help people in the digital industry stay up-to-date through talks and sessions led by the top leaders in the field. I find it overwhelming and eye-opening to speak with these leaders and get their thoughts on the future of the industry, and I think it's an event that anyone in the digital industry must attend," explains Anuj Agrawal, Community Lead at Digital Asia Summit. Held via the Growth School platform, the online event will host leading marketing professionals and industry experts from across the globe. If you're a digital marketer or a business owner, this conference is not to be missed. Some of the most coveted masterclasses at Digital Asia Summit 2.0 include Boosting your LinkedIn Ads Performance with AJ Wilcox, Host of the LinkedIn Ads Show The PPC Playing Field with Frederick Vallaeys, CEO at Optmyzer 3 biggest barriers holding people back from effective Email Marketing with Ian Brodie, author of Email Persuasion How podcasts and voice platforms are transforming marketing for brands with Leni Andronicos, CEO at Logcast A peek inside Lenskart's ROI optimisations through Incrementality & LTV applications in an Omni Channel world with A.B.R Bharadwaj, AVP - User Growth at Lenskart The event also features powerful experts-led talks and panel discussions on Big trends in digital marketing for 2023 and beyond with Rand Fishkin, CEO at SparkToro The future of content with AI with Sharmin Ali, Co-founder at Instoried Future of Retail - Understanding the Big Industry trends in D2C Commerce, with Bharati Balakrishnan, Country Head & Director at Shopify India & SEA, Vaishali Gupta, Co-founder, mCaffeine, and Vanshika Mehta, Brand Strategist. "LinkedIn Ads are so challenging because the initial costs are quite high to advertise, compared to other platforms. But because the targeting is so good, they actually produce higher ROI than the other channels. My talk will be all about who should and shouldn't advertise on LinkedIn, along with the types of Calls to Action (CTAs) that work, plus much more. You won't want to miss it," says AJ Wilcox, Host of the LinkedIn Ads Show. The theme for this year's conference, 'The Decade of Transformation,' seeks to inspire businesses and brands to embrace the latest technological advancements in the digital industry. "I'm excited to co-create the next era of advertising with the world's leading marketers and brand leaders at this year's Digital Asia Summit", shares Leni Andronicos, CEO at Logcast. "Over the last year, we've seen brands push the boundaries of marketing through podcasts and voice platforms, with audio becoming a core part of the brand experience." The event is powered by Growth School and supported by Stumagz, Instoried and HeadStart as partners. Throughout the three days, attendees will hear from noteworthy thought leaders on topics including Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Performance Marketing, D2C Commerce, Email Marketing, Podcasting and more. The conference will run from 5 PM IST to 10:30 PM IST on all days. Each session will be followed by a live Q&A with the expert. Website of the summit - digitalasiasummit.com. This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Hosur (Tamil Nadu) [India], November 9 (ANI/NewsVoir): Amazon India and TVS Motor Company today announced a strategic engagement to strengthen electric mobility, electric infrastructure and connected services. As part of this collaboration, a fleet of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers from TVS Motor will be deployed for Amazon's last-mile deliveries. In addition, the two companies will work in tandem to examine EV use cases for various Amazon business groups for its network and logistical requirements. In order to test solutions, the two companies will pilot TVS Motor's electric vehicle solutions through partner base and delivery associates across India. "The collaboration marks another decisive step for Amazon to achieve our goal of becoming net-zero carbon by 2040, as part of our commitment to The Climate Pledge. Electric mobility is a significant component of our business operations and we are resolute in our commitment to transforming our transportation network to serve our customers more sustainably," said Abhinav Singh, Director - Customer Fulfilment, Supply Chain and Global Specialty Fulfilment, Amazon India. "Our collaboration with TVS Motor strengthens our delivery network by adding electric two and three-wheelers to our existing fleet. This will support our supply chain in minimising the environmental impact of our operations and contribute to Amazon India's goal of inducting 10,000 EVs into our fleet by 2025," added Singh. Speaking on the collaboration, Manu Saxena, Senior Vice President, Future Mobility, TVS Motor Company said, "We have always been at the forefront of driving electrification in the industry with our continued focus in the two-wheeler and three-wheeler segment. With the great success of TVS iQube Electric, we now intend to expand our electric offering across multiple segments and commercial mobility stands at the opportune inflection point. TVS Motor is now ready with electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler product options for B2B along with an ecosystem of connected service and alternate ownership. We are happy to collaborate with Amazon India, which marks a big milestone in our journey, and contribute to our joint goals of electrifying their mobility services. We are confident that this collaboration will open the door to creative solutions that will further nurture a more resilient, sustainable, and brighter future." In 2020, Amazon India announced that it would include 10,000 EVs in its delivery fleet by 2025. This is part of its overall progress towards The Climate Pledge - a commitment to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. The induction of these EVs is in addition to Amazon's global commitment of 100,000 EVs by 2030. The partnership with TVS Motor Company is an important step in Amazon India's progress in the e-mobility industry and towards achieving its net-zero carbon goals. This partnership is also in line with TVS Motor's announcements aiming to have electric vehicles across segments like delivery, commuter and premium. TVS Motor Company will introduce a full portfolio of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers over a period of eight quarters in the domestic and international markets. It will further be instrumental in expanding and strengthening the company's focus on presence across all major cities, charging solutions and alternate ownership models in India. Local logistics players, delivery associates, fleet operators, and EV stakeholders will be able to benefit from this extensive collaboration as it offers a potential increase in the share of EVs in Amazon's last-mile delivery, and provides them with an opportunity to participate in TVS Motor's product and service offerings in the commercial mobility segment. Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews. TVS Motor Company is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, championing progress through Mobility with a focus on sustainability. Rooted in our 100-year legacy of Trust, Value, and Passion for Customers and Exactness, we take pride in making internationally aspirational products of the highest quality through innovative and sustainable processes. We are the only two-wheeler company to have received the prestigious Deming Prize. Our products lead in their respective categories in the J.D. Power IQS and APEAL surveys for five years. We have been ranked No. 1 Company in the J.D. Power Customer Service Satisfaction Survey for consecutive four years. Our group company Norton Motorcycles, based in the United Kingdom, is one of the most emotive motorcycle brands in the world. Our subsidiaries in the personal e-mobility space, Swiss E-Mobility Group (SEMG) and EGO Movement, have a leading position in the e-bike market in Switzerland. TVS Motor Company endeavours to deliver the most superior customer experience across 80 countries in which we operate. For more information, please visit www.tvsmotor.com. This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], November 9 (ANI/NewsVoir): Today, SASMOS JV has won the contract from Boeing to provide more than 6600 wiring harnesses for the next batch of 16 P-8A Poseidon aircraft. Fokker Elmo SASMOS Interconnection Systems Limited (FE-SIL), a joint venture between Fokker Elmo and SASMOS, has been manufacturing Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems for the aerospace industry since 2016, including wire harnesses for P-8A and P-8I. A wiring harness is an assembly of electrical wires and connection elements which transmit signals or electrical power throughout an aircraft. It includes an engine, fuselage, landing gear, wing, and a host of other functions. In short, it behaves like a nervous system for the aircraft and plays a vital role in communications, and power transmission thus ensuring the proper functioning of mission-critical systems. On this occasion, H G Chandrashekar, Chairman & Managing Director, SASMOS HET Technologies Limited said, "The Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft contract stands as a prestigious acknowledgement of SASMOS, our commitment to quality, design excellence and cutting-edge solutions, by the global aerospace and defence sector. We feel immensely proud to be a part of this deal and excited to showcase the best of our solutions in the project to achieve the finest performance and enhance productivity." The Boeing P-8 is an American maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by Boeing Defence, Space and Security. A formidable part of the Indian Navy's fleet, the P-8 is a proven system with 153 aircraft in service that has executed more than 450,000 mishap-free flight hours around the globe. Along with the Indian Navy, the P-8 family includes the U.S. Navy, the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Norwegian Air Force. Militaries that have selected the P-8 include the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Republic of Korea Navy, and the German Navy. The P-8's performance and reliability deliver confidence in an uncertain world - in any condition, anywhere, anytime. Talking about the partnership, Ashwani Bhargava, Senior Director, Supply Chain Management, Boeing India said, "Partnership is key to Boeing's success around the world. Our partnership with SASMOS JV is a testimony of our commitment to building a global supply base, as it brings more value to our customers. We believe that building capabilities indigenously will drive innovation and contribute to the growth of the Indian aerospace and defence industry." Known for its consistent performance in quality and delivery, SASMOS has built more than 40,000 harnesses for more than a hundred aircraft. SASMOS HET Technologies Limited, a Bengaluru-based manufacturer and exporter of aerospace and defence technology solutions. SASMOS is a leading design and manufacturing company for Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems, Electromechanical assemblies & Electronic sub-systems for the Air, Land, Weapon, Marine, Space and Nuclear segments. SASMOS Defence Systems Division and Fibre Optic Division offer customized electronics, electrical, electro-mechanical mission-critical solutions and fibre optic interconnectivity products for harsh environment applications are the latest in the portfolio. For more information, please visit sasmos.com. This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bangalore (Karnataka), November 9 (ANI/NewsVoir): Gnani.ai, a global frontrunner in Conversational AI and customer service automation today announced the appointment of Sanjay Pai as the Chief Revenue Officer. In this role, Sanjay will be responsible for growing and spearheading business development initiatives and advancing and strengthening Gnani.ai's strategic growth across international markets. Sanjay brings over two decades of experience in sales and business development in the Enterprise Communications space coupled with the right technical knowledge. He has held leadership roles in organizations such as Avaya, Genesys, and Alcatel Lucent Enterprise. Ganesh Gopalan, Co-founder, Gnani.ai mentioned, "Our Unified Conversational AI CX platform has seen great adoption among customers and Sanjay's presence will help spur Gnani.ai's focus on growth and adding value to customers across the globe." Detailing his appointment, Sanjay Pai, Chief Revenue Officer Gnani.ai, said, "I am extremely happy to take on this role with Gnani.ai as its Unified Conversational AI CX platform with proprietary speech engines and NLP technologies have the potential to disrupt the contact center software market. The era of automation-led new age CX is here to stay for long and I look forward to furthering the reach and development of the organization and people as the company continues its journey to becoming the leading conversational player globally." Gnani.ai, a SAMSUNG ventures-funded deep-tech company, is a leader in the voice-led conversational AI automation space. Gnani.ai's unified CX conversational AI platform covers a complete automation and analytics experience covering omni-channel conversational AI automation, voice authentication, agent assist and Omnichannel Analytics. For more information, please visit www.gnani.ai. This story has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Starring talented and dynamic actors like Ratna Pathak Shah, Manasi Parekh, Darsheel Safary, Dharmendra Gohil, Viraf Patel, Heena Varde the film "Kutch Express" promises to be a delightful watch.

Decked with a bouquet of emotions, the movie is a blend of a delightful storyline, dialogues and performances. The gist of the story revolves around how the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and explores love and life through its characters played by supremely talented actors like Ratna Pathak shah, Manasi Parekh, Dharmendra gohil among others.

Fans have been showering immense love and showcasing their excitement to watch the movie on the big screen since the poster release.

Produced under the banner of Soul Sutra by Manasi and ParthivGohil, directed by Viral Shah and with Sachin Jigar helming music, the team of "Kutch Express" has attempted to bring cinematic brilliance to your screens with sheer dedication, creativity and passion and to give a fresh and modern outlook to Gujarati cinema.

Check out the first look at https://twitter.com/manasi_parekh/status/1590216042542149632?s=46&t=LXjwGWpXJrx6sX15nqPBNg

This story has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/PNN)
Mumbai-based Sun Pharma, including its subsidiaries, and Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC) on Wednesday announced the signing of a licensing agreement for commercialisation of benzyl alcohol and propylene glycol-free phenobarbital sodium powder for injection in the US. SPARC submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for this product for the treatment of seizures in newborns in February 2022, according to Sun Pharma statement shared with stock exchanges. Sun Pharma is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. Currently, there are no phenobarbital injection products approved by the US FDA for the treatment of seizures in newborns. Under the terms of the licence agreement, Sun Pharma will pay SPARC an upfront payment of $10 million. SPARC will also be eligible to receive milestone payments contingent upon the achievement of regulatory and sales milestones, as well as tiered royalties on sales. "SPARC's benzyl alcohol and propylene glycol-free formulation of phenobarbital for injection is an exciting addition to our growing portfolio of specialty branded products in the US. Through our existing relationships with hospitals and other institutional customers, we are well-positioned to bring this product to market and make a difference in the lives of patients," said Abhay Gandhi, CEO North America, Sun Pharma. SPARC CEO Anil Raghavan said, "SPARC is excited to enter into this collaboration with Sun Pharma and is committed to developing new products to address the needs of patients. SPARC's benzyl alcohol and propylene glycol-free formulation of phenobarbital for injection is designed to minimise the risk of neonatal gasping syndrome, a life-threatening condition, which can be observed with the use of benzyl alcohol-containing drug formulations." (ANI)
The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) on Wednesday announced Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund (IRAF), a CDRI multi-partner trust fund, at the India Pavilion of COP27 at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. IRAF, a multi-donor trust fund, established with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), will be managed by the United Nation Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (UN MPTFO) in New York, to support global action on disaster-resilience of infrastructure systems, especially in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a statement from CDRI said. Around $50 million in financial commitments have already been announced for IRAF over an initial duration of five years. Supported by the governments of India, the UK, Australia and the European Union, IRAF's multi-pronged programme focus will offer customised technical assistance, capacity building, research, knowledge management and advocacy across the infrastructure life cycle for countries at all stages of development. Amit Prothi, Director General, CDRI, said "We believe that IRAF will enable CDRI to achieve its mandate of resilience through risk-informed investments and infrastructure development resulting in reduced vulnerability of populations and reduced impact of extreme events and disasters on infrastructure systems". Ken O'Flaherty, COP26 Regional Ambassador for Asia/ Pacific, Caribbean and Small Island Developing States, FCDO-Cabinet Office COP26 Unit, said "SIDS are among the most vulnerable countries exposed to disaster and climate risks. The UK is pleased to have worked closely with CDRI and other partners in establishing the trust fund. The launch today is a welcome and an important step towards delivering activities and ensuring impacts on the ground." Pat Conroy, Australia's Minister for International Development and the Pacific, said, "As one of the founding contributors, Australia warmly welcomes the establishment of CDRI's Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund. This Fund's early focus on supporting island states will be particularly critical for the Pacific region which is at the forefront of dealing with the effects of climate change--there has never been a more important time to focus on resilient infrastructure than now." The statement said IRAF will play a crucial role in equipping the Coalition to deliver on improved infrastructure governance, inclusive infrastructure services, diversified knowledge, and financing for resilient infrastructure globally. One of the first initiatives to be supported by IRAF is the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS). Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UN Climate Action Summit at New York on September 23, 2019, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is a partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and knowledge institutions that aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development. CDRI promotes rapid development of resilient infrastructure to respond to the Sustainable Development Goals' imperatives of expanding universal access to basic services, enabling prosperity and decent work. (ANI)
Hollywood star Keanu Reeves is expected to appear as John Wick in Ana de Armas starrer film 'Ballerina', a female-centric spinoff in the popular action franchise. According to Variety, Ana de Armas plays a teenage female assassin in 'Ballerina' who wants vengeance on those who murdered her family. Producer Basil Iwanyk called McShane's role "pivotal," although he did not reveal any other story information. If Reeves' deal goes through, it's unclear how he'll fit into the narrative. "We're thrilled to have Ian McShane joining us for a pivotal role in 'Ballerina," Iwanyk said as quoted by Variety. "He's been an integral part of the franchise since the original John Wick. It's been fun to have him on this journey as the Wick universe expands." Len Wiseman is helming the film 'Ballerina,' which was written by Shay Hatten. Producers include Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski in addition to Iwanyk. For Lionsgate, the project is being managed by Brady Fujikawa and Chelsea Kujawa. Reeves and McShane will make a comeback in 'John Wick: Chapter 4,' which is scheduled to hit theatres on March 24, 2023, to kick ass and call names before 'Ballerina' twirls on the big screen. Commercial success can be attributed to the action-packed vengeance franchise's first three films, which have amassed $587 million in worldwide sales. (ANI)
'Black Panther 2' star Letitia Wright recently opened up about her "traumatic" accident at the sets of 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'. According to Variety, Wright is still in therapy processing the "traumatic" accident that happened to her on the $250 million Marvel tentpole set. The actor was injured in late August 2021 after a set accident involving a motorcycle sent her to the hospital with a fractured shoulder and a concussion, among other injuries. As per the report of Variety, the accident happened on the Boston set of "Wakanda Forever." Wright was filming a pursuit scene in which she was mounted on a "biscuit rig," allowing the camera to capture her riding a motorcycle in a real setting. The rig "clipped a median and cut the bike off, and it tumbled," according to the film's producer Nate Moore, with Wright on it. "I'm still processing it," Wright told Variety about the accident. "I'm still working through it in therapy. It was really traumatic." Wright was working with the second unit crew on the Boston set of the movie, so neither Moore nor the movie's director, Ryan Coogler, were there when the accident happened. On the 'Wakanda Forever' main set, the two men were once again in Atlanta. Wright's mishap had to be announced to Coogler over the phone. "It was about how you can imagine," Coogler said about getting the call as quoted by Variety. "I mean, I love these actors. That's me and Chad's little sister. Imagine getting that call that your little sister's hurt. It's the fucking worst thing in the world." Coogler and Marvel Studios present Kevin Feige travelled to Boston to visit Wright in the hospital. "It was horrifying on any production happening to anybody," Feige said in a statement quoted by Variety. "It was particularly harsh on this production that was already, uh....emotionally strained." Feige was referring to Wright's injuries at the time as only the most recent production issue for "Wakanda Forever." Following the passing of original "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman, the entire film had to be remade. Wright was adamant about finishing the film as a memorial to her deceased co-star, and she wasn't going to allow her injuries to stand in the way of that. "I just remember wanting to finish my film, man," Wright said about Feige and Coogler's hospital visit. "I think that was one of the first things I said to Ryan. And he was like, 'Tish, you need to recover.'" According to Variety, Wright left Boston and made his way back to London to rest. In November 2021, it was decided that she needed more time to recover, and 'Wakanda Forever' production was stopped. In January 2022, the cameras once again began to roll. When filming resumed, Wright said he was still dealing with post-concussion syndrome. (ANI)
"While it's true that I've been under unfair and misleading attack for some time by leading Democrats, my motivation here is for centrist governance, which matches the interests of most Americans," he tweeted.

Musk responded to Pranay Pathole who said Elon has always been a Democratic supporter but "the hate he has been receiving by the Democratic senators is awful".

"Politics is war and truth is the first casualty," said the Tesla CEO.

He further said that Twitter is the most interesting place on the Internet.

"Twitter is the worst! But also the best," Musk further commented.

Musk on Monday said that Americans should vote for Republicans in the midterm election.

He told independent-minded voters that shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties.

"Therefore, I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic," the Twitter CEO posted to his nearly 115 million followers.

"Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge," Musk added.

Musk had long been advocating free speech on the platform, creating apprehensions for many as they fear the site will be left without regulations.

--IANS na/

( 241 Words)

2022-11-08-22:36:03 (IANS)
A man was arrested in West Bengal's Murshidabad district for allegedly assaulting two women and burning the private parts of one of them after accusing them of being a same-sex relationship, police said. Saheb Sheikh is the brother-in-law of one of the victims and as per the police complaint filed by the members of the victims' families, the two women were targeted since they tried to resist rape attempts by him and his close associate Kadam Mollah, who is still absconding. District police sources said that the incident happened on the night of October 26, while the two victims were sleeping in a room. As per the statement given by the victims to the police, Sheikh and Mollah berged into their room and tried to molest them. As they resisted, he tagged them as lesbians and after that physically assaulted them and even burnt the private part of the one of the victims with hot iron rod. The accused even threatened them of dire consequences if they reveal the incident to their relatives. After that, the accused duo went absconding. The two victims, according to district police sources, were in a state of trauma and initially they suppressed the incident from their family members. However, finally they revealed everything to their family members, who filed a complaint at the local Sagardighi Police station. The police lodged an FIR against the accused under different sections of the Indian Penal Code and started investigation. Finally on late Sunday night, Sheikh was held from his hideout at Sagardighi and a search is on for the other accused. --IANS src/vd ( 283 Words) 2022-11-08-22:38:05 (IANS)
A 60-year-old ex-serviceman has gone missing while his family had received a threatening message on phone along with a picture of the banned Popular Front of India, as per their police complaint on Tuesday. Rajendra Prasad's family alleged that he had been kidnapped and soon after he went missing, they received a threatening message "Sar tan se judaa, sar tan se judaa Ajmer via Pakistan' on WhatsApp and then a second message was received which was a picture of the banned outfir. Meanwhile, police said that a case has been registered and they have some clues, as per investigation. In their complaint to the police, the family said Prasad had been working in a government girls' school for the past three years. "My father was working as admin in-charge at Government Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Nithai. He used to return by 1.30-2 p.m daily but on Monday, he left for the school around 6.40 a.m and did not return," his daughter said. "We enquired from the school and the security guard said that he left soon after the school timings were over. After this, one of the family members informed the police," she said. "Around 2.10 p.m. on Monday, my brother received a missed call from my father's mobile number. We continuously tried to call back but no one received the call. Soon after this, we received a WhatsApp message on my mother's mobile number," she said. Meanwhile, she also alleged that around 10-15 days back, he had told everyone in the family that some people of the minority community have been following him and forcing him to join their organisation. --IANS ssh/vd ( 287 Words) 2022-11-08-23:04:05 (IANS)
Around 50 per cent out of the 21,703 eligible voters, displaced from Mizoram 25 years ago following ethnic troubles in the state, have been added to the electoral rolls in Tripura, officials said on Tuesday. These voters are part of the 37,136 displaced Reang tribals, who migrated from Mizoram and sheltered in seven refugee camps in northern Tripura since 1997. "Since the Tripura Assembly election is approaching, we want 100 per cent enrollment of the Reang voters by next month but they have to settle in the proposed areas where the settlement process is going on. After their settlement, various documents would be issued against their names. We urged the Reang tribals to come to their settlement camps at the earliest," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao told the media. An official of Tripura's Revenue Department said that as per the agreement, signed in January 2020 between the Centre, Tripura and Mizoram governments and the Reang tribal leaders, over 37,130 displaced Reang tribals comprising 6,959 families are being rehabilitated in 12 locations in four Tripura districts - North Tripura, Dhalai, Gomati, and South Tripura. "The target for the resettlement of these displaced Reang tribals by August 31 could not be achieved due to the numerous land-related issues, forest land clearance, fresh troubles, threats of agitation against the rehabilitation and numerous other issues," the official, who did not want to be named, told IANS. In Aizawl, a Mizoram Election Department official said that following the communication from the Tripura Election Department, names of thousands of Reang voters, earlier enrolled in the electoral list of nine assembly constituencies in Mizoram, have been removed. Officials of Tripura's Tribal Welfare Department also said that due to the complicated enrollment process in regards to the displaced Reang tribals, conduct of the election to the Village Committees in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council was being delayed. Hearing a writ petition, the Tripura High Court's Judge Arindam Lodh recently directed the State Election Commission to complete the process of preparing electoral roll expeditiously and hold the Village Committee elections in accordance with law taking into account the grievance of the petitioners. --IANS sc/vd ( 371 Words) 2022-11-08-23:18:02 (IANS)
Kerala Director general of police Anil Kant on Tuesday directed the Thiruvananthapuram city police commissioner to register FIR on the teaser of the movie 'The Kerala Story'. According to the Kerala Police, the direction was based on a complaint sent to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. A High Tech Crime Enquiry Cell had conducted a preliminary enquiry and a report was sent to DGP. "DGP's direction was based on this report," the police said. The character in the teaser claimed that 32,000 girls from Kerala were being forcibly converted and then later joined the terrorist group ISIS. Opposition and Congress leader VD Satheesan called the teaser of 'The Kerala Story' as a "clear case of misinformation" and claimed that the film is made to "tarnish the image of Kerala" in front of other states while also alleging that it is a "Sangh Parivar agenda". "I have seen that teaser. It's a clear case of misinformation. There is nothing like that happening in Kerala. This is to tarnish the image of Kerala in front of other states. This is a Sangh Parivar agenda. They are consistently trying to spread hatred among people. On what basis is the film made, and on what information?" he said. He said that there is no "credible information" about the 32,000 girls missing in Kerala while claiming that there is no such record with the state police. "There is no record with the state police. If there is anything with central intelligence, they have to bring it to the public. These are the records, these are the list of women, these are the addresses of the women who joined the IS, they were recruited from Kerala," the Congress leader said. "Now we are opposing all the communalists, both minority and majority. There are extreme outfits from both sides, they are helping each other. We might think they are fighting but they are helping each other. When one outfit is giving some misinformation or spreading hatred that will help the other side," Satheesan added. He said that if the Pinarayi Vijayan government does not take any action in the matter, the party would approach the court. "We have tried to get information from the police and other sides. Now I got information that the police have lodged an FIR. I am welcoming the decision of the state police. If the state government is not doing anything, we will approach the court," he said. The Congress leader demanded the film to be banned claiming that it is "spreading hatred". "This is spreading hatred so it should be banned. In a normal scenario, we are against banning films, but this type of misinformation will lead to communal issues. Deliberately they are planning without any credible information they have made this film. This is utter nonsense," he said. Earlier, a journalist from Tamil Nadu Aravindakshan B R wrote a letter to the Kerala Chief Minister after having watched the teaser of a to-be-released movie called 'The Kerala Story'. The journalist asked the Kerala government to call the director of the movie and investigate the veracity of the released teaser. According to Aravindakshan B R, the movie's teaser was released on November 3, 2022, on a YouTube channel called Sunshine Pictures. "Produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Directed by Sudipto Sen, the teaser depicts the heart-wrenching story of 32,000 women from Kerala who were radicalized to join ISIS (Islamic Iraq and Syria) terrorist groups," the letter read. Similarly, Aravindakshan B R has also sent a complaint to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and Secretary Apurva Chandra asking them to check the veracity of the content of it. He also said in the letter that it is imperative on the part of the Union government to thoroughly investigate the source of information based on which the movie was produced. The trailer, he said in the letter, narrates the story of a Muslim woman in front of an international border. "In the character played by actress Adha Sharma, she says that she used to be Shalini Unnikrishnan and wanted to serve people as a nurse. She says she was forcibly converted to Islam and renamed Fatima Ba, then joined ISIS and later imprisoned in Afghanistan," the letter added. (ANI)
Indian Medical Association (IMA) has extended its support to the protesting MBBS students and demanded the government abolish the bond policy. "We request Haryana CM that a constructive discourse must be established to consider the demand and that the bond system be scrapped/modified," IMA wrote in the letter. As per a circular by the State Government of Haryana, Rs 10 lakh annual bond policy was supposed to remain effective for this academic year. The MBBS students were required to pay the amount at the start of every academic year till the completion of the MBBS degree of four and a half years. Upset with the State Government notice regarding Rs 10 lakh annual bond for students pursuing MBBS courses in the Government medical colleges in Haryana, MBBS students protested against the decision by the state government. Haryana police officials allegedly fired water canons against the protesting medicos, manhandled them, and forcefully dragged them to the police station. "The nation is in shock to take note that while exercising the democratic rights to oppose such moves, students became a victim of barbaric police action, where female doctors were manhandled, detained by the state police, and the gathering was showered with water cannons on a cold night. Such treatment by the state government is deeply discouraging, reprehensible and reflects an insensitive and callous attitude and is disrespect to the democratic peaceful protest," the letter said. Extending its support to the protest by the students, IMA said that it stood with the protesting doctors of Haryana and denounced the state's harshness and oppressive actions. To oppose the government's move and the brutality by the state police on the students, The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) on Monday observed a black ribbon protest across the country declaring the day as "Black Day". "The recent incident of police action on the doctors carrying out a peaceful protest against the fee hike in government medical colleges in Haryana is barbaric and highly condemnable. The astute asympathy shown by the law authorities in firing water canons and forcefully dragging and manhandling the protesting doctors is yet another blot on the face of the medical education system in the State of Haryana and this country," FORDA official wrote to the Union Health Minister in this regard. "FORDA deprecates this heinous act carried out by the police, on the direction of State Government. An unwarranted fee hike in the form of a despicable bond police followed by police action on innocent doctors who have given their best in all circumstances including the COVID pandemic shows the apathy and weak memory the government has," read the letter. "This incident will not only bring down the morale of doctors in the state in particular and the country in general but will also widen the gap between the doctors and the government. We request your esteemed office to intervene and revoke any kind of legal action against the doctors and help start a channel for dialogue so that the issue is understood and resolved at the earliest," it added. (ANI)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) agenda is to develop fear in the minds of people on the basis of discrimination and then convert that fear into hate between religions and castes. Addressing a gathering in the Nanded district of Maharashtra during Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress MP said, "BJP and RSS agenda is fixed, they first developed fear into people's mind,and then convert that fear into hate between religions and castes. We will continue our Bharat Jodo Yatra and it will end in Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar." Slamming the Centre over demonetization, Rahul Gandhi said that the BJP government's decision destroyed poor farmers, small businessmen, shop owners and others. "On this date, PM Narendra Modi came on television around 8 pm and said that his government is doing demonetization. He told the public that it was for the betterment of their life but demonetization destroyed farmers' life, poor people and small businessmen," he said. The Congress leader further said that PM Modi failed in demonetization and he destroyed poor farmers' life and small MSME workers. He further said that BJP closed industries, businesses and other employment sources for the people. "Today some students came and told me that they want jobs and better employment in India. They told me they (BJP) closed industries, businesses and other employment sources, they put GST also," Rahul Gandhi said. "I spoke with one farmer he told me about Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima, we put money in Bima yojna and that money go into rich people's pocket, they won't give us anything," he added. Remembering Congress Seva Dal leader Krishna Kumar Pandey, who died while participating on the 62nd day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi said, "You all walk with us in this Bharat Jodo Yatra the whole day you all gave your love to this yatra thanks for that. Behind me Krishna Kumar Pandey's image is there he gave his life to Bharat Jodo Yatra, his body won't come to Srinagar but his soul must." The Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its Maharashtra leg on Monday evening. The yatra has already covered parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Rahul Gandhi will travel through 15 Assembly and 6 parliamentary constituencies in five districts of Maharashtra in 15 days and cover a distance of 382 kms. Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on September 7 from Kanyakumari, will cover a further distance of 2,355 km in its 3,570-km march. It will end in Kashmir next year. It is the longest march on foot by any Indian politician in the history of India, the Congress claimed earlier in a statement. Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day. Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also installed in some of the containers. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places. The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (ANI)
He also wished that Uttarakhand keeps progressing in the coming years.

"Statehood Day greetings to the people of Uttarakhand. This is a state closely associated with nature and spirituality. People from this state are making phenomenal contributions, across many sectors, to nation-building. May Uttarakhand keep progressing in the coming years," PM Modi said in a tweet.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami paid tribute on the State Foundation Day at the martyrs memorial in the court.

"It has been 22 years since the foundation of the state of Uttarakhand. I pay my respects to the martyrs and revolutionaries of the state. We are determined to build Uttarakhand as per their visions," said Dhami.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated an exhibition organized at the BJP office on the occasion of State Foundation Day in Dehradun.

The state of Uttarakhand became the 27th state of India on this day in 2000.

The hill state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000, under the BJP government, after a long-drawn agitation. (ANI)
After AIMIM approached the municipal corporation seeking permission to celebrate Tipu Jayanti at the Idgah Maidan in Karnataka's Hubli, two more organisations submitted a memorandum seeking permission to celebrate Holi by installing the Kamdev statue and celebrating Onake Obavva Jayanti at the same place. After SC's nod to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in Hubballi Idgah Maidan, some Dalit organisations and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had submitted a memorandum to the corporation commissioner seeking permission to celebrate Tipu Jayanti at Idgah Maidan. Sri Ram Sena had also submitted a memorandum seeking permission to celebrate Kanakadasa Jayanti there. However, Mayor Veeresh Anchatgeri had told ANI that religious activities can be done at Idgah Maidan but no big leaders will be allowed. Back in August this year, the Karnataka High Court had allowed Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations to go ahead at the Idgah ground in Hubbali. The order rejecting the petition filed by Anjuman-E-Islam said, the ground is the property of the Hubli-Dharawad Municipal Commission and they can allot the land to whoever they desire so. Later, the case was moved to the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court order. However, the Idgah Maidan was granted permission for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi. This was the first time that the Hindu festival was celebrated at the controversial ground. The Idgah ground in Hubballi has been caught up in a controversial dispute for decades until 2010, when the Supreme Court in its judgment held that, the ground is the exclusive property of Hubli-Dharawad Municipal Corporation. In 1921, the ground was leased to the Islamic organization, Anjuman-E-Islam for 999 years to hold prayers. Post-Independence, many shops were opened on the premises. This was challenged in court and a long litigation process started which halted in 2010 after the Supreme Court judgment. The top court had granted permission for prayers twice a year and not to build any permanent structure on the ground. (ANI)
Developed countries should fulfill climate finance promise: Chinese envoy

Xinhua) 08:13, November 09, 2022

China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua addresses the Climate Implementation Summit at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Nov. 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The developed countries should fulfill their promise of providing 100 billion U.S. dollars in climate finance as soon as possible and draw a road map for doubling the adaptation fund, China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua said Tuesday.

Xie, also the special representative for Chinese President Xi Jinping, made the remarks in an address to the Climate Implementation Summit at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Egypt's coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Facing the grave challenges posed by the frequent extreme weather events that have caused heavy losses on every continent and by the emergence of energy and food crises this year, multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation remain the only way out of the predicament, Xie said.

China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua addresses the Climate Implementation Summit at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Nov. 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Meanwhile, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the mechanism of nationally determined contributions are still the "inevitable choice" to overcome the climate challenges, he said.

As the UNFCCC marks its 30th anniversary this year and the Paris Agreement has entered the stage of full implementation, the COP27 shoulders the important mission of upholding the consensus on the UNFCCC principles and promoting pragmatic actions by all parties, the Chinese envoy said.

Noting that China has been actively tackling climate change with persistent and pragmatic actions, Xie said that, with the recent successful conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China's determination to follow the path of green development was further strengthened.

"China's firm determination and position to implement the goals of reaching carbon peak and achieving carbon neutralization, and to actively participate in global climate governance will never change," Xie vowed.

He expressed the hope that the COP27 will focus on the implementation of promises, while urging the developed countries to take the lead in exerting more effective efforts to reduce emissions so to achieve carbon neutralization significantly ahead of schedule, and achieve substantive results on the adaptation and finance issues.

China hopes that "the developed countries will fulfill their pledge of providing 100 billion U.S. dollars as soon as possible and draw a road map for doubling adaptation finance to enhance mutual trust and joint action between the North and the South," Xie said.

"We are willing to work with all parties to adhere to multilateralism, build a fair and reasonable global climate governance system with win-win cooperation, and make greater contribution to tackling the challenges posed by global climate change," he added.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
At a time when AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal has publicly shown interest and urged the Congress to join hands in the fight against ruling BJP, Assam Congress has outrightly quashed it and said that there was no way of "stitching alliance" with Ajmal's party once again. On several occasions in the past, Congress and AIUDF have allied to contest polls but later has been splitting their ties. Assam Congress Chief Bhupen Kumar Borah told ANI that his party will not make an alliance with AIUDF which he termed a "communal force". "AIUDF and BJP are both communal forces. One communal force can't survive and for their own survival, they are supporting each other internally and they are dividing people openly," Borah said. "So, we are opposing this theory and people are supporting us. On behalf of the AICC, our general secretary Jitendra Singh declared on November 1 that there will be no alliance with AIUDF, this is the commitment of the All India Congress Committee to the people of Assam," Borah added. However, he said Congress was open to alliance with other political parties against BJP and AIUDF. The Assam Congress Chief also alleged that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma controls AIUDF. "Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma totally controls AIUDF. There are enough examples. Badruddin Ajmal himself declared that Himanta Biswa Sarma was the best Chief Minister in Assam. What's the reason, the reason is that Himanta Biswa Sarma has supported Ajmal's agar-based business in Assam," he explained his argument. "Secondly, in the last Rajya Sabha election and Presidential Election what happened is known very well to all. AIUDF MLAs supported the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha election, the Presidential election. How can we make an understanding with AIUDF," Borah further told ANI. Notably, some opposition legislators in Assam have cross-voted for BJP-led NDA in the recently-held Rajya Sabha and Presidential polls. (ANI)
Chhattisgarh government has decided to convene a special session of the state Assembly next month to hold discussions on the situation that emerged after a recent High Court order that resulted in the reduction of scheduled tribes (ST) quota. Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has sent a proposal to the Assembly speaker to convene a two-day special session in December on the issue of tribal reservation, he tweeted on Wednesday. In his tweet in Hindi, the Chhattisgarh CM stated "Special Assembly Session- Sent a proposal to Assembly speaker Dr. Charandass Mahant Jee for convening a special session of Assembly on the issue of tribal reservation. The request has been made to convene the special session of the Assembly on December one and two." The Chhattisgarh government's decision to convene the special session is significant as resentment was brewing among tribal communities over the reservation issue. Discussions are likely to be held during the special session on the situation that has emerged after the HC decision in September that resulted in the reduction of scheduled tribes (ST) quota from 32 percent to 20 percent in jobs and admissions to educational institutions of the State. Earlier talking to reporters after inaugurating the three-day Chhattisgarh Tribal Festival on October 21, Baghel had made it clear that his government would soon move the Supreme Court to increase reservation for tribals in the state according to their population. When Chhattisgarh was part of Madhya Pradesh, there were 20 per cent STs and 16 per cent SCs in the state. After the creation of Chhattisgarh, there were 32 per cent STs and 13 per cent SCs in the state, the chief minister had said. In 2005, the Centre gave its nod to granting reservation in Chhattisgarh according to population but this was stalled by the previous state government from 2005 to 2011, he alleged. In 2011-12, when tribals agitated, the state government gave 32 per cent reservation to them, 12 per cent to SCs and 14 per cent to OBCs, leading to a total of 58 per cent reservation, holding that any quota above 50 per cent is unconstitutional, he had said. Later, two committees had been set up but they never presented their reports before the court and this led to the high court annulling the decision on reservation, Baghel said. The CM also said the state government had also set up a commission in this regard and it would submit its report in November. Senior tribal leader and excise minister Kawasi Lakhma had reiterated last month the Congress position that the setback in the High Court was caused as the previous BJP government did not present the facts properly to defend its decision to enhance the reservation to 58 per cent. (ANI)
As many as two jail personnel were injured after a clash broke out between two groups of inmates in Pune's Yerwada Jail on Tuesday evening, said police. The Police have registered an FIR against five inmates after a stone-pelting case was reported. "A clash broke out between two groups of inmates in Pune's Yerwada Jail yesterday evening. Police registered an FIR against 5 inmates after a stone-pelting case was reported. Two jail personnel were also injured along with some inmates," said Pune Police officials. Further details are awaited. (ANI)
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami paid tribute to the martyrs of the state on the occasion of state Foundation Day at the martyrs memorial in the court. "It has been 22 years since the foundation of the state of Uttarakhand. I pay my respects to the martyrs and revolutionaries of the state. We are determined to build Uttarakhand as per their visions," said Dhami. The state of Uttarakhand became the 27th state of India on this day in 2000.The hill state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000, under the BJP government, after a long-drawn agitation. The Chief Minister also inaugurated an exhibition organized at the BJP office on the occasion of State Foundation Day in Dehradun. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted Uttarakhand on its statehood day and said that people from the hill State are making phenomenal contributions, across many sectors, to nation-building.He also wished that Uttarakhand keeps progressing in the coming years. "Statehood Day greetings to the people of Uttarakhand. This is a state closely associated with nature and spirituality. People from this state are making phenomenal contributions, across many sectors, to nation-building. May Uttarakhand keeps progressing in the coming years," PM Modi said in a tweet. (ANI)
The Border Security Force (BSF) has shot down a drone entering from Pakistan into Indian territory in the Ferozepur district in Punjab, the force said on Wednesday. BSF's 136 Battalion deployed at the border heard the buzzing sound of a suspected flying object or drone entering from Pakistan into Indian territory in the area near Gandu Kilcha village in Ferozepur at around 11.25 pm on Tuesday, the force said in a statement. "BSF troops fired at the drone in an attempt to thwart the incursion," said the BSF, one of the Central Armed Police Forces mandated to guard the 3,323 km India-Pakistan border. "During a search after first light in the concerned area, BSF troops along with Punjab Police recovered a Hexa-Copter or drone that had been brought down due to firing by BSF troops." The BSF further said that the area has been cordoned off and police along with concerned sister agencies informed. "Thorough search of the area in under progress." Earlier in October, BSF had shot down a drone that entered India in Punjab's Amritsar sector from the Pakistan side on the International Border. The drone (Quad-copter DJI Matrice) was spotted at 8.30 pm near Chhana village in Amritsar by BSF troops on patrolling duty. They immediately opened fire and it was shot down. According to BSF officials, two packets of contraband drugs of 2.5 Kg were recovered with the drone. The central government recently shared the input from the security forces deployed at the India-Pakistan border to maintain such illegal attempts from the Pakistan side. Of the 191 drones observed, 171 entered into Indian territory through the India-Pakistan border along the Punjab sector while 20 were seen in the Jammu sector, a document accessed by the ANI mentions. As per the document, the "UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) observation in Indo-Pak border was seen in Punjab and Jammu frontier with effect from January 1, 2022, to September 30, 2022". The documents further reveal that most of these drones or UAVs managed to flee while a total of seven have been shot down by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, who are deployed along the India-Pakistan border to keep a tab on such illegal activities being orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Among seven drones shot down this year between January 1 to September 15 were observed in Punjab's Amritsar, Ferozpur and Abohar regions. Officials in the BSF told ANI that drones are being used by Pakistan's side to transport weapons, explosives and narcotics across the international border in Jammu and Punjab from Pakistan. The increased drone activity across the border was brought to the notice of Home Minister Amit Shah in the security review meeting in Srinagar recently with top security and intelligence chiefs in attendance. While BSF, which mans the international border with Pakistan in the Jammu sector, believes that it has been able to repel drones carrying arms, ammunition and explosives from Pakistan, the state police and the intelligence agencies differ with this assessment. The security forces have seized various AK series assault rifles, pistols, MP4 carbines, carbine magazines, high explosive grenades as well as narcotics which were transported into Indian territory from Pakistan from the drones shot down so far. As per security agencies, BSF intelligence inputs and Jammu and Kashmir Police officials, the drones are also used to drop packets of Afghan heroin for financing terror operations in the Valley and Punjab. It is learnt that the group behind the transportation of weapons, explosives and drugs is Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror outfits which have camps across the International Boundary and are backed by ISI. The Home Ministry is learnt to have directed the concerned agencies to find out a solution to stop drone activities and meanwhile security agencies and law enforcement forces are asked to keep a special watch on such movements. (ANI)
He further said that NCPs Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule and Jitendra Awhad will join tomorrow.

"NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray will join the Congress party's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' on November 11, while NCP's Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule and Jitendra Awhad will join tomorrow," said Chavan.

Chavan said that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to join the Yatra tomorrow.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its Maharashtra leg on Monday evening.

Rahul Gandhi will travel through 15 Assembly and 6 parliamentary constituencies in five districts of Maharashtra in 15 days and cover a distance of 382 kms.

The yatra has already covered parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on September 7 from Kanyakumari, will cover a further distance of 2,355 km in its 3,570-km march. It will end in Kashmir next year. It is the longest march on foot by any Indian politician in the history of India, the Congress claimed earlier in a statement.

Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day. In Maharashtra too, the NCP and Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) have agreed to participate in the yatra, adding to its importance.

Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also installed in some of the containers. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.

The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (ANI)
Days before the Gujarat assembly elections, Congress MLA Bhagvanbhai D Barad on Wednesday tendered his resignation from all posts of the party. Seeking acceptance of his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat, Barad said, "I, Bhagvanbhai Barad, MLA hereby give my resignation from 91 - Talala Constituency and from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress. Please accept it." Barad, later, tendered his resignation from all posts of INC to Nimaben Acharya, Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. In another major jolt to the party on Tuesday, veteran congress leader and 11 times MLA Mohan Singh Rathwa, who is a prominent tribal leader, along with his sons Rajubhai Rathwa, Ranjit Bhai Rathwa, and other party members joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Ahmedabad. Rathwa however claimed that the development works of the ruling party BJP, motivated him to take the step. Meanwhile, on Saturday, in charge of the Indian Overseas Congress, Himanshu Vyas also joined the BJP hours after resigning from the Congress. All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary, Vyas had sent his resignation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stating that he was resigning from the primary membership of Congress. Notably, the Congress Party got a similar jolt in the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh as a total of 26 leaders of the Congress party quit and joined the ruling BJP on Monday when only four days were left to go for the election. The leaders jumped the boat in the presence of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and BJP's Sudhan Singh, incharge of BJP state elections. BJP candidate from Shimla, Sanjay Sood was also present on the occasion. On November 3, the election commission of India announced the dates for the Gujarat polls. Polling in the state will take place on two dates in two phases on December 1 and December 5 respectively. In the first phase, polling will be held for 89 seats while the second phase will see voting for 93 seats. The term of the 182-member state Assembly ends on February 18, 2023. The state of Gujarat has seen a traditional face-off between the ruling BJP and its rival Congress party. However, in the upcoming elections a new entrant, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is being keenly watched in the poll fray. (ANI)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the Indian Army was one of the most trusted and inspiring organisations in the country. Addressing the ongoing Army Commanders' Conference held in Delhi from November 7-11, Singh highlighted the stellar role played by the Army in guarding our borders and fighting terrorism apart from providing assistance to the civil administration whenever called for. Army top brass discussed current and emerging security threats, transformation, and increasing induction of made-in-India weapon systems in force on the third day of the conference, Indian Army officials said. "During the event, the Indian Army's apex leadership is comprehensively deliberating upon all aspects of existing security scenarios and challenges for the present security apparatus," the official said adding that the conference is also focusing on issues pertaining to organisational restructuring, logistics, administration, human resource management, modernisation through indigenisation and induction of Niche technologies. "The main highlight of the third day of the conference was the interaction of the Raksha Mantri, Rajnath Singh, with the senior leadership of the Indian Army, which was preceded by a briefing the "Transformational imperatives for a future-ready force" plans of the Indian Army," the official statement. Singh also complimented the forces for the high standard of operational preparedness and capabilities which he has always been experiencing first-hand during his visits to forward areas. He commended the Army's efforts to develop niche technologies in collaboration with civil industries, including premier educational institutions and thereby progressing towards the aim of 'Modernisation through Indigenisation' or 'Atam Nirbharta'.Rajnath Singh commended the Indian Army for maintaining a high operational readiness towards ensuring security and national sovereignty and said, "I have full faith and confidence in the Indian Army and its leadership". "We ought to be prepared for any operational contingencies and hence the operational readiness should always be at its peak level," he added. (ANI)
In his second political rally in a day in the hill state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the public in Himachal's Sujanpur. Taking a dig at the Congress party, he noted that it had left with no power in the area which was considered the party's stronghold. "The condition of Congress is deteriorating day by day. The area which was once considered Congress's stronghold, they have been completely wiped out from there. Congress has a history of false promises and false guarantees," he said. Himachal Pradesh will go to the poll on November 12 and the results coming out on December 8. He accused Congress of betraying the people of Himachal Pradesh during their rule. "The people of Himachal are the biggest sufferers of the betrayal and deceit committed by Congress during their rule for many years. Whereas BJP has made constant efforts to provide basic facilities to every doorstep of Himachal," he said adding, "The people of Himachal have understood the reality Congress very well. Congress feels that Himachal will always run on its five-year formula. That's why Congress leaders don't care about Himachal and its people." He further said that the BJP was doing great in the region where it was considered weak. "Today the people of Himachal and the entire country have great faith in the BJP. The country's trust in the BJP is getting stronger. Just two-three days ago, the results of the by-elections have come in some states of the country. Where the BJP was once considered weak, people have bloomed lotus flowers in large numbers," Modi said. Modi also said that the government was giving a lot of encouragement to the women in the security forces. "We are also increasing the number of military schools and girls are getting admission in it. Our government is giving a lot of encouragement to the daughters in the police force and central security forces also," PM said. Modi also claimed that the participation of women in the central forces has increased from 17 thousand to more than 35 thousand. "Post-independence till 2014, there were around 1 lakh daughters in the police service in the country. In the last 8 years, this number has increased to about 2.25 lakh. Similarly, the participation of daughters in central forces has increased from 17 thousand to more than 35 thousand. And it is increasing continuously," PM said. Modi also received a special welcome from ex-servicemen at Sujanpur. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda on Wednesday chaired a Delhi BJP core group meeting at his residence in the national capital over the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. Core group members include BJP Delhi President Adesh Gupta, Delhi state incharge Baijant Jay Panda, co-incharge Alka Gujar, convenor of election management committee Ashish Sood, state general secretary (org) Siddharthan. According to the source, "Meeting went for an hour. Discussion was done on the candidate list, Delhi's current air pollution, landfill issue, campaigning modes and medium etc". Delhi BJP source also informed the list of candidate list will be out by November 12 and 13. Also manifesto will be released by next week. MCD elections will be held on December 4 while the counting of votes will be done on December 7. Addressing a press conference on Friday, the Delhi State Election Commissioner Commissioner Vijay Dev said that the Model code of conduct has been implemented in Delhi from November 4. "The issue of notification will be on November 7 and will end on November 14. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is November 19. Voting for the polls will be on December 4 and the results will be announced on December 7," Vijay Dev had said. 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)
BJP president in West Bengal Sukanta Majumdar on Wednesday slams that Mamata Banerjee's refusal to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) means that she does not want refugees to become a part of India. "CAA has already been passed in both houses of the Parliament. Now it is upto the Central government if it will be implemented throughout the country. If you (chief minister Mamata Banerjee) is opposing it, it means that you are challenging the sovereignty of the country," BJP West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar said in an exclusive conversation with ANI. "CAA will be implemented in Bengal as well. If she does not want it, it would mean that she doesn't want refugee to become citizens (Indians)," he added. Majumdar's remarks came of CM Banerjee's statement on November 2 in which she termed the implication of Uniform Civil Code as a setup for Gujarat polls. "We are totally against this (UCC) and we oppose CAA; they are playing this game because of the Gujarat elections," chief minister Mamata Banerjee said while she was asked about her stand on UCC. The decision to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been made in the Gujarat Cabinet on October 29 for which a committee will be formed under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court/High court judge. Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has taken a historic decision in the cabinet meeting today - of forming a committee for implementing the Uniform Civil Code in the state, stated Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi in a press conference on Saturday. Sanghavi said, there is one criminal code for the citizens across the country but there is a difference in the civil code, which is based on religion and to change the same, it has been decided to implement a uniform civil code in the state. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel also took to Twitter and informed that an important decision has been taken today in a state cabinet meeting to form a high-level committee under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court/HC judge to examine the need for a Uniform Civil Code in the state and prepare a draft for this code. (ANI)
The joint operation was launched by a team of 205 Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and Bihar Police in the Kariba Dobha area of Bihar's Aurangabad district on the basis of intelligence inputs.

The CRPF was then informed about the recovery of two factory-made 9mm pistols, two country-made pistols, three pistol magazines, two Indian Small Arms System (INSAS) magazines, and 120 rounds of 5.56 INSAS.

"CRPF has been informed that a team of 205 CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and Bihar Police launched an operation in Kariba Dobha, Aurangabad, Bihar, and recovered 2 factory-made 9mm pistols, 2 country-made pistols, 3 pistol magazines, 2 INSAS magazines, and 120 rounds of 5.56 INSAS," CRPF said.

More details are awaited. (ANI)
The arrested accused have been identified as Anil Kumar and Praveen Kumar, both former Directors of M/s Bharat Papers Ltd.

A case was registered on February 12, 2020, against the private company (Borrower) and others including its MD, Directors etc. on a complaint from SBI, SAM Branch, Ludhiana.

It was alleged that the accused in conspiracy with unknown officials of State Bank of India, had cheated Bank to the tune of Rs. 87.88 crore (total amount with interest of around Rs.121.13 crore) during the period from 2006 to 2019 by illegally removing machinery and other parts without getting prior permission or without informing the Lender Banks.

The proceeds/value of such machines, motors etc., had not been deposited in the account.

It was further alleged that the accused stealthily removed the Imported / Indigenous Machinery of the Pulp Section and other parts from the factory without the knowledge of the bank.

It was also alleged that the accused illegally sold machinery parts as scrap and arranged fake invoices to cover up the said illegal sale.

It was found during the Investigation that the accused had allegedly diverted funds from the loan account.

Both the arrested accused are being produced before the Court of CJM in Jammu. (ANI)
Preliminary probe suggests that the explosion was caused by a gas leak at the Apex Casting Company near Gannavaram bridge in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

According to the police, the explosion took place while the staffers were at work.

According to reports, all four workers sustained critical injuries in the explosion and had to be admitted to a nearby hospital.

Police said they reached the spot on being informed of the explosion and a case was registered for further investigation. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a visit to Himachal Pradesh, on Wednesday stopped his convoy to make way for an ambulance to pass in Chambi. PM Modi's convoy stopped at the road intersection for easy passage of the ambulance in Chambi area of Kangra district. It is not the first time that Prime Minister Modi stopped his cavalcade to facilitate the movement of an ambulance. During his Gujarat visit on September 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's convoy made way for an ambulance in Ahmedabad. The car trails stopped in alignment on one side of the road for an easy passage of the ambulance as the convoy was on its way to Gandhinagar from Ahmedabad. Once the hospital wagon crossed the path, the security vehicles were seen joining the formation followed by PM Modi's car. Prime Minister on Wednesday was on a visit to Himachal Pradesh which will go to polls on November 12, with the results coming out on December 8. While addressing a rally in Chambi village of Kangra district on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his speech by speaking in the Kangri language. "I have come here to Kangra to talk to you as I feel too good to talk to you," PM says in Kangri language. He also praised the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. "Kangra is the land of 'Shaktipeeths'. It is a pilgrimage where India's faith and spirituality are present. From Baijnath to Kathgarh, in this land, the infinite grace of Baba Bhole is always with us all," he said. Modi talked about his government's Himachal-centric schemes. "The central government started the Ujjwala scheme, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Himachal added more people to it by running the Grihini scheme. The central government started the Ayushman scheme, and the BJP government of Himachal added more people to the Himcare scheme. This is how the double-engine government is working," he further said. Modi also said that the lives of the Himachali people will be transformed with 5G. "The future belongs to 5G. The youth of Himachal and the lives of Himachali people will be transformed with 5G. With this, education in remote schools will also become like cities," PM said. He congratulated the state unit of the party for preparing the manifesto for the upcoming election."I congratulate Himachal BJP for making such a good manifesto to take a new resolution of development. 11 auspicious resolutions of Himachal BJP will take the development here to new heights," Modi said. Urging people to re-elect the party, Modi said, "We want to create such a political tradition that we should do such work in the government that voters give us a chance again and again. That's why we are working for development and for the country everywhere, at every level." Today, Prime Minister said Himachal needs a stable and strong government. "When Himachal Pradesh will have a strong government and double engine power, it will also overcome all the challenges and achieve new heights. This time, the people of Uttarakhand also changed the old tradition and made the BJP win. In Uttar Pradesh too, it has happened after 40 years when a party won again and came to the government for the second time in a row with an absolute majority. In Manipur also BJP government has come again in the power," he added. (ANI)
A man was arrested for allegedly stoning his friend to death as the latter reportedly hurled abuses for not providing him money to buy a flat in Delhi, the police said. Narender Singh allegedly hit his friend Krishna Kumar's head twice with a stone after both of them drank together inside Sanjay Van falling under Kishangarh police station area on Monday, they added. Subsequently, the police solved the blind murder by arresting the accused Narender Singh (40) from Mehrauli on Tuesday by analysing technical and manual surveillance during investigation, the police added. Both the accused Narender Singh and the victim Krishna Kumar (45) were friends and were residents of Meharauli. The victim is survived by his wife and four kids including three girls and a boy. The victim's body with head injury apparently caused by a blunt object was found lying inside Sanjay Van on Monday. Subsequently, a first information report (FIR) under section 302 of Indian Penal Code was registered at Kishangarh police station. The police constituted three teams for investigating the case. During investigation, it was found that Narender Singh- who works as a salesman in a cloth shop- was victim's family friend. The police gathered information about the accused through consistent manual and technical surveillance of his acquaintances. Subsequently, the accused was arrested from Mehrauli after laying a trap on Tuesday. On sustained interrogation, accused Narender Singh confessed his crime and disclosed that he already had a grudge against him. He informed the police that he consumed liquor with the deceased inside Sanjay Van Park before killing him on Monday. The deceased wanted to purchase a flat in Meharauli for which he was demanding money from the accused which he refused, he added. Further, under the influence of alcohol deceased abused him. The accused felt insulted and picked up a stone lying in the park and hit with full force on his head twice, he added. (ANI)
This will be her first visit to the state after being sworn in as President of India.

According to Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Murmu will offer her prayers to Lord Jagannath at Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri on November 10, 2022.

Thereafter, she will reach Bhubaneswar where she will pay her tributes before the statues of prominent freedom fighters and leaders.

In the same evening, the President will attend the civic reception to be hosted in her honour at Raj Bhavan Bhubaneswar, sources said.

On November 11, 2022, the President will visit Tapoban High School, Government Girls High School Unit-II and Kuntala Kumari Sabat Adivasi Girls Hostel Unit-II in Bhubaneswar and interact with students and teachers.

On the same day, she will launch various projects of the Union Ministry of Education from Jayadev Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.

Earlier on Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu paid homage to Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh Guru, on Gurpurab at the President's Estate.

The President also participated in the President's Bodyguard Regimental Gurudwara with devotees. (ANI)
The District Coffee and Tea Trade Association in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu has decided to increase the prices of tea and coffee by Rs 15 owing to an increase in the price of milk. Aavin, a local milk co-operative under the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation, has already hiked the prices of its three milk variants -- Premium (sold in orange packets), Tea Matte (red) and Gold (brown) -- by Rs 12, Rs 16 and Rs 11 per litre respectively. Selva Kumar, a local tea shop owner, told ANI, "Due to the increase in the price of milk, we have had to hike the prices of tea and coffee. Apart from milk, the price of dairy whitener or milk power has also gone up. Facing the double whammy, we have been forced to jack up the prices of tea and coffee." Speaking to ANI, Sundar, secretary, District Coffee and Tea Trade Association, said the poor consumers have been hit the hardest, with the milk prices going up 'more than ever'. "All local beverage shops in Madurai have started to selling tea and coffee and increased rates due to the rise in the price of milk. The price of milk has literally gone through the roof this time. The poor consumers have been severely affected," he said. BJP Tamil Nadu president Annamalai condemned the rise in milk prices and said his party will take out massive rallies across the state to protest the increase in rates and articulate the rising public anger against the same. Claiming that the local dairy industry has been affected by the rise in milk prices, the secretary of the District Coffee and Tea Trade Association called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to take immediate steps to reduce the prices. "Our (dairy) industry has also been hit hard by the rise in milk prices. The chief minister should take immediate steps to lower the prices," Sundar said. Chithra, a local, said the poor, who don't often have money to buy food, prefer to take tea and coffee to get by. "People who don't have money to buy food prefer tea or coffee. However, such is the extent of the rise in milk prices this time that tea and coffee have become simply unaffordable for them," she told ANI. (ANI)
Congress's state Mahila Congress president Zainab Chandel on Wednesday claimed women were not safe in the state under BJP rule. Addressing a public meeting in Shimla ahead of the Assembly elections, on Wednesday, Chandel alleged that criminals have been emboldened on the watch of the BJP government, to the extent that they no longer spare minor girls. Citing a recent case at Kullu in Manali district where a two-year-old girl was allegedly brutalised after being abducted, Chandel said, "There have been similar incidents across the state in the recent past and the police and the administration only remained a mute spectator. It is unfortunate and sad that not a single word on these incidents has been uttered by the state BJP leadership or the central government, which boast of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao'." She added that even in the recent incident of a college girl, who was found dead at Rampur in Shimla district, the hands of the administration seem to be tied as no breakthrough has yet been made in connection with the case. "Criminals are committing murders in broad daylight and the police administration does not have a clue. There has been a rise in such incidents across the state and the BJP leaders are tight-lipped about them. Not just in Himachal Pradesh, even in other BJP-ruled states such as Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, incidents of crime against women are rising with every passing day," she added. Citing recent incidents to support her claim on the decline of law and order in BJP-ruled states, Chandel said, "In the murder of a woman (a receptionist) at a Uttarakhand resort, the name of a BJP leader's son came to the fore. The BJP government brought an earth-moving machine to destroy evidence on the resort premises." She claimed that while the BJP government in Himachal contested the last Assembly election on the promise of ensuring women's safety and opening the 'Gudiya' helpline, "the sad part is that the complaints registered through the helpline have not been addressed". "As many as 8,500 complaints were registered on the helpline but none was addressed. The BJP claims sympathy for women but it is nothing but a ploy to attract their votes. The reality is that under the BJP government, incidents of crime have only gone up. The government is only sitting on its hands," Chandel said. While the Congress leader hit out at the BJP government over the alleged decline in law and order, Union minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday claimed that before Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, the rural poor of Himachal had no permanent shelter over their heads, defecated in open and also did not have bank accounts. (ANI)
In the latest in the continuing war of words between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the state government, the former on Wednesday claimed that the ruling CPIM had legitimised the use of violence. Speaking to ANI, Khan, who has had frequent flashpoints with the Pinarayi Vijayan government, further alleged that Kairali TV, a local Malayam television channel, is an extension of the 'publicity unit' of the CPIM government. He claimed that the Media Open network, which runs Kairali TV, has been running 'biased' reports against him, especially in connection with the Shah Bano case. "CPIM is a party that believes in the legitimacy of violence. Kairali media is a publiclty unit of the CPIM. Since 1986, Media One group has been biased against me, pertaining to the Shah Bano case," the Kerala governor told ANI. While speaking to mediapersons earlier in the day, Khan said he would not speak to any media representative from the Kairali network. "If anybody from Kairali TV and Media One TV channels is here, I won't talk to you. I there is anybody from these two channels, please get out," the Kerala governor said while speaking to reporters in Kochi on Wednesday. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Union minister and BJP leader V Muraleedharan claimed that the Pinarayi government was not only running down the state's institutions but also abusing its powers to turn them into the government's propaganda vehicles. In a tweet, Muraleedharan wrote, "Hypocrite @pinarayivijayan not only undermining institutions but abusing power to make Kerala's institutions safe heavens for @CPIMKeralapropaganda & convert them as bastions for the kins of Party Cadres. Blatant misuse of power - Atrocious." (ANI)
The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing the pleas challenging the Centre's decision to demonetize currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 in 2016 for November 24 and said that they want to conclude the hearing on this issue this year. A five-judge bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and BV Nagarathna was hearing pleas challenging the Centre's decision to demonetize currency notes of Rs. 500 and 1,000 in 2016. Justice Nazeer fixed the matter for further hearing on 24th November. Justice Gavai said that they want to finish this matter this year. Meanwhile, Attorney General R Venkataramani seeks a week's time to prepare the comprehensive affidavit that the court had directed to file in the last hearing. In the last hearing, the Supreme Court's Constitution Bench asked the Centre and RBI to file a comprehensive affidavit on the decision to demonetize currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in 2016. Various petitions were filed arising from the decision of the Government of India to demonetize the old notes of Rs 5,00 and Rs 1,000. One of the petitions was filed by Vivek Narayan Sharma. The petition has challenged the notification dated 8 th November 2016. (ANI)
Directorate of Enforcement (ED) conducted searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on the Sallarpuria Sattva Group and froze assets in form of bank balances of Rs. 49.99 crore lying in 316 bank accounts, as per an official press release from ED. ED has also seized cash in the form of Indian currency of 29 lakh approximately and foreign currencies (of multiple countries) for which value is being ascertained. The searches were conducted in connection with an ongoing investigation under PMLA, 2002 into the money laundering by Heera Group through layering and transferring the crime proceeds. During the investigation of the money trail by ED, it was revealed that Rs 41 crore of crime proceeds have been layered and transferred to Bengaluru-based company M/s Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt Ltd (part of Sallarpuria Sattva Group) and to multiple other shell entities registered in Kolkata, Shillong under the instructions of Promoters/Directors of Sallarpuria Sattva Group. According to the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), the Sallarpuria Sattva group is controlled by its Promoter Director Bijay Kumar Aggarwal and its group Directors Pradeep Dhandhania and Ashwin Sancheti negotiated a real estate deal for a land parcel at Tolichowki, Hyderabad and instructed for transferring of crime proceeds to shell entities. Various other Shell entities were identified during the search, informed the officials. It was detected during the search that these funds were re-routed back into the Sallarpuria Sattva Group companies through their group NBFC registered in Kolkata. Upon further questioning during the search, the Directors of Sallarpuria group could not explain the business rationale of these transactions and reasons for layering the proceeds of crime through shell entities of Kolkata and Shillong, as per an official statement. A Search by ED helped to unearth the crime proceeds transferred through multiple layers and to gather evidence of money laundering. Further investigation into the case is under progress. (ANI)
Manipur Education Department recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today with Infosys Ltd. on the implementation of Infosys Springboard in the presence of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh at the Cabinet Hall of the Chief Minister's Secretariat. Education Minister Th. Basanta Singh and MLA Sapam Kunjakeswor Singh were also present at the event. The MoU was signed between Education (S) Commissioner Gyan Prakash, Education (S) Director L. Nandakumar and Head-Corporate Affairs Santhosh Ananthapura, Sr. Vice President Infosys Ltd Thirumala Arohi. The MoU is for the enhancement of teaching-learning activities and teaching effectiveness through technology aids under the Corporate Social Responsibility Scheme. The scheme has a student- and teacher-oriented components and is fully aligned with the National Education Policy 2020. Chief Minister N. Biren Singh lauded Infosys Ltd. for the new venture. Further highlighting the National Education Policy to be a remarkable policy, the Chief Minister said the policy has already been adopted in the State and that for its full implementation, the State needs support. N. Biren Singh also said that the government has launched some schemes and projects to improve the education system in the State. He explained schemes like the School Fagathansi Mission and Star Education. Explaining School Fagathansi, the Chief Minister said it was initially taken up in 60 schools, one school from each of the 60 Assembly Constituencies. It may be mentioned that through the scheme, Infosys Springboard will provide a curriculum-rich virtual platform that delivers corporate-grade learning experiences, on any device, with closer educator-learner collaboration for students from Class 6 to lifelong learners. Under the scheme, the faculty development program will consist of a series of sessions on the "Facilitate to Engage" course towards effective teaching techniques: instructional design and content creation; introduction and awareness to emerging and digital technologies, how to leverage the online platforms for effective learner engagement; authoring courses and assessments on online platforms. The program will be delivered online virtually by Infosys experts and in addition, teachers can up-skill themselves. Infosys Springboard also empowers students through the present scheme of Student to learn by doing and develop holistically in preparation for emerging jobs and career opportunities teaching them to better collaborate with learners on their skilling journey using the platform's engagement features, motivating them to learn, leveraging the Teacher-Student relationship, Just-in-time Learning, etc. (ANI)
According to sources, the meeting is being held in a bid to finalise the entire list of candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls. Besides PM Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and BJP state president CR Patil and other members of the CEC and the state unit are present in the meeting.

Another source told ANI, "Since all the central and state leadership are present during this meeting, it is likely that a separate discussion will take place with the top brass on planning the campaigning for the upcoming polls, especially with PM Narendra Modi having instructed them to target the highest poll numbers ever."

Gujarat has been a BJP bastion for decades. BJP is seeking its seventh term in office. Before becoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was Gujarat's longest-serving Chief Minister from 2001 to 2014.

On November 3, the Election Commission of India announced the election dates for Gujarat. Polling will take place in two phases on December 1 and December 5 respectively.

In the first phase, polling will be held for 89 seats while the second phase will see voting for 93 seats. The term of the 182-member state Assembly ends on February 18, 2023. The state of Gujarat has seen a traditional face-off between the ruling BJP and its traditional rival Congress.

However, in the upcoming elections, a new entrant, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is being keenly watched in the poll fray. (ANI)
After the video of a Congress mayor in Chhattisgarh criticising Hindu deities at an event went viral on the internet, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said on Wednesday that the Congress' only intention is to spread hatred towards Hinduism. Trivedi was addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi. "Today, a video from Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh came to the fore, in which Congress' Mayor is seen making derogatory remarks about Hindu deities," the BJP spokesperson said, adding that Congress' only intention is to spread hatred towards Hinduism and humiliate them. A video has surfaced on social media, in which an anti-Hindu oath is being administered at an event. According to reports, a state-level Buddhism conference was organized in the Mohra ward of Rajnandgaon. People at large are seen taking an oath not to believe in Hindu gods and goddesses. After the purported video filled with blasphemous statements, the BJP is now asking for detailed clarification over the incident from the Congress party. Recently, the former working president of the party's Karnataka unit Satish Jarkiholi's statement against Hindus went viral. The BJP spokesperson said, "Two days ago the former working president of Congress party in Karnataka used a derogatory word for the word Hindu. It needs to be investigated what mantra Rahul Gandhi is whispering in the ears of people in his Bharat Jodo Yatra." "I feel the general public is discerning whatever is happening in the country. The Prime Minister said that the 'Amrit Mahotsav' will dissolve all the poison in it. The so-called Param Shiv Bhakt Hindu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should come up and speak on the matter," Sudhanshu Trivedi said in the press briefing. (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday approached the Bombay High Court over bail granted to Sanjay Raut in the Patra Chawl scam case. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) will possibly mention the matter before the HC bench. ASG mentioned his application opposing the bail of Sanjay Raut and sought a stay on bail granted to him. Single judge Bench of Justice Bharti Dangre will hear the matter. Earlier in the day, a PMLA court in Mumbai on Wednesday granted bail to MP Sanjay Raut in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case. Along with Sanjay Raut, the second accused in this case, Praveen Raut, was also granted bail by the PMLA court. Raut was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 1 in connection with the alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl in suburban Goregaon in Mumbai. When the court pronounced the order, family members and supporters of the Shiv Sena MP clapped inside the courtroom and corridor. The Shiv Sena leader is accused of receiving a part of the money from middleman Praveen Raut, who had allegedly earned it illegally in the case of the redevelopment of Patra Chawl, located in Mumbai's Goregaon. It is also alleged that Sanjay Raut bought properties in Dadar and Alibaug with that money. Sanjay Raut was continuously lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai since August 1. Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and former Minister Nawab Malik are also lodged in this jail. On June 28 this year, Sanjay Raut was summoned by the ED in connection with the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Back in August, the wife of Shiv Sena MP was also summoned by the agency in connection with the Patra Chawl land case. The MP's wife Varsha Raut was summoned by the central agency after the ED officials raided the Shiv Sena leader's home and after detaining and questioning him (Sanjay Raut) for several hours, arrested him. Raut is a close aide of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. According to sources, ED officials seized Rs 11.50 lakh of unaccounted cash from his residence during the raids. Soon after the ED officials detained him in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case, the Shiv Sena leader said that he "won't be cowed down". Raut is being probed in connection with the re-development of Mumbai's Patra Chawl. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the nomination of former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha by the government. A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka said that it did not find any merit in the petition. "We find no merit to entertain this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition is dismissed," the court said. The petition was filed by one Satish S Kambiye, who claimed that the former CJI was not eligible to be nominated. The court questioned the petitioner on how can he decide the eligibility as it remarked that the petition was filed for publicity. The court also remarked to the petitioner that he must be happy that they have not imposed any cost for such a petition. Ranjan Gogoi was the CJI and retired on November 17, 2019. He was later nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha by the President in March 2020. Protests from the opposition parties marred the nomination of the former CJI as a Rajya Sabha member. (ANI)
Amid the controversy over G20 logo, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday lambasted Congress saying the party has been insulting Indian culture and Hinduism by disrespecting "lotus". BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, "Lotus has been one of the most important in the culture of India for thousands of years. If we want to become an intellectual superpower and an economic superpower, then we have to believe it. Goddess Lakshmi rests on the lotus. Goddess Saraswati also sits on the lotus. Those who talk about opposing the lotus, are certainly insulting Indian culture and Hinduism." "Once upon a time, the election symbol of Congress was cow and calf. Was the cow not a symbol of Indian culture? But, yet again, they are doing politics on a special constitutional subject. This shows how much disrespect they have towards elements of nationalism. They are ready to go to any extent to humiliate national sentiments," he added. Hitting hard at the central government for including the lotus symbol for India's G20 Presidency, which also happens to be BJP's party symbol, veteran Congress leader and spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said that Prime Minister and BJP would not lose any opportunity to "promote themselves shamefully." "Over 70 years ago, Nehru rejected the proposal to make Congress flag the flag of India. Now, BJP's election symbol has become official logo for India's presidency of G20!" Ramesh tweeted on Wednesday "While shocking, we know by now that Mr.Modi and BJP won't lose any opportunity to promote themselves shamelessly!" the tweet added. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the G20 logo for India's presidency via video conferencing. An official statement from the government said it drew inspiration from the vibrant colours of the Indian national flag. It juxtaposes planet Earth with the lotus, India's national flower that reflects growth amid challenges. India will take over the G20 Presidency from the current chair Indonesia on December 1.For India, the G20 Presidency also marks the beginning of "Amritkaal", the 25-year period beginning from the 75th anniversary of its independence on August 15, 2022, leading up to the centenary of its independence. (ANI)
Shiv Sena (Uddhav) MP Sanjay Raut, after being released from jail on Wednesday, said that even after spending 100 days in jail, he does not hold any grudges against anybody. "We fought the case and the court's observation came. We didn't do anything wrong. I don't hold grudges against anybody. I've spent over 100 days in jail, what was my crime? There can be a difference of opinion in a democracy," said Sanjay Raut. A PMLA court in Mumbai granted bail to Shiv Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case. Along with Sanjay Raut, the second accused in this case, Praveen Raut was also granted bail by the PMLA court. Sanjay Raut got bail today after about 102 days. Raut was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 1 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl in suburban Goregaon in Mumbai. When the court pronounced the order, family members and supporters of the Shiv Sena MP clapped inside the courtroom and corridor. The Shiv Sena leader is accused of receiving a part of the money from middleman Praveen Raut, who had allegedly earned it illegally in the case of the redevelopment of Patra Chawl, located in Mumbai's Goregaon. It is also alleged that Sanjay Raut bought properties in Dadar and Alibaug with that money. Sanjay Raut was continuously lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai since August 1. Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and former minister Nawab Malik are also lodged in this jail. This news is being considered a relief for the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance before the municipal elections. Sanjay Raut is an aggressive Shiv Sena spokesperson and has a good hold on his party cadre. On June 28 this year, Sanjay Raut was summoned by the ED in connection with the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rupees 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam.Back in August, the wife of Shiv Sena MP was also summoned by the agency in connection with the Patra Chawl land case. The MP's wife Varsha Raut was summoned by the central agency after the ED officials raided the Shiv Sena leader's home and after detaining and questioning him (Sanjay Raut) for several hours, arrested him. Raut is a close aide of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. According to sources, ED officials seized Rs 11.50 lakhs of unaccounted cash from his residence during the raids. Soon after the ED officials detained him in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case, the Shiv Sena leader said that he "won't be cowed down". Raut is being probed in connection with the re-development of Mumbai's Patra Chawl. In April this year, the ED had attached immovable properties worth Rs 11.15 crore, including a flat at Dadar, held by Sanjay Raut's wife Varsha and eight land parcels at Kihim near Alibag, jointly held by the latter with Swapna Patkar. (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent a second summon to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the illegal mining case and he has been asked to turn up before the Ranchi zonal office of the central agency on November 17, said sources. The first summon was issued on November 1, in which ED had asked Hemant Soren to appear on November 3, but later three weeks' time was sought by the Chief Minister citing official engagement. As per the official release of the Jharkhand government, the Chief Minister is engaged in the official programmes till November 15. Right after the ED sent him the notice on November 1, the state government also announced a special session of the assembly on November 11. Now the second summon has gained a political uproar too. BJP went heavily on CM Hemant Soren and said it will be worth seeing what excuse the CM will make this time. "When he was commanded on November 3, his office released the itinerary of 15 days which is normally issued for one or two days. This shows the Chief Minister does not want to face the investigating agency and avoiding to face it. Now if he does not turn up this time too, it clearly means he is abusing the constitutional post and constitutional agencies. Let us see what excuse the CM comes up with this time," said BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo. Congress which enjoys the power in coalition with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), said that BJP is always using constitutional agencies for political benefits. "BJP has lost ground in this state. That is why they are indulging in such kinds of activities. They are completely and clearly misusing agencies for political gains, but this will not help them," said Congress spokesperson Rakesh Sinha. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was summoned by ED for investigation over contravention of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and in a money laundering probe linked to an illegal mining case in the Sahebganj district. Notably, the Supreme Court on Monday held that the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed before the Jharkhand High Court seeking a probe against him in an alleged mining scam case were not maintainable.The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Jharkhand Soren's appeal, setting aside the Jharkhand High Court order which had accepted the maintainability of a PIL in connection with shell companies allegedly related to state Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his associates. The Jharkhand Government and chief minister Hemant Soren moved the apex court against an order of the high court which had accepted the maintainability of PIL in connection with shell companies allegedly related to Hemant Soren and his associates. (ANI)
Officials of Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested two persons, accused of killing their sister along with her paramour, in Baghpat district. Mursaleen (32), the main accused, along with his cousin brothers, allegedly murdered his 27-year-old sister namely, Mehjabeen and her lover namely, Arif after being fed up with the duo's relationship, which continued even after their marriage. "On November 8, around 9.00 pm, we received an intimation from Asara village that a person from named Mursaleen has allegedly killed his sister Mehjabeen and her friend Arif, and had hidden the dead body somewhere. Acting on a tip-off the police arrested the main accused Mursaleen," Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, SP Baghpat said. "During interrogation, Mursaleen told that Mehjabeen, who got married seven years ago and had 3 children, had eloped with her lover Arif, a married man, on October 20. Mursaleen after being fed up with the ongoing relationship of the duo hatched a plot to kill both of them," the senior police officer said. "Mursaleen along with his cousin brothers Muzmil, a resident of Kandhla, Armaan, Muntazir and Shahnawaz together made a plot to kill the duo," SP Neeraj added. "As per the plot, the accused went to Meerut and allegedly abducted Mehjabeen and Arif from here, and took them to the village Gangeru of Kandhla police station area, where they killed Arif at Muzammil's house and hid the dead body in the nearby forest, after that, they brought Mehjabeen to the Asara village and killed her in the forest," SP Neeraj said further. The police conducted a search operation overnight and recovered dead bodies of both the deceased and sent them for post-mortem. Mursaleen and his cousin brother Shahnawaz have been apprehended by the Baghpat Police and a search is being conducted to nab the remaining associates. (ANI)
After India and Pakistan agreed to a truce in February 2021, wedding bells like Shehnai and celebrations are back in the remote areas along the Line of Control (LOC) in North Kashmir. Along with peace and tranquillity, locals were seen celebrating wedding functions peacefully. In Churunda village of Uri Tehsil along the Line of Control (LOC) in Baramulla district, celebrations could be felt all around, ANI learnt. These days, weddings in the Uri sector of LOC in the Baramulla district of North Kashmir are taking place without any fear of shelling, which was not possible some years back. One such wedding is the proof that villagers are peacefully celebrating the wedding procession. "Today was my niece's wedding. But in this village, it is the first such wedding in which guests came and there was no problem. The districts of Baramulla, and Uri, are very peaceful. If this continues, our village can become a peaceful town," a villager told ANI. "Today it looks like we are living in Baramulla. Didn't even feel like we were living on the border. I especially want to thank the army, due to which the marriage took place," he added. Army personnel also came forward to be part of the celebration and bless the couple in their marriages which shows the true spirit of the locals and the love and care the Indian Army has for the locals of Jammu & Kashmir. While lauding the efforts of the government in maintaining peace in the border district, the villager said, "Thanks to the government for making situations peaceful here," adding that I request the government to maintain it. Hundreds of marriages have taken place in border villages of Kashmir since the ceasefire bringing back the old memories of weddings in their own houses instead of moving the events to safer places outside the villages. "Earlier, we used to stay indoors for days together due to intense shelling from across the border but now here people are participating in marriages on a large scale without any fear,'' Lal Din Khatana Sarpanch of the village said. (ANI)
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri launched the Transport 4 All Challenge Stage-2 and Citizen Perception Survey 2022 on Wednesday. The Transport 4 All Challenge is an initiative by the Central government that aims to enhance the mobility experience of citizens. The Challenge focuses on digital innovation and invites cities, citizens, and innovators to join hands to develop contextual digital solutions to improve formal and informal public transport to better serve the mobility needs of all citizens. Solutions developed as part of the Challenge aim to integrate formal and informal modes of public transport wherever possible and desirable. Solutions that demonstrate the ability to meet the needs of citizens - those living in cities with different contexts - would be piloted in selected cities across the country. More than 130 cities signed up for Stage 1 of the Challenge, launched on April 15, 2021. 100 cities formed a Transport 4 All Task Force (TTF) with key government stakeholders and governments working in the transport sector, along with academic institutes and non-profit organisations. These cities successfully conducted surveys with more than 2 lakh citizens, 15,000 bus drivers and conductors and 22,000 informal public transport (such as autos, etc.) drivers, making it the biggest public transport data exercise in the country. The 46 cities that qualify for Stage 2 of the Challenge used the survey's findings to develop more than 165 problem statements, that is now curated into a final list of 8 problem statements by the Challenge team. Stage-2 of the Challenge is open for startups to develop solutions for the issues identified by the cities. Interested startups can register with their idea pitches on the Startup India portal. The Transport 4 All Challenge is organised in partnership with The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) as co-host and challenge coordinator, Startup India and City Innovation Exchange as technology partners, and Association of State Road Transport Undertaking (ASRTU) as city-engagement partner. --IANS kvm/kvd ( 336 Words) 2022-11-09-19:32:05 (IANS)
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Working President Satish Jarkiholi, in a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, withdrew and apologized for his statement on the meaning of the term "Hindu". He also asked to constitute an investigating committee to find those who tried to defame him as anti-Hindu. Earlier on Monday, Jarkiholi sparked a controversy by saying that the word "Hindu" is Persian and did not originate in India. He had said that the meaning of the word Hindu is "horrible" and asked why people place it on a high pedestal. "Where has the word "Hindu" come from? It has come from Persia...So, what is its relation with India? How's 'Hindu' yours? Check on WhatsApp, and Wikipedia, the term isn't yours. Why do you want to put it on a pedestal?... Its meaning is horrible," the Karnataka Congress working president had said at a programme in Belagavi. Soon after Jarkiholi's statement went viral on social media, senior BJP leaders slammed him for the statement and allegedly insulting and provoking Hindus. "It has become a habit of Congress and AAP leaders to demean Hindus and insult Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Only during elections, do they remember Gods and Goddesses, while the rest of the time, they keep abusing them," BJP Union Minister Anurag Thakur said. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the remark was unfortunate."They (Congress leaders) make statements with half knowledge to appease voters of one community and dream to get minority votes. This is anti-national and everyone should condemn it. Are Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah's silence endorsing Satish's statements?," BJP CM Bommai said while speaking to reporters on Tuesday. BJP spokesman Shehzad Poonawalla also said that the remark insulted and provoked Hindus. "This is not a Sanyog but a Votebank ka Udyog, from Hindu terror to opposing Ram Mandir to linking Gita and Jihad," he said in a tweet. Congress leaders continued to maintain distance from Jarkiholi's statement on Tuesday. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar said that the party supports all religions and does not agree with Jarkiholi's statement. "Satish Jarkiholi's statement is his personal opinion and not the Congress party's opinion, we will ask for his explanation on the same," Shivakumar said while speaking to ANI. (ANI)
He is the second leader to resign on the same day. Earlier, Congress MLA from Talala constituency in Gujarat, Bhagvanbhai D Barad, tendered his resignation from all posts of INC to Dr Nimaben Acharya. He said that he has decided to quit Congress after consultation with his supporters. He will join the BJP.

The jolt to the Congress party came the second day in a row after party MLA and tribal leader Mohansinh Rathva, who is a ten-time MLA, resigned on Tuesday and moved to the BJP.

Gujarat Assembly elections will take place on December 1 and 5, and the votes will be counted on December 8. (ANI)
Rai was convicted in a special court of Justice Manvendra Mishra. The court has imposed a Rs 1000 fine. In case the fine is not paid, Rai will have to serve 6 months in jail.

Earlier the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him. Following that, Rai surrendered before the court. The court granted him conditional bail on that occasion.

Rai, the MLA from Barauli in Gopalganj district, confirmed the development.

"It was a violation of the model code of conduct during the 2010 Vidhan Sabha election. An FIR was lodged against me. I deposited the fine," Rai told IANS.

--IANS ajk/bg

( 143 Words)

2022-11-09-20:12:03 (IANS)
A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed at the Calcutta High Court demanding an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the accounts of West Bengal's iconic Dakshineswar Kali Temple. The PIL has been filed by a section of temple sevayats (priests) and disciples, alleging gross irregularities in maintenance of the accounts and assets of the temple trust. In the petition, they have alleged that the temple authorities have not maintained any records of the huge number of ornaments and sarees donated to the temple by the disciples during the occasion of Kali Puja this year. It has also been alleged that the temple authorities have also not maintained proper accounts of Rs 130 crore received from the West Bengal government and Rs 20 crore from the Union government under various heads for the last few years. The petitions also alleged irregularities on part of the temple trust authorities in allotment of spaces to shop-owners within the temple complex as well as election for the office bearers of the trustee board which happened after 20 years after a court directive. The petitioners have appealed for an independent probe in the matter either by a central agency such as ED or by a judicial committee headed by any retired justice. The petition has been admitted and will come up for hearing soon. Famed philanthropist, Rani Rashmoni had initiated the construction of the temple in 1848, which was completed in 1856. Gadadhar Chattopadhyay, who later became globally acclaimed as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was appointed as the priest of the temple. Initially, Ramakrishna used to assist his elder brother Ramkumar Chattopadhyay, who was head priest of the temple then. But later, after his elder brother's death, Ramakrishna took over as the head priest. It is said that Rani Rashmoni started the construction of the temple following a divine vision of Goddess Kali in her dreams. --IANS src/pgh ( 327 Words) 2022-11-09-20:28:02 (IANS)
The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday rejected the state government's plea to permit withdrawal of a criminal case against the ruling BJP MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja. A single-judge bench of Justice Niral R. Mehta said: "Learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appears to have exercised discretionary power improperly and would be nothing but an attempt to interfere with normal course of justice for illegitimate reasons. Thus, this Court cannot be a mute spectator and should not grant permission merely upon asking. This petition is rejected." On December 21, 2007, a mob of 200-300 persons gathered outside the gate of Essar company at Khambhalia Taluka to agitate for resolution of issues affecting public at large as well as local agriculturists. However, during the said agitation, the mob had started stone pelting on the buses of the company and as a result thereof, employees travelling in these had received injuries while the vehicles suffered damage. Police officers, deployed there to maintain public peace and safety, also received stone injuries. A case was registered against Jadeja and others for unlawful assembly, rioting with deadly weapons, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation and other sections. --IANS har/vd ( 203 Words) 2022-11-09-21:02:04 (IANS)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday hailed the verdict of UK High Court that allowed extradition of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi to India, terming it "a significant achievement" in its efforts to curb corruption. Nirav Modi, who allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank (PNB) of over Rs 11,000 crore, is likely to be extradited soon to India from the UK as he lost his appeal in the High Court. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who heard the appeal earlier this year, delivered the verdict that allowed the fugitive businessman''s extradition to India, according to reports. Nirav Modi had appealed against his extradition where he would face trial in the fraud case linked to the PNB. "Today''s judgement of UK High Court is a significant achievement in the context of CBI''s efforts to curb corruption and is a reminder that fugitives, who have eluded the process of law after commission of large value frauds, cannot consider themselves above the process merely because they have changed jurisdictions. "The CBI took painstaking efforts in effectively presenting the facts before the Court, especially since Modi had raised various issues with regard to prison conditions, availability of health facilities in India etc.," the CBI said in a statement. On April 15, 2021, the Secretary of State ordered the businessman''s extradition to India. He had filed application before the High Court of Justice, London seeking permission to appeal on multiple grounds. On August 9, 2021, the High Court of Justice, London gave Modi the permission to appeal on the following two grounds: 1. His extradition would be incompatible with his convention rights under Article 3 of European Convention on Human Rights, and 2. It would be unjust or oppressive within the meaning of Section 91 of UK Extradition Act 2003 to extradite him by virtue of his physical and mental condition. Now, all other grounds of appeal have been rejected. During the final hearing, two psychiatric experts -- Andrew Forrester of Cardiff University, on behalf of the appellant, and Seena Fazel of University of Oxford, on behalf of the Government of India also gave evidence before the High Court. Nirav Modi was arrested on March 19, 2019 in the UK on the basis of extradition request of the Indian government to face trial in the multi-crore bank fraud case. After his arrest, he filed several bail petitions which were strongly opposed and all the bail petitions were rejected by the courts in the UK. The CBI had registered the case on January 31, 2018 against the partner of three private firms and others including then officials of PNB on a complaint from the lender on the allegations that the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy among themselves to defraud the Bank to the tune of Rs 6,498 crore by fraudulently issuing Letters of Undertaking. During investigation, the CBI conducted searches at 42 premises and arrested 15 people. A large number of witnesses were examined and voluminous documents were collected. Investigation revealed that the accused officials of the PNB, in conspiracy with said owners of the firms and others, had fraudulently issued a large number of LoUs to overseas banks for obtaining buyer''s credit in favour of said three firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the CBS system of the bank. Besides, the probe had also revealed that the fraud was allegedly perpetrated despite the circulars issued by RBI. The first chargesheet was filed on May 14, 2018 against 25 accused including Nirav Modi. The second chargesheet was filed on December 20, 2019 against 30 accused including 25 chargesheeted earlier. "Nirav Modi in conspiracy with other accused had siphoned off the funds obtained as buyer''s credit through dummy companies established by him in Dubai and Hong Kong which were shown as exporter of Pearls to three Modi firms and importer of Pearl studded jewellery from the said firms of Modi. He escaped from India on January 1, 2018 before registration of case," the CBI said. Non bailable arrest warrant was issued by the trial court against Nirav Modi on May 23, 2018 and red notice was also issued against him on June 29, 2918 by Interpol. The first extradition request was sent by CBI to United Kingdom for extradition of Modi in August 2018 for defrauding the PNB. In extradition requests, the CBI had submitted voluminous oral and documentary evidence to substantiate the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misconduct by public servants, destruction of evidence and criminal intimidation of evidence. "The CBI gracefully acknowledges the painstaking and continuous efforts made by the counsels of Crown Prosecution service in forcefully presenting the government of India''s case and also the efforts of various government agencies, especially officers of High Commission of India, London, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, in coordinating the extradition trial, timely submission of evidences and assurances, and prompt follow up of the case at all stages," the CBI said. --IANS atk/pgh ( 849 Words) 2022-11-09-22:04:03 (IANS)
A meeting of the Central Election Committee of the BJP is underway at the party headquarters here for the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat scheduled to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the meeting is being attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat BJP chief C.R. Patil, BJP national President J.P. Nadda, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister Bhupendra Yadav, and former Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa, among others. The CEC is expected to discuss and decide the names of 182 party candidates for the Gujarat polls, and the list is expected to be out in a day or two. --IANS deepika/arm ( 127 Words) 2022-11-09-22:08:02 (IANS)
French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain on Tuesday called India-France military exercise Garuda VII a "great occasion" to continue building a "common history" between the two nations. Speaking to ANI, Lenain at Jodhpur stated that the exercise is an occasion for the air forces of France and India to learn to operate together. Notably, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and French Air and Space Force (FASF) are participating in a bilateral exercise 'Garuda VIl' at Jodhpur in Rajasthan. "It is a great occasion to continue to build our common history for forces to learn to how to operate together, to be more interoperable, to be able to conduct joint operations by training together," Lenain told ANI. Expressing his views on the joint exercise, Lenain said they are "very happy" to be welcomed in India. He called the bilateral exercise between Indian Air Force (IAF) and French Air and Space Force (FASF) a "wonderful occasion." Lenain said that the French Air & Space Force chief had "very confident" and "very in-depth contacts" in Delhi on Monday, November 7. He stressed that France wants more cooperation and more exercises with India and stressed that there is a "lot of trust" between the two nations. Lenain said that India and France have been "pioneering together" in air force exercises. "The Chief of Air Staff is visiting also. He is having some very confident and very in-depth contacts in Delhi yesterday. Obviously, we want to go further, we want more cooperation, more collaboration, more exercise, and more training together because there is a lot of trust between our two countries and between our two governments. We can build and redevelop some equipment also and be able to use them more efficiently," Lenain said. Notably, the 'Garuda VII' exercise involves a number of combat aircraft including Rafale, Tejas, Jaguar, and Sukhoi-30s. It commenced on October 26 and will culminate on November 12. French Air & Space Force chief Gen Stephane Mille expressed his views on the military exercise between the two nations. General Mille said, "We're here to fly together with Indian aircrew. Sometimes, with a simple act, we can do a lot. Doing this exercise, we are able to understand each other during the flights. It's very important to be able to fly and operate together." Meanwhile, IAF Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said, "Garuda is one exercise that gives us this opportunity which exposes our pilots and crew to the best packages of the French Air & Space Force (FASF) and vice versa." Highlighting the importance of the Garuda exercise, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari stated, "We have learnt how to carry forward our interoperability. French Air Force also flies Rafale, we also fly Rafale, but we fly many other aircraft along with Rafale. It's important to learn how to interoperate with friendly nations." (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said terrorism and terrorists operating out of Afghanistan remain a concern for the world, as he also highlighted the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country, which he says is not getting the attention it deserves. Delivering a joint press conference alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Jaishankar said the world must not forget what the situation is in Afghanistan and pointed out how India is supporting Afghan people in the difficult phase of their history. "Today it is not getting the attention that it deserves. There is a humanitarian situation and at least where India is concerned, we have stepped forward by providing food, medicines, and vaccines and trying to find by which support the Afghan people are supported in a very difficult phase of their history," he said. "The international community with good reasons, have concerns about terrorism and terrorist who operate out of Afghanistan. There have been commitments, which have been given in this regard. It's legitimate that the international community and especially the neighbours today work together to ensure that there is no terrorism threat that comes out of Afghanistan," he added. Jaishankar arrived in Moscow on Monday as a part of his two-day visit to Russia, in continuation of the regular high-level dialogue between the two sides. During his meeting with Lavrov, he reviewed the entire gamut of the India-Russia relationship. "Just concluded comprehensive discussions with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia. Reviewed the entire gamut of our steady and time-tested relationship. Also exchanged perspectives from our vantage points on global and regional developments," he said in a tweet. With Russia's Deputy PM Denis Manturov, Jaishankar explored cooperation in trade, investments, energy, fertilisers, pharma, agriculture and shipping. "A productive meeting with Co-chair of the Inter-Governmental Commission Deputy PM Denis Manturov. Discussed strengthening a durable and balanced partnership. Explored cooperation in trade, investments, energy, fertilisers, pharma, agriculture and shipping," he said. During a press conference in Moscow, the external affairs minister said India and Russia have a longstanding partnership that has served both countries very well over many decades. "This covers a range of practical cooperation in fields like trade, investment, commodity, etc, as well sensitive domains like defence, space, and nuclear," he said. Jaishankar noted that his objective in coming to Moscow is to sit down with the Russian leadership to assess how India-Russia ties are doing. "My objective in coming here today is to sit down with Russian foreign minister Lavrov and Deputy PM Manturov to assess how we are doing. There are challenges, that we need to address and prospects that we are exploring," he said. Jaishankar said, in recent years, India and Russia have grappled with how to expand the bilateral trade and introduce more factors of long-term stability and growth. "Some of these discussions are now yielding results, accelerated by the stresses that the global economy is currently expressing, including as a result of the Ukraine conflict," he added. The external affairs minister said he and Lavrov have noted the significant growth in bilateral trade this year and focused on how to make it more sustainable. "We are naturally concerned about the trade imbalance and I have raised with the Russian side how to address the impediments that stand in the way of greater Indian exports," he added. (ANI)
"Just concluded comprehensive discussions with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia. Reviewed the entire gamut of our steady and time-tested relationship," Jaishankar tweeted after concluding discussions with Lavrov.

"Also exchanged perspectives from our vantage points on global and regional developments," he said in another tweet.

Earlier in his opening remarks, he had said that bilateral talks with Lavrov will address the overall global situation as well as specific regional concerns.

Jaishankar - who on Monday arrived in Moscow on a two-day visit to Russia - said that "there have been strong and continuing contacts between our governments at various levels".

"Our meeting is devoted to assessing our ties, exchanging perspectives on global situation and what it means to our respective interests," he said.

"Covid, trade difficulties have taken a toll on global economy. We are now seeing consequences of Ukraine conflict on top of that," he added.

Where bilateral ties are concerned, our objective is to fashion a contemporary, balanced, mutually beneficial and long-term engagement, Jaishankar said further on his meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister.

"There are more perennial issues of terrorism and climate change, both of which have a disruptive impact on progress and prosperity," he noted.

He further added that India and Russia engage each other in increasingly multi-polar and re-balanced world.

"We do so as two polities who have had exceptionally steady, time-tested relationship," Jaishankar stated.

Prior to this, Jaishankar had last visited Russia in July 2021 followed by the visit of Lavrov to New Delhi in April 2022.

--IANS ans/vd

( 298 Words)

2022-11-08-23:26:03 (IANS)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar landed in Delhi on Wednesday after his two-day visit to Russia, where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and held talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. Earlier on Tuesday, Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov held talks in Moscow covering a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests. Addressing a press briefing alongside the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Jaishnkar said he exchanged views on international issues with the Russian side, in which the Ukraine conflict was the dominant feature. Laying out India's position on the Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar said, "As Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to Russian President Putin: this is not an era of war. The global economy is simply too interdependent for significant conflict anywhere not to have major consequences elsewhere." With Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Jaishankar explored cooperation in trade, investments, energy, fertilisers, pharma, agriculture and shipping. Jaishankar noted that his objective in coming to Moscow is to sit down with the Russian leadership to assess how India-Russia ties are doing. "My objective in coming here today is to sit down with Russian foreign minister Lavrov and Deputy PM Manturov to assess how we are doing. There are challenges, that we need to address and prospects that we are exploring," he said. Jaishankar reached Russia on Monday in continuation of the regular high-level dialogue between the two sides. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict earlier this year, India's bilateral ties with Russia have come under the scanner of the West for a surge in oil imports from sanctions-hit Moscow. The war in Ukraine which has continued for more than eight months has had a significant impact on global food security and has led to a sudden increase in crude prices. Notably, India has not condemned Russia since the start of the conflict and has maintained its independent position. On several UN forums, New Delhi has consistently called for a cessation of violence and advocated peace and diplomacy. (ANI)
North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea's military has announced. The Joint Chief of Staff announced the latest ballistic missile launched by Pyongyang without specifying further details, Yonhap News Agency reported. The development has been confirmed by Japan's Prime Minister's office. Taking to its Twitter handle, Japan's PM office said, "North Korea has launched a suspected ballistic missile. More updates to follow." The latest ballistic missile launch comes after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and two suspected short-range ones toward the East Sea on November 3, South Korea's military said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected a long-range ballistic missile launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang around 7:40 am (local time). It further announced that the two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) were launched from Kaechon in South Pyongan Province at around 8:39 a.m (local time). As per the Yonhap News Agency report, the long-range missile covered a distance of around 760 kilometres. The long-range missile flew at a top speed of Mach 15 and two short-range ballistic missiles flew for around 330 kilometres at a maximum height of about 70 kilometres at a top speed of Mach 15, South Korea's Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) said. It further announced that South Korea has strengthened their surveillance and vigilance while maintaining a readiness posture in coordination with the United States. Pyongyang's missile launch came a day after it shot more than 24 missiles, which is reportedly the biggest-ever barrage in a single day. One of the missiles flew southward past the de facto maritime inter-Korean border for the first time since the Korean war. "Our military has beefed up surveillance and vigilance while maintaining the readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.," the JCS said in a statement. The United States and South Korea have repeatedly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch and they even conducted a joint military exercise in November. Meanwhile, United Nations Security General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned the launch of a ballistic missile of intercontinental range by North Korea. "The Secretary-General strongly condemns the launch of a ballistic missile of intercontinental range by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as well as the barrage of various missiles over the past two days," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said in a statement. (ANI)
In view of the continuing escalation of violence and grave human rights following the military takeover two years ago, the European Council has adopted the fifth round of restrictive measures. The new listings target 19 persons and one entity, including the Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations Kan Zaw, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Htun Htun Oo, and high-ranking members of the Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) and Air Force. The EU has also listed members of the Union Election Commission and business representatives of private companies closely connected and supporting the Tatmadaw. "The State Administration Council is also included as it plays a central role in undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar/Burma as well as in actions that threaten the peace, security and stability of the country," the European Council said in a statement on Tuesday. Restrictive measures currently apply to a total of 84 individuals and 11 entities. Those designated are subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban, which prevents them from entering or transiting through EU territory. In addition, EU persons and entities are prohibited to make funds available to those listed. "Other EU restrictive measures will remain in place: the embargo on arms and equipment and export restrictions on equipment for monitoring communications which might be used for internal repression, the export ban on dual-use goods for use by the military and border guard police, and the prohibition of military training and cooperation with the Tatmadaw," the statement added. These measures complement the withholding of EU financial assistance to the government of Myanmar and the freezing of all EU assistance, a tool that might be perceived as a means to legitimise the junta. Two years ago, on November 8, the National League for Democracy obtained overwhelming and incontestable popular support in the general elections in Myanmar/Burma. The civilian government was overthrown by the Myanmar military on 1 February 2021. The EU said it is deeply concerned by the continuing escalation of violence and the evolution towards a protracted conflict which has spread across the country and has regional implications. The 27-member bloc also condemned the continuing grave human rights violations including torture and sexual and gender-based violence, the continued persecution of civil society, human rights defenders and journalists, attacks on the civilian population, including ethnic and religious minorities, and the destruction of private property by the Myanmar armed forces. The EU said it would continue to strive to bring to justice all those responsible for the human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the wake of the 1 February 2021 coup in Myanmar. The EU said it reiterates the calls for an immediate cessation of all hostilities, respect of international humanitarian law, and an end to the disproportionate use of force. (ANI)
Expressing doubts about the impartiality of the Pakistani investigators and contradictory Kenyan police statements, Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for a UN probe into Sharif's murder. "The information currently emerging from the Kenyan wing of the investigation is contradictory, and all independent attempts to get information are met with a wall of silence," said Sadibou Marong, the director of RSF's sub-Saharan Africa bureau. "If the Kenyan authorities want to shed light on this murder, they must ensure that the investigation is not cloaked in imprecision, and that it is independent and impartial." "Why was Arshad Sharif in Kenya and, above all, why did he have to flee his country - these are the questions behind his murder," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "The potential conflicts of interest are such on both the Kenyan and Pakistani sides that we are calling on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, to launch an investigation with an independent international team to shed all possible light on this shocking case." Sharif was killed by two shots fired at close range. This is one of the few hard facts to have emerged in the two weeks since his murder in a Nairobi suburb on the night of October 23. The information comes from a Kenyan autopsy report published on November 4. It says that one of the bullets entered his back and exited via his chest and that the other bullet lodged in his head. Kenya Union of Journalists president Eric Oduor told RSF that a transparent investigation was required by journalists worldwide. "But the government has not reported any progress in the investigations into the killing of Arshad Sharif. And we keep on demanding that the investigations are fast-tracked to bring the killers to book." Many questions have meanwhile been raised about Pakistan's handling of the case, starting with the composition of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that the government appointed on October 25 to investigate the murder. According to the French media watchdog, one of the officials in charge of the investigation was initially supposed to be a representative of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the feared military intelligence agency that is notorious for carrying out extrajudicial operations around the world. The ISI representative was withdrawn from the JIT because of the outcry, but the JIT's composition is still criticised because it is led by representatives of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), both of which are direct government offshoots. A new judicial commission appointed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to investigate the murder immediately ran into trouble on November 6 when the retired judge appointed to head it, Abdul Shakoor Paracha, declined to take the job, citing reservations expressed by Sharif's mother about the commission. Sharif's mother criticised that this commission included someone who had already gone to Nairobi in connection with the case, and did not include a journalist. (ANI)
The Kenyan government has published three unforeseen contracts, using which, a railway, a passenger and a freight service were funded, designed and built by China. According to the New York Times, the USD 4.7 billion rail project known as the Standard Gauge Railway starts from Kenya's coastal region, began five years ago and has become the focus of multiple criminal investigations, weighing down the country's economy with debt. Experts on China and Africa said the revelations were unprecedented, given the secrecy surrounding Chinese loan contracts. Furthermore, because China is Kenya's top trading partner, the African country now owes China an excessive bilateral debt. It was always unclear whether the Kenyan authorities had consulted Beijing before releasing the documents, however, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement after the move. "Chinese financial institutions provide financing support for China-Kenya cooperation in accordance with internationally accepted commercial and market principles, which alleviated Kenya's lack of funds and enhanced Kenya's capacity for independent development," a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry said, reported the New York Times. Chinese banks fined Kenya 1.312 billion Kenyan shillings in the year ended June for defaults on loans provided to build the standard gauge railway (SGR). Kenya tapped over half a trillion shillings from Chinese lenders, led by the Export-Import Bank of China, to fund the construction of the SGR from Mombasa to Naivasha. "This (Sh1.312 billion) relates to the cost of default on interest at one per cent of the due amount," said the disclosure documents seen by Business Daily Africa. China, which accounted for about one-third of Kenya's 2021-22 external debt service costs, is the nation's biggest foreign creditor after the World Bank. Kenya spent a total of Sh 117.7 billion on Chinese debt in the period, of which about Sh 24.7 billion is in interest payments and almost Sh 93 billion in redemptions, according to budget documents. Repayment of the SGR loan started in January 2020 after the lapse of a five-year grace period that Beijing had given Kenya. Former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration largely took loans from China from 2014 to build roads, bridges, power plants and the SGR. The deal to fund the first phase of the SGR, Kenya's single-largest infrastructure project by cost since independence, saw China overtake Japan as Kenya's largest bilateral lender. Kenya's debt increased more than four-fold to Sh 8.58 trillion under the Kenyatta administration. The surge in liabilities left the country at high risk of debt distress, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). (ANI)
After concluding his trip to Egypt for the COP27 climate conference, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is headed to London to meet PML-N supremo, and elder brother Nawaz Sharif. This visit to London is the third such trip since he became Prime Minister in April. The Dawn newspaper reported that this visit comes two weeks before the end of Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa's tenure on November 29. Citing earlier reports, the Pakistan daily said that Shehbaz would consult Nawaz on the appointment of the Pakistan army chief. Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced Shehbaz Sharif's visit but did not divulge information about the London trip. "After attending the COP 27 conference, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for London on a private flight," Marriyum tweeted on Wednesday evening. The political slugfest which started with Imran Khan's ouster from power in April by a vote of no confidence has in successive months worsened now after the assassination bid this month. Aside from the call for early elections, another bone of contention between the coalition government and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is said to be the appointment of the new Army chief. "Whether anyone agrees or not, the current political standoff is all about the appointment of the next Army Chief. It started when PTI chairman Imran Khan was still in office," senior Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir wrote in a piece for The Friday Times. "The PTI chairman had granted a three-year extension in term to Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, but once he developed differences with him over the transfer of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director-General, he decided to dismiss him early and appoint a loyalist for the job," he added. Of the ten army chiefs Pakistan has had since 1972, half of them were appointed by the former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, according to Dawn. He was repeatedly criticised for appointing officers he saw as an 'apna banda' (his man). However, none of the appointments worked in his favour. (ANI)
The discrimination towards Tibetans has intensified after Xi Jinping took oath as China's President with an unprecedented third term as repressive policies continue to remain a part of Chinese rule in Tibet, reported a think tank, Policy Research Group (POREG). Tibetans have raised the banner of affirmative opposition to Beijing since 1949. The latest oppression in Tibet is because of the Zero-Covid policy which has resulted in outrage amongst Tibetans. The authoritarian lockdown is ostensible to prevent and control Covid-19 but it has suffocated people. Scores are pushed to take refuge in suicide due to inhumane quarantine conditions. Han Chinese and Tibetans living in Lhasa hit the streets in October protesting against inadequate food and medicines under the lockdown regime. The security forces crushed the demo. Soon afterwards, the city witnessed the largest-ever protest since the 2008 uprising in which around 200 people were detained, POREG reported. The cruelties against Tibet do not end here and reveal the next stage of hell in Tibet has created the world's largest forensic DNA database under Xi Jinping with more than 100 million profiles to control its population. Violation of fundamental rights of humans in Tibet and their exploitation in their own country has been on a surge for years by the Chinese government with the recent one being discrimination against the Tibetans in employment and housing. Moreover, with every passing day, the situation in Tibet is becoming frightening. The world is being shown a country like China handling the outbreak in a harmonious way, but the reality apparently is far from that. The measures being taken are too severe and not in the public's interest. China was the centre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the world, the whole suffered millions of deaths in the past 2 years. But when entire China and many parts of the world were reeling under the coronavirus crisis, Tibet remained untouched except for one case at the beginning of the pandemic. Tibet did not see a COVID-19 case for over 900 days. But, Tibet has also come under its grip now. Chinese President Xi Jinping enforced similar stringent conditions in Tibet as they were in other parts of China earlier under the 'Zero Covid' policy. Tibetans are taken to quarantine facilities or forced to stay inside their homes. This has caused them to lose their jobs and source of livelihood, besides mental harassment. Amid this, China's censorship of news and social media posts from Tibet has further raised concerns about the safety of Tibetans. Furthermore, self-immolations continue to happen in occupied Tibet in order to divert the world's attention towards the mistreatment of Tibetans by China with the latest one being on March 27, in which an 81-year male named Taphun from the Amdo region set himself on fire in the police station in the western part of Sichuan and died, Tibetrights Collective reported. (ANI)
Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday threatened to reveal the name of another military official, whom he says was party to the plot to assassinate him. Imran Khan was shot during his long march in Punjab Province's Wazirabad on Thursday. Khan has since held both the coalition government and Major General Naseer Faisal responsible for the attack. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief said that he would disclose the name of the second officer who was sitting with Faisal in the control room to monitor his execution plot. "I had discovered the assassination plot hatched against me almost two months ago & exposed it in RYK 24th Sept and Mianwali 7th October public rallies. Wazirabad assassination attempt followed the script," Imran Khan tweeted. "I will also disclose the name of the second officer who was sitting with Maj General Faisal in the control room from around 12 noon to 5 pm monitoring the execution of the plot," he said in another tweet. On Tuesday, the PTI chief termed the FIR filed by the Punjab province in the case concerning the assassination bid against him as "farcical" and added that his lawyers will soon put forward his position. "On the issue of the farcical FIR, my lawyers will give my position. All my life I dreamt of seeing my country as a prospering welfare state and my struggle throughout has been to make this dream a reality for my nation. Today the nation has awakened, understood and risen in support of my message of justice, freedom and national sovereignty," Imran Khan tweeted. "When we are so close to our goal no fear or threat of death can stop my struggle," he added. Khan's response comes after a First Information Report (FIR) against the attempted assassination was registered on Monday, after the country's apex court issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Punjab Police, Geo News reported. Earlier, the Pakistan Supreme Court issued an order to the IG of Punjab Police, Faisal Shahkar, to file the FIR of the gun attack on the PTI chief. He was also ordered to submit a report within 24 hours. Former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry said that if the FIR doesn't include the three accused nominated by Imran Khan, then it is not more than a piece of paper, according to Geo News. Another PTI leader Shireen Mazari said that the FIR is an "attempt at a complete cover-up by the three accused through the power of their positions and the state". "The FIR registered in Wazirabad thana is a sheer mockery of the law & SC order. An attempt at a complete cover-up by the 3 accused thru the power of their positions & the State. Seems regime change conspirators hellbent on destroying Pak totally for their own ends," Shireen Mazari tweeted. (ANI)
The Russian-appointed official in occupied Ukrainian territory Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, was killed in a road accident, TASS Media Agency reported. Kherson Region's acting governor, Vladimir Saldo has also confirmed the news on his Telegram channel and said, "It's very hard for me to say that Kirill Stremousov died today. He died on the territory of the Kherson Region while riding in a car. There was a road accident." He further said, "He has repeatedly visited the frontline and inspected areas in the rear. It will be very hard to tell his near and dear ones about the tragedy. He is the father of five children. A sixth is to be born soon. Of course, we will take care of all of them. Deplorably, Kirill is no more," according to TASS. After the liberation of the Kherson Region, Stremousov became one of its senior officials. On September 28, he received a Russian passport. Minister of Health of the Kherson Region Vadim Ilmiev said that Stremousov was killed in an accident on the highway between Kherson and Armyansk in Crimea, according to CNN citing Russian state media company Vesti (VGTRK) said that,. Valeria Petrusevich, head of the nonprofit organization Good Peace-Crimean Volunteers, also wrote on her Telegram channel that "Kirill Stremousov, deputy governor of the Kherson region, died. The information is accurate, I know personally. It was an accident. Details later." This comes after several media reports that Russian forces have destroyed the bridges across the occupied parts of Ukraine's Kherson region west of the Dnipro River, CNN reported. Serhii Khlan, a member of the Ukrainian Kherson Regional Council, said that Russian forces appear to be staging a tactical retreat from some frontline villages to "slow down the onslaught of the Armed Forces of Ukraine." CNN cannot independently confirm his claims. "The occupiers blew up not only Dariivskyi and Tiahynskyi bridges, they also blew up the bridge at the exit from Snihurivka towards Kherson across the canal," Khlan said during a press conference. "They blew up the bridge in Novokairy, blew up the bridge in My love." "The occupiers are now blowing up absolutely all bridges" in the occupied Kherson region west of the Dnipro River, according to CNN. Images and reports from Russian propagandists and military analysts on Telegram appear to corroborate those claims. A popular Russian military analysis channel said on Wednesday that "the destruction of bridges across the Kherson Front began to slow down the advance of the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine]." Khlan said that Russian forces were withdrawing "en masse" from frontline villages along the western bank of the Dnipro River. He said that though it was not yet possible to officially say that Russia had abandoned the settlements, Russian forces were no longer present in Kachkarivka, Mylove, Novokairy, Berezynske, Sukhanove, Chervonyi Yar, Piatykhatky and Sadok, reported CNN. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Dr S Jaishankar met Belarus' Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in New Delhi on Wednesday and discussed several issues including bilateral economic ties, the Ukraine conflict and multilateral cooperation. "Met Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei of Belarus who is in India for our Inter-Governmental Commission meeting. Our discussion covered bilateral economic ties, Ukraine conflict and multilateral cooperation," Jaishankar said in a tweet. Notbaly, Belarus is among the few countries, which is reportedly supporting the Russian military amid the Ukraine conflict. The meeting between Jaishankar and Belarus's Foreign Minister comes a day after the external affairs minister's Moscow visit. During his two-day visit, the external affairs minister met with held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. With Lavrov, he covered a range of bilateral, regional and global issues. Addressing a press briefing alongside Lavrov, Jaishankar said he exchanged views on international issues with the Russian side, in which the Ukraine conflict was the dominant feature. Laying out India's position on the Ukraine conflict, he said, "As Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to Russian President Putin: this is not an era of war. The global economy is simply too interdependent for significant conflict anywhere not to have major consequences elsewhere." Since the start of the Ukraine conflict earlier this year, India's bilateral ties with Russia have come under the scanner of the West for a surge in oil imports from sanctions-hit Moscow. The war in Ukraine which has continued for more than eight months has had a significant impact on global food security and has led to a sudden increase in crude prices. Notably, India has not condemned Russia since the start of the conflict and has maintained its independent position. On several UN forums, New Delhi has consistently advocated for a cessation of violence and peace and diplomacy. (ANI)
On the intervening night of November 7 and 8, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists and their Islamist facilitators burnt Girls Middle School at Samigal, Darel in Diamer District of Gilgit Baltistan (GB), vernacular media reported. The population of Samigal Pain is around 7000 and it was the only girls' school for this population. About 68 girls were studying in this school, vernacular media reported. So far, no group has claimed the responsibility. Islamists, no matter which sect they belong to, are extremely opposed to giving girls' access to education in Gilgit Baltistan. Girls' education in most parts of GB, particularly in Diamer is considered taboo by Muslim extremists. This week's incident is not the first incident of burning schools. In 2018, 12 schools were burnt to ashes in a single night. Similar incidents happened in 2005. The Diamer Youth Movement (DYM) held a protest rally at Siddique Akbar Chowk, Chilas. Participants strongly condemned the burning of schools and chanted slogans against the GB government. Vernacular media reported that speakers urged the people to cut off ties with terrorists and Islamists. They said they are not optimistic about the government's action against terrorists. DYM President Shabbir Ahmed Qureshi and other leaders demanded immediate action against terrorists involved in the incident. They demanded an end to discrimination, patronization of extremists and weaponization of the masses. Human rights activist and journalist Roshan Din Diameri deplored the incident and said there have always been serious issues regarding girls' education in this area. Fundamentalists do not want girls to have access to education, vernacular media reported. Presently the population of the Diamer district comprises 51 per cent females and all young girls want to equip themselves with education. Local people of the area had faced great difficulties to begin girls' classes in the Samigal school. People of Diamer said that Islamists' desire of establishing complete control is one of the main reasons behind the burning of the school. According to vernacular media, a number of people belonging to a vast majority of GB indirectly accuse the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) governments of GB and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of hatching conspiracies for fomenting terrorist activities through TTP in GB. They added that their plan is to make GB a frontline territory for promoting terrorist activities in Central Asia and China's Xinjiang province. However, GB people have rejected such conspiracies. Some sections of GB society claim that Pak security forces are behind increasing terrorism in GB. They are providing protection to terrorists and promoting gun culture. They warned that if immediate action isn't taken against such elements, they will also be forced to take up arms. (ANI)
One person has died and a person had a pregnancy loss from a listeria outbreak that has gotten over a dozen people sick across the country, with no definitive source determined other than it being linked to deli meat and cheese, health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday announced 16 confirmed listeria outbreak cases have been reported by six states  seven cases in New York, three in Maryland, two in Illinois and Massachusetts, as well as one each in New Jersey and California. The first case was reported on April 17, 2021, with the most recent one reported on Sept. 29, 2022.

Of the 16 cases, 13 resulted in hospitalizations. The one reported death was from Maryland, and one sick person fell ill during their pregnancy, resulting in pregnancy loss.

This 2002 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, responsible for the food borne illness listeriosis.

The true number of sick people is likely higher, the CDC says, because people can recover from listeria sickness without medical care and the outbreak may not be limited to other states.

The CDC said local and state public health officials have been interviewing people about the foods they ate prior to illness. Of the 12 people interviewed, 11 reported eating meat or cheese from deli counters. Of the seven people sick in New York, five bought sliced deli meat or cheese from a international food grocery chain NetCost Market.

But health investigators do not believe NetCost Market delis are the only source of the outbreak, as a specific source of it has yet to be confirmed and some who got sick did not shop at the grocery chain.

"It is difficult for investigators to identify a single food as the source of outbreaks linked to deli meats and cheeses. This is because Listeria spreads easily between food and the deli environment and can persist for a long time in deli display cases and on equipment," the CDC said. "A contaminated food likely introduced the outbreak strain of Listeria into delis in multiple states."

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In addition to a less serious intestinal illness, which can lead to diarrhea and vomiting but usually resolves itself without antibiotic treatment, the CDC says listeria can cause severe illness. Symptoms usually start within two weeks of eating contaminated food, but can start the same day or as late as 10 weeks later. Pregnant people, newborns and adults 65 years and older are at higher risk of severe illness, as it can cause pregnancy loss or premature births.

Health officials advise those at higher risk for listeria infection  those who are pregnant, 65 or older, or have a weakened immune system  not eat meat or cheese from any deli counter, unless it is reheated to internal temperatures of 165 degrees. People are also advised to clean refrigerators, containers and surfaces that may have touched deli meat or cheese, since it can grow on foods kept inside refrigerators.

If you or someone you known feels like they are experiencing severe symptoms of listeria, they are urged to call their healthcare provider.

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CDC: 1 dead, 13 hospitalized in listeria outbreak linked to deli meat
Ayla has a rare genetic condition, and her mom received a groundbreaking treatment for it in utero during pregnancy. CHEO Media House

A new therapy is being administered into the abdomens of pregnant mothers, and it may save their babies' lives.

One baby who received 6 protein injections before birth is crawling, laughing, and developing normally.

She has a rare genetic condition that (left untreated) can make it hard to breathe, eat, or live past age 2.

Sobia Qureshi lost two of her baby girls to heart disease, one at eight months old, and the other at two and a half.

So when Qureshi learned that she was pregnant again, and her fetus tested positive for the same debilitating genetic condition that had killed two of her children already, she knew she wanted to try something different.

She became the first person to try out a fetal therapy for the rare disorder, called Pompe Disease, receiving six injections of enzymes through her abdomen into an umbilical vein while she was pregnant.

The injections, called enzyme replacement therapy, provided her developing fetus with a crucial protein it was missing, which breaks down complex sugars in the body. Without that enzyme, people's muscles can't develop properly, making it difficult to build muscles, eat, or even breathe sometimes. Left untreated, most children born with Pompe will die before the age of 2.

Today, Qureshi daughter Ayla is 16 months old, and she's giggling, crawling, and developing normally, thanks to a first-of-its-kind treatment, which was reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Infusions before birth have helped Ayla develop normally

Ayla is developing normally, MacKenzie said. CHEO Media House

"She's a miracle," Ayla's dad, Zahid Bashir, said in a pre-recorded interview with UCSF. "When we were having Ayla, we didn't know if she'd be able to walk, we didn't know if she'd be able to talk, we didn't know if she'd be able to eat, we didn't know if she'd be able to laugh."

She is doing all of those things and more, with a healthy heart, and good reflexes.

Dr. Tippi MacKenzie, a pediatric and fetal surgeon at UCSF who shared the protocol for Ayla's groundbreaking therapy with the toddler's doctors in Canada, said she's "thrilled with this outcome."

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Already, one other expectant mother has received a similar investigational therapy for her son, who's less than a month old and was diagnosed with Hunter Syndrome in utero.

"I'm hoping that these procedures and the enzyme replacement allows my son to say 'mama' and 'dada'," said Mya Queen, whose brother also has Hunter, and cannot verbalize.

These fetal enzyme treatments are not a promise of a completely normal life.

Ayla still has to visit the hospital every week for a six-hour-long administration of her own enzyme infusions, and it's possible that she could develop resistance to her treatment over time. (That's what happened to one of her deceased sisters.)

But doctors are hopeful that by receiving her first treatments as a fetus in utero, Ayla's still-developing brain may have derived unique benefits she wouldn't have gotten if she started the regimen later. Those benefits could potentially slow or even prevent some aspects of the disease progression, which would have been irreversible after birth.

"This is a really exciting advance for patients to know that in-utero therapy can be a viable treatment option," Dr. Manisha Balwani, chief of the division of medical genetics at Mount Sinai, who was not involved in this research, told Insider.

Baby Ayla goes in to her clinic in Canada for enzyme treatments regularly. CHEO Media House

For Ayla's parents, it's a life-changing advance  though it is impossible to know how long it might last.

"I don't like to think about the future, because any time you go there it's scary," Qureshi said in the pre-recorded interview. "We know that she's going to be treated for life. What life looks like, we don't know. And I don't think anybody can say at this point what it's going to look like, what the prognosis is."

Read the original article on Insider
An 18-year-old mom was holding her baby in an Oklahoma homes doorway when they were both shot at, authorities said.

The infant survived, but Oklahoma City police said mother Princess Stevenson died of her injuries.

Officers were called to the home at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, according to a news release. Investigators learned Stevenson had gone to the house to pick up someone who was inside.

While she was at the door, someone inside a vehicle that was driving by shot toward the home, police said. Gunfire struck the mom and child.

Stevenson was taken to a hospital in a private vehicle and was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The baby has a non-life-threatening graze wound to the foot.

An investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with additional information should contact the Homicide Tip Line 405-297-1200. This is the departments 66th homicide of 2022.

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Vote stickers are seen at an early voting location in Atlanta, Fulton County. County election officials said that a mother and son who were working at a polling site in Johns Creek were fired after the discovery of concerning social media posts. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Vote stickers are seen at an early voting location in Atlanta, Fulton County. County election officials said that a mother and son who were working at a polling site in Johns Creek were fired after the discovery of concerning social media posts. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Two Atlanta-area polling workers were fired early Tuesday after election officials said they discovered a number of concerning social media posts by one of the workers ahead of the midterm elections. One post, which was seen by The Washington Post, appears to admit to participating in the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The mother and son were removed from a Johns Creek voting site, located to the northeast of Atlanta, just before 7 a.m. after a fellow worker flagged the womans online behavior to Fulton County voting officials. People in the Georgia secretary of states office were made aware of her online activity as well, county officials said at a press conference.

They also looked at the social media posts and said that they agreed with the concern, said Nadine Williams, the interim director of the countys Board of Registration and Elections, who declined to describe the posts content. You cannot take videos or take photos in an election so that is what brought it to our attention, she added.

This decision is in alignment with our commitment to elections integrity, county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said in a statement to HuffPost.

Laura Kronen told The Epoch Times that she was one of the fired poll workers. According to Kronen, she was told that she was removed because of recent posts she made on Twitter. The woman said she suspects the firing actually occurred because shes politically conservative, however.

Im a conservative, I was a [former President Donald] Trump supporter, and I think that they did not want that there, she told the far-right website.

According to a social media screenshot circulating online and the material seen by The Washington Post, Kronen  who was not identified by the Post  had spoken of being a proud participant in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

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I stood up for whats right today in Washington DC. This election was a sham, the post reads, echoing baseless claims from Trump and his followers that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. [Former Vice President] Mike Pence is a traitor. I was tear gassed FOUR times. I have pepper spray in my throat. I stormed the Capitol. ... And my children have had the best learning experience of their lives.

The Johns Creek, Ga. woman said I stormed the Capitol building and that My children have had the best learning experience of their lives.



She almost worked as a poll worker today until Fulton officials the secretary of state intervened. #gapolpic.twitter.com/Q4p7fvSR6X  Matt Brown (@mrbrownsir) November 8, 2022

HuffPost could not independently validate the authenticity of the post. A woman identifying herself as Kronen initially agreed to speak with HuffPost but was then not immediately available for comment.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment when reached by HuffPost about whether Kronen is part of the ongoing federal investigation into the 2021 violence or if she was at any point. The department instead pointed to current case materials published online and in federal court documents. A search for Kronens name did not return any cases.

Last week, media outlets reported that three men who claimed to be former members of the far-right Proud Boys group were hired as poll workers in Floridas Miami-Dade County ahead of the midterm elections.

One of the men was later placed on a standby list after the local elections department learned about his participation in the Capitol attack. A second man was also at the Capitol during the violence, though it was unclear whether he entered the building.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Three Americans were found dead at an Airbnb they rented out in Mexico City for a trip to celebrate the Day of the Dead, authorities and family said Wednesday.

Kandace Florence, 28, of Virginia Beach, had been staying at the Airbnb with high school friend Jordan Marshall, 28, also of Virginia Beach, along with Marshall's friend Courtez Hall, relatives told NBC News and affiliate WAVY of Portsmouth, Virginia.

"It's pretty disheartening at this point, the lack of response that we've received from the U.S. Embassy," Jennifer Marshall, Jordan Marshall's mother, said on Wednesday from the family's home in Virginia Beach.

"It's just very disheartening that we've had to piece together, as to the demise of our son, based on social media report, based on investigative journalists but this is where we are at this point."

Florence and Marshall are childhood friends from Virginia, according to Jennifer Marshall. The trio had been in the city to mark Dia de los Muertos, an annual holiday traditionally held on Nov. 1 and 2 that honors the dead in a celebration of life and death, their relative have said.

Florence had been speaking with her boyfriend over the phone the night of Oct. 30 and told him she wasn't feeling well, WAVY reported. At some point, the call dropped and Florence's boyfriend was unable to reach her again, so he contacted the Airbnb host and asked if they could check on the group, the outlet reported.

When authorities arrived, they found all three of the Airbnb guests dead, WAVY reported. An official cause of death is still under investigation.

The Mexico City attorney generals office did not immediately respond to a request from NBC News early Wednesday morning for an update on the investigation into the cause of death.

The State Department confirmed the deaths of three Americans in Mexico in a statement sent to NBC News on Wednesday morning.

Jordan Marshall, 28, left, and Kandace Florence, 28. (Courtesy Marshall family)

"We are closely monitoring local authorities investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance," the department said. It did not confirm the identities of the deceased and said: "Out of respect for the privacy of the families, we have nothing further to add at this time."

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Airbnb also confirmed the deaths.

This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones as they grieve such an unimaginable loss," Airbnb said in a statement on Wednesday.

Airbnb said it has suspended the listing involved and canceled upcoming reservations as the company investigates. It said it has been in touch with the Airbnb host and is providing support. The company said it was also in touch with the U.S. Embassy regarding the incident.

"Our priority right now is supporting those impacted as the authorities investigate what happened, and we stand ready to assist with their inquiries however we can," the statement said.

Florences mother, Freida Florence, told WAVY her daughter had started a candle business called "Glo Through It" in 2020, with each of the candles featuring an affirmation to inspire those who lit them.

"She was a dreamer, dreamer meaning she wanted to make a difference in the lives of other people," she said.

Marshall was a 12th grade English teacher at Rosenwald Collegiate High School in New Orleans and loved to travel, his mother said.

"In his short 28 years, we can draw comfort from the fact he did travel and he did live a very, very full life," Jennifer Marshall said.

"Of course you worry as a parent. But he usually traveled with groups of friends and we would tell him there's safety in numbers, stay together, stay vigilant."

She continued: "But we never tired to deter our son from living his best life and experiencing other cultures. He loved history, he loved to learn about the cuisine and culture and the people of other places. So I never wanted him to live in fear and not to experience life because of things that could happen."

Ceola Hall, Courtez Hall's mother, told NBC affiliate WDSU of New Orleans that her son was a teacher at the city's KIPP Morial School.

Describing her son as a "joyous child," she said: "He loved me, he loved his family. He loved to make everyone laugh."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The bodies of three American friends were found in an Airbnb they rented in Mexico to celebrate the Day of the Dead.

Kandace Florence, 28, was staying at the Airbnb with high school pal Jordan Marshall, 28, along with Marshall's friend Courtez Hall for Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Norfolk, Virginia, news station Wavy reported.

The annual holiday is celebrated on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.

"We can confirm the death of three U.S. citizens in Mexico. We are closely monitoring local authorities' investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance," a State Department spokesperson tells PEOPLE. "Out of respect for the privacy of the families, we have nothing further to add at this time."

On Oct. 30, Kandace was talking to her boyfriend and told him she wasn't feeling well, per the outlet. She began to get sick while they were on the phone and the call dropped. After he was unable to get a hold of Kandace, her boyfriend contacted the Airbnb host and asked if they could check on the trio. Authorities arrived and they were all found dead, per Wavy.

Kandace and Jordan's families have since spoken out and want answers about what happened to them.

RELATED: 'Heartbroken' Son of Man Who Died at Bahamas Sandals Resort Says Mom Woke to Find Husband on Floor

Jordan Marshall, Courtez Hall, and Kandace Florence. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10223783763675043&set=pb.1022685451.-2207520000.&type=3 ; https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10160183150979540&set=a.473948949539 ; https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10158760704795522&set=a.463436385521

FaceBook (L-R) Jordan Marshall, Kandace Florence, and Courtez Hall

Jordan's sister Jasmine Marshall recalled finding out the heartbreaking news via social media on Oct. 31.

"I saw my brother's name and I read it, and my heart sank, and the hardest thing was to break the news to my mom," an emotional Jasmine told CBS affiliate WTKR.

Jordan's mother, Jennifer Marshall, said the families still have no clue how he and his friends died, telling WTKR, "The Mexican police were not very forthcoming with information. Also, the language barrier was incredibly difficult as well."

His body has arrived in his and Kandace's home state of Virginia. Kandace's body will also arrive in Virginia soon. The family plans to hold a candlelight vigil on what would have been her 29th birthday Thursday, Nov. 10.

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RELATED: Family Says Their 'Hearts Are Grieving' Couple Who Mysteriously Died at Sandals Resort in Bahamas

Kandace's mother Freida Florence told WTKR of her death, "The biggest question was 'Where do we start?'"

Opening up about her daughter, she said, "Think of positivity and mindfulness, and love the moment you're in."

Kandace hoped to spread positivity through her candle line, her mother said, per the news station.

Courtez's mother shared that he was a social studies teacher at KIPP Memorial School in New Orleans.

RELATED VIDEO: At Least 120 People Killed and More Than 100 Injured in South Korea During Halloween Event

"My son was a joyous child," Ceola Hall told New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU. "He loved me, he loved his family. He loved to make everyone laugh."

She and his sisters had their final conversation with Courtez just days before she was informed by the U.S. Embassy of his death.

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

Courtez was 33, according to multiple reports.

"It's been so hard," she told the outlet. "We tried calling back over there for the funeral homes. Because of the language barrier and stuff you cannot get anything through or really understand."

Added Ceola: "I would hate to see any parents go through what I went through with my son, I didn't expect to hear this about my son. No one expects that."

PEOPLE reached out to Airbnb for comment but did not immediately hear back.
The bodies of Kandace Florence, Jordan Marshall and Courtez Hall were discovered in their Mexico City Airbnb rental property on Oct. 30.

Three families are mourning the loss of their loved ones, who died from what appears to be carbon monoxide poisoning while vacationing in an Airbnb property in Mexico.

According to People, Kandace Florence, 28, Jordan Marshall, 28, and Courtez Hall, 33, a friend of Marshalls, were in Mexico City for its Day of the Dead celebrations, a holiday observed every year on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.

We can confirm the death of three U.S. citizens in Mexico, a State Department spokesperson told the publication. We are closely monitoring local authorities investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the privacy of the families, we have nothing further to add at this time.

The Airbnb logo is displayed on a computer screen. In an Airbnb property in Mexico City, three Black travelers were found dead on Oct. 30 from what appears to be carbon monoxide poisoning. (Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images)

Bloomberg reported that police were called to an apartment complex on Oct. 30 in La Rosita, a neighborhood near a wealthy area, after security guards noticed a strong gas smell. They arrived to find a woman and two men dead inside.

Their deaths coincide with a rise in American migration to Mexico, with its capital as the most popular destination. Using LPG and other gas sources there to heat homes and water has led to leaks, which is an uncommon occurrence, but has resulted in accidents and explosions.

According to People, Florence mentioned to her boyfriend while they were on the phone on Oct. 30 that she wasnt feeling well. The call dropped, and when he could not get in touch with her again, he contacted the Airbnb host and requested that his girlfriend and her friends get a welfare check.

Florence and Marshall were childhood best friends in Virginia City, and Marshall and Hall worked together as educators in New Orleans.

WTKR News in Virginia reported that family members learned of their deaths as word began circulating across social media on Halloween.

My son called me  He had to tell me three times: Kandace is no longer with us. Kandace is no longer with us. Kandace  and I just lost it, recalled Frieda Florence, her mother, WTKR reported.

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I saw my brothers name and I read it, said Jasmine Marshall. My heart sank, and the hardest thing was to break the news to my mom.

According to People, Marshalls mother said the families still dont know how he and his friends died because authorities in Mexico have not been very forthcoming with information. Communication is also challenging because of the language barrier.

Jennifer Marshall and Florences kin are actively seeking answers.

The biggest question, shared the grieving mother, was Where do we start?' reported People.

Marshalls body has already arrived in Virginia, and Florences body will arrive soon. Instead of a 29th birthday celebration, the family plans to honor her with a candlelight vigil on Thursday, Nov. 10.

Ceola Hall said she and her daughters last spoke to Courtez Hall a few days before the U.S. Embassy notified her of his death. The family has attempted to phone funeral facilities in Mexico, but, like Marshalls mother, they found it difficult to understand or speak due to the language barrier.

I would hate to see any parents go through what I went through with my son, I didnt expect to hear this about my son, said Hall, People reported. No one expects that.

TheGrio has reached out to Airbnb for comment.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post 3 Americans in Mexico found dead in Airbnb likely from carbon monoxide poisoning appeared first on TheGrio.
*

Delay extends political stalemate

*

Allows time for UK-EU talks on trade rules

*

Vote could clash with peace deal anniversary

(Adds details, quote on EU talks)

By Sachin Ravikumar and Amanda Ferguson

LONDON/BELFAST, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The British government on Wednesday pushed back a deadline to hold a new election in Northern Ireland until at least March to provide space for progress in talks between London and Brussels on post-Brexit trade rules governing the region.

Northern Ireland has been without a power-sharing government since the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party began a boycott in February in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

They refused to return after an election in May made Irish nationalists Sinn Fein the largest party.

A six-month deadline to form a government passed last month, and Britain's minister for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, said at the time he had no choice but to hold an election within 12 weeks of the deadline of Oct 28.

Heaton-Harris on Wednesday told parliament he was introducing a delay which meant the 12-week clock will now not start until Dec. 8, with a possible further extension to Jan. 19. if necessary. That would mean an election would need to be held by either March 2 or April 13 next year.

"The legislation I will introduce intends to create the time and space needed for the talks between the UK and the European Union to develop, and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible," Heaton-Harris told parliament.

The DUP has said it will not join a new government until checks introduced between some goods moving to Northern Ireland from Britain are scrapped.

Technical talks recently resumed for the first time in seven months on the Northern Ireland protocol, the part of the Brexit deal that mandated the checks. The British government negotiated and signed the agreement but then had second thoughts about it.

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Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney last week said that a reworked agreement was possible by the end of the year.

The later date could overshadow the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which is due to be marked in early April.

Under the terms of that agreement, which largely ended three decades of political and sectarian bloodshed, nationalists and unionists are obliged to share power in a cross-community government.

But that requirement has led to repeated stalemates in recent years. Britain's withdrawal from the European Union has also complicated the Good Friday Agreement, which assumed an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

Heaton-Harris said he would take "limited but necessary steps" to protect Northern Irelands public finances and the delivery of public services.

However he ruled out the possibility that a long period without a devolved government would lead to a form of joint authority with the Irish government, which has said it should have a say under the terms of the Good Friday deal.

"The UK government is absolutely clear that the consent principle governs the constitutional position of Northern Ireland under which Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom. We will not support any arrangements that are inconsistent with that principle," he said. (Writing by Conor Humphries, Editing by Kylie MacLellan and Angus MacSwan)
The Telegraph

It seemed like quintessential Cristiano Ronaldo when the Portugal captain ghosted between Uruguay defenders to get the faintest of headers on a Bruno Fernandes cross, then claimed a goal which may not have been his. Unfortunately for the unattached striker, tenuous goal claims are tougher than ever in the era of hi-tech football.
Massachusetts Gov.-elect Maura Healey speaks during a Democratic election night party Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Boston. AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

Several candidates made history during the 2022 midterms, breaking state and national barriers.

Among them are Maura Healey, Wes Moore, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at the gubernatorial level.

The following is a list of some candidates who scored notable achievements in their victories.

Several candidates made history during Tuesday's midterm elections by winning their respective races and broke barriers on both the state and national levels.

States across the country saw voters elect firsts in gender, sexual identity, and also in age brackets.

While not all races across the country have been called, here are some of the candidates who have made history so far during the election:

Maura Healey

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey speaks during news conference in Boston. Thomson Reuters

Healey, Massachusetts' Democratic attorney general, defeated Trump-backed Republican Geoff Diehl in the state's gubernatorial election. In her victory, Healey will be the first openly lesbian governor in US history, while also becoming the state's first elected female governor.

Wes Moore

Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Democrat Wes Moore beat Republican Dan Cox in Maryland's gubernatorial election, becoming the state's first Black governor. Moore is a US Army combat veteran and a small business owner.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Fox News contributor Sarah Sanders makes her first appearance on the "Fox & Friends" television program on Sept. 6, 2019, in New York. AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders will become Arkansas' first elected woman governor after she defeated Democrat Chris Jones in the state's gubernatorial election. She previously served as press secretary during the Trump administration and is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Kathy Hochul

Lieutenant Governor of New York Kathy Hochul speaks at a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Bronx borough of New York, Tuesday, May 4, 2021. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Kathy Hochul will become New York's first female elected governor after she beat Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin. She was previously the first woman to hold the position after Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in August 2021.

Maxwell Frost

Maxwell Frost, congressman-elect for Floridas 10th congressional district, at a Pride Parade in Orlando on October 15, 2022. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

Maxwell Frost, a Democrat, beat Republican Calvin Wimbish in Florida's 10th Congressional District to become the first Gen Z member of Congress. The 25-year-old is also slated to be Congress' only Afro-Cuban member.

Becca Balint

BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT - OCTOBER 5: Vermont State Senator Becca Balint at home on October 5, 2022 in Brattleboro, Vermont. Balint, a Democrat, is running for U.S. House and should she win, would be the first congresswoman to represent the state. Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Democrat Becca Balint defeated Republican Liam Madden by a large margin to become Vermont's only House representative. With her victory, she'll become the first woman and LGBTQ elected to Congress by Vermont.

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Alex Padilla

Sen. Alex Padilla of California. Shawn Thew/Pool via AP

Democratic incumbent Sen. Alex Padilla became California's first Latino to be elected to the Senate after he beat Republican Mark Meuser. Previously the state's Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to fill the seat of Kamala Harris after she left for the White House.

James Roesener

"I Voted" stickers are displayed at a polling place in Cheyenne, Wyo. on Aug. 16, 2022. Thomas Peipert/AP Photo

James Roesener became the first openly trans man elected to serve in a US state legislature, after he won New Hampshire's 22nd state House district.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  An eighth journalist has been killed in Haiti this year, the Inter American Press Association said Wednesday.

Fritz Dorilas, who worked for Radio Tele Megastar, was gunned down near his home in the capital of Port-au-Prince on Nov. 5, according to local media.

We continue to deplore crimes against journalists this bloody year in our region, said Carlos Jornet, the associations president for the commission of press freedom and information.

Dorilas was killed in the community of Tabarre, which has seen an escalation of gang warfare.

Online journalist Romelo Vilsaint died on Oct. 30 when a tear gas canister hit him in the head during an incident in which witnesses said police threw tear gas and opened fire on a group of journalists demanding the release of a colleague.

Also last month, authorities found the body of slain radio journalist Garry Tess and reported that Roberson Alphonse, a reporter for Le Nouvelliste newspaper, survived a murder attempt.

Alphone underwent several surgeries in Haiti and was then flown to the U.S., where he is recovering, according to Frantz Duval, the newspapers chief editor.
Drag queen Maebe A. Girl is running for Congress in California's 30th District. Emily Eizen

Over 450 LGBTQ+ candidates ran for office in the 2022 midterm elections, per Victory Fund.

Maebe A. Girl is the first trans nonbinary person to advance to a general election for a House seat.

Robert Garcia became the first openly LGBTQ+ immigrant elected to Congress.

When Liliana Bakhtiari took office in January as a member of Atlanta's City Council, they became the first queer Muslim legislator in the state of Georgia.

Liliana Bakhtiari. Atlanta City Council

Bakhtiari, who uses both "they" and "she" pronouns, is also the first nonbinary person to hold elected office in the city of Atlanta. In September 2022, she announced that she is nonmonogomous and in a relationship with two partners in an interview with NBC News.

In May, Karine Jean-Pierre became the first Black and openly LGBTQ+ person and immigrant to serve as White House press secretary.

Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a press briefing at the White House in May 2022. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Before she fielded questions from reporters on her first day, Jean-Pierre acknowledged the historic nature of her position and credited "generations of barrier-breaking people" that she said paved the way for her, Insider's Nicole Gaudiano and Oma Seddiq reported.

"I am obviously acutely aware that my presence at this podium represents a few firsts. I am a Black, gay, immigrant woman, the first of all three of those to hold this position," she said. "If it were not for generations of barrier-breaking people before me, I would not be here. But I benefit from their sacrifices. I have learned from their excellence, and I am forever grateful to them."

In June, drag queen Maebe A. Girl became the first trans nonbinary person to advance to a general election for a seat in the House of Representatives.

Maebe A. Girl. Emily Eizen

Girl, who uses both "she" and "they" pronouns, ran to represent California's 30th District. She told the Los Angeles Times that "there's a lot of crossover" between doing drag and campaigning.

"When I do drag, I host a lot of shows," they said. "I'm on the mic, listening to people, engaging with people. It's really not very dissimilar from being in a political setting where I'm giving a campaign speech. I used every drag show that I'm in to speak about politics and speak about my policies and let folks know about our campaigns. It's actually been a really wonderful tool."

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Girl was defeated by incumbent Adam Schiff.

In August, Jessica Katzenmeyer became the first trans woman to win a primary in the state of Wisconsin.

Jessica Katzenmeyer. Jessica Katzenmeyer

Katzenmeyer is running to represent district 5 in Wisconsin's state senate. If she wins in the midterms, she will be the state's first out transgender state senator.

"Representation matters because having a body of government represented by a diverse population will bring new ideas to the table," Katzenmeyer told Insider. "Being trans is a big part of my identity, but people should vote for me because they know that I'll fight for them."

Her election against Republican Rob Hutton has not yet been called.

In November, two openly LGBTQ+ candidates ran against each other in a congressional race for the first time in US history.

Robert Zimmerman (left) and George Santos. Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images ; George Santos For Congress

Democrat Robert Zimmerman and Republican George Santos, both openly gay, faced off in the midterms in a bid to represent New York's 3rd congressional district. The nature of the election itself is already historic, and whoever wins will become the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent the New York district, The Hill reported.

The race has not yet been called.

Maura Healey made history as the first openly lesbian governor elected in the US when she won her Massachusetts gubernatorial race.

Maura Healey. Thomson Reuters

Healey, who was also the first openly LGBTQ state attorney general, defeated Republican opponent state Rep. Geoff Diehl to become governor of Massachusetts.

"I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be," she said in her victory speech, NBC News reported. "And nothing and no one can ever get in your way except your own imagination, and that's not going to happen."

Robert Garcia became the first openly LGBTQ+ immigrant elected to Congress.

Robert Garcia. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

Garcia, who immigrated to the US from Peru when he was 5 years old, will represent California's 42nd district. He previously served as the youngest, first openly gay, and first immigrant mayor of Long Beach, Yahoo! News reported.

Becca Balint's midterm victory made her the first woman and first LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress.

Becca Balint. Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Vermont was the only state that had never sent a woman to Congress until Balint defeated Republican opponent Liam Madden.

"Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible," Balint wrote in an Instagram caption on election night. "We're still capable of change and progress. Tonight, after 231 years, Vermonters are sending a woman and openly gay person to Congress for the first time."

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An employee from the 99 Ranch Market in Chino Hills, California, was arrested for attacking his co-worker with a meat cleaver.

Marlon Uy, 57, of Pomona, California, allegedly armed himself with a meat cleaver and struck his co-worker multiple times in the upper torso during a heated argument at the 99 Ranch Market at Peyton Drive on Oct. 9.

After an exchange of words, the suspect armed himself with a cleaver and struck the victim multiple times in the upper torso, San Bernadino County Deputy Sheriff Komson Phaphui said. The victims co-workers intervened and separated the suspect from the victim.

According to authorities, Uy and his co-worker had a long-standing feud.

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The unidentified victim was taken to a hospital. His condition is unknown. No other injuries were reported at the scene.

Uy remained at the scene and was booked on suspicion of attempted murder at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where he is being held on a $1 million bail, according to San Bernardino County jail records. He is scheduled to make a court appearance at Rancho Superior Court on Nov. 15.

No further details about the incident have been released.

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Victim Fahad Hossain Pramanik, 27, was in the "wrong place at the wrong time" when he was killed, the jury heard. (SWNS)

Two abattoir workers tortured and stabbed two men to death before mutilating their bodies and laying them out like "butchered pigs", a court heard.

Ionut-Valentin Boboc, 22, and Jacob-Bebe Chers, 46, have gone on trial at Bristol Crown Court accused of the double murder of Denzil McKenzie, 56, and Fahad Hossain Pramanik, 27, in September last year,

The victims were stabbed multiple times - with some injuries resembling how animals are butchered in an abattoir, the jury was told.

McKenzie and Pramaniks partially cut up and exposed remains, were then laid up in a macabre display in a house, prosecutors said.

Read more: 'Drunk' digger driver goes on rampage and smashes JCB into house

The trial is being held at Bristol Crown Court. (PA)

The court heard that Boboc, who was 21 and his co-defendant Chers, aged 45 at the time, were friends who worked together at an abattoir just outside of Bristol on the production line.

Prosecutor Mr Stephen Dent KC said on the evening of 11 September last year, the two defendants visited the home of Mr McKenzie in Easton in Bristol, who was known to both of them.

Mr Dent said messages showed Boboc had regularly borrowed money from Mr McKenzie sometimes in return for sexual favours, and he tricked his way in on the night of the killings.

He said: "He (Bobic) was repeatedly was asking for money and agreeing to sexual services (in exchange) but expressing he felt conflicted about this and making threats of violence to Mr McKenzie."

The second victim Mr Pramanik was simply in the "wrong place at the wrong time", the jury heard.

While inside, Mr Dent said the defendants "jointly" inflicted multiple stab wounds.

Read more: Shocking footage shows woman on mobility scooter dragging dog along road

Mr Dent told the jury: "Both men had been stabbed repeatedly while trying to defend themselves.

"Denzil McKenzie had 23 knife wounds - the most serious of these to his neck - and there were signs he had been tortured by the infliction of severe pain with cuts around his eye, on his eyeball and a cut on his big toenail.

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"Mr Pramanik was stabbed at least three times in the back and abdomen.

He added: "They inflicted further injuries on Mr Pramanik after his death. He had been dismembered in a gruesome echo of the butchering the defendants carried out in the abattoir on pigs."

Mr Dent said the defendants went to "great lengths" to cover up the evidence trail, including wiping blood off walls and cleaning up other surfaces.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of Boboc and Chers walking towards the address at 8.30pm on the night of the killings, and then coming back the same way at around 11pm allegedly carrying stolen property.

Mr Dent added: "At the time they were killed the only other people in the house were these two defendants.

He told the court Boboc, went home, spoke to his family, and told them he and Chers had killed two men.

He said his family initially thought he was joking but became concerned and phoned police the next day who went to the property and found the mutilated bodies.

The prosecutor said the defendants then tried to get rid of the knife and clothing and were subsequently arrested.

The prosecution case is that they carried out the killing jointly.

Boboc, of Hillfields, Bristol, has admitted the murder of Mr McKenzie but denies killing Mr Pramanik, while Chers, also of Hillfields, denies both murders.

The trial continues.
Counterprotesters in front of a rally encouraging voters to vote yes on Amendment 2, which would have added a permanent abortion ban to Kentucky's constitution, at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort in October. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly five months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a number of states voted in favor of abortion rights in Tuesdays midterm elections.

By early Wednesday morning, a proposed amendment to the Kentucky Constitution that would say it does not include the right to abortion or require government funding for abortions looked poised to fail. If Amendment 2 had passed, it would have added the language To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion to the state constitution.

Amendment 2 was losing by about 6 points on the same night Republican Sen. Rand Paul won by more than 20 points in his reelection bid. Donald Trump won the Bluegrass State by 26 points in 2020. More than $6 million was spent on the race, with the majority coming from those supporting reproductive rights. The initiative was similar to a referendum in Kansas that was soundly defeated in August.

We fought a long and hard campaign to inform Kentuckians of what Amendment 2 would mean for the commonwealth, and we succeeded, Amber Duke, interim executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement. Alongside our partners in Protect Kentucky Access, we turned out the majority of Kentuckians who support abortion rights by canvassing neighborhoods, text banking, phone banking, taking the message to our social media networks, and talking to our friends and neighbors.

A volunteer with Protect Kentucky Access carries brochures with information on Amendment 2 in Lexington in October. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Kentucky currently has a near-total ban on abortion in place, with exceptions for rape or incest, after a trigger law went into effect following the overturning of Roe in June. The state Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments against the ban later this month.

In Michigan, voters chose to enshrine the fundamental right to reproductive freedom in their states constitution.

According to the Associated Presss unofficial tally of the results, by 9:35 a.m. on Wednesday, 56% of Michigan voters had approved Proposal 3, which would establish a constitutional amendment guaranteeing individuals the right to abortion, contraception and other reproductive health care.

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The proposed amendment, which invalidates conflicting state laws already on the books, allows the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, but not prohibit it if medically necessary to protect a patients life or mental or physical health. It also bars the prosecution of anyone who exercises, or helps another person exercise, their right to an abortion.

Proposal 3 flyers on a table for volunteers at in Dearborn, Mich., on Nov. 6. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

"Today, the people of Michigan voted to restore the reproductive rights theyve had for 50 years, said Darci McConnell, communication director for Reproductive Freedom for All, the coalition of advocacy groups behind the proposal. "Proposal 3's passage marks an historic victory for abortion access in our state and in our country  and Michigan has paved the way for future efforts to restore the rights and protections of Roe v. Wade nationwide."

The Reproductive Freedom for All campaign secured a record number of signatures for the ballot initiative this summer following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe, the landmark ruling that had guaranteed a nationwide right to abortion for nearly 50 years, but Republicans on the states election panel initially refused to certify it. In September the Michigan Supreme Court court ordered the measure to be put to a vote, ultimately cementing its path to the ballot.

Opponents criticized the measure as extreme and, in the run-up to Tuesdays election, sought to paint it as a Pandoras box that, they claimed, would allow children to undergo gender reassignment treatment without parental consent, even though the proposed language of the amendment includes no references to gender-affirming care.

Signs in opposition to Proposal 3 during a Unite America rally in Dearborn, Mich., on Oct. 30. (Nic Antaya for the Washington Post via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Support MI Women & Children, a coalition of anti-abortion groups that campaigned against Proposal 3, issued a statement vowing to challenge the amendment with a flood of litigation.

In Vermont, Proposal 5 cruised to a victory with nearly 80% support, ensuring protections for abortion access, contraception and sterilization. The passage adds the following language to the states constitution: That an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine ones own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.

Campaign signs opposing and supporting a proposed amendment to the Vermont Constitution that would guarantee access to reproductive rights, including abortion. (Wilson Ring/AP)

The Vermont for Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee, which promoted the amendment, was supported by the state's branches of the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood, as well as the Alliance for a Better Vermont.

Vermonters support reproductive freedom in all four corners of the state, the committee said in a statement, and they believe that our reproductive decisions are ours to make without interference from politicians.

Later in the evening, the Associated Press called the race for Proposition 1 in California for abortion advocates. Proposed following the decision that overturned Roe, the initiative will amend the state constitution to expressly include an individuals fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which includes the fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and the fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.

Students at a rally endorsing Proposition 1 at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 6. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile, in Montana, the fate of a legislative referendum on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was still too close to call. As of Wednesday morning, LR-131 was failing by about 6 points, another win for reproductive rights activists. If victorious, the law would declare that an embryo or fetus born alive, at any gestational age, is a legal person with the right to medical care, and would penalize doctors who fail to make every effort to save the life of an infant born prematurely or during an attempted abortion.
Opinion polls have said it for years, and the 2022 US midterm election finally confirmed it: Americans are in favor of abortion rights.

Questions pertaining abortion were on the ballot in five states, and two gubernatorial races posed immediate consequences in terms of access to abortion. All of them, including in the Republican stronghold of Kentucky, went in favor of preserving abortion rights.

Read more

After the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, access to abortion remains under threat, banned, or severely limited in a majority of states. Yet the midterm results so far suggest that supporting measures against reproductive rights proved counterproductive for Republicans, who had better success galvanizing the anti-choice vote when the right to abortions was still a constitutional guarantee nationwide.

Abortion rights will now be enshrined in the California, Michigan, and Vermont state constitutions

California, Michigan, and Vermont had proposed amendments that would add protection of abortion rights in their state constitutions. In all three states, the amendments appeared to pass with strong majorities: 77% in Vermont, where more than 95% votes have been counted; 56% in Michigan, with 87% votes in; and 65% in California, with 42% of votes counted.

Kentucky and Montana rejected anti-choice laws

In Kentucky, a Republican stronghold, a constitutional amendment to explicitly deny the right to abortion was on the ballot. It was rejected by 52.5% of voters, with 90% reporting.

Montana, another red state, voted against a referendum to force doctors to try and treat fetuses aborted due to medical conditions incompatible with life, and to impose criminal penalties on those who dont. With 82% of votes counted, a majority of voters rejected the measure.

Her body, her choice

Political analysts had warned that American women werent going to be galvanized by the focus on abortion, and that putting reproductive rights at the center of the Democratic agenda was going to backfire. But voters showed up for abortion, essentially curbing what was expected to be a red wave, and demonstrating that the protection of fundamental womens rights is supported by US voters of both major parties.



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Data on voter turnout wont be available for a while, but women are the largest group of US voters. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, a research initiative by Rutgers University, more than 74% women are registered to vote, compared to 70% men. Similarly, the US census found that nearly 10 million more women than men voted in the 2020 election.

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BOSTON (AP)  Massachusetts voters are weighing starkly different candidates for governor as they cast their ballots.

The election pits Democrat Maura Healey, who would be the states first woman and first openly gay candidate elected governor, against Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative who was endorsed by Donald Trump.

If elected, Healey would return the governors office to Democratic hands for the first time in eight years. The office is currently held by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who opted against seeking a third term.

Diehl, if he wins, would extend the states recent history of electing GOP governors. Since 1991, Republicans have held the corner office for all but eight years while Democrat Deval Patrick served as governor.

Healey and her lieutenant governor candidate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, are among three all-female governor/lieutenant governor tickets in the U.S. that began Election Day with a chance to become the first such pairing elected to lead a state.

Arkansas Republicans nominated Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor and Leslie Rutledge for lieutenant governor. And in Ohio, Democrat Nan Whaley is running for governor with Cheryl Stephens as her running mate.

Healey could also become the first openly lesbian candidate elected to be a governor in the country. Democrat Tina Kotek, an openly lesbian candidate for governor in Oregon, is also on the ballot this year.

During the campaign, Healey pledged to expand job training programs, make child care more affordable and modernize schools. Healey has also said she would protect access to safe and legal abortion in Massachusetts in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The 51-year-old has ticked off what she considers her accomplishments as attorney general, including suing Exxon Mobil over whether the oil giant misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change and targeting OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family over allegations they deceived patients and doctors about the risks of opioids.

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She also led or joined dozens of lawsuits and legal briefs targeting a raft of Trump policies.

Diehl and his running mate Leah Allen Cole, also a former state representative, have promised to impose fiscal discipline, improve education by empowering parents, and get tough on crime. Diehl also championed a ballot question aimed at repealing a new state law allowing immigrants in the country illegally to obtain Massachusetts drivers licenses.

Diehl, 53, served as co-chair of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign in Massachusetts, a state that roundly rejected Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Baker, who refused to vote for Trump in both elections, hasnt endorsed or campaigned for Diehl.

Healey warned Diehl would bring Trumpism to Massachusetts.

The two have split on whether the state should repeal the new law giving those in the country illegally the ability to obtain Massachusetts drivers licenses. Healey said the law enhances public safety while Diehl has said it opens the door to drivers using the licenses to illegally register to vote.

The two have also clashed on abortion. Healey said she would protect access to abortion, while Diehl, who hailed the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, said his job would be to protect peoples health care choices.

If she wins, Healey  elected eight years ago as the nations first openly gay attorney general  would also snap the curse of the attorney general. Since 1958, six former Massachusetts attorneys general have sought the governors office. All failed.

Diehl was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

In the race for secretary of the commonwealth, Democratic Secretary William Galvin is squaring off against Republican Rayla Campbell, who would be the first Black person to serve in the post.

And in the contest for state auditor, Democratic state Sen. Diana DiZoglio is facing Republican Anthony Amore.

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The UN human rights chief said Alaa Abdel Fattah's life was "at acute risk"

The family of jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah have demanded authorities in Cairo provide proof he is still alive.

His sister told the BBC that they were in a state of "panic" three days after he said he would stop drinking water.

"We don't know if he's alive or not. Is he handcuffed and put on an IV drip?" Sanaa Seif said. "I have no idea."

She appealed to the UK to press Egypt for concrete information about her brother and then secure his release.

"I'm really worried and I want to ask Rishi Sunak that please, while you're working on his release, let's try to make sure he's actually alive."

The British prime minister told the House of Commons on Wednesday that he had raised Abdel Fattah's case with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh and that his "deep concern" grew "more urgent by the day".

"We will continue to press the Egyptian government to resolve the situation," he said. "We want to see Alaa freed and reunited with his family as soon as possible."

However, when pressed by Labour leader Keir Starmer on whether any progress had been made in securing Abdel Fattah's release, Mr Sunak did not provide an answer.

On Tuesday, UN human rights chief Volker Turk warned that Abdel Fattah's life was "at acute risk" and described him as one of a number of people in Egypt who had been "arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and incarcerated after unfair trials on multiple occasions".

"We're just panicking," Sanaa Seif said in an interview with the BBC from Sharm el-Sheikh, where she said the family had been buoyed by solidarity from around the world.

"We're trying to keep things together because, if he's alive, he can be saved."

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he had been assured by Mr Sisi that Egypt was "committed to ensuring that [the] health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved".

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Abdel Fattah's family has expressed concern that such comments might mean prison authorities were force-feeding him or putting him on intravenous drips against his will.

"I don't want my brother to die. I definitely want him to get medical help," Ms Seif said. "But I don't trust the prison doctors."

"I want someone from the British embassy to have access to him - to be an observer to whatever is happening."

Ms Seif said their brother was "putting his body on the line at this very critical time because it might be his only hope for survival, for getting his life back", adding: "An endless life in prison is not a life."

"If he's conscious, if he's alive, I'm pretty sure he is happy now and content because - for once - he's been able to say no."

Ms Seif, a human rights defender who has been jailed three times herself for advocating for her brother, said she believed that Egypt was using his imprisonment to "set an example to a generation of Egyptians who believe in freedom and democracy".

Abdel Fattah, a 40-year-old father of one, first rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising that forced long-time President Hosni Mubarak to resign.

Since Mr Sisi came to power in 2014 after leading the military's overthrow of Mubarak's democratically elected successor, he has spent most of the time in prison or police detention.

Last year, he was convicted of "spreading false news" in a Facebook post - a charge human rights groups condemned as spurious - and sentenced to five years in prison.

He began a partial hunger strike in April, hoping to pressure Egypt into at least allowing British diplomats to visit him.

With authorities continuing to refuse consular access, Abdel Fattah told his family in a letter from Wadi al-Natroun prison on 31 October that he would drink only water until the start of COP27 of Sunday and would then stop even doing that.

His other sister, Mona Seif, tweeted on Wednesday evening that their mother had waited for three days in a row outside the prison and was once again "leaving without a letter from Alaa Abdel Fattah, an explanation from authorities or any proof of life".

Mama just called me, once again she is leaving without a letter from Alaa Abd El Fattah , an explanation from authorities or any proof of life!



This is not the first time they do this with us, where Alaa suddnely disappears into a black hole .. but this is by far the cruelest.  Mona Seif (@Monasosh) November 9, 2022

Earlier, she told the BBC's Breakfast programme that prison officials were claiming that Abdel Fattah had refused to write a letter.

"We have no way of verifying [that]. So we don't know if he is being prevented from writing the letter, or he has deteriorated beyond the point where he can't even be cognitively present to write us a letter, or if he is actually refusing to write the letter and something has triggered that response from him."

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary and the Labour constituency MP for Sanaa and Mona Seif, meanwhile told the BBC's Today programme that the Foreign Office should have acted sooner and used leverage that the UK had over Egypt because of a 4bn trade partnership.

"That is tremendous influence. Why has it taken months and months and months for the Foreign Office to act? The prime minister has effectively been dragged into this case because of COP. That should not have been the case.

"I've got to tell you that UK citizens have been badly, badly let down."
Four states have voted to change their state constitutions to remove a loophole allowing slavery as a form of punishment.

Voters in Vermont, Tennessee, Oregon, and Alabama voted Tuesday to end constitutional clauses that allow slavery or indentured servitude as a form of punishment.

Ratified in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in America, but it provided leeway for the practice as punishment for individuals convicted of a crime. Several state constitutions still have language allowing involuntary servitude for prisoners.

WHAT YEAR WAS SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN THE US?

Vermont Capitol building

Advocates for the constitutional changes hope it will help regulate and temper the use of prison labor.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2022: LIVE UPDATES

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Tennessee's initiative, which received bipartisan support and is known throughout the state as Amendment 3 , will alter the language to read: "That slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited in this State. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime."

On Wednesday, it was announced that Oregon voters also passed their version of the proposal after the results proved too close to call on Election Day.

The Alabama Capitol on March 22, 2020, in Montgomery.

Louisiana's voters rejected their own, similar proposal  Amendment 7  which read, "Do you support an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude except as it applies to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice?"

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Voters in Colorado became the first to approve removal of slavery exception language from the state constitution in 2018, followed by Nebraska and Utah two years later .

The movement to end or regulate the use of prison labor has existed for decades, since the time when former Confederate states sought ways to maintain the use of chattel slavery after the Civil War. Southern states used racist laws, referred to as "Black codes," to criminalize, imprison and re-enslave Black Americans over benign behavior.
The latest photo series from Armenian-American director and photographer Alex Nazari examines the long-term effects of Soviet rule on the land of his ancestry by highlighting what seems to be the national car, the Russian-made Lada.

Bottles of various liquids stacked on top of a Soviet-era Lada car in Armenia.

Nazari is the son of Armenian immigrants who escaped the ethnic genocide taking place in their country after World War I. Although he grew up in Los Angeles, Nazaris ideals and growth are intertwined in the unique mix of American and Armenian cultures. Taking a trip to his familial homeland has been a life-long goal.

Old man and Soviet-era Lada car outside a photo studio in Armenia.

Smiling Armenian Man in his Soviet-era Lada car, photographed by Alex Nazari.

On his first visit, Nazari was taken aback by the visible and emotional scars of Soviet domination. After World War I, Armenia was taken under Soviet rule until the 90s, he says. The effects of cultural suppression and tumultuous wars in the region were evident upon arrival, and I understood these new surroundings would inform my work in a very different way.

Even through the rough landscapes, he could see the beauty. Regardless of the endless strife, it was an incredible place  in a way that has never been discussed or shown, he adds.

Rear view of a brand new Lada car.

Pile of discarded Soviet-era Lada cars in Armenia.

It was then that Nazari began searching for the right angle for his Armenian photo series. I was just led by my curiosity and tried to explain this world through my eyes, hoping to show the human experience in an unexpected and honest way, he explains. I was looking forward to making work that did not feel restricted and suffocated by modern photographic technology nor would make an inaccurate projection of Armenia and its people.

He very quickly noticed that everyone in Armenia seemed to own a Lada automobile, a boxy, utilitarian model that has been in production since the early 1970s. Unfamiliar to anyone who isnt from a Soviet state, I was enamored by its significance to the society, Nazari says. The photographer, who has previously collaborated with hip-hop stars like Travis Scott, Future, and 2 Chainz, started framing his shots around these ubiquitous icons of Soviet control.

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Armenian women sell fruit out of the trunk of a Soviet-era Lada car.

Armenian men rest against an old Lada car outside of a local market.

Front end of a bullet-riddled Lada Car parked in front of a striking Oriental rug.

Nazari snapped pictures of women selling fruit out of their Ladas trunk, men resting against their Lada outside a market, and a Ladas bullet-riddled front end parked against a backdrop of an Oriental Rug. He took shots of shiny new Ladas as well as heaps of discarded versions ready for demolition. It was fascinating to witness so many different people from so many walks of life still dependent on this automobile, the artist explains.

One of Nazaris favorite photo moments was his picture of a beat-up Lada sitting right in front of two Armenian flags. Parked at the border between two ex-Soviet countries [Armenia and Azerbijian] in the exact region of disputed land and endless conflict since the fall of the Soviet Union. The symbolism was almost poetic, he notes.

Old Soviet-era Lada car parked in front of two Armenian flags, photographed by Alex Nazari.

Nazari hopes that his visual exposures of Armenia will help the people still living there to start an open dialogue. He says that 30 years later, most left with a turbulent post-Soviet experience of political and economic turmoil, a destabilized region, and still dependent and at the mercy of the Soviet power, the hopes and expectations of these ex-Soviet states have failed to materialize. Maybe war with our neighbors isnt the right answer.

The post Alex Nazari Photographs Armenia Through the Lens of the Lada Car first appeared on Dornob.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branded right-wing Fox News host Tucker Carlson a terrorist and said that he plays a massive role in political violence in the United States.

Like, I can tell you 110 per cent, one of the largest sources of death threats that I get is Tucker Carlson, the congresswoman from New York told The Breakfast Club radio show on Tuesday.

There is a major media outlet out there, a major news channel, that is fueling political violence in this country and we are acting like it is normal. It is not normal.

And she added: Every time that dude (Carlson) puts his name in my mouth, the next day, this is what stochastic terrorism is.

It is like this indirect, it is like when you use a very large platform to turn up the temperature and target an individual until something happens and then when something happens, because it is indirect you say oh I had nothing to do with that.

Tucker Carlson, God forbid anything happens, he plays a massive role in political violence, like it comes on his doorstep specifically.

Stochastic terrorism is a phrase used by academics and law enforcement to describe how ideologically driven hate speech increases the likelihood that people will attack the targets of those claims.

Ms Ocasio-Cortz has been a regular target of criticism from Mr Carlson, who called the former bartender a rich, entitled white lady on his show, leading her to rebuke him.

Rep. @AOC (D-NY) says Fox News host Tucker Carlson is "one of the largest sources of death threats" she receives:



This is like what stochastic terrorism is  when you use a very large platform to turn up the temperature and target an individual until something happens. pic.twitter.com/NV46CgDL2c  The Recount (@therecount) November 8, 2022

Her comments come several weeks after the husband of Hosue Speaker Nancy Pelosi was violently assaulted in a hammer attack at the couples home in San Francisco.

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Authorities say that David DePape, 42, was looking for the high-profile Democrat who is third in line for the presidency while shouting, Where is Nancy? at her husband.

Later on election day, Ms Ocasio-Cortez easily defeated her Republican challenger to represent a newly redrawn New York City district spanning the Bronx and Queens.

The progressive congresswoman was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, becoming the youngest person elected to Congress at the time. She cruised to victory in biennial House elections in 2020 and again in 2022, according to projections from the Associated Press.

This year, she faced GOP challenger Tina Forte, a prominent right-wing influencer who promoted QAnon slogans, shared bogus conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and live-streamed herself among the crowds outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Voters in New York have re-elected US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who easily defeated her Republican challenger to represent a newly redrawn New York City district spanning the Bronx and Queens.

The progressive congresswoman was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, becoming the youngest person elected to Congress at the time. She cruised to victory in biennial House elections in 2020 and again in 2022, according to projections from the Associated Press.

This year, she faced GOP challenger Tina Forte, a prominent right-wing influencer who promoted QAnon slogans, shared bogus conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and livestreamed herself among the crowds outside the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

Since entering office, the 33-year-old congresswoman popularly known as AOC has endured a wave of attacks from Republican officials and right-wing media as her international profile as a skillful communicator and fundraiser has surged alongside her popularity on social media and with her constituents.

Her small-dollar campaign fundraising haul topped more than $11m this cycle.

Due to recent redistricting in the state, after a combative reshaping of the states political boundaries, more than a half million New Yorkers lost and gained the congresswoman as a representative this year. Changes to the states congressional map this year have impacted roughly 3 million New Yorkers.

Redistricting in Queens and the Bronx has cut roughly 300,000 people from out of the district, though the district gained roughly 330,000 others within the new boundaries.

New Yorks 14 congresional district represents nearly 700,000 people.

As a member of the so-called progressive squad in Congress, the congresswoman has advocated for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, housing justice, criminal justice and immigration reform, student loan debt cancellation and abortion rights, among other issues on her progressive platform. She also sits on the House financial services and oversight committees, as well as a select committee on economic disparity and fairness in growth.

On her popular Instagram, she often highlights district issues, local businesses and organisers, hosts question-and-answer sessions, and offers a behind-the-scenes view of electoral politics, from explaining how Congress works to cooking dinner while arguing for cannabis legalisation.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Fox News fuels political violence in the country.

She particularly singled out host Tucker Carlson.

"One of the largest sources of death threats that I get is Tucker Carlson," she said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday claimed that Fox News fuels political violence in the country, singling out host Tucker Carlson.

"We're acting like it's normal. It's not normal," Ocasio-Cortez said in a radio interview with "The Breakfast Club." "I can tell you 110%  one of the largest sources of death threats that I get is Tucker Carlson."

"Every time that dude puts his name in my mouth  the next day  I mean this is like what stochastic terrorism is," she continued, referring to the idea that public figures using inflammatory rhetoric can inspire political violence without directly calling for it.

She described the meaning of the term as: "When you use a very large platform to turn up the temperature and target an individual until something happens. And then when something happens, because it's indirect, you say, 'Oh, I had nothing to do with that.'"

"He plays a massive role in political violence," the progressive Democrat added of Carlson. "It comes on his doorsteps, specifically."

Ocasio-Cortez, a frequent target of criticism within right-wing and conservative media, has been vocal about the onslaught of death threats she's regularly received since getting elected to Congress four years ago.

Carlson has often mocked the lawmaker during segments on his nightly show. In February, Ocasio-Cortez rebuked him on Twitter after he called her in an episode a "rich, entitled white lady" and suggested an old Instagram video of hers was "an invitation to a booty call."

Ocasio-Cortez's comments on Tuesday come as elected officials have been experiencing an increase in death threats in recent years and concerns about political violence have been on the rise. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released last week found that nearly 9 in 10 Americans are worried about increased risks of political violence.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently assaulted in the couple's San Francisco home last month. David Wayne DePape, a 42-year-old man who reportedly spread right-wing conspiracy theories, was charged with breaking into their house and attacking him with a hammer. DePape was looking for the House speaker, shouting, "Where is Nancy?" at her husband, prosecutors allege.

A Fox News representative did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Saudi authorities released an American woman they held in custody since Monday in relation to a long-running custody dispute involving her daughter and ex-husband.

"US citizen Carly Morris has been released in Saudi Arabia & reunited with her daughter," the Freedom Initiative, which has remained involved in the case, posted on Twitter Wednesday morning.

Morris initially confirmed to the Agence France-Press that she was freed overnight and that she had been jailed for two days "over my tweets." She said she had taken her daughter from school as soon as she was released, but that her ex-husband took all of her belongings  including clothing  while she was in custody, claiming that he "took everything."

Morris traveled to Saudi Arabia for what she intended to be a short visit to allow her 8-year-old daughter, also an American citizen, to meet her ex-husbands family.

IMPENDING IRAN THREAT TESTS US-SAUDI RELATIONSHIP AFTER OPEC+ DECISION

But the Saudi code of guardianship leans heavily in the fathers favor, which allows the father to insist that his daughter remains with him. The kingdom itself placed Morris under a travel ban to prevent her and her daughter from leaving since her arrival in 2019.

Saudi women walk past jewellers at the Taiba gold market in the capital Riyadh on April 30, 2020, after the partial lifting of the curfew.

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Police in the city of Buraidah on Monday summoned Morris to the station and kept her there until Wednesday regarding tweets she posted in which she warned other women and children against visiting Saudi Arabia. She insisted that she was held with her daughter "against our will" in a hotel under "extreme and dire circumstances."

SAUDI PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN MOCKED BIDEN IN PRIVATE, QUESTIONED MENTAL STATE: REPORT

State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed Wednesday that the embassy in Riyadh was "very engaged" on the case and "following the situation very closely,"

"Were aware of the reports that Ms. Morris has been detained," Price told reporters. "Of course, the safety, the welfare of U.S. citizens overseas is the highest priority we have at the Department of State. We take our role in assisting U.S. citizens abroad extremely seriously."

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A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "We are aware of media reports of the release of Carly Morris. Due to privacy concerns, we have no further comment."

US SEEKS RELEASE OF AMERICAN CITIZEN SENTENCED TO 16 YEARS IN SAUDI PRISON OVER TWITTER POSTS

The Freedom Initiative applauded Morriss release on Wednesday, but stressed that she is not "truly free."

"While we welcome the news of her release last night, Carly is not truly free," the Initiative added. "She remains under travel ban. Her and her daughter must be allowed to safely return home to the US."

The Saudi Arabian embassy in DC did not respond to Fox News Digitals request for comment.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly has been including U.S. citizens and Western-based Saudis in a general crackdown on those the government sees as rivals or critics. In August, a Saudi court gave a 16-year prison sentence to a 72-year-old Saudi-American, Saad al Madi, for critical tweets he had posted over the years from his home in Florida.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(Bloomberg) -- GoerTek Inc. plunged its daily limit of 10% after the maker of Apple Inc.s AirPods disclosed it suspended production of an audio product from a major overseas customer.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Chinese company, which named neither the client nor its product, warned that decision could hit as much as 3.3 billion yuan ($456 million) of revenue in 2022. GoerTek, which also supplies Samsung Electronics Co. and Xiaomi Corp., said its relationship with other customers remain normal.

GoerTeks revelation ignited speculation that Apple, which is grappling with both flagging electronics demand and production disruptions, may be retooling a vast supply chain centered on China. Speculation in the market has centered on whether GoerTek might have failed to meet Apples typically stringent specifications.

We estimate this could be AirPods Pro 2 orders from Apple, Citigroup Inc. analysts including Mark Li wrote in a note, double downgrading the stock to sell from buy. We believe competitor Luxshare (our top pick) could conversely benefit from market-share gains, as we estimate it is a key supplier on this product.

Luxshare Precision Industry Co. climbed as much as 4.6% before ending little changed on Wednesday. Another GoerTek rival AAC Technologies Holdings Inc. surged as much as 15% in Hong Kong before paring gains to 3.4% at the close. AirPods assembler GoerTek representatives didnt immediately respond to requests for comment, while Apple wasnt immediately available for comment after regular hours.

Apple and its peers are grappling with faltering demand for electronics worldwide, as consumers cut spending in the face of a potential economic downturn. It expects to produce at least 3 million fewer iPhone 14 handsets than originally anticipated this year, Bloomberg News has reported.

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The US company is also dealing with unexpected issues across its global supply chain, including a lockdown of its main iPhone production facility in central China.

It is likely that the overseas customer is Apple, and the key product is AirPods Pro 2, UOB Kay Hian analysts wrote. Market rumours indicated that it was due to GoerTek missing the production yield target at the assembly plant, they added, citing unverified speculation circulating among market participants.

Read more: Apple Trims New IPhone Output by 3 Million as Demand Cools

--With assistance from Catherine Ngai, Jeanny Yu, Mark Gurman and Abhishek Vishnoi.

(Adds Citigroup Inc.s downgrade of GoerTek in the fourth paragraph and updates stock performance throughout)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
By Tim Reid and Ned Parker

PHOENIX/RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - Arizona and Nevada security officials remained on high alert on Wednesday for election-related protests and allegations of voter fraud, as they prepared for days of ballot counting to determine final results in key races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Hundreds of thousands of votes still remained uncounted in the two closely competitive states, which will help determine whether President Joe Biden's Democrats lose control of the Senate. Election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous, said it could take until at least Friday to tally all votes.

Despite fears of violence and predictions of voter intimidation in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's Election Day, officials said voting went smoothly in both states and that a heavy law enforcement presence had paid off.

In an interview with Reuters in Phoenix, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said his force had deployed helicopters, drones, deputies on horseback, and monitored people it considered potential troublemakers on social media throughout election week, and they remain on alert. Fencing and barricades had also been erected around the county's election department, deterring protesters, Penzone said.

"We took all the appropriate measures. We know what civil unrest looks like and how overwhelming it can be," Penzone said.

About 400,000 votes in Maricopa County remain to be counted, election officials said. The race for governor and U.S. Senate remained uncalled on Wednesday, with about 70% of votes tallied.

Republican gubernatorial candidate and election conspiracy theorist Kari Lake seized on the fact that about 60 electronic vote tabulation machines malfunctioned on Tuesday, raising fears she might exploit the glitches if she loses.

Jamie Rodriguez, the interim registrar of voters in Washoe County, Nevada, said during the state's primary season her staff was harassed by people convinced of election fraud. Her predecessor stepped down from her office this summer, citing the threats she received since former Republican President Donald Trump falsely claimed his 2020 election loss was due to massive voter fraud.

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At times, Rodriguez has seen herself referred to as a Nazi on Web postings by election deniers and she has had people accost her verbally in voting centers about election fraud. She has not received any threats like her predecessor, she added.

The race for Nevadas governorship and a U.S. Senate race also remained uncalled on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of mail ballots still to be counted in Washoe and Clark counties, which make up 90% of the vote in Nevada.

There's still a lot of election left," Rodriguez said.

(Reporting by Tim Reid and Ned Parker; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
Leer en espanol

Democrat Adrian Fontes has won the race for Arizona secretary of state in a closely watched race that revolved around faith in Arizona's election system.

The Associated Press, NBC and CNN all projected Fontes as the winner Friday night.

Fontes, a former Maricopa County recorder, was beating GOP rival Mark Finchem by 5.6 percentage points in the latest results released Friday night. He has led since the first release of votes Tuesday.

In a brief interview, Fontes said he accepts "that the media has made its best estimation," but said he respects the process and will wait for all votes to be counted.

"I hope this projection sticks and I plan to be a solid secretary of state for every Arizonan, not just for those who share my party affiliation," Fontes said.

Fontes said he will work with officials of all parties to build confidence in elections.

"I've been telling the truth about our elections," he said, explaining why he believes voters chose him. "They're secure, they're safe and they're accessible."

The race pitched Fontes, who touted his election experience, against Finchem, a state lawmaker who denied the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and maintained throughout the campaign that Donald Trump won.

They clashed over the 2020 election as well as various election procedures, with Fontes emerging as a defender of existing election practices while Finchem questioned the reliability of the process.

Finchem, who was endorsed by Trump, responded to the projection of Fontes' win on social media.

"The media does not decide elections, the voters do," Finchem wrote on various social media platforms.

Fontes held the lead in the race since first results were released Tuesday night. Finchem was one of two members of the America First Secretary of State Coalition still in the hunt for a state's top elections post prior to the race being called for his opponent.

Jim Marchant, the GOP candidate in Nevada and the founder of the coalition, is trailing slightly behind Democrat Francisco Aguilar. Other members of the coalition have lost, either in primary elections or in general election matchups.

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Fontes was buoyed by leads in the state's two largest counties, Maricopa and Pima. Meanwhile, Finchem, despite leading in 10 of the 15 counties, saw no gain in his efforts to catch Fontes.

Full election results may not be available for several days as early ballots that were dropped off at the polls Tuesday are tabulated, along with provisional ballots.

Fontes jumped to an early and substantial lead as the first results were posted Tuesday evening, reflecting the Democrats' strong showing in mail-in voting. But Election Day voters narrowed that advantage.

By early Wednesday, Finchem was carrying 10 of the 15 counties, although he trailed in the urban counties, especially in Democrat-heavy Pima County. Both candidates have urged that all votes be tallied and neither has claimed victory.

Up in the air: Major races in Arizona that don't yet have a winner

The two candidates offered voters a stark contrast, from their clashing views on key election procedures to their roles in the 2020 election.

Fontes advocated for policies that would expand voter access while Finchem argued stricter oversight is needed of election administration to ensure the law is followed.

The post also is next in line to succeed the governor if the office is vacated for any reason.

Secretary of state race draws unprecedented attention

Mark Finchem (left) and Adrian Fontes are running for Arizona secretary of state.

The clash of opposites provided plenty of fodder for the campaign trail.

It also drew a level of attention not seen before, from coverage by national and international news outlets to the millions of dollars spent on what once was an obscure state office. The two candidates raised $5.3 million between them, not counting the more than $6 million spent by outside groups.

The fascination hinged largely around Finchem's insistence, without proof, that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. That stance has stoked fears that, if he was elected secretary of state, Finchem would not accept the will of the voters when it comes to certifying the results of the 2024 election, especially if Trump were the GOP candidate.

Finchem said he would accept election results, including in his own race, "as long as there are no votes counted that are outside of the law."

Rehashing 2020 election in Arizona

Much of the debate swirled around the candidates' positions on the 2020 election.

Finchem said repeatedly he had an "evidence book" of proof that the election in three Arizona counties was flawed, although he has not made that public.

He took credit for inspiring the launch of the Senate Republicans' ballot review of Maricopa County's 2020 election results, which actually found more votes for Joe Biden than the official tally.

Fontes defended the 2020 election as safe and secure, pointing to numerous audits done both internally and by outside experts. He charged Finchem's continued complaints about fraud are eroding trust in elections.

Fontes also characterized Finchem as an "insurrectionist" for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Finchem was present and joined the march to the U.S. Capitol, which he has characterized as a nonviolent protest by people upset with Trump's loss. Organizers of the Stop the Steal movement credit Finchem for launching the effort in Arizona to overturn the election results. Finchem introduced legislation to do just that, but the bill never got a hearing.

Mark Finchem and Jan. 6: How the secretary of state candidate was involved

Differences on the basics

The candidates offered starkly different views on some of the fundamentals of Arizona's election process.

Finchem attacked Fontes for straying from the guardrails of election law, prompting his ubiquitous mantra of "Just follow the law." He points to several moves Fontes made as recorder that spurred court intervention.

Fontes has said his intent was to make it easier for voters to cast their ballots. He is a proponent of further expanding early voting, such as creating nighttime and weekend hours at vote centers around the state.

Finchem argued Arizona should return to voting only in person on Election Day, with limited allowances for absentee voting. He wanted a hand count of ballots, with no machines involved. Finchem, along with gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, unsuccessfully sued to ban the use of machines in this year's elections, arguing they were vulnerable to hackers who could change voters' ballots.

They have filed a notice of appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Finchem and Fontes diverged on the prospect of hand-counting elections, especially as Cochise County announced plans last month to hand-count every ballot cast in this month's election.

Finchem supported it, given his distrust of machines. Fontes called the proposal "problematic" because it imperils accuracy and the confidentiality of the vote.

"The people that are proposing this have got their heads squarely up their rear ends," he said. "This is just a bad, bad idea."

"We don't have any major issues in our election system," Fontes said. "This is all made-up problems, it's part of the Big Lie."

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona secretary of state election: Adrian Fontes beats Mark Finchem
Bill Gates discussing Maricopa machine issues John Moore/Getty Images

Malfunctioning voting machines in Arizona's biggest county, Maricopa, spurred an outpouring of fraud claims by leading right-wing figures on Election Day.

The pivotal county reported issues with the vote-counting machines in some polling locations, but later confirmed that the problem was with the printers, not the software, reports The New York Times. County officials also emphasized that no ballots were mishandled and that nobody was prevented from voting. "None of this indicates any fraud," said Republican Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors. "This is a technical issue."

Despite this, the issue roused claims of fraud with former President Donald Trump writing on Truth Social, "Can this possibly be true when a vast majority of Republicans waited for today to Vote?" Arizona is of particular importance to Trump as it was the first state he targeted in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Bloomberg reports.

Arizona has battled fraud claims throughout the election season, including from candidates Kari Lake (R) and Blake Masters (R). Arizona also had instances of harassment by poll watchers that ended up being barred by a judge.

There were issues in some other states as well, including with voting machines in Mercer County, New Jersey, and the laptop to check voter registrations in Fort Bend County, Texas. However, officials overwhelmingly confirm that none of the incidents are indicative of fraud and that overall, elections in 2022 took place with minimal issues, CNN reports.

This hasn't stopped Trump, who added, "Here we go again? The people will not stand for it!!!"

Update Nov. 8, 7:28 p.m. ET: A Republican coalition has filed an emergency motion to extend voting in Maricopa County until 10 p.m. local time, citing concerns about voters potentially leaving line due to delays caused by the malfunctions, The Hill reports.

Update Nov. 8, 9 p.m. ET: An Arizona judge has denied the Republican emergency motion, saying there is no evidence that any voters were unable to cast ballots due to the tabulator issues:

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Republican candidate and former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is projected to win the governors race. She replaces term-limited Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson. Sanders will be Arkansas' first female governor.

Sanders was the White House Press Secretary under former President Trump from 2017 to 2019. She is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who served from 1996 to 2007 and was the state's lieutenant governor from 1993 to 1996.

She defeats Democrat Chris Jones, who is a nuclear engineer and ordained Baptist minister.

After Sanders voted in Little Rock on Tuesday, she told reporters that she doesn't think she ran a divisive campaign and focused on tax cuts as well as other issues that could unite Arkansas residents.

2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS: LIVE UPDATES

Sarah Huckabee Sanders visit "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on September 17, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

Hutchinson has served as the governor of Arkansas since 2015.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

During her campaign, Sanders pledged to further income tax cuts in Arkansas.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS 'CANCER FREE' AFTER THYROID SURGERY

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders discusses the Democrats' impeachment inquiry on "America's Newsroom" Tuesday October 1, 2019.

Sanders also had surgery to treat thyroid cancer in September, which was successful.

"I want to thank the Arkansas doctors and nurses for their world-class care, as well as my family and friends for their love, prayers, and support," Sanders wrote in a statement following the surgery.

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She beat Francis "Doc" Washburn in the Republican primary for Arkansas governor in May after announcing her run for governor in January 2021.

Fox News' Max Thornberry, Kyle Morris, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
MANCHESTER, N.H. - An Asbury Park man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty Monday to killing two men at a New Hampshire hotel last year, including one from Seaside Heights.

Theodore Luckey, 43, of Asbury Park, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for purposely causing the deaths of David Hanford, 60, or Seaside Heights and Nathan Cashman, 28, of Manchester, New Hampshire, in August 2021 at Country Inn & Suites in Bedford, New Hampshire.

Investigators said Luckey attacked Cashman in the hotel lobby with a machete and strangled Hanford in a hotel room. He was sentenced to state prison for life without the possibility of parole.

Luckey's lawyers had indicated earlier that there may have been issue related to his competency to stand trial.

Local crime:Freehold murder suspect threatened his mom, punched gassy roommate: Psychiatrist

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park man sentenced for killing Seaside Heights man in NH hotel
By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping it would be a positive development after years of strained relations between the two countries.

Albanese is set to attend the G20 summit in Bali, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, his office said on Wednesday.

Xi is also set to attend the G20, an adviser to the Indonesian president has previously said, but it is unclear if he will be at the other meetings in the region that Albanese will attend.

"I've made it very clear that dialogue is a good thing, and if a meeting is arranged with Xi, then that would be a positive thing," Albanese told a news conference in Canberra.

"We're organizing a range of meetings but they haven't been finalized," he added.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and China have deteriorated sharply in recent years, with China imposing trade sanctions on some imports from Australia and reacting angrily to Canberra's call for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.

Canberra on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into reports Australians were among Western military pilots who had been approached to help train the Chinese military.

The leaders of the two countries last met when Albanese's predecessor Scott Morrison met Xi at the G20 in 2019, according to Australia's foreign ministry.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told his Australian counterpart Penny Wong during a call on Tuesday that the countries should address each others' legitimate concerns and make contributions to address global challenges.

Both countries should work to rebuild trust and put their relationship back on the right track, a statement from China's foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Chris Reese, Himani Sarkar and Gerry Doyle)
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be a positive thing if one can be arranged on the sidelines of one of the leaders summits to be held in Southeast Asia this month.

Albaneses shift from neutral language about the prospects of his first meeting with the Chinese leader suggests the Australian leader expects that talks will take place.

Ive made it very clear that dialogue is a good thing, and so if a meeting is arranged with Xi, then that would be a positive thing, Albanese told reporters.

Albanese leaves Australia on Friday for an East Asia Summit in Cambodia, followed by a Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia, then an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in Thailand.

Albanese said his office was organizing a range of meetings with various leaders, which would be announced when details were finalized.

China-Australia relations have shown signs of thawing since May when Albaneses center-left Labor Party won elections for the first time in nine years. Beijing immediately relaxed a ban on minister-to-minister contacts.

Albanese has urged China to demonstrate good faith toward his new government by lifting a series of official and unofficial trade barriers that is costing Australian exporters an estimated 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year. But China has shown no signs of easing trade restrictions.

Chinas Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian said in August that Beijing would discuss with Australia whether conditions were right in November for Albanese to meet Xi in Indonesia during the G-20 summit. Xi is not expected to attend the East Asia Summit.

The meeting would come as competition for influence among South Pacific island nations heightens between Australia and China since Beijing struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands early this year that has raised fears of a Chinese naval base being established in the region.

Bilateral relations with Australia's previous conservative government soured over issues including Australian demands for an independent inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic and a ban on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei's involvement in the Australian 5G networks on security grounds.
Democrat Becca Balint is the winner of Vermonts at-large Congressional District race, NBC News projected. She is the first woman and the first LGBTQ person elected to Congress from the state.

With 72% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Balint had 61.5%, while her Republican opponent, Liam Madden, had 28.8%.

On Tuesday evening, Balint thanked her supporters in an Instagram post with a caption saying: "Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible. Were still capable of change and progress."

She added, "Tonight, after 231 years, Vermonters are sending a woman and openly gay person to Congress for the first time."

Balint's win against Madden, an Iraq War veteran, was widely expected. Vermont has not sent a Republican to Congress since it re-elected former Sen. Jim Jeffords in 2000.

Madden took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to congratulate Balint on her historic feat.

"Congratulations to @BeccaBalintVT for being Vermonts first woman Congressional Representative," he wrote. "Well Done."

Although it was anticipated, Balint's win was long awaited for women's rights advocates around the country. Her victory ended Vermont's status as the only state never to have sent a woman to Congress.

The future of LGBTQ equality and womens rights were on the ballot  and Vermonters delivered tonight," Annise Parker, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to increase the number of LGBTQ elected officials across the U.S., said in a statement. "For nearly a decade, Becca led efforts to pass meaningful legislation to increase fairness and equity within Vermont. Now, she is ready to do the same in Congress."

Of the 535 current members of Congress, 147 are women and 11 are part of the LGBTQ community. All 11 LGBTQ members of Congress  two senators and nine representatives  are Democrats.

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Balint, a former middle school teacher, is no stranger to political firsts in her state. In 2020, she became the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to be president of the Vermont Senate.

But even as a political leader, Balint, who is a lesbian, has faced pushback for her sexuality. In a campaign video, Balint said that when she and her now-wife first moved into their house in Brattleboro, their neighbor had an anti-gay sign.

I get out of the car, and Im pregnant, and at that moment I felt like, How are we going to make this work? she said. From a wave to a conversation to a borrowed lawn mower, things changed and the sign came down, and we felt the relief that comes when we stop turning away from each other and start meeting each other face to face.

Balint, 54, won her Democratic primary against Lt. Gov. Molly Gray with the backing of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Vermont icons Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerrys ice cream.

On Tuesday evening, Balint shared on Instagram that in Congress, she will fight for universal health care, "livable wages," reproductive rights, racial equity, "common-sense gun laws" and the safety of LGBTQ people.

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The state Board of Governors confirmed U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse as the University of Floridas next president on Wednesday, approving a five-year contract that will start in February with the possibility of a one-year extension.

The boards student member, Nimna Gabadage of Florida State University, was the lone vote in opposition.

The board, which oversees the State University System, also voted to pay Sasse a base salary of $1 million year, increasing it up to 4% each year depending on his ability to accomplish long- and short-term goals. Sasse will earn an additional $200,000 for each year he completes on the job, plus up to 15% of his base salary if he meets performance goals set by the university.

He could earn up to $1.35 million in his first year and nearly $1.6 million in his sixth year if his contract is extended.

The contract also states the board may terminate Sasse without cause upon providing written notice of such termination, and he would be assigned to other duties at the university at his base pay.

As part of the agreement, Sasse said he pledged not to speak at any partisan political events during his presidency and will freeze his political committee and fund accounts. He said he also wouldnt be a surrogate for any political candidate. He plans to resign soon from the U.S. Senate.

Board of Governors member Charles Lydecker, who sat on the UF presidential search committee, said he saw the pick as one that will elevate the entire university system. UF board of trustees Chairperson Mori Hosseini said he and his fellow trustees believed Sasse was the right UF leader for this time.

Sasse, who attended the meeting virtually because of Tropical Storm Nicole, spoke of his vision for the university. We aspire for Gainesville to be the center of a revolution for higher education in America, he said.

Board member Tim Cerio asked Sasse how, as a supporter of free speech, he would address opposition to his selection. He noted that the faculty senate leader and the student body president who voted for him both face consequences  a vote of no confidence for the faculty member and an impeachment proceeding for the student.

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Its important to recognize we live in a time where the subset of folk that are angriest get the most attention, Sasse responded. Its very important for us to recognize speech is not violence. ... One of the great uses of speech is so that we can have less violence.

The boards student member, Gabadage, who is from Tampa, asked Sasse what steps he would take to create an inclusive community at UF. In recent weeks during the selection process, the Nebraska politician faced fierce criticism over his stance against same-sex marriage.

Sasse said he planned to spend time getting to know the community with tireless passion. He reiterated his belief that every individual has immeasurable and universal dignity and said he will meet with the LGBTQ advisory committee at UF. He also plans to keep outgoing President Kent Fuchs as an adviser.

Rahul Patel, the UF trustee who led the presidential search, previously said the process was robust and that search committee members spoke to hundreds of prospects before narrowing the list to 12. Nine of those were sitting presidents of major universities and half were women and/or people of color, he said. None wished to move forward in the process unless they were named the sole finalist, he said.

The university has since released more information on the 739 prospects the search committee considered. The list included 422 white men, 218 white women, 32 Black men, 23 Black women, 20 Hispanic men, 8 Hispanic women, 10 Asian men and 6 Asian women.

Divya Kumar is a higher education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, in partnership with Open Campus.
Democrat Jocelyn Benson won reelection as Michigans secretary of state, beating back a challenge from a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Benson defeated Republican Kristina Karamo, a local Republican activist and community college instructor, 55 percent to 42 percent when the Associated Press called the race.

Benson rose to national prominence in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2020 election, where she defended the legitimacy of her states elections after attacks from Trump and his allies, and also co-chaired the National Association of Secretaries of States election committee during the 2020 election. She was among the most recognizable chief election officials in the country and has been a regular on cable news.

Karamo, her opponent, was part of a network of election deniers called the America First Secretary of State Coalition. Broadly, the network looked to undermine confidence in the 2020 election and supported more restrictive voter laws. More recently, she said that threats and harassment directed at local election officials were made up by her opponent.

Karamo also regularly alludes to a conspiracy theory that voting machines had flipped votes in the state, and previously said that the Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol were plants .

Bensons reelection campaign was aided by waves of television ads in the state that ripped into Karamo, replaying comments where she had compared abortion to child sacrifice. Bensons campaign and Democratic outside groups spent $10 million on ads in the state, while Karamo had no outside help, barely cracking six figures in spending herself.

Bensons most-played ad focused on her improving lines at local offices  the secretary of state in Michigan also oversees the states department of motor vehicles  and running elections that are secure, free and fair.

Bensons race is one of a trio of competitive statewide races in Michigan, where Democratic women control all three of the states top election offices.

Results here
President Biden said Wednesday that it would be "fun" to watch Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump battle one another in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

At a White House news conference at which he reflected on the unexpectedly strong Democratic performance in the midterm elections, Biden was asked which of the two Republicans he thought would prove a tougher challenger should he decide to run for reelection.

"It'd be fun watching them take on each other," he responded.

President Biden discusses the 2022 midterm election results at a news conference at the White House on Wednesday. (Reuters/Tom Brenner)

DeSantis cruised to reelection in Florida on Tuesday, defeating the former Republican governor turned Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20%. That showing, coupled with losses of candidates Trump strongly endorsed in the cycle, has renewed speculation that DeSantis's stock in the Republican Party is on the rise.

Trump announced last week that he planned to make a "major announcement" on Nov. 15, which political observers assumed to mean he would kick off his entry into the 2024 race. It's not clear if DeSantis wants to take Trump on, or if the 44-year-old governor is inclined to wait until 2028.

Trump himself seems keenly aware of the growing number of Republicans who have voiced doubts about whether he would be a better GOP nominee in 2024 than DeSantis.

"Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldnt it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?" Trump wrote Wednesday in a post to Truth Social.

Earlier in the news conference, Biden was asked whether Trump's likely imminent declaration of his 2024 candidacy would factor into his own decision on whether to run.

"My intention is that I will run again," Biden said, repeating his earlier comments on the subject. "But I am a great respecter of fate, and this is ultimately a family decision. I think everybody wants me to run, but we're going to have discussions about it, and I don't feel any hurry about it one way or another."

The president was also asked about exit polls showing that two-thirds of American voters did not believe he should seek reelection and whether this information might factor into his decision to take on either Trump or another Republican.

"It doesn't," he said.
President Biden on Wednesday pointed to early 2023 for when to expect an official decision on if he will run for reelection, while stressing that he intends to run again.

I hope Jill and I get a little time to actually sneak away for a week around, between Christmas and Thanksgiving, Biden said at a post-midterm election press conference at the White House. My guess is it will be early next year we make that judgment.

The president stressed that he doesnt feel pressure to announce his reelection campaign, regardless of whether former President Trump announces another White House bid. Earlier this week, Trump teased a very big announcement coming next week.

My judgment of running when I announce, if I announce my intention is that I run again, but Im a great respecter of fate and this is ultimately a family decision. I think everybody wants me to run, but were gonna have discussions about it, Biden said. And I dont feel any hurry one way or another to make that judgment, today, tomorrow, whenever, no matter what my predecessor does.

Biden took a victory lap of sorts on Wednesday after Democrats enjoyed an unexpectedly good night on Tuesday. While it is still possible that Republicans could win majorities in the House and Senate, the GOP margin in the House appears likely to be narrow, and Democrats have a fighting shot of retaining the Senate majority.

The races for power in both chambers were still too close to call on Wednesday.

Biden noted at the press conference that his party outperformed and called the results a sigh of relief for some.

The White House has for months insisted that Biden intends to run again, despite concerns from some Democrats over his age and his stubbornly low approval rating.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Pride flag in front of capitol Mariana Nedelcu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The 2022 midterms have so far brought a number of victories for the LGBTQ+ community. According to the Victory Fund, 678 LGBTQ+ candidates made it onto the general election ballot this year  a roughly 18 percent increase from 2020. Also, for the first time, there were LGBTQ+ candidates on the ballots in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Wins on the national level:

Massachusetts elected its first woman and openly lesbian governor, Maura Healey (D). Her victory flipped the governorship after eight years of Republican leadership.

Tina Kotek (D), another openly lesbian candidate, also made history after winning the Oregon governorship in a tight race.

In Vermont, Democrat Becca Balint (D) won the state's only House seat, making her the first woman and member of the LGBTQ+ community to hold the position.

California's 42nd District elected Robert Garcia (D), now the first openly gay immigrant to win election to the House of Representatives. Garcia immigrated to the U.S. from Peru at the age of five and was undocumented, but received his citizenship years later as an adult.

Eric Sorensen (D) proved victorious in Illinois' 17th District, making him the first member of the LGBTQ community to represent the state in Congress.

Wins on the state level:

James Roesener (D), a bisexual transgender man, was elected to the New Hampshire state legislature. He is the first transgender man in the country to be elected to a state legislature.

Erick Russell (D) was elected Connecticut treasurer, making him the first Black member of the LGBTQ community to win statewide office anywhere in the country.

Minnesota and Montana elected their first transgender legislators: Leigh Finke (D) and Zooey Zephyr (D), respectively.

Update Nov. 11, 2022: This article has been updated to include additional LGBTQ+ achievements in the 2022 midterms.

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How far off is Bio-Gate AG (FRA:BIG1) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

See our latest analysis for Bio-Gate

Is Bio-Gate Fairly Valued?

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (, Millions) -1.00m -1.00m -1.01m 1.90m 1.90m 1.91m 1.91m 1.91m 1.91m 1.92m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x1 Est @ 0.49% Est @ 0.35% Analyst x1 Est @ 0.26% Est @ 0.19% Est @ 0.14% Est @ 0.11% Est @ 0.08% Est @ 0.07% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 4.7% -1.0 -0.9 -0.9 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.2

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = 6.0m

Story continues

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (0.03%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 4.7%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = 1.9m (1 + 0.03%)  (4.7% 0.03%) = 41m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= 41m ( 1 + 4.7%)10= 26m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is 32m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of 2.9, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 29% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Bio-Gate as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 4.7%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.915. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Moving On:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price sitting below the intrinsic value? For Bio-Gate, there are three pertinent elements you should explore:

Risks: For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Bio-Gate (2 make us uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here. Future Earnings: How does BIG1's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every German stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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A record number of Black candidates from major parties ran for high office in this years midterm elections. While its still too soon to determine which party will control the House and the Senate, some states are already celebrating Black historic wins for jobs from governor to secretary of state.

Theres an electorate, Black people are the center of it, who are understanding our political power, said DaMareo Cooper, a co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy group. People are thinking about how their voice, and people who come from our community, should be the representatives and deciders for the type of society we want to develop thats inclusive for everybody.

The midterms brought a pair of historic victories in Maryland. The first was by Democrat Wes Moore, who beat Republican Dan Cox to become Marylands first Black governor and only the third Black governor in the country. Second, the state gained its first Black attorney general, Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, who defeated far-right Republican Michael Peroutka.

It is not lost on me that Ive made some history here tonight, too. But I also know Im not the first one to try, Moore tweeted late Tuesday. This is just more proof that progress is possible in Maryland. And I am humbled to be a part of this legacy.

Then-Pennsylvania Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidate Austin Davis speaks during a political rally (Francis Chung / E&E News/POLITICO via AP Images)

In Pennsylvania, all eyes were on the high-voltage Senate battle between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz, but history was being made in another key contest: the race for lieutenant governor. Democrat Austin Davis is projected to be the states first Black lieutenant governor. Democrat Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general, who NBC projects will win the governors race, endorsed Davis.

Black female candidates hoped to make history across gender and racial lines in several states, from Rep. Val Demings and Aramis Ayala in Florida to Chelsea Clark in Ohio and several women bidding to be the countrys first Black female governor. Although many of the races ended in losses for the Black female Democratic candidates, some states have ushered in new progressive representation.

Story continues

Democrat Summer Lee, who won in Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District, is the first Black woman elected to Congress from the state. Her Republican opponent, Mike Doyle, conceded late Tuesday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Then-Pennsylvania Congressional candidate Summer Lee leaves a polling location after voting (Justin Merriman / Bloomberg via Getty Images )

In Connecticut, voters secured the states first Black secretary of state in Democrat Stephanie Thomas. After years of working with nonprofit organizations, Thomas focused her campaign against Republican Dominic Rapini on combating voter suppression and false claims of voter fraud. And in Massachusetts, Democrat Andrea Campbell beat out Republican Jay McMahon to become the states first Black female attorney general.

Lets give credit where credit is due, said Aimee Allison, the founder of the voter advocacy group She the People. What we just saw in the midterms is that these Black women were able to inspire multiracial coalitions that enabled their wins. Exit polling is showing that women of color helped make that happen.

Along with making strides in representation, voters in a handful of states weighed in on ballot initiatives that would disproportionately affect Black people, one being the exceptions to slavery in state constitutions. Voters in Tennessee, Alabama, Oregon and elsewhere approved ballot measures to eliminate slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, according to The Associated Press. However, more than dozen state constitutions still permit some measure of slavery and involuntary servitude for prisoners, while several others have no constitutional language about the matter at all, according to The AP.

Now it is time for all Americans to come together and say that it must be struck from the U.S. Constitution, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told The AP. There should be no exceptions to a ban on slavery.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
(Bloomberg) -- Even after easing its terms, the worlds largest climate-finance coalition has failed to draw in some of the giants of investing.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero is heading into the COP27 climate summit in Egypt having agreed to let signatories avoid binding restrictions on fossil finance. The concession, which drew condemnation from climate activists, coincided with a GFANZ announcement that it attracted an extra 100 members during the past year, representing a combined $20 trillion in additional assets.

GFANZ co-chair, Mark Carney, recently said that instead of criticizing members for not doing enough, its time to focus on holdouts. We spend a lot of time talking about the activities of the 40% of the global private financial system thats signed up to GFANZ, he told lawmakers during an Oct. 24 hearing conducted by the UKs Environmental Audit Committee. Theres 60% on the other side and theyre not part of this scrutiny process.

That list includes some of the biggest names in global finance, including Blackstone Inc., Carlyle Group Inc., and Pacific Investment Management Co.

We havent changed our position following the recent developments at GFANZ, a spokesperson for Pimco told Bloomberg. Blackstone has no current plans to sign up to GFANZ, according to a person familiar with the firms thinking. And Carlyles global head of impact, Megan Starr, said the private-equity giant has set its own climate targets.

Still, GFANZ has some 550 members with roughly $150 trillion of assets in total, with additions this year including heavyweights such as T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Capital Group Inc. On Wednesday, the GFANZ sub-alliance for asset managers announced that AllianceBernstein and Northern Trust were also among new signatories. GFANZ is co-chaired by Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, and Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

Story continues

The past few months have seen some rocky times for the alliance, with some of the biggest members threatening to walk, according to people familiar with the matter. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley were among banks that signaled they would consider leaving the GFANZ sub-alliance for banks  the Net Zero Banking Alliance  unless a proposed binding restriction on fossil finance by an affiliated UN-backed group, Race to Zero, was withdrawn, the people said.

In late October, GFANZ said it was no longer a requirement to follow guidance from Race to Zero, and JPMorgan, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are still members. Wall Street bankers had felt well within their rights because GFANZ had assured them back in 2021 that theyd maintain full autonomy of their net-zero goals, according to people familiar with those talks.

When GFANZ was first proposed back in 2020, the UK COP26 presidency wanted the new initiative to be closely tied to Race to Zero so as to avoid a parallel and less ambitious structure that would undermine non-state actor mobilization, according to Ben Caldecott, who is director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, and was seconded to the UK Cabinet Office as the COP26 Strategy Advisor for Finance.

Even though GFANZ has now given Race to Zero a smaller role, some corners of the finance industry remain wary of the construction. Lawyers say thats not unjustified, in part as theres still no agreement around the fiduciary ramifications of net-zero commitments. Firms are also worried they may be accused of joining cartel-like constructions if they strike industry-wide agreements to decarbonize. And then theres the risk of making climate promises that firms dont live up to.

These may be voluntary commitments, but they are commitments nevertheless, said Sonali Siriwardena, partner and global head of ESG at Simmons & Simmons in London. So firms should be wary of being caught in the riptide of unrealistic ambitions as it may expose them to both litigation and reputational risks if they dont meet these commitments.

At Carlyle, Starr emphasized the desire to figure out the firms own path toward eliminating financed emissions.

Net zero by 2050 is the north star, she said. But it is so far off as not to be relevant without near-term targets. What matters right now is what happens in the next five years. Carlyle is focused on getting 75% of its majority-owned power and energy portfolio companies Scopes 1 and 2 emissions covered by Paris-aligned climate goals by 2025, Starr said.

Blackstone said its committed to creating value for our investors by prioritizing decarbonization in the near term. The firm sees an opportunity to invest $100 billion across asset classes in the energy transition and climate change solutions over the coming decade. Our approach builds on a decade of experience reducing emissions to help build stronger, more resilient and valuable companies, the spokesperson said.

Carney has defended the success of GFANZ by pointing to the growth the alliance has enjoyed. And in an interview to mark the first anniversary of GFANZ earlier this year, Carney cautioned against taking too critical a stand toward banks. The first step was to get the commitments from members of the finance industry, he said. The next step is the plumbing, whereby those commitments are operationalized.

The next step after that is actually taking the commitments and this operation and actually doing something, he said.

--With assistance from Natasha White and Frances Schwartzkopff.

(Adds reference to AllianceBernstein and Northern Trust joining the alliance, in sixth paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Airshow China kicks off in port city Zhuhai

Xinhua) 08:19, November 09, 2022

A YU-20 tanker aircraft takes part in the flying display during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Lu Hanxin)

GUANGZHOU, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in the port city of Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province.

More than 740 domestic and overseas enterprises from 43 countries and regions participated in the exhibition on-site or online. This year's airshow, which will last until Sunday, has an indoor exhibition area of around 100,000 square meters, and the number of aircraft for outdoor display exceeds 110.

A range of China's homegrown aerial vehicles performed at the opening ceremony, including the AG600M amphibious firefighting aircraft, the YU-20 tanker aircraft, the J-20 stealth fighter jets, and China's first homegrown large jetliner C919.

The AG600M aircraft, independently developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China to serve the country's emergency rescue missions, demonstrated its water-dropping function to the public.

Since its inception in 1996, Airshow China has become an important window for showcasing advanced aviation and aerospace technologies and equipment from home and abroad. It has also become an international platform for promoting business cooperation in aviation and aerospace technologies and equipment.

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows a YU-20 tanker aircraft during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

A YU-20 tanker aircraft takes part in the flying display during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Lu Hanxin)

J-20 stealth fighter jets fly in formation during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

A J-20 stealth fighter jet is seen during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

A YU-20 tanker aircraft performs during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

A YU-20 tanker aircraft is seen during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

Visitors take photos of a J-20 stealth fighter jet during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Lu Hanxin)

J-20 stealth fighter jets perform in formation during the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 8, 2022.

The 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, kicked off on Tuesday in Zhuhai. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's signature aircraft such as J-20 stealth fighter jets and a YU-20 tanker aircraft took part in the flying display at the airshow. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
BMW

New cars are more expensive than ever, but it's not the automakers that are reaping in most of the profitsit's dealers. Naturally, automakers want to cut out the middleman and sell direct to consumers, a la Tesla, and a number are taking the steps to do so in the near future. Reuters cites an interview BMW CFO Nicolas Peter gave to German paper, Muenchner Merkur, saying that the company is planning a direct-sales operation.

"We want to give customers the opportunity to order directly from us," Peter said. The current plan is to offer cars from Mini direct to consumers in 2024, with BMW brand sales coming in 2026. What's unclear is where BMW is planning on rolling out direct-sales programs. In the U.S., laws meant to protect dealers mean that automakers can't sell directly to their customers in many states. Tesla, which has never had dealerships, only has stores in 35 states, and in some of those states, it's only allowed to open a minimal number of stores. In Texas, Tesla has galleries, but consumers must pay for cars out-of-state, despite the fact that it builds many cars in the state. In New Mexico, its one store is built on tribal land.

Traditional automakers also have to deal with their huge dealer networks, which obviously don't want to be cut out entirely. Ford is working on a zero-negotiation online-sales program, but this will involve dealers in some capacity.

We've reached out to BMW for a bit more info on this program, and if it's coming to the U.S., and we'll update if we hear back.

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A University of Dayton student accused of sending a threatening message to the university via social media appeared in Dayton Municipal Court on Wednesday afternoon, according to online court records.

>>FBI assisting University of Dayton after threat investigation Monday; Student arrested on charges

Joseph Hartrich, 19, pleaded not guilty to charges of inducing panic and making terroristic threats, according to online Montgomery County Jail records. His bond is set at $50,000.

Hartrich was arrested Monday, according to online jail records. As of Wednesday afternoon, he remains in custody.

Also Wednesday, the university announced that Hartrich has been criminally trespassed from campus, according to a university spokeswoman.

>>Eaton Police Department warn of phone scam targeting elderly

The threat was posted to the social media platform Yik Yak on Monday morning, claiming that a specific building on campus was going to be shot up at noon, according to messages students sent to News Center 7. UD Public Safety has identified the building as Marianist Hall, a dormitory.

A investigation followed that involved University of Dayton Public Safety and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren said in a statement released to media Tuesday.

>>Federal prosecutors recommend Chinese spy receive 25-year prison sentence

The FBI Office in Cincinnati requested an emergency disclosure from the law enforcement section of Yik Yak, according to an affidavit and statement of facts related to the investigation. The FBI received a phone number and was able to track the location of the phone at the time the post was sent.

Thats when law enforcement discovered that the location of the phone was on the UD campus and the phone number matched records that led them to Hartrich.

According to the statement of facts, Hartrich admitted to investigators that he wrote the threat to Shoot up this school today at noon.




























From recruiting high school students to expanding programs similar to medical residencies, states are spending millions in federal aid to recruit teachers as regional shortages continue, particularly people of color who may find traditional programs costly or inaccessible.

Teaching residencies have exploded in popularity in recent years, with the National Center for Teacher Residencies network nearly doubling since 2018. Nationwide, at least 2,025 candidates are enrolled in residencies this school year, a sharp increase from the 792 four years ago  with 57% of candidates being people of color. By comparison, just 18% of the nations teaching staff is made up of educators who are not white.

Maryland, Texas, Missouri, Nevada, Georgia and Tennessee are among states using federal funds to boost recruitment via community-focused grow-your-own programs, according to a new report from the Education Trust.

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The residencies and grow your own models are touted by researchers and advocates as promising ways to recruit and retain teaching candidates and lower financial barriers to enter the profession as some regions are urgently looking to fill vacancies. The models are considered a far cry from other certification programs run by organizations which sometimes provide just weeks of training before new teachers are responsible for their own classrooms, and often result in higher turnover.

A 2019 report from the Learning Policy Institute and UCLA found the residency model, holds promise for both recruiting diverse individuals and retaining effective teachers.

Grow-your-own programs in particular target staff already working in schools, a more diverse group than current teachers, who often have a strong understanding of students and their communities. This includes individuals such as parent volunteers or paraprofessionals, said Meg Caven, an education sociologist with the Education Development Center, a global health and education nonprofit.

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How do you create a career ladder for the adults who are more likely to be folks of color, said Caven, from those uncertified positions into the classroom?

Related: Analysis: Study of 6 Grow Your Own Teacher Prep Programs Shows How They Can Improve the Diversity of the Workforce

Some may have had years of experience with students as education assistants, as is the case with many of New Mexicos Educator Fellows. The 300-plus cohort now in the two-year program receive paid leave to complete bachelors degree coursework and coaching to pursue licensure. Currently, 17 are building experience as instructional aids in Zuni Public schools.

And the majority of those are local individuals who are part of the Zuni Pueblo, and so that is a move to begin to have more representation in our classrooms, said Amber Romero, program director. Many of New Mexicos students may never be taught by an Indigenous teacher, though at least 35,000 of public students statewide are Native American.

The efforts come at a critical moment, particularly as rural and urban districts face acute shortages in special education, math, foreign language and English language learner positions. Early analysis of states American Rescue Plan funding revealed staffing to be a priority nationwide.

Two Vermont schools are among the 27 nationally utilizing a State Department program to welcome foreign language exchange teachers this fall, sponsoring teachers travel, salary, and living expenses.

South Carolina and Iowa are looking to another force already entrenched in classrooms: high school students. South Carolinas Teaching Fellows Program, funded by $1.2 million in relief aid, provides up to $6,000 in annual scholarships for young people pursuing teaching careers. Nineteen districts in Iowa will support high school students and existing paraeducators in earning credentials through the states Earn & Learn Registered Apprenticeship.

Related: New Tennessee Teacher Apprenticeship Program Hailed as Game Changer in Effort to Reduce Classroom Shortages

The strategy  recruiting younger adults to stay in their community  is appealing for states with large rural populations, where shortages are even more severe. Roughly 70% of rural schools said too few candidates applied to vacancies for the 2022-23 school year.

Part of the problem in Pennsylvania is we have teacher preparation program deserts, where it might be four counties over to the nearest college, so if you send somebody to college, they may never come back, said Ed Fuller, education researcher and professor at Pennsylvania State University. They may want to stay near their college, so [districts] have been trying to recruit their own K-12 students. But thats a long-term solution.

In Californias rural central valley, one small district serving many students in poverty has seemingly combined approaches  seeding interest among high schoolers, launching a grow-your-own program for staff and a residency program for recent grads. Lindsay Unifieds yearlong residency supports educators to complete a masters in teaching and full credential.

Staff and students can have their loans forgiven after teaching in Lindsay for 5 years; 120 have taken them up on the offer.

Apart from encouraging growth in the pipeline, the interpersonal benefits of residencies have impacted communities for years.

CREATE, a three-year residency hosted by Georgia State University since 2015, has seen 96% of new Black teachers stay in the profession by their fifth year, the point at which 17% of teachers typically leave.

Because residencies are grounded in their specific local context, programs can dig deep to understand what priorities are for families and schools in the district as opposed to a whole state. Seattle, for instance, hones elementary teachers to support Title I schools serving high proportions of students in poverty.

Providing a fellowship and stipend to these future educators opens doors to teachers who would not have been able to acquire the appropriate classroom credentials otherwise, said founding director of the Seattle Teacher Residency Marisa Bier. This work has proven imperative in bridging the demographic divide between teachers and students by recruiting and retaining BIPOC educators in the Seattle community.

New York Universitys one-year residency, which has grown from about 12 prospective educators in 2016 to now 160, similarly stays focused on districts and families priorities. About half of their current cohort are specializing in special education and many more are seeking TESOL certification because of NYCs student population and priorities.

Its sort of a needs-based shuffle, said professor and residency co-director Frank Pignatosi. At NYU, as with many higher-ed housed residencies, there is no GRE requirement for applicants. The decision is intentional, an acknowledgement of the resources, financial and otherwise, involved.

The reality is not lost on New Mexicos Romero, who supports educator assistants exceptional at their work, eager to become teachers, yet navigating economic and family realities.

Many of them are women of color. Many of them are mothers and so they dont have the luxury of not working and going to school. They have to have this job for the benefits, she said. And then they can only take one or two classes at night while theyre trying to raise a family.

Stipends, personalized professional development, and social support can make all the difference for prospective educators looking for a way in, and for the districts eager to receive them.

It doesnt make it easy, Romero said, but it certainly makes it possible.
L.A. school board members elected Tuesday will oversee schools headed by Supt. Alberto Carvalho, second from left. In District 2, two candidates battled to replace termed-out Monica Garcia, left. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

In two tight races for the Los Angeles Board of Education, Maria Brenes, a community group leader with broad financial backing, was leading Wednesday morning in a bid for an open seat, while school board President Kelly Gonez was ahead in her campaign for reelection.

Votes are still being counted, with the next update expected Friday.

The contest between Brenes  the longtime leader of the local group InnerCity Struggle  and senior school board advisor Rocio Rivas was hard fought from the start, with both candidates underwritten by financial backers who ultimately resorted to negative ads after first using only positive messages.

Brenes' big-money donors included charter school supporters and Local 99 of the Services Employees International Union, whose members include cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and teacher aides. Rivas' big-spending backer was the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles.

On Wednesday morning, Brenes had 50.8% of the vote and Rivas 49.2%. The margin of votes was 852 in a district that includes downtown and adjacent neighborhoods, principally to the east.

In the other contest, the margin between Gonez and Cleveland High School Spanish teacher Marvin Rodriguez was a surprise. Gonez had claimed all the major endorsements, had a spending advantage of 47 to 1 and benefited from more than $450,000 in independent spending.

By Wednesday morning, the race was still tight for the seat representing most of the eastern San Fernando Valley.

Gonez had 50.3% and Rodriguez 49.7%. The margin of votes was 298.

Late Tuesday night, Gonez thanked supporters and said she expected to "have good news soon" but did not claim victory.

The outcome of the battle between Rivas and Brenes could influence the direction of the seven-member governing body for the nation's second-largest school system.

Rivas said she hopes to stop charter school growth and increase oversight of these privately managed public schools. In contrast, a top priority of Brenes is to shift more funding to campuses with the largest percentage of students who live in high-poverty areas affected by violence.

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The runoff between Rivas, 49, a senior aide to school board member Jackie Goldberg, and Brenes, 46, the longtime director of the Boyle Heights-based group InnerCity Struggle, had drawn in two unions and a pair of businessmen  who combined to hurl more than $8.4 million into the race.

All four candidates had pledged to address a dizzying array of challenges  declining enrollment, teen drug abuse, school security concerns, pandemic setbacks and wide achievement gaps affecting Black and Latino students  and have strikingly similar views on many issues.

But especially in District 2  the contest between Rivas and Brenes  the campaign was driven largely by the candidates' stances on the years-old debate over charter schools, plus the extent of backing they have received from unions.

Brenes by far raised more money than Rivas  and also benefited from a much larger independent campaign on her behalf. In all, independent spending in support of Brenes surpassed $5.1 million, while United Teachers Los Angeles spent close to $2.9 million in support of Rivas.

Businessmen Reed Hastings and Bill Bloomfield also poured $434,689 into a negative campaign against Rivas, hoping to erode a 14-percentage-point edge she held in the June primary, when four candidates were on the ballot.

The effort was substantially successful  enough so that the teachers union began to run negative ads about Brenes, although the union did not list the ads as negative spending in required disclosures through Tuesday.

Downtown and neighborhoods to the east have long been the political stronghold of Monica Garcia, who could not run again because of term limits. Garcia was known as a strong defender of charter schools  which are privately operated, mostly nonunion and supported by public school funding  and a key ally of Local 99. Garcia also worked closely with outside activists, including Brenes, over such issues as eliminating school police and steering more money into schools serving students they concluded had the highest needs, because of poverty, neighborhood violence and other factors.

Brenes embraced Garcia's legacy  and largely inherited her supporters  but wanted to avoid being pulled into the charters-versus-teachers union divide.

Rivas, in contrast, spoke directly of wanting to curtail the growth, influence and independence of charter schools whenever possible  although their rights to share public school space and funding are rooted in state law.

Rivas' background included working in the division that oversees charter schools for L.A. Unified.

In District 6, in the east San Fernando Valley, high school teacher Rodriguez, 43, tried to unseat Gonez, who was first elected to the school board in 2017.

Gonez was instrumental in the recent hiring of Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the longtime leader of the Miami-Dade school system.

While Gonez, 34, collected all the major endorsements, including that of the teachers union, the labor group did not spend significantly on her behalf. Even so, with $500,000 raised, Gonez had an overwhelming fundraising advantage  Rodriguez raised just $11,000. In addition, Local 99 and the political action committee of Netflix founder Hastings and retired businessman Bloomfield combined to spend close to $400,000 on her behalf.

In the June primary, Gonez, with 48% of the vote, had come close to winning reelection outright.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Credit - Gillian Laub for TIME

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has defeated Stacey Abrams in the Georgia governors race. Abrams acknowledged the defeat in an appearance in Atlanta Tuesday night, saying she offered congratulations to Kemp.

It was the second match-up between Republican Kemp and Democrat Abrams, a former state house majority leader, and the second time Georgia voted against electing a Black woman as governor; Kemp defeated Abrams for the governorship in 2018 as well.

In 2018, Abrams took ten days to acknowledge that Kemp had defeated her. The story was different the second time around.

I am doing what is clearly the responsible thing, Abrams said Tuesday night. I am suspending my campaign for governor.

After her first gubernatorial loss, Abrams star rose in tandem with her organizing strategy. She got significant credit for Democrats 2020 wins in the state in the presidential and Senate races, thanks to voting rights and engagement organizations she helped build starting a decade ago. After 2020 seemed to provide proof of concept, the impact of the Stacey Abrams playbook stretched far beyond her home state. Progressives had evidence that, by addressing barriers to voting and activating voters of color, they could swing long-shot states into their column. Still, now that Abrams has come up short for the second time, she and other activists emphasized that the strategy would outlast her candidacy.

Richard Abrams, brother of Stacey Abrams, and Carolyn (C) and Robert (R) Abrams, parents of Stacey Abrams, listen as she speaks to supporters at an election-night event in Atlanta on Nov. 8, 2022. Gillian Laub for TIME

What we architected in this state does not end today   she said. We know Georgia deserves more and whether we do it from the governors mansion or from the streets

Streets, baby, streets! someone yelled, and the crown cheered wildly.

Kemp shot to national prominence when he refused to help former President Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election. His re-election makes him one of the only Republicans to cross Trump and still keep his job.

Read More: Brian Kemps Revenge

As governor, Kemp last year signed into law Senate Bill 202, a sprawling elections bill that gave voters less time to request absentee ballots, implemented stricter ID requirements in order to do so, penalized groups who send absentee ballot applications to voters who had already requested them themselves and cut the hours of availability for ballot drop boxes. The new law also provided for more hours of early voting in many counties and earlier absentee ballot processing, among other measures. Republican supporters of the law say it improves voting security and this years high turnout as proof it hasnt made it harder for Georgians to vote.

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Republican Gov. Brian Kemp addresses supporters at a watch party after winning re-election on election night on Nov. 8, 2022 in Atlanta. Megan VarnerGetty Images

Read More: Millions of Georgians Have Voted. It Hasnt Been Easy for Everyone

Abramsand many other progressivesdisagree, arguing it suppresses the vote. During her campaign, she kept returning to one refrain: More people in the water doesnt mean there are fewer sharks.

By midnight, Abrams had left her election night party. As the lights came up and the music went off, attendees milled about and hugged each other. Some cried.

Lauren Bonaventura, a volunteer for the campaign, had come to Abrams election night party knowing she was likely to lose.

Theres always a small amount of hope that you hang on to, she says.

Gillian Laub for TIME

Asked why she thought Abrams was running behind the other marquee Democrat on the ballot, Sen. Raphael Warnock, she says, I hope its because people see that Herschel Walker is not a good person.

Lisa Borders, a longtime friend of Abrams, offers a different explanation for the loss.

Some of the men Ive spoken to, a lot of them were in her corner, but others didnt want a woman telling them what to do, Borders says. Im sorry, Im gonna call it for what it is, sexism. And this is Georgia. Were in the South. Men have been at the top of our ticket and the top of everything in this state since time immemorial.

Borders emphasized that Abrams is young and has plenty of time to do whatever she wants to do next. I would invite her to rest. Take it down a notch and just rest, and then come back and decide what you want to do.
Brooke Shields arrives at a movie premiere on Oct. 24 in New York City. (Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Brooke Shields doesn't regret any of her past  but she might rethink publicly disclosing that she was a virgin.

On Tuesday's episode of her iHeart podcast, Now What? With Brooke Shields, the veteran actress and model answered friend Ali Wentworth's question about whether Shields had many any "poor choices" as a young person.

"I mean, I think it was, in hindsight, a bit of a mistake for me to be so open about my virginity because it never left me alone," Shields said.

She said the topic had come up in a 1985 book that, although it was credited to her, was actually written by someone else. On Your Own is a book of guidance for college-age women, released as Shields herself attended Princeton University. The Pretty Baby star said she had written an in-depth first chapter, but the publisher didn't want it.

"They wanted a simple, stupid book," Shields said. "Like, 'I like leg warmers.'"

Shields addressed her sex life, because she wanted to help others.

"In it, there was one part of a chapter, where I discuss  not abstinence per se  but owning your choice," she said. "I would get a lot of fan mail from kids saying, 'Oh, my boyfriend's pressuring me, and I don't want to have sex. What do I do? My narrative was, 'You don't have to do anything you don't want to.'"

She recalled that it being "very creepy" that she then had to go on talk shows and speak to older men about the topic.

"I became the most famous virgin in the world," she said. "To be in the line of fire at such a young age in that way, I gained a resilience and it set me up to be ready for anything in this industry which can be difficult."

Shields also regrets waiting to have sex for the first time when she eventually did just that with her Princeton boyfriend, Dean Cain, at 22.

Friendly exes Dean Cain and Brooke Shields attend a glam event on Nov. 9, 1995, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

"I have regret around [waiting], because there was a sense of joy and freedom that I should have been able to feel within a relationship that was so lovely and so beautiful and sweet," Shields said.

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In November 2014, Shields noted in an interview with People that she had actually included a chapter about being a virgin in an earlier book credited to her, 1975's The Brooke Book. It was the idea of her late mother/manager, Teri, with whom Shields has long said she had a complicated relationship, largely because of Teri's alcoholism.

A young Brooke Shields sits with her momager, Teri Shields, in this undated photo. (Photo: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Later in Shields's new podcast episode, during a game of Never Have I Ever, Shields was asked if she had ever caught an ex cheating.

"I did not walk in on an ex cheating, but I was dating an actor," Shields recounted. "He said he had to go to L.A., because his house was flooded. And three days later when I called him  we were engaged  and three days later, when I called him, a girl answered the phone. And then the Enquirer called me and said that he had been seen at a restaurant with another actress."

While Shields declined to give the actor's name, she wrote in yet another book, 2014's There Was a Little Girl, that former fiance Liam Neeson had used the flooded house excuse when he left her while they were celebrating Christmas together.
Prince Williams/Filmmagic via Getty

A flashy Brooklyn preacher who was robbed of more than $1 million in jewelry during a livestreamed sermon last July has filed a lawsuit against radio personality Miss Jones, accusing her of tarnishing his reputation on the air in September, according to court documents first obtained by The Daily Beast.

Bishop Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 44, is asking for $50 million from Jones, whose full name is Tarsha Nicole Jones, and her employers, Paramount Global and WXBK/94.7 The Block, alleging that the commentator defamed and slandered him during her morning show.

Specifically, Whiteheadwho has ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, drives a Rolls-Royce, and was recently arrested for allegedly grabbing a woman by the neck mid-servicesays in the suit that Jones statements on Sept. 13 that he is a drug dealer, is using the church to hide that old drug money, that he assaulted the young lady, and that [his] church is where hes probably still doing his dirty work, are false.

Miss Jones above-listed statements directly concerning Bishop Whitehead are false, the filing states, adding that the on-air comments exposed [Whitehead] to public contempt, ridicule, aversion, and disgrace.

Miss Jones statements imply criminal activity and injured Plaintiffs reputation as a pastor, the suit continues. Miss Jones statements were published on-air and heard by thousands or millions of people. Miss Jones statements were made in a grossly irresponsible manner without regard for truth. As a result of Miss Jones acts, Plaintiff lost business deals, church members, and income.

Jones does not have a lawyer listed in court records and was unable to be reached for comment on Wednesday. Brian Ponder, Whiteheads attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first time that Whitehead, a onetime mortgage broker who served time in prison for identity theft, has gone after entertainers who questioned how he could afford his high-flying lifestyle.

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In September, Whitehead filed a pair of separate $20 million lawsuits against two YouTubers, claiming that their comments about him were defamatory and slanderous.

The complaints were similar to the new one filed against Miss Jones, with Whitehead accusing Demario Q. Jives and Larry Reid of calling him a con artist.

Jives claimed in a video a month earlier that Whitehead continued to wear the same jewelry that [he] got robbed in, said he engaged in drug dealing, and was involved with the Bloods and the Crypts [sic], according to court papers cited by the New York Post.

Im a commentator, Jives told the outlet. I give commentary on religion, politics, public figures, everything.  We make a lot of jokes, especially about this particular situation, because this guy really is a joke. So for him to try to even file something is egregious.

Last month, Whitehead sued Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Financial Services when the lender dinged his credit score over a late payment on his $300,000 vehicle. He claimed his monthly payments were up-to-date, and was shocked and dismayed to see that his credit score dropped ~70 points as a result of the supposed error.

In 2021, a parishioner of Whiteheads accused him of duping her out of her life savings. That same year, he was sued by a New Jersey real estate developer over more than $330,000 in unpaid bills. Earlier this month, the Post described Whitehead as a slumlord for reportedly trying to evict 11 low-income tenants from four properties he owns in Connecticut.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Student musicians rehearse at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima. Proposition 28 will require the state to provide about $1 billion for music and arts education in K-12 schools starting next year. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

California schools will receive a boost of about $1 billion for music and arts education starting next year after voters approved Proposition 28 on Tuesday, early election results show.

The measure was designed to replenish resources for K-12 courses such as dance, theater and graphic design that are typically the first to be cut from school budgets during financial downturns.

Proposition 28 does not raise taxes, but instead creates a guaranteed annual funding stream for music and arts education by requiring the state to set aside an amount that equals 1% of the total funding already provided to schools each year.

Tuesday's voter approval does not come as a surprise; Proposition 28 faced no official opposition and received widespread support, including from celebrities such as Christina Aguilera and Barbra Streisand, who promoted the measure as a way to diversify the Hollywood industry and create more equity in schools.

The Associated Press called the race, though official results will take longer.

Proponents of the measure also pointed to research that shows that arts courses can improve students' cognitive development and other academic and social benefits.

Despite a record-high state budget, and a legal requirement to offer music and arts education in some capacity, only 1 in 5 public schools in California has a full-time program, according to former Los Angeles Unified Supt. Austin Beutner, who led the effort.

The measure, approved by a wide margin on Tuesday, is set to give more to schools in low-income neighborhoods.

The proposition allows the Legislature to reduce total arts funding in years of economic trouble.

The California Constitution requires that schools receive at least about a 40% portion of the total state budget each year. The money provided by Proposition 28 will be in addition to that amount, and is to be used only for music and arts courses and teachers.

While the state provided $128.6 billion for K-12 programs in the budget finalized by Gov. Gavin Newsom this summer, it's still not enough to support the states nearly 6 million students, proponents said.

The estimated $1-billion increase in school funding under Proposition 28 is less than one-half of 1% of the states total general fund budget, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Jennifer Robinson chats with Gov. Newsom at a rally endorsing Proposition 1 at Long Beach City College. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

California voters Tuesday handed Gavin Newsom a second term as governor, choosing the incumbent over Brian Dahle, an unfamiliar Republican state senator from Lassen County who struggled to compete with the Democratic political heavyweight.

The race was called by the Associated Press shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m., with Newsom's early lead over Dahle predicted to grow as more results are tallied in the coming days.

The election solidifies the 55-year-old Democrat's success at the ballot box. Newsom captured the governors office in 2018 with the biggest margin of victory in more than half a century and buried the GOP-led effort to recall him by the same advantage three years later.

After easily defeating Dahle, the socially progressive governor returns for another four years to lead a state on the verge of becoming the fourth-largest economy in the world while simultaneously experiencing record homelessness, a dire shortage of affordable housing, and rising crime.

As he cast his ballot in downtown Sacramento on Tuesday morning, the governor pledged to continue to focus on the problems plaguing the state. He thanked California voters hours later in an election night acceptance speech with his family at his side, saying he was humbled to be elected for another four years.

"We have governors that won their reelections tonight in other states that are banning books, that are banning speech, that are banning abortion and here we are in California moving in a completely different direction," Newsom said. "That's a deep point of pride and it's with that passion that I bring to this second term a resolve to do more to advance that cause of freedom and fairness."

Tuesday ended an unusually quiet campaign from a governor who vigorously defended himself against the recall effort last year.

President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders all stepped up in 2021 to support Newsom with appearances on the campaign trail and in advertisements, helping the governor's political team cast his top replacement opponent, Larry Elder, as a Trump-aligned extremist.

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This time around Newsom didn't call in any big name political reinforcements and he seldom acknowledged his opponent. The governor ran only one television advertisement that called out Dahle's opposition to abortion in May, days after a draft of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade made headlines, and participated in one debate against his opponent.

A 56-year-old seed and livestock farmer, Dahle served 16 years on his local Board of Supervisors before his election to the California Assembly in 2012 and to the state Senate in 2019.

Though a seasoned politician and well-liked in Sacramento by lawmakers of both parties, Dahle faced insurmountable odds.

I am not willing to leave this broken California to my children, your children and our grandchildren, Dahle said in Redding as he declared his intent to run in February. I cannot stand aside and watch corrupt one-party rule continue to poison the future of our state.

But Dahle failed to overcome the fundamental problems he started with nine months ago: An inability to raise enough money to spread that message and an "R" next to his name on the ballot in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

Newsom brought in $24.7 million in total contributions compared to the $2.5 million Dahle raised, according to a tally as of Tuesday.

Sean Clegg, Newsoms senior political strategist, said the leak of the Roe decision created an opportunity to focus the primary campaign on the issue of abortion and draw contrast with Dahle.

Newsom and his team changed tactics after the June 7 election and tried to generate attention on Proposition 1, a constitutional amendment to explicitly protect the right to an abortion. Newsom promoted the measure in his only in-state ad during the general election, which failed to mention his reelection bid.

"Once youve got a general election dance card and you dont have a lot of swing voters in this election, then you start to look at whats the most effective approach for my campaign to help the whole Democratic ticket in California," Clegg said. "Prop. 1 is a turnout driver to the extent that people know its on the ballot."

Led by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), Democratic lawmakers voted to place the measure on the ballot this year with the hope that it would inspire voters in their party to participate in the midterm election. Voters overwhelmingly supported Proposition 1 in early returns.

As a progressive on social issues, abortion rights is among several causes Newsom attached himself to since becoming governor in a landslide victory over Republican businessman John Cox four years ago.

Newsom relied on the state's historic tax revenues to fund an expansion of Medi-Cal to cover all immigrants in 2024, the expansion of paid family leave, two years of free community college and free preschool for 4-year-olds, among other programs to bolster the social safety net and provide more opportunity for upward mobility to those living in poverty.

But as a longtime owner of hospitality businesses, including wineries, restaurants and a San Francisco wine shop, his record wasn't quite as far left as his liberal image.

Newsom convinced lawmakers to pass a series of tough climate policies and at the same time extend operations at Diablo Canyon, reversing an agreement that environmental groups pushed for six years ago to shut down Californias last remaining nuclear plant out of safety concerns.

Civil rights organizations opposed the governor's plan to provide court-ordered treatment for unhoused Californians struggling with mental illness and addiction, arguing that housing and voluntary care is a more humane and effective method.

Newsom has pledged to continue to pressure local governments to build more housing and offer a more robust response to the homelessness crisis in his second term. In a bit of political opportunism one week before the election, the governor called out local governments for "settling for the status quo" on plans to reduce homelessness and urged more ambitious targets.

Tent encampments along sidewalks and under overpasses have fed a national image of California, which the national and state GOP seized on during the recall election and Dahle blamed Newsom for on the campaign trail. The housing crisis and rising crime seemed to be a potential vulnerability for Newsom, with opinion polls showing that voters were unsatisfied with the direction the state is heading in.

But political observers argue the outcomes of Newsom's reelection and the recall have been foregone conclusions since July 2021, when no other well-known Democrat chose to challenge him in the recall. The presence of a high-profile Democratic replacement on the ballot could have given dissatisfied Democratic and independent voters a viable alternative to Newsom and an incentive to oust him.

Newsom and his political team fought a shadow campaign to keep all other well-known Democrats off the 2021 recall ballot and succeeded, giving the governor an easy opportunity to compare his leadership with Elder's. Earning the support of 61.9% of voters made him an even more formidable candidate for reelection, scaring off any would-be challengers.

"I think he found his voice in the recall and hasnt looked back," Clegg said. "Hes found a different stride."

Newsom describes that difference as feeling a "deeper sense of urgency" and "more forceful in my willingness to express myself and to communicate that expression."

After publicly sparring with President Trump during his first two years in office, the governor channelled his frustrations with the GOP on Republican governors, with a particular focus on Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, after the recall election. The governor paid for billboards in conservative states promoting Californias abortion rights and took out advertisements in Florida criticizing the states GOP leaders.

His second term is expected to kick off with another fight with the oil industry next month, when, at Newsom's urging, lawmakers begin a special session to consider a windfall tax on excessive profits. The governor has repeatedly accused the oil industry of price-gouging California consumers.

"I'm a different person and I'm just winding up," Newsom said in an interview days before the election. "And that's just the coming attraction. If I have the privilege of doing this job for another four years, you ain't seen nothing yet."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
OAKLAND, Calif.  California voters agreed Tuesday to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, a widely anticipated result that represents a repudiation of efforts to restrict the procedure following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Proposition 1 easily passed in a state where lawmakers passed measures to improve access to abortion after the June decision.

"Tonight we celebrate reproductive freedom, and that loud clear message that abortion is and forever will be protected in California," Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said at an event in Sacramento celebrating the passage. "History has shown us that human rights must be enshrined in our constitution so that no extremist wielding power can infringe upon them."

California was one of three states  along with Vermont and Michigan  where voters approved measures to establish a right to abortion and reproductive freedom in their onstitutions.

The ballot measure caps a yearlong effort to pass more than a dozen legislative and budget reforms that protect providers and patients, and offer help to those coming from other states for abortion services.



Gov. Gavin Newsom, who easily won his own race for reelection, said he was proud of the results.

We have governors that won their reelections tonight in other states that are banning books, that are banning speech, that are banning abortion, Newsom said. And here we are in California moving in a completely different direction, Newsom said. Thats a deep point of pride.

State lawmakers introduced the measure on the heels of POLITICOs report of the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision the court formally issued in June. It declares that the state shall not deny or interfere with an individuals reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.

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Abortion is also on the ballot in Kentucky and Montana, but those states are seeking opposite remedies, with Kentucky asking voters to exclude the right to abortion in its constitution, while Montanas born alive measure would declare an embryo or fetus a legal person and require doctors to provide resuscitation for infants born at any stage of development.

Kansas provided an early signal of voter frustration with the Supreme Courts ruling when 59 percent of voters in August rejected an amendment that would have allowed the states lawmakers to ban the procedure.

Polls in California have indicated the majority of voters  upwards of 71 percent  were likely to approve Proposition 1. But supporters felt nothing less than a decisive victory would send the right message.



"We know other states are looking at California. And it's why we worked so hard to send that message and not just not just narrowly passed this, but overwhelmingly passed this initiative," said Jodi Hicks, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California president and CEO.

Gavin Newsomspent more than $2 million on ads urging voters to vote for Prop 1. The campaigns largest funder, however, was the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria with a $5 million donation.

The governor, who didnt break a sweat over his own reelection bid, has cut television ads and paid for billboards to advertise California as a state that supports abortion and all forms of reproductive health. Planned Parenthood has also sponsored media campaigns to support the measure and held rallies throughout the state.

The opposition campaign from anti-abortion groups, including the California Catholic Conference and the California Republican Party, has argued the measure isnt necessary to protect abortion rights and that it would remove all abortion restrictions. Currently, abortion is limited after viability, or around 23 weeks, unless the life or health of the mother is in danger.

Unlike current state law, Prop 1 contains no limits on abortion, allowing taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions at any time, for any reason, up to the moment of birth  even if the baby is healthy and the life of the mother is not threatened, the official No on Prop 1 website states.

Prop 1 proponents, including state Attorney General Rob Bonta and other legal experts, dispute that argument, arguing that Prop 1 adds abortion and contraception protections to the constitution, but makes no other changes.

Cary Franklin, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, called opponents claims that the amendment would take away the states ability to regulate abortion incorrect and simply absurd.

The California Constitution guarantees liberty, but that doesn't mean absolute liberty. You still have to drive the speed limit, you still have to pay your taxes, she said, adding that the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protections for the right to bear arms doesnt mean a four-year-old can buy a gun. Constitutional rights, she said, are not absolute rights.

Lara Korte and Sakura Cannestra contributed to this report.


(Reuters) -Canada's Bank of Montreal (BMO) booked a charge of C$1.12 billion ($834.2 million) on Tuesday after a U.S. jury found its local unit liable for over $550 million in damages in relation to a Ponzi scheme operated by a Minnesota businessman.

The businessman, Thomas Petters, was found guilty of orchestrating a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme in 2009 and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

The lawsuit in Minnesota sought to recoup nearly $2 billion based on sums Petters transferred from an account at Marshall & Ilsley Bank (M&I) between 2002 and 2008.

The fraud was uncovered in 2008 and the sums became unavailable for repayment to creditors, a trustee said in the plaintiff's briefing.

BMO bought M&I in 2011 and assumed the liability. The lawsuit listed the bank's U.S. unit, BMO Harris Bank, as the defendant.

The jury ruled M&I "aided and abetted" Petters in the breach of fiduciary duty to his firm, Petters Company Inc (PCI). The jury did not find the BMO Harris Bank directly aided the fraud.

The unit said it would contest the jury's verdict and award.

"We are disappointed with the jury's verdict, which is not supported by the evidence or the law," a spokesperson for the unit said in a statement.

BMO said the C$1.12 billion provision included an after-tax charge of C$830 million that it will book in the fourth quarter.

($1 = 1.3426 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Christopher Cushing)
By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Carlyle Group Inc has agreed to make $3.34 million in severance payments to its former chief executive Kewsong Lee, as part of an agreement that brings to a formal end his tenure at the helm of the private equity firm, regulatory filings showed on Tuesday.

In August, Lee abruptly stepped down as Carlyle CEO after its board, controlled by the group's founders, unexpectedly declined to renew his contract, which was set to expire at the year's end.

Carlyle said it will pay Lee $1.405 million as base salary and bonus as well as $1.95 million as stock dividends as a part of the separation agreement that terminates at the end of this year. The Washington, D.C.-based firm also agreed that most of Lee's restricted stock options would be allowed to vest between November and February next year.

As Carlyle CEO, Lee earned a total compensation of $43.3 million in 2021, consisting of a $5.5 million cash bonus, $36 million in stock awards, $275,000 as base salary, and $437,245 as carried interest.

William Conway, a Carlyle co-founder and board member, was named as the firm's interim CEO following Lee's departure. Conway said on Tuesday the firm is still searching for a permanent CEO.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; editing by Stephen Coates)
Casey Anthony returned to the spotlight earlier this week when Peacock released a teaser for an upcoming docuseries about the Florida woman.

Over a decade ago, Anthony was accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, in Florida in 2008. She sat for an on-camera interview for the first time since a jury in 2011 found her not guilty of murder for her daughter's unsolved death.

CASEY ANTHONY WANTS TO TELL HER TRUTH IN A DOCUMENTARY, PAL SAYS: SHE FEELS LIKE ITS TIME

The three-part docuseries, "Casey Anthony: Where The Truth Lies," is expected to air on Peacock on Nov. 29, according to a teaser released Tuesday.

Caylees grandmother reported her missing on July 15, 2008, weeks after she was said to have been last seen on June 16. Anthony said her daughter was with a babysitter when they disappeared.

Anthony was initially arrested for child neglect, but was later charged with more serious counts, including first-degree murder, after Caylees remains were discovered on Dec. 11.

Orange County detectives are working to track down dozens of tips in their search for missing 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

After months of speculation and commentary surrounding the case, and a trial that lasted over a month, a jury deliberated for 11 hours before finding Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. She was convicted of lying to law enforcement.

Anthonys defense attorney, Jose Baez, argued that Caylee accidentally drowned and her death was then covered up. Prosecutors argued that Anthony suffocated the girl using chloroform and then covered the toddler's mouth with duct tape.

Caylees disappearance and death, and the criminal investigation and trial that followed, gripped the nation for years and captured headlines for days at a time.

Nearly 14 years later, the devastating mystery of what happened to Caylee remains engrained in the minds of many.

Anthony, now 36, was shown with long, brown hair, blush pink lipstick and sharp eyebrows in the clip for the upcoming docuseries. The 38-second video shows Anthony fixing her hair, looking into the camera and pursing her lips as the interview begins.

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CASEY ANTHONY OPENS FLORIDA INVESTIGATION BUSINESS

"In 2011, Casey Anthony was accused of murdering her daughter," a message states in front of a black backdrop. "She was found not guilty."

The screen then returns to show Anthonys straight face.

"Why talk to me now when youre not getting creative control?" someone can be heard asking in the background. The screen goes black.

The upcoming series is not the first time Anthony has spoken to the media about her life and her case, but it is one of the first times she appeared on camera since the trial wrapped.

Anthony admitted to The Associated Press in 2017 that she did lie about Caylee being with a sitter, about speaking with Caylee over the phone one day before the girl disappeared, about working for Universal Studios and about telling people that her daughter was missing.

During an extensive interview with the AP in 2017, she said she was working in West Palm Beach with her trial defense teams head private investigator, Patrick McKenna, and was involved in investigations and conducted Internet searches for McKennas firm.

She told the AP she passed the time with hobbies that included photography and reading.

In 2020, Florida Division of Corporations records showed Anthony had submitted paperwork to open her own private investigation business, Case Research & Consulting Services, at the beginning of January 2021, according to the AP.

JUDGE IN CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL SAYS SHE MAY HAVE KILLED DAUGHTER BY ACCIDENT

She said she would occasionally go to bars with friends, but would leave when she was recognized, which happened often, the outlet reported.

"I dont give a s--- about what anyone thinks about me," she told the news site. "Im OK with myself, I sleep pretty good at night."

George and Cindy Anthony were engrained in Casey Anthonys trial in more ways than one. Cindy Anthony notified police in July 2008 that she had not seen her granddaughter in a month and gave emotional testimony during her daughters trial.

"Caylees missing," she could be heard telling a 911 dispatcher in audio that was played during trial, according to Reuters. "It smells like theres been a dead body in the damn car."

Defense attorneys accused George Anthony, who also testified at trial, of molesting Casey when she was younger. George denied ever doing so.

After the trial, George Anthony told Phil "Dr. Phil" McGraw in 2011 that his daughter would not be welcome in his home while he was there.

George Anthony, the father of Casey Anthony, was seriously injured in a crash on a Florida interstate.

McGraw described how he felt George handled "the facts and reality in a very forthcoming way," while Cindy was "in a huge state of denial."

In 2018, George and Cindy were featured in an A&E TV special, "Casey Anthonys Parents Speak."

CASEY ANTHONY ACQUITTAL: JUROR SPEAKS OUT 10 YEARS AFTER TRIAL, SAYS CASE 'HAUNTS ME TO THIS DAY'

Just this year, Cindy Anthony spoke with Investigation Discoverys "Crime Scene Confidential" about her daughters lawyers claims that Caylee drowned.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Why the heck didn't she tell us? Why didn't she call somebody?" she said during the interview, according to People. "None of this would've happened. And it's like, oh my gosh, she put us through hell. I know if I had found Caylee drowned in the pool, I would've been devastated and blamed myself for the rest of my life."
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that having a CatGuard would prevent a persons ability to steal a catalytic converter. Dayton Police provided clarification and said it makes it easier to trace a stolen catalytic converter back to its rightful owner rather than prevent the theft altogether.

As more and more car owners are falling victims to catalytic converter theft, the Dayton Police Department is looking to help and prevent further theft.

Their solution, a CatGuard.

>> RELATED: Dont be a victim: How to protect your cars catalytic converter

A CatGuard is specifically designed to protect against catalytic converter theft. Its an etched sticker that the repair shop will put on your catalytic converter with a fluid on top. If a thief steals your catalytic converter, the code from the sticker stays on the converter so it can easily be traced back to the owner.

>> RELATED: Man linked to catalytic converter thefts indicted on charges

Thieves steal this part of your car because it can sell anywhere from $300 to $1,500, Bill Brinck, General Manager of Carroll-Wuertz Tire Company, told News Center 7.

>> RELATED: Father, son catch catalytic converter thief on their own

These incidents of reported theft have increased by 1,215 percent from 2019 to 2021, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Lieutenant Mark Ponichtera recommends adding a CatGuard to your car the next time you bring it into the mechanic because replacing a stolen catalytic converter can cost hundreds to possibly thousands of dollars.

The Dayton Police Department has started a new program to help vehicle owners protect their cars. Businesses and residents of Dayton have the ability to a CatGuard installed for free from the following partners:

Carroll-Wuertz

Reichard Buick GMC

Grismer Tire

Champion Auto-Truck-Fleet

White Allen
Central Florida deputies are investigating a death after receiving a report of shots fired.

Lake County officials received the call at 3:25 p.m Tuesday, according to a press release from the Lake County Sheriffs Office.

The release said deputies found a man in his Umatilla home with a gunshot wound. He died while being transported to the hospital in Tavares.

On Wednesday, Lake investigators identified the man as 31-year-old Antwain Jamar Hart.

Deputies also added that his 2022 white Jeep Grand Cherokee rental car was stolen Tuesday afternoon.

Officials later recovered the rental car in Eustis.

Anyone with information concerning this incident can call Central Florida CRIMELINE at 1-800-423-TIPS, where they can remain completely anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward.
Booker, who was bested by Sen. Rand Paul, was aiming to become the states first Black senator.

Charles Booker has been defeated in his U.S. Senate race in Kentucky against incumbent Sen. Rand Paul. Booker was aiming to become the states first Black senator.

Paul came out victorious over Booker, 54.1% to 45.6%, according to AP News election poll data.

Left to right: Democratic nominee for Senate in Kentucky Charles Booker and Republican Senator Rand Paul. (Photo: AP/Getty Images)

Booker, who in a previous interview with theGrio, said he is proud of the history he already made in this race as the states first Black person to be a major-party nominee for Senate, injected an aspirational and unifying tone familiar to Barack Obama, which earned the former president the kind of broad coalition support Booker was hoping for to win a statewide election in the solidly red Kentucky.

The red state hasnt elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly 25 years and has voted for every Republican presidential candidate since 2000.

The 37-year-old lifelong Kentuckian, who comes from a long line of ministers, was Kentuckys youngest Black state lawmaker when he was elected in 2018. Booker, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Senate nomination in 2020, sought to rise above partisan politics to address issues he believed all Kentuckians could support, like halting hate, ending poverty, investing in solid infrastructure, and making health care more affordable.

Growing up in one of the poorest zip codes in one of the most impoverished states in America, Booker said a major focus of his campaign was addressing poverty, which affects hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, white and Black.

Poverty is generational in Kentucky, declared the Senate nominee, who introduced his Kentucky New Deal agenda to address economic challenges in his state.

Democrat Charles Booker Speaks to a gathering of supporters as he announces his candidacy for the United States Senate at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville, Ky., Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, file)

While Booker was unifying in his message, he was also not shy to call out his Republican opponent. The Democrat said Paul, the son of a former U.S. congressman and physician, doesnt understand the economic hardships that he and other Kentuckians have endured.

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He is someone who is essentially a privileged, spoiled brat, said Booker. He doesnt think he belongs or is responsible to anyone. He doesnt see the struggles that we face because he hasnt lived them. And quite honestly, he has sold us out.

Booker said Paul built a career out of weaponizing hate and hiding his hand, and noted that the Republican lawmaker also voted alongside GOP senators to block a domestic terrorism bill after the mass shooting of nine African Americans inside a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, earlier this year. He doesnt think racism is a problem, and we cant fix what we dont face.

A lot is riding on this Novembers elections for Democrats, who are seeking to hold onto their slim majority in Congress, particularly in the Senate. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the months and weeks leading up to Election Day delivered speeches across the country urging voters to elect more Democrats in the Senate in order to eliminate the Senate filibuster and pass Democratic agenda items like voting rights reform and federal abortion rights.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Charles Booker loses bid to make US Senate history in Kentucky appeared first on TheGrio.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization's leader, is in the rare position of heading a UN agency's response to a humanitarian crisis in which his own family's survival is at stake.

Tedros, 57, hails from Tigray, the besieged northern region of Ethiopia gripped by fighting and misery for two years.

Last week's ceasefire deal between Ethiopia's government and Tigrayan rebels raised hopes that the brutal conflict in Africa's second most populous country could be nearing its end.

"The most courageous choose peace," Tedros tweeted on Saturday. "Give peace a chance!"

Globally recognisable as the face of the international Covid-19 response, Tedros frequently uses his platform to speak out on his homeland.

"Yes, this affects me personally," the WHO chief, who was once a top figure in the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), told reporters on October 19.

"Most of my relatives are in the most affected areas, more than 90 percent of them.

"But my job is to draw the world's attention to crises that threaten the health of people wherever they are."

Since the Tigray conflict erupted two years ago, the region's six million people have been virtually cut off from the outside world.

With little aid trickling in, they face dire shortages of fuel, food and medicines, and lack basic services, including communications and electricity.

- War of words -

There is hope that last week's deal could open the floodgates for aid, but UN agencies will need to tread carefully so as not to alienate the Ethiopian government.

Tedros in particular has to walk a fine line, knowing that in evoking the suffering in Tigray, he opens himself up to allegations of overstepping his brief.

But he has increasingly been reluctant to hold back.

Last week, for instance, he branded the situation as "catastrophic" and "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world", blaming Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.

Addis Ababa has repeatedly accused him of being partisan and abusing his office, and warned that his interventions threaten the WHO's integrity.

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And at the WHO's executive board meeting in January, Ethiopian ambassador Zenebe Kebede Korcho accused Tedros of "using his office to advance his personal political interest at the expense of the interest of Ethiopia".

Addis Ababa also slammed Tedros's re-election in May and called on the WHO to investigate him for "misconduct and violation of his professional and legal responsibility".

- Tedros and the TPLF -

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray on November 4, 2020, accusing the region's ruling TPLF of attacking federal army camps.

The TPLF was the dominant force in the four-party Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition which controlled Ethiopian politics from 1991 for the best part of three decades.

Tedros was on the TPLF's nine-member executive committee, until he was appointed to the WHO in Geneva.

Tedros led the Tigray Regional Health Bureau before becoming Ethiopia's health minister from 2005 to 2012.

When prime minister Meles Zenawi died in 2012, Tedros was seen as a possible successor as head of the TPLF -- and potentially therefore of Ethiopia.

But he instead became Ethiopia's foreign minister and served until 2016, before starting as the WHO director-general in 2017.

Abiy came to power in 2018 on the back of years of anti-government protests.

When Abiy dissolved the EPRDF and formed the Prosperity Party in 2019, the TPLF refused to go along. The Tigrayan rebellion leaders emerged from the TPLF's ranks.

- Tigray childhood shaped Tedros -

Tedros has said his gut motivation for his career in public health lies in his family's suffering.

At a youth forum in 2020, he recalled growing up in poverty and, aged seven, seeing his younger brother die, probably from measles.

"I didn't accept that situation then... Even now I don't accept it," he said.

"That influenced me in a big way."

At the WHO's weekly press conferences, Tedros usually leaves it up to the experts alongside him to answer questions on most global health issues.

However, when Tigray is raised, he typically speaks at length, from the heart, in a stream of consciousness on the human impact of the crisis.

In August he lamented that he could not reach his relatives.

"I want to send them money; I cannot send them money. They're starving, I know; I cannot help them," he said.

"I don't know even who is dead or who is alive."

Going further than most UN leaders, Tedros said on November 1 that the risk of "genocide" in Tigray is "real but can be averted if we act now".

The ceasefire deal could provide that chance, and all eyes will be on Tedros to see if he can finally get the world to hear his plea.

rjm/nl/yad
(Bloomberg) -- The US and China have started unofficial conversations on climate-related issues during the COP27 summit in Egypt, a potential signal that relations between the two world superpowers are warming despite a formal suspension of bilateral negotiations on related matters earlier this year.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Chinas climate envoy Xie Zhenhua told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that he met with his US counterpart John Kerry for unofficial talks, emphasizing the door is always open on the Chinese side for a joint effort to promote COP27 agenda items at the annual global climate meeting.

Even as the two countries havent resumed official climate talks, we met already for unofficial consultations for a successful COP27, Xie said before a press briefing in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

Kerry said he spoke with Xie at an event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Formal talks, however, are not in the cards at this moment, he said. Kerry has repeatedly stressed that the existential threat of climate change is not a bilateral issue.

Both men are interested in resuming talks on curbing methane, combating deforestation and accelerating the green transition, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Kerry has previously described sending unanswered texts and e-mails to Xie in hopes of restarting talks.

Xie said he and Kerry communicated in eight e-mails during the suspension of talks between the two countries as they have been keeping private contact following a friendship of 25 years. The resumption of the private, friendly talks between the two countries was initiated by Xie, he said.

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Beijing announced it was halting negotiations with the US over climate and several other issues in August, after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the self-governing island over which China claims sovereignty.

The freeze had implications for broader, multilateral climate negotiations at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. Collaboration between the two countries in 2014 helped provide the foundation for the Paris Agreement a year later. And a joint declaration in the final days of the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year helped pave the way for a final accord.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not attending COP27 as he stays in China for internal affairs, hosting visits from overseas leaders, Xie said. Both Xi and President Joe Biden have confirmed they will be at the Group of 20 meetings in Indonesia next week, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, though Xis attendance hasnt been confirmed by Chinas foreign affairs ministry.

(Updates with comments from Xie, Kerry)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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By Gloria Dickie and William James

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) -China would be willing to support a mechanism for compensating poorer countries for losses and damage caused by climate change, its climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, but China later said that would not involve contributing cash.

Xie said China had no obligation to participate, but stressed his solidarity with those calling for more action from wealthy nations on the issue, and outlined the damage China had suffered from climate-linked weather extremes.

"We strongly support the claims from developing countries, especially the most vulnerable countries, for claiming loss and damage compensation because China is also a developing country and we also suffered a lot from extreme weather events," Xie said, speaking through a translator.

"It is not the obligation of China but we are willing to make our contribution and make our effort."

A spokesperson from the Chinese delegation later said that China would not contribute financially. A Reuters translation of Xie's original remarks showed he did not specify that China would contribute financially, but offered to "cooperate" with developing countries.

China is designated by the World Trade Organization as a developing country, despite having the world's second-largest economy.

Last month, United States special envoy John Kerry told reporters China should contribute its own funds to loss and damage, "especially if they think they're going to continue to go on to the next 30 years with increasing their emissions," Politico reported.

Xie said that Kerry, "his friend for 25 years", had not raised this issue with him during informal talks at the climate conference this week. He added that China already contributed billions of yuan to developing countries to help with their mitigation efforts.

White House adviser John Podesta told reporters in Egypt that China should include its methane reduction plans  which currently sit outside its contribution toward the 2015 Paris accord to prevent disastrous climate change  in its package of formal climate pledges.

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"I think that would be a good thing for the system and the integrity of the Paris agreement," Podesta said.

After U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan this August, China said it would halt all dialogue with Washington on climate, despite unveiling a pact with the United States at COP26 in Glasgow last year to cooperate on climate change.

Speaking at a separate event on Wednesday, Kerry said cooperation with China was key to keeping the rise in global temperatures capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius and reiterated the need to work with Beijing on reducing methane emissions.

But he said relations with China on climate were not yet working properly again and that a "major negotiating session" ahead of COP27 was called off due to Pelosi's visit.

Xie on Wednesday said that visit had "hurt Chinese people's feelings", but noted that informal discussions and personal correspondence with U.S. delegates continued.

"The door is absolutely closed by (the United States)," he said. "It is we, China, who are trying to open it."

Da Wei, a China-U.S. relations expert at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace event on Wednesday that the two sides should look to step up senior official dialogues if Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of 20 nations summit in Indonesia.

"For instance, dialogue over climate change - I think that would be a victory," Da said.

For daily comprehensive coverage on COP27 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here

(Reporting by Gloria Dickie, William James, Valerie Volcovici and Michael Martina; Editing by Katy Daigle, Janet Lawrence and Lisa Shumaker)
By Liz Lee and Bernard Orr

BEIJING (Reuters) -Millions of residents of China's southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou were told on Wednesday to get tested for COVID-19, as infections topped two thousand for two days running in the city's worst outbreak so far.

As local cases across China reached their highest level since April 30, authorities announced on social media that five districts representing more than half Guangzhou's population of almost 19 million would need to undergo mass testing.

The latest round of mass testing in Guangzhou comes as China battles a rebound in infections in several economically vital cities, including the capital Beijing, as well as Zhengzhou and Chongqing, which have dampened hopes that the world's second-largest economy could ease curbs and restrictions soon.

Authorities are determined to get on top of the outbreaks and make good on President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policy, without having to impose mass lockdowns of the sort that shut Shanghai earlier this year.

The districts in Guangzhou subject to mass testing this week include Haizhu, which has seen the bulk of the city's cases. A district-wide lockdown from Saturday to Monday has been extended to Friday as cases rise.

"My residential compound in Tianhe (district) has been locked up since yesterday," said Guangzhou resident Jason Li.

"I was suddenly notified by my compound. Residents were instructed not to leave our building."

Li said he hadn't been told for how long his compound would be locked up.

"Thank god I've stocked up on groceries recently," he said.

Lily Li, a Guangzhou resident, said the outbreak in the city had worsened in the past two days, having spread to Tianhe, just north of Haizhu.

"Honestly, it's already a huge surprise that Tianhe hadn't been affected sooner," she said.

Guangzhou reported 2,637 new locally transmitted COVID cases for Nov. 8, up from 2,377 a day earlier amid the city's most serious outbreak to date and accounting for nearly a third of the 8,176 new local infections reported in China on the day.

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ECONOMIC TOLL

In the latest sign of how anti-virus measures are crushing consumer demand, China's factory gate prices for October dropped for the first time since December 2020 and consumer inflation moderated, in part due to strict COVID curbs.

In central China, Apple supplier Foxconn said it would continue to maintain closed-loop operations - a system where staff live on-site isolated from the wider world - at its iPhone plant even as the economic zone that housed the factory lifted a seven-day lockdown.

Foxconn has declined to disclose the number of infections or comment on the conditions of those infected. The issues at the plant have hit iPhone production, prompting Apple on Monday to say that it expects lower shipments of premium iPhone 14 models.

While COVID cases in China are small by global standards, the policy response has been relentless and mass testing for large populations has been the norm since 2020.

Mass testing is generally free, but some local governments are resuming charges for tests as their finances come under strain amid a slowing economy.

Even Chengdu, the sprawling capital of southwestern Sichuan province, will end free COVID tests after Nov. 30.

Reflecting the financial stress that COVID testing has inflicted on smaller cities, a COVID testing company in Xuchang, a city in Henan province, on Tuesday threatened to stop all testing-related work from Friday due to late payments from authorities. On Wednesday, the firm said the payment issue had been resolved and testing would go ahead.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, Bernard Orr, Martin Quin Pollard and Beijing newsroom; Additional reporting by Josh Ye in Hong Kong; Editing by Stephen Coates, Tom Hogue & Simon Cameron-Moore)
BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese short video apps operator Kuaishou on Wednesday dismissed as untrue what it called "online rumours" that a state broadcaster would be able to veto its business decisions after taking a stake in its Beijing subsidiary.

The company said state-owned broadcaster the Beijing Radio and Television Station (BRTS) had taken an equity stake in one of its Chinese entities and the deal did not affect the parent company.

The Beijing subsidiary was cooperating with the state broadcaster on content-related matters, Kuaishou said.

Chinese regulators have been tightening their oversight of online content and the platforms that show them.

On Sunday, the U.S. tech publication the Information reported that the state broadcaster's recent acquisition of an equity stake in Kuaishou's domestic business reflected the growing influence of the Chinese state over its tech sector.

BRTS's 1% stake in Kuaishou's Beijing subsidiary was registered on Oct. 26, based on business registration information. On the same day, a former executive of a BRTS subsidiary, Shi Yesen, formally gained a board seat at the Kuaishou subsidiary.

Having BRTS' stake will be helpful for Kuaishou when the time comes for it to renew its license to show online visual and audio programmes, which is issued by the National Radio and Television Administration, a source familiar with the situation said, declining to be named as the information is private.

BRTS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first state investment in Kuaishou.

The China Internet Investment Fund (CIIF), which was established by the finance ministry and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the main internet watchdog, holds around a 1% stake in Kuaishou's Cayman-incorporated entity, based on Kuaishou's prospectus.

CIIF and its affiliates have been active in investing in Chinese internet giants.

A CIIF-backed entity called WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology took a 1% stake and a board seat in a key ByteDance China entity last year. Another CIIF subsidiary, WangTouTongDa, similarly holds a 1% stake in a key subsidiary of the Weibo social media platform, based on government data.

(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel and Jane Merriman)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said on Tuesday it would purchase Deutsche Bank's Mexican banking license in order to continue Citigroup's corporate and investment banking operation in the country, following the planned sale of its local retail unit.

Financial details were not disclosed, and Deutsche Bank said it would continue to grow and invest in Mexico through its broker dealer business there.

"The acquisition of this license, which is subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, facilitates the pursuit of our consumer exit and ability to continue our institutional operations in Mexico," Citi said in a statement to Reuters.

Citi Chief Executive Jane Fraser announced the Mexican retail unit was up for sale at the beginning of the year, and a buyer is expected to be named by the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023.

Mexican corporate titans Carlos Slim and German Larrea are the top bidders for the unit, valued anywhere between $7 billion and $12 billion, sources told Reuters.

The purchase of Deutsche Bank's license allows Citi to sidestep the lengthy process of independently applying for its own, once the split is complete.

The retail operation will become known as Banco Nacional de Mexico, or Banamex, while the wholesale unit will be called Citi Mexico, Citi's country chief said in September.

Deutsche Bank said it would still do business in Mexico.

"Deutsche Bank is committed to deliver our global emerging markets platform to all of our client base through our Mexico broker dealer entity," the bank said.

(This story has been refiled to change headline, paragraph 1 to clarify type of license being purchased)

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York and Kylie Madry in Mexico City; Editing by Richard Chang and Mark Potter)
Columbia County Sheriff Mark Hunter announced Tuesday that two deputies have been disciplined after an administrative investigation into a recent arrest of a legally blind man.

Body camera video has been circulating online of the Monday, Oct. 31, arrest of James Hodges, 61, who was arrested for resisting arrest without violence.

The allegations of policy violations against the two deputies were sustained, Hunter said.

Hunter said Deputy Jayme Gohde will be suspended without pay for two days and he also said Sgt. Randy Harrison will be demoted, suspended without pay for seven days and he will not be eligible for any favorable action for two years.

Both deputies will be required to undergo remedial training pertaining to civil rights, Hunter said.

On the day Hodges was arrested, Gohde believed Hodges was carrying what appeared to be a silver (chrome) pistol with a white grip in his back right pocket, according to the arrest report. The item was later identified to be a folded-up walking stick.

RELATED: Columbia Sheriff troubled by body camera video from arrest of legally blind man

Hodges was crossing Marion Avenue near Duval Street when the traffic control device indicated not to walk, the report said.

The report said Gohde approached Hodges to identify what was in his back pocket, but said he continued to turn away, the report said.

Hodges refused to provide his name and date of birth and told the deputy they were only allowed to request his identification if he was in the act of committing a crime, about to commit a crime, or had already committed a crime.

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Hodges was then handcuffed and his ID was found in his front left pocket after a pat-down.

Harrison arrived and asked Hodges if he was legally blind and Hodges confirmed he is. Harrison asked Hodges why he wasnt using his walking stick and Hodges said he didnt need it in the daylight. Hodges told both deputies he used the stick as he walked to the courthouse for jury duty.

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Hodges was booked into the Columbia County Jail just before 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 31, and was released just before 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1. On Thursday, Nov. 3, Hodges requested the body camera video from his arrest and got it the same day, Hunter said Tuesday.

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Prior to Hodges being given the video, Hunter said a likely policy violation was discovered and a patrol lieutenant and captain were directed to investigate the arrest.

Hunter said Hodges had not yet filed a formal complaint at the time deputies directed to investigate the arrest. Arrangements were made for Hodges to complete a sworn statement at a later date upon his availability.

As sheriff, I take full responsibility for this event and want to extend my sincere apologies to Mr. Hodges for the actions of my deputies, Hunter said in a video posted to the CCSO Facebook page on Tuesday. I do not feel these deputies actions were guided by ill intent but rather by frustration and failure to rely on their training.

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L.A. County Sheriff candidate Robert Luna posing for photos during election night celebrations in Long Beach. The challenger is currently ahead of incumbent Alex Villanueva (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Robert Luna waited in the doorway leading into a small ballroom at the Grand in Long Beach on Tuesday night.

Before him, about 200 people returned his wide grin. On a stage backed by a giant American flag, Mariachi Las Flores blew the jaunty opening notes of "La Diana," the traditional Mexican song of triumph. Evangelical pastors blew shofars  because, why not?

The first election returns had just come in for Los Angeles County sheriff. Luna, a retired Long Beach police chief, had a commanding lead over incumbent Alex Villanueva. Many ballots were yet to be counted, but victory was all anyone wanted to talk about.

Luna slowly made his way to the stage as the crowd swarmed him for handshakes and hugs. So many people wanted to offer congrats that Luna's wife, Celines, couldn't get a cup of water to him, finally asking someone to pass it along.

Just about everyone had whipped out their phones to take photos and videos. My eyes were stuck on Luna's feet.

The last time he and I met was at the contest's first and only debate. I had questioned Luna then about his choice of white-soled, brown leather shoes  the type that middle-aged men wear to look cooler than they actually are. It looked like he had them on again.

"Same shoes?" I asked Luna.

"Nah, they're different!" he said with a laugh. "I upgraded!"

The mariachi switched over to "El Sinaloense," another celebratory ranchera. I asked Celines about the centerpieces on all the tables.

Earlier that day, she and Luna had gone to the Los Angeles Flower Market to pick out the sunflowers that were now inside Mason jars alongside branches of baby's breath.

"I've been at peace the whole day," said Celines, who wore an emerald-green sequined dress. "The color yellow was part of Robert's campaign. The flowers are happiness. It's a bright day. There's going to be change for the people."

The party that night was for both Luna and Robert Garcia, the Long Beach mayor who was running for Congress. But the night belonged to Luna.

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The sheriff's race has drawn national attention, pitting the voluble and controversial Villanueva against the staid Luna. Yet the vibe at Luna's party reminded me of the quinceaneras I have attended at the Grand.

Older folks requested mariachi songs to clap along with and shimmy. Guests sucked on the Tootsie Roll lollipops strewn on tables or gobbled up plates of macaroni. A DJ spun Chicano party classics  Mariah Carey, Beyonce, "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton, Selena and cumbias. Everyone partied as though they were trying to exorcise the past four years of paranoia and vendettas Villanueva has wrought upon L.A. County.

"It's the first time [Luna and his wife] had a campaign party," said Jeff Millman, his campaign strategist and one of the few people in the room wearing a mask. "Last time, they celebrated in their backyard."

He was referring to June's primary. Villanueva came in first against eight challengers but received less than 50% of the vote, triggering a runoff against Luna.

I attended the sheriff's party that election night, at a bar in East Los Angeles. It reeked of exclusivity and menace. In addition to a check-in squad at the door, there were at least three other people guarding the entrance to the upstairs lounge where Villanueva was spending time with a favored few.

At the Grand, Luna looked like a proud uncle who wanted to greet every last niece and nephew.

He had campaigned on a return to decency for a department so distrusted by voters that they overwhelmingly approved a measure in this election to allow the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to fire a sitting sheriff.

Luna let Villanueva swing and miss again and again until el sheriff seemed like a desperate man who knew he was on his way out. Luna came off as normal, even boring.

Isn't boring what we need to lead the L.A. County Sheriff's Department right now?

Luna is no wide-eyed innocent, of course. Critics accused him of secrecy and not disciplining bad cops during his seven years atop the Long Beach Police Department. Jim McDonnell, former L.A. County sheriff and Luna's former boss in Long Beach, was at the party. So were state Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian (D-North Hollywood). Burly deputies, some with Blue Lives Matter pins pinned to their suits, high-fived each other and clinked Coronas.

Nearly all of Luna's opponents during the primary were in attendance, including Eric Strong, who finished third. The sheriff's lieutenant said he and Luna "sat down and had long conversations" after the primary, leaving him confident that his former rival was the right person to lead the largest sheriff's department in the country.

"Luna will be the changing of the guard," he said. "And we sure need it."

There were also regular people. I must've run into at least half a dozen of my Long Beach friends  college professors, high school counselors and stay-at-home moms alike.

George Rivera's family owns a Mexican restaurant in the city that Luna has patronized for over a decade.

"No se le ha subido," Rivera said, using a Mexican Spanish term that roughly means success hasn't gone to one's head. "And I know he's going to be that same guy as sheriff."

Rivera immediately responded when I asked what Luna's regular order was. "Combo #1. Taco and enchilada plate. That's what he's going to be  No. 1!"

Luna stayed to hear Garcia's victory speech, then disappeared to work on what he would say that night. When he returned at 10:45, the ballroom had thinned out only a little.

Robert Luna speaks with supporters during an election night celebration in Long Beach. He is flanked by his daughter Cesie, left, and his wife, Celines. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Accompanied by his brother, sister, Celines and their daughter Cesie, Luna took the podium backed by Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" and hailed by  yep  shofars.

"So last Sunday, when I heard those horns," he joked, "I was talking about maybe replace the sirens on the black and whites with those horns."

He mentioned that the vote numbers "look[ed] good" so far.

"Landslide!" someone shouted to applause.

Luna grinned again.

His speech was boilerplate politeness. He was graceful. He was grateful. He gave thanks to God. He proclaimed law enforcement to be one of the best professions on Earth and praised the L.A. County sheriff's deputies who were "courageous enough" to speak out against Villanueva.

Luna never mentioned the incumbent by name but drew the loudest applause of the night when he said that L.A. County residents were "looking for a sheriff who doesn't blame other people" when something goes wrong in the department "but looks at the mirror and says, 'It's on me.' "

The speech concluded with Luna handing out bouquets to his campaign volunteers. He acknowledged the uncertainty of the moment, as his lead narrowed every couple of hours. "This was going to be a celebration of some kind, or a retirement party  I still don't know what it'll be," he said.

The crowd wouldn't hear of any doubts. They applauded and partied and swarmed him anew.

By the morning, Luna's lead over Villanueva had shrunk by 4 percentage points but was still big  57% to 43%. The final results might not be known for days, or even weeks.

But Luna looked ready to lead last night. Before I left, I looked at his shoes one final time.

There was a single black scuff, on the front of his sole. No one cared.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A vigil was held after a shooting at Ingraham High School in North Seattle left one student dead.

The vigil was held at 6 p.m. at the Haller Lake Methodist Church to help those affected by the shooting and to honor the victim.

It was passionate and it was a general wish for a world where people didnt need to do that, to kill and to carry guns, Janice, a woman who attended the vigil, said.

It was a sad, somber scene at the church which is located just blocks from the school.

It feels good to be together, to not be alone, to be able to claim that were not alone in our grief but also its terrible. I would rather not have to come together at all, I would rather have the tragedy not happen in the first place, Megan Ramer, who attended the vigil, said.

Everyone was welcomed at the vigil.

Every time we experience a tragedy of gun violence, we just have to hold space for that trauma and recognize that healing is going to take a lot of time, Reverend Steve Jerbi said.

Cameras were not allowed inside the service. Jerbi said he wanted to bring people together after this tragedy.

We all are impacted by gun violence. It affects every community and we find this tragedy coming close to home and we want to just honor that pain and make space for us to be connected and to remind each other that we dont face these challenges alone, Jerbi said.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Incumbent Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell conceded defeat Wednesday in a close-fought race for New Mexicos 2nd Congressional District, clearing a path toward victory for Democratic challenger Gabe Vasquez.

Herrell congratulated Vasquez as more votes were tallied but also blasted recent changes to the 2nd Districts boundaries by Democratic state lawmakers at the expense of rural communities.

A Republican court challenge is pending against a congressional redistricting plan for New Mexico that divvied up a conservative, oil-producing region, with related arguments scheduled before the state Supreme Court in January. Herrell said she was confident Republicans would retake the seat in 2024.

Two years ago, the Democrats in Santa Fe announced they would gerrymander our district to ensure they would totally control our states federal delegation, Herrell said in a statement. They did just that, ignoring the will of the people in the process. ... Stay tuned!

The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the race.

Vasquez declared victory Wednesday and said he would take on a sacred responsibility to represent a district that stretches from the U.S. border with Mexico across desert oilfields of the Permian Basin and portions of Albuquerque.

To everyone out there struggling, no matter whether you voted for me or not, please know this: I see you, I hear you, and Ill fight my heart out for you, because public service is a sacred responsibility that I will never take for granted, Vasquez said in a statement.

On the campaign trail, Vasquez highlighted his Latino heritage and an upbringing along the U.S. border with Mexico in a working-class, immigrant family. He advocated for solutions to climate change and conversation of public lands in a district traditionally dominated by the oil and natural gas industry.

Vasquez broke into politics as a Las Cruces city councilor and campaigned for Congress on support for workers rights and preserving access to abortion. He painted his opponent as an extremist for voting against the certification of Joe Biden as president after the 2020 election.

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New Mexico has taken on an outsized role in providing access to abortion for residents of neighboring states. Operators of the Mississippi clinic at the center of the court battle that overturned Roe v. Wade have opened a clinic in southern New Mexico.

At ease speaking Spanish at rallies and television appearances, Vasquez also backed core Democratic initiatives in Washington on infrastructure spending to speed the transition to renewable energy, raise the U.S. minimum wage and write abortion protections into federal law.

New Mexico Democrats won a new mandate in the midterms with the reelection of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham as the state grapples with whiplash from the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of public health orders that shut down classroom learning for a year in many public schools.

On election night, Lujan Grisham hinted at her priorities for a second term that begins in January with the start of a 60-day legislative session. State government income and spending have surged in the midst of record-setting oil production in the southeastern corner of the state.

New Mexico said yes to more health care for families, better education for kids, more economic freedom ... for workers and more for students, Lujan Grisham said. Tonight New Mexicans said we are and will continue to be a state that protects reproductive rights and basic human rights of every single member of the LGBTQ community.

Democratic Reps. Teresa Leger Fernandez of Santa Fe and Melanie Stansbury of Albuquerque both won reelection to second terms Tuesday.

Democrats prevailed in other prominent statewide races.

Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver defeated Republican nominee Audrey Trujillo, who allied her campaign with an America First coalition that seeks large-scale changes to elections administration.

Albuquerque-based Democratic District Attorney Raul Torrez won an open race for attorney general, beating Republican nominee Jeremy Gay of Gallup. And Democratic Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard won a second term at the helm of the State Land Office that oversees lucrative oil, mineral and renewable energy leases on public land.

In state legislative races, Democrats held fast to their state House majority.
Gov. Ned Lamont declared victory late Tuesday night and Republican challenger Bob Stefanowski conceded defeat early Wednesday in the bitter rematch between the two rivals.

The Fox News Channel declared Lamont the winner around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, but Lamont did not speak until two hours later to Democrats who gathered for an election night party at a baseball stadium in Hartford.

Sorry to keep you waiting so long,' Lamont told a raucous crowd in the club section at Dunkin Donuts Park. Connecticut gets it right.'

When asked then by The Courant if Stefanowski had called to concede the race, Lamont said, No. ... Well get there.'

But Stefanowski Wednesday morning said in a statement that the results of this election are not what we had hoped for. But while the outcome was not in our control, the actions we take moving forward from here are. This campaign was an example of what can be done when you stand up for what you believe in. We may not have won, but we changed the course of Connecticut by advocating for the people.

What we hoped to be celebrating as an achievement today can still be recognized as a substantial step in the right direction. This campaign was never about me. It was about the Connecticut resident struggling to afford the cost of living. The police officer putting his life on the line every single day. The family who wants to feel safer going to bed each night. And the mom who wants to raise her child as she sees fit.

Lamont had noted late Tuesday that Greenwich Republican Leora Levy had conceded to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Norwalk attorney Jessica Kordas had conceded to Attorney General William Tong. Besides Fox, ABC News and NBC News called the race in favor of Lamont.

As the votes were still being counted late Tuesday night in the high-profile election that showed a dichotomy between high-turnout suburbs like Simsbury and lower-turnout cities like Hartford. Democrats expressed confidence throughout the night that Lamont would win, while Stefanowski sent an email shortly after 7 p.m. that urged supporters to get to the polls during the final hour because this is a winnable race.'

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The two multimillionaire former business executives poured portions of their fortunes into a bitter personal race that led to sharp disagreements on virtually every issue  taxes, state spending, inflation, crime, abortion, and the use of the states rainy day fund.

Between the candidates and outside groups, more than $43 million was spent on the governors race  with the number still rising as automatic robocalls continued on election day to get voters to the polls The race turned personal as the candidates questioned each others version of the facts that were cited in debates, commercials and on the campaign trail.

But Lamont led in the public polls from start to finish as he outspent his rival, who has never held public office. Stefanowski said that his internal numbers by nationally known pollster John McLaughlin showed the race within the margin of error, but he never claimed to be in the lead despite spending more than $10 million of his own money.

As the great grandson of the financial partner of famed financier J.P. Morgan, Lamont, 68, has been building wealth for decades that allowed him to earn $54 million in 2021  mostly from capital gains in a year in which the stock market boomed.

Turnout was high Tuesday in some towns across the state as most adults were keenly aware of election day due to the months-long blizzard of television commercials and national news about the battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. The midterm elections were crucial nationwide as Republicans sought to capitalize on President Joe Bidens sluggish poll ratings.

The turnout in some Connecticut towns like Simsbury, Enfield, and Ellington was strong, but Democratic operatives were concerned that turnout was much weaker in places like Hartford. Danbury remained solid, while Waterbury and New Haven had lower than expected turnout as of mid-afternoon, Democrats said. Turnout was higher in the suburbs of the Farmington Valley, but the one-time Republican stronghold has been turning Democrat in recent years.

Statewide, turnout was expected beyond the 65% level of the 2018 governors race, based on an estimated 35% turnout in the early afternoon.

Former state Democratic Party Chairman John F. Droney, who has been closely watching campaigns for decades, said some voters had already made up their minds in favor of Lamont during the pandemic that swept across the state and the nation.

I thought that he won the election the way he handled the COVID-19 problems earlier,' Droney said in an interview. Everybody didnt really know who he was, and they saw him as a pretty sincere, honest guy, trying to do his very best for the people, and they liked him. That has never been overcome by his opponent. He won the election when he handled the COVID-19 pandemic like a real pro. There wasnt much that Stefanowski could do about it.'

Lamonts approval ratings skyrocketed in May 2020 after nearly two months of daily televised briefings and crisis decisions on the pandemic. At that point, 78% of those polled approved of Lamonts handling of the pandemic, while only 17% disapproved, according to the Quinnipiac University poll. Some critics sharply derided Lamont as King Ned' for making unilateral decisions without votes on various issues by the state legislature, but the polls showed that many voters approved of his actions.

I dont think Stefanowski is a bad man or that hes not a sincere guy,' Droney said. He just cant beat Lamont. Its that simple. ... He had the chance to run for governor, and it was a lot of fun - but wrong person, wrong time.'

Droney did not attribute Lamonts victory to high campaign spending, noting that Republican Linda McMahon spent $50 million in each of two races in 2010 and 2012 - and lost both times.

One of Stefanowskis biggest mistakes, insiders said, was parting ways with Liz Kurantowicz, a seasoned campaign operative with experience in multiple races. After leaving Stefanowskis campaign, Kurantowicz went on to devote all her time to Republican George Logans battle against U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of Wolcott as Logan closed the gap against the two-term incumbent.

Another mistake, insiders said, was Stefanowskis continued criticisms of venture capitalist Annie Lamont as Democrats said that attacking the governors wife was out of bounds. At the same time, the attacks only solidified the resolve of the Lamont campaign and ensured that big spending would be unleashed to defeat the Madison millionaire.

Stefanowski campaigned hard until the end  broadcasting commercials that were still running Monday night.

We can do better, Connecticut,' Stefanowski said in a 30-second spot. You want change, Connecticut? Change governors.'

He also continued blasting Lamont and Independent Party candidate Rob Hotaling of Cheshire in his final press conference.

Theyre both anti-police,' Stefanowski said of his rivals. Theyre both soft on crime. Theyre both supporters of Dan Malloy.'

Before the polls closed, Stefanowski spoke to reporters Tuesday at the watch party at the Trumbull Marriott, where a ballroom was decorated with red, white, and blue balloons.

Were seeing a good turnout, and were excited about it, Stefanowski said.

He added, Connecticut needs a change in direction after 40 years of largely Democratic rule in the state legislature.

Compared to the 2018 race, Stefanowski said he tried to be more relaxed and show people hes just a regular guy.' Noting that he grew up in a three-family house off Dixwell Avenue in New Haven, Stefanowski said he knows what its like to struggle, drive a used car.

Despite being a multimillionaire who earned as much as $15 million annually recently with a large consulting client in Saudi Arabia, Stefanowski says he still buys used cars because his father taught him about striking a bargain.

Democratic state chairwoman Nancy DiNardo said Lamonts personality proved to be an asset on the campaign trail and in the states highest office.

Right from the beginning, what you see is he is not a politician,' DiNardo said at the Democratic election night party. He really is a businessman. Hes never looked at Democrats and Republicans. He meets with everyone. He gets along with people. I think that has made a difference for him. ... Thats just Neds personality.'

When Stefanowski was far less known in 2018, he lost to Lamont by three percentage points. He won the 2nd and 5th Congressional districts in 2018  two large districts where Republicans have sometimes scored well. He lost Waterbury in 2018, but said he planned to win it this year.

The big difference for Lamont comes in the cities, particularly Democrat-heavy New Haven. Under the supervision of town chairman Vinnie Mauro, New Haven is a well-oiled machine that traditionally churns out Democratic votes and delivers huge majorities for gubernatorial candidates. New Haven helped turn the tide for Dan Malloy in both 2010 and 2014, as well as Lamont in 2018.

Unlike many Republicans nationally, Stefanowski said he would accept the outcome this year and said the election had not been stolen from President Donald J. Trump.

Ill accept the results,' Stefanowski told reporters Monday outside the state Capitol in Hartford. It wasnt stolen. Joe Biden is the rightfully elected president.'

While Democrats repeatedly tried to paint Stefanowski as extreme throughout the campaign, he rejected that notion and described the Republican gubernatorial ticket as very middle-of-the-road socially.'

Stefanowski was relying on concerns about crime, inflation and rising gasoline prices to vault him into the governors office, but gasoline prices peaked near $5 per gallon before dropping sharply. The prices have headed back up, but are nowhere near the peak.

Democratic turnout in cities

During the campaign, longtime Quinnipiac University political science professor Scott McLean said the cities would be crucial for Lamont.

If not for the turnout in the cities for Lamont four years ago, Stefanowski would have won, McLean said. Lamont knows he needs the Connecticut cities to vote for him strongly.

Ever since running for the U.S. Senate in 2006, Lamont has relied heavily on votes from the cities and from Black voters. When he was running against then-U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in the August 2006 primary, Lamont campaigned with well-known African Americans who traveled to Connecticut to help him.

Those included Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, who appeared together at a church in Bridgeport, among other stops. Jackson told The Courant at the time that he was supporting Lamont partly because, as a wealthy Greenwich resident, Lamont did not need to volunteer at a high school in hardscrabble Bridgeport at a time when he was not running for office.

Stefanowski had been trying to break a 15-year losing streak by Republicans in major races in Connecticut. In 2006, then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell and then-U.S. Rep. Chris Shays of Bridgeport both won re-election. But Shays lost in the Democratic wave that swept in Barack Obama as president in 2008, and no Connecticut Republican had won a seat for Congress, governor or other statewide office since then.

But Stefanowski said he worked hard to make a dent in the cities.

He said that he and his wife, Amy, had visited Bridgeport 100 times during the past four years.

Thats not an exaggeration,' Stefanowski said.

Courant staff writer Pam McLoughlin contributed to this report from Trumbull.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
Georgia Senate candidates Herschel Walker, a Republican (L), and Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat (R) Getty Images

Georgia's Senate race is headed to a runoff between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.

Control of the Senate could rest on Georgia if neither party wins both Arizona and Nevada.

Warnock won his current seat in last year's Georgia runoff election.

The closely watched race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker for Georgia Senate is headed to a runoff election, potentially leaving control of the upper chamber hanging in the balance.

Neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote  the threshold required by Georgia law to win an election  as of Wednesday afternoon, according to projections by Insider and Decision Desk HQ. That means the two will face off again in four weeks on December 6.

After Democrats won Senate races in New Hampshire, Colorado and Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening, the party only needs to secure Arizona and Nevada to hold the Senate. But if both of those battleground states are won by Republicans, then they control the Senate.

And if the results are split, then the fate of the Senate rests on Georgia.

Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022

Georgia's runoff election could become a repeat of the battle for the Senate that played out less than two years ago. In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 elections, Democrats won 48 seats and Republicans picked up 50, but Georgia was still up for grabs as its two Senate races advanced to runoffs on January 5, 2021.

Warnock was victorious against his Republican opponent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, while Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated his GOP rival David Perdue. The wins delivered Democrats the majority in an evenly divided Senate, with incoming Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote.

The Senate races in Arizona and Nevada haven't been called yet as votes are still being counted.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Gloria Dickie and Mai ShamsElDin

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, (Reuters) - Civil society groups and youth activists at the U.N. COP27 summit held small pop-up rallies Wednesday at designated areas in this Red Sea resort town.

None lasted more than a few hours, and some broke up after less than an hour. They were all being held within areas under U.N. responsibility during the two-week international summit.

"Theres no time anymore to keep coming to these COPs as an exercise, when parties come in their private jets and are sponsored by Coca-Cola, etc., and we do a whole dance around an issue so critical and so urgent," said Zukiswa White, 29, a South African campaigner for gender equity in climate policy.

She and about 50 others held a brief rally in an outdoor area within the conference center Wednesday.

"Pay compensation!" they shouted, as delegates gathered to watch the event.

"We are trying to respect the organizing of the COP and the restrictions," White said. "We also want to make the point that this is a site for genuine engagement, and if the engagement is going to be meaningful and effective, we need to also be made to have our way."

Ahead of the conference, activists had worried their voices would be curtailed in the highly secured tourist resort in Egypt, where public demonstrations are effectively banned and activists have struggled to operate legally amid a far-reaching crackdown on political dissent.

Egypt had said it would allow protests within confined zones at COP27.

White said civic groups had worked hard through the year before the summit to ensure its agenda included the issue of compensating poor nations for losses and damages already incurred in climate-fueled disasters, like floods or wildfires.

"We're moving from the premise this year that climate finance is not a matter of charity ... but rather a matter of equity and justice, and that we're not asking anymore, simply saying: It's time to pay up."

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One of the organizers noted that rain-driven floods in Nigeria had claimed hundreds of lives in recent months.

"Can adaptation fund pay for that? Can adaptation fund pay for the infrastructure destroyed, or the farms that have been destroyed, means of livelihood of people that have been destroyed. It cannot pay for that, said John Baaki, deputy executive director of the Women's Environmental Programme.

Pressure from developing nations has helped put the issue of loss and damage payments on the conference agenda for the first time in U.N. climate negotiations.

At yet another small gathering, about 20 protesters demanded an end to fossil fuel use, chanting: "What do we want? Climate justice ... when do we want it? Now! Now!"

Youth activist Lucky Abeng of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance said the group wanted world leaders to take the financing agenda seriously.

"Adaptation financing and also climate financing for Africa, its nonnegotiable," he said. "Our future as young people is at stake."

Earlier Wednesday outside the main summit venue, in the "green zone" area set up for business exhibitions and civil society groups, 32 students stood still in a line in front of cameras while holding up placards on how climate change is destroying coral reefs, which are a key attraction in Sharm el-Sheikh, where the conference is being held.

(Reporting by Gloria Dickie and Mai Shams El-Din. Additional reporting by Chiara Rodriguez, Fanny Broderson and Jehad Shalbak; Editing by Katy Daigle)
"To think that your home, all you've ever known, could just be gone - can you imagine that?"

An international student at Aberystwyth University has spoken of the "terrifying" impact climate change is having on her country.

Nathalia Lawen, 21, is attending the COP27 summit in Egypt as part of a delegation from the Seychelles.

The islands' president warned they could "disappear" without quick action on rising seas and extreme weather.

Growing up with "the ocean as my backyard" meant Nathalia was drawn to climate activism from a young age.

She organised and led beach cleans and became a youth ambassador for Peace Boat, a non-governmental organisation which runs educational global voyages promoting peace and sustainability.

Small island nations such as the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off east Africa, are already being hit by the worst impacts of climate change, she explained.

More unpredictable and extreme weather, ocean acidification and depleted fish stocks all combine with the existential threat of rising sea levels.

"If we don't do something now our children and grandchildren will never know what the Seychelles is like and that terrifies me," she said.

"It's not just about land, but culture and traditions too.

"How do you begin to quantify what will be lost?

Seychelles' economy is dependent on fishing and tourism

"Some countries claim it's not their problem, but climate refugees and migration will become a bigger issue affecting the whole world."

President of the Seychelles Wavel Ramkalawan told the COP27 summit countries like his were suffering the most from climate change, despite their "minimal" contribution to causing it.

The islands' mangrove forests soaked up more than the country's entire emissions, "making us a zero contributor to the destruction of the planet, but our islands are disappearing," he said.

A key talking point at this year's negotiations in Sharm-el-Sheikh is how much developed nations should financially compensate less developed ones now feeling the effects.

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Nathalia said she was pleased the topic known as "loss and damage" had made it onto the agenda.

"I really appreciate that we're having this conversation as I think countries really need to listen to us because the playing field is not level and we should acknowledge that," she added.

She is attending COP27 by invitation of Peace Boat and the Seychelles government and will speak at a number of side events.

Nathalia said she wanted to push for action on protecting the health of the world's oceans but also to "gather up as much knowledge as I can and apply it to my degree in Aberystwyth".

She is in her second year, studying economics and climate change at the university in Ceredigion - its seaside setting a key attraction.

'Be brave - even though your voice shakes'

Climate change's effects were also becoming apparent in Wales, she suggested - the recent unseasonably warm autumn, and increase in extreme weather events a warning sign.

But she had also been impressed by local climate activism, including a march through the town ahead of COP27.

She sent a message to young people gathering from schools across Wales for a Youth COP event in Cardiff on Thursday, where they will hold workshops with environmental organisations, politicians and the Welsh government.

"Don't think you're too little or too young to address what's important to you.

"Be brave - even though your voice shakes - shout it out loud and people will listen," she said.

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Natural England said many rare animal and plant species had been recorded

Plans to make a part of west Cornwall a protected wildlife area will prevent farmers from carrying out many normal activities, it has been claimed.

Natural England has proposed making large parts of Penwith Moors a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Farmers claim even simple work such as driving vehicles to feed or move animals might be restricted.

Natural England said a consultation was under way and it would hold meetings to discuss the plans.

'Unconsenting activity'

The moors, between Land's End and St Ives, have been described by Natural England as an "extensive area of heathland, acid grassland and wetlands" recognised for its cultural and wildlife importance.

It said many rare animal and plant species had been recorded.

One farmer, Scott, who runs a holding with llamas and geese above St Ives, said he was worried restrictions were not compatible with even low-impact farming.

He said: "It's unconsenting activity, much of which would be normal farming activities, such as driving up a 45-degree hill to feed llamas because I cannot physically carry feed.

"So, I need to tell them all about my vehicle movements, which might be ad hoc. But to do so without consent is a criminal offence."

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) has also raised concerns, including that the 1,000 acre (404 hectares) area was larger than it believed it was going to be.

David George, from the NFU, said: "People who may otherwise have been on the fringes of the area will find themselves potentially in an SSSI, with many more obligations upon them."

Natural England said SSSIs were "not incompatible with viable farming businesses and we recognise the vital role farmers and landowners play".

It said it would hear their views "before a final decision".

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.
STORY: China reported 8,335 new COVID-19 infections for Tuesday (November 8), with Beijing accounting for 32 symptomatic and 48 asymptomatic cases.

Beijing resident Wang Chaoming said he found the tighter measure acceptable for the sake of everyones health as the COVID situation in the capital was still quite serious.

Another Beijing resident who works in the insurance industry said his office building has been locked down and that hes had to work out of a new location.
Nov. 9A woman was transported to the hospital by CareFlight following a crash on I-70 East that closes the highway near state Route 4 Wednesday morning.

Bethel Twp. Fire Department confirmed CareFlight transported a woman from the scene, but additional information about injuries was not available.

The crash was reported around 4:51 a.m. It is not clear how many vehicles were involved. At least one semi truck and one car in the middle of the highway appeared to have damage.

A Mad River Twp. / Enon Fire Department vehicle was also hit at the scene while investigating the crash.

Motorists should avoid the area and use an alternative route.

We are working to learn more and will update this story as information is released.
Netflixs wildly popular royal drama,The Crown, has returned for a fifth season with a whole new cast.

As fans watch the next chapter of the British royal familys lives unfold in the fictional drama, they bid goodbye to Erin Doherty as Princess Anne and welcome Claudia Harrison into the role.

The new season of The Crown focuses largely on how the late Queen Elizabeth II dealt with what she called her annus horriblis (Latin for horrible year), the year 1992.

Between the huge fire that gutted large parts of Buckingham Palace, and her son Charles and Princess Dianas unfixable marriage problems, the Queen had her hands full of drama.

But by the end of the year, there was cause for celebration as Princess Anne married Sir Timothy Laurence, following her divorce from Captain Mark Phillips.

Anne and Timothys beginnings were considered scandalous despite rumours circulating that both Anne and Phillips had extramarital affairs while still married. However, Annes romance with Timothy was exposed in 1989 when love letters sent from him to her were stolen and her marriage came to an end shortly after.

Heres everything you need to know about how Anne and Timothys relationship.

How did Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence meet?

Although it is not known exactly when Anne met Timothy, he has been in the orbit of the royal family for quite some time.

Timothy became an equerry to Queen Elizabeth II in 1986, having previously served in a Royal Navy. Two years later, he was made one of just three trustee on The Princess Annes Charities trust, an appointment that one source told People showed Annes affection for him.

Timothy Laurence and Princess Anne arrive at the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral on June 03, 2022 (Getty Images)

At the time, Anne was still married to her first husband Captain Mark Phillips, who she wed on 14 November 1973. They went on to have two children, Peter and Zara Phillips, before their marriage began to break down.

In 1985, Phillips fathered a child with another woman, Heather Tonkin, with a paternity test confirming his DNA in 1991. He also had several semi-public affairs with other women, as per reports, while Anne was rumoured to have had romances with an actor, Anthony Andrew, and her bodyguard, Peter Cross.

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In the fourth season of The Crown, Anne and Cross relationship was alluded to during a scene where the princess spoke with her mother about her unhappiness in her marriage.

In a private conversation, the Queen (played by Olivia Colman) tells her daughter that Scotland Yard are considering reassigning Cross back to desk duties, to which Anne replies: Dont do that to me. You cant. Hes the only thing that makes me happy. However, Anne has never acknowledged the rumours of her relationship with Cross or Andrew publicly.

How did Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurences relationship become public?

Towards the end of March 1989, it was reported that Anne and Timothys love letters had been stolen from her desk or briefcase. The contents were revealed to The Sun the following month.

Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence are pictured during Cazoo Derby meeting at Epsom Racecourse on June 04, 2022 (Getty Images)

A source who claimed to have read the letters told People: Its quite clear that he is potty about her, but they are very boring and ramble on.

They are the sort of letters 18 or 19-year-olds write to one another, thoughts about life and rather philosophical.

After The Sun claimed it had obtained the stolen letters, the newspaper did not publish its contents or reveal the authors, but instead turned them over to Scotland Yard.

But it was Buckingham Palace that revealed that the letters belonged to Anne and Timothy. The palace said in a statement: The stolen letters were addressed to the Princess Royal by Commander Timothy Laurence, the Queens Equerry. We have nothing to say about the contents of personal letters sent to Her Royal Highness by a friend which were stolen and which are the subject of a police investigation.

Later that same year, in August, Anne and Phillips announced their separation. Anne filed for an uncontested divorce in 1992, the same year her brother Charles and Diana divorced.

When did Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence marry?

Commander Tim Laurence and Britains Princess Anne are seen in their car after their wedding at Crathie Church 12 December 1992 in Scotland (AFP via Getty Images)

Just a month after her divorce from Phillips, Anne confirmed her relationship with Timothy by attending the Royal Caledonian Ball and dancing together.

On 12 December, they tied the knot at Balmoral in Scotland. Zara and Peter attended the wedding and the late Duke of Edinburgh walked Anne down the aisle. Only about 30 guests were in attendance.

The couple have been together ever since.

The Crown season five is on Netflix now.
Queen Elizabeth II in 1992 (Getty)

It is little surprise that there has been so much anticipation for the latest series of The Crown.

The fictional Netflix drama, based on real-life events from Queen Elizabeth IIs reign, has returned to our screens for its fifth and penultimate season, just two months after the former monarch died at her Balmoral estate, aged 96.

So far, the series has looked at the Queens accession to the throne, her relationship with Prince Philip, how King Charles III met Diana Spencer, and several real-life events such as the Aberfan disaster.

Season five will explore everything from the breakdown of the then-Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Waless marriage, to the moments leading to Dianas fatal car crash in Paris in August 1997.

It also touches on the Queens annus horribilis, but what is this and why did the Queen describe it as such?

What does annus horribilis mean?

Annus Horribilis is a Latin phrase that translates to horrible year, and was thought to be a play on the more commonly used phrase annus mirabilis which means year of wonders.

Now, however, the phrase has become synonymous with Queen Elizabeth IIs 1992 speech and the events that occurred that year.

Diana, Princess of Wales, and the then-Prince Charles announced their separation in 1992. Here, they are pictured in India in February that year (Getty)

What was the Queens annus horribilis?

In 1992, the Queen had a rather tough year. Not only did Prince Charles and Diana split up, but so did the Duke and Duchess of York, and Princess Anne finalised her divorce with Mark Phillips. Oh, and the Queens beloved Windsor Castle suffered a devastating fire.

In November of that year, during a speech at Guildhall to mark her 40th year on the throne, the Queen said: 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis. I suspect that I am not alone in thinking it so. Indeed, I suspect that there are very few people or institutions unaffected by these last months of worldwide turmoil and uncertainty.

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The Windsor fire on 21 November 1992, the morning after it started (AFP via Getty Images)

Her Majesty continued: This generosity and whole-hearted kindness of the Corporation of the City to Prince Philip and me would be welcome at any time, but at this particular moment, in the aftermath of Fridays tragic fire at Windsor, it is especially so.

The fire at Windsor took 250 firefighters 15 hours and 1.5 million gallons of water to put out. In total, 100 rooms of the castle were damaged by the fire which began with a spotlight shining on a curtain.

Restorations cost approximately 40m, 70 per cent of which the Queen privately paid for, and it was finished in November 1997.
The storylines in the fifth season of The Crown have provoked much backlash, from scenes showing the former Prince Charles trying to force the Queens abdication to others suggesting Prince Philip was unfaithful to the late monarch.

Prominent figures, including Judi Dench, have demanded that the drama carry a disclaimer to make clear that the events of the series arent entirely factual. While The Crown actor Jonathan Pryce, has called these reactions to the show hugely disappointing, claiming that viewers know its a drama, not a documentary.

Some of the storylines in season five are pretty close to the truth. Others, not so much.

Heres a full rundown of what will be covered in each episode of The Crown season five, and links to our articles about whats fact versus whats fiction in the series.

Episode one: Queen Victoria Syndrome

In the first instalment of the new series, the monarchy is shown in the midst of an existential crisis. It needs to modernise to win over the public who, according to a Sunday Times poll at the time called Queen Victoria Syndrome, believed the Queen should step down as monarch.

This episode also sees Princess Anne set her sights on her future husband Sir Timothy Laurence for the first time, and it introduces viewers to Countess Mountbatten and her poorly daughter Leonora Knatchbull, who died aged five in 1991, from kidney cancer.

One scene that has been met with outrage sees the former Prince Charles having a secret meeting with the then prime minister John Major, arguing that he should be made King sooner rather than later.

Episode two: The System

Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Natascha McElhone as Penny Knatchbull (Neflix)

In this episode, Prince Philips friendship with Countess Mountbatten (Penelope Knatchbull) is explored, with him comforting her after the death of her daughter and introducing her to carriage driving. The series has been criticised for implying that the late royal had an inappropriate relationship with the Countess and was unfaithful to the Queen.

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We also see Princess Dianas friend, James Colthurst, introducing her to journalist Andrew Morton. Diana recorded interviews for Morton, for his 1992 book Diana: Her True Story  In Her Own Words. In the show, shes seen speaking about numerous suicide attempts in tapes for the book.

Dianas involvement in the book was seen by many at the time as a declaration of war against the royal family.

Episode three: Mou Mou

The third episode is an introduction to Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed and his son Dodi (who later dated Diana), and also includes the death of Wallis Simpson  the American wife of King Edward VIII who abdicated the throne.

It shows Mohameds determination to get as close to the monarchy as possible, and includes a storyline about him buying Edward VIII and Simpsons French chateau.

We also see Mohamed bonding with Diana, and Diana and Dodi getting a first glimpse of each other at a horse racing event.

Episode four: Annus Horribilis

Imelda Staunton as the Queen (Keith Bernstein)

In a 1992 speech, the Queen opened up about her annus horribilis.

This episode reflects on what the Queen was going through at that time, from the fire at Windsor Castle to the three failed marriages among the Queens children.

It also zones in on Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend  the RAF officer she fell in love with in the 1950s. It contains numerous flashbacks to their affair, and the Queen forbidding them from being together.

It shows Townsend getting back in touch with the princess before his death.

Episode five: The Way Ahead

Olivia Williams as Camilla, Dominic West as Charles (Netflix)

This instalment is all about Prince (now King) Charles. It looks at his desire for faster modernisation of the monarchy, as well as his work with The Princes Trust. It also chronicles the leaking of a phone call in which he told Camilla Parker Bowles that he wanted to live inside her as a tampon, and him later admitting to adultery in a TV interview with Jonathan Dimbleby.

Dianas Revenge Dress  the black off-the-shoulder garment she wore after the interview  also features in this episode.

Episode six: Ipatiev House

In this one, the Queen meets the former president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. The episode goes back in time and looks at whether King George V really betrayed the countrys last tsar a century ago.

The show implies there was a rivalry between the Queen and Penelope Knatchbull, and that the Queen only made friends with her to prevent rumours of Prince Philip having an affair.

A conversation is shown between the Queen and Philip in which he insists his relationship with Knatchbull is purely spiritual and not physical.

Episode seven: No Womans Land

This instalment depicts Martin Bashir manipulating Diana into doing the 1995 Panorama interview, by telling her she needs to get her story out in the public realm because he believes security services are tapping her phone on behalf of the royals. He is also shown convincing her she cant trust any of her closest friends or employees.

In the episode, she also meets Hasnat Khan, the doctor she had a romantic relationship with, and its implied she was paranoid that someone was trying to kill her.

Episode eight: Gunpowder

Prasanna Puwanarajah as Martin Bashir (Keith Bernstein)

One of the episodes most likely to spark controversy is episode eight. Its all about the filming, broadcasting and fallout of the Panorama interview.

In the interview, Diana famously noted, in reference to her husbands relationship with Parker Bowles, that there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.

An inquiry later found Bashir guilty of deceit and breaching BBC editorial conduct to obtain the interview.

Episode nine: Couple 31

Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially divorce in this episode, and Parker Bowles hires a spin doctor, Mark Bolland, to try to encourage the public to accept her.

John Major is shown as mediating between the couple for their divorce settlement.

Episode ten: Decomissioned

In the series finale, Tony Blair comes to power.

Diana is also shown packing for a holiday with Mohamed Al Fayed, with his son Dodi shown proposing to American model Kelly Fisher.

Season six of The Crown is expected to show Diana and Dodi beginning a relationship, and the events surrounding the couples subsequent death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Another financial disaster is roiling the crypto markets, this time at FTX, the massive cryptocurrency exchange run by Sam Bankman-Fried, who had positioned himself as the poster boy of responsible crypto investing.

On Tuesday, that narrative collapsed when Bankman-Fried abruptly announced that FTX would be acquired by one of its biggest competitors, Binance, amid speculation that the firm faced a dire liquidity crunch.

Just a week ago, FTXthe third-largest exchange in the world, by trading volumelooked too big to fail. Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old MIT grad whose office attire consists of shorts and T-shirts, had graced magazine covers, lobbied American regulators and Congress members, and emerged as a major Democratic donor.

Bankman-Friedor SBF, as his stans call himseemed to be branding himself as a modern J.P. Morgan, snapping up undervalued assets and distinguishing his firm through fiscal restraint. When crypto companies needed bailing out, his firm loaned them money. In June, in the wake of a separate cryptocurrency collapse, SBF publicly warned about "third-tier exchanges" that he believed were already "secretly insolvent"implying that FTX was better managed.

Tuesdays events cast doubt on that depiction, sparking fervor and panic in the market.

[Bankman-Fried] was like the grown-up in the room, the stabilizing voice of reason, David Yermack, a professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, told The Daily Beast. And it turns out there was nothing there.

What exactly happened to Bankman-Fried and FTX, and what does it all mean? Read on to find out.

What is FTX? What is Binance?

Binance and FTX are the biggest and third-biggest cryptocurrencies exchanges in the world, respectively. Crypto enthusiasts use them to trade more than a hundred-billion dollars in crypto each day and to cash out their holdings if theyd like to spend the money in fiat currencylike U.S. dollars. Binance was an investor in FTX until last year, when Bankman-Fried bought out all the companys shares. There were rumors of a rivalry between SBF and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao at the time, but it didnt come to a head until this fall, when both companies made a bid for the insolvent crypto lender Voyager Digital. FTX eventually won with a $1.4 billion bidpart of a buying spree Bankman-Fried went on after the crypto market crashed this spring. Between these purchases and the millions of dollars in loans his company offered up to failing blockchain companies, Bankman-Fried was being hailed as a savior of crypto.

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Founder and CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao. Antonio Masiello/Getty

What happened last week?

The crypto-focused news site Coindesk published an article suggesting SBFs companies werent as solvent as they seemed. Specifically, it claimed Bankman-Frieds trading firm, Alameda Research, had most of its assets tied up in a crypto token issued by FTX called FTT. The details were complex, but this essentially suggested that much of Bankman-Frieds ballyhooed billions were locked in a relatively risky token issued by one of his own companies.

Zhao then tweeted that Binance would start selling off all of its FTT tokens, due to recent revelations that have [come] to light. His announcement triggered a spree of other sell-offs, leading to whats known in the crypto world as a death spiral. Just 24 hours after Zhao announced the liquidation, the value of FTT had dropped 22 percent.

Yermack compared the collapse to a traditional bank run, similar to what happened to Bear Stearns in 2008. Its a very old problem in finance  we've had bank runs for thousands of years, he said. In this case, the technology is just a little bit different.

Bankman-Fried assured customers that FTX was doing well and that it had enough to cover all client holdings.

FTX is fine. Assets are fine, he tweeted Monday morning.

But he would quickly change his tune.

What happened Tuesday?

Bankman-Fried returned to Twitter to admit that all was not well. In a shocking about-face, he announced that he had agreed to sell FTX to Binance for an undisclosed sum, in order to fully cover all of its customers' assets and clear out liquidity crunches. In his own Twitter thread, Zhao confirmed that Binance had signed a non-binding letter of intent intending to fully acquire FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch. FTX US and Binance US, the companies smaller, U.S.-only exchanges, would not be affected.

The announcement sent shock wavesand more than a little profanitythrough the industry.

Holy shit, prominent Bitcoin proponent Dan Held tweeted.

BINANCE JUST BOUGHT FTX!? WTF AFTER ALL THE FIGHTING?! https://t.co/xnPa4fWBld  Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) November 8, 2022

Now what?

The ramifications of the proposed merger were not immediately clear. Zhao cautioned on Twitter that the situation was highly dynamic, and that Binance maintains the discretion to pull out at any time. We expect FTT to be highly volatile in the coming days as things develop, he tweeted.

Bankman-Fried was largely silent on what the merger meant for him, and a spokesperson declined to comment. But according to Forbes, which this year deemed him one of the richest people in crypto, much of his wealth is tied up in Alameda and FTTmeaning their crash could cut into his personal worth.

Experts told The Daily Beast it would likely take weeks for the particulars of the deal to be worked out.

Whatever the situation is right now, it could look differently in six hours, Yermack said. Until the dust settles, nobody really understands what the implications are.

What does this mean for crypto and the economy?

No matter what happens to Bankman-Fried, the sudden crash of FTX could deal a major blow to confidence in crypto markets and the industry. The billionaire was one of cryptos most promising success stories, and his collapse would likely rattle both professionals and casual investors, experts said.

This episode highlights the vulnerability of the entire crypto edifice to swings in investor confidence, Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, told the Beast. Even large and apparently financially solid institutions turn out to have wobbly foundations that crumble at the least hint of trouble.

The episode is especially salient following this springs dramatic crypto crash, which wiped out more than $2 trillion in just months. And experts said it may give Congress and other regulators cause to clamp down on crypto markets, which have traded with comparatively few regulations.

Some crypto-watchers, however, dont think FTXs troubles are the death knell of crypto. William Quigley, a venture capitalist and crypto entrepreneur, said investors should be used to this kind of roller-coaster rideand predicted they wont be getting off anytime soon.

If theres anything we have become used to in crypto, its enormous surprises on the upside and the downside, he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of crypto exchange FTX. Tom Williams/Getty Images

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his net worth on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.

That marks the biggest single-day drop in a billionaire's fortune compared to their total net worth.

Bloomberg now values Bankman-Fried's two biggest assets at $1 each.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was worth $16 billion earlier this week, saw his fortune gutted by 94% to $1 billion on Tuesday. It marks the biggest wealth collapse a billionaire has ever taken in a single day, per Bloomberg.

On Tuesday, the 30-year-old CEO announced that his crypto exchange FTX is being sold to rival firm Binance in order to relieve a severe liquidity crunch. Bankman-Fried's 53% stake in FTX was worth $6.2 billion, while another $7.4 billion of his fortune came from his crypto trading house, Alameda Research, Bloomberg reported.

With Binance's acquisition of FTX, Bloomberg's wealth index now values both FTX and Alameda at $1 each, wiping out the perceived worth of Bankman-Fried's biggest holdings.

Sudden losses of this magnitude are common among the world's richest people, but never has a billionaire parted ways with such a gigantic proportion of their fortune within one day. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg lost $29 billion on February 3, but his net worth was still estimated at $84.3 billion that day.

In November 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost $50 billion in two days when he polled Twitter users if he should sell 10% of his stake in his automaker  but he remained the world's richest person by the week's end.

Similarly, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos retained his position as the world's second-wealthiest man in 2019 despite seeing his fortune drop $36 billion overnight, when he gave up 25% of his Amazon stock to settle his divorce with his former wife MacKenzie Scott.

One billionaire who came close to Bankman-Fried's new record is trader Bill Hwang, who in March 2021 lost his entire $20 billion fortune within two days, after his company Archegos Capital Management defaulted on its loans. The Justice Department later charged Hwang with 11 criminal counts, including fraud, with prosecutors accusing him of inflating his portfolio to borrow more from banks. He and his former CFO have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Bankman-Fried's losses come in the wake of a devastating $600 billion crypto crash this year. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance  the crypto exchange acquiring FTX  lost $79.4 billion of his fortune this year as a result of the crash, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar is projected to roll to victory on Tuesday in South Texas, securing a 10th term in a border district Republicans have targeted for years.

The Associated Press called the race shortly after midnight.

The centrist Blue Dog defeated Republican Cassy Garcia, a former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in the 28th District of the Lone Star State, which borders Mexico for hundreds of miles.

Garcia, who was part of a wave of conservative Hispanic women running for Congress this year, sought to make the contest a referendum on Democrats approach to crime, border security and economic mismanagement.

But while that argument has resonated in other parts of the country, Cuellars moderate voting record  combined with a lengthy history of support for Border Patrol and heightened border security  appears to have insulated him from those attacks, at least for another two years.

Indeed, Cuellars tougher challenge this year came from liberals in his own party, who have long criticized his conservative-leaning position on several hot-button social issues. Those concerns center around his opposition to abortion rights  a stance that came under heightened scrutiny this year following the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade  and tough gun restrictions, including the assault weapons ban he voted against in July.

Those positions have earned Cuellar a primary challenge in each of the last two cycles from a liberal former staffer, Jessica Cisneros, who came within 300 votes of defeating him this year.

Cuellars reelection bid this cycle gained further attention when the FBI raided both his home and campaign office in January. Cuellar has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer has said hes not under investigation.

Through it all, Cuellar has maintained the vocal support of even the most liberal Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who has characterized him as a valued member of the big-tent Democratic Party.

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The contest has been closely watched all year for another reason: Former President Trump had gained support among Hispanic voters in South Texas in 2020, relative to his showing in 2016, alarming Democrats who have hoped that energizing those voters might someday turn Texas blue.

The trend seems to have affected Cuellars 28th District, which voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016 by almost a 20-point margin. Four years later, Biden would top Trump by less than 5 percentage points.

Still, Cuellar was helped this year by redistricting, which turned the 28th District slightly in Democrats favor. Biden, under the new lines, would have carried the district in 2020 by 7 points.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Cygnus cargo craft is pictured moments after being captured with the Canadarm2 robotic arm controlled by NASA astronaut Nicole Mann



The Cygnus spacecraft moments after being captured by Canadarm2.

The S.S. Sally Ride has safely docked at the International Space Station following a nail-biting journey in which one of its two solar arrays failed to deploy.

Northrop Grummans expendable freighter launched on Monday, November 7, carrying 8,200 pounds of cargo to the ISS. On its way to the orbiting space station, however, the Cygnus capsule failed to deploy one of its two solar arrays, which collects power for its trip through space. Northrop Grumman is gathering data on the second array deployment and is working closely with NASA, the space agency wrote in a blog post on Monday.

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Despite having only one fully unfurled solar array, the Cygnus spacecraft safely arrived at the ISS on Wednesday at 5:20 a.m. ET, according to a NASA blog post. As the cargo capsule approached the station, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grab the vehicle and maneuver it towards the stations docking port. This is standard procedure for capturing Cygnus and not the result of the solar panel anomaly.



Graphic showing the updated ISS configuration.

The 55-foot-long (17-meter) Canadian arm features a hand that astronauts use to grab onto objects and even the ISS itself. After Mann commanded the robotic arm from inside the ISS, ground controllers took over to guide the capsule and dock it at the stations Unity module, NASA wrote.

A reason for the malfunction has not yet been disclosed. To remain focused on the spacecrafts arrival at the station, Northrop Grumman and NASA made the determination not to deploy the second solar array after initial attempts to deploy it were unsuccessful, the space agency said.



This is Northrop Grummans 18th resupply mission to the ISS as part of its Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, in which it delivers crew supplies, equipment, and science experiments to the orbiting station. The NG-18 Cygnus spacecraft was named after Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to reach space, a feat she accomplished in 1983.

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The cargo capsule delivered a diverse payload that includes a 3D printer for generating human tissues, an experiment on growing plants in space, and the first satellite developed by Uganda and Zimbabwe. The freighter will stay attached to the ISS until its fiery disposal in the Earths atmosphere in January.



More: Webb Telescopes Mid-Infrared Camera Is Fully Back in Action After Worrisome Glitch

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L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva speaks during an election night rally. (Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has opened a criminal investigation into whether Sheriff Alex Villanueva violated state law when he solicited campaign donations from deputies, a spokesman for the office said Tuesday.

Last week, as Villanueva and his challenger, Robert Luna, were in the final days of their race for sheriff, a video was sent to members of the Sheriff's Department, in which Villanueva made a plea.

"This message is for deputies," he said, speaking into the camera while dressed in civilian clothes. He went on to explain that the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union that represents rank-and-file deputies, had left its members "high and dry" by refusing to spend money to support his bid for reelection.

In 2018, the union played a major role in securing Villanueva's unexpected victory by pouring more than $1 million into the race on his behalf. This year, it contributed only $1,500 to his campaign.

Villanueva continued: "It's up to each and every one of you who you want to be as sheriff. We're gonna win this thing, and Lord willing, and if you want to help, anything will help us get our message out there, get our ads online and on TV and our texting going on.

"So I'll leave it up to you. Any donation is great  20 bucks, all the way up to 1,500 bucks  your choice," he said.

State law prohibits an employee of a local agency from directly or indirectly soliciting political contributions from an "officer or employee of that agency, or from a person on an employment list of that agency, with knowledge that the person from whom the contribution is solicited is an officer or employee of that agency." The Sheriff's Department has a similar policy barring such solicitations.

Violations of the law are misdemeanors.

The video has also led to an allegation of antisemitism against Villanueva.

In the video, he told deputies the union has left "me to the fate of fighting George Soros and Jeff Katzenberg all by myself."

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Katzenberg, a co-founder of DreamWorks and a longtime Democratic donor, contributed at least half a million dollars to a campaign committee supporting Luna.

But Soros, a prominent New York philanthropist who funds progressive causes, did not contribute money in the sheriff's race, a spokesperson for his philanthropic organization, the Open Society Foundations, said. Soros, who is Jewish, has long been a target of conspiracy theories put forth by far-right groups based on antisemitic tropes that allege Jewish people secretly control financial markets, governments and the media.

Alan Romero, an attorney who represents several deputies suing the Sheriffs Department, said he filed a complaint to the Anti-Defamation League about what he described as an antisemitic dog whistle in Villanuevas video.

"I stated that in the L.A. County sheriff election, that the sheriff had engaged in vitriolic attacks on Jewish residents of L.A. County by falsely stating that George Soros was involved in the campaign against him," he said.

It's unclear how many deputies received the message and who was disseminating it. A text message received by a deputy that was reviewed by The Times included the video, a message imploring the deputy to donate and a link to a fundraising site. The phone number from which the message was sent was not given to The Times.

A representative for the deputy's union said it had received complaints that members' personal information had been used by whoever was behind the solicitation.

Asked how the sheriff's campaign was able to target deputies specifically with the video message, Villanueva's campaign manager, Javier Gonzalez, said: "I got skills." He refused to elaborate.

On Wednesday, he said: "Our campaign team has worked diligently to run an effective campaign in compliance with all applicable laws. To date, we have no official communication from the D.A. We will work with the D.A.s office to address any concerns they may have."

In a brief interview at his election night party, Villanueva told The Times that Dist. Atty. George Gascon should recuse himself from the investigation.

I suggest the D.A. then recuse himself," Villanueva said. "We did not violate any laws. That is nonsense."

It was not clear on what grounds, if any, Gascon would need to recuse himself. Villanueva was one of the most outspoken advocates of a failed attempt to recall the progressive district attorney from office and has made no secret of his dislike for him. But other than trading insults, Gascon has not taken any political or personal actions against Villanueva.

Tiffiny Blacknell, a spokeswoman with the district attorney's office, said Monday that the office was aware of the video.

"We take these matters seriously and it is currently under review," she said. She said the district attorney's Public Integrity Division had opened a formal investigation and declined to comment further. It's unclear how the office became aware of the video.

Villanueva appeared vulnerable Wednesday morning to losing his bid for reelection as early results showed his opponent, Luna, taking a significant lead.

With more than 1.2 million ballots counted, Luna had won 56.78% of the votes to Villanuevas 43.22%. The early returns also showed overwhelming support for Measure A, the ballot measure that would give the countys Board of Supervisors the power to fire a sitting sheriff, with 70% voting in favor.

In another blow to Villanueva this week, Superior Court Judge Elaine Lu on Monday ordered the sheriff to show why he should not be held in contempt for refusing to comply with three watchdog subpoenas calling on him to testify under oath about various issues in the department.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Illinois is projected to have elected progressive Delia Ramirez as the first Latina to ever represent the Midwest in Congress, marking a historic milestone for the region and the Latino community.

Ramirez was elected to the House on Tuesday, representing the states newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District. She won the districts Democratic primary by a landslide earlier this year, with over 65% of the vote. The Democrat faced off with Republican Justin Burau in the general election, though her win was nearly guaranteed with the new district heavily leaning blue.

The system isnt created for people like me to represent them at the highest level of office, the Guatemalan American told HuffPost in an interview. I hope that making history in this way allows us to be able to create those uncomfortable tensions in Wisconsin and Ohio, in Minnesota and Indiana and Michigan. That we are here, we are capable, and we deserve and must be in places where decisions are being made for all people.

New Member Of Congress For A New House District

Ramirez served as a community organizer and social services director before getting elected to the Illinois state House in 2018 and was serving her second term when she entered the race for Congress. As a state-level lawmaker, Ramirez expanded Medicaid coverage for seniors regardless of citizenship status, secured hundreds of millions of dollars for affordable housing, solidified the states abortion protections, and helped create an elected school board in Chicago.

While the newly redrawn district saw multiple Democratic contenders, she quickly became the progressive frontrunner  winning the support of the influential Chicago Teachers Union and progressive politicians at the city, state and federal levels.

Delia Ramirez speaks at the Chicago Climate Summit at Benito Juarez Community Academy on April 23, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. Ramirez, a progressive, was elected on Nov. 8, 2022 to be the first Latina to represent the Midwest in Congress. (Photo: Jeff Schear via Getty Images)

Delia Ramirez speaks at the Chicago Climate Summit at Benito Juarez Community Academy on April 23, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. Ramirez, a progressive, was elected on Nov. 8, 2022 to be the first Latina to represent the Midwest in Congress. (Photo: Jeff Schear via Getty Images)

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Ramirezs district was created a little over a year ago, specifically in response to the Latino communitys population growth in Illinois  particularly the growing migration into Chicagos northwestern suburbs like Bensenville and Addison. In its previous drawing, the district was represented by progressive Rep. Marie Newman (D), who decided this election to run in the 6th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Sean Casten (D) instead. Newman lost in the primaries.

The district now has the second-largest Hispanic population in the state, mostly covering the primarily Latino northwest side of Chicago  where Ramirez grew up  and moving into the northwest and western suburbs. Nearly half of the newly drawn districts population is Latino, and Ramirez says the actual number is likely higher.

The Democrat brought up how some areas shell be representing never had someone who looks like her in a leadership position, including suburban areas Casten used to represent before the congressional map was redrawn.

The first Latina, the first Guatemalan, and in some cases, the first woman of color, she said of herself. Because Sean Casten was their member of Congress and for much of DuPage [County], Sean was the first Democrat. Im the first woman of color, and so its like, theres so much to unpack.

How we present ourselves in these spaces where we also know theres still racial tensions and theres still a lot of growth to have, and a lot of work to do to demonstrate, I think, a couple of things, she continued. One could be a proud, unapologetic Latina who can represent all people in the same way that white people can represent all people  and have always done it, right?

Attendees listen to Democratic candidate Delia Ramirez speak in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District. Ramirez was just elected to represent the district, which spans from the northwest side of Chicago into the western suburbs. (Photo: Delia for Congress)

Attendees listen to Democratic candidate Delia Ramirez speak in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District. Ramirez was just elected to represent the district, which spans from the northwest side of Chicago into the western suburbs. (Photo: Delia for Congress)

Immigration Is An Important Issue But Not The Sole One

One of Ramirezs top three legislative priorities is immigration reform, an issue she called personal and feels has constantly had to take a back seat in Congress. Ramirez spoke of her parents coming to the United States while her mother was pregnant with her, how her sister crossed into the country from a small village in southern Guatemala alone at the age of 12, and how her husband is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient.

However, the newly-elected Democrat stressed that immigration is not the only issue Latinos care about  something her party has had trouble fully understanding. The Democratic Party has long struggled to reach Latino voters without relying on talking points of immigration. Ramirez hopes she can push the needle in the right direction when she takes office.

Were not monolithic. We represent 23 countries. And immigration is certainly one of the top three issues for us, but theres also Latinos who have never been undocumented in this country, she said.

Ramirez mentioned health cares importance to the community, including access and affordability. She also said that, like other Americans, Latino voters also care about the economys impact and whether a community that often lives in multi-generational housing has the opportunity to create wealth through homeownership.

Housing, economy, immigration  all these issues are so important to every single person, and certainly Latinos, she said. And when you hear people talk about where they are and what they need, I absolutely believe that Democrats are the party of Latinos. But we have to do a better job at explaining that and then bringing us in and not tokenizing us or patronizing us and making us the sole issue.

So when I hear this back and forth, Oh, Democrats are losing Latinos, and, Democrats are losing them because of the religious factor, I think thats a good excuse to make, she argued.

House Democratic candidate Delia Ramirez speaks to a potential voter at a store while campaigning. Ramirez was elected to represent the new 3rd District, and said she plans to focus on immigration, economy, housing, health care, and LGBTQ and women's rights. (Photo: Delia for Congress)

House Democratic candidate Delia Ramirez speaks to a potential voter at a store while campaigning. Ramirez was elected to represent the new 3rd District, and said she plans to focus on immigration, economy, housing, health care, and LGBTQ and women's rights. (Photo: Delia for Congress)

Using faith to further solidarity

Growing up, Ramirez and her parents were very involved in their church. Ramirez herself has spoken about how her faith and family were the two most significant driving factors in running for office. She talked about how while she may be a Christian supporting abortion rights, there are still many religiously conservative Latinos who she said would align themselves closer politically to Democrats, like her mother.

When you get to the core, there are those that are very conservative and are single issue. And I dare to argue that that is not the concentration of the majority of Latinos, she said. That there are Latinos that grew up in church and are more conservative, but thats not whats taking them to the polls or not taking them to the polls  its the everyday experiences of how they see life being lived, experienced.

I think the other part of that is, how do we engage Latinos and how do we treat Latinos  how do we treat people of color period  because oftentimes we treat them as a transaction, as a method to get the things we need, she continued.

She added that despite her stances on abortion and same-sex marriage, she still has the support of the Latino community.

I have conservative pro-lifer Latinos who vote for me and support me and surround me and know my stance on same-sex marriage and abortion, she said. And also know my stance on helping the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and creating a space to support and love all their children. And seeing them not as a factory worker that needs to make sure that they produce whatever amount of product per day but as a human that I see my mom in. That makes a difference.

Newly-elected Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) smiles with her mother, a Guatemalan immigrant who inspired her to run. (Photo: Raul Juarez)

Newly-elected Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) smiles with her mother, a Guatemalan immigrant who inspired her to run. (Photo: Raul Juarez)

Remembering The Power In The Collective

Ramirez said that while shell be an active member of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, she also wants to make sure she works with other racial caucuses to understand their barriers and come together to create a joint platform. The idea that Latinos are the only ones experiencing certain things is a tactic thats been used to divide and conquer us forever, she said.

I believe that no real transformation happens with one person. Its a collective. Its having those around you that see us as a we and not an I, Ramirez said, adding that one of her biggest messages to other women of color wanting to run for office is to surround yourself with people who understand the importance of our shared liberation.

Ramirez said that women of color like her who have climbed the ladder of success also must extend that ladder down so others can follow.

What you dont want to be is the first and only. That self-preservation isnt leadership, she said. My leadership is defined by how many people come with me and come after me.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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Mike and Becky Patty, grandparents of Libby German, address the media 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.

The accused killer of Libby German and Abby Williams now wants a public defender, according to a letter filed with Carroll Circuit Court on Wednesday.

"I, Richard M. Allen, hereby throw myself at the mercy of the court. I am begging to be provided with legal assistance in a public defender or whatever help is available."

Delphi murders update:Franklin, Ind., attorney appointed to represent Richard Allen

Indiana State Police arrested Allen on Oct. 26 and did not announce his arrest until Oct. 31.

A large decal on Mike Patty's pickup honors his granddaughter Liberty German and her close friend Abigail Williams. Abby and Libby were murdered Feb. 13, 2017, as they hiked the Moon High Bridge Trail just east of Delphi. No suspect has been arrested in the case.

Allen is charged with two counts of murder. He is accused of killing Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017, about a quarter of a mile east of the Monon High Bridge on the walking trails east of Delphi.

The case against Richard Allen:Judge recuses himself from case against Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen

Richard Allen writes his wife stopped working for 'her personal safety'

"At my initial hearing on Oct. 28, 2022 I asked to find representation for myself," Allen wrote in the letter that was postmarked Nov. 7 with a return address of the White County Jail. "However, at the time I had no clue how expensive it would be just to talk to someone.

"I also did not realize what my wife and I's immediate financial situation was going to be," he continued. "We have both been forced to immediately abandon employment, myself due to incarceration and my wife for her personal safety,

"She has had to abandon our house for her own safety," Allen wrote. "What little reserve there is will fail to even maintain the original residence.

Delphi murders:Case remains under seal. Experts weigh in on 'unusual' move

"Again, I throw myself at the mercy of the court. Please provide me whatever assistance you may.

"Thank you for your time in this most urgent matter," Allen wrote in a salutation.

In a handwritten letter, Richard Allen requested a public defender. Allen is charged in the Delphi murders: https://t.co/FOv1uDg4P5 pic.twitter.com/1kfQyRxaYH  FOX59 News (@FOX59) November 9, 2022

Prosecutors sealed the probable cause affidavit, so the public is forced to rely on the word of the prosecutor and police.

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The Journal & Courier filed a complaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor because within 24 hours of an arrest, Indiana law requires police to release the names, age, address, as well as factual circumstances, for anyone arrested. The Indiana State Police ignored requests for this information until a press conference on Oct. 31.

Richard Allen moved to state prison

Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby on Nov. 3 filed a motion requesting that Allen, 50, be transferred from the county jail to a state prison "for safekeeping."

Allen was then moved an Indiana Department of Corrections facility.

There is a hearing on Nov. 22 for the newly appointed judge to decide whether to unseal the probable cause affidavit so the public can know the factual circumstances of what Allen is accuse of doing.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Delphi, Indiana's Richard Allen asks for public defender in letter
prison

Democratic governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania recently signed a bill into law that makes passing on a communicable disease a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The new law, known as HB 103, charges a third-degree felony with up to seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines for those who expel saliva, blood, or any other bodily fluid on a police officer. The offense must be intentional, but that intention is usually left up for debate.

The second part of the law charges a second-degree felony if offenders should have known they had a communicable disease before they passed it on. Violators persecuted will face up to 10 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.

Outside of HIV, the law could also apply to those with other communicable diseases such as COVID-19, chicken pox, and hepatitis.

A large list of groups including the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and the Pennsylvania HIV Justice Alliance spoke out against the bill.

Louie Ortiz-Fonseca, Director of LGBTQ Health & Rights with Advocates for Youth, said in a statement, As a person living with HIV who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, the passing of HB 103 serves as a reminder that as we get closer to ending the HIV epidemic, we have a long way to go to end HIV stigma and the criminalization of people living with HIV.

Of the 35 states that criminalize HIV exposure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports many of the laws were passed prior to our current understanding of HIV and how its transmitted and controlled.

Medical professionals and activists believe that HIV criminalization laws do nothing to help limit transmissions, and in fact discourage people from getting tested for fear of criminal penalties.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) is projected to fend off a challenge from J.R. Majewski, a MAGA Republican who had been caught embellishing his military record, in a highly competitive race.

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in the U.S. House, won another term Tuesday. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in the U.S. House, won another term Tuesday. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)

Kaptur, who became the most tenured woman in House history four years ago, survived one of the fiercest challenges of her almost 40-year career on Tuesday. Her win clears the way for her to become the longest-serving woman from either chamber next year.

The 76-year-old Democrat was drawn into a new Republican-leaning seat this election, giving the GOP a rare opportunity to oust a longtime incumbent. And they ran with it, labeling Kaptur a rubber stamp for an unpopular president in an election year that is expected to be challenging for Democrats.

But Republicans nominated a flawed candidate to run against Kaptur.

Majewski, a consultant in the nuclear energy sector with no previous political experience, rode Donald Trumps endorsement to victory in the GOP primary against two state legislators. In September, an Associated Press investigation revealed that he had embellished aspects of his Air Force background. Majewski had claimed he served in Afghanistan after 9/11, but the APs investigation uncovered that his primary duty in the Middle East was unloading cargo in Qatar. He also misrepresented the circumstances surrounding his demotion in the Air Force, according to the AP.

Majewski characterized the report as a political hit job and said he was unable to release details of his military record because they are classified.

Northwest Ohios 9th Congressional District, hugging Lake Erie and the Michigan border, is a quintessential slice of the industrial Midwest, anchored in Toledo. While Democrats mostly control the city itself, its suburbs are full of swing voters who migrated to the Republican Party in support of Donald Trump.

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The district was safely Democratic until the most recent round of congressional redistricting. Kaptur has called the new district an illegal gerrymander since the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the states new congressional map unconstitutional. The courts have declared that, and yet the Ohio Legislature has chosen not to do anything. Theyre a criminal class, Kaptur told HuffPost in September.

Both candidates moderated their positions to the political center  Kaptur by criticizing Biden over his plan to cancel some student loan debt and Majewski by distancing himself from his earlier ties to the QAnon conspiracy movement and the rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kaptur, however, has bucked Democratic presidents in the past, opposing Bill Clinton on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which she argued harmed domestic manufacturing.

She is perhaps best known for spearheading the legislation that created the World War II veterans memorial in Washington. She has never sought statewide office. In 1996, presidential candidate Ross Perot approached her to run as vice president on his Reform Party ticket. She declined.

Kaptur is set to surpass the record of Sen. Barbara Ann Mikulski (D-Md.), who served 10 years in the House and 20 in the Senate.

It sounds like a lot of time until youve done it, Kaptur told the AP in 2018 when she became the longest-serving woman in the House, and then it seems like a wink.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has been projected as the winner of the Illinois governors contest, defeating Republican nominee Darren Bailey.

The Associated Press called the race at 8 p.m. ET.

Pritzer enjoyed a comfortable lead for most of the race en route to winning a second term. He was ahead of Bailey by 10 points in early polling before he expanded the margin to a 13-point lead just before Election Day.

During a heated debate last month, Pritzker cast his GOP opponent as a radical extremist who was out of touch with the priorities of Illinoisans.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) won his reelection race after enjoying a comfortable lead for most of the campaign against Republican opponent Darren Bailey. (Getty)

He noted that Bailey was endorsed by former President Trump and called him a danger to democracy. Bailey has recognized President Biden as the victor of the 2020 election but has not acknowledged he won fair and square.

Bailey slammed the Democratic governor for woke ideologies, including for gender policies at schools, a major talking point for Republicans this election cycle. He also criticized Pritzker for what he sees as lax policies on crime and for eliminating cash bail for defendants.

Pritzker touted his first-term accomplishments on the campaign trail, including raising the minimum wage, paying off overdue state bills and expanding abortion rights.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Democratic incumbent Tony Evers has won reelection in the hotly contested Wisconsin governors race, defeating his Republican opponent, Tim Michels.

Michels told supporters early Wednesday morning that he had conceded the race.

<<< 2022 Wisconsin Gubernatorial Midterm Election: Latest Updates and Results >>>

Evers, the states former top education official, ousted Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, in 2018 by a single point. Michels had attempted to paint Evers as soft on crime, but Democrats were able to pull off a victory with a campaign that included a rally headlined by former President Barack Obama late last month.

If you care about protecting your right to vote, protecting access to abortion and investing in our kids public education, you need to get out and vote for my friend Gov. Tony Evers, Obama said in an ad. Tonys doing the right thing for Wisconsin. He cares about people like you, and he needs your support at the ballot box.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers celebrates his birthday in Plymouth, Wis., on Nov. 5. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Evers made abortion a central feature of the race, focusing on his opponents support for an 1849 law that went into effect following the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. The 1849 law made it a felony to perform the procedure in the state, resulting in a total ban except when the life of the mother is in danger.

Evers has called multiple times for the Wisconsin Legislature to address the issue and supported a lawsuit from Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul to have the 19th century ban ruled unconstitutional.

The bottom line here is this: Women should have the ability and the right to make decisions about their health care, including reproductive health care, and that includes abortion, Evers said at the lone debate between the two candidates.

He also focused on defending the integrity of the states elections. Michels, a millionaire construction magnate who has unsuccessfully run for office before, has questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and initially declined to say whether he would certify election results in 2024. The two also offered starkly different approaches to public education, which Evers vowed to defend, and "red flag" laws for gun owners, which Michels said could be unconstitutional.

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels in Muskego, Wis., on Nov. 6. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Evers said he planned to use the states budget surplus for a 10% tax cut for the middle class; Michels was less specific, calling for massive tax reform and supporting a flat tax that economists said would benefit the wealthy. Michels also blamed worker shortages on COVID relief programs that he said made people lazy.

We created an entire class of lazy people during COVID. It's time to get them back engaged in our economy, to stop just sending them the unemployment checks, he said at the debate last month.

While Democrats routinely win in Wisconsin at the state level, Republicans control the state Legislature, a dynamic that has led to Evers often reaching for his veto pen. Democrats blame Republican gerrymandering for Wisconsins divided government, although fears of a complete GOP takeover of the state may have helped Evers in his race with Michels.

"I promise you when we are here in one year with Gov. Michels, every single thing that Gov. Evers has vetoed is going to be considered by the Legislature," Robin Vos, the states powerful Assembly speaker, said at a GOP rally in September. "And hopefully all of it becomes law."
Democrat Wes Moore is projected to be Marylands first Black governor after defeating Dan Cox, a Republican state delegate closely aligned with former President Donald Trump.

Moores victory had long been assumed  at least since Cox triumphed in the GOP primary over Kelly Schulz, who served in the Cabinet of popular outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and had his endorsement. Coxs brand of far-right politics, including support for Trumps lies about the 2020 election and support for banning abortion, were never going to fly in heavily blue Maryland.

Moore, an author and former bank and nonprofit executive, won the Democratic nod by defeating state Comptroller Peter Franchot and former Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez in a June primary.

As an Afghanistan War veteran and a Rhodes scholar, Moore has the kind of resume likely to generate chatter that hes the future of the Democratic Party. But he faced criticism during the campaign for exaggerating his ties to Baltimore City while promoting his book The Other Wes Moore, and for failing to correct interviewers who suggested he had won a Bronze Star.

Moore has staked himself as part of the center-left, pointing to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) as two of his political role models. Democrats have substantial majorities in both of Marylands legislative chambers, so Moores victory returns to the state to a Democratic trifecta after eight years of Hogan.

Maryland has one of the highest Black populations in the country  roughly a third of its population is Black, a percentage topped by only Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia  and the past three lieutenant governors of the state were all Black. But as in the vast majority of U.S. states, Maryland voters have never before elected a Black governor: Moore is only the third Black person to be elected governor of a state in the countrys history.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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By Daniel Trotta and Julia Harte

(Reuters) -Democrats won elections for governor in the "blue wall" states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Tuesday, enabling them to resist Republican efforts in those states to restrict abortion and voting rights.

Democratic Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Tony Evers of Wisconsin were re-elected, while Josh Shapiro succeeded an outgoing Democratic governor in Pennsylvania, according to projections from Edison Research.

The three states served as a "blue wall" that helped Democrat Joe Biden defeat Republican then-President Donald Trump in 2020, when Republican officials tried to overturn those results.

Republicans control the state legislatures in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, making the governorships crucial to vetoing legislation. In Pennsylvania, some media outlets projected Democrats would win a majority in the state House of Representatives, which would leave the legislature split between parties. Democrats won both houses of Michigan's legislature on Tuesday, taking full control of state government for the first time in decades, according to media reports.

In Kansas, the only governorship that Democrats were defending in a state won by Trump in 2020, Governor Laura Kelly defeated Republican challenger Derek Schmidt, according to Edison Research.

Nationally there were 36 state governor's races on U.S. midterm election ballots on Tuesday, with the future of abortion rights and election oversight at risk in competitive contests around the country.

Democrats were ahead by a net two seats, with more tight races on the West Coast yet to be decided, but Republican incumbents cruised to victories in marquee races in Florida, Georgia and Texas, Edison Research projected.

The high stakes brought increased money and attention to the state-level races, which often get overshadowed in midterm elections by the fight for control of Congress.

In Pennsylvania, Shapiro defeated Republican election denier Doug Mastriano in a presidential battleground state where the governor appoints the official who oversees elections.

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Mastriano has echoed Trump's false claims about voting fraud and was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 - the day of a deadly riot - to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Mastriano told supporters late on Tuesday he would respect the election results, but said there were too many votes outstanding and he wanted to see "what the voters have to say."

In Michigan, Democrat Whitmer won a second term, having campaigned hard on abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Her Trump-backed opponent, commentator Tudor Dixon, supported a near-total ban on abortion, including for child victims of rape and incest.

Wisconsin's Democratic Governor Evers narrowly defended his seat against Republican construction magnate Tim Michels, who had falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 election.

Michels had promised, if elected, to enforce a 19th-century abortion ban that Evers is challenging in court.

DEMOCRATIC PICKUPS

Democrats picked up governorships in Massachusetts and Maryland with history-making candidates.

Massachusetts Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey became the first woman to ascend to that state's highest office, and she also will be the country's first openly lesbian governor.

Another barrier was broken in Maryland, where Democrat Wes Moore became the state's first African American candidate to win an election for governor.

Women of both parties had a good night, as a record number of women will hold governorships when they are all sworn in. There could be as many as 12 women governors, up from the current record of nine.

In New York state, where Republicans last won 20 years ago, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul survived a challenge from Republican Lee Zeldin, who campaigned hard on the issue of crime. Hochul, a former lieutenant governor who ascended when former Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned, became the first woman elected to the post in New York.

Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was one of Trump's White House press secretaries, was elected as Arkansas' first woman governor. Her father, Mike Huckabee, is a former Republican governor of the state.

But in Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams came up short against Republican Governor Brian Kemp in a rematch of their 2018 race. Abrams' strong run four years ago made her a Democratic star nationally, but Kemp was ahead by nearly 8 percentage points with 96% of the projected vote counted.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott won a third term over Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke, a former U.S. congressman who became a national Democratic figure after a close loss in a Senate race four years ago and a run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis coasted to re-election, defeating Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by nearly 20 percentage points with 98% of the expected vote counted.

DeSantis, 44, is expected to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. That likelihood has drawn the ire of Trump, 76, who has nicknamed him "Ron De-Sanctimonious."

Trump has said he will make a major announcement next Tuesday, when he is widely expected to declare his candidacy.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Additional reporting by Julia Harte in New York and Jarrett Renshaw in Harrisburg, PennsylvaniaEditing by Colleen Jenkins, Howard Goller, Will Dunham, Aurora Ellis , Claudia Parsons and Jonathan Oatis)
Alex Brandon/AP Photo; Stacia Hall's campaign; Insider

Democratic incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser defeated Republican Stacia Hall in Washington, DC's mayoral race.

2022 General Embeds

Bowser, first elected in 2014, ran for her third consecutive term as mayor. Currently, the mayor of Washington, DC, is popularly elected to a four-year term with no term limits.

The native Washingtonian previously represented Ward 4 for two terms as a member of the DC Council. She is the second female mayor of Washington, DC, after Sharon Pratt, and the first woman to be reelected to that position.

In 2018, she became the first mayor to earn a second term in 16 years when she won with 76% of the vote.

With the city experiencing increases in violent crime, crime and public safety emerged as leading issues on voters' minds. Bowser, who in 2020 had a section of 16th Street NW near the White House painted with the words "Black Lives Matter" and renamed a section of the street Black Lives Matter Plaza, pushed to increase the number of police officers, a point she touted during a television debate earlier in June.

"I'm going to make the tough calls when it comes to violent crime, including making sure we have the police that we need," she said.

Hall, Bowser's challenger, is a senior rental consultant and small business owner from Ward 3. According to her campaign website, Hall is a single mother who experienced homelessness. The primary focus of her campaign was public safety: If she had been elected, she said she would have put more police officers in schools and developed incentives to have officers live in the neighborhoods they police.

Independent Rodney Grant and Libertarian Dennis Sobin were also on the ballot in 2022.

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Democrats received an early break on Tuesday evening when they held two seats in Virginia that they flipped in 2018, a sign that they might be able to stave off a red wave in the House.

Representative Jennifer Wexton held her seat in Virginias 10th District, which includes much of the Washington DC suburbs. The non-partisan Cook Political Report had recently shifted its rating from Safe Democratic to likely Democratic.

Ms Wexton defeated Republican Hung Cao, a retired Navy pilot. Had Republicans flipped the district, they likely would have seen an overwhelming red wave.

After their success shaving off part of the Democratic majority in 2020, the GOP prioritised recruiting candidates of colour like Mr Cao, a refugee from Vietnam. Similarly, Republicans nominated Yesli Vega, the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants and retired police officer.

But Representative Abigail Spanberger, who beat a Republican the 7th District in 2018, beat Ms Vega on 8 November, with the Associated Press making a projection in the race at around 10.45pm ET. Ms Vega came under scrutiny after Axios reported that she questioned whether women could become pregnant after they were raped.

Ms Spanberger has been a voice for moderation within the Democratic Party, excoriating progressives for talking about defunding the police and herself authoring legislation to increase police funding. Similarly, she has teamed up with Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas on legislation to ban stock trading in Congress.

Cook had rated Ms Spanbergers race as a toss-up.

But Democrats are not entirely out of the woods yet in Virginia. Representative Elaine Luria, a retired Naval officer, is up against state Senator Jennifer Kiggans, a retired Naval pilot.

Ms Luria is the sole member of the House Select Committee investigating January 6 and has centered defending Democracy. But her district became much more Republican after redistricting.
Toni Preckwinkle declared victory in her bid for a fourth term as Cook County Board president in a race that landed voters in familiar territory: a rematch with Bob Fioretti. Other Democrats running for countywide seats similarly held strong leads Tuesday night, while the campaign pushing for a referendum raising property taxes to help bolster the Cook County Forest Preserve Districts budget hailed a yes vote.

Fiorettis campaign  as a Republican  was a heel turn from his days as a staunch progressive member of Chicagos City Council, where he served as alderman for the 2nd Ward. In their last battle for the same job in 2018, Preckwinkle defeated Fioretti, an attorney, in the Democratic primary. This time, he was recruited to run by the Chicago GOP, but entered the race after the June primary, giving him just 12 weeks to campaign while introducing himself for the first time as a Republican. Preckwinkle, meanwhile, had the advantage of incumbency and her position as head of the Cook County Democratic Party.

With 92% of precincts reporting in Cook County, Preckwinkle led with over 66% of the vote, according to unofficial returns, while Fioretti had about 30%.

Preckwinkle declared victory shortly after 9 p.m. I extend my deepest gratitude to the voters of Cook County and Im grateful they have entrusted me to run the nations second-largest county in the country for the past 12 years, and look forward to all the good work that lies ahead, she said in an emailed statement.

Her fourth term will focus on the distribution of the countys American Rescue Plan Act funding, including her guaranteed income program, plans to eliminate $1 million in medical debt and establish a new Department of Mental Health.

As chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, we celebrate our Democratic victories up and down the ballot in Cook County and across the state, she said. Despite a broader effort by the local GOP to fill ballot vacancies and challenge incumbents, Democratic candidates for assessor, clerk, treasurer and sheriff secured re-election with double-digit leads over Republican and Libertarian candidates at the time Preckwinkle claimed her win, according to unofficial returns.

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Fioretti gathered with friends and family at the Billy Goat Tavern Tuesday night, waiting for more votes to trickle in before officially conceding to Preckwinkle. Citing the growing Democratic stronghold in Cook County, Fioretti said he was in the race to make some change.

Were very disappointed that the Democratic machine seems to be in good shape in Chicago and Cook County, Fioretti told the Tribune. All these races are going right along the machine lines so someone has to challenge the machine and thats what (Ive) been doing.

This is the first board presidents race since crime and bail reform have come to the forefront of voters minds alongside a rise in crime during the pandemic. Fioretti framed himself as the pro-law enforcement candidate while highlighting Preckwinkles association with embattled States Attorney Kim Foxx, her former chief of staff.

Preckwinkle has defended criminal justice reforms she helped oversee by pointing to investments in violence prevention efforts and arguing bail reform was an issue of justice that prevented low-level, nondangerous offenders from being held in jail simply because they could not afford it.

Fioretti highlighted what he described as Preckwinkles irresponsible budgeting practices. Preckwinkle has led the 17-member County Board since 2010, where she oversaw the growth of the countys budget from roughly $3 billion during her first term to a projected $8.75 billion next year. She also pushed through an increase in annual pension payments and the expansion of the countys health system.

While Fioretti criticized the growth in the countys budget and attempted to remind voters of past tax hikes under Preckwinkle, allies touted her fiscal stewardship, including improvements to Cook County Health, a raft of COVID-19 recovery programs and improved bond ratings, as justifications for a another term.

Meanwhile, Tuesdays ballot also featured a referendum question from the Forest Preserve District asking voters to hike property taxes to give the district an annual budget boost of $40 million.

With 68% of precincts reporting, the yes vote led with 67%. It requires a simple majority to pass.

With the results we see tonight on the referendum, its clear that people deeply appreciate all the benefits the forest preserves of Cook County provides, starting with access to nature so close to home. Its exciting to see, said Arnold Randall, general superintendent of the forest preserve district. Our work begins tomorrow on enacting plans to expand ecological restoration work, add more land to the preserve system, address critical long-term needs, continue to grow our programming and public outreach, and more.

The referendum question called for a 0.025% increase above the current state-mandated Property Tax Extension Limitation Law cap for the district, bringing the limit to 0.076%. The owner of a median-priced home in Cook County pays $36 to $47 in property taxes per year to the district, and passage will raise the property tax by less than $20, according to the district.

Of the $40 million the Forest Preserve District is expected to raise, it planned to spend $7.3 million to buy more property, $6 million for facility maintenance, $6.3 million for land restoration and $9.7 million for pension payments. The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and Brookfield Zoo, which both sit on district land, would get $2.4 million and $4 million, respectively, for capital maintenance.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, also seeking his fifth term, was leading with 72% of the votes against Republican attorney Lupe Aguirre and Libertarian candidate and sheriffs office Sgt. Brad Sandefur. Accusations that Dart was soft on crime amid a local spike in shootings and theft were dampened as he successfully knocked several challengers off the ballot in the Democratic primary.

In his bid for a second term, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi led with 81% of the vote as he faces Libertarian candidate Nico Tsatsoulis. Kaegi took over the office four years ago on a platform that hed clean up the office following two terms under Joe Berrios leadership.

Maria Pappas, Cook County treasurer since 1998, is competing for her seventh term. She faced off against Republican Peter Kopsaftis and Libertarian Michael Murphy. With 92% of precincts reporting, Pappas led with 73% of the vote.

Meanwhile, Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough faced former Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, a Republican and former member of the Cook County Board. Yarbrough led with over 69% of the vote.

Tuesdays race was key to Cook County Republicans bid to thwart an effort to whittle their superminority on the county board even further. All 17 board seats were on the ballot, and only one incumbent Republican  Sean Morrison, the head of the Cook County GOP  ran for reelection.

The Cook County GOP put up a large slate of candidates to take on Democrats earlier this year, but few campaigns took off  several Republicans did not fundraise or launch websites, and seven were removed from the ballot. But among the key races considered competitive: the 14th District, where first-term Democratic Commissioner Scott Britton fought to hold onto his seat, and the 9th, where an open race to succeed a longtime Republican commissioner has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

Since the June primary, the Cook County Democratic Party has spent $550,000 to help Britton and Maggie Trevor, the partys nominee in the 9th District, according to filings with the state board of elections.

Trevor faced Matt Podgorski, owner of the polling firm Ogden & Fry and a logistics manager for the bottling and distribution company Reyes Coca-Cola. Britton, meanwhile, was up against hedge fund manager Benton Howser.

Incumbents on the county board led their challengers across the board: Sean Morrison led Dan Calandriello with 52% of the vote and 94% of precincts in. With 97% of precincts in, Britton led Howser with 60% of the vote.

In the open 9th District race, the candidates were separated by less than 1,300 votes. With 94% of precincts reporting, Podgorski led Trevor with just over 50%.

aquig@chicagotribune.com
Democrats managed to hold on to the highly contested seat in Pennsylvanias 17th Congressional District after Rep. Conor Lamb, a moderate Democrat from Mount Lebanon, announced his resignation last year.

Democrat Chris Deluzio secured the victory over Republican candidate Jeremy Shaffer by garnering roughly 52% of the vote with 98% of the votes tallied by Wednesday morning, The Associated Press projects.

Shaffer conceded to Deluzio Tuesday around 11 p.m.

Chris Deluzio, Democratic congressional candidate for Pennsylvania, speaks to members of the media outside a polling location in Aspinwall, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS: LIVE UPDATES

The GOP candidate reportedly told his supporters he wanted "to congratulate Chris Deluzio on the win."

"We honor the results that are there," he said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Were going to be continuing to work in our communities to try to make a difference. This country is too important to give up on."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Deluzio championed his win in a statement and said he and his team won "because we offered something different."

"The good people of western Pennsylvania believe, as I do, in fighting for our common good, for our shared prosperity, for a government that serves all of us and puts people first," he reportedly added.

PENNSYLVANIA ELECTION RESULTS: REP. MATT CARTWRIGHT WINS RE-ELECTION AGAINST TRUMP-ENDORSED CHALLENGER

The loss comes as the GOP and Democrats invested heavily in campaigning in the swing state as Republicans look to achieve a majority in the House of Representatives.

The race was the third-most expensive House race in Pennsylvania, with the two candidates raising a combined $5.2 million, according to Open Secrets.

But Lambs vacant seat wasnt the only open Pennsylvania slot Republicans lost in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Democratic candidate John Fetterman also secured the Senate seat that Republicans had been vying for since GOP Sen. Pat Toomey announced his resignation in 2020.

John Fetterman, Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor and a Democratic candidate for U.S. senator, speaks to supporters at a rally in Pittsburgh.

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Democrats secured at least six of the 10 Pennsylvania House seats, while Republicans have only secured three so far.

One seat has yet to be called. Democratic incumbent candidate Susan Wild maintains a narrow margin over Republican challenger Lisa Scheller by over 4,700 votes, which is less than a 1% margin of victory, with 98% of the votes tallied.
Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during rally in Miami, Nov. 7, 2022.

Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a rally in Miami, Nov. 7, 2022. Credit - Andres Kudacki for TIME

Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis soundly won re-election on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press, positioning him for potential national ambitions or a future bid for the presidency.

DeSantis faced Democrat Charlie Crist, who himself served as a Republican Governor of Florida from 2007 until 2011. (He became a Democrat in 2012.)

A rising star in the GOP, DeSantis defined his first term as governor with resistance to pandemic-era restrictions and brash right-wing stances on Americas culture wars. His funding vastly outpaced Crists, and he focused his campaign on criticizing Democrats for what he described as the woke agenda. Widely considered to be a future Republican presidential contender, the conservative firebrand made headlines this year for his stances on LGBTQ issues, handling of immigration policy, and investigations into alleged voter fraud. He repeatedly drew liberal ire and swallowed media cycle after media cycle, leaving Crist and his moderate approach largely ignored.

Signs for Governor Ron DeSantis are seen near a polling site at the John F. Kennedy Library in Hialeah, Florida, Nov. 8, 2022. Andres Kudacki for TIME

While hes been re-elected to another four years in office, it remains unclear if hell serve all of themin a recent debate DeSantis, 44, did not answer when Crist pressed him to commit to a full four-year term rather than run for President in 2024. Former President Donald Trump, a registered Florida voter who is also mulling a presidential bid, told reporters on Tuesday that he had voted for DeSantis re-election, although he had mocked the governor at a rally just days before, potentially teeing up the primary dynamics for next cycle.

In September, DeSantis found himself in the national spotlight once again for spending taxpayer dollars to relocate about 50 migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyarda move that came as a shock to the Marthas Vineyard community who didnt initially know who sent them. DeSantis has continued to defend the stunt, describing it as an advertisement that undocumented immigrants arent welcome in Florida.

Ive got enough refugees coming in from blue states fleeing that bad policy, DeSantis joked at an event this weekend, according to the news site Florida Politics.
TAMPA, Fla.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis swiftly trounced Democrat Charlie Crist on Tuesday night, a win that will shape Florida politics likely for years and sets the Republican governor up for a probable 2024 presidential run.

DeSantis defeated Crist by a nearly 20 percent margin  59 to 40  a stunning margin that was the widest margin in a Florida gubernatorial race since Jeb Bush won by nearly 13 points in 2002. DeSantis also won the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County, another first for Republicans since Bush did it that same year.

DeSantis was greeted with thunderous applause by a huge, raucous crowd at his election night party at the Tampa Convention Center that advisers say was designed less for a reelection party and more as a preview of whats to come: a 2024 presidential run.

Now thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida, we not only won the election, we have rewritten the political map, DeSantis said. Thank you for honoring us for a win for the ages.



DeSantis also gave what could be a preview for his next race, contending the state had a become a promised land that had served as a counterbalance to Democratic-led cities and counties.

Now while our country flounders due to failed leadership in Washington, Florida is on the right track, DeSantis said.

On the other side of Tampa Bay, Crists campaign huddled in St. Petersburg with a much more somber tone, even as they expected the outcome. DeSantis outraised Crist roughly 7 to 1, and the former GOP governor-turned-Democratic congressman could never build general election momentum or break through the over $70 million in ads DeSantis and his aligned entities flooded the airwaves with.

I wish the best to my fellow Floridians because I love this state, I love her with all my heart, Crist said. You are great, good, decent, kind people, and you deserve nothing better than the very best God has to offer. We have so much to be thankful for  Im a happy man, and I am at peace.



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DeSantis decisive win, coupled with a strong showing from other Florida Republicans including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), put the state further out of reach for Democrats moving into the 2024 presidential cycle. National Democratic groups too appear to be abandoning the state after decades of losses.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz on Tuesday sent a memo to local party leaders outlining that during the 2018 midterms, a collection of seven national groups spent nearly $60 million in Florida, a number that dropped to $1.3 million this cycle. Diaz became chairman after a terrible 2020 election cycle for Democrats, in part, on the heels of an endorsement from former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a billionaire who many in the party expected to follow up his endorsement with waves of cash they could use to rebuild the party. Bloomberg contributed very little to Florida Democrats this cycle.



Headed into Election Day, there were clear signs that Republicans would sweep many races. But DeSantis win was epic in its scope as he not only took Miami-Dade County  long the firewall for Democrats  but he also won relatively reliable Democratic-leaning counties such as Palm Beach and Osceola. Osceola County is especially notable since it contains a huge contingent of Puerto Rican voters.

Republicans already have a 320,000-voter registration advantage in Florida  the first time in Florida political history there are more Republicans than Democrats in the state  and Democrats now fear that DeSantis will have a bigger mandate to push for controversial policies as he continues to build his national profile. DeSantis, for example, won by less than 1 percent after a recount in 2018.

This is really an exclamation point, a culmination of four years of execution, said Christian Ziegler, the vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. This is a big win. No one can dispute that Floridians support this governor, but maybe more so this governors agenda.

DeSantis started his tenure as a governor as a moderate but shifted dramatically during the pandemic, where his hands-off approach to mandates like required masking and vaccine passports helped him build a reputation with Republicans across the country.

From there, DeSantis placed Florida on the vanguard of many of the nations most polarizing culture war fights. It has made him a star with Republicans, and increasingly a national-level political boogeyman for Democrats, who during the 2022 midterms failed to get national Democratic organizations to spend in Florida like they have in previous cycles.

During his first term, DeSantis loudly opposed critical race theory  an analytical framework originally developed by legal scholars that most public school officials say isnt taught in K-12 schools  and became the public face of the GOP-led Legislatures parental rights law, labeled Dont Say Gay by its opponents, that restricts teachers from leading classroom instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade.

His support of the legislation led to a very public fight with Walt Disney Co., whose CEO was initially silent on the law but later became a vocal opponent. DeSantis also convinced the Republican Legislature to later strip Disney, one of the states largest employers, of its special operating status in Florida.

More recently, his flight of migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard enraged Democrats, who accused of Florida governor of human trafficking and using vulnerable migrants to further his political agenda.

Once DeSantis is reelected, nothing will be able to stop him from enacting even more extreme policies than he has in the past, said Sean Shaw, a former Democratic Florida House member from Tampa. Floridians can count on seeing more radical proposals that restrict access to voting, ban abortion and keep costs high by helping out big insurance companies while leaving Floridians to foot the bill.

But the policies that most concern Democrats are the ones that have propelled DeSantis to a huge victory, made him a presidential contender and functionally rewired how the state operates politically.



During his first term in office, DeSantis spent $5 million through the Republican Party of Florida on voter registration efforts, which fueled the massive increase in registered Republicans. The results were overwhelming. Republicans easily won each of the five statewide races and swept a handful of key Florida Senate seats, capturing a supermajority in that chamber.

Governor DeSantis invested early in registration and swung Republicans to a 300,000-voter advantage, said Evan Power, the Florida GOPs chair of chairs. Now, with big Republican wins he has dramatically shifted Florida red. This will be a giant political victory that will define Governor DeSantis here in Florida and on the national stage.

Yet DeSantis national ambitions will meet head-on with former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to announce a 2024 White House run in mid-November if not sooner.

Tension between the possible 2024 rivals are already rising. Trump didnt invite DeSantis to a rally in Miami over the weekend for Rubio while the governor separately held his own reelection rallies throughout the state. But most directly, Trump chided DeSantis with a disparaging nickname: "DeSanctimonious."
Merced police detectives are seeking information on a cold case murder and believe several potential witnesses have yet to come forward.

The case involves the death of 22-year old Ryan Joel Henri.

Merced Police Department officers responded to a shooting in the 1100 block of West Fourth Street in Merced on May 8, 2002. When officers responded, they were directed to an apartment where Henri had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to a news release.

Lifesaving efforts by officers and emergency medical personnel were unsuccessful and Henri succumbed to his injuries on scene.

Detectives had several leads early on, but the case eventually went cold. Detectives have conducted a cold case review and believe there are several witnesses who have yet to come forward.

Merced police are asking anyone with any information regarding this incident to contact Detective Christian Lupian at 209-385-7844 or by email at lupianc@cityofmerced.org.
Diane Minnifield has defeated Judge Jeffrey A. Taylor to take a Fayette County Circuit court judge position, unofficial election results show.

Minnifield, who previously stated she hopes to thwart gun violence and promote a more compassionate criminal justice system, led the race when results were posted Tuesday with 63% of the vote.

Minnifield has worked for the Fayette County Attorneys Office since 1992 as a prosecutor in cases involving juveniles. She currently handles cases that deal with abuse and neglect.

As a circuit court judge, she will handle capital cases and felonies, civil cases involving $5,000 or more, land dispute title cases and contested probate cases, according to the Kentucky Court of Justice.

I am so so excited. I am so humbled, Minnifield said. My entire career has never really been about me. Its always been about the people.

On the bench, Minnifield said she hopes to build trust in the community by giving all her of constituents a seat at the table and a voice in the system.

Taylor was the incumbent judge who had been appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear after longtime Judge Ernesto Scorsone retired last year. He ran a tough-on-crime campaign emphasizing issues like drug abuse and violent crime.

Taylor has 25 years of experience as a trial attorney and former partner at Landrum & Shouse LLP. Hes tried civil cases all over the state.

Taylor could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday night.
Marijuana. Illustrated | Getty Images

Last month, President Biden announced that he would be pardoning thousands of Americans previously convicted of simple marijuana possession charges. While he stopped short of decriminalizing marijuana like he once promised, he encouraged state officials to follow his lead. The timing of his announcement caused a stir, leaving some to speculate about how this could affect the midterm elections.

On Election Day, several states put one slice of this question to the test by including measures to legalize recreational marijuana on the ballot, and early results suggest that support for legalizing marijuana might be growing.

Here's what you need to know about recreational marijuana ballot measures and what the outcome means for the future of decriminalization.

Which states had recreational marijuana referendums on the ballot?

In the midterm elections, five states included proposals to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults on their ballots. Voters in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota had the opportunity to vote on whether recreational marijuana use would be allowed in their states. All five states already have legal medical marijuana programs, and four of them are known as GOP strongholds. Maryland is the only state that did not vote for former President Donald Trump in 2020.

Maryland: Question 4

Maryland voters were tasked with deciding if possessing and using cannabis would become legal for adult users aged 21 and up. If the measure passed, it would go into effect in July 2023. This amendment would allow possession of up to 1.5 ounces or two plants. It also stated that those previously convicted of possession and intent to distribute could apply to have their records expunged.

Missouri: Constitutional Amendment 3

Missouri voters were posed with the question of legalizing the possession and use of marijuana for people 21 and older. The amendment would allow people to possess up to three ounces and allow people with non-violent marijuana-related convictions to petition for release or parole and probation. They would also be able to apply for record expungement.

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North Dakota: Measure 2

Similarly, North Dakota ballots proposed legalizing the possession and use of cannabis for adults aged 21 and older. The measure sought to allow people to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in "various forms." It also stipulated that all marijuana be screened "for the potency of products and the presence of pesticides" and subject to random inspections.

Arkansas: Issue 4

In Arkansas, voters had to decide whether to legalize possessing and using cannabis for people 21 and over. The bill would also authorize the commercial sale of cannabis throughout the state. The bill proposed legalizing the possession of up to one ounce of cannabis and using portions of tax revenue from marijuana sales to contribute to law enforcement funding.

South Dakota: Measure 27

The possession and use of marijuana would become legal for people 21 and older. The proposed ballot measure would legalize possession of up to an ounce, as well as the possession of marijuana paraphernalia.

What was the outcome of the measures after Election Day?

Of the five states that had legalized recreational marijuana on their ballots, two of the states passed the measures, and two voted against them.

On Election Day, Maryland and Missouri voters approved the ballot proposals to legalize recreational marijuana, while voters in Arkansas and North Dakota voted to block the passage of their recreational marijuana referendums, The Associated Press reports. As of Wednesday morning, the vote in South Dakota was too close to call.

What do the results mean for the future of cannabis legalization?

For some cannabis advocates, the mixed results are an outcome that may indicate growing support for decriminalizing marijuana that goes beyond party lines. Maryland typically leans toward Democrats, while Missouri was on the list of states that elected Trump in 2020. John Payne, leader of the Missouri campaign to legalize marijuana, believes this signals that the issue has support on both sides of the political spectrum.

"It just shows that this is not a partisan issue," Payne said. "This is something that transcends partisan divides."

Some advocates believe the results will signal to lawmakers in the Capitol that pro-legalization support is growing in the nation, per AP.

"A growing number of voters recognize that cannabis policy reform is in the best interest of public health and safety, criminal justice reform, social equity, and personal freedom," Toi Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project said in a statement. "State-level legalization victories are what's necessary to move the needle forward at the federal level."

The results bring the total number of states with legal recreational marijuana use to 21. How the opposition will respond to the successful legalization measures this year remains to be seen. A measure for recreational marijuana legalization passed in South Dakota in 2020, but the outcome was eventually reversed by state courts, per CNN.

Critics in Missouri say they have plans to attempt to limit the extent of the state's implementation of its legalization plan. One path to inhibiting the spread of legalization is working with cities and towns to disallow dispensaries in their areas.

Kevin Sabet, president of the anti-legalization group SAM Action, says, "The devil is in the details, and we will remain actively involved in Missouri implementation because we don't need another Big Tobacco industry harming kids in Missouri."

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Now that the countdown to Christmas has officially begun, the British royal family has already started getting into the holiday spirit by decorating their glamorous tree at Windsor Castle. Last week, the official Instagram account dedicated to the Royal Collection Trust revealed an exclusive first look at the Christmas tree sitting right in St. Georges Hall at the royal residence this year. The charity shared that the tree is completely covered with 3,000 lights, hundreds of iridescent jewel-sh
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) made a joke about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) finding the hammer days after her husband was attacked by a hammer-wielding assailant.

The attacker broke into the Pelosi home, allegedly looking for the House speaker to kidnap her and break her kneecaps, according to police. The attack on Paul Pelosi left him hospitalized for six days as he underwent surgery for a skull fracture and received treatment for other injuries.

But Biggs  who reportedly sought a pardon from President Donald Trump in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol  used that as fodder for a joke at an event on Tuesday.

Were gonna show Nancy Pelosi the door very shortly. Dont let it hit you on the backside, Nancy, he said Tuesday. Shes losing the gavel but finding the hammer. Too soon? Is that too soon?

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ): [Speaker Nancy Pelosi] is losing the gavel but finding the hammer. Too soon? Is that too soon? pic.twitter.com/29em6jJWJ8  The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2022

Critics on Twitter called him out:

What a disgusting person. Not to mention an instigator of a violent insurrection. https://t.co/atqC0tRUMn  Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) November 9, 2022

The cruelty is the point  https://t.co/ctTlUnIsyL  Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) November 9, 2022

Im going to say this as politely as I can muster. People sometimes ask me how I feel about the current slate of Arizona republicans. I dunno. You tell me. How should I feel about this? https://t.co/azLj6rGG75  Dominic "Still 99.7% Non-Spoilery" Armato (@SkilletDoux) November 9, 2022

What a disgusting prick. https://t.co/yljpcoGumN  Catherines Votes Dem 4 Harm Reduction  (@CMargaronis) November 9, 2022

Absolutely horrible people and its laughed off. https://t.co/U8QueMeepi  RedDirtSport (@RedDirtSport) November 9, 2022

These people are truly disgusting. https://t.co/jcePQAwm7J  Alex      (@aleximenez) November 9, 2022

Women, Are you ok with how Nancy Pelosi is treated? https://t.co/eRqkvUyWIE  Alice LaRocca  (@laroccaa) November 9, 2022

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
"Deadpool 3," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," "Ant-Man 4," and "Thunderbolts" are all coming next from Marvel. Marvel Studios, composite by Kirsten Acuna/Insider

Disney announced new updates to its theatrical release schedule at San Diego Comic-Con and D23 Expo.

Two more "Avengers" sequels, a "Thunderbolts" movie, and "Deadpool 3" are coming.

Marvel's next release is the third "Ant-Man" movie, out in February 2023.

February 17, 2023: "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania"

Evangeline Lilly and Paul Rudd will be back in "Ant-Man 3" along with director Peyton Reed. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

In the sequel, Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton takes over the role), Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), her parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), find themselves inside the Quantum Realm.

In the footage shown exclusively at SDCC in July, we saw how saving the world went to Lang's head just a little too much. He likes to remind his family of his role in reversing the Blip and even got a book deal out of it. Life is going OK until the Lang family is sucked into the Quantum Realm.

"This thing is bananas," Rudd said at D23 Expo. "This is going to be unlike anything you've seen from us."

Jonathan Majors will reprise his role as Kang, a character first introduced in "Loki." This time we'll see a variant of the villain.

At D23 Expo, an exclusive look at the film showed Kang darkly asking Scott how many times he has killed him in the past. When Kang asked Scott for his help to steal something back for him, Scott refused to make a pact with him. Kang didn't like that response, throwing Scott into a wall.

The same footage teased Bill Murray in an exclusive look at the film as a character who seems to have a history with Janet.

May 5, 2023: "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

Will Gamora and Peter find their way back to one another? Marvel Entertainment

Director James Gunn returns for the third installment in the "GotG" franchise which will revolve heavily around Rocket Raccoon's backstory.

While considering years ago about how to incorporate Rocket into the film, Gunn told the San Diego crowd in July, "I realized he was the saddest creature in the universe and that's what this story is about."

The emotional exclusive footage shown at SDCC teased adorable shots of a younger Rocket, juxtaposed with darker sequences. The film will also revolve around Peter Quill's desire to reunite with the love of his life, Gamora, despite a variant of her having no recollection of him at all.

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"She does not know who he is. The pain of that is a big part of his journey. It opens up a vulnerability to the Guardians of the Galaxy to danger," Pratt said at SDCC of losing the love of his life.

That danger may come in the form of Chukwudi Iwuji's High Evolutionary, who appeared in costume during the panel, and will be featured in the next film. Will Poulter, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, and Maria Bakalova will also star in the third film.

July 28, 2023: "The Marvels"

Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Nia DaCosta, and Kevin Feige at D23 in September 2022. The Walt Disney Company via Getty Images

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) will be joined by "Ms. Marvel" star Iman Vellani, who stars in her own Disney+ series, and Teyonah Parris, who will play an adult version of Monica Rambeau.

The adult Rambeau was first seen in "WandaVision," where she received superhero powers.

A teaser shown at D23 teased that the three women's light-based powers are entangled with one another, causing them to be able to swap places with one another. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel will also meet Goose, the alien cat who blinded Nick Fury.

You can read more on the sequel here.

May 3, 2024: "Captain America: New World Order"

Sam Wilson's Captain America is a combination of Cap and the Falcon. Disney Platform Distribution

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is the new Captain America in the fourth film in the franchise.

At D23 Expo, Feige announced that Shira Haas will play superheroine Sabra while Tim Blake Nelson will reprise his role from 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" as The Leader, a Hulk villain.

Danny Ramirez and Carl Lumbly will also reprise their roles from "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier."

Director Julius Onah ("The Cloverfield Paradox") described the sequel as a thriller.

July 26, 2024: "Thunderbolts"

Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jake Scheier, Kevin Feige are seen revealing the cast of "Thunderbolts" at D23 Expo. The Walt Disney Company via Getty Images

"There's currently a world without the Avengers," Feige said at D23 Expo of the state of the MCU in the next "Captain America" film. "Just because there is not an organization of the Avengers, doesn't mean there's not a group of superheroes in the MCU."

The ragtag bunch of antiheroes includes a group of characters we've seen introduced in various movies and Disney+ shows. Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), US Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) will all star in the upcoming movie. The group basically seems like Marvel's version of the Suicide Squad.

"It's good to be back. I'm as excited as the most boring Avenger," Russell joked about returning to the MCU.

"They look like a good, troubled bunch and maybe I know a thing or two about that," Stan, whose character has dealt with a lot of PTSD said about Bucky being a part of a group again.

"I think it tells you all you need to know about the Thunderbolts when beloved Winter Soldier is the most stable among them," Feige said.

September 6, 2024: "Blade"

The Academy Award winner is joining the MCU as the iconic character. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Although Wesley Snipes originated the role in the 1998 movie, Feige first announced that Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will play the human/vampire hybrid, who protects humans from vamps, at SDCC 2019.

Ali's Blade was first teased in a post-credit scene of "Eternals."

November 8, 2024: "Deadpool 3"

Ryan Reynolds confirmed the release date on September 27, 2022. 20th Century Studios / Marvel Studios

Reynolds surprised fans with a video update to the third movie, announcing that his pal Hugh Jackman will reprise his role as X-Men character Wolverine.

In an 80-second video, the actor admitted he's had a tough time finding the right way to introduce the raunchy character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"His first appearance in the MCU obviously needs to feel special. We need to stay true to the character," Reynolds said. "Every Deadpool needs to stand out and stand apart. It's been an incredible challenge that has forced me to reach down deep inside and I have nothing."

Reynolds teased that his one idea involved asking Jackman if he'd like to join him in the sequel to play Wolverine "one more time." Jackman, walking in the background of the video, said, "Sure, Ryan."

The video ended with the "Deadpool" logo getting slashed by one of Wolverine's adamantium claws.

February 14, 2025: "Fantastic Four"

The Fantastic Four in the comics. Marvel Comics

First announced several years ago, Feige confirmed at SDCC that the "Fantastic Four" reboot will kick off Phase Six of the MCU.

At D23 Expo, Feige announced that "WandaVision" director Matt Shakman will direct the reboot. No cast has been named for the film.

May 2, 2025: "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty"

Jonathan Majors plays Kang. Marvel Studios

The next "Avengers" movie will revolve around Jonathan Major's character and will kick off summer 2025.

May 1, 2026: "Avengers: Secret Wars"

The logos for the next two "Avengers" movies were shown on screen at San Diego Comic-Con. Kirsten Acuna/Insider

Feige originally announced that a second "Avengers" movie will close out Phase 6 a few months later in 2025. As of October 11, 2022, the film has been pushed back to start off summer 2026.

There are also currently five untitled Marvel movies on the calendar, one of which will likely be "Armor Wars."

Don Cheadle discusses "Armor Wars" at Disney's D23 Expo. The Walt Disney Company via Getty Images

According to Disney's updated release calendar, as of October 2022, there are five more untitled Marvel movies on the way. It's possible an "X-Men" reboot will appear among these titles in the future.

Additionally, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Don Cheadle's Disney+ series, "Armor Wars," will now be a movie.

Below are the dates attached to these untitled films:

July 25, 2025

November 7, 2025

February 13, 2026

July 24, 2026

November 6, 2026

Read the original article on Insider
Disney (DIS) laid out key levers it can pull to help battle a potential recession  as the media giant's theme parks business showed signs of weakness in the fourth quarter.

On the earnings call following the disappointing results, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy noted that the company has tools, both new and old, that it can utilize to keep its parks business afloat should consumers pull back spending.

According to the executive, one tool includes discounting  something that McCarthy noted the media giant used in the past as an "effective lever for managing yield." Still, she said that the company won't use discounting to the extent that it did during the last recession in 2009.

Christine McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company smiles as she speaks during the Milken Institute's 22nd annual Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., April 29, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Newer advancements include an updated reservation system that manages and tracks attendance, thus allowing the company greater flexibility when it comes to making adjustments in real time.

She added that a seasonal tiered pricing structure, coupled with a reimagined annual pass business model, plus technological advancements on the expense side (mobile ordering, contactless check-in), adds to that flexibility.

McCarthy noted that Disney permanently removed a significant amount of operating expense at the parks during the pandemic, telling investors that the move "better positions us right now as we go into uncertain economic environments."

The company maintained that it will actively evaluate costs moving forward and will look for efficiencies to better streamline its operations.

Park operations miss expectations amid recession fears

Disney's theme parks, which saw quick COVID bounce backs amid increased attractions, price hikes, and updated technologies like the Genie+ app, missed expectations in the quarter as recession fears pressured consumer demand.

Revenue from the company's parks, experiences, and consumer products division came in at $7.43 billion (vs. estimates of $7.59 billion), with operating income hitting $1.51 billion (vs. estimates of $1.9 billion.) Shanghai's Disney Resort remains closed amid strict COVID-19 protocols. The company revealed it has "no visibility on reopening date" for the Shanghai location.

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Despite the miss, McCarthy said the media giant anticipates a "strong" holiday season at the parks in the first quarter of 2023.

Alexandra is a Senior Entertainment and Media Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com

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Former President Donald Trump speaks during the America First Agenda Summit, at the Marriott Marquis hotel July 26, 2022 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Donald Trump blasted out a "poll" Tuesday night asking supporters whether he should run for president.

Answer "yes," and you're taken to a donation form.

Money contributed goes to Trump's own political action committees.

As a "red wave" failed to materialize Tuesday night and many Republicans underperformed, former President Donald Trump turned his attention away from struggling 2022 Republican congressional and gubernatorial candidates and toward his favorite politician of all: himself.

"TRUMP RAPID RESPONSE," an email to supporters reads. "DO YOU WANT PRESIDENT TRUMP TO RUN IN 2024?"

Click a green "YES" button and you're taken to a page featuring Trump boarding Marine One.

A donation form inveigles prospective contributors to give at least $45 and as much as $2,500.

A Trump fundraising message from November 8, 2022. Trump political committees

A Trump fundraising message from November 8, 2022. Trump fundraising committees

Trump has openly flirted with running for president again ever since leaving the White House in January 2021.

He's promised to make a "big announcement" on November 15.

All the while, Trump has aggressively fundraised for his post-presidential political committees, most notably Save America and Make America Great Again PAC.

Save America alone had almost $70 million cash on hand as of October 19, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz speaks during a rally with former President Donald Trump. Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Trump has made his endorsements a cornerstone of his post-presidential life.

But Americans on Tuesday dealt devastating blows to his brand by rejecting key candidates in closely-contested races.

Dr. Mehmet Oz and Don Bolduc lost. While JD Vance is headed for the Senate and Herschel Walker will fight on through a runoff.

Donald Trump ensured he was on the ballot Tuesday night as the self-described "king of endorsements." But he apparently wasn't a kingmaker.

So far, Americans have dealt devastating blows to his brand by rejecting key candidates in closely-contested races. Rather than a so-called "red wave," results were still unclear on Wednesday. Republicans are likely to win control of the House but the Senate is still in play for both parties.

Former reality TV star Mehmet Oz was one of Trump's picks who could have helped Republicans hang onto a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, but he lost to Democrat John Fetterman. Republicans hoped retired Army General Don Bolduc, another Trump endorsee, could have flipped a Senate seat in New Hampshire. Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan won re-election.

Republican Herschel Walker, meanwhile, will fight on through a Georgia runoff. In a win for Trump, author JD Vance heads to the Senate from Ohio.

The legally challenged, twice-impeached former president put great effort into continuing to rebrand the Republican Party, making more than 250 general election endorsements, according to Ballotpedia. He is expected to formally announce his own candidacy soon.

True to form, Trump began the night by already trying to craft an exit strategy from the torrent of criticism he may face for his role in the GOP's struggles. "I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all," Trump told NewsNation during an interview on Tuesday.

He blamed Bolduc's loss on his 2020 election pivots. "Don Bolduc was a very nice guy, but he lost tonight when he disavowed, after his big primary win, his longstanding stance on Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Primary," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Had he stayed strong and true, he would have won, easily. Lessons Learned!!!"

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As Republican's struggles began to mount, the knives for Trump began to come out.

"If you want the Republican Party to thrive, we've got to just finally speak out and say, 'This man is a loser, he lost 2020, he's losing a seat that is winnable this time," former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said on CNN.

By Wednesday's early morning hours, Trump was spinning the elections as "A GREAT EVENING" on Truth Social, and blaming the media and Democrats for downplaying it.

Here's how some of his most high profile endorsees fared.

Don Bolduc, New Hampshire Senate: Projected to have lost

Republican senate nominee Don Bolduc speaks during a campaign event on October 15, 2022 in Derry, New Hampshire. Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images

McConnell and other Republicans hoped that the popular Gov. Chris Sununu would run. Instead, Sununu backed state Sen. Chuck Morse before Trump swopped in to support Bolduc. The former president touted Bolduc's election denialism. Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, has been gaining ground in the race's final days, leading some forecasters to deem the race a "toss-up."

Mark Finchem, Arizona's Secretary of State: Race remains too close to call

Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State, waves to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a Save America rally Friday, July 22, 2022, in Prescott, Ariz. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

The GOP state representative caught Trump's attention as a leader in Arizona's "Stop the Steal" movement. In his endorsement last year, Trump baselessly lauded Finchem's "powerful stance on the massive Voter Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election Scam."

As secretary of state, Finchem would run Arizona's elections in 2024, when Trump is expected to run for president.

He has a history of sharing far-right extremist posts on social media, including a post about stockpiling ammunition, CNN's KFile team found. On January 6, 2021, Finchem was at the pro-Trump rally at the Ellipse and then outside the US Capitol, and he faced ethics complaints about his attendance. He told Insider last year that the people where he was standing, on the edge of the Capitol plaza near the Supreme Court, were "orderly."

John Gibbs, Michigan's 3rd Congressional District: Projected to have lost

Republican congressional candidate John Gibbs Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Trump endorsed Gibbs, a far-right election denier, last year shortly after he announced his GOP primary bid against Rep. Peter Meijer.

Meijer was among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the January 6, 2021 Capitol siege and Gibbs is known as a conspiracy theorist who has also suggested women should not have the right to vote.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was criticized for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars boosting Gibbs, a Trump administration Housing and Urban Development official, during the primary as a pro-Trump conservative.

But Democrat Hillary Scholten, a former Department of Justice attorney, now has a shot in this race after redistricting turned the seat Democratic-leaning. The Cook Political Report shifted its race rating from "toss up" to "lean Democratic" after Meijer lost the GOP primary.

Joe Kent, Washington's 3rd Congressional District: Projected to have lost

Republican congressional candidate Joe Kent Nathan Howard/Getty Images

This former Green Beret is an election denier who has called those charged in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol "political prisoners." He was one of just two congressional candidates to speak last year at a "Justice for J6" rally in Washington, DC, according to the Seattle Times. He wants Congress to investigate the FBI.

He is running for Congress in Washington against Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a small business owner, and the race leans in his favor, according to Cook Political Report and Inside Elections.

Trump met Kent at Dover Air Force Base in 2019 when the remains of Kent's wife Shannon, a Navy cryptologist, were returned from Syria where she was killed by a suicide bomber while on a mission to fight ISIS.

The seat is currently held by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who lost a nonpartisan primary in August. She was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, and Trump cited her vote in his endorsement of Kent.

Sarah Palin, Alaska's at-large Congressional District: Race is too close to call

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks while campaigning for U.S. Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore at the Historic Union Station Train Shed in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo

Trump called the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate a "wonderful patriot" when he endorsed her in April ahead of the state's special election to complete the late Rep. Don. Young's congressional term.

He held a campaign rally for her and Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka in July. He also dialed into a tele-rally for Palin hours after the FBI carried out a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago home, calling it then "a strange day."

Palin lost that race in August  in a state Trump carried in 2020 by 10 percentage points  to Democrat Mary Peltola, the first Alaskan Native to be elected to the House. Republicans blamed her loss on Alaska's ranked-choice voting, a system Palin described as "cockamamie" and "very, very potentially fraught with fraud."

Kari Lake, Arizona gubernatorial: Race is too close to call

Kari Lake is running for Arizona Governor. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The national focus might be on Congress, but Lake could emerge as the largest pro-Trump ally. Trump was even caught on camera joking to Masters that when Lake is asked about her family, the former newscaster immediately pivots to debunked claims about the 2020 election.

There's even been talk of Lake becoming a vice presidential candidate. First, Lake will have to get through Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who burst onto the national stage in the aftermath of the 2020 election. But Democrats have fretted about Hobbs for months. While Lake's unconventional campaign may well prove to be successful.

JR Majewski, Ohio's 9th Congressional District: Projected to have loss

JR Majewski, Kapturs Republican opponent, at a Trump rally in Youngstown, OH on September 17, 2022. AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar

Trump endorsed Majewski in his congressional bid, saying he "bravely served in the U.S. Air Force." But his military record became a source of controversy in September when the Associated Press reported that he misrepresented aspects of his service. Though he said a "brawl" disqualified him from re-enlisting, the AP also found a drunk driving stop may have been a contributing factor.

He also reportedly embraced QAnon theories and was a January 6, 2021 pro-Trump rally participant, according to CNN.

Majewski faces Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in the House. Redistricting helped give her a competitive race, but election experts say the race still leans Democratic.

Blake Masters, Arizona Senate: Race is too close to call

Blake Masters speaks at a campaign event on August 1, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A long-time ally of venture capitalist, Peter Thiel, Masters candidacy should be compared to Gov. Doug Ducey, a two-term incumbent that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeatedly tried to woo. Trump rejected Ducey's candidacy.

Instead of a proven politician, Masters, like Oz and author JD Vance, is a first-time candidate who has repeatedly shown his inexperience. Masters' team even had to scrub his campaign website to make his abortion position seem more centrist following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was long viewed as the most embattled Senate Democrat heading into this cycle. If Kelly wins, he will do so having a more liberal voting record than Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Mehmet Oz, Pennsylvania Senate: Projected to have lost

Dr. Mehmet Oz. Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Trump is to Oz's aspiring political career as Oprah was to the doctor's reality TV stardom.

Oz barely beat former Trump administration official Dave McCormick in the primary after McCormick lobbied unsuccessfully to secure the former president's backing. To say Oz has struggled would be an understatement. He's been lampooned for everything from his longstanding ties to New Jersey to his love of crudite. During the race's only debate, Oz also included "local politicians" in an answer about who should have a say over a woman's abortion, something his opponent Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's campaign immediately seized on. But Oz has surged in the closing months following Fetterman's stroke.

Just like in Ohio, a win would hand Trump another ally in the Senate. While a loss could doom the party's chances of retaking the chamber.

JD Vance, Ohio Senate: Projected to have won

Ohio Republican Senate nominee JD Vance AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar

Of all of his endorsements this cycle, Trump is arguably the most responsible for Vance's success thus far. Polls showed the "Hillbilly Elegy" author struggling before the former president weighed in on the primary race.

Like other first-time candidates, Vance has also struggled. Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan has also ran an effective campaign that has impressed even some Republicans. Trump-accelerated changes have made it much harder for Democrats to win there. In the end, a Vance loss would be a major embarrassment for Trump. Republicans have also spent more than $30 million to hang onto this seat funds not being spent elsewhere.

Herschel Walker, Georgia Senate: He is headed to a runoff

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks at a rally featuring former President Donald Trump on September 25, 2021 in Perry, Georgia. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Trump pushed the former Heisman Trophy winner to run long before Walker's announcement, the latest chapter in a decade-long friendship. Unlike other candidates, the more establishment wing of the party quickly embraced Walker after initial concern about his past violent outbursts toward women. Walker then stormed through his primary like a running back in his prime.

The general election has not been as easy. Walker will end the campaign by having to publicly admit to fathering three more children. Two different women have also accused Walker of pressuring them to get an abortion, which Walker has denied knowing about. Walker's own son Christian lashed out at him. Things were so bad that Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan wrote an op-ed bemoaning that the GOP bet on the football star in such a crucial race.

Despite all the drama, the race has tightened and Walker still remains within striking distance of ousting incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In June 2021, Marine Pfc. Dalton Beals, 19, died while at boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, as a result of extreme body temperature.

An extensively redacted investigation shared with Marine Corps Times found his death likely avoidable, and found his drill instructor at fault for not monitoring Beals and his fellow recruits while they completed the Crucible  the challenging finale to Marine Corps boot camp  during 90 plus degree temperatures.

Now, Brig. Gen. Walker Field, the commanding general of Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, is considering whether or not to charge the unnamed drill instructor involved with Beals death, Task and Purpose first reported.

An Article 32 hearing has been conducted and a Preliminary Hearing Officer Report has been provided to the Commanding General of MCRD Parris Island/Eastern Recruiting Region, which includes recommendations as to referral of court-martial charges, Maj. Philip Kulczewski, a spokesman for Parris Island, South Carolina, told Marine Corps Times via email on Tuesday.

The Commanding General is considering the recommendations of that report at this time, and will make a decision as to referral of charges after consultation with legal counsel.

Extreme heat led to Marines likely avoidable death during the Crucible

On June 4, 2021, Beals reportedly had separated from his group and was unaccounted for for roughly for one hour, the investigation had found.

Legal or administrative action also was recommended against two commanders and three other Marines, according to the investigation, but the status of any proceedings for those individuals remains unclear at this time.

Beals was sadly one of two recruits to die at Parris Island, South Carolina in 2021. Pvt. Anthony Munoz, 21, died on his first day of training there after falling from a balcony, The Island Packet previously reported.

Another Marine recruit, Pfc. Javier Pong, died in September after collapsing during training at Camp Pendleton in California.

The news of possible charges comes nearly five years after another Parris Island, South Carolina, drill instructor received 10 years after being found guilty of maltreatment of recruits.

Heartbreakingly theres a lot of stories out there, Stacie Beals, the mother of Pfc. Dalton Beals, previously told Marine Corps Times. Things that shouldnt be happening. And not just the Marines, its the other branches.
EastEnders' Kheerat is furious over Ravi's revelation. (BBC)

The Panesars fight to save matriarch Suki (Balvinder Sopal) in tonights game-changing episode of EastEnders, as Kheerat (Jaz Deol) reacts to a shocking revelation from half-brother Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara).

Previously on the soap, which airs tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One, Suki was arrested for the murder of Ravis adoptive father Ranveer (Anil Goutam).

She currently believes that she is guilty, and had already confessed to her family that she killed Ranveer in self-defence after he tried to sexually assault her.

Read more: EastEnders spoilers: Amys shock secret revealed, Alfie held at gunpoint

Little do they all know that it was actually Ravi who delivered the fatal blow, after Suki fled and Ranveer regained consciousness. But while Ravi has managed to keep his actions under wraps, some other secrets have come to light.

Things are looking bleak for Suki. (BBC)

Not only is Ravi the biological son of Sukis estranged husband Nish (Navin Chowdhury), but he has also been having an affair with Doctor Nina Gupta (Hersha Verity)  Ranveers wife.

Read more: EastEnders ignored Jay and Lola for years, but now they are breaking our hearts

The pair have been plotting to get their hands on Ranveers money all along, with Ravi revealing that the man who raised him had made his life hell.

While Suki was questioned by detectives, Ravi destroyed Suki's alibi and later told Kheerat and Nish that Nina has possession of incriminating footage that could seal Sukis fate.

Nina is proving to be the driving force behind Ravi's betrayal. (BBC)

What he failed to add was that this footage originally showed the moment Ravi became a killer, and he edited it after disposing of the body.

When EastEnders returns, Kheerat is furious over Ravis bombshell. As yet more news reaches him, Kheerat will go to drastic lengths to try to help his mum. But what will he do? Will his plan work?

Suki's husband Nish has a dark side. (BBC)

We cant give anything away, but we can tease that what lies ahead is an unmissable instalment of drama which changes everything for those involved.

Read more: Danny Dyer heading to Australia to shoot first post-EastEnders part

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Watch out for a particularly powerful performance from Deol, as Kheerat takes his place as head of the family in Sukis absence. All eyes will be on him, but theres also devious Nina to consider. Will she use the footage to set up Suki?

Eve is in love with Suki. (BBC)

As for long-term prospects in this complex storyline, theres still a lot to explore about Panesar patriarch Nish. Kheerat is still wary of the man after his mum explained how controlling Nish can be.

With the manipulative Nish intent on making his presence felt, what will his next move be? And will he discover the strong connection between his wife and Eve Unwin (Heather Peace)?

Keep watching to find out if Kheerat can save Suki as EastEnders returns tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One.

Watch the latest EastEnders spoilers
Abortion rights protesters attend a rally outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on June 24, following the United States Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June, leaving the right to control ones own body and decision to be a parent to the whims of state lawmakers, it fell to advocates and voters to fight to protect reproductive rights. A record six measures concerning abortion were placed on state ballots this year across the country.

By Tuesday night, voters made their wishes clear  they want to maintain their access to abortion. Of the five measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, four have won by resounding margins and a fifth has a healthy lead.

In California, Proposition 1, a ballot measure enshrining the right to abortion, was approved by voters. A similar ballot measure passed in Vermont. In both states, lawmakers and governors are defenders of reproductive rights and both legislatures put those amendments on their state ballots.

In Michigan, a closely watched effort to pass a similar constitutional amendment was victorious.

Even more breathtaking was the rejection of a state constitutional amendment in Kentucky, a solidly red state, that said there is no right to abortion in the Kentucky Constitution. That ballot measure was called Wednesday morning with 90% of the ballots counted and 52.5% of the voters against it.

"It may be a new day in the way this issue is being thought about," said Nancy Northup, the chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, citing the victory of abortion rights in liberal, moderate and conservative states alike. "I hope this will be seen as a nonpartisan issue that is about rights and health."

Kansans led the way on supporting abortion rights by overwhelmingly voting down a ballot measure in August that would have amended the state constitution to remove the right to abortion. The passage of that measure means the Kansas Legislature cannot outlaw abortion.

But in Kentucky, abortion is already banned by state law with the only exception being for the life of the pregnant person or to protect the individual from a disabling injury. What happens when Kentucky voters clearly tell their legislators they want to protect reproductive rights? Legislators  especially after the Supreme Court abolished the national right to an abortion  have a responsibility to listen and respect the message delivered by the rejection of the constitutional amendment.

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Not that anyone is waiting for lawmakers to do the right thing.

The ACLU and Planned Parenthood had already sued to stop the full ban and a six-week ban  both of which went into effect after Roe was overturned  on the grounds that the Kentucky Constitution protects the right to privacy and bodily autonomy. Both bans were blocked by a Kentucky state court but then allowed to go into effect by the Kentucky Court of Appeals. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood appealed that decision to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear the case next week. The defeat of the ballot measure, which was intended to obliterate the right to abortion in the Kentucky Constitution, could have a positive impact on the court and lead it to permanently block the abortion bans.

Even in Montana, an unnecessary ballot measure requiring medical treatment for infants born alive after induced labor, caesarean section or attempted abortion appears to be defeated. With 82% of the vote counted, 52.4% of the voters rejected the measure. Under federal law, healthcare providers already care for infants in these situations, though the specific course of treatment is generally left to the doctors and parents. As it should be.

The Supreme Court said in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health Organization, the case overturning Roe, that decisions about reproductive rights should be left to the people and their lawmakers. Its ludicrous that politicians should be allowed to decide how much or how little individuals can control their bodies. But having been dealt that grim reality, advocates and voters have shown they will use the ballot box to win back what should never have been lost.

Polls continually indicate that a majority of Americans support the right to abortion and disagree with the Supreme Courts decision to abolish that right. And the results so far on all the abortion-related measures on the Nov. 8 ballot show that voters  in states from the most liberal to the most conservative  want their reproductive rights upheld. That is a powerful and profound statement that must not be ignored.





Updates:

3:36 p.m. Nov. 9, 2022: This story has been updated to reflect new election results in Michigan indicating that Republicans have lost control of the state Legislature.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Lillie Mae Dukes Moreland was one of six members of a Glades family to contract the coronavirus and die of COVID-19 during the summer of 2021.

It's a No. 1 ranking that should bring shame to a state that likes to think of itself as being "free:" The coronavirus has killed more people aged 65 and over in Florida than any other state in the nation.

It's a frightening statistic that Floridians shouldn't ignore.

Public health experts outside of the state attribute the trend to the DeSantis administration's counterproductive COVID-19 policies. The Florida Department of Health takes issue with the findings, which leaves any resolution up to each and every individual. If we want to help our elderly loved ones, we need to do a better job of taking better precautions.

"I think it was a rather laissez-faire approach to dealing with a rather aggressive virus," former Harvard University epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina told the Post's Christopher Persaud. "I think Florida is reeling with that decision at this point."

Florida is a haven for the elderly. Its 4.6 million seniors make the state No. 2 in the nation behind Maine with the highest percentage of residents 65 and over. Given the state's sunshine allure as a great place for elderly to live, Florida shouldn't be the nation's leader in COVID deaths among older people.

Raymond Barber of St. Cloud, Fla., sitting in a restaurant in 2021. He died of COVID.

FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Florida's seniors lead nation in COVID deaths since April 2021; population can't explain it

More: Weeks after 'nightmare' COVID mutant XBB found in Florida, cases still falling

Unfortunately, for Florida's senior population, it's that so-called "freedom" that's killing too many of them. You don't have to be a pulmonologist to understand what's occurring here: As more and more children, young adults and middle-aged people forgo protective masks and vaccines, the elderly are left exposed and vulnerable  many die as a result.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30,060 seniors in Florida, 65 and older, have died due to COVID. That's a whopping 36 percent of the 82,065 COVID deaths recorded in the Sunshine State, a higher death rate than any other state.

Story continues

The figures are worse for seniors 85 and older. Florida leads the nation with 9,828 COVID-related deaths in that age group. These grim statistics leave the far-more populous states of California and Texas eating our dust.

It wasn't like this for Florida's seniors when the pandemic started. In fact, Gov. Ron DeSantis deserves credit for initially prioritizing seniors for COVID vaccinations in 2020 and using executive orders to curb visitation and increase the screening process for staff, vendors and visitors to assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Those actions helped stem the virus' spread among the elderly.

All that changed since April 2021, however, when it became clear that the Governor began weaponizing health care to distinguish Florida from other states coping with the pandemic. The push to "open" Florida made it easier to take the virus for granted, leading to an uptick in the death rate among seniors living here.

Badmouthing masks, social distancing and vaccines became the norm in Florida. Executive orders that once helped seniors began restricting local governments from mandating masks. School districts that defied the Governor's orders were threatened with the loss of state funding. DeSantis sued the federal government to stop the cruise industry from asking passengers to show poof of COVID vaccinations. The Special Olympics faced a possible $27 million fine for requiring COVID shots, a move the group believed would protect disabled and vulnerable athletes.

Our Opinion: Editorial: Florida's vaccine stand infringes on parental rights

More: Editorial: Better data from Florida essential for pandemic control

Dr. Joseph Lapado, Florida's surgeon general, appears at a news conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022.

DeSantis also found a perfect ally in Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the nation's only top state health official who openly discouraged children and men 40 and younger from getting inoculated against COVID-19. Throw in the Governor's numerous appearances on conservative media outlets to berate federal efforts to address the pandemic, while bragging on his administration's hands-off approach to keep Florida "free," and you have the political environment that has hurt an older population susceptible to the virus.

When presented with the Post's findings, a spokesman for the state Health Department dismissed the data, calling it "illiterate." The Post Editorial Board never heard back from the Governor's office. And with no apparent change in direction, vulnerable seniors continue to be at risk.

All of that shifts the onus back to individuals. As a new winter season of COVID, flu, RSV and other respiratory ailments begins, the challenge for those under 65 is to be more conscious of our vulnerable seniors and take the proper precautions to ensure their safety.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: "Free" state of Florida No 1 for COVID deaths among the elderly
Two incumbents ousted from Howell school board

Updated 8:30 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2022

In the Howell Public Schools Board of Education election, eight candidates were vying for three six-year seats.

Newcomers Jason Bedford collected 9,562 votes (15.95%). Meg Marhofer received 8,857 votes (14.77%) and Christy Conn received 8,333 votes (13.9%)

Incumbent Brent Earl got 7,901 votes (13.18%). Incumbent Grace Trudell had 7,068 votes (11.79%). Tracy Flak received 6,395 votes (10.67%). Don Banfield got 6,169 votes (10.29%) and Charlie Aberasturi collected 5,674 votes (9.46%).

 Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily reporter

Slotkin takes win over Barrett, heres how Livingston County voters voted

Updated 8:15 a.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

In what was one of the most expensive house races in the country, Elissa Slotkin beat Tom Barrett in the House of Representatives for the newly drawn 7th District. With 94% of precincts reporting statewide, Slotkin received 183,470 votes (51%) and Barrett received 170,616 (47%). Libertarian Leah Dailey received 7,125 votes (2%).

In Livingston County, where 100% of precincts were reporting, Barrett led with 61,530 votes while Slotkin received 44,438. Dailey received 1,998.

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Two new faces, Krebs reelected for Brighton Area Schools

Updated 8 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2022

In the Brighton Area Schools Board of Education election, six candidates were vying for three four-year seats.

Jennifer Marks collected 8,635 votes (18.03%). Incumbent Angela Krebs received 8,484 votes (17.72%) and Andy Storm got 8,421 (17.59%).

Incumbent Ken Stahl received 7,916 votes (16.53%), Kelli Uphaus had 7,135 (14.9%) and Lyndsay Wing received 7,294 (15.23%).

 Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily reporter

Theis and Bolin are re-elected

Updated 7:45 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2022

In the 49th Michigan House District, Ann Bollin, R-Brighton, was re-elected after receiving 25,114 votes to Democrat Christina Kafkakis 19,908 votes, with an estimate of 99% of the votes being counted

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In Livingston county, Bollin collected 60.01% of the votes and Kafkakis had 39.99%.

In the 22nd Michigan State Senate District, with 93.27% of the votes counted, Republican Lana Theis was reelected with 80,016 votes. Other candidates included Democrat Jordan Genso with 46,029 votes, Jon Elgas with 2,359 votes and Victoria McCasey with 1,110 votes.

In Livingston County, Theis had 61.25% of the votes, 64,817 total. Genso had 38,371 votes, Elgas had 1,834 and McCasey had 795.

 Patricia Alvord, LSJ reporter

Hamburg Township consolidation of trash collection proposal fails

Updated 7:15 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2022

A proposal to consolidate Hamburg Township to a single trash hauler has failed with 6,681 voting no and 6,036 people voting yes.

Currently, Hamburg Township residents contract service directly with a company of their choice, allowing residents to choose whichever trash company they prefer.

 Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily reporter

This morning, all votes were counted in Livingston County

Updated 7 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2022

Good morning! To those following the election, that was a late night! Now, welcome to our early morning coverage where we will break down some of the results. According to the county website, 100% of the precincts in Livingston County were reporting results.

Countywide results indicate that Livingston County voters consistently voted for Republicans in both state and local races. According to unofficial results, 67% of voters voted in Tuesday'ss election  109,656 out of 164,009 registered voters. In the 2018 midterms, 67% of voters voted, but there were fewer registered voters  98,702 out of 147,839 voted.

We'll be updating results throughout the morning. Check back for further updates.

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Close race for new 48th House seat at midnight

Updated 12:21 p.m. ET Nov. 9, 2022

A new state House district with voters in Livingston County is seeing a tightening race, as of a little before midnight, according to early results.

The new 48th Michigan House District that covers parts of Livingston, Washtenaw and Jackson counties was created when voting district lines were redrawn in the state.

As of around midnight, with more than 71% of the votes counted, the race was too close to call.

Ann Arbor Democrat Jennifer Conlin and Howell Republican Jason Woolford both took the lead at different points in the night.

The district includes Genoa and Hamburg townships, Pinckney and the southeast corner of Putnam Township. In Washtenaw County, the district includes Salem Township and northern Ann Arbor Township, as well as Northfield, Webster, Dexter and Lyndon townships. The district also includes a small portion of northeast Jackson County.

Other candidates for state House seats ahead in the polls, as of around midnight, were:

Brighton Republican Ann Bollin (49 th district)

Howell Republican Robert Bezotte (50 th district)

Linden Republican Mike Mueller (72nd district)

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily

Early results show Republicans leading in county commission races

Updated 11:35 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Livingston County election officials are reporting partial results for seats on the Livingston County Board of Commissioners.

Republican candidates took an early lead in all the countys nine districts.

The slate of male Republican candidates ran against a slate of female Democratic challengers.

Republican candidates for the county board in the lead as of the countys 10:39 p.m. report:

Douglas Helzerman (1 st district)

Dave Domas (2 nd district)

Frank Sample (3 rd district)

Wes Nakagiri (4 th district)

Jay Drick (5 th district)

Roger Deaton (6 th district)

Martin Smith (7 th district)

Nick Fiani (8 th district)

Jay Gross (9th district)

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily

Brighton defeats proposal for recreational marijuana stores

Updated 11:05 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

A proposal to allow at least two adult-use marijuana stores within the Brighton city limits failed to gain support from voters in the city, according to Livingston Countys unofficial election results.

All of Brightons four precincts were reporting full unofficial results, according to the countys report, with about 58% of voters opposing the proposal with about 42% in support.

However, discussion of whether the city should pass an ordinance to allow some marijuana businesses in the city is set to continue at a meeting of Brighton City Council on Thursday. City officials are considering a separate proposed ordinance, which if passed by city officials, could allow a maximum of two marijuana stores in the city.

RELATED: Brighton to hold public hearing on pot stores after election; 'Say Yes' rep concerned

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily

Livingston County election results website crashes

Updated 10:52 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Livingston Countys election website temporarily went down on election night.

County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley confirmed the website and unofficial election results went down.

The site came back online around 10:30 p.m. and appeared to go back down about 11 p.m.

Hundley also said some precincts were not able to send results to the county via modems, and those results will have to be delivered in person, which could delay the count.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

State Sen. Lana Theis takes an early lead

Updated 9:45 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Incumbent 22nd District state Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, took an early lead to keep her seat, with partial unofficial results reported at around 9:30 p.m.

While Livingston County voters remain in the 22nd District for state Senate, the area the district covers outside the county has changed. The redrawn district brings in different voters from portions of Ingham, Shiawassee, Genesee and Oakland counties.

Theis won over voters in Livingston County, with more than two-thirds of county voters support, according to early results.

Her challengers are Jordan Genso, a Brighton Democrat, as well as Libertarian Jon Elgas and US Taxpayers candidate Victoria McCasey.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

Partial results starting to come in

Updated 9:11 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Livingston County elections officials have started posting partial results online, as precincts begin their reporting process.

Most precincts in the county had not reported absentee ballot results, as of around 8:45 p.m., but have partial reports that include in-person votes. Iosco Township was the first municipality in the county to report full results.

The county updates its results documents as results come in at www.livgov.com/clerk/elections

Early results (without absentee ballots included) show voters in Brighton are not supporting a proposal to allow at least two adult-use recreational marijuana stores within city limits.

Partial results also show voters in Hamburg Township are not supporting a proposal to consolidate trash service.

Follow live updates here as results continue coming in. Hit refresh in your browser window, or bookmark and reload this link to ensure you have the most recently updated version.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

When results start coming in, here's how to watch

Updated 9 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Follow along with us here as live updates start to come in. You can also watch livingstondaily.com/elections/results for legislative races.

For additional results on the many local races decided by Livingston County voters today, visit the county election website, where live results may or may not be updated regularly depending on local clerks. (Note: Livingston Daily staff have no involvement in this website, nor in posting of updates.)

Hit refresh often on all results pages to ensure you're seeing the latest updates!

 Veronica Bolanos, Livingston Daily news assistant

Little hiccups reported at Livingston County polls

Updated 8:15 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Polling locations in the county have had a few little hiccups, but no major issues, Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley said this evening, at about 5 p.m.

Hundley said Genoa Township had a power issue at a voter-assist terminal that helps voters with disabilities cast their ballots, and multiple precincts across the county had some issues with electronic poll books shutting off.

Election workers also had to direct some people to their correct polling location or local clerks office.

And there may have been an issue in Hartland Township in regard to some people campaigning approaching voters, she said. But for most things, its been pretty smooth.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

Polls are now closed

Updated 8 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

It's 8 p.m. ET and polls are now closed across much of the state  although four western Upper Peninsula counties  Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron and Menominee  are in the Central time zone so polls there close an hour later at 9 p.m. ET.

It is also the deadline for returning an absentee ballot by drop box or to your local clerk. Remember, if you were in line before or at 8 p.m. stay in line because anyone in line by 8 p.m. must be allowed to vote

Live results in state legislative races will flow in at livingstondaily.com/elections/results. And follow live updates here as unofficial results are recorded (Note: Results in Michigan become official when they are certified by boards of canvassers, a process that is allowed to take up to two weeks).

 Staff report

Michigan same-day registrations surpass 12,000, could hit 15,000

Updated 7:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Here are updated Election Day numbers from the Michigan Secretary of State office as of 6:30 p.m. ET.

Absentee ballots submitted: 1,832,931

Absentee ballots requested: 2,025,581

Same-day registrations: 12,537

Michigan Secretary of State spokesperson Jake Rollow said the highest number of same-day registrations continue to be at college towns like East Lansing and Ann Arbor. The longest lines were at Ann Arbor as of 7 p.m.

He said same-day registrations reached about 30,000 in 2020 and that the same-day number for this election could be more than 15,000 before the end of the day.

Follow live updates here as results are recorded beginning at 8 p.m. Hit refresh in your browser window, or bookmark and reload this link to ensure you have the most recently updated version.

 Bryce Airgood, Lansing State Journal reporter

Voters express why its important to vote

Updated 7:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

At the Livingston Educational Service Agency in Howell, 509 voters cast a ballot in Precinct 1 and 424 voted in Precinct 2 at about 2:40 p.m.

Karl Salgado is one of those voters. He went to vote today because he thinks its important to vote.

Im here to let my voice (be) heard and be known, he said.

Randall Green also voted in Howell. He said it was an especially important election because of the economic climate.

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Handy Township has a good turnout, clerk said

Updated 7:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Handy Township Clerk Laura Eisele said theres been a good turnout today and things are going smoothly. As of 3:20 p.m., there were 452 voters that had voted in Precinct 1, 415 in Precinct 2 and 650 in Precinct 3.

Eisele said there are not as many voters as there are during the presidential election, but there is a normal amount of voters compared to other midterm elections.

Among those voters is Josh Docusen, who said he votes in every election.

Whats important to him in this election is voting against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Last minute reminders before the polls close at 8 p.m.

Updated 7 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum and East Lansing City Clerk Jennifer Shuster have a few last-minute reminders for voters, including that people who are in line at 8 p.m. can stay and vote.

If you are in line, you can still exercise your right to cast your vote, you still have plenty of time to do so," Shuster said. "Also, make sure youre going to the right polling location."

Byrum said if someone voted absentee, they need to check both sides to make sure it's filled out properly, they need to make sure to sign the back of the envelope so the signature can be verified, and get that to their clerk or to their clerks drop box by 8 p.m. tonight.

Follow live updates here as results are recorded beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Hit refresh in your browser window, or bookmark and reload this link to ensure you have the most recently updated version.

 Veronica Bolanos, Battle Creek Enquirer news assistant

Unofficial results expected to come in throughout the night

Updated 6:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

After the polls close at 8 p.m., some precincts in Livingston County could turn around unofficial results quickly, while others could take a while.

I expect results are going to stagger in throughout the evening. As long as there are no problems closing polls, we should be receiving some results as soon as 8:15 p.m., Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley said.

Hundley said waiting for all the unofficial results to come in requires patience.

She said results could come in slower in precincts using high-speed tabulators to count absentee votes, because those results are read manually at the county elections office. She said Hamburg, Genoa and Brighton townships are using them.

It will either be when those clerks bring them in (on a memory device) or if they contact me to have someone pick a memory device, she said.

She said she expects some absentee counting boards could be counting votes late into the night.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

Brighton voters consider marijuana store proposal

Updated 6:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Brighton residents are casting votes for and against a proposal to allow at least two adult-use recreational marijuana stores within city limits.

I think its time, and Im open to it, said Nick McNamara, who voted in favor of the proposal at the Brighton Community Center. I dont use it, but I think its a step in the right direction for some people.

Lisa Spitler was outside the community center with a sign urging people to vote against it.

I dont think It's a great addition to the community, Spitler said. I know people who use it, thats not in question. But in a 2.9-mile community, is there room for these to be here and not conflict with churches, schools, I would say even senior living. It was written in such a way that wasnt appropriate for our community.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

Voter turnout steady throughout day

Updated 6 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley said local clerks are reporting a steady voter turnout.

I can tell you this morning, we had lines at the polls when they opened, and what Ive heard from clerks is that it has stayed steady throughout the day, Hundley said a little after 5 p.m.

She said it is hard to predict how voter turnout will compare to other elections.

You would think with the statewide ballot proposals there would be interest, but its hard to guess, she said.

 Jennifer Eberbach, Livingston Daily reporter

Updated Election Day numbers from Michigan Secretary of State

Updated 5:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Here are updated Election Day numbers from the Michigan Secretary of State office as of 5 p.m. ET.

Absentee ballots submitted:1,807,127

Absentee ballots requested: 2,022,885

Same-day registrations: 8,828

Follow live updates here as results are recorded beginning at 8 p.m. Hit refresh in your browser window, or bookmark and reload this link to ensure you have the most recently updated version.

 Bryce Airgood, LSJ reporter

School board candidates continue to campaign outside polling places

Updated 5 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Howell resident Reagan Marhofer was standing outside of the Livingston Educational Service Agency in support of school board candidates Jason Bedford and Meg Marhofer, her mom.

She said her mother is not a politician and really cares about the well-being of the students.

Danielle Devries, a school board candidate in Fowlerville, was standing outside of the Handy Township polling location, ready to answer questions for voters.

This place has been busy all day, its amazing, she said.

Aside from their day-of campaigning strategies, school board candidates have spent a lot to come out on top, heres what I found through their campaign finance reports: School Board candidate spending is "unusual" this election (livingstondaily.com)

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Steve and Karen Mahan went to polls to make changes

Updated 4:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Steve and Karen Mahan want to see changes made in legislation.

What led them to the polls Tuesday at the Hartland Educational Support Service Center was making sure that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is defeated and state Sen. Lana Theis is re-elected.

Karen Mahan added that they both voted to defeat Proposal 3.

 Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily reporter

Business as usual at Hartland Educational Support Service Center, township clerk

Updated 4 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Hartland Township Clerk Larry Ciofu reported that more than 2,000 people have voted as of early afternoon.

Very standard. It has been a little bit busier than normal than what weve seen in past elections. There was a rush at the opening, like there always is, but there was a big rush at 10 oclock which was kind of unusual and then from then it has been steady, Ciofu said.

There were lines at each precinct. At one point more than a dozen people were waiting in line at Precinct 4.

 Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily reporter

Problems voting? Reach out to us or the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline

Updated 3:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

If you have any issues voting, working or volunteering on Election Day, let us know. Some state and federal officials have expressed concerns about possible voter suppression or intimidation Tuesday.

To report any issues to the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline, use one of the following phone numbers:

866-OUR-VOTE (English)

888-VE-Y-VOTA (Spanish)

844-YALLA-US (Arabic)

888-API-VOTE (Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese)

You may also reach out to us in the Livingston Daily newsroom with concerns and/or story ideas. Contact us by emailing  or call ...

 Dan Basso, Livingston Daily news editor

More than 2 million sought absentee ballots

Updated 3 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

More than 2 million Michigan voters have requested absentee ballots and 1.7 million have been returned, according to early Tuesday figures from the Secretary of States office. Elections are conducted by local clerks in the states decentralized election system with $8 million in grants sent to local clerks to help secure the election. Local clerks created emergency and contingency plans, which now include the potential for intentional disruption, state officials said during a morning press conference. No widespread problems have been reported statewide this morning.

 Mike Ellis, LSJ reporter

'Its a duty to vote,' Genoa Township voter says

Updated 2:30 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Deatrick Moore, a Genoa Township voter, said its his duty to vote. He was at Genoa Township hall Tuesday morning verifying his address on his voter registration before going back to his precinct at Hornung Elementary School to vote.

You know, just being African American its always been a hard thing to vote, right? We didnt have voting rights, he said. I feel as if I have a responsibility to make sure we vote.

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Genoa Township absentee ballot counting is well underway

Updated 2:15 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Genoa Township Clerk Polly Skolarus said its going to take all day to finish counting absentee ballots, but she doesnt think it will take longer than Tuesday. The township sent out 5,979 absentee ballots and received 5,585 back  93% of those sent out.

Thats a pretty good number, Skolarus said. 384 ballots were sent out and not received.

 Sophia Lada, Livingston Daily reporter

Same-day voter registration driven by college towns

Updated 2 p.m. ET, Nov. 8, 2022

Michigan Secretary of State spokesperson Jake Rollow reported that 3,666 people registered to vote on Election Day as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The same-day registrations are led by college towns Ann Arbor and East Lansing, which together account for about 1 in 6 same-day registrations (the cities account for less than 2% of the states population).

He said tens of thousands registered in the 2020 general election.

About 1,759,000 absentee ballots had been returned by 12:30 p.m., Rollow said.

Election results may not be available from some jurisdictions until 24 hours after polls close because the counting of those 1.7 million ballots cannot start until then, he said.

-Mike Ellis, LSJ reporter

Voting underway across Michigan; follow our live updates

Updated 1 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Across Livingston County, voters will select which candidates will take office in the state legislature, on county boards and more. In addition, voters also face a variety of ballot proposals. Among them:

Livingston Daily staff will provide live updates to this blog throughout the day to keep you informed on Livingston Countys competitive local races. Bookmark this page and click refresh to stay up to date.

 Jayne Higo, Livingston Daily news assistant

Follow along here for live updates on the Nov. 8 general election

Updated 12 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2022

Today, Nov. 8 is Election Day! And your local news team at the Livingston Daily will provide live coverage throughout the day, including:

Sharing of advance news stories

News and photo galleries from polls across Livingston County

Live updates as results start coming in at 8 p.m. ET

Bookmark this page and click refresh throughout the day tomorrow to stay up to date. You can also follow us at Facebook.com/LivingstonDailyPress and on Twitter @LivingstonDaily for updates.

 Jayne Higo, Livingston Daily news assistant

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Michigan general 2022: Live coverage from Livingston County
Maryland is headed to the polls for the General Election on Nov. 8, and aside from Larry Hogan leaving the governor's seat open for a new candidate, the election could be a huge sign of the state's political climate. Fortunately, we have a breakdown of the critical seats across the state, as well as the listed candidates within Washington County.

Once we have live results, we'll be tracking governor and U.S. Senate races while also adding/updating results here.

As results are released by the various elections boards across the state, we'll have a running tally here.

Thiam catches up, Parrott pulls ahead, Malott falls behind

With nearly half the Election Day precincts in Washington County reporting, margins in a couple of hotly contested races were narrowing.

In the contest for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 2B, incumbent Brenda Thiam is catching up to Democratic challenger Brooke Grossman. With 10 of 15 precincts in the district reporting, Grossman leads Thiam with 3,029 to 3,011.

In the race for the U.S. House in Congressional District 6, Republican challenger Neil Parrott had pulled ahead of incumbent David Trone with 54,041 votes to 46,140, with 100 of 247 precincts in the district reporting.

In the Washington County race for Register of Wills, incumbent Jason Malott could be heading for an upset as he trails Republican challenger Lacy Flook, 15,630 to 12,587, with 31 of 55 precincts reporting.

Early numbers: Trone leads Parrott, Grossman ahead of Thiam, but not all precincts reporting yet

As the numbers begin to be tabulated and released, incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. David Trone is leading Republican Del. Neil Parrott in the race for 6th Congressional District.

With mostly early voting ballots counted in 11 of 247 precincts, Trone is ahead 32,141 to 24,423.

In the race for House District 2B, which covers the city of Hagerstown, Democratic challenger Brooke Grossman is leading incumbent Republican Del. Brenda Thiam 1,213 to 933.

Story continues

Precinct 3-3 at Emma K. Doub first to arrive at Washington County Election Board

The poll workers at Precinct 3-3 were on the ball.

Republican Chief Judge Chip Brown, left, helps deliver Washington Countys first Election Day ballot results from Emma K. Doub Elementary School on Tuesday night. At right is election volunteer Samantha Steckel, and Deputy Elections Director Barry Jackson is handling paperwork.

The precinct at Emma K. Doub Elementary School was the first to arrive Tuesday night at the Washington County Election Board Headquarters on Virginia Avenue south of Hagerstown.

It even beat the results being tabulated at the headquarters polling place.

There are 55 precincts at 49 polling places across Washington County, according to election board officials. In addition to those, counters will tally early voting and 4,000 of the mail-in ballots Tuesday night.

Miscounting of ballot bundles draws attention of county, state election boards

Washington County Deputy Election Director Barry Jackson addressed what he described as a "nonissue" early Tuesday evening after word  mistakenly  spread on social media earlier on Election Day that blank ballots were missing from the Hancock precinct.

Jackson said no blank ballots were missing from the precinct at Hancock Middle-Senior High School. There was some confusion early on, but by around 9 a.m., election board President Marty Lumm had counted the ballot packs to confirm none were missing at the Hancock precinct.

The issue arose before the polls opened Tuesday, around 6 a.m., when the sealed ballot bins were opened and the packs of 50 ballots were counted, Jackson said.

The Democratic chief judge at the site put the ballot packs in sequential order  each pack has a cover sheet marking which numbered ballots it contains  and mistakenly thought a pack of 50 was missing, Jackson said.

Election officials sent the Hancock precinct 26 packs of ballots, for a total of 1,300, Jackson said. Election officials don't send the ballot packs out in sequential order, but the chief judge thought a pack was missing when she saw a gap in the sequential order, he said.

There were 26 packs of page one ballots and 26 packs of page two ballots, he said.

The Maryland Election Integrity Group tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be a text conversation with a Washington County Republican Central Committee poll watcher about a missing batch of ballots.

The integrity group, according to a Baltimore Sun story, is aligned with Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox's campaign. Among those the group tagged on its tweet about missing ballots was Cox and his running mate Gordana Schifanelli.

The group also later tweeted a screenshot of a message from Maryland State Board of Elections Deputy Administrator Nikki Charlson, who shared information from the county election board that no ballots were missing.

Ashley McCusker, the poll watcher, wrote via Facebook message Tuesday night that at first it was thought a batch of ballots was missing because of the missing batch number. A call was made to the county election board and Lumm arrived to count the ballot packs.

McCusker wrote that Jerry DeWolf, the Republican Central Committee's chairman, is asking the county election board for a written account of what happened.

McCusker thanked the local election board for helping resolve the issue as well as the "election workers who are going above and beyond in their efforts to verify everything."

Jackson said someone contacted the state election board about the Hancock matter and the state board got in touch with the county election board to see what was happening.

"It was a nonissue that was turned into an issue," Jackson said.

Casting ballots: A time-honored tradition

Voters fanned out across Washington County on Tuesday to cast their ballots in the 2022 midterm election.

About 15,000 voters in Washington County have already cast their ballots, either by mail or during the early voting period that ended at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. The county sent more than 11,500 mail-in ballots in total. As of Friday, more than 7,800 had been received. And 7,384 residents out of the countys 99,137 registered voters decided to cast their ballot during early voting.

Republican candidate for governor, Del. Dan Cox, casts his ballot

Republican candidate for governor Del. Dan Cox, Frederick/Carroll, cast his ballot at Sabillasville Environmental School in northern Frederick County on Tuesday morning. He was accompanied at the polls by his wife, Valerie.

In an interview afterward, Cox said the state's election workers are "doing us all a civic favor."

When asked if he would accept the calls of results from news organizations like he did in the primary election, Cox said he would accept the "lawful and constitutional results."

"I would look forward to proper news reporting and to make sure that the vote is in before the calls are starting to be made," he said.

Cox plans to see the results come in at an election night event he is hosting in Annapolis.

Democratic governor candidate Wes Moore voted in West Baltimore during early voting and plans to see the results in Baltimore on Tuesday night.

What to know: Wes Moore vs Dan Cox MD Governor race

Democrat Wes Moore will take on Republican Dan Cox for the governor position.

Wes Moore

This is Moore's first political run, but his victory could be historic if he wins the governor's seat. Moore would be Maryland's first African American governor. The Democrat holds a variety of experience from military to television production, and he was previously the CEO of Robin Hood, an anti-poverty organization based out of Baltimore.

Dan Cox

Dan Cox has spent three legislative years as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. However, his moves in the past two years have made him a polarizing figure to voters. Along with receiving support from former President Donald Trump, he also attempted to get the state's current governor, Larry Hogan, impeached in February over COVID-19 restrictions.

More of Moore:From City Hall intern to Democratic nominee, Wes Moore has former mayor Schmoke behind him

More about Cox:Dan Cox has a steep path, from small-town official to Trump-backed governor's candidate

Chris Van Hollen vs Chris Chaffee U.S. Senate race

Current U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, will be facing off against Republican Chris Chaffee for the spot in the U.S. Senate.

Chris Van Hollen

Van Hollen is running for his second term in the Senate. He holds previous political experience as a former member of the House Representatives before winning the Senate seat in 2017.

Chris Chaffee

Chaffee has run for political positions in the past, according to WAMU, but has never held an elected position. However, the small-business owner with a construction background edged out a competitive list of Republicans in this year's primaries to become the party's candidate.

More on both candidates:Maryland Election 2022: Get to know the candidates for U.S. Senate

Local races around Hagerstown, Washington, County

Here are the local races we are following. An "i" denotes incumbent.

State Delegate (District 1)

Mike McKay (R)

Michael Dreisbach (D)

State Senate (District 2)

Shawn Perry (D)

Paul Corderman, i (R)

State House of Delegates (District 1C)

Carrie Hinton (D)

Terry Baker (R)

Charlotte McBrearty (G)

State House of Delegates (District 2B)

Brooke Grossman (D)

Brenda Thiam, i (R)

6th Congressional District

David Trone, i (D)

Neil Parrot (R)

Board of Education

Fredrick I. Chavis (Nonpartisan)

Darrell E. Evans, i (Nonpartisan)

Mike Guessford, i (Nonpartisan)

Ethan J. Loewen (Nonpartisan)

Linda Murray, i (Nonpartisan)

Anthony Williams (Nonpartisan)

County Sheriff

Junior McLeod (D)

Brian Albert (R)

Register of Wills

Jason A. Malott, i (D)

Lacy M. Flook (R)

Results:2022 Maryland Election Results

Print and return emailed mail-in ballots

Voters should print their ballot received by email. Only ballots that are printed, completed, and returned will be counted. The State Board of Elections website says the following:

You must mail or hand deliver your mail-in ballot to a voting location, a ballot drop off box, or your local board of elections. You cannot email or fax your voted mail-in ballot.

More:2022 Washington County Election Results

What time are polls open in Maryland?

In-person polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those who are in line by 8 p.m. are entitled to vote.

If you received a mail-in ballot but choose to vote in person, bring your ballot and envelope to the polls. If you applied for a mail-in ballot but didnt receive one, you can still vote in person at the polls by provisional ballot.

Where do I vote in MD?

Mail-in ballots were sent in October, with early voting taking place until Nov. 3. However, if you haven't sent in a mail-in ballot but aren't sure where to vote, you can find your polling place here.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: MD Election Day 2022: Dan Cox casts ballot in Frederick
Its Election Day! Eyewitness News is tracking all the local, state and national races Tuesday.

You can count on us to bring you results as they come in. And be sure to join us for our live, in-depth coverage on the races on Channel 9, TV 27, on wftv.com and on our free mobile and smart TV apps.

10 p.m. update:

Central Florida voters have let their voices be heard on several amendments. See the round-up below:

A measure to stabilize rent in Orange County is heading toward approval by voters, according to early results.

Orange County voters shot down a one-cent transportation system surtax Tuesday.

The Osceola County transportation tax is heading for approval by voters, according to early numbers.

Read: Central Florida amendment roundup: Rent stabilization, transportation tax





9:55 p.m. update:

Republican Dennis Baxley wins State Senate District 13 seat.





9:50 p.m. update:

Democrat Linda Stewart wins State Senate District 17 seat.

#BREAKING: Democrat Linda Stewart wins State Senate District 17 seat.

RESULTS >>> https://t.co/I7XTWqSkz4 pic.twitter.com/9AAocadGey  WFTV Channel 9 (@WFTV) November 9, 2022





9:45 p.m. update:

Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith lost his reelection campaign to Republican Susan Plasencia in Florida House District 37.





9:22 p.m. update:

Democrat Anna Eskamani won reelection to Florida House District 42 seat.





9:10 p.m. update:

Wilton Simpson won Floridas agricultural commissioner race, and Jimmy Patronis has won Floridas chief financial officer race.





8:55 p.m. update:

Democrat Darren Soto has reclaimed his seat representing U.S. House District 9. Soto defeated Republican Scotty Moore.

Story continues





8:51 p.m. update:

Orange County voters shot down a one-cent transportation system surtax Tuesday.

According to early results, 58.46% of voters voted against the penny tax in Orange County.

The 1% sales tax increase would have paid for an expanded bus system, SunRail system and road and bike path projects throughout the county.





8:47 p.m. update:

Republican Matt Gaetz has won reelection U.S. House District 1 seat.

#BREAKING: Republican Matt Gaetz wins U.S. House District 1 seat.

RESULTS >>> https://t.co/I7XTWqSkz4 pic.twitter.com/Eo8xN7KwAQ  WFTV Channel 9 (@WFTV) November 9, 2022

8:35 p.m. update:

Charlie Crist has conceded to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

.@CharlieCrist opens concession by wishing the best to @GovRonDeSantis, his family, and the people of Florida. pic.twitter.com/HDzPCcZWub  Christopher Heath (@CHeathWFTV) November 9, 2022

8:10 p.m. update:

Republican Bill Posey has reclaimed his seat in U.S. House District 8, and Republican Cory Mills won the U.S. House District 7 race.

U.S. House, Florida, District 8 winner Bill Posey

Read: Democrat Maxwell Frost wins U.S. House District 10 race





8:03 p.m. update:

Republican Daniel Webster has won reelection to U.S. House in Floridas 11th Congressional District and Republican Michael Waltz has won reelection to U.S. House in Floridas 6th Congressional District.





8 p.m. update:

Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio and Attorney General Ashley Moody have all reclaimed their seats.

Read: DeSantis projected winner against Crist in Florida governor race





7:50 p.m. update:

Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost defeated Republican Calvin B. Wimbish to become the first member of Generation Z to win a seat in Congress.

Early poll data from the midterm election shows Frost receiving 59% of the votes to Wimbishs 39%.

7 p.m. update:

Polls have closed in Florida. Results are pouring in from across the state.

Click here for live results, and watch live, in-depth coverage on Channel 9 Eyewitness News.

6:15 p.m. update:

Polls throughout much of Florida will close at 7 p.m.

Click here for live results once they come in, and watch live, in-depth coverage on Channel 9 Eyewitness News.

2:30 p.m. update:

Polls across Florida are open until 7 p.m.

In Lake County, there have been no issues reported with many voters experiencing minimal wait times at most locations.

At one polling site in Leesburg, a steady stream of voters could be seen casting their ballots.

It's Election Day! Polls are open 7am-7pm. Find your precinct at https://t.co/Cpy4J4SfPw. pic.twitter.com/GcZrNRHklp  Lake Elections (@LakeElections) November 8, 2022

12 p.m. update:

Seminole County Supervisor of Elections reported that more than 25,000 people voted since polls opening on Tuesday.

To see what is in the ballot in your county and city you can CLICKE HERE.

Tuesday is #ElectionDay



Do you know where your polling location is?

Visit https://t.co/1TqPZ9ThA7 to find your assigned polling location.



Polls will be open from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. pic.twitter.com/SKokeDLQFi  Volusia County Supervisor of Elections (@vcelections) November 7, 2022

For a complete list of statewide elections on Florida Ballots, click here.

8:30 a.m. Update:

Osceola County Supervisor of Elections reported that nearly 600 people voted in the first 18 minutes of the polls opening.

In the first 18 minutes, 578 people have voted! #GoVote pic.twitter.com/ElnOrdwEen  Osceola County SOE (@VoteOsceola) November 8, 2022

Brevard County Supervisor of Elections is reminding residents to double check their polling location before heading out to vote.

1/2 Today is ELECTION DAY!! Before heading out to the polls, be prepared and verify your polling location as it may have moved due to redistricting. On Election Day, you must vote at your precinct specific polling location. pic.twitter.com/HGmVshzY3l  Tim Bobanic, Supervisor of Elections (@votebrevard) November 8, 2022

7 a.m. Update:

Polls are now open across Central Florida. Polling sites for registered voters are scheduled to remain open until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

To find your voting precinct, click here.

We're giving away FREE STICKERS!  Polls are open until 7 p.m. today - don't miss out.  Get all the info you need here: https://t.co/fVF26plQB8#Election2022 #OrangeVotes #IVoted pic.twitter.com/hBhM3c2e1Z  Orange County, FL SOE (@OCFElections) November 8, 2022

READ: Here are the 3 amendments on Florida ballots this election

TODAY IS ELECTION DAY! Polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at your voting precinct. If youve not yet voted, find a handy election day voting checklist here: https://t.co/wXTyxj9pmo. pic.twitter.com/BNk0CErz0m  Florida Department of State (@FLSecofState) November 8, 2022

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
By Blake Brittain

(Reuters) - Eli Lilly & Co must pay Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH $176.5 million after a trial to determine whether its migraine drug Emgality infringed three Teva patents, a Boston federal court jury decided on Wednesday.

The jury agreed with Teva that Lilly's Emgality violated its rights in the patents, which relate to its own migraine drug Ajovy. Both drugs treat migraines by employing antibodies to inhibit headache-causing peptides.

The jury also found that Lilly infringed the patents willfully and rejected its argument that the patents were invalid.

A spokesperson for Lilly said the company was disappointed by the verdict but is confident that it will "ultimately prevail" in the case, and said the decision does not affect its ability to offer Emgality to patients.

A Teva spokesperson said the company is pleased with the decision and will "continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights."

Indianapolis-based Lilly earned over $577 million from Emgality sales worldwide last year, while Israel-based Teva made $313 million from Ajovy, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Teva has said that expects its two branded drugs, Ajovy and Huntington's disease drug Austedo, to generate a combined $1.4 billion in revenue this year.

Teva sued Lilly over the patents in 2018. The same day Teva sued, the court dismissed two related Teva lawsuits seeking to block Emgality from coming onto the U.S. market.

Teva also filed a separate, ongoing patent lawsuit against Lilly in Massachusetts over Emgality last year.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Deepa Babington)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison defeated Republican newcomer Jim Schultz in Tuesday's election to win a second term in a race that turned largely on crime and abortion.

Ellison declared victory early Wednesday, and Schultz later conceded a race in which the two were separated by roughly 21,000 votes, or about 1 percentage point, out of 2.5 million cast. Though close, the margin was well outside that which would mean a publicly funded recount.

Millions of dollars were spent to sow division, hate, and fear, Ellison said in a statement. And we overcame it: we were positive, and Minnesotans responded.

The results are now clear, and I plan to call Attorney General Ellison later today to congratulate him on his reelection, Schultz said in his own statement.

Schultz, a 37-year-old hedge fund attorney with no courtroom experience, is a political newcomer who blamed Ellison for rising crime. He was seeking to become the first Republican to win Minnesota's attorney general race since 1966.

Ellison, who burst on the national scene as the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006, left that safe seat behind for his first run as attorney general in 2018, saying it was his best chance to push back against the policies of Donald Trump. Ellison just squeaked into office, and his progressive policies have made him a polarizing figure in the eyes of some voters.

Ellison led the prosecution team that won a conviction of former police Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's killing, and obtained guilty pleas from other officers. He also stepped in to prosecute a suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a Black motorist, Daunte Wright, in the midst of Chauvin's trial. Ellison said his office had successfully prosecuted 50 serious crimes, and contrasted that with Schultz's lack of courtroom experience.

Schultz made crime his top issue. He accused Ellison of being at the forefront of the defund the police movement that arose from Floyds death in Minneapolis, and he promised to shift the offices attorneys away from their traditional duties of consumer and labor protection into a major expansion of the criminal division. He also accused Ellison of doing too little to stop a massive scheme that federal prosecutors say stole at least $250 million from a program to feed children during the pandemic.

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Ellison supported a failed Minneapolis ballot measure in 2020 that would have replaced the citys police department with a vaguely defined public safety department. But he maintained that he never supported defunding police, just reforming law enforcement. And he accused Schultz of misstating the role of the attorney generals office in fighting violent crime, pointing out that it can only take over a criminal case at the request of the local county attorney or the governor.

After the Supreme Court overturned the Roe legal precedent that guaranteed a national right to abortion, Ellison made the issue central to his campaign. He vowed to use his office to defend abortion rights, and reminded voters that Schultz had vowed to go on offense, offense, offense against abortion when he was trying to win the GOP nomination.

Schultz tried to avoid talking about abortion.

Im pro-life and Im not ashamed of that, he said, but accused Ellison of using the issue as a distraction.

___

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
Elon Musk sold at least another $3.95 billion worth of shares in his electric car company Tesla after closing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission published Tuesday, Musk sold 19.5 million more shares of Tesla.

Musk sold almost $22 billion worth of Tesla shares in 2021, a year when the stock jumped over 50%. This year, he sold over $8 billion worth of Tesla stock in April and another roughly $7 billion worth in August.

In addition to pouring billions of his own capital into taking Twitter private, Musk relied on partners, including equity investors Binance, Ron Barons BAMCO, Andreessen Horowitz, Twitters former CEO Jack Dorsey and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, to finance the deal, or to roll their existing shares into his holding company for Twitter.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, has called for an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabias stake in Twitter following Musks take-private deal.

On Aug. 9, Musk told fans he was done selling Tesla shares to fund a possible Twitter acquisition. He wrote, in a tweet, In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners dont come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.

At the time, Musk was still battling Twitter in court to try to get out of the deal  which he proposed and agreed to in April.

Since closing the purchase, Musk has pulled dozens of Tesla engineers to Twitter to assist him with code review and other work.

Tesla shares are down 46% this year, wiping out a big chunk of Musks fortune. However, hes still the worlds richest person with a net worth of close to $200 billion, according to Forbes.

At a conference last week, Musk told hedge fund manager Ron Baron that his workload went up from about, I dont know 78 hours a week to probably 120.

Musk, whos also CEO of SpaceX, said on stage that once Twitter is set on the right path, I think it is a much easier thing to manage than his other companies. Musk hasnt said who will be the new CEO of Twitter, but hes suggested that his role as Chief Twit and sole director at the company is only temporary.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Tesla chief Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of shares in the electric car company, SEC filings showed Tuesday, more than a week after he closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

Musk has been pushing for ways to pay for the massive deal, for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and earlier sold $15.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla.

On Tuesday, documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated that he had disposed of more than another 19 million shares, worth in excess of $3.9 billion.

Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives in late October, after a drawn-out back-and-forth between the world's richest person and the influential social media company.

The billionaire initially tried to step back from the deal after his unsolicited offer was accepted in April.

He said in July that he was canceling the contract because he had been misled by Twitter over the number of fake "bot" accounts, allegations rejected by the company.

After Musk sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold the entrepreneur to the agreement. With a trial looming, he revived his takeover plan.

- Overhaul -

On Friday, Twitter sacked half of its 7,500-strong staff as its new owner launched an overhaul of the company.

Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006 and stepped down as CEO last year, tweeted to apologize for growing the site too quickly, following news of the firings.

Musk has been searching for ways for the social media platform to make money after the buyout, including an idea to charge users $8 a month for verified accounts.

The move would help overcome a potential loss of advertisers, Twitter's main source of revenue, after many top brands put their ad buys on hold, uneasy about Musk's well-known disdain for content controls.

Musk's actions and statements since taking over the reins of Twitter have prompted concern, including warnings from the United Nations.

UN rights chief Volker Turk has urged Musk to make respect for human rights a priority for the social network.

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Musk has insisted that content moderation remains a priority for Twitter and that he would create a council dedicated to the task.

Musk's decision to pull Twitter off the stock market has allowed him to make major changes quickly, but it also took the company more heavily into debt, a risky choice for a money-losing business.

bys-wd/md
Enrollment at public universities declined slightly for the second consecutive year, according to a release from the University System of Georgia.

Total enrollment of the states 26 public colleges and universities for this fall semester stands at 334,459 students, according to the release.

Although enrollment decreased overall, it grew by 1.2% at research universities but declined in the systems three other institutional sectors, according to USGs fall 2022 semester enrollment report.

The system considers UGA, Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Augusta University as falling under the research university category.

Comprehensive universities fell by 3.7%, state universities were down 5.7%, and state colleges dropped by 2.4%.

Overall, USG saw a decrease of 6,179 students or 1.8% across the state. Eight institutions had an increase in enrollment, while 17 declined and one remained flat compared to last year.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The University System of Georgia faces similar challenges to undergraduate enrollment as other public systems including a booming job market and the lingering effects of the pandemic, USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. Still, Im a facts guy, and the facts show USG graduates will make over $1 million more in their lifetimes thanks to their college degree and frankly we need to do a better job marketing that valuable return on investment. We aim to be a lifelong learning partner that helps Georgians change their lives and grow Georgias skilled workforce and economy.

USG between 2013 and 2020 saw a steady increase in the number of students enrolling in its institutions, with record-high headcounts each fall between 2015 and 2020  including an all-time high in fall 2020 of 341,489 students, according to the release.

The recent overall enrollment decline is related to several trends, according to the system. These trends include a strong job market, financial uncertainty and the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

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These trends include learning challenges at the secondary level that have affected whether high school students immediately decide to pursue college.

According to the system, this trend of lower enrollment mirrors the trend nationwide. Nationally, this fall had a 2.3% decrease in undergraduates, while four-year public institutions decreased by 1.6% and all institutions (including private institutions) decreased by 1.1%.

TRENDING STORIES:

Within USG, institutions with enrollment growth included the Georgia Institute of Technology (3.3%), Augusta University (2.2%), Gordon State College (1.4%), the University of Georgia (1.2%), South Georgia State College (1.1%), Georgia Gwinnett College (0.7%), Kennesaw State University (0.7%) and Albany State University (0.5%). Dalton State College maintained flat enrollment.

Demographically, students identifying as Asian and Latino grew by 7.5% and 2.7%, respectively, while there were declines in African American (-3.7%) and white (-4.6%) students, according to the release.

The enrollment numbers were released in the USGs annual fall semester enrollment report, which analyzes enrollment data by institution, age, gender, race and ethnicity, in-state, out-of-state and international students.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
(Bloomberg) -- European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova made clear Poland cant expect concessions to gain access to 34.5 billion ($34.6 billion) in post-pandemic aid as the funds remain frozen amid rule-of-law concerns.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Jourova made her remarks in a tweet after meeting Polands EU Affairs Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek on Wednesday in Brussels. The minister said he was coming to meet EU officials to better understand their doubts that stand in the way of releasing the funds.

European Commission officials have said Poland hasnt gone far enough in reversing its contested changes in the judiciary that the EU said give politicians too much sway over courts.

The money matters for the government in Warsaw, which is facing its highest borrowing costs in more than two decades and faces a tight race ahead of a general election expected in October 2023.

--With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni and Piotr Bujnicki.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
On 9 November, the European Commission proposed an unprecedented support package of up to 18 billion for Ukraine for 2023.

Source: European Pravda

This assistance will be provided in the form of concessional loans, which will be disbursed in regular instalments starting from 2023.

Quote: "This stable, regular and predictable financial assistance  averaging 1.5 billion per month  will help cover a significant part of Ukraine's short-term funding needs for 2023, which the Ukrainian authorities and the International Monetary Fund estimate at 3 to 4 billion per month," the European Commission said.

Details: The support proposed by the EU would need to be matched by similar efforts from other major donors in order to cover all of Ukraine's financing needs for 2023.

As European Pravda noted, thanks to these funds, Ukraine will be able to continue to pay salaries and pensions and maintain essential public services such as hospitals, schools and housing for relocated people. It will also allow Ukraine to ensure macroeconomic stability and restore critical infrastructure destroyed by Russia.

The support should be accompanied by reforms to further enhance the rule of law, good governance, and anti-fraud and anti-corruption measures in Ukraine.

Quote: "Therefore, while taking into account the evolution on the ground, financial support will be framed by policy conditions geared towards strengthening Ukraine's institutions and preparing the ground for a successful reconstruction effort, as well as supporting Ukraine on its European path," the European Commission said.

Details: The Macro-Financial Assistance+ (MFA+) instrument offers high flexibility and very favourable conditions for Ukraine, catering to the country's current situation and ensuring swift action to support the Ukrainian people.

The funds will be provided in the form of highly concessional loans to be repaid over a maximum period of 35 years, starting in 2033. As a sign of solidarity, the EU also proposes to cover Ukraine's interest costs through additional targeted payments by Member States into the EU budget. EU Member States and third countries will also be able to add more funds to this instrument, to be used as grants, if they so wish. The funds will then be channelled through the EU budget, allowing Ukraine to receive the support in a coordinated manner.

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To ensure the smooth delivery of the package, the European Commission is putting forward three legislative proposals. Before entering into force, they must be approved by the European Parliament and EU Member States in the Council.

As European Pravda reported, Hungary informed EU finance ministers during a meeting in Brussels that it would not support the necessary amendments to prepare the 18 billion aid package for Ukraine next year.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
An ex-military contractor pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter yesterday for accidentally killing an Air Force doctor two years ago with a forklift at Al Dhafra Airbase in the United Arab Emirates.

Ari Taylor, 32, was distracted on his cell phone while operating a forklift when he struck and killed Capt. Kelliann Leli in Nov. 2020, according to a Department of Justice news release.

According to court documents, an investigation found that Taylor, a civilian military contractor from North Carolina who was employed by Vectrus Systems Corporation, had almost nine seconds to prevent the collision. Although Leli was 50 feet away, Taylor did not take any measures to avoid hitting her as he drove through a busy area of the airbase.

An expert found that the forklifts braking system was in proper working order and that it would have taken [Taylor] less than one second to apply the brakes and that the forklift would have come to a stop within six feet, court documents said. The contractor reportedly ran to the nearby medical clinic for assistance after realizing what happened.

The 30-year-old Leli, from Parlin, New Jersey, was assigned to the 60th Healthcare Operations Squadron at Travis Air Force Base in California and was on her first deployment in support of Operation Freedoms Sentinel, a Department of Defense release said. She was a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned her commission in 2012 before completing her medical program, according to MyCentralJersey.com.

Leli was posthumously awarded the meritorious service medal, which was presented to her parents and her spouse, Air Force Capt. Jimmy Leli, a KC-10 Extender pilot in the 6th Aerial Refueling Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, according to the airbase.

Following the incident, the governors of both New Jersey and California honored Leli by ordering their respective state flags lowered to half-mast.

In March 2021, in response to the tragedy, leadership at Al Dhafra Air Base ordered the construction of sidewalks in high-traffic pedestrian areas, according to an Army release.

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The team that is working on this project feels good knowing that the project is going to make a difference, Army Staff Sgt. David Griffin, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the project, said in the release. We are hopeful that the work we are doing will improve the pedestrian safety on the base and avoid any injuries or loss of life in the future for the base occupants.

Taylor pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on April 23, 2023. The ex-contractor could have faced up to eight years in prison, but according to his plea agreement a sentence of up to one year is now being recommended.

The 380th Air Expeditionary Wing was not immediately available for comment.
By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU countries and European Parliament lawmakers are likely to reach a deal on a 6-billion-euro ($6 billion) satellite internet system next week, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, driven by the bloc's push to cut its dependency on foreign companies and the Ukraine war.

The European Commission announced the initiative to build and operate a satellite internet system in February, part of EU industry chief Thierry Breton's campaign for strategic autonomy.

The EU scheme comes amid growing concerns about Russian and Chinese military advances in outer space and a surge in satellite launches.

Having its own satellite internet system could help the bloc speed up the rollout of broadband internet in Europe while it would also cover Africa, allowing the EU to offer countries there an alternative to Chinese competitors

A space-based network could back up terrestrial networks in the event of major outages or disasters, and offer connections in places not covered by traditional service providers.

Officials from EU countries and EU lawmakers will meet on Nov. 17 in what is expected to be the last meeting to thrash out final details, the people said.

There is still disagreement on where the funding for the project will come which means another meeting could not be ruled out, they said.

The Commission wants to divert 2.4 billion euros from various EU programmes and use unspent money from other EU projects, while the private sector is expected to stump up the remaining 3.6 billion euros.

The proposed satellite internet system could lead to the construction and launch of up to 170 low orbit satellites between 2025 and 2027.

The companies active in this area include Elon Musk's SpaceX, Amazon's Kuiper Systems and British satellite company OneWeb. China also has its own constellation project.

European players include France's Eutelsat Communications, the world's third-biggest satellite operator by revenue which is merging with Britain's OneWeb, Arianespace and Thales Alenia Space.

($1 = 0.9979 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Gov. Brian Kemp sat down exclusively with Channel 2 Action News to discuss his victory over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams for the first time since his re-election Wednesday.

Kemp defeated Abrams on Tuesday night for a second time to win a second term in Georgias highest office.

On Wednesday, the governor visited the WSB-TV studios and talked about his vision for the next four years with Channel 2s Justin Farmer.

He and his formidable ground game will now also take a direct role in getting fellow Republican Herschel Walker elected to the U.S. Senate.

The governors win also proves Republicans can stand up to Trump and win.

Weve really just had such a good plan, had aggressive ground game, knocked on a million doors since the general election, Kemp said.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Channel 2 asked Kemp if hell lend that ground game and his full support toward the Walker runoff campaign.

Weve already been in conversation with them today and others, and Im committed to helping the whole ticket, Kemp said.

TRENDING STORIES:

Republicans such as Kemp and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had winning nights while many Trump-backed candidates did not. I asked him if Republicans are moving away from Trump.

Kemp said, All politics are local, and we never wavered from that despite criticism from both sides of the aisle  (We) stayed focused on what was best for the state.

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When asked, Do you know Ron DeSantis? Is he a man youd support? Kemp answered, I certainly know him ...incredible what he did in Florida, and we did (the) same thing, going into non-traditional hoods, trying to get women back, especially on crime, kids in school and breadwinners were staying in their job. When other governors wouldnt let you make that choice, kids in classroom focused on those issues, and they cut across political lines.

With Tuesday nights win and his role in the Walker-Warnock runoff election, Kemp unquestionably moves on to the national stage among Republicans who will be mentioned as future presidential candidates, whether its two or six years from now.

IN OTHER NEWS:
WASHINGTON  The distinctive patch of the Armys Special Forces units dates back to 1955, when Capt. John W. Fry of the 77th Special Forces Group reportedly submitted a design he felt reflected the new units all-domain mission.

According to Army heraldry officials, the three lightning flashes represent the elite troops ability to strike rapidly by air, water or land.

Nearly 70 years later, the services top special operations leader sees a resonance between that original all-domain concept and the modern day deterrence triad of space, cyber and special operations that senior leaders unveiled in recent months. The militarys top space official, Gen. James Dickinson, dubbed it the influence triad when he unveiled the concept in August.

The influence triad is intended to complement the nuclear triad. Where the nuclear triad deters a foes strategic forces, like inter-continental ballistic missiles, the influence triad is intended to deter and help respond to irregular activity that stops short of armed conflict, and then dominate foes in those domains when a war begins.

And to implement it, Army Special Operations Command is weighing force structure changes at every echelon, new technology-oriented career fields and new ways to harness talent both already existing in the Armys reserve components and in the civilian population.

If there had been five domains at that time, I dont think these gentlemen [who established Army special operations] would have said, Well, were not going to care about these other two domains, quipped Lt. Gen. Jon Braga, who commands USASOC.

Less door-kicking, more resistance: Inside Army SOFs return to unconventional warfare

Braga sat for an exclusive interview with Army Times Oct. 11 during the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington, D.C., where he also participated in panels and press conferences.

Braga and his colleagues atop the Armys space and cyber warfare communities see the triad concept as simply taking what our capabilities are and applying them in a combined arms model...no different than bringing together maneuver, fires, aviation and other capabilities to meet objectives, as Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler of Space and Missile Defense Command described it.

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But because their capabilities are well-suited to operations meant to counter foes in situations short of armed combat, the influence triad is likely to play a major role in implementing the recently released National Defense Strategy.

The new strategic guidance stresses integrated deterrence through campaigning, which prioritizes building  and messaging  advantages for the next war in a manner that deters countries like China from even firing a shot.

For Army special operations, retooling for that mission after decades of emphasis on counterterrorism and direct action raids is simultaneously a return to its roots and a step into the unknown.

To Braga, its an evolution for SOF.

What can the new triad do for SOF?

Ukraines success thus far in fighting off Russias massive invasion, which began in February, has offered some vindication for recent special operations concepts and valuable lessons for SOF troops who will be training partner nation forces in the years ahead.

One example is the Resistance Operating Concept, which advocates building the capacity of friendly countries to respond to invasion by waging an effective resistance behind enemy lines should their conventional militaries prove unable to hold all of their territory. When the ROC playbook is implemented, the resistance aims to tie up enemy resources and help lay the groundwork for a later liberation counter-offensive.

Army Times featured the ROC on the cover of its September 2021 print edition, and later revealed how U.S. and NATO officials  including SOF elements  had helped Kyiv to implement key portions of the gameplay in the years preceding the invasion.

Air Force CV-22 Ospreys from the 352nd Special Operations Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England, conducted a fast rope insertion and extraction system training with Ukraine special operations forces and U.S. Army Special Forces near Berdychiv, Ukraine, Sept. 20, 2020. (U.S. Embassy in Kyiv)

But what surprised many observers was how technology- and space-oriented the Ukraine governments resistance plans proved to be, as well as how commercially-available those capacities are.

Braga, SMDCs Karbler and others are noticing.

Satellites from Hawkeye 360, a radio frequency analytics company, detected Russian electronic warfare efforts months before the fight. SpaceXs Starlink satellite internet allowed isolated Ukrainian troops in Mariupol and other areas to resist for longer. Commercially available imagery was available in near real-time.

Ukraine also launched a resistance coordinating website early in the war, with practical handbooks and tips on how to securely spot and report enemy troop locations for those who may not be able to participate in armed resistance.

Karbler highlighted the impact of coordination between U.S. military space assets, the private sector and Ukraines government as a lesson worth emulating.

Army special operations gets new training center in New Mexico

Even if a nation-state doesnt have the budget to be launching their own satellites...[theyre] becoming very accessible for all entities, said Braga. That can provide capability in an unconventional warfare standpoint where you might have a behind enemy lines situation where cyberspace might be able to deliver an effect or deliver information in [occupied] physical areas.

Asked about how the multi-domain ROC lessons from Ukraine are being applied in other counties, Braga said, We are in discussions with countries  both countries that are well-resourced and have a space program, and some that dont  [that are] still looking at how to leverage both cyber and space on [their] special operations forces.

But as Army SOF moves into closer concert with space and cyber capabilities, having the right people with the right training organized so theyre in the right place at the right time to do their job is even more important than hardware.

How might force structure change?

Army officials, including Braga, have previously acknowledged that a service-wide analysis is underway to determine how to integrate basic tech capacity (like the small unmanned drones ubiquitous in Ukraine) at the tactical level.

Part of that will necessitate changes to force structure from the unit-of-action level all the way to the top, Braga argued. These changes will ensure that SOF is prepared for irregular warfare campaigning...[and] high-end conflict, Braga said.

For the last 20 years, theres been very few instances where we have deployed as designed...weve always augmented, added Braga. So if we have deployed for 20 years  never as is  is our force design correct? I think [the question] answers itself.

During public remarks at the conference, the USASOC commander revealed that officials are considering at the brigade or battalion headquarters level...realigning ARSOF to include representation from all three parts of Army special operations: special forces, civil affairs and psychological operations.

Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, and Navy EOD Mobile Unit 5 breach a building during an assault on an objective, May 2021. (Pfc. Thoman Johnson/Army)

Special Forces formations could see the biggest tactical-level changes. For years, SF companies have been organized with six 12-soldier teams known as ODAs, short for Operational Detachment-Alpha, and a headquarters element or Operational Detachment-Bravo.

Now, said Braga, theres one company in each Special Forces Group experimenting with a 16-man team and a convergence headquarters that [in] some cases is at the company level...[and] in some cases at the battalion level.

Connecting Vets first reported units were experimenting with a 16-soldier ODA concept, but the extent of the pilot was not previously known.

Asked what the extra four team-level operators would bring to the table, the USASOC commander suggested hed want more technology-oriented roles added to the fight and pointed to the commands ongoing experiment with developing warrant officers focused on tactical-level tech integration. Its not clear, though, whether these troops would represent all four additional soldiers in the experimental ODA.

New warrant officer career field?

A new, proposed warrant officer career field would focus on roles like drone operator, drone integrator, drone builder, robotics, manned-unmanned teaming, leveraging artificial intelligence, coding, tactical cyber and more, Braga previously told Army Times. He doesnt think these jobs should be heaped upon an ODAs existing communications sergeants, who have quietly become overburdened with systems and capabilities.

We can do more with a dedicated professional where thats their job, not just an additional duty, the general explained in the interview.

I cannot envision a future form of warfare that does not employ more need for robotics, unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Braga said. We have people who are passionate and capable in those skillsets  people who build their own drones, have self-taught Python [code]...these people exist in our formation right now, but we dont have an institutional pipeline to provide them a successful career.

Some opportunities exist to help troops who already have those skills to expand and use them, but theyre few and far between. A handful of Army special operators are currently assigned to the Army Software Factory in Austin, Texas, where theyre working on an upgraded suite of apps for the Android-powered devices that SOF units carry into battle.

A Green Beret with the 5th Special Forces Group manages a drone during a raid exercise at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Indiana, March 15, 2021. (Staff Sgt. William Howard/Army)

Army Times spoke with them about their work and career path during a September visit to the facility. During the visit, Futures Command requested  and Army Times agreed  not to name individual coders from the unit in order to protect their privacy and encourage them to speak candidly.

One SF warrant officer there said ODAs have a similar innovative spirit to the Software Factory, but acknowledged that he volunteered for a tour in Austin because the SOF community lacked a clear [career] path that I could go forward in.

But hes been hearing from senior leaders in recent months about the proposed career field, and he thinks theres an opportunity for value added on the teams if the plan is effectively implemented.

Its not clear whether the proposed career field would be within the Special Forces branch, which would require soldiers to make it through an assessment and selection process and the Special Forces Qualification Course. Braga indicated that officials are analyzing whether thats the best path.

The SF warrant assigned to the Software Factory expressed worry that tech-focused troops at the ODA level may be set back culturally if theyre not required to go through the full training pipeline.

If they havent gone through that [training process], he explained, team members may be concerned about the tech troops not being able to keep up, go for it in the middle of the mountains or...[keep] cool when its jumping [and] things arent going very well.

Part-time PSYOP?

But when it comes to other special operations capabilities, theres not always a need for that lengthy training. Nor is it always necessary for the soldiers to wear the uniform full-time  Braga suggested a reconsideration of how the Armys reserve component troops support the special operations community.

Currently, the Army Reserve has a significant number of traditional drilling civil affairs and psychological operations units, but the soldiers in them are not required to attend selection courses. National Guard troops assigned to the 19th and 20th Special Forces Groups go through the full SF training pipeline.

We are in discussions with [the Army Reserve and Army National Guard]...about force experimentation, explained Braga. We have to leverage the talent thats in the Guard and Reserve as part of [a] total Army analysis [and] rebalance.

While the discussions are preliminary, Braga said he can envision a revamped version of part-time special operations built around a combined National Guard/Reserve element that maybe is based out of Northern California [or] Washington State.

A soldier with 7th PSYOP Group plays a counter improvised explosive device message on a loud speaker during a mission near Malajat, Afghanistan. (Spc. Canaan Radcliffe/Army)

He acknowledged concerns that many traditional Guard and Reserve soldiers aligned with existing units struggle to maintain a true part-time relationship with the Army, saying we need to be more creative than shoehorning SOF training and missions into part-time units.

Otherwise, Braga added, SOF is missing out on talent in [the] reserve and National Guard that doesnt exist in the active duty force, because their civilian careers actually keep them up to the state of the art of their craft  could be writing, could be coding, could be hacking.

I envision [continental United States]-based operational support, maybe even state-based support, where they dont need to come to Fort Bragg, or they might not even need to deploy overseas to do some of their jobs  specially when youre talking psychological operations, Braga explained.

Even for traditionally expeditionary capabilities like civil affairs, the general argued that technology allows for AI-enabled and internet-based civil reconnaissance now and might enable some troops to stay in [their] home state and work from a terminal node.

Braga argued its because many key skills valued in influence and information operations, like writing, broadcast, production, drawing and graphic design, can be done from nearly anywhere.

Finding the right recruits

Braga also believes that theres more top-flight talent out there in Americas streets and schools who can help fill PSYOP roles and contribute to the tech integration efforts, but the service needs to reach them.

I could walk in any high school in America and I could say, Ive got a role for you in Army Special operations, he remarked to reporters during the AUSA conference.

[If] youre STEM-focused and you like coding, Id love you to come on and be the baddest drone builder [or robotics expert] in the world. Please come join us, he said. If you are more on the humanities side...[and] psychology-focused or work on designing sets as part of the theater club, weve got a spot for you in psychological operations.

But in order to fully tap into these prevalent skills, Braga added, the command needs different standards for different things out there and the pathways to bring talent in and continue developing it.

A soldier from the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School makes his way through a swamp while completing a land navigation course during a selection course near Hoffman, North Carolina, May 7, 2019. (K. Kassens/Army)

The model already exists for attracting Special Forces candidates. The 18X program allows prospective soldiers to enlist with a guaranteed opportunity to attend Airborne School and Special Forces Assessment and Selection.

A direct entry program for PSYOP troops also launched in recent years, but Braga confided, Weve got to do a better job of translating those opportunities for not only high-schoolers, but...[also] people already in the workforce out there.

He said prospective soldiers often have no clue...[they] can have a career revolving around the key skills PSYOP troops exercise.

Part of the disconnect, he fears, lies in the name.

If I just said, Hey, you want to come and be a psychological operations operator? some people are like, What are you talking about? he explained. But if I went in and said, Hey, do you want to be a military social media influencer? I think I know what you told me just there.

With the new influence triad offering opportunities to reconsider long-held assumptions, Braga thinks theres something for every young American in his formations.

C4ISRNET reporter Colin Demarest and Federal Times reporter Molly Weisner contributed reporting.
Despite being the worlds skinniest skyscraper, New Yorks newest tower is still shaking up Midtown Manhattan in a big way. Located at 111 West 57th Street, the residential skyscraper cuts straight through the sky with an astounding height-to-width ratio of 24:1. Though some residents moved in last April, the full suite of amenities and additional units were still under construction until now, when JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group announced that the monumental building was finally completed.

The tall, slender tower is surely the first thing passersby will see, but 111 West 57th Street is actually a two-part building: the original landmarked Steinway Halla Warren & Wetmoredesigned home to Steinway & Sons piano companyand the new high-rise by SHoP Architects, which some also call Steinway Tower. Both house sprawling residences: There are 14 in the landmarked 1925 building and 46 full-floor and duplex residences within the tower.

2021DS15 111 W 57 Photo: David Sundberg/Esto

With the collaborative effort of developers JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group; SHoP Architects designing the exterior; and AD100 architects Studio Sofield taking on the interior architecture, 111 West 57th Street is like a monument for impressive design. In addition to holding the record for skinniest skyscraper, the building is also the second tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, reaching a whopping 1,428 feet high, including a 300-foot decorative steel crown.

The completion of 111 West 57th Street is a testament to the design and ingenuity that can only be achieved by collaborating with todays most extraordinary designers, artisans, construction, and sales teams, Michael Stern, founder and CEO of JDS Development Group, said in a statement. Every aspect of this development has been meticulously conceived to achieve a delicate balance that pays homage to the classic skyscrapers of Manhattans past while also setting a new standard for the future.

Story continues

Photo: Adrian Gaut

An appetite for boldness is obvious in New York Cityits part of what makes the energy and ambition unparalleled in the US metropolisand its a sentiment that is clearly displayed in the citys architecture. Steinway Tower is no exception in this. From afar, the new building looks almost futuristic, but the architectsboth SHoP and Studio Sofieldwanted to reference Manhattans prewar Golden Age wherever they could. I have my romantic memory of old New York, Sofield tells AD.

On the exterior, each section of the building is paired with a layer of terracotta pilasters that don both the east and west facades of the tower, giving it that glamorous late-19th-century feel without overdoing it. Further, JDS Development Group restored much of the Steinway Hall building originally designed in the 1920s. The facade and instantly recognizable rotunda were restored in collaboration with the Landmarks Preservation Commission of New York, and it will be connected to the new tower by way of a sweeping central lobby.

Photo: Adrian Gaut

Photo: Adrian Gaut

On the inside, Studio Sofield took inspiration from the original Steinway Hall. For the block-long entry, William Sofield enlisted New York artisans such as John Opella and Nancy Lorenz to create what he describes as a series of emotional experiences that are informed by the New York skyscrapers of the past.

Reuse gives new life to historical fragments, Sofield adds, explaining that, when possible, he would find ways to reimagine parts of Steinway Hall into the development. For example, the buildings lobby makes use of end-grain wood flooring that was rescued from the original piano loading docks. Other old-world details include an ornamental chandelier in the amenity space reproduced from an original design that once hung in Steinway Hall. The residences also take a cue from classic home layouts and feature elements such as formal dining rooms with coved-wall sitting areas, solid oak floors, spacious galleries, and stepped panel doors.

Photo: Adrian Gaut

Photo: Adrian Gaut

Additionally, the AD100 designer found moments to infuse little easter eggs into the history-making property, should you know where to look. There are the lilies of the valley, my moms favorite flower, with rock crystal bells that sway like my favorite curtains at the Seagram Building, he says. All of the New York landmark buildingslike The Whitney or Saint Patrickscan be seen in bas-relief throughout the property.

Photo: Adrian Gaut

While the design may be a tribune to old New York, the amenities are all about modern living. They feature an 82-foot-long two-lane swimming pool surrounded by private cabanas, sauna, steam room, double-height fitness center with its own mezzanine terrace, private dining room, and a chefs catering kitchen, residents lounge boasting an expansive terrace, and a dedicated concierge service. My world is equal parts legacy and imagination, a place where architecture and opera collide, Sofield says. Yes, there are bits of the past, but they are always used in modern ways.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

More Great Stories From AD
(Bloomberg) -- Its been a tumultuous few days in the largely unregulated cryptocurrency world, with mudslinging on Twitter, a shock exchange takeover bid  which then collapsed  and plunging token values.

Most Read from Bloomberg

On Tuesday, the worlds biggest exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd., was set to acquire troubled rival FTX.com. On Wednesday, Binance walked away from the deal citing problems with FTXs finances as well as potential regulatory investigations. Its decision to walk away deepened the ongoing crypto rout, with Bitcoin tumbling to the lowest level in two years.

While crypto might seem like a niche corner of finance, the saga between two of its top players has upended the crypto ecosystem and is likely to have far-reaching repercussions.

What are Binance and FTX?

Theyre two of the biggest crypto exchanges, which are marketplaces where investors buy, sell and store tokens. Binance is the biggest crypto exchange by volume by a long way  and FTX is in the top five, according to crypto data provider CoinMarketCap (which is owned by Binance).

Who runs them?

Theyve also been led by two of the most visible and charismatic people in the crypto world: Binance by Changpeng Zhao (or CZ, as he is known), and FTX by Sam Bankman-Fried (or SBF).

Formerly a trader at Jane Street, until just a few weeks ago the curly-haired 30-year-old was everywhere in the crypto industry  backing flailing projects including BlockFi, Voyager Digital and Celsius. He counted the likes of Softbank Vision Fund, Singapore wealth fund Temasek and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan as investors.

Zhao is a China-born Canadian citizen who emigrated to Vancouver aged 12 and graduated with a degree in computer science from McGill University in Montreal. He started Binance in 2017 in Shanghai  but the Chinese government banned crypto exchanges the same year. Hes now based in Dubai.

Story continues

Read More: Cryptos Richest Man Faces Regulatory Crackdown, Brutal Winter

Why did they fall out?

Back in 2019, Binance invested in FTX, then a derivatives exchange. The next year, Binance launched its own crypto derivatives, quickly becoming the leader in the field.

Tensions rose as the two companies increasingly took divergent tacks with regulators. Bankman-Fried was testifying in the US Congress, while Binance was said to be facing regulatory probes around the world.

The two companies have also been competing for assets, with both bidding for assets of Voyager Digital. FTX.US, the American affiliate of FTX, won the auction.

Zhao and Bankman-Fried have been trading barbs on Twitter for months, feuding over issues ranging from lobbying US politicians to allegations of frontrunning trades.

So what just happened in the crypto world?

Over the weekend Zhao tweeted that Binance would be liquidating its holdings of a token known as FTT, which is issued by FTX.

The tweet followed a story from crypto news outlet CoinDesk saying that Alameda Research, a trading house owned by FTXs founder Bankman-Fried, had a lot of its assets in FTT token.

That fueled broader concerns about FTXs health and investors began to withdraw money. The FTT token plunged. A day before reaching a deal, Bankman-Fried said on Twitter that assets on FTX were fine and that a competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors.

On Tuesday, CZ announced a potential takeover of FTX, with due diligence to be conducted in the coming days.

Then late Wednesday afternoon New York time, Binance said it was pulling out of the deal saying its rivals issues were beyond our control or ability to help. Binance executives had discovered a gap between FTXs liabilities and assets that may amount to more than $6 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Whats more, US regulators are investigating whether FTX properly handled customer funds, as well as its relationship with other parts of Bankman-Frieds crypto empire, including his trading house Alameda Research, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

What does this mean for the markets?

Its injected a lot of uncertainty for investors who are worried about the potential for spreading contagion given the pivotal role FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried played in the industry.

FTT, the utility token of the FTX exchange, collapsed by more than 40% Wednesday following a tumble of more than 70% Tuesday. But just about every digital coin is struggling.

Bitcoin fell as much as 15% to $15,987 on Wednesday, the least since November 2020, which leaves a lot of holders under water.

What does this mean for FTX users?

Thats unclear. Clients worried about the future of the exchange have already pulled out $430 million worth of Bitcoin in the space of just four days.

Read more: Crypto Retail Investors Rattled as Binance Moves to Acquire FTX

How does this affect CZ and SBF?

Its a huge comedown for SBF, who had previously been seen as one of the most accomplished people in the industry.

Thats playing out in fortunes, as well. Bankman-Frieds 53% stake in FTX was worth about $6.2 billion before Tuesdays takeover, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, based on that fundraising round and the subsequent performance of publicly traded crypto companies. His crypto trading house, Alameda Research, contributed $7.4 billion to his personal fortune.

The Bloomberg wealth index assumes existing FTX investors, including Bankman-Fried, will be completely wiped out by Binances bailout, and that the root of the exchanges problems stemmed from Alameda. As a result, both FTX and Alameda are given a $1 value. That leaves SBFs net worth at about $1 billion, down from $15.6 billion heading into Tuesday. The 94% loss is the biggest one-day collapse ever among billionaires tracked by Bloomberg.

Even after pulling out of the deal, Bankman-Frieds fall from grace leaves CZ as the top person in the crypto world. Hes had a rough period too, with his fortune down 84% year-to-date, according to the Billionaires Index  but hes still estimated to be worth $14.9 billion.

What does this mean in terms of regulation?

This episode and how quickly it unfolded provide a stark example for regulators who have been concerned about the lack of guardrails in the freewheeling crypto space. Jurisdictions that have been considering looser rules may be less likely to do so  especially on the back a few months ago of implosions in the Terra/Luna ecosystem and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Whats Next?

Bankman-Fried told FTX.com investors on Wednesday that the company needs a cash injection, or else it would need to file for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported.

Whether FTX survives this crisis or not, the entire industry is on edge about the risks of contagion.

--With assistance from Tom Maloney.

(Updates throughout with details of Binance deal collapse)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
KYIV (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the face of Ukrainian attacks near the southern city of Kherson, in a potential turning point in the war.

Moscow has occupied the city at the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February and losing control of the region would mark a significant setback for President Vladimir Putin.

Here is why the region is strategically important for the course of Russia's war in Ukraine.

GATEWAY TO CRIMEA

Kherson region borders Crimea and provides Moscow with a land bridge to the Black Sea peninsula that it seized from Kyiv in 2014. Ukraine retaking swathes of Kherson region would deprive Moscow of that land corridor. It would also bring long-range Ukrainian artillery closer to Crimea, which Moscow sees as vitally important to its interests.

The peninsula, whose annexation Putin sees as a key achievement of his more than two decades in power, is home to a huge Russian military force and the Black Sea Fleet, which Moscow uses to project power into the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

FRESH WATER SUPPLIES

Fresh water supply to Crimea would also be imperilled if Ukraine retakes Kherson region.

After Moscow seized Crimea, Kyiv blocked water supplies via a canal from the Dnipro River. When Russia seized chunks of Kherson region and neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region to the east, it immediately moved to unblock the canal. Russia needs that water for the local population, the irrigation of the peninsula's arid land and for numerous military facilities.

LOGISTICS ROUTES

Kherson region includes the mouth of the wide Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine, and the regional capital, Kherson city, is on the west bank, across the river from most of the rest of the province. It is the only place where Russia has a presence on the west bank of the river and Russia has heavily reinforced its troops there in recent months.

Story continues

Ukrainian forces have been hammering the bridges over the river to hurt Moscow's ability to resupply. If Russia were to lose its only foothold on the west side of the river, Ukraine would be better able to attack other Russian supply lines and challenge Moscow's grip on other occupied parts of the south, such as Zaporizhzhia region where Russian troops occupy a nuclear power plant, military analysts say.

"The right (west) bank is important for both sides - for (Russia) in order to ensure the steadiness of the defence of the Zaporizhzhia direction, and for (Ukraine) to free this direction and cut off these three important arteries: the land corridor to Crimea, the water to Crimea and to return control of the (nuclear plant)," said Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst.

SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE

The city of Kherson is to date the only regional capital that Russian forces have captured since the Feb. 24 invasion. Losing it would therefore be a major symbolic blow to the Kremlin and indicate Russia had - for now - failed to press ahead to the cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa whose capture Moscow had sought, said Oleksander Musiyenko, a military analyst.

"It's clear the loss of Kherson and the Kherson bridgehead will have consequences for Russia's image and will be viewed negatively inside Russia," he said.

BLACK SEA CONTROL

The Kherson region, which had a pre-war population of more than 1 million, lies on the Black Sea. Recapturing it would help Kyiv wrest back control of some of the coastline along a sea that is a critical artery for its food exports to foreign markets.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Gareth Jones and Tomasz Janowski)
Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox; Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano; Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey; Republican candidate for Senator Don Bolduc

Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox; Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano; Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey; Republican candidate for Senator Don Bolduc Credit - Kenneth K. LamBaltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Getty Images; Spencer PlattGetty Images; Brian CassellaChicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images; Scott EisenGetty Images

Democrats faced criticism this year for investing nearly $19 million in the primary races of far-right Republican candidates, but their gamble appeared to pay off on election night.

According to an analysis by The Washington Post, Democrats intervened in 13 primary races to support the more extreme right-wing Republican, in the hopes that the Republican would be easier to defeat in the general election against a Democratic opponent. Of the six of those Republicans who won the primary, all of them lost their general election races by Wednesday.

It was a risky strategy. Rachel Orey, associate director of the Elections Project at the at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, called the Democrats investments in far-right Republicans irresponsible politics. Its incredibly short sighted to support extreme election deniers, she told TIME in an interview prior to Election Day.

By Tuesday evening, Republicans Dan Cox and Darren Bailey lost their gubernatorial races for Maryland and Illinois respectively, according to the Associated Press. Both candidates are election deniers who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump, but received millions of dollars in a boosts from Democrats during their primaries, according to the Post.

Doug Mastriano, the Republican gubernatorial candidate for Pennsylvania and a loyal Trump supporter who also falsely believes the 2020 election was stolen, received a Trump endorsement just a week before the primary elections, and was also boosted by the Democrats with $1.2 million. On Tuesday evening, Mastriano lost the race to Democrat Josh Shapiro, according to the Associated Press.

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Read More: Election Night Is Going to Take All Week. Thats Democracy at Work

Democrats also invested heavily in New Hampshire, pouring in $3.2 million, according to the Post, to back the Republican candidate for Senate Don Bolduc, a Trump-endorsed candidate who ultimately lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, according to the Associated Press. Democrats also invested $100,000 in the Republican U.S. House race for New Hampshires 2nd district, which went to Democrat Ann Kuster, according to the Associated Press.

One of the closest races was in Michigan. Democrats backed election denier John Gibbs, who won a primary race against Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol. Gibbs ended up losing Michigans third district to Democrat Hillary Scholten, according to the Associated Press.

While the gambit paid off, Democrats faced fierce criticism from members of their own party for supporting candidates who believe the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. They risked elevating election deniers to Congress who could further sow distrust in the American election process.

A group of 35 former Democratic elected officials published an open letter over the summer criticizing the party for taking the risk. It is risky and unethical to promote any candidate whose campaign is based on eroding trust in our elections. We must stop this practice, and stop today, the Aug. 1 letter reads. Our democracy is fragile, therefore we cannot tolerate political parties attempting to prop up candidates whose message is to erode our dedication to fair elections.

Read More: What Happens if a Candidate Contests the Results of a Midterm Election?

But some Democratic strategists defended the partys maneuvering. Given the serious damage Republicans would do with a majority in either chamber of Congress or with the power of a governorship, no one needs to apologize for doing what they think will give Democratic candidates their best chance of winning, Democratic pollster Geoff Garin told the Washington Post in September.
By Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Control of the U.S. Senate is at stake in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, as Republicans need to pick up only one seat to win control of the 100-seat chamber, which would allow them to block much of President Joe Biden's agenda.

The chamber is currently split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, who maintain control thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote. Democrats hope to expand their margin.

Here are eight races that could determine the outcome.

PENNSYLVANIA

John Fetterman, the Democratic state lieutenant governor, flipped Pennsylvania's Senate seat, beating Mehmet Oz, a TV host and heart surgeon who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

The race appeared to tighten in recent days, particularly after a rocky debate performance from Fetterman, who was hampered by the lingering effects of a stroke he suffered in May.

Oz faced accusations of carpetbagging as a longtime New Jersey resident and said that "local politicians" should be involved in a woman's decision to have an abortion.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan held onto her seat against Republican Don Bolduc, a retired U.S. Army general who promoted Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

The seat was considered a top opportunity for Republicans, but some of Bolduc's statements - including, saying the FBI should be abolished and espousing COVID-19 conspiracies - made it impossible for him to win support beyond his right-wing base, despite his post-nomination attempts to moderate his positions.

NORTH CAROLINA

Republican U.S. House Representative Ted Budd beat former state Supreme Court judge Cheri Beasley, a Democrat, for an open U.S. Senate seat in a relatively low-key race that has not drawn as much national attention.

Budd, a gun store owner, emphasized bread-and-butter concerns like inflation to appeal to moderate voters, backed a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks and has appeared at several rallies with Trump.

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North Carolina has been politically competitive for more than a decade, but Republicans still tend to win most statewide contests. The previous incumbent was a Republican.

OHIO

Republican J.D. Vance, author of the hardscrabble memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," won Ohio's open Senate seat, defeating Democratic U.S. House Representative Tim Ryan in a state that has trended Republican over the past decade.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Vance, and tech billionaire Peter Thiel was a major donor to his campaign.

Vance's more controversial opinions - that he did not care what happened in Ukraine and claiming the Biden administration was purposely flooding the Midwest with fentanyl - and Trump's comment at a campaign rally that Vance "is kissing my ass" made the race more competitive than expected. National Republican groups spent heavily to shore up his prospects.

Ryan emphasized his blue-collar background, supporting domestic jobs and a $15 minimum wage as his key policy planks, and distanced himself from party's liberal wing.

ARIZONA

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and husband of former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, is facing Blake Masters, a Thiel-backed Republican. The state is a former right-wing stronghold where Democrats have made gains in recent elections - Biden won the state by 0.3% in 2020. Masters has sought to distance himself from controversial comments suggesting Social Security should be privatized. He also recently deleted portions of his campaign website where he advocated for a total abortion ban.

Kelly has been a moderate Democrat in the Senate, pushing for lower prescription drug costs and at times criticizing the Biden administration's response to asylum seekers at the southern border with Mexico.

Although Republicans initially pulled funding in the wake of Masters' struggles, the race - as with many others - has tightened in recent days.

GEORGIA

In what is expected to be one of the closest races of the cycle, freshman Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock is up against Herschel Walker, who is endorsed by Trump.

Walker is a former college football star who has been hampered by a series of scandals, including allegations of domestic violence. A vocal anti-abortion advocate, Walker's campaign was rocked by reports that he paid for multiple former girlfriends to have abortions in the past.

Warnock, who serves as pastor at the Atlanta church once led by Martin Luther King, Jr., won a surprise victory in a special election in early 2021, giving Democrats control of the U.S. Senate. If neither candidate gets 50% of the vote, the race will go to a run-off in early December.

NEVADA

Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina to serve in the Senate, is defending her seat against state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a Republican who spearheaded his party's efforts to overturn Biden's victory there in the 2020 election.

Cortez Masto has emphasized abortion rights, while Laxalt has sought to harness voter concerns about rising prices - a pattern playing out in other states as well. The race has remained extremely close.

In a state where 30% of the population is Latino, analysts are watching whether these voters will continue to drift toward Republicans or whether Democrats can reverse this trend.

WISCONSIN

Republican Senator Ron Johnson is running against Democrat Mandela Barnes, the state's lieutenant governor. Johnson's statements against COVID-19 vaccines and the 2020 election could make him vulnerable, but he has pulled off surprise victories in past elections.

Republicans argue Barnes is too radical for the state, pointing to his past support for progressive policies like Medicare for All and a 2018 photo in which he is holding a shirt that reads "Abolish ICE," an immigration enforcement agency.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Josie Kao, Aurora Ellis and Daniel Wallis)
The claim that ballots marked with Sharpies will be invalidated has been debunked repeatedly since the 2020 US election, but videos targeting midterm voters claim machines in Pennsylvania will not be able to process marks from the felt-tip pens. This is false; election officials and a cybersecurity expert said the votes will be accurately recorded -- and if they result in adjudication, that process is not associated with fraud.

"I just got off the phone with an election representative in Pennsylvania: Dominion, Dominion, Dominion ... President Trump has spoken about the machines, there's still a problem," says conservative commentator Ann Vandersteel during a Facebook Live video posted November 5, 2022.

The clip from "Women Fighting for America" was viewed more than 89,000 times. In it, Vandersteel claims Dominion Voting Systems -- a company whose voting machines are used in about a fifth of Pennsylvania counties -- "asked everybody to use Sharpies."

She continues: "We all heard about 'Sharpie Gate' in Arizona ... bleeding outside the ovals and creating these ballot problems when the machines couldn't read them," repeating a claim AFP debunked during the 2020 election.

"You are getting adjudication piles from the Sharpies bleeding out ... It's creating a much bigger problem than the mail-in-ballots," Vandersteel says, referring to the myth that absentee ballots lead to fraud.

Screenshot of a Facebook video taken November 8, 2022

On Election Day, Vandersteel appeared in another video on Twitter in which she insisted that a "mass pile of ballots" are adjudicated manually by judges and "redirected to the candidate of their choice, so clearly there is massive fraud going on." Similar claims about the use of Sharpies circulated in the US states of Illinois and Arizona.

But election officials and a cybersecurity expert say voting machines can read marks made with Sharpie pens.

Dominion Voting Systems -- which was the subject of multiple conspiracy theories in 2020 -- says on its website that its machines can read "hand-marked paper ballots marked with writing instruments approved by election authorities, including Sharpie pens." All Dominion systems are capable of producing paper ballots or records, according to the company.

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Amy Gulli, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of State, told AFP the battleground state had not received any reports of issues with ballots filled out with Sharpies.

"Those claims are disinformation," Gulli said. "We are aware of these allegations made in previous elections, and those previous accusations were determined to be unfounded in Pennsylvania."

She added: "When a voting system is certified at the federal and state levels, marking devices (pens and/or pencils) are identified and tested to ensure that the system can read them and that they do not cause bleed-through or other marking issues. Counties use that information to identify the best marking device for their voters."

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) pointed AFP to its website, which refutes the claim circulating online.

"Although felt-tip pens, like Sharpies, may bleed through ballots, some election officials have stated that ballot tabulation equipment in their jurisdictions can still read these ballots," the site says.

If a ballot cannot be scanned properly, the agency adds, it can be hand counted, duplicated or adjudicated by election officials.

Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, told AFP: "There's nothing wrong with Sharpies. Ballots are designed such that 'bleed-through' isn't a problem because they carefully make sure that two-sided ballots don't have bubbles that overlap."

Wallach, who specializes in cybersecurity and electronic voting systems, also said that "while the exact details vary from state to state," the adjudication process often "boils down to determining the 'intent of the voter.'"

Common reasons for adjudication include ballots with write-in candidates, which computers cannot read, as well as votes that are unreadable by scanners.

Wallach said the process involves a panel, usually consisting of four people, determining the intent of the voter. If everyone agrees, he said they mark a new ballot "with everyone watching," often accompanied by a code or a signature.

The new ballot then replaces the original, Wallach said. The associated code allows the original and the replacement to be tracked for subsequent disputes.

"I've watched this process in action, in multiple different states, and everybody is surprisingly good-natured about it. It's unlikely that this process would serve as a venue for election fraud," Wallach said.

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the midterm elections here.
Alex Murdaugh in court with attorney Margaret Fox during a judicial hearing in the Colleton County Courthouse on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

In June 2021, a gruesome scene thrust a prominent South Carolina family into the national media glare. The murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, the youngest son and wife of Alex Murdaugh, an influential Hampton County attorney, seemed like a complete mystery.

Both had been shot multiple times right outside a family estate and left by the dog kennels, as Alex Murdaughs frantic 911 call explained. And for the media, it was the perfect true crime scenario to explore: a rich family meeting a violent end with no obvious motive.

But soon more details came out, giving the case a tinge of Southern gothic. Local news outlets emphasized the familys history of power and cover-ups. Paul had been under investigation for the death of Mallory Beach, his friends girlfriend, in a boating accident in 2019. Might his death have been someones revenge?

A podcast devoted to the incident reported on some of the rumors that had long circulated about the family. In 2018, the family housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after a supposed fall in the family home, in unclear circumstances. A local gay teenager, Stephen Smith, had been killed in a supposed hit-and-run in 2015, and rumors pointed to one of the Murdaugh boys, as one anonymized police tipster put it, referring to Paul and his older brother, Buster. After the 2021 murders, the district attorney reopened the investigations into both cases.

By the time patriarch Alex Murdaugh claimed he had been shot in the fall of 2021, there had been so many twists and turns that a documentary was inevitable.

Now hes been charged with the murders of his son and wife, and of hiring the man who shot him as part of a life insurance fraud scheme. Hes also been charged with 90 counts of fraud and money laundering connected to insurance payouts managed through his law firm, including Gloria Satterfields.

HBOs Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty mostly manages to zoom out and convey the stakes of the sprawling story without just repeating local accounts. The documentary understands its purpose not as an inquiry into the mind of Alex Murdaugh, but about the links between crime, privilege, and power.

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Paul Murdaugh Courtesy of HBO Max

Low Country emphasizes that the Murdaugh saga is inseparable from the culture of Hampton County in coastal South Carolina. Its a sleepy place that, as one local resident puts it, people have no reason to visit or to leave.

Amid the financial stagnancy, the Murdaugh family acquired an enormous amount of influence through their law firm. Starting with the 1920 naming of the first Randolph Murdaugh as solicitor, or what is more commonly in the US called a district attorney, the family basically controlled the justice system. Through generations, they maintained strong connections to law enforcement and state troopers, a fact that contextualizes the abundance of rumors that the family kept years of criminal behavior under wraps.

Paul Murdaugh is described by most of his friends in the documentary as a tantrum-throwing brat. They claim that on the night Beach, his friend Anthony Cooks girlfriend, died, Paul was drunk and driving the boat  then he plowed into a bridge and she was thrown into the water. Cellphone and police camera footage captured the chaos of the night. Crucially, the friends and their families, even the footage, expose how methodically Alex Murdaugh and his father approached all of them at the hospital after the accident, trying to get them to say another friend, Connor Cook, had been driving. DNA evidence disappeared.

Even years after his girlfriends death, Anthony Cook tells the filmmakers that he wont talk bad about Paul, illustrating the weird loyalty the family inspired. But before his murder, Paul had already been charged with boating under the influence, and it was one of the first cracks in the familys invincibility.

Paradoxically, the documentary is less strong as it crafts a portrait of Alex Murdaugh  in part because theres still not much known about him, in part because hes a flat character and has rarely spoken publicly.

There still isnt full clarity about what transpired the night when Paul and Margaret were killed, or even about Alexs allegedly staged hit on himself. But hes admitted to some of the financial crimes, like stealing the insurance payout from Gloria Satterfields heirs.

His attorney and some still-loyal friends claim he was addicted to opioids, which caused some of the issues that led to the insurance fraud. And theres still some mystery about where the millions of dollars he stole went. But it might have been more effective to hear from the many families who lost the settlement money from loved ones deaths, to reveal the substantial effects of one man taking advantage of accustomed power and impunity.

The documentary is more probing as it delves into journalistically murky territory, but also the most Reddit-friendly, difficult-to-parse mystery connected to the Murdaughs: Stephen Smiths death. Smith was openly gay in the conservative town, but, as his cousin puts it, he put his own crown on his head and he wore it proudly.

He was found dead on a road near his fathers house, and the highway patrolman in the documentary says the wounds pointed to a homicide with blunt force to his head. But the local sheriff insisted on calling it a hit-and-run. Smiths car was nearby and his sister says law enforcement implied that he had been hit as he walked to his fathers house.

In the documentary, a friend says Smith had described starting a relationship with a prominent Hamptonite: If I say who this is, the whole Hampton County is gonna be shook.

If I say who this is, the whole Hampton county is gonna be shook.

There were rumors that Smith had been killed in a fight with the Murdaugh brothers, and his cousin claims she heard he had been dating Buster Murdaugh, Pauls shier older brother.

Smiths mother, Sandy, explains that she saw Murdaugh family members at the crime scene when she visited after her sons death. Others in the documentary claim the Murdaughs knew of Stephens death even before the Smith family.

Alexs brother, Randy Murdaugh  also a lawyer  had been doing a workers compensation claim for Sandys husband and called to ask them for Stephens Facebook and password, she says. It made no sense to her.

While the investigation into Smiths death was reopened after the killings of Paul and Margaret Murdaugh, it remains unsolved. But the documentarys treatment of this incident carries an emotional charge thanks to the familys perspective, and its treatment of the Alex Murdaugh story doesnt compare.

Perhaps the most resonant image from the documentary is Sandy Smith demanding an open casket funeral to show the county the extent of her sons injuries. Stephens father, Joel, told friends, The Murdaughs killed my son. Three months after his sons death, he died from a heart attack.

Alex Murdaugh now awaits trial on the murder charges. In one recorded prison conversation between him and his remaining son, Buster, we get the most direct insight into the familys relationship. They talk about Buster having to squeeze into the tiny seats of Spirit Airlines for a recent trip, and about whether he should go hunting at their old estate. Buster mentions that he was recognized when he was out gambling. They sound so empty and detached given the circumstances.

It makes one wonder about the family dynamics as they face national scrutiny. Yet as North Carolina novelist Mark Ethridge puts it in the documentary, the Murdaugh saga is less a story of one family and more about institutional evil manifesting itself.

Thats the films perspective too. The flatness of those exchanges between father and son is a reminder of the banality behind corruption. And maybe thats less a limitation of Low Country as a film than a comment on the mundanity at the heart of true crime spectacle. 
Heres yet another game of musical chairs on an airplane. A father was incensed that nobody would move so that he and his grown son could sit together.

The flight was bound for Abu Dhabi from Madrid, a trip lasting approximately six hours. Even though the father asked several passengers to move, he directed his anger at one in particular.

What Happened?

According to The Mirror, The duo had boarded the plane and asked several people on it whether they could switch seats in order to sit together.

One passenger recalled being asked to move, to which they, and everyone else, said no.

The Passenger Explained The Situation On Reddit

It also caused a slight delay as the flight attendants were asking whats happening with them, the passenger explained on Reddit.

Since nobody would comply with the fathers request, he and his son had to sit one row and two seats apart. They could still very much see each other.

The passenger said, The whole trip they were talking loudly to one another and exchanging stuff. Waking some people up.

What Happened When The Plane Landed?

When the plane arrived in Abu Dhabi, the father pounced on the opportunity to berate his fellow passenger for not moving.

He barked, Word of advice, try to be more compassionate next time!

As reported by The Mirror, the father proceeded to tell the passenger he shouldve moved as hed be in an aisle seat regardless and that it wasnt his fault that he was placed separately from his son.

The Passenger Didn't Care And Neither Did Anyone Else

The passenger in question stuck to their guns.

If they wanted to sit beside each other so much, why didnt they pay for the reserved seating? they asked.

What if I paid for this reserved seat, will you still make me move? Will I get my money back? Hes being entitled.

Users agreed with the passenger that the father was indeed out of line.

One person commented: Unless the father was disabled or ill, there is no reason he couldnt sit a row apart from his son for six hours.

Another quipped, You paid for a reserved seat. They didnt. Thats not on you. You did not owe them anything. Period.

Related: Olympic Athlete Refuses To Switch Seats For Couple, And Shares Story On TikTok
The FBI announced on Tuesday that two illegal immigrants from Venezuela were arrested and charged for allegedly pushing, dragging and punching a Border Patrol agent while being apprehended in Texas.

Kevin Escalona Gonzalez, 35, and 27-year-old Yuleixy Mata Fuentes  two Venezuelan nationals and "undocumented non-citizens"  were arrested for an assault on a federal officer on Oct. 31.

At approximately 6:45 a.m. that day, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was advised of a group of undocumented non-citizens crossing into the United States. It was not clear how many migrants were in the initial group.

The agent followed the group into a residential area adjacent to Ascarate Park.

TEXAS TRACTOR-TRAILER HUMAN SMUGGLING SURVIVOR RECALLS HARROWING JOURNEY: THEY COULDNT BREATHE'

Border Patrol agents from the El Paso sector fire rubber bullets to a group of Venezuelan migrants as they cross the Rio Bravo (or Rio Grande, as it is called in the US), after a demonstration against U.S. immigration policies in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on October 31, 2022.

The group dispersed and ran, however, the agent caught up to Gonzalez and Fuentes, who refused to comply with commands, according to a press release from FBI El Paso published on Tuesday.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The agent attempted to handcuff them; however, they allegedly resisted arrest and an altercation ensued.

During the altercation, the agent was "pushed, dragged, and punched by the individuals," FBI said.

The agent was able to gain control of them without further incident, according to the bureau.

An illegal migrant found smuggled in a vehicle is apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol and the Webb County Sheriff on October 12, 2022, in Laredo, Texas.

Gonzalez and Fuentes made their initial court appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge on Nov. 1 and are currently being held at the El Paso County Correctional Facility.

"The men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol work tirelessly to keep our borders safe," said FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey R. Downey. "Assaults on Border Patrol agents or any other federal agents/officers or task force officers will not be tolerated and will be addressed swiftly by our office so they can continue to carry out their sworn duty to protect our communities."

Venezuelan migrants flee from the Border Patrol agents of the El Paso sector during a demonstration against U.S. immigration policies in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on October 31, 2022.

The FBI El Paso Field Offices Safe Streets and Violent Crime Task Force investigated this case.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News Digital reached out to FBI El Paso seeking more information about the case.
The first Chinese spy to be extradited to the U.S. convicted last year of conspiring to steal corporate trade secrets will be sentenced on Nov. 15th., according to our news partners at WCPO.

>>UPDATE: 1 dead after multiple crashes on I-70 near SR-4

In a memorandum filed Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Cincinnati recommended a 300-month prison sentence for Yanjun Xu, the spy convicted of plotting to steal GE Aviation corporate trade secrets, WCPO reported.

The case will be based in Cincinnati considering local FBI agents developed the investigation with GE Aviation, which is based out of Evendale in Hamilton County, WCPO reported.

>>Police: Remains of man missing since 2020 found in Miami Twp.

According to prosecutors, Xu was a Deputy Division Director in Chinas Ministry of State Security, WCPO reported.

Xu was promoted within the MSS to a Deputy Division Director with managerial responsibility over both other MSS spies and civilian intelligence assets, Asst. U.S. Attorney Timothy Mangan wrote in the governments sentencing memo, according to WCPO. In that role, he coordinated sophisticated and significant intelligence operations. He directed assets and recruited co-opted employees. He supervised and directed fellow spies at the MSS.

>>Man sentenced for string of armed bank robberies in 3 area counties

One of the people Xu targeted helped the FBI bring Xu to Belgium for what he thought was a meeting with an engineer, WCPO said. Rather than meet with an engineer, Xu was arrested and held in a Belgium Jail for six months until his extradition to the U.S. in 2018.

The defense attorneys have yet to file the defense memorandum, WCPO reported.








The U.S. Treasury Department today updated its sanctions on Ethereum coin mixer Tornado Cash, citing its role in North Koreas nuclear weapons program.

The Feds in August banned U.S. citizens from using the mixer, claiming that criminalsincluding North Korean hackerswere using it to launder dirty funds.

Though in a Tuesday announcement, the Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) redesignated Tornado Cash, citing its role in enabling malicious cyber activities, which ultimately support the DPRKs [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] WMD [weapons of mass destruction] program.

The redesignation takes into account additional information and also includes an additional basis for the designation of Tornado Cash regarding its support for DPRK activities, the announcement read.

The update also clarifies who the Tornado Cash Person is in the redesignationsomething that the crypto advocacy group Coin Center had sought in a lawsuit filed against the Treasury Department last month.

Previously, the crypto community was up in arms about the authorities targeting developers behind the code. But now, the OFAC says it has not designated Tornado Cashs individual founders, developers, members of the DAO, or users, or other persons involved in supporting Tornado Cash at this time.

OFAC revokes TC deisgnation and re-designates with clarity on what person 'Tornado Cash' is --i.e., the unincorp association of TC founders & developers + the TC DAO ...a tacit surrender to @coincenter 's lawsuit... ...but also a more legally credible pivot... pic.twitter.com/m0tEQJwXHR  _gabrielShapir0 (@lex_node) November 8, 2022

The DPRKs WMD program is back in the spotlight after it started testing its missilesincluding firing one over Japan last month. The pariah state has been sanctioned by a number of different countries for decades.

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Tornado Cash is a tool used by people in the crypto world to anonymously send and receive Ethereum, the second largest digital asset by market cap.

Crackdown on Tornado Cash Was Just Round 1

The Feds initially said that over $7 billion-worth of dirty digital cash passed through Tornado since its creation in 2019.

According to the authorities, North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus Group used Tornado Cash as a go-to tool for obscuring stolen funds.

But blockchain data company Elliptic later said in a report that of the $7.6 billion that passed through the app, only $1.5 billion was from illegal activity.

The crypto community has criticized the Tornado sanctions: Coinbase, the biggest digital asset exchange in the U.S., is funding a lawsuit against the Treasury Department.

Coinbase claims that the ban is punishing people who did nothing wrong and results in people having less privacy and securityand asks for the sanctions to be reversed.
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP)  Dequan Finn threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Turner with 1:18 remaining to give Toledo a 28-21 victory over Ball State on Tuesday night.

Finn led a 7-play, 50-yard drive for the game-winning score. John Paddock drove Ball State to the Toledo 47, but he was sacked and then threw an interception to end it.

Finn was 21 of 38 for 301 yards passing and threw three touchdown passes. Jerjuan Newton had seven catches for 94 yards for Toledo (7-3, 5-1 Mid-American Conference), and Devin Maddox added 72 yards receiving on three catches and each had a touchdown catch. Turner had four receptions for 54 yards.

Carson Steele ran for 198 yards on 28 carries and a touchdown in the first, second and third quarters for Ball State (5-5, 2-4). His 34-yarder gave the Cardinals a 21-14 lead early in the third. Paddock was 13-of-35 passing for 94 yards with the one interception.

___

More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25. Sign up for the APs college football newsletter: https://bit.ly/3pqZVaF.
Fortum is not giving up uranium from Russia yet

According to its contracts with Rosatom, Fortum can do this until 2030.

Read also: ZNPP employees pressured to sign contracts with Russias Rosatom

The company itself has not yet commented on whether it intends to give up importing Russian uranium fuel and, if so, what the time frame for this might be.

According to the publication, Fortum receives fuel from TVEL, a subsidiary of the Russian state concern Rosatom.

Read also: Finland arrests assets of Yandex, Russian billionaires Rotenbergs

The fuel supply contract was concluded before the expiration of the current licenses to operate the two reactors at the Loviisa nuclear power plant. The license to operate the first reactor is valid until 2027, and the second until 2030.

According to Yle, thus the Finnish company could use Russian uranium fuel for another eight years.

Read also: Finland ready to fight Russia if attacked, says defense chief

In May 2022, it was reported that Fortum was leaving the Russian market and withdrawing its brand.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Practitioners, experts hail China's wetlands conservation

Xinhua) 08:24, November 09, 2022

This photo taken on Nov. 5, 2022 shows the Lhalu wetland in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lyu Qiuping)

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China has provided training to 42 developing countries, contributing to global ecosystem governance.

GENEVA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's achievements in wetlands conservation and its contributions to international cooperation in the field have been widely recognized by participants at the ongoing global conference for wetlands.

Themed "Wetlands Action for People and Nature," the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) is in session from Nov. 5 to 13 in China's Wuhan and Switzerland's Geneva.

In Geneva, an exhibition of wetlands conservation is held on the sidelines of the conference, where relevant government departments and NGOs from Asia, Africa and Oceania presented updates of their wetlands conservation.

As host country of the conference, China, at the exhibition, presented pictures and videos focusing on wetlands and urban life. China's exhibition showcased wetlands conservation at national, provincial and municipal levels, attracting many to learn more.

A black-billed gull flies over a breeding area in a wetland in Liaohe River delta in Panjin, northeast China's Liaoning Province, May 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

"Do you have digital versions of those brochures? I would like to take them all!" At the booth of Wuhan, Pipat Ruangngam, an expert of the water resources department of Thailand, showed great interest in wetlands conservation along the Yangtze River.

"China can manage this very long river with biodiversity and cultures," Ruangngam said, "In terms of the wise use of wetlands, China has made a good example for us, so we have to learn more about China's wetlands management."

Vincent Cohen Barugahare, an official with Uganda's Ministry of Water and Environment recalled a visit to northwest China's Qinghai Province, where he learned a Chinese practice for conservation, the ecological migration -- relocating people from ecologically fragile areas with little living conditions to other areas and providing them with social and economic support.

"We implemented it in Uganda. We used it for restoration. We talked to people, moving them from wetlands and giving them alternatives outside," said Barugahare, who said it was a successful case for better conservation through cooperation.

Participants view the exhibition on China's progress in wetland protection and restoration at the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) in Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China has provided training to 42 developing countries, contributing to global ecosystem governance.

Seung Oh Suh, executive director of the Ramsar Regional Center East Asia, which works with more than a dozen Asian countries to implement the Ramsar Convention, told Xinhua that he saw clear development of China's wetlands conservation in recent years, when the number of and sizes of wetlands increased greatly.

He hailed the development that urban residents in China have easier access to wetlands, that the role of wetlands in urban functions and residents' lives has expanded, and that people have become more aware of the importance of wetlands protection.

Chris Rostron, international engagement manager of Britain-based Wildfowl &Wetlands Trust, told Xinhua that China obviously had a huge impact on wetlands conservation and also brought a number of activities in conservation.

"We support China's attempts to put together a proposal for a mangrove conservation center," said Rostron, adding that it would help reduce carbon emissions.

Journalists visit the Wetlands Photography Exhibition in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Nov. 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)

Gillian Davies, a visiting scholar at the Global Development &Environment Institute of Tufts University, visited some wetlands and restoration areas in east China's Changshu city in the Yangtze River Delta in 2016.

"It was really rewarding to see the progress that China is making in the conservation and restoration of wetlands, which improves the water quality and health. The people in the surrounding areas benefited and it helps provide protection against climate change and the environment," said Davies.

"I would also like to congratulate China on passing a wetlands conservation law in 2021 and bringing that law into full force. This is a major achievement," Davies added.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
Although they have been unable to determine the exact cause of the deadly blaze that claimed the life of a three-year-old girl in Lynn Tuesday, it does not appear to be suspicious, according to state and local fire officials.

Through heavy investigation from multiple public safety departments and examination of evidence, officials were able to determine the fire began in the left corner of the Circuit Avenue home, the State Fire Marshals office said in a statement Wednesday. Although they found no evidence of criminal activity, they were unable to rule pit accidental factors like smoking materials or electric vents.

The exact cause of this fire will remain undetermined, but we know that smoking materials are the leading cause of fatal fires in Massachusetts, said Lynn Fire Chief Stephen Archer. If you smoke or have guests who do, always use a heavy ashtray with water or sand and remember to put it out, all the way, every time. Never discard cigarettes, matches, or other smoking materials on the ground where they can ignite mulch or dry leaves.

They also stated there we no working smoke alarms in the home.

Whatever else you do today, please take time to be sure you have working smoke alarms on every level of your home, said State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey. Check the manufacturing date printed on the back of the alarm. If theres no date or if its more than 10 years old, replace it with a new alarm that has a hush feature and a sealed, long-life battery. Weve found that these are less likely to be disabled. If your alarm takes alkaline batteries, put in fresh ones twice a year. This is a great time to put in fresh batteries to keep you protected through the spring.

Police first responded to the fire at approximately 4:05 a.m. Tuesday morning. While more than a dozen residents were able to escape the fire, the three-year-old girl, whose name has not been released, remained unaccounted for until Tuesday evening. She was located inside the home and pronounced dead at the scene.

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This is a heartbreaking tragedy for the family affected and for our community, said Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson in a Tuesday statement. We extend our deepest condolences to the family as they deal with this unthinkable loss, and we wish all those affected a speedy and full recovery. On behalf of the City, we appreciate the tremendous work of the Lynn Fire Department and all the supporting agencies who responded. While we know there will be a full investigation into the circumstances of this tragic event, at this point, we are focused on the victims and are incredibly grateful for all those rallying to help them and provide support for our community at this most difficult time.

Seven of the other 14 residents inside the home were also sent to the hospital to be treated for injuries.

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TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel on Wednesday described what has been an open secret for two decades - that it has used drones not just for surveillance but also in strikes within the country, against Palestinian militants in Gaza, and possibly targets as far away as Iran or Sudan.

Israeli censors in July permitted publication of information about the armed drones and the chief of Israel's artillery corps - which runs the drones together with the air force - used his speech at an industry forum to give what he described as a first public account of the armed versions of the pilot-less planes.

Whereas previously he could only offer hints, "today I can speak of this openly", Brigadier-General Neri Horowitz told the annual UVID DroneTech conference hosted by Israel Defense magazine in Tel Aviv.

He said the armed drones not only provide Israel with additional firepower, but also allow, in a single platform, for both the speedy detection and attack against targets, such as Gaza rocket crews before they can carry out a launch.

He disclosed that when jihadi insurgents from Egypt burst across the border into southern Israel in a hijacked armoured vehicle in May 2012, they were destroyed in a drone strike.

Showing footage of Ukrainian forces using drones to guide shelling of invading Russian troops, he said: "We have the same application here."

Israel is expanding its drone forces, whose personnel are 30% female, Horowitz said, adding that the artillery corps was replacing its cannon insignia with concentric circles representing the incorporation of the aerial platforms.

At the same conference, Brigadier-General Omri Dor, commander of Palmachin airbase, said drones now accounted for 80% of the Israeli military's operational flight hours.

However manufacturers of armed drones remain barred from advertising them and none of them were among the models on display at the conference.

"There are information security concerns," explained a sales representative for one of the companies, Elbit.

In a separate speech, Economy Minister Orna Barbivai said drone exports were popular abroad, including among Arab countries that have drawn closer to Israel since 2020. She did not specify if such exports included armed drones.

(Reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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

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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 cancelled.

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.
Though a lower rated storm than Ian, which struck Florida in September, Nicole is much wider, with dangerous winds encompassing a broad area.

Four counties in Florida are under mandatory evacuation orders. Residents in certain zones of Nassau, Palm Beach, Flagler, and Volusia counties have all been told to leave, ahead of likely flooding coming from storm Nicole.



Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago Club resort, where the former president held an election night party on Tuesday, is included in the Palm Beach County mandatory evacuation area, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Read more

Zones in eight other counties are also under voluntary or recommended evacuation orders, according to the states Division of Emergency Management. Orlando International Airport, Sanford International Airport, Palm Beach International Airport, Daytona Beach International Airport, Disney World, and Universal Orlando have all announced early closures on Wednesday, in preparation for the storm.

Nicole is currently centered over Great Abaco Island in The Bahamas, as a strong tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph. There, hundreds of people evacuated their homes and sought shelter on Wednesday. The Associated Press reported flooding and power outages on the island.

Next, the storm is forecast to move over Grand Bahama Island this evening. It is projected to continue strengthening into a rare, November Category 1 hurricane before making landfall on Floridas easy coast tonight, where multiple hurricane, tropical storm, and storm surge warnings are in effect according to the most recent National Hurricane Center advisory.

Once over the continental U.S., forecasters expect the storm to weaken moving across Florida and other southeastern states on Thursday. NHC says Nicole is likely to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday afternoon.

Though Nicole is rated much lower than the Category 4 Hurricane Ian that battered Florida in late September and early October, the NHC warns that this weeks storm is large. Tropical-storm-force winds extend out nearly 500 miles from the storms center, particularly to the north. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that wide scale power outages are a risk, in a Tallahassee press conference.

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In addition to the winds, Nicole could bring significant flooding through storm surges and rainfall across Florida and the eastern U.S.. A storm surge watch is in effect as far north as South Santee River in South Carolina, and parts of eastern North Carolina are under a coast flood advisory. Storm surges of between three to five feet are projected to impact eastern Florida and Georgia, from North Palm Beach to Altamaha Sound. And, in western Florida, from the Anclote River to Ochlockonee River. Up to eight inches of rain could fall in pockets around the state.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  Just weeks after a deadly hurricane swept through the state, Florida is bracing for another major storm that has the potential to damage areas with heavy rains and destructive winds.

Hurricane Nicole is expected to make landfall in Florida as early as 1 a.m. Thursday. The National Hurricane Center upgraded the storm to a hurricane at around 6 p.m. as it made landfall on the Bahamas. It had sustained winds of up to 75 mph.

The threat of a damaging storm sent state officials scrambling earlier in the day. Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for dozens of counties on Monday. Palm Beach County officials ordered evacuations for nearly 120,000 residents, and Orlandos International Airport halted operations. Counties in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and almost two dozen more have all closed schools.

DeSantis on Wednesday morning warned Floridians to be diligent ahead of the storm and to be prepared to lose power. The storm, he said, is expected to make landfall around 1 a.m. Thursday morning.

Floridians in the path of the storm should expect to see power outages when youre having these gusty conditions, DeSantis said during a video news conference at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. Just be prepared for that.

The state Division of Emergency Management has summoned 600 members of the Florida National Guard, 16,000 electric-utility crews and seven urban search and rescue teams ahead of Nicole making landfall.

DeSantis said a total of 17 school districts have either closed or plan to dismiss students early on Wednesday ahead of the storm, and a total of 23 school districts will be closed Thursday.

Nicole is also a wide-reaching storm that will bring hurricane conditions to most of Florida. State Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie said residents in the path of the storm only have a few hours to prepare.

I urge Floridians statewide to stay indoors in a safe structure, and away from the coastline, Guthrie said. The next few hours are your last chance to bring in potential damaging items before Nicole makes landfall.

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The National Hurricane Center early Wednesday morning stated that hurricane conditions are expected across parts of Floridas southeast and east-central coast by Wednesday night and issued a hurricane warning for those regions. The center also warned of dangerous storm surges along Floridas east coast and parts of Georgia.

While potentially dangerous, hurricane Nicole is not expected to be as powerful as Hurricane Ian, which slammed into Floridas west coast in late September as a Category 4 hurricane. That hurricane initially left more than 2 million without power and caused catastrophic damage along some coastal areas, including in Lee County where the storm made landfall.

At least 125 people were killed by Hurricane Ian, many by drowning.

Florida Power & Light Co. CEO and Chair Eric Silagy said Wednesday morning the utility could not predict the number of customers who will lose power. But he said he expects trees to fall into power lines because the soil is saturated in South Florida and tree roots were left weakened by Hurricane Ian.

"We are hoping for the best but we are prepared for the worst," Silagy said. "That's why we have brought in the crews. We have our plan in place and we will execute on that plan."

On Wednesday, there were more than 14,000 homes and businesses in Florida without power, with more than two-thirds of those in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, according to the Public Service Commission. Silagy said FPL had 13,000 workers on hand and was working to restore power to customers affected by outer rain bands from Tropical Storm Nicole.

U. S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman James Yocum said the storm does not pose a risk to the strengthened Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee. Communities around the lake were evacuated during Hurricane Irma in 2017 because of the threat to the flood control dike.

But the agency said with the lake at nearly 16 feet above sea level there may need to be discharges to lower the lake and protect dike. Those discharges in the past have been blamed for algae that has forced the closure of beaches and killed sea life.

South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Drew Bartlett said district recreation lands north of Broward County on Wednesday were being closed to the public and waterway locks in the Kissimmee chain of lakes were being closed in advance of the storm for boater safety.
Gov. Ron DeSantis governed in his first term with the sureness of someone who had a clear mandate, even though he won in 2018 by less than half a percentage point. But now he has one, granted by a reelection margin 19 points wide.

Fresh off what he called a win for the ages Tuesday night, DeSantis in a second term is expected to continue to hammer the cultural issues that have made him a national brand  especially as he governs a state that has turned deep red. Hes signaled that he wants to crack down on woke banking practices, increase restrictions on abortion and loosen the unanimous jury requirement for people to be sentenced to death. Some observers expect DeSantis, who has said he believes in centralized executive authority, to keep expanding the powers of his office.

Its unclear just how long hell run the Sunshine State, as speculation continues to mount that hes eyeing the White House in 2024. He has declined to publicly commit to serving all four years.

Two days before the election, DeSantis promised a Hillsborough County rally crowd that he would continue to fight the woke, which he called a mind virus permeating all aspects of society.

We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob in the state of Florida, he said to hearty applause. Our state is where woke goes to die.

DeSantis campaign hinged on his handling of the pandemic and his persona as a conservative fighter. Supporters say his enormous victory should give him confidence that his state fully backs his approach.

The results of the election are validating Gov. DeSantis efforts and his tone and his commitment to his principles, his ideology, said Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. This election ... (shows) what hes been doing, we want more of.

The next cultural issues

DeSantis already has teed up the next cultural fight against what he says is an increasingly woke corporate America. In particular, hes targeting banks and other financial services companies that he says are discriminating against users based on political or religious ideology. The upcoming proposals, he said at a summer news conference with incoming Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, also would prohibit the state from considering a companys environment or social impact before investing Floridas retirement funds.

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DeSantis also has said he intends to expand pro-life protections in the state, though he was mum on details throughout the campaign. Republicans also are awaiting the Florida Supreme Court, four of whose seven justices have been appointed by DeSantis, to overturn its own precedent and open the door for further abortion restrictions.

Several top anti-abortion activists predict that DeSantis will pursue a six-week ban, also sometimes called a heartbeat bill. DeSantis has long said hed sign such a measure.

During his debate with Crist, DeSantis said that he would ask the Legislature to change the state law requiring that a jury be unanimous to sentence someone to death. The convicted killer in the Parkland shooting massacre was spared the death penalty because not the entire jury supported it.

In addition to emphasizing social issues, DeSantis is expected to work with the Legislature on one of the states biggest unaddressed crises: affordable housing. The governors staff has met with incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, to write proposals that she said will address an issue that has festered for decades.

He and I have talked a lot about affordable housing issues ... and his staff and my staff have been working on a really robust bill were going to roll out in early session, Passidomo said in an interview. The next regular legislative session begins in March.

She said one aspect of the bill could encourage local governments to allow the development of apartments in commercial areas, such as dormant strip malls.

State Rep. Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, the incoming House Democratic leader, said shell be skeptical of any Republican attempts to alter affordable housing policy. Last year, the Legislature made a deal to stop sweeping 100% of the states affordable housing trust fund money toward other projects, in exchange for permanently diverting two-thirds of the money to other purposes.

What we can expect from Gov. DeSantis is for him to continue to be consistent. ... His ambition and running for president in 2024 are the guiding principles of how he governs, Driskell said. Its about what can create headlines, stoke fear, create division and consolidate his base.

Despite a few hints hes given, its not typically obvious which hot-button issue DeSantis will seize on next. He keeps a famously tight circle of advisers and has, on more than one occasion, surprised his own agency officials or fellow Republican leaders with announcements.

That has left some of his critics, particularly those who have been singled out by his rhetoric, anxious for what he could do in his second term.

An emboldened DeSantis, with his eyes locked on a 2024 presidential bid, would be disastrous for the LGBTQ community, Brandon Wolf, spokesperson for Equality Florida, said in a statement. We could expect rapid escalation of his attacks and the continued bending of the entire state government against the community.

Power plays

DeSantis has worked to consolidate the power of his office, and may continue to do so in a second term.

He rejected redistricting maps drawn by leaders of his own party in favor of versions by his office that more aggressively favored the GOP. Hes pushed the Legislature for increased authority over agency appointments. Hes intervened in races for school board and the Florida Senate by recommending his own slate of candidates. And hes broadened the use of executive suspensions by ousting the Hillsborough state attorney, who had signed pledges that would not prosecute cases of women seeking abortion or transgender people seeking gender-affirming healthcare.

Darryl Paulson, a former political science professor at the University of South Florida and a lifelong Republican who left the party in 2017, said he expects DeSantis political influence to grow.

He has done something many governors have been unlikely to do, and thats go out there and grab power  and its significant power, he said. In large part because of the new congressional maps DeSantis drew, Republicans picked up four more of the states total 28 seats, giving the GOP a 12-seat edge in Florida and a major boost in efforts to flip the U.S. House.

Paulson said that move will have ripple effects in building DeSantis future political capital.

What political obligations do those individuals have to the governor, when without his intervention, they would not have won their seats that they will hold past Tuesday?

Several draft pieces of legislation worked on by DeSantis staff and obtained by news outlets revealed plans the governor left on the cutting room floor in past sessions. While its unclear whether his administration will pursue these ideas, they provide insight into his approach. Several shift the balance of power toward the governor.

As reported earlier by journalist Jason Garcia in his Seeking Rents newsletter, one piece of draft legislation would have broadly given DeSantis more control over state universities. One piece of the sweeping bill, for example, would have taken the authority to hire faculty from university presidents and rested it instead with the boards of trustees. Many of those members are appointed by DeSantis. The rest are appointed by a Board of Governors, largely put in place by the governor.

However, the state university landscape has shifted dramatically since that bill was drafted. Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse is going to lead the states flagship university, the University of Florida, adding a high-profile figure to the world of Florida higher education who will likely be part of the calculus of future policy changes.

Other draft bills published by Garcia would have broadened DeSantis authority to suspend school board members, school district superintendents and state attorneys.

Passidomo said she does not anticipate upcoming legislation to expand the authority of the governors office. Some insiders suggest that DeSantis had undermined the new Senate leader after he endorsed at least one candidate for state Senate who was running against the person she had backed.

I feel very strongly that we will have a partnership, Passidomo said. Im a very strong person  I have no problem expressing my opinion to the governor, and he actually listens.

In his second term, DeSantis will preside over the reddest version of Florida in recent memory. After the 2022 election, not a single Florida Democrat will hold statewide elected office for the first time since at least the start of the 20th century. The state will send more Republican members to Congress, and Tuesday night the GOP clinched supermajorities in the the state Legislature. There are about 300,000 more registered Republican voters in the state, which is a first after years of Democrats boasting larger numbers.

First Lady Casey DeSantis, the governors top adviser on both politics and policy, is expected to continue taking an extremely public role now that she is cancer-free  adding one more key person to his arsenal of backers and political surrogates.

Youre going to have a state Legislature that is going to be jam-packed with people that just watched DeSantis get reelected by a large margin, said Zeigler, of the Republican Party of Florida. They will dissect what he pursued  his style, the way he messaged and fought  and I think its going to empower them and officials at the local level ... to lead in the same style as the governor. And that is going to be transformational.

If DeSantis does challenge Trump for a 2024 presidential bid, it will test Republicans loyalties. But multiple surveys of Florida Republican voters have found that in both mens home state, DeSantis holds a lead over Trump as the preferred candidate.

You may not have another shot at the big prize ... so youve got to take your opportunity while its there, said Paulson, the political scientist. Thats the big question to me: Is he going to do what nobody has done so far? Is he going to challenge the king?

  

Were working hard to bring you the latest news on the elections in Florida. This effort takes a lot of resources to gather and update. If you havent already subscribed, please consider buying a print or digital subscription. Or click here to make a donation to the Tampa Bay Times Journalism Fund.
TSA agents recovered a gun stuffed inside a chicken.

The Transportation Security Administration says a traveler tried to sneak a handgun onto a flight  inside a chicken.

Agents seized the gun at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida on Sept. 27, TSA spokesperson Sari Koshetz said. The traveler was headed to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, the TSA said. TSA did not specify the gun's model.

The agency delivered news of the bizarre discovery on social media in a pun-filled Instagram post this week.

We hate to beak it to you here, but stuffing a firearm in your holiday bird for travel is just a baste of time, TSA wrote in its post. This idea wasnt even half-baked.

TSA agents recovered a gun stuffed inside a chicken.

The handgun was wrapped in a paper or plastic covering and stuffed inside a Kikiri Quirch brand baking hen.

Skipping the line: TSA PreCheck enrollment, in-person renewal price drops

The TSA used the incident to remind the public of its firearm policy.

Unloaded firearms are permitted aboard a flight if theyre declared checked in as luggage inside a hard-sided container that must completely secure the firearm from being accessed, according to the TSA.

It was unclear if the gun was loaded or if the traveler was charged with a crime. Koshetz told USA TODAY a criminal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security was ongoing.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida airport finds gun stuffed in chicken during TSA security check
A former middle school teacher at a state charter school in Beaufort County is facing additional felony sex abuse charges following his initial arrest earlier this year.

Timothy Sheaffer, 33, of Bluffton, was charged Monday with three second-degree counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, jail records show.

Police received a tip about Sheaffer in May from the Attorney Generals Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The alleged criminal activity took place prior to Sheaffers arrest in February, according to Maj. Angela Viens, a spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office.

This is Sheaffers fourth count of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, the first charge occurring in February, when police accused him of uploading child sex abuse imagery online following a months-long investigation by law enforcement. Sheaffer was released on a $20,000 personal recognizance bond.

According to arrest warrants obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, police have accused Sheaffer of distributing four sexually explicit videos of minors, all of whom were 12 years old or younger.

Sheaffer worked as a middle school social studies teacher at Bridges Preparatory School, a public charter school in Beaufort, beginning in 2015. Gary McCulloch, the schools chief executive officer, said Sheaffer had not been employed by the school since at least 2019.

The South Carolina Board of Education suspended Sheaffers teaching license in March, arguing that he may pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of students.

Second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor is a felony, defined in South Carolinas Code of Laws as creating and distributing child sexual abuse material.

Sheaffers former defense attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sheaffer was released Monday afternoon from the Beaufort County Detention Center on a $15,000 bond.

When we publish mugshots

The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette publishes police booking photos, or mugshots, in the following instances:

In situations where a public figure or someone in a position of public trust is arrested

In cases where there is an immediate and widespread threat to public safety

In cases where the arrested person is accused of a crime reporters have evidence to believe involved numerous, unknown victims

Reporters will avoid using mugshots as lead images for online articles in order to limit their circulation on social media, except in cases where the public is served by the immediate identification of the accused. Reporters and editors may use discretion in situations that dont meet the criteria outlined in this policy but still present a compelling reason to publish a mugshot.
An aerial file photo at Columbus Alternative High School, located at 2632 McGuffey Road.

A former Columbus Alternative High School teacher is now facing federal charges alleging that he methodically and systematically used hidden cameras to take tens of thousands of sexually explicit videos and videos of students at school.

Justin Foley, 47, of Delaware, Ohio, appeared at the U.S. District Courthouse in Columbus on Wednesday after a federal criminal complaint and warrant were issued for his arrest. He was employed as a chemistry teacher at Columbus Alternative High School at the time of his alleged offenses before resigning Oct. 5 after state charges were initially filed against him.

He is charged in federal court with sexually exploiting minors and distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography. Foley is accused of using his cellphone and other digital camera devices in a hidden manner to capture female genitalia under skirts and shorts.

Jennifer Adair, Columbus City school board president, told The Dispatch that the district is fully complying with law enforcement investigators and is encouraging those students who believe they might have been victimized to come forward.

Adair said the district does not tolerate the conduct Foley is charged with, and said it is offering social and emotional resources for students who may be impacted.

What he's being indicted for is very serious, and we know it has a direct impact on our students and staff who were there, Adair said.

Columbus City Schools is working with law enforcement during the investigation, and the district is asking staff and families to contact the Delaware Police Department with any helpful information, said district spokesperson Jacqueline Bryant.

Foley was initially arrested Sept. 20 by the Delaware Police Department after admitting to having more than 5,000 images and more than 160 videos of child pornography on his cellphone and other electronic devices, The Dispatch previously reported.

More: Bloom-Carroll athletic director arrested, charged with two counts of sexual battery of then-student athlete

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In August, Delaware police received CyberTip reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding numerous images of apparent child pornography that were uploaded via Google email accounts, according to federal court documents. The accounts were later traced to Foley.

Delaware police alleged that Foleys email accounts contained numerous upskirt and voyeuristic videos that appear to have been self-produced, including videos recorded at Columbus Alternative High School, at local department stores in central Ohio, in public areas of downtown Delaware, and in dressing rooms. The victims were not aware they were being recorded, police allege.

Investigators state that he had created some of these videos as recently as the week prior to his arrest, and that some of the sexually explicit content involved students at Columbus Alternative High School. Court documents state that Foley admitted to creating videos in the classroom and hallways of the school.

At least two Columbus Alternative High School students were identified in the sexually explicit photos and videos, one from 2018 and another from August and September 2022, according to court records. Foley would allegedly follow the girls and take videos, from which he produced dozens of lewd still images. Both victims were believed to be around 15 years old at the time.

Delaware County law enforcement officials executed a search warrant Sept 20 at Foleys residence in Delaware.

Foley was arrested and charged with violations of state law in Delaware County. His federal charges will supersede those charges.

Sexually exploiting a minor is a federal crime punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison if convicted. Conviction on a federal charge of distribution and receipt of child pornography is punishable by five to 20 years in prison.

After his arrest, Columbus City Schools' immediately suspended Foley, who had been with the district since 2013. The Columbus City School Board voted in September to begin the process of terminating him. Foley resigned the next day.

The district submitted an Educator Misconduct report with the Ohio Department of Education and "will provide ongoing support to ODE in their efforts to address Mr. Foley's licensure status and potential disciplinary action."

Justin Foleys wife, Jamie Foley, continues to work at Columbus Alternative High School, Bryant said.

Mrs. Foley is a well-respected teacher at Columbus Alternative High School, Bryant said. The district and the CAHS community support her.

Jamie Foley is the high schools English chair, according to the schools website.

Reporter Megan Henry contributed to this report.

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Alternative teacher now facing federal child porn charges
STEVENS POINT  The lawyer for a former Lincoln High School guidance counselor charged with the sexual assault of a student entered not guilty pleas for his client on Wednesday afternoon.

Christopher Bondioli, 52, of Wisconsin Rapids, faces two counts of child enticement, two counts of sexual assault of a student and one count of obstructing an officer. Portage County Circuit Judge Louis Molepske Jr. schedule Bondioli's next appearance for March 20.

Molepske denied a motion from defense attorney Michael Cohen to modify Bondioli's $5,000 cash bail to allow him to have supervised contact with the children of his siblings, plus the son of a non-family member. Wood County District Attorney Craig Lambert objected to the motion to change the conditions of the bail, which restricted Bondioli from having contact with any children other than his own. The nature of the charges against Bondioli shows a need to protect the children, Lambert said.

Molepske said he didn't have enough information about the children and who would be at the gatherings to make an exception to the original conditions set by Wood County Circuit Judge Nicholas Brazeau Jr. The places named in the motion are all over the state, not just in Wood County, Molepske said.

According to the criminal complaint, Bondioli met with a 16-year-old girl twice during Lincoln High School's Christmas break. Bondioli had the girl come to a home belonging to a relative in Wisconsin Rapids that was empty. Bondioli inappropriately touched the girl during the visit, according to the complaint.

About a week after the first contact, Bondioli had the girl meet him in a parking lot, according to the complaint. He picked her up at the parking lot and took her to the same empty home where he inappropriately touched her again, according to the compliant.

The 16-year-old girl told a friend about what happened and later told Bondioli she had told the friend. Bondioli called the friend to his office at Lincoln High School, asked what the 16-year-old had said and told the friend he trusted her not to say anything to anyone, according to the complaint.

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Bondioli admitted to the friend that he had kissed the 16-year-old girl, but he said nothing else happened, according to the complaint. The friend said she did not let Bondioli know the 16-year-old had talked about the inappropriate touching, according to the complaint.

The 16-year-old told a detective she had feelings for Bondioli and wanted to have a sexual relationship with him, but nothing happened, according to the complaint. When the detective showed the girl messages on a phone they had gotten from her friend, she admitted she had been at the home with Bondioli.

The 16-year-old girl said Bondioli had contacted her shortly before the Wisconsin Rapids Public School District started its investigation and told her to delete everything on her phone as well as the backups to the phone, according to the complaint. He met with the 16-year-old girl and her friend at the same relative's home and told them to "forget about it" and "act like nothing happened," according to the complaint.

The Wisconsin Rapids Public School District was made aware of the allegations against Bondioli in late January. The district immediately notified Wood County Human Services, who contacted police, according to the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department.

Bondioli was placed on administrative leave effective Jan. 25, and the Wisconsin Rapids School Board accepted his resignation Feb. 14.

State Reps. VanderMeer and Krug win another term in office in Tuesday's election

More:Wood County inspections: Three restaurants receive 5 or more violations

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Click to see the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune's special offers at wisconsinrapidstribune.com/subscribe and download our app on the App Store or Google Play.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Former LHS counselor pleads not guilty to sexual assault of a student
Reuters

A U.S. judge on Monday said Devin Nunes, the former California congressman and an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, can sue NBCUniversal for defamation over a comment by Rachel Maddow concerning his relationship with a suspected Russian agent. Without ruling on the merits, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan said Nunes "plausibly allege[d] actual malice" with respect to a statement from a March 2021 broadcast of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show."
Former Wichita police chief Gordon Ramsay is poised to become sheriff in St. Louis County, Minnesota.

Tuesday nights unofficial results show Ramsay with nearly 50 percent of the vote over Jason Lukovsky, the current St. Louis County undersheriff, who had 40 percent. The current sheriff, Ross Litman, was first elected in 2002 and endorsed Lukovsky to be his successor after deciding not to run again, The Duluth News Tribune reported.

The election results wont be finalized until a canvassing board approves the votes within 10 days of the election.

Ramsay came to Wichita in 2016 after serving as the chief in Duluth, Minnesota, for a decade. Duluth is Ramsays hometown and the St. Louis County seat. The St. Louis County Sheriffs Office is a little bigger than the Duluth Police Department. It is about 30% the size of the Wichita Police Department.

Ramsay resigned on March 1 to move back to Minnesota and run for sheriff.

Ramsay was known for helping diversify the Wichita department and connecting with minority communities. But his tenure in Wichita will be overshadowed by an episode in which members of the SWAT team sent racist, homophobic and extremist messages to each other.

Weeks after he left, The Eagle broke the news about the messages and how Wichita officers involved received little to no punishment. In the messages, officers associated with the Three Percenters militia group, were blase about shooting and beating people and sent a photoshopped image of a naked Black man sitting on the head of George Floyd.

The only officer originally suspended was one who called Ramsay a tool.

Multiple officers were suspended after the city reopened the case after public outcry following The Eagles story.

The News Tribune covered some of the details about the initial scandal but did not mention how a city report later blamed Ramsay and his executive staff for the light punishment. The papers editorial board later endorsed Ramsay, noting that after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent scrutiny on law enforcement, Ramsays style lof (sic) leadership best benefits the St. Louis County Sheriffs Office.

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Ramsay told the News Tribune that he reported the text message scandal to multiple people and agencies, including the city manager, the U.S. Attorneys Office and police Citizens Review Board.

City manager Robert Layton denies Ramsay did. And it wasnt reported to the Sedgwick County District Attorneys Office until after an Eagle reporter brought it up to then interim chief Lem Moore after Ramsay left.

Federal law requires that type of information be passed on to prosecutors to ensure people accused of a crime have a fair trial.
Voters on Tuesday enshrined in the Tennessee Constitution the prohibition of slavery and approved a constitutional amendment cementing a "right to work" law into the state's governing document.

Meanwhile, voters clarified a line of succession if a governor is temporarily unable to serve and removed the state's ban on clergy from serving in the legislature.

Four constitutional amendments were on the ballot, and all four secured passage under the state's two-part process for amending the state Constitution.

An amendment in Tennessee only passes if it receives more yes votes than no votes and if the total number of yes votes constitutes a majority  50% plus 1  of the vote total in the gubernatorial election. Roughly 1.74 million votes were cast in the governor's race, meaning the amendments needed about 870,000 votes for passage. Each constitutional amendment cleared that mark.

More:Republican Gov. Bill Lee wins reelection in Tennessee

Full results:Tennessee election results

The two high-profile constitutional amendments were Amendment 1 about the right to work law and Amendment 3 to replace language in the Tennessee Constitution about slavery.

Tonight is a historic night in Tennessee. For the first time since 1870, our constitution will no longer protect the institution of slavery, the Yes on 3 campaign said in a statement. A bipartisan effort years in the making, we could not be more proud of the citizens for agreeing that slavery has no place in our state.

Here are more about the amendments and results:

Amendment 1

The passage of Amendment 1 cements current legislation allowing employees to opt out of joining a union and paying the dues even if the workforce is unionized.

A right-to-work law already exists in Tennessee, but Republicans worried proposed federal legislation could render that obsolete. Working the law into Tennessees Constitution was a preemptive defense.

Tonight is a great night for Tennessee employees and employers, and for continued economic growth in our state, the Yes on 1 campaign said in a statement. Voters have firmly secured Tennessees right-to-work law in our state constitution to guarantee all Tennessee workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether or not to join a union in their workplace.

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Campaigns for and against the amendment elicited fervent and influential support.

Gov. Bill Lee, former Gov. Bill Haslam, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce president and other prominent elected Republicans served on the executive committee for the Yes on 1 campaign. One of its main slogans was Choice is on the Ballot.

The campaign fundraised $225,525 and spent $175,668, according to campaign finance reports for filing periods before Oct. 30.

The opposition, which Tennessees major unions backed, fundraised $42,738.

With a national surge in union membership, Amendment 1 quickly became the most debated constitutional amendment of the four. It was a dividing line in the gubernatorial race, with Lee supporting it to the point of drawing widespread criticism from Democrats who accused the governor of spreading falsehoods about unions. Lee's Democratic challenger, Dr. Jason Martin, opposed the measure.

Read more:Tennessee's Amendment 1 would add right-to-work to state's constitution, unions oppose it

Amendment 2

If Lee or any future governor is temporarily unable to perform his or her duties, the lieutenant governor will have clear direction to take charge.

That maneuver has been trickier due to a constitutional requirement about the Speaker of the Senate, which the lieutenant governor is. Under the previous language, the Speaker of the Senate would be required to resign his or her seat in the legislature if they assumed temporary duties of the governor. Now, they won't have to.

Read more:Amendment 2 would create a temporary line of succession if the governor is incapacitated

Amendment 3

The state Constitution will now read, Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited in this State. The line replaces a provision allowing slavery for people convicted of crimes.

"This is a ringing endorsement of freedom in our state. We have proven that this was not right or left, it was right or wrong. And we know tonight in Tennessee words still matter," the Yes on 3 campaign said in a statement.

The amendment had bipartisan support, including from Lee, former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, leading Democrats and many community leaders, clergy and leaders of religious denominations. Tennessees three Episcopal bishops endorsed the amendment in a historic joint statement, as did the states two United Methodist bishops.

The African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee helped with phone banking and canvassing.

At least on this matter in Tennessee, we came together on this issue, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said at an event for the Yes on 3 campaign Tuesday evening.

The Yes on 3 campaign fundraised $126,525 and spent $90.857, according to campaign finance reports for filing periods before Oct. 30.

This is one of the most important things we do this year, maybe this decade, maybe in many of our political careers, state Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville, said at a Tuesday evening event. Freeman was a co-chair of the Yes on 3 campaign and a co-sponsor on the joint resolution in the General Assembly that led to the constitutional amendment.

Republicans also chimed in. "It does my heart so good to see Tennessee come together and in a very bipartisan manner to do the right thing," state House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, said in a statement. "I am very grateful to be a small part of this."

Faison served on the advisory board for the Yes on 3 campaign.

Read more:'A matter of right and wrong': Amendment 3 to ban slavery from state constitution

Amendment 4

Clergy have served in the General Assembly for more than 40-plus years. But the Tennessee Constitution will now reflect that reality with the passage of Amendment 4, which repeals a ban on clergy serving in the legislature.

The measure is part of an effort to clean up unnecessary language in the state Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tennessees clergy ban was unconstitutional in a 1978 case involving the Rev. Paul McDaniel, a Chattanooga preacher who ran to be a delegate in a constitutional convention.

Read more:Removing an unenforced ban on clergy in legislature: Tennessee's Amendment 4

Reach Liam Adams at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Amendments 2022: Voters approve all four
Fox News

As Democrats currently seem to be outperforming expectations in their House election races, Fox News pundits reflected on the absolute disaster that saw voters fail to usher in a red wave, as some on the right had predicted.

A passionate Marc Thiessen slammed the Republican party for failing to make the red wave and urged it to do a really deep, introspective look in the mirror right now because this is an absolute disaster, while claiming the party needed to turn back.

We have the worst inflation in four decades, the worst collapse in real wages in 40 years, the worst crime wave since the 1990s, the worst border crisis in U.S. history, we have Joe Biden who is the least popular president since Harry Truman, since presidential polling happened, and there wasnt a red wave. That is a searing indictment on the Republican Party. That is a searing indictment of the message that we have been sending to the voters. They looked at all of that and looked at the Republican alternative and said, no thanks.

Thiessen said electing Republicans including Ron DeSantis and Brian Kemp, who have both already won re-election in their respective states of Florida and Georgia, were the path to the future, instead of radical candidates who ran far behind them have put the Republican Party in a terrible position and voters have indicted the Republican Party.

Fox News' Marc Thiessen: The midterm results are a searing indictment of the Republican Party ... The Republican Party needs to do a really deep introspection look in the mirror right now because this is an absolute disaster." pic.twitter.com/m4aOfLTjLG  The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2022

Also on Fox, commentator Brit Hume conceded defeat over the red wave.

I thought the political conditions were such that would suggest a red wave, Hume said, echoing Sen. Lindsey Grahams comments to NBC News earlier in the night. The polling said otherwise. And I was skeptical of the polling. The polling has held up pretty well tonight. They called these races close, one way or anothercertainly within the margin of error.

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Republicans were projected to pick up at least 20 seats in the House, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicting about 44.

Hume went on to suggest that, even if Republicans do win back the lower chamber of Congress, Democrats performances as a whole will be seen as a tailwind for President Joe Bidens potential re-election campaign.

The practical effect is [that if] Republicans get control of the House of Representatives, his legislative agenda cannot be the kind of legislative agenda he had for the last two years, Hume said. The political effect iswill this encourage him to run again? Hey, I came out unscathed. I dont look like the guy who dragged my party down to some terrible defeat. I am good to go.

Biden hasnt formally committed to running for a second term, though he is planning on doing so, according to Al Sharpton, who met with the president at the White House in September.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Now turning to a Senate race everybodys watching, Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz are in a tight race.

Fetterman has been reaching out to White non-college voters  but so far a majority of them in our Fox News Voter Analysis are choosing Oz.

Pennsylvania voters who are white and hold no college degree on who they support for the Senate.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2022: LIVE UPDATES

Fettermans supporters, on the other hand, are more enthusiastic about their candidate  51%.

Voter enthusiasm in the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race.

That is compared to only 40% who say they are enthusiastic for Oz.

Pennsylvania was one of the most contentious in 2020 and looks like it could be again  some poll closings have been pushed back and lawsuits already filed.

Pennsylvania voters on whether they're confident votes will be counted accurately.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: REPUBLICAN SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS DEFEATS CHRIS JONES

But a majority of voters so far say they're confident their votes will be counted accurately  7 in 10 are optimistic while less than a third are not.

Turning back to our national results, an unsettling find is that nearly 6 in 10 think life for the next generation of Americans will be worse than life today.

Voters assess whether life will be better or worse for the next generation.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Thats a gloomy electorate for incumbents.

More on the Fox News Voter Analysis to come  stick with Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital for updates.
Some 5,500 French troops were deployed at the height of the jihadist insurgency

President Emmanuel Macron has formally ended France's decade-long operation to fight Islamist insurgents in the Sahel.

In a major speech at a naval base in Toulon, he said some French troops would remain in the region.

However, they would be there under new arrangements to be worked out with host countries.

At its high point, Operation Barkhane saw some 5,500 French soldiers deployed in Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

The announcement also represents a major shift in French strategic priorities, brought on by the war in Ukraine and changing perceptions of the most important threats facing the country.

In its new National Strategic Review, published to coincide with Mr Macron's speech, the defence ministry describes a "fracturing of the world order" that requires new military responses.

"This new context calls into question the current model of the French army, which was conceived in a principally expeditionary logic," it says.

"The new model for 2030 must equip France with the capacities to confront an eventual return to high-intensity inter-state conflict, and the hybrid strategies deployed by our rivals."

While maintaining the central pillars of a nuclear deterrent and flexible conventional forces, the strategic review calls for new efforts to boost national resilience and preparedness for a shift to a war economy.

It also states that "influence" should be established as one of the key functions of the armed forces - this in recognition of the growing importance of social media in furthering or hindering national interests.

The failure of Operation Barkhane has been in large part attributed to the worsening image of France in the region of the Sahel, following disinformation campaigns believed to be financed by Russia.

The recent coup in Burkina Faso - when anti-French protesters were filmed waving Russian flags - was seen as a classic example.

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President Macron announced the withdrawal in a speech at a naval base in Toulon

"When France is there, it is accused of interference. When it is not there, it is accused of abandonment. Whatever it does, France is wrong," the veteran Africa reporter Patrick Robert wrote recently in Le Figaro.

Despite some achievements, the Barkhane campaign was effectively on hold since the 2020 coup in Mali which brought to power a military government hostile to the French presence.

In February, the French army announced its withdrawal from Mali, and the last French troops left the town of Gao on August 15.

Some 3,000 troops are now expected to remain in Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso - but they will not act independently, only in co-ordinated actions with national armies.

Significantly, this continuing deployment will have no official name, indicating that it is no longer an "external operation" as Barkhane was.

Analysts said France had little choice but to acknowledge the failure of Barkhane after the junta in Mali abruptly terminated relations.

"The initial aim was to stop the spread of jihadism in the Sahel and to forge a strong partnership with the Malian army," said Elie Tenenbaum, defence specialist at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI)

"Today that strategic partnership is in tatters while jihadism extends itself ever wider in the region and roots itself more deeply in society."

In his speech, Mr Macron repeated his call for European strategic autonomy , but said France would remain an "exemplary" member of Nato. He called for enhanced military co-operation with the UK and announced that a summit with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would take place in the first months of next year.

The new strategic review also clearly designates China as an adversary of Western powers.

"The aim of the Chinese Communist Party is to supplant the US as the primary world power. Judging American power and the Western model to be in decline, the Chinese regime believes that western leadership of the international order is fragile and that [China] can weaken it still further by using its new influence," it says.
By Angelo Amante and Elizabeth Pineau

ROME/PARIS (Reuters) -France on Wednesday criticised Italy's refusal to let a charity ship carrying over 200 migrants dock in its ports, as the two countries disagreed on where they should disembark.

The Ocean Viking vessel has been at sea for more than two weeks since its first rescue in the central Mediterranean and it said on Tuesday it would now head to France, hoping to find a berth there after Italy refused access to its ports.

Also on Tuesday, Italy's new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "appreciation" for what she called "France's decision" to share responsibility for the migrants and open its ports to the ship.

France, however, said that while talks were ongoing no such decision has been taken, and urged Italy to allow the boat to dock in one of its ports.

"The boat is currently in Italian territorial waters. European rules are very clear ... this boat is destined to be welcomed in Italy," government spokesperson Olivier Veran told franceinfo radio in the morning, saying Italy's attitude was "unacceptable."

A member of Meloni's staff later quoted her as telling her Brothers of Italy party lawmakers that Rome was right in blocking the ship at sea.

"The Italian government is complying with all international conventions," Meloni said, adding that Italy's refusal was justified by the fact that "these are not shipwrecked persons but migrants".

The European Commission later waded into the dispute, calling for the "immediate disembarkation at the nearest place of safety", of all those aboard the Ocean Viking. At present, the boat remains closer to Italy than to France.

A source at SOS Mediterranee, the charity group operating the Ocean Viking, said they were planning to reach the French island of Corsica on Thursday and they were ready to head to Marseille if they were not allowed to disembark there.

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Local authorities in both Corsica and Marseille said they were willing to welcome the boat - but that would also require the green light from national authorities. It was not yet clear where the ship would eventually dock.

"It could still happen in Italy since the ship will pass Sardinia on its way to France," SOS Mediterranee chief Sophie Beau told BFM TV.

A total of four charity ships carrying around 1,000 migrants had been stuck off Italy in recent days, with the government urging flag states Germany and Norway to take charge of them.

Two of the boats disembarked on Tuesday in the city of Catania, in Sicily, after the government initially allowed ashore only those it said were vulnerable. A third smaller vessel was allowed to dock in the southern port of Reggio Calabria.

Meloni appeared to criticize the health authorities' decision to let all these migrants disembark, calling it "bizarre".

Italy has seen a sharp increase in migrant landings this year, with almost 88,700 people arriving so far in 2022, compared with 56,500 in the same period last year. Around 15% were picked up by charity vessels.

(Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini, Myriam Rivet and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Angelo Amante and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Crispian Balmer)
Loved ones in the U.S. are mourning three Americans who were found dead in a vacation rental in Mexico City  but theyre also searching for answers.

The U.S. Department of State has confirmed the deaths of three U.S. citizens in Mexico and said it is closely monitoring local authorities investigation into the cause of death, the agency said in a statement sent to McClatchy News.

Jordan Marshall, Kandace Florence and Courtez Hall, had traveled to Mexico together to celebrate Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, WAVY reported. The holiday is celebrated across Mexico on Nov. 1 and 2 to honor the memory of dead loved ones.

Halls mother told WDSU she received a call from the U.S. Embassy on Oct. 31 informing her that her son had been found dead along with two other people inside a vacation rental in Mexico City.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico has not responded to requests for comment from McClatchy News.

Marshall and Hall both worked as teachers in New Orleans, and Florence and Marshall knew each other from attending high school together in Virginia Beach, WAVY reported.

Florence also owned a candle shop called Glo Through It in Virginia Beach, according to the companys website.





The website describes Florence as a passionate environmentalist who loved to create products aimed at wellness and self-care.

Through candle making, Kandace realized how passionate she was about promoting self-care, the website says. She created a variety of meaningful products people would want use everyday, not just on difficult days.

A friend wrote on Facebook that Florence had accomplished many great things since launching her brand.

You were featured in many articles and magazines, traveled the world, and prioritized becoming a better version of yourself, Lindsey Clevenger wrote. I always knew you were going to do great things in life. You were fearless and didnt let anything stand in your way.

A friend of both Marshalls and Florences wrote on Facebook that their deaths felt unreal.

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The world lost (two) of the most sweetest, courageous, adventurous, kindest, warm-hearted, genuine people, Tink Nicole wrote. Their smiles alone could light up any room.





A former teacher of Marshalls wrote she was thankful to have taught him in the third grade on a website for his funeral service.





I know how close your family is and how much he is loved, Queen Tanner wrote. I will always remember what a gifted student he was.

Family members of Marshall, Florence and Hall could not be reached for comment on Nov. 8.

The principal of the middle school where Hall worked as a seventh grade history teacher in New Orleans said counselors were being made available for students and staff.

This was Mr. Halls first year teaching at KIPP Morial Middle School, and he quickly made a meaningful impact on our students, the statement says. He was a bright light that helped our students shine in and out of the classroom. Our school community is heartbroken, and his family has our deepest sympathy, prayers, and condolences.

Family members told WAVY they were having trouble getting answers about the deaths of their relatives. Marshalls mother told the outlet she had to wait hours at a Mexico City police station for a translator to show up.

A friend of Halls wrote on Facebook that in addition to the pain of losing her friend, she is struggling with the lack of information surrounding his death.





The fact that his mom is having a hard time receiving any info on what happened to him and getting his remains back home for a proper burial hurts the most! Chelsea Daisy Jackson wrote on Facebook. Such a great man. He put out so much good energy in the world. (I dont know) why him of all people.

Beloved teacher found dead on trip to Mexico, Louisiana family says. Beautiful soul

Teacher is found alive in New Orleans after going missing in Texas, reports say

Unexpected death of senior band captain devastates SC high school. A loving child
Community organizer Maxwell Frost won his Florida race for Congress on Tuesday, NBC News projected, making him the first member of Generation Z to reach the House of Representatives.

Frost, 25, beat Republican Calvin Wimbish, a retired 72-year-old Army Green Beret, to take the Orlando-based 10th Congressional District seat now held by Democrat Val Demings.

Central Florida my name is Maxwell Alejandro Frost and Im going to be the first Generation Z member of the United States Congress!" Frost told cheering supporters in Orlando Tuesday night.

Frost will stand out among his soon-to-be peers in the halls of Congress where the average age of House members is 58. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 82, while GOP leader Kevin McCarthy will be 58 three weeks after the 118th Congress gavels into session. (Gen Z generally refers to those born in the late 1990s to the early 2010s.)

Members of the House must be at least 25. The minimum age to serve in the U.S. Senate is 30 and a president must be at least 35.

The young Democrat worked as the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, an anti-gun violence group that emerged from the Parkland massacre, and has made gun violence a focal point of his campaign.

Frost picked up endorsements from prevention groups like Brady: United Against Gun Violence and Giffords, as well as gun control activist Fred Guttenberg, one of the most high-profile parent activists to emerge from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre on Feb. 14, 2018, when his 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was gunned down.

Frost said he knew fighting gun violence was going to be his calling at age 15, when 20 children and six adults were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012.

"I started to organize at 15 because I didnt want to get shot at my school," Frost told supporters Tuesday night.

"People are yearning for bold champions who believe in the bold transformational change that we need, that every single person in Central Florida and across the whole state and across this nation deserve, by virtue of being a human.

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Frost was heavily favored to win the deep blue district. With 72% of votes counted, he led Wimbish 58.8% to 39.7%.

Another Gen Z congressional candidate, 25-year-old Republican Karoline Leavitt, challenged Democratic incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, but will lose that race NBC News projects. Leavitt conceded the race in a call to Pappas and in remarks to supporters late Tuesday.

"I have but nothing but respect for her and the campaign that she ran," Pappas told supporters in Manchester. "And we should all be grateful for those who step up to run for office."

Leavitt told her supporters that this "is not the outcome that we wanted" but thanked the "thousands of people showed up to vote for team Karoline today."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Russia has already lost almost 80,000 of its soldiers in Ukraine

The General Staff said that in total, the invaders have lost over 17,000 units of military equipment, including:

Tanks: 2,801 (+15)

Armored combat vehicles: 5,666 (+12)

Artillery systems: 1,802 (+11)

Multiple launch rocket systems: 393 (+2)

Air defense systems: 205 (+2)

Warplanes: 278 (+1)

Helicopters: 260 (+0)

UAVs (at the tactical operational level): 1,483 (+7)

Cruise missiles: 399 (+0)

Warships/boats: 16 (+0)

Motor vehicles and fuel tankers: 4,227 (+11)

Special equipment, units: 159 (+2)

Russia attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24. Nov. 4 is the 259th day of the full-scale invasion. The Russian invasion forces initially tried to attack from the north, east and south, attacking civilian areas with artillery and aircraft. Russia continues to strike civilian objects across Ukraine.

The Kremlin has changed the goals of the war several times already.

Read also: Russian military failures will force Putin to change war goals, says US intelligence

Only one oblast center, Kherson, has been occupied by the invaders, along with parts of Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv Oblasts.

The Ukrainian army is continuing its counter-offensive in the east and south of Ukraine, hitting Russian ammunition depots and personnel. Almost all of Kharkiv Oblast has been liberated.

Read also: Ukrainian army destroys range of enemy military equipment, ammo depot in past day

On Sept. 21 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin declared a "partial mobilization" in Russia, prompting hundreds of thousands of young Russian men to flee the country.

On Sept. 30, Russia falsely claimed it had annexed four Ukrainian oblasts even as successful Ukrainian counter-offensives were ongoing. The Kremlin arranged sham "accession referendums" in Ukrainian territory, and then published absurd, fraudulent results for them in an attempt to legitimize its occupation of Ukrainian territory.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Georgia authorities continued to search for two suspects Tuesday following an hours-long SWAT standoff in connection with a fatal shooting earlier in the day, the Hall County Sheriffs Department confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Christopher Dixon, 25, was shot once in the chest in a residential area of Gainesville, Georgia, at about 10:25 Tuesday morning and died of his wounds after being rushed to a hospital.

An hours-long SWAT standoff ensued at an apartment in the J Building of the Harrison Square complex where the suspects were believed to be barricaded, the sheriffs department said in a release.

The building was near where the shooting took place on Brown Street by Old Athens Road.

TEXAS TEENS SUSPECTED IN KILLING ELDERLY WOMAN IN HIT-AND-RUN CRASH

"Hall County Sheriffs Office SWAT was activated and secured the building to ensure the safety of local residents," the release said. "Team members eventually entered the unit where the pair were believed to be hiding, but they found no sign of the suspects."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

FLORIDA SUSPECTED SERIAL KILLER WHO CONFESSED TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD SAYS NO DOUBT' HE CHOKED VICTIM IN 1991

Sheriffs department investigators are following up on "viable leads" as they continue to search for the suspects.

The incident is believed to be isolated, the release said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

There is no suspect description.
A real estate developer has pleaded guilty to stealing over 50,000 bitcoin from the dark web marketplace Silk Road about a decade ago.

On Monday, the Southern District of New York revealed in a statement that the Justice Department recovered $3.4 billion worth of the cryptocurrency last year from the alleged perpetrator, identified as James Zhong.

Court documents revealed that Zhong, 32, confessed on Friday to committing wire fraud in September 2012 after illegally obtaining the digital currency. At the time, a single bitcoin was worth approximately $13.50.

Federal agents found the bitcoin on devices concealed in an underground floor safe in Zhong's residence in Gainesville, Georgia, during a raid in November last year when the cryptocurrency was worth $68,000 per coin. The digital money was reportedly stored on a single-board computer hidden inside a popcorn tin and tucked under blankets inside a bathroom closet.

More from NextShark: Couple violently attacks Indigenous Filipina nurse distributing face masks in New York subway

The recovered crypto is purportedly the second largest that the government has seized following the $3.6 billion recovered in February from a couple who reportedly hacked the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, attributed the operations success to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work, law enforcement.

"For almost ten years, the whereabouts of this massive chunk of missing bitcoin had ballooned into an over $3.3 billion mystery," Williams was quoted as saying.

More from NextShark: Overworked elephant rips Thai owner in half

Zhong, who is now facing a 20-year prison sentence, reportedly used nine anonymous accounts to trigger quick transactions on Silk Road to deceive its withdrawal-processing system into transferring bitcoin into his accounts.

Speaking on Zhongs behalf, lawyer Michael Bachner said Zhong is extremely remorseful for his conduct that occurred over 10 years ago when he was just 22 years old.

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Given the increase in bitcoin value over the past decade, the value of the bitcoin he returned exponentially exceeded the value of the bitcoin he took, Bachner said.

More from NextShark: Chinese University Textbook Calls Homosexuality 'Unnatural and a Psychological Disorder'

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Missing Japanese porn actor Rina Arano found dead, tied to a tree in Ibaraki forest
The Georgia Senate election between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is headed to a runoff, the Georgia Secretary of State's office confirmed to Fox News.

The runoff election will take place Dec. 6.

Walker, who won a Heisman Trophy and helped steer the University of Georgia to a college football national championship four decades ago, jumped into the GOP race to face off against Warnock in the summer of last year, after months of support and encouragement to run for the Senate by former President Donald Trump, his longtime friend. It is the former football star's first run for office.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2022: LIVE UPDATES

Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach, narrowly defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a 2021 special election and was running to serve a full six-year term.

Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker, left, and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock

Walker spent the past couple of months tying Warnock to President Biden  who remains very unpopular among Georgia voters  and blamed both for the record inflation plaguing the nation and for the rise in crime.

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Thanks to his legendary status among many in Georgia and his immense, favorable name recognition in the Peach State, Walker was the overwhelming front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination and basically ignored the field of lesser-known primary rivals, declining to take part in debates as he focused his campaign on Warnock.

Walker ended up trouncing his rivals in the May primary, but he quickly came under fire as the general election got underway.

Herschel Walker, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks at a campaign event in Hiram, Georgia, on Sunday.

Walker was heavily criticized both on the campaign trail and in ads over what Democrats call his numerous "bizarre or false statements."

A TV ad by Warnocks campaign that launched over the summer highlighted past comments by Walker saying that he had a "dry mist" that would "kill any COVID on your body."

Walker also took fire over numerous reports that he overinflated the success of his businesses and academic record.

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CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., waves after giving a speech at his election night party at Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday.

Even before he faced bombshell allegations in September and October that he reportedly paid for a girlfriends abortion 13 years ago  which he denied  Walker was forced to play defense regarding a number of other personal controversies, from the accusations of past abuse and threats against his first wife to acknowledging children he fathered out of wedlock that he had not previously publicly mentioned, despite having criticized absent fathers for decades.

Warnocks campaign repeatedly targeted Walker for what they charged was a "pattern of lies, disturbing behavior and positions prove he is not ready to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate."
The crucial Senate race in battleground Georgia is heading for a runoff between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Although some ballots remained to be counted and Warnock held a tiny lead, election officials said on Wednesday that neither candidate has a chance of getting more than 50% needed to win outright. Under Georgia law, failure to get a majority means the Senate race will go to a runoff four weeks later between the top two vote-getters on Dec. 6.

It is safe to say there will be a runoff, tweeted Gabriel Sterling, a deputy to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Warnock, who won his seat in a dramatic run-off last year, told supporters he was confident of winning the forthcoming runoff.

Whether we need to work all night, through tomorrow, or for four more weeks, we will do what we need to and bring this home, he tweeted.

Walker countered that hes already beaten expectations, and will do so again. Something good, it takes a while to get better, he told supporters early Wednesday.

The biggest single advantage for Warnock is that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp won reelection with more than 50% of the vote and will not be on the ballot in the runoff.

The national political climate also appears to hand a major advantage to Warnock, with Republicans in disarray from coast to coast after underperforming expectations in the midterms.

The prospect of former President Donald Trump announcing a 2024 White House run in the coming days is likely to cause a big headache for Walker.

A runoff campaign would be a four-week blitz that, depending on the outcomes in other Senate contests, could reprise the 2020 election cycle, when two Senate runoffs in Georgia doubled as a national winner-take-all battle for Senate control. Victories from Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., left the chamber divided 50-50 between the two major parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats the tie-breaking vote.

A runoff would mean another month of Warnock hammering Walker, who is making his first bid for public office, as unqualified and Walker assailing Warnock as a rubber-stamp for the White House.

Raphael Warnock votes with Joe Biden 96% of the time, Walker has told voters again and again. Hes forgotten about the people of Georgia.
The race for U.S. Senate in Georgia is headed to a runoff after both Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker failed to capture 50 percent of the vote, Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday.

Warnock leads Walker 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent  or 35,000 votes  with 98 percent of the vote counted. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, notched 2.1 percent of the vote. State law requires a candidate to break the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff.

The runoff election will be held on December 6.

Three key races in Georgia, Nevada and Arizona will now determine control of the upper chamber. If Republican Adam Laxalt holds on to his slight lead over incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and Republican Blake Masters is unable to overcome incumbent Democrat Mark Kellys existing lead in Arizona, control of the upper chamber will come down to Georgia.

It would be the second time in two years that control of the Senate comes down to a Georgia runoff  in 2020, two runoff races in the Peach State gave Democrats control of the upper chamber.

Democrats appear to have taken three other key Senate races, in Colorado, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Republicans have won Senate races in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Ohio, according to projections. Republicans held 49 Senate seats as of Wednesday afternoon, while Democrats held 48 seats.

The tight race in Georgia comes after Trump-backed Walker was hit with an October surprise when the Daily Beast broke the news that a woman, who was later reported to be the mother of one of Walkers children, said Walker paid her to abort a child theyd conceived in 2009. The woman, who has not been named publicly, said Walker again pushed her to get an abortion in 2011 when she became pregnant. She refused and the pair broke up soon after, the New York Times reported.

For his part, Walker has denied the allegation, calling it a flat-out lie.

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Warnocks campaign was not without controversy either. The Washington Free Beacon reported last month that the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock serves as pastor, threatened to evict low-income tenants from a building it owned during the pandemic for failing to pay small amounts of overdue rent.

Meanwhile in Georgia, Republican incumbent Governor Brian Kemp handily defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams, sailing to reelection. Some pundits had suggested Abrams poor performance threatened to drag Warnock down.

More from National Review
Germany on Wednesday blocked the sale of two chipmakers to Chinese investors because of a potential threat to security.

"We must look very closely at company takeovers when it relates to important infrastructure or when there is a danger that the technology would flow to buyers from non-EU countries," said Economy Minister Robert Habeck.

Chinese company Sai MicroElectronics had been seeking to buy the Dortmund factory of Elmos through its Swedish subsidiary Silex.

The German government had rejected the planned takeover because "the purchase could endanger the order and security of Germany," said the economy ministry.

Other ways of reducing the risks, including allowing the acquisition under certain conditions, were "unable to eliminate the identified dangers", it added.

A second acquisition had been turned down, Habeck said, without naming the companies involved because of "trade secrets".

But Germany's minister for research Bettina Stark-Watzinger named the company as Bavaria-based ERS Electronic, which supplies a cooling technology to wafer manufacturers.

Fears have been growing in Europe's economic powerhouse about an over-reliance on Beijing, and letting critical infrastructure fall into the hands of Chinese state-linked companies.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its subsequent dwindling of crucial gas supplies to Europe has further accentuated the concerns.

In particular, the microchip industry has come under scrutiny, as it produces key components used across industry from consumer electronics to battery-powered vehicles.

Earlier this year, the European Union unveiled a multibillion euro "Chips Act" aimed at doubling Europe's market share in semiconductors and reducing dependence on supplies from Asia.

- 'Not naive' -

Elmos, which primarily builds components for the automobile industry, said late last year it intended to sell the production facility at its headquarters.

Silex was seeking to buy the site for 85 million euros ($85.4 million).

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But business weekly Wirtschaftswoche said Elmos had been the recipient of 5.9 million euros from the German state for two research projects. It had also received 8.1 million euros from an EU project on autonomous driving.

Habeck said that Germany remained open to investors, but that "we are also not naive".

Beijing has been trying to glean knowledge about production and development, underlined the minister, saying that the "statements from China are very clear".

Habeck, of the ecologist Greens party, has recently locked horns with Chancellor Olaf Scholz over investments from China.

He deeply opposed a plan by Chinese shipping firm Cosco to buy a stake in a Hamburg port terminal, forcing Scholz to pull rank to force through the deal by allowing the purchase of a reduced stake.

Scholz has repeatedly underlined the importance of strong trade ties with Beijing, something that German industry leaders have also stressed.

China is a major market for German goods, particularly for auto giants Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and many jobs in Europe's top economy depend directly on the relationship.

On a controversial visit to Beijing last week, Scholz, accompanied by a delegation of German business bosses, told Chinese leaders that Berlin expected equal treatment on trade.

But Scholz's trip has sparked controversy for coming so soon after Xi Jinping strengthened his hold on power in China last month.

With tensions between the West and Beijing running high on issues ranging from Taiwan to alleged human rights abuses, there had been concerns that the high-profile trip may have unsettled both the United States and the European Union.

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Tiffany Trump is engaged to Michael Boulos, the son of owners of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate based in Nigeria. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Taoray Wang

President Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany is marrying Michael Boulos on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Georgetown Law alum has kept a lower profile than Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr.

She drew criticism in March 2019 for taking a trip to Serbia that cost taxpayers at least $23,000.

President Donald Trump's family made up some of the top members of his administration and frequently voice their opinions to an eager media.

It's not uncommon to see Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr. flash across your TV screen or splashed across the pages of international newspapers. But Tiffany Trump, 29, whose mother is Marla Maples, has kept a lower profile than her older half-siblings.

Here's a look at the life of the former president's most elusive adult child, who will wed her business executive fiance, Michael Boulos, at Mar-a-Lago this weekend, where more than 500 guests are expected.

Tiffany Ariana Trump was born on October 13, 1993, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Marla Maples and Donald Trump with newborn Tiffany in 1993. Hans Deryk/AP

New parents Marla Maples and Donald Trump greeted the press with their newborn daughter as they left St. Mary's Hospital.

She was the first and only child of Donald Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples.

Donald Trump, Marla Maples, Tiffany Trump appearing on 'Primetime Live.' Brent Peterson /ABC via Getty Images

She was named after the Tiffany & Co. jewelry store in Manhattan at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, adjacent to Trump Tower.

Tiffany spent much of her early childhood in New York, where the majority of her father's real estate empire was based.

Donald Trump and Marla Maples with Tiffany Trump at a fashion show in 1995. Catherine McGann/Getty Images

She was a regular fixture in high society circles as she accompanied her famous parents to glamorous events, like New York Fashion Week.

Tiffany was often pictured alongside Trump's three children from his previous marriage to Ivana Trump: Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka.

Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Tiffany Trump, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump, and Marla Maples at the Trump Tower in New York City. Ron Galella/WireImage

In adulthood, she has kept a lower profile than her siblings.

Read more: THE TRUMP 5: Meet the offspring of President Donald Trump

Tiffany spent her childhood between her family's New York and Florida properties.

With the help of her mother, Tiffany Trump blows out the candles on her "Titanic" cake during her fifth birthday party at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1998. Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images

For her fifth birthday, she took over part of the Trump Mar-a-Lago resort for a "Titanic"-themed party.

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After Trump and Maples divorced in 1999, Maples moved with her daughter to Los Angeles where she said she raised Tiffany as a single mother across the country from her father.

Donald Trump and Marla Maples with their daughter Tiffany in a club Car golf cart on the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida. Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

Trump and Maples finalized their divorce in 1999  just after Trump and Melania Knauss first crossed paths  but they'd been separated since 1997.

While living with her mother in California, Tiffany attended the Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California.

Tiffany Trump and Marla Maples in 2004. Mark Sullivan/WireImage/Getty Images

The kindergarten-through-12th-grade school charges upwards of $36,000 for yearly tuition.

Though she was based in Los Angeles, Tiffany regularly visited New York to see her father.

Donald Trump, girlfriend Melania Knauss, and Trump's 7-year-old daughter Tiffany watch the New York Mets play the Boston Red Sox at Shea Stadium. Howard Earl Simmons/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

At age 7, she was photographed at a Mets game with Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss.

As Tiffany became a teenager, she made more public appearances, usually alongside her father.

Donald Trump and his daughter Tiffany with actress Hayden Panettiere in 2008 in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/AP

She attended an event introducing Trump Tower Dubai in Los Angeles in 2008.

In 2011, Tiffany released a pop-electronic single called "Like a Bird."

Tiffany Trump's single "Like a Bird." Amazon

She told Oprah Winfrey at the time that though she was focused on college, "we'll see in a couple of years if I actually do want to take it to the next level, to a professional level."

After graduating high school in 2012, she made the move back to the East Coast to attend her father's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

University of Pennsylvania. f11photo/Shutterstock

She double majored in sociology and urban studies.

Her older half-sister Ivanka, who had years of success with her own fashion label, helped Tiffany score an internship at Vogue in the summer of 2011.

US Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour in 2012. Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters

While interning at Vogue, Tiffany reportedly had lunch with legendary Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

Tiffany gradually became a socialite in her own right after appearing at fashion and art events around New York City.

Tiffany Trump at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in 2014 in New York City. Bennett Raglin/WireImage

She attended Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in 2014 in New York City.

Tiffany was considered part of a group of wealthy young socialites called the "Rich Kids of Instagram."

EJ Johnson and Tiffany Trump attend Heidi Klum's 14th Annual Halloween Party in 2013 in New York City. Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Heidi Klum

She was often pictured alongside Andrew Warren (son of a New York real-estate investor), Gaia Matisse (great-great-granddaughter of Henri Matisse), and EJ Johnson (son of Magic Johnson).

Though she was still a college student, Tiffany was noticeably on-hand for some early appearances ahead of Trump's presidential bid.

Trump's children sit down for an interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters in a special edition of 20/20. Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images

She sat down for a 2015 interview with Barbara Walters along with Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr.

The future first daughter's profile was also rising on social media, where she posted images from glamorous vacations and scenes from her life on campus.

An Instagram post from Tiffany Trump. @TiffanyTrump Instagram

At the time, she had around 150,000 followers. She now has more than 1.3 million followers.

Tiffany made a splash with an unexpected speech at the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Tiffany Trump speaks from the podium at the 2016 RNC. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

She painted a glowing picture of her father, saying, "He's always helped me be the best version of myself."

As the campaign waged on, Tiffany was often present for big family appearances after her May 2016 graduation.

Tiffany Trump with Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Donald Jr. and Ivanka emerged as the siblings with the biggest formal roles on Team Trump.

An October 2016 "Saturday Night Live" sketch poked fun at Tiffany's less formalized role in the campaign.

Vanessa Bayer as Tiffany Trump during the "Melanianade" sketch on October 15, 2016. Ralph Bavaro/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

"SNL" cast member Vanessa Bayer, playing Tiffany, sang that she "killed that convention speech, no lie, but I'll never be Ivanka in your eye."

Tiffany began a new venture after the election, starting law school at Georgetown University in the fall of 2017.

Tiffany Trump in 2017. John Moore/Getty Images

She had also been spotted visiting Columbia, Harvard, and New York University.

Tiffany kept up with occasional social appearances during her studies.

Tiffany Trump at the Taoray Wang fashion show during New York Fashion Week in September 2017. Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images For NYFW: The Shows

She attended New York Fashion Week in her first few weeks of classes in September 2017.

She also joined her siblings at official appearances.

The Trump children at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House in November 2018. Andrew Harnik/AP

She attended the White House Christmas Tree lighting ceremony with Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Lara Trump in 2018.

Her close proximity to her father's administration in the public eye has sometimes put some of her suspected political beliefs under a microscope.

Andrew Warren and Tiffany Trump in 2014 in New York City. Desiree Navarro/WireImage

After President Trump's administration didn't acknowledge Pride Month for the second year in a row, some were surprised when Tiffany was pictured with her friend, fashion designer Andrew Warren, celebrating Pride in New York City in June 2018.

Tiffany turned heads when she wore white to the 2019 State of the Union, a statement color that's connected to women's suffrage.

Tiffany Trump ahead of the State of the Union address before members of Congress in February 2019 in Washington, DC. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Many lawmakers wore white after Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida, the chairwoman of the House Democratic Women's Working Group, invited attendees to wear white in honor of the women's suffrage movement.

Read more: Tiffany Trump wears white outfit to State of the Union address after Democrats encourage others to wear white in honor of women's suffrage

Tiffany's romantic relationship with Michael Boulos, the son of the owners of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate based in Nigeria, has also attracted interest.

Michael Boulos, Tiffany Trump, and Marla Maples during New York Fashion Week in February 2019 in New York City. Noam Galai/Getty Images for Taoray Wang

President Trump reportedly stated that parts of Africa were "s---hole countries" in 2018.

Tiffany's social life also came under scrutiny following reports that a March 2019 trip she took to Belgrade, Serbia, for 10 days cost taxpayers $23,000.

Tiffany Trump celebrates Easter in 2019. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

It piled on to the controversy around her father's many pricey trips to Florida.

Read more: Tiffany Trump's spring break trip to Serbia cost taxpayers at least $23,000

Some noticed that though the president publicly wished the US Navy a happy birthday, he didn't acknowledge Tiffany on her birthday in 2019.

President Donald Trump greets daughter Tiffany in 2016. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Sister Ivanka and sister-in-law Lara did post Instagram birthday tributes.

On January 19, 2021, one day before her father left office, Tiffany announced her engagement to Boulos on Instagram.

Tiffany Trump with Michael Boulos in November 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"It has been an honor to celebrate many milestones, historic occasions and create memories with my family here at the White House, none more special than my engagement to my amazing fiance Michael!" she captioned a photo of her and Boulos standing in the White House's West Colonnade. "Feeling blessed and excited for the next chapter!"

The couple is set to wed on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, where more than 500 guests are expected to attend.

While some may joke that Tiffany is the forgotten Trump, she has built her own star power over the years.

Tiffany Trump records her address to the Republican National Convention in August 2020 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

At 29, she has years to make a name for herself.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Georgia lieutenant governor candidate Burt Jones participates in a Republican primary debate on May 3, 2022, in Atlanta. (Photo: AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, Pool)

Georgia lieutenant governor candidate Burt Jones participates in a Republican primary debate on May 3, 2022, in Atlanta. (Photo: AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, Pool)

Burt Jones, a state senator who has spent two years spreading the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, is set to become Georgias lieutenant governor after his Democratic opponent conceded the race.

Jones, who faced Democrat Charlie Bailey, did not merely embrace lies about the 2020 election in Georgia. He was also part of the fake elector scheme meant to overturn the results of the contest, which President Joe Biden won.

While news outlets had not yet called the race as of Wednesday afternoon, Bailey conceded with Jones leading 51% to 46% and more than 95% of ballots counted. The Democrat said that there were not enough outstanding votes to drop Jones below the majority threshold and force a runoff.

Although we came up short, the fight to defend our Democracy must continue, Bailey said in a statement. The survival of our nation depends on it. I will never give up on that fight, and I will never give up on the fight to ensure every Georgian has an equal shot and an equal opportunity.

Georgia Republican voters largely rejected election deniers in the states May primaries, handing resounding victories to Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, all of whom played a role in thwarting Trumps attempts to undermine the states election, in heated GOP nominating races.

But Jones, who won Trumps endorsement, prevailed, making him one of nearly 300 election deniers who ultimately won GOP primaries this year.

He will now assume the states second most powerful elected position. In Georgia, the lieutenant governor also serves as the president of the state Senate.

Jones has continually cast doubt on Trumps 2020 defeat in Georgia, telling voters during one GOP primary event that the election could have been so simple to investigate and that he would restore confidence in our elections process if elected, Politico reported.

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He sought to avoid the issue during the general election battle with Bailey. But he also would not clearly state that Biden was legitimately elected during an interview with an Atlanta television station in October, saying only that hes the president right now.

Jones also argued that he did nothing wrong by participating in the fake electors scheme, saying that it was merely a procedural move that was based on legal challenges to the election that were ultimately dismissed.

In July, a Georgia judge halted Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis efforts to investigate Jones as part of a probe into efforts to contest the 2020 election results. But the wider fake electors scheme, which involved Georgia and several other swing states, is still the subject of an ongoing Justice Department investigation.

Bailey said he would now focus his efforts on helping Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) win a runoff race against former University of Georgia football star Herschel Walker.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
As the political world settled in for a long wait to know who will control Congress, Republicans began finger-pointing Wednesday about whether former President Donald Trump was to blame for their lackluster election night.

Republicans could still take control of both the House and the Senate, but their predictions of a massive red wave sweeping the country fell short as some major Trump-backed candidates, like Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, were defeated, while key races in Arizona and Nevada were still too close to call Wednesday.

The Georgia Senate race is headed to a December runoff, NBC News projects, making it increasingly likely that control of the upper chamber won't be decided until then.

"Now that its obvious the @gop should expel the Trump family from its future lexicon," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a Trump critic, tweeted Wednesday morning.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.  who cited candidate quality as a concern in August while downplaying expectations of Republicans' taking control of the Senate  was asked by reporters Wednesday how he felt about the state of the race.

I dont deal in feelings. The question is theyve got to count the votes and then well figure out where we are, McConnell said.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, told CNN that the rejection of so many of Trump's candidates shows that this is a time that Donald Trump is no doubt in the rearview mirror, and its time to move on with the party, its time to move on with candidate quality.

"I think it sends a message to the country, along with some other states, that this is truly a pivot point for the Republican Party," he said.

Georgia's governor and secretary of state  Republicans Trump had campaigned against during the primary for not backing his bid to overturn election results in 2020  both won re-election by comfortable margins. Trump's handpicked Senate candidate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, meanwhile, was trailing Sen. Raphael Warnock in a race that is headed for a runoff on Dec. 6.

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NBC News projects that Duncan, who did not seek re-election, is being succeeded by Burt Jones, a Trump-endorsed Republican state senator who acted as a fake elector in Georgia after the 2020 election.

Other Trump-picked candidates had big nights, as well, among them the author J.D. Vance, who defeated Democrat Tim Ryan in the Ohio Senate race Tuesday night.

J.D. Vance speaks during the Ohio Republican Party election night watch party (Paul Vernon / AFP via Getty Images)

Trump hosted an election night party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida that had been expected to be an opportunity for him to take credit for many of his endorsed candidates' scoring big victories. Instead, Trump gave a short, lackluster speech and then quietly watched the returns while eating dinner with a small group of close aides.

In an interview with NewsNation earlier Tuesday, Trump said he was responsible only for the party's successes, not its failures.

"I think if they win I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all, OK? But it will probably be just the opposite. When they win  Ill probably be given very little credit, even though in many cases I told people to run and they ran and they turned out to very good candidates," he said.

"If they do badly, theyll blame everything on me.

On social media, Trump maintained that the election had been a huge success for him.

174 wins and 9 losses, A GREAT EVENING, and the Fake News Media, together with their partner in crime, the Democrats, are doing everything possible to play it down. Amazing job by some really fantastic candidates! he wrote Tuesday night on Truth Social.

He took a slightly less triumphant tone Wednesday, writing: "While in certain ways yesterdays election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory  219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General  Who has ever done better than that?"

President Joe Biden said in an address from the White House that the predicted red wave "didn't happen" and that Election Day had been "a good day for democracy."

While "some good Democrats didn't win" and any lost seat is "painful," Biden said, overall voters "sent a clear and unmistakable message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to choose."

Democrats' surprisingly strong showing inspired some introspection at Fox News, the cable news behemoth best known for aggressively defending Trump and the Republican political agenda.

Marc Thiessen, a conservative political commentator, said on the network Tuesday night that the unexpectedly weak showing for several GOP candidates was an "absolute disaster," a searing indictment of the Republican Party and a searing indictment of the message that we have been sending to the voters.

Thiessen listed a group of Republican governors who were handily re-elected Tuesday, including Floridas Ron DeSantis, Ohios Mike DeWine, Georgias Brian Kemp and Texas Greg Abbott, describing described them as the path to the future for the party, in contrast to radical candidates who ran far behind them.

Meanwhile, Fox News website published an article about the criticism leveled at Trump over the GOPs middling performance headlined Trump blasted across media spectrum over Republicans midterms performance: 'Biggest loser tonight.' It quoted commentators from other news networks who questioned Trumps political judgment and electoral appeal.

The site also published a piece by Fox News contributor Liz Peek, an opinion columnist, declaring: The biggest winner of the midterm elections was without a doubt Governor Ron DeSantis, whose landslide victory in the state of Florida was breathtaking.

"The biggest loser? Donald Trump, whose handpicked loyalist candidates in a number of races struggled to beat vulnerable Democrats.

While several Republican candidates who denied or questioned the results of the 2020 election lost their races for positions that oversee, defend and certify elections in battleground states, one key Trump ally managed to hold on to his job Wednesday  NBC News projects that Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., defeated Democrat Mandela Barnes in a close race.

Another Trump ally, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., was trailing Democrat Adam Frisch by a small margin Wednesday morning.

A top Democratic congressman was ousted, as well. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the chairman of the House Democrats campaign arm, conceded Wednesday to state Assemblyman Mike Lawler.

Will Hurd, a former Republican congressman from Texas, tweeted: "Its the candidates, stupid.

"Americans have made it clear that candidates matter. Character matters. The way we treat those with whom we disagree matters," Hurd wrote.

"We need strong leaders with integrity that can tackle the challenges of the future and lift people up. We have some that won big last night, but we need a helluva lot more if we want to win moving forward."

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton credited her party's success to women who were motivated by the Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade, which had protected abortion rights nationwide.

It turns out women enjoy having human rights, and we vote, she tweeted Wednesday morning.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Republican Representative Mayra Flores of Texas, who is running for reelection, speaks at a campaign event on October 10, 2022 at the University Drafthouse in Mcallen, Texas. Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images

GOP Rep. Mayra Flores slammed voters for staying home after she lost a competitive House seat.

"DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!" she said on Twitter.

Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez defeated Flores in Texas' 34th Congressional District.

Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores wasted no time in ripping her voters after she lost a competitive House seat during Tuesday's midterm elections.

"The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home," Flores said on Twitter. "DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!"

Flores lost to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez on Tuesday in Texas' 34th Congressional District, which was a rare contest between two sitting members of Congress.

Earlier on Tuesday, Flores tweeted a picture that was photoshopped to show a red-colored wave and said "TODAY'S FORECAST," a show of confidence that Republicans were poised to win many of their elections.

But early election results show Democrats holding stronger than expected, picking up toss-up races and holding competitive districts.

Flores was born in 1986 in Burgos Tamaulipas, Mexico, and immigrated to the US at six years old, eventually making history when she became the first Mexican-born US House member after winning a special election in June.

Early Wednesday morning after the race was called against her, Flores thanked those who "invested" in her campaign.

"Thank you to every single person that put their love, sweat and tears into this community. They know who they are and I will always remain grateful to them," she said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the outcome of the Roseville City School District race. The top three candidates will take seats on the school board.

GOP-backed parental rights advocates saw mixed results in school board races all over the country on Tuesday after voters in more than two dozen states chose whom they want to represent them and make future decisions for kids.

USA TODAY tracked the influence of national conservative groups and parents' rights groups throughout the 2022 midterm election season, from political newcomers winning on race in mostly white districts to the organizations backing the candidates to their demands to remove social and racial justice curriculum and ban books from schools.

Hundreds of school board elections took place Tuesday, including races where candidates ran unopposed and others where entire conservative slates ran to replace liberal-leaning boards. School board races are largely nonpartisan, but in some places, conservative groups worked to influence races with small financial investments and messaging around parental rights.

USA TODAY looked at the results in more than a dozen races where two prominent conservative groups  The 1776 Project PAC and Moms for Liberty  worked to elect candidates who campaigned on opposition to lessons and books related to racial and social justice and in favor of parental rights.

Proud Boys have supported conservative school board candidates in Sarasota, Florida, sparking controversy.

How did they win?

The group of candidates found mixed success after a well-funded nationwide effort on the right to flip school board membership. It capitalized on parents' frustration with remote schooling and pandemic restrictions and evolved to oppose lessons on racial and social justice and content considered inappropriate or too mature for some students.

Many of the candidates in question ran in allied blocs in an effort to take the majority of seats on their communities' school boards.

The 1776 Project PAC, which raised $3.2 million through the end of October, poured money into school board races in about a dozen states.

Moms for Liberty, a national network of dozens of dark-money groups that do not have to disclose where they get their money, says it endorsed 270 candidates.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida endorsed dozens of school board candidates in his state, prompting smaller, right-leaning PACs to put money in those races.

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Republicans want to win school boards: They're winning in white counties by running on race.

School board races we're watching

Unofficial but complete tallies of votes in county elections offices show the following outcomes, as of 11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

Wins:

In Pinellas County, Florida, two candidates the 1776 Project PAC backed are leading their opponents, according to complete, unofficial returns. With all 286 precincts counted, Dawn Peters received 52.1% of the vote and Stephanie Meyer received 53% of the vote. There are seven seats on the board for Pinellas County Public Schools.

In Cape May County, New Jersey, three candidates backed by Moms for Liberty were leading over their opponents for seats on the nine-member Ocean City School District board, according to complete, unofficial returns.

In Carroll County, Maryland, three candidates backed by The 1776 Project PAC are leading their opponents, according to complete, unofficial returns. With all 50 precincts reporting, Tara Battalgia received 20.5% of the vote, Steve Whistler received 19.51% of the vote and James Miller received 17.9% of the vote. The top three vote-getters win spots on the school board in this case. There are five seats on the board in Carroll County Public Schools.

In America's suburbs: Elections are a fight for the soul of local school districts

Losses:

In Bentonville, Arkansas, a slate of five candidates doubly endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC and Moms for Liberty missed in their attempt to capture a majority on the seven-member board, according to complete, unofficial returns. With all 117 precincts counted, only one person with the groups' backing, Joel Dunning, had a clear lead over his opponent with 53% of the vote to Erron Smiths 47%.

In Cabarrus County, North Carolina, three candidates backed by Moms for Liberty are trailing their opponents, according to complete, unofficial returns. The top vote-getters among all candidates win seats on the board, but those with the Moms for Liberty endorsement won a share of votes that was far less than top vote getters.

In New Buffalo, Michigan, four candidates backed by the 1776 Project PAC running to take a majority on the seven-member board lost, according to complete, unofficial returns with all three precincts reporting.

In Texas, four candidates at Wylie Independent School District backed by The 1776 Project PAC were trailing their opponents.

Also in Texas, four candidates at Round Rock Independent School District backed by The 1776 Project PAC were trailing their opponents.

In Polk County, Florida, one candidate with support from the 1776 Project PAC and another nationwide PAC, American Principles Project, is behind her opponent, according to complete, unofficial returns. With all 172 precincts counted, incumbent Lisa Miller is leading newcomer Jill Sessions 55.6%-44.4%. One other Republican parental rights candidate, Rick Nolte, won a seat on the seven-member board in August.

Races still being decided

Also in Placer County, California, three Eureka Union School District candidates backed by Moms for Liberty were in a tight race Tuesday night.

One Roseville City School District candidate backed by Moms for Liberty was leading in his race for school board. As of Nov. 9, Jonathan Zachreson received 17.41% of the vote, landing him in third place, according to the Placer County Elections Office. The top three candidates will take seats on the school board.

"Were thrilled about all of the wins," said Tina Descovich, co-founder for Moms for Liberty, after learning about the leads in New Jersey and Florida on Tuesday evening.

Why it matters

In addition to influencing what can and cannot be taught in their school districts, the incoming school board members can make crucial decisions policies related to LGBTQ young people, how district money is spent and on hiring a district's superintendent.

And the groups that supported them have created a massive bench of candidates for Republicans to tap for future elections.

Want to know more about school board races? Here's what you missed.

Republicans want to win school boards: They're winning in white counties by running on race.

Follow the money: These PACS are funding 'parents' rights advocates' running for school board.

The education party: The GOP is strengthening its grip on education. Parents say Democrats are to blame.

Turning back the clock: Will fights over curriculum usher in new era of segregated schools?

American suburbs: Elections are a fight for the soul of local school districts

Great Resignation: Only 38% of school board members want to run for reelection.

Reach Erin Mansfield at emansfield@usatoday.com and Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republicans see mixed results in school board seats across the country
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP)  A detailed inventory of the top known sources of greenhouse gas emitters launched by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt on Wednesday found that the top 14 individual polluters are all gas and oil fields and their associated facilities, despite their emissions being significantly underreported.

The inventory was compiled by Climate TRACE, a coalition of researchers, data analysts and non-governmental organizations who use multiple open sources including satellite coverage, remote sensing and artificial intelligence to track who exactly is polluting, and how much.

Emissions stemming from oil and gas production were already estimated to be about double what was reported to the U.N. last year and new data on methane leaks and flaring suggests that emissions are likely three times higher than what was reported, Gore said. Methane is a greenhouse gas which is around 80 times more potent in the short term than carbon dioxide.

Gore said the data shows the extent of the "deep cut in greenhouse gas pollution we need to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.

Hailing the launch of the inventory, the U.N. Secretary General said the data was vital to address a problem in front of our eyes, but also hidden in plain sight.

We have huge emissions gaps, finance gaps, adaptation gaps. But those gaps cannot be effectively addressed without plugging the data gaps. After all, it is impossible to effectively manage and control what we cannot measure, Antonio Guterres said.

Some 56 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions were produced in 2021, and the U.S. Permian Basin was at the top of emitters with with more than 200 million tons, the data said. Russias Urengoyskoye gas field was second on the list with 152 million tons.

Saudi Arabia, which owns the giant energy company Aramco, produced 900 million tons of emissions from 252 oil and gas assets, the data showed. Egypt, the host of COP27, produces 383 million tons of emissions from 166 assets, with the countrys giant offshore Zohr gas field was the top polluter followed by the capital city of Cairo.

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The data showed that power plants were responsible for just over 100 billion tons of emissions, or 26%, followed by manufacturing with around 68 billion tons, or 17%. Fossil fuel operations were responsible for around 65 billion tons of emissions.

Speaking to the plenary, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the data a critical source of information that would help in fighting climate change.

The problem is even greater than we were led to believe and that means we must work even harder to accelerate the phase out of all fossil fuels, he said.

Addressing Climate TRACE, he said: You are making it more difficult to greenwash or -- to be more clear  to cheat.

Gavin McCormick, a co-founder of Climate TRACE, said they estimated greenhouse gas emissions of nearly all the largest emitters globally.

McCormick added that climate negotiators and others working to combat climate change have described the data as a game changer that can help them make better decisions and decarbonize faster.

The inventory was released as climate negotiators are convening in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt for two weeks to look for ways to implement global climate goals. The conference focuses on several prickly issues, including how to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost finance for poor countries struggling with the impacts of climate change.

Al Gore said the world could reduce emissions by 50% by the end of this decade, and reach net zero by 2050, with the help of now-available technologies.

We are capable of solving this crisis because once the world reaches true net-zero, temperatures will stop increasing in as little as three to five years, he said.

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Follow APs climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Pro-Trump online communities have reacted with dismay and disbelief to early results in Tuesday's US midterm elections, blaming voter fraud for the lack of a red wave.

Before many races had even been called, users in far-right Telegram channels and bulletin boards had begun accusing Democrats and establishment Republicans of fixing the race.

"These results are farcical," said one poster on The Donald, a successor to Reddit's banned TheDonald forum. "Theres no rhyme or reason. You dont get a blowout from counties in Florida and then magically cross state lines into 'highly competitive' territory in Georgia."

Another wrote: " If this doesn't turn out to be a horrible nightmare, it's going to be a real horrible nightmare. It's bothering more than 2020 ... can't help but think of it as the death bell for the empire, locked into its decline."

Meanwhile, Telegram users declared themselves "beyond disgusted", "done with voting", and ready for "civil war", with one concluding: "We got cheated and rolled and there's nothing we can do about it."

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in this week's elections, and claims spread by Donald Trump of suspicious activity in Arizona and Michigan remain unsubstantiated.

Most states have not yet finished counting their votes, and some races remain in the balance or too close to call.

Before polls closed, the mood among online Trump die-hards was jubilant. "The odds for the Republicans taking the House are 4999 to 100!!!" wrote a Telegram channel called The Patriot Voice, predicting a "red tsunami".

Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump social media influencer who played a key role in spreading false election fraud claims in 2020, told his Telegram followers: "PAINT IT RED. LEAVE EVERYTHING ON THE FIELD TODAY. NO STEP BACK. GIVE THEM MORE DEMOCRACY THAN THEY CAN HANDLE TODAY."

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Many people on The Donald and Mr Trump's social network Truth Social adopted Tuesday's "blood moon", in which a lunar eclipse appears to turn the moon blood-red, as a totem of Republican victory.

"I think we won," said one The Donald poster, attaching a screenshot of a New York Times article about how readers could "soothe election stress". Another posted a meme referencing The Washington Post's slogan "democracy dies in darkness", adding: "LIGHTS OUT B****ES!"

As Republicans romped to landslide results in Florida, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk declared: "The transformation is complete. RED STATE! Absolute collapse of the Democratic Party. Just the beginning." Mr Posobiec said: "We are looking at the possibility of a generational realignment."

The Pro-Trump analyst Election Wizard shared a video of "audible gasps" from pundits on MSNBC when they saw early returns from Miami-Dade county, which swung strongly towards the GOP. "We are witnessing the real time collapse of the Democrats in Florida," said a user on The Donald.

Donald Trump Jr joined in the celebrations, tweeting: "Bloodbath!!!"

Yet as other states' numbers began to flag, the tone turned sour. "They keep finding votes for Fetterf*** in rigged Pennsylvania," said one The Donald user, referring to Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman. "They are 100% about to steal Georgia for [Raphael] Warnock," said another.

One user was surprised by New York state governor Kathy Hochul's apparent victory, saying: "There is absolutely no fucking way in God's green earth [Kathy] Hochul has won.... the entire f***king map is red except like three counties."

County by county, most of New York's districts do indeed lean Republican, but nearly 43 per cent of the state's population live in deep blue New York City.

Similarly, followers of the Patriot Voice Telegram channel were aghast at the re-election of Gavin Newsom as governor of California, one of the most left-wing states in the union. His victory was called just two minutes after polls closed.

Bloodbath!!!  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 9, 2022

"The fraud in California is so bad. No one here in California likes him. We all hate him," said one. "Everyone I know didnt vote for that fricken loser! He stole the election just like he stole the re-call!" agreed another.

Many users blamed establishment Republicans for squandering the radical energy unleashed by Mr Trump.

"RNC/GOP, McConnell, McCarthy got the results they wanted," said one. "Tonight was all about splitting the party and strangling populism out of the party. And they accomplished it. Trump will run, but perhaps he should not after tonight."

Another said: "Trump gave the GOP a winning message since 2015. Instead of working with him, they have worked against him every step of the way. This election just further proved that with how they did more to stop the America First candidates than they did the radical Dems."
MIAMI  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis notched a quick election night win, NBC News projected Tuesday, a victory that could become a springboard for a White House run and put him on a collision course with former President Donald Trump.

DeSantis victory over former Rep. Charlie Crist  fueled by a massive cash advantage, political headwinds against Democrats like Crist and changing demographics in a reddening state  contrasted sharply with his election four years ago, when he won by less than half a percentage point.

Sen. Marco Rubio also cruised to victory Tuesday night, NBC News projected, securing his third term in a statewide Democratic collapse. He defeated Democratic Rep. Val Demings.

At DeSantis' victory speech, supporters chanted "two more years," signaling their support for a presidential run in 2024. The governor, however, appeared to remain focused on his win and the successful effort to turn Florida a deeper red.

"The people have delivered their verdict: Freedom is here to stay," he said. "Now, thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida we not only won this election; we have rewritten the political map."

As ballots continue to be tallied, DeSantis supporters and campaign insiders hoped he would win bragging rights by exceeding Jeb Bushs historic margin in 2002, when Bush secured re-election as governor by 12.8 percentage points. With 92% of the vote tally reported, DeSantis appeared to be well on his way with more than a 19-point edge over Crist.

Image: Republican gubernatorial candidate for Florida Ron DeSantis walks onstage during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Giorgio Viera / AFP - Getty Images)

DeSantis also might become the first Republican gubernatorial candidate since Bush to win Miami-Dade, the states largest county, which also has its largest Hispanic population and was once considered a Democratic bastion. With 8% of the vote yet to be counted, he led there by more than 11 points.

Crist congratulated DeSantis on his victory ass he spoke to supporters Tuesday night. He released a lengthy statement, as well, to thank Floridians for their support and emphasize his underdog status.

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Unfortunately, tonight did not turn out the way we hoped," he said. "We were the underdog from the minute I entered this race 18 months ago. I knew we would be outspent. I knew we would not have as many television ads. But you know me; I am an optimist. I love Florida."

The red wave under DeSantis appeared so big that, for the first time since Reconstruction, Florida is on pace to have no statewide elected Democrat, calling its swing-state status into further question.

The Legislature is controlled by the GOP, and all seven state Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republicans, four by DeSantis.

A big win in Florida is a huge proof point for DeSantis, a strong point for showcasing governing strength and electoral strength, said David Kochel, a veteran Republican campaign adviser who hails from first-caucus-in-the-nation Iowa. The fact DeSantis won by a hair in 2018 and now hes blowing away Democrats sends a message.

Trump, whos eying announcing a comeback bid for president this month, has been closely monitoring DeSantis, sometimes obsessively so, according to Republicans who have discussed the governor with the former president.

Ever since DeSantis star began to rise in the national Republican firmament in 2021, Trump has privately fumed about the upstart governor as a potential challenger, calling his prominence an act of disloyalty because his endorsement helped DeSantis win his 2018 GOP primary for governor.

Trump even complains that DeSantis ripped off the way he throws hats to the crowd at his rallies: Thats my technique! Its weird, said a Republican who didnt want to speak on the record to disclose private conversations with Trump.

In an interview with Fox News published on Election Day, Trump denied he was in a tiff with DeSantis and called him a fine guy but then said DeSantis would be making a mistake if he ran for president against him.

I would tell you things about him that wont be very flattering  I know more about him than anybody  other than, perhaps, his wife, Trump said, without elaborating.

When Trumps team announced a rally last Sunday in Miami, DeSantis campaign let it be known that the governor  who had skipped another Florida rally last year with Trump  wouldnt be attending, further annoying Trump, who called him Ron DeSanctimonious at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania.

Trump retooled his message over the weekend and, making sure to take credit for DeSantis 2018 win, announced in Miami that he was endorsing the governor.

More people heard Trump criticize DeSantis than endorse him, and it probably just helped Ron, because a lot of independents and even some Republicans want Trump to go away. So Trump is unwittingly making DeSantis the alternative, said a Republican who has good relations with both men.

Many nationwide polls show Trump ahead of DeSantis in hypothetical matchups, and Trump boasted that he got a bounce in the polls after the FBI executed a search warrant in August at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida as part of an investigation into whether he illegally took and kept sensitive U.S. documents.

Polling is more mixed in some states. A survey in the nations first primary state, New Hampshire, found the two statistically tied in a primary, but another survey found Trump with a lead. Some Florida polls have also shown DeSantis leading Trump in a one-on-one primary. A recent poll of swing state Georgia voters by the Republican firm Echelon Insights found Trump losing a hypothetical primary to DeSantis, 52% to 36%.

Trump is gearing up for multiple primary challengers; advisers say that could make his path to victory in a primary easier because the other candidates would divide the non-Trump vote in the Republican Party, which happened in 2016.

If youre Trump and you think this is a cakewalk, maybe numbers like this would give him pause, said Patrick Ruffini, an Echelon Insight pollster. DeSantis, and perhaps surprisingly so, is becoming a near-equal of Trump. Hes not an equal yet.

Under DeSantis, the Republican Party this year for the first time in Florida history had more registered voters than Democrats, a margin of 306,000. Before DeSantis election in 2018, Democrats had an advantage of 281,000 registered voters. Registered Democrats, however, had been losing the edge since their high-water mark, in 2008, when they outnumbered Republicans by nearly 658,000.

DeSantis rose to national prominence in late 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, when he reopened businesses and schools in defiance of expert opinion. DeSantis also banned mask mandates and vaccine passports, earning him negative mainstream media coverage but the adoration of conservatives, who began seeing him as a future presidential candidate. It also helped with fundraising.

DeSantis raised a record $196 million for his re-election, spent $130 million and still has $66 million left, according to the most-recent financial reports for his campaign and political committees.

The cycle of mounting criticism, rising Republican support and increased fundraising repeated itself when DeSantis took up legislation this year to ban schools from teaching young children about sexual orientation and gender identity, which led to a high-profile clash with Disney World. DeSantis also seized a weeks worth of saturation media coverage in September for flying Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, to protest Democratic immigration policies, leading to lawsuits and investigations.

DeSantis support remained strong in polls, however, even among Hispanic voters in Florida, a majority of whom said they approved of the Marthas Vineyard flights in a Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey conducted for Telemundo/LX News. The poll also showed DeSantis might win a majority of Hispanic voters in Florida, which no Republican governor has done in 20 years.

At the same time, national Democrats barely invested in Florida after Trump beat President Joe Biden in the state by 3.3 percentage points, a comparative landslide in a state where top elections had been decided by about a point for years. In 2018, a coalition of Democratically aligned groups spent $40 million in the state, but this year, it was closer to $1 million, according to the Florida Democratic Party, whose chairman, Manny Diaz, is considering resigning after Tuesdays loss, according to a confidant who was not authorized to speak on his behalf.

Crist struggled to raise funds and never got much traction in the polls. He has the unique distinction of having lost to the top three statewide officeholders: Sen. Marco Rubio in 2010, Scott in 2014 and now DeSantis.

But for all of the favorable trends, DeSantis still does not look ready to commit to a White House bid.

Meanwhile, Republican financiers like hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin are openly encouraging him to run for president.

DeSantis could convert his state political committee money into a federal super PAC to help boost a presidential campaign, and a source familiar with discussions in DeSantis political orbit said some advisers want him to roll the money over in December as a statement that hes keeping his White House options open.

The $66 million DeSantis has in the bank compares with about $70 million Trump had in his Save America committee in mid-October.

In the spring lawmaking session, the source said, legislators might change the states resign to run law to make it easier for DeSantis to run for president and remain governor  but only if he gives a signal. Under current law, DeSantis would have to leave the Governors Mansion once he qualified to run for president.

A spokeswoman for DeSantis declined to comment.

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser and vocal DeSantis critic, said DeSantis benefited Tuesday night from a favorable political environment and the devastation of Hurricane Ian last month, which allowed him to earn statewide free media coverage while Crist had no platform.

Still, Stone said, thats not enough to be president or beat Donald Trump.

Trump is going to annihilate Ron if he runs, Stone said, faulting DeSantis lone debate performance against Crist last month, when he looked stiff and uncomfortable.  He cant do that on the big stage with Trump.

At the debate, DeSantis pointedly refused to answer when he was asked whether he would serve out a full term as governor if he were re-elected.

Why not answer the question if youre not running for president? asked Tony Fabrizio, a pollster for Trump who also polled for DeSantis in his brief run for the Senate in 2016.

Fabrizio said that DeSantis should be proud of Tuesdays results but that Trump is better positioned to take credit for what unfolds throughout the country.

If we have a big night and we win the House and Senate, who do you think is going to get credit for that? Its Donald Trump, the leader of the party who helped all these candidates, Fabrizio said. In that event, Ron has a different set of issues he has to contend with if he wants to run against Trump.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Ron DeSantis was projected to win reelection Tuesday to a second term as Florida governor, checking off a necessary task prior to a possible run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

With 90 percent of precincts counted, DeSantis was leading Democratic nominee Charlie Crist, a former governor and, until two months ago, a congressman, by 1.5 million votes, or 20 percentage points.

DeSantis is widely expected to run for president in 2024, a goal he essentially confirmed during his debate with Crist three weeks ago when he declined to pledge that he would serve out a full second term as governor if he won.

That likely candidacy has already created friction with former President Donald Trump, who remains the de facto leader of the Republican Party despite his attempted coup to remain in office following his 2020 election loss. Trump is also expected to run again in 2024, at least in part to obtain the protection against criminal prosecution that the presidency affords.

Trump held a rally in Miami on Sunday, inviting Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who was also running for reelection, but not DeSantis  who was also the only statewide GOP candidate in Florida whom Trump did not endorse this year.

DeSantis, who began aggressively raising money for his unlimited-dollar political committee upon taking office in 2019, finishes his reelection campaign with $60 million left, which he can now use to further build up his name in early voting states on the presidential primary calendar.

DeSantis, who turned 44 last month, was a political novice in 2012 when he ran for Congress in a safe GOP district in the wealthy suburbs of Jacksonville. He quickly became a Fox News favorite, attacking the Barack Obama White House and Democrats generally and soon parlayed that into a run for governor in 2018.

In the Republican primary campaign, he had been running far behind Floridas agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam, the party establishment favorite who had served in the state legislature and Congress, when he sought out and received an endorsement from then-President Trump. That quickly lifted him into the lead, and he romped to the GOP nomination, although he then barely squeaked past Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum, even though Gillum was under FBI investigation for alleged corruption.

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DeSantis spent his first year in office governing as a mainstream Republican before turning back toward the Trumpist wing of the party when COVID-19 hit in early 2020. That approach, appealing to his base but actively antagonizing critics, had him polling just a few points ahead of Crist in September  until Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall at Fort Myers and gave DeSantis nonstop television exposure over the coming weeks. The storm and its aftermath gave him the chance to present himself as a relatively normal Republican leader doing a capable job just as many voters first started paying attention to the race.

In his election night victory speech, though, DeSantis was back to his base-pleasing self. Rather than reach out to Floridians who voted against him, DeSantis bragged about the fights he picks with those who disagree with him. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die, he said.

This was Crists second try as a Democrat to regain the job he held as a Republican from 2007 through 2011. He was the Democratic nominee in 2014, too, when he wound up losing to then-Gov. Rick Scott by 64,000 votes  a single percentage point.

Crist, as the governor in 2010, tried to run for the U.S. Senate, first as a Republican against Rubio and then as an independent when it became clear Rubio would win the GOP nomination. Rubio, who at the time was out of office after serving as the speaker of the state House, is this fall seeking his third term in the U.S. Senate.

In both his previous runs for the office, Crist was able to raise enormous sums for his campaign but had difficulty this time against DeSantis, as Democratic donors instead turned toward what are seen as more winnable races across the country.

Crist then ran for and won a congressional seat in St. Petersburg in 2016 as a Democrat, winning reelection in 2018 and 2020 before resigning the office on Aug. 31 to focus on the governors race.

That congressional district, which was redrawn by Republicans to favor them, is likely to be a GOP pickup in their bid to retake control of the House.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Incumbents in Florida, Texas, Michigan and more overcame challengers to retain the governor's mansion on Election Day. But not every race was settled as the sun rose the next morning.

Arizona's election between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs remained too close to call.

The GOP faced unexpected headwinds in flipping the office in conservative Kansas, while Democrats were nervous about their prospects in the race in Oregon, typically a liberal bastion.

Among the highest-profile races:

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defeated two-time opponent Democrat Stacey Abrams.

In Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro defeated Republican Doug Mastriano in the governor's race.

Republican incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis won the race for Florida governor, defeating Democrat Charlie Crist.

In Arizona, Donald Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake is the favorite to be the next governor.

In Michigan, incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defeated conservative Republican Tudor Dixon to stay in office.

Here's what to know:

This combination of 2022 and 2021 file photos shows Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, left, and gubernatorial Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.

Michigan governor: Whitmer wins reelection

Democratic incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer claimed victory in her bid for reelection as Michigan governor, successfully fending off a challenge by Republican nominee Tudor Dixon.

The contest, once seen as an easy win for Democrats in a major battleground state, tightened in the final weeks with a last-minute push by the Dixon campaign helping her to inch closer in the polls.

Whitmer is a veteran of Michigan politics, serving six years in the state house and eight in the senate before being elected governor in 2018.

Story continues

Dixon spent years as a conservative TV commentator and producer of conservative news for students.

Dixon, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, denies the results of the 2020 election and has criticized Whitmer for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whitmer, like many other Democrats, emphasized abortion rights throughout the campaign and criticized Dixon for her no-exceptions stance on the procedure.

 Anna Kaufman

Wisconsin governor: Evers wins reelection

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is projected to win a heated reelection battle against Trump-backed Republican Tim Michels.

A Marquette University Law School poll last week had them tied at 48%-48%.

Evers won, the governors office by a thin margin in 2018 when he defeated Republican Scott Walker, a 2016 presidential candidate. Evers had been a school district superintendent and served as the statewide Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wisconsin for nearly a decade.

As governor, Everss job approval has been slightly underwater in recent Marquette polls, with 46% approving of the job hes been doing as governor and 48% disapproving.

Michels is backed by Trump, who has traveled to Wisconsin to campaign for him. The once low-key owner of Wisconsins largest construction company, the eponymous Michels Corp, Michels launched his bid for governor in April  about 15 months after Biden revoked a key permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project for which Michels company had a contract to build pump stations. Its Michels third run for office.

 Donovan Slack

Connecticut governor: Lamont wins second term

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, beat back Republican challenger Robert Stefanowski for a second term as the states leader.

With more than 63% of ballots counted, Lamont led Stefanowski by more than 9 percentage points when the race was called.

 Ella Lee

Georgia governor: Kemp reelected

Republican incumbent Brian Kemp won the race for Georgia governor, defeating Democratic candidate and now two-time opponent Stacey Abrams, according to NBC and ABC News.

The two faced off once before back in 2018, with Kemp narrowly claiming victory after a runoff election. This gubernatorial contest has been one of the most closely watched in this midterm cycle as both candidates are major players in their parties.

The tightly fought race, along with Sen. Raphael Warnocks bid to keep his seat in Congress, was expected to serve as a litmus test of just how strong the Democratic coalition in Georgia is and whether it can withstand an election largely viewed as a referendum on Biden, whose approval ratings have suffered throughout his second year.

 Anna Kaufman

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro departs after voting at the Rydal Elementary School West polling location on Tuesday in Rydal, Pa. Shapiro faces Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in today's midterm general election.

New Mexico governor: Grisham wins reelection

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, won reelection Tuesday over Republican Mark Ronchetti, a local TV weatherman turned politician who built his campaign on criticism of the first-term governor's performance, according to NBC and ABC News.

Grisham, who served three terms in the U.S. House, was the first Democratic Latina to hold a governors seat at the time of her election in 2018. She ran then on a campaign focused on crime, education and immigration policy, but her reelection was centered on economic issues.

After a failed bid for U.S. Senate in 2020, Ronchetti framed his gubernatorial campaign around Grisham's track record, blaming Democrats for a faltering economy and specifically blaming the incumbent's policies for New Mexicos rank as second in the nation for violent crime. Ronchetti also got a last-minute endorsement this month from Trump, although he did not readily embrace it.

A third candidate, Libertarian Karen Bedonie, a mother of eight and citizen of the Navajo Nation, polled in the single digits throughout the race. She initially hoped to run on the Republican ticket and is among those that have questioned the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

 Laura Bargfeld, Cronkite News

Democrats win in Hawaii Senate, governors races

Democrats easily won their races for the U.S. Senate and governorship in Hawaii.

Josh Green overcame Republican challenger Duke Aiona for governor, while Sen. Brian Schatz won reelection for his seat against Republican Bob McDermott.

 Ella Lee

Main governor: reelected

Maine Gov. Janet Mills was reelected to the states governorship, beating her Republican opponent, Paul LePage. This will be Mills second term as Maine governor, according to NBC and CBS news.

Mills became the first woman elected as the states governor in 2018 when she was first elected. She also was the first woman to serve as the states attorney general, an office she served twice.

 Sarah Elbeshbishi

Minnesota governor: Walz wins reelection

Democrat Gov. Tim Walz won his reelection bid for Minnesota governor. The incumbent beat Republican challenger Scott Jensen.

Walz will now serve a second term.

 Rachel Looker

New York governor: Hochul reelected

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul won her reelection bid in the New York governors race against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, NBC and ABC reported.

Hochul unexpectedly became the state's first female governor in 2021, after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned amid sexual harassment allegations.

 Rachel Looker

California governor: Newsom wins reelection

Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has been reelected in the California gubernatorial race defeating Republican challenger Brian Dahle.

Newsom had a large lead over Dahle during the campaign. Newsom, the former Lieutenant Governor of California and former Mayor of San Francisco, will now serve his second term in the governors mansion.

 Rachel Looker

Idaho governor: Little reelected

Gov. Brad Little won reelection in Idahos gubernatorial race against Democrat Stephen Heidt after leading his opponent over 20 percentage points with only 9% of the votes counted.

Little will serve his second term as the states governor.

 Sarah Elbeshbishi

Pennsylvania governor: Shapiro wins

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro bested Trump-backed Republican Doug Mastriano to win the governors race in Pennsylvania, according to NBC and Fox news.

Shapiro had been leading Mastriano by significant margins in recent polling.

Shapiro, the states attorney general since 2017, led Mastriano 52%-40% in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll last week. He is a former state representative who cast himself as someone willing to take the fight against the status quo. Shapiro defended the states presidential election results in 2020 against an onslaught of legal challenges.

Mastriano, a state senator and retired Army colonel, marched on the U.S. Capitol in the Jan. 6 attack and was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who visited the state to rally for him. Mastriano supported unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and held a hearing featuring Rudy Giuliani and Trump, via call-in, hyping voting irregularities.

 Donovan Slack

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke, left, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Texas governor: Abbott wins reelection

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott won reelection, besting former Rep. Beto ORourke, who had sought to ride what he and other Democrats hoped would be a wave of registered Democratic voters to victory in the long deep-red state, according to multiple reports.

The race drew national attention for O'Rourke, who lost a bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 and made a brief presidential run in 2020. O'Rourke's name recognition and charisma fueled Democratic hopes that he could win the governor's race.

But as of last week, Abbott was favored to win by nearly 10 points, according to FiveThirtyEight polling averages. And voter registration numbers from the Texas secretary of states office showed an increase in voter registrations  but not the massive wave state Democrats had hoped would follow the states abortion ban and the Uvalde school massacre.

 Donovan Slack

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with his wife, Casey, delivers his victory speech Tuesday night at the Tampa Convention Center.

Florida governor: DeSantis wins reelection

Republican incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis won the race for Florida governor, defeating Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist.

DeSantis held onto a double-digit lead in the polls for much of the race.

During DeSantis' victory speech, some supporters chanted "two more years! Two more years!" Others overrode that with counterchants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" The governor just smiled and did not comment on any plans he may have for 2024.

The contest has been closely watched nonetheless, as DeSantis has built a national profile in what some see as preparation for a bid to secure the GOP nomination for president in 2024.

Crist, a former Republican himself, served as Floridas governor from 2007 to 2011, re-registering as a Democrat after leaving office.

 Anna Kaufman, Sarah Elbeshbishi, David Jackson

Maryland elects first Black governor

Democrat Wes Moore wins Marylands gubernatorial race against Republican opponent Maryland Del. Dan Cox, making history as Marylands first Black governor.

Moore gives the governorship back to the Democrats after two terms of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

 Sarah Elbeshbishi

Biden calls to congratulate Dem winners

Biden called to congratulate several Democrats who scored victories as races were still being tallied across the country.

Biden made congratulatory calls to incumbents, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee. He also phoned Sen.-elect Peter Welch and Massachusetts Gov.-elect Maura Healey.

All contests were called by the Associated Press besides Spanberger's toss-up race against Republican Yesli Vega.

 Christal Hayes

Oklahoma governor: Stitt wins reelection

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt was reelected as Oklahoma governor defeating Democrat Joy Hofmeister.

Stitt will now serve his second term. A former Tulsa businessman, Stitt vowed to run government like a business and has touted controversial policy plans including pushing to expand school vouchers, partially privatizing the states Medicaid program and a 15-year, $5 billion turnpike expansion.

 Rachel Looker

Nebraska governor: Pillen wins

Republican Jim Pillen won Nebraskas gubernatorial race against his Democratic challenger Carol Blood.

Pillen will replace current Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who couldnt run for reelection due to term limits. Pillen currently serves on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.

 Sarah Elbeshbishi

South Dakota governor: Noem reelected

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, will serve a second term as the states leader, according to projections by NBC and ABC.

Noem had received about 62% of the vote with 99%of ballots counted.

The South Dakota Republican faced a pair of complaints in August, one of which was referred to the South Dakota Attorney Generals Office for investigation.

The first complaint alleged personal use of the state airplane. The second, which accused Noem of misusing her position as governor to help her daughter through the state real estate appraiser program, was partially dismissed by the Government Accountability Board, because "appropriate action" had been determined.

 Ella Lee

Vermont governor: Scott wins reelection

Republican Gov. Phil Scott secured a fourth term in Vermont after defeating Democratic challenger Brenda Siegel.

Scott was elected in 2016 and ran for reelection in 2022 on a platform of reducing taxes and boosting the economy. Though a Republican, Scott has openly criticized Trump and voted for Biden in 2020.

 BrieAnna Frank

Colorado governor: Polis wins reelection

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis secured a second term after defeating Republican challenger Heidi Ganahl in Colorados gubernatorial race, according to projections from NBC and ABC.

In his first term, Polis pushed for healthcare and education affordability and unveiled a plan for the state to be 100% renewable energy by 2040.

 BrieAnna Frank

Wyoming governor: Gordon wins reelection

Republican Gov. Mark Gordon won reelection in Wyoming against Democratic challenger Theresa Livingston.

After taking office in 2019, Gordons first term was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and a crash in oil prices that had dire consequences for the states economy.

Earlier in 2022, Gordon signed a trigger law banning most abortions in the state, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

 BrieAnna Frank

Iowa governor: Reynolds wins reelection

Incumbent Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds secured a victory in Iowa in her reelection bid against Democratic nominee and businessperson Deidre DeJear.

The candidates clashed on hot-button issues including abortion policy and school funding in their only debate ahead of the election.

Reynolds was appointed governor in 2017 and was elected to her first full term the following year.

 BrieAnna Frank

Rhode Island governor: McKee wins reelection

Democratic Gov. Dan McKee won reelection in Rhode Island against Republican challenger Ashley Kalus.

Through the contentious campaign, McKee emphasized his administrations investments in infrastructure and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

McKee took office as governor in 2021 and previously served as mayor of Cumberland, Rhode Island.

 BrieAnna Frank

Arkansas governor:Huckabee Sanders wins

Republican candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders won the election in Arkansas gubernatorial race against Democratic challenger Chris Jones. Huckabee Sanders is the first woman elected to the position.

Sanders previously served as the White House press secretary under Trump before seeking the office once held by her father, Mike Huckabee.

 BrieAnna Frank

South Carolina governor: McMaster reelected

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster wins reelection in the South Carolina governors race defeating Democrat Joe Cunningham, according to NBC and ABC News.

McMaster outraised Cunningham by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to S.C. Ethics Commission reports. He raised over $2 million during the campaign.

 Rachel Looker; Adam Friedman, Nashville Tennessean

Alabama governor:Ivey wins reelection

Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey won reelection against Democratic challenger Yolanda Flowers.

Iveys win puts her on pace to become the longest-serving governor in Alabama history, according to the Montgomery Adviser.

 BrieAnna Frank

New Hampshire governor: Sununu reelected

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu defeated Democrat Tom Sherman in the New Hampshire gubernatorial race.

Sununu will now serve a fourth two-year term. He was heavily favored against Sherman, who ran unopposed in his party's governor's nomination.

 Rachel Looker

Massachusetts governor: Healey wins

Democrat Maura Healey won Massachusetts gubernatorial race against Trump-backed Republican nominee Geoff Diehl.

Healey makes history as the first woman and the first openly gay candidate elected to the office.

 BrieAnna Frank

Tennessee governor: Lee wins reelection

Republican Gov. Bill Lee was reelected governor of Tennessee. He defeated Democratic challenger Jason Martin.

Lee sought a second and final term as governor after he was first elected in 2018. He formerly served as a businessman and chairman of the Lee Company. He ran unopposed in the primary this year.

 Rachel Looker

Illinois governor: Pritzker wins reelection

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker easily beat Republican challenger Darren Bailey in his reelection bid.

Billionaires like Ken Griffin and Richard Uihlein threw hundreds of millions of dollars into the race heading into its primary, igniting a second round in the state's battle of the billionaires.

 Ella Lee

Ohio governor: DeWine wins reelection

Republican incumbent Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine claimed victory in his bid for reelection against Democratic challenger Nan Whaley, according to projections from CBS and CNN.

Whaley was the first woman ever nominated by a major party for governor in the state's history.

DeWine, 75, won his 13th and likely final election, cruising to victory over the former Dayton mayor despite skipping some traditional campaign activities, including debates.

 BrieAnna Frank, Jessie Balmert; The Columbus Dispatch

Polls close in several states

Polls closed in Ohio at 7:30 p.m. EST. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is seeking reelection against Democratic challenger Nan Whaley.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. in states including Vermont, Florida, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Georgia.

In Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott is seeking reelection against Democratic challenger Brenda Siegel. Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, running as Floridas Democratic gubernatorial nominee, is seeking to remove Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis from office.

In Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is facing Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams in a rematch following her loss in 2018.

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is seeking reelection against Democrat Joe Cunningham, while Republican Gov. Phil Scott is facing Democratic challenger Brenda Siegel in Vermont.

In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is seeking a fourth two-year term against Democratic nominee Tom Sherman.

BrieAnna Frank

Kari Lake casts vote in person

Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake went to vote at Phoenixs downtown post office at noon on Tuesday with her husband, son and daughter.

Afterward, she spoke to a throng of local, national and international press, alleging problems with ballot tabulators in conservative areas.

Maricopa County reported that 20% of their polling sites were experiencing issues in over 220 locations.

Lake has made election reforms a key part of her campaign platform, including false claims that Trump won the state in 2020. She has refused to say if shed accept a loss, telling ABC News in October she would do so if the election was fair, honest and transparent.

As Lake cast her vote, Democratic nominee for governor Katie Hobbs wrapped up visits to several polling locations in Tempe and Phoenix. Hobbs voted early on Nov. 1.

 Stacey Barchenger, the Arizona Republic

Governor's race between Evers, Michels almost a referendum on what Wisconsin wants to see in education

For Wisconsin education, the Nov. 8 election will be pivotal, impacting the shape and course of education policy for years to come.

The two candidates for governor have significantly different visions for what should lie ahead for education. That, in itself, sets the stage for different paths. After all, the outcome of an election for governor often has made a big difference in the past. (Scott Walker defeating Tom Barrett, leading to the passage of Act 10, which disempowered teachers unions, in 2011, for example.)

If Democratic incumbent Tony Evers wins, his most important role in education will be as the man of a thousand vetoes. He has played that role already in his first term as governor, blocking Republican ideas on a range of issues, just as Republicans who control the Legislature have blocked his ideas.

If Republican challenger Tim MIchels wins, the path is wide open for making Republican talking points into education realities. A lot could  and likely will  happen.

 Alan J. Borsuk, the Journal Sentinel

Which political trend wins out in Michigan?

Michigan loves its incumbent governors. Not since 1990 has an incumbent lost a reelection bid, when Republican John Engler defeated incumbent Gov. James Blanchard, a Democrat, by a razor-thin margin.

One of those trends is getting bucked  Whitmer is the incumbent governor and Democratic President Joe Biden is in the White House. Whitmer has polled ahead of her opponent, Republican Tudor Dixon, although poll margins have narrowed closer to Election Day.

 Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press

Brian Dahle relishes underdog role entering California gubernatorial election

State Sen. Brian Dahle entered the California governor's race late. But that didn't stop him from earning a right to take on Democratic incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Dahle, a Republican from Bieber in Lassen County, fended off a field of 25 challengers in the June primary to get to Tuesday's showdown with Newsom. Polls show Newsom has a huge lead on his challenger. FiveThirtyEight, for example, has Newsom up 59.6% to 38.7% in its latest poll.

Dahle has campaigned on, among other things, the state's homeless crisis, decrying the fact that California has spent billions on homelessness, but people he has spoken to say the problem isn't getting any better.

"I'm a farmer from Bieber. You might say I'm the underdog," Dahle told the crowd of several hundred people at the Redding Civic Auditorium last February. "Well, I've been the underdog in every race I've ever won."

 David Benda, Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight

PA governors: Respect outcome of election

Pennsylvanias four living former governors on Monday sent a letter to the main party candidates vying for the position on Nov. 8, urging them to respect and accept the results of the election regardless of the outcome.

In their one-page letter to Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Doug Mastriano, former Govs. Tom Ridge, Mark Schweiker, Ed Rendell, and Tom Corbett said the states election process will be open and transparent, and overseen by thousands of Pennsylvanians who care deeply about fairness.

We are asking you, as the leaders of the Pennsylvania Republican and Democratic parties, to pledge to honor that process, respect the law, abide the peoples will and support a peaceful transfer of power, the four former governors wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided to Spotlight PA from a spokesperson for Ridge. In doing so, you will demonstrate to all Pennsylvania candidates who will be looking to you for leadership that love of Commonwealth and Country must come above all.

 Angela Couloumbis and Katie Meyer, Spotlight PA

Trump says hes voted for DeSantis, hints again at presidential run

Former President Donald Trump said he voted this morning for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, while also dropping more hints that hell soon declare a third run for the White House, according to media reports.

Trump spoke to the media after he cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center on Tuesday morning, according to video posted by the local CBS news station CBS12. Former first lady Melania Trump joined him. "No matter who you vote for, you have to vote," Trump told a sparse crowd outside the polling station.

Trump also repeated that hell be making an announcement about his potential candidacy a week from today at his Mar-a-Lago home and resort in Palm Beach. "I think Tuesday will be a very exciting day for a lot of people, Trump said, adding that, The country has gotten very bad. Its lost its way, its lost its confidence."

 Josh Meyer

Sisolak casts ballot in Las Vegas  at opponents alma mater

LAS VEGAS, Nevada - As the polls opened to voters across the state, a crowd of Gov. Steve Sisolaks supporters waited eagerly outside Rancho High School in Las Vegas, where the first-term Democrat was expected to cast his ballot.

His Republican challenger, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, graduated from this high school decades earlier. The two are locked in a razor thin race for the governors mansion.

When Sisolak arrived Tuesday morning with his wife and daughters, he was greeted with a heros welcome: Four more years! Four more years!

It has been the honor of a lifetime to be your governor, a smiling Sisolak said.

When he emerged from the high school about 20 minutes later with his family, Sisolak said his first order of business if reelected after the votes are tallied is to address public safety, affordable housing and the states education systems.

Sisolak will spend Election Night on the Strip with the rest of the Democratic ticket.

 Rio Lacanlale, Reno Gazette Journal

Lake, Hobbs battle in Arizona governor's race

A grueling 20-month race to choose Arizona's next governor, one of the most closely watched gubernatorial contests in the country, is nearing its end as the state's final voters head to the polls Tuesday.

Republican nominee Kari Lake, the former television news anchor, and Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, the secretary of state and a former lawmaker, were locked in a close battle that often focused on national political figures and candidate style, not to mention their vastly different visions for Arizona's future.

And at least partially, the race offers a litmus test of whether Arizonans want to dwell on the 2020 election. Denying its legitimacy was a central part of Lake's campaign; Hobbs rose to prominence defending it.

It is unlikely that a winner will be declared Tuesday as election officials continue to count ballots, including those cast in person on Election Day. A final outcome could take several days or more.

 Stacey Barchenger

Shapiro, Mastriano bring differing visions for Pennsylvania

While the Senate race may get more headlines, the Pennsylvania governor's race is being closely watched. Attorney General Josh Shapiro is hoping to succeed Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in a contest against Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano.

Pennsylvania can expect changes no matter who wins. Both candidates have said they would move the commonwealth in a different direction from Wolf, though in different ways.

Mastriano, a Trump loyalist who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the U.S. Capitol before it devolved into a riot, has signed onto dozens of bills vetoed by Wolf since joining the General Assembly in 2020. His governorship would likely give the green light to many or all of these measures, which include restrictions on trans athletes in sports, more lenient gun laws and the expansion of poll watching.

Shapiro has broken with Wolf in expressing support in concept for the kind of Lifeline Scholarship Program advanced by Republican lawmakers. This program would give tax dollars to families in low-performing districts to help their children attend private schools.

Shapiro is also calling for a $250-per-vehicle gas tax rebate for car owners and more aggressive tax cuts, including an accelerated plan to reduce corporate net income tax and the elimination of "nuisance" fees such as the commonwealth's cellphone tax.

 York Daily Record

Midterms: Here's why security officials are concerned about claims of a hacked (or stolen) election

Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano wears an "I Voted" sticker after voting at his polling place, the New LIFE Worship Center Church of God, in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 8, 2022.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis: 2022's Hurricane Ian previews 2024 election

The lethal Florida hurricane of 2022 also generated storm warnings about the presidential race of 2024.

As President Joe Biden visited Florida in October to survey damage caused by Hurricane Ian, he found himself in the cross-winds of two potential 2024 re-election opponents: Former President Donald Trump and current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Biden and DeSantis kept it cordial; Trump did not.

"We are a nation in decline  so sad to say it, we are a failing nation," Trump told a group of Hispanic conservatives in Miami, laying all of the blame on the Biden administration.

The trio of Biden, Trump, and DeSantis has been trading barbs all year, previewing a presidential race that could be unmatched in vitriol. Biden has said Trump and his political movement are "a threat to our very democracy," while Trump branded his 2020 vanquisher as an "enemy of the state."

Read the whole story here: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis: 2022's Hurricane Ian previews 2024 election

 David Jackson

The 10 governor's races to watch in the 2022 midterms

During a period of inaction of Washington, governors have taken a prominent role in forming national policy on a number of important fronts.

Beyond COVID-19, however, gubernatorial candidates are facing challenges that mirror the debates in Washington, including how they plan to handle violent crime and voting rights. Plus, the Supreme Court's summer ruling to leave reproductive rights to the states has placed abortion center stage in many governor's races.

From Maine to California, gubernatorial elections are being held in 36 states this fall with most featuring incumbents running for reelection. Ten of those races are especially noteworthy.

Read all about it: Why we're eyeing these 10 governor's races in 2022 midterms

 Phillip M. Bailey, Ella Lee

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Governor races recap: Kemp, Whitmer, Abbott, DeSantis reelected
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who both clashed with the Biden administration by transporting migrants from their states into the interior of the country over the summer, won their re-election races convincingly on Tuesday night.

Both Republican governors saw their races called early in the evening as they handily fended off high-profile challenges from Charlie Crist in Florida and Beto ORourke in Texas. As of Wednesday morning, Abbott was beating O'Rourke by more than 10 percentage points with more than 98% of the votes reported; DeSantis was beating Crist by nearly 20 points with 99% reporting in.

"Thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida, we not only won election, we have re-written the political map," DeSantis said in his victory speech. "Thank you for honoring us with a win for the ages."

While both men have been critics of the Biden administrations handling of the ongoing crisis at the southern border, tactics escalated earlier this year when Abbott began sending buses of migrants to Washington, D.C.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2022: LIVE UPDATES

His office later expanded the operation to send buses to New York City and Chicago. All three cities are "sanctuary" jurisdictions that forbid cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Abbott said the move was intended to relieve pressure on overwhelmed border communities as well as draw attention to the migrant crisis.

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"Texas inundated border towns are now receiving a measure of relief, and importantly, the magnitude of this ongoing crisis is finally gaining the national attention it deserves," Abbott said in an op-ed in September. "Americans are now witnessing a startling national security failure that the President continues to dismiss."

As of this month, Texas says it has bussed almost 8,300 migrants to D.C., along with 3,500 to NYC and more than 1,000 to Chicago. The moves have sparked outrage from the cities themselves, who have declared emergencies and appealed for federal help. The Biden administration has also been highly critical, accusing Abbott of using migrants as political pawns.

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That outrage was furthered when DeSantis flew migrants into the liberal enclave of Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, on two planes in September.

DESANTIS TOUTS WIN FOR THE AGES AS HE AND RUBIO SCORE BIG VICTORIES, SHADING PURPLE FLORIDA RED

"States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as sanctuary states and support for the Biden administrations open border policies," a DeSantis spokesperson told Fox News Digital at the time.

The White House repeatedly hit back, accusing the governors of political stunts.

TEXAS REPUBLICAN GOV. GREG ABBOTT DEFEATS BETO O'ROURKE, RE-ELECTED FOR THIRD TERM

"These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in September. "And what did Gov. DeSantis and Gov. Abbott do to them? They used them as political pawns, treated them like cattle in a cruel, premeditated political stunt."

Biden himself also took aim at the governors.

"Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props. What theyre doing is simply wrong. Its un-American, its reckless, and we have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. Were working to make sure its safe and orderly and humane. Republican officials should not interfere with that process by waging these political stunts," Biden said in a speech.

A migrant bus arrives in New York City.

Both governors shrugged off the outrage from the administration and Democrats, saying that the anger should be aimed at the administrations policies instead.

"So, when Biden is flying these people all over the fruited plain in the middle of the night, I didn't hear a peep out of those people," DeSantis said. "I haven't heard a peep about all the people that have been told by Biden [that migrants] can just come in  and they're going, they're being abused by the cartels. They're drowning in the Rio Grande. You had 50 that died in some shed in Texas. I heard no outrage about any of that."

There had been some speculation that the controversial tactics could backfire on both governors as they faced their re-election battles. But instead, both governors picked up striking victories.

Notably, DeSantis became the first Republican in two decades to win the typically Democratic Miami-Dade County.

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The Fox News Voter Analysis survey had shown that majorities of voters in key states were dissatisfied by the Biden administrations handling of border security ahead of the midterms.

Meanwhile in Texas, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who had been a vocal critic of the Biden administrations handling of the border crisis, won re-election against a Republican challenger.

Also along the border, Republican Monica De La Cruz beat Democratic opponent Michelle Vallejo to fill the open 15th Texas Congressional seat.
The Carter Center and the United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Court used their considerable combined influence to swiftly bring impacted countries and partners together in March 2022 for the Guinea Worm Summit in Abu Dhabi . The summit resulted in important discussions, a signed declaration, renewed energy, and tangible actions to accelerate efforts to eradicate the ancient disease.

With a historic announcement of just 15 human cases coming at a time of establishing a new normal amid the COVID pandemic, we had a small window of opportunity to gather and reinvigorate the global Guinea worm team. When we put out the call, the folks that are most intimately aware of the challenges of the last mile answered.

Some of the hallmarks of the four-decade Guinea worm eradication campaign , led by The Carter Center, are its agility, data-driven decision making, deep-rooted partnerships, and commitment to prioritize the needs of the endemic countries.

Leaders of endemic countries sign the Abu Dhabi Declaration on the Eradication of Guinea Worm Disease on March 22, 2022, at the UAEs presidential palace, Qasr Al Watan. (Photo: The Carter Center)

High-level representatives of Angola, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, South Sudan, and Sudan reconfirmed their commitment to accelerate progress by signing the Abu Dhabi Declaration on the Eradication of Guinea Worm Disease. At Qasr Al Watan, the UAEs presidential palace, the declaration was signed in solidarity by Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, minister of state at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Jason Carter, chair of the Carter Center Board of Trustees; and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization.

The summit celebrated the success to date of the global campaign, highlighted by an original video that inspired even the hardest of hearts. I invite you to watch it for yourself.

Many summit attendees were meeting face to face with their counterparts for the first time since the pandemic began, renewing old alliances. It created momentum and reinspired the Guinea worm team and many of our partners, reinforced relationships, and created opportunities to build new connections to tackle neglected tropical diseases.

The UAE continues to be an unwavering partner, the programs third-largest donor, committed to seeing eradication through to the end. Furthermore, the UAEs central location for African travel, its proactive response to COVID combined with its openness for international business travel while hosting the World Expo, its role as an independent regional powerbroker, and its commitment to global health made the UAE an ideal convening partner for the summit.

Those in attendance included Paige Alexander, chief executive officer of The Carter Center; Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president for health programs at The Carter Center; HRH Princess Lamia Bint Majid al Saud, secretary general of Saudi Arabias Alwaleed Philanthropies; Faustina Fynn-Nyame, executive director for Africa of the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation, based in London; Simon Bland, chief executive officer of the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE), based in Abu Dhabi; Shaista Asif, chief operating officer of Pure Health, a new Carter Center partner based in the UAE; as well as representatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF.

The summit provided an important opportunity for coalition members to learn from and be inspired by one another after a long period of going it alone  which they did quite successfully, remaining at least 90% operational throughout the pandemic. But those personal interactions are vital.

UAE Crown Prince (and now President) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi hosted Jason Carter and his eldest son, Henry, for a traditional palace meeting to recognize more than 30 years of partnership. A multigenerational commitment to Guinea worm eradication began with the Crown Princes father, UAE founder Sheikh Zayed, and Jason Carters grandfather, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. I joined Paige Alexander and Dr. Kashef Ijaz for the meeting.

Thats one of the unique characteristics The Carter Center has  bringing people together. Its what President Carter wanted The Carter Center to do from the start 40 years ago, and that has translated into a global eradication campaign that is able to build consensus around issues that affect people in the most marginalized places. Combine that with the convening power of Reaching the Last Mile and the energy of partner countries and organizations, and you have a formidable force for good in the world.

Summit Outcomes

Organizing the summit with the UAE generated force-multiplying events. It is fair to say the summit was a turning point, as activity in the subsequent weeks and months shows. We are making history in real time.

Chad, with most of the cases in recent years, is the epicenter of the eradication effort. Immediately after the summits conclusion, the director-general of Chads health ministry sent out a directive to all of its impacted regions to prioritize Guinea worm eradication and implement interventions, such as the proactive tethering of dogs.

Additionally, an intersectoral task force meeting was held in Chad on June 2, chaired by the World Health Organizations director-general for infectious diseases. The meeting involved numerous governmental and nongovernmental agencies to discuss the status of Guinea worm disease in Chad and begin devising ways to collaborate. This was Chads first task force meeting in several years.

Ethiopia Minister of Health Dr. Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin led a high-level visit to a village with a history of Guinea worm cases. Joining the minister were the vice president of Gambella Regional State, the state minister of agriculture, members of the Gambella Regional Parliament, and representatives of the WHO and The Carter Center, including me. The May visit focused on safe water and resulted in a pledge from UNICEF to finance timely repairs to the villages water pump.

After the summit, The Carter Center invested $500,000 in safe-water projects in South Sudan, which will help with both Guinea worm and trachoma. The government of South Sudan has recently emphasized safe water and planned to host an international water summit later this year.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo submitted its dossier to the WHO requesting to be certified as Guinea worm free, and Sudan wrote a letter to The Carter Center pledging to do likewise before the end of the year. These countries are the only nonendemic countries yet to submit for certification of eradication of Guinea worm disease.

Cameroon, a formerly endemic country, agreed to take part in a meeting to help coordinate efforts that span that countrys frontier with Chad. That meeting is mission critical because it addresses an epidemiological zone that traverses a border. The population along the border is basically one people that lives on two sides of a river, creating a Guinea worm infection risk for both countries. The cross-border meeting marks a renewed level of engagement and cooperation between Cameroon and The Carter Center.

Carter Center Board of Trustees Chair Jason Carter and WHO Secretary-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote a well-received guest essay on Guinea worm that appeared in a special section of The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Numerous other outlets covered the summit, including The National, Philanthropy Age, The Lancet, and Nature.
Hamza Yassin has given some insight into his next performance on Strictly Come Dancing.

The BBC cameraman and wildlife reporter is partnered with Jowita Przystal on the current season of the dance competition.

So far, the pair have been among some of the most consistent high scorers on the leaderboard. Last week, they scored 38 out of a possible 40 for their cha cha cha to I Cant Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) by the Four Tops. Judge Shirley Ballas called it one of the best Ive ever seen.

On Tuesdays (8 November) edition of Strictly companion show It Takes Two, Yassin gave viewers a hint of what to expect from his upcoming performance.

Saturday (12 November) will see Yassin and Przystal take on a couples choice dance to Jerusalema (Remix) by Master KG featuring Burna Boy and Nomcebo Zikode.

Speaking to It Takes Two host Rylan Clark, Yassin said that the routine would honour his birth country, Sudan.

It's amazing. A song like this would normally never be on Strictly, and to have the pleasure of bringing my African side  a continent that we're all from, we all originate from Africa  and to include a little bit of natural history, wildlife.

He added: It's kind of celebrating Africa and where I'm from, all the beauty that you get.

The Countryfile star also claimed that they have something special prepared for the audience to enjoy.

Yassin and Pryzstals partnership first gained high praise in week four, when they scored 39 for their salsa to Ecuador by Sash! feat. Rodriquez.

Elsewhere, fellow Strictly contestant Tony Adams addressed rumours of a row with his partner Katya Jones on Wednesdays (9 November) edition of Good Morning Britain.
Story at a glance

A hand sanitizer that was sold over the internet nationwide is being recalled because it may have been contaminated with toxic methanol.

This comes after a series of recalls related to methanol in hand sanitizers between June 2020 and October 2021.

The impacted products include 4oz., 8oz., 16oz., spray bottles, and one-gallon jugs of hand sanitizer.

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY)  A hand sanitizer that was sold over the internet nationwide is being recalled because the company that manufactured it says it may have been contaminated with a toxic chemical.

That chemical, according to the recall posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations website, is methanol. This comes after a series of recalls related to methanol in hand sanitizers between June 2020 and October 2021.

Hand sanitizer normally contains ethanol, an alcohol that kills germs that is safe for use on human skin, but as home distillers and moonshine aficionados might know, if the distillation process isnt carried out correctly, methanol is created instead, which is not safe for humans.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), methanol can be absorbed by the human body through inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, or eye contact.

The label of a recalled Adams Polishes hand sanitizer.

Adams Polishes, LLC issued a voluntary recall of its hand sanitizer over possible methanol contamination. It was published by the FDA on Monday.

2 states approve legal weed, 3 states say no

The impacted products include 4oz., 8oz., 16oz., spray bottles, and one-gallon jugs of hand sanitizer.

The following lot numbers are impacted:

133470

133475

133480

137732

133471

133476

133481

137733

133472

133477

133482

137734

133473

133478

133483

139322

133474

133479

137731

143327

Anyone with the recalled products is encouraged to immediately stop using them and dispose of them following their local areas regulations. The FDAs recall alert advises customers to email hs@adamspolishes.com with questions and requests for credit or call (720) 812-3460 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Days were not provided in the recall announcement.

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Those who are concerned they may have experienced negative health effects from using the product are encouraged to contact their doctor.

Adverse reactions can then be reported to the FDAs MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program online or by regular mail or fax. Forms can be downloaded online and sent in, or call (800) 332-1088 to request that a form be sent by mail.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Harry and Meghans Netflix docuseries is reportedy being released before Christmas. (Getty)

The Netflix docuseries starring Harry and Meghan will be released before Christmas, Yahoo News UK understands.

The Sussexes struck a multimillion pound deal with the streaming giant in 2020 to make a series of programmes, with cameras following them around for a show on their life since quitting the Royal Family.

The couple had hoped that the highly anticipated series, described as a love story by Meghan, would air in January next year so that it would tie in with the release of Harrys memoir, according to The Sun.

However, Yahoo News UK understands that Netflix will instead release the show later this year in the run-up to Christmas.

Details have been kept under wraps over what will be seen in the series, with much of it filmed before the Queens death in September.

But it could prove to throw fresh turmoil on the royal family, with season five of Netflix series The Crown being released on Wednesday.

Harry and Meghan were reportedly hoping the series would air in January. (Getty)

The hit show will include the 'War of the Waleses' that beset the royals throughout the 1990s.

It has also already drawn high-profile condemnation for deliberately blurring the lines between fact and fiction

One storyline shows Charles cutting short a holiday with Diana to host a secret meeting with the then prime minister Sir John Major at Highgrove in 1991 in which they discuss potentially ousting the Queen.

Major described the scene as "profoundly hurtful" while Sir Tony Blair condemned the scenes as "complete and utter rubbish".

Last month, Netflix put a disclaimer in the description of its YouTube trailer for the fifth series of The Crown, saying the production is a fictional dramatisation and inspired by real events.

Watch: Meghan Markle says being mum in public eye can come with 'crushing guilt'

The Royal Family will also be bracing itself for revelations from Harrys memoirs, Spare.

With the King just weeks into his new role as head of state, Harry could shed more light on his and wife Meghan's experiences with 'The Firm'.

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The series may provide fresh embarrassment for King Charles just weeks into his reign. (Getty)

Meghan has previously spoken about how, when pregnant with son Archie, she contemplated suicide as she struggled to cope with life as a working royal, and how she received no help from the institution of the monarchy.

In his column for Yahoo News UK, royal executive editor Omid Scobie said that the book will detail Harrys difficult decision to change his destiny and start a new life elsewhere.

Scobie added: Readers will hear moving anecdotes from the frontlines of Afghanistan and his time in the military, plus honest insights into Harrys quest to find purpose and why he chose to commit to a lifetime of service.

Harry's memoirs, Spare, will be released in January. (PA)

The Sussexes have kept tight-lipped about what to expect in the series but Meghan briefly spoke it with filmmaker Liz Garbus last month.

She said: Its nice to be able to trust someone with our story, even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it.

But thats not why were telling it. Were trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.
HONOLULU (AP)  Lawyers representing two Native Hawaiian men don't dispute they brutally assaulted a white man who purchased a house in their remote village on the island of Maui.

They acknowledged the 2014 attack was wrong, but they said it wasn't a hate crime, as U.S. prosecutors allege.

Trial began Tuesday for Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr., who are charged with one federal count each of a hate crime.

Alo-Kaonohi punched and kicked Christopher Kunzelman and Aki hit him with a shovel when Kunzelman tried to fix up the house he purchased in Kahakuloa village, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Thomas told the jury.

Alo-Kaonohi dragged his finger down Kunzelman's face and said his skin was the wrong color, Thomas said.

The attack, which left Kunzelman with injuries including a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma, never would have happened if it weren't for his race, Thomas said.

It wasn't Kunzelman's race that sparked the attack, attorneys for the men said, blaming their actions on his entitled and disrespectful attitude.

The assault on Kunzelman is hard to stomach, said Craig Jerome, one of Alo-Kaonohi's federal defenders. The attack was provoked by a belief that Kunzelman didn't have a valid easement to the property and because he cut chains on village gates, Jerome said.

The altercation escalated when the men realized Kunzelman had a gun, Jerome said.

Kaonohi pleaded no contest to felony assault in state court in July 2019 in the case and was sentenced to probation. The trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu is only to determine if they are guilty of a hate crime. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Footage of the attack from cameras on Kunzelman's vehicle don't show that Alo-Kaonohi uttered any racial terms or slurs, Jerome said.

Aki later told police Kunzelman was acting like a typical haole, Thomas said.

Haole, a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreign and white person, is central to the case, which highlights multicultural Hawaii's nuanced and complicated relationship with race.

Story continues

An enraged Alo-Kaonohi called Kunzelman brah, buddy," and various other terms attached to expletives, Jerome said: But he never calls him a haole, not once."

Aki didnt use the word haole in a pejorative or hateful way, Jerome said.

It's not a hate crime to assault somebody and in the course of it, use the word haole, said Aki's court-appointed attorney, Lynn Panagakos, noting that Aki is both part-Hawaiian and part-haole.

Haole has multiple meanings depending on the context, she said. It's an accepted word.

Kunzelman testified Tuesday that he and his wife decided to move to Maui from Scottsdale, Arizona, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis because she loved the island.

It's just serene and beautiful, he said.

They purchased the four-bedroom oceanfront house after seeing a listing for it online, he said, and that he went to Maui first to renovate the house for his wife and their three daughters.

Kunzelman said he decided to take two pistols to Maui after hearing that a contractor he hired to do mold remediation had been assaulted when he showed up and after hearing his realtor say that the close-knit community of Native Hawaiians had a problem with white people.

Kunzelman said he and his family never got to live in the Maui house and now reside in Puerto Rico.

He was expected to continue testifying Wednesday.
Bob Hertzberg and Lindsey Horvath are competing for District 3 supervisor. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press; Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

State Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) has a slight lead over West Hollywood City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath in the race to become Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 3rd District, according to early returns Wednesday morning.

The winner will replace Sheila Kuehl, 81, who is retiring after two terms, on a five-member board that manages an annual budget of almost $40 billion.

The 3rd District, which spans much of the San Fernando Valley and stretches along the coast from Santa Monica to Malibu, is the only board seat up for grabs.

Hertzberg leads with 50.78% of the vote to Horvath's 49.22%. Hertzberg's lead is just 4,000 votes.

In a once-in-a-decade redistricting process, some conservative Valley communities, including Porter Ranch and Chatsworth, joined the 3rd District last year.

The candidates, both Democrats, have focused on three major themes: solving homelessness, protecting reproductive rights and portraying each other as closet Republicans.

Hertzberg, 67, first took office in 1996  as Horvath was beginning high school  when he was elected to the California Assembly. He touts his bipartisan efforts to get "legislators from both sides to work across the aisle."

Hertzberg rose to speaker in 2000 and left in 2002 before making an unsuccessful run for Los Angeles mayor in 2005. He returned to office by winning a California Senate seat in 2014 and terms out this year.

Hertzbergs camp hosted a watch party for supporters at the Allure event space in Van Nuys.

The state senator said he was optimistic he would win and touted his experience in Sacramento as vital.

The reason I ran has been consistent in that I believe the voters want to elect someone who will get things done, he said in a phone interview. I have the experience and the knowledge at this level to deliver for the voters of Los Angeles County.

Horvath, 40, has been a member of the West Hollywood City Council since 2015, after serving as an appointed member from 2009 to 2011.

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She entered her party at Heart WeHo in West Hollywood at 8:15 p.m. to Christina Aguileras What a Girl Wants anthem.

She thanked supporters and workers for their efforts that kicked off with her April 2021 announcement to run.

Its not like Ive been counting the days or anything, Horvath said. Im just so proud of my staff and the volunteers who had fought to create a vision that the people of the 3rd District and Los Angeles County could believe in.

Hertzberg has a strong base of support in the Valley, while Horvath has sought to distance herself from West Hollywood, scrubbing any mention of the citys name from her campaign website.

Horvaths most scrutinized move as a politician came in June, when she voted to trim one sheriffs deputy position in West Hollywood and add 30 unarmed security ambassadors. The measure passed by a 3-2 vote but was criticized by many residents as a step toward defunding the police.

Horvath recently said she did not support the reelection campaign of Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and was in favor of Measure A. If approved by voters, the measure will provide a mechanism for the Board of Supervisors, which has clashed with Villanueva, to remove an elected sheriff.

Horvath believes her decision to call out Villanueva demonstrates the type of "executive leadership" needed to represent the district and criticized Hertzberg for not following suit.

Hertzberg said he would not "play the Twitter troll game" and sees no value in condemning a man with whom he may have to work. Ultimately, Hertzberg did not endorse Measure A.

This story will be updated with election results.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Elon Musks chaotic start as CEO of Twitter is bringing up doubts about the platforms future.

Meanwhile, as Americans headed to the polls Tuesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it would remain vigilant in monitoring threats but had not identified any specific or credible threats that would disrupt the election system.

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hills Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter?

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A platform in chaos

Elon Musks Twitter is engulfed in chaos amid widespread layoffs and an exodus of major advertisers.

Just one week in as Twitters owner, Musk reported a massive drop in revenue due to companies pausing their advertising on the platform. Twitter is also struggling to roll out a new paid verification feature that has drawn ridicule from popular users.

Musk tweeted that he had no choice but to lay off around half of Twitters staff because it was losing $4 million per day, which translates to nearly $1.5 billion annually.

Users, meanwhile, have been left with a lot of questions and few answers about what this means for them and what Twitter will look like when Musks transformation of the platform is complete.

The companys struggles are also raising the question of whether Musk can turn Twitters fortunes around and make enough money to pay off his newfound debts.



Twitter wasnt profitable before Musk agreed to pay $44 billion to buy the platform by taking on nearly $13 billion in debt. Those loans will saddle Twitter with around $1.2 billion in interest payments over the next 12 months, and the company only generated around $630 million in cash flow last year.



The debt situation is definitely concerning as this was a fairly unorthodox investment to have taken on so much debt given the cash flow situation of the business even prior to the acquisition, Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu said.

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Read more here.

CISA finds no credible threats to election

As polls opened on Election Day, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it had not identified any specific or credible threats that would disrupt the election system.

During a background call to reporters on Tuesday, a senior CISA official said the agency is confident that the election is as secure as it can be because of the steps the agency has taken, including closely working with state and local election officials to ensure that they have the resources in place to protect the election infrastructure.

However, the official said the agency remains vigilant, as election threats may arise at any time, including low-level cyber activities such as denial-of-service attacks, website defacement and website outages.

Its important to remember that such incidents will not affect a persons ability to cast a ballot or know that their ballot was counted accurately, and that the election is secure, the official emphasized.

Read more here.

TECH JOBS FUEL CHANGES

The shift to high-tech jobs, migration to the West and South, and the recovery of leisure and hospitality sectors following the COVID-19 pandemic are all behind economic growth seen in the United States largest metropolitan areas in 2022, according to new research from the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

The findings are part of the Institutes American Growth Project, an initiative aimed at amassing economic data and analyses on the countrys towns, cities and counties. As part of the project, researchers ranked the countrys top 50 extended metropolitan areas (EMAs) based on the speed of their economic growth in 2022.

The San Francisco Bay Area ranked first, as the areas GDP grew by 4.8 percent in 2022. It was followed by Austin, Texas; Seattle; Raleigh and Durham, N.C.; and Dallas.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Silicon Valley, one of the most popular locations for tech start-ups  a fact that likely fueled the growth seen in the region throughout 2022.

Read more here.

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Misinformation is bad, but solutions to stop it are even worse

Notable links from around the web:

Twitch streamers want to be the political pundits for the next generation (NBC News / Morgan Sung)

Twitters case study of how not to lay people off (Vox / Raniu Molla)

Elon Musk Puts His Own Politics on Display on Election Day (The New York Times / Adam Satariano, Ryan Mac and Tiffany Hsu)

 Lighter click: The monetization of democracy?

One more thing: What about the Jan. 6 panel?

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is set to dissolve no matter who wins Tuesdays midterm elections  but a GOP takeover of the House leaves a near zero chance it will be revived.

The panel, like all other select committees established this Congress, will sunset with the start of the next Congress in January.

Republican leaders such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) have given no sign they intend to keep the committee that has been a thorn in their side and prompted former President Trump to criticize the GOPs decision to boycott it.

Read more here.

Thats it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hills Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. Well see you tomorrow.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A historic Black church was among seven buildings burned in an arson spree in Mississippi, police and local news outlets report.

Epiphany Lutheran Church was completely gutted by the overnight blaze, one of several reported across Jackson in the early hours of Tuesday, Nov. 8, according to the citys police.

Hinds County Sheriff deputies arrested Devin McLaurin, 22, in connection with the string of fires that authorities said were intentionally set. No injuries were reported in the blazes, which all occurred near Jackson State Universitys campus, according to WJTV.

Epiphany suffered the most damage after it burned for more than four hours as firefighters battled the flames, WAPT reported. Photos of the aftermath show the churchs charred remains with only a piece of its frame left standing amid the rubble.

Arson is suspected in six overnight fires in Jackson, Mississippi at black churches, Jackson State University baseball field and a nearby gas station.https://t.co/nXgOiP7xge pic.twitter.com/BTxL7LkKYa  Racial Dolezal (@SirCoach) November 8, 2022

This church has been here since back in the 1940s, longtime church member Bobby Hathorne told the station. Its one of the oldest predominately Black Lutheran churches in the state of Mississippi. This is a shock to us that something like this could happen.

Authorities said they started getting calls about the fires around 2:30 a.m., according to The Clarion-Ledger. McLaurin was identified as a suspect after police said he was seen in the vicinity of where the blazes were set.

The fires that caused the most damage were located on Dalton Street and Isaiah Montgomery Road, Assistant Jackson Fire Chief Patrick Armon told the newspaper. Fires were set on Robinson Road, Pascagoula Street, Briggs Street, Isaiah Montgomery Street, Lynch Street, Dalton Street and Terry Road.

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Epiphany was one of two churches that caught fire. Greater Bethlehem Temple Church also suffered some damage, WAPT and WJTV reported.

News of the fires rocked the predominantly Black community, prompting fears that the incidents may have been racially or politically motivated. U.S. Census data shows Black Americans make up about 82% of Jacksons population, compared to 16% white residents and less than 2% Latinos.

7 fires at black churches and an HBCU in Jackson, Mississippi on Election Day morning.



This may seem shocking to some, but this ugly side of America has always been here. https://t.co/hk4KGLK03B  Jason Hamlin (@jjasonhamlin) November 8, 2022

We are actively monitoring the situation.



No intimidation.



No distractions.



Go Vote.#TogetherPowerVote https://t.co/FSGTMqkis8  NAACP (@NAACP) November 8, 2022

The Election Day morning fires at or near Black institutions in Jackson, MI are deeply alarming and must be fully and swiftly investigated. https://t.co/JHNj7UNWwb  Janai Nelson (@JNelsonLDF) November 8, 2022

A look at whats left of the Epiphany Lutheran Church in Jackson. This church and six other churches/buildings were set on fire early this morning. @WJTV/ @WHLT22 https://t.co/bUN8ZCn8F3 pic.twitter.com/h8Zn7Y4PGF  Kayla Thompson (@KThompsonTV) November 8, 2022

We dont yet know who or why, but I want to thank the firefighters because they were able to respond to that and still get back to the stations, so that people could set up  voting precincts, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said at a city council meeting before the suspects arrest, WJTV reported.

No polling locations were affected for Election Day, city fire officials said.

McLaurin was booked into the Hinds County Jail where he remains as of Wednesday, Nov. 9, online records show. Authorities are working to determine a motive and said the fires remain under investigation.

Doughnut shop that hosted drag event vandalized for second time, Oklahoma video shows

14-year-old arrested after massive fire tears through Walmart in Georgia, police say

Man blows up car at funeral, causing an immense fire, Washington cops say
1. Wes Moore, first Black governor in Maryland

Julio Cortez / AP

Wes Moore, an author and former nonprofit executive, was elected as Marylands first-ever Black governor. A Democrat, he flipped the states governorship blue, beating out a Trump-backed far-right Republican who attended the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally.

In his victory speech, the 44-year-old thanked voters for believ[ing] in the son of an immigrant, a graduate of a two-year college, a US Army combat veteran, and a nonprofit leader who had never run for office before.

It is not lost on me that I've made some history here tonight too  but I also know I'm not the first one to try  [But] the history that matters most to us is the history that we  and the people of this state  are going to make over the next four years.

2. Becca Balint, first woman in Congress in Vermont

Lisa Rathke / AP

Becca Balint, a Democrat and member of the Vermont state Senate, won her congressional race, making her Vermonts first woman to serve in the US House of Representatives.

Vermont was the last remaining state to have never elected a woman to the position. Balint, who is openly gay, will also be the first LGBTQ Vermonter in Congress. Standing beside her wife at an election night party late Tuesday, the 54-year-old thanked her staff and loved ones, VTDigger reported, saying, If we had believed that change was impossible, I would not be standing here tonight.

Take note and take heart: Vermont is a place where kindness and integrity and courage matter. Vermont is a place where the daughter of an immigrant dad and a working-class mom can be the first woman and the first gay person to represent Vermont in the US House of Representatives.

3. Maura Healey, first openly lesbian governor in the US, first woman governor in Massachusetts

Michael Dwyer / AP

Maura Healey won her bid for governor of Massachusetts, making her the nations first openly lesbian governor. She is also the first woman to be elected to the position in state history.

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Healey, 51, currently serves as Massachusetts attorney general. In 2009, she was the first person nationwide to lead a successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that denied same-sex couples the right to get married until 2013.

To every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there, I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever, you want to be, Healey said in her victory speech. Nothing and no one can ever get in your way except your own imagination, and thats not going to happen.

We made history, she said to raucous cheers.

4. Summer Lee, Pennsylvania's first Black woman in Congress

Summer Lee / Via summerforpa.com

Pennsylvania elected its first-ever Black woman to the US House of Representatives, with Democratic state Rep. Summer Lee winning her race for Congress.

The 34-year-old lawyer ran on a progressive platform, supporting the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and many other left-wing policies.

"This was a movement that was about what it looks like when we prioritize the most marginalized, when we prioritize and really fight for what a real working-class movement can look like in this country," Lee told her celebrating supporters, according to WTAE-TV Pittsburgh.

5. Delia Ramirez, first Latina woman in Congress in Illinois

Delia Ramirez will be the first Latina to represent Illinois in Congress. The state representative, 39, is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and is married to a DACA recipient.

Ramirez championed progressive causes in her campaign, including promising to fight for the rights of immigrants and working-class people. She supports building more affordable housing, increasing the federal minimum wage to $15, and enacting universal healthcare, among other issues.

"We just made history tonight, Ramirez said in a speech at her victory party. We broke a glass ceiling."

6. James Roesener, first trans man elected to a state legislature

Victory Institute

James Roesener, a 26-year-old Democrat, was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, becoming the first trans man to serve in a state legislature in US history. Roesener ran against a staunch Republican who supported anti-LGBTQ policies similar to Floridas Dont Say Gay laws, according to Citizens Count, a nonpartisan New Hampshire nonprofit that tracks candidates positions.

Prior to the 2022 midterms, there were eight trans people serving in state legislatures nationwide, but all of them were trans women, according to data compiled by the LGBTQ political action committee Victory Institute.

Roesener is bisexual and lives with his wife and cat, according to a bio on the Victory Institute website. I was born an advocate for the underdog and have never been afraid to stand up for what I truly believe in, he wrote.

7. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahomas first Native American senator in almost a century

Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was elected to the US Senate. Mullin will be the first Native American senator in Oklahoma in nearly a century, according to US Senate data, and will also be the first Native American in the Senate since 2005.

Mullin, a Republican, describes himself on his campaign website as a strong supporter of President Trumps agenda to defeat the socialists and took part in right-wing efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In 2021, he voted against certifying the Electoral College results, baselessly claiming his objection was due to all of the fraud and uncertainty.

Tonight, the American people rejected Joe Biden's extreme Socialist movement, and embraced a new conservative agenda to get America back on track, Mullin tweeted. I am humbled to have the opportunity to serve the greatest state in the union in the U.S. Senate. God bless Oklahoma.

8. Abdelnasser Rashid, first Muslim elected to the Illinois Statehouse

Abdelnasser Rashid / Via rashidforillinois.com

Abdelnasser Rashid has two different firsts under his belt  he'll be both the first Muslim and the first Palestinian elected to the Illinois Statehouse. The 33-year-old is a progressive activist and the son of immigrants from Palestine.

His narrow defeat of state Rep. Michael Zalewski in the June primary shocked local government officials, many of whom campaigned for the seven-term incumbent. Its the moment weve been waiting for, Rashid, who previously lost two runs for local office in Cook County, said in his primary victory speech.

According to Politico, Rashid was advised to "Americanize" his name and downplay his background before running for public office. He rejected the advice, saying, We believed that once people got to know me, that they can move past any preconceptions."

9. Kathy Hochul, first woman elected governor of New York

Anadolu Agency / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Kathy Hochul, 64, is officially the first elected woman governor of New York, keeping the state's executive office in Democratic control despite a tight race with Republican state Rep. Lee Zeldin.

Hochul took over for three-term governor Andrew Cuomo in August 2021 when he resigned following allegations of sexual assault and pandemic death cover-ups. Though the state's governor has been a Democrat for nearly two decades now, the Trump-backed Zeldin appealed to New Yorkers' fear of rising crime. Still, Hochul came out on top.

"I'm not here to make history. I'm here to make a difference," Hochul said during her victory speech Tuesday night. "Because of all of you, we'll keep making progress, breaking down barriers, breaking glass ceilings, and helping New York achieve the greatness that it is capable of."

10. Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell, Montanas first openly trans state representatives

Zooey Zephyr, left; SJ Howell, right Zooey Zephyr / Via zooeyformontana.com , SJ Howell / Via Twitter: @Howell4HD95

Democrat Zooey Zephyr just became the first openly trans woman to be elected a state representative in Montana, and Democrat SJ Howell was the first openly nonbinary person to do the same. Montana is now officially the second state to have elected two transgender people to the state legislature, following New Hampshire.

Zephyr, a 33-year-old activist and University of Montana employee, advocated on a state level for the rights of transgender people in 2021 after "watching how the right was attacking queer folks," she told Hollywood Life in an interview. Over the past few years, the state Legislature took up bills limiting the participation of trans youth in sports, restricting the rights of transgender people to update their birth certificates, and putting more restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender kids. The first two bills passed and are now being challenged in court.

Zephyr told Hollywood Life there was "a lot of support for human rights" in her relatively progressive town of Missoula, in contrast to the state's oppressive legislative agenda. On her campaign website, she said she will address four areas where "Montana is failing to help its residents"  housing inequality, healthcare, infrastructure, and climate change.

Howell, the executive director of nonprofit advocacy group Montana Women Vote, has also advocated on a state level for LGBTQ rights.

I feel that there is a difference between legislators having a conversation about you compared to having a conversation with you, and I think it changes the tone of the debate," they told the Daily Montanan in June. "I think we both have the intention of getting in and fighting hard for the rights of queer and trans Montanans.

11. Maxwell Frost, first Gen Z member of Congress

Giorgio Viera / AFP via Getty Images

As the former national organizing director at March for Our Lives who has worked on three presidential campaigns, Maxwell Frost is no stranger to politics. Now, at 25, he's finally old enough to become a member of Congress, and he's the first of his generation to do so  and the first Afro Cubano elected to Congress in US history.

The progressive activist beat Republican Calvin Wimbish, a 51-year-old Army veteran, for one of Florida's seats in the House of Representatives. And he hasn't even finished college yet.

"WE WON!!!!" Frost tweeted after his victory was announced. "History was made tonight. We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the United States Congress."

12. Leigh Finke, first openly trans elected legislator in Minnesota

Leigh Finke / Via leighformn.com

Democrat Leigh Finke handily defeated her Republican opponent to become Minnesota's first openly trans elected legislator.

I dont really think that much about the historicity of being the first person to do it as much as I think about the importance on the individual level of trans young people and trans people having somebody who represents them in the government, Finke told the Minnesota Reformer in a June interview. That, to me, is really where I get emotional.

The 41-year-old documentary filmmaker and longtime activist is one of the 11 openly LGBTQ candidates who ran for the Minnesota Legislature and won their elections Tuesday, according to Victory Fund.

"Many stories will be written about Minnesotas elections. One undeniable story is the rise of Queer Political Power. 11 LGBTQ Candidates for the legislature: 11 victories," Finke tweeted. "In those 11 victories are many firsts. Let's. Make. Trouble. Onward!"

13. Austin Davis, first Black lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania

Mark Makela / Getty Images

Filling the position previously occupied by US Sen.-elect John Fetterman, Austin Davis will be the first Black lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. At 33, he'll also be the youngest person in the state to ever hold the office.

The current state representative, alongside Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro, who selected Davis as his running mate, defeated the Trump-endorsed Republicans Doug Mastriano and Carrie DelRosso to keep the state's executive branch in the hands of Democrats. Mastriano is a far-right extremist who suggested that women who violated a proposed six-week abortion ban should be charged with murder.

"Elect me Lieutenant Governor and Ill proudly go to Harrisburg with @JoshShapiroPA to defend reproductive freedom, protect our democracy, and move our communities forward on day one," Davis tweeted on Tuesday afternoon before polls closed.

14. Katie Britt, Alabamas first elected woman US senator

Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Alabama has elected its first woman US senator in Katie Britt. The state has had two women senators before, both Democrats who were appointed to fill the role.

The Trump-endorsed Republican previously served as chief of staff for Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, whom she is set to replace when he retires at the end of this term. It'll be her first time holding an elected office, and at 40, shell be one of the younger members of the Senate.

No one will work harder than me in the United States Senate, Britt told supporters at her victory party, according to PBS. I am going to listen to you, not lecture you. I know that every one of you is not going to agree with me on every single issue, and thats OK. Im going to be working for all Alabamians.

15. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, first elected woman governor in Arkansas

Will Newton / AP

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as press secretary and communications director for Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019, will be the first woman governor of Arkansas.

Her father, Republican Mike Huckabee, was governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. Sanders will also be the first daughter in US history elected governor of the same state as her father.

This election is about taking Arkansas to the top, Sanders said in her acceptance speech Tuesday. I know that Arkansas can be first, and Im committed to being the leader who takes us there.

The 40-year-old briefly took time away from the campaign trail in September after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She returned weeks later, saying that after a successful surgery, she is now cancer-free.

16. Aruna Miller, first Indian American and first immigrant elected lieutenant governor of Maryland

Rob Carr / Getty Images

Wes Moore isnt the only person making history in Marylands executive branch this election  Democrat Aruna Miller, 58, became the first immigrant to be elected lieutenant governor in the state. She's also the first Indian American woman to be elected lieutenant governor in the country.

Alongside Moore, former Maryland state Rep. Miller took over the office previously held by Republicans.

"Ever since I came to this country in 1972, I've never stopped being excited for the promise of America. I will never stop fighting to make sure that promise is available to everyone," Miller wrote in a victory tweet. "And this promise begins with a commitment to deliver a Maryland where we Leave No One Behind."

17. Alex Padilla, first Latino elected to represent California in the US Senate

Ethan Swope / Getty Images

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who was appointed to fill Kamala Harris's seat when she became vice president, just won a full term of his own. He'll be the first Latino elected to Congress to represent California.

The 49-year-old technically appeared twice on the ballot  once to complete his appointed term that ends in January, and again to serve for six years after that in the Senate. He previously served as the secretary of state of California from 2015 to 2021.

We have a hell of a fight ahead of us, and Im heading back to the Senate ready to help lead that fight, Padilla said at a Democratic election party Tuesday night, according to the LA Times.

18. Nabilah Islam and Ruwa Romman, first Muslim women elected as state representatives in Georgia

Nabilah Islam, left; Ruwa Romman, right Nabilah Islam / Via nabilahislam.com , Ruwa Romman / Via ruwa4georgia.com

Democrats Nabilah Islam and Ruwa Romman just became the first Muslim women elected to the Georgia state Legislature.

Islam, who was elected to the state Senate, picked up a redistricted seat previously held by Republicans. The 32-year-old small business owner and community organizer is the daughter of immigrants from Bangladesh. She ran for US Congress in 2020; though she was defeated ahead of the primary, she was dubbed the "AOC" of the Atlanta area.

"Our community is one the most diverse in GA, its important that leaders understand our lived experiences b/c representation matters. I will fight for you everyday in the State Senate, we cant wait for change," she wrote in a tweet announcing her candidacy for the state Legislature in January.

Romman, 29, was elected to the Georgia Statehouse. The consultant, who was born in Jordan, is the first Palestinian elected to hold any public office in the state. On Tuesday night, she tweeted: "We did it yall. We made history in Georgia!"

19. Robert Garcia, first openly LGBTQ immigrant in Congress

Medianews Group / MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Robert Garcia won a US House seat in California, becoming the first openly LGBTQ immigrant elected to Congress.

"Mom, we did it," he tweeted to announce his victory on Tuesday. He dedicated his campaign to his late mother, who died of complications from COVID-19 during the early stages of the pandemic.

My mom brought me to this country when I was 5. She risked everything so that I could succeed, Garcia, now 44, wrote in a tweet when he announced his congressional campaign. Every single kid deserves the same shot that this country has given me.

Garcia served as mayor of Long Beach, California, for eight years. He'll fill the seat of Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal, who is retiring. He'll be the second openly LGBTQ Latino to serve in Congress.

More on this
Even if the Republican gains in Congress fall within the historical norms for the out-of-power party in a midterm election, history was made in a number of races on Tuesday.

As soon as the polls closed in Maryland and Massachusetts, both states gubernatorial races were called for groundbreaking candidates. In Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore will become the first Black governor in the states history, and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, also a Democrat, is the first woman elected governor in the Bay State. She also will be the first openly gay woman to serve as governor of any state. (Massachusetts previously had a female acting governor, Jane Swift, who finished former Gov. Paul Celluccis first full term after Cellucci, a Republican, resigned to serve as ambassador to Canada under then-President George W. Bush.)

Gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore at a rally on the eve of his victory, Nov. 7. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Salem, Mass., Mayor Kim Driscoll will serve as Healeys lieutenant governor, making them the first women to serve as governor and lieutenant governor of the same state. Massachusetts also elected Democrat Andrea Campbell to be its first Black woman to serve as state attorney general.

In Vermont, Democrat Becca Balint defeated Republican Liam Madden in the states at-large congressional race and will become the first gay member of Vermonts congressional delegation.

Becca Balint, D-Vt., has been elected to the House of Representatives. (Becca Balint/Handout via Reuters)

In Arkansas, the Republican nominee for governor, former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was declared the winner by the Associated Press, making her the first woman to be elected governor of that state. Sanders is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is the new governor of Arkansas. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The Senate race in Alabama has been called for Republican Katie Britt, who won the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby. Britt  who had once served Shelby as his chief of staff  is the first woman elected to the Senate from Alabama. (Two women previously represented Alabama in the Senate, but both were appointed to fill vacancies and never won election.)

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Republican Senate candidate Katie Britt. (AP)

In an otherwise rough night for Florida Democrats, Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old gun control activist, won the race to succeed Rep. Val Demings in a congressional district that includes Orlando. Frost, the first Generation Z member of Congress, has said that he plans to focus on other issues of importance besides gun control, such as climate change and affordable housing.

Maxwell Frost, the victorious Democratic congressional candidate for District 10 in Florida. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

In New Hampshire, Democrat James Roesener became the first transgender man elected to a state legislature in U.S. history.

And in Pennsylvania's 12th District, Democratic congressional nominee Summer Lee is expected to become the first Black woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress. Her Republican opponent Mike Doyle has conceded the race and Lee has declared victory, as she is ahead by roughly 17 percentage points with three-quarters of the votes counted in the heavily Democratic district.
(Bloomberg) -- Nearly one-third of Hong Kongers who applied for a new route to British citizenship were under 18, the South China Morning Post reported, reflecting a population exodus in the citys next generation of workers.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Of the 142,000 Hong Kongers who have applied for the British National (Overseas) visa program, 38,600 were in this age bracket, according to official figures obtained by the newspaper published Wednesday. Just 16% of those requests were filed from the UK, the report added.

The next largest demographic was Hong Kongers between the prime earning ages of 35 and 44, who accounted for 32,600 applications, Home Office statistics showed.

READ: Thousands More Hong Kongers Seek BNO as City Keeps Covid Curbs

The UK government launched the program in January 2021, after Beijing imposed a national security law on the former British colony. Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the move as a serious breach of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that guaranteed Hong Kongers certain freedoms for 50 years. As of June, 133,124 people have been approved for the visa, according to the SCMP.

Young people were at the forefront of the anti-government dissent that rocked Hong Kong in 2019, and which China has since sought to silence with sweeping security legislation. Some 230 pro-democracy activists, journalists and former opposition lawmakers have since been arrested by national security police, while authorities have revamped the local education system to emphasize patriotism to China.

That political turmoil coupled with years of strict Covid curbs have sparked a population exodus in Hong Kong. About 121,500 residents left in the year ending June 30, the largest outflow in at least six decades. Those departures have shrunk the labor force to near a record low, threatening the pandemic recovery of the financial hub of about 7.4 million people.

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Last month, the UK government extended the eligibility for the program to younger people with at least one parent with BNO status.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Tensions between the government of Syria and former opposition armed groups led to two government-initiated sieges in Daraa Governorate. In addition, local As-Sweida militias mobilized to dismantle two government-backed militias in the governorate. A significant increase in conflict-related activity was reported in northwest Syria. Government forces increased the use of artillery shelling.

The already complex and harrowing conflict in Syria saw a deterioration across the country between July and September 2022.

The above map shows conflict between Turkish armed forces and Turkish-backed armed opposition groups, the SDF, and the SNA from July through September 2022. The largest bubble represents 21 conflict events. Data from The Carter Center and ACLED.

The dire humanitarian situation worsened as a major cholera outbreak spread throughout Syria.

International isolation and sectoral sanctions are exacerbating the deterioration of vital infrastructure and decreasing the ability to respond to health crises. Further, punitive measures are contributing to the crowding out of legitimate economic activity and shoring up an increasingly illicit economy and narco-trade, benefiting those in power.

Civilians, especially children, continued to be impacted by the high volume of unexploded ordnance in Syria. At least seven children were killed by explosive remnants in one week in just one region.

There were several notable security developments during the third quarter of 2022:

The quarter saw a significant reduction in Russian airstrikes on northwest Syria. Despite Turkish rhetoric of a possible new invasion, the overall level of conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) decreased as Turkey relied on drones to eliminate SDF figures.

The SDF undertook a new operation in the Al-Hol displaced-persons camp to clear out Islamic State group (ISIS) cells. However, ISIS continues to pose a threat to nearly all parties in Syria. Tensions between the various factions in the conflict have allowed ISIS to persist and move across various areas of control.

The SDF undertook a new operation in the Al-Hol displaced-persons camp to clear out Islamic State group (ISIS) cells. However, ISIS continues to pose a threat to nearly all parties in Syria. Tensions between the various factions in the conflict have allowed ISIS to persist and move across various areas of control. Government forces besieged the towns of Tafas and Jasim in Daraa Governorate, demonstrating the continued instability in the south.

Security developments in Syria continue to pose a threat to regional stability; the international community should devote attention to furthering the prospects for sustainable peace. As international attention shifts toward other high-profile crises, continued violence and the extensive destruction and deterioration of vital infrastructure are putting the Syrian people under huge strain.

Given the sustained political deadlock, it is important to keep attention on Syria and to adopt policies aimed at laying the ground for a long-term solution while reducing the suffering of the Syrian people, avoiding new outflows of refugees and the outbreak of disease, and combating violent extremism. U.S. and European policies need to evolve beyond the current impasse to help prevent future crises, human suffering, partition, and destabilization of the region.

Additionally, it is important to consider the need for early recovery interventions across Syria. This is crucial for combating the cholera outbreak and other such crises that will inevitably arise in the future. Emergency aid cannot keep up with the damage and degeneration of vital infrastructure.

The Carter Centers full quarterly update on Syria is available as a PDF and as an interactive map.

Related

Learn more about the Center's Support for Peace in Syria project 

Learn more about the Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program 
Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (SGX:H78) as an investment opportunity by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. Our analysis will employ the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for Hongkong Land Holdings

Step By Step Through The Calculation

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$977.0m US$1.05b US$1.10b US$1.14b US$1.18b US$1.21b US$1.25b US$1.28b US$1.30b US$1.33b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x2 Analyst x2 Est @ 4.94% Est @ 4.02% Est @ 3.37% Est @ 2.92% Est @ 2.6% Est @ 2.38% Est @ 2.22% Est @ 2.11% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 10% US$887 US$861 US$820 US$774 US$726 US$678 US$631 US$587 US$544 US$504

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$7.0b

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We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 1.9%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 10%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$1.3b (1 + 1.9%)  (10% 1.9%) = US$16b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$16b ( 1 + 10%)10= US$6.2b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$13b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of US$4.2, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 29% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

The Assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Hongkong Land Holdings as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 10%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.358. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Moving On:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price sitting below the intrinsic value? For Hongkong Land Holdings, we've compiled three essential items you should further examine:

Risks: Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with Hongkong Land Holdings , and understanding this should be part of your investment process. Future Earnings: How does H78's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Singaporean stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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A recent video of a Houston couple has gone viral for discussing why they implemented a dress code for guests of their popular eatery.

Lynn and Nakia Price are the owners of the Turkey Leg Hut (TLH), a popular restaurant in Houston, Texas. The couple launched their business in 2015 at the Houston Rodeo to introduce people to their one-of-a-kind turkey legs. Since their debut, the demand for their tasty turkey legs quickly grew, so they decided to open a restaurant. Due to TLHs popularity, celebrities like Kevin Hart, Stephen Jackson, Deion Sanders and more have stopped by the location.

In a recent interview clip from the Get Yo Ass Up Show, hosted by real estate expert Tony Robinson, better known as Tony the Closer, the power couple shared what led them to create a dress code for their thriving business.

Please let me break down this dress code, Nakia started. The dress code was implemented simply because in all of the years we have been in business, we never had to implement a dress code. Weve never had to tell people how to act. We never had to do anything like that.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by @getyoassupshow

Over the last few years, some of the attire guests chose to wear while eating at the restaurant slowly became an issue.

Now it had came to point where you have people coming in just wearing any and everything. And you can visibly see other customers bothered by what these people have on. As a man [referring to her husband], he was like damn, Nakia said.

She continued, A lot of times people say, Oh, she implemented the dress code because she didnt want her n***a looking at women  it was him. It was his idea, she said pointing at her husband.

And with a wide range of guests, Lynn noticed the way some of their customers were dressed started to disturb others dining in, especially families with children.

You bring your child in there and the child looks and says, Mommy, Ive seen it where we sit, and they look at the daddy, Lynn chimed in.

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Our kids come to the restaurant from time to time and you got women with no clothes on, and they just sitting there and they twerking, Nakia added. Its like, what happened to our self-respect as women.

Thats when Lynn, a father himself, decided to establish and enforce a dress code in July 2021, which they shared on their social media platforms.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Turkey Leg Hut & Company (@turkeyleghut)

The post was met with mostly positive and some negative feedback from commenters.

Thank you for enforcing a dress code! A lot of people these days, are just not trained right. Im glad you all are speaking up and teaching them, said one.

What amazes me are the negative comments. When did it become appropriate to wear the majority of these items to a restaurant? Secondly, when did we start calling an establishment bougie for requesting a dress code? A place of business has every right to reset and reestablish standards for their establishment. Either you get with it or dont patronize it anymore, another added.

Yall established yourselves as a place of business that partakes in trap music, hookahs, mixed drinks, etc but all of a sudden, yall are above the crowd that made your establishment popular, one disagreed.

Do you agree with restaurants enforcing fair dress codes so their guests feel comfortable?
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary's parliament will discuss the ratification of Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO during its autumn session after a series of EU-related bills have been passed, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Wednesday.

"Finland and Sweden are our allies and they can count on us," Gergely Gulyas told a briefing.

Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance who have not cleared the accession.

"Our aim is that parliament should ratify their application before the end of this year ... we have always said we supported the ratification," Gulyas said, in reply to a question.

Orban's government had submitted the relevant bills in mid-July, but parliament, in which his ruling Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority, has still not tabled the two bills for debate and approval.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary's Minister for Technology and Industry Laszlo Palkovics has resigned ahead of a planned transfer of the energy portfolio to a new energy ministry, news website index.hu reported on Wednesday.

Reuters could not independently verify the information.

"It is the Prime Minister who decides on members of his cabinet and if there is a change in the structure of the government, we will inform the public in due course," Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office said in response to a Reuters query.

Palkovics has held senior posts in Orban's government since 2014. His resignation would be a rare cabinet departure during Orban's 12-year tenure, but does not pose a threat to the stability of the government.

Palkovics has overseen the energy sector, including the planned expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, industries, mining and environmental issues, among other areas.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Alison Williams and Tomasz Janowski)
NextShark is proud to announce the Hurun Report America U30 Summit 2022 and Gala Dinner taking place in Los Angeles this month.

Hurun Report has long been known as Asias leader in ranking the worlds wealthiest individuals and documenting the movements of both influential and emerging industries.

On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, local and state politicians along with founders and CEOs of the worlds leading companies and organizations will gather at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Beverly Hills, California to recognize outstanding achievements and individuals who have moved and shook the world this past year.

Featured awardees include Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, DoorDash founders Andy Fang and Stanley Tang, Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey and more.

More from NextShark: Pfizer defends exclusion of Asian and white applicants in fellowship, says its non-discriminatory

Speakeasy co-founder Chris Max and Real Hype Creative Technology founder and CEO Erica Yang will host the event with featured guests including California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, founding partner of First Spark Ventures Manish Kothar, VeChain CEO Sunny Lu, Goldman Sachs Managing Director Kathy Park, and much more.

From 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., panel discussions on some of the business worlds most important issues will take place:

More from NextShark: Elon Musk opens Tesla showroom in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

From 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., attendees will network as arriving guests are welcomed.

Then, beginning at 6:00 p.m., registration for the Starry Night Awards Ceremony Gala Dinner will commence with the ceremony and live performances running from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

More from NextShark: Apple releases special edition AirPods Pro to celebrate Year of the Tiger

Get your ticket now to attend one of the most important gatherings for entrepreneurship and venture capital of 2022! Follow the link for more details on ticket pricing, the event itinerary and more.

More from NextShark: Pfizer excludes Asian, white applicants from 9-year scholarship program
Update: On Nov. 9, Dr. Caitlin Bernard and Dr. Amy Caldwell asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction that would freeze Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's investigation and subpoenas while the lawsuit goes forward. "There is a serious risk that patient identities could be disclosed to the public, which could subject them to harassment based on their most sensitive medical information," attorney Kathleen DeLaney said in a statement. Katlyn Milligan, a spokesperson for Rokita's office, said in a statement Wednesday that "patient privacy is the foundation of medical ethics," and that the office "will proceed to seek the truth no matter the attempts to push (Bernard's) narrative."

An Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist thrust into the national spotlight on abortion this year is suing to stop Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita from allegedly relying on "frivolous" consumer complaints to issue subpoenas over confidential medical records.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who attracted national attention after she told IndyStar she provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim, and her medical partner Dr. Amy Caldwell claim in their lawsuit Rokita's office has sent subpoenas for medical records of patients who never filed complaints to the attorney general's office.

They're asking a Marion County court to stop his investigation because his acts violate "numerous Indiana statutes," according to a complaint that was provided to IndyStar.

"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," attorneys for the two doctors wrote.

Rokita's office said in a prepared statement Thursday it investigates "thousands of potential licensing, privacy, and other violations a year."

Story continues

"A majority of the complaints we receive are, in fact, from nonpatients," the statement continues. "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.

The lawsuit comes months after Bernard's attorney Kathleen DeLaney said they had received a letter about an investigation by Rokita's office into consumer complaints against the doctor. DeLaney said in a past statement the complaints were "riddled with inaccuracies and rely on no first-hand knowledge."

IndyStar requested information on the complaints from Rokita's office. Those requests were denied in September, but the lawsuit filed Thursday by Bernard and Caldwell describe what some of them said.

Complaints against Bernard came during media storm

Seven people filed consumer complaints against Bernard to the Indiana Attorney General's Office between July 8 and July 12, according to the lawsuit.

Her attorneys say they were submitted by people who read or saw news stories about Bernard after the IndyStar story describing the 10-year-old patient went viral. No one claimed to have received care by either Bernard or Caldwell.

"Most of the complaints were submitted by individuals who did not claim to reside in Indiana," the lawsuit states.

One complaint said Bernard "kept knowledge of the rape of a 10 year old from authorities." In July, however, the Indiana Department of Health provided IndyStar a copy of a termination of pregnancy report filled out by Bernard that confirmed she did report the abortion, and alerted the state that the 10-year-old had suffered abuse.

The complaint listed Bernard's phone number as "555555555."

Another complaint from a resident in Ohio accused Bernard of spreading false information by relating the anecdote of the 10-year-old to media. They pointed to statements by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who questioned the integrity of Bernard's story when he said on Fox News his office had not heard "a whisper" of a report being filed for the 10-year-old victim.

"As a citizen of Ohio I feel that this misinformation (aka LIE) harmed my State's image AND is a malicious act intended to harm people such as myself that hold a pro-life position," the complaint read.

They said they had "personally experienced hostility against me" in connection with Bernard's comments. "If I am continued to be harrassed (sic) in this manner I will be filing a personal injury case against Dr. Bernard."

But in the weeks after IndyStar published the story on Bernard, authorities in Ohio charged a man with rape in connection with the 10-year-old. Columbus police were informed of the girl's pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mom June 22.

In another complaint against Bernard, the individual was asked in the complaint form, "What was the very first contact between you and the Individual/Business?"

Their response: "Reported in the US Media and President of the United States."

"The consumer complaints that gave rise to the 'investigation' of Dr. Bernard were filed by individuals who patently lacked any personal knowledge of the allegations contained therein, and who therefore could not verify the accuracy of those allegations under penalty of perjury," lawyers wrote in Thursday's lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Rokita's office has previously said the attorney general's authority to look into doctors like Bernard is intentionally broad and found throughout state and federal law."

It includes but isnt limited to authority to investigate both state and federal privacy violations, consumer complaint issues, and it includes jurisdiction over licensed professionals including physicians," the spokesperson said.

Rokita can ask the state's medical licensing board to discipline a doctor if a consumer has made a substantiated complaint against them. Bernard doesn't have any record of disciplinary actions, according to state records. Nor have any legal actions been taken against her in state or federal court.

Call IndyStar courts reporter Johnny Magdaleno at 317-273-3188 or email him at jmagdaleno@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @IndyStarJohnny

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Abortion doctor files new request to freeze Indiana AG investigation
The 2022 midterm election kicked off across the U.S. on Tuesday and Indiana polls were open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

IndyStar reporters have continued to provide live updates throughout the day and evening as ballots were cast and votes are counted.

11 p.m.  Conservative, 'anti-CRT' school board candidates sweep in Hamilton County

Conservative candidates vying for seats on local school boards in Hamilton County grabbed majority control in one district and picked up seats in two others, according to final, unofficial returns.

A slate of four conservative candidates looking to secure the majority on the Hamilton Southeastern school board swept their opponents Tuesday night. Juanita Albright, Dawn Lang, Ben Orr and Tiffany Pascoe ran together as a slate of like-minded candidates in opposition to the district's current leadership and priorities. They won decisively; the slimmest margin of victory was more than 14 points.

The races for three seats and the majority on the Carmel Clay Schools board have been hotly contested and, at times, ugly. Candidates have accused each other of unfair attacks and of damaging campaign materials. A slate of three conservative candidates were down in early voting, but the margin narrowed as Election Day returns were tallied.

More:'We're not giving up': Failed 'anti-CRT' legislation fueling school board races

According to unofficial results Tuesday night, one of those candidates secured a seat on the board. Greg Brown beat Jake Nichols by 104 votes  less than 1 point.

The other two candidates on the conservative slate running with Brown, Adam Sharp and Jenny Brake, lost by similarly narrow margins.

-Arika Herron

10:15 p.m.  Diego Morales claims victory in race for Indiana Secretary of State

Republican Diego Morales has claimed victory in the race for Indiana secretary of state, though the Associated Press has not yet called the race.

"The truth always prevails," he said to a small, but loud and standing crowd. "Let me say that again: The truth always prevails."

Story continues

Diego Morales, Indianas new Secretary of State, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, during a GOP election night event at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis.

Wells took the stage at the Democratic watch party to acknowledge the loss. In a foreboding speech, she devoted her time to talking about what lies ahead for Indiana in the next four years.

Its very serious, she said. We were on the precipice of something amazing  an amazing opportunity for Indiana with this office. We were about to flip Indiana blue for the first time in a decade, but we fell a little short. Now it is upon you, Hoosiers, who will be charged with securing our elections because our next secretary of state is going to need all of our help in a very big way.

As of 10:15 p.m., Morales has 55% of the vote, Wells has 39% and Libertarian James Maurer has 6%.

10 p.m.  Andrea Hunley gives victory speech in State Senate race

After Thomas McDermotts loss to Sen. Todd Young, Democrats had a reason to celebrate: Andrea Hunley declared victory in the State Sen. District 46 race, beating Republican Evan Shearin.

With 27% of the votes counted, Hunley has 74% of the vote.

Before a jubilant crowd at the Democratic watch party at Nevermore, Hunley stood before the podium, pointing out traditionally under-represented groups.

Andrea Hunley, Democratic candidate for Indiana State Senate District 46, delivers a victory speech during the Indiana Democrats election night watch party on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, at Nevermore Union Station in Indianapolis, Ind.

Women, we see you, and we stand with you in our fight for abortion rights and for health care she said. Our seniors who are on fixed incomes, we see you. Our children, we're fighting for climate change, we see you. Women and allies and moms who are out there fighting for common sense gun reform, we see you. Our LGBTQ friends and neighbors and family, we see you. And Black trans women, we see you. My brothers and sisters in the Muslim and Jewish communities, we see you. Latino, Latinx, we see you.

Hunley said she was proud to stand among Democrats who worked hard during the election cycle to connect with communities across Indiana. Looking out over the crowd, Hunley said Democrats want to make sure that government is held accountable and continues to represent everyone.

We elect candidates that look like us here in Indiana, she said. Little Black girls, this is for you.

-Alexandria Burris

9:30 p.m.  Cyndi Carrasco concedes Marion County prosecutor's race to Ryan Mears

Republican Cyndi Carrasco offered her congratulations to Democratic incumbent Ryan Mears in conceding the Marion County prosecutor's race. In doing so, she released the following statement:

"When we decided to run for Marion County Prosecutor, we knew this was an uphill climb. The odds were stacked against us running as a Republican in a blue county, but the stakes were too high not to try. Indianapolis and all of Marion County has experienced three years of record violence, and what we are doing is simply not working," her statement said.

"To Ryan Mears, I offer my congratulations, and hope you will take the trust voters have placed in you to make much-needed changes in our criminal justice system. To my family and friends, to all of our dedicated supporters, and to everyone weve met along this journey, thank you. Our efforts were not in vain, and Im hopeful for Marion County, Carrasco said in her statement.

Cyndi Carrasco is the Marion County Republican Party's pick for the 2022 prosecutor race.

A spokesperson for Carrasco said she would not be making further public statements Tuesday night.

I am truly grateful for the trust that voters have placed in me tonight, reads a statement from Mears. And Im ready to keep building a justice system worthy of the communitys trust. I will continue to strive to be a prosecutor for the people. Weve never shied away from the tough calls, because its always the right time to do the right thing.

In Hamilton County, Republican Greg Garrison appears headed for a victory, holding 57% of the vote against Democrat Jessica Paxson as of 8:55 p.m.

At about 9:30 p.m., Paxson said she called Republican Garrison to concede.

"I congratulated him and told him he inherited a great office," Paxson said.

9:15 p.m.  State senate race called for Kyle Walker

The Associated Press has called Senate District 31, one of the more competitive Indiana statehouse races, for incumbent Republican Kyle Walker.

Kyle Walker, the Republican incumbent for State Senate in District 31, tours NeuroHope therapy clinic and wellness center Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, in Lawrence, Indiana. Walker is running against Fishers City Councilor Jocelyn Vare in a race that is polling closely.

Walker has raised $1 million this year, a surprisingly high number for a Statehouse candidate, in part due to a huge lift from the Senate Republican caucus. He faced a challenge from at-large Fishers City Councilwoman Jocelyn Vare.

9 p.m.  Several congressional seats called; Mrvan ahead in closely watched race

The Associated Press has called several U.S. Congressional races.

Indiana election results: Get the latest live results here from local and state races

These include victories for Republican Rudy Yakym in the 2nd Congressional District, replacing the late Rep. Jackie Walorski; Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Banks in District 3; Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Baird in District 4; Republican U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz in District 5; Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Pence in District 6; and Democratic U.S. Rep. Andre Carson in District 7.

Meanwhile, in the 1st U.S. House district that is being closely watched by Republicans nationwide, Democratic incumbent Frank Mrvan has a 14-percentage-point lead over Republican challenger Jennifer-Ruth Green.

8:35 p.m.  Thomas McDermott concedes US Senate race to Sen. Todd Young

Obviously I didnt want this to turn out the way it did today. pic.twitter.com/A1GIC8PEA8  Alexandria Burris (@AllyBurris) November 9, 2022

Thomas McDermott, the democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, told gatherers at the Democratic watch party in downtown Indianapolis that he called Republican Sen. Todd Young to concede the race.

This comes shortly after the Associated Press officially called the race for Young.

Surrounded by supporters in T-shirts and carrying signs, McDermott thanked supporters, family and friends. The night did not go the way he wanted. Still, he urged his supporters to support Young.

Tom McDermott, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana, delivers a concession speech during the Indiana Democrats election night watch party on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, at Nevermore Union Station in Indianapolis, Ind. McDermott is predicted to lose the race to Sen. Todd Young.

Obviously, I didnt want it to turn out he way that it did today, but now that it did turn out his way, I want you all to know that its imperative that we get behind Sen. Young and support him and try to move American forward because we lot of problems in this country," McDermott said. "We got a lot of problems in this state. We need our elected leaders in Washington DC to do a great job for us.

Young, meanwhile, is giving a victory speech at the Republican watch party at the JW Marriott.

"It's tempting to think of election nights like this as the end of something," Young said. "This is the beginning of something new."

"The only way to Make America Great Again is from the ground up" - Todd Young, referencing trump in the first minute of his victory speech.  Binghui Huang (@Binghuihuang) November 9, 2022

8:20 p.m.  Ryan Mears leads Marion County prosecutors race

Incumbent Democrat Ryan Mears has taken an early lead over Republican Cyndi Carrasco in the race for Marion County prosecutor.

Mears, as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, has earned 58% of the votes so far, with 22% of voting centers reporting returns. Carrasco has earned 41% of votes.

Meanwhile, in Hamilton County, former radio talk show host Greg Garrison is holding an early lead in the race for prosecutor. Republican Garrison had tallied 54% of the vote against Democrat Jessica Paxson, with 40 of 217 precincts reporting.

8 p.m.  Democratic watch party sees speeches by U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett

More than an hour after the polls closed in Indiana, Congressman Andre Carson walked into the Democratic Party's election watch party to deliver one of the first speeches of the night. The party is taking place at Nevermore, all-encompassing entertainment venue, restaurant and bar on Meridian Street in Downtown Indianapolis.

An incumbent running to retain his seat, Carson was surrounded by well-wishers, waiting to shake his hand or take a picture. They cheered as some waved campaign signs.

Hogsett took the podium before him and introduced Carson, calling the Congressman "a legend."

Carson, Hogsett said, has worked with Democrats in Washington to deliver the American Rescue Plan, a bipartisan infrastructure law that invests in roads and bridges and tackling inflation. Hogsett called Carson a tireless advocate and someone with the heart to do the right thing.

But there are no celebrations yet.

"While the margin will settle over the coming hours, it's clear that Indianapolis voters know who can deliver for them in Washington DC," he said.

To cheers, Carson thanked his campaign staff and referenced the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Thats the one place he and his colleagues thought was sacred, he said, retelling the story of the insurrection.

Congressman Andre Carson just walked in. He is surrounded by supporters and is expected to speak soon, along with Mayor Joe Hogsett. pic.twitter.com/q6Ey3uYiOI  Alexandria Burris (@AllyBurris) November 9, 2022

In an empty building with broken glass and debris, then piece by piece, brick by brick, we started to rebuild our democracy, he said to applause. Thats what tonight is all about. We have to rebuild again. Win or lose, we need to tell every person who voted today, and who didnt vote today, that they shouldnt give up. Our party has the best message. Our party has the best agenda. Our party represents the true values of the American people. Our party represents Hoosiers values.

Movements, Carson said, are not created behind computer screens or by sitting at home. They are created when we do the work, and you all have done the work today, he said.

-Alexandria Burris

7:40 p.m.  Early projections call U.S. Senate race for Todd Young

CBS, NBC and ABC are calling the Indiana's U.S. Senate race for Republican Sen. Todd Young, though just 12% of the votes have been counted, not including Marion County's.

So far, Young has 62% of the vote, compared to Democrat Thomas McDermott's 35% and Libertarian James Sceniak's 3%.

Sen. Todd Young is expected to speak at the GOP event in the next 30 minutes or so. National outlets have called the election for him. Campaign signs are being handed out and the chatter is getting louder. The room is starting to fill up with donors and campaign staff.  Binghui Huang (@Binghuihuang) November 9, 2022

7 p.m.  With polls closed, some early results trickle in

The Republican party is showing some early leads in key state races so far.

With about 2% of the vote counted, Republican Diego Morales has 49% of the vote for Indiana secretary of state, while Democrat Destiny Wells has 48% of the vote and Libertarian James Maurer has 3% of the vote.

More:Indiana election: Republicans have early leads in auditor, treasurer & secretary of state races

In the race for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat, Republican Sen. Todd Young has a comfortable margin over Democratic challenger Thomas McDermott and Libertarian candidate James Sceniak.

With about 4% of the votes counted, Young has 58% of the vote, McDermott 39% and Sceniak 3%.

Republican Auditor Tera Klutz has an early lead in her reelection bid against Democrat ZeNai Brooks and Libertarian John Schick. With about 2% of the vote counted, Klutz has 59% of the vote, Brooks has 39% and Schick has 2% of the vote.

Republican Daniel Elliott, the chair of the Morgan County Republican Party, has an early lead against Democrat Jessica McClellan, the Monroe County treasurer, on the ballot for state treasurer. With about 2% of the vote counted, Elliott has 52% of the vote and McClellan has 47% of the vote.

6 p.m.  Abortion and crime are key issues for voters in West side Indianapolis

Inside the Roy G. Holland Memorial Park Building, a short line to show ID and access a voting machine formed just before polls closed at 6 p.m. As the sun dropped and temperatures lowered, a steady stream of voters moved in and out.

Dorothy Andrews, 75, of Fishers, is a regular voter who normally splits her choices between Democrats and Republicans. But this year, citing the abortion debate, economy and future of social programs, she selected a straight Democratic ticket.

"Medicare is a big one for me," Andrews said. Asked if she meant to protect the program's funding, she nodded. "At least until I die."

5:50 p.m.  Abortion and crime are key issues for voters in West side Indianapolis

Late Tuesday afternoon, voter traffic ticked up as the sun started to set on the west side of Indianapolis at Lakeview Church.

By 5 p.m., campaign volunteer Meredith Easley had logged 11 hours. Shed been there since before sunrise.

Id say theres been about 600 voters, she said. The age skews older. I havent seen anyone under 21.

A Marine veteran accompanied by an oxygen tank walked by as she talked. So did a man on crutches, missing one leg.

Its sad, Easley said. I wish the young people could see how hard the old people whove been coming have to work just to get here.

Michael Hicks, 56, and his wife, Camille Hicks, 53, from nearby Speedway, voted here today. They had one particular issue in mind: crime.

Somebody tried to break in our house two months ago, Michael said. Theres no such thing as a decent neighborhood anymore.

Michael, an army veteran, voted straight Democrat. He hopes whoever is elected will increase police presence in the area.

My neighbor just had a bullet shot through their window, he added. Its ridiculous.

On the younger end of the voting spectrum seen at Lakeview Church was Sabrina Martinez, 29, who lives less than five minutes away. She showed up to vote for the first time ever but was rejected.

They couldnt find me in the system, Martinez said. When they scanned my I.D., they couldnt find me.

Martinez said the inspector made a phone call to figure out what couldve gone wrong but said the phone just rang without anyone answering. He told her there was nothing he could do, she said, so she left.

Voting info:What to bring and how to vote in Indiana

I feel not necessarily disappointed but concerned, Martinez said, because how many other people did this happen to?

Abortion rights were the big issue that compelled her to the polls. She said she knows women whove been directly impacted by the change in law.

Id like to see abortion be legal again, Martinez said.

-Brandon Drenon

Indiana races to watch:It's election day. Here are Indiana races to watch

5:20 p.m.  Overturning of Roe V. Wade, education issues draw voters to IPS administration building

By late afternoon, the number of voters walking into the IPS administration building in downtown Indianapolis has slowed to a trickle.

Gregory Touney, 38, Indianapolis, thinks educators are underrepresented in the state legislature, which is why he voted for Andrea Tunley for state senator.

Tunley is a principal at the Center for Inquiry School 2, an IPS magnet school in the heart of downtown. She is running against Republican Evan Shearin for State Senate District 46, which encompasses downtown Indianapolis.

Touney said many of his neighbors know Tunley as their childrens principal and has heard only good things about her.

I think it would be great to send an educator to the statehouse, said Touney, who has two kids ages 2 and 10 months. The impression I get from people is that shes someone who has parents enthusiastic about her, who understands firsthand as an educator what issues are important.

Others, like several who voted Tuesday, said abortion is the single most important issue for them.

(The overturning of) Roe v Wade has a huge impact on maternal health across the state and across the country, said Cassandra Tice, 33, Indianapolis, who works in healthcare as a grant writer for IU Health.

Vivian Nayiga, 36, Indianapolis, said she prefers no government intervention when it comes to womens bodies.

I dont like that people are trying to tell women what to do with their bodies. Its their choice, said Nayiga, who said shes voting for a straight Democratic ticket.

-Kristine Phillips

4:50 p.m.  Steady stream in Hamilton County includes a House candidate

A trickle of voters moved through First Baptist Church, 1010 E. 126th St. in Carmel, at 12:30 p.m. Married couple Gene and Sandy Bone, 87 and 75, of Carmel, said they are regular voters and supporting the entire Republican slate in 2022.

"We were headed in the right direction, and now we're going the opposite," Sandy Bone said.

Bone said energy independence and rising costs were major concerns.

"Too many people are suffering," she said.

The Bones don't normally vote solely for one party, Sandy said, but did so on Tuesday.

Foot traffic was more sparse at nearby Chinese Community Church, 3405 E. 116th St., as only a handful of voters entered and exited between 1:15 and 1:30 p.m.

Just before 2 p.m., Jack Belbot, 59, of Carmel, voted at Faith Apostolic Church, 1212 E. 116th St. in Carmel. This year, he split his ticket. He was concerned about the economy, border security and energy independence.

Matt McNally, the Democratic challenger in Indiana House District 39, arrived at Faith Apostolic around 2 p.m. It was stop 18 in his plan to visit all 24 polling places within the district.

McNally said it was "hard to tell" how his race, one of the cycle's more intriguing in the statehouse, was going at this early juncture.

"It's all anecdotal, you know?" he said. "We've seen some posts on social media from people who are supporting us, but (in person) people are private about who they vote for."

He said his campaign contacted some 30,000 voters ahead of the election and knocked on one-third of the doors in the district.

Asked about the issues commonly cited by voters who spoke to IndyStar on election  the economy, abortion, energy independence  McNally said he believes the issues are all interconnected.

"Indiana needs to be a place that is good for business but also good for the employees of those businesses," McNally said. "Companies like Lilly have said we'll move if our employees can't access good health care and safe public schools. The state says we're going to ban abortion, and that affects the economy when people leave the state."

The stream through CrossRoads Church at Westfield, 19201 Grassy Branch Road, was fairly constant as of 3 p.m. A few dozen cars filled the parking lot, and voters entered or exited the building every minute or two.

Mandy Snyder, 40, of Westfield, said she had voted in every election since turning 18.

"It's how you express your opinion, which I like to do," Snyder said as she pushed a stroller containing her 1-year-old son, Cash.

She cited the economy and crime as reasons for voting, and she typically supported Republicans.

"I'm concerned about what's going on around me," Snyder said. "Crime has infiltrated our area, even up in Hamilton County. My Westfield moms group has posts about somebody stealing a wallet and things like that near where we live."

-Rory Appleton

4:30 p.m.  Some turnout updates from Central Indiana

Elections clerks in Central Indiana counties say this Election Day has been consistently busy and relatively smooth.

As of about 4:30p.m., 132,216 people have voted in Marion County, in addition to about 50,000 early in-person voters and just under 25,000 mail-in ballots, which are still tricking in, election board deputy director Brent Stinson said. All told, those votes would comprise about 30% of registered voters in the county.

In Boone County, 9,931 people have voted, with the only long line clerk Jessica Fouts is aware of being in Zionsville. This 36% turnout so far is lower than she expected, given that 56% turned out for the midterms in 2018, she said.

In Johnson County, 20,359 people have voted in person today. Elections Administrator Beth Sheller hasn't heard of any lines longer than 30 to 40 people, and most poll workers have told her they've been consistently busy all day. In Hancock County, 8,601 people have showed up today.

-Kayla Dwyer

3:30 p.m.  Abortion and crime pull voters in Fountain Square

For several voters who walked into the Indianapolis Fire Department station in Fountain Square Tuesday afternoon, abortion is the most pressing issue.

Caroline Clark, 30, Indianapolis, said she was really distraught after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending five decades of federal protection on abortion rights. Clark said she does not plan to have children, but several women in her family and circle of friends did not have the kind of independence she enjoys. Some of them, she said, had children at a young age, while others are stuck in abusive relationships.

Like Clark, Sharon Anton, 33, Indianapolis, voted for a straight Democratic ticket, with womens right to choose in mind.

I think theres a lot of major players in government that feel they have the right to make decisions for other people, Anton said. (Abortion) is a personal decision. The government has no place.

The issue is pressing not just to women.

Im tired of old white men thinking they can make choices for everybody, said Joseph Hofmeister, 30, Indianapolis.

Some have other things in mind.

Ossie Pryor, 89, Indianapolis, said she voted for Cyndi Carrasco for Marion County prosecutor because she thinks the Republican challenger will solve the citys rising crime problem.

Pryor, once a loyal Democrat, said shes particularly disappointed in Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears decision to not enforce the states red flag law against Brandon Scott Hole, who killed and injured several people at a FedEx facility last year. The gun control law allows law enforcement to take weapons from people deemed dangerous to themselves or to others. Police confiscated a gun from Hole because of suicidal threats months before the FedEx shooting, but Mears office decided to not move forward with red flag proceedings.

In one of the more controversial races, Pryor said she voted for Democrat Destiny Wells for secretary of state.

The other guy  he has some issues. Thats all I gotta' say, referring to the slew of controversies, including sexual assault allegations, against Republican candidate Diego Morales.

Kevin Anton, 32, Indianapolis, has a broader take. His hope this election season is to elect politicians who arent detached from reality. He said both parties are guilty of it, but one example is Republicans decision to vote against Donald Trumps impeachment despite evidence of wrongdoing by the former president.

Youre just not seeing whats in front of you, Anton said.

-Kristine Phillips

3:15 p.m.  Some tech issues cause long lines in Broad Ripple

One of the three printers that spat out ballots went down and a replacement printer also glitched, leading to some long waits at Broad Ripple High School today.

Mid morning, the line stretched down a hallway inside the school and into the parking lot. Some people were directed to other polling places which had shorter waits.

By early afternoon, the line outside had nearly disappeared but people still could expect to wait at least half an hour.

The longer wait at Broad Ripple High School did not deter voters. Susan Vaughn stepped into the school, saw the line and stepped right out. But Vaughn, 53, had no intention of not voting. The mother of two adult daughters, she said that wanted to vote to ensure that they would have full reproductive rights.

So Vaughn hopped in her car and drove to another polling place about two miles away where she was able to walk in and out.

Mark Anderson, 47, who last voted in the 2020 Presidential Election, stuck it out. That time, he said, he waited not one but two hours to vote.

-Shari Rudavsky

3 p.m.  Some colorful attire at Broad Ripple High School

In fourth grade, Larry Mitchell voted for Eisenhower in the classs mock election. But since then he has moved ever left. This year the 75-yer-old Broad Ripple resident did not hesitate as he voted the straight Democratic ticket.

Many people, he said as he exited Broad Ripple High School, will likely end up voting straight tickets.

Theres such an ideological split that you vote for parties, he said. I voted for the party thats happier and nicer.

Wearing a white t-shirt that proclaimed the phrase Makey Sensey, Jordan Hayes, 23, said the message was not meant to be a pointed one for the day.

Hayes, who said she voted the straight Democratic ticket at Broad Ripple High School, said she votes for two reasons: One, her parents always told her to do so and two, voting gives her the right to gripe.

I cant complain if I dont vote, Hayes said, whatever happens at least I said my piece.

Colin Saunders was doing more than saying his piece. He was wearing it. Decked out in shorts, sunglasses and a hat emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes, Saunders, 35, said this has been his go-to Election Day outfit since he turned 18.

Some people might assume given his sartorial choices that his ballot choice leaned Republican but Saunders said he typically votes for the Democratic candidates and did so this year with the Jan. 6th hearings, abortion and inflation top of mind.

Theres no monopoly on loving your country, he said. I just hope theres better days to come.

-Shari Rudavsky

2:05 p.m.  Warren Park Government Center is bustling

The Warren Park Government Center voting site is busy!



Lots of signs, lots of people out front passing out fliers for different candidates, and lots of voters going in and out. pic.twitter.com/BkCzgQKZhw  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

Brock Wagner, 32, and Jaris Wagner, 30, said they came out to vote today on the topic of abortion.

The Indianapolis couple said we think our baby is very, very super cute, so we voted pro-life. Their son Maccabee is 11 months old.

Brock Wagner, 32, and Jaris Wagner, 30, said they came out to vote today on the topic of abortion.



The Indianapolis couple said we think our baby is very, very super cute, so we voted pro-life.



Their son Maccabee is 11 months old. pic.twitter.com/E86dLDOtBI  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

Warren Park resident Gary Brewer, 66, said he is out to vote because its his right to do so and hes taking advantage of it.

There are a lot of changes going around, a lot of them negative, I think, so Im just trying to do something positive with my vote, he said.

Warren Park resident Gary Brewer, 66, said he is out to vote because its his right to do so and hes taking advantage of it.



There are a lot of changes going around, a lot of them negative, I think, so Im just trying to do something positive with my vote, he said. pic.twitter.com/FQdYpdEG6r  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

 Sarah Bowman

1:15 p.m.  Voting is duty for these Indianapolis residents

At the Sacred Heart Parish Hall, sisters Shirley Mitchell and Linda Walls emphasized the importance of having your voice heard.

"This is one of my duties," said Mitchell, 65, who lives near downtown.

For Walls, 63, she said: "I want the Democrats to get in there to win."

"Get out here and vote," Walls said. "Even if you aren't a Democrat," she added.

The issue of women's rights brought 67-year-old Sue Gilliatt to the voting center.

"I just wanted to support the candidates who support the majority's opinion," she said.

She also talked about the economy. The current economy's woes were not created by either political party, she said; instead, she pointed to the pandemic, which created supply chain issues.

"As far as the economy goes, it's like when you throw a rock into a puddle," she said. "It causes ripples."

Dave Ellis, 58, encouraged other voters to state their opinions by casting a ballot.

Though he's a Republican living in a red state, he said he still tends to split his ticket  including in the 2022 midterm election.

"I vote the issue and I vote the character of the person," said Ellis, who lives near downtown.

When asked what issues were important to him in this election, Ellis said: "The right to choose for women."

 Ryan Martin

12:45 p.m.  Voters in downtown Indy cite abortion, crime as major concerns

At the City-County Building in downtown Indianapolis, lines have been relatively short and fast-moving as voters slowly trickle in.

Queen Esther Ray, 67, Indianapolis voted for a straight Democratic ticket. As someone whos had an abortion herself, she said womens access to a safe and lawful abortion is one of the issues driving her. She cited the case of the 10-year-old girl from Ohio whose story became a flashpoint for a national conversation about abortion. The girl was raped and went to Indiana for an abortion.

Shell have no life if they made her keep that baby, Ray said. Shell be growing up with that baby.

The economy has also been top-of-mind for Ray. Its getting to be a big struggle to pay for food. Its ridiculous how much butter costs!

Democrats nationally have been facing headwinds ahead of the midterm elections because of rising prices, but that did not affect Rays support for the party.

Democrats still struggle, but I believe, long enough, theyll get it right, she said. It takes time.

Margo Rickter, over 40, lives in downtown Indianapolis, so crime and safety in the area are important to her. She cited the citys struggles to hire and retain police officers, as well as the need to fund not only public safety agencies but also places like the Wheeler Mission, which helps the citys homeless.

Rickter, who does not affiliate with any party, voted for Republican Cyndi Carrasco for Marion County prosecutor. Carrasco has blamed Democratic incumbent Ryan Mears for the citys rising surge in homicides and has criticized the sitting prosecutor for not being aggressive enough in enforcing laws.

Rickter, a single woman, said she wants the heart of the city to be safer.

Majority of my taxes go for things I would never use, like schools, which is okay, she said, adding that city officials should appropriate taxpayer dollars to make downtown safer, not only for someone like her but also for families with children.

 Kristine Phillips

12:45 p.m.  Over 40,000 voters in Hamilton County, no significant issues

As of around 12:15 p.m., 42,712 people had voted in Hamilton County on Tuesday, around 30% turnout, election administrator Beth Sheller told IndyStar.

Some locations had long lines, around 30 minutes, but otherwise things were going smoothly. They had to replace two machines, "which is pretty typical," Sheller said.

 Claire Rafford

12:40 p.m.  Updates from the Twittersphere

Over here in Avon checking out Radiant Bible Church where Hendricks County voters are casting their ballots. A polling volunteer here tells me early voting was the highest he's ever seen in his 20 years of working elections. A steady trickle of people here all day thus far. pic.twitter.com/vhInoHacuf  Mykal McEldowney (@mykalmphoto) November 8, 2022

Indianapolis resident Mark Smith, 66, said he used to be a strident pro-life supporter but now believes a womans body should be her own. Hes working as a Democratic volunteer at the Christian Park voting site. pic.twitter.com/FCkArbOXjI  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

Derek Austin grew up in Indy in the 70s before moving south after joining the armed services. He moved back to Indy a decade ago.



The 60-year-old said the state has stagnated and has gone back in time compared to cities he lived in Texas. Thats why hes voting today. pic.twitter.com/Hiz6o9f4YE  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

12:30 p.m.  Vote for Graciela's birthday

Graciela Macias is a third-year law student in Indy. Its her birthday today, and the 26-year-old said the greatest gift people could give her is to go vote.



Its not a choice for me to vote, its an obligation. People have died for the right to vote and gone to jail for it. pic.twitter.com/n4Wu5PzWmu  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

12:30 p.m.  Slow going at fire station on Indy's westside

Things were mostly quiet at the Indianapolis Fire Department Station 18 Tuesday morning, a voting center on Indianapolis west side.

Dozens of campaign signs sat lined up on each side of the walkway, leading toward the entrance. The American flag fluttered high above. Nearby, standing below, was Courtney Rice, 55, the lone campaign volunteer at the location and the only person in sight outside the firehouse at 9:15 a.m.

Hoping to bolster support for Jeb Bardon for Wayne Township Trustee, Rice said hed been there since 5:45.

Its been slow. Very slow, Rice said. Id be surprised if there were 75 people that voted here.

It was a stark contrast compared to what Rice said he heard the scene was like two years ago when a line of voters wrapped around the building for the presidential election.

Earnest Feather, 58, who lives less than a mile away, showed up to vote. This year, he said he was particularly surprised by the number of candidates up for election.

I think government has gotten way too big, Feather said. Ive never even heard of half the names on the ballot.

Feather voted Republican, concerned about inflation and the rising cost of daily expenses like food and gas. However, hes especially worried about crime.

These shootings and stuff just got to go, Feather said. Its getting ridiculous.

Respect for law enforcement has gone down, he added. The financial burdens everyone is going through right now. Its tough. Harder now than it used to be.

Over the years Feather has seen Indianapolis change and, according to him, not for the better. He said his vote is underlined by a desire to just see people happier.

Walking up to the polling site with her rescue dog, Bentley, a Shih Tzu-Yorkie, Lindsay Berlin, 35, did not have crime and inflation on the top of her priority list.

I care more about human rights and social justice, Berlin said, than how much I pay for taxes.

Women are dying because they dont have the right to choose what to do with their bodies.

Berlin said she votes with a hope to improve the lives of those in need, those who cant help themselves, and not about money.

She voted Democrat, as she has every year, she said, since her first election, voting for former President Obama in 2008. This year, though, Berlin said things feel different.

Theres so much division, Berlin said. Theres never been such a divide amongst peers, colleagues, family and friends.

 Brandon Drenon

12:30 p.m.  A midterm thats a pulse for the next election

Mickey Lentz, who lives in the Southport area, doesnt think this midterm feels different from others. But she does believe it will give an indication of whats to come in the next election.

You kind of know the pulse of the people and what theyre thinking and what party or person has risen to his or her potential and done something for the city, the state, the country, said Lentz, 81, outside the Indy Honda voting site off U.S. 31 and East Stop 12 Road. I think it gives us a chance to kind of weigh that in the next two years before the next presidential election.

First-time voter Paige Tucker, 18, made sure that pulse included young peoples views  a perspective her mom Tisha Tucker, of Perry Township, said will be important this midterm.

I think young people have a better adaptability to being open-minded, said Paige Tucker outside of Resurrection Lutheran Church.

Having children of voting age, they definitely have very different views and opinions about things and so its important for them to learn how to get out and advocate for themselves and others on those issues, said Tisha Tucker, 48.

After getting some initial voter registration issues sorted out, Paige called the voting process smooth and easy.

I feel 18, she said.

 Domenica Bongiovanni

12:05 p.m.  Inflation an important issue for some Noblesville voters

At about 10:45 a.m., there was a steady trickle in and out of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church as Noblesville voters cast their ballots.

For Mike Pierce, 65, of Noblesville, the Senate race was important. Pierce, a Republican, voted for Todd Young and is hoping Republicans can get control of the House and Senate.

Another important issue was rising prices due to inflation, he said.

Scott Britton, 50, of Noblesville, said things are less clear-cut for him.

Im all about balance, he said. I think weve seen a lot of polarizing things going on.

Britton said the Republican Party has been frustrating him in recent years: I am actually a registered Republican, and Im disgusted with the direction the party has taken.

Another issue that got him to the polls was the school board elections. Britton, who has children in school, said that he strongly believes in supporting teachers because theyve been educated on how to teach.

Monica and Warren Brown, 67, of Noblesville, arrived at the polls to vote together.

Both said they arent affiliated with a party and prefer to vote candidate-by-candidate. The main thing they were thinking about as they voted was the rising cost of everything.

Monica Warren also pointed out discomfort with polarization.

Instead of the backbiting, I want people to work together, she said.

 Phyllis Cha

12:05 p.m.  'My ancestors fought and died for me to be able to vote'

The Nora Commons on the Monon had a decent showing in the morning, with about 140 voters showing up before 10 a.m.

Sherman Bankhead, 67, of Indianapolis, said he almost missed out on voting because he thought hed have a mail-in ballot to send off but at the last minute realized he needed to head out to the polls. He votes regularly and said its a duty.

My ancestors fought and died for me to be able to vote, Bankhead said. Im just afraid that if my party dont maintain power, were going to be up the creek without a paddle. As an adult, you know right from wrong and know when someone is lying. Theres so much lying going on now that itll almost drive you insane.

Bankhead said there used to be a time when he didnt care whether a candidate was Republican or Democrat, as long as they were going to work for the people.

Thats all that matters and I miss those days, Bankhead said.

Tony Driver, 63 of Indianapolis, also said he typically votes even in midterms. He said hes particularly interested in the senate race this year and that hes not a fan of Todd Young.

I dont see him doing anything for Indiana or the lower and middle class, Driver said.

At St. Lukes on West 86th Street, there were minor delays late morning that cleared up pretty quickly.

Justin Bromley, 35, of Indianapolis, said he does not typically vote in midterm elections but that this year was different.

It just felt like democracy is at stake, he said. I feel like the Republican side is fighting results and its very ugly, so I wanted to get out and vote.

Larry Eglen, 83, and Carol Eglen, 82, both of Indianapolis, were at St. Lukes late morning to cast full Republican ballots.

Larry said he doesnt trust the Democrats and wanted to cast a straight Republican ticket, something that isnt typical for him.

When youve lost as much as we have in our IRAs and savings, I just dont trust (President) Biden, Larry said.

The couple voted Republican because woke and indoctrinated is a terrible thing, Carol said.

 Karl Schneider

11:45 a.m.  Making a (fashion) statement

Denise Paul Hatch, who was recently elected Constable for Center Township, was out at polls on the Near Eastside. She showed off her socks with marijuana leaves.



Its about respecting the vote, thats what is most important  just vote, she said. pic.twitter.com/Zv4aHjnKmd  Sarah Bowman (@IndyStarSarah) November 8, 2022

11:45 a.m.  Northside Indianapolis voters say 2022 midterm brings high stakes

Many voters said that they saw these midterm elections as being unusually critical for a non-presidential contest as the nation stands on the brink of heading in one of two directions.

Nothing less than the future of the country is at stake with this years elections, said John Bartholomew, 66. Bartholomew declined to give specifics on how he voted, although he said he did mix up the ballot, as he typically does.

Id like to see common sense and sanity come back in government, Bartholomew said outside of College Park Elementary. I want it to be the country I grew up in Just put it back on track, I just dont like the way its going.

Midterms typically do not draw William Hazelwood, 60, out to vote, he said.

But as he exited a polling place at a Ditch Road fire station just south of 86th St., Hazelwood said that this year he felt it imperative to vote in light of what happened in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 and the ensuing hearings.

I dont mind public discourse, but when it becomes weaponized, I have a problem with that, said Hazelwood, who voted a Democratic ticket. Normally I split my vote, but I couldnt do it this time.

Luis Figueroa, 31, agreed that claims of election fraud on the behalf of Republicans propelled him to the polls for this midterm election. In addition, he said, he would like to see Roe v. Wade codified and cannabis made legal in Indiana, just as other neighboring states have done.

The response to past elections, however, was top of his mind, he said outside the fire station.

We get a lot of people that dont want to admit the election was not stolen, which it was not, he said.

However, on Marion County's northwest side, many voters Tuesday morning mentioned how streamlined and easy casting a ballot was.

Some noted with approval the fact that even though one votes electronically, voters then get a printed ballot, which they deposit into a ballot box, allowing for physical recounts should that be necessary.

I think it was the best set up Ive seen it, said Larry Bradshaw, 75, who said he voted the straight Republican party ticket at College Park Elementary.

In addition to voting for those who, like her, support abortion rights, Hannah Wiese, 30, said she hopes that many others in the state come out Tuesday.

I want to put my voice forward, said Wiese as she exited the voting booth at College Park Elementary. Its really important for us to represent Indiana.

A native of Boston and recent Butler graduate, Colin Dennis, 22, now considers Indiana his home. He knows he may lean a little more left than the typical Indiana resident and he said he hopes to bring some of those Massachusetts values here. For instance, he said, hes particularly concerned about affordable healthcare and which candidates support measures that ensure access to care.

Im just trying to get some of those beliefs in Indiana on the local level, he said.

For Brentton Campbell, 22, voting was critical enough for the DePauw senior to make the hour-long drive from Greencastle to a northwest side polling place off 86th Street. The son of two public school teachers, Campbell said he views voting as a civic duty, much like paying taxes.

While he said he split his vote, he allowed that he did lean liberal, adding that one issue thats important for him as a college student facing down graduation is finding ways to reduce college debt.

With ballots cast, voters headed back to work, home, to meet friends for life and go about their day. Tonight they will hear whether their preference carried the majority.

Said Bartholomew: I vote and hope.

 Shari Rudavsky

11:45 a.m.  Voting updates from Johnson, Hancock and Boone Counties

Voting was going smoothly outside of Marion County, minus some long lines at Hancock County polling places, election administrator Robin Spille told IndyStar, with "just a lot of people showing up to vote."

In Hancock County, 4,115 people had turned out to vote just after 11 a.m.

In Boone County, Zionsville also had some long lines, though no longer than 30 minutes, Boone County Clerk Jessica Fouts told IndyStar. As of just before 11 a.m., 4,831 people had voted Tuesday in Boone County.

Trena McLaughlin, Johnson County Clerk, said "we have been very busy, but everything is going well." As of around 11:45 a.m. 11,425 people had voted Tuesday.

 Claire Rafford

11:45 a.m.  Election Day food options

Dreaming of election night pizza (except the morning shift reporters, sadly.)

Election morning Mickey D's > Election night pizza  Ryan Martin (@ryanmartin) November 8, 2022

11 a.m.  Crime reduction on minds of some south-side voters

Crime, border security and inflation were top-of-mind issues for several south-side voters and those supporting Republican candidates on Tuesday.

Steve Breedlove, 70, said hes keeping track of key races across the nation. He said his midterm vote at Perry Township Education Center was a way to stall Democratic-led decisions in Washington that he disagrees with.

I realize youve got to have a balance of government; youve got to have Republicans and youve got to have Democrats, Breedlove said. But weve been at two years of just all Democratic rule, and look where its got us in the last 21 months.

Outside the doors, Derek Cahill, the president of the Perry Township GOP Club, said the Marion County prosecutors race was the most important for Republicans because hes heard people express worries about Indianapolis crime rate.

Paul Annee is on City-County Council and hes pretty famous for saying, You cant be a suburb of nothing, and so it does affect everyone, said Cahill, 44.

Jim Wheeler of Homecroft, 62, said politicians arent taking care of the economy, and hed like to see that change. But above and beyond the issues, he and his wife, Brenda Wheeler, 68, said they vote because its Election Day and thats their duty. Brenda is a nurse who moved from the Philippines to the U.S. because of what the country offers.

It was the land of opportunity, she said. Its an old, old statement or whatever, but it is the truth.

Rem Sanga, a 19-year-old student at Indiana University, left Bloomington at 5 a.m. to support a school board candidate outside Perry Township Education Center. He held a sign for Hre Mang, whos running for Perry Township School Board.

Sanga, who graduated from Greenwood Community High School, and Mang are part of the Chin community, an ethnic group from Myanmar, on the south side.

Since we came from a dictatorship country, I would say our parents generation didnt really get into politics because there wasnt really much democracy and politics to get into. So I think it is groundbreaking that Hre Mang is actually running for office and if he wins, he will be a trailblazer, Sanga said.

 Domenica Bongiovanni

9:50 a.m.  Smooth sailing in Marion County

As of Tuesday morning, around 45,000 voters had turned out in Marion County, Brienne Delaney, director of elections for the Marion County Election Board, told IndyStar.

We have a steady turnout and voting is smooth," Delaney said.

 Claire Rafford

9:00 a.m.  School board races on the minds of Broad Ripple voters

A line of people stretched outside Northminster Presbyterian Church in Broad Ripple as the polls opened at 6 a.m.

Ken and Jennifer Roth, both 52, of Indianapolis, were bundled up waiting in line. While no single race brought them out to vote today, Ken said he thinks its been kind of a turbulent time in the country.

I think both parties are pretty polarized, so just want to get out and express our views and make sure theyre reflected, he said.

Jennifer said she knows how things are going with Indianapolis Public Schools. I just want to be supportive of IPS, she said.

More:Here's who is running for school board elections in Marion County

James Ringer, 30, of Indianapolis, also didnt have a particular race that brought him to the polls, but he said hes never missed an election.

Paige Mundy, 29, of Broad Ripple, was at Broad Ripple High School early this morning to cast her first ballot in Indiana. Originally from Pennsylvania, Mundy said she always votes even during midterms.

Joe Smiddie-Brush, 59, of Broad Ripple, spent time researching the ballot before coming out to the polls. He said hes interested in the school board races this year.

Im trying to be an informed person when coming in, and its a civic responsibility, he said. I wish everyone would (vote), all of my friends even the ones who say theyre voting exactly opposite the way I do.

At First Friends Meeting on Kessler, voters quickly moved in and out of the ballot boxes.

Bryden Basaran, 32, of Indianapolis, said it was the events of Jan. 6, 2021, that motivated him to get out and vote. It was his first time voting in a midterm election.

Basaran said he voted for a blue ticket event though it wasnt his preference.

Its hard to subvert an election if you dont have people in the right positions in power to do so," he said. "Im voting straight ticket until either the Republican Party improves itself or stops being relevant.

Lindsay Hadley, 44, of Broad Ripple, said she normally comes out to vote for midterms.

My son is 7 and he goes to Washington Township school(s), so Im voting for the school board member, Hadley said.

Hadleys son, who usually comes along to the polls, grew up with the son of Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat incumbent, and Hadley said he was concerned about all the negative ads he saw.

Hed ask: Why are they saying these things? Hadley said. Like I know, if they could just say nice things.

 Karl Schneider

8:45 a.m.  Abortion driving Fishers voters to the polls

Aimee Bruno, 52, of Fishers, said she votes straight-party Democrat. While she was voting, she said protecting reproductive rights was on her mind.

Bruno, who voted before work at 7:30 a.m., said she has children and nieces, which makes abortion a particularly important issue to her.

Its the most important thing to me right now, she said.

Shortly after, Tim Jones, 51, of Fishers, exited the polling location at Alhuda Foundation. Jones, who has been a Republican for 15 years, said he voted more Democrat than Republican this year.

Abortion was the big-ticket issue for him this year as well.

I have five daughters, he said. I just cant imagine someone telling them what to do with their body.

Though Jones doesnt support abortion, he believes its a conversation that should be had between a woman and their doctor, he said. He tells his daughters that if they get pregnant, it's ultimately their choice whether to have an abortion or not, he said.

Another thing that has frustrated him about the Republican Party is their rhetoric, he said, citing the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and the comments Republican lawmakers have made about Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was recently attacked inside the couple's California home.

I'm just tired of all the rhetoric, of all the back and forth, he said.

 Phyllis Cha

8:45 a.m.  'I would like a better country'

At the Kennedy King Park Center, 30-year-old Lauren Dzikowski had a simple reason for voting: "I would like a better country."

"I feel like we're all disconnected," said Dzikowski, who lives in the Herron Morton neighborhood. "It would be nice if we're one whole country again."

Seth Lucas-Falk, who is married to Dzikowski, also noted he does not feel entitled to complain about the country if he doesn't participate in the voting process.

The Igleharts also voted as a family. For Kent Iglehart, 33, he went "candidate by candidate" in deciding who to vote for.

"I probably split my vote in ways that I haven't in the past," he said.

Kati Townsley, 37, said it was her civic duty to vote. She's also paying close attention to U.S. Senate races in other parts of the country, particularly Georgia and Pennsylvania.

"I know the midterms are so important," said Townsley, who lives in the Kennedy King neighborhood.

Charlene Wilder, 52, said she wanted to ensure her vote is counted.

The Center Township resident said she always votes straight ticket for the Democratic party.

"It's our right so I want to make sure I get out and vote," Wilder said.

 Ryan Martin

8:45 a.m.  Yes, you can buy alcohol on Election Day in Indiana

Okay, yes, but why do you want to know?

The 2012 election marked the first time Hoosiers 21 and older could buy alcohol on Election Day. Indiana was one of the last states to lift the Election Day alcohol ban.

 Claire Rafford

8:45 a.m.  What's open and closed on Election Day?

Election Day is a holiday in the state of Indiana, meaning most local and state offices are closed. All staffed Indy Parks facilities with staff are closed, though the 11 park centers that are voting locations will remain open for voting only.

However, Election Day is not a federal holiday, so banks remain open; and the U.S. Postal Service will continue to deliver mail.

Some Indianapolis-area students may get a day off, too. Washington Township schools, for example, are having an e-learning day, and Wayne Township schools are closed for a staff development day. Many schools are also polling locations.

Indiana does not have a law specifying that employers must give employees time off to vote.

 Claire Rafford

7:10 a.m.  Presidential Site inspires voters to exercise civic right

After casting his ballot inside the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, 26-year-old Patrick O'Neill said it's important for voters to brush away apathy. Social media, he said, has shaped peoples' feelings as if no one has their interests in mind.

"This year more than ever citizens need to be participating in the process," said O'Neill, who lives downtown, "no matter which side you're on."

He described education as one reason he voted.

"I hope kids have access to education," he said.

"Reproductive rights and climate change" are what brought 34-year-old Elise Bowling out to vote.

"I'm a woman," said the downtown resident. "This is very important."

For Kenneth Hall, a 62-year-old downtown resident, it was the Indiana Secretary of State race because the position governs elections. The roles have become key across the country, Hall said, in ensuring elections are protected.

"This building and renovation is a picture of that democracy," Hall said, nodding back to the presidential site. "How we preserve our history and celebrate our future."

 Ryan Martin

6:55 a.m.  Ride to the polls for free

IndyGo is waiving fares today until 10 p.m., so Hoosiers can take the bus to the polls for free.

You can find a bus schedule here: indygo.net/routes. Map out your route to your destination here: indygo.net/plan-your-trip.

IndyGo is giving you the RIDE to Vote! All IndyGo routes will be fare-free on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8 until 10pm. Brought to you by @AARPIndiana. https://t.co/VttNAeYR55 pic.twitter.com/jCLaVkAv73  IndyGo (@IndyGoBus) October 28, 2022

6 a.m.  Races to watch in Indiana

As Hoosiers head to the polls, abortion and inflation, two of the most prominent issues of the last few months, are likely on their minds.

Some notable races on the ballot include U.S. Senate race, with Sen. Todd Young running for reelection against Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, a Democrat. Indianas 1st District race between incumbent Democrat Rep. Frank Mrvan and Republican challenger Jennifer-Ruth Green has been classified as a toss-up.

Statewide, Indiana Secretary of States race has drawn attention as Republican candidate Diego Morales, running against Democrat Destiny Wells, has drawn disrepute for exaggerating his military service, allegedly sexually assaulting two women and possibly voting illegally, in a different county than the one his permanent address is in.

Both the Marion and Hamilton County prosecutor's races have been heavily followed, well funded and had big-name endorsements. Democrat incumbent prosecutor Ryan Mears faces Republican challenger Cyndi Carrasco in Marion County; and in Hamilton County, Democrat Jessica Paxson is up against Republican Greg Garrison, a former longtime conservative radio show host.

Here are all the races IndyStars been covering and watching: bit.ly/3UlL3rY.

Indiana weather: Sun will be shining on Election Day

According to NWS Indianapolis meteorologist Jason Puma, Tuesday will be a fantastic fall day.

The forecast is sunny, with high temperatures around 60 degrees, Puma said.

Broad high pressure will bring bright skies and seasonably cool temperatures through Tuesday amid northeasterly breezes gusting to mainly 10-15 mph. Southerly flow will then bring unseasonable warmth by Wednesdaybefore much colder weather this weekend. #INwx #nwsind pic.twitter.com/U6bkBv0Dxr  NWS Indianapolis (@NWSIndianapolis) November 7, 2022

Early voting turnout

As of Monday, 684,692 ballots had been cast in Indiana, including 515,761 cast in person and 157,280 by mail, according to data provided by the Indiana Secretary of State's office.

As of noon Monday, 49,499 people had voted early in Marion County, according to data provided by the Marion County Election Board.

Who is on my ballot in Indiana?

Hoosiers can see the races and candidates appearing on their ballots by visiting indianavoters.in.gov and entering their registration information.

The Indiana Citizen has created a voter guide that will allow users to create a virtual ballot based on their registered address. Users can then view candidate profiles. Visit indianacitizen.org/virtual-ballot to get started.

What do I need to bring to vote in Indiana?

Under Indiana law, you must bring a photo identification to go vote.

Here are the requirements. To be eligible under Indianas photo ID law, the identification must:

Display your photo

Display your name that conforms to your voter registration record

Display an expiration date  either current or have expired sometime after the date of the last general election. Exceptions include military ID, as well as tribal ID recognized by the U.S. government, which are not required to have an expiration date.

Be issued by the state of Indiana or the U.S. government

An Indiana drivers license, U.S. passport, Indiana photo ID card or military ID will suffice for most voters.

You can view a list of photo identification examples online at in.gov/sos/elections/voter-information/photo-id-law.

Polling places in Indiana

Voting locations vary. For specific, county-related questions, contact your local election office. (A complete list can be found on the absentee by mail application ballot here).

Marion County has vote centers, and residents can vote at any center in the county. You can see a list of vote centers and find the one nearest to you here: vote.indy.gov/vote-centers.

You can view a list of polling locations for the 2022 general election in Hamilton County here: hamiltoncounty.in.gov/226/Polling-Locations. Early voting locations can be found at: bit.ly/3e0KjIS.

You can find your polling center by searching your address at indianavoters.in.gov. In Hamilton County, you must vote at your polling location, assigned by address.

Hendricks County has vote centers, regardless of address. View a list for the general election here: bit.ly/3C1I6oM.

Johnson County is a vote center county. View a list of early voting and election day vote centers here: bit.ly/3C3PwaT.

Boone County also has voting centers. A list can be downloaded from the Boone County Clerks Office website: bit.ly/3dW7fcw.

Where to get Indiana election results

IndyStar will be providing local updates from six area counties, which you can find at indystar.com/elections/results/local. Statewide and national races will be updated on our site via the Associated Press.

 Claire Rafford

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana election results: Live updates as race results trickle in
Republican Diego Morales cruised to victory Tuesday despite troubling questions about his background, indicating Indiana is increasingly becoming a one-party state.

Morales claimed victory shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday and Democrat Destiny Wells conceded about 20 minutes later. With about 92% of the vote counted Wednesday afternoon., Morales had 54% of the vote, Wells had 40% of the vote and Libertarian James Maurer had nearly 6% of the vote.

Morales' victory secured the Republican party's continued complete control over Indiana state government, leaving Hoosier Democrats once again grappling with a disappointing election night. The race was one of Democrats' best shots at winning the party's first statewide victory in a decade, due to the glut of controversies Morales faced.

More:Todd Young wins U.S. Senate seat in Indiana over Democrat Thomas McDermott

"The truth always prevails," Morales said Tuesday to a small, but loud and standing crowd of supporters at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis. "Let me say that again: The truth always prevails.

In a speech before supporters at the Nevermore Union Station venue about a mile away Tuesday, Wells said her campaign fell short. She devoted her time talking about what lies ahead for Indiana in the next four years.

Its very serious, she said. We were on the precipice of something amazing  an amazing opportunity for Indiana with this office. We were about to flip Indiana blue for the first time in a decade, but we fell a little short. Now it is upon you, Hoosiers, who will be charged with who is securing our elections because our next secretary of state is going to need all of our help in a very big way.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, a University of Indianapolis political science professor, blamed Wells' lost on two factors: straight ticket voters in a red state and an anti-President Biden wave across the country.

"Whenever youre the party in power," Merrifield Wilson said, "youre going to be punished the next election cycle."

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Morales also outraised Wells this year in the high-dollar race as Republicans poured money into his coffers. Morales raised just shy of $1.06 million, compared to Wells who raised under $742,000.

Over the course of his campaign, Morales was bashed for having once been fired from the secretary of state's office and resigning another time after questions arose about his performance. Since his victory, two women accused Morales of sexual assault, accusations which he has strongly denied. Hes also been accused of exaggerating his military experience, with records showing he spent three months and 18 days on active duty as part of his training period, and separated before his 8-year commitment was up.

And, IndyStar columnist James Briggs wrote that he may have violated Indiana election law in 2018 because records show he maintained a primary residence in Marion County while twice voting in Hendricks County registered to a another address.

Morales declined an interview with an IndyStar reporter Tuesday after his election speech.

Briggs: Diego Morales' defense of his military record is a disaster

Morales, a former Pence aide, earned a spot on the November ballot after beating current Secretary of State Holli Sullivan during the Republican convention in June. He emerged as an anti-establishment favorite among party insiders upset with Gov. Eric Holcomb's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Holcomb had chosen Sullivan to fill out the remainder of former Secretary of State Connie Lawson when she resigned before the end of her term.

Morales campaigned on the idea that he is an example of the American Dream, because he immigrated from Guatemala before landing multiple jobs in state government including for the Pence administration.

Diego Morales, Indianas new Secretary of State, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, during a GOP election night event at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis.

Indiana Election Results:Get the latest results here as they come in

"We started from scratch," Morales said during his victory speech. " now you have a son elected as the next and first Hispanic Latino Secretary of State in Indiana."

At times during his campaign, Morales questioned the validity of the 2020 election results and suggested implementing more guardrails on the process, including requiring every Hoosiers to attach a photo of their ID in order to request an absentee ballot and implementing more audits. He also at one point suggested reducing the number of early voting days, but later changed his mind.

Meanwhile, Wells, an attorney who has worked for both the city and Indiana Attorney General's office, spent much of her attention this campaign cycle focusing on the need for the state's top election official to instill voter confidence in the election results, a dig at Morales.

In her speech, Wells reflected on the kindness shown to her on the campaign trail. Its going to take the entire party, no matter the factions, and Republicans looking for a new home to work toward expanding Indianas Democratic Party, she said.

Mike Schmuhl, party chair, praised Wells.

The numbers are still coming in. Were going to see what it looks like, but Destiny has ran a heck of a campaign," he said. "She has traveled all over this state,

While Morales has already claimed victory, the final vote count of the race is also important to the Libertarian party: if the party claims 2% of the vote, which it is on track to do, it gains general election ballot access. Had the party obtained 10% of the vote, it would have been able to participate in the state's primary process.

Call IndyStar Statehouse and political watchdog reporter Kaitlin Lange at 317-432-9270 or email her at kaitlin.lange@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 2022 Indiana elections: Diego Morales wins race for secretary of state
Nikita Dragun talking on stage

Nikita Dragun speaks onstage as YouTube Shopping presents Beauty Festival 2022 Credit - Emma McIntyreYouTube Beauty/Getty Images

Influencer Nikita Dragun was arrested on Monday after officers responded to a call about a guest at The Goodtime Hotel acting disorderly. The Miami-Dade County Clerks Office states that Dragun was charged with felony battery, a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct, and a violation of a municipal ordinance. NBC News reports that the felony charge was for an assault on a police officer. Information on the clerks office website shows that when Dragun was processed, she was misgendered and booked as a male.

The 26-year-old content creator, who is transgender, became popular in the beauty YouTube space in 2015. Since then, her candor about her transition and popular makeup videos have helped her to amass a following of more than 29 million combined followers on social platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Last year, Dragun revealed her struggles with her mental health to her followers on social media. The beauty influencer uploaded a post to Instagram in which she said that she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility for eight days following a manic episode on Thanksgiving Day. She then uploaded a YouTube videowhich has since been deletedin May, where she revealed she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

The County Clerks website reports that Dragun was released after paying her bond and has a court date set for Dec. 7. A representative for Dragun told TIME in an emailed statement, The situation with Nikita, who is legally female, being placed in a mens unit of a Florida jail is extremely disturbing and dangerous. This decision made by the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department directly violates their protocol, which mandates that transgender inmates are classified and housed based on safety needs and gender identity. Nikita has been released and is now safe. Thank you for respecting her privacy during this time.

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News of her arrest prompted her name to begin trending on Twitter, with over 31,000 tweets at the time of publication. Heres everything we know about her arrest.

Why was Dragun arrested?

According to NBC, the affidavit says police responded to a 911 call about a disorderly guest, and the security guards at the hotel told police that she was causing a disturbance and walking around the pool area unclothed. It also says that she threw water at a hotel staff member.

Dragun returned to her room, but she was still causing a disturbance with loud music, the affidavit says. The police knocked on the door and warned her that she would be escorted off the property. But then, the affidavit continues, Dragun flung an open water bottle toward the officers and the hotel staff, wetting one of the officers.

NBC News reports that after her arrest she was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she was processed, and her bail was set at $2,000. After the news of her arrest was made public, Twitter users began sharing videos presumably from Draguns hearing that occurred on Tuesday morning. The short video shows a teary-eyed Dragun asking the judge, Do I have to stay here in the mens unit [still]? To which the judge replies, Yeah, I dont make the rules up there before the video cuts off.

just seen that Nikita Dragun is being kept in a mans prison, this is so fucking inhumane and the fact the news isnt covering it is just even worse.



Im not a fan of Nikita but this is a violation of human rights and her safety, theyve even misgendered in her in the report. pic.twitter.com/qJo2SmJFhX  Samantha (@itssamanthaaaa_) November 9, 2022

NBC News Tech and Culture Reporter Kat Tenbarge uploaded screenshots of the affidavit, which misgendered Dragun multiple times, to Twitter. The above listed individual appears as a female, but would like to be recognized as male, the screenshot shows, in a confusing passage given Draguns questions about being remanded to a mens unit. The affidavit uses he/him pronouns when referring to Dragun as the defendant.
Samuel Christopher Montoya filmed himself inside the Capitol on January 6. The Department of Justice

An Infowars staffer pleaded guilty to one Capitol riot charge on Monday.

Samuel Christopher Montoya shot video that captured rioter Ashli Babbitt's shooting death on Jan. 6.

Montoya also appeared on Owen Shroyer's Infowars show in the aftermath of the siege.

An Infowars staffer who recorded a nearly 45-minute video that depicted the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt inside the Capitol on January 6 pleaded guilty this week to storming the Capitol.

Samuel Christopher Montoya, who identified himself as a video editor at Infowarsstore.com in a post-riot interview on Alex Jones' channel, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, and picketing in a Capitol building. He faces up to six months in jail and a possible $5,000 fine.

Prosecutors say a family member of Montoya's contacted authorities soon after the siege saying they had proof that Montoya was inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 close to where Babbitt was fatally shot by an officer near the House Speaker's lobby.

The officer who shot Babbitt, a 35-year-old veteran, was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident.

Investigators reviewed an open-source video titled "Patriots Storm Congress Raw Footage Includes Execution of Ashli Babbitt," in which Montoya identified himself as the narrator of the video, according to court documents. The footage showed him entering the Capitol among a mob of Trump supporters as he exclaimed "It feels good to be in the Capitol baby!" prosecutors said.

The 44-minute video also depicts Babbitt's shooting, according to court documents.

Following the riot, Montoya appeared in several interviews on the Infowars show "War Room with Owen Shroyer," offering his eyewitness account of the attack and describing the gunshot that he believed was responsible for Babbitt's death, prosecutors said.

Shroyer has also been charged in relation to the riot.

A lawyer for Montoya did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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More than 900 people have been charged in relation to the riot thus far, and more than 400 people have pleaded guilty.

Related video: Shocking moments from Alex Jones's Sandy Hook trial

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Carter Center and the University of La Sabana in Bogota, Colombia, have named the two recipients of the 2022-2023 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in Latin America.

Since 2013, the two organizations have worked together to award two fellowships each year for reporters to investigate and produce in-depth journalism projects that shed light on mental health issues and solutions in Latin America and break the stigma toward those who live with mental health conditions. In 2019, the program expanded beyond Colombia to include other Latin American nations.

After grant administrators received qualified applications from reporters from across the region with backgrounds in investigative and scientific journalism, they conducted a rigorous selection process, including two rounds of evaluation by experts in mental health journalism.

Below are the two recipients of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in Latin America 2022-2023:

Jazmin Bazan, Argentina

Journalist, El Clarin

Topics: Health and social footprints of the pandemic; growth of eating disorders and the culture of silence in Argentina.

Jazmin Bazan is a journalist at the Argentinian newspaper El Clarin, focusing on gender, education, and health. She has a particular interest in making the most vulnerable sectors of the population visible and impacting public policy on gender and mental health issues. She is a doctoral student in cultural criticism and Latin American literature, and she has worked for DiarioES and Television Publica in Argentina.

Maria Paula Rubiano, Colombia

Freelance Science, Environmental Journalist

Assistant Editor, Environmental Health News

The following media outlets endorsed her nomination: Mutante, El Espectador, Grist

Topic: The impact of violence on the mental health of environmental leaders in Latin America.

Rubiano is a freelance journalist with seven years of experience covering climate change, energy transition, and water resources in Latin America. She is assistant editor of Environmental Health News and specializes in issues related to biodiversity, environmental justice, and food sovereignty. She was a 2021 Environmental Justice Fellow at the independent media organization Grist and former editor of the newspaper El Espectador.

The two journalism fellows receive $5,000 each to produce their stories over the course of one year and are required to actively participate in the virtual Carter Center Learning Lab in September, led by the Mental Health Program in Atlanta, Georgia. During the grant year the journalists will also be partnered with mental health experts who will provide mentoring and access to sources and scientific guidance in the execution of their projects.

For more than 25 years, The Carter Center has awarded annual fellowships to over 250 journalists who have been trained and connected with resources and experts to increase the quality and accuracy of mental health reporting around the world. The program currently operates in Latin America, the United States, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and was previously in New Zealand, South Africa, and Romania.

The Carter Center provides training, educational materials, advice, evaluation tools and technical assistance to the University of La Sabana to develop a sustainable program tailored to the needs of Latin America. La Sabana administers the Latin America program and is responsible for the selection process of journalists, organizing conferences, media training, adapting the program to respond to local needs, and developing an evaluation of regional strategies.

Related

More information on the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship is here.

More information on the University of La Sabana Fellowship Program is here: Keys to Good Mental Health and Trauma Journalistic Coverage

Follow @Carterfellows on Twitter to see mental health stories produced by current and former Carter Center fellows.

Click here to meet the 2022-2023 Fellowship recipients selected in the United States.

For more information, follow University of La Sabana and the Communications Faculty on Twitter, and the Carter Center on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

###



Contact: Rennie.Sloan@cartercenter.org

Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
An investigation is underway after shell casings were found in Townsend bathroom Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Townsend police department, a North Middlesex Regional High School staff member found two casings from a small caliber handgun while cleaning a bathroom in a boys locker room.

The staff member contacted principal Tim McMahon, who promptly called Townsend police.

According to a statement from Townsend police officers, School administration representatives of the School Threat Assessment and Response System team will search the locker room and school for any additional inappropriate items before students return to school on Wednesday.

Students were not in school on Tuesday due to election day. When classes resume Wednesday, officials said there will be an increased police presence.

The safety of our students and staff is our top priority, and we are taking all precautions to ensure there is no threat at the school, said Superintendent Brad Morgan.

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In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But in any portfolio, there will be mixed results between individual stocks. So we wouldn't blame long term Singapura Finance Ltd (SGX:S23) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 26% over a half decade.

So let's have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

Check out our latest analysis for Singapura Finance

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

During the unfortunate half decade during which the share price slipped, Singapura Finance actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 9.3% per year. So it doesn't seem like EPS is a great guide to understanding how the market is valuing the stock. Or possibly, the market was previously very optimistic, so the stock has disappointed, despite improving EPS.

Due to the lack of correlation between the EPS growth and the falling share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics to try to understand the share price movement.

The revenue fall of 0.08% per year for five years is neither good nor terrible. But if the market expected durable top line growth, then that could explain the share price weakness.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Singapura Finance's TSR for the last 5 years was -12%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

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A Different Perspective

The total return of 4.1% received by Singapura Finance shareholders over the last year isn't far from the market return of -3.8%. So last year was actually even worse than the last five years, which cost shareholders 2% per year. Weak performance over the long term usually destroys market confidence in a stock, but bargain hunters may want to take a closer look for signs of a turnaround. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks, for example - Singapura Finance has 3 warning signs (and 1 which is concerning) we think you should know about.

We will like Singapura Finance better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on SG exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Getty Images; Insider

Amendment 1 gives citizens the right in the state's constitution to bear arms.

Proponents say that it will help protect citizens' right to carry and own firearms in the state.

Opponents say that it will prevent lawmakers from passing gun safety laws.

Iowans voted "yes" for Amendment 1 to change the state's constitution to give citizens a right to keep and bear arms.

Ballot measure details

Amendment 1 added the following text to the state's constitution: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny."

Strict scrutiny is the most restrictive form of judicial review. It requires proposed laws must have a compelling and specific government interest in order to violate an amendment. This would mean that many laws that could restrict the right to bear arms in Iowa would be struck down in court.

Iowa was one of six states that did not have the right to bear arms in its constitution.

Support and opposition

Support for Amendment 1 included the Iowa Firearms Coalition and Republican state lawmakers.

Supporters argued this will allow Iowans to keep their guns with strong protections, due to the strict scrutiny requirements.

Iowans for Responsible Gun Laws, which was against the amendment, included gun safety advocates and religious groups.

Opponents said the measure's strict scrutiny language would prevent lawmakers in the state from passing gun safety laws.

The money race

According to Ballotpedia, $30,798 was raised in opposition of the measure. So far, no supporting committee was identified.

Read the original article on Business Insider
DUBAI (Reuters) -A senior Russian security official met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Wednesday and the two countries pledged closer ties in the face of Western pressure over Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev's visit took place following accusations by Ukraine and the West that Russia has used Iranian Shahed-136 drones to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure in a series of attacks over recent weeks.

Patrushev and Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani discussed the situation in Ukraine and measures to combat what they called "Western interference" in their internal affairs, Russian state media reported.

"Iran welcomes and supports any initiative that leads to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialogue and is ready to play a role in ending the war," Shamkhani said, according to Iran's NourNews agency.

Shamkhani also called for deeper ties with Russia in the energy, transportation, agriculture, trade and banking sectors, NourNews said.

Patrushev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and they emphasised improving strategic relations between the two countries.

"The most decisive response to U.S. sanctions...is the cooperation of independent countries," Raisi said, according to Iranian state media.

Russia has stepped up its efforts to build economic and political relations with Iran and other non-Western countries since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, as part of a drive to destroy what it calls U.S. "hegemony".

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Jon Boyle, Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan)
Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani called for dialogue to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting Wednesday in Tehran with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev.

Patrushev later met with President Ebrahim Raisi, who said that "broadening the scope of the war and its escalation are a source of concern for all countries," according to official news agency IRNA.

The meetings come after Kiev and its Western allies accused Russia in recent weeks of using Iranian-made drones to carry out attacks in Ukraine. Tehran denies the allegations.

"Iran supports any initiative leading to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialogue," Shamkhani said, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

The Islamic republic was "ready to play a role in ending the war", he added, IRNA reported.

Russia's Security Council said the two senior officials "discussed in detail bilateral cooperation in the field of law enforcement, including public security and the fight against terrorism and extremism".

"In addition, they discussed measures to counter the interference of Western special services in the internal affairs of the two countries," it said in a statement.

Iran has been rocked by nearly two months of protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by the morality police for allegedly breaking the nation's strict dress code for women.

An adviser to Ukraine's president said Patrushev's visit to Iran showed the Kremlin was "exhausted".

In a Twitter post, the adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said Russia's "resources are close to the limit", and that Patrushev was "looking for a way to continue the war" by getting more drones and missiles.

"Now is the perfect time to double aid to Ukraine," he wrote.

Kiev dramatically curtailed diplomatic relations with Tehran in September due to alleged arms shipments to Moscow.

Last week Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted his country had supplied drones to Moscow before Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

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He also said he was ready to examine any evidence of the use of Iranian drones in the Ukrainian conflict.

In late October the European Union and Britain announced new sanctions against Iran, targeting three generals and an arms company "responsible for supplying Russia with suicide drones" to bomb Ukraine.

Shamkhani, during the meeting with Patrushev, underlined the "creation of joint institutions to deal with the sanctions" imposed on Russia and Iran, IRNA said.

The Russian statement said both parties "stressed the importance of developing Russia's and Iran's economic potential and expand trade relations" to counter Western sanctions.

ap/sk/noc/dv/ami/pjm
Cities in western Iran went on strike Wednesday in solidarity with mourners marking 40 days since security forces killed dozens in a crackdown on protests in the country's strife-torn southeast, rights groups said.

Security forces opened fire on protests that erupted on September 30 after weekly prayers in Zahedan, capital of the restive province of Sistan-Baluchistan on Iran's border with Pakistan.

It came two weeks after demonstrations broke out across Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country's strict hijab dress rules for women.

The crackdown on nationwide protests since her death has killed at least 304 people, including 41 children and 24 women, says the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Activists were seen distributing fliers calling for protests in all cities Wednesday for the 40-day mourning ceremony of Zahedan's "Bloody Friday", in a video shared by the 1500tasvir social media channel.

One of Iran's most prominent actors, Taraneh Alidoosti, also posted a photo of herself on Instagram without a headscarf and holding a slogan that has become the rallying cry of the protests: "Woman. Life. Freedom".

Widespread strikes were held "in solidarity" with Zahedan in the Kurdish cities of Baneh, Bukan, Kermanshah, Marivan, Sanandaj and Amini's hometown of Saqez, in the country's west, said the Norway-based Hengaw rights group.

- 'Angry and frustrated' -

The trigger for the violence that IHR said left at least 92 dead in Zahedan on September 30 was the alleged rape in custody of a 15-year-old girl by a police commander in the province's port city of Chabahar.

But analysts say the Baluchi were inspired by the protests that flared over Amini's death, which were initially driven by women's rights but expanded over time to include other grievances.

"The 2022 protests are a convergence of angry and frustrated Iranians with the same goal, overthrowing the Islamic republic and a theocratic regime," said Saeid Golkar, from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

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Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan province is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs, as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni extremist groups.

Activists have long complained the region has been the victim of discrimination by Iran's Shiite clerical leadership, with disproportionate numbers of Baluchi killed in clashes every year and also hanged in executions.

Protests over Amini's death have shown no signs of abating despite the brutal crackdown and a campaign of mass arrests.

Young women have led the way, removing and burning their head coverings, chanting anti-regime slogans and confronting security forces on the street.

On Wednesday, reformist parties called for "courageous and innovative changes" including a referendum in a bid to end the crisis, according to a statement from the Iranian Reform Front, founded last year by officials close to former president Mohammad Khatami.

But Henry Rome, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute, suggested the "call will almost certainly wither".

"The regime is unable to coalesce around even modest reforms to defuse the protests; in a moment of turbulence, there's little prospect it would go so far as to put itself on the ballot," he said.

- 'Systematically silencing women' -

Iran has struggled to suppress the demonstrations, which have evolved into its biggest challenge since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Security forces have fired directly on protesters using live ammunition, bird shot, tear gas and even paintballs.

Iran has sought to portray the protest movement as a plot hatched by its arch-enemies in the West, with Britain, Canada, the European Union and the United States imposing sanctions over rights violations.

The EU will seek to adopt further restrictions next week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Wednesday.

"We won't let up," Baerbock said. "We stand with the men and women of Iran, not only today, but as long as it is necessary."

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was accused this week of issuing death threats against two journalists working for the London-based Persian-language Iran International television channel.

The Saudi-linked channel's owner, Volant Media, said London police had warned them of "credible threats to their lives".

In response, Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib warned Britain it would "pay" for what it labelled actions to destabilise the Islamic republic.

Khatib also accused Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia of financing media outlets behind the wave of unrest, state news agency IRNA reported Wednesday.

An unprecedented number of female journalists have been detained, which Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said "symbolically reveals the Iranian regime's intention to systematically silence women's voices".

str-dv/pjm/lg
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Army Ground Forces Commander said on Wednesday that "rioters" would have no place in the Islamic Republic if the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered a tougher crackdown on nationwide protests, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

" ... should he decide to deal with them, rioters will no longer have a place in the country," Brigadier General Kiumars Heydari said.

Anti-government demonstrations erupted in September after the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by morality police for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic's strict dress code imposed on women.

The protests quickly turned into a popular revolt, with people ranging from students to doctors to lawyers to workers to athletes taking part.

Heydari was speaking 40 days after bloodshed in the mostly Sunni town of Zahedan, which has become a flashpoint in the protests.

Amnesty International said security forces killed at least 66 people there on Sept. 30. Authorities in Zahedan sacked the police chief and the head of a police station near where the killings took place.

ETHNIC UNREST

Iran has executed two Baluch militants convicted of "terrorism" charges dating back to about 2016, the semi-official news agency ILNA reported on Wednesday, in a move that may raise tensions further in volatile Sistan-Baluchistan province, where Zahedan is located.

The Baluch minority, estimated to number up to 2 million people, has faced discrimination and repression for decades, according to human rights groups.

Some of the worst unrest has been in areas home to minority ethnic groups with long-standing grievances against the state, including Sistan-Baluchistan and Kurdish regions.

On Wednesday, shopkeepers in some Kurdish cities went on strike to show their respect to the people who were killed in Zahedan, Kurdish rights group Hengaw said.

Shopkeepers in the market town of Valiasr, in Tehran province, also closed their businesses to mark the 40th day since the killings took place, according to HRANA news agency.

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The Basij militia and other security forces have taken tough measures hoping to suppress the unrest but the fury has not eased.

While past demonstrations have focused on election results or economic hardships, the current protesters seem determined to secure an entirely new political order in a country where the clerical establishment has ruled since the 1979 revolution.

In an ongoing act of resistance, videos posted on Twitter under the hashtag of #TurbanTossing show Iranians sneaking up behind clerics and knocking turbans off their heads.

According to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw, schoolgirls in city of Qorveh in northwest Iran, poured into the streets with slogans and asked other Iranians to join them.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alex Richardson)
The Irish next take on Fiji and Australia after beating the world champion Springboks in Dublin (Getty Images)

Jack Conan says Irelands statement win over world champions South Africa is both a benchmark and a springboard for future challenges but also feels there are massive areas for improvement.

The in-form Irish maintained their hold on top spot in the world rankings thanks to Saturdays gripping 19-16 success in Dublin.

Andy Farrells men move on to Aviva Stadium appointments with Fiji and Australia before turning attention to the 2023 Six Nations and next years World Cup.

British and Irish Lion Conan is hoping to start in Farrells back row against the Fijians this weekend following four consecutive appearances from the bench and wants to keep driving standards.

The lads set an unbelievable platform at the weekend, the 15, the 23 that ran out, said the 30-year-old. We spoke this week about that being the status quo now and we need to push on from that and get better.

That is going to be the challenge because lads went so well on the weekend. Its massive (the result), you want to play against the best teams in the world  we are the best team in the world at the moment.

Its a platform and a springboard going forward. We took a lot of lessons from it.

There are massive areas we can get better at but its great with Fiji this week, Australia next week and leading into the Six Nations that we have that good performance under our belt.

Although Irelands World Cup opener against Romania is still 10 months away, the countdown to the tournament is well and truly under way.

Conan believes the run of physical autumn fixtures will evaluate the strength of Farrells squad and serve as solid preparation for a shot at lifting the Webb Ellis Cup in France.

While the clashes against the Springboks and the Wallabies are undoubtedly more high-profile, the Leinster man also insists Vern Cotters Fiji will not be taken lightly on Saturday.

We spoke earlier about the bumps and bruises, lads picking up knocks and stuff, said Conan.

Its the nature of the game and come the World Cup its going to happen, people are going to drop in and out, people are going to be unavailable for certain games so it shows the real strength in depth.

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Its a great statement for how well prepared the team is at the moment.

Fiji will play far more expansively than South Africa. The ability they have to a man to beat people one-on-one is some of the best in the world.

There will be no time to switch off or catch your breath really. Itll be a consistent performance that is needed to beat them.

They are big men as well. There will be more one-off collisions in that they are more unpredictable than South Africa. Its definitely a different challenge for us.
Istanbul Convention saves lives

It's the first international agreement that characterizes violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination. As of November 2022, it has been signed by 47 countries  including Ukraine  but only 30 of them ratified the convention.

Read also: Ukraines parliament supports ratification of Istanbul Convention

Ukraine signed the convention in 2011, the first year it was opened for signature, but it was ratified only in June 2022.

The Istanbul Convention aims to change stereotypes regarding gender roles and the resulting violence in Ukrainian society. It suggests the implementation of nationwide awareness-raising campaigns on framing of gender-based violence, in particular for judges, law enforcement officers, and lawyers dealing with crimes against women.

Read also: Ukraine has completed the ratification of the Istanbul Convention

Regulation of criminal liability should include punishments for stalking and intentional mutilation of female genitalia. Furthermore, mediation and conciliation are forbidden for resolving domestic violence cases, as abusers can resort to violence again outside the courtroom. Ukraine commits to increase the number of temporary shelters for victims of domestic violence.

This convention doesn't mandate changes to Ukraines Constitution or family laws in general  its focus remains on addressing domestic violence.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
ROME (AP)  A European humanitarian group said Wednesday its migrant rescue ship was heading toward the French island of Corsica in hopes that France will offer its 234 passengers a safe port, after Italy backed down and allowed migrants from three other rescue ships to disembark on Italian soil.

France still had not publicly offered the Ocean Viking a safe port, but spokesman Francesco Creazzo of the SOS Mediterranee group said the Norwegian-flagged ship was hoping it would eventually do so.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni jumped the gun somewhat and issued a statement Tuesday evening thanking France for taking the Ocean Viking in, prompting a public critique of Italys apparent maneuvering on French public radio Wednesday.

French government spokesman Olivier Veran told France Info radio that the Ocean Viking is intended to be welcomed in Italy since it was in Italian territorial waters and said Italys refusal to allow passengers to disembark was unacceptable.

Since Italy is the top beneficiary of the European Union financial solidarity system, he demanded that Italy plays its role and respects its European commitments.

By late Tuesday, the remaining passengers on three other humanitarian-operated ships that Italy had initially refused to take in had disembarked at Italian ports. The last was the Humanity 1, operated by the SOS Humanity group, which disembarked its 35 passengers in the Sicilian port of Catania.

There was no immediate explanation for Italys U-turn, but legal experts and the humanitarian groups noted that under maritime law, all people found at sea in distress are entitled to access the closest safe port where they can then apply for asylum.

The new hard-right government of Premier Giorgia Meloni had initially only allowed migrants deemed vulnerable to disembark, and intended to send the rest of the passengers back out to sea. But the two ships docked at Catania  the Humanity 1 and the Geo Berents  refused to leave port.

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Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi had adopted measures saying the flag country of each charity-operated ship was responsible for providing a safe port, not Italy. Charity groups, however, said the measure patently violated maritime law and some had launched legal action against the government.

We are relieved that the people can go ashore and that all those rescued from distress at sea have finally been assigned a place of safety, as required by maritime law, said SOS Humanitys Till Rummenhohl, who is in charge of ship operations for the Humanity 1. However, we are appalled by the blatant disregard of the law and of human rights by Italian authorities.

Meloni was defiant about Italys hard line. In the statement prematurely announcing the French decision to open its port to the Ocean Viking, she said it was important to continue this line of European collaboration with the countries most exposed to find a shared solution.

The immigration emergency is a European issue and must be dealt with as such, with full respect of human rights and the principle of legality, she said.

___

Sylvie Corbet contributed from Paris.
In the fall of 2019, Tunisian citizens voted in three different elections in less than a month. As in many countries, voters in Tunisia must dip their fingers in indelible ink, which prevents people from voting twice. (Photo: The Carter Center)

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ATLANTA (Oct. 31, 2022)  The Carter Center has launched a mission to observe the process surrounding the Dec. 17 parliamentary elections in Tunisia.



The Center  which has monitored several legislative and political processes in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution, starting with the 2011 National Constituent Assembly elections  was invited and accredited to observe this years elections by the High Independent Authority for Elections.

The long-term observation team is composed of a core team based in Tunis and 14 long-term observers, who have deployed in teams of two around the country this October to assess electoral preparations at the regional and local levels and to observe the campaign. The Center will cooperate and engage with key Tunisian stakeholders and other international and domestic citizen observer groups.

The mission will observe and examine key aspects of the electoral process, including the pre-electoral environment, voter registration, candidate registration, social media, campaigning, and campaign finance. The team also will follow the post-election process, including any legal challenges to the results.

The Center urges authorities to fully respect the fundamental rights of citizens and candidates guaranteed in the 2022 constitution and in international treaties and commitments agreed to by Tunisia during the electoral period. These include the right to vote and to run for office, and freedom of assembly, opinion, thought, expression, media, and publication, as provided in the Tunisian Constitution and in line with Tunisian commitments and international best practices for democratic elections.

The Carter Center will provide an independent assessment of the parliamentary electoral process and its compliance with the countrys international commitments, national law, and standards for democratic elections. It will issue a preliminary statement on its findings shortly after election day and a final report at the end of the mission. All statements and reports will be available at www.cartercenter.org.

The Center's election observation missions are conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which provides guidelines for professional and impartial international election observation. The declaration was adopted at a ceremony held at the United Nations in 2005 and has been endorsed by more than 50 election observation groups.

Translation

           

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Contact: don.bisson@cartercenter.org or soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org

The Carter Center

Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
ROME (Reuters) - Italy may change its pension system to allow people to retire after paying 41 years of pension contributions regardless of their age, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgettti said on Wednesday.

"This measure is not ruled out," Giorgetti said in parliament in answer to a question from a lawmaker on the proposal that has been championed by Giorgetti's party, the rightwing League.

Any change to the pension system could be included in the government's 2023 budget which is due to be detailed in parliament this month and approved by the end of the year.

Giorgetti also said the government will intervene to toughen up the terms of a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies to make it "more incisive."

Many firms have found a way around the tax adopted by Mario Draghi's previous government, leading to far less revenue than was expected.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Gavin Jones)
Republican J.D. Vance will be the next U.S. Senator from Ohio, keeping the seat in GOP hands.

Vance, a Yale-educated Marine veteran, defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in the race to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman. Republicans were favored to retain the seat in a state former President Donald Trump won by eight points in 2020, but polling showed Ryan in a dead heat with Vance for the entirety of the race.

<<< 2022 Ohio Senate Midterm Election: Latest Updates and Results >>>

A venture capitalist and Ohio native who returned to his home state to run for Senate, Vance rose to prominence in 2016 as the author of Hillbilly Elegy, a bestselling memoir that received much attention in the lead-up to that years presidential election.

Although the book was seen as a guide of sorts to why working-class white voters gravitated to Trump, Vance was critical of the erstwhile real estate magnate. He became a prominent anti-Trump conservative commentator, but shifted his stance in recent years, courting Trumps support.

JD Vance gestures as he speaks during the Ohio Republican Party election night watch party reception in Columbus, Ohio, on November 8, 2022. (Paul Vernon/AFP via Getty Images)

The former president endorsed Vance and helped push him through a competitive primary. Vance also received a primary boost in the form of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from billionaire Peter Thiel, whom he worked for prior to running for office.

In embracing Trump, Vance promoted the former presidents conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was illegitimate. There were certainly people voting illegally on a large-scale basis, he said in the lead-up to the GOP primary.

Trump mocked Vances about-face at a September rally, saying, J.D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support. Ryan repeatedly quoted Trumps remarks in the final weeks of the campaign.

Vance won despite GOP concerns earlier this year about his campaign. He also initially claimed that he moved back to Ohio to establish a nonprofit organization that quickly folded as he turned his attention to the Senate contest.

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) speaks during an election night event at Mr. Anthony's Banquet Center on November 8, 2022 in Boardman, Ohio. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Ryan, who has served two decades in Congress representing the Youngstown area and briefly ran for president in 2020, portrayed himself as a populist who wasnt not afraid to go against Democratic leadership.

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Following the 2016 election, Ryan mounted a failed bid against Nancy Pelosi to lead the party in the House. And while running for the Senate, he sold himself as a moderate who had stood up to his party, although Vance and his allies noted that Ryan was a reliable Democratic vote in the House.

That rising energy price that people see at the pump, that they see in their utility bills, that our farmers see when theyre paying more for diesel  that was the direct result of policies enacted by Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and supported 100% by Tim Ryan, Vance said at a debate last month.

Vance is expected to be to the right of many of his Senate Republican colleagues. He supported a proposed 15-week federal abortion ban other GOP candidates have sidestepped or denounced. And in line with other candidates supported by Thiel, Vance has called for a complete overhaul of the federal government.

I think Trump is going to run again in 2024, Vance told Vanity Fair earlier this year. I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.

We are in a late republican period, Vance added. If were going to push back against it, were going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.
Larry Marano/Getty

Jeff Cook, the country music legend who co-founded the band Alabama, died Monday after a decade-long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73.

A representative from the band confirmed his death to The Tennessean on Tuesday, adding that Cook died surrounded by family members at his beachside home in Destin, Florida.

Along with cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, Alabama changed the face of country music in the 1970s and 80s, and sold more than 80 million albums.

The group amassed more than 40 No. 1 hits, including She and I, Mountain Music and Tennessee River.

Alabama musicians Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry and Randy Owen in 2011. Frazer Harrison/Getty

Cook was Alabamas lead guitarist for more than five decades, but would also regularly play the fiddle, keyboard and sing backup vocals to the bands smooth melodies.

A native of Fort Payne, Alabama, he began chasing a career in music as a disc jockey in his hometown in 1969. From there, he co-founded the band Young Country alongside Owen and Gentry, which planted the seeds for Alabama to be formed in 1977.

Already inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Cook and Alabama played together up until his final days, when the star eventually conceded his body wasnt allowing him to perform the way he used to.

Cook was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in 2012, but kept the diagnosis under wraps from the public until 2017. His appearances with the group became less frequent, with Cook telling Alabama TV station News 19 in 2017: Im not calling it quits, but sometimes our bodies dictate what we have to do, and mine is telling me its time to take a break and heal.

Social media was flooded with tributes once Cooks death became public on Tuesday afternoon. Jason Aldean, a country star in his own right, said Cook and Alabama had an iconic sound he'll never forget.

So sad to hear of the passing of Jeff Cook. I spent a lot of my life listening to him play guitar, what an iconic sound he had. I got a chance to perform with him multiple times over the years and I will never forget it.



: Rick Diamond pic.twitter.com/7v4zqKpSjG  Jason Aldean (@Jason_Aldean) November 8, 2022

I spent a lot of my life listening to him play guitar, what an iconic sound he had, Aldean tweeted Tuesday. I got a chance to perform with him multiple times over the years and I will never forget it.

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Another country star, Travis Tritt, posted a tribute of his own.

Such a great guy and one heckuva bass fisherman, Tritt posted. He will be truly missed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Jennifer Aniston has shut down the absolute lies that have circulated about her marriages, with the actor clarifying that the relationships didnt end because she wouldnt have children.

The 53-year-old actor addressed some of the media speculation shes faced during an interview with Allure for the cover of the magazines December issue.

During the interview, Aniston revealed that she underwent in vitro fertilisation to get pregnant, while opening up about the media and publics obsession over whether she would become a mother. Although she didnt mention him by name, she then appeared to address some of the rumours about her divorce from Brad Pitt in 2005, including the narrative that [she] was just selfish and just cared about [her] career, as opposed to wanting to start a family. Aniston later married actor Justin Theroux in 2015, before announcing their split in 2017.

And God forbid a woman is successful and doesnt have a child, the Friends star said. And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldnt give him a kid.

She then criticised the narrative, adding: It was absolute lies. I dont have anything to hide at this point.

Aniston proceeded to reflect on the publics obsession with her personal life, recalling the Huff Post essay she wrote in 2016, in which she shut down any rumours about being pregnant and called out the constant media scrutiny.

I got so frustrated. Hence that op-ed I wrote, she said. I was like: Ive just got to write this because its so maddening and Im not superhuman to the point where I cant let it penetrate and hurt.

In the op-ed, Aniston condemned false pregnancy reports and said that she wouldnt let the tabloid noise affect her decision to become a mother.

We dont need to be married or mothers to be complete, she wrote. I have grown tired of being part of this narrative. Yes, I may become a mother some day, and since Im laying it all out there, if I ever do, I will be the first to let you know. But Im not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way.

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During her interview with Allure,The Morning Show star also spoke candidly about the difficulty of undergoing IVF. However, she said that she has zero regrets.

It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it, she said. I wouldve given anything if someone had said to me: Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour. You just dont think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed

She went on to share what she learned from doing IVF, adding: I have zero regrets. I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more: Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I dont have to think about that anymore.

After noting that she kept her IVF treatments private for so many years, Aniston acknowledged that she was now ready to tell [her] truth.

Ive spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. Im so protective of these parts because I feel like theres so little that I get to keep to myself, she said. The [world] creates narratives that arent true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like Im coming out of hibernation.
Jennifer Aniston attends the 2019 premiere of "The Morning Show" in New York. (Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)

Jennifer Aniston revealed in an interview published Wednesday that she repeatedly attempted to become pregnant in her 30s and 40s, correcting years of tabloid-fueled rumors that she never wanted children.

In a December cover story for Allure magazine, the "Morning Show" star opened up about her "challenging ... baby-making road" and the toll the public's obsession with her reproductive activity took on her mental health.

All the years and years and years of speculation. ... It was really hard," Aniston told Allure.

"I was going through [in vitro fertilization treatment], drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. I wouldve given anything if someone had said to me, Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor. You just dont think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.

The 53-year-old actor also rejected the narrative that ex-husband Brad Pitt "left" her because she "wouldn't give him a kid."

People assumed "that I was just selfish, she said.

[That] I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesnt have a child. ... It was absolute lies. I dont have anything to hide at this point.

In 2016, the "Friends" alum penned an op-ed for the Huffington Post shutting down rumors that she was pregnant and condemning the media for subjecting women and their bodies to relentless "objectification and scrutiny."

I got so frustrated," she told Allure. "I was like, Ive just got to write this because its so maddening and Im not superhuman to the point where I cant let it penetrate and hurt.

Reflecting further on that "really hard" period of her life, Aniston declared, I have zero regrets."

I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe,'" she added. "I dont have to think about that anymore.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Jennifer Aniston shared her candid thoughts about social media, with the actor revealing why she doesnt enjoy using it.

The 53-year-old discussed her social media accounts during a recent interview with Allure for the cover of the magazines December issue. When Aniston first joined Instagram about three years ago, she notably received so many followers that the app ultimately crashed.

While her online presence sent shockwaves through the interent, she confessed that she actually hates social media and is no good at using it.

Its torture for me. The reason I went on Instagram was to launch this line, she explained. Then the pandemic hit and we didnt launch. So I was just stuck with being on Instagram. It doesnt come naturally.

She then shared why growing up without social media was ultimately beneficial for her.

Im really happy that we got to experience growing up, being a teenager, being in our 20s without this social media aspect, the Friends star said. Look, the internet, great intentions, right? Connect people socially, social networking. It goes back to how young girls feel about themselves, compare and despair.

Aniston went on to reflect on how proud she is of herself today and how her future self is going to look back on this point of her life.

I feel the best in who I am today, better than I ever did in my 20s or 30s even, or my mid-40s. We needed to stop saying bad shit to ourselves, she said. Youre going to be 65 one day and think, I looked f***ng great at 53.

This wasnt Anistons first time sharing her perspective about different online platforms. During a conversation with Sebastian Stan for Varietys Actors on Actorsseries in June, she shared how grateful she was that she started acting before social media became a thing.

I always say I feel lucky that we got a little taste of the industry before it became what it is today, which is just different  more streaming services, more people. Youre famous from TikTok, she explained. Youre famous from YouTube. Youre famous from Instagram. Its sort of almost like its diluting our actors job.

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Elsewhere in her interview with Allure, Aniston revealed that she underwent in vitro fertilisation to get pregnant and opened up about the publics obsession with her marriages as well as if shed become a mother.

Although she didnt mention him by name, she appeared to address speculation about her and Brad Pitts divorce in 2005, including the narrative that [she] was just selfish and just cared about [her] career. Aniston later married actor Justin Theroux in 2015, before announcing their split in 2017.

And God forbid a woman is successful and doesnt have a child, she said. And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldnt give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I dont have anything to hide at this point.

The Morning Show star also recalled the HuffPost essay she wrote in 2016 where she shut down down any rumours about being pregnant and called out the constant media scrutiny.

I got so frustrated. Hence that op-ed I wrote, she added. I was like: Ive just got to write this because its so maddening and Im not superhuman to the point where I cant let it penetrate and hurt.
Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston has spoken about trying to get pregnant through IVF but says that "the ship has sailed".

The actress, 53, best known for playing Rachel Green in Friends, said she privately went through a difficult time in her late 30s and 40s, while under media scrutiny.

"I was trying to get pregnant," she said.

She told the magazine Allure she wished someone had told her to freeze her eggs.

"It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road," she added.

"All the years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it."

But she told the magazine that she had "zero regrets."

She added: "I would've given anything if someone had said to me, 'Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.' You just don't think it. So here I am today," she said. "The ship has sailed."

'Narrative that I was just selfish'

In 2018, Aniston and actor Justin Theroux announced they had separated after two years of marriage. Before that, she was married to actor Brad Pitt.

She suggested the media can be cruel towards women in the industry who do not have children, and created a "narrative that I was just selfish" and "just cared about my career".

"And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn't have a child," she said.

Addressing her marriage to Brad Pitt, she said: "And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn't give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don't have anything to hide at this point."

The star, who is appearing in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, went on to say she felt "a little relief now" about being older and found it "liberating", because "there is no more, 'Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe'. I don't have to think about that any more", she explained.

"I've spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. I'm so protective of these parts because I feel like there's so little that I get to keep to myself," she continued.

IVF is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm outside the body, then embryos are inserted into the mother's womb.

"The [world] creates narratives that aren't true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation. I don't have anything to hide," Aniston added.
side by side photos of John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The blockbuster Senate race between Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman (D) and Dr. Mehmet Oz (R) was a nail-biter in the final weeks, but on Tuesday night, NBC projected Fetterman to win by just over a percentage point.

It's official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.



We bet on the people of Pennsylvania - and you didnt let us down



And I wont let you down. Thank you.  John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) November 9, 2022

Its hard to believe how close this race got given that, in the last six months alone, the quack TV doctor has called abortion murder, said eight of his 10 houses dont count because theyre rental properties, ignored allegations that his medical research killed more than 300 dogs, and spoke at a high-dollar fundraiser in front of Hitlers car. Oh, also, he lives in New Jersey and calls a veggie tray crudites. Oz seemed to have very little grassroots support compared to Fettermans packed events, and hes donated more than $27 million of his own money to his campaign.

Read more

Fetterman, meanwhile, supports codifying Roe v. Wade, legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage, and is generally a likeable guy with a fun online presence. He raised $2 million in less than 24 hours after Oz said during their debate that local political leaders should decide whether abortion is banned. Late last week, Oprah endorsed Fetterman, in a blow to the man whose TV career she launched.



The race tightened between Oz and Fetterman after a debate in which Fetterman struggled to articulate his thoughts, because hes recovering from a stroke. Outlets including CNN and CBS also had ableist meltdowns over the fact that Fetterman uses closed-captioning in interviews. (Fetterman is recovering well, while Oz being a grifter creep is a permanent state.)

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It bears repeating that Pennsylvania is a true swing state. Biden won it by just 1.2 percentor about 82,000 votesin 2020. The 2016 race was even tighter, with Trump beating Hillary Clinton by 0.7 percent, or 44,000 votes.

The Fetterman campaign continued its characteristic humor through it all, even serving crudites at their election night party.

Breaking - crudites at the Fetterman party. pic.twitter.com/95I5CQR3iX  Julia Terruso (@JuliaTerruso) November 9, 2022

Fettermans campaign expertly trolled Oz throughout the race, even paying Jersey Shore star Nicole Snooki Polizzi to do a July cameo video dragging Oz for moving to Pennsylvania so he could run. She concluded the video by saying: I know youre away from home and youre in a new place...dont worry, because youll be back home in Jersey soon. This is only temporary.



Turns out Snooki was right.

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Sign up for Jezebel's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
England captain Jos Buttler and other senior players have reflected on their defeat to Bangladesh on their return to Adelaide (Dan Himbrechts/PA) (PA Wire)

Jos Buttler marvelled at Englands white-ball journey in the last few years as they attempt to lay the ghosts of Adelaide 2015 to rest in their T20 World Cup semi-final against India.

Buttler admitted a loss to Bangladesh here that confirmed a humiliating 50-over World Cup group stage exit seven years ago has been discussed among Englands senior players upon their return to the city.

The current set-up includes several individuals who featured on that dark day for English cricket, including Buttler, but the setback marked a watershed moment for their limited-overs fortunes.

Eoin Morgan ushered in a stunning transformation before passing on the reins to Buttler, and England are now just two wins away from becoming the first side to hold both ODI and T20 World Cups simultaneously.

Weve actually just been talking about that (Bangladesh game) in the dressing room, Buttler said. Anytime you go back to certain grounds, theres some memories and not always good ones, unfortunately.

It was a real line-in-the-sand moment in English white-ball cricket and to be now in a semi-final and going to tournaments with a level of expectation that we should perform well is a great place to be.

Its been clear to see the change in mindset of English cricket towards the white-ball game and especially the way weve played. Its given us better results.

That gives us a lot of trust in that process that it works. It seems an ingrained way of playing now in English cricket. So its been a fantastic journey to be involved in.

England have reached at least the semi-final stage of every International Cricket Council event since 2015, but their lone global success in that time was the 2019 50-over World Cup on home soil.

They are regarded as slight underdogs to reach Sundays marquee match at the MCG, but Buttler insisted he will do things his way after being asked whether he asks for advice from his predecessor as captain.

I speak to Eoin quite a lot, Buttler said. Hes one of my great mates, so Im always in touch with him. But its very much about doing it my way. Eoin is not the captain of England anymore.

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I have to take that on myself and be myself in the tournament. Were very much in a new time of England cricket and white-ball cricket without him now as the leader.

England will make late decisions on both Dawid Malan and Mark Wood, with the pair doubtful to face India. Malan tweaked his left groin last weekend, while Wood has felt general body stiffness.

They performed a few shuttle runs on the Adelaide Oval outfield at Wednesdays practice away from the main group, while Wood bowled a dozen deliveries in the nets without looking like he was at full tilt.

However, Wood seems likelier to play than Malan, who was seen having a couple of gentle throwdowns as the net session wound towards a close as he batted for the first time since suffering his injury.

We will see how they pull up, Buttler said. We trust the medical team, we trust the two guys as well. We will give them as long as possible.

You need guys to be fit to participate in the game. I think in all sports you have players that dont always play at 100 per cent, but of course you have to be able to fulfil your role in the team.

Phil Salt is Englands spare batter and seems the likeliest replacement if Malan is unavailable, but Chris Jordan is an option if England preferred to bolster their bowling  as well as their fielding.

Jordan would likely be selected ahead of left-armers Tymal Mills and David Willey if Wood misses out ahead of a match in which England will be confronted with a used pitch.

While England have fielded the same XI throughout the tournament, Buttler is convinced whoever plays on Thursday will be able to handle the magnitude of the occasion.

I have full faith in every member of our squad, Buttler added. Were all really excited about the match. Its going to be a great occasion, these are the times you want to be involved as a player.
Photo: The Canadian Press B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, front right, is flanked by his provincial and territorial counterparts as he listens to a question during a news conference after the first of two days of meetings, in Vancouver, on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The federal government has withdrawn from a joint communique with provincial and territorial health ministers, ending widely anticipated meetings in Vancouver without any agreement to boost health-care funding.

British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix, who called it a "disappointing" end to the meetings, had previously said provincial and territorial ministers were united behind a request for federal funding to be increased to 35 per cent, up from 22 per cent.

However, Dix says the federal government withdrew from both a joint communique and a later news conference, because it was unhappy about a statement Canada's premiers issued today.

The statement reiterates the premiers' request for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with them at a national conference on the federal health transfer.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Monday that the government was ready to boost the transfer, with various conditions, including a commitment to a common set of health benchmarks and data sharing, a position Trudeau echoed.

But Dix says the provincial and territorial ministers "couldn't move forward" based on what he called "small sound bites from the prime minister.

"They made the decision not to participate," Dix said of the federal government.
A state judge on Tuesday evening denied a Republican coalitions emergency request to extend voting hours in Arizonas Maricopa County, casting doubt on allegations that some people were unable to vote.

The judge, who ruled just minutes before polls scheduled closing time in the state, also said the request could not be implemented in time.

The GOP groups  which include the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a former state lawmaker, and the campaigns of Arizona GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters and gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake  alleged that some precincts tabulation malfunctions earlier in the day led some voters in the battleground state to be denied the opportunity to vote.

The groups claimed some voters at malfunctioning locations were told they could go to a different polling place instead, only to be told at the new location that they could not vote because they already had checked in at the initial precinct.

The judge said he does not have any evidence that residents were denied the right to vote.

Sen. Mark Kellys (D-Ariz.) campaign opposed the Republican effort and argued against the motion at the hearing.

Officials from Maricopa County  which comprises more than half of the states population  at the hearing argued they had no way to inform polling places about an extension given the hearing occurred in the final minutes before they shut down.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman that accused former President Trumps eldest son Donald Trump Jr., Trump ally Rudy Giuliani and others of witness intimidation and retaliation related to Vindmans congressional testimony against the former president.

The 29-page ruling was issued by Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. He said Vindmans complaint failed to make an adequate showing that the defendants conspired against him.

Plaintiffs pled facts, taken as true, certainly suggest that Defendants leveled harsh, meanspirited, and at times misleading attacks against him, Boasberg wrote. But political hackery alone does not violate [the law at issue].

Vindman gained national prominence in 2019 after he testified about a phone call in which Trump was alleged to have offered a quid pro quo to the president of Ukraine, a phone call which led to Trumps first impeachment.

The alleged deal involved an exchange of U.S. military aid for an investigation into then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden, and his ties to Ukrainian businesses during the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

Vindman was serving as director for European affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) at the time of Trumps July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and promptly raised concerns about the discussion with the NSCs lead counsel, leading to his eventual subpoena by Congress.

His lawsuit alleged that, following his subpoena, Vindman became the target of a dangerous campaign of witness intimidation by President Trump and a group of conspirators in an effort to deter him from testifying.

Among the defendants listed in the federal suit are Trump Jr. and Giuliani, as well as Trump advisers Dan Scavino and Julia Hahn.

In his Tuesday ruling, Boasberg dismissed the litigation against all the defendants.

Story continues

While it is a fairly close question, he wrote, Vindmans facts do not plausibly suggest that Defendants agreed to intimidate him so as to prevent him from testifying or doing his job, or to unlawfully retaliate against him.

Vindmans suit claimed Trumps allies retaliated against him by temporarily blocking his promotion in the Army and abruptly removing him and his twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman, from their White House posts. His complaint alleged two counts of violating federal law prohibiting conspiracy to intimidate and retaliate against a witness.

Vindman, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union as a child, had been a star impeachment witness against Trump, providing testimony before Congress that included a viral moment in which he described telling his father not to worry about the risks involved in his bearing witness against a sitting American president.

He deeply worried about it because in his context, there was the ultimate risk, Vindman said at the time. He later added, This is America. This is the country Ive served and defended. That all of my brothers have served. Here, right matters.

Trumps first impeachment, which centered on his dealings with Ukraine, ended in acquittal after a nearly party-line vote by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Harmeet Dhillon, who represented Trump Jr. and Scavino in the case, hailed the ruling.

Were gratified that the court accepted our arguments that even taken as pled, the allegations made by Alex Vindmann, do not violate his civil rights, Dhillon said. Harsh political criticism is still allowed in America.

An attorney for Protect Democracy, which worked with Vindman on the case, expressed disappointment with the decision.

While we are disappointed by the courts decision and are considering next steps, we have no doubt that it was right for Lt. Col. Vindman to seek accountability in court for the coordinated campaign of intimidation and retaliation waged against him because he honored his oath as a public servant, the counsel, Kristy Parker, said in a statement.

Updated at the 8:54 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Holbrook, a longtime Republican incumbent, won a tight victory Tuesday over his Democratic challenger, Assistant Columbus City Attorney Zach Gwin, according to unofficial results.

Otherwise, Democrats won five other contested races for seats on the bench, according to unofficial results from the Franklin County Board of Elections with 100% of county precincts reporting.

Holbrook got about 50.3% of the vote, or about 2,300 more votes than Gwinn, based on unofficial results that still must be certified by the elections board.

"I'm happy," Holbrook told The Dispatch. "I was nervous. I respect the voters in Franklin County. I'm happy that I was reelected. It was a good race. Zach's a wonderful young man. He may make a great judge someday, but I'm glad that I was reelected."

The other Republican incumbent seeking reelection, Judge Colleen O'Donnell, lost to Democratic attorney Andria C. Noble 45% to 55%, according to unofficial results.

Four Democratic judges ran for reelection unopposed: Mark A. Serrott, Jeffrey M. Brown, Sheryl Munson and Kimberly Cocroft.

If the unofficial results are certified by the elections board, Democrats will have won nine of the 10 seats up for grabs on the county Common Pleas Court in Tuesday's general election. That would leave Holbrook as one of just two Republicans on the bench in all of Franklin County Common Pleas Court among the 17 judges in the general division and seven judges in the Domestic Relations/Juvenile Court division. The other Republican judge is Daniel Hawkins.

Here are the unofficial results from the Franklin County Board of Elections with 100% of precincts reporting:

Domestic Relations and Juvenile court

Judge Kim A. Browne (D) defeated Don Roberts (R) 69% to 31%.

Browne has sat on the bench since 2002. Originally elected as a Republican, Browne switched her party affiliation to Democrat in 2021. Roberts has a local practice focused on family law and he's practiced in domestic court for two decades.

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Douglas Nobles (D) defeated Janie Roberts (R) 57% to 43%.

Nobles is a prosecutor in the Columbus City Attorney's office who has previously worked as a staff attorney in the Franklin County Public Defender's office and the Common Pleas Court Division of Domestic Relations. Roberts has worked for nearly two decades in domestic and juvenile cases.

Common Pleas General Division

Judge Michael J. Holbrook (R) wins tight race over Zach Gwin (D).

Holbrook is one of the longest-serving judges on the county bench and one of the few remaining Republicans. He's been a judge for 17 years. Gwin is an Assistant Columbus City Attorney whose recent work has focused on public nuisance complaints.

On whether Franklin County's heavy Democratic registration led to the tight race, Holbrook said the dynamics of the community likely played a role.

"We recognized we were running against a longtime incumbent in a tough race and we were excited to tackle the opportunity," Gwin told The Dispatch.

Andria C. Noble (D) beats incumbent Judge Colleen O'Donnell (R) 55% to 45%.

Noble has worked in the Columbus City Attorney's office since 2011 as a prosecutor and then in the civil division. O'Donnell has sat on the bench since 2013.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Noble told The Dispatch. "I want to thank the voters for their confidence in me. I really enjoyed getting out in the communities and meeting the voters and hearing what matters the most to them."

Noble said it's possible that the county getting bluer played a role in the judge races this election but said she and the rest of the ticket worked hard to get out in the community and speak with voters.

O'Donnell did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment Tuesday night.

Judge Julie M. Lynch (D) defeated Jessica Barwell (R) 57% to 43%.

Lynch has sat on the bench since 2005. Originally elected as a Republican, Lynch switched her party affiliation to Democrat. Barwell is a local attorney with a practice in civil law.

Bill Sperlazza (D) wins handily over Will Ireland (R) 59% to 41%.

Sperlazza has worked in the Columbus City Attorney's office since 2005, including on criminal and civil litigation. Ireland has practiced as a criminal defense attorney since 2004.

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Who won Franklin County Common Pleas judge races?
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP)  A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the arrest of a neo-Nazi website publisher accused of ignoring a $14 million judgment against him for orchestrating an anti-Semitic harassment campaign against a Montana woman's family.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Andrew Anglin, founder and operator of The Daily Stormer website.

Attorneys for Montana real estate agent Tanya Gersh have said Anglin did not pay any portion of the August 2019 judgment and has ignored their requests for information about his whereabouts, his operation of the website and other assets.

Gersh says anonymous internet trolls bombarded her family with hateful and threatening messages after Anglin published their personal information, including a photo of her young son. In a string of posts, Anglin accused Gersh and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, of engaging in an extortion racket against the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer.

Gershs April 2017 lawsuit accused Anglin of invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of the Montana Anti-Intimidation Act. An attorney for Gersh did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment Wednesday.

Judge Christensen ordered Anglin to pay over $4 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages to Gersh, who is represented by lawyers from the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. The court entered the default judgment against Anglin after he failed to appear for a scheduled deposition by Gershs attorneys.

Anglin, a native of Ohio, has claimed to be living outside the U.S. But his current whereabouts are unknown and he did not immediately respond to an email sent to an address posted on his website.

Other targets of Anglins online harassment campaigns also secured default judgments against him after he failed to respond to their respective lawsuits.

In June 2019, a federal judge in Ohio awarded $4.1 million in damages to Muslim American radio host Dean Obeidallah, who sued Anglin for falsely accusing him of terrorism. Obeidallah said he received death threats after Anglin published an article that tricked readers into believing he took responsibility for the May 2017 terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert.

In August 2019, a federal judge in Washington entered another default judgment against Anglin and awarded just over $600,000 in compensatory and punitive damages to the first Black woman to serve as American Universitys student government president. Taylor Dumpsons lawsuit said Anglin directed his readers to troll storm her after someone hung bananas with hateful messages from nooses on the universitys campus a day after her inauguration as student government president.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP)  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich must comply with a subpoena seeking his testimony in front of a special grand jury in Georgia investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence that states 2020 election results, a Virginia judge ruled Wednesday.

Gingrich, who lives in northern Virginia, had argued that the federal law that normally requires states to honor out-of-state grand jury summonses should not apply in this case because the special grand jury lacks the power to indict. He also argued that the subpoena would be unnecessarily duplicative and burdensome because he has already agreed to testify in front of a congressional select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and that his testimony in both matters would essentially be the same.

But Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Robert Smith sided with prosecutors who said the subpoena should be enforced. The judge said the law doesnt parse out a difference between regular grand juries and special grand juries, as Gingrichs lawyer argued.

I think I have to read the statute as written, the judge said.

Gingrichs lawyer, John Burlingame, said he expects to appeal the ruling. If the appeal fails, Gingrich will be required to testify to the special grand jury on Nov. 29.

Gingrich declined comment after the hearing.

Gingrich, a Republican, is one of several high-profile Trump allies who have unsuccessfully tried to avoid testifying.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation early last year, shortly after a recording of a call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was made public. In that call, Trump urged Raffersperger, the state's top elections official and a fellow Republican, to find the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.

The scope of the investigation has broadened considerably since then, and Willis, a Democrat, has sought the testimony of dozens of witnesses, including numerous Trump attorneys, advisers and associates since the special grand jury was seated in May. It is among several cases that have the former president in potential legal jeopardy as he prepares to launch a 2024 presidential campaign.

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Because Gingrich lives outside Georgia, Willis had to use a process that involves asking a judge where he lives to order him to appear.

Willis filed that paperwork in court in Atlanta last month, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who's overseeing the special grand jury, certified that Gingrich is a necessary and material witness for the investigation. In her petition seeking Gingrich's testimony as a witness, Willis said she relied on information made public by the House committee that's investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

The petition says Gingrich was involved along with others associated with the Trump campaign in a plan to run television ads that repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election and encouraged members of the public to contact state officials to push them to challenge and overturn the election results based on those false claims.

Gingrich was also involved in a plan to have Republican fake electors sign certificates falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the states official electors even though Biden had won, the petition says.

At Wednesday's hearing, Burlingame said the information sought by the Georgia special grand jury overlaps entirely with the congressional investigation, so there's no need to require Gingrich to testify twice, since the Georgia prosecutor can obtain the transcript of Gingrich's upcoming testimony to the congressional committee.

Theyre very thorough, Burlingame said of the congressional investigators. It almost sounds like the Fulton County district attorney is concerned that the professional attorneys for the select committee arent going to be doing a capable job. Your Honor, I assure you they will.

Fairfax County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kyle Mandelbaum acknowledged there may be overlap in the two investigations but said it would be wrong to assume they have identical interests.

The grand jury in Fulton County is specifically looking at the question of whether or not Georgia law was violated which is not necessarily the focus of the January 6 committees investigation, Mandelbaum said.

The subpoena provides him immunity for his testimony and covers his lodging and transportation costs, Mandelbaum said.

Special grand juries in Georgia are generally used to investigate complex cases with many witnesses. They can compel evidence and subpoena testimony from witnesses, but they cannot issue indictments. Once its investigation is complete, a special grand jury can recommend action, but it remains up to the district attorney to decide whether to then seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.

___

Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed.
A Pueblo judge has issued a gag order in a high-profile election tampering case and ordered the defendant to be evaluated for competency.

Richard Patton, 31, is the first man in Colorado to be charged under a new law that upgraded the penalty for tampering with election equipment from a misdemeanor to a Class 5 felony.

In a hearing Wednesday morning, an attorney for the Pueblo County Public Defender's Office requested the gag order be placed to prevent the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office, as well as law enforcement agencies such as the Pueblo Police Department, Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, Colorado Bureau of Investigations, and FBI, from commenting on the case.

An attorney representing the 10th Judicial District DA's Office objected, stating that the case did not meet the legal parameters that would make a gag order necessary.

Judge William Alexander disagreed.

There has been quite a bit of recent media attention, even at a national level, with regards to this case, Alexander said.

Election:With all eyes on Pueblo County, clerk Ortiz calls for patience for Frisch, Boebert results

However, he noted, the gag order he adopted in the case would not be the one proposed by the public defender's office, but a standard gag order used in the past by the District Attorney's Office, which he stated was "more reasonable."

At the urging of the DA's office, Alexander also included the public defender's office in the gag order, prohibiting them from speaking about the case as well.

The gag order does not prevent the public from attending hearings on the case in open court or requesting documents of public record but simply prevents the parties named in the order from speaking publicly about the case.

Alexander also accepted another motion from the public defender's office requiring Patton to be evaluated for competency to stand trial, which will take place within 42 days.

A competency evaluation considers whether a defendant is mentally ill or developmentally disabled and whether that mental illness or disability would impede the defendant's ability to stand trial, based on whether the defendants have a factual and rational understanding of the proceedings and whether defendants are able to consult with attorneys and assist in their own defense, according to Colorado law.

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A finding of incompetency is legally distinct from a finding of insanity, which would focus on the mental state of the defendant at the time the alleged offense was committed.

The competency evaluation will be performed by a behavioral health organization.

Patton, a registered Democrat, was arrested Thursday after police alleged he inserted a USB device into a voting machine during the June primary election, according to Pueblo police.

More:Pueblo man officially charged with felony under new election law denies wrongdoing

Patton was released on a $5,000 bond Friday after being advised of his rights.

In a phone call with the Chieftain, Patton denied all wrongdoing and accused an election worker of tampering.

Patton will next appear in court on Dec. 29.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: In Pueblo election tampering case, judge orders competency evaluation
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has rejected a Republican coalitions request to extend poll hours in Maricopa County, Ariz., after the county faced tabulator problems at 25 percent of its polling locations on Election Day.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. local time. The Republican group filed an emergency motion to extend poll hours until 10 p.m. The judge said it would be impossible to extend voting hours so late in the day; the ruling was issued just five minutes before polls were set to close.

The judge also noted that voters had several alternatives, such as voting at another polling place or putting the ballot in box 3 for counting later.

No votershave been prevented from submitting a ballot, the judge said.

The coalition includes the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Republican Party of Arizona and the campaigns of GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters and GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. The widespread issues  in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs  are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day.

Officials in Arizonas Maricopa County said Tuesday afternoon they had identified a solution after tabulators at 25 percent of the countys 223 voting stations were glitching earlier today.

County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue. It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots, the county recorders office said this afternoon.

Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer apologized to voters for the issue and said, Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.

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Chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors Bill Gates told Vice News he does not see a reason to keep polls open until 10 p.m.. He said he has not heard any specific examples of disenfranchised voters from tabulation problems but said the county will follow any court orders that are issued.

The RNC said long lines have been observed at polling places in the county.

Additionally, individuals leaving impacted voting locations to vote elsewhere are not being checked out of the poll book, which makes voting at the other location problematic, the RNC said in a statement.

The group noted it previously sued the county in early October for refusing to share their partisan poll worker breakdown and failing to hire a sufficient number of Republican election workers.

Lake, who has touted former president Trumps false allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, seemed to suggest earlier today that the tabulator problems may be the result of partisan interference.

Do you think this is normal guys? My question is, do you think whats happening here in Maricopa County is normal? We have had problems after problems, Lake said to reporters.

I hope its not malice. But were gonna win. And when we win, theres gonna be a come to Jesus for elections in Arizona, she said.

More from National Review
A police officer has been injured on the M25 amid climate protests which closed parts of the motorway in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.

The police motorcyclist was hurt in a collision which also involved two lorries at a rolling roadblock.

The Just Stop Oil group, which is protesting for a third day, said about 10 activists had climbed on overhead gantries "in multiple locations".

The home secretary told police to be firmer against protesters.

Suella Braverman said the "disruption is a threat to our way of life", during a speech on Wednesday.

She told the Police Chiefs Conference: "I urge you all to step up to your public duties in policing protests.

"In recent months and years, we have seen an erosion of confidence in the police to take action against the radicals, the road-blockers, the vandals, the militants and the extremists.

"It is not a human right to vandalise a work of art. It is not a civil liberty to stop ambulances getting to the sick and injured."

Essex Police provided no information on the condition of the officer, who was injured between junctions 26 (Waltham Abbey) and 27 (Theydon).

Chief Constable of Essex Police BJ Harrington said the protests were "putting lives at risk", and warned "someone is going to get hurt".

Surrey Police said five arrests have been made - four on suspicion of intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance and one on suspicion of conspiracy of the same offence.

They are all still in custody, police said.

The force said: "This brings the total number of arrests made in Surrey so far to 16.

"Officers are proactively patrolling the rest of the M25, as they have been all week."

Kent Police said protests in Essex were causing disruption at the Dartford crossing for traffic leaving Kent.

A 71-year-old man from Cornwall and a 75-year-old woman from Somerset were arrested by Kent Police.

The disruption comes as the COP27 climate summit is held in Egypt.

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M25 disruption:

Surrey: Between J7 (M23) and J8 (Reigate), and between J9 (Leatherhead and J8 (Reigate), and between J13 (Staines) and J14 (Heathrow Airport)

Kent: Between J4 (Orpington and J5 (A21/Sevenoaks)

London/Essex: Between J29 (Romford) and J30 (Thurrock/Lakeside)

Hertfordshire: Between J23 (A1(M)) and J22 (St Albans)

Just Stop Oil said in a statement: "This is not a one-day event, expect us every day and anywhere."

It also said the collision of two lorries and the injury to the police officer was "an awful situation".

The group is calling for an end to fossil fuels, renewable energy investment and for better building insulation to avoid energy waste.

One protester, 75-year-old Rachel, posted an online clip from a gantry between junctions eight and nine.

She said: "I'm here because of my five lovely grandchildren. I want to do everything I can to save their future and they are at great risk."

Jade McCormick was travelling to Stansted airport to catch a flight to Scotland to visit relatives she hasn't seen since before the pandemic.

She said: "Traffic was just stopped, at a standstill, and we've had to turn around and I've missed my flight. I'm going to go home and maybe I'll have to drive to Scotland."

Referring to the activists, she said: "I see their point, but in the same breath, when it's causing accidents it's just getting stupid now.

"Police officers have much more serious crimes to deal with but they're now having to monitor the M25 - it's just stupid. I don't agree with it."

At the COP27 summit, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told world leaders the war in Ukraine was a reason to act faster to tackle climate change.

The Metropolitan Police said 16 protesters had previously been arrested on the motorway in a joint operation with other counties' police forces.

On Sunday, the High Court granted an injunction preventing M25 protests, meaning anyone involved in any such protest could be found in contempt of court.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.
SheKnows

Whos going to tell him? Thats the question the Republican Party is asking themselves right now after Donald Trump inserted himself into the 2024 presidential conversation. Hes running, but the GOP is lining up behind other candidates to support besides the former president. Republican Party leaders are noting that its like Donald Trumps campaign announcement []
The Arizona governors election is on a knife-edge as Republican Kari Lake narrowly trails Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs in the race for governor.

Ms Lake was behind by about 12,000 votes with 66 per cent of the ballots counted on Wednesday.

In her first public statement since election night, the Trump-backed candidate claimed she was on course for victory in an early afternoon tweet.

Remaining ballots (Election Day & Early Drop-offs) are all breaking BIGLY for Kari Lake. Just like we knew they would.

Facing a much tighter margin than she wouldve wanted, Ms Lake ended election night with a speech casting doubts on the integrity of the results - as shed done throughout her campaign.

We need honest elections and were going to bring them to you, Arizona, I assure you of that. The system we have right now does not work, she said.

In her own speech, Ms Hobbs expressed optimism but stressed the importance of waiting for all of the votes to be counted.

Meanwhile in the race for Senate, Democrat Mark Kelly held a five point lead over Trump-backed Republican rival Blake Masters as of 1pm ET.

Arizona governors race

Arizona governors race too close to call

Katie Hobbs holding narrow lead with 66 per cent of votes in

Kari Lake spreads election misinformation

Trump was actually the biggest winner in the midterm elections  and this is why

03:00 , Bevan Hurley

When the Republican party inevitably retakes the House and McCarthy scraps the January 6 committe, Trump will be bullying and trampling over DeSantis  maybe all the way to Oval Office, writes The Independents Andrew Buncombe.

Trump was actually the biggest winner in the midterm elections

Abortion rights advocates count seismic victories

02:00 , Bevan Hurley

Five months after the US Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to abortion, voters in three states were the first to enshrine an explicit right to abortion care in their state constitutions.

Voters in Michigan joined Vermont and California to enshrine protections for abortion care in their state constitutions, while voters in Kentucky and Montana appear to have shot down anti-abortion measures in their states.

Story continues

Alex Woodward takes a closer look at the states that chose to protect abortion rights.

Abortion rights advocates count seismic victories in US elections

Lauren Boebert mocked for hours of silence after tweeting Red wave has begun

01:00 , Bevan Hurley

The red wave has begun! tweeted Lauren Boebert on Tuesday as she congratulated fellow Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who was one of the first House races to be called by the Associated Press.

In the 17 hours since, as she has trailed Democratic challenger Adam Frisch, Ms Boebert has been curiously silent.

Filling the void have been her many detractors on social media.

Johanna Chisholm has the story.

Lauren Boebert mocked for awkward 17-hour silence after tweeting red wave has begun

Abortion wasnt supposed to matter in the midterms

00:00 , Bevan Hurley

In states where abortion was on the ballot, people overwhelmingly voted to support access to the procedure  and where anti-abortion candidates stood for election, voters tended not to favor them, The Independents Clemence Michallon writes.

Exit polls show that voters cared a lot more about abortion than expected: It was the second most important issue they kept in mind, according to NBC Newss polling, right behind inflation and far ahead of crime, gun policy, and immigration.

And in states where abortion was explicitly on the ballot, people voted to support access to the procedure.

Abortion wasnt supposed to matter in the midterms. Republicans got a rude awakening

Furious Trump blames Melania for telling him to back Dr Oz

23:00 , Bevan Hurley

In case you were wondering how things are going at Mar-a-Lago today, Donald Trump is apparently lashing out at everyone  including wife Melania  over the poor midterm showing from candidates he supported.

Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz, including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times tweeted on Wednesday morning.

Gustav Kilander has the full story.

Furious and livid Trump blames Melania for telling him to back Dr Oz

Young voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats in midterms

22:30 , Bevan Hurley

Voters aged from 18 to 29 overwhelmingly went for Democratic candidates, according to exit polls from the National Election Pool.

Sixty-three per cent of voters in that age group voted for Democratic House candidates, according to the poll, while 35 per cent voted for Republicans.

John Bowden explains how Gen Z helped Democrats stave off a red wave.

Thank you Gen Z! How young voters saved the Democrats

President Biden says Tuesday was a good day for democracy

22:00 , Bevan Hurley

Addressing the nation for the first time since the midterms, Joe Biden said Tuesdays results were a good day for democracy.

While the press and pundits were predicting a red wave, it did not happen.

Pres. Biden on the #Election2022: It was a good day, I think, for democracy  With their votes, the American people have spoken pic.twitter.com/8KpWijIpme  NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 9, 2022

Abortion wasnt supposed to matter in the midterms

21:41 , Bevan Hurley

In states where abortion was on the ballot, people overwhelmingly voted to support access to the procedure  and where anti-abortion candidates stood for election, voters tended not to favor them, The Independents Clemence Michallon writes.

Exit polls show that voters cared a lot more about abortion than expected: It was the second most important issue they kept in mind, according to NBC Newss polling, right behind inflation and far ahead of crime, gun policy, and immigration.

And in states where abortion was explicitly on the ballot, people voted to support access to the procedure.

Abortion wasnt supposed to matter in the midterms. Republicans got a rude awakening

Adam Kinzinger mocks loser Trump in withering attack

21:21 , Bevan Hurley

llinois congressman Adam Kinzinger mocked Donald Trump supporters on Wednesday, after a sponsored post on Truth Social network claimed the former president was prophesied in the Bible.

Interesting, the Illinois Republican wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. Googles Bible verses with loser in them.

Josh Marcus has more.

Adam Kinzinger mocks loser Trump in withering attack

Abortion rights advocates count seismic victories

20:55 , Bevan Hurley

Five months after the US Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to abortion, voters in three states were the first to enshrine an explicit right to abortion care in their state constitutions.

Voters in Michigan joined Vermont and California to enshrine protections for abortion care in their state constitutions, while voters in Kentucky and Montana appear to have shot down anti-abortion measures in their states.

Alex Woodward takes a closer look at the states that chose to protect abortion rights.

Abortion rights advocates count seismic victories in US elections

Inside John Fettermans remarkable fairytale campaign

20:30 , Bevan Hurley

John Fettermans rise seemed both unlikely and inevitable, writes The Independents Richard Hall.

Unlikely because he was an unashamed progressive running in a swing state during an election year that was expected to punish Democrats. Inevitable because he had built what many considered to be a movement campaign, powered by vibes and memes.

Read Richards full account from inside the Fetterman campaign.

Inside John Fettermans remarkable fairytale campaign

Young voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats in midterms

20:10 , Bevan Hurley

Voters aged from 18 to 29 overwhelmingly went for Democratic candidates, according to exit polls from the National Election Pool.

Sixty-three per cent of voters in that age group voted for Democratic House candidates, according to the poll, while 35 per cent voted for Republicans.

John Bowden explains how Gen Z helped Democrats stave off a red wave.

Young voters surged to Democrats in midterm elections to stave off red wave

17,000 rejected Maricopa County ballots to be counted soon

19:50 , Bevan Hurley

Election officials in Maricopa County are expected to count around 17,000 votes that were unable to be processed by tabulators yesterday, AZ Central reports.

Voting machine malfunctions in Arizonas most populous county led to unfounded cries of fraud from Republican candidate Kari Lake.

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates rejected that claim and insisted all votes would be properly counted.

AZ Central states that the ballots that werent accepted by malfunctioning machines make up around 7 per cent of votes in the county.

Ms Lake is trailing Katie Hobbs by about 12,000 votes with 66 per cent of the ballots counted.

Katie Hobbs (Associated Press)

The Democrats apocalypse was canceled  largely thanks to Donald Trump

19:30 , Bevan Hurley

The Democrats avoided a blood moon bloodbath largely thanks to one man, The Independents senior Washington correspondent Eric Garcia writes.

Trump set Republicans up for failure the moment he and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rammed through Justice Amy Coney Barretts confirmation right before the 2020 presidential election.

That teed up the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade with its decision in Dobbs v Jackson. Had that not happened, Democrats would have been looking at a catastrophic midterm on the scale of their historic rout in 2010. Instead, the decision galvanized their base in a way almost no issue ever could.

Read Erics piece below.

The Democrats apocalypse was canceled  largely thanks to Donald Trump

Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock headed to runoff election in Georgia

19:10 , Bevan Hurley

Georgias Senate race is headed to a runoff after both Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock failed to garner more than 50 per cent of the vote.

Several networks projected the race would head to a 6 December runoff on Wednesday afternoon.

That could mean that the outcome of the race and control of the upper chamber of Congress will once again come down to voters in Georgia.

Georgia Senate race headed to runoff as majority hangs in the balance

People want the circus to stop

18:50 , Bevan Hurley

Few were picking Lauren Boeberts Congressional race to go down to the wire.

She is the incumbent; she represents a plus-nine Republican district; shes outraised Adam Frisch, so she has more money to spend for her campaign, Justin Gollob, a political science professor, told The Independents Sheila Flynn.

Her name recognition is higher than Adam Frischs. Probably one of his biggest liabilities at this point is his lower name recognition.

All those signs point to a fairly convincing win. So whats really a surprise, at this point, is that were even having this conversation about the competitiveness of this race.

Read Sheilas fascinating report on how Ms Boeberts angertainment alienated voters.

People want the circus to stop: Could Lauren Boebert be in trouble?

Sean Patrick Maloney concedes New York House race

18:30 , Bevan Hurley

Incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the House Democrats campaign arm, conceded his race to Republican opponent Mike Lawler on Wednesday.

MSNBCs Steve Kornacki noted that he was the first party campaign chairman to lose their race since 1992.

The Independents senior DC correspondent Eric Garcia has the full story.

Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of House Democrats campaign arm, concedes his race

Kari Lake: 'Were going to win big

18:08 , Bevan Hurley

In her first tweet since election night, Kari Lake has claimed that votes are breaking bigly for her.

Wow. Were going to win big. Stay tuned, Arizona! Ms Lake wrote in a tweet a few minutes ago.

Ms Lake is trailing Katie Hobbs by around 12,000 votes with 66 per cent of the ballots counted.

Remaining ballots (Election Day & Early Drop-offs) are all breaking BIGLY for @KariLake. Just like we knew they would.  Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 9, 2022

Trumps influence damaged as his chosen candidates go down

18:00 , Bevan Hurley

About half of Donald Trumps chosen candidates for Congress suffered losses, denting the former presidents influence as he is widdely expected to formally launch another presidential bid.

A final analysis of the night put the number at roughly 80 of Mr Trumps 174 congressional endorsements making it to Capitol Hill, a number that includes incumbents.

John Bowden has the full story.

Trumps influence takes a hit as half of his congressional picks go down

Watch: Craziest moments from US midterm election night

17:40 , Bevan Hurley

Standout moments from the midterms include Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake promising to be a nightmare for journalists, Mike Lindell claiming 90 per cent of the country votes Republican, and Tudor Dixon refusing to concede the Michigan governors race.

Watch below.

Craziest moments from US midterm election night

Who won, who lost and what we know so far

17:20 , Bevan Hurley

Lindsey Graham summed up the mood on election night succinctly: Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure.

Republicans are still heavily favoured to take the House, while the Senate remains too close to call.

The Independents Joe Sommerlad explains where the results are at.

US midterms: Who won, who lost and what we know so far

The needle and the damage done to GOP hopes of taking Senate

17:05 , Bevan Hurley

The New York Times election needle is predicting Democrats have a strong chance of holding on to control of the Senate.

As of 4am EST Wednesday, the NYT is giving Democrats a 66 per cent chance of retaining at least 50 seats.

Since then, GOP Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has been tipped to hold on to his seat.

Democrats are leading tight races in Arizona and Georgia that are yet to be called.

The Times projected Republicans have an 83 per cent chance of taking the House.

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake speaks to supporters on election night (Associated Press)

Lauren Boebert trails Democratic challenger

16:55 , Bevan Hurley

In a closely-watched contest, Maga firebrand Lauren Boebert is trailing in her Colorado congressional race.

With 93 per cent of votes now counted in the district, Adam Frisch is leading with 50.9 per cent of the vote to the incumbent congresswomans 49.1 per cent.

The race still remains too close to call  though the New York Times is estimating that Ms Boebert will claw her way back to victory, based on the places in the district still left to report votes.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

How is Lauren Boebert faring in midterms race?

Political observers mock Trump and GOPs red wave failures

16:45 , Bevan Hurley

Predictions of a red wave sweeping Republicans to power have not aged well after Democratic support held up reasonably well in the midterms.

Senator Ted Cruz forecast a  red tsunami . While Joe Rogan said the wave would look like the elevators full of blood in the classic horror film The Shining.

Political observers were quick to point out just how wrong many of these election prophecies turned out to be.

The Independents Josh Marcus has the story.

A complete crock: Political observers mock Trump and GOPs red wave failing

Who will be true Maga king after midterm results?

16:35 , Bevan Hurley

With Ron DeSantis having a comfortable victory in Florida and many Trump-aligned candidates losing, the battle royale for the 2024 Republican presidential candidacy has just taken a fascinating twist, The Independents Andrew Buncombe writes.

Who will be true Maga king after midterms  Trump or DeSantis?

Arizonas Maricopa County expects next results to drop on Wednesday evening

16:25 , Bevan Hurley

Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix, will be crucial to deciding the outcome of governor and senate races in Arizona.

With 65 per cent of the votes counted already, Katie Hobbs is leading Kari Lake in the county by four percentage points.

The next vote tallies from Maricopa are expected to drop on Wednesday evening.

Election officials say they will have counted 99 per cent of ballots by Friday.

We're up early working to signature verify the ballots that got dropped off at that polls yesterday! You can track your ballot by texting "JOIN" to 628-683 or by visiting https://t.co/DnWJeDMd9W. pic.twitter.com/rVZDgJIWWz  Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 9, 2022

Polls got it wrong about the midterm election results

16:14 , Bevan Hurley

Michael Salfino writes for Independent Voices that the Democrats stronger-than-expected showing among independent and young voters was critical in overperforming pre-election expectations.

Mr Salfino also notes that abortion and poor candidate quality among Republicans helped them prove pollsters wrong.

Polls got it wrong about the midterm election results. Heres why

Joe Scarborough: Dont run against democracy in America'

16:00 , Bevan Hurley

MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough noted it had been a bad night for Republican election deniers running for governor.

In Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Maryland, Maga candidates who refused to accept the results of the 2020 election lost to their Democratic opponents.

Pro Tip: Dont run against democracy in America. You will lose, the Morning Joe host tweeted on Wednesday.

The only questions mark remains in Arizona, where Kari Lake is trailing to Katie Hobbs.

Pro Tip: Dont run against democracy in America. You will lose.



Kari Lake, Arizona

 Tim Michels, Wisconsin

 Tudor Dixon, Michigan

 Doug Mastriano, PA

 Darren Bailey, Illinois

 Dan Cox, Maryland

 Lee Zeldin, NY@VaughnHillyard  Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) November 9, 2022

Democrat holds narrow lead in Secretary of State race

15:45 , Bevan Hurley

In Arizonas race for secretary of state, Democrat Adrian Fontes is holding a narrow lead over election denier Mark Finchem.

With 66 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Fontes is on 52.4 per cent compared to Mr Finchems 47.6 per cent.

Mr Finchem is one of several Republicans running for secretary of state in swing states who have promoted false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

He has pushed the absurd claim that the 2020 election could be decertified, and could try to block the certification of results in 2024.

Mark Finchem, Republican nominee for Arizona secretary of state, at a campaign rally in October (Getty Images)

Prepare for a few more days of counting'

15:35 , Bevan Hurley

Katie Hobbs urged supporters to be patient as votes continue to be tallied in the race for Arizona Governor.

I have every confidence that the counties administering this election conducted a free and fair election, and their results will be accurate, Ms Hobbs told supporters gathered in Phoenix on election night.

But they will take time, so prepare for a long evening and a few more days of counting.

Ms Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state, had oversight of vote counting during the contentious 2020 presidential election.

With 66 per cent of the votes in, Ms Hobbs holds a narrow lead over election denier Kari Lake.

My statement on awaiting tonight's results. pic.twitter.com/yba7ASq3i6  Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) November 9, 2022

Kari Lake gets drowned out by f*** Donald Trump during press conference

15:25 , Bevan Hurley

Kari Lake has refused to commit to recognising the results of the Arizona Governors race and continued to stoke concerns about voting machines on election day.

I woke up this morning and within minutes of the polls opening up I started getting people calling. Voters in tears, calling my personal numbers, saying Whats going on? The tabulators arent working, she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

During one comical scene, Ms Lake was heard telling reporters that shes standing up for the people of Arizona and standing up for our children while FDT (F*** Donald Trump) played in a car passing by.

Jenna Amatulli has the full report.

Kari Lake gets drowned out by f*** Donald Trump during press conference

The biggest loser in the US midterms? Donald Trump

15:15 , Bevan Hurley

Writing for Independent Voices, Sean OGrady says the midterm elections are a clear rejection of Trumpism.

Rejoice! American democracy and the freedoms of the West are a little bit safer than they might have been.

The great Republican Party, which at its best has produced outstanding statesmen and women, is a step closer to its salvation and rehabilitation, beginning to escape the gravitational pull of Trump.

The biggest loser in the US midterms? Donald Trump | Sean OGrady

Mark Kelly leading Blake Masters in Arizona Senate race

15:05 , Bevan Hurley

In the Senate, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly has a healthy lead over his opponent Blake Masters.

With 68 per cent of the vote in, Mr Kelly is on 51.4 per cent compared to Mr Masters 46.4 per cent.

The race is still too close to call.

Arizona governors race too close to call

14:54 , Bevan Hurley

The race for governor remains tight on Wednesday morning.

With 66 per cent of the votes counted, Democrat Katie Hobbs is holding a narrow lead over Republican Kari Lake.

Ms Hobbs is sitting on 50.3 per cent, compared to Ms Lakes 49.7 per cent.

Officials in Maricopa County, the states most populous county, have urged patience as they continue to tally early ballots.

Maricopa County Election Director Scott Jarrett told AZCentral earlier this week that it could take 72 hours to process all of the votes.

Maricopa County faced voting machine malfunctions

14:40 , Megan Sheets

Kari Lakes claims of fraud around the Arizona midterms were fueled in part by reports of voting machine malfunctions in Maricopa County - the states most populous - on Tuesday.

About 20% of the locations out there where theres an issue with the tabulator where some of the ballots that after people have voted them, they try and run them through the tabulator and theyre not going through, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates said in a Facebook video.

Mr Gates noted that long lines had been reported throughout Maricopa County  which is Arizonas most populous county  as 45 of its 223 voting centres reported issues with the machines.

If there are long lines at the location youre at, or issues with the tabulator, if you would prefer to go to another location, you can do that, Mr Gates said. It doesnt matter where you go, as long as youre a registered voter here in Maricopa County.

Mr Gates said that voters could still cast ballots at centres with faulty machines, but their ballots would be placed in a secured box until they can be transferred to a centre with working counters.

The Independents Graig Graziosi has more:

Kari Lake pushes election fraud conspiracies

14:37 , Megan Sheets

With many votes still to be counted, Kari Lake has already begun casting doubt on the integrity of results in her race against Katie Hobbs.

Ms Lake claimed, without offering evidence, that the trouble with electronic tabulators was part of a Democratic plot to stymie her chances to win even though officials said all votes would be counted by transporting ballots to locations with functioning equipment.

In a speech to supporters late Tuesday, Ms Hobbs addressed the allegations.

We know my opponent and her allies have been sowing doubts and confusion throughout this campaign. Its unacceptable that they were spreading this [mis]information today while people were exercising their freedom to vote, she said.

For her part, Ms Lake was still confident that she would win when she addressed her own supporters on election night.

We will take the victory when it comes. And we will turn this state around, she said. She has not stated that she will accept the results of the election if she is not declared the winner.

Arizona governor race too close to call

14:11 , Megan Sheets

The race to be Arizonas next governor remains too close to call one day after the 2022 midterm elections.

Arizona officials have said the full results could take up to five days to deliver as election workers open and count late-arriving ballots delivered by mail and deposited in drop boxes by Grand Canyon State voters.

As of Wednesday morning, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, leads her GOP challenger, former TV news anchor and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake, by a margin of 50.9 per cent to 49.1 per cent. The difference between the two candidates was just over 30,000 votes.

Officials plan to release updated vote totals once per day, at approximately 9.00 pm ET. Ms Lake, who has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump and who has pledged not to certify any future elections that result in Democratic victories, would need to make up the 30,000 vote deficit with strong showings in the states most populous area, Maricopa County.

The Independents Andrew Feinberg has more:

Kari Lake trails Katie Hobbs as Arizona governors race too close to call
Photo: Photo: Bob Mackin. Ex-mayor of Surrey Doug McCallum

UPDATE 5:45 p.m.

Even though ex-Surrey Mayor Doug McCallums memory of a parking lot argument with an angry citizen wasnt crystal clear, his lead defence lawyer said Tuesday that he was co-operative with police when he complained about the alleged hit and run.

In closing arguments at McCallums public mischief trial in Surrey Provincial Court, Richard Peck said his client urged police to obtain surveillance footage, volunteered to provide his medical records, allowed his foot to be photographed by a police officer and gave up his shoes on request.

Is this how someone acts who is fabricating this? Get the video, Ill help in any way I can, heres my records  none of that supports that interpretation, Peck told Judge Reginald Harris.

McCallum accused Keep the RCMP in Surreys Debi Johnstone of running over his foot in the Southpoint Save-On-Foods parking lot on Sept. 4, 2021 after she unleashed a barrage of profanity at him and told him to resign. RCMP instead investigated McCallum for lying about the incident. McCallum was eventually charged with public mischief and pleaded not guilty when his trial began Oct. 31. He did not testify.

If were making all this up, its very well-scripted, Peck quipped.

RCMP officer Sgt. Andre Johnny testified Nov. 1 that investigators could not determine whether McCallums foot was run over because vegetation obscured a surveillance cameras view of his lower leg and Johnstones rear wheel. But the video evidence contradicted McCallums claims that Johnstone pinned him to the vehicle and then sped away. McCallum casually walked away from the scene and later went shopping at the grocery store. He eventually filing a police complaint and visited the Peace Arch Hospital emergency room where a doctor found he had a contusion on his left foot but no visible swelling.

Nonetheless, Peck said the defences expert medical and engineering witnesses told the court that it was possible McCallum was run over without suffering any broken bones after Johnstone targeted and stalked his client.

This, for him, McCallum, was a frightening, disturbing event and there is no doubt that such events could lead to misperception, Peck said.

Peck called McCallum a dedicated public servant who weathered his fair share of typical and expected criticism during his time in office, which ended Monday when Brenda Locke was sworn-in as Surreys new mayor. However, Peck said that during his last term, McCallum faced aggressive opposition from a group vehemently against his program to replace the RCMP with a new municipal police force. Keep the RCMP in Surrey members protested at council meetings, public events and even outside his home. Peck called it toxic fanaticism.

What is not to be expected, and sadly seems to have taken a flow in North America, is that a small subset of the population can respond to government initiatives that they disagree with in an aggressive and, in my respectful submission, democratically negative way, Peck said.

Harris interrupted Peck near the end of his presentation with a pointed question about McCallums behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

In this case, it would strike me if someone is going to fabricate that they've been run over on the foot, and you're approaching the very investigator, wouldn't you expect a feigned limp? Harris asked. So the absence of a feigned limp, is that something I can consider? If I'm going to the police and I want them to believe Hey, I was run over, wouldn't it make sense that I would be pretending to be limping and injured?

Replied Peck: Thats a reasonable anticipation or expectation in my view. As a piece of evidence, I think it can go into the mix.

The absence of it, to me, is somewhat striking, Harris said.

Harris also asked whether the police were investigating harassment in addition to the driving incident. Peck said that Johnny was emphatic in his cross-examination that they didnt investigate harassment.

Thats what I thought, as well, Harris said.

Closing arguments continue Wednesday morning.

ORIGINAL 3:50 p.m.

The emergency room doctor who treated ex-Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum found no visible swelling on the day he claimed a pro-RCMP activist drove over his left foot, Surrey Provincial Court heard on Tuesday.



McCallum alleged that Keep the RCMP in Surreys Debi Johnstone ran over his foot in the Southpoint Save-On-Foods parking lot on Sept. 4, 2021, after she unleashed a barrage of profanity at him. Police instead accused McCallum of lying about the incident and he was charged with public mischief. McCallum pleaded not guilty when the trial began Oct. 31, but did not testify.



Judge Reginald Harris heard that emergency room staff determined McCallum had a contusion on his left foot and that he complained of tingling and mild, dull pain on the top of his foot. McCallum underwent an X-ray but no fracture was found. A doctor told him to take Tylenol, ice his foot and follow up with his family doctor.



Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Kevin Wing, an expert witness for the defence, said he saw nothing in McCallums file that was inconsistent with a mild, soft-tissue injury that could have been caused by a car running over a foot. He also suggested there could be a delayed reaction.



One of McCallums four lawyers switched gears and suggested another cause for McCallums injury.



Have you observed similar soft tissue injuries arise in situations where, you know, the person's foot is not actually contacted, but they're reacting to a sudden stimuli like a car driving by quickly? asked Eric Gottardi.



The answer is, yes, said foot and ankle specialist Wing. I see people all the time who, in some kind of jerky motion twisting and turning, have relatively minor soft tissue injuries. But nonetheless, those soft tissue injuries are demonstrable and real with respect to discomfort, swelling.



Sgt. Andre Johnny of the Surrey RCMP testified Nov. 1 that detectives could not determine whether the rear wheel on Johnstones Mustang convertible ever met McCallums foot, because a shrub blocked a surveillance cameras view. The video evidence contradicted McCallums two other key claims that he had been pinned against a car and that Johnstone had sped away from the scene. McCallum casually walked away and later went shopping in the grocery store before complaining to the RCMP and visiting Peace Arch Hospital.



Wing admitted under cross-examination to Special Prosecutor Richard Fowler that he had not spoken with the physician who tended to McCallum. Wing confirmed that McCallums file said he had a history of high blood pressure and hypertension, which Fowler suggested could have contributed to swollen feet.



Meanwhile, the final witness called by McCallums lawyers was former Coun. Laurie Guerra.



Guerra, elected in 2018 with McCallums Safe Surrey Coalition, described how opposition to McCallums program to replace the RCMP with the Surrey Police Service escalated as the term progressed.



It began with emailed complaints from Keep the RCMP in Surrey founder Ivan Scott and progressed to activists speaking passionately at city council meetings, kiosks at community festivals and T-shirt wearing, placard-waving protesters.



Guerra said she asked RCMP to remove shouting protesters from one community festival in Fleetwood, but they refused. Guerra also alleged that Johnstone and another activist showed up at her house. She did not say when the incident occurred, only that her husband and her daughter were home at the time. She called it a very different ballgame from hearing yelling and swearing at the city council chamber.



When they show up at your home, and you have to call the police and you ask the police can I get a restraining order? and they say no, because they haven't threatened your life and they haven't done anything, Guerra said.



McCallums lead lawyer Richard Peck began closing arguments Tuesday afternoon.
Ms Geetha says this was the first time she had to administer CPR on a flight

An Indian nurse who was travelling to be honoured for her work has been praised for saving the life of her co-passenger on a flight.

Geetha P was travelling from the southern state of Kerala to the national capital Delhi to attend a function to honour winners of the Florence Nightingale award for nurses.

But 30 minutes after the plane took off, the cabin crew made an announcement calling for medical help.

Suman, a soldier on his way to Indian-administered Kashmir, had collapsed in his seat and showed no signs of a pulse.

"I started CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation] when he was on his seat," Ms Geetha told the BBC.

"One of my colleagues had collapsed like this in the hospital and I had given CPR and rushed her into the cardiac intensive care unit. There were several other cases too in the hospital. But this is the first time I had to do this on a flight," she said.

After the CPR, there were some signs of a pulse.

The flight crew had two bottles of IV fluids. Another doctor on the flight, Premkumar, who had also rushed to help, quickly applied a cannula to the patient.

"In about an hour or so, Suman was able to eat something, too. Throughout the flight, I sat next to him in the back of the plane," Ms Geetha says.

Once the plane landed in Delhi, a medical team rushed Suman to a hospital, where he is recovering.

Ms Geetha was awarded the Florence Nightingale medal in 2020 in a virtual ceremony

Dr Mohammed Asheel, a World Health Organization officer who was on the same plane, told the BBC that he first thought Ms Geeta was Suman's relative when she and others ran to help him.

"I saw a woman attending to the patient and three other doctors - one an emergency care specialist - who had already rushed to the seat," he said.

After the flight landed, Dr Asheel spoke to Ms Geetha and was surprised to learn that she had also received the "Best Nurse" award in 2019 from the Kerala government.

"It is such a strange coincidence that she was going to Delhi to be felicitated by the president for receiving the Florence Nightingale award, and then she helped save the life of a patient, mid-air," Dr Asheel says.

Story continues

Ms Geetha won the national award in 2020 but the ceremony had to be conducted virtually due to the Covid pandemic. She and other past winners had been invited to Delhi to be honoured by President Droupadi Murmu.

Her award citation refers to her work during the deadly Nipah viral outbreak that hit Kerala in 2018.

She was also involved in disaster management operations during the massive floods in the state in 2018 and 2019 as well as the battle against Covid-19.

In 2019, Ms Geetha (sixth from right) won an award for Kerala's best nurse

Ms Geetha started her career at the government medical college hospital in the northern district of Kozhikode and later worked across the state.

She is currently working at a private hospital in Kozhikode after retiring from government service earlier this year.

Tens of thousands of nurses from Kerala work in hospitals outside India, but Ms Geetha says she never regretted not going abroad.

"It was God's will that I should serve people here."

Read more India stories from the BBC:
(Reuters) - Ukrainian troops were greeted by joyous residents in the centre of Kherson on Friday after Russia abandoned the only regional capital it had captured since its invasion in February.

Russia said it had completed the pullout across the Dnipro River without losing a single soldier, but Ukrainians painted a picture of a chaotic retreat, with Russian troops ditching their uniforms or drowning while trying to escape.

Here is a timeline of key developments in Kherson region.

Feb. 24 - Russian armoured vehicles cross from Crimea into Kherson province as Moscow's forces pound Ukrainian cities and towns on the first day of President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation".

March 2 - Russia's defence ministry says the city of Kherson is under full Russian control. Russian troops are seen patrolling streets in the city centre.

March 5 - Several thousand protesters demonstrate in the city's main square, chanting: "Kherson is Ukraine." Protests by residents will continue on and off in coming days and weeks.

March 15 - Russia says its forces have taken full control of the Kherson region.

March 21 - Ukraine says Russian forces use stun grenades and gunfire to disperse pro-Kyiv protesters who have been demanding the removal of Russian-appointed Kherson regional governor Vladimir Saldo. Moscow denies targeting civilians.

May 25 - Putin offers fast-track Russian citizenship to residents of Kherson and the adjacent Zaporizhzhia region.

June 24 - A senior official in the Russian-installed administration of Kherson is killed in an apparent assassination.

July 10 - Ukraine urges civilians in the Kherson region to evacuate ahead of a planned counter-offensive by its forces.

July 20 - The Antonivskyi bridge - one of only two crossing points for Russian forces to territory they have occupied on the western bank of the Dnipro - is damaged by Ukrainian shelling.

July 27 - The Antonivskyi bridge is again hit by Ukrainian forces, this time using U.S.-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS).

Story continues

Sept 12 - Ukraine's southern military command says its forces have recaptured some 500 square km (193 square miles) of territory in the Kherson region as part of a wider counter-offensive.

Sept 16 - Russian-backed officials say Ukrainian forces have bombarded government buildings in Kherson, killing three people and wounding 13 others.

Sept 23-27 - Russia stages what it says are referendums in four Ukrainian regions including Kherson on whether they wish to join Russia. Kyiv and the West condemn the votes as illegal.

Sept. 30 - Putin signs treaty documents formally annexing the four regions after Moscow said majorities of up to 99% had voted in favour of joining Russia.

Oct. 3 - Ukraine retakes a number of villages along the Dnipro River in its biggest breakthrough in the south since the war began, threatening Russian supply lines.

Oct 13 - Russian-installed Governor Saldo urges residents in Kherson to take their children and leave for safety amid increased Ukrainian shelling.

Oct. 21 - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urges the West to warn Russia not to blow up the Nova Kakhokva dam in Kherson, saying it would flood a large area of southern Ukraine. Moscow accuses Kyiv of planning to destroy the dam and then blame Russia for it.

Late October - Ukrainian forces dug in to the north of Kherson city exchange regular rocket, mortar and artillery fire with Russian troops.

Nov. 1 - Russia orders civilians to leave a swathe of land along the eastern bank of the Dnipro as well as the west bank. Kyiv says Russian evacuations amount to forced depopulation of occupied territory, a war crime.

Nov. 3 - Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of Kherson region, says Russian forces are likely to abandon their foothold on the Dnipro's west bank. If confirmed, this would signal a massive Russian retreat.

Kyiv said it was still fighting in the area and was wary that Moscow could be setting a trap by feigning a pull-out.

Nov. 4 - President Vladimir Putin publicly endorses the evacuation of civilians from parts of Kherson region.

Nov. 6 - The Russian-installed regional administration says that a number of settlements, including Kherson city, had lost water and power supplies. It blames Ukrainian sabotage; Kyiv blames the Russians.

Nov. 8 - Ukrainian military accuses Russian troops of continuing to loot and destroy infrastructure in Kherson.

Nov. 9 - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu orders his troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River near Kherson city. The number two Russian-installed official in the regional administration dies in what Moscow calls a car crash.

Nov. 11 - Ukrainian troops are greeted by joyous residents in the centre of Kherson. Russia says it had completed the pullout across the Dnipro River.

(Compiled by Gareth Jones; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Tomasz Janowski)
WASHINGTON  At least one Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee was defeated in Tuesday nights midterm elections, but Democrats managed to avoid broader losses as their members surpassed analysts expectations.

Democrat Elaine Luria, a Virginia representative who used her seat to fiercely advocate for a larger Navy, lost her seat to Republican state senator Jen Kiggans. The district boasts a large number of shipyard workers, service members, veterans and their families given its proximity to Naval Station Norfolk  a base that services nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines.

Luria was one of four Democrats considered military and foreign policy leaders and labeled as vulnerable in what was expected to be a Republican-friendly election. However, Democrats generally outperformed those predictions.

Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin will return to Congress and the defense policy committee next year after winning a close race. Fellow committee member Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, also appears to be in line for a victory in his reelection bid, although the race still has not yet been called. Golden currently leads Republican Bruce Poliquin by more than 4% with 80% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press.

Goldens district includes the Bath Iron Works shipyard, which House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., toured in September to highlight the Maine Democrats defense work for his constituents.

And Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also defied national expectations and kept her seat.

Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska, another House Armed Services Committee member, ran in a race the Cook Political Report labeled a toss-up, but he managed to hold onto his seat as well.

Whether theyll serve in a Republican-controlled Congress or a Democratic-led one remains to be seen. Dozens of House races across the country have yet to be settled, according to the Associated Press.

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Kiggans is a Navy veteran who received significant help in the race from national Republican leaders. On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin traveled to the district to campaign for Kiggans, calling a victory for her key to a Republican majority in the House.

Luria  a former Navy commander  has used her position as the House Armed Services Committees vice chairwoman to criticize President Joe Biden for proposing Pentagon budgets she views as too low and to push for large topline increases to boost the Navys fleet.

She bluntly said Bidens proposed $813 billion defense budget for fiscal 2023 sucks, arguing the Pentagon budget should grow 3% to 5% every year over inflation.

Luria and Golden in June offered an amendment to the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act to boost the defense budget topline by $37 billion, in part to build five more ships and procure other hardware. Luria also co-sponsored a similar Republican amendment in 2021 that added to Bidens proposed FY22 defense budget.

Kiggans has also called for a stronger military.

I think of the unsafe world that theyve inherited and the weakened state of the military and so now, Im a mad mom and I talk about being a mom on a mission and thats one thing you dont want to mess with, she said at her campaign rally Monday.
Polk County voters chose Kimberly Graham on Tuesday to serve as their next county attorney, putting the longtime juvenile court attorney in position to bring new perspective to the county's top legal job for the first time in three decades.

Graham, a Democrat, led Republican defense attorney Allan Richards by nearly 14percentage points, 57% to 43%, in complete but unofficial returns. Both were contending for the position being vacated by Democrat John Sarcone, who is retiring after serving eight terms as county attorney. He was first elected in 1990.

Over 22 years as an attorney, Graham has worked primarily in juvenile justice cases, representing youths and parents in legal proceedings, and has served as attorney and guardian ad litem for children of participants in the Polk County Recovery Court program. In her campaign for county attorney, she promised improvements in the juvenile justice system and much broader changes, including ending low-level marijuana prosecutions, no longer requiring cash bail for many nonviolent offenders, and addressing racial and income disparities in criminal prosecutions and sentencings.

More:Get to know the candidates running for Polk County attorney in bid to replace John Sarcone

Graham told the Register after her win that she'll be working hard to wrap up her current cases and prepare for a seamless transition as she takes office in January.

"I understand the people in Polk County have placed their trust in me to keep us as safe as I can and create an equitable justice system, and I will be working every day to be worthy of that trust," she said.

In a speech to supporters Tuesday evening, Graham returned to themes of fairness and equity that she made central to her campaign.

"We started this campaign to end racial and income disparities in the justice system and create a healthy, safer, thriving Polk County, and so we will.," she said.

Richards thanked his supporters.

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"I appreciate all the votes that came through, and Polk County will go forward as they choose," he told the Register.

Longtime incumbent's retirement opens doors

Sarcone has been an institution in Polk County government for decades, repeatedly running unopposed to oversee an office that, as of 2021, had 56 full-time attorneys prosecuting criminal cases and representing the county in other legal matters. The Polk County supervisors last month voted to rename the downtown Des Moines justice center that houses the county attorney's offices in his honor.

But some of Sarcone's policies have drawn criticism, including filing hundreds of low-level charges against 2020 racial justice protesters that were later dismissed, and prosecuting Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri after she was arrested while covering a demonstration, despite telling police she was a journalist. In June 2021, Sarcone announced he did not intend to run for a ninth term in office, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and grandchildren.

For subscribers:'End of an era': Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, who plans to retire after 32 years, leaves 'a big job' to fill

Four candidates ran to replace him: Richards as a Republican and Democrats Graham, longtime state and federal prosecutor Laura Roan and former Iowa House minority leader Kevin McCarthy. The Democrats squared off in the June 7 primary and Graham emerged victorious with 44% of the vote.

Campaigning on reform amid rising crime worries

In statements to the Register, Richards, a longtime private attorney in Tama County, indicated an interest in increasing deferred prosecution programs and spoke about the need for increased trust between law enforcement agencies and the community.

Graham joins the ranks of change-minded prosecutors recently elected in cities across the country. Chief prosecutors in Philadelphia, Boston and other cities in recent years have promised to veer away from decades of "tough on crime" policies.

Polk County, Iowa election results 2022 | The Des Moines Register

Other Polk County races won unopposed

County attorney was not the only Polk County position on the ballot this year, but it was the only one to be contested.

Three of the county's five supervisors, Matt McCoy, Tom Hockensmith and Angela Connolly, each ran unopposed for new terms in districts 1, 4 and 5, respectively.

Also unopposed were county Treasurer Mary Wells, who defeated a primary challenger, and county Recorder Julie Haggerty.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Kimberly Graham elected first new Polk County attorney in 30 years
John Phillips - Getty Images

Since coming to the throne two months ago, King Charles has filled his diary with official duties and greeted the public in towns and cities across the UK. But today, he received a different kind of welcome as a protester in York thew eggs at him and his wife Camilla.

The King and Queen Consort had stopped to speak with crowds at Micklegate Bar, a medieval gateway to the city where they received an official welcome, when eggs began to fly through the air past them. The BBC reported that the protester was heard to shout this country was built on the blood of slaves as he was detained by police. As the crowd realized what was happening, boos could be heard along with chants of God save the King. Neither Charles nor Camilla were struck by an egg, but the broken eggs could be seen on the floor at their feet they walked on.

WPA Pool - Getty Images

It is not the first time that the British monarch has been targeted with eggsand in Queen Elizabeths case she was actually hit by one. After it splattered on her dress during a royal visit to New Zealand in 1986, the Queen later quipped in a speech, I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.

The King is on a two-day visit to Yorkshire, with Camilla joining him today after a day of solo engagements on Tuesday. In the city of Leeds on Tuesday, Charles viewed a display which is part of a national project to explore the history and impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Reports revealed that the King believed Britains role in the slave trade should be talked about openly, according to his goddaughter.

Despite the eggs providing an unwelcome distraction, Charles and Camilla carried on with their day of engagements as planned today. The King unveiled a statue in memory of Queen Elizabeth at York Minster, telling those gathered that he was deeply touched. When this statue was first planned five years ago, during a reign of unprecedented duration and achievement, it was intended as a celebration of the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee, he said. Now, as we have witnessed, with great sadness, the passing of that reign, it is unveiled in her memory, as a tribute to a life of extraordinary service and devotion.

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Samir Hussein - Getty Images

The statue was carved into the cathedral wall by stonemason Richard Bossons, and Charles said that Queen Elizabeth will watch over what will become Queen Elizabeth Square, for centuries to come.

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Nov. 9Veterans Day isn't until Friday, but it's never too early to express one's gratitude. That's certainly what the leadership at the King & Prince Beach and Golf Resort on St. Simons Island believes.

Military service is a calling to protect the United States and its people. All eventually leave the service either by choice or sacrifice, and honoring the two holidays for both groups  Veterans Day and Memorial Day  is the least the rest of us can do to thank them for their service. Through tomorrow, families can swing by the Cottage Custard + Coffee shop on the resort grounds to make a personal thank-you card to thank veterans in the care of Promedica Hospice.

"We did this last year but only offered the opportunity to create a card over the weekend preceding Veterans Day," said Bart Johnson, general manager of the King & Prince. "We opted to make it a weeklong event this year after seeing the great response from the community."

Cards and art supplies will be provided for kids who want to participate, said Calhoun, and anyone who hands in a card will get a free chocolate or vanilla mini frozen custard cone.

"Once all the cards are filled out, my wife, who works for the organization, hand delivers them to veterans currently in the care of Promedica Hospice serving Southeast Georgia in Brunswick," Johnson said.

U.S. citizens owe much to veterans, Johnson says, which is why the resort felt compelled to do something this year that would help people express their thanks.

"A small note of thanks to the individuals that have served our great country is the least we can do," Johnson said. "It is important today and everyday to thank the ladies and gentlemen of our armed forces for their sacrifice.

"Our team was challenged to identify a way to honor our local vets while still offering that family-friendly component. So we provide the materials and a free mini cone of frozen custard as incentive for the kids and allow folks to create their own note of thanks."

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The King & Prince, and St. Simons Island as whole, both have a longstanding tradition of supporting the military, Johnson says. Founded in 1938, the King& Prince installed radar amplification towers for an adjacent U.S. radar station, which also contended with German submarines on the hunt for vulnerable cargo ships.

"The King and Prince was a key installation during World War II," Johnson said. "Our signature restaurant ECHO is named for the resort's role in housing towers that were used to amplify radar signals.

"The resort also accommodated naval air officers' quarters and classrooms during this time. Supporting the military has become a tradition for us, especially those who are no longer active."

The King & Prince is on St. Simons Island, and the Cottage can be found at 238 Arnold Road. For more information, contact the resort at 912-638-3631.
Two metro area voting precincts were reminded Tuesday to refrain from over-explaining straight party voting after the ACLU received complaints that poll workers were telling voters they should vote straight party.

The two separate complaints came from Oklahoma and Cleveland counties. ACLU staff attorney Hanna Roberts said a Cleveland County voter complained that poll workers were walking up and down the line, saying voters should vote straight party. In Oklahoma County, the complainant said voters were encouraged to vote straight party.

When you mark one of the straight party boxes at the top of the ballot, the machine will record a vote for the candidate from that party in any race where there is a candidate from that party.

ALERT: Our office has received multiple complaints of poll workers instructing voters to vote straight party.

You do not have to vote straight party to have your vote counted. If a poll worker tells you who to vote for, contact our Election Protection Hotline at 405-849-5220.  ACLU of Oklahoma (@ACLUOK) November 8, 2022

The ACLU contacted both counties and Roberts said the organization feels confident in the county election boards handling the situation.

"As of right now, we haven't received any complaints that really warrant additional follow-up," Roberts said.

More:Get 2022 Oklahoma midterm election results. Find key state, Oklahoma County races here.

Oklahoma and Cleveland county poll workers told to avoid explaining straight party voting

Voters in Precinct 360 mark their ballots on Tuesday at Edmond Spring Creek Assembly of God.

Oklahoma County Election Board secretary Doug Sanderson told The Oklahoman that, according to a precinct official, poll workers were explaining straight party voting when asked about it. He instructed the precinct to instead point out the signs with information on straight party voting and "let them interpret it for themselves."

"They're not telling you to vote straight party," Sanderson said. "They're explaining if you do that, what happens. ... Some people are trying to make it into something it's not."

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Bill Pretty, assistant secretary for the Cleveland County Election Board, said a similar situation occurred when one precinct official was asked how straight-party voting worked. A voter who overheard the conversation called the election board to complain.

"I talked to him and he's no longer doing that," Pretty said. "Apparently he was trying to be helpful, but he was getting to be a little too informative."

More:Oklahoma's elections are secure, state election official says

Other minor issues arise on Oklahoma's Election Day

Misha Mohr, public information officer for the Oklahoma State Election Board, said there have been a few minor issues with voting in the state.

One Tulsa County precinct did not open early enough, Mohr said, so poll workers had to set up voting outside.

Meanwhile, a ballot machine malfunctioned in Rogers County and an emergency bin was used until the machine was back online.

Voters from Precincts 429 and 431 cast ballots in midterm elections on Tuesday at Millwood Field House.

According to the state Election Board website, "In the event of an emergency, such as a power outage or technical issue, ballots are deposited into a secure emergency bin located within the ballot box. Ballots will be counted by poll workers when the issue is resolved or when the polls close."

Sanderson said it has been a typical Election Day for Oklahoma County. No issues he hasn't seen "dozens of times before."

Anyone experiencing an issue while voting should notify precinct officials and their local election board. The ACLU is also operating the Election Protection Hotline, which can be reached at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 405-849-5220.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma poll workers accused of encouraging straight party voting
Ukrainian military stands next to a burned Russian tank

The list of lawmakers who are no longer to be quoted includes:

Andrey Kartapolov, the Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma;

Andrey Gurulyov, Viktor Zavarzin, Andrei Krasov, the General-Deputies;

Nina Ostanina, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Women, and Children.

Read also: Russian propaganda uses old photos to smear Ukraine

According to the Kremlin, all of them think too independently and are not afraid of criticizing the Russian army.

One of the informed sources said these MP's often commented on the war,in particular putting the Kremlin in an unfavorable light.

Read also: Chinese vlogger living in Odesa confronts China's powerful propaganda machine

They are regarded as toxic by the Russian propaganda in context of the so-called "special operation" (the propaganda term the Kremlin uses for its full-scale invasion and war on Ukraine) and the "partial mobilization" in Russia.

"Starting with the mobilization and also in general, the authorities have noconsistent informational strategy. All comment however they want, not taking into account the Kremlin," the source said.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Democrats strong showing in the midterm elections is very good for Ukraine, a member of the Ukrainian parliament told The Hill on Wednesday.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, who is part of the European Solidarity party in Ukraine, welcomed the early results from the midterm elections, saying he closely followed the defeat of candidates who pushed a more isolationist foreign policy and the victory of lawmakers who have supported U.S. assistance for Ukraine.

Speaking about the results from Ukraine perspective, it is clear that for Ukraine the danger was in those people, you can call them isolationist or far-right people, who were saying, Lets not care about Ukraine, its too far from us.  These people, I think theyre not right and American voters decided like this.

Continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine had been a key focus in the political debate ahead of the elections, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) saying Congress wont write a blank check on aid for Ukraine if the GOP take control.

While it is yet unclear whether Republicans will win control of Congress, Democrats had a much stronger night on Tuesday than anticipated. The party flipped a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, narrowing the GOPs path to taking the upper chamber, and won more House races than expected, minimizing Republicans margins if they do take that chamber.

Goncharenko predicted that the GOP congressional base aligned with former President Trump that has urged cuts to Ukraine aid will be less influential than previously thought following Tuesdays election.

[Senate Republican Leader Leader] Mitch McConnell is one of the best in the world supporting war for values and freedom in Ukraine, Goncharenko told The Hill in a phone call from Kyiv.

But there is a part of Republicans for some of them, they call themselves MAGA people, they are using some of this rhetoric that, We dont need to care about something happening far away from the U.S. I see that these people will not be too influential in the U.S. Congress and that means the role of the United States in the international arena will not be challenged.

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One worrying victory, Goncharenko said, was the election of Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio. Vance has said he supports cutting or eliminating U.S. assistance to Ukraine, and his supporters in Washington include Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who voted against a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine that passed the Senate in May.

Vance is replacing outgoing Sen. Rob Portman (R), who traveled last week to Kyiv with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to underscore bipartisan U.S. support.

Vance is one of the results I am unhappy with, Goncharenko said.

While Biden administration officials have reportedly encouraged Zelensky to offer up the possibility of peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. is not pushing Ukraine to rush to a cease-fire amid fierce military battles to reclaim Ukrainian territory from Russian occupation, as the war moves into its ninth month.

The U.S. has provided nearly $20 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, and has committed at least $13 billion in economic assistance, making it the number one military and financial donor to Ukraine among the coalition of democracies providing assistance.

As more military equipment is delivered to Ukraine, including the recent arrival of advanced air defense systems, Ukrainians are coming under a new wave of attacks from Russians that are targeting the countrys energy infrastructure, disrupting electricity and water supplies to major cities, in particular Kyiv.

The Biden administration is rallying allies to support Ukraine with more assistance to repair its energy infrastructure, and lawmakers are reportedly in talks to secure an additional aid package to Ukraine during the lame-duck session of Congress.

Goncharenko said the current situation in Kyiv is not pleasant, but we can live like this.

Residents are collecting water and using power banks amid electricity cuts. Unseasonably warm temperatures are reducing the need for heating homes, but sooner or later the winter will come and it will be [below freezing temperatures]. That will be a challenge, he said.

Goncharenko holds close ties with his counterparts in Washington. He has earlier testified in front of congressional lawmakers part of the U.S. Helsinki Commission on alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and is part of a working group between Ukrainian and American lawmakers to identify alleged Russian war criminals for sanctions listing.

Promising for Ukraine, he added, is the reelection of the bipartisan co-chairs of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).

All those people who I know personally, and who are extremely strong in defending of values, all of them are reelected, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
"We're going to win this thing," predicted Hugo Soto-Martinez, who chatted with advocates in Atwater Village after viewing the initial results. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez led Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell Wednesday morning in the race to represent Hollywood and other neighborhoods, in one of several contests that could determine whether a new crop of candidates will push City Hall further to the left.

O'Farrell, a two-term incumbent, was facing an aggressive challenge from Soto-Martinez in a contest in which the two offered different views on police spending, the city's response to homelessness and other issues.

Soto-Martinez ran with major support from Democratic Socialists of America and the hotel workers union, which ran an expensive campaign on his behalf.

Weve seen the city get ripped apart by developers, police unions, folks who want to profit off of the city, he said. We're trying to create a new way of doing politics that's about solidarity, camaraderie, love  things that benefit all folks.

O'Farrell, appearing at an election party in Hollywood, said he campaigned on his record while talking up his plan to fight climate change during the next four years. Voters, he said, made clear they want "a safe, livable city."

"I have a steady hand, and that's what Los Angeles needs," O'Farrell said.

Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell speaks to supporters at an election night party in Hollywood. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Soto-Martinez had 17,401 votes, while O'Farrell trailed with 15,896.

In L.A.s coastal neighborhoods, attorney Erin Darling was trailing Traci Park in the race to replace Councilmember Mike Bonin, who has represented the district since 2013. Park had promised a break from Bonin's policies and enforcement of the city's rules regulating homeless encampments.

"What I have heard from the voters across the entire district for the last year and a half is a desire to restore public safety, to address homelessness with the compassionate urgency that this crisis requires," she said.

Darling, who was endorsed by Bonin, said he remains optimistic about his prospects, noting that early voting results "tend to be more conservative."

"I feel confident," he said. "I feel good that an issue-based, solutions-oriented platform is going to win the day."

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Park was leading Wednesday morning with more than 55%, while Darling trailed with around 44%.

On the Westside, early returns showed political aide Katy Young Yaroslavsky with a commanding lead over attorney Sam Yebri in the race to replace Councilmember Paul Koretz, who has represented Westwood, Cheviot Hills, Bel-Air and other neighborhoods since 2009. Yaroslavsky said she was feeling "excited and grateful."

Yaroslavsky led Wednesday morning with 25,420 votes to Yebri's 20,357.

In L.A.s harbor district, attorney Tim McOsker had a decisive lead over former neighborhood council member Danielle Sandoval, according to early returns. McOsker said his campaign focused on homelessness, public safety and efforts to ensure that services are provided equitably across the district, which stretches from San Pedro north to Watts.

"I want to extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to our supporters who put in the work to knock on doors and get out the vote across the 15th District," he said in a statement. "This is their campaign and their movement."

Sandoval said there are still "lots of ballots to count" but had barely more than half as many votes as McOsker as of Wednesday morning.

Indeed, the results could change significantly as mail-in ballots arrive at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk over the next several days. In June, Councilmember Gil Cedillo held a solid lead over community activist Eunisses Hernandez on election night, only to lose to Hernandez by a significant margin weeks later.

Once all the ballots have been counted, the winners could seek changes to the city's handling of public safety, homelessness, housing production, transportation and other issues.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Los Angeles Police Department has lost 8% of its sworn staffing, about 800 officers. The new council members, scheduled to be sworn in next month, will need to decide whether to reverse that trend or let the LAPD's workforce shrink further.

The new council members could also rework the city's response to homelessness, changing or repealing the law barring tents from going up next to schools, day-care centers and other facilities. Soto-Martinez, Sandoval and Darling have been sharply critical of that law, although they differ on what the city's next steps should be.

The next council is already expected to showcase sharp differences on policy, with Hernandez, an abolitionist on criminal justice issues, at one end of the spectrum, and Councilmember John Lee, an advocate for police, at the other. If Darling and Soto-Martinez win, they would likely form an alliance with Hernandez and Councilmember Nithya Raman, who was elected in 2020 with support from left-of-center groups including the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Yaroslavsky, the daughter-in-law of former county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, said she hopes she can help the two factions find common ground if she wins.

"My sense is that I'll work with everybody and be sort of in the middle on a lot of issues," she said.

The four council races come at a time of upheaval at City Hall, as elected officials contend with corruption scandals, a homelessness crisis and an electorate frustrated by rising housing costs. Since 2020, federal prosecutors have pursued criminal cases against three current or former council members, one of whom  Mitchell Englander, who resigned in 2018  has pleaded guilty and served time in prison.

Former Councilmember Jose Huizar is awaiting trial on charges of racketeering, bribery and fraud. He has pleaded not guilty. Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was suspended by his colleagues last year, is awaiting trial in an unrelated bribery case that centers on decisions he made while serving on the county Board of Supervisors.

On top of that, three council members  Nury Martinez, Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo  were recorded having an incendiary conversation featuring racist and derogatory remarks. Martinez resigned days after The Times reported on the recording; Cedillo and De Leon are facing widespread calls to step down and have not attended meetings for the past month.

The release of the recording delivered a jolt to some of the campaigns.

O'Farrell found himself thrust into the role of acting City Council president, calling for the departure of Cedillo and De Leon even as he faced scores of protesters demanding that council meetings be halted. Soto-Martinez and his allies seized on the audio, pointing out that O'Farrell had been part of Martinez's leadership team.

Darling also focused on the racist remarks, pointing out that Park, his opponent, had been endorsed by Martinez. Darling highlighted the fact that Park, an attorney, had represented the city of Anaheim in a case in which a city worker had been accused of using the N-word in front of a co-worker.

The leaked audio was not the only curveball in the city election.

In the race to replace Councilmember Joe Buscaino, the campaign of entrepreneur Sandoval was upended by revelations that she had been enmeshed in a wage theft case. Four workers had outstanding claims against Caliente Cantina, a restaurant Sandoval opened in 2014 in San Pedro and later closed.

Sandoval eventually apologized and began negotiating payments to those workers. Nevertheless, she lost a number of high-profile supporters.

Minutes after the polls closed, Sandoval said she has found that voters are hungry for change.

"They're tired of being neglected, and they're feeling their voices are not being heard," she said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Chinese premier arrives in Phnom Penh for leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation, official visit to Cambodia

Xinhua) 08:36, November 09, 2022

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Nov. 8, 2022. At the invitation of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived here Tuesday evening for a series of leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation and an official visit to Cambodia. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived here Tuesday evening for a series of leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation and an official visit to Cambodia.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong and other senior Cambodian officials greeted the delegation at the airport. Honor guards lined up on both sides of a red carpet to salute Li, and local youths presented flowers to Li and his wife Cheng Hong.

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian and Chinese Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Deng Xijun were also at the airport to welcome the delegation.

Li noted that China and ASEAN are comprehensive strategic partners and each other's largest trading partner.

The international and regional situations are undergoing a complex and profound transformation, with growing uncertainties and instabilities, and unprecedented challenges facing the global development, the premier said.

China expects the East Asia leaders' meetings to focus on development and cooperation, uphold multilateralism and free trade, adhere to open cooperation and mutual benefit, jointly preserve secure and smooth global industrial and supply chains, enable parties to join hands to address global challenges, and inject new impetus into promoting regional economic integration as well as safeguarding peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and beyond, Li said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Nov. 8, 2022. At the invitation of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived here Tuesday evening for a series of leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation and an official visit to Cambodia. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

China and Cambodia, as close neighbors with deep traditional friendship, have continuously made headway in their mutually beneficial cooperation, he said.

Through this visit, China is willing to renew with Cambodia their solidarity and friendship, chart together the way forward for bilateral cooperation, and work for more outcomes in building the China-Cambodia community with a shared future to deliver more benefits to the two countries and their people, he said.

Li will attend the 25th China-ASEAN Summit, the 25th ASEAN Plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea Summit and the 17th East Asia Summit to be held in Phnom Penh.

During his stay in Cambodia, he will have a royal audience with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, hold a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, witness the signing of cooperation documents, and attend events marking the inauguration of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway and the handover of the Ta Keo Temple restored with Chinese assistance.

Li's entourage included his wife Cheng and State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council Xiao Jie.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
Photo: The Canadian Press Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook parent Meta is laying off 11,000 people, about 13% of its workforce, as it contends with faltering revenue and broader tech industry woes, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees Wednesday.

The job cuts come just a week after widespread layoffs at Twitter under its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk. There have been numerous job cuts at other tech companies that hired rapidly during the pandemic.

Zuckerberg as well said that he had made the decision to hire aggressively, anticipating rapid growth even after the pandemic ended.

Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected, Zuckerberg said in a prepared statement. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than Id expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.

Meta, like other social media companies, enjoyed a financial boost during the pandemic lockdown era because more people stayed home and scrolled on their phones and computers. But as the lockdowns ended and people started going outside again, revenue growth began to falter.

Of particular concern to investors, Meta poured over $10 billion a year into the metaverse as it shifts its focus away from social media. Zuckerberg predicts the metaverse, an immersive digital universe, will eventually replace smartphones as the primary way people use technology.

Spooked investors have sent company shares tumbling more than 71% since the beginning of the year and the stock now trades at levels last seen in 2015.

An economic slowdown and a grim outlook for online advertising  by far Metas biggest revenue source  have contributed to Meta's woes as well. This summer, Meta posted its first quarterly revenue decline in history, followed by another, bigger decline in the fall.

Some of the pain is company-specific, while some is tied to broader economic and technological forces.

Last week, Twitter laid off about half of its 7,500 employees, part of a chaotic overhaul as Musk took the helm. He tweeted that there was no choice but to cut the jobs when the company is losing over $4M/day," though did not provide details about the losses.

Meta and its advertisers are bracing for a potential recession. Theres also the challenge of Apple's privacy tools, which make it more difficult for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snap to track people without their consent and target ads to them.

Competition from TikTok is also an a growing threat as younger people flock to the video sharing app over Instagram, which Meta also owns.

Weve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint," Zuckerberg said. Were restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone wont bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so Ive also made the hard decision to let people go."

A hiring freeze at the company will be extended through the first quarter of 2023, Zuckerberg said. The company has also slashed its real estate footprint and he said that with so many employees working outside of the office, the company will transition to desk sharing for those that remain.

More cost cuts at Meta will be rolled out in coming months, Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg told employees Wednesday that they will receive an email letting them know if they are among those being let go. Access to most company systems will be cut off for people losing their jobs, he said, due to the sensitive nature of that information.

Were keeping email addresses active throughout the day so everyone can say farewell, Zuckerberg said.

Former employees will receive 16 weeks of base pay, plus two additional weeks for every year with the company, Zuckerberg said. Health insurance for those employees and their families will continue for six months.

Shares of Meta Platforms Inc. jumped almost 5% before the opening bell Wednesday.
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP)  The Latest on COP27, this years annual U.N. summit on climate change.

The head of the U.N. Development Program warned Wednesday that many poor nations are struggling to raise the funds for tackling climate change because of the heavy burden of debt theyre under.

Achim Steiner told The Associated Press that his agency estimates 54 countries worldwide are now facing potential debt distress.

Thats essentially a step away from not being able to pay the interest rate or even to pay your debts, he said. And that is a very serious situation.

Steiner said one proposal being discussed at this years U.N. climate talks in Egypt is to forgive a part of countries debt if they commit to investing in clean energy projects and adapting to global warming.

So far, there has not been much progress on that issue, he said.

This has fueled the perception that poor nations only act against climate change if they receive money from the rich, which is not true, said Steiner.

An analysis by his office showed developing countries have been investing many times the amounts they receive from developed countries on climate measures.

Steiner said a recent estimate of the money needed to tackle global warming runs to between $1-2 trillion a year  a fraction of the worlds total global wealth of $430 trillion.

Are we really unable to direct public and private financial flows to the tune of one or $2 trillion, essentially saving humanity and our economies from extraordinary disasters that are beginning to manifest themselves, he asked.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

 US to climate summit: American big steps wont be repealed

 Gore announces fossil fuel emissions inventory at UN summit

 Bangladesh balances energy needs with climate, conservation

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An Egyptian minister says Africa needs up to $1.6 trillion to address the devastating impacts of climate change by the end of the decade.

Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad says funding is a major challenge but access must be given to African nations to bridge the gaps between the needs and climate funding.

Story continues

Fouad spoke Wednesday at an event on facilitating access to climate funding at the United Nations conference on climate change, currently underway in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

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A senior White House official says its up to China to get back to the table in talks with the United States on tackling climate change.

President Joe Bidens senior adviser on clean energy innovation, John Podesta, said Beijing was harming itself and the rest of the world by not formally engaging with the U.S.

Deals between the worlds two biggest emitters have been crucial in the past to getting broader international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, such as the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Podestas comments to reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. climate talks in Egypt came after Chinas envoy Xie Zhenhua blamed the U.S. for rupturing relations with Speaker Nancy Pelosis visit to Taiwan, seen as an affront by Beijing which considers the country part of its territory.

Both Xie and Podesta acknowledged that informal encounters between the two sides have taken place in recent weeks, even if they differed on who should make the first move at reconciliation.

Its up to them to get back to the table, Podesta said.

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Egypts government said on Wednesday it signed partnership agreements worth $15 billion for climate change-related projects as it hosts the U.N climate summit in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The agreements include a $10 billion investment in clean energy, and eight other initiatives that cover food security, agriculture and irrigation and water sectors.

In a statement, the government said the projects would help the country transition to renewable energy by replacing existing inefficient thermal power plants.

It also said the investment would help adaption efforts to protect farmlands and coastal areas through increasing crop yields and irrigation efficiency, building resilience of vulnerable regions in the country.

The projects will be funded by world and regional financial institutions including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the African Development Bank and global banks such as HSBC and CitiBank.

The signing ceremony was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry.

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The top 14 greenhouse gas emitters are gas and oil fields and their associated facilities, with the U.S. the oil-rich Permian Basin at the summit of the list. Whats more, emissions are much higher than reported to the U.N., as much as three times more.

Thats according to data released Wednesday by the Climate TRACE coalition at the U.N. conference on climate change, hosted by Egypt in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The coalition of 100 organizations said it collected its data through multiple open sources including satellite coverage, remote sensing, artificial intelligence.

Announcing the report, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who is a founding member Climate TRACE, said the data showed how deep emissions cuts need to be to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.

The report showed that 56.33 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions were produced in 2021, and the Permian Basin was at the top of emitters with with more than 208.6 million tons. Russias Urengoyskoye gas field came second in the list with 152 million tons.

The data showed that the top 500 individual sources of greenhouse gas emissions account for 14% of the global emissions for 2021.

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China blamed the United States for disrupting negotiations between the worlds two biggest polluters on tackling climate change, but said communications never ceased entirely.

Beijings climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, told reporters at the U.N. climate conference in Egypt that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis visit to Taiwan had invaded Chinas sovereignty and hurt Chinese peoples feelings.

Thats why China decided to suspend the formal climate talks with U.S., he said. The responsibility lies totally with the U.S. side.

Xie urged the United States to clear the barriers to holding formal talks again. Meanwhile Xie and his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, had continued informal exchanges before and during the gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh, he said.

The door is actually closed by them and it is we, China, trying to open it, he added, according to an official translation.

Asked why President Xi Jinping was not attending the two-week meeting, where U.S. President Joe Biden is expected Friday, Xie cited the Chinese leaders very busy domestic schedule and visits by foreign dignitaries following the recent Communist Party congress.

When you have guests at home you cannot just leave them and fly abroad to this conference, he said.

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The mother of a leading jailed Egyptian pro-democracy activist who is on a hunger and water strike went to the prison where her son is held for the third day in a row on Wednesday in hope of getting proof that he is still alive amid increasingly growing concerns about his health.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah, also a U.K. citizen, escalated his months-long hunger strike and stopped drinking water Sunday to coincide with the start of the Egypt-hosted U.N. climate summit on Nov. 6.

His family has been lobbying for his release for months, taking advantage of the international spotlight on Egypts human rights record at COP27.

Abdel-Fattahs mother, Laila Soueif, was unsuccessful on her previous two attempts to receive a letter from her son. Officers told her that he refused to write one.

His family fears that prison authorities might resort to force-feeding him to keep him alive.

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Climate activist Vanessa Nakate has warned against new fossil fuel projects on the African continent at the U.N. climate summit Wednesday, arguing oil and gas are a dangerous distraction.

The UNICEF ambassador added that decades of fossil fuel development has failed to help the 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa without basic electricity access, adding that any projects in Africa will only serve energy demands in the global north.

Nakate has previously spoken out against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline which would run through her native Uganda.

She feared any new fossil fuel projects would soon become stranded assets which would leave African countries with debts piled upon debt.

Nakate repeated her calls for rich countries to step up and pay for the damage cause by heat-trapping gases in poorer nations that are more vulnerable to climate change.

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The first phase to a project to establish a major clean hydrogen plant in the Egyptian seaside resort of Ain el-Sokhna was launched by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre on Wednesday.

The project will have a capacity to produce 100 megawatts of green hydrogen once completed. President el-Sissi said the project provides a practical model of investment partnership that stimulates sustainable economic development with a focus on the role of the national and foreign private sector.

Norwegian renewable energy company Scatec will take the lead in developing the project. The company already has a footprint in Egypt, having developed one of the worlds largest solar parks, the Benban solar park in the Aswan region in upper Egypt.

The Egyptian government said in a statement that they intend to work towards producing 8% of the global hydrogen market in the next few years.

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An aid group linked to Denmarks Lutheran Church says it wants to take responsibility for all of the emissions it has produced worldwide over the past 100 years.

DanChurchAid said Wednesday that from 2023 to 2025 it aims to plant enough trees to absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide  the main greenhouse gas  as its activities have produced since 1922.

The group acknowledge that there is no agreed method for how to count historic emissions, but that a rough estimate is better than no estimate and if in doubt it erred on the high side.

DanChurchAid said that while it cant undo the damage its emissions have caused, it hopes the measures will provide inspiration and contribute to the debate about how to address the climate crisis.

___

BERLIN  Climate activists climbed on top of Berlins landmark Brandenburg Gate to protest global warming on Wednesday.

The activists from Last Generation unrolled a large poster Wednesday morning saying, We wish for survival ... We are the last generation.

Members of Last Generation and other climate groups have been protesting across Germany for months, disrupting traffic by gluing themselves to city streets during rush hour or sticking their hands by famous paintings in museums trying to call peoples attention to their cause.

___

A few dozen climate activists held a small protest on Wednesday calling on nations to accelerate the transition to clean energy.

Wednesdays protest was a rare show of activism in at the U.N. conference, known as COP27, taking place in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The protesters called for an end to new oil and gas exploration and money for renewable energy. The protest comes on COP27s themed day for finance and was organized by the Netherlands-based Recourse organization that campaigns for investments to be redirected away from fossil fuels and toward renewables.

The protesters sang, chanted and held signs with slogans that read: Get Finance out of Fossil Fuels, and No Gas.

Several thorny issues have been discussed at the talks, including further cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting financial aid for poor countries struggling with the impacts of climate change.

The issue of reparations for climate harms, known as loss and damage, has been put on the negotiation agenda for the first time, with many leaders calling for the implementation of previous financial pledges.

Another group of activists held a protest also demanding a swift, just and equitable phase-out of fossil fuel.

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Follow APs climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
STORY: These medical students are tutoring

children to help cover soaring tuition fees

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

The Medical Campaign was founded

by student Jad Boustani in 2021

(Jad Boustani, Founder)

"We started (The Medical Campaign) because our (tuition fees at) universities were getting dollarized while our parents were still getting paid in Lebanese pounds. There was a lot of gap between what we pay and what we earn."

Boustani started with online

classes for one child in Qatar

"After we had 100 students the first month, I reached out to medical student friends in other universities telling them what happened with me. We all got excited, created a small group and started the classes. We started with classes (for children) in 20 countries, we now have 26 countries."

The social enterprise now offers

a variety of in-person workshops

and supports more than 30 medical students
Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was projected to win reelection to a third term, surviving a scare posed by former Republican-turned-independent candidate Evan McMullin.

The Associated Press called the race at 1:23 a.m. ET.

The race was closer than expected because Democrats didnt run a candidate in the race and instead rallied behind McMullin, who left the Republican Party after former President Trump won the GOPs presidential nomination in 2016.

Lee injected some drama into the race last month when he pleaded for fellow Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romneys endorsement during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

As soon as Mitt Romney is ready to, I will eagerly accept his endorsement, Lee said on Carlsons show. Evan McMullin is raising millions of dollars off Act Blue, the Democratic donor database based on this idea that hes going to defeat me.

Ive asked him, Im asking right here again tonight right now, Lee said. Please get on board. Help me win reelection.

Romney, however, promised at the start of the race to stay neutral because both candidates were good friends and stuck to his pledge despite Lees cajoling.

A Deseret-Hinckley poll conducted in early October showed Lee ahead of McMullin by only 4 points, 41 percent to 37 percent, with 12 percent of polled Utah voters undecided.

The survey found that only 40 percent of registered Utah voters had a favorable view of Lee while 47 percent had an unfavorable view.

Lees allies criticized the poll for putting too much weight on registered voters instead of likely voters and claimed internal polls indicated that he would ultimately beat McMullin by 10 points.

An Emerson College poll of 825 likely Utah voters conducted from Oct. 25-28 showed Lee with a 10-point lead over McMullin, 49 percent to 39 percent. It reported that 52 percent of voters had a favorable view of the incumbent.

Lee raised $10.5 million for his reelection, substantially more than McMullin, who raised $7 million, according to public data posted by the Federal Election Commission.

Story continues

The Club for Growth said it invested $8 million in the race to help Lee while the super PAC Put Utah First had spent nearly $4 million to support McMullin as of last week.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that outside groups had spent more than $15.5 million on the race.

McMullin tried to build a winning coalition of moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats in a state that Trump won with 58 percent of the vote in 2020.

He had some success in the state when he ran as an independent candidate for president in 2016, winning 21 percent of the vote  only 6 percentage points behind the Democratic nominee who carried 27 percent. Trump won the state six year ago with 45 percent of the vote.

Utah voters have voted reliably Republican over the past 60 years.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state in the 1964 election, and the last Democrat to represent the state in the Senate was Frank Moss, who served in the upper chamber from 1959 to 1976.

Lee has served in the Senate since 2011 after he stunned late-Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) at the state Republican convention in 2010  one of the landmark events of that years Tea Party revolution within the Republican Party.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A pipe carrying treated water is seen at the Carlsbad Desalination Plant in San Diego County. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: Thanks to The Times and reporter Hayley Smith for the important and informative article on water desalination.

While the environmental drawbacks of turning ocean water into potable water were discussed, there was less focus on the benefits. For example, think of the huge potential benefits of reducing or eliminating Los Angeles' use of Owens Valley water. Should we really be using this precious mountain runoff to fill our swimming pools?

Most of California's 39 million residents live in coastal areas and could be supplied by desalinated water, leaving our precious snow melt to fill lakes and rivers, and the Colorado River to recover. And maybe some of our mountain runoff could be used to reverse the mad dash to pump ground water in the Central Valley for agriculture.

Although it is certainly true that desalination requires a lot of electricity, plants can be timed to operate outside peak demand or only when power is relatively cheap, such as when solar energy is in excess supply.

Current water bills in California have risen significantly in the past few years. Cost-competitive water desalination is within reach.

Jeffrey L. Smith, La Canada Flintridge

..

To the editor: Desalinization has far too many negatives. Nature supplies an abundance of fresh water while not distributing it very well.

After all, oil can be piped from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Richard Melniker, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: California has a long coastline and for decades has taken water from the greatly diminished Colorado River. As responsible citizens of the West, we need to be proactive in not only providing water for California residents, but also in helping landlocked states.

The article focused too much on why desalination is not feasible. Not a single political office holder was quoted. Now that the midterms are past, how about putting some pressure on our politicians to address the worsening water crisis?

Leonard Linton, Thousand Oaks





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A record-shattering 340 openly LGBTQ candidates running in the midterms this year won their elections Tuesday evening in a night full of political firsts for the LGBTQ community.

Annise Parker, the president and chief executive of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, an organization working to elect more openly LGBTQ people to public office, said Tuesdays Rainbow Wave is a clear rebuke to actions taken by state and federal officials this year to curtail the rights of LGBTQ people, particularly transgender youth.

With so much at stake this election, from the future of marriage equality to abortion, LGBTQ candidates grit and exceptional grassroots support is paying off, she said in a statement.

Here are some of Tuesdays most notable LGBTQ firsts.

Maura Healey becomes nations first out lesbian governor

Democrat and former Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey claimed victory Tuesday in the states governors race, defeating her opponent, Republican Geoff Diehl, with more than 60 percent of the vote to become the nations first openly lesbian governor.

Healey, 51, is also the first woman elected governor of Massachusetts.

Tonight, I want to say something to every little girl and every LGBTQ person out there: I hope tonight shows you can be whatever, whoever you want to be, Healey said Tuesday night in Boston after the race was called. Nothing and no one can ever get in your way except your own imagination, and thats not going to happen.

Across the country in Oregon, Democrat Tina Kotek could be named the nations second openly lesbian governor in a contest that does not yet have a clear winner.

Kotek, formerly the longest serving Oregon House Speaker, could be the first Democratic candidate to lose the states gubernatorial election in 40 years, in part because of a third-party candidate who divided centrists and independent voters.

Kotek held a narrow lead over Republican Christine Drazan on Wednesday morning with 67 percent of precincts reporting.

Story continues

Vermont sends its first LGBTQ legislator  and first woman  to Congress

Vermonters on Tuesday overwhelmingly selected Democrat Becca Balint to succeed Senator-elect Peter Welch (D), making her the first openly gay person and woman in the states congressional delegation.

Vermont was the last state in the nation to elect a female representative to Congress.

Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible, Balint, 54, wrote in a Tuesday night Instagram post after the race for the states lone House seat was called. Were still capable of change and progress. Tonight, after 231 years, Vermonters are sending a woman and openly gay person to Congress for the first time.

Balint, the state Senates president pro tem since 2020, added that her work in Washington will stay rooted in our communities here in Vermont and pledged to advocate for the states most vulnerable.

Robert Garcia is the first LGBTQ naturalized citizen elected to Congress

Democrat Robert Garcia on Tuesday became the first openly gay immigrant elected to Congress, defeating 74-year-old Republican John Briscoe in a race Garcia was highly favored to win.

Garcia, 44, previously the mayor of Long Beach, Calif., was born in Lima, Peru, and immigrated to the U.S. with his mother when he was 5 years old. He is the third openly gay representative elected to Congress from California.

Garcia dedicated his win to his mother, Gaby, who died last year due to complications from contracting COVID-19.

That work of that hard-working woman who worked in clinics, who cleaned houses, who was a true immigrant in every sense of the word, is why Im here today, Garcia told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night after the race was called.

Garcia pledged to represent core American values in Congress and take back the true meaning of patriotism, which he said has been distorted and co-opted by extremist groups to spread hate.

American patriotism is actually helping the people that are in your country, he said.

Montana, Minnesota, New Hampshire elect first transgender state representatives

Transgender candidates claimed history-making victories in state legislative races in Montana, Minnesota and New Hampshire Tuesday evening.

Democrats Zooey Zephyr of Montana and Leigh Finke of Minnesota each defeated their Republican opponents in landslide wins to become the first transgender women elected to the state legislature.

Minnesota voters also voted to elect Alicia Kozlowski to the state House as the legislatures first nonbinary member.

In New Hampshire, James Roesener, also a Democrat, became the first transgender man ever elected to a state legislature.

First openly LGBTQ non-incumbent Republican elected to Congress

Republican George Santos on Tuesday defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in the race for New Yorks 3rd Congressional District  the first federal general election between two openly gay candidates  becoming the first openly LGBTQ non-incumbent Republican elected to Congress.

I promised one thing throughout this entire campaign: to be your champion in D.C. Thank you for this opportunity to be your voice, Santos tweeted in a message to his supporters early Wednesday.

Santos will be the only openly LGBTQ Republican in Congress.

Four former GOP House members have come out after they were elected.

First out LGBTQ candidates elected to state legislature in Alaska, South Dakota

Jennie Armstrong, Andrew Gray and Ashley Carrick  all Democrats  made history Tuesday evening, becoming the first openly LGBTQ lawmakers elected to the Alaska state legislature. All three will serve in the House.

Democrat Kameron Nelson also won his House race Tuesday in South Dakota, becoming the state legislatures first openly gay member. Former state Rep. Angie Buhl, also a Democrat, came out as bisexual after being elected to her first term,

In two states  Louisiana and Mississippi  an openly LGBTQ person has never been elected to the state legislature.

Updated at 4:27 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said it's "definitely not a Republican wave" on Tuesday evening.

His comments came after some Democratic victories in competitive midterm races.

"It's not a wave for sure, but I think it'll be a very good night," he said.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham weighed in on his party's midterms performance as election results began trickling in on Tuesday evening, declaring, it's "definitely not a Republican wave  that's for darn sure."

"I think we're gonna be at 51, 52 when it's all said in done in the Senate," the South Carolina senator said during an interview with NBC News, holding out hope for the GOP's chances.

Graham's comments came shortly after incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire won her re-election against Republican challenger Don Bolduc, a competitive race that the GOP sought to flip in its effort to take back the Senate.

"If you run that far behind your governor candidate, you probably made a mistake," Graham said of Bolduc, referring to the state's Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who won his reelection.

Democrats have also come out ahead in other contested races across the nation that Republicans targeted. Rep. Abigail Spanberger held on to her seat in Virginia against Yesli Vega, a challenger backed by the state's Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado won his reelection against GOP political newcomer Joe O'Dea. Ohio state lawmaker Emilia Sykes defeated former Donald Trump campaign staffer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in an open race for the state's 13th Congressional District, which was rated a "toss-up" by pollsters.

Video: Graham says women are welcome anywhere if theyre against abortion

"I think it was a referendum on Biden. If we take back the House and we get the Senate majority, that's a very good night. A wave would've been like New Hampshire and Colorado," Graham said.

Story continues

Though plenty of elections still haven't been called as of late Tuesday, and control of the House and Senate is not known yet. Pollsters have projected Republicans to take back the House, but the Senate has been harder to predict. Republicans held on to Ohio's Senate seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman as political outsider and author J.D. Vance beat Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.

"Hats off to the Democrats, they performed well in a lot of these swing districts," Graham said. "Couple days from now we'll know better. But at the end of the day guys, if we take the House and the Senate, we're gonna have to sit down as a country and figure out what to do with it."

"It's not a wave, for sure, but I think it'll be a very good night," he added.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The next NATO summit will be held in Lithuania

I thank our valued ally Lithuania for hosting the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 next year, Stoltenberg tweeted.

This will be an opportunity to further strengthen our alliance, step up support to Ukraine, and address key security matters at this critical time.

NATO heads of state at the last NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on June 29 approved a new Strategic Concept for the alliance, in which they identified Russia as the most significant and direct threat to the allies security.

Read also: NATO to prioritize bolstering Ukraines air defenses, Stoltenberg says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke before the leaders of NATO countries, calling on the alliance to respond to Russian threats.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
iStock; Insider

2022 General Embeds

Democrats held control of the US Senate and could even gain a seat depending on a run-off race in Georgia.

A few outstanding races in the 2022 elections will determine control of the House.

The results were a disappointment for Republicans, who had hoped to win many seats in both chambers.

Washington Democrat Marie Perez defeats Trump-backed Joe Kent, who ousted a pro-impeachment Republican

Rachel La Corte/ AP Photo

Democratic Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Republican Joe Kent to win the US House race for Washington's 3rd Congressional District. Perez's win will flip the district from Republican to Democrat, a first in 12 years.

Control of the House still hangs in the balance, with only a handful of outstanding races yet to be called.



Read Full Story

Democrats hold US Senate with win in Nevada

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has won one of the nation's closest-watched Senate races in Nevada, deciding the fate of Senate control for the next two years.



Read Full Story

Catherine Cortez Masto defeats Adam Laxalt in Nevada Senate election

Insider

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt to win the Nevada senate election.

Read Full Story

Results: Rep. Kim Schrier defeats Republican Matt Larkin in Washington's 8th Congressional District election

Matt Larkin's campaign; Elaine Thompson/AP Photo; Insider

Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier defeated Republican Matt Larkin in Washington's 8th Congressional District.Read Full Story

Results: Sen. Mark Kelly defeats Republican Blake Masters in critical Arizona Senate contest

US Senate; AP; Marianne Ayala/Insider

Freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona defeated newly-minted Republican candidate Blake Masters in a highly charged race for the state's US Senate seat.



Read Full Story

Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Lombardo defeats Gov. Steve Sisolak in Nevada's gubernatorial election

Insider

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was defeated by Republican Joe Lombardo in Nevada's gubernatorial election.

Once one of 14 Democratic trifectas in the country, Lombardo's win overturned this status.

Story continues



Read Full Story

Democratic Rep. Steve Horsford defeats Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District election

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call; Insider

Democratic Rep. Steve Horsford defeated Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District.

It marks the second critical house race taken by Democratic candidates Friday evening, along with Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, who defeated April Becker in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District election.



Read Full Story

Democrat Trone holds his seat in Maryland

Rep. David Trone seen speaking during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, DC. Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Democratic Rep. David Trone held off a challenge from Republican Neil Parrott in Maryland's 6th Congressional District in a rematch.

Trone  the millionaire owner of Total Wine & More retailers  is one of Congress' wealthiest members.

He is also among dozens of members of Congress found since last year to have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 for failing to properly disclose financial investments.

His victory shores up another seat for Democrats as control of the House remains too close to call.

Control of the Senate and the House remains too close to call

A view of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. November 19, 2019 Aurora Samperio/NurPhoto via Getty Images

As of Friday morning  three days after Election Day  neither party has taken control of the Senate or House just yet.

Democrats have amassed victories in 48 Senate races and need to eke out wins in two more states to keep power in the Senate with 50 senators and Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker.

Republicans, meanwhile, need to win two of those races to flip control.

As it stands, Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada haven't been resolved.

Georgia's race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is going to a December runoff election, making Nevada and Arizona the two most important states to watch at the moment.

In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto by about 9,000 votes  less than 1% of the overall vote  with 6% of votes still left to be reported, according to Insider's data partner, Decision Desk HQ.

In Arizona, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly holds a 5% lead, or about 115,000 votes, over Republican challenger Blake Masters with 84% of all votes reported so far.

On the House side, there are still 31 races that DDHQ has yet to call, many of which are in California and New York. As it stands, Republicans have netted 210 seats in the House so far, besting the Democrats' 194.

Either party needs 218 seats to have a majority.

That the election remains so close is a stunning result considering economic headwinds and historic trends of the party in power losing seats in Congress during midterm elections. The GOP had hoped for a "red wave" of victories, but Republicans have been held to only a few pickups in razor-tight races.

A Maryland Republican who lost his race by 300K votes says he won't concede. Most Republicans who lost have conceded.

Michael Anthony Peroutka, the Republican nominee for Attorney General of Maryland in 2022, speaks at a Towson University event on October 3, 2022 Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The GOP's nominee for Maryland's attorney general has refused to concede, despite trailing his opponent by more than 300,000 votes.

Right-wing candidate Michael Peroutka emailed his supporters suggesting without evidence that election fraud had taken place.

Meanwhile, the Maryland State Board of Elections said Marylanders can be "confident" in the result, according to a statement seen by the Washington Post.

Though many high-profile election deniers ran in the 2022 midterm elections, most Republicans who lost have quickly conceded their races.



Read Full Story



Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Facebook's Libra. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

A New York Congressman who lost his seat in the midterm elections criticized New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying she didn't do enough to help.

Sean Patrick Maloney has represented New York's 17th congressional district in the House of Representatives since 2013 but lost to his Republican rival this week, a stunning defeat for the party.

When asked who was to blame for Democrats' poor performance in the usually safe blue state, Maloney said of Ocasio-Cortez: "I didn't see her one minute of these midterms helping our House majority"  noting that she endorsed a candidate who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him in the primaries.



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In a series of irate posts, Trump bashes DeSantis as an 'average' governor who is 'playing games' around his intention to run in 2024

Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022 in Vandalia, Ohio. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump ripped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Thursday, calling him an "average Republican governor with great Public Relations."

In a public statement also posted on Truth Social, Trump unleashed on his one-time ally, offering a taste of the potential insults to come if the two face off in 2024. The Florida governor is seen as a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, which could challenge the former president's hold on the GOP should DeSantis decide to run for president.



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Trump also raged against DeSantis and said he unnecessarily chose to "close up" Florida during the pandemic

Trump appeared to criticize Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's COVID-19 response, which was widely praised and held up as a model by many on the right.

Trump made the comment in a statement provided to Insider and in a series of Truth Social posts in which he raged against DeSantis and the news media. The statement came after some Republicans blamed Trump for the GOP's disappointing midterms performance, although DeSantis easily coasted to reelection.



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Republicans say they're skeptical whether the party will abandon Trump after underperformance in midterms

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Republicans have been publicly souring on former President Donald Trump after candidates he endorsed underperformed in the midterm elections, but whether that drumbeat grows loud enough to drive him out as the party's leader remains uncertain.

"There's an old Frank Sinatra song where he says, 'I've heard that song before.'  We've heard this song before," Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist, told Insider on Thursday. "What we don't know is: what is that second verse going to be, and are Republicans going to actually stick to it?"



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Boebert shares meme, opponent urges voters to fix ballots in tight race

Colodaro Rep. Lauren Boebert gained 18,679 follower in the 24 hours before Elon Musk took over Twitter. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert broke two days of Twitter silence on Thursday morning as leads her race by just under 400 votes  a stunningly close situation for the incumbent Congresswoman who was widely expected to trounce her opponent in a heavily Republican district.

Her opponent, Democrat Adam Frisch, has tweeted a handful of times since polls first closed in Colorado.

His most recent update came Thursday night around 9 p.m. ET, when he urged Coloradans to cure their ballots  meaning fix errors that will allow the vote to be counted, as per state law  if needed.



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As of early Thursday, it was still too early to call either the Senate or the House.

Thousands of Trump supporters gather on the National Mall near the Washington Monument for President Donald Trumps speech from the Ellipse at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, as the Congress prepares to certify the electoral college votes. Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

As of 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, 34 House seats were uncalled.

Republicans would need to pick up eight more House seats to retake the chamber, and have plenty of chances to do so even in the absence of an overwhelming "red wave" for the party.

Three still-live races were also uncalled in the Senate, which will decide control of that chamber.

Arizona and Nevada remained open for either party, while in Alaska the race is between two Republican candidates, with the Democratic candidate way behind.

The Senate race in Georgia ended in a stalemate after neither party's candidate exceeded 50% of the vote. That race will be decided in a runoff vote in December.

Republican Ryan Zinke defeats Democrat Monica Tranel

Matthew Brown/AP Photo; William Campbell/Getty Images; Insider

Republican Ryan Zinke defeated Democrat Monica Tranel in Montana's 1st Congressional District.



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The Murdoch-owned New York Post, which long championed Donald Trump, mocks 'Trumpty Dumpty' for failing to put the GOP 'back together again'

The New York Post's Thursday issue will invoke a large question mark around Donald Trump's future in the Republican party  and it comes in the form of an old nursery rhyme.

"Don (who couldn't build a wall) had a great fall  can all the GOP's men put the party back together again?" Thursday's cover read, referencing "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" by Mother Goose. The cover was shared by New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman.



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Democrat Yadira Caraveo defeats Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer

Barbara Kirkmeyer's campaign; Yadira Caraveo's campaign; Insider

Democrat Yadira Caraveo defeated Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer in Colorado's new 8th Congressional District.

Caraveo scored a narrow victory with 48.4% of the vote to Kirkmeyer's 47.7%.



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Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell defeated by Democrat Gabriel Vasquez

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images;Insider

Republican New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell lost her bid for reelection against Democrat Gabriel Vasquez in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District.

Vasquez beat Herrell by less than a 1 percentage point margin.



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Trump will be told to delay announcement of his 2024 campaign until after the Georgia senate runoff, his campaign advisor said.

Former President Donald Trump's campaign advisor Jason Miller said Wednesday that he'll be directing Trump to delay the announcement of his 2024 presidential campaign after the midterms failed to manifest the blowout Republicans hope to receive in Congress.

Miller said in an interview with Newsmax that the campaign launch should be delayed until after Georgia's impending Senate runoff election in December between Herschel Walker and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. Just two years ago, the state had to hold another separate election for the same seat because none of the candidates received a majority vote.



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While some of Trump's picks lost or underperformed, Gov. Ron DeSantis dominated in Florida  heating up talks about who the GOP nominee should be in 2024

Ron DeSantis. James Gilbert/Getty Images

As the anticipated "red wave" failed to fully materialize on Tuesday, one Republican in Florida was having an exceptionally good night.

Gov. Ron DeSantis handily won reelection in a state that has long been considered a swing state, defeating Democrat Charlie Crist with a roughly 20-point lead as of Wednesday. By comparison, DeSantis in 2018 won the governorship by less than a percentage point, in a state that twice voted for former President Barack Obama.

DeSantis' dominating performance is all the more noteworthy compared to the underwhelming results delivered by Republicans elsewhere, including some of former President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters and endorsees. The drastic difference has already led Republicans to turn to DeSantis for 2024 hopes, a prospect that now seems all the more likely.

"Certainly DeSantis's overwhelming victory just puts more wind in his sails," Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies Congress and US politics, told Insider. "The failure of various Trump pick candidates is a blow against him."



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Joe Biden said he'll do 'nothing' differently after the midterm elections because he's 'confident these policies are working'

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on preserving and protecting Democracy at Union Station on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC. Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Wednesday projected confidence in the country's direction after the midterm elections, responding "nothing" when asked what he will do differently in the next two years.

"The more they know about what we're doing, the more support there is," Biden said of voters during a nearly hour-long news conference after midterm election results exceeded expectations for Democrats.

With many race results still pending, Republicans are likely to capture control of the House and the Senate is still in play for both parties. But Democrats dodged a so-called "red wave" as midterm elections have historically punished the president's party two years after his first election.

"It was a good day, I think, for democracy," Biden said, later adding: "I know you were somewhat miffed by my obsessive optimism, but I felt good during the whole process."



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Live Results: Voters in 5 states cast ballots on marijuana legalization. Here's where the pot initiatives stand.

Getty Images; Insider

Five states had marijuana legalization initiatives on their ballots in 2022.

On Tuesday, Maryland and Missouri joined the ranks of the growing number of states where cannabis is legal, while legalization votes failed in Arkansas and South Dakota. As of Wednesday afternoon, North Dakota's ballot measure has yet to be called.



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No more than 5 out of 50 current GOP senators want to see Trump run for president in 2024, a Republican senator told Politico

Only a handful of incumbent Republican senators want to see Donald Trump in the White House again, according to Politico.

One Republican senator told Politico's Politics Bureau Chief Jonathan Martin that, at max, just five out of the 50 current senators would want Trump as the GOP's frontrunner. The senator was not named in the report but was described as "no Trump antagonist," according to Martin.



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Trump lunges at DeSantis after historic Florida win: 'I got 1.1 million more votes'

Donald Trump mingles with supporters during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on November 08, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his voter support on Wednesday, just one day after the Republican governor pulled off a historic, 20-percentage point victory in the state.

"Now that the election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn't it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

The numbers Trump presented on Truth Social on Wednesday were accurate, but the margins Trump had against Biden in 2020 were far smaller than DeSantis had against his Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist. Trump won Florida in 2020 by a 3.4-percentage point margin.



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Voters in five states had abortion access on the ballot. Here's where it's winning.

The 2022 midterm elections were the first national elections to be conducted following the US Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in June, leading five states to place abortion-related initiatives on their ballot.

Of the five states, voters in California, Michigan, Kentucky, and Vermont signaled overwhelming support for abortion rights.



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Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney loses his bid for reelection against Republican Michael Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District election

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Michael Lawler's campaign; Insider

Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney lost his bid for reelection against Republican Michael Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District.



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Republican George Devolder-Santos defeats Democrat Robert Zimmerman in New York's 3rd Congressional District election

Robert Zimmerman's campaign; George Devolder-Santos' campaign; Insider

Republican George Devolder-Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in New York's 3rd Congressional District. It was the first US House general election with two openly gay candidates running against each other.



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Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will face off in a December 6 runoff election in Georgia with a 4-week campaign blitz unlike any other

Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks at his Election night event in Atlanta, Ga., on November 8, 2022. AP Photo/John Bazemore

The hotly-contested race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker is headed to a December 6 runoff election since neither candidate hit the 50% threshold of victory mandated by state law, per Insider and Decision Desk HQ.

Warnock is the senior pastor of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church who was elected to the Senate in a January 2021 runoff election to fill the remaining term of Republican Johnny Isakson. He has now seen his name on the ballot before Georgia voters four times over the past three years  in November 2020, January 2021, and May and November 2022.



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Republican Juan Ciscomani defeats Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District election

Juan Ciscomani's campaign; Kirsten Engel's campaign; Insider

Republican Juan Ciscomani defeated Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District, flipping the seat from Democratic to Republican control.



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Pennsylvania state lawmaker won big in the midterm elections despite being dead

Late Rep. Tony DeLuca. Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee/Twitter

A Democratic state lawmaker in Pennsylvania won re-election by a landslide  even though he died last month.

Rep. Tony DeLuca, who died at the age of 85 on October 9 from lymphoma, crushed Green Party challenger Zarah Livingston in Tuesday's midterm elections.



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Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne loses her bid for reelection against Republican Zach Nunn in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District election

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Zach Nunn's campaign; Insider

Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne lost her bid for reelection against Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District.



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Republican John James defeats Democrat Carl Marlinga in Michigan's 10th Congressional District election

Carl Marlinga's campaign; JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images; Insider

Republican John James defeated Democrat Carl Marlinga in Michigan's 10th Congressional District. It marks another seat Republicans have flipped in the election.



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8 races that made history on Election Day

MA Attorney General Maura Healey Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General

Several candidates made history during Tuesday's midterm elections by winning their respective races and breaking barriers on both the state and national levels.

From the first openly lesbian governor in US history to the first Gen Z member of Congress, here's who made strides during the 2022 midterms.



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Democrats say they have won control of Pennsylvania's state House for first time in more than a decade

Pennsylvania Democratic state Rep. Joanna McClinton is on track to be the state's first woman speaker of the house. Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

It was supposed to be a "red wave," but midterm elections that typically hand a huge defeat to the party that controls the White House instead appears to have given Democrats in Pennsylvaniacontrol of the state House of Representatives for the first time in more than a decade.



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Photos show disappointment, shock at Republican election night events as a predicted 'red wave' never came

Dale and Sherri VanPelt check their phone for election results during a party for Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on Election night at Warehouse 2565 on November 8, 2022 in Grand Junction, Colorado. Boebert is running against Adam Frisch of the Democratic Party to try for her second term as U.S. representative for Colorado's 3rd congressional district. Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Photos from Republican election night events across the US show widespread disappointment as candidates and their constituents awaited a "red wave" that never came.

Big ticket names, like Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, trailed in the polls after expecting to easily clinch their races, proving a more successful night for Democrats than initially expected.



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Republicans pick up a House seat in Arizona as races tighten

Republican Eli Crane unseated Democratic Rep. Tom O'Halleran in a key, largely rural district in the northwest corner of Arizona.

The redistricting process flipped the seat from a toss-up district to one that leans Republican. The GOP victory gives them a necessary win as they try to wrest control of the House from Democrats.

More than 30 toss-up races are still too close to call. Republicans will need to win at least 13 to gain a majority.

Biden's student-loan forgiveness is at risk. It may have helped stop a 'red tsunami' as Gen Z flocked to the polls to save their relief.

If President Joe Biden didn't enact broad student-loan forgiveness, Republicans may have gotten the electoral wins they were hoping for.

Gen Z may have helped.

Leading up to the midterm elections, the polls were predicting massive GOP victories across the board, allowing them to regain significant control over the House and Senate. But as the results continue to trickle in, it's become clear that the red wave turned into a ripple, with control of both chambers of Congress too close to call the day after the election.

While it's difficult to pinpoint what exactly may have caused this shift, the opinions of young voters should be taken into consideration.



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A New York court's decision to block Democrats' gerrymandering has handed the GOP a lifeline to retake the House

Mike Lawler, right, Republican candidate for the U.S. House, and Bill Weber, Republican candidate for state Senate, greet supporters at an election-night party. AP

New York's highest court's decision to reject an attempt by state Democrats to gerrymander the state's congressional maps months ago has apparently handed the GOP a rare lifeline in the battle for control of the House of Representatives.

A much-anticipated "red wave" failed to materialize in Tuesday's midterm elections, with Republicans losing Pennsylvania's Senate seat and dropping toss-up races they'd hoped to dominate.

But in Democratic stronghold New York, Republicans in the House saw significant wins, thanks in part to the April ruling by the state's Court of Appeals that sided with Republicans.

The court had struck down the new district lines, ruling that the congressional map was unconstitutional as it favored Democrats.



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Ex-Trump aide says the Republican Party needs to finally see Donald Trump as a 'loser' in order to 'thrive'

Alyssa Farah and Donald Trump Getty Images

Ex-White House aide and co-host of "The View" Alyssa Farah Griffin branded former President Donald Trump a "loser"  and said the Republican Party needs to admit that in order to finally "thrive."

GOP analysts and pundits have raised the prospect of abandoning Trump after the GOP's underwhelming performance on Election Day. Meanwhile, the former president appears to be forging ahead with his rumored announcement he'll run in 2024



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Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, leader of the House Democrats' campaign arm, lost in a shocking upset

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney on Wednesday conceded defeat to a New York Republican, a shocking loss for the House Democrats' campaign chief that comes as his party performed surprisingly well in the midterms.

As head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maloney took a lead role in recruiting candidates and raising money to defend a number of embattled Democratic incumbents. As of Wednesday morning, the House majority remains too close to call, a development that has taken Washington by surprise.



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Midday election update: Bowser shells opponent, Peach state contested, while voters split on mushroom legalization

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Caroline Brehman/Pool via CQ Roll Call

It's been hours since the polls closed on Election Day and the control of Congress still hangs in the balance.

First, in Georgia's Senate race, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock pulled ahead of GOP challenger and former football star Herschel Walker, but not enough to lock up the win. That's because the Peach State requires candidates to win 50% of the vote plus one more.

Warnock currently has 49.42% of the vote to Walker's 48.52%, meaning the two are now headed for a run-off election in December. It's familiar ground for Warnock, who won a run-off election in 2020 that tipped the balance of the Senate for Democrats. His run-off race may again decide the balance of power in Congress' upper chamber.

Meanwhile, incumbent DC mayor Muriel Bowser easily fended off a Republican challenger, Stacia Hall. With just 70% of the vote in, it's already clear Bowser will easily win the race.

And in one of the more tightly contested ballot initiatives, Colorado voters are nearly evenly split on whether to reclassify some psychedelics  like mushrooms  as natural medicine and decriminalize them.

The yeses for the proposition currently lead in the counting 51.03% to 48.97% with about a quarter of the vote still remaining.





Cobb County will be critical for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia's December runoff

Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks at his Election night event in Atlanta, Ga., on November 8, 2022. AP Photo/John Bazemore

Cobb County, a one-time GOP stronghold, will be critical for Warnock to win in his upcoming runoff against Republican Herschel Walker.

The county is poised to become a powerful source of support for Warnock next month and for Democrats running in statewide elections going forward.

With over 95% of county precincts reporting in the Senate race, Warnock was leading Walker by nearly 17 points (57%-40.5%) in Cobb County.



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Democrat Eric Sorensen defeats Republican Esther Joy King in Illinois' 17th District US House election

Eric Sorensen's campaign; Esther Joy King's campaign; Insider

Republican Esther Joy King ran against Democrat Eric Sorensen in Illinois' 17th Congressional District in a race sparked by incumbent Rep Cheri Bustos' retirement.



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Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton defeats Republican Kelly Cooper in Arizona's 4th Congressional District election

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Matt York/AP Photo; Insider

Stanton defeated Cooper in Arizona's 4th Congressional district, which is located in Maricopa county.

Despite recent redistricting making the district less Democrat-leaning, the Cook Political Report had forecasted to favor Democrats ahead of the election.



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Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker are headed to a runoff in December

Getty; Marianne Ayala/Insider

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock's too-close-to-call race against Republican Herschel Walker is headed to a runoff that will take place in December.

The runoff potentially means the Senate majority may not be determined for several weeks.

Warnock, who is seeking election for a full six-year term, won a previous runoff to win his Senate seat in the first place.



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At least 165 election deniers have won races in the 2022 midterms

Hundreds of Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections had denied or refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, and at least 165 of them have won their elections.

Eighty-six election deniers have lost their races as of 10:30 a.m. ET. Notably, two election-denying GOP candidates for governor  Tudor Dixon in Michigan and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania  have lost their races.



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A long-shot Democratic candidate who raised more than $15.6 million to defeat Marjorie Taylor Greene lost by 31 points

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Democratic candidate Marcus Flowers raised $15.6 million for his campaign to take on Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, but he still lost Georgia's 14th district by more than 31 points, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Flowers, a former defense contractor employee and US Army veteran with a questionable past, ran a campaign heavy on social media and email-based fundraising appeals; much of his war chest was spent on fundraising and digital advertising, along with more traditional media.

And his appeals centered primarily on the Georgia congresswoman, known for her far-right, conspiratorial brand of politics and close relationship with former President Donald Trump.



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Democrats paid millions into ads elevating election-denying candidates in GOP primaries this year  and it paid off

Republican senate nominee Don Bolduc speaks during a campaign event on October 15, 2022 in Derry, New Hampshire. Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Democrats spent millions of dollars on advertisements designed to boost election chances for Republicans who denied the 2020 presidential election, and the strategy seemed to pay off.

In competitive races in states across the US, Republicans who benefited from the ads were set to be defeated.

Four key examples of those candidates include:

Senate candidate Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, projected to lose to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.

House candidate John Gibbs in Michigan, projected to lose to Democratic candidate Hillary Scholten.

Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, projected to lose to Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.

Gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox of Maryland, projected to lose to Democratic candidate Wes Moore.



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Trump is 'livid' and 'screaming' his head off after disappointing midterm elections for the GOP, advisor says

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on the eve of Election Day at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022, in Vandalia, Ohio. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

An advisor to Trump told CNN that the former president is "screaming at everyone" after many Republican candidates backed by him underperformed in the midterm elections.

"Candidates matter," the Trump advisor, who was not named, told CNN on Wednesday. "They were all bad candidates."



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Democrat Hillary Scholten defeated Trump-backed John Gibbs in Michigan's 3rd Congressional District election

Sarah Burnett/AP Photo; Will Weissert/AP Photo; Insider

Gibbs had ousted incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, who supported impeaching President Donald Trump, in a primary before Tuesday's election.

Gibb's win and redistricting in the state had Democrats optimistic that the seat could be flipped.



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Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham defeats Republican Mark Ronchetti in New Mexico's gubernatorial race

Michelle Lujan Grisham, Eddie Moore/AP; Insider

Grisham is the 32nd governor of New Mexico, and she previously represented the 1st Congressional District in the US House for three terms.

Ronchetti, a certified meteorologist who worked as the chief meteorologist for Albuquerque's CBS and FOX affiliates, conceded to Grisham on Tuesday night.



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Tudor Dixon concedes to Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan's gubernatorial race

Michigan Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

"I called Governor Whitmer this morning to concede and wish her well," Dixon said in a statement.

"Michigan's future success rests not in elected officials or government, but all of us," she added. "It is incumbent upon all of us to help our children read, support law enforcement, and grow our economy."

Dixon had previously pushed conspiracies around the 2020 presidential election, MLive reported earlier this year.

Republican analysts blamed Trump for the GOP's disappointing midterm results

Donald Trump speaks during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on November 08, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The former president had endorsed hundreds of candidates in the midterm elections as he sought to cement his control over the party. But as of early Wednesday many were performing poorly.

In a CNN interview, former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin blamed the failures on the poor quality of the candidates Trump championed.

"If you want the Republican Party to thrive, we've got to just finally speak out and say, 'This man is a loser, he lost 2020, he's losing a seat that is winnable this time," she said.

Scott Jennings, a conservative analyst and former advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the results showed that Trump's hopes of winning back the presidency were a non-starter.

"How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024?" he said.



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Former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says the former president 'is not doing very well' in the midterms

Former President Donald Trump (R) and his then-acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney (L) at the White House on December 5, 2019. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

"Between being Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tonight, you want to be Ron DeSantis," Mulvaney told CBS News, NBC reported. "DeSantis wins tonight and Trump is not doing very well."

His comments came after DeSantis, largely seen as Trump's biggest rival, pulled off a huge victory over Charlie Crist in Florida on Tuesday night, which could potentially set him up for a Republican presidential primary in 2024.

Meanwhile, numerous Trump-backed candidates, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon in Michigan, have underperformed or lost the mid-term races, Insider and its election partner DDH



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Trump midterm results-night party at Mar-a-Lago fell flat as candidates he endorsed fell short of victory

Donald Trump mingles with supporters during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on November 08, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump's plans to claim credit for Republican Party wins in the midterms at triumphant party held at Mar-a-Lago party fell flat as an anticipated "red wave' of GOP success never appeared.

Trump had hoped to cement his place as the Republican Party's king maker at a glitzy party in his resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

He invited influential supporters and members of the media to join him and watch on giant TVs as results flowed in, reports said.

But major GOP successes never came, and results as of Wednesday morning were mixed. A slew of candidates Trump had endorsed fell short.

Trump's remarks at the event were muted, as results early Wednesday suggested a bleak outlook for his party.



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The House Rep. who received Elon Musk's first ever vote for a Republican lost her seat after only 5 months

Elon Musk (L) and Mayra Flores (R) Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Getty Images / Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The GOP House Rep. who got Elon Musk's first Republican vote earlier this year was booted out of Congress in the midterms just five months later.

Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores lost her seat in the state's 34th Congressional District to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez by a wide margin. As of early Wednesday, 96% of the votes were counted, leaving Flores trailing by almost nine percentage points.

When Flores won in June, Musk predicted big gains for the Republicans that failed to materialize as results came in late on Tuesday.

"I voted for Mayra Flores  first time I ever voted Republican," he said in June, adding: "Massive red wave in 2022."

It's unclear who Musk voted for in this election, though on Monday he tweeted to advocate voting Republican in Congressional races.



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Democrat John Fetterman wiped back tears in an emotional speech after winning key Senate race in Pennsylvania

Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman speaks to supporters during an election night party in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 9, 2022. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Democrat John Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz in a tense face-off for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania on, Insider and its election partner DDHQ projected early on Wednesday.

After the race was called, a stunned-looking Fetterman addressed cheering supporters at a concert venue in Pittsburgh, telling them: "I'm not really sure what to say right now, my goodness."

He wiped away tears as he spoke.

"We jammed them up. We held the line ... I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do," Fetterman continued.



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GOP Sen. Ron Johnson clings to seat in nailbiter

Scott Olson/Getty; Insider

Incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson barely held off Democrat Mandela Barnes to hold his seat, winning a surprisingly close election by mere thousands of votes.

The election was an unexpected nailbiter for Johnson, a two-term senator.

GOP Rep. blames voters for staying home after she lost a competitive House seat

S Republican Representative Mayra Flores of Texas, who is running for reelection, speaks at a campaign event on October 10, 2022 at the University Drafthouse in Mcallen, Texas. Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images

Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores wasted no time in ripping her voters after she lost a competitive House seat during Tuesday's midterm elections.

"The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home," Flores said on Twitter. "DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!"



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John Fetterman defeats Mehmet Oz, dealing huge blow to the GOP's Senate hopes

Insider

Democrat John Fetterman has won Pennsylvania's Senate seat over Trump-backed TV show host Mehmet Oz, dealing a serious blow to Republicans' hopes of taking control of the US Senate.

"We bet on the people of Pennsylvania - and you didn't let us down," Fetterman wrote on Twitter as he declared victory. "And I won't let you down. Thank you."

The win is the first Democratic pickup in the Senate.

Fetterman, who had a stroke shortly before winning the Democratic primary, eeked out a victory after an uneven debate performance gave new life to Oz's campaign. Fetterman has insisted that the stroke affected only his hearing, not his cognition and that he is fit for office.

Oz  who has never held office  faced accusations that he didn't really live in Pennsylvania as well as criticism of his embrace of Trump and anti-abortion rhetoric. Oz has not spoken at his election night event.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wins re-election in Michigan

AP Images; Insider

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has won re-election, fending off a challenge from Trump-backed Republican Tudor Dixon.

Republicans began this cycle eager to knock out Whitmer over her management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the targeting of Whitmer wasn't just at the ballot box.

In 2020, federal law enforcement arrested 13 men suspected of engineering a terrorist plot to kidnap Whitmer and attempt to overthrow Michigan's government. The subsequent cases against them have resulted in a mixture of convictions, acquittals, and plea deals.

Republican Tudor Dixon says Michigan governor's race is too close to call, despite outlets projecting her loss: 'We don't accept that Fox is calling this'

Michigan Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

At a party for campaign supporters, Michigan's Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon said she refused to accept that her race had been called for her opponent.

"This race is going to be too close to call, despite what Fox thinks," Dixon told attendees after Democrat Gretchen Whitmer had been declared the projected winner by some outlets, including Fox News. "We don't accept that Fox is calling this."

Fox News projected that Whitmer had defeated Tudor, a Trump-backed candidate, with approximately 48% of votes tallied.



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Chuck Grassley  the oldest US senator  just won re-election

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images

GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest current US senator, won re-election at age 89.

He is the serving president pro tempore emeritus of the Senate and represents a generation of political leaders who have held on to power despite their advanced ages.

An Insider investigation into gerontocracy  the term for a government run by old people  found that young officials feel blocked by those clinging to power and that their issues are being downplayed.

(Aside: Grassley was born five years before the chocolate chip cookie was invented. The beloved cookie first appeared in Ruth Wakefield's 1938 cookbook "Tried and True."

Grassley was born in September 1933.)

Democrats are winning the House seats they need to win

On a night when Republicans hoped to secure toss-up districts and make headway into blue districts, Democrats have racked up wins in key toss-up races.

Democratic Ohio State Rep. Emilia Sykes defeated former Donald Trump campaign staffer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in Ohio's 13th Congressional District.

The 13th district had drawn national attention and millions of dollars in spending.

Chris Pappas defeated Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st District US House election, another toss-up district.

Democrats also won in Ohio's 1st Congressional District, New Hampshire's 2nd District, and Kansas' 3rd District.

Lindsey Graham: It's 'definitely not a Republican wave  that's for darn sure'

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham weighed in on his party's midterms performance as election results began trickling in on Tuesday evening, declaring, it's "definitely not a Republican wave  that's for darn sure."

"I think we're gonna be at 51, 52 when it's all said in done in the Senate," the South Carolina senator said during an interview with NBC News, holding out hope for the GOP's chances.



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The House is too close to call. That's a great sign for Democrats and concerning for the GOP

Americans are lining up to vote in the midterm elections. All 435 House seats and 35 of 100 Senate seats are on the ballot this year. Reuters

Control of the House remains too close to call, a shocking scenario that raises the possibility Democrats' could escape the midterms with little damage.

As of 11:45 p.m. EST, Decision Desk HQ and Insider are unable to project which party will control either house in Congress. While the Senate was always expected to be close, few, if any, pundits foretold of a House contest that would be this narrow.

Republicans began the cycle giddy with excitement. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy even poised that his party could flip 60 seats. Instead, fury over the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade appears to have not only dampened a possible wave election but may even lead to Democratic gains.

There have only been two times since World War II that a president's party has gained seats in a midterm election, one of which occurred in the months after the September 11th attacks.

Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022

Republicans hoped to turn New York's governor's seat red. They didn't.

Joshua Bessex/AP Photo; Mary Altaffer/AP Photo; Insider

Trump-backed GOP candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin made a huge push in the final weeks of the race for New York governor, pushing concerns about crime as his opponent flagged in the polls and insisting the wedge issue would flip the Democratic stronghold red.

It didn't.

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin after an unexpectedly strong challenge in New York's gubernatorial election.

Appointed governor following the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hochul is the first woman to be governor of New York.

If elected, Zeldin would have dismantled New York's Democratic trifecta, where Democrats hold the governorship and majorities in both legislative chambers.

Mehmet Oz is underperforming Trump in some of Pennsylvania in early returns

Dr. Mehmet Oz. AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson

If Oz wants to win Pennsylvania, he'll need to outperform former President Donald Trump's results in 2020, when he lost the state by just over 80,000 votes.

So far, Oz is falling short.

"This is Western Pennsylvania, small county ... but again Trump ran up huge numbers in Western Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz is going to win Clarion County overwhelmingly but it's five points less than Trump got," MSNBC's Steve Kornacki said as he ticked off results across the Keystone State.

Kornacki pointed out that Oz is underperforming compared to Trump elsewhere too. In Bedford County, a rural county near the Maryland border, Oz received 80.7% of the vote compared to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's 17%. But Oz's commanding performance is still not enough to match Trump's mark of 83.5%.



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Right-wing firebrand Lauren Boebert is in a fight for her seat

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert is in a tight race in her bid for reelection on the same night when Republicans appear to be poised to take control of the US House.

Boebert is facing off against Democrat Adam Frisch, a businessman and former city councilman.

DeSantis cruised to victory despite Trump attacking him days before the election

Ap Images; Insider

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection in Florida by historic margins on Tuesday, flipping the state from purple to red and doing it all without former President Donald Trump's help.

Trump has continually teased the prospect of another presidential run, and could announce soon after the midterms. DeSantis has consistently polled behind the former president as a 2024 GOP favorite, and hasn't said whether he plans to serve out all four years as governor.

Trump, who is now a Florida resident, cast his vote for DeSantis on Tuesday but told reporters he didn't think the governor should run against him. "If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign."



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GOP's Karoline Leavitt loses NH race that would have made her youngest woman ever elected to Congress

Charles Krupa/AP Photo; Cheryl Senter/AP Photo

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas defeated Republican Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.

Leavitt  a 25-year-old former White House staffer for President Donald Trump  would have been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

J.D. Vance wins competitive Ohio Senate seat

AP Images; Insider

Republican author J.D. Vance defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio, holding a Senate seat for the GOP as they seek to flip one Democratic seat and regain control of Congress' upper chamber.

The race was among the most expensive in the country, with Ryan's holding a large financial lead and forcing Republicans to spend big to win.

Trump endorsed Vance ahead of the primaries despite the candidate previously comparing the former president to "America's Hitler" in private messages.

Abbott wins governor's race in Texas; Beto O'Rourke suffers another loss

Icon Sportswire/Getty, Insider

Incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fended off a challenge from Democrat Beto O'Rourke, leaning on a right-wing base energized by policies that have antagonized liberals.

Abbott pushed his state into the forefront of numerous national fights, from slashing abortion rights to shipping migrants from the southern border to Democratic cities as a protest of Joe Biden's border policies.

Abbott's win marked the second statewide loss for O'Rourke, who failed to unseat Ted Cruz in 2018. Democrats had hoped to flip Texas blue, but fell short again.

Democrat Josh Shapiro beats election-denier Doug Mastriano for Pennsylvania governor

Getty Images; Insider

A Trump-backed election denier has lost the race for Pennsylvania governor.

Democrat Josh Shapiro has defeated Republican Doug Mastriano in the consequential open race. The election determined not just who controls the governor's house, but also who will ultimately oversee the 2024 election in a key swing state.

Wes Moore wins governor's race in Maryland

Getty Images; Insider

Democrat Wes Moore made history, winning the Maryland gubernatorial election and becoming the first Black governor in the state's history.

Moore  a combat veteran in the US Army and a small business owner  defeated Cox, a state representative endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Polls close in Nevada, Montana and Utah

The polls have closed in key swing state Nevada, as well as Montana and Utah.

Democrat wins a key Rhode Island race

Democrat Seth Magaziner has defeated Republican Allan Fung in Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District, a seat that Republicans had targeted.

The victory is a key win for Democrats as the GOP worked to expand the map in House races and keep Biden's party on the defensive in the midterms.

GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defeats Democrat Stacey Abrams again

Paras Griffin/Getty, Insider

Incumbent Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has won re-election, defeating Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their race in 2018.

Kemp was openly insulted by former President Donald Trump for not backing his election lies in 2020.

He's held off Abrams, a Democratic star whose get-out-the-vote efforts were credited with flipping Georgia blue in 2020 but who has failed to win statewide office herself.

Moderate Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger is in a tight race in Virginia. It's a seat Democrats need to hold.

Abigail Spanberger Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images

A consequential bellwether House race is coming down to the wire in Virginia.

Both parties have targeted the seat held by Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

It's the kind of district that  if the Democrats were to lose it  would bode ill for their chances for the rest of the evening and would hint that they'd have a difficult path to retain the majority in the House.

(Aside: the origin of the word "bellwether" has nothing to do with rain, but comes from the Middle English word "bellewether," which refers to the bell put on a castrated ram's neck to help shepherds keep track of their flocks.)

Judge denies Republicans' emergency request to keep Maricopa County polling sites open for 3 more hours

In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, voters deliver their ballot to a polling station in Tempe, Ariz. AP Photo/Matt York, File

A judge on Tuesday evening rejected Republicans' request to keep polling centers in Maricopa County, Arizona, open for three more hours, until 10 p.m. local time.

The ruling came after the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Blake Masters campaign, and Kari Lake campaign filed an emergency complaint asking to extend voting hours in the county amid news that dozens of vote tabulating machines had glitched and refused to accept ballots.

County officials put out a press release in the afternoon saying the problem had been identified and technicians were working on it. They added that it was unclear how many ballots had been affected but that all of them would be counted.

Election officials also noted that the problem wasn't that vote tabulating machines were incorrectly reading ballots but that they weren't reading them at all.

"Everyone is still getting to vote," Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, said at a news conference in Phoenix amid reports of the voting machine issues.

"We do not believe that anyone has been disenfranchised because no one has been turned away," he added.

But Republicans still pounced on reports of the glitch.

"The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues," RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement. "The widespread issues  in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs  are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day."

Polls close in another batch of states, including Arizona, Michigan, and Texas

Voting has closed in Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Mississippi Secretary of State website down

The website for the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office had a "sustained outage" after hackers overloaded it with web traffic, NBC News reported.

The site informs residents about voting but does not handle vote counting.

NBC News reported that a Russian hacker group called for attacks on that website shortly before they began.

Reporter Kevin Collier tweeted that Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials confirmed that Mississippi has been under a "sustained" denial of service attack all day. Other states were targeted, but there have been no sustained outages, he wrote.

Gov. Mike DeWine defeats Democrat Nan Whaley in Ohio's gubernatorial election

Republican incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine has defeated Democrat Nan Whaley in Ohio's gubernatorial election.

GOP firebrand and Trump ally Matt Gaetz wins re-election in Florida

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Florida. Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz  a longtime Trump ally and outspoken member of the right-wing GOP House  has won re-election in Florida.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders elected Arkansas governor

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Steven Ferdman/Getty Images

Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders defeated Democrat Chris Jones in Arkansas' gubernatorial race.

Sanders, a former Trump administration official, is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

She will be the first woman governor of Arkansas.

Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey defeats Trump-backed Geoff Diehl in Massachusetts' gubernatorial election

AP Images; Insider

Massachusetts' Attorney General Maura Healey has won the state's gubernatorial election against Trump-backed Republican Geoff Diehl.

The current governor, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, decided against seeking a third term.

Healey has now flipped the Massachusetts governor's office. She makes history as the first openly gay person and first woman elected governor.

Republican Laurel Lee, Florida's former secretary of state, defeats Democrat Alan Cohn in Florida's newest 15th Congressional District election

Steve Cannon/AP photo; Alan Cohn's campaign; Insider

Republican Laurel Lee defeated Democrat Alan Cohn in Florida's newest congressional district, which was added based on 2020 Census results.

Republican Cory Mills defeats Democrat Karen Green in open seat for Florida's 7th Congressional district election

Cory Mills' campaign; Karen Green's campaign; Insider

Republican Cory Mills won an open seat in Florida's redrawn 7th Congressional District against Democrat Karen Green. The seat was open following Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy's decision to not seek re-election after serving three terms.

Incumbent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a national Republican star, wins re-election

Insider

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising Republican star and possible 2024 challenger to Donald Trump, is projected to win re-election.

DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist, who resigned his congressional seat in August after his primary victory.

DeSantis cruised to a historic victory  despite catching heat from Trump in the days before the election.

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Republican Sen. Marco Rubio defeats Democratic Rep. Val Demings in Florida Senate race

Andrew Burton/Getty, Insider

Sen. Marco Rubio is projected to have beaten Democratic Rep. Val Demings.

Decision Desk HQ and Insider project Rubio will win his third term in the Senate as of 8 pm EST.



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Polls close in a handful of states, including Florida and Pennsylvania

Polls have closed in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island.

Polls close in North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia

Voting closed in three states at 7:30 p.m. EST: North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia.

In Ohio, Republican author J.D. Vance is facing off against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan for a US Senate seat.

These are the Donald Trump endorsements to watch on election night

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake embraces former President Donald Trump at a rally on October 09, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Donald Trump ensured he was on the ballot Tuesday night even if all he could do was wait for the election results like everyone else.

The twice-impeached former president has put great effort into continuing to rebrand the Republican Party while in his Mar-a-Lago home. He made more than 250 general election endorsements, according to Ballotpedia. Many of his endorsees have echoed his lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.Keep Reading





Polls close in 6 states, including pivotal swing state Georgia

Polls have closed in six states  including Georgia where a tight Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP candidate Herschel Walker could determine control of the US Senate.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. in Kentucky, Indiana, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, as well as Georgia.

The US' top cybersecurity agency said there have been no credible threats to election security or integrity.

The US' top cybersecurity agency warned against making the 'normal out to be nefarious' as conservatives are crying foul over election glitches on Election Day.

"When you have 8,800 individual election jurisdictions, you're going to see a few issues," tweeted Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "We have seen a few of these today as happens every Election Day."

Easterly's warning comes as conservatives have raised questions about election integrity. Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday baselessly claimed that a "large" amount of absentee voter fraud was underway in Detroit, Michigan.



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Philadelphia Republican blames GOP for forcing election results delay: 'Republicans targeted Philadelphia'

Poll workers process ballots at an elections warehouse outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 2022. ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Philadelphia's last-minute decision to reinstate a policy requiring poll workers to check for double votes during  not after  the election-night tallying of ballots will further delay final results, a fact that a local Republican election official blames squarely on the GOP.

"I want to be very clear that when there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots that the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia  and only Philadelphia  to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does," City Commissioner Seth Bluestein said Tuesday morning, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Bluestein is the sole Republican on Philadelphia's elections commission.



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The first polls of the midterm elections have closed

Voting has closed in the first states in a pivotal US midterm election that will determine the balance of power in the House and Senate.

Polls closed in Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST.

Top federal election official: 'I have a high level of confidence in the integrity of the election'

Thomas Hicks, chairman of the Election Assistance Commission. Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Tens of millions of Americans are casting their ballots freely and fairly, and tens of thousands of poll workers across the nation are doing their duties "with high integrity and working truly hard to make sure votes are counted fairly and accurately," US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks told Insider.

"If someone is eligible to cast their vote, they should be able to do so free and without any encumbrance, and those who put those encumbrances up there to harass or intimidate should be prosecuted," Hicks said.



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Voting machines in a Pennsylvania county ran out of paper and will remain open an extra 2 hours

Polling places will remain open an additional two hours until 10 p.m. in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, a judge has ruled, after some voting machines ran out of paper.

Some voters received provisional ballots until more paper could be delivered. The experience is frustrating some voters, WNEP reported.

"They ran out of paper. Why? I don't know," said Dominic Bechetti from Harveys Lake.

Atlanta voters have their final say in the 2022 midterms, rejecting misinformation and the state of modern politics

Voters cast ballots at a precinct in DeKalb County, Georgia, on November 8, 2022. AP Photo/Ben Gray

Across the Atlanta area on Election Day, voters came out to cast ballots in the highly-consequential Georgia US Senate and gubernatorial races, with the results likely to determine the trajectory of the state for years to come.

On Tuesday, citizens had their final say in the race, and whether it was a rejection of the GOP or simply pursuing a civic duty, a range of voters in Cobb and DeKalb counties told Insider that they came out to the polls not dissatisfied with the candidates themselves but the state of politics.



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A man armed with a knife at a Wisconsin polling place demanded election workers 'stop the voting,' local police said

A man armed with a knife was arrested after he showed up at a Wisconsin polling station and demanded election workers shut down the vote, local police said on Tuesday.

Police said cops took a 38-year-old man into custody, and that voting was paused for 30 minutes while law enforcement officials investigated the location. No one was hurt and there isn't any other threat against the community, police added.



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Trump says he should 'get all the credit' if Republicans win big in the 2022 elections  and 'should not be blamed at all' if they lose

Threats to federal judges increased significantly during Donald Trump's administration. Evan Vucci/AP

Former President Donald Trump said in a new interview on Tuesday he should "get all the credit" if the slew of GOP candidates he endorsed win big in the 2022 midterm elections  but also said he shouldn't be blamed if they don't come out on top.

"I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all," Trump told NewsNation during an interview on Tuesday when asked how much he thinks Republicans' victories or losses in the midterms will be because of him.

Trump has endorsed more than 330 GOP candidates running for both state and federal office in this election cycle, including Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance, and Arizona Senate hopeful Blake Masters.



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DeSantis' administration won't allow Justice Department monitors inside Florida polling places

Ron DeSantis. James Gilbert/Getty Images

The DeSantis administration said DOJ-appointed election monitors aren't allowed inside Florida polling places.

A letter from Florida Department of State General Counsel Brad McVay said the federal monitors aren't legally allowed inside.

McVay said Florida's own inspectors will monitor the three locations  all Democratic strongholds. The Justice Department will still send observers to the three polling sites, but they will remain outside.



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Trump amplifies baseless claims of voter fraud in Michigan that a judge already dismissed as a 'false flag'

Donald Trump arrives at a Make America Great Again rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on November 5, 2018. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that a "large" amount of absentee voter fraud was underway in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday.

Trump's baseless post appeared to echo claims that Kristina Karamo, the Republican candidate running for secretary of state in Michigan, made earlier Tuesday after her lawsuit challenging absentee voting in only Democrat-heavy Detroit was thrown out of court.

Judge Timothy Kenny issued a scathing opinion saying she had "raised a false flag of election law violations and corruption concerning Detroit's procedures for the November 8th election."



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In DeSantis' small Florida hometown, voters see a 'scumbag' or a 'hometown hero' as they head to the polls

Dunedin, Florida, has an arch in the center of town that reads, "Defending Freedom." Dunedin is the town where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent most of his youth. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is up for reelection Tuesday and could seek the White House in 2024.

Insider interviewed voters from his small hometown of Dunedin, Florida.

Republican voters said they were thrilled that the man who played baseball just up the street could have a shot at the White House someday. Democratic voters said it was hard for them to believe the governor spent most of his youth in this town, one they said they don't see as a red stalwart.





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Georgia county removes poll workers after social media posts emerge showing them at the Capitol riot

In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo rioters supporting President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington. AP Photo

Two Georgia poll workers in Fulton County were removed from their duties on Tuesday after Facebook posts were discovered showing them at the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Washington Post reported.

The poll workers  a mother and son  were removed shortly before voting started.

One of the Facebook posts shared with the Post echoed former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.

According to the report, the Facebook post said: "I stood up for what's right today in Washington DC. This election was a sham. Mike Pence is a traitor. I was tear gassed FOUR times. I have pepper spray in my throat. I stormed the Capitol building. And my children have had the best learning experience of their lives."



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One prominent political force had a little less cash to spend during the Election 2022 homestretch

Insider's Dave Levinthal reports that the American Hospital Association PAC told federal regulators on Monday that it lost more than $12,000 from "fraudulent activity" involving fake checks.

The PAC reported the matter to police but has only been able to recoup some of the money it's lost.



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Tuesday's midterm election is playing out against the backdrop of heightened threats to lawmakers serving in Congress

Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi walk the red carpet during the 27th Annual Kennedy Center Honors at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 7, 2014 in Washington, DC. Kris Connor/Getty Images

As Insider justice correspondent C. Ryan Barber wrote: "In the five years since former President Donald Trump's election, the number of reported threats against lawmakers increased tenfold  to more than 9,625 in 2021, according to the Capitol police."

"That rise has mirrored a similar increase in threats to other public figures and officials, including federal judges, who faced a surge in threats during the Trump administration," Barber added.



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Arizona's GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters says he's going to 'grind' Biden's 'agenda to a halt' if elected

GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation. Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons/Wikimedia Commons

"By taking back Congress, we're going to send Biden the message. We're going to bear hug his whole administration," Masters told Fox Business during an interview on Tuesday morning as voters across the country headed to the polls.

The Republican Senate hopeful added, "I'm going to grind his agenda to a halt unless and until we get border security. Period."

"I'm not going to vote for a single thing  not a single continuing resolution, not a single appointee  unless Joe Biden actually does something to secure our border," Masters said.



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Trump said he voted to re-elect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

When asked whether he voted for DeSantis after he cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump replied: "Yes, I did," according to a video shared on Twitter.

Former first lady Melania Trump was alongside him.

"No matter who you vote for, you have to vote," Trump told reporters gathered outside the polling site.



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Arizona's Maricopa County says it's having issues with voting tabulation machines

A sign marks the entrance to a voting precinct on the first day of early voting in the general election in Phoenix, Oct. 12, 2022. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

The Wall Street Journal reported that voting tabulation machines in about 20% of Maricopa County's 223 voting centers were malfunctioning on Tuesday.

Maricopa County said on Twitter that in one instance, a password was entered too many times, causing built-in security measures to lock a ballot scanner.

"If you're at a polling place experiencing an issue with a tabulator, you have three options & your vote will be counted in each. 1) stay where you are and wait for tabulator to come online 2) drop your ballot in the secure slot (door 3) on tabulator 3) go to a nearby vote center," Bill Gates, chairman of the county board of supervisors said on Twitter.

Thomas Galvin, Maricopa County Supervisor, said on Twitter that election operations were "going well."

"But I've been fielding some complaints & concerns from constituents about issues at polling booths. I'm here to listen, to get to the bottom of ALL issues," he said. "Please email me at District2@Maricopa.gov. My team & I will reach out to you ASAP."

A few members of Congress up for re-election are tied to billionaire Elon Musk

Elon Musk. Susan Walsh/AP

These are lawmakers who invest, or who've recently invested, in one of Musk's publicly traded companies  Tesla, and until recently, Twitter  either on their own or through a spouse.

In all, there's a dozen of them, reports Insider's Madison Hall.

One name is particularly notable: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who's husband, Paul, who earlier this year exercised 25 call options (2,500 shares) of Tesla stock at a strike price of $500, with the trade valued at between $1 million and $5 million.



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This week's Powerball lottery jackpot stood at a cool $1.9 billion  but that's a pittance compared to the 2022 midterm election's price tag

American flag over US money STILLFX/Getty Images

As Insider's Madison Hall reported, nonpartisan money-in-politics research organization OpenSecrets has estimated that all federal- and state-level contests will together be worth $16.7 billion.

"For perspective: the states of Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Maine, Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii each have annual state budgets that are around, or in some cases, much less than, $16.7 billion," Hall noted.



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Wealthy, self-funded candidates have a terrible track record of winning in politics

Sure, some do just fine: Billionaire Democrat JB Pritzker will almost certainly cruise to re-election as Illinois' governor, and Republican Mehmet Oz might  maybe, possibly?  become Pennsylvania's newest US senator.

But as Insider senior reporter Brent D. Griffiths explains here, the 2022 midterm election is littered with the shattered political dreams of Richie Rich candidates who flat flamed out despite pumping crazy money into their respective races.

Many never emerged from their partisan primaries, no matter their millions.

Others, such as Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, who's running for US Senate in Missouri behind more than $14 million of her own fortune, are all but assured defeat tonight in their general elections.

As Griffiths notes: "Despite its self-evident benefit of instant cash, self-funding a political campaign is risky. Candidates who raise gobs of money from donors, instead of their own bank account, receive the added benefit of engaging with and energizing an electorate  something that's critical to actually getting people to vote for you."

Something that won't appear in black-and-white on any ballot today, but make no mistake, it's there: age

Getty; Rebecca Zisser/Insider

Congress has never been older than it is today, Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" project revealed in September.

And the results of the 2022 midterms could very well keep what's been a 20-year trend toward gerontocracy very much in motion.

Age and experience have factored into a number of US House and Senate races, but two stand out.

First is Iowa's US Senate race, where Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is seeking another six-year term that'd keep him on Capitol Hill until he's 95 years old.

Then there Ohio's 9th District race, where Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur is facing the strongest challenge of her 40-year congressional career by Republican J.R. Majewski in what's become one of the more wild House races this election cycle.

Insider's Dave Levinthal and Kimberly Leonard spoke about some of the biggest votes to watch in the midterms on 'The Refresh'

Listen to Insider's "The Refresh" here.

Trump aides scrambled to stop him announcing his presidential candidacy on the eve of the midterms and upending the election: Report

Former president Donald Trump at a campaign event at Sioux Gateway Airport on November 3, 2022 in Sioux City, Iowa. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Aides to former President Donald Trump persuaded him not to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Monday, fearing it could upend the midterm elections, The Washington Post reported.

According to three sources who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, Trump had touted the idea of formally announcing his bid for the 2024 presidency at a rally for GOP Senate candidate JD Vance in Ohio on Monday night.

The suggestion prompted a scramble by top Republicans and Trump some aides to stop any announcement, two of the sources told the publication. Other aides, it reported, wanted Trump to go ahead.



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What to watch for on Election Day 2022

"I Voted" stickers are displayed at a polling place in Cheyenne, Wyo. on Aug. 16, 2022. Thomas Peipert/AP Photo

Today America will vote on the midterm elections, with the consequences of results poised to reverberate across the government for years to come.

Insider will have real-time live election results on thousands of races across the country, including every House, Senate, Governor, and State Legislative election happening in the United States.

The most significant story is unfolding in dozens of House races across the country, as the Democrats' tenuous control of the chamber is being challenged by the GOP. Midterms tend to be disastrous for the incumbent president's party, and this election has control of the House very much up for grabs. Insider is tracking close to 90 of the most consequential races.

The Senate is currently split 50-50, and each party wants to get control of the upper chamber. Senators serve for six years, which means the impacts of this election will reverberate through at least 2028. The contest for control of the Senate might not be decided on election night, as it'll likely come down to just a few individual races and counting could continue for several days.

There are also dozens of gubernatorial elections. These races are full of potential contenders for 2024, and, more consequentially, whoever wins the governor's race in a number of key swing states will have control over the levers of power around elections.

Lastly, with the Dobbs decision at the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a number of gubernatorial races will end up functionally deciding the legality and availability of abortion in any number of states.

This is why this cycle has a number of critically important state legislative races. As power to regulate the right to choose has been turned over to individual states, the battles over legislative chambers are of significant importance this cycle.

Lastly, many states will have ballot referendum for their citizens to consider. These run the gamut, with some potentially legalizing marijuana, others establishing or stripping citizens' right to abortion access, and others opening up multi-billion dollar gambling markets.

Insider will be closely monitoring the coverage on all of this today, tonight, and through the final calls of the races. The first polls close at 6 p.m. EST, come along and follow all the critical races of this election here.

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Getty Images; Insider

Alabama's Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question updated the state's constitution.

The new constitution removed racist language and reorganize the text.

Proponents said the measure will make Alabama a more welcome place.

Alabama voters said "yes" on Alabama's Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question, which ratified an updated state constitution and removed racist and defunct Jim Crow-era language, among other changes. The current state constitution dates to 1901 and now spans more than 400,000 words after hundreds of amendments over the decades.

Polls closed in Alabama at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

Ballot measure details

Alabama's Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question edited the state's constitution to make it easier to read, deleted repetitive sections, and got rid of outdated laws and racist language.

For example, it removed language that states that marriage between a white and Black person is illegal. It also removed language that states "colored children" are not allowed in white schools.

Support and opposition

There was bipartisan support of Alabama's Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question as well support from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Photo: The Canadian Press

Twitter's new owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to regulatory filings.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion, sold 19.5 million shares of the electric car company from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8, according to Tuesday's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He sold $7 billion of his Tesla stock in August as he worked to finance the Twitter purchase he was trying to get out of at the time. In all, Musk has sold more than $19 billion worth of Tesla stock since April, including those in Tuesday's filings, likely to fund his share of the Twitter purchase.

The takeover of Twitter has not been smooth and the social media platform has seen the exodus of some big advertisers in recent weeks in including United Airlines, General Motors, REI, General Mills and Audi.

Musk acknowledged a massive drop in revenue at Twitter, which heavily relies on advertising to make money.

Musk had signaled that he was done selling Tesla shares and the revelation that those sales continue left some industry analysts exasperated.

Our fear heading into the final days of the deal was that Musk was going to be forced to sell more Tesla stock to fund the disaster Twitter deal and ultimately those fears came true which speaks to some of the massive selling pressures on the stock of late, wrote Daniel Ives at Wedbush. For Musk who multiple times over the past year has said he is done selling Tesla stock yet again loses more credibility with investors and his loyalists in a boy who cried wolf moment.

Most of Musk's wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla Inc. On Tuesday, his personal net worth dropped below $200 billion, according to Forbes, but he is still the world's richest person.

Musk had lined up banks including Morgan Stanley to help finance the Twitter deal. His original share of the deal was about $15.5 billion, Ives estimated . But if equity investors dropped out, Musk would be on the hook to replace them or throw in more of his own money.

The Twitter circus show has been an absolute debacle from all angles since Musk bought the platform for all the world to see: from the 50% layoffs and then bringing back some workers, to the head scratching verification roll-out to users which many are pushing back on, to the constant tweeting in this political firestorm backdrop, and now.....selling more TSLA stock, Ives wrote. When does it end?

Shares of Tesla Inc., which were flat before the opening bell Wednesday, have fallen 8% this week and are down 46% this year, far outpacing broader market declines in what has been a dreadful year for investors.
Getty Images; Insider

Alaska's Constitutional Convention Question asked voters about hosting a constitutional convention.

Supporters argued the convention could be an opportunity to add new rights to the constitution.

Opponents argued the convention would be too expensive and potential lead to drastic changes.

A "yes" on the Alaska Constitutional Convention Question would establish a state constitutional convention.

Ballot measure details

The question is an automatic ballot referral, which means it reappears on the ballot every 10 years. The purpose of the convention would be to revise or amend the state's constitution.

Support and opposition

Convention Yes is leading the campaign in support of the question. Supporters argue the convention could be an opportunity to solidify rights outside of the Alaska Supreme Court.

"Our public policy ministry, along with many other groups, will be advocating for Alaskans to vote YES in the November 2022 General Election to hold a Constitutional Convention for three primary reasons: 1.) To remove the Alaska Supreme Court from manufacturing a "right to abortion" in our State Constitution. 2.) To provide for more educational choice for Alaskans. 3.) To implement much-needed judicial reform and create more accountability to a court that has continually abused its authority," Jim Minnery, president of the Alaska Family Council said in a statement.

Defend Our Constitution is leading the opposing campaign. Opponents argue the convention would be expensive and changes would go unchecked.

"We're concerned that a convention, which is not restricted in any way about what kinds of changes could be proposed, could fundamentally alter both our state government structure but tamper with the rights that are guaranteed to all Alaskans in the Constitution," former Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho told KINY.

The money race

According to Ballotpedia, the measure has attracted more than $21,000 in support contributions and about $30,000 in opposition contributions.

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Ammar Campa-Najjar's campaign; John McCann's campaign; Insider

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

Ammar Campa-Najjar is running against John McCann in Chula Vista, California's mayoral race.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

After serving for two consecutive four-year terms, incumbent Mayor Mary Salas is ineligible to run for a third term.

Campa-Najjar is the founder of ACN Strategies, a public affairs and communications firm. He previously served as a White House fellow, then as a public affairs executive director with the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He also worked as a public affairs officer in the US Labor Department for one year.

The San Diego State University graduate ran two unsuccessful congressional campaigns, one against Rep. Darrell Issa in California's 50th Congressional District.

Chula Vista, the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area and the seventh-largest in Southern California, is just south of downtown San Diego and north of Tijuana, Mexico. The city will house San Diego State's expansion of its film school and is on the cusp of completing a billion-dollar bayfront development.

However, Chula Vista also faces a structural budget deficit and a growing homeless population.

Campa-Najjar is campaigning on addressing the city's homelessness and housing imbalance. He is endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party, Chula Vista Firefighters, and several high-profile elected officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Alex Padilla.

McCann is currently serving his fourth term as deputy mayor on the Chula Vista City Council. The Iraq War veteran also serves as a commander in the Navy Reserves and owns two property management businesses.

McCann is similarly running with a goal to tackle homelessness and crime. He is endorsed by the Chula Vista Police Officers Association, the Republican Party of San Diego County, and the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

In the nonpartisan primary, McCann pulled past Campa-Najjar, securing 30.9% of the vote to 22.5%.

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US Senate; Getty; Marianne Ayala/Insider

Democratic US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeats Republican Adam Laxalt in Nevada.

With Cortez Masto's win, Democrats maintain control of the US Senate.

The contentious race in the swing state was among the most-watched in the nation.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt to win Nevada's US senate election.

The victory gave Democrats 50 US Senate seats in the next congressional session  enough to again secure a majority even with Georgia's US Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker still undecided.

2022 General Embeds

Nevada's US Senate candidates

Cortez Masto is no stranger to close contests. She led Senate Democrats' campaign arm as the party eeked out a tie-breaking majority following Warnock and Jon Ossoff's narrow wins in the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs. A protege of the late-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Cortez Masto made history as the first Latina elected to the US Senate when she succeeded Reid in 2017.

Laxalt hails from Nevada political royalty. His grandfather, Paul Laxalt, was both a governor and a US senator. It was also revealed in 2013 that he is the son of Pete Domenici, a US senator from New Mexico. Cortez Masto's campaign has painted Laxalt as out of touch because of his background, most notably in an ad that echoed HBO's "Succession."

Laxalt has held statewide office before as state attorney general, but that wasn't enough to prevent Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak from defeating Laxalt in 2018 to become the state's first Democratic governor in over two decades. Laxalt, as a top Trump campaign official, led unsuccessful post-election challenges in the state and has tried to spark doubts about the current race.

A victory here for the GOP could have very well decided the majority, ending the longest-ever evenly split Senate. But Cortez Masto managed to hold on, blocking the GOP's path to 51 seats.

Voting history in Nevada

Democrats have controlled at least one of the state's two Senate seats since Reid's election in 1986. Sen. Jacky Rosen's ouster of Republican incumbent Dean Heller in 2018 gave the party total control for the first time since 2000.

Story continues

Nevada has been viewed as a swing state in presidential elections, but experts have worried that the state's changing demographics would put it further out of reach for the GOP. Former President Donald Trump's inroads with Latino voters more broadly has squelched some of those concerns.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Cortez Masto has raised more than $52.8 million, spent $46.6 million, and has roughly $6.3 million on hand, as of October 19. Laxalt has raised $15.5 million, spent $12.3 million, and has roughly $3.2 million on hand, as of October 19.

Spending by super PACs, party committees, and other organizations advocating for or against these candidates has been massive, per OpenSecrets  about $128.3 million combined, through November 8. In all, 15 different outside groups spent at least $1 million on this race  a few into the eight-figure range.

What experts say

The race between Cortez Masto and Laxalt was unanimously rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, The Cook Political Report, and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Charles Krupa/AP Photo; Cheryl Senter/AP Photo

Rep. Chris Pappas defeated Republican Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.

The 1st District is located in the eastern region of the state.

Had she won, Leavitt would have been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas defeated Republican Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District candidates

Pappas, who will serve a second term in the US House, sits on the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Veterans' Affairs. The first openly gay man to represent New Hampshire in Congress, Pappas co-chairs the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.

Prior to his time in Congress, Pappas served on the New Hampshire Executive Council, representing District 4 from 2013 to 2019. He also served as treasurer of Hillsborough County from 2006 to 2010 and in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 2002 to 2006.

In Congress, Pappas has focused on healthcare and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

Pappas entered Congress after he defeated Trump-backed Republican candidate Eddie Edward to replace outgoing Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.

Leavitt, Pappas' challenger, is a 25-year-old former White House staffer for President Donald Trump. Her campaign website states that she worked as a presidential writer. She also served as his assistant press secretary.

Leavitt became the second Gen Z candidate to win a congressional primary this year when she defeated her GOP opponents in the 10-way primary, including Matt Mowers, a former Trump staffer who in 2020 lost to Pappas by about 5 percentage points.

Had she beaten Pappas in November, Leavitt would have been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

Voting history for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District

New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District is located in the eastern region of the state and includes Manchester, the state's largest city, as well as Portsmouth and Laconia.

Story continues

President Joe Biden had a 6 percentage point margin of victory over Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it underwent a redrawing process that kept district lines nearly the same in redistricting following the 2020 Census. The partisan lean  Democratic  remained unchanged.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Pappas had raised $4.6 million, spent $3.7 million, and had $1.2 million on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Leavitt, had raised $3.1 million, spent $2.7 million, and had $391,980 cash on hand, as of October 19.

Through early November, the race has attracted nearly $21.5 million worth of spending by non-candidate groups such as super PACs and national party committees, including during the race's primary election.

What experts say

The race between Pappas and Leavitt was rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Cindy Chavez's campaign; Matt Mahan's campaign; Insider

Cindy Chavez is running against Matt Mahan in San Jose, California's mayoral race.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

After serving two consecutive four-year terms, Democratic Mayor Sam Liccardo is term-limited and is ineligible to run for a third time. While San Jose's mayoral election is nonpartisan, the city has a history of electing Democrats and Democratic-leaning politicians to fill the mayoral position.

Chavez is a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, an office she's held since 2013, and is campaigning on addressing the city's homelessness and affordable housing crises.

Mahan, a member of the San Jose City Council, is similarly running with a goal to lower housing prices in the city, housing the homeless, and "common sense solutions" for citywide safety. Liccardo endorsed Mahan for mayor in August, tweeting that "Matt is the common-sense Democrat we need to ensure that our government works as hard as our San Jose families."

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Sean Rayford/Getty Images; Allison Joyce/Getty Images; Insider

Republican Rep. Ted Budd won against Democrat Cheri Beasley for the US Senate seat in North Carolina.

Budd, who was endorsed by Trump, defeated 13 other candidates in the Republican primary.

Republican Ted Budd won the North Carolina Senate seat after a race against Democrat Cheri Beasley. Polls closed in the state at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Sen. Richard Burr, who has represented North Carolina in the US Senate since 2005, said in 2016 that his current term would be his last, leaving the seat vacant.

2022 General Embeds

North Carolina's Senate race candidates

Beasley is a former justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Prior to running for Senate, she worked as a public defender and judge, becoming the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Beasley won the Democratic nomination among a crowded slate of candidates, ultimately defeating 10 challengers and bringing in over 80% of the vote.

Budd, Beasley's challenger, is a Republican member of the US House, representing North Carolina's 13th Congressional District. Armed with former President Donald Trump's endorsement, Budd handily defeated Pat McCrory, Mark Walker, and 11 other GOP Senate primary candidates, bringing in more than half of the vote.

North Carolina's voting history

The state voted for former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden by a very narrow margin of 1.35 percentage points in the 2020 election. North Carolina has voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election cycle since 1980, except in 2008, when former then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain by less than a 1-point margin.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Beasley raised $29 million, spent $25.8 million, and had $3.3 million on hand, as of September 30, 2022. Her opponent, Budd, raised $11 million, spent $9.2 million, and had $2.9 million cash on hand, as of September 30.

As of late October, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $84 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.

Story continues

Budd has benefitted more from this spending  the pro-Budd Senate Leadership Fund super PAC has dwarfed all other groups by spending about $30 million and counting  and some Beasley supporters say national Democrats aren't doing enough to support their candidate in a race that they believe is winnable.

What experts say

The race between Beasley and Budd was rated as "tilt Republican" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Christopher Deluzio's campaign; Rebecca Droke/AP Photo; Insider

Democrat Christopher Deluzio defeated Republican Jeremy Shaffer in Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District.

The 17th District is located in the Pittsburgh suburbs.

Both candidates were heavily backed by their national parties' campaign arms.

Democrat Christopher Deluzio defeated Republican Jeremy Shaffer in Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Rep. Conor Lamb, who represented the district prior to the 2022 midterm elections, gave up his seat to pursue the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat vacated by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. But Lamb lost the Democratic primary to Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who went on to win the Senate seat.

Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District candidates

Deluzio, Lamb's Democratic replacement, is an Iraq War veteran and voting rights attorney. After returning from his deployments, including a tour in Iraq, Deluzio received his law degree from Georgetown Law and clerked for a federal judge. He then went on to work at the Brennan Center for Justice on the voting rights and election security teams and later served as the policy director at Pitt Cyber.

Deluzio handily defeated his opponent Sean Meloy in the Democratic primary, bringing in nearly two-thirds of the vote. He was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" program, designed to bolster campaigns in attempts to flip the district from Republican to Democratic control.

Shaffer, Deluzio's challenger, is a former Ross Township commissioner and board president. He was endorsed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and named to the "On the Radar" list as part of the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program.

Voting history for Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District

Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District encompasses the Pittsburgh suburbs of Mt. Lebanon, Penn Hills, and all of Republican-leaning Beaver County.

Story continues

President Joe Biden had a near 3 percentage point margin of victory under the district's previous boundaries in 2020  before it was redrawn to take in a chunk of suburban Allegheny County in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it slightly more Democratic.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Deluzio had raised $2.8 million, spent $2.7 million, and has $103,802 of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Shaffer, had raised $2.5 million, spent $1.8 million, and has $663,164 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Through early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend about $18 million to advocate for or against the candidates.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, National Republican Campaign Committee, GOP-backing super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund, and Democrat-backing hybrid PAC House Majority PAC are the top spenders in the race.

What experts say

The race between Deluzio and Shaffer was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sarah Burnett/AP Photo; Will Weissert/AP Photo; Insider

Democrat Hillary Scholten faced off against Republican John Gibbs in Michigan's 3rd District.

Gibbs ousted incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer in a primary that hinged on Meijer's vote to impeach Trump.

Gibbs' win and redistricting had Democrats optimistic they could flip the seat  they succeeded

Democrat Hillary Scholten defeated Republican John Gibbs in a race overshadowed by former President Donald Trump and the remnants of a contentious GOP primary in Michigan's 3rd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls closed at 8 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Michigan's 3rd Congressional District candidates

Scholten thought she was gunning for a rematch with incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican whose last name is literally a brand in Michigan. But Meijer's decision to cast one of his first-ever votes to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 Capitol riot has hung over the district ever since.

Trump pushed John Gibbs, a Trump administration Housing and Urban Development official, to a primary win over Meijer  one of the latest stops in a revenge tour of the nine other House Republicans who backed Trump's impeachment. Now, this seat anchored in Grand Rapids that Trump barely carried in 2020 has Republicans nervous.

Scholten, a former Department of Justice attorney, has portrayed herself as a consensus-seeking Democrat who would rein in her party's spending plans. Gibbs' standing has been further imperiled by CNN unearthing blog posts from his time as a Stanford student where he argued that women having a right to vote led to suffering.

The seat also became much more Democratic-leaning following redistricting. A state commission grappled with the loss of a seat by forcing the 3rd District to absorb much of an old seat, per FiveThirtyEight.

Voting history for Michigan's 3rd Congressional District

Trump saw his margin of victory crash under the old lines, carrying the seat by about 3 percentage points after winning handily by almost double-digits in 2016.

Story continues

Meijer replaced long-time Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian Republican, who often cruised to reelection. In his 2020 race against Scholten, Meijer won by 6 points. However, the new district lines make the seat Democratic-leaning.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Scholten has raised $2.9 million, spent $2 million, and has $959,333 on hand, as of September 30. Her opponent, Gibbs, has raised $1 million, spent $929,899, and has $119,627 remaining, as of September 30.

As of mid-October, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend about $9 million to advocate for or against this race's candidates, including during the primaries.

What experts say

The race between Scholten and Gibbs is rated as "lean Democratic" by Inside Elections, The Cook Political Report, and by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Kermit Jones' campaign; Kevin Kiley's campaign; Insider

Democrat Kermit Jones is running against Republican state Rep. Kevin Kiley in California's 3rd Congressional District.

The 3rd District stretches hundreds of miles from Death Valley up through Plumas County.

The seat was redrawn during redistricting and is a major target of the GOP.

Republican Kevin Kiley faces off against Democrat Kermit Jones in California's 3rd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

The district does not have an incumbent after it was redrawn during California's redistricting process.

California's 3rd Congressional District candidates

Kiley currently serves in the California State Assembly. He was elected to the seat in 2016 and ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2019. He voted against placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot to explicitly protect abortion rights in California.

Last year, the Rocklin Republican placed sixth  with 3.5% of the vote  in the crowded field of candidates in the unsuccessful election to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Prior to being elected to the State Assembly, Kiley also served as California's deputy attorney general.

Jones is a physician and Navy veteran who served as a flight surgeon for a Marine helicopter squadron in Iraq. After his deployment, he served as a White House fellow in the Obama administration, working with the Secretary of Health & Human Services to improve the quality of care for veterans.

Jones supports federal protection for abortion access: He told the Los Angeles Times that "banning abortion goes against our most sacred, American principles of self-determination."

Voting history for California's 3rd Congressional District

California's 3rd Congressional District stretches hundreds of miles from Death Valley up through Plumas County and includes some Sacramento suburbs.

President Donald Trump had a 5.4 percentage point margin of victory over Joe Biden under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 Census made it slightly less Republican.

Story continues

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, the two candidates have raised and spent almost identical amounts of money.

Jones has raised $2.94 million, spent $2.7 million, and has $151,000 cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Kiley, has raised $2.95 million, spent $2.79 million, and has $243,000 still left to spend, as of October 19.

As of November 4, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups had collectively spent only about $504,000 to advocate for or against this race's candidates, including in the primary election phase. This is a relatively small amount compared to other US House races where such groups have together spent well into the millions of dollars.

What experts say

The race between Jones and Kiley is rated as "likely Republican" by Inside Elections, "likely Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Steven Senne/AP Photo; David Goldman/AP Photo; Insider

Democrat Seth Magaziner is running against Republican Allan Fung in Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District.

Rhode Island's 2nd District is located in the western region of the state.

Fung holds a narrow lead over Magaziner, according to recent polling.

Democrat Seth Magaziner faces off against Republican Allan Fung in Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District candidates

Magaziner, who has been serving as the state's general treasurer since 2015, originally announced his candidacy for governor of Rhode Island before withdrawing from the gubernatorial election to run for Congress.

Six candidates ran in the Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jim Langevin, who is retiring after 11 terms. Magaziner, who was endorsed by Langevin and the state party, handily defeated his opponents in the primary election, bringing in over half of the vote.

Prior to running for Congress, Magaziner chaired Rhode Island's school building task force, leading a statewide school construction initiative that created jobs and repaired over 200 schools. His campaign website notes he helped pass the Reproductive Privacy Act in 2019 that codified the abortion protections of Roe v. Wade into state law.

Fung, Magaziner's challenger, is the former mayor of Cranston and a self-identified "moderate Republican."

Before running for Congress, Fung served as a criminal prosecutor in the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit of the state attorney general's office before moving to the private sector where he became the governmental affairs counsel for a life insurance company. In 2008, he was elected as mayor of Cranston, becoming Rhode Island's first Asian-American mayor.

Fung ran unopposed in the Republican primary. According to a recent WPRI-TV and Roger Williams University poll, Fung leads Magaziner, 46% to 40%.

Voting history for Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District

Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District is located in the western region of the state and includes Providence, the capital and most populous city in the state, and New Shoreham, located in Block Island, south of mainland Rhode Island.

Story continues

President Joe Biden had a 13.5 percentage point margin of victory over former President Donald Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020  before it underwent a redrawing process that kept district lines nearly the same in redistricting following the 2020 Census. The partisan lean  Democratic  remained unchanged.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Magaziner has raised $3.4 million, spent $2.9 million, and has $523,608 on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Fung, has raised $1.9 million, spent $1.6 million, and has $394,094 cash on hand, as of October 19.

As of early November, super PACs, national party committee, and other non-candidate groups have together spent about $8.7 million advocating for or against the candidates. Pro-Fung Republican super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund accounts for about half of that spending.

What experts say

The race between Magaziner and Fung is rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Re. P Paddens letter Appalled by response (Castanet, Nov. 8)

(P Padden) what do you know about history, especially that surrounding the initiation of the First World War?

First of all, it (was not) a "world war, it was at, most, a European conflict started by Europeans, with most of the atrocities happening in Europe. (Canada was part of the Commonwealth).

Looking about the cause, Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria's assassination in Sarajevo, caused silly alliances between then ruling monarchies to declare war on each other.

The nobility and ruling class were not the ones being sent to the trenchs, it was, as usual, the haves-not who were slaughtered.

There is nothing worth remembering about the First World War but the wealthy sending poor people to be killed to protect their own wealth and territories.

I would recommend (you) watch from the 1971 movie Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo (in which it was said):

"Then there was this freedom the little guys were always getting killed for. Was it freedom from another country? Freedom from work or disease or death? Freedom from your mother-in-law? Please mister give us a bill of sale on this freedom before we go out and get killed. Give us a bill of sale drawn up plainly in advance what we're getting killed for... so we can be sure after we've won your war that we've got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.

Mathieu Nouquet, West Kelowna
Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images; Jessica Hill/AP Photo; Insider

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont defeated Republican Bob Stefanowski in Connecticut's gubernatorial race.

It was one of 36 gubernatorial elections taking place in 2022.

Lamont narrowly defeated Stefanowski in 2018 and retained his seat in this rematch.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont defeated Republican Bob Stefanowsk in a rematch in Connecticut's gubernatorial election.

Lamont defeated Stefanowski in the 2018 election to succeed outgoing Gov. Dan Malloy.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Connecticut's gubernatorial candidates

Lamont is the governor of Connecticut, with voters electing him in 2018. Prior to being elected governor, he chaired the state investment advisory council where he oversaw a multibillion-dollar state pension fund. Lamont also made an unsuccessful run for US Senate in 2006. In 2008, he served as a state co-chair for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

The 68-year-old governor's handling of the pandemic lifted his approval ratings from the bottom to the top.

In March 2020, Lamont closed restaurants, bars, and other public venues, but kept schools and businesses open throughout most of the pandemic. When vaccines became available, he offered them by age cohorts, making the vaccines simple to administer, placing Connecticut among the leaders in vaccination rates.

Connecticut has had a Democratic trifecta  Democrats control the state's governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature  since 2011. The state is one of 14 Democratic trifectas in the country.

Lamont defeated Stefanowski in the 2018 election by a slim margin  just over 3 percentage points, or about 44,000 votes.

Stefanowski, Lamont's challenger, is a certified public accountant and certified financial analyst. Prior to entering politics, he served as an executive at multiple global companies, including DFC Global, UBS, 3i Group, and General Electric. Since then, Stefanowski has worked as an independent consultant.

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During the pandemic, he and his wife, Amy, co-founded and launched "Masks for Heroes" in an effort to help the state fight COVID-19 when personal protective equipment was scarce. They went on to found "Masks for CT" and "Masks 4 Schools," hosting giveaway events with cloth masks for children, teachers, and bus drivers. These initiatives earned the Stefanowskis an NAACP Award from the Waterbury NAACP Youth Council.

Stefanowski was endorsed by President Donald Trump in 2018, but as of late, has appeared to distance himself from the embattled former president. He said he supports Connecticut's current gun safety laws, including the universal background checks and limits on high-capacity military-style weapons that were imposed after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He has also described himself as a supporter of abortion rights, saying he supports the state's current laws affirming a right to abortion up to fetal viability.

Connecticut's voting history

Joe Biden defeated Trump by a 20 percentage point margin in 2020. The state has voted for the Democratic candidate for the last eight presidential elections.

The money race

Both personally wealthy, the two candidates largely self-fund their election campaigns. Lamont, who does not take the state's annual $150,000 salary for the job of governor, earned more than $54 million last year. Most of it came from investment earnings, per newly released tax records.

Lamont had spent roughly $14.8 million, according to reports filed for the three-month period ending on September 30. His opponent, Stefanowski, had spent $9.2 million, as of September 30.

What experts say

The race between Lamont and Stefanowski was rated as "solid Democratic" by Inside Elections, "likely Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Tim Michels are facing off in Wisconsin's governor race. Scott Olson/Getty Images; Insider

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers defeats Republican Tim Michels in Wisconsin's governor race.

Michels won a contested GOP primary after receiving Trump's backing.

Evers has tried to pin Michels down on abortion after the state's ban went into effect.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers defeated Trump-backed Republican Tim Michels in Wisconsin's governor race.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.

Wisconsin's gubernatorial candidates

Evers notched a shocking upset in 2018 when he ousted Republican Gov. Scott Walker  an early 2016 presidential election favorite  from the Wisconsin gubernatorial mansion just three years after Walker bested a recall campaign.

Evers' fight never really ended. Almost immediately, Wisconsin Republicans moved to limit his and other Democrats' power, though a judge turned that effort away. The two sides' frequent tussles have led Evers to veto more bills than any other governor in the state's history.

Michels, who co-owns the state's largest construction company, bested former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in a closely contested GOP primary that hinged on former President Donald Trump's support of Michels. Michels later refused to rule out an unprecedented  and unconstitutional  effort in the state to decertify Biden's 2020 win there.

Like in other races across the country, abortion remains a key issue in this race. Michels initially expressed support for Wisconsin's abortion ban, first enacted in 1849, that bans abortions in almost every instance. Michels now says he would support passing exceptions to allow abortion in cases of rape and incest. The current law allows an exception for the life of the mother, but some doctors have complained the exact wording is antiquated and are afraid of risking a felony charge.

While Evers has attacked Michels on abortion, the Republican has assailed the incumbent for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the shooting of Jacob Blake.

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Wisconsin's voting history

Evers ended eight years of Republican control of the governor's mansion. He won by roughly a single percentage point, or just under 30,000 votes.

At the top level, Wisconsin like neighboring Michigan was once part of the so-called "blue wall." Trump broke this streak in 2016, becoming the first Republican to carry the state since Ronald Reagan during his 1984 reelection.

Biden's 2020 win came at a narrower margin than Evers' 2018 victory. The president carried Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes.

The money race

Michels has been able to use his considerable wealth to fund his campaign. He has raised roughly $16 million, spent about $15 million, and has just over $1 million remaining, as of his campaign's September 27 report to state officials. Michels has also loaned his campaign $3.7 million just in the month of August. Before the primary, the construction owner was clocked at spending nearly $1 million dollars of his own money a week, according to the Associated Press.

While Evers had a head start in fundraising. This year, the governor has raised roughly $15.8 million, spent about $20 million, and has just over $6 million on hand, as of his campaign's September 27 report.

What experts say

The race between Evers and Michels is rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, The Cook Political Report, and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Joshua Bessex/AP Photo; Mary Altaffer/AP Photo; Insider

Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in New York's gubernatorial race.

Appointed governor following the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hochul is the first woman to be governor of New York.

If elected, Zeldin would have dismantled New York's Democratic trifecta, where Democrats hold the governorship and majorities in both legislative chambers.

Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in New York's gubernatorial election.

Polls closed in the state at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

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New York's gubernatorial candidates

Hochul, former lieutenant governor of New York, became governor following the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo on August 24, 2021. Cuomo, a three-term governor, resigned after an investigation that found he sexually harassed at least 11 women.

Hochul, who became the first woman to hold the position, and the first Buffalonian in more than a century to lead New York, ran on a joint ticket with Cuomo in 2014 and 2018. Prior to her election as lieutenant governor, Hochul served a single term in the US House representing New York's 26th Congressional District, in the state's western region.

Zeldin, Hochul's challenger, serves in the US House representing New York's 1st Congressional District. The four-term congressman serves on the House Committees on Financial Services and Foreign Affairs.

Prior to being elected to the US House, Zeldin served four years in the New York State Senate. In addition to his congressional duties, Zeldin, an Army veteran, serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves.

While this race was thought to be an easy victory for Hochul, earning her a full four-year term, polls have indicated the race has tightened in the race's final weeks.

President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton even campaigned for Hochul in the days before Election Day  a sign that national Democrats are concerned about Hochul's prospects in generally liberal-leaning New York.

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New York's voting history

New York backed Joe Biden over Trump, giving the now-president a 23 percentage point margin of victory in 2020. The state has voted Democratic in the last nine presidential elections.

What experts say

The race between Hochul and Zeldin is rated as "likely Democratic" by Inside Elections, "likely Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Al Drago/AP Photo; Bob McDermott's campaign; Insider

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz ran against Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott to represent Hawaii in the US Senate.

Schatz raised over $4 million, while McDermott did not report raising any money for his campaign.

McDermott told a local news outlet that running against Schatz "looks like a suicide mission."

Democratic incumbent Sen. Brian Schatz defeated Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott in Hawaii to represent the state in the US Senate.

Hawaii's Senate race candidates

Schatz, first elected in 2012, won another six-year term in the US Senate. He chairs the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and also serves on the Senate Democratic Caucus' leadership team as chief deputy whip.

Climate change is Schatz's top priority in Washington, and he's helped secure federal funding to address a wide array of issues in the Aloha State, including realigning the Honoapiilani Highway in West Maui, which is threatened by sea level rise. Schatz, 49, also chairs the Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis.

Prior to his time on Capitol Hill, Schatz was the the lieutenant governor of Hawaii and served for nearly a decade in the Hawaii House of Representatives.

McDermott is a Marine veteran who currently represents the 40th District in the Hawaii House of Representatives. He said his challenging an established, senior senator who has virtually no competition "looks like a suicide mission," but if he "succeeds at nothing else," he hopes to raise the profile of Red Hill  a World War II era facility that sprung a fuel leak and poisoned the water system for nearly 100,000 residents near Pearl Harbor.

"I know it looks like a suicide mission, I'm not crazy," McDermott told the Honolulu Civil Beat. "If I succeed at nothing else I hope that Red Hill continues to be an issue moving forward because my kids and grandkids drink this water too."

Hawaii's voting history

The state voted for Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump by a margin of about 30 percentage points in the 2020 election. Hawaiians have voted Democratic in every election except in 1972 and 1984, when the state gave wins to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, respectively.

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The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Schatz raised $4.6 million, spent $4.7 million, and had $2.1 million cash on hand, as of October 19. His challenger, McDermott, did not reported raising any money for his campaign.

What experts say

The race between Schatz and McDermott was rated as "solid Democratic" by Inside Elections, "solid Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Zach Nunn's campaign; Insider

Rep. Cindy Axne ran against Republican Zach Nunn in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District.

The 3rd District is located in the southwestern region of Iowa.

Axne raised more than triple the amount as Nunn. Experts said the race was either a "toss-up" or "leans Republican."

Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne lost her bid for reelection against Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Iowa's 3rd Congressional District candidates

Axne is a member of the Committees on Financial Services and Agriculture. Prior to her time in Congress, she worked for the Tribune Company, the State of Iowa, and as a small business owner with her husband.

Axne was elected to the House in 2018, becoming one of the first two women from Iowa elected to the House in the nation's history after she defeated incumbent Rep. David Young. In 2020, she faced off against Young again, narrowly defeating him by just over 1% of the vote.

During the current congressional session, Axne was one of dozens of members of Congress identified as having violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 for improperly disclosing personal stock trades.

Nunn, Axne's challenger, is an Iowa state senator, Air Force veteran, and consultant. Nunn handily defeated his GOP primary opponents, bringing in nearly two-thirds of the vote.

Voting history for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District

Iowa's 3rd Congressional District is located in the southwestern region of the state.

The district voted for former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in the 2020 election prior to redistricting in the state, making it one of seven districts to vote for Trump in 2020 but elect a Democratic representative.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Axne has raised $6.6 million, spent $5.9 million, and has about $712,000 million on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Nunn, has raised about $2.3 million, spent $1.9 million, and has about $351,000 cash on hand.

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As of late October, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $6.7 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. The National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional Leadership Fund, a pro-Nunn super PAC, account for the majority of that spending.

What experts say

The race between Axne and Nunn is rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green, left, faces off against Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan, right. Paul Beaty/AP Photo; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images;Insider

Rep. Frank Mrvan defeated Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green in Indiana's 1st Congressional District.

Once reliably blue, the 1st District could have joined the majority of congressional districts in the state controlled by Republicans.

If Green were elected, she would have put a stop to Democrats' 92-year winning streak in Indiana's 1st Congressional District.

Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan defeated Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green in Indiana's 1st Congressional District.

The first polls closed at 6 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 7 p.m. EST.

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Indiana's 1st Congressional District candidates

Mrvan, first elected to the US House in 2020, is no stranger to politics. He served as township trustee in North Township from 2005 to 2021. Prior to his role as trustee, Mrvan worked as a licensed mortgage broker and pharmaceutical sales representative.

Mrvan is a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor and chairs the Subcommittee on Technology Modernization. The Democrat from Hammond, who supported President Joe Bidens' infrastructure bill, also co-chairs the Congressional Steel Caucus.

Green, Mrvan's challenger, is a certified flight instructor and a commercial pilot  she's one of a relatively small number of female Black professional pilots in the nation. A graduate of the US Air Force Academy, she currently serves in the Indiana Air National Guard. During her 12-year-long career in the military, Green was deployed to Baghdad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Green founded MissionAero Pipeline, a college and career preparation non-profit with a focus on aerospace, science, technology, engineering and math.

She listed a free-market economy and limited government regulations as issues important to her on her campaign website. Green defeated her GOP opponents in a four-way primary, narrowly overcoming second-place finisher Jesse Reising by fewer than than 1,000 votes.

Abortion access is an issue where Mrvan and Green held starkly opposing views.

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"I have seen their rights taken away. I want to make sure that no one, not a policy or politician, gets in the way of healthcare choices and my daughter's choices as they are going forward," Mrvan said in an interview with local media.

Green, conversely, has said that "empirical evidence shows that life begins at conception and that a child in the womb is a distinct, developing, whole human being."

Voting history for Indiana's 1st Congressional District

Indiana's 1st Congressional District covers Gary, Hammond, and other steel-belt cities immediately east of Chicago's metropolitan area.

Joe Biden had a 9 percentage point margin of victory over President Donald Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to add more of LaPorte County's western area in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it slightly less Democratic-leaning.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Mrvan had raised more than $2.2 million, spent $1.9 million, and has $466,000 on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Green, had raised $2.9 million, spent $2.2 million, and has $702,000 cash on hand, as of October 19.

As of November 1, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent more than $12 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. Congressional Leadership Fund, a pro-Green hybrid PAC led by national Republicans, alone accounts for about half of that spending.

What experts say

The race between Mrvan and Green was rated as "lean Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mary Altaffer/AP Photo; Andrew Harnik/AP Photo; Insider

Rep. Matt Cartwright is running against Republican Jim Bognet in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District.

The 8th District encompasses parts of Luzerne County, a predominantly white, working-class area in eastern Pennsylvania.

In 2020, Cartwright became one of seven Democratic incumbents to win despite Trump prevailing over Biden in his district.

Five-term Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright faces off against Republican Jim Bognet in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

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Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District candidates

Cartwright is a member of the House Committee on Appropriations. In 2012, Cartwright defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Tim Holden  Pennsylvania's longest-serving congressman  in the Democrat primary election. Prior to his time in Congress, the now-61-year-old congressman worked as an attorney for 25 years.

In 2020, Cartwright won a 5th term, defeating Bognet by a narrow margin of 3.6 percentage points. His victory came even when former President Trump carried the district against President Joe Biden. As a result, Cartwright became one of seven Democratic incumbents to win despite Trump prevailing over Biden in their districts.

Bognet, Cartwright's two-time challenger, is a former Trump administration appointee in the Export-Import Bank. He secured the endorsement of Trump in May.

"Jim served in my Administration and helped bring manufacturing jobs back to Northeast Pennsylvania. In Congress, he will fight to Grow our Economy, Build the Wall, Defend the Second Amendment, and Support our Brave Military, Vets and Law Enforcement," Trump said in his endorsement.

Voting history for Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District

Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District includes parts of Luzerne County, a predominantly white, working-class area in eastern Pennsylvania. It also encompasses Scranton, the largest city in northeastern Pennsylvania and where Biden was born.

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Trump had a 4 percentage point margin of victory over President Biden under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to take in more of Monroe County in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it slightly less Republican.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Cartwright has raised $4.9 million, spent $4.7 million, and has $386,695 of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Bognet, has raised $2.4 million, spent $2.2 million, and has $411,717 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

As of early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have spent about $12.8 million to adv0cate for or against the candidates.

What experts say

The race between Cartwright and Bognet is rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Wilson Ring/AP Photo; Insider

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch wins against Republican Gerald Malloy in Vermont's US Senate race.

Welch has represented Vermont's at-large congressional district for 15 years.

Incumbent Democrat Patrick Leahy, who has been in office since 1975, was not seeking reelection.

Polls have closed in Vermont and Democratic Rep. Peter Welch has won against Republican Gerald Malloy to represent the state in the US Senate.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, who has represented Vermont in the US Senate since 1975 and is third in line to the presidency, announced last November he would not seek reelection, opening up the seat for the first time in nearly five decades.

Vermont's Senate race candidates

Welch, who has represented Vermont's at-large congressional district in the House since 2007, is running for Senate with a breadth of political experience.

Prior to his time in Congress, Welch served in the Vermont State Senate for over a decade, during which he served as minority leader and president pro tempore.

Welch advocates for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, providing affordable childcare, and expanding access to broadband in rural parts of the country. He currently serves as chief deputy whip for the House Democratic Caucus and has Sen. Bernie Sanders' endorsement.

Welch did run into some trouble last year, however, when he violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 by failing to properly disclose stock trades. He has since sworn off trading individual stocks.

If elected, Welch would be one of the oldest freshman senators in US history.

Malloy, Welch's opponent, is a West Point graduate and decorated Army veteran. Following his retirement from active duty in 2006, Malloy found work in business and has been in management and executive positions.

Malloy advocates for energy independence, fighting the opioid crisis and reducing the cost of healthcare.

Vermont's voting history

The state voted for Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump by a margin of 35 percentage points in the 2020 election.

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From 1856 through the election of 1988, Vermont went Republican in every election except 1964, when it voted for Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater. In 1992, the state broke this tradition, voting for President Bill Clinton over President George H.W. Bush, and has gone Democratic ever since.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Welch has raised $5.2 million, spent $2.8 million, and has $2.4 million cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Malloy, has raised $249,272, spent $169,727, and has $81,063 cash on hand, as of October 19.

What experts say

The race between Welch and Malloy is rated as "solid Democratic" by Inside Elections, "solid Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Julio Cortez/AP Photo; Insider

Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski lost his seat to Republican Thomas Kean Jr. in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District.

The state's 7th District covers all of Hunterdon County and sections of Warren, Morris, Somerset, Union, and Essex Counties as well.

Malinowski raised more than double his opponent's campaign coffer.

Democratic incumbent Rep. Tom Malinowski lost his seat to Republican Thomas Kean Jr. in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District in a rematch of the 2020 election, where Malinowski defeated Kean by just over one percentage point.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

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New Jersey's 7th Congressional District candidates

This race was a rematch of 2020, when Malinowski defeated Kean by about 5,000 votes  or 1.2 percentage points. It ranked among the nation's closest House races.

Malinowski is finishing up his second term in office after first being elected in 2018.

Malinowski, who immigrated to the United States from Poland when he was a child, sits on the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Homeland Security.

Prior to serving in Congress, Malinowski was the assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights, and labor during the Obama administration. He's also previously worked as a senior director on the National Security Council and as chief advocate at nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

In March 2021, Insider revealed that Malinowski had failed to disclose dozens of personal stock trades in violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012.

While he ultimately placed his stock assets in a blind trust and backed an effort to ban federal lawmakers from trading stocks, Republicans have hammered Malinowski during the race for his disclosure failures. The independent Office of Congressional Ethics referred Malinowski's case to the bipartisan Committee on House Ethics, citing "substantial reason to believe" he violated federal conflicts-of-interest law, but to date, the Committee on House Ethics has not publicly ruled on the matter.

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Kean is a former member of the New Jersey State Senate, where he was voted by his peers to become the state Senate minority leader.

Political service runs in Kean's family  he's the grandson of US Rep. Robert Kean and the son of former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, Sr.

Voting history for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District

The state's 7th District covers all of Hunterdon County and sections of Warren, Morris, Somerset, Union, and Essex Counties as well.

Joe Biden had a 10 percentage point margin of victory of President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election under the district's previous boundaries.

The money race

Federal records compiled by nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets indicate Malinowski had raised $8.32 million, spent $6.75 million, and has $1.61 million cash on hand as of October 19.

Kean had raised $3.96 million, spent $3.2 million, and has $849,000 cash on hand as of October 19.

As of November 5, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups had together spent about $8.3 million to advocate for or against the race's candidates, including during its primary election phase.

Here, Republicans had a major advantage: The Congressional Leadership Fund, a national Republican hybrid PAC that backed Kean, alone accounted for more than half that spending.

House Majority PAC, a Democratic hybrid PAC that supported Malinowski, was the second-highest spender at $1.38 million.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which backed Kean, spent the third-most in the race  more than $1.35 million.

What experts say

The Cook Political Report rated New Jersey's 7th Congressional District race as "lean Republican". Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics rated the race as "leans Republican". Inside Elections rated it as "tilt Republican."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Brad Pfaff's campaign; Derrick Van Orden's campaign; Insider

Democrat Brad Pfaff lost to Republican Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District.

The 3rd District is mostly rural and covers southwestern Wisconsin.

Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, who's held the seat since 1996, is retiring and not running for a 14th term.

Republican Derrick Van Orden defeated Democratic Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff in Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District candidates

Pfaff represents the 32nd Senate District in the Wisconsin State Senate and is a ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture and Tourism. Prior to his time in state Senate, he served in senior positions with the US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. The Wisconsin Democrat also served as chief of staff to Rep. Ron Kind, who endorsed Pfaff ahead of the Democratic primary.

Kind, a longtime Democratic congressman who's held the office since 1996, is retiring, leaving the seat open.

Van Orden, Pfaff's opponent, is a retired Navy SEAL and private consultant. He also wrote the 2015 book "A Book of Man: A Navy SEAL's Guide to the Lost Art of Manhood," which contained a controversial passage about genital exposure. After enlisting in the Navy at the age of 18, Van Orden served for 26 years, going on multiple combat tours to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Last August, former President Donald Trump threw his support behind Van Orden. That wasn't the first time Trump voiced support for the retired Navy SEAL  he also endorsed Van Orden in 2020 when he ran against Kind for the same seat and lost.

Van Orden ran unopposed in the Republican primary, advancing straight to the general election.

Voting history for Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District

Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District is mostly rural and covers southwestern and parts of central Wisconsin.

The open district, which backed Trump under its previous boundaries in 2020, remained nearly identical in redistricting following the 2020 Census. With Trump's victory in 2020, the 3rd District became one of 16 districts in that country that split its votes for president and Congress.

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The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Pfaff has raised $1.6 million, spent $1.5 million, and has $116,000 on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Van Orden, has raised more than $5.9 million, spent $5.4 million, and has $558,000 cash on hand.

As of late October, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent about $2 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.

What experts say

The race between Pfaff and Van Orden is rated as "lean Republican" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo: @angelaraii258/TikTok. The Lower Mainland Integrated Emergency Response team arrested a person of interest in ongoing B.C. gang conflict.

Video of a dramatic takedown in Vancouver has been making the rounds on social media.

The incident took place last Friday (Nov. 4) on Kingsway near Rupert Street and was one of two arrests made in Vancouver connected to a Delta drug investigation.

Over the course of Thursday and Friday, the Delta Police Department's Drug Investigative Support Team (DIST) raided residences and found evidence of a drug trafficking operation. They seized drugs, cash, and firearms.

The video in Vancouver is footage of the Lower Mainland Integrated Emergency Response Team carrying out a coordinated arrest of one of the North Delta suspects in the investigation.



Delta police confirmed that the arrest was part of an organized response between law enforcement agencies and connected to the ongoing B.C. gang conflict.

Currently, investigators are preparing charge recommendations for Crown counsel.




Chase Stevens/AP Photo; Insider

Rep. Dina Titus defeated Republican Mark Robertson in Nevada's 1st Congressional District.

The 1st District is located in Clark County, covering many Las Vegas suburbs.

The once-deeply Democratic district was made competitive through redistricting.

Longtime Democratic Rep. Dina Titus won another bid for reelection against Republican Mark Robertson in Nevada's 1st Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 10 p.m. EST.

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Nevada's 1st Congressional District candidates

Titus is serving her 6th term in the US House of Representatives. A staunch Democrat, the 72-year-old congresswoman votes in line with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time. In the aftermath of the 2017 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival that killed 58 people and wounded over 500, Titus advocated for stricter anti-gun legislation.

She introduced legislation that would tightly regulate bump stocks, an attachment that enables semi-automatic weapons to fire with the speed of a machine gun. Last September, on the anniversary of the shooting, Titus introduced the Closing The Bump Stock Loophole Act, which passed the House on a vote of 233-194.

The Las Vegas Democrat was first elected in 2008 to represent Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, but two years later was defeated by Republican and former state Sen. Joe Heck by less than 2,000 votes. In 2013, Titus returned to Congress after winning in the 1st Congressional District.

Before her election to Congress, Titus served in the Nevada Senate and was its minority leader from 1993 to 2009. She also taught American and Nevada government classes from 1979 through 2011 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she has professor emeritus status.

Ahead of the November 2022 general election, she defeated her opponent, Bernie Sanders-endorsed Amy Vilela, in a Democratic primary by a 65-point margin.

Robertson, born in Orange, California, served in the US Army for more than 30 years and received accolades for his service in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and seven other foreign countries. In his last assignment, he served as a senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. Robertson also formerly taught at UNLV  the retired colonel taught classes on military science.

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Robertson won the Republican nomination among a crowded slate of GOP candidates, ultimately beating out seven other contenders.

Voting history for Nevada's 1st Congressional District

Once in the heart of Las Vegas, Nevada's 1st Congressional District now encompasses more of Clark County.

President Joe Biden had a 25 percentage point margin of victory under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to encompass more suburban areas in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it less Democratic.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Titus raised $3 million, spent $2.5 million, and had $871,042 of cash on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Robertson, raised $1.1 million, spent $928,728, and had $188,547 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Through early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups had together spent almost $16.9 million to advocate for or against the candidates.

What experts say

The race between Titus and Robertson was rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Bill Pugliano/Getty Images; Insider

Rep. Elissa Slotkin won reelection against Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

The newly drawn district excludes the city of Jackson, often touted as a birthplace of the GOP.

In 2018, Slotkin was one of 31 Democrats to flip seats in districts that Trump won in 2016.

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin won reelection against Republican Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

Insider's elections partner Decision Desk HQ called the race at 3.38 a.m. ET on Wednesday November 9.

2022 General Embeds

Michigan's 7th Congressional District candidates

When Slotkin first won the seat in 2018, she became the first Democrat to represent Michigan's 8th Congressional District (pre-redistricting) since 2001 with her victory over incumbent Rep. Mike Bishop.

That year, she also was one of 31 Democrats to flip a Republican seat in a congressional district that Donald Trump won during the 2016 presidential election.

In 2022, she ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District.

The Democrat from Holly had recently traveled to Ukraine with a bipartisan congressional delegation through the House Armed Services Committee. The delegation met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian military and security officials in Kyiv.

Slotkin had a long career in foreign policy before pivoting to politics. The 46-year-old lawmaker, who speaks both Arabic and Swahili, served three tours in Iraq as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, which she was recruited to after graduate school. She also worked for the National Security Council under President George W. Bush's administration, and for the Department of Defense during the Obama administration.

She was endorsed by Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack.

Barrett is a member of the Michigan State Senate representing District 24. There, he is the chairman of the body's transportation and infrastructure committee.

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As a member of the US Army for two decades, Barrett served in the Iraq war. He previously served in the Michigan House of Representatives after beating Democratic first-term incumbent Theresa Abed in 2014. He defeated her again in 2016 in a rematch.

Voting history for Michigan's 7th Congressional District

Michigan's newly drawn 7th Congressional District sits in the central region of the state and spans seven counties. The district also includes the state capital of Lansing.

Trump defeated President Joe Biden by nearly 1 percentage point under the district's previous boundaries in the 2020 presidential election. Following the election and the publication of the results from the 2020 Census, the district was redrawn to shed some communities in northern Oakland County, making it less favorable for Republicans.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Slotkin had raised $9.3 million, spent $8.4 million, and had $2.4 million of cash on hand as of October 19. Her opponent, Barrett, raised $2.5 million, spent $2.4 million, and had $63,172 of cash still left to spend as of October 19.

Super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend more than $26.4 million through early November to advocate for or against the two candidates, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee together so far accounting for almost half of that spending.

What experts said

Before the race was called, it was rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, as a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and as a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Madison Gesiotto Gilbert's campaign; Emilia Sykes' campaign; Insider

Former Donald Trump campaign staffer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert ran against state Rep. Emilia Sykes in Ohio's 13th Congressional District.

The 13th District encompasses Akron, the 5th largest city in the state and Sykes' hometown.

Sykes' father, state Sen. Vernon Sykes, participated in redrawing the congressional lines.

Democratic Ohio State Rep. Emilia Sykes defeated former Donald Trump campaign staffer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert for Ohio's 13th Congressional District.

The district is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who is running for US Senate.

Polls closed in the state at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Ohio's 13th Congressional District candidates

Gesiotto, an attorney and former Miss Ohio USA, scored Trump's endorsement earlier this year in her bid for Congress.

"In Congress, Madison will strongly fight for Border Security, to Protect Life, Election Integrity, Defend the Second Amendment, and Support our Military, Vets, and Law Enforcement," according to the endorsement posted on her Twitter. "Madison Gesiotto Gilbert is an America First patriot, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement!"

Gilbert came out on top in a crowded, seven-way GOP primary to win the Republican nomination.

Prior to running for Congress, Gesiotto found work as an intern on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, as well as a clerk on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.

Sykes, Gilbert's challenger, represented Ohio's 34th District in the Ohio House of Representatives. The seat has been held by a Sykes for nearly 40 years; Sykes' father Vernon Sykes, now a state senator, and mother Barbara Sykes, has alternated holding the seat since 1983.

Sykes won the race for the 34th Ohio State House District seat in 2014, succeeding her father.

In 2022, she ran unopposed in her Democratic congressional primary.

Abortion is front and center in Ohio's 13th: Sykes said Gilbert, who has voiced her opposition to abortion, is someone "who thinks that women should sacrifice their lives."

Story continues

Voting history for Ohio's 13th Congressional District

Ohio's 13th Congressional District encompasses Akron, the fifth largest city in the state.

President Joe Biden had a 3-percentage-point margin of victory under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to include Summit County, northern Stark County and a sliver of Portage County in redistricting following the 2020 Census, giving Republicans a slight edge.

State Sen. Vernon Sykes, Rep. Emilia Sykes' father, sat on the seven-member commission that drafted the new congressional map.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Gilbert has raised $1.9 million, spent $1.5 million, and has $423,940 of cash on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Sykes, has raised $2.1 million, spent $1.7 million, and has $468,847 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Through early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend nearly $16 million advocating for or against the two candidates.

Republican-backing super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee account for the most outside spending.

What experts say

The race between Gilbert and Sykes was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. However, Sykes came out on top with a little over 52 percent of the vote.

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Getty Images; Insider

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

Four candidates are running in Santa Ana, California's mayoral race: Sal Tinajero, Jose Solorio, Valerie Amezcua and Jesse Nestor.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

First-term Democratic Mayor Vicente Sarmiento stepped down to run for an Orange County Board of Supervisors seat, leaving his seat up for grabs. Elections for the Santa Ana City Council are nonpartisan, but the city has a history of electing Democrats and Democratic-leaning candidates to fill the mayoral position: prior to Sarmiento's time as mayor, the seat was held for nearly three decades by former Mayor Miguel Pulido, a Democrat. Prior to Pulido, the seat was held by Daniel H. Young, who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party two years into his term.

In 2012, voters approved a limit of four two-year consecutive terms, and this year, they will again vote to decide on lifetime term limits for mayor and city council members.

Tinajero, who is endorsed by the Orange County Democratic Party, leads the Santa Ana Unified School District's speech and debate program and previously served on the Santa Ana City Council for more than a decade. He is campaigning on addressing housing issues.

Solorio, also a former council member, work for the Moulton Niguel Water District. He previously represented the 69th District in the California State Assembly for six years. Solorio is running with a goal to lower crime rates and tackle homelessness.

Amezcua is a retired county probation officer and a member of the Santa Ana Unified Board of Education. She has the bulk of the support of the police union.

The fourth candidate, Nestor, is a 20-year-old self-described libertarian who currently attends Santa Ana College. He is endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Orange County.

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Lynne Sladky/AP Photo; Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo; Insider

Republican Rep. Maria Salazar won reelection for a second term in her seat.

Challenging her is Florida state Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democrat.

The district is in South Florida and includes Miami.

Florida as Republican incumbent Rep. Maria Salazar won a second term in her US House seat against Florida Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democrat.

Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls closed at 7 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 8 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Florida's 27th Congressional District candidates

Salazar was elected to the US House in 2020 after a career as a journalist that included both English and Spanish outlets. Her parents were Cuban exiles, and she grew up in Miami and Puerto Rico.

Salazar voted against President Trump's second impeachment. She wasn't at the Capitol on January 6, 2020, to certify the presidential election because she was under COVID-19 quarantine, but voted alongside House Democrats and 34 Republicans to approve the creation of the January 6 commission.

Taddeo is a state senator who was running for the Democratic nomination for governor before dropping out of the race to run for Congress.

Taddeo unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 2016 for a seat that went to former Rep. Joe Garcia. She was also on the lieutenant governor ticket in 2014 alongside Charlie Crist, the current Democratic nominee for governor.

Voting history for Florida's 27th Congressional District

Salazar unsuccessfully ran for the seat before, in 2018, against Donna Shalala, who was Health and Human Services secretary during former President Bill Clinton's two terms, and later, president of the University of Miami.

Salazar defeated Shalala when the two faced each other again in 2020, when former Trump was on the ticket and had made inroads in Florida from his 2016 win.

During the 2020 race, Salazar pilloried Shalala for violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 by improperly disclosing personal stock trades. But Salazar herself violated the STOCK Act earlier this year  something for which Taddeo has sharply criticized her.

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Before Shalala and Salazar faced off twice, Florida's 27th Congressional District was for almost 30 years held by Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen  even though the district leaned Democratic when it came to casting votes for president.

Today, under a redrawn district submitted by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved by the Republican-controlled legislature, the district is slightly redder than it used to be because it no longer includes Democratic-leaning Miami Beach.

The money race

Salazar has raised $4.8 million, spent $4.1 million, and has $735,000 cash on hand as of October 19, according to nonpartisan money-in-politics research group OpenSecrets.

Taddeo has raised $1.6 million, spent $1.55 million, and has $45,000 cash on had as of October 19.

As of November 4, super PACs, hybrid PACs, and traditional political action committees had combined to spend about $3 million to advocate for or against the candidates. Most of this money has benefitted Salazar. The pro-Salazar Congressional Leadership Fund, a hybrid PAC led by national Republicans, alone accounts for almost half of the race's outside spending.

What experts say

The race between Salazar and Taddeo was rated as "likely Republican" by Inside Elections and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo; Insider

Rep. Jared Golden ran against Republican Bruce Poliquin in Maine's 2nd Congressional District for the second time.

The 2nd District encompasses nearly 80% of the state, including Augusta, the state capital.

Abortion was a hot-button topic in the race.

Rep. Jared Golden, a Democratic incumbent, defeated Republican Bruce Poliquin in Maine's 2nd Congressional District. Golden unseated Poliquin in 2018.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Maine's 2nd Congressional District candidates

Golden is the first member of Congress elected by ranked-choice voting. In 2016, Maine became the first state to enact ranked-choice voting for statewide elections for governor, state legislature, and Congress, and Golden's election was the first in the state, as well as the country, where ranked-choice voting was enacted in a congressional election.

Born and raised in Maine's 2nd Congressional District, the now-40-year-old congressman in 2018 also became the first candidate to unseat an incumbent from the district in more than a century.

Golden, a combat veteran who joined the US Marines in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, is a member of the House Committee on Armed Services and the Congressional Veterans Caucus. After serving combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to the US and worked for Republican Sen. Susan Collins on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The millennial politician built a reputation of being the House Democrat who strays from party lines on key votes. In 2021, he was the only Democrat to vote against the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package and the only Democrat to vote against the Build Back Better Act. He bucked his party again in July when he voted against the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022.

Poliquin, 68, represented Maine's 2nd Congressional District before Golden unseated him in 2018. He became the first incumbent to lose a race to reelection in the district since 1916.

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The former congressman, who previously served as state treasurer, opposed access to abortions and billed himself as "pro-life." In January 2015, he voted for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which prohibits taxpayer-funded abortions. In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision that struck down Roe v. Wade, however, Democrats accused Poliquin of sidestepping questions about his plans for abortion policy, because of strong voter support for protecting abortion access.

Voting history for Maine's 2nd Congressional District

Maine's sprawling, rural 2nd Congressional District encompasses nearly 80% of the state's physical area, including Augusta, the state capital.

Donald Trump had a 7.5 percentage point margin of victory under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to move the capital to the 2nd Congressional District from the 1st in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it slightly less conservative-leaning in the process.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Golden raised $5.5 million, spent $4.8 million, and had $858,322 of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Poliquin, raised $3.5 million, spent $2.4 million, and had $1.1 million of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups together spent more than $21.3 million through early November to advocate for or against the two candidates.

What experts say

The race between Golden and Poliquin was rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
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Democrat John Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz in a face-off for a US Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

Fetterman is the state's lieutenant governor and Oz is a celebrity doctor and first-time candidate.

Pennsylvania is a battleground state that Biden won by 1.2 percentage points in 2020.

Democrat John Fetterman defeated Republican Mehmet Oz for a US Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

2022 General Embeds

Pennsylvania US Senate candidates

Fetterman and Oz faced off to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey in a battleground race critical to both parties' fortunes in the US Senate  and a seat Democrats are aiming to flip back from Republican control.

Fetterman has served as Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor since 2018 and was previously the mayor of Braddock, a borough in the western part of the state. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, rose to prominence as a celebrity doctor thanks to exposure from Oprah Winfrey, and is best known for his work on television hosting the "Dr. Oz Show."

Fetterman, a progressive, centered his campaign around being a reliable 51st vote for Democratic priorities in the Senate. Like many Democrats running nationwide, he heavily advocated for enshrining abortion rights into federal law after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. He also supports changing the current filibuster rules to ease the passage of Democratic-led legislation and strongly supports marijuana legalization, even pushing President Joe Biden to decriminalize marijuana.

Fetterman's campaign also slammed Oz on social media for living in New Jersey for much of his adult life and career.

Meanwhile, Oz hammered Fetterman for his policy positions and sought to tie him to Biden's low public approval ratings. Oz, similiar to many Republicans, focused his platform on issues like the economy and crime.

Fetterman's health was also been a major focal point of the race as the candidate recovers from a stroke in May. Oz's campaign pressured Fetterman, who has had auditory processing difficulties, to release more medical information about his condition. Fetterman released a recent doctor's note that said the candidate "is recovering well from his stroke and his health has continued to improve."

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Voting history in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a competitive swing state that backed former President Donald Trump by 1.2 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election before flipping to support Biden by 1.2 percentage points in the 2020 election.

In the Senate, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey defeated his GOP opponent Lou Barletta by 13 percentage points in 2018, a Democratic wave year. Toomey, meanwhile, defeated his final Democratic opponent, Katie McGinty, by just 1.5 percentage points in 2016.

The money race

This race will certainly stand as one of the most expensive 2022 midterm races in the nation.

According to OpenSecrets, Fetterman raised $56.7 million, spent $52.1 million, and had about $4.5 million in cash on hand, as of October 19. Oz raised $40.4 million, spent $37.7 million, and had $2.6 million in cash on hand, as of October 19. Oz personally accounts for the majority of the money his campaign has raised.

Meanwhile, super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have spent more than $240 million combined in the race as of November 7, including the primaries.

What experts said

The race between Fetterman and Oz was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections and The Cook Political Report and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo; Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Insider

Karen Bass defeated Rick Caruso in Los Angeles, California's mayoral race.

2022 General Embeds

The incumbent mayor, Eric Garcetti, was term-limited after holding the position for two consecutive four-year terms, making him ineligible to run a third time. The Los Angeles mayoral office is nonpartisan, though the city  the second largest in the US  has elected Democratic candidates for the last five terms.

Bass is a member of the US House, an office she has held since 2013 after starting her career in the California State Assembly. Her platform issues included addressing the city's growing homelessness crisis and public safety concerns.

Caruso, a billionaire luxury real estate and shopping center developer, was similarly focused on the homelessness crisis and housing affordability in the area. Caruso, who previously served as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, also promised to tackle rising crime rates in LA.

The race between Bass and Caruso also turned out to be one of this year's most expensive races. The billionaire poured an astronomical amount of his own money into his mayoral campaign, spending nearly $100 million.

As one of the most-watched mayoral elections in the midterm cycle, both candidates earned high-profile endorsements: Bass was endorsed by former President Obama and the Biden administration, while Caruso had supporters that included the city's police union, Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk.

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Getty Images; Insider

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

Oregon Measure 112 changed language in the state constitution that addressed slavery and involuntary servitude in prisons.

Supporters argued that the slavery language heavily affected marginalized communities.

Oregonians voted "yes" on Measure 112, which edited language in the state constitution regarding slavery and involuntary servitude.

Ballot measure details

Known as the Remove Slavery as Punishment for Crime from Constitution Amendment, Oregon Measure 112 removed the exception in the Constitution that allowed for slavery as "a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

In turn, it added the following language: "Upon conviction of a crime, an Oregon court or a probation or parole agency may order the convicted person to engage in education, counseling, treatment, community service or other alternatives to incarceration, as part of sentencing for the crime, in accordance with programs that have been in place historically or that may be developed in the future, to provide accountability, reformation, protection of society or rehabilitation."

A Secretary of State's analysis of the measure stated: "The measure does not require additional state government revenues or expenditures; however the impact of the measure will depend on potential legal action or changes to inmate work programs."

Support and opposition

Oregonians Against Slavery & Involuntary Servitude led the campaign in support of the measure. Supporters argued that the slavery exception heavily affected marginalized communities.

Zach Winston, the policy director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said that "while the slavery exception was drafted over 160 years ago, the impact is still disproportionately felt today by the BIPOC communities."

There was no organized campaign against the proposal, according to Ballotpedia, but the Oregon Department of Corrections argued that the measure misleads the public about what goes on inside the state's prisons.

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"DOC recognizes that compelled prison labor is sometimes perceived as modern-day slavery," Rob Persson, assistant director of operations at the Oregon Department of Corrections, said to lawmakers, according to OPB. "DOC believes that perception is misplaced, at least with respect to the manner in which adults in custody are engaged in prison work programs in Oregon's prisons."

The money race

The measure attracted about $75,000 in support contributions and $0 in opposition contributions, according to Ballotpedia.

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Pamela Goynes-Brown's campaign; Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Insider

Regardless of who won, North Las Vegas will welcome its first Black mayor next term.

Pamela Goynes-Brown, a city council member, ran against state Sen. Pat Spearman.

The current mayor, John Jay Lee, was eligible for reelection but instead chose to run for governor.

Pamela Goynes-Brown defeated Pat Spearman in North Las Vegas, Nevada's mayoral race.

2022 General Embeds

The city's current leader, Mayor John Jay Lee, decided to run in Nevada's gubernatorial election instead of running for reelection. He came in fourth place in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

Goynes-Brown and Spearman were the top vote-getters in the city's seven-candidate primary in June, where Goynes-Brown received approximately 39 percent of the overall vote compared to Spearman's 17 percent.

Goynes-Brown is a second-generation member of the North Las Vegas City Council, a seat she's held since 2011. She is a retired educator and assistant principal and is the former mayor pro tempore of North Las Vegas, a position she served on two occasions.

Spearman has been a member of the Nevada Senate since 2012. Before her time in office, she served in the US Army for 29 years, ultimately retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. She also served as school board president of the San Marcos Independent School District Board in Texas, according to her campaign site.

If elected, she pledged she would have created new jobs, incentivized clean energy in the city, and would have developed "a medical corridor similar to Las Vegas' Medical District," according to her campaign site.

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Re. Mathieu Nouques letter Learn from history (Castanet, Nov 9)

I feet compelled to write this letter due to the letter sent in by Mathieu Nouques letter.

Firstly, the First World War was, in fact, a world war. Men and women from over the world took part in combat in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. There wasnt a place on Earth at that time that wasnt affected by the Great War.

The silly alliances he claims that were the cause of the more then more than 100 countries from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia and Europe being part of the conflict were, in fact, set in stone long before Archduke Franz Ferdinands assassination in Sarajevo.

Also, the ruling class and nobility made up 95% of the officers and NCOs on the ground in the trenches. Yes, the kings and heads of state didnt go into battle, but their sons, nephews and grandsons were there. Nonetheless, more than 8.5 million soldiers were killed, more than 20 million people were wounded and more than eight million civilians were also killed in the four years the world experience the war to end all wars.

To me, and countless others, this is an event worth remembering. We are not remembering to praise the devastating effects the war had on the world, or even to celebrate a certain side winning or losing. We are remembering the people who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country and fellow soldiers.

Most of the combatants signed up to go fight believing it was going to be a trip of a lifetime and over within months. After that was exposed as being false, a bloody and hellish landscape overtook for the next four years, and still countless men signed up to go fight.

What amazes me is the level of sacrifice these men (mostly boys) made. I couldnt even imagine signing up to go fight a war like WWI when I was 17 or 18 years old.

That is why we remember. Yes, Nov. 11 was started to remember those who lost their lives in the First World War, but over the years, it has come to be a day we remember those who lost their lives in the Second World War, the Korean War, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and all the peacekeeping missions brave Canadians went overseas to take part in.

So, before you ask someone what do you know about history?, perhaps a quick Google search would have given you some insight into the First World War, why it was truly a world war and most importantly, why is it is very much worth remembering.

Jesse Nicholson
US Senate; AP; Marianne Ayala/Insider

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly defeated Republican Blake Masters in Arizona's high-profile Senate race.

Arizona, which Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020, is once again a battleground state.

A Masters win could have helped Republicans win control of the currently 50-50 Senate.

Freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona defeated newly-minted Republican candidate Blake Masters in a highly charged race for the state's US Senate seat.

2022 General Embeds

Arizona Senate candidates

Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who is also married to retired Democratic congresswoman-turned-gun-control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, jumped into a variety of issues during his first term in Congress.

Kelly co-authored a congressional stock trading ban with fellow freshman Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, proposing that lawmakers and their immediate family members curb potential conflicts of interests by placing their financial assets in blind trusts.

The bill was one of many that have cropped up since Insider's Conflicted Congress project revealed that dozens of lawmakers and hundreds of senior congressional aides have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 in recent years.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kelly also consulted with Pentagon officials about making the nascent Space Force program a success after dubbing it a "dumb idea" in 2019.

Masters was a first-time candidate who vied to reinsert some red into the battleground state after voters handed control of the Senate delegation to Democrats Kelly (2020) and Kyrsten Sinema (2018). Masters migrated from the venture capital world into politics with the help of tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Embattled former President Donald Trump endorsed Masters in early June based on Masters' denial of Joe Biden's lawful victory.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who chaired the Senate GOP's reelection campaign this cycle, warned Masters that he needed to raise more money ASAP. A Masters win would have tipped the balance of power to Republicans, ending the 50-50 split that's been in effect since January 2021.

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Voting history in Arizona

Republican Sen. John McCain held Kelly's seat for more than 30 years before dying in office in 2018. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey appointed retired Sen. Jon Kyl and later former Rep. Martha McSally to serve out the rest of McCain's final term. Kelly beat McSally by just over 2 points in the 2020 special election.

President Joe Biden narrowly beat Trump in Arizona, an explosive win that sparked calls for countless audits and election reruns by MAGA supporters enthralled by Trump's baseless claims of election fraud. Fox News famously called Arizona for Biden on election night 2020, a prediction that sent the embattled former president into a rage.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Kelly raised $79.4 million, spent $73.5 million, and had $7.3 million of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Masters, raised $12 million, spent $9.4 million, and had $2.6 million of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Super PACs and party committees combined to pour another $100 million (and counting) into the race, per OpenSecrets. Masters notably benefitted from this outside money. Thiel's pro-Masters Saving Arizona PAC, for one, poured more than $17 million into the race through September.

What experts say

The race between Kelly and Masters was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo; Steve Helber/AP Photo; Insider

Republican challenger Jen Kiggans defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District.

Kiggans, a state senator, is running in a redrawn district that is more favorable to Republicans.

Luria has attacked Kiggans for cheering the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Democratic incumbent Rep. Elaine Luria was defeated by Republican state Sen. Jennifer Kiggans in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

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Virginia 2nd Congressional District candidates

Luria, a Navy veteran, is the prototype candidate Democrats ran in 2018 to harness anti-Trump outrage. Seeking her 3rd term, Luria faced off against a fellow Navy veteran in Kiggans. This was also the first time Luria did not face former Rep. Scott Taylor, who she dispatched again in a 2020 rematch.

Like other Republicans, Kiggans has focused on the economy, while Luria tried to use Kiggans' opposition to abortion rights as a way to target the Republican.

Luria is one of the seven House Democrats that serve on the select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Voting history for Virginia's 2nd Congressional District

Kiggans ran in a coastal Virginia district that favored conservatives more than in the past. Virginia's new bipartisan redistricting commission was unable to put forward a new map, necessitating the state Supreme Court's involvement. The new map resulted in a seat that is viewed as more favorable to Republicans.

Under the old lines, the seat swung from a narrow-Trump district in 2016 to a narrow-Biden win four years later. The new lines took what was about a 5-percentage-point Biden district to a 3-point margin. Luria narrowly unseated Taylor in 2018 before besting him by about 6 points in 2020.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Luria raised $8.7 million, spent $5.8 million, and had $3 million on hand, as of September 30. Her opponent, Kiggans, raised $2.7 million, spent $2.3 million, and had $436,622 remaining, as of September 30.

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Through mid-October, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups combined to spend about $9 million to advocate for or against candidates in the race, including during the primaries.

What experts say

The race between Luria and Kiggans was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Eric Gay/AP Photo; LM Otero/AP Photo; Insider

Rep. Henry Cuellar defeats Republican Cassy Garcia in Texas' 28th Congressional District.

The 28th District is located along Texas' border with Mexico.

A win for Garcia would be a major pickup for the Republican Party, which has been vying to appeal to more Hispanic voters in the region.

Longtime Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar defeated Republican Cassy Garcia in Texas' 28th Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls closed at 8 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Texas' 28th Congressional District candidates

Cuellar is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and is one of the most conservative members of the House Democratic caucus. He's represented the majority-Hispanic district since 2005 and has advocated for strict border policies, is a staunch defender of 2nd Amendment gun rights, and is the last member of the House Democratic caucus to be openly against abortion rights.

Cuellar narrowly defeated progressive Jessica Cisneros in the district's Democratic primary  doing so by less than 300 votes after House Democratic leadership rallied around him in a runoff.

Garcia is one of several Hispanic conservative women running for office in 2022 and is a former state director for US Sen. Ted Cruz's office.

Garcia won the Republican nomination among a crowded slate of GOP candidates, ultimately defeating challenger Sandra Whitten in a runoff election.

A victory for Garcia in November would be a major pickup for the Republican Party, which has been increasing its attention on appealing to Hispanic voters in Democratic districts.

Voting history for Texas' 28th Congressional District

Texas' 28th Congressional District encompasses a section of the U.S.-Mexico border and stretches to the easternmost outer regions of San Antonio, the state's second-most populous city behind Houston.

The district, which backed President Joe Biden by about 5 percentage points under its previous boundaries in 2020, was redrawn to take in more of the San Antonio area in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it slightly more Democratic.

Story continues

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Cuellar has raised $4.4 million, spent $5.6 million, and has $278,253 of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Garcia, has raised $2.7 million, spent $2.5 million, and has $192,142 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Through mid-October, the race  including primaries  has attracted about $17 million in additional spending by super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups aiming to affect the outcome. Such a level of outside spending falls on the high end of US House races in 2022.

What experts say

The race between Cuellar and Garcia is rated as "lean Democratic" by Inside Elections, "lean Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call; Chris West's campaign; Insider

Rep. Sanford Bishop defeated Republican Chris West in Georgia's 2nd Congressional District.

The 2nd District encompasses Georgia's southwestern corner, including Albany.

Political analysts dubbed this race the only competitive US House race in the Deep South.

Georgia's longest serving congressman, Rep. Sanford Bishop, defeated Republican Chris West in Georgia's 2nd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Political analysts previously dubbed this race the only competitive US House race in the Deep South states of Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

Georgia's 2nd Congressional District candidates

Bishop, first elected to Congress in 1992, hasn't faced much competition in the past. But in the decennial redrawing of the congressional lines, the percentage of Democratic and Black voters were reduced, making it slightly more favorable for a Republican to win the seat. This was his toughest reelection bid since 2010 when he narrowly defeated former state lawmaker Mike Keown.

In Congress, he serves on the House Committees on Agriculture and Appropriations and chairs the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.

West, Bishop's challenger, is an officer with the Georgia Air National Guard, where he serves in the 116th Mission Support Group at Robins Air Force Base. Also a small businessman and attorney, West serves on the board of the United Way of Thomas County.

The Thomasville native, who is vying to unseat a longtime incumbent in the nation's 8th poorest district based on its 2018 median income, says inflation was driven by bad policy decisions. In an interview with a local news station, he said he wants to push for energy independence and strip what he calls "wasteful spending" in the Inflation Reduction Act passed this summer.

Voting history for Georgia's 2nd Congressional District

Georgia's 2nd Congressional District encompasses Georgia's southwestern corner, including Albany and parts of Macon, Columbus, and Warner Robins. It also stretches across miles of peanut fields, pine forests, and pecan groves that span 30 counties.

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Joe Biden had a 12.3 percentage point margin of victory over President Donald Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 Census gave Republicans a slight edge. The new district would have had Biden winning with a 10.3-percentage-point margin.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Bishop raised $2.8 million, spent more than $2.4 million, and had $550,000 cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, West, raised $937,000, spent $729,000, and had $208,000 in cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

As of November 3, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups together spent about $4.7 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee alone accounted for almost half that spending.

What experts say

The race between Bishop and West was rated as "likely Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Republican Rep. Steve Chabot (right) faces off against Democrat Greg Landsman (left) in Ohio's 1st Congressional District. Aaron Doster/AP Photo; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call; Insider

Rep. Steve Chabot was defeated by Democrat Greg Landsman in Ohio's 1st Congressional District.

The 1st District encompasses Cincinnati  the third-largest city in Ohio.

In July, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state's new congressional map for violating the anti-gerrymandering rules.

Longtime Republican Rep. Steve Chabot was defeated by Democrat Greg Landsman in Ohio's 1st Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Ohio's 1st Congressional District candidates

Chabot was a member of the Committee on Judiciary. Prior to his time in Congress, he worked as an attorney in Cincinnati, where he handled domestic disputes and the drafting of wills. He was elected to the House in 1994 after he defeated incumbent Rep. David S. Mann. In 1999, the Cincinnati Republican was one of 13 House Republicans appointed to serve in the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton.

In 2008, he lost his seat to state Rep. Steve Driehaus but won it back in 2010 after he defeated Driehaus in a rematch.

Chabot has fundraised off of the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and opposed Trump's impeachment. In July, he broke ranks with the GOP and joined most Democrats in supporting the CHIPS and Science Act, a measure meant to strengthen the domestic chips manufacturing industry and boost US scientific research to counter China.

Landsman, Chabot's challenger, is a former public school teacher and is currently in his 5th year as a member of the Cincinnati City Council. He advanced from the Democratic primary unopposed.

Voting history for Ohio's 1st Congressional District

Ohio's 1st Congressional District encompasses Cincinnati  the third-largest city in Ohio  and portions of the suburbs, including the majority-conservative Warren County.

Donald Trump had 3 point percentage point margin of victory over President Joe Biden under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 Census drew in the whole city of Cincinnati, giving Democrats an edge.

Story continues

In July, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the new congressional map for violating the anti-gerrymandering rules in the state Constitution. However, it will still be used in November because candidates were chosen in the primaries using the new map.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Chabot had raised $1.9 million, spent $1.6 million, and has $361,071 of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Landsman, had raised $2.4 million, spent $2 million, and has $443,810 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

As of early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups had together spent about $9.3 million to advocate for or against the candidates.

What experts say

The race between Chabot and Landsman is rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
AP Images; Insider

Republican author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance faced off against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio.

Despite Ryan's large financial lead, experts said Vance had a better chance of winning.

Trump endorsed Vance ahead of the primaries despite the candidate previously comparing the former president to "America's Hitler" in private messages.

Republican J.D. Vance defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio to represent the state in the US Senate.

Republican Sen. Rob Portman has been a part of the Senate since 2011, announced in January 2021 that he would not be running for a third term, leaving the seat up for grabs in 2022.

2022 General Embeds

Ohio's US Senate race candidates

Vance is a venture capitalist, veteran, and author who rose to prominence following the publication of his book, "Hillbilly Elegy," which delves into Vance's childhood and upbringing in Ohio.

Vance won the Republican nomination in a crowded seven-candidate GOP primary race, winning 32.2% of the overall vote. Vance, who received an endorsement from President Donald Trump in the run-up to the primary election, previously compared Trump to "America's Hitler" in private messages with his former roommate.

At a rally in September, the former president made fun of Vance and accused him of showering him with flattery in exchange for the president's support.

"J.D. is kissing my ass he wants my support so much," Trump said in Youngstown, Ohio.

Ryan, Vance's general election challenger, represented Ohio districts in the US House of Representatives since 2003. He represented the state's 17th Congressional District for 10 years before switching to the 13th Congressional District in 2013 following redistricting.

Ryan handily defeated the two other Democratic candidates in Ohio's primary election, bringing in 69.6% of the overall vote. In 2020, prior to running for the Senate, Ryan ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. His presidential campaign failed to gain traction, ultimately leading him to withdraw from the race and run for re-election in the US House.

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Ohio's voting history

The state voted for President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by about 8 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election. Ohio's been a swing state for decades, having voted Republicans and Democrats for president four times each over the last eight presidential election cycles.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Ryan raised $47.3 million, spent $44.5 million, and had $2.8 million of cash on hand as of October 19. Vance raised $12 million, spent $9 million, and had $2.9 million of cash left on hand as of October 19.

As of late October, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups combined to spend about $90 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. The vast majority of this spending benefitted Vance, with the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican-backing super PAC, alone accounting for nearly one-third of the spending.

What experts say

The race between Vance and Ryan was rated as "tilt Republican" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Cory Mills' campaign; Karen Green's campaign; Insider

The seat was open after Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy didn't seek re-election.

Republican Cory Mills defeated Democrat Karen Green.

The district leans red after redrawn maps.

Republican Cory Mills won an open seat in Florida's redrawn 7th Congressional District against Democrat Karen Green. The seat was open following Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy's decision to not seek re-election after serving three terms.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls closed at 7 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 8 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Florida's 7th Congressional District candidates

Mills is a former defense contractor and Army veteran. He received former President Donald Trump's endorsement and ran on an "America First" platform. He's a favorite on conservative cable news airwaves.

Mills was co-founder of PACEM Solutions, a multi-million dollar company that provided consulting to law enforcement and sold arms and riot-control gear. He sold tear gas that was used against Black Lives Matter demonstrators, according to a Politico report.

Green is a former Florida Democratic Party vice chair who immigrated to the United States from Jamaica during her early 20s.

Voting history for Florida's 7th Congressional District

Florida's 7th Congressional District is in a centrist, suburban district of Orlando, and Murphy had widespread support there by business groups. She announced in December 2021 that she would not seek another term despite her status as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

After reaching her decision, Murphy explained her reasoning to Politico, saying that leadership would "beat moderates into submission" and that the party had abandoned its "big tent" status.

Joe Biden won the district in the 2020 presidential race. But now, the district leans more Republican. This year, the legislature redrew the map in ways that added conservative parts of Volusia County to the district.

Story continues

The money race

Mills has a massive cash advantage and is self-funding the vast majority of his congressional run, mostly with money he earned from PACEM Solutions.

As of October 19, he raised nearly $2.47 million in comparison to Green's $68,000, according to the nonpartisan money in politics research organization OpenSecrets. Nearly 83% of Mills' total came from his own pocketbook, according to OpenSecrets.

Mills has spent $2.4 million to Green's less-than $33,000, as of October 19.

Although super PACs and other political committees have combined to spend about $2.5 million in this race, most of the money was spent during the eight-candidate Republican primary where Mills emerged victorious with more than 38% of the vote.

What experts say

The race between Mills and Green was rated as a "likely Republican" by Inside Elections and among the "safe Republican flips" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Alabama Governor's Office via AP; Yolanda Flowers' campaign; Insider

Gov. Kay Ivey defeated Democrat Yolanda Flowers in Alabama's gubernatorial race.

This is one of 36 gubernatorial elections taking place in 2022.

Ivey is one of the 170 candidates who claim the 2020 election was rigged to run in solidly GOP races.

Republican incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey faces off against Democrat Yolanda Flowers in Alabama's gubernatorial election. Polls have closed.

Alabama's gubernatorial candidates

Ivey, first sworn into office in 2017, became he longest consecutive-serving governor in Alabama history.

Throughout her career, Ivey has held numerous positions in Alabama politics. Prior to being elected governor, she served several terms as lieutenant governor and state treasurer, becoming the first Republican to be elected state treasurer since Reconstruction and the first Republican woman to serve as lieutenant governor in Alabama's history.

Ivey is also one of 119 out of 170 candidates who've falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged to run in solidly Republican races.

Flowers, Ivey's challenger, is an educator with experience working in speech language pathology, rehabilitation and counseling.

She defeated Malika Sanders-Fortier in the Democratic primary runoff, 55.1% to 44.9%.

Alabama's voting history

Alabama backed President Donald Trump over Joe Biden in a near 26 percentage point margin of victory in 2020. The state has voted for the Republican candidate in the last 11 presidential elections, and since 2004, Republican nominees have won by over 20 percentage points.

What experts say

The race between Ivey and Flowers is rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo; David Roth's campaign; Insider

Republican Sen. Mike Crapo won the Idaho US Senate race against Democrat David Roth.

Crapo far outraised and outspent Roth in his successful efforts for reelection.

Polls are closed in Idaho and Republican incumbent Sen. Mike Crapo won the race against Democrat David Roth in Idaho to represent the state in the US Senate.

Idaho's Senate race candidates

First elected in 1998, Crapo has served in Congress for nearly a quarter of a century. He serves as a ranking member on the Senate Committee on Finance and as the chief deputy whip among Senate Republicans.

Crapo's priorities include addressing the challenges that face Idaho's multi-billion dollar agriculture industry, reforming and modernizing the financial sector, and pursuing alternative energy sources.

Prior to entering Congress, the native Idahoan served for nearly a decade in the Idaho State Senate and for three terms in the US House. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Crapo also worked as a partner in the law firm of Holden, Kidwell, Hahn & Crapo, and is a member of the Idaho and California Bar Associations and the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Roth, Crapo's challenger, serves as the executive director of the Bonneville Youth Development Council in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Prior to that, he served as a precinct captain, legislative district vice chair, and most recently as the chair of the Bonneville County Democrats. Roth unsuccessfully ran for the Idaho State Legislature in 2020.

He is also an openly gay man, as noted in his Twitter bio. Roth says he is "running in 'red' Idaho because NO state is a lost cause." If elected, Roth would become the first openly gay man to serve in the US Senate.

Roth defeated Ben Pursley in the Democratic primary, receiving nearly 60% of the vote.

Idaho's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of about 30 percentage points in the 2020 election. Idaho, a longtime Republican stronghold, has voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election cycle since 1952, having voted Democratic just once  Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater  in 1964.

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The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Crapo raised $7.1 million, spent $6.7 million, and had $3.3 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

As Insider reported in 2021, Crapo is a highly successful fundraiser who once provided prospective donors with a detailed list of pay-to-play deliverables at three price points.

His challenger, Roth, raised $88,533, spent $70,660, and had $17,872 cash on hand, as of October 19.

What experts say

The race between Crapo and Roth was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP Photo; Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo; Insider

Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez defeated Republican Rep. Mayra Flores in Texas' 34th Congressional District.

The 34th District is located along the Texas-Mexico border.

Republicans were determined to hold onto the seat Flores flipped red in June.

Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez defeated Republican Rep. Mayra Flores in Texas' 34th Congressional District in a rare general election battle of sitting members of Congress.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls closed at 8 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Texas' 34th Congressional District candidates

In June, Flores flipped the 34th District seat previously held by Democrat Rep. Filemon Vela during a special election after Vela resigned in March.

Flores was among three Republican Hispanic women running for Congress  along with Monica De La Cruz and Cassy Garcia  and could have changed the political landscape of historically Democratic South Texas.

Flores was born in Burgos Tamaulipas, Mexico, and immigrated to the US at six years old. Prior to entering politics, she worked as a respiratory care practitioner, caring for the elderly and disabled with chronic respiratory issues. Flores has also been on the front lines of medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She made history as the first Mexican-born US House member when she won her election in June.

Gonzalez, a three-term congressman who currently represents Texas' 15th Congressional District, serves on the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth. He chose to seek reelection in the 34th Congressional District after the state legislature placed his home, and much of his old district's urban core, in the newly drawn district.

As this is a race along the border, immigration and border security were two major issues at hand. Gonzalez wants the US to work with Latin American countries to process asylum seekers before they set out for the border.

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"We have a labor shortage in this country, and we need the labor. They need the jobs. We just need to do it in an orderly way. What's happened on our southern border, not under just the Biden administration, under the Trump administration and administrations before has been disgraceful," Gonzalez told a local news outlet.

Gonzalez is among several dozen members of Congress that Insider and other media have identified as violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 by improperly disclosing personal financial trades.

Voting history for Texas' 34th Congressional District

Texas' 34th Congressional District stretches from Kleberg County on the Gulf Coast to Cameron County and includes a part of Hidalgo County.

Joe Biden had a 4 percentage point margin of victory over President Donald Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before the decennial redistricting process excised a large portion of the district that extended far north into Gonzales County and included more conservative parts of the state.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Flores has raised more than $3.8 million, spent $3.47 million, and has $365,000 on hand, as of October 19. Gonzalez has raised $2.92 million, spent almost $3.9 million, and has $475,000 cash on hand, as of October 19, according to Federal Election Commission records.

As of early November, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent about $10.9 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a national Republican hybrid PAC that backs Flores, alone accounts for nearly half that spending.

What experts say

The race between Flores and Gonzalez was rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo: The Canadian Press Search and rescue personnel help flood evacuees disembark from a helicopter in Agassiz, B.C. on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

The Royal Canadian Air Force's 442 Squadron has been singled out for outstanding courage for a mass rescue of people trapped by landslides on a British Columbia highway last year.

The Honourable Company of Air Pilots, a group based in the United Kingdom, has awarded the squadron the Barry Marsden Memorial Award for outstanding performance in a time of exceptional distress.

The company says the squadron, based in Comox, B.C., showed exceptional dedication to rescue 311 people, 26 dogs and a cat that were trapped by landslides on Highway 7 near Agassiz.

A series of atmospheric rivers stalled over the province last November, flooding communities, washing away highways and prompting several landslides, including one that killed five people.

A statement from the company says the Cormorant crews were able to land on the highway in deteriorating weather and gale-force winds, despite the congestion and debris caused by the slides.

During the process, the group says the squadron was also able to help the heavy urban search and rescue crews assess many submerged vehicles to confirm no one was inside.

On their own volition, and despite personnel challenges, the squadron was able to deploy two more helicopters and a Buffalo fixed-wing plane to assist with the evacuation.

"The sense of duty displayed by all members of 442 (Squadron) in anticipating what needed to be done was evident from the technicians supporting efforts to launch all available helicopters, the crew members stepping up to volunteer to fly, and the leadership displayed by the command team as the crisis unfolded."

The efforts showed the resolve and dedication to Canada that the squadron exemplifies on a daily basis, the statement says.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images;Insider

Rep. Yvette Herrell was defeated by Democrat Gabriel Vasquez in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District.

The 2nd District encompasses western portions of of Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico.

Herrell is one of four Native Americans serving in Congress.

Republican New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell lost her bid for reelection against Democrat Gabriel Vasquez in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District.

Vasquez beat Herrell by less than a 1 percentage point margin.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District candidates

Herrell, a Cherokee, joined the ranks of the very few Native Americans in Congress following her victory in 2020. She is the first Native American Republican woman elected to the US House.

The 58-year-old New Mexico native ran for the seat in 2018, but was narrowly defeated by her opponent, Democratic attorney and former Rep. Xochitl Torres Small. Herrell defeated Small two years later.

Prior to her time in Congress, Herrell represented New Mexico's 51st District for four terms in the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Vasquez, Herrell's challenger, is an outgoing Las Cruces city councilor. He defeated his opponent by a wide margin in the Democratic primary, bringing in more than two-thirds of the vote. Prior to running for Congress, Vasquez worked for US Sen. Martin Heinrich in southern New Mexico.

He is endorsed by President Joe Biden.

Voting history for New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District

New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District encompasses the city of Las Cruces, the second largest city in the state, and western portions of Albuquerque, the largest.

Former President Donald Trump had a 12 percentage point margin of victory over Biden under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to concede portions of the northeast in redistricting following the 2020 Census, changing its political leaning from Republican to Democratic.

Story continues

Previously, the district spanned the entire southern portion of New Mexico, from one state line to the next.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Herrell raised $3.9 million, spent $3.3 million, and had $683,057 of cash on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Vasquez, raised $3.2 million, spent $2.9 million, and had $348,172 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

As of early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate committees had combined to spend about $13.4 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the primaries.

What experts say

The race between Herrell and Vasquez was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo; Mark Holland's campaign; Insider

Incumbent Sen. Jerry Moran is projected to beat Democrat Mark Holland to represent Kansas in the US Senate.

As a senator from a state that is 87.5% farmland, Moran advocates for the agriculture sector.

No Democrat has won a US Senate seat in Kansas for 90 years.

Republican incumbent Sen. Jerry Moran is projected to beat Democrat Mark Holland in Kansas to represent the state in the US Senate.

Polls are closed.

Kansas' Senate race candidates

Moran, first elected to the Senate in 2010, serves on the Committee on Appropriations and as a ranking member on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, among others. As a senator from a farm state with a robust agriculture sector, Moran prioritizes strong agriculture policy and addressing the challenges farmers experience on a daily basis.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Moran served for seven terms in the US House, as well as eight years in the Kansas State Senate  spending the last two years as majority leader.

Holland, Moran's challenger, is a Methodist pastor who served a single term as mayor of Kansas City. He faces a steep uphill battle as no Democrat has won a US Senate seat in the Sunflower State for 90 years.

Kansas' voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of 14 percentage points in the 2020 election. Kansas is a Republican stronghold in presidential elections; it hasn't voted for a Democrat since 1964, when Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater in a landslide.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Moran has raised $7 million, spent $3.2 million, and has $5 million cash on hand, as of October 19. His challenger, Holland, has raised $843,819, spent $600,650, and has $243,169 cash on hand, as of October 19.

What experts say

The race between Moran and Holland is rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
John Hoeven's campaign; Katrina Christiansen's campaign; Insider

Sen. John Hoeven defeated Democrat Katrina Christiansen to represent North Dakota in the US Senate.

Hoeven won both of his previous Senate terms with more than 76% of the vote.

In 2021, he joined 18 of his Senate Republican colleagues to vote in favor of the Biden administration's $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

Republican incumbent Sen. John Hoeven defeated Democrat Katrina Christiansen in North Dakota to represent the state in the US Senate.

North Dakota's Senate race candidates

Hoeven, was first elected in 2010. In 2021, he joined 18 of his Senate Republican colleagues to vote in favor of the Biden administration's $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

Prior to being elected to the US Senate, Hoeven served for a decade as the state's governor. He was widely expected to cruise to victory; he won both of his previous Senate terms with more than 76% of the vote.

Christiansen is an engineering professor at the University of Jamestown, in Jamestown, North Dakota. The Democrat, who earned a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering, worked as a plant engineer at an ethanol facility for two years, and at an agricultural processor as a researcher.

She defeated Michael Steele in the Democratic primary, receiving over 76% of the vote.

North Dakota's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden by a margin of 33 percentage points in the 2020 election. North Dakota, a distinctly red state, has voted for the Republican candidate in all 14 presidential elections since 1968.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Hoeven raised $4.2 million, spent $4.8 million, and had $1.2 million cash on hand, as of October 19. His challenger, Christiansen, raised $92,623, spent $68,178, and had $24,445 cash on hand, as of October 19.

As of late October, several super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $1.1 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.

Story continues

What experts say

The race between Hoeven and Christiansen was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Andrew Burton/Getty, Insider

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is projected to have won a third term in the Senate.

Rubio defeated Democratic Rep. Val Demings, a former Orlando police chief.

A former GOP presidential candidate, Rubio looks to have easily won the contest.

Sen. Marco Rubio is projected to have beaten Democratic Rep. Val Demings.

Decision Desk HQ and Insider project Rubio will win his third term in the Senate as of 8 pm EST.

2022 General Embeds

Florida's Senate race candidates

Rubio has been in the US Senate since 2011. He rose quickly in politics at a young age, serving as speaker of the Florida House from 2006 to 2008 while he was still in his 30s.

In 2016, he unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for president, which ultimately went to Donald Trump.

After losing the White House race, Rubio decided to run for his Senate seat again  contradicting a previous pledge to leave Congress in 2017. Voters didn't hold it against him, and Rubio easily held onto his seat. His reelection message to voters during the 2022 cycle has stressed his accomplishments  such as doubling the child tax credit and helping to craft the Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Demings has been in the US House since 2017. Prior to serving in Congress, she served in law enforcement for 27 years, including as Orlando's first female police chief. Demings was among the impeachment managers for Trump's first trial, a role that landed her among the top-tier candidates to be Joe Biden's vice presidential running mate.

Her campaign cast her as a centrist and has played up her law-enforcement background, calling her "Chief Demings" in campaign materials.

Both Rubio and Demings are history-making politicians. Rubio is fluent in English and Spanish and is the son of Cuban immigrants who grew up in Miami. Demings is Black and was Orlando's first female police chief. No Black women currently serve in the US Senate.

Florida's voting history

In presidential elections, Florida went twice for former President Barack Obama, and then twice for Trump. The Sunshine State has long been known as the largest swing state in the United States, but that may be changing. Florida hasn't had a Democratic US senator since 2018, when Bill Nelson was in office.

Story continues

As of Election Day in Florida, Republicans have out-registered Democrats by roughly 270,000 people.

Still, Democrats in Florida see Rubio as vulnerable against Demings, and have invested far more into the Demings-Rubio race than into the Florida governor's race.

The money race

Demings has been one of the most successful fundraisers in the Senate ahead of the 2022 midterm election, raising nearly $64.7 million as of September 30, according to OpenSecrets. She spent $58.8 million, and has $6.6 million cash on hand. In comparison, Rubio has raised $44.2 million, spent $34.7 million, and has $9.6 million on hand, as of September 30.

Through late October, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend about $9 million to advocate for or against the two candidates, with Rubio benefitting from most of it.

What experts say

The race between Rubio and Demings is rated as "likely Republican" by Inside Elections, "likely Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo; Insider

Sen. Chuck Grassley defeated Democrat challenger Mike Franken in Iowa's Senate race.

Grassley's win means he'll have a historic 8th term that could keep him in office until age 95.

Former President Donald Trump won Iowa by 8 points in 2020.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the eighth-longest-serving senator in US history, has won the Iowa Senate race against Democratic hopeful Mike Franken. The win marks Grassley's eighth election as Senator, and could lead to the 89-year-old staying in office in Washington, DC, well into his 90s.

Iowa Senate candidates

Grassley, who won an eighth term that would keep him in office well into his 90s, is one of the chamber's feistiest octogenarians.

Throughout his career, he's championed a variety of GOP priorities. He's shepherded trillions of dollars in tax cuts through the Senate. He helped stall, but ultimately could not stymie passage of, President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. And he continues to be a force both in terms of congressional oversight, and moving Republican-backed Supreme Court nominations through the hyperpartisan 50-50 Senate.

Franken, a veteran of the US Navy and former Defense Department employee, previously ran for Senate in 2020. He came in second in that year's Democratic primary. Republican Sen. Joni Ernst went on to win that year by 5 points.

Voting history in Iowa

Grassley has held the seat since 1981 and spent three terms in the US House before that, becoming the longest serving Iowan in congressional history during his nearly 50-year tenure on Capitol Hill.

The lifelong farmer helps shape all manner of public policy via his work on various high-profile committees, including the agenda-setting Budget Committee, tax-writing Finance Committee, and Supreme Court nominee-vetting Judiciary Committee.

Former President Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in Iowa by 8 points in 2020. Grassley got 60% of the vote during his 2016 reelection bid.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Grassley has raised more than $9.8 million, spent more than $8.6 million, and has $2.16 million cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Franken, has raised more than $9.2 million, spent $8.6 million, and has $608,000 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

Story continues

As of November 7, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $2.75 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.

Most of this money has been dedicated to supporting Grassley's re-election campaign, with the nonpartisan National Association of Realtors Congressional Fund super PAC alone accounting for more of half of the race's outside spending.

What experts say

The race between Grassley and Franken was rated as "Solid Republican" by Inside Elections, and "Likely Republican" by The Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
John Locher/AP Photo; Ronda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images; Insider

Rep. Susie Lee defeated Republican April Becker in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District.

The 3rd District is located in the southernmost tip of Nevada.

Abortion was a focal point of the race.

Democratic Rep. Susie Lee defeated Republican newcomer April Becker in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 10 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Nevada's 3rd Congressional District candidates

Lee is a member of the Committee on Education and Labor. In the 1990s, she became the founding director of the Inner-City Games, now know as the After-School All-Stars, which provides thousands of children after-school programs. In 2010, Lee became the president of the board of Communities in School with Nevada, a program designed to lower high school dropout rates. The 55-year-old congresswoman is also a staunch defender of abortion access and has made it a focal point of her campaign.

Lee defeated her challenger by an 80-point margin in the Democratic primary for Nevada's 3rd Congressional District.

But during the current congressional session, Lee has twice violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 by failing to properly disclose hundreds of stock trades together worth millions of dollars.

Becker, a political newcomer, was added in February to the slate of "On the Radar" candidates as part of the Young Guns program funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP's House campaign arm. The program, spearheaded by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, "helps equip Republican candidates across the country with the tools they need to run winning campaigns."

The Las Vegas-based real estate attorney won the Republican nomination for Nevada's 3rd District after winning 67.5% of the vote.

On her campaign website, Becker states she is "pro-life, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother," a stance for which Lee has attacked her. The Nevada Independent reported that Lee, on multiple occasions, tweeted that Becker "will vote for a nationwide abortion ban." Meanwhile, Becker, in an interview with US News & World Report, said she has no plans to try to overturn abortion rights enshrined in Nevada under a 1990 referendum, and that she does not support a nationwide abortion ban.

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Voting history for Nevada's 3rd Congressional District

Nevada's 3rd Congressional District occupies the southernmost tip of Nevada, including Henderson County and portions of Clark County.

President Joe Biden had a narrow 0.2 percentage point margin of victory under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to concede the eastern part of the tip to the 1st Congressional District in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it more favorable for Democrats.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Lee raised $5.8 million, spent $5.6 million, and had $188,598 of cash on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Becker, raised $2.2 million, spent $1.9 million, and had $314,473 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Through early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups together spent more than $24.8 million to advocate for or against the candidates. Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican-backing super PAC, accounted for close to half that spending overall.

What experts say

The race between Lee and Becker was rated as "tilt Democratic" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Getty Images; Insider

Ten candidates will be on the November ballot for Oakland, California's mayoral race.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Incumbent Mayor Libby Schaaf, a Democrat, is leaving office following two consecutive four-year terms, which is the maximum an Oakland mayor can serve. While Oakland's mayoral election is nonpartisan, the city has a history of electing Democrats and Democratic-leaning politicians to fill the mayoral position.

The 10 candidates vying to replace Schaaf are: former councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, former Oakland Unified School District board member Gregory Hodge, paralegal in the California Attorney General's office Tyron Jordan, District 7 Oakland City councilmember Treva Reid, retired carpenter John Reimann, neighborhood organizer Seneca Scott, District 6 councilmember Loren Taylor, District 4 councilmember Sheng Thao, Alyssa Victory Villanueva, and Peter Yuan Liu, an Army veteran who's had unsuccessful runs for Oakland mayor and California governor.

Like many local races, the top issue is how to tackle the city's crime problem. Homicides in Oakland were up more than 50% in 2021, when the number of murders peaked at 100 for the first time in a decade. Last month, the shooting of a 60-year-old man marked the city's 100th death by violence.

Other top issues include dealing with the city's homelessness and affordable housing crises.

The nonpartisan election will be held using ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank up to three candidates, in order of preference, when marking their ballots.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Eric Lynn's campaign; Chris O'Meara/AP Photo; Insider

Republican Anna Paulina Luna won the open seat for Florida's 13th District.

Republican Anna Paulina Luna has Trump's support in the race.

Democrat Eric Lynn is a former national security advisor painting himself as a centrist.

Republican Anna Paulina Luna defeated Democrat Eric Lynn for Florida's 13th Congressional District.

Republican Anna Paulina Luna turned a blue US House seat red as she ran for the open seat in Florida's 13th Congressional District against Democrat Eric Lynn.

The seat was vacant because Democrat Charlie Crist resigned his seat to run for governor against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Majority of polls have closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls have closed at 7 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 8 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Florida's 13th Congressional District candidates

Luna is an Air Force veteran and former model who went on to become the director of conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, and is a podcast host with Gingrich 360.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Luna during the primary and she also has the support of MAGA firebrands Rep. Matt Gaetz and Charlie Kirk, Turning Point's founder.

Lynn is a former national security advisor in the Pentagon under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Libertarian Frank Craft also ran.

Voting history for Florida's 13th Congressional District

Luna unsuccessfully challenged Crist for the seat in the 2020 election, and with his resignation Republicans see an opportunity to turn the district  which includes St. Petersburg  red.

Joe Biden won the district during the 2020 presidential race, but DeSantis proposed a redistricting bill this year that the GOP-controlled Florida legislature passed, and now the map leans more Republican.

The money race

Luna has raised nearly $3 million, spent $2.6 million, and has about $480,000 cash on hand, as of October 19, according to the nonpartisan money-in-politics organization OpenSecrets.

Story continues

Lynn has raised $2 million, spent more than $1.5 million, and has about $592,000 cash on hand, as of October 19.

As of November 4, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups had together spent more than $15.3 million to advocate for and against candidates in this race, including during its primary phase. This ranks the race on the higher end of the spectrum for outside spending.

Progress Pinellas, a pro-Lynn super PAC funded by billionaire investor Justin Ishbia, accounts more more than half of the race's outside spending.

What experts say

The race between Luna and Lynn was rated as a "likely Republican" by Inside Elections and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
After closing his $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter, Elon Musk still seemed to be trying to figure out what he had bought.

On Friday the worlds richest man cut about 3,700 of the companys 7,500 employees, saying in a tweet that unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 million a day.

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But within hours, according to reports, the company was reaching out to ask dozens of those newly unemployed employees if they would please, please return to their jobs.

Those dozens included not only those who were fired by mistake, according to reports, but also some whose knowledge will be critical to the development of new features that Musk would like to implement.

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They include members of the trust and safety teams that manage content moderation, a function that seemed more sorely needed than ever in the deluge of racist slurs, Nazi memes and other garbage that followed the takeover by Musk, a famously self-described free speech absolutist.

But those who were expecting even bigger changes, such as the restoration of former President Donald Trumps account, have to wait longer, says Musk. He tweeted on Friday that he would make no major content decisions or account reinstatements until the convening of a new moderation council.

Earlier in the week, Musk met by phone with civil rights groups in an effort to assure them that he would curtail hate speech, stop the spread of misinformation ahead of the midterm elections  and restore access by Twitter employees to moderation tools from which they had been locked out during the companys acquisition.

He confirmed in his Friday tweet that the council would have widely diverse viewpoints, but he offered no other information about it, its members or how much authority it would have. The groups reminded Musk that any such organization should include those who are targeted with hate-filled online language.

Moderation matters, if Musk is to avoid the free-for-all-hellscape he promises Twitter will not become. Well see. Besides social justice groups, Musk also has to be concerned about advertisers, readers and everyone else connected to the outsize role social networks play in our national politics and social discourse.

Musk certainly could have invested in another exotic enterprise like his Tesla electric car company or his SpaceX venture in commercial space travel that might bring fewer public relations headaches  and maybe an actual profit.

But Musks big buy-in, as many analysts see it, is all about influence, more than profits. Musk, a tireless self-promoter, already has used Twitter to market and sell products and joust with regulators and critics and build his fame.

The social network offers him a more direct opportunity to engage and shape the national conversation as a self-proclaimed free speech advocate who already has whipped up a sizable politically minded fan base.

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The South Africa-born Musk cant run for president without a change in our Constitution. But he doesnt have to be president if he can influence one  or a few.

The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, he said in a speech to advertisers, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.

Thats a relief, especially that violence part. But can he pull it off?

If nothing else, we know Musk to be a man of ideas, even when they may come off as shoot-from-the-lip diatribes without much depth of thought. Now he seems to be discovering, as I predicted, that working out the delicate balance between free speech, social responsibility and public accountability is not as simple as Twitter tweets.

I, too, have long called myself a free-speech absolutist, but Musk is only beginning to discover in real time the trade-offs that come with regulating media while also protecting speech and press freedoms.

Congress has been dragging its heels, for example, in updating Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which created internet commerce as we know it and grants more immunity to content providers than newspapers, broadcast news and other old-school media have.

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Yet the Supreme Court is expected to hear multiple cases here on the types of internet speech coming out of state legislatures. Other governments such as Canada, Britain and India also are not waiting to pass regulations that can have an effect on our speech regulations.

With that in mind, I welcome Musk to join the debate with something more substantial than casual tweets.

Sign up here to receive Clarence Pages columns by email as soon as they are published.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
Butch Dill/AP Photo; Will Boyd's campaign; Insider

Republican Katie Britt has won against Democrat Will Boyd in the Alabama US Senate race.

Britt is endorsed by Donald Trump and retiring Sen. Richard Shelby.

Britt has outraised and outspent Boyd by leaps and bounds, and is strongly favored to win.

Polls are closed in Alabama and Republican Katie Britt has won against Democrat Will Boyd in the state's US Senate race. Sen. Richard Shelby, who has represented Alabama in the US Senate since 1987, announced he would not be seeking reelection, leaving the seat vacant.

Alabama's Senate race candidates

Britt, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, worked on Shelby's 2015 reelection campaign as his deputy campaign manager and communications director. She then served as his chief of staff in 2016.

Britt scored a 15.6 percentage point margin of victory in the Republican primary runoff over Rep. Mo Brooks, who lost Trump's endorsement after a lackluster performance in the polls. Britt has also been endorsed by Shelby as well as Alabama's other US senator, Tommy Tuberville.

Boyd, her opponent, unsuccessfully ran for office in 2016 for Alabama's 5th Congressional District. He then served as the chairman of the Lauderdale County Democratic Executive Committee, then sought election to the US Senate in 2017, losing the Democratic primary to former US Sen. Doug Jones.

And while the Republican nominee is clear on where she stands on abortion  "safeguarding the sanctity of life" appears near the top of Britt's platform page  Boyd, a pastor, has gone against the grain and hasn't run on protecting abortion access.

Alabama's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of about 26 percentage points in the 2020 election. Alabama has voted for the Republican nominee in every presidential election cycle since 1980, and Republicans have won the state by over 20 percentage points since 2004.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Britt has raised $10.6 million, spent $9.1 million, and has $1.5 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

Story continues

Her opponent, Boyd, has raised $117,204, spent $96,452, and has $20,752 cash on hand, as of October 19.

As of late October, over a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $31.9 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, with much of that spending coming during the race's highly competitive Republican primary.

What experts say

The race between Britt and Boyd is rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Its election day in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and across the country. Polls in Massachusetts opened at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. Voters cast ballots on Tuesday for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, US Senate (NH), representatives in congress, governors council, state senator, state representative, district attorney, sheriff, and county commissioner. Nationally, voters will be watching how the balance of power in congress may shift as voters head to the polls in some closely-watched races, including those in New Hampshire.

2 p.m. - The Associated Press is projecting that MA voters have said YES to Ballot Question 1 - A millionaire tax amendment that imposes a 4% surtax on the portion of an individuals annual income that exceeds $1 million. Those making up to $1 million, but not exceeding that amount, wont pay new taxes.

Previous reporting on Ballot Question 1 is here:

12:05 p.m. - The Associated Press is projecting that MA voters have said YES to Ballot Question 4 - which keeps a state law allowing undocumented immigrants to legally obtain drivers licenses.

Previous reporting on Ballot Question 4 is here:

Ballot question 4: Mass. voters to decide if undocumented immigrants can get drivers licenses

10:00 a.m. - The Associated Press is projecting that MA voters have said NO to Ballot Question 3 - which would have led to several changes in the way alcohol is bought and sold in the state.

Our latest election results are here:

RESULTS HERE: 2022 election returns from Massachusetts, New Hampshire

Previous reporting on Ballot Question 3 is here:

Mass. ballot question 3: Several changes could impact the way alcohol is bought, sold in the state

8:30 a.m. Exit poll shows which issues impacted voters choices the most: Abortion rights 76%, Inflation 28%, Crime 41%, Immigration 25%, Gun Policy 60%

8:00 a.m. Massachusetts voters reacting to results from Midterm Election

7:50 a.m. Maura Healey, Kim Driscoll and Andrea Campbell lead a historic night in Massachusetts

7:10 a.m. Three of the four MA ballot questions are too close to call, but Question 2 on dental insurance passes overwhelmingly with 71%

6:45 a.m. Reviewing midterm results and balance of power in Washington with Massachusetts congressman Jake Auchincloss

11:51 p.m. Democrat Maggie Hassan wins reelection to U.S. Senate from New Hampshire.

JUST IN: Democrat Maggie Hassan wins reelection to U.S. Senate from New Hampshire https://t.co/syR5c1MjZf pic.twitter.com/dowjbYsGUG  Boston 25 News (@boston25) November 9, 2022

11:45 p.m. Don Bolduc concedes race to Senator Maggie Hassan, accepts results but says he broke protocol by not calling to congratulate Hassan before conceding.

Don Bolduc concedes race to Senator Maggie Hassan, accepts results but says he broke protocol by not calling to congratulate Hassan before conceding.



Im not one for protocol, he said. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/d8C6wqkyRW  Jason Law (@JasonLawNews) November 9, 2022

11:39 p.m. Deborah Goldberg projected as the winner in Massachusetts race for treasurer.

Deborah Goldberg projected as winner in Massachusetts race for treasurer https://t.co/syR5c1LM9H pic.twitter.com/oPs36poF9u  Boston 25 News (@boston25) November 9, 2022

11:32 p.m. Republican Anthony Amore concedes MA auditors race to Democrat Diana DiZoglio.

I congratulated State Auditor-elect Diana DiZoglio on her win tonight and wished her nothing but the best in her new role. I am grateful to my supporters for their efforts throughout my campaign, and to my campaign team for its tireless work on my behalf. I am honored to have had the opportunity to raise important issues about accountability and transparency during this past year. said Amore, I am especially grateful to Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito for their steadfast support and encouragement.

Story continues

11:24 p.m. Karoline Leavitt concedes the race in her run to represent New Hampshires 1st Congressional district.

Karoline Leavitt concedes the race in her run to represent New Hampshires 1st Congressional district. pic.twitter.com/I5G4armN5b  Brea Douglas (@BreaDouglasTV) November 9, 2022

11:22 p.m Democrat Andrea Campbell has become the 1st Black woman in Massachusetts history to be elected attorney general, AP projects.

BREAKING -- Democrat Andrea Campbell has become the 1st Black woman in Massachusetts history to be elected attorney general, AP projects. Latest vote counts here: https://t.co/syR5c1MjZf pic.twitter.com/tyHplRbqm6  Boston 25 News (@boston25) November 9, 2022





10:55 p.m. Geoff Diehl concedes the Mass. governor race to Maura Healey, says the gap is too large to close.

Geoff Diehl says he spoke with Maura Healey.



He says the gap in results is too big to close.



"Despite outcome, I am proud of the race we ran."  Peter Wilson (@PetesWire) November 9, 2022

.@DiehlForMA has just concede race for governor. He says he has called and congratulated @maura_healey. Diehl says the gap is too big to close. pic.twitter.com/Ssp1EX6r7K  Robert Goulston (@rgoulston) November 9, 2022

10:30 p.m. Election Day analysis: Democratic analyst Annissa Essaibi George and Republican Analyst Lizzy Guyton discuss N.H. U.S. Senate race

10:22 p.m. With Maggie Hassan ahead by 21,964 votes at approximately 10:15 p.m., one of the nations most consequential races is still too close to call.

9:45 p.m. Tonight I want to say something to every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there. I hope, I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever you want to be, Healey says after claiming victory in Massachusetts governor race.

Healey hopes tonight shows people they can be anything they want to be. Sends that message to you people  Bob Dumas (@DumasBoston25) November 9, 2022





9:27 p.m. Ret. Gen. Don Bolduc greeted supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, warning it could be a long night until a winner is declared.

Ret. Gen. Don Bolduc greeted supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, warning it could be a long night until a winner is declared.



Bolduc is trying to unseat Sen. Maggie Hassan in a race that could go a long way to deciding who controls the U.S. Senate. @boston25 #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/zYyKblmc3p  Jason Law (@JasonLawNews) November 9, 2022

9:17 p.m. We are going to prevail. Theres no doubt in my mind, said Don Bolduc addressing supporters in Manchester.

We are going to prevail. Theres no doubt in my mind.



Don Bolduc addressing supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, warning it could be a late night in a close race again Sen. Maggie Hassan. @boston25 #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/P4uud5ZXQi  Jason Law (@JasonLawNews) November 9, 2022

9:16 p.m. Drew Karedes and Jason Law provide updates from New Hampshires race for U.S. Senate

9:14 p.m. Diehl campaign manager Amanda Orlando told supporters there are plenty of more votes that need to be counted before the race is officially called.

.@DiehlForMA campaign manager Amanda Orlando told supporters there are plenty of more votes that need to be counted before the race is officially called. She thanked everyone for sticking around to wait for more information. pic.twitter.com/kCJBKVNzlI  Robert Goulston (@rgoulston) November 9, 2022

8:58 p.m. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu thanks supporters at the Healey campaign viewing party.

Boston mayor Wu thanks supporters for hard work and history that was made by electing first gov  lt gov team in the country. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/uVBY55hAHz  Bob Dumas (@DumasBoston25) November 9, 2022

8:38 p.m. AP projects Republican Chris Sununu as the winner of the race for governor in New Hampshire.

BREAKING -- Republican Chris Sununu wins reelection for governor in New Hampshire, AP projects. Latest election results here: https://t.co/syR5c1LM9H pic.twitter.com/I15Q7fk8Q3  Boston 25 News (@boston25) November 9, 2022

Governor Chris Sununu continues to build on the successes brought on by an agenda that has led to record low unemployment for New Hampshire while ensuring families remain safe and free, said RGA Co-Chairs Governors Doug Ducey and Pete Ricketts. From record investments in public schools to keeping taxes low and government out of your life, Governor Sununu has a proven track record that is working for the Granite State.

8:13 p.m. AP projects Democrat Maura Healey as the winner of the race for governor in Massachusetts. The official projection came shortly after polls closed. According to the AP, there are races in which a party or candidate has a past history of consistent and convincing wins. The AP can use results from its survey of the American electorate to decide poll-close calls in these states.

BREAKING -- AP projects Democrat Maura Healey as winner of race for governor in Massachusetts: https://t.co/NeYMJef1j4 pic.twitter.com/OYQ2F9UDGN  Boston 25 News (@boston25) November 9, 2022

8:02 p.m.: Polls in Massachusetts have officially closed.

Polls are now closed in Massachusetts. Anyone still in line will be able to vote.



Thank you to everyone who participated!  Mass. Elections (@VotingInMass) November 9, 2022

8:00 p.m.: As polls close, the crowd is starting to build at the Copley Fairmont watch party for Democratic candidate Maura Healey.

What a difference 30 minutes makes. People are starting to enter the ballroom at the Copley Fairmont in Boston. This is headquarters of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey. The polls close in a few minutes. Stay with #Boston25 for the latest as results come in . pic.twitter.com/RKgc9rkdAc  John Monahan (@JohnMonahanTV) November 9, 2022

7:56 p.m. Brea Douglas is at the Wentworth by the Sea Country Club in Rye, New Hampshire where Karoline Leavitt is hoping to make history as the youngest woman elected to Congress.

Here at the Karoline Leavitt watch party. Shes the republican candidate running for New Hampshires 1st Congressional district against Rep. Chris Pappas. pic.twitter.com/EmVxmaBEGQ  Brea Douglas (@BreaDouglasTV) November 9, 2022

7:50 p.m. Deihl campaign is confident theyll be victorious. Robert Goulston reporting from the Boston Harbor Hotel.

We just heard from @DiehlForMAs campaign manager, Amanda Orlando. She is confident the voters will have the last say and put Diehl in the Governors office. pic.twitter.com/8EiL2eItw4  Robert Goulston (@rgoulston) November 9, 2022

7:15 p.m. Bob Ward is in Manchester, N.H. as ballots are counted after polls close.

NH Polls closed at 7PM. At Manchesters Memorial HS, they are now counting the ballots. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/ImxrbvD4Hk  Bob Ward Boston 25 (@Bward3) November 9, 2022

7:00 p.m. Polls have closed in New Hampshire and election results in key races are beginning to come in. Click here to stay up to date as election results are tallied.

2022 Election: What are the 4 ballot questions, what do yes and no votes mean for Massachusetts

7:00 p.m. Election Day analysis: Kerry Kavanaugh, Democratic analyst Annissa Essaibi George and Republican Analyst Lizzy Guyton discuss predictions, potential surprises.

6:52 p.m. Republican Karoline Leavitt of New Hampshire is hoping to become the youngest woman elected to Congress if she wins. Brea Douglass reports live from Wentworth by the Sea in Rye, New Hampshire.

6:32 p.m. Election Day analysis: Kerry Kavanaugh talks with Democratic analyst Annissa Essaibi George and Republican analyst Lizzy Guyton about the MA governors race and major races in New Hampshire.

6:15 p.m. Geoff Diehl is hoping to become the states next Republican governor. Robert Goulston reports live from the Boston Harbor Hotel.





5:51 p.m. Maura Healey is hoping to maintain early lead, become Massachusetts first female and openly gay governor. John Monahan reports live from Copley Square.

5:39 p.m. Boston 25s Bob Ward is speaking with voters in Manchester, NH about the reasons they are heading to the polls on election day.

5:00 p.m. Some Election Day polling sites see diminished crowds. Jim Morelli reports live from Framingham.

4:38 p.m. Campaign headquarters in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire are gearing up their election night parties.

Boston harbor will be the backdrop for the @DiehlForMA as election results come in after 8pm. @boston25. pic.twitter.com/RvzjIYrHmN  Robert Goulston (@rgoulston) November 8, 2022

Set up at New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolducs election night headquarters in the Goat restaurant and music venue in Manchester. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/jA3LoSL44U  Jason Law (@JasonLawNews) November 8, 2022

The stage is being set for the Healey campaign at the Fairmont Copley in Boston. This is her election night HQ. Stay tuned to #Boston25 for your all your election night coverage. pic.twitter.com/xqrGKnw7Z3  John Monahan (@JohnMonahanTV) November 8, 2022

4:30 p.m. Voter turnout in Boston, as of 3:00 p.m. is now 25.62% of registered voters.

2:38 p.m. - An update on voter turnout in Boston.

As of 12 p.m., 85,667 votes had been cast. Thats 19.13% of registered voters.

1:51 p.m. Democratic candidate for governor Maura Healey and running mate Kim Driscoll visit Santarpios Pizza in East Boston on Election Day. It was one of two scheduled stops for Healey on Election Day.

1:38 p.m. according to the Lawyers for Civil Rights, there have been some reports of broken machines, election volunteers being harassed, confusion surrounding mail-in ballots, and reports of some City Clerks requiring an ID to vote.

In response to the Lawyers for Civil Rights areas of concern, Secretary of State William Galvin issued the following statement:

It is common for our Elections Division to field complaints on Election Day, from voters, candidates, and volunteers, Galvin said. When this happens, the Elections Division reaches out to the local election officials for information and to offer assistance. When necessary, the Elections Division directs the local election official to take specific actions, which may include contacting the poll workers at the polling place to make corrections.

Click on the story below for more:

Reports of broken voting machines, confusion surrounding mail-in ballots among Election Day issues

11:43 a.m. Voter turnout in Boston as of 9:00 a.m.

27,535 ballots have been cast. Thats 6.15% of all registered voters. The city says says no central tabulation numbers are included with 9 a.m. numbers.

9:00 am voter turnout in #Boston



27,535 ballots cast.



That's 6.15% of all registered voters.



City says no central tabulation numbers are included with 9am numbers.



50% of precincts have tabulated or started to tabulate the AV and EV ballots at the precincts.  Peter Wilson (@PetesWire) November 8, 2022

10:07 a.m. - Secretary of State Bill Galvin spoke with reporters after casting his own ballot in Brighton on Tuesday morning. Galvin is facing a challenge from Republican Rayla Campbell in this election.

Galvin said he is hoping the nice weather will add to his estimated voter turnout, which he put at 2.2 million voters. Galvin also reported there have been no hiccups reported at polling places in the state. There have been no problems statewide. All polling places are open and will remain open until 8:00 p.m. tonight, said Galvin.

Secretary of State Bill Galvin speaks with reporters after voting in Brighton on Tuesday.

9:50 a.m. - Geoff Diehl, the Republican candidate for MA Gov., casts his vote Tuesday morning in Whitmans Town Hall.

Maura Healey, the Democratic candidate for MA Gov., did not vote in person Tuesday, opting to cast her ballot by mail back on October 29.

Voting by mail is quick, safe, and easy, so thats how Im casting my ballot this year. Request yours by November 1. https://t.co/yXOl6eIU8s pic.twitter.com/TrKdwLNtjh  Maura Healey (@maura_healey) October 29, 2022

Healeys running mate, Kim Driscoll, voted in person today in Salem.

One vote down, a couple million to go! Whats your plan to vote today? pic.twitter.com/z8tREJdxZk  Kim Driscoll (@MayorDriscoll) November 8, 2022

8:43 a.m. - An estimated 1 million+ people are expected to cast their ballots in person today.

8:35 a.m. - More than 200 New Hampshire residents cast ballots within the first hour of voting at a Salem polling place.

ELECTION DAY: More than 200 people cast ballots in the first hour of voting at one Salem #NewHampshire polling place! 



On @boston25: Were breaking down a number of incredibly close races in the Granite State (including Senate and 1st Congressional district) pic.twitter.com/DwEfJUBwZ6  Julianne Lima (@JulianneLimaTV) November 8, 2022

NHs 1st Congressional race - a possible bellwether for the country

With Senate on the line, Hassan, Bolduc make last minute pitch to NH voters

8:00 a.m. - State officials reminding voters: Poll workers at polling places cant accept ballots. If you bring a ballot to your polling place, youll be offered the option of voting in person instead.

Why can't poll workers accept mail ballots at polling places? Mail-in ballots need to go to the local election office for signature matching and to be logged in to our state voter database before they can be accepted and counted.  Mass. Elections (@VotingInMass) November 8, 2022

7:15 a.m. - Boston 25 sits down with UMass Boston Political Professor, Dr. Erin OBrien to preview Election Day!

7:00 a.m. - The polls are now open for voting in Massachusetts!

Good morning and happy Election Day, Massachusetts!



Polls are open now and will be open until 8pm tonight.



Check your polling place: https://t.co/xH7U2oIlVy



Happy voting!  Mass. Elections (@VotingInMass) November 8, 2022

The weather does not look like it will be an issue for voters. You can check the latest election day forecast here.

If you have questions about where to vote in Massachusetts, you can find your polling place here:

You can learn more about the candidates running for Massachusetts here:

A final conversation: One-on-one with Democratic candidate for MA Governor, Maura Healey

A Final Conversation: One-on-one with Republican candidate for MA Governor, Geoff Diehl

You can learn more about some of the other candidates here:

Candidates for Mass. governor, lieutenant governor

Candidates for Mass. attorney general

Candidates for Mass. treasurer, auditor

New Hampshire: What to expect on election night

For more election coverage, visit our Election 2022 homepage.

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
After more than 2.5 million Georgians turned out to vote early in the 2022 midterm election, polling locations across the state saw a steady stream of in-person voters on Election Day.

[RELATED: Georgia Midterm 2022 Election Results]

Results flooded in shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. New Georgia election laws allow election workers to count early voting ballots starting in the morning on Election Day, which led to some races being called faster than in past elections.

Channel 2 Action News has confirmed that Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams conceded to incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp in a phone call just after 11 p.m.

Georgias current Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has also won a 2nd term.

The Senate race between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger Herschel Walker is the only race that was forced into a runoff. Under Georgia law, a candidate must get 50% plus one vote in order to win outright.

Heres the latest:

LIVE UPDATES:

4:08 p.m.

Republican Tyler Harper will take the race for Georgia Agriculture Commissioner.

3:27 p.m.

Republican Burt Jones is projected to win in the Lt. Governor race. Republican Bruce Thompson is projected to win the race for Georgia labor commissioner. Republican Richard Woods is projected to win for State School Superintendent.

2:15 p.m.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed that the U.S. Senate race will head to runoff.

Early voting must begin by Monday Nov. 28, according to Raffensperger.

For Tuesdays election results, counties have until Nov. 15 by 5 p.m. to certify them. The states audit must be complete by Nov. 22 with the results certified by Nov. 25.

1:53 p.m.

John King is projected as the winner for Georgia Insurance Commissioner.

1:37 p.m.

Candidate Charlie Bailey has conceded to Attorney General Chris Carr. In a statement, he said:

Last night, across the entire country, voters stood up and fought back against attacks on our Democracy. I am so proud of the fight we led in Georgia, and humbled by the support we have received from all corners of our state.

Story continues

To our campaign supporters, volunteers, and voters - thank you for standing with me in the fight for the open and honest government that the great people of this state deserve.

Although we came up short, the fight to defend our Democracy must continue. The survival of our nation depends on it. I will never give up on that fight, and I will never give up on the fight to ensure every Georgian has an equal shot and an equal opportunity.

Now we must focus all of our efforts on re-electing Senator Warnock to the United States Senate.

1:24 p.m.

Gov. Brian Kemp stopped by the WSB-TV studios to talk about last nights victory as he wins another term as governor.

1:16 p.m.

Fulton County officials say they are finished counting all ballots.

12:35 p.m.

ABC News is projecting that Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock will face off in a runoff on Dec. 6.

The Secretary of States office is holding a news conference at 2 p.m. to discuss preparations for the runoff.

12:30 p.m.

Precincts in all of Georgias 159 counties have reported their vote tallies.

10:37 a.m.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene thanks supporters for electing her to another term in Congress.

Thank you Georgias 14th district for putting your faith in me to be your voice and your representative in Washington.



Its my privilege and my honor.



Thank you to all who support me. I am 100% dedicated to fight for America and the American people. Im looking forward to it.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) November 9, 2022

10:34 a.m.

Herschel Walker sends out fundraising email in anticipated runoff election.

we don't officially have a Senate runoff yet but look what just arrived in my inbox - a fundraising message from @HerschelWalker saying he needs cash for "OVERTIME" pic.twitter.com/CHT7SJKlIH  Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) November 9, 2022

9:56 a.m.

Chris Carr has won his re-election for Georgia Attorney General.

Democratic challenger Jen Jordan conceded the race Wednesday morning.

Thank you to every single person who has supported me along this journey. pic.twitter.com/mzUSXoZawV  Jen Jordan (@senatorjen) November 9, 2022





9:28 a.m.

The Georgia Secretary of State website shows that 154 out of 159 counties have completely reported their results. The website shows Fulton, Fayette, Peach, Grady and Chatham have a combined 12 precincts that have only partially reported.

8:18 a.m.

The City of Snellville says its residents approved a referendum that would allow the city to issue alcohol licenses to businesses.

The Mayor and Council will determine the process of awarding liquor licenses through a new local ordinance including the number of licenses to be awarded. When stores will be able to sell liquor will also be determined in the new law, a city spokesman said.

7:45 a.m.

According to Fulton County election site, Atlanta voters passed a proposal for alcohol sales to begin earlier on Sundays. More than 81% of Atlanta voters said yes to it. Stores can start selling liquor at 11 a.m. on Sundays starting in 2023.

4 a.m.

The live election results shows Warnock and Walker neck and neck with 49.4% and 48.5% of the vote respectively.

Meanwhile, several state offices have not been called or conceded yet as of 4 a.m.: Georgia Lt. Governor, Georgia Insurance Commissioner, Georgia Attorney General, Georgia Labor Commissioner, State School Superintendent and Georgia Agriculture Commissioner.

3 a.m.

Cobb County voters have granted Mableton cityhood. Groups have been pushing for Mableton to become a city for the past four years.

12:16 a.m.

Campaign officials told Channel 2 Action News that the race between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will not be decided tonight. Staffers have been told to go home for the night.

Crowd clearing out at Warnock watch party as we wait for results to come in overnight and into the morning. pic.twitter.com/YGjnflEyOQ  Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) November 9, 2022

12:07 p.m.

Bee Nguyen has conceded to incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

I just called @GaSecofState to concede & congratulate him on winning his 2nd term. The past years haven't been easy in Georgia  I'm grateful to be in race where we can have a phone call & wish each other well. Thank you to the voters in the state of Georgia. You inspire me.   Bee Nguyen  (@BeeForGeorgia) November 9, 2022





11:50 p.m.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock address supporters Tuesday night as he and Herschel Walker were still neck-and-neck, saying, We always knew this race would be close. Thats where we are. Yall just hang in there. Im feeling good.

If neither candidate earns more than 50% of the vote plus a single vote, the race will go into a runoff.

Sen. Warnock: We always knew this race would be close. Thats where we are. Yall just hang in there. Im feeling good. pic.twitter.com/TPGqS1W6k1  Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) November 9, 2022

11:37 p.m.

Democrat Sanford Bishop wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 2nd Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.

11:35 p.m.

Republican Rick Allen wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 12th Congressional District, the AP projects.

11:22 p.m.

Republican Mike Collins wins election to U.S. House in Georgias 10th Congressional District, the AP projects.

11:04 p.m.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has called incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp to concede, Channel 2 Action News can confirm.

10:59 p.m.

Republican Rich McCormick wins election to U.S. House in Georgias 6th Congressional District, AP projects.

10:47 p.m.

Channel 2s Michael Seiden spoke with a Fulton County elections official, who confirmed that all Fulton County votes have been delivered to the countys election preparation center and that the counting could wrap up by midnight if things go as planned.

10:27 p.m.

Incumbent Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R) has been reelected for Georgia U.S. House District 11, the AP projects.

10:25 p.m.

Channel 2s Justin Gray talked to officials with the Georgia Secretary of States office, who said there are still about 70 counties that still havent provided the required 10pm data upload, so theres still not a firm number of how many Georgians have voted election day. State officials ESTIMATE about 1 million GA votes still need to be upload.

9:26 p.m.

Republican Buddy Carter wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 1st Congressional District, AP projects.

9:24 p.m.

Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Bee Nguyen is currently addressing her supporters. Republican Brad Raffensperger, who is the incumbent, is currently leading her in the polls.

Nguyen did not concede, but told supporters her campaign would wait for the votes to come in.

Georgia Secretary of State candidate #BeeNguyen welcomed by supporters as votes continue to roll in. Republican incumbent #BradRaffensperger currently leads Nguyen in the polls @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/KJo69w4V6Z  Ashli Lincoln WSB-TV (@AshliLincoln) November 9, 2022

9:14 p.m.

Democrat Hank Johnson wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 4th Congressional District, AP Projects.

9:03 p.m.

ABC News projects that Democrat Lucy McBath will win reelection to the U.S. House in Georgias 7th Congressional District.

8:57 p.m.

Republican Drew Ferguson wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 3rd Congressional District, AP projects.

8:53 p.m.

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 14th Congressional District, AP projects.

8:48 p.m.

Republican Austin Scott wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 8th Congressional District, the AP projects.

8:41 p.m.

Republican Andrew Clyde wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 9th Congressional District, the Associated Press projects.

8:20 p.m.

More than 1 million of Georgias 2.5 million early and absentee votes are uploaded and only a small number of election day votes.

more than 1 million of GA's 2.5 million early & absentee votes are uploaded. only a fraction of election day votes so far. GA SOS now projecting could be ab out 1.7 million election day voters. they will get hard data on how many at 10pm https://t.co/6zc1rULsoR  Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) November 9, 2022

8:07 p.m.

Democrat David Scott wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 13th Congressional District, the Associated Press reports.

8:03 p.m.

Democrat Nikema Williams wins reelection to U.S. House in Georgias 5th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.

7:12 p.m.

Results are already starting to come in from Georgia counties.

Follow along as results come in throughout the evening HERE.

[RELATED: Georgia Midterm 2022 Election Results]

7 p.m.

Most polls have closed across Georgia.

6:41 p.m.

DeKalb Voter Registration and Elections is extending voting times until 7:40 p.m. at Lawrenceville Road United Methodist Church, 3142 Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker.

All voters who arrive at Lawrenceville Road United Methodist Church by 7:40 p.m. on Election Day will be permitted to cast a ballot, even if a line has formed.

5:57 p.m.

Fulton County elections officials said the first results they release will include early voting, followed by absentee by mail, then Election Day.

If you are watching GA tonight - something new this year - be prepared for big batches of votes EARLY. Clarification to GA law allows counties to start tabulating early votes at 7am. Many of the 2.5 million ballots cast early could be uploaded minutes after polls close at 7pm #  Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) November 8, 2022

5:18 p.m.

DeKalb County election officials are extending voting times at Solid Rock AME Church until 7:39 p.m.

All voters who arrive at the church, located at 4065 Snapfinger Road, by 7:39 p.m. will be permitted to cast a ballot, even if a line has formed.

An early morning operational delay resulted in a 39-minute delay for voters, said DeKalb VRE Executive Director Keisha Smith. Overall, we have experienced a relatively smooth Election Day thus far and look forward to quickly addressing any issues that might impact our voters casting ballots today.

4:52 p.m.

Georgia precincts are processing voters in about 49 seconds, according to the Secretary of States Office.

So we are still at 2 minute waits on average statewide. Again that means most locations have zero wait. The counties are still processing voters in about 49 seconds.  Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) November 8, 2022

Georgia Secretary of State Deputy @GabrielSterling just happily described Election Day here in Georgia (so far) to me as Wonderfully, stupendously boring pic.twitter.com/DrI8x4nhsR  Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) November 8, 2022

4:07 p.m.

State officials are projecting they could hit 2 million election day voters on top of the 2.5 million Georgians who already voted early.

2:49 p.m.

A judge has agreed to let a private courier deliver more than 100 Cobb County absentee ballots that were not overnighted yesterday after 1,000 ballots were not sent out. Voters should have their ballots by 5 p.m.

12:24 p.m.

Two Cobb County precincts will remain open past 7 p.m. after delays in opening for the general election. Hours at the Kennesaw 3A precinct at the Ben Robertson community center have been extended until 7:45 p.m. Hours at the Oregon 03 precinct at the Fair Oaks Community Center will accept in-person voting until 7:06 p.m.

12:10 p.m.

Gabriel Sterling with the Georgia Secretary of States Office said in a tweet that the average time to vote in Georgia was around 3 minutes by noon. The longest line is in Stephens County at 13 minutes. Most polling locations have no wait at all.

11:44 a.m.

Two election workers were fired in Johns Creek about 15 minutes before polls opened after the mother and son exchanged concerning posts on social media. Fulton County elections officials did not reveal the nature of the concerns.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]








Chicago Tribune

Patients who ask for their doctors help through online portals might soon notice something new: fees for their physicians online advice. A growing number of health systems across the country are now charging for some types of messages sent through online patient portals, such as MyChart, with fees often around $35 or less. Its a trend thats sparking mixed reactions, with some saying it ...
A Jefferson County Circuit Court judge who signed the flawed search warrant that led Louisville Metro Police officers to Breonna Taylors apartment the night she was fatally shot has been ousted from her position by voters.

Judge Mary Shaw, of District 5, fell short of securing her position on Election Day to Tracy Evette Davis.

According to the Jefferson County Clerks Office, Davis received 51% of votes with 100,870 votes cast in her favor, compared to Shaws 98,503, or 49%.

Shaw was elected in 2006, and took the bench in January 2007, according to her website. She was a circuit court staff attorney for more than 16 years.

According to Leslie Davis, Shaws assistant, she had no comment at this time regarding the election results.

Ahead of the Tuesday night decision, Shaw faced immense criticism and backlash for her involvement in the signing of the falsified warrant, which ultimately resulted in the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman and Louisville emergency room technician, in March 2020.

The warrant was one of five obtained by detectives who were looking into potential drug trafficking in Louisville, according to the Department of Justice. The primary target of the investigation was Jamarcus Glover, Taylors ex-boyfriend and a man who had been previously arrested for drug trafficking.

Four former Louisville police officers face federal charges for their roles in the botched search warrant execution, including Kelly Goodlett, Joshua Jaynes, Kyle Meany and Brett Hankison. They face federal charges of civil rights offenses, unconstitutional use of force, obstruction and conspiracy, according to the Department of Justice. Goodlett has pleaded guilty to her charges.

According to court documents, both Goodlett and Jaynes knowingly falsified an affidavit for a search warrant for Taylors home. When a group of LMPD officers used a battering ram to force open the apartments front door, Taylors boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at them with his legally-owned gun because he thought they were intruders. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Det. Myles Cosgrove and Hankison returned a total of 32 rounds into Taylors apartment; six of those shots struck Taylor, who died in the hallway of her apartment.

Story continues

Cosgrove has since been fired from LMPD, and Mattingly retired in 2021.

The court record alleges that both Goodlett and Jaynes put false and misleading information in the affidavit in order to get the warrant.

According to Goodletts plea agreement, she acknowledged that she helped another LMPD detective and their supervisor obtain a warrant to search Taylors home, despite knowing that the officers lacked probable cause to do so.

To establish probable cause, information in an affidavit accompanying a search warrant must be truthful and timely. Goodlett admitted that she knew that the affidavit in support of the warrant to search Taylors home was false, misleading and stale, according to the Department of Justice.
Breeze aircraft at Las Vegas. Breeze Airways

Breeze is launching its 100th route, a new transcontinental flight from California to Florida.

Breeze plans to expand service at the slot-constrained John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.

Upstart airline Breeze is growing again. It's adding a new nonstop route from Orange County's John Wayne Airport to Orlando International  the only airline to fly direct from the home of Disneyland to the home of Walt Disney World.

It will fly once-a-day service from Orange County's SNA airport to Orlando's MCO using Airbus A220 jets with two classes of service.

Breeze said it also would add a new non-stop route from John Wayne to Provo Municipal Airport in Utah  the home of Brigham Young University that's about 50 miles from Salt Lake City.

The upstart's new routes fit into the Breeze model of connecting leisure-heavy locations without nonstop service. Most major airlines serve John Wayne and Orlando, but none are direct. Provo was listed among the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas in recent Census data.

Flyers traveling from Provo will also be able to continue on to Orlando without getting off the plane, if they choose. Breeze calls this its "BreezeThru" service, a service it has offered on other routes.

The addition of John Wayne will bring Breeze Airways' national footprint to 34 cities  more than double what the rapidly-growing startup carrier founded by aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman launched with in May 2021.

Correction November 9, 2022: An earlier version misstated the direction of the "BreezeThru" service and implied a route the airline does not fly. It flies from Provo to Orlando with a stop in Santa Ana.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Lubbock County Courthouse.

A 17-year-old girl whose fingerprints were allegedly found last month in a vehicle where police found a 50-year-old man's body, was indicted Tuesday in connection with the beating death of the man.

Bailey Forrest is charged with murder in the Sept. 27 death of Robert Stewart, whose body was found in the back seat of a Toyota RAV4 abandoned in an alley in the 2600 block of 46th Street.

Forrest is one of three people Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit investigators arrested in connection with Stewart's death.

A 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl also face a murder charge in the case. At present, the two are being charged as juveniles. In Texas, 17-year-olds are charged as adults.

Investigators believe the three planned to rob Stewart after one of them arranged online to meet him for a sexual encounter, police officials said.

The case began when Lubbock police officers responded to the scene initially to help the city's solid waste department with a vehicle blocking an alley. Responding officers found Stewart in the back seat of his vehicle and EMS crews pronounced him dead at the scene.

3 teens arrested in Central Lubbock homicide investigation

Stewart, who lived about six blocks north of where his vehicle was found, suffered what investigators believed to be blunt-force trauma to his head and torso, according to a redacted probable cause affidavit. Evidence at the scene indicated that Stewart was killed elsewhere and his body was cleaned to hide blood evidence, court documents state.

The next day a tipster told police that Stewart was killed in an apartment in the 2100 block of 51st Street.

Detectives learned that during the investigation into an unrelated aggravated robbery case, Forrest's parents said their daughter lived in the apartment, court documents state.

A second tipster called into the Crime Line number and said Forrest and two other people beat a man to death with a pole, wrapped his body in carpet and dumped the car and body in an alley.

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Investigators searched the apartment and found large areas of blood and evidence of a cleanup. They also found a site where evidence appeared to have been burned. However, a partially burned wooden club was recovered from the burn site, court documents state.

Forrest and the 16-year-old girl reportedly told investigators that day that they were present when Stewart was killed, saying the 16-year-old boy, Tobias Salazar, beat Stewart to death.

However, the investigator found that Forrest and the girl's statements contained inconsistencies about their involvement in Stewart's death and obtained a warrant for their cell phones.

The next day, a forensic scientist linked a fingerprint in Stewart's vehicle to Forrest.

Lubbock police arrested Forrest on Sept. 30 in the 4900 block of 4th street.

An hour later, a 16-year-old girl surrendered to police and was taken to the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center.

The 16-year-old boy was arrested Oct. 3 about two hours after issuing a news release identifying him as one of three teenagers suspected in Stewart's homicide case. He was also taken to the juvenile justice center.

Forrest was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center on a charge of murder and aggravated robbery where she remains. Her bond is set at $350,000 for murder and $100,000 for the robbery charge.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock teenager indicted on murder charge in beating death
Serhii Haidai, Head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, has said that environmental problems occurred in the oblast due to the large number of dead people who were buried spontaneously, including occupiers.

Source: Haidai on Facebook

Quote: "On the battlegrounds, Luhansk Oblast is becoming one large Russian burial site...

The environment in Luhansk Oblast is disturbed by a large number of dead people who were spontaneously buried. And the Ruscists remnants that no one is going to bury. Because of this situation, there is already a problem with groundwater, which is contaminated.

As for the corpses of the Russian soldiers [that were left behind] after liberation, we will store them in refrigerators, and then we will decide what to do."

Details: Haidai added that the situation in Bilohorivka was also difficult.

The village is constantly being shelled by the occupiers, the Russians drop bombs and systematically attack the settlement; it is completely destroyed.

Haidai has stated that it would take at least 10 years to clear the main roads and territories of critical infrastructure facilities and residential areas in Luhansk Oblast off the mines. It will take much more to clear the entire occupied part of Luhansk Oblast off the mines.

In particular, a problem in demining will be caused by modern devices, such as plastic mines, which a metal detector cannot find.

Therefore, it is dangerous for civilians to return to the liberated cities and towns right now.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Macron seeking new EU security architecture after war in Ukraine ends

According to him, after "peace returns to Ukraine," the European Union should "build a new security architecture and an updated structure of stability and arms control, where Europe will be at the negotiating table."

"We must relearn how to mobilize the vital forces of our country to serve our sovereignty," Macron said.

He proceeded to add that "Europe is no longer safe from missile and drone attacks" and that "the air defense of our continent is of strategic importance."

Read also: Macron pledges more security assistance to Ukraine

The French leader also said that the global geopolitical world order has been violated by Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

The day before, Macron called for the resumption of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, but on Kyiv's terms and at a time chosen by the Ukrainian authorities.

In late October, Macron already commented on the topic of negotiations with Russia. He stated that Paris would continue dialogue with Moscow and Kyiv to bring the negotiations between the two countries closer.

Read also: Presidents Office asks Macron what there is to negotiate with Putin after French leader calls for talks

Macron also said that France and other partners cannot decide for Ukraine when it should start negotiations with Russia.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
TCHINEKANKARAM, NIGER  One mile long, rising as barren rock no more than 10 feet above a parched plain of patchy grass and thorny acacia, is an area known as Tchinekankaran (chin-kan-karan), or place of insects in Tamasheq, the language of Tuareg nomads. True to its name, voracious scorpions, wind spiders and praying mantises dueled under our camp lights, but we came for the sea of fossil bones peeking from rocks nearby. Strings of vertebrae the size of frying pans and human-sized bones comprise the skeleton of an unnamed giant from Africas deep past.

Four years ago, we followed a local nomad on a motorbike to the first skeleton, unearthing just enough to outline its 60-foot length. The intervening COVID pandemic delayed our return, and we wondered whether the find remained untouched, holding our breath as our GPS devices led us back to the spot.

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Not only were the bones as we had left them, but in the days that followed we discovered nearby several more skeletons of the same creature, a new long-necked plant eater we call a sauropod. We nicknamed our new-found graveyard Sauropod Island and its plentiful inhabitant Ipod (short for Irhazer Plain sauropod).

Our success in finding multiple skeletons of Ipod created its own crisis. How to excavate many tons of fossils with only three weeks available? Massive six-foot thigh bones were locked into the hard rock. Removing them would be a gargantuan task even for a large team armed with tons of plaster, jackhammers and all manner of tools.

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A panoramic photo of the team excavating a small skeleton of the long-necked dinosaur Irhazer Plain sauropod, or "Ipod," in Niger in October 2022. (Paul Sereno photo)

Born diggers are people who have known ever since their earliest memories that they want to dig fossils, dinosaurs in particular. Take Grace Broderick, our youngest team member at age 24. Latching onto a stuffed T-rex at age 6, she dressed it in American Girl outfits. At 12, she penned me a letter asking to volunteer in my Fossil Lab. For years she spent after-school hours in the lab, cleaning fossils beside professional preparators and graduate students. Grace packs the greatest punch at the dig site, with the grit and adventurous spirit to thrive on a Saharan expedition.

Francesc Gasco, a brawny six-footer who goes by Pako, also knew from his earliest memories that he had a love for fossils and dinosaurs, growing up in a small community outside the Spanish coastal city of Valencia. His relentless fossil passions led him to a doctorate about long-necked dinosaurs from Spain and, at 33, a university job teaching paleontology.

Team members Francesc Gasco and Grace Broderick dig around a thigh bone (femur) of a dinosaur on what they dubbed "Sauropod Island." (Paul Sereno photo / HANDOUT)

Trench warfare is how I describe the process of unearthing a petrified giant, much less three of them. One must carve through solid rock using hand tools, power drills and jackhammers, trenching downward as much as 3 feet or more to each side of fragile bones and then tunneling under them. We cocoon multi-ton blocks of the dinosaurs bones in wood-reinforced plaster jackets, enclosing as little surrounding rock as possible. After each day, we hauled our bruised, exhausted bodies back to camp. It was an Olympic test of mental and physical fitness we were not sure we would endure. But in the end, we left Sauropod Island for Agadez in the dark of night, with some 30 tons of Ipods bones strapped aboard a heavy loading truck.

Before leaving, we took a side trip to a towering cliff of sandstone not far from Sauropod Island. Massive, petrified tree trunks were lodged in its walls. The cliff line separates the mudstone plain with Ipods bones from an endless plateau of sandstone bearing other dinosaurs, like the sail-backed Ouranosaurus we dug up earlier in the expedition. Something dramatic, perhaps catastrophic, happened in this part of Africa during the dinosaur era to instantaneously change accumulating sediment from mud to sand.

We spotted a patch on the side of the cliff that exposed the contact between these two geologic regimes. There we found a thin green layer of volcanic ash, the gold-standard material used by geologic time tellers. Scraping the ash and its tiny volcanic crystals into vials, we celebrated the prospect of understanding with precision when a volcanic catastrophe separated two of Africas most distinctive dinosaur eras.

Back in Agadez, we loaded the massive haul of fossils into a 40-foot container before repacking for our final leg of the expedition  to an even more remote area of the desert.

The Tribune is following the progress of University of Chicago professor Paul Sereno and his team over several months on an expedition in Niger in Africa. They are uncovering the traces of a human civilization that lived some 10,000 years ago in what is now the Sahara Desert. For more information, also see Africas Lost World and NigerHeritage.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) was projected to have fended off a comeback bid from her predecessor, former Gov. Paul LePage (R), to win a second term in Tuesdays election.

CBS and NBC News called the race for Mills.

LePage, a conservative firebrand, moved to Florida after serving two terms from 2011 to 2019 but then moved back to Maine and took advantage of a state law allowing his return to office.

Mills was Maines attorney general before running to replace LePage in 2018. She quickly set about undoing some of his moves, expanding Maines Medicare program and dropping work requirements for beneficiaries.

She also oversaw one of the countrys most effective COVID-19 responses, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts, which ranked Maine second only to Hawaii in health care during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, Mills signed a budget bill making community college free for Mainers through 2023. However, she also clashed with the Democratic-controlled legislature at times, vetoing seven bills last year, including one that would have closed a juvenile prison.

LePage was a former business owner who made national headlines during his time in office for making racist comments while discussing drug trafficking in the state.

These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothy, Shifty. These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York, he said in 2016 of drug dealers bringing heroin into the state.

Mills repeatedly pressed LePage on his abortion stance during their debates during this years campaign cycle.

Though LePage said he would not sign additional abortion restrictions, Mills pressed him on whether he would let such a bill pass into law, causing him to offer a stumbling answer that dodged the question.

Republicans are hoping to flip both legislative chambers this year.

During their fourth debate at the end of October, the candidates sparred over the economic health of the state.

LePage argued Maines economy was worse than it was when he left office, despite bigger budgets.

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I am the guy thats got a business background, and a business background works this way. In the private sector, when you spend more money and get less results, you get fired, he said.

Mills said Maine had recovered jobs lost in the pandemic, and noted the states economic growth is 11th in the nation.

Were doing a pretty damned good job under difficult circumstances, she responded.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A 23-year-old man has been arrested after throwing eggs at King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, while they were visiting the city of York in England. According to PBS News Hour, the man was throwing eggs as the King and the Queen Consort were meeting local dignitaries in front of a large crowd. Video posted to social media shows several people booing the pair while the street was littered with eggs.

The couple didnt appear to be hit by any of the eggs thrown in their direction. As the man was being arrested, several protesters shouted this country was built on the blood of slaves.

Others fought back against the protesters, chanting, Shame on you and God save the King.

A man has been detained by police after appearing to throw eggs at the King and Queen Consort in York. Read more: https://t.co/D5u1c5OAdO pic.twitter.com/pF0FXq4oiU  BBC Yorkshire (@BBCLookNorth) November 9, 2022

Charles and Camilla attended a service at the citys cathedral, York Minster, during their visit. They also unveiled a statue of the kings mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.

According to the BBC, North Yorkshire police said there was a well-rehearsed security operation put in place ahead of the couples visit.

Im pleased to report that the policing operation and the overall wider visit was successful today, Charlotte Bloxham, the commander for the security operation, told reporters. An enormous amount of planning and preparation goes into visits of this nature. I would like to thank all the officers and staff that supported todays operation.
A man broke down a womans door and attacked her because he said she owed him money and a lottery ticket, Tennessee police said.

Dontrell Hanes, 43, went to the womans house in Cordova, just east of Memphis, on Nov. 8 and kicked down her door after she wouldnt let him inside, according to an arrest affidavit from the Shelby County Sheriffs Office.

He then dragged her through her home, punched her and choked her while she was on the bathroom floor, restricting her breathing for around five seconds, the affidavit says.

He asked her for money and dumped her purse out onto the kitchen floor, the affidavit says. The woman later told deputies that he was upset because he hadnt received his lottery ticket and money he felt the she owed him.

He then dragged her toward the front door as she grabbed onto furniture to try to prevent him from taking her out of the house, the affidavit says. She eventually said she would go with him and got into his vehicle, investigators said.

As he drove, he pulled out a handgun from underneath the drivers seat and told her that he was going to shoot up someones house, according to the affidavit. He continued to ask her for money, specifically $10,000, and told her that if she tried to leave, it would not end well, the affidavit says.

At one point, she convinced him to let her call her daughter. Thats when detectives were alerted to what was happening, and authorities later found them outside an Exxon gas station, according to the affidavit.

When detectives tried to arrest Hanes, they got into a physical altercation with him, according to the affidavit.

He faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault and four counts of aggravated assault on a first responder, according to Shelby County jail records. He is scheduled for a court hearing on Nov. 10.

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A man called his ex-wife to explain why he killed her new boyfriend as he held her brother hostage, Nevada police say.

Jose Alexis Cabrera Hernandez, 49, called his ex-wife four times on Friday, Nov. 4, while driving with the womans brother, who was being held hostage, in the car, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh said in a news briefing.

He admitted to killing her new boyfriend because he was getting in the way of them repairing their relationship and getting back together, Walsh said.

Cabrera Hernandez went on to tell his ex-wife that he would trade her brother in exchange for his passport and for her so that they could go to Mexico together and repair their relationship, according to Walsh.

Police first responded to a home on Kipling Street at 12:21 p.m. on Nov. 4 after getting a 911 call about a shooting, a Nov. 8 news release from the department said. Police later learned Cabrera Hernandez fired six rounds during the fatal shooting, according to Walsh.

Officers arrived to find a man with multiple gunshot wounds, who was pronounced dead on scene, according to the news release.

Police said they quickly learned the man had been shot by his girlfriends ex-husband.

Cabrera Hernandezs vehicle, occupied by him and the hostage, who police later learned was zip tied inside the SUV, was later found in an alley in downtown Las Vegas, Walsh said.

Due to the fact that detectives believed Cabrera Hernandez was armed and still holding a hostage, SWAT was requested to assist, Walsh said.

Cabrera Hernandez left the area and drove throughout the Valley for approximately one hour as detectives and the air unit covertly surveilled and followed him, Walsh said. It was during this time that he called his ex-wife multiple times.

Shortly before 9 p.m., Cabrera Hernandez pulled into a business complex parking lot, and he and the hostage left the SUV shortly after, Walsh said.

As SWAT units were arriving, Cabrera Hernandez forced the hostage back into the car, Walsh said. He tried to drive away, but SWAT vehicles blocked his vehicle, preventing him from leaving.

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While trying to rescue the hostage, an officer fired one round into the car at Cabrera Hernandez, Walsh said.

The hostage was rescued from the vehicle unharmed, Walsh said.

The hostage later told police that he feared Cabrera Hernandez would kill him, Walsh said.

Despite life saving measures, Cabrera Hernandez was pronounced dead on scene, according to Walsh. Had Cabrera Hernandez lived, he would have been charged with murder, kidnapping, and two counts of own or possess a gun by a prohibited person.

Police continue to investigate, and an examination of this incident in underway, the release said.

This review focuses on policy, tactics, and training as it relates to this use of force, police said.

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A woman was on her first date with a man Saturday in Steilacoom when her former boyfriend walked up to the car the two were in and started shooting, according to charges filed Tuesday.

The man, 19, was killed, and the woman suffered life-threatening injuries. She was shot four times in the chest and shoulder. Neither victim has been publicly identified. Prosecutors wrote in charging documents that surveillance footage showed the accused gunman dropping the woman off at St. Joseph Medical Center and fleeing without speaking with hospital staff.

Emilio Anthony Joseph John, 21, was charged in Pierce County Superior Court with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault.

Pleas of not guilty were entered on Johns behalf at arraignment Tuesday afternoon.

During arguments for bail, deputy prosecuting attorney Wesley Yu said the woman John is accused of shooting is still in critical condition, and its unclear if she will survive. He said John was in possession of four firearms when he was arrested. According to court records, those included three handguns and a shotgun. Court Commissioner Philip Thornton set bail at $1.5 million.

The exact relationship between John and the woman he is accused of shooting is unclear. According to the declaration for determination of probable cause, John had a child in common with her, and the two had been fighting recently because John found out she was talking with another man. In interviews with detectives, John allegedly said they dated for about four years and then started seeing other people.

To identify John as the suspected shooter, detectives used cell phone records, surveillance footage from the hospital and statements made to police. The defendant had recently assaulted and pointed a gun at his former girlfriend, according to the probable cause document, and he allegedly threatened to kill her.

After John was arrested, he agreed to an interview with detectives and said he didnt know why he was under arrest, records say. He allegedly said that on the day of the shooting, Nov. 5, he worked from 1 to 6:30 p.m. and then went drinking with a coworker. Detectives then told him about cell phone records and surveillance footage that tied him to the shooting. John requested an attorney, and the interview ended.

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Charging documents gave this account:

Officers from Steilacoom and DuPont police departments were dispatched Sunday to 1914 Commercial St. after the victims parents found him there and called 911. He was in the drivers seat of a Kia Forte with multiple gunshot wounds and appeared to have been dead for several hours, records say.

Police canvassed the area for witnesses, and one resident reported hearing gunshots Saturday night sometime between 7:30 and 8 p.m.

The victims parents last heard from him over text message Saturday evening, and they believed he had been with his on and off girlfriend, according to the probable cause document. In the passenger seat of the car, police found a purse and a pink phone, so dispatchers checked local hospitals for gunshot victims. Police learned a woman was in critical condition at Tacoma General Hospital, transferred there from St. Josephs Medical Center.

Detectives interviewed the woman, who could only respond by nodding or writing answers to questions because she was intubated. According to the probable cause document, she indicated she met the 19-year-old man online, and they were in her car when a man in a mask walked up and shot them.

The woman was able to confirm that the defendant was the person who dropped her off at the hospital, but she wasnt sure how he knew where to find her, and she said she didnt know who shot her.

Surveillance video from St. Joseph Medical Center showed a man identified as John pull up to the hospital in a Dodge Charger, according to the probable cause document. John ran inside, grabbed a wheelchair, then removed the woman from his car and wheeled her into the emergency room department. Then he drove off.

Detectives obtained a warrant for Johns cell phone records, which showed his phone pinging off of a cell tower in Silverdale. Records showed the defendant has a relative who lives in that area. There, detectives found Johns Charger and set up surveillance. Detectives saw John leave shortly after midnight Monday, and he was taken into custody without incident.
A man is in custody after a fatal shooting inside a financial planning firm following a dispute that began at a Taco Bell in Scott Township.

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The dispute began at the Taco Bell along Cochran Road, where an employee and his supervisor got into a dispute over a prior corrective action taken against the employee.

According to the criminal complaint, the supervisor followed the employee into Northwestern Mutual on Cochran Road and shot him in the lobby of the building.

The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene. The Allegheny County Medical Examiners office identified the victim as 32-year-old Dorian Carver.

Detectives determined that 23-year-old Zairyre Simmons, of Pittsburgh, was responsible for the homicide.

A warrant was obtained for Simmons arrest. He was charged with criminal homicide and firearms violations.

The criminal complaint states the firearm used in the shooting was stolen on Oct. 6.

Simmons turned himself in to Allegheny County police at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday. He is now in Allegheny County Jail awaiting arraignment.

A Taco Bell representative sent the following statement to Channel 11:

We are shocked and saddened to hear that this happened. We understand that the franchise owner and operator of this location is working with the local authorities in their investigation. Our thoughts are with the affected family of the team member in this difficult time.

Carvers family started a Gofundme to help raise money for his funeral.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call 1-833-ALL-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.

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LIVE UPDATES: John Fetterman wins Senate race; Josh Shapiro to be next Pennsylvania governor ELECTION RESULTS: Here are the latest results from the Pennsylvania Election Tropical Storm Nicole: Storm nearing hurricane strength as it moves closer to Florida coast VIDEO: 11 News looks into issues with Powerball tickets, drawing DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
Tropical Storm Nicole is on track to make landfall in Florida overnight on Wednesday into Thursday after strengthening into a Category 1 hurricane.

The storm will likely hit land somewhere in southeast Florida between Boca Raton and Palm Bay, putting former president Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in the potential cone of impact.

Nicole will bring heavy winds and rain to Florida, bringing a rare late-in-the-season hurricane to the Sunshine State just weeks after Ian devastated communities around Fort Myers and Naples.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has urged residents in the storms path to monitor weather reports and have a disaster supply kit at hand.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is forecasting a storm surge of up to five feet (1.5 metres) along part of Floridas Atlantic coast, with up to 8 inches (20 centimetres) of rain in some locations. As a result, some flash flooding, especially in low-lying areas and areas with poor drainage, like cities.

In West Palm Beach, some early flooding along the coast has been reported as the storm moves in toward land.

By Wednesday morning, Nicoles centre was just off the coast of the northern Bahamas, and the storm was forecast to become a Category 1 hurricane by the afternoon before hitting Florida.

A hurricane warning has been issued for part of the northern Bahamas, and Floridas east coast from Boca Raton through Volusia County. Other coastal areas, including far southeast Florida, northern Florida, Lake Okeechobee, Georgia and parts of South Carolina, are under a tropical storm warning.

A storm surge warning, meaning danger of life-threatening inundation, has been issued from West Palm Beach through part of the Georgia coastline, and on part of Floridas Gulf Coast from Pinellas County to St James Island, according to NHC.

More than 39 million people are under inland flooding alerts, and more than 27 million people are under coastal flooding alerts as of Wednesday morning.

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The Orlando International Airport has said that it will cease operations starting on Wednesday afternoon as they prepared for the storms impact.

Parts of Flagler, Volusia, Palm Beach and Nassau counties in Florida were under mandatory evacuation orders, with officials urging residents in low-lying areas and mobile homes to seek shelter. Other counties along the Atlantic Coast had voluntary evacuation orders in place.

While the communities hit most directly by Hurricane Ian likely wont receive the brunt of Nicoles impact, they could get significant rain and heavy winds over the next two days, even as many communities are still reeling from the storm that left more than 100 people dead earlier this year.

But the storms impact will likely spread much further out of Florida over the rest of the week. While Nicole is forecast to weaken back into a tropical storm by Thursday morning, it is projected to turn to the northeast later that day and move up the Atlantic Coast.

The southeast and Appalachia could see between two to four inches (5-10 cm) of rain over the next few days, with some spots seeing up to six in (15 cm), NHC warns. The storm will stretch as far north as New York and New England, bringing up to four in (10 cm) of rain to parts of the region.

Much of the eastern US could see some localized flash flooding because of the heavy rainfall.

If it reaches Category 1 status, Nicole would be one of the rare November hurricanes to reach land. The last hurricane to hit Florida in November was Hurricane Kate in 1985.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average year features less than one named storm forming in November. This year has already featured two additional November hurricanes, Lisa and Martin, both Category 1. Lisa made landfall in Belize while Martin did not pose a threat to land.

While NOAA had predicted an above-normal hurricane season, the year is likely to hit the lower range of what was expected after a particularly quiet summer. Hurricane season in the Atlantic lasts from June through the end of November, peaking in early September.

But the two major hurricanes that did form were particularly destructive. In September, Hurricane Fiona slammed into Puerto Rico and left much of the island out of power for weeks.

Later that month, Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida as a near-Category 5 storm and one of the most destructive and deadly hurricanes in recent US history.

And hurricanes are expected to get even stronger on average as the climate crisis grows over the next few decades. A hotter planet means warmer ocean surface temperatures  which can help quickly power up a storm to dangerous strength, much like what happened with Hurricane Ian.

A UN climate science panel has found that over the past four decades, the percentage of storms reaching Category 3 or higher has been increasing.
Maribel Perez Wadsworth

After more than 26 years with Gannett  many spent leading the company's digital transformation and breaking barriers for women of color  the president of Gannett Media announced she will leave the company Dec. 31.

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, was named president of Gannett Media in June after serving as president of news for Gannett and publisher of USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network.

Wadsworth, who is Cuban-American, was the first person of color to serve as publisher for USA TODAY, when she assumed the role in 2018.

As a daughter of immigrants, to have such an opportunity to rise to a position of leadership and influence in this industry has been a great blessing, Wadsworth said during a Wednesday virtual meeting with staff. But I really do welcome a moment to catch my breath and prioritize my family.

She serves on the board of directors of the Associated Press, the News Media Alliance, the International News Media Association and online learning community Skillshare. She also is a trustee of her alma mater, the University of Miami.

After starting her journalism career as an editorial assistant at the Associated Press's Miami office in 1994, Wadsworth moved to Gannett as a reporter at the Rockford Register Star in Illinois in 1996, where she was the only Spanish-speaking reporter.

She joined Gannetts corporate team in 2009, where she spearheaded digital efforts and audience development.

Maribel Perez Wadsworth participates in a town hall at the Gannett headquarters in McLean, Va. on Aug. 3, 2017.

Gannett CEO and Chairman Michael Reed said the company has made many strides under Wadsworths leadership, including the recent milestone of hitting 2 million paying digital-only subscribers.

Maribels commitment to Gannett, our mission and journalism is second to none, Reed said. Her passion has never wavered for a second, despite the really tough macro environment we've had to endure in the last three years.

Gannett earnings: Gannett posts third-quarter loss amid cost-cutting, layoffs

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Nicole Carroll, editor in chief of USA TODAY, called Wadsworth a once-in-a-generation news leader.

She's incredibly principled, driven, ambitious, and she's also very empathetic and very caring about her team, she said.

Carroll recalled meeting Wadsworth 17 years ago at a leadership conference. Both were pregnant.

We were both women, trying to do our best in a really busy job with busy families," said Carroll. Our jobs are hard and sometimes we have tough days, and shes someone who can help you take it in stride.

Wadsworth's commitment to diversity is one aspect of her leadership that stands out for Carroll.

It influences every decision she makes, said Carroll. It's constantly through that lens of how do we help or raise up someone who hasn't had a chance at something? How do we level the playing field?

Amalie Nash, USA TODAY Network senior vice president of local news and audience development said Wadsworth's background in local journalism helped her connect with Gannett reporters in newsrooms across the country.

When we talk about the hurricane coverage, she spent a lot of her career in Florida, and covered hurricanes and was an editor on there, said Nash. And so she's really been in the trenches, which gives her such authenticity when you think about the way that she led our business.

Nash said shes looked up to Wadsworth as a strong female leader for years.

She's so strategic, so smart, asking all the right questions, innovating, doing things that others in the industry weren't doing, you know, I immediately thought, this is someone that I want to work with more, she said.

Carroll said Wadsworth showed both men and women how to have a career and a family, too.

She did both so successfully that she was really a role model for that, as well, she said.

Even as she rose through the management ranks, Wadsworth never lost her zeal for the craft of journalism, said Carroll.

She gets genuinely excited when she hears about a story we're working on, or that a paper's about to break, she said. To see someone at that level get personally excited about news stories over and over is just really inspiring.

While she'll miss working with Wadsworth, Carroll said she's left the company in good hands.

She has trained a generation of leaders to keep carrying the torch, who care passionately about journalism, integrity, diversity, all the things that she stands for, said Carroll. She leaves an army of journalists who are ready to carry on the ideals that she was so well known for.

Wadsworth's resignation follows the companys reporting of a third-quarter loss on Nov. 3.

Gannett, the owner of USA TODAY and local news operations in 45 states, posted a net loss of $54.1 million compared with a net income of $14.7 million in the same period a year earlier. A total net loss of $60 million to $70 million is forecasted for the year.

The company has been taking various cost-cutting measures as it works toward at least $200 million in annualized cost savings. About 400 employees, or 3% of Gannetts U.S. workforce, were laid off earlier this year.

A Wednesday statement from Gannett thanked Wadsworth for her service and says the company will leverage the depth and breadth of its talented executives to manage the Gannett Media organization during this transition. Reed said Gannett will be restructuring its media organization in the interim.

In the interim, Newsquest President Henry Faure Walker will oversee the US News operations. He will continue to run Newsquest, Gannett's UK-based media business. Carroll will oversee national news. Nash will oversee local news.

Gannett shares closed down 5.7% Wednesday at $1.83 per share.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of Gannett Media, to leave
An Arizona court ruled against a Republican-backed lawsuit to keep polls open for provisional ballots in Maricopa County after "hiccups" with some vote tabulators earlier in the day caused confusion at polling places.

"The court does not have evidence there was a voter who was precluded the right to vote from what was presented," the judge said minutes before polls closed Tuesday.

"From what I've seen they all got a collection of their vote," the judge also said as the lawyer for GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters' campaign argued before the court. Masters' campaign, the Republican National Committee and the campaign for Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake were behind the lawsuit.

Lawyers for GOP campaigns, Maricopa County and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz..

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"Under the Maricopa County protocols, it's ultimately processed," the judge also said.

Fox News previously reported Tuesday that many polling sites in the county were experiencing problems.

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"Unfortunately, we've had some hiccups with about 20% of these tabulators," chairman to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Bill Gates told Fox News.

The GOP lawsuit said the issues hit "at least 36% of all voting centers."

Maricopa County's lawyer also Tuesday night argued that it is "simply not true" that some voters were denied the chance to vote. Ballots that could not go through the tabulators at polling places, they said, were put in a box and sent to a central counting location to be tabulated.

A GUIDE TO THE FOX NEWS 2022 ELECTIONS EXPERIENCE

The lawyer for Maricopa County also said leaving polling places open after 7 p.m. MT would have serious constitutional implications.

"We must treat all the counties the same," the county's lawyer said. "That's not giving equal access to the ballot to everybody. So the relief would be more harmful."

MARICOPA COUNTY: BLAKE MASTERS, KARI LAKE, RNC SUE AFTER HICCUPS AT ARIZONA VOTING LOCATIONS

A lawyer for the campaign of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., meanwhile, argued the GOP lawsuit should be invalid under the legal doctrine of "laches"  meaning that they waited for too long to file it.

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The lawyer for Masters' campaign, however, said the case was too important to not keep the polls open.

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"It's entirely possible this issue" could determine "our governor for the next four years, and the majority control of the United States Senate," the Masters lawyer said. "If the margin of victory or loss is so close that it could determine the outcome, then we'll come back to you and we'll argue about what to do about these ballots."

That argument did not win out in the end.

Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters spoke with Fox News Digital at the National Conservatism conference in Aventura, Florida, on September 11, 2022.

Tabulation center officials said earlier Tuesday they'd found a solution to the ballot issue well before polls closed.

"Maricopa County has identified the solution for the tabulation issues at about 60 vote centers, county technicians have changed the printer settings, which seem to resolve the issue," one official said. "It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots."

Fox News' Caitlin McFall and Austin Westfall contributed to this report.
Gov. Tony Evers defeated the Trump-backed construction executive Tim Michels, according to The Associated Press, helping Democrats to keep a foothold in a critical presidential battleground where Republicans have sought to take control of the states elections.

Earlier, Michels conceded the race. Evers hold of the office breaks with a tradition of Wisconsin voters choosing a governor of the opposite party of the president. He is the first Democrat since 1962 to win the favor of the states voters while a Democrat sat in the White House.

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Michels, a Republican, told supporters early Wednesday that unfortunately the math doesnt add up. I just called Governor Evers and conceded.

Evers reelection bid was a key contest for Democrats, especially after Wisconsin Republicans began vying to install sweeping new voting restrictions following the 2020 election. During his primary, Michels, who prevailed in the Republican primary with an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, said he would consider signing legislation to decertify President Joe Bidens victory in the state and recall its 10 electoral votes  a process for which there is no mechanism in state or federal law.

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Evers spent much of his first term in office butting heads with Republicans who, thanks to the nations most aggressive statehouse gerrymander, maintain an iron grip on the state Legislature. On voting issues alone, Evers vetoed more than a dozen bills.

Republicans, for their part, stymied most of the big-ticket proposals Evers offered  and are certain to continue doing so during his second term.

Evers may not even maintain the ability to veto Republican legislation. Despite the Democratic governors victory and Wisconsins history as a state with voters evenly divided between both parties, Republicans are poised to capture two-thirds supermajorities in both the state Assembly and state Senate. Doing so would allow them to override Evers vetoes, giving Republicans control of the state without winning its top elected post.

For Michels, the defeat comes at the end of a campaign in which he cloistered himself from the press and public. He rarely sat for interviews with independent journalists or made his campaign schedule public. When he did make public appearances, he or his staff wound up retracting comments he made about his support for Trump in 2024, his desire to overturn the 2020 election result and abortion rights.

c.2022 The New York Times Company
Recreational marijuana is set to become legal in Maryland after voters moved in favor of approving a ballot measure to change the states constitution to allow for the possession of small amounts of the drug, according to The Associated Press.

With the passage of the ballot measure, adults who are at least 21 years old will be allowed to use and possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana or up to two marijuana plants. The measure will go into effect beginning on July 1, 2023.

Under current Maryland law, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana is only considered a civil offense and is punishable by a fine of up to $100, with fines increasing with repeat offenses.

Authorization of this constitutional amendment will be subject to requirements set by the Maryland General Assembly regarding the use, distribution, possession, regulation and taxation of cannabis.

This outcome is not entirely surprising. Neighboring D.C. and Virginia have already legalized recreation marijuana use and recent polling indicated that a majority of voters were in support of legalization.

In April, the Maryland General Assembly passed companion legislation to the ballot measure. Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan allowed this bill to become law without his signature.

Several sections of the bill only go into effect if the ballot measure were to be passed by voters. Among the provisions contingent on the passage of the proposition was one that allowed people convicted of marijuana possession to request resentencing or expungement.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Police in Ohio are searching for a suspect accused of orchestrating an abduction attempt of Walmart workers.

Officers were dispatched to a Walmart in Cincinnati for a possible abduction at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8, according to the Fairfax Police Department.

Two Walmart employees were approached at gunpoint by a subject dressed in all black clothing and wearing a ski mask, the police department said in a news release.

One of the workers escaped in his own vehicle, but the other employee was forced into the suspects silver Dodge Durango, police said. A second suspect then stole the employees gray Infiniti, according to police.

The worker who was abducted was forced out of the vehicle about 15 miles west of the Walmart, the news release states. He had a minor injury to his face after one of the suspects struck him with a gun, police said.

Officers found the suspects vehicle, but police continue to search for the accused abductor.

Officers are also still looking for the Walmart employees Infiniti that was stolen by one of the suspects.

Police have not released any identifiable information for the suspects.

Man threatens Walmart employee after he stopped playing video games with him, feds say

Watch massive brawl at Walmart as people hit each other with metal poles, video shows
Maura Healey

Democratic candidate Maura Healey has been elected the first out lesbian governor in the U.S. as well as the first woman to lead Massachusetts.

In 2014, Healey previously made history when she became the first LGBTQ+ elected to be a states attorney general.

The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed in Massachusetts.

LGBTQ+ rights groups celebrated the historic moment, saying that Healey had shattered the lavender ceiling in Massachusetts.

In the face of so much hate and intolerance sweeping our nation, her win is a sign  especially to LGBTQ kids in desperate need of hope  that LGBTQ people have a place in American society and can become respected public leaders, said LGBTQ Victory Fund President and CEO Mayor Annise Parker. It is an uphill battle for LGBTQ candidates and women candidates to win high-level elected office, but Massachusetts voters know Maura is a fighter and today helped her make U.S. political history.

"Maura Healeys victory marks a milestone in womens representation, said Lisa Turner, the executive director of LPAC, an organization that supports LGBTQ+ women candidates. Not only is Healey the first women elected as Governor of Massachusetts, but she is the first open lesbian ever elected to lead a U.S. state. As governor, she will be an important role model for millions of LGBTQ women across the country.

Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison released the following statement: Tonight, Maura Healey made history, becoming the first out lesbian governor this nation has ever elected. Massachusetts embraced a platform of equality and inclusion by electing a pro-equality champion. With her in the statehouse, LGBTQ+ youth across Massachusetts and the United States will get to see that they are represented at the highest levels of government, and that they can achieve anything they set their minds on. We celebrate Maura Healeys historic win and look forward to working with her to continue to fight for a Massachusetts that is inclusive and welcoming to all.

Tina Kotek of Oregon could join Healey in making history as an out lesbian governor. Results for that race are expected much later.
Two women made history when they won their gubernatorial races in the 2022 midterm elections  becoming the first two openly lesbian governors in the U.S.

Maura Healey is the first woman to be elected governor of Massachusetts. Tina Kotek, the projected winner of the Oregon governor's race, will be only the second woman elected to lead her state.

Healey, who was the first openly gay attorney general elected in the country in 2014, was previously a civil rights lawyer. She led the first state challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage.

Maura Healey won her campaign for governor of Massachusetts. / Credit: CBS Boston

As attorney general, she worked to hold Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family accountable for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic, and her office sued Exxon Mobil for lying about climate change.

She ran on a platform of investing in housing, public transportation, the clean energy economy, and job training.

Healey won the gubernatorial race against Republican Geoff Diehl. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, decided not to seek re-election.

Massachusetts has had a woman governor before  Jane Swift was the first woman to fill the office in 2001  but she was appointed to the role, not elected, when former Gov. Paul Cellucci was named U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

Healey ran alongside lieutenant governor candidate Kim Driscoll, the mayor of Salem.

The Human Rights Campaign applauded Healey's win, saying, "as one of our nation's first lesbian governors, she will not only be a champion of pro-equality policies, but also a role model for the entire LGBTQ+ community."

In Oregon, it took several days of vote-counting before Kotek's victory in a three-person race was clear and her Republican opponent conceded. Kotek has served as speaker of the house in Oregon since 2013. She worked for nonprofits before becoming a state representative in 2007.

Oregon Democrat Tina Kotek served as a state legislator and House speaker in before running for governor. / Credit: Tina Kotek handout via Reuters

She moved to Oregon from the East Coast in 1987 and earned a degree at the University of Oregon.

"I also came out as a lesbian in my early twenties and it was liberating," Kotek writes on her campaign website. "While it wasn't always easy, each experience coming out to others strengthened my resilience. For me, coming out became a personal responsibility to undermine hatred and bigotry. But it was bigger than me as an individual, so while getting my graduate degree, I fought for and won domestic partnership rights for faculty and students at the University of Washington."

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Tina has been with her wife, Aimee, for 17 years.

Kotek faced a close race against Republican Christine Drazan and independent Betsy Johnson, a former Democrat who drew some voters away from Kotek. Oregon has had a Democratic governor since 1987.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, who decided not to seek re-election, became the nation's first openly bisexual governor in 2015. She was previously Oregon's secretary of state and became governor when Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned.

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Photo: AP Photo/Mary Schwalm (AP)

Its official: Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is the first female governor of the state and the first openly lesbian governor in the nationand also only the third queer governor.

Healey, a former civil rights attorney whos served as the states attorney general since 2014, trounced Republican opponent and former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, restoring the state to Democratic governorship for the first time since 2015. The race was called by the Associated Press shortly after polls closed.

Read more

Its official: @Maura_Healey will be our next governor! Weve elected a woman who fights to protect working familiesa warrior whos gone toe to toe with for-profit colleges and Big Oiland its a great victory for the people of Massachusetts. Woo-hoo!  Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 9, 2022

In September, Diehl was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, and often vocalized a mutual admiration for the latter: Trump delivered four years that I thought was pretty successful for our country, he recently said. Diehl also stood by the Supreme Courts ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson and asserted it wouldnt have bearing on birthing people in the state: The Dobbs decision does not affect a womans right in Massachusettsnot one iota. He also claimed that as governor he would protect womens health care choices, yet is recognized among pro-choice advocates as a fixture of the anti-abortion movement. Notably, not at all unlike fellow GOP-backed candidates, Diehl often criticized the liberal media, called for stricter immigration laws, and lamented over schools teaching students about implicit racial bias and white privilege.

Meanwhile, Healey, who maintained consistent polling and funding leads throughout the race, is staunchly pro-choice and has been known to spar with high-profile and moneyed entities like pharmaceutical companies, the National Rifle Association, and big tech. Healey also played a significant role in legalizing gay marriage. Her campaign hinged on creating affordable housing, bolstering environmental and sustainable efforts, and improving public transportation.

She was supported by Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who tweeted of Healeys victory: Weve elected a woman who fights to protect working familiesa warrior whos gone toe to toe with for-profit colleges and Big Oiland its a great victory for the people of Massachusetts. Woo-hoo!

Healey has yet to comment on the win, but told local reporters in June that she felt most heartened by her campaigns success when young people told her they take comfort in her visibility as an openly queer leader in the state: Im proud of who I am.

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Generation Z now has a seat in Congress with the victory of Democrat candidate Maxwell Alejandro Frost who won in Florida's 10th congressional district.

The 25-year-old Afro-Cuban gun reform activist defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish by 19 percentage points in the largely liberal Orlando-area seat, according to the Associated Press.

Mr Frost will succeed outgoing Democratic representative Val Demings, who was a nominee for senator.

"WE WON! History was made tonight," Mr Frost tweeted within minutes of his projected win. "We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.

"I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the US congress," he added.

His victory mark's a pivotal moment for the US congress with one guaranteed member from Generation Z, whose oldest members were born in 1997.

Congress requires the candidates to be at least 25 years of age to become a member. The House is largely dominated by the generation of baby boomers with only six per cent of millennials occupying the seats.

I am Congressman-Elect Maxwell Alejandro Frost and I will be the first member of Generation-Z in the United States Congress.



WE MADE HISTORY!!! Dont count young people out. pic.twitter.com/Nd3vr5iPT0  Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) November 9, 2022

Mr Frost is among six newcomers to the US House of Representatives in Tuesday's vote from Florida as Republicans sought to take advantage of an aggressively redrawn congressional map spearheaded by governor Ron DeSantis.

The Democrat-elect had famously confronted the governor in June about gun violence, to which Mr DeSantis responded by saying nobody wants to hear from you.

But it seems people did want to hear from the progressive young Democrat.

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Running to be the first Gen Z member of Congress isnt the first reason I ran but that is an important part of the story, he told The Independent after his primary victory.

I just represent a different type of candidate, he said. This shows we need the country not to count people out.

Mr Frost said to make ends meet during the campaign, he worked as an Uber driver and has yet to finish college.

He began his activism after the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

Mr Frost then went on to serve as the national organising director for March for Our Lives, a gun control advocacy group that formed in the wake of the shooting at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.

Two years later, the progressive Democrat worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and Senator Bernie Sanderss presidential campaign.

A lot of times, movements, you dont see the fruits of the movement right away, he said.

You are talking about a whole new generation. Weve just gotten old enough to vote. A movement will spark a seed that takes time to grow and thats OK.
Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old activist turned political candidate, is set to become the first Gen Z member of Congress after a projected win in his race in Floridas 10th Congressional District.

Frost, a Democrat, ran on ending gun violence, protecting U.S. democracy through election reform and addressing the climate crisis. He defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish and independent candidates Jason Holic and Usha Jain.

The seat was previously held by Rep. Val Demings, the Democrat challenging Sen. Marco Rubio. It was considered a safe seat for the party.

Frost, who is Afro-Cuban, secured the endorsement of progressive lawmakers including Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). He also received the backing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which he is set to join as a newly elected lawmaker.

Prior to running for office, Frost worked as an activist. A survivor of gun violence, he was a national organizing director at March for Our Lives, a youth-led movement created after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, to push for gun policy changes. Before that, Frost was an organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

In an interview with HuffPost last month, the young Democrat, who was adopted at birth by a musician and a special education teacher, opened up about what made him decide to run after initially rejecting the idea in part due to internalized ageism.

What changed everything for me was connecting with my biological mother, learning about her story, learning about the things she had been through, he said.

He also shared the struggles he faced as a candidate, including having to work as an Uber driver to pay his bills after running out of money in the first three months of his campaign.

As a young person who just doesnt have a lot of money, Ive been living literally paycheck to paycheck this entire year and at times didnt have money to feed myself, Frost told HuffPost.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Florida House candidate Maxwell Frost won his race on Tuesday, becoming the first Generation Z member of Congress, the Associated Press projected.

Frost will represent the states 10th Congressional District, which includes Orlando, in the House. Hell succeed Rep. Val Demings, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

<<< 2022 Florida Congressional Midterm Elections: Latest Updates and Results >>>

History was made tonight, Frost said on Twitter, after the AP and multiple news outlets projected him as the winner. We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the United States Congress.

In an interview with Yahoo News on Monday, the 25-year-old Democrat and gun control activist said he would be starting his last day of campaigning on Election Day with a 4 a.m. wake-up call, getting out early to knock on doors and encourage people to get to the polls.

Unlike many candidates, Frost didnt know politics would be a part of his future, until supporters that he protested with during the Black Lives Matter uprising in 2020 asked him to get on the ballot.

A phone call with his biological mother gave him the final push he needed to run for office, he told Yahoo News in August. I hung up the phone, and I said I need to run for Congress for people like my biological mother, for people like my mother, for people like my father, for my community, for the place that I was born and raised, he said.

In August of 2021, Frost quit his job as the national organizing director of March for Our Lives and started his campaign. Now, he is headed to Washington, D.C., after beating Republican opponent Calvin Wimbish.

Maxwell Frost at the Pride Parade in Orlando on Oct. 15. (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

My mom came here from Cuba when she was young with nothing. And now her son is going to go to Congress, Frost told Yahoo News in August.

In a statement on Friday, Demings expressed her support for Frost. Im proud to support Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Congress because hes going to continue to fight to end gun violence, take on our housing crisis, bring down rising costs, and continue to be the bold leader Central Florida needs in D.C.

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Ahead of Election Day, Frost was confident about his race but said that other contests throughout the Sunshine State were getting too close for comfort.

Turnout is relatively low right now, actually, in general. And we have a lot of work to do on making sure that [its] better in future elections, Frost told Yahoo News on Monday.

Frost at a rally held by the Latino Victory Fund on Oct. 20 in Coral Gables, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

Experts say presidential elections in Florida typically have a higher turnout than midterm elections. Nationally, voter turnout is up for a midterm election. So it looks like were going to beat the last two midterm elections [in] 2014 and 2018. But that is not true in Florida; Floridas early vote numbers are low, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, professor of law at Stetson University, said.

The progressive candidates campaign raised millions of dollars to help Frost secure the Democratic nomination in the primary and win the election. OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign spending, found that over half of the contributions Frosts campaign has received this election cycle  $1.4 million  has come from individual donors contributing less than $200.

Frost leaned on Latino and Generation Z voters to win his race. While Latinos make up 20% of the U.S. population, they make up only 1% of political power, according to Latino Victory, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing political power in the Latino community.

And thats not a representative democracy. So were trying to change that in reality, Nathalie Rayes, president of Latino Victory, told Yahoo News.

But Rayes says there has been a shift, as four Democratic Latino lawmakers hold a seat in the Senate, and now Frost will be added to that list as a new member of the House.

Hell be the first Gen Z to ever serve in Congress, and the third Afro-Latino to ever serve in Congress. And, we need that energy, Rayes said. We need young people in elected office. Maxwell is a hardworking, dedicated leader who will bring renewed energy to fight for his district in Washington, D.C., she added.

The youth vote is pretty low in Florida right now. So I need yall to text your friends and tell them to vote asap!!! On or before Nov 8! pic.twitter.com/JardzmF5iB  Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) November 5, 2022

Frost plans to focus on issues such as climate change and affordable housing. But as a survivor of gun violence and a resident of a state that has been the site of mass shootings like those at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, that particular issue is first on his list.

Gun violence is an issue that touches almost every community, Frost told Yahoo News in August. We need more advocates and vocal champions in Congress that are going to fight to end this problem.

While Frost says hes excited and ready to make an impact in D.C., he realizes that he cant do it alone. Theres no savior, theres not one politician thats going to fix it. It has to be about a movement, a movement on the streets and a movement at the ballot box. I just want people to know that for us to effect the change that we need, [that] we want and that we deserve, we need to elect a movement of people.
This story is being provided for free as a service of The Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent-Mail. Please support local journalism with a digital subscription.

With support from Upstate voters, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster easily won a second four-year term Tuesday and has a chance to become South Carolina's longest serving governor.

The Associated Press called the race at 8:48 p.m. With 89 percent of the state reporting Wednesday morning, McMaster was ahead of Joe Cunningham by a 58.1% to 40.6% margin.

"Everybody happy?" McMaster, with family members at his side, told more than 200 cheering supporters gathered for a Republican Party election watch party at the USC Alumni Center in Columbia. "This is a big night. This is a big day. This is a great state, getting better all the time."

McMaster, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, was sworn in as governor in 2017 when former Gov. Nikki Haley resigned to join the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations.

In 2018, he won his first four-year term, and on Tuesday voters gave him another four years.

McMaster, 75, was preceded on stage by his running mate, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, shortly after 9:30 p.m.

As he did at several campaign events, McMaster talked about the state's accomplishments under his leadership.

"We've got $5 billion in capital investment from people outside coming in to South Carolina," he said. "That is because they want to come here and hire the people of South Carolina. They want to invest in the state and the people to do their work.

He ended by saying, "In the words of Bonnie Raitt, we've got four more years to go, we've got more work to do, so let's give 'em something to talk about," McMaster said to a thunderous ovation.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick said he was not surprised that McMaster won by a wide margin.

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"Our message is relevant and resonates with people," McKissick said. "It's relevant to their daily lives whether its economic development, dealing with law enforcement, crime, you name it.

"Things the Democrats talked about, specifically Joe Cunningham and his race, were not relevant," McKissick added. "He wanted to talk about legalizing marijuana, wanted to talk about legalizing gambling. Those things don't cut it with a majority of voters in South Carolina. This is a center-right state."

With 32 of 46 counties reporting, McMaster led Democrat Joe Cunningham by a margin of 57% to 41%.In Spartanburg County, with all precincts reporting, McMaster won by a margin of 65.75% to 32.90%. In Anderson County, with 52 of 79 precincts in, McMaster led 73.86% to 24.88%.

Rick Beltram, former chairman of the Spartanburg County Republican Party, said the only question for him Tuesday was how big a margin of victory McMaster would get.

"South Carolina is a 60-40 state," Beltram said of the edge Republicans hold over Democrats. "I expected a 55-45 vote. So it was a little higher (for McMaster) than I thought.

Kathryn Harvey, chairwoman of the Spartanburg Democratic Party, said she expected Cunningham, 40, to do better.

"I had hoped issues on the ballot - healthcare, reproductive rights, voting rights, the LGBTQ community and education - would bring a tighter margin," she said. "It's almost like we have to hit rock-bottom before we build back."

She said many precincts in the county that are typically Democratic strongholds saw a larger than normal turnout for a mid-term election.

In Greenville County, with only 15 of 151 precincts in, McMaster had 53.54% and Cunningham had 45.25% of the vote.

While McMaster and Evette were in Columbia awaiting results, Cunningham and his running mate, Tally Parham Casey, CEO of the Wyche, P.A., law firm in Greenville, awaited the results at The American Theater in Charleston.

Cunningham was vying to be the first Democrat to win the governor's seat in the state since in over two decades. Jim Hodges of Lancaster was the last Democrat voted into office when he defeated incumbent Republican Gov. David Beasley in 1998.

Around 200 people were invited to attend Cunningham's watch party to support the Democratic candidate. By 9 p.m. the crowd continued to dance in the theater despite the race call.

"I cannot thank you enough for being out here on a Tuesday night, for continuing to support us," Cunningham said to the remaining crowd around 10:15pm. "We tried to run a campaign that yall could be proud of."

"We would not have moved the conversation if it was not for each and everyone of yall," he said.

Looking back at the campaign for SC governor

Both candidates easily won their primaries on June 14.

During the general election cycle, McMaster outraised Cunningham by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to S.C. Ethics Commission reports filed on Oct. 24 by both candidates.

McMaster had a starting balance of $3.16 million, raised $2.1 million, spent $3.2 million, and had an ending balance of $2 million.

Cunningham had a starting balance of $333,449, raised $1.2 million, spent $1.3 million, and had an ending balance of $219,880.

During the last week before Tuesday's election, both candidates traveled statewide to encourage turnout.

Evette, who founded Quality Business Solutions, Inc. (QBS), a payroll, human resources, and benefits services firm in Travelers Rest, voted Tuesday morning at Taylors Elementary School.

McMaster also voted Tuesday morning at Martin Luther King Park in Columbia.

Gubernatorial candidates square off:McMaster, Cunningham debate focuses on abortion, gun safety, marijuana

A former legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, McMaster was appointed U.S. attorney in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, served nine years as state GOP chairman, two terms as state attorney general, and was elected lieutenant governor in 2014.

In 2018, McMaster won his first full term by defeating Democrat Smith by a margin of 54% to 46%. Voter turnout statewide was 55%, nearly 20 points lower than typical turnout during a presidential election year.

However, over half a million voters cast ballots ahead of Election Day as part of the state's new early voting procedures enacted by law earlier this year.

In his bid for a second full term, McMaster consistently led in polling. However, at a Sept. 27 event in Greenville, Cunningham and running mate Tally Parham said a recent poll conducted by their campaign showed a tightening race, with Cunningham being within single digits. Cunningham said his most recent polling indicated a tie.

Yet, polling conducted by FiveThirtyEight predicted McMaster would win in 98 out of 100 election outcomes.

Cunningham previously represented the 1st District of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019-21. The 2018 victory over Republican Katie Arrington was the first time in nearly 40 years a Democrat won in that district. However, he lost his re-election bid in 2020 to Republican Nancy Mace by fewer than 6,000 votes.

Cunningham concedes, says "our fight is far from over"

Even after the results were in, a large crowd remained to support Cunningham's campaign at the American Theater in Charleston.

Shortly after 10pm, Casey first addressed visitors, thanking them for their support.

"This is democracy, folks, and this is how it happens and we have respect for that.," Casey said. "Joe and I are going to give support to the governor and lt. governor. You all know, from the beginning, were about people over politics."

Cunningham thanked his family, campaign team and his supporters for helping move the needle on issues he ran on.

"We may have fallen short here today, but I believe that our definition of success will be determined in the coming months in how we change the narrative here in South Carolina and how we change politics here in our state," he said.

Cunningham alluded that his time in politics is likely not yet done.

"To anyone that thinks this is a nail in the coffin or that Im going away, its far from that, folks," he said.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC governor election results: Henry McMaster tops Joe Cunningham
Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, takes part in a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. Matt Rourke, File/Associated Press

Mehmet Oz is underperforming Trump in some rural Pennsylvania counties.

Oz's struggles are notable since even Trump's higher numbers were not enough to win the state.

The closely-watched Senate race could very well decide the Senate majority.

Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz is underperforming some of former President Donald Trump's 2020 numbers in a few counties where most of the vote is in, a concerning sign given that Trump lost the state by just over 80,000 votes.

"This is Western Pennsylvania, small county ... but again Trump ran up huge numbers in Western Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz is going to win Clarion County overwhelmingly but it's five points less than Trump got," MSNBC's Steve Kornacki said as he ticked off results across the Keystone State.

Kornacki pointed out that Oz is underperforming compared to Trump elsewhere too. In Bedford County, a rural county near the Maryland border, Oz received 80.7% of the vote compared to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's 17%. But Oz's commanding performance is still not enough to match Trump's mark of 83.5%.

If Oz struggles across rural Pennsylvania, he'll have to make up his margin elsewhere. Under Trump, Republicans have found ways to boost their turnout in rural America  sometimes to the point of offsetting struggles in suburban America. Unlike Oz, Fetterman has the experience of having run and won a statewide race before. The lieutenant governor has also tried to cast Oz as an outsider, a New Jerseyan who has more in common with Hollywood, while Oz has tried to gain ground in the suburban areas by trying to portray himself as a centrist.

The race is one of the closest-watched Senate contests in the country. If Fetterman pulls off a victory, Republican hopes of retaking the majority would become severely imperiled.

Follow Insider for live results from the Pennsylvania Senate race and other major contests.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A 56-year-old man told Chicago police that dead bodies didnt bleed like he thought they would after he told them that he killed and dismembered his drug dealer because he was upset at the drug prices and over a fight they had months ago, officials said.

Judson Taylor, of the 5000 block of West Washington Boulevard, was arrested on Sunday and charged with first-degree murder, dismembering a human body, concealment of homicidal death and abuse of a corpse in the death of 37-year-old Kelvin Perry on Oct. 23, according to Cook County court records.

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Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered that Taylor be held without bond during his court hearing Tuesday afternoon.

About 1:30 a.m. Oct. 23, Taylor invited Perry to his apartment, Assistant States Attorney Kimberly Pressling said. The two had known each other for years, and Taylor admitted in his post-Miranda statements that he had wanted to kill Perry since they had been in a fight several months earlier, and that they have had multiple physical fights leading up to the killing, Pressling said.

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When Perry arrived to the apartment, Taylor already had a knife in his hand but concealed it from Perry at the door, Pressling said. The two started arguing about drugs before Taylor pulled out the knife and began stabbing Perry multiple times while they were in the living room, Pressling said.

Perry ran to the back of the apartment, but Taylor knew that he wouldnt be able to get out due to padlock on the security gate outside of the back door, Pressling said, so Perry calmly walked toward Perry and continued to stab him.

Perry tried to fight back, called Taylor by his nickname and begged Taylor not to kill him, Pressling said. Taylor stabbed him at least 10 times in the stomach, head and neck before he died in the kitchen, Pressling said.

After the killing, Taylor put Perrys body in a deep freezer, Pressling said, and he used various instruments including a heavy pruning tooth saw, a hatchet, hammer and snippers to dismember the body over the course of the following days.

Perrys girlfriend filed a missing persons report for Perry on Oct. 28 after he didnt return to their home or answer any calls or text messages, Pressling said.

On Nov. 2, streets and sanitation workers found parts of Perrys body in a garbage bag within one block of Taylors home, Pressling said.

On Nov. 5, Taylor called 911 to complain about his breathing problems and reported that he found two severed arms, Pressling said. He led police into his apartment where they found parts of Perrys body in a dumpster behind Taylors apartment building and found more parts of his body farther down the same alley.

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

On Nov. 6, Taylor confessed to killing Perry and dismembering the body and even gloated at how easy it was to sever the limbs, Pressling said.

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After conducting a search warrant, police found two phones, Taylors wallet with Perrys credit cards inside, Perrys temporary ID, many cleaning products, and a broken saw blade in a mayonnaise jar in a mini fridge in Perrys room, right where the defendant had directed them it would be, Pressling said.

Taylor has had prior felony convictions including an attempted armed robbery in 1997, an unlawful use of a weapon by a felon violation in 1995, and a theft in 1986, Pressling said. He was charged in 2020 with domestic battery, which is still listed as an active case.

Taylor is a lifelong resident of Cook County, lives alone and has five grown children, his public defender said. He receives supplemental security income due to a medical diagnosis. He has asthma, a slipped disk and mental health concerns.

Taylors next court date is scheduled for Nov. 16.

pfry@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @paigexfry
The Daily Beast

GettyRussian forces may be preparing to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia has occupied since the early months of the war this year, according to Ukrainian authorities.Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Sunday he believes Russian troops will be leaving the power plant as Ukrainian forces continue to make advances in occupied territories.Russian servicemen will leave the Zaporizhzhia NPP, as their line of defense is gradua
Seattle is set to join a growing number of cities to make the switch to ranked-choice voting for its primary elections.

Seattle voters are answering two questions: whether to make any changes to primary voting for some Seattle offices and, regardless of their vote on the first question, which of the two new systems  ranked choice or approval  to enact.

The campaign behind the effort to switch the citys voting method to ranked choice voting declared victory on Wednesday night as the yes votes on the initiative to change Seattles primary system passed the 50% mark.

Seattle voters are ready for ranked choice voting! Thank you to all the volunteers, coalition members, leaders, and voters who came together to improve our democracy, said Stephanie Houghton, managing director of FairVote Washington. Were taking this momentum to the legislature where we can do even more to empower voters with more voice and more choice.

As of Wednesday night, 154,424 voters have voted to enact either ranked choice or approval voting. 148,901  a difference of fewer than 6,000 votes  have voted against changing Seattles voting method. Ranked-choice voting is ahead of approval voting 75% to 25%.

Voters were asked two questions on their ballots. The first was a simple yes or no for any changes to Seattles primary system. The second asked, regardless of the answer to the first question, which of the new systems to enact, labeled Prop. 1A (approval voting) and Prop. 1B (ranked-choice voting).

Prop. 1A concerns approval voting

In approval voting, voters select all candidates on the ballot who meet their approval. The two candidates with the most votes for each office advance to the general election.

The city would consult with King County to include instructions on the primary ballot such as, vote for AS MANY as you approve of for each office, according to the proposition.

Prop. 1B concerns ranked choice voting

In ranked choice voting, primary election voters would rank candidates for each office by preference. The candidate receiving the fewest votes would be eliminated. King County would include instructions on the ballot.

The yes or no question is regarding whether either of the measures should be enacted into law. A no vote means the voter has chosen to leave the primary voting system as is.




Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) said on Wednesday that his office is unable to confirm the actors behind a cyberattack that disrupted state election websites on Tuesday, as more evidence is needed to attribute it to any specific group.

Watson said the attack caused the sites to be periodically inaccessible, but was confident that the election system was not compromised.

A Russian hacking group reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. According to USA Today, the group said in a Telegram post that it targeted Mississippis state election websites to hit the section that is directly related to the elections.

The hackers also said that they would attack American Democrats as a gift to the Republicans for the elections, and that their first target is the Democratic National Committee, USA Today reported.

A senior official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told reporters that the agency is certainly aware of the [Russian] claims  but thats not enough for the federal government to provide attribution.

Illinois was another state that suffered from a cyberattack on Election Day. The states Champaign County Clerks Office posted on Facebook that there were some issues with its network and computer server and that it believes they were caused by cyberattacks.

During a background call to reporters on Tuesday, CISA said that it was aware of a handful of distributed denial of service attacks that briefly impacted a number of state election websites but wouldnt specify how many were affected.

However, a CISA official said not every cyberattack that targeted state election websites on Tuesday was successful, and those sites that were affected were quickly restored.

The agency also said that it has not seen any evidence suggesting that the attacks were part of a widespread coordinated campaign.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Millions of voters across the country cast their ballots for the 2022 midterm elections on Tuesday.

In addition to picking local and state officials, including key governorships, their votes should determine whether Democrats will be able keep control of the U.S. House and Senate, or if Republicans will flip one or both houses of Congress.

But as of Thursday afternoon, some of the nation's most consequential races have not yet been decided. The future of Congressional control is still up for grabs. And while both parties raked in key wins so far, Democrats have held off the Republican "red wave" that many strategists predicted leading up to Tuesday.

Amid millions of votes for lawmakers, voters also weighed in on ballot initiatives ranging from legalizing marijuana to accessing abortion and outlawing slavery.

Some Americans voted on raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid and on policies designed to address climate change.

Heres what you need to know about key ballot measures from Election Day 2022:

Updates: Two days out, elections remain undecided. Here's what we know about outstanding races

Full election results: See results of elections in the Senate, House and every state

Abortion access votes in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont

After the Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision earlier this year, abortion access became a key issue across the country. For the midterms, advocates hoped that states would protect reproductive rights.

Voters in Michigan, California and Vermont enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions Tuesday. In Kentucky, an anti-abortion measure on the ballot was rejected by voters.

The rejection of the proposed Kentucky amendment, which attempted to deny any constitutional protections for abortion in the state, marks a significant victory for abortion rights. Kentucky's GOP-dominated legislature has imposed a near-total ban on abortions  which could still be upheld by the state Supreme Court. But the amendment rejection also means there's a possibility for the court to declare abortion as a state right.

Story continues

More on Kentucky abortion vote: Kentucky voters reject amendment that would have ended right to an abortion. What it means for the deep-red state.

'Not a repudiation': Joe Biden holds off red wave, gets unexpected boost from midterm election

In Montana, voters rejected a referendum could've meant criminal charges for health care workers if they don't take all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life of an infant who is born living, including after an attempted abortion.

More: Abortion rights were on the ballot in these 5 states. Here's what voters decided.

Opinion: We just got through the midterms, but the DeSantis-Trump rivalry has already begun

Voting measures in Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan , Nebraska

Voting rights were on the ballot in several states for the midterms  including measures on voter identification, early voting, and rules on passing ballot initiatives.

In Connecticut, a proposed constitutional amendment to allow in-person early voting passed.

Meanwhile, Ohio voters passed an amendment that will prohibit people who are not U.S. citizens from voting in local elections. And in Nebraska, voters passed a measure that will require a valid photo ID to vote in any election.

In Michigan, voters approved creating a nine-day window for early voting, among other changes.

In Arizona, voters were asked whether they should be required to provide a date of birth and voter identification number for early ballot affidavits, instead of only a signature. It was too early to call as of Friday morning. Arizonans rejected a measure about whether the states legislature can change measures that voters passed if the measures are deemed unconstitutional.

Ballots in Nevada asked voters about establishing ranked-choice voting for congressional and some state elections. The votes were too close to call as of Friday morning.

Which party will control the Senate? Here's every seat up for grabs in the 2022 midterms

Prohibiting slavery, particularly among prisoners

Five states voted on whether to abolish slavery. Voters in four states  Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont  passed measures to change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, according to Associated Press counts.

Meanwhile, voters in Louisiana rejected an amendment to remove language from the state's constitution allowing for involuntary servitude in the criminal justice system.

Yes, more than 150 years ago, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery on a national level when it was ratified in 1865. But loopholes still allow it as a punishment for people convicted of a crime.

Passing these referendums could be more than just a symbolic gesture. Criminal justice reform advocates have said they could mean higher wages for prison work, among other changes.

Maryland and Missouri legalize recreational weed; other states vote on drug policies

Marijuana appeared on ballots in multiple states this year. In Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota, voters were faced with an option to legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older.

Maryland and Missouri voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana for people 21 and older through constitutional amendments on Tuesday. Both states' measures will also bring changes to criminal law and expunge many past marijuana possession convictions. In Missouri, for example, nonviolent offenses  with the exception of selling to minors or driving under the influence  will be expunged.

Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota voters rejected proposals for legalizing recreational use on Tuesday.

Colorado voters passed a ballot initiative to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms for people 21 and older. The proposal will also create "healing centers" regulated by the state where people can use the drug while being supervised.

DC raises minimum wage for tipped workers; Nevada, Nebraska vote on wage increases

Nevadans voted on whether to increase the minimum wage in the state to $12 per hour. Results were too close to call as of Friday morning/. The states current minimum wage is between $9.50 and $10.50, depending on whether a person has health insurance.

Nebraska voters approved a ballot measure that will significantly increase the state's minimum wage, from $9 an hour to $15 by 2026.

In Washington, D.C., voters chose to raise the minimum wage for tipped employees to match the pay of non-tipped employees.

New Mexico voters make pre-K a universal right

New Mexican voters on Tuesday strongly approved a constitutional amendment set to increase permanent funding allocated for early childhood education, as well as K-12 education, by hundreds of millions of dollars.

With the measure's success, Vox News reports that New Mexico will become the first state to guarantee a constitutional right to early childhood education like preschool and child care. Activists and legislators in support said they spent over 10 years working toward the ballot measure.

The amendment proposed allocating an additional 1.25% annually from the state's Land Grant Permanent Fund, which already distributes 5% annually to the New Mexico Public Education Department and 20 additional public institutions, to early childhood education and public school instruction for at-risk students.

While the amendment has received voters' approval, it has to be approved by Congress in order to take effect. New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee economists estimated in 2021 that, if approved, using the state's Land Grant Permanent Fund, also known as the Permanent School Fund, in this way "tapping the LGPF would potentially generate an estimated $236 million" for education in fiscal year 2023. "Of this, an estimated $140 million would be allocated specifically for early childhood education."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marijuana legalization, abortion access: Key midterm ballot measures
Hayley Klein and her late mom, Sue Snow. Courtesy of Hayley Klein

Stella Nickell laced painkillers with cyanide, murdering her husband and a random woman, Sue Snow.

Snow's daughter, Hayley Klein, told Insider about her years of heartache following the crime.

Klein is featured in "American Mother," a book about Nickell published this week.

Hayley Klein was transfixed by the woman who fatally poisoned her mother, Sue Snow. The convicted killer stood before a parole board in 2017, while Klein watched the proceedings on closed-circuit TV.

Stella Nickell, then 75, had been sentenced to 90 years in prison in 1988, after she was found guilty of product tampering. Her husband, Bruce, died after taking cyanide-laced Excedrin tablets in 1986. Snow died a few days later, after also taking Excedrin pills laced with cyanide. Prosecutors said that Nickell had tampered with medication in several stores to cover up her husband's death.

Nickell never admitted to the crimes, but during her first appeal for early release, she finally took responsibility for murdering Bruce. She said that she acted in self-defense as a victim of domestic violence.

But, Klein told Insider, Nickell didn't mention her mother. "She never talks about my mom," Klein said. "It really bothers me. I think, 'Say her name, lady.'"

A new book, 'American Mother,' features interviews with Klein and Nickell's daughter

Nickell is the subject of a new book, "American Mother: The True Story of a Troubled Family, Motherhood and the Cyanide Murders That Shook the World." Written by Gregg Olsen, the book includes interviews with Klein and Nickell's daughter, Cindy Hamilton.

Stella Nickell leaving the courthouse in 1988. AP

Olsen told Insider that Snow was a random victim who "paid for Stella's greed with her life." Nickell poisoned Bruce so she could pocket his life insurance, and Snow died the same way in a foiled effort to cover her tracks, Olsen said.

Klein was 15 when she found her 40-year-old mother lying on the bathroom floor in June 1986. She'd heard a thump and the sound of water running over the sink. "Mom's eyes were open and her fingers were bent and locked up," Klein said. "She was having a hard time breathing." The teen called 911. Snow was airlifted to the hospital, but she was declared brain dead a few hours later.

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When her mom's autopsy results showed she had died of cyanide poisoning, Klein struggled to process the news. "I couldn't take it in," she said.

The police searched the family home and found an open bottle of Excedrin, a brand that Snow often used, in the kitchen cabinet. Officers broke open the capsules and found the powdered toxin inside.

They asked the family if Snow had any enemies. Klein told them that her mom, who was a bank manager in Auburn, Washington, was "popular and had a big personality."

Klein, left, with Snow in the early 1980s. She said her mom was "popular" before she died. Courtesy of Hayley Klein

The case made headlines across the world. The media was riveted because of its similarity to the notorious Chicago "Tylenol murders," less than four years earlier, when seven people died in fall 1982 after taking cyanide-tainted Tylenol pills. The killer in that case has never been caught.

Olsen said that Nickell laced Bruce's Excedrin with cyanide so that the authorities would think his death was accidental, which would allow her to claim his $100,000 life-insurance policy. "It was a means to an end," the author said. Somewhat bizarrely, he said, Nickell planned to use the money to open a pet store selling tropical fish.

Olsen said that Nickell told her daughter, Cindy Hamilton, about the scheme, despite their fractious relationship, and how she was inspired by the Tylenol deaths. "She thought, 'If that murderer got away with it, I can, too,'" Olsen said of Nickell.

The killer wanted to get her husband's life-insurance payout

Nickell watched Bruce die in agony on June 5, 1986, a few days after buying the cyanide at a chemical-supply company. She'd told the staff that she needed it to kill ants. To Nickell's frustration, the autopsy failed to pick up on the poison. Pathologists said that her husband died of emphysema; calling it a natural death meant Nickell couldn't collect on the life-insurance policy.

Nickell hatched another plot within a week. She bought nine more bottles of Excedrin and cut through the protective film with a razor blade. She laced some of the pills with cyanide, just as she'd done before, and placed the bottles on the shelves of random stores in the area. One of the bottles happened to be purchased by Snow.

"Stella was desperate because she murdered her husband and got nothing out of it," Olsen said.

Klein at the age of 21, six years after her mom was fatally poisoned. Gregg Olsen

Nickell took advantage of the panic created by Snow's death and asked police to consider Bruce's case as part of their investigation. She told them that she thought that he'd been poisoned, too. A second autopsy proved her right.

But the plot backfired. Detectives later found traces of algaecide  a chemical used to clean fish tanks  in the Excedrin pills. Nickell, who kept tropical fish in a large tank, had crushed the cyanide in the same bowl that she used to turn the algaecide into powder.

Nickell took a lie detector test and failed. Her fate was sealed when Hamilton told the FBI that her mother had repeatedly talked about killing Bruce in different ways. Hamilton went on to testify against Nickell at her trial two years later. Nickell was convicted and sentenced to 90 years in jail.

Klein has struggled to process the random way that her mother became a victim

Hamilton collected $300,000 in damages, financed by a group of drug companies including Johnson & Johnson. The money was an attempt by the company to limit damages, because scared consumers had boycotted their products.

"The case brought the whole pharmaceutical industry to its knees," Olsen said. He said that the companies were extra sensitive because the police had found no leads on the Tylenol murders in Illinois.

Klein laments the fact that her mother missed every milestone in her life, like her wedding and the birth of her son, over the past 36 years. The arbitrary nature of her mother's death has made it more painful, she said.

Klein, who lives with her family in New Mexico, said the loss had taught her "a lot about life." She added that "as negative as it is, I have chosen to learn from it and not become bitter."

Klein has watched all three of Nickell's parole hearings, where she's petitioned for release on "compassionate grounds." She said of Nickell, "She has no regard for what she did to other people's lives  I don't know why anybody should have any regard for her now."

Olsen said that Nickell's crimes have been the focus of a number of TV documentaries and books, including his own. But, the author said, the poisoner has never cared about the attention.

"She didn't want notoriety," Olsen said. "All she wanted was a tropical-fish store."

Read the original article on Insider
Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) Third Quarter 2022 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: US$2.37b (up 13% from 3Q 2021).

Net income: US$279.0m (down 9.1% from 3Q 2021).

Profit margin: 12% (down from 15% in 3Q 2021). The decrease in margin was driven by higher expenses.

EPS: US$1.67 (down from US$1.81 in 3Q 2021).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

Motorola Solutions Revenues Beat Expectations, EPS Falls Short

Revenue exceeded analyst estimates by 2.4%. Earnings per share (EPS) missed analyst estimates by 29%.

Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 6.1% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 6.5% growth forecast for the Communications industry in the US.

Performance of the American Communications industry.

The company's shares are up 5.7% from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

It's still necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Motorola Solutions, and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Greg Abbott was slammed for his actions or inactions after Uvalde (Getty)

The murders of 21 small children and their teachers werent enough.

Less than six months after the state endured the worst school shooting in its history, Texans re-elected the man who refused to take gun reform action to stop it happening again.

On Tuesday night  only a few hours after polls closed  incumbent Greg Abbott sailed to victory in the gubernatorial race, beating Democratic rival Beto ORourke, cementing his position as governor for a third term.

In an election watch party in McAllen, close to the USs southern border, the Republican celebrated his win.

Yet, for the family members of victims killed in the Uvalde massacre, Mr Abbotts victory marks yet another loss after they tried to turn their grief and pain into political action in the midterms.

On the 2022 ballot were the lives of the 19 young students and two heroic teachers killed during the 24 May mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

On the ballot were the states relaxed gun laws that enabled the 18-year-old gunman to legally buy an AR-15 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition days after his birthday.

And on the ballot was Mr Abbotts refusal to call a legislative session to even discuss the possibility of introducing gun safety measures as he continued to enjoy his longstanding, cosy relationship with the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Mr ORourke made the Uvalde massacre a central issue in his campaign  securing the endorsement of the victims families and pointing out both Mr Abbotts actions prior to the attack and apparent inaction in the aftermath.

Meanwhile, the Republican governor ignored the shooting altogether, instead running on a platform of immigration, the USs border with Mexico and the economy.

And, in the end, it was those issues that won over voters.

Inaction after Uvalde

Mr Abbotts action  or inaction  over the mass shooting fell under scrutiny almost immediately after the 24 May tragedy.

When news of the shooting reached him in Abilene, where he was holding a press conference about wildfires, instead of rushing to Uvalde, he continued with his plans to attend a fundraiser to drum up donations for his re-election campaign.

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Initially, Mr Abbott claimed that he only stopped by the campaign fundraiser in Huntsville to let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go.

But this version of events fell apart two months later when campaign finance reports and flight-tracking records, obtained by The Dallas Morning News , revealed that he actually stayed almost three hours at the event.

A memorial for the 19 children and two teachers killed in the May shooting sits outside the school (AP)

While devastated parents were receiving the worst possible news, Mr Abbott was raising up to $50,000 in campaign funds.

In the weeks after the shooting, Mr Abbott also came under fire when he was a no-show at the funerals for each of the 21 victims.

When scheduling records exposed his absence, Mr Abbotts office responded by saying he had sent flowers and condolences to the families and had visited every family who had requested a meeting.

Then there was his change in messaging about what happened that day.

One day after the massacre, Mr Abbott gave his first public address in which he heaped praise on the amazing courage of law enforcement officers on the scene. He told the community that had just lost 21 members that it could have been worse.

It could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do, he said.

This, of course, turned out to be false.

In the days and weeks after the shooting, it emerged that almost 400 officers waited a staggering 77 minutes before breaching the classroom as the gunman continued his murderous rampage and wounded victims bled to death.

The police response has now been branded an abject failure, one in which officers on the scene prioritised their own safety over saving the lives of the victims.

Mr Abbott later fumed that he had been misled by unidentified public officials before making his speech.

Three days on from the shooting, the governor spoke out again  this time giving two vastly different speeches with two dramatically conflicting messages on the topic of gun safety.

That Friday, Mr Abbott had been due to speak on stage at the NRA convention in Houston.

Abbott speaking in a pre-recorded video at the NRA convention (Fox)

In light of the shooting, he pulled out of the event  but not before sending a pre-recorded video message to be played on stage.

In that speech, he undermined the importance of gun safety laws, claiming they have no impact on reducing gun violence.

There are thousands of laws on the books across the country that limit the owning and using of firearms, laws that have not stopped madmen from carrying out evil acts on innocent people in peaceful communities, he said.

In Uvalde, the gunman committed a felony under Texas law before he even pulled the trigger. Its a felony to possess a firearm on school premises. But that did not stop him.

The message  a show of defiance that he had no plans to tighten the states already weak gun laws  aired at the same time as he was telling the grieving Uvalde community that he absolutely expected new laws to be passed in response to the tragedy.

With regard to a special (legislative) session, let me just say this: all options are on the table, he said.

Do we expect laws to come out of this devastating crime? The answer is absolutely yes. And there will be laws in multiple different subject areas. There will be committees formed, there will be meetings held, there will be proposals that will be derived, many of which will lead to laws that will be passed in the state of Texas.

For the next near-on six months, Mr Abbott ignored ongoing requests from Uvalde officials to call a special legislative session to at least discuss the possibility of gun reform in the state.

State Representative Tracy King and state Senator Roland Gutierrez  the two Texas lawmakers who represent Uvalde  urged the governor to call the session. State Democrats said they would support proposals including raising the minimum age to buy semi-automatic assault rifles from 18 to 21, creating red flag laws, introducing a 72-hour cooling off period for gun purchases and regulating private gun sales.

Grieving family members begged for change, calling  at the very least  for a raise in minimum age to purchase assault weapons.

Time after time, their pleas were ignored.

Instead of acknowledging that the states weak gun laws may have played any part in the massacre (the 18-year-old gunman legally bought two AR-15s just days after his birthday), Mr Abbott pointed the finger at mental illness and school safety and insisted that raising the minimum age to buy would be unconstitutional.

Parents who lost children in the Robb Elementary School shooting look at a sample ballot before going to vote on Monday (AP)

Instead, he claimed he took several other actions to support the Uvalde community and make schools safer including providing 30 law enforcement officers to the school district campuses for the new school year, $105.5m in funding for school safety and mental health services  as well as roping in Chuck Norris to front a programme to report suspicious behaviour at schools.

None of the actions involved restricting access to firearms.

On Monday  the penultimate day of voting  call logs between Mr Abbott and Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw gave yet another glimpse into how seriously the governor took the mass murders of 21 Texans.

The call logs, released by Mr Gutierrez, showed that Mr Abbott accepted three calls from Mr McCraw on 24 May, with the two men speaking for less than 30 minutes about one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history  an indication of a lack of urgency from the governor on the day of the massacre.

Gun reform on the ballot

This list of critiques about Mr Abbotts handling of the massacre was fuel for Mr ORourke who both placed the responsibility for what happened squarely on the governors shoulders and slammed his inaction in the aftermath.

One day after the mass shooting, the Democrat infamously confronted the Republican in a highly-emotional press conference.

Mr ORourke  whose hometown El Paso was the site of another mass shooting in 2019  blamed Mr Abbott for the massacre, shouting at him: This is on you.

You are doing nothing. You are offering up nothing. You said this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything, he told him, before the Democrat was removed from the room.

Over the following months, Mr ORourke continued to place Uvalde and gun control front and centre of his election campaign.

On 30 September  hours before the two men went head-to-head for what would be their only debate  35 family members of victims joined him for a press conference where they publicly endorsed the Democrat.

Days later, Mr ORourke released a gutwrenching ad campaign featuring some of the griefstricken family members.

Beto ORourke, Democratic candidate for Texas governor, at a town hall meeting in McAllen (Associated Press)

In one of the advertisements, Ana Rodriguez told the camera how her 10-year-old daughter Maite Rodriguez could only be identified by her green Converse shoes.

She wore green Converse with the heart drawn on the right toe. Those shoes ended up being one way to identify her body in that classroom, the heartbroken mother said.

I never want another family to go through this. Greg Abbott has done nothing to stop the next shooting. No laws passed. Nothing to keep kids safe in school. So, Im voting Beto for Maite.

During the gubernatorial debate, gun control was also high on the agenda  with Mr ORourke saying that not a thing has changed since the massacre.

All we need is action, and the only person standing in our way is the governor of the state of Texas, he said.

Mr Abbott pushed back, saying that gun laws would go against the Second Amendment and that we want to end school shootings, but we cannot do that by making false promises.

Mr ORourke  who ran unsuccessfully in the last two election cycles first for the Senate and then the White House  raised a hefty war chest and enjoyed the support of other anti-Abbott groups during the race.

Mothers Against Greg Abbott or MAGA  a political movement using an ironic riff on Donald Trumps slogan  has spent months calling for Mr Abbotts removal and supporting Mr ORourke for governor.

Mothers Against Greg Abbotts billboard on the way into Uvalde (Mothers Against Greg Abbott)

In one powerful promo, the group launched a poignant back to school advert, showing a small child getting ready for their first day back in class.

The boy is dressed head to toe in body armour, with the ad reading: Our children are not soldiers.

The group also erected billboards in Uvalde with Mr Abbotts now infamous phrase it could have been worse.

Founder Nancy Thompson toldThe Independent in September that Mr Abbott had failed Texan families in his response to Uvalde and left parents living in fear of sending their children to school.

Im worried, terrified, angry and there isnt a day I dont think when I say goodbye to my children that it could be that day, she said.

That is in essence motherhood in America. Millions of mothers across America drop their kids off at school in the morning and hope today is not the day. And its all because the government forgot to take care of our families and now we have consequences.

But, while Mr ORourke had the Uvalde families and Mothers Against Greg Abbott, Mr Abbott had the NRA.

Data compiled by Giffords showed that Mr Abbott received $20,700 in career gun lobby contributions  one of the highest of all candidates in gubernatorial races.

Abbott and NRAs Wayne LaPierre at a press conference announcing the states new open carry law in 2021 (Greg Abbott/Twitter)

His close relationship with the NRA was perhaps most evident when in June 2021  less than one year before Uvalde  he signed a bill into law allowing Texans without a licence to open carry handguns.

Standing at his shoulder at the bill signing were NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and NRA president Carolyn Meadows.

The closeness only looks set to increase as the NRA is seeking to relocate to Texas from New York.

Immigration on the ballot

But  despite the Democrats efforts  Mr Abbott had been ahead in the race each step of the way.

Mr ORourke was fighting an uphill battle from the very start.

After all, Democrats havent won a statewide election in Texas in more than two decades.

And Mr Abbott sought to turn voters attention away from Uvalde, using his infamous migrant bus stunts to instead play into fears about the US-Mexico border.

Under his programme, the Republican bused dozens of migrants from Texas to other parts of the US including abandoning some outside Vice President Kamala Harriss home in Washington DC.

The controversial plan appeared to work.

Kimberly Rubio, mother of slain Robb Elementary student Alexandria Rubio, is comforted at a press conference in September (AP)

In an October poll from The Texas Politics Project, voters said immigration and border security was the top issue for them on the ballot, with 32 per cent citing it.

The state economy was the second most important issue, followed by abortion.

Less than one in 10 voters (9 per cent) said that gun violence was an important issue to them.

In that poll, Mr Abbott held an 11-point lead over his Democratic challenger  a lead that translated into victory in the final race.

Ultimately, while gun violence may be the top issue for the families in Uvalde, it wasnt enough to unseat Mr Abbott.
Nasas Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft stand at the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 6 November 2022 (Nasa)

Nasa decided Tuesday evening to delay the launch date of its Artemis I mission as the space agency prepares its big Moon rocket to weather near hurricane-strength winds at the launch pad in the face of the approaching Tropical Storm Nicole.

Nasa had been targeting Monday 14 as the date to finally launch its long-awaited Moon mission, but will now shift for an expected launch no earlier than 1.04pm EST on Wednesday 16 November, with a backup date of 19 November.

Adjusting the target launch date will allow the workforce to tend to the needs of their families and homes, and provide sufficient logistical time to get back into launch status following the storm, Nasa announced in a blog post on Tuesday evening.

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) forecasters now expect Tropical Storm Nicole to strengthen into a category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall along the southeastern Florida coast sometime Wednesday.

Category 1 hurricanes can sustain winds up to 95 miles-per-hour, according to Noaa.

Located south of Daytona beach and north of Port Saint Lucie along Floridas east coast, Kennedy Space Center, and specifically Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where Nasas Moon rocket waits on the launch pad, could be in the line of fire of Nicole. But Nasa officials believe the Space Launch System (SLS), the massive rocket that will launch the Artemis I mission into orbit, can handle the oncoming storm, according to the space agency announcement.

The greatest risks at the pad are high winds that are not expected to exceed the SLS design, the Nasa blog post reads, noting SLS is designed to handle winds of up to 85 miles-per-hour. The rocket is designed to withstand heavy rains at the launch pad and the spacecraft hatches have been secured to prevent water intrusion.

What it is now too late to do, is to roll the SLS rocket back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, the massive rocket hangar where the Artemis I mission vehicle rode out Hurricane Ian as it rolled across Florida in late September. A roll back can take more than 12 hours, as the 5.75-million-pound inches its way from the launch pad on a massive, treaded vehicle, so Nasa is committed to weathering the storm with its multi-billion dollar rocket out in the open.

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Nasa ground teams are currently in Hurricane Condition (Hurcon) III, according to Nasa, which entails securing equipment and preparing a ride out team.

A ride-out team includes a set of personnel who will remain in a safe location at Kennedy throughout the storm to monitor centerwide conditions, including the flight hardware for the Artemis I mission, according to the blog post. Nasa has powered down the rockets systems ahead of the oncoming storm and will have to verify the integrity of the rockets structure and systems before going ahead with a launch next week.

Artemis I, whenever it launches, will be the first orbital test flight of the SLS rocket and a major uncrewed flight test of the Orion spacecraft. SLS will launch Orion on a flight path to, around, and beyond the Moon to test Orions flight systems, before the spacecraft returns to Earth to test its heat shield and parachutes by landing in the Pacific Ocean.

A 16 November launch would mean an 11 December splash down for Artemis I, assuming all goes well with the mission after launch.

And assuming the mission can actually launch anytime soon.

Nasa first attempted to launch Artemis I in August, but was forced to scrub the launch due to an engine cooling issue. A second launch attempt in September was canceled after engineers failed to plug a leak in the liquid hydrogen fueling lines while attempting to load the rocket with cryogenic fuel for launch.

Nasa conducted a fueling test on 21 September that gave space agency officials confidence the technical challenges to an Artemis I launch had been overcome, but Hurricane Ian, and now Tropical Storm Nicole, have introduced factors outside of Nasa control.

Artemis I is meant to be the first mission of a massive new Moon program for Nasa. Artemis II is scheduled to fly Nasa astronauts around the Moon on a similar flightpath to Artemis I in May of 2024, while Artemis III will land Nasa astronauts on the lunar surface in 2025, the first time human boots have touched the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission of 1972.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO leaders will gather for their next summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, the military alliance announced on Wednesday.

The venue will be an opportunity for leaders to "agree further steps to strengthen our deterrence and defence and review significant increases in defence spending, as well as to continue our support for Ukraine," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

NATO leaders last met in Madrid in June.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold)
Chinese, Australian FMs hold phone talks on ties

Xinhua) 08:38, November 09, 2022

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held a phone conversation with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the latter's request.

Australia and China have maintained effective communication and contact recently, said Wong, adding that through unremitting efforts, bilateral relations have witnessed positive changes.

Australia will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and develop more stable and mutually beneficial relations with China on the basis of mutual respect, she said.

Noting that sound Australia-China relations are not contradictory to safeguarding the two countries' respective national interests, Wong said Australia has no intention to magnify existing differences, and is ready to properly handle specific issues in a responsible manner within the framework of Australia-China comprehensive strategic partnership and make continuous efforts to improve and strengthen the two countries' relations.

For his part, Wang said the common interests of China and Australia far outweigh their differences, and the easing and improvement of China-Australia relations conforms to the fundamental interests of both sides and the common expectations of the two peoples and the international community.

Wang said that the two sides should continue to stick to the consensus on the basic position of being comprehensive strategic partners each other, uphold the spirit of mutual respect, seek common ground while reserving differences, and work together towards the goals of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, so as to rebuild mutual trust between the two countries and get bilateral ties back on track.

During this process, China and Australia need to gradually address respective legitimate concerns and jointly make positive contributions to tackling current global challenges, noted Wang.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
Democratic incumbent Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul prepares to celebrate his election night victory over Republican challenger Thomas DeVore on Nov. 8, 2022, at Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

After a campaign charged with emotion over issues including crime and the states pandemic response, Democrat Kwame Raoul cruised to a commanding victory Tuesday in his bid for a second term as Illinois attorney general over Republican Thomas DeVore.

With 87% of precincts reporting, Raoul had 55% of the vote and DeVore, a downstate attorney, had nearly 43%, according to unofficial results. Raouls double-digit win tracked with other statewide Democratic candidates, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

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An emotional Raoul declared victory shortly after 10 p.m. Im your 42nd attorney general and Im going to serve as such for the next four years, he told supporters at Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier.

In a later tweet, he pledged to crack down on gun violence, protect children from online predators and fight like...hell to make sure Illinois remains a safe haven for women!

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Thank you, Illinois! Im humbled & honored that youve reelected me Attorney General. I will always defend your rights, crack down on gun violence, protect children from online dangers, and fight like to hell to make sure Illinois remains a safe haven for women! pic.twitter.com/VOEVi6O9YL  Kwame Raoul (@KwameRaoul) November 9, 2022

DeVore called the incumbent to concede shortly after Raouls victory speech, according to the incumbents campaign. Speaking to his supporters at The Drake Hotel Oak Brook, DeVore said they ran a good race.

Three years ago when this started, it wasnt even about elections, it was about standing up to a government that was doing things that it shouldnt have been doing, DeVore said. And in that three years, I was proud to see the people all across this state, even in Cook County, stand up for what they believe is right.

[ [Dont miss] Live 2022 election results ]

DeVore frequently joined forces on the campaign trail with the GOP gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who lost decisively to Pritzker on Tuesday.

In the final days of the election, Raoul joined Pritzker and other Democrats at the top of the ticket at rallies targeting Black voters and labor groups. Of his opponent, during an earlier online forum, Raoul said DeVore should not be let anywhere near the door of the attorney generals office.

The two differed starkly on most issues, chief among them Pritzkers pandemic-related executive orders. Raouls office repeatedly battled with DeVore in court to defend the state against lawsuits challenging Pritzkers mask mandate and other executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

While there hasnt been a final ruling in any of the more than 30 lawsuits DeVore filed against the state, he was successful in temporarily stopping some of Pritzkers rules. The litigation served as a springboard in DeVores campaign as the political unknown from downstate Sorento steadily gained notoriety.

At 53, DeVores experience in elected office was a two-year stint on the Bond County Board more than a decade ago. DeVore, who has the words freedom and liberty tattooed on his forearms, argued his willingness to take on the governor in court is proof he if elected would be a check on power and government overreach.

But Raoul held a commanding cash advantage in the race. DeVore started July with less than $16,000 in his campaign fund after winning a GOP primary in which he was vastly outspent by the second-place finisher, who was on a slate backed by billionaire Ken Griffin. As of early Tuesday, DeVore reported raising more than $500,000 in additional contributions, about half of which came from a loan he made to his campaign that lifted contribution limits for both candidates.

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With the limits off, Raoul received a $1 million contribution from Pritzkers campaign fund and, as of Monday, had reported raising more than $1.1 million in other contributions since July 1. Thats on top of the $1.1 million in cash he had on hand at the end of June.

Democratic incumbent Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul celebrates his election night victory over GOP challenger Thomas DeVore on Nov. 8, 2022, at Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

DeVore attacked Raoul for being too closely aligned with Pritzker, repeatedly calling the incumbent attorney general the governors lap dog. Raoul dismissed such criticism, contending his independence is not for sale.

Raoul, 58, is a former Cook County prosecutor from Chicago who succeeded Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate, representing parts of the citys South Side, before being elected four years ago to replace former Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

In response to DeVores criticism, Raoul argued his office was on the right side of the law and public health in defending the states actions on the pandemic and, thus, helped save lives.

DeVore also has sued Pritzker for defamation after the governor called him a grifter during a news conference in response to a question about DeVores legal challenges to the pandemic mandates. Raouls office defended Pritzker against the defamation allegation, but DeVore later dropped the lawsuit.

The attorney general accused DeVore of wasting the courts time with what he deemed frivolous lawsuits. Besides Pritzker, DeVore in recent years has sued a special education teacher and two others for sharing a Facebook post in which DeVore referred to students working a school concession stand as window lickers and his girlfriends mother, whom he accuses of publishing a derogatory article under a pseudonym.

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Raoul said DeVores largely unsuccessful lawsuits showed he was unqualified for the office. He also pointed to DeVores social media comments that indicated he might, if elected, investigate political adversaries, including Pritzker, and Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, whom DeVore has criticized as being too lenient on criminals.

DeVore accused the incumbent of not being aggressive enough in fighting crime in his role as attorney general. The GOP challengers primary criticism has been with the SAFE-T Act, the sweeping criminal justice legislation Pritzker has signed into law. Among other changes, it will end cash bail on Jan. 1.

The law allows judges to keep defendants behind bars while awaiting trial if they are deemed to be a flight risk or danger to the public, but Republicans argue it will empty out jails and lead to increased violence. The measure faces an onslaught of legal challenges from several county states attorneys.

DeVore alleged the law is unconstitutional, raising issues with the way it was passed as well as its content. He pledged to work to get the measure overturned if elected.

Raoul, who backed the SAFE-T Act, has acknowledged he has concerns about potential ambiguities in the sweeping law and spoke to the need for lawmakers and prosecutors to work together to clarify some provisions.

In his first term, the attorney general created an organized retail crime task force to stem smash-and-grab offenses. He also pushed for stronger federal ghost gun regulations to crack down on homemade weapons. Raoul pledged to try to expand the attorney generals jurisdiction over corruption cases if reelected.

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Though crime dominated much of the race, Raoul also highlighted his support for abortion rights, including his offices defense against an ongoing lawsuit challenging a state law that enshrined access to the procedure as a fundamental right. The litigation objects to a provision of the law that requires health plans that offer pregnancy-related care to also provide coverage for abortion.

DeVore has described himself as a pro-life guy, but he said if elected he would continue to defend the state reproductive health law because he wasnt aware of any constitutional problems with it.

Under Raoul, the attorney generals office has played an active role in defending the rights of transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community. But DeVore said his approach to such social issues, which he said he would not actively litigate, marked a fundamental difference between him and Raoul.

Libertarian Party candidate Daniel K. Robin, a 45-year attorney from Schaumburg, was also on the ballot and wound up collecting 2% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com

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Jens Stoltenberg visited military base in the UK where defenders of Ukraine are trained

After visiting the Lydd Army Camp military base  where the UK army is helping train Ukrainian troops  Stoltenberg thanked the UK, Canada, Lithuania, and other countries that contribute to the effort. He also noted Londons leading role in helping Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion.

Read also: Military aid provided to Ukraine exhausting NATOs own reserves, says Stoltenberg

"...I am impressed with what I saw, said Stoltenberg.

I saw the skills and dedication of the Ukrainian soldiers who are trained here. How much they learn, how much they can achieve in just a few weeks, is inspiring, and I am sure that it will have a great importance at the front in Ukraine."

In September, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that about 5,000 Ukrainian servicemen had already been trained in the UK to effectively fight invading Russian forces. Instructors from Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine, and the UK itself help train Ukrainian defenders.

Read also: UK Defense Ministry gives forecast on Russia-Ukraine war in coming months

During a visit to Kyiv in June, then-PM Boris Johnson announced a program for Ukrainian troops that would train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
PARIS  On the first day of the biennial Euronaval trade conference here last month, Frances new defense minister Sebastien Lecornu made sure to meet with Greeces vice defense minister, Nikolaus Hardalias, at the Hellenic pavilion.

There was a reason for the special attention. Paris has aggressively pursued increased ties to Athens military in recent years, including signing a strategic partnership in 2021, and it succeeded in netting a contract in March to build three new frigates for the Hellenic navy. But other nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, and others are also building new partnerships with Greece, and companies at Euronaval showed concerted interest in courting the nation for shipyard partnerships.

A major program to recapitalize Greeces corvette fleet has recently stalled, Defense News has learned. But that hasnt stopped the competitors from signing new contracts with local suppliers to shore up support once the program moves forward.

Frances Naval Group, the Netherlands Damen, the UKs Babcock, Italys Fincantieri, and the United States Lockheed Martin have all thrown their hats into the ring for the corvette replacement effort. But the Greek navy has for now put the program on pause, Jonathan Walton, Babcocks vice president of business development for marine and technology at Babcock International Group, told Defense News Oct. 20 at the companys booth at Euronaval.

Babcock had proposed its Arrowhead 140 frigate  the basis for the Royal Navys Type 31 frigates currently in construction  for Greeces frigate replacement program, initially, and now the corvette replacement. The British shipyard had also initiated agreements in principle with local suppliers in Greece to sweeten the deal, said Walton.

Requests for comment to the Greek Ministry of Defense on the status of the corvette program were not returned before publication.

Frances Naval Group has proposed its GoWind 2500 multipurpose corvette for the Hellenic Navy. The company is slated to build three new Belharra-class FDI HN (fregates de defense et dintervention for the Hellenic Navy) frigates and an optional fourth, out of its shipyards in Lorient in the north of France, due for delivery in 2025 and 2026. The company announced Oct. 21 the first FDI HN block was laid down in dry dock, launching the assembly phase.

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Since the FDI HN program launched in March, Naval Group has signed about 20 contracts to reinforce relations with Greek shipbuilding industry partners, including seven at Euronaval during the meeting between the two defense ministers. Those agreements extend to efforts outside of the FDI program as well as future projects, and include on-site job training as well, the company said.

Italy, the United States, and the Netherlands are also working to woo the Greeks.

Lockheed Martin vied for the frigate construction program alongside Naval Group, and for a time was pursuing options to nab a contract to build several additional ships. That letter of agreement has since expired, company officials told reporters Oct. 19 at the Euronaval conference.

The company is continuing to make inroads with the Hellenic shipbuilding industry to develop an indigenous design for a smaller vessel, Corvette sized, as well as an integrated combat system, said Joe DiPietro, vice president and general manager for naval combat and missile defense systems.

Meanwhile, Lockheed is continuing to pursue a contract to upgrade Greeces four Hydra-class MEKO frigates, said Dawn Brenner, business development director for small combatants and ship systems. The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin offered a bid in December 2021 that was due to expire the following March. The offer was extended to September, however, and has since been extended a second time, to December, at the request of the Hellenic Navy, she said.

This letter of agreement would involve the integration of Lockheed Martins suite of products centered around the Aegis combat management system (CMS), namely putting the COMBATSS-21 CMS on the MEKO frigates, alongside Lockheeds Mark 41 vertical launching system and Sikorskys MH-60 Seahawk helicopters. Greece has committed to buying seven MH-60 aircraft, with deliveries scheduled to begin at the end of 2023, according to Mark Zavack, head of Sikorsky international business development.

The company has had regular meetings with Hellenic Shipyard, and would likely modernize the MEKO frigates on site there, DiPietro previously told Defense News.

Babcock has also submitted a proposal to upgrade the MEKO frigates, highlighting their experience modernizing such ships for the Australia and New Zealands navies, Walton said.

Fincantieri announced Oct. 12 it had signed several memorandums of understanding with a selection of new suppliers at the Italian Embassy in Athens. The agreements would serve the Greek Navys program to build four new corvettes with a lighter version of its Doha-class light frigate.

Fincantieri has carried out scouting activities in Greece in order to identify suppliers to start potential collaborations with reference to the existing Greek program or any new naval vessels program, with the main goal of strengthening the Groups cooperation with Hellenic companies, the company said in a release.

Damen Shipyards has offered its SIGMA 10514 vessel, recently selected by the Colombian navy for its frigate replacement program, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hellenic Marine Equipment Manufacturers & Exporters group to work with over 60 local suppliers, should the company win the contract, a spokesperson said in an email to Defense News.
One of Americas most contested midterm races between Adam Laxalt and Catherine Cortez Masto is coming to a head in Nevada.

As of Thursday morning, Republican Mr Laxalt maintained a slight lead over Democrat incumbent Ms Cortez Masto in the Senate race with just over 79 per cent of votes counted, according to the New York Times.

The race is still subject to substantial shift as two counties with the vast majority of voters - Clark and Washoe - continued to tabulate mail-in ballots that maintained late into Wednesday night with large margins for Democrats, according to the Nevada Independent.

Those ballots will continue to come in over the next several days, as state law requires them to be postmarked by Election Day at the latest.

In the race for Nevada governor, incumbent Democrat Steve Sisolak was several points behind Republican challenger Joe Lombardo, sheriff of Clark County and head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, as of Thursday morning with 79 per cent of votes counted.

Four House seats are also up for grabs in Nevada, with Republican Mark Amodei claiming the first victory as he won reelection for Nevadas 2nd Congressional District.

Why the Nevada race is so important

14:53 , Megan Sheets

In an Editors Letter prior to Election Day, The Independents Eric Garcia outlined why the Nevada race between Adam Laxalt and Catherine Cortez Masto:

Nevada doesnt get as much attention as other states, because outside of Las Vegas and Reno, it is largely seen as rural and desert  and it only has six electoral votes. But that doesnt mean it is unimportant. In fact, Ive been keeping an eye on the state ever since the Nevada caucuses in the 2020 Democratic primary, when eventual President Joe Biden posted a weak second place against Bernie Sanders. Sanders won thanks to an aggressive Latino outreach in the state.

I began telling anyone who would listen (and many who wouldnt) that this meant Biden could underperform with Latino voters in the presidential election, too. This would be borne out when Donald Trump improved his margin with the group and Biden barely won Nevada in 2020  to say nothing of Trumps strength in south Texas and Miami, where there are also high amounts of Latino voters.

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Now, in the 2022 midterms, Nevada faces perhaps the tightest and perhaps most consequential races with Adam Laxalt facing Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto; Governor Steve Sisolak facing Republican Sheriff Joe Lombardo; and election-denying Republican Jim Marchant facing Democrat Cisco Aguilar.

Read more:

In the US midterm elections, it all comes down to Nevada

US midterms: Who won, who lost and what we know so far

14:52 , Megan Sheets

As the results continue to roll in from the midterm elections, it quickly became clear that the contest had been much closer than expected and the outcome more nail-biting and unpredictable than many had foreseen.

The Republicans appear close to securing a majority in the House of Representatives at the time of writing and could yet sneak an advantage in the Senate too, which would allow them to play havoc with Joe Bidens legislative agenda.

But the red tsunami that many blustering conservative commentators had confidently forecast was about to level Washington DC has most certainly not materialised.

South Carolina GOP senator Lindsey Graham admitted as much when he was asked by NBC what he had seen play out and answered dryly: Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure.

Here, The Independent provides all the latest results from the races and breaks down who, who lost and whats still to be decided.

US midterms: Who won, who lost and what we know so far

Nevada mail-in ballots continue to arrive with large margins for Democrats

14:51 , Megan Sheets

As mail-in ballots continued to be counted in Nevada, the tightening race in the Senate appeared to close some of Republican Adam Lexalts lead over Democratic challenger Catherine Cortez Masto.

In Senate race, combined results from Lyon, Nye and Washoe have reduced Laxalts lead to under 16,000, tweeted Jon Ralston, CEO, The Nevada Independent, late Wednesday night local time.

New NV numbers, via @s_golonka:



In Senate race, combined results from Lyon, Nye and Washoe have reduced Laxalt's lead to under 16,000.



Washoe mail was huge for CCM, as she turned a 5K deficit there to a 400-vote lead. The urban mail is coming in with large margins for Dems.  Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) November 10, 2022

Washoe mail was huge for CCM, as she turned a 5K deficit there to a 400-vote lead. The urban mail is coming in with large margins for Dems, he added, noting that the votes likely wouldnt be tabulated till Thursday.

This is where the Senate race is right now, with 100K-plus mail ballots still to be counted in Clark and Washoe, he tweeted, while sharing a screenshot of the race results that showed Mr Laxalt ahead with 15,812 to Ms Cortez Masto.
A group of Newcastle fans is staging a protest against the clubs Saudi majority owners (Richard Sellers/PA) (PA Wire)

Newcastle United fans opposed to the clubs Saudi owners have vowed to keep talking about sportswashing as they prepare to protest against human rights abuses.

The consortium which took control at St James Park in October last year is 80 per cent funded by Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund, the Gulf states sovereign wealth fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

The Premier League approved the takeover after receiving assurances there would be no state involvement in the running of the club.

PIFs backing has handed the Magpies huge spending power, but also attracted criticism from human rights campaigners who have accused the nation of attempting to use the club to distract attention from mass executions, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ people.

Now NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing is to stage a silent protest featuring images of some of those who have been handed death sentences ahead of Saturday evenings Premier League clash with Chelsea to highlight its concerns.

A spokesperson told the PA news agency: If part of sportswashing is to hide these human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia that theyre committing, then a protest like this is an opportunity for us as fans to say were not going to ignore those things just because they own the club and were going to highlight them and were going to keep talking about them.

We want to raise awareness with Newcastle fans of these issues and also raise awareness that there is a group of us that want to talk about these things.

The group has chosen Saturdays fixture for a reason: A day before the sides last met at Stamford Bridge in March, 81 people were executed in Saudi Arabia  the largest number in the countrys modern history.

Personally for me, the decision is that I can't support the team while they are owned by this regime.

NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing spokesperson

Newcastle are currently thriving on the pitch  they went third in the table after Sundays 4-1 victory at Southampton  and supporters who spent years in the doldrums under previous owner Mike Ashley are daring to dream once again.

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However, some find themselves unable to get behind the club as a result of their ownership, while acknowledging a range of views on the matter.

The NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing spokesperson said: No-one wants to give up supporting their club and obviously I understand that lots of other people arent going to do that.

Personally for me, the decision is that I cant support the team while they are owned by this regime.

A lot of fans will be conflicted about that and wanting to support the team. We just want to say its your decision. If you want to support the team, then do that, but be aware of the issues with the ownership.

The group, which currently has a handful of regular activists, has received a mixed response to its plans, but is hoping to spark a reasoned debate.

The spokesperson said: We have received some criticism, but I think on the whole, it has been positive and theres generally a lot of support for it.

If people want to voice their opinion, then thats fine, but we hope its a peaceful protest.

Newcastle declined to comment when contacted.
Influencer Nikita Dragun was arrested Monday night at a hotel in Miami and charged with felony assault of a police officer, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Dragun, 26, who is transgender and well-known online for content about her transition, makeup and style, has 27 million followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Her representatives didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Over the past week, Dragun has posted videos and photos of herself in Miami, including at The Goodtime Hotel in Miami Beach. It was there that police officers responded to a call about a disorderly patron just after 6 p.m. Monday, the arrest affidavit provided to NBC News said.

The affidavit says hotel security told police officers that she had been causing a disturbance and being extremely disorderly, including walking around the pool area unclothed. When confronted, the security staffer told police, Dragun threw water on a hotel staffer.

When police officers went to Draguns hotel room, they could hear loud music from inside, the affidavit said. After knocking and identifying themselves as Miami Beach police, the affidavit said, she opened the door and was told by the hotel security accompanying the officers that she could be escorted from the property. Dragun shut the door before reopening it and asking Do you want more? She then swung an open water bottle toward the officers and staff, causing the water to hit and spill on the security guard and one of the officers, the affidavit said.

Dragun was arrested on the felony assault charge, as well as misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges, the affidavit said. She was transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center where she was booked just before 10 p.m., according to its inmate profile for her. The profile states her bond was set at $2,000.

Dragun has publicly struggled with her mental health over the past year. In December, she shared on Instagram that she had been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in Virginia for eight days starting on Thanksgiving Day. In a YouTube video in May that has since been removed from her channel, she said she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

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Hours before the arrest, Dragun tweeted about a separate altercation with Miami-based DJ and producer duo Black V Neck. The musicians told NBC News in a direct message that the altercation happened Saturday night at LIV, a Miami nightclub that attracts celebrity guests, after Black V Neck performed there with DJ Afrojack. On Sunday, Black V Neck tweeted that Dragun had shoved one of them after he told her not to steal their liquor bottle.

Dragun responded that she was escorted out of the venue by six security guards after seeing Black V Neck push a woman, which Black V Neck said was false both in a tweet and in a direct message to NBC News.

Bottom line. i see a man put hands on a woman. please call the cops. cus need u forget. i know i look like a Doll on the outside, but i still hit like a Dude, Dragun tweeted early Monday. She was arrested later that day, the affidavit said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Nintendo and mobile games company DeNA are forming a joint venture company called Nintendo Systems that will aim to enhance the digitization of Nintendo's business. The joint venture builds on Nintendo's years-long partnership with DeNA that began in 2015. The two have since worked together to develop a handful of titles, including Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour, Miitomo and Pokemon Masters. Nintendo announced the news alongside its latest financial results.

The company notes that since the amount of capital of the joint venture company is greater than 10% of that of Nintendo, it will become a Specified Subsidiary of Nintendo. The new company will begin operations in April 2023 and will be based in Tokyo. Nintendo's Tetsuya Sasaki will be the president of the new company.

Nintendo says the objective of the new venture company is to focus on research and development to strengthen the digitization of Nintendo's business and create "value-added services to further reinforce Nintendo's relationship with customers."

"With the integrated hardware-software model at the core of its business, Nintendo also strives to provide enhanced experience and service outside of its dedicated gaming system," the company said in a statement. "In order to provide this experience in a holistic manner, Nintendo is working to maintain and expand its relationship with consumers primarily through Nintendo Account."

Nintendo, together with DeNA, has made significant strides in the mobile gaming space. Of the six titles that two have produced together, Fire Emblem Heroes has been the most successful, as it hit $1 billion in global player spending in June, according to data from Sensor Tower. As a result, Fire Emblem Heroes was Nintendo's first mobile game to surpass $1 billion in spending. The data also shows that Mario Kart Tour brought in $293 million, while Animal Crossing brought in $287.6 million.

The company says the establishment of the joint venture company is subject to all necessary approvals, including those required by the competition laws of involved countries. Nintendo also notes that the news will have no effect on its results for this fiscal year, and that the effects it will have on future results will be incorporated into financial forecasts from the next term onward.
WASHINGTON (AP)  No instances of digital interference are known to have affected the counting of the midterm vote after a tense Election Day in which officials were closely monitoring domestic and foreign threats.

A few state and local governments appeared to be hit by a relatively rudimentary form of cyberattack that periodically made public websites unreachable. But U.S. and local officials said Wednesday that none breached vote-counting infrastructure.

We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country, Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, said in a statement.

CISA and other federal agencies had warned that safeguarding U.S. elections has become more complex than ever, with the most serious threats from domestic sources. Foreign adversaries such as Russia, China, and Iran have tried to meddle in individual campaigns and amplify false or misleading narratives on social media.

Many members of an increasingly fractious American public have latched onto unproven conspiracies about voter fraud. And there are constant fears that state-sponsored intruders or criminals might try to interfere with voter rolls or steal data for ransom. Also of concern are increasing physical and online threats to election workers.

Votes are still being counted throughout the country and winners have not been projected in some key races that will decide control of the House and Senate.

It's important to remember that this thorough and deliberative process can take days or weeks, depending on state laws; these rigorous procedures are why the American people can have confidence in the security and integrity of the election, Easterly said in a statement.

The website of Mississippi's secretary of state was down for part of Tuesday and there were other reports of sites becoming unreachable throughout the country, including in Champaign County, Illinois, and parts of Arkansas.

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Mississippi was apparently hit with a distributed denial of service, in which a website is made unreachable by a flood of inauthentic traffic. Federal and state officials said they could not say who was responsible for the Mississippi attack or other denial of service incidents, though a pro-Russia group had called on the social media platform Telegram for its followers to target the site.

While attribution is inherently difficult, weve not seen any evidence to suggest that these are part of a widespread coordinated campaign, said one official at CISA, the cybersecurity arm of Department of Homeland Security, in a briefing Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by the agency.

Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said state officials had reached out to Champaign County after seeing the county clerk claim in a tweet that their website had been under attack for a month.

The state board requested information about the issue but the data provided was insufficient to establish that there had been an attack, Dietrich said.

Analyst Alexander Leslie of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future called any attacks negligible, a minor nuisance at most.

The pro-Russia group that claimed responsibility for degrading Mississippi's site also tried to organize an attack against democrats.org, run by the Democratic National Committee. There is no evidence the DNC's site was affected, Leslie said.

Killnet, a far larger pro-Russia hacktivist group with 100,000 online followers that knocked down some state government and airport websites in October, did not organize any online attempts to attack U.S. election infrastructure.

That may be because such digital systems are tough targets to hit. CISA has pretty high cybersecurity standards, Leslie said. If they claim a bunch of attacks that do absolutely nothing, it doesn't look good for Killnet.

States have also toughened their defenses. Illinois has established eight cyber navigators each with responsibility for a number of counties in the state. Clerks are encouraged to report problems to the navigators so they can quickly involve experts.

Republican state Sen. Scott DeLano of Mississippi is a legislative adviser for the state Department of Information Technology Services. He told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Mississippi government websites typically face hundreds, if not thousands of attempted intrusions daily  nothing unusual in today's online world.

The site's inaccessibility meant, for example, that residents could not use the sites information about the location of voting precincts. DeLano said the secretary of state keeps a separate database for statewide voter registration information and that was not affected by the attack. Same-day election results are not posted on the Mississippi secretary of states site, so those also were not affected.

In a statement, Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican, credited technology staff who worked diligently to ensure that Mississippis election was secure, and through their hard work, we can confidently say our election system was not compromised.

We will continue to work ... to ensure, as cyber attacks strengthen in frequency and intellect, we are prepared and have the necessary resources to combat any and all attacks," Watson said.

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Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. AP Technology Writer Frank Bajak in Boston and AP Politics Writer John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.
SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea has fired a ballistic missile off its east coast, South Korea's military said on Wednesday, but no further details, such as the projectile's flight range, were immediately available.

The launch is the latest in a record year of missile testing by the North, including an ICBM test last week, at a time of growing fears that Pyongyang could be preparing for its first test of a nuclear device since 2017.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch on Wednesday does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or to its territory and allies, the U.S. military said.

The United States is consulting closely with its allies on the launches, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement after North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
This AT&T store located in Sault Ste. Marie was involved in a pipe bomb incident in September 2021, as was a Verizon Wireless location in Cheboygan.

BAY CITY  More than a year after pipe bombs were discovered outside of cell phone stores in Cheboygan and Sault Ste. Marie, the suspect in that case has been sentenced.

John Douglas Allen, 76, of Whittemore was sentenced Wednesday, Nov. 9 to 75 months on two separate criminal cases related to a $5 million extortion plot using shrapnel-filled pipe bombs the defendant placed outside cellphone stores in Cheboygan and Sault Ste. Marie, announced Eastern District of Michigan United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison and Western District of Michigan United States Attorney Mark Totten. Whittemore and Cheboygan are in the Eastern District and Sault Ste. Marie is in the Western District.

Ison and Totten were joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge James A. Tarasca, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division.

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Allen was sentenced before United States District Judge Thomas Ludington in Bay City. Allen had pleaded guilty to extortion by wrongful use of force, violence and fear, as well as two counts of attempted destruction of a building using an explosive device in July.

According to court records, Allen admitted that on Sept. 15, 2021, at approximately 7:36 p.m., he placed a United States Postal Service (USPS) box with black tape on it and a wire coming out of it outside an AT&T Store in Sault Ste. Marie. Later that evening, Allen placed another USPS box with black tape on it and a wire coming out of it outside of a Verizon Store in Cheboygan. The two devices were examined by the FBI laboratory Explosive Unit, which concluded that the two devices were improvised explosive devices (IEDs), also commonly referred to as pipe bombs. Both pipe bombs contained shrapnel. In addition, threat notes demanding $5 million were placed on cell phone towers in the area as well as mailed to the telecommunications companies. Based on video footage taken from the cell phone stores and other nearby businesses, as well as an investigation by law enforcement, agents were able to determine that Allen was the person who left the packages outside of the stores. The defendant claimed that he was motivated by what he viewed as immoral content being spread on the internet and cellphones.

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More:Investigation continues after explosive devices left at Northern Michigan cellphone stores

In addition, Allen pleaded guilty to placing letters containing threats aimed at telecommunications providers at cell towers located in the Upper Peninsula.

A top priority for my office is ensuring the safety of our communities, said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten. Allens actions in placing pipe bombs in front of commercial businesses endangered not only the lives of innocent individuals, but also our first responders and the bomb technicians who rendered those devices safe. My office will continue to aggressively pursue individuals for crimes like this that put our first responders and communities at risk.

U.S. Attorney Ison added that This defendant sought to use terror, threats and bombs to scare ordinary people going about their business. We will not tolerate individuals who use fear to try to line their own pockets.

James A. Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan, said Todays sentence demonstrates the gravity of the defendants egregious behavior to place the lives of innocent citizens at risk in order to extort money from companies.

This coordinated effort by local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies across Michigan helped protect communities from being further victimized and sends a clear message that crime does not pay, he added.

This case was investigated by special agents, intelligence analysts, troopers, deputies, and officers from the FBI, Michigan State Police, Cheboygan County Sheriff's Office, Cheboygan Police Department, Sault Ste. Marie Police Department, Sault Ste. Marie Tribal Police, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, U.S. Border Patrol and ATF.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Michael Buckley, Jerome Gorgon, Christopher OConnor and Theodore Greeley are prosecuting the case in their respective districts.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Northern Michigan man sentenced for leaving pipe bombs at cell phone stores
Princess Martha Louise and Durek Verrett on June 16, 2022 (left) and Queen Sonja on November 8, 2022 (right). LISE ASERUD/NTB/AFP via Getty Images, TERJE PEDERSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

Princess Martha Louise of Norway formally renounced her royal duties on Wednesday.

The royal is engaged to Durek Verrett, an American shaman, who works with alternative medicine.

In the aftermath of the decision, her mother, Queen Sonja, said Americans "don't understand" royalty.

Queen Sonja of Norway said Americans don't fully appreciate nor understand the importance of a monarchy after her daughter announced she'd given up her royal duties to pursue a life with her American fiance.

On Tuesday, the Norwegian royal house announced on its official website that Princess Martha Louise, 51, would no longer perform official royal engagements. The princess, who is the eldest child of King Harald and Queen Sonja, got engaged to Durek Verrett, a shaman from the US, in June.

In a separate statement shared on the official Norwegian royal website, Martha Louise said that her and Verrett's beliefs in spiritual healing and alternative medicine played a role in why she decided to step back from royal life.

However, at a press conference on Tuesday, her mother indicated cultural differences were also at play. According to Hello! magazine, Sonja, 85, was asked about Verrett's shamanic practices and said that he didn't understand why his work would affect the image of the royal family.

"Americans have no idea what a kingdom is. So it's no wonder he doesn't realize," Sonja said, according to the publication.

"Americans don't understand the bearing of this here. They don't. He thought he could do whatever he wanted without compromising us at all," she added.

Princess Martha-Louise of Norway (left) and her fiance Durek Verrett (right) in Oslo, Norway on June 16, 2022. LISE ASERUD/NTB/AFP via Getty Images

At the press conference, Harald said his daughter would keep her title, but that he was "sorry" to see that she would no longer be representing the royal family. "She is our daughter and she will continue to be," he added.

Despite cultural differences and belief systems leading to Martha Louise relinquishing her duties, Sonja and Harald maintained the family remain close to her and Verrett.

"Even if we disagree on things, we are happy with each other," Sonja said. "I have the feeling that the family is now very close to each other in a new, nice way."

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Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja in Oslo, Norway, on November 8, 2022. TERJE PEDERSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images

In giving up her royal duties, Martha Louise  who has three children with her late ex-husband, Ari Behn  will also be giving up her patronages and agreeing not to refer to members of the royal household on her social media channels with Verrett, the announcement detailed.

It added that the changes would ensure there is a clear divide between Martha Louise and Verrett's practices, which include crystal healing, acupuncture, yoga, and natural remedies, and the royal household.

"I am aware that many people follow what I do and say very closely," the princess said in her announcement. "My title entails a certain responsibility. It is therefore important to me, including in my business activity, to distinguish between myself as a private person on the one hand and as a member of the Royal Family on the other."

Representatives for the Norwegian royal household did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
UPDATE:Elections commissioners: Despite computer problems, 'results are not in question'

UPDATE:Morelle re-elected to third term in Congress, Singletary concedes NY-25 race

Election results:Monroe and surrounding counties

Election Day 2022 in Rochester NY: Photos

Morelle holds significant lead over Singletary

Democrat Joe Morelle appeared early Wednesday morning to have fended off a challenge from Republican La'Ron Singletary for a third term representing Rochester in New York's 25th congressional district, according to unofficial returns.

Morelle had 53.5 percent compared to 46.5 percent for Singletary, a margin of over 20,000 votes, according to the state Board of Elections. Mishaps at the Monroe County Board of Elections made it impossible to say whether all votes had been counted.

Morelle was conciliatory in remarks early Wednesday morning, thanking Singletary for running and saying he hoped to work together with him and others.

"At the end of the day, we all want the same things: stability, security and opportunity," he said.

Noting the difficulties with the reporting of votes from the Monroe County Board of Elections, Singletary has not conceded and has called for an investigation.

"Congressional Candidate LaRon Singletary, tonight has called for an investigation into unprecedented irregularities in our election process," a news release states. "Throughout the evening, several issues came into question regarding the validity of ballots and how they were accounted for and recorded. Until every ballot is accounted for and recorded appropriately, this congressional race is far from over."

Hochul holds off challenger in NY Governor race

Gov. Kathy Hochul held off a Republican challenger backed by party heavyweights eager to turn Andrew Cuomos downfall into victory in a reliably blue state, rallying downstate voters to become the first woman elected governor of New York.

With 61% of the vote counted, Hochul defeated Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Trump supporter and military veteran from Long Island who played on voter fears of random violence to cast Hochul as a soft-on-crime Democrat. Hochul garnered nearly 5%6 of the vote. NBC and ABC news outlets called the race for Hochul around 11:15 p.m. and Hochul's campaign headquarters in Manhattan displayed a screen saying she was the projected winner.

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Monroe County Board of Elections: Result reporting delayed

The Board of Elections released the following statement on its website:

The Board of Elections is experiencing delays with uploading election returns to the election night reporting system. We recognize that our voters and candidates are eager to see the election returns and are working diligently to improve the speed of reporting. In addition to direct reporting, we have the capacity to produce PDF documents of results as they are tabulated and will begin to release those shortly. The PDF reports will be updated frequently throughout the night.

Polls have closed

The polls across New York State closed at 9 p.m. We will be updating the results as they become available and you can find them on our Monroe County election results page.

As of 10:30 p.m., partial vote totals have been reported in Ontario, Orleans and Livingston counties, but nothing in Monroe County.

Schumer reelected

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer was projected as winner of a fifth term representing New York when polls closed at 9 p.m. The 71-year-old Brooklyn native defeated Joe Pinion, who hosted a program on the conservative TV channel Newsmax and faced long odds in a state where Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans.

"It's deeply humbling as it is motivating," he said in a Manhattan speech following the result.

Voter turnout numbers released in Monroe County

According to the Monroe County Board of Elections, 190,789 voters cast their ballots Tuesday, as of 7:30 p.m. The figure is 39% of the 487,814 Monroe County residents registered to vote. The communities with the largest percentage turnout include Mendon (55%), Rush (55%) and Riga (58%).

Already, 55,211 people cast their ballots during the Early Voting period, which ran from Oct. 29 to Nov. 6.

Jump to: Who is on the ballot in my town?

When will election results in Rochester and Monroe County be available?

Polls across New York State close at 9 p.m., and local election officials will immediately begin collecting vote totals from 853 election districts at the more than 250 polling sites across Monroe County. Partial vote totals will be released shortly after the polls close, including ballots cast as part of the state's early voting process.

The Monroe County Board of Election updates vote totals for each candidate as they are received, a process that typically takes between 90 minutes and two hours after polls close.

Vote totals provided on election night are unofficial and do not include absentee ballots. The process for counting those ballots can take as much as a week, since those ballots can be postmarked by November 8.

New York state election law requires an automatic recount if the margin of victory is less than 20 votes or or less than 0.5% between candidates.

Early voting turnout across NY

About 1.2 million New Yorkers voted early, according to preliminary numbers from the state Board of Elections.

About 430,000 of those votes came from New York City residents - about 36% of the statewide early voting total.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, it was still too early to speculate on Election Day voter turnout, a board of elections spokesperson said.

Hochul, Zeldin to spend election night in New York City

For months, gubernatorial candidates Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, and Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican, have been locked in a down-to-the-wire fight to lead New York as governor for the next four years.

Zeldin pointed to economic upheaval and rising crime in some areas as reasons for New Yorkers to trust new leadership and elect him governor. Hochuls campaign was initially focused on government transparency and support for abortion, but shes since pivoted to a more crime-focused message.

Mid-October polls showed Zeldin gaining on Hochuls once commanding lead, and signaled the race could be the tightest battle for the governors seat in New York in decades.

Both candidates spent nearly all of Tuesday in New York City, visiting diners, senior centers and malls and holding eleventh hour get-out-the-vote events.

Both will remain in Manhattan at their respective watch parties as results roll in Tuesday night.

Polling hours in Rochester NY

Polls are open for regular voting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Where do I vote in NY?

You can look up where to cast your ballot on Election Day at voterlookup.elections.ny.gov. According to the Monroe County Board of Elections, 55,211 people cast their ballots during the Early Voting period. Thats 11.3% of the 487,814 registered voters eligible to vote in Monroe County this fall, according to the BOE.

Who is on the ballot in New York, Rochester and Monroe County?

Here's a list of the candidates running in Rochester and the parties that endorsed them. Incumbents are noted with a diamond ("").

Kathy C. Hochul (Dem, WF)

Lee Zeldin (GOP, Con)

Debate replay: Watch full replay of the NY gubernatorial debate between Hochul, Zeldin

NY Lieutenant Governor

Antonio Delgado (Dem, WF)

Alison Esposito (GOP, Con)

NY Comptroller

Thomas P. DiNapoli (Dem, WF)

Paul Rodriguez (GOP, Con)

NY Attorney General

Letitia A. James (Dem, WF)

Michael Henry (GOP, Con)

US Senator

Charles E. Schumer (Dem, WF)

Joe Pinion (GOP, Con)

Roman Misula (Dem)

Maroun Ajaka (Dem)

James A. Vazzana (GOP, Con)

Jason L. Cook (GOP, Con)

Joseph D. Morelle (Dem, WF)

La'Ron Singletary (GOP, Con)

More: Joe Morelle, La'Ron Singletary clash on guns, abortion in NY 25th District race

State Senate - 56th District

Jeremy A. Cooney (Dem, WF)

Jim Vanbrederode (GOP, Con, Ind)

State Senate - 55th District

Samra G. Brouk (Dem, WF)

Len Morrell (GOP, Con, Ind

Other local ballots: Monroe County | Brighton | Canandaigua | Chili | Clarkson | East Rochester | Fairport | Gates | Greece | Hamlin | Henrietta | Irondequoit | Mendon | Ogden | Parma | Penfield | Perinton | Pittsford | Riga | Rochester | Rush | Sweden | Victor | Webster | Wheatland

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Election Day 2022 in Monroe County NY: Hochul, Morelle win
One if by Land, Two if by Sea, considered one of the most romantic restaurants in the world, is now under fire after a TikTok user accused the establishment of racially discriminating "against non-white people  particularly Asians."

TikTok user Annie (@rokug4n) called out One if by Land, Two if by Sea in a recent post. She says in her video that she and her boyfriend recently had a date at the restaurant and were seated on the second floor, or mezzanine. During their meal, she noticed that most of the people around them were purportedly Asian.

I'm going to preface this by saying, I have no issue dining with other Asian people, other Chinese people, I dont care. What I do care about, and have an issue with, is people of color being separated from white people by white people in higher-end establishments, she says.

More from NextShark: Man accused of throwing liquid on 2 Asian women on NYC subway charged with hate crimes

Annie then highlights the difference in ambiance between that of the first floor and that of the mezzanine, pointing out that the first floor, where the white diners are purportedly usually seated, has chandeliers, high ceilings, huge windows, mosaics and plenty of natural lighting. She claims that the second floor, which has two small windows, is not as well lit. It also does not have a piano and a bar.

The unfortunate truth is that racial discrimination in higher-end spaces is not a new phenomenon, she says. What is unfortunate is that One if by Land, Two if by Sea has been racially discriminatory for so long.

Annie also points out that so many Asian foodies are paying hundreds of dollars to this restaurant and getting racially discriminated against.

More from NextShark: Eddie Huang calls out area landlord for 'shielding' NYC mayor's plan to build 29-level jail in Chinatown

Several Yelp users who once dined at the restaurant mentioned similar experiences that involved alleged racial discrimination against Asian diners. Some of the reviews on the crowd-sourced review site, which Annie shows in her video, were posted around 11 months to about a year ago, while the oldest reviews appear to have been written around seven years ago.

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Annie ends her video by including a recording of when she and her boyfriend dined at the restaurant, showing people of seemingly Asian descent sitting near their table.

Yelp temporarily disabled its review option for One if by Land, Two if by Sea after Annies video, which has already garnered over 101,000 views and 11,600 likes since it was posted last week, went viral.

More from NextShark: Singaporean couple go viral for high school-themed pre-wedding photoshoot

Some TikTok users commented on Annies post to share similar experiences they had at One if by Land, Two if by Sea, while others called out the restaurant.

One user pointed out that the restaurants name coincidentally addresses how the establishment purportedly treats its diners, writing, So does their name mean that floor 1 is for those from America and floor 2 is for those who came by sea?

But, really, everyone who lives here now came by sea but Im definitely curious of the real meaning of the name now, another user wrote in the comment section.

More from NextShark: BTS ARMY unites to #ProtectBTS from superfans mobbing the K-pop group's NYC hotel

On Tuesday, food publication FoodBeast noted that reviews accusing One if by Land, Two if by Sea of racial discrimination against its Asian diners are not present on other platforms besides Yelp, such as OpenTable and TripAdvisor.

Located in New York City's West Village, One if by Land, Two if by Sea has been named by Architectural Digest as one of The Most Romantic Restaurants in the World."

Featured Image via @rokug4n
The Russian occupiers have increased the number of checkpoints to intensify inspections of Ukrainian car owners in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Source: National Resistance Center

Quote: "In the temporarily occupied districts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the occupiers have increased the number of checkpoints for inspections of Ukrainian cars. Consequently, the number of inspections and their duration have increased as well."

Details: The National Resistance Center has added that the Russians at the checkpoints force the residents of the occupied territories to cover the Ukrainian coat of arms on the number plates.

Earlier, the National Resistance Center announced the tightening of filtration measures in Kherson Oblast; the occupiers have intensified raids among the local population, searching for resistance forces.

The Resistance Center calls upon the residents of the temporarily occupied territories to evacuate from the oblast if it is possible and go to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!




Associated Press

Alabama prison staff strapped an inmate to a death chamber gurney, despite a court order in place at the time blocking the execution from going forward, and later subjected him to numerous needle jabs, including in the neck and collarbone region while an official held his head, attorneys wrote in a court filing. Attorneys for Kenneth Eugene Smith claimed on Friday the state violated the U.S. Constitution, various court orders and its own lethal injection protocol during the botched execution attempt earlier this month. The lawsuit accuses the state of violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, seeks monetary damages and asks for an injunction to block Alabama from making a second attempt to execute Mr. Smith.
PHOENIX (AP)  Election officials assured voters that every ballot would be counted after a printing malfunction at about one-quarter of the polling places across Arizona's most populous county slowed down voting.

The snag on Tuesday fueled conspiracy theories about the integrity of the vote in the tightly contested state as former President Donald Trump, GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and others tried to make the case that Democrats were seeking to subvert the vote of Republicans, who tend to show up in greater numbers in person on Election Day.

About 17,000 ballots in Maricopa County, or about 7% of the 275,000 dropped off Tuesday, were affected, officials said. There are about 4.5 million people in the county, which includes Phoenix, and about 2.4 million registered voters. More than 80% vote early, most by mail.

At issue at 60 of 223 vote centers were printers that did not produce dark enough markings on the ballots, Some voters who tried to insert their ballots into tabulators had to wait to use other machines or were told they could leave their ballots in a drop box. Those votes were expected to be counted Wednesday.

Officials changed the printer settings to address the problem.

After polls closed, Republican Bill Gates, chairman of the county's board of supervisors, apologized and said every voter had the opportunity to vote and have their vote counted.

The majority of Arizona counties do not count ballots at polling places. Officials bring the ballots to a central facility for counting.

At the county's tabulation center on Wednesday, workers wore purple gloves to protect the paper from dirt and sweat and used metal carts to carry stacks of boxes containing ballots to be scanned into election machines. Election adjudicators observed the tabulation process before workers placed the ballots into cardboard boxes, labeled them and sealed them with red tape for storage pending possible future challenges.

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There were no protests outside the building by midday.

As part of the security Tuesday night outside the countys tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, 11 officers patrolled the area on horseback, a fairly common practice at protests in metropolitan Phoenix in the past. No protesters were seen there even hours after polls had closed.

Theres nothing that happened here today that would indicate a need to be out here, a need to address some injustice, Gates said. We had an issue with printers that has been addressed by the good people of Maricopa County.

The problem slowed down voting in both traditionally Democratic and Republican areas, especially at an outlet mall in conservative far-flung Anthem. Some voters there reported waiting several hours to be able to vote with the only one of two tabulators working.

Lake and several other candidates on the Arizona ballot have pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential race, amplifying Trumps lies about a stolen election. But election officials from both political parties and members of Trumps own Cabinet have said there was no widespread voter fraud and that Trump lost reelection to Democrat Joe Biden.

___

Associated Press writers Bob Christie and Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.

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TAMPA, Fla, (AP)  Edmonton forward Evander Kane was taken to a hospital Tuesday night after being cut by a skate blade on his left wrist early in the second period of the Oilers' game against Tampa Bay.

Kane went down to the ice when he got tangled with Lightning defenseman Philippe Myers and then was cut by Pat Maroon's skate when the Tampa Bay forward moved into the area just inside the Oilers defensive zone.

Kane grabbed the area of the cut with his right hand, and quickly skated to the bench before heading down the tunnel toward the locker room.

A stretcher was brought out onto the ice but was not utilized.

The Oilers said Kane was transported to the hospital in stable condition and would undergo a procedure there.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Looking at Tye Soon Limited's (SGX:BFU ) insider transactions over the last year, we can see that insiders were net buyers. That is, there were more number of shares purchased by insiders than there were sold.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

Check out our latest analysis for Tye Soon

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Tye Soon

There wasn't any very large single transaction over the last year, but we can still observe some trading.

Tek Yew Chong bought a total of 790.20k shares over the year at an average price of S$0.40. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership Of Tye Soon

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 23% of Tye Soon shares, worth about S$7.9m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Tye Soon Insiders?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. Insiders likely see value in Tye Soon shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. At Simply Wall St, we've found that Tye Soon has 3 warning signs (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that deserve your attention before going any further with your analysis.

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If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Does the November share price for Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad (KLSE:SOP) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model is the tool we will apply to do this. Models like these may appear beyond the comprehension of a lay person, but they're fairly easy to follow.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

Check out our latest analysis for Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad

The Model

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM453.2m RM345.6m RM295.2m RM268.2m RM253.9m RM247.1m RM245.2m RM246.4m RM249.9m RM255.0m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ -14.58% Est @ -9.14% Est @ -5.33% Est @ -2.67% Est @ -0.8% Est @ 0.5% Est @ 1.42% Est @ 2.06% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 8.8% RM417 RM292 RM229 RM191 RM167 RM149 RM136 RM126 RM117 RM110

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM1.9b

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The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 3.6%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.8%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM255m (1 + 3.6%)  (8.8% 3.6%) = RM5.0b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM5.0b ( 1 + 8.8%)10= RM2.2b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is RM4.1b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of RM2.6, the company appears quite good value at a 44% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

dcf

Important Assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. What is the reason for the share price sitting below the intrinsic value? For Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad, there are three further items you should consider:

Risks: Be aware that Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us... Future Earnings: How does SOP's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Republican Mehmet Oz has called Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) to concede the Senate race, according to Fettermans campaign.

Joe Calvello, Fettermans communications director, tweeted that Oz called Fetterman at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday after most major news outlets called the race for Fetterman early Wednesday morning.

Oz later said in a statement that he wished Fetterman and his family the best personally and as Pennsylvanias next senator. He thanked his supporters and said he hopes the country begins a healing process to come together.

We are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done, he said. With bold leadership that brings people together, we can create real change.

Polls showed the race was one of the most competitive in the country, and Republicans had hoped that Ozs victory could deny a Democratic pickup opportunity and help the GOP seal a majority in the body.

Oz closed in on Fettermans lead in the polls as Election Day approached, but Fetterman was able to hold on to win by likely a few percentage points.

Democrats victory in the seat that has been held by the retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R) is a key pickup in the partys path to holding their slim majority in the Senate.

Updated 11:44 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Nov. 8Doug St. Clair, a paramedic at Palestine Regional Medical Center, was honored Nov. 2 as one of two inaugural recipients of ScionHealth's Monarch Caring and Community Award, to be presented annually to the company's exceptional caregivers who consistently go above and beyond to deliver excellent patient care, elevate the patient experience and support their colleagues and their communities.

As an ambulance paramedic for more than 30 years, St. Clair has saved lives and changed others while serving Palestine-area residents, usually in their greatest time of need.

St. Clair is part of a dedicated team at Palestine that provides 911 services for nearly 60,000 residents, and his skill and compassion are known throughout the community.

Matthew Davis, EMS Director of PRMC and St. Clair's supervisor, shared a story about setting up an ambulance transfer for a friend's mother.

"I told her I'm going to send Doug St. Clair," he said. "She said, 'Oh my gosh, he's a jewel, thank you so much.' Everybody in the community knows who Doug St. Clair is. I believe I provide an excellent level of customer service, but I have never had someone call 911 and ask for me by name. And Doug has. There is no one else I can think of who can say that."

Davis said what makes St. Clair unique is his desire to be the best part of his patient's day, in the manner he takes care of them and in the manner he follows through.

In the nomination of St. Clair for the award, PRMC CEO Roy Finch noted that St. Clair has been known to take up a collection to purchase groceries for a patient that couldn't afford any or cook a meal for patients who could not do it themselves. He included other examples of St. Clair going above and beyond, such as waiting on the side of the road with an elderly couple whose car had broken down in the Texas heat, and staying and holding the hand of a widow whose husband had just passed.

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"We all care for our patients," Davis said. "But there is another level of caring that Doug demonstrates day in and day out. His ability to interact with patients and make them feel like they are the only person in that moment is extraordinary."

Davis, Finch and Jennifer Robertson, HR Director, also pointed out how St. Clair was an exceptional team member and role model, and a great resource for his colleagues.

"He will listen, and he's the vault if they need to debrief or decompress at the end of the day," Robertson said. "Whether it's a work thing or personal, Doug is the 'go-to.' He's kind of a father figure to a lot of folks."

St. Clair said he was humbled by the honor because he has simply been trying to do his job well over the years.

"I was kind of, 'Whoa!' I was shocked," he said. "I don't really know what to say other than I work with some awesome people."

His colleagues weren't as surprised, and expressed how St. Clair is very deserving of the award.

"Doug is often an unsung hero," Robertson said. "We don't see what he does behind the scenes. The award is well deserved. His value is not tied to this award, but it is very much expressed by the award that he's getting, and deserved exponentially."

"You've given 31 years to a career that's exceptional, and you are certainly deserving of this honor and respect," Davis said.

St. Clair was chosen from among nearly 300 nominees from ScionHealth's 61 specialty hospitals and 18 community hospitals across 25 states. He was honored along with one other Scionhealth 2022 Monarch Caring and Community Award recipient Catherine Hitch, a respiratory therapist at Kindred Hospital Albuquerque.

St. Clair received a cash prize, a framed certificate and the crystal award during a special presentation at ScionHealth's annual Caregiver Summit held Nov. 2 in Louisville, location of the company's headquarters.

To learn more about ScionHealth's Monarch Caring and Community Award, visit scionhealth.com/employees/monarch-caring-and-community-award.

To view a video profile of Doug St. Clair, 2022 Monarch Caring and Community Award recipient, go to ScionHealth's YouTube channel.
NABLUS, West Bank (AP)  Two Palestinians were killed in separate encounters with Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as tensions rise sharply in what has been the deadliest year in the occupied territory since 2006.

A 15-year-old Palestinian died early Wednesday following an Israeli raid into the northern city of Nablus, Palestinian health officials reported, as the army accompanied right-wing Israeli lawmakers to a flash point shrine. The army said it was protecting worshippers and fired on a suspect who had planted an explosive device, which detonated.

Palestinian health officials said Mahdi Hashash was killed by Israeli fire. Pictures from the hospital showed his body was also shredded by shrapnel from the blast.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces fatally shot a 29-year-old Palestinian man in Anin, west of the city of Jenin, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli army said soldiers spotted him vandalizing the separation barrier that cuts through the West Bank and opened fire to make him stop. The army said soldiers provided medical treatment at the scene. The Palestinian Red Crescent evacuated him to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Israel has repeatedly come under criticism for its use of excessive force against unarmed Palestinians.

The recent wave of violence in the West Bank has concentrated on the cities of Nablus and Jenin. In Nablus, residents said the army stormed the city early Wednesday  setting up checkpoints and stationing snipers on rooftops. They said Palestinians set tires alight and protested the army's incursion with stones and gunfire. A branch of the militant group Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade identified Hashash, the teenager who was killed, as a member.

The army said it was in Nablus to escort Jewish worshippers to the site known as the biblical Joseph's Tomb, as security forces do several times a year in coordination with Palestinian security forces.

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Footage showed right-wing Israeli lawmakers, mostly allies and members of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party that prevailed in last week's general election, participating in an event at the derelict shrine on the outskirts of the Palestinian city.

An Israeli drone was downed during the clashes, the army said, without elaborating. The army also said it arrested a dozen Palestinians across the West Bank, the latest of near-nightly arrest raids that have fueled unrest in the occupied territory after a wave of Palestinian attacks killed 19 Israelis last spring.

Intensified Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has also killed some 130 Palestinians this year, making it the deadliest since 2006, according to Israeli rights group BTselem.

Israel says the raids are needed to dismantle militant networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so.

The Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces and are aimed at cementing Israels open-ended 55-year-old occupation of lands they want for their hoped-for state. Hundreds of Palestinians have been rounded up in such raids, with many placed in so-called administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold them without trial or charge.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

The violence has continued against the backdrop of an Israeli election that saw Netanyahu emerge victorious last week with the support of an ultranationalist, far-right party that says it hopes to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank.
A pancreatic cancer survivor battling the disease for a second time has shared the early signs people of all ages should know.

Charles Czajkowski, 63, a business development manager for a geotechnical company from Surbiton, Kingston, has declared war on pancreatic cancer after a five-year ordeal with two rounds of the disease  which also caused the death of his mother Romaulda, aged 78, in 1999.

Mr Czajkowski, who is hoping treatment he received through his wifes private healthcare package will save his life, is set to speak to MPs on in the Commons on Wednesday to urge the government to provide greater funding for the condition.

He will speak alongside 20 others who either have the disease or who have lost someone to it as part of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

After his health began to decline in 2017, Charles faced a series of delays to his diagnosis and treatment through the NHS until he accessed Bupa healthcare through the workplace of his wife of 16 years, Jackie Czajkowski.

After initial treatment success, in May 2022 Charles cancer returned and private oncologists are now attempting to use a series of drugs, some of which are unavailable on the NHS, to save his life.

Now working to fight the illness and help patients to spot it early, Charles is a pancreatic patient representative and on the scientific advisory board for Pancreatic Cancer UK.

He is also a pancreatic patient representative for NHS Cancer UK, as part of the governments 10-year plan to help optimise the early diagnostics and early treatment plan for anybody with pancreatic cancer, liver cancer or biliary cancer.

Its given me control, Charles said.

Pancreatic cancer has declared war on me so to get back at it, Ive declared war on pancreatic cancer by being able to help educate and save other peoples lives.

Its an awareness battle because pancreatic cancer UK hasnt had much air time and hasnt had the investment.

Charles Czajkowski (Collect/PA Real Life)

Charless ordeal as a cancer patient began in 2017 when he was diagnosed with type two diabetes.

Story continues

Halfway through that year, he had a pancreatic attack  also known as acute pancreatitis  which, according to the NHS, is a severe pain which starts suddenly in the centre of a patients abdomen and can also be accompanied by vomiting and a high temperature.

For the rest of the year, Charles was under observation amid repeated pancreatic attacks and he was rapidly losing weight, dropping from 85kg to around 75kg at 6ft tall.

Another sign that things werent going right was that my pancreas wasnt producing the enzymes and so I started getting what they call pancreatic diarrhea, which is a true sign if your foods not being digested properly, Charles added.

As a result, his GP prescribed Charles Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (Pert) which made Charles weight stable as he was now able to absorb nutrients.

From there, Charles was sent to a series of different hospitals for scans and assessments.

Eventually, at the beginning of March 2019, further tests revealed a 10-millimetre tumour on the head of Charles pancreas.

On March 25 2019, Charles met with the head of the surgical team at Hammersmith Hospital alongside his wife and a Macmillan nurse.

He said to me, Charles, you dont have chronic pancreatitis, you have pancreatic cancer, Charles said.

They had a Macmillan nurse there because obviously people generally go into shock.

But I suddenly just said, Okay, so what are we going to do about this Professor?

The NHS doctor explained to Charles that a whipple procedure to remove the head of the pancreas, the first part of the small intestine, the gallbladder and the bile duct, would take place two months later.

After researching the survival rate for pancreatic cancer, Charles feared this wait time was a risk so decided to go private for the rest of his treatment through his wifes Bupa medical cover.

Just one week later, his operation was carried out at the London Clinic Hospital using a Da Vinci surgical robot.

I was basically told to say goodbye to my wife, because the operation comes with a lot of risk, Charles said.

So it was very hard when we both went into the pre-med room because I didnt know if I was going to wake up from this major operation.

But luckily for me, just when I was saying goodbye, they had just injected me with the pre-med and next thing I was out.

On April 2, the private operation involved making five holes in Charles abdomen, meaning there is less of a rise of infection, and Charles was out of hospital 13 days later.

A month after that Charles began six months of fortnightly chemotherapy sessions, which led to his weight dropping to just around 67kg  before his diagnosis he was around 85kg. I looked skeletal, Charles said.

But I managed to stick it out. With a lot of hard work, you have to fight it, its a battle.

After the chemo, a scan found no instances of new tumours until  at the start of 2020  another scan revealed dots on his right lung and a lymph node swelling close to his aorta.

By August 2020, the dots had grown into 10-millimetre tumours, so Charles had a lung ablation  a surgical treatment where a probe is inserted which will destroy the tumour with extreme heat or cold.

The lymph node treatment was more complicated as standard radiotherapy would have also touched Charles aorta and there was a risk of it rupturing.

Instead, at the beginning of October, Charles was treated at Genesis Care in Oxford with a new technology, MRIdian Linac  a directed radiotherapy using an MRI system so collateral damage is minimised.

After five one-hour sessions over two weeks, the lymph node tumour was gone and there was no damage to Charles aorta, meaning Charles life could finally return to normal besides the three-month check-up scans.

At this point, Charles decided to dedicate his life, besides his work and family, to pancreatic cancer campaigning, joining Pancreatic Cancer UK and becoming a pancreatic cancer patient representative for Genesis Care.

However, in May 2022, a CT scan revealed his pancreatic cancer had returned in a secondary form.

At this stage, there is no cure for his condition, but Charles oncologist put him back on chemotherapy with two new drugs, one of which is not available on the NHS.

After three months of treatment the tumours continued to grow and, in September, Charles began another round of chemotherapy fortnightly.

He will find out if this treatment has shrunk his tumour later this month.

On his visit to parliament, he and others will speak individually to between 60 and 80 MPs who have signed up to the Pancreatic Cancer UK initiative as part of their No Time To Wait campaign.

Our role is to tell our story, basically, to educate them so they can understand we need more investments, he said.

Reflecting on his experience with cancer, Charles said: Fighting cancer is more than fighting it physically, its mental.

You have to concentrate on all the positivity, you can get out of it.

Ive travelled all over the world in my job and have been to places that people would have dreamt of going, and I took that for granted.

But going through cancer puts your whole life into perspective.
Ready, set, glow! The Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC are kicking off the holiday season with their annual Tree Lighting Festival on Nov. 22.

The festival will be held at the corner of Mint Street and Graham Street outside of Bank of America Stadium and will begin at 5 p.m.

The event is free, but tickets are required to attend and are available here.

ALSO READ: Charlotte Knights bringing ice skating and snow tubing to Truist Field

This years festival will include family-friendly activities culminating with a new twist on the traditional tree lighting moment.

There will be stations set up for making fleece blankets with the TopCats and holiday cards for patients at Atrium Health Levine Childrens Hospital.

ALERT: @Panthers & @CharlotteFC Tree Lighting Festival is tonight at 5PM but road closures are scheduled for now! Graham and Mint Streets IFO the stadium as well as Brooklyn Village Ave between Mint St. & Church Rd. thru 11:30PM tonight. #clt #cltraffic #clttraffic pic.twitter.com/eJaUEzmmrI  Traffic Team 9 (@TrafficTeam9) November 22, 2022

There will also be free hot cocoa, with additional food and drinks available for purchase.

Special guests include the TopCats, Sir Purr, Sir Minty and Santa.

ALSO READ: Holiday lights, snow tube slide coming to Ballantynes Backyard

No alcohol is permitted at the festival and parking is available at various independent lots and garages in the area.

The NFL Clear Bag Policy will be in place during the event. Transparent, plastic, vinyl or PVC bags smaller than 12 x 6 x 12 will be allowed after inspection.

VIDEO: Panthers linebacker, wife support single mom through foundation
Foreign partners are not trying to persuade the Ukrainian authorities to negotiate with Russia.

Source: highly placed sources of Ukrainska Pravda who are close to Bankova Street [the street in Kyiv where many of the government buildings are located - ed.], and in diplomatic circles.

Quote from a government source: "They are not pushing us to enter into negotiations, but are simply saying that it is desirable not to refuse the Russians so categorically, so that Europeans can live more calmly."

Details: In addition, Ukrainska Pravdas contacts in diplomatic circles deny that Western partners are putting pressure on Ukraine and calling for negotiations with Russia.

"Actually, nothing serious is happening. There are very vague conversations about how to move forward," said one of Ukrainska Pravdas sources who is involved in international negotiations.

According to Ukrainska Pravda, as of now, there is no preparatory work underway regarding possible negotiations with the Russian Federation.

Background:

U.S. media wrote that the pressure applied by the administration of US President Joe Biden has led to the softening of the position of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who previously stated that peace negotiations with Russia could not begin during the presidency of Vladimir Putin.

On 8 November, Andrey Rudenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, said that Russia had no preconditions for starting negotiations with Ukraine.

The Ukrainian side believes that Russia is manipulating its statements about negotiations with Ukraine.

On 31 October, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained that Ukraine did not want to hold "peace talks" with the Russian Federation and said that he would wait for Ukraine to agree to such talks.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says Russia and China appear to be edging toward an alliance at a time when Western nations are seeking to isolate Moscow over its war on Ukraine.

Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters on Tuesday that we should expect the Russia-China relationship to deepen. Nine months ago Chinas Xi Jinping and Russias Vladimir Putin signed off on their so-called no limits strategic partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Theyve really been much more willing to signal this thing is edging towards an alliance as opposed to a superficial partnership, Kahl said, pointing to their joint military exercises  which involved more than 50,000 troops for a week in early September.

China appears to view Russia as a counterweight to the U.S., while Russia, hemmed in by Western sanctions and export controls, increasingly has nowhere else to go and could depend more and more on China economically, technologically and potentially militarily, Kahl said.

In whats been seen as Xis most direct criticism yet of the Kremlin and the war, the Chinese leader warned against using nuclear weapons over Ukraine during a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing last week. Xi didnt call out Russia by name, but a month earlier Putin threatened Ukraine with a nuclear attack.

On Tuesday, Kahl didnt bring up that meeting but said he believes the partnership does have some limits. China is wary of baiting U.S. sanctions itself and, for now, doing too much too openly in terms of openly supporting Russia militarily, he said.

Despite it being a relationship without limits, I think China is nervous about that relationship, at least about that too many aspects of that relationship being public, Kahl said.

Kahl said the National Defense Strategy and National Security Strategy, which view China as near-peer competitor and Russia as as an acute challenge, recognize the growing relationship as a new feature of the geopolitical landscape.

Also, the potential for a three-player contest between nuclear powers presents a strategic problem for the United States, but Chinas limited arsenal prevents it from being a true peer. Kahl said the U.S. should for now continue to deter a nuclear attack by maintaining the ability to retaliate with its own nuclear attack  and not entering into an endless arms race based on quantity.

This isnt contest where the kid who dies with the most toys wins, he said. We shouldnt think about it that if Russia has 2,000 nuclear weapons and China as 1,000 nuclear weapons, the United States needs 3,001.
LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's prime minister on Tuesday challenged the legislature to a confidence vote, raising tensions once again between state powers in the Andean nation, which has been roiled by political infighting for years.

Peru's left-wing government, led by embattled President Pedro Castillo, has been at odds with the opposition-led Congress since both powers took office last July amid a polarized political background.

"Since this presidential term began, we have found ourselves in a deep political crisis that is nothing but the result of our fragile party and representative systems," Prime Minister Anibal Torres said in a letter calling for the confidence vote.

Congress has twice impeached, but failed to oust, Castillo, who is himself facing several criminal investigations while in office.

Now, the executive's request for a confidence vote represents Castillo's most aggressive attempt yet to fight back.

That is because a confidence vote carries high stakes for both powers.

If Congress issues a vote of no confidence, Castillo's entire Cabinet would have to resign. But that would also allow the government the possibility to call for a second confidence vote, which if also rejected would allow the executive to shut down Congress and call for new legislative elections.

Still, it remains unclear if the confidence vote will be put to a vote in the first place. Congress could try to ignore it under an untested law that regulates what actions can and cannot be subject to a confidence vote.

Tensions between presidents and Congress are not new in Peru. Since 2018, Peruvians have lived under five presidents, two of whom left power before ending their terms due to congressional pressure.

Former Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra also dissolved Congress in 2019 following two votes of no confidence, forcing the election of a new legislature that then impeached and ousted him a year later.

Congressional leaders have yet to address Castillo's request.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino and Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Chris Reese)
Poll workers process ballots at an elections warehouse outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 2022. ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Philadelphia's election board voted Tuesday to reinstate a rule that will delay a final vote tally.

Now the city will check for double votes during the election-night counting process, not afterwards.

The move came after Republicans sued in an effort to impose the rule.

Philadelphia's last-minute decision to reinstate a policy requiring poll workers to check for double votes during  not after  the election-night tallying of ballots will further delay final results, a fact that a local Republican election official blames squarely on the GOP.

"I want to be very clear that when there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots that the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia  and only Philadelphia  to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does," City Commissioner Seth Bluestein said Tuesday morning, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Bluestein is the sole Republican on Philadelphia's elections commission. At issue is a rule, known as poll book reconciliation, that aims to ensure no voter casts more than one ballot, such as by voting in person after voting by mail.

Last week, city elections officials voted to carry out that process after the initial vote tally, as every other county in Pennsylvania does, in an effort to speed up election results  and citing the fact that no double votes had been found in recent elections. State law also requires election officials to continuously count ballots, a fact the commissioners argued was at odds with its reconciliation process.

But Republicans sued to have the rule reinstated. And while they lost that case on Monday, the judge, herself an elected Republican, provided sufficient fodder in her ruling for an appeal, which was immediately filed with a higher court.

While "we technically won," Bluestein explained, "the opinion that was written was written in a way that we have no other choice but to go forward and reinstate reconciliation."

Story continues

In 2020, state and national Republicans baselessly alleged that Philadelphia  Pennsylvania's most populous county and heavily Democratic  was the source of mass voter fraud, citing delays in its elections results.

But, in addition to the delay imposed by GOP litigation, Philadelphia is prohibited from counting mail-in ballots prior to election day, a fact the state's Republican-controlled legislature has not changed, despite pleas from local officials.

As of last week, Philadelphia election officials had reported receiving over 100,000 mail-in ballots out of more than 165,000 that had been sent to area voters, WHYY reported.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Wednesday the situation in Myanmar will be among several issues that will be addressed at the ASEAN summit.

"We will also address regional issues such as the pandemic and the situation in Myanmar, developments in the South China Sea and the ongoing conflict between Russia and the Ukraine among other important matters," Marcos said in a speech ahead of his departure for Cambodia where the summit is being hosted.

(Reporting by Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
A voter cats his ballot at the Rogers Park in Inglewood. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of selecting the wrong candidate could keep voters from casting their ballots in Tuesday's midterm election.

At stake: Who will lead the nations second-largest city and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Wilmington

Poll worker Carletta Williams welcomes voters at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2967 in Wilmington. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

South L.A.

Poll workers applaud Timoteo Antonio Ramirez after he voted at Ted Watkins Park in South L.A. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

West Hollywood

Voters wait to cast their ballots at Plummer Park in West Hollywood. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Lynwood

Voters at Lynwood Park in South L.A. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Long Beach

A voter receives their sticker at the International City Masonic Center in Long Beach. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Koreatown

People wait their turn to vote at the Anderson Munger Family YMCA in Koreatown. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

East L.A.

Alba Adanto sanitizes a ballot marking machine after use at Ruben F. Salazar Park in East L.A. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Baldwin Hills

Election worker Virginia P. Bland waits for voters in the early morning at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Center. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Pitcairn police are looking for three people they say are wanted for committing crimes.

Warrants have been issued for Gesiah Grigsby for burglary and simple assault, Jasmine Naylor for assault, and Chamor Price for assault.

Police said they should be considered dangerous and not be approached. Anyone with information should call 911 or Monroeville dispatch at 412-856-1111.

People can also leave an anonymous tip by calling the police station at 412-372-6505 or emailing chief@pitcairnborough.us.

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UPDATE: According to police, he has been safely located.

Pittsburgh police are asking for help to locate a missing man who has dementia.

Raymond Henry, 77, was last seen around 5 p.m. Monday in East Liberty. He was wearing a royal blue shirt with white lines, blue jeans and gray slip-on shoes. He has a full gray beard and walks with a slight limp.

Henry is known to frequent the East Liberty and Lawrenceville areas.

If you have any information, call 911 or call Missing Persons at 412-323-7141.

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State police investigating death at shooting scene outside Beaver County Walmart 4 winning Pennsylvania Lottery Powerball tickets worth $1 million, $150,000 sold in Allegheny County 2-year-old dies after drowning in pond in Bethel Park VIDEO: Township takes legal action, claims newspaper strike is holding up municipal business DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts




Placer County prosecutors are declining to file charges in the March 19 crash in which former county Chief Executive Officer Todd Leopold hit and killed 18-year-old high school senior Anthony Williams, who was standing in the middle of a Rocklin road at night wearing dark clothing.

After reviewing the facts, the District Attorneys Office finds that no criminal charges are appropriate because there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, D.A. Morgan Gires office said in an announcement Tuesday. Given the facts revealed by the investigation to date, there is no evidence of any criminal or wrongful intent on the part of the driver at the time of the collision.

The decision came in a six-page report issued Tuesday that declared numerous witnesses saw Williams, an aspiring basketball player and Inderkum High School senior, walking in lanes of traffic, acting strange or walk-dancing.

The report also said investigators analyzed Leopolds cell phone and determined it was not in use at the time of the 8:06 p.m. collision, and that Rocklin police saw no sign of impairment of Leopold following the crash.

There is no indication in Rocklins police report that Leopold was given a blood-alcohol content test at the time.

The D.A.s office also noted that it was aware of media reports that have described Leopolds driving history, which includes speeding and a drunken driving charge that later was dropped.

Although these past incidents of speeding may be relevant if there was evidence that the driver was speeding at the time he struck the pedestrian, the prior events are not relevant where there is no evidence that the driver was speeding or driving recklessly in the present case, the report said. Nevertheless, this office considered these past speeding violations, and their existence was given the appropriate weight in the ultimate analysis of culpability.

Leopold had told police he believed he was traveling 35 to 45 mph at the time, and a police investigation later estimated he was traveling at a speed of between 27-48 mph with a probable speed of 36-40 mph in a 40 mph zone.

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The report largely mirrors a Rocklin police report reviewed by The Bee in July that described Leopold telling officers that he was driving his Jeep Wrangler south on Lonetree Boulevard near Adams Drive on his way to a gym when he suddenly saw a figure in the road ahead of him.

Placer County CEO Todd Leopold participates in a Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting in Auburn on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. He was the the driver of a vehicle that fatally struck Anthony Williams, 18, in late March in Rocklin.

Leopold had no time to apply his brakes

At this moment, he was presented with the backside of the pedestrian who was wearing all black or dark clothing and standing directly in the middle of the number one lane, according to the 53-page police report, which a source allowed The Bee to review after Rocklin police refused to release an unredacted copy.

Todd said that he had no time to apply his brakes, but turned his wheel to the right in an attempt to avoid the pedestrian, the report said, adding that Leopold was emotional as he was being questioned.

Todd continued to break down emotionally and say how devastated he was, the report said. He said that after striking the male, he stopped to the right of the roadway where his Jeep was currently positioned.

Initially, Rocklin police and Placer County officials refused to name the driver in the incident, and Leopold did not acknowledge he was the driver until two months after Williams death.

Rocklin police issued an announcement in May that an investigation had determined the driver was not at fault and no charges would be filed, but Gires office said at the time that it would conduct an independent review.

Leopold could not be reached immediately Tuesday. A cellphone for him was not accepting phone messages, and he did not respond to a text message left at that number. A message left at another cellphone listed for him did not receive a response.

Leopold was fired after harassment claim

Leopold was placed on administrative leave two months after the incident, then was fired in June from his $299,606-a-year job after being accused of workplace discrimination and harassment. The county has said his firing was not related to Williams death.

Since then, Leopold has been sued by Williams brother, Isaac Tidwell, and Williams sister, Queenisha Wade, in separate lawsuits in Placer Superior Court. Online court records show both cases are pending.

Gires office said it began the investigation after receiving assurance from the state Attorney Generals Office that it did not have a conflict of interest in investigating the matter.

The Attorney Generals Office determined that a recusal was not appropriate and that the legal review of the collision should be completed by this office, the report said. In the course of this review, this office received and considered written reports, recorded interviews, and body camera footage, with additional reports received at the end of August 2022.

There has been considerable public interest in the facts of this case expressed in the media and by way of inquiries by the general public. This office has had multiple experienced prosecutors independently evaluate the evidence in order to arrive at the best and most informed decision possible.

Although this process has been lengthy, it has ensured that all evidence and interests involved have been considered in the final decision.
A video posted on social media shows the scary moment an IndiGo aircrafts engine caught fire while attempting to take off from Indias Delhi Airport.

The passenger plane was speeding along the runway when flames and sparks burst out of the side. The plane in question has since been grounded.

According to AFP, passengers also heard a loud bang.

Priyanka Kumar, one of the passengers traveling to Bengaluru, posted a clip of the incident on Twitter showing the fire going out within moments.

Indigo 6E 2131 Scary experience on Delhi runway! she tweeted. This was supposed to be a take-off video but this happened.

Another passenger told NDTV, The flight would have taken off in another 5 to 7 seconds when I saw sparks coming out and suddenly it turned into a blaze of fire.

The fire was put out immediately, she added, There was panic initially. But the crew comforted us. There was no sudden jerk while stopping too.

Amid all the backlash against Indigo we are glad and thankful to the Captain Bharath for his alertness and quick reflexes.

Indeed it was a scary and traumatic experience but thanks #indigo for arranging a safe alternative. Will never forget #6E2131

VC : priyanka kumar pic.twitter.com/jd9gfGpLI8  Lucki (@D_LUCKI_B) October 29, 2022

IndiGo Responds On Twitter

In replies to the Twitter post, the airline said it regretted the inconvenience caused to passengers.

The flight experienced an engine stall during take-off roll. The take-off was aborted and the aircraft safely returned to the bay, IndiGo wrote. We understand that all passengers are being accommodated on an alternate aircraft.

According to NDTV, the incident took place at around 9:45 pm local time. The Deli Police said that all 184 people  177 passengers and seven crew members  on the aircraft are safe. The passengers reportedly deplaned after 11 pm and the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviations preliminary report said the pilot had used the fire extinguisher in the engine.

AFP reported a detailed investigation would be carried out and that the alternative flight took off at 12:16 a.m. the following morning.



Related: Plane Makes An Emergency Landing After A Phone Charger Causes A Fire | Spirit Airlines Flight Returns To Minneapolis For Emergency Landing After Fear Of Fire
Police have arrested a suspect in the death of a 61-year-old woman who was found shot to death in northeast Charlotte this summer, police said Wednesday.

Donna Marie Howard was found lying in a neighborhood street with a gunshot wound shortly before 2 a.m. June 25 in the 4100 block of Dinglewood Avenue, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Tuesday, CMPD arrested Rayshawn Strong, 26, on a first-degree murder charge for her death.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call 704-432-8477 and speak directly to a Homicide Unit detective. The public can also leave information anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or http://charlottecrimestoppers.com/.
Fairfax police say they are investigating the reported armed abduction of a Walmart employee Tuesday night, and the theft of his car.

The employee, who suffered minor injuries to his face after being struck by a gun, said he was later released by the suspect.

Police also later found the silver Dodge Durango driven by the suspect. It had broken taillights and a broken rear window on the passenger side.

But they still are searching for the victims car, a gray 2003 Infiniti two-door that a second suspect stole.

Fairfax police gave the account in a news release that said officers were dispatched to the Walmart at 4000 Red Bank Road about 10 p.m. for a possible abduction.

They were told an armed suspect dressed in black and wearing a ski mask approached two employees.

One employee fled the scene and drove away in his car.

The second employee was forced into the suspects Dodge Durango.

Thats when the second suspect got into the abducted employees Infiniti and both vehicles exited the parking lot.

Cincinnati police found the abducted employee near West Fork Road and Colerain Avenue.

He said he had been forced out of the Dodge Durango in the 2400 block of Mustang Drive.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Fairfax police investigate abduction reported at Walmart
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.
The Orange County Sheriffs Department (OCSD) has released new details about the unidentified body found in Newport Beach, California, on Christmas Eve in 2013, including a render and the ethnicity of the possible homicide victim.

The OCSD released the new official render of the man in a Facebook post on Monday.

According to the sheriff's department, a commercial fishing vessel found the body of a man about a mile off the coast of Newport Beach on Dec. 24, 2013.

More from NextShark: American 'Squid Game'? Creator says the game is global and universe expansion talks are 'ongoing'

Due to the condition of the body, the Orange County Sheriffs Department is investigating this as a homicide, Orange County Sheriffs Sgt. Scott Steinle said about the case.

The OCSD said that at the time, investigators could not determine the ethnicity of the man due to the condition of his body. They initially thought that the man was of Caucasian or Latin American descent.

After revisiting the case in October 2021, investigators extracted a sample from one of the mans bones and turned it in for advanced DNA analysis. Based on the new genetic information they received, authorities now believe the man was primarily of Chinese descent.

More from NextShark: Strippers can apparently better forecast the market than your finance bro

The OCSD then partnered with forensic artist Carl Koppelman to create a new render of the possible homicide victim.

The man was wearing a black, medium-sized Champion brand sweatshirt, size 11 Asics running shoes and a Timex watch when he was found, Steinle said.

He was described as a 6-foot-tall adult man aged between 30 and 50 years old with a weight of 162 pounds, according to his National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) record.

More from NextShark: Complete list of WWII Japanese internees unveiled in LA weighs 25 pounds

On Tuesday, authorities declined to comment on the mans cause of death.

Story continues

Those who may have information are asked to contact the Sheriffs Homicide Bureau at 714-647-7055 or email coldcase@ocsheriff.gov. Anonymous tips may be submitted to OC Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS (855-847-6227) or at occrimestoppers.org.

More from NextShark: Asians more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than other Bay Area racial groups, study finds

Featured Image via Orange County Sheriffs Department, Noah Wulf (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Rick Bowmer/AP Photo; Insider

Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee won a third-term against independent Evan McMullin.

Lee has compiled a conservative voting record, which would normally be fine in the GOP-heavy state.

McMullin's candidacy was buoyed by an unusual arrangement in which Utah Democrats endorsed him while also not fielding their own hopeful.

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee has won a third term in the US Senate, defeating independent candidate Evan McMullin in a race that became increasingly personal in the closing days.

Decision Desk HQ and Insider project that Lee will beat McMullin, a former CIA officer who ran for president as an independent in 2016, as of 1:44 EST.

Utah Senate candidates

Lee, who in 2010 defeated then-Sen. Bob Bennett in a Republican convention before winning a party primary against businessman Tim Bridgewater, easily won the general election that year in the GOP-heavy state.

Since joining the Senate, Lee has compiled a conservative record, voting to repeal then-President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act in 2015 while strongly backing then-President Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.

The senator, a former clerk to Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, voted to confirm Trump's three nominees to the Supreme Court  Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

And Lee himself was floated as a potential pick for the high court by Trump in 2018.

In the Senate, Lee serves on the Judiciary Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging.

But back at home, the lawmaker's political standing became shakier among some Republicans.

Unlike the rest of the country, where most GOP primaries in recent years morphed into a litmus test to gauge the level of loyalty to Trump, Lee was criticized by other Republicans running against him for what they called his lack of independence from the former president.

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While the senator won the GOP primary with 62% of the vote, his two opponents  former state Rep. Becky Edwards and Ally Isom  both captured a sizable 38% of voters.

After Lee compared Trump to a prophet in the Book of Mormon at an October 2020 rally, many conservative members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed dismay.

McMullin, a former Republican who performed strongly in Utah in the 2016 presidential race  winning nearly 22% of the statewide vote as an independent and holding Trump below 50% of the vote  criticized Lee in an advertisement over the senator's comments at an Arizona rally for the then-president two years ago.

And the independent candidate, whom the state Democratic Party backed in lieu of putting up their own nominee, has vowed to be a bipartisan bridge-builder, calling out Lee for what he says are the GOP lawmaker's raft of "no" votes in the Senate.

If elected, McMullin has vowed not to join either the Democratic or Republican caucuses, stating that it is his intent to be an independent voice who can work effectively with both parties.

Sen. Mitt Romney  the 2012 GOP presidential nominee who in 2018 was elected to represent Utah in the Senate  has declined to endorse Lee, citing his friendship with both candidates. Romney has routinely expressed misgivings about Trump and said he did not vote for him in the 2020 presidential election.

However, Lee recently appeared on Fox News and directly appealed to Romney for his support in the race, asking him to "please get on board."

Utah independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Voting history in Utah

Utah has long been one of the most reliably Republican states in the country.

Republicans have won every presidential race in the state since 1968, often with landslide margins, and the last Democrat to win a Senate race in the state was Frank Moss in 1970.

In the 2020 presidential election, Trump defeated now-President Joe Biden in Utah by 20 points (58%-38%), a significant drop from Romney's sweeping victory (73%-25%) over Obama in 2012.

Democrats Jim Matheson and Ben McAdams represented the state's Salt Lake City-area congressional district within the past 20 years, but Republican-led redistricting after the 2020 Census made the district much more friendly to the GOP. (McAdams narrowly lost his reelection bid to now-Republican Rep. Burgess Owens in 2020.)

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Lee raised nearly $10.7 million, spent $9.7 million, and had $1.3 million in cash on hand, as of October 19. McMullin raised $6.9 million, spent $5.8 million, and had almost $1.1 million in the bank, as of October 19.

As of November 7, super PACs, politically active nonprofit organizations, and other non-candidate groups have combined to spend an additional $19.2 million advocating for or against the candidates, which also included the GOP primary. The majority of this spending has benefitted Lee.

What experts say

The race between Lee and McMullin was rated as "likely Republican" by Inside Elections, "likely Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Voters cast their votes in the midterm elections at Plummer Park in West Hollywood. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Southern California voters who braved the rain to cast their ballots Tuesday found the process relatively smooth, with isolated reports of problems concerning voting machines and documentation. The weather also closed at least two polling places  and grounded some helicopters used to transport ballots.

Dave Martell, a 65-year-old film editor, said he faced an uncomfortable situation when he tried to vote at the vote center at Beverly Hills City Hall. For the first time in the more than two decades that he has lived in his current home, he said, poll workers did not have his correct address on file.

As a result, he said, he had to fill out and submit a change-of-address form, even though his address had stayed the same.

I live on North La Peer [Drive] in Beverly Hills, but they had South La Peer, he told The Times in a phone interview early Tuesday afternoon. Its the first time in years that Ive walked away feeling anxious about the vote.

"I dont know if thats just because of the times were in," he said. "And I cant help but wonder if it has something to do with the fact that Im a very progressive Democrat. Its just a very strange situation.

Gabe, a voter who did not provide his last name, reported to The Times that his voting machine at Oakwood Recreation Center in Venice began to auto-select candidates and move forward screens without touching the machine.

He said he had to scroll back to previous screens to fix the incorrect selections. He asked a poll worker for assistance, he said, and he ultimately had to cancel his ballot and begin the process over again.

I was concerned that other voters may not notice the issue and vote incorrectly, or give up and vote for whatever was chosen, Gabe, who did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday morning, wrote via a web form. Or that it would start a conspiracy theory.  A volunteer out front gave me the number to call to report issues, which I did. They said a tech was coming to the Oakwood Rec Center that afternoon.

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Still, Mike Sanchez, spokesperson for the L.A. County registrars office, said Tuesday afternoon that everything is going well in the county.

Its steady, its smooth. Were helping voters throughout the county  no irregularities or issues to report. Other than a lot of rain, vote centers remain open, he said.

That held true through the end of the day, Sanchez said in a telephone interview shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

"Im happy to report that there were no issues throughout the day and voting was smooth," he said. "And of course now we have a long night ahead of us to count the votes that were cast today."

Asked about isolated reports of issues at the polls that voters reported to The Times, Sanchez said, What you just described is the first Im hearing of it so I cant really speak to it. ... We havent had any widespread issues at vote centers in the county.

In the event there is an isolated incident at a location, our office is prepared to send or deploy resources or equipment to ensure voting continues, he said.

After polling places closed, bad weather and low visibility limited the use of helicopters to take ballots to be counted, the registrar's office tweeted Tuesday night.

A speedboat was used to transport ballots from Santa Catalina Island, the registrar's office said in a follow-up tweet, and deputies brought ballots from Lancaster and Santa Clarita in patrol cars instead of helicopters.

Richard Wajda, a 51-year-old West Hollywood resident, was one of dozens in line to vote at Plummer Park in West Hollywood Tuesday afternoon.

Echoing concerns shared by some voters of all political stripes across California and the nation, Wajda said he wanted to vote in person because he is wary of ballot tampering.

To have the trust of everyone, I want to put it right in the machine, he said.

Sheila Davis voted via drop box at the Van Nuys courthouse. She told The Times that when she arrived, three men were hovering around the ballot box, one of whom was leaning on it as she put her ballot through the slot.

No eye contact, no hassle, but it felt like intimidation, she said. Davis reported that a woman was also harassing another person sitting in a car outside the voting center, asking him, "What are you doing? Why are you doing this? You know I can have you arrested right?"

Davis said she was deeply saddened by the experience, which left her questioning whether she had even been at a genuine ballot box.

Voting was always joyful for me and my family.  Now all the joy in the act of voting is lost, she said. What a terrible loss to our country.

In Orange County, the vote center at Library of the Canyons in Silverado near Limestone Canyon Regional Park was closed Tuesday. Local officials issued an evacuation order in the burn scar area left by the Bond fire, due to concerns about possible mudslides and other hazardous conditions caused by rainfall. The order was issued for 4 a.m. Tuesday through 7 a.m. Wednesday.

We closed the location yesterday, and as of yesterday we had 130 voters that were able to cast their vote from that center, Rosa Vizcarra, community program specialist for the Orange County Registrar of Voters, said. Its an evacuation order from the county. So people and us had to evacuate the zone.

Other than the closure in Silverado, "everything else ran pretty smoothly in Orange County - no major incidents that Im aware of," Vizcarra said in a telephone interview after the polls closed Tuesday evening.

In San Bernardino County, the vote center at Fire Station No. 98 in Angelus Oaks was closed for much of Tuesday. A mandatory evacuation order was issued because of potential mudslides in burn scars left by two wildfires.

Across the U.S., stories of long lines, malfunctioning voting machines and other problems at the polls have made the news frequently in recent years, as have concerns about vote hacking and election fraud; there is little evidence of widespread problems.

In Maricopa County, Ariz., Tuesday, dozens of voting machines malfunctioned. The disruption added fuel to local and national conspiracy theories  pushed mainly by right-wing and Republican individuals and groups  about voter fraud and interference.

In the Southeast, the spotlight is on Georgia, where a key race Tuesday will help decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. In the Peach State, observers worry that perennial problems with long lines and voting suppression could be exacerbated by recently approved voting restrictions, including a controversial 2021 ban on the distribution of food and water to people waiting in line to vote.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, many are keeping an eye on Wisconsin, another swing state with a consequential Senate race this year. Election officials received death threats there after unfounded conspiracy theories arose questioning President Bidens narrow defeat of Donald Trump in the states 2020 presidential election.

To date, just 24 people have been charged with 2020 election fraud in Wisconsin, where more than 3 million ballots were cast that November.

Times staff writer Gregory Yee contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned the use of mercenaries in Russia's war against Ukraine, saying they were inflicting "so much cruelty" on the population.

Speaking at the end of his general audience, he said: "I renew my call for prayers for the martyred Ukraine, let us ask the Lord for peace for these people who are so troubled and who suffer so much cruelty, so much cruelty by the mercenaries who are making war."

The pope did not specifically mention Russia and he did not elaborate.

The Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, has been accused by the European Union and the United States of mounting clandestine operations on the Kremlin's behalf in Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded in February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the group does not represent the state but that private military contractors have the right to work anywhere in the world as long as they do not break Russian law.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
The prevalence of dementia in people aged 65 and over in the US is declining, a new study suggests.

Researchers at RAND corporation, a US-based think tank, analysed data on more than 21,000 people over the age of 65 between 2000 and 2016.

They also looked at the results of a survey which tested the cognitive ability of 97,000 people, some of whom also underwent clinical assessment for dementia.

They found the prevalence of dementia in people aged 65 and over decreased by 3.7 per cent in the 16-year period  from 12.2 per cent in 2000 to 8.5 per cent in 2016.

The reasons for the decline in the prevalence of dementia are not certain, but this trend is good news for older Americans and the systems that support them, said Peter Hudomiet, an economist and lead author of the study.

This decline may help reduce the expected strain on families, nursing homes and other support systems as the American population ages.

There are around 6.2 million people living with dementia in the US. In the UK, around 900,000 have dementia, and it is the leading cause of death. Women are more likely to develop dementia in their lifetimes.

While the prevalence of dementia was higher among women than men across the entire period, the difference declined.

In men, cases of dementia fell by 3.2 per cent from 10.2 per cent in 2000 to 7 per cent in 2016. The decrease was larger in women  down 3.9 per cent from 13.6 per cent to 9.7 per cent.

As old age is the strongest risk factor for developing dementia, it has long been thought that increasing life expectancies will increase the prevalence of the disease. However, the research suggests that age-adjusted dementia is declining.

Experts said this could be a result of increased education, a reduction in smoking and greater awareness of cardiovascular risk factors, like high blood pressure.

Despite the overall decrease, dementia tended to be more prevalent among men and women from ethnic minority backgrounds

Hudomiet commented: Closing the education gap across racial and ethnic groups may be a powerful tool to reduce health inequalities in general and dementia inequalities in particular, an important public health policy goal.
(Photo credit should read ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Kremlin has been icing out Russian politicians who have criticized the course of the war in Ukraine in recent days, blocking state media from quoting them even as Russian losses stack up, according to Russian news outlet Verstka.

The Kremlin has zeroed in on silencing a group of State Duma deputies who have been critical of the war and Russias military in recent months, according to Verstka, which cites a source close to the lower house and a source familiar at a media operation that received the instructions.

The list, which the first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko reportedly made, includes the head of the Duma's Defense Committee, Andrei Kartopolov, who last month called for the Kremlin to stop lying to the Russian people about the casualties Moscow has sustained in the war.

A senior member of the lower house of Russias parliament, Andrei Gurulev, is also on the alleged blacklist. Gurulev said that Russias defeat in Lyman just weeks after Ukraines successful counteroffensive in Kharkiv was a product of those surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin being too fearful to bring him bad news.

Its a problem of total lies and positive reports from top to bottom, Gurulev said.

Putin Hit With Humiliating Retreatand Mystery Death of Crony

The Kremlin has reportedly targeted at least three others for ostracism in state media, including Viktor Zavarzin, a deputy of the State Duma and member of the defense committee who has criticized sending children to war and has suggested the war effort is flagging. Andrei Krasovwho is Kartapolovs first deputy and in charge of Russias political aims in Zaporizhzhiaand Nina Ostanina, the head of the committee on family, women and children who discussed ending Russias partial mobilization in October, are also named.

Moscows apparent blacklisting effort is just the latest sign the Kremlin has grown increasingly desperate for support back home and sensitive to criticism as setbacks and losses have exposed how poorly planned and executed Russian President Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine is.

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While many Russian politicians, Putin allies, and military bloggers at first chest pumped along with Putin about the war in Ukraine, some have grown increasingly skeptical of the war effort. The war has dragged on into its ninth month, with disintegrating logistics, mounting losses, and an unpopular partial military mobilization that has sent more Russian men to the front with minimal trainingand which has sent many more fleeing Russia entirely to avoid conscription.

Russias attempt to hold sham referenda and illegally annex territories in Ukraine quickly revealed they did not know what territory they actually controlled. The whole botched takeover attempt was followed by a quick series of Russian defeats in those territories.

According to the U.K., domestic dissent against Putin in Russia is growing by the day.

The failures of Putins horrendous adventurism are becoming increasingly apparent to the Russian people, Ian Stubbs, the U.K. envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in remarks Wednesday. They are becoming increasingly aware that their recently mobilized family members, neighbors and friends are being badly trained, badly equipped and then sent to the battlefield to reinforce poorly equipped, poorly led and demoralized professional soldiers.

Russias Hilariously Bad Excuses for Why Everything Sucks

Several of Putins close allies, including Chechen Leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the head of the Wagner Group mercenaries, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, have begun circling the wagons as Putins grasp on the original war goals has grown dubious. Western officials say that Prigozhins influence is growing, as he is increasingly taking on duties central to the functioning of the Russian state. Putins backing from a small circle international partners, such as China and India, has also begun to dry up.

Putin critics and former Russian politicians opposed to his leadership have gathered in recent days in Poland to discuss what a Putin ouster might look like.

The crackdown also comes in part because the Kremlin has failed to cement a messaging strategy and sell it to leadership throughout Russia. Although the Russians have generally been working to spread pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine propaganda about the war, many Russian politicians have been commenting on topics that paint Moscow in a bad light, without much guidance from the Kremlin and too much independence, according to Verstka. Kartapolov, for instance, discussed publicly whether there should be personnel changes in the military given poor conditions on the front for Russian troops.

Nonetheless, some of the criticism has appear to strike a chord among Putins allies as the Kremlin seeks to prevent a complete meltdown of authority in Moscow and shore up its control on the narrative about the war.

Gurulev, one of the politicians on the new blacklist, criticized Russias performance when it lost Lyman to Ukrainian forces and suggested Russia should pin the blame on the commander of the Central Military District, Alexander Lapin. Just last week, Russia replaced Lapin with Major General Alexander Linkov, according to British intelligence.

But the realities of the warand increasingly successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian military entities and key logistics routes, including on the Kerch Bridge to Crimeaare making it increasingly difficult for Russia to spin its current approach as a comeback, according to a British intelligence assessment issued Wednesday.

The damage to the bridge, the recent attack on the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and the probable withdrawal from Kherson all complicate the Russian governments ability to paint a picture of military success, the intelligence analysis said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Getty

Russian troops have begun to retreat from Ukraines Kherson region, just the latest humiliating pullout to leave pro-Kremlin military bloggers and propagandists fuming.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu handed down the order on Wednesday afternoon to pull out to the other side of the Dnipro River. The move came after Russian troops reportedly began blowing up bridges as they pulled out, with Russian flags being removed from buildings in the center of Khersonthe only regional capital captured by Russian forces in the full-scale invasion.

For us, life and health of the military personnel is always the priority, Shoigu said in announcing the decision.

Bizarrely, the order came after Sergei Surovikin, Russia's top commander in Ukraine, boasted of Russian troops supposedly suffering seven times fewer losses than the Ukrainian military in Kherson.

It also came just six weeks after Vladimir Putin taunted Kyiv with the declaration that residents of Kherson and other occupied Ukrainian regions are becoming our citizens forever.

Pro-Kremlin bloggers had been expecting the pulloutand raging against the decision as yet another abandonment by the Russian military.

But in the midst of the humiliating retreat, Kremlin-controlled proxy authorities on Wednesday announced the sudden death of one of the most high-profile leaders in the occupied Kherson region.

Russia Ratchets Up Panic as Civilians Told to Leave Kherson

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the region, was said to have been killed in a car accident. Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, took to Telegram to announce the news after it was first reported in Russian media.

Russias RIA Novosti cited an unnamed source who said Stremousovs SUV was struck by a truck at an intersection. The driver of the truck was said to have made a dangerous maneuver that caused the wreck.

As soon as his death was announced, many pro-Kremlin military bloggers whod been busy venting about Russias shocking retreat from the region suddenly shifted to writing condolences for Stremousov.

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Few details were initially given on the crash, and Russian-backed health officials in the region where it is said to have occurred refused to confirm that hed died, saying only that they could confirm there was a traffic accident. Though Saldo said Stremousov had been killed in the Kherson region, some independent Russian media outlets noted that hed confirmed in late August he had evacuated to Russia.

The murky nature of his reported deathand the speed with which a slew of pro-Kremlin social media channels simultaneously posted condolencesled some Ukrainian authorities to suggest the tragedy had been a deliberate hoax. Yuri Sobolevksy, the first deputy chair of the Kherson regional council, suggested Stremousovs death may have been staged in a statement on Facebook, though he did not elaborate.

It was not clear why he believed it may have been staged, but reports of Stremousovs death came amid mounting outrage among Russian hardliners about the retreat from Kherson.

And as soon as his death was announced, they briefly shifted from publicly venting frustrations about military failures to penning tributes to Stremousov.

Shoigus announcement, however, reignited the wrath of the Russian hardliners fed up with a string of recent retreats.

The main thing is not victory, but participation, one popular Russian military channel quipped on Telegram.

The surrender of Kherson is the biggest geopolitical defeat of Russia since the fall of the U.S.S.R., wrote pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov. The political consequences of this huge defeat will be really big. The main reason for the defeat is the refusal [to carry out] a real war and the catastrophic delay in making necessary decisions.

Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, expressed skepticism about the ordered pullout, with Nataliya Gumenyuk, the spokeswoman for the southern command of the Ukrainian army, calling the announcement a bid to save face that might be part of an information-psychological operation meant to create a false impression of the true intentions.

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian presidents chief of staff, seemed to share that sentiment, writing on Telegram: Some people think they are very cunning, but were a step ahead.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Putin

With reference to people familiar with the planning, Bloomberg said Putins decision ends months of suspense and allows the dictator to sidestep potential confrontations with other world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden who has labeled the Russian president a war criminal.

The Kremlin also risked Putin being shunned by European leaders at the Nov. 15-16 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, Bloomberg reported.

One of the people said Russia will send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Putins place.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to take part in the G20 summit in Indonesia, his spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov said on Nov. 8.

According to Nikiforov, the president will most likely take part online.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky addresses delegates in Sharm El-Sheikh (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine destroyed 5 million acres of forests in less than six months, president Volodymyr Zelensky has told the UNs Cop27 climate summit.

Addressing delegates in Egypt in a video message, the Ukrainian president accused Russia of hampering and distracting from global efforts to combat climate breakdown  warning that there can be no effective climate policy without peace on Earth.

As world leaders grapple with how to control the fossil fuel emissions heating our planet, Mr Zelensky alleged that the energy crisis exacerbated by Russias invasion has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people.

Half of Ukraines own green energy capacity is now located in Russian-held territory, the head of Ukraines largest energy producer DTEK told the summit on Tuesday, as he warned that the nation faces one of the most difficult winters in the history of Ukraine.

Russia has stepped up its destruction of civilian infrastructure in recent weeks in the face of increasingly threatening Ukrainian counter-assaults, and the beseiged nation has overall lost about 90 per cent of wind capacity, which is on occupied territory, and about 30 per cent of solar, Maxim Timchenko said.

Moscows forces have also sparked global alarm after seizing the Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant  the largest in Europe  and Mr Zelensksy appealed to world leaders to help stop those who, with their insane and illegal war, are destroying the worlds ability to work united for a common goal.

Who will care, for example, about the amount of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere if part of Europe or the Middle East and possibly Northern Africa, God forbid, are covered by radiation cloud after an accident in Zaporizhzhia? Mr Zelensky asked.

The Ukrainian president also accused Russia of sparking an acute global food crisis, which hit worst those suffering the existing manifestations of climate change.

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Last week, Moscow briefly suspended its involvement in a deal allowing ships carrying grain exports to leave Ukraine  one of the worlds largest producers  over what it alleged was a terrorist drone attack on its Black Sea fleet.

The deal, brokered with the help of the United Nations and Turkey, is credited with moving nine million tonnes of grain and easing global food shortages. But it is set to expire at the end of next week, and the Kremlin said on Tuesday it had not yet decided whether to extend the agreement.

Ukrainian authorities have also previously accused Russias forces of burning large areas of crops, granaries and agricultural equipment in its vast and fertile Kherson region  and of refusing to allow residents there to put out fires.

World news in pictures

8 November 2022: People watch as a full moon rises ahead of a total lunar eclipse in Stanwell Park, Australia (EPA)

7 November 2022: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (left) meets his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic during the Cop27 summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (PA)

6 November 2022: Syrian opposition fighters fire artillery at pro-government forces from a position in the northwestern Idlib province (AFP/Getty)

5 November 2022: Bike enthusiasts wearing historical dress drive their penny-farthing bicycles, also known as high wheel (AFP via Getty Images)

4 November 2022: A man feeds birds amidst heavy smog on the banks of Yamuna river in the old quarters of Delhi (REUTERS)

3 November 2022: The Oil Slicks, an Extinction Rebellion protest troupe dressed head-to-toe in black and wearing ash-like facepaint, outside the offices of JP Morgan in Glasgow. (PA)

2 November 2022: A man wearing a face mask and costume rides past residents on a street in Beijing (AP)

1 November 2022: Supporters of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, mainly truck drivers, block a highway during a protest over Bolsonaro's defeat in the presidential run-off election, in Curitiba, in the state of Parana (Reuters)

31 October 2022: Farmers harvest rice in a field in Qarghayi district of Laghman province, Afghanistan (AFP/Getty)

30 October 2022: People pay tribute near the scene of the stampede during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea (Reuters)

29 October 2022: Traditional dancers perform during the annual Gandrung Sewu festival on Boom beach in Banyuwangi (AFP/Getty)

In his speech, Mr Zelensky criticised world leaders for paying lip service to climate breakdown without delivering real change, saying: There are still many for whom climate change is just rhetoric or marketing ... but not real action.

They are the ones who hamper the implementation of climate goals, they are the ones in their offices who make fun of those who fight to save life on the planet, although in public they seem to support the work for the sake of nature.

They are the ones who start wars of aggression when the planet cannot afford a single gunshot because it needs global joint action.

Ukraine is hosting an exhibition space this year in Sharm el-Sheikh for the first time at a UN climate conference and members of Kyivs delegation said they hoped their presence drew global attention to the climate and environmental consequences of Russias invasion.

Its important to show the situation in Ukraine, said Svitlana Grynchuk, the countrys deputy environment minister, adding: We have a lot of plans for rebuilding our country. It will be greener.

Additional reporting by agencies
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) looks on Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) during a military parade in Pskov, Russia, on March,1, 2020. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Russian forces are retreating from positions in Kherson, a major city in Ukraine.

Kherson was the first major city and the only regional capital Russian forces captured after the invasion in February.

This marks one of the most significant setbacks for Russia in the war so far.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Wednesday that he was ordering Russian forces in Kherson to retreat across the Dnieper River, marking one of the most significant setbacks for Russia in the Ukraine war so far. Kherson was the first major city and the only regional capital captured by Russia following the onset of the invasion in February.

The call, to retreat came after a period of intense fighting, with Ukrainian forces gradually making advances toward the city. The Ukrainian counteroffensive saw Russia move to relocate 100,000 of the city's residents.

"I understand that this is a very difficult decision, but at the same time we will preserve the most important thing  the lives of our servicemen and, in general, the combat effectiveness of the group of troops, " Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the top commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said in televised remarks alongside Shoigu, per Reuters.

"I agree with your conclusions and proposals," Shoigu said in response. "For us, the life and health of Russian servicemen is always a priority. We must also take into account the threats to the civilian population. Proceed with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnipro River."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was absent from the televised meeting with Shoigu and Surovkin, perhaps as part of an effort to distance himself from the embarrassing development.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a tweet that Russian forces weren't "leaving" Kherson but were "KNOCKED out" of the city with "heavy battles." Ukrainian forces "methodically gnawed through the enemy's defenses," Arestovych said.

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As Russian forces move to withdraw, Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of blowing up bridges in an attempt to slow Ukraine's advance.

Kherson is the capital of a region in southern Ukraine known as the Kherson oblast and an area that Putin recently annexed in an illegal move decried around the world. The Russian retreat from Kherson underscores the tenuous nature of the so-called annexations, given Moscow's forces do not fully control or occupy the Ukrainian regions the Kremlin now claims as part of Russia. Putin made veiled nuclear threats in announcing the annexations, vowing to defend Russia's land "with all the powers and means at our disposal."

Controlling Kherson is considered crucial to Putin's goal of creating a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian territory he illegally annexed in 2014.

"Very impressive and hard fought victory for Ukraine," Rob Lee, a military analyst, said in a tweet. "The big question now is whether Russia can withdraw without taking heavy equipment and personnel losses. Ukraine has every incentive to make this withdrawal as chaotic and costly as possible," he added.

Lee said this also stands as one of the reasons why a "ceasefire is not in Ukraine's interests," adding that Ukrainian forces have military advantages at present as Russia vies to train and equip recently mobilized soldiers and obtain arms from Iran.

"Further Ukrainian gains make it more likely this war ends sooner," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A woman and her dogs walk by a ballot drop box outside the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder's office Thursday in Norwalk. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

If Angelenos learned one thing from the June primary, it's that early results on election night may not be indicative of ultimate vote counts. And final results could take days or weeks in close races.

Election night uncertainty is particularly acute in California, where a 2021 law made the pandemic-inspired shift to universal vote-by-mail permanent.

That shift fundamentally altered participation patterns, with voting beginning weeks before election day and ballot tabulation extending for weeks afterward.

We no longer have election night. We have election season, said Mindy Romero, a political sociologist and director of the USC Center for Inclusive Democracy.

Why will some races not have definitive results on election night?

Californians used to largely vote in person on election day. Now, the vast majority submit vote-by-mail ballots.

Because mail ballots take significantly longer to process, a large crush of people voting by mail on or just before election day creates what California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander described as the pig in the python phenomenon  where you just have this giant wad of ballots moving through the process.

Ballots postmarked by election day are also accepted for up to seven days in California. That means the total number of ballots cast won't be certain until well into next week, making it difficult for experts to gauge how much results may shift in the days immediately after the election.

Do lengthy vote counts or shifting results indicate a problem?

In a word, no.

Experts and election officials stress that Californias comparatively slow vote counts are a feature of a working democratic system, not a bug.

After a two-decade push to provide more options and protections, its easier to vote in California than almost anywhere in the nation. But some of those elements create more work for election officials on the back end.

For instance, California law allows eligible residents who missed prior deadlines to conditionally register to vote and cast a ballot on election day. But county elections officials need to complete the voter registration verification process for those ballots before they can be processed and counted.

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The reason we take so long is we're verifying all the ballots and making sure only valid ballots are being counted, Alexander said. So it's a function of election security  the very election security people who criticize slow vote counts are demanding.

Romero, the political sociologist, cautioned that results can  and likely will  shift in a number of races in the days to come.

When people hear one thing and then it seems to change, "they think something funny has happened or fishy has happened," but such fluctuations are normal when votes are being counted, Romero said.

Will there be any definitive results on election night?

Yes. The overwhelming registration advantage that Democrats hold in California dictates that most party-line statewide races are essentially noncompetitive, making some results easy to forecast before all ballots have been counted. Gov. Gavin Newsoms successful reelection bid is a foregone conclusion, and Sen. Alex Padilla  whose name appears twice on the ballot  is expected to handily defeat his opponent in both races.

Experts say that most of the state propositions will also likely see clear winners or losers Tuesday night.

But final results may take days or weeks in other high-profile races, including a handful of nail-biter congressional contests around the state and a number of competitive Democrat-on-Democrat races in Los Angeles city and county, such as the hotly contested Los Angeles mayoral race.

When will the first results show up in L.A. County?

The much-anticipated first wave of results in Los Angeles will likely be released around 8:30 or 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday, according to Los Angeles County registrar-recorder spokesperson Mike Sanchez. That segment will include only mail-in ballots received before election day.

The next drop  likely to come in the 9 p.m. hour  will add results from early in-person ballots cast at county vote centers.

After those first two drops, there will be continuous and reoccurring updates throughout the night as election officials tabulate votes cast in-person on election day, Sanchez said.

Those drops will likely continue into the wee hours Wednesday morning. Prepare for a long gap in new results after that, with the first post-election day update posted Friday.

Sometime between Wednesday and Friday, county election officials will also likely release an estimated number of outstanding ballots, Sanchez said.

That number should give Angelenos a better sense of how much results could swing. But beware  that figure will include only the number of ballots currently in their posession. Because ballots postmarked by election day are accepted for seven days, the total number of outstanding ballots will continue to shift through next week.

After election week, new results will continue to be released on a set schedule, with numbers updated every Tuesday and Friday, Sanchez said.

The county registrar-recorder's office is scheduled to certify the final results Dec. 5.

Later results swung toward progressive candidates in the primary. Will that happen again?

That late-breaking blue shift in June was unique to L.A.  in quite a few other parts of the state, results actually turned more conservative as successive waves of ballots were counted, data expert and Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell said.

He hypothesized that the mayoral primary drove L.A. voting behavior in June: Rick Caruso was the clear choice in his political lane, whereas many progressive voters held onto their ballots as they decided between Rep. Karen Bass and other left-leaning candidates such as Kevin de Leon or Gina Viola.

Theres no reason to think the general election results will follow the same pattern, said Mitchell, who speculated that later results could even favor Caruso.

But given the level of variables at play, it's very difficult to predict how the shifts in results will play out as ballots are tabulated.

Will The Times 'call' races?

The Times does not make calls in individual races. The newspaper will rely on the Associated Press  which is considered the gold standard for calling races  for decisions in all national and state races, as well as the Los Angeles County sheriffs race and Los Angeles mayoral race.

On our website, we will have live results that will be updated with the latest totals in local races as new information is released by the county.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A man on Tuesday fatally shot his wife and himself inside the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office building.

Officers found the couple dead while responding to a report of shots fired and a possible active shooter, the Associated Press reported. Dallas County Sheriffs Department Investigator William Fritz told the AP that after they evacuated the building, authorities determined that the man had walked into the complex and shot his wife, who was employed there.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said two medical examiners office employees were struck by gunfire before the self-inflicted shooting, the Dallas Morning News reported. The condition of one of the employees was not clear.

We do believe there is an employee here that is involved in this  we do believe that one of the subjects that is deceased was indeed an employee, Sheriff Marian Brown told the Morning News.

The identities of those involved have not been released, but Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price told WFAA-TV that the woman who was killed was a deputy medical examiner.

KTVT-TV reported the shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m on the second floor of the building on North Stemmons Freeway near Wycliff Avenue.

This is a developing story. For the latest updates, sign up for breaking news alerts.
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The Brevard County Commission will have two new members later this month, as Tom Goodson won the District 2 seat and Rob Feltner won the District 4 seat in Tuesday's election.

Both are Republicans, and their election wins keep the County Commission all-Republican for at least the next two years. There were no Democratic candidates for either seat.

Republican Tom Goodson will be the next Brevard County commissioner, representing District 2.

Goodson defeated no-party-affiliation candidate Dontavious Smith, with Goodson getting 73.13% of the vote and Smith getting 26.87%.

"Im deeply grateful to the voters for electing me to serve on the County Commission," Goodson said. "I love Brevard County and the opportunity it provides for our citizens to reach for the stars. I look forward to getting to work and tackling the important issues facing Brevard families."

Goodson is a business owner, a former Florida House of Representatives member and former Canaveral Port Authority commissioner.

Smith operates a clothing line business, along with being an author. He also operates a foundation that offers students the opportunity to tour the different universities and learn about Florida government at the capital.

Feltner's only general election opponent was write-in candidate Joseph Aiello, whose name did not appear on the ballot. Feltner received 92.13% of the vote.

Feltner is a political consultant. He previously worked at the Brevard County Property Appraiser's Office as the director of governmental affairs and public relations.

Campaign: Tom Goodson, Dontavious Smith square off in general to decide County Commission District 2

GOP primary victory: Former State Rep. Tom Goodson wins Brevard County District 2 Republican primary

Both Goodson and Feltner had to get through four-candidate Republican primaries in August before reaching the general election. They won the primaries by large margins.

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Goodson received 41.76% of the vote in the GOP primary, compared with 23.85% for Dave Netterstrom, 21.65% for Christopher Hattaway and 12.74% for Joey Cholewa.

Republican Rob Feltner will be the next Brevard County commissioner, representing in District 4.

In the District 4 Republican primary, Feltner received 55.05% of the vote. Other candidates were Sandra Sullivan (22.59%), David Armstrong (19.32%) and Margaret Mary Steciuk (3.03%).

The District 2 seat has been vacant since the April 1 resignation of then-Commissioner Bryan Lober, who said he resigned because of the death of his grandmother.

But the resignation also came at a time when questions were raised about spending practices in Lober's County Commission office.

An anonymous email was sent to members of the County Commission, detailing the amount he had spent on his purchasing card, a type of corporate credit card.

Lober has denied any wrongdoing.

The Brevard County Clerk of Courts Office is in the midst of an audit of spending by all five County Commission district offices.

District 2 includes Avon by the Sea, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, Kennedy Space Center, Port Canaveral and Snug Harbor, as well as most of Merritt Island, and portions of Cocoa, Rockledge and Patrick Space Force Base.

In District 4, Feltner succeeds Curt Smith, who could not seek reelection this year because of term limits. Smith is completing his second four-year term.

Aiello, a Republican, has said he was not campaigning to be District 4s next commissioner, but filed his candidacy as a write-in candidate only to close the Republican primary, so that only Republicans in the district could cast their vote in the primary. Without a write-in candidate, the primary would have been open to Democrats, no-party-affiliation voters and members of minor political parties.

District 4 includes all or part of Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne, Palm Shores, Rockledge and Satellite Beach, as well as sections of unincorporated Brevard, including Suntree and Viera.

The term of office for a county commissioner is four years, and the position pays $58,145.36 a year.

Ralph Chapoco is government and politics watchdog reporter. You can reach Chapoco at rchapoco@floridatoday.com and follow him on Twitter @rchapoco.

Tyler Vazquez is the North Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-917-7491 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez

Support local journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Republicans Goodson, Feltner easily wins County Commission races
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp won a second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams and capping a momentous few years in which he faced down an aggressive challenge from former President Donald Trump.

In a speech late Tuesday night, Abrams congratulated Kemp in a speech to her supporters.

It was the second time Kemp, a Republican, had defeated Abrams, after a much closer contest for governor in 2018. And it was the culmination of a decade-long rivalry between the Republican and the Democrat, going back to when Kemp was Georgias secretary of state and Abrams was the House minority leader in the state Legislature.

<<< 2022 Georgia Gubernatorial Midterm Election: Latest Updates and Results >>>

Much has transpired between them over the last 10 years. But much of Kemps victory was due to the way he handled a challenge from the former president in his own party.

After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump tried to enlist state officials in an attempt to overturn the results. Kemp refused to help Trump throw out the votes of millions of Georgians.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp at a campaign event in Kennesaw, Ga., on Nov. 7. (Dustin Chambers/Reuters)

The former president is currently under investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is reported to be readying indictments based on Trumps actions in Georgia in 2020. The indictments could come in December, CNN reported.

Once Trump left the White House, he turned to former Sen. David Perdue to launch a primary campaign against Kemp. Perdue based his campaign on the idea that Trump had won the 2020 election, but was forced from power by officials like Kemp; when the GOP primary was held in May, Kemp trounced Perdue by more than 50 points.

Until 2020, Kemps biggest claim to fame was that he was a supervillain to many on the left. Abrams called him an architect of voter suppression after sparring with him in his role of overseeing elections for several years. Georgia has a long history of racialized voter suppression, and Yahoo News documented a case of voter intimidation in 2010 by officials with Kemps secretary of state office.

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But high turnout among Black voters in 2018 made it harder for Kemps critics to claim he had suppressed the vote. Black turnout increased by 16 points from 2014, compared with just an 11-point increase for white voters, according to the Brookings Institution.

Then Kemps refusal to buckle in the face of a pressure campaign to corrupt the 2020 result from the leader of his own party cast the Republican governor in a new light.

Kemp had already shown some independence from Trump earlier in 2020, when he reopened the states businesses only a few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump criticized the move, saying it was too soon. Yet Georgias economy continued to hum through the pandemic and picked up in 2021.

Early in 2021, Kemp was once again being castigated by Democrats, this time for signing a bill that narrowed access to voting in Georgia by reducing the amount of time for mail-in voting, instituting new ID requirements for voting by mail. The law also gave the state Legislature more power over elections. The piece of the law that drew the most attention was a provision barring political groups from giving food or water to voters standing in line.

Stacey Abrams, Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, speaks to the media after a meeting to encourage the vote at Georgia State University on Nov. 7 in Atlanta. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Abrams has continued to insist that despite huge turnout from Black voters, voter suppression remains a factor.

In 2018  we had record turnout that shattered records for Democrats among communities of color and in that same election, she said. We know that 85,000 Georgians were denied their right to vote due to voter suppression tactics that shut down their precincts. We know that 50,000 voters had their right to vote held hostage by the exact match process, which was proven to be voter suppression tactics. We know that thousands of people stood in lines for hours because of voter suppression tactics.

But a lawsuit brought against the state after the 2018 election by Fair Fight Action, an organization started by Abrams, was soundly rejected by a federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama.

The lawsuit alleged serious and unconstitutional flaws in Georgias elections process, and said Kemp  in his capacity as secretary of state  had been denying and abridging Georgians right to vote through an exact match policy that eliminated tens of thousands of ballots, through extensive mismanagement of the statewide voter registration list and through non-uniform and improper practices regarding in-person cancellation of absentee ballots.

But Judge Steve Jones ruled in September of this year that Fair Fight had failed to provide sufficient evidence for its claims.

Abrams ran a centrist campaign, focusing on health care concerns such as Medicare and Medicaid expansion and providing funding for rural hospitals.

But in many ways, she was running uphill against a popular governor who had established his independence from Trump  and who had been tested in high-stakes confrontations with both the former president and with Abrams herself.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Republican J.D. Vance is projected to easily win Ohios U.S. Senate contest over Democrat Tim Ryan, keeping the seat in GOP control following the retirement of Sen. Rob Portman.

Vance, a first-time candidate, is a venture capitalist known for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy about growing up amid generational poverty and the opioid epidemic in Middletown, Ohio.

Donald Trump held a rally for Republican J.D. Vance on Monday just outside Dayton, Ohio. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump held a rally for Republican J.D. Vance on Monday just outside Dayton, Ohio. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Vance only became the clear favorite for the GOP nomination once Donald Trump intervened, choosing Vance to endorse in a crowded field. The former president praised Vance at a rally Monday while acknowledging that Vance didnt really need his help.

J.D., you have some very good polls, Trump said at an airport in Vandalia, Ohio, before teasing his 2024 plans. What the hell am I doing here?

Ohio was never going to be an easy  or even feasible  pickup for Democrats, given the political realignment thats taken hold over the past decade. After voting for Barack Obama twice, Ohioans came out in large numbers for Trump in both of his presidential bids.

Ryan was still a large enough threat that national Republicans redirected some of their resources from other battleground states to Ohio  while national Democrats pretty much ignored Ryans race, despite seeing it as a blueprint for how they might win elsewhere in future elections.

At his rally, Trump didnt let Vance forget that he wasnt always down with the Make America Great Again movement (something Trump famously alluded to at one of his earlier rallies for Vance, spawning a memorable Ryan debate line and campaign merch). Vance needed to overcome his earlier dislike of the former president to win his blessing. The rally showed just how far Vance had come from the days when he thought Trump was noxious and an idiot.

No more RINOs, no more people who compromise and lose our country in the process, said Vance, who projected confidence Monday about his own race and a red wave in Congress.

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Ryan is a longtime representative from the Mahoning Valley, where white, working-class voters flocked to the Republican Party in 2016. Its the same phenomenon that Vance explained in his memoir, which came out the year Trump won the White House.

Recognizing the potency of economic issues, Ryan attempted to win Republican votes by running commercials on Fox News and aligning himself with Trump on trade and manufacturing. Trump had apparently taken notice.

His opponent is making me like Im his best friend. I dont know this guy, but hes far left, Trump said of Ryan, whom he noted votes in lockstep with Democrats.

Democrat Tim Ryan, a U.S. representative from Ohio's Mahoning Valley, is projected to lose his Senate race. (Photo: Drew Angerer via Getty Images)

Democrat Tim Ryan, a U.S. representative from Ohio's Mahoning Valley, is projected to lose his Senate race. (Photo: Drew Angerer via Getty Images)

Its not clear whats next for Ryan, whose current congressional seat was essentially eliminated in redistricting. Ryan ran for president briefly in 2020, drawing attention to economic issues in the heartland.

Tuesdays outcome doesnt bode well for Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is up for reelection in two years. Brown, a progressive populist with an economic message similar to Ryans, has been able to withstand the red shift in Ohio up to now. Other races also predicted trouble for Brown: Ohios gubernatorial race between incumbent Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, was expected to be a blowout for DeWine.

Ohios partisan lean allowed Vance to weather storms of criticism over his opioid nonprofit  which critics say accomplished little and acted more as a vehicle for his political ambitions  as well as controversial comments on abortion and porn.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Rep. Lauren Boebert on the House steps of the Capitol on Monday, January 4, 2021. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Rep. Lauren Boebert, an outspoken right-wing freshman lawmaker, is in a tight battle for reelection.

She's running against Democrat Adam Frisch in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District.

Boebert has been a thorn in the Democratic Party's side while in office.

GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert is in a tight race for reelection in Colorado as Republicans reckon with bleaker-than-expected results in the midterms.

Boebert is facing off in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District against Democrat Adam Frisch, a businessman and former city councilman.

If the two candidates finish with a lead of less than 0.5% of the total vote, it would trigger an automatic recount under state law, per The Colorado Sun. The outlet noted that other factors could affect the outcome in such a tight race, including military and overseas votes still in the postal system, or pending decisions on the eligibility of individual ballots.

Boebert  who had predicted a "red wave" on Election Day  hadn't spoken since results started trickling in. On Thursday she tweeted "Jesus is Lord" and shared a meme poking fun at the election process. By contrast, Frisch has tweeted multiple times since polls closed, including a post on Wednesday night urging Coloradans to fix errors on their ballots if needed so their vote will count.

Voters first elected Boebert in 2020. The representative from Rifle, Colorado, has used her position to be a thorn in the Democratic Party's side. Since taking public office, she's denied the 2020 presidential election results, interrupted President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech, and denigrated a Democratic member of Congress over their religion.

Two years later, her antics may have cost her a job, as she's close to joining the ranks of Rep. Madison Cawthorn as one of the few members of Congress to get elected in 2020, but lose their bid for reelection after only one term in office.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former President Donald Trump watches returns and speaks with guests at Mar-a-lago on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Republican analysts blamed Trump for the GOP's disappointing midterm results.

They say the former president is too divisive, and backed poor quality candidates.

The GOP had been expected to make sweeping gains, but these didn't materialise.

Republican analysts and commentators blamed Donald Trump for the party's disappointing performance in the midterm elections when hopes for sweeping victories fell short.

The former president had endorsed hundreds of candidates in the midterm elections as he sought to cement his control over the party. But as of early Wednesday many were performing poorly.

The most prominent setback came in Pennsylvania, where Mehmet Oz, the Trump-endorsed Senate candidate, was defeated by Democrat John Fetterman, damaging Republican prospects of taking control of the upper chamber.

In a CNN interview, former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin blamed the failures on the poor quality of the candidates Trump championed.

"Are they going to continue to nominate poor-quality candidates to appease Donald Trump?" she said of Republicans.

Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) November 9, 2022

"If you want the Republican Party to thrive, we've got to just finally speak out and say, 'This man is a loser, he lost 2020, he's losing a seat that is winnable this time," she continued.

Scott Jennings, a conservative analyst who has been an advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the results showed that Trump's hopes of winning back the presidency were a non-starter.

"How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024?" he said.

Caleb Hull, a pro-Trump communications strategist, said that it was time for the GOP to move on from Trump.

"I LOVED Trump and campaigned for him in 2016 but the guy has lost his mind and attached (sic) everyone in our party far too much to be a serious face going forward. The COVID-19 briefings did him in and now he's sealed it. Time to move on," he tweeted.

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Liam Donovan, a former aide to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, also laid the blame at the feet of the former president.

"If this proves to be another Senate flop in a year that was otherwise favorable to Republicans  even if not a wave  it will again be a function of the candidates they put up, which was unmistakably shaped and steered by Donald Trump," he told The New York Times.

Trump has endorsed hundreds of loyalist candidates who have embraced his lies that the 2020 election was stolen. Many of them have checkered pasts and have pushed fringe conspiracy theories.

Oz had attracted criticism with a series of gaffes on the campaign trail and even recorded a campaign video from his New Jersey mansion while seeking to assure voters of his ties to Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, Trump's defeated candidate for the gubernatorial race, Doug Mastriano, had associated himself with the QAnon conspiracy theory movement and attended a rally before the January 6 Capitol riot. Trump-endorsed Georgia senate candidate Herschel Walker's campaign was rocked by revelations he'd paid for a woman to have an abortion while calling for the procedure to be banned on the campaign trail. That race is in the balance and may result in a run-off vote.

Trump had hoped to use the successes of his candidates in the midterms to launch his own campaign to return to office in 2024, but much of the praise from senior Republicans Tuesday went to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose sweeping reelection victory was one of the few bright spots on an otherwise disappointing evening for the GOP Tuesday. He is considered Trump's leading rival for the 2024 GOP nomination, and Trump had attacked him in interviews on the eve of the midterms.

"All the chatter on my conservative and GOP channels is rage at Trump like I've never seen," Michael Brendan Dougherty, a Senior Writer at National Review, wrote on Twitter. "'The one guy he attacked before Election Day was DeSantis  the clear winner, meanwhile, all his guys are sh***ing the bed.'"

Read the original article on Business Insider
ALBANY, N.Y.  The GOP's hoped-for red wave looked a lot more like a national ripple in the wake of Election Day  except for deep blue New York, where Republicans picked up three House seats  including defeating the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The GOP won all four races on Long Island, and DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, conceded his race Wednesday in the Hudson Valley.

While Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul won against Republican Lee Zeldin at the top of the ticket, Republicans fared much better down ballot in critical House races that will help determine control of the chamber in January. The GOP capitalized on economic woes and rode a wave of crime fears that resonated with voters in moderate areas in New York City's moderate suburbs.



Outgoing state Sen. Phil Boyle, a Republican in Suffolk County, said crime was the top issue for voters on Long Island, who may live in the suburbs, but are concerned about crime in New York City.

"The voters on Long Island focused on crime: crime, crime, crime," he said Wednesday. "And its not so much that there has been crime on their streets, although there has been  like in front of Lee Zeldins house  but a lot of family members, friends and neighbors work in New York City; they go to New York City to have fun, go to dinner. And they were afraid."

Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said people wanted change. "They were afraid for their safety and their pocketbooks."

The victories could prove decisive in how large a majority House Republicans stand to gain, proving that New York was, as expected, a critical battleground.

The parties went into Election Day with a House delegation in New York of 19 Democrats and eight Republicans. The results were leaning toward 15 Democrats and 11 Republicans since the state lost one seat due to redistricting.

Long Island victories

On Long Island, Republicans were declared victors by midday Wednesday in all four seats  with George Santos beating Robert Zimmerman to flip the 3rd District seat held by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who eschewed reelection to run unsuccessfully for governor.

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In the 4th District in Nassau County, Republican Anthony DEsposito named the winner Wednesday over Democrat Laura Gillen. He was ahead 52 percent to 48 percent.

And Republicans won the two seats they had already held in Suffolk County, with the only incumbent on the ballot, Rep. Andrew Garbarino cruising over Democratic challenger Jackie Gordon.

"Id like to think our victory can prove that there is a way to maintain one's conservative ideology while also working across the aisle to benefit Long Islanders," Republican Nick LaLota, who was declared the winner in the 1st District on the eastern tip of Long Island to succeed Zeldin, said in a statement.

Hudson Valley gains

The other House battleground in New York was the Hudson Valley, where Republicans also had a strong showing.

Maloney lost his seat to Republican Mike Lawler after serving in the region for five terms. Maloney didn't even attend his own campaign party Tuesday night. He lost by about 3,200 votes, down 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent.

And Republican Marc Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, was also declared the winner in an open seat after opening up a more than 6,000 vote lead, 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent, over Democrat Josh Riley in the new 19th District that stretches across the Hudson Valley and into the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes.

"Our understanding from Board of Elections officials is that we are down, but not out," Riley said in a statement.

There was one big win for Democrats: Rep. Pat Ryan declared victory and his Republican opponent Colin Schmitt conceded in the Hudson Valley's District 18, one of the nation's top toss-up races after Ryan won a special election to the House in August. The race had yet to be officially called Wednesday morning, but Ryan was leading by about 2,000 votes, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.

"After a hard-fought campaign, the people of our district made their choice, and I respect their decision," Schmitt said in a statement.

In Central New York

In another toss-up race to succeed retiring GOP Republican John Katko, Republican Brandon Williams, a political newcomer from Texas who beat an establishment-backed candidate in the primary, was leading by 3,000 votes  50.6 percent to 49.4 percent  in the Syracuse area.

While the race had not yet been officially called, Williams declared victory early Wednesday after votes were released in Oneida County, which he won by more than 60 percent.

Democrat Francis Conole has not conceded, and his campaign released a statement calling for all absentees and provisional ballots to be counted.

This is a fundamental part of our democracy, and we look forward to it being carried out in the coming days," Conole said.

In Rochester, Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle was declared a winner in a Monroe County race that Democrats feared might be in jeopardy. The party rushed to provide last-minute campaign cash to help the former state Assembly majority leader, who has been in elected office since the 1980s.

Other Republicans in Western New York cruised to victory: Rep. Claudia Tenney was reelected to a safer GOP seat than the one she currently has in central New York, and state GOP Chair Nick Langworthy easily prevailed in the Buffalo area after winning a contentious August primary against Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino.
Here are the latest 2022 election results from Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Anna Kim/Insider

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. EST.

Missouri elected eight congressional representatives this cycle. Voters also filled an open US Senate seat, and they addressed two particularly interesting ballot referendums in Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana use, and a question that would support holding a constitutional convention.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. EST.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mark Thiessen/AP Photo; Insider

Sen. Lisa Murkowski ran against fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka and Democrat Patricia Chesbro, but the battle was largely between the two Republicans.

Tshibaka was endorsed by Donald Trump, while Murkowski had the endorsements of several high-profile Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin.

Murkowski has bucked her party on multiple key issues, including voting to convict Trump after the House impeached him over the January 6 storming of the US Capitol.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski defeated Democrat Patricia Chesbro and fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska to represent the state in the US Senate.

Alaska's Senate race candidates

Murkowski is a moderate Republican who's represented Alaska for two decades. She became a senator in 2002 when her father, former Sen. Frank Murkowski, appointed her to his seat after resigning to become governor of the state.

After losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller in 2010, Murkowski successfully ran for reelection as a write-in candidate, becoming the first senator in 50 years to wage a victorious write-in campaign for a US Senate seat. Prior to her time as a senator, Murkowski served in the Alaska House of Representatives.

Murkowski has bucked her party on multiple key issues, including voting to convict then-President Donald Trump after the House impeached him over the January 6 storming of the US Capitol, voting to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and most recently, reaching across the aisle to endorse Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska's special US House election earlier this year.

Murkowski had the endorsements of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and several high-profile Democratic politicians, including Peltola, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona.

Tshibaka, her Republican rival, is a former commissioner at the Alaska Department of Administration who was endorsed by Trump and the Republican Party of Alaska. An attorney, she has worked for several federal agencies, including the Postal Service, the Justice Department, and the Federal Trade Commission.

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She has called for the need to protect Arctic Alaska from Russian aggression.

Murkowksi and Tshibaka together won more than 80% of the primary vote, with the Republican incumbent receiving 45% and Tshibaka receiving 38.6%.

They competed in a three-way race with Democratic nominee Chesbro, a retired educator who serves on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission.

Alaska's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of 10 percentage points in the 2020 election. Alaska has voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election cycle since 1960, only voting Democratic for Lyndon Johnson's rout of Barry Goldwater in 1964.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Murkowski raised $10.8 million, spent $8.7 million, and had $2.2 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

Her Democratic challenger, Chesbro, raised $184,617, spent $155,866, and had $28,751 cash on hand.

Her Republican challenger, Tshibaka, raised $4.8 million, spent $4.2 million, and had $692,428 cash on hand, as of October 19.

As of late October, over a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend nearly $15 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.

Murkowski benefitted from most of that spending, including a $6.1 million boost from the Senate Leadership Fund, a national Republican super PAC.

What experts say

The race between Murkowski, Tshibaka and Chesbro was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mead Gruver/AP Photo; Theresa Livingstons campaign; Insider

Gov. Mark Gordon defeated Democrat Theresa Livingston in Wyoming's gubernatorial race.

Wyoming backed Trump over Biden in the 2020 presidential election by over 40 percentage points.

The gubernatorial election in Wyoming is one of 36 happening around the country.

Republican incumbent Gov. Mark Gordon defeated Democrat Theresa Livingston in Wyoming's gubernatorial election.

Polls closed in the state at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Wyoming's gubernatorial candidates

Gordon is approaching the end of his first term in office after being elected in 2018. Prior to his time as governor, Gordon served as the state's treasurer under Republican Gov. Matt Mead.

Livingston, Gordon's Democratic challenger, is a veteran who served in the Air Force for nearly a decade. She's the only veteran gubernatorial candidate who is a woman, and the sole Air Force veteran among this year's gubernatorial candidates with military experience.

She's running on a platform focused on women's rights, healthcare, and the economy, in that order.

Wyoming's voting history

Wyoming backed former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in a 43 percentage point margin of victory in 2020, Trump's widest margin of victory in any state. Wyoming has sided with Republicans since 1952, breaking the trend only once in 1964 to vote for Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater.

What experts say

The race between Gordon and Livingston is rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Getty Images; Insider

Voters in South Dakota rejected Initiated Measure 27, which would have legalized marijuana use for adults over the age of 21.

Proponents said that the measure was about "personal freedom."

Opponents said that legalization would result in consumer addiction.

South Dakota rejected the use of recreational marijuana for adults aged 21 and older. Over half of voters said "no" on Initiated Measure 27, which, if passed, would have legalized marijuana use and possession.

2022 General Embeds

Ballot measure details

Known as the Marijuana Legalization Initiative, Measure 27 would have legalized marijuana use and possession for adults 21 years old and older. If passed, the initiative would have also limited possession to one ounce of marijuana.

Support and opposition

The measure was sponsored by South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. Supporters argued 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 led 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 was "a shorter, simpler version" of Amendment A.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos easily held onto his seat Tuesday after a write-in campaign was launched by a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

With 99% of the district's ballots counted, Vos carried the race against former primary challenger Adam Steen with 73% of the vote.

The Assembly Speaker will begin his 10th term in January, beating a full frontal assault against Vos by members of his own party, and its national leader. Trump leveled his weight in the GOP against Vos in an effort to boost Steen over the finish line with a new endorsement, calling Vos "horrendous." It didn't work.

More:2022 Wisconsin Midterm Election Results

Vos could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

At his victory party, he thanked his supporters and said it has been "a hard year."

Vos commented on the midterm races across the state and country and said "it still looks competitive."

"I think what we have learned is hard work, telling the truth and doing the right thing almost always wins," Vos told his supporters.

Robin Vos declaring victory over Trump-endorsed Adam Steen and Democrat Joel Jacobsen. pic.twitter.com/dh0NSeSSbP  Adam Rogan (@could_be_rogan) November 9, 2022

Adam Steen, Robin Vos' primary opponent for the 63rd Assembly District seat, speaks as former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally for Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels at the Waukesha County Fairgrounds in Waukesha on Friday, Aug. 5, 2022.

The attack on Vos symbolizes the intense discontent within the base of the Wisconsin GOP following the 2020 election, a loss for Trump that the former president and his supporters argue could have been overturned by Vos.

More:About 25 people attend a 'Toss Vos' event to see Robin Vos flung in effigy night before the primary

Vos has rejected that idea, repeatedly refusing to take the illegal and impossible act of decertifying the election result, but Trump has pressed the case for more than a year  calling Vos out in statements blasted to millions of supporters and endorsing Steen in the final weeks of the primary race.

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Criticizing Vos became part of base Republicans' identity over the course of the last year, pushing allies of Vos who were running for statewide office to distance themselves. Two candidates for governor launched their campaigns as referendums on Vos. Dozens of county GOP officials passed resolutions calling for Vos' resignation.

The distrust blossomed in January when Vos punished state Rep. Timothy Ramthun over false claims about the 2020 election  a move that helped catapult the Fond du Lac County lawmaker to an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for governor.

The discipline of Ramthun enraged elements of the party faithful who already believed the powerful Republican in the state Capitol was refusing to do everything he can to litigate the last presidential election and saw his actions thus far as inadequate at best and purposefully stifling at worst.

Even former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, whom Vos hired in 2021 to review the 2020 election following heavy criticism from Trump, publicly turned on Vos in recent weeks, endorsing and campaigning for Vos' opponent. In a robocall ad recorded for Steen, Gableman characterized Vos as a roadblock to his taxpayer-funded review that has turned up no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

But Vos, known for his attention to constituents, ultimately prevailed.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Robin Vos easily wins reelection over Trump-backed write-in candidate
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection to a second term Tuesday in a victory over Democrat Charlie Crist, bolstering his rise as a prominent GOP star with potential White House ambitions.

DeSantis win continues a rightward shift for what was once the nations largest swing state, as voters embraced a governor who reveled in culture war politics and framed his candidacy as a battle against the woke agenda of liberals.

In the lead-up to the election, DeSantis harnessed the power of incumbency to assemble media, often on short notice and far outside major markets, for news conferences where he would spend significant time honing critiques of Democratic President Joe Biden, liberal policies and the mainstream media, delivered before cheering crowds.

He gained significant national attention during the start of the coronavirus pandemic through his outspoken opposition to continued lockdowns and to mask and vaccine mandates, and eventually displayed an eagerness to wade into nearly any cultural divide, including immigration, gender, education and more.

His ceaseless combative posture, and ability to leverage the power of state government to his will, endeared DeSantis to major GOP donors and built him into a natural heir to former President Donald Trump in the minds of some Republican voters.

Election 2022: Live results from Northeast Florida, Southeast Georgia races

Weeks before the election, DeSantis directed the state to fly groups of migrants from Texas to the upscale liberal enclave of Marthas Vineyard, as a protest over the federal governments immigration policies at the southern border. DeSantis said the move was a way to make immigration a front-burner issue before the midterms, with his critics questioning the legality of the flights as they accused officials of lying to the passengers.

Election Day came as Florida continued to recover from the Category 4 Hurricane Ian, which slammed into the state in late September and killed more than 100 people and caused widespread damage.

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Politically, the storm provided DeSantis a platform to project a unifying tone in the final stretch of the campaign, displaying his ability to set aside the culture warrior role and shift into a competent crisis manager. The response brought DeSantis and Biden together in southwest Florida as the pair surveyed damage, met with locals and briefed reporters, with DeSantis at one point saying we appreciate the team effort.

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The victory is certain to further speculation of a potential DeSantis presidential run. DeSantis has so far dodged questions on his possible Washington aspirations, skirting the subject repeatedly during his only gubernatorial debate with Crist in late October. Trump, who credits himself for propelling DeSantis to a first term in the governors office, has grown frustrated with DeSantis refusal to rule out a 2024 run, according to people familiar with Trumps thinking.

The governor was able to raise substantially more money than Crist, a 66-year-old Democrat who had previously served as a Republican governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011. Crist aimed his candidacy at moderate voters in Florida, criticizing DeSantis as a bully, as he sought to reverse a losing streak for Democrats in the state. Crist resigned a congressional seat to run for governor this year.

Democrats, the minority party in the state government, faced considerable challenges in a state recently considered to be a perennial political battleground but that has drifted rightward. Trump won the state twice and Republicans have been aggressive in organizing at the local level and made a sustained push on voter registration.

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Last year, in a significant milestone, the GOP notched more registered voters in the state than Democrats for the first time in modern history, and then continued to widen the gap into November.

Some Democrats have admitted previous organizing and registration efforts in Florida had mostly centered around presidential races, and there were concerns that big donors and the national wing of the party might cede the state after recent losses and DeSantis growing popularity.

The Democratic Governors Association has bristled at that characterization and said it considers Florida a competitive battleground. The organization has spent $685,000 to help elect Crist, a spokesperson said.

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Russian troops hit a logistics enterprise in Dnipro with kamikaze drones

According to him, a logistics company was hit in Dnipro by the Iranian flying bombs. As a result of the attack, four people were injured. All of them were hospitalized, with three being in a serious condition.

Read also: Two civilians dead, four injured in overnight Russian missile attack on city of Dnipro

After the strike by the Iranian suicide drones, a fire broke out on the territory of the enterprise, which spread to an area of over 3,000 square meters. The fire was subsequently extinguished, but the firm's warehouses were destroyed.

At the same time, the Ukrainian military managed to shoot down five enemy UAVs.

The Russian army also shelled Nikopol district with Grad multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery, with two territorial communities coming under fire: Myrove and Marhanets.

Read also: Russians launch almost 70 missiles, 30 suicide drones across Ukraine in one week

There were no casualties in that attack.

However, in the Marhanets community private houses and a private enterprise were damaged, while in Myrove houses and a power line were damaged.

Russian troops targeted Dnipro on several occasions in October.

On Oct. 25, the Russian military fired missiles at Dnipro. Debris from a missile started a fire at a local gas station, and the attack killed two people, including a pregnant woman.

Read also: 300 Shahed-136 drones destroyed by Armed Forces, including 6 in last night

On Oct. 31, Russian missile strikes were recorded in both Dnipro and Pavlohrad.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian forces deployed kamikaze drones in an attack on the city of Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), causing a large fire. Four civilians have been injured in the attack.

Source: Valentyn Reznichenko, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Reznichenko: "Last night, occupation forces carried out a large-scale attack using kamikaze drones.

Our anti-aircraft defence systems destroyed five loitering munitions.

However, others hit their targets. A logistics business was hit in the city of Dnipro. Four of its employees sustained injuries. All of them have been hospitalised, three in severe condition.

The enemy strike caused a large fire. Over 300 square metres were on fire. Fire fighters have extinguished the flames. The businesss warehouses have been destroyed."

Details: Reznichenko additionally reported that Russian forces deployed Grad multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery to attack the Nikopol district, damaging private and municipal property in two hromadas, Myrove and Marhanets [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a city, town or village and its adjacent territories - ed.].

"People were spared," Reznichenko noted.

However, private houses and the premises of a private business were damaged in Marhanets hromada and several houses and a power line in Myrove hromada.

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By Mark Trevelyan

LONDON (Reuters) -Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro.

The announcement marked one of Russia's most significant retreats and a potential turning point in the war, now nearing the end of its ninth month.

In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, reported to Shoigu that it was no longer possible to keep Kherson city supplied.

"Having comprehensively assessed the current situation, it is proposed to take up defence along the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro River," said Surovikin, standing at a lectern and indicating troop positions on a map whose details were greyed-out for the TV audience.

"I understand that this is a very difficult decision, but at the same time we will preserve the most important thing - the lives of our servicemen and, in general, the combat effectiveness of the group of troops, which it is futile to keep on the right bank in a limited area."

The news followed weeks of Ukrainian advances towards the city and a race by Russia to relocate more than 100,000 of its residents by ferrying them to the opposite side of the river.

Kherson is the main city of the region of the same name - one of four Ukrainian regions which President Vladimir Putin proclaimed in September he was incorporating into Russia "forever", and which the Kremlin said had now been placed under Moscow's nuclear umbrella.

Shoigu told Surovikin: "I agree with your conclusions and proposals. For us,the life and health of Russian servicemen is always a priority. We must also take into account the threats to the civilian population.

"Proceed with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnipro River."

The announcement had been anticipated by Russia's influential war bloggers, who described it as a bitter blow.

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"Apparently we will leave the city, no matter how painful it is to write about it now," said the War Gonzo blog, which has more than 1.3 million subscribers on Telegram.

"In simple terms, Kherson can't be held with bare hands," it said. "Yes, this is a black page in the history of the Russian army. Of the Russian state. A tragic page."

Compounding the sense of Russian disarray in Kherson, Moscow's number two official there, Kirill Stremousov, was killed in a car crash on Wednesday.

Stremousov was one of the most prominent faces of Russia's occupation. Ukraine viewed him as a collaborator and a traitor.

In a video statement only hours before his death, Stremousov denounced what he called Ukrainian "Nazis" and said the Russian military was in "full control" of the situation in the south.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Jon Boyle and Jonathan Oatis)
By Tom Balmforth, Max Hunder and Jonathan Landay

KYIV/FRONTLINE NORTH OF KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukrainian troops have reclaimed dozens of landmine-littered settlements abandoned by Russian forces in southern Ukraine, officials said, the day after Moscow announced its withdrawal from the strategic capital city of Kherson province.

There were indications on Thursday night that Ukrainian forces were getting closer to the city of Kherson, a port at the mouth of the Dnipro River, said a Ukrainian military analyst and a media commentator.

It would take a minimum of one week for Russia to pull out of Kherson city, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Russia still had 40,000 troops in the region and intelligence showed its forces remained in and around the city, Reznikov said.

Russia announced on Wednesday it would withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro that includes Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow has captured since invading Ukraine in February.

A withdrawal would be the third time the smaller Ukrainian military has pushed back the Russians, who were thwarted in the north in March from taking the capital Kyiv. Then in September, Ukrainian troops ousted Russian occupying forces from the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

Kherson province is one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in late September and that most countries condemned as illegal.

U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed news of the Russian withdrawal on Wednesday, but on Thursday played down any suggestion of a near-term resolution to the war.

"I dont think the conflict will be resolved... until Putin gets out of Ukraine," Biden told reporters at the White House.

The city of Kherson was within range of Ukrainian artillery and the closest Ukrainian reconnaissance patrols were less than 18 km (11 miles) from the city, Ukrainian military analyst Yuri Butusov said on the Telegram messaging app.

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"Ukrainian forces are trying to break into Kherson on the shoulders of the retreating enemy," he said. "In the area of the river crossings, where Russian troops are concentrated, firefights are breaking out."

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

Ukraine general staff said offensive actions in the direction of Kherson continued, but withheld details.

LANDMINES

Ukrainian forces have liberated 41 settlements as they advanced through the south, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Thursday evening video address.

Sappers and pyrotechnicians were going into areas retaken from Russian forces to rid them of thousands of unexploded landmines and ordnance they left behind, he said.

About 170,000 square kilometres (66,000 square miles) remained to be de-mined, Zelenskiy said, including in places where there was still fighting and "where the enemy will add landmines before its withdrawal, as is the case now with Kherson."

The region's Ukrainian-appointed governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said on Telegram that Russian troops had "taken away public equipment, damaged power lines and wanted to leave a trap behind them".

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said Russia wanted to turn Kherson into a "city of death", mining everything from apartments to sewers and planning to shell the city from the other side of the river.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, though the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and pulverised Ukrainian towns and cities.

"There are absolutely no signs that a trap is being laid in Kherson," Volodymyr Molchanov, a commentator from Kherson, was quoted as saying on the Ukrainian national Espreso TV website. "Russian troops started moving out yesterday (Wednesday) ... in trying to cross the Dnipro, the enemy is sustaining huge casualties."

TURNING POINT

A pullout in Kherson would free up forces from both sides to fight elsewhere, military analysts said, and there was no sign Moscow was finished with what it calls "a special military operation" against its pro-Western neighbour.

"It's definitely a turning point, but it doesn't mean that Russia has lost or that Ukraine has won," said Ben Barry, a senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Russia was still capable of a new offensive or counterattacks, he said. "It is far too soon to write them off."

A small group of Ukrainian soldiers was shown on Ukraine's state TV being greeted by joyous residents in the centre of the village of Snihurivka, around 55 km (35 miles) north of Kherson city, with a Ukrainian flag fluttering above the square behind them. Reuters verified the location of the video.

A few kilometres away, in a devastated frontline village reached by Reuters in an area already held by Ukrainian forces, the guns had fallen silent for what residents said was the first quiet night since the war began.

"We hope the silence means the Russians are leaving," said Nadiia Nizarenko, 85. The Russians could be preparing a trap, said Nizarenko's daughter, Svitlana Lischeniuk, 63.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Cynthia Osterman & Simon Cameron-Moore)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russia's military said Wednesday it will withdraw from the only Ukrainian regional capital it captured, but Kyiv was skeptical and an analyst warned this could be a ruse to lure the country's forces into a deadly trap. A forced pullout from the city of Kherson would mark one of Russias worst setbacks in the 8-month-old war.

Ukrainian authorities cautioned against considering the announced plan to retreat from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and nearby areas as a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.

If confirmed, the withdrawal from Kherson  in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed in September  would pile on another setback to Russia's early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic and hasty retreat from the administrative region around Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, which itself never fell to the Russians. Russian forces captured Kherson early in the invasion, which began Feb. 24.

Kyiv's forces have zeroed in on the city, whose prewar population was 280,000, and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops out of wide swaths of territory.

Recapturing Kherson could allow Ukraine to win back lost territory in the Zaporizhzhia region and other southern areas, including Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to raise domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.

Speaking in a stern tone and with a steely face on Russian TV, Moscow's top military commander in Ukraine pointed to a blurred map as he reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be futile.

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Gen. Sergei Surovikin said that 115,000 people had been relocated because their lives are constantly in danger and proposed a military retreat in the near future to the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from where Kherson lies.

Shoigu agreed with Surovikins assessment and ordered him to start with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.

But Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press: So far, we do not see any signs that Russia is completely leaving the city, which means that these statements may be disinformation.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, Khersons Ukrainian-appointed governor, called on residents not to give in to euphoria just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces had blown up five bridges to slow Kyivs forces.

Military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP Russias announced retreat could very well be an ambush and a Russian trap to force the Ukrainians to go on the offensive, force them to penetrate the Russian defenses, and in response to strike with a powerful blow from the flanks.

After a day of his aides' observations about the announced retreat and a meeting he held with his senior military staff in Kyiv, Zelenskyy didn't directly comment, saying in his nightly video address, Our emotions must be restrained  always during war. I will definitely not feed the enemy all the details of our operations. ,.. When we have our result, everyone will see it.

In addition to the largely successful counteroffensive, Ukrainian resistance fighters behind the front line have worked inside Kherson, with sabotage and assassinations of Moscow-appointed officials.

With no indication of foul play but against that backdrop, reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. The death of Kirill Stremousov  a prominent regional official who posted public updates about the war almost daily  was confirmed by his boss, Vladimir Saldo.

The Russian Defense Ministry said months ago that Saldo himself had been poisoned and hospitalized.

Speaking at a White House news conference, U.S. President Joe Biden said American officials had been expecting the Russian announcement. Its evidence of the fact that they have some real problems  the Russian military, he said.

Asked if a pullout might signal to Kyiv that it now had leverage to begin peace talks with Moscow, Biden said it would at a minimum lead to time for everyone to recalibrate their positions over the winter period.

The Russian military appeared to have been preparing for an orderly pullout from Kherson  or an ambush  for months, contrasting with the haphazard retreat from the Kharkiv region when the invading force left behind a large amount of weapons and ammunition.

In October, Surovikin appeared to set the stage for a withdrawal from Kherson, acknowledging the situation was quite difficult." Evacuations of civilians followed, as did symbolic moves, such as relocation of the remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.

The attacks disrupted supply links to Kherson and made Russian forces on the Dnieper's west bank vulnerable to encirclement. The shortages were exacerbated after an Oct. 8 truck bomb blew up part of the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russias mainland to Crimea, which has served as a major supply hub for Russian forces.

Russia wanted to hold onto Kherson and other positions west of the Dnieper so it could press an offensive to other areas and sever Ukraines access to the Black Sea. That would damage Ukraines economy and enable Moscow to build a land corridor to the separatist Transnistria region of Moldova, home to a major Russian military base.

The loss of Kherson could have painful consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin: more criticism of Russias military command from hawks, a decline in troop morale, and stronger opposition to his troop mobilization. Abroad, China and India could see the loss as a sign of the Kremlins weakness just when it needs their support to soften the blow of crippling Western sanctions.

Other Kremlin setbacks have included a chaotic and mistake-ridden troop mobilization, poor training and a shortage of weapons, clothing and other supplies for troops, increase in international sanctions, and intensified Western advanced weapons supplies to Kyiv.

Fresh signs of Ukraine's advance toward Kherson emerged Wednesday. Zhdanov, the analyst, said Ukrainians captured the city of Snihurivka, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kherson, opening a direct road to a Dnieper River crossing and Kherson's suburbs. The Ukrainian Pravda news outlet cited Ukrainian armed forces intelligence as claiming that two other settlements in the Kherson region, Pravdyne and Kalynivske, had been captured,

None of the reports could be independently confirmed.

Nationwide, at least nine civilians were killed and 24 wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian president's office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the southeast.

The president's office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraines energy system continued. Two cities not far from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant  Europes largest  were shelled overnight.

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Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine  Russias military announced Wednesday that its withdrawing from the only Ukrainian regional capital its captured, in what would be one of the most significant and humiliating setbacks for Moscows forces in the 8-month-old war.

Ukrainian authorities, however, cautioned against considering the retreat from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and nearby areas a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.

Hardened Ukrainian brigade sees Russian vulnerability in Kherson City

The withdrawal from Kherson  in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed earlier this year  would pile on another setback after Russias early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic and hasty retreat from the administrative region around Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, which itself never fell to the Russians. Russian forces captured Kherson, with a prewar population of 280,000, early in the invasion, which began Feb. 24.

Kyivs forces have zeroed in on the city and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops out of wide swaths of territory.

Recapturing Kherson could allow Ukraine to win back lost territory in the Zaporizhzhia region and other southern areas, leading to an eventual push back into Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to raise domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.

Speaking in a stern tone and with a steely face on Russian TV, Moscows top military commander in Ukraine pointed to a map as he reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be futile.

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A destroyed Russian tank is seen near the recently recaptured village of Yampil, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. (Andriy Andriyenko/AP)

Gen. Sergei Surovikin said that 115,000 people had been relocated because their lives are constantly in danger, and proposed a military retreat to the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from where Kherson lies.

Shoigu agreed with Surovikins assessment and ordered him to start with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.

But Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: Actions speak louder than words. We see no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, Khersons Ukrainian-appointed governor, called on residents not to give in to euphoria just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces had blown up five bridges to slow the advance of Kyivs forces.

As the reports of a Russian withdrawal emerged, Zelenskyy met with his senior military staff in Kyiv to discuss the situation, including attempts to recapture territory, his website reported without giving details.

In addition to the largely successful counteroffensive, Ukrainian resistance fighters behind the front line have worked inside Kherson, with acts of sabotage and assassinations of Moscow-appointed officials.

Against that backdrop, reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. There was no indication of foul play.

Kirill Stremousov  a prominent regional official who posted public updates about the war almost daily died in the crash, according to Russian state news agencies and his boss, Vladimir Saldo.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported months ago that Saldo himself had been poisoned and hospitalized.

Long-term assistance command to oversee training mission with Ukraine

The Russian military appeared to have been preparing for an orderly pullout from Kherson for months, contrasting with the haphazard retreat from the Kharkiv region when the invading force left behind a large amount of weapons and ammunition. In October, Surovikin appeared to set the stage for a possible withdrawal from Kherson, acknowledging the situation was quite difficult for Moscow. Evacuations of civilians followed, as did symbolic moves.

The remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century, were reportedly moved from the citys St. Catherines Church.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.

That disrupted supply links to Kherson and made Russian forces on the Dniepers west bank vulnerable to encirclement. The shortages were exacerbated after an Oct. 8 truck bomb blew up part of the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russias mainland to Crimea, which has served as a major supply hub for Russian forces in the south.

Russia wanted to hold onto Kherson and other positions west of the Dnieper so it could press an offensive to other areas and sever Ukraines access to the Black Sea. That would damage Ukraines economy and enable Moscow to build a land corridor to the separatist Transnistria region of Moldova, home to a major Russian military base.

The loss of Kherson could see painful consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin: more criticism of Russias military command from the countrys hawks, a further decline in troop morale and stronger opposition to his troop mobilization. Abroad, China and India could see the loss as a sign of the Kremlins weakness when it needs their support in the face of crippling Western sanctions.

Other Kremlin setbacks have included a chaotic and mistake-ridden troop mobilization, a weapons shortage, inadequate clothing and other supplies for troops, poor troop training and morale, a growing international sanctions campaign against Russia, and increased Western advanced weapons supplies to Putins enemy.

The Russian retreat announcement came as villages and towns in Ukraine saw more heavy fighting and shelling Wednesday.

At least nine civilians were killed and 24 wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian presidents office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the southeast.

Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight over Snihurivka, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kherson.

The presidents office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraines energy system continued. Two cities not far from Europes largest nuclear power plant were shelled overnight, it said. More than 20 residential buildings, an industrial plant, a gas pipeline and a power line were reportedly damaged in Nikopol across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Farther west, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian governor reported massive overnight strikes with exploding Iranian-made drones that wounded four energy company workers in the city of Dnipro.
The Kremlin has said that the US midterm elections will not improve the bad relations between Moscow and Washington, as it dismissed allegations Russia was meddling in the US vote, reports say.

These elections are important, but its not necessary to exaggerate their importance in the short and medium-term for our relations, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters.

These elections cannot change anything essential. Relations still are, and will remain, bad, he added.

He said that Moscow had grown so accustomed to hearing people say that Russia interferes in US elections it was not paying any attention to new rounds of allegations.

It comes after a key Vladimir Putin ally admitted the day before the election that Russia was interfering in US votes and said that they will continue to interfere.

On Monday, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin revealed that he had interfered in American elections  the first admission from someone blamed by the US for attempting to influence US politics.

We have interfered (in US elections), we are interfering, and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do, Mr Prigozhin said, according to comments posted by the press department of his catering company Concord.

The statement was released on VKontakte, Russias version of Facebook, according to Reuters.

Mr Peskov also told reporters it was too early to talk about a dialogue with the US on extending the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty after reports claimed that Moscow and Washington were set to hold talks on the renewal of nuclear arms control.

Former President Donald Trump greats guests at Mar-a-lago on the day of the 2022 midterm elections (AP)

A report by Bloomberg suggested that the US and Russia were preparing to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the resumption of inspections of nuclear weapons facilities under the New START treaty.

The US continues to reiterate its support for Ukraine, which the Biden administration said it would support for as long as it takes.

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It comes as Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine will not give up even a centimetre of land in Donetsk where heavy battle is underway between the countrys troops and Russia.

The situation is difficult on the entire front. In some areas, brutal positional battles continue, as before, and it is especially difficult - also as before - in the Donetsk region. The activity of the occupiers there remains at an extremely high level - dozens of attacks every day, he said in his nightly address.

Russian troops are suffering extremely large-scale losses, but their order has not changed - to reach the administrative border of the Donetsk region, he said.

We do not give up a single centimetre of our land there. And I thank all our heroes who are holding positions in Donbas, Mr Zelensky said.
Ukraine has air defense systems capable of protecting against intensive bombardment

According to Ihnat, Ukraine has sufficient anti-air capability to counter aircraft dropping free-falling bombs.

Read also: Military expert explains capabilities of Ukraines new Italian-made Aspide air defense systems

First of all, Ukraine has air defenses that keep out planes that drop free-falling bombs, said Ihnat.

Were receving additional Western equipment, gradually replacing Soviet-era air defense with modern systems. They (Russian air force) will find no quarter in Ukrainian skies.

Read also: Ukraine requested C-RAM air defense systems from US, ABC News reports

He noted that the Russian air force conducted its Syrian bombing campaigns with 200500-kilogram bombs  just as they did in Ukraines Izyum and Mariupol, which lacked adequate anti-air coverage.

Read also: Russia concentrating forces for repeat mass attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, Zelenskyy warns

(Russian) planes were flying at high altitudes, beyond the reach of our MANPADS, Ihnat explains.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian troops retreat from Kherson

I understand this is a very difficult decision, Surovikin told Shoigu.

Read also: Russians intimidating residents of Kherson Oblast with threats to blow up dam

At the same time, well save the lives of our servicemen and retain the combat effectiveness of our troops. It makes no sense to keep (them) on the right bank in a limited area.

In a stilted and propaganda-laden report, Surovikin said that Kherson and nearby settlements cannot fully provide for themselves, and warned that Ukraine might resort to the use of prohibited methods of warfare.

Read also: Kherson likely to be liberated by end of November, says Ukraine's spy chief

He also said that the Russian army had deported more than 115,000 people from the right bank of Kherson Oblast.

At the same time, as evidenced by aerial reconnaissance images released on Nov. 9, the Russian invaders are fleeing Kherson Oblast, leaving homemade mannequins at abandoned positions to gain some time.

According to the Ukrainian media outlet GRUNT, such positions could be seen on the first defense line of Russian troops who are in a hurry to flee to the left bank of the Dnipro River.

Kherson regional council member Sergey Khlan said on Nov. 9 that the Russian military had blown up all the bridges on the right bank of Kherson Oblast. In addition, the Russian flag has reportedly disappeared from the local administrations building in the still-occupied city of Kherson.

Read also: War will soon enter its decisive period, Ukrainian intelligence chief says

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are reportedly beginning the liberation of the town of Snihurivka in Mykolayiv Oblast, which, if successful, will pave the way to the liberation of the city of Kherson. In turn, Mykolayiv Regional Governor Vitaliy Kim called for an information blackout as the operation to liberate Kherson Oblast continues.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The deaths of another three civilians have been confirmed on 8 November, killed as a result of Russian attacks on villages in Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Kyrylenko: "The deaths of another three civilians in Donetsk Oblast have been confirmed on 8 November: in the village of Kostiantynivka, in Chasiv Yar and in Avdiivka. Law enforcement officers found the bodies of another three civilians killed by the Russians during the occupation of Yampil."

Details: Kyrylenko said that another 11 civilians in Donetsk Oblast sustained injuries. He reiterated that it remains impossible to determine the number of casualties and fatalities in Mariupol and Volnovakha.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, has arrived in Iran on an official visit.

Source: Interfax-Russia, citing the press service of the Security Council of the Russian Federation

Details: The Russian Security Council has said that Patrushev "will hold scheduled Russian-Iranian consultations on issues of security with experts of the security councils and representatives of a number of ministries and departments of the two countries."

Background:

The Institute for the Study of War believes that Iran likely announced Patrushevs arrival to highlight the deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran for an international audience.

The ISW has previously said that Iran is likely already exploiting Russian reliance on Iranian-made combat drones to request Russian assistance with its nuclear program.

Sky News reported that a security source has claimed that Russia flew 140m in cash and a selection of captured UK and US weapons to Iran in return for dozens of drones for its war in Ukraine.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
It is not known for certain what exactly Nikolai Patrushev's trip to Iran is connected with

With the official invitation of Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening, November 8, the agency tweeted.

Later, this information was confirmed by the Kremlin-controlled media outlets, however, the topic of the discussion is not yet known.

Read also: In exchange for drones, Russia sends Iran $140 million in cash and captured Western weapons, Sky News reports

At the same time, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Iranian state-run outlet Nour News Agency announced Patrushevs arrival in an English-language tweet, stating Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Shamkhani invited Patrushev and noted that Patrushev will also meet with other high-ranking Iranian political and economic officials to discuss Russo-Iranian cooperation. Nour News Agency is affiliated with the SNSC, it said.

According to ISW analysts, the SNSC likely announced Patrushevs arrival in Iran to highlight the deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran to an international audience (rather than domestically), as well as to implicitly highlight that a high-ranking Russian official turned to Iran for help in Ukraine.

Russian troops are using Iranian suicide drones to attack Ukraines civilian infrastructure.

About 40% of the countrys power plants were damaged due to such attacks, resulting in several regions being forced to introduce blackout schedules.

Read also: 300 Shahed-136 drones destroyed by Armed Forces, including 6 in last night

Despite overwhelming evidence, Moscow continues to deny using Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.

At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted for the first time on Nov. 5 that Tehran had handed over drones to Russia, but claimed that this happened before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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However, evidence from shot-down Iranian drones, which contain components made in February of this year, indicates that Iran probably supplied weapons to Russia after the start of its full-scale invasion and war against Ukraine.

The United States has also refuted Irans claims, and emphasized that Iran transferred drones to Russia in the summer of 2022, and also sent its military specialists to occupied Ukrainian territories to train Russian troops in operating the Iranian-made weapons.

Read also: Iran denies sending military instructors to occupied Crimea

The Washington Post reported on Oct. 16 that Iran has agreed to supply Russia with two types of surface-to-surface missiles  the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar. These short-range ballistic missiles can strike targets up to 300 kilometres and 700 kilometers away respectively, the newspaper reported.

U.S. news channel CNN reported on Nov. 1 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 kamikaze drones.

In turn, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Nov. 8 the United States will vigorously enforce all sanctions on both Russian and Iranian arms trade to make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian troops blow all bridges on right bank of Kherson Oblast

The invaders blew up not only the Daryivka and Tiahynka bridges, they blew up the bridge on the way out of Snihurivka towards Kherson across the canal, they blew up the bridge in Novokairy, they blew up the bridge in Mylove, he said.

Read also: Kherson likely to be liberated by end of November, says Ukraine's spy chief

That is, the invaders are blowing up absolutely all the bridges on the right bank of Kherson Oblast.

This is how the Russians will attempt to buy time for their retreat, Khlan added.

The Russian invaders have already blown up eight bridges in Kherson Oblast, according to reports on social networks as of Nov. 9.

Read also: War will soon enter its decisive period, Ukrainian intelligence chief says

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are reportedly beginning the liberation of the town of Snihurivka in Mykolayiv Oblast, which, if successful, will pave the way to the liberation of the city of Kherson.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
This photograph taken on September 30, 2022 shows abandoned Russian tank in the recently retaken area near Kharkiv. Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

Russia has likely lost half its main battle tanks in Ukraine, a senior US defense official said.

Putin has also lost tens of thousands of troops, the Pentagon's Colin Kahl told reporters this week.

Because of this, "Russia will emerge from this war weaker than it went in," he said.

Russia has likely lost half of its main battle tanks fighting in Ukraine, a senior US defense official said Tuesday, adding that the Russian military will end up being weaker than it was before the war began.

Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin has "suffered a massive strategic failure" during his ongoing and unprovoked war in Ukraine.

Highlighting Putin's military setbacks, Kahl said that Russian forces have "probably lost half of their main battle tanks" and tens of thousands of troops in Ukraine, according to a Department of Defense report published Wednesday.

Kahl did not specify exactly how many tanks the Pentagon estimates Russia has lost, but according to open-source intelligence analysis by Oryx, at least 1,450 Russian tanks have been destroyed, captured, abandoned, or damaged over the course of the war, which would be roughly half the pre-invasion tank force. Notably, Russian troops fleeing Ukrainian battlefield advances have left behind modern T-90 tanks that Moscow considers to be among the most advanced in its arsenal.

Russia has, in turn, been forced to pull old and obsolete tanks from storage  like the Soviet-era T-62 main battle tank. This type of tank is decades old, can even be seen in some museums, and has long since been replaced by newer, more capable systems.

In addition to armor losses, Russian forces have also lost mountains of other high-value and heavy weaponry, much of which. like Russian tanks, has been repurposed by Ukraine even as it continues to enjoy considerable security assistance and military aid from Western countries.

It's also unclear exactly how many casualties Russia has sustained in Ukraine, but losses are believed to be substantial.

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No updated casualty figures have been provided since the Pentagon reported in August that as many as 80,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in Ukraine. That figure was presented before Ukrainian forces launched two counteroffensives along the war's northeastern and southern fronts, moves which have seen Russian lines shatter and Kyiv liberate thousands of square miles of territory over the last two months.

Among the Russian war dead have been Russian conscripts and reservists who were recently rushed to the battlefield to reinforce crumbling Russian lines and stem Russian losses.

"Russia will emerge from this war weaker than it went in," Kahl said in reflection on Putin's overall war efforts in Ukraine.

In the latest battlefield humiliation, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his forces to retreat in the southern city of Kherson, the first major city and only regional capital that Moscow managed to capture after it invaded in late February. As Ukrainian forces continued to advance toward the city, a full Russian withdrawal would mark a significant victory for Kyiv.

"I don't know what winning looks like," Kahl said during his remarks this week. "But I do know that Russia will not have achieved the objectives that Vladimir Putin set out. And that's pretty much a guarantee."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Meta axed 13% of its workforce on Wednesday. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Meta announced it is laying off 11,000 staff members, 13% of its workforce, on Wednesday.

Dozens of employees have taken to social media to look for new jobs.

Some said they're "hurt" after losing their "dream job." Others expressed concern for their work visas.

Former Meta employees are swarming to social media to share their accounts of finding out they were laid off on Wednesday after Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was axing over 11,000 employees.



Zuckerberg issued a statement Wednesday saying that 13% of its workforce would be fired. The Meta CEO said he "got this wrong" and apologized to staff for over-investing in the company, calling the layoffs a "last resort." The employees were notified of the layoffs over email on Wednesday morning.

Much of Meta's recruiting team was impacted by the layoffs, as Zuckerberg said the company plans to freeze hiring.

One former Meta recruiter, Brianna Sgro, took to LinkedIn to announce she was fired and wrote: "I'm sad, hurt, uncertain, disappointed, and now jobless."

"When I joined a year ago I had full faith and excitement to work at a company I dreamed of working at my whole life. I used to think about on my commute to work 'Wow, what if I ever got the chance to work at Facebook or Google!' It felt like a dream that was unreachable," Sgro said on LinkedIn. "Although all of these things come to an end today, I am so thankful to experience them."

Many employees expressed their gratitude for being able to work at a company like Meta even as they faced broad layoffs. For some young employees it was the first broad layoff they had seen in their career.

"Writing this is hard," former Meta tech recruiter Cai Mailhes wrote on LinkedIn. "Today, I was laid off from Meta. I could have never imagined my time at the workplace I felt safe at and finally at home come to an end like this. After a promotion and making moves to grow my career internally, I never thought of leaving. My coworkers were absolutely the brightest and best talent out there."

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Despite the optimism from many laid-off staff, not all responses from ex-employees were positive. A couple who worked at Meta as technical recruiters posted on LinkedIn to say they had been sacked, despite only returning from parental leave a few months ago.

Another former employee tweeted they have only a "short period of time" to find another job as a result of their immigration status, while a former employee based in Seattle said the office there was "unusually packed" and that it was a "really somber moment."



Meta has cut staff from the US, UK, Ireland and Ghana, the posts show. The group of people laid off included some product designers, recruiters, engineers, as well as some who worked in marketing, Meta's Reality Labs and Quest division.



Below is a selection of LinkedIn posts and tweets from employees who were laid off from Meta:













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Carly Morris has been trying to take her daughter back to the US for three years

An American woman who says she and her eight-year-old daughter are trapped in Saudi Arabia has been released from jail, two days after she was arrested on the charge of "destabilising public order".

Carly Morris told the BBC last month that her Saudi ex-husband had persuaded her to visit the country with Tala in 2019, so that his parents could meet their granddaughter. The two had married in the United States a few years earlier when he was studying there, but later divorced.

Ms Morris, a Muslim convert, claimed that soon after she arrived, her ex-husband obtained Saudi citizenship for Tala without consulting her.

This meant that under Saudi Arabia's male guardianship laws, the child could not leave the country without his permission. Although her daughter has American citizenship, dual nationality is not recognised in Saudi Arabia.

For the last three years, Ms Morris been engaged in a custody battle with her ex-husband. Throughout this time, she has lived with Tala in a Saudi hotel, where she says she has been dependent on him for food and financial support.

She said she rarely leaves the hotel and few people have seen her face since she began staying there several years ago.

Ms Morris claimed that at one point, her former partner abducted their daughter after learning that she had been appealing for international help to bring Tala back to the United States - a charge he denied when the matter came before a Saudi court.

The judge ruled that Tala should be returned to her mother, but told Ms Morris that she must not leave the Saudi city she lives in, never mind take her daughter back to the US.

The BBC approached Carly's ex-husband for comment about the case last month, but he did not respond.

Ms Morris's mother in California has repeatedly voiced her concerns over her daughter and granddaughter's plight, and what she believes is the lack of help from US embassy staff.

Denise White, who said she spoke to Ms Morris on Wednesday, was shocked to hear of her daughter's recent arrest following her public calls for help in media reports and on Twitter.

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Ms Morris told her that she was summoned on Monday to a police station in Buraydah, a city about 320km (200 miles) north-west of Riyadh, on the grounds that there was a problem with her ex-husband's identity card.

When she protested that this was nothing to do with her, police said she needed to attend a meeting there because her daughter was listed on the card.

About an hour after she arrived at the station, her ex-husband walked in and talked with police officers. A short while later, Ms Morris was told that she was under arrest.

Mrs White said her frightened daughter had told her that during her stay in jail, she was stripped by jail staff, handcuffed and her legs were shackled. Her daughter did not know why she had been arrested or when she would be freed.

Ms Morris told her mother that after being released in the early hours of Wednesday morning, she was reunited with Tala, who had been placed in the temporary care of her ex-husband.

Mrs White said her daughter's joy at this was tempered by what she found on returning to their self-catering hotel room. The little food they had in their fridge and freezer had been removed. Tala's clothes were also gone, leaving her without pyjamas or anything else to wear.

Ms Morris also mentioned to her mother that a mysterious security camera placed outside her door, the only one she had seen in any of the hotel's corridors, has also vanished. Somebody, she thinks, clearly did not think she and Tala would be coming back for a very long time.
Cincinnati Public Schools was on the ballot this election with Issue 3, a tax levy of $51.5 million per year for the next 10 years.

Voters in southwest Ohio rejected nine of 12 school issues and passed three school tax levies on Tuesday.

In Hamilton County, the only tax levy that passed was for Cincinnati Public Schools. Voters passed two of Warren County's three school issues Tuesday night, for Kings and Lebanon school districts, according to unofficial election results. In Clermont and Butler counties, all five school issues failed.

How are local schools protecting the air your kid breathes? Enquirer survey has answers

'We have to take action.' State, local leaders know why teachers quit. Can they fix it?

Failed bond issues at Goshen and Northwest districts complicate plans both school systems have to build new facilities. At Goshen, more space is needed to address the community's growing population. At Northwest, superintendent Darrell Yater says some of the district's buildings are old enough to have outlasted three Reds stadiums.

Hamilton County election results: Two of three levies fail, CPS levy passes

Voters rejected a 4.98-mill bond issue at Northwest Local Schools, according to unofficial election results. The district had hoped to fund a $175.8 million building project with the money if it passed, adding two new schools and renovating other school buildings.

Three of the district's buildings were built in 2018, while the other eight were built before 2000 and as far back as 1923, Yater said in a video on the district's website. The state evaluated the district's buildings and determined seven of the older buildings should be replaced as opposed to being renovated.

"The Reds have been through three stadiums and our students are still being educated in Colerain Elementary," Yater said in the video. "In order to be cost-effective and use the community's resources wisely, we need to invest in new facilities."

Voters disagreed.

Voters also went against a levy at Winton Woods and Loveland City Schools, but passed a 10-year tax levy renewal for Cincinnati Public Schools. Voters rejected a tax levy hike at Winton Woods in May 2021, too.

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Here's the breakdown with 100% of precincts reporting:

Loveland City School District levy failed 54% to 46%.

Cincinnati Public Schools levy passed 68% to 32%.

Winton Woods City School District levy failed 62% to 38%.

Northwest Local Schools bond issue failed 64% to 36%.

CPS has used five-year levies in the past, district treasurer Jennifer Wagner said during a May 9 school board meeting. Extending this levy to a 10-year cycle, as opposed to a five-year cycle, will prevent the district from having its three operating levies up for renewal in four years between 2027 and 2030.

Voters approved a tax levy renewal for Cincinnati Public Schools on Tuesday.

"That's what we're trying to get away from, is that levy fatigue on the taxpayers, the voters, as well as the district," Wagner said during the May 9 meeting. The 10-year cycle would make for three levy renewals over a seven-year period. "It's much more palatable, it's easier to plan long-term and it gives us a little bit more financial stability."

Warren County election results: Voters pass two of three school issues

Levies at Kings Local School District and Lebanon City School District passed, while a tax levy at Franklin City Schools did not. Here's the breakdown with 100% of precincts reporting:

Kings Local Schools levy passed 55% to 45%.

Lebanon City Schools levy passed 54% to 46%.

Franklin City Schools levy failed 55% to 45%.

Kings Local School District's 6.4-mill levy will raise $7.5 million annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 house an additional $224 annually.

Enquirer analysis: How did southwest Ohio schools do on state report cards?

Lebanon City Schools' 9.6-mill levy for 10 years will combine three existing levies from 2005, 2011 and 2019 into one. The levies will continue to raise $12.2 million annually and do not raise taxes.

The levy that did not pass at Franklin City Schools was a 13.39-mill levy that would have raised $7.75 million annually for five years and would not have increased taxes.

Clermont County election results: Voters reject all three school issues

None of the school issues in Clermont County were approved by voters Tuesday night.

Here's the breakdown with 100% of precincts reporting:

Blanchester Local Schools levy failed 62% to 38% in Clermont County. Most voters on this issue live in Clinton County, where the levy also failed 53% to 47%.

Felicity-Franklin Local Schools levy failed 55% to 45%.

Goshen Local Schools bond issue failed 61% to 39%.

Goshen had a bond issue on the ballot in 2019, which also failed.

The district's 7.2-mill bond issue would have raised $49.9 million to pay for a new 93,239-square-foot school for students in grades 4-6. The levy would have also paid for classroom additions totaling 19,400 square feet at the high school, and renovations to the districts other three buildings.

Goshen schools are currently 400 students over capacity, the district's website states, and the township is growing.

"Lack of space is already impacting the delivery of a quality Goshen education. Classes are held in a locker room, libraries, a modified closet, trailers, and any other available space. The district is currently in a time where making decisions on new or updated academic programs are based solely on space availability," the website states. "Delaying a bond issue would mostly likely mean higher construction costs in the future, and would not address current overcrowding problems and predicted enrollment growth."

Butler County election results: Voters reject both school tax levies

Voters in Butler County went against school tax levies Tuesday night, according to unofficial election results.

About two-thirds of voters went against the tax levy at Talawanda City School District, and nearly the same amount declined a tax levy at Ross Local School District.

Here's the breakdown with 100% of precincts reporting:

Talawanda City School District levy failed 66% to 34%.

Ross Local School District levy failed 61% to 39%.

Both of the levies would have raised taxes if they passed, by $199.50 for Talawanda Schools and by $280 for Ross Local Schools.

Enquirer contributor Sue Kiesewetter assisted with this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: School issue results 2022: Did my school's levy pass?
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters at the Capitol Wednesday morning that he is feeling good after Democrats won retiring Sen. Pat Toomeys (R) seat in Pennsylvania, giving them a better chance of keeping their Senate majority.

Schumer kept his remarks brief and stopped well short of celebrating after Senate Democrats exceeded expectations on Election night by winning in Pennsylvania despite Lt. Gov. John Fettermans (D) shaky debate performance and tens of millions of dollars in Republican spending on attack ads.

As things now stand, Democrats control 48 Senate seats and Republicans control 49.

Democrats could keep control of the majority in an evenly divided Senate, as Vice President Harris has the power to cast tiebreaking votes.

While the win in Pennsylvania makes it more likely that Schumer will serve another term as majority leader, the battle for control of the Senate is still far from decided, with ballots in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada still being counted.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D) is leading his Republican challenger Blake Masters in Arizona by nearly 90,000 votes with 68 percent of the votes counted, while Republican challenger Adam Laxalt is leading Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) in Nevada by 23,000 votes with 75 percent of the votes counted.

In Nevada, there are approximately 100,000 votes from Clark County, a Democratic stronghold, yet to be counted, giving Cortez Masto a chance of coming back in the count.

In Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) is leading Republican Herschel Walker by less than a percentage point or 35,000 votes with 95 percent of the vote counted, but the race will go to a Dec. 6 runoff if Warnock doesnt win more than 50 percent of the vote.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Guardian

Any hopes that Gregg Berhalters United States team could stick to sports on the eve of their win-or-go-home game against Iran at the World Cup were dramatically swept aside on Monday when the thorny geopolitical underpinnings of the match exploded to the fore during a tense half-hour news conference. The United States need a victory on Tuesday night at the Al Thumama Stadium to reach the knockout stage and extend their first World Cup appearance after an eight-year absence. I know that a lot of other constituents have another feeling towards it, but for us its a soccer game against a good team and its not much more than that, Berhalter said.
A former Weston police officer faces an assault charge after allegedly punching a motorist in the face while on duty earlier this year.

Brinlee Ray Acklin, 24, was charged Wednesday with one count of fourth degree misdemeanor assault after cellphone video footage allegedly captured him threatening to punch a motorist before actually doing it. The driver, who is not identified by name in public records, was wearing a U.S. Department of Justice uniform at the time, according to a probable cause statement filed in Platte County.

Acklin, who no longer works as a Weston police officer, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. An attorney was not yet listed for him in court records.

Just after 7:30 p.m. on August 5, Acklin was sent to check on the welfare of a driver who was said to have passed out behind the wheel while parked in the middle of the road facing oncoming traffic in the 1000 block of Welt Street, near Green Dirt Farm, according to the probable cause statement.

Once there, Acklin asked the driver to get into the back seat of his patrol car. Because it was hot outside, Acklin rolled down the back window of his squad car.

Acklin used his cellphone to record the encounter with the suspect, and court documents show the incident was captured by that cellphone video, which was provided to the prosecuting attorneys office by the Weston Police Department as part of the DWI investigation.

Because Weston police dont have in-car video or body cameras, Acklin said he set his cell phone up on the hood of his police car with intentions of recording the sobriety test, which the driver then refused to do.

At some point, Acklin said, the motorist became noncompliant. When Acklin tried rolling up the window, he said the motorist stuck his body out the window to the point where his torso was in the way of the window rolling up.

If you dont get in the car, Im going to hit you in the face, Acklin told the motorist, according to court records.

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Do it, the motorist said back, court records show.

Acklin then punched the motorist once in the cheek area, according to the probable cause statement.

After, Acklin is heard saying in the video, That wasnt excessive, was it? according to court records.

Detectives with the Platte County Sheriffs Office began investigating potential excessive use of force by Acklin a few weeks later, on Aug. 31.

We expect a lot from police officers, who often perform their duties in dangerous situations. Its a very serious matter when we believe a police officer has violated the duty to serve and protect the public, Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said in a news release Wednesday.

In an interview with detectives on Sept. 2, the motorist said he didnt remember much about the incident. But he did remember waking up in the detention center.

There, he said he asked an officer who punched him because my face hurts.

I believe it was a fellow officer, the officer at the detention center replied.

Acklin also spoke with detectives, noting that because the motorist was wearing a DOJ uniform, he initially decided to be nice to him.

I was like OK this guy probably wont give me any issues no matter what was going on, Acklin told the detectives, according to the probable cause statement.

Ackins also told detectives that he never felt like the driver was trying to hurt him. Instead, he said, he punched the man because he was mad.

Im a man who follows through with my word, Ackins told detectives, per court records. If I tell you Im going to do something, if youre not complying, Im going to do that thing. Was it the right choice, no. Its what happened. I screwed this up.

Ackins initial court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 6 at the Platte County Courthouse.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Actor Sean Penn, who is making a documentary about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has loaned one of his two Oscars to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told him: When you win, bring it back to Malibu.

Zelenskyys office on Wednesday released the video of the encounter during Penns most recent visit to Ukraine, his third since the Feb. 24 start of the war. The president tweeted that the Oscar was a symbol of faith in the victory of our country.

Penn, who has been involved in numerous international humanitarian and anti-war efforts over the years, told Zelenskyy that every time he leaves Ukraine I feel like a traitor.

But if I know this is here with you then I will feel better and stronger for the fights, Penn said as he pulled the statuette from a black bag and placed it on a table in front of Zelenskyy. When you win, bring it back to Malibu. Because I feel much better knowing there is a piece of me here.

Zelenskyy at first hesitated about accepting the statue, then quipped: We have to win, quick.

It wasnt clear when the encounter occurred or which Oscar Penn left behind: Penn has won two best actor Academy Awards, in 2003 for Mystic River and in 2008 for Milk.

His publicist didnt immediately respond to an email seeking details Wednesday.

Penn was one of the first people who visited Ukraine after Russian troops moved into the country and he has been working on a documentary about the invasion.

During their meeting, Zelenskyy presented Penn with an award, the Ukrainian Order of Merit, which is given to citizens for outstanding achievements in economics, science, culture, or military or political activity. Established by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in 1996, the awards past recipients include Ukrainian academics and writers, as well as Soviet-era military commanders.

The video released by the presidents office then showed Penn and Zelenskyy walking around Kyiv and arriving at Constitution Square, across from the Ukrainian parliament building and presidential palace, where there is a Walk of the Brave  a walkway lined with plaques honoring world leaders who have shown solidarity with Ukraine. The walkway, which was inaugurated in August, features a square plaque laid in the ground engraved with Penns name and the date Feb. 24, 2022, the start of the invasion.

Pointing to the plaque, Penn told Zelenskyy that there were three places in the world that were the source of his pride: "The place where my daughter was born, the place where my son was born and this. Thank you.
Update: Sen. Mark Kelly continues his lead over Blake Masters. New results are expected Thursday night. Read the latest here.

After seeing a double-digit lead against Republican rival Blake Masters shrink, Sen. Mark Kelly gained some ground on Wednesday as election officials continued to tally votes.

With control of the U.S. Senate effectively riding on the race's result, Kelly's advantage had dwindled to mid-single digits on Wednesday, with more ballots dropped off on Election Day still to be counted.

He added about 7,000 votes to his lead on Wednesday evening after Maricopa County officials released results from about 60,000 votes counted.

Unofficial results showed Kelly, D-Ariz., led in early votes by about 18 percentage points. But Masters led Kelly in ballots cast at polling sites by about 38 percentage points among those tallied by midmorning Wednesday.

Maricopa County officials said there were almost 340,000 ballots still to be counted. Both sides maintained they had a path to victory in a race that resembled the toss-up many predicted in the final days of the campaign.

Election coverage: Live voting updates | Arizona election results

Mark Kelly (left) and Blake Masters are running for US Senate in Arizona.

While Masters has significantly cut into Kelly's lead, there remains a notable gap between Masters' support and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has nearly caught Democrat Katie Hobbs.

As of mid-morning, Lake had collected 303,000 votes compared to Masters' 293,000.

That 10,000-vote gap is about double what Hobbs was running behind Kelly.

One other complication for Masters is the support still going to Libertarian Marc Victor, who quit the race in the final week and asked his supporters to back Masters.

In early voting, Victor pulled in support from more than 2% of voters. In Election Day voting, he was still collecting about 1.7%.

The numbers are small, but it still represents a potential loss to Masters of more than 7,000 votes already and in a race that could come be settled by a few thousand.

Story continues

The race takes on an added measure of importance with control of the Senate appearing to hinge on the outcomes in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.

In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt held to a narrow lead over Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., early Wednesday.

In Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also held a small lead over Republican Herschel Walker, but election officials have said it appears unlikely that either man can win a majority, which means it would go to a runoff.

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Subscribe to our free political podcast, The Gaggle.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Mark Kelly holds lead over Blake Masters in Arizona election
Democrat John Fetterman was predicted to win the crucial Pennsylvania Senate race early Wednesday by NBC News and MSNBC early Wednesday morning, putting the party in the drivers seat to hold control of the chamber for the next two years.

The narrow win in the Keystone State gave Democrats the first flip of any seat in the evenly divided chamber, meaning they could lose one of two close races in Nevada or Arizona and still hold the Senate.

The other neck-and-neck Senate race in Georgia remained too close to call and appeared likely to head to a Dec. 6 runoff.

Fetterman, the burly lieutenant governor who suffered a stroke in May, led Republican Mehmet Oz by about a 1.5% margin and was outrunning President Bidens winning margin in several key counties. A big chunk of votes were still outstanding in deep blue Philadelphia and suburban Delaware County.

In Georgia, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led by a hair over Republican challenger Herschel Walker, but most of the uncounted votes were in Democratic strongholds in metro Atlanta. If neither candidate wins 50%, the Georgia race will go to a run-off, potentially with control of the Senate at stake.

Democrats need to keep 50 seats in the 100-member chamber because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast a tie-breaking vote, while the GOP would need to win 51 seats.

There was no tension for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was called the winner early with a landslide win over little-known GOP challenger Joe Pinion. President Biden called the Democratic Senate leader to congratulate him on the win.

Out West, Democrats say they are confident of holding onto the seat held by ex-astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

Republicans believe they can topple first-term Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nevada), although she grabbed a significant lead in the first batch of ballots dropped in Democratic Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.

The first closely watched Senate race of the night went to Democrats as incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) turned aside a challenge from Dan Bolduc, a far right-wing Republican who has said the 2020 election was stolen from former President Trump.

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In swing state Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) was locked in a tight race against Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

In North Carolina, another perennial swing state, favorite Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) beat former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who was vying to become the first Black woman to represent the state in the Senate.

In red-trending Ohio, Republican J.D. Vance won a tough race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.

Florida was the brightest bright spot for the GOP, where Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) cruised to reelection amid a major GOP landslide in the Sunshine State.

There was next to no tension for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was called the winner early over little-known GOP challenger Joe Pinion.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent, the Senate math has changed little in months.

Democrats went into the race hoping to flip the seat held by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and hold serve in two out of the three swing seats of Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.

Republicans, on the other hand, want to keep Pennsylvanias seat in their column and pick off one of the three other closely matched seats.

The party of a winning president typically loses dozens of seats in the House of Representatives in his first midterm election.

But history is considerably murkier when it comes to the Senate. Four years ago, Trumps Republicans lost 40 House seats, but actually picked up two net seats in the Senate.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern sea on Wednesday, extending a recent barrage of weapons demonstrations including what it described as simulated attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets last week.

Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from the western town of Sukchon, north of the capital, Pyongyang, and flew across the country toward waters off the North's eastern coast.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries assessed that the missile flew about 250 to 290 kilometers (155 to 180 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 to 50 kilometers (18 to 30 miles). The relatively low trajectory seemed to align with the flight characteristics of some of North Koreas newer short-range weapons designed to evade missile defenses.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile landed in waters outside of the countrys exclusive economic zone. He said North Koreas intensifying testing activity was significantly heightening regional tensions and that Japan lodged a protest with the North through their embassies in Beijing.

South Koreas Foreign Ministry said its nuclear envoy, Kim Gunn, held separate telephone calls with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts to discuss trilateral cooperation to counter North Koreas increasing weapons tests and growing nuclear threat. South Korean officials say the North could attempt to further raise pressure by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017 in coming weeks.

The launch came after North Korea fired dozens of missiles last week in an angry reaction to a massive combined aerial exercise between the United States and South Korea that the North described as an invasion rehearsal.

Earlier Wednesday, South Koreas military said the recovered debris of one of the North Korean missiles that flew southward last week was determined to be a Soviet-era anti-aircraft weapon that dates back to the 1960s.

The Norths military said on Monday that its launches last week were simulations to mercilessly strike key South Korean and U.S. targets such as air bases and operation command systems.

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It said those tests included ballistic missiles loaded with dispersion warheads and underground infiltration warheads meant to launch strikes on enemy air bases, ground-to-air missiles designed to annihilate enemy aircraft at different altitudes and distances, and strategic cruise missiles that fell off South Koreas southeastern coast.

The North described those launches as an appropriate response to the United States and South Koreas Vigilant Storm joint air force drills that wrapped up Saturday, which involved some 240 warplanes, including B-1B supersonic bombers and advanced F-35 fighter jets.

This week, South Koreas military has been conducting annual command post exercises meant to enhance crisis management and operational capabilities to cope with growing North Korean threats. The four-day training is to last until Thursday.

Wednesdays launch also came as vote counting in the U.S. midterm elections was underway. Some experts earlier said the results of the U.S. elections would not likely change the Biden administrations policies on North Korea.

South Koreas Defense Ministry said Wednesday that an analysis of a 3-meter (9.8 foot)-long piece of wreckage fetched from waters near the Koreas eastern sea boundary on Sunday showed it was one of North Koreas SA-5 surface-to-air missiles. The ministry said a similar missile was used by the Russian military to execute ground attacks during its invasion of Ukraine.

Photos released by the South Korean military show what appears to be a mangled rocket engine and wires sticking out from a broken rocket body that is still attached with fins.

The missile, which was one of more than 20 missiles North Korea fired last Wednesday, flew in the direction of a populated South Korean island and landed near the rivals tense sea border, triggering air raid sirens and forcing residents on Ulleung island to evacuate.

The South Korean Defense Ministry said it strongly condemns the North Koreas firing of the SA-5, which it sees as a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement on reducing tensions.

The dozens of missiles North Korea fired last week also included an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation warnings and halted trains in northern Japan.

Some experts say its possible that North Korea reached into the inventory of some of its older weapons to support the expanded scale of last weeks launches.

The launches added to North Koreas record pace in weapons testing this year as leader Kim Jong Un exploits the distraction created by Russias war on Ukraine to accelerate arms development and ramp up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.

The North Koreans would want to display their range of missile technologies through these tests, but not all launches have to reveal the latest technological advancements, said Soo Kim, a security analyst from California-based RAND Corporation.

It may be in North Koreas interest to hold some of its modern capabilities in reserve and test them at opportune occasions. Kim, again, is playing a longer game, so to reveal all of his cards  the different types of missiles and capabilities his country has acquired  would not work to his favor, she said.

Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the Norths disarmament steps. North Korea has so far rejected U.S. offers of open-ended talks, insisting that Washington must abandon its hostile policy first, a term the North mainly uses to refer to sanctions and U.S.-South Korea military drills.

The North has also aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine while also blaming the United States for the crisis, saying that the Wests hegemonic policy has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests. However, the North has denied U.S. assessments that it has been sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia to support the war efforts.

We regard such moves of the U.S. as part of its hostile attempt to tarnish the image of (North Korea) in the international arena, an unidentified vice director at the ministrys military foreign affairs office said in a statement carried by state media on Monday.

___

AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to the report from Tokyo.
The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But in any portfolio, there will be mixed results between individual stocks. So we wouldn't blame long term Media Prima Berhad (KLSE:MEDIA) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 45% over a half decade.

Now let's have a look at the company's fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

Check out our latest analysis for Media Prima Berhad

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Media Prima Berhad became profitable within the last five years. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

The revenue decline of 2.8% isn't too bad. But it's quite possible the market had expected better; a closer look at the revenue trends might explain the pessimism.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It is of course excellent to see how Media Prima Berhad has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. If you are thinking of buying or selling Media Prima Berhad stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Media Prima Berhad shareholders are down 15% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 6.6%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 7% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Media Prima Berhad .

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For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on MY exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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shell

Shell has been handed 90m of taxpayer cash under the Governments scheme to help families with surging energy bills.

The oil and gas giants UK household supply division received 90,141,141 from the Government in October, according to official figures.

All suppliers are being sent cash by the Government each month so they can shave 400 off customers bills in instalments between now and March.

The payments are one part of a major Government package to shield households and businesses from soaring wholesale gas prices.

Shell Energy Retail is passing the 400 onto its roughly 1.4m customers via a reduction in their bills, with 66 taken off monthly direct debits.

It comes as Shell is making huge profits from its core business of drilling and trading wholesale oil and gas. Like other energy giants, the company has benefited from soaring market prices.

The FTSE 100 company posted global profits of $9.45bn (8.3bn) for the third quarter of this year, compared to a record $11.5bn in the second quarter.

North Sea oil and gas producers such as Shell have been hit with a windfall tax in the UK to try and fund the governments support for households.

However, Shell has yet to owe any taxes under the new levy, as it is allowed to offset investments. Its North Sea business has not owed any taxes in Britain since 2017, due to investments and decommissioning costs that make it unprofitable.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is understood to be considering extending the windfall tax as part of the Autumn Statement on November 17.

Shell moved into the UK household energy supply business in 2018 when it bought First Utility. Shell Energy Retail made a loss of 121m in 2020 on turnover of 856,000.

High wholesale rates pushed about 30 suppliers out of business at the turn of the year, with many operating on wafer thin margins.

Other large energy companies have also received millions of pounds from the Government to support their customers. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has received 396m, while EDF has so far been given 219m. The total paid to all suppliers for October is 1.9bn. Instalments are being passed onto customers as required.

A Shell spokesman highlighted measures it is taking to support customers this winter, including a 50m support package through which it is paying 150 to 157,000 customers who receive the governments Warm Home Discount. It has also doubled its hardship fund, from 10m to 20m, which offers customers financial support.
Awaab Ishak's home was found to be covered in damp and mould. (Reach)

These pictures show the shocking conditions inside the mouldy and damp home of a toddler who died after developing breathing difficulties.

Awaab Ishak died a week after his second birthday in December 2020, inside his home in the Ilminster block on the Freehold estate in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

He had developed a continuous cough and was unable to breathe through his nose in the final weeks of his life, leading him to suffer a fatal cardiac arrest.

An inquest into Awaabs death at Rochdale Coroners Court has now been shown pictures of the inside of the home, where black spores are seen on the walls and ceiling, completely covering parts of the property.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) also found thick mould behind radiators, and inside other properties on the estate.

Black spores were seen on the walls and ceiling, completely covering parts of the property. (Reach)

Caroline Ridley, a health visitor who visited the home in July 2020, was shown the extent of the mould by Awaabs father, Faisal Abdullah.

She told the inquest: "There was quite a significant amount of mould. I'm not a mould expert but I think it would have taken a long time to get to that extent.

Mould expert Malcolm Richardson found several species of fungus during tests carried out at the property following Awaab's death.

Mr Abdullah, who believed the mould was affecting his sons health, told the inquest that he had been complaining to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), who manage the property, since 2017  and had applied for a new house in 2019.

Awaab Ishak developed a continuous cough and was unable to breathe through his nose in the final weeks of his life. (Reach)

However, the family did not receive a response to the letter and Awaabs health declined and he was prescribed antibiotics shortly before his death.

Dr Kevin Cody, GP at Ashworth Street Surgery, told the court that Awaab was seen more than most children for coughs and cold symptoms, but he was never diagnosed with asthma.

He told coroner Joanne Kearsley the practice was now more aware of issues regarding damp and mould affecting health than before Awaab's death.

"After this case we do have more patients within the local area that have come since with property problems," he said.

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Greater Manchester Police found thick mould behind radiators, and inside other properties on the estate. (Reach)

Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb told the court that mould was the most plausible, or only explanation for Awaab's fatal breathing conditions.

While the findings of the report concluded that the majority of the mould was caused by lifestyle and bathing habits, RHB admit they should have been more proactive about the issue and accepted its approach had been inappropriate.

The housing association added: It is accepted that RBH should have undertaken remedial works having found the mould in its inspection of the property on July 14, 2020

"It is accepted that various RBH teams were contacted and received further notifications about the mould from Awaabs family during this time."
Officials with Wholestone Farms can breathe a little easier, now that Sioux Falls voters said they didn't want to ban new slaughterhouses within city limits.

Results weren't available until early Wednesday morning, but residents chose to keep the pork processing industry within the city going forward, with 52% in favor of not supporting the ban against 48%.

While Wholestone officials have maintained that the small "custom slaughterhouse" currently being built would have grandfathered them into compliance with city ordinance if it passed, an ongoing court fight with Smart Growth Sioux Falls had been looming in the background, even as they cut the ribbon on the building late last month.

And though it may not be the last time the issue sees the inside of a courtroom, the vote takes the wind out of the sails of Smart Growth Sioux Falls, whose legal argument had been largely dependent on the fact that Tuesdays vote could go in their favor.

More:Wholestone court fight could go to trial after November election

More than 71,830 ballots were cast overall in the race, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State website.

"Wholestone is grateful for the vote outcome and thankful to Sioux Falls voters for their support," said Wholestone's board chair Luke Minion. "Thanks to all that supported us throughout this four-plus-year process. Wholestone will continue to operate our custom butcher shop and appreciates the continued right to expand our project for the 200+ family farmers that own Wholestone Farms."

Christine Erickson, the executive director of the South Dakota Trucking Association and chair of Sioux Falls Open For Business, a committee that opposed the ballot question, also celebrated the vote.

"Proud that the citizens of Sioux Falls did what's right for our community and chose to keep Sioux Falls open for business," the former city councilor said.

Were proud of our efforts to bring this issue to a vote and educate our neighbors with the facts," said Robert Peterson, the treasurer of Smart Growth Sioux Falls. "While were deeply disappointed with the close result and concerns about new slaughterhouses remain, weve always said the people of Sioux Falls should decide.

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The Nebraska-based pork processor announced in June of 2021 that they were looking to open a $500 million plant in northeastern Sioux Falls. The company said it would start with one shift of 1,000 employees when construction finished in 2025, adding another shift 1,000-1,200 employees some time later. Each shift would process about 3 million hogs per year.

Smart Growth Sioux Falls has been fighting the plan since early this year, claiming that the plant would negatively affect the city's water and air quality while worsening the issues of traffic and affordable housing.

Wholestone has countered these concerns by saying that the plant will be built with modern technology and is located in an area intended for industrial usage.

More:Sioux Falls Chamber has emerged as one of Wholestone's biggest backers

Smart Growth Sioux Falls successfully petitioned to get the ordinance on the ballot, which would prohibit the construction and operation of new slaughterhouses, while allowing existing ones to expand.

That led to Wholestone "accelerating" their plan to build what Minion has called a "custom slaughterhouse"  a small green building on the project's future site simply called "The Butcher Shop."

The shop, which had a ribbon cutting on Oct. 25, lets customers choose a farmer to provide a hog for butchering, choosing the specific cuts of meat they would like. And Minion has said that "the petition of the group is quite clear that an existing slaughterhouse can be expanded."

The building was the subject of a lawsuit filed by Smart Growth Sioux Falls against Wholestone, Mayor Paul TenHaken and Sioux Falls' eight city councilors, with former U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson arguing that the city should not have been providing permits for the building once the question had made it to the ballot.

More:Looking back at the history of Wholestone Farms, meatpacking in Sioux Falls

Judge Sandra Hanson agreed that the city shouldn't have been providing Wholestone with permits, but by that time, the company already had all the permits they needed to open the shop.

Hanson originally suggested the possibility of a judicial order called a writ of mandamus that would require the permits to be rescinded, but later concurred with a briefing from Wholestone that cited a case in which the South Dakota Supreme Court said that "mandamus is inapplicable to undo an act already done in violation of public or official duty."

Hanson said a mandatory injunction was another possibility, but added there would need to be evidence, witnesses and a trial for that to be considered. With just weeks until the election, Hanson said the parties should focus on making their cases to the voters, given that if the ordinance failed, the point would largely be moot.

Attorneys for both sides have said they expect to be back in court regardless of how citizens vote.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls slaughterhouse ban fails, but Wholestone fight isn't over
Inside Angola Prison in Louisiana. (Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

Over 150 years after slaves were freed in the United States, four states voted Tuesday to remove language that permits forced prison labor from their state constitutions.

While the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, it included an exception that allowed slavery to be used as punishment for a crime. The amendment states, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

More than 1.2 million people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons in America, and roughly 2 in 3 of those incarcerated people are forced to work, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

After Election Day, over a dozen state constitutions still include language that allows forced prison labor as punishment, and prison reform advocates believe the use of forced labor in prisons is rooted in antebellum slavery.

Voters in Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont, Louisiana and Oregon decided on the future of forced prison labor in their states.

Alabama

Convicts on a chain gang near Huntsville, Ala. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Alabama voters overwhelmingly decided to ratify the recompiled state constitution, which fully abolishes slavery in the state. Specifically, the vote removes the language from the constitution that permits forced labor in prison.

Currently, there are over 130 jails with a population of over 16,000 people in Alabama, according to the National Institute of Corrections.

Louisiana

Of the five states that had slavery on the ballot, Louisiana voters rejected a ballot question that asked whether they supported an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude in jails.

The results in Louisiana were the opposite of those in the other four states with similar ballot legislation. More than 790,000 voters in Louisiana decided to keep the constitutional language that allows slavery as punishment; over 508,000 Louisianans voted to remove it.

Amendment 7, the question on the ballot, read: "Do you support an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude except as it applies to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice?"

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Approximately 50,000 people are incarcerated in Louisiana, and there is an incarceration rate of 1,094 per 100,000 people, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Oregon

Voters casting their ballots in Portland, Ore. (Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, more than 780,000 Oregon voters passed Measure 112 to remove constitutional language allowing slavery as punishment.

Measure 112 will remove the current language in the state constitution that allows the use of slavery for criminal punishment.

Tennessee

In Tennessee, an overwhelming number of voters voted to remove the constitutional language allowing slavery as punishment. Approximately 332,000 people voted to continue to allow it for those behind bars.

Amendment 3 read: "That slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited in this State. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime."

Nearly 60,000 people are incarcerated in Tennessee, and the incarceration rate is 838 per 100,000 people, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Vermont

In Vermont, a state with a population of over 645,000, nearly 150,000 people voted to prohibit language stating that a person could be held as a servant or slave under Proposal 2.

Over 17,000 people voted against removing the use of slavery for punishment in the state.

Proposal 2 adds new text to the Vermont Constitution that states: "Slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited."

Over 2,000 people are incarcerated in Vermont, and the incarceration rate is 288 per 100,000 people, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Whats next?

Getty Images

After four states voted to end forced prison labor, many prison reform advocates are hopeful, but they believe there is more work to be done.

Things would not automatically change, unfortunately, Krysta Bisnauth, senior advocacy officer at Freedom United, told Yahoo News before the election. But what it would do is open the door, again, for [incarcerated people] to take cases to court and to say, 'Look, this is illegal in our state, you cant do this anymore.'

Bisnauth said on Wednesday that the election results show progress in the right direction. At the beginning of 2022, there were 20 states where slavery and involuntary servitude were still legal. Now we're down to 16. We could be well on our way to none by the end of 2023."
Cannabis buds ready for harvest are seen at Dakota Natural Solutions Grow on Monday, July 25, 2022, in Wessington, SD.

Voters in South Dakota rejected Initiated Measure 27, a bill that wouldve legalized the possession, use and distribution of recreational marijuana by people 21 years or older.

With 99% of precincts counted, 53% of voters rejected recreational marijuana.

The initiated measure would have legalized the possession, use and distribution of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia by people 21 years or older.

It was the second time a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana appeared on South Dakota voters ballots. In the 2020 Election, voters passed Amendment A with 54% of the majority.

This time around, that wasn't the case. There were eight counties that voted in favor of the measure, including Brookings, Buffalo, Clay, Dewey, Oglala Lakota, Minnehaha, Todd and Ziebach.

Protecting South Dakota Kids was a major opponent to Initiated Measure 27, and throughout the election process, argued that areas that have legalized marijuana have seen an increase in opioid fatalities.

"We're continuing to pray that that result holds and that more people of faith come together to do what's good for our state because this is a resounding no to recreational marijuana and a resounding yes for the health and well-being of our communities," Protecting South Dakota Kids Committee Chair Jim Kinyon said.

As results trickled in on Tuesday night, Kinyon compared the initiated measure to "putting lipstick on a pig."

More:South Dakota has a second chance to legalize recreational marijuana. What does it mean?

"We've had a lot of people ... say that (legalized marijuana) is going to make us wealthy, or that it's going to make us well, and I just keep asking the same question: 'When has the sale of any illegal drug done that?'" Kinyon said. "That's a lot of lipstick on a pig. And the good news is, in South Dakota most of us know what a pig looks like, and we know what one smells like."

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws were behind the proponents of the bill and wanted to "restore the will of the people," referring to the 2020 Election when the amendment was eventually shot down due to a violation on the single-subject rule.

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Hopes were to have 2020's result replicated on Tuesday night, but it didn't pan out.

Representatives for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws were unavailable for comment.

South Dakota was one of five states where voters cast their ballots for legal recreational marijuana on Tuesday, including Arkansas, North Dakota, Maryland and Missouri.Maryland overwhelmingly passed its measure, and it also passed in Missouri. Arkansas and North Dakota voters rejected the legal marijuana bills.

Before Tuesday, there were 19 states, two territories and Washington D.C. that had passed legal recreational marijuana bills.

Polls split leading up to the election

Polling up to the election varied. In the SDSU poll, findings indicated that 47% of the South Dakota population opposed the measure, while 45% were in support. Eight percent were undecided in that poll.

In late July, South Dakota News Watch released a poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy of Florida. That poll was made up of 500 registered voters  with 54.4% opposing legalization.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota voters appear to reject IM 27 recreational marijuana bill
Cooperation outweighs competition between China, EU: spokesperson

Xinhua) 09:08, November 09, 2022

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- There is competition between China and the European Union (EU), but cooperation far outweighs competition, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday, calling on the EU side to view the bilateral relations in an objective and rational manner.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks during a daily news briefing when asked to comment on the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell's recent remarks on China.

In recent years, the trade between China and the EU has hit new highs and the two sides have maintained communication and coordination on international and regional issues, Zhao said.

"Facts have proven that China and the EU share extensive common interests, a long-term foundation for cooperation and highly complementary development advantages," the spokesperson said, noting that there is competition between China and the EU, but cooperation far outweighs competition, and some competition between China and the EU is healthy and conducive to accelerating their respective development.

He urged the EU side to view China-EU relations in an objective and rational manner, work with China to grasp the mainstream of China-EU relations and the key feature of win-win cooperation, jointly address global challenges, and provide more stability and positive energy to the volatile world.

Zhao, however, reiterated that China does not accept "preachers" on human rights, opposes politicization and double standards on human rights issues, and opposes interference in the internal affairs of other countries on the pretext of human rights.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
By Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday, as South Korea said it had identified debris from an earlier launch as part of a Soviet-era SA-5 surface-to-air missile.

Japan's Coast Guard said the ballistic missile appeared to have fallen into the sea minutes after the launch was reported.

The missile flew to an altitude of up to 50 km (31.07 miles), and covered a range of 250 km, Japan's Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.

He said the government lodged a strong protest with North Korea via diplomatic channels through Beijing.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) also said it had detected the launch of an unspecified ballistic missile from North Korea.

The launch came after South Korea concluded an analysis of what it had initially said was part of a North Korean short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) that landed near South Korean waters last week.

The analysis, however, showed the piece, about 3 metres (3.3 yards) long and 2 metres wide, was part of an SA-5 anti-aircraft missile, the defence ministry said, citing its appearance and features.

The ministry said at the time the launch breached a 2018 inter-Korean military pact banning any activities stoking border tensions.

"This SA-5 missile launch was a clearly deliberate, intentional provocation," it said in a statement. "The SA-5 also has characteristics of a surface-to-surface missile, and Russia has used similar missiles in Ukraine for surface-to-surface attacks."

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement it was aware of the launch and assessed it did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies. It also denounced Pyongyang's missile programs as having a destabilizing effect.

A South Korean Navy ship used an underwater probe to recover the missile, which came as the North test-fired multiple missiles last week, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

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It was the first time a North Korean ballistic missile had landed near South Korean waters.

North Korea's military said the launches were simulated strikes on South Korea and the United States, criticising their joint air exercises as an "dangerous, aggressive war drill."

South Korean and U.S. officials have also said that Pyongyang has made technical preparations to test a nuclear device, the first time it will have done so since 2017.

The SA-5 is an air defence missile originally designed by the Soviet Union, where it was designated the S-200, to shoot down strategic bombers and other high-altitude targets.

The missile was exported around the world, and is still in service in at least a dozen countries, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project.

North Korea took delivery of SA-5 systems in the mid-1980s, according to "The Armed Forces of North Korea: On the Path of Songun", a 2020 survey by Dutch researchers.

"Two sites equipped with these very long-ranged systems cover the entirety of North Korean airspace as well as a sizeable chunk of that of the South," the researchers wrote.

"However, having been designed to counter strategic aircraft, their use against modern fast jets such as the F-15 and F-16 is questionable to say the least."

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shinn and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Daniel Leussink in Tokyo; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Gerry Doyle and Tomasz Janowski)
Reuters Videos

STORY: South Korea's leader had a stark warning for the North on Monday.In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, President Yoon Suk-yeol said that if Pyongyang went ahead with a nuclear test, there would be an unprecedented response from Seoul and its allies, but he gave no specifics.What I can tell you is that our response would include something that have not been seen in the past."It would be extremely unwise for North Korea to conduct a (seventh) nuclear test."Yoon's comments come as officials from his country and the U.S. warn that North Korea may be preparing...to resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 2017.He also urged China - as North Korea's closest ally - to do more to influence Pyongyang.And noted how countries in the region, including Japan, had been pushed to increase their defense spending.More U.S. warplanes and ships have also been deployed."I believe that China has enough capability to affect North Koreas decision, not only in military aspect but also economically. However, it is up to China's decision that to what extent it will influence North Korea and how much it is going to contribute to the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula." 2022 has been a record year for North Korea's missile tests, including the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile this month...which Tokyo said landed 130 miles off the coast of Japan.Such tests have overshadowed multiple gatherings of international leaders.Undeterred by the backlash received, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week his country intends to have the world's most powerful nuclear force.
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will attend meetings of ASEAN and the Group of 20 industrialised nations this month, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

South Korea is arranging a possible bilateral summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden as well as a trilateral summit involving the United States and Japan on the sidelines of the events, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"We are arranging summits with key countries on the occasion of attending the ASEAN and G20 meetings," Yoon's national security adviser, Kim Sung-han, told a briefing.

Nothing has been decided regarding a possible one-on-one meeting between Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Yonhap said.

The latest in-person meeting between Yoon and Kishida was in September. The two leaders agreed then on the need to improve relations dogged by historical disputes.

Yoon, who took office in May, has been keen to improve relations with Tokyo at a time when both countries face North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The September meeting, which took place in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, was the first between leaders of the two countries since 2019.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Choonsik Yoo; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Bradley Perrett)
Massachusetts State Police identified the South Shore woman who was killed in a deadly crash on Monday involving a Medford man who was wanted by police for an ongoing investigation

Lori Ann Medeiros, 54, of Middleborough was fatally struck in her car just moments after the Hector Bannister-Sanchez, 34, took off at a high rate of speed from an attempted stop by police for an ongoing drug trafficking investigation.

Bannister-Sanchez was held without bail Tuesday morning and faces motor vehicle homicide and manslaughter charges. He will be back in court on December 8th.

Medeiros was an active member and board member of the South Shore Womens Business Network where they met monthly to support their communities by focusing on womens related issues.

According to members of the group, Medeiros was a positive light who brought her big smile to all networking events including her real estate business.

We are shocked and saddened by the news that SSWBN member Lori Medeiros passed away after a car accident, said Lisa Dooley, SSWBN President. She helped connect new members to our network, and we never had a better ambassador. She will be missed by all of us.

We are shocked and saddened this morning by the news that SSWBN member Lori Medeiros passed away last night after a car... Posted by South Shore Women's Business Network on Tuesday, November 8, 2022

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) was projected to win reelection in Virginias 7th Congressional District, fending off a competitive Republican challenge in a key bellwether state.

CNN and NBC called the race.

Spanberger, a former CIA official, defeated Republican Yesli Vega, a member of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and a former police officer, in a race that Cook Political Report rated a toss up. The nonpartisan election handicapper briefly moved the race from a toss up to lean Democratic in early September, but reverted it back in late October.

Tuesdays win secures Spanberger, a moderate Democrat, a third term in Congress, and marks the third time she narrowly won her congressional race. In both 2018 and 2020, she clinched victories by no more than 3 percentage points. Her district this year had a +2 Democratic lean, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Thank you, VA-07. We did it! Spanberger wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.)

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) won her reelection race after a highly competitive race against Republican Yesli Vega. (Greg Nash)

The race made national headlines this cycle in part for its focus on election denialism, which was a key theme in several down-ballot races across the country. It also was seen as a possible harbinger for a red wave if Spanberger had lost.

Vega, whom former President Trump endorsed, has cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election, previously claiming that evidence continues to come out that indicates that the election of 2020 was interfered with, but refusing to go as far as to say that she believed the race was stolen. VPM obtained the audio of the forum where she made those comments.

In an interview with The Washington Post, however, the candidate acknowledged that President Biden is the president of the United States when asked if he was legitimately elected, refusing to give a yes or no answer. She also said the American people elected Biden.

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Those factors drove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to the district, where she officially threw her support behind Spanberger.

The Wyoming Republican  who lost her reelection primary this summer to a Trump-backed challenger who has said the 2020 race was rigged against the ex-president  said she was endorsing Spanberger despite their deep policy differences.

We dont agree on every policy, but I am absolutely certain that Abigail is dedicated to serving this country and her constituents and defending our Constitution, Cheney said in a statement. Abigails opponent is promoting conspiracy theories, denying election outcomes she disagrees with, and defending the indefensible.

Yesli Vega

Vega signaled her support for former President Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, spurring Rep. Liz Cheney to endorse Spanberger. (Greg Nash)

Vega, on her part, had largely stayed away from discussing Trump on the campaign trail, as noted by The Washington Post. The former president is unpopular in the Virginia suburbs, which was a large driving factor behind the 2018 blue wave that elected Spanberger to Congress, the outlet reported.

Vega downplayed his endorsement in the waning day of the election, according to the Post. The strategy is similar to that of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who flipped the commonwealths governorship last year after steering clear of mentioning Trump.

Spanberger may be a thorn in Democratic leaderships side in the next Congress. Shortly before the House broke for recess in September, the Virginia congresswoman released a scathing statement calling for new leaders in the lower chamber.

She made the rallying cry after House Democratic leadership scrapped plans to vote on a bill to ban lawmaker stock trading.

This moment marks a failure of House leadership  and its yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill, as I have long made known, Spanberger said in the statement.

Rather than bring Members of Congress together who are passionate about this issue, leadership chose to ignore these voices, push them aside, and look for new ways they could string the media and the public along  and evade public criticism, she added.

Updated at 10:52 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Springfield man was sentenced to 24 months' probation Wednesday for his role in a 2019 incident that led to him being shot by a police officer.

Chad J. Robbins, 38, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated battery and one count of domestic battery in October. The sentence was handed down by Judge John Madonia at a plea hearing in Sangamon County Circuit Court.

Robbins was involved in a domestic dispute in the 3500 block of Carnoustie Drive on June 28, 2019. According to Sprngfield police reports, when officers arrived at his house shortly after 3 a.m., Robbins shouted death threats at them while carrying a firearm. After attempting to de-escalate the situation for more than six minutes, an officer asked him to drop the gun.

When he refused, the officer  Charles Peters  fired six rounds with a rifle, hitting Robbins three times in the shoulder, abdomen and left thigh.

More:2022 Illinois election results from across the state

Robbins was hospitalized and faced five years in prison if convicted on all charges. Sangamon County court documents indicate that the trial was delayed due to COVID-19 concerns. Robbins initially pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Robbins also is suing Peters and the officers involved in federal court in Springfield. The lawsuit contends Robbins' constitutional rights were violated. The lawsuit has yet to reach trial.

Robbins is eligible for the county's veterans' court, a program that assists those who served in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. If he were to complete the veterans' court program, he could have the conviction expunged. He served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the federal lawsuit.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield man shot by police officer in 2019 sentenced to probation
By Uditha Jayasinghe

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's largest port began on Wednesday construction of a $700 million terminal project, partly funded by India's Adani Group, an official said, marking the first foray by an Indian company into the sector.

India has this year provided the most financial support to its southern neighbour, which is facing its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. India is now keen to see long-term projects by Indian companies take off in Sri Lanka.

"Dredging commenced in the morning," Upul Jayatissa, managing director of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), told Reuters.

"The first stage is expected to be done in the third quarter of 2024 and the full project will be completed by 2025-end."

Ports-to-edible oils group Adani, controlled by Asia's richest person, Gautam Adani, holds a 51% stake in the West Container Terminal (WCT) of the port, which also has a terminal run by China Merchants Port Holdings Co Ltd.

India and China vie for influence in the island nation of 22 million, located near busy shipping routes.

Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings owns 34% of the WCT and the rest is held by the SLPA.

The Adani Group's plans to invest in Sri Lanka's ports ran into controversy last year after powerful port unions pushed for the East Container Terminal (ECT) to be built by the state. Subsequently, the government excluded the company from construction of the ECT.

However, in September the Sri Lankan government of Ranil Wickremesinghe, who became president in July, signed a new deal with the group for the west terminal in a different part of the port.

The ECT is now being constructed by SLPA and will be completed in December 2024, Jayatissa said.

India has extend about $4 billion including swaps and multiple credit lines to Sri Lanka, amid an acute shortage of dollars and essentials.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Robert Birsel)
After coming up short in her effort to take over Georgias governor seat, Stacey Abrams said she is determined to still stand tall and fight for the state. Abrams relayed her stern message when she spoke in front of her supporters after losing to Republican Governor Brian Kemp on Tuesday.

Even though my fight  our fight  for the governors mansion came up short, Im pretty tall, Abrams said. Despite every obstacle, we are still standing strong and standing tall and standing resolute and standing in our values.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom)

Kemp won his reelection after consistently leading in the polls throughout the recent months. Abrams, who narrowly lost the governors race in 2018, remained determined throughout her 2022 campaign despite many people counting her out, Politico reports.

The 48-year-old showed the same type of passion after conceding the race on Tuesday.

Georgia deserves more, she said. Whether we do it from from the governors mansion, or from the streets, whether we do it from from the capital or from our community, we are going to fight for more for the state of Georgia.

Abrams focused her campaign on fighting for quality public education, a cleaner environment, more affordable prescription drugs and voting rights.

Voting is a fundamental right, not a privilege for the wealthy few, the Democratic candidate said, according to Politico.

During his campaign, Kemp said Abrams is working for liberal elites and she wants to defund the police. Abrams fired back, saying Kemp is easing gun laws and keeping Georgians living in a state of fear.

The former Georgia House of Representative now looks forward to the next step in her career.

I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to insure that the people have a voice, she said.
US-POLITICS-WOMEN-RIGHTS-ABORTION

An abortion rights demonstrator holds a sign near the US Capitol during the annual Women's March to support Women's Rights in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2022. Credit - ROBERTO SCHMIDTAFP/Getty Images

In nearly all states where the question was on the ballot on Tuesday, voters moved to protect abortion accessa major victory for abortion-rights supporters after the Supreme Courts decision in June, overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.

Voters are rejecting the Supreme Courts reversal of Roe and issuing a clarion call that they want their rights constitutionally protected, Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement, calling Tuesdays ballot measures an example of what is possible for other states.

Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont and California all voted to protect abortion rights, while the results of a ballot measure in Montana are still pending.

These are the states that had abortion-related measures on the ballot:

Kentucky

In deeply red Kentucky, voters rejected a measure that would have excluded abortion rights from the states constitution. It would have amended the document to say that nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.

About 53% of voters opposed the measure, while about 48% voted in favor.

The outcome wont immediately affect abortion access in the state, but it signals where most voters stand on the issue after the Republican-led state legislature passed a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. The state Supreme Court is currently considering a legal challenge to that abortion ban.

This is a victory for bodily autonomy and the right of all Kentuckians to make the best decisions for themselves, but the fight is not over, Amber Duke, interim executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement. We will now continue our fight in state court to restore abortion access in the commonwealth.

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It was similar to the outcome in Kansas in August, when voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have amended the state constitution to say it did not contain a right to an abortion.

Both ballot measures provide an example of how abortion-rights advocates can use ballot measures to protect abortion access moving forward, even in Republican-leaning states.

Michigan

Michigan was one of three statesalong with Vermont and Californiathat voted to protect the right to abortion by enshrining it in the state constitution, which abortion-rights advocates hailed as a a seismic win.

About 56% of Michigan voters supported a measure that will establish a new individual right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make all decisions about pregnancy and abortion. About 44% of voters opposed the measure.

The amendment is expected to invalidate a 1931 abortion ban still on the books in Michigan.

Post the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, state constitutions are really the vehicle, the mechanism for protecting abortion rights in every individual state, says Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who spent Monday door-knocking around Detroit, encouraging people to vote yes on Michigans ballot measure.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, also won reelection Tuesday, after abortion became a central issue in her campaign. Her Republican challenger, Tudor Dixon, supported an abortion ban except if a pregnant patients life is at risk, and she did not support exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

Whitmer had prioritized abortion access as a campaign issue and vowed to continue vetoing anti-abortion legislation as governor.

For three and a half years, the threat of my veto is what has kept Michigan pro-choice, frankly, with the legislature that we have, Whitmer told TIME during the summer, describing the stakes of her reelection campaign.

Vermont

Vermont will also amend its state constitution to include an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy, after more than 75% of voters supported the measure.

The measure had broad support in the state, including from Republican Gov. Phil Scott.

It is more important than ever to make sure the women in our state have the right to make their own decisions about their health, bodies, and their futures, Scott said in July, announcing that the proposal would appear on the ballot.

California

California voters supported a measure that will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, with 65% voting in favor and 35% in opposition.

The amendment says that the state shall not deny or interfere with an individuals reproductive freedom, including their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.

The measure was put on the ballot following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which turned abortion rights back to the states.

Montana

In Montana, results are still pending on a referendum that would declare an embryo or fetus a legal person entitled to medical care if they are born alive at any stage of development, including after attempted abortions.

Health care providers who violate the law would face a fine of up to $50,000 and 20 years in prison.

Opponents of the measure, including the Montana Medical Association and other medical groups, argue it would negatively affect people with severe pregnancy complications and would criminalize doctors who provide palliative care to newborns with fatal health conditions.
Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment that legalizes recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21.

Under the amendment, Missourians will soon be able to head to their local dispensary to buy edibles and pre-rolled joints. But the amendment wont actually go into effect until next month.

What does that mean for people previously arrested for weed charges? Can you still be arrested for marijuana use before the amendment kicks in? And will selling marijuana to kids on the street still be illegal under the amendment?

Heres how Missouri law still plays into marijuana legalization, and how Amendment 3 will affect those with past weed charges.

Can you still get arrested for weed possession before the amendment kicks in?

The provisions of the amendment  which allow adults over the age of 21 to possess up to 3 ounces of recreational marijuana  wont go into effect until Dec. 8. Therefore, you can still get arrested for marijuana possession until that date.

However, John Payne, the campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022, the group that backed the amendment, said courts may be reluctant to press those cases knowing that the law is about to change.

Luckily, weed is largely decriminalized in many parts of the state.

In Kansas City weed possession is already decriminalized, so Kansas City police arent supposed to arrest you for a city crime if you have weed on your person. But, they could still ticket you or arrest you for violating state laws or for distribution.

The state laws in Missouri have partially decriminalized marijuana possession too. If a person is caught with 10 grams, they can only be fined and could receive a criminal misdemeanor.

In Jackson County, the prosecutor has pledged not to charge people for most marijuana possession cases, with an exception for people who are suspected of selling. If a person gets caught up in Clay, Platte or Cass counties, there is still a chance that they could be charged for violating state laws if they are caught with more than 10 grams of marijuana.

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Will selling marijuana on the street  or to kids  still be illegal?

Yes. Prior to Tuesdays vote, the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys incorrectly said that drug dealers would only be subject to a civil penalty for giving or selling marijuana to kids under the amendment.

Thats false. Even after the amendment kicks in, a person who sells marijuana to kids will still be subject to a felony under current state law. Payne, from Legal Missouri 2022, said any sale of marijuana outside of the regulated system will remain a criminal offense in Missouri.

Another provision in the amendment says any person younger than 21 years old who delivers without consideration or distributes without consideration three ounces or less of marijuana is subject to a $100 fine. This does not apply to selling marijuana. Its meant to apply to someone who hands their friend marijuana or a joint, Payne said.

Opponents of the amendment argue that it will enshrine civil penalties into the states constitution, making it difficult for those penalties to be changed at a later date. However, many supporters of the amendment argue that language around penalties and other concerns can be changed in the future.

Lets start at legal. And if theres something that needs to be done, to make it stronger, to make it better, at least weve started at legal, said Justice Gatson, founder of the Reale Justice Network, which backed the Amendment 3 campaign.

When will people get to have their past marijuana charges expunged?

Any person previously charged with a nonviolent marijuana-related charge who is not currently incarcerated will have their record reviewed and expunged by the courts by June 8, 2023. This does not apply to people charged with driving under the influence or selling weed to minors.

Cases will be expunged in the order of severity of the case, which means that less severe cases will be expunged first, Payne said.

Expunging a record means that the court will seal a criminal charge so it is no longer public. However, the record can still be unsealed with a court order, according to the Missouri Bar.

What about people currently in jail with weed charges?

People who are still incarcerated will not automatically have their charges dropped or expunged. However, people with nonviolent charges will be able to petition to be released from jail, prison or to be removed from parole and probation and have their records expunged.

When is the earliest people can purchase marijuana legally?

The earliest that Missourians will be able to head to their local weed dispensary and buy recreational marijuana gummies, joints and other products is Feb. 6, 2023.

Have more questions about the amendment? Let us know at kcq@kcstar.com, and well look into it.
Thousands of demonstrators from Sudan's Nuba peoples marched in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday to protest against recent deadly inter-ethnic violence in their southern home region.

Poverty-stricken Sudan has been mired in political and economic turmoil that deepened after a coup last year, and security forces have launched a deadly crackdown on near-weekly pro-democracy protests.

The northeast African country has also been torn by strife between Arab and ethnic minority groups -- including clashes last month that killed at least 19 in the West Kordofan region where the Nuba live.

"No to the genocide of the Nuba," proclaimed placards carried in the Khartoum protest by the indigenous group whose members live mostly as herders and farmers in the mountainous region.

Another sign read "the Nuba mountains are not Darfur" -- the western region where 300,000 were killed and more than two million displaced in a civil war from 2003 under then-dictator Omar al-Bashir.

"We are demonstrating to denounce the killings and the displacement of our people in Lagawa," one protester, Ahlam Ali, told AFP.

At least 19 people were killed in the city of Lagawa last month, according to the United Nations, in clashes between Nuba peoples and the Messiria Arab tribe.

"We are the indigenous people, so they want to force us to leave our lands," said another protester, Said Issa.

"They use the force of the state and its weapons, but we will not be silent."

Pro-democracy activists regularly accuse Sudan's military rulers of exacerbating the ethnic tensions.

This year, more than 600 people have been killed and over 210,000 displaced in inter-ethnic conflicts in Sudan, according to the UN.

The violence generally flares in disputes over access to scarce water and land in the arid and climate-stressed country where farming and livestock account for 30 percent of the economy and 43 percent of jobs.

ab/sbh/fz/kir
Four of the Supreme Court's conservatives were skeptical of the race-based preferences in the Indian Child Welfare Act, saying they sometimes prevent adoptions that might be in the best interest of the child. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Supreme Court justices sounded sharply split Wednesday on whether to strike down a federal child custody law that seeks to keep Native American children with tribal families.

The courts three liberals, joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, strongly defended the law. They said the Constitution gave Congress broad authority to protect Native Americans and the future of their tribes.

This is a matter for Congress, not the courts, Justice Elena Kagan said.

But four of the courts conservatives were skeptical of the race-based preferences in the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, saying they sometimes prevent adoptions that might be in the best interest of the child.

The issue arose in Texas after the Navajo Nation intervened to block the adoption of a baby by a white couple in Fort Worth who had been fostering the child for nearly a year.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh questioned whether it was appropriate or constitutional to prevent such an adoption simply because the couple are the wrong race.

Last week, the court heard arguments on whether to strike down the use of race as a factor in college admissions, and several of the conservative justices said the issue in Wednesdays case looked similar.

The outcome may depend on Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is a conservative and the mother of two adopted children. She did not tip her hand as to how she might rule.

She said that if laws involving the tribes are based on political classifications, they are generally legal. But treating people differently because they are Native Americans might be seen as a racial classification, which would be generally illegal, she said.

Tribal courts have jurisdiction over child custody cases taking place on Native American lands, but states handle matters of foster care and adoptions of Native American children not living on tribal land.

The 1978 law was an effort by Congress to impose minimum federal standards for those adoptions not handled by tribal courts, particularly in cases of governmental removal of children from their families because of safety or social welfare concerns. Among other things, the law requires notifying the tribe if a child of a tribal member is placed for adoption.

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The law also set a preference for placing a child with a member of his or her extended family, with other members of the tribe or with other Native American families.

Congress said the law was intended to protect the best interests of Native American children and to promote the safety and



security of tribes and families.

Lawmakers were responding to long-standing complaints that Native American children were being removed from their families and tribes, and being raised in boarding schools or by white families, cut off from their heritage.

More than a third of Native American children were being removed from their families in some states, Congress said at the time. And 90% of those children were placed with non-Native American families.

Supporters of the law say it has worked to keep Native American children with their families. Such children still are disproportionately represented in foster care, but it is better than before ICWA, said Kate Fort, director of the Indian law clinic at Michigan State. We still have work to do.

Los Angeles County, which has one of nations largest populations of Native American children, voiced support for the law.

The purpose of the ICWA would be defeated if it applied to Indian tribes operating only on or near a reservation because it would exclude residents of Los Angeles County, home to the largest American Indian and Alaska Native population of all counties in the United States, but without a single federally recognized Native American tribe within its borders, the county wrote in a court filing.

Critics of the law say it has sometimes worked against the best interest of the children by sending them to live with distant relatives they have never known, rather than allowing them to be adopted by their current foster families.

Chad and Jennifer Brackeen, a Texas couple, agreed to care for a 10-month-old boy after state officials removed him from his mother, who was a Navajo. She and the father voluntarily terminated their parental rights and supported their sons adoption by the Brackeens.

But a year later, Navajo officials intervened to block the adoption and send the child to live with other tribal members. A state judge denied the Brackeens adoption petition based on the federal law, but the Texas couple prevailed when the placement arranged by the Navajos withdrew.

The Brackeens later tried to adopt a second child from the same Navajo mother, believing the young girl would benefit from being raised with her brother. The couple decided to lead a lawsuit on behalf of other families challenging what they called the discriminatory provisions of the law.

Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton sued as well and referred to the federal law as an unconstitutional race-based scheme.

He argued that the Constitutions guarantee of equal protection of the laws forbids discriminating among people based on their race. He also argued the law violated the 10th Amendment and the principle of states rights by imposing federal standards.

The issues in the case split federal courts in Texas, which upheld parts of the law and struck down others. Four separate appeals came before the high court, including one filed on behalf



of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to hold a Cabinet post.

The court combined the appeals and agreed to hear them together in the case of Haaland vs. Brackeen.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A student was shot and killed inside Ingraham High School in North Seattle on Tuesday morning and a suspect is in custody, according to Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Police said they received reports of shots fired at the school at 1819 North 135th Street at 9:55 a.m. on Tuesday. The school went into lockdown to protect students.

Students told KIRO 7 two people starting fighting in a hallway when things quickly escalated and at least five shots were fired.

Officers entered the school and found one victim with a gunshot wound.

Four minutes. Within 4 minutes we were (at the school) performing CPR, Seattle Police Chief Adrien Diaz said during a news conference. However, the victim could not be saved.

Seattle Public Schools assistant superintendent of public affairs Beverly Redmond said the victim was a student.

We do not believe this was a random act of violence, Redmond said in a statement released late Tuesday morning.

Officers searched the area for a suspect. During a news conference at about 11:05 a.m., Diaz said that someone had been arrested.

Witnesses told KIRO 7 that a male suspect was arrested at a nearby bus stop on Aurora Avenue North near 145th. A dozen officers armed with semi-automatic rifles swarmed the area and arrested the suspect, who did not resist, according to witnesses.

According to Diaz, a gun was recovered when the suspect was arrested. He did not confirm if the gun was the weapon used during the incident.

Meanwhile, hundreds of anxious parents packed a school parking lot, waiting to be reunited with their children. The process was slow, but once reunited, there were tears and embraces.

Its insane. I mean, what type of world are we living in, a parent told KIRO 7.

Classes are canceled on Wednesday and Thursday.

Diaz said investigators will spend the next several days reviewing surveillance video at the school, speaking to witnesses, and running ballistics tests on the gun found with the suspect.

Note: A previous version of this story stated that the suspect arrested was a student. Police have not officially confirmed that information and this article has been adjusted to reflect that.

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A student was shot and injured inside Ingraham High School in North Seattle on Nov. 8, 2022.

A suspect was taken into custody about an hour later.

Police said they received reports of shots fired at the school at 1819 North 135th Street at 9:55 a.m. on Tuesday.

The school went into lockdown to protect students.

Officers entered the school and found one victim with a gunshot wound.

That person was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Seattle Public Schools assistant superintendent of public affairs Beverly Redmond said the victim was a student.

Officers searched the area for a suspect. During a news conference, Seattle Police Chief Adrien Diaz announced that a suspect had been arrested.

Witnesses told KIRO 7 that a male suspect was arrested at a nearby bus stop on Aurora Avenue North near 145th. A dozen officers armed with semi-automatic rifles swarmed the area and arrested the suspect, who did not resist, according to witnesses.

Seattle police have not confirmed the location of the arrest.

Parents waited for hours to be reunited with students after police determined it was safe to do so.

Dozens of parents waiting to be reunited with their children. @KIRO7Seattle pic.twitter.com/HmzvtxgTpL  Briseida Holguin (@BriseidaHolguin) November 8, 2022

Police are directing parents to a family staging area on campus, that line of parents getting longer and longer. @KIRO7Seattle https://t.co/k9vIgGgEK6 pic.twitter.com/A87Q6jpiYc  Briseida Holguin (@BriseidaHolguin) November 8, 2022

IHS FAMILIES: Reunification will start in appx 10 minutes. Students will be released one classroom at a time to the auditorium, where families can sign them out. If a student is 18, they will be allowed to leave as long as they check out. Transportation plan details to come.  Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) November 8, 2022
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dungeness, Kent (PA Wire)

Two suspected people smugglers were arrested on Wednesday as part of an international crackdown on immigration crime.

The men are being questioned over facilitating small boats crossings.

Met detectives worked with immigration enforcement officers to arrest the London-based pair on behalf of Belgian authorities, the Home Office said.

They are believed to be part of an organised crime gang operating between Belgium, France and the UK,

The 29-year-old and 42-year-old, were arrested on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration and taken into custody following the predawn raid on Wednesday morning.

A linked suspect was also arrested in France in the operation, which was overseen by Europol.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said: This operation shows our determination to dismantle the people-smuggling gangs that are orchestrating illegal immigration to the UK.

Close intelligence cooperation with our European partners is vital to prevent illegal crossings and ensure those profiting from these dangerous journeys face the consequences of their despicable actions.

The arrests follow an international investigation conducted by UK, French and Belgian authorities.

The Metropolitan has started extradition proceedings for both suspects as part of a wider investigation.

Stephen Blackwell, Assistant Director for Criminal and Financial Investigations, Immigration Enforcement said: We are committed to disrupting the activity of people smugglers and will continue to work hard with our law enforcement partners across Europe to bring them to justice.
FURUQLUS, Syria (AP)  Newly installed turbine compressors at a gas facility in central Syria will lead to a production increase that will help ease the war-torn countrys electricity crisis, officials at the sprawling facility said Wednesday.

The Syrian Gas Co. facility in the central province of Homs suffered a series of attacks during Syrias 11-year conflict, including the kidnapping of staff, a suicide car bomb, barrages of rockets and strikes by drones that killed 11 people at the facility, according to Fadi Ibrahim, who heads the Syria South Gas plant.

Syrias conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced half the countrys population of 23 million and caused damage worth tens of billions of dollars has hit hard the countrys oil and gas facilities. In recent years, intense clashes erupted around gas fields in central Syria mostly between government forces and members of the Islamic state group.

To the east, the countrys largest oil fields are in the hands of U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters depriving the government of the resource and its income.

Amin Aldagree, director general of the Syrian Gas Co., said two gas turbine engine compressors have been installed and are functioning while two more will be ready by the end the of year. He said in the future, two compressors will work and the other two will be on standby.

We have started feeling the tangible results, Aldagree told The Associated Press adding that the expected increase will be about 500,000 cubic meters (17.6 million cubic feet) a day. He said gas will be delivered to customers such as power stations and as gas cylinders for clients.

He said the project is part of a contract with Russias Stroytransgaz, an engineering company in the oil and gas industry.

Aldagree said a major problem they have faced over the years is getting spare parts for the machines due to Western sanctions imposed on Syrias government after the conflict started. He said recently, Syrian engineers have been able to make spare parts in the country.

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The officials did not say by how many hours a day electricity supplies would increase. The capital Damascus gets an average of between eight and 12 hours per day.

Syrian government forces now control much of the country, thanks to allies Russia and Iran, which have helped tip the balance of power in Assads favor. Gas fields in Homs province now are mostly safe after Syrian troops captured much of the province.

Last year, Syrias Electricity Ministry signed a $115 million contract with an Iranian company to rebuild a power station in a central province. Also last year, Syria signed a contract with a group of companies from the United Arab Emirates to construct a solar power station in a suburb of Damascus.
The Pierce County Prosecuting Attorneys Office added the three Tacoma police officers charged in the March 2020 killing of Manuel Ellis to a list of law enforcement with credibility issues this month, according to a spokesperson.

The prosecutors Potential Impeachment evidence files, commonly known as Brady material, for officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine include charging documents filed by the state Attorney Generals Office in May 2021, which cite video and witness accounts of the officers beating Ellis, who did not fight back, prior to his death from a lack of oxygen. The officers described Ellis as the aggressor in comments at the scene and during their first interviews with Pierce County Sheriffs detectives days later.

Those charging documents will now be provided to defense attorneys if any of the officers are used as a witness in a criminal trial.

Being included on the list can make it difficult for an officer to move to another department because state law requires agencies to consult prosecuting attorneys offices about lateral hires as a part of background checks, according to former attorney and Washington Coalition for Police Accountability spokesperson Leslie Cushman.

Cushman said there is a stigma among law enforcement about being labeled a Brady officer, which references a 1963 Supreme Court decision that prosecutors cant withhold material evidence from defendants.

It doesnt end their career, Cushman told The News Tribune. They can keep on working and they still get promotions, but they are not reliable in court.

Burbank and Collins face charges of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Rankine, who responded to the incident with Ellis as backup, is charged with first-degree manslaughter. All three have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to face trial in late January.

The officers have remained on paid leave since they were charged. Police Chief Avery Moore has indicated he wont decide whether to fire the officers until after their trial.

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The Washington State Patrol took over the investigation of Ellis killing following the revelation that a Pierce County deputy had helped restrain him. The state Attorney Generals Office conducted additional investigation and decided to charge the officers after the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorneys Office withdrew from the case.

Elected Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett is not a part of the committee that decided to add the officers to its so-called Brady list, according to spokesperson Adam Faber. She has yet to weigh on those decisions since her election in 2018.

The Potential Impeachment committee, which has been formalized during Robnetts tenure, is comprised of both criminal and civil deputy prosecuting attorneys, according to Faber.

There are three primary ways the conduct of an officer or recurring law enforcement witness comes before the committee: a referral from an officers own agency, a complaint from a prosecutor or news reports about potential misconduct.

The committee then asks a referred officers agency for files about their conduct, Faber said.

The committee has a standing monthly meeting to make Potential Impeachment list decisions, according to Faber. The group typically comes to a consensus after prosecutors share their opinions.

A spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
As gunshot victim Cortez Hinton lay wounded in a Bronx street, 19-year-old Jovant Erazo drove a car over him four times, a Bronx prosecutor said Wednesday after Erazos bust by 41st Precinct detectives on murder and vehicular manslaughter charges.

This is giving me hope, the victims mother Toni Hinton said of the arrest, the first to be made in the case.

Police were still looking Wednesday for the shooter as well as two passengers in the car Erazo allegedly was driving. Detectives believe the slaying was connected to drugs.

I want all of them who did this, Toni Hinton told the Daily News by phone from her home in North Carolina Wednesday. They need to be off the street and anybody thats harboring them needs to go too.

Cortez Hinton, 33, was shot as he walked along Kelly St. near Westchester Ave. in Foxhurst about 8:10 a.m. on Oct. 15.

Nearby, a man dressed in black and wearing light-colored sneakers spoke to two people sitting in a red car before he ran up the block toward Hinton and opened fire, police said.

Hinton, wounded in the torso and groin, collapsed to the ground  and Erazo drove a car over him, police said.

At the time of the incident, police said the car was backed over Hinton twice  and that the car traveled around the block before running over Hinton again.

The car was stolen, Bronx Assistant DA John Bennett said at Erazos arraignment Wednesday in Bronx Criminal Court.

Erazo ran over Hinton not once, not twice, not three times, but four times, Bennett said.

Responding medics found Hinton suffering from severe trauma to his head and body. He was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he died about three hours later.

Eight bags stuffed with marijuana were recovered at the scene, police said at the time. Before the slaying, Hinton had fought with the men in Erazos car, Bennett said in court.

The day of the killing, police released surveillance video of the shooter.

Hintons mother has struggled to make sense of the slaying. The victims brother, Quinton Hinton, was fatally shot at age 25 alongside another man in North Carolina in 2010, his mother said.

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I cant wrap my head around any of this, Toni Hinton said last month after Cortezs death. Its very hurtful. I have to go through this all over again.

Cortez Hinton, her second-oldest child, had been married for about six years. He did not have any children of his own but spent time with his nieces and nephews.

A funeral for Hinton was held last week in the Bronx, his mom said.

It hurts me to my heart, she said. My whole neighborhood in Harlem was shocked by this. This is just so unbelievable.

Erazo, of the Crotona section of the Bronx, has 24 prior arrests for things such as burglary, grand larceny, robbery, assault on a police officer, menacing and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, Bennett said at the court hearing.

Bronx Criminal Court Judge Margaret Martin ordered Erazo held without bail.

Cortez Hinton had nine prior arrests in the city, ranging from criminal possession of a weapon to burglary, according to police. The victims mother said she doesnt know Erazo, or why her son was targeted.

They went out and shot an unarmed man. Like, really? Toni Honton asked.

I just worry about the police getting them. I dont care if theyre 13  just get them because no one has no right to do that.

(He) shouldnt see the light of day, she said of Erazo. They need to throw the whole book at him. These children need to learn the company you keep can take you down.

Hintons mom vowed to attend future court dates, and said she has some questions for the suspects.

(I want you to) tell me why you did what you did, she said of Erazo. (My son) had no gun, no weapon. You shoot somebody and ride over him with a car? Thats crazy.

Anyone with information about the other wanted suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
A 71-year-old man was found shot to death after a teenager was found to be driving with a handgun in the victims car in Mercer County.

According to Pennsylvania State Police, troopers conducted a traffic stop on a car committing several traffic violations on Interstate 80 in Findley Township on Nov. 5 at 8:16 a.m.

Police said numerous indicators of criminal activity were observed prior to and during the traffic stop. These indicators suggested the driver, who was 14 years old, had just stolen the car.

Police also said there was a handgun in the car.

Police tried to contact the owner of the car, a 71-year-old man from Euclid, Ohio, but he couldnt be reached.

According to police, the circumstances of the incident led officials to believe the teen shot the owner of the car and then stole it.

The trooper who stopped the juvenile called the Euclid Police Department and told them what was going on, including how he believed the owner of the car had been shot.

Police said officers went to the mans house to perform a welfare check and found that he had been shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The teenager is being held in a detention facility.

Members of the Pennsylvania State Police, the Mercer County District Attorneys Office, the City of Euclid, Ohio Police Department, and the Cuyahoga County District Attorneys Office are currently conducting a joint investigation.

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Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday introduced a measure to prohibit transgender youth under 18 from accessing gender-affirming health care, stating the legislature has a responsibility to protect the health and welfare of minors.

The bill, titled the Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act, was introduced Wednesday by Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and House Majority Leader William Lamberth, both of whom won reelection on Tuesday in the midterm elections.

Under the proposed measure, health care providers in Tennessee will be barred from providing gender-affirming medical care to minors for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minors sex.

The measure includes exceptions for youth that require treatments like puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for reasons other than the treatment of gender dysphoria or mental condition, disorder, disability, or abnormality.

The state legislature is set to meet next in January.

Cultural forces from the left would like us to accept an alarming new myth; that gender is not a biological reality, Lamberth wrote in an October op-ed in the Tennessean announcing his intent to introduce the bill.

Lamberth said he was working with Johnson and conservative podcaster and Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh.

Walsh has crusaded against gender-affirming medical care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for transgender youth, accusing doctors of mutilating children and calling for penalties.

Social media posts from Walsh claiming that Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee chemically castrates minors went viral earlier this year, spurring Gov. Bill Lee (R) to call for an investigation into the hospitals transgender clinic. Lee also won reelection on Tuesday.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has accused Walsh of misrepresenting facts about the care provided to young transgender patients. Last month, the hospital announced it would be pausing gender-affirming surgeries for transgender youth for up to several months while it conducts a review.

Early last month, 60 Tennessee House Republicans signed onto a letter addressed to the hospitals president and board of directors, calling the clinics practices nothing less than abuse and promising swift action from the state legislature.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Insider

Polls closed in Texas at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple time zones, the first polls closed at 8 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 9 p.m. EST.

Texas, a Republican bastion that in recent cycles has flirted with swing-state status, gained two congressional seats as part of the most recent redistricting cycle and will send 38 members to Congress.

Of the state's congressional races, three in particular  in Texas' 15th District, its 28th District, and 34th District  had national implications, as control the House of Representatives will be decided in such competitive districts. The 34th featured a rare member-versus-member general election.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also faced voters in a winning bid for re-election against Democrat Beto O'Rourke, and the state had an intriguing race for attorney general, where embattled Republican Ken Paxton was up for re-election. The cities of Corpus Christi and Austin cast ballots for mayor.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple time zones, the first polls closed at 8 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

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The littoral combat ship Wichita suffered a problem in its propulsion plant last month as the ship was on its way home from deployment. But Navy officials say they do not think the mishap was due to the same combining gear issue that has hobbled other Freedom-class LCS in recent years.

No one was injured in the Oct. 19 mishap, and Naval Surface Force Atlantic officials declined to provide further details, citing an ongoing investigation into the cause.

But the casualty was significant enough that the Naval Safety Command has dubbed it a Class A mishap, which involves damages exceeding $2.5 million.

The Wichita was commissioned in January 2019, less than four years ago.

The warship was able to return to its home port in Mayport, Florida, under its own power two days later, following a deployment to U.S. 4th Fleet, where it helped interdict nearly 10,000 pounds of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea, according to a Navy release and SURFLANT spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jason Fischer.

The congressional fight to scrap littoral combat ships isnt over

The Navy has suffered two afloat Class A mishaps in fiscal 2023, which began on Oct. 1.

Six days after Wichitas mishap, a SEAL Delivery Vehicle  basically a mini SEAL submarine  allided with an object during training.

Fischer said that, while the cause of Wichitas malfunction remains unclear, the command is confident it wasnt a combining gear issue.

The Navy and industry partners are having to replace faulty combining gear on the Freedom class of LCS to rectify a propulsion issue that caused multiple ships to break down and halted delivery of future vessels, even as Big Navy seeks to rid itself of its littoral combat ships to free up dollars.

Wichita has yet to go through the combining gear repair process, officials said.

It is one of nine Freedom-class LCS that Big Navy wants to decommission as part of its FY 2023 budget proposal, a move that the service hopes would free up dollars for spending elsewhere.

Story continues

The full Congress has yet to hammer out a final version of the defense policy bill, and it remains to be seen whether the Navy will be allowed to decommission so many young, pricey ships. Earlier this year, however, the House version of the 2023 defense appropriations bill reduced the number of decommissionings from nine to four.

The combining gear is basically a complex transmission that connects power from two large gas turbine engines and two main propulsion diesel engines to the ships propulsion shafts.

The class-wide combining gear problem has resulted in limited top speeds for the Freedom LCS that havent received modifications, but ships are still able to operate, according to the Navy.

Correction: this story initially misstated the age of USS Wichita. Wichita is roughly four years old.
Footage from the TikTok videos of Devan Bonagura giving a Walmart worker $110,000. TikTok; @dbon973_

A TikToker raised nearly $170,000 in a GoFundMe to help an older Walmart worker retire.

The worker originally told him she needed to keep working to pay her mortgage.

The TikToker told viewers he'd been suspended with pay from his job for making the videos.

A 15-second TikTok video has raised almost $170,000 for a Walmart worker to retire.

TikToker Dbon973_  real name Devan Bonagura  recently posted a November 3 TikTok of a Walmart worker, identified by her nametag as Nola, as she sat alone in the Walmart break room. (Bonagura later said he didn't work at Walmart but for a third-party company that sells products at the retailer). "Life shouldn't be this hard," he wrote in text over the video, which has since been viewed more than 24.1 million times on the app.

In response to encouragement from commenters, Bonagura set up a GoFundMe the same day for the worker. In 24 hours, it had raised over $100,000.

He also posted a video of himself on November 5 meeting up with Nola to transfer the account over to her shortly after.

"They saw that you're a very hard worker, obviously," he told the woman. "We are all super proud of you, and we wanted to offer you the $110,000 that has been raised for you."

"I'd accept it, but I'd still have to work until I get the other $60,000 paid off the house," she told him, seemingly nonplussed at the donations raised. She agreed that the sum would help, noting that the mortgage would "go way down" and it wouldn't "take long now" to save up the remaining amount.

Walmart's average wage is $19 for hourly workers, and saving $60,000 would likely require Nola to work several additional years. If she were working 40 hours a week, she'd be making $39,520 a year before taxes and day-to-day expenses like food and transportation factored in.

At the time of writing, the GoFundMe is now at $168,800, close to the grand total Nola estimated she needed to retire, which she said she planned to do "as soon as I get it. That's what's holding me at work  the house."

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Retirement is not a given for millions of US workers. According to a September 2021 Boston College study, 36% of older Americans don't have the savings to take care of themselves for even a year. A single elderly person with a mortgage and in good health in New Jersey, where the Bonagura appears to live, would need $43,788 per year on average to afford retirement, according to the University of Massachusetts-Boston Elder Index.

According to Bonagura, Walmart told him they were receiving threats because of his videos.

"They're getting a lot of backlash, so they told me I need to delete the video and delete the GoFundMe and return all the money to the people that donated it or they're going to get the cops involved," he said in a November 4 video. "So, I told them to do what you have to do because I'm getting this money to this woman one way or another."

In a separate November 5 video, Bonagura told viewers his employer had suspended him with pay. He did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Walmart did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Bonagura has posted additional philanthropic content  including a video where he tips a waitress $500 for a cup of water  to his 132K followers after Nola's video, but the TikToker's acts of charity are on a relatively smaller scale when compared to major online creators. Mr. Beast (who Bonagura tagged in other videos) grew a massive 110 million following for filming gameshow-like money giveaways and philanthropic acts in which he gave away millions of dollars.

But, critics say filming people experiencing poverty and benefit ting from "acts of kindness" can dehumanize the subjects by focusing solely on their perceived pain and, while useful in the short-term for collecting funds, oversimplifies the root causes of the societal ills they depict.

Email tips on all things internet to mleighton@insider.com .

Read the original article on Insider
Author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance won Ohios competitive U.S. Senate race on Tuesday, keeping the seat in Republican hands as the party tries to wrest control of Congress from Democrats.

Vance defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan with 53% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

Speaking to an elated crowd at a hotel in downtown Columbus, Vance lauded the accomplishments of Republicans up and down the ticket and thanked the people who helped him reach victory.

"We've been given an opportunity to do something, and that's to govern, and to govern to make the lives of the people of Ohio better," Vance said. "That's exactly what I aim to do. Because of you, I get a chance to do it."

J.D. Vance gives his victory speech during an election night party for Republican candidates for statewide offices at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus.

Analysis:How J.D. Vance won an Ohio U.S. Senate race that captured national attention | Analysis

2022 Ohio election: 2022 Ohio election: Mike DeWine wins reelection over Democrat Nan Whaley

Ohio election results: Ohio senate race between J.D. Vance vs. Tim Ryan

Vance, best known for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, spent months locked in a competitive, costly race against Ryan, a 10-term congressman. Republicans viewed holding Ohio as critical to reclaiming control of the Senate as they contended with tight races in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

The Senate majority was still up for grabs late Tuesday as other states continued to count votes.

Vance eked out a victory in a crowded GOP primary in May after securing an endorsement from Donald Trump, even though he was once critical of the former president. Trump visited Ohio on Monday to urge Ohio Republicans to line up behind his chosen candidate, his second visit to the Buckeye State in as many months.

U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance speaks to a supporter while signing his book Hillbilly Elegy after voting in the 2022 midterm election in Cincinnati on Tuesday.

Throughout the race, Vance navigated criticism that hes inauthentic and unwilling to be a bipartisan broker like retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. Questions circulated about an Ohio nonprofit he founded and later shuttered, with some accusing him of using it to jumpstart his political career. He also faced blowback over comments he made about the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

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Still, Vance found success in a message anchored around the economy and frustration over President Joe Biden. He repeatedly blasted U.S. energy policy and called for more security at the southern border. He also advocated for the traditional nuclear family, saying he opposes divorce, abortion and pornography.

Voters said on the campaign trail that they appreciated the backstory laid out in his memoir. With his victory Tuesday, Vance became the first Ohioan to win a U.S. Senate seat without running for any office previously.

Tim Ryan concedes Ohio Senate race

In Boardman, Ryan told a sad but still enthusiastic group of supporters that he called Vance to concede. He thanked his wife, Andrea, who quit her job to help with his campaign, and his three children who also campaigned for him. He said their family has one rule: No regrets.

"That's the way we operate in this country  when you lose an election, you concede," Ryan said. "You respect the will of the will people. We can't have a system where, if you win it's a legitimate election and if you lose, they stole it. That is not how we move forward in the U.S."

Ryan easily fended off his May primary challengers and spent the summer dominating the airwaves. He pushed for an end to stupid fights in Washington and presented himself as moderate, even though hes voted with Bidens policies 100% of the time. Some voters said they split their ticket between Ryan and Gov. Mike DeWine in Tuesdays election.

Like Vance, Ryan focused heavily on kitchen table issues, training his message on a tax cut to help people weather high costs. He spoke often about upping economic competition against China, a message that some felt would encourage anti-Asian sentiment. He also touted federal laws that increased the scope of Intels project in central Ohio and provided funds to improve roads and bridges across the state.

The congressman largely stayed away from social issues, with the exception of abortion access. He cast the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as government overreach and supported legislation that would codify abortion protections.

Ryan also outraised Vance every step of the way, bringing in a record $48 million and spending over $45 million. Vance, meanwhile, got outside help from national GOP groups that didn't initially plan to funnel resources to Ohio.

But Ryan always faced an uphill battle in a state that Trump won by 8 percentage points. While he boasted support from some Republicans who were disenchanted with the GOP, it wasnt enough to flip Portmans seat.

When asked about his future plans, Ryan said, "I have no idea."

He added with a smile: "Short term  to drink wine with my wife."

Please support quality local journalism with a subscription to one of our publications.

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Senate results: JD Vance defeats Tim Ryan in Ohio Senate race
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Its too early to call a winning side in the effort to give the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature a bigger say over how the state regulates businesses, protects peoples health and preserves the environment.

The proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution on Tuesday's ballot would make it easier for lawmakers to overturn regulations written by state agencies and boards under the control of the governor and others in the executive branch. At issue are rules as varied as how elk hunting permits are distributed and which shots are required for children attending schools.

The measure would allow lawmakers to suspend or revoke regulations with a simple majority vote in both chambers.

The Legislature has a joint committee that reviews regulations, but if lawmakers object to one their most effective tactic is to object loudly and push the agency to back off. They also can pass a bill overturning the rule, but the governor can veto it.

Business groups and advocates of smaller government view the measure as reining in unelected bureaucrats. But abortion rights advocates see the measure as an attempted power grab by far-right legislators.

Tuesday's vote came three months after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to give lawmakers authority to more tightly regulate or ban abortion.
Thomas Hicks, chairman of the US Election Assistance Commission. Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks says poll workers are counting votes "fairly and accurately."

Voter intimidation has been absent at almost all polling stations nationwide, he said.

Anyone who stops someone from voting is committing a crime and "should be prosecuted," he said.

Despite unsettling images of men in tactical gear stalking ballot boxes, there have been almost no reports of Election Day voter intimidation, the nation's top election administrator said Tuesday.

Tens of millions of Americans are casting their ballots freely and fairly, and tens of thousands of poll workers across the nation are doing their duties "with high integrity and working truly hard to make sure votes are counted fairly and accurately," US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks told Insider.

Hicks also had a warning for anyone who sought to intimidate or harass a person exercising his or her right to vote.

"If someone is eligible to cast their vote, they should be able to do so free and without any encumbrance, and those who put those encumbrances up there to harass or intimidate should be prosecuted," Hicks said.

"If anyone is looking to suppress votes or looking to intimidate voters so they don't cast their ballots, that's still illegal," he added. "If anyone feels threatened, they should report that to their local law enforcement, they should report that to their local election official and they should still cast their ballot and not have that fear."

In West Bend, Wisconsin, that's exactly what happened, as police arrested a man with a knife who demanded election workers shut down a polling station.

While voter intimidation may seem like a new phenomenon, it's not, noted Hicks, whose bipartisan agency serves as the federal government's clearinghouse for voting information, resources and funding, and works closely with local jurisdictions to help them administer elections.

"The fact is that there have been people who have died for our right to vote, and there have been people who've tried to restrict that right for the last 200 years for whatever category you want to throw out there," Hicks said.

Story continues

Some good news: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, legions of younger Americans have volunteered to become poll workers and help administer elections  a patriotic act, he said.

"I view this as another way to serve our country," Hicks said.

But voting in the United States is hardly perfect, he acknowledged.

Numerous challenges remain. Vote counting is sometimes slow and people "need to be patient," he said. Election meddling remains a persistent threat. Former President Donald Trump, among others, continues to spread lies about elections past and present.

And, on a more pedestrian level, perhaps, the quality of voting equipment and systems is hardly uniform across the country, as a Brennan Center for Justice and Verified Voting study this year indicated.

A "dedicated funding stream" is necessary to ensure that voters everywhere can rely on future elections being well-run and efficient, Hicks said.

"They want to make sure they have the best equipment possible to do their job," he said of election administrators.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- Indonesian stocks and Southeast Asian banks are the preferred picks for a top-performing JPMorgan Chase & Co. fund focused on the region.

Most Read from Bloomberg

High-for-longer commodity prices, economic reopening and a revival in tourism will buoy the overall market in 2023, Stacey Neo, co-manager of the JPMorgan Asean Equity fund, said in an interview. Foreign ownership continues to be very low in this region given the outflows weve seen historically, and theres potential for continued upward earnings revisions based on the results season, she added.

Southeast Asia has been one of the few bright spots in global equities in 2022, as higher commodity prices supported exporters such as Indonesia and rising rates were seen as good for banks, which account for about 40% of the benchmark MSCI Asean Indexs weight. Indonesias gauge is among the top-performing major measures globally, near a record high, while the MSCI AC World Index is down 22%.

The Singapore-based executive particularly likes banks in Indonesia and Singapore that will benefit from margin expansion in an environment of rising interest rates and sticky inflation, as well as higher loan demand and increased adoption of technology.

PT Bank Central Asia has one of the lowest loan-to-deposit ratios regionally and can lend without compromising, while DBS Group Holdings Ltd. has a large current-account-savings-account franchise, she said. The firms, the top two holdings of the fund as of end-September, reported a jump in latest-quarter earnings.

Forward earnings estimates for the MSCI Asean gauge are up almost 5% since the end of March, with financials seeing one of the biggest sectoral upgrades in the last three months as downgrades continue for global stocks.

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Neos $1.45 billion fund is the only one to deliver a positive return among 14 offshore Asean-focused products, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. It has returned 0.4%. The Southeast Asia benchmark is down 13% and the Jakarta Composite Index is up more than 7%.

Most Southeast Asia economies are forecast to grow more than 4% in 2023 as economies fight inflation and continue to rebound from the pandemic.

Neo also likes electric vehicle-related stocks in Indonesia as the country develops its vast nickel reserves and plans to subsidize purchases of electric cars next year. Overall, Chinas eventual reopening will be another catalyst for the region, particularly for Thailand, Neo said. The worlds second-largest economy is Southeast Asias biggest trading partner and accounts for more than 20% of tourists.

The fund has its biggest overweights in Indonesia and Vietnam, and is underweight Malaysia and the Philippines.

Foreign funds have poured a net $5.6 billion into Indonesian shares this year, poised to be the biggest annual inflow on record.

--With assistance from Lianting Tu, Marcus Wong and Michelle Jamrisko.

(Adds foreign inflows data for Indonesia in the last paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) -- Candidates for key posts in battleground states who support former President Donald Trumps unfounded claims of election fraud in 2020 were racking up defeats as the races were called.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Nationally, more than 225 candidates for governor, secretary of state, attorney general and US Congress on the ballot Tuesday were election deniers.

But the most closely watched races were for key positions in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that would put the winners in a position to oversee the 2024 election.

Some election deniers will be headed to the US Senate, including Ted Budd in North Carolina, JD Vance in Ohio and Markwayne Mullin in Oklahoma. But New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc lost to incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan.

Kristina Karamo Defeated in Michigan

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated election denier Kristina Karamo Tuesday, winning a second term to oversee voting in the presidential battleground state.

Benson beat the conservative commentator with 55% of the vote compared to 42% for Karamo, with most of the votes counted. That followed a barrage of third-party ads that attacked Karamo for her baseless claims about the 2020 election and remarks in which she said abortion was child sacrifice and that casual sex could lead to demonic possession.

In Michigan, 59% of voters backed a ballot measure that was almost a line-by-line rebuke of Trumps attacks on elections: adding a nine-day early voting period, requiring state-funded ballot drop boxes, making it harder to dispute certification of results, and allowing local elections officials to accept charitable donations like those given out by Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2020.

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Matthew DePerno Defeated in Michigan

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel won a second term Tuesday, defeating a Republican election denier who is currently under investigation in a case involving tampering with voting machines.

Nessel defeated attorney Matthew DePerno with 53% of the vote compared to DePernos 45% with most of the votes counted after a race that centered on Trumps baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the battleground state.

A special prosecutor is investigating whether DePerno participated in a plan to improperly access voting equipment in several areas as part of an attempt to prove conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

DePerno conceded the loss on Twitter.

Audrey Trujillo Defeated in New Mexico

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver defeated election denier Audrey Trujillo to win a second full term in office.

The Democratic incumbent won 54.5% to 42.7% with 97.8% of the results counted, according to the Associated Press.

Truillo initially refused to concede but later changed course and was set to contact Toulouse Olivers campaign shortly, according to her campaign manager.

Trujillo had falsely claimed that Trump won New Mexico, which he lost by more than 10 percentage points, and shared conspiracy theories, including that President Joe Biden has been replaced by a clone or body double and that the deep state creates school shootings in order to pass gun control measures.

Kim Crockett Defeated in Minnesota

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon defeated election denier Kim Crockett to win a third term Tuesday, in a closely watched race to be the states top elections official.

The Democratic incumbent beat Crockett, 55% to 45%, with most of votes counted, according to the AP.

A former state representative, Simon won re-election as secretary of state in 2018 by nearly 9 percentage points, but he faced an unexpectedly competitive race against Crockett, who called the 2020 election rigged and illegitimate.

During the Republican state convention, Crocketts campaign aired a video that showed Simon, who is Jewish, being controlled with puppet strings by Soros Fund Management chairman George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The Minnesota secretary of state race was a top target for Democratic-aligned groups that spent $46 million in an effort to stop election deniers from taking offices with power over upcoming elections.

Tim Michels Defeated in Wisconsin

Democratic Governor Tony Evers won a second term Tuesday, defeating a Republican who questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election in the battleground state.

With almost all the votes counted, Evers beat construction company co-owner Tim Michels 51% to 48%, according to race calls by ABC and NBC.

A first-time candidate, Michels won a crowded Republican primary and was endorsed by Trump, who said Michels would help end the well-documented fraud in our elections.

Michels said that if elected he would consider a bill to decertify the 2020 election, a move backed by some election deniers that has no basis in state or federal law.

Tudor Dixon Defeated in Michigan

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer defeated election denier Tudor Dixon Tuesday, winning a second term in the presidential battleground state.

Whitmer beat the conservative commentator after a campaign in which Dixon repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of Bidens win in the 2020 election. With two-thirds of the votes counted, Whitmer was ahead 52% to 47%, according to ABC and NBC.

After the 2020 vote, Dixon spread Trumps baseless claims of widespread fraud, even tweeting in response to him that leftists had planned to steal an election and saying that their voter fraud was sloppy and obvious.

During debates in the Republican primary this year, she said that she believed Trump actually won the election and that voting was not fair, but as she closed in on the nomination, she backed slightly away, saying that she didnt know who won but that a lot of folks in the state were concerned.

J.R. Majewski Defeated in Ohio House Race

US Representative Marcy Kaptur defeated an election denier who was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 in a closely watched race in Ohio.

The longest-serving woman currently in Congress, Kaptur beat J.R. Majewski, 56% to 43% with most of the votes counted, after a barrage of ads featuring footage of the attack on the Capitol.

Majewski first gained attention after using 120 gallons of chalk paint to turn his lawn into a massive Trump 2020 banner, which he later modified to Trump 2Q2Q in an apparent reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

He attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally near the White House and then made his way to the steps of the Capitol but has said that he did not break through any police barriers or commit any crimes.

Doug Mastriano Defeated as Pennsylvania Governor

Democrat Josh Shapiro defeated Republican Doug Mastriano in the governors race after a sustained ad campaign that targeted the Republican for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In a controversial move, Shapiro spent some of his sizable campaign war chest to elevate the cash-strapped Mastriano in a crowded Republican primary, hoping his extreme positions on elections and abortion would make him easier to beat.

Shapiro won handily with more than 55% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Mastriano was outside the US Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and worked as a state senator to try to overturn Trumps loss to Biden.

At an election night event, Mastriano did not immediately concede, but suggested he would when the count was completed.

It is a constitutional republic that we have, and the people get the last word, he said. And what the people of Pennsylvania say, well of course respect that, he said.

--With assistance from Jennah Haque and Jennifer Kay.

(Updates New Mexico race)

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2022 Bloomberg L.P.
When shes not busy building e-commerce brands or running her own, multimillionaire Christianna Hurt spends her free time tapping into her inner adventurer. Traveling the world seems to have become Hurts second job and when shes out exploring, she likes to do it in style.

Luxury is at the top of Hurts travel checklist. Her six-figure income allows her to peruse the world with elegance and class. From 4-star hotels to lavish helicopter rides, Hurt knows how to travel gracefully to any destination.

In August, Hurt traveled to Iceland to experience an active volcano eruption. She had a time limit to make it there otherwise shed miss the eruption. With no time to spare, she planned a trip on her own and made her way to Iceland for a 72-hour adventure.

The thirteenth country shes visited this year, Hurt sought out Iceland with clear intentions. Shed seen other volcanoes around the world. But this time, she decided to conquer it in luxury and style.

A Volcanic Obsession

Photo Courtesy of Christianna Hurt.

Hurt has had an obsession with volcanoes since she was a little girl. Throughout her adult life, she made it a point to see as many of them around the world as she could. On her last excursion to Guatemala, she was told the volcano was sleeping. There was no action. Only a sleeping giant.

So when she found out the Meradalir Volcano in Iceland was going to erupt in August, she had to be there.

Ive been trying to see an active volcano for about a year and a half, she said. Id been very pressed about seeing it.

Meradalir hadnt erupted in over 6,000 years and Hurt had every intention of being there to witness it. However, she had a very specific plan when it came to how she wanted to experience the volcano. She wanted her trip to have a sense of luxury that allowed her to enjoy every aspect of the experience.

On her last visit to a volcano, Hurt hiked six hours to the top. The journey left her exhausted and depleted. By the time she reached the top, the only thing she was interested in was going home.

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Hurt didnt want Iceland to be a repeat of that trip. So she arranged to have a private helicopter fly her directly up to the active volcano sight.

I felt like travel shouldve always been luxury, she said. And wanted to really get the full experience.

No Time To Wait

Photo Courtesy of Christianna Hurt.

Iceland has over 35 active volcanoes. However, the time Hurt has to see Meradalir erupt was limited. Shed only found out a short time beforehand that the eruption was taking place. So she had no time to waste planning her overseas excursion.

Her plan was to work smarter and not harder on this trip. Luxury was always at the forefront of planning to ensure she was able to take advantage of every opportunity. Instead of being confined by budget constraints, Hurt wanted to do things her way and at her own pace.

Id rather just pay the extra money to do it on our time, she said.

Meradalir began erupting on August 6 and Hurt and her boyfriend spent 72 hours exploring Iceland and visiting the erupting volcano. They stayed at the Greenhouse Hotel and 101 Hotel as well as spent a day at the Blue Lagoon spa. They saw glaciers and geysers while snowmobiling and glanced upon the Golden Falls. However, despite Icelands breathtaking natural scenery, Hurt had her heart set on Meradalirs eruption.

Luxury & Lava

Photo Courtesy of Christianna Hurt.

Hurt felt in her element standing atop Meradalirs peak. It was a 20-minute helicopter ride to the top. Suddenly, the realization that she would finally see an active volcano began to dawn on her.

It was just a moment of like we really came across the world and saw an actual volcanic eruption, she said.

The helicopter took them past the 2021 eruption site where craters and gray ash crowded the mountaintop. A much different vibe from her experience in Guatemala, Hurt was able to take in the awe-inspiring moment from the skies. She traded in her hiking boots for a first-class helicopter ticket with all-star views.

This was a way I could really take in what was happening and see it erupting right in front of us, she said.

The temperature change when they landed on the volcano was extreme. Back on the ground where theyd taken off, it was a cool 50 degrees. However, once they reached the top, it was freezing. Hurt endured the 20-degree weather as she fought her way to see the eruption. But the closer they got to the volcanos mouth, the more the heat rose.

Even in the helicopter, when he got too close, the helicopter would shake because of the heat, she said.

One side of the volcano collapsed earlier that day, so Hurt had a clear view of the smoke and lava oozing out. Alas, after a lifetime of dreaming, shed finally encountered an active volcano.

Seeing Is Believing

Photo Courtesy of Christianna Hurt.

Although she makes sure to involve luxury in all of her travels, Hurt says you dont always see a lot of Black people enjoying luxury travel. Some travelers of color opt for budget options and miss out on more affluent comforts.

We dont see a lot of glamorized travel in the black community, she said.

Hurts time in Iceland was a reminder of how blessed she truly is. To be able to drop everything and fly to Iceland to watch a volcano explode is a luxury most cannot afford. However, she says she wants to see more Black people experience luxury travel so they can show others whats possible.

Sometimes its easier to believe you can achieve luxury travel when you see people who look like you actually doing it, she said.

Related: Volcano Erupts In Iceland, Tourists Injured Trying To Catch A Peek
Travelers flying out of Bostons Logan Airport are being urged to check their flight status as Tropical Storm Nicole approaches the United States.

In a tweet, Logan Airport wrote, Due to Tropical Storm Nicole, passengers are advised to check with their airline on the status of their flight before coming to the airport.

Nicole made landfall in the Bahamas on Wednesday and the storm is on path to Florida, according to National Hurricane Center forecasters.

Residents along the east coast of Florida are being told to hunker down and prepare for dangerous conditions.

Tropical moisture will be swept up the east coast with conditions in New England turning wet and windy on Friday night.

Torrential rain and gusty winds are expected between Friday night and Saturday midday, but exact details will depend on the path of Nicoles remnants.

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.

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Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to strengthen to a hurricane Wednesday as it approaches parts of east-central Florida and the Southeast coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Previously a subtropical storm, it was upgraded to a tropical storm Tuesday morning.

The tropical storm was about 395 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, and it was moving west at 10 mph.

Anywhere in that area, including places like West Palm Beach, Stewart, Melbourne, up to Daytona Beach, anywhere in here is at the risk of hurricane conditions as we are expecting Nicole to take advantage of these warm waters and go on and intensify to a hurricane as it approaches the coast during the next 36 to 48 hours, the hurricane centers acting deputy director, Michael Brennan, said in an update Tuesday.

Residents prepare sandbags ahead of a possible hurricane in Volusia County, Fla. (NBC News)

Weather conditions along the states east coast are expected to worsen Tuesday night into Wednesday as tropical storm-force winds move inland, he said.

The center of Nicole is expected to approach the northwestern Bahamas on Tuesday and be at or near hurricane strength as it moves near or over the islands Wednesday before it gets to Florida's east coast Wednesday night. The storm is then "expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia Thursday and Thursday night," the hurricane center said.

4 pm EST: #Nicole beginning to strengthen and expected to become a hurricane on Wednesday. See Key Messages below and visit https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ for details. pic.twitter.com/nGevzgOMtI  National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) November 8, 2022

Nicole is a large storm with winds of 40 mph extending up to 380 miles from the center, meaning its impact could be felt hundreds of miles from the center, especially on the north side of the storm, because of its lopsided nature.

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Hurricane conditions, including strong winds, rainfall and storm surge, are expected in the northwestern Bahamas and along Florida's east coast Wednesday, with a tropical storm warning in effect in Georgia along the East Coast, as well.

Tropical storm conditions are also possible on Florida's west coast from Bonita Beach north to the Ochlockonee River and on Georgia's east coast from the Altamaha Sound to the South Santee River in South Carolina, where tropical storm watches have been issued.

Parts of the eastern, central and northern Florida Peninsula, as well as the northwestern Bahamas, could get 3 to 7 inches of rain. Southeast Georgia and parts of South Carolina might get 1 to 4 inches, and heavy rain could spread farther north up the Eastern Seaboard late Thursday into Friday.

"Dangerous storm surge" from 3 to 5 feet is also expected along Florida and Georgia's east coast from North Palm Beach to the Altamaha Sound.

"These areas were significantly impacted, especially central and north Florida, during Hurricane Ian, so there's a lot of vulnerability there along the coast to coastal flooding, significant wave action and storm surge," Brennan said.

A storm surge watch is also in effect south of North Palm Beach down to Hallandale Beach and from the Altamaha Sound in Georgia to the South Santee River in South Carolina.

Flash flooding and urban flooding are also likely across the Florida Peninsula on Wednesday and Thursday because of rises on the St. Johns River.

In the northwest Bahamas, there may be storm surge of 4 to 6 feet above normal tide along the coast.

The east coast of Florida from Boca Raton to Volusia County remains under a hurricane watch, along with islands in the northwestern Bahamas, including Grand Bahama Island and the Abacos.

In Volusia County, residents were preparing for the storm by making sandbags to help reduce flood water damage.

Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Monday for 34 counties in the path of the storm, including Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward, Orange and Sarasota counties.

Palm Beach County, where a local state of emergency was declared Monday, issued a mandatory evacuation for residents who live in mobile home parks, on barrier islands and in low-lying areas, Mayor Robert Weinroth said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

All Palm Beach County health care clinics and district schools will be closed Wednesday and Thursday out of an abundance of caution, officials said.

Brevard County, about two hours north of Palm Beach, has recommended evacuations starting Wednesday morning. The recommendation is for residents living in mobile homes, on barrier islands and in low-lying areas. People with special medical needs that depend on electricity are also encouraged to evacuate.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will not operate tours Wednesday "due to operational restrictions," and it will close Thursday, it said in a statement.

Orlando International Airport and Melbourne Orlando International Airport both announced that they will be closing Wednesday afternoon.

If Nicole hits Florida as a hurricane, it will be only the fourth on record to make landfall in the U.S. during November. Previously, Hurricane Kate and the Yankee Hurricane hit Florida in 1985 and 1935, respectively.

The Bahamian government also issued a warning.

"The late-season storm is a reminder that were not out of the woods yet as the Atlantic hurricane season continues through November 30th," the statement read.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
As Nicole takes aim at Florida, the time to seek shelter is now.

>> Read more trending news

Where to find shelter:

In Duval County, here are the shelters that are opening Thursday at 8 a.m.:

The Legends Center - (5130 Soutel Dr.), open for general population, special needs, and pet-friendly.

Landmark Middle - (101 Kernan Blvd), open for general population and pet-friendly.

In Nassau County, here is information on the shelter that is opening for Nicole:

A shelter has been opened at the Callahan Multi-Purpose Facility located at 543350 US Highway 1, Callahan, FL 32011. This shelter is available for general population, individuals with special needs, and for pets.

In Clay County, here are the local shelters that are opening for Nicole:

Lake Asbury Jr. High (for our special needs population) opens at 2:00 PM Wednesday.

Orange Park High School and Keystone Heights Jr./ Sr. High will open at 6:00 PM Wednesday. These two shelters are pet friendly.

Service animals are allowed in our shelters if they show proof of vaccinations and they are on a leash.

In Bradford County, here is the local shelter opening for Nicole:

Starke Elementary School, 1000 West Weldon Street, Starke, Florida is open Nov. 9 at 4:30 p.m. This shelter will offer general population, special needs, and pet friendly services.

How to find a shelter

Here, from the Red Cross, is what you need to do to find a shelter and what you need to bring.

You can find information for open Red Cross shelters on redcross.org, the free Red Cross Emergency app or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

Download the app by searching American Red Cross in your app store or by going to redcross.org/apps.

Everyone in Red Cross emergency shelters is required to wear face coverings. Help is free and anyone is welcome, the Red Cross said in a statement. The agency does not require identification to enter a shelter.

You can also find a list of open shelters at floridadisaster.org.

Another option to find open shelters is to follow your county and city officials on social media.

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What about pets?

According to the Red Cross, some shelters can accommodate pets, while others may not be able to.

Our workers will do all they can to accommodate service animals and domesticated pets comfortably, the organization said. If you go to a shelter, please bring your own animal crate, supplies, medications and food whenever possible. Depending on the situation, pets may need to be housed in a different location with support from animal welfare groups.

What do you bring to a shelter?

Prescription medications

Extra clothing

Pillows

Blankets

Hygiene supplies

Comfort items

Important documents

If you are bringing children to a shelter, bring diapers, formula and toys.
(Bloomberg) -- Nicole has strengthened into a hurricane as it rolls over the Bahamas and churns toward Florida, where evacuations are underway amid the threat of powerful winds and a dangerous storm surge.

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The storm was about 105 miles (170 kilometers) east of West Palm Beach, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said in a statement at 6 p.m. local time.

Winds are the main concern with Nicole but we also expect to see heavy rains, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a briefing Wednesday.

Nicole struck Great Abaco in the Bahamas shortly before noon Wednesday. Its expected to pummel Grand Bahama before it reaches Florida, possibly coming ashore near Port St. Lucie.

Read more: Tracking Nicoles latest storm path

Government officials have ordered mandatory evacuations in at least seven counties, including Palm Beach. Utilities have about 16,000 workers staged to repair power lines in the wake of the storm. DeSantis warned residents to prepare for outages.

We are ready -- we have more than enough resources, DeSantis said.

The storms track has shifted slightly to the south since Tuesday, increasing the risk that Nicole will strike more densely populated areas. This is the 14th named Atlantic storm of the year, and comes just weeks after Hurricane Ian blew through the state, causing more than $70 billion in damages -- including to homes and infrastructure, as well as lost economic output from tourism.

Nicole is unusually large, stretching for 485 miles, and is expected to deliver a storm surge of as much as 5 feet. Surge warnings and watches run from southern Florida to South Carolina. As much as 8 inches of rain also are in the forecast.

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Its going to be a pretty damaging storm surge, said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist and author with Yale Climate Connections. Because of the geography of Floridas east coast, Jacksonville may see some of the worst impacts of the surge, and the water could reach 3 feet as far away as North Carolina.

Nicole has the potential to deliver a $2 billion economic hit, according to estimates from Kinetic Analysis Corp. Thats lower than the research company was forecasting Tuesday, in part because the longer-term track of the storm has shifted, taking it further west and inland, and its now likely to dissipate sooner in the week.

Read more: East Coast gasoline supplies at decade low as Nicole nears

Nicole may shake some fruit from trees in parts of Floridas citrus belt, cause local flooding and erode the sugar content of the states sugarcane crop, said Donald Keeney, a senior meteorologist for Maxar Technologies Inc. But the overall impact wont be significant given wind speeds of 30 to 40 miles per hour inland, where most crops grow.

Still, Floridas orange groves were battered by Ian and decades-long damage from a disease that weakened trees. Its orange output will be the smallest in almost 80 years even before accounting for Ians blow. Plunging production in the countrys top juice supplier has helped send futures in New York up 52% this year.

Read more: After $1.8 billion Ian hit, Floridas farmers brace for Nicole

Atlantic waters that are about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual are fueling Nicole as it heads from the Bahamas toward Florida, said Masters.

It will cross that gap in not very much time, he said.

--With assistance from Marvin G. Perez, Felipe Marques and Brian K. Sullivan.

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Republican candidate J.D. Vance, who received former President Trumps endorsement in a crowded primary race earlier this year, was projected Tuesday to win the Ohio Senate race.

NBC News and ABC News both called the race.

Vance defeated 20-year Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who represents Akron and Youngstown, and made the contest surprisingly close by appealing to swing voters in eastern Ohio.

Republican J.D. Vance was projected to win the Ohio Senate race against Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). (Associated Press)

Trump played a key role in the race by endorsing Vance in the Republican primary, where he came from behind to defeat former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and businessman Mike Gibbons.

Vance, the author of the best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy, was stuck in single digits in the polls and third place before he stormed to the front of the pack in the primary, buoyed by Trumps endorsement and the damage that Mandel and Gibbons inflicted on each other with personal attacks.

Vance has criticized Trump in the past, telling interviewer Charlie Rose in 2016 that he was a Never Trump guy and never liked him.

But Vance decided to embrace Trump during the primary and praised him in April as the best president of my lifetime.

Trump has reveled in Vances turnaround.

J.D. is kissing my ass; he wants my support so much, Trump quipped at a recent campaign rally in Youngstown.

Vance, who was a vocal critic of former President Trumps in the past, embraced him wholeheartedly during his Senate campaign. (Associated Press)

Vance has taken shots at other Republican leaders and embraced Trumps false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

I think the fundamental problem is we had a massive effort to shift the election by very powerful people in this country, he told Spectrum News in January. I dont care whether you say its rigged, whether you say its stolen, like, Ill say what Im going to say about it.

He declared at a rally with Trump in April that weve got a ridiculous leadership even on the Republican side that tries to undo some of the best things that Donald Trump did over the past four years.

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Vance declined to commit to voting for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) when asked about a potential Senate leadership race at a Fox News town hall event, only saying: Well see what happens when I get to Washington, D.C.

McConnell, however, raised millions of dollars for Vance through an aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which poured more than $30 million into the Ohio Senate race.

Another group affiliated with McConnell, One Nation, announced a $3.8 million multiweek ad buy in August to help Vance.

The influx of spending from outside groups helped offset Vances lackluster fundraising performance.

The Ohio Senate race remained tight through much of the fall, but Vance expanded his lead in the days leading up to the election. (Associated Press)

Vance raised $12.8 million during his Senate campaign while Ryan raised $48.1 million, according to the most recent public data posted online by the Federal Election Commission.

The fundraising discrepancy drew criticisms from Republican strategists in Washington who wondered why Vance wasnt raising more money and doing better in the polls.

The race was close to even for much of October, with the two candidates in a statistical dead heat, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.

Vance appeared to widen his lead in the final week of the campaign with polls by Republican-leaning Trafalgar Group and Democratic-leaning Data for Progress both showing Vance ahead by 10 points.

He pledged last week to accept the outcome of the Ohio race, which he said he expected to win.

I expect to win, Vance said at a town hall event in Columbus. But of course, if things dont go the way that I expect, Ill support the guy who wins and Ill try to be as supportive as possibly can, even accepting that were going to disagree on some big issues.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
PALM BEACH, Fla.  It was meant to be a crowning evening for the former president, a chance to show that he remained the axis around which the Republican Party still orbited.

It ended up a night of missed opportunities and disappointments  and rumblings of unrest within the party.

Donald Trump spent Tuesday evening at his club in Palm Beach, hosting a lavish midterm election watch party for a whos who of MAGA elite and reporters from some of the top media outlets in the country, invited there by his team.

But as the results began trickling in at Mar-a-Lago, the site of his most recent legal troubles, the party took a turn. A tropical storm barreled toward the east coast of Florida, forcing some in the press to flee for the airport and a quick flight out. Then, a different type of storm  a Republican wave  failed to materialize.

Trump was left without the triumph he was hoping for.

Interesting evening, he said to reporters before giving an update to the crowd on how some key Senate candidates were faring so far. There are some races that are hot and heavy, and were all watching them here.



Trump had spent the past year acting as a political kingmaker, picking and choosing his preferred candidates  party leadership be damned. Over the course of the midterm elections he endorsed over 330 candidates, held 30 rallies and raised millions of dollars. Tuesday was meant to be an exhibit of his muscle; a chance to celebrate Republican wins but, more importantly, witness the seeding of the party with his acolytes.

A slate of his endorsed candidates prevailed, including J.D. Vance in Ohio, Ted Budd in North Carolina, Katie Britt in Alabama and Eric Schmitt in Missouri.

But by the early hours of Wednesday morning, Republicans were down a seat in the Senate, and the House remained too close to declare a winner. And in those contests, as well as some prominent gubernatorial elections, Trumps overall record contained many notable misses. Several prominent Trump-backed candidates lost without much of a whimper, including MAGA gubernatorial candidates Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Dan Cox in Maryland, House candidates J.R. Majewski in Ohio, Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire and Yesli Vega in Virginia, and Don Bolduc, who he endorsed in the New Hampshire Senate race.

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The biggest blow of the evening came in Pennsylvania as Democrat John Fetterman defeated Trump-backed Mehmet Oz in the most expensive Senate race in the country.



As the night wore on, Republicans began to express concern that the results were not what they were expecting, or hoping for. Senior party officials vented that in too many contests, candidates had embraced positions adopted by Trump that were too far outside the mainstream.



With Trump poised to announce a 2024 bid, some said the party needed to have a post-election reckoning  and a discussion about whether the GOP needed to turn to someone else.

For his part, Trump stayed mostly out of the spotlight, choosing instead to engage the public through posts on his social media site, Truth Social. Those only underscored the difficult spin job that lies ahead for him. He cheered the demise of Republican Senate candidate Joe ODea in Colorado, who lost his race to incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet. And he claimed Bolduc was a very nice guy who lost his race for disavowing his stance that there had been fraud in Trumps 2020 election.

Perhaps of more note was that Trumps Florida showcase was overshadowed by another victory party in the Sunshine State. On Tuesday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis decisive win over Democrat Charlie Crist fueled even more speculation that he wasnt just a serious 2024 contender but a safer bet for the party than Trump.



Just hours before, Trump fired a warning shot at his potential rival, saying a DeSantis presidential run would be a mistake. But in his victory speech, DeSantis credited his pandemic policies and said in a nod to the future, I have only begun to fight. His crowd cheered him on with chants of two more years  an expression of hope that he will mount a White House bid.

Several close Trump allies had flown in that morning to join the former president at Mar-a-Lago, including Citizens United president Dave Bossie, former national security adviser to Mike Pence Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, conservative radio talk show host Sebastian Gorka, and GETTR CEO Jason Miller. Once there, they mingled under a dozen sparkling chandeliers and enjoyed a hot buffet and Trump wine. Election night programming from Fox News, OAN and CNN played on TVs, and stadium lights lit up the room like it was Times Square  a helpful addition for TV reporters and media cordoned off in the back of the room.



Trump addressed the crowd and reporters in the early evening, and mingled with guests, but he spent much of his time sitting at a table with advisers including Dan Scavino and Boris Epshteyn at the front of the ballroom. They watched election coverage on Fox News.

The former president had started his day by casting his own ballot in person in Palm Beach, where he told reporters he voted for DeSantis. But by the afternoon, his attention turned to election processes in battleground states, including Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. At one point, he took to Truth Social to spread baseless claims of fraud as local officials warned there would be delays.

There was no question as to how Trump would interpret results. Earlier in the day, he had told NewsNation he would take credit if Republicans won and no blame if they lost.

Trumps last post of the evening declared, 174 wins and 9 losses. A GREAT EVENING, and the Fake News Media, together with their partner in crime, the Democrats, are doing everything possible to play it down. Amazing job by some really fantastic candidates!

Earlier on Tuesday evening when asked why Trump should get credit for the evenings results, Miller said it is because he is the inspiration and he is the one who has recruited a number of the MAGA candidates to runno one has been out working harder for the candidates, he is still the kingmaker when it comes to the primaries and hes the one who can turn people out in the general election.

But that kingmaker status wasnt so clear to fellow Republicans by nights end.
By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday lost a bid to delay the appointment of a watchdog at his real estate company, which is facing a civil fraud lawsuit by the New York state attorney general.

The Appellate Division, a mid-level state appeals court, rejected Trump's request for a stay of Manhattan-based Justice Arthur Engoron's Nov. 3 order requiring an independent monitor for the Trump Organization.

New York Attorney General Letitia James had filed a $250 million civil lawsuit in September against Trump; his adult children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka; the New York-based Trump Organization and others for allegedly overvaluing assets and Trump's net worth through a decade of lies to banks and insurers.

She asked in October for a monitor to be installed before the case goes to trial to halt ongoing fraud at the company. That came after Trump's company created a new entity, "Trump Organization II LLC," that she viewed as a possible attempt to offload assets out of her reach.

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said at the time that the Trump Organization had "no intention of doing anything improper."

Trump said Engoron "rubber-stamped" James' attempt to interfere in private commercial transactions "without any express statutory authority." James' office has said state law allows her to sue.

Habba did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Engoron, a Manhattan trial court judge, gave both sides a Nov. 10 deadline to recommend three candidates for the job.

The order bars the defendants from transferring assets without court approval, and requires that the monitor receive a "full and accurate description" of the Trump Organization's structure and assets.

Engoron called appointing a monitor "the most prudent and narrowly tailored mechanism to ensure there is no further fraud or illegality," citing misrepresentations in Trump's statements of financial condition from 2011 to 2021.

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James' office said in a court filing earlier on Wednesday that a stay would allow Trump and his company to "engage in clandestine transactions" to prevent the attorney general from recovering funds or assets, adding that a monitor would "preserve the status quo."

Trump, a Republican, last week called Engoron's order "ridiculous," and the Trump Organization called it an attempt by James, a Democrat, to influence Tuesday's midterm elections.

The case is among many legal battles Trump faces as he mulls an expected 2024 bid for the presidency.

Testimony began last week in another Manhattan courtroom in a criminal case by the Manhattan district attorney's office accusing the Trump Organization of scheming to defraud tax authorities for at least 15 years.

The company has pleaded not guilty.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump escalated his rivalry with Ron DeSantis, warning that he would expose damaging information if the Florida governor were to challenge him for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

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If he runs, he could hurt himself very badly, Trump said in an interview Monday with Fox News and other outlets. I would tell you things about him that wont be very flattering -- I know more about him than anybody, other than, perhaps, his wife.

The threat is a familiar move from Trumps playbook to thwart potential opponents. Its also the latest sign that the former president views DeSantis as his chief rival in a potential 2024 GOP presidential primary field. Polls show DeSantis as the strongest challenger to Trump for the nomination should they both run.

I dont know if hes running, Trump said in the interview. I think the base would not like it, I dont think it would be good for the party.

Voters were casting ballots in Tuesdays consequential midterm elections as that part of Trumps interview was released. In Florida, DeSantis was re-elected by a comfortable margin against Democratic challenger and former governor Charlie Crist.

A message left with DeSantiss campaign wasnt immediately returned.

Trumps remarks in the interview marked his strongest public broadside to date against DeSantis. On Saturday, the former president flashed poll numbers on a screen showing him dominating a potential 2024 GOP presidential field and referred to the governor as Ron DeSanctimonious.

America votes

US voters are casting their verdict on Democrats governance and deciding whether to hand control of Congress to Republicans for the second half of President Joe Bidens term. A GOP takeover would usher in a new era of a divided government.

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Some polls closed in the eastern US at 7 p.m., and the early results in battleground districts will give some indication of whether Republicans will achieve a rout. Momentum has been favoring Republicans in recent weeks, with inflation and recession concerns weighing on voters minds. But abortion rights and a slate of Republican candidates backed by Trump could still motivate Democrats to head to the polls.

Americans say the economy is their No. 1 priority. The two parties competing for their votes have been painting dramatically different pictures of its current state of health.

Republicans, who need to pick up just a handful of seats to take control of Congress, have put soaring prices front and center in their campaign and pinned the blame on Biden and his party.

Inflation  which, along with the economy in general, regularly tops the lists of voter concerns  is the highest in a generation, eating into paychecks.

Democrats struggled to deliver a consistent message on the economy. At times, they promoted consumer cost savings on prescription drugs and health insurance from Bidens Inflation Reduction Act, pounded away at oil company profiteering with threats of a windfall profits tax and seized on statements from some GOP leaders threatening to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Results of some contests may not be known for days, and control of the US Senate may not be known for a month if the contest in Georgia goes to a runoff.

(Reflects DeSantis won governors race.)

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Former president Donald Trump ripped into Republican Don Bolduc following his failed senate bid against Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan Tuesday night.

Trump argued in the post that Bolducs decision to abandon the stolen election narrative once he made it out of the Republican primary cost him in the general election.

Don Bolduc was a very nice guy, but he lost tonight when he disavowed, after his big primary win, his long-standing stance on Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential PrimaryHad he stayed strong and true, he would have won, easily, Trump wrote on his social-media platform, Truth Social, Tuesday night.

Bolduc, a retired Army general, insisted that the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump during his primary against establishment candidate Chuck Morse. In August, Bolduc explained during a debate: I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, damn it, I stand by [it].

Following his victory over Morse, who had the backing of Mitch McConnells PAC to the tune of nearly $5 million, Bolduc backed away from election fraud claims.

However, the last-ditch effort to moderate and grab votes from Hassan proved lackluster. With 85 percent of the votes counted as of Wednesday morning, Hassan won her reelection bid by a comfortable ten percentage point margin.

Democrats had spied an opportunity during New Hampshires Republican primaries to support Bolduc, believing that he would present less of an electoral threat than the more moderate Morse.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumers PAC spent $3.1 million to bolster Bolduc leading up to the midterms. Their fundraising included a MAGA-style advertisement labeling Morse a puppet of the McConnell establishment.

Chuck Morse, another sleazy politician, the ad declared.

That strategy appears to have worked out well for the Democrats in retrospect.

Trump-backed candidates in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia have fared poorly thus far. Despite the former presidents endorsements and campaigning, core allies such as Arizona and Pennsylvanias gubernatorial and Senate candidates are all on track to lose.

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Correction: Trump ally Jason Miller called for the former president to hold off on his announcement until after the Georgia runoff. The information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

Former President Trump appeared undeterred by the GOPs lackluster results in Tuesdays midterm elections, indicating Wednesday that he does not plan to move his big announcement scheduled for next week.

We had tremendous success, Trump told Fox News Digital. Why would anything change?

The former president frequently hinted in the final weeks of the midterms that he imminently plans to announce a 2024 bid to return to the White House. On Monday, he said he has a big announcement planned for Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago, which many suspect will be the launch of his campaign.

While Trump touted his endorsed candidates Tuesday success to Fox News Digital, the general consensus has been that the GOP underperformed, failing to produce the anticipated red wave.

Republicans are still expected to take control of the House. The Senate, however, hangs in the balance, with many suggesting that the battle for control may come down to the December runoff race in Georgia.

The Associated Press projected that the Georgia race between Sen. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican challenger Herschel Walker would head to a runoff on Wednesday, after neither breached the required 50 percent of the vote to win the election outright.

Trump adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax on Wednesday that he is advising the former president to hold off on his announcement until after the runoff race.

Everything over this next month is about Herschel Walker and making sure we get the win there, Miller said, adding, Im advising the president to hold off until after the Georgia race, after Herschel Walker. Priorities A, B and C need to be about Herschel right now. This is bigger than anything else in the country. We gotta show the focus is on Georgia.

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Fox News contributor and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also suggested on Wednesday that Trump should wait to announce a bid until after the runoff.

I know theres a temptation to starting talking about 2024, McEnany said. However, she added, 2022 is not over. Every Republican energy needs to go to grinding the Biden agenda to a halt, and that could go straight through the state of Georgia.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has also brushed off Trumps potential announcement in recent days, calling it a terrible idea to announce before Christmas.

My sense is the former president needs better advisers if thats really what his strategys going to be, Sununu said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who easily won reelection on Tuesday, is also said to be eyeing a 2024 launch soon.

Updated Thursday at 9:58 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Twitter is turning the famous blue check mark into a symbol that denotes you've paid Elon Musk $8, rather than one that identifies public figures. But of course, if anyone with a spare $8 and a fragile ego can get verified, then the symbol is rendered meaningless, paving the way for trolls to go hard on impersonation gags. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO learned this himself firsthand, so Twitter is introducing an "official" badge, a separate form of user verification than the blue check.

A lot of folks have asked about how you'll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why were introducing the Official" label to select accounts when we launch. pic.twitter.com/0p2Ae5nWpO  Esther Crawford  (@esthercrawford) November 8, 2022

"Not all previously verified accounts will get the 'Official' label and the label is not available for purchase," explained product manager Esther Crawford in a tweet. "Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures."

The official badge seems like it will essentially represent what blue checks used to denote . . . which should not be confusing at all for over 200 million creatures of habit who log onto the bird app every day.

"The new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification  its an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features," Crawford continued in a Twitter thread. "Well continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types."

App researcher Nima Owji spotted this feature in development less than a week ago as what remains of Twitter's staff rush to meet fast deadlines.

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#Twitter is working on another badge for the notable people. pic.twitter.com/VBVnEf5NuJ  Nima Owji (@nima_owji) November 3, 2022

Twitter initially planned to roll out its new system, in which anyone can buy themselves a blue check, on Monday. But the rollout was delayed until after Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections in an attempt to curb abuse. The move was reportedly aimed at limiting the potential fallout of verified users impersonating political figures or news outlets claiming false results that may discourage others from voting.

This "official" designation would attempt to safeguard this kind of deliberate misinformation from spreading, yet it's a tall ask to educate over 200 million daily users about a new feature that will fundamentally change the way they identify and consume news on a platform that they may have been using for over a decade. Still, Twitter Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth claimed that Twitter's "core moderation capabilities remain in place" despite the company's mass layoffs.
By Sheila Dang and Fanny Potkin

(Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform Twitter will introduce an "Official" label for select verified accounts including major media outlets and governments when it launches its new $8 premium subscription product, its early stage products executive Esther Crawford said on Tuesday.

Crawford also confirmed that the revamped Twitter Blue subscription product, which will allow paid users to carry blue check marks on their accounts, will not actually verify users' identities.

The lack of ID verification is likely to raise concerns about the possibility of people impersonating public figures.

Already, such concerns have caused Twitter to hold off on launching the new version of Twitter Blue until after the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, tweeted Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety and integrity.

Fake accounts for government officials are a recurring issue for Twitter globally, according to sources familiar with the matter and researchers.

Not all Twitter accounts that were previously verified with a blue check mark will get the "Official" label and the label is not available for purchase, Crawford said.

Accounts that will receive the official label include governments, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some other public figures, she tweeted.

The introduction of a new label alongside the existing check marks "creates a confusing system" where some, but not all, previously verified accounts will be deemed official, said Jason Goldman, a former Twitter board member who served as head of product in its early years.

"It's a complete mess," he said.

The official label comes after an internal push by Twitter policy executives, who had strong concerns about government officials around the world being unlikely and unwilling to pay for verified check marks, one source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

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Twitter, which has lost many members of its communication team, did not respond to a request for further comment.

Crawford added on Tuesday that Twitter will "continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types."

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru, Fanny Potkin in Edmonton, Canada and Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Josie Kao and Stephen Coates)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury has broadened its justification for sanctioning virtual currency mixing service Tornado Cash on allegations it supports North Korea, despite criticism from users that the Treasury is targeting a service and not an organization.

In a press release, the Treasury said its Office of Foreign Asset Control had "delisted and simultaneously redesignated" the service, changing its justification from the allegation that it supported North Korean hackers to the allegation that it supported the North Korean regime more generally.

The move - which a Treasury representative said reflected the service's support for the North Korean government - still leaves Americans unable to send and receive money through the service.

The ban on Tornado Cash was first imposed in August on the grounds that the Ethereum coin mixing service - which can be and has been used to obscure the proceeds of cybercrime - was being used by hackers such as North Korea's notorious Lazarus Group to launder stolen funds.

But the move had proven controversial in part because some argued that Tornado Cash was less an organization than a set of software. In a lawsuit filed this year, six Texan users of Tornado Cash said that Treasury officials had overstepped their jurisdiction by effectively blocking access to computer code.

"Tornado Cash is not a person, entity, or organization. It is a decentralized, open source software project that restores some privacy for Ethereum users," the lawsuit said.

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase backed the lawsuit, arguing in a blog post that the government had gone too far "by sanctioning an entire technology instead of specific individuals."

What impact the redesignation might have on the lawsuit, if any, was not immediately clear.

Treasury also announced sanctions on two employees of North Korea's state airline Air Koryo.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Josie Kao)
By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo pledged continued strong support for Ukraine during a meeting with the country's economy minister, including efforts by the U.S. government and private sector to help rebuild Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko briefed Raimondo at their meeting in Washington on Russias recent attacks on Ukraines energy infrastructure and Ukraines efforts to promote economic recovery, Commerce said in a statement.

The two also discussed a U.S.-Ukraine infrastructure task force being formed by the Department of Commerce, Department of Transportation and Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure, the department said.

Svyrydenko, who also serves as deputy prime minister, will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington said.

Her visit to Washington comes during congressional elections that could see President Joe Biden's Democrats lose control of Congress, with some Republicans already speaking out against continued U.S. support for Ukraine.

Republicans would have the power to block aid to Ukraine if they win back control of Congress, but they are more likely to slow or pare the flow of defense and economic assistance than stop it, analysts said.

Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist for Stifel investment bank, said there was a risk of the bipartisan consensus' backing U.S. support for Ukraine eroding if the U.S. economy weakened or slipped into recession in 2023.

"At that point, if public opinion on Ukraine starts to shift materially, I think the prospects for U.S. support for Ukraine follow and deteriorate," he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Leslie Adler)
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Top U.N. officials will meet a senior Russian delegation in Geneva on Friday to discuss extending a Ukraine Black Sea grain export deal and efforts to smooth shipments of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets, the United Nations said.

The deal allowing the export of food and fertilizers from several of Ukraine's Black Sea ports - brokered by the United Nations and Turkey on July 22 - could expire on Nov. 19 if Russia or Ukraine object to its extension.

A key part of the July package deal is also facilitating exports of Russian grain and fertilizer exports. The United Nations has said that Russian grain exports have increased, but that work needed to be done to alleviate a chilling effect of Western sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths, who heads talks on Ukrainian exports, and senior U.N. trade official Rebeca Grynspan, who leads discussions on Russian food and fertilizer exports, will meet with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin on Friday, a U.N. spokesperson said.

"It is hoped that the discussions will advance progress made in facilitating the unimpeded export of food and fertilizers originating from the Russian Federation to the global markets," the U.N. spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Russia suspended participation in the pact allowing Black Sea exports for several days last week after accusing Ukraine of using it as cover to target Russian ships in Crimea. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the attack.

While Russia restarted its cooperation, President Vladimir Putin said he reserved Moscow's right to withdraw again. If Russia did so, however, Putin said it would not impede shipments of grain from Ukraine to Turkey.

More than 10 million tonnes of grain and other food has been exported from Ukraine under the deal, according to the United Nations. It has warned that Russia's war is worsening a global food crisis and pushing tens of millions more people into hunger.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Gareth Jones)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States pledged $72 million in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon on Wednesday aimed at helping to feed hundreds of thousands of Lebanese struggling to put food on the table, the director of USAID Samantha Power said during a visit to Lebanon.

Power said the aid would allow 660,000 new beneficiaries to be added to the list of people receiving support from the United States Agency for International Development.

Before the announcement, USAID had already provided $260 million in development assistance and aid to Lebanon in 2022, an agency official said.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Andrew Chung and Nate Raymond

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared divided on Wednesday over the legality of decades-old federal requirements that give preferences to Native Americans and tribal members in the adoption or foster care placements of Native American children.

The justices heard about three hours of arguments in a challenge to the law by a group of non-Native American adoptive families and the Republican-governed state of Texas after lower courts declared parts of it unconstitutional. Democratic President Joe Biden's administration and several Native American tribes are defending the law.

While the justices did not appear willing to entirely strike down the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, their questions revealed divisions over whether Congress overstepped its authority in passing it. They also appeared split over whether some of the preferences under the law racially discriminate against non-Native Americans, as the plaintiffs contend.

The law gives "preference" to members of a child's extended family, other tribe members or "other Indian families" in adoptions. Some of the conservative justices raised concerns about that third preference, which can include members of a different tribe.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said it would not be permissible for "Congress to say that white parents should get preference for white children in adoption, or that Latino parents should get preference for Latino children."

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, "This is just treating Indian tribes as fungible."

The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. The three liberal justices and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch said Congress viewed the preferences as necessary to protect the sovereign tribes from extinction.

"How is this an insidious racial classification rather than a political classification?" Gorsuch, who in past cases has signaled sympathy toward Native American interests, asked a lawyer challenging the law.

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"Congress is very clear in this statute that it thinks that this statute is critical to the continuing existence of the tribe as a political entity," liberal Justice Elena Kagan said.

The Indian Child Welfare Act sought to reinforce tribal connections by setting federal standards for removal and placement in foster care or adoption.

Congress passed it to address a state-level crisis of unwarranted removals of Native American children from their families and placement with non-Native Americans. At the time, between 25% and 35% of all Native American children were removed in states with large Native American populations, according to court papers.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2017, was brought by Texas and three non-Native American families who sought to adopt or foster Native American children. They include Texas couple Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, who in 2018 adopted a child whose mother is a member of the Navajo Nation. The Brackeens are currently in a battle with the tribe as they seek to adopt the boy's half-sister.

The law's defenders have said that singling out "Indians" in legislation is proper under both the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents that consider the designation a political one.

Much of the argument revolved around defining the limits to the vast power of Congress over Native American affairs. Gorsuch wondered why adoptions should be excluded from that power.

"I'm struggling to understand why this falls on the other side of the line," Gorsuch said.

"This is treating children as property," Matthew McGill, the lawyer representing the Brackeens, told Gorsuch.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito asked questions indicating skepticism about congressional authority. "Does it really have no limits?" Alito asked a Justice Department lawyer.

Tribal groups have called the challenge an attack on their sovereignty and have said a ruling that broadly undermines the Indian Child Welfare Act could affect issues beyond child welfare including land rights and economic development.

The Supreme Court is due to rule by the end of June.

The case is one of three major race-related disputes the court has confronted since the beginning of its current nine-month term last month. The others involve the rights of Black voters in Alabama and race-conscious student admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)
Alstom secured the contract two years ago

A UK company that has been contracted to build monorails for Cairo has said it has completed its first units.

Derby-based Alstom has finished its first 12 monorails in a move it hopes will cut emissions in Egypt, which is hosting the COP27 climate summit.

The company is part of a consortium delivering a 2.7bn (2.3bn) contract to construct and run the monorail.

Alstom's Derby works site managing director Mike Hulme said: "It's a fantastic project."

The first monorail units have been transported to Egypt

Mr Hulme said: "We secured the contract as part of a broader project to deliver new monorail systems in Egypt two years ago.

"We've actually been in the manufacturing stage for the past 18 months.

"It's one of the key projects we are delivering out of Derby."

'Technology for the future'

Mr Hulme said the firm had been contracted to build 70 four-car monorail trains.

The first units have been delivered to Cairo, with the first due to be tested by Egypt's Ministry of Transport this week.

Two monorail lines are being constructed in Egypt

"It's certainly getting a lot of focus, particularly in the developing world. It's a high-mass transport system for all cities," Mr Hulme said.

"I think that's why it's gained the approval in Cairo. It's very green technology.

"It's something to be really proud of for the UK in terms of our expert capability.

"In all, it's exciting technology for the future."

Cairo's monorail project includes one 57km (35 mile) line, to serve as a connection with Egypt's new administrative capital and a second 42km (26 mile) line connecting to Giza.

Alstom said its monorails would be fully automated and driverless and would have the capacity to transport 45,000 passengers per hour in each direction when complete.

Mr Hulme said that because monorails run above the ground, they were cheaper and lower risk to install in cities than a conventional tram system.

In 2019, Derby City Council's leader Chris Poulter suggested an idea for a monorail in the city to connect it to a possible HS2 hub.

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Mr Hulme said he hoped a UK city would adopt the technology in the future.

"The UK would be the ideal place to continue this journey. All the engineering for this project is based in Derby," he said.

"I'd like to think in the future we could secure this technology for some of our larger cities."

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.
Ben Wallace

Winter is approaching and that is an important challenge for both sides, Wallace said.

Read also: NATOs Stoltenberg impressed by Ukrainian troops training in UK

So were determined ... to give Ukrainian soldiers the best basic skills because we already know that the Russian military arent doing that.

He added that recent Ukrainian battlefield victories show that the West ought to continue to provide Kyiv with military aid.

Read also: Ukraines success in negotiations with Russia to depend on victories on battlefield, says NATO chief

Ukraine is still making gains in the east of the country, and slowly but surely closing in on Kherson in the south; thats a tough fight, said the minister.

The UK has been in the forefront of international support for Ukraines fight against the Russian invasion, providing both military and economic assistance to the country, and training thousands of Ukrainian soldiers on its shores.

Read also: UK PM Sunak may visit Ukraine quite soon, says Ukraines envoy

Former PM Boris Johnson visited Kyiv on three occasions since Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Recent media reports suggested a visit to Kyiv by UK PM Rishi Sunak is in the works.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday he would keep pressing Egypt over imprisoned Egyptian-British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has had no contact with his family since he said he would stop drinking water this week.

Sunak, who raised the case with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the U.N. climate summit at an Egyptian Red Sea resort on Monday, said the situation was becoming "more urgent by the day.

"We will continue to press the Egyptian government to resolve the situation. We want to see Alaa freed and reunited with his family as soon as possible," Sunak told the British parliament.

Abd el-Fattah, an activist and blogger, was sentenced in December 2021 to five years on charges of spreading false news and has been on a hunger strike against his detention and prison conditions since April 2.

He told his family that he would escalate the protest and stop drinking water on Sunday, as world leaders gathered on the Red Sea coast at Sharm el-Sheikh for the COP27 climate conference.

Abd el-Fattah's family said they had not received a weekly letter from him on Monday, and his mother waited in vain for a third day outside his prison northwest of Cairo for a message from him.

"I was told there is no letter - he is well but he is refusing to write and you have to go away now," his mother Laila Soueif told Reuters. "So I'm going home and I'm coming back tomorrow."

She said she could not believe the reassurance that he was healthy if he had not been taking any liquid since Sunday. "It's been four days now. He can't be alright for four days without any intake."

Abd el-Fattah's prison protest, coinciding with the global gathering in Egypt, has focused international attention on his cause.

The head of Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), whose members are appointed by parliament, said on Wednesday she hoped for a positive outcome to his and other cases.

"We want really to see no one deprived of his liberty because of an opinion he or she expressed," Moushira Khattab, NCHR President, told Reuters. "But we want everyone to get the same chance."

(Reporting by Farah Saafan and Farouq Suleiman, Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
The University of Kentucky student who reportedly physically attacked and used racist slurs against another UK student earlier this week has been permanently banned from campus and will not be eligible to re-enroll, according to an email Wednesday from President Eli Capilouto.

Sophia Rosing, a senior at UK, was arrested after she physically assaulted and spouted racial slurs at a Black student desk clerk and police officer early Sunday, according to records.

Rosings lawyer said she planned to withdraw from UK this week, and Capiluotos email confirmed that she was no longer a student.

The incident took place at Boyd Residence Hall where Rosing, a white student, entered and began taunting, using racial slurs and making derogatory comments toward Kylah Spring, a Black student. After police arrived, Rosing continued using slurs, resisted arrest and bit a police officer, according to the arrest report. Videos of the incident went viral on social media.

I want to emphasize that this behavior was disgusting and devastating to our community, Capilouto said in the Wednesday email. We stand by our students who were targeted by this unacceptable hostility and violence.

Rosing, 22, was arrested and charged with first and second offenses of public intoxication, third-degree assault of a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct, according to the Fayette County Detention Center website.

Rosings attorney entered a not guilty plea at an arraignment on Monday afternoon, with a bond set at $10,000 cash. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 15. According to court records, she posted bond and was released Monday night.

UK began an investigation into the incident and Rosing was suspended on an interim basis. During the investigation, Rosing was banned from campus. While she is no longer a student, the universitys investigation will continue, Capilouto said.

Further charges could also be filed, Capilouto said.

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Hundreds of UK students held a march against racism on campus Monday night, calling for unity and justice for Spring. Some students said they hoped UK would expel Rosing, and others said they hoped the university would conduct a thorough investigation and offer support to its students.

Spring, speaking to the marchers, thanked her family, friends and other UK students for supporting her.

This is a recurring issue in and across American school systems, no matter what age, Spring said. I am deeply sad about the events that took place. But I am grateful for justice that is to come.

Spring also had a message for Rosing, and quoted Michelle Obama: When they go low, we go high.

You will not break my spirit and you will be held accountable for your actions, Spring said, speaking about Rosing. I only pray that you open your heart to love and try to experience life differently and more positively after this.

A GoFundMe was started to raise funds for Spring, just to keep her on her feet for the rest of the year, according to the fundraiser. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had raised over $5,600.

This story may be updated.
A University of Kentucky student from Fort Mitchell has been banned from campus after a video surfaced showing her using racial slurs and assaulting another student in a dormitory, according to the university.

Sophia Rosing, 22, recently withdrew from classes at the Lexington institution after she was arrested Sunday amid a fight with another student in a dormitory. A video showed her assaulting the other student and using racial slurs.

On Wednesday, UK President Eli Capilouto issued a statement on social media saying Rosing will not be able to re-enroll as a student and is officially banned from campus. She had previously been suspended following the incident.

Previous reporting:UK student from Northern Kentucky arrested, video of racial slurs posted

The university's office of institutional equity and equal opportunity is conducting an investigation. Capilouto also said officials are cooperating with law enforcement into criminal charges recently filed.

Rosing pleaded not guilty to charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, assault and assault on a police officer in a Fayette County court on Monday, and posted bond. Assault on a police officer is a felony in Kentucky.

It started when Rosing was arrested after a confrontation with a clerk at Boyd Hall on campus early Sunday.

According to a citation from the University of Kentucky Police Department, an officer reported Rosing was located in Boyd Hall and was "very intoxicated."

The citation states Rosing was in a corner repeating a racial slur to "a group of black females" and continued to use the word as the officer removed her from the area.

The officer wrote that Rosing said she "has lots of money," and gets "special treatment."

"When I told her to sit back in the chair she kicked me and bit my hand," the officer said. The report states Rosing didn't have identification and, at least for a time, refused to identify herself.

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Capilouto said her behavior was "disgusting and devastating to our community."

"As a community working to prevent racist violence, we also must be committed to holding people accountable for their actions," he wrote, adding more information will be shared in the next steps of the process.

(1/7): President Capilouto sent the following message to campus Wednesday afternoon:  University of Kentucky (@universityofky) November 9, 2022

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: University of Kentucky student of Northern Kentucky banned from campus
By Tom Balmforth and Jonathan Landay

KYIV (Reuters) -Moscow ordered troops to withdraw from near the strategic southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in a major setback as a top U.S. general estimated Russia has suffered more than 100,000 killed or wounded since invading its neighbour in February.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday announced Russian forces would retreat from the west bank of the Dnipro River near Kherson in what could be a turning point in the war.

Ukraine reacted with caution to the announcement, saying some Russian forces were still in Kherson and additional Russian manpower was being sent to the region.

"They are moving out but not as much as would be taking place if it was a full pullout or regrouping," Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video posted online on Wednesday night.

Russian forces were destroying bridges as they left and mining roads, Arestovych said.

"And for the moment, we don't know their intentions - will they engage in fighting with us and will they try to hold the city of Kherson? They are moving very slowly," he said.

Kherson city was the only regional capital Russia captured after the invasion, and it has been the focus of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. The city controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro, the river that bisects Ukraine. Russian-installed officials have been evacuating tens of thousands of civilians in recent weeks.

CASUALTIES

America's top general estimated on Wednesday that Russia's military had suffered more than 100,000 of its soldiers killed or wounded in Ukraine, and added Kyiv's armed forces "probably" suffered a similar level of casualties. About 40,000 Ukrainian civilians were also probably killed, he said.

The estimates could not be independently confirmed by Reuters. General Mark Milley, speaking to the Economic Club in New York, did not say how he calculated those estimates.

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Milley said the initial indicators suggested Russia was following through with its withdrawal from Kherson. But he cautioned that it could take time to complete.

In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, reported to Shoigu that it was no longer possible to supply Kherson city. He said he proposed to take up defensive lines on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

Shoigu told Surovikin: "I agree with your conclusions and proposals. For us, the life and health of Russian servicemen is always a priority. We must also take into account the threats to the civilian population.

"Proceed with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnipro River."

'STEP BY STEP'

Ukrainian forces were strengthening their positions "step by step" in the south, Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday night address.

"There is a lot of joy in the information space today, and it is clear why, but ... the enemy will make no gifts to us," said Zelenskiy, mentioning Kherson just once in his five-minute speech.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Moscow's order to withdraw from Kherson was "evidence of the fact that they have some real problems with the Russian military."

Biden said he hopes Democrats and Republicans can continue the bipartisan approach of confronting Russia's aggression in Ukraine after Tuesday's midterm elections, in which his Democratic Party performed better than expected.

SHELLING IN SOUTH

A regular evening statement by the Ukrainian military on Wednesday made no direct reference to Kherson region or its capital. Russian forces shelled more than 25 towns and villages on the southern front along the line of contact, it said, and there were more than 50 drone reconnaissance missions.

Ukrainian legislator David Arakhamia, who led Kyiv's delegation to peace talks early in Russia's invasion, said however, that a military operation in the Kherson region was under way.

He described the Russians' situation as critical and said, "Sooner or later, they will either leave Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Sevastopol (in Crimea) or be destroyed."

If Ukrainian forces take the entire west bank of the Dnipro, their U.S.-supplied long-range artillery and HIMARS multiple rocket launchers would be able to strike Russian logistics bases and positions on the east bank, according to military experts.

But the Ukrainians may face numerous booby traps and could be targeted by intense Russian artillery barrages.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, on a visit to London, welcomed the news from Kherson but also struck a note of caution.

"We should not underestimate Russia ... We have seen the drones, we have seen the missile attacks, it shows that Russia can still inflict a lot of damage," he told Sky News.

Compounding the sense of Russian disarray in Kherson, Moscow's number two official there, Kirill Stremousov, was killed on Wednesday in what Moscow said was a car crash.

Russia's leading war hawks on Wednesday swiftly voiced support for the decision to abandon Kherson city, putting a brave face on one of Moscow's most humiliating retreats.

"After weighing all the pros and cons, General Surovikin made the difficult but right choice between senseless sacrifices for the sake of loud statements and saving the priceless lives of soldiers," said Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader who has frequently urged a more aggressive approach to the war.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Mykhailo Podoliak, the adviser to the Head of the President's Office, said that a significant number of Russian military personnel remain in Kherson  Ukraine sees no signs that Russia will retreat without a fight, despite the statement given by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

Source: Podoliak on Twitter, Yaroslav Yanushevych, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram, Vitalii Kim, Head of Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "Actions speak louder than words. Ukraine sees no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight. A significant part of the Russian grouping[instead of grouping "Russian troops there remain in the city"] remains in the city, and additional reserves are being sent into the region. Ukraine is liberating territories utilising intelligence data, not staged TV statements."

Details: Yaroslav Yanushevych, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, believes that official sources should be trusted, despite the statements of the Russian leadership, and also called for not leaking information about the actions of the Ukrainian defence forces and to observe a regime of information silence.

Vitalii Kim, the Head of Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, also urged people not to trust the Russians' statement about the retreat from Kherson: "If the Russians say something, they will do the opposite."

Background: On 9 November, Sergei Surovikin, the new commander of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine, has announced that the Russian Federation is moving its troops to the left bank of the Dnipro River, which would indicate that the Russians are leaving Kherson.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Yurii Vaskov, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure

Read also: Why Turkey profits from the grain deal working at full speed

Ukraine has proposed to Turkey and the United Nations to extend the deal for at least a year, as well as expand it and include the ports in the Mykolaiv region, which handled 35% of Ukrainian food exports before Russia's invasion, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Yuriy Vaskov, said in an interview with Reuters.

Kyiv also demands that the procedure of mandatory inspections of ships with grain be improved, believing that Russia is deliberately slowing down the process to reduce the speed of the export flow.

"When Turkey and the UN did their own inspections, they proved it was possible to carry out more than 40 inspections a day. Now that Russia has returned ... we again have a total of 12 inspections per day," he said.

According to him, Russia doesn't explain the reasons for the delays, openly hindering the work of the "green corridor."

Read also: Russia stalls exports of Ukrainian grain, Zelenskyy says

The deal is to terminate on Nov. 19.

"We hope that no later than next week we will have an understanding from our partners Turkey and the UN, and the whole market will also have a clear signal about the further functioning and continuation of the initiative," Vaskov said.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative or "grain deal" is an agreement made between the U.N., Turkey, Russia and Ukraine to ensure the safe food transportation through Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

Thanks to the initiative, up to 10 million tons of Ukrainian grain and other foods have been shipped through three ports since the end of August. Following explosions in the occupied Crimean port Sevastopol early on Oct. 29, Russia suspended its participation in the agreement.

However, a few days later, on Nov. 2, Russia said it would again take part in the deal.

Read also: UN confirms passage of vessels through grain corridor on Nov. 3, says infrastructure minister

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Vadym Skibitsky

The regime of dictator Vladimir Putin approached Iran, China, and North Korea, with requests for arms and equipment, the spokesperson said. In addition, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are assisting Russian companies avoid Western sanctions, he added.

Read also: North Korea making winter uniforms for Russian soldiers in Ukraine

"They also appealed to China and North Korea, possibly to Kyrgyzstan, for the supply of weapons, in particular, ammunition for MLRS  Smerch and Uragan, he stated.

Read also: Russia trying to get weapons from Iran, North Korea, China has not helped Kremlin, says Pentagon

There are countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that help Russia circumvent sanctions by selling them American and Japanese civilian components needed to construct rockets.

The intelligence official noted that the Russians do not have the cutting-edge weapons that they demonstrate at military parades.

"This is just make-believe, added Skibitsky.

Moscow cannot produce high-tech weapons on its own, so it turns to other countries.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday that he regretted giving a ministerial role to Gavin Williamson who resigned on Tuesday after claims that he bullied colleagues.

"I obviously regret appointing someone who has had to resign in these circumstances," Sunak said during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions session in parliament.

Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer called Williamson a "pathetic bully" and challenged Sunak over his decision to appoint him.

Sunak, who took office late October as Britain's third prime minister in two months, has also faced criticism for re-appointing Suella Braverman as interior minister just days after she was fired by his predecessor for security breaches.

Williamson said late on Tuesday he was stepping down after media reported that colleagues had accused him of bullying, with one saying he told a government official to "slit your throat".

Williamson, who has been fired from other ministerial roles twice in the last four years, said he was complying with a complaints process and he refuted the characterisation of the messages.

Sunak said he accepted Williamson's resignation with "great sadness".

(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman, writing by Muvija MEditing by William Schomberg)
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered an unexpected moment of levity at the COP27 climate conference on Wednesday, reading the beginning of the wrong speech before realising, chuckling and starting again with a different opening line.

Speaking in the main plenary hall of the Sharm el-Sheikh conference on Wednesday, Guterres was due to give the opening address at a session with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on tracking carbon emissions.

"The world is losing the race against the climate crisis, but I am hopeful because of you. You have been relentless in holding decision makers to account," Guterres began before pausing in confusion and shuffling through his written speech.

Laughing to himself, he said: "I think that I was given the wrong speech."

The delegates assembled in the hall then applauded as the correct document was brought to him.

Guterres explained that he was due to speak to a group of young people after his address, and had begun reading the speech aimed at them instead.

"There was a small confusion, I apologise."

(Reporting by William James; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
It's been a night of mixed fortunes for Democrats and Republicans in the US. Our correspondents were in key battleground states across the country to witness the results and find out how voters felt.

Pennsylvania win is good news for Democrats - John Sudworth

Democratic Senator-elect John Fetterman is celebrating in Pennsylvania

A predicted win for John Fetterman is about as good a piece of news as Democrats could have hoped for on a night widely expected to offer very little to cheer about. And this result will be cheered to the rafters in the White House.

Against the odds, and in the face of a debilitating stroke that left him struggling for words on the campaign trail, Mr Fetterman appears to have triumphed over the slick celebrity of the TV doctor Mehmet Oz.

Click here to see the BBC interactive

What made the difference in such a tight race? Was it Dr Oz's anti-abortion stance - something opinion polls suggested may have rallied the female vote in support of his opponent?

Or was it those blue collar voters returning to the Democrat fold, having grown weary of the conspiracy theories on offer from the Republican field? The analysts and pundits will have plenty to chew over.

While one result does not an election make, Pennsylvania has just brightened Democrat spirits considerably.

A red wave, but only in Florida - Nada Tawfik

The word historic is being used to describe Republicans' gains in Florida, a state where races are often decided by a few points.

The story of this election was one of conservative enthusiasm, but also low turnout from Democratic voters. That allowed Republicans to take blue strongholds such as Miami Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Now that Florida has cemented its status as a red state, re-elected Governor Ron DeSantis has bragging rights. His victory speech sure sounded like a play for the presidency - he declared that Florida had rewritten the political map and that he'd only begun to fight.

Republicans in Florida disagree about whether Mr DeSantis would take on Donald Trump in a bid to run for president in 2024.

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As one party official here told me, going up against a juggernaut like Mr Trump would be a very different race and Mr DeSantis has never faced that type of opposition.

Trump-backed candidate loses in New Hampshire - Jane O'Brien

Despite a history of denying the results of the 2020 presidential election, Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc said he would accept his own defeat. "The experts have called it. But this is not a loss. We woke a lot of people up," he told supporters.

He was always in a tight race against Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, but in the end he didn't come close to beating her.

Click here to see the BBC interactive

After an optimistic campaign, the party has a lot of questions to answer. "Instead of a red wave we got a blue wave," says Chris Ager, who represents New Hampshire on the National Republican Committee.

It's been a bad night for Republicans in the state, who are also losing seats in the state government.

Mr Ager said Mr Bolduc was out-matched financially by Democrats, and that the defeat would have no bearing on 2024.

"That is going to be a completely new dynamic because it will be a presidential election and the focus will be on the presidential candidates and their issues," he said.

Kentucky votes to protect abortion choice - Holly Honderich

Voters in Kentucky rejected a proposal that would have explicitly removed abortion rights from the state's constitution.

At a pro-choice election night event in Louisville, party-goers were celebrating. "Kentucky voters made it clear: We won't back down when politicians try to come for our right to control our own bodies and our futures," said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

This is a major victory for pro-choice activists in a solidly conservative state, and suggests Kentucky voters crossed the usual religious and party lines.

The result won't automatically reverse the state's current legislation, which almost entirely prohibits abortion. But the pro-choice vote will strengthen the case for looming legal challenges to the state's two bans.

The results come on the heels of another abortion access win in Vermont, now projected to be first US state to formally enshrine the right to an abortion in its own constitution.

California, Montana and Michigan also held abortion-related ballots, where votes are still being counted.

Georgia heads for a run-off - Kayla Epstein

Political watchers here are all talking about "split-ticket" voters - people who voted Republican for governor, but Democrat for the Senate.

I met quite a few Republican voters who said they hesitated to punch a ballot for the party's US Senate nominee, Herschel Walker. It looks likely his contest with Democrat Raphael Warnock will end up in a run-off vote if neither candidate gets more than 50% of the vote.

One voter on the fence was Yeni Tran, 42, of Clark County. She was a staunch supporter of the Republican Governor Brian Kemp. But of Mr Walker, she said: "I'm torn. I heard some of his speeches, and it's not the most intellectual."

Click here to see the BBC interactive

Jennifer Almond, 48, also supported Mr Kemp but for the Senate race was put off by allegations from Mr Walker's ex-wife that he'd once threatened her with a gun.

Adam Smart, 49, was going to vote for Mr Kemp, but had decided against Mr Walker. "He's out of his league a little bit," he said. Democrat Raphael Warnock, he believed, was more experienced.

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Republicans and Democrats are in a tight race for control of the US Congress, a day after the midterms.

With votes still being counted, Republicans are favourites to win the House of Representatives, but the fight for the Senate is on a knife-edge.

Democrats have gained a key Senate seat in Pennsylvania, but two other contests remain too close and one is heading for a run-off vote next month.

The economy and abortion were the biggest concerns for voters.

Though this should have benefitted Republicans, they have not seen the "red wave" of victories they had hoped for.

The US Congress is made up of two parts - the House of Representatives and the Senate. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate were up for grabs. Members of the House represent their local populations and Senators represent the interests of their states.

Although President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is not on the ballot, the midterms will shape the fate of his agenda. If Democrats lose control of either the House or the Senate, Republicans will be able to block his plans.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Biden said Tuesday's election had been "a good day for democracy" in America. In the run-up to the vote, he had warned that Republicans - who fielded a number of candidates who amplified false claims that the last presidential election was rigged - were a threat to democracy.

In one of the most closely watched Senate races, left-wing Democrat John Fetterman - who has been recovering from a stroke - beat Trump-backed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

Another critical Senate race, between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Georgia, is headed to a run-off in four weeks as neither candidate secured more than 50% of the vote.

The results of other key Senate races in Arizona and Nevada are also still in play. The BBC's US partner CBS News says Arizona is leaning Democrat, but Nevada remains a toss-up, with more votes being tallied.

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It means that the verdict on which party holds power in the upper chamber of Congress may not be known for days, or even weeks.

Elections for state governors also took place in several states. Republicans have held on to the governors' mansions in the key states of Texas, Florida and Georgia.

Mr Trump, who is expected to announce he will run for president in 2024, has also seen some of his endorsed candidates fail.

However, on Wednesday he said that "while in certain ways yesterday's election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory".

Graphic

Traditionally, the party of the president does badly in US midterms. Despite lowering prescription drug prices, expanding clean energy and revamping US infrastructure, Mr Biden's popularity has taken a pummelling amid the worst inflation in four decades.

But Republicans had their own political vulnerability on the issue of abortion following the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's decision this year to roll back a US constitutional right to the procedure.

On Tuesday, voters in Vermont, California and Michigan decided to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, preventing any future bid by the legislature to introduce restrictions.

Meanwhile, Kentucky rejected a constitutional amendment that would have said there was no right to abortion. But the result won't automatically reverse the state's current legislation, which almost entirely prohibits it.

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Georgia is headed for a run-off election on 6 December.

Days after US voters cast their ballots, the final results of the 2022 mid-terms remain unclear - with officials across the country warning that the outcome may still not be known for weeks.

The delays are the result of a number of factors, including razor-thin margins between candidates and the fact that Georgia - a key Senate battleground - is headed to a run-off election.

Other delays are due to the decentralised way in which elections are set up in the US, in which states have varied rules for how mail-in ballots are counted, and when.

The issue of delays has been a politically contentious one since the 2020 presidential election, when then-President Donald Trump attempted to claim victory the following morning while votes were still being tallied, declaring continued voting counting a "fraud" and an "embarrassment".

This week, Mr Trump has again cast doubt on the process, taking to his Truth Social social media platform to call several state elections "voter integrity disaster" and accusing his political opponents of "trying to steal the election with bad machines and delay".

Ahead of the midterms, however, electoral officials across the country warned the public that delays are a normal, expected part of US elections.

In a speech on 2 November, US President Joe Biden also weighed-in, warning that "it's important for citizens to be patient" while ballots are counted "in a legal and orderly manner".

Let's take a look at why certified results are trickling in slowly.

Mail-in and early voting

Although the final numbers are not yet in, preliminary data from the US Elections Project suggests that more than 112.34 million Americans - about 47% of eligible voters - participated in this year's midterm. While the overall figure is less than the number of voters who participated in the 2018 midterm, turn-out in some states appears to have been at historic highs.

The election also saw 42 million people cast their ballots - in early voting and by mail - ahead of 8 November, surpassing 2018's total of 39.1 million. This is among the key factors that lead to final vote tabulations being delayed.

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Different states have varied regulations for how mail-in ballots are processed.

Follow the BBC's coverage of the US midterm elections here.

Pennsylvania, for example, is one of eight states that only allowed election officials to begin processing ballots on election day. In Maryland, on the other hand, state regulations stipulate that the processing of ballots cannot begin until 10:00 local time on the morning after the election.

Similarly, 16 states and Washington DC do not allow counting to begin until the polls close on election day, while 23 states allow counting to begin earlier on the same day. Only 10 states allow ballots to be processed and counted ahead of time before 8 November.

Nineteen states also have a grace period that allows ballots to be counted afterwards, provided that they were sent through the mail by election day. In California, for example, ballots can still be received for another full week. In Arizona, on the other hand, ballots must be in by election day, although officials have 20 days to come to a final count.

Recounts and run-offs

Delays could also be caused by recounts, which can take place in races with extremely narrow margins of victory, or, in many states, when requested by one of the participating candidates. While the process varies slightly by state, 41 states and Washington DC allow for recounts to be requested. Twenty-two states have provision for automatic recounts.

In Georgia - where there is a tight race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker - winning candidates must receive at least 50% of the vote.

With a third-party candidate on the ballot in this week's midterm, neither candidate was able to reach that threshold, triggering a run-off election on 6 December. This scenario is a replay of the 2020 election in the state.

"At the end of the day, everyone wants to know that we have honest and fair elections and we do," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on 9 November. "I would ask the voters to come out and vote one last time."

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is also running for governor, warned that a quick election result is "not going to happen".

Where are delays taking place?

While final count tabulations are still taking place across the country, delays have been most evident in Arizona - where a large majority of people opt to vote by mail. Ahead of the midterms, officials there warned that the process could take up to 12 days. Voters in the state also have five days to correct their signature if requested by officials.

"As much as we all want to see the winner on election night in those close races, that's just not going to happen," Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is also running for governor, said in October. "These things take time."

As of Wednesday, 9 November, hundreds of thousands of ballots remained uncounted, including about 400,000 in Maricopa Country and approximately 159,000 in Pima County, where officials said a final count is not expected before 14 or 15 November.

After election day issues with ballot printers were reported, Maricopa County has vowed that ballots "will be counted securely and accurately". While the issues were "frustrating" and "inconvenient", officials said the final count would not be affected.

An adjudication board member reviewing ballots in Arizona's Maricopa County on 9 November

Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has repeatedly cast doubt on the system. On an election night speech at her campaign headquarters, she hinted that "incompetency" was preventing "honest elections".

"The system we have right now does not work," she added.

Votes are also still being counted in Nevada, with tens of thousands of ballots remaining in Las Vegas' Clark County. Representatives of both political parties there have urged voters to be patient.

Do election delays take place in other countries?

While election result delays do take place in other countries, the US stands out in terms of the length of the delays - largely owing to its decentralised system.

The results of Israel's 1 November election, for example, were announced on 3 November. The second-round of Brazil's general elections on 30 October were known on the same day.

Of European countries, Sweden is considered one in which high voter turnout and close margins often drag results out over a period of several days. The preliminary results of the country's 11 September general election were not available until 15 September, with official results following about a week later.

In 2019, it took over a month for the results of Indonesia's 17 April presidential election to be announced on 21 May - which was actually ahead of schedule. Vote counting at the country's more than 800,000 voting stations is largely conducted by hand in view of the public.
Havana, Cuba (Getty Images)

President Trumps final act against Cuba was to place the island on Washingtons list of state sponsors of terrorism (SST). His successor, Joe Biden, has left the designation in place.

As a result, says the US State Department, British visitors to America who have visited Cuba since 1 March 2011 cannot use the swift, cheap and easy Esta system. Instead they must spend $160 (141) on a full visa  and attend an interview at the US Embassy in London or the Consulate-General in Belfast, for which appointments are hard to obtain.

Confusion has reigned, with several leading travel firms insisting the backdated sanctions apply only from the designation date of 12 January 2021. Many travellers with evidence of a visit to Cuba in their passport before that date have reported that they have been allowed to enter the US without a problem.

But the State Department insists: Any visit to an SST on or after March 1, 2011, even if the country was designated yesterday, renders the applicant ineligible for Esta.

As a result, some passengers have been turned away from departure airports because they are regarded by the airlines as inadmissible to the US.

Now, though, The Independent understands that US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) is likely to announce this month  possibly within a matter of days  that visits in the decade before 2021 will no longer disqualify a traveller from using the Esta scheme.

US government sources have said that discussions in Washington are at an advanced stage and that CBP is pressing for the 12 January 2021 date to be used. While negotiations continue, front-line staff are taking a relaxed approach to British visitors who were in Cuba before 2021.

The former presidents aim was to cause maximum damage to the Communist republic by deterring visitors. But it is also having an impact on US tourism, with some visitors choosing to visit Cuba in preference to America.

The Caribbeans largest island is classed alongside Iran, North Korea and Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism. With the US mid-term elections out of the way, it is thought President Biden may remove Cuba from the list.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday that she does not expect the U.S. midterm election to weaken Washington's support for Ukraine given the bipartisan backing for Kyiv since Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke after she visited a UNICEF center in Warsaw that has become a hub for Ukrainian refugee children and their mothers, offering educational support and therapy.

She said her talks with government and Warsaw city officials included making contingency plans in case the coming winter and power outages create another large exodus of Ukrainians to Poland and other frontline states.

She also expressed gratitude to the people of Poland and the government for the enormous help they have provided to Ukrainians, many of whom fled to Poland and have remained there.

A day earlier she was in Ukraine, where she announced that the U.S., through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing an additional $25 million to support vulnerable people in Ukraine during the harsh winter. She said she met with people in a community center who could not return to their homes because of Russias horrible attacks on the power and water infrastructure.

Asked by a reporter about the impact the U.S. election Tuesday might have on U.S. support for Kyiv, she replied: I havent given that any thought other than the fact that our support for Ukraine has been bipartisan so I dont see that the elections will have an impact on that support."

I know that the president will continue to work with Congress to get the support that Ukraine needs until Russias unprovoked attacks on Ukraine are brought to an end, she said.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP)  When it comes to helping poor nations cope with climate change, the United States government left its wallet at home. So it hopes its friend, big business, can help pick up the tab.

Unable to persuade Congress or the American public to spend billions of dollars more a year in climate financial aid, the U.S. government is trying to make it easier for private corporations to send cash to the developing world in exchange for looking green at home.

The plan, announced Wednesday by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, essentially amounts to tapping private funds to finance developing nations' transition to clean energy by selling high quality" carbon credits to companies trying to make their carbon emissions net zero.

Our intention is to put the carbon market to work, to deploy capital otherwise unemployable, to speed the transition from dirty to clean power, and replace dirty coal-fired power plants with renewable energy sources, Kerry said at a launch event.

But the idea faced stiff resistance from environmental groups and climate experts, who said it would give polluters a license to keep polluting. It came a day after the United Nations warned about shady carbon credits that businesses count on to meet their net-zero targets.

Underscoring the opposition, an activist heckled Kerry as he launched the plan, accusing him of promoting false solutions, before security guards pushed him away. At this year's COP summit, poorer nations have lambasted wealthier ones for not putting up enough money to finance their so-called green transition.

The developing world needs hundreds of billions of dollars to help them ditch coal, oil and natural gas, but the United States Congress has been reluctant to spend much in financial aid.

If we dont find more money ... we aint going to get this done, Kerry said of the fight against climate change.

Kerry's proposal is dubbed the Energy Transition Accelerator and is backed by two major philanthropies, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund. They hope it could unlock $100 billion or more in financing for green projects by 2030. Kerry said he wants to have it up and running by next year's COP meeting.

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Details about how it will work are still sparse, but under the plan, verified greenhouse gas emission reductions would be generated that could then be sold as carbon credits. Kerry said there's been strong interest to buy them from corporations including PepsiCo and Microsoft.

There would be strong safeguards on who could buy the credits, Kerry said. Buyers, not including fossil fuel companies, will need a goal for getting to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions and a science-based interim target on the way to meeting that goal, he said. The credits can't be used as substitutes for making deep cuts to their own emissions but as an extra boost to those efforts.

Unlike other carbon credits criticized as prone to abuse, these credits would only be allowed to be used to phase out coal power plants in developing nations and creating more renewable power and would be time limited, Kerry said. That, he said, would be guardrails against abuse.

Carbon credits have evolved into a multibillion-dollar market for companies, governments and individuals who want to reduce their carbon footprint. But theyve also become a source of controversy among environmental and climate activists, who say theyre problematic because theres no guarantee theyll deliver on reducing emissions.

The basic idea is that emissions from polluting human activities can be offset elsewhere, either through farming practices that store carbon, planting trees, or by capturing climate-changing gases from smokestacks and other equipment.

These activities are monetized and sold as offsets and are popular with companies making them a part of their net-zero plans.

On Tuesday, a U.N. expert panel warned that tougher standards were needed to fight back against greenwash by companies and investors making net-zero pledges, including a ban on businesses and local governments buying cheap carbon credits that lack integrity instead of deeply cutting their own emissions.

The idea proposed Wednesday faced plenty of skepticism.

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank, called carbon offsets an accounting trick" that paves the way for big polluters to carry on polluting.

Big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in both wealthy Northern nations and developing countries in the global South are what's needed, Adow said, "not rich polluting companies in the north paying for the privilege of continuing to destroy the planet."

"John Kerry knows the science on climate, he knows what is at stake for people, and yet what hes proposing with his offsets threatens to badly undermine global efforts to cut emissions," Adow said.

Climate scientist Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, who was on the United Nations expert panel, said the proposal shocked people at the climate summit and upset many governments.

The reason why is because were at that stage of history now where everyone has to reduce emissions. And the implications of John Kerrys proposal is that companies would not actually have to reduce emissions if they buy offsets.

A senior European official voiced skepticism at the U.S. proposal ahead of the launch.

I think theres, in some circles, massive concerns, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Micah Carpenter-Lott, the activist who heckled Kerry, said he wanted to call attention to inaction by big polluters and wealthy nations and the "false solutions presented by Kerry's plan.

We do not need to be partnering with polluters," Carpenter-Lott, an indigenous justice activist from the Northern Arapaho tribe in the U.S., told The Associated Press moments after he was booted out of the U.S. pavilion. "Polluters shouldnt even be in this space, and they shouldnt be allowed to create partnerships with governments because that is not going to solve the climate crisis.

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AP writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report.

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Follow APs climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Voters in multiple US states passed measures to enshrine the right to abortion during Tuesdays midterm elections, or knocked down attempts to further curtail such rights, in a stinging rebuke to the crackdown on reproductive freedoms taking place across the US.

In Michigan, abortion rights campaigners declared victory on a ballot initiative looking to secure a constitutional right to abortion, meaning the state will now escape the imposition of a 1931 abortion ban that was on the books.

Related: JD Vance wins Ohio Senate race by wider margin than predicted

The state is the first in the US to fight off a pre-existing abortion ban with a referendum, called Proposal 3, in a move that campaigners across the country see as a possible road map for other states.

Proposal 3s passage marks an historic victory for abortion access in our state and in our country  and Michigan has paved the way for future efforts to restore the rights and protections of Roe v Wade nationwide, Darci McConnell, the communication director for Reproductive Freedom For All, wrote in a statement, announcing the news after it was called by ABC and NBC.

The news broke as other US states too saw victories for abortion rights initiatives.

Vermont became the first state in America to protect abortion rights in its state constitution just before Michigan, calling their result on Tuesday after its voters resoundingly backed a ballot initiative by a huge margin. And in California, voters were on track to overwhelmingly pass a measure to enshrine into the states constitution the right to an abortion and contraception.

California voters are on track to protect the right to abortion in the state. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Vermont voters made history tonight, said the Vermont for Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee, which campaigned for the amendment, according to local news. All votes had not yet been counted at 11pm ET, but the yes campaign was leading by 77% to 22%.

Vermonters support reproductive freedom in all four corners of the state  and they believe that our reproductive decisions are ours to make without interference from politicians, the committee said in a statement.

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In Vermont, the outcome was always expected, in a New England state so pro-choice that even the Republican governor backed Proposal 5. The proposal, brought by pro-choice advocates, means the constitution now determines that an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine ones own life course.

Californias Proposition 1, meanwhile, was positioned as a direct response to the US supreme courts decision that overturned decades of established access and thrust the country into turmoil. Voters decisive support for Prop 1 will further enhance the states reputation as a haven for reproductive care just as restrictions  and political divisions  deepen across the country.

The states governor, Gavin Newsom  who won re-election on Tuesday with a large majority  joined in the celebrations at a Prop 1 rally.

Gavin Newsom speaking now at Proposition 1 rally, which is poised to pass by a huge margin to enshrine right to abortion in California constitution:



We affirmed we are a true freedom state.  Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) November 9, 2022

Governor Newsom made it clear that he wants California to be visible as a haven for people seeking reproductive healthcare and Proposition 1 is part of that, said the constitutional law professor Cary Franklin, who also serves as faculty director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at the University of California Los Angeles. It will get media attention and people will be made more aware that California is a place they can go.

The measure had been expected to easily pass, and analysts said support for reproductive rights could draw even more women and young people to the polls, which could play positively for Democrats in Californias conservative pockets.

These wins deliver more blows for Republicans who are increasingly finding that, when put to a vote, Americans frequently do not agree with a sweeping agenda to dismantle abortion rights.

So far, the anti-abortion movement has relied on judges, state houses and Republican lawmakers to curtail reproductive rights.

But since the supreme court dismantled the constitutional right to abortion on 24 June, pro-choice advocates are increasingly looking to ballot initiatives as a way of shoring up rights. The anti-abortion movement suffered a huge blow over the summer when Kansas  a usually reliably red state  slammed down a proposal brought by the Republicans, looking to confirm there was no right to abortion in the state constitution.

Supporters in Michigan listen to early voting results indicating the passage of Proposal 3, a midterm ballot measure that enshrines abortion rights, in Detroit. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

In Michigan the mood was already jubilant at the yes campaigns watch party before they called the result, with voters screaming loudly, banging on tables and whooping in support of local voters, doctors and speakers from the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood.

My name is Nicholas, and I live in Ingham county, one campaigner took to the stage to say. Speaking about him and his girlfriend, he added: We knocked on over 1,500 doors and walked over a hundred miles, talking to neighbors who  like the rest of us here  agree this is a fundamental right, to screams and cheers.

Nicole Wells Stallworth, executive director at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan later added: We are living in a time like no other. The US supreme court did something they have never done: They reversed Roe. They tried it. And as such, we needed a campaign like none other. This campaign turned out to be just that.

The biggest surprise was in Kentucky, where voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any constitutional protections for abortion. That referendum was brought by a Republican-dominated legislature expecting a win, who earlier this year imposed a near-total ban on abortions.

The key sponsor of the abortion ban and the ballot proposal, former congressman Joe Fischer, was running for a judicial seat on Kentuckys supreme court this election  which he has not won.

For the meantime, Kentuckys abortion ban will remain in place. But Fischers loss is more good news for pro-choice campaigners: as the ban is being challenged in the state supreme court on 15 November. And although judges are generally not supposed to be swayed by public opinion, the victory will certainly, in theory, make it harder for the sweeping ban to stand up in court.

Madeline Dyer, a former counselor for abortion patients at one of the two remaining clinics in Kentucky, EMW Womens Surgical Center, which has had its doors shuttered since 24 June, said it was a relief to finally have the result over with.

Its a little surreal, Ive been so consumed by worrying about this amendment for months, she said. But Im elated Kentuckians used their voice and showed politicians that they dont want a ban on abortion. Were showing we care for each other. Its such a heart-warming reassurance  because when it really comes down to it, its just not popular, to have an outright ban on abortion, she said.

Rachel Sweet of Protect Kentucky Access said the outcome was a historic win against government overreach into the personal medical decisions of Kentuckians.
A voter casts a ballot at a polling station during early voting in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, October 29, 2022. Jeenah Moon/Reuters

The US' top cybersecurity agency said there have been no credible threats to election security or integrity.

"When you have 8,800 individual election jurisdictions, you're going to see a few issues," Jen Easterly tweeted.

She added, "It's important that we not make the normal out to be nefarious."

The US' top cybersecurity agency said there have been no credible threats to election security or integrity on Tuesday, even as conservatives are raising concerns about hiccups at polling stations.

"When you have 8,800 individual election jurisdictions, you're going to see a few issues," tweeted Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "We have seen a few of these today as happens every Election Day. It's important that we not make the normal out to be nefarious."

Easterly's warning comes as conservatives have raised questions about election integrity. Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday baselessly claimed that a "large" amount of absentee voter fraud was underway in Detroit, Michigan.

But Easterly said CISA has seen "no activity that should cause anyone to question the security, integrity, or resilience of our election infrastructure."

She later added, "As always, state & local officials are the best sources for information on these types of issues."

In an interview with Insider, US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks also expressed a "high level of confidence" in the integrity of this election.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Texas Governor Greg Abbott arrives while US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas

CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been reelected for a third term in office after months of contestation over his response to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead.

Abbott defeated his Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke in what the Dallas Morning News has reported to be a 60.27% majority vote across all 14 Uvalde County precincts.

RELATED: Beto O'Rourke Interrupts Texas Republican Governor's Press Conference on School Shooting: 'It's On You'

While Abbott has been a frontrunner in Uvalde County in both of his previous elections, the Texas governor faced criticism regarding his lack of transparency and inability to enact change in gun control policy following the deadliest school shooting in his state.

Community members and loved ones of the deceased campaigned for O'Rourke's election for months following the tragedy, calling for the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle to change from 18 years old to 21 years old. This was largely in part to the Uvalde shooter purchasing two legal weapons after his 18th birthday, KUT 90.5 reports.

RELATED: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Booed Outside Uvalde School Where Gunman Killed 21: 'Shame on You'

On Monday, Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez released call logs between Abbott and Texas DPS from the day of the shooting.

According to Gutierrez, Abbott had three calls from the state's DPS director after 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos entered the school through an open back door at 11:33 a.m. Gutierrez reported that the first went out after 4 p.m, the next at 5 p.m., and the last at 8:41 p.m.

"It's the lack of importance that he placed on the communications between home and his top cop. A 7-minute call, a 6-minute call, goes to a fundraiser, collects 60 grand and then makes another longer call, 18 minutes," Gutierrez told KHOU 11.

RELATED VIDEO: Greg Abbott Defeats Beto O'Rourke in Texas Gubernatorial Race

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin also expressed doubts in the Texas Department of Public Safety's ongoing investigation and Abbott's immediate response.

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He expressed in a July interview with CNN that he believed upper management in the Texas DPS was covering up for their agencies.

RELATED: Uvalde School Shooting: Heartbreaking Photos Show the Aftermath of the Tragedy

"What do they say? It's always hard when you tell a lie, you have to keep telling a lie," McLaughlin said, pointing to the shifting stories that have emerged about what happened on the day of the shooting. "I'm not saying he's lying, maybe he was misled with the information he got.

"Your story can't change on something this horrific three times, four times, in three days," McLaughlin added. "At this point, I don't know what to believe and what not to believe."

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During a press conference following the May tragedy, Abbott expressed that the situation "could've been worse."

According to Abbott, "The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do. They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. It is a fact that because of their quick response, getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman, and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives. Unfortunately, not enough."

The school district in Uvalde opened an official account with First State Bank of Uvalde to support Robb Elementary families affected by the tragedy. People can send checks through the mail (payable to the "Robb School Memorial Fund") or donate money through Zelle to robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com. People can also donate by calling 830-356-2273.
Residents of Uvalde County, where a tragic school shooting unfolded nearly six months ago, have voted in favor of Greg Abbott in Tuesdays governor race.

With all precincts reporting, Uvalde County says 4,760 residents  60.18%  voted for Republican incumbent Abbott, compared to the 3,031, or 38.32%, who chose Democratic challenger Beto ORourke.

The county was the site of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting on May 24, in which an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.

A day after the shooting, ORourke made headlines when he interrupted a press conference, telling Abbott and others who were briefing the community that they were "doing nothing" to stop future massacres.

2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS: LIVE UPDATES

The confrontation was immediately criticized by officials, with Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin calling O'Rourke a "sick son of a b---- that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

ORourke later said in September that he did not regret confronting Abbott at the briefing.

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.

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Kim Mata-Rubio, the mother of fourth-grader Lexi Rubio  one of the young victims of the massacre  condemned Tuesdays re-election of Abbott.

"I wanted to send a message but, instead, the state of Texas sent me a message: my daughters murder wasnt enough," she posted on Twitter. "Just know, you f----- with the wrong mom. It doesnt end tonight. Ill fight until I have nothing left to give. Lexis legacy will be change."

Fox News Paul Best contributed to this report.
Alisher Usmanov

Tashkent is also lobbying the bloc to ease sanctions on Usmanovs sister.

Read also: US slaps new sanctions on Russia for annexation of Ukrainian territories

Usmanov was one of 26 Russians who fell under EU sanctions. Europe claims that Usmanov was one of the "favorite oligarchs" of the Russian president.

Usmanov's sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova, was also sanctioned on the grounds that she was the legal owner of some of the oligarch's assets, including the $600 million superyacht Dilbar.

According to the newspaper's interlocutors, Tashkent used recent meetings between Uzbek and EU officials to express concerns about the sanctions.

Read also: Hungary launches large-scale communications campaign against sanctions on Russia

Uzbekistan is also providing legal assistance to Usmanov in possible legal proceedings against Brussels if the bloc rejects requests to lift the restrictions.

Usmanov maintains close ties with Uzbekistan, where he was born. Tashkent argues that sanctions against him, including an asset freeze and travel ban, have limited the billionaire's ability to invest some of his wealth in the country.

Both Usmanov and his sister Ismailova have filed formal appeals against the European sanctions, along with more than a dozen other Russian oligarchs.

According to the FT, the lobbying comes as the European Union seeks to forge closer ties with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries as the region reassesses its relationship with Moscow in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: UK arrests associate of Russian oligarch Deripaska

Any move to lift sanctions against Usmanov and Ismailova would require the unanimous support of all 27 EU members.

A day earlier, German police raided branches of a major Swiss bank linked to Russian oligarch Usmanov.

The searches included private client service units at the head office of UBS in Frankfurt am Main and a branch in Munich.

Read also: Germany to back sanctions against Iran for shipping drones to Russia

German police also confiscated paintings worth EUR 5 million from Usmanovs yacht.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Voters in Vermont and California voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night in favor of ballot proposals that will enshrine a right to abortion in their respective state constitutions.

With 53 percent of votes counted, 76 percent of Vermonters had voted in favor of the proposal while 24 percent voted against it, according to the New York Times, a sufficiently wide margin for local news outlet VTDigger to project the measure will pass.

In accordance with the vote, an additional article will be added to Vermonts constitution guaranteeing the right to abortion, contraception, and sterilization.

That an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine ones own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means, the article will read.

Abortion was already legal in Vermont without any limits, but the practice will now be further protected as a constitutional amendment would be required to limit access to the procedure.

The executive director of Vermonts ACLU chapter, James Lyall, applauded the vote as a historic victory for everyone who values reproductive liberty, bodily autonomy, and the right to access abortion careIt is a momentous occasion for Vermont, and for the nationwide movement for reproductive liberty.

The referendum was first introduced in 2019 amid growing fears that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, as it eventually did earlier this year in Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organization.

Proposal 5 had the deep backing of Vermont Democrats as well as the incumbent Republican governor, Phil Scott. Although Governor Scott did not campaign on the issue, he did publicly support it.

Vermont joined California, Michigan, and Kentucky in adding the abortion question to midterm ballots Tuesday night. Both California and Michigan asked voters similar questions concerning enshrining abortion access within their state constitutions, whereas Kentucky is asking residents to determine whether abortion is protected under the states existing constitution.

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Californias state referendum, Proposition 1, also passed, per NBC.

Prior to the referendum, abortion was already deemed a legal medical procedure across Vermont. The state has a long history of prioritizing access to abortion. In 2019, Act 47 was passed protecting abortion which built upon a 1972 state supreme court ruling that removed a ban on abortion books as well as legalized the medical practice.

Phil Scott won his fourth term as governor Tuesday night, the Associated Press projects.

More from National Review
Three veteran groups are set to hold their annual Veterans Day ceremony later today, according to a release.

The Lebanon Correctional Institution (LeCI), Incarcerated Veterans Group, and Veterans of Modern Warfare Chapter 25 will be meeting today to participate in the ceremony.

>>Veterans welcomed home as Honor Flight Dayton

Members from the veteran groups will be making donations totaling $6,000 to Brothers Beyond Battlefield, ALS, Project Rise Above, Ohio Veteran Outdoors, and Toys for Tots.

This years guest speaker will be Thomas Drago Dzieran.

The release listed Dzieran as a highly decorated retired navy SEAL, author, software engineer, and American hero.
Veterans Day is Friday, Nov. 11, and its an opportunity to honor all the people who have given so much for their country.

While well never be able to fully thank Americas heroes for the sacrifices they've made, restaurant chains across the nation are honoring veterans with all sorts of free meals and goodies.

Take note that many of these deals require some sort of proof of military service, so dont forget to carry that along if you want to take advantage of these freebies and deals!

1. 7-Eleven

This Veterans Day, 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes are offering a free Quarter-Pound Big Bite 100% all-beef hot dog in honor of veterans. Available in-store and via delivery through the 7NOW app, this deal is only redeemable on November 11.

2. American Social

This chain will be offering a 50% discount all day for veterans and their families.

3. Applebees

This chain will offer all active military, veterans, reserves and National Guard an in-restaurant complimentary full-size entree from an exclusive menu created just for them. These special guests will also receive a $5 bounce back card to redeem for dine-in, to go or delivery within a three-week redemption window.

4. Aroma Joes

Thirsty? On November 11, Aroma Joes is offering a free 24 oz. any drink for all veterans.

5. Au Bon Pain

Get a free breakfast sandwich and small drip coffee on November 11 if you're an active or retired military member. You must present military ID and mention offer at time of purchase.

6. Bad Daddys Burger Bar

On Veterans Day, Bad Daddys is offering a free BD's All American Burger and a side of chips from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Proof of service is required.

7. Bar Louie

On Veterans Day, Bar Louie is inviting all active and retired military to enjoy a complimentary Bar Louie Craft Burger on the house. Recipients must show a valid military ID to redeem offer, and offer is valid for dine-in only.

8. Bertuccis Italian Restaurant

Veterans may receive a complimentary small cheese pizza, pasta dish, salad, lunch entree or dinner entree at Bertuccis on Veterans Day with proof of valid ID showing active military or veteran status.

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9. BJs Restaurant & Brewhouse

BJs Restaurant & Brewhouse is teaming up with Dr Pepper to offer a complimentary meal from an exclusive menu and a Dr Pepper beverage to all current and former military personnel with a valid military ID.

10. Black Angus

Black Angus Steakhouse is offering all current and past members of the military a free meal on Veterans Day. The meal includes a 6 oz. top sirloin steak, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli and it is available from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. for dine-in service only. Recipients are asked to bring a photo ID verifying their military service.

11. Bob Evans

Bob Evans Restaurants will be celebrating Veterans Day this year by offering a free meal from a list of 10 special menu items to veterans and active-duty military guests

12. Bonefish Grill

Bonefish Grill is offering a free order of the restaurants Bang Bang Shrimp - crispy shrimp tossed in a signature creamy, spicy sauce - with a soft drink beverage to service members, veterans and first responders with ID.

13. Boston Market

Craving something comforting and cozy? Boston Market will have $5 pot pies for the entire day on November 11.

14. Brio Italian Grille

Veterans receive a complimentary pasta entree at Brio Italian Grille, available all day on Veterans Day with proof of valid ID showing active military or veteran status.

15. Buca di Beppo

Veterans can get a free lunch-sized entree at Buca di Beppo on November 11. Offer available all day with proof of valid ID showing active military or veteran status.

16. Buffalos Cafe

In honor of Veterans Day, Buffalos Cafe will offer all veterans and active-duty military a complimentary entree from the regular Core Menu. Redeem your meal by wearing a military uniform or presenting a veteran or military ID.

17. Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants will offer 10 free boneless wings and fries for all veterans and active-duty service members with valid ID on November 11.

18. California Pizza Kitchen

California Pizza Kitchen will be offering a free entree and beverage for active and retired military members with proof of service on Veterans Day. All veterans will also receive a BOGO voucher, good through November 21. CPK will also be donating 20% of all sales from November 7-9 to Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

19. Caribou Coffee

All veterans, active military members and their spouses can receive a free hot brewed coffee on Veterans Day. Caribou Coffee is also partnering with the American Red Cross Service and will donate $0.25 for every purchase made at a Caribou Coffee coffeehouse or through the Caribou Coffee app at participating locations on November 11 to support active-duty service members, veterans, and military families.

20. Carrabbas Italian Grill

All restaurants are offering a complimentary dine-in appetizer or dessert paired with a soft drink beverage for veterans and active-duty military with proof of ID.

21. Caseys

Caseys will be offering free coffee to service members, both active and retired, on Veterans Day.

22. Charleys Philly Steaks

Charleys Philly Steaks is offering free gourmet fries in-store with no purchase necessary to all veterans and active military on November 11. In addition, Charleys locations on military bases are offering free gourmet fries with the purchase of a cheesesteak and drink for all customers.

23. Chuck E. Cheese

On November 11, Chuck E. Cheese is offering a free personal one-topping pizza for any active duty or retired veterans with valid military ID or proof of military service with the use of promo code: #5970. No purchase required; limit 1 per person and not available for delivery.

24. Cici's Pizza

Cici's will be offering a free adult buffet to all active and retired military personnel for Veterans Day on November 11. The offer is valid for dine-in only and it does not include a drink. A valid active duty or retired military ID must be presented at the time of purchase.

25. Corner Bakery

Any active military can also stop inside participating Corner Bakery locations on Veterans Day for 20% off any order.

26. Cracker Barrel

On Veterans Day, any U.S. veteran or active-duty military will be offered a free slice of Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake, in-store and online, with any purchase. To redeem the offer online, enter code VETSDAY22 at time of checkout.

27. Dickeys

On November 11, Dickeys is giving away a free pulled pork sandwich to veterans who use the code VETFREE. Veterans can redeem the offer in-store for carryout and online for pickup all day at their nearest Dickeys.

28. Dog Haus

Dog Haus is inviting all active, retired and veteran military personnel to enjoy a free dog on the haus this Veterans Day. This offer is available at participating locations: Bethesda, Kentlands, Silver Spring, Claremont, Eastvale, Glendora, Colorado Springs, Tempe, Yuma, Long Beach, Alhambra, Old Pasadena, Cheyenne, Lincoln Park, Four Points, Burbank, Fremont and SanTan Village.

29. Dunkin

Dunkin will be giving veterans and active military a free donut of their choice on November 11 at participating locations nationwide no purchase or ID necessary.

30. Einstein Bros. Bagels

This beloved bagel chain is offering a free hot or iced coffee of any size with purchase when veterans show their ID inside each bakery location.

31. Farmer Boys

On November 11, all veterans and active duty military can receive a Big Cheese for free in honor of Veterans Day.

32. Fazolis

On November 10 and November 11, Fazolis is offering active military and veterans a free regular spaghetti with meat sauce or marinara sauce. Offer valid with military ID.

33. Fire Department Coffee

There's always a deal at this coffee retailer. Active military, veterans, first responders and emergency dispatchers get a 15% discount for life at firedeptcoffee.com.

34. Fish City Grill

All Fish City Grills nationwide will give a free entree to veterans on November 11.

35. Fogo De Chao

Fogo honors service members year-round, but on Veterans Day the chain is offering 50% off food for military veterans and active-duty personnel as well as 10% off food for up to three guests for military veterans and active-duty service members.

36. Food Lion

Food Lion will offer its annual Veterans MVP 10% discount on Veterans Day. Valid only on November 11, in all Food Lion stores, all active, retired military and veterans are eligible for 10% off their total shopping basket (before taxes and exclusions apply,). Excluded items include alcohol (beer and wine), tobacco, gift cards, lottery, pharmacy, postage stamps and services. Customers must request the discount, show their military ID and use their personal Food Lion MVP card in order to receive the discount.

37. Friendlys

On Veterans Day, Friendlys is offering veterans a free burger and fountain drink.

38. Golden Corral

Golden Corral is celebrating Military Appreciation Night on Monday, November 14, from 5 p.m. to close at all locations with a free "Thank You" dinner (buffet and beverage) for all active-duty military personnel, retirees, and veterans of the U.S. military. This deal is available for dine-in only with no military identification required. The free dinner is not available for spouse sor family members.

39. Greene Turtle

On Veterans Day, active and retired members of the military will receive 15% off their meal (dine-in only, must show ID & does not include alcohol).

40. Grimaldis Pizzeria

In support of military service members and veterans Grimaldis offers 15% off every day of the year with valid ID.

41. Happy Joes Pizza & Ice Cream

On Veterans Day, Happy Joes invites any veteran or acting military personnel to enjoy a complimentary Little Joe pizza of their choice for dine-in (where available) or carryout at participating Happy Joe's locations. Share a military heros story on the Happy Joes Facebook page and the brand will randomly draw one name to win free pizza for a year (one large pizza a month for 12 months).

42. Hooters

On November 11, all veterans who present a military ID or proof of service and purchase a beverage at any participating Hooters location nationwide will receive a free entree from a special Hooters Veterans Day Menu (available for dine-in only).

43. Huddle House

Huddle House is saluting those who are serving or have served in the military with a free MVP Breakfast Platter this Veterans Day. On November 11, active duty, retired military, and veterans may visit any participating Huddle House to enjoy their MVP meal. All patrons must present a proper military I.D.

44. Hurricane Grill & Wings

Hurricane Grill & Wings will offer all veterans and active-duty military a complimentary entree on November 11 from a select menu. This offer is valid in-store at participating locations only and patrons can redeem by wearing a military uniform or presenting a veteran or military ID.

45. IHOP

IHOP will celebrate and honor veterans on Veterans Day by offering free Red, White & Blue Pancakes from 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. at participating locations for dine-in service only. Military ID or proof of service is required.

46. Johnny Rockets

Johnny Rockets will be giving away free burgers to all veterans and active-duty military on November 11. The deal is valid in-store only and patrons can redeem by presenting a veteran or military ID.

47. Kona Grill

Veterans will receive 50% off food all weekend long, from November 11 through November 13. This special offer is valid for dine-in only, excludes alcoholic beverages and cannot be combined with any other offer and guests must show proof of military ID.

Related: Krispy Kreme is running a sweet deal to encourage voters to head to the polls. The chain is giving away free doughnuts to voters on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8.

48. Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme will honor and celebrate Veterans Day with a free doughnut of choice and a small brewed coffee (hot or iced) for veterans.

49. La Madeleine

They will be honoring active-duty service members and military veterans with 30% off any purchase all day on November 11. Military ID required.

50. Lawrys The Prime Rib

Lawrys The Prime Rib is partnering with U.S. Vets this Veterans Day for their Make Camo Your Cause campaign. On November 11, all veterans will receive 20% off of their bill and Lawrys will also donate 11% of proceeds from that day back to U.S. Vets.

51. Lime Fresh Mexican Grill

All of Lime Fresh Mexican Grills locations will be offering 10% to vets and military on Veterans Day (and every day) with proof of ID  in-store only.

52. Lions Choice

The St. Louis-based family of restaurants will celebrate Veterans Day on November 11 with a free original roast beef sandwich for active and retired members of the armed forces. While there, veterans can also take advantage of the standing 20% discount offered daily for veterans and active-duty military. Guests can request their free sandwich and additional discount at checkout by stating they are a veteran or showing a valid ID.

53. Logans Roadhouse

On Veterans Day, Logans is inviting active and retired service members to enjoy a free meal off its special Veterans Day menu from 3 to 6 p.m. The menu includes Bayou Shrimp, Chicken Tenders, Chopped Steak, Pork Chop, Pulled Pork Plate, and Steak Tips, as well as side options including chips, coleslaw, corn, fries, green beans, mashed potatoes and rice.

54. Maverik

This chain will be offering active military personnel and veterans a complimentary hot beverage including coffee, cappuccino, tea, and hot cocoa any size with the purchase of a doughnut.

55. Millers Ale House

On Veterans Day, Millers Ale House will be offering military members and veterans 50% off their entree of choice with proof of service.

56. Mountain Mikes

Mountain Mikes Pizza, a regional chain based on the West Coast, will be offering a BOGO deal on large pizzas in honor of Veterans Day. The chain will be celebrating one day early, on Thursday, Nov. 10, and the deal will be available exclusively via the brands Mountain Rewards app.

57. Mr Brews Taphouse

On November 11, Mr Brews is donating 10% of its total sales to Folds of Honor, the non-profit organization that provides scholarships to family members of fallen or disabled military personnel.

58. Native Grill & Wings

In recognition of Veterans Day, all veterans and active-duty military will be offered free meals from the following choices:  LB Stripper Combo,  LB Boneless Combo or a Native Burger with fries. Each meal will include a choice of a non-alcoholic beverage listed on the regular core menu. The offer is valid for dine-in only at participating locations and veterans and active-duty military must present a military I.D. or wear a military uniform to redeem.

59. NORMS Restaurants

This SoCal diner is honoring all veterans with a 50% discount on any entree for themselves as well as a veteran or non-veteran friend. Offer is available at all locations for dine in or to-go orders, only on November 11 with valid ID.

60. Norwegian Cruise Lines

Active or retired military veterans and their spouses will be eligible to receive a 10% discount on their cruise fare for all sailings beginning on January 1, 2023. The offer is able to be stacked with the Free At Sea offer, with options that include features like free airfare, unlimited open bar, specialty dining, Wi-Fi and more.

61. Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom

Get ready to work up an appetite! On Veterans Day, Old Chicago is offering a free appetizer.

62. On the Border

On The Border is offering veterans a free Pick 2 Combo on November 11 for dine-in at participating restaurants. Eligibility includes U.S. military service members and veterans with proof of identification.

63. Orange Leaf

Time for dessert? On Veterans Day, Orange Leaf is offering $2 off any item.

64. Outback

Outback Steakhouse is offering all active and retired military personnel a free Bloomin' Onion and Coca-Cola product in-restaurant on Friday, November 11.

65. Peets Coffee

In honor of Veterans Day, Peets Coffee will serve complimentary drip coffee and tea all day on November 11 to members of the US armed forces (active-duty, reserves, National Guard, retired military), military spouses, and veterans. You must mention your military status when ordering.

66. Perkins Restaurant & Bakery

Perkins Restaurant and Bakery is saluting members of the armed forces this Veterans Day with a free meal. On November 11, active duty, retired military, and veterans are invited to their local Perkins to enjoy a Free Magnificent Seven meal. To receive the offer, please present a valid military ID.

67. Perrys Steakhouse

For Veterans Day, Perry's Steakhouse is saluting veterans with a complimentary famous seven-finger-high pork chop for lunch or dinner when accompanied by a guest purchasing one entree on Veterans Day Eve (November 10, 4 p.m. to close) or Veterans Day (November 11, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.). The special is only available for dine-in, and reservations are required.

68. Peter Piper Pizza

Peter Piper Pizza celebrates veterans every day by offering a 10% discount for dine-in only. This deal also includes police, firefighters and first responders.

69. Piada Italian Street Food

Get free cannoli chips in-store with no purchase necessary. This offer is valid for all veterans and active military on November 11. Piada's cannoli chips are tossed in powdered sugar and served with chocolate chip cannoli cream.

70. Pie Five Pizza

Pie Five Pizza is offering a free personal pizza for active and retired military veterans; in-store only on November 11. You must present valid military/veteran ID at register.

71. PJs Coffee

On Veterans Day, PJs is offering a free 12 oz. hot coffee or cold brew iced coffee for veterans and active-duty military.

72. Qdoba

Qdoba will be paying tribute to the military veterans who have served in the U.S armed forces by offering active military or veterans 50% off any entree when they show their military ID. This offer will be valid in-store only on Veterans Day.

73. Red Lobster

In honor of Veterans Day, and to thank veterans, active-duty military and reservists for their service, Red Lobster is offering guests a free Walts Favorite Shrimp, fries, and coleslaw, featuring six hand-breaded, butterflied and lightly fried shrimp, served with cocktail sauce. The offer is available for dine-in and to-go orders placed in-restaurant between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. local time on November 11. Guests only need to show a valid military ID or proof of service to redeem this offer.

74. Red Mango

Craving some froyo for dessert? On Veterans Day, Red Mango is offering $2 off any item.

75. Rock & Brews

Rock & Brews is honoring veterans with a complimentary pulled pork sandwich or a Strawberry Fields salad on November 11. This offering is extended to army, military and first responders.

76. Rosa Mexicano

This upscale Mexican chain is offering a complimentary meal to veterans on November 11, at all locations. Veterans can show an ID card to claim the free offer.

77. Schlotzskys

On Veterans Day through November 30, Schlotzskys will offer free chips and a small drink with an entree purchase to veterans and active-duty service members with a valid military ID. This offer is not valid in app or online.

78. Sheetz

Sheetz will show its respect and gratitude for veterans and active duty military personnel by offering a free meal (free half turkey or ham sub and a regular size fountain drink) and a car wash on Veterans Day.

79. Smokey Bones

Smokey Bones is offering a free entree for veterans and active military with ID on November 11. Veterans and active military can choose from either a meatloaf entree, 8-piece boneless wings or pulled pork sammie. All entrees come with either fries, baked beans, roasted corn or coleslaw. Dine-in only, no purchase necessary.

80. Smoothie King

Any active and retired military guests who visit the stores and show a valid military ID (at select locations) on Veterans Day can get a free 20 oz. smoothie.

81. Sonic

For a limited time at SONIC Drive-In, including over Veterans Day on November 11, mix and match any two of the following for $5.00 + tax: Quarter Pound Double Cheeseburger, Regular Fritos Chili Cheese Wrap, or Small Jumbo Popcorn Chicken.

82. STK

Veterans will receive 50% off food all weekend long, from November 11 through November 13. This special offer is valid for dine-in only, excludes alcoholic beverages and cannot be combined with any other offer and guests must show proof of military ID.

83. Taco Cabana

Tex-Mex chain Taco Cabana is giving 20% off food orders to veterans with a valid military ID. This is valid at all Texas Taco Cabana locations.

84. Taco Johns

On Veterans Day, Veterans receive a free #1 Small Beef Combo (two crispy beef tacos) by entering VETERAN22 under the MORE tab in-app. You must be a Bigger Better Rewards Member to receive an offer. Show QR code to redeem in a restaurant or apply the offer to in-app mobile order.

85. TGI Fridays

On Veterans Day, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. local time, veterans and active duty military personnel who dine-in at participating TGI Fridays can receive a free meal from a select menu. To redeem the deal, veterans and active duty military personnel should present a valid military ID.

86. TooJays

Active military and veterans receive 25% off at TooJays on Veterans Day.

87. Twin Peaks

On Veterans Day, Twin Peaks is offering a free Veterans Day lunch from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Veterans will receive a free meal from a select menu.

88. Walk-Ons

On Veterans Day, Walk-On's is offering a free scholarship burger and fries for dine in guests. This deal is available at all locations except Purdue and Las Vegas.

89. Wendys

Wendys is offering a free breakfast combo offer with valid military ID or a Veterans Advantage card. Those who have served or are currently serving are invited to visit their participating Wendys location on Veterans Day from 6:30  10:30 a.m. for a free breakfast offer.

90. Ziggis Coffee

Ziggi's Coffee will honor veterans and active-duty military personnel with one free 16 oz. drink on November 11.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
APTOPIX Election 2022 Ohio Senate (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

I dont like JD Vance. Ive spenta lot of time and energy explaining why. So, considering my own bias might get in the way, I asked my friends what they thought of Ohios newest US Senator, who last night declared victory over Democratic challenger Tim Ryan.

JD Vance is using the demise of Middletown to market himself, my friend Jessica  who, like me, grew up in Dayton  said. Hes simply a kid who was enabled by the women in his family to make the life he wants no matter the cost to others Im worried for the future of Ohio and our obsession with sycophants.

Ashley, a teacher, was likewise forlorn. Disheartened. Mad. Worried, she said when I asked how she felt. His comments on women and our rights in marriage and health care are distressing. Last year, Ashley found out her wanted pregnancy would not be viable and went through a medically necessary termination procedure. Vances stance on abortion and womens rights, she says, would have rather seen me die than get the [procedure] I needed for a missed abortion. My body wouldnt miscarry, and I could have gotten sepsis.

These are not blue state pundits. They are Ohioans who are understandably afraid of what sending a man who flips and flops on stances and issues to appeal to a base that feels stuck and discarded, and in turn has turned hateful and power-hungry  as Ashley put it  to the Senate. I dont know what kind of Senator Im going to get other than hes going to only do whats good for him, she added.

I dont know what kind of Senator Ohio is getting, either. Vance came to national prominence with the 2016 publication of Hillbilly Elegy, a book which regurgitated the worst  and most discredited  tropes about Appalachia, a region he never lived in. A vocal critic of Donald Trump, Vance would later change his tune, endorse the mango megalomaniac from Mar-a-Lago, and proceed to, in Trumps own words, kiss his ass.

JD Vances most prominent trait is his malleability, Ohio sportswriter Craig Calcaterra memorably tweeted, of the writer-turned-politician. Hes a cipher who will do whatever powerful people tell him to do. First Senate leader to get him in DC owns him, I suspect.

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I suspect so, too  which is why I have some small glimmer of hope as an Appalachian. As chance may have it, I just returned from Breathitt County, Kentucky. If youve read Hillbilly Elegy (and I wouldnt recommend it), you know that is from where Vances claim to Appalachia comes. His grandmother was born there but moved away when she was young. Neither Vance nor his mother ever lived in Kentucky.

Breathitt County was also devastated by flooding earlier this year. At least 10 people in the county died, and one remains missing. Many, many more lost their homes, their churches, their possessions. Thats why I was there, filming a short documentary about the recovery efforts. It was my third report on Breathitt County. As someone who graduated high school just down the road in Leslie County, Im committed to making sure that the people of eastern Kentucky are not forgotten as they recover and rebuild. They need a lot of help, and right now theyre not getting it. They need a champion in Washington.

This is where JD Vance comes in. No, he isnt a Senator from Kentucky, but he wouldnt be anywhere without his tenuous connection to Breathitt County. He made his name in the national media off his ancestral ties. Breathitt County made JD Vance. Now, its time to return the favor.

The people of Breathitt County and eastern Kentucky need a champion. Even Vances own supporters seem to understand that champion isnt Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. Congratulations on your win, one supporter tweeted. But if you vote for McConnell for Senate leader I will never vote for you again. Another supporter asked Vance to stop with the Trump adulation, adding that while the former president had some good policies his time has come and gone. She ended with the exhortation: Do us proud!

As an Appalachian, I would love nothing more than for Vance to do us proud. Rarely has someone who so readily identifies as one of us ever been sent to the Senate, let alone with such a massive national profile. Even the Senators from West Virginia  the only state entirely within the Appalachian region  dont have the same kind of cache that Vance has. That puts him in a prime position to truly help the people of our region, some of whom are now his constituents.

Thus far, Vances only accomplishment has been sending a doctor with ties to the opioid industry into southeastern Ohio. Clearly, things are not off to a great start. Theres time to fix that, though.

Vance should make it a priority to champion the needs of our region in the Senate, becoming the voice for a people who he claimed just six years ago were forgotten but who now seem forgotten by him. He should start by directing federal aid into rebuilding Breathitt County and eastern Kentucky, working with Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell and whoever else he needs to make sure creeks and rivers are dredged, flood prevention methods (such as levees and dams) are constructed, and that roads and schools and other infrastructure are not only rebuilt but upgraded.

Then, he should turn his attention to working with the Appalachian Regional Commission to improve health equity and economic opportunities within the region  including southeastern Ohio, which he will represent in the Senate. Coal isnt coming back, contrary to what Trump claimed, and Appalachia  from Pennsylvania on down to Alabama  will need to diversify its economy. Ensuring that those industries are not extractive and exploitative, as they have been in the past, will be key. Vance, as a Senator from an Appalachian state, has a role to play.

So, too, does he have a role to play in helping to destigmatize our region. For too long Appalachia has been a national punchline. We are the region onto which the rest of the country projects its own flaws and insecurities. Vance should make it a point to lift up Appalachian voices, not just in Congress but in the media which he has so adeptly used in his rise to power.

Nothing in Vances history as a public figure has led me to believe he cares about anyone or anything other than himself and his own ambition. He didnt even thank Donald Trump, the man who got him elected, in his victory speech. I suspect Craig Calcaterra is right, and that Vance will soon take on whatever principles and views whoever gets to him first in DC has.

If thats someone with a conscience, though  if any of them are left in the Republican Senate caucus  that could be good for Appalachia. Vance helped the nation rediscover our region. Now, its time for him to help us.
If theres one lesson Donald Trump has given us it is not to write him off (Getty Images)

In the aftermath of the midterm elections, there was a very clear assessment made of the fortunes of Donald Trump.

The 76-year-old was a drag on the Republican party, said sources, forcing on it unsuitable candidates such as Herschel Walker and Mehmet Oz. He talked endlessly about the presidential election in 2020, ignoring the interests of most voters. He had proven himself out-of-touch.

Such a view was augmented by the fact that Florida governor Ron DeSantis was the standout success of the night, putting a whole 20 points between himself and Charlie Crist, and breaking Jeb Bushs 13-point record when he secured reelection for the job in 2002.

The apparent ascendancy of DeSantis was underscored by a middle-of-the-night tweet by Mike Cernovich, a right-wing commentator who used to be a major Trump fan. Trump has zero shot at 2024 in general. After tonight, this isnt up for debate, he wrote. DeSantis in 2024 or accept total defeat.

Yet, there is another way to see assess the fallout of these elections. Indeed, while there were several winners to emerge aside from DeSantis  John Fetterman and the Democratic Party among them  Donald Tump himself may have been the biggest winner of all.

Consider this: When the numbers tallying up the Republicans reached a number that meant they were now set to take control of the House of Representatives, it meant several things. One was that Kevin McCarthy, currently the minority leader, will replace Nancy Pelosi to become Speaker. And one of the first things McCarthy will do is scrap the January 6 Committee that has been seeking to prove before America and the world Trumps culpability over the storming of the US Capitol.

Another is that the new Republican caucus will be filled with the MAGA-breathing presence of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. Greene has vowed to launch impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden and his administration on her first day  and though she is only a one-term congresswoman, she has such sway over the far-right Christian nationalist chunk of the GOP base that McCarthy will be terrified to defy her.

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Another thing in Trumps favour is that several of the candidates he backed did perform very well  JD Vance in Ohio; Ted Budd in North Carolina, where he won the Senate seat; and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, who appears set to hold on to his spot. The former president said  with classic Trumpian honesty  that hed take credit for those who won, while feeling no responsibility for those who lost.

Things were too close to call for Herschel Walkers efforts in Georgia at the time of writing, and the state looks set to go to a December runoff. Another Trump booster, Kari Lake, is still in the race for governor of Arizona.

Trump certainly thinks he had a good night. While in certain ways yesterdays election was somewhat disappointing, he wrote, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory  219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General  Who has ever done better than that?

Another thing is playing out very nicely for Donald Trump. Many of the Republican elites and donors are saying it is time for him to be gone, and that the party should back someone like the Yale-educated DeSantis for 2024, who has plenty of MAGA swagger but less of the baggage. Trump will have little problem using that to his favor, labeling Ron DeSanctimonious as the candidate of the conservative elite, much in the same way he managed to disparage Ted Cruz all the way back in 2015.

None of this is certain. DeSantis has a lot of strengths in the way that Cruz did not. Yet he has yet failed to show a genuine emotional connection with the base of the party, in a way Trump so clearly has.

This is when the rubber hits the road, Yascha Mounk, of Johns Hopkins University, told The Independent. DeSantis has been very aggressive in fighting the culture war and lots of Republican elites may like him, [but] it is unclear if he has yet developed enough of a visceral connection with the rank-and-file.

How many times have Republicans and Democrats and independents and even people who have no interest in politics asked if this is the moment Trump is caught out? Was it after his bragging about sexually assaulting women on the Access Hollywood tapes all the way back in 2016? Was it when he threatened to ban Muslims from entering the US? Was it when he was impeached the first time, or even the second time?

There was a time after the January 6 riots, a moment measured more easily with a stopwatch than a sundial, when it appeared senior Republicans were done with Trump. Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Liz Cheney  all said it was time for the party to move on. But most very quickly forgot about all their tough-sounding words, and fell into line when it become politically convenient. The one exception among those senior figures was Liz Cheney, who was quickly voted from office.

There is a final thing to remember about Donald Trump, the man who has been written off so many times and always bounces back. While DeSantis is a man of political talent and sharps, Trump is a political street fighter who is not weighed down by concerns about the consequences of his actions on the party of which he is the de facto leader. He cares only for himself, and for regaining office, and for enacting revenge.

Would he think twice about trying to smear Ron DeSantis? Not for even a single second on the stopwatch. So after Trump makes his big speech on November 15, when he is expected to formally announce his run, be careful not to get in his way.

If he has the momentum, he may very well run and lie and fight and punch and trample his way over any potential rivals. And cheered on his supporters, it might be enough to put him back him back the White House.
Logically, a state like New York shouldnt vote Republican. The 6.5 million registered Democratic voters in the state dwarf the 2.9 million Republicans. Even if you throw in the 3 million independent voters here, Republicans still wouldnt surpass the massive built-in lead Democrats have.

With that in mind, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul should be resting comfortably. And her opponent, Republican Representative Lee Zeldin, should be flailing about somewhere in rural upstate, surrounded by true believers but ignored by everybody else as more competitive elections around the country suck up all the attention. But thats not whats happening now.

Over the past few weeks, Democrats have been ringing alarm bells. The governor is in trouble, they say. A shock poll showed Hochul and Zeldin in a tie, and the conservative New York Post trumpeted it on the front page. This past week, Hochul brought in the big guns: Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Joe Biden, have all led 11th-hour get-out-the vote rallies for her.

That she even needed these political titans to drag her across the finish line in deep blue New York has sent Democratic observers into existential dread and despair about their future. Could it actually happen? Could a Republican win the governorship of New York for the first time in 20 years?

The short answer is no. The slightly longer answer is no, not likely.

It takes some hubris to make such a prediction hours before the polls close on Election Day. Ill admit its statistically possible for Zeldin to win, but the odds are slim enough that I feel comfortable sticking my neck out without fear of a surprise guillotine coming down to humble me.

There are quite a few reasons why Hochul is more secure than the headlines would have you believe. The most obvious one is the aforementioned gargantuan number of Democrats in her state. They lead Republicans two-to-one in registration. This doesnt mean Democrats are invulnerable, but it is as solid a defense as any politician could wish for.

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Secondly, the few polls showing a tight race that have caused Democrats such anxiety are dwarfed by the number of polls showing Hochul winning. Of the past 10 polls tracked by the data gurus over at FiveThirthEIght, two have shown a statistical tie. Eight have shown Hochul leading comfortably, and five of those show her leading by double digits.

The news is even better for Hochul upon closer examination. Those two tied polls? They were conducted by Republican firms. One of them was performed by KAConsulting, a group owned by former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. FiveThirtyEight considers it a pretty mediocre outlet. The other, the Trafalgar group, is much more respected. Still, the polling average has Hochul leading by eight points.

This is a comfortable lead for Hochul. Its not so gigantic that if the stars aligned perfectly for Republicans, they couldnt overcome it. But by all accounts, the stars arent aligning, namely for one reason: Lee Zeldin.

Vermont, Maryland, and Massachusetts are deep blue states, bluer even than New York. They voted for Biden over Trump by greater margins than New York did in 2020. Vermont has Bernie Sanders, the most famous socialist in America, as its senator. Yet, all three states are currently led by a Republican governor. So on paper, New Yorks blue wall isnt insurmountable for the right Republican. But theres plenty of evidence Zeldin is not that.

In those three states, Republicans nominated a moderate Republican for their candidate, and they were rewarded with victories. These Republicans are so far outside the mainstream of their party that all three of them supported the impeachment of Donald Trump. On third-rail issues such as abortion and other social issues, they align with Democrats.

Lee Zeldin is different. Hes fiery and combative. He is a Trump loyalist who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. He is so anti-abortion that he co-signed a friend of the court brief demanding that the US Supreme Court overturn Roe v Wade, which they ultimately did this summer.

For a Republican to win in New York, two factors must be present. One, there must be massive discontentment towards the Democratic incumbent. Two, the Republican candidate in question must reassure enough Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents that they are not like those other Republicans across the country, whose views are repugnant to liberals. Zeldin is not making that case.

And for that matter, Hochul really isnt that unpopular in New York. Recent polls have her approval rating hovering between positive in the high single digits to negative by low single digits. Even if the latter is correct, a mildly unpopular governor is not enough to make New York go red.

Why the Democratic freak-out, then? For one, Hochul is an accidental governor. She came to power last year because Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced ex-governor, resigned, and as lieutenant governor, she automatically got promoted. Before that, she was unknown to the public. Nobody voted for her thinking she would ever lead the state.

At the same time, Zeldin has been hammering her on New Yorks crime rate after multiple stories of violent, random assaults put voters on edge. Crime, or the perception of crime, is an omnipresent election issue in the state, and Hochul has the burden of running on 16 years of Democratic rule while having had very little time in office to make an impact of her own.

With things looking grim nationwide for Democrats this midterm, theyre seeing Republican boogeymen around every corner, threatening even their citadel of New York. But Democratic anxiety is nothing new, and with a right-winger like Zeldin as their opponent, they should go into tonight comfortable with their hold on the governors mansion.

For the rest of the country? They should keep a vial of Tums nearby, and a stiff drink. Not everywhere is New York.
Photo: Getty (Getty Images)

Republican politicians and activists have spent decades paving the way for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, and they finally got their wish this summer: States can now ban abortion if they want to. The problem is, the voters just really do not want to.

In Tuesdays midterm election, abortion rights won in all five states where they were directly on the ballot, including deep-red Kentucky and Montana. And this comes after Kansans resoundingly defeated an anti-abortion measure in August. It would seem abortion rights are extremely popular everywhere, even among many Republicans, despite what elected leaders would have you believe.



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In California, Vermont, and Michigan, measures to enshrine a constitutional right to abortion in each state were all successful, despite substantial disinformation campaigns/ /claiming they were extreme and would lead to abortion up until birthsomething that, I cannot stress this enough, does not happen. What can happen are emergency pregnancy complications, late fetal diagnoses, or barriers preventing earlier access to abortion, while arbitrary cut-offs for abortion rights can place pregnant people in danger.



The victory for abortion rights is especially vital in Michigan, a Midwest haven for abortion access surrounded by three states that are currently challenging abortion bans in court. In addition to adding the right to abortion to the state Constitution, Michigan re-elected Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Democratic secretary of state Jocelyn Benson and flipped the whole state legislature Democratic for the first time in 40 years.

Meanwhile, Kentucky defeated Amendment 2a ballot measure that would have amended the state Constitution to say that nothing in the document can be construed to protect abortion rights. While abortion is already banned in the state, if the anti-abortion yes vote won, it would have permanently shut down any future challenge to the state ban. Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for the Protect Kentucky Access coalition, called the outcome a historic win against government overreach in a statement to Jezebel.

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Anti-abortion politicians in the state had spent months spewing disinformation about the measure and toning down how extreme it is, but by Wednesday morning, multiple outlets declared the pro-abortion no vote the winner by a roughly five-point margin. Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who decisively defeated his Democratic opponent, way outperformed the yes vote in Kentucky, showing that support for abortion rights transcends party affiliation.



.@jointoprotectky campaign tells reporters that while they're still waiting for more data... "We got about 164k more votes than @Booker4KY did. Its clear we would not have the lead we do without a sizeable number of votes from Republican and Independent voters."  Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) November 9, 2022

And in Montana, voters faced a deceitful measure that would criminalize doctors who dont try to save infants who are hypothetically born alive after abortions, or intervene to keep a fatally ill baby alive. As of Wednesday afternoon, voters had rejected it by about five points. Organizers told Jezebel the purpose of the measure was to threaten doctors and perpetuate confusion and anti-abortion stigma.

We get calls from clients sometimes asking if they would retroactively be punished. That level of fear and anxiety is part of the dangerous nature of this measure, which [backers are framing] as being about abortion and scaring people about having abortions, said Aileen Gleizer, a board member of Montanas abortion fund.

In the four months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, weve seen doctors and pregnant people threatened with prison time, child rape victims and cancer patients forced to remain pregnant, and people with chronic conditions denied life-saving medication for being of childbearing age. Still, Democrats were warned that emphasizing these post-Roe crises was a losing cause and that abortion is a deeply divisive issuenotably, by the same pundits who failed to predict the fall of Roe in the first place. Tuesdays election made it clear as day: Americans overwhelmingly, unequivocally want abortion rights.

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Voters offered mixed opinions on recreational marijuana use in five states on Tuesday, with Maryland and Missouri becoming the latest jurisdictions to relax prohibitions on the substance.

Recreational adult marijuana use will be legal in nearly half the country following the midterm elections, with at least 21 states now poised to make the substance legal for adults aged 21 and older. But voters in three other states rejected proposals.

In Missouri, about 53 percent of voters as of early Wednesday morning supported a constitutional amendment to legalize the possession and use of recreational marijuana, with roughly 90 percent of the estimated vote having been counted. The New York Times projected the amendment will pass.

This is truly a historic occasion, said Dan Viets, a co-author of the amendment and state coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

This means that the great majority of the 20,000 people who have been arrested year after year in Missouri will no longer be subject to criminal prosecution for victimless marijuana law violations, Viets said in a statement.

In Maryland, about two-thirds of voters approved a referendum favoring the legalization of marijuana, which will go into effect on July 1, 2023.

Adults 21 and older in the state will at that point be able to possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana, and people caught with larger amounts could face civil fines.

Maryland voters have overwhelmingly rejected the failed policy of prohibition and voted for the common sense policy of legalization, NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri said in a statement.

For far too many decades, Marylands prohibition has been an utter failure and which has had devastating consequences on already marginalized communities in the state, he continued. By voting for legalization, Marylanders have rejected the failed ideas of the past and have chosen to reform their laws to protect civil liberties and promote racial justice.

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But other states voiced opposition to legalizing the drug recreationally.

A measure in North Dakota that would make the possession and use of marijuana legal was projected to fail, with roughly 55 percent of voters rejecting the ballot measure and 45 percent supporting it.

The rejection marks the second time recreational marijuana has been voted down in the state.

A similar measure in Arkansas that would have legalized the possession and use of marijuana while also authorizing sales of the drug also failed. Medicinal use is already legal in the state.

Fifty-six percent of voters had rejected the move as of early Wednesday morning, with about 90 percent of the estimated vote counted.

Finally, South Dakota also rejected a ballot measure that would have legalized the possession and use of marijuana for people 21 and older.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Residents of Portland, Maine, voted Tuesday against raising the citys minimum wage to $18 and eliminating the lower, tipped minimum wage for restaurant servers.

The ballot measure known as Question D would have given the waterfront town one of the highest minimum wages in the country. Had it gone into effect, the wage floor would have risen from its current rate of $13 per hour to $15 in January, then to $16.50 in 2024, and finally hit $18 in 2025.

Whats known as the minimum wage tip credit would also have been phased out over a similar three-year schedule. The tip credit allows employers to pay a lower minimum wage so long as gratuities make up the difference. Without it, companies would have been obligated to pay the full minimum wage of $18, with workers receiving tips on top of it.

The measure also called for extending the minimum wage protections to taxi drivers and other ride-hailing services as well as personal shoppers and delivery workers. That stipulation clearly targets gig companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash that operate on an independent contractor model to sidestep labor regulations.

Minimum wage measures fared better in other jurisdictions on Tuesday. Voters in Washington, D.C., voted overwhelmingly to phase out the citys tipped minimum wage by 2027, and Nebraskans approved a ballot measure that will increase the states wage floor to $15 by 2026. Meanwhile, Nevadans were leaning towards boosting the states minimum wage to $12 by 2024, but the results were still too close to call on Wednesday.

Seattle and a handful of towns in California already have minimum wages above $17. The Portland measure would have given the Maine town one of the highest wage floors of any city on the East Coast, with Washington, D.C.s set to hit $16.10 per hour in January.

Local employers in the service industry recently told the Portland Press-Herald that they were already having to pay above $18 per hour to attract workers amid historically low unemployment. Still, some told the newspaper they opposed the increase for a variety of reasons, including the fear of having to pay the higher rate if the labor market softens and wages come down.

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The federal minimum wage is currently just $7.25 and hasnt been raised in more than a decade due to Republican opposition. In lieu of action from Congress, a majority of states have now increased their wage floors above the federal rate. The $7.25 wage floor applies in any city or state that hasnt instituted its own higher one.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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Voters in California, Vermont and Michigan on Tuesday approved ballot measures enshrining abortion rights into their state constitutions, while those in the traditionally red states of Montana and Kentucky rejected measures that would have restricted access to reproductive care.

The votes signal support for abortion rights after the Supreme Court in June overturned the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to the procedure.

In August, Kansas voters also rejected a ballot measure that would have given the state legislature the authority to restrict abortion access through a state constitutional amendment.

The ballot votes came amid high-profile Senate and House races, with some candidates running for office across the nation with hard-line views on abortion access.

Already in post-Roe America, about half of all states have moved to restrict abortion access, even as polls show most Americans approve of the right to abortion.

Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), have proposed a 15-week national abortion ban, though other members of the party have supported leaving the issue up to the states.

Democrats, by contrast, had made protecting abortion rights a key plank of their midterms platform.

Planned Parenthood on Tuesday night tweeted that the message is clear from voters.

The majority of voters dont want politicians deciding personal medical decisions for them, the reproductive health care rights group said.

Vermont became the first state to explicitly enshrine abortion rights into its state constitution after voters approved the ballot measure, according to unofficial results from the secretary of states office.

In Michigan, Republicans had hoped to enact a 1931 law that would ban abortions in all cases except to save the life of a mother, which morphed into a legal challenge that worked its way up to the states high court.

On Election Day, however, Michigan voters were confronted with a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, which would make the 1931 law and the court fight moot.

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Voting results show 53 percent of Michiganders supported the measure, compared to 46 percent who voted to reject it, according to a New York Times tracker, in another victory for abortion rights.

In California, an overwhelmingly blue state, about 68 percent of voters approved a similar ballot measure enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, while roughly 31 percent rejected it, according to local affiliate KRON, which is owned by The Hills parent company Nexstar.

Kentucky voters faced a ballot measure that would declare there is no right to an abortion in the state constitution, similar to the Kansas measure that was rejected.

According to the New York Times tracker, 52 percent of Kentucky voters rejected the move, while 47 percent supported it.

Montana voters, meanwhile, rejected a ballot measure to approve the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. The law declares any fetus or embryo that survives an abortion is a legal person and criminalizes doctors who do not try to save the life of a born alive infant.

About 53 percent of Montana voters rejected the ballot measure, while 46 percent supported it, per The New York Times.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Supporters celebrate as votes in favor of Proposal 3, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative begin to pour in on Nov. 8, 2022, in Detroit. Cydni Elledge for BuzzFeed News

DETROIT  Voters in Michigan and in several states across the US turned out at Tuesdays midterm elections in favor of abortion rights, delivering a forceful message in favor of reproductive rights just months after the Supreme Courts historic overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Here in Michigan, voters overwhelmingly approved amending the state constitution to enshrine the right to abortion and protect other forms of reproductive healthcare. Proposal 3, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, establishes reproductive freedom, as a right and protects access to abortion, contraception, sterilization, infertility care, and postpartum care. The Associated Press called the race at 3:42 a.m. ET on Wednesday. According to preliminary results from Decision Desk HQ, 55% voted in favor of the proposal in Tuesdays midterm election.

Its important to keep the right to choose between a woman and her doctor, said Brittany Wood, 36, who voted in favor of the amendment. I think this is a really big step in preventing any more degradation of democracy.

Supporters of Proposal 3, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, await results on Nov. 8, 2022, in Detroit. Cydni Elledge for BuzzFeed News

The story was the same elsewhere  even in deep red Kentucky, where voters rejected a proposal that would explicitly deny any constitutional protections for abortion. Republican lawmakers who had passed a near-total ban on abortion wanted the amendment to pass to try to prevent the states supreme court, which is currently reviewing challenges to the law, from declaring such a right existed.

The majority of Kentuckians made one thing clear: abortion is our right and politicians have no place in our private medical decisions, the ACLU of Kentucky declared in a victory tweet.

With polls closing earlier on the East Coast, Vermont became the first state to amend its constitution to expressly guarantee reproductive rights. Hours later in California, it soon became clear that voters had turned out there, too, in favor of codifying abortion protections in the states constitution.

In Montana, votes were still being counted on Wednesday on the states Born Alive measure, which would classify a fetus or embryo as a legal person who has a right to medical care if they are born prematurely or survive an abortion attempt. With roughly two-thirds of ballots counted, the no vote was leading by more than 6%.

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Victories in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, and Montana make it clear that when the issue of abortion is in the hands of the voters themselves, abortion justice wins, said Morgan Hopkins, president of the abortion rights group All* Above All. We know that the majority of people support access to abortion and oppose politicians interfering with our lives and decisions. Across the country, voters made it clear that they will not stand for politicians trying to control their lives and decisions

At the David Whitney Building in downtown Detroit late Tuesday, a sea of purple T-shirts filled the room where supporters of the yes campaign gathered to watch the results roll in. Two large TVs flanked the space, both tuned to CNNs election coverage. The mood was hopeful as volunteers waited for the race to be called.

Advocate Darci McConnell (center) and supporters convene ahead of Proposal 3 results on Nov. 8, 2022, in Detroit. Cydni Elledge for BuzzFeed News

I think well be victorious, Jamiel Martin told BuzzFeed News. A historic amount of people signed the petition, and I think a historic amount of people are gonna vote [for it].

Julie Falbaum, another campaign volunteer, said she was worried but optimistic the amendment would pass. The feeling out there has been really positive," Falbaum said. Im nervous because who wouldnt be?

Supporters celebrate as votes in favor of Proposal 3 begin to pour in. Cydni Elledge for BuzzFeed News

The measures passage comes just over four months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago. As states across the country enacted bans on the medical procedure, abortion access in Michigan was left in the hands of the courts. A judge declared one 1931 state law banning the procedure without exceptions as unconstitutional, but without action by voters, it was unclear whether abortion would remain legal.

Pushing his sleeping newborn twins in a stroller as he exited a polling place in downtown Detroit with his spouse on Tuesday afternoon, Tyler Jones told BuzzFeed News that he voted yes on Proposal 3.

The couple had supported abortion rights before they had children, but people told them theyd feel the exact opposite after having kids, Jones said. Well, we had kids, and we still felt the same way, he said. 

Clarissa-Jan Lim reported from Detroit, while Stephanie Baer reported from Los Angeles and David Mack from New York City.

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After a campaign charged with emotion over issues including crime and the states pandemic response, Democrat Kwame Raoul cruised to a commanding victory Tuesday in his bid for a second term as Illinois attorney general over Republican Thomas DeVore.

With 87% of precincts reporting, Raoul had 55% of the vote and DeVore, a downstate attorney, had nearly 43%, according to unofficial results. Raouls double-digit win tracked with other statewide Democratic candidates, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

An emotional Raoul declared victory shortly after 10 p.m. Im your 42nd attorney general and Im going to serve as such for the next four years, he told supporters at Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier.

In a later tweet, he pledged to crack down on gun violence, protect children from online predators and fight like...hell to make sure Illinois remains a safe haven for women!

DeVore called the incumbent to concede shortly after Raouls victory speech, according to the incumbents campaign. Speaking to his supporters at The Drake Hotel Oak Brook, DeVore said they ran a good race.

Three years ago when this started, it wasnt even about elections, it was about standing up to a government that was doing things that it shouldnt have been doing, DeVore said. And in that three years, I was proud to see the people all across this state, even in Cook County, stand up for what they believe is right.

DeVore frequently joined forces on the campaign trail with the GOP gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who lost decisively to Pritzker on Tuesday.

In the final days of the election, Raoul joined Pritzker and other Democrats at the top of the ticket at rallies targeting Black voters and labor groups. Of his opponent, during an earlier online forum, Raoul said DeVore should not be let anywhere near the door of the attorney generals office.

The two differed starkly on most issues, chief among them Pritzkers pandemic-related executive orders. Raouls office repeatedly battled with DeVore in court to defend the state against lawsuits challenging Pritzkers mask mandate and other executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

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While there hasnt been a final ruling in any of the more than 30 lawsuits DeVore filed against the state, he was successful in temporarily stopping some of Pritzkers rules. The litigation served as a springboard in DeVores campaign as the political unknown from downstate Sorento steadily gained notoriety.

At 53, DeVores experience in elected office was a two-year stint on the Bond County Board more than a decade ago. DeVore, who has the words freedom and liberty tattooed on his forearms, argued his willingness to take on the governor in court is proof he if elected would be a check on power and government overreach.

But Raoul held a commanding cash advantage in the race. DeVore started July with less than $16,000 in his campaign fund after winning a GOP primary in which he was vastly outspent by the second-place finisher, who was on a slate backed by billionaire Ken Griffin. As of early Tuesday, DeVore reported raising more than $500,000 in additional contributions, about half of which came from a loan he made to his campaign that lifted contribution limits for both candidates.

With the limits off, Raoul received a $1 million contribution from Pritzkers campaign fund and, as of Monday, had reported raising more than $1.1 million in other contributions since July 1. Thats on top of the $1.1 million in cash he had on hand at the end of June.

DeVore attacked Raoul for being too closely aligned with Pritzker, repeatedly calling the incumbent attorney general the governors lap dog. Raoul dismissed such criticism, contending his independence is not for sale.

Raoul, 58, is a former Cook County prosecutor from Chicago who succeeded Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate, representing parts of the citys South Side, before being elected four years ago to replace former Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

In response to DeVores criticism, Raoul argued his office was on the right side of the law and public health in defending the states actions on the pandemic and, thus, helped save lives.

DeVore also has sued Pritzker for defamation after the governor called him a grifter during a news conference in response to a question about DeVores legal challenges to the pandemic mandates. Raouls office defended Pritzker against the defamation allegation, but DeVore later dropped the lawsuit.

The attorney general accused DeVore of wasting the courts time with what he deemed frivolous lawsuits. Besides Pritzker, DeVore in recent years has sued a special education teacher and two others for sharing a Facebook post in which DeVore referred to students working a school concession stand as window lickers and his girlfriends mother, whom he accuses of publishing a derogatory article under a pseudonym.

Raoul said DeVores largely unsuccessful lawsuits showed he was unqualified for the office. He also pointed to DeVores social media comments that indicated he might, if elected, investigate political adversaries, including Pritzker, and Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, whom DeVore has criticized as being too lenient on criminals.

DeVore accused the incumbent of not being aggressive enough in fighting crime in his role as attorney general. The GOP challengers primary criticism has been with the SAFE-T Act, the sweeping criminal justice legislation Pritzker has signed into law. Among other changes, it will end cash bail on Jan. 1.

The law allows judges to keep defendants behind bars while awaiting trial if they are deemed to be a flight risk or danger to the public, but Republicans argue it will empty out jails and lead to increased violence. The measure faces an onslaught of legal challenges from several county states attorneys.

DeVore alleged the law is unconstitutional, raising issues with the way it was passed as well as its content. He pledged to work to get the measure overturned if elected.

Raoul, who backed the SAFE-T Act, has acknowledged he has concerns about potential ambiguities in the sweeping law and spoke to the need for lawmakers and prosecutors to work together to clarify some provisions.

In his first term, the attorney general created an organized retail crime task force to stem smash-and-grab offenses. He also pushed for stronger federal ghost gun regulations to crack down on homemade weapons. Raoul pledged to try to expand the attorney generals jurisdiction over corruption cases if reelected.

Though crime dominated much of the race, Raoul also highlighted his support for abortion rights, including his offices defense against an ongoing lawsuit challenging a state law that enshrined access to the procedure as a fundamental right. The litigation objects to a provision of the law that requires health plans that offer pregnancy-related care to also provide coverage for abortion.

DeVore has described himself as a pro-life guy, but he said if elected he would continue to defend the state reproductive health law because he wasnt aware of any constitutional problems with it.

Under Raoul, the attorney generals office has played an active role in defending the rights of transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community. But DeVore said his approach to such social issues, which he said he would not actively litigate, marked a fundamental difference between him and Raoul.

Libertarian Party candidate Daniel K. Robin, a 45-year attorney from Schaumburg, was also on the ballot and wound up collecting 2% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com

wlee@chicagotribune.com

cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com
PHOENIX (AP)  A printing malfunction at about one-quarter of the polling places across Arizona's most populous county slowed down voting Tuesday, but election officials assured voters that every ballot would be counted.

Still, the issue at 60 of 223 vote centers in Maricopa County gave rise to conspiracy theories about the integrity of the vote in the pivotal state. Former President Donald Trump, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and others weighed in to claim that Democrats were trying to subvert the vote of Republicans, who tend to show up in greater numbers in person on Election Day.

Lake and several other candidates on the Arizona ballot have pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential race, amplifying Trump's lies about a stolen election. But election officials from both political parties and members of Trump's own Cabinet have said there was no widespread voter fraud and that Trump lost reelection to Democrat Joe Biden.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan denied a request from Republicans to keep the polls open, saying that he didnt see evidence that people were not allowed to vote.

After polls closed, the county supervisor, Republican Bill Gates, apologized, but said every voter had the opportunity to vote and have their vote counted.

The issue affected an unknown number of ballots in the county. About 4.5 million people live in the sprawling city and about 2.4 million are registered voters. More than 80% cast their ballots early, most by mail, and the county said about 230,000 had voted in-person about an hour before polls closed.

At issue were printers that were not producing dark enough markings on the ballots, which required election officials to change the printer settings. Until then, some voters who tried to insert their ballots into voting tabulators were forced to wait and use other machines or were told they could leave their ballots in a drop box. Those votes were expected to be counted Wednesday.

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When voters in the county check in, they are handed a ballot for their specific election precinct; the races for which they can vote are printed for them. That process allows voters to go to any voting location in the county. The voters then fill out the ballot and put it into a tabulation machine to be counted.

Some of the tabulators did not read the ballots because the printers did not produce what are known as timing marks dark enough to be read by the machines. Timing marks tell a ballot scanner the voters precinct, party and other information so it can properly tabulate their choices. Voters who had their ballots rejected were told they could try the locations second tabulator, put it in a ballot box to be counted at the central facility later or cancel it and go to another vote center.

Election officials have a variety of tools, including a different type of scanner, for accurately reading the lightly inked marks, said Eddie Perez, an election technology specialist with OSET Institute, an election security and integrity nonprofit organization. He was confident the ballots would be accurately processed.

The majority of Arizona counties do not count ballots at polling places. Officials bring the ballots to a central facility for counting. The ballots that were left in the drop boxes in Maricopa County will be counted at their central site.

The county's main election building where votes are tabulated was the scene of protests by hundreds of Trump supporters, some of whom were armed, after he lost in 2020.

As part of the security outside the countys tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, 11 officers patrolled the area on horseback, a fairly common practice at protests in metro Phoenix in the past. No protesters had appeared outside the center, even hours after polls had closed.

Gates, the county supervisor, said there was no need for protesters to come to the facility, although he said they had a right to be there.

Theres nothing that happened here today that would indicate a need to be out here, a need to address some injustice, Gates said. "We had an issue with printers that has been addressed by the good people of Maricopa County.

The problem slowed down voting in both traditionally Democratic and Republican areas, especially at an outlet mall in conservative far-flung Anthem. Some voters there reported waiting several hours to be able to vote with the only one of two tabulators working.

At a polling place on the other side of the county, Phoenix voter Maggie Perini said she was able to vote without problem, but that a man next her in line struggled with his ballot at a different tabulator. When he switched to the machine she had used, the ballot went through.

And then I know one woman who was coming out, she tried like four or five times for it to work and it wasnt working, said Perini. And someone had told her she could leave her ballot and shes like, No, no, no, no, no.

Voter Michael McCuarrie said his ballot wasnt read so he dropped it off to be counted later.

Fine as long as the vote is counted, said McCuarrie. I dont mind.

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Associated Press writers Bob Christie and Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that there are 223 vote centers, not 232.
New Hampshires two House members, both Democrats who appeared vulnerable to Republican challengers heading into Election Day, fended off their GOP rivals, adding to a surprising list of victories for Democrats on Tuesday.

Reps. Chris Pappas and Ann McLane Kuster had been thought to be among the most vulnerable Democrats in the country, but they overcame their challengers not long after polls closed.

Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., waves to supporters at an election night gathering, Nov. 8, 2022, in Manchester, N.H. Pappas faced Republican Karoline Leavitt in his re-election race.

The Associated Press called the race for Pappas in the states 1st Congressional District and Kuster in the 2nd soon after midnight.

Pappas was challenged by Republican Karoline Leavitt, who served as a White House assistant in former President Trumps press office.

Pappas tweeted that New Hampshire voters had sent a clear and powerful message on Tuesday.

Granite Staters want leaders in Congress who work together to find common purpose and use common sense, he wrote. Im honored to have earned your trust for another two years.

Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., a member of the House Subcommittee on Health, is questioned by reporters after a Democratic Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 10, 2020.

Kuster, who has held her seat since 2013, defeated Republican challenger Robert Burns, a pro-Trump candidate who previously ran for the district in 2018 but did not survive the GOP primary that year.

In a statement to local news outlet WMUR 9 after the race was called, Kuster said she was truly humbled by the outpouring of support from New Hampshire voters.

It is the honor of my life to bring the voices of Granite State families, seniors, veterans, small businesses, and communities to Washington and to deliver real change for our state, she told the outlet.

The House victories add to a critical win in New Hampshire from Sen. Maggie Hassan (D), who had also faced a tough Trump-backed challenger in Republican nominee Don Bolduc.

Story continues

Republicans hope for a red wave on Election Day did not come to fruition as several Trump-endorsed candidates fell to Democratic nominees who campaigned on abortion rights and preserving democracy.

Control of the House and Senate majorities remain to be determined.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The race for who will be Georgias next U.S. Senator remains too close to call.

Incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, Democrat, is facing Herschel Walker, Republican, for a full six-year term for one of Georgias U.S. Senate seats.

Warnock spoke to supporters just before 2 a.m. and said he remains committed to his work since his first day on the job and is confident Georgia will speak definitively for him once all votes are counted.

We know when they finish counting the votes from todays election, that we are going to have received more votes than my opponent, we know that, Warnock said. We also know once again, the people of Georgia showed up and said loud and clear that you want a senator who will do the work for all of Georgia.

Were watching for any new developments in this razor-tight race, with LIVE Team 2 coverage on Channel 2 Action News This Morning.

Warnock won the seat two years ago to fill the remaining term of the late Sen. Johnny Isakson, who stepped down for health reasons midway through his term. Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed to the seat for about a year until an election could be held to fill it.

As of 4 a.m., Warnock and Walker were neck and neck at 49.4% and 48.5% of the vote, respectively.

Neither candidate so far has been able to meet the threshold of getting 50% + 1 vote, meaning the race could go into a runoff.

Walker remained optimistic that he would win the race outright Tuesday night.

If you can hang in, hanging out a little bit longer, just hang in there a little bit longer, because something good, it takes a while for it to get better. And its going to get better. So, I wanted to thank you guys for hanging in. And if you saw me and you have to go home, you can wake up tomorrow morning and see that the new senator of the great state of Georgia is Herschel Walker, Walker told his supporters.

RELATED STORIES:

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Warnock said he knew that this race was always going to be a close one.

We always knew that this race would be close. And so, thats where we are. So, you all just hang in there. Im feeling good. I do, Warnock told his supporters Tuesday night.

Amid generationally high inflation and with President Joe Bidens popularity lagging in Georgia, Warnock wants voters to make a localized choice, not a national referendum on Democrats as a whole. Georgias first Black U.S. senator, Warnock pitches himself as a pragmatist who cuts deals with Republicans when theyre willing and pushes Democratic-backed cost-cutting measures when theyre not. Among the top accomplishments Warnock touts: capping the cost of insulin and other drugs for Medicare recipients.

Ill work with anybody to get things done for the people of Georgia, Warnock said.

Walker, meanwhile, denies that hes ever paid for an abortion. And glossing over a cascade of other stories  documented exaggerations of his business record, academic achievements and philanthropic activities; publicly acknowledging three additional children during the campaign only after media reports on their existence  Walker touts his Christian faith and says his life is a story of redemption.

Raphael Warnock votes with Joe Biden 96% of the time, Walker has told voters again and again. Hes forgotten about the people of Georgia.

Through the scrutiny he calls foolishness, the Republican nominee has campaigned as a cultural and fiscal conservative. Walker, who is also Black, pledges to bring people together while framing Warnock as a divisive figure on matters of race and equality. Walker justifies his attack using snippets of Warnocks sermons in which the pastor-senator discusses institutional racism.

Republicans used similar tactics against Warnock ahead of his runoff victory on Jan. 5, 2021. Warnock won that contest by about 95,000 votes out of 4.5 million cast. More than 2 million Georgia voters have cast ballots ahead of Election Day.

If the race goes into a runoff, that election will be held on Dec. 6.

RELATED NEWS:
Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Boston.

A massive tree was hoisted Wednesday in Quincy Market near Sephora, according to Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

Video from the scene showed the tree standing tall as curious onlookers gathering around to snap photos.

There will not be a Blink show this year, but Santa will be on hand to flip a switch to turn all the lights on at a small lighting ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m.

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During Tuesdays elections, five states considered cannabis alongside their candidates.

Voters Maryland and Missouri both voted "yes" and legalized recreational marijuana. Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota voted no and opted to keep recreational pot illegal  though it remains allowed in all three of those states for medical use.

But even with the mixed results, marijuana advocates were touting their wins Wednesday morning pointing to the fact that recreational marijuana is now set to be legal in 21 states and the District of Columbia. There were also victories on other fronts in this year's voting.

The big picture is that the marijuana economy pie is growing says Brian Vicente, the founder of a law firm focused on cannabis companies called Vicente Sederberg, Wednesday after most of the results come in.

Its sort of a matter of when, not if, these states move forward, he added about Tuesday's losses. He predicts that advocates will continue to put the issue before voters in the coming years. Up next is Oklahoma, which is set to hold a special election on legalizing recreational marijuana in March.

Voters at the Meadowbrook Athletic Complex in Elliott City, Maryland cast ballots for Governor and also voted to legalize recreations marijuana in their state. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Proponents in the industry will also be keenly focused on Washington. Specifically, there are rumblings that long-delayed legislation may become reality that would address problems cannabis companies have finding banking services.

Full results from Tuesday

Tuesdays votes in Maryland and Missouri dont make marijuana legal immediately, but instead create a blueprint for state officials to set up a recreational cannabis industry in the coming months or years. In Arkansas, early polling had shown a strong support for passage but a follow-up from a University of Arkansas political scientist found that support faded on the issue closer to election day.

But the industry notched other wins in Tuesdays voting. The decisive victory of John Fetterman in Pennsylvanias closely-watched Senate race was a win for the proponents of the industry. The Democrat has long been an outspoken advocate for federal cannabis legalization and made it a key issue in his successful campaign saying its time to let go of this bizarre superstition and criminalization of a plant.

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The overall result "was mixed to slightly positive" for the industry, BTIG Director of Policy Research Isaac Boltansky said Wednesday in a Yahoo Finance appearance adding that Pennsylvania could be next in line for legalization of recreational marijuana after the election of Josh Shapiro as governor there.

Legalize marijuana



Regulate it.



Tax it.  Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) March 30, 2022

Elsewhere in the country, 5 Texas cities voted on municipal ballot initiatives to de-penalize marijuana possession and a range of other local measures across the country are still coming in with mixed results so far.

And another drugs measure appeared to be making headway in Colorado. As of Wednesday morning, voters there were looking likely to decriminalize so-called magic mushrooms with votes still coming in. Colorado, which has long been a leader on decriminalizing marijuana, could join Oregon and become the second state to decriminalized certain psychedelic plants and fungi for people over 21.

Its a remarkable milestone in the slow end to the drug war that were watching, says Sederberg of Tuesdays results in Colorado and around the country.

What's Next?

And the news at ballot box around the country comes amid new steps from Washington DC on the issue.

In early October, President Biden announced actions to use his executive power to further decriminalize marijuana and offer a pardon for prior Federal offenses for simple possession. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, ta long delayed action on the issue of cannabis and the banking sector may finally be addressed.

The bill, called the SAFE Banking Act, has passed the House of Representatives a whopping seven times, only to die in the Senate. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently gave advocates new hope when he said Congress is getting very close to finding consensus on a marijuana bill that would include a range of provisions, including banking.

The banking provisions are meant to address the fact that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level; the bill would bar regulators from punishing financial institutions for providing services to a "legitimate" cannabis-related business. It has long been a key cause for retiring Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and he recently told the Hill newspaper that theres a lot of activity around the effort at the moment.

My statement regarding President Bidens recent action on marijuana  pic.twitter.com/KOM48L9aIT  Rep. Ed Perlmutter (@RepPerlmutter) October 6, 2022

In the past, the cannabis banking efforts have been blocked by Senate Democrats who are eager for a broader bill with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in the past vowing lay myself down to block efforts to pass the marijuana banking legislation before larger cannabis reform. But the recent signal from Schumer is heartening activists. They think a consensus bill could be in the offingBooker recently said theres a good chance Congress will be able to reach a deal soon.

While polls have consistently shown that there is widespread support for federal marijuana legalization, the immediate term prospects of decriminalizing it at the federal level remain unclear. Lawmakers are still working to find a coalition of Democrats that can ally with Republicans, who are increasingly beginning to talk about legalization as well.

This post has been updated.

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

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The deadline for voters to cast their ballots was extended in certain counties across the country Tuesday, stretching out the timeline for midterm results tabulation in a handful of states.

The deadlines were pushed back in some counties to account for polling places opening late Tuesday morning, or because of glitches that inhibited the ballot-casting process for some voters.

Here are the states where certain polling place hours have been extended so far:

Texas

The Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas ACLU filed an emergency lawsuit on behalf of the Texas Organizing Project after a number of polling locations in Harris County, which includes Houston, allegedly failed to open on time Tuesday morning.

A judge approved an extension for the voting window and ordered the 782 polling places in the states largest county to stay open an hour past their typical closing time, until 8 p.m. local time.

Times were also extended by an hour in Bell County after issues with the countys election check-in technology kept the polling places from opening on schedule.

Pennsylvania

Polling places will be kept open two hours later than usual in Luzerne County, Pa., after some polling places suffered a paper shortage that kept ballots from being printed.

Luzerne County election officials filed an emergency petition after noting the issue, and a Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judge issued an emergency court order to extend the voting window to 10 p.m. local time in order to compensate for the problem.

The constitutional right to vote requires an extension of the voting hours, the judge wrote in the filing.

North Carolina

The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend the voting window in polling places that opened late.

Polling places in North Carolinas Columbus, Robeson and Wilson counties stayed open until 8:30 p.m. local time.

Georgia

In Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the states Cobb County elections board for failing to send 1,046 requested absentee ballots.

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A judge ordered the county to extend the deadline to return ballots for the affected absentee voters.

The ballots, which were overnighted to voters, still have to be postmarked by Election Day, but can come into the county as late as Nov. 14.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Joe Biden recently appeared to break from Americas stance not to call for regime change in Iran when he said, "Were going to free Iran."

His remarks to an audience in Los Angeles last Thursday were soon qualified by John Kirby, the National Security Council strategic communications coordinator, who noted that Biden was "expressing, again, our solidarity" with Iranian protesters and not outlining a new approach.

Since protests began in Iran immediately following the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the countrys morality police on Sept. 13 for not wearing a hijab, more than 300 deaths have been reported.

A new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has called on Biden to go further in strengthening his support for the Iranian people.

DISTURBING VIDEO SHOWS IRAN'S POLICE BRUTALLY BEATING ANTI-REGIME PROTESTER

"President Bidens apparent endorsement of regime change in Iran is welcome. But he can go further to support the Iranian people," wrote Tzvi Kahn, a research fellow at FDD.

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 19, 2022.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Kahn believes that U.S. reticence to call for regime change lies in the Biden administrations hopes of reviving Obamas 2015 nuclear deal with the country.

"America and its allies have issued increasingly robust statements criticizing Irans human rights abuses while downplaying their previous emphasis on reviving the 2015 nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," he wrote. Re-entry into the deal would mean billions of dollars in sanctions relief for Iran.

STATE DEPARTMENT MADE 'CALCULATION' TO PRIORITIZE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

The White House has gradually shown support for protesters. Two weeks into the demonstrations it finally released a statement in early October: "For decades, Irans regime has denied fundamental freedoms to its people and suppressed the aspirations of successive generations through intimidation, coercion, and violence. The United States stands with Iranian women and all the citizens of Iran who are inspiring the world with their bravery."

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The State Department was faster to condemn the regime in Iran as Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on Sept. 22 to announce sanctions on top Iranian officials and express support for the protesters.

Lisa Daftari, editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, is hopeful that Biden's most recent comments are indicative of a shift to come in Washington.

"Thanks to nearly two months of courageous tenacity on the part of Iranian protesters against the brutal regime in Iran, the Biden administration is beginning to show that it understands the gravity of this movement," Daftari told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Daftari, who has covered the protests since the outset, continued, "Whether emotionally, through the compelling and heart-wrenching videos and footage of the protests on the streets, or through significant political pressure put on the White House and lawmakers to step away from the JCPOA and to support the people of Iran instead of appeasing the mullahs, it seems there has been somewhat of a pivot in Washington, D.C."

On Oct. 26, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a new round of sanctions "on Iranian officials overseeing organizations involved in violent crackdowns and killings, including of children, as part of our commitment to hold all levels of the Iranian government accountable for its repression."

US ACADEMICS URGE BIDEN TO ACT IN RESPONSE TO IRANIAN PROTEST CRACKDOWN

"The White House should explicitly revoke its offer of sanctions relief to Iran," said Kahn. "Washington must not provide an economic lifeline to a regime that continues to massacre its own people."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks at the United Nations.

At an event hosted by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Oct. 13, the U.S. special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, insisted that the potential for re-entering the JCPOA was not influencing the U.S.s support for protesters.

"I think people have to understand that they were not tying our hands because of  this hope that someday maybe therell be a deal.  We are taking action. Were not waiting. Were taking the action that we think is consistent and necessary to promote our values and our national security interests."

Malley faced backlash for a tweet he sent in October that said the protesters were demonstrating "for their government to respect their dignity and human rights." Activists pointed out that the demonstrations were in fact about regime change and not a call to action for the current regime in Iran. Malley acknowledged that his tweet was misguided, telling the news outlet, Iran International, that his post had been "poorly worded."

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Kahn noted that the White House has not been clear enough on whether negotiations regarding the JCPOA would resume should protests fade.

"To eliminate such ambiguity, President Biden should reject further talks and adopt a policy of maximum pressure on Iran," he said.

Following Bidens remarks last week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reacted by saying, "A few hours ago, I was informed that the president of America absent-mindedly [said], We will soon free Iran. We were freed 43 years ago," Raisi said in a televised address on Friday. "America is aiming to destroy our national unity and coherence."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is projected to win reelection, defeating Republican nominee Tudor Dixon in a high-stakes gubernatorial race.

The Associated Press called the race at 1:20 a.m. ET.

Polls leading up to the race had Whitmer holding a steady advantage over Dixon. Much of the race had centered on abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade over the summer.

Michigan has a referendum on the ballot this election that will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Dixon had expressed hard-line views on abortion, including a statement that she would not support an abortion even in the case of a 14-year-old rape victim.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has won another term in office defeating conservative media personality Tudor Dixon in the highly watched contest for Michigans gubernatorial seat.

Whitmers profile rose dramatically since 2020 when she emerged as one of the most COVID-careful governors in the nation, drawing ire and protests from conservatives in her state who opposed the prolonged lockdowns. Heavily armed protestors at times overran the Michigan Capitol grounds in 2020 in demonstration against Whitmers stay-at-home order. In October that year, the FBI announced they had foiled a scheme to kidnap Whitmer hatched by more than a dozen far-right militia members. Several of the men were convicted of conspiring to kidnap the governor, among other charges, earlier this year.

Trump Pick Tudor Dixon Wins, Will Now Face Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

That stewing among the right in Michigan led to Dixon making a bid for the seat, believing Whitmer had lost touch with the state. The two women embarked on what became a bitter contest, often at total odds over key policy issues.

On reproductive rights, for one, Whitmer is hoping to preserve abortion access in Michigan, while Dixon had vowed to restrict it while only supporting exceptions in cases where the life of the mother was at risk. The two also sparred in debates on issues of the economy and crime, drawing contrasts similar to those seen in gubernatorial races throughout the nation this cycle.

Polls consistently showed Whitmer with a leadthough Dixon ramped up her campaigning in the final weeks in a clear effort to close in on the governor.

Now in her second term, Whitmer will be term-limited in 2026.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  WHY AP CALLED NEW HAMPSHIRE FOR MAGGIE HASSAN

Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan did better than she did in her 2016 race in New Hampshire. She also did better with moderate voters, according to the results of an Associated Press survey of American voters aimed at determining why they voted how they did.

That's what enabled the AP to declare Hassan the victor over former Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc.

Bolduc, the Republican candidate, questioned the outcome of the 2020 election saying it was stolen from former President Donald Trump and later saying it wasnt and that he wasnt sure.

Hassan sought to capitalize on those comments arguing that they showed Bolduc didnt think he needed to accept the elections outcome.

She's a former governor who has now won her second term in the Senate.

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AP journalist Mike Catalini can be reached at https://twitter.com/mikecatalini

___

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 2022 midterm elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
WASHINGTON (AP)  Republican Doug Mastriano could not catch up to Democrat Josh Shapiro's lead in the Pennsylvania governor's race. The deeper into the night it got, the clearer it was that the GOP state senator couldn't overtake Shapiro's lead.

That's when The Associated Press called the contest early Wednesday for the two-term attorney general.

Shapiro led in polls throughout the contest and had racked up record-sized campaign spending. He also adopted a low-key style, and campaigned on boosting education funding and expanding high-speed internet.

Mastriano won support from former President Donald Trump after pushing falsehoods about the 2020 election outcome and was present outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

He also campaigned with QAnon conspiracy theorists, election deniers and Christian nationalists. Hes an abortion opponent who favors a ban on the procedure.

___

Mike Catalini can be reached at https://twitter.com/mikecatalini

___

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 2022 midterm elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
Too sexy for this show: Olivia Williams, Dominic West, Josh OConnor and Gillian Anderson in The Crown (iStock)

That John Major is one mighty hunk of man-meat, said no one but Edwina Currie probably. Watch The Crown this season, though, and youll be foaming at the mouth in minutes over Britains most boring PM. See, Major  who absolutely, categorically did not advise Prince Charles on whether to force his mothers abdication in 1991, thank you very much  is played in The Crown by Jonny Lee Miller, an actor so flagrantly good-looking that even dressing him up in geeky spectacles and a floppy grey wig cant extinguish the heat.

Inappropriate sexiness is The Crowns metier. Here is a show that thought the perfect person to play famed demonoid Margaret Thatcher was Gillian Anderson, knowledge of whose overt, indubitable sex appeal has been passed down the generations like some kind of erotic folk tale. Prince Charles has been played by both the prolifically allergic-to-clothes Josh OConnor and, in the new season, Dominic West  think He-Man if he went to Eton. Camilla Parker Bowles, meanwhile, has been embodied by the very beguiling Emerald Fennell and, this season, Olivia Williams  an actor whose beauty is such that Bruce Willis literally convinced himself he wasnt dead in The Sixth Sense solely to be within reach of her.

It should be said that the physical allure of The Crowns ensemble has had absolutely no impact on its overall quality. This has always been one of the most well-cast series on television, its actors able to thread the needle between the shows richest modes: powerful, emotive drama and soap opera camp. But Im beginning to worry that the reason The Crown has become so contentious this year  with everyone from Tony Blair to Dame Judi Dench condemning its dramatisation of real events  isnt because the Queen died and made everyone feel existentially guilty-slash-deranged. Rather, its because everyone in it is just too hot.

I should quickly interject here and clarify that sex appeal is not, of course, inherently linked with physical attractiveness. The most aesthetically beautiful people on the planet can be entirely beige when it comes to sexual charisma, just as someone whod never appear on the cover of Vogue could easily be the hottest person in any given room. And many members of the royal family throughout history have been very conventionally beautiful. But they also happen to embody many of the things that act as groin repellent, from inherited wealth and love of fox hunts to Prince Andrew and, well, colonial rule and all that. You know whats also sexy? Conversation, repartee, humour. But all of those things have been drummed out of them  publicly, at least  by the rules of royal life. Dignified silence. Stiff upper lips. Lots of tweed. Bleurgh.

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Political unsexiness is a little more obvious to pinpoint. As any good subscriber to the Id never kiss a Tory ethos will know, political leanings make or break someones sexual allure. Its why all those breathless cries of Dishy Rishi went down like cups of cold sick two years ago. No matter how good-looking someone is, if theyre redistributing funds from deprived areas to pump into rich ones, youre going to be reaching for the nearest chastity belt. So The Crown bringing two Tory PMs to the screen in the form of FHMs Sexiest Woman in the World 1997 and a one-time Mr Angelina Jolie isnt just jarring, its practically offensive.

And I cant help but wonder if its key to The Crowns increasingly checkered reputation. Since it began in 2016, The Crown has largely stuck to the facts of royal history, if naturally enhancing them a little because this is a Netflix drama series. Lucy Worsley may not wander on-screen every few minutes to tell us that such-and-such a posh person did indeed do such-and-such a posh thing 30 years ago, but The Crown is  for the most part  an accurate recreation of truth. Its the product of not just showrunner Peter Morgan but a large team of researchers, sources and historians. Even some of the more outlandish scenes in the show  such as Diana roller-skating around Buckingham Palace to Duran Duran  did apparently really happen.

Jonny Lee Miller as John Major in The Crown' (Netflix)

Yet the idea persists that The Crown is a kind of anti-establishment propaganda machine built on intricate, elaborate untruths. Or malicious fiction, as John Major grumbled last month. But, in Majors defence, wouldnt you think The Crown was vague nonsense if you hadnt actually seen the show and just saw how sexy this cast is? Surely a show starring Timothy Dalton  actual James Bond!  as Princess Margarets great love may have taken a hammer to other bits of truth, too?

The Crown may be giving into this kind of misplaced criticism. Theyve already agreed to add a fictional dramatisation disclaimer to the new season. Whatever next? Recast Jonny Lee Miller with a bag of flour? Just to reduce the sexual magnetism? We shouldnt stand for it. The Crown may take our lives, but they will never take our weird crushes.

The Crown is streaming on Netflix now
Nov. 9The Willows Fire Department was buzzing with activity on the morning of Oct. 29, not because of a local emergency, but for the annual pancake breakfast hosted by the department since 1983.

Willows Fire Department Engineer Timothy Danley said the pancake breakfast raises money for the department's Public Education Fund.

"Our Public Education Fund goes toward purchasing materials and hosting training events for the public on fire safety and other potential emergency scenarios," said Danley.

According to Danley, 268 people were served up a hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausages and eggs during the event this year while mingling with local fire personnel. Milk, juice and coffee were also available to complete the meal.

Firefighters cleared the apparatus bay of the station and filled it with tables and chairs so attendees could stay and enjoy their meal, but take away options were also available for those that could not stay.

Keeping with the format of the previous year, this year's breakfast did not have a set ticket price. Instead, the station only accepted donations in any amount as the cost of admission.

"We greatly appreciate the community for coming out to support us," said Danley. "Your contributions and support make our mission possible."

Danley said station personnel begin prepping for the annual event in the early morning hours on the day of the event in preparation for the four-hour breakfast.

"We begin setting up and preparing food starting at 5 a.m., two hours before we start serving," said Danley. "This gives us enough time to ensure our members are fed a good breakfast beforehand, as well as gives us a good head start on cooking for the community."

Sponsors of this year's pancake breakfast include Titus Properties and Titus Construction.
Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Kremlin says Russia remains open to negotiations with Ukraine

Xinhua) 09:40, November 09, 2022

KIEV/MOSCOW, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis:

The Ukrainian government has forcibly alienated assets of five strategic enterprises for the period of martial law, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday.

The companies include defense plant Motor Sich, energy enterprises Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, oil-immersed power transformers and electric reactors maker Zaporozhtransformator and vehicle producer AvtoKrAZ, Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

- - - -

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Russia remains open to negotiations with Ukraine, but the talks are now impossible due to the fact that Kiev has banned contacts with Moscow at the legislative level.

- - - -

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Monday that his country has received Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and Aspide air defense systems.

"NASAMS and Aspide air defense systems arrived in Ukraine! These weapons will significantly strengthen the Ukrainian army and will make our skies safer," Reznikov tweeted.

He thanked Norway, Spain and the United States for sending the air defense systems to Ukraine, but gave no details on their number.

- - - -

Ukrainian troops attacked the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station with the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported on Sunday, citing a representative of the emergency services of the Kherson region.

Five rockets were shot down by Russian air defense systems and one rocket hit and damaged the dam lock of the power plant, the representative said.

- - - -

Britain's military assistance for Ukraine reached 2.3 billion pounds (about 2.63 billion U.S. dollars) amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Monday, citing British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons.

In particular, Britain has provided artillery, anti-tank weapons, mine detectors, air defense systems and other military equipment to Ukraine, Simmons said.

- - - -

The Italian media on Sunday cast the future of Italy's military support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia in doubt, a day after tens of thousands of Italians took to the streets of Rome and Milan to protest against the country's arms shipment to Ukraine.

Local media reported that protesters held banners, placards and rainbow flags at the events Saturday, demanding negotiation and diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis in Ukraine. "More arms for hugs, no more wars!" read one banner carried by a man who wore a rainbow scarf in Rome.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
Jim Vondruska / Getty Images

A man in Wisconsin, armed with a knife, threatened the staff at a polling location and demanded they "stop the voting" on Tuesday, police said.

According to the West Bend Police Department, the 38-year-old man entered the West Bend Community Memorial Library around 12:30 p.m. Police responded and arrested him shortly after.

No one was injured, authorities said, but voting was paused for about 30 minutes while police secured the scene. The incident is under investigation and charges are pending.

Voter intimidation has been reported in other parts of the country as well.

The Arizona Secretary of State's Office has sent 18 referrals of voter intimidation to police, a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. On Oct. 24, the office said in a news release that it had reported six potential voter intimidation cases and one report of election worker harassment to law enforcement.

Voter intimidation is illegal, and no voter should feel threatened or intimidated when trying to vote," Katie Hobbs, Arizona's secretary of state, said in a news release. "Anyone attempting to interfere with that right should be reported. Voter harassment may include gathering around ballot drop boxes questioning voters, brandishing weapons, taking pictures of people voting and following or chasing voters who are attempting to drop off their ballots, and it can all be considered voter intimidation. It is unacceptable."

The complaints were referred to the Department of Justice and Arizona Attorney General's Office for further investigation, according to the news release.

There have been 16 cases of voter intimidation, harassment, or interference of voters in North Carolina since the start of early voting, Patrick Gannon, a spokesperson for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told BuzzFeed News. The incidents included an observer getting too close to a voter and an observer yelling at a voter when they were using their phone magnifier.

Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said they are investigating the incidents and will determine if they need to be reported to police.

"There could be situations where depending on the circumstance, it could be a voter intimidation or something that interferes with the voter's ability to cast their ballot," Brinson Bell said during the news conference. "But we are not the prosecutors. We will turn that over to DOJ or potentially it could be a situation that would be turned over to a district attorney."
(Photo: Ugur Karakoc via Getty Images)

(Photo: Ugur Karakoc via Getty Images)

A Wisconsin nurse was charged with elder abuse after police said she amputated the frostbitten right foot of a dying nursing home patient without his permission.

Even more shocking is her alleged motive for surgery on the 62-year-old man.

Mary K. Brown, 38, told co-workers she planned to bronze the mans right foot and display it in her familys taxidermy shop with a sign saying, wear your boots kids, according to a police affidavit cited by The Washington Post.

Brown, 38, was charged last week with physical abuse of an elder person intentionally causing great bodily harm and mayhem in the May 27 incident at Spring Valley Health and Rehabilitation Center in Pierce County, according to NBC News.

The arrest came after a monthslong investigation that began when the county medical examiner noticed unusual circumstances in the autopsy  an unattached foot lying beside him, according to a court filing obtained by NBC.

The victim had been staying in the center since March, after a fall and heating failure at his home left him with severe frostbite on both feet, police said. He had other medical problems as well, according to the affidavit, and his death appeared imminent.

Dead tissue on his feet turned black like a mummy, other nursing home employees told police, and the smell was so bad the man apologized to nurses.

Brown noted on the mans medical chart that she amputated the right foot out of compassion, police said.

Other nurses told investigators that even before that, the mans right foot wasnt fully attached as a result of an earlier fall at the center. Some witnesses said the man moaned during the amputation. Others said he appeared to be in no pain.

Once the foot was removed, Brown instructed a staff member to place it in a freezer, police said. The man died days later.

One nurse admitted to investigators she thought Browns supposed plan to bronze the foot was weird, and another felt it should be reported to administrators and the police, according to WEAU-TV.

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Brown admitted she didnt have authorization or permission from the victim to do the surgery, according to KSTP-TV. An administrator told investigators he told Brown not to remove the foot, but believed she did it for the patients dignity and comfort.

Spring Valley Health and Rehab Center released a statement saying that Brown no longer works there and that center will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation into this matter.

Brown is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 6. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison on each felony charge, as well as six additional years in prison for each charge due to enhanced penalties for elderly abuse.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Republicans came up short in their quest for a supermajority in the state Legislature Tuesday, which would have given lawmakers the power to override Gov. Tony Evers' vetoes.

Assembly Republicans needed to flip five seats and Senate Republicans needed to flip one.

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans flipped the one seat they needed in far northwestern Wisconsin where Romaine Quinn will replace Democratic Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley, who did not seek reelection.

More:Wisconsin election results

More:Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers defeats Tim Michels to win second term in 2022 midterm election

But in the Assembly, Republicans flipped just three seats. Two were in northwestern Wisconsin. Chanz Green will replace Democratic state Rep. Beth Myers, who did not seek reelection. And Angie Sapik replaces outgoing state Rep. Nick Milroy.

In eastern Waukesha County Republican Tom Michalski replaces Democrat Sara Rodriguez who was elected Lt. Governor Tuesday. The district was redrawn to be a Republican district, which is why Rodriguez ran for Lt. Gov.

With Evers winning reelection Tuesday and the GOP still having a legislative majority, the next four years will likely mean a continued stalemate between the governor's office and Legislature.

Evers has vetoed more bills than any governor before him, symbolizing the bitter divisions that have defined the statehouse in recent years.

In the weeks leading up to the midterm election, Republicans signaled they were eager to bring back bills Evers vetoed, including legislation that would have added new restrictions on voting practices and curtailed public school officials abilities to set their own curriculum.

The last time either party had a supermajority in the state Legislature was in 1977 under Democratic lawmakers.

Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer praised voters for stopping a Republican supermajority.

With the Governors veto power intact, Republicans in the Legislature will be prevented from turning Wisconsin into ground-zero for dismantling our democracy, Neubauer said. Despite their best efforts, Republican Legislators were unable to silence the people of Wisconsin."

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During an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said a supermajority would be the "best-case scenario to move forward the conservative agenda in Wisconsin."

More:Robin Vos easily wins reelection over Trump-backed write-in candidate Adam Steen

"If Tim Michels is not successful, then well have to find a way around Tony Evers' lack of leadership," Vos said. "He never brings people together; he rarely talks to the Legislature and he doesnt have the ability to push ideas through the legislature."

Reporter Molly Beck contributed to this report

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin GOP fails in bid to win supermajority in Legislature
The State

Hours before Alex Murdaugh allegedly brutally murdered his wife and son last June, a former law firm colleague says she confronted him about a slew of missing legal fees.

The stunning revelation came Wednesday by way of Jeanne Seckinger, CFO of Murdaughs family law firm PMPEDsince rebranded Parker Law Groupin a federal financial trial of an ex-banker with ties to the disgraced scion. While Murdaugh is not criminally charged in the case against Russell Laffitte, he is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank. Prosecutors allege that Laffitte aided Murdaugh in several financial schemes, allowing him to misuse and deposit nearly $2 million that belonged to his clients.

Laffitte was Murdaughs point of contact and really served as Murdaughs personal banker, prosecutor Emily Limehouse said during opening statements on Tuesday.

But while the trial is set to focus on Laffittes alleged crimes, witnesses are providing new details about Murdaughs mindset at the time of a June 7, 2021, double homicide. Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with the murders that day of his 52-year-old wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul.

On the stand Wednesday, Seckinger told jurors that last June, PMPED was worried about Murdaugh potentially hiding money from his legal work after Paul had been charged in connection with a deadly boat crash. The youngest Murdaugh was awaiting trial for boating under the influence for the accident that killed his friend, 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

According to WCBD, Seckinger said Wednesday that on the morning of June 7, 2021, she confronted Murdaugh about missing funds from client disbursements and settlements. But the conversation was cut short once Murdaugh got a call from his brother indicating that their father was in hospice, the witness said.

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The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) says Murdaugh called 911 around 10:07 p.m. that evening, at which time he said he discovered his wife and son near the dog kennels outside their 1,770-acre estate in Colleton County. Prosecutors revealed last month that video evidence shows Murdaugh was with Maggie and Paul at around 8:44 p.m.despite his insistence he was visiting his father at the time of the murders.

Prosecutors in the murder case have said evidence shows Murdaugh firing up his car and leaving at 9:06 p.m. Murdaugh did not call 911 to report the deaths for an hour after that. In the seven-minute 911 call, Murdaugh is heard telling an emergency dispatcher his wife and child have been shot and that neither of them are breathing.

Ive been up to it now. Its bad, Murdaugh said while dogs barked in the background.

Murdaugh is set to stand trial on the double homicide in January. He is also facing over 80 charges after allegedly swindling millions from his former clients and PMPED. The former lawyer is also facing a set of charges for allegedly trying to stage his own murder so his only living son, Buster, could inherit his $10 million life insurance policy.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Fort Myers Police say the suspect vehicle in an Oct. 22, 2022, hit-and-run crash is a black four-door sedan, possibly a Nissan Altima Midnight edition. A 27-year-old woman died two weeks after the crash.

A woman critically injured in a hit-and-run nearly two weeks ago has died from her injuries.

Kristin Capuzzi, spokesperson for the Fort Myers Police Department, confirmed with The News-Press the 27-year-old woman succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.

Police continue to search for clues after a motorist critically injured the pedestrian and fled the crash scene.

Prior: Fort Myers police search for answers after woman, 27, critically injured in hit-and-run

Help sought in different case: Four days after fatal hit-and-run, FHP continues to ask for help with new leads

Shortly after 10:45 p.m. Oct. 22, the Fort Myers Police Department received a 911 call alerting of a pedestrian struck by a car.

The crash happened at 3660 Fowler St., police said. The car and driver fled prior to police arrival.

The victim was in critical condition at Gulf Coast Medical Center.

She's at least the 91st death on Lee County roads this year.

Fort Myers Police asks witnesses or anyone with additional information to contact Traffic Homicide Investigator Joshua Bachert at jbachert@fmpolice.com or 239-321-8240.

Police say the suspect vehicle is a black four-door sedan, possibly a Nissan Altima Midnight edition.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Woman, 27, dies from injuries days after hit-and-run on Fowler Street
UPDATE: A 26-year-old woman was found after being reported missing on a drive from California to Oregon, police said.

With the help of a Good Samaritan with a snowmobile and Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office, Camille Rose Markovich was located in Siskiyou County on Greyback Road aftershe became stranded and didnt have cellphone reception, the Cotati Police Department said in a Nov. 8 Facebook post.

The original story is below.

A 26-year-old woman vanished while driving from California to Oregon, police said.

Camille Rose Markovich was last heard from when she was near Eureka on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 6, the Cotati Police Department said in a Nov. 7 Facebook post.

Our daughter Camille did not reach her Selma, Oregon home while traveling from Cotati last evening, Markovichs mother wrote on Facebook.

Police said based on cellphone records, Markovich may be near Highway 101, Highway 299 or Highway 96.

Markovich was driving a black 2017 Subaru Outback with a cracked windshield and an Oregon license plate, 210MME, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 707-792-4611.

Cotati is about 50 miles northwest of San Francisco.

Missing couple in motor coach found safe at campground in Oregon, authorities say

Kansas City police locate 27-year-old woman missing since Saturday evening

11-year-old missing from his home in Fresno. Police asking public to be on the lookout
The West Midlands may still formally be in a period of drought, but as winter approaches, preparations are already under way for rain and floods. As the Environment Agency holds its flood action week, BBC News speaks to those hit by flooding about their hopes - and fears - for the future amid fresh warnings of life-threatening dangers.

Irene Buxton's home in Bewdley, Worcestershire, floods almost annually. The last time was in February this year.

"We had just gone to bed and you could see the water was coming up... then all of a sudden there was an almighty crash," she said.

"There was like a tidal wave which came all the way up the road, up to [the house] and that's when we got out of bed, got dressed, grabbed some stuff and got out."

Heavy rainfall in the winter meant the river Severn swelled to dangerous levels in February, eventually overtopping defences in the town once more.

Mrs Buxton says she loves her home and does not wish to move. As a result, she has used her own money to purchase water pumps and other domestic flood defences, but each time water blights her property, there is further expense to repair the damage.

Irene Buxton launched a flood action group in Bewdley calling for better defences

Eight years ago, Mrs Buxton launched a flood action group for the town, calling for better protection.

Her vision could soon be realised, as the Environment Agency (EA) is developing 6.2m permanent flood defences for the vulnerable Beale's Corner area, due to be completed by 2024, although there is another winter before then.

The provision is set to replace the existing temporary barriers which have been repeatedly breached by floodwater in recent years.

The devices are among a number of measures being introduced as part of the EA's six-year national flooding plan.

Mrs Buxton said while getting the barriers had been a "battle", they left her more hopeful for the future.

Severn Stoke was hit by flooding in 2007 and 2012 (pictured), as well as 2020 and 2022

Down the river, Severn Stoke in Worcestershire is getting a 1.8m flood embankment scheme, with work due to begin in spring.

It aims to protect 18 homes, 14th Century St Deny's Church, the village hall and the 500-year-old Rose and Crown pub.

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Andrew Goodall, the pub's landlord, said his business had flooded three times in three years.

Before floods arrive, he normally wraps the building in a damp-proof membrane, but although the venue as a result only gets an inch of water inside, it is enough to close the business.

Nine weeks were lost last year amid repairs costing thousands of pounds.

Andrew Goodall said he was "apprehensive" about the future

Mr Goodall said he was still apprehensive despite the new defences.

"It is going to be one of those once the bund is eventually in - we are going to sit and wait and watch," he said.

"Do I do any protection that year? We will have to wait and see."

He added: "This is a campaign that has been going on 15, 16 years and it has taken that long to get to this point.

"I think you are always going to worry about it even with the bund there. I probably won't get rid of all my sandbags just yet."

Earth has started to be delivered to Severn Stoke ready for work to begin on the flood embankment or bund

From 7 to 13 November, the EA is holding its flood action week, urging people at risk of flooding to be prepared.

The campaign was being held, it said, "amid increased extreme weather events brought on by the climate emergency".

This year, the UK experienced its highest ever recorded temperatures and most of the country, the EA said, was still struggling with drought. But it added despite that, unexpected flooding could occur at any time and communities were warned not to be complacent following this summer's dry weather.

On Monday, the Met Office said the country could once more face severe flooding in February - a problem month in recent years.

Since 1998, the EA explained, the country had seen six of the ten wettest years on record and in the West Midlands, nearly 144,000 properties were at risk of flooding.

Worcester has also seen flooding in recent years and across county borders in Shropshire, both Shrewsbury and Ironbridge have had to brace.

Marc Lidderth said while the West Midlands was still under drought conditions, people needed to prepare for flooding this winter

Marc Lidderth, the EA's environment manager for Shropshire and Worcestershire, said the region was seeing a "real change in the climate", with dry summers and wetter winters.

He explained: "It is really hard to appreciate the West Midlands still is in drought status considering we have seen rainfall in recent weeks.

"[But] we have seen an extremely dry summer [so] we are asking those communities that are at risk of flooding to not be complacent... to be prepared for flooding and to not ignore this potentially life-threatening danger happening to them this winter."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk
NBC News journalist Steve Kornacki, pictured in 2020, is covering tonight's election results. (NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

Another election day, another night in the spotlight for "chartthrob" Steve Kornacki and his signature khakis.

The NBC News and MSNBC personality, who won over viewers with his exhaustive coverage of the presidential election in November 2020, has returned to deliver the results of this year's midterm elections.

"Well I just lost Powerball, so I guess I'll be working tonight," he tweeted Tuesday. "First polls close at 6pm EST and we'll be live from then until...who knows when? It'll be a journey, hope you'll tune in and join along."

Well I just lost Powerball, so I guess I'll be working tonight. First polls close at 6pm EST and we'll be live from then until...who knows when? It'll be a journey, hope you'll tune in and join along.  Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) November 8, 2022

Rocking a fresh pair of khaki pants, a white button-down shirt and an intact (for now) tie, Kornacki began his coverage Tuesday afternoon on MSNBC looking at the races in Massachusetts and the abortion measure in Kansas. But Twitter users are already celebrating the data king's return.

"Happy Election Day to all my steve kornacki girlies," a Twitter user wrote on Monday, sharing a video edit of the journalist pointing to his whiteboard set to Flo Milli's "Beef FloMix."

"Happy Steve Kornacki appreciation day to all that celebrate," tweeted another commenter.

During the 2020 presidential election, Twitter had plenty of love for Kornacki and CNN's John King, who kept viewers company as results trickled in. Kornacki's coverage caught the attention of model and author Chrissy Teigen, who was impressed by the data analyst's on-air endurance.

"I honestly dunno how Steve is still going but im bout to die," Teigen tweeted.

Kornacki's time in the limelight proved lucrative, but not just for him. The Gap confirmed to The Times in November 2020 that sales of its standard khaki pants surged after it was revealed that Kornacki wore them on election day.

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We saw a dramatic increase in online traffic and within a day, the number of Straight Fit Palomino Brown khakis we sold online went up 90%, a Gap spokesperson said at the time.

Months after the 2020 election, Kornacki recommitted to NBC News and MSNBC, signing a multimillion-dollar contract with parent company NBCUnversal in May 2021. With several new gigs under the four-year deal, Kornacki's fans won't have to rely on just election day to hear his analysis.

See what else fans are saying about Kornacki's return to the spotlight below:

Happy Steve Kornacki appreciation day to all that celebrate  Alex Sciarra (@prosciutella_) November 8, 2022

I think I might actually miss Steve Kornacki between elections.  Kate  (@ImSpeaking13) November 8, 2022

I am once again in love with Steve Kornacki #MSNBC2022  N. (@winnie_nourson) November 8, 2022

hard to believe its almost time to unpack steve kornacki again. feels like just yesterday we were dragging him up to the attic  Sarah Lazarus (@sarahclazarus) November 1, 2022

steve kornacki has come out of hibernation https://t.co/LgzTaM10ms  Oriana Gonzalez (@OrianaBeLike) November 8, 2022

Ill be watching MSNBC tonight for the midterm election results.



I cant quit Steve Kornacki.  Liberal Lisa in Oklahoma (@lisa_liberal) November 8, 2022

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The New York Times is offering some advice to voters who are feeling stressed on election night.

The Times on Tuesday evening published a list of tips for voters who are feeling anxious about the midterm election results.

Among them were plunge your face into a bowl of ice water and breathe like a baby.

Elections and anxiety often go hand in hand. Here are some evidence-based strategies that can help you cope, the Times wrote in a tweet, attaching a graphic with the five tips and a link to the newspapers live coverage of Tuesdays contests.

Critics quickly pounced on the social media post, mocking the newspaper for its tips and pointing out that one of them suggested people limit the time they spending scrolling on social media and looking for election updates.

The Times has one of the most expansive health and wellness sections of any major media outlet nationwide and is known on election night for its needle that predicts winners of key congressional, gubernatorial and other races based on real-time results.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Star has discussed his interest in guns before, even collaborating on a pink firearm with the manufacturing company Beretta. Screenshots from YouTube.

YouTuber Jeffree Star pulled out a gun in his car, handing it to Shane Dawson in their latest video.

He said it was legal and "very normal" to carry firearms in Wyoming, and it made him feel "safe."

Star has previously said he has around 100 guns at the yak ranch where he lives in Casper, Wyoming.

Controversial YouTuber and makeup mogul Jeffree Star showed viewers the gun he keeps a gun in his car, saying it makes him feel "safe."

He made the comments in a video posted by fellow influencer and friend Shane Dawson. Dawson traveled from Colorado to Wyoming to visit Star, who met him at the airport and drove him to his ranch.

During the drive, Star pulled out a gun and showed Dawson how to hold it, saying, "If you ever feel like you're unsafe, don't worry I've got your back."

Dawson said he'd never touched a gun before but accepted the pistol from Star, who warned him not to put his finger near the trigger or point it towards anyone.

"Feel really safe, it's very normal," Star said.

"Maybe you should take it back," Dawson replied as he returned the gun to Star.

Star told Dawson that openly carrying a gun in Wyoming is legal, whereas in LA they could "go to prison for this." California law prohibits the open carry of loaded firearms, which is legal in Wyoming.

The video, which was posted on November 8, was the second installment of Dawson's new YouTube series "The New World of Jeffree Star." It marks the third major collaboration between the YouTubers, who became friends when Dawson created his first docu-series about Star, which was released in 2018.

Star moved from California to Wyoming, where he owns a yak farm, in August. In the video he told Dawson the move was because, "After being canceled 10 times I just wanted peace and quiet." Both Dawson and Star faced significant backlash in 2020 as old racist posts re-emerged.

Star has referenced his interest in firearms before. In April, Star announced a collaboration with the gun manufacturer Beretta. In June, he appeared on Logan Paul's "Impaulsive" podcast and revealed he had a collection of around 100 guns on his property.

Story continues

Star's YouTube channel currently has 15.9 million subscribers, while Dawson has 19.5 million subscribers. His latest video featuring Star has received almost 1 million views in under 24 hours.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider
Just two days into the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) currently taking place in Shanghai, Alexander Presnyakov, who represents a Russian beer producer at the event, expressed the hope to "come here every year in the future."

Baltika Breweries, a newcomer to the CIIE, is no stranger to the Chinese market as it set up a representative office in Beijing as early as 2005, according to Presnyakov, head of the office.

"China is one of our key markets. We look forward to bringing our products to more Chinese consumers through the CIIE, which proves to be a prestigious platform and effective channel," he said, adding that he has already connected with potential business partners at the 2022 edition of the expo.

From Indian spices to Kazakh dairy products, companies from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries brought hundreds of national specialties to display at the event.

Many of them are displayed in the pavilion of the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA), a second-time CIIE participant.

"The CIIE has become an important platform that demonstrates China's opening-up drive, and many enterprises from SCO countries hope to set up booths at the expo through SCODA to gain a broader market," said Xiang Zhiqiang, deputy director of SCODA's management committee.

In the exhibition area of Kazahkstan, a woman dressed in a traditional national costume was seen tweaking electrical equipment for a live-streaming show on social media.

"I hope live-streaming will make more Chinese consumers aware of Kazakhstan's specialties, and allow more people to feel the vibrant atmosphere of CIIE," said Botakoz Yelshibek.

E-commerce live broadcasts have dramatically boosted the promotion of goods from SCO countries in China. In early 2022, the Ministry of Commerce held a live-streaming shopping event featuring over 1,500 categories of special commodities from SCO countries, generating total sales amounting to about 100 million yuan (about 13.86 million U.S. dollars).

This success boosted the confidence of such companies in their ability to expand their market in China. Many of them then contacted the management committee of SCODA, saying they wished to be part of the fifth CIIE, according to Xiang.

Closer business cooperation has yielded substantial results. In the first eight months of this year, China's trade with other SCO members reached 1.73 trillion yuan, up 26 percent year on year, data showed.

Meanwhile, the exports of goods and services from SCO member states to China have shown a trend of diversification in terms of varieties, and also quality and trade structure improvements, said Jiang Jing, a researcher with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Li Ruisi, a researcher from the same institute, said the CIIE demonstrates China's determination to firmly support trade liberalization and adhere to opening-up, which is highly consistent with the development consensus reached by SCO members in economic and trade cooperation.

At the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO held in September 2021, China said it aimed to achieve a cumulative trade volume of 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars with other SCO member states in the next five years.

The active participation of the SCO countries in the CIIE will contribute to a smooth realization of this goal and further promote practical cooperation within the SCO framework, said Li.
The venture capital arm of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been a prominent investor in some of the biggest names in the crypto ecosystem. With Binance's possible acquisition of its rival FTX, questions swirl around what will happen to these investments.

Among the biggest names in which FTX Ventures invested were Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, layer 1 blockchains Near Protocol and Sui, crypto lender BlockFi and two different funding rounds for the Aptos blockchain, according to crypto data analytics firm Cryptorank. The exact number of investments by FTX Ventures are unknown.

FTX has been linked closely with the embattled BlockFi. The U.S. arm of FTX gave the strained lender a $400 million credit line with FTX getting the option to acquire BlockFi for up to $240 million.

SkyBridge Stake

In September, FTX Ventures agreed to buy 30% of SkyBridge Capital for an undisclosed amount after the investment firm was dinged by the bear market. SkyBridge  founded by Anthony Scaramucci, a one-time aide to former U.S. President Donald Trump  planned to use some of the infusion to buy $40 million in cryptocurrencies to put on its balance sheet as a long-term investment.

Tiger Global, SoftBank headaches

The FTX turmoil could also cause more headaches for investors in the cryptocurrency exchange, particularly the already weakened Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Vision Fund.

Chase Colemans Tiger Global hedge fund participated in a $420 million round for FTX in October 2021 at a $25 billion valuation and returned for a January funding round at a $32 billion valuation. Amid those investments, Tiger Global entered the year with too much exposure to both equities and China and worked to rebalance its portfolio. The fund still lost 5.4% last month despite in increase in global equity markets, according to Bloomberg.

SoftBank Vision Fund was another returning investor for FTXs January 2022 funding round. The Japanese conglomerate is one of the worlds largest backers of technology companies through its investment arm, which includes two Vision Fund vehicles and a Latin America fund. However, the investing arm reported $50 billion in losses during the first six months of this year, largely attributed to bear market losses for publicly-traded investments such as Uber and Opendoor.

Read more: FTX Agrees to Sell Itself to Rival Binance Amid Liquidity Scare at Crypto Exchange




On Wednesday, 9 November, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a regular meeting of the staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine.

Source: President's website

Details: Members of the staff heard reports by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and commanders of operational areas on the situation on the front line; they coordinated the actions to be taken by the defence forces to repel the armed aggression of the Russian Federation and liberate Ukrainian territories from invaders.

Information was also heard on the implementation of measures to strengthen and protect Ukraines national borders..

The participants also discussed the situation as regards the supplying units with weapons and ammunition, as well as the preparation of troops for the winter period.

In addition, participants in the meeting analysed the progress of the restoration of energy facilities affected by Russian attacks, and measures to protect critical infrastructure in Ukraine.

They also considered the issues of how to get through the winter period and ways to minimise the risks caused by Russian aggression.

The meeting was attended by: the Head of the Office of the President, Andrii Yermak; the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksii Danilov; Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov; the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi; the Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, Kyrylo Budanov; the Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Oleksandr Lytvynenko; the Commander of the ground forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi; and troop commanders of the various operational areas.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, other members of the government, heads of security and law enforcement agencies also joined the staff meeting.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The decree established the following military administrations in the region: Dolmativska, Holopristan (Skadovsk District), Kakhovska, and Khrestivska (Kakhovsky District).

Read also: Russian defense minister orders retreat from right-bank of Kherson Oblast

On Nov. 9, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine Sergei Surovikin reported to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, advising that Russian troops should take up defense along the left bank of the Dnipro River. Shoigu then ordered the troops to prepare for a retreat from Kherson.

Earlier, Kherson regional councilman Serhiy Khlan said that Russians have blown up all the bridges in the western part of Kherson Oblast and in Kherson City itself. Occupation authorities have also begun to remove Russian flags from buildings across the city.

Read also: Russian troops blow all bridges on right bank of Kherson Oblast, says regional official

There were also reports of intense fighting around Snihurivka, Mykolaiv Oblast, adjacent to Kherson Oblast. Liberating Snihurivka would open the way for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to advance towards Kherson.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
RICHMOND  Republican incumbent Rep. Bob Good staved off Democratic challenger Josh Throneburg Tuesday to win a second term representing Virginias 5th District in Congress.

Good, a former Campbell County supervisor, campaigned as a fiscal conservative and vowed to continue his efforts to cut federal spending. He is also proud to be considered one of the least bipartisan members of Congress.

His win secured the somewhat reliably Republican seat in Congress in an election year where Republicans across the nation worked to flip seats and gain a majority in the House of Representatives.

The 5th District stretches from Charlottesville and Albemarle County south to Halifax on the North Carolina border and contains all or part of 24 cities and counties.

Following redistricting, the 5th District includes Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Nelson, along with the eastern sliver of Bedford County.

The rest of Bedford County is now covered by the 9th District, where incumbent Morgan Griffith defeated a challenge from Democrat Taysha DeVaughan, a community organizer from Big Stone Gap making her first bid for elected office, to secure his seventh term.

Preliminary returns Tuesday evening showed Griffith far ahead with about three-quarters of the vote total.

A lawyer and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Griffith is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He is the Republican leader of that committees Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and also is a member of the subcommittees on health and on energy.

Griffith said during the fall campaign that he hoped to be part of a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives and to use his seniority to bring jobs to the 9th District and generally improve the district's economy.

Griffith, who lives in Salem, will not reside in his district as new boundaries take effect on Jan. 4. Members of Congress do not have to live in the district they represent, though they must live in the same state.

Griffith's home was outside the 9th District when he first won the seat in 2010, but was brought in by the redistricting that followed the 2010 Census.

U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-6th, also easily won reelection to another term, earning about two-thirds of the vote as of Tuesday evening. Before redistricting, the 6th District included Amherst County and portions of Lynchburg and Bedford County.
With just days to go before Hill City residents head to the polls to make their voices heard in the 2022 midterm election  which includes a highly contested Lynchburg City Council race  Lynchburgs registrar is gearing up for a busier election than usual.

Council is made up of seven members, four of whom represent the citys four wards and three of whom are chosen at large. This year, the three at-large seats will be on the ballot, with the three highest vote-getters earning four-year terms. New candidates Patrick Earl, Marty Misjuns, Stephanie Reed, Larry Taylor and Walter Virgil Jr. are running, while incumbents Treney Tweedy and Beau Wright look to hold on to their current seats. With three seats up for grabs and only two incumbents running, at least one of the new candidates will be elected.

I think its really been one of the busiest ones, in terms of preparation, because of the training, getting new equipment, understanding how to use the new equipment from our end, and letting our officers of election know what they need to do on Election Day, Christine Gibbons, Lynchburgs general registrar, said inside her Kemper Street Station office this week.

Voters have steadily flowed inside the registrars office at 825 Kemper St. since the beginning of early voting in September, with anywhere from 100 to 150 per day coming in to cast their votes, Gibbons said.

According to Virginia Department of Elections data, as of Nov. 1, Lynchburg has 55,858 registered voters.

As of Oct. 31, Gibbons said, her office already had seen about 3,000 voters come for in-person early voting. Additionally, she said, the office has received about 2,000 of the 3,000 mail-in ballots it had sent out.

That means about 9% of the citys registered voters already had voted as of Oct. 31.

This year, the city council election is in November, not May, after the Virginia General Assembly passed a law last year moving local elections to November. Gibbons said voter turnout is expected to surpass the 12% mark from the 2018 at-large city council election, which was in May.

Gibbons said she anticipates the in-person early voting total could climb to 5,000 voters by the Nov. 5 deadline, meaning almost 7,000 voters could voice their opinions before Election Day.

Why turnout matters

This year, in addition to city council elections, voters will decide who will represent Virginias 5th congressional district, with incumbent Republican Rep. Bob Good facing off against Democratic challenger Josh Throneburg.

Because of a push in recent years by both of the major political parties to increase turnout at the local level, there arent many elections where candidates are sent to Congress that have low turnout anymore, David Richards, chair of the political science department at the University of Lynchburg, said in a recent interview.

There may be sort of high turnouts and really high turnouts, Richards said about elections with federal races on the ballot. But I dont think were going to see, sort of, elections where nobody shows up because both parties have really drilled home that message of, If you dont come out to vote, the other side will.

As for who high turnout could benefit, it might not be as easy to determine in local elections as in national elections. In most national elections, higher-than-expected turnout could be a sign of trouble for an incumbent, showing a swell of support for a challenger.

But that isnt always the case when it comes to local elections, Richards said.

The way, normally, city council races are run, they dont have a party identifier, Richards said. And if youre paying the least bit of attention, you might recognize the incumbent [on the ballot], but you may not recognize people running against them because they are new names.

And I think in this race in particular, some of those candidates are going to struggle more than maybe they would have, because people just dont know who they are, whereas the incumbents, theyve at least seen those names around if they read the paper, watch the news, theyve seen these people pop up, Richards said.

Richards did warn that being an incumbent isnt a firewall against challengers.

It is very difficult, Richards said about defeating an incumbent. What usually is going to happen is the incumbent doesnt campaign or doesnt campaign effectively; that could be a problem.

But if you have a high-interest campaign ...  which Richards said this race is  and theres a lot of turnout, even the incumbent may not have enough of a base to overcome somebody new who taps into the voters who are coming in and havent voted before.

Campaign donations pouring in

Another sign of interest in the race: the amount of money raised by the candidates.

According to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project, the seven candidates have raised more than $308,000 during the 2022 election cycle, which is more than quadruple the total raised during 2018s at-large city council elections  $65,831  despite having the same number of candidates.

The candidates also smashed fundraising numbers from 2014 and 2010, which came in at over $134,000 and $153,000, respectively.

Heres how much each candidate has raised, according to VPAP, as of Nov. 4:

Misjuns: $78,774

Reed: $73,411

Taylor: $65,748

Wright: $35,390

Tweedy: $24,340

Earl: $15,675

Virgil: $15,578

Fundraising numbers increased in the final month for Misjuns, Reed and Taylor in part because of several in-kind donations made to their campaigns. Each candidate noted at least one in-kind donation of at least $2,500 in their October reporting.

While fundraising can be a sign of future success in elections, Richards warned its not as important on the local level as it is on the national level, pointing out that name recognition, endorsements and personal connections mean just as much as money in local races.

In elections where the winning margin can come down to as close as a couple hundred votes, Richards said having in-roads all across the city is important. The more people a candidate knows, the more people they can turn out to impact those narrow margins.

Republicans seek majority caucus

While city council candidates often run as independents, party politics play a bigger role than usual this year: three candidates  Misjuns, Reed and Taylor  are backed by the Lynchburg Republican City Committee and have signed a pledge committing to a slate of goals laid out by current Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi, who is one of two Republicans currently on council along with Ward III Councilman Jeff Helgeson.

Faraldi, in September, released his Lynchburg Pledge, which outlines three main priorities: fiscal responsibility and tax breaks to bolster the local economy; investment in public safety; and education in Lynchburg.

Meanwhile, incumbents Tweedy and Wright have repeatedly pointed to their investments in infrastructure with the recent Lakeside Drive bridge project; investments in public safety by providing raises for the police and fire departments; and targeted tax relief in fiscal year 2023 in the form of real estate tax rebates and personal property tax reductions.

Throughout the campaign season, Earl has expressed his interest in both prioritizing ways to aid citizens with tax revenue, but also has said he wants to promote quality city services and promote a quality Lynchburg city workforce.

Earl also has made the ongoing Lynchburg City Schools facilities assessment a top issue, pointing out that the children need quality facilities if they are going to get a quality education.

Virgil has stressed the importance of a high-quality educational system, saying that if the city focuses on getting children to graduation, it will help solve part of the citys crime issue.

Additionally, he has said he wants to see more financial accountability from city departments, adding the organizations that show their fiscal responsibility should allow them to advocate for more down the line since they are using it well.

One specific item in Faraldis pledge is to change the school board from being an appointed body to an elected one, which also has come up on the campaign trail. Misjuns, Reed and Taylor have all said they favor an elected school board, while newcomers Earl and Virgil, along with incumbents Tweedy and Wright, argued against an elected school board during a September town hall event.

Richards, the UL professor, similarly opined that tax cuts  which he said could lead to less spending  and the selection process for the school board are the two most important issues on the table for Tuesdays election.

A possible head start

The opportunity for an early seat on council could hang in the balance on Tuesday.

This week, At-large Councilman Randy Nelson announced he will resign from council as of noon Monday, Nov. 7. In his resignation, Nelsons wish is that a non-incumbent victor in Tuesdays election be specially appointed to his seat early, allowing that person an opportunity to be on council prior to the start of fiscal year 2024 budget negotiations.

According to City Attorney Matthew Freedman, it is up to the discretion of the current council as to who will take Nelsons place on council, noting if there are multiple new candidates who win a seat on Tuesday that council could choose one to bring forth early.

The appointment could happen during a special called meeting, which would need at least three working days notice, or during a regular meeting of council, Freedman said. Council only has one regularly scheduled meeting left prior to the new year, scheduled for Dec. 13.

What to know about voting

Polls open at 6 a.m. across the city Tuesday and will remain open until 7 p.m. Anyone in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast their vote.

On Election Day, the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company will host Fare Free Day, giving all residents free rides to vote.

For more information, visit the registrars website at Lynchburgva.gov/registrars-office.
, Nov 09 ( Nikkei ) - As Elon Musk makes dramatic changes to Twitter following his $44 billion acquisition, Japanese banks that cofinanced the deal find themselves with little choice but to go along for the ride.

Seven banks backed the outspoken billionaire's leveraged buyout, which closed on Oct. 27, with $12.7 billion in lending. Morgan Stanley led the group at $3.4 billion, followed by Bank of America, Barclays and MUFG Bank -- Japan's top lender -- at $2.6 billion each. Smaller Japanese lender Mizuho Bank contributed $400 million.

At first the excitement was palpable, with one banker saying, "It's important to get involved in a deal that the whole world is watching."

But with the prospect of an exit unclear, fatigue appears to be setting in.

Under Musk, Twitter has fired thousands of employees -- by some reports half the workforce. Headwinds against the new management team have risen, with major advertisers pulling away from the social media platform over concerns about changes in content moderation.

"We are at the mercy of Musk's theatrics," the banker said. "We can't sell the debt in the current market conditions. All we can do is wait for Elon Musk to explain how he will turn things around in a way that investors will agree to."

The problem of assessing Musk's sometimes difficult relationship with compliance was discussed in April as Japanese banks pushed the lending proposal through internal decision-making processes at an unprecedented pace. At that time, there were some who argued they could be going even bigger, despite the risk. ...continue reading
According to the indictment, Yuya Nozaki, a resident of Saitama City, became acquainted with the girl, who lived in Yokohama, on a social networking site where people with suicidal thoughts post comments.

Nozaki is believed to have met the girl in Saitama on Sept 20. On the night of Sept 23, he drove her to the mountains in Sagamihara Citys Midori Ward, where she apparently jumped from a bridge.

The girls parents reported her missing on Sept 21 and police said they had found street surveillance camera footage of she and Nozaki together. Police said Nozaki has admitted suggesting to the girl how to take her own life. He reportedly said that he got her to stand on the bridge parapet and then talked her into jumping into the river. ...continue reading
, Nov 09 ( universityworldnews.com ) - Pandemic-related disruption forced universities to adopt survival measures, but the enforced changes have become unprecedented opportunities for reform in Japans highly traditional higher education system.

In particular, it has provided opportunities to break down barriers between subjects and departments and promote more personalised and flexible university education.

The pandemic is not only about sickness and deaths. COVID-19 has shed new light on many higher education operations and practices that must meet a new normal. Tokai is taking this challenge very seriously, said Kiyoshi Yamada, chancellor of Tokai University, a leading private institution boasting a reputation in engineering and science.

The pandemic led to a global shift in teaching and in learning attitudes, including in Japan, where students now expect the university to be more than a place for top-down instruction. Universities need to respond to the new demands through disruptive creation and transformation, Yamada told University World News.

Curriculum reform

The government has identified diversification of higher education including curriculum reform as being among the top objectives to meet 21st century needs. However, Japanese universities are bogged down with an ingrained culture that prioritises [discussing] the pros and cons of any change rather than taking action. That system is at fault, he said. ...continue reading
10:15 p.m.  Here are some takeaways from the third set of returns:

 Jim Pillen is Nebraska's next governor, and Bellevue State Sen. Carol Blood likely won't carry Sarpy County. Blood trails Pillen by more than 13 percentage points.

 Challenger Tony Vargas leads Rep. Don Bacon by 20 votes as of the 10 p.m. statewide numbers in an extremely tight race for the 2nd Congressional District. Among Sarpy County voters, Bacon holds a more than 27 percentage point advantage.

 Republicans John Arch and Rick Holdcroft are still ahead in their legislative races against Democrats Cori Villegas and Angie Lauritsen respectively.

 Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike is maintaining his lead over Bellevue City Councilman Thomas Burns. Hike is still up about 9 percentage points.

 School board races are really close. In Gretna, 427 votes separate the first and last place positions, out of 14,534 votes cast in the contest. Currently, Mark Hauptman, Blake Turpen and Greg Beach are winning.

In Papillion La Vista, Brittany Holtmeyer is the top vote-getter currently, followed by incumbents Brian Lodes and SuAnne Witt. Fourth-place Fred Tafoya would lose his seat if he does not overcome a 556 vote deficit. Elizabeth Butler and Patricia Conway-Boyd also trail the leaders.

Maureen McNamara, Phil Davidson and Nina Wolford are leading in the Bellevue school board race, but fourth-place Jim Moudry is only 120 votes behind Wolford at this point.

The difference in Springfield PLatteview returns is a little clearer. Kyle Fisher, Lee Smith and Brian Osborn are leading, with Osborn earning nearly 21% of the vote. Fourth-place Darren Carlson has 16.5% of the vote.

 Bellevue's Proposition No. 1, which would expand how the city could use certain funds set aside for economic development, still has more than 77% support among ballots counted.

 La Vista's restaurant tax increase slipped to 34% support, while support dropped to about 53% for the city's half cent sales tax extension.

 Scott Stewart

9:50 p.m.  The third set of results is available for Sarpy County.

9:38 p.m.  Jim Pillen will be Nebraska's next governor.

The Omaha World-Herald projected Pillen, a Republican, has defeated Bellevue State Sen. Carol Blood, a Democrat.

The World-Herald's reporter at Blood's watch party says the candidate appears to be waiting for the 10 p.m. results to make a decision about conceding. Pillen is delivering a victory speech and has been asking Blood to concede for more than an hour.

9:10 p.m.  Here are some takeaways from the second set of returns:

 Jim Pillen has pulled ahead of Carol Blood in the statewide race to replace Gov. Pete Ricketts. Blood trails by about 2.5 percentage points at this point.

 Sarpy County's congressional and gubernatorial results are reflecting Republican candidates now, who are leading ballots counted so far in all three races.

 Republicans John Arch and Rick Holdcroft have pulled ahead in their legislative races against Democrats Cori Villegas and Angie Lauritsen respectively. The Unicameral is officially nonpartisan, but abortion and other issues are a focal point this election.

 Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike has pulled ahead of Bellevue City Councilman Thomas Burns. Hike is up about 9 percentage points at this point.

 This year's school board races have a lot of candidates, making them difficult to predict. In the second set of returns for the Papillion La Vista Community Schools, newcomer Brittany Holtmeyer is 254 votes ahead of longtime board member Fred Tafoya. Incumbent SuAnne Witt currently has the No. 1 spot in the race for three seats on the school board, and current board president Brian Lodes is in second place.

 Bellevue's Proposition No. 1, which would expand how the city could use certain funds set aside for economic development, has earned more than 77% support among ballots counted.

 La Vista's restaurant tax increase has only earned 35% support so far, although the half cent sales tax extension is favored by 54% of voters so far.

 In the four races for seats on the Papillion City Council, the leaders currently are David Fanslau, Steven Engberg, Steve Sunde and Tom Mumgaard.

 Scott Stewart

8:50 p.m.  The second set of results is available for Sarpy County.

8:30 p.m.  It's difficult to glean much from early voting returns alone, but here are a few notable results so far:

 Democrats have a strong showing in the 1st Congressional District and gubernatorial races in Sarpy County and across Nebraska. Given Republican messaging encouraging in-person voting, that's unsurprising and may well shift once more ballots are added to the count.

 In the legislative races, John Arch is leading over Cori Villegas in early returns, while Angie Lauritsen is outperforming Rick Holdcroft. Again, the initial release reflects only early voting ballots.

 In Bellevue, challenger Thomas Burns has a 139 vote advantage over incumbent Rusty Hike out of the 4,604 ballots in the initial release. The race has created angst on social media -- to the point the candidates were asked to say something they liked about each other during a mayoral debate.

 La Vista's sales and use tax ballot question is showing support, but the fate of an increase to the city's restaurant tax is looking less promising based on early returns.

 Scott Stewart

8:05 p.m.  The first release of returns has been posted by the Sarpy County Election Commission. These represent early voting ballots cast before today.

Find statewide results through the Nebraska Secretary of State's Office.

7:55 p.m.  The Sarpy County Election Commission plans to start releasing results in a few minutes.
Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows a test flight of C919, China's first homegrown large jetliner, in Pucheng county, Northwest China's Shaanxi province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The C919, China's first self-developed single-aisle passenger jet, netted 300 new orders on Tuesday from seven domestic aircraft leasing companies at the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

The orders indicate the aircraft model has gained wider recognition after it recently received its type certificate, experts said.

The seven leasing companies signed agreements with Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, its manufacturer, during the Zhuhai Airshow, which began on Tuesday and runs through Sunday.

The companies are: China Development Bank Financial Leasing, ICBC Financial Leasing, CCB Financial Leasing, Bank of Communications Financial Leasing, CMB Financial Leasing, SPDB Financial Leasing and Jiangsu Financial Leasing.

The C919 received its type certificate, which gives the design approval, in late September from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The first aircraft is expected to be delivered to China Eastern Airlines in December.

So far, 1,115 orders have been placed for the C919 from home and abroad. Comparable to the Airbus A320 family aircraft and the Boeing B737 series, the C919 is predicted to break the market duopoly of Boeing and Airbus and help China's aviation industry enter the fast lane, experts said.

"It has been the biggest new aircraft order signed during the Zhuhai Airshow this year, indicating that the C919 will enter the global aircraft market on a large scale," said Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst and a columnist at Carnoc, a major civil aviation website.

"The commercial debut of the C919 soon, will provide more choices for global carriers and help them lower their operational costs, and offer convenient services for passengers," Lin said.

The C919 was also part of the Zhuhai Airshow's aerial display on Tuesday, the first time that the plane has participated in a performance at an international airshow.

Meanwhile, three leasing companies signed orders to purchase 30 ARJ21 regional jetliners from COMAC at the airshow. The ARJ21 is the first domestically made regional passenger jet and obtained its certification in 2014.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China's domestic air travel market is steadily picking up, and major domestic airlines have announced plans to increase the number of scheduled international flights.

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing predicted last month that by 2041, China will require 8,485 new airplanes valued at $1.5 trillion to serve passengers and trade, representing more than one-fifth of global aircraft deliveries over the next two decades.
The Lewis Central Community School District Board of Education approved a professional services agreement with Shive-Hattery Architecture & Engineering for assessment of the districts school buildings.

The end goal is to evaluate our current facilities, including the potential for growth, Superintendent Brent Hoesing said. Im a planner. I like to think where are we at in 20 to 30 years?

Lewis Central will pay $35,000 for the assessment. However, if the district ends up using the firm for projects with construction costs of more than $10 million, the fee will be credited back to the district, he said. If the school district uses the firm for a smaller amount of work, $1,000 would be credited back to the district.

According to the agreement, Shive-Hattery will meet with district officials to gather information on areas of concern and conduct a visual inspection of the exterior, interior, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems of the structures, as well as sidewalks and paved parking areas. The firm will evaluate ADA compliance of buildings and playgrounds. The company will also meet with local officials to review safety code compliance.

Shive-Hattery representatives will then meet with district officials to develop a facility master plan and prepare options and cost estimates. The representatives will make recommendations and provide graphics of preliminary site and floor plan concepts.

Engineers will start by looking at technical diagrams of the buildings and begin on-site visits in a couple weeks, Hoesing said. He hopes the assessment will be completed by the end of January.

The board approved a new policy on employees transporting students to reflect recommendations by the Iowa Association of School Boards. The new policy, which replaces the old one, clarifies that students can be transported by all employees (not just bus drivers) and also by volunteers who meet the same requirements as employee drivers. Volunteers must have a valid drivers license, pass background checks and be approved by the superintendent.

The changes in this policy will greatly help us transport students to activities, as we can have parents help drive vans when we are short drivers, board materials stated. If we qualify for the semi-finals in Cedar Falls on Thursday, we will need some help or we wont be able to send a pep bus. If approved, we can send cheerleaders in vans with parent helpers and use the one bus we have for a pep bus.

In other business, the board approved awarding a contract for construction and installation of a new hot water boiler for the high school to Advanced Electric and Mechanical. Its bid of $49,835.62 was the lowest of three submitted for the work. Each bidder said it would take four to five weeks to build the boiler.
The staff of The Daily Nonpareil will provide updates throughout Election Day, including sharing results this evening.

Have a tip or question for us? Email rachel.george@nonpareilonline.com or david.golbitz@nonpareilonline.com

Around 6 p.m., one voter reported she was voter 532 at Citylight Church. They told her that was twice as many as usual at this point in a midterm election.

 Tim Johnson

3:38 p.m.  In Precinct 22, 717 voters had cast ballots at New Horizon Church in Council Bluffs as of 3:30 p.m.

Precinct 10, also at New Horizon Church, had 571 voters as of 3:38 p.m.

 Joe Shearer

3:36 p.m.  Garner Township had 730 ballots cast at New Horizon Church as of 3:36 p.m.

 Joe Shearer

1:33 p.m.  Before the polls close and results start coming in, I'd like to offer some commentary on how races get called from my perspective as an editor.

Our newsroom plans to follow calls made by the Associated Press as well as our colleagues at other newspapers with whom we regularly share news coverage. We expect to make calls on local races, while otherwise describing what the early returns say  even if that's not providing definitive indications of who won or lost.

You're likely to see the AP and other news outlets offer calls for some races as soon as the polls close, or soon thereafter. Those judgements can be made based on turnout and other factors, including statistical modeling and historical data. Typically, you see those in races that aren't as competitive or where a candidate wins by a large margin.

We've heard from some readers that they don't trust the AP. We hope that they still trust our judgment, although we're well aware that many don't put much trust in the news media anymore. We know local news is generally trusted more than national news outlets.

Sarpy County Museum Executive Director Ben Justman recently teased me that museums are a more trusted source of information that newspapers  in fact, they're the most trusted source, according to the American Alliance of Museums. But there's a reason the museum keeps an archive of newspapers. We're the first draft of history, not the final draft.

I had the pleasure of working for the AP in the summer of 2018, including doing election reporting, and I've twice worked as an AP stringer reporting results from Sarpy County. I have confidence in the systems and contingency planning they have in place, and I trust the editors that I'm working alongside  virtually, at least  will use sound judgment.

The news media is an institution made up of people, who largely are doing the best they can while navigating competing priorities. Two main drives for journalists are being right and being first. Those can collide sometimes, especially in high stakes moments like elections.

That might happen again tonight. But the journalists in local newsrooms like ours, or those around the world working for the AP and other outlets, will do their best to report timely, accurate information about this election.

If you want to learn more about how election calls are made, check these out:

 Scott Stewart

1:30 p.m.  Gethsemane Presbyterian Church in Council Bluffs hosts two precincts this election.

As of 1:27 p.m., 158 ballots had been cast in Precinct 21. As of 1:30 p.m., 315 ballots had been cast in Precinct 20.

 Joe Shearer

1:03 p.m.  Gethsemane Presbyterian Church in Council Bluffs hosts two precincts this election.

As of 12:54 p.m., 143 ballots had been cast in Precinct 21. By 1:03 p.m., 297 had voted in Precinct 20.

Molly Cormier, 18, voted in Precinct 20 at Gethsemane.

Cormier graduated from St. Albert Catholic High School this past year and it was her first time voting. She went to the polls with her mother, Jennie.

"It's pretty cool. It's awesome," Cormier said. "We (the younger generation) have our opinions, too, and it's important that our voices are heard as much as possible."

 Joe Shearer

10:45 a.m.  Pottawattamie County Auditor Mel Houser said about 6,500 people had voted early so far, about 40% of the 16,000 early voters in the last midterm election.

"Early voting numbers are down significantly compared with the previous midterm election, in 2018," according to today's story from the Gazette Des Moines Bureau.

Houser cited changes to the rules for early voting as one reason for the decline.

"Among new changes to state elections laws passed by statehouse Republicans was a significant reduction in the amount of time Iowans can vote," the Gazette's story said. "Over two separate elections law changes, Iowas early voting window was reduced from 40 days to 19. And Iowans have less time to request an absentee ballot, to have that ballot mailed to them and to return it in time to be counted."

Houser also said that both parties have sent out ballot request forms in years past, but only the Democratic Party did this year.

Republican messaging across the county has been to vote in person today, Houser said.

"Absentee ballots submitted by registered Republicans are down 41% from 2018, and absentee ballots submitted by registered Democrats are down 21% from 2018, according to Iowa Secretary of State figures," according to the Gazette Des Moines Bureau.

 David Golbitz

9:20 a.m.  At Citylight Church, there was a steady stream of voters coming in to cast their ballots. So far, 106 had voted at that polling site for Precinct 9.

Poll workers were optimistic that there would be a good turnout over the course of the day.

 Tim Johnson

7 a.m.  Voting is underway in Pottawattamie County.

The polls will be open through 8 p.m. Voters should note that closing time is an hour earlier than in previous general elections, the result of a new state law.

You can find your polling place on the website of the Iowa Secretary of State, the states top elections official, at sos.iowa.gov.

Voter ID will be required on Election Day. Voters going to the polls on Election Day will be required to provide ID in order to cast a regular ballot.

Its Election Day: How, when and where to vote Election Day is upon us today as Iowans vote on who should be the states next governor, U.S
DES MOINES  Kim Reynolds has been chosen by Iowans to serve another four years as the states governor.

Reynolds, the Republican incumbent who has been Iowas governor since 2017 and the states first female governor, was reelected Tuesday over Democrat Deidre DeJear, a Des Moines small businesswoman and activist, and Libertarian Rick Stewart, an activist and former business owner from Cedar Rapids.

The Associated Press called the race for Reynolds just after the polls closed at 8 p.m.

From the very beginning, this campaign has been about Iowa. Its been about you. Because its the people of Iowa who make this state what it is: hardworking, innovative, committed to each other, Reynolds said Tuesday night from Iowa Republicans campaign headquarters in downtown Des Moines.

Reynolds over the past six years has signed into law a string of Republican-led priorities  including three rounds of state income tax cuts, the final of which will gradually set a flat tax for all Iowans at 3.9 percent. Reynolds also has signed into law multiple rounds of stronger guidelines for elections, including a dramatic reduction of the time period for early voting; requirements for in-person learning at schools and a prohibition on face mask requirements in class during a pandemic; added legal protections for law enforcement officers; and a ban on transgender girls playing in girls school sports.

Reynolds also has overseen a state budget that, as a result of statehouse Republicans management and an influx of federal funding from the Democratic administration, now has a nearly $2 billion surplus in addition to reserve accounts that total another $2 billion.

One big-ticket agenda item Reynolds has not achieved is her proposal to shift $55 million in taxpayer funding from public schools to private school tuition assistance. Reynolds said throughout the campaign that she would make another pitch for that program in 2023; she even campaigned against incumbent Republican state legislators who were not supportive of her proposal in the Legislature earlier this year.

Whether Reynolds will have the votes in 2023 remains to be seen, but on Tuesday night she signaled she will try again.

Our message for you tonight is this: We are not stopping. We are not slowing down. I am so excited to get back to work and to lay out a bold, conservative agenda and to follow through on what we say we are going to do, she said. It is going to be an agenda where you keep more of your money, where our schools are thriving and all parents have choice.

On the campaign trail, Reynolds touted all those legislative moves and frequently criticized not opponent DeJear but Democratic President Joe Biden.

DeJear, who would have become the first Black woman elected governor in not only Iowa but the country, instead loses a second consecutive statewide race. She also ran unsuccessfully for Iowa Secretary of State in 2018.

DeJear owns a small consulting business in Des Moines and has been active in previous campaigns before she was a candidate. She worked on multiple presidential campaigns in Iowa: for Kamala Harris in 2019 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

I wish the conversation tonight was going to go a little bit different. But Ill tell you, I am extremely proud of the progress we have been able to make, DeJear said at Iowa Democrats campaign headquarters, also in downtown Des Moines. While we came up short in this campaign cycle for this specific campaign, we came up short with the numbers, I say we won as it related to progress.

DeJear pledged to stay involved, saying shes not going anywhere.

Stay mighty in your convictions and know that every bit of work that we put in this campaign was worth it. And dont you let anybody tell you different, she said.

According to polling and fundraising, Iowas gubernatorial election was never particularly close.

Reynolds over the past six years has signed into law a string of Republican-led priorities  including three rounds of state income tax cuts, the final of which will gradually set a flat tax for all Iowans at 3.9 percent. Reynolds also has signed into law multiple rounds of stronger guidelines for elections, including a dramatic reduction of the time period for early voting; requirements for in-person learning at schools and a prohibition on face mask requirements in class during a pandemic; added legal protections for law enforcement officers; and a ban on transgender girls playing in girls school sports.

Reynolds also has overseen a state budget that, as a result of statehouse Republicans management and an influx of federal funding from the Democratic administration, now has a nearly $2 billion surplus in addition to reserve accounts that total another $2 billion.

One big-ticket agenda item Reynolds has not achieved is her proposal to shift $55 million in taxpayer funding from public schools to private school tuition assistance. Reynolds said throughout the campaign that she would make another pitch for that program in 2023; she even campaigned against incumbent Republican state legislators who were not supportive of her proposal in the Legislature earlier this year.

Whether Reynolds will have the votes in 2023 remains to be seen, but on Tuesday night she signaled she will try again.

Our message for you tonight is this: We are not stopping. We are not slowing down. I am so excited to get back to work and to lay out a bold, conservative agenda and to follow through on what we say we are going to do, she said. It is going to be an agenda where you keep more of your money, where our schools are thriving and all parents have choice.

On the campaign trail, Reynolds touted all those legislative moves and frequently criticized not opponent DeJear but Democratic President Joe Biden.

DeJear, who would have become the first Black woman elected governor in not only Iowa but the country, instead loses a second consecutive statewide race. She also ran unsuccessfully for Iowa Secretary of State in 2018.

DeJear owns a small consulting business in Des Moines and has been active in previous campaigns before she was a candidate. She worked on multiple presidential campaigns in Iowa: for Kamala Harris in 2019 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

I wish the conversation tonight was going to go a little bit different. But Ill tell you, I am extremely proud of the progress we have been able to make, DeJear said at Iowa Democrats campaign headquarters, also in downtown Des Moines. While we came up short in this campaign cycle for this specific campaign, we came up short with the numbers, I say we won as it related to progress.

DeJear pledged to stay involved, saying shes not going anywhere.

Stay mighty in your convictions and know that every bit of work that we put in this campaign was worth it. And dont you let anybody tell you different, she said.

According to polling and fundraising, Iowas gubernatorial election was never particularly close.
Voters approved a ballot measure Tuesday further bolstering gun rights in the state, enshrining into the state constitution language that would declare Iowans right to gun ownership in strong legal terms.

With most Iowa precincts reporting late Tuesday, the measure was passing by nearly 66% approval with over 700,000 Iowans voting in favor. This is almost double the number of Iowans who were voting against the measure, according to unofficial results.

The right to self-defense and bear arms is here to stay in Iowa and we are grateful for the thousands of Iowans who took time out of their days to cast a vote in favor of liberty, said Dave Funk, president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, a gun-rights advocacy group.

Iowa voters were asked to add language to the Iowa Constitution that states it is a fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms, and that any restraint on that right is invalid unless it meets the stringent demands of strict scrutiny in court.

The language sets a high legal bar and goes beyond protections in the Second Amendment by dictating the level of judicial review Iowa courts must apply when considering whether gun restrictions in the state are permissible.

Opponents say the amendment will make it harder to pass new gun-safety regulations and would prohibit reasonable safety measures that Iowans support, such as firearm safety training, universal background checks and a license to carry a gun in public, and could weaken or lead to courts overturning existing state gun laws.

Supporters say the amendment is necessary to protect Iowans gun rights from infringement. Republicans have argued for the measure for years, saying Iowa is one of only six states without protections in its constitution for the right to keep and bear arms.

It basically enshrines in the constitution the right to keep and bear arms, said Funk. Today, that could be a rifle or a shotgun. Who knows what it will be in 200 years. Iowans can protect themselves, homes, communities and if necessary they can defend their state.

Iowans for Responsible Gun Laws, a coalition of statewide organizations opposed to the amendment, has noted Iowa would join three states that have passed strict scrutiny gun rights amendments  Alabama, Louisiana and Missouri  that are among the five states with the highest rates of gun deaths in the U.S., according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Iowans value safety and the majority of Iowans see common sense gun laws as an important way to keep our communities safe. Unfortunately, the reckless gun amendment that passed today is now part of the Iowa Constitution and will only serve to put Iowans in harms way, the coalition said in a statement Tuesday.

The potential consequences of this amendments passage, from expensive lawsuits in the Iowa courts to impacting current law and the safety of Iowans, will be far reaching and dire for our state.
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Morocco and the Pentagon have agreed to continue to work together on counterterrorism, maritime security in the Mediterranean, and other pressing security issues on the African continent.

The agreement was reached during the 12th U.S.-Morocco Defense Consultative Committee (DCC) held in Washington Nov.7-8 under the co-chairmanship of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl and Lt. Gen. Belkhir El Farouk, Inspector General of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces and Southern Zone Commander.

The DCC reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Moroccan bilateral security and defense relationship, said the Pentagon in a press release, affirming that both countries continue enhancing their strategic partnership and working together to achieve goals outlined in the 2020-2030 U.S.-Morocco Roadmap for Defense Cooperation.

The meeting was an opportunity to review progress made on the recent Bilateral Country Action Plan (BCAP) and to ensure continued progress towards the goals of the roadmap of their military cooperation.

At the Pentagon, the Moroccan and U.S. Delegations discussed a wide range of topics including security cooperation, modernization and interoperability, intelligence capacity building, peacekeeping operations, countering illicit activities. Moroccos role as a regional security leader was also highlighted at the meeting.

During the DCC meeting, Lt. Gen. Belkhir El Farouk voiced concerns over the security threats North Africa & Sahel-Sahara regions are facing due to intervention of extra-regional actors and their collusion with separatist movements, making reference to Iran.

Morocco, he said, is determined to counter these threats through strengthening its alliances and its operational capabilities to defend its territorial integrity and ensure the security of its borders, said a statement released by the General Staff of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.

The Moroccan General also hailed the excellent cooperation ties with the U.S. in military training and joint drills in addition to supply of high-performance equipment and war materials with the necessary technical support.
Amazon announced on Nov 5 that the first front-end bonded warehouse for its Global Store will be settled in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, in 2023, Ningbo Daily reported on Tuesday.

The Amazon Global Store chose to set up its first front-end bonded warehouse in Ningbo with the aim to better serve Chinese consumers' demand for imported products.

Its bonded warehouse in Ningbo will first be used for Amazon's UK and German sites, with further expansion to cover all four overseas sites in the US, the UK, Japan, and Germany.

It is reported that Chinese consumers will enjoy better services for purchasing overseas products because the launch of the bonded warehouse will shorten the logistic time by four to five days on average compared with direct delivery from overseas.

Amazon Global Store is expected to import more new overseas categories, such as pet food, through its Ningbo front-end bonded warehouse.

Amazon looks forward to working with Ningbo Cross-border E-commerce Pilot Zone to optimize the whole chain of buying products from overseas, said Li Yanchuan, head of Amazon China Global Store and Prime.

The settlement of the front-end bonded warehouse of Amazon in Ningbo will boost the cross-border export business of Ningbo, said Chen Lizhen, deputy director of Ningbo Commerce Bureau.
Donatien Nagalo, Burkina Fasos Minister of Industrial development, Trade, Crafts and Small and Medium-sized enterprises, stepped down Tuesday amid growing protests against his appointment by traders who accuse him of fraud and embezzlement, Anadolu news agency reports.

I Sincerely and honestly recognize that I am an honest and honest Burkinabe citizen, dedicated and committed to contribute to the building of our common nation; but in view of the social, economic and security crisis, I feel challenged that the only way to serve ones nation is to rise to the occasion and to contribute in a humble, honest and civic way to social cohesion, Nagolo told media.

That is why, he added, I thought it useful to give up my position to give the government of Prime Minister Appolinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, all the chances to work in a serene and peaceful climate. I would like to wish full success to the future minister in charge of trade and reassure him of our support to achieve the expected results, he added.

I also invite all merchants to renounce these practices that are contrary to the values that our nation embodies.

Nagalo was appointed to head the department on October 25 but the appointment met fears of opposition from traders. Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyelem however on October 30 indicated that all cabinet members were vetted and no one is subject to charges.

We paid a lot of attention, we examined all the files, investigations were made, and it turns out that there was nothing to blame a minister, he insisted.

Aside from Nagolo, Yacouba Die, Minister of Urban Planning, Land Affairs and Housing is under criticism. Critics on social media dispute his appointment over the poor implementation of a project prior to entering the government.
The leaders of East African Community, EAC, have appointed former Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta to broker political negotiations to end the security crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the army is facing some 100 armed groups.

The appointment came during a high-level meeting on the sideline of ongoing COP27 in Egypt. Leaders of Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, DRC Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde were in attendance.

The high-level meeting commended H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta for accepting the role of facilitating the peace process in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and for his leadership and efforts to boost the peace process, the final communique of the summit said.

The community appoints Uhuru after it has started deploying troops to eastern DRC where rebels groups including high profile M23 groups are very active.

The appointment comes as the Congolese army carries out airstrikes against M23 positions around Goma. The army Tuesday morning conducted airstrikes with Soukhoi-25 jets to pound the position of the rebel group which took control of several localities in recent months.

Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing the rebel group. Kigali has denied any wrongdoing.

Monday, Rwandan authorities accused Congo of violating its airspace after a fighter jet Sukhoi-25 type entered its territory. Congo admitted the incident but indicated that the aircraft was not weaponized.
Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba held talks Monday on the sidelines of the COP27 in Egypt, with Koreas Special Envoy for Climate Hon Na Kyung-Won on the possibility of both countries cooperating in forest and carbon credit management, Gabo Review reports.

The Gabon leader and Kyung-Won also addressed Koreas various investment opportunities in infrastructure, among other sectors in the central African country.

Forests in the central African country absorb close to 100 million tons of CO2 per annum, accounting for a third of the carbon emitted by a country like France.

The performance makes Gabon, one of the leading global countries in terms of carbon credit and CO2 capture.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) deposited $1 billion at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) at the time the Gulf country was close to a deal to acquire a government stake in some of the major companies in the North African country, Asharq Business reports, citing informed sources.

The funds, the sources told the media, were moved to the central bank. Both countries are reportedly in talks with Qatar to acquire shares in state-run companies. Bloomberg reported last month that Qatar was in advanced talks about a deal worth around $2.5 billion.

The transaction is taking place amid improving ties between the two countries. On September 13th, President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi flew to Doha to begin an official two-day visit, which was his first to Qatar. The trip sealed a repair of relations since 2017 after Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off ties with Qatar over the latter alleged support for terrorism.

Gulf Arab states pledged more than $20 billion in deposits and investments to Egypt. The tiny gas-rich country deposited $3 billion into the Central Bank of Egypt earlier this year.
French President Emmanuel Macron will officially announce on Wednesday (9 November) the end of the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, but this will have no impact on the French military presence in the region, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.

This announcement comes a little less than three months after the withdrawal of French soldiers from Mali. The Barkhane force counted up to 5,500 soldiers at the height of its deployment in the Sahel. Pushed out of Mali by the junta in power since 2020, which is now being supported, despite repeated denials, by the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, the French army left the country for good in mid-August, after nine years of fighting the jihadists. It remains in the region, however, with some 3,000 French troops still deployed in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger, and continues to fight against jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, which are gradually expanding their activities to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.

According to the Elysee, the principle is to reduce the exposure and visibility of our military forces in Africa, to focus on cooperation and support, mainly in terms of equipment, training, intelligence, and operational partnership when the countries wish it. As soon as the departure of Mali was announced in February, Paris announced its willingness to launch discussions with African states on this issue. Even if it does not intend to abandon the fight against jihadism, France has to deal with an increasingly hostile African public opinion, in which the influence of rival powers, led by Moscow, is growing via social networks and official media.
Some Kenyan lawmakers are demanding to see more documents from a secret $5bn loan agreement with a Chinese bank that financed a cross-country railway, with critics of the deal blaming the government of the day for having given too much legal authority to China.

The 2011 agreement was shielded from public view until Kenyas transport secretary, Kipchumba Murkomen, released select pages on Sunday (6 November). Critics of the deal with the Export-Import Bank of China that financed the Standard Gauge Railway say those pages show the Kenyan government gave too much legal authority to China, and lawmakers now want to know whether Kenya put up public facilities as collateral in the deal. One clause says that any major dispute over the railway would be decided in Beijing, not Nairobi, although it is not clear whether that means Chinese officials have the final say in such disputes. The documents also show, among other things, that the Kenyan government was legally bound to keep the details of the deal secret.

Kenyan political analyst Javas Bigambo said compelling the state to conceal such information from the public is unlawful. The non-disclosure agreement as provided for in that contract is in itself illegal, going by the fact that the laws of procurement in Kenya advocate for transparent procurement processes, Bigambo said. Another part of the contract mandates that Kenya is not to buy materials for the railway from any country other than China. Some legislators believe that important details of the contract, like collateral for the loans, are still missing. Critics also question Murkomens motive for not releasing the entire contract. The roughly 600-kilometer-long railway, which connects the port city of Mombasa with the town of Naivasha 75 km northwest of Nairobi, opened five years ago. Critics say it is underused and has failed to generate the revenue or economic development that proponents of the project envisioned. China accounts for one-third of Kenyas external debt.
A new multipurpose dam that will be built in Kitui and Tharaka Nithi counties in Kenya will cost about $3,5 billion following a deal signed by the countrys President William Ruto and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday (7 November).

The green investment programs  in energy, agriculture and transport  will become flagship projects of the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership, which is an ambitious five-year deal signed to unlock mutual benefits between the two countries. The building of the dam, which will be Kenyas second expensive infrastructure project after the standard gauge railway, is part of six projects worth more than $4 billion to be fast-tracked under a new UK pact signed on the sidelines of the climate conference COP27 underway in Egypt. Among the other six flagship projects are a new geothermal power station in Menengai, a solar energy project in Malindi, the Nairobi Railway City regeneration project, a credit guarantee scheme and the multipurpose dam.

The dam is a public-private partnership on the Tana River and is planned to generate 1,000 megawatts of hydroelectric energy and provide irrigation for 400,000 hectares of farmland. The Malindi Solar Expansion  a 40-megawatt solar plant will be built by UK company Globeleq with finance from British International Investment. The deal will also see an investment in Menengai Geothermal, a 35MW geothermal project by Geothermal Development Company (GDC) and UKs Globeleq which will mark the full development of a field discovered by GDC. The project has already secured a Power Purchase Agreement with Kenya Power. The deal will also fast-track the Nairobi Railway City with an investment which includes the regeneration of central Nairobi, anchored on a new central rail station connected to Bus Rapid Transit. The project has been developed with technical assistance from the UK government.
Algerias energy minister Mohamed Argab, faithful to his regimes policy of manipulating public opinion by telling half-truths, said his countrys hydrocarbons exports would increase 45% year-on-year to 50 billion dollars in 2022.

The Algerian minister is comparing a year in which barrel prices rose to 123 dollars per barrel with 2021 in which the average price was 70 dollars as the world economy started shaking off Covid-19 dust.

He had better compare Algerias oil and gas revenues in 2022 with those made in 2011, a comparable year where barrel price stood at an average 110 dollars.

In 2011, Algeria made 71 billion dollars of hydrocarbon revenue which helped the authoritarian regime of Bouteflika buy social peace and maintain an economy based on rent-distribution.

Argab, keen on disinformation and manipulating public opinion, preferred to focus on the value of exports instead of the volume which explains the discrepancy between the exports of 2011 and those of 2022.

In 2011, Algeria produced 1.6 million barrels daily compared to some 900,000 currently. Bearing in mind that some 50% of this output is used in the domestic market, this leaves Algeria with diminishing exporting capacities, a fact that further undermines its position in OPEC and casts a shadow on the countrys status as an oil exporting country.

In terms of gas, Algerias exporting capacity dropped from 145 cubic meters in 2011 to 132 cubic meters currently, of which some 60% is consumed in the domestic market.

Algerian authorities have also announced expectations of 17 billion dollars of trade surplus this year, a figure they sell as an achievement to a population that has been hit by shortages due to import bans.

That same trade surplus figure is barely enough to cover the cost of subsidies of foodstuff, housing and other cash distribution measures taken by a regime intent on buying social peace at the expense of undermining prospects for economic diversification.

It is worth mentioning that Algeria is one of the few countries on earth whose GDP per capita has declined in recent years in tandem with the decline in energy prices.

The decline of export capacity of Algeria is met with artificial reforms that keep Algeria as a closed country and economy ruled by an opaque military regime whose members have a vested interest in the authoritarian and rentier economy status quo.
Morocco and its European partners (France, Germany, Portugal and Spain) have sealed the Sustainable Electricity Trade Roadmap on the sidelines of the COP27 climate change summit taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The five countries recognize the benefits of regional electricity market integration. This ambitious plan had been disclosed during COP22 held in Marrakesh in 2016.

The initiative aims to facilitate the mutually beneficial exchanges of renewable electricity between Morocco and the four EU countries through the gradual integration of their electricity markets.

The project for sustainable electricity trade (SET) between Morocco and the European internal energy market is supported by the European Union and the Union for Mediterranean.

The goal is to facilitate cross-border trade from producers of renewable electricity to corporate consumers of that electricity, under power purchase agreements (PPA) within the SET countries.

According to experts, importing electricity from countries with great solar and wind resources helps to reduce costs for corporate consumers and cut the prices of their products to individual consumers.

After setting out a clear pathway for electricity exchanges and identifying investments, processes and procedures for sustainable electricity trade, the five partner countries expect strong interest from companies which consume large amounts of electricity and from renewable energy companies.

Commenting the agreement, Moroccan minister of energy transition Leila Benali said the deal shows the common will of the five countries for the exchange of clean energy.

The move, which is part of the EU-Morocco Green partnership, comes to support the various measures taken on both shores of the Mediterranean basin to encourage production and consumption of clean energy, she added.

The EU-Morocco Green Partnership signed in October is the first such deal that the EU signed with a partner country. It aims to advance the external dimension of the European Green Deal through action on the ground. Work will be developed across three main thematic axes: climate and energy; the environment including marine and maritime issues; and the green economy.

The Partnership will also look at ways to bridge Europe and Africa by joining forces with other countries and partners. It is expected to become a model for similar partnerships on the African continent, where Morocco already leads in terms of environmental and climate ambitions.
Moroccan Princess Lalla Hasnaa, Goodwill Ambassador of the Congo Basin Climate Commission (CBCC) & the Blue Congo Basin Fund, has reaffirmed, in Sharm El Sheikh, Moroccos strong commitment to support the three African Climate Commissions launched by African leaders during COP22 held in Marrakesh.

Morocco, as a Founding Partner Country and, above all, as a staunch African advocate for the region, is determined to contribute to the achievement of the objectives set at the First Brazzaville Summit, said the Princess in remarks she made Wednesday at the high-level meeting she chaired at COP27 on financing mitigation & adaptation actions to address climate change in Congo Bassin.

The Princess also voiced the strong commitment of Morocco, at the highest level, to back the African climate change commissions to help the African Island States, the Congo Basin and the Sahel countries mitigate the negative impacts of global warming.

Princess Lalla Hasnaa thanked the participants in this high-level meeting organized by the Republic of Congo, which chairs the Congo Basin Climate Commission, and Morocco, Founding Partner of the three African Climate Commissions, saying that their presence at this event shows their commitment to contribute to the success of this landmark regional climate project.

Under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, Morocco continues its technical assistance to support the presidency of the Congo Basin Climate Commission, added the Princess, noting that Morocco is also propping up the development of the Congo Basin Blue Fund and is deploying its expertise in the fight against climate change through the Climate Change Competence Centre (4C Morocco).

The Congo basin is the 2nd worlds largest carbon reserves, said Princess Lalla Hasnaa, affirming that its protection represents a major global challenge and requires the participation all stakeholders.

She stressed the need to provide this region with the necessary financial and technical support to help build an economic model combining sustainability and innovation and enable the local populations become more resilient to climate change.

For their part, participants in the meeting have commended the steadfast commitment of King Mohammed VI for a strong Africa capable of addressing the climate change challenges.

They also paid tribute to Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso and hailed his efforts to advance the Congo Basin Climate Commission and its financing instrument, the Blue Congo Basin Fund.

The Congo Basin Climate Commission (CBCC), set up in 2018, includes 16 member African countries, namely Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and one associate member, Morocco.

On the sidelines of her participation in COP27, Princess Lalla Hasnaa, who is president of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, met on Wednesday with Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell.

On Tuesday, she met with Congos Environment Minister & coordinator of the Congo Basin Climate Commission, Ms. Arlette Soudan-Nonault,
Augmented reality goggles, artificial intelligence-powered helmets, intelligent vehicle-mounted systems and metaverse-related technologies are all attracting attention at this year's Light of Internet Expo, which kicked off on Tuesday, one day ahead of the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit.



A total of 415 enterprises and institutions from about 40 countries and regions are showcasing their latest products, technologies and solutions both online and offline during the expo. The event aims to create an important platform for international cooperation and exchanges in the digital economy sector.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's online food delivery platform Ele.me showcased its smart helmets for delivery drivers to better protect their safety. The helmets, which serve as intelligent voice assistants, have embedded microphones and Bluetooth headphones to facilitate real-time interaction between couriers and consumers.

Featuring voice recognition technology, natural language processing systems, sensors and safety lights, the helmets can convert in-app notifications into voice messages. Delivery drivers can communicate with customers through the helmet without using their smartphones.

"With the blossoming of the internet of things, big data and AI, we want to create modalities that help people while ensuring their safety. Both helmets and smartphones are essential to a courier's job, so we combined them together and expanded some new functions," said Chen Peiming, an engineer from Alibaba's delivery person management unit.

The helmets have been deployed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces as well as Shanghai, Chen said, adding that the company plans to expand the smart helmets to about 100,000 couriers. "We will also ramp up efforts to develop new intelligent devices, such as food delivery boxes and electric motorcycles to improve delivery services."

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo unveiled its latest cutting-edge technology that enables users to control vehicles through their mobile phones at the glitzy exhibition center.

The applications on smartphones include real-time navigation, video-streaming sites, images and music, which can be transmitted to vehicles, said Wen Liang, product manager of Vivo's internet of vehicles unit, adding that the company has collaborated with electric vehicle makers Denza and BYD to apply its new vehicle-mounted technology to a variety of models.

Other innovative technologies at the expo include the metaverse, which refers to a shared virtual environment or digital space created by technologies including virtual reality and augmented reality.

Powered by 5G-enabled mixed reality or MR technologies, Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE launched a metaverse experience zone, where visitors can experience sceneries from four seasons in Wuzhen, and enter virtual worlds with robots, spacecraft and other futuristic elements by donning MR glasses.

At the expo, Japanese electronics maker Seiko Epson demonstrated its new-generation augmented reality glasses for industrial application to meet the rapidly growing demand for remote assistance in the manufacturing sector.

Wen Junjie, sales manager of AR glasses at Epson China, said the immersive AR technology can support collaboration between on-site technicians and off-site experts to help enhance work efficiency, cut costs and improve workplace safety.

Saying Epson has been engaged in the AR segment for over 10 years, Wen added that the latest AR glasses with advanced image quality are expected to provide a more immersive viewing experience to today's remote workforce. AR glasses can be used in a wide range of sectors such as education, culture and tourism, he added. The company also demonstrated its ultra-high-definition laser televisions during the expo.
Algeria was denounced again as the model of a state that evades its international duties and obligations, continues the confiscation of its citizens rights, smothers freedoms, ignores special procedures correspondences, and obstructs international agencies visits.

These damning remarks were made at a symposium held this Wednesday at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on the sidelines of the 41st session of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism.

The event was organized by the International Observatory IOPDHR- GENEVA, in partnership with the international PDES-NGO (Promotion of Economic and Social Development) having a consultative status at the UNHRC, which presented the results of their joint report regarding the degree of compliance by the Algerian state with its international obligations under the Universal Periodic Review  the fourth cycle  in light of the recommendations made in May 2017.

Moderator of the symposium, Bjorn Holtin, Swedish political advisor and expert in African affairs, expressed the importance of this international event as an opportunity to dwell on what has been done about the human rights situation, especially in the North African region.

In this region, where democratic experiences vary from country to country, Algeria represents a model that has shirked its duties and obligations, due to numerous pending cases and unanswered special procedures correspondences, as well as suspended or obstructed international visits, he said.

For his part, Mr. Oualid Kebir, an Algerian political and human rights activist and president of the Maghreb Association for Peace, Cooperation and Development, addressed the challenges posed to the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Algeria by opening the burning file of demonstrators and activists of the movement, as well as the alarming resurgence of violations in the public and civil space. He argued that this situation that can only be described as dangerous, especially after the Algerian military regime added several amendments to the laws to legitimize abuses against human rights defenders, activists and journalists.

The Algerian regime has gone further, as Oualid KEBIR asserts, by expanding the definition of the crime of terrorism, regardless of the states obligations under international law, to harass human rights activists and bloggers and prosecute them on various charges such as incitement to assembly, intelligence with a foreign country, or contempt of state institutions.

Another participants, Hans Noot, Dutch expert in organizational behavior and organizational anthropology and member of the board of Human Rights without Borders in Brussels, focused his presentation on the situation in the Tindouf camps that he described as abnormal.

The Tindouf camps represent an exception in which the population is deprived of censuses, protection reports and refugee cards, a situation that deviates from the rules of international law and the standards of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees.

At the end of the symposium, the president of the Geneva International Observatory for Human Rights, presented the two NGOs joint report on the universal periodic review of Algeria, outlining observations and recommendations on the progress made by the state in implementing the recommendations of the report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, namely the recommendations on the acceptance of international standards and cooperation with the special procedures and international human rights organizations. These recommendations include freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and association, extrajudicial execution and implementation of economic rights, protection of children from exploitation, asylum conditions and the rule of law.
GRAND ISLAND  Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer has started interior renovations of its historic Taylor House.

The house of Robert Taylor was gifted to Stuhr Museum in 1985, said Stuhr Executive Director Chris Hochstetler.

This particular house is probably one of the most historic places in this part of Nebraska, he said. Robert Taylor was at one point in time the worlds largest sheep rancher. His property, this house, would have been only about seven miles to the north and west of what is now the old veterans administration home, here in town.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a guest at the home during a visit to Grand Island.

For this phase of the houses restoration, Taylors personal office will be returned to its early 20th-century glory.

We will try to recreate what that personal office would have looked like, or could have looked like, back in those days when Teddy Roosevelt visited, Hochstetler said.

Despite its vintage appearance, it will not be an exhibition or interpretation space, but serve as an education space, noted Hochstetler.

The rest of the house, we will have it turned into classroom space, meeting space, and it will provide a place where we can bring full modern amenities to it. It will have power, internet and HVAC, he said.

Work has started on the electrical and plumbing for the house, and installing the HVAC, which was donated to the project.

Stuhr has been planning for the houses restoration since it was gifted to the museum, said Hochstetler.

It sat out on the far west part of the property, out by Highway 281, and through the years the resources just werent there to restore the house, he said. Additionally, environmental changes caused the water table to shift in the Wood River, and we had that flood.

He added, Weve done a lot of fundraising to get the donations needed to do this project.

The house was moved to the east side of the campus in September 2020.

The house had water standing in the basement for many years, and it was beginning to deteriorate that historic property, Hochstetler said.

Since then, it has been set on a foundation and its interior basically gutted.

Weve actually had some floors redone, some windows redone and installed. The house has been fully painted and encapsulated so its safe from deterioration now, he said.

The interior will be completely redone.

Weve been researching the colors it would have been and what the interior of the house would have looked like, circa 1902. That was when Teddy Roosevelt had a very historic visit to our community and spent quite a bit of time in Robert Taylors home, that very house, Hochstetler said.

Hochstetler expects it to be ready for use as a facility in November 2023.

Were hammering away at it, so to speak, he said. Its going to add a significant footprint to our ability to serve students in the wintertime, as well as the dead of summer, when its so hot.

Hochstetler applauded the generosity of the Grand Island community.

Its been off the chart, he said. This is a very storied property. It comes from a very storied family. Being able to have it here, on our grounds, the public has been very generous. The existing family was very generous. And foundations from around the state have been really generous in supporting this restoration at high levels.
The Grammy Award-winning quintet Ranky Tanky from Charleston S.C. is coming to Opelika to perform at the Opelika Center for Performing Arts on Monday.

Ranky Tanky consists of drummer, percussionist and producer Quentin Baxter; bass player Kevin Hamilton; vocalist Quiana Parler; guitar player and vocalist Clay Ross; and trumpet player and vocalist Charlton Singleton.

The five members perform music born from the Gullah culture of the southeastern Sea Islands. The Gullah culture originated from enslaved African Americans who lived in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia.

Phillip Preston, director of East Alabama Arts, said audience members can expect a high-energy 90-minute performance.

I think what were looking forward to is their high energy level of performing and how deeply committed they are to helping all of us understand the Gullah culture, Preston said. I think itll just be a great, fun time.

The quintet will perform at the Opelika Center for the Performing Arts on Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-$59 and are available online at eastalabamaarts.org.

This will be the first time for Ranky Tanky to perform in Opelika.

Itll be a unique experience and I think sort of a feel-good moment that we could all use right now, Preston said.

Quentin Baxter, 51, grew up in Charleston playing the drums and percussion. He said drums became the family instrument as both of his parents and his three siblings all learned to play.

I dont have memory of not playing, he said. I grew up playing in church.

Baxter said most of the group members grew up playing music in churches where the Gullah culture was embedded. The quintet plays standard Gullah songs that can be heard in Charleston churches as well as other songs with an added flair of their own.

The members of Ranky Tanky have known each other for about 30 years, but only started performing and touring together as a quintet about five years ago.

The idea for the group began with the four instrumentalists Baxter, Ross, Hamilton and Singleton. They formed a jazz quartet in Charleston and performed for several years until they decided to branch out on their own.

The members stayed in contact while going on separate tours.

After Ross visited Brazil, Baxter said he was interested in learning more about the Sea Island music and rhythm, which was similar to the Gullah music.

(Ross) came back, we did a couple of shows together and then he basically had the idea of putting a band together and just trying to celebrate the music, Baxter said.

The four quartet members came back together and decided they needed a vocalist. Baxter said they immediately thought of Quiana Parler, whom theyd each worked with before in different capacities.

Parler agreed to join and form the quintet. They started performing at shows in Charleston, decided on the name Ranky Tanky and eventually started touring.

Its a family vibe. We all rely on one anothers strengths and interests to continue to keep this thing organic, keep it fun, Baxter said.

They created their first album Ranky Tanky in 2017, which was later listed No. 1 in the Billboard jazz chart.

In 2020, their second album Good Time received the Grammy Award for best regional roots music album.

Baxter said they wrote about half the songs on the album as well as included some Gullah standard songs.

We always try to write songs thats conducive to the sentiment of the Gullah culture, which is mans humanity to man, love, embrace, treating others as you would like to be treated, he said.

Baxter said receiving a Grammy for this album makes one of the first secular celebrations of the Gullah culture, which is ingrained with Christianity.

Were not forsaking spirituality of the music, its still there. Were still writing songs about kindness and all of the fruits and everything that we bare from our teachings, but its more fun as opposed to being a gospel group, were a regional roots band, Baxter said. We bring a lot of different grooves that I would play in church, but a lot of different grooves thats conducive to the culture.

Ranky Tanky recently played four nights in San Francisco, and their next stop will be in Opelika on Monday.

We just want people to come ready to enjoy, maybe even to dance in their seats or something. The music is moving and its driving and its uplifting, Baxter said. Its inspirational and we want people to feel that. Were coming to dance, were coming to play and really have a beautiful time, so we hope people join in.
ATLANTA (AP)  Republicans retained their majorities in Georgia's legislature and were seeking to maintain their lock on statewide offices as votes continued being counted Wednesday.

Republicans won 33 Senate seats, while in the House, they won 96 seats and were leading in five other races The Associated Press had not yet called early Wednesday

All 180 House seats and 56 Senate seats were up for election.

Heading into Tuesday's election, Republicans had a 103-76 majority in the House after Democrat Henry Wayne Howard of Augusta died in October. In the Senate, Republicans held a 34-22 majority. However, Republicans redrew district lines to create more Democratic-leaning seats and bolster their incumbents, so some losses were expected.

Republicans also hold all seven of the other statewide offices besides governor and U.S. senator that are on the ballot Tuesday.

Republicans had incumbents defending four statewide offices. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger successfully won reelection against state Rep. Bee Nguyen and Libertarian Ted Metz. State School Superintendent Richard Woods faced Democrat Alisha Thomas Searcy. Insurance Commissioner John King was running against Democrat Janice Laws Robinson.

Democrats recruited their strongest statewide field in a decade, with nominees that drew national notice, including state Nguyen, who sought to leverage her partys outrage over Georgias restrictive voting law to raise money nationwide, and state Sen. Jen Jordan, who ran for attorney general after a raising her profile as a defender of abortion rights.

Republicans also nominated state senators for the three other statewide positions. Burt Jones was running for lieutenant governor against Democrat Charlie Bailey and Libertarian Ryan Graham. Tyler Harper was running for agriculture commissioner against Democrat Nakita Hemingway and Libertarian David Raudabaugh. Bruce Thornton was running for labor commissioner against Democratic state Rep. William Boddie and Libertarian Emily Anderson.

Republicans won the majority in the state Senate when several Democrats switched parties after the 2002 elections and won the majority in the House in 2004.

Democrats were hoping to gain in the General Assembly after redistricting. Fair Districts Georgia, a group that opposes gerrymandering, projected that Republicans had the advantage in 98 of the new state House districts drawn by a Republican majority last year, while Democrats had the advantage in 82 districts.

Republicans, though, held or took over several districts drawn to favor Democrats. The longest-serving member of the House, Republican Gerald Greene, won in a southwest Georgia seat that should lean Democratic.

Republican and former state House member Scott Hilton beat incumbent Democrat Mary Robichaux in a district that spanned parts of northern Fulton and southwestern Gwinnett counties.

The margin of Republican control is important. Under Georgia law, an absolute majority of all members is required in either chamber to pass legislation. Particularly in the House, if Republicans can bring back more than 100, it would make it easier for them to muster 91 votes on every bill.

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.
Wild

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And her daughter was just on the masked singer so all in all an incredible week for the Norwegian monarchy

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What was her costume? 

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She was a 'dandy' apparently





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Reptile Princess

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extra-terrestrial shaman healer

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What a fucking idiot



Edit: sorry, I didnt mean to reply to your comment 



Edited at 2022-11-09 02:22 pm (UTC)

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Im a hybrid species of reptilian and Andromeda, and I also hold the energies of the ancient spirits from the old world. There have been lies told about our species that I want to address. We are a cluster of beings, that means that weve come here to create structures that help people to come into liberation. Reptilians are here to shake up the system in a big way. Anything that is held in structure that actually limits or holds human beings from seeing liberation we shake. We come as interrupters to interrupt frequency.



https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-shaman-reveals-hes-a-reptilian-andromeda-hybrid-sent-to-interrupt-our-frequencies/951869



Okay!



FYI when he says there were lies spread about his species, I believe he is referring to antisemitic conspiracy theories peddled by David Icke. \_()_/



Edited at 2022-11-09 12:40 pm (UTC) I think we're burying the lede here because he is actually an extraterrestrial:Okay!FYI when he says there were lies spread about his species, I believe he is referring to antisemitic conspiracy theories peddled by David Icke. \_()_/

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Living for this convergence of a royal with a lunatic/reptile to fully embody the reptilian elite conspiracy theory. What are the chances.

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Who knew qanon was right all along

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I legit spat out my drink ahahah

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https://norway.postsen.com/news/29257/Durek-Verrett-claims-medallion-helped-against-corona-disease-%E2%80%93-sells-it-on-its-own-website-%E2%80%93-VG.html



On Tuesday, it became known that Durek Verrett was infected with corona after visiting Norway. In a video he himself posted on Instagram, he said he refused to receive medical treatment.



In an Instagram story posted on Thursday, he elaborates on this: He left the hospital and refused to take chemicals. Instead, he chose to quarantine at home and heal with his SO, writes Verrett.



SO stands for Spirit Optimizer, and is a collection of Verretts handmade medallions. On his website, he describes SO as advanced spiritual technology for spirit-hacking and optimization.

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Disappointed in Yahoo! News, how could they do this to me.

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an American who describes himself as a shaman and a healer



When I read this description, I assumed she had found herself one of those guys who starts off going to yoga with his girlfriend, becomes a massage therapist which leads him to friendships with some steel sculpture artists who bring him to Burning Man and the next thing you know he's moved to Bali and is taking breath activation workshops with the other ex-pats. I did not think it would get to the reptilian alien phase.

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The minute I saw reptile I thought of David Icke. Blech.



Of course, the minute I saw 'American shaman,' I thought of that dude from January 6th, so this whole thing was a fun associational game.

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OBSESSED that he is trying to reclaim reptilian honor from David Icke. This is the best fucking news today, I love it/him so much.

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reading that made me feel like maybe this wake-n-bake was a little too intense this fine morning lol

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Well, she got tired of all the "product of incest" jokes and decided to jump planetary species.

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Oh this definitely involves David Icke's theory. No way he came up with this unique bullshit on his own.

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Dude is challenging for L. Ron Hubbard's crown. Beware Miscavige.

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The post alone had me thinking this was wild but then the comments take it even further wowww. Thanks for the new rabbit hole I must go down immediately!

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Yeah, same. The post alone had me click but the comments....

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Princess Martha Louise of Norway has relinquished royal duties to pursue life with spiritual healer fiance, Durek Verrett https://t.co/2SstFyT5sZ pic.twitter.com/f4wbPUY9Zx  Tatler (@Tatlermagazine) November 8, 2022



you should have used this pic bc that necklace looks like exactly what a princess who gives up her title to marry an American shaman would wear you should have used this pic bc that necklace looks like exactly what a princess who gives up her title to marry an American shaman would wear

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Or given to her by angels.

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amethyst is a frequency amplifier, don't you know

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Obtuse, acute or right?

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Or yuor devil

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lmaooo love seeing these americans causing chaos in royal houses



they both sound nutty tho

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If you think you're a ~royal you have to be insane. the idea that your bloodline is connected to god in some way is just...

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martha louise was already nutty as hell before she even married her first husband lmao. she opened up a school and claimed she could communicate with angels.

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Imagine their family if she was the Crown Princess, instead of her younger brother

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she wouldn't have been allowed to meet him

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its funny because when they decided to change the law to equal succession, there was a discussion on whether it should start with haralds kids and be retroactive or if they should just wait for the next generation. thankfully they waited because haakon is normal and lowkey compared to his crazy ass sister. but also like funhouse said, odds are that she wouldve never been allowed to pursue this relationship if she was the crown princess.

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ngl i would watch a reality show about this shit

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tbh, same. This guy she is marrying has to run a cult.

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definitely lmao. os anjos que mandaram!

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I thought the American shaman healer was bad enough but it somehow gets so much worse

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When my partner read me this story last night, I really thought the Princess was in her early 20s, not fifty-fucking-one years old.

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Would very much like to know how her children feel about this.

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i feel really bad for them, having to deal with this mess. and their father committed suicide just a few years ago :(

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i love messy royal gossip

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Martha has always been cray cray



she is actually the older sibling but the succession laws only changed in 1990.

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thank god they chose to keep Haakon as the heir and have the new laws start with his kids.



Although maybe Martha would have turned out more...normal if she had been the heir. It could have been wild though.

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Me @ Lauren Boebert rn:





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I love this for her!

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good !!!!

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It's funny but it's not "before and after" anything. It's just a picture of them randomly praying cause they're weird, not sad cause she's losing.

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this is my favorite song

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I can't believe they haven't called it yet!

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How the fuck is my pos representative boebert still an undecided race. We are very red and accepting that she will win but by a very very small amount of votes. But i legit didn't expect them to be this close.

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I don't understand why it's still undecided tbh, she doesn't have the votes. Idk about the population of your district but it doesn't seem possible that she will rack up 4K votes with only 7% left to report

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So last night mesa county closed a huge gap for her and they are still counting pueblo County and that area is very red. It's going to be so so close. But I'm very proud. My red area went blue against her and was credited 2 years ago with helping her win. So people are figuring it out.



Edited at 2022-11-09 05:12 pm (UTC)

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I was SO afraid yesterday that Republicans would demolish Dems, but that, at least, has been avoided.



I am cautiously optimistic about keeping the Senate and am taking comfort in the fact that even if the GOP gets the House, the margin will be razor thin and Kevin McCarthy is going to face opposition from the MAGAts in his caucus and will probably just have an incredibly shitty time of it.

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I'm glad to see Fetterman won, and Kentucky decided to protect abortion rights.

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abortion rights have won in every state thats its been on the ballot since roe was overturned.



they played themselves.

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I really do think that it came down to abortion as to why democrats have fended off the red wave. That really made a lot of people rightfully mad, and I'm glad they came out and voted.

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Voters in my home state (KY) finally did a rare thing for me to be proud of! I'm sad that grifter Rand Paul is still in there though. :/

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But is it actually protected when they turned around and voted Republicans in too?



ETA: Also, promise I'm not being snarky to you with this question.



Edited at 2022-11-10 12:14 am (UTC)

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these hollywood sickos voting for rick caruso need to go to hell

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I would like to fist fight them, tbh. I'm so mad.



I hope Bass is able to pull it out with the votes left to be counted.

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I can't even address that rn, which is why I didn't include it lmao it just blows me

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Truly hope he shows up to the Senate in a hoodie.

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So many people out there do not understand the magic that is the carhartt hoodie.

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Hoodie, his nicest sweatpants, and some Gucci slides.

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Republicans couldnt even handle Obama in a tan suit.

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Considering it's Fox, what I think he's saying is, only male white republicans vote rationally based on policy and deserve the right to vote. Because see what happens when everyone gets to vote? A progressive wins.



And because he can't say that first bit out loud (has to leave that to tucker) and there's no way to phrase it differently without it still sounding like "it's bad that people who aren't exactly like me are allowed to vote," all he can do is say the good guy lost because the bad guy won. Lmao.



Maybe I'm way off, but I'm pretty sure that's how their audience interprets it anyway. Oz should have won, but because 'those people' are allowed to vote, he lost. It's not because he's a fucking dainty little rich idiot moron with cruel policies that only make sense if all you want to do is vote for the candidate who will do the most harm to the people you hate. It's because no-one is harming the people you hate enough.



Orrr it's just a brain fart, idk



Edited because I said the exact opposite of what I wanted to say, whoooops!



Edited at 2022-11-09 05:49 pm (UTC)

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Lmao this sounds like something Perd Hapley would say

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Philly showed up and showed out! I'm so proud of my honorary city!

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I'm just a naive European but I'm so sad about Texas damn. I thought what happened in Uvalde had a chance of swaying people to Beto

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Texas has crazy voting restrictions unfortunately.

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The fact that Uvalde county voted for Abbott over Beto by about 20% is just...bleak and honestly depressing.



But also that should be a warning shot to Dems that they can't take the Latine vote for granted, even the Mexican-American vote. If my extended family is any indication, they align more with Conservatives and they vote consistently with Republicans. For now, it remains true that Latines tend to vote more for Dems, but that is absolutely not a given. Dem candidates would do well to figure out how to message to working-class Latines. I see that as a true battleground and an opportunity within the next 3-5 cycles.

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The fact that Uvalde county voted for Abbott over Beto by about 20% is just...bleak and honestly depressing.





This is not surprising to me sadly. I follow some of the parents who lost kids at Ulvade and they have been victims of harassment and the usual "you're actors!" b.s.



IA with your assessment. I honestly can't believe it's 2022 and Democrats still treat Latinos as a monolith. I'm Canadian but my Mexican born dad is very, very socially conservative. However he is a reliable liberal voter because he knows the conservatives are racist. Not everyone feels that way.



Also there is a verrrrrry big push now in the alt-right to fold light-skinned young Latinos into the "white" fold and it's working for some of them unfortunately.

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Yup! I live in a very predominately Latino area. A lot of them grew up with the idea of the American dream, or been Americanized to the point that they forget (or stop paying attention) to the disparities other Latinos still face. Those that are now conservative have very much fallen for the pick yourself up by the bootstraps and figure it out yourself idea, so depressing tbh. Its going to be an interesting next few cycles to see how dems and republicans fight to sway those populations

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Take a drive outside of the main cities and you will see just how red this state is its heartbreaking

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lol yeah no Texans truly do not care about anyone but themselves.

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I actually was listening to nbc late last night and they were saying how young Latino voters are the ones who vote dem, however Abbott knew that and enforced a law where you cant vote if you have a temporary addressmeaning college students in dorms couldnt vote

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It's Texas. I always thought it was backawards af there

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when part of austin is in the same congressional district as a town 3 1/2 hours away there is no hope for defeating the gop.



the gerrymandering in the state is INSANE.

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texas is a huge victim of gerrymandering too

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milennials and zoomers will outnumber boomers but the DNC still refuses to actually target that voting bloc for whatever reason.



i'm still waiting for them to realize that they're old and their base is old so it's dwindling bc party leadership isn't setting anyone younger up to take over anything and all signs point to them all just wanting to die in office...it's just depressing

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get rid of Nancy and Feinstein oh my god. These old fucks are ruining the democratic party with their greed and being absolutely out of touch.

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feinstein's term isn't up for another 2 years when she'll literally be 90 and she filed last year(!) with the FEC to run again in 2024 for another fucking 6 year term.



they had to tell her twice that she was getting kicked off the judicial committee bc she forgot the first time schumer told her, her staffers do all her work for her bc she isn't aware of shit anymore. it isn't like california is ever at risk of electing a republican senator, just make her fucking retire

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I see so many people who are unwilling to give up any power even if it is better for the cause.

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This is my biggest problem with US politics, the Democrats are the only party I can vote for that will at least try to keep fascism at bay, but the DNC refuses to acknowledge the progressive younger base. Like, y'all, boomers are dying off and they've ruined everything for younger generations so why are we still capitulating to them?!



It's infuriating. Unless the entire system is overhauled (which it def needs bc winner takes all was decided when only white men could vote and the US population was in the thousands), there's just no winning with all these old farts running the DNC and trying to fucking kumbaya shit all the time with the GOP. Like, WHY?! The GOP has made it very clear they want to control everything and are unwilling to collaborate. That entire party has been taken over by extremist weirdos with brain worms, there's no rationalizing with them.



I'm technically a Xennial and have always identified as "liberal" but compared to most American liberals, I'm SUPER progressive. I've only moved further left after moving to Sweden. I vote with the Social Democrats here in Sweden but my only choice in the US are the fucking Democrats because our system does not allow for the survival of more than two parties. I would love to be able to vote for the DSA but it's so fruitless with our current system.

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Because until this election, they've never shown up in numbers before. It's not complicated, they focus resources on the group that shows up.



I remember since 2016 a few politicians kept claiming that they would deliver the youth vote but they never did. They'd get young people at their rallies but then they didn't show up to vote.



The abortion ruling is what's brought them out now. And Nancy Pelosi is why the GOP didn't gain 20 seats, the way the media said they would. I agree, Feinstein, Grassley and many other dinosaurs need to go, but it's on an individual basis, not just a forced retirement blanket deal.

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It's completely infuriating. I tutor high school students as a part-time job, and I have so many who are so politically active even if they aren't of voting age yet. They go to marches, they do letter-writing campaigns, and they are so much more informed than I was at their age. Some of my girls in Texas voted for the first time yesterday and then got together to have dinner and watch the results, which made me so happy to hear. It's such a missed opportunity.

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millennials ALREADY outnumber boomers, and while only older gen z can vote, they outnumber gen x. there really needs to be more younger voter outreach, and more young people running. its hard when personal wealth is becoming a bigger part of winning races, though.

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Probably because millennials and zoomers have no money to support the campaigns.

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My state sucks and I'm sorry y'all are gonna have to deal with DeSantis nationally now.





If Democrats had the night Republicans had last night after months of screaming "Blue Wave!" they'd be getting destroyed on the news but I doubt we'll be getting months of "Republicans need to do a soul search and drop the extremists" think pieces like we would if the results were reversed.

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I saw some of the soul-searching talk on MSNBC last night, but yeah overall it's probably not gonna last in the same way it would for huge Dem losses.



I do think some Reps now know that Trump is an anchor and not a buoy, and I think that will cause some fractioning in the Republican party.

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I want to see him and Trump fight in 2024. Let those trash bags further splinter the party

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lol no they immediately just start claiming the election was stolen, rigged, etc.

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I think your swing state status is officially dead. RIP.

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republicans really and truly thought their little red tsunami was actually real. and so did the majority of the pathetic political press. their complete meltdown is honestly one of the funniest things thats happened all year.

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That's what happens when the only people answering the phone when pollsters call are boomers

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Someone on twitter called the Red Wave a mid-cycle spotting

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This red wave is like my stress-suppressed periods - completely absent.

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Bless gen z who showed up in a big way!



I remember "the youths are going to save" us narrative has been around since I turned 18 which was 17 years ago. Millenials never showed up in mass numbers disappointingly. Gen z did.



Hopefully this makes politicians wake up and realize that the winning issues are abortion rights, gay rights, healthcare, drug legalization and student debt forgiveness.

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To be fair I think millenials did show up in droves to elect Obama, for whatever that's worth.



Edited at 2022-11-09 05:41 pm (UTC)

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they're definitely the reason why florida went blue in 2008 and 2012

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Yup as an elder millenial living in Florida at the time of both Obama elections boo at that person lol!

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counterpoint to that though is at least a third of millennials (depending on your metric for what age group counts) weren't even old enough to vote in 2008

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I'm so proud of Gen Z. I'm an X'er and we were both blocked from and abdicated power. I am doing what I can to support these upcoming leaders.



I just watched a video where the news dude was so surprised that abortion was in the top two voting motivators and kept saying it had never been that high before. Hmmm news dude, if only there was some event we could point to which may have changed people's priorities? What could it be??

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Where are the numbers of actual Gen Z voters that showed up? I have not seen any actual data, just people vaguely saying "young people showed up!"



Where sway?



"Millenials never showed up in mass numbers disappointingly."



That's also completely fucking false.



Edited at 2022-11-09 06:26 pm (UTC)

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Not sure where you're getting the "Millenials never showed up in mass numbers disappointingly" from? Or what occasion you are even referring to tbh. I see this kind of attitude a lot when trying to build up Gen Z about anything, its always followed with something negative about millennials lol it makes no sense



Edited at 2022-11-10 01:42 am (UTC)

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Was hoping that my home state would kick out Abbott's dumb ass, but that didn't happen.

I'm glad there wasn't a red wave like everyone was speculating there would be, but still too close to call. I honestly can't watch too much of the election coverage; I'm broken from 2020 and it's just too much sometimes. I voted and now all I can do is hope for the best.

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The municipal government of Shanghai on Tuesday released a new version of a regulation regarding the setting up of regional headquarters of multinational companies, optimization of accreditation standards and provision of more supportive measures.

According to the revised version, a multinational company's Shanghai operations can be defined as a business headquarters when it meets four requirements.

Firstly, it should account for a minimum 10 percent of the parent company's annual sales revenue from major businesses, while the parent company should be based in overseas markets.

Second, the overseas parent company's stake in the Shanghai operation, whether direct or indirect, should be no less than 50 percent.

Third, the Shanghai operation's annual income should be above 1 billion yuan ($138 million).

Last, the headquarters should have operated in Shanghai for more than one year.

The definition of a business headquarters was also clarified in the revised regulation for the first time. The regulation also stipulates that foreign investment firms are allowed to set up both regional functional headquarters or business headquarters in Shanghai.

The local government has also optimized policies to help multinational companies set up their regional headquarters in Shanghai. These policies are related to investment, cross-border capital use, customs clearance, talent recruitment and intellectual property rights protection.

Specifically, the municipal government has been exploring ways to provide cross-border capital pool services and is working on a new customs credit certification model that can be extensively applied to companies throughout the industrial chain.

This is the fifth time the municipal government has revised the policies regarding the setting up of regional headquarters of multinational companies.

By the end of September, a total of 877 multinational companies had set up their regional headquarters in Shanghai.
This feels very ad and I don't like it lol



that's not me knocking her, just whoever wrote this ad lol

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It's giving "water is the essence of wetness; wetness is the essence of beauty" lol

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Lmfao yes!

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she literally said powerfulness so you're not wrong

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I wonder what kind of messy behavior the previous Ambassador of Elegance was fired for.

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I really want to see her in a film by Jane campion or Kelly reichdart - Im looking forward to seeing what projects shes involved with next



Edited at 2022-11-09 06:56 pm (UTC)

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Omg I would kill to see her in a Reichardt movie! Her performance in Causeway is her best work since Winter's Bone imo.

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quiet powerfulness



lol

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She's so pretty.

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How are you going to claim elegance is an attitude while when the watch on your wrist could probably be someone's down-payment on a 2 bedroom home?



I can't with these people. She can't be that hard up for nappy money.

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Ikr. She better not test me with that relatable shtick anymore when she's selling luxury watches.

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you live somewhere where the equivalent of $3000 is a down payment on a 2 bedroom home? In 2022?



(I looked up the price of the watch)





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Heritage piece blah blah blah and not another word about it.

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wut

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I didn't realize until now how much she reminds me of Leelee Sobieski.

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lmfao Jen please



quiet powerfulness hahahahaha



they should've let her write the lines and make this funny or something, I just know she was dying inside while saying this crap ahahahahah

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i don't get why she gets these endorsement deals that don't really fit with her brand - she doesn't give swiss (longines) or french (dior) - she's so all american and would do much better with a ralph lauren or tommy or calvin tbh

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Longines is the sponsor of the Kentucky Derby so that's the connection I see here!

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Especially after that amazing Calvin Klein she wore to the Oscars years back.

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yeah ia with you - it's not that her being American means she can't do luxury endorsements, but her particular style/persona is something that'd be much more believable as the face of Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein than all these European brands.



The Row doesn't advertise or use celeb faces (understandable, given who their designers are) but current Jen would be perfect for them if they did.

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IA, I think she can definitely do luxury, but not something European. it's less her being american and more her LOOKING american (and she kinda embodies both the "I'm goofy and love playing football!" persona*and* i can believe her as a young bougie country club type lol) that makes her fit more with american brands, the way marion cotillard looks so french and is a perfect brand ambassador for dior. jlaw's beauty is very classic too she'd be a great face for the old established fashion houses here.



edit: also I've probably said this to you before but I love your username lol I am absolutely obsessed with wine gums 



Edited at 2022-11-10 01:23 pm (UTC)

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I'd sooner believe her as the face of The Cheesecake Factory.

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Well, elegance is an attitude I definitely haven't adopted the past few days, today my co-worker asked me if I'm wearing pajamas and my co-worker and shady ass friend replied with 'we all have laundry days, she's just having a laundry week' lol I look like a homeless person but Idgaf my only priority this week is COMFORT.

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thats rude. Being at work is already horrible why make an extra mean comment? Were all suffering here!!

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The woman who falls down a lot is the Ambassador of Elegance?



Also I don't understand luxury watches. I grew up in the pre-internet age but I haven't worn a watch in at least 10 years.

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I wear watches because I don't like frequently checking my phone for the time. But I don't think I've ever spent more than $40 on a watch, hah. Some of the Longines ones are pretty, and I understand the appeal of luxury watches, but is there any point besides the name recognition? Are they truly that much better made?

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If you care about the craftsmanship behind traditional watchmaking then yes they can be better made from that perspective compared to a Timex or fashion brand watch.



But practically? Luxury watches keep time no better if not worse (literally) than a $20 Casio, just like how a Chanel bag holds your stuff the same way a plastic bag would. Its just expensive jewelry lol

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I cant help but think of this when I see Ambassador of Elegance





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Korean shipbuilders managed to book 46% more orders for FSRU's so far, YoY. And the governments goal is for the country to grab 75% of the market share by 2030.

Demand for LNG floating storage and regasification units (LNG-FSRUs) has increased sharply this year, with Europe facing an energy supply squeeze as Russia has progressively cut pipeline gas flows. Demand for LNG imports has intensified after the ruptures on the key Nord Stream pipeline system quashed any prospect of Russia turning its gas taps back on. This has forced dozens of countries in Europe to turn to FSRUs or floating LNG terminals, which are essentially mobile terminals that unload the super-chilled fuel and pipe it into onshore networks.

Currently, there are 48 FSRUs in operation globally, with Rystad Energy revealing that all but six of them are locked into term charters.

According to energy think-tank Ember, the EU has lined up plans for as many as 19 new FSRU projects at an estimated cost of 9.5bn.

The biggest beneficiaries are Korean shipbuilding, for whom FSRUs are a major revenue-generator. Korea is the definitive world leader in this field. According to local media, Korean shipbuilders managed to book 46% more orders so far, YoY. And the governments goal is for the country to grab 75% of the market share by 2030.

The setup couldnt be better. With the supply of these vessels so tight, the cost of charters into Germany has doubled year-on-year to $200,000 a day.

Related: Oil Prices Are Primed To Spike This Winter



Last year there was a surplus of FSRUs and this year there is a deficit. Up until now there have been sufficient vessels in the market, but as most have now been taken, its becoming more challenging, Per Christian Fett, the global head of LNG at shipbrokers Fearnley LNG in Oslo, has told Bloomberg.

Texas-based Excelerate Energy Inc. is sending three FSRUs to Europe with a combined throughput capacity to import 15 billion cubic meters of gas, or about 10% of the pipeline and LNG imports from Russia in 2021. Demand for terminals in Europe is so strong that it could make it less affordable for emerging nations to use FSRUs for their own needs. The risk is real that underutilized facilities in other regions of the world could be relocated to Europe, existing charter terms permitting,Kaushal Ramesh, a senior analyst at consultant Rystad Energy, has said.

New Dutch terminal

The Netherlands has taken its first delivery of LNG at a new terminal, boosting Europes efforts to wean itself off Russian gas. Previously, the Netherlands could only import LNG through Rotterdam; however, that has changed with the commissioning of two FSRUs, the Golar Igloo and Eemshaven LNG, moored in Eemshaven. The FSRU project was completed in record time Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. With the pair of floating ships now supplying gas to the landlocked Czech Republic and Germany.

The arrival of the new LNG terminal is an important step not only for the Netherlands, but for the whole of Europe to completely phase out the dependence on energy from Russia as quickly as possible, Rob Jetten, Dutch minister for climate and energy, has declared. FRSUs offer the quickest and most efficient way for Europe to end its reliance on the pipelines that bring in large quantities of natural gas from Russia.

Europe has been working hard to wean itself off Russian energy commodities ever since the latter invaded Ukraine. The European Union has banned Russian coal and plans to block most Russian oil imports by the end of 2022 in a bid to deprive Moscow of an important source of revenue to wage its war in Ukraine.

But ditching Russian gas is proving to be more onerous than Europe would have hoped for. Whereas supplies of Russian pipeline gas--the bulk of Europes gas imports before the Ukraine war--are down to a trickle, Europe has been hungrily scooping up Russian LNG. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the blocs imports of Russian liquefied natural gas jumped by 41% Y/Y in the year through August.

Russian LNG has been the dark horse of the sanctions regime, Maria Shagina, research fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, has told WSJ. Importers of Russian LNG to Europe have argued that the shipments are not covered by current EU sanctions and that buying LNG from Russia and other suppliers has helped keep European energy prices in check.

Source: WSJ

LNG Deluge

Maybe Europes LNG imports from Russia can be justified on a purely economic basis.

Natural gas prices in Europe have plunged over the past few weeks with CNBC reporting that a Wave of LNG tankers is overwhelming Europe in an energy crisis and hitting natural gas prices. According to MarineTraffic via CNBC, 60 LNG tankers, or ~10% of the LNG vessels in the world, are currently sailing or anchored around Northwest Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Iberian Peninsula.

Its a fair bet that a good chunk of those vessels originated from the United States.

Europes natural gas demand has skyrocketed as the EU tries to lower its reliance on Russian natural gas following its invasion of Ukraine. Europe has displaced Asia as the top destination for the U.S. LNG, and now receives 65% of total exports. The EU has pledged to reduce its consumption of Russian natural gas by nearly two-thirds before the years end while Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have vowed to eliminate Russian gas imports outright. Unlike pipeline gas, supercooled LNG is much more flexible and can be shipped from far-flung regions, including the U.S. and Qatar.

Europe is not alone here. Shipping data has revealed that China has imported nearly 30% more gas from Russia so far this year, typically at a steep discount.

Thankfully, theres a clear upside to imports of Russian LNG to Europe: the continent has managed to fill its gas stores well ahead of schedule, with Reuters gas meter revealing that 95.3% of the EU gas storage is currently filled.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Flexible thermoelectric devices offer great opportunities for direct conversion of waste heat into electricity as well as solid-state refrigeration.

The novel process uses intense pulsed light to sinter thermoelectric material in less than a second (conventional sintering in thermal ovens can take hours).

University of Notre Dame aerospace and mechanical engineers have developed a machine-learning assisted superfast new way to create high-performance, energy-saving thermoelectric devices. Yanliang Zhang, associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and collaborators Alexander Dowling and Tengfei Luo have developed the high-performance, energy-saving thermoelectric devices.

The paper reporting the milestone has been published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

The novel process uses intense pulsed light to sinter thermoelectric material in less than a second (conventional sintering in thermal ovens can take hours). The team sped up this method of turning nanoparticle inks into flexible devices by using machine learning to determine the optimum conditions for the ultrafast but complex sintering process.

Flexible thermoelectric devices offer great opportunities for direct conversion of waste heat into electricity as well as solid-state refrigeration, Zhang said. They have additional benefits as power sources and cooling devices  they dont emit greenhouse gases, and they are durable and quiet since they dont have moving parts.

Despite their potential broad impact in energy and environmental sustainability, thermoelectric devices have not achieved large-scale application because of the lack of a method for fast and cost-effective automated manufacturing. Machine-learning-assisted ultrafast flash sintering now will make it possible to produce high-performance, eco-friendly devices much faster and at far lower cost.

Zhang offered, The results can be applied to powering everything from wearable personal devices, to sensors and electronics, to industry Internet of Things. The successful integration of photonic flash processing and machine learning can be generalized to highly scalable and low-cost manufacturing of a broad range of energy and electronic materials.

Related: Fire Erupts At Large Chevron Refinery In California

Zhang is principal investigator of the Advanced Manufacturing and Energy Lab at Notre Dame. Dowling, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Luo, the Dorini Family Professor for Energy Studies  both experts in machine learning  contributed to this research, along with doctoral student Mortaza Saeidi-Javash (now assistant professor at California State Long Beach), doctoral student Ke Wang and postdoctoral associate Minxiang Zeng (now assistant professor at Texas Tech University).

***

The hard data did make the abstract! The films also show excellent flexibility with 92% retention of the power factor (PF) after 103 bending cycles with a 5 mm bending radius. In addition, a wearable thermoelectric generator based on the flash-sintered films generates a very competitive power density of 0.5 mW cm2 at a temperature difference of 10 K.

Thats pretty good for a technology that hasnt been given a ton of research money. Flexible thermoelectric generation is really a pretty new field. Is it commercial? Well have to see if / when someone tries it. When it is tried lets hope its a resounding success and drives much more investment and progress,

By Brian Westenhaus via New Energy And Fuel

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
As climate change causes sea levels to rise to unprecedented levels, governments and citizens in vulnerable countries are looking at innovative ways to forecast, prevent, adapt to and insure against flooding.

Floods across West and Central Africa in the last two weeks have displaced more than 3.4m people, according to the UN Refugee Agency, punctuated by Nigerias worst floods in a decade, which have killed hundreds and affected 2.8m people.

Extreme flooding has killed more than 1300 people in Pakistan since June and is now threatening to trigger a food crisis.

Flooding is set to become more common going forwards. A UN report released last week found that the planet is on track to warm by between 2.1C and 2.9C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century despite government action to fight climate change.

Vulnerable coastal mega-cities

With the world unable to address climate change in the short to medium term, countries must urgently find solutions to mitigate the devastating effects of extreme flooding.

More than 1.8bn people  roughly 23% of the worlds population  are exposed to high flood risk. Over 1.2bn of these are located in South and East Asia, including 395m in China and 390m in India. Of the 170m people facing both high flood risk and extreme poverty, 44% reside in sub-Saharan Africa.

These large numbers reflect the concurrent rise of sea levels and urbanisation, which render those living in coastal mega-cities among the most vulnerable.

Traditional engineering solutions like flood walls and embankments help but can be insufficient if drains or floodplains are non-existent, ageing or blocked. In Nigeria, for example, government officials say structures built along drains have contributed to the severity of the flooding in Lagos.

One approach is so-called sponge cities, which seek to develop and work with nature to absorb, clean and use excess water during extreme floods. For instance, the Chinese port city of Ningbo transformed 3 km of previously developed land that had fallen into disuse into an eco-corridor and public park.

Creating more sustainable ecosystems further out to sea is another approach to weather the surge of water during heavy storms. Some Southern and East African nations are seeking to build a so-called Great Blue Wall to protect coastal and marine areas running from Somalia to South Africa in the Indian Ocean.

Forecasting technologies

Technology is playing a profound role in helping countries predict floods and forewarn residents of danger.

With 20% of the country estimated to be at risk for flooding, Malaysia has become a global leader in deploying forecasting and monitoring technologies.

By the end of 2022 Malaysias Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) will roll out its National Flood Forecasting and Warning System, which was developed with UK engineering consultancy company HR Wallingford.

The system collects data from 700 observation gauges spread throughout the country  often placed in challenging terrain  to create simulations and models that can better prepare residents and officials.

Drones are increasingly being employed to record precise image data that planners can use to prevent and forecast floods and assess damage afterwards.

The Malaysian Space Agency uses drones and two satellites  with a third planned to be launched in 2025  to identify areas that are prone to flooding before the rainy season starts. The agencys integrated disaster-management system and the satellite image-based information and logistics system known as eBanjir directly assist DID in its flood management initiatives.

Brazil is similarly leveraging data through its Waterproofing Data mobile phone app, developed locally in March 2022 in collaboration with researchers from Germany and the UK.

Related: Big Oil Is Not Dancing To Government Tunes. Period.

The app allows community members to become citizen scientists by recording rainfall and flood impact assessments that can be used to plan for or prevent serious flooding. The app is currently in use across 20 municipalities, and the research team behind the platform is seeking to deploy it in other countries around the world.

The use of higher-quality and larger volumes of data means that artificial intelligence can help forecast when floods might occur, enabling the construction of more targeted flood-resistant infrastructure. For instance, researchers at Stanford University in the US are using machine learning to track atmospheric patterns and predict when precipitation will trigger flooding.

Flood-proof food

In addition to uprooting people, flooding imperils food security in the short term by destroying infrastructure, cropland and livestock, and damaging water resources and sanitation in the months that follow.

To counter this, planting more resilient crops could help smallholder farmers who have lost an estimated $21bn in agricultural products and livestock to flooding over the past decade, second only to droughts.

Researchers are using genetic tools to breed the gene responsible for flood tolerance called Sub1. Use of the resulting flood-resistant rice, which yielded 60% more rice than standard varieties in a controlled experiment, could go a long way towards reducing the 4m tonnes of rice that are lost to floods each year.

Over the past decade, farmers in the Philippines have widely adopted Submarino rice, a strand that does not die when it is submerged under water for up to 14 days.

Other subsistence farmers are turning to an old practice of using floating farms to secure their crop yields amidst rising sea levels.

More than 6000 farmers in the deltas of south-western Bangladesh  which are already underwater for eight to 10 months of the year, up from five months a year roughly 200 years ago  are using the practice to grow fruits and vegetables on rafts made from invasive hyacinths.

Farmers in Mexico also revived the use of chinampas (farm islands)  long, narrow strips of land over shallow lakes near Mexico City that are anchored to the lake floor with a native willow tree  to meet agricultural demand when traditional markets closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Developed by the Aztecs more than 700 years ago, chinampas are highly fertile growing fields that accommodate a range of production, from fruits and vegetables to eggs and honey. They have the added benefit of meeting their water needs directly from the lakes themselves.

By Oxford Business Group

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
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.

An investigation by RFE/RL has revealed that the Mohajer-6 contains components produced by companies in the U.S. and EU.

Irans mass-produced Mohajer-6 combat drones have become a point of controversy after being found on battlefields in Ukraine.

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."

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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.

"This module transmits information from the board to the missile head. That is, guidance for the missile. With the help of this module, it was possible to guide the missile to the target," a Ukrainian military intelligence representative told Schemes.

AMD did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

'No Authorization'

Previous media reports about the components of the Mohajer-6 drone, including by CNN, have shown evidence that its engine was produced by the Austrian manufacturer BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG, whose parent company is the Quebec-based Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP).

The Canadian company responded to the reports on October 21, saying in a statement that it "has not authorized and has not given any authorization to its distributors to supply military UAV manufacturers in Iran or Russia."

"As soon as we were made aware of this situation, we started an investigation to determine the source of the engines," BRP said. .

But Schemes reporters found that the authorized Rotax distributor listed on the Austrian manufacturer's website advertised itself as a Rotax aircraft engines distributor for Iran as recently as December 2020.

The distributor, the Italian company Luciano Sorlini S.p.a., has posted multiple magazine advertisements on its websites in which it describes itself as a Rotax distributor for numerous countries. Prior to January 2021, Iran was listed among these countries.

The Rotax website also lists a Tehran-based company -- MahtaWing -- as an official service center for its engines. The company, known in Persian as Mahtabal, conducts repairs of Rotax engines, including the Rotax 912 iS, the engine that was found in the Mohajer-6 combat drone recovered in Ukraine.

BRP said in an e-mailed statement on November 4 that while Luciano Sorlini S.p.a. is the appointed distributor of Rotax aircraft engines in Iran, "since 2019, no Rotax engines have been sold in Iran, and we will not sell any engines to Iran moving forward."

The Canadian company said it had "internal controls" that "significantly" restrict the sale of its products for military purposes.

"For example, the sale of any BRP product to operators with any military activity in Iran, Turkey, and Russia is strictly prohibited," BRP said. "We conduct our business in compliance with all EU, Canadian, and U.S. applicable regulations."

BRP described the Iranian company MahtaWing as a "local service center" that "offers maintenance services for previously sold aircraft engines."

By RFE/RL

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The leaders of several developing countries accused the oil industry and wealthy economies of driving climate change and demanded that they pay for the resultant damage.

"The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost 3 billion United States dollars daily in profits," said the prime minister of Antigua at COP27, as quoted by Reuters.

"It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding for loss and damage," Gaston Browne said. "While they are profiting, the planet is burning."

Another island nation leader, Vanuatu president Nikenike Vurobaravu, called on the International Court of Justice to make sure all nations commit to tackling climate change in order to ensure the rights of future generations were not violated.

The president of Senegal, meanwhile, called for more financial aid from wealthy countries for African states suffering from the effects of a changing climate and warned against calls for a shift away from fossil fuels.

"Let's be clear, we are in favor of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. But we Africans cannot accept that our vital interests be ignored," Macky Sall said.

So far, the focus of COP27 seems to be on how developing nations will be compensated for floods and droughts attributed to climate change.

"We will not give up... the alternative consigns us to a watery grave," the prime minister of the Bahamas said, as quoted by the BBC.

I'm not here to ask any of you to love the people of my country with the same passion as I do," Philip Davies also said, adding "I'm asking what is it worth to you to have millions of climate refugees to turn into tens of millions, putting pressure on political and economic systems around the world."

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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A fire broke out at Chevrons El Segundo refinery in California on Tuesday evening, with no injuries reported and no immediately clear indication as to the cause of the incident.

At around 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, El Segundo Fire Department responded to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo Refinery, the city of El Segundo said. El Segundo and Manhattan Beach Fire Departments remained on scene alongside the Chevron Fire Department. After some two hours, the fire was extinguished, and There was no offsite impact or public threat, the city of El Segundo said.

The El Segundo Refinery, capable of processing 290,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), supplies 20 percent of all motor vehicle fuels and 40 percent of the jet fuel consumed in Southern California, Chevron says.

The fire at the Chevron facility came after many of Californias refineries were partially down in October due to planned maintenance work. Last month, due to the planned overhauls at units, Californias gasoline prices spiked. Some parts of California saw gasoline prices surge to $8 per gallon as supply declined amid still robust demand, San Francisco Chronicle reported.

As of November 9, the average gasoline price across California is $5.453 per gallon, compared to a national average of $3.805/gal, according to AAA data. A month ago, at the height of the refinery outages, the average gasoline price in the state of California was $6.335/gallon.

Californias Governor Gavin Newsom said last month he would call a special legislative session in December to discuss high gasoline prices and a proposal to slap a windfall tax on oil firms profits.

Were not going to stand by while greedy oil companies fleece Californians. Instead, Im calling for a windfall tax to ensure excess oil profits go back to help millions of Californians who are getting ripped off, Governor Newsom said at the end of September.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin began his unprovoked special military operation against Ukraine, one of the most striking emerging aspects of the conflict has been the Ukrainian Armed Forces surprising and increasingly effective denial of Russian naval efforts to establish command of the sea in the Black Sea. On April 13, the Ukrainians, with an unexpected anti-ship missile attack, sank the Black Sea Fleets (BSF) flagship, the Soviet-era Slava-class Moskva guided missile cruiser. In its most impressive operation yet, on October 29, the Ukrainian military launched a coordinated swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and naval drones into Sevastopol, headquarters of the BSF for over two centuries. While the apparent level of damage was slight, the technological prowess of the attack on the highly symbolic target led Russia to assert that the Ukrainian military had received foreign assistance before and during the operation.



The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) briefed journalists that the attack occurred at 4:20 a.m. on the morning of October 29, when nine UAVs and seven unmanned robotic naval drones traveled 100 miles from their Ochakiv launch point, near Odesa, to Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014. The MoD asserted, As a result of the operational measures taken by the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, all air targets were destroyed. Four marine drones were destroyed by BSF weaponry and aviation, while the remaining three were destroyed in the ports roadstead. The MoD stated that only the Ivan Golubets minesweeper and the boom-mesh barrier in the South Bay experienced minor damage (TASS, October 29).

The implications of this attack reverberated throughout the war zone. In response, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said, Tonight, the most massive attack in the history of the SVO [special military operation] by UAVs and remote-controlled surface vehicles on the waters of Sevastopol Bay was undertaken (TASS, October 29). Razvozhaev added, The enemy tried to strike at the military infrastructure of the Black Sea Fleet. All unmanned vehicles were detected and destroyed in advance. According to the Russian governor, Sevastopols BSF air defenses engaged the UAVs for several hours (T.me/razvozhaev, October 29). The assault proved to be a major embarrassment for the Russian Navy, as the BSFs new flagship, the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate Admiral Makarov, was reportedly damaged and possibly disabled during the audacious drone raidthe consequences of which were as determinedly downplayed in the Russian media as much as they were highlighted in the Ukrainian information sphere (Novoye vremya, October 30)

In an explosive assertion, the MoD subsequently claimed that British specialists were directly involved in the Sevastopol attack. In a statement posted on October 29 on its Telegram account. the ministry declared, It should be stressed that the ships of the Black Sea Fleet that were subjected to the terrorist attack are involved in ensuring the security of the grain corridor as part of the international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports. The preparation of this terrorist act and the training of the military personnel of the Ukrainian 73rd Special Centre for Maritime Operations were carried out under the guidance of British specialists located in the city of Ochakiv in Ukraines Mykolaiv region (T.me/mod_russia, October 29).

The raid swiftly produced consequences; on October 31, the Russian government announced that it was suspending its participation in the United Nationsbrokered arrangement that allowed civilian merchants to export Ukrainian grain and fertilizer from several of Kyivs Black Sea ports, which were earlier under blockade by the Russian Navy. This came after the MoD reported that the drones had initially used the maritime grain corridor security zone before changing course toward Sevastopol (Izvestiya, November 1). As merchants nevertheless continued their participation in the transit of grain through the designated corridor, Russia rejoined the initiative two days later.

Related: Fire Erupts At Large Chevron Refinery In California

In the wake of the attack, the Russian military also quickly began to intensify its missile attacks on Ukraines aging and increasingly decrepit Soviet-era energy infrastructure, which quickly disabled up to a third of the countrys electricity generation capacity and began causing rolling blackouts (Tvzvezda.ru, October 31).

The Black Sea is proving to be a tactical and technological arena that is upsetting long-standing regional strategic assumptions, starting with Russias presumed prowess and naval superiority over Ukraine. The Moskvas loss was the first time Russia had lost a flagship since the disastrous 1905 Tsushima battle during the Russo-Japanese War and the Russian Navys largest warship sunk in combat since 1945. Ukraines innovative tactics reaffirmed that, since the 1982 Falklands conflict three decades ago, the ongoing and increasing combat value of sea-skimming missiles should not be disregarded. Russias entire BSF now appears vulnerable to remote warfare, as Ukrainian forces have demonstrated their ability to mount effective long-distance strikes as far as Crimea. Other strikes of this nature include strikes on the Kerch Bridge connecting the peninsula with Russia, on Crimeas Saky airfield and, two months ago, on the BSFs headquarters building in Sevastopol.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to liberate Crimea, together with all of the occupied southern and eastern territories of Ukraine, ambitious goals that were earlier derided by many in the international community. Now, in the wake of recent events, these fears seem marginally less implausible. What is certain, however, is that for Ukrainian civilians suffering intermittent reliability in the supply of water, electricity and gas, they are likely to suffer mot as the Russian military increasingly focuses on softer civilian infrastructure targets.

By the Jamestown Foundation

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When Russia held large-scale military exercises in Belarus in February, the two countries described them as defensive in nature, aimed at repelling outside aggression, namely from Ukraine and NATO.

But as the exercises wound down, many of the 30,000 Russian troops stationed in Belarus then poured over the border of Ukraine as part of President Vladimir Putin's invasion, now in its eighth month.

New satellite imagery obtained by RFE/RL's Belarus Service shows thousands of Russian troops may have returned to Belarus, raising questions about whether another incursion into Ukraine from the north is imminent -- or if Moscow, with the help of Minsk, is merely trying to distract Kyiv.

The Russians "don't have enough combat power to launch an offensive [from Belarus], and there are no vital Ukrainian points nearby," said Mark Cancian, a military analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Russian forces have suffered significant losses in manpower and equipment since September, when Ukraine launched a counteroffensive that continues in the Donbas in the east and Kherson in the south.

"The Russians probably want to distract Ukrainians and pull some of their forces away from Kherson and the Donbas," Cancian told RFE/RL.

Tent Encampments

Satellite imagery captured by the commercial company Planet Lab on October 31 and obtained by RFE/RL shows Russia has set up more than 300 tents in three locations over the past month to temporarily house soldiers at three training grounds in Belarus.

They included at least 190 tents at Abuz-Lyasnouski in western Belarus where ground forces train, 35 in Repishcha in central Belarus where artillery forces exercise, and 80 in Lasvida outside Minsk where airborne forces train.

Abuz-Lyasnouski is the southernmost of the locations, located about 160 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.

Hundreds of pieces of military hardware, including trucks and some howitzers, have arrived at the bases as well, according to the images.

Most of the tents appear to be 12 meters by 7 meters in size, which Dara Massicot, a military analyst at the Washington-based RAND Corp., estimated could comfortably hold up to 25 soldiers each.

That would imply a maximum of 7,500 troops could be stationed at those three locations.

It is unclear if more will tents be erected and how many Russian soldiers are being housed in pre-existing buildings and structures near the training grounds.

There's been no public explanation from Russia as to the purpose of the camps nor the number of troops it plans to station in Belarus.

In Belarus, meanwhile, strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka announced on October 10 that Russian troops would be deploying to Belarus, but he maintained it was for defensive purposes, asserting-- without evidence -- that Ukraine was planning an attack.

Days later, Lukashenka's defense minister said a total of 9,000 troops would be deployed along with Belarusian forces near the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian intelligence has claimed Russia plans to send up to 20,000 troops to Belarus, a force large enough to attempt an invasion.

Ukraine said they would be housed not just at bases but also civilian locations including warehouses, hangars, and abandoned agricultural farms. That would make it hard to determine the number of Russian troops in Belarus based on satellite imagery alone.

The deployment of Russian troops to Belarus may be an attempt by Minsk and Moscow to draw Ukrainian forces away from their counteroffensive in the east and south, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

They are trying "to pin Ukrainian troops against the northern border," the Washington research organization said in a November 2 note.

The institute said it was "highly unlikely" Belarusian forces would take part in the war, noting it would strain the nation's limited military resources and undermine Lukashenka's hold on power in Belarus, which he has ruled for nearly 30 years.

Training, Not Deployment?

Analysts said there was another explanation for the appearance of the encampments in Belarus: Russia may be seeking to use them for training purposes because it doesn't have enough capacity inside Russia.

"It's plausible to believe that Russia needs the training areas," Cancian said. "Mobilizing 300,000 reservists doubles the size of the army, [and] it's not equipped to handle an expansion of that size."

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The Belarusian announcement of joint troop deployment came less than a month after the Kremlin ordered a major mobilization of military reserves aimed at bolstering Russian troop levels in Ukraine. Putin said on November 4 that Russia had called up 318,000 troops in all.

Mykhaylo Zhirokhov, a Ukrainian military expert, said Russia had sold off much of its land used as training grounds following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Even as its armed forces underwent a major modernization over the past 15 years, Russia had not invested in updating its recruitment and mobilization infrastructure, analysts said.

The lack of investment has showed up in the often chaotic and haphazard nature of the mobilization since September 21 -- something that has been closely documented by Russian media.

Zhirokhov said it was possible Russia could order its troops into Belarus to invade Ukraine once their training finishes in the spring.

If so, some experts said, their fate could be far worse than the first wave of Russian soldiers who invaded from Belarus, who suffered heavy losses before retreating at the end of March.

That's because Ukrainian forces are now better trained and more experienced, having fought months of grueling battles across the country. Ukrainian forces also now have powerful Western weaponry in their arsenals.

By RFE/RL

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U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has confirmed that communication channels between the United States and Russia remain open despite the war in Ukraine, the BBC reports.



Sullivan, speaking in New York on November 7, said it was "in the interests" of Washington to maintain contact with the Kremlin.

Sullivan's comments came after a report in The Wall Street Journal on November 6 that he had held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials in the hope of reducing the risk the Russian invasion of Ukraine spills over or escalates into a nuclear conflict.

A previous media report, in The Washington Post, said Washington was privately encouraging Ukraine to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia, as the State Department said Moscow was escalating the war and did not seriously wish to engage in peace talks.

The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, said the request by U.S. officials was not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, but a calculated attempt to ensure Kyiv maintains the support of other countries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on November 7 that he was open to talks with Russia, but only "genuine" negotiations that would restore Ukraine's borders, grant it compensation for Russian attacks, and punish those responsible for war crimes.

Zelenskiy signed a decree on October 4 formally declaring the prospect of any Ukrainian talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin "impossible" but leaving the door open to talks with Russia.

Sullivan told a public event in New York that the Biden administration had "an obligation to pursue accountability" and pledged to work with international partners to "hold the perpetrators of grave and grotesque war crimes in Ukraine responsible for what they have done."

Sullivan did not elaborate on the communication channels that Washington and Moscow maintained, but insisted that U.S. officials were "clear-eyed about who we are dealing with," the BBC reported.

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Sullivan travelled to Kyiv on November 4 and pledged Washington's "unwavering and unflinching" support for Ukraine.

His unannounced visit coincided with an announcement the same day by the U.S. Defense Department of another shipment of weapons to Ukraine worth $400 million.

"I was just in Kyiv on Friday and I had the opportunity to meet with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy and my counterpart Andriy Yermak, with the military leadership and also to get a briefing on just what level of death and devastation has been erupted by Putin's war on that country," Sullivan was quoted by the BBC as saying on November 7.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the U.S. media reports.

"I've seen those reportings. So, you know -- and, look, people claim a lot of things about conversations that we -- that the United States has or doesn't have," Jean-Pierre told a news briefing on November 7. "I don't have any specific conversations to read out to you."

The secretary of Ukraine's Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said on November 8 that the "main condition" for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Danilov said on Twitter that Ukraine also needed the "guarantee" of modern air defenses, aircraft, tanks, and long-range missiles.

According to the report in The Wall Street Journal, Sullivan held confidential conversations in recent months with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev that were not disclosed publicly.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on November 7 that while Russia remained "open" to talks, it was unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to its refusal to hold talks with Russia.

By RFE/RL

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L'Oreal is hosting the first-ever North Asia Beauty Industry Innovation Summit focusing on the future of beauty empowered by technology and innovation through co-creation in China, Japan, and South Korea.



"The North Asia region represents more than one-third of the world's total beauty market," said Fabrice Megarbane, president of L'Oreal North Asia and CEO of L'Oreal China, at the event. "It has a unique ecosystem of what we call the 'beauty triangle' of C-beauty, J-beauty, and K-beauty. There are many factors of cultural relevance, as well as commonalities, in the beauty needs of those in the region, while each market brings unique strengths. This dynamic is what makes the North Asia region special, not only as a growth engine but also inspiration for technological advancement and innovation. The purpose of this event is to bring together the different wisdom in the region and accelerate technology and innovation through co-creation."



"At L'Oreal, our sense of purpose is to create beauty that moves the world. We believe that together with our partners and stakeholders, we can co-create the future of beauty with game-changing technologies and innovation that truly inspire our consumers in North Asia and beyond," added Megarbane.

The summit took place during the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai and was attended by key stakeholders from different industries and markets. Speakers included experts from beauty, green science, AI and digital and medical sectors, as well as institutions such as Business France and Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. During the Summit, L'Oreal decoded the latest consumer trends in the "beauty triangle" around four key themes, including "self-expressive beauty," "supercharged efficacy," "skinification," and "sensorial matters." The company also illustrated key innovation breakthroughs that echoed these trends, such as 3CE's New Color Effects, Lancome's Dual LED Youth Treatment, YSL's Touche Eclat Glow-Pact, Prada's Paradoxe Fragrance, and Shu Cleansing Oil's "Shu Purifying Ritual."

Speaking about how the brand is leveraging the best science and technology to bring breakthrough innovations, Maxime De Boni, vice president of L'Oreal Research & Innovation (R&I) North Asia and China, said: "We have an open R&I strategy that anchors on co-creation. Internally, we maximize the synergies across our three R&I centers in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul in North Asia. Externally, we partner and collaborate with some of the most innovative start-ups, fast and agile suppliers, and renowned academics and institutions in the region for innovation. This summit is about our belief in the power of co-creation and commitment to lead in this direction."

The summit also featured a panel discussion including leading experts across beauty, AI and digital, and R&D specialties from China, Japan, and South Korea. A recent example of cross-industry co-creation was showcased when L'Oreal Japan partnered with Morishita Jintan to develop its first capsule made of plant-derived active cosmetic ingredients through cutting-edge "active delivery capsule" technology.

As the largest fast-moving consumer goods exhibitor for five consecutive years and the rotating chairman of the CIIE Enterprise Alliance for the third year, L'Oreal unveiled its latest beauty tech innovations at its main booth under the theme "Co-Create the Future of Beauty." Three state-of-the-art beauty tech products  YSL SCENT-SATION, the first in-store fragrance finder based on neuroscience; Lancome Absolue Dual-LED Youth Treatment, a device that provides an enhanced skin care experience enabled by eight patented technologies; and Colorsonic, a hair dye magic wand marketed as being able to solve any at-home hair coloring disaster  made their Asia debut at the expo, showing Chinese consumers the beauty of tomorrow. Lancome Skin Screen, an AI-enabled personalized skin diagnostic service, was also presented for the first time at the expo.

In addition to the four new beauty techs, L'Oreal has also displayed a record-high number of 225 exhibits at the CIIE, including a new brand, new experience, and many new products. The group also brings its latest investments, including DOCUMENTS, a Chinese high-end fragrance brand, invested by Meicifang, L'Oreal's first investment company in China, and YOUTH BANG, a new program to empower young entrepreneurs to co-create the future of beauty, to the expo. It will also hold a series of events celebrating the 25th anniversary of L'Oreal's entering the Chinese mainland market.



L'Oreal, the world's largest beauty company, entered the Chinese mainland in 1997. L'Oreal China is headquartered in Shanghai and has five offices across the country. L'Oreal China currently has 31 brands and one R&I center in China, as well as two factories in Suzhou and Yichang, with more than 14,000 employees. After 25 years of growth, China has become its second-largest market, making the country a leader in the North Asia "beauty triangle" and one of three beauty tech hubs worldwide. To drive more synergy within the region, L'Oreal established the North Asia Zone in 2021, covering five markets, including the Chinese mainland and regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, and its vision is to strategize, create, and activate the powerful "beauty triangle" ecosystem for sustainable growth.

"L'Oreal is the witness, participant, and beneficiary of China's opening-up process in the past quarter of the century. Now we are full of confidence in China's economy and market, in China's commitment to expanding opening up and sharing opportunities, and in L'Oreal's development prospects in China," Megarbane said, marking the anniversary. "L'Oreal keeps pursuing its beauty dream by offering diversified products and services to satisfy people's beauty aspirations in China. At L'Oreal, we believe no matter who we are or where we are, beauty is essential."
The EU has agreed in principle to enact stronger emission reduction targets as the 27 member states look to slash carbon emissions in road and domestic maritime transport, buildings, agriculture, waste, and small industries.

Those sectors are not covered by the current EU Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS), the EU noted in a press release announcing the provisional political agreement.

Under the agreement, the EU-level of greenhouse gas emission reduction target will be a 40% cut in emissions in those sectors by 2030 compared to 2005.

The agreement keeps the increased national targets assigned to each member state as proposed by the Commission and adjusts the way member states can use existing flexibilities to meet their targets, the EU said.

These sectors, directly linked to our everyday lives, generate about 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. I am glad that we managed to reach a swift agreement on this proposal just in time for COP 27, said Marian Jure?ka, the minister of environment of the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

This will allow the EU to show to the world that it seriously intends to reduce emissions in line with its commitments under the Paris Agreement of keeping global warming within safe levels, Jure?ka added.

The provisional agreement, reached by the Council and the European Parliament, needs to be formally adopted by the Council and the Parliament to become law.

The stricter national targets would nevertheless ensure fair contribution from member states, with richer countries such as Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, and Denmark now having to cut their emissions by 50% by 2030.

The enhanced emission reduction targets are part of the so-called Fit for 55 plan of the EU, which aims to reduce total EU emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and make the bloc climate neutral by 2050.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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Conservative Republicans captured three of the four seats up for election on the Nebraska State Board of Education Tuesday, ousting an incumbent and handing a major defeat to the Nebraska state teachers union that had endorsed the losing candidates.

The one bright spot for the union was in Douglas County, where incumbent Democrat Deborah Neary overcame a hail of conservative criticism for her behind-the-scenes advocacy of proposed health-education standards for Nebraska schools.

Neary, who was backed by the Nebraska State Education Association and by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska, fended off a challenge from Republican Marni Hodgen in a close race for the District 8 seat.

Neary had just over 51% of the votes  about a 2,000-vote lead, in unofficial results posted Wednesday.

Neary said she's honored by the expression of confidence from the voters in District 8 and grateful to the family, friends and supporters who contributed time and effort to the campaign.

"I believe ensuring all children access to quality education is key to a successful and prosperous future for our communities and our state, and I look forward to continuing this important work," Neary said.

The election brings to an end a contentious campaign for control of the board  a battle marked by disagreements on social and cultural issues in the public schools and by likely record campaign spending.

The outcome gives conservatives a stronger voice on the eight-member board, making it harder for the board to resurrect the controversial proposed health-education standards that were indefinitely postponed in September 2021. But the conservatives won't have enough votes by themselves to outright block an effort to bring them back.

In addition, conservatives will have greater input in the crucial decision of picking a replacement for Nebraska Commissioner of Education Matt Blomstedt, who is resigning Jan. 3.

Republicans Kirk Penner of Aurora, Sherry Jones of Grand Island and Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte each won four-year terms. Penner, appointed last December by Gov. Pete Ricketts, was running to keep his District 5 seat.

Ricketts had supported all four Republicans.

Tegtmeier defeated incumbent Republican Robin Stevens of Gothenburg in District 7, which encompasses generally the western half of the state.

Tegtmeier, who won with more than 70% of the vote, said her campaign reflected "the values and the will" of voters in the district.

"I think nationwide we are seeing parents demanding an active voice in their children's education and looking for candidates who will represent them on these boards," she said.

For many years, she said, the state board has operated in relative obscurity, and the last two years, starting with the pandemic, have really brought education to the forefront.

She said the board's emphasis on "social equity" doesn't align with the will of Nebraskans, who want an emphasis on achievement.

"Nebraskans want to see our children achieve academically so they can compete not just with Iowa or Kansas but on a worldwide scale," she said.

Conservatives had criticized Stevens for not fighting hard enough to derail the proposed health-education standards. Stevens claimed it was his leadership that got the standards postponed last year, but he took heat for not voting for a Penner motion to permanently scrap them earlier this year.

Stevens, a former school superintendent, had little to say on Tuesday's outcome.

"In my opinion, the people have spoken," he said. "And I wish Elizabeth the very best. Our kids depend on her."

The four board races were fueled by disagreements over what and when kids should be taught about sexuality and race, what books belong in school libraries, equity versus equality and the proper boundaries of the boards authority.

The conservatives campaigned on a back to basics platform, emphasizing local control of schools and the importance of academic achievement. They called for keeping sexually explicit materials out of the classroom, and empowering parents to have a greater say in whats taught.

To some degree, they continued the wave of parental discontent that stretched back into the fights over school closures and masking during the pandemic.

Progressives had painted the conservatives as anti-LGBTQ, racist, book-banning extremists out to destroy the public school system.

They attacked the four Republican challengers for their endorsement by Protect Nebraska Children PAC, the political arm of a new political group that sprouted from the fight over health-education standards in 2021.

Progressives accused the PNC of being a "hate group" because the founders received some advice and technical assistance from a national group dubbed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. PNC leaders maintained the "hate-group" label was a political smear and that their goal was to get political ideology of all kinds out of the classroom.

Sue Greenwald, a leader and co-founder of the PNC Coalition, said three seats are "a win," though they hoped for four.

"We're very pleased that we got three very well-qualified candidates on the state school board, and there is no question that they are going to add a level of seriousness and oversight that has been missing," Greenwald said. "And things are not going to be happening in the dark anymore."

She said the coalition leaders were political "newbies" who had no idea what they were doing or the adversity they would face jumping into state politics, including being targeted by national and local efforts to "cancel" them.

Under the scrutiny, she said, the group had to stick to "provable facts" in their campaigning and try to keep their heads up.

"Our candidates were very brave," she said.

The historically sedate state board elections overflowed with a torrent of political sludge. Angry tweeters and bloggers hurled mud with abandon, while urgent issues like academic achievement and a state teacher shortage were often overshadowed by personal insults and accusations.

Neary overcame criticism that she overstepped her bounds as a policymaker and behaved behind the scenes as an advocate to influence the creation of the controversial health-education standards.

While her behind-the-scenes efforts upset conservatives, it won her support from advocates of LGBTQ families.

Neary argued that the standards  which initially proposed teaching elementary school students about gender identity and sexual orientation  were an opportunity to teach dignity and respect for all, to reduce teen pregnancies and address sexually transmitted diseases.

Tegtmeier said critics drew some incorrect conclusions from conservative opposition to the standards.

"A lot of assumptions were made when candidates were opposed to sex-ed being taught in elementary classes, and they were not always the correct assumptions, that we were anti-LGBTQ, that we didn't care if they were safe," she said. "That's not it at all. It's always been the age-appropriateness of sex-ed and the privilege of the parents to teach those concepts during their children's formative years."

She said it was a false argument that children needed to be taught sexual concepts so kids could be kind to one another.

Jones, a former educator who captured 66% of the vote to Danielle Helzer's 34%, said she was successful because her values and beliefs aligned closely with the people of District 6.

Residents were concerned about the proposed health-education standards and the teacher shortage and about retaining local control of schools, she said.

Jones said her faith played a part in her success.

"First and foremost, I must give credit to the Lord, who was the best campaign manager ever," she said. "He did an awesome job providing for me and directing my steps over the past 18 months. And I owe an immeasurable amount to those who came alongside me during this campaign journey. It was truly a grassroots effort of moms and pops and everyday citizens."

Penner defeated independent Helen Raikes of Ashland, a retired professor of education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who had described herself as politically moderate. He had 55% of the vote.

Raikes husband, Ron, served in the Legislature from 1997 to 2009, including eight years as chair of the Education Committee. He died in a farming accident in 2009.

Penner campaigned against comprehensive sexuality education and critical race theory, saying public schools should educate not indoctrinate.

He brought attention to explicit materials in school libraries by reading passages from them aloud during a meeting  a move that prompted progressives to label him a book-banner.
In the race for Douglas County sheriff that pitted two veteran Omaha police officers against each other, Aaron Hanson, the Republican candidate, had a strong lead Wednesday morning that is likely insurmountable.

As of the 12:20 a.m. release, Hanson led Democrat Greg Gonzalez by 3,674 votes. Votes yet to be counted included early ballots dropped off on Election Day, plus provisional ballots, but it's unclear how many of those there are. Based on the numbers from the early ballots already counted, Hanson's lead would prove difficult to overcome.

Hanson took 50.8% of the votes counted so far while Gonzalez had 48.7%. About 87% of the estimated 204,000 votes cast had been counted.

Hanson would be the first, newly elected candidate in an office that had been held by the same person for 26 years.

Hanson, 48, is a sergeant in the Omaha Police Department's fugitive unit who has been with the agency for 26 years. Gonzalez, 51, retired in January after nearly 27 years with OPD, the last nine as deputy chief.

The race was extremely contentious, with both sides launching attack ads and pointing to previous incidents in the other's law enforcement career. It continued to heat up as Election Day grew nearer.

Hanson and his supporters, including former longtime Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning, questioned Gonzalez's sudden departure from OPD, his sharing of emails and a criminal FBI investigation from more than 15 years ago.

Gonzalez pointed to an instance when Hanson used force against a handcuffed teen in 2017 that critics and the OPD safety review board had said was excessive.

On the issues, both said their priorities were public safety and deputy retention and growth, but they had various ideas about tackling those problems.

Hanson had publicly announced his intention to run for sheriff in July 2021, before any other candidate. Soon after that news, he shared a trifecta of splashy endorsements from Gov. Pete Ricketts, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine and Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer.

Hanson had the power of Republican endorsements and donations across the state. One group that didn't endorse was the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 2, the union that represents about 120 Douglas County deputies with the rank of lieutenant and lower. The group had endorsed both Hanson and Gonzalez for the primaries and stayed with that approach for the general election.

This year, Hanson collected more than $176,000 for his campaign, compared to Gonzalez's $150,000. Hanson had additional help from Ricketts' political action committee. Nebraska Future Action Fund, the new PAC primarily funded by Ricketts, spent about $11,500 to support Hanson and roughly $150,000 to oppose Gonzalez in the month leading up to the election.

Hanson had handily defeated Republican challenger George Merithew, a retired OPD lieutenant, in the May primary. Gonzalez beat Democratic challenger Wayne Hudson, the current Douglas County chief deputy sheriff, by about 2,400 votes.

Hudson had said in a video in early October that he wanted people to write his name in on the ballot. But according to Nebraska law, a candidate who has been defeated in the primary election is not an eligible write-in candidate. Hudson later said he wasn't trying to garner votes.

Sheriff Tom Wheeler, who was appointed in 2021 to finish Dunning's term, chose not to make an endorsement and said he will retire when his term ends.
U.S. Rep. Don Bacon surged ahead of challenger Tony Vargas late Tuesday night as the 2nd District race for Congress was once again proving a nail-biter.

As of 10:45 p.m., Republican Bacon led Democrat Vargas by 1,300 votes out of more than 168,000 cast. Those results erased a lead Vargas had from the time the polls closed at 8 p.m. and the first results began rolling in.

As it has many times, the Omaha-based district once again proved one of the nations biggest congressional battlegrounds, a swing district where Democrats and Republicans tend to battle on near-equal footing.

Most of the ballots counted in the earliest returns were early-voting ballots cast in Douglas County, which were expected to skew Democratic. Bacon did much better with voters who went to the polls Tuesday.

By 9:50 as more votes were counted, Vargas lead was down to just 20 votes out of nearly 148,000 cast.

Then the next batch of Douglas County results came in at 10:45, the scales tipped to Bacon.

It was unclear how many ballots remained to be counted. Bacon, first elected in 2016, is seeking a fourth term in Washington.

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Flood was re-elected in Nebraska's 1st Congressional District Tuesday.

Much like in the 2nd, Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln had led Flood in early returns that were heavily dominated by her home county of Lancaster.

But as the results came in from more rural parts of the district  including Flood's home city of Norfolk  he surged to the front by 9:45 p.m. He had cruised to a comfortable margin by 11 p.m., leading by more than 20,000 votes.

Flood beat Pansing Brooks in a special election in June that pitted fellow members of the Nebraska Legislature.

The election was held after long-time GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry resigned his seat. Fortenberry had been convicted of three felonies related to a federal investigation of in the wake of a criminal conviction.

******

Kirk Penner, Gov. Pete Ricketts' appointee to the Nebraska State Board of Education, was locked in a tight race for his seat, while embattled Democrat Deborah Neary seemed to be fending off a challenge to her re-election bid.

After a contentious election marked by bitter fights over social and cultural issues in the public schools, voters appeared to be delivering mixed results Tuesday night.

Thousands of votes had yet to be counted, particularly in central and western Nebraska.

Two of the four conservatives backed by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts  Republicans Sherry Jones of Grand Island and Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte  were ahead by wide margins over Democrat Danielle Helzer of Grand Island and incumbent Republican Robin Stevens of Gothenburg.

Jones was pulling about 65% of the vote, and Tegtmeier over 70%.

Penner, a Republican Aurora businessman appointed by Ricketts last December, moved slightly ahead of retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln education professor Helen Raikes after trailing her in earlier returns.

Raikes, a registered independent, held a similar lead in the primary before Penner went ahead with a late surge.

Penner campaigned against comprehensive sexuality education and critical race theory.

Neary was holding her own in District 8 in Douglas County despite criticism for her handling of proposed health-education standards. Critics had accused her of meddling in the standards-writing process to produce progressive standards, but she maintained she did nothing wrong.

Neary had about 53% of the vote against Republican Marni Hodgen.

* * * * * *

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Flood appeared headed to re-election in Nebraska's 1st Congressional District Tuesday, while the Omaha-based 2nd District remained too close to call.

In the 1st District, Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln had led Flood in early returns that were heavily dominated by her home county of Lancaster. But as the results came in from more rural parts of the district  including Flood's home city of Norfolk  he surged to the front by 9:45 p.m. and was expected to increase his margins.

The crowd erupted in cheers at Lincoln Station in Lincoln at 8 p.m. as the earliest poll results showed Pansing Brooks well out in front. However, two-thirds of the early votes counted in the district came from Lancaster. By 9:20 p.m., the vote count showed them virtually tied.

Flood beat Pansing Brooks in a special election in June that pitted fellow members of the Nebraska Legislature.

The election was held after long-time GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry resigned his seat. Fortenberry had been convicted of three felonies related to a federal investigation of in the wake of a criminal conviction.

In the Omaha-based 2nd District, Democratic challenger Tony Vargas was leading GOP incumbent Don Bacon by just 20 votes at 9:50 p.m. in a race that was expected to last into the night. Most of ballots counted in the earliest returns were early-voting ballots cast in Douglas County, which were expected to skew Democratic. Bacon did much better with voters who went to the polls Tuesday.

Bacon was first elected in 2016. Vargas is a current state senator.

In western and central Nebraskas 3rd District, Republican Adrian Smith was not seriously challenged. He was first elected in 2006.

* * * * *

Two separate ballot measures to implement photo ID for voting in future elections and gradually raise the minimum wage appeared headed to victory Tuesday night.

Initiative 433 will annually increase the states minimum up to $15 per hour by 2026 and provide cost of living increases starting in 2027. Initiative 432 will implement a photo ID requirement for voters to vote in future elections.

The minimum wage was polling at well over 60% support an hour and a half after polls had closed Tuesday night.

The voter ID measure was at well over 50% and climbing as more results came in from rural parts of the state. The measure was losing badly in Lancaster County and barely prevailing in Douglas County.

The minimum wage increase got off to a strong start, garnering about 70% support in the earliest returns. Campaign manager Kate Wolfe said she was encouraged, believing the issue resonates with Nebraskans.

As Nebraskans, we are people who care deeply about the wellbeing of our neighbors, friends and family. That often translates in these ballot initiatives where the citizens get to participate in probably the closest action of direct democracy as we have, she said.

Leading up to the election, supporters argued that raising wages would be a boon to the states economy. Joey Adler Ruane, policy director at Open Sky Institute, previously said the initiative would be enough to lift more than 10,000 Nebraskans out of poverty.

Critics, which include Gov. Pete Ricketts, have contended the measure would, among other things, have hurt small businesses by adding costs. Ricketts has argued the market should determine wages, not the government.

In 2014 Nebraska voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of raising the minimum wage from the federal minimum rate of $7.25 per hour. The minimum wage has been $9 per hour since 2016.

After trailing in early results, Initiative 432 took a solid lead at more than 10 percentage points close to 9 p.m. The initiative will have put Nebraska among a majority of states to require people to present photo ID to vote in future elections, joining a majority of states in implementing some version of photo ID.

Were thrilled to see the results of tonight, said State Sen. Julie Slama, who led the petition drive to get the initiative on the ballot. Its no surprise to me that Nebraska voters have overwhelmingly decided to support a commonsense election security measure.

Now that the initiative appeared headed toward passing, it will be up to the Nebraska Legislature to approve implementation language during the next legislative session. Slama said she is looking forward to leading that effort.

* * * *

Jim Pillen of Columbus was elected Nebraskas 41st governor Tuesday, preserving the Republican Partys two-decade-plus hold on the states top office.

Pillen, owner of a large hog operation in northeast Nebraska and a member of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, had a lead of nearly 5 percentage points over Democrat Carol Blood of Bellevue as of 9 p.m.

Early returns that had heavily skewed to Democratic-leaning Douglas and Lancaster counties had Blood well out in front. But as results came in from across the state, Pillen raced to the front, a lead that he was not expected to give up.

Pillen was generally favored to win in the GOP-leaning state. Republicans have recently had a stranglehold on the Nebraska governors office, with a Democrat last elected to the office in 1994.

Blood had spoken optimistically before the first returns came out, saying she felt her team had run a good campaign.

Were definitely a grassroots campaign  we didnt just say it, we did it," Blood said. "Weve been working hard with grit and determination.

The results showing Pillen way down didn't shake those who were at his election-night party in Lincoln. Joe Kelly, Pillens running mate, took the stage shortly afterwards to begin a series of speeches supporting Pillen.

Mike Moser, a state senator from Columbus, said he expected Pillen to prevail. He said some of Pillens pillar campaign platforms of conservative values and business strategies resonated with Nebraska voters.

Nebraska will make the right decision, Moser said.

Republicans were also expected to claim all the other state constitutional offices, with Democrats fielding no candidates in the races: Mike Hilgers for Attorney General, Mike Foley for State Auditor, Bob Evnen for Secretary of State and John Murante for State Treasurer. Evnen and Murante are both incumbents seeking re-election.

One other competitive race that did not appear too early to call was the race for Douglas County Attorney. The blue wave of early voting for Democrats in Douglas County didnt take one candidate along for the ride.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, who switched to the Republican Party after the state Democratic Party accused him of "perpetuating white supremacy" in a charging decision, was beating his Democratic challenger Dave Pantos 54% to 46% in the first results. Every other Democrat in Douglas County was beating their challenger in early voting counts.
The staff of the Douglas County Attorneys Office spent Tuesday morning awaiting a verdict in the most serious case the office handles: the first-degree murder trial of a gang member suspected in three killings.

They spent Tuesday evening awaiting a verdict from an entirely different set of jurors: Douglas County voters.

Both verdicts were decisive. About 11:15 a.m., deputy Douglas County attorneys Ann Miller and Rob MacTaggart secured a first-degree murder conviction of a notorious Omaha gang member, Bernard BJ Turner, in the 2013 cold-case execution of his best friend, one of three killings he was suspected in.

Eleven hours later, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine won his fifth term in the office. After late results, Kleine was up by more than 20,000 votes, holding a 16 percentage point lead over political insider Dave Pantos, who threw his hat into the ring after running the ultimately unsuccessful campaigns of congressional candidate Kara Eastman and mayoral candidate RJ Neary.

Pantos was the only Democrat to lose the first round of early voting in Douglas County, and the margin only grew as the night went on.

With the result, the Nebraska Democratic Party handed their highest-profile elected office (of late) to the state's Republican Party. Kleine, a longtime Democrat before switching parties in 2020, said the result was a repudiation of the Nebraska Democratic Partys name-calling of him over his charging decision in the case of a White bar owner, Jake Gardner, who shot a Black man, James Scurlock during protests in downtown Omaha in 2020.

"Obviously, I am very happy," Kleine said Tuesday. "The voters of Douglas County are smart. They didn't buy into that kind of nonsense. They know how hard we have worked in that office for years. They know that (party) affiliation doesnt matter when you work hard to keep people safe.

"Its very pleasing after going through what I went through from (State Democratic Party chairwoman) Jane Kleeb and her crew. Very satisfying."

The Gardner case prompted activists to protest outside Kleine's house and the Nebraska Democratic Party to pass a resolution that said his decision "perpetuated white supremacy."

Kleine initially ruled the case self-defense after video showed Scurlock jump on Gardners back and grab Gardner around the neck or upper chest. Gardner yelled several times for Scurlock to get off him. Scurlocks supporters said he was trying to disarm an active shooter; Gardners defenders said he shot in self-defense.

After outcry over the decision, Kleine relented and petitioned a judge to appoint a special prosecutor and grand jury to review the case. The grand jury charged Gardner with manslaughter and three other felonies. He killed himself before he could be brought to trial.

The state party passed the resolution without inviting Kleine or his supporters to respond. Lincoln attorney Vince Powers, a former Democratic Party leader, called the resolution the most mean-spirited and divisive one he had seen the party make.

Until 2020, Kleine had been courted to run for state or higher office by prominent Democrats. In the wake of the resolution, he announced he was switching to the Republican Party. He also rankled some by saying he had voted for then-President Donald Trump, calling him a law-and-order guy.

Now, hes among a sea of state Republicans; and a rare Republican who even dominated in Douglas County.

Pantos had run on a platform of criminal justice reform, blistering Kleine for leading opposition to a bipartisan bill to reduce prison overcrowding.

He also tried to cast Kleine as a MAGA Republican and extremist. Kleine called that "nonsense," arguing that Tuesday night's results show that "I have always had bipartisan support."

Pantos, an attorney for 26 years, had been forced out of the last law firm he ran, Legal Aid of Nebraska, after he had an affair with, and promoted, a woman to a directors position. In the eight years since, Pantos did not appear in county or district court for any criminal proceeding, other than an occasional infraction-level offense. He said he didnt need such experience to run a County Attorneys Office, likening the role to that of a hospital president who doesnt have to be a surgeon.

Kleine emphasized his experience in the courtroom. A prosecutor for 35 of his 45 years as an attorney, Kleine said he has handled between 100 and 150 trials.
An effort to increase the existing restaurant tax in La Vista failed at the polls Tuesday.

The initiative would have had the restaurant tax go from 1.5% to 2.5%.

As of Wednesday afternoon, about 67% of the votes on the matter were against the increase. La Vista Mayor Doug Kindig said he thought the contest would be closer, but he said he wasnt surprised at the result.

I think our citizens gave us very good direction without much misinterpretation, he said. We will follow what theyve told us.

The citys existing restaurant tax was established in 2019. At the time, officials expected it to generate $700,000 a year.

A state statute capped the income from the tax at $700,000. But the amount that came in from the tax was exceeding the limit, with $765,323 collected in 2020 and $993,675 collected in 2021. That led city officials to ask the public to vote on increasing the cap.

Kindig said officials are reviewing the statute and considering a number of questions, including whether the tax needs to be lowered, and if so, to what level and by what date.

The 1.5% restaurant tax will remain in place for now. Nothing is changing as of today, Kindig said.

Both Omaha and Ralston have a 2.5% restaurant tax. Omahas restaurant tax was implemented in 2010. In its first full year, it brought in nearly $24 million.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, in a 2023 budget presentation earlier this year, expected the citys restaurant tax to bring in $39.8 million, nearly 11% more than this year.

Ralstons restaurant tax was implemented in 2015.

Funds from La Vistas restaurant tax go toward paying for operations, Kindig said. Had the tax been increased, revenue generated would have gone toward hiring and paying additional personnel.

Two private development projects  redevelopment of 84th Street and the Nebraska MultiSport Complex are underway in the city, with completion expected next year, Kindig said. Both projects would require additional personnel such as maintenance staff and police officers.
LINCOLN  As the vote counting continued Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, the balance of power in the Nebraska Legislature tipped further in favor of the Republican Party, with conservative lawmakers appearing to secure a filibuster-proof majority.

The latest results Wednesday morning appeared to support looming legislative efforts to restrict abortion access, allow permitless concealed carry and promote private school scholarships with tax dollars  three priorities that previously fell short in the face of filibusters.

Meanwhile, all incumbent senators won their races, including two senators who had been appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts this year and were making their electoral debuts. And two former senators reclaimed their old seats in the Legislature.

The election also saw a number of women elected. Nine women appear to have won their races, which will bring the total number of women in the Legislature to 18.

The Nebraska Legislature is nonpartisan, meaning that candidates appear on the ballot without a party designation and lawmakers serve without regard to party membership. In addition, political parties are not part of the legislative structure.

However, some votes tend to split along party lines, particularly when bills involve issues with clear partisan differences. Of the 49 current senators, 32 are registered Republicans and 17 are Democrats. It takes 33 votes to end a filibuster.

The 25 seats that were up for election this year include 18 held by Republicans and seven by Democrats. Sixteen of the total were not expected to change, including three uncontested seats and seven in which both candidates were of the same party.

The remaining nine races featured a Republican facing a Democrat or, in one case, a nonpartisan candidate. Eight were in the Omaha area:

District 4. Brad von Gillern, a Republican and construction executive, appeared to be on track to beat Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek, a nonpartisan and business owner. If his margin holds, von Gillern will replace State Sen. Robert Hilkemann, a Republican who is term-limited.

District 6. Incumbent Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, an outspoken Democrat, prevailed against her opponent, Christian Mirch, a former Douglas County Republican Party chairman. She won, although Republican leaders saw her as vulnerable and targeted her for defeat.

District 10. Incumbent Sen. Wendy DeBoer, a Democrat and educator, defeated former Omaha Public Schools board member Lou Ann Goding, a Republican. DeBoer prevailed despite being named as a target by the state GOP.

District 12. Former Sen. Merv Riepe, a Republican, reclaimed his legislative seat by beating Robin Richards, a Democrat. Riepe served one term in the Legislature but was defeated for reelection by his predecessor, Sen. Steve Lathrop. Four years later, Lathrop, a Democrat, opted against seeking reelection.

District 18. Christy Armendariz, a Republican and strategic sourcing specialist, defeated Michael Young, a Democrat and business owner. Young had won the primary in a tight three-way race. Incumbent Sen. Brett Lindstrom, a Republican, is term-limited.

District 20. Stu Dornan, a Republican attorney, surpassed John Fredrickson, a mental health professional and Democrat who had maintained a lead through much of the evening Tuesday. Dornan held a lead just under a percentage point Wednesday morning. The winner will claim the seat held by Sen. John McCollister, a term-limited Republican who was unafraid to break with his party on high-profile issues, including abortion.

District 31. Sen. Kathleen Kauth, a Republican appointed by the governor in June, defeated Tim Royers, a Democrat and teacher. The seat became open with the death of Sen. Rich Pahls, a Republican. The two had to petition their way onto the general election ballot because the vacancy occurred after the deadline to file for the primary.

District 38. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue, a Republican, won against Angie Lauritsen of Gretna, a Democrat. The district was located in central Nebraska before redistricting. It is represented by Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg, a Republican who is term-limited.

Three other metro-area races were won by incumbents, Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha in District 8, Sen. John Arch of La Vista in District 14 and Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair in District 16.

In Lincoln races:

District 26. George Dungan, a Democrat and a Lancaster County public defender, reversed the primary results to take a lead against Russ Barger, a Republican attorney. The incumbent is Sen. Matt Hansen, a Democrat who is term-limited.

Jane Raybould, a Democrat, defeated Roy Christensen, a Republican, in District 28, while former Sen. Danielle Conrad reclaimed her legislative seat by beating James Michael Bowers, a fellow Democrat, in District 46.
Two separate ballot measures, one to implement photo ID for voting in future elections and another to gradually raise the minimum wage in Nebraska, were headed to victory Tuesday night.

Voters were on track to approve Initiative 433, which will annually increase the states minimum up to $15 per hour by 2026, and Initiative 432, which will require voter ID.

Support for increasing the minimum wage was strong Tuesday night, having garnered more than 60% approval as of 10 p.m.

Raise the Wage Nebraska campaign manager Kate Wolfe said she was encouraged by the results.

Wolfe said she believes the minimum wage issue resonates with Nebraskans. In 2014 the state's voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of raising the minimum wage from the federal minimum rate of $7.25 per hour. The minimum wage has been $9 per hour since 2016.

As Nebraskans, we are people who care deeply about the well-being of our neighbors, friends and family. That often translates in these ballot initiatives where the citizens get to participate in probably the closest action of direct democracy as we have, she said.

One voter, Norah Morris, said Tuesday she was motivated to vote in favor of raising the minimum wage.

I think thats important, she said.

Leading up to the election, supporters argued that raising wages would be a boon to the states economy. Joey Adler Ruane, policy director at Open Sky Institute, previously said the initiative would be enough to lift more than 10,000 Nebraskans out of poverty.

Wolfe cited research from the National Employment Law Project stating that 75% of the Nebraska workers who would benefit from the wage increases are over 20 years old, and a majority of them are women.

Critics, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, contended the measure would, among other things, hurt small businesses. Ricketts has argued the market should determine wages, not the government.

Initiative 433 will annually increase the states minimum up to $15 per hour by 2026 and provide cost of living increases starting in 2027.

Nebraska voters also signaled strong support for enacting voter ID. After trailing in early results, Initiative 432 jumped to a sizeable lead, with more than 60% of the vote supporting the measure as of 10 p.m. The initiative will put Nebraska among a majority of states to require people to present photo ID to vote in future elections.

Were thrilled to see the results of tonight, said State Sen. Julie Slama, who led the petition effort to get the initiative on the ballot. Its no surprise to me that Nebraska voters have overwhelmingly decided to support a commonsense election security measure.

Critics argued the measure was unnecessary and sought to address a nonexistent problem. They also said the photo requirement would make it more difficult for some groups to vote.

In a statement, Civic Nebraska, which opposed Initiative 432, said efforts to show Nebraskans the consequences of the initiative "did not overcome the persistence of The Big Lie and repeated assaults on the reputation of our elections."

"Nebraskans should expect the same politicians who spent so much time and money to sell this vague bill of goods to now work to impose one of the most restrictive voter ID mandates in the country," the organization said.

It will be up to the Nebraska Legislature to approve implementation language during the next legislative session. Slama said she is looking forward to leading that effort.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who supported the initiative, previously acknowledged that Nebraska has not had a problem with voter fraud generally, let alone any cases of people trying to impersonate others to vote  the type of fraud that voter ID would prevent.

The voter ID initiative was a source of motivation for several voters who spoke with The World-Herald Tuesday.

Amanda Frampton, 35, voted in favor of Initiative 432 Tuesday.

You should have a photo ID to vote, she said.

On the other side, Don and Janet Busenbark, who are in their 50s, took the opposite stance. Both said the current registration and voting system is working.

It just doesnt seem like theres a record of fraud to justify the expense, Janet Busenbark said.

Voters also overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution that will allow local governments with airports more financial leeway to attract or retain commercial passenger airlines.
The Omaha City Council moved forward on the first of several significant public park projects Tuesday with approved funding to resurface a rubber playground at Clarkson Park.

The $124,800 unanimously approved by council members Tuesday for the park just north of 42nd and Dodge Streets is a drop in the $10 million bucket of federal COVID-19 relief funding designated to improve the citys parks and public spaces.

All nine planned park projects and three public spaces are in motion in some form or fashion, said Matt Kalcevich, city parks director.

Were on the clock to complete these projects by the end of 2025, Kalcevich said. We know that sounds like a long time, but these projects are getting layered in on top of everything Parks and Rec already had planned.

The $10 million comes out of $112 million the City of Omaha received through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Congress passed the $1.9 trillion act in March 2021 with the goal of counteracting the economic damage caused by COVID-19. The package included $350 billion for eligible state, local, territorial and tribal governments.

Jurisdictions, like Omaha, that accepted the money have until 2026 to spend it and are required to regularly report their spending to the Treasury Department. Jurisdictions that fail to spend the money according to the guidelines must return those dollars to the federal government.

A survey completed in 2021 identified improvements to public spaces as a top preference for the federal funds, according to the Mayors Office.

Kalcevich described the impact of the projects as transformative.

Some of these have a dollar (amount) attached to them that I would put them in the transformative category as far as the existence of the park and what were trying to establish for a long time to come, Kalcevich said.

In coming months, contracts for the eight other park improvements will go to the City Council for approval.
As China's Tiangong space station recently completed its in-orbit assembly, the country's space medicine experts have started planning to set up a "space hospital" to serve astronauts, according to a leading scientist.

"We are carrying out extensive research, experiments and tests on the ground to advance the preliminary work on a space hospital that can be deployed inside a manned spacecraft like our space station. The value of this project is that it will enable our space explorers to travel deeper and stay healthy during their journey," Du Jichen, a member of the Paris-based International Academy of Astronautics and president of the Aerospace Center Hospital in Beijing, said on Monday in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

"The research, design and construction of such a space-based clinic will also help to lead and foster the development of our country's medical technology and hardware, thus boosting the entire medical and healthcare sectors," Du said.

Chinese space medicine experts have been discussing a sustainable approach to keep astronauts fit and treat possible health conditions in lengthy spaceflights, he said.

"A mainstream idea is that we can place a small 'medical complex' inside the space station or other spacecraft that can meet the basic needs of diagnosis and treatment," the scientist said.

Du said that upon the deployment of the medical facility, astronauts will be able to use self-examination instruments to make a diagnosis if they do not feel well, and then can take timely medical measures.

Currently, medical support for astronauts mostly relies on doctors on the ground.

The biggest challenge in this program is that engineers must figure out how to pack medical devices into a very limited space, Du said, adding that they need to upgrade current technologies and use interdisciplinary collaboration to achieve this goal.

Du was speaking to China Daily after the Aerospace Medicine and Human Health Conference in Zhuhai, which was organized by the Aerospace Medicine Professional Committee under the China Medicine Education Association.

Participants in the conference shared their views and visions about medical support during manned spaceflights and the transfer of technology to public healthcare.

Starting from the Shenzhou XIII mission launched in October 2021, each Chinese spaceflight crew would stay on board the country's Tiangong space station for six months.

Medical scientists and engineers have conducted a great deal of research to prepare Chinese astronauts for the missions, Du said.

They have been focused on the impact on astronauts' health during long-term space missions, as well as investigating how the special environment inside the space station, especially its weightlessness, will affect astronauts' health, particularly their cerebral functions.

Studies have shown that mid- or long-term stays in space mainly affect the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Extended missions also impact the immune, circulatory, respiratory and urinary systems, he said.
Two teenage boys were shot Wednesday morning near 19th and Douglas Streets in downtown Omaha.

Police and medics were called to the Tower Park garage at 170 S. 18th Plaza shortly before 8:35 a.m. to investigate a report of a shooting, according to Douglas County 911. In its report later Wednesday, the Omaha Police Department listed the address as 1705 Douglas St.

When officers arrived, they found Latrell Benson, 15, and Bryan Saunsoci-Thompson, 14, with gunshot wounds. Omaha Fire Department medics took the two to the Nebraska Medical Center for treatment. OPD said the boys' injuries weren't life-threatening.

According to a 911 dispatcher, the 14-year-old had a gunshot wound to his calf.

Officers determined that a Black male with short, wavy hair, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 120 pounds and wearing all black clothing approached the two boys and three others in the parking garage. He fired multiple rounds at the group and left the area, police said.

The principal at Omaha Central High School, which is at 20th and Dodge Streets, close to where the shooting occurred, sent a message to Central staff and families Wednesday. Principal Dionne Kirksey noted the school was placed in secure status around 8:35 a.m. by law enforcement due to police activity in the neighborhood.

During secure, Kirksey wrote, all exterior doors are locked, and no one is allowed in or out of the building as classes continue as normal inside.

Law enforcement partners gave us the all-clear after approximately one hour and 20 minutes.

Kirksey asked that people who had questions or concerns call the school.

Anyone with information about the shooting may contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP or at www.p3tips.com or by downloading the p3tips mobile app. Callers can remain anonymous and are eligible for a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to a shooting arrest.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  Delaware Democrats solidified their hold on state government Tuesday, winning all statewide races and picking up another seat in the state Senate.

Democrats went into the election already in control of both chambers of the General Assembly, the governors office, and all other statewide elective offices.

In the attorney generals race, incumbent Democrat Kathleen Jennings defeated Republican challenger Julianne Murray to win a second four-year term as the states top law enforcement officer. Murray, a Georgetown lawyer, was making her second bid for public office, having lost the 2020 governors race to incumbent Gov. John Carney.

Although she lost the election, Murray recently bested Jennings in an election-related lawsuit when Delawares Supreme Court ruled that a new vote-by-mail law passed by Democrats this year violates the state constitution. The court also struck down a new same-day registration law that had been passed by Democrats.

The auditors race featured two political newcomers, with Democrat Lydia York defeating Republican Janice Lorrah. York, an attorney with an accounting background, won a Democratic primary in September against incumbent Kathy McGuiness.

York easily beat McGuiness in the primary. McGuiness was convicted in July on misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest and official misconduct related to the hiring of her daughter as a part-time employee in the auditors office.

Lorrah, who has a law degree, sued Gov. Carney in February after he extended a school mask mandate that had been imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Shortly after the start of a court hearing to determine whether a judge should issue a preliminary injunction, state officials announced that mask requirements would be terminated.

The other statewide race saw first-term incumbent treasurer Colleen Davis win re-election by defeating Republican challenger Greg Coverdale. Coverdale is a financial planner and former state school board member who lost a bid for a state House seat in 2014.

In other races, all 62 legislative seats, 21 in the Senate and 41 in the House, were on the ballot. Six Senate Democrats and six House Democrats were guaranteed re-election, however, because they had no opponents. On the Republican side, four incumbent senators and eight House members had no challengers.

In two closely watched state Senate races in New Castle County, Democratic incumbents Laura Sturgeon and Spiros Mantzavinos beat back Republican challengers after some late heavy spending on their re-election contests. Sturgeon reported spending just under $84,000 in a three-week period ending Nov. 1. Her Republican opponent, attorney Ted Kittila, spent just under $12,000. Mantzavinos reported spending more than $50,600, compared to about $15,200 spent by GOP opponent Sherm Porter.

Democrats also picked up a Senate seat in Sussex County that was left vacant by a GOP lawmakers retirement, and maintaining their hold on an open seat in central Delaware. That gives them a 15-6 advantage in the chamber. Democrats, who went into the election with a 26-15 advantage in the House, lost an open House seat in New Castle County but picked up a vacant seat in Sussex that had been held by Republicans. Meanwhile, a razor-thin lead by incumbent Republican Michael Ramone over Democratic challenger Frank Burns in the 21 District in New Castle County made that race too early to call and could lead to a recount.
LINCOLN  Its official: Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse will be the next president of the University of Florida.

Floridas Board of Governors confirmed Sasse as president-elect Wednesday morning, with just one vote in dissent. The decision finalizes an at times tumultuous process that began after Sasse was named the schools sole presidential finalist about a month ago. It also quashes any uncertainty in Nebraska about the looming need to fill a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Once Sasse resigns, that responsibility will fall to Nebraskas governor. The current governor, Pete Ricketts, confirmed Wednesday that Sasses resignation will not come until January, meaning the decision to appoint his replacement will fall to Jim Pillen, who decisively won Tuesdays race for governor.

Florida is gaining an excellent leader and a brilliant mind, Ricketts said Wednesday.

Since Sasses selection as the sole finalist, many have speculated that Ricketts would end up being appointed to the seat. The governor was one of Pillens most prominent supporters, especially during the GOP primary, where Pillen faced an arguably tougher fight than in the general election.

Asked about the appointment during his victory party Tuesday night, Pillen refused to identify any potential candidates.

Well wait until the time comes, Pillen said.

Whoever Pillen appoints will have to stand for election in 2024 to serve out the remaining two years of Sasses current six-year term in the Senate.

Per his employment agreement, Sasses term as president will last until 2028, with a base salary of $1 million per year. This is $140,000 higher than the base salary current university president Kent Fuchs started with in 2014.

University students immediately protested Sasses candidacy after he was announced as the sole finalist, mainly calling out the GOP senators former statements against same-sex marriage, while also criticizing his lack of experience in higher education. The schools Faculty Senate overwhelmingly approved a vote of no confidence in the process that led to Sasses selection.

Despite this, last week the University of Florida Board of Trustees unanimously voted to recommend Sasse as the next president. The universitys student body president, Lauren Lemasters, faces an impeachment effort for being part of that unanimous vote, according to reporting by The Alligator, the independent student newspaper at the University of Florida.

Dr. Sasse is exactly the right leader, right now, for the University of Florida, University of Florida Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini said Wednesday.

The Board of Governors vote was the final hurdle for Sasse to clear. Though most board members were supportive of Sasses candidacy, several asked how he planned to unite the university in light of the controversy.

Sasse reiterated his message that he believes humans were created with immeasurable dignity, and that he will strive to make the university a place where people can be free to debate opposing viewpoints.

I hope to be on a team of people ... that want the University of Florida to be a place that challenges students with new ideas, even if theyre uncomfortable, Sasse said.

Sasse also repeated a promise to meet with an LGBTQ+ rights group at the university, and his pledge of political celibacy once his term begins.

Board member Alan Levine spoke out against much of the criticism Sasse received, arguing it was unfair for him to be questioned on his political beliefs when previous presidential candidates did not face the same questioning. Another board member, Ed Haddock, praised Sasse for leaving a position where he can hold contentious views in favor of a position where Haddock said his success will depend on his ability to bring people together.

That, to me, says a lot about your intentions, Haddock said.
BLOOMINGTON  Democrat Sharon Chung will be downstate Illinois' first Asian American representative in the General Assembly, after her win over Republican Scott Preston in the race for the 91st House District.

According to unofficial election results, Chung, of Bloomington, won the district with 17,754 votes over Prestons 16,316 votes in Tuesday's midterm election.

Im still trying to take it all in, Chung said from a watch party hosted by the McLean County Democrats at the Holiday Inn in Normal. I am really, gosh, so excited, so grateful.  Its really a huge honor.

The race for the newly-drawn 91st District was expected to be close, though candidates and those familiar with the race said the district appeared to have been drawn for a Democrat.

After the 2020 remapping process, the district now includes parts of McLean, Woodford, Tazewell and Peoria counties, stretching from Bloomington-Normal to Bartonville, just south of Peoria.

The district extends along Interstate 74 and includes farmland and rural communities as well as the more suburban-type areas of the Twin Cities and East Peoria.

As the numbers rolled, the race remained close all of Tuesday night, and Chung noted she expected that since the district was drawn to be a little bit more competitive for a Democrat but not overwhelmingly so."

Before the election, Chung, an adjunct professor at Millikin University and a professional classical musician and instructor, said her priorities as a state representative would include supporting efforts to provide relief for working middle class families and standing up for marginalized communities.

In talking to voters here over the past six months, people are just really ready to have a Democrat representing them in Springfield, Chung said Tuesday, noting it has been more than 40 years since a Democrat has been elected to represent Bloomington-Normal in the General Assembly.

Chung, who has served on the McLean County Board since 2018, was one of at least 22 Asian American candidates on Illinois midterm ballots. She said with her election, she will be the first Korean American elected to the General Assembly and the first Asian American elected from outside the Chicago area to the General Assembly.

I am so thankful for everyone who believed in me and came out to vote. It really does mean a lot, she said.

Chung said she commended Preston on a really hard fought race, calling him a tough opponent.

Preston, a Normal Town Council member and small business owner, said he reached out to Chung to "offer her congratulations for coming out ahead of this hard fought race."

Election Day was 300 days after Preston announced his intention to run, and he said Tuesday that over those 300 days, he and his team knocked on more doors and talked to more voters than any General Assembly candidate in this election cycle.

"I'm so proud, so proud of the work and passion and talent" of the volunteers and supports who worked on the campaign, he said.

Before all the precincts were counted, Preston told The Pantagraph he knew it would be a tight race, but at the end of the day, no matter how things end up, I am so grateful for not only the hours and hours and hours volunteers and supporters put into this campaign because this campaign is about all of us, but I'm also grateful for the opportunity personally to be able to engage one on one in person with people from all different walks of life, all different priorities, all different perspectives.

Preston said after hearing so much about what is important to the voters and what they want from their government during this campaign, he wished Chung well and said he hopes she represents the people of the 91st District well.

"I will continue to work to make our community a better place as I have done my entire adult life," he said.
BLOOMINGTON  Maddy Dunsworth may not be the most politically active member of her social group, but she thought it was still important to make it out to the polls and vote.

Ive always liked the idea of being able to make change and vote, said Dunsworth, a senior at Illinois State University majoring in music education. So my vote at least does something to cause some sort of change, and I think thatd be really cool.

Several polling places across the Twin Cities on Tuesday morning had reported steady traffic as voters turned out to cast their ballots for governor and other constitutional offices, congressional and state representatives, a statewide referendum related to collective bargaining and locally, a question of funding for McLean County Unit 5.

Things started out well  knock on wood  and we havent had any major problems, said McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael. Poll watchers and judges are getting on famously, and everybody knows their role and are respectful of each other here in McLean County so far.

The county had reported 5,323 early voters and 4,513 mail-in ballots as of Tuesday. The Bloomington Election Commission, which handles elections in the city, reported 6,978 early voters and 4,862 mail-in ballots.

As an example of the strong turnout, Michael said Heyworth was on track to meet its 2018 voter turnout of 1,600 voters and could even exceed it.

Outside of McLean County, a DeWitt County election official said voter turnout had been very high.

We have had a very smooth day as far as any kind of technical issues or anything like that, said Kari Harris, chief deputy to the DeWitt County Clerk. Our biggest issue has been getting more ballots to the polling places, which is not a bad problem to have with the voter turnout being so high.

Both Harris and Theresa Moore, the Logan County clerk, reported no trouble finding election judges this year.

People are very interested in this election. Early voting has been up and mail-in ballots have been up, Moore said.

State Rep. Dan Brady, the Bloomington Republican running for Secretary of State against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, said earlier turnout across the region was heavier than expected. Turnout appeared lower in suburban Cook County, he said Tuesday morning.

Well see if that trend continues, he said Tuesday morning at the Original House of Pancakes in Normal, where he was greeting potential voters, but todays a good day, weather-wise.

He added that election judges at his polling place told him they were seeing fewer people vote on Election Day as early voting numbers have increased.

Wayne Dillow, an election judge at Heartland Community College Astroth Center for Normal Precincts 12, 13 and 23, said the turnout had been busy but steady. Well over 200 ballots were cast within the first four hours, he said.

Its been four years since we had this kind of election, but compared to the primary, this is probably three or four times as busy, Dillow said. We only had a little over 550 total at the primary that actually voted here, so were well above those numbers.

Timothy Nurnberger, an election judge at the First Assembly of God Church for Normal Precincts 2, 4, 5 and 6, said everything had been moving smoothly and a lot of the turnout is similar to midterm elections he has worked in the past.

I would say its been steady, not overwhelming, Nurnberger said. Ive been doing this for many years, and I think this is not unusual for a midterm election.

There was also a steady stream of voters that made their way through the polls before noon at the Bone Student Center.

The student population is turning out, and Im really happy about that, said Celeste Brennan, an election judge for Normal Precincts 8 and 30.

About 150 voters had been through by roughly 10 a.m., with more waiting in line, Brennan said. She expected more traffic throughout the day as students left classes and others left work.

I believe its important for everyone to come out and vote, Brennan said. Especially the students right now. Students are our future, and I think its important that they get out and express their opinions by voting.

Election judge Madie Ratliff said she has seen more younger people come out to vote and definitely thinks that students are becoming increasingly motivated to turn out.

I definitely encourage young people to come out and volunteer to be election judges, said Ratliff, who had previously worked as an election judge in Sangamon County. Its cool to see the democratic process in action because you learn a lot and then it makes you a more informed voter as well.

Bryce Harris, a sophomore at ISU majoring in history education, said he was not a fan of either gubernatorial candidate but voted in support of womens rights and reproductive health care.

I think its important to get your voice out there and be able to express your opinions on different topics, Harris said. I want to have a say in what we do here in Illinois.
After a campaign charged with emotion over issues including crime and the states pandemic response, Democrat Kwame Raoul declared victory Tuesday in his bid for a second term as Illinois attorney general over a challenge from Republican Thomas DeVore.

With 59% of precincts reporting, Raoul had 56% of the vote and DeVore, a downstate attorney, had 41%, according to unofficial results. Raouls double-digit win tracked with other statewide Democratic candidates, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Raoul addressed supporters at Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier at about 10:15 p.m.

DeVore called the incumbent to concede, according to Raouls campaign.

We had a good race, DeVore said in a speech to his supporters at The Drake Hotel Oak Brook. Illinois is an interesting state, and we spent I believe the least amount of money ever on a statewide race.

Raoul held a commanding cash advantage in the race. DeVore frequently joined forces on the campaign trail with the GOP gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who lost decisively on Tuesday.

In the final days of the election, Raoul joined Pritzker and other Democrats at the top of the ticket at rallies targeting Black voters and labor groups. Of his opponent, during an earlier online forum, Raoul said DeVore should not be let anywhere near the door of the attorney generals office.

The two differed starkly on most issues, chief among them Pritzkers pandemic-related executive orders. Raouls office repeatedly battled with DeVore in court to defend the state against lawsuits challenging Pritzkers mask mandate and other executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

While there hasnt been a final ruling in any of the more than 30 lawsuits DeVore filed against the state, he was successful in temporarily stopping some of Pritzkers rules. The litigation served as a springboard in DeVores campaign as the political unknown from downstate Sorento steadily gained notoriety.

At 53, the civil attorneys only experience in elected office was a two-year stint on the Bond County Board more than a decade ago. DeVore, who has the words freedom and liberty tattooed on his forearms, argued his willingness to take on the governor in court is proof he if elected would be a check on power and government overreach.

But DeVore didnt come close to Raoul in fundraising efforts. DeVore started July with less than $16,000 in his campaign fund after winning a GOP primary in which he was vastly outspent by the second-place finisher, who was on a slate backed by billionaire Ken Griffin. As of early Tuesday, DeVore reported raising more than $500,000 in additional contributions, about half of which came from a loan he made to his campaign that lifted contribution limits for both candidates.

With the limits off, Raoul received a $1 million contribution from Pritzkers campaign fund and, as of Monday, had reported raising more than $1.1 million in other contributions since July 1. Thats on top of the $1.1 million in cash he had on hand at the end of June.

DeVore attacked Raoul for being too closely aligned with Pritzker, repeatedly calling the incumbent attorney general the governors lap dog. Raoul dismissed such criticism, contending his independence is not for sale.

Raoul, 58, is a former Cook County prosecutor from Chicago who succeeded Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate, representing parts of the citys South Side, before being elected four years ago to replace former Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

In response to DeVores criticism, Raoul argued his office was on the right side of the law and public health in defending the states actions on the pandemic and, thus, helped save lives.

DeVore also has sued Pritzker for defamation after the governor called him a grifter during a news conference in response to a question about DeVores legal challenges to the pandemic mandates. Raouls office defended Pritzker against the defamation allegation, but DeVore later dropped the lawsuit.

The attorney general accused DeVore of wasting the courts time with what he deemed frivolous lawsuits. Besides Pritzker, DeVore in recent years has sued a special education teacher and two others for sharing a Facebook post in which DeVore referred to students working a school concession stand as window lickers and his girlfriends mother, whom he accuses of publishing a derogatory article under a pseudonym.

Raoul said DeVores largely unsuccessful lawsuits showed he was unqualified for the office. He also pointed to DeVores social media comments that indicated he might, if elected, investigate political adversaries, including Pritzker, and Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, whom DeVore has criticized as being too lenient on criminals.

DeVore accused the incumbent of not being aggressive enough in fighting crime in his role as attorney general. The GOP challengers primary criticism has been with the SAFE-T Act, the sweeping criminal justice legislation Pritzker has signed into law. Among other changes, it will end cash bail on Jan. 1.

The law allows judges to keep defendants behind bars while awaiting trial if they are deemed to be a flight risk or danger to the public, but Republicans argue it will empty out jails and lead to increased violence. The measure faces an onslaught of legal challenges from several county states attorneys.

DeVore alleged the law is unconstitutional, raising issues with the way it was passed as well as its content. He pledged to work to get the measure overturned if elected.

Raoul, who backed the SAFE-T Act, has acknowledged he has concerns about potential ambiguities in the sweeping law and spoke to the need for lawmakers and prosecutors to work together to clarify some provisions.

In his first term, the attorney general created an organized retail crime task force to stem smash-and-grab offenses. He also pushed for stronger federal ghost gun regulations to crack down on homemade weapons. Raoul pledged to try to expand the attorney generals jurisdiction over corruption cases if reelected.

Though crime dominated much of the race, Raoul also highlighted his support for abortion rights, including his offices defense against an ongoing lawsuit challenging a state law that enshrined access to the procedure as a fundamental right. The litigation objects to a provision of the law that requires health plans that offer pregnancy-related care to also provide coverage for abortion.

DeVore has described himself as a pro-life guy, but he said if elected he would continue to defend the state reproductive health law because he wasnt aware of any constitutional problems with it.

Under Raoul, the attorney generals office has played an active role in defending the rights of transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community. But DeVore said his approach to such social issues, which he said he would not actively litigate, marked a fundamental difference between him and Raoul.

Libertarian Party candidate Daniel K. Robin, a 45-year attorney from Schaumburg, was also on the ballot and wound up collecting just about 2% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
BLOOMINGTON  Incumbent state Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) has won the race for Illinois 46th Senate District against first-time Republican candidate Desi Anderson by 9,820 votes.

The midterm election was called shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday when the remaining precincts reported their results.

It's been a good night, said Koehler, 73. Its been exciting for me to be able to campaign in Bloomington-Normal, getting to know that community that has been very welcoming to me  and I look forward to representing my home in Peoria."

Koehler has held the seat since 2006 and accumulated a total of 35,346 votes Tuesday, while Anderson gathered only 25,526 votes. Both previously ran unopposed in the June primary, with just over 11,000 votes each.

The newly redrawn 46th District covers portions of Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford and McLean counties along Interstate 74. Koehler said the district introduces a new constituency of students from Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan universities, which played into the 58% majority vote in the election.

"Students really were a big part of our effort over there," Koehler said. "They did the canvassing for us (and) they got a lot of excitement on campus."

After securing another term, Koehler said he plans to move to Illinois' Higher Education Committee, as his district is now home to ISU and IWU, as well as Bradley University, Heartland Community College, Illinois Central College and the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

"It just makes a lot of sense for me to be on the Higher Education Committee because that affects so much of the district," Koehler said.

Koehler also said he plans to open a district office in the Bloomington-Normal area. It will be staffed on site to meet with constituents and offer services "right off the bat."

"I think that's a very important part of any public servants doing their job, is to have good constituent services," Koehler said. "I pride myself on having some of the best, but we will hire a person to open up a Bloomington-Normal office."

Koehler is a strong supporter of Amendment 1, known as the Workers' Rights Amendment, which amends the Illinois Constitution to protect workers' rights to unionize and collectively bargain. Koehler previously voted to have it put on the ballot as a constitutional question because it provides long-term protection for workers rights. Shortly after midnight Wednesday, the Vote Yes for Workers Rights group announced that the measure had passed, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Koehler also voted in favor of the criminal justice reform legislation known as the SAFE-T Act, which sets net standards for policing and discipline, restricts the use of force against criminal suspects and ends the use of cash bail for violent offenders.

Anderson, a former congressional intern for U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville), secured about 42% of the vote, with her winning in Tazewell and Woodford counties.

"Unfortunately, our campaign came up short of what we needed to win in the 46th district," said Anderson, 35, in an emailed response. "Although my family and my team are met with disappointment and sadness tonight, I am still optimistic that we can change Illinois for the better in the future."

"My defeat tonight does not mean I will stop fighting for what is right for our families and our communities," Anderson added.

Anderson, who resides in Carlock, owns The Hesed House Venue in Heyworth with her husband, Nick, and they have a young son, which Anderson said made her motivation to run a family decision.

Anderson focused her campaign on providing better services for families and issues related to tax increases, criminal justice reform and small businesses.

Following the loss, Anderson said in her response that running for office was not something she planned to do her whole life, and she hopes to explore new ways to represent her values and "move the state of Illinois forward."

"I am grateful for everyone I met ever since I announced my candidacy in February," Anderson said in her response. "Despite losing, having the ability to run for office as an immigrant that grew up in a segregated Bulgarian orphanage is a prime example of the American Dream, and I will forever be proud of that."
It was a night of glitz, glamour and class at The Fitzgerald in Cantonments on the 3rd of November, 2022, as CFAO proudly launched the commencement of Mercedes-Benz distributorship in Ghana.



CFAO has signed an exclusive dealership agreement, making it the sole authorised dealer for Mercedes-Benz in Ghana.



The event saw a cross-section of celebrities, highly placed businessmen and women, Ghana's corporate elites and car enthusiasts enjoy a night dusted with glitter, pomp and pageantry. Patrons were treated to a selection of classy music, tasty hors d'oeuvres whilst experiencing the Mercedes-Benz heritage story wall, a Hollywood-style photo wall and a convivial atmosphere.



The GLS, GLE SUV, and COUPE models of Mercedes-Benz were also on display during the event, and guests were allowed to experience the vehicles' interior and exterior. In addition, a vintage Mercedes-Benz was also given prime placement on the event grounds as part of the brand's strong heritage.



In his opening address M.D. of CFAO, Mr Adedamola Adelabu conveyed his heartfelt gratitude for the historic celebration and thanked all stakeholders for their role.



He added, "Our partnership with Mercedes-Benz rides on the back of 113 years, dedicated to the service of the automobile industry in Ghana and an enviable pedigree in delivering excellent aftersales service. This is the conviction for Mercedes-Benz's choice of CFAO Ghana."



Mercedes-Benz is easily a satisfyingly spacious vehicle with a strong presence that bridges the gap between luxury and technology.



During his speech, the Sales Manager for Mercedes-Benz, Mr Richard Edem Fumey, described most people's aspirations regarding the brand. Whether driving, sitting in or being associated with the Mercedes-Benz brand, irrespective of age, class or gender.



He added, "This symbolises the power the Mercedes Benz brand bonds people worldwide with  with a product that triggers desire."



He also highlighted some groundbreaking technology to inspire the guests and prospective customers to feel the genuine emotion of driving a Mercedes-Benz.



These include:



1. Extended MBUX functions - (Mercedes-Benz User Experience)



A proprietary A.I.-driven user experience enhancing how you interact with

your car.



2. Touchpad without controller  Offers a wide touchscreen which allows users to control many functions on their vehicles seamlessly.



3. Keyless-go starting function - Makes it possible to open and lock the vehicle conveniently and start it up quickly, simply by carrying the key.



4. Dynamic select  Determines your vehicle's different preset drive modes, giving you total control over how you drive.



5. 9G Tronic  The world's first automatic transmission to feature a hydrodynamic torque converter.



The CFAO Ghana workshop is now fully fitted with the latest Mercedes-Benz diagnostic equipment, with branded and designated service bays in readiness. The aftersales team has taken intense training sessions to provide clients with the best services. Owners of Mercedes Benz cars are welcome to visit CFAO Ghana and book appointments for their servicing.



This launch marked an exciting journey for CFAO and a fruitful partnership with Mercedes-Benz in Ghana. Indeed, the Star has come Home.



About CFAO Ghana PLC



CFAO Ghana is a multi-brand automotive company that distributes and does maintenance for well-known vehicle brands like Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and Suzuki. The company was established in Ghana in 1909 and for 113 years, has spearheaded excellence and transformation within the automotive sector in Ghana. CFAO is well represented in Ghana with branches in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Takoradi as well as certified stations in Tamale, Bolga, Wa, Sunyani and Cape Coast, in partnership with TotalEnergies. Call 0302 742 100 for more information.





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
A senior Russian security official met Iranian leaders in Tehran on Wednesday and the two countries pledged closer ties in the face of Western pressure over Russia's war in Ukraine.



Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev's visit took place following accusations by Ukraine and the West that Russia has used Iranian Shahed-136 drones to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure in a series of attacks over recent weeks.



Patrushev and Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani discussed the situation in Ukraine and measures to combat what they called "Western interference" in their internal affairs, Russian state media reported.



"Iran welcomes and supports any initiative that leads to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialogue and is ready to play a role in ending the war," Shamkhani said, according to Iran's NourNews agency.



Shamkhani also called for deeper ties with Russia in the energy, transportation, agriculture, trade and banking sectors, NourNews said.



Patrushev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and they emphasised improving strategic relations between the two countries.



"The most decisive response to U.S. sanctions...is the cooperation of independent countries," Raisi said, according to Iranian state media.



Russia has stepped up its efforts to build economic and political relations with Iran and other non-Western countries since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, as part of a drive to destroy what it calls U.S. "hegemony".

Source: Reuters









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The European Union's executive arm on Wednesday proposed a support package for war-gripped Ukraine worth up to 18 billion euros ($18.06 billion) in 2023, but Hungary said it would not contribute to the joint assistance, which would come as highly concessional loans.



"This shows true solidarity of the EU," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted after the European Commission unveiled its plan. "Together we resist Russia's aggression, together we'll rebuild Ukraine, together we'll be in the EU."



However, the proposal faced resistance from Hungary, which has dragged its feet on EU sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, even before the Commission's announcement.



"I have made it clear that Hungary is ready to support Ukraine, but we do not wish to contribute to any new loan to be taken up by the EU," Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said in a statement on Tuesday.



The Commission said the EU support, averaging 1.5 billion euros per month, would help cover much of Ukraine's short-term funding needs for 2023, which Kyiv and the International Monetary Fund have estimated at 3-4 billion euros per month.



It would help Ukraine ensure macro-financial stability, keep critical public services running and assist with the restoration of key infrastructure destroyed in the war with Russia.



To secure the funds for the loans, which Ukraine will have to repay within 35 years, the Commission would borrow on the capital markets.



Its proposals for the package will need to be approved by the European Parliament and the EU's 27 member states.



Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said Budapest was willing to pay its share of financial support for Ukraine but would rather pay it bilaterally than see more of the joint borrowing that the EU agreed on to prop up its economies during the COVID-19 pandemic.



"Now they ask us again to approve something that we had never agreed with in principle," he told a news briefing in Budapest. "There is joint decision making, so if we don't agree to this, this decision cannot be made."



Orban, a conservative nationalist, is one of the few European leaders to have good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.



Asked about Hungary's stand on the Ukraine proposal, European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference: "We will be discussing ... what concerns Hungary has in relation to this proposal, and I hope we will come up with a solution."











Source: Reuters









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The President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Frank Serebour, has called on the government and other stakeholders to put in place measures to correct skewed distribution of health personnel across the country.

According to him, there were still a lot of facilities being served by one medical officer, which was an indictment on all those who had a hand in the management of health delivery systems of the country.



He said, Let us remove the face of this issue and discuss it openly and honestly towards ensuring even distribution of medical officers across the nation.



Annual conference



Dr Serebour was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 64th Annual General Conference (AGC) of the association in Bolgatanga last Friday.



The conference, which was the first to be held in the region, was on the theme: "Addressing the doctor distribution dilemma: The case of Ghana and its underserved areas.



Working conditions



The president noted that the issue of brain drain among medical officers was on the rise, hence if measures were not put in place to quickly anchor the ship, the nation would face a disaster soon.



Therefore, I call for the conditions of service of medical officers and other professionals to be looked at urgently to attract and retain them in the country.



"It is important for us to bite the bullet and put in place measures such as doctors retiring on their salaries and re-introduction of vehicle importation tax waivers for health workers, he indicated.



While commending the government on the Agenda 111 hospital projects, he noted that if the conditions of service of health workers were not attended to, most health facilities would not have health workers to man them.



He further called on the government to as a matter of urgency attend to all uncompleted hospital projects, including the La General Hospital.



Inequitable distribution



The Deputy Minister of Health, Mahama Asei Seini, said the inequitable distribution of health workers in Ghana remained one of the major obstacles in the nation's quest to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC).



He noted that the ministry had set up a committee on deprived area incentive packages comprising representatives of all unions in the health sector and other stakeholders.



He said the committee had completed the work and that the ministry had committed to expediting the process of implementation.



He said when implemented, the package would ensure the payment of allowances for serving in deprived areas and scholarship for postgraduate education, among others.



"The ministry will collaborate with relevant ministries to improve working conditions in rural areas such as road network, housing, telecommunications access and access to education," Mr Seini said.



Tremendous gains



The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Ghana, Dr Francis Chisaka Kabolo, in a keynote address, said undoubtedly, Ghana had made gains in the doctor-to-population ratio, improving from one doctor to 17,899 in 2005 to one doctor to 6,500 in 2020.



He said this is very commendable as Ghana is often cited as a good example in expanding investments in doctors", adding that this has helped propel Ghana's progress in UHC scores from 24 per cent in 2000 to 45 per cent in 2021.



However, he said available data showed 42 per cent of the doctors were in Accra alone and up to 81.3 per cent were concentrated in five regions, namely the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Northern and Volta regions.



He called for the provision of differential incentives for those working in rural and underserved areas, stressing that this will require engagement with stakeholders to develop a contextually relevant bundle of monetary and non-pecuniary incentives by finalising and implementing the deprived area incentive scheme".



For his part, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, in a welcome address, said he had directed all the 15 municipal and district assemblies in the region to identify and sponsor medical students within their jurisdictions who would come back to serve after completing school.



Additionally, the MDAs have been asked to provide decent accommodation for doctors who accept posting to the various districts to enhance healthcare delivery in the region for the benefit of the people.











Source: graphiconline.com









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Ministers from ten African countries has signed up to the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative Declaration, a single set of principles for the responsible production of agricultural commodities in Africa.



The signing ceremony took place in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt at the Ghana Pavilion, attended by Ministers from the signatory countries, at the ongoing Climate Change Conference (COP27).



The Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative (ASCI) puts producer countries in Africa at the forefront of defining the principles for the sustainable development of cocoa, rubber, palm oil, coffee and other commodities, in a way that protects livelihoods and protects natural resources, including forests.



ASCI builds and expands upon principles agreed at CoP22 in 2016 for the palm oil sector. The Marrakesh Declaration for Sustainable Development of the Palm Oil Sector acknowledged the role of agricultural commodity development as a driver of deforestation, while emphasising the critical role of forests and forest conservation in addressing climate change.



The Marrakesh Declaration has been implemented through the African Palm Oil Initiative (APOI), comprised of ten countries in West and Central Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Edo State (Nigeria), Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. These countries account for 25% of the worlds tropical forest and 75% of Africas forests. An initiative of the Tropical Forest Alliance, the APOI is facilitated by Proforest, who will be supporting the Africa-led Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative.



From CoP22 in 2016, when the Marrakesh Declaration was signed, we saw huge progress at CoP26 in 2021 where every country demonstrated crucial milestones to achieve the sustainable development of palm oil, said Abraham Baffoe, Global and Africa Director of Proforest. Many countries have recognised the need to work across multiple commodities so the launch of ASCI is an important progression, as a truly multi-stakeholder initiative, with every country engaging at the regional, national and local level throughout the process.



At CoP26 in Glasgow in 2021, signatories of the Marrakesh Declaration met to recognise and share five years of progress, with significant milestones from legal frameworks for land rights to private sector commitments on restoration and investment in smallholders to boost productivity while protecting forests. Ministers agreed that the issues being addressed in palm oil were the same in other commodities, catalysing the transition to the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative to ensure all sectors are aligned to drive positive outcomes for people, nature and climate.



We need the guardians of the forests  national governments and local communities  to own and lead solutions on the ground that integrate agricultural commodity production and local livelihoods with forest protection, continued Baffoe. Embedding those rights and protection in laws and regulation will provide an enabling environment where we can continue to build capacity, readying the way for further investment and scale.



Governments have recognised the potential for growth in production of palm oil, cocoa and other agricultural commodities to meet increasing global demand, and to contribute to food security and better livelihoods for millions of Africans, while protecting the regions remaining rainforests. Diversification of food production also provides resilience and improves each countrys food security as well as helping to offset the impact of climate change. The Congo Basin alone can hold 30 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to three years of global fuel emissions; and its forests are essential for regional climate stability.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The India High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Sugandh Rajaram, became the first High Commissioner to make an official visit to the Sefwi Wiawso Traditional Council in the Western North region last Monday.



Mr Sugandh Rajaram was welcomed in a colourful traditional ceremony to the Okugyeabour Fie, the palace of the Sefwi Wiawso Traditional Area with the regional minister, Richard Obeng, in attendance.



He was at the traditional area to build a new friendship and explore business opportunities between the two on how to enhance economic fortunes of India and the Sefwi area.



The Paramount Chief of the Sefwi Wiawso Traditional Council, Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama ll, said the area abounds with many potentials including Agriculture which the two could work together to add value as well as creat jobs for the youth.



Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama ll in a discussion said being one of the newly created regions in Ghana, it is bedevilled with a myriad of infrastructural challanges and expressed the hope that the new relationship will help address it.



As a starter, the High Commissioner will attend this year's annual Eluo Festival by the people of Sefwi Wiaso on November 24 and 25 to help develop a document towards making it big and International.



"It is my hope that the rich culture of India and that of Ghana will open avenues for tourism in the Sefwi Wiawso traditional area," the Chief said.



Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama ll told his guest that Sefwi lands abounds in rich deposits of gold and timber resources and that lack of employment is forcing the youth to leave the area in search of greener pastures.



He urged the High Commissioner to help set up refinery factories to absorb most of the youth.



Education



The Sefwi Wiawso Paramount Chief appealed to the High Commissioner to assist in securing scholarships for brilliant but needy students especially those pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).



Also on the radar is an initiative for an exchange programme with the Sefwi Wiawso College of Education and Colleges of Education in India to enhance academic work.



Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama ll called for the reactivation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a Cocoa Processing Factory in Sefwi Wiaso which was truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic.



He suggested that this could be done with the support of an Exim Bank Loan facility to actualise it.



Commissioner



The High commissioner, Mr Sugandh Rajaram, commended the Council and the Western North Regional Coordinating Council for the rousing welcome.



He promised to build on the relationship that has existed between Ghana and India for decades with Sefwi as the new focus.



"Accra alone should not see development from the India government and other regions should not be left out," he said.



The High Commissioner was later decorated with a rich Kente cloth to symbolise the rich culture of the region.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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A deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, has urged members of the India Africa Trade Council (IATC) to support the governments flagship industrialisation programme, the one-district, one-factory (1D1F).

He said the government would always open its doors to investors who sought to set up factories under the 1D1F initiative stressing that we are willing to give the necessary support to all investors.



Mr Baafi was speaking at the maiden IATC Trade summit held in Accra, which was attended by the Global President of the IATC, Dr Asif Igbal.



Dr Asif Iqbal was in the country to attend the summit and to also present to Dr James Gnanaraj Rajamani, his letter of credence, confirming his appointment as the Chairman of IATC West and Central Africa.



Mr Iqbal was accompanied to Ghana by his vice, Wali Kashvi and Trade Commissioner of Telanga State, India, Krishna Vamsi.



In his address at the summit, Dr Iqbal admonished businessmen and women to take advantage of international trade liberalisation policies to ensure effective growth of the business communities.



For his part, Dr James Rajamani assured of his commitment to live up to his responsibilities in coordinating the activities of the Central and West Africa sub regions.



The Ga Mantse, Nii Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, also pledged the support of the Ga Traditional Council for the IATC.



He expressed profound gratitude to the IATC for selecting Ghana as its headquarters for the West and Central Africa regions.



Recognition



The three management directors of IATC were presented with certificate of recognition from IATC Global Head Office, based in India.



They are: Dr Immanuel Rajamani, Executive Director, International Protocol; Neelesh Bhatia, Executive Director, Finance and Administration; and Mr Peter Mensah, Executive Director, Operations and Corporate Affairs.









Source: graphiconline.com









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Actress Juliet Ibrahim has taken to Twitter to decry the high cost of living in Ghana.



The actress who said Ghana is now the most expensive West African country, also pointed out some of the challenges they are currently facing.



Juliet tweeted; Ghana is officially the most expensive West African country right now! No joke!



Someone driving a car of 3.0 / 3.5 fills their fuel tank to use within 5-7 days with fuel worth 1300/1400 cedis. Currently, $100 = 1,400 cedis Even in USA, to fuel the same type of car can and will NEVER cost that much! Yet we are all going through the same economic crisis.



$100 = 1400 cedis 1400 cedis = 72,000 Naira Is there any Nigerian on my timeline that spends 72,000 Naira to fuel his car and use for a period of 5-7 days? Lets have this discussion and make it make sense to me oo



This is not a political post. Everyones affected and talking about our concerns / worries only helps one stay sane. Thanks

We need to double our hustle very well God help us all as we adjust to the new standards of living.  #adulthoodnascam   Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) November 8, 2022

I pray we all can survive this and double up our hustle oo. Because looks like things arent going to go back to normal. This is the time to strategize and focus on multiple streams of income  Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) November 8, 2022

This is not a political post. Everyones affected and talking about our concerns / worries only helps one stay sane. Thanks  Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) November 8, 2022

Someone driving a car of 3.0 / 3.5 fills their fuel tank to use within 5-7 days with fuel worth 1300/1400 cedis.

Currently, $100 = 1,400 cedis

Even in USA, to fuel the same type of car can and will NEVER cost that much!

Yet we are all going through the same economic crisis.  Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) November 8, 2022

Ghana is officially the most expensive West African country right now! No joke!  Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) November 8, 2022









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The World Bank has offered Ghana a $3-million grant to build the capacity of local communities affected by climate change.

Known as Enhancing Access to Benefits by Lowering Emissions (EnABLE), the grant was approved by the multilateral bank for Ghana as a further benefit for lowering emissions in the forestry sector.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who disclosed this when he addressed a forum at Ghana's pavilion at the ongoing 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP27) yesterday, said the country reduced emissions by 972,456 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) under the Cocoa Forest REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus) programme.



The ministers of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Dr Kwaku Afriyie; Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor; Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, and other state officials were at the forum, which was also attended by development partners and some participants in the COP27.



Benefits



President Akufo-Addo said the historic feat in reducing emissions in the forestry sector had generated a result-based carbon payment of about $4.9 million.



"Sixty-nine per cent of this payment goes directly to the local communities, without any third-party interference, as outlined in the programme's comprehensive and inclusive benefits sharing plan," he added.



He said those different stages of achievement had put the country at the forefront of dedicated action and nature-based solutions to tackle deforestation and forest degradation.



"These achievements have been chalked up through the immense support of various stakeholders, particularly donors and international partners, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)," he said.



The President added that the approach for implementing the REDD+ programme was integrated and multi-sectoral, thereby helping to address pertinent issues across the mining, agricultural, labour and forestry sectors.



He said other initiatives in the forestry sector, such as the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI), the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project and the Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the European Union, were all at various stages of implementation to complement the emission reduction targets.



"Pursuant to a letter of intent signed last year at the COP26, we are also working to secure a binding emission reduction purchase agreement with Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAP) coalition to support our forest-based climate actions," he said.



Green Ghana



Touching on the Green Ghana Project, an aggressive tree planting exercise launched in 2021, President Akufo-Addo said 31 million trees had been planted in two years.



He explained that seven million of the trees were planted in the 2021, with 24 million being planted this year.



He said the Green Ghana Project demonstrated the country's commitment to the implementation of climate actions, noting that more action was required to plant trees and take other measures to protect the environment.



Greenhouse emissions



The President said the government was implementing the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system as a measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation hector.



In the energy sector, he said, the government was keen on establishing renewable energy alternatives, such as wind, solar, nuclear and thermal.



"We are committed to developing our green minerals and adding value to them to contribute to the green energy transition," he said.



Collective action



Regarding the way forward to win the war against the climate crisis, President Akufo-Addo said robust, dedicated and collective action was required at the national and the international levels among governments, donors, the private sector and other actors to generate and drive technical and financial capacity to sustain climate action.



Collaboration



For his part, Dr Afriyie said Ghana was committed to dealing with climate change because the impact of the crisis on humanity and the planet was dire.



He said building a resilient forest sector would ensure adaptation and reduction of emission.



Mr Jinapor underscored the need for stronger collaboration between the related state agencies and non-state actors to fight climate change.



Renewable energy



In another development, President Akufo-Addo has assured the global community of Ghanas full commitment to increase its share of renewable energy in the energy mix.



Speaking at a High-Level Event on Sustainable Energy for All organised by Bloomberg Philanthropies on the sidelines of the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt last Monday, the President said we will continue to increase the share of renewable energy in our electricity generation mix, as well as explore the options of hydrogen gas and other clean energy sources to meet our energy needs.



Energy transition has become a global responsibility for us all, especially in view of the impact of climate change and the global energy crisis brought forth by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said.



With Ghana being a signatory to the Paris Agreement and other international conventions which require the country to reduce its carbon dioxide emission levels, the President indicated that it had become imperative for Ghana to develop plans and strategies towards the creation of a net-zero energy sector, while aggressively pursuing the nations economic development.



Our updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), under the Paris Agreement, affirms the country's resolve to address the impacts of climate change and build a resilient economy for our people, he stressed.



President Akufo-Addo further said the countrys position on energy transition was to continue the responsible exploitation of natural resources for development and transition at its own pace.



The government of Ghana is mindful of the actions of the developed countries in relation to energy transition and their effect on us, he said.



To that end, he told the gathering that it had become necessary for the government to develop an Energy Transition Framework that would guide the country as the entire world moved towards realising net zero emissions.



He added that the government, being mindful of the implications of such a framework and its implementation on the entire economy, directed the committee to undertake extensive stakeholder consultations, in addition to expert input, to produce the National Energy Transition Framework to guide its transition to a net-zero economy by 2070 in a just and equitable manner, as well as minimise possible stranded assets and job losses in the oil and gas sector.



The total cost of the transition was estimated at $561.8 billion, he added.



Energy transition



President Akufo-Addo also addressed the High-Level Meeting on Just Energy Transition, where he indicated that Ghana had developed a National Energy Transition Framework to provide the vision and guidance for Ghana's energy transition.



In preparing that framework, he said, all existing policies were considered and the programmes being implemented towards achieving Ghana's NDC.



Wide stakeholder consultations were held to ensure that energy transition issues in various parts of the country were captured and addressed in the framework. These included organised and non-organised labour, market women, academia, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), development partners (DPs) and the international community, he said.



He explained that the framework provided the optimal and sustainable pathway for fuel supply security, diversified energy mix and cost-efficient electricity generation, with an estimated generation tariff of less than 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour to accelerate the socio-economic development of Ghana.



Ghana aims to achieve universal access by 2024. The Energy Transition Framework will meet future electricity demand of 380 Terawatt-hours, with a corresponding installed capacity of 83 gigawatts (GW), he said.



Ghana's diversified energy mix will include 21GW of renewable energy installed capacity, which will provide the opportunity to enjoy a greater share in the renewable energy carbon credit market, the President added.



He further said the transition would mitigate 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide of green house gas emissions and minimise energy-related indoor air pollution and associated diseases.



It is estimated that 48,218 premature deaths will be avoided annually due to the improvement in air quality resulting from the impact of the transition, President Akufo-Addo said.













Source: graphiconline.com









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An economist, Professor Godfred Bokpin, has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to cut the number of Ministers in his administration to 40.



According to him the number of Ministers, coupled with other costs of operationalizing Ghana's democracy such as maintaining 275 Members of Parliament and other Presidential appointees was too expensive for the country in the current economic crisis.



He said the cost of operationalizing Ghana's democracy since 1992 had left little room for growth-enhancing spending and investment.



"If you look at the size of government, the number of Ministers and Ministries, if you were running Ghana as a business, you would certainly have sacked some Ministers by now, collapsed some of the Ministries, reduced government appointees and associated costs of running it, doing so will not hurt growth, doing so would only free-up fiscal space for growth-enhancing spending," Professor Bokpin said.



"I think that Ghana should be able to do with less than 40 Ministers, I am looking forward to the President taking that decision in the 2023 budget and then we can document the cost savings from there directly.



"Ghana's economy is not particularly unique. Cote d'Ivoire in April 2022 took the decision to reduce the number of Ministers from 41 to 42... We supported the President when in his first term when he said size matters with the number of Ministers but I believe that after four years there should be proper feedback because it's (maintaining 86 Ministers) still costly.".



Professor Bokpin made this known today in his address at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting in Accra. The meeting was on the theme: 17 Times too many! What should we stop doing and start doing as a people?



Unavoidable haircuts



He also disagreed with an assurance by President Akufo-Addo that there will be "no haircuts" on investments. Prof Bokpin explained that haircuts were unavoidable but the focus should be on areas that will not hurt growth.



"As far as we are concerned, a haircut is unavoidable, the question is, on whose head should it be?," Prof Bokpin said.



"Should it be on the head of government largely? That's why we are talking about the President taking the bold step to downsize and the signal effect will be real".



He said cuts on salaries would not help the situation as announcements of reductions in the salaries of appointees in the past had not impacted the markets.









Source: graphiconline.com









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In the quest to give Ghanaian students quality education and leadership skill, Union Group of Companies has announced scholarship award to fully cater for the educational expenses of Ms Bonna Doris to study from the Senior High School level to the tertiary level including cost of living allowance.



Ms Bonna Doris a student of Ola Girls Senior High School in the Ahafo region, who recently lost her father out of unknown reasons was at the verge of dropping out of school when Union Group of Companies learnt of her story and went to her rescue.



The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Union Group of Companies Dr. Augustine Opoku Agyemang at the official presentation to the beneficiary on Tuesday said, he was moved to assit the student and many more others because of his interest in contributing to the sectors that shaped nations building.



By investing in the educational development of the younger generation, the future of communities is secured and assured. So, I decided to extend the scholarship scheme to her because of the overdriving passion of the Union Group to reach everywhere possible, he said.



He opined that, as part of their cooperate social responsibilities they have constructed various school blocks across the country whilest the Union Group has a mission of mentoring and empowering Ghanaian students in fulfilling their dreams to pursue graduate studies via access to fully-funded scholarships in world class universities including USA.



He averred that, as individuals, we must come to terms with placing premium on human development than gathering wealth and resources which Union Group deemed it fit to add it's quota to developing a critical aspect of the society. We can only pray to God to continue to bless us with the requisite resources, he added".



Dr. Augustine Opoku Agyemang explained that, with over 10 companies spanning diverse sectors, the Union Group of Companies is one of the most diversified holdings companies in Ghana with its biggest operations in Travel & Tour, Real Estate, Multimedia as well as Automobile and Transport among others.



He congratulated all the beneficiaries, advised them to identify their strength in order to guide them while choosing a career path in life and charged them to take their studies seriously in order not to put the effort of Group Union to waste.



Margaret Makabie the mother of the beneficially express her gratitude to the C.E.O of Union Group and called the support timely and assured that she will play her part to ensure that her daughter study hard to accomplish her future dreams.

Source: graphiconline.com









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 Flash

At the invitation of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Phnom Penh Tuesday evening for a series of leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation and an official visit to Cambodia.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong and other senior Cambodian officials greeted the delegation at the airport. Honor guards lined up on both sides of a red carpet to salute Li, and local youths presented flowers to Li and his wife Cheng Hong.

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian and Chinese Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Deng Xijun were also at the airport to welcome the delegation.

Li noted that China and ASEAN are comprehensive strategic partners and each other's largest trading partner.

The international and regional situations are undergoing a complex and profound transformation, with growing uncertainties and instabilities, and unprecedented challenges facing the global development, the premier said.

China expects the East Asia leaders' meetings to focus on development and cooperation, uphold multilateralism and free trade, adhere to open cooperation and mutual benefit, jointly preserve secure and smooth global industrial and supply chains, enable parties to join hands to address global challenges, and inject new impetus into promoting regional economic integration as well as safeguarding peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and beyond, Li said.

China and Cambodia, as close neighbors with deep traditional friendship, have continuously made headway in their mutually beneficial cooperation, he said.

Through this visit, China is willing to renew with Cambodia their solidarity and friendship, chart together the way forward for bilateral cooperation, and work for more outcomes in building the China-Cambodia community with a shared future to deliver more benefits to the two countries and their people, he said.

Li will attend the 25th China-ASEAN Summit, the 25th ASEAN Plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea Summit and the 17th East Asia Summit to be held in Phnom Penh.

During his stay in Cambodia, he will have a royal audience with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, hold a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, witness the signing of cooperation documents, and attend events marking the inauguration of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway and the handover of the Ta Keo Temple restored with Chinese assistance.

Li's entourage included his wife Cheng and State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council Xiao Jie.
The Director of the Ghana School of Law, Yaw Oppong, has directed that all social media handles of students at the school be monitored for characters befitting their profession.



This was after he directed that the students of the school submit their social media handles for monitoring, a report by myjoyonline.com said.



Yaw Oppong explained that this will help the students use their social media handles to promote ethical characters befitting of the profession they are entering.



Everybody will have to provide their social media handles. We are going to look at it and you will be monitored in terms of conduct. We are required by law to make recommendations. We dont want to stampede you.



You are going to reapply beyond the pass and submit yourselves for all legitimate checks, he said.



The Ghana School of Law director made these comments at the swearing-in ceremony of executives of the School of Law Students Representative Council (SRC), the report added.



Yaw Oppong urged the students to live upright lifestyles befitting their status as legal practitioners so that the General Legal Council will not be in a position to bring their characters into question one day.



Once we are doing our best to ensure that as many of you as possible who want to help yourselves go beyond the stage you are, and we are succeeding, it will not compromise your good character.



Its of no use if you are qualified to go to second year, and you are told that you cannot go because of bad character, he added.



The Ghana School of Law was established in 1958 by Ghanas first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to become a centre of excellence in Africa and the world at large for professional legal training and research.









Source: ghanaweb.com









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Director of Legal Affairs for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Lawyer Gary Nimako Marfo, has cautioned the Organizer of the 'Kume Preko Reloaded' demonstration, Lawyer Martin Kpebu to check his intemperate language against President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo.



According to him, he can have his discussions about the President without using intemperate words against him.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he wondered why the astute lawyer prefers to use inordinate words whilst advancing his argument on radio or even on Television.



"The way he speaks is not part of our culture and I believe that Martin Kpebu knows that. You can make your case without insulting. It is also very important to note that he is the President of the land and that you are obliged to accord him with the necessary respect he deserves," he said.



It is also imperative to note that there is global crisis and it is no fault of the President for things to get out of hand, but even with that the President has assured us that he is working to put things under control," he added.



He further explained that he personally placed a private call to his friend (Martin Kpebu) who happens to be his mate at the University of Ghana, Legon to talk him out of the planned demonstration but he did not budge.



"The Martin Kpebu I know during our Legon days is not noted for this kind of talk and activities but if he believes this is the way to go for him, he should declare his political stand and stop the tangent he has taken".



"I am compelled to speak publicly about him now because all attempts to stop him through our various private conversations have proved futile, however, he should be mindful of the way he speaks about the President," he noted.



Watch video below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor has rubbished social media reports and in some sections of the traditional media suggesting that he has forfeited six months of his salary to the State.



In a statement, the former President described the reports as fake news and called on the public to completely disregard them.



"A communication emanating from our office will never get the former President's last name of KUFUOR wrongly spelled," Dr. Kwabena Osei Adubofour, Senior Aide and Spokesman for former President Kufuor said in a statement.



It said that, The attention of the Office of former President John Kufuor has been drawn to a fake reportage on social media and in some sections of the traditional media to the effect that President Kufuor has written to the Chief of Staff at the Presidency to request that six months of his salary should be forfeited to the state.



This Office wants to emphatically state that the reportage is fake, and should be treated with the contempt that it deserves. We are at a loss as to the object of such reportage and call for rational reflection on the use of the present avenues of communication that the digital age affords all of us.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyerematen, has rallied for support to help the government deal with economic hardship being experienced in the county.



Kyerematen said at a recent event that it was instructive to note that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had admitted that the country was in a crisis but that working our way out of the crisis was the most important thing to do.



He stressed that doing so will require the collective efforts of the government and the citizenry.



The president has admitted himself that we are in a crisis. So, the issue is not about being in crisis, it is about finding a solution to the crisis. It behoves on government to do all it takes to take us out of the crisis and I believe you all know that we are very much on it.



If for some reason you do not hear from us, it is not that we have forgotten or we do not have empathy for the people of this country  I stand here to say we understand your plight fully, he told a congregation of the Centenary celebration of Asante presbytery in Kumasi over the weekend.



What Akufo-Addo said about Ghana being in a crisis



Amid an economic downturn, calls for Akufo-Addo to resign has heightened with a November 5, 2022 protest dubbed Kume Preko Reloaded making the loudest call as activists and politicians marched in Accra to press home that demand.



The government is meanwhile, grappling with an economic crisis, which along with the galamsey scourge and corruption are the major drivers for the call on Akufo-Addo to resign along with his Vice President, Mahamadu Bawumia.



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 bedevilled 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.





Source: Ghanab.com









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Tamale Central Member of Parliament, Alhassan Suhuyini, has advanced a reason why embattled Dome-Kwabenya lawmaker, Sarah Adwoa Safo, is returning to Parliament after a long absence.



Suhuyini in an interview on TV3, November 8, 2022, said it was curious that the lawmakers much-awaited return was coinciding with a vote of censure motion the Minority Caucus was due to move against Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.



According to him, the latest development is akin to the last time that she was in Parliament, that is to help with the passage of the 2022 Budget statement of the government.



You know there is an important vote coming up? Suhuyini asked New Day host Berla Mundi before adding: The finance ministers vote of censure, she has showed up. When did she last show up last minute? On the budget.



They knew where she was, they could bring her, they just didnt want to, he submitted.



When it is important to this governmentremember Adwoa Safo told us the president is aware of her absence and the president understands her and the president has never denied it.



For me, it is curious that an important vote is coming up.and the president has found a way and remember the president wants to save the Finance Minister at all costs, Adwoa is back, he stressed.



Adwoa Safo makes no-show in Parliament



On Tuesday, November 8, when proceedings in Parliament started at about 11.38 am, her seat was empty indicating that she was not in the Chamber.



Journalists and even her colleague MPs were expecting to see her join the debate which was going on at the plenary but that did not happen.



Sarah Adwoa Safo's seat remained empty till the end of the day's proceedings at 2.00 pm.



It is, however, unclear why the MP, after her return to the country failed to show up in the House.



The MP was relieved of her ministerial post despite having been given extended leave from last year and her seat in Parliament is the subject of a heated debate between the Speaker and Leader of the Majority Group.



After referring her absence from Parliament to the Privileges Committee of Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament said he investigated their work and was not satisfied with it and has since referred it to the floor of Parliament for a decision to be taken.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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Member of Parliament for Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro, Sylvester Tetteh has accused Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of behaving in bad faith after the president pleaded with the majority caucus in Parliament to give him some time in respect of calls for his removal.



The Ministers remarks after the president asked for more time, according to the majority member of parliament, may have an impact on the presidents appeal.



But when the finance minister, after this, goes public and starts making such public statements, we dont know the challenges hes gone through I mean, these are comments in bad taste, and that is what I am saying, from where I sit, the signals I am picking, such comments, if it is not checked, will go down on the presidents plea, he stated on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, edition of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV.



We had a meeting, and the president had made a plea; the majority caucus had taken that plea in good faith and to have gone through a process the president had asked. One party, in this case, should not go to town. Its not good, he added.



He hinted that the caucus would likely take action, such as boycotting the ministers upcoming budget presentation in parliament, if his utterances are not checked.



Events after and the subsequent pronouncements by the minister, the signals I am picking, if they dont address it, he will come to the house to meet an empty chamber, he stated.



Following an open call by about 80 majority MPs for the sack of Ken Ofori-Atta, President Akufo-Addo convened a meeting with the caucus where he is said to have made some appeal.









Source: Daily Guide









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Dominic Nitiwul, the Minister of Defence, has given Ghanaians the assurance that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will hand over power to a duly elected President on 7 January 2025.



That is the assurance, we in the security sector on behalf of the government, will give you. That is the assurance.



Niitiwul said this on Tuesday (8 November) at a press conference in Parliament House in his reaction to an earlier press conference by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Caucus on the current state of insecurity in Ghana in the wake of the economic meltdown.



During the Minority press conference, James Agalga, the Ranking Member for the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, noted that their attention had been drawn to an exposee by Kelvin Tailor, a Ghanaian journalist based in the United States, which suggested the recruitment and training of mercenaries by the government operatives based at the Jubilee House to cause chaos and mayhem in the country and blame the political opposition.



The Minority Caucus, therefore, urged bilateral partners, the ECOWAS Secretariat, the African Union, the clergy and the National Peace Council to speak out in the defence of the sustenance of Ghanas democracy before it was too late.



Nitiwul, however, in his reaction, noted that no such thing had taken place and that the Government had not brought anybody into the Jubilee House, who was not a soldier, who was not a Police, or who was not into national security.



We have not done such a thing since we came into power and we dont intend to do it. No evidence of that nature, he stated.



He urged Ghanaians to dismiss Tailors allegations; declaring that Tailor was engaging in yellow journalism and should, therefore, not be taken seriously.



Nitiwul noted that Tailors allegations were without substance.



Let me state to you that this president will hand over to the duly elected President of Ghana on the 7th of January, 2025, Nitiwul said.



The duly elected president would be chosen by the people of Ghana, nobody will interfere in the affairs of the people of Ghana, not from the military, not from the police, not from any politician.



The people of Ghana will line up on the 7 December 2024 cast their votes, whoever emerges president will be sworn in on 7 January 2025.



He urged political parties to go out there and campaign, and win the hearts and souls of the people of Ghana; saying that is my advice to them.



Touching on recruitment into the Ghana Armed Forces, the Minister noted that it was based on merit; adding that promotions were also merit-based.



He noted that members of the Ghana Armed Forces were very credible and professional in their conduct at the UN Peacekeeping Mission.

Source: asaaseradio.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Private Legal Practitioner, Lawyer Maurice Ampaw, has rubbished a protest intended to force President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia out of office due to hardship in the country.



The protest which saw a handful of Ghanaians clad in red and black and holding placards critical of the government was organized by a private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu.



Maurice Ampaw who was speaking on the aftermath of the protest says the organizer despite exercising his constitutional right cannot force the President to vacate his office with his frivolous reason.



"If things are hard, dont we have the legal process to change a government? he questioned on NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie'.



To him, "Demonstrating and calling the President out of office is a coup. You cant force the President. The constitution doesnt say so. He [Kpebu] is rather calling for political instability.







What Kpebu said at the protest

Kpebu led hundreds of demonstrators who marched through the capital on Saturday demanding the immediate resignation of President Akufo-Addo over Ghanas current economic woes.



Addressing protesters during the march, he said: We are dying; citizens are dying; citizens cant afford food; citizens are starving all because of misgovernance by President Akufo-Addo.



"It never happened that you have a president in office and every time that the country borrows, the presidents family becomes richer; how? This cant continue.



"We cant borrow all the time and have Databank becoming richer all the time. Citizens have a duty as stated in Article 41 [of the Constitution] to ask the president to resign and this is not the first time that a president of Ghana is going to resign, Martin Kpebu said.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Social Commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has asked the striking Teacher Unions to stop holding government to ransom with their use of strike actions.



Joining the Wednesday panel on "Kokrokoo" morning show on Peace FM, Allotey Jacobs registered his displeasure with the three Teacher Unions currently on strike to oppose the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.



The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G), on November 4, 2022, declared a nationwide strike over the failure of the government to meet the deadline to terminate the appointment of the new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Eric Nkansah.



They say they will call off their strike action when the government addresses their grievances.



But Allotey Jacobs is utterly unhappy with the position of the teachers.



"What kind of strike is this?", he raged.



He explained that the constitutional authority to appoint solely lies with the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, therefore urged the teachers to respect the President's appointment.



"They must resume work because it is the government that pays them and the government has the right to appoint anybody as Director-General, unless maybe you want to play mischief or you have certain motives behind your strike action," he said.



He described the strike as a "misdirected missile. This is an old Soviet bomb that can never blast".



"This doesn't affect any teaching. Someone has been given appointment as Director-General of Ghana Education Service and you say you're going to fight against that person. How can that be? You can't eat your cake and have it. They should be told. They should go back to school," he added.

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.

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Bernard Allotey Jacobs, a former NDC Central Regional Chairman, says the call for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to resign over the state of Ghana's economy is nothing but hogwash.



According to him, the demand by the 'Kume Preko Reloaded' demonstrators instigated by lawyer Martin Kpebu will come to naught.



Throng of protesters hit the streets of Accra wielding placards with various inscriptions to register their displeasure with the Akufo-Addo administration and asked the two leaders to tender their resignation.



The leader of the demonstration, Martin Kpebu, is said to have given the two a 3-day ultimatum, which ends on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, to resign.



To Allotey, "what they are doing is strengthening the resolve of the NPP rank and file. A lot of the NPP Communicators cannot come out to talk because of the current situation, but if you are taking advantage of it and you go on demonstration only to have 800-1000 people, you have failed!"



He stressed that the call to resign "will amount to nothing. This country will be governed by President Nana Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. 2024, Ghanaians will go to the polls and decide".



Allotey Jacobs cautioned lawyer Martin Kpebu regarding his utterances, saying "the guy is going over the bar".





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.

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Soldier, terrorist killed in military operation in NW Pakistan

Xinhua) 09:45, November 09, 2022

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- A soldier and a terrorist were killed in a military operation in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said on Tuesday.

The security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in Shakas area of Khyber district of the province, the military media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

"During the conduct of the operation, intense fire exchange took place between own troops and terrorists," the ISPR statement said, adding that the troops effectively engaged the terrorists' location, killing an important terrorist commander on the spot.

The killed terrorist was actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces, target killing and extortion, it said.

Weapons and ammunition were seized from the killed terrorist.

Sanitization of the area was being carried out to eliminate any other terrorists in the area, said the military statement.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
 Flash

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held a phone conversation with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the latter's request.

Australia and China have maintained effective communication and contact recently, said Wong, adding that through unremitting efforts, bilateral relations have witnessed positive changes.

Australia will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and develop more stable and mutually beneficial relations with China on the basis of mutual respect, she said.

Noting that sound Australia-China relations are not contradictory to safeguarding the two countries' respective national interests, Wong said Australia has no intention to magnify existing differences, and is ready to properly handle specific issues in a responsible manner within the framework of Australia-China comprehensive strategic partnership and make continuous efforts to improve and strengthen the two countries' relations.

For his part, Wang said the common interests of China and Australia far outweigh their differences, and the easing and improvement of China-Australia relations conforms to the fundamental interests of both sides and the common expectations of the two peoples and the international community.

Wang said that the two sides should continue to stick to the consensus on the basic position of being comprehensive strategic partners each other, uphold the spirit of mutual respect, seek common ground while reserving differences, and work together towards the goals of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, so as to rebuild mutual trust between the two countries and get bilateral ties back on track.

During this process, China and Australia need to gradually address respective legitimate concerns and jointly make positive contributions to tackling current global challenges, noted Wang.
The Deputy National Organiser of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Chief Biney Hamilton Nixon, has filed his nomination to contest for the National Organiser position of the party.



"Forms to contest for the position of NATIONAL ORGANIZER(NDC) duly filed. Thanks to the #chieforganizer team. The victory of the NDC is surely coming again, Ey3 Zu! Ey3 Za!" he posted on his social media platform.



In a press conference to declare his intention last month he said it was about time we find people like myself who have followed the process, gone through the mill to come up for positions and help the party to achieve its dream of rescuing Ghana come 2024.



Seriously, I have some plans and policies and programs that I believe that after my study throughout from the branch to national, if I am given the opportunity to join the team that will help in taking decisions, planning for the NDC, we will win political power come 2024. he said.



The Man Chief Biney



Chief Biney started following the party in 1992 but joined the NDC in 1996.



He has acted as a polling station agent at Tema Community 2, BBC to be precise and Kpone Katamanso constituency, but eventually transferred his vote to Ekumfi in the Central Region.



He subsequently contested and won in Ekumfi as Vice Chairman of the constituency.



He also contested as Parliamentary candidate for Ekumfi constituency but lost it.



Chief Biney has been a Regional Security Coordinator for the NDC in the Central Region and served on many committees in the party.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua, has stressed the need for a greater collaboration between government appointees and party functionaries to ensure the success of the Akufo-Addo government.



He said such collaboration was critical, hence the decision by the national executive body to roll out the party-government engagements initiative.



Mr Kodua stated this when the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, paid a working visit to the headquarters of the NPP last week Thursday.



Present at the partys headquarters during the meeting with the Interior Minister were a Deputy General Secretary, Haruna Mohammed; Deputy National Women Organiser, Miriam Awurama Duah; Director Finance and Administration, William Yamoah, and the Director of Communications, Richard Ahiagbah.



Mr Kodua assured Mr 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.



Commendation



He commended the Interior Minister for his hard work and proactive administrative measures, which he indicated, had helped to improve security in the country.



He also urged the minister and all other government officials to continuously engage with the partys leadership and all relevant stakeholders to build a united front to help the party retain power in the 2024 general election and for the betterment of the lives of the citizenry.



Mr Dery, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Nandom in the Upper West Region, reiterated Ghanas 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 had been introduced into the countrys security agencies by the ministry following his appointment in 2017.



He pledged to continue to work hard to sustain the relative peace within the country and to maintain its enviable achievement in the sub-region.









Source: Graphiconline.com









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Ghanaians were expecting to see the return of 'absentee' lawmaker for Dome-Kwabenya to Parliament after her extended stay in the United States since 2021 attending to family issues.



The MP over the weekend made her first public appearance when she attended a church service at the Ebenezer Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Dome-CFC.



Speaking to the congregation on November 6, 2022, she thanked the Church leadership and members before thanking God for steering her and her family through 2021, which she described as a challenging year.



"I want to say a big thank you to you all for this opportunity and [to] say a big thank you to the Almighty God for how far he has brought me.



"I am here today to thank the Almighty God because last year was a very challenging year for myself, my husband and my children but he pulled us through it," Adwoa Safo said.



However, on Tuesday, November 8, when proceedings in Parliament started at about 11.38 am, her seat was empty indicating that she was not in the Chamber.



Journalists and even her colleague MPs were expecting to see her join the debate which was going on at the plenary but that did not happen.



Sarah Adwoa Safo's seat remained empty till the end of the day's proceedings at 2.00 pm.



It is, however, unclear why the MP, after her return to the country failed to show up in the House.



The MP was relieved of her ministerial post despite having been given extended leave from last year and her seat in Parliament is the subject of a heated debate between the Speaker and Leader of the Majority Group.



After referring her absence from Parliament to the Privileges Committee of Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament said he investigated their work and was not satisfied with it and has since referred it to the floor of Parliament for a decision to be taken.







Source: ghannaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Credit: Shutterstock

Last week, police seized about 80 illegal firearms across Victoria. These included eight homemade firearms, four of which were "military-style weapons," as well as two 3D printers.

This is the latest in a series of seizures of 3D-printed weapons in Australia:

in 2016, Queensland police discovered a 3D printer in a raid on a "large-scale" firearms production facility

in September 2021, New South Wales counter-terrorism police arrested a right-wing extremist for possession of a digital design file that could be used to print a 3D gun

in June 2022, Western Australia police seized a 3D-printed semi-automatic rifle including metal parts that could render the gun fully operational.

Despite media reports of seizures of 3D-printed guns, very little is known about the demand and availability of these firearms within Australia. The available research, including our own, draws heavily from media reports.

What are 3D-printed firearms and why are they such a threat?

3D printing is used to create a three-dimensional object by layering materials following instructions contained in Computer Aided Design (CAD) files. These files can be downloaded on dark web forums, for example, and shared via online networks.

3D-printed firearms can include handguns, rifles and machineguns. There are also modular or hybrid guns made from interchangeable firearm components (3D-printed or otherwise). This allows for customisation and cloaking of a firearm's history.

3D-printed firearms do not currently work as well as traditional guns. However, there have been rapid improvements in the reliability of 3D-printed firearms and they are becoming less prone to malfunction.

3D-printed guns pose a significant threat to community safety. 3D printing has evolved to become relatively cheap and easily accessible. Significantly, it allows the manufacture of operational weapons within an otherwise heavily regulated firearms context.

Such guns are untraceable as they don't have serial numbers nor do they leave ballistic evidence in the same way as conventional firearms. This can undermine police investigations and information systems such as the Australian Ballistics Information Network and the National Firearm Trace Program.

These weapons are potentially available to people who aren't licensed to own a firearm, and those under Firearms Prohibition Orders. This includes those who could not hold a firearms license due to their age, mental health, or criminal histories.

What's more, these weapons are made mostly from plastics, which means they aren't detectable with metal detectors. Such firearms can bypass traditional security screening measures, presenting serious risks in aviation, public events and locations where security screening is in place (for example mega events, or secure government buildings such as Parliament House). 3D-printed guns are also easier to dismantle and destroy than more durable metal-based firearms.

Police have revealed some organized criminal groups and extremists have had 3D printers and 3D-printed firearms in their possession.

Recent Australian research in which one of the authors, David Bright, was involved, found criminally connected individuals, including members of organized criminal groups, can easily access a range of firearms through social networks. We interviewed 75 people imprisoned for gun crimes and found some had manufactured firearms or firearm parts. However, some interviewees were suspicious of accessing digital design files for fear of leaving online traces that law enforcement could intercept.

Members of extremist groups are less likely to have the contacts required to access the Australian black market for firearms. For them, 3D-printed firearms may be an attractive and low-risk option.

How could we respond?

It's important to note Australia has one of the strictest gun control regimes in the world. Any home manufacture of any firearms is criminalized under existing laws.

One option might be to have 3D printers recognise design files for guns, and prevent them from being printed. Credit: Shutterstock

Legislative responses to 3D firearms have varied internationally, and across Australian jurisdictions, and are evolving given the dynamic nature of the problem. International responses to 3D-printed guns include:

criminalizing the manufacture of 3D-printed firearms

licensing or registration schemes for 3D-printed firearms

introducing new offenses for possession of digital design files for 3D-printed firearms.

While Australian states have uniform legislation on the restriction of firearms, different states have enacted different laws for 3D-printed firearms and their design files. NSW is the only Australian state to criminalize possession of digital design files for 3D guns.

There are some alternative legal and policy responses. "Hash values" might be used to eradicate digital design files from the internet. Hash values are codes associated with images and files, sometimes referred to as "photo DNA."

Police and technology companies already use these to detect and remove child exploitation material. This could be used to restrict access to 3D weapon digital design files. However, unlike child exploitation material, design files for 3D printed guns are not universally illegal.

One innovative approach would be to require 3D printers sold in Australia to recognize digital design files for 3D-printed firearms. This is turn could prevent printing in such cases.

Online censorship, content moderation and website blocking are other possible options. However, these are complicated by the fact the possession or dissemination of design files for 3D-printed firearms isn't currently illegal (unless you're in NSW). There are also a range of issues with online censorship, such as free speech, the cross-jurisdictional nature of the internet, and the availability of design files on the dark web.

Another possibility for restricting access to digital design files would involve the development of industry online safety codes. These are codes that regulate access to harmful online conduct, similar to the Online Safety Act.

There's perhaps a greater role for the e-Safety Commissioner to direct platforms or websites accessible in Australia to remove harmful content such as design files for 3D-printed firearms, or restrict access to those over 18. Again, though, there are a range of issues with online age verification systems.

There is a pressing need for more research on 3D-printed firearms in Australia. Given the relative safety we enjoy in Australia by virtue of our tough gun laws, there are serious concerns about the ease of availability of digital design files for printing firearms. Restricting the capacity to manufacture firearms is our best defense to ensure our safety.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
New tardigrade Macrobiotus naginae. Credit: Daniel Stec

Tardigrades are tiny (0.51 mm) eight-legged animals famous for being among the toughest organisms on the planet. However, we still know very little about their behavior and ecology, particularly in Finnish ecosystems. Researchers from the Department of Biological and Environmental Science at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, have recently described a new species and reported a new incredible survival skill in another one of these mighty creatures.

Tardigrades are most often found in the humid micro-environment provided by forest mosses and wet leaflitter. However, their widespread ability enter anhydrobiosis (the reversible loss of body water) allows them to colonize relatively dry habitats.

Sand dunes are a unique but understudied ecosystem, especially with respect to microscopic diversity. A new tardigrade species was recently discovered from mosses and lichens growing on sandy soils in Rokua National Park. Its scientific nameMacrobiotus naginaeis inspired by the sad back story of a character from the Harry Potter books: Lord Voldemort's snake companion Nagini. Nagini's cursed transformation from woman to limbless beast recalls the evolutionary pattern of limb reduction that sand dwellers often go through. And indeed, M. naginae has considerably reduced claws which are advantageous for crawling between sand grains.

This study highlights the importance of applying basic ecological research using taxonomy tools for non-model organisms. Afterall, only with a more complete understanding of the current biodiversity, can more effective conservation actions be developed to preserve unique habitats such as inland sand dunes.

Land snail Arianta arbustorum. Credit: Chloe Foullioux

Tardigrades survive a snail's gut

Biodiversity patterns are affected, among others, by differences in dispersal ability of different species. For small organisms such as tardigrades, dispersal is believed to be limited in distance and largely mediated by wind and water. A new study has provided the first direct evidence that moss-living tardigrades are able to survive the passage through the gut of the land snails.

Researchers were able to recover active tardigrades from the feces of a quarter of wild caught Arianta arbustorium snails. One of the two species thus collected was able to persist in the laboratory. However, in order to better assess this survival ability, an experiment was conducted: snails were fed a known amount of a locally sourced moss-living tardigrade (Macrobiotus ripperi) in controlled conditions, and their feces analyzed for four consecutive days.

It was found that 1/3 of all ingested tardigrades were defecated alive (218/698 tardigrades), with a peak at day 2 post ingestion. Furthermore, these recovered tardigrades reproduced in laboratory conditions.

This two-day "delay" could result in dispersal distances of about 10 meters. This is a considerable distance for organism under 1mm, for which just few millimeters of dry area would thwart its movement. Moreover, snails and tardigrades share the same moss-rich and humid habitats; therefore, the destination of this "snail-ride" is likely suitable for the surviving tardigrades.

This study, now published in Zoological Studies, highlights the importance of basic ecological research to improve the currently limited understanding of microorganism dispersal and its links with extreme environment adaptations.

More information: Matteo Vecchi et al, Macrobiotus naginae sp. nov., a New Xerophilous Tardigrade Species from Rokua Sand Dunes (Finland) Zoological Studies (2022). DOI: 10.6620/ZS.2022.61-22. doi.org/10.6620/ZS.2022.61-22
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A desire to succeed despite adversity motivates people to pursue a legal career, but barriers caused by finances and careers advice are obstacles, a new study suggests.

Those who have become solicitors and barristers said experiencing difficult circumstances in their lives and their personal qualities had been a bigger influence than any structural class or education barriers. Some wanted to prove others wrong and succeed against the odds.

Experts say their findings could be used to devise systems to encourage and actively promote widening participation into the legal profession with support that is emotional and psychological, rather than exclusively financial.

Experts analyzed 650 UK tweets posted under the twitter hashtag #mypathtolaw in 2018, which was started by Dr. Matthew Channon from the University of Exeter Law Schoolfollowing his experiencesto encourage law students, solicitors, barristers and legal academics to share their personal paths to a legal career. It has already contributed in changing the narratives of entry into the legal profession by celebrating diverse routes and in providing inspiration for future lawyers from "non-standard" backgrounds.

The tweets reveal an encouraging picture of the ability of many to overcome barriers to their entry into a legal career through support from family, or personal resilience and perseverance, or the financial and emotional support of legal firms or teachers. Tweeters said poor or discouraging career advice had been a significant barrier to them.

Narratives of financial struggles and how they are overcome featured strongly in the tweets, and the study says earlier financial support for aspiring lawyers is crucial to widen access.

The study also says greater support from legal firms, through mentoring and scholarships, combined with greater support from schools in career advice, preparation for interviews, and work experience placements may significantly aid individuals to overcome barriers in their entry into the legal profession. Thus, many barriers to the legal profession are conquerable with earlier financial assistance and better career advice.

Many of the tweeters (62.5 percent) chose not to reference their secondary school education at all. A total of 156 mentioned having to combine work and study, 64 the influence of family or legal firms and 89 the importance of work experience. Twenty-five respondents specifically mentioned being motivated by having experienced or seen injustices, while 23 mentioned luck. Gender wasn't mentioned as a significant issue, although other research has identified it as a barrier.

The research, published in the journal Research in Post-Compulsory Education, was carried out by Ruth Flanagan, Anna Mountford-Zimdars and Dr. Channon, all from the University of Exeter.

Professor Mountford-Zimdars said, "Social class, poverty measures like free-school meals, postcode data and gender are used as standard measures of barriers to entry for professions such as the law. It is striking that our tweeters choose to focus on different narratives. Gender was only mentioned explicitly in two tweets, whereas being a single parent was more commonly mentioned as a barrier. Gender was notable by its absence. In addition, references were made to losing a parent, and experiences [with] or exposure to mental illness, categories seldom part of social mobility survey research.

"Striking also was the focus on enablers and personal characteristics that had allowed them to be successful, such as resilience, a strong character or a strong internal motivation for wishing to become a lawyer, such as a sense of injustice. While the sociological literature focuses more on barriers than enablers, our tweeters focused on their individual drive to succeed. It may indeed be the tweeters' focus on individual characteristics and traits that has allowed them to successfully become lawyers when others with similar backgrounds may have failed."

Ruth Flanagan added, "The dissatisfaction with career advice is clearly a policy issue universities can address in their outreach and schools and colleges can address in their advice practices. A greater degree of support and preparation for law as a career choice would have benefited many of our tweeters. It might be that career advisors themselves require greater training of progress to law to be able to give the most useful advice. Changing the narratives about who can be successful in law rather than pitching law as an inaccessible profession is another way forward. Instead of encouraging individuals to self-eliminate from consideration for a legal career, a wider dispersal of these narratives may further facilitate the opening of the legal profession to those from all backgrounds.

Dr. Channon remarked, "Advice from teachers and sometimes law-firms proved to be a strong enabler where it was positive, and an impactful barrier when it was negative: Tweeters remembered both encouraging and discouraging words from many years ago as having had the power to change their paths. The impact lesson here is that everyone engaging in conversations about future career aspirations must not underestimate the huge impact their words could have."

More information: Ruth Flanagan et al, #Mypathtolaw: understanding access to the legal profession through a ricoeurian analysis, Research in Post-Compulsory Education (2022). DOI: 10.1080/13596748.2022.2076058
Red-billed quelea adult breeding male. Credit: Linn Currie/Shutterstock

During the northern hemisphere summer of 2022, yet another round of extreme heat waves roasted Eurasia, North America and northern Africaa stark reminder that these conditions are becoming the new normal.

These events can have a devastating impact on wildlife. For instance, reports of large-scale deaths of birds have become regular in recent years, as we've seen in Patagonia, Argentina and Spain.

These events underscore the need to understand the ability of birds (and other animals) to tolerate extreme heat. This information will be essential for predicting where and when future mortality events could occur. It can also tell us which species will be most affected.

Intriguingly, when we conducted a study to measure how much heat 53 bird species in southern Africa could stand, we found that species vary greatly in the way they handle heat.

Most significantly, how hot a bird's body temperature could getwhat we call "maximum tolerable body temperature"differed in unexpected ways among bird species from different climatic regions. This suggests that birds from different climates will handle extreme heat differently.

This is an important finding. Previous research assumed that the body temperature response to extreme air temperatures for birds was similar between species. Predictions on how vulnerable birds are to climate change have been modeled with this thinking in mind.

Our study shows that the reality is more complex. Birds may have evolved depending on where they lived, to have variation in traits like body temperature and their ability to handle heat.

Assuming that birds all handle heat in the same way could result in predictions that don't reflect how vulnerable they truly are to global warming. To improve the accuracy of such predictions, the body temperature limits of specific species need to be incorporated.

Body temperature regulation in the heat

Our study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined 53 bird species from hot arid, cool mountainous or warm humid coastal regions of southern Africa.

We hypothesized that birds from different climatic areas differed in body temperature responses to extreme air temperatures. We tested this hypothesis by measuring the birds' body temperature, metabolic rate and evaporative water loss at increasing air temperatures. (Water loss primarily happens when a bird pants, allowing it to cool down.)

We were particularly interested in the birds' maximum body temperature. We measured this just before birds displayed symptoms such as loss of co-ordination and uncontrolled increases in body temperature. Both of those symptoms are associated with the onset of severe hyperthermia, or overheating.

We found that desert birds comfortably handled air temperatures exceeding 50C, without a dramatic increase in their body temperature. They maintained body temperatures below approximately 44.5C.

In contrast, birds from warmer, humid regions tolerated air temperatures in the upper 40s before showing signs of severe hyperthermia. Their body temperatures increased on average by almost six degrees above normal levels of 3841C.

Generally, large fluctuations in a bird's body temperature during extreme heat exposure suggests that the bird isn't able to maintain (or thermoregulate) optimal body temperatures.

However one species, the red-billed quelea, which occurs across much of sub-Saharan Africa, could cope with a body temperature increase to an astounding 48C without any ill effect. This was previously thought physiologically impossible among birds.

Evolution of heat tolerance

Why did birds evolve tolerance of such high body temperatures?

The answer, we think, is that birds from more humid areas have adapted to rely less on evaporative cooling during hot weather.

Evaporative cooling is when a bird loses heat by panting through its mouth or via other pathways. It is the only way a bird can offload heat when the temperature of its immediate surroundings is higher than its body temperature. So being able to tolerate a high body temperature allows a bird to survive in a humid area, where it can't lose much heat by panting.

Essentially, birds which have evolved in humid climates survive extremely hot weather by tolerating hyperthermia. In contrast, desert birds use highly efficient evaporative cooling to avoid hyperthermia.

This suggests that being exposed to different climatic conditions has driven the evolution of differences in body temperature and heat tolerance among birds from different climates.

Protecting birds from heat

The findings of our study are highly relevant for understanding the risks posed by extreme heat waves to birds and other wildlife. For instance, our findings confirm previous suspicions that songbirds, which make up over half of all bird species on Earth, are particularly vulnerable to heatwaves.

Developing strategies to mitigate the effects of these events on birds and other wildlife is crucial, as extreme heat events are becoming more regular and widespread across southern Africa. They pose increasing risks to the region's remarkable biodiversity.

These risks were dramatically illustrated in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on 8 November 2020, when air temperatures in the Pongola area soared to 45C by mid-afternoon. This caused huge numbers of birds to succumb. Approximately 90% of the bird carcasses found by field rangers in the nearby Phongolo Nature Reserve in the aftermath of the heat were those of songbirds.

Management interventions in protected areas may reduce the likelihood of future mortality events. Maintaining shady vegetation, for instance, provides cool places where birds can escape the worst of the heat. Free-standing water sources will also increase the likelihood that birds are able to defend body temperatures below lethal limits.

Ultimately, however, the only way to prevent large-scale losses of avian biodiversityon account of rapid global warmingis the rapid decarbonisation of economies and a global transition to renewable energy sources.

More information: Marc T. Freeman et al, Adaptive variation in the upper limits of avian body temperature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2116645119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The link between climate change and the spread of crop pests has been established by research and evidence.

Farmers are noticing the link themselves, alongside higher temperatures and greater variability in rainfall. All these changes are having an impact on harvests across Africa.

Changing conditions sometimes allow insects and diseases to spread and thrive in new places. The threat is greatest when there are no natural predators to keep pests in check, and when human control strategies are limited to the use of unsuitable synthetic insecticides.

Invasive pests can take hold in a new environment and cause very costly damage before national authorities and researchers are able to devise and fund ways to protect crops, harvests and livelihoods.

Early research into biological control methods (use of other organisms to control pests) shows promise for safeguarding harvests and food security. Rapid climate change, however, means researchers are racing against time to develop the full range of tools needed for a growing threat.

The most notable of recent invasive pests to arrive in Africa was the fall armyworm, which spread to the continent from the Americas in 2016.

Since then, 78 countries have reported the caterpillar, which attacks a range of crops including staples like maize and has caused an estimated US$9.4 billion in losses a year.

African farmers are still struggling to contain the larger grain borer, or Prostephanus truncatus Horn, which reached the continent in the 1970s. It can destroy up to 40% of stored maize in just four months. In Benin, it is a particular threat to cassava chips, and can cause losses of up to 50% in three months.

It's expected that the larger grain borer will continue to spread as climatic conditions become more favorable. African countries urgently need more support and research into different control strategies, including the use of natural enemies, varietal resistance and biopesticides.

My research work is at the interface between plants, insects and genetics. It's intended to contribute to more productive agriculture that respects the environment and human health by controlling insect pests with innovative biological methods.

For example, we have demonstrated that a species of insect called Alloeocranum biannulipes Montr. and Sign. eats some crop pests. Certain kinds of fungi (Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana), too, can kill these pests. They are potential biological control agents of the larger grain borer and other pests.

Improved pest control is especially important for women farmers, who make up a significant share of the agricultural workforce.

In Benin, for example, around 70% of production is carried out by women, yet high rates of illiteracy mean many are unable to read the labels of synthetic pesticides.

This can result in misuse or overuse of chemical crop protection products, which poses a risk to the health of the farmers applying the product and a risk of environmental pollution.

Moreover, the unsuitable and intensive use of synthetic insecticides could lead to the development of insecticide resistance and a proliferation of resistant insects.

Biological alternatives to the rescue

Various studies have shown that the use of the following biological alternatives would not only benefit food security but would also help farmers who have limited formal education:

Next generation tools

To develop efficient integrated pest management strategies, researchers need support and funding. They need to test these potential biocontrol methods and their combinations with other eco-friendly methods in farm conditions.

Investing in further research would help to bolster the African Union's 20212030 Strategy for Managing Invasive Species, and protect farmers, countries and economies from more devastating losses as climate change brings new threats.

Initiatives like the One Planet Fellowship, coordinated by African Women in Agricultural Research and Development, have helped further the research and leadership of early-career scientists in this area, where climate and gender overlap.

But much more is needed to unlock the full expertise of women and men across the continent to equip farmers with next generation tools for next generation threats.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Most of us would rather not rehash our experiences from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, for many this worldwide health crisis remains top of mind and continues to factor into everyday decision-making.

The pandemic taught us a lot about ourselves: how much risk we can tolerate, what we believe on questions of individualism versus community and our preferences about how to redistribute resources across society. Our research reveals that even though we may be divided in our experiences and our political affiliation, we can become united in times of threat.

Extensive lockdown measures and perceived risk of infection were each routinely positioned in the media as threats to physical and mental well-being. But beyond health concerns, the pandemic also cast light on the vulnerability of individual and household finances.

The federal government was quick to respond by implementing the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) along with other direct financial policy measures geared towards the elderly, people with dependents and students, among others.

These initiatives were controversial. While many praised the government's efforts to support Canadians, others argued that the CERB and related financial supports were inadequate.

In contrast, some conservative leaders and pundits criticized the CERB for its negative impact on businesses, declaring that employees were unnecessarily leaving minimum wage jobs to receive the CERB and other benefits.

Pundits aside, understanding Canadians' responses to these changes in government support can tell us something about how members of society evaluate their own financial concerns as well as those of their neighbors in a time of financial need.

Support for government assistance

In June 2020, we collected survey data to establish whether people's concern for their own or for others' financial well-beingor bothwould drive support for policies that supported government financial aid.

We asked respondents to rate whether they thought the federal government had done a good job handling the financial aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing CERB and CESB as examples of these efforts.

Our analysis showed that those who expressed concern for the financial well-being of others were more likely to approve of the federal government's handling of the financial aspects of the pandemic.

By contrast, people's concerns about their own financial struggles had no effect on whether they approved of the federal government's actions.

In other words, people were more likely to support the federal government's helping hand if they recognized other people were dealing with financial struggles, no matter their own economic situation. This was regardless of political affiliation.

Since CERB and other associated measures may have been tied to existing support for the Liberal government, we also asked participants about their attitudes on a broader range of government interventions, such as education support as well as credit and mortgage relief.

As a country that has experimented with universal basic income (UBI) measures, but never fully bought in, we were also curious about whether the pandemic may have created the conditions for citizens to support UBI in Canada.

We found that people's own financial struggles as well as their concerns for others drove support for these policieseven after controlling for other factors like income and political affiliation. But their compassion for others had a much larger effect on support for a UBI.

An opportunity for big change?

Crises by definition are not "business as usual" in politics or the personal lives of citizens. They have long been windows of opportunity for transformational change.

In part, this may be because they expose the weaknesses of the current political and economic infrastructure. But crises also have a profoundly human aspect to them, exposing the vulnerability of citizens who are deeply affected when these systems fail.

The findings from our research suggest that people's concerns for others during a crisis may be more influential than individual needs or political affiliation in determining support for certain redistributive policies.

This dovetails with ongoing research on social trust and empathy. What governments do at these junctureswhether they recognize a shift in public opinion and whether that aligns with their policy preferencesis a political question. But our research suggests that, as divisive as crises can be, they can also create some cross-partisan empathy.

Among headlines of division and conflict, expressions of concern for our fellow citizens are a refreshing silver lining on a pandemic that has not yet fully run its course.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The word "network" has become part of our everyday language, in particular since the rise of online social networks. However, human interactions are not only aimed at sociability and fun. Criminals also interact with each other to plan their illicit actions, especially in organized crime.

Motivated by openly available data and publicly released judicial documents from a law-enforcement operation named "Operazione Infinito," which was conducted in Lombardy between 2007 and 2009 to tackle the 'Ndrangheta mafia, Bocconi Professor Daniele Durante and his co-authors have developed a new class of statistical models for grouping together criminals with similar connectivity patterns, thus shedding further light on the community structure of criminal organizations.

In fact, within most networks, not all the nodesthat here represent criminalsare connected to each other, and community structures typically arise. The simplest type of community structure is characterized by dense connections within each community, and sparser connections across different communities. This corresponds to the idea that each individual is more likely to connect with the individuals belonging to the same community.

This happens for example with classmates within a school, even though interactions across different classes are of course possible. Sometimes, interactions across different groups are even more likely than those within the same group. Think for example of two groups of animals, predators and preys, and interactions representing eating/being eaten.

The structure of criminal networks is far more complex. In particular, the 'Ndrangheta network under analysis displays a nested and hierarchical structure, with bosses at the core of the network and affiliates at the periphery. Both bosses and affiliates are then divided into sub-groups which are quite coherent with local units. The affiliates from each local unit mostly interact with their own bosses, but then bosses from different local units communicate with each other in order to coordinate the overall functioning of the organization.

"Unlike classical community detection algorithms," explains Professor Durante, "our extended stochastic block model is able to account for these complex architectures. Moreover, besides observed connections, that here represent co-attendances of criminals to meetings of the organization, we were able to incorporate additional node information coming from investigations, such as the local unit and the presumed role within the organization."

"Europol has recently described criminal networks as modern Hydras, with a complex and fluid structure. As shown in this work of ours, this type of complexityif analyzed through proper statistical modelscan actually be a blessing rather than a curse, and can help illuminate these dark networks."

The study is published in The Annals of Applied Statistics.

More information: Sirio Legramanti et al, Extended stochastic block models with application to criminal networks, The Annals of Applied Statistics (2022). DOI: 10.1214/21-AOAS1595 Journal information: Annals of Applied Statistics

Provided by Bocconi University
Credit: Shutterstock

As the COP27 climate talks got underway in Egypt this week, climate and energy minister Chris Bowen announced Australia would bid to co-host the annual United Nations climate summit with Pacific island nations in 2026.

Playing host to the world's climate negotiations could be a very big deal. It would be the largest diplomatic event Australia has ever held and would have major implications for both climate policy and our international relations.

A successful summit would signal Australia's shift from fossil fuel heavyweight to renewables superpower and herald a new era of regional cooperation with the Pacific. However, these outcomes cannot be assumed, nor can support from Pacific nations.

Over the past 30 years Pacific island countries have played a crucial role in the global response to the climate crisis. Meanwhile, Australia has sought to avoid obligations to cut emissions and has acted as a handbrake on global action, even while expanding coal and gas exports. This legacy cannot be put to one side easily, nor should it be.

To successfully bid for and host the UN climate talks, the Albanese government will need to show Australia really has changed by bringing more to the table, and taking coal and gas off the menu.

What would it mean to host a COP?

Australia has never hosted the annual UN climate talks. Doing so would be a chance to revive Australia's international reputation and reposition us to embrace the benefits of a global clean energy economy.

Sydney or Melbourne would most likely host, as between 20,000 and 40,000 delegates would be expected to attend. Apart from the technical negotiations, the summit would be an industry trade faira chance to showcase Australia's growing clean energy export industry.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese argues that Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become a renewable energy superpower. He is right.

Australia can play a supersized role in the global transition to net-zero by exporting the clean energy commodities and critical minerals other countries need to cut emissions.

According to leading economist Ross Garnaut, Australia could reduce reduce global emissions by 8%especially by exporting zero-carbon metals to growing economies in Asia. This would be the equivalent of cutting all the emissions of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Australian diplomacy matters, too. We have history as a responsible middle power, galvanizing action to protect the environment. In 1982 Australia supported a global moratorium on commercial whaling. In 1989 former Prime Minister Bob Hawke championed a treaty to ban mining in Antarctica.

With similar ambition today, Australia could broker a new era of global climate action, especially if we work with Pacific island nations as a regional diplomatic bloc.

Australia's relations with Pacific island countries are more important than ever. In the context of China's growing interest in the region, Australia is keen to reaffirm its place as the security partner of choice for island governments.

But Australia will need to take serious action on climate change, as the Pacific has made it crystal clear for decades that climate change is the region's single greatest threat.

Pacific leadership and Australian recalcitrance

Pacific island countries have led the global response to climate change in the decades since a scientific consensus on the issue emerged in the 1980s.

In 1990 they formed a diplomatic alliance with island nations in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean to pursue shared interests in UN climate negotiations. This alliance has since swelled to 39 countries.

Indeed, the first draft of the 1997 Kyoto Protocolwhich required wealthy nations to reduce emissionswas put forward by Nauru on behalf of this Alliance of Small Island States.

Pacific diplomats were also crucial for securing the 2015 Paris Agreement, which now guides international collaboration to cut greenhouse gas emissions and shift toward clean energy.

They have succeeded in shaping global climate action, despite the divergent position of Australia.

In fact, Australia has used its position as the most powerful member of the Pacific Islands Forum to try to weaken regional declarations put forward by island nations at key milestones in the global climate negotiations.

In the run-up to the 1997 UN Kyoto climate summit, for example, Prime Minister John Howard refused to back Pacific calls for a protocol with binding targets to cut emissions.

Similarly, ahead of the 2015 Paris climate summit, Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to support Pacific calls for a global treaty to limit warming to to 1.5 above pre-industrial levels. Pacific island states have consistently argued that this temperature threshold is key for low-lying nations such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands to survive.

In response, Kiribati President Anote Tong suggested Australia should leave the forum altogether if it wasn't prepared to back the islands' positions in global climate negotiations.

When Prime Minister Scott Morrison again tried to water down a regional climate declaration at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu in 2019, a frustrated Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama told waiting media that partnering with China was preferable to working with Morrison.

What Australia needs to bring to the table

To co-host the 2026 UN climate talks with Pacific nations, Australia will need to show it's finally serious about tackling the climate crisis.

While Pacific leaders have welcomed Australia's new 2030 targetto cut emissions by 43% from 2005 levelsthey clearly expect more. Bainimarama has pointedly argued for Albanese "to go further for our family's shared future by aligning Australia's commitment to the 1.5-degree target".

By 2026, Australia will need to put in place policies that will drive deeper cuts to emissions, enabling us to strengthen our 2030 target and to set a much more ambitious 2035 target.

Global emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 to have any chance of achieving the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5. A wealthy nation like Australiawith vast, untapped, resources for renewable energyshould be aiming to reduce emissions by 75% this decade.

At COP27 in Egypt yesterday, Tuvalu announced it would join Vanuatu's support for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, intended to help manage a global transition away from coal, oil and gas.

Over the next four years, we can expect more Pacific nations to join this treaty, adding pressure to tackle Australia's biggest contribution to the problem: coal and gas exports.

Australia should also end all fossil fuel subsidies, especially public support for fossil fuel projects.

Instead Australia will need to put more money on the table to help developing nations cope with climate impacts. As a start Australia should increase overall commitment to international climate finance from A$2 billion to A$3 billion over the period 2020-2025.

As potential co-host for COP31, Pacific island nations will also expect Australia to contribute to a new global fund to address loss and damage from climate change. Expectations will only grow with New Zealand announcing yesterday it would provide finance for loss and damage, a move already welcomed by island leaders.

This is the crucial decade

By 2026 the window for securing a safe climate will be closing fast.

Much can change in four years' time. Over the past four years, we have seen more than 100 countriesrepresenting 90% of the global economycommit to net-zero emissions. Most developed nations have committed to halving their emissions by 2030.

Despite these shifts, the world remains dangerously off-track. Even if all countries meet their current targets for emission reductions by 2030, the world is headed for 2.4-2.6 of warming this century. This would be a cataclysmic outcome.

By hosting the UN climate talks, Australia could broker a new round of global ambition to cut emissions, and cement our place as part of the Pacific family. But first we will need to show we're taking this crisis seriously.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Location of ice in Beisfjord while avalanche debris covered the only road leading into the community (left). The dock was not accessible, so a military boat (right) could only land further way along a rocky coastline when the tide allowed. Credit: Vidar Lkeng/Fremover

Norwegian fjord and coastal ice represent a potential security threat, as it may cut off entire communities from the outside world.

After a significant avalanche closed the road to Beisfjord in Nordland, Norway in February 2022, the community of approximately 700 people could only be accessed by boat. A military boat was sent in to help, but due to the presence of ice extending over one km from the back of the fjord, access to a dock placed the previous summer was impossible.

As a result, the boat was forced to land outside the town on a rocky coastline to provide supplies to residents.

Such events provide one reason why the behavior of ice in subarctic fjords needs more attention, according to researcher Megan O'Sadnick at SINTEF Narvik. In her Ph.D. thesis, she provides the first comprehensive look at Norwegian subarctic fjord and coastal ice to address an intriguing gap in scientific knowledge.

Little research so far

Due to the influence of warm Atlantic water, larger fjords along the Norwegian coast are ice free all year. However, sea ice can form in the inner parts of fjords and in smaller fjord branches.

While a wide breadth of work exists examining mainland Norwegian fjords, often focusing on water mass dynamics and their link to biological processes, little research has been conducted on sea ice in these locations.

"With industry increasing in the North, a larger number of boats and people are being drawn to these areas. Understanding ice conditions including not only where it may be present but also the properties of that ice and the factors contributing to its formation, will better prepare northern communities for future development," O'Sadnick says.

Analysis of satellite imagery

To fill the knowledge gap, an automated method was developed to estimate quantitatively ice extent from optical satellite imagery for 386 fjords and other coastal areas along the coast of mainland Norway from 2001 to 2019 between February and May.

The individual fjords were next grouped into regions to begin investigating the factors potentially driving ice formation including air temperature, snowfall, and rainfall plus snowmelt.

"While the first, air temperature, was correlated to ice extent in some regions, this relationship as well as relationships to the two other weather variables examined were not consistent pointing to variations in the mechanisms driving ice formation," O'Sadnick explains.

The breakup of ice in Nordkjosbotn, March 2020. Credit: Megan OSadnick

To enhance understanding of the properties of fjord ice including its crystal structure, bulk salinity and oxygen isotopic composition, ice samples were gathered at seven fjords located in northern Norway during three winter seasons between 2017 and 2020. Possible correlations to temperature and snowfall were revisited in addition to river runoff illuminating further variations not only in ice extent between seasons, but also ice properties and the factors driving ice formation.

In addition, using previously derived relationships linking the salinity and isotopic composition of the ice to that of the ocean and river water, the composition of water at the ice-ocean interface during ice growth was subsequently estimated.

Locals concerned about inaccessibility

The closure of the road leading into Beisfjord, provides a clear example of how communities located in fjords and along the coast of Norway can quickly become inaccessible. The presence of ice in Beisfjord was an additional obstacle, limiting the area where boats could travel and the amount of coastline available to gain access to the town.

Only a week later, after the avalanche debris had been cleared, ice extent increased filling nearly the entirety of the fjord. Travel by boats without icebreaking capabilities was no longer viable, leading to concern within the community. If the road was again closed, they would need to depend on helicopters or wait for an ice breaker to arrive.

"Conversations are ongoing on how to ensure continuous access to Beisfjord through the winter, yet one thing is for certain, the presence of fjord ice greatly complicates any options that depend on access by sea," O'Sadnick explains.

As a result, solutions to how to keep Beisfjord safely accessible through winter are being explored, including more dependable but costly measures like the building of a tunnel.

Fjord ice should not go overlooked

Through this research examining ice conditions along the coast of Norway, it is reasonable to surmise that the town of Beisfjord is not entirely unique in how it is impacted by the occasional presence of ice.

Sandnessjen provides another example, with fjord ice being noted to halt winter-time shipments of building materials for a factory as early as the 1940s. To this day, fjord ice is still defined as a transportation challenge, blocking the only alternative route if the single road into town is closed during winter.

"Thus, Norwegian fjord and coastal ice should not go overlooked, and perhaps given more focus, because of its potential influence on local communities, industry, and the fjord environment," says O'Sadnick.

Through her work, a gap in scientific knowledge has narrowed through the collection of data and completion of analysis focused specifically on Norwegian fjord and coastal ice.

"More work remains, however, to improve our understanding not only of Norwegian fjord ice, but also of other regions where similar ice exists," says O'Sadnick.

More information: Megan O'Sadnick, Ice in Norwegian subarctic fjords and coastal regions: An examination of ice formation, properties, and trends based on remote sensing and in situ data. hdl.handle.net/10037/26462

Provided by SINTEF
The Leipzig Authoritarianism Study 2022 has just been published. Since 2002, scientists at the Leipzig University have been observing the development of authoritarian and right-wing-extremist attitudes in Germany. Credit: Thomas Hase

Public satisfaction with democracy in Germany has risen over the past two years, while in some cases extreme right-wing attitudes have declined significantly. At the same time, hatred of migrants, women, Muslims and other groups in Germany has increased and become widespread. In addition, stronger desires for authority can be observed in the wake of the pandemic. These are key findings of the representative "Leipzig Authoritarianism Study."

Professors Oliver Decker and Elmar Brahler from the Competence Center for Right-Wing Extremism and Democracy Research at Leipzig University presented the study results today (9 November) at the Federal Press Conference (BPK) in Berlin. The study, which also explores attitudes towards political decisions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the war against Ukraine, was conducted in cooperation with the Heinrich Boll Foundation and the Otto Brenner Foundation.

According to the study, only 2% of people in eastern Germany still have a narrow, extremely right-wing world view. In 2020, this figure was still around 10%. "Agreement with extreme right-wing statements is not only decreasing in the whole of Germany, but especially in eastern Germany. That's good news, but it's only half the picture," says head of the study Professor Oliver Decker.

"While elements of neo-Nazi ideology are rarer, resentment of those perceived as 'different' has actually increased," adds co-head Elmar Brahler. According to the study, the percentage of people with "manifestly xenophobic" attitudes in eastern Germany has risen from 27.8% to 31% compared to 2020, whereas it has fallen from 13.7 to 12.6% in western Germany. Forty percent of eastern Germans say they believe Germany is being "swamped with foreigners," and 23% of western Germans also agree with this statement.

The percentage of people who are satisfied with constitutional democracy rises from 65% to 90% in eastern Germany; nationwide, it is approved of by 82% of people. "Compared with authoritarian systems, democracy as a form of government is becoming more popular," comments Oliver Decker. But: only just half of respondents expressed their approval of everyday democratic practice. Despite the high level of satisfaction with the form of government, there is evidently a widespread feeling of not having any political influence.

The two researchers see this as fitting into the crisis situation during the pandemic and the current war: the executive branch is strengthened and its actions are widely supported, but this authoritarian security comes at a price. Though people accept their feelings of powerlessness and the restrictions on their own lives, this also leads to an increase in aggression.

"That is why neo-Nazi ideology, and with it elements of extreme right-wing attitudes, are less important at present. But now other anti-democratic motives are coming to the fore," explains Professor Elmar Brahler, "they are prejudices, hatred of 'others,' and this is not less common and is served just as well by far-right parties."

For example, opposition to Muslims has increased in eastern Germany compared to 2020, with 46.6% agreeing with the statement that Muslims should be banned from immigrating to Germany, compared to 23.6% in western Germany. Sinti and Roma are also disapproved of by 54.9% of eastern Germans and 23.6% of western Germans.

Meanwhile, "guilt-deflecting anti-Semitism" remains the most widespread expression of anti-Semitism across Germany, with just under half of respondents agreeing with corresponding statements. Support for anti-feminist statements has also increased since 2020. Twenty-seven percent of respondents believed that women "who demand too much shouldn't be surprised if they're put back in their place."

"The simultaneous rise in anti-feminism, guilt-deflecting anti-Semitism and also hatred of Muslims, Sinti and Roma, indicates a shift in the motives of anti-democratic attitudes, not a strengthening of democracy," says Professor Oliver Decker. "Besides xenophobia, right-wing extremists today have many more opportunities to find a foothold in mainstream society, not fewer."

In addition, society is still polarized by the pandemic. It is true that one positive development is that the proportion of respondents with a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories has declined significantly since 2020, from 38.4% in 2020 to 25% in 2022. "Due in no small part to the internet, political discourse is dominated by two groups: an entrenched group of 13% who oppose vaccination versus 19% who strongly resent those who oppose vaccination," says Professor Oliver Decker. "In both groups, resentment not only of each other, but also of many 'others' is equally strong."

Decker and Brahler observe a similar fragmentation of society to some extent in respondents' reactions to the Ukraine war. Although no one explicitly supported the war, the supporters of arms deliveries to Ukraine on the one hand and those who sympathize with Russia on the other also share a generally higher propensity for authoritarian aggression. "Here, too, it can be seen that the authoritarian mobilization potential still exists, but it can currently be satisfied with socially conformist goals," says Professor Elmar Brahler.

About the 'Leipzig Authoritarianism Study'

The two researchers at Leipzig University have been observing changes in authoritarian and far-right attitudes in Germany since 2002. From 2006 until 2012, the so-called "Mitte" Studies were carried out in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Since 2016 the Leipzig studies have been published in cooperation with the Heinrich Boll Foundation and the Otto Brenner Foundation.

In the eleventh wave, the opinion research institute USUMA surveyed 2,522 people nationwide between early March and the end of May 2022 on behalf of Leipzig University using a paper-and-pencil method. In order to be able to analyze attitudes towards the war in Ukraine, an online survey with 4000 respondents was commissioned from the polling institute Bilendi & respondi after the start of the representative study.

All of the results from this new authoritarianism study have now been published in the book "Autoritare Dynamiken in unsicheren Zeiten. Neue Herausforderungenalte Reaktionen?," which is available from Psychosozial-Verlag.
River of meltwater on the Zachariae Glacier, northeast Greenland. Credit: Shfaqat Abbas Khan, DTU Space

Ice is continuously streaming off Greenland's melting glaciers at an accelerating rate, dramatically increasing global sea levels. New results published today in Nature indicate that existing models have underestimated how much ice will be lost during the 21st century. Hence, its contribution to sea-level rise will be significantly higher.

By 2100, the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream will contribute six times as much to the rising sea level as previous models suggested, adding between 13,5 to 15,5 mm, according to the new study. This is equivalent to the entire Greenland ice sheet's contribution in the past 50 years. The research was carried out by researchers from Denmark, the United States, France, and Germany

"Our previous projections of ice loss in Greenland until 2100 are vastly underestimated," said first author Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Professor at DTU Space.

"Models are mainly tuned to observations at the front of the ice sheet, which is easily accessible, and where, visibly, a lot is happening."

Ice loss occurs more than 200 km inland

The study is partly based on data collected from a network of precise GPS stations reaching as far as 200 km inland on the Northeast Greenland Ice Streamlocated behind the Nioghalvfjerdsfjord Gletscher and Zachariae Isstrm glaciers, one of Earth's most hostile and remote terrains. The GPS data were combined with surface-elevation data from the CryoSat-2 satellite mission and high-resolution numerical modeling.

Animation of modeled frontal positions from 2007 to 2100. A Landsat-8 image from 2017 is used as the background. The color denotes the surface speed. Credit: Shfaqat Abbas Khan, DTU Space, Denmark

"Our data show us that what we see happening at the front reaches far back into the heart of the ice sheet," said Khan.

"We can see that the entire basin is thinning, and the surface speed is accelerating. Every year the glaciers we've studied have retreated further inland, and we predict that this will continue over the coming decades and centuries. Under present day climate forcing, it is difficult to conceive how this retreat could stop."

Significant contribution to rising sea levels

In 2012, after decade of melting, the floating extensions of Zachariae Isstrm collapsed, and the glacier has since retreated inland at an accelerating pace. And though winter 2021 and summer 2022 have been particularly cold, the glaciers keep retreating. Since northeastern Greenland is a so-called Arctic desertprecipitation is as low as 25 mm per year in placesthe ice sheet is not regenerating enough to mitigate the melt. However, estimating how much ice is lost and how far into the ice sheet the process occurs is not easy. The ice sheet's interior, which moves at less than one meter per year, is difficult to monitor, which limits the ability to make accurate projections.

"It is truly amazing that we are able to detect a subtle speed change from high-precision GPS data, which ultimately, when combined with a model of ice flow, inform us on how the glacier slides on its bed," said coauthor Mathieu Morlighem, a professor of earth sciences at Dartmouth College.

Animation of modeled surface elevation change from 2007 to 2100. A Landsat-8 image from 2017 is used as the background. The colors denote surface elevation change. Negative values denote thinning/surface lowering. Credit: Shfaqat Abbas Khan, DTU Space, Denmark

"It is possible that what we find in northeast Greenland may be happening in other sectors of the ice sheet. Many glaciers have been accelerating and thinning near the margin in recent decades. GPS data helps us detect how far this acceleration propagates inland, potentially 200300 km from the coast. If this is correct, the contribution from ice dynamics to the overall mass loss of Greenland will be larger than what current models suggest."

The Zachariae Isstrm was stable until 2004, followed by steadily retreat of the ice front until 2012, when a large portion of the floating sections became disconnected. As more precise observations of change in ice velocity are included in models, it is likely that IPCC's estimates of 2298 cm global sea level rise will need to be corrected upwards.

"We foresee profound changes in global sea levels, more than currently projected by existing models," said coauthor Eric Rignot, professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine.

"Data collected in the vast interior of ice sheets, such as those described herein, help us better represent the physical processes included in numerical models and in turn provide more realistic projections of global sea-level rise."

More information: Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Extensive inland thinning and speed-up of North-East Greenland Ice Stream, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05301-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05301-z Journal information: Nature
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The Iranian regime is "doubling down" on the manipulation of media in response to recent protests to create armed conflict between different ethnic groups, an expert has warned.

Officials are using fake news and misinformation to portray the uprising as a separatist revolt, preying on the already-fragile tensions between Persian and non-Persian communities.

The death of Jina "Mahsa" Amini on September 16 has sparked a sense of solidarity among the Iranian people against the regime and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and intelligence has ramped up its disinformation and fake news strategies in response, according to Dr. Allan Hassaniyan, from the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.

The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) frequently represents itself as a major target and victim of political conspiracy and anti-Iran disinformation campaigns. But the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) service, which essentially has a media monopolyhas functioned as a weapon of mass suppression of information.

Dr. Hassaniyan said, "State media and some Persian media platforms around the globe have been falsely representing the current mass protests in peripheral regions such as Kurdistan, Khuzestan, and Baluchistan as 'separatist' in nature. This narrative has allowed the regime to discredit and divide the protestors and to justify its use of extreme violence in suppressing them.

"As has been the case in the past, spreading such fake news about internal protestsand labeling them as 'separatist activities'represents an attempt by the regime to destroy any manifestations of nascent unity or solidarity among protestors and the Iranian public at large. The regime hopes to sway public opinion with the argument that Iran's territorial integrity is endangered."

Dr. Hassaniyan, writing in the Fikra Forum, says the IRI are using thousands of fake websites and fake Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to spread fake news and disinformation internationally. IRI officials have even boasted of the development of "cyber battalions" to manipulate the global narratives on Twitter and other platforms.

The regime's hate and disinformation campaigns especially villainize minority communities, including Iran's Arabs, Azeris, Baha'i, Baluchis, Kurds, and Turkmens.

Dr. Hassaniyan said, "Over time, the regime's targeting strategy has institutionalized chronic racism in the public and a phobia towards the democratic demands of non-Persian, non-Shia religious and ethnic groups. This phobia for non-Persian groups runs so deep, even anti-regime media outlets in the Persian diaspora tend to employ it, too, targeting Kurdish commentators and activists, for example, with unfounded questions about separatist agendas and outside influencers. Unfortunately, such disinformation campaigns and racist rhetoric have only worsened during the recent wave of protests across Iran.

"By the second week of protests, it became clear that the regime was employing disinformation strategies online to try to manipulate the uprising into an armed revolt. Across social media, fake accounts and state-run outlets disseminated fake news and videos apparently showing Kurdish armed groupsnamely the Peshmergaamong protesters. Other videos explicitly showed Iranian security forces dressed as Peshmerga and harassing the locals in Kurdish cities. The regime has attempted to force the real Kurdish Peshmerga from their remote bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to urban areas in order to join the protests, giving the impression that protestors have turned to violence and that the regime must respond with full, brutal force.

"Accurate reporting of the protests and the regime's violent crackdown has been hard to come by, especially with the IRI widely disrupting internet access across the country only one week in and due to its systemic targeting of independent journalists reporting on the protests. These massive internet blackouts have prevented protestors from voicing their dissent, coordinating their activities, or sharing their experiences at the hands of the IRGC and other regime forces.

"If the regime continues to successfully label the uprisings as a separatist revolt, preying on the already-fragile tensions between Persian and non-Persian communities while suppressing any real information in public discourse, the unprecedented unity observed during this wave of protests will be put to the ultimate test. In the days and weeks ahead, the Iranian people must prove that their unity is enduring, not temporary."
This electron micrograph documents the porous nature of the silica nanoparticles. These pores are large enough to allow entrance of a large number of NSA molecules. Here, they are protected until being taken up by the immune cells. At this point NSA is released and can stop the inflammatory processes. Credit: UNIGE - Carole Bourquin

How can a drug be delivered exactly where it is needed, while limiting the risk of side effects? The use of nanoparticles to encapsulate a drug to protect it and the body until it reaches its point of action is being increasingly studied. However, this requires identifying the right nanoparticle for each drug according to a series of precise parameters.

A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Ludwig Maximilians Universitat Munchen(LMU) has succeeded in developing a fully biodegradable nanoparticle capable of delivering a new anti-inflammatory drug directly into macrophagesthe cells where uncontrolled inflammatory reactions are triggeredensuring its effectiveness. In addition, the scientists used an in vitro screening methodology, thus limiting the need for animal testing.

These results, recently published in the Journal of Controlled Release, open the way to an extremely powerful and targeted anti-inflammatory treatment.

Inflammation is an essential physiological response of the body to defend itself against pathogens such as bacteria. It can however become problematic when it turns into a chronic condition, such as in cancers, autoimmune diseases or certain viral infections.

Many treatments already exist, but their action is often not very targeted, high doses are required and deleterious side effects are frequent. Macrophages, large immune cells whose natural function is to absorbs pathogens and trigger inflammation to destroy them, are often involved in inflammatory diseases. When overactivated, they trigger an excessive inflammatory response that turns against the body instead of protecting it.

Necrosulfonamide (NSA) is a new molecule that inhibits the release of several important pro-inflammatory mediators, therefore constituting a promising advance to reduce certain types of inflammation. However, being extremely hydrophobic in nature, it travels poorly in the bloodstream and could target many cell types, triggering potentially toxic effects.

"This is why this molecule is not yet available as a drug," says Gaby Palmer, a professor in the Department of Medicine and the Geneva Center for Inflammation Research at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, who codirected the study. "Using a nanoparticle as a transport vessel would circumvent these shortcomings by delivering the drug directly into macrophages to combat inflammatory overactivation in the place where it begins."

Three nanoparticles under the microscope

The scientists tested different porous nanoparticles, with the main criteria being a reduction in toxicity and in the required dosage, as well as the ability to release the drug only once the nanoparticle has reached the interior of the macrophages.

"We used an in vitro screening technology which we developed a few years ago on human and mouse cells. This saves time and greatly reduces the need to use animal models," explains Carole Bourquin, a professor at the UNIGE's Faculties of Science (Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland) and Medicine (Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Intensive Care and Emergencies, Translational Research Center in Oncohematology, Geneva Center for Inflammation Research), who codirected this work at UNIGE. '"Thus, only the most promising particles will then be tested on mice, which is a prerequisite for clinical trials on humans."

Three very different nanoparticles featuring high porosity were examined: a cyclodextrin-based nanoparticle, a substance commonly used in cosmetics or industrial food, a porous magnesium phosphate nanoparticle, and finally a porous silica nanoparticle. "The first was less satisfactory in cell uptake behavior, while the second proved to be counterproductive: it triggered the release of pro-inflammatory mediators, stimulating the inflammatory reaction instead of fighting it," says Bart Boersma, a doctoral student in Carole Bourquin's laboratory and first author of this study.

'"The porous silica nanoparticle, on the other hand, met all the criteria: it was fully biodegradable, of the right size to be swallowed by macrophages, and was able to absorb the drug into its numerous pores without releasing it too early. The anti-inflammatory effect was remarkable." The team then replicated their tests by coating the nanoparticles with an additional layer of lipid, but with no greater benefit than silica nanoparticles alone.

Tiny silica sponges

Other silica nanosponges developed by the German-Swiss team had already proven their effectiveness in transporting anti-tumor drugs. "Here, they carry a very different drug that inhibits the immune system," says Carole Bourquin.

"Mesoporous silica is increasingly revealing itself as a nanoparticle of choice in the pharmaceutical field, as it is very effective, stable and non-toxic. Nevertheless, each drug requires a tailor-made carrier: the shape, size, composition and destination of the particles must be reassessed each time."

The combination of this potent anti-inflammatory drug and these mesoporous silica nanoparticles shows a promising synergism to be further studied by the team.

More information: Bart Boersma et al, Inhibition of IL-1 release from macrophages targeted with necrosulfonamide-loaded porous nanoparticles, Journal of Controlled Release (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2022.09.063 Journal information: Journal of Controlled Release
SMU paleontologists helped find a new species of pterosaurs in Angola, where fossils of other large marine animals have been found. E. otyikokolo can be seen flying above the ocean in the ancient picture. Credit: Karen Carr Studio

With wings spanning nearly 16 feet, a new species of pterosaurs has been identified from the Atlantic coast of Angola.

An international team, including two vertebrate paleontologists from Southern Methodist University (SMU), named the new genus and species Epapatelo otyikokolo. This flying reptile of the dinosaur age was found in the same region of Angola as fossils from large marine animals currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Pterosaur fossils that date back to the Late Cretaceous are extremely rare in sub-Saharan Africa, said team member Michael J. Polcyn, research associate in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and senior research fellow, ISEM at SMU (Southern Methodist University).

"This new discovery gives us a much better understanding of the ecological role of the creatures that were flying above the waves of Bentiaba, on the west coast of Africa, approximately 71.5 million years ago," Polcyn said.

Paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs, SMU professor emeritus of earth sciences and president of ISEM, an interdisciplinary institute at the university, also collaborated on the research. The team's findings were published in the journal Diversity.

Epapatelo otyikokolo is believed to have been a fish-eating pterosaur that behaved similarly to large modern-day seabirds.

"They likely spent time flying above open-water environments and diving to feed, like gannets and brown pelicans do today," Jacobs said. "Epapatelo otyikokolo was not a small animal, and its wingspan was approximately 4.8 m, or nearly 16 feet."

But fossils discovered since the study suggest that some of the newly identified pterosaur species could have been even larger creatures, Polcyn said. Pterosaurs were impressive creatures, with some of the largest species having wingspans of nearly 35 feet.

The genus name "Epapatelo" is the translation of the word from the Angolan Nhaneca dialect meaning "wing," and the species name "otyikokolo" is the translation of 'lizard." The Nhaneca or Nyaneka people are an Indigenous group from Angola's Namibe Province, the region where the fossils were found.

The lead author of the study was Alexandra E. Fernandes, of Museu da Lourinha, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and The Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology. Other co-authors include Octavio Mateus of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinha; Brian Andres of the University of Sheffield; Anne S. Schulp of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Utrecht University in the Netherlands; and Antonio Olimpio Goncalves of the Universidade Agostinho Neto in Angola.

Jacobs and Polcyn forged the Projecto PaleoAngola partnership with collaborators in Angola, Portugal, and the Netherlands to explore and excavate Angola's rich fossil history, and began laying the groundwork for returning the fossils to the West African nation. Back in Dallas, Jacobs, Polcyn, and research associate Diana Vineyard went to work over a period of 13 years with a small army of SMU students to prepare the fossils excavated by Projecto PaleoAngola.

This international team discovered and collected the fourteen bones from Epapatelo otyikokolo in Bentiaba, Angola, starting in 2005. Bentiaba is located on a section of Angola coastline that Jacobs has called a "museum in the ground" because so many fossils have been found in the rocks there.

Many of those fossils are currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History "Sea Monsters Unearthed" exhibit, which was co-produced with SMU. It features large marine reptiles from the Cretaceous Periodmosasaurs, turtles, and plesiosaurs.

More information: Alexandra E. Fernandes et al, Pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Angola, Diversity (2022). DOI: 10.3390/d14090741
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

With implications for global wildlife trade, research from the University of Stirling and National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan has shown how Japan, once the largest consumer country of ivory, stopped being a destination for the product.

While a global trade ban signed in 1980 was extremely important, an interplay of cultural and economic factors also had a large impact, the researchers found.

Poaching for ivory has led to African and Indian elephants becoming endangered, with fewer than 500,000 left in the world, according to WWF. The biggest destination markets in the world are now China and nearby Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Dr. Laura Thomas-Walters, from Stirling's department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, who led the research, said, "Our research identified market drivers that led to a reduction in demand for ivory, despite the high cultural value it has had in Japan for more than 1,000 years. Understanding what can cause a decline in wildlife trades is vital, as many continue to cause devastating biodiversity losses worldwide."

Dr. Thomas-Walters worked with NIES in Japan, as well as the universities of Kent and Oxford, to analyze data from the last 40 years, since Japan signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) global trade ban in 1980.

Dr. Thomas-Walters said, "Although the CITES ban was extremely important, other elements came together in Japan, particularly during the 1990s. There was an economic recession, which fueled a cultural shift away from the conspicuous consumption of expensive goods like ivory artifacts, jewelry or furniture.

"We also found that demand for ivory in Japan was passive, which means that, if it was on sale, people would buy it, but if it wasn't they wouldn't seek it out, unlike in countries like China, where there is a thriving black market.

"We found that that anti-ivory campaigns by NGOs following the CITES ban, although they may not have influenced consumers directly, put indirect pressure on retailers, which further reduced the presence of ivory in shops."

Trust in government 'important'

The researchers used a combination of data analysis, stakeholder interviews and literature review to test different hypotheses for the reduction in ivory imports, finding, for example, that high profile spokespeople had not been particularly effective, whilst trust in government was important.

Dr. Thomas-Walters said, "We found that respect for the legitimacy of government authority in Japan increased the effectiveness of the trade ban. Where governments are seen to have legitimate authority, people tend to obey, whereas in other countries where respect is lower, black markets flourish."

Dr. Takahiro Kuba, from NIES, said, "This research, carried out with diverse stakeholders, confirmed the decline in demand for ivory for luxury itemshanko stamps for signing correspondence, for example. In addition, sluggish economic growth will accelerate the decline of the domestic market. Policymakers thus need to take account of this diminishing domestic demand when collaborating globally over sustainable management of ivory."

There remains a domestic market for ivory in Japan, but the researchers concluded that this was no longer important in terms of global trade, because it involves exchanging historic rather than current imports. "Of course, it remains important to ensure that border security stays tight," Dr. Thomas-Walters added.

The paper, "Understanding the market drivers behind the reduced demand for ivory products in Japan," is published in the journal Conservation and Society.

More information: Laura Thomas-Walters et al, Understanding the Market Drivers Behind the Reduced Demand for Ivory Products in Japan, Conservation and Society (2022). DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_155_21. conservationandsociety.org.in/  rticle.asp?id=360609
The ivory comb. Credit: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority

The alphabet was invented around 1800 BCE and was used by the Canaanites and later by most other languages in the world. Until recently, no meaningful Canaanite inscriptions had been discovered in the Land of Israel, save only two or three words here and there. Now an amazing discovery presents an entire sentence in Canaanite, dating to about 1700 BCE. It is engraved on a small ivory comb and includes a spell against lice.

The comb was unearthed at Tel Lachish in Israel by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) and Southern Adventist University in the United States, under the direction of Professors Yosef Garfinkel, Michael Hasel and Martin Klingbeil. The inscription was deciphered by semitic epigraphist Dr. Daniel Vainstub at Ben Gurion University (BGU). The ivory was tested by HU Prof. Rivka Rabinovich and BGU Prof. Yuval Goren and was found to originate from an elephant tusk. Their findings were published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.

The letters of the inscription were engraved in a very shallow manner. It was excavated in 2017 but the letters were noticed only in subsequent post-processing in 2022 by Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu. It was cleaned and preserved by Miriam Lavi.

The ivory comb is small, measuring roughly 3.5 by 2.5 cm. The comb has teeth on both sides. Although their bases are still visible, the comb teeth themselves were broken in antiquity. The central part of the comb is somewhat eroded, possibly by the pressure of fingers holding the comb during haircare or removal of lice from the head or beard. The side of the comb with six thick teeth was used to untangle knots in the hair, while the other side, with 14 fine teeth, was used to remove lice and their eggs, much like the current-day two-sided lice combs sold in stores.

There are 17 Canaanite letters on the comb. They are archaic in formfrom the first stage of the invention of the alphabet script. They form seven words in Canaanite, reading: "May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."

"This is the first sentence ever found in the Canaanite language in Israel. There are Canaanites in Ugarit in Syria, but they write in a different script, not the alphabet that is used till today. The Canaanite cities are mentioned in Egyptian documents, the Amarna letters that were written in Akkadian, and in the Hebrew Bible. The comb inscription is direct evidence for the use of the alphabet in daily activities some 3700 years ago. This is a landmark in the history of the human ability to write," said Garfinkel.

Aerial view of Tel Lachish. Credit: Emil Aladjem

Ancient combs were made from wood, bone, or ivory. Ivory was a very expensive material and likely an imported luxury object. As there were no elephants in Canaan during that time period, the comb likely came from nearby Egyptfactors indicating that even people of high social status suffered from lice.

The research team analyzed the comb itself for the presence of lice under a microscope and photographs were taken of both sides. Remains of head lice, 0.50.6 mm in size, were found on the second tooth. The climatic conditions of Lachish, however, did not allow preservation of whole head lice but only those of the outer chitin membrane of the nymph stage head louse.

Despite its small size, the inscription on the comb from Lachish has very special features, some of which are unique and fill in gaps and lacunas in our knowledge of many aspects of the culture of Canaan in the Bronze Age. For the first time, we have an entire verbal sentence written in the dialect spoken by the Canaanite inhabitants of Lachish, enabling us to compare this language in all its aspects with the other sources for it. Second, the inscription on the comb sheds light on some hitherto poorly attested aspects of the everyday life of the time, haircare and dealing with lice.

Third, this is the first discovery in the region of an inscription referring to the purpose of the object on which it was written, as opposed to dedicatory or ownership inscriptions on objects. Further, the engraver's skill in successfully executing such tiny letters (13 mm wide) is a fact that from now on should be taken into account in any attempt to summarize and draw conclusions on literacy in Canaan in the Bronze Age.

Lachish was a major Canaanite city state in the second millennium BCE and the second most important city in the Biblical Kingdom of Judah. To date, 10 Canaanite inscriptions have been found in Lachish, more than at any other site in Israel. The city was the major center for the use and preservation of the alphabet during some 600 years, from 1800-1150 BCE. The site of Tel Lachish is under the protection of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

More information: Daniel Vainstub et al, A Canaanite's Wish to Eradicate Lice on an Inscribed Ivory Comb from Lachish, Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (2022). DOI: 10.52486/01.00002.4
A female (leader) and male (follower) pair of Japanese termites perform a courtship ritual called a tandem run in the lab. Credit: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

If you happen to see termites engaging in courtship rituals, you'd be hard-pressed to spot the difference between opposite-sex and same-sex couples. That's because one of the termites in a same-sex couple changes its behavior to act like the opposite sex. This "sex role flexibility" is crucial for the evolution and maintenance of same-sex pairs, reports a new study published in PNAS on November 8, 2022.

The research, conducted by scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with the University of St. Andrews, on the Japanese termite, Reticulitermes speratus, also found that the termites' ability to switch sex roles during courtship can be traced back to their distant termite ancestors.

"Homosexual behavior in animals has always been a bit of a puzzle for scientists," said Dr. Nobuaki Mizumoto, first author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the OIST Evolutionary Genomics Unit. "One prevailing theory is that homosexual behavior is due to mistaken identity, with animals rushing to mate without checking the sex of their partner. But at least for termites, we have shown that same-sex courtship requires a deliberate behavior change. In other words, it's no accident."

For Japanese termites, courtship and mate pairing occurs during a brief and frantic period of time once a year. Thousands of winged individuals disperse from their nests and swarm into the air, before landing on the ground and shedding their wings. The termites then desperately rush to find a partner and once together, the two termites set off to find a nest site to start their new colony. They move together while performing a specific courtship behavior, called a tandem run.

"The tandem run is highly coordinated, with each sex showing a distinct behavior," explained Dr. Mizumoto. "The female termite always leads the way, and the male termite always follows close behind. If they get separated, the female pauses while the male searches for her."

However, sometimes a male termite may be unable to find a female, or vice versa. In this case, termites choose to form male-male and female-female pairings and establish a same-sex nest together, rather than staying single.

"Termites need to groom each other to remove pathogens and stay healthy," explained Dr. Mizumoto. "Then, females can reproduce on their own via parthenogenesis, and males can wait and later invade another nest to mate with a female. Also, searching too long for a partner of the opposite sex leaves termites vulnerable to predation. So, same-sex pairings are a strategy for survivalit's them making the best of a bad job."

In the latest study, the researchers focused on whether sex-based behavior roles seen during tandem runs in opposite-sex couples were also mirrored in same-sex pairings.

Researchers found that termites in same-sex pairings acted in a similar way to termites in opposite-sex pairings when the termites were separated. Leaders paused while followers searched, regardless of whether the termite was female or male. Credit: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

To start, they observed how the termites paired up for tandem runs when in mixed or single-sex groups. They found that female-male tandems and male-male tandems occurred more readily than female-female tandems. However, once formed, all tandem pairs were equally stable, maintaining similar speeds and durations.

The researchers then moved pre-established female-male, female-female, and male-male termite pairs in their own petri dishes. Whilst the termites were performing the tandem run, the scientists then removed either the leader or the follower of the pair and watched how the other termite reacted.

They found that same-sex termite pairings showed similar dynamics to opposite-sex pairings upon separation. When female-female termites were separated, the "follower female" intensively searched for the other termite, despite this being a typical male behavior trait. When male-male termites were separated, the "leader male" paused, similarly to heterosexual females. This meant that same-sex pairs were able to re-encounter their partner just as effectively as heterosexual pairs.

The research team also ran computer simulations to see what would happen if the termites in same-sex pairs were unable to switch sex roles. For female-female pairs, the scientists simulated both females pausing and for male-male pairs, they simulated both males searching. The simulations showed that they were either less likely re-encounter each other, or it took a much longer time.

Since both female and male termites were fully capable of displaying either sex's behavior, the next question for the researchers to solve was how this sex role flexibility originated.

To answer this, the scientists searched through a vast quantity of scientific records to determine for as many termite species as possible whether tandem runs were present during courtship, and if so, whether females or males led them.

The researchers found that while all the termite species within the evolutionary group, Neoisoptera, that the Japanese termite belongs within, had female-led tandem runs, species of termites that were more distantly related had tandem runs that could be led by either males or females.

"This suggests that male and female termites that were the ancestors of modern termites likely had the ability to both lead and follow. That could be why the potential for females and males to switch behaviors still exists in modern termites, allowing same-sex pairings to evolve," said Dr. Mizumoto.

More information: Nobuaki Mizumoto et al, Ancestral sex-role plasticity facilitates the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212401119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

State-sponsored retirement plans could help workers save more and help retirees rely less on social servicesas long as the cost-effectiveness of such plans aren't bogged down by feesaccording to a new report from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The federal government encourages businesses to provide retirement saving plans for their employees, but there is no mandate. A Federal Reserve study last year found that 25% of U.S. workers had no retirement savings, and 40% felt behind on preparing for retirement. Joyce Beebe, fellow in public finance at the Baker Institute, says the nation needs a more direct mechanism to help people save for retirement through work, and that the solution may be state-sponsored individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

"Supporters of state-sponsored IRAs see great benefits in bringing new savers to the retirement saving system," Beebe wrote. "They argue that retirement savings not only provide emergency financial safeguards, but also reduce savers' reliance on social services in retirement. If a significant number of retirees are unable to support themselves, there will be significant pressure on the public safety net and current workers will ultimately bear the costs."

Beebe explains that the role of Social Security has gradually shifted over the past few decades. She says it has become more important for workers to play an active role in safeguarding their retirement savings.

"This structural change means workplace saving plans have become more critical," she wrote. "Several studies find that people who have access to retirement savings through work are more likely to save; most of these plans use payroll deductions and make saving easy for workers."

Twelve states have either passed laws or implemented plans to offer state-administered IRA programs, but Beebe notes there's concern that fees associated with the plans make them too costly to be effective. There's a fee for the state to oversee the program, a fee for an asset management company and a fee for a private third party to do administration workthe highest fee of the three.

"Anyone can have access to IRAs, even if your employer does not offer any retirement plans; but if you do it yourself, you only pay for a company like Vanguard or Fidelity to manage the assets," Beebe said. "If you go through the state, you pay extra fees."

In state-sponsored plans, employers would not have any fiduciary duty to the retirement plans. They would simply act as conduits that channel funds from workers to the plans. The employer's role would be limited to simply encouraging employees to save money for retirement, Beebe says.

Small businesses cite costs and administrative burdens as the main reasons they don't offer retirement plans. State-sponsored plans could benefit the employees of small businesses as well as part-time workers and those in the gig economy, Beebe argues.

Though some are concerned that these so-called "auto-IRAs" will replace existing employer plans; employers may be incentivized to cancel their own plans and rely on state programs.

"However, preliminary analysis largely does not find substitution between state and employer plans," Beebe wrote. "A survey-based study shows that there is little evidence that state initiatives crowd out employer plans. On the contrary, some employers would rather start their own plans instead of using state-mandated plans."

More information: Considerations for State-Sponsored Retirement Plans: www.bakerinstitute.org/researc  red-retirement-plans
Educators spoke of the importance of building relationships with students. Author supplied

When we talk about Indigenous education in Australia, it almost always includes three words: "close the gap." The federal government's Indigenous education priorities highlight school attendance, literacy and numeracy and year 12 attainment. This frames students and their families as a "problem" to "fix."

In other areas of education, the word "excellence" is frequently used to frame policy. But a simple Google search of "excellence" and "Indigenous education" comes up with very few meaningful results. Why aren't starting from the same point in Indigenous education?

Our new research begins this process.

Our study

Our project started as a pilot study with three secondary schools from an urban, regional and remote setting in Queensland.

We yarned with 31 Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, principals and teachers about their perspectives on excellence in Indigenous education.

Here we share the perspectives of 12 Indigenous educators. We do this deliberately because it is critical we elevate Indigenous voices in any re-imagining of policy that affects us.

We explored the question: "How is excellence in Indigenous education defined by Indigenous peoples?"

Three themes emerged: the young person, school culture and relationships.

'Build young people up'

The most distinct theme to emerge was the need to nurture and affirm culture and identity in students and in doing so, "build young people up."

Indigenous interviewees talked about identity as a protective factor in the face of navigating issues such as racism at school. As school community liaison officer Uncle Frank explained:

"In our school, once students knew their identity, they excelled. Nurturing identity and culture is very importantgrowing young people in an environment where being Indigenous was negative but turning that into a positive is re-imagining the story for all Indigenous students."

Aboriginal teacher, Brooke, also explained:

"Our white kids know where they fit in society. Many of our kids don't, sometimes they're not accepted in different communities. Kids who are fair like me don't fit with white or Black. Identity is important for all kidswe are social creatures."

From a practical perspective, community education counselor Aunty Millie said schools could provide dedicated physical spaces to enhance their identity work with students.

"Culture and identity play an important role in students believing in themselves and striving to be the best version of themselves [] students have to know that they [are] included and recognized as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people [] space to call their own is important. They like to be there."

Building up young people is more than just affirming their identity. As Uncle Frank explained, it is also:

"letting our senior students take a lead role [and] encouraging Indigenous students to give feedback to teachers. Empower them to have a say."

School culture and leadership

Research already tells us the leadership of a school plays a critical role in its culture.

Our research also shows it is vital for excellence in Indigenous education.

Community liaison Katelyn told us how she was empowered by strong leadership at her school, who are open to new ideas and approaches based on Indigenous knowledge and perspectives.

"We have a very great leader here [] I'm able to look outside the box [] the restraints aren't there."

Brooke talked about the notion of "curriculum leadership" and the importance of "making sure everyone is reflected in curriculum and pedagogy [the way students are taught]."

Relationships with students

Previous research also recognizes how positive relationships with students are connected to positive outcomes for students.

Aboriginal school support worker Missy talked about the quality of relationships being a priority for schools.

"It really does come down to building a relationship with the students [and] with the families and showing them [they are] not just another number."

Uncle Frank pointed out Indigenous people bring a wealth of knowledge in relationships with schools.

"[] we know what's best for our kidsinclude us in the conversation. If you've got a degree that's good but I've got a degree in lifebeing Aboriginal."

We need new ways to talk about Indigenous education

In all our conversations with educators and support staff in school, one other thing stood out. When asked to think about "excellence" in Indigenous education, many of these experts struggled to conceptualize what it is or should be.

We believe this is due to the dominance of "closing the gap." Those three words have been so influential in shaping the minds of educators and support staff in schools.

This highlights the power and importance of language. We need new ways to speak aspirationally about Indigenous education and move on from the old deficit vocabulary.

This is a small data set from a pilot study, but it already provides some important insights about how we work towards excellence in Indigenous education.

It shows how there must be opportunities for Indigenous peoples to shape all aspects of schooling and educational policy. It is vital we include the aspirations, experiences and stories of Indigenous people working in Indigenous education.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Lou Perrotti, the director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, holds a musk turtle in quarantine after it was confiscated in a wildlife bust, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Scores of turtle species are under threat from poaching. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November. Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman

Swimming in two plastic bins inside a brightly lit and sterile quarantine room at a Rhode Island zoo, 16 quarter-sized turtle hatchlings represent a growing worry for conservationist Lou Perrotti.

These eastern musk turtles, known for spending much of their lives in swamps and ponds and emitting a foul smell when threatened, were confiscated recently in a wildlife bust. And, though the reptiles are common, their illegal sale on the internet greatly concerns Perrotti, who directs conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence.

"We are seeing an uptick in turtle poaching," he said. "It's getting ruthless where we are seeing thousands of turtles leaving the United States on an annual basis. ... Turtle populations cannot take that kind of a hit with that much removal coming out of the wild."

Wildlife trade experts believe that poachingdriven by growing demand for pets in the U.S., Asia and Europeis contributing to the global decline of rare freshwater turtle and tortoise species. One study found over half of the 360 living turtle and tortoise species are at risk of extinction.

Such concerns have prompted a dozen proposals to increase protection for freshwater turtles at the 184-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Panama Nov. 14 through Nov. 25.

Musk turtles are fed blood worms while in quarantine at Roger Williams Park Zoo after 16 of the quarter-sized turtle hatchlings were confiscated in a wildlife bust, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Scores of turtle species are under threat from poaching. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November. Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman

Precise figures on the turtle trade, especially illegal trade, can be hard to find. Based on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data, Tara Easter, a University of Michigan doctoral candidate who studies the trade, estimated the commercial export trade for mud turtles in the United States increased from 1,844 in 1999 to nearly 40,000 in 2017 and musk turtles from 8,254 in 1999 to more than 281,000 in 2016.

In their CITES proposal to ban or limit the commercial trade in more than 20 mud turtles species, the United States and several Latin American countries cited data from Mexico that found nearly 20,000 were confiscated, mostly at the Mexico City airport, from 2010 to 2022.

Among the world's most trafficked animals, freshwater turtles are targeted by criminal networks that connect with buyers on the internet then transport the reptiles to black markets in Hong Kong and other Asian cities. From there, they are sold as pets, to collectors and for commercial breeding, food and traditional medicine. In many countries, trade is poorly regulated or not regulated at all.

The lucrative businesssome turtle species coveted for their colorful shells or strange appearance can fetch thousand of dollars in Asiaadds to threats turtles already face. Those include climate change, habitat destruction, road mortality and predators eating their eggs.

A musk turtle looks out from a tank while in quarantine at Roger Williams Park Zoo after 16 of the quarter-sized turtle hatchlings were confiscated in a wildlife bust, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Scores of turtle species are under threat from poaching. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November. Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman

Poachers are particularly problematic, experts say, because they target rare species and adult breeding females. Many turtle species, which can live for several decades, don't reach reproductive maturity for a decade or more.

"The loss of large numbers of adults, especially females, can send turtles into a spiraling decline from which they cannot recover," said Dave Collins, director of North American turtle conservation for the Turtle Survival Alliance. "Turtles have extremely low reproduction levels, producing a few eggs every year."

The United States Association of Reptile Keepers, which advocates for responsible private ownership and trade in reptiles and amphibians, said in a statement that "addressing reductions in wild populations by limiting captive breeding and legal trade is counterproductive."

"If we don't have enough of a species on Earth, ... the solution should be to make more of them," Daniel Parker, the director of media for the group's Florida chapter, said in a statement. "By cracking down on breeding and trade, authorities are missing out on free market conservation solutions that can be effective."

Lou Perrotti, left, the director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, talks with Harold Guise, a Rhode Island Environmental Police detective, over a tank of musk turtles quarantined after they were confiscated in a wildlife bust involving Guise, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Scores of turtle species are under threat from poaching. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November. Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman

Since 2018, the Collaborative to Combat the Illegal Trade in Turtlesan organization of mostly state, federal and tribal biologists who combat poaching of North American turtleshas documented at least 30 major smuggling cases in 15 states. Some involved a few dozen turtles, others several thousands.

Easter at the University of Michigan identified 59 U.S. cases over the past 20 years involving about 30,000 illegally traded turtles.

Earlier this year, a federal judge in North Carolina sentenced a man to 18 months in prison and fined him $25,000 for trafficking turtles in violation of the Lacey Act. The law bans trafficking in fish, wildlife or plants that are illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold.

The man trafficked 722 eastern box turtlesthe North Carolina state reptileas well as 122 spotted turtles and three wood turtles through a middleman for markets in Asia. The man received more than $120,000 for the turtles, which have a value of $1.5 million in Asia.

A sign labeling a quarantine area for turtles hangs on a door as Lou Perrotti, the director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, looks over the 16 quarter-sized turtle hatchlings that were confiscated in a wildlife bust, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Scores of turtle species are under threat from poaching. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November. Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman

In 2021, a Chinese national was sentenced to 38 months in prison and fined $10,000 for money laundering after previously pleading guilty to financing a nationwide smuggling ring that sent 1,500 turtles worth more than $2.2 million from the U.S. to China.

The man used PayPal to purchase the turtles from American buyers advertising them on social media and reptile websites and sold them to Hong Kong reptile markets.

In 2020, a New Jersey man was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution and fines for smuggling 1,000 three-toed and western box turtles from Oklahoma to New Jersey in candy wrappers and socks.

The illegal trade has prompted governments to propose listing for the first time 42 turtles species under CITESincluding North American musk turtles. Though some species like the eastern musk turtle are common, a listing means traders will need a permit to sell them internationally. Commercial sale of other species such as alligator snapping turtles, found in U.S. Gulf states and reaching up to 200 pounds, would be limited.

A Malaysian Customs official holds seized tortoise after a news conference at Customs office in Sepang, Malaysia, Malaysia on May 15, 2017. Malaysian authorities say they seized 330 exotic tortoises from Madagascar. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November 2022. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Chan, File

Proposals would also tighten regulations on 13 others already listed for protection.

"We think that's really, really important just because of the trends that we've seen over the past couple of decades in international reptile and particularly turtle trade," said U.S. Department of the Interior's Matthew Strickler, who will head the American delegation at CITES.

"There's significant demand from Southeast Asia for food and the pet trade, but also from Europe, for pets as well," he said. "We've seen this pattern of turtles being depleted in one place, and then poachers and traffickers and traders moving to another place. Southeast Asia was depleted. They moved to Africa. Now, we see them moving to the Americas."

The tiny musk turtles were spotted for sale online by a Rhode Island Environmental Police intern. They were only $20 each. The turtles, which grow to five inches (13 centimeters) and live for decades, are brown or black with a white or yellow line along their heads.

Lou Perrotti, the director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, holds a musk turtle in quarantine after it was confiscated in a wildlife bust, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Scores of turtle species are under threat from poaching. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November. Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman

Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) make their way into the ocean upon their release at Kuta beach, Bali, Indonesia, Jan. 8, 2022. With the help of volunteers, Indonesian navy released thirty two green turtles which they seized from illegal poachers during a raid in the waters off the resort island December 2021. The plight of turtles is expected to get plenty of attention at a wildlife trade conference in Panama in November 2022. Credit: AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File

Police busted the seller in September after arranging an undercover buy at his house. The seller paid a $1,600 fine for possessing a reptile without a permit. The hope is that the turtles, now quarantined at the Providence zoo, are injury- and disease-free and can be released back to the wild.

"Obviously when we are talking about native species being removed even for pets, it has a big impact," said Harold Guise, an environmental police detective who handled the case. "The commercialization of wildlife has an impact on wildlife that we can't even measure until it has already happened. We need to get ahead of these things."

For Perrotti the conservation director, it was a reminder that illegal trade once focused in Asia is increasingly happening in his backyard.

"I couldn't believe there was a market for it and that someone was either mass producing these or mass collecting these to make a few bucks," he said. "A $20 turtle. That's ridiculous. ... Wildlife is not a commodity for somebody to profit on."

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Above: Plan of the Otzi find spot. Shown on the map of the excavation are the mummy with a flint dagger at the hip; a fur hat at the foot of the boulder where he lay; a quiver (upper left); and a bow, an ax and a backpack frame (lower left). Due to the activity of visitors to the site after the discovery and before the excavation, the position of the ax and backpack frame may be imprecise (Rastbichler Zissernig, 2006). Below: Profile section of the find spot. The gully collected meltwater, which had to be drained away. Based on plan and section in Bagolini et al. (1995). Credit: The Holocene (2022). DOI: 10.1177/09596836221126133

A small team of researchers affiliated with institutions in Norway, Sweden and Austria, has found evidence that suggests a flaw in the original story of how Otzi (the Iceman) remained preserved for so long. In their paper published in the journal The Holocene, the group details what they describe as a more plausible explanation.

In 1991, a couple of German hikers came upon the remains of a man frozen in the ice in the Otztal Alps. Testing of the remains showed the man to be from approximately 5,300 years ago. Researchers also found wounds that suggested the man had been killed. Konrad Spindler, an Austrian archaeologist, published a theory to explain how Otzi's remains had managed to survive for so long.

He suggested the body had freeze dried and was then encased in ice beneath a glacier (and was protected from its movement by a gully), where he was preserved in cold storage for thousands of years. His remains were found only because of warming caused by climate change melting the ice in which he had been frozen. Such a sequence of events meant that Otzi's experience was unique, and thus it was doubtful that others like him would ever be found.

In this new effort, the researchers disagree with almost every part of Spindler's theory. The only part they believe to be true is the cause of death. They suggest instead that food in Otzi's belly demonstrates that he died in the spring, not the fall. Also, study of the landscape showed that the remains had not been covered by a glacier, which suggests Otzi had melted out of the ice many times; thus, there was no time capsule. There was also evidence that Otzi had been immersed in water several times.

And that, the researchers suggest, indicates that Otzi's weapons and tools had been damaged by the elements, not by a struggle with an unknown foe. And finally, the researchers also found evidence suggesting that Otzi had not died where he was found in the gullyinstead, he had been transported down the mountain by natural environmental processes.

The researchers conclude that since their evidence shows that Otzi's remains had survived for so long due to common conditions, it is likely that others like him will be found as conditions in the area continue to grow warmer.

More information: Lars Pil et al, Otzi, 30 years on: A reappraisal of the depositional and post-depositional history of the find, The Holocene (2022). DOI: 10.1177/09596836221126133

 2022 Science X Network
The RNA genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can adopt multiple 'shapes' (structural conformations) in the context of the infected host cell. Although the function of the different conformations is still largely unknown, some of them have been shown to be crucial during the virus replicative cycle, for example to regulate genome cyclization. Credit: Danny Incarnato, University of Groningen

The human genome has just over 20,000 genes coding for proteins. Yet, it produces at least ten times that many different non-coding RNA molecules, which can often take on more than one shape. At least some of this RNA structurome is functional in physiology or pathophysiology.

In an invited review for Nature Reviews Genetics, Danny Incarnato, a molecular geneticist from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), and his colleague Robert C. Spitale from the University of Irvine in California (USA) describe ways to develop the, as yet, largely untapped potential of RNA structures.

RNA is perhaps best known as the intermediate between genome and protein synthesis: messenger RNA molecules copy the genetic code of a gene in the cell's nucleus and transport it to the cytoplasm, where ribosomes translate the code into a protein. However, RNA is also a key regulator of almost every cellular process and the structures that are adopted by RNA molecules are thought to often be key to their functions.

Function

Danny Incarnato, Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics, has long been interested in the role of RNA structures in the cell and works on methods to elucidate the different structures in living cells. So, when he was invited to write a review on RNA structures, he accepted without hesitation. "And I was happy to invite my friend and colleague Robert Spitale, one of the pioneers of the 'RNA revolution,' to join me."

In recent years, the knowledge of RNA molecules in the cell has increased dramatically. The ENCODE project revealed the huge number of non-coding RNAs in cells; in human cells, over ten times higher than the number of coding genes. "Not all of them have a function," Incarnato stresses. "But many do, and with regard to their variety, we have barely scratched the surface."

Drug research

Different types of non-coding RNAs have been known for a long time and it was also clear that their structure could play an important role. An example are riboswitches: RNAs that can respond to changes in the external environment by changing shape, which in turn can affect specific gene activity.

"We also knew that RNA molecules can act as enzymes," says Incarnato. "And, of course, ribosomes are RNA structures." Thus, RNA molecules can act as sensors, catalysts, switches, or scaffolds and affect RNA translation, but can also affect RNA degradation and alternative splicing.

It is, therefore, no surprise that RNAs have rapidly gained momentum in drug research. Yet, our knowledge of the structurome is still very limited. "So far, we have almost exclusively looked at single structures. But RNA molecules are very dynamic and molecules with the same sequence can take on different shapes," explains Incarnato. "Due to the way these structures were determined, they are often averages of all the possible conformations of a single molecule."

RNA viruses

Incarnato has pioneered methods to uncover the structural heterogeneity of RNA molecules. "We can combine this with high throughput RNA-sequencing to probe the structural heterogeneity." In some cases, different structures are just an "evolutionary by-product," while in other cases they are functional. Incarnato says, "In this way, RNA molecules can regulate practically anything inside a cell and, therefore, play a role in both physiology and pathophysiology.

Although the developments in this field are rapid, they don't proceed in a very orderly manner. Incarnato: "There is applied pharmaceutical research going on alongside lots of fundamental research." Interfering with RNAs could be an important way to fight diseases, including those caused by RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV2.

"Yet, we don't have a clue about off-target effects. For small molecules that interfere with specific enzymes, such as kinases, profiling panels are available to evaluate off-target profiles. However, we don't know how many RNAs have similar shapes. We really need a clear map of the RNA structurome."

Software

Another problem is that in many cases, it is impossible to know which of the different structural versions of a given RNA molecule is responsible for its function or dysfunction. "And on top of that, RNAs can interact and create complicated regulatory networks. So, we also need a deeper understanding of how this works in cells."

There is a lot of work still to do. In addition, software is important; computer programs are needed to translate biochemical analyses of RNAs into their different structures. Incarnato says, "In our field, you need to know as much about coding as about high throughput sequencing. All of us are at home both in wet labs and in bioinformatics."

More information: Robert C. Spitale et al, Probing the dynamic RNA structurome and its functions, Nature Reviews Genetics (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41576-022-00546-w Journal information: Nature Reviews Genetics
Urban-rural human settlements quality values across space and its time trend in 31 regions. a Trends of human settlements quality values from 2000 to 2009; b Trends of human settlements quality values from 2010 to 2019. Credit: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01417-9

The improvement of human settlements is an important goal of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development, which has also attracted wide attention from the Chinese government and scholars. However, previous studies on human settlements often separated urban and rural areas, and separated subjective evaluation from objective evaluation, which was not in line with the characteristics of close interaction between human and environment in human settlements.

Prof. Fang Chuanglin, Associate Prof. Ma Haitao and their team members at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have quantified the spatiotemporal patterns of human settlements in China during a long period from both urban and rural dimensions. And they investigated the correlation between objective evaluation and subjective well-being regarding the comprehensive assessment of urban-rural human settlements.

Results were published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

The researchers constructed a comprehensive index system to evaluate the quality of urban-rural human settlements in China from the objective perspective, a large spatiotemporal scale covering 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) from 2000 to 2019.

They collected more than 500 thousand questionnaires from the 31 provincial-level regions based on the point of subjective perspective in 2020, and discussed the relationships between objective and subjective evaluations of urban-rural human settlements at national and subnational levels in China.

Results showed that the quality of urban-rural human settlements in China has significantly improved over the last 20 years objectively, and the national average score of subjective estimation of human settlement was at the level of "Satisfied" subjectively.

"The objective and subjective evaluations of urban-rural human settlements have a positive correlation, but there are evidently differences in objective estimation to different sub-dimensions, and the quality evaluation and public satisfaction of human settlements in some regions were uneven," said Prof. Fang.

"Long-term follow-up investigation should be the focus of urban-rural human settlements evaluations. The results are helpful for adjusting measures to local conditions and promoting continuous improvement, providing a reference for policymakers to fully consider the needs of residents in the top-level design so that national policies can better benefit the people's livelihood," said associated Prof. Ma.

More information: Chuanglin Fang et al, Urbanrural human settlements in China: Objective evaluation and subjective well-being, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01417-9
GLENS FALLS  Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik easily was re-elected to a fifth term over Democratic challenger Matt Castelli, according to unofficial returns late Tuesday night.

With over 90% of the precincts reporting, Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, had about 59% of the vote compared with just under 40% for Castelli, a former CIA counterterrorism operative who lives in Glens Falls.

Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, thanked the crowd gathered at The Queensbury Hotel for their support and said she would continue fighting for them.

No matter the smears from the mainstream media, no matter the smears from Hollywood, I will never apologize for giving this district a seat at the highest level, she said.

Stefanik is currently the GOP Conference chair and will be even more influential if the Republicans win the majority in the House of Representatives as expected.

Elsewhere, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, easily won re-election in the 20th Congressional District to an eighth term over Republican challenger Liz Lemery Joy.

Voters thoughts

Voters at the polls were enthusiastic about casting ballots for the GOP.

Tim Childs, of Queensbury, said he voted for Republicans across the board.

Economy, my 401k, fuel prices, the border, safety and security, he said, listing off the reasons why.

Another voter, who did not want to give her name, said she voted Republican because of concerns about the economy and living conditions and believes that the Democrats were focusing on the wrong priorities.

Stec defeats Lapper in midterm election State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, declared himself as the winner of the 2022 45th Senate District race with only 154 of 224 Senate districts reporting totals as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Spencer Quirion, who recently moved from Maine, said he was excited when he found out that Stefanik was his representative.

Elise Stefanik is just an absolute rising star, he said.

He added that her positions were clear.

You know where she stands on every issue, he said.

Quirions main issue is energy independence.

Gina Leibert, of Fort Edward, also voted a straight-Republican ticket, mainly on the issues of the economy and bail reform.

Castelli conceded the race in front of supporters at The Park Theater in Glens Falls. When contacted, the campaign had no further comment.

During the campaign, Castelli had attacked Stefanik as focusing more on climbing the political ladder than addressing the needs of the people in her district. He said he would put country before party and work in a bipartisan fashion. Castelli created a Moderate Party ballot line.

Stefanik had criticized Castelli as being a far left downstate Democrat, not having lived in the district, being endorsed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and supporting a gun ban.

The candidates did not debate. They could not agree on a schedule. Stefanik skipped a debate that was organized by WPTZ-TV in Plattsburgh.

Stefanik will have to relocate as her current residence is outside the reconfigured district.

Partisan divides were still very much evident at the polls.

At the Sanford Street School polling site in Glens Falls, a Democratic voter said she does not like Stefaniks stance on abortion, close allegiance to former President Donald Trump and her votes against infrastructure funding.

Our bridges and roads need a lot of work, she said.

Woerner wins Glens Falls as results continue to come in Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, took Glens Falls with 60% of the votes for the first year the city is included in the 113th state Assembly District.

Chuck Drew, also of Glens Falls, said protecting voting rights was his main issue and voted against Stefanik.

Shes a Trumper, he said.

In 2020, Stefanik won with nearly 64% of the vote compared with 35% for Tedra Cobb.

Two years before that, Stefanik garnered 56% of the vote compared with 42.4% for Cobb and 1.5% for Green Party candidate Lynn Kahn.

NY-21 includes all of Warren, Washington, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Montgomery, Schoharie, St. Lawrence and parts of Jefferson, Otsego and Rensselaer counties.

Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district in NY-21 by 38% to 28%. The district has about 25% of voters who are not affiliated with a party.

Ballot issue

Earlier in the day, voters in parts of Washington County had an issue with casting their vote because of an error in the way the ballots were printed.

Jeff Curtis, Democratic elections commissioner for the county, said the cut of the paper was off and the markings were not in the correct places.

The machine wasnt reading the ballot, he said.

The ballots affected included in Argyle, Cambridge, Dresden, Easton, Fort Ann, Fort Ann and Fort Edward and Granville, according to Curtis.

The Board of Elections printed out all new ballots and everything returned to normal by afternoon.

Those unscanned ballots will be hand counted, he said.

Stefanik had sent a news release saying the campaign was notified of serious election integrity issues and provided the hotline for voters to report any irregularities at their polling site.

The Elise for Congress campaign is working directly with the Republican National Committee and is exploring all legal options to ensure every legal vote, and only legal votes, are accurately and lawfully counted. Election integrity, rule of law, and transparency are of the utmost importance in our elections and our campaign is working diligently to obverse and ensure the security of such ballots, she said in a news release.

Castelli criticized her for what he said was an effort to manufacture controversy and stoke fear about the integrity of our elections.

Her fearmongering has the potential to make election workers from both parties  her own constituents  targets of potential violence, he said in a news release. I am grateful to the hardworking poll workers in Washington County who caught and corrected the technical issue that prevented ballots from being read by machines early this morning and who followed the required and trusted protocols to correct this issue.

The Washington County Board of Elections issued a statement at 8 p.m. saying that the ballots that were not able to be scanned and read by the machine were secured by poll inspection staff members.

The Board of Elections coordinated with the Washington County Sheriffs Office for retrieval and secure transport of all ballots cast at every poll site.

The Washington County Board of Elections commissioners and our staff remain committed to maintaining the integrity of the election process and system, ensuring that every vote cast in Washington County will be counted, the statement said.

Tonko re-elected

With 70% of the vote in, Tonko had 58% compared with 41% for Joy, according to unofficial returns.

Our campaign has always been about delivering results for the Capital Region, fighting for working families, defending voting and abortion rights, and strengthening democracy. That campaign doesnt end tonight just because New Yorkers sent me back to work. There is plenty to do and Im rolling up my sleeves first thing Wednesday morning, he said in a statement.

It was a rematch between the candidates. Tonko had nearly 60% of the vote in 2020 compared with 38% for Joy.

During the campaign, Tonko had touted his support of womens reproductive rights and efforts to fight climate change. In a debate between the two, he said that Joy was an extreme MAGA Republican.

Joy had focused on public safety and crime in her advertising.

NY-20 includes all of Saratoga, Schenectady and Albany counties and a portion of Rensselaer County.
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CAPE MAY  Voters on Tuesday opted for stability over change on City Council, supporting three incumbents and a newcomer who had the backing of Mayor Zach Mullock.

The nonpartisan city election had the largest potential for change of any of the municipal races in Cape May County, with four of the five seats on the governing body up for a vote. Instead, council next year will not look much different than this year.

Voters supported incumbents Lorraine Baldwin and Shaine Meier, along with Maureen McDade, in her first run for elected office. For an unexpired term on council, voters strongly supported Michael Yeager, the incumbent who was appointed to the seat, over former council member Patricia Hendricks, with close to 70% of the vote going to Yeager.

Former Mayor Clarence Lear, whom Mullock unseated two years ago, fell short in his bid to return to city government, with Mark DiSanto trailing behind in his third election attempt in the city.

Mullock was Cape Mays only elected official not on the ballot, yet he still played a part in the election, which he said Wednesday he saw as a referendum on his leadership in the resort.

To be blunt, people saw the work was getting done and what we were getting accomplished for the city, Mullock said.

In an unusual step, Mullock took out ads and produced mailers supporting a slate of candidates, including Baldwin, McDade and Yeager. Meier was specifically absent from that endorsement, although Mullock said he included a line that he supported all incumbents.

Meier had formerly run with Lear and Hendricks. He said during the campaign, and on Wednesday, that he tried to stay neutral in the election, saying he was willing to work with anyone.

He had little else to say about the election Wednesday.

Im just glad I won, he said.

On Wednesday, Lear said, I stopped being surprised after the previous election.

The former mayor said many of the projects and initiatives begun when he was mayor are now being touted as great for the community. Voters may have favored stability, he said, but he suggested the repeated opposition from Mullock when he was a council member and Lear was mayor gave the impression of dissent in town.

Lear, Hendricks lead in campaign funding in Cape May CAPE MAY  Financial disclosure forms show Clarence Lear and Patricia Gray Hendricks have fa

It seems like the ideas, the direction we were going was welcome, Lear said.

He did not yet have a comment on what the vote meant for Cape May.

Elections are a funny thing. Look across the country, Lear said. Im still evaluating.

McDade was happy with Mullocks support but said the candidates did not run as a ticket but as independent campaigns.

I am thrilled, she said of the results. I am absolutely thrilled to be able to represent the city of Cape May.

Council member Stacy Sheehan, who currently serves as deputy mayor, decided not to seek another term. That will be the only change when McDade is sworn in at the citys reorganization meeting, planned for January, with McDade taking the seat currently held by Sheehan.

Seven candidates for four seats on Cape May Council CAPE MAY  In a city with fewer than 2,000 registered voters, four of the five seats on City

McDade said the current administration has been making progress on several important projects, and she decided to run because she wanted to support those efforts.

Mullock cited the new fire headquarters now under construction, along with a proposed new police headquarters, for which plans are in the works. He also cited plans to improve the citys water desalination plant and other large-scale projects in the city, saying it is important for Cape May to continue that progress.

He said his endorsement was an unusual step, but described it as the right thing to do.

I let my supporters know where I stood and what I thought was best for the people of Cape May, he said Wednesday.

Vote tallies posted to the Cape May County election website show Baldwin with the highest vote tally, at 779, followed by McDade at 657 and Meier at 612 for the three full-term seats on council. Next were Lear, at 446, and DiSanto, at 283. Results remained unofficial as of Wednesday.

Yeager drew 709 votes to finish the unexpired term to which he was appointed, with Hendricks receiving 322 votes.
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP  As early returns trickled in, Cape May County Republicans were optimistic about their chances both at the local level and beyond.

The GOP has a major numbers advantage in the county, and in municipal and county races many seats went unopposed. Where there were challenges, even an upset win would not change the majority in any governing body.

According to the county numbers, there are close to 33,000 registered Republicans in Cape May County, compared with fewer than 19,000 registered Democrats out of a total of just over 75,000 registered voters.

Expecting a strong showing locally, Republicans gathered at the Bellevue Tavern in Cape May Court House, the site of election-night gatherings for years.

A single Democrat put her name in for one of the two seats on the ballot for the county Board of Commissioners.

Julia Hankerson, of Woodbine, was optimistic late Tuesday before polls closed, expecting a close race.

I worked hard. Thats all you can do," she said.

Republican incumbent E. Marie Hayes was joined by Andrew Bulakowski, tapped for the GOP nomination when Gerald Thornton, the longtime director of the county board, decided not to seek a new term. This is Bulakowskis first run for elected office, although he said he has worked on other campaigns.

At about 9:30 p.m., Cape May County Republican leader Michael Donohue told the crowd gathered at the Bellevue Tavern that Hayes and Bulakowskis lead seemed insurmountable.

Unofficial results posted by Cape May County had the republican candidates leading by more than 10,000 votes, with 23,148 for Hayes, 23,436 for Bulakowski and 12,768 for Hankerson.

"I'm not even bummed about this. I think we did a great job," Hankerson said on Wednesday. She described the race as an exercise in party building, saying she helped with the organization and structure for Democrats.

"I'm still brilliant and good-looking," she said.

In Middle Township, unofficial results had Republican James Norris defeating challenger Democrat Melisha Anderson 4,397 to 2,344 in the race for Township Committee.

Norris thanked supporters, and said Middle Township voters appreciate the efforts of the current committee, citing fellow members Tim Donohue, the mayor and brother of the county leader, and Ike Gandy.

"We have a lot left to do," he said, pointing to plans to improve the Rio Grande section of the township.

Norris and Hayes both said earlier in the evening that turnout was strong, with Hayes citing increased interest in school board races in several towns.

With returns still being counted, Norris expressed confidence, saying voters appreciate the work he and the two other members of Township Committee have done.

Donohue said the numbers were looking good for his party, but as of press time no one had claimed a win in the contested races.

He jokingly described the reelection of Dean Marcolongo as county surrogate as the squeaker of the night. Marcolongo was unopposed.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Dennis Township resident who worked his way up through elected office to reach Congress as a Democrat before a high-profile defection to the GOP, was expected to see a strong showing against Democratic challenger Tim Alexander in the county.

At the Bellevue, county Republicans also kept an eye on national races, hoping to pick up control of the House of Representatives and possibly tip the scales in the Senate.

Even before polls closed at 8 p.m., county Republican leader Michael Donohue was projecting a Red Wave for 2022.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew claimed victory Tuesday night for reelection, as he was leading with almost 58% of the vote in the 2nd Congressional District, to about 40% for Democratic challenger Tim Alexander.

Alexander, however, had not conceded by press time.

South Jersey has done its part tonight to save the America we know and love, by delivering historic Republican victories up and down the ballot, Van Drew said at a victory party at The Oar House in Sea Isle City. Now the real work begins when it comes to undoing the damage Biden and this Democrat majority have done to our country over the last two years.

Van Drew had about 78,000 votes to Alexanders 53,000, with about 53% of all votes counted in the district that covers all of Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, and parts of Gloucester, Camden, Burlington and Ocean counties.

Van Drew said Republicans must not be weak kneed when they take control of the House of Representatives in January.

We need to be strong, we need to be tough, we need to hold this administration accountable, and deliver for the American people where Democrats have failed.

Alexander was up and out at dawn on Election Day, accompanied by family members and voting with his wife, Anna, at the Smithville Community Center near his home in Galloway Township.

Around noon Tuesday, Van Drew voted at the Ocean View Fire Company on Route 9, then planned to go target shooting with aide Christopher Chin, a former Marine and shooting instructor.

Before I used to do dentistry (on election days), Van Drew, a retired dentist, said as he arrived to vote. I replaced it with shooting with Chris.

Both Van Drew and Alexander, however, were still working to get the vote out. Van Drew, as he does every year, would be working the phones making sure Republicans did their part at the polls.

And Alexander planned a full day of visits to polling places and to encourage Democratic enthusiasm.

Alexander, a civil rights attorney and former police officer, said he was proud of how he ran his campaign.

I tried not to go negative on my opponent, I only talked about his accomplishments or lack thereof ... but I didnt go in on personal attacks, Alexander said. We showed how politics should work. You convey your message and let people decide, and encourage them to participate.

Alexander said he stayed positive with his message of economic development, protection of womens reproductive rights, protecting pre-K-12 public education and Medicare, and providing funding for better training of police.

Van Drew said his message has remained consistent: America needs to return to strength with secure borders and elections, and a strong military and support for police.

Voters at his polling place greeted Van Drew as an old friend.

My daughter used to make his sandwiches at the Subway, said Susan Brown, of Dennis Township, a mother of 10. Now shes an ammo tech in the U.S. Marines.

Daughter Marissa Modica is about to get the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Brown said.

She showed Van Drew pictures of Modica, then had her picture taken with Van Drew and youngest children Michael Brown, 22, and Rosie Brown, 21.

I love Jeff Van Drew; hes my guy, said Jon Gansert, 28, of Dennis Township after he voted. Ive known him many years. He fights for Cape May County.

Van Drew was first elected as a conservative Democrat in 2018 but changed parties to the GOP after refusing to vote to impeach President Donald Trump. His name has been floated as a potential vice presidential candidate for Trump if Trump runs again in 2024.

Trump has said he will make a major announcement Nov. 15, and Van Drew expects him to say he is running again.

In Galloway, opinions were more split.

Rachel Campbell said she came out to support Alexander and voted Democratic all the way.

We have to get Democrats in so they can work together, Campbell said. Its got to be all or none. Bipartisanship doesnt work.

But Peter MacDonald, of Galloway, said he was an independent voter for common sense, which he no longer finds with the Democrats.

Im conservative fiscally and liberal socially, MacDonald said. But he said Democrats, and particularly President Joe Biden, have gone too far on social issues as well.

The world is completely upside down, MacDonald said. This is not the Democratic Party I grew up with.
A woman accused of stealing money from Elevate Trampoline Park in Davenport awaits sentencing after accepting a plea agreement.

Scott County authorities charged Tiffany Eva Marie Ferraraccio, who lived in Cedar Rapids at the time, with second-degree theft, according to Scott County court records. She allegedly took a total of $3,828.08 from the park beginning on Sept. 23, 2021, while working as a store manager there.

Ferraraccio, 39, pleaded guilty to the charge on Nov. 1 as part of the agreement with the Scott County Attorneys Office, court records state. Her sentencing has been set for Dec. 21.

District Associate Judge Christine Dalton, who accepted Ferraraccios plea on Nov. 3, also ordered a presentence investigation.

Such investigations are designed to provide background reports on defendants who are to be sentenced. The reports are meant to assist a judge in determining the appropriate sentence.

In return for Ferraraccios plea, the county attorneys office offered concessions including that:

 If Ferraraccio is sentenced to incarceration, the prosecution wont resist a recommendation that the Scott County sentence be concurrent to probation Ferraraccio must serve in a Linn County case.

 Ferraraccio must pay back the money taken from the trampoline park.

The initial complaint and affidavit filed by the Davenport Police Department in January states that investigators think Ferraraccio kept portions of the companys money rather than depositing it at a bank.

When interviewed as part of the inquiry, she allegedly kept changing the statements she made to police about the money, according to that document, which is part of the cases court file. Initially she said she deposited it, but the bank said the deposits were not made. Other statements she made included that she did not know which bank location she deposited the money at, that she did not have time to deposit the money because she had to buy printer paper and that she had a toothache.

After the money went missing, the business owner told Ferraraccio the money could be returned without police involvement and Ferraraccio denied any wrongdoing, court records state.

At some point, Ferraraccio stopped coming to work, kept her work keys and never picked up her final paycheck, court records state.

An arrest warrant in relation to the theft charge was issued on Jan. 12, court records state.

An Eldridge Police Department officer arrested Ferraraccio on the warrant during an August traffic stop.

There were two older cases in Linn County in which Ferraraccio was accused of stealing.

On Sept. 27, 2018, Ferraraccio pleaded guilty to third-degree theft in relation to money reported stolen from a Cedar Rapids Quality Inn, according to Linn County court records. She received a suspended jail sentence and a year of unsupervised probation.

In that case she was accused of taking between $1,000 and $10,000 in cash deposits from the business while working there on or around Dec. 1, 2017, Linn County court records state. She was initially charged with second-degree theft.

On July 14, 2020, Ferraraccio allegedly used a debit card that did not belong to her to withdraw about $240 from a bank in Marion, Iowa, according to Linn County court records. She was charged with unauthorized use of a credit card.

She pleaded guilty to the unauthorized use charge on May 26, 2021, Linn County court records state. She was sentenced on July 1, 2021, to 187 days in jail, with 180 days suspended until July 2022. She also received self-supervised probation.
Western Illinois University named Liz Nolte as its new director of development. She will be based at the WIU-Quad Cities campus, but will serve the entire university and report to the vice president of advancement and alumni relations.

"I'm thrilled to join my alma mater as it's an exciting time for WIU," said Nolte in a WIU press release. "I look forward to connecting with our alumni and friends who are passionate about WIU and its top-tier academic programs. Additionally, I look forward to linking our alumni back to the university and nurturing the strong culture of philanthropy that continues to inspire and impact our students, faculty and staff and will propel WIU into the future."

Nolte earned her bachelor's degree and was a member of the track and field at WIU.

Nolte previously served as the operations and communications director for Renew Moline in Moline, Ill. and the director of alumni engagement and annual giving at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. She has over 10 years of experience working for Quad Cities region nonprofitsincluding the Quad Cities Community Foundation, Trinity Health Foundation and Arrowhead Ranch.

Prior to her nonprofit work, she was also a TV news reporter for WHBF in Rock Island, Ill.

We are thrilled to welcome Liz Nolte back to WIU, said Mike Murtagh, vice president for advancement and alumni relations. As an experienced fundraiser with a wealth of professional achievements, she will play a major role in helping WIU achieve its philanthropic goals. Liz has already hit the ground running, and there is no doubt that she will make a difference.
Democrat Eric Sorensen declared victory over Republican Esther Joy King in the early hours of Wednesday morning, staking claim to Illinois' 17th Congressional District.

The seat has been held by longtime Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos, of Moline, who congratulated Sorensen for his win Wednesday morning, saying the she is thrilled to have a representative who will, "work to build up our local economy and continue to uplift Heartland values and Midwestern voices."

Having retired from the House, Bustos said, "I am glad to know that those I have served will be represented by an Illinoisan with deep roots in our community, who is ready to step up and lead."

The race was predicted by many to be a close one, and the seat is one the GOP hoped to flip from blue to red to help gain control of the U.S. House.

A first-time candidate, Sorensen's win is an historic one for the state, marking Illinois' first LGBTQ+ elected to Congress.

In a phone call Wednesday afternoon, Sorensen said it didn't go into his decision, but it occurred to him while talking with his mom that Illinois had not yet elected an LGBTQ+ congressman.

"We're seeing states where there isn't that representation," Sorensen said. "But here we have an opportunity in the State of Illinois to reach out and to be able to say that we love our neighbors, and we will take care of each other."

During his victory speech in the early morning hours at Pour Bros. Craft Taproom in downtown Moline, Sorensen appeared to become emotional, saying he is lucky to be the "very first LGBTQ+ person ever elected to Congress from Illinois."

When asked about the decision to run for office, Sorensen said he began to ask himself whether there could be a place for him when Bustos announced she wasn't running for reelection.

"For me, it was making sure that I had gained and earned the respect and trust of the people," he said.

Throughout his campaign, he ran on the importance of electing a representative who has grown up in the district, someone who is known and trusted.

Sorensen was born and raised in Rockford.

He graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in communications and a minor in meteorology. He was a meteorologist at WREX in Rockford for 11 years before moving to Moline where he worked at WQAD for seven years.

Sorensen said part of his job is understanding people from large and small communities, and he will be an advocate for the people across the district, regardless of political beliefs.

"It's making sure that we have an advocate for our communities in Washington," he said.

Asked what constituents talked to him about most on the campaign trail, he said, people frequently said they are are frustrated with politics today; they want someone who is going to go to Congress who will do the work to help lower the cost of goods and help make life more affordable.

Going forward, Sorensen said, he will build relationships and wants to bring everyone to the table and solve problems that affect all of the district, regardless where people live or how they voted.

According to a spokesperson from King's campaign, she called Sorensen's campaign around 8 a.m. Wednesday to concede.

A call to King's campaign Wednesday afternoon was not returned.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press had yet to officially call the race. According to the results, 94% of precincts were reporting with Sorensen leading at 51.8% to King's 48.2%.

She challenged Bustos in the 2020 election, losing by 4% of the vote.
Moline is getting some much-needed affordable housing to add to its inventory.

The city's Community Development Corporation, along with officials from the city and its Housing Authority, broke ground Wednesday on a collection of apartment units to add to those that have long occupied the area of 41st Street and 12th Avenue.

Spring Valley Village will be located adjacent to the Moline Housing Authority's existing public housing development, Spring Valley. It will have 16 units near the intersection with duplexes to the north  in the location of a former dental office that will be razed.

Housing Authority President/CEO John Afoun welcomed guests at the the Wednesday ceremony, saying it is the beginning of another chapter in the history of the housing cooperative.

When he came to the Quad-Cities about a dozen years ago, Afoun said, few options existed for affordable housing. Spring Valley Village is part of a strategic plan to deliver more.

"We are confident that adding Spring Valley Village to the pool of affordable housing in the area will contribute to the effort being made by all of us in the City of Moline to prevent homelessness," he said.

The cost of the development is $6.7 million, with funding from a Permanent Support Housing Development program grant and gap financing from the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The estimated timeline for completion is December 2024.

"I am in Section 8 housing, and I can really see the need for more housing for people that are kind of falling through the cracks," said Diane Fox, a resident commissioner for Moline housing.

Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati and 6th ward Ald. Pat O'Brien also spoke at the ceremony, vowing the city and council will continue to address affordable housing needs.

Steven Clark, President of S.E. Clark and Associates Inc. will be the development consultant for the project. He too spoke at the groundbreaking, saying it has been difficult the past few years to develop anything, due to COVID-19.

He is looking forward to working on Spring Valley Village, saying it is a special project because it addresses people who have needs outside the norm.
Voters elected Sen. Chris Cournoyer, R-LeClaire, to a second state senate term Tuesday night. She defeated Jed Ganzer, an educator from DeWitt for Senate District 35.

Cournoyer thanked supporters at a campaign party for Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks on Tuesday night. She touted recent Republican-backed tax cuts and said she looked forward to continuing in the senate.

District 35 includes LeClaire and northern Scott County, Clinton County and Maquoketa.

Cournoyer flipped the seat to Republican control in 2018 to her first term.

She is a former school board member and chairs the subcommittee that writes the state's education budget.

Cournoyer has touted the state's budget surpluses and Republican-backed tax cuts passed in 2021 that eliminated income taxes for retirees and got rid of a progressive income tax system for a 3.9% flat tax.

Ganzer, a special education teacher in Davenport, said on the campaign trail his top priority would be funding the state's public education system at a higher rate.

The two disagreed on the state providing funding for families to help with private school expenses, a proposal Gov. Kim Reynolds has championed but that has failed in the statehouse in the past two sessions.
Davenport business owner Mike Vondran has unseated Democratic lawmaker Phyllis Thede according to preliminary election results released in Scott County Tuesday.

Those tallies showed Vondran garnered 56.46% of the vote to Thede's 43.47%.

It was the second match-up between the two  this year, in a newly drawn, more rural district.

Vondran, CEO and owner of TAG Communications, has said his priorities are economic development and workforce readiness. Vondran serves as the spokesperson for the Davenport Community School District, and is involved with area nonprofits including HAVlife Foundation, Junior Achievement of the Heartland, and is a member of the Mississippi Valley Fair board.

Thede, who was reelected to the statehouse since 2008, has focused on pushing for more funding for public education and has been fiercely critical of Gov. Kim Reynolds' proposal to use taxpayer money to subsidize private schools. Thede retired as an employee with the Davenport School District, where she was a paraeducator, secretary, and served various roles in the district's employee union, including president.

Thede beat Vondran by double-digit percentage points in 2020. At that time, the district squarely covered Davenport and Bettendorf. Now, the district has narrowed in Davenport and Bettendorf and reaches up to include Eldridge and rural parts of Scott County.

In responses to the Quad-City Times survey, Vondran noted the rural areas District 94 included, and said with representing rural Scott County, Eldridge, Bettendorf, and Davenport, the district "is truly a slice of Iowa pie and far more representative of the entire state."

Vondran said he wanted to continue what he called Iowa's sound fiscal management, and believes the state can work toward eliminating personal income tax.

"It is within reach due to the hard work and sound financial management of the current administration," Vondran wrote in response to the survey.

Iowa passed tax cuts in 2021 to lower Iowans' income taxes to a flat 3.9% by 2026, meaning higher-income earners will pay the same rate as lower-income Iowans. The cuts also eliminated tax on retirement income, such as 401k plans, pensions, and IRAs.

When asked about the proposal to allow 10,000 families to use per-pupil taxpayer funds for private school expenses, Vondran said he believes in "parental control of their child's education" and applauded parental involvement. But he did not outright endorse Reynolds' plan.

Thede pointed to other areas where the state supports families sending their children to non-public schools, including state grants fro books, technology, and transportation. Thede has campaigned against sending further state funds to private schools.

On abortion, Vondran said he believes "the overall question of a right to an abortion should go to the voters of Iowa." Thede said abortion "should not be considered in the Legislature. Let doctors and patients/family work through this extremely tough issue."

Among races for statehouse, the race ranked near the top for contributions and in-kind donations in the state, signaling it was seen as a competitive race by donors and the political parties.

From Nov. 5, 2020, to Oct. 15, 2022, Vondran significantly outraised Thede, raising nearly $280,000 to Thede's nearly $80,000.
Bettendorf City Council member Scott Webster won the Iowa Senate District 47 seat, defeating Bettendorf physician Mary Kathleen Figaro by 3,461 votes.

Webster received 15,481 votes, or 56.24%. Figaro received 12,020 votes, or 43.67%.

Senate District 47 covers Bettendorf, Eldridge, LeClaire, and parts of Davenport.

No incumbent ran for the district. State Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport, who represented most of the newly drawn district, opted to run for state treasurer instead.

Webster has pitched his experience as a home builder, Bettendorf City Council member, and as a member of state policy boards as evidence he could hit the ground running in Des Moines. He supports reducing taxes and red tape for businesses. He supports the 2019 fetal heartbeat bill currently under litigation that bans abortions after a heartbeat is detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy.

Figaro, a physician, has made health care a central focus of her campaign. She said she supports codifying Roe v. Wade, upping Iowa's Medicaid rates, and improving access to mental-health care. Figaro is a member of the American Medical Association, and said she's advocated for lowering the price of insulin at the national level and reducing red tape physicians face.

The two candidates differed on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' proposal to allow 10,000 families use per-pupil taxpayer funds to send their child to a private school.

Webster said he thinks it is a "reasonable policy for parents to have the ability to use their tax dollars to find the best educational fit for their children." He added that he would support "reliable increases in funding for public schools."

Figaro opposed such a plan, saying "public dollars belong in public schools."

The new district is a conglomeration of other previous districts, a result of the decennial redrawing of political lines. Smith represented much of the district, but opted to run for state treasurer this year instead of seeking another term in the senate. Eldridge was previously represented by Mark Lofgren, a Muscatine Republican.

The Senate District 47 race attracted some of the most funds raised among legislative races in the state, meaning Republicans and Democrats saw the race as one of the most competitive.

Reviewing state fundraising data from Nov. 5, 2020, to Oct. 15, 2022, Figaro had raised about $209,000 in contributions and in-kind donations, and Webster, about $349,000.
Karen Kinney will serve one last four-year term as Rock Island County Clerk.

Voters in the county confirmed that Tuesday, handing the four-time Democrat incumbent a victory over Republican challenger Marian Stallings-Moore.

Kinney received 27,787 votes, or 58.28%. Republican challenger Marian Stallings-Moore got 19,890 votes, or 41.72%.

Kinney, who is 65 years old, confirmed she plans to make this four-year term her last. She was first elected county clerk in 2010. She said she wanted to see through the planned replacement of voting machines and "  continue the work of increasing opportunities for people to vote."

"We have just started the process of accepting bids for new voting machines and the next step is gathering our entire election staff for demonstrations," Kinney said. "I didn't want to leave in the middle of this process and make the county have to start all over again."

Kinney and Stallings-Moore differed sharply on mail-in voting and broader voter-access issues. During her campaign, Stallings-Moore expressed concern about mail-in ballots, advocated voter identification cards in Illinois, and suggested early voting be cut down to eight days before election day.

Kinney said she strongly disagreed with what she called "limiting anyone's access to information about voting or casting their votes." She pointed out 6,266 ballots were cast at the county's five early-voting sites.

"I think people have spoken as to whether or not they want to have the opportunity to vote early," Kinney said. "As for voter I.D. cards, that's not my decision. It is against the law to ask for I.D.s at polling places - but if people want to change that law they should speak to the legislators.

"The county clerks office does not make laws. The county clerks office follows the law."

Like other Republican candidates in Rock Island County and throughout the country, Stallings-Moore focused on what she called "election integrity."

She said her time as a poll watcher and precinct committee person led her to run for Rock Island County Clerk and her top priority was to " ... restore integrity and confidence in our voting process." She said she distrusts touch-screen voting machines and the "voting information transmitted over the internet."

"There is no reason why we should use machines instead of paper in the early voting process. It is unnecessary," Stallings-Moore said on her campaign site. "We need to bring integrity back into our elections. The only way to do that is audits, voter I.D. and paper ballots."

In the 2018 race for county clerk, Kinney received 30,578 votes, and Republican challenger Russell G. Christ got 19,782 votes.
SPRINGFIELD  Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker defeated Republican challenger Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, to secure a second term in office Tuesday evening, ensuring that Democrats' near total control over state government will remain.

The Associated Press called the race for Pritzker at 7 p.m., when polls closed. Pritzker declared victory when speaking to a crowd of supporters shortly after 8 p.m.

"Facing this moment means fighting these battles together," he said. "Together we must be bold and we must never shy away from our big-D Democratic or little-d democratic values."

Bailey called to concede the race to Pritzker and addressed his supporters, gathered in Springfield, shortly around 9:30 p.m. and acknowledged that "tonight didn't turn out the way we wanted."

"Friends, I can promise you this: I may not be going to Springfield as your next governor. But I will never stop fighting for you," Bailey said.

"Republicans need to be the loyal opposition in Springfield  loyal to our state, loyal to our country, loyal to our Constitution," Bailey continued. "But in opposition to the radical policies of the Democrats."

With 71% of precincts reporting at 10:15 p.m., Pritzker held a 55% to 42% advantage over Bailey, a state senator from Xenia, a more than 400,000 vote lead out of more than 3.3 million cast.

The result is a validation of Pritzker, whose tenure as governor began with a frenetic flurry of legislating but would come to be defined by his handing of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, which thrusted the billionaire into a role akin to a wartime leader.

Bailey, a downstate farmer, first gained celebrity and notoriety by challenging Pritzker's COVID-19 emergency powers in 2020. He was a favorite of conservatives who propelled him to a landslide victory over more moderate challengers in the Republican primary in June.

However, Bailey was long viewed as an underdog. He was vastly outspent by the billionaire incumbent, whose campaign produced a relentless barrage of advertisements highlighting the Republican's conservative views on issues like abortion and guns.

Pritzker, a self-funding billionaire, dropped more than $155 million into his reelection campaign after spending more than $172 million to defeat Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018.

Bailey also had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, a boost in a Republican primary that quickly became a detriment in a general election in a state that voted for President Joe Biden by 17 percentage points in 2020.

Pritzker's campaign theme was "strong leadership in tough times," highlighting his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and stewardship of the state's finances.

Pritzker also pointed to his active legislative record. He and Democrats in the General Assembly  among other items  enacted a minimum wage increase, recreational marijuana legalization, a $45 billion capital construction program and a plan to get Illinois to 100% clean energy by 2050.

With a second term now in hand, attention to Pritzker may now turn more decidedly national as the country pivots towards the 2024 presidential election. He has been the subject to speculation over the past year about a possible bid for the White House should Biden decide to forgo a campaign for a second term.

Though the governor has said he intends to serve out his four-year term in Springfield, he has not definitively said he would, only confirming that he will support Biden, who will turn 80 on Nov. 20, if the incumbent indeed chooses to run for reelection.

For Republicans, it is a missed opportunity to reclaim the governor's mansion in a year favorable to their party.

Bailey's campaign, with an assist from an outside political action committee run by conservative radio host Dan Proft, focused relentlessly on the issue of crime, which rose significantly in 2020 and has yet to come back to pre-pandemic levels.

Bailey and Republicans focused their attention on the SAFE-T Act, the controversial criminal justice reform law that, among other provisions, will eliminate cash bail starting on Jan. 1.

However, the overall crime message at times was overshadowed by Bailey's comments referring to Chicago as a "hellhole," "an unruly child" and, in the final debate between the two candidates last month, "Pritzkerville."

According to several polls, the top issue on voters' minds was the economy with crime often ranking below other issues like abortion and threats to democracy.

While Democrats are all-but-certain to maintain their majorities in the General Assembly, a clear picture has yet to emerge on how large they will be.

This story will be updated.
Republican Luana Stoltenberg appears to have narrowly won Iowa's House District 81 seat, according to unofficial tallies from the Scott County Auditor's Office.

By a margin of 29 votes, she defeated opponent Craig Cooper, a Democrat. The district covers the northwest portion of Davenport.

Stoltenberg is an author, speaker, and anti-abortion activist. She is a staunch anti-mask and anti-vaccine supporter who included protecting the 2nd amendment and lowering taxes in her list of key issues.

She has received endorsements from the social conservative group, the Family Leader, as well as a public show of support from the governor. Shes focused her campaign on further restricting abortion and eradicating what she calls critical race theory and pornography in school libraries and curriculum.

Democrats have criticized Stoltenberg for going to the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. She said she attended with a prayer group, and did not enter the capitol building.

When responding to an election questionnaire provided by The Quad City Times/Dispatch Argus, she said her top priority would be education. Safety in classrooms and allowing parent's to have a voice when it comes to their children's education is key.

"Education is not one size fits all, so parents should have a choice about where their children and tax dollars go," she said.

In May, Gov. Kim Reynolds' plan to offer 10,000 families scholarships to pay for private school expenses was thwarted by not enough support from House Representatives. Stoltenberg said she was in favor of the plan because it allowed parents to do what they felt was best for their children.

"Parents know the best environment their children learn in. The money could also go to educational therapies like tutoring, cognitive skills training, or software," she said.

Stoltenberg said the only part of the bill she did not agree with was some of the money would go to rural schools that may not be in the district, and have no cost related to that child. A move she does agree with is the Iowa legislature's elimination of taxes on retirement funds. She said this will help retain residents, but there are other steps that can be taken.

"We can attract and retain residents by striving for the best schools, with school choice, create a thriving economy, and good paying jobs by being business friendly and having safe neighborhoods by loving our fellow Iowans and backing the blue," she said.
Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won reelection to a fourth term Tuesday and will return to a Senate where he is seen as a potential future majority leader.

The 61-year-old Republican held a large fundraising advantage over Democrat Brian Bengs, an Air Force veteran and university professor. Thune is the second-ranking Senate Republican and is seen as a potential pick to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell once he steps down from leadership.

The most dramatic moment of the campaign for Thune came before it began, when he contemplated retiring rather than running for reelection. He had shown signs of weariness after navigating a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump, who at one point called for a primary challenger to unseat him.

Once he chose to run, Thune easily fended off a pair of primary challengers in June and has ridden out the campaign season in the heavily Republican state by avoiding most engagements with Bengs.

The quiet election year allowed Thune to amass over $17 million in campaign funds  money that could help line up allies if he moves to become Senate leader.

Only one South Dakota politician has won a fourth Senate term  Republican Sen. Karl Mundt, who held a seat from the 1950s to the 1970s. After voting early Tuesday, Thune said he was hopeful he would match Mundt's historic run.

He added that he was confident the GOP would gain a Senate majority after Tuesday's midterm elections.

I think the momentum has shifted in the right direction, he told The Associated Press. We feel really good about where the races are.
Proponents and opponents of legalizing recreational marijuana in South Dakota had to wait a bit longer Tuesday to see if voters will approve or reject Initiated Measure 27.

As of 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, the measure was failing by 11 percentage points, but several precincts were still out, making the race too close to call.

The measure would legalize the possession, use and distribution of marijuana, if approved by voters.

The six-section measure would allow marijuana possession, use and distribution for those 21 years and older, although people could only possess up to one ounce of marijuana.

According to the measure, Title 34 in state law would be amended to add a new section that would not regulate marijuana or marijuana accessories. Marijuana is defined as the plant of the genus cannabis and any part of the plant, including seeds, resin extracted from the plant and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of the plant, seed or resin, including hash and marijuana concentrate.

As defined in the measure, it does not include hemp, or fiber produced from the stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of the plant, sterilized seed of the plant which is incapable of germination, or the weight of any other ingredient combined with marijuana to prepare topical or oral administrations, food, drink or other products.

Marijuana accessory is defined as equipment, product, material specifically designed for use in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing, ingesting, inhaling or otherwise introducing marijuana into the human body.

The measure would add a new section to Title 34 that those at least 21 years or older would not be subject to arrest, penalty or fine, or be a basis for the denial of any right or privilege or be a basis for asset seizure or forfeiture to possess, use, ingest, inhale, process, transport or distribute one ounce or less of marijuana and not more than eight grams of marijuana in concentrated form.

A person 21 years or older would also not be subjected to penalties if they possess, plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, process or manufacture not more than three plants and possess the marijuana produced by the plants if: the plants and marijuana produced is in excess of one ounce are kept at a private residence, locked in a space and not visible from a public place; not more than six plants are kept at a residence at one time; and the private residence is within a jurisdiction of local government where there is no licensed retail store where marijuana is available for purchase pursuant to the chapter.

However, it would not retroactively change criminal charges or cases.

According to the measure, people would be subjected to penalties if they cultivate plants that are visible from a public space and could face a fine of $250, cultivate plants not kept in a locked space and could face a fine of $250, smoke marijuana in a public places other than in an area licensed for such activity and face a fine of $100, and is under 21 years old and possesses, uses, ingests, inhales, transports, delivers or distributes without consideration one ounce or less of marijuana or marijuana accessories and face a fine of $100. Those who violate the law could also be provided with an option of attending up to four hours of drug education or counseling in lieu of the penalty.

Matthew Schweich, campaign manager for Yes on 27, said this is a good policy that will allow law enforcement to focus on "real crime" and free up legal resources for other crimes. He also said this would expand access for patients having difficulties getting medical cards, and remove the burden of cannabis-related arrests and convictions that stand in the way of housing, employment and education.

Protecting South Dakota Kids, however, is against the measure and fears the messages it could send to kids. Protecting South Dakota Kids is a Rapid City-based grassroots coalition formed by concerned citizens, healthcare professionals, pastors, educators and others.

Chair Jim Kinyon said this is the worst time to introduce this legislation. Kinyon also serves as the executive director and counseling director at Catholic Social Services. He said as a mental health provider, he sees many kids and families negatively impacted by marijuana.

He said the mental health system is already overwhelmed and overtaxed, and having to put kids on waiting lists when they're possibly suicidal is heartbreaking.
South Dakota voters rejected an initiated measure Tuesday that would have legalized recreational use of marijuana.

With all but one precinct reporting complete results Wednesday morning, Initiated Measure 27 failed with 53% of voters saying no to the ballot question. The six-section measure would have allowed marijuana possession, use and distribution for those 21 years and older, although people could only possess up to one ounce of the drug.

Rapid City-based Protecting South Dakota Kids, a grassroots group that opposed IM 27, celebrated Tuesday's defeat of the measure. In a statement Wednesday morning, PSDK Chairman Jim Kinyon said South Dakotans came together as a state to say no to recreational marijuana.

"We know how destructive marijuana is to the residents in states that have already legalized the drug. And we presented a well-researched, fact-based informational outreach to many communities across the state as we could physically get to the last three months," he said. "A core group of volunteers put together a strategy, rolled up our sleeves and we went to work holding town halls, fundraisers, interviews, forums and debates.

"We honored every request we received because we knew if we gave people the facts, they would vote no on IM 27."

Other opponents hoped that the proposal's defeat sent a message, state Rep. Rhonda Milstead, R-Hartford told the Associated Press.

"I like to think that this country is going to turn around and South Dakota set a good example," she said to the AP.

South Dakotans voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, the question stood by itself as it went before voters.

In Pennington County, several law enforcement officials also banded together to take a stand against IM 27.

Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom, Pennington County Sheriff-elect Brian Mueller, Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender, Meade County Sheriff-elect Pat West, Box Elder Asst. Police Chief Chris Misselt and Rapid City Asst. Police Chief Scott Sitts held a panel meeting on Oct. 26 to show a united front against legalizing recreational marijuana.

Kinyon said more than 400 volunteers and donors supported Protecting South Dakota Kids across the state. He said the organization's work was a "David versus Goliath" moment against a well-funded group of lobbyists trying to legalize marijuana.

Voters in neighboring North Dakota also defeated recreational marijuana, joining Arkansas in saying no. Maryland and Missouri voters approved recreational marijuana.

The results mean that 21 states have now approved marijuana's recreational use.
With 66.6% of statewide votes counted by early Wednesday morning, Republican Ann Bukacek was leading in the race for a seat on the Public Service Commission.

Bukacek, a political fire brand and physician more known from her years of antiabortion campaigning, had 55% of the 80,204votes counted by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Democrat John Repke, a retired finance executive for Waste Management, has so far received 45% of the vote.

The outcome shifted in Bukacek's favor when Flathead County ballots were added to the tally.

The PSC regulates utility and public service monopolies, which includes the states largest utilities NorthWestern Energy and MDU. In that capacity, the PSC affects the household budgets of more than 400,000 Montana utility customers. Those customers are legally recognized as captive, meaning they lack the free-market choice of shopping around for a better deal.

Both candidates campaigned on restoring professionalism to the Montana Public Service Commission, which has been repeatedly tripped up by scandal over the years.

However, there are big differences between the candidates, with Repke focused on delivering the most affordable rates for consumers, particularly as commissioners review a request by NorthWestern Energy to increase base electric rates 26%.

Bukacek has messaged consistently on supporting fossil fuel power sources, while opposing what she identifies as environmental problems associated with the global production of rare earth minerals for solar panels and wind turbines. Disposal of worn wind turbine blades is also a concern of the candidate. She also proposed empowering the PSC to oversee water conflicts with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, which is something the commission currently cannot do.

Repke appeared to have the harder path to victory, given the two are running for PSC District 5, which is anchored by Flathead County, which is second only to Yellowstone County in number of Republican voters. Flathead county makes up 49% of the district's population.
With 23,300 ballots cast, Ravalli County voters handed easy victories to Republican candidates for state Legislature in Tuesday's midterm elections.

The Ravalli County Open Lands Bond passed by a margin of 15,960 to 6,436 votes.

Republican Jason Ellsworth outpaced Democrat challenger John Schneeberger for State Senate District 43, with 7,700 and 3,722 respectively.

Republicans running for House seats also maintained comfortable leads.

Republican Michele Binkley was up 4,646 to 1,495 over Democrat Rosan Stover for State Representative District 85. In the State Representative District 86 race, David Bedey led Democrat Anne Brown 3,506 to 1,770. Republican Ron Marshall led Democrat Will Lovett Moore by a vote of 3,908 to 1,483 in the State Representative District 87 race. Republican Wayne Rusk was up 4,019 to 1,729 over Democrat Ko Moua in the State Representative District 88 race.

In the County Commissioner races, Republican Jeff Burrows was up 16,146 to 4,952 over Libertarian challenger Marlin Ostrander Sr. Incumbent Commissioner Greg Chilcott ran unopposed. He received 17,923 votes.

In the race for Montanas western U.S. House race, Republican former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke led Democrat Monica Tranel 14,803 to 7,424 in Ravalli County with Libertarian John Lamb receiving 869 votes. With 67% of the statewide vote counted, results show Zinke leading Tranel, with the Republican at 50% and the Democrat at 46%. Lamb held 4%.

In the Montana Supreme Court races, Statewide results show Justice Ingrid Gustafson with 69% of the vote to challenger James Brown's 31%. Brown conceded to Gustafson Wednesday morning. In Ravalli County, Brown was up 12,723 to 9,127 over Ingrid Gustafson and Jim Rice led Bill DAlton 14,700 to 4,306 in Ravalli County. Jim Rice retained his seat with 78% of the statewide vote to D'Alton's 22%.

Ravalli County voters have decided to retain Judge Howard Recht of District 21, Dept. 1., with 16,423 for and 3,247 against. Justice Jennifer Bedey Ray was retained for Justice of the Peace, Dept. 1 by a margin of 17,321 to 2,758. Scott Burlingham was unopposed for Justice of the Peace, Dept. 2. He received 16,363 votes.

Jeff Rennaker was up 11,826 to 5,624 over Todd Andrew Reagan for Bitterroot Conservation District Supervisor, Area 1.

Constitutional Amendment No. 48 (C-48), to protect electronic data and communications from unreasonable search and seizure was passing 18,193 to 3,706 in Ravalli County. Statewide, the measure has was passing with 82% of the vote.

Legislative Referendum No. 131 (LR-131), the Born Alive Act, was passing 12,646 to 9,837 in Ravalli County. The bill would impose penalties on health care workers who do not act to preserve the life of infants born during an attempted abortion. Statewide, the referendum was rejected with 52% of voters against it and 48% for, but was too close to call with votes still being counted.

S. Kent Jessop ran unopposed for Town of Pinesdale selectman. He received 236 votes.

Republican Regina Plettenberg was unopposed for re-election as Ravalli County Clerk and Recorder/Superintendent of Schools. She received 19,544 votes.

Republican Steve Holton ran unopposed for his re-election as Ravalli County Sheriff. He received 19,147 votes.

Republican Bill Fulbright was unopposed for his re-election as Ravalli County Attorney/Auditor/Public Administrator. He received 18,146 votes.

Republican Dan Whitesitt ran unopposed for Ravalli County Treasurer/Assessor/Surveyor. He received 18,911 votes.
By Wednesday afternoon, incumbent Justice Ingrid Gustafson had an 8-point lead over challenger James Brown, who issued a statement conceding the Supreme Court race Wednesday.

The nonpartisan contest was steeped in politics from the get-go.

By Wednesday afternoon, Gustafson had 220,692 votes to Brown's 187,194. Turnout in the state was nearly 57% and and about 75% of votes statewide were counted.

"I am extremely honored to have again earned the trust of voters and to be re-elected to serve all Montanans on the Montana Supreme Court," Gustafson said in a statement Wednesday. "Our judicial elections are non-partisan for a reason: to ensure that an independent, fair judiciary serves the people of Montana regardless of their circumstances, not a political party or any one agenda of an interest group."

Early reads on the race were limited as Missoula County suffered some technical setbacks and Gallatin County held back reporting results while voters remained in line cast their ballots. Yellowstone County took until after midnight to start reporting some tallies.

We fell short after a hard-fought campaign where we were significantly outspent by special interest groups and saw millions of dollars in liberal money flood the state in the final weeks of this race," Brown's emailed statement read. "Even so, I am humbled by the high level of support our campaign received from Montanans from all across the Treasure State and from all walks of life."

In her statement Wednesday, Gustafson criticized Brown for inserting partisanship even into his concession statement and said she was "heartened" by Montana voters rejected the Republican effort.

Once results started coming in, larger counties pushed Gustafsons lead onward. She performed well in her home county of Yellowstone, as well as Democratic strongholds like Missoula, Silver Bow and Gallatin counties. She also did well in Lewis and Clark and Cascade counties.

Brown did well in rural counties with smaller populations, winning Daniels, Garfield and McCone counties, although Gustafson claimed a few rural victories of her own in Deer Lodge, Big Horn and Jefferson counties.

Republicans gambled their statewide dominance would carry over to Browns campaign in the nonpartisan field, with endorsements from Gov. Greg Gianforte, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and Attorney General Austin Knudsen before candidate filing for the office had even closed. Brown has never held office as a judge but was elected as a Republican to the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020.

Trial lawyer groups and public employee unions swarmed $2 million in outside spending to Gustafsons defense in October with mailers and TV advertising purchases, outspending state and national Republican efforts. Gustafson, who has been a judge for nearly 20 years, had denounced the partisanship the GOP draped over Browns campaign.

Brown, meanwhile, accused lawyers of attempting to buy Gustafsons re-election in exchange for favorable rulings from the bench.

The race has been driven by the conflict Republicans launched against the judicial branch last year during the 2021 Legislature. The GOP has openly accused the judicial branch of having been stacked with liberals during the last 16-year stretch of Democratic governorships. In rebuttal, judges and justices said Republican lawmakers were seeking to discredit the third branch of government that has repeatedly found their legislative ambitions unable to pass constitutional muster.

The quieter race for Justice Jim Rices seat, Rice held a wide 78% lead over Billings attorney Bill DAlton, who had declined any campaign donations to send a message about money influencing judicial races.
BOZEMAN  Bob Yaw tapped the rhythm of his words on a bedspread, carefully keeping time to each syllable.

He was reciting one of his favorite poems, Sea Fever by John Masefield. His eyes would open and then close tightly while he recited the three-verse poem from memory. His voice would crack, and tremble with emotion.

Sitting across the room from him was his friend, Gloria Hansard. The pair meet every night in Hansards apartment at Birchwood assisted living to recite poetry to each other.

Hansard, 100, has been a resident of Birchwood since 2019. Yaw, 101, has lived down the hall at the Aspen Pointe independent living facility for the last 11 years.

We didnt meet long ago, Hansard said. Just poems are all we know of each other.

They first met at the grand fireplace near the entrance of the assisted living facility. Hansard said she and a group of ladies were gathered around, reading poetry to one another.

Yaw overheard them and was drawn over by their reading.

That group dissolved after a while, but Hansard and Yaw continued their poetry sessions. At first they would go outside when they could to recite verses under the trees on the campus of the assisted living facility. Weekly readings soon turned into daily poetry sessions.

Every night at 6:30 p.m., Yaw makes the trek on his blue mobility scooter to Hansards apartment to read poetry.

Yaws scooter is outfitted with a pair of baskets, one on the front and one below his seat  both are filled with poetry books. Yaw loves poetry for the rhythm, the music and the story, where there is a story, he said. Or the blob of sentiment that it creates.

They sit close to one another in Hansards room, Yaw in his scooter with his leg propped on Hansards bed. Hansard likes to tuck her feet underneath the scooter.

A keen ear can hear the muffled sounds of poetic rhythm from behind the door of Hansards apartment. Sometimes the pair read solo to each other. Other times they will trade verses, picking up where the other has left off.

Yaw is like a jazz virtuoso, prepared to riff out countless poems from memory. Hansard is similar to a classically trained musician  though she needs to read from her poetry book, she still makes the words sing.

Yaw recalled his first memory of poetry where the verses made a lasting impression. Yaws mother died when he was young. He bounced around different living situations while growing up in Los Angeles, eventually landing with his older sisters.

His eldest sister loved poetry, he said, so Yaw memorized a pair of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.s works: The Chambered Nautilus and Old Ironsides.

He would recite the poems standing up at the dinner table every night. Yaw admitted he didnt understand what the poems meant back then, but now theyre burned into his memory.

For some reason they always stuck with me, he said. I hated the standing up.

Yaws interest in poetry ebbed and flowed throughout his life. He served in the U.S. Air Force, then taught in Great Falls then became a meteorology professor at Montana State University.

Poetry taught Hansard how to read. When she was a child in Missouri her siblings would either go off to school or play with friends, leaving Hansard behind at their home. She would crack open a book of poetry because it was fun, she said.

One of the first poems she learned to read was If by Rudyard Kipling.

Poetry seemed to always be a part of her life. Hansard met her husband while working for the USO during World War II, and had three sons.

Hansard read Kiplings If to her sons, and framed different verses for each of the boys to memorize. The poem remains a favorite to this day.

They grew up with my poems, she said.

Yaw and Hansard have different poetry books, but the poems inside are the same. Yaw keeps a list with him that indicates which page a certain poem can be found in Hansards books.

Earlier this year, Hansard fell in her apartment.

Her injuries prevented her from coming back to Birchwood for some time. Despite that, the poetry never stopped.

Yaw would copy poems on his copy machine and send them to her, and call nearly every night to check in.

Having someone who shares the same ideas has felt great, Yaw said.

To share something like a poem we both have the background to understand it, Yaw said.

The pair are particular about the style of poetry they like. Hansard likes love stories, but not the swoony kind, she said. They need to have adventure in them, too.

Yaw doesnt care for iambic pentameter, a style of poetry commonly known for its blank verse. That means it skips a rhyme sometimes. He said the style was academic, and the rhythm that he seeks in poetry just isnt there.

Though poetry has been present throughout their lives, neither Yaw nor Hansard have tried writing their own verses.

Theres a poem about everybody, everything you can think about, Hansard said.
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Moxy is now open in downtown Richmond. The Marriott-branded boutique hotel uses a fun and whimsical environment to bring people together.

Richmond-based Shamin Hotels bought the eight-story brick building at Fifth and Franklin streets in 2016 with the goal of turning it into an iconic property for Richmonds downtown.

Its a stylish brand, its a playful brand, its a brand that is bar-centric, and its focused on developing deep relationships with the community that it operates in, said Neil Amin, president and CEO of Shamin Hotels.

The 100-room hotel was renovated with the help of historic building tax credits. Some of the historic elements like the front staircase and entryway are preserved and mixed with the brands modern flair.

Moxy is designed for communal spaces that are highly social. The main floor includes a lobby with seating space to accommodate groups. Check-in happens at the bar, while several guest rooms have social designs where beds are facing each other and the room has ample open space in its center. Other rooms have built-in bunk-beds for families with children. Floors even have a communal ironing and utility area.

Its an activated public space, Amin said. Thats the trend where people want to have unique experiences, get out of the rooms and experience the local community.

Marriots Moxy brand has grown exponentially since 2016 when it had two hotels in the U.S. and four in Europe. It now has 33 hotels in North America, 80 in Europe and 16 in Asia, all very specifically targeted.

Local flair was included in the design of the building. Richmond muralist Hamilton Glass was commissioned to do 11 different pieces inside the building. One major work was done in the bar area and some were in the rooms themselves, all designed to capture something unique about the city. Glass is a distinguished name in the citys art scene, having done over 30 murals across the area since 2012.

While Moxy has popped up in cities across the country, Richmond is the one of four cities on the Atlantic coast to have one  the others being New York, Washington and Boston. Amin said the building can be an icon.

It puts Richmond on par with those global cities, Amin said. And there is a loyal following for this brand.

The hotels long-term market is broad  from Gen Z to millennials and empty nesters  but the initial push is for influencers to visit and grow the brand.

Amin said that Shamin spared no expense on the project that far surpassed its initial projected costs.

In the end we wanted to get it right, Amin said. Once its here, its here forever. Its going to be a staple in Virginia for the next 50 years.

Shamin Hotels contracted with Marriott International to operate a Moxy hotel in Richmond. The building was purchased from the Economic Development Authority by 501 Franklin Street LLC, a Shamin affiliate, for $2.5 million in 2016 and is now assessed by the city at a total value of $17.5 million.

Friday is the first night rooms are available for a booking on Marriotts website. Rates through January 2023 are between $189 and $195 per night. Rates from February 2023 onward are listed between $234 and $256 nightly.

Shamin is the largest hotel operator in the state with over 50 hotels, the bulk of which are in Central Virginia. Moxy is its third in downtown Richmond after the Hampton Inn and Suites at 700 East Main St. and the Holiday Inn Express at 201 East Cary St.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  A Northrop Grumman capsule delivered several tons of supplies to the International Space Station on Wednesday despite a jammed solar panel.

The shipment arrived two days after launching from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County, Virginia. Only one of the cargo ships two round solar panels opened following liftoff. Flight controllers tried in vain to open the stuck panel, but managed to draw enough power for the flight with just one.

As the capsule made its slow approach, the space station crew took pictures so engineers might understand what went wrong. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann then used the station's robot arm to grab the spacecraft, dubbed the S.S. Sally Ride in honor of America's first woman in space.

Among the 8,200 pounds of supplies: brackets needed for a spacewalk next week to expand the station's power, as well as apples, blueberries, cheese, peanut butter and ice cream for the station's U.S., Russian and Japanese crew of seven.

Northrop Grumman is one of two companies that deliver cargo for NASA. The other is SpaceX, which will launch a shipment later this month.
Richmond police have identified a man who was fatally shot Tuesday night a few blocks from the Hillside Court neighborhood.

Officials said the victim, Sean Oliver, 37, of Richmond, was wounded multiple times near the 1400 block of Drewry Street.

Officers responded to the scene around 11:19 p.m. after receiving reports of a shooting. Police found Oliver lying on the ground with apparent gunshot wounds, police said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death, police said.

Anyone with information about this homicide is asked to contact Richmond police at (804) 646-0423 or Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.
Criminal charges have been filed against a teen who police say was involved in a Sept. 18 fatal shooting in Henrico County.

The victim, a juvenile male, was killed on East Laburnum Avenue near Conway Street in Henrico County.

A 16-year-old male was arrested on Monday. He has been charged with second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm under the age of 18.
Since the start of the pandemic, college enrollment has cratered throughout the country. But in Virginia, the number of students is on the rebound.

National college enrollment dropped an additional 1% this year and is down 6% since before the pandemic, according to newly released data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Fewer people have chosen college because of high tuition costs and a favorable labor market.

But in Virginia, the number of students grew less than 1% this year to about 519,000, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Reasons for the states relative success include the wealth of its residents, its still-growing high school-age population and the continued emergence of online giant Liberty University in Lynchburg. Virginia is one of 16 states to experience growth this year.

Tom Allison of SCHEV called Virginias 0.3% enrollment growth a stabilization.

Weve got excellent institutions that people are clearly seeing a value in, that are worth investing your time and money in, Allison said.

No Virginia college has grown in the past three years more than Liberty, which has increased its student population 16% to more than 99,000 students. The vast majority of Libertys students attend online.

The states wealthiest and most prestigious schools have done well, too. The College of William & Mary has grown by 9%, Virginia Tech by 5% and the University of Virginia by 2%.

Most historically Black universities are prospering as well. Virginia State University is up 8%, and Virginia Union University is up 17%. Even community colleges in Virginia, which had declined for 10 straight years, are up nearly 1% this year.

One reason Virginia colleges are doing better than most states is they never dropped that far to begin with. Colleges in the state experienced a 1% drop in 2020, averting disaster.

Virginia residents are relatively wealthy and were economically impacted by the pandemic less than those in other states, Allison said.

While other states have seen contractions in their population of high school-age residents, Virginia is still growing. There were 87,000 high school graduates in Virginia in 2020, the highest number ever.

The fact that Virginias colleges operate independently likely also helped, Allison said. Each Virginia college is run by a president who answers to a board of visitors.

Each school was able to make its own pandemic response plan. Virginia State University kept its campus closed, while most other colleges reopened. Other states, such as North Carolina and California, operate their universities as a single system.

Most states havent stabilized the way Virginia has.

After two straight years of historically large losses, it is particularly troubling that numbers are still falling, especially among freshmen, said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the Clearinghouse.

There are numerous ripple effects of having fewer college graduates: College graduates earn higher wages and are more likely to have health insurance. Theyre more likely to vote and volunteer, and theyre less likely to rely on public assistance.

While freshmen enrollment dropped again nationwide, the number of freshmen at Virginia colleges is up.

Some of Virginias trends can be seen at the national level, too. The most selective schools continue to grow, while many serving low-income students have shrunk.

While Virginia as a whole is keeping its head above water, some of its schools are struggling. Radford University has lost 35% of its students since 2019. The University of Mary Washington is down 16%, and Virginia Commonwealth University has shrunk 6%.

Of the 29 private schools in the state, 19 have contracted in the past three years. Hampton University lost 33% of its students, Ferrum College lost 23% and Bridgewater College is down 19%.

Historically Black colleges and universities across the state did well this year, growing by almost 3%. Virginia State, Virginia Union and Norfolk State are up, but Hampton University is down.

At VSU, the school welcomed 1,700 freshmen and transfers this year, the largest batch of new students in more than 30 years. Its student enrollment has grown 8% since before the pandemic to 4,700.

Donald Palm, VSUs provost, said the murder of George Floyd caused students to become more interested in social justice and more likely to consider an HBCU.

Alumni are a big part of the universitys growth, he added. Alumni provide testimonials that are more valuable than any recruiting pitch from a school employee. Alumni often connect prospective students to the admissions office and welcome VSU to attend company events. Lately, theyve also shared a flyer on Facebook, where one former student wrote: Virginia State University is the best decision I ever made.

Theyre built to do this, Palm said of the schools alumni. They take pride in recruiting students and partnering with the university to recruit students.

Another mechanism bringing students to VSU is the Virginia College Affordability Network, a state-sponsored program that allows Pell Grant-eligible students who grow up in the Chesterfield and Petersburg areas to attend at no cost.

Since the program launched in 2021, it has brought about 500 students to VSU. For those who do pay, VSU is one of the most affordable public universities in Virginia. In-state tuition, fees, and room and board cost roughly $21,000 a year.

VSU hasnt set a target for future enrollment, Palm said, but 6,000 to 7,000 students are possibilities.

The question for the state is: Will its growth last?

The number of high school graduates is expected to drop starting in 2026. Its been dubbed the enrollment cliff, but what Virginia will see is actually a steady decline.

Between 2026 and 2036, the number of high school grads is expected to drop 10%, the result of fewer births during the recession of 2007.

Universities are already readying themselves. William & Mary President Katherine Rowe told faculty this month that the university has four years to position itself for 2026.

The actions we take now will determine our future competitiveness  our ability to attract terrific students, she said.

The question of how the enrollment cliff will affect schools is a significant one. Fewer students often means budget shortfalls, fewer employees and strained resources.

The potential drop-off is a threat to this stabilization, Allison said.
Republican Jennifer McNinch held a razor-thin lead over Democrat Mark Miller in a special election Tuesday to represent the Midlothian magisterial district on the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors until the end of 2023.

As of 8:30 p.m., the latest totals from the Chesterfield registrars office had McNinch up by just 33 votes, though their count does not reflect the Virginia Public Access Projects estimate of more than 10,000 early ballots that have yet to be counted.

A Miller win would double the number of Democrats on the board, while McNinch prevailing would leave Dale District Supervisor Jim Holland as the lone Democrat.

McNinch and Miller ran to fill the seat vacated by former Supervisor Leslie Haley, who resigned in June to join Attorney General Jason Miyaress office as deputy attorney general for government operations and transactions.

Tara Carroll, former chair of the Chesterfield County Republican Committee, served as the interim Midlothian supervisor after being unanimously approved at the boards June 29 meeting.

Carroll sought the Republican nomination as well, but voters chose McNinch at a party canvass event at Midlothian Middle School in August. Miller was unopposed on the Democratic side.

Both candidates raised between $25,000 and $30,000 according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project, with a slight edge to McNinch.

McNinch, a division director for a government contractor who was born at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and grew up in Memphis, Tenn., and Leesburg, centered her platform on several hot-button conservative issues, including opposition to the implementation of Critical Race Theory and other radical curriculum in our schools and radical policies demonizing and defunding our police.

Miller, a counselor who worked for Chesterfields mental health department for 13 years before taking his current position at Brightpoint Community College, campaigned on the need to focus on Midlothians existing infrastructure  fixing aging schools, solving traffic congestion on county roads and supporting first responders  before forging ahead with proposed condominium and townhome developments in the western part of the district.
This is continuing coverage of Election Day 2022 from The Times-Dispatch. Reporters and visual journalists are at polling locations across the region.

Have a story we should pursue? Email us here.

Updated election results:

Elections official: 'A very smooth election'

Updated at 9:19 p.m.

State Elections Commissioner Susan Beals during a 9 p.m. update said Tuesday's election "went very smoothly."

"I would say this was a very smooth election," she said.

Beals earlier said there were issues with some precinct poll books, which list registered votes. Some of the problems were user error and others were specific to Richmond.

"We've been in contact with them throughout the day," she said.

Polls close in Virginia

Updated at 7 p.m.

Polls have now closed across Virginia, as the attention shifts to vote totals.

New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida polls closed at 7 p.m.

Polls closed in Kentucky and Indiana at 6 p.m. Eastern.

'Everyones voice matters'

Updated at 7 p.m.

Dozens of Henrico County residents turned out to Hermitage High School around 5 p.m. to cast their ballot in person.

Cars continued to arrive throughout the evening as residents raced to the polling site.

Long-time residents David and Nora Williams have been voting at this same polling site for over 40 years.

Whenever theres an election, we vote, said Nora Williams. And we have been for 43 years.

Both Williams said they had no trouble getting in and out of line to cast their vote today, despite the rush of residents who were unable to vote earlier in the day.

Were lucky we live right down the road from here and weve been here so many times I can hardly county, said David Williams.

Although nearly 1 million Virginians voted early in this year's election, some voters like Williams and Kathleen Kaufman made the decision to vote in person.

Kaufman said she found it important to make her voice heard in this election and voting in person is the surest way to do so. For those who chose not to vote in this election, Kaufman said she hopes resident realize their voice matters.

Everyones voice matters, said Kaufman. Everyones opinion matters  and if we dont make our voices heard then nothing changes for the good.

Virginia Del. Schuyler T. VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, also made an appearance at Hermitage High School Tuesday, not to cast a ballot but to thank the many poll workers for their hard work throughout the evening.

They work a long day to get up at four o'clock in the morning and don't get to leave here until like 8 o'clock, said VanValkenburg. They make democracy work, so I try to go around and thank them for their job for the work they do.

VanValkenburg said hes made it a tradition to visit each polling place even when his name isnt on the ballot.

Although presidential candidates arent on this year's ballot, VanValkenburg said turnout has been consistent in all the precincts hes visited.

Weve had high voter turnout than in Henrico County for a while now, said VanValkenburg. I think people, whichever party they're in, have been engaged right for the last five, six years and I think what we're seeing today is that that continues to be the the case.

 Lyndon German

Powhatan County residents are now in the 5th District

Updated at 4:57 p.m.

Though Virginias 5th Congressional District still stretches from the North Carolina border, its top boundary now stops at Albemarle County and its width shifted closer to Richmond. Once part of the 7th District, Powhatan County residents are now in the 5th District and are choosing between Republican incumbent Rep. Bob Good and Democrat Josh Throneburg.

For Carol Bennett, the choice is easy. A volunteer with her local Republican party, she said she appreciates Goods track record as a fiscal conservative and his stance on immigration.

I'm happy with how he votes. I'm happy that some of his top priorities are the economy and border control, Bennett said.

Good has been outspoken in support of stricter immigration laws and the construction of a wall along the U.S. and Mexico border. He also wants to trim federal spending  his Nickel Plan Act would require the federal government to reduce its budget by 5 cents for every dollar it spends annually.

Meanwhile, a woman who declined to give her name, said she has concerns about some of the rhetoric coming out of the Republican party so she voted for Throneburg, an ordained minister who lives in Charlottesville.

I think it's sad that I have concerns about giving my name because of the possible repercussions within my own county, she said. I just have great concerns for those who still deny the [2020] election results.

One of Goods first acts in Congress was to vote against the certification of President Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021  a day that a mob stormed the Capitol following a Stop the Steal rally. A member of his staff was also present at the event, though she asserts she did not participate in the breach.

The anonymous woman said that she doesnt identify as a Republican or a Democrat but that she felt more comfortable voting for Throneburg.

 Charlotte Rene Woods

Poll book issue resolved

Updated at 4:12 p.m.

State Elections Commissioner Susan Beals during a media briefing said issues with poll books at some Virginia polling locations have been resolved.

The problems were at Richmond, Suffolk and Chesterfield and Nottoway counties.

Beals said paper poll books were used until issues with electronic versions were corrected.

The poll books are used to confirm the registration of voters.

The next media briefing is planned at 4 p.m.

'Running a skeleton crew'

Updated at 1:09 p.m.

At North Courthouse Road Library in Chesterfield County, Election Officer Bob Bailey described a busy morning, despite having fewer volunteers than last year. Bailey said hes been running with four or five volunteers fewer than in 2020.

Admittedly, this is a midterm election, said Bailey.

What can I say, people didnt want to volunteer, said Bailey.

Election volunteers make $200 a day in Chesterfield County, including an additional $25 if they come for a pre-Election Day training.

One of the main things his staff has been doing is redirecting voters who have been coming to the wrong polling site. Many voters came to North Courthouse, only to find that their polling site was several miles away. In the span of a half hour, at least four voters had made that mistake.

The confusion arose because Chesterfield County has six new polling sites since the 2020 election. Others, such as a polling site at Reams Elementary School, had been closed in prior years due to construction.

Chesterfield Registrar Missy Vera said that every voter in the county received information by mail about their new polling sites.

Thats been on news bulletins, its been out there in the media, social media, said Vera. Weve been trying to get it out there that people need to find out where their precinct is before they show up to vote.

By 10:30 a.m., Bailey said around 240 voters had voted at the North Courthouse Road Library precinct.

 Luca Powell

Worried about Social Security

Updated at 1:09 p.m.

Some voters said they were animated to vote today because of concerns that they might lose their Social Security benefits if Republicans win control in Washington, D.C.

I care about social security and I care about Democracy, said Wanda Mitchell, a Chesterfield County voter.

Another voter, Whitman Thornton, echoed that sentiment.

I dont want to lose it. Thatll hurt me bad, said Thornton, who is 74 and voted for Democrats down the ticket.

Democracy is more important than worrying about gas prices, Thornton said.

 Luca Powell

'They dont need the money'

Updated at 1:09 p.m.

Chesterfield County Voters today have the opportunity to approve or veto a proposal from county officials to finance capital improvement projects with $540 million in bonds.

David Long, a voter at North Courthouse Road Library polling site, said he wasnt sure how he was going to vote. Long wants to support schools, but doesnt trust that the money will actually end up there.

I dont trust the board of supervisors. Not one bit, said Long.

One of the main projects the referendum will support is a $135 million high school in the Western 360 area of Chesterfield, which has seen a boom in development in the past several years. The county overall has added more than 50,000 residents in the past decade, Census data show.

Other voters felt differently than Long. Amanda Waggamon, who is 29 and works in health tech, said she supports schools and had less doubts in the countys half a billion dollar proposition. Its a lot but so is everything nowadays, Waggamon said. I care about the schools so you can infer how I voted.

Diann Liptak, who was volunteering at North Courthouse on behalf of the Democratic Party, said she voted yes on the bond referendum.

Liptak said she held her nose while she voted for more money for the Chesterfield police department, which she said has a bad reputation in Chesterfield.

John Thorpe, a Chesterfield voter who works in the construction industry, said he voted against the ballot.

Thats an old trick, they put up this bond referendum, Thorpe said. They dont need the money, they have my property taxes for that.

Thorpe said he identifies as an independent, although he used to be a Republican. Today he voted for Democrat Congressman Donald McEachin. In recent elections, Thorpe said hes lost trust that Republicans will "talk about the issues," and has been turned off by what he sees as racism in the party.

 Luca Powell

828 ballots cast at South Side precinct

Updated at 12:02 p.m.

As of 11:30, 828 people had voted at Forest Hill Presbyterian Church on Richmonds South Side, out of about 4,000 registered at the precinct.

Precinct workers considered that a steady turnout for an off-year election with only one contest on the ballot, featuring Rep. Don McEachin, D-4th and Republican Leon Benjamin.

 Andrew Cain

'They said I should vote at my old precinct'

Updated at 12:01 p.m.

In Richmond, Nancy Nystrom Stansbery got the unsettling news she wasnt in the poll book at precinct 104 when she came to vote, with her recently-mailed voter card and ID with her new address.

She had moved from another neighborhood in the city and filed the update to her registration ahead of the deadline for registration to vote in this years election.

When I showed my card to the poll workers, they said I wasnt in the poll book, she said. They said I should vote at my old precinct.

She said she worried she wouldnt be listed in that poll book either, so one poll worker called the registrars City Hall office.

She said I wasnt in the system, Stansbery said. I dont understand how I could be in the system long enough to get a new card in the mail and then not be there.

She did get to vote, but only after re-registering and casting a provisional ballot.

While I was there, two other women came up with the same issue, she said. Theyd moved recently too.

She said the election officers did tell her anything about following up to see if her vote was counted. The state Department of Elections says voters who cast provisional ballots are supposed to given a notice with the date, time, and place where the local electoral board will decide whether or not to count the ballot. Voters are entitled to attend this meeting, but are not required to attend in order for their ballot to be counted. If your registration application is approved and there are no other issues, your ballot will be counted. The registrar is supposed to give people a written notice it their ballots are not counted.

We have heard several instances of this, said Richmond voter registrar Keith Balmer.

Those voters should have been checked into the paper poll book that was sent to that precinct. Any voter who casts a provisional ballot for this reason will have their ballot counted by the Electoral Board, he said.

He said voters who cast provisional ballots because they did not show election officers an ID, as state law requires, will need to show up at the Electoral Board with that ID for their votes to be counted.

Voters who cast provisional ballots for any other reason do not need to show up, he said.

As for the cause of the issue, Balter said the state Department of Elections is aware of the issue and is researching it.

 Dave Ress

'Poll book' problems reported in Chesterfield, Richmond

Updated 11:21 a.m.

State election officials on Tuesday reported issues with voter information at polling locations in Richmond, Suffolk and Chesterfield and Nottoway counties.

State Elections Commissioner Susan Beals during a morning press briefing said the problems were with the poll books" that list voter information on a laptop or physical document. Before casting a ballot, voters check in with an election official who consults the information for confirmation.

It was not immediately known how many people were impacted or the nature of the discrepancy. Voters who had issues could cast a provisional ballot, and the vote will count, she said.

It might just be moving a little slower than normal, she said.

Beals said election officials in those areas switched to paper poll books. No voters were turned away, she said.

There also was a power outage at a Wythe County polling location, which has since been resolved.

A total of 943,000 voters took part in early voting this year. Virginia has 6.1 million registered voters.

State election officials also have scheduled media briefings at planned at 4 and 9 p.m.

Bond issue on ballot in Henrico County

Updated 10:52 a.m.

At Glen Allen Elementary in Henrico County on Tuesday morning, poll workers said they were a lot busier than expected, with 470 voters in the first hour. The school is Henrico's largest polling center with 4,700 voters.

Enoch Pou Jr. has lived in Henrico since 1991. Pou Jr., 60, says he hasn't missed an election since he turned 18 and that he votes because it is a critical use of a person's voice. Approving funds for the schools was one of his main considerations, as the father of a Henrico schools' graduate who now has a doctorate.

About two-thirds of the proposed bonds are for Henrico County Public Schools projects. If the schools category is approved by voters, the county would issue $340.5 million for those projects. The most expensive project is the rebuild of Quioccasin Middle School, which is estimated to cost $89 million.

"We are very pleased with the education that Henrico County provides to all students in all areas," Pou Jr. said. "We fully support the initiatives; I think they were all valid and I have a great deal of faith in the management of this county."

He added that he approved of the other funding projects in fire, public works and Parks and Recreation because he believes the county is a good place to live, and funding those projects is crucial maintenance.

Chesterfield voters also will decide whether to approve measures in a $540 million bond referendum.The bonds would provide $375 million to the Chesterfield County Public School district and $165 million to the county government to fund projects for parks and recreation, the library system, fire stations and police precincts.

 Sean Jones

Spanberger, Vega make final vote push

Updated 9:47 a.m.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D, and GOP challenger Yesli Vega are making a last-minute push for voters on Election Day.

Vega met with voters at a Woodbridge middle school.

"Polls are open #VA07, get out and vote!" she tweeted.

Spanberger in a statement said the Virginians "have the opportunity to cast ballots that will help decide the future direction of our communities, our Commonwealth, and our country."

Spanberger is seeking a third term.

Vega, a Prince William County supervisor, raised millions and brought in high-profile GOP surrogates. She highlighted her life story as a daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, and would become Virginias first Latina member of Congress if elected.

The 7th District used to include some of suburban Richmond but was shifted north.

Virginias other eight congressional races are generally seen as safe for the incumbents. With its unusual off-year election schedule, Virginia has no statewide races or ballot initiatives this year.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report

Steady stream of voters in Henrico County

Updated at 9:22 a.m.

Polls opened Tuesday at Echo Lake Elementary School in Glen Allen with a line of about 10 people waiting to get inside. Poll workers said that the turnout was strong for an off-year election, where 274 voters came through within the first hour.

Mike Young, 30, has lived in the county since 2015 and said his main reason for coming to the polls stemmed from national issues.

"Personally, Im a lifelong Republican voter who voted for Joe Biden to get things back to normalcy and I have not liked what I have seen since he was elected. I kind of feel like I was sold a false set of goods," Young said.

He said that the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V. Wade caused him to question his place as a Republican but that he further disapproved of the way student loan forgiveness was handled by the current administration.

"While I'm not opposed to forgiveness by any means, I thought the unconstitutional way that one man decided to write off billions of dollars worth of debt is not an administration that I want to support," Young said.

Lindsay Martin, 58, moved to Henrico from King William within the past two years. He said he came to the polls because of the state of the economy. Fuel and materials prices have impacted his work as a contractor. Martin said he felt different national leadership was a better outcome.

"I think the government should participate in social issues, but I've got a family, I've got expenses and I have to survive too," Martin said. "I think if the general public is doing well then the country as a whole does a lot better down the road."

Matt McKeag is a former Henrico school teacher of 10 years. He said that his vote both about modeling positive civic behavior for his family with three kids and showing support for the school system, which had a hefty piece being voted in the bond referendum.

"As a teacher, capital improvements for the schools is near and dear to my heart," McKeag said. "It's important to me that when there is a decision to be made at the local level and we have a voice, to say hey, we support our school system and we want to try to make it the best there is."

Just a few minutes drive from Lakewood at Glen Allen Elementary, poll workers said they were a lot busier than expected with 470 voters in the first hour. Glen Allen Elementary is Henrico's largest polling center with 4,700 voters.

Enoch Pou Jr. has lived in Henrico since 1991. Pou Jr., 60, says he hasn't missed an election since he turned 18 and that he votes because it is a critical use of a person's voice. Approving funds for the schools was one of his main considerations, as the father of a Henrico schools' graduate who now has a doctorate.

"We are very pleased with the education that Henrico County provides to all students in all areas," Pou Jr. said. "We fully support the initiatives, I think they were all valid and I have a great deal of faith in the management of this county."

He added that he approved of the other funding projects in fire, public works and Parks and Recreation because he believes the county is a good place to live, and funding those projects is crucial maintenance.

 Sean Jones

YOUR GUIDE TO ELECTION DAY 2022

Polls are now open for today's midterm elections. Voters will be able to cast ballots until 7 p.m.

What's on the ballot?

The state Supreme Court redrew Virginia's congressional districts in December, which changed the Richmond area's boundaries, primarily by shifting the 7th District to Northern Virginia.

In the 1st Congressional District, which now includes western Henrico and western Chesterfield, as well as eastern Hanover County, Rep. Rob Wittman, the Republican incumbent, faces Democrat Herb Jones and independent conservative David Foster.

The 4th Congressional District includes eastern Henrico, eastern Chesterfield and the city of Richmond and stretches south to Brunswick and Greensville counties. Rep. Don McEachin, D-4th, faces Republican Leon Benjamin in a rematch of their 2020 contest.

The 5th Congressional District now includes 13,400 voters in western Hanover County, as well as all of Louisa, Powhatan and Goochland counties in the Richmond area. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, faces Democrat Josh Throneburg.

Henrico County is asking residents for approval to issue $511.4 million in bonds. In four yes-or-no questions, Henrico will ask voters to approve projects for schools; recreation and parks; fire station and public safety; and flood prevention and stormwater drainage.

Chesterfield County lumps its projects into one ballot question. County voters will decide whether to approve measures in a $540 million bond referendum.

The bonds would provide $375 million to the Chesterfield public school district and $165 million to the county government to fund projects for parks and recreation, the library system, fire stations and police precincts.

Chesterfield also will hold a special election to fill the unexpired term of former Midlothian District Supervisor Leslie Haley, who resigned to join the Virginia attorney generals office. Voters will choose between Democrat Mark Miller and Republican Jennifer McNich.

The national picture

Every U.S. House seat is up for election this year, along with about a third of the U.S. Senate. On the line is control of both houses of Congress, currently under Democratic leadership.

Voters are also electing governors in most of the states this year. They'll be in office in 2024 when the next presidential election happens and could affect election laws or vote certifications.

Continuing coverage at richmond.com

We'll be updating richmond.com throughout the day with information about turnout and other details.

Watch our Election Day livestream from The Times-Dispatch newsroom starting at 7 p.m. We'll be talking about key races and what comes next.
Control of both houses of Congress hung in the balance Tuesday, with key elections in several swing states including hotly contested races in Virginias 2nd, 7th and 10th congressional districts.

But despite a relative lack of political intrigue in the Richmond area due to redrawn districts, voters turned out in strong numbers for an off-year election.

Poll workers at multiple precincts in the area cited large crowds early in the day. At Glen Allen Elementary in Henrico County, poll workers said they were a lot busier than expected with 470 voters  10% of the voters registered at the countys largest polling place  showing up in the first hour that polls were open.

As of 8:30 p.m., more than 1.5 million of Virginias roughly 6 million registered voters had cast ballots in person on Election Day  nearly halfway to the 3.4 million total votes cast in the previous midterm election in 2018  with just under 60% of precincts reporting Election Day totals.

An additional 943,000 voters participated in early voting, according to the Virginia Department of Elections  nearly three times as many as in 2018, before the General Assembly authorized a 45-day window for early voting.

That puts 2022 on track to potentially see more votes cast than 2021s gubernatorial election.

Many voters cited economic issues as the reason they went to the polls Tuesday.

Bond referendums in Chesterfield County and Henrico were of significant interest, as both counties sought to issue more than $500 million in debt to finance projects ranging from a rebuild of Quioccasin Middle School in Henrico to Chesterfield taking ownership of police precinct buildings that the county currently rents.

Henrico voters could vote yes or no on projects totaling $511.4 million in four separate categories  schools, parks and recreation, fire and public safety, and flood prevention and stormwater drainage  while Chesterfield voters could either approve or deny the countys entire $540 million plan.

Diann Liptak, a Democratic voter and Election Day volunteer in Chesterfield, said she held her nose and voted yes even though more money would go to the police department, which she said has a bad reputation.

John Thorpe, a self-identified independent Chesterfield voter who works in the construction industry, said he voted against the bond package.

They dont need the money, said Thorpe, who voted for incumbent Rep. Don McEachin, D-4th, after losing trust in the Republican Party due to what he felt was a failure to talk about the issues and an embrace of racism by the party.

They have my property taxes for that.

Other voters were more focused on national issues.

Henrico voter Mike Young called himself a lifelong Republican voter who voted for [President] Joe Biden to get things back to normalcy, and I have not liked what I have seen since he was elected.

While the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade caused Young, 30, to question his allegiances to the Republican Party, he disapproved of Bidens plan to relieve as much as $20,000 in federal student loan debt to borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.

While Im not opposed to forgiveness by any means, I thought the unconstitutional way that one man decided to write off billions of dollars worth of debt is not an administration that I want to support, Young said.

Whitman Thornton, 74, said he voted Democrats down his ballot in Chesterfield because he worries that his Social Security benefits will be jeopardized if Republicans control Congress.

I dont want to lose it. Thatll hurt me bad, Thornton said. Democracy is more important than worrying about gas prices.

Del. Schuyler Van Valkenburg, D-Henrico, who was not on the ballot Tuesday, went to polling places across the county to thank poll workers for their hard work throughout the day. He said that from what he saw, turnout appeared consistently strong.

People, whichever party theyre in, have been engaged for the last five [or] six years, Van Valkenburg said, and I think what were seeing today is that that continues to be the case.
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The weekly horoscope in The Cut is usually so on the mark that Ive wondered if Madame Clairevoyant is stalking me. But Sunday nights felt more foreboding than usual.

Even when a relationship is clearly not working anymore or when a chapter is obviously coming to a close, it can be hard for you to call it. Life is long and unpredictable, and your curiosity keeps you hanging on: Who knows what amazing developments might happen a day, a month, a year from now? Sometimes, though, its necessary to close the door ...

Was this about a relationship?

A job?

I scratched my head. And then it hit me: Tuesday is Election Day.

This was about a relationship, all right, between me and my country. It has always been complicated, contradictory and fraught. But only recently did I consider a separation and the possible need for an exit strategy. Based on my conversations, Im not alone.

The congressional balance of power hung in the balance Tuesday, which is nothing new. But as I patiently waited in line to cast my ballot, this Election Day felt more like a door of no return than any Ive experienced.

The outcome of the 2016 election felt like both a backlash and a mistake; 2020 felt like a correction. But this election, given all that has happened since the last, feels like a wholesale abandonment of the idea of America itself.

If the political right was unmoved by a violent insurrection to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power, there is no rule of law, no matter how strenuously they campaign on law and order. Yet polls show voters more concerned with crime, the price of gas and the state of the economy than the precarious condition of our democracy.

Our election season coincided with my viewing of the PBS documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust, which will be the subject of a screening and panel discussion (including myself) next Tuesday evening at the Virginia Holocaust Museum.

This three-part documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein will leave you neither feeling good about our nations past choices or sanguine about its future. It includes themes that could be straight out of todays headlines: Xenophobia. Religious bigotry. Political violence. Neighbor turning on neighbor.

Scapegoating. Demonization. Demagoguery.

Part of our national mythology is that we are a good people, we are a democracy, says historian Nell Irvin Painter in the film. And we are a democracy, and in our better moments, we are a very good people.

But thats not all there is to this story, she says. And I think if were going to congratulate ourselves on our democracy, which I think we should, we also need to face up to the other side.

Theres no quicker way to shut down a discussion than to liken anything in America to Hitler or Nazi Germany. But Hitlers quest to create a white, Protestant ethno-state is all the more chilling in the extent it was inspired by the United States.

The year 1924 was one of racism and retrenchment in the U.S. amid rampant xenophobia and the embrace of the pseudo-science of eugenics. The barring of intermarriage between German Jews and gentiles was an offshoot of Americas Jim Crow treatment of Black people.

According to the documentary, 33 of 48 states enacted eugenics laws mandating the enforced sterilization of wards of state deemed physically or mentally unfit. Before such laws were overturned, more than 60,000 people would be sterilized without their consent.

The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 would largely restrict U.S. immigration to white European Protestants and bar Asians uncovered by the previous centurys Chinese Exclusion Act. Alarm over the arrival of Jews, Catholics and southern and eastern Europeans, and the trauma of the Great Depression, left isolationist America cold-hearted at the plight of Jews seeking refuge here before about two-thirds of Europes Jewish population was systematically murdered.

Hitler, before rising to power, was imprisoned in Germany for his role in a failed coup attempt; it remains to be seen whether Donald Trump will return to the White House or be punished for his role in inciting an insurrection. Hitlers attacks on German Jews fueled his rise to power; Trumps election was powered by his attacks on Mexicans and Muslims.

Nazi Germany banned and burned books by Jews; in America, the political right seeks to ban books by LGBTQ authors or authors of color. The Nazis had brown shirts assaulting Jews; the U.S. political right has militia groups storming the Capitol.

In the past few years, Ive begun to wonder how serious Americas commitment to looking at some of the dark marks in its history really is, says historian Deborah Lipstadt in the film. How can we learn from the past? Where did we go wrong? How can we not go wrong the next time?

The next time is here. Weve got to take stock, before the door closes on this American chapter.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, doesnt live in eastern Prince William County, but she certainly has made herself at home there.

Prince William delivered Spanberger her first election victory on Tuesday in a new congressional district rooted in the fast-growing outer suburbs of Northern Virginia instead of parts of the Richmond area she has represented for four years.

The Prince William portion of the 7th gave her 67% of its vote over Republican Yesli Vega, a member of the county board of supervisors who lives just outside the district near Manassas Park. Vega, elected to the board in 2019, won just two precincts in Prince William.

Spanberger also collected 80% of absentee ballots and 72% of early votes on her way to a 27,000-vote advantage in the county, turning a close race into a 4-percentage-point victory for a third term in Congress.

She killed it, said Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, whose district includes parts of Prince William and Stafford counties, as well as Fairfax. She fits Prince William and the district like a glove.

Vega, a former police officer and the first Hispanic elected to county office in Prince William, conceded the election on Wednesday morning in a statement on Twitter. (Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala were first elected to the House of Delegates from Prince William in 2017.)

We gave it our all but came up a little short last night, Vega said. God is still on the throne.

Vega never debated directly with Spanberger during an expensive and sometimes bitter campaign, but she congratulated the congresswoman on a hard fought win.

I look forward to working with Abigail in the future, Vega said. While this loss is heartbreaking, Im still committed to serving the people of Prince William County on the board of supervisors.

Spanberger, in an interview on Wednesday, said, I thought her statement was really gracious, and I really appreciate it.

I am glad that she recognizes the importance of her coordinating with me as a member of the board of supervisors in Prince William, she said.

The willingness to work across the party aisle was central to Spanbergers victory, along with a street-level campaign that put a particular focus last weekend on knocking on doors in Prince William.

The ground game was absolutely superior, said Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, who predicted the Democrats vote percentage, 51.84%, while she was still trailing in early returns from Republican-friendly rural counties on Tuesday evening.

Spanberger trailed in all but two of the districts 11 cities and counties  Prince William, which has the 7ths largest trove of votes, and the city of Fredericksburg.

Spanberger devoted much of her time to getting to know people in the new district since the Virginia Supreme Court approved a congressional map on Dec. 28 that moved the center of the 7th from Henrico and Chesterfield counties to Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties.

She intensified that push during the campaign.

We spent a lot of time on the ground talking to people about what matters to them, she said.

But Spanbergers resounding victory in Prince William  and near tie in neighboring Stafford  also demonstrated the power of her bipartisan approach to governing, supporters said.

I think its just a testament of Rep. Spanbergers running on her record, said Tonya James, chair of the Prince William Democratic Committee. People in Prince William County are tired of the political rhetoric  on both sides. Theyre looking for thoughtful leaders who want to solve problems that people are facing.

People are interested in having a leader who is a problem solver, not people trying to obstruct progress in the most diverse locality in the commonwealth, James said. We need someone to get to work who wants to work.

Democrats say Vega made a mistake in telling a conservative radio host in late August that she would vote for a government shutdown to slam the brakes on federal spending. The comment hurt her in a district that has one of the heaviest concentrations of federal employees, active-duty military and federal contractors in the country.

They dont want leaders who play politics with their paychecks, James said.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reinforced the concern late in the campaign when he said a Republican majority would use its leverage in talks over raising the nations debt ceiling to make cuts in federal spending. He didnt single out Medicare and Social Security, but other Republicans did.

I dont think Republican candidates understood what a government shutdown means to people in Northern Virginia, Surovell said.

But perhaps Vegas biggest mistake came this summer, when she was caught in a recording appearing to question whether a rape victim could become pregnant by her attacker.

I think her abortion comment really hurt, said Chris Saxman, a former Republican delegate who runs Virginia FREE, an influential business organization.

The comment lit a fuse for Democratic voters already outraged over the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in June, overturning a half-century legal doctrine in Roe v. Wade protecting the right to abortion.

Vega also suffered from her association with former President Donald Trump, who endorsed her late in the general election campaign against Spanberger.

Those who are embraced and endorsed by Trump are not going to find a lot of love here, McPike said.

Do we want someone in office who will continue to divide the country, or do we want someone who can reach across the aisle and find real solutions to the problems that impact the community? he asked.

Spanberger answered that question with credentials that included a second consecutive endorsement by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a ranking of fifth-most bipartisan member of Congress by the Lugar Center and McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

She also released a campaign ad with former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-5th, who endorsed her.

Abigail Spanberger assiduously presented herself as a moderate, bipartisan Democrat, Saxman said.

Thats who she really is, said Mike McClary, a Vietnam War veteran from Culpeper County who co-founded Veterans for Spanberger with George DeSerres. Shes the perfect congressperson for anybody in the U.S. She represents her constituents. She doesnt care what party you are.

McClary reacted emotionally to Spanbergers victory speech at the Old Silk Mill in Fredericksburg on Tuesday night.
James Madison University has received its largest cash gift, a $5 million donation by an alumnus-turned-entrepreneur and his wife.

The money, donated by Paul Holland and his wife, Linda Yates, will go toward scholarships, students studying abroad and entrepreneurship, among other areas.

In response, JMU renamed a building on campus Holland Yates Hall.

After graduating from JMU in 1982 with a degree in public administration and political science, Holland worked with Reed Hastings to launch a software company called Pure Software. Hastings later founded streaming giant Netflix.

Later, Holland helped start another software initiative, Kana Software, Inc. The two software companies have generated more than $12 billion in market capitalization.

When I left JMU, I was academically prepared and socially adept enough for any adventure I encountered, Holland said.

Yates, a University of Virginia graduate, founded a company called Mach 49, which is designed to accelerate the success of other entrepreneurs.

Holland Yates Hall, previously called Madison Hall, houses the office of admissions and the center for global engagement.

In June, JMU completed an eight-year campaign that raised $250 million.

While the gift from Holland and Yates is the largest cash gift JMU has been given, the university received another donation with a higher estimated value. In 2020, the universitys mineral museum received 314 pieces of emerald, topaz, gold and other gems valued at almost $17 million.
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, on Tuesday glided to re-election in a newly drawn district that now includes the western portions of Chesterfield and Henrico counties.

With 96% of precincts reporting, Wittman had 59.6% of the vote to 39.3% for Democrat Herb Jones. David Foster, a conservative independent, trailed far behind.

If Republicans win control of the House, Wittman hopes to move up in the leadership of the House Armed Services Committee, an influential post for military and defense spending in Virginia.

Wittman, a 15-year incumbent, is the senior Republican in Virginias congressional delegation.

The state Supreme Court redrew Virginias congressional districts in December, shifting the 7th District to Northern Virginia. Western Chesterfield and western Henrico, the base of the old 7th, now anchor the redrawn 1st district, accounting for 43% of its voters. The district also includes eastern Hanover County and all of New Kent County.

The sprawling district now includes all or part of 18 cities and counties. It extends from Westmoreland County on the Northern Neck, south to York County and Poquoson, and west to the Richmond suburbs.

Wittman, who grew up in Henrico County, served in the House of Delegates for two years before he was first elected to Congress. He previously spent about 20 years in local government on the Montross Town Council and the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors.

Wittman worked in state government for two decades as an environmental health specialist and as a field director for the state health departments Division of Shellfish Sanitation.

Jones, who grew up in Roanoke, retired as a colonel after 30 years in the U.S. Army, including 10 years on active duty. He received a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq.

Following his retirement, Jones spent 12 years as New Kent Countys elected treasurer. His career in the financial services industry included a stint as director of investor relations at Colonial Downs, Inc. He now runs Pyramid Technology, a firm he started with his brother to provide IT support, project management and logistics consulting.

Foster, a Navy veteran who has worked in the construction industry, ran as a conservative independent, with an America first platform.
Chesterfield County is moving forward with a plan to sell half a billion dollars in bonds to build schools, fire stations, libraries and parks across the county.

At 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening, the referendum had the approval of more than 76% of voters in the county. Over 63,000 voted yes on the referendum, with just over 20,000 voting no.

The result is welcome news for county officials, who had pinned the financing of multiple multimillion-dollar projects to the referendum. One of the most visible projects will be a new high school in the developing western side of the county.

Other projects include new fire stations, which Chesterfield officials say barely fit modern-day firetrucks, and several library expansions across town.

The county estimates $375 million of the bond financing will go toward schools, with $135 earmarked for the new Western 360 Area High School.

Weve been having the community conversation for the better part of five years, said Matt Harris, deputy county administrator of finance and administration with Chesterfield County. This encapsulates the entire needs of the community.

Chesterfield ramped up a media campaign to publicize the bond project this summer, sponsoring several town halls, podcasts and Facebook live events to discuss the need for the bonds.

The central challenge, officials said, was Chesterfields rapid growth, which had begun to strain county resources.

Since 2010, 50,000 new residents have moved into the county, according to U.S. census statistics. And in the past five years, the countys public school system also tacked on another 2,000 school-age children.

County public safety officials have also felt the strain. The spike in residents has translated into a spike in calls. Chesterfield County Fire and EMS data shows they received 6,000 more calls in 2021 compared with 2017  a steady, gradual uptick that has kept pace with the countys growth.

That strain has led to what Harris called response gaps, which the investments from yesterdays referendum will close, he hopes.

Bond referendums allow counties to raise money for capital projects. The county sells a bond, usually to a financial institution, as a means to raise money. This new bond sale will be the 11th time the county has used a referendum to finance capital projects.

Chesterfield officials sold the referendum to residents as a responsible financial maneuver to upkeep and invest in the county, and said the measure would not cost residents a dime.

No meals tax associated with these. No new tax of any other variety, Harris said. No other new taxes. We can manage this with the resources that exist today. County, schools, public safety, you name it, we still have the ability to do that.

Communicating that point to some Chesterfield residents hasnt been easy. The $540 million price tag came in at $200 million more than the most recent bond referendum in 2013. Some Chesterfield residents were left uneasy by that referendum, which went over budget by nearly $100 million.

Resident Wayne Carbinier, who voted no on the referendum, said the county should have used money it has on hand, rather than take on new debt.

If you look at their budget, they have had a surplus that they could apply to this annually, Carbinier said.

Carbinier said he would have preferred that the county design the referendum to have modular votes. He said he would have voted yes on the school upgrades but no on the library expansions.

Mike Uzel, a local realtor, also objected to the referendum. Uzel thinks the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors should be asking more from the developers who are building new residential units, which are in turn facilitating the countys rapid population growth.

Literally thousands of homes, apartments and townhomes are approved without the infrastructure to go with those, Uzel said. So, every eight years or so, the county comes around and says we dont have the schools to cover the needs of our county. My question is: Is it because the developers are not paying their fair share?
Republican Yesli Vega conceded to Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, on Wednesday morning, after every vote had been counted.

Spanberger won re-election with 52% of the vote, surpassing Vega by about 10,000 ballots, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

We gave it our all but came up a little short last night, Vega said in a statement on social media. God is still on the throne.

As a member of the Prince William County board of supervisors, Vega said she looks forward to working with Spanberger. Vega congratulated the congresswoman and thanked her family and supporters.

While this loss is heartbreaking, Im still committed to serving the people of Prince William County on the board of supervisors, she said. We live in the greatest country in the world, and I pray for a better an brighter future for all.

Late Tuesday night, Vega opted not to concede. At that point, there was just one precinct remaining that had not reported its votes, and the Associated Press had called the race for Spanberger.
The 25-year-old motorcyclist that police say eluded officers who were investigating a report of gunshots in downtown Salem Monday night has been arrested.

Griffin Ian Newman was taken into custody at 8:11 p.m. Tuesday without incident. Police said in a press release that he was arrested in Salem and is being held at the Western Virginia Regional Jail without bond.

According to the jails online system, Newman faces seven charges: carrying a handgun while under the influence, carrying a concealed weapon, discharging a firearm in a public place, reckless handling a firearm, reckless driving, brandishing a firearm and eluding police.

On Monday evening, Salem police responded to a 911 call about gunshots in the parking lot behind a business in the 200 block of East Main Street.

Police were told that a suspect fled the scene on a motorcycle. Officers pursued the motorcyclist along West Main Street.

The chase ended at the streets intersection with Wildwood Road, where two police cruisers collided and three police officers sustained minor injuries.

Newman has a traffic record in the region that dates from 2016, according to Virginias online court case information system. Those charges include speeding and moving violations, defective equipment and lack of a motorcyle operators license, among others.

Newman has not yet been scheduled to appear in court for charges related to Monday nights incident.
Salem police are looking for a suspect who eluded police on a motorcycle after shots were fired downtown Monday evening.

Police said in a press release Tuesday that they were seeking Griffin Newman, 25, of Salem, on four charges: shooting within city limits, reckless handling of a firearm, eluding police and reckless driving.

At approximately 10:15 p.m. Monday, a 911 call reported that shots had been fired in a parking lot behind a business in the 200 block of East Main Street.

Additional information indicated the suspect had fled the scene on a motorcycle, police said.

Within minutes, the motorcyclist was located, but he refused to stop for police, the news release continued.

Police vehicles pursued the suspect down West Main Street until two police cruisers collided at the intersection of West Main Street and Wildwood Road.

Evan Baldacci, 29, of Salem was working at the Taco Bell on West Main Street when he witnessed the pursuit, which he said included three police vehicles.

We saw a motorcycle go by at a reckless speed, Baldacci said Tuesday. Police and emergency vehicles were quickly in pursuit of the suspect. When I got off work around 11 p.m., I saw emergency vehicles with their lights on at the end of West Main Street.

Baldacci and his girlfriend drove toward the lights.

That is when we saw the police cruiser was immobilized underneath the trailer of the US Foods truck, Baldacci said.

Three officers sustained minor injuries in the collision. They were transported to a local hospital, where they were evaluated, treated and released.

Newman was last seen traveling north on Wildwood Road.

If you know anything regarding his whereabouts, or if you know something about the shots fired incident, call the Salem Police Department Detectives Division at 540-375-3083.
Voters elected Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, to a third term serving Virginias 6th District, according to unofficial elections results from Tuesday night.

Cline, a former state legislator, beat his Democratic opponent, mental health worker Jennifer Lewis, of Waynesboro. He received about two-thirds of the vote with one-quarter of the precincts still out as of 9 p.m.

Cline watched election results from Piccadillys Restaurant in Winchester, and broadcast a victory speech to Facebook shortly after 8 p.m. as The Associated Press called the race for him.

It is my honor and privilege to represent the 6th District for the next two years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Cline said. It looks like its going to be an even better two-year term for the Republicans in the majority, but Im getting ahead of myself.

He thanked God, his family, staff and voters.

This is about serving the people, Cline said. My whole effort has been to make sure that ultimately at the end of the day the views of the people of the 6th District are carried to Washington and are advocated in the strongest manner possible.

Lewis watched election results from Seven Arrows Brewery in Waynesboro, according to a campaign staffer. She was unavailable for comment before press time.

Total fundraising for this congressional race eclipsed $1 million, mostly secured by Republicans. Cline raised almost $915,000, compared to the $140,000 raised by Lewis.

The competition between Cline and Lewis was a rematch of 2018 midterms, when Cline won his first term in Congress by a 20-point margin.
The notion that climate sceptics are just stupid people who deny climate change and have no interest in working for a better future is dangerous, says Alexander Ruser. Credit: UiA/Maria van Schoor

After a summer of flooding and extreme heat, climate change has once again become an issue for many Europeans. UN climate reports keep presenting facts and recommendations about what must be done globally.

On 26 October, a report came out showing that the world is nowhere near meeting its climate targets.

"Climate sceptics, however, who doubt or don't believe that climate change is man-made, are not convinced by this," says Alexander Ruser, professor of sociology at UiA.

"It's not the case that people automatically reach a final opinion when presented with new research-based knowledge. People who believe in climate change will continue to believe these reports, and those who don't still won't," he says.

Connections with climate sceptics in the US

Ruser has for some time been investigating how a growing number of climate sceptics contribute to shaping political debate and solutions. By analysing social networks in Germany and looking at connections between people, he identified a number of tendencies.

"There are strong links between populist opinions, right-wing politicians, social media and American climate sceptics. Many people live in a kind of parallel world, where they see other news and other politicians. A news report from public broadcasters such as NRK doesn't countbecause they believe it derives from elitist media," Ruser says.

In recent years, climate scepticism has become more accepted in Europe. A new EU survey reveals that Norway stands out: Out of six countries, the percentage of people who believe that climate change is man-made was lowest in Norway.

The climate-sceptic movement in Germany grew from 2011 to 2017, according to surveysfrom 7 to 16 percent of the population. Ruser has taken a closer look at this development in his new study.

"Germany has traditionally been more like Norway where research is seen as politically independent, something that can be trusted. In the US, on the other hand, many think tanks are strongly linked to politics and funded by political activists. Climate scepticism and climate change denial are more widespread and have increasingly become part of a more polarised political debate," he explains.

These attitudes have spread to Germany, at the same time as a new right-wing populist party has emerged, Alternative fur Deutschland. Small players with little money managed to bring together right-wing groups, anti-environment groups and populists.

Impactful social networks

"They may for example organise a conference where all these groups come together. Various representatives are invited here, including people from the US and right-wing populist media. With little money, they manage to gain attention and present a lot of information which is further distributed."

Through such methods, these individuals gain a foothold and influence the political debate. Well-written reports from privately sponsored conservative think tanks, such as the Heartland Institute in the US, are also impactful.

"And it must be saidwhen you read through these reports, they are often quite good. If you're not a climate scientist, it's difficult to see what this is," Ruser says.

Climate sceptics are not one group

"The notion that climate sceptics are just 'stupid people' who deny climate change and have no interest in working for a better future is dangerous," Ruser says.

"This becomes further reinforced in political debates, which are often about how we must convince the people who are sceptical in order to implement climate measures. Everything becomes black and white. It's terrifying."

The picture is more nuanced than that. While some deny everything, others believe that climate change is natural and that there is nothing we can do about it. Some also agree that climate change is man-made, but do not believe in the political solutions presented.

Others focus on the benefits of climate change: Kristiansand has started producing wine. Summer is getting longer. Oslo will soon be like Nice.

Watch Ruser explain more about his research in this video.

Living with disagreement

Ruser has little faith in the rhetoric in climate reports that says "we only have 12 years left" or that "the next 10 years will be decisive."

"It doesn't work. Climate sceptics won't accept that. Of course there will be serious consequences, but presenting them using doomsday prophecies is not a good strategy."

Willingness to change is also linked to financial capability. It is easier for a wealthy family to buy an electric car than for a single mother with a part-time job.

"You give moral justification to one party, the 'good' person, while the single mother becomes the one who does everything wrong. Why does my life have to get worse? Thus, many of the messages from climate sceptics hit home and spread further within their own networks," says Ruser.

He thinks we can live with people denying climate change as long as they accept democratic decisions and comply with the measures that are adopted. An example is when the US and then President Barack Obama introduced 'green jobs."

"It worked because people were given jobs, and that's what mattered. That's how it is in a democracy. We can disagree, but we have to follow along. Just like we have to accept speed limits on our roads, and we don't need to convince every single person in Norway of this."

Talking about things people care about

The climate scepticism movement in Germany grew beneath the radar, but still managed to have an impact on the political landscape even with few resources. That is how powerful social networks can be.

Part of the solution to challenges around the debate about climate, Ruser argues, lies in telling more stories about the climate crisispersonal testimonies about climate change: The elderly man who notices that the view of the formerly snowy peak has turned grey all year round. The ski enthusiast who notes the number of days he can ski during the year.

"This isn't climate science, but it's linked to personal experience. We share stories with our loved ones, our family and friends, about what matters to us. These are the networks that we must understand," he points out.

Provided by University of Agder
Litoria pterodactyla. Credit: Steve Richards

In a recently published paper, a global team of scientists show that Melanesia, which is centered around New Guinea, is home to around 7% of the world's frogs in less than 1% of the world's land area.

"In the last 20 years scientists have described hundreds of new frogs from New Guinea," says lead author Dr. Paul Oliver, from Griffith's Center for Planetary Health and Food Security and Curator of Vertebrates at Queensland Museum.

"And there is no sign of discoveries slowing downwe estimate that there are likely to be over 700 frog species in the region, more the three times the number found in nearby Australia.

"New Guinea frogs show an amazing diversity of form and behaviorsome of the world's smallest vertebrates, males with erectile noses, new species that glide through treetops using their webbed fingers, and even a species in which females are estimated to be 40 times heavier than the males."

New Guinea is the world's largest and highest tropical island.

A comprehensive conservation assessment shows that by world standards, New Guinea's frogs are in relatively good shape.

"Deadly pathogens that have devastated frog elsewhere are not currently know from New Guinea," said Dr. Deborah Bower from the University of New England, also an author on the paper.

"However, many species of frog in New Guinea have tiny distributions, this can make them very vulnerable to localized loss of forest.

"New Guinea is often considered a safe haven, but in many areas forest loss is occurring at high rate.

"We are particularly concerned about some newly documented hotspots of localized frog species, especially in the far east of New Guinea.

"Hopefully our growing awareness of this extraordinary natural wealth will enable and support locally driven conservation initiatives."

The study, "Melanesia holds the world's most diverse and intact insular amphibian fauna," has been published in Communications Biology.

More information:

Paul M. Oliver et al, Melanesia holds the world's most diverse and intact insular amphibian fauna, Communications Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04105-1

Provided by Griffith University
LSU President William F. Tate IV and members of the LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center announce their participation in a $3.5 million grant to the East Baton Rouge Parish School System from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Credit: LSU

Math is critical to developing the skills needed for future classes and careers in science, technology, engineering and data science. Yet, despite the adoption of new math standards, less than half of fourth and eighth grade students scored proficient or higher on the most recent administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to the Nation's Report Card . To help address the challenge of math inequity, East Baton Rouge Parish School System, or EBRPSS, has been awarded a $3.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help Black and Latino students and all students experiencing poverty to graduate from high school skilled in the math required to be successful in higher education, the workforce and life. The LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center will serve as the research partner, with a sub-award of $473,000 for three years. DreamBox Learning will serve as the technology solutions partner. Together, the partners will work to co-construct a research plan to focus on students primarily in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"I would like to thank East Baton Rouge Parish School System for entrusting LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center with this important work along with the Gates Foundation for contributing to education equity for children in the Baton Rouge community," said LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center Director Judith Rhodes. "I look forward to working with EBRPSS and DreamBox Learning to research and implement tools in the students' lives to help them achieve their full potential."

The goal of the grant is to help all students living in poverty, particularly Black and Latino students, graduate from high school with a stronger understanding of math to help ensure their success in higher education, the workforce and life.

"On behalf of the LSU College of Human Sciences & Education, I congratulate our colleagues in East Baton Rouge Parish School System, the LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center and DreamBox Learning on this outstanding grant to help students learn and achieve," said LSU College of Human Sciences & Education Dean Roland Mitchell. "Our college is committed to scholarship that improves quality of life across the lifespan. It's essential for every student in Louisiana to have a strong foundation in early childhood and to have meaningful instruction, mentorship and development in K-12 so that they may see higher education as a reality for their future. This research will yield new insights so that we may better help and serve Black and Latino students across our whole state, and beyond."

This initiative aims to support the development of a more efficient, effective and equitable research infrastructure that answers questions on the effectiveness and characteristics of technology solutions and interventions in schools and school districts.

DreamBox K-8 Math is a digital math platform that complements the East Baton Rouge Parish School System's math curriculum and provides students with lessons and games that foster the development of math skills and understanding. LSU researchers will track the extent to which engagement and success with DreamBox leads to higher levels of affiliation with math among students, which in turn predicts higher levels of learning. They will also examine whether social-emotional and behavioral well-being is, in turn, enhanced by improvements in math learning, confidence and positive self-identity. Through quantitative data analysis and qualitative information gathered through focus groups, the LSU researchers will provide the school district and teachers insight that can help improve outcomes for students in East Baton Rouge Parish.

"Over the past forty years, the aim of my research and teaching commitments involves resolving the significant challenge of scaling opportunity to learn mathematics from the individual to other units including classrooms, schools, and districts. This challenge impacts LSU and the state of Louisiana. Mathematics represents a foundational discipline and knowledge base in LSU's Scholarship First and A&M Agenda. As such, we welcome this partnership with the East Baton Rouge Parish School System and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve how we teach and inspire students throughout their educational journey," said William F. Tate IV, LSU President.

The SREC Research team includes:

Judith Rhodes, Ph.D., Professor of Research, SREC Director;

Sam Robison, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Research, SREC;

H. Colleen Sinclair, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Research, SREC;

Youn Kyoung "Lily" Kim, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Social Work and

Stacey Terrio, MA, Research Associate, SREC.

About LSU SREC

The LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center, or SREC, advances social initiatives to improve the lives of individuals, families, and their communities through our research, evaluation, and partnerships. SREC's interdisciplinary team of expert faculty and staff work in projects among four areas of impact: strengthening communities, education, public safety, and health and wellbeing. Learn more at lsu.edu/srec. SREC is a research center in the LSU College of Human Sciences & Education.

Provided by Louisiana State University
FLORENCE, S.C.  Voters sent William H. "Jay" Jordan back to the state House of Representatives for a fifth term in Tuesday's election.

Jordan, a Republican, received 71% of the votes cast, defeating Democratic Party challenger Vincent Coe by nearly 3,800 votes.

The results are unofficial until canvassed by the Florence County Election Commission.

Asked during the campaign why he was running for reelection Jordan said, he desires to continue the path he has been on, working for the people of Florence and South Carolina. He wants to continue find ways to improve our education system, support law enforcement, keep taxes low, where they need to be so we can have the best possible economic development; continue to make our infrastructure better in South Carolina.

A Florence attorney, Jordan has served in the House of Representatives since 2015. He ran as a conservative who wants to continue to help write the next chapter for Florence so that it will be a place where his children will want to grow up, work, and raise their families.

A native of Florence, Jordan and his wife, Tara, have three children. He is a member of Florence Baptist Temple, where he graduated from high school before attending the College of Charleston.

Jordan said he has spent his entire life in Florence County with the exception of the time he was in school. Jordan is also a graduate of the Charleston School of Law, 2007. He has been practicing law for more than 10 years and began his own law firm a few years after returning to Florence, located on Evans Street.

Coe said the first thing he will do is what he campaigned on  increasing teacher pay and removing state income tax.

I want to thank my supporters who have helped me along the way, Coe said.

He said everyone along the campaign trail worked hard and put their best effort forward.

We all celebrate together, he said.

Coe has a home-based business, Balcony Advisors that serves the Pee Dee region. He is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) from the American Bankers Association and has a certificate in executive management from Francis Marion University. He also has a law degree.

Coe has worked in Columbia, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, but has found that there is no place like home and wants to put everything he has learned towards making Florence a better place to live and grow for the next generation.

Coe said, My family is here and this is the place where I have grown up. I want to make it better for the next generation.

A native of Darlington, Coe is a graduate of Lamar High School, 2003; University of South Carolina; Case Western Reserve University School of Law; and Francis Marion University Executive Education Program.

Coe is single. He has two sisters, one brother and several nieces and nephews. Coe is a member of Center Baptist Church and a licensed minister.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  After a dozen meetings and sessions over the summer and fall, South Carolina lawmakers are almost out of time to do something to change the states abortion laws during a special session prompted by the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

A conference committee of state senators and House members will meet one last time Wednesday morning to try to sort out a compromise between the House, which wants a near total abortion ban, and the Senate, which wants to tweak the current law that amounts to a ban about six weeks after conception.

The full Senate is set to meet an hour after the committee to consider anything that passes with the House set to go into session Thursday if anything gets through the Senate.

By law, this years General Assembly session ends Sunday. With the election of 124 House members earlier in the week, everything resets and all bills must start from the beginning of the legislative process in January.

South Carolinas current roughly six-week ban isnt being enforced as the state Supreme Court is considering a challenge that it violates the right to privacy in the state constitution.

That leaves an older, 20-week abortion ban in place but no clinics in the state perform the procedure more than 14 weeks after conception.

Both sides left the last conference committee meeting Nov. 1 in doubt they can get any bill to the governors desk in 2022.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey told the committee there arent enough votes in the Senate to pass an abortion ban earlier than the present law, which prevents the procedure after cardiac activity can be detected in a fetus except for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is in danger.

House members had a chance to accept the Senates version when they met in October, but rejected it. The Senates bill isnt a total ban, but supporters said it solves the possible right to privacy argument, cuts the time that victims of rape and incest who become pregnant can seek an abortion from 20 weeks to about 12 weeks and requires that DNA from the aborted fetus be collected for police.

Supporters of the stricter ban i n the House said voters made it clear they wanted action when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer and left abortion laws up to the state. Republican senators who are against a total ban either want to take time to see the effects of stricter bans in other states or first want to expand adoption, social and education programs to take care of more babies.

Democrats have largely stayed quiet during the debate, letting the Republicans fight among themselves and pulling in more moderate senators. They said people who support womens rights were going to lose no matter what happened because the states abortion rules are so restrictive.
As November traditionally marks the beginning of the holiday season, many South Carolinians are eagerly awaiting the celebrations they will share with their friends and family, often around a dinner table.

Yet, for our neighbors who do not know where their next meal will come from, the thought of preparing a Thanksgiving feast can bring on additional worry and stress.

Food insecurity is a widespread issue that impacts thousands of people across the Palmetto State all year long. If you or someone you love suffers from hunger, you are not alone. Across the state, 1-in-10 of our neighbors face hunger daily  and more than 150,000 of them are children.

While these statistics are already significant, food insecurity is a growing problem in our state. While magnified by the pandemic, issues like the rising costs of commodities across our daily lives continue to increase these numbers daily.

Individuals in Florence County and South Carolina are in dire need of everyones support and action against food insecurity.

Unfortunately, many people do not know where to go in their community to get confidential and reliable assistance. There are more than 900 food banks available to help statewide with organizations operating in every county.

To help even more people access these resources, United Way of Florence County is excited to support 211, a texting platform that automatically connects users with local organizations providing aid. This program serves as an incredible asset to support those in need in our community.

The United Way Association of South Carolina is the first United Way program in the nation to offer this resource, which was launched with support from the Duke Energy Foundation.

As the holidays approach, we want to raise awareness of the platform as many families struggle with food insecurity in Florence County.

How to access 211 resources211 is a convenient, easy-to-remember number that links people suffering from daily or emergency needs with important community services through text messaging.

To find resources available in Florence County or another community, simply text FOOD to 211-211. Based on your mobile devices location, the system will automatically respond with relevant information.

Now more than ever, we rely on our devices to quickly connect us with information.

For people living in rural areas and food deserts, this program eliminates the need for broadband internet and cuts down on long wait times that have long been required to connect with community resources.

Suffering from need doesnt follow a convenient schedule; thats why 211 is available 24/7 in English and Spanish. Alongside feeding resources, 211 provides assistance with housing, utilities and programs provided by the South Carolina Department of Social Services.

We know food insecurity can be a hardship for many, and we are committed to fighting for the health, education and financial prosperity of every person in our community. If you need assistance, please know that resources are available  and 211 and your local United Way are here to help.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 79F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 46F. Winds W at less than 5 mph, becoming N and increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
File. Peter Scully of Australia (R), accused of raping and trafficking two girls in the Philippines, leaves the court handcuffed to another inmate (L) after his arraignment in Cagayan de Oro City, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on June 16, 2015 (AFP via Getty Images)

The Philippines handed a sentence of 129 years in prison to an Australian man over a child sexual abuse scandal.

For Peter Gerard Scully, who is already serving a life sentence for a plethora of charges including rape and trafficking of girls, this was the second conviction.

Scully was arrested in 2015 in Malaybalay in the Philippines after fleeing from Australia in 2011.

He had come to the Philippines to escape fraud charges in his home country.

He then set up a cybersex business, filming teenage girls from impoverished families as he had sex with them or used sex toys, investigators said previously.

On 3 November, a Cagayan de Oro court handed down the sentence after Scully and his three co-accused entered into a plea bargaining agreement. Reports said that they had been charged with 60 offences, including trafficking, child exploitation material, child abuse and rape.

Scullys girlfriend, Lovely Margallo, was sentenced to 126 years in jail. Two others were given sentences of more than nine years.

They all want to put closure to this dark phase of their lives and move on, the statement from the families of victims reads, which included an 18-month-old girl and a child whose body was found buried under the floor of a house rented by Scully.

Merlynn Barola-Uy, a regional prosecutor in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro said: This is a big victory, not only for us prosecutors in the Department of Justice, but more importantly this is a big victory for the victim-survivors.

In 2016, prosecutors in the Philippines had been calling for the death penalty to be reintroduced as punishment for Scully. Then 52-year-old Scully is accused of directing horrific videos involving rape and torture and selling them through the dark web. He is being investigated for a total of 75 charges, including the alleged rape of an 18-month-old girl.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned health care workers to look out for patients who may have been exposed to a potentially deadly animal sedative, possibly through illicit drug use.

The veterinary medication xylazine is sometimes added to fentanyl, heroin or other drugs, after either being diverted from the legal animal supply or illicitly produced, the FDA said.

"FDA is aware of increasing reports of serious side effects from individuals exposed to fentanyl, heroin, and other illicit drugs contaminated with xylazine," the agency announced in a news release.

The non-opioid -- sometimes called tranq -- is approved for use in animals as a sedative and pain reliever. It is not safe for use in humans.

Deaths tied to xylazine have increased significantly in recent years. According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, overdose deaths involving xylazine jumped from 2% to 26% in Pennsylvania alone between 2015 and 2020.

Serious side effects may resemble those linked to opioid use, making it difficult to distinguish opioid overdoses from xylazine exposure. Moreover, naloxone, which can reverse the effects of some opioid drug overdoses, may not have the same effect on xylazine, the agency said.

The FDA warned health care professionals not to administer reversal agents used for xylazine in veterinary medicine because it is not known whether they are safe or effective in humans.

The FDA advised health care professionals to continue administering naloxone when they suspect someone is experiencing an opioid overdose. And providers should consider xylazine exposure if the patient does not respond to naloxone.

Other symptoms of xylazine exposure include slowed breathing and severe, necrotic skin ulcerations.

Complicating the issue, routine toxicology screens do not detect xylazine.

Health care professionals and patients should report exposure to xylazine to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm. You can also download and fax the completed form to 1-800-FDA-0178.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more on xylazine.

SOURCE: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, news release, Nov. 8, 2022
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Voters approved recreational marijuana in Maryland and Missouri but rejected it in two other states, signaling support gradually growing for legalization even in conservative parts of the country.

The results mean that 21 states have now approved marijuanas recreational use. Arkansas and North Dakota voters rejected legalization proposals in Tuesday's elections. A similar initiative went before voters in South Dakota, but early Wednesday it was too early to call.

Advocates said the results send a message to lawmakers in Washington about support around the country for legalization.

A growing number of voters recognize that cannabis policy reform is in the best interest of public health and safety, criminal justice reform, social equity, and personal freedom, Toi Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. State-level legalization victories are whats necessary to move the needle forward at the federal level."

The state voting follows moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

Advocates of the marijuana initiatives have said Biden's announcement could give a boost to their efforts.

Missouris measure will legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offenses, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence.

It just shows that this is not a partisan issue, said John Payne, who led the Missouri campaign to legalize marijuana use. This is something that transcends partisan divides.

Payne said he expected recreational sales to start in Missouri early next year.

Opponents said they would be working to limit the implementation of Missouri's legalization, such as working with cities and towns to opt out of allowing dispensaries.

The devil is in the details, and we will remain actively involved in Missouri implementation because we dont need another Big Tobacco industry harming kids in Missouri," said Kevin Sabet, president of SAM Action, an anti-legalization group.

Maryland will also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.

Heading into the election, recreational marijuana was legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalization softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

About 6 in 10 voters support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, according to VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 90,000 voters nationwide conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Support for ending marijuana prohibition in the states is spreading much like it did at the end of alcohol prohibition," said Mason Tvert, a partner at VS Strategies, a cannabis policy and public affairs firm. 

The five states that held votes on Tuesday have legal medical marijuana programs. That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical marijuana. The state's dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.

The legalization campaigns raised about $23 million in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85% of contributions in those two states came from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.

In Arkansas, supporters ran upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they said would be created by the measure. Opponents ran more ominous spots, warning voters to protect Arkansas from big marijuana.

The marijuana industry spent millions of dollars trying to write itself into the Arkansas Constitution," said Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council Action Committee, one of the groups opposing the measure. Now they know that Arkansans do not support that kind of crony politics."

The initiative drew the criticism of traditional legalization opponents as well as some medical marijuana advocates, who said the Arkansas proposal placed too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, also opposed the measure.

Supporters indicated they planned to try again in Arkansas.

Tonight, we made history by putting adult-use cannabis on the ballot for the first time, Although we fell short, we look forward to continuing this effort to build this momentum to 2024," said Robert McLarty, campaign director for Responsible Growth Arkansas.

David Owen, who led North Dakota's legalization effort, said he wasn't sure another effort would be made after the proposal was rejected.

Tonight was not what we wanted, but the people have spoken and we have to prepare for the next steps, Owen said.

North Dakota's proposal would have allowed people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would have established policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators and other types of marijuana businesses.

Its pretty clear North Dakota families dont want marijuana across the state, said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a Virginia-based political organization against marijuana legalization, which helped fight the measure in North Dakota.

South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, recreational pot stood by itself as it went before voters.

In Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday took up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step. The vote was too early to call early Wednesday.

Melody Finley, a Republican in Little Rock, Arkansas, said she voted for the state's legalization measure because she thinks it can help some people for certain conditions.

If you can buy alcohol, you can buy that, too," Finley, 47, a dance instructor, said.

But Rick Huffman, a voter in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, voted against that state's legalization proposal, two years after supporting recreational marijuana on South Dakota's ballot in 2020.

Ive got a kid thats a teenager now, he said. So I think itll eventually happen, but maybe Ill wait until my kids grow up.

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri; James MacPherson in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.
As the vote counting continued Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, the balance of power in the Nebraska Legislature tipped further in favor of the Republican Party, with conservative lawmakers appearing to secure a filibuster-proof majority.

The latest results Wednesday morning appeared to support looming legislative efforts to restrict abortion access, allow permitless concealed carry and promote private school scholarships with tax dollars  three priorities that previously fell short in the face of filibusters.

Meanwhile, all incumbent senators won their races, including two senators who had been appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts this year and were making their electoral debuts. And two former senators reclaimed their old seats in the Legislature.

The election also saw a number of women elected. Nine women appear to have won their races, which will bring the total number of women in the Legislature to 18.

The Nebraska Legislature is nonpartisan, meaning that candidates appear on the ballot without a party designation and lawmakers serve without regard to party membership. In addition, political parties are not part of the legislative structure.

However, some votes tend to split along party lines, particularly when bills involve issues with clear partisan differences. Of the 49 current senators, 32 are registered Republicans and 17 are Democrats. It takes 33 votes to end a filibuster.

The 25 seats that were up for election this year include 18 held by Republicans and seven by Democrats. Sixteen of the total were not expected to change, including three uncontested seats and seven in which both candidates were of the same party.

The remaining nine races featured a Republican facing a Democrat or, in one case, a nonpartisan candidate. Eight were in the Omaha area:

District 4. Brad von Gillern, a Republican and construction executive, appeared to be on track to beat Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek, a nonpartisan and business owner. If his margin holds, von Gillern will replace State Sen. Robert Hilkemann, a Republican who is term-limited.

District 6. Incumbent Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, an outspoken Democrat, prevailed against her opponent, Christian Mirch, a former Douglas County Republican Party chairman. She won, although Republican leaders saw her as vulnerable and targeted her for defeat.

District 10. Incumbent Sen. Wendy DeBoer, a Democrat and educator, defeated former Omaha Public Schools board member Lou Ann Goding, a Republican. DeBoer prevailed despite being named as a target by the state GOP.

District 12. Former Sen. Merv Riepe, a Republican, reclaimed his legislative seat by beating Robin Richards, a Democrat. Riepe served one term in the Legislature but was defeated for reelection by his predecessor, Sen. Steve Lathrop. Four years later, Lathrop, a Democrat, opted against seeking reelection.

District 18. Christy Armendariz, a Republican and strategic sourcing specialist, defeated Michael Young, a Democrat and business owner. Young had won the primary in a tight three-way race. Incumbent Sen. Brett Lindstrom, a Republican, is term-limited.

District 20. Stu Dornan, a Republican attorney, surpassed John Fredrickson, a mental health professional and Democrat who had maintained a lead through much of the evening Tuesday. Dornan held a lead just under a percentage point Wednesday morning. The winner will claim the seat held by Sen. John McCollister, a term-limited Republican who was unafraid to break with his party on high-profile issues, including abortion.

District 31. Sen. Kathleen Kauth, a Republican appointed by the governor in June, defeated Tim Royers, a Democrat and teacher. The seat became open with the death of Sen. Rich Pahls, a Republican. The two had to petition their way onto the general election ballot because the vacancy occurred after the deadline to file for the primary.

District 38. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue, a Republican, won against Angie Lauritsen of Gretna, a Democrat. The district was located in central Nebraska before redistricting. It is represented by Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg, a Republican who is term-limited.

Three other metro-area races were won by incumbents, Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha in District 8, Sen. John Arch of La Vista in District 14 and Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair in District 16.

In Lincoln races:

District 26. George Dungan, a Democrat and a Lancaster County public defender, reversed the primary results to take a lead against Russ Barger, a Republican attorney. The incumbent is Sen. Matt Hansen, a Democrat who is term-limited.

Jane Raybould, a Democrat, defeated Roy Christensen, a Republican, in District 28, while former Sen. Danielle Conrad reclaimed her legislative seat by beating James Michael Bowers, a fellow Democrat, in District 46.
For the second time in the last three years, Nebraska has the No. 1 recruiting class in college volleyball.

Signing day for the sport was Wednesday, and Nebraska unveiled a recruiting class with five players  each of them are ranked among the top-15 recruits in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com.

The class: outside hitter Harper Murray; setter Bergen Reilly; defensive specialist Laney Choboy; right-side hitter Caroline Jurevicius; and middle blocker Andi Jackson.

For the position rankings Nebraska got the top setter (Reilly) and defensive specialist (Choboy); the No. 2 outside hitter (Murray) and the No. 3 middle blocker (Jackson).

Its another group that should add to the talent on the roster and could help keep Nebraska among the best teams in the sport. Heres the rankings for Nebraskas six most recent recruiting classes: 1, 2, 1, 26, 2, 5.

This class joins No. 1 recruiting classes Nebraska also had for 2021, 2013 and 2004.

According to the Prepvolleyball.com rankings, the top-five recruiting classes are Nebraska, Texas, Purdue, Stanford and Ohio State.

Check back for updates to this story
SAC CITY, Iowa -- One of four people involved in a string of burglaries at rural Sac County homes has been placed on probation.

Nick Bogue, 42, of Lake View, Iowa, on Monday received a deferred judgment and three years probation. He pleaded guilty in September to second-degree arson. As part of a plea agreement, a theft and drug possession charge were dismissed.

He also must pay $20,900 in restitution to the victims and pay a $1,370 civil penalty.

He and three others were charged in connection with burglaries and thefts in which copper piping and wiring and other property was stolen from at least three locations from Dec. 1 through March 4. Bogue and John Bogue also were charged with setting a fire that destroyed a house and two outbuildings.

John Bogue, 34, of Lake View, is charged with ongoing criminal conduct, first-degree criminal mischief and three counts each of third-degree burglary and second-degree arson. He is scheduled to enter a plea in December.

James Becker, 33, of Wall Lake, Iowa, and Kennedie Ford, 26, of Lake City, Iowa, are scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

Both have entered pleas to burglary charges.
SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man who illegally possessed a gun has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison.

Antwoine Johnson, 29, pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. He was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Johnson was found in possession of 120 grams of marijuana and a loaded 9mm firearm when Sioux City police stopped his vehicle on Jan. 23.

Because of his marijuana use and a previous felony conviction, Johnson was prohibited from possessing a gun.
Michael Mace, 20, pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to one count of possession of ammunition as a felon. He was sentenced Friday.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mace was a passenger in a car involved in a July 19, 2021, high-speed chase with Sioux City police. During the pursuit, police observed a gun thrown from the car. The chase ended when the driver lost control of the vehicle, and Mace was arrested after a short foot pursuit. Fingerprints on the bullets loaded in the gun matched Mace's.
Flanked by his grandchildren, an at-times emotion Jim Pillen addressed supporters on Tuesday evening, saying the way he ran his campaign for governor has prepared him to lead the state come January.

Pillen, the heavy favorite over Democrat Carol Blood in the race for governor, did not participate in any one-on-one debates, instead focusing his interactions with voters in town hall meetings across the state.

"That is what has equipped me to be the governor of the great state of Nebraska, and together we can have a great impact on this state," Pillen said, noting the energy in the room filled with supporters at the Cornhusker Marriott in downtown Lincoln.

Pillen, a pork producer from Columbus who emerged from a hotly contested Republican primary, led Democrat Carol Blood by a 59%-37% margin in results posted at 11:45 p.m.

CNN called the race for Pillen as he addressed supporters. Nebraskans haven't elected a Democrat as governor since 1994.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Flood took control of the race for the 1st District House seat as more votes came in from rural areas.

Flood, who edged Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks in a special election this summer, led the 1st District race with 57% of the vote. In Omaha's 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Republican Don Bacon led Democrat Tony Vargas with 51.3% of the vote.

Locally, the race for Lancaster County Attorney emerged as the most hotly contested local campaign.

In results posted just before midnight, incumbent Republican Pat Condon led Democrat Adam Morfeld by 2,000 votes with as many as 7,350 votes still to be counted.

In the race for sheriff, Republican Terry Wagner, a seven-term incumbent, emerged with a comfortable lead over challenger Jay Pitts. Democrat Dan Nolte held the lead in his bid to unseat County Assessor Rob Ogden.

In Lincoln Legislative districts, George Dungan (District 26), Jane Raybould (District 28) and Danielle Conrad (District 46) held leads.

In statewide ballot measures, results favored the gradual increase of the minimum wage in Nebraska and charging the Legislature with writing a voter ID law in next year's session.

This is a developing story. Stay with JournalStar.com for updates.
SIOUX CITY  Woodbury County voters decided to change leadership in the Woodbury County Attorney's office Tuesday.

Republican James Loomis, an assistant prosecutor in the office for 19 years, convincingly defeated his boss, Patrick "PJ" Jennings, a Democrat who was seeking his fifth four-year term in office, securing 59% of the vote for a 16,749-11,440 final margin, according to unofficial results.

"I didn't know what to expect. I was optimistic coming in to tonight," Loomis said. "I'm grateful for the chance to serve Woodbury County in a new capacity."

Since declaring his candidacy earlier this year, through the primary election and leading up to the general election, Loomis, 45, a Winterset, Iowa, native who lives near Bronson, pledged to improve the offices engagement with law enforcement and elected officials in every town, large or small, in the county. He touted the backing he received from law enforcement, counting more than 100 endorsements from active and retired law enforcement officers.

Loomis said that support was a key to his successful campaign.

"I think that really helped bring credibility to my message," he said.

Jennings, 58, of Sergeant Bluff, who was first elected in 2006, denied his office wasnt responsive to law enforcement and other community partners such as social service agencies and community organizations and said hes continually worked to improve the offices relationships with all of its partners.

Loomis complimented Jennings on his 16 years of service.

"I'm grateful for PJ for all the wonderful things he's done for the office," Loomis said.

In the only other county office up for election, Woodbury County Treasurer Tina Bertrand was elected to her first full term. The Republican incumbent was unopposed.

She was chosen by the county's board of supervisors in April 2021 to serve the remainder of the term of former treasurer Mike Clayton, who retired.
Deliberations in Paul Haggis rape lawsuit set to start

NEW YORK (AP)  Jurors are expected to start deliberating Thursday in a rape lawsuit against filmmaker Paul Haggis. Closing arguments Wednesday framed dueling narratives about what happened between him and a publicist on a night in 2013. His accuser says she reluctantly agreed to a drink at the Oscar-winning screenwriters apartment, then was subjected to unwelcome kisses, forced to perform oral sex and raped as she repeatedly refused. Haggis says hes fighting a false claim by a show-business publicist who flirted with him for months and was a partner in a consensual encounter, though he says she was hesitant at times.

Suspect in Paul Pelosi attack indicted on federal charge

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  A man already in custody in last months attack on the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of assault and attempted kidnapping. The charges stemming from the Oct. 28 break-in at the Pelosis San Francisco home are the same as but supersede those in an earlier federal complaint. The assault roiled the political world days before the hotly contested midterm elections. David DePape was arrested on Oct. 28 inside the Pelosi residence after San Francisco police responded to Paul Pelosis 911 call. Pelosi told officers that he was sleeping when a man entered his bedroom looking for Nancy Pelosi.

Snoop Dogg biopic is in development with Universal Pictures

NEW YORK (AP)  Snoop Dogg is getting a big-screen biopic. Universal Pictures announced Wednesday that the studio is developing a film about Snoop Doggs life to be produced by the 51-year-old rapper. The film will be written by Joe Robert Cole, who co-wrote the two Black Panther films, and directed by Allen Hughes, the filmmaker of Menace II Society. In a statement, Snoop said it was a perfect marriage: holy matrimony, not holy macaroni. Universal previously turned the story of rap group N.W.A. into the hit 2015 film Straight Outta Compton and also released the acclaimed Eminem biopic 8 Mile in 2002.

Luke Combs tops CMA Awards; Loretta Lynn, Lewis honored

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Luke Combs is the winner of the Country Music Association Awards' coveted entertainer of the year trophy. Combs thanked the country music community for making his dreams come true. It was the second time in a row he won the show's top honor, and he also won won album of the year for Growin' Up. Wednesday's show in Nashville, Tennessee, opened with Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Reba McEntire playing tribute to the late country queen Loretta Lynn. The superstar trio performed a medley of Lynns hits including You Aint Woman Enough, Dont Come Home A-Drinkin and Coal Miners Daughter. Leading nominee Lainey Wilson took home two trophies and Alan Jackson accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Musk seeks to reassure advertisers on Twitter after chaos

Elon Musk is seeking to reassure big companies that advertise on Twitter that his chaotic takeover of the social media platform wont harm their brands. He acknowledged that some dumb things might happen on his way to creating a better, safer user experience. The latest erratic move on the minds of major advertisers was Musks decision to abolish a new official label on high-profile Twitter accounts just hours after introducing it. Twitter began adding the gray labels to some prominent accounts, including brands like Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple. A few hours later, the labels started disappearing.

Hurricane Nicole forms; Florida awaits rare November storm

MIAMI (AP)  A Florida-bound storm has strengthened into Hurricane Nicole after pounding the Bahamas and state officials ordered evacuations that included former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago club. Its a rare November hurricane for storm-weary Florida, where only two hurricanes have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853  the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985. At 10 p.m. EST, about 75 miles (125 kilometers) east-northeast of West Palm Beach, Florida, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. Its maximum sustained winds were recorded at 75 mph (120 kph), and the system was moving west at 13 mph (20 kph).

Newly discovered photos show Nazi Kristallnacht up close

JERUSALEM (AP)  Harrowing, previously unseen images from 1938s Kristallnacht pogrom against German and Austrian Jews have surfaced in a photograph collection recently donated to Israels Yad Vashem memorial. The World Holocaust Remembrance Center says the photos offer a close-up view of the brutal violence, which is widely seen as a starting point for the Holocaust. It also debunks Nazi propaganda that the events were spontaneous, as the photos show Nazi officers and the general public taking part. One photo shows a crowd of smiling, well-dressed middle-aged German men and women standing casually as a Nazi officer smashes a storefront window.

Corps finds no radioactive contamination at Missouri school

FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP)  Testing by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has found no radioactive contamination at a Missouri school that was shut down last month amid fears that nuclear material from a contaminated creek nearby had made its way into the school. Teams from the Corps St. Louis office began testing the interior of Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Missouri, and the soil around it in late October, days after the school board closed the school. The closure followed testing by a private firm that found concerning levels of contamination. The Corps said Wednesday that preliminary results found no evidence of radioactive material above what would be naturally occurring.

Israel archaeologists find ancient comb with 'full sentence'

JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli archaeologists say they have found an ancient comb dating back to Canaanite times and bearing what is likely the oldest known full sentence in an alphabetical script. The 3,700-year-old inscription encourages people to comb their hair and beards to rid themselves of lice. Experts say the discovery shines new light on some of humanitys earliest use of the alphabet. The sentence contains 17 letters that read: May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard. The mundane topic indicates people had trouble with lice in everyday life during the time  archaeologists say they have even found microscopic evidence of head lice on the comb.

Facebook parent Meta cuts 11,000 jobs, 13% of workforce

Facebook parent Meta is laying off 13% of its employees as it contends with faltering revenue and broader tech industry woes. The move that comes just a week after widespread layoffs at Twitter under its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk. Meta, like other social media companies, enjoyed a financial boost during the pandemic lockdown era because more people stayed home and scrolled on their phones and computers. But as the lockdowns ended and people started going outside again, revenue growth began to falter. An economic slowdown and a grim outlook for online advertising have contributed to Metas woes.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden says he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner now that the U.S. midterm elections are over.

Biden made the comment during a news conference Wednesday to discuss the midterm election results. He added that he is determined to get her home as well as others.

My hope is that now that the election is over, that Mr. Putin will be able to discuss with us and be willing to talk more seriously about a prisoner exchange, Biden said.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP)  Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow visited jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday, more than a week after a Russian court rejected her appeal of her nine-year sentence for drug possession.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a tweet that the American representatives saw firsthand her tenacity and perseverance despite her present circumstances."

Price said the Biden administration is continuing to press for the immediate release of Griner and Paul Whelan, who was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison in Russia on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are bogus, and "fair treatment for every detained American.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Griner is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances and that the administration was working to resolve the current unacceptable and wrongful detentions of Griner and Whelan.

Griner was was convicted in August after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport. Her arrest in February came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At that time, Griner was returning to play for a Russian team during the WNBAs offseason.

She admitted at her trial to having the canisters in her luggage but testified she packed them inadvertently in her haste to make her flight and had no criminal intent. Her lawyers have called the punishment excessive.

The United States regards Griner and Whelan as wrongful detainees and has been trying for months to negotiate with Russia for their release. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said over the summer that the U.S. had made a substantial proposal to Russia to try to secure their release, and President Joe Biden told relatives of Griner and Whelan in a White House meeting in September that his administration was committed to bringing them home.

People familiar with the offer have said the U.S. had offered to release convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Griner and Whelan.

There have been no outward signs of progress since then in the negotiations.

Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with the president to New Mexico that "despite a lack of good faith negotiation by the Russians, the U.S. government has continued to follow up on that offer and propose alternative potential ways forward with Russia through all available channels. This continues to be a top priority.

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Follow AP's coverage of Brittney Griner at: https://apnews.com/hub/brittney-griner
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Republican Kris Kobach revived his political career by winning the Kansas attorney generals race after two big losses tied to his national reputation as an immigration and election law provocateur.

Kobach, a former two-term Kansas secretary of state and co-chairman of former President Donald Trumps controversial voter fraud commission, defeated Democrat Chris Mann, a former police officer and local prosecutor making his first run for elective office.

The Associated Press called the race at 9:24 a.m. Wednesday. A tweet earlier Wednesday from Kobach campaign manager J.R. Claeys said falsely that the AP had called the race at 2:51 a.m.

Everyone loves a comeback story, and I am grateful to Kansas voters for giving me this opportunity to serve and for putting their trust in me," Kobach said in a statement Wednesday morning.

Mann did not concede. His spokesperson, Kelli Kee, said his campaigns top priority is to make sure every vote is counted.

We live in a democracy and in a democracy your vote is your voice, and we want to make sure that every Kansan has an opportunity to speak on this election, Kee said. This is an unprecedented election, and we need to make sure we are protecting the democratic process.

Kobach was coming off losses in the Kansas governor's race in 2018 and a U.S. Senate primary in 2020 that Republicans chalked up to lackluster campaigns and political baggage that turned off independent and moderate GOP voters. But Republicans have long had a voter registration advantage in Kansas and have won 80% of the states down-ballot contests over the previous 50 years.

Many Republicans said that this year, they saw a Kobach who stayed more on message, had a better-organized campaign and came off as calmer and steadier than in the past. He talked less about illegal immigration and didn't use the signature prop of his 2018 run for governor, a Jeep painted in a flag design with a replica machine gun mounted on it.

But Kobach maintained a focus on tightening voting procedures in the absence of documented problems with fraud. In a mid-October debate, he said Kansas needed to rid itself of ballot drop boxes and that people who questioned whether there is voter fraud are ignoring reality.

His position put him at odds with current Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican who said the state's elections are secure and drop boxes safe. An Associated Press survey of state elections officials found no cases in 2020 of fraud, vandalism or theft involving drop boxes that could have affected the results.

Kobach built a national profile and created lasting political enemies before his election as Kansas secretary of state in 2010 by becoming the go-to adviser for state and local officials wanting to crack down on illegal immigration.

He also pushed the idea that lots of people could be voting illegally and championed a tough prove-your-citizenship rule for new Kansas voters, only to see the federal courts strike it down. An early Kansas supporter of Donald Trumps presidential bid in 2016, he was co-chairman of Trumps short-lived presidential advisory commission on voter fraud.

Kobach told Republicans during his successful primary race this year that he would consider each morning over breakfast how as attorney general he could sue President Joe Biden's administration. But during his fall campaign, he tempered that rhetoric, saying that he'd challenge Biden actions that appeared to violate federal law or the U.S. Constitution.

Mann suggested that Kobach still would be involving Kansas in frivolous and expensive lawsuits and promised to focus on the office's everyday work such as public safety and consumer protection.

Mann became a police officer in the late 1990s in the northeastern Kansas city of Lawrence, but an on-duty accident involving a drunken driver ended his career in uniform after only a few years. He then went to law school and worked as a prosecutor in Kansas City, Kansas, and as a state securities regulator before starting a private practice. He also served on the national board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna. Follow the APs coverage of the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play.
LONDON (AP)  Diamond tycoon Nirav Modi on Wednesday lost an appeal of a British court's ruling that he should be extradited from the U.K. to India to face allegations he was involved in a $1.8 billion bank fraud.

Two High Court judges upheld a lower court's ruling that the fugitive jeweler has a case to answer before Indian courts and that it would not be unjust or oppressive for British authorities to send him to India.

Modis lawyers said the tycoon experienced depression and argued his mental health put him at risk of suicide if he were extradited.

Judges Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Robert Jay said they were far from satisfied that Mr. Modis mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him.

The judges criticized the lower court for approving extradition last year without seeking assurances that Modi would be humanely treated in India, calling the decision bold to the point of being unwise. But they said Indian authorities had now promised that Modi, 51, would receive suitable medical provision.

Modi denies the fraud allegations and could try to challenge Wednesday's ruling at the U.K. Supreme Court.

Indian authorities have sought Modi since February 2018, when they alleged companies he controlled defrauded the state-owned Punjab National Bank by using fake financial documents to get loans to buy and import jewels.

He was detained in London in 2019 and has since been held without bail in prison.

The son of a diamond merchant, Modi built an international jewelry empire that stretched from India to New York and Hong Kong. Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra became the face of his eponymous brand and Hollywood actress Naomi Watts appeared with Modi at the opening of his first U.S. boutique in 2015.

Forbes magazine estimated Modis wealth at $1.8 billion in 2017, but he was removed from the publications billionaires list after the fraud allegations.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Minnesota's attorney general race was running close early Wednesday between Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison and Republican challenger Jim Schultz, a political newcomer who tries to blame Ellison for rising crime.

Schultz, a 37-year-old hedge fund attorney with no courtroom experience, was seeking to become the first Republican to win Minnesota's attorney general race since 1966.

Ellison, who burst on the national scene as the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006, left that safe seat behind for his first run as attorney general in 2018, saying it was his best chance to push back against the policies of Donald Trump. Ellison just squeaked into office, and his progressive policies have made him a polarizing figure in the eyes of some voters.

Ellison led the prosecution team that won a conviction of former police Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's killing, and obtained guilty pleas from other officers. He also stepped in to prosecute a suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a Black motorist, Daunte Wright, in the midst of Chauvin's trial. Ellison said his office had successfully prosecuted 50 serious crimes, and contrasted that with Schultz's lack of courtroom experience.

Schultz made crime his top issue. He accused Ellison of being at the forefront of the defund the police movement that arose from Floyds death in Minneapolis, and he promised to shift the offices attorneys away from their traditional duties of consumer and labor protection into a major expansion of the criminal division. He also accused Ellison of doing too little to stop a massive scheme that federal prosecutors say stole at least $250 million from a program to feed children during the pandemic.

Ellison supported a failed Minneapolis ballot measure in 2020 that would have replaced the citys police department with a vaguely defined public safety department. But he maintained that he never supported defunding police, just reforming law enforcement. And he accused Schultz of misstating the role of the attorney generals office in fighting violent crime, pointing out that it can only take over a criminal case at the request of the local county attorney or the governor.

After the Supreme Court overturned the Roe legal precedent that guaranteed a national right to abortion, Ellison made the issue central to his campaign. He vowed to use his office to defend abortion rights, and reminded voters that Schultz had vowed to go on offense, offense, offense against abortion when he was trying to win the GOP nomination.

Schultz tried to avoid talking about abortion.

Im pro-life and Im not ashamed of that, he said, but accused Ellison of using the issue as a distraction.

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
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russia's military said Wednesday it will withdraw from the only Ukrainian regional capital it captured, but Kyiv was skeptical and an analyst warned this could be a ruse to lure the country's forces into a deadly trap. A forced pullout from the city of Kherson would mark one of Russias worst setbacks in the 8-month-old war.

Ukrainian authorities cautioned against considering the announced plan to retreat from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and nearby areas as a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.

If confirmed, the withdrawal from Kherson  in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed in September  would pile on another setback to Russia's early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic and hasty retreat from the administrative region around Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, which itself never fell to the Russians. Russian forces captured Kherson early in the invasion, which began Feb. 24.

Kyiv's forces have zeroed in on the city, whose prewar population was 280,000, and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops out of wide swaths of territory.

Recapturing Kherson could allow Ukraine to win back lost territory in the Zaporizhzhia region and other southern areas, including Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to raise domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.

Speaking in a stern tone and with a steely face on Russian TV, Moscow's top military commander in Ukraine pointed to a blurred map as he reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be futile.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin said that 115,000 people had been relocated because their lives are constantly in danger and proposed a military retreat in the near future to the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from where Kherson lies.

Shoigu agreed with Surovikins assessment and ordered him to start with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.

But Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press: So far, we do not see any signs that Russia is completely leaving the city, which means that these statements may be disinformation.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, Khersons Ukrainian-appointed governor, called on residents not to give in to euphoria just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces had blown up five bridges to slow Kyivs forces.

Military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP Russias announced retreat could very well be an ambush and a Russian trap to force the Ukrainians to go on the offensive, force them to penetrate the Russian defenses, and in response to strike with a powerful blow from the flanks.

After a day of his aides' observations about the announced retreat and a meeting he held with his senior military staff in Kyiv, Zelenskyy didn't directly comment, saying in his nightly video address, Our emotions must be restrained  always during war. I will definitely not feed the enemy all the details of our operations. ,.. When we have our result, everyone will see it.

In addition to the largely successful counteroffensive, Ukrainian resistance fighters behind the front line have worked inside Kherson, with sabotage and assassinations of Moscow-appointed officials.

With no indication of foul play but against that backdrop, reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. The death of Kirill Stremousov  a prominent regional official who posted public updates about the war almost daily  was confirmed by his boss, Vladimir Saldo.

The Russian Defense Ministry said months ago that Saldo himself had been poisoned and hospitalized.

Speaking at a White House news conference, U.S. President Joe Biden said American officials had been expecting the Russian announcement. Its evidence of the fact that they have some real problems  the Russian military, he said.

Asked if a pullout might signal to Kyiv that it now had leverage to begin peace talks with Moscow, Biden said it would at a minimum lead to time for everyone to recalibrate their positions over the winter period.

The Russian military appeared to have been preparing for an orderly pullout from Kherson  or an ambush  for months, contrasting with the haphazard retreat from the Kharkiv region when the invading force left behind a large amount of weapons and ammunition.

In October, Surovikin appeared to set the stage for a withdrawal from Kherson, acknowledging the situation was quite difficult." Evacuations of civilians followed, as did symbolic moves, such as relocation of the remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.

The attacks disrupted supply links to Kherson and made Russian forces on the Dnieper's west bank vulnerable to encirclement. The shortages were exacerbated after an Oct. 8 truck bomb blew up part of the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russias mainland to Crimea, which has served as a major supply hub for Russian forces.

Russia wanted to hold onto Kherson and other positions west of the Dnieper so it could press an offensive to other areas and sever Ukraines access to the Black Sea. That would damage Ukraines economy and enable Moscow to build a land corridor to the separatist Transnistria region of Moldova, home to a major Russian military base.

The loss of Kherson could have painful consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin: more criticism of Russias military command from hawks, a decline in troop morale, and stronger opposition to his troop mobilization. Abroad, China and India could see the loss as a sign of the Kremlins weakness just when it needs their support to soften the blow of crippling Western sanctions.

Other Kremlin setbacks have included a chaotic and mistake-ridden troop mobilization, poor training and a shortage of weapons, clothing and other supplies for troops, increase in international sanctions, and intensified Western advanced weapons supplies to Kyiv.

Fresh signs of Ukraine's advance toward Kherson emerged Wednesday. Zhdanov, the analyst, said Ukrainians captured the city of Snihurivka, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kherson, opening a direct road to a Dnieper River crossing and Kherson's suburbs. The Ukrainian Pravda news outlet cited Ukrainian armed forces intelligence as claiming that two other settlements in the Kherson region, Pravdyne and Kalynivske, had been captured,

None of the reports could be independently confirmed.

Nationwide, at least nine civilians were killed and 24 wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian president's office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the southeast.

The president's office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraines energy system continued. Two cities not far from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant  Europes largest  were shelled overnight.

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Positive signs seen in China, Australia ties

By ZHAO JIA (China Daily) 09:52, November 09, 2022

The Chinese and Australian national flags in Sydney, Australia, on Sept 8, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

China and Australia pledged on Tuesday to properly address each other's concerns and make steady efforts to improve their relationship, as positive signs have emerged in improving bilateral ties.

During a phone call with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia is willing to properly deal with concrete issues between the two countries in a responsible manner and make steady efforts to improve and strengthen its ties with China.

As sound Australia-China ties are not contradictory to safeguarding each other's national interests, she said Canberra does not intend to magnify existing disputes.

Bilateral ties have been strained over various issues concerning trade disputes, human rights and geopolitics as some political forces in Australia have viewed China as a rival, not a partner.

While pledging continuous commitment to the one-China policy, the Australian foreign minister said Canberra is ready to develop more stable and mutually beneficial relations with Beijing based on mutual respect.

Positive changes have taken place in bilateral ties through unremitting efforts, Wong said, adding that the two countries have maintained effective communication and engagement in recent times.

Signs of resetting bilateral ties have emerged since Australia's new government took office in May. Prior to the call, the two foreign ministers met in person in July and September. The defense ministers of the two countries have also held talks.

Wang called on the two countries to rebuild mutual trust, gradually address each other's legitimate concerns to put ties back on the right track and positively contribute to tackling current global challenges.

Noting the two sides' shared interests far outweigh their differences, Wang said the detente and improvement of China-Australia relations conform to the fundamental interests of both countries, and meet the common expectations of the two peoples and the international community.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Australia. The positive progress in bilateral relations is encouraging, said Chinese Consul-General in Brisbane Ruan Zongze in an article published in The Global Times, adding that important consensus reached during high-level exchanges is of great significance to the next phase of the development of bilateral ties.

Ruan said the experience from history is that the two countries will both gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.

Lin Duo, research fellow of China Institute of International Studies' Department for Asia-Pacific Studies, urged Australia to get rid of the Cold War mentality, discard confrontational postures against China and stop misinterpreting China's rise as so-called threats.

"Instead of jumping on Washington's bandwagon of containing Beijing, Canberra should form an independent and consistent China policy as soon as possible to recover bilateral ties," said Lin.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday that she does not expect the U.S. midterm election to weaken Washington's support for Ukraine given the bipartisan backing for Kyiv since Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke after she visited a UNICEF center in Warsaw that has become a hub for Ukrainian refugee children and their mothers, offering educational support and therapy.

She said her talks with government and Warsaw city officials included making contingency plans in case the coming winter and power outages create another large exodus of Ukrainians to Poland and other frontline states.

She also expressed gratitude to the people of Poland and the government for the enormous help they have provided to Ukrainians, many of whom fled to Poland and have remained there.

A day earlier she was in Ukraine, where she announced that the U.S., through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing an additional $25 million to support vulnerable people in Ukraine during the harsh winter. She said she met with people in a community center who could not return to their homes because of Russias horrible attacks on the power and water infrastructure.

Asked by a reporter about the impact the U.S. election Tuesday might have on U.S. support for Kyiv, she replied: I havent given that any thought other than the fact that our support for Ukraine has been bipartisan so I dont see that the elections will have an impact on that support."

I know that the president will continue to work with Congress to get the support that Ukraine needs until Russias unprovoked attacks on Ukraine are brought to an end, she said.

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Gov. Tony Evers defeated Republican Tim Michels to keep battleground Wisconsin under a Democratic governor heading into the 2024 presidential election, declaring in his victory speech Wednesday that his win showed that voters wanted to protect democracy.

Evers had argued that democracy was on the ballot with Michels, who was endorsed by Donald Trump and who cast doubt on Joe Bidens 2020 presidential win in Wisconsin. Michels favored disbanding the states bipartisan elections commission and had promised to sign bills vetoed by Evers that would make it harder to vote absentee.

Evers. in his victory speech, told his supporters he was jazzed as hell by the outcome of the race. Holy mackerel folks, how about that? he said.

Evers also noted that he is frequently described as boring, but said: As it turns out, boring wins.

Evers said his victory was a win for reproductive rights, public schools, clean energy and continuing to invest in the states infrastructure.

You showed up because you saw our democracy was on the brink of existence and you decided to do a damn thing about it, he said.

Evers victory stood to guarantee that Democrats would still have a check on Republican power in the Legislature, as GOP attempts of winning enough seats to have a veto-proof supermajority looked to be unsuccessful.

Evers frequently touted the more than 120 vetoes he issued to block Republican legislation in his first term, including bills that would have broadened gun rights, made it harder to get an abortion and tougher to cast absentee ballots.

Michels, a multimillionaire who co-owns the state's largest construction company with his brothers, spent at least $16 million of his own money on the contest, which was the most expensive governor's race in state history.

Unfortunately, the math doesnt add up, Michels said when announcing to his supporters that he had called Evers and conceded. He said he hoped that issues of concern he had identified in the state would be addressed.

It wasnt our night tonight, he said.

Evers won thanks to strong Democratic turnout in the capital of Madison, while Michels did not do as well as he needed to make up the difference in more Republican parts of the state.

Wisconsin voters are sharply divided over Evers job performance, with roughly half saying they approve and an equal proportion disapproving. according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,200 voters in the state.

About a third of voters said they strongly disapprove of the governor, while about a quarter strongly approve.

But among voters who said they supported their candidate enthusiastically, roughly 6 in 10 backed Evers, while about 4 in 10 expressed the same level of support for Michels.

Roughly half of Wisconsin voters say the economy is the most pressing issue facing the country.

Michels, who won a tough primary after getting Trump's endorsement, initially refused to commit to accepting the results of the election before saying in late October he would certainly accept the outcome. Michels also has said maybe the 2020 election lost by Trump was stolen, even though Biden's win has survived numerous lawsuits, reviews and recounts.

Michels tried to make the race largely about the economy, education, crime and public safety, arguing that Evers allowed too many prison inmates to be paroled and failed to act decisively to quell violent protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha in 2020.

Michels also faulted Evers response to the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that schools and businesses were shuttered too long and that Evers has failed to improve educational results. Michels supports making everyone eligible to attend private schools using taxpayer-funded vouchers, a program that Evers, the former state schools chief, opposes. Michels also wants to cut income taxes to a nearly flat rate of around 5%.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Evers tried to make the race a referendum on abortion. Michels supported the states 1849 abortion ban in the Republican primary, but after his win he changed positions and said he would sign a bill creating exceptions for rape and incest. Evers said he would not sign such a bill if it left the underlying ban in place.

Al Drifka, 65, a retired manufacturing executive voting in the northern Milwaukee suburb of Cedarburg, split his ticket in the state's top two races  voting for GOP Sen. Ron Johnson in that race but going for Evers as governor.

I think the state of Wisconsin is in a good position right now, Drifka said. And I didn't hear a lot of substance from Michels on what he was actually going to do.

Evers won in 2018 by a little more than a percentage point, and he held a 3-point lead based on preliminary results this year. Evers became the first Wisconsin governor in 32 years who was the same party as the sitting president to win reelection in a midterm.

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.
NABLUS, West Bank (AP)  Two Palestinians were killed in separate encounters with Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as tensions rise sharply in what has been the deadliest year in the occupied territory since 2006.

A 15-year-old Palestinian died early Wednesday following an Israeli raid into the northern city of Nablus, Palestinian health officials reported, as the army accompanied right-wing Israeli lawmakers to a flash point shrine. The army said it was protecting worshippers and fired on a suspect who had planted an explosive device, which detonated.

Palestinian health officials said Mahdi Hashash was killed by Israeli fire. Pictures from the hospital showed his body was also shredded by shrapnel from the blast.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces fatally shot a 29-year-old Palestinian man in Anin, west of the city of Jenin, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli army said soldiers spotted him vandalizing the separation barrier that cuts through the West Bank and opened fire to make him stop. The army said soldiers provided medical treatment at the scene. The Palestinian Red Crescent evacuated him to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Israel has repeatedly come under criticism for its use of excessive force against unarmed Palestinians.

The recent wave of violence in the West Bank has concentrated on the cities of Nablus and Jenin. In Nablus, residents said the army stormed the city early Wednesday  setting up checkpoints and stationing snipers on rooftops. They said Palestinians set tires alight and protested the army's incursion with stones and gunfire. A branch of the militant group Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade identified Hashash, the teenager who was killed, as a member.

The army said it was in Nablus to escort Jewish worshippers to the site known as the biblical Joseph's Tomb, as security forces do several times a year in coordination with Palestinian security forces.

Footage showed right-wing Israeli lawmakers, mostly allies and members of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party that prevailed in last week's general election, participating in an event at the derelict shrine on the outskirts of the Palestinian city.

An Israeli drone was downed during the clashes, the army said, without elaborating. The army also said it arrested a dozen Palestinians across the West Bank, the latest of near-nightly arrest raids that have fueled unrest in the occupied territory after a wave of Palestinian attacks killed 19 Israelis last spring.

Intensified Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has also killed some 130 Palestinians this year, making it the deadliest since 2006, according to Israeli rights group BTselem.

Israel says the raids are needed to dismantle militant networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so.

The Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces and are aimed at cementing Israels open-ended 55-year-old occupation of lands they want for their hoped-for state. Hundreds of Palestinians have been rounded up in such raids, with many placed in so-called administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold them without trial or charge.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

The violence has continued against the backdrop of an Israeli election that saw Netanyahu emerge victorious last week with the support of an ultranationalist, far-right party that says it hopes to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank.
DES MOINES -- Iowa Republicans at the top of the ballot won in all but a handful of counties Tuesday night, while support for Democrats was concentrated mostly in urban areas.

Democrat Mike Franken won a majority of votes in just five counties in his unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Sen Chuck Grassley: Johnson, Story, Polk, Linn and Black Hawk. Franken held Grassley to his closest margin since his first election and performed better than Grassleys last opponent, Patty Judge, who won only Johnson County in 2016.

Grassley won 56% of the vote as of Wednesday with nearly all precincts reporting, while Franken won 44%.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate ordered a recount of votes in Des Moines and Warren Counties because of technical problems early Wednesday morning, but early returns showed Grassley ahead in both counties. All results are unofficial pending a canvass of votes.

Franken ran ahead by close to 43 percentage points in Johnson County, 14 points in Story County and 13 points in Polk County. Larger counties where Grassley bested Franken included Scott, where he won by 4 percentage points, Dallas, where he won by 6 points, and Woodbury, where he won by 27 points.

Meanwhile, Gov. Kim Reynolds pulled in 58% of the vote, winning one more county than Grassley. She picked up about 51% of support in Black Hawk County, flipping it and six other counties she lost in 2018. Democrat Deidre DeJear, who won nearly 40% of the statewide vote, won Johnson, Story, Polk and Linn Counties.

DeJears showing was behind the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2018, Fred Hubbell, who won 48% of the vote that year. Hubbell won a majority of votes in Lee, Des Moines, Jefferson, Dubuque, Black Hawk, Clinton and Scott, in addition to the four DeJear won this year.

DeJear also underperformed Franken in the counties she won: She had a margin of 40 percentage points in Johnson, 10 points in Story, 8 points in Polk, and 5 points in Linn.

Frankens success compared to DeJear could be chalked up to concerns among Iowans about granting Grassley an eighth term and Frankens quality as a candidate, political science professors said. In an October Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, Grassleys approval rating hit an all-time low, with only 44% of Iowans saying they approve of the job hes doing in the Senate. By contrast, 53% of Iowans in the poll approved of Reynolds job as governor.

I wonder if theres that lingering feeling among Republicans or independents who would have supported Grassley consistently over the years, that maybe his time is up, Grinnell College Political Science Professor Barbara Trish said.

Libertarian Rick Stewart got 2.4% of the reported votes for governor, meaning the Libertarian Party is on track to regain its major party status in Iowa. By state law, if a candidate for a non-party political organization gets more than 2% of the vote in a general election, that organization becomes a legally recognized political party. The Libertarians recently gained party status in 2016 but lost it two years later in 2018.

Urban-rural split

The results suggest a continuation of the urban-rural divide that is playing out across the U.S., as well as the move of Iowas eastern Mississippi River counties to the Republican Party, experts said.

Democrats are all packed into a couple of counties, by and large, University of Iowa Political Science Professor Tim Hagle said. At least in terms of where theyve got the voter strength. Obviously, there are Democrats everywhere as well as no-party voters and Republicans.

But in addition to rural areas, some of the larger counties in the eastern part of the state, like Scott and Dubuque, also look to be gaining Republican support.

Paul Hemmer, a spokesperson for the Dubuque County Republicans, credited Republican wins this year to a group of dedicated local candidates. He also said local voters support Reynolds and Grassleys stance on COVID-19 and economic policies.

They worked together, they knocked on doors, thousands of doors, he said of the countys local candidates. Attended social events throughout the community, they appeared in numerous parades.

Bret Nilles, chair of the Linn County Democrats, said in order to win in the future, Democrats need to figure out how to message to rural voters and counter some of the gains Republicans have made in rural areas.

Weve got to find a way to get our message out, and find a way to communicate it, he said. So people in the rural counties are hearing that, just to be able to mitigate some of the people that are voting consistently Republican.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Republicans strengthened their hold over Iowa politics in Tuesday's election by maintaining big majorities in the legislature and winning races for statewide offices, including attorney general and treasurer.

As expected, Gov. Kim Reynolds was reelected by a wide margin, but Republican candidates for other statewide offices also performed well, including in races for attorney general and treasurer. Democrats had held those offices for decades and usually were elected by wide margins.

Vote counting was continuing in some counties, so final counts could change slightly.

Republican lawyer Brenna Bird will be Iowa's next attorney general after she beat Democrat Tom Miller. He was the nations longest-serving state attorney general, having held the office since 1978 except for a four-year break beginning in 1990 when he unsuccessfully ran for governor. He returned in 1994 and had remained since.

It's a great job, a great office," Miller said Tuesday night. You can use the law to serve the interests of ordinary Iowans and you can be an independent attorney general.

Reynolds had been a strong supporter of Bird, saying she wanted my own" attorney general.

Miller declined to represent Reynolds in abortion cases and has disagreed with other Reynolds policy choices. Miller also joined other attorneys general in challenging former President Donald Trump on immigration policy and other issues, which angered Iowa Republicans who approved a law stripping his office of many of its powers. Reynolds agreed to veto the law if Miller promised not to join such multi-state lawsuits without her approval.

Bird served as a staff lawyer for Reynolds predecessor, former Gov. Terry Branstad, and was chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Steve King, a former western Iowa congressman who was sidelined by his own party for racist comments and then defeated in a primary in 2020.

In her victory speech, Bird credited her win to support from numerous law enforcement officers and agencies.

We back the blue here in Iowa dont we? Bird said. And tonight our success was due to the law enforcement support that we had.

Republican Iowa Sen. Roby Smith beat Democratic Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, who was the nation's longest serving state treasurer. He was first elected in 1982.

Smith, was best known for his efforts in recent years to help write legislation to tighten voting laws in the state, including reducing the early voting period and cutting the times polls are open on Election Day.

Democrats have argued that Iowa has no history of voting fraud and that the laws make it harder for people to vote. Republicans say the tougher rules will guard against fraud and are needed to restore trust in the election system.

Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig also were reelected.

Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand was narrowly leading Republican Todd Halbur in his effort to serve a second term. The Associated Press has not called a winner in the race.

Votes were still being counted after Pate told election officials in Des Moines and Warren counties to call an emergency meeting with their county supervisors to begin administrative recounts of precincts that had not fully reported results. Pate's office declined to give details about the reason for the recount.

The secretary of states office is still investigating what happened. When that information is complete we will release our findings, said spokesman Kevin Hall.

In the Legislature, it appears Republicans may pick up a few seats to expand their 60-40 margin over Democrats in the House.

In the 50-seat Iowa Senate, Republicans expanded their majority to 34 seats, giving the GOP a supermajority. That will enable Republicans to confirm Reynolds' appointments to state agencies, boards and commissions without Democratic interference. The last time Republicans held more than 34 seats was 1973.

Tuesday's election had the state's second-highest midterm election turnout, with more than 1.22 million voters. It trailed only the 2018, when about 1.3 million people voted.
SIOUX FALLS  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem defeated a Democratic state lawmaker on Tuesday to win reelection, leaning heavily on her handling of the coronavirus pandemic in a first term marked by positioning herself for a possible White House bid in 2024.

The Republican governor eased past state Rep. Jamie Smith after raising more than $15 million via a nationwide fundraising network. Noem has said she would serve a full four-year term if reelected, but she generated speculation about higher political ambitions by becoming a fixture in conservative media and making appearances in key 2024 states. Her fundraising haul was a historic amount of money for a South Dakota gubernatorial candidate.

Noems campaign centered largely on her handling of the states economy as well as her record of forgoing most government mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 50-year-old Republican vaulted to national prominence within the GOP during her first term after deriding those government mandates.

One of her first priorities for her second term will be delivering on a campaign promise to repeal the states tax on groceries. On the campaign trail, Noem cast the tax repeal as a way to deliver quick relief to family budgets squeezed by inflation. But in the Legislature, she will have to convince a Republican-controlled Senate that the state government can go without a tax that annually brings in roughly $100 million.

Campaign season got off to a rocky start for Noem as she came under the scrutiny of a state ethics board. In August, the board found evidence that Noem had interfered with a state agency to aid her daughter's real estate appraiser licensure. The board also asked the state's Division of Criminal Investigation to probe her use of the state's airplane, but the prosecutor overseeing the investigation said last month it found nothing to support a criminal prosecution.

The governor has portrayed the complaints as political retribution from former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who filed them as he faced pressure from Noem to resign over his conduct surrounding a fatal car crash with a pedestrian in 2020.

Betty Ammann, a Republican voter, said she was grateful that South Dakota went without many government mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. She voted for Noem.

I just think she's looking out for the best for our state, Ammann, a nurse, said.

Smith criticized Noems out-of-state travels as a sign she is more focused on her personal ambition rather than the job at home. He cast himself as a moderate, focused on the states practical needs and touted a record of bipartisanship as the Democratic leader in the House.

Pat Kraning, a retired school superintendent and registered Republican, declined to say how he voted Tuesday. But he said he felt South Dakotans voices and local concerns were getting drowned out amid an uproar over nationalized issues, especially in education. Noem has focused on removing certain teachings on race from public schools and universities, though critics say that topics associated with frameworks like critical race theory are rarely an issue in schools.

It seems like weve spent a great deal of time in South Dakota discussing national issues which I dont know if theyre necessarily relevant day to day, Kraning said.

But Smith struggled to raise enough money to compete with Noem. She hit him with ad after ad that labeled him an extreme liberal in an effort to peel away moderate voters  a group Smith needs to win over.

Republicans have nearly twice as many registered voters in South Dakota as Democrats, and in some places  including the state's most populated county, Minnehaha  registered Democrats have slipped behind even independents.

Democrats have not won the governor's office since the 1970s.

After Smith voted early Tuesday, he said he was encouraged to see a line at his regular polling place.

I just want a really good voter turnout across the state, he said. The more people that vote the better it is for the state of South Dakota. Also, I think it helps my campaign.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  Republicans U.S. Sen. James Lankford and U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin both coasted to election victory on Tuesday, with Mullin poised to become the first Native American in the U.S. Senate in nearly 20 years.

In an unusual twist this election cycle, both of Oklahomas U.S. Senate seats were on the ballot. U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe shook up the state's political scene by announcing this year that he planned to step down before his term was finished.

In the race for Inhofes seat, Mullin, 45, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, faced former Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn, 46, an Oklahoma City attorney who in 2018 ousted a two-term GOP incumbent from a seat that had been in Republican hands for four decades.

But winning a congressional seat in an increasingly diverse and progressive city is different than winning a statewide race in Oklahoma, where Republicans now make up more than 50% of registered voters, compared to less than 30% for Democrats. Most polls showed Mullin winning comfortably over Horn, Libertarian Robert Murphy and independent Ray Woods.

Kendra Horn had an opportunity to do something for our state, and she didn't," said Jessica Perez, 46, of Oklahoma City, who cast her vote for Mullin Tuesday at Oklahoma Christian University.

Mullin will become the first Native American in the U.S. Senate since former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado left the Senate in 2005, according to U.S. Senate records.

In Oklahoma's other U.S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Lankford, 54, fended off a challenge from political newcomer Madison Horn, 32, a cybersecurity industry professional who is not related to Kendra Horn, along with Libertarian Kenneth Blevins and independent Michael Delaney.

Lankford, who received some criticism for seeking to delay certification of President Joe Biden's election victory in 2020, faced a feisty primary challenge from a Tulsa pastor who criticized Lankford for not fully embracing the falsehood that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.
Police in Oklahoma say the suspect in the killings of four people at a marijuana farm has been arrested in South Florida. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says in an evening post on Facebook that Wu Chen was taken into custody without incident Tuesday afternoon by officers with the Miami Beach Police Department. It adds that the arrest came after a car tag reader flagged vehicle he was driving, and says he was taken to the Miami-Dade County Detention Center. Police say the man will be charged with murder and shooting with intent to kill and will face extradition to Oklahoma.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won reelection to a fourth term Tuesday and will return to a Senate where he is seen as a potential future majority leader.

The 61-year-old Republican held a large fundraising advantage over Democrat Brian Bengs, an Air Force veteran and university professor. Thune is the second-ranking Senate Republican and is seen as a potential pick to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell once he steps down from leadership.

The most dramatic moment of the campaign for Thune came before it began, when he contemplated retiring rather than running for reelection. He had shown signs of weariness after navigating a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump, who at one point called for a primary challenger to unseat him.

Once he chose to run, Thune easily fended off a pair of primary challengers in June and has ridden out the campaign season in the heavily Republican state by avoiding most engagements with Bengs.

The quiet election year allowed Thune to amass over $17 million in campaign funds  money that could help line up allies if he moves to become Senate leader.

Only one South Dakota politician has won a fourth Senate term  Republican Sen. Karl Mundt, who held a seat from the 1950s to the 1970s. After voting early Tuesday, Thune said he was hopeful he would match Mundt's historic run.

He added that he was confident the GOP would gain a Senate majority after Tuesday's midterm elections.

I think the momentum has shifted in the right direction, he told The Associated Press. We feel really good about where the races are.

Follow the APs coverage of the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play.
SIOUX FALLS  Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won reelection to a fourth term Tuesday and will return to a Senate where he is seen as a potential future majority leader.
First Gen Z Member of Congress: Maxwell Alejandro Frost

Floridas 10th District

Newly elected Democratic House Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost is just 25 years old, making the activist-turned-politician just old enough to be a member of Congress at all. He will be the first of Generation Z to join the chamber. He represents a generation thats politically engaged and willing to push the establishmenteven in bright red Florida. His victory party was broadcast on TikTokit shows the new member of the House blasting Alright by Kendrick Lamar.

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First Elected* Female Governor of Massachusetts and First Openly Lesbian Governor of Any State: Maura Healey

Maura Healey is breaking all kinds of records tonight. She held a consistent lead in the polls and now has decisively won, earning more than 50 percent of the vote. Healeys Republican opponent Geoff Diehl was endorsed by Donald Trump. Meanwhile Healey has been fighting the former president for years: When she was serving as Attorney General of the state, she joined the lawsuit against the Trump Administrations Muslim travel ban.

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First Lesbian Governor of Oregon: Tina Kotek

Progressive Democrat Tina Kotek quickly joined Massachusetts Maura Healey to double the number of openly lesbian governors currently in office. She came through in an incredibly competitive race, facing not one but two challengers backed by billionaire Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

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First Black Governor of Maryland: Wes Moore

Wes Moore is a veteran, best selling author, Rhodes scholar, former White House Fellow, and now the first Black man to be governor of Maryland. Oh, and he was endorsed by Oprah. The 44-year-old won the governorship after Republican Larry Hogan held the seat for eight years, and he defeated Trumped-endorsed Dan Coxwho tried to avoid the fact that the far-right neo-fascist Proud Boys had supported his candidacy.

First South Asian Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: Aruna Miller

Aruna Miller will join newly elected Maryland Governor Wes Moore as his deputy, serving as the first woman of color to be the states Lieutenant Governor and the first South Asian woman to serve that position in the history of American politics. Miller immigrated to the U.S. from India when she was 7 years old and went on to devote her life to public serviceworking 25 years with Marylands Department of Transportation before serving eight years in the Maryland House of Delegates..

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First Native American Senator of Oklahoma: Markwayne Mullin

Republican Markwayne Mullin is now the first Native American of the Cherokee Nation to serve as a U.S. senator in almost 100 years the last one being Democrat Robert Owen who was elected in 1907. Mullin was serving as Oklahomas House Rep. and voters Tuesday night promoted him to senator with an impressive 62 percent of the vote. Mullin joins a group of only six other Native Americans currently serving in Congress.

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First Black Attorney General of Massachusetts: Andrea Campbell

Democrat Andrea Campbell has become the first Black woman to become Massachusetts top law enforcement officer and only the third woman to hold the job of Attorney General in the state. This isnt Campbells first time breaking ceilings: In 2015 she became the first woman to represent District 4 on the Boston City Council and just a few years later in 2018 was unanimously elected City Council Presidentalso the first Black woman to hold that title.

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First Elected Female Governor of New York: Kathy Hochul

Though shes been serving the remainder of disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomos term since last year, Democrat Kathy Hochul has won her first race against Republican Lee Zeldin. That makes her the first woman elected as governor in New York, despite having an unexpectedly tight race against Zeldin that prompted President Joe Biden to campaign with her. She managed to cinch over 50 percent of New Yorks vote.

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First Muslim State Senator: Ruwa Romman

Georgias 97th District

Ruwa Romman ran on a progressive platform endorsed by Stacey Abrams national voting rights group Fair Fight and she won a historic race. Romman becomes the first Muslim woman ever elected to the Georgia State House. She was born in Jordan, and moved to Georgia at 7-years-old. Shes worked at countless advocacy groups and can now add elected official to her resume.

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First Black Woman House Representative of Pennsylvania: Summer Lee

The Squad has earned another member: Democrat Summer Lee. She just won a Pittsburgh congressional seat making her the first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania. Shes a lawyer and former labor organizer endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and not new to setting records. In 2018, she was elected to Pennsylvanias State House taking on a 20-year incumbent and winning 67 percent of the vote.

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First Black and Youngest Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Austin Davis

John Fetterman isnt the only Democrat making history in Pennsylvania: 33-year-old Austin Davis has also achieved a milestone by becoming the youngest and first Black lieutenant governor that state has ever had. He became Josh Shapiros second in command last night and its not his first foray into politicshe successfully ran for Pennsylvanias state House of Representatives in 2018, and still holds the seat today.

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First Black Woman Elected Secretary of State of California: Shirley Weber

Shirley Weber had been serving as Californias Secretary of State since last year to fill a vacancy left by Sen. Alex Padilla. On Tuesday, she became the first Black woman to be elected in California to that position. Weber is a veteran in California politics, spending 20 years in various public service roles including state Assembly Member and member and chair of the San Diego Unified School District. Her educational background is just as impressiveshe earned three degrees at the University of California Los Angeles, including her Ph.D. at only 26-years-old.

Well keep updating this post as we get more results.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was supposed to have spoken much earlier in the night on Tuesday. The presumed speaker-in-waiting was hoping that the call that Republicans had clinched the House majority would come at a reasonable hour for news networks to pick up. How hard could it be?

When McCarthy did speak, at 1:57 a.m., he couldnt even say that Republicans had won the majority. Instead, he offered a promise that by the time people woke up, Republicans would have done it. This premature declaration of victory is in keeping with grand recent Republican tradition. Unlike in 2020, though, the GOP may still yet pull this one out.

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As of that moment, the GOP was still favored to retake the House majority. Control of the Senate, too, is up in the air, with the one key race called as a flip being the Pennsylvania Senate contest, a pickup for John Fetterman and the Democrats.

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The GOP waveto the shock of Democrats predisposed to expect the worst and Republicans who expected to surf the favorable fundamentalsdid not materialize. In fact, it could be the weakest midterm result for an out-of-power party since the 2002 election, when Republicans rode George W. Bushs post-9/11 coattails to rare pickups.

Huh.

One of the fastest states to tally votes proved to be Republicans high-water mark early in the night. Republicans ripped through Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis coasted to a 20-point reelection, with Sen. Marco Rubio running not far behind him in his own reelection. Republicans rode DeSantis gerrymander of the state to a pickup of several House seats. Democrats problems in South Florida worsened, with both DeSantis and Rubio outright winning Miami-Dade County.

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But that was more a sign of the continued, sharp reddening of Florida than a national Republican overperformance.

As more states rolled in, it was clear Republicans would not have the night of their dreams. Democrats kept 2 of the 3 Virginia House seats they were monitoring as potential defections in a red wave. They held a crucial Rhode Island House seat that Republicans had targeted. Democrats won 5 of Ohios 15 districts, when they feared they might win only two under Republicans gerrymandered map. Democrats would go on to hold toss-ups in reddening South Texas, both of New Hampshires House seats, and knock off one of Donald Trumps prized recruits in North Carolina. By the time McCarthy spoke to say that Republicans would win, in fact, there was still a chance that Nancy Pelosi might retain the speakers gavel.

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Still, Republicans remained the slim favorites. Democrats weakest performance on the East Coast appeared to be in New York, where Republicans are looking at several pickups after state courts tossed New York Democrats proposed gerrymander early in the year. Chief among those threatened Democrats is Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of Democrats campaign arm, who had moved himself to a safer district only to find that it may not have been safe enough.

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In the Senate, the outer perimeter of races Republicans thought they might have a chance at winning under wavelike conditionsColorado, New Hampshire, and Washingtonwerent even close. Republican J.D. Vance did win in Ohio, and Republican Rep. Ted Budd defeated Cheri Beasley in North Carolina. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson was narrowly but consistently leading over Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, a hold the Republicans will ultimately need if they have any shot at taking the Senate.

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The biggest Senate call late Tuesday night came, again, in Pennsylvania, where Fettermanwritten off by many after his debate performance in Octoberdefeated Mehmet Oz. Because of that flip, in order to take control of the Senate, Republicans must win two of the Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia Senate races. Georgia appeared headed to a runoff, and Nevada could take days to determine a winner. Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was leading Blake Masters late Tuesday night, but the margin was expected to get closer.

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Democratic governors won reelection in three crucial swing states that could be determinative in a 2024 presidential raceWisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvaniaand took back control in Maryland and Massachusetts after eight years of Republican governors. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul held off a much-discussed challenge from Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin. In ruby-red Kansas, even incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was hanging on to a slim 2-point lead over Republican challenger Derek Schmidt at the end of the night.

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Huh.

As I type, talking points months in the works are being shredded. Republicans had been certain of a major night, in line with their midterm blowouts of 2010 and 2014, in the way someone is certain theyll soon end up in a pool when they begin down a waterslide. Democrats, meanwhile, had been preparing for another round of the blame game and ritual sparring between mushy moderates and vulgar progressives about who was to blame for the collapse of their coalition.

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We dont yet know why things went a different way, but a number of statewide ballot measuresincluding in red statesappeared headed for defeat for those seeking to codify abortion bans. As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also predicted this summer, the partys Senate odds seemed weighed down by a number of Trump-backed challengers with candidate quality issues, as he so gingerly put it.

Whatever the reason for Tuesdays outcomesand however the remaining races gothere will be weeks to figure out just why Democrats clearly outperformed the fundamentals, their own expectations, and everyone elses. Well see if Republicans are in the mood to do any of their own soul-searching. Though if McCarthys a guide, they may just take another victory lap.
While were still waiting on some results, its clear by now that the midterms of President Joe Bidens first term were not the red wave many pundits were expecting. In fact, when you look at Michiganone of the countrys most important swing statesyou could even make the case that the elections spawned a few miniature blue waves.

There was a lot at stake in the Mitten. Some of the politicians there whod gained national profiles as the potential future of the Democratic Party, especially Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, were facing tough reelection challenges going into Tuesday. There were important ballot proposals to codify voting and abortion rights in the state constitution. Donald Trump was braying about voter fraud in Detroit, and vigilantes appeared ready to act as poll watchers. And no matter who or what won out, the states Republican Party was likely to use its dominance in the state Legislature to further obstruct the Whitmer administration, whose members have all had to deal with violent threats from a radicalized citizenry.

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In other words, the entire states future was riding on these elections. And, perhaps shockingly, theyre looking great for the Midwests embattled liberals.

Lets start with the topline results: With nearly 90 percent of the vote counted, Gretchen Whitmer comfortably won against her opponent, former right-wing TV host and horror-film actor Tudor Dixon, by 10 points. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate congresswoman whod come to power during the 2018 Trump backlash and whose district was redrawn this year to encompass some more conservative regions, ultimately beat her GOP challenger by 5 points. The proposals to enshrine voting rights and abortion access in state law each won out by double digits. The 3rd Congressional District, where Democratic meddling in the GOP primary forced out Trump objector Peter Meijer in favor of a Trump stan, flipped in favor of Dems by 13 pointsa remarkable result for a longtime GOP stronghold. Meanwhile, endangered Rep. Dan Kildee also held onto his redistricted seat in the 8th, ensuring that the bulk of the states delegation in the House of Representatives will be Democratic. Now, heres the really wild result: Down the ballot, Democrats are also poised to win full control of the state Legislature for the first time since 1984. Itll also be the first time the party has enjoyed total control of the state in four decades. Democratic wins trickled down even to elections for institutions like the University of Michigans Board of Regents.

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Its much, much too soon to figure out whether this portends a long-term blue tilt for the swing state. Michigan is still ground zero for 2020 election deniers, book bans, library defunding, segregation, and school board wars. Plus, perpetual Republican hopeful John James has finally pulled it off in the 10th District. But theres a lot of good news here for Midwestern libs and progressives, who can fairly view these victories as vindication of the issues they banked on. Big Gretch Whitmer has become a national star for her infrastructure policy (fix the damn roads) and COVID responsebut most importantly, shes really hammered on the importance of abortion in Michigan. After Roe v. Wade fell, she filed a motion to block a 1931 state abortion-ban law that had been nullified by Roe but was still on the books. Then, a successful petition paved the way for Proposal 3, a ballot measure guaranteeing the right to an abortion in the state. That helped to drive record turnout across the Mitten and Upper Peninsula, although it also probably didnt hurt that TikTok star Big Gretch is also popular with Michigans young votersand even its rappers.

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There are signs other Dems are benefiting from similar messaging savvy. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who went viral for an impassioned speech railing against the GOPs homophobic rhetoric, has been firmly reelected to a bluer statehouse. Then there was Elissa Slotkins battle to hold on to her redder district, potentially made all the harder by her opposition to Trump from the first impeachment onward. But she didnt back away from thisif anything, she doubled down, even earning Liz Cheneys endorsement and getting her to join the campaign trail. (Incidentally, they met in front of Nate Silvers old hangout, East Lansing High School.) She was the first Dem the junior Cheney had ever endorsed, giving Slotkin a bipartisan sheen while also making clear she wouldnt tolerate extreme Trumpism. (Meanwhile, Slotkins opponent brought along Mike Pence.) The Donald may have won the state in 2016, but Bidens 2020 victory and Slotkins continued success prove Michigan is not a Trump state. (Remember, also, that multiple Michigan RepublicansJustin Amash, Peter Meijer, Fred Upton, Ed McBroomwere among the few Trump dissenters within their party.)

Big national figures, progressive policy thats been popularly approved to become state law, whispered plans of repealing the states notorious 2012 right-to-work lawfor all we know, Michigan may carry the future of the Democratic Party in the palm of its, um, hand.
Tuesday nights story was about the surprisingly strong Democratic performance almost everywhere except Florida and the New York City metro area. Progressives won; moderates won; mostly everyone won (except people running against Ron DeSantis). But with votes still being counted in much of the West, a lot is still unclear. Lets review the known unknowns!

We dont know 

 Who controls the House. Thanks in part to a resurgence of Republicanism in the New York suburbs, the New York Times vaunted election needle currently favors Republicans pretty strongly to take the House of Representatives. But theyre not expected to have a wide majority13 seats, the needle predicts at the momentand its not entirely out of the question that a strong Dem performance on the West Coast could mean the chamber doesnt flip. But counting is slow out there because of their laid-back and chilled-out way of life. (Or maybe its just their heavy use of mail-in ballots, which can be postmarked up until the day of the electionwhos to say?)

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 Who controls the Senate. Yes, that would be the other big one, huh? Democrats are considered likely to hold on there because Maggie Hassan was reelected in New Hampshire, John Fetterman flipped the seat of the retiring Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, and Mark Kelly is looking good against Blake Masters in Arizona. In Nevada, though, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto may or may not get enough mail-in votes to take the lead back from Republican Adam Laxalt. Also, Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock appear to be headed for a runoff in Georgia. If Democrats win one of those races, they maintain a 5050 majority in the chamber on the basis of Vice President Kamala Harriss tiebreaking vote. If they win both, its 5149. If they win neither, Mitch McConnell is the majority leader again.

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 Who won the Los Angeles mayors race. One of the potential sub-narratives that could emerge from the election is that Democrats appear to have done quite well in the heartlandperhaps buoyed by the youth vote, abortion rights, and the MAGA extremeness of GOP candidates in those statesbut not as well in the coastal suburbs where theyd previously made gains in the Trump era. Republican candidates in those areas campaigned on crime and homelessness issuesa strategy perhaps best exemplified by a non-Republican, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, who ran as a conservative Dem against party mainstreamer Karen Bass. (Californias primary-runoff system allows Democrats to face one another in general elections.) Caruso currently leads  but with only 14 percent of votes counted, as of publication time.

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 Whether prominent members of the House in each party suffered extra-embarrassing defeats. New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney was the chair of Democrats national House efforts. Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert was one of the leaders of the Republicans 2020 class of provocative Trump supporters. Both are currently losing their races, albeit with votes left to be counted. [Update, Nov. 9, 11 a.m.: Maloney has conceded.]

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 Whether a stolen election Republican takes the governorship in Arizona. The continuity of the democratic process won key victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where voters selected Democratic candidates who are not going to cause a constitutional crisis if their partys presidential candidate loses the state in 2024. In Nevada, Republican Joe Lombardo, who is at least not an outright 2020 election denier, has a narrow lead. But in Arizona, super-MAGA TV anchor Kari Lakewhos basically made her entire campaign about election fraudis still in it against Democrat Katie Hobbs, with more than 30 percent of ballots still to be counted.

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 Whether Montana protects certain abortion rights. For several election cycles now, liberal ballot initiatives like raising the minimum wage and restoring voting rights to convicted felons have done well, even in states where conservative candidates otherwise did well. That trend appears to have continued, with Nebraska voters approving a $15 minimum wage and Kentucky voters shooting down a proposal that would have declared that the state does not protect the right to an abortion. In Montana, though, an initiative that would impose criminal penalties on medical providers under circumstances that its advocates believe constitute abortion has yet to be called.

Thats it. Everything else in American politics has been settled definitively. Happy poll watching!
Tuesday was a good day for stoners in Maryland and Missouri, as voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana in both places. The two states, which had already legalized medical use, join 19 other states (and D.C.) in making recreational use legal.

In Maryland, theres a bit of a transitional period (which the Associated Press runs through here). Adult recreational marijuana use will not be legal officially until July 1, 2023, pending the General Assembly passing laws about how to appropriately distribute, regulate, and tax the plant. The Washington Post also notes that effective July 1, adults can grow up to two cannabis plants in their home, out of the public view.

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Past marijuana charges in Maryland will also be expunged, thanks to a companion bill passed in the spring that included a provision to automatically expunge all cases in which possession was the sole charge. It will also allow individuals incarcerated for possession to petition for resentencing. At the time, many local politicians criticized the bill, emphasizing it would do little to nothing to prevent and reduce racial disparities and arrests in marijuana possession.

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Meanwhile, in Missouri, its less clear when Amendment 3 will go into effect, but dont expect a quick turnaround. Like in Maryland, the law allows expungement for certain marijuana offenses, and anyone currently incarcerated can petition to be resentenced. The ballot measure had its fair share of critics. State Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove, a Democrat from Kansas City, campaigned against the amendment, arguing that it picks and chooses whose charges are expunged and that the process will not be universal. Pro-Choice Missouri, the Missouri NAACP, and St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones had spoken out against the measure.

Bud was on the ballot in three other states. Voters in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Arkansas said no to the drug.

In other news, Coloradans voted on the decriminalization and regulation of psychedelic mushrooms. Its still too close to callwith 80 percent of votes counted as of writing, decriminalization leads 51-49 percent. Colorado would be the second state after Oregon to do so. One could say the state is leaning [looks up the color of magic mushrooms] brown?
This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

Putin is losing the war he started against Ukraine. Russia still holds Ukrainian territory, but Ukraines forces are advancing. With Russia mostly on the defensive, its forces are behaving brutally but also erratically: Not only are they targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, theyre also threatening nuclear escalation and then backing away, and pulling out ofand then coming back intothe Black Sea grain-export deal.

Ukraines victory is no sure thing. The battle lines could stabilize for the winter. Putin could keep pounding Ukrainian civilians, hoping that fatigue will overtake Ukraine and that Western support for Ukraine will crumble.

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But Ukraines battlefield success is possible, and its not far-fetched.

In this context, intensified calls for the West to initiate negotiations to end Putins war on essentially his terms seem oddly timedand potentially dangerous.

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Yet, such calls are increasing. Advocates of pushing negotiations argue, more or less, that Ukraine cannot win back all or even most of its territory, that Putin would respond constructively to good faith offers, and that U.S. and European interests in Ukraine are limited. They argue that these interests do not include restoring all of Ukraines territory back to Ukrainian control, and that the costs of supporting Ukraine and the dangers of the conflicts escalation outweigh what limited interests the United States and Europe do have.

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All three assumptions are dubious.

We dont know how far the Ukrainian military can advance. But so far in this war, Ukraines military has performed betterand Russias military worsethan almost all predictions in the West. Ukraine stands a good chance of liberating more territory, including, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the western side of the Dnieper River, even the city of Kherson, which Russian forces have controlled since March.

Defeat at Kherson could lead to more Russian defeats, and Russias overall military position in Ukraine could unravel. At some point, Russians dissatisfaction at high casualties in an unsuccessful war could boil over, as it has before in Russian history, e.g., in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, or in 1917 after Russia lost to Germany in World War I.

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Of course, Russias military position in Ukraine may not collapse. But the United States and European partners should not forestall the possibility, even likelihood, of more Ukrainian military success by insisting on a cease-fire in place or by assuming that its impossible for Ukraine to, for example, liberate the Donbas or even Crimea.

Furthermore, by pushing negotiations now, the United States would risk falling into a dynamic of undercutting Ukraines strong position on the ground by becoming the supplicant (demandeur, in diplo speak).

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Advocates of initiating diplomacy now usually start with an assumption that Ukraine must accept the loss of lots of territory and millions of its citizens. How would such a negotiating dynamic work? Dmitry Peskov, Putins veteran spokesperson, recently hinted that the Kremlin could negotiate adjustments to the borders that Russia has now claimed for itself. Should the Biden administration quietly offer Russia a map with a new border? Less crudely, should the United States simply hint that it would encourage Ukraine to be realistic about its future border? Will some in the West use a track two unofficial process to produce a new boundary, publicly revealed or simply given quietly to the State Department?

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Heres the rub: U.S. acceptance of any idea that Ukraines international border is negotiable would constitute acceptance of one of Putins premises in the war. Having made such a massive concession at the outset, Putin would hardly respond with grace; rather, he would stand back and demand more. Negotiations would take place on Putins terms, with the Biden administration reduced to haggling over the details of its surrender of its friend and its principles.

What would Ukraine receive in return? Russian guarantees of its new border? What would such guarantees be worth? Would they be stronger than those of the previous Russian-Ukrainian border agreement or than the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which Russia, along with the U.S. and U.K., agreed to respect Ukraines territorial integrity? The surrender of Ukrainian territory would be a fact. Russias guarantees would be conditional and reversible on Putins whim. Would the United States or NATO offer to defend what was left of Ukraine, a la South Korea or Cold War-era West Germany? If the United States surrenders its position about Ukraines territorial integrity while the Ukrainians are still advancing, such an offer would be hard to imagine.

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No one can say yet whether Ukraine can liberate all its territory. The Biden administration has wisely noted that its military assistance to Ukraine is intended to put that country in the strongest position when negotiations take place, should they take place. The more territory Ukraine can liberate prior to negotiations, the better.

The Washington Post has reported that the Biden administration is encouraging the Ukrainian government not to rule out negotiations with Putin, a stance that raised concern (and ire) among some supporters of Ukraine in the United States. Even if accurate, however, the article makes clear that the administration has made this suggestion neither to push negotiations now nor to push Ukraine into territorial concessions. Rather, it seems to want to Ukraine to hold open the door to negotiations, partly or even largely to demonstrate that Ukraine is not the obstacle to ending the conflict.

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But willingness to negotiate doesnt mean accepting bad terms for negotiations. And the presumption of Ukrainian territorial concessions would be a terrible starting point for talks. Ukraines government and people know, as we in the West should know, that Russian occupation means oppression and death for many, many Ukrainians, with mass graves, deportation, kidnapping of children, and eradication of Ukrainian culture part of the Kremlin playbook. Its Stalins playbook in the 21st century.

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Given the consequences of abandoning its citizens to Russian control and the possibility to liberate more of them, Ukrainians are making a reasonable choice to keep fighting. The West is making a reasonable choice to keep helping Ukrainians defend their country and stop a 21st century tyrant. The starting point for negotiations should be the terms for restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty and withdrawal of Russian forces.

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Advocates of negotiations on Putins terms, many of whom call themselves foreign policy realists, seem to believe that U.S. and European interests in Ukraine are limited and that Russias interests are so much greater that Putin will prevail or escalate to make the costs of Russias defeat too high for the United States to accept. They thus argue that the United States should not align itself with the Ukrainian government but prepare to break with it when the costs and risks of U.S. support grow too great.

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History suggests two objections to that argument: First, the risks of escalation are not as great as fear would make them. The Kremlin has threatened nuclear escalation and many in the West worried about the dangers. But the United States and European governments pushed back and, it seems, the Kremlin backed down. The United States learned during the pre-detente period of the Cold War to deal with Moscows nuclear threats without caving. It can relearn those lessons. The costs of giving in to nuclear blackmail, whether from Russia, North Korea, China, or Iran, would be high as well.

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More broadly, deferring to Russias assertion of its interests in Ukraine recalls the assumption of Cold War realists, widely accepted at the time, that all of Europe east of the Iron Curtain was within a more or less permanent Soviet sphere of influence; that Soviet interests in what we then called Eastern Europe were so much greater than those of the United States that challenging Soviet domination was too risky and impossible. Yet, Poles, Balts, Czechoslovaks, Hungarians, and others overthrew Communist domination starting in 1989. They did so (mostly) peacefully, even when hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers were stationed in then-East Germany.

The situations in Eastern Europe then and Ukraine now are not analogous. Ukraine is not a suppressed nation struggling for freedom against Moscow-supported tyrants. Thats roughly the position of Belarus. Ukraine is free and fighting to stay so. The United States and Europe are helping it to preserve the principles of the settlement that ended the Cold War and offered Europe a chance at unity. Given the history and the stakes, it seems not just immoral but contrary to U.S. interests to abandon Ukraine to a Russian sphere of influence imposed through war and setting the precedent for more such wars of conquest by Moscow, Beijing, and other aggressive governments.

It seems instead the more realistic course to seek to help the Ukrainians defeat the Russians. Negotiations should reflect that goal as much as possible. In foreign policy, interests do not always align well with values, especially in the short run. In Ukraine, they do.

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The demise of progressives may have been greatly exaggerated. During primary season, it became something akin to gospel that progressives were in retreat, as Democratic moderates rode a wave of super PAC money to a number of primary wins. But even early in the night on Nov. 8, progressives had already secured themselves a full class of newcomerswinning high-profile House races with Floridas Maxwell Frost, Illinois Delia Ramirez, Texas Greg Casar, and Pennsylvanias Summer Lee. In the past two cycles, progressives had four big triumphs each time: Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib were elected in 2018; Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Marie Newman, and Cori Bush in 2020. If you want to stretch out the Squad moniker for a third election cycle, we have a new Squad 2022.

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Those four races all came in true-blue districts, although none of them was a true certainty, especially in an electoral environment in which Republicans claimed they were competitive basically everywhere. The year 2021 marked the first time that the Congressional Progressive Caucus counted a larger membership than the moderate New Democratic Caucus. The addition of four new members will grow their ranks even further. Despite major efforts by various outside spending groups to move the Democratic Party to the right during primary season, the leftward push continues.

Frost, Ramirez, Casar, and Lee all fit the demographic profile of Squads of yore. All four are nonwhite; all four are under 40. All four are champions of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, adding four formidable advocates to those top-billed progressive priorities.

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Frost, now the youngest member of Congress at just 25 years old, is perhaps the best-known member of the group. A March for Our Lives anti-gun activist, Frost takes over the seat from former Orlando police chief Val Demings, who stepped down for an ill-fated Senate run against Marco Rubio. Demings was frequently on the conservative side of the Democratic caucus; she once teamed up with Republicans to sponsor a Blue Lives Matter bill.

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Lee, who won a district in the Pittsburgh area, also had something of a national profile, if only because of the fierce opposition her candidacy brought from national groups. Redistricting made Pennsylvanias 12th District less blue than it had been prior, and the race was complicated further by the fact that the Republican candidate, Mike Doyle, shares a name with the retiring incumbent, Democrat Mike Doyle. But the biggest story was the astonishing amount of super PAC spending that Lees opponents pulled in. The American Israel Public Affairs committee, via the United Democracy Project PAC, put millions into the Democratic primary to dog Lee, and failed. Then they put in another million in the general to oppose her, and failed again.

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Casar, formerly an Austin, Texas, city council member, won a newly drawn seat opened up by redistricting. Much has been made of Democrats collapse in support with Latinos, and Casar, a Texas Latino, serves as a powerful rejoinder to that trend. His campaign also made the tactical decision to sidestep hot-button issues on Israel in order to avoid the deluge of super PAC spending that Lee sustained.

Perhaps the least prominent of the bunch, going into the election, was Ramirez, who spent the past four years in the Illinois state House. The race drew little national attention and little outside spending, as Ramirez cruised through her primary race. Now shell represent the newly drawn Chicago-area 3rd District, a plurality Latino district. In the process, she becomes the first Midwestern Latina elected to Congress.

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Progressives didnt stop there. The victory of Chris Deluzio, a onetime Bernie Sanders delegate, in Pennsylvanias 17th District, is at least as big a triumph as the aforementioned victories. PA-17 was, until recently, held by Conor Lamb, one of the furthest-right members of the Democratic House caucus. He left the seat for a doomed primary campaign against eventual Senate winner John Fetterman. Vermonts Becca Balint, a Sanders endorsee and a champion of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, won her race as well. Jasmine Crockett, in Texas, is another progressive notable.

There are a number of other races that could prove consequential for progressives but are still to be decided. In Oregons 5th District, Jamie McLeod-Skinner would be a huge pickup for progressives in a true toss-up district, one that was forecasted to be won by Republicans. If McLeod-Skinner can pull it out, that would represent one of the biggest swing district triumphs for progressives nationwide. That may be a long shot, but it would be a cherry on top of a delightful night for the left flank of the Democratic Party.

Perhaps most importantly, progressives are not being blamed for the collapse of the Democratic Party nationallyespecially after Biden embraced a number of progressive policies in his first two years in office. Thats an outcome the whole party, in all its ideological factions, can enjoy.
Democrats had a surprisingly good election night on Tuesday. They held on to a number of critical Senate seats, won key gubernatorial races, and, shockingly still, had a slight avenue to hold on to control of the House of Representatives, despite historic headwinds and virtually no margin for error. Still, Republicans are currently forecast to win control of the House by a small margin, carrying the chamber by one to 10 seats. If that projection holds, it will be no overstatement to say that the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court took control of the House of Representatives for Republicans.

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The reason is simple: In February, by a 54 vote, SCOTUS suspended the Voting Rights Acts ban on racial gerrymandering. For decades, the VRA prohibited states from drawing congressional maps that dilute the votes of racial minorities by depriving them of a fair opportunity to elect their preferred representatives. Sensing an ally in the judiciary, red states brazenly violated this principle during the latest round of redistricting. In states like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas, Republican lawmakers packed racial minorities into as few districts as possible. These lawmakers then carved up remaining minority communities, distributing them throughout majority-white districts.

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This tactic is the exact kind of racial gerrymandering that the VRA was designed to prevent, and the courts have consistently blocked racial gerrymanders from happening every cycle. The only question was whether the Supreme Court, with its newly confirmed far-right Supermajority, would actually enforce the VRAs previous guarantees.

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An early test came when voting rights advocates filed a lawsuit against Alabamas new congressional map, which packed most Black residents into a single, sprawling district, then sprinkled the rest throughout overwhelmingly white districts. Again: Its hard to think of a clearer example of illegal racist redistricting. The map was so egregious that a three-judge district court with two Donald Trump appointees struck it down in January, writing a meticulous 225-page opinion rigorously applying the VRA. (The case is called Merrill v. Milligan.) Alabama promptly asked the Supreme Court to halt the decision.

On Feb. 7, by a 54 vote, SCOTUS agreed, issuing a stay that ensured the gerrymandered map would remain in effect for the midterms. The majority did not offer a single sentence of explanation or analysis. Even Chief Justice John Roberts, an avowed foe of the VRA, felt compelled to dissent, noting that the district court properly applied existing law in an extensive opinion with no apparent errors for our correction. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, insisted that it was simply too close to the election for a court to change the map. (At that point, the Alabama primary was more than three months away, and the general election was nine months away.) This claim significantly expanded the Purcell principle, which cautions against federal courts changing voting rules on the eve of an election.

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Milligan had a sweeping impact. A federal judge in Georgia found that the state had drawn a similar racial gerrymander, but it declined to impose new maps, explaining that Milligan implied courts had to wait until after the midterms. A three-judge district court refused to block Texas new congressional map, which reduced Black and Latino representation, even though the Black and Latino populations grew substantially over the previous decade. A federal judge in South Carolina similarly slow-walked a suit over the states racial gerrymander of its congressional districts. And when a federal judge dared to invalidate Louisianas racial gerrymander, the Supreme Court reinstated itjust in case its intervention in Milligan wasnt clear enough.

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Because voting remains racially polarized in these states, the elimination of districts with a large population of racial minorities means the elimination of Democratic districts. Thats why carving up Black, Hispanic, and Native communities is a time-honored strategy for diluting an opposing partys support, a practice of Jim Crowera Democrats that has since become a go-to move for Republicans. Its impossible to know exactly how many seats Democrats would have won if the judiciary had actually enforced the VRA. But its possible to estimate, based on the courts analysis of the existing map and alternative models. Democrats lost one seat in Alabama and Louisiana, one to two seats in Georgia, and at least two seats in Florida and Texas. They also lost any real chance of competing in South Carolinas first congressional district. Under a conservative estimate, then, the Supreme Courts suspension of the VRA lost Democrats seven seats. However, given the partys strong showing on Tuesday (except in Florida), eight to 10 seats is a more realistic estimate.

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Given that Republicans margin of victoryin the likely event that they hold onmay well be seven or fewer seats, it appears that SCOTUS has handed the party control of the House.

There are, of course, more places to point the finger. Most notably, New Yorks highest courtstacked with Andrew Cuomos conservative appointeesimposed a Republican gerrymander that gave GOP candidates five or more seats than they would have won under the Legislatures original map (which was, in fairness, an extreme Democratic gerrymander). Floridas Supreme Court also deserves special blame for failing to enforce not just the VRA but also its state constitution, which voters amended in 2010 to strictly forbid racial and partisan gerrymandering, beyond what federal law requires.

But these decisions only illustrate the broader point: Conservative courts, from SCOTUS to state judges, played a critical role in potentially dragging the GOPan unpopular party that would clearly lose in fairly contested electionsover the finish line. They bolstered the partys chances in a largely dismal night for Republicans, likely making the difference between a win and a loss in the House. The 2022 midterms confirmed a new reality about American congressional elections: Whoever controls the courts could well choose the winners.
It is at least theoretically possible that they were simply sitting at the wrong kitchen tables.

They told us the Dobbs effect was a mirage, that women were no longer energized around reproductive rights, that the messaging was all wrong, and that perhaps abortion was neither an economic issue nor much of a kitchen table issue after all. Or, at minimum, that one poll suggested as much, and that was sufficient reason to move on to the cost of gas, and crime. They told us, implicitly, that women were fickle and inconstant voters, and not to be counted on; that it was all a mirage, and that what happened this summer in Kansas and Alaska and Michigan and in the New York special election were all one-offs. All of them.

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Keep women, and young voters, and voters of color, out of your modeling about rational self-interest, and you will keep being surprised. In each of the five crucial state initiatives that implicate reproductive rights under state law, abortion rights won. Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont overwhelmingly opted to enshrine Roe in their state constitutions Tuesday night, as did ruby-red Kentucky, where abortion has been illegal since Dobbs came down in June. Montana, the fifth state to put abortion on the ballot, with a legislative referendum over its born alive law, which criminalizes health care providers who fail to keep newborns without a chance of survival alive for as long as possible, also appears to be headed for defeat, per the New York Times.

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When the Supreme Court took away reproductive freedom from over 50 percent of the electorate with Dobbs, we were told that if we didnt like it, we should go ahead and vote on it. Exit polls revealed that this is precisely what transpired. Exit polling from Reuters showed that 1 in 4 voters said abortion was their top issue and that about 6 out of 10 voters said they were dissatisfied or angry about Dobbs. Pew Research reported that 61 percent of Americans think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Efforts to go even further beyond what was laid out in the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization rulingto protect personhood and to restrict birth control and to monitor miscarriagesappeal to only a tiny fragment of the population.

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Anti-choice activists in Michigan tried to say it was all too confusingand it was designed to be, by their side, actuallybut nobody seems to have been all that confused. Instead, when everyone decided that women were over it, they forgot that Dobbs is barely even in its second trimester, and that is often when were only just beginning to feel the kicking.

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None of this should diminish the concern at the number of rabid anti-choice Republicans who were voted into office this weekpeople like Ron DeSantis and J.D. Vance, who dont care at all about bodily autonomy and dignity for women. And over everything else looms the promise that if the GOP wins control of the House or Senate, the likelihood of a nationwide abortion restriction or ban is coming next. As election experts continue to point out, gerrymandered districts and the Supreme Court are the other big story this week, and that is a story that continues to undermine the will of the voters nationwide.

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But and still. If women showed up for Democrats, motivated at least in part by new and visceral fears about their privacy and equality and dignity and bodily autonomy, it will mean that Republicans advocating for ever more draconian incursions into matters that include birth control and interstate travel should have another think. You can suppress and gerrymander and intimidate voters, and still they will come for you, if the ideas you stand for are anathema to any meaningful definition of liberty. Women were told unequivocally in June that their right to privacytheir right to family autonomy and bodily integritywas not enshrined in the United States Constitution. So, they organized and connected and worked to protect it in their own state constitutions.

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I heard from women who spent the entire summer postcarding and phone banking and registering voters post-Dobbs, and most of them never doubted for a moment that they were invisible to pollsters and pundits and journalism as it is currently practiced. The spiraling story about who cared about what didnt stop them. Bless them, every one.

For the voters who didnt normalize or integrate or move on from Dobbs or from the contempt with which women were treated by the Supreme Court this summer, the midterms will now serve as a reminder that you can be an afterthought to Samuel Alito, and an afterthought to the pollsters and pundits, and still be a force of nature. That isnt the only lesson of these midterms, but its certainly a central one.
Update, Nov. 9, 2022, at 4:32 p.m.: Binance has reportedly dropped its bid to acquire FTX, citing a due diligence review that revealed FTXs mishandled customer funds and alleged U.S. agency investigations. The issues are beyond our control or ability to help, Binance told the Wall Street Journal.

Not long agolike, just a few days agoprominent cryptocurrency exchange FTX was considered maybe the key power broker in the digital-money space. It had high-profile celebrity endorsements; its name graced both a chess tournament and the Miami Heats stadium; it regularly swooped in to try to bail out troubled crypto firms; and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, has become one of Washingtons most important donors and lobbyists. Well, at least until he suddenly halted his political donations last month (and retracted an offer to back Elon Musks Twitter takeover).

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Perhaps that should have been a bigger warning signbecause were now at Election Day, and FTX and its chief suddenly dont look so deep-pocketed after all. Tuesday morningfollowing reports that 1) FTXs in-house token was crashing in value; 2) users were withdrawing their investments from the company en masse; and 3) all of this was dragging down the value of major cryptocurrencies like ETHthe worlds largest crypto exchange, Binance, announced that it was planning to fully acquire FTX.com. Binances CEO, Changpeng CZ Zhao, tweeted that FTX had asked for our help due to a significant liquidity crunch; Bankman-Fried appeared to confirm this in a separate thread. Now, the entire crypto market is going haywire, and maxis are running wild with speculation about whats happening. Its definitely all pretty weird, considering that Bankman-Fried dismissed concerns about FTXs balance sheets as false rumors in a since-deleted tweet only a day agoand now may lose about 94 percent of his multibillion-dollar fortune.

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This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire https://t.co/BGtFlCmLXB and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days.  CZ  Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022

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So: WTF is going on with FTX, crypto CEOs SBF and CZ, and the entire crypto space? Who just poured cold water on this alphabet soup? Will crypto face an existential crisis for the fourth time this year? Its time for yet another crypto-crisis explainer from yours truly!

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Tell me how we got here.

So, FTX and Binance are among the worlds largest crypto exchanges. Millions of traders around the world use these platforms to trade their holdings of digital assets like Bitcoin or NFTs. Users can also trade these exchanges in-house tokensFTT and BNB, respectivelywhich can grant them special trading benefits and, in essence, represent their faith in the exchanges. Both companies are also headed by crypto celebrities: Bankman-Fried gained fame in the late 2010s as a proponent of the philosophies of effective altruism and longtermism, both highly popular within Silicon Valley, while Zhao started off as an early blockchain developer who became one of the worlds richest billionaires thanks in part to his Bitcoin dedication.

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For a while, the two exchanges were considered rivals in the fight to dominate crypto. Though theyre far from the spaces only major players, both Binance and FTX had unique strengths in the market: The former boasts massive global trading volume, far surpassing other exchanges, while the latter has enjoyed record-breaking investment rounds and become one of the United States most culturally and politically omnipresent crypto brands. Both FTX and Binance also appeared to weather this years crypto travails relatively well. It may seem ironic, then, that when FTX launched, in late 2019, Binance was one of its first major investors, taking an equity stake plus a long position on FTT. Bankman-Fried told Bloomberg at the time that Binances total investment amounted to tens of millions; Changpeng Zhao considered it a strategic investment to support multiple initiatives to grow the [crypto] industry.

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But trouble began back in March 2020, when Binance stopped allowing FTT trades on its platforms because its users did not understand the products and were not making appropriate use of the token, the crypto site Cointelegraph reported. The following year, Bankman-Fried bought out all of Binances shares in FTX, citing the regulatory crackdowns that were hitting Binance in countries like the United Kingdom, Italy, and its home base of Japan. But, SBF reassured observers, the companies split was cordial.

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Yet, this month, things went sideways once again. On Sunday, Zhao revealed that in selling off Binances equity share in FTX, his company earned back about $2.1 billion as denominated in Binance and FTT tokensand that he was planning to liquidate Binances remaining FTT holdings.

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As part of Binances exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion USD equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books. 1/4  CZ  Binance (@cz_binance) November 6, 2022

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Uhhhhh-huh. But  why?

In his first Twitter thread, Zhao didnt get into specifics, vaguely citing recent revelations that have came to light. He clarified that this was not a move against a competitor, but he did mention in a different tweet that we wont support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs.

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Observers reasoned that the cited revelations referred to findings from a Nov. 2 article by crypto publication CoinDesk, which got ahold of a leaked balance sheet from one of Bankman-Frieds separate ventures, the crypto trading firm Alameda Research. CoinDesk had revealed that a large share of Alamedas reported assets (which totaled about $14.6 billion) were made up of FTT tokens. That is, Alameda didnt hold many of its assets in fiat currency or in a widely traded digital currency like Bitcoinbut in an illiquid token thats controlled by the other company run by Bankman-Fried. Whats more, the FTT holdings amounted to the equivalent of about $6.1 billion in Alameda assets, which is odd, considering that FTXs own website stated that there were only about $5.1 billion worth of FTT in total circulation.

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This, combined with Zhaos announcement, fueled rumors that FTX was actually financially insolvent. Bankman-Fried personally addressed the rumors, calling them unfounded, while another Alameda employee tweeted that the balance sheet presented an incomplete snapshot of the companys finances. On Monday, as crypto-world chatter intensified, Zhao took to Twitter to debunk speculation that this was an elaborate conspiracy from Binance to undermine FTX, and Bankman-Fried insisted that FTX is fine. Assets are fine.

Im assuming the assets were not fine.

Indeed, and thats why were here today. Tuesday morning saw the threads from both Zhao and Bankman-Fried, all but cementing that FTXs value was actually a wash and FTT was propping up way more than it was supposed to. So, as crypto traders confirmed their worst assumptions about Bankman-Frieds businesses, the value of FTT crashed; Solana, another currency backed by FTX and shown to make up for a significant portion of Alamedas balance sheet, also lost about a quarter of its value.

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FTX users then began withdrawing their trades from the exchange at a rapid paceand as they removed their holdings of coins like Bitcoin and ETH, the respective value of those currencies also plunged. As a result, the values of a single Bitcoin and ETH coin fell by about 11 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Bitcoin, the worlds most popular cryptocurrency, had already been trading at historically low levels following Mays crypto crash, so this was yet another gut punch it didnt really want. Other major crypto-trading companies, like Coinbase and Robinhood, also plunged in market capitalization. (Bankman-Fried notably has a 7.6 percent stake in Robinhood.) Crypto journalists compared the brouhaha with Junes crypto tribulations, which also came about due to irregularities concerning a single crypto exchanges in-house token (and which too had links to Bankman-Frieds crypto businesses).

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So, was FTX lying about its actual worth?

We dont know for sure, but to boil down a very complex event to a simple theory: The values of many cryptocurrencies come from investor confidence and collective speculation from traders, whether they all congregate on a single blockchain or invest their digital holdings in certain exchanges. Its in Bankman-Frieds monetary interest to keep FTX users happy, to assure them that their virtual money is safe and retains value, and to make sure they trust FTX to give them a solid return on investment; functionally, crypto exchanges tend to operate a lot like your standard banks. I suspect that once the worlds largest crypto exchange essentially gave FTX a no-confidence vote, and once other major cryptocurrencies started to collapse, Bankman-Fried would have realized that the only thing left to do was give his customers the money they wanted from FTXs cofferswhich he had promised them through FTXs advertised yields. And that meant securing a bailout, at a price tag much lower than the company may have liked.

What happens now?

Its worth noting, as Bankman-Fried wrote in his Tuesday thread, that the U.S. branches of both Binance and FTX are currently unaffected by the broader company issues, which mainly affect international traders. Both exchanges have separate American branches that are based stateside and adhere to unique American crypto regulations and financial laws. But American FTX traders may be wary of Bankman-Frieds imprimatur now. Maybe its not quite time to invest in GameStop again, guys.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Thousands poised to resign as union representatives say demands not met.

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Thousands of doctors remain poised to quit their jobs after rejecting proposals from the government which they say fail to address their demands over pay and working conditions.

Union representatives said a government memorandum on joint action to improve the healthcare sector, delivered to them on Monday, met only four out of eight demands doctors had made.

A total of 2,173 doctors - approximately a quarter of all doctors in state hospitals -have handed in notices of resignation, most of which will take effect in December.

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"The memorandum does not indicate the government's will to come to an agreement. It is only vague promises for the future," Peter Visolajsky, the Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) chairman, said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Sme daily.

Only half of demands met
https://sputniknews.com/20221108/election-night-in-america-omar-navarro-talks-latest-bid-against-longtime-democrat-maxine-waters-1103914904.html

Election Night in America: Omar Navarro Talks Latest Bid Against Longtime Democrat Maxine Waters

Election Night in America: Omar Navarro Talks Latest Bid Against Longtime Democrat Maxine Waters

Ahead of the results of the highly-anticipated US midterm election, Omar Navarro, a Republican candidate for the seat of California's 43rd congressional... 08.11.2022, Sputnik International

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2022 us midterms

q&a

omar navarro

california

us house of representatives

maxine waters

election

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Sputnik: You are running against Democrat Representative Maxine Waters. How do you evaluate your chances this year?Like every year, I've been putting in work. The last time I ran against her, we put out a big team of people walking door to door. I think that's where its at, its at the grassroots level, going from city to city in the district and telling people what I offer differently than her. I think the difference is that Maxine Waters has been in office for so long and she has not delivered for so long. The people in my district want something different and they want something better for the district. We don't need someone that's going to tell homeless people to go home, people that don't have a home  people that need a home! Of course, you would think that a person that gets several billion dollars to allocate it towards the homeless in Los Angeles is going to do something for them, but actually doesn't, actually creates more problems by pouring money into a problem that really needs a solution.In the last seven years, the LA Times reported that there are 70,000 more homeless in Los Angeles County alone. So, the homeless population has gone up. Those are numbers that have been reported by statistics and numbers. But obviously, it could be much higher than that, it could be even double, up to 120,000 people that are homeless in Los Angeles. But it has to do a lot with the lack of employment, the lack of programs that are available to the people that are homeless. Because you have a population, obviously, that is driven by drug problems, mental health, lack of jobs, like I just mentioned right now  I think those are the three core issues. And then there are just people that choose to live this way, which goes back to the mental health, because those go hand in hand with each other.And I think that's where the directed problem is at that we need to pay attention to. Because, if you keep ignoring this issue, especially in a highly populated area like downtown Los Angeles, South LA, you're going to have a lot more people out there that are going to get in front of businesses. And what happens when a business sees homeless people right in front of them? I mean, I don't think anyone wants to do business knowing that they have thousands of homeless right outside their business daily. And it's a very dangerous situation to be in.I think that we need to bring back some balance to this  not just the state of California, but on a federal level, where we can help people on a local level and affect them in a way where it impacts their communities and it changes them for the better. If I was in Congress, what I would do is I would support anything that would obviously benefit my district back at home. And I would be voting, obviously a voting member, not only in my district, but I'll be impacting the whole country on these decisions that congressmen make, not just impact their district, but everyone in the whole country. I would obviously oppose many tax increases, because there's too many of them.Weve spent too much money, money that we don't even have! Sputnik: How have public sentiments changed since 2020?There's a lot of people on the Republican side that feel that the 2020 election was stolen. They feel that there was something that went down that was insidious and that their vote does not count. And that's where my concern is, right there  because there's a lot of people in this country that feel their concern, their vote is not going to matter. So they're not going to go and vote. I think a lot of Republicans are underestimating the power of that side of the aisle in the Republican Party that feels that their vote doesn't count.Republicans are thinking this is going to be a red wave. I do believe that there's going to be a red wave takeover, but not the way that they're pointing it out to be, because they're not counting the Republicans that are not going to vote because they feel their votes are not going to count. That's the problem. No one has talked about, no one has really addressed in the mainstream news, talked about the concern of that. I think that's where the problem is right there. We have a disconnection between our own party and everyone else thats in it. There's a lot of people out there, a lot  I would say a great majority of them  that believe the 2020 election was taken, stolen by the Democrats.One could argue and say, 'Oh, well, you know, the Democrats did that back then during Bush and Gore, and they accused us of stealing the election.' And they did the same thing in 2016, when Trump won the election. They accused us of stealing the election. I mean, again, it goes hand in hand. One could argue that each party accuses each other of stealing elections. But we have to pay attention to that voter fraud is a concern, not just on the Democrat aisle, but on the Republican aisle. It's a concern on both ends. And I think this is something that should be truly taken into consideration and actually investigated by the government. Our vote matters, and it should matter, and peoples concerns should matter.Sputnik: What's the atmosphere like at the polling stations?I've been getting messages from a lot of people through email, on social media, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, through all the various communications. People are asking me, 'What should I do? Where should I go? Should I send in my ballot or should I go vote in person?' I always say it's better to vote in person  just go there yourself! Because the last time I went to vote, they said I was deactivated. They said I hadn't been an active voter in a while. And I was like, 'Wait a second, I haven't missed an election in years, since I was like 18, 19, I've been voting. How can this happen?' So, there is that level of concern of people out there. So I tell them it's better just to go there, make sure that they haven't deactivated you or anything like that, because that's what we've been telling people from my district.Sputnik: Waters won 71.7% of the vote in 2020  a result you did not consider fair. Do you think the result this year will be fair and transparent?I'm not sure if it's going to be fair and transparent. I think that we still need a lot of work to do. I'm hoping that there are safeguards in place at this point, after the last election and a concern of election integrity. I would hope that there are some safeguards. We are doing everything we can within our campaign to do that. But the whole dynamic and idea behind all of this is to compete in noncompetitive areas that haven't been competitive in years. Republicans need to step up in areas that are not competitive, like Maxine Waters [area].I grew up in the district. I'm not a person that just went into the district to run against Maxine, because I actually was born there. I was born in Inglewood, California in 1989. I went to school there. I'm a product of the school system of Los Angeles school districts. When I was two years old, Maxine Waters got elected to Congress. I'm 33 years of age  she's toppling, going to 90 years of age. There is an out of touch situation that goes on in our government when you have people that have been in office, in politics close to 40 years. That's a problem.Sputnik: "This year is going to be the year of the Latina Republican," Rep. Elise Stefanik told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. "And much like 2020 was the year of the Republican woman, this is going to be the year of the Latina Republican." Why, in your view, have Latina Americans turned to the Republican Party? What attracts them the most?I can't speak so much for the whole Latino population in itself. But from what I've noticed, the older generation of Latinas doesn't like this whole Woke agenda. But from what I've noticed from a lot of the young Latinas in cities like Los Angeles that are highly populated  they're misled by the Woke agenda. They're misled by the Democrat Party. They think that they own them, the Democrats. And in a sense, they do own the younger generation, because some of these younger-generation Latino and Latina Republicans, they coincide with the Democrat Party because of immigration. They think that someone in their family is going to get deported. That's where the issue is.Their parents did it right, but they think that for some reason, their family did it wrong and they came here illegally, when it was not so. I think that's the lack of education and transparency that's out there from a lot of people. They don't understand that. But I disagree with her saying that Latinas are going to sway more and vote Republican. I think that it could be a 50-50. But a lot of the men, I think there's a lot more men, Hispanic and Latino men, that are driving out of the Democrat Party, because the Democratic Party is telling them that they can't be men. And that's something that Latino men cannot understand. They cannot understand that. That Woke agenda telling us that there's 13 different genders, telling us that we have to accept everyone. It's not so. We have a set of beliefs that we grew up with. I grew up Roman Catholic, I was baptized Catholic. That core belief of religion is so important within the Hispanic and Latino community, which is very vital and important. I think a lot of people are starting to realize, and a lot of the Latino men are starting to realize that the Democrat Party is not for them.Sputnik: It has been the subject of speculation recently that non-White Republicans are being dismissed and demonized by Democrats and their mainstream media allies because they hold conservative views, even though they may be Black or Hispanic. Is it a fact that Black and Hispanic American voters are necessarily Democrats?A lot of these populations, they think the Democrats think that they own them. They think that they should be voting for them. Again, like I said, it's not so. Many of those people have drifted away from the Democrat Party because of that belief system that they have. You know, we have real problems. Gas prices in California are almost at $7. You have the economy  you go to the grocery store and you're paying way more for the cost of goods. You're paying much more to buy property in today's world. It's so out of touch. The Democratic Party is not answering any of those things. That's why the Republican Party has been talking about those things. They've been talking about the indoctrination in the schools, of not wanting their kids sexualized. The Republican Party has been doing that, and that's what a lot of people are seeing. A lot of Blacks and Hispanics, Latinos have been seeing this. That's why they're driving away from the Democrat Party. That's why the Democrat Party is scared, because they're losing those demographics. They're no longer holding a grip over them. They're scared, and they're going to do whatever they can, to pander as much as they can, to do whatever they can to hold that voting bloc when they can no longer hold it anymore.Sputnik: Why are Black and Hispanic voters perceived as tribal Democrat voters?I think that's a misconception. I think that's like a whole historical thing. I have two families: my mom's side came from Mexico, my father's side, they came from Cuba. My father was from Cuba. My mom's from Mexico. So traditionally, my father, when he came here, he was a Republican. He registered Republican. And it's common within Cuban culture to be Republican. It is a very common thing. Now, my mom on the other side, she was raised that Democrat means democracy. She thought that being a Democrat meant believing in democracy. Her family grew up that way. There are a lot of people from Mexico, who when they come to this country, they think that when they're voting Democrat, they think they're voting for democracy.I don't see the Republican Party going into the most liberal states, like California, with the RNC pouring money - I don't see the RNC doing this. They are actually not doing this. And it's a very dangerous thing not to do this, because it is so easy to convince a Hispanic Latino voter to switch parties if you just educate them about the party platforms. Just in itself. That's how I switched my mother and most of my family members, actually, that were Democrats, on my mother's side, just by showing them the party platforms and letting them look at it. 100% of the time when they looked at the platform, they switched over to Republican.

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q&a, omar navarro, california, us house of representatives, maxine waters, election
https://sputniknews.com/20221108/majority-of-us-voters-disapprove-of-biden-unhappy-about-state-of-nation---exit-poll-1103914776.html

Majority of US Voters Disapprove of Biden, Unhappy About State of Nation - Exit Poll

Majority of US Voters Disapprove of Biden, Unhappy About State of Nation - Exit Poll

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Over half of US voters disapprove of President Joe Bidens performance and are unhappy about the state of the nation as they cast... 08.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-08T23:13+0000

2022-11-08T23:13+0000

2022-11-08T23:11+0000

2022 us midterms

us

exit poll

election

biden administration

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Fifty-four percent of respondents said they disapprove of Bidens performance as president, while 45% say they approve of his work, the exit poll found on Tuesday.However, nearly half of voters, 48%, said that Bidens job as president was not a factor in how they voted in House races, while thirty-two percent of voters said that their House votes were cast to oppose Biden.Moreover, almost three-quarters of respondents, 73%, said they are either dissatisfied or angry with the direction of the country, the exit poll found. Thirty-nine percent said they are dissatisfied while 34% said they are angry.Votes will be tabulated throughout Tuesday evening, and possibly later should complications arise, to determine control of the US Congress. Democrats currently hold majorities in the House and Senate, while Republicans are slated to obtain a majority in one or both chambers.Without full control of Congress, the Biden administrations legislative agenda on issues such as abortion and gun control could be complicated with Republican leadership of either the House or Senate.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/3-reasons-russia-is-withdrawing-from-part-of-kherson-1103951287.html

3 Reasons Russia is Withdrawing From Part of Kherson

3 Reasons Russia is Withdrawing From Part of Kherson

General Sergei Surovikin announced Wednesday that Russian forces are withdrawing from the right bank of the Dnepr River and forming defensive positions on its... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T18:09+0000

2022-11-09T18:09+0000

2022-11-09T18:45+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

ukraine

russia

kherson

nato

moscow

sergei surovikin

sergei shoigu

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Russian General Sergei Surovikin never made any secret of the very difficult situation that had developed on the front in Kherson. On October 18, only 10 days after being appointed commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine, the officer stressed that the NATO puppet masters pulling the Ukrainian Armys strings had long demanded offensive operations in the Kherson direction to push Russian forces from Khersons right bank, without any regard for casualties, both among the Armed Forces of Ukraine and among the civilian population.The commander pointed out that HIMARS strikes had already damaged the Antonovsky Bridge linking Khersons left and right banks across the Dnepr, as well as the nearby Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, complicating the transport situation and causing problems with food and electricity deliveries. On top of that, Surovikin said, Moscow had intelligence that Kiev was planning to launch a massive missile attack on the Kakhovskaya Dam, and indiscriminate missile and artillery strikes against the city of Kherson and its population of 180,000+ residents.Our further plans and actions regarding the city of Kherson will depend on the emerging military-tactical situation, Surovikin said at the time, emphasizing that Russias strategy would proceed from the need to preserve the lives of both civilians and Russian military personnel. He did not rule out difficult decisions.Tactical NecessityOn Wednesday, the moment for such a decision came. Speaking to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and once again reiterating the threat of a Ukrainian attack on the Kakhovskaya Dam, Surovikin warned that there will be an additional threat to the civilian population and of the complete isolation of our group of forces on the right bank of the Dnepr. Under these conditions, the most appropriate option will be to establish defense along the barrier line of the Dnepr River.Shoigu agreed with Surovikins assessment, reiterating the importance of preserving the lives of both military personnel and noncombatants.Threat to CiviliansSurovikins concerns about the danger posed to Khersons civilian population are not academic. In the opening stages of Russias military operation this spring, thousands were killed or injured in Mariupol, Popasnaya, Volnovakha and other urban locations after Ukrainian forces and neo-Nazi battalions dug in, often deliberately in civilian areas, hiding in or near apartment blocks, shopping centers, schools, kindergartens, and even hospitals, to lure Russian forces into bloody street battles, and receive a convenient pretext to accuse Moscow of war crimes anytime a civilian building was damaged or destroyed.By withdrawing forces from the right bank of the Dnepr, Russian forces have signaled their rejection of this costly and bloody strategy. Over the past three weeks, as Ukrainian forces amassed troops near Kherson and intensified shelling of the city, a large-scale evacuation of civilians was kicked off. In his remarks Wednesday, Surovikin reported that over 115,000 people had been evacuated, taken to Crimea and other areas deeper inside Russia.The militarys strategy of evacuation and the creation of a defensive line that can be easily secured appears to be aimed at showing that Russia is not interested in "pyrrhic victories," and that Moscow will not succumb to efforts by NATO and its clients in Kiev to drown the region in blood, kill tens of thousands, and trap Russia in a hopeless strategic and tactical situation from which it would be nearly impossible to escape.In the run-up to Wednesdays announcement, Ukrainian commanders made no secret of their assessment of the situation. On October 29, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov predicted that amid the concentration of Ukrainian forces, NATO mercs, and heavy weapons near Kherson, the liberation of the city wouldnt take place without a fight, but be preceded by the cordoning off of the city and the isolation of Russian forces, followed by battles to gradually grind them down. The strategy is familiar to historians of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, which featured the heavy use of pincers to encircle troops, leave them without supplies, and gradually close the noose to eliminate them or take them prisoner.In his remarks last month, Budanov even suggested that Russia might sabotage the Kakhovskaya Dam to try to slow down Ukrainian forces, apparently forgetting that terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure was more Kiev and the Wests forte (the recent attacks on Nord Stream, the Crimean Bridge, and Sevastopol Bay serving as but a few examples).Russias Strategy in Historical ContextThe Russian militarys decision was obviously a difficult, forced measure, as Surovikin openly stated in his remarks Wednesday.In both the strategic and historical contexts, the pullout to the left bank of the Dnepr River could be said to be based on a broader interest  winning the "proxy war" that the West has declared on Russia, not winning a single battle. During the Great Northern War against Sweden of 1700-1721, the French invasion of Russia in 1812, and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, commanders pulled back forces dozens or even hundreds of kilometers when necessary, but never lost sight of the strategic goal.In the Ukrainian security crisis, unleashed by the US and the EU in 2014, time appears to be on Russias side, with Kiev and its Western backers facing an increasingly grim series of economic and energy crises, and Western capitals from Washington to Berlin signaling exhaustion with Kiev, and expressing growing hesitation to support the bottomless pit of weapons and cash that Ukraine has become.US and European media have issued report after report detailing how NATO is literally running out of weapons to send to Ukraine. Meanwhile, capitals across Europe, including economic and political powerhouse Germany, have been overrun with cost of living protests sparked largely by Brussels move to slap restrictions on Russian energy.The US, which has committed $60 billion of the estimated $100 billion in military and economic support sent to Kiev over the past eight months, just held its most highly-contested midterm elections in decades, with Republicans poised to take the House, and wrangling with Democrats for control of the Senate. Last month, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warned that there would be no blank check for Ukraine in a GOP-controlled House.The Trump wing of the GOP has been even more adamant, with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene stressing last week that not another penny will go to Ukraine under the Republicans, who will instead focus Washingtons energy and resources on the US porous border with Mexico. Only time will tell whether the politicians will make good on their promises, or even be allowed to do so by America's powerful deep state interests.Whatever happens, in a situation where Russia has the energy and food resources to survive the coming winter, and a seemingly better chance to preserve the political wherewithal to ride out the crisis, it will ultimately be up to Kiev's Western sponsors to decide whether to continue the strategy of exchanging tactical gains for strategic losses, or to finally push its clients to come to the negotiating table and address Russia's fundamental security concerns.More than 150 years after being written, these words have not lost their relevance.

https://sputniknews.com/20221109/commander-of-russian-forces-in-ukraine-delivers-report-to-defense-minister-on-special-op-1103943922.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221021/russian-forces-help-people-of-kherson-evacuate-across-dnepr-amid-ukraine-strikes-1102494156.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221107/quarter-of-europeans-on-the-brink-of-ruin-new-survey-finds-1103847982.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/5-warning-signs-you-may-be-a-party-to-the-ukrainian-conflict-1103938503.html

5 Warning Signs You May Be a Party to the Ukrainian Conflict

5 Warning Signs You May Be a Party to the Ukrainian Conflict

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated last month that the alliance is not [a] party to the conflict in Ukraine, echoing similar claims made by... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T13:15+0000

2022-11-09T13:15+0000

2022-11-09T13:45+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

nato

jens stoltenberg

involvement

proxy war

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The NATO is not a party in Ukraine talking point has been repeated ad nauseam over the past eight months, with Moscow catching the military bloc tripping up in its own lies last month after Mr. Stoltenberg warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would constitute a defeat for NATO that would make the world more dangerous. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the NATO chiefs comments were direct confirmation of the Western military blocs involvement in the crisis.$100 Billion Worth of Non-InvolvementAccording to this handy Ukraine aid funding tracker, Washington and its allies have already poured more than $100 billion worth of military and economic support to Kiev since February, with the Kiel Institute of World Economys "Ukraine Support Tracker" estimating that some $27.5 billion of that constitutes US military aid alone. The UK, Poland, Germany, Canada, and other NATO allies have contributed more than $9 billion in additional weapons assistance.Whats Ukraine getting for this? The list is quite comprehensive, and includes stuff youd expect in a Cold War-style proxy conflict, from Stinger and Javelin missiles and precision rocket artillery to troop transporters, drones, radars, night vision, helmets, and body armor. Theres also some unusual "assistance," like a CIA slush fund (size unknown), $900 million for non-profits, and even $54 million in COVID aid (after all, gotta keep troops safe from the virus as bombs and bullets literally rain down all around them).Intelligence, Fire Support, and Planning AssistanceNATOs "non-involvement" isnt limited to weapons and cash. According to the US Congressional Research Service, Washington has gifted Kiev a broad range of security assistance going back to the 2014 Euromaidan coup, including intelligence support, electronic warfare detection and secure communications, and satellite imagery and analysis capability. This includes a continuous stream of access to images obtained by commercial satellites for use by Ukrainian military planners.What does the latter mean in practice? Put simply, it gives the Ukrainian Armed Forces access to the Western blocs spy satellites  which are the most advanced in the world thanks to bottomless funding and three decades of US and NATO wars of aggression across the Middle East, Yugoslavia, Asia, and North Africa.In September, French media reported that the Pentagon has even been directly involved in planning Ukrainian military operations, complementing Sputniks reporting from the summer revealing that Ukraines HIMARS were being manned by outstaffed NATO military personnel. Hows that for non-involvement"?Boots on the Ground, Boots in the Ground?Late last month, the Pentagon confirmed that small teams of US military personnel have been dispatched to Ukraine, ostensibly to inspect weapons deliveries to ensure that Western military aid is going where it needs to after a series of reports that much of the military aid was being smuggled out of the warzone by arms dealers.The story has gone heavily underreported, drowned out by the US midterms and celebrity gossip. However, a few outlets have sounded the alarm about this development, pointing out that the repercussions of US troops potentially getting injured or killed in a Russian military strike on a Ukrainian arms cache have not been sufficiently mapped out.Diplomatic DoldrumsNATOs fingerprints are all over Ukraine even on the diplomatic front. This week, Volodymyr Zelensky expressed openness to genuine peace talks with Russia, walking back a decree signed just last month ruling out any negotiations with President Vladimir Putin altogether.US security officials were quick to take credit for the Ukrainian presidents apparent change of heart, telling media that it was made possible due to soft nudging by the Biden administration. One security official explained that Zelenskys new stance came following a visit to Kiev by Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who reportedly relayed to Kiev that Washington considers it essential for Ukraine to show willingness to put an end to the crisis in a reasonable and peaceful manner.Washingtons direct influence on Kiev has not escaped the eyes of Russian officials, who have spent the past eight-and-a-half years blasting the US, the EU, and NATO for starting the Ukrainian crisis in the first place. On Wednesday, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov reiterated in an interview with Sputnik that the decision-making center determining Ukraines fate is not even located in Kiev.Everyone could see this in March, when one cry from Washington was enough for the Zelensky regime to nullify the agreements reached during intensive contacts between Kiev and Moscow, Antonov said, recalling the reports that now-former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was speedily dispatched to Kiev at Washington's behest to sabotage Russian-Ukrainian peace talks.iStand With UkraineAll this costly and exhausting non-involvement by NATO in the Ukraine crisis has been accompanied by wartime footing against Russia not just by Western governments and militaries, but by corporations as well. Since February, over 1,000 companies have cut, partially curtailed, or dramatically downsized operations in Russia in a bid to "punish" Moscow and demonstrate that they Stand With Ukraine. The campaign has been accompanied by a massive ad campaign targeting Russian IPs informing the hip urban youth and yuppie masses that Putin had robbed them of their beloved symbols of Western consumerism, from Coca-Cola and McDonalds to iPhones and Mercedes. So far, though, the Russian people seem to have been able to cope with these terrible losses somehow, replacing Coke with Chernogolovka and CoolCola, swapping Mickey Ds for Vkusno I tochka, and ramping up the production of domestic brand vehicles while negotiating the import of more cars from countries like Iran, China, and Turkey.Exercise in Political SophistryNATOs non-involvement rhetoric is little more than an act of political sophistry, according to Global Policy Institute senior research fellow George Szamuely.According to Stoltenberg, unless you have troops of your own on the ground you are not a combatant. This is the very acme of sophistry. There is nothing in international law to support his contention, Szamuely said in a recent op-ed.The observer pointed out that under the Hague Convention Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Cases of War on Land, a neutral power is not permitted to use its territory for purposes of moving troops or munitions to a combatant. The analogous convention concerning naval warfare is even more explicit, stating that the supply in any manner, directly or indirectly, by a neutral power to a belligerent power of ammunition or war material of any kind is forbidden.

https://sputniknews.com/20221104/american-boots-on-the-ground-in-ukraine-risk-escalation-but-follow-an-old-us-playbook-1103785420.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221109/us-reportedly-prodded-ukraines-zelensky-to-ditch-putin-out-of-power-condition-for-russia-talks-1103932017.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/57-magnitude-earthquake-occurs-off-coast-of-italy-seismologists-say-1103922237.html

5.7 Magnitude Earthquake Occurs Off Coast of Italy, Seismologists Say

5.7 Magnitude Earthquake Occurs Off Coast of Italy, Seismologists Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - An 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Italy, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said on Wednesday. 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T06:35+0000

2022-11-09T06:35+0000

2022-11-09T07:31+0000

world

earthquake

italy

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The earthquake was recorded at 07:07 a.m. local time (06:07 GMT). The epicenter was located 64 kilometers (39.7 miles) east of the city of Rimini, at a depth of 10 kilometers.There is no immediate information about possible casualties or destruction.

https://sputniknews.com/20220919/strong-68-magnitude-earthquake-hits-mexicos-central-west-1100979258.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/aruna-miller-becomes-first-indian-american-lieutenant-governor-of-us-state-1103924954.html

Aruna Miller Becomes First Indian-American Lieutenant Governor of US State

Aruna Miller Becomes First Indian-American Lieutenant Governor of US State

Born in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Aruna Miller migrated to the US along with her parents when she was seven. She attended public schools in Upstate... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T11:24+0000

2022-11-09T11:24+0000

2022-11-09T11:24+0000

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Aruna Miller made history by becoming the first Indian-American politician to be elected as lieutenant governor of the US state of Maryland, media reports said on Wednesday. Miller, 58, was declared the winner on Tuesday after polling concluded.She was on the lieutenant governor ticket alongside Wes Moore, who was contesting for the governor's post.Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned for Moore and Miller.According to media reports, she also had the support of some top Donald Trump and Republican supporters, as they raised funds for her.After being declared winner, she said in her victory speech: Maryland, tonight you showed the nation what a small but mighty state can do when democracy is on the ballot. You chose unity over division, expanding rights over restricting rights, and hope over fear. You chose Wes Moore and me to be your next Governor and Lieutenant Governor.The Indian-American politician overcame last-minute opposition from her detractors, who accused her of courting Hindu nationalists. However, she has denied the charge.The lieutenant governor is the state's second highest-ranking official after the governor, and assumes the latter's role when they are out of state or incapacitated.

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aruna miller, lieutenant governor of maryland, 2022 us midterms, who won maryland midterms, who is the new governor of maryland, indian-american governors,
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/australia-orders-probe-into-ex-military-allegedly-approached-to-train-chinese-soldiers-1103924766.html

Australia Orders Probe Into Ex-Military Allegedly Approached to Train Chinese Soldiers

Australia Orders Probe Into Ex-Military Allegedly Approached to Train Chinese Soldiers

Western media reported that Beijing has been seeking to attract pilots from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US to train the Peoples Liberation... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T09:50+0000

2022-11-09T09:50+0000

2022-11-09T09:50+0000

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Australias defense ministry on Wednesday launched a multi-agency probe into alleged efforts by China to recruit former Australian Defence Force (ADF) pilots to provide military training to PLA troops.Defense Minister Richard Marles said that his department is reviewing the laws to stop former soldiers, sailors, aviators and bureaucrats from providing military-related training to China and other unfriendly governments. The review will be finished by December 14.The investigation was launched following reports Australians were among Western military pilots who had been approached to help train the Chinese military.I have therefore instructed the department to commence that process. Its no secret that Defence activities, people and assets are targets for Foreign Intelligence Services, the Australian Defense Minister added.The minister reminded ex-military personnel about the Official Secrets Act, which prohibits them from sharing state secrets with foreign powers.Any former personnel who provided secret information to foreign governments would be committing a clear and unambiguous crime, Marles warned.The Albanese government has not revealed if any Australians had provided training to Chinese pilots, or how many were suspected of doing so.Last month, Australia Police arrested former US Marine Corps fighter pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan on behalf of the US over an allegation of helping Chinese pilots.Western media reported that ex-military personnel of countries like Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand have been approached through a South African flying school, acting as a middleman, to provide training to PLA pilots.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denied any knowledge of the employment of foreign pilots to train the countrys military personnel, saying: "I am not aware of the circumstances you mentioned."British media reported that at least 30 former air force pilots had accepted offers upwards of 240,000 ($273,750) to train Chinese troops.

https://sputniknews.com/20221026/canberra-could-hand-pilot-accused-of-prc-links-over-to-us-without-trial-aussie-ex-diplomat-fears-1102736023.html

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australia & oceania, australian defense force, pla, pla air force, us, uk, raf (uk)
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/belarusian-foreign-minister-starts-visit-to-india-1103927261.html

Belarusian Foreign Minister Starts Visit to India

Belarusian Foreign Minister Starts Visit to India

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that Minister Vladimir Makei has arrived in India for a three-day working... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T08:50+0000

2022-11-09T08:50+0000

2022-11-09T08:50+0000

world

belarus

vladimir makei

visit

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"Belarus FM Makei pays a working visit to India. Programme of the visit envisages meetings with Foreign Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, participation in the Intergovernmental Commission," the foreign ministry tweeted.Makei will attend the bilateral commission on economic, trade, industrial, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation and a business forum, as well as meet with several other Indian ministers. The visit will last through Friday.In August, the Indian ambassador to Belarus, Alok Ranjan Jha, stated that Western sanctions against Minsk had complicated supply of Belarusian potassium fertilizer to India and its payment. The ambassador said both countries were seeking to overcome difficulties that impede the full unlocking of bilateral trade and economic relations.India holds the 2022 chairmanship in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. At the SCO summit in September, Belarus signed a document initiating the process of its admission. On September 26, Makei expressed hopes that Belarus would become a SCO member by the end of 2023.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/biden-armageddon-warning-aims-to-pit-as-many-states-against-russia-as-possible-ambassador-antonov-1103921088.html

Biden Armageddon' Warning Aims to Pit as Many States Against Russia as Possible: Ambassador Antonov

Biden Armageddon' Warning Aims to Pit as Many States Against Russia as Possible: Ambassador Antonov

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Joe Biden's warning of Armageddon is groundless and dangerous and aims at pitting as many countries against Russia as... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T06:14+0000

2022-11-09T06:14+0000

2022-11-09T06:14+0000

russia

us

joe biden

russia

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"Against this background, the intimidation of the world community by the 'approaching Armageddon' is groundless and dangerous," Antonov said. "Loud statements coming from the United States, and even from the lips of President Joe Biden, pursue a single goal - to incite as many states as possible against Russia."Biden said in October that the Ukraine conflict may lead to miscalculations that could potentially end in the biblical event known as Armageddon. On October 6, Biden said that the world has not faced the "prospect of Armageddon" like it does now, since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.Russia is not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons, but quite the contrary, it is trying to prevent the current situation spiraling out of control, Antonov said.Antonov said contrary to Russias frank statements that it will not use nuclear weapons, the world heard the United Kingdom - Washingtons closest ally - express readiness to do exactly the opposite.On Monday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that US officials have recently had an opportunity to engage with the Russian government to reduce risks and convey the consequences of the potential use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.The Wall Street Journal reported that Sullivan has been conducting confidential talks in recent months with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. The Kremlin and the White House declined to confirm that such talks took place.Last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement confirming that Russia's nuclear deterrence policy was guided by the postulate of the inadmissibility of nuclear war, as there could be no winners in such a conflict.In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had never proactively said anything about using nuclear weapons, noting that such speculations are being used by the collective West to influence countries that have a more friendly attitude toward Russia.

https://sputniknews.com/20221103/west-using-nuclear-weapons-provocation-to-drum-up-anti-russia-coalition---security-council-head-1103610324.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/cavusoglu-says-does-not-see-threats-risks-on-gas-hub-project-proposed-by-russia-1103918166.html

Cavusoglu Says Does Not See Threats, Risks on Gas Hub Project Proposed by Russia

Cavusoglu Says Does Not See Threats, Risks on Gas Hub Project Proposed by Russia

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he did not see threats or risks on the gas hub project proposed by Russia. 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T04:42+0000

2022-11-09T04:42+0000

2022-11-09T04:42+0000

world

turkey

russia

gas

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As for the gas hub project, I dont see any threats or risks here The purpose of this proposal is European markets. Today we have reduced our dependence on Russian gas from 60% to 44%, as there are opportunities for diversification," Cavusoglu said.On October 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow could redirect gas transit from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines to Turkey. The next day, Putin discussed the idea with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their face-to-face meeting in Astana. On October 14, Erdogan said that the two leaders instructed relevant institutions in both countries to quickly begin work on the idea of creating a hub in Turkey for gas supplies to Europe.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/commander-of-russian-forces-in-ukraine-delivers-report-to-defense-minister-on-special-op-1103943922.html

Russian MoD Announces Troop Withdrawal From Parts of Kherson Region to Left Bank of Dnepr River

Russian MoD Announces Troop Withdrawal From Parts of Kherson Region to Left Bank of Dnepr River

Following his appointment as commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine last month, General Sergei Surovikin stated that the situation in the zone of Russias... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T15:00+0000

2022-11-09T15:00+0000

2022-11-09T17:09+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

russia

ukraine

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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has agreed to the suggestion of Sergei Surovikin, the Russian Army general appointed commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine, to withdraw troops from parts of Russia's Kherson region to the left bank of the Dnepr River.The decision was made as Surovikin delivered a report to Shoigu on the course of the special military operation.General Surovikin told the defense minister that the establishment of defenses along the left bank of the Dnepr River would be the most rational option in the current circumstances. He warned that should the Kiev regime proceed with its plans to destroy the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant and dam, it could lead to disastrous consequences.He stressed yet again that Kiev's missile strikes on the dam have been incessant, and on September 26, one of the spillway shutters was hit and damaged.While admitting that it was a difficult decision to make, the general stressed that the measure would help save the lives of Russian servicemen.We will save, most importantly, the lives of our servicemen and, in general, the combat capability of the group of troops, which is futile to keep on the right bank in a limited area. In addition, part of the forces and means will be freed up, which will be used for active operations, including offensive in other directions in the zone of the operation," he explained.Defense Minister Shoigu agreed, emphasizing that the lives of Russian servicemen will always be a top priority."We must take into account the threat to the civilian population too. Make sure that everyone among the civilian population who want to leave can do it," Shoigu told Surovikin.While the general said that the situation in the zone of the special military operation has generally stabilized, Ukrainian forces haven't abandoned attempts to attack Russian positions. However, Russian forces managed to fend off Ukrainian attacks in the direction of Krasny Liman and Kupyansk. Surovikin added that the attempted offensive by the Ukrainian forces on Kherson last night was repelled too. The Ukrainian side is suffering significant losses, he stressed, having lost 9,500 men, both killed and wounded, in the direction of Kherson since August.He also revealed that over 115,000 people have already been relocated from the area of hostilities in Kherson  the right bank of the river  to the left bank.Kherson region authorities have previously considered the possibility of Russian troops leaving Kherson city, the capital of the formerly Ukrainian region that joined Russia following a referendum in late September, to relocate to the left bank of the Dnepr River.The city is located on the western bank of the river, which exposes it to potential Ukrainian attacks, while the eastern side  also known as the left bank  is more defensible, with the river serving as a giant natural obstacle. The late deputy head of the Kherson Military-Civilian Administration Kirill Stremousov said in early November that Russian troops are likely to move to the left bank  mostly in order to make sure that as many civilians as possible are safe. He also repeatedly urged everyone who has not yet left the region to do so as soon as they can.Last month, General Surovikin described the situation in the zone of the special military operation, including Kherson, as tense and warned that the military may be forced to make difficult decisions.Over the past few weeks, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly tried to attack Kherson, but the attempts were repelled. On Tuesday, Ukrainian troops, along with foreign mercenaries, made yet another attempt to launch an offensive on Russian positions in the Kherson region, but the attack was fended off, with the Ukrainian side being forced to retreat after suffering significant losses.According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces failed to gain any advantage in the region, with Russian troops successfully holding off enemy attempts to attack or gain new territories. On November 3, reports emerged saying that the Russian flags had been removed from government buildings in Kherson. However, the authorities explained that the government had been moved to a different city.In October, Russia informed the UN that Ukrainian forces were firing hundreds of missiles daily, mostly from US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), aiming at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant in the Kherson region.Russian envoy Vasily Nebenzia warned that the destruction of the facility could result in the deaths of thousands of civilians and loss of thousands of homes, but the West chooses to ignore any criminal acts committed by the Kiev regime.The caretaker governor explained that there was an immediate danger of flooding in the territories due to the planned destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam by Ukrainian forces. The measure, he stressed, would help shield civilians from Kievs banned methods of war, while also helping to better defend the area from a Ukrainian offensive from the north. He elaborated that Russian forces were setting up fortifications to repel the attack: "Where the military operates, there is no place for civilians.President Vladimir Putin, for his part, said earlier in November that relocating civilians from Kherson was a top priority, since Ukrainian forces were continuing to target the bridges crossing the Dnepr River, as well as the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant and its dam, threatening large-scale flooding.The Kherson region officially became part of Russia in early October, together with the liberated areas of the Zaporozhye region and the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, after the people in those territories overwhelmingly supported the move in referendums.

https://sputniknews.com/20221021/russian-forces-help-people-of-kherson-evacuate-across-dnepr-amid-ukraine-strikes-1102494156.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/cop27-albatross-of-western-sanctions-hinders-zimbabwes-climate-efforts-says-zimbabwe-president-1103922489.html

COP27: 'Albatross' of Western Sanctions Hinders Zimbabwe's Climate Efforts, Says Zimbabwe President

COP27: 'Albatross' of Western Sanctions Hinders Zimbabwe's Climate Efforts, Says Zimbabwe President

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) was preceded by a discussion on the effects global warming is having on Africa. At the Sharm... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T07:43+0000

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2022-11-23T11:37+0000

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Emmerson Mnangagwa, president of Zimbabwe, called for sanctions imposed on the country by the West and its allies to be lifted immediately. He declared that the illegal sanctions hamper Zimbabwe's progress in tackling climate change.The head of the southern African nation described the devastating effects global warming is having on Zimbabwe, especially its agricultural sector, which plays an essential role in the country's economy. According to Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe is working actively to tackle the climate crisis and is to limit its greenhouse gas emissions to 44.7Mln tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.Mnangagwa underlined that "concrete action" has to be taken. He said that climate finance should be prioritized and advocated for the creation of a bloc consisting of the Group 77 states as well as China, aimed at approaching the climate crisis from the perspective of developing countries.In recent decades, Zimbabwe has faced food deficit. According to the World Food Programme, 63 percent of Zimbabwe's 15.6Mln population live below the poverty line and 24 percent of the country's children between six months and five years face malnutrition. The US/EU unilateral sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe have been an object of criticism from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) presidents such as Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as other African leaders. Russia is also a long-time opponent of the sanctions. In 2008, the country vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on anti-Zimbabwe sanctions together with China. In 2019, the sanctions were criticized by Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin.According to a 2020 SADC report, Zimbabwe "lost well over $42Bln in revenue over the past 19 years because of the sanctions" with a negative influence on most sectors of its economy and the investment climate.According to UNEP data, African countries are among the main victims of the effects of climate change, such as floods, droughts, and famine, even though the continent contributes just two or three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/disinformation--denunciation-french-ambassador-to-car-loses-privileged-status-1103940205.html

Disinformation & Denunciation: French Ambassador to CAR Loses Privileged Status

Disinformation & Denunciation: French Ambassador to CAR Loses Privileged Status

In a new sign of the deterioration of relations between Paris and Bangui, France's high representative to the Central African Republic has had his privileged... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T13:32+0000

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The ambassador and high representative of France to the Central African Republic (CAR) has lost his status as doyen of the diplomatic corps in the state. According to a letter from the Central African foreign minister, leaked on November 8, the reason was the personality of the French diplomat himself, Jean-Marc Grosgurin.Addressing the letter to head of French diplomacy, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, her Central African counterpart Sylvie Baipo-Temon accused the French ambassador of having shown disrespectful attitudes to the invitations of the head of state.Moreover, the diplomat was criticized for engaging in disinformation and denunciation. The CAR accused France of not having shown "reciprocity" in diplomatic matters.The special status in question exists in accordance with an agreement between Paris and Bangui that was concluded on the day of the CAR's independence, on August 13, 1960. French ambassadors were awarded this status.CAR Bids Farewell to Last French TanksAt the end of October, the last of the French Army's armored vehicles left the Central African Republic, where they had been present for nearly 62 years, as the country has been embroiled in civil war since 2013.Last year, Paris denounced the presence of Russian mercenaries from the private military company Wagner in the Central African Republic and accused them of substituting the authority of the state in the country and of monopolizing its fiscal capacity.In turn, Bangui pointed to the relentlessness of the French side, as well as its desire to infantilize the Central African Republic and its authorities.

https://sputniknews.com/20221024/lavrov-russia-welcomes-africa-as-one-of-multipolar-worlds-centers-1102581430.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/equatorial-guinea-accuses-western-countries-of-election-interference-1103932447.html

Equatorial Guinea Accuses Western Countries of Election Interference

Equatorial Guinea Accuses Western Countries of Election Interference

The small hydrocarbon-rich state in Central Africa won its independence from Spain in 1968 and has had only two presidents since then. 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T16:20+0000

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Equatorial Guinea has accused Spain, France, and the United States of "interfering" in the African country's presidential and legislative elections scheduled for November 20. Malabo's concern is related to the three countries sending diplomats to a campaign meeting held by one of the only two opposition movements authorized to present candidates. Supporting PhotosAccording to photos released by the government, Spanish, French, and US diplomats attended the meeting of the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), an opposition party in Equatorial Guinea.The campaign for the presidential, legislative, senatorial, and municipal elections officially began on Thursday. The governing Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea's (PDGE) candidate is President Teodoro Obiang, who was re-elected in 2016 after securing 93.7% of the vote.His only challengers are Andres Esono Ondo, representing the CPDS, and Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu, candidate of the Social Democratic Coalition Party (PCSD), which was allied with the PDGE in previous elections.Mr. Esono Ondo is running for the first time, while for Mr. Monsuy Asumu, it is the third time. He was a candidate in 2002, 2009, and 2016 with little electoral success. The opposition has called him a "stooge" of President Obiang.Ned Price Concerned About Opposition Members' ArrestOn Thursday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted that Washington was "concerned about reports of arrests and harassment of members of the opposition and civil society," and urged Malabo to hold "free and fair elections," encouraging the government to "promote a more inclusive, peaceful and democratic society by allowing the expression of diverse political views."President Obiang holds the world record for the longest tenure of a living head of state (except for monarchs), seeking a sixth term at the age of 80.The PDGE holds 99 of the 100 seats in the outgoing National Assembly, and all 55 seats in the Senate.Nearly 428,000 voters are registered for the November 20 elections out of a population of 1.4 million.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/franco-german-axis-has-never-been-about-europe-shielding-weaker-members-researcher-1103920145.html

Franco-German Axis Has Never Been About Europe, Shielding Weaker Members: Researcher

Franco-German Axis Has Never Been About Europe, Shielding Weaker Members: Researcher

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Franco-German axis has never been about promoting European interests, focusing instead on strengthening the hand of the EU executive and... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T05:46+0000

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France and Germany, two leading EU countries, were supposed to hold a joint cabinet meeting in late October but ended up postponing it until January, reportedly due to differences on energy and defense issues. Instead, it was replaced with a working lunch in Paris between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. All of this added to the ongoing concerns regarding relations between Paris and Berlin being at a low point and eroding.Fazi argued that the meltdown of the Franco-German alliance was a logical consequence of the nature of the relationship between the two countries, that existed as long as their interests were mutually compatible, which is no longer the case. Rather than having a common vision for the European Union, its two richest members have been sharing power under a "gentlemens agreement" that has allowed Paris to bend EU rules, including by running big budget deficits, in exchange for paying them lip service in Brussels."So the Franco-German axis has never been about promoting Europe's interests, but rather the interests of the two countries through the institutions of the EU," he added.The Franco-German split came after Germany painfully realized that it was at the receiving end of an economic war being waged against it by the United States. Fazi suggested that the US was also probably behind the September bombing attack that made the Nord Stream pipeline system, built to transport Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, inoperable."Germany realizes all too well (even though it can't say it out loud) that it is at the receiving end of an economic war being waged against it by the US, by driving a wedge between Germany and Russia and preventing the rise of a Eurasian economic bloc. Indeed, the US is also the most likely culprit behind the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline," he said.As for Germanys key ally, France has shared some of its concerns about the cost of American LNG and the overall effect of the United States Ukraine policy on Europe  but it is ultimately too insecure, Fazi said, to follow Germany in openly challenging the US. The "European solutions" France keeps talking about are just a cover for going along with the status quo because, with countries like Poland feeling a much closer allegiance to Washington than to its neighbor, there is no common European middle ground to be found there.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/guarantee-of-scams-indian-pm-modi-takes-dig-at-main-opposition-party-congress-1103927155.html

'Guarantee of Scams': Indian PM Modi Takes Dig at Main Opposition Party Congress

'Guarantee of Scams': Indian PM Modi Takes Dig at Main Opposition Party Congress

India's federally governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party are in a direct contest in the upcoming polls in Himachal Pradesh (HP). The... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched an attack on the main opposition party, Congress, saying that it is only associated with "instability," "corruption," and "scams"."Congress is the guarantee of instability, corruption, and scams. Congress can never give a stable government to HP and neither do they want," the prime minister said during a public rally in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district ahead of the state polls on Saturday."They (Congress leaders) think and plan regarding corruption but we work hard for the development of the country," PM Modi added.Modi's harsh remarks about Congress came on the last day of campaigning in the state.In India, political parties are required to conclude their campaigns 48 hours before actual polling takes place.In the last elections in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP won 44 seats, while Congress saw its candidates claiming the poll position in 21 constituencies.Since becoming a state in 1971, Himachal Pradesh has alternated between the BJP and Congress, but the former is looking to break that trend, hoping to ride back to power with the help of PM Modi's popularity.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/how-taiwans-outsized-clout-in-semiconductor-manufacturing-is-weaponized-by-biden-admin-1103942071.html

How Taiwan's Outsized Clout in Semiconductor Manufacturing is 'Weaponized' by Biden Admin

How Taiwan's Outsized Clout in Semiconductor Manufacturing is 'Weaponized' by Biden Admin

Semiconductors, an essential component of electronic devices and, so to say, the lifeblood of the global digital economy, have been pushed to the forefront... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T16:26+0000

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Today, four Asian economies - Japan, mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan - are leaders in the field of chipmaking, their enterprises churning out an estimated 80 percent of all semiconductors in the world. The lions share of these brains of electronics that enable smartphones, radios, TVs, computers, video games, or medical diagnostic equipment to function - or about 63 percent - is currently produced in Taiwan.Last year, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) managed to become the undisputed leader among all companies on the Asian continent. ASE Technology, with a revenue of 12.5 Billion US$, ranks second in the island state, and AU Optronics  third.If one takes a closer look at the client list of Taiwans top chipmaking firm, TSMC, the names of Americas technology giants, such as Apple, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia - the biggest producer of graphics processing units (GPUs) used in video graphics and machine learning systems - offer a glimpse into the strategic moves the Washington administration has been taking regarding its geopolitical rivals.Apple accounts for about one-fifth of TSMC's annual revenue, with North America being the Taiwanese firms largest market, according to the company's website.However, China, where the chipmaking industry was almost nonexistent some two decades ago, has been successfully playing catch up. Today, Chinese companies produce about 24 percent of the global semiconductor circuits. The sprint by China to develop the semiconductor sector, which is also crucial to development of advanced military technology, has infuriated the administration in Washington. Hence, the Joe Biden administrations efforts to weaponize the issue to ostensibly "counter" China.Semiconductor Industry RaceAs part of its Made in China 2025 initiative, Beijing has been relying on diverse policy incentives to boost the building of more semiconductor companies. Today, China accounts for 15 percent of global manufacturing in semiconductors, while the US share of the market has plunged from 37 percent to 12 percent. In response to the Asion giant's ambitions, the US recently implemented a chip export ban on China, while also fueling the flames of growing tension with Beijing over Taiwan. The situation around Taiwan flared after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island on August 2, and was greeted by the Island's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed the move as a serious disregard of China's strong opposition. Officially, the United States supports mainland Chinas claim to the island, dubbed the One-China policy, and does not officially recognize Taiwan's independence.The controversial high-profile diplomatic visit prompted Beijing to unleash a series of unprecedented live fire drills in six locations around Taiwan. China also recently emphasized the need to take resolute steps to oppose 'Taiwan independence and promote reunification in a resolution adopted at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that wrapped up on October 22. Furthermore, "in the face of serious provocations by separatist forces calling for Taiwans independence, and interference from outside forces," China's leader Xi Jinping said that "complete reunification of our country must be realized and it can without a doubt be realized.Amid speculation that a conflict between China and Taiwan could spell disaster for the US amid its reliance on the microchip supplier on the island, on October 7 the Biden administration imposed a sweeping set of export control restrictions seeking to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips and chip-making equipment. Under the rules, US companies can only supply Chinese chipmakers with equipment that to produce advanced chips after first securing a licence. US President Joe Biden also signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The legislation provides $52.7 billion in funding to strengthen the United States semiconductor manufacturing and supply chains, as well as over $200 billion for scientific endeavors. But China slammed what was billed as the largest US government bailout to the industry in decades as seeking to promote its underlying geopolitical objective.It is another example of the United States abusing its national power and relying on technological hegemony to engage in coercive diplomacy, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing. China also accused the US of engaging in tech terrorism against other countries, predicting that such moves would ultimately backfire.

https://sputniknews.com/20221004/us-efforts-to-curb-semiconductor-tech-exports-to-china-are-nonsense-pundit-says-1101509157.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220809/biden-signs-bill-bolstering-us-semiconductor-industry-science-amid-competition-with-china-1099427478.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/lawyer-good-samaritan-killed-by-us-police-officer-after-helping-shooting-victim-1103917211.html

Lawyer: Good Samaritan Killed by US Police Officer After Helping Shooting Victim

Lawyer: Good Samaritan Killed by US Police Officer After Helping Shooting Victim

As of October 31, 886 people have been shot to death by on-duty police officers in the United States, according to the Washington Post. 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

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A man who performed CPR on a shooting victim ended up dead after a plain-clothed police officer shoved him to the ground, according to the familys lawyer.Kenneth Vineyard was outside of a Walmart in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, when he saw a man laying on the ground with a gunshot wound in the abdomen. Vineyard performed CPR on the man until paramedics arrived and then stepped back to let them take over.According to Joel Sansone, a lawyer representing Vineyards family, Vineyard was standing nearby when a plain-clothed man approached him. The man did not identify himself but told Vineyard to step back. When Vineyard told him he was trying to help and needed to reach his nearby fiance, the man violently shoved Vineyard who fell and hit his head on the pavement.Despite the efforts of his fiance and paramedics to treat him, Vineyard had no pulse at the scene and was pronounced dead at a Beaver County Hospital a short time later.Sansone says the plain-clothed man is a police officer employed by the Center Township Police Department.We want the name of the individual who caused this death and we intend to sue him and possibly others, Sansone said.The shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. local time on Sunday. The shooting victim, Rashaun Smith, was flown to a nearby hospital by a medical helicopter. Recent reports indicate that he remains there and there has been no update about his condition. The alleged shooter, Teshua Bratcher, was found hiding in an adjacent neighborhood. He has been charged with nine crimes, including criminal homicide.Sansone says that witnesses, including his fiance, saw Vineyard being shoved. He also says video footage of the incident proves Vineyard was shoved to the ground.State police confirmed to local media that they are investigating Vineyards death. Officials plan to talk to the officer who allegedly shoved Vineyard as early as Wednesday.The Center Township Police remain in charge of the shooting investigation.In August, the Center Township Police found themselves in the headlines after a handcuffed man died from a gunshot wound in the back seat of a police cruiser. Police say the man shot himself, but have not explained how he got a gun into the vehicle after being disarmed, or how he used it while handcuffed. State police are also investigating that incident.

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MANILA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Climate change is taking a heavy toll on Filipinos' lives, properties and livelihoods, and might hamper the country's ambition of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2040, according to a World Bank report on Wednesday.

The Country Climate and Development Report for Philippines warns that the archipelago country is vulnerable to sea level rise, with nearly half of its 110 million population living in urban areas and coastal areas.

Climate shocks, whether in the form of extreme weather events or slow-onset trends, will hamper economic activities, damage infrastructure, and induce deep social disruptions, the report said.

As one of the countries most affected by extreme climate events, the Philippines has experienced highly destructive typhoons almost annually for the past 10 years. Annual typhoon losses have been estimated at 1.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the report noted.

Policy actions and investments, principally to protect valuable infrastructure from typhoons and to make agriculture more resilient through climate-smart measures, could reduce these negative climate impacts by two-thirds, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Manuela Ferro said.

"Adaptation to the risks of climate change, including both extreme and slow-onset problems, is thus critical for the Philippines," the report said, warning that "policy inaction would impose substantial economic and human costs, especially for the poor."

Meanwhile, the report warned climate change will affect many people even with vigorous adaptation efforts. Some climate actions may also have adverse effects on particular groups, such as workers displaced by the move away from high-emission activities.

It recommended that the existing social protection system in the Philippines be strengthened and scaled up to support affected sectors and groups. 
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/lotus-in-g20-logo-sparks-squabble-between-bjp-and-main-opposition-party--1103933480.html

Lotus in G20 Logo Sparks Squabble Between BJP and Main Opposition Party

Lotus in G20 Logo Sparks Squabble Between BJP and Main Opposition Party

India will take over the chair of the G20, a grouping of the world's 20 largest economies, from Indonesia on December 1, following the summit in Bali on... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T13:23+0000

2022-11-09T13:23+0000

2022-11-14T16:55+0000

india

bharatiya janata party (bjp)

indian national congress

opposition

opposition

opposition party

g20 leaders summit

g20

presidency

presidency

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India's scheduled presidency of the G20 appears to have triggered unusual political bickering within the country over its logo - the lotus flower. The main opposition party Congress has objected to its use, as it also happens to be the federally governing BJP's party symbol. Slamming the BJP's move, Congress' media head Jairam Ramesh said the country's governing party was "shamelessly" promoting itself at a global level. Ramesh wrote on Twitter, "Over 70 years ago, (India's first Prime Minister) Nehru rejected the proposal to make Congress flag the flag of India. Now, BJP's election symbol has become official logo for India's presidency of G20! While shocking, we know by now that Mr. Modi & BJP won't lose any opportunity to promote themselves shamelessly!"Reacting to Ramesh's criticism, the government immediately hit back, with Kanchan Gupta, senior advisor in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, leading its response.Subsequently, the BJP's national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shot back at Congress, reminding the opposition party about the lotus being the national flower of India and not just belonging to a party.Poonawalla posted: "Lotus happens to be our National Flower! It also happens to be the aasan (seat) of Maa Lakshmi - Are you opposed to our national flower? Will you remove Kamal from name of Kamal Nath? Btw Rajiv also means Kamal ! Hope you see no agenda there!!!"On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the logo and the website for India's G20 presidency.Explaining the reason behind the logo depicting a lotus, Modi said that the flower's seven petals are indicative of the seven continents of Earth and under India's leadership, the G20's mission will be to bring harmony to the whole world."I congratulate countrymen on the historic occasion of India's G20 Presidency. Lotus portrays India's cultural heritage and faith in bringing the world together," he said."India's presidency comes at a time of crisis and chaos in the world... No matter the circumstances, the lotus still blooms," PM Modi concluded.

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india g20 presidency, g20 new logo, lotus in g20 logo, bjp criticism of g20 logo, narendra modi unveils g20 logo,
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/macron-declares-operation-barkhane-over-despite-3000-french-troops-still-in-sahel-1103952259.html

Macron Declares Operation Barkhane Over, Despite 3,000 French Troops Still in Sahel

Macron Declares Operation Barkhane Over, Despite 3,000 French Troops Still in Sahel

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that Operation Barkhane was officially over. The eight-year counterterrorism war has been fought across... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T19:11+0000

2022-11-09T19:11+0000

2022-11-23T14:36+0000

africa

france

sahel region

counterterrorism

task force takuba

west africa

foreign pullout from mali

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"I have decided, in coordination with our partners, to make official today the end of the Barkhane operation," Macron said in a speech on the French helicopter carrier Dixmude in Toulon on Wednesday.Barkhane began in August 2014 as an extension of Operation Serval, launched nearly two years earlier after the coup government in Mali appealed to Paris for help in suppressing an out-of-control rebellion by Tuareg rebels in the north who were aligned with Daesh*. Under Barkhane, that mission extended to four other nations - Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Mauritania - and the headquarters moved to NDjamena, Chad. At its height, the mission included 5,500 French troops, plus local forces.Another parallel operation, Task Force Takuba, was announced in 2020 to focus on the tri-state region between Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, and after the wind-down of Barkhane began in 2021, Takuba was for a time conceived of as its successor. After Mali demanded all French forces leave the country in early 2022, Takuba was also officially ended that August. However, the size and purview of the roughly 3,000 French forces in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad has not changed.France was once the colonial ruler of all five countries, which won independence in the early 1960s as the French Empire faced serious defeats in Vietnam, Algeria, and the Sinai. However, it remains a dominant force in many of its former colonies politics and economies.*A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/married-woman-in-india-arrested-for-honey-trapping-79-year-old-man-1103925492.html

Married Woman in India Arrested for 'Honey-Trapping' 79-Year-Old Man

Married Woman in India Arrested for 'Honey-Trapping' 79-Year-Old Man

In the past, India has seen a rise in honey-trapping incidents where young beautiful women befriend men, take incriminating pictures and videos and blackmail... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T09:31+0000

2022-11-09T09:31+0000

2022-11-09T09:31+0000

india

honey trap

married woman

men

old man

blackmailing

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A 32-year-old married woman in Karnataka, India, has been arrested for allegedly honey-trapping a 79-year-old man who was drugged and filmed nude, and then blackmailed to pay INR 1.5 million ($18,423), police told Indian media on Wednesday.The arrested woman, identified as Yashoda, is a resident of Saraswathinagar village in Karnataka. She befriended the victim, Chidanandappa, and took a hand loan of INR 86,000 ($1,056). When Chidanandappa asked her to return his money, Yashoda kept making excuses.Last week, Yashoda agreed to pay his money back and allegedly called him to her house. Thereafter, she allegedly offered him juice spiked with drugs which made him unconscious after he'd consumed it. The accused made him lie on the cot, stripped him, and took nude photos and videos of him along with her.She later blackmailed Chidanandappa for INR 1.5 million, threatening to show their personal video to his wife and children, and post it on social media.Frightened by the consequences, the old man agreed to pay her INR 700,000 ($8,610) but informed his family about the incident and filed a police complaint.

https://sputniknews.com/20221107/poverty--income-inequality-remain-main-reasons-for-sex-trafficking-in-rural-india-1103849013.html

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honey trap, married woman, men, old man, blackmailing, crime
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/meghan-markle-breaks-royal-impartiality-protocol-by-voting-in-us-mid-terms-1103937010.html

Meghan Markle Breaks Royal Impartiality Protocol by Voting in US Midterms

Meghan Markle Breaks Royal Impartiality Protocol by Voting in US Midterms

Meghan Markle and her husband, British Prince Harry, have both been outspoken critics of the Republican Party and conservative causes such as freedom of... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T14:43+0000

2022-11-09T14:43+0000

2022-11-09T14:43+0000

2022 us midterms

meghan markle

mid-terms

2022 us midterm elections

uk royal family

prince harry

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Meghan Markle has sparked accusations of breaching British royal political neutrality protocol by announcing she had voted in the US midterm elections.A page on the website of the Archewell NGO run by the American former actress and her husband Prince Harry urged readers to cast their ballots in the election for all 435 federal House of Representatives seats and 34 of the 100 senators.The page did not say who the Duchess of Sussex had voted for, but it included a link to the site of VoteRiders  a California-based NGO founded by Democratic Party election campaigner Kathleen Unger which opposes voter ID laws favoured by many Republicans.While the British royals have the right to vote like other citizens, by convention they do not exercise it in keeping with the principles of royal impartiality in politics that underpins the modern UK system of constitutional monarchy.Markle attacked former President Donald Trump during his 2016 election campaign  before she married the second son of British King Charles III  calling him divisive and misogynistic.Last year it was reported that the duchess was considering running for the presidency herself in 2024 as a Democrat candidate  a prospect Trump said would encourage him to stand again. If elected, she would be the first British royal to rule the territories south of Canada since King George III lost control of the original 13 colonies in 1783.Prince Harry also waded into the political arena in 2021 by backing Liberal calls to limit the First Amendment right to free speech  which he dubbed "Bonkers".With vote-counting still ongoing on Wednesday afternoon, the Republicans were on predicted to win a slim majority in the House. It remained unclear whether either party would take control of the senate, which split 50-50 between the two dominant parties in 2020.

https://sputniknews.com/20221108/difficult-is-actually-code-word-for-btch-meghan-markle-says-1103910389.html

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meghan markle, mid-terms, 2022 us midterm elections, uk royal family, prince harry
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/norway-to-map-thousands-of-nazi-defense-facilities-in-massive-local-history-project-1103919968.html

Norway to Map Thousands of Nazi Defense Facilities in Massive Local History Project

Norway to Map Thousands of Nazi Defense Facilities in Massive Local History Project

The underlying idea of the huge task, described as formidable by one of the activists, is to preserve the history of the Second World War and teach it to... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T09:35+0000

2022-11-09T09:35+0000

2022-11-18T09:22+0000

science & tech

history

archeology

norway

scandinavia

news

europe

wwii

nazi germany

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The Germans left an indelible mark when they invaded Norway during the Second World War. Now, nearly 80 years later, the historic war facilities, some of which are in surprisingly good condition, are to be mapped and compiled into a single registry.This gigantic task of registering all German war remains around the country will be carried out by local history groups in collaboration with the authorities. The underlying idea is to preserve the history of the Second World War and teach it to future generations, as well as to improve accessibility for people who want to see the facilities in person.When Germany occupied Norway on 9 April 1940, they launched a gigantic expansion of defense facilities along the entire coast of the Nordic country. Thousands of small and large facilities were built in a bid to stop Allied ships from entering Norway.It is impressive what the occupiers were able to accomplish over their years in Norway, Gunnar Hojem, the chairman of the National Association for Local History, told Norwegian media.According to Hojem, the work will commence in Namsos and Srfold in Nordland County. In the Namsenfjord alone, there are up to 1,000 German defense works, both large and small, he stressed, foreseeing a formidable task in the next few years.Namsos was strategically important in the middle of Norway. In the spring of 1940, British and French soldiers landed there in a failed attempt to beat the Germans back into central Norway.Namsos famous torpedo battery was built between 1942 and 1944, mostly by the Soviet prisoners of war. Today, it remains a site of pilgrimage by history buffs. Inside, ammunition crates, kitchen stoves, wiring and even paintings on the walls are preserved.It's fun to see how much interest there is still in war history. Just look at the turn-out today, Gudrun Flateb of the Namsos municipality told local media.Archaeologist Lars Forseth of Trndelag county municipality suggested that now is the right time to register all the facilities the Germans have left behind.Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany from April 1940, with conventional armed resistance ending in June 1940. It remained subjugated until German forces surrendered in Europe in May 1945. During these five years, the country was ruled by the Reich Commissariat of Norway in collaboration with a pro-German puppet regime led by Vidkun Quisling, whose name subsequently became synonymous with traitor in Norwegian and other Nordic languages.The Soviet Union played a key role in liberating Finnmark, Norways northernmost province that was heavily militarized by the Germans during the war years.

https://sputniknews.com/20220729/echoes-of-war-giant-swastika-pops-up-in-norwegian-school-during-renovation-1097913833.html

norway

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Igor Kuznetsov

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/prepping-for-oumuamua-20-scientists-warn-we-need-to-be-ready-for-our-next-interstellar-visitor-1103916494.html

Prepping for Oumuamua 2.0: Scientists Warn We Need to Be Ready for Next Interstellar Visitor

Prepping for Oumuamua 2.0: Scientists Warn We Need to Be Ready for Next Interstellar Visitor

In 2017, a quarter-mile-long object that may have been ten times as long as it was wide, was identified as the first known and observed interstellar object to... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T01:18+0000

2022-11-09T01:18+0000

2022-11-09T01:16+0000

science & tech

space

interstellar rock

astronomer

study

solar system

warning

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Scientists are warning the public needs to be ready to intercept the next interstellar visitor that passes through our solar system in order to prevent being blindsided as officials were when the still-mysterious Oumuamua made its grand arrival in 2017.Oumuamuas origins and composition remain unknown to scientists, with theories ranging from a shard of an exoplanet to alien technology. Whatever it is, scientists believe that had we been able to observe it closely, we may have discovered more secrets about the formation of our galaxy and what lies beyond our solar system.The biggest mystery about the object may not be its odd size, unknown composition, or where it came from but rather why Oumuamua suddenly sped up while in our solar system - an event that has left scientists stumped.Scientists werent ready for Oumuamua as it sling-shotted around the sun and sped out of our reach, first passing Mars and then Jupiters orbits. Today, it is estimated to be nearly 3 billion miles away from Earth.Now, scientists are developing a plan for the next interstellar object of interest to pass through our solar system and they want Earth to be ready this time. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb and astrophysics student Amir Siraj authored a paper detailing what would be required of such a mission.It was Loeb who famously first suggested Oumuamua may have been a piece of alien technology. Their paper includes a potential timeline, the needed speed of the spacecraft, and how close they think the craft should get to the object.Loeb and Siraj suggest that a spacecraft should be laying in wait, ready to intercept any interesting objects that come from outside of our solar system. They suggest it be stored in outer space, possibly in the L2 region, where the James Webb Telescope sits. It could also, they say, be put in orbit of the moon or Earth. It could also be launched from land, but time would be of the essence.After Oumuamuas discovery in October 2017, the mysterious object reached its closest point to Earth in August 2019 and less than a year later, it was so far out that it can no longer be detected by telescopes.While nearly three years seems like a long time, it is important to remember it takes a long time to go anywhere in space. The paper states that scientists will have weeks between identifying an object and sending a spacecraft after it.Ideally, the craft would get within a few hundred miles of the object and take pictures that would help identify the objects composition.Siraj and Loeb are not the only ones with plans on tracking down an interstellar object. NASA scientists presented a Bridge to the Stars plan in 2020, though that project is still in its conceptual phase. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency has plans to launch a Comet Interceptor that will be stored in the L2 region. That project is focused on intercepting objects from the outer edges of our solar system but could be repurposed to catch an interstellar object if one comes nearby.Meanwhile, the Initiative for Interstellar Studies is not ready to give up on Oumuamua yet. Earlier this year they proposed Project Lyra, intending to send a spacecraft after the mysterious object and hope to catch it as early as 2047. If their plan is put into motion, it will require the fastest spacecraft created by man, exceeding the speed of the Voyager probes.That is likely something Siraj would find interesting. It's remarkable to me that there still isnt an explanation that doesn't invoke a new type of astrophysical object for Oumuamua, he said. That's very motivating for me and, I think, for a lot of scientists.

https://sputniknews.com/20210618/they-could-be-out-there-astronomer-urges-humanity-to-hunt-for-objects-like-oumuamua-1083185557.html

space

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Ian DeMartino

Ian DeMartino

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`oumuamua, interstellar, space
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/recovered-north-korean-missile-identified-as-sa-5-type-missile-south-korean-defense-ministry--1103916786.html

Recovered North Korean Missile Identified as SA-5-Type Missile, South Korean Defense Ministry

Recovered North Korean Missile Identified as SA-5-Type Missile, South Korean Defense Ministry

North Korea has been firing missiles into the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan since September. Pyongyang has explained the tests are in response to ceaseless... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T02:30+0000

2022-11-09T02:30+0000

2022-11-09T02:28+0000

world

north korea

missile

south korea

sea of japan

yellow sea

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Remnants of a North Korean missile since-recovered by investigators on Monday appears to resemble a Soviet-designed missile, officials with the South Korean military have revealed.According to the South Korean defense ministry, the recovered debris appears similar to the Soviet-designed SA-5 type missile, a surface-to-air defense system that was first introduced into service in the 1960s.North Korea fired the missile on November 2, when the projectile managed to cross the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the East Sea. The NLL is a de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, though North Korea does not recognize its legitimacy.The debris was picked up off the ocean floor using a submersible drone. It was one of 23 missiles fired by North Korea that day. The remains of the missile measured roughly 10 feet long and six-and-half feet wide.After the missiles were launched, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol condemned the action as territorial encroachment. He noted it was the first time a missile violated the NLL since the Korean War ceasefire began in 1953.

https://sputniknews.com/20221107/north-koreas-missile-launches-this-month-simulated-attacks-on-enemy-air-bases---reports-1103839700.html

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2022

Ian DeMartino

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/rich-nations-offer-some-loss-and-damage-aid-shrug-off-liability-at-cop27-say-experts-1103939492.html

Rich Nations Offer Some 'Loss and Damage' Aid, Shrug Off 'Liability' at COP27, Say Experts

Rich Nations Offer Some 'Loss and Damage' Aid, Shrug Off 'Liability' at COP27, Say Experts

So far only six developed nations have offered some aid within the framework of the "loss and damage" agenda. Earlier, industrialized nations had vowed to... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T14:00+0000

2022-11-09T14:00+0000

2022-11-15T12:19+0000

opinion & analysis

us

opinion

uk

cop27 in egypt

climate change

developing countries

developed countries

carbon dioxide

climate justice

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"There should be recognition that the world's industrialized countries have a greater carbon and greenhouse emission footprint compared with their developing country counterparts, and that is backed by evidence that has been gathered [for as long as] climate change and emissions that are caused by humans has been recorded," Ongama Mtimka, a lecturer specializing in South African politics and international political economy at Nelson Mandela University, told Sputnik.The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) began on 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. On the second day of the meeting, vulnerable developing states that suffer from climate change-related environmental problems while producing the least amount of carbon dioxide called upon the most-polluting nations to pay "loss and damage" and "adaptation" funds.According to the UN website, specific additional pledges have been made by several industrialized countries. The UK has vowed to triple its adaptation finance for developing states by 2025. In addition to that, Scotland, which had previously pledged 2Mln ($2.3Mln), announced an extra 5Mln ($5.7Mln) in loss and damage funds.Austria pledged $50Mln for loss and damage, Germany announced $170Mln and Belgium 2.5Mln ($2.5Mln) for the same issue. Earlier, in September, Denmark pledged to allocate 100Mln Krone ($13.5Mln) with a focus on the Sahel region in north-western Africa. For his part, Irish PM Micheal Martin committed 10Mln ($10Mln) to the "Global Shield" initiative for 2023.Still, it is estimated that the economic cost of loss and damage in developing countries will be between $1 trillion and $1.8 trillion by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Given this, the aforementioned commitments appear to be minuscule. It raises the question whether developed states will fork out even more to compensate for loss and damage to poor developing states.Between 2009 and 2020, industrialized countries delivered just a fraction of their $100Bln climate-finance target. Thus, for instance, the US gave $7.6Bln instead of $40Bln; Canada was $3.3Bln short, providing only 37 percent of its fair share. Australia gave 38 percent of its share, falling short by $1.7Bln. The UK shortchanged developing nations by $1.4Bln giving 76 percent of what it had agreed to pay. Germany, France and Japan provided much of their aid in loans rather than grants, according to Carbon Brief, a UK-based investigative journalism website.In contrast, the US, the EU, the UK and some other developed nations have pledged a whopping 93.73Bln ($93.62Bln) in military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine between January and October 2022."The invoices issued will then be adjusted as part of the negotiation process between the affected states and the countries that will have to pay these compensations," the expert emphasized.However, developed countries are reluctant to pay any "compensation" to the affected states or be labeled as "liable" to pay, he added.Earlier, US climate czar and former Secretary of State under Barack Obama, John Kerry, warned poor states against trying to hold the US "liable": according to him that would create problems "for everybody, not just for us".

https://sputniknews.com/20221109/cop27-albatross-of-western-sanctions-hinders-zimbabwes-climate-efforts-says-zimbabwe-president-1103922489.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221107/cop27-will-rich-nations-walk-their-loss-and-damage-talk-or-sweep-it-under-rug-again-1103865220.html

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2022

Ekaterina Blinova

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Ekaterina Blinova

cop27, loss and damage, climate change, developed nations, most-polluting states, climate change-related disaster
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/russian-exporters-hold-over-150-b2b-meetings-at-ciie-2022-in-china-1103949689.html

Russian Exporters Hold Over 150 B2B Meetings at CIIE 2022 in China

Russian Exporters Hold Over 150 B2B Meetings at CIIE 2022 in China

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian exporters have already held more than 150 meetings with Chinese partners at the V China International Import Expo in Shanghai, the... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T17:22+0000

2022-11-09T17:22+0000

2022-11-09T17:22+0000

russia

russian export center jsc (rec)

china

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Russian exporters have already held more than 150 talks with potential partners and participated in presentations of Russian industrial and consumer goods during the V China International Import Expo (CIIE). A special thematic session Made in Russia to China: promoting Russian products via online and offline channels. Support for agro-industrial complex exports to China, the REC said.The Export Center noted that more than 50 Russian exporting companies, including online, and more than 100 representatives of the Chinese business community participated in the business events. The event was also attended by representatives of the Russian Trade Mission in China, the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Shanghai, and leading Russian and Chinese media.Companies had the opportunity to learn about the current unified export support system, which provides support to exporters through the Russian Trade Mission in China and the representative office of the Russian Export Center, which offers a set of financial and non-financial tools through the My Export digital platform.Representatives of the Russian trading company in China, "Hua No E Xiang", spoke about the work of the cross-industry platform for foreign trade deals between Russian producers and Chinese consumers.The REC reminded that the CIIE, which will run until November 10, brings together 29 companies under the unified Made in Russia brand. A rich business program has been prepared for Russian participants.

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/scott-ritter-explains-why-russias-kherson-withdrawal-is-a-pyrrhic-ukrainian-victory-1103953027.html

Scott Ritter Explains Why Russia's Kherson Withdrawal is a Pyrrhic Ukrainian Victory

Scott Ritter Explains Why Russia's Kherson Withdrawal is a Pyrrhic Ukrainian Victory

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops from parts of Kherson to form defensive positions on the left bank of the... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T19:26+0000

2022-11-09T19:26+0000

2022-11-09T19:27+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

russia

ukraine

kherson

troop withdrawal

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Speaking with Sputnik, Scott Ritter, a military analyst and former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, has explained why the decision to relocate Russian troops to the left bank of the Dnepr River shouldn't be viewed as a "Russian defeat," but rather as a "pyrrhic Ukrainian victory."Sputnik: What are the main reasons for the Russian withdrawal from parts of Kherson? Is this a reasonable move, given circumstances such as the approaching winter?Scott Ritter: I think the decision was made irregardless of the weather. This is a decision that seemed to focus on preserving the lives of thousands of Russian soldiers over holding on to territory which has no intrinsic value in the short term. I think it was a just decision, one that was made based upon purely military objectives. I think the decision had been made because it was too difficult to reliably supply the Russian troops stationed on the right bank of the river in the vicinity of Kherson with the materiel necessary to ensure their victory over attacking Ukrainian forces and that ultimately these lives could be saved by going back to the left bank, securing their defensive positions and then holding off the Ukrainians, until such time Russia was able to accumulate sufficient offensive military power necessary to retake Kherson, reoccupy the right bank and possibly advance further into Ukraine.Sputnik: What does Ukraine win and lose by occupying the right bank?Ritter: First and foremost, this will be a very big political victory for Ukraine. There should be no doubt about this. Ukraine will be capturing or recapturing from their perspective the only major administrative center that had been captured by the Russians in their special military operation. The recapture of Kherson has been a strategic objective of the Zelensky government and the Ukrainian military from the start of their major counter-offensive in September. And if they are able to put troops in Kherson, raise the Ukrainian flag over the administrative buildings of Kherson, this will be seen as an extraordinarily important political victory for them, one which will be able to be used to argue for continued military and financial support from NATO, from the United States and from other nations. But it's a political victory only because unless the Ukrainian occupation of Kherson occured in partnership with a larger peace agreement that guaranteed them possession of Kherson in perpetuity, this is, I believe, simply a temporary state of affairs that ultimately, once Russia is able to assemble the totality of the 300,000 men that were mobilized and then carry out combat operations reflective of this new military capacity, that Russia will recapture Kherson, reoccupy the right bank of the Dnepr River and as I said before, have the possibility of advancing further into Ukraine up to and including the capture of the city of Odessa. Sputnik: In his report to the defense minister, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine Surovikin pointed out that Ukraines losses are 7-8 times greater than Russias. Can Ukraine really continue to rely on rapid advances?Ritter: This is ultimately the military math that must be considered by everybody who is assessing the situation. The fact of the matter is, Ukraine cannot continue to operate under conditions where it's suffering seven to eight times casualties as their Russian opponents and expect to emerge from this conflict victorious. The casualty rate is too high. It's unsustainable, and ultimately, if it continues, will lead to the strategic defeat of Ukraine. Sputnik: What does this move say about the Russian strategy? Is Moscow playing the long game in Ukraine? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy?Ritter: First and foremost, this should demonstrate to the Russian mothers, wives and daughters that the Russian government takes the lives of their loved ones, the men who have been sent into combat very seriously and is not willing to sacrifice them needlessly. That's an extraordinarily important statement being made by the Russian government, where they are willing to accept short-term embarassment in exchange for preserving the lives of Russia's most precious asset, which is its human resources, in this case, the men who wear the uniform of the Russian army. It also shows that Russia is in no hurry to get this conflict over with, that Russia is willing to consolidate its defenses in order to preserve life potentially extending the conflict, but in a manner which allows Russia to gain the advantage at a time and place that's more beneficial to Russia, so that not only will Russia ultimately achieve the military victory it seeks, but it will do so without needlessly sacrificing thousands of Russian military lives.

https://sputniknews.com/20221109/commander-of-russian-forces-in-ukraine-delivers-report-to-defense-minister-on-special-op-1103943922.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221109/3-reasons-russia-is-withdrawing-from-part-of-kherson-1103951287.html

russia

ukraine

kherson

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scott ritter, kherson withdrawal, pyrrhic ukrainian victory, russia withdraws from parts of kherson, why is russia withdrawing from kherson, reasons why russia is withdrawing from kherson
BEIRUT, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon has arrested 30 terrorists affiliated with eight terrorist cells that belonged to the Islamic State (IS) militant group from July to October, the country's Internal Security Forces said in a statement on Wednesday.

The terrorists, who are Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, and Egyptians, were arrested in several Lebanese regions, including Beirut, Bekaa, and Mount Lebanon, a mountain range in central Lebanon.

Investigations have revealed they planned to carry out terrorist attacks against military and security facilities, as well as religious and civil gatherings in Lebanon, according to the statement.

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces decided to postpone the announcement of the arrests because they fear it might negatively affect the summer tourism season, it noted. 
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/swedish-pm-visits-turkey-in-charm-offensive-over-nato-membership-1103918396.html

Swedish PM Visits Turkey in Charm Offensive Over NATO Membership

Swedish PM Visits Turkey in Charm Offensive Over NATO Membership

Sweden's and Finlands NATO bids mark a formal end to decades of non-alignment and have been met with staunch resistance from Ankara. Today, both Sweden and... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T07:04+0000

2022-11-09T07:04+0000

2022-11-09T07:04+0000

world

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military & intelligence

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europe

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nato

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Sweden's new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has visited the Turkish capital, Ankara, and spoken with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the Nordic countrys bid to join NATO which at present is being blocked by Turkey.Kristersson, leader of the recently elected ruling Moderate Party, stressed that Sweden's change of government doesnt affect the country's NATO process and that he is personally ready to accomplish it. Among other things, he made it clear that Sweden intends to follow the agreement that was concluded between Turkey, Sweden and fellow Nordic nation and NATO candidate Finland in June. According to the agreement, Sweden and Finland will support Turkey in its fight against terrorism and groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is on Turkey's, the EU's and the US' terrorist list.However, Sweden may have to go to greater lengths than originally thought to keep Ankara satisfied.We want to see that Sweden supports Turkey's security interests, President Erdogan said at the same conference. At our meeting, we openly expressed our expectations for concrete actions in relation to our agreement, he added.In May, several months after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, citing a change in their security environment. However, Turkey - a NATO member whose assent is needed for their application to succeed - was unimpressed, accusing both countries, especially Sweden, of harboring militant Kurds and assisting terrorists. As well as calls to crack down on terrorism generally, Turkey demanded that several people be extradited from Sweden, which sent a ripple across the countrys political circles and liberal press sparking accusations of lack of integrity.Amineh Kakabaveh, a Swedish left-wing politician and avowed feminist who was a Kurdish guerrilla soldier before she fled to Sweden in 1991, is critical of the country's NATO aspirations and has accused the government of running errands for Turkey.As a token of their readiness to enter NATO - even at the cost of sacrificing principles - Sweden and Finland earlier this year eagerly lifted the ban on arms exports to Turkey which they had introduced previously over Ankaras engagement in Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, a moved praised by Erdogan as a step in the right direction.Over the weekend, the Swedish government also announced that it was distancing itself from the YPG and PYD - Kurdish organizations it had previously supported. Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom called the two organizations dubious and said that their ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were too close. This move was also praised by Ankara.Kristersson and Erdogan will meet in Stockholm in a month's time although the precise date of the meeting has not yet been revealed.Sweden's and Finlands NATO bids mark a formal end to decades of non-alignment, which in recent years existed in name only, as both countries inched increasingly closer to the US-led bloc, taking part in joint drills and overseas operations and maintaining a lively arms cooperation.Previously, both countries broke yet another principle not to send arms to countries in conflict by jumping on the Ukraine bandwagon and announcing massive weapons assistance to Kiev.

https://sputniknews.com/20221102/swedish-parties-split-over-natos-nuclear-arms-on-countrys-soil-1102936097.html

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Igor Kuznetsov

Igor Kuznetsov

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Igor Kuznetsov

sweden's nato bid, finland's nato bid, prime minister ulf kristersson, kurdish organizations, end of non-alignment policy, sweden's nato accession
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/taiwan-allocates-16bln-for-drone-production-amid-tensions-with-beijing-reports-say-1103932328.html

Taiwan Allocates $1.6Bln for Drone Production Amid Tensions With Beijing, Reports Say

Taiwan Allocates $1.6Bln for Drone Production Amid Tensions With Beijing, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Taiwan has allocated $1.6 billion from public funds to build a domestic supply chain of drones within a year in case of confrontation with... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T10:33+0000

2022-11-09T10:33+0000

2022-11-09T10:33+0000

world

taiwan

drone

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The initiative is a part of efforts of Taiwan's leader, Tsai Ing-wen, to make armed forces focus on an "increasingly pressing threat from Beijing," which has stepped up its military maneuvers near the island since August, according to the newspaper.Taiwans administration aims to organize Taiwanese private drone makers into a "national team" to develop production of unmanned aerial vehicle systems for specific purposes in the event of tensions escalation in the Taiwan Strait, the report said, adding that the authorities expect first orders by July next year.The situation around Taiwan escalated after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in early August. Beijing condemned Pelosi's trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island. Despite this fact, several countries, including Germany, have sent delegations to the island since then, further increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait.Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing views the island as its province, while Taiwan  a territory with its own elected government  maintains that it is an autonomous country but stops short of declaring independence. Beijing opposes any official contacts of foreign states with Taipei and considers Chinese sovereignty over the island indisputable.

https://sputniknews.com/20221027/chinese-defense-ministry-says-any-attempt-to-prevent-taiwan-china-reunification-will-fail-1102763935.html

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taiwan, drone, tensions, china, production
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/tucker-carlson-calls-to-ditch-glitchy-electronic-voting-machines-1103918601.html

Tucker Carlson Calls to Ditch Glitchy Electronic Voting Machines

Tucker Carlson Calls to Ditch Glitchy Electronic Voting Machines

Technical glitches with voting machines in Arizonas Maricopa County on Tuesday prompted Donald Trump to write on his Truth Social platform, Here we go... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T05:24+0000

2022-11-09T05:24+0000

2022-11-09T08:40+0000

2022 us midterms

us midterm elections

joe biden

donald trump

voting machines

tucker carlson

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The shaky start to voting in the mid-term elections in Arizonas Maricopa County on Tuesday prompted Fox News host Tucker Carlson to call for an end to the use of electronic voting machines.Carlson insisted that the core problem is were not really very serious about democracy if were using electronic voting machines or if were not requiring photo ID to vote".Approximately an hour after the voting began, some of Maricopa Countys 223 voting sites started to experience technical issues with the tabulators, according to the states media outlets. Ballots were not being read properly because the formatting marks were not dark enough for the tabulators to read, thanks to the printer settings, officials were cited as saying. According to various estimates, between 10 and 30 percent of the electronic vote tabulation machines in the county were malfunctioning at some point until technicians fixed the issue.Youre going to have these moments where everybody in the country fears volatility because one side doesnt believe the result is real. You see it on both sides, said Carlson as polls began to close and initial election results started to seep into media reports.Referring to the glitches with machines provided by technology firm Dominion Voting Systems, he emphasized that incidents like that shake peoples faith in the system.The present malfunctions with software used by Dominion Voting Systems were immediately seized upon by former President Donald Trump, who wrote on his Truth Social platform, "Reports are coming in from Arizona that the Voting Machines are not properly working in predominately Republican/Conservative areas. Here we go again? The people will not stand for it!!"Right after the elections in 2020, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden, the former POTUS and his campaign blamed massive use of voter fraud by the Democrats in several states. Specifically, Trump accused Dominion Voting Systems - that provided the voting machines - of illegally deleting an estimated 2.7 million votes cast for him. The technology firm rejected the accusations. The former Republican president also claimed that victory had been stolen from him via manipulations involving mail-in ballots in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However, despite a plethora of irregularities manifest throughout the election process in 2020, all efforts to provide solid proof fell through, and Trump and his legal team failed to win any lawsuits upholding the accusations in courts.On 8 November, people across America headed to the polls to decide the fate of all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate, as well as 36 gubernatorial seats and 88 state legislature seats.

https://sputniknews.com/20221108/its-not-gop-or-putins-fault-dems-have-only-themselves-to-blame-if-defeated-in-midterms---journo-1103911240.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220418/voter-verifiable-paper-backed-gop-states-eye-upgrade-to-outdated-voting-machines--1094863633.html

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Svetlana Ekimenko

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Svetlana Ekimenko

technical glitches with voting machines, tucker carlson urges end to electronic voting machines, technical issues with the tabulators in maricopa country, arizona, donald trump decried massive use of voter fraud by the democrats in several states in 2020, on november 8 america headed to the polls to decide the fate of all 435 house seats and 35 of the 100 seats in the senate
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/ugandan-president-denounces-europes-climate-process-hypocrisy-1103944017.html

Ugandan President Denounces Europe's Climate Process 'Hypocrisy'

Ugandan President Denounces Europe's Climate Process 'Hypocrisy'

The effects climate change has on Africa and the continent's place in the global climate process are among central topics of the 2022 United Nations Climate... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T17:39+0000

2022-11-09T17:39+0000

2022-11-23T11:37+0000

africa

uganda

yoweri museveni

climate change

green economy

europe

east africa

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https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/0b/09/1103943375_0:0:3141:1768_1920x0_80_0_0_1eb09d91fd4388ee2caec69cacc2c153.jpg

The reopening of coal plants in Europe, while Europeans are still demanding a switch away from fossil fuel-based energy in Africa, is a double standard, wrote Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, on his personal blog.Museveni said that while European countries have propagated the unacceptability of fossil fuel investment in Africa and even induced a moratorium on it, now investment is said to be possible if the fossil fuel products are exported to Europe. The president called this "a truly perverse twist" and "the purest hypocrisy."The Western sanctions and unilateral measures by European governments led to the impossibility of imports of Russian gas to the EU in previous volumes, which has caused power shortages unseen in decades. Against this background, countries such as Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Germany appear to have decided to turn to coal-based energy, despite earlier climate commitments.Recently, Western countries have faced several accusations of using the green agenda for pursuing egoistic and neo-colonialist interests. African leaders believe that in an attempt to compensate for the loss of access to Russian gas, the West is overlooking Africa's need to develop energy independence.

https://sputniknews.com/20221109/cop27-albatross-of-western-sanctions-hinders-zimbabwes-climate-efforts-says-zimbabwe-president-1103922489.html

africa

uganda

east africa

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Petr Baryshnikov

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yoweri museveni, western hypocrisy, global energy crisis, climate change in africa, green politics
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/us-prolonging-ukraine-conflict-to-profit-from-arms-lng-sales---russian-ambassador-antonov-1103917020.html

US Prolonging Ukraine Conflict to Profit From Arms, LNG Sales - Russian Ambassador Antonov

US Prolonging Ukraine Conflict to Profit From Arms, LNG Sales - Russian Ambassador Antonov

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States is prolonging the conflict in Ukraine in order to profit from sales of military equipment and liquefied natural gas... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T03:24+0000

2022-11-09T03:24+0000

2022-11-09T06:04+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

us

russia

anatoly antonov

lng

arms sales

ukraine crisis

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"The White House cannot escape responsibility for prolonging the conflict and killing innocent people. However, the United States continues with its maniacal persistence to adhere to the tactics of war of attrition by exhausting everyone - Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans as well as ordinary Americans," Antonov said. The ambassador said the United States is waging war with Russia "until the last Ukrainian." He also pointed out that US officials often say they will not talk to Russia about Ukraine without the participation of Ukraine and that it is up to Kiev to decide at what point to sit down at the negotiating table.Dialogue between the United States and Russia has been practically paralyzed" and bilateral cooperation has collapsed even on the most mutually advantageous issues, Antonov said."Russian-American political dialogue is at an unprecedented low level. It can be considered almost paralyzed," Antonov said. "The trust is broken and collaboration has collapsed even on issues of mutual interest. The communication between the sides is limited and largely reduced to a discussion on technical problems."Antonov said the Russian Embassy's interaction with the US authorities has been blocked based at the initiative of the United States and the State Department prefers to communicate only by telephone or email.It is vital to maintain channels of communication between Russia and the United States in order to prevent a confrontation that could further worsen and have unpredictable consequences, Antonov added.On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration was privately encouraging Kiev to demonstrate its readiness to negotiate with Moscow.Ukraine and Russia held several rounds of peace talks since the start of hostilities on February 24. The last round concluded in Istanbul on March 29 without any results, and the talks have since been stalled.In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was still open for talks with Kiev and called on Ukraine to stop the hostilities. Zelensky said that Kiev was ready for dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia. The Kremlin responded that Moscow would wait for a change in the stance of Ukraine's current president or his successor.

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anatoly antonov, russia, ukraine crisis, russian ambassador, arms sales, lng sales
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/us-reportedly-prodded-ukraines-zelensky-to-ditch-putin-out-of-power-condition-for-russia-talks-1103932017.html

US Reportedly Prodded Ukraines Zelensky to Ditch Putin-Out-of-Power Condition For Russia Talks

US Reportedly Prodded Ukraines Zelensky to Ditch Putin-Out-of-Power Condition For Russia Talks

Previously, US newspaper reports cited "Ukraine fatigue increasingly becoming manifest in some countries, as they suggested that the administration of US... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T11:54+0000

2022-11-09T11:54+0000

2022-11-09T11:54+0000

volodymyr zelensky

vladimir putin

ukraine crisis

negotiations

opinion & analysis

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The Joe Biden administration prodded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to rethink his stance on talks with Russia, US media reported, citing White House insiders. Furthermore, the nudging was ostensibly done to appease both Democrats and Republicans, who have argued the need for a more diplomatic stance regarding the conflagration in Ukraine, particularly ahead of the November 8 midterm elections.As Zelensky outlined five conditions for negotiations with Moscow on resolving the Ukraine conflict during a nightly televised address posted on YouTube on November 7, such as restoring territorial integrity, respecting UN Statute, paying off all damages caused by war, punishing each war criminal, and guarantees this won't happen again, the president of Ukraine conspicuously omitted any reference to Vladimir Putin. Previously, the Kiev regime rejected any negotiations specifically with Russias president, the American media outlet underscored.However, days of talks between Kiev and Washington that included an in-person visit to the Ukrainian capital by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ostensibly brought a change.The report rushes to rule out any speculation that US officials directly instructed Zelensky and his aides to alter their position. However, it does hint that Kiev was told to display readiness for talks in order to be seen as embracing the moral high ground in the eyes of the coalition of Western countries that have poured money and weapons into propping up the Ukraine regime.This comes as an earlier US report suggested that concerns were mounting in parts of Europe, Africa, and Latin America over the soaring food and fuel prices being driven, in part, by sanctions on Russia over its ongoing special operation in Ukraine. Accordingly, the disruptive effect the conflict and the so-called collective West's reaction to it has been wreaking has prompted increasing "Ukraine fatigue" among some US partners. Volodymyr Zelenskys refusal to negotiate with Vladimir Putin was also said to be generating concern in parts of Europe. As polls ahead of the November 8 midterms revealed eroding support among Republicans for continued assistance to Kievs military, Democrats and Republicans have ostensibly been pressuring the Joe Biden administration to push for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.In a U-turn that reflected growing concerns over the fallout from the Ukraine crisis, a group of 30 Democratic lawmakers from the US House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden in late October, urging him to fundamentally change the administrations strategy with respect to Kiev.The authors of the letter warned that "the alternative to diplomacy is a protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and catastrophic and unknowable risks."Furthermore, there have been growing divisions among congressional Republicans on whether to proceed with military assistance to Ukraine, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying in October that a GOP-controlled House wouldn't write a "blank check" to Kiev.Hints From 'Big Brother'Some US allies in Europe are becoming increasingly concerned that a protracted conflict in Ukraine may entail a rising burden for some of them, Joseph Camilleri, emeritus professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, told Sputnik.Three aspects are worth noting, the professor underscored: the cost of providing economic and military aid to Ukraine; the eventual cost of reconstruction, which Europe may likely have to shoulder in part; and skyrocketing prices on energy and foodstuffs.Bearing in mind that the Biden administration has been strongly committed to repairing the fractured US alliance system, a dragged-out conflict in Ukraine was fraught with more fissures, one of Australia's leading international relations scholars underscored.Even if reports of the Biden team urging Kiev to reassess its stance on talks with Russia are true, the Ukrainian authorities are unlikely to actually take the hint and restart negotiations in the immediate future, Joseph Camilleri said. However, in due course, Ukraine will have no option but to pay close attention to US advice, he added.Speculating on whether the fact that Ukraine does not appear to be able to move towards resuming negotiations without hints from its "big brother" in Washington, Joseph Camilleri conceded that the US is obviously extremely influential in how Kiev handles the conflict.However, he added that there are powerful political currents within Ukraine itself that Zelensky has to consider carefully before changing his current stance on Russia negotiations.After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, a spate of talks was conducted between Moscow and Kiev. After the last round of the negotiations concluded in Istanbul on March 29, the talks have since stalled. In late September, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was still open to talks with Kiev and called on Ukraine to put an end to hostilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, stated that Kiev was ready for dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia. In response, the Kremlin said that Moscow would wait for a change in the stance of Ukraine's current president or his successor.

https://sputniknews.com/20221106/washington-wants-kiev-to-signal-openness-to-dialogue-with-russia-report-suggests-1103822796.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221026/ukraine-peace-talks-pathetic-u-turn-by-30-dems--curious-case-of-jeffrey-sachs-1102707399.html

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biden administration reportedly prodded ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky to rethink stance on talks with russia, democrats and republicans have argued the need for a more diplomatic stance regarding the conflagration in ukraine, zelensky outlined five conditions for negotiations with moscow, kiev told to display readiness for talks, to be seen as embracing the moral high ground in the eyes of the western countries, poured money and weapons into propping up the ukraine regime
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/western-intelligence-services-played-key-role-in-staging-mass-riots-in-iran-moscow-1103940419.html

Western Intelligence Services Played Key Role in Staging Mass Riots in Iran: Moscow

Western Intelligence Services Played Key Role in Staging Mass Riots in Iran: Moscow

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Western intelligence services played a key role in organizing mass riots in Iran and spreading further disinformation about the situation in... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T13:14+0000

2022-11-09T13:14+0000

2022-11-09T13:14+0000

world

iran

riots

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"We note the key role of Western intelligence services in organizing mass riots in Iran and the subsequent dissemination of misinformation about the situation in the country through the Persian-speaking Western media controlled by them. We perceive this as blatant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state," Patrushev said at a meeting with Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) of Iran Ali Shamkhani in Tehran, as cited by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.On September 16, a series of protests against the current political regime of Iran broke out throughout the country. Riots were ignited by the reports of the death of a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by morality police for wearing a hijab improperly.Amini was detained by Iran's morality police in Tehran on September 13 for wearing an "improper" hijab, an offense punishable by prison. The woman was sent to one of the FARAJA centers belonging to the police department and military intelligence for an explanatory conversation. In the center, Amini reportedly had a heart attack, after which she was immediately taken to hospital where the young woman passed away on September 16.Tehran said that the weeks-long mass riots were planned from abroad and summoned the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, Norway, and the charges d'affaires of France in Iran in late September. The European diplomats were given a note of protest in connection with anti-Iranian media reports and calls to overthrow the Iranian government.

https://sputniknews.com/20221007/tehran-pledges-response-to-eus-baseless-resolution-on-iran-protests-1101610701.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20221109/why-trump-is-winning-in-2022-us-midterms-1103948971.html

Why Trump is Winning in 2022 US Midterms

Why Trump is Winning in 2022 US Midterms

Hundreds of seats have already been called for Republican and Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, with a number of GOP hopefuls endorsed by... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T17:21+0000

2022-11-09T17:21+0000

2022-11-09T17:21+0000

2022 us midterms

us

opinion

democrats

republicans

donald trump

midterms

joe biden

midterm elections 2022

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US left- and right-leaning media are presenting two different pictures of the unfolding midterms: the former claims that the "red wave" has not materialized; the latter is celebrating taking over the House and praying for victory in the battle for the Senate.Likewise, the US left-wing press rushed to throw into doubt Donald Trump's "king-making" abilities by claiming that not all of his "endorsements" played out well.In particular, they point to Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Trump-endorsed Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, who is projected to lose to Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. In Michigan, two Trump-backed Republicans, Tudor Dixon and Kristina Karamo, lost gubernatorial and secretary of state bids, respectively. Two Trump-endorsed Republicans, Doug Mastriano and Tom Michels, lost gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; at least four Trump-backed GOP candidates have also been defeated by their Democratic peers while fighting for 17 House seats in swing states.Still, many races remain undecided, while some of them may end in run-offs. The liberal media is speculating that the GOP may grow unwilling to nominate Trump in 2024 if the former president officially throws his hat into the ring.In contrast, the US conservative press has placed emphasis on the GOP making progress in the House and projecting that the Republicans will solidly win the lower chamber. In addition to that, they are celebrating a spectacular win by Trump's protege Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, the re-election of Trump-aligned Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas, as well as Trump-backed Kevin Stitt's victory in the Oklahoma gubernatorial race. As of yet, at least five out of 11 Trump endorsees have won Senate seats rated as "competitive" by Cook Political Report. One seat was lost by Oz, but another five remain undecided.US observers have particularly singled out Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance from Ohio and Katie Britt, a GOP hopeful who defeated Democrat Will Boyd in Alabama's race for the upper chamber. "We endorsed Katie and she did fantastically, 68 to 30," Trump said while making midterm remarks at Mar-a-Lago.Some Trump endorsees are competing with their fellow Republicans: thus, the ex-president backed Kelly Tshibaka is seeking to replace Alaska US Senator Lisa Murkowski in a closely-watched race. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a devoted Trump ally who appears to have won reelection in the House, has already pledged to hold her party fellows "accountable."All in all, the former president endorsed 200 candidates during the GOP primaries, with 37 of them fighting for highly contested seats. Meanwhile, the liberal press raised the alarm on November 9 that a total of 150 "2020 election deniers" are projected to have won the midterms race, in a reference to Trump supporters who believe that the latest presidential election was awash with irregularities and fraud.The Trump political brand was put to the test on November 8, and it appears that the midterms bode well for the former president: the GOP's projected win in the House will bring an end to the Dems-led probe into his supporters, with the January 6 Committee on Capitol Attack becoming thing of the past.

https://sputniknews.com/20221108/its-not-gop-or-putins-fault-dems-have-only-themselves-to-blame-if-defeated-in-midterms---journo-1103911240.html

https://sputniknews.com/20221107/if-midterm-elections-held-fairly-gop-likely-to-win--markets-will-go-up-analyst-says-1103869213.html

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Ekaterina Blinova

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midterm elections, donald trump, joe biden, us senate, house of representatives, red states, election odds, trump endorsees, trump protege, trump endorsement
https://sputniknews.com/20221109/will-americans-trust-the-2024-midterm-election-results-1103915551.html

Will Americans Trust the 2024 Midterm Election Results?

Will Americans Trust the 2024 Midterm Election Results?

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including Maricopa county voting machines malfunctioning in Arizona, and the... 09.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-09T09:40+0000

2022-11-09T09:40+0000

2022-11-09T09:40+0000

the backstory

irs

elections

abortion

midterms

radio

elon musk

paul pelosi

philadelphia

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Will Americans Trust the 2024 Midterm Election Results? On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including Maricopa county voting machines malfunctioning in Arizona, and the White House expecting 2022 midterm vote counting to take multiple days.

Jason Goodman - Founder of Crowdsource the Truth | Mistrust in Elon Musk, Renting Software Vs Owning the Software, and the Lack of Transparency Surrounding Paul PelosiThom Nickels  Author, Journalist | Working the Polls in Philadelphia, Sample Ballots, and 1800s JournalismIn the first hour, Lee spoke with Jason Goodman about Elon Musk, New Jersey voting machines, and NBC deleting its Paul Pelosi segment. Jason commented on the inconsistencies in the Paul Pelosi story and Democrats using the Pelosi attack in the midterms. Jason talked about the media coverage on the 2022 midterms and voting machines around the country malfunctioning.In the second hour, Lee and Carmine Sabia spoke with Thom Nickels about modern societal improvements, newspapers from the 1800s, and encountering voters in Philadelphia. Thom spoke on his work as a poll watcher in Philadelphia and his conversations with voters on both sides. Thom detailed his recent article about The American Sentinel newspaper and how journalism has changed since the 1800s.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik

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irs, elections, abortion, midterms, , radio, elon musk, paul pelosi, philadelphia
Horse Racing Alberta's Chief Executive Officer Kent Verlik announced in a statement issued last week that John Charles Chuck Ibey has assumed the position of Director, Regulatory and Supervisor of Racing with the organization.

Ibey has been involved in the horse racing industry his whole life. In Alberta, he has held a trainer licence since 1985. He served over 20 years as a Director on the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association (ASHA), represented Alberta on the Standardbred Canada Board of Directors, and recently served three years as the Breeders Chair. In 2021, Ibey had to resign from the ASHA Board and divest himself as an owner so he could take on the position of a Harness Judge at Horse Racing Alberta (HRA). Over the past year, in addition to serving as a Judge, he also served as a Security Investigator for Out-of-Competition Testing and provided security in the Retention Barns for major stakes races.

In addition to his lifelong experience in the Alberta horse racing industry, Ibey has also had a distinguished, 35-year career with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS). During this time, he served in Patrol Division, Detention Unit, Communications and Administration. He was also a Division Information & Intelligence Officer meeting with counterparts in other Divisions of EPS as well as other Police Services. He was also a Field Training Officer and many times acted in the capacity of an Acting Director and Acting Sergeant.

In his new role with HRA, Ibey will be responsible for the training, supervision and staffing of all HRA Regulatory positions. He will lead the continuing development of a Regulatory Modernization strategy and implement and maintain an effective compliance program and internal control system, including out-of-competition drug testing, searches and seizures of unauthorized medication, medical supplies and equipment as necessary. He will also spearhead the research, development and introduction of new rules, repealing old rules or modifying existing rules in the best interests of horse racing in Alberta.

In addition, Ibey will play a key role in developing positive relationships with key racing officials, racing participants, racetrack operators and other industry stakeholders in Alberta, other Canadian and North American jurisdictions, the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA) and the Association of Racing Commissions International (ARCI).

(With files from Horse Racing Alberta)
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- A huge slogan -- "We need 100 billion (U.S. dollars) annually to save our rainforests" -- on the wall of the Papua New Guinea pavilion has grabbed wide attention.

At the ongoing 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, representatives from developing countries have blasted advanced economies for dragging their feet on climate finance.

Naz Baloch, member of Pakistan's National Assembly and parliamentary secretary on climate change, told Xinhua at the Pakistan COP27 pavilion that the developed countries have been reluctant to fulfill their pledge of providing 100 billion dollars in climate finance as they do not "understand the significance of climate change and have their own priorities."

"What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan," said Baloch, citing the slogan of the Pakistan pavilion for COP27. "No country is immune to climate change."

"We realize the pain because we've been through it, and we want the rest of the world to understand how tough it is. We should act before it's too late," Baloch said.

Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, told Xinhua that the developed countries "have a lot of excuses" to dodge providing the promised 100 billion dollars in climate finance.

"In 2022, they still haven't delivered," Conrad said. "What we are trying to say is that 100 billion dollars are not enough only for protecting rainforests. We need more than that."

Conrad said the amount of funds to protect rainforests is estimated at 400 billion dollars per year.

"The countries who are historically responsible have a moral obligation in duty to deliver 100 billion dollars. That has been promised," Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Satyendra Prasad told Xinhua at Moana blue club pavilion co-organized by 14 South Pacific island countries.

Facing the double threats of rising sea levels and increasingly frequent natural disasters caused by climate change, island countries need climate finance that is "within reach and speedy," Prasad said.

However, "the system is delivering less than 10 percent of the climate finance that is needed," Prasad noted.

"Climate finance is a fundamental pillar," said Mazin al-Lamki, chief executive officer of Energy Development Oman. "Without it, the progress towards the goal of climate change will suffer. So it's necessary for the international community to seek incentive mechanisms to promote climate finance." 
The Kimball County Transit Service (KCTS) has announced a new Red Line route which will shuttle customers directly to and from Western Nebraska Regional Airport in Scottsbluff and Denver International Airport.

We actually receive calls every day for our transit service to go to Denver International Airport, KCTS Transit Administrator Christy Warner said. As the number of calls increased, we decided we needed to be more efficient in how we got people to Denver and thats how the Red Line was formed.

The Red Line will run seven days a week. Trips cost $75, each way, per person. For parties of three or more, prices are slashed in half.

Payment is due when trips are booked, and the service makes stops at the Double L Country Store and Cafe near Harrisburg, the KCTS offices in Kimball and in Fort Morgan, Colorado.

People in Sidney wanting to make the trip can also request to have a separate vehicle pick them up and bring them to the Red Line when it stops in Kimball. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are also available upon request.

Riders can call KCTS at 308-235-0262 to reserve trips. If we see an increase in phone calls, well add additional routes and times, Warner said. She added that plans are in the works to add booking from the KCTS website.

Currently, KCTS has 10-passenger vans running the route. However, Warner said a bid presented to the Kimball County Board of Commissioners, if approved, would allow the service to purchase two Sprinter vans.

These would have room for 14 passengers and would have additional space for luggage. Theyd also come with more comfortable seats, Wi-Fi and USB charging ports.

Warner said she wanted to alternate with the Western Nebraska Regional Airports service so people can arrive at different times and that she aims to have the Red Line start service before the holidays.

The Red Line also meets the Nebraska Department of Transportations goal of connecting communities, she added.

We dont want them (riders) to fly to Denver and be afraid we wont be there, Warner said, because well always be there.

The Red Line will include both morning and afternoon runs. Morning runs leave Kimball at 3:30 a.m., get to Scottsbluff at 4:15 a.m. and arrive in Denver at 8:30 a.m. They then leave Denver at 11 a.m. and get to Scottsbluff at 2:45 p.m.

Afternoon runs leave Kimball at 3 p.m. They get to Scottsbluff at 4 p.m., arrive in Denver at 8:45 p.m. and leave at 10 p.m. to get back to Scottsbluff at 1:45 a.m.
Seeds of the dream worked in Melissa Trails heart for a long time, but when she realized how lost she was and reached out for help, her faith grew and those seeds took deeper root.

Now the Chilhowie womans ministry is touching others lives daily.

Melissa shared her vision for a secondhand store that could benefit the community with her husband, Randy.

We prayed and prayed about it and that the Lord would make it happen, she said.

Randy even told Melissa to quit her job, but she said, I was afraid.

The fear of trying to live on one salary held her back.

Then the unthinkable happened.

A motorcycle wreck took Randys life on Sept. 13, 2020. Melissas high school sweetheart and husband was gone. The pair had been a couple for nearly 40 years.

More than two years have now passed, but tears still spill as Melissa remembers and talks about Randy.

In her grief, Melissa said she realized, I was lost in multiple ways.

Though shed been saved as a born-again Christian in her youth, Melissa re-dedicated her life to God.

She decided to pursue her vision for the community ministry as a tribute to Randy. She put a little ad on Facebook about her plans and desire to honor Randy.

Then, she said, it just snowballed.

The store, Clothed in Grace, opened in downtown Marion on May 13.

Standing in the Main Street space recently, Melissa said, Im finishing what we started.

A Store-A Ministry

The store is a family affair  both for Melissas biological family and her church family at Freedom Tabernacle.

She and Randy have a daughter, Brandi; son, Taylor; and a 6-year-old grandson, Marshall, who is the stores owner, operator, and head of security.

Taylor gave the store its name, Clothed in Grace, saying, We all need Gods grace.

As she looked around the store-ministry, Melissa described the three-in-one space as a work in progress, but, she said, Im finishing what we started.

The thrift store is filled with an array of goods  clothing, shoes, household items and decor, toys, jewelry and other accessories and free Bibles.

More than a place to buy affordable goods, Melissa hopes it inspires people and can lead them to God.

We just want to make a difference, she said.

Melissas church family helps keep the store operating while she maintains her full-time job as a welder at Volvo in Dublin. The hour-long drive, she said, is her daily devotion time for prayer and praise.

Despite her loss, Melissa said theres much for which to praise God. She doesnt hesitate to say, I am blessed beyond measure.

God brought me through and changed my life, she said, explaining that she is today a much more compassionate person.

While Melissa works, 13 volunteers operate the store Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

As she watched several of them hanging and folding clothes, she reflected, Im blessed to have each one of them. They just stepped up. Its my business, but its our business.

None of the staff, including Melissa, are paid.

Melissa tells the volunteers, Its your store, and said they have free rein to offer bag sales and other specials and make arrangements with customers.

They regularly see Gods influence, she said. Melissa told of a family that needed a bedroom suite and had made a down payment on the furniture but didnt want to take it until it was paid off. A woman in the store at the same time made a donation that the staff then used to pay off the furniture.

Thats how God works, she declared.

Much of Clothed in Graces space is devoted to clothing. Melissa noted prices such as $3 for coats, $2 for shirts, and $4 for pants.

We want to have affordable clothing that benefits the community, she said. Even with those price tags, the store regularly keeps a box of free items outside its doors for those in need.

The volunteers believe they are helping serve God. They drive in from Troutdale and Konnarock and all around the area, including one from North Carolina.

Mary Ellen Hall simply said, Missy had a vision.

Hadassah Home

All are united in supporting a special ministry of Freedom Tabernacle  Hadassah Home, which began as a Freedom Tabernacle ministry and is now governed by a community board of directors.

Initially known as Hadassah House, Melissa said the program provides a helping hand to women who need a home. Those women may include those recovering from addiction, others just out of prison, or, like one current resident, be battling cancer and have nowhere to go.

The name Hadassah points to women helping others. In the Bible, Hadassah is another name used for Esther, known for her character, faithfulness, and heroism.

For those who stay at Hadassah Home, Melissa said, Clothed in Grace provides clothes and other items to its residents who need them. Every week, she said, the store also makes a monetary donation to the ministry. Its where the Lord led me, she explained.

Melissa and the volunteers acknowledge that not everyone who comes to Hadassah House gets back on their feet, but many do.

They pointed to one woman who was able to get her child back after four years in prison. An addict, she hadnt been a full-time mother since her son was 2 years old, but six months after getting out of prison and at 33 months sober, he was once again able to live with her.

On Facebook, the mother wrote: To EVERYONE at Hadassah House and Freedom Tabernacle Church I Thank God that I have been blessed to be loved and supported by you all... Im not sure I would be as far as I am without you... I will be eternally grateful and hope that when Im finally settled I can help bless someone through your ministry the way yall have blessed me!!

Mike Sage, the longtime pastor of Freedom Tabernacle Church, explained that the idea for the ministry grew as he saw his church and others in the community and nonprofits spending thousands of dollars to put people up in motel rooms for a night.

Come 11 a.m. the next day, he said, we havent done anything but provide them a cheap bed.

At the same time, several people working with the church wanted to take more action to help addicts and others in need.

Sage suddenly recognized a new use for a portion of the churchs basement fellowship hall that was being used for storage. With two bathrooms and six or seven other rooms, he saw the potential. With volunteers transforming the basement into an inviting, livable space, he said, That was the birth of Hadassahs House.

The need for more space quickly became evident.

Over time, Sage said, the church was able to buy and renovate a Rocky Hollow Road house that was once was used as an adult facility. Earlier this year, Hadassah Home opened there with nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, and two grand-rooms.

The need is still greater than this space. Noting the regional homelessness crisis, Sage said, Were turning people away. However, with only volunteers as staff, the pastor noted theres a limit to what can be done.

Hed like to reach a point where Hadassah Home can at least pay its director and the woman who serves as a liaison with other services. However, at this time, Sage said, financials are still being assessed so the ministry can determine its financial needs and pay its bills. Its community board includes a banker, a CPA, representatives of other churches, and others.

Sage, who is a community native, spoke of his sadness at how the region is wracked with meth and other drugs.

For many people, he said, its as if theyre drowning and cant make it to the surface. Some do come up for a gasp, but then go back down, he observed.

Looking Ahead

Im afraid the problem is getting worse, Sage said, but he also noted the testimony of Hadassah Homes two house parents, who both were initially served by the ministry and now are giving back.

Just open a few months, Sage said, Hadassah Home already needs to expand and over time hed like to develop a similar ministry for men. The closest shelter for men is more than an hour away. He noted that the church helped house a dad with two children recently.

That ministry, he said, is in the talking, planning, and praying stage. Still, Sage said, homeless men need something other than the street.

For Melissa, she noted that Clothed in Grace often has homeless individuals come in, asking for help.

Everyone has a story, she said.

Melissa hopes the store helps and enriches lives and leads people to God. When we can help someone, she said, its a blessing for us.

She strives for everyone who comes in Clothed in Grace to see the face of Jesus and know theyre cared about. Even for those passing on the street, she plans to use the three storefronts of the space to tell the story of Jesus, including his birth, the crucifixion with three crosses, a crown of thorns, and a mural featuring John 3:16. The third window will feature the resurrection with the open tomb.

Also outside the stores entrance is a prayer wall. People are welcome to take a prayer need and to leave one for someone else to lift up.

I want people to see Jesus, to know what he can do no matter what youve done or said, Melissa declared.
Candice Johnson knew Tuesday evening that she won the most votes, earning one of two seats on the Wytheville Town Council, but the good news didnt sink in right away.

Last night was foggy, and this morning it hit me and all I could do was shout hallelujah, she said Wednesday. Jesus did this  allowed me to find favor with the constituents of Wytheville, and I am humbled by the outpouring of love and support from the constituents of the town of Wytheville, as well as the constituents of Wythe County. They all played a part in this.

Earning 36 percent of the vote, Johnson becomes the first Black member of the Wytheville Town Council ever.

What being on the Town Council means to me is being a servant, said Johnson, outreach leader at First Church. I have a servants heart. Im here to serve the people, and the people are important. The people have a voice in every decision that is being made.

Johnson is a Wytheville native. The 1989 George Wythe High School graduate is the daughter of Arthur Johnson, a retire educator, and Janet Johnson, who is retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

I have been blessed to have them as parents, said Johnson, who has a son, Darius Moore, and granddaughter, Amira, and soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Miah Clark.

Johnson is not the first member of her family to run for Town Council; her uncle, Robert Green, ran for office in the 1960s.

Johnson said she owes her victory to voters and a large network of supporters that includes her pastor, Richie Johnson and his wife, Rebecca, members of her church, her two sisters and brother, extended family members and campaign workers Anita Sexton, Shena Brown, Lorraine Dunn, Victoria Dallas, Arthur Johnson and Melody Crockett.

A graduate of the New River Criminal Justice Training Academy, Johnson is a retired corporal/training coordinator/general instructor at the New River Valley Regional Jail. She retired in 2020 with 22 years of service. She now works part-time as a court security deputy at the Wythe County Circuit Court.

The new Council member said she would like to see Council meetings videotaped so more people can see them.

There are people who want to do that (look at meeting videos), she said.

She also urged residents to attend meetings in person.

If people have ideas and need things to be done, they need to come to meetings and put us in the know, she said. I want people to come to meetings so we can work for the people.

Johnson said she decided to seek office after someone asked her to run.

I was unsure about it, and prayed, she said. So, I prayed about it, and God said to go, and so I knew I had to go and serve the people. I want to serve; that is the whole key to it. God has allowed this, and I am grateful.
For a few hours every other week, Iraq War veterans Ryan Mullins and Greg Miller spend time at Wythevilles Copper Crest Farm, where they work with and ride some of the farms many horses.

The veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which occurs when a person has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. The former soldiers say that spending time with gentle horses helps clear their minds as they focus on the animals.

I get to let my guard down, Mullins said. Working with the horses is something I call tunnel vision effect; I can do it with my service dog and a rifle, too. Its another tool to alleviate stress and anxiety and depression. While there, Im focused on the horse and taking instruction from Pam (Pam Umberger owns the farm). Everything else that is going on has a tendency to go away. Its so new and we are so eager to learn about the horses; that is what we are focused on.

Mullins is originally from West Virginia, but now lives in Marion. He said that in addition to riding the horses, he and his fellow veterans go into the pens to catch the horses, then brush them, saddle them up and put on their bridles.

We walk them around the arena to warm them up, and that gives us a chance to test the horse, to see if they are stubborn or not.

Army vet Mullins has reason to want to clear his mind. While serving in Iraq, he was shot four times during an ambush.

It was a war time drive-by, you might say, he explained. Six or seven of us were hit, and one died.

Umberger said her therapy program was created for soldiers like Mullins. The veterans program grew out of her overall riding therapy program, which she started in 1980.

We really started focusing on veterans for probably the last six years, she said. You know how you keep hearing about things, and it keeps bouncing up in your life? It was like everywhere we turned, we were hearing a lot about veterans needs. We were reading more about the success of veterans in other riding programs.

Umberger said that in addition to having the veterans brush, lead and ride the horses, she leads them through various activities like obstacle courses and mounted exercises like having them stand in the stirrups and touching their toes.

Its good for their balance and strengthens their riding abilities, she said.

The Copper Crest Riding Therapy Program also works with children and adults with mental and physical challenges.

In terms of physical challenges, the horseback riding improves muscle tone, it improves agility, it helps with balance, she said in an interview earlier this year. For those with intellectual or mental challenges, the horseback riding improves spatial judgment, sense of direction, and problem solving. For those with emotional challenges, riding horses gives people a sense of power, builds confidence, improves self-esteem, and it is a catalyst for socialization. Everybody at the barn is here because they like and are interested in horses, so people can come from totally different backgrounds  but they all have the common interest of horses, so it really does promote socialization.

Umberger said that people facing such challenges are often a bit isolated so that when they get involved with a horse, they not only get the benefit of being with the animal, they benefit from being around other people who like horses, too.

Mullins friend and fellow Army veteran Greg Miller also enjoys his time with the horses.

It gives me something to look forward to, he said. I havent found a hobby I like; now I do. Im there in the moment, and I really dont think about anything else.

Miller spent more than two year in Iraq during two assignments. During that time, he fought in active combat.

He said he will recommend the riding therapy to other veterans because it has helped him, and Im sure it can help someone else.

To participate in any of the therapy programs at Copper Crest, contact Umberger. There is usually a small fee of about $15 an hour, but donated money and fundraiser money can help pay for those who do not have the money.

Copper Crest Farm is located at 987 Rose Hill Road, Wytheville. For more information or to contact Umberger, call 276-228-5817.
The preliminary results in Washington's 3rd Congressional District race indicate a tight race between Republican Joe Kent and Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

With the AP reporting two-thirds of the votes counted across the district on Tuesday night, Gluesenkamp Perez held the initial lead with 52.6% of the votes. Kent received 46.8% of the votes.

In Cowlitz County, Kent received 51.6% of the first count of votes counted while Gluesenkamp Perez received 47.9%.

Kent, a Donald Trump-endorsed veteran with a controversial reputation on the campaign trail, was heavily favored to take the seat. He was challenged by another first-time candidate in Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto repair shop owner from Skamania County.

"We're not taking anything for granted quite yet, but it's really encouraging that people in southwest Washington support moderate candidates, support candidates who are here to do the work," Gluesenkamp Perez said in an interview Tuesday night.

There is an expectation that the later-counted votes will swing in Kent's favor in the same way they did during the August primary, when he and Gluesenkamp Perez defeated longtime Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. The size of that shift will determine if Kent wins the election and whether the margin of victory will be the district's closest in more than a decade.

County auditors caution that it should take a few more days before complete results are in for Washington's major races. The 3rd District has been a ballot return rate slightly above the state average leading into the midterm race, which is expected to be a high-turnout contest.

The next update from Cowlitz County and the rest of the district's election offices will come Wednesday evening.
SHENZHEN, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is offering an ideal platform for German enterprises to dig deep into the Chinese market.

At the research and development (R&D) and production base of Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd. (SSMR) in Nanshan District of Shenzhen city, some medical equipment are going through final assembly, and the screen in front of each device is marked with its destination country. Among them, parts of the equipment system are marked with "R&D in Shenzhen," indicating that the main research and development of this system is completed in Shenzhen.

Under the strategy of "Rooted in China, creating for the world," SSMR has established a full industrial value chain in China and has delivered more than 7,000 products to global customers since 2002, according to Andreas Schneck, general manager of SSMR.

In Shenzhen's industrial district of Bao'an, the Sino-German (Europe) Industrial Park, which covers an area of more than 20,000 square meters, is becoming a carrier of high-level industrial and technological cooperation between China and Germany (Europe).

At present, the industrial park has introduced a number of German enterprises and more than 60 companies have expressed their intention to settle in.

"Bao'an District proposes to become a world-class advanced manufacturing zone. The arrival of German enterprises will not only accelerate the landing of global leading technologies in China but also continuously drive local innovation in China," said Fang Yan, a representative of the industrial park's operator.

"The advantages of policies, manpower, raw materials, and markets we provide can also bring more profits and better development to German enterprises," Fang said.

Klaus Zenkel, vice president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China and chairman of the European Chamber South China Chapter, said Shenzhen's inclusive environment, innovative atmosphere, sound industrial support, efficient government services, and rich human resources provide unique conditions for cooperation between Chinese and German companies.

According to data from Shenzhen Customs, in the first three quarters of 2022, Shenzhen's trade with Germany was 63.2 billion yuan (8.7 billion U.S. dollars), up 13.8 percent year on year, accounting for 23 percent of Shenzhen's total import and export value to the EU.

Located in the hinterland of the GBA, the Sanlongwan Sci-tech City in Foshan, home to the Foshan Sino-German Industrial Services Zone, is an important platform in the city to promote the construction of the GBA. In recent years, foreign-funded enterprises, including German enterprises, are accelerating their entry.

"In recent years, the introduction of German companies has shown an accelerating trend," said Li Jie, deputy director of the Management Committee of the Sino-German Industrial Services Zone (Sanlongwan Innovation Cluster) Investment Promotion Bureau, adding that since its establishment in 2012, the industrial services zone has introduced a total of 50 projects from Germany and Europe.

Zenkel said the GBA has many advantages, such as the high level of internationalization of Hong Kong and Macao, the complete manufacturing industry chain in the Pearl River Delta region, and the open economic policies. He believes that China's continuous efforts in deepening reform and opening up will make the GBA a "fertile ground" for future cooperation between China and Germany. 
Incumbent Brad Thurman, 59, has taken the lead in the Cowlitz County sheriff's race that pitted two tough-on-crime Republicans against each other.

Woodland Sgt. and former Kelso School Board member Rob Gibbs, 42, had roughly 32% of votes in early election results posted around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. Thurman had 66%.

Thurman and Gibbs agree the local criminal justice system is out of whack partly because of the pandemic, which stalled court cases and has left people in jail longer while they await resolution.

Plus, people suffering from mental health issues often have to be housed alone, leaving less room to book new inmates. As a result, there are fewer people in the jail today than before the pandemic. Jail Director Marin Fox said the average daily county jail population in 2019 was 265, while the average daily population in January was about 150.

But the candidates' plans to book more people in jail differ.

Gibbs ran on a plan to move the jail from under the Cowlitz County commissioners' management, to the sheriff's office. He said he was interested in possibly expanding the Cowlitz County Jail or housing adult inmates in the county's juvenile center by separating them from youth.

Thurman said the jail should stay under the commissioners' rule because the facility requires complex oversight by local, state and federal authorities and is "associated with a great deal of civil liability." He said he's already working with local law enforcement chiefs and Fox to figure out how to book more people. He said the work enabled them to book more suspects of misdemeanor charges like DUIs and domestic violence.

Gibbs has said his allegiance is to the U.S. Constitution over state and law rules, and that Oath Keeper founder Richard Mack, who coined the term "constitutional sheriff" has some good ideas  like his 1997 Supreme Court win in the Brady Law case  and also some ideas Gibbs doesn't agree with.

A county elections office representative said they plan to count 6,300 ballots on Wednesday and release results that evening.
Today, Acer Malaysia announced the arrival of the Acer Swift 3 OLED and Acer Aspire 7 into the Malaysian market. Priced at RM4399 and RM3899 respectively, you can now purchase the laptops at the Acer eStore, and Acer's official store on Shopee and Lazada.

To recap the tech specs and features, the Swift 3 OLED is a compact and lightweight laptop weighing 1.4kg only. It is featured with up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7 12700H processor with 16GB onboard LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD. For the 14-inch OLED display, it features a 92% screen-to-body ratio, 16:10 WQXGA+ (2.8k resolution), VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500-certified and supports 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut.

In addition, it's also equipped with Wi-Fi 6E and there's an FHD MIPI webcam that supports Acer Temporal Noise Reduction and Acer PurifiedVoice with AI Noise Reduction. The touchpad is also OceanGlass, which is made from ocean-bound plastic waste.

On the other hand, the Aspire 7 is powered by 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1240P, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, 8GB of DDR4 RAM (upgradable to 32GB) and 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD. With a high refresh rate 144Hz Full HD 15.6-inch display with a narrow bezel, the screen-to-body ratio is 81% and supported by Acer Color Intelligence and Acer ExaColor functions for highly accurate visuals.

As expected, WiFi 6 is also available as well as the USB C with data transfer of up to 5 Gbps. Plus, the thermal design offers multiple cooling modes, via the shortcut Fn+F, in which the fan speed can be alternated between silent, normal or performance.

In conjunction with the upcoming festive season, customers who purchase the new Acer Swift 3 OLED or the new Acer Aspire 7 before 31 December 2022 will be eligible to redeem RM120 or RM80 worth of Touch n Go eWallet credit respectively. Other select products will be eligible to redeem from RM20 up to RM200 worth of Touch n Go eWallet credit.

For more information, please visit Acer Malaysias Facebook @AcerMalaysia or call Acers Product Infoline at 1800-88-1288 (9 AM  6 PM, Mondays to Fridays), or email [email protected] Stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com.
Back in September, ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) released a ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition but it seemed that the phone wasn't going to come to Malaysia. That's not the case anymore, as the phone will come swinging its way soon at the price of RM4799.

As we mentioned before, the ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition is a collaboration between ASUS, Warner Bros Consumer Products and DC Comics. The local set we are getting features a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ chipset, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The design is called Gotham City Black and even has the iconic bat-shaped raster graphic of the Aura RGB logo, as well as giving fans a custom UI with an exclusive Batman animated theme pack.

Coming at the end of November 2022, the phone will come with the matching accessories bundled. This includes a miniature Bat-Signal Projector replica that can be powered by a USB C cable, a special Batman Aero Case protective bumper case, as well as a Bat SIM removal tool and a Gotham City-inspired desktop holder. It's worth mentioning that the box is custom-made to be sturdy and water-resistant.

The ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition is arriving on 25 November 2022. It's definitely one of the coolest limited editions for any Batman fans everywhere. Besides that, the ROG Phone 6D series is also coming on 9 November 2022 which you can read about it here.
Credit: Shutterstock/Primakov

The elusive "blue tick" on Twitter, once granted to high-profile users like politicians, celebrities and journalists to verify their identity, is now available for purchase. Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, has launched Twitter Blue, a monthly subscription service for US$7.99 (7) that will give users blue tick status and, eventually, perks including fewer advertisements.

Musk claims that this change gives "power to the people." But my ongoing research with women in the public eye suggests that charging for verified accounts is likely to further jeopardize women's safety online.

One of the lesser known benefits of verification, according to the women I've spoken to in my research, is access to a range of extra content filters, allowing users to manage their notifications so that they are only alerted if other verified accounts tweet them, as well as being able to easily block or mute groups, lists and topics.

These filters act as a shield against abusive and threatening contact coming from other users of the platform. Decisions around awarding verification have long been opaque, with Twitter simply declaring that a verified account must be "authentic, notable and active."

Verification also allows users to connect with others who have a blue tick, who can provide support during episodes of abuse. Verified status does not stop online abuse, but it does enable people to maintain an online presence without experiencing the psychological trauma of seeing abusive comments on a daily (or even hourly) basis. Studies by the UN and Amnesty International have found that women are more likely than others to be the target of online abuse. Ensuring that targets do not see abuse leaves perpetrators shouting into a virtual void.

So far, there has been no official comment from Twitter about how these safeguards will be applied if account verification is opened to anyone who pays the fee. Musk has indicated that there will be a "secondary tag" on the accounts of public figures, but the details are not yet clear.

Between January and June 2020 I interviewed 50 senior women in politics, policing, journalism and academia about their experiences of online abuse. I also collected over 25 million tweets sent to 200 women with a verified account. Tweets were frequently abusive, and regularly included threats of sexual violence and comments on appearance. They often dismissed women's contributions to online discussions.

In many fields, having an online presence has become an occupational necessity. Speaking to women who had a blue tick, it was clear that being senior in an organization frequently earmarked them as a target for increased amounts of online abuse. But as women rose up an organization, they were more likely to have a verified Twitter account.

The women I spoke to were all active users of social media, many with verified accounts on Twitter. They shared how important the blue tick was, not to gain recognition as someone important, but rather to access the protections that come with verified status. In many cases, the filters associated with having a blue tick made the difference between remaining active on Twitter and withdrawing completely.

Power to whom?

Rather than creating a free-for-all in account verification, with safety controls sold to anyone who pays a monthly fee, there needs to be more action from social media companies to tackle online abuse. We already know that abusers often specifically target women of color, who rely on the platform to publicize their work. As one prominent journalist based in Washington DC told me:

"Tech companies need to better protect the vast majority of their users, over that of the privileged and the few. I feel like tech companies, for so long, have been worried about so-called censorship  but usually that so-called censorship they're talking about is a very small group of extremely vocal and extremely white men."

It seems unlikely that, in the UK at least, Twitter will be able to avoid the thorny issue of regulation. The online safety bill currently promises that Ofcom will take action against firms that fail to remove illegal content, including hate crime. This can include issuing fines of up to 10% of annual worldwide turnover, or blocking their access in the UK. The Sunak government plans to rewrite the bill, leaving some to fear such measures will be watered down.

Ultimately, all of the women I spoke to felt that some kind of government oversight is inevitable, if the issue of online abuse is to be dealt with in a meaningful way. A senior police officer I spoke to explained:

"If social media is going to be used for responsible reasons, and that's why it was designed, then they do need to exercise more control over the platform. Because it's not a free platform, it is owned by a company that I think should have more regulated responsibilities for how that platform is used. Like any other profit-making company, they have responsibility for the safety of the people using it."

Let's see if Musk agrees.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Facebook parent Meta plans to begin large-scale layoffs this week in what could be the company's most significant head-count reductions in its history, according to reports.

The job cuts are expected to affect thousands of workers and the announcement could come as early as Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. Meta had more than 87,000 employees as of the end of September, according to a securities filing.

Meta declined to comment on Monday about the reported layoffs.

The news of the wide-scale job cuts came after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expected Meta to enter 2023 with roughly the same headcount during the company's third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 26.

"In 2023, we're going to focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas," Zuckerberg said. "In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today."

Meta Platforms Inc. reported its revenue declined for a second consecutive quarter last month, raising questions about the company's plan to spend billions building the metaverse, an immersive future online world.

Meta has been struggling financially for months, as the company competes with newer social media platforms like TikTok for digital advertisement and increases its spending.

Zuckerberg warned employees in July about "one of the worst downturns that we've seen in recent history" and announced a hiring freeze in September, according to reports.

Wave of layoffs at tech companies

With the reportedly planned layoffs, Meta joins a number of tech companies that have recently announced job cuts or hiring freezes after rapid growth during the pandemic, as employers fear the U.S. could enter a recession.

Facebook-rival Twitter last Friday began mass layoffs a week after Elon Musk's takeover that impact half of the company's workforce of more than 7,500 full-time employees. The company reportedly began reaching out to dozens of employees to ask them to return, according to Bloomberg.

E-commerce giant Amazon announced last week it's pausing incremental corporate hiring because the economy is "in an uncertain place."

Lyft, meanwhile, said it will layoff 13% of its employees, or about 700 workers. Payment processing platform Stripe said it's reducing its headcount by around 14%.

"We were much too optimistic about the internet economy's near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown," Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said in a note to employees.

What is Meta?

Zuckerberg last year announced Facebook (the company, not the social media platform) was changing its name to Meta to reflect the company's focus on the metaverse, which will take years to develop.

Meta owns Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Reality Labs makes the company's augmented and virtual reality products.

(c)2022 USA Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Australia's biggest private health insurer Medibank is at the centre of the latest major attack by hackers holding health systems, hospitals and, increasingly, patients' health records, to ransom in one of the trends in cybercrime.

AFP looks at some of the bigger recent attacks on health institutions targeted by ransomware, in which criminals infiltrate and paralyse a target's IT systems, then demand payments in order to restore them:

May 2021: Irish health system shut down

In May 2021, Ireland's health service suffered what it called a "catastrophic" hack of its IT systems.

Health workers were forced to use paper records and many outpatient visits were cancelled after the health service shut down all its computers to try to halt the attack, which targeted patients' records.

Irish officials blamed the Russian-based Conti ransomware group for the attacks, which ended with the hackers handing over the encryption codes. Ireland said no money changed hands.

2019-2022: France under attack

French hospitals and laboratories have been a top target in recent years, with the government saying in early 2021 that an attack was taking place every week.

In August this year, cyberattackers dumped the records of patients online after a failed attempt to extort money from Corbeil-Essonnes hospital near Paris.

One of the country's biggest data breaches took place in February 2021, when the medical records of nearly half a million people, including their HIV and fertility status, were leaked online after being stolen from a laboratory network.

Oct. 2020: Finnish therapy records hacked

In Finland, the records of tens of thousands of psychotherapy patients were hacked and some leaked online in October 2020 after hackers stole files belonging to Vastaamo, a company that runs 25 therapy centres.

Patients received emails with a demand for 200 euros ($200) in Bitcoin to prevent the contents of their discussions with therapists being made public.

Sept. 2020: One dead in Germany

In Germany, a ransomware attack was blamed for the death of a woman whose transfer to hospital was delayed by an hour in September 2020 after Duesseldorf University Hospital's computer system was disconnected from from the ambulance network.

The woman was taken to a hospital further away and died afterwards.

May 2017: UK hospitals hit by 'Wannacry'

In May 2017, dozens of hospitals in the UK were forced to divert ambulances and scrap operations after the country's state-funded National Health Service was caught up in the international "WannaCry" ransomware attack, which infected some 300,000 computers in 150 countries.

The United States and Britain blamed North Korea for the attack, in which hackers demanded payment of $300 in Bitcoin to unlock encrypted files.

Feb. 2016: LA hospital pays ransom

In February 2016 a Los Angeles hospital, the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, paid $17,000 in Bitcoin to hackers who took control of its computers for more than a week.

"The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom," the hospital's president said.

 2022 AFP
Credit: Shutterstock

Medibank is still refusing to pay a ransom of an undisclosed amount to cybercriminals, despite the hackers now allegedly threatening to release the stolen data on the dark web.

It's reported the data of about 9.7 million current and former Medibank customers were compromised in a breach first confirmed by Medibank on October 13.

The data are said to include customers' names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and email addressesas well as some 500,000 health claims with information such as patients' service provider details, where they received medical services and the types of treatments they claimed.

Medibank's chief executive has said the company won't be paying upa decision endorsed by Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil. But what does the evidence say?

How were the data stolen?

According to various reports, it all started when a hacker compromised the credentials of a Medibank employee who had access to a number of the company's data repositories. It's unclear whether the employee would have needed multifactor authentication to access these dataand, if so, whether this was also compromised.

It's believed this hacker then sold the employee's credentials to notorious cybercriminal group REvil via an online Russian language forum. Around midnight, REvil posted on the dark web threatening it would release the data in the next 24 hours should the ransom not be paid.

While there's no evidence REvil does indeed have access to the stolen data, historically the REvil group has not been found to bluff. There's no reason to believe this time is different.

Medibank first identified unusual activity on its network on October 12. It then launched a follow-up investigation that confirmed the breach. We don't know how long the cybercriminals may have had access to its systems before then.

It's reported they stole some 200GB of data in total. This is quite a large amount, and it would be unusual not to notice the exportation of this much sensitive data.

In this case, however, it seems the criminals used some sort of compression algorithm to minimize the data file size. This may have allowed the data extraction to be less obvious, perhaps also through splitting the data into smaller data packages.

To pay or not to pay?

Medibank chief executive David Koczkar has said the ransom request would not be paid, and "making any payment would increase the risk of extortion for our customers, and put more Australians at risk". He said the decision is consistent with advice from cybersecurity experts and the Australian government.

This is, in fact, a smart decision. Even if the ransom is paid, it does not guarantee the cybercriminals will not use the stolen data for other malicious purposes, or won't undertake further attacks against Medibank.

Law enforcement agencies across the world are against paying ransoms. However, there are life-threatening situations in a healthcare context, such as during remote surgery, when there may be no choice.

Cybercriminals take advantage of vulnerabilities in healthcare IT infrastructurelargely because there's a higher chance of getting a ransom paid in healthcare than in any other sector.

Often, organizations targeted will have to pay a ransom to get back access to data and continue providing healthcare services. According to one recent report the majority of ransomware attack victims in healthcare end up paying the ransom.

As to why Medibank hasn't disclosed the specific ransom amount, this is because this information could encourage other cybercriminals to aim for similar targets in future ransom events.

If the ransom were disclosed, and later had to be paid, Medibank's reputation as an insurance provider would hit rock bottom. When Colonial Pipeline's fuel pipeline infrastructure in the US was hit by a ransomware attack, the hefty ransom payment of US$4.4 million left a permanent scar on the operator's reputation.

The risks as the situation unfolds

The risks for victims of the Medicare data breach must not be underestimated. This sensitive information could be used in various types of fraud. For example, hackers may call victims of the data breach pretending to be Medibank, and ask for a service charge to have their data safeguarded. Healthcare data can also be used for blackmail and fraudulent billing.

What's more, hackers can identify the most vulnerable individuals among the list of victims and create customized attack vectors. For example, individuals with implanted devices (such as pacemakers) can be targeted with blackmail and threats to their life.

Beyond this, cybercriminals could also use victims' personal information to conduct a number of other scams unrelated to Medibank or healthcare. After all, if you have someone's details it's much easier to pretend to be any organization or company with authority.

For those potentially affected by the Medicare data breach, the most important thing now is to remain vigilant about all types of online activity. You can start by replacing your passwords with more secure passphrases. You should also consider running a credit check to see if any suspicious activity has been conducted in your name.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Olivetti M20 personal computer from 1982. Credit: Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)

FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is an important driver of social media. But the emotion of fear has also been a key factor in the spread of computers in the last century. During the Cold War, fear persuaded governments, industry, and consumers in the western world that they would be left behind if they didn't buy into this technological revolution. Ginevra Sanvitale has investigated how this mechanism played out in Italy. Her Ph.D. research, which holds important lessons for today, earned her a cum laude at the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences.

In her research, Ginevra Sanvitale has given a prominent place to emotions such as fear, which, she says, play a key role in the way computers and their design are debated. This debate applies both to society at large and in the political realm, but have so far not been studied extensively by historians of technology.

"Emotions and politics are often considered a hindrance to technological development. Additionally, technology promises to simplify political processes, and to overcome emotional distress," notes Sanvitale.

"Yet, after a century of these promises, the contemporary world looks more politically complex and emotionally demanding than ever. Although we live in a tech-centered world, technology alone is not sufficient to explain or resolve our societal challenges."

Black box entanglement

According to Sanvitale, "emotions," "technology," and "politics" are always profoundly intertwined. Her research is centered on a technopolitical configuration that she calls "the black box entanglement." This configuration relied on the fear of falling behind during the Cold War to promote computer use, and on their design as "black boxes" that users could not study nor modify.

Marketing computers as black-box devices was a conscious design choice, states Sanvitale. "The design process includes only a limited number of actors, such as engineers and software developers, which reduces the space for democratic participation by citizens."

In addition, using the concept of "fear of falling behind" as a marketing tool de-politicized the societal significance of computers. "It flattened the political debate by favoring a phenomenological approach, which asks how technology solve a problem, over a dialectical one, which asks why will technology solve a problem."

Cold War

Sanvitale's thesis provides a case study on Cold War Italy (19651990). "The Italian context is a particularly fruitful place to investigate the intersection of emotions, technology, and politics, because of the variety of political debates that took place there during the Cold War," says Sanvitale.

These debates, particularly those connected to the local socialist tradition, are also linked to Italy's history of computing. Italy has an established and thriving left-wing hacking tradition, historically linked to its long-standing left-libertarian traditions.

Furthermore, the Italian Communist Party was foremost among the political parties in Italy in engaging in public debates on computers. It was also the largest communist party in the Western bloc and the one most openly critical of the Soviet Union.

Finally, Italy also had its own computer company, Olivetti, which despite its troubled history, was recognized both nationally and internationally as a pioneer. Its most famous CEO, Adriano Olivetti, is also known for his engagement with liberal-socialist politics.

Hackers and open-source

What makes the Italian case most interesting is the fact that several local actors, such as hackers and open-source movements, opposed the Black Box Entanglement by mobilizing emotions other than the "fear of falling behind." Rather than rejecting computers, as you might expect, they pointed at alternative technopolitical visions for the computer age.

In this way, they established what Sanvitale calls "technopolitical resonance," which is a connection between historical actors based on common feelings and thoughts on the societal and political significance of technology.

As such, they played an important role in re-politicizing computer debates and design on the national and international level, which is still relevant today, according to the researcher.

A new black box

"These movements present an alternative view of digital technology and social media based on individual autonomy, decentralized power, solidarity, and human-centered development. Their insights can provide an important alternative to the digital age as presented by the European Union, which still sees more technology as the only way forward," says Sanvitale.

"This is particularly important in an age where we see an increasing use of smart algorithms that are not transparent. They are a new black box, just as the computer was during the Cold War."
Schematic of the deployable optical terminal and experiment. Mon. PD monitoring photodetector, FFC fiber to free-space collimator, QPD quadrant photodetector, CCR corner-cube retroreflector, LED light emitting diode, LoRa Long Range, Tx transmitter, Rx receiver. Credit: Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22027-0

A team of Western Australian researchers have found a way to avoid the need to use radio transmitters in critical communications, using new technology featuring super-fast optical lasers.

Radio transmitters, which are still in use, were developed over a century ago. The researchers, from the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), have been working on this project for two years, with their findings published in Scientific Reports.

Although optical communications have been in use since the 1980s, government and industry have continued to rely on radio transmission technology in settings such as satellite communications due to atmospheric turbulence. Atmospheric turbulence causes laser beams to drift away from their intended target.

While there have been advances in the use of optical wireless communication in recent years, this WA discovery addresses the turbulence issue, by using a very fast steering mirror that can correct for turbulence at a rate of hundreds of times per second.

This means that superior optical wireless transmission can be used in more settings, reducing the need for reliance on slower radio transmission.

Lead researcher Dr. Shane Walsh explains how his team have found a way to use optical communications to fix upon a rapidly moving target in a turbulent environment, with an uninterrupted, high-speed signal.

Drone image. Credit: Shane Walsh

"This is a culmination of more than two years of research and testing and takes ground to space communications from what was effectively a 'dial up' speed in turbulence to a super-fast 'broadband' speed.

"I am proud that our WA team of researchers has been able to contribute a piece of this critical communications puzzle, combining existing research with our team's specialist expertise," he said.

The team's discovery was put through its paces using a drone, which simulates a rapidly moving target. As a next step, the researchers plan to test the technology with a higher altitude aircraft and ultimately a spacecraft, in low earth orbit.

Researchers are now developing a purpose built, optical communications ground station in WA which, when complete, will allow them to further develop and commercialize the technology. It is expected to be used by industry and governments alike, in applications as diverse as communications with spacecraft, meteorology, defense and disaster management.

More information: Shane M. Walsh et al, Demonstration of 100 Gbps coherent free-space optical communications at LEO tracking rates, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Shane M. Walsh et al, Demonstration of 100 Gbps coherent free-space optical communications at LEO tracking rates,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22027-0

Provided by International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Elon Musk is progressing plans to slim down Twitter since he bought the 396 million-member platform for US$44 billion (38 billion) on October 27. Musk's deal has taken Twitter private, dissolved the platform's board and enhanced his unilateral power as CEO. But mass redundancy announcements made since he took control have been scrutinized globally.

Musk's plans to restructure Twitter began with laying off top executives, before notifications were emailed to around half of the Twitter global workforce that they were being made redundant or that their jobs were at risk. In a memo to staff, Musk defended the firings as "an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path" and "unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward."

The widely reported memo also informed employees that they would find out their fate by email. It 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."

But tweets by some employees showed they found out before the email arrived when they could not access their work accounts or other internal systems. And a class action lawsuit filed in the US on November 3 claims Twitter locked employees out of their accounts, with at least one of the five plaintiffs being "terminated without notice or severance pay," according to news reports.

Digital layoffs

Dismissing staff in this way seems impersonal, blunt and lacking in compassion. Certainly in Ireland, the home of Twitter's European headquarters, the Taoiseach (prime minister of Ireland) has called out Twitter's actions as "unacceptable" and pointed out that workers should be treated with dignity and respect.

Unfortunately Twitter's approach resembles strategies adopted by a growing number of companies in recent years. Klarna, a Swedish financial technology company sent a prerecorded message to inform employees of 700 layoffs last May, while P&O ferries dismissed 800 staff over Zoom in March. Mortgage company Better.com made 900 employees redundant by Zoom in 2021, a year after electric scooter company Bird used a Zoom webinar to dismiss more than 400 workers.

Twitter operates globally and employment regulation varies between countries, and even among states in the US. Indeed, the communications sent to Twitter employees differed depending on where they were based.

In the US, the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide workers with 60 days' notice for mass sackings. Alternatively, employers can provide workers with 60 days of redundancy pay. After Twitter employees filed their lawsuit in California on November 3, Musk tweeted the following night that every dismissed employee will be offered three months of severance pay.

Twitter is also expected to provide advance warnings of mass redundancies to California's Employment Development Department. A representative for the agency told the New York Times that no warning had been given by the evening of November 3.

Under UK and EU law, companies must consult with staff over mass redundancies. This may explain why Twitter employees in the UK and Ireland are reported to have received a slightly differently worded email informing them that their job is "potentially" impacted or "at risk."

An email sent to UK employees on Friday November 4 said they had until 9am the following Tuesday to nominate someone to represent them in a formal consultation. Twitter has notified employees in Ireland that they should also nominate employee representatives to engage in a formal consultation process.

Twitter did not respond to requests for comment on this process or about its communications with employees concerning these redundancies.

Reputational risk

With this level of uncertainty, it's not surprising that some Twitter employees have been joining unions ahead of the redundancies. In the UK, Prospect is representing at least some Twitter employees and says it will support members to defend their livelihoods. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has argued the case highlights the need for workers across industries to have better opportunities and rights to join unions as a form of collective voice.

Similarly, the United Nations, which advocates for "decent work and economic growth," has even felt compelled to comment following Musk's acquisition of Twitter. The UN's high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, issued an open letter urging Musk to ensure that human rights are integral to the management of Twitter under his leadership, saying:

"Reports that Twitter's entire human rights team and all but two of its ethical AI team have been fired this week are not from my perspective an encouraging start."

Civil society groups and alliances were already concerned about the direction Twitter may take following its takeover. Musk has called out "activist groups" for supposedly pressurizing advertisers to stop working with Twitter.

Pfizer, General Mills and Volkswagen are some of the companies that have recently paused their advertising on the platform. Others may follow after the redundancy announcements.

Twitter users have also already been moving to alternative social media platforms, and this kind of migration could continue following news of the mass job cuts. One such alternative, Irish microblogging site Mastodon, claims more than 230,000 people have moved to it since Twitter's takeover deal.

Worried about digital layoffs?

The Twitter chaos certainly seems to be far from over, with reports indicating that the company is now asking some dismissed employees to return to work.

Redundancies have risen sharply right across the tech sector in recent months, with firms including Facebook owner Meta and payments company Stripe recently announcing job cuts, although not all have implemented digital layoffs.

If you face redundancywhether digitally or face to faceit's important to know your rights. Unions can provide information about this and can also support and represent employees before and after redundancies are announced. In the UK, you can also contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service for information about your rights, while other countries will have equivalent services such as the Workplace Relations Commission in Ireland.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
HARARE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has achieved and surpassed the global target on HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression, three years ahead of the set time, state news agency New Ziana reported on Wednesday.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) aims for HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression rates to be 95 percent-95 percent-95 percent by 2025.

Of all the HIV-positive people in the country, 95 percent now have undetectable HIV-1 RNA regardless of previous diagnosis or antiretroviral therapy status, the news agency quoted Chiedza Mupanguri, an official from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, as saying.

Among those who know their status, the percentage has surpassed the required target and is now at 96 percent; those who are positive and are on antiretroviral therapy are 97 percent, said Mupanguri.

"The country has met the viral suppression target in the UNAIDS 95-95-95 target and is one of the highest reported levels of population viral suppression globally," Mupanguri said.

Precious Andifasi, the deputy co-coordinator for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission in the ministry, said the data shows that interventions are effective in increasing population viral suppression to very high levels.

She said that according to the national strategic plan running from 2020-2025, HIV treatment is consuming more resources, hence the need to bolster prevention measures.

At least 1.3 million people are living with HIV in Zimbabwe, of which 1. 2 million are adults, and the rest are children. Zimbabwe has an 11.6 percent adult HIV prevalence rate, according to the UNAIDS. 
John Nichols was elected as the new mayor of the city of College Station on Tuesday night after collecting 63.5% of the total vote.

I am very pleased that the voters of College Station have seemed clear to support my interest in serving as their mayor," Nichols said. "I certainly think I am in a position to hit the ground running because of my experience and current knowledge of the issues facing the council and the city.

Once the canvasing of the votes are done and the swearing in ceremony on Nov. 21 is complete, my role as mayor will be heavily weighted in the first couple of months to getting to know the new council members as we will have three new council members. They are bringing some new and exciting ideas to council. I will certainly work with them and our current council members to make sure they have all of the information they needed to be fully engaged council members.

His opponents, Rick Robison received 25.4% of the vote, and Jacob Randolph received 11.1% of the vote.

Nichols is retired and received his bachelors and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He was first elected to the City Council Place 5 position in 2012. He is a member of the Brazos County Health Department, BVSMA Agency Board of Directors and the B-CS Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Nichols said he will continue to be available to citizens if they have any city-related concerns going forward.

I have always been responsive to phone calls and emails about city business, concerns and neighborhoods, priorities that citizens want to see us address, so nothing is going to change in that department, he said. I will certainly have to find my role and way of communicating with the public at large through the media and various ways; but as far as individual networks and relationships I have always been successful in that and I plan to continue to be open and transparent in my engagement with individuals.

Nichols will precede Mayor Karl Mooney who is term limited from the position.

Robison is retired and previously served as a supervisor for the Federal Correctional Institution in Bastrop. Randolph works at Buddys Appliance in Bryan as a member of the sales team.

In addition to a new mayor, three new candidates will take the city council seats of Place 1, Place 2 and Place 5.

Place 1 race

Mark Smith won the Place 1 seat with a total of 56.9% of the vote. His opponent Aron Collins received 43.1%.

Smith is retired and was elected to the citys Planning and Zoning Commission in January. He served as the citys Public Works director for 16 years and another 15 years as the assistant director, and was a member of various development service groups for the city.

Collins is the owner of Comfort Keepers in College Station.

Place 2 race

William Wright won the Place 2 seat with a total of 52.4% of the vote. His opponent David Levine received 47.6%.

Wright is a production manager for Reynolds & Reynolds, and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and College Station Citizens Fire Academy. He was elected to the citys Planning and Zoning Commission in 2021, and previously served on the Impact Fee Advisory Committee and the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee.

Levine is the general manager at Mercedes-Benz in College Station.

Place 5 race

Bob Yancy won the Place 5 seat with a total of 52.1% of the vote. His opponents Willie B. Blackmon received 13.1% of the vote; and Nicole Gallucci received 34.8%.

Yancy is retired and previously worked as public information officer for the city. He also served on the Baylor Scott & White Hospital Board for nine years and as chairman for six of those years. He is currently the Chairman of the Service Academy Selection Committee for Brazos County, and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and served in the U.S. Air Force.

Willie B. Blackmon is retired, served as a municipal court judge for 12 years for the city of Houston. Nicole Gallucci is a self-employed graphic designer.

Place 1 councilman Bob Brick is term limited and cannot run again while Place 2 councilman John Crompton is not seeking reelection.

The newly elected candidates will be sworn in on Nov. 21, according to city officials.
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With Election Day over, Franklin Countys election officials may begin the intricate process of certifying local election results.

Ballot machines processed ballots on Election Day and in the days and weeks leading up to it, but the results of the votes cast were a secret until polls closed Tuesday.

After polls closed, each ballot machine spit out a piece of paper saying how many votes were cast for each issue or candidate. The chief election official at each Franklin County voting precinct reported that information to Franklin County Registrar Kay Chitwood, who entered it into the Virginia Election Registration and Information System, after which it went live online as part of the unofficial election results.

Obtaining the official results is a much lengthier process that starts after the polls close.

Once they have the final tape on Election Day, election officials take the ballots out of each machine and, without looking at them, place them into sealed boxes. Most of the sealed boxes are stored long-term at the courthouse in case a recount is needed.

Some of the ballots, however, are examined - for instance, provisional ballots, which may be cast by people who did not have acceptable identification to vote or who registered to vote at the polling place.

In the days after the election, the Franklin County Electoral Board reviews the list of people who voted provisionally to make sure they are all eligible voters. Doing so can require a discussion of an individuals identity and personal information, so the provisional ballot meeting is always a closed meeting.

If a voters eligibility is questioned, they are notified and are able to testify for themselves in front of the electoral board, with the option of bringing legal representation.

After the electoral board has determined which provisional ballots were cast by eligible voters, the board members mix up the eligible ballots.

We have no idea who it [each ballot] belongs to at that point, electoral board member Kay Saleeby said. We open it up and we read it out and we tally that. Then we do the next one, until weve got them all down.

We do count the ballots by people determined to be eligible to vote and we dont count the ballots of the people that were not, Electoral Board Secretary Jody Brown said.

Its also up to the electoral board to verify that other pieces of information have been reported and recorded correctly before they can be turned in to the state as part of the certified local results: the number of eligible voters who checked into precincts on Election Day, the number who voted outside the polling place, the number of ballots cast and the total number of write-ins and votes for each candidate in each race.

Even after that, there will be additional tests performed at the state level to make sure ballot machines worked correctly.

Ultimately, the state will not announce final, official election results until Dec. 5. Until then, Franklin Countys election officials will continue working for many hours over many days.

We dont care how long it takes, Brown said.

What matters, she said, is getting it right.
DJIBOUTI CITY, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Red Sea nation of Djibouti located in the Horn of Africa is consolidating its position as a regional logistics and commercial hub thanks to robust cooperation with China in connectivity projects over the years.

Major cooperative projects, such as the Doraleh Multi-purpose Port (DMP), the Djibouti International Free Trade Zone (DIFTZ), and the transnational railway that stretched 752 km from the Djibouti Port to the landlocked Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, have been hailed as connecting bridges to fulfill the nation's socio-economic transformation.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Aboubaker Omar Hadi, chairman of the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority, said he is glad to cooperate with China to expand Djibouti's connectivity to the world, saying such cooperation brings more business opportunities and economic benefits not only to Djibouti, but also to Africa as a whole.

Taking the Doraleh Multi-purpose Port (DMP) as an example, Hadi said that in the past five years, the port has developed and is now one of the deepest seaports in the region, with cargo shipped throughout Africa.

The port project built by Chinese enterprises was officially opened in 2017 with an annual design capacity of 7.08 million tonnes of cargo and 200,000 TEUs in container capacity. The new port has increased the efficiency of vessel operations by nearly four times and reduced berthing time through highly automated and modernized loading and unloading methods, improving the port's competitiveness and cargo handling revenue for the port company.

In recent years, Djibouti has been actively participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, working with China on infrastructure and trade projects that dovetail with the "Djibouti Vision 2035" plan to give full play to the nation's unique geographic advantages and to achieve the country's goal of becoming a regional shipping and commercial hub.

Chinese Ambassador to Djibouti Hu Bin told Xinhua that apart from the port, the Chinese-built Djibouti International Free Trade Zone (DIFTZ) which officially opened in September 2018 has become an important platform for Djibouti's economic transformation.

"While the port focuses on transshipment work, the DIFTZ provides a perfect platform for high-value-added products. Goods arriving at Djibouti ports can be processed there and then sold by other enterprises in the zone, creating a complete supply chain, which will diversify Djibouti's high value-added economy," Hu said.

Regarding the Chinese-built railway linking Djibouti to its neighbor Ethiopia, a mega-project that commenced commercial operations in early 2018, Wang Yuge, head of operation and maintenance of the railway in Djibouti, said that the rail line has improved the port transportation capacity and shortened the time for goods to be transported from Djibouti ports to Addis Ababa from up to 3-7 days to 18 hours.

"With 70 percent of imported goods from Djibouti ports entering Ethiopia and 90 percent of Ethiopia's exports going to the world through Djibouti ports, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway has promoted the region's continued development and integration," Wang said. 
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.
MARTINSVILLE  A Martinsville man was found not guilty last week in Henry County Circuit Court of attempted capital murder of a Henry County deputy sheriff.

In April 2021, Derrick Devon Martin, 52, stole a Henry County ambulance and led police on a 45-minute chase before he was caught by a dog in a field on County Line Road, a press release from the Patrick County Sheriffs Office stated.

In addition to the attempted capital murder charge, Martin also faced charges of assault and battery of a law enforcement officer and a rescue squad member, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, felony destruction of property, carjacking, destroying property and eluding police at speeds greater than 20 mph.

At the end of the trial, the jury found Martin not guilty and acquitted him of the attempted capital murder charge and carjacking, dismissed the two assault and battery charges against a law enforcement officer and a rescue squad member, and found him guilty of eluding police, grand larceny and the two property damage charges.

The incident in 2021 began when Henry County deputies attempted to arrest Martin in relation to a stolen truck, according to the release. Police say Martin became combative and resisted arrest and after he was apprehended he became unresponsive and appeared to be experiencing a medical emergency.

Deputies administered Narcan and Martin was loaded into a Henry County ambulance, the release stated.

For the next 45 minutes, Henry County deputies and Virginia State Police chased Martin, who was driving the ambulance, throughout northwest Henry County, along Fairystone Park Highway, Stones Dairy Road, Orchard Drive and finally onto County Line Road.

Patrick County deputies picked up the chase when Martin entered their jurisdiction and after the police cars and the ambulance traded paint a few times, Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith said, one of the Patrick deputies managed to run Martin off the road near the 3500 block of County Line Road.

Smith said Martin continued through a field for a ways before jumping out of the ambulance and attempting to flee into the woods.

Patrick County deputies released a K9 and Martin was apprehended and taken to Sovah Hospital in Martinsville, where police say he was treated for minor injuries, released and jailed in the Henry County Jail.
Three 9/11 artifacts that have traveled the globe for the last 21 years were presented and displayed recently at Roanoke Fire-EMS Station No. 7 on Memorial Avenue.

The city of Roanokes department of fire and EMS is very honored to have this part of history coming through the Roanoke Valley, Roanoke Fire-EMS Chief David Hoback said during a ceremony.

The three artifacts, referred to as the Ground Zero Flag Team (GZFT), include a U.S. flag, a piece of carved marble and a logbook.

The firefighters raised a flag over the rubble of the World Trade Center. This is one such flag that was raised and flown over the rubble, Hoback told a small crowd of first responders and area residents as he held the folded flag between his hands. The other artifact we have here is a marble that has been carved into a cross. It is the flooring of part of the World Trade Center. The third artifact we have is a logbook.

The logbook features signatures of the people that have attended international GZTF ceremonies over the last 21 years, as well as pictures, patches, badges and other items.

Hoback said the artifacts together make sure that nobody forgets what occurred on 9/11 and the impact it had on our public safety and our military.

During the ceremony, the Roanoke Firefighters Honor Guard placed the marble cross at the base of a flag pole, and then raised the Ground Zero Flag at 8:46 a.m., the time that American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Then, the Honor Guard rang the bell from the city departments historic station No. 1 three times, then four times, and then a final three times to honor the 343 firefighters that were killed in the World Trade Center, Hoback said. Both police and fire were running inside the building to save lives. It really is a remembrance of that and just the sacrifice that those individuals made.

Representatives from the Roanoke City Sheriffs Office and the Roanoke Police Department also attended the ceremony in Grandin Village.

We always want to keep the remembrance of the tragic day in the forefront of our thoughts, Roanoke Police Captain Andrew Pulley said, adding that the event was an opportunity to reflect on the history and the sacrifices that were made that day.

After the ceremony, visitors were invited to view the artifacts and write their names in the logbook. City council members Bill Bestpitch and Joe Cobb, as well as Vice Mayor Patricia White-Boyd, added their names.

The flag, cross and logbook were presented in Salem on Wednesday, Hoback said, and would be displayed at the Grandin Village fire station until 5 p.m. Thursday, then travel to Lynchburg for a ceremony on Friday.

The flag, 3 feet by 5 feet, served three tours in Iraq, according to a press release. The artifacts are scheduled to be retired and displayed in a museum after November 2, 2026.

Hoback was a battalion chief sitting in his office when the World Trade Center was attacked 21 years ago.

A news alert came across from CNN saying a plane hit the World Trade Center. When I turned the news on, there was a hole in the side of the building, Hoback said. We said, Oh, maybe somebody just made an error or something. And then we were watching when the second plane hit. And then we heard that the Pentagon was under attack, and that there was another plane flying. I tell you, it was a very solemn, very scary, horrifying experience.

The chief remembers having a press conference to let the Roanoke community know that the attacks were isolated, and then silence in the sky in the following days.

They airport was shut down. We didnt hear the jets coming and going. Its an eerie feeling. It really is, Hoback said. Then there was a new normal for us.

9/11 reshaped public safety, Hoback continued. We are doing things different than we were prior to that. Were more cautious. We have more resources. But we know that these things can happen. The unthinkable is now thinkable.

The fire chief said he got a chill as he held the U.S. flag during the ceremony.

One of the most resonating images in my mind is the flag that was flying over the debris. Thats what brought the nation together to say, Weve got to fix this, weve got to fight this and weve got to correct this. The flag represents the nation and the people coming together, Hoback said. It was just surreal. It really was.
CENTRAL CITY  Dr. Traci Dieckmann, of Central City likes her job because of the relationship she develops with her patients and the community.

The unique thing about being a small-town doctor is you know people from taking care of them, but you also know them because theyre a part of your community, she said.

Those people go to church together, their kids go to school with her kids or she sees them at the grocery store.

Dieckmann, whos lived in Central City for seven years, works for the Merrick Medical Center.

I really enjoy what I do, she said. She feels shes where shes supposed to be. She feels called to do this job and blessed to do this job.

Dieckmann, 36, is good at that job. In August, she received the 2022 Young Physician of the Year Award from the Nebraska Medical Association.

Dieckmann is affiliated with Merrick Medical Center, the Central City Medical Clinic and the Fullerton Medical Clinic. She visits the Fullerton facility every Wednesday.

Dieckmann has an active life. She and her husband, Tyler, have three sons. Caleb is 10, Andrew is 8 and Graham is 6. Tyler is a stay-at-home dad.

Their life is hectic now, but its been even busier.

Their first child was born in January of her fourth year of medical school. Her first and second years of residency were very difficult. I dont want to do that again, she said. I mean, that was hard.

They had two young kids, her husband was working full time and Dieckmann was under a lot of stress. They survived, but it was kind of all a blur.

She feels like shes in a pretty good spot now, but she still has her hands full. Sometimes I feel like my home job as a mom of three busy boys is just as hard or harder than my job here, she said.

Her husband is hugely supportive or else this wouldnt work, she said.

According to a news release, Dieckmann was chosen for the statewide honor in part for her outstanding community leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020 and 2021, it was Dieckmanns turn to be chief of staff at Merrick Medical Center.

I didnt really want to do it. But my partners encouraged me, she said. Also, they didnt really me give me a choice.

She began serving as chief of staff in January 2020. COVID arrived in March.

The members of the Merrick Medical team  four physicians and three physicians assistants  are the only medical providers in Central City.

The team had a lot of conversations about how to respond to COVID.

The groups medical facility at the time didnt have a lot of flexibility. So they had to get creative, Dieckmann said.

They put their heads together and started a drive-thru clinic. The move was made because they had noticed a gap in care.

People who needed mammograms and colonoscopies and needed to have their blood sugars and blood pressure checked couldnt go to a lot of places because everybody was so restricted, Dieckmann said. Or they couldnt come in out of fear of being exposed to COVID.

Those people needed medical help, not just a COVID test.

The drive-thru clinic was always staffed by physician and a nurse. They checked peoples oxygen and temperatures and listened to their hearts.

The patients didnt quite get the same level of assessment they would have gotten in the clinic, but the doctors felt they were at least getting these people care, Dieckmann said.

Drive-thru places were common where people could get tested for COVID. In big cities, people with COVID could go to emergency rooms. But Dieckmann doesnt know of many places where people could get health assessments in their cars.

The drive-thru clinic ended up being really successful, she said.

The team also wanted to reassure people the Central City providers were on top of things, and they werent scared of COVID.

Throughout the pandemic, Dieckmann appeared on Facebook Live several times just kind of telling people what we were seeing, and what they recommended.

Later, a lot of people told Dieckmann those Facebook appearances really put their minds at ease. They appreciated someone they knew was giving them information they could trust. There was a lot of information available, but knowing what to trust got a little bit hard for people, she said.

It didnt feel like anything more than what I was supposed to do. I dont feel like I did anything revolutionary or above and beyond, or anything like that. 

She noted that she wasnt the best-equipped physician to deliver those messages. She took on the job simply because she was chief of staff.

She also pointed out that she was part of a big team of people.

Dieckmann, who grew up a mile from Elsie, graduated in 2004 from Wheatland High School in Madrid, which no longer exists.

She graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan, where she majored in biology, and the University of Medicine and Biosciences in Kansas City. She completed her residency at Wesley Family Medicine in Wichita, Kan.

Doctors pour our lives into this profession, and our heart and soul into taking care of people, Dieckmann said.

Dieckmann and her colleagues now work in the new Bryan Merrick Medical Center, on the west side of Central City.

Medicine became more challenging during the darkest days of COVID, when distrust sometimes entered into visits with patients.

I dont think it was anything personal, she said. But a sense of distrust is hard not to take personally.

She has zero reasons to suggest or recommend something she feels isnt the right thing to do. But when theres this culture of distrust and many people felt free to do their own research online, it makes it hard to sometimes not get cynical, she said.

Still, she is uplifted when she forms a strong relationship with her patients.

At the store, shell run into people whom she has successfully treated. Kids will tell Dieckmanns kids their mom takes good care of them. Hearing those comments makes her kids eyes get real big, she says. Even though distrust sometimes exists, the strong bond between a doctor and patients still exists.
An at-times emotional Jim Pillen addressed supporters on Tuesday evening, saying the way he ran his campaign for governor has prepared him to lead the state come January.
Sherry Jones will be District 6s newest representative on the Nebraska State Board of Education.

As of 11:20 p.m. Tuesday, Jones had pulled well ahead with 66% of the districts votes, with opponent Danielle Helzer getting support from 33% of voters.

Hall Countys support for the two candidates closely reflected the rest of District 6. Jones had 65.80% of votes cast (8,923), with Helzer bringing in 26.77% (4,637).

Joness mind seemed to already have moved past District 6s results, saying shed spend some time to reflect and celebrate, then get to work.

In a state board of education election eliciting contention nearly statewide, Jones had this to say for her constituents:

Their input will be important to me. I'll think through things as far as how I can set up and make communication available. I want to hear from all of my constituents.

In a statement she credited the Lord who was the best campaign manager ever.

She gave Helzer credit as well.

Starting the race in March  she just really put forth a lot of effort over the last eight months or so  and doing that with a family with kids with a job. You know, I can appreciate that. I can appreciate that effort.
Mitch Nickerson, Maggie Mendoza and Jason Conley have been re-elected to the Grand Island City Council.

Douglas Lanfear was elected, taking the seat that is being vacated by Justin Scott, who chose not to seek re-election.

In a two-person race for Ward 5, Lanfear received 55% of the vote, defeating his opponent, Adam Condon.

I believe God picks the winners in these, Lanfear told The Independent. Im just happy. I think I can be one person who can honestly listen to the people out there who voted for me. My biggest problem is going to be finding people who will come and talk to me. But Im happy with it and I think I can do a good job.

In Ward 2, Mendoza defeated challenger Patrick Birkel with 54% of the vote.

Mendoza, who works for Lincoln NRC Health, was appointed in February 2021, following the resignation of council member Clay Schutz.

Im completely honored, Mendoza told The Independent. Im honored that the constituents of Grand Island have chosen me to continue to represent them.

In Ward 3, Conley received 56% of the vote, defeating challenger Joel Holling.

Conley, an administrative sergeant with Hall County Department of Corrections, was elected to his first term in 2018.

I will continue to insure that city government is transparent, and do my best to encourage public involvement at meetings or simply call me when they have an issue that they need help with, he told The Independent in October.

He added, Im a strong leader who knows how to first listen and then try to come up with solutions not excuses.

In Ward 4, Nickerson defeated his Jodi Moore with 53% of the vote.

He served his first term in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006, 2010 and 2016.

Nickerson told The Independent in October he wants to continue to be a voice for Grand Island and his constituents.

I am grateful for the opportunity and want to continue to serve Ward 4, and the city as a whole, by being a voice and a vote to ensure Grand Island remains positioned to be one of the best Nebraska cities to live, work, play and stay for our numerous activities and events, he said. I want to help strategically position Grand Islands future for the next 5 to 10 years for positive growth through responsible financial and program planning.

He added, My goal has been and will continue to be to make the absolute best decisions possible for the success of Grand Island residents.
Voters have likely approved an amendment that supporters say will help grow air service and airports in Nebraska.

Amendment 1 would authorize any city, county or other political subdivisions that operates an airport to spend revenue to develop commercial air travel at the local airport.

As of results posted at 11:15 p.m., votes in favor totaled 78% of ballots cast, according to the Nebraska Secretary of State's Office.

State Sen. Eliot Bostar, who introduced the unanimously-approved legislation to bring the amendment to voters, said Nebraska is competing at a disadvantage.

Basic tools that airports utilize and airlines count on are unavailable to Nebraska airports, he said during a stop with a group of amendment supporters in Grand Island in mid-October.

An opinion from the attorney general in 2020, requested by the Legislature, advised that such incentive agreements between airports and airlines would be prohibited by the constitution, said Bostar.

From this, the amendment was introduced to allow airports, the communities those airports serve, and airlines to come together as partners, to invest in communities together.

Will Armstrong, Grand Island Area Economic Development Corporation board president, also voiced his support for Amendment 1 during the October event.

Economic development and quality of life in a community often go hand-in-hand, he said. Dependable and multi-destination air service can play a major role in both of these facets. Amendment 1 will enable not only enable not just Grand Island, but other communities in Nebraska, to attract and retain dependable, multi-destination air service.

He added, Our beautiful facility would be complemented significantly by even more dynamic air service.
Information Security in K12

Leveraging Zero Trust to Reduce Cyberattacks in the Education Sector

The start of a new semester often brings anxious excitement to students and faculty alike.

Unfortunately, with the growing threat of cyberattacks across K12 and higher education, this sentiment leans more anxious than excited by the year. In fact, according to the education nonprofit EDUCAUSE, in nine of the last 10 years, cybersecurity has been a top-10 issue for education institutions and the No. 1 concern for the last seven.

Curbing this concern runs far deeper than just making sure schools and universities have the right information security hardware and software. It also means considering how competition for IT and cybersecurity talent contributes to weakened defense, as well as how regulatory compliance related to state, federal and international laws like CCPA, FIPA, HIPPA, GLBA, and GDPR complicates the ability to rapidly build and support a strong security posture.

Even measures like cyber-insurance have its drawbacks. Through increases in premiums or deductibles, and increasing control and technical requirements for underwriting, many institutions are finding compliance difficult. This all is occurring in an environment where education budgets are already flat or declining due to other issues such as reduced enrollment and retention.

With these constraints in focus, the question becomes what can the education sector do to mitigate cyber risk?

The adoption of a zero trust information security framework is a start.

What does Zero Trust mean?

Far from being the latest buzzword running around the cybersecurity community, zero trust provides an architectural approach to address the need for a unified security solution in todays fragmented space. Zero trust brings explicit control to the IT environment where all devices and entities must be known  authenticated and authorized; their behavior must be explicitly allowed; and their actions must be understood and monitored. These principles are in stark contrast to what most organizations follow today.

For zero trust to work, an organization must first have three distinct components in place: business controls, a common control plane and an infrastructure that participates. Then, zero trust, which is comprised of seven pillars, can automate the application of security and business policy to protect the data. These seven pillars, as defined by the U.S. Department of Defense, can be explained as two distinct pieces: the infrastructure  the user, device, network/environment, and application/workload pillars, and the action of automating the management of the infrastructure  the visibility & analytics and automation & orchestration pillars.

In practical terms, this means that when the enterprise first establishes business controls, an end user may only have access to specific enterprise resources because of the users role or requirements. For example, accessing certain types of data based on approved credentials. With those rules established, the control plane manages those decisions. Then, zero trust comes into play. So, even if its an approved user, access may still depend on if the request is coming from a recognized IP address via a recognized device. If just one of those conditions is not satisfied, the user is restricted from accessing it. An abnormal action like that gets logged and provides telemetry. It becomes visibility that either signals the automation to do something or is used to construct AI and machine learning models so that the enterprise can better understand good and bad behavior, and ultimately improve the automation.

The Longevity of Zero Trust

So, the question remains: What can K12 school systems and higher education institutions do to implement a zero trust environment to provide long-lasting secure networks?

The first thing to understand is that there is no zero trust product or single solution. Instead, there are products or solutions that support, advance and implement the principles outlined in zero trust.

Because of its flexibility, an organization can start architecting zero trust principles in a phased approach. Institutions can start by covering users or workloads, for example, until optimally covering all seven principles previously mentioned. An organization should also prioritize its critical usage cases and address those first. Examples such as student and employee data, campus security automation, and campus or district-wide computer networks should be near the top of the list. While applying zero trust should ultimately be completed for all use cases, it is important to note that due to the nature of denying implicit trust, a breach will have much more difficulty spreading from one workload to another when core workloads are protected.

The key thing to remember is that because it is a cybersecurity framework, zero trust is meant to be flexible, and as such, is best used in combination with other popular cybersecurity frameworks such as the Cybersecurity Framework | NIST, CMMC 2.0, CIS 8.0 and others to achieve maximum benefit.

Steps to Take Today to Secure Education Institutions

While implementing a zero trust framework is ideal, the truth is it will take most school systems and higher education institutions time to adopt zero trust and integrate it with existing security measures. However, there are some steps that organizations can take immediately to protect teachers and students.

With the awareness that threats continue to evolve at a rapid pace, institutions should:

Assess internally where zero trust enabling technology is already present in the organization.

Identify gaps and prioritize areas where zero trust should be implemented first.

Work in a phased approach to first apply zero trust principles to critical use cases and workload.

Seek the guidance of a trusted cybersecurity partner leveraging a common and proven zero trust framework.

Its a crucial time for our education leaders to support a modernized cybersecurity posture grounded in a strategy that still allows for dynamic organizational innovation. While there is not one universal entry point for implementing zero trust, there are many equally valid ones that K12 and higher education institutions can take. The most important step is simply taking one so that your institution can safeguard itself against todays evolving threat landscape.
Republican Matthew Hickam has been elected as the new regional superintendent of schools, defeating Democratic challenger Annette Jaynes.

Hickam will serve as the superintendent in the Regional Office of Education No. 30, which covers schools in Alexander, Jackson, Perry, Pulaski and Union Counties, where a total of 24 different school districts reside.

Hickam, a Murphysboro native, is currently the superintendent of Du Quoin Community School District No. 300. Additionally, he has worked as an administrator or teacher in Murphysboro and Galatia.

Jaynes has worked as a teacher in Carbondale Elementary School District No. 95 for more than 30 years.

Even though vote totals from Alexander County are yet to be reported, Hickam heavily carried the other counties, which has practically secured him a victory.

"I am very blessed to have the opportunity and I am obviously very excited," he said.

Hickam said he already has spoken to retiring Regional Superintendent Cheryl Graff, and will be meeting with her soon. Beyond that, he said he plans to listen and learn.

"I'll be reaching out to the 24 school districts and putting myself out there as a resource," he said. "I've said all along I want to be someone who can help with the things that school administrators or districts are dealing with."

He added that filling teacher vacancies is going to be a priority in his new role.
Hong Kong: Youth scheme holds sharing session

A sharing session of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Youth Employment Scheme was held today, with Chief Executive John Lee delivering a speech at the session.

The GBA Youth Employment Scheme is open to Hong Kong youth who were awarded bachelor's degrees or above from 2019 to 2021.

Since its launch in January 2021, the scheme has received a favourable response with more than 400 enterprises offering around 3,500 job vacancies while over 1,000 graduates were recruited.

Mr Lee said the scheme is an important measure to encourage young people to take part in the country's development. He is pleased that participating enterprises and young people gave very positive feedback on it.

In his Policy Address delivered last month, Mr Lee announced that the GBA Youth Employment Scheme would be regularised in due course. The Chief Executive said details of the regularised scheme will be announced early next year.

Todays sharing session broadcast the interviews of graduates on the experience of taking part in the scheme while representatives of the participating enterprises spoke on their efforts in nurturing Hong Kongs young people who work in the GBA.

More than 30 enterprises were awarded Active Participation Awards at the event in recognition of their support for the scheme.

This story has been published on: 2022-11-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Interview: IKEA tech executive optimistic about China's business outlook

Xinhua) 11:00, November 09, 2022

LISBON, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Swedish furniture giant IKEA is excited about new business opportunities emerging from the Chinese market, which features rapidly changing dynamics and Chinese consumers' behavioral shifts, an IKEA senior executive told Xinhua recently.

"There is a fundamental change happening in China with people moving more into health and wellness, people looking into how to create a community balance," said Parag Parekh, co-chief digital officer and chief technology officer with IKEA Retail, owned by Ingka Group, which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, selling household goods.

During the interview on the sidelines of the Web Summit held here last week before IKEA showing its pavillon at the fifth China International Import Expo, which runs through Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai, Parekh stressed he was bullish on growing market share in China and expanding business in the world's second-largest economy.

As Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to purchase home decor to improve their living conditions, IKEA has spotted opportunities in China's growing furniture market.

In 2021, 910 million pieces of furniture were produced in China, showed data from Daxue Consulting. The Beijing-based market research and consulting firm also expected a strong growth in China's furniture market, projecting a compound annual growth rate of 11.6 percent from 2022 onwards.

"We are reading some of these trends to understand what the shift is going to be in terms of people's engagement with the brand, and that will help us design and define what our product range and what our engagement in China will be," Parekh said.

Meanwhile, the tech executive took note of "one of the biggest digital transformation" in IKEA's nearly-80-year-long history, saying, "we are transforming from being a physical retailer into being an omnichannel retailer."

"On the digital side in China, we are present with the website and our app. We have had the first pilots with WeChat mini programs and the first engagements with Tmall," he said. "We are looking into how we can grow and engage our physical versus the digital footprint. It's still in the makings."

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
PHNOM PENH, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mutual political trust, respect, support, non-interference and win-win cooperation have driven Cambodia-China ties to the highest-ever level in their history, a Cambodian scholar said on Sunday.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, an arm of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the Cambodia-China close relations have not only benefited both countries and peoples, but also contributed to promoting regional peace, security and stability.

"China is the most trusted friend of Cambodia," he told Xinhua. "The friendship between the two countries has rooted deeply based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, nonaggression, noninterference, and equality and mutual benefit."

Phea said Cambodia is always the strongest supporter of the one-China principle.

"China-Cambodia friendship has stood the test of international vicissitudes and turbulence, and remained as rock solid and unbreakable as ever," he said.

The scholar said China has been Cambodia's top foreign investor, official development aid provider and trading partner, and that Chinese investment and aid have greatly contributed to the socioeconomic development and poverty reduction in the Southeast Asian nation.

The scholar said the close cooperation between the two countries under the mechanisms of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as well as the joint COVID-19 fight have also injected new impetus into the bilateral ties.

"These mechanisms have provided and will continue to provide tremendous benefits to Cambodia," Phea said. "Chinese COVID-19 vaccines have not only protected millions of lives, but also helped revive the economy in Cambodia."

The scholar said it was the right decision made by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen to choose China as the kingdom's key vaccine supplier.

"I believe that China will continue to play a greater role in helping Cambodia recover its economy from the pandemic," he said.

At regional and global levels, Phea said Cambodia has always maintained good relations with China within the multilateral levels of the ASEAN framework such as ASEAN Plus One, ASEAN Plus Three and the Lancang-Mekong cooperation, among others.

"The two countries fully uphold multilateralism, especially the multilateral trading system, whereby the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the core driver for promoting international relations based on the principles of mutual respect, equity and win-win cooperation," he said.

"Cambodia's ironclad friendship with China has also helped strengthen and broaden the China-ASEAN cooperation, ensure the rights and interests of developing countries, and promote regional peace and stability," he added.

Phea said the Cambodia-China close ties in all aspects will contribute to further building a community with a shared future between the two countries. 
A potential cloud over vote counting in Illinois election was lifted when a federal judge put off until December arguments over the validity of mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day but received by election authorities within two weeks afterward.

U.S. District Judge John Kness set Dec. 5 for oral arguments over a motion to dismiss the suit, which was filed in May in U.S. District Court in Chicago by a downstate Republican congressman and two GOP officials. The timing of the argument is too late to affect the Nov. 8 general elections vote count.

An adverse ruling on Election Day could have invalidated potentially tens of thousands of mailed general election ballots that are cast by Illinois voters, including military members serving overseas, and postmarked on or before this coming Election Day but received by election authorities afterward.

The lawsuit, led by four-term U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro, echoed former President Donald Trumps rejected court challenges in other states in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election that he falsely contends was stolen.

The lawsuit was filed by the conservative legal organization Judicial Watch, which was among the groups that assisted Trumps efforts to try to stop the counting of mail-in ballots after Election Day 2020.

The group states the Illinois lawsuit was an effort to ensure the integrity of elections as well as protect the rights of Bost and other registered voters.

At issue is a 2015 state law that allows vote-by-mail ballots to be counted if they are received within 14 days after Election Day if they were postmarked on or before the final day of voting. If the ballots lack a postmark or if it is illegible, ballots can be counted if the voter dated and signed the ballot on or before Election Day.

The 2015 law is also aimed at assisting military members and overseas citizens. For this year, the 14-day time period, in which provisional votes also are considered, ends Nov. 22. The suit had sought to have no vote-by-mail ballots counted that are received after Nov. 8.

The lawsuit contends the Illinois law violates federal law that establishes the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years as Election Day for federal elections. The suit further contends that the Illinois law subjects Bost to harm, including expenses for post- Election Day poll watchers and the possibility mail-in ballots counted during the 14-day period dilutes timely votes cast up to and including Election Day.

In defending the state law, the Illinois attorney generals office, headed by Democrat Kwame Raoul, counters that the Illinois statute is crucial to ensuring the voting rights of millions of Illinoisans who avail themselves of the right to vote by mail.

Without it, those voters risk disenfranchisement, despite timely casting their ballots, due to delayed mail delivery and/or inconsistent postmarking practices, the attorney generals office said.

In the 2020 presidential election  which traditionally has heavier participation than midterm elections and saw an uptick in vote-by-mail ballots amid the pandemic  one-third of the nearly 6.1 million votes cast in the state were by mail. Of that, an estimated 266,417 mailed ballots were received and counted after Election Day, representing 4.4% of all votes cast in Illinois in 2020.
CARBONDALE  Voters in the City of Carbondale had to answer the question of whether or not their city would be remaining a home rule community.

At about 9 p.m., Carbondale voters had elected to keep home rule in the city.

Home rule provides cities and their local governments with the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; to license; to tax; and to incur debt.

Carbondale has been a home rule community for 50 years. Because the population of the city fell below 25,000 in the last census, the issue was brought to a vote on this years ballot.

With home rule, the City of Carbondale currently levies a total real estate tax of $1,035,289, which is 2.67% or $28,000 lower than the real estate tax levy in 1999. The current real estate tax levy is used entirely to fund a portion of public safety pensions.

City Finance Director Jeff Davis said if the city lost home rule it would need to increase its budget by $14.6 million to keep providing all the services the city has now. That would increase property taxes on a home valued at $100,000 by approximately $1,400 to $1,500.

Carbondale City Council has maintained a really low real estate tax levy for the city for city services ... The reason that the council is able to do that is that we have sales taxes that are generated mostly by non-residents. When people are coming to town every day to work, shop and all those types of things. They're spending money and generating revenue that we use to pay for services, City Manager Gary Williams told The Southern earlier this year.

Councilman Jeff Doherty said it would set the city back 50 years during a city council meeting.

The city also would have lost about $1 million in funding it provides for community organizations, like Good Samaritan Ministries, the Warming Center and Boys and Girls Club of Southern Illinois.
Southern Illinois voters have chosen incumbent Mike Bost to serve a fifth term in the United States Congress.

In the late hours of the night on Tuesday, Bost accepted victory as the final votes were counted.

The current total is now at 199,431 votes for Bost and 63,786 votes for Markel.

Bost verbally claimed victory when issuing a statement to his supporters and to the people of Southern Illinois.

"Tracy and I can't thank the people of Southern Illinois enough for their support and their prayers. Our victory tonight sends a powerful message to out-of-touch politicians everywhere that we're unified and unyielding in the fight for our conservative values. Joe Biden's going to be held accountable for destroying the economy, ignoring the border crisis, and taking us from America First to America Last in two years flat. But none of this would be possible without the trust of voters from across our vast 12th District. Serving you is truly the honor of a lifetime."

A Republican from Murphysboro, Bost looks defeated Democrat Homer Chip Markel in the race to represent the newly-drawn 12th Congressional district in Illinois. The new district covers most of Southern Illinois from Bond County to portions of Fayette and Effingham Counties, and all the way to the southern tip of the state, leaving 34 counties in all for Bost to continue representing

Bost has served in Congress since 2015. He previously served in the Illinois House from 1995 to 2015.

He spent most of Election Day traveling throughout the district including stops in Casey, Effingham, Marion, Murphysboro and Steeleville.

"I visited 11 of the 34 counties today and I am grateful for the voters support," Bost said on election night. "The numbers are not official yet, but they are leading our way and I thank them for their votes."

Bost said he was still watching for results from St. Clair County as well as Jackson County, which he had expected would come in "late in the night."

His opponent, Homer Chip Markel is a former correctional officer at Tamms and Menard prisons and served in the U.S. Navy. In a post on his Facebook page Monday, Markel said he was pleased with his campaign.

I feel satisfied. Weve run a good race, with integrity and transparency. I have said what I needed to say, he wrote.

Last night at The Southern's print deadline, and with just over 71% of precincts reporting their results, 139,905 votes had gone to Bost while 38,621 votes were in for Markel.
Orangeburg County voters said casting a ballot Tuesday gave them a chance to express their voice on important issues during what many consider a critical election season.

Voters at Rivelon Elementary School said complaining is not an option for those who did not take the time vote.

"Voting is very important. When I first turned 18 about four years ago in my first election, I was wanting to make a change. The world is kind of crazy. So I'm trying to do my part to help fix it in any way I can. Why not use the one thing I got power to do?" Jelani Haigler said.

2022 Mid-Term Voter Voices Jelani Haigler votes at Rivelon Elementary School on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old college student said he was particularly interested in the state governor and Orangeburg County races.

"I just want to make sure my community is taken care of. I'm not currently present here because I'm at school, but I still always want to come back to better Orangeburg," he said, noting that he is not pleased with how incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster is running the state.

"I have love for the state, but there are some questionable things about our state that just need to be fixed. We've had the current governor for so long. Nothing really changed. So I think it's just time for a new change," Haigler said.

Hubert Kelly said, "I came out to make some changes from the top all the way down to the bottom, trying to get the community straightened out like the high school and a lot of other things around town that maybe need to be changed."

Voter Voices Hubert Kelly votes at Rivelon Elementary School.

He said, "Some people just stuck on the old ways. I want to try to make some changes. That's about why I'm here today."

Kelly said the referendum on the $190 million Orangeburg County school construction and renovation plan, which includes building a new Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, was on his mind Tuesday.

"I went for it. Yeah. You gotta move on. That high school, my children started that school about 30 years ago. Things don't last forever. You need changes. You bring in equipment, but the outside and inside, you gotta make some changes. I'm looking out for my grandchildren down the road," he said.

He said individuals who don't vote should not complain.

"My message is to come out and vote so you can show your support. Don't sit home and look for changes," Kelly said.

"You gotta get out and make changes yourself. People are looking for other people to make changes for them, and when they don't happen, they start growling and fussing about it," he said.

Voters at Sheridan Elementary School said it was important to have their voices heard with the power of the vote.

"It's essential that everybody casts their vote so that we have a good representation of what we want," Joe Livingston said.

He said the national Senate races were of particular significance to him, along with the $190 million school referendum.

2022 Mid-Term Voter Voices Joe Livingston votes at Sheridan Elementary School.

"Well, I'm all for keeping our schools up to date and our education programs up to date. I think we've got to be careful to balance our budget, to balance the amount of money that we spend on that sort of thing -- on anything for that matter. We've got to be careful about spending a lot more than we have," he said.

He said every voter should exercise the right to have a voice in making a difference. "Every vote counts. Get out and do it."

Sam Kennerly said he's voted all his life for a reason.

"I learned that voting helps out. It helps the people, and it helps us to do what we think we can do. ... We try to go for the best people that we think is gonna help not me, but everybody," Kennerly said.

He said he took particular interest in the governor's race.

"I think that we need to see a change in the governor's race big time. Hopefully if we can get that done, then it'll be a better South Carolina," Kennerly said, noting he also closely looked at the $190 million school referendum.

"That's a lot of money. ... But if it's needed, we got it, it's available and we can use it for resources, why not use it? If we don't use it, we're going to lose it. ... Go ahead and do the best we can with it," he said, noting a lot of people, however, are concerned about their taxes going.

"I think it's going to be a good thing. ... It'll be better resources for the kids and that kind of thing and put us up with other schools in the State of South Carolina and other schools within the nation," Kennerly said.

He said voters who stay home don't have a chance to make their voices heard on any issue.

"A lot of people say that they're not going to vote because it don't count. Then again, when things start going bad, they start complaining. These are the ones who complain all the time, [the ones] who don't go out and vote," he said.

Voters at the Prince of Orange Mall said it was important to vote for whom they thought were the right candidates for various positions ranging from state education superintendent to governor.

"I've voted every since I was 18 years old. It's very important. That's what it was all about. You have to have a voice, and that was our voice that ... our ancestors fought for. So we have to come out," Corey Simpson said.

2022 Mid-Term Voter Voices Corey Simpson votes at the Prince of Orange Mall.

"It's only one vote, but when they come together, it's a collaborative effort to make some things happen. If you sit home, you can't do that," he said.

Simpson said the school referendum was of particular interest to him. He was against it.

"I don't think we need to spend that kind of money. That's just me. ... That's kind of a knee-jerk reaction of spending money just to spend it. That's what I was basically focused on."

Simpson continued, "I have a school-age daughter. She's in the sixth grade. I know they say these school are nice and all this stuff like that, but it's too much money to be spent unnecessarily. We got a lot of vacant buildings here now. ... Do something with them."

He said individuals should not say their vote doesn't count.

"You're being foolish. Your vote does count. That is your voice," Simpson said.

"A lot of people don't realize what voting means. They're uninformed. They don't really know what voting means. ... They just don't understand, or don't care until it affects their pocketbook. Then you want to talk about stuff."

Orangeburg couple Reginald and Shannon Williams said the race for state superintendent of education was of particular interest to them. Reginald is an early childhood education professor at South Carolina State University, while his wife is a special education teacher at Edisto Primary School.

"I think that we all need to play a role in our elections, especially local elections (and) the school board. We're both educators. So we wanted to make sure that we made our votes count because it really counts who's in charge of our public education," Reginald said.

2022 Mid-Term Voter Voices Shannon and Reginald Williams cast their vote at the Prince of Orange Mall.

"That affects our profession. We wanted to make sure that we made that contribution. That's what we should be doing as a citizen," he said.

Shannon said, "The reason why I came out today is the same exact reason. We have two children that are in the school district, and we want to make sure that we have someone at the head of the table that is going to have the best interest of our children at heart."

She continued, "A lot of people say that our children are our future. Well, no, I don't believe that they are our future. They are our today. So we need someone that is going to be committed and dedicated to our children."

Reginald said every vote counts, specially in an election that has drawn a lot of interest.

"Not only does every vote count, but even the process of looking for who's the right candidate is an important part of what we do as citizens. It gives us a chance to really be educated about how we have to participate. It's really important just being an informed citizen, and voting is part of being an informed citizen," he said.

Karen Donovan is an Orangeburg resident who teaches in Lexington County. She said the state superintendent race between Lisa Ellis and Ellen Weaver peaked her interest.

2022 Mid-Term Voter Voices Karen Donovan casts a vote at the Prince of Orange Mall.

"I needed to vote for Ms. Ellis for state superintendent of education. My husband and I are both teachers. So we need to make sure that we're doing everything we can go get the best candidate into that office as possible. I don't believe Ellen Weaver is qualified at all," she said.

Donovan continued "Also, I wanted to vote for Joe Cunningham for governor. I don't agree with pretty much anything Henry McMaster does. So I needed to make sure that I did that as well. So those were like the two big races that really drew me to come vote."

At South Carolina State University, where voters cast their ballots at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center, students said it was important to have their voices heard.

S.C. State students Kentasia Brown, 22, I'Ayana Sanders, 20, and Tavionna Kincade, 20, were among them.

Brown, president of the university's student NAACP chapter, said, "It was important for me to vote because we didn't as Black women get the right to vote until the middle 1900s. That was not that long ago. ...

"This election was important simply because I personally want to turn South Carolina into a blue state rather than a red state. How you do that is to elect your local officers and governor and things of that nature."

Sanders said, "I voted because I am the future and every vote counts."

Kincade said, "Voting has consequences. I feel like voting is a right and your voice definitely matters. So if I can make a change and look good for the community and look good for myself, I will definitely do it. That's why voting matters to me."

Brown said every vote counts.

"I would definitely say go back to the 2020 election. Your vote did matter during that time. ... Your votes do count and not only does it count on a grand scale, but it definitely counts on a smaller scale such as your local officials," she said.

Brown said the state gubernatorial race was important to her.

"We had Democratic candidate Joe Cunningham come to South Carolina State University. ... He expressed that for his campaign he wanted to increase teacher pay, legalize marijuana ... and he also wanted to protect women's rights. ... That's important to me," Brown said.
Bamberg County voters OKd Sunday alcohol sales, while Calhoun County voters rejected a change in government on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Orangeburg County votes were still being tallied late Tuesday, although it seemed as if Orangeburg County voters might have approved a plan to spend $190 million on new and improved schools.

The referendum put forward by the Orangeburg County School District had 9,985 votes to 7,564 votes against late Tuesday, with 63% of precincts counted.

The plan includes construction of a new Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, a new elementary school in Holly Hill, expansion at Lake Marion High School in Santee, renovation and expansion at other schools and closure of some schools.

District officials assured taxpayers that the plan would mean no tax increase, with the new debt replacing debt that is coming off the books.

School board election totals were still being tallied Tuesday night.

Calhoun rejects

government change

Calhoun County voters were asked whether to keep the present council form of government with five council members or adopt a council-administrator form of government and continue with five council members.

Voters said keep the same form of government by a total of 3,270 votes to 2,120 votes.

Under the current council form of government, Calhoun County Council is both the legislative body and the executive body that runs the day-to-day operations of the county.

The council-administrator form of government has the council as a legislative body that addresses ordinances and county policies. An employed, professional administrator would handle day-to-day.

Bamberg County

OKs alcohol sales

Voters in Bamberg County said yes to Sunday alcohol sales by a 2,237-1,456 margin.

Approval means stores in the county can obtain permits to sell beer and wine on Sunday, with permitted restaurants and bars being allowed to serve alcohol, including liquor, by the drink. ABC stores that sell bottled liquor would not be authorized for Sunday sales.

Towns have the ability to opt out of Sunday sales if a municipal government decides such.

Rep. Cobb-Hunter

leading in District 95

South Carolinas longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, Orangeburg Democrat Gilda Cobb-Hunter, was leading Tuesday, though election results had not been finalized by press time.

Running in the newly drawn District 95 that includes portions of the City of Orangeburg, Orangeburg County and Dorchester County, Cobb-Hunter received 5,828 votes to 3,309 for Republican challenger Jeffrey Cila of Santee.

The Orangeburg County totals were 4,615-1,868 in favor of Cobb-Hunter with 53 percent of precincts reporting, while Dorchesters tally was 1,441 for Cila and 1,213 for the Orangeburg lawmaker.

Bamberg leading

in District 90

Democratic S.C. Rep. Justin Bamberg of Bamberg County was leading in his bid for reelection Tuesday in the newly drawn District 90.

Bamberg was leading in his race against Republican Sharon Carter, a school teacher from Bamberg County, 6,352 to 4,048.

District 90 was redrawn during reapportionment to add portions of the City of Orangeburg and the U.S. 301 corridor, replacing areas of Barnwell and Colleton counties. All of Bamberg County remains in the district.

Bamberg won in Bamberg County, 2,349-1,638, and was leading in Orangeburg County 4,003 to 2,410 with 80 percent of precincts reporting.

Ott leading

in District 93

Incumbent S.C. Democratic Rep. Russell Ott was winning against longtime Republican leader Jim Ulmer on Tuesday in District 93.

Seeking a fifth full term in the district that includes Calhoun County and portions of Orangeburg and Lexington, Ott got 6,444 votes to Ulmers 3,998.

The votes had not been finalized by press time.

Ott became a lawmaker in October 2013 to complete the unexpired term of his father, Harry L. Ott Jr. He was re-elected in 2014 and has served since.

Calhoun County school board

District 2: Incumbent Kevin G. Jenkins won a fourth four-year term on the board, defeating challenger Tracy Watson, 459-400.

District 5: Incumbent Debra Fredrick, winning a seventh four-year term on the board, defeated challenger Stanley Rivers, 494-348.

Calhoun council

chair wins

Calhoun County Council Chairman James E. Haigler, a Democrat representing District 5, got 582 votes to win re-election.

There were 284 write-in votes. Write-in votes were not identified.

Haigler has served on Calhoun County government for 32 years, 20 as council vice chair. He was unanimously elected chairman earlier this year after the death of longtime Chair David Summers.

Haynes re-elected to Bamberg council

Democrat Larry Haynes was re-elected to Bamberg County Council, defeating Republican Terry Linder by a 444-283 margin.

Haynes, who has been the District 3 representative on council since 2009, will be serving his fourth term.

U.S. Senate

Republican Tim Scott won re-election over Democrat Krystle Matthews.

Calhoun County: Scott 3,427, Matthews 2,159

Bamberg County: Scott 1,820, Matthews 2,147

U.S. House

District 6: Democratic Congressman and House Majority Whip James Clyburn defeated Republican Duke Buckner.

Bamberg County: Clyburn 2,220, Buckner 1,752

Calhoun County: Clyburn 2,290, Buckner 3,332

Governor/Lieutenant Governor

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette were re-elected, defeating Democrats Joe Cunningham and Tally Parham Casey, and Libertarians Bruce Reeves and Jessica Ethridge.

Calhoun County: McMaster 3,235, Cunningham 2,301, Reeves 77

Bamberg County: McMaster 1,736, Cunningham 2,190, Reeves 55
A Holly Hill man pleaded guilty to a drug charge during a recent term of court at the Orangeburg County Courthouse.

Jordan Tyrek David Walters, 25, of 739 Gabby Hall Court, pleaded guilty to first-offense possession with intent to distribute a scheduled drug.

Circuit Judge R. Ferrell Cothran Jr. sentenced Walters to three years in prison, suspended to two years of probation.

He also ordered Walters to complete substance abuse counseling and undergo random drug/alcohol testing.

In other pleas:

 Breuna Valencia Davene, 26, of 1144 Toney Bay Road, Holly Hill, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and battery.

She was originally charged with second-degree assault and battery by mob but pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and battery instead.

Cothran sentenced her to three years in prison, suspended to five years of probation and restitution.

 Billy Jo Williams, 60, of 1517 Silversprings Road, Neeses, pleaded guilty to first-offense possession of one gram or less of methamphetamine or cocaine base.

Williams was originally charged with first-offense distribution of methamphetamine but pleaded guilty to first-offense possession of one gram or less of methamphetamine or cocaine base instead.

Cothran sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended to one year of probation. He gave him credit for having already served three days in prison.

Prosecutors dismissed Williams charges of temporary license plate time limit to replace, first-offense DUS license not suspended for DUI, first-offense uninsured motor vehicle fee violation and use of license plate other than for vehicle which issued.

 Jordan Malik Williams, 24, of 126 Oakmont Drive, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to first-offense failure to stop for blue lights and grand larceny valued at $10,000 or more.

Cothran sentenced Williams under the Youthful Offender Act to six years in prison, suspended to two years of probation.

He also ordered Williams to take medications as prescribed.

Prosecutors dismissed the following charges: breaking into motor vehicle, first-offense possession of one ounce or less of marijuana and grand larceny valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000.

 Kendrell Demontra Williams, 24, of 105 Durham Street, Cordova, pleaded guilty to unlawful carrying of a pistol.

Cothran sentenced Williams under the Youthful Offender Act not to exceed one year, suspended to six months of probation.

Prosecutors dismissed Williams charge of possession with intent to distribute drugs within proximity of a school.

 Jamarris Dyquan Benjamin, 21, of 110 Big Phils Court, Santee, pleaded guilty to first-offense possession with intent to distribute a scheduled drug.

Cothran sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended to three years of probation.

 Justin Lamar Berry, 34, of 796 Edisto Avenue Apt. A, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to unlawful carrying of a pistol, identity fraud to obtain employment or avoid detection by law enforcement and first-offense possession of a controlled substance.

Cothran sentenced him to six months in prison. He was given credit for having already served 80 days at the Orangeburg County Detention Center.

Prosecutors dismissed Berrys charge of second-degree DUS license not suspended for DUI.

 Kelly Wertz Blume, 50, of 3770 Bochette Boulevard, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to injury to real property to obtain nonferrous metals with damage valued less than $5,000.

Cothran sentenced him to 18 months in prison and gave him credit for having already served 338 days in jail.

 Brandon Shaquan Bradley, 33, of 940 Chitwood Street, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to trafficking in heroin, morphine etc. more than 14 grams but less than 28 grams, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance near a school and possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a violent felony.

Cothran sentenced him to prison for five years, suspended to four years of probation.

He gave Bradley credit for having already served two days in jail.

He also ordered Bradley to complete substance abuse counseling and undergo random drug/alcohol testing.

Prosecutors dismissed his charges of first-offense possession of a controlled substance, possession of a stolen pistol, first-offense possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and first-offense distribution of methamphetamine.
Tropical Storm Nicole is forecast to bring heavy rain, gusty winds and the potential for tornadoes Thursday afternoon into Friday evening across The T&D Region.

The National Weather Service is forecasting between 1 inch and 3 inches of rain across the area, with gusty winds over 35 mph possible.

Orangeburg County Emergency Services Director Billy Staley encouraged residents to monitor the forecast, noting there is a potential for heavy rain and isolated tornadoes.

The heaviest rains are expected to move in around 7 p.m. Thursday and last through about noon Friday, according to the NWS.

Localized flooding is possible in urban areas and poor drainage areas, according to the NWS.

The highest wind gusts for the Orangeburg area are forecast to occur Friday morning, peaking at around 32 mph, according to the NWS. Tropical storm-force winds are 39 mph or greater.

The chance for tropical storm-force winds in The T&D Region is between 10 percent and 30 percent on Thursday evening, with Bamberg County and far western Orangeburg County having a greater chance of seeing tropical storm-force winds than central and eastern Orangeburg County or Calhoun County.

Isolated tornadoes are possible early Friday morning.

A lake wind advisory is in place from midnight Wednesday through 7 p.m. Wednesday, ahead of the arrival of Nicole. Strong winds and rough waves on area lakes will create hazardous conditions for small craft.

Calhoun County Emergency Management Director David Chojnacki encouraged residents to do their normal hurricane preps, meaning to make sure they have enough non-perishable food, water, medicine and a weather alert radio. He encouraged people to sign up for alerts at calhouncodered.com.

Don't drive if there is a lot of water on the ground, Chojnacki said.

The Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities is not anticipating anything significant, spokesman Randy Etters said. Our wastewater team will be the most impacted if we receive heavy rainfall, and their preparation is generally the evaluation of systemwide lift stations to ensure necessary output.

Orangeburg County Clemson Extension Agent Jonathan Croft says the biggest concern for growers in the county is harvesting cotton or beans before this round of rain.

Calhoun County Clemson Extension Agent Charles Davis echoed Croft.

We would be a little concerned about any cotton left in the field that has not been picked yet, Davis said. Soybeans have not been harvested yet.

Davis said he talked to one farmer who was using the window of dry weather as an opportunity to get low-lying beans out before the storm.

People moving around outside after the storm are encouraged to exercise caution.

Some tips that could come in handy:

 Do not drive through flooded areas. Do not ever try to drive around or move barricades that are blocking a street.

 Stay away from floodwaters. Beware of snakes, insects and other animals that may be in or around floodwaters and your home.

 Keep children and pets away from hazardous sites and floodwaters.

 If power lines are down, dont step in puddles or standing water.

 Individuals should stay away from downed power lines.
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott has won reelection to what he said will be his last term serving South Carolina. But the only Black Republican in the Senate may have bigger political ambitions yet. Scott beat Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews for a second full term. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2013 by then Gov. Nikki Haley when Jim DeMint resigned and also won a special election.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  U.S. Sen. Tim Scott won reelection Tuesday to what he said will be his last term serving South Carolina, but the only Black Republican in the Senate may have bigger political ambitions yet.

Scott beat Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews for a second full term. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2013 by then Gov. Nikki Haley when Jim DeMint resigned and also won a special election.

Scott, 57, has spent about as much time helping other Republicans as he has campaigning in 2022. He released a memoir called "America, A Redemption Story," where he tells his story of being raised by a single mother and his rise as a Black Republican in South Carolina.

Scott has remained coy about any plans beyond winning reelection. He has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2024 or later depending on how the field shapes up. Scott has made several trips to Iowa and other states that get an early say in the presidential nomination process.

Scott is the U.S. Senate's only Black Republican. He is one of the Republican Party's best fundraisers and got a primetime speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

___

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott is running for what he says is a final six-year term from South Carolina, but the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate may have bigger future political ambitions.

Scott is facing Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews as he seeks a second full term, which he promised would be his last. Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2013 by then Gov. Nikki Haley when Jim DeMint resigned the seat.

Scott began his general election campaign in the summer with $25 million in the bank and still had $21 million a month before the election. Matthews has raised $133,00 for her primary and general election run.

Matthews' campaign has struggled. Much of the attention has been on a series of conversations that were taped without Matthews' knowledge and released by Project Veritas, a group calling itself a media organization though it relies on tactics  including sting operations  that are not widely accepted media practices.

In the tapes, which Matthews has acknowledged, the Black Democrat said she keeps white voters "under my thumbs" and suggested she should fund her campaign with "dope boy money," which she said was a joke.

Several Democrats, including South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham, condemned Matthews.

Matthews also is running for a third term in the South Carolina House, but Republican-dominated redistricting put more likely GOP voters into her district in Berkeley and Charleston counties.

Scott, 57, has spent about as much time helping other Republicans as he has campaigning. Perhaps his biggest event this year was releasing a memoir called "America, A Redemption Story," in which he tells his story of being raised by a single mother and his rise as a Black Republican in South Carolina.

Scott is coy about any future plans beyond winning reelection. He has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2024 or later, depending on how the field shapes up.

As the Senate's only Black Republican, Scott has had a prominent role in his party. He is one of the GOP's best fundraisers and got a primetime speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

In his 2014 special election and 2016 election to a first full term, Scott has faced a Black Democrat and won by at least 60% of the vote.

Democrats haven't won a U.S. Senate race in South Carolina since Ernest "Fritz" Hollings was reelected to his final term in 1998.
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least two policemen were killed and three others injured in a terrorist attack on Tuesday night in the South Waziristan district of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the police.

Unknown terrorists attacked a police station in the district's Raghzai area at midnight, resulting in casualties of policemen, the media reported.

Police said the terrorists burnt an ambulance and torched the police station.

They also stole over two dozen sub-machine guns and a lightweight machine gun along with a fielder car from the police station, added the police. 
COLUMBIA  The South Carolina Vets Care Foundation (SCVets Care) collaborated with the South Carolina Department on Aging (SCDOA) to assist seniors with getting services for their pets.

The program allows seniors who are having difficulties (whether it be physical, personal, or financial) to get services for their pets at no cost to them.

For many older adults, their pets are their family, and having the financial means to provide the necessary services for their pets can be a financial burden to them, South Carolina Department on Aging (SCDOA) Director Connie Munn said. This is why this partnership with SCVets Care is vital to ensure our seniors have resources to assist them so theyre not having to choose between their care versus their pets.

SCVets Care assists seniors with information about a local veterinarian in their area to perform services for their pets, such as:

Heart/worm medicine

Some surgeries

Food

Flea preventatives

Vaccines

Ear infections

Upper respiratory infections

UTIs & more

Regular vaccinations and check-ups are offered through this program. Once work is completed, the vet will bill SCVets Care, who will pay for the services. Mobile vets are available to assist seniors who may not be able to travel for services.

We are thrilled with the work our agency does to help enhance the quality of life for our seniors in South Carolina, South Carolina Department on Aging (SCDOA) Director Connie Munn said. We are blessed as a state to have so many older adults who have chosen to live their golden years here and as a state, we must do all we can to ensure they are living the best healthy lives they can.

For more information, visit https://www.scav.org/Foundation or call 803-254-1027.
ERETRIA, Greece  The sites of horror  the places where mass murder happened  are seared into my memory. Holocaust sites like the Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz, or Kigali, where the Hutus butchered the Tutus, or the Falls Road in Belfast, where many died over the decades of strife.

A new one has just been fixed firmly in my memory: Distomo.

These sites of slaughter trigger the sense of how fragile human society is  and such slaughter is taking place this day, this hour, this minute in Ukraine.

I am not enthralled by history per se. My lens is mainly confined to what happened in my lifetime, whether as a small child during World War II or the years since. That way, I know that it can and will happen again and again.

The horrors of the past arent confined to the past. They leak into the present as new bleak chapters on human conduct are written.

I say this because I have just visited Distomo, where barbarity reached a crescendo on June 10, 1944. There, for two hours, the Waffen-SS killed villagers with machine guns, bayonets and with any weapon at hand. They killed the unborn, infants and older children, women and men. They beheaded the village priest.

If they paused, it was to rape.

The Association of European Journalists, the 60-year-old organization with sections spread across Europe, had invited me to its annual congress in central Greece. After two busloads of delegates had visited the Oracle at Delphi, we stopped at Distomo: a trip from the celestial to the bestial.

My mind is set afire with questions at these World War II sites. If I had been a young Jew swept up by the Nazis, would I have been killed in a camp? If I had been a young German guard, would I have participated in the killing, and how much enthusiasm would I have brought to the work?

I wonder how the young men who did the butchery at Distomo lived with themselves afterward. Did they dream of bayonetting pregnant women, of old people begging to be killed instead of their spouses, children and grandchildren?

In the end, few were spared  only those who were left for dead. Conservative estimates are that 238 people died in the massacre.

My journalistic colleagues and I went from the foibles of the Greek gods of antiquity to the horrors of humans in the 20th century.

I was just a child during World War II, but I feel especially connected because this and other Nazi atrocities happened in my lifetime.

When I visited Auschwitz and saw the hair, the shoes, the toys and other jetsam of children, my thought wasnt that it could have been me, but that those could have been my friends, my playmates, and every Jew I have been close to, and there have been many.

At the Distomo museum, they show a graphic film with eyewitness accounts of those who survived, those who bore witness, like the woman who describes scooping the brains back into her dead toddlers head and carrying him home  but her house, and nearly all those in the village, was burned by the SS. That is what she did and lived to tell  to tell of that butchered child. She said in the film that she couldnt forgive. Who with that memory could?

The young men who carried out the Distomo killings, under their 26-year-old leader, SS-Hauptsturmfurer Fritz Lautenbach, did so in reprisal for attacks on German troops.

After visiting many killing fields  and I dont seek them out  I wonder what I would have done? Would I have followed orders? Would I, in seconds, persuade myself that what I was doing was right?

What would I do if I were on the Russian frontlines in Ukraine today? There is savagery equal to Distomo going on right now in wars in many places, carried out by people just like us.
(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.
BEIRUT  The United States pledged $72 million in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon on Wednesday, aiming at helping to feed hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who are currently struggling to put food on the table amid the country's ongoing economic crisis, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, said during a visit to Lebanon.

Power said the aid would allow 660,000 new beneficiaries to be added to the list of people who are already receiving support from USAID.



Before Power made the announcement, USAID had already provided $260 million in development assistance and aid to Lebanon in 2022.

Power told LOrient Today, that the USA has been supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and Lebanon as the host country, however because of the grave economic crisis facing the country, Lebanese families themselves are now also relying on the aid, something they had never envisioned for themselves before.

She added that the US will be bringing around $14 million in food security money, this is rooted in the crisis of today, which will also entail investments in longer term food security resilience such as making sure farmers have the know-how on the latest seed technology, including seeds that are resilient to climate change, including investments in machinery.

Power also noted that the US will also keep supporting the Lebanese security forces.

The United States donated 13 Humvee military vehicles, 11 other vehicles and military equipment to the Lebanese Army as part of a US military aid program on Monday amid Lebanon's economic and financial crisis.

Washington regularly provides equipment to the Lebanese military. Last August, the US offered the army 150 Humvee military vehicles.

Lebanese politics

Power is set to meet Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday, before heading to Egypt to partake in the COP27 summit.

She expressed regret that the political leaders in Lebanon are still not able to come together to create vital reforms that will allow Lebanon to grow beyond aid and humanitarian assistance towards long term recovery.

She called for the election of a president , and an empowered cabinet as Lebanon is experiencing its first double executive vacuum after former President Michel Aoun's term ended on Oct. 31.

Iranian fuel

Asked about the possibility of Lebanon receiving fuel donations from Iran, Power would not confirm or deny whether Lebanons acceptance of possible Iranian fuel might result in US sanctions. Instead, she highlighted ongoing US- and World Bank-led discussions around an Egyptian-Jordanian-Lebanese energy deal. "We think there are energy solutions on hand that can make an enormous difference for the Lebanese people," she said. The World Bank has yet to approve the financing of this project.

Power also announced $8.5 million in funding for Lebanon that will support 22 new solar-powered water pumping projects in Lebanon.

"These projects, which will be completed over the next two years, will serve more than 150 towns and villages and benefit over half a million Lebanese citizens and refugees by providing reliable access to water and decreasing operating costs and dependence on fuel to those who desperately need it," the US embassy said in a statement on Wednesday.
Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab on Thursday called for "direct and public" communication with Damascus to demarcate the maritime border between Lebanon and Syria.



The US-brokered sea border deal with Israel guarantees "stability" in a volatile region, where the two enemy states seek to exploit potentially gas-rich Mediterranean waters, Bou Saab, Lebanon's top negotiator said Tuesday in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

Beirut now wishes to define its maritime borders with Syria to the north, and Cyprus to the west, to consolidate its offshore rights.

"The Lebanese government must engage directly and publicly with the Syrian government ... and publicly demarcate our sea borders," Bou Saab said. "Any future government must undertake this task and put Lebanon's interest first," he insisted, while "leaving regional political conflicts out of this matter."

Syria has repeatedly refused to delimit land and sea borders with its neighbor.

In recent years, Lebanese politicians have been deeply divided over relations with Damascus. Lebanese security officials and politicians have made several visits to Syria, but almost exclusively in their personal capacity or on behalf of political parties that support the Syrian regime.

The powerful Shiite organization Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's forces since the early stages of the conflict, has been advocating for rapprochement with Damascus.

'Demands and reservations'

Bou Saab said the disputed maritime area between Lebanon and Syria is "perhaps more than 800 square kilometers (310 square miles)." It could be "larger" than the area that had been disputed with Israel, he added.

Lebanon cannot begin gas exploration in its northern waters near Syria without first resolving its border dispute with Damascus, Bou Saab said.

The Lebanese presidency announced last month that a delegation would visit Damascus for sea border talks, but the trip was postponed. The Syrian ambassador in Beirut, Ali Abdel Karim Ali, said the postponement was due to "confusion" over the proposed dates. But after years of Lebanese distancing, Bou Saab said Syria had "demands and reservations."

Lebanese officials are betting on the potential revenues from the country's offshore energy reserves to revive its devastated economy, mired in crisis since 2019.

Political paralysis compounds the country's economic woes. Lebanon is without a president as of Nov. 1 and has been governed by a caretaker cabinet since May.

'Stability and hope'

Lebanon needs an agreement with Syria in order to map its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with Cyprus.

One day after the agreement with Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus agreed to move ahead with sea border talks, but the two countries have yet to strike a deal.

"In a single day, we agreed to change our border with Cyprus," based on the new coordinates with Israel, Bou Saab said.

Under the agreement with Israel, Lebanon gained full rights to operate and explore the Qana or Sidon reservoir, parts of which fall in Israel's territorial waters. Israel will receive direct compensation from the firm operating Qana.

French giant TotalEnergies and Italian energy giant Eni has been licensed to explore the field. Russia's Novatek was initially part of the consortium but later withdrew, and Qatar has stepped up to join, Bou Saab said.

"Qatar will have 30 percent after an agreement between the three companies, while Eni and Total will each have 35 percent," he said. The companies are expected to start operating in three to four months, Bou Saab estimated, adding that other Arab Gulf states are interested in investing in Lebanon's offshore resources.

There are still no proven gas reserves in the Qana reservoir, and analysts cautioned that it will take years to start production in Lebanese waters.

The deal was welcomed by both Israel and the country's enemy, Hezbollah.

Common financial interests at the border mean that conflict is less likely between the two enemy states, Bou Saab said, as European demand for gas soars after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"This deal brings stability and hope on a regional level," he said.

Bou Saab was the lead Lebanese mediator in the indirect talks on the delineation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel  talks that resulted in an agreement last month. He was granted a national award in October for his mediation efforts.
BEIRUT  Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri filed a complaint on Wednesday against Mount Lebanon's Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun, Berri's office announced in a statement, information which was also confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour by a source close to Berri.

The complaint comes in response to a tweet by the judge of an image of a list of names of Lebanese officials who allegedly have Swiss bank accounts frozen by the US administration, including Berri and his wife, Randa Berri.

The image in question, which is not dated, includes the names of 17 Lebanese political figures who, according to the judge, are unable to withdraw funds from their frozen accounts. The image also included the balance of these accounts.

"I don't know how true this information is. But why don't the people whose names are on this list disclose their accounts in Swiss banks? Only for the sake of transparency!" Judge Aoun tweeted. "I hope this will pave the way for a law on lifting bank secrecy," she added.

The list of names includes former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and his brother, businessman Taha Mikati, Governor of Banque Du Liban Riad Salameh, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, and MP Paula Yacoubian.

Shortly after, Judge Aoun deleted her tweet. She could not be immediately reached for comment by L'Orient-Le Jour.

'She does what she wants'

Following the tweet, Berri "immediately" filed a complaint via his lawyer to the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Ghassan Oueidate, according to the channel NBN, which is owned by the Parliament Speaker. According to the text of the complaint, the grounds are defamation, incitement to religious discord, slander and abuse of power.

A source close to Berri said the complaint is "the least we can do."

"A judge should not publish such information online. On what basis does [Judge Aoun] make these accusations? She should be able to back up her statements. It's been six years that she does what she wants," said the source, adding a call for Aoun "to be prosecuted by the Supreme Council of the Judiciary."

Ghada Aoun was referred to the Judicial Inspection in April 2021 after her highly-publicized searches at the headquarters of the company Mecattaf, in Aoukar, north of Beirut. She also refused to comply with a decision by General Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidate to remove her from financial crimes cases.

The magistrate  who has prosecuted several officials in recent years, including Riad Salameh and the Mikati brothers  is often at the center of judicial turmoil and is known for her affiliation with the Free Patriotic Movement, founded by former President Michel Aoun founded and headed by his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil.
MANILA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos said on Wednesday that regional cooperation on climate change, food security, health cooperation and economic recovery will be highlighted at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings in Cambodia.

He made the remarks at an airport in Manila before flying to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, for the meetings to be kicked off on Thursday.

The 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related summits will be convened in Phnom Penh on Nov. 10-13.

Marcos said he will have bilateral meetings with some ASEAN counterparts and dialogue partners on the sidelines to promote the Philippines "not only as an investment center, not only as a tourism center but as a partner, a global partner."

"We will also hold summits with ASEAN's dialogue partners ... to review existing and new areas of cooperation and exchange views on the regional and international issues," he added.

It will be the first time for Marcos, who assumed the presidency on June 30, to join other leaders from ASEAN and its partners to discuss regional security, economic and socio-cultural development, and global issues affecting the Southeast Asian region and beyond.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
Casper City Council will see several new faces next year.

Four council seats were up for grabs this election: one in Ward 1, one in Ward 2 and two in Ward 3.

Incumbent Mayor Ray Pacheco took first Tuesday in the Ward 3 race with 41.5% of votes, while newcomer Brandy Haskins came in second with about 27.1%.

Pacheco has said he plans to continue some of the citys current projects, like street repairs. He also supports continuing city subsidies for local nonprofits and facilities.

Haskins, a financial manager, pitched herself as a good fit for working on the city budget and other planning matters. Shes also said she supports prioritizing road maintenance.

Woody Warren came in third, earning about 16.1% of the total vote. Warren comes from a retail background, and has advocated for smaller government and cutting city spending. Warren previously ran for city council in 2020.

Trevor Mahlum, a career educator, was fourth with around 14.5% of votes. Mahlum is interested in issues such as park maintenance and city planning.

Ward 1 candidate Gena Jensen bested incumbent Jai-Ayla Sutherland, while Michael Bond  also be new to the council  won Ward 2.

Jensen received about 54.5% of votes in the Ward 1 race. Sutherland took home roughly 43.81% of the vote.

Jensen serves as the executive director of the National Historic Trails Center. Shes interested in getting a lodging tax passed in Casper, which would let the city pull in more revenue from tourism.

Sutherland, who works in global anti-violence policy, joined the council in fall of 2021 to fill a vacancy. If reelected, shes said she wants to prioritize funding for infrastructure and city operations.

Bond won Ward 2's open seat with about 53% of the vote.

Bond, who works in education, is in favor of maintaining city services, growing partnerships with other municipalities and organizations and supporting local businesses.

His opponent, Casper business owner Eric Paulson, held roughly 46.1% of votes. Paulson has said he wants to reduce city spending, and is critical of using city funding for quality-of-life purposes, like subsidizing the Ford Wyoming Center and Hogadon Basin Ski Area.
Natrona County elected an all-Republican crowd to fill the county commission's four open seats Tuesday.

Dallas Laird, an attorney and former Casper City Council member, took first place with roughly 27.2% of votes. He also earned the largest percentage of the GOP vote in the primary.

Laird has pushed for new faces on the commission, leveling accusations of incompetence and greed against its current leadership.

He campaigned on raising county employee salaries, as well as dipping into the approximately $120 million the county made from the sale of the Wyoming Medical Center to pay for infrastructure projects.

Incumbent Peter Nicolaysen was second with about 27.1% of votes. Nicolaysen was appointed to the commission in April after Brook Kaufman left to take a job in Rapid City. He said previously hed advocate for smaller government and trimming the county budget.

James Milne, another incumbent, received about 24.6% of the vote. Milne, whos in his first term, campaigned on improving wages and benefits for county employees, as well as amending planning and zoning regulations.

Democrat Tom Radosevich came in fourth with approximately 11.6% of votes. Radosevich, a doctor, serves as director of Wyoming Recovery. Hes advocated for environmental sustainability, as well as expanding access to the countys public lands and improving its parks and trails system.

Libertarian Shawn Johnson earned 8.6% of the vote. Johnson is a legal assistant and former Casper City Council member. He formerly served as deputy sheriff and as a medic in the military. Johnson campaigned on improving county roads and parks, and raising pay for county employees.

A fourth seat is uncontested; former Casper City Council member and mayor Steve Freel, a Republican, won the seat over incumbent Rob Hendry in August.
A retired educator, a former school board trustee and two members of Natrona Countys Moms for Liberty group won seats on the countys school board Tuesday.

In Natrona County, 15 candidates crowded the race for four open seats on the school board this year.

Retired educator Michael Stedillie, who formerly taught theater at Kelly Walsh High School and now works as a substitute teacher in the district, took the lead with roughly 14% of votes.

He was followed by former school board member Kevin Christopherson and Moms for Liberty member Jenifer Hopkins and Mary Schmidt. They collectively garnered roughly 30% of the vote.

The two incumbents  Kianna Smith and Debbie McCullar  didnt make it back onto the school board.

Theres been a lot of attention this year on school board races across the nation as people have become more involved in kids education following the coronavirus pandemic.

School board meetings in Natrona County have been packed lately, a stark contrast from before the pandemic, when attendance at meetings was sparse.

Increased interest in school board meetings started with community members protesting masking requirements in the districts schools. Community members have also come to the school board to push back against social-emotional learning curricula.

But the controversy over books in school libraries that some call pornographic for their depictions of sexuality is the topic that has been the center of focus at Natrona Countys school board meetings most recently.

Some of the candidates wanted to prioritize trade schools and to provide more opportunities for students to work with their hands. Others wanted to maintain Natrona Countys unique school choice system. Some were concerned about behavioral and mental health issues among students. Many wanted to try and figure out ways to better retain and recruit teachers.

In an unusual move, three of the school board candidates  Renea Redding, Schmidt and Hopkins, all members of Natrona Countys Moms for Liberty group  ran together in part to oppose two books in the Kelly Walsh High School library.

Redding garnered roughly 8% of the vote and didnt make it onto the school board.

The books  Gender Queer, a graphic novel that explores the authors experience with gender and sexuality, and Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, a resource guide for transgender individuals  have been criticized for their depictions of sexuality.

In early September, after some community members asked the district to get rid of the books, a committee voted to keep them at the Kelly Walsh High School library. (The Natrona County High School library had also purchased Gender Queer in January, although it wasnt in circulation.) But community members appealed the decision, and the school board itself will have to take a vote on whether or not to keep the books.

Two of the trustees whose terms are ending decided not to run for reelection.

Trustee Clark Jensen, a longtime member of the school board, previously said at a State Loan and Investment Board meeting in September that he was more interested in working with the new charter school opening in Casper  Wyoming Classical Academy  rather than continuing with the district.

Though Jensen emphasized that he didnt mean to disparage the school district, he said at the September that he was disappointed at the lack of progress its schools seem to have made compared to state standards.

The majority of schools in the Natrona County School District didnt meet state performance standards in the 2021-2022 school year, according to an October report from the district. Eleven schools scores decreased from 2018 to 2022, but 12 schools scores increased in the same time period.
Prosecutors have determined a police officer acted in self-defense when he shot a domestic violence suspect inside an east Casper apartment in May, police said Tuesday.

An investigation conducted by a state agency and reviewed by the Natrona County District Attorneys Office found the man had a loaded gun in his hand while hiding underneath blankets inside a closet. Police say the officer fired once when the man, earlier identified as Gage Cordova, raised the weapon.

The officer, police say, believed he was about to be shot. The suspect, who suffered a grazing wound to his right arm, told investigators he raised the gun intending to kill himself.

In a Facebook post, police identified the officer as Matthew Lougee, a three-year veteran of the force.

The video states prosecutors made their determination that the shooting was justified in August. It attributes the delay to ensuring the integrity of all investigations. The Star-Tribune asked a police spokesman to clarify what investigations that statement was referring to but did not receive a response by deadline.

Police released a video discussing the incident on Tuesday. It features body camera footage and police statements about the shooting, the events leading up to it, and a negotiation afterward that was resolved peacefully. In Wyoming, the release of body camera footage is left to the discretion of police.

The footage shows the moment when Lougee fired his weapon as Cordova began to emerge armed from blankets strewn on a closet floor.

Cordova, who was 24 at the time, was accused of using a gun to threaten his wife, who was in the process of divorcing him, after allegedly showing up at her house. He was further accused of leaving her threatening voicemails and using a Ring doorbell surveillance system at the womans home to listen in on her and police, court documents filed in connection to his subsequent arrest state.

The same court document state Cordova made threatening statements to police as well.

The video footage released Tuesday begins with officers at the door of an east Casper apartment on May 30. They had searched the apartment earlier without finding Cordova, but believed he might have returned there.

Police say that officers knocked on the apartment door for several minutes before they reached the tenant by phone. That person agreed to answer the door.

The body cam footage shows uniformed and plainclothes officers outside the apartment. One is holding an assault rifle. Others have their pistols out.

The door opens and the officers are let inside by a woman who speaks with them. She allows them to enter. One officer walks down a hallway and into a bedroom. He begins to search a walk-in closet when he notices a pile of blankets and laundry.

He aims his flashlight at the pile and appears to try and flip over the blankets. He says hey as a man suddenly emerge from the blankets. The officer twice tells the man to get up before a gunshot is heard.

The body cam footage is blocked as this happens, which police attribute in the video to the officers position as he leans over to move the blankets.

As the suspect emerges, he had a loaded handgun in his right hand, which he begins to raise upward, the video states. The officer, seeing the handgun raising up, and considering the earlier threats made to the officers lives, believed his life to be in jeopardy.

While retreating backwards, the officer fires his weapon once, police state in the video.

In the body camera footage, Cordova could be heard threatening to take his own life. During the encounter, he pointed the gun at his head while asking the officers to kill him.

Lets not do that, one officer says on the video. You dont want to do that.

The video states officers began to negotiate with him once the gun was no longer pointed in their direction. They can be seen talking calmly to him as he points the gun at his head.

Just put the gun down, one officer says. Well get you medical attention.

The negotiations continued for an hour, police said. The officers eventually convince Cordova to put down the gun. He stands up, leaves the closet and surrenders.

Nice and easy, were not going to bum rush you, one officer can be heard saying.

Cordova, who was taken to a hospital for medical care, appears to stand up under his own power and walk out of the closet as officers stand ready nearby.

Police said the investigation found Cordova had marijuana and methamphetamine in his system at the time.
Two of the three Democratic candidates backed by Rep. Liz Cheney won office on Tuesday. Meanwhile, two Arizona Republicans that she campaigned against were trailing in their races, though those contests had not been decided as of Wednesday.

Cheney, once the third-ranking Republican in the House, broke ranks and for the first time endorsed Democratic candidates running in the midterms. She explained she was motivated to support politicians who were facing challenges from election deniers.

The Wyoming lawmaker endorsed Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in October, who was facing a tough reelection fight. Cheneys traveled to Michigan to campaign for Slotkin, appearing at an event with her in Lansing.

The two worked together in the State Department and have been critical of Republican attempts to downplay or minimize the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

This is, by the way, the first time I have ever campaigned for a Democrat, Cheney said at the event. And I have to tell you, it was not a hard decision at all.

In November, Cheney endorsed the releection bid of Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who was challenged by Yesli Vega, a local official endorsed by former President Donald Trump. The election was considered a toss up.

Cheney in a statement accused Vega of promoting conspiracy theories, denying election outcomes she disagrees with, and defending the indefensible, the AP reported.

Like Slotkin, Spanberger previously worked in the CIA. She is considered a moderate.

In an interview earlier this month, Cheney also backed Democrat Tim Ryan, who lost Tuesday in his Senate bid against Trump-backed Republican J.D. Vance.

Cheney additionally waded into the Arizona election, launching a TV ad that targeted Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and GOP secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, who are both election deniers.

If you care about the survival of our republic, we cannot give people power who will not honor elections, Cheney says in the advertisement.

Lake was slightly trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs with about two-thirds of the vote counted Wednesday. Finchem was behind by 5 points.

Cheney lost her own reelection bid in August to attorney Harriet Hageman, Trumps choice to defeat one of his most vocal political opponents. Hageman coasted to victory in Tuesdays general election.

After her defeat, Cheney made it clear that she would continue to work to defeat Trump and politicians who back his false election claims, calling him a threat to democracy.
Republican nominee Megan Degenfelder easily won the state superintendent of public instruction race amid a time of rising dissatisfaction among teachers and controversies over whats being taught in public schools.

Degenfelder beat out her Democratic opponent by roughly 54 points with about 60% of the vote counted.

"The grassroots support that we've had all these months and throughout the campaign has just been tremendous," Degenfelder said Tuesday night from Cheyenne, where she was celebrating her win.

She said she was "incredibly grateful for the people of Wyoming."

"It's just really exciting to be entrusted with this position by the voters of Wyoming, and I won't let them down."

A lifelong Wyomingite hailing from Casper, Degenfelder is a former top official with the Wyoming Department of Education who works for Morningstar Partners Oil & Gas as the companys government and regulatory affairs manager. She graduated from Natrona County High School and the University of Wyoming, after which she got her masters degree in economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China.

She previously served as the Wyoming Department of Educations chief policy officer under former state superintendent Jillian Balow and has also worked various jobs in Wyomings private energy industry.

Degenfelder sought the state superintendent post after Balow left early to take a similar job in Virginia. But the GOP State Central Committee didnt vote Degenfelder in as one of the top three candidates to refer to Gov. Mark Gordon, choosing outgoing state superintendent Brian Schroeder, former lawmaker Marti Halverson and American Military University political and military science department chair Thomas Kelly instead. Gordon appointed Schroeder to the interim post in January.

But Degenfelder jumped back into the competition in April when she announced her midterm election bid for the state superintendent post. She was able to eke out a win in the Republican primary race, beating out Schroeder by a little more than two points.

Degenfelders first priority is to empower parents as the number one voice in their childrens education. She supported the 2022 Civics Transparency Act, legislation that would have required teachers to list learning materials used in the classroom on a public platform. Balow at one point linked the bill to concerns about critical race theory  an academic framework for examining racism in U.S. society  that some worry is being taught in Wyomings public schools. The bill didnt make it into law.

She has also emphasized increasing industry connections with Wyomings public education system to prepare students to enter Wyomings workforce. Industry associations like the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Contractors Association, Wyoming Realtors Association and the Wyoming Mining Association supported Degenfelders campaign.

Wyomings state superintendent of public instruction heads the states education department and sits on several state boards.

That includes the State Loan and Investment Board, which, since this year, has the authority to grant or refuse contracts for proposed charter schools. While some worry that charter schools could sap funding from traditional public schools or provide an avenue for religion to creep into public education, others like the increased flexibility they offer. At a May community meeting in Casper, Degenfelder summed up the reason for her support of charter schools simply: The less red tape, the better.

Degenfelder said she plans to spend the next weeks "really focusing on the transition" and thinking about how she can "start to implement straightaway" the initiatives she's been talking about on the campaign trail.

"I'd really like to hit the ground running day one upon taking office," she said.

In the general election, Degenfelder went head-to-head with Democratic nominee Sergio Maldonado, who was unopposed in the primaries. Maldonado, an educator and member of the Northern Arapaho tribe, has served on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education under former President George H.W. Bush and as the liaison with the Northern Arapaho tribe under former Gov. Matt Mead.

A University of Wyoming poll released on Friday showed Degengelder taking the lead over Maldonado by 30 points, with 54% of respondents saying they planned to vote for Degenfelder and 24% stating their intention to back Maldonado.
Gov. Mark Gordon won a second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Theresa Livingston and Libertarian Jared Baldes.

The Associated Press called the race in Gordons favor two minutes after the polls closed in Wyoming.

Both Jennie and I feel honored and I guess also very humbled by the promptness of the call, Gordon told the Star-Tribune. We feel like thats an endorsement of the last four years and the vision that we have for the future.

Despite the challenges of leading the state through the COVID-19 pandemic, which hurt the energy industry and brought with it restrictions that were unpopular with many Republicans, Gordon didnt face a serious challenge to a second term in office. A poll this summer found he and his counterpart in Vermont were the nations two most popular governors.

In August, he defeated three GOP hopefuls, Brent Bien, Rex Rammell and James Scott Quick, to secure the Republican nomination for governor with more than 60% of the vote.

His success in the general election was no different. A University of Wyoming poll conducted at the end of October found that 76% of respondents, including 89% of Republicans and 73% of independents, supported Gordon, while 54% of Democrats preferred Livingston.

Livingston, who lives in Worland, is an Air Force veteran and former Bureau of Land Management employee, her website says. Economic diversification also ranks among her top priorities, along with expanding womens rights, Medicaid and mental health care. She ran in 2020 as the sole Democratic candidate for Senate District 20, losing to Republican Sen. Ed Cooper, before defeating Rex Wilde in the Democratic gubernatorial primary this year.

One of Gordons major takeaways from running against Livingston and Baldes was that people are concerned about Wyoming, he said. They are not wrapped up completely in national politics and the national scene. There are some, but I think what we saw tonight  what I think we saw out of the general election  was a real commitment to Wyoming issues, local leadership and a real faith in local government closest to the people.

Former president Donald Trump did not publicly back a candidate for governor in Wyoming, though he did give endorsements in several other races. Gordon did not attend Trumps political rally in Casper in May, saying he wasnt going to take sides in the GOP House primary.

Republican officials in other states were quick to applaud Gordons win.

Under Governor Gordon, Wyoming is in a stronger position and voters were enthusiastic to continue his leadership for four more years, governors Doug Ducey and Pete Ricketts, co-chairs of the Republican Governors Association, said in a statement. Mark delivered on his promises by cutting taxes and taking on the Biden administration to defend Wyomings oil and gas industry. With Governor Gordon, Wyoming is destined for success.

Gordon, the former state treasurer, is committed to making government more transparent, accessible, productive and efficient, according to his website. He believes in limited government, supports gun rights and opposes abortion and Medicaid expansion.

Facing primary challengers from the right, he emphasized during a gubernatorial debate in July that he is a Republican, and a conservative Republican at that.

Gordon told the Star-Tribune in August, after winning his primary, that economic diversification, education and health care are key issues his administration plans to address in the future.

As for his immediate plans, Gordon told the Star-Tribune on Tuesday night, this week is packed with legislative and regulatory meetings. I do hope this weekend I get a chance to go up and go hunting, he added. I missed that this fall.
A legislative committee advanced a bill that would authorize the state to apply for primacy over federal permitting and licensing that guides the management of rare-earth-element minings radioactive byproducts.

Lawmakers and industry representatives believe the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality can permit and oversee the management of rare earth materials containing uranium and thorium more quickly and efficiently than the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which may entice more rare earth mining in the state.

Were laying the groundwork here to attract these companies, and its important to note were in competition with other states to build this industry, Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti told members of the Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee in October.

The minerals committee unanimously approved the draft bill, Source material associated with rare earth mining agreement. If passed by the full Legislature, the measure would authorize the state to apply for primacy over the federal program. Wyoming obtained primacy over certain aspects of federal permitting and licensing for uranium mining about 10 years ago. If approved by the NRC, Wyoming DEQ would essentially expand its existing program to also include rare-earth mining source material.

Establishing the rare earth source materials program would require about four years of rulemaking and other preparations, according to DEQ, at an annual cost of $460,000. That money would come from the states general fund. The ongoing expense of managing the program, including additional staff at DEQ, would cost an estimated $555,000 annually. However, DEQ expects it would recoup those costs via permitting and licensing fees paid by the industry.

The technology and renewable energy industries are driving up demand for rare earth minerals  metallic elements essential to manufacturing cell phones, computer components, medical devices and advanced batteries like those in electric vehicles. Analysts see Chinas domination of rare-earth-minerals production as a threat to U.S. energy independence and potentially even national security. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $407 million for research and development to expand the nations capacity for rare earth production.

Surveys to better define Wyomings rare-earth-mineral resources are underway at the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources and the Wyoming State Geological Survey. In addition to naturally occurring rare earth deposits in the state, the efforts include studies to determine the viability of extracting rare earth elements from coal ash and water co-produced with oil and natural gas.

Weve got a lot of this stuff in the ground, and we need to expand our mining operations, Deti said. This is the opportunity to bring in that new sector.

Two companies have thus far proposed rare-earth mining projects in Wyoming. Rare Element Resources has drilled test wells for its proposed Bear Lodge Project in northeast Wyoming, while Western Rare Earths is analyzing the potential to establish a mine in Albany County. Neither has yet applied for an NRC license. But the developers expect that Wyoming DEQ could help expedite what is typically an arduous, years-long federal permitting process.

Our momentum [at the Bear Lodge mine] is extremely valuable, Rare Element Resources President and CEO Randy Scott told the legislative committee. Were pleased that our demonstration plan process with the NRC is moving forward at a reasonably good clip, but its still not as efficient as it could be if Wyoming DEQ were the lead licensing agency.
The Legislature lost its only independent and minor-party lawmakers Tuesday. Republicans will take over those seats.

A record number of independent and minor party candidates ran for legislative seats this year. But none of them won their races.

Republican Cody Wylie handily beat out the incumbent in House District 39, Libertarian Marshall Burt. Before Burt won his first election to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 2020, the district had long been represented by Democrat Stan Blake, who had run unopposed for several years in a row.

Wylie, a political newcomer backed by Gov. Mark Gordon, grew up in Sweetwater County and studied political science at the University of Wyoming. He ran on a platform of keeping taxes low and diversifying Wyomings economy.

Given the districts history of Democratic and Libertarian representation, Wylie said Wednesday morning that he had expected the race to be tighter; he won by 50 points, according to the most recent results from the Secretary of States Office.

I ran into a little bit of resistance here, but once talking to people, they realized that Im gonna go to work for my neighbors, and Im gonna represent them no matter what party theyre from, Wylie said. I think that really came across and hit home with people.

Burt didnt respond to calls from the Star-Tribune on Wednesday morning.

Another Republican candidate, Joshua Larson, also swept a legislative seat in Sweetwater County that was previously held by Democrat Chad Banks.

Wylie said he was hopeful about the direction of Sweetwater County because the county is sending a united front of Republicans to the Legislature.

House District 22, which encompasses parts of Lincoln and Teton counties, also turned Republican after having been represented by independent Jim Roscoe since 2019. (He also represented the district from 2009 to 2012.) Roscoe didnt run for reelection this year.

Republican Andrew Byron went head-to-head with independent candidate Bob Strobel in the House District 22 race. Unofficial results from the Secretary of States Office show that Byron won by 14 points.

This is Byrons first time running for a seat in the Legislature. In a candidate interview with the Jackson Hole News & Guide, he described himself as super moderate candidate who wants to focus on safety, health and human services and infrastructure.

The Legislature turned farther right following the general election, with Republican candidates like Senate District 29 winner Bob Ide and House District 58 winner Bill Allemand taking over seats formerly held by more moderate conservatives.

Even though Byron considers himself a very moderate Republican, he didnt seem fazed about his prospects for getting work done in a Legislature that has turned farther right.

The voters have voted and the results are in, and youre either gonna work together or not get anything done, Byron said. I think the first options a lot better than the second. Strobel warned about the potential challenges a deeply red Legislature might pose to Byrons aims.

The Legislature is split between the moderates and the MAGAs, its basically the party of no versus people actually trying to get work done for Wyoming, Strobel said. So just try not to have high expectations straight out of the gates, because its going to be a challenge, is what I would say.

Although Strobel ran as an independent, he has historically registered as a Republican because, as he previously described it to the Star-Tribune, if youre not a Republican, you cant vote for anyone.

He expressed some surprise Wednesday that he didnt get more votes in certain areas and that voter turnout wasnt higher in the district. (Turnout for the House District race was the lowest it has been since at least 2016.)

In the future, Strobel said he would probably prefer to help other people get elected rather than running again himself. (He has experience helping out behind the scenes with outgoing lawmaker Roscoes previous campaigns.)

No other independents or minor-party candidates have won races in other districts. The race for House District 41, where Constitution Party candidate Matt Freeman is competing, hasnt been called yet. But the winner will likely be either Republican Bill Henderson or Democrat Jen Solis.

This article has been updated.
After Wyoming voters cast a record number of ballots during the primary election this August, turnout for the general election proved notably more muted.

Tuesdays unofficial statewide count of 198,153 ballots surpassed primary turnout by just under 16,000  the smallest margin between a primary and general election in the state in at least 28 years, according to records kept by the Wyoming Secretary of States office.

In Wyoming, and across the U.S., midterms typically draw fewer voters to the polls than presidential elections. This years turnout marked the states lowest participation in a general election since 2014, another midterm, when 171,153 votes were recorded.

General elections also tend to attract tens of thousands more voters in Wyoming  a significant fraction of the states total count  compared with primaries.

But Augusts high-profile primary mobilized Wyoming voters across the political spectrum as they turned out either to support U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent critic of former president Donald Trumps role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, or to help Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman unseat her and claim Wyomings lone seat in the House of Representatives.

Hageman, a natural resources attorney, won the Republican nomination by a landslide. And with Republicans consistently dominating the states major elections, many saw Hagemans success in the primary as the true victory needed to secure election to the House.

The 182,142 ballots cast in August surpassed the states next-biggest primary, in 2020, by more than 40,000 votes, and represented more than half of Wyomings 297,639 registered voters.

As of Jan. 1 of this year, nearly 46,000 of Wyoming voters  about 16%  were registered as Democrats, according to the Secretary of States office. By Sept. 1, after the primary, that number had fallen by more than 15,000, to closer to 10% of registered voters, likely due at least in part to Democrats switching party affiliation to vote for Cheney in August.

Only about 34,000 voters were registered as Democrats on Election Day. The total number of registered voters in Wyoming has increased by almost 17,000 since Jan. 1. But the number of registered Republicans, up more than 36,000 from Jan. 1, had dropped by just over 2,600 from Sept. 1.

Republicans accounted for about 78% of Wyomings registered voters as of Tuesday.

Despite the general elections comparatively low voter turnout, Hageman earned upwards of 132,000 votes  roughly 70% of the total  against Democratic opponent Lynnette Grey Bull, Libertarian Richard Brubaker and Constitution Party candidate Marissa Selvig.

Republican Gov. Mark Gordons nearly 144,000 votes, meanwhile, easily earned him a second term over Democrat Theresa Livingston and Libertarian Jared Baldes. And Megan Degenfelder, the Republican nominee for superintendent of public instruction, bested Democrat Sergio Maldonado, Sr., with more than 142,000 votes.
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.
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THE murder count is now 551, the highest it has ever been in the history of Trinidad and Tobago
We have a busy week ahead for Tucson classical music. Heres what you need to know.

Guest conductor leads SASO

Egyptian conductor Ahmed El Saedi will be at the podium when the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra performs the second concert of its 2022-23 season this weekend.

El Saedi, who also moonlights as a composer, is the longtime music director and principal conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. SASO Music Director Linus Lerner said he met El Saedi several years ago at a music festival in Italy.

El Saedi will lead the volunteer Tucson ensemble in a program that includes Mendelssohns Hebride Overture and Dvoraks brilliant Symphony No. 8. Italian cellist Francesco Mariozzi, whose career spans orchestras, film and theater in his native Italy, also will join SASO for Haydns Cello Concerto in D major.

The orchestra will perform the concert twice this weekend: at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at SaddelBrookes DesertView Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 7650 N. Paseo Del Norte, in Oro Valley. Tickets are $30 for SaddleBrooke through tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com; $25, free for those 17 and younger, for Oro Valley through sasomusic.org.

For more information, call 520-308-6226.

Symphonic Winds salute vets

When you host an event every year it falls under the category of an annual event.

When you do it for 37 years  sans the COVID-19 pause, which should never be held against anyones record of longevity  you are a tradition.

On Friday, Nov. 11, Tucson Conductor Laszlo Veres will lead his volunteer Arizona Symphonic Winds in their 37th Veterans Day Concert.

We have been playing continuously since 1986; 2021 Covid-19 year doesnt count, said Veres, who will don his ubiquitous John Phillip Sousa uniform for the occasion. It has become a Tucson tradition.

The orchestras Salute to Veterans concert on Veterans Day will feature Catalina Foothills High School senior Tyler Kebo as soloist on the marimba in a program that includes Barry Kopetzs American Sketches, Tucson composer Mark Wolframs Colonial Scenes, Robert W. Smiths American Flourish and marches by John Philip Sousa.

The Winds also will play tribute to all members of the armed forces past and present with the Armed Forces Salute, a medley of songs representing all branches of service.

The 37th Annual Veterans Day Concert will begin at 2 p.m. Friday at Catalina Foothills High School Auditorium, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. Admission is free.

Arizona Friends honor pianist

Two of the three members of the esteemed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio will honor their late partner Joseph Kalichstein in a special concert with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Kalichstein, an award-winning concert pianist who founded the trio in 1977, died last March at age 76.

Pianist Anna Polonsky will take Kalichsteins seat when his longtime trio-mates violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson and violist/composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama perform a concert curated by Kalichstein.

The program features the Arizona premiere of Ngwenyamas new work Elegy for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, co-commissioned by Arizona Friends and several other presenters including the Kennedy Center and written in response to the social reckoning of 2020.

In program notes published by the Kennedy Center, where the quartet performed the concert on Oct. 18, Kalichstein called Elegy a heart-wrenching tribute to the victims of racial prejudice and to the struggle for equality and justice and said there is something very fitting about pairing Elegy with Dvoraks E-flat Piano Quartet.

Astonishingly, (Dvorak) was an early champion of American Black composers. And, as the head of the newly established National Music Conservatory in Lower Manhattan, he insisted that it would be open to women and people of color (not a given in the 1880s!), Kalichstein wrote.
New classical music works usually get a single premiere, a chance for audiences to hear the piece for the very first time.

Rising Mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras MeChicano is getting six.

Which is very unique for a composer, Contreras admitted during a phone call from his Los Angeles home last week. Typically, I would say, its easier to have a single premiere, but its difficult to take it to other orchestras and establish it in the repertoire (with just one performance).

Contreras, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, will be on hand this weekend for premiere No. 3, with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jose Luis Gomez.

The TSO is one of six orchestras  Tucson, Las Vegas Philharmonic, California Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony  to commission Contreras as part of the New Music USAs two-year-old Amplifying Voices project, which fosters collaborations between orchestras and composers with the goal of achieving more racial and gender equality in classical music.

Contreras, who has been in the United States for 15 years and recently became a citizen, is one of a dozen composers of color to be selected for the program.

This is the first piece that I composed as a Mexican-American composer, he said, adding that the title was inspired by his newfound citizenship.

MeChicano celebrates the vibrant Mexican-American communities in the U.S., especially those in the cities whose orchestras participated in the commission.

A lot of these communities are in border states so I thought it would be a great idea to honor Mexican-Americans because they have contributed so much to this country, Contreras said. The idea was to amplify these voices.

MeChicano borrows soundscapes from Mexico and European classical music. Parts of it will sound like a setlist from the 1980s-style Saturday night dances held in some Mexican-American communities to help new citizens discover their own identities and feel more at home, the composer said.

They would incorporate Mexican music with jazz and pop, he said. In the 1980s, when Mexican-Americans became more prominent, music was the way that they discovered their own identity.

MeChicano is fast-paced and uptempo, opening with the quintessential Mexican flair of a trumpet solo, then weaves quintessential Mexican musical styles from Tejano and pop (think Selena) to groove (think Ritchie Valens) in an orchestral setting. Contreras adds a drum kit, Mexican tubas and a trio of clarinets effecting the sound of an accordion for more authentic Mexican flourishes.

The audience will transport themselves to a Saturday night dance and hear all of these melodies inspired by these songs in an orchestra context, said Contreras, who last month won a 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prize in Music celebrating immigrant contributions to intellectual and cultural life in the U.S.

I love it, Conductor Gomez said of MeChicano. I was already excited when I looked at the score. And when I heard it, I wasnt surprised. He really wants to bring out the popular elements of the music, which is real prominent in the music.

Contreras said his piece should strike a familiar chord with Tucson given its rich Mexican heritage.

I think there are very few opportunities where you can attend an orchestra concert and feel that you are being represented on stage and feel connected to the music being performed, he said.

MeChicano opens the orchestras Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 concert, part of the orchestras Celebracion Latina! series that shines a spotlight on Latin composers. Russian-American pianist Natasha Paremski will debut with the orchestra on the Rach 2. Nielsens Symphony No. 4 Inextinguishable closes out the program.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday gained a second term as he defeated challenger Nan Whaley, a Democrat who hoped to regain a seat last won by her party 16 years ago. The victory by the incumbent governor was part of a GOP sweep of statewide offices.

DeWine prevailed in a surprisingly tight three-way primary in May as conservatives angered by his efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus sought to unseat him. Whaley handily defeated former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley in her primary.

This is Ohios time in history, things are coming our way," DeWine said in his victory speech. But he also said unfinished business lay ahead, from ensuring proper prenatal and post-natal care for children, making sure students graduating from high school have a clear pathway to college or other career opportunities, and removing barriers to treatment for addiction and mental illness.

I will continue to push forward and to lead and to talk about the things that we have to do, DeWine said.

DeWine and Whaley bonded briefly over the 2019 mass shooting that killed nine in Dayton and wounded more than two dozen. But Whaley increasingly criticized the governor for his failure to pass stronger gun laws and for his anti-abortion stance.

A tough night, a disappointed Whaley acknowledged, even as she urged supporters to continue pushing for gun control, abortion rights, universal pre-K and raising the minimum wage.

Tonight we can mourn this loss, but tomorrow we get back to work, Whaley said.

Republican incumbents retained four other statewide seats, with Attorney General Dave Yost defeating Democrat Jeff Crossman; Auditor Keith Faber defeating Democrat Taylor Sappington; Treasurer Robert Sprague defeating Democrat Scott Schertzer; and Secretary of State Frank LaRose defeating Democrat Chelsea Clark and Independent Terpsehore Tore Maras.

Races for Ohio House and Senate seats are the first test of new legislative maps drawn by the Ohio Redistricting Commission meant to reduce gerrymandering. The maps before voters were found unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court but a federal judge ordered them used for this election only.

In three Ohio Supreme Court races, Republican Justices Pat DeWine and Pat Fischer retained their seats, while GOP Justice Sharon Kennedy defeated Democrat Justice Jennifer Brunner for the office of chief justice. With DeWine certain to nominate a Republican to replace Kennedy, the court will remain a 4-3 GOP majority body.

Voters also approved ballot issues requiring judges to consider criminal suspects threat to public safety when setting bail amounts; and prohibiting local governments from allowing non-U.S. citizens to vote in local elections.

DeWine, 75, has generally portrayed himself above the campaign fray, declining without explanation to debate Whaley. His campaign resisted attack ads against Whaley until last month, when it criticized her for supporting the American Rescue Plan Act in her role as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The ads fail to mention that DeWine has promoted grants the state received through the pandemic relief measure.

Whaley, 46, said DeWine was afraid of debate questions about his role in a $60 million bribery scheme aimed at passing legislation to prop up Ohios two nuclear power plants; the controversy over a 10-year-old Ohio girl forced to seek an abortion in Indiana after being raped; and his decision to sign a law allowing school districts to arm trained employees.

DeWine has said Ohioans already know him and his positions well. Besides being one of the states most familiar politicians, DeWine also spent months at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic appearing in daily statewide broadcasts.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)  Republican Mark Gordon has won a second term as Wyomings governor, beating a little-known Democrat who has never held elected office.

He defeated Theresa Livingston, a retired educator and U.S. Bureau of Land Management employee. Neither candidate campaigned extensively.

Gordon ran on his efforts to diversify Wyomings economy away from fossil fuels, mentioning ongoing work to develop new uses for coal and an unconventional nuclear reactor. He sailed to victory on improving economic news for Wyoming.

We feel energized for the next for years. We feel very good about Wyomings prospects, Gordon said Tuesday. Weve got a full agenda ahead of us.

He reiterated his campaign promises while pledging to keep a very frugal budget.

Gordon prevailed despite getting criticized by fellow Republicans for closing off businesses and public places during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. His pandemic response drew calls for a Republican to challenge him.

After lifting the restrictions in 2021 and shoring up his appeal to right-leaning voters on issues including abortion, he didnt.

Last year, Gordon asked the National Rifle Association to consider moving its headquarters to Wyoming. Earlier this year, he signed into law a bill that would ban abortion in nearly all cases.

The NRA didnt bite on his offer. The abortion law, which lawmakers crafted to take effect after the U.S. Supreme Courts reversed the Roe v. Wade ruling in June, remains held up in state court and has yet to take effect. Even so, right-wing chatter about giving Gordon the boot diminished.

Meanwhile, one of the few Republicans who could have given him real trouble  Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman  ran for Congress instead, beating Liz Cheney in August.

Hageman finished third in the six-way GOP gubernatorial primary four years ago. Gordon won that year with 33% of the vote and this year dominated a four-way Republican field with 62%.

Gordon entered the final stretch of the governors race coinciding with the national midterm elections boosted by good news: State revenues, thanks to higher oil and natural gas prices, are up, taking pressure off a funding picture that forced Gordon and legislators to enact steep spending cuts in 2020 and 2021.

Livingston had no prior experience in elected office. In 2020, she lost a state Senate race to Ed Cooper, getting just 15% of the vote in the heavily Republican district covering Washakie and Big Horn counties and nearby areas.

Amid the uncertainty over whether Wyomings new abortion ban will take effect, Livingston said ensuring women had all of their rights was her top priority, followed by expanding access to Medicaid health coverage, like other states have done, under the Affordable Care Act.

Wyoming voters were also asked to consider two proposed state constitutional amendments. One would raise the mandatory retirement age of state judges from 70 to 75; the other would allow local governments to invest funds in equities.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections

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Tucsons Congressional District 2 Republican candidate Eli Crane maintained a slight lead over Democrat Tom OHalleran as of Wednesday morning.

Incumbent OHalleran and Crane, a business owner, are both vying to represent the newly redistricted CD2, formerly CD1.

Wednesday morning, Crane was ahead of O'Halleran 54% to 46%. He had a nearly 19,000 vote lead over the incumbent.

The district includes a northern slice of Tucson and stretches into the northeast part of the state, including Prescott and Flagstaff, as well as Apache, Coconino, Graham, Greenlee and Navajo counties and parts of Gila, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties.

The recent redistricting has made the district much more Republican than the current seat OHalleran holds, according to The Arizona Republic.

Political newcomer Crane is endorsed by Donald Trump and embraces MAGA-style politics. His top issues include enacting more voter ID laws, border security, defeating cancel culture, being anti-abortion and anti-gun regulation, and being against vaccine mandates, mask mandates and pandemic-related lockdowns.

OHalleran has held his seat since he won it in 2016. Before that he served in both the Arizona House and Senate.
In Arizona House legislative race in District 20, Democratic incumbents Andres Cano and Alma Hernandez are running in an uncontested race and will automatically assume their posts in January.

Cano of Tucson was raised in public housing by a single mother, and he is a first-generation college graduate, receiving a bachelors in broadcast journalism from Arizona State University. In 2018, he was elected as a state representative, and he currently sits on the House Ways and Means, and on Natural Resources, Energy and Water committees.
As votes continue to be tallied, the Arizona House legislative district 17 race is close between the two Democrat and Republican candidates as of Wednesday morning. Voters will select two nominees.

In the unofficial votes, Democrats Dana Allmond had 25.22% of the vote and Brian Radford received 23.88%. Republicans Rachel Jones received 25.66% and Cory McGarr came in with 25.24%.

Arizona House Legislative District 17 includes much of the northwest side, the far east side and the Rita Ranch area.

Democrat nominee Allmond of Marana is a retired lieutenant colonel and graduate of West Point academy. She received a bachelors at West Point, a masters in counseling and leader development from Long Island University in New York and a masters in business administration from Arizona State University.

In her campaign, Allmond said the motto of the military academy is duty, honor, country. We have never needed these virtues more in Arizona. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and we must make certain that all Arizonans who want to vote can vote. Attempts to suppress the vote must stop. Those who are this afraid of democracy, know in their hearts that they will lose a fair election.

Her platform includes improving the states public education system by moving it from the bottom five to the top five and ensuring a safe and abundant water supply for our children and our farmers. She also has been vocal about her disgust for West Point graduates and politicians, including Republican state Rep. Mark Finchem who is a candidate for secretary of state, for their involvement in the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in which five people were killed at the rally.

Democrat candidate Radford of Tucson is a retired state corrections officer and case manager who worked with mental health offenders. He also is a former special education teachers assistant and is a foster parent. He was born in California and raised in Ohio and graduated from Kent State University with a bachelors in Spanish. He moved to Arizona 19 years ago. In campaign literature, he said he is running to cut through partisan rancor and get back to the issues that impact our community the most including tackling water scarcity issues, education, womens rights and health care.

Guaranteeing our water supply for generations to come means reducing use where we can and finding ways to rebuild our supply. We can do so by using grants and tax rebates to enable our farmers to invest in water-use reduction technologies and replace high-use crops with low-use crops, Radford said. He also supports banning the sale of rural water rights to the highest bidder and rewarding individuals who are recapturing water through tax rebates.

He said the state needs to invest in our schools at a rate that is in line with the national average including guaranteed funding for increasing teacher salaries, providing adequate resources for students with disabilities, and for every school to have onsite career and mental health counselors. Radford supports womens right to choose, reproductive health and medical privacy. He advocates for lowering the cost of health care by enacting laws requiring price transparency for fee-for-service providers and creating a buy-in option for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System for families to have coverage at a price they can afford.

Republican candidate Jones of Tucson is a former teacher and business executive who campaigned on supporting low taxes, the right to bear arms and small government saying that is what has made Arizona great. She said Arizona values are under attack, and she is against vaccine mandates, critical race theory and believes the Socialist Democrats in Phoenix are threatening our rights, families and very way of life.

She is a champion for pro-life, medical freedom and securing the border. She said she and fellow Republican candidate McGarr are authentic conservative fighters for state house. We need someone in the state house who has and will continue to support President Donald J. Trumps America First agenda, said Jones.

McGarr of Marana is district manager of a Tucson pest control business. He is involved with anti-abortion organizations and his platform includes running for the state House to fix the broken election system, to eliminate fraud and to ensure that something like the 2020 election never happens again. McGarr says, Im a rock-solid defender of the Second Amendment.
A MAGA Republican vying for a state senate seat gained a modest lead overnight as ballot counting continued in Senate District 17, unofficial results show.

Realtor Justine Wadsack had 51.8% of the vote, compared to 48.2% for her Democratic opponent Mike Nickerson as of 3 p.m. on Nov. 9, according to the Arizona Secretary of State election website.

Wadsack now leads by 3,066 votes in the new district that covers Marana, Oro Valley, Rita Ranch, Vail, SaddleBrooke and part of southern Pinal County.

Nickerson, a retired United Methodist pastor, started out in the lead on election night by capturing 58% of the early vote, but his edge evaporated as results from in-person voting were counted.

Nickerson, 72, who once interned for a Republican congressman in Washington, D.C., is making his first attempt at public office, and campaigned on the need to reform Arizona politics, which he said is poisoned by a lack of integrity and by the influence of money and extreme partisanship.

Nickerson and Wadsack have disagreed on almost every issue. He supports increased funding for public schools and opposes private school vouchers. A longtime gun owner, he supports firearms safety measures such as tighter background checks and safe storage laws. Having counseled many women with troubled or unwanted pregnancies as a pastor, Nickerson said he supports the right to abortion.

He describes himself as a problem-solver who believes politics is about compromise. When you bring people together you find the best solution for the whole group, not just one group.

Wadsack, 48, a licensed real-estate agent who describes herself as a "Pro Trump America First conservative," won the Republican nomination for the District 17 senate seat by defeating longtime Arizona legislator Vince Leach in a primary race. It's her second try for a state Senate seat after losing in another district in the last election.

At a recent Arizona Clean Elections debate, Wadsack described herself as a fighter motivated by a 2016 run-in with state child protection authorities.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety came to my household and tried to take my kids, said Wadsack, who did not elaborate except to say it was in retaliation because she questioned the amount of respite care one of her children, who has disabilities, was supposed to receive. The department declined comment on her allegations.

Wadsack has proposed defunding the child safety agency she clashed with and also wants to defund Planned Parenthood and the U.S. Department of Education. She has pledged to stop all stages of abortion and opposes gun safety measures such as red flag laws. She supports using public funds for private school vouchers and last year took part in storming a Vail school board meeting to protest mask requirements for students during the pandemic.

Her endorsers include a local Republican group called Tucson Trump MAGA, which repeatedly posted election conspiracy theories and QAnon content on its Facebook page last year including alien messages from the "Intergalactic Alliance of Light Beings."
Republican incumbents Lupe Diaz and Gail Griffin have a strong lead over Democrat Sanda Clark in state House Legislative District 19, unofficial early returns show Wednesday morning.

Diaz of Benson received 35.22% of the vote and Griffin of Hereford had 38.46%, compared to Clark of Green Valley with 26.33%.

Arizona House District 19 includes portions of Pima, Santa Cruz, Graham, Greenlee and Cochise counties, including the city of Douglas.

Diaz was appointed in November 2021 to replace Rep. Becky Nutt of Clifton who resigned. He serves on committees including Education, Ways and Means; Land, Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Diaz is pastor of Grace Christian Center in Benson and administrator of the academy. He is a former Benson city councilman and president of the Chamber of Commerce. He grew up in Bisbee and on a quarter and appaloosa horse ranch, according to campaign literature.

Diazs platform includes his support of requiring voter identification, proof of citizenship, paper ballots and single-day voting to keep elections safe and secure from fraud. He promotes a completion of a border wall, increased border enforcement, and working to end drug, gun and human trafficking. In addition to funding public schools, Diaz said educators must be held accountable and show results in the academic progression of students. He also supports school choice and offering parents more options for their childrens education.

Griffin, the other Republican incumbent, has lived in Cochise County for 53 years and in District 19 for 26 years. She is a former state senator from 2011 to 2019.

Griffin serves on house committees including as chairman of the Natural Resources, Energy and Water; Land, Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Appropriations; and vice-chairman of Rules. She is a real estate broker for Sierra Vista Realty.

Griffins political platform includes a belief in smaller and smarter government, less taxes, personal responsibility, protection of property rights and in the free enterprise system. She said she will continue to fight to get education dollars into the classroom for students and teachers. She advocates for veterans, transparency in government, and will challenge federal overreach.

Democrat Clark is a concert pianist who escaped communism in her native Bucharest, Romania. She has lived in Pima County for 18 years and in District 19 four years. She studied at the University of Texas in Austin in 1968 and met Harry Clark, a cellist and playwright, who she married. She said her decades-long career, performing in some of the worlds great concert halls, was a heady experience, but her biggest thrill was becoming a naturalized citizen of the U.S., her adopted country. She said she is running for representative because of her life in Bucharest and seeing the events in Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Longtime U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, has won reelection in Congressional District 7 race over opponent Republican Luis Pozzolo, The Associated Press reports.

Grijalva had 70% of the vote to Pozzolo's 30% in early, unofficial results.

The newly drawn CD7 includes the west half of Tucson, the Tohono Oodham Nation and parts of Cochise County and runs west to Yuma, north into Phoenixs western suburbs and south to Nogales.

Grijalva has held the seat, formerly CD3, since winning it in 2002. He is known for being an outspoken progressive, with a long history in the Tucson community. Before winning national office, Grijalva served 12 years on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board and 15 years on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

His top issues include immigration reform, access to health care, criminal justice, education, the environment, jobs and the economy, civil rights and liberties, and more.

Republican Luis Pozzolo, a small-business owner, immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 from Uruguay and became a U.S. citizen in 2012.
PHOENIX  A judge late Tuesday rejected a last-minute bid by Republican interests in Arizona to keep polling places open in Maricopa County an extra three hours.

Attorney Kory Langhofer representing the Republican National Committee said there were problems at about 60 of the county's 223 polling places that resulted in tabulators being unable to read and tally filled-in ballots. The result, he said, is that some voters walked away to go to other polling places.

But Langhofer, also speaking for the campaigns of GOP gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake and the Blake Masters campaign for Senate, said many found they could not vote at the new location at electronic poll books showed they already had cast a ballot at the first location. And he said all this makes a difference in what are expected to be close races.

"It's entirely possible that this issue, this disenfranchisement of voters today in Maricopa County, could determine who's our governor for the next four years and the majority control of the United States Senate," he told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan, what with that chamber now divided 50-50.

And the record in Arizona is that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to eschew early voting and instead go to the polls on election day.

The judge, however, said there was no evidence anyone actually was denied the opportunity to vote. He said all 223 locations were open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. as required by state law.

More to the point, Ryan said those whose ballots could not be immediately scanned were given the opportunity to instead deposit them in a sealed box and tallied after the polls closed at county election offices. And Deputy County Attorney Tom Liddy said that procedure of depositing ballots into boxes for later counting is the only option in many other counties.

Langhofer, however, said that was not an acceptable choice for some people who specifically chose to cast their votes in person because they wanted the ballots tabulated while they watched to ensure their votes would be counted. But the judge said, in essence, that was their decision even if they didn't like the process.

"It might have been a little unorthodox in their view," Ryan said. "But from what I've seen, they all got a collection of their vote, whether it was a provisional vote or put in a box that was collected and retained."

The judge said he assumes that under county protocols the votes will be processed  and that voters will be able to check online after Election Day to be sure that their ballots were counted.

And there was something else.

Roy Arellano, representing the Senate campaign of Democrat Mark Kelly, pointed out that the problems with the tabulators were publicly known as early as 9 a.m. on Tuesday. He argued  and Ryan agreed  that Langhofer and his clients, in waiting until about an hour before the polls closed to seek extended hours, effectively gave up their right to complain.

At the heart of the issue is that Maricopa County uses "voting centers" which allows people who are registered to vote to go to any location. That, by extension, means printing out individual ballots on site.

Bill Gates, who chairs the Board of Supervisors, said it turned out that the printers were not using enough toner to create dark enough images for the scanners to align and read the votes.

That left voters with three choices: Wait until the problem was solved, go to another location  or deposit the unscanned ballot into a sealed box with the promise it would be counted once it was brought to county election offices.

But the polling places did remain open. And the county did begin fixing the problems in the afternoon.

The challengers sought more than simply keeping the polls open until 10 p.m.

They also wanted procedures clarified to ensure that those who got a ballot at one location but chose not to cast it there were not turned away because they had been marked as already having voted.

Langhofer cited the experience of one voter who, unable to get his ballot immediately tabulated at one location, went to another, only to be told the record showed he had previously cast a ballot.

"Yet, it was not there," he said.

And it is situations like that, Langhofer said, that can make a difference in a really close race, which is why he wanted to allow voters like that an opportunity  after regular voting hours  to cast a new ballot.

Liddy, however, told Ryan that there is a problem with what Langhofer suggested.

"It would be a recipe for voter fraud," he said. Liddy said it would allow anyone to come in at the last minute and argue that they had not had an opportunity to vote despite what county records show.
Pima County is required by state law to provide live feeds from the ballot counting center.

Those working in these rooms are fulltime and intermittent Elections Department employees and observers from different political parties, according to Pima County's official website.

Ballot processing feed:

Vault feed:
Democrat Kris Mayes is holding on to the narrowest of leads late Thursday over Republican Abe Hamadeh in the race for attorney general.

Mayes, a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, has 50.4% of the votes tallied so far compared with Hamadeh's 49.6%.

A final margin of 0.5% or less would trigger an automatic recount.

Mayes has about a 16,500-vote lead, with more than 560,000 votes still to be counted.

Much of the race centered around the question of whether trial experience matters when it comes to running the equivalent of the states largest law firm.

Strictly speaking, the post does not require courtroom experience. It does, however, require the attorney general be someone licensed to practice law given the decisions made by the agency as well as its ability to issue legal opinions.

And Republican incumbent Mark Brnovich, who could not seek another four-year term, prosecuted gang cases while at the Maricopa County Attorneys Office and went after gambling crimes while a federal prosecutor. Brnovich, who has not endorsed either candidate, said such experience can be helpful when deciding which cases to pursue and which to turn down.

Mayes, a one-time newspaper reporter, does not dispute she has never tried a case. But she contends her experience as a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission is similar, saying she worked directly with the attorney general to prosecute those engaged in security scams and get money returned to investors.

Hamadeh, a Trump-endorsed political newcomer, said he has tried both misdemeanor and felony cases in his time at the Maricopa County Attorneys Office. But he only became a lawyer in 2017; Mayes has been an attorney since 2005.

Then theres the management side of being attorney general.

Hamadeh has cited his time as an intelligence officer for the Army Reserves, serving in the Middle East where he assisted in overseeing a $120 million programs budget as well as managing civilian contractors and U.S. soldiers.

Mayes said her more than seven years on the commission meant managing a staff of 400, including attorneys, engineers, support staff and law enforcement. She also chaired the panel for two years after being chosen by both Republicans and Democrats.

And Mayes herself has a bipartisan past.

She was a Republican, serving as press aide to Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. That affiliation paved the way for the governor, required to name someone from the GOP to replace Republican Jim Irvin who had resigned, tapped Mayes.

She parted ways with the party in 2019.

Both Mayes and Hamadeh have promised to run the office and make decisions regardless of political implications. And both have said they will uphold the death penalty as long as it is the law of the land.

Mayes, however, publicly announced she would never prosecute doctors or any medical professionals for violating a territorial-era law which makes all forms of abortion a crime unless to save the life of the mother.

That law never was repealed after the Supreme Court earlier this year overturned Roe v. Wade and its conclusion that women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability. That returned the decision on abortions to each state.

Brnovich got a trial judge to conclude that automatically reactivated the old law. But that ruling has been held in abeyance while the state Court of Appeals decides whether it was replaced by legislation earlier this year imposing a ban after 15 weeks.

Mayes contends that both the territorial-era law and the 15-week ban run afoul of a provision in the Arizona Constitution that guarantees a right to privacy, saying she would not defend either law and would actively challenge them.
About 55% of voters have approved a ballot measure that would create a lieutenant governor position, according to unofficial results from the Arizona Secretary of States office on Wednesday.

If it passes, Proposition 131 would establish a lieutenant governor position to run on a joint ticket with the states governor beginning in 2026. Prospective gubernatorial candidates would nominate someone for the position who would take over in their absence. Currently, the secretary of state is first in the line of succession for Arizonas governor.
Theresa Riel, a recently retired Pima Community College faculty member, is taking a big early lead over incumbent Demion Clinco for the District 2 seat up for grabs on Pima Community Colleges five-member Governing Board.

With most early ballots and 95% of precinct votes counted as of Wednesday morning, Riel has 62% of the vote and Clinco has 38%. Pima County election officials are still waiting to report results from provisional ballot and lingering early ballots.

Early Tuesday evening, Riel was settling in at a lively election night watch party at Brother Johns Beer, Bourbon and BBQ restaurant, which was hosted by her supporters at the Pima Community College Education Association, an affiliate of the Arizona Education Association that represents some full-time faculty at the college.

Im feeling Im going to win, Riel said. It might be my naivete being new to politics, but all the people I talk to  theres just limitless support.

The numbers so far have validated her intuition.

Although Clinco had not officially conceded Wednesday morning, he told the Arizona Daily Star over email Wednesday morning " it doesnt look like we will win the race."

Even still, Clinco said "I personally remain committed to serving our community and wish the new board members the greatest success in leading the college into this new chapter."

In the race for the colleges District 4 seat, which is vacant after Meredith Hay did not seek re-election this year, Greg Taylor was leading his opponent Nick Pierson by 8% as of early Wednesday morning. Taylor has 54% of those votes and Pierson 46%.
Votes are still being counted, but most results are in  and it's a mixed bag of good and bad news for supporters of expanding access to legal, adult-use recreational cannabis.

Host Eddie Celaya updates you with the latest: Maryland and Missouri voters approved recreational adult-use cannabis programs in their respective states.

Plus, five counties in Texas voted to effectively decriminalize cannabis use and halt most enforcement of prohibition within their borders.

Similar adult-use measures on the ballot in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota were defeated.

That all leads to this special episode on some of the latest research and findings on cannabis and its possible use as a replacement (or a supplement to) opioids.

To learn a little more about the subject, Celaya spoke with Benjamin Land, Research Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Washington.

The conversation touches on how both opioids and cannabinoids like THC and CBD affect the body, how cannabis might be able to help fight different kinds of pain, and how cannabinoids and opioids might be used in concert with each other.

MORE INFO

Read Benjamin Land's piece from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/cannabis-holds-promise-for-pain-management-reducing-the-need-for-opioid-painkillers-a-neuropharmacology-expert-explains-how-186906

Here Weed Go! LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/hereweedgo
Candidate Jennifer Anderson is leading over five others in the Vail Unified School District governing board race with 26% of votes, according to the first counts released by the Pima County Elections Department.

Edward Buster is in second with 23% while Anastasia Tsatsakis has 19%.

Voters will elect two board members. The other candidates are Leroy Smith, Geraldine Kleber and Jayme Morris.

Anderson and Buster campaigned as a slate. A campaign website for the two says their priorities include valuing parental choice, maintaining respectful relationships and holding traditional values.

Tsatsakis said on her campaign page that her focus would be to preserve citizens, students and parents rights; collaborate closely with the community; and what she calls restoring integrity in the governing board.

Smith has 12% of votes in early results. A website campaigning for him listed his priorities as placing students first, going back to basics with curriculum, promoting critical thinking and preserving parental rights.

Kleber has 10% of the early votes. Her campaign platform focused on addressing the learning gap caused by the pandemic and focusing on issues that unite the community.

Morris, who has 7%, said her top priority is to address retention of teachers and students. She said she wanted to focus on keeping students safe, while listening to teachers and parents to make sure all voices are represented.
PHOENIX  Election Day problems with tabulators and a judges refusal to extend voting hours in Maricopa County could give Republicans in Arizona legal ammunition to challenge the results if they lose.

And theyre already headed back to court next week to get what what they said are some missed votes restored.

Attorneys for GOP candidates and organizations argued Tuesday that the glitches in getting ballots read by machines at some Maricopa County polling places left some people unable to vote.

How many is unclear. Judge Timothy Ryan said at a Tuesday evening hearing that he saw no evidence anyone was denied an opportunity to cast a ballot.

But attorney Kory Langhofer said there is evidence that some people who could not get the tabulators to read their ballots at the first voting site they visited chose instead to go elsewhere.

Only thing is, he said, they were not granted a regular ballot when they showed up at the second site. Thats because the electronic poll books showed they had, in fact, voted at the first location.

What happened then, said Langhofer, is they were given a provisional ballot, something that occurs when there is a question about whether someone is eligible to vote. Only thing is, he said, these provisional ballots wont get counted unless the judge orders the county to do so.

Langhofer said he currently has no count of how many ballots might be at issue.

But even just a handful could make a difference in some races. And not just at the legislative level.

Kris Mayes, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, was only about 4,000 votes ahead of Republican Abe Hamadeh, results Wednesday afternoon showed.

Ryan has scheduled a hearing next week to consider the issue.

Central to the legal fight is the fact that Maricopa County uses vote centers, allowing residents to cast a ballot at any location rather than having to go to a local precincts. That, however, means that election officials must print a unique ballot for each voter who shows up, one that contains only the races for which the person is entitled to vote.

It also places scanners at the sites, allowing voters to feed their ballots into the machines and watch as their ballots are tabulated. Most other counties simply take the voted ballots to a central location at the end of the day.

Only thing is, scanners at 60 of the countys 223 vote centers would not read all ballots. That left voters with the choice of waiting until the problem was fixed, trying the ballot in a second scanner, depositing the ballot into a sealed box to be tallied later, or go somewhere else.

It ultimately was determined that the problem was that the ballots were not printing dark enough, meaning that markings, which help align them in the scanner, were not being read. County officials began altering printer settings in the afternoon.

According to the county, about 17,000 ballots were affected.

At a court hearing about 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Langhofer, representing GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, asked Ryan to keep the polls open for three hours beyond the scheduled 7 p.m. closure. He said that would provide time for those who left polling places to return and cast a ballot.

Langhofer, also speaking for Republican Senate hopeful Blake Masters and the Republican National Committee, said some people go to the polls because they want to watch their ballot being tabulated, creating the possibility they walked away instead.

That argument did not sway Ryan, pointing out these people had the option of depositing their ballots in the sealed box, even if they didnt like the process.

It might have been a little unorthodox in their view, Ryan said. But from what Ive seen, they all got a collection of their vote, whether it was a provisional vote or put in a box that was collected and retained.

And the judge said he assumes that under county protocols the votes deposited in the box will be processed  and that voters will be able to check online after Election Day to be sure that their ballots were counted.

That was backed up by Bill Gates, who chairs the county board of supervisors.

Every voter had the opportunity to vote and have their vote counted, he said, even as he apologized for the problems.

That, however, still leaves the question of those who Langhofer said chose to go to a second location after their ballots could not be scanned.

Theoretically, the decision to leave should have resulted in a notation in the electronic polling book that no ballot was cast, permitting a second attempt. But Langhofer told Ryan of one specific voter who, on showing up at the second site, was told he could not cast a regular ballot because the record showed he had voted at the first site.

If there are enough of these situations, Langhofer told Ryan on Tuesday night, the results would be affected.

Its entirely possible that this issue, this disenfranchisement of voters today in Maricopa County, could determine whos our governor for the next four years and the majority control of the United States Senate, he said.

And then theres the fact that missing Election Day votes may favor GOP candidates. Thats because typically in Arizona Republicans are more likely than Democrats to go to the polls on election day rather than vote early by mail.

The problems that developed Tuesday only fueled doubts among some about the election system, many of those who have continued to insist, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. They particularly focused on Maricopa County, getting Senate President Karen Fann to order an audit after a strong official tally for Joe Biden proved sufficient to overcome support for Trump elsewhere.
The clause jumps off the page, especially for anyone victimized in the Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting.

Jared Loughner was a mentally ill young man, as much a victim of the Tucson shooting as the people he shot.

As much a victim of the shooting as the people he shot? Really?!

Thats hard for me to swallow, but its what Arizona Republic columnist Phil Boas wrote last week, in a piece decrying how the political sides and news outlets exploit violence such as the recent attack on Nancy Pelosis husband.

Boas recalled how then-Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik reacted to the mass shooting here, blaming it on incendiary political speech before we knew of Loughners psychosis. Boas notes that by Loughners own words, he was triggered by what he considered illiteracy and bad grammar. He didnt cite angry talk radio.

True enough, as far as it goes. And yet, I think many people dont dig deep enough when they look at people like Loughner or David DePape, who attacked Pelosi. We too quickly conclude it was madness alone that drove them to commit murder.

Obviously, easy access to guns may play a role in a given instance. But more broadly, you cant really separate the mental illness from the culture in which it occurs. The experiences of psychosis here in the United States  hearing voices, hallucinating  may be very different from psychosis in another country. It may also be different from hearing voices in the USA decades ago.

Here I should note: The vast majority of severely mentally ill people are not violent or dangerous to anyone, except possibly themselves. However, it is also true that the fraction of people with psychosis or other severe psychological disorders, while small, is overrepresented among mass killers.

Hostile strangers heard

Medical anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann of Stanford University has interviewed people who hear voices in five countries  San Mateo, California; Chennai, India; Accra, Ghana; Shanghai, China; and Kazan, Russia. The research is limited, involving 20 people at each site. But it is hair-raising for Americans.

The big observation I would make is that in my samples comparing across cultures, Americans experience their voices as having more violent content, she told me Monday. So, you know  kill or hurt, kill the other person, kill yourself.

The voices heard by Americans also tended to be those of hostile strangers, leaving the psychotic person feeling attacked and isolated. This was very different from Chennai, India. In a 2015 research paper, Luhrmann and her co-authors wrote:

More than half of the Chennai sample heard voices of kin, such as parents, mother-in-law, sister-in-law or sisters. Another two experienced a voice as husband or wife, and yet another reported that the voice said he should listen to his father. These voices behaved as relatives do: they gave guidance, but they also scolded.

They often gave commands to do domestic tasks, the authors went on. A woman heard seven or eight of her female relatives scold her constantly. They told her that she should die; but they also told her to bathe, to shop, and to go into the kitchen and prepare food.

In Ghana, most of the respondents reported that among the voices they heard was God. In China, many people heard the voice of politicians, including Mao Tse Tung. These people tended to have grown up during the Cultural Revolution, Luhrmann said.

The content of the American commands was much more violent, she said Monday. The content of the commands for Chennai, Kazan and for Shanghai was much more likely to be ordinary stuff.

Isolation and rejection

Heres a kicker: Its possible we didnt used to be this way. A 1989 study of the hallucinations of 150 patient records in an East Texas hospital found that in the 1930s, they were occupied by Depression-era worries and delusions.

Contrasted with the relatively benign comments from the voices of the 1930s, the content of the auditory hallucinations of the 1980s were more threatening, authors Jerry Mitchell and Arlyn Vierkant wrote. More ominous were the command hallucinations of the 1980s.

The perceived commands to hurt people, to kill people, and to do perverse things, would suggest that the environment of the 1980s might be perceived by the patient as not only more negative and hostile than that of the 1930s, but possibly more threatening and dangerous as well.

So clearly, the culture surrounding people with psychosis likely influences what they hear, who they hear it from and how disruptive the voice is. But its not just that. The immediate news of the day can also have an influence.

I called up Scott Whitley, a man Ive known since the years after the 2011 mass shooting, when I wrote often about mental illness and treatment. He himself has suffered psychotic breaks four times and used to lead support groups at the National Alliance on Mental Illness Tucson office.

Whitley told me his last psychotic break occurred June 1, 2020. He was watching TV as police cleared Lafayette Park, in front of the White House, and then-President Trump walked over to a nearby church and held up a Bible upside down. Whitley slid into psychosis, first hearing voices, then being right there, in the White House, he told me.

I thought I was in the White House listening to Trump and Flynn and Milley, Whitley told me, referring to one-time Trump administration officials. Flynn wanted to declare martial law and put troops on the streets.

The psychosis spun on, inspired directly by the dramatic events in D.C. Whitley, advised not to go to the hospital because of the pandemic, instead was able to stay at the home of a longtime friend until he came out of it more than a week later.

Whitley noted that many Americans with psychosis end up isolated because they are rejected by their families or stigmatized. In another culture or time, he said, the same people might end up as shamans, key figures in their local culture.

Damaging culture

Now, Boas, in his column, did not deny that our culture plays any role in attacks by disturbed people. He acknowledged that Some of that political talk can set off some of the sickest people in our society.

But when we talk, inevitably, about the psychological condition experienced by the next political attacker or the next mass killer, we shouldnt write the attack off as a symptom.

We should consider that our culture itself may be what transforms that illness into something even more damaging than it has to be.
HONOLULU (AP)  Incumbent U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, on Tuesday was re-elected to another six-year term, defeating Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott.

"Weve got a tremendous amount of challenges across the state of Hawaii. Huge challenges, but also huge opportunities," Schatz said at an election party held by the Democratic Party of Hawaii. "And were going to work together and were going to work for all the Democrats and all the independents and even the Republicans that didnt vote for us."

Schatz was heavily favored to win the race in Democratic Party-dominated Hawaii. The candidates did not debate, and Schatz didnt do much visible campaigning. Last month, Schatz traveled to Arizona to campaign on behalf of his Senate colleague Mark Kelly, a Democrat who is battling a close race for re-election against Republican Blake Masters.

Schatz first joined in the Senate in 2012, when then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed him to replace U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who died while in office. He later won election.

Hes served as the chair of the Special Committee on the Climate Crisis since 2019.

McDermott has served 16 years in the state House of Representatives, where he is currently one of four Republicans and serves as assistant minority leader. He is a former U.S. Marine who served in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War.

McDermott has criticized Hawaiis congressional delegation for moving too slowly to push the Navy to close a massive World War II-era military fuel storage facility that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbors tap water last year.

Schatz has issued statements pushing the Navy to move swiftly to shut down the tanks and has touted work hes done to secure funding for the closure.

The Navy has said it expects to finish emptying the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility by July 2024.
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  Incumbent Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher retained their seats in Congress in Tuesdays election in deeply conservative Idaho.

Simpson, 72, won a 13th term representing the eastern portion of the state in Idahos 2nd Congressional District. He defeated Democrat Wendy Norman, who cited affordable, high-quality healthcare and education as priorities.

Fulcher, 60, won a third term representing the states 1st Congressional District that covers the western portion of the state and stretches from the states northern to southwestern border. He turned aside Democrat Kaylee Peterson and Libertarian Darian Drake.

The Republican primary is generally considered the election that determines who will eventually hold office in a state where all state-wide offices and the two U.S. Senate and U.S. House seats are held by Republicans.

Simpson easily turned aside a primary challenger who sought to portray Simpson as not conservative enough. Fulcher didnt face a primary challenger.

Simpsons district includes the Idaho National Laboratory, one of the U.S. Department of Energys 17 national labs and the nations top nuclear research lab. Its one of the states top employers and a big part of the eastern Idaho economy. Simpson has been a key figure in approving federal funding for research at the lab as well as money for water system upgrades at Mountain Home Air Force Base, also in Simpsons district.

Fulcher ran for governor in 2014, positioning himself further to the right than the already conservative incumbent, C.L. Butch Otter, who went on to win a third term.

Fulcher contends the Affordable Care Act has resulted in skyrocketing health insurance premiums. Peterson cited income inequality, health care costs and education as among her top priorities.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections
SEATTLE (AP)  A student was shot to death at a Seattle high school Tuesday morning, and police arrested a suspect on a public bus about an hour later, officials said.

The student died after being treated at a hospital, Mayor Bruce Harrell confirmed during an afternoon news conference. The victim was not identified, and police declined to say whether the suspect is also a student.

The shooting happened at Ingraham High School just before 10 a.m., Seattle police said. Officers entered the school, found one person shot provided aid until medics arrived.

Officers secured the school. The suspect was taken into custody by 11:10 a.m on a King County Metro bus, authorities said.

Students were released after talking with police. Seattle Public Schools canceled classes at the school Wednesday.

Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said law enforcement officers arrived within four minutes of the report, and a team immediately went inside to provide emergency first aid to the victim. Medics with the Seattle Fire Department arrived to treat the victim within 10 minutes of the initial call, Diaz said.

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones said the shooting is believed to have been a targeted attack.

We have no reason to believe this was part of a bigger plan, Jones said.

Jones said that the police investigation would reveal more details about what happened in the coming days, but for now his priority is to make sure the students and the families are safe.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Two Democratic congresswomen won reelection to seats in New Mexico on Tuesday while it was too early to call the winner in the state's only other district, defended by incumbent Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell.

Herrell was vying for a second term in the 2nd Congressional District on a conservative platform of strict border security and unfettered support for the oil industry.

Democratic nominee Gabe Vasquez campaigned to flip the majority-Hispanic district on support for more equitable access to economic opportunity, a humanitarian approach to immigration and greater accountability for climate change in a major energy-production region. The district stretches from the U.S. border with Mexico across desert oilfields and portions of Albuquerque.

A victory by Herrell would preserve a Republican foothold in a state where Democrats have otherwise dominated elections for federal and statewide offices.

In New Mexicos 1st Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury won reelection, beating Republican nominee and former police detective Michelle Garcia Holmes.

Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez won reelection to the 3rd Congressional District, defeating Republican challenger Alexis Martinez Johnson.

Vasquez, a former Las Cruces city councilor, has emphasized his Hispanic heritage and an upbringing along the border in a working-class, immigrant family.

Herrell and Vasquez both cast their opponents as extremists in ads highlighting Herrells denial that Biden was legitimately elected president and past activism by Vasquez for social justice causes in since-deleted social media posts and TV footage of the candidate as a masked street protester.

New Mexico's newly redrawn congressional districts divvy up the politically conservative southeastern corner of the state  a premier U.S. production zone for petroleum. Legal proceedings are pending that could reverse the redistricting plan before the next election in 2024.

The 2nd District still includes portions of the oil-rich Permian Basin, and Herrell cast herself as an unwavering advocate for the oil and natural gas industry as a bedrock of energy independence from foreign imports and a source of local government income.
Tropical Storm Nicole is drenching the Bahamas with dangerous storm surge early Wednesday before it slams into Florida's east coast as a possible Category 1 hurricane, prompting evacuations in areas still recovering from Hurricane Ian.

Nearly four million people along Florida's east coast are under hurricane warnings as Nicole is poised to make landfall late Wednesday north of West Palm Beach, Florida, as a Category 1 hurricane, blasting the region with torrential rain and damaging winds.

"Nicole is expected to weaken while moving across Florida and the southeastern United States Thursday through Friday," the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday morning.

By early Wednesday morning, the east coast of Florida was already experiencing tropical storm conditions. Up to 8 inches of rain, storm surge that could rise to 5 feet along the coast and high winds are expected Wednesday evening and Thursday.

The ominous forecast has led to evacuations orders in some Florida counties still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Ian, which killed at least 120 people in Florida and leveled communities. Public schools in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties have closed through at least Wednesday, and Orlando International Airport will suspend operations starting Wednesday afternoon.

In Volusia County, home to Daytona Beach, the storm poses a direct threat to both life and property, according to county manager George Recktenwald.

"Our infrastructure, especially along the coastline, is extremely vulnerable because of Hurricane Ian's impacts," Recktenwald noted in a statement on the county's website. "We expect further erosion along the beach, along with flooding in areas that were previously flooded by Ian. Residents need to take this storm seriously."

Volusia County residents are ordered to evacuate beginning 10 a.m. Wednesday. The order applies to those east of the intracoastal waterway or in flood-prone areas, all campsites and RV parks and all mobile and manufactured homes.

In Palm Beach, the mandate begins at 7 a.m. Wednesday for zones A and B, including barrier islands and low-lying areas, according to a news release from the county.

Meanwhile, some residents of Brevard County are advised to evacuate starting Wednesday at 7 a.m. The recommended evacuation applies to people on the barrier islands, including areas from Kennedy Space Center south beaches and Merritt Island.

People in flood-prone areas, mobile and manufactured home residents, and people with special medical needs who are dependent on electricity should also evacuate, the county said.

"A dangerous storm surge from #Nicole is expected along much of the east coast of FL & portions of coastal GA," the Storm SurgeUnit at the National Hurricane Center said. "The storm surge will be accompanied by large & damaging waves. Please listen to advice from local officials."

The hurricane warning in Florida is effect from Boca Raton to the Flagler-Volusia County Line. In the northwestern Bahamas, a hurricane warning remained in effect Wednesday morning.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for Florida's west coast north of Bonita Beach to Indian Pass. Areas from Altamaha Sound, Georgia, to South Santee River in South Carolina remain under tropical storm warning Wednesday morning.

Nicole's path

It is rare for a hurricane to strike the US so late in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November. Nicole would be the first hurricane to make landfall in the US in November in nearly 40 years.

As of early Wednesday, Nicole was about 270 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, with sustained winds of 70 mph, just 4 mph shy of becoming a Category 1 hurricane, the hurricane center said.

Areas along the coast of southeast and east-central Florida should brace for hurricane conditions beginning late Wednesday or Wednesday night, the hurricane center said. The Florida Peninsula could also see heavy rainfall Wednesday and Thursday.

"Nicole will approach the northwestern Bahamas overnight, move near or over those islands on Wednesday, and approach the east coast of Florida within the hurricane warning area" Wednesday night or early Thursday, the hurricane center explained.

"Nicole's center is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia Thursday and Thursday night."

The-CNN-Wire
NEW YORK (AP)  Democrat Letitia James has been elected to a second term as New Yorks attorney general, an office she has used to pursue former President Donald Trump and a list of other powerful targets.

James on Tuesday defeated Republican Michael Henry, a Queens lawyer who was endorsed by various police unions but faced long odds against one of the states most powerful Democrats.

We sent a message, a shot across the bow to the most powerful companies and people who believe that theyre above the law that they are not, and that this Attorney General will hold them accountable," James told supporters. "We show them that justice is not a theoretical concept to be pursued but a reality to be enforced.

Henry did not make any comment, but on Twitter he retweeted a tweet from his spokesperson, Candace Giove, who said, The chief law enforcement official of NY really should wait until the votes are counted before declaring victory."

James, 64, made history when she took office in January 2019. She is the first Black woman elected to statewide office, the states first Black attorney general and the first woman elected to the post.

She began investigating Trump almost as soon as she took office, suing the Republican in September alleging he and his company misled banks and others about the value of his assets.

James also confronted one of her partys stars, overseeing a sexual harassment investigation last year that precipitated Gov. Andrew Cuomos resignation.

Other foes have included the National Rifle Association  whom she is suing over alleged self-dealing by executives; the manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers; the Roman Catholic Church, which her office is investigating for its handling of priest abuse; and the NYPD, which she sued over its treatment of protesters in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

Like many New York Republicans this year, Henry has campaigned on fears of rising crime and unwavering support for law enforcement. He favors loosening gun restrictions and less regulation of businesses.

Henry said James' office has been weaponized in service of political ambition. He has criticized her for going after Trump and for involving herself in the Cuomo investigation when she had designs on possibly replacing him as governor.

James did briefly run for governor last year following Cuomo's resignation, but abandoned the effort after about two months.

When Trump was president, James sued his administration dozens of times, challenging policies on the environment, immigration, education, health care and other issues. She also fought Trump on his plans to include a question about immigration status on the Census, winning in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump has repeatedly blasted James actions against him, saying she's driven by racism" and political considerations.

Before she won her office in 2018, James had called Trump a con man, carnival barker and fear monger.

After a leak of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, James vowed to use her office protect abortion rights in the state.

James, who grew up and still lives in Brooklyn, also made a deeply personal disclosure, saying that she had an abortion about two decades ago.
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP)  Democratic state Rep. Rep. Emilia Sykes won a competitive U.S. House seat in Ohio on Tuesday, topping a conservative commentator endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Sykes, a former Ohio House Democratic leader and the daughter of a powerful political family in northeast Ohio, defeated Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in a newly redrawn district considered a toss-up.

Both parties put a priority on winning the district, which slightly favored President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Sykes, from Akron, positioned herself for the run when she stepped down last year after three years as leader of the Ohio House Democratic caucus. During her Statehouse tenure, Sykes was often mentioned as a possible candidate for higher office. Both of her parents served in the state legislature.

Gilbert is a conservative commentator and a former Miss Ohio USA who worked on Trumps 2016 inauguration committee and helped lead Women for Trump during his reelection bid.

The story has been updated to correct that Gibbs decided to retire this year.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  A Republican will hold Alaskas U.S. Senate seat following the state's ranked choice election, with Donald Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow Republican, leading in early returns.

Tshibaka held an edge over Murkowski in early first-choice votes released late Tuesday. The race also included Democrat Pat Chesbro and Republican Buzz Kelley. Kelley in September suspended his campaign and endorsed Tshibaka.

Under ranked voting, ballots are counted in rounds. A candidate can win outright with more than 50% of the vote in the first round. If no one hits that threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate as their top pick have their votes count for their next choice.

Rounds continue until two candidates remain, and whoever has the most votes wins. Tabulation rounds are expected to take place Nov. 23.

But Tshibaka argued it is time for a change. She noted that a Murkowski has held the Senate seat since 1981; before Lisa Murkowski, it was her father, Frank Murkowski. Tshibaka, after voting on Tuesday, told reporters she was excited and confident.

Murkowski in a recent interview said she felt good about the support she's received but said voter turnout is key. She said in 2010, many of her supporters kind of took for granted that I was going to be OK, and she lost her Republican primary to tea party upstart Joe Miller. She ultimately held onto the seat with a general election write-in campaign that year.

This year's elections were conducted under a new system, approved by voters in 2020, that replaced party primaries with open primaries and instituted ranked voting in general elections. In this year's August primary, Tshibaka finished second, behind Murkowski, with about 38% of the vote.

Chesbro, who joined the race late, struggled to gain traction, but Alaska Democratic Party leaders urged Democrats to vote their values and rank her first.

Tshibaka, a former commissioner of the state Department of Administration, said she worked during the campaign to shore up Republican support. She indicated that she did not rank Murkowski on her ballot.

I didn't vote her, either, Murkowski told The Associated Press while sign-waving at an Anchorage intersection Tuesday evening.

I'm feeling very good," Murkowski said of her campaign.

Murkowski, who was censured by state Republican party leaders last year over grievances including her vote to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, has a reputation as a centrist. She also cast herself as a coalition builder.

In ads, she said she is for Alaska, always, a nod to what she has said is her commitment to the people, not to a party.

Trump, who in that trial was acquitted, last month criticized the Senate Leadership Fund, a third-party group affiliated with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for running ads against Tshibaka. Tshibaka expressed frustration with the ads, too, saying that money would be better spent helping Republican candidates in other states.

She said she heard from Alaskans turned off by the TV ads and mailers. She has said she would not support McConnell for majority leader and dismissed suggestions she might be marginalized, if elected, in a McConnell-led conference.

Murkowski can be controlled. I cant be, she said. I think that's exactly what Alaskans want, is somebody who's not going to be controlled by D.C. but is an independent voice for Alaska.

A spokesperson for the group, Jack Pandol, said Murkowski has been a tireless advocate for Alaska and we are proud to support her reelection. The group said its policy is to defend Republican incumbents.

Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Dan McKee has defeated Republican challenger Ashley Kalus to win his first full term in office.

McKee is a former lieutenant governor who became the states chief executive in March 2021 when two-term Gov. Gina Raimondo was tapped as U.S. commerce secretary. He was the heavy favorite in the liberal state as both a Democrat and incumbent, who was endorsed by a host of large unions. Kalus is a business owner and political novice who moved to the state last year.

The Democratic Governors Association said residents voted for four more years of proven leadership and progress."

McKee sought to differentiate himself from Kalus by talking about how hes a lifelong Rhode Islander with decades of public service in the state. Like Democrats nationwide, he worked to keep abortion rights front and center in the campaign and convince voters that he would champion reproductive rights.

He highlighted the executive order he signed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that prohibits cooperation with other states investigating people who travel to Rhode Island to seek abortions.

It is more important than ever to make sure we have strong leadership on the state level that will fight to protect those rights, he said. Governors are the last line of defense, and as long as I am governor, the right to choose will always be protected.

State lawmakers will debate next year adding abortion coverage to Rhode Islands Medicaid program and to the insurance coverage for state employees. McKee wants to add funding in the state budget for it.

Though Kalus called herself pro-life and said she does not support taxpayer-funded abortions, she said the Supreme Court decision will have no impact in Rhode Island because the right to an abortion was codified into state law in 2019 and the vast majority of residents supported that law.

Only about 15% of registered voters in the state are Republicans. Kalus tried to convince independent voters, who make up more than 40% of the electorate, that McKee is an insider politician who is beholden to special interests. She seized on the fact that the FBI is now investigating the awarding of a controversial state contract and criticized McKee over the approval of public financing for developers. She told voters she would end the I know a guy system in Rhode Island and help working families.

Kalus, who owns a COVID-19 testing company that is suing the state over a canceled contract, moved to Rhode Island last year from Illinois and previously worked for former Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. She bought a home in Newport, registered to vote in Rhode Island as a Republican in January and declared her candidacy in March.

With a week to go before the election, profane texts were shared with media outlets that Kalus sent a contractor in 2018 and 2019 in Chicago. Kalus was upset over construction delays and billing disputes when she was opening a new medical office with her husband. She defended the texts to WPRO, saying they show she and taxpayers would not be taken advantage of if she were governor.

Independent candidates Zachary Hurwitz and Paul Rianna and libertarian Elijah Gizzarelli were also on the ballot.

Voter turnout as the polls closed in the general election was about 43% of the 815,000 residents eligible to vote, according to an unofficial tally by the secretary of states office. Turnout in the 2018 midterm elections was 48% in Rhode Island.

In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the Justice Department monitored polls for compliance with federal voting rights laws. The city was one of 64 jurisdictions in 24 states selected. The Justice Department has sent attorneys to monitor election sites nationwide for more than five decades.

McKee was endorsed by large unions representing teachers, firefighters, building trades, auto workers and others. Planned Parenthoods political action committee in Rhode Island and gun safety groups also endorsed McKee. He survived a tough primary, earning only one-third of the vote against former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, who saw a late surge in the polls, and Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea.

The governor campaigned on his efforts to help the states economy recover from COVID-19, promising that he could continue the momentum. He said he would continue to work to pass smart gun safety laws to make sure every resident is safe.

McKees 94-year-old mother, Willa, was a hit during the primary for a humorous ad. She returned to help him in the general election, appearing in another ad and jokingly interrupting him when he steals her line.

McKee said he has enjoyed seeing his mother become quite a celebrity in Rhode Island.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  Montana Republican Matt Rosendale won a second term in the U.S. House on Tuesday as he fended off a pair of challengers in the race for a newly drawn district representing the eastern portion of the state.

The race for the other newly-drawn U.S. House district where President Donald Trumps former interior secretary, Republican Ryan Zinke, was vying for the seat was too early to call Tuesday night.

Rosendale and Zinke are trying to extend the recent GOP dominance in the state. Republicans have not lost a U.S. House race in Montana since 1994. Over the past decade, voters swept Democrats from almost every statewide elected office, except for U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who is up for re-election in 2024.

After the eastern district was called for Rosendale shortly after midnight, he said the results reflected concern among voters about high energy costs, a shaky economy and rising crime that the lawmaker blamed on lax border security.

To address those worries, Rosendale said Republicans must focus on increasing domestic energy supplies and securing the southern border to reduce the flow of dangerous drugs.

If we focus on those two issues, then we will have a dramatic impact on improving the lives of people in the state of Montana and across the nation, he said.

Its a good night for Montana and a good night for America, he added.

Rosendale emerged during his first term as a hard-right conservative. Hes backed Trumps false statements about the 2020 election and recently voted against U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, citing what he said are more pressing security needs along the southern border.

His opponents  Democrat Penny Ronning and independent Gary Buchanan  characterized Rosendale as too extreme for Montana and beholden to outside interests that have heavily supported his political career.

Rosendale emphasized the importance of dissenting views in Washington and blamed Democrats in control of Congress and the White House for blocking reforms that could boost the agriculture and energy industry.

Rosendale through Oct. 19 raised more than $2.1 million for the election  about three times as much cash as Buchanan and Ronning combined, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Also on the ballot were two Montana Supreme Court races, one of which became abnormally politicized, and an abortion-related referendum. It was too early to call both races Tuesday.

Results were delayed in some counties as election officials waited to post results until everyone waiting in line when polls closed was able to cast a ballot. In Missoula County, election officials inadvertently included the results from a Monday equipment test in their initial results, causing a long delay while they adjusted the vote report to remove the erroneous information.

Zinke gathered with supporters at a bar in his hometown of Whitefish to watch the results while his challenger, Monica Tranel, was at the Union Club in Missoula.

Zinke won two statewide elections to the U.S. House before joining Trumps cabinet, where he eased restrictions on oil and gas drilling before resigning amid numerous ethics investigations.

The former U.S. Navy SEAL, who barely survived June's primaryover a far-right opponent, is vying for the seat representing western Montana. He is being challenged by Democratic attorney Monica Tranel and Libertarian John Lamb.

Zinke has tried to portray himself as moderate, saying he does not support a no-exceptions ban on abortion, but has parroted GOP attacks on the Biden administration, including on gun rights and border security.

Zinke denied wrongdoing as Interior secretary and dismissed as vindictive investigators reports that he lied during a probe into a Native American casino proposal and about his involvement in a real estate project in his hometown.

Tranel is a consumer rights and environmental attorney from Missoula who ran unsuccessfully for Public Service Commission in 2020. She's campaigned on pledges to promote renewable energy development, expand affordable housing and end tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

Lamb is an antigovernment extremist who thinks the punishments for many Jan. 6 Capitol rioters have been too harsh.

In elections for Montana Supreme Court, incumbent Ingrid Gustafson was challenged by James Brown, an attorney who was elected as a Republican to the state Public Service Commission. Incumbent Jim Rice is challenged by Billings attorney Bill D'Alton.

Elections of justices are supposed to be non-partisan. However, the race between Gustafson and Brown has drawn huge sums of cash as Republicans back Brown and try to push the court in a more conservative direction, while Democrats hope to maintain its liberal majority to prevent the erosion of abortion rights in Montana.

The abortion related ballot referendum raises the prospect of criminal charges for health care providers unless they take all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life of an infant born alive, including after an attempted abortion.

Opponents argue the proposal could rob parents of precious time with infants born with incurable medical issues if doctors are forced to attempt treatment. Supporters say it's meant to prevent the killing of infants outside the womb after failed abortions, which already is illegal.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Philadelphia voters who had missing or incorrect dates on their mail-in ballots were allowed to file replacement ballots at City Hall or vote provisionally at their regular precincts Tuesday.

Hundreds of people whose names were published Friday by the Philadelphia city commissioners, the city's election board, showed up at City Hall on Monday to correct errors with dates, as well as other flagged issues, including missing security envelopes and missing signatures.

A handful of county election boards made efforts to notify voters that they could fix ballot issues. Their outreach came in response to a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that mail-in ballots may not be counted if they lack accurate handwritten dates on the exterior envelopes.

A federal judge planned to meet early Wednesday with lawyers who were seeking to have mail-in ballots with minor problems counted.

In Pittsburgh, Allegheny County elections officials said by 7 p.m. that their workers had finished scanning 155,000 mail-in ballots.

But a judge in Luzerne County extended voting there by two hours, to 10 p.m., after supplies ran short at some polling places.

Its unclear how many ballots have been flagged across the state. Philadelphia's lists contain more than 3,500 names, almost 2,400 of which were cited for missing or incorrect dates. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to vote by mail.

The number of mail-in ballots is large enough that they might matter in a close race, such as the U.S. Senate contest between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz. Fetterman's campaign has sued over mail-in ballot counting rules.

The Philadelphia elections office, which normally closes at 5 p.m., stayed open until 7 p.m. Monday, but voters who had gotten in line to correct the issues after 3:45 p.m. were turned away, said Deputy Commissioner Nick Custodio, with the elections board.

Election workers strongly encouraged those voters to return to City Hall on Tuesday to file a replacement ballot, Custodio said. If they couldn't make it to City Hall, they could go to their regular polling place and file a provisional ballot, as well, he said. But, he said, it was important for them to do it early.

Were in brand new territory over here, he said. The law says those ballots (mail-ins) must be received by 8 p.m. today. It has to be IN the ballot box by 8 p.m. People should come early because the lines got very long yesterday and we want to make sure everyone gets through the process by 8 p.m.

Day-of voting procedures allow people in line at polling places by 8 p.m. to cast their ballots even though polls close at 8 p.m. But Custodio said any voters still waiting to correct mail-in ballot issues at 8 p.m. would be out of luck.

Later, after polls closed, Custodio said no voters had to be turned away.

The city commissioners also voted in an emergency meeting early Tuesday to reinstate a process to reconcile the poll books while the count is happening, rather than waiting until after the count. The procedure has been used to weed out possible double votes in the past but has not found any issues during the past three elections and is slower than reconciling after the count.

Under the reinstated process, the final ballots are likely to be counted by Friday, depending on how many are cast, Custodio said. The decision affects at least 17,000 and as many as 30,000 mail ballots received by the city between Thursday and Tuesday, he said.

Andrew Richman, an attorney with Philadelphia's Law Department, said the vote came after a judge issued an order denying Republicans' request for an injunction that would have forced the city to reinstate the process. But the judge's opinion, which had admonished the city's decision to remove the process, raised concerns for commissioners.

The Courts unfortunate opinion has cast unwarranted doubt on the integrity of Philadelphias election at the eleventh hour and will feed disinformation campaigns that seize on every opportunity to cultivate distrust in the democratic process, Richman wrote in an emailed statement. The City Commissioners cannot ignore public concerns  however unfounded created by the Courts opinion.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  After a dozen meetings and sessions over the summer and fall, South Carolina efforts to pass a stricter abortion law failed Wednesday after senators rejected a House-backed proposal and House members didn't return for another meeting to try and work out a compromise.

A number of Republicans thought now was the time in South Carolina to ban almost all abortions and called a special session after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

But no compromise could be reached between the House, which wanted a near total abortion ban, and the Senate, which wants to tweak the current law that amounts to a ban about six weeks after conception after a doctor detects cardiac activity.

After the Supreme Court ruling, some South Carolina Republicans paused on the brink of banning abortions. Some wanted to see the effects of the strict six-week ban for a few years, while others wanted to strengthen education and social programs since more babies would be born into desperate circumstances.

They saw voters in Kansas reject the possibility of passing a total ban in August and Kentucky voters on Tuesday reject locking into the constitution the right to ban abortions. Kentucky voted 62% for Donald Trump for president in 2020, while 55% of South Carolina voters cast ballots for the Republican.

The bill failed in a small conference room after senators rejected the House-backed compromise again. House members did not come back after that 21-23 vote to negotiate with the bill's main sponsor, Republican Rep. John McCravy, saying he had a family conflict that forced him to leave Columbia two hours after the initial meeting.

By law, this year's General Assembly session ends Sunday. With the election of 124 House members earlier in the week, everything resets and all bills must start from the beginning of the legislative process in January.

After the Senate met, Republican House Speaker Murrell Smith said his chamber wouldn't push the issue any further.

I agree the bill is dead. The House will continue to stand on its position," Smith said.

South Carolina's ban, with exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest or when the life of the patient is threatened, isn't being enforced as the state Supreme Court is considering a challenge that it violates the right to privacy in the state constitution.

Senators said their bill solved that problem for the state Supreme Court and was vital to make sure the six-week ban stayed in place.

Without it, South Carolina reverts to an older, 20-week abortion ban, although no clinics in the state perform the procedure more than 14 weeks after conception.

Can we pass something not just to get a win? Can we pass something that will actually save some lives?" Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said. Can we pass something that will send a message to the state Supreme Court that yes we really, really want fetal heartbeat to stay in place so we are not at 20 weeks?

House members had a chance to accept the Senate's version when they met in October, but rejected it. The Senate's bill also cut the time that victims of rape and incest who become pregnant can seek an abortion from 20 weeks to about 12 weeks and requires that DNA from the aborted fetus be collected for police.

Supporters of the stricter ban said voters made it clear they wanted action.

We have the authority to say you can kill the unborn human being by our vote. That's blasphemous. Presuming to ourselves the place of God, Republican Sen. Richard Cash said.

Democrats have largely stayed quiet during the debate, letting the Republicans fight among themselves and pulling in more moderate senators. They said people who support womens rights were going to lose no matter what happened because the states abortion rules are so restrictive.

Republicans gained seven House seats during Thursday's midterm election and will have 88 of the chamber's 124 seats when the next General Assembly session begins in January.

Speaker Smith said the House may send a near total ban to the Senate again. But he is also aware that the composition of the state Senate doesn't change until the 2024 elections,

The same senators who just voted will still be in the Senate, Smith said. If any abortion bill is going to become law its going to have to get the support of the senate.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Utah Republican Mike Lee has been reelected to a third term in the U.S. Senate, defeating independent challenger Evan McMullin on Tuesday in the state's most closely watched Senate race in decades.

Lees win keeps Utah in Republican hands as the party vies for control of Congress and reflects that the libertarian-leaning conservatives popularity has endured in Utah. His win indicates the majority of Utah voters were not swayed by McMullins criticisms of Lees second-term transformation, from a one-time opponent of former President Donald Trump to among his most loyal supporters.

In an emotionally raw victory speech, Lee said his victory was a rebuke of Democrats who have controlled Washington for the past two years. He said it put Republicans in a good position heading toward the next presidential election, when voters will be asked whether to give Democrats another four years in the White House.

I look forward to 2024, when even the blue states are going to be saying Heck no!' And thats strong language in Utah, Lee said on a stage alongside his family.

Across the nation, Senate races remained in flux. Republicans defended a seat in Ohio and Democrats defended one in New Hampshire, but a complete picture of next years U.S. Senate remained unclear as other critical battlegrounds were too early to call on Tuesday night.

McMullins formal backing from the Democratic party, which opted to back him instead of choosing a candidate, and attempts to exploit anti-Trump sentiment ultimately werent enough to unseat Lee, but in his concession speech he commended them for making the race competitive.

McMullin thanked the Democrats, Republicans and independents who supported him and said their unity made the race Utahs most competitive in half a century. He said he hoped more voters, candidates and campaigns would focus on unifying people rather than leaning into politics of division because America does stand at the crossroads of democracy and despotism.

He mostly refrained from pointed remarks again Lee, yet he repeated his campaign trail message against divisiveness and threats to democracy.

I truly hope he upholds his oath to the Constitution in his upcoming term, McMullin said of Lee.

Utah voters were familiar with McMullin from his independent presidential campaign in 2016, when he won 21.5% of the vote in the in Utah by seizing on anti-Trump sentiment to deny Trump an outright majority in the state.

Six years later, McMullins bid focused largely on Lees text messages with Trumps staff in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. It ultimately wasnt enough to score an upset in a state where voters and many political leaders have gradually grown to embrace Trump since 2016.

McMullins accusation that Lee had betrayed his oath of office when he became entangled in communications about how Trump could overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 win was front-of-mind for Lee's supporters at his election night event, including one who yelled, You deserve an apology! during the senator's victory speech.

Thank you, Lee said.

Lee comes from a prominent Utah political family. His father, Rex, served as U.S. Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan and his brother, Thomas, is a former state Supreme Court Justice currently defending the states ban on transgender youth who want to participate in girls sports.

Since first being elected, Lee has cultivated a reputation for citing the U.S. Constitution frequently, often with the help of a pocket-sized edition he carries, and for advocating to limit the size of the federal government. Hes clung to those principles even when doing so has made him a lone No against otherwise unanimous votes in the Senate and contributed to the federal government shutting down. Two Republicans cited his unwillingness to compromise as a rationale for challenging him in Utahs June primary and McMullin used his record to accuse him of being an obstructionist.

Lees defenders say his voting records exemplifies a willingness to fight for them and their values. He received endorsements from 48 Senate Republicans  all but Mitt Romney, who hes represented Utah alongside since 2019. Lees victory over a self-identified conservative independent like McMullin suggests challenges could lie ahead for Romney should he decided to run for reelection in 2024.

Lees contest against McMullin was more competitive than either of Lees previous two races. He was first elected in 2010 during a Tea Party wave that he rode to unseat third-term Republican Sen. Bob Bennett at the Utah Republican Partys convention that year and ultimately won the general election by 28.8 percentage points. He secured a second term in 2016, defeating Democrat Misty Snow by 31 percentage points.

He began that year as an avowed and public opponent of then-candidate Trump, even attempting to lead an effort to sabotage his nomination on the floor of the Republican National Convention. He voiced anger at Trumps treatment of his friend and colleague U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and said on national television that the Muslim ban plank of Trumps 2016 campaign was religious discrimination and an affront to both his beliefs and the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members make up the majority of Utahs population.

Lee gradually warmed to Trump as he began fulfilling the priorities such as nominating conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, lowering taxes and embracing a conservative case for criminal justice reform. His ideological viewpoint won him support from political action committees like Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth, which funneled millions into attack ads undercutting McMullins attempts to portray himself as an independent.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Swimming in two plastic bins inside a brightly lit and sterile quarantine room at a Rhode Island zoo, 16 quarter-sized turtle hatchlings represent a growing worry for conservationist Lou Perrotti.

These eastern musk turtles, known for spending much of their lives in swamps and ponds and emitting a foul smell when threatened, were confiscated recently in a wildlife bust. And, though the reptiles are common, their illegal sale on the internet greatly concerns Perrotti, who directs conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence.

We are seeing an uptick in turtle poaching, he said. It's getting ruthless where we are seeing thousands of turtles leaving the United States on an annual basis. ... Turtle populations cannot take that kind of a hit with that much removal coming out of the wild.

Wildlife trade experts believe that poaching  driven by growing demand for pets in the U.S., Asia and Europe  is contributing to the global decline of rare freshwater turtle and tortoise species. One study found over half of the 360 living turtle and tortoise species are at risk of extinction.

Such concerns have prompted a dozen proposals to increase protection for freshwater turtles at the 184-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Panama Nov. 14 through Nov. 25.

Precise figures on the turtle trade, especially illegal trade, can be hard to find. Based on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data, Tara Easter, a University of Michigan doctoral candidate who studies the trade, estimated the commercial export trade for mud turtles in the United States increased from 1,844 in 1999 to nearly 40,000 in 2017 and musk turtles from 8,254 in 1999 to more than 281,000 in 2016.

In their CITES proposal to ban or limit the commercial trade in more than 20 mud turtles species, the United States and several Latin American countries cited data from Mexico that found nearly 20,000 were confiscated, mostly at the Mexico City airport, from 2010 to 2022.

Among the world's most trafficked animals, freshwater turtles are targeted by criminal networks that connect with buyers on the internet then transport the reptiles to black markets in Hong Kong and other Asian cities. From there, they are sold as pets, to collectors and for commercial breeding, food and traditional medicine. In many countries, trade is poorly regulated or not regulated at all.

The lucrative business  some turtle species coveted for their colorful shells or strange appearance can fetch thousand of dollars in Asia  adds to threats turtles already face. Those include climate change, habitat destruction, road mortality and predators eating their eggs.

Poachers are particularly problematic, experts say, because they target rare species and adult breeding females. Many turtle species, which can live for several decades, don't reach reproductive maturity for a decade or more.

The loss of large numbers of adults, especially females, can send turtles into a spiraling decline from which they cannot recover, said Dave Collins, director of North American turtle conservation for the Turtle Survival Alliance. Turtles have extremely low reproduction levels, producing a few eggs every year.

The United States Association of Reptile Keepers, which advocates for responsible private ownership and trade in reptiles and amphibians, said in a statement that addressing reductions in wild populations by limiting captive breeding and legal trade is counterproductive.

If we dont have enough of a species on Earth, ... the solution should be to make more of them, Daniel Parker, the director of media for the group's Florida chapter, said in a statement. By cracking down on breeding and trade, authorities are missing out on free market conservation solutions that can be effective.

Since 2018, the Collaborative to Combat the Illegal Trade in Turtles  an organization of mostly state, federal and tribal biologists who combat poaching of North American turtles  has documented at least 30 major smuggling cases in 15 states. Some involved a few dozen turtles, others several thousands.

Easter at the University of Michigan identified 59 U.S. cases over the past 20 years involving about 30,000 illegally traded turtles.

Earlier this year, a federal judge in North Carolina sentenced a man to 18 months in prison and fined him $25,000 for trafficking turtles in violation of the Lacey Act. The law bans trafficking in fish, wildlife or plants that are illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold.

The man trafficked 722 eastern box turtles  the North Carolina state reptile  as well as 122 spotted turtles and three wood turtles through a middleman for markets in Asia. The man received more than $120,000 for the turtles, which have a value of $1.5 million in Asia.

In 2021, a Chinese national was sentenced to 38 months in prison and fined $10,000 for money laundering after previously pleading guilty to financing a nationwide smuggling ring that sent 1,500 turtles worth more than $2.2 million from the U.S. to China.

The man used PayPal to purchase the turtles from American buyers advertising them on social media and reptile websites and sold them to Hong Kong reptile markets.

In 2020, a New Jersey man was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution and fines for smuggling 1,000 three-toed and western box turtles from Oklahoma to New Jersey in candy wrappers and socks.

The illegal trade has prompted governments to propose listing for the first time 42 turtles species under CITES  including North American musk turtles. Though some species like the eastern musk turtle are common, a listing means traders will need a permit to sell them internationally. Commercial sale of other species such as alligator snapping turtles, found in U.S. Gulf states and reaching up to 200 pounds, would be limited.

Proposals would also tighten regulations on 13 others already listed for protection.

We think thats really, really important just because of the trends that weve seen over the past couple of decades in international reptile and particularly turtle trade, said U.S. Department of the Interiors Matthew Strickler, who will head the American delegation at CITES.

Theres significant demand from Southeast Asia for food and the pet trade, but also from Europe, for pets as well," he said. "Weve seen this pattern of turtles being depleted in one place, and then poachers and traffickers and traders moving to another place. Southeast Asia was depleted. They moved to Africa. Now, we see them moving to the Americas.

The tiny musk turtles were spotted for sale online by a Rhode Island Environmental Police intern. They were only $20 each. The turtles, which grow to five inches (13 centimeters) and live for decades, are brown or black with a white or yellow line along their heads.

Police busted the seller in September after arranging an undercover buy at his house. The seller paid a $1,600 fine for possessing a reptile without a permit. The hope is that the turtles, now quarantined at the Providence zoo, are injury- and disease-free and can be released back to the wild.

Obviously when we are talking about native species being removed even for pets, it has a big impact," said Harold Guise, an environmental police detective who handled the case. The commercialization of wildlife has an impact on wildlife that we can't even measure until it has already happened. We need to get ahead of these things.

For Perrotti the conservation director, it was a reminder that illegal trade once focused in Asia is increasingly happening in his backyard.

I couldn't believe there was a market for it and that someone was either mass producing these or mass collecting these to make a few bucks, he said. A $20 turtle. That's ridiculous. ... Wildlife is not a commodity for somebody to profit on."

Follow Michael Casey in Twitter: @mcasey1
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Buu Nygren has ousted Jonathan Nez as president of the Navajo Nation, a position that wields influence nationally because of the size of the tribes reservation in the U.S. Southwest and its huge population.

Nygren defeated Nez in the nonpartisan race with a message of delivering basic needs to Navajos and expressing frustration at the pace of tribal government and infrastructure projects. He acknowledged that hard work lies ahead.

I've said it time and time again, that we want to do the things that are tough, he said to a rowdy crowd gathered at the fairgrounds in the tribal capital of Window Rock.

Nygren's win, along with his running mate Richelle Montoya, means the Navajo Nation will have a woman in the Office of the President and Vice President for the first time. Navajo voters twice advanced Lynda Lovejoy to the general election for the presidency, but she lost both times.

Unofficial results from the tribe's elections office showed Nygren ahead of Nez by about 3,500 votes with all 110 precincts reporting. Turnout among the roughly 125,000 registered voters surpassed 50%.

Nygren, 35, positioned himself as the candidate for change and as someone who could get the ball rolling on long-awaited projects. He has a background in construction management but has never held political office.

Im used to being held accountable in every job, Nygren, a tribal vice presidential candidate in 2018, said ahead of Tuesday's election. Im taking that approach. If I dont perform, I have no business being here.

The Navajo Nations population of 400,000 is second only to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. It also has the largest land base by far of any tribe at 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) stretching into parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

Nygren pledged to work more closely with the Navajo Nation Council that often is seen as more powerful than the tribal presidency. Newly elected leaders take office in January. Nygren is married to Arizona state Rep. Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren.

Nez is a seasoned politician who ascended to the presidency after years as a community leader, Navajo County supervisor, Navajo Nation Council delegate and vice president. He encouraged voters to choose continuity in the race, saying progress takes time.

Nez's spokesman, Jared Touchin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night from The Associated Press. Nez and his running mate, Chad Abeyta, gathered in a separate area of the fairgrounds.

Nez said more than $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding that the tribe has approved for infrastructure projects would help spur economic development and bring home Navajos who have left the reservation for jobs.

Tens of thousands of Navajos still live without running water, electricity and broadband. The coronavirus pandemic highlighted those inequities and thrust the Navajo Nation into the spotlight when it had one of the highest infection rates in the U.S.

The tribe has long relied on revenue from the coal industry to fund its government, but those revenues have been declining as coal-fired plants and mines shut down. While the Navajo Nation owns a stake in one coal plant and some coal mines, its been working to develop renewable energy sources.

Tourism also helps fuel the Navajo Nations economy. Towering rock formations in Shiprock, Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly are international draws for tourists, as is the story of the famed Navajo Code Talkers who developed a World War II code that the Japanese never cracked.
HONOLULU (AP)  Voters in Hawaiis 2nd Congressional District elected a new U.S. representative Tuesday after the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Kaialii Kahele, decided not to seek re-election.

Democrat Jill Tokuda defated Republican Joe Akana in the district covering rural Oahu and the rest of the Hawaiian Islands.

Tokuda thanked a cheering crowd at a post-election celebration for their support and their work to win over voters by by knocking on doors, making phone calls and waving at cars while holding signs.

We reminded them at the end of the day it was always about them, the people of Hawaii, she said. Our kids - making sure that they would be able to have a future and a home here in this place that we love.

In the 1st Congressional District, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Case will be sent back to Washington to represent urban Honolulu for another two-year term. He defeated Republican Conrad Kress.

Case celebrated Democratic wins in Hawaii as well as strong results for the party nationally.

Because our message is better. Because we represent all of the people. Because we defend democracy, because we defend the rights of people. Because we care about everybody, because we are inclusive, because we do not operate special interests, because all the things that we have taken to heart here in Hawaii, Case said to the crowd at a Democratic Party celebration.

Hawaii has two seats in the U.S. House.

A look at the races:

NEW REPRESENTATIVE

Tokuda on Tuesday defeated Republican Joe Akana to become the new congressperson for Hawaiis 2nd Congressional District, which covers rural Oahu and the rest of the state.

Tokuda served in the state Senate for 12 years, where she was chairperson of the Ways and Means Committee.

Tokuda is also a small business owner and has served as the external affairs director for the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center on Maui.

Akana is a businessman and former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst.

Tokuda had been heavily favored to win in the Democratic stronghold.

Tokuda replaces the incumbent, Kahele, who will leave Congress after serving one term. The Hilo native decided to run for governor instead of returning to Washington, but lost to Lt. Gov. Josh Green in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

NAVY SEAL CHALLENGES INCUMBENT

Case, the incumbent, beat former Navy SEAL Conrad Kress, a Republican in Hawaiis 1st Congressional District.

Case had been heavily favored to win the seat. The Blue Dog Democrat is in his second stint in Congress.

He initially served from 2002-2007 representing the 2nd Congressional District before he ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate. He was first elected to serve Hawaiis 1st Congressional District in 2019.

Case is co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, an official caucus in the U.S. House for 19 fiscally conservative Democrats. Its website says its dedicated to pursuing fiscally-responsible policies, ensuring a strong national defense for our country, and transcending party lines to get things done for the American people.

The 1st Congressional District covers urban Honolulu.
HONOLULU (AP)  Lawyers representing two Native Hawaiian men don't dispute they brutally assaulted a white man who purchased a house in their remote village on the island of Maui.

They acknowledged the 2014 attack was wrong, but they said it wasn't a hate crime, as U.S. prosecutors allege.

Trial began Tuesday for Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr., who are charged with one federal count each of a hate crime.

Alo-Kaonohi punched and kicked Christopher Kunzelman and Aki hit him with a shovel when Kunzelman tried to fix up the house he purchased in Kahakuloa village, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Thomas told the jury.

Alo-Kaonohi dragged his finger down Kunzelman's face and said his skin was the wrong color, Thomas said.

The attack, which left Kunzelman with injuries including a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma, never would have happened if it weren't for his race, Thomas said.

It wasn't Kunzelman's race that sparked the attack, attorneys for the men said, blaming their actions on his entitled and disrespectful attitude.

The assault on Kunzelman is hard to stomach, said Craig Jerome, one of Alo-Kaonohi's federal defenders. The attack was provoked by a belief that Kunzelman didn't have a valid easement to the property and because he cut chains on village gates, Jerome said.

The altercation escalated when the men realized Kunzelman had a gun, Jerome said.

Kaonohi pleaded no contest to felony assault in state court in July 2019 in the case and was sentenced to probation. The trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu is only to determine if they are guilty of a hate crime. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Footage of the attack from cameras on Kunzelman's vehicle don't show that Alo-Kaonohi uttered any racial terms or slurs, Jerome said.

Aki later told police Kunzelman was acting like a typical haole, Thomas said.

Haole, a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreign and white person, is central to the case, which highlights multicultural Hawaii's nuanced and complicated relationship with race.

An enraged Alo-Kaonohi called Kunzelman brah, buddy," and various other terms attached to expletives, Jerome said: But he never calls him a haole, not once."

Aki didnt use the word haole in a pejorative or hateful way, Jerome said.

It's not a hate crime to assault somebody and in the course of it, use the word haole, said Aki's court-appointed attorney, Lynn Panagakos, noting that Aki is both part-Hawaiian and part-haole.

Haole has multiple meanings depending on the context, she said. It's an accepted word.

Kunzelman testified Tuesday that he and his wife decided to move to Maui from Scottsdale, Arizona, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis because she loved the island.

It's just serene and beautiful, he said.

They purchased the four-bedroom oceanfront house after seeing a listing for it online, he said, and that he went to Maui first to renovate the house for his wife and their three daughters.

Kunzelman said he decided to take two pistols to Maui after hearing that a contractor he hired to do mold remediation had been assaulted when he showed up and after hearing his realtor say that the close-knit community of Native Hawaiians had a problem with white people.

Kunzelman said he and his family never got to live in the Maui house and now reside in Puerto Rico.

He was expected to continue testifying Wednesday.
BOSTON (AP)  Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has been elected governor of Massachusetts, making history as the nation's first openly lesbian governor.

Healey, the states first woman and openly gay candidate elected to the office, defeated Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative who had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

Her election returns the governors office to Democrats after eight years of Republican leadership under the popular Gov. Charlie Baker, who opted not to seek reelection.

Healey and her running mate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, were among three all-female governor/lieutenant governor tickets in the U.S. that began Election Day with a chance to become the first such pairing elected to lead a state.

The Republican all-female ticket of Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor and Leslie Rutledge for lieutenant governor won in Arkansas. In Ohio, the ticket of Democrat Nan Whaley and running mate Cheryl Stephens lost to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

Healey was also one of two openly lesbian candidates who ran to be a governor in the country. Healey and Democrat Tina Kotek, a candidate for governor in Oregon, each began the day with a chance to become the first open lesbian elected governor of a state.

Healey addressed supporters at a downtown Boston hotel after her victory Tuesday night.

To those who voted for me and to those who didnt I want you to know that Ill be a governor for everyone and Ill work with anyone whos up for making a difference in this state, Healey said.

Healey also addressed the historic nature of her win.

Tonight I want to say something to every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there. I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be and nothing and no one can ever get in your way except you own imagination and thats not going to happen. Healey said.

I stand before you tonight proud to be the first woman and the first gay person ever elected governor of Massachusetts, she added.

Diehl told supporters at a Boston hotel that he had called Healey to congratulate her on her win.

The people of the commonwealth have spoken. I respect their choice and I ask everyone who has supported me and Leah to give her the same opportunity that I would have asked for if the shoe had been on the other foot, he said, referring to his running mate Leah Allen.

Despite the outcome, Im proud of the race we ran, he added. We highlighted issues that are important for people across the state.

Healey  elected eight years ago as the nations first openly gay attorney general  snapped whats become known in Massachusetts as the curse of the attorney general. Since 1958, six former Massachusetts attorneys general have sought the governors office. All failed.

During the campaign, Healey pledged to expand job training programs, make child care more affordable and modernize schools. Healey has also said she would protect access to safe and legal abortion in Massachusetts in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The 51-year-old has also checked off what she considers a series of accomplishments during her time as the states top law enforcement officer, including protecting students and homeowners from predatory lenders and suing Exxon Mobil over whether the oil giant misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change.

Healey also targeted OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family over allegations they deceived patients and doctors about the risks of opioids.

During the campaign, the Democrat warned Diehl would bring Trumpism to Massachusetts. Diehl served as co-chair for former President Donald Trumps first presidential campaign in Massachusetts and won his endorsement for governor in a state that roundly rejected Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Although Healey is the first woman in Massachusetts elected governor, shes not the first to serve in the office. Republican Jane Swift, then lieutenant governor, became acting governor in 2001 when Gov. Paul Cellucci resigned to become ambassador to Canada. Swift was never elected governor.

Since 1991, Republicans had held the corner office at the Statehouse for all but eight years when Democrat Deval Patrick was governor.

In the race for secretary of the commonwealth, incumbent Democrat William Galvin defeated Republican Rayla Campbell, who would have been the first Black person to serve in the post.

In the contest for state auditor, Republican Anthony Amore conceded to Democratic state Sen. Diana DiZoglio, while incumbent Democratic state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg has been elected to another four-year term.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Andy Ogles, a conservative who gained popularity among Tennessee Republicans as an outspoken former county mayor, has won a newly redrawn congressional district that includes part of left-leaning Nashville.

Ogles, a onetime leader of the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperitys state chapter, secured the seat after largely dodging questions on key policy issues that included whether he supported a national ban on abortion and if he supported exceptions to save the life of the mother.

Ogles took a low-key approach to the general election after emerging victorious from a crowded and bruising Republican primary. While he issued a warning ahead of the general election  Liberals, were coming for you  Ogles avoided sharing the stage with his Democratic opponent Heidi Campbell and gave interviews mostly to conservative media outlets.

We are going to take this country back, Ogles said during a victory speech. We are going to fix this economy. We are going to close this border. And were going to fire Nancy Pelosi.

The strategy was successful largely due to the GOP-led redistricting process, which provided enough cushion for a Republican. Some voters in Nashville cast early ballots in the wrong congressional district, leaving election officials scrambling before Tuesday to correct the errors and leading to at least one lawsuit.

Carving Nashville into three districts led incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper to announce his retirement and created an opportunity for Republicans to flip a congressional seat.

Ogles has refused to directly answer whether he believes President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and instead has falsely stated that voter fraud took place across the U.S.

Furthermore, Ogles called for the impeachment of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as treason charges against the Department of Homeland Security secretary over the administrations handling of immigration issues.

He has made remarks that exemptions for rape and incest in abortion bans are a red herring and that the next thing we have to do is go after gay marriage by allowing each state to decide on the legality of marriage for same-sex couples.

The former Maury County mayor also focused heavily on his opposition to government requirements that were implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Campbell, a state senator from Nashville, had hoped that highlighting Ogles stances on abortion and gay marriage  as well as his support of dissolving the U.S. Department of Education  would help gain enough support among wary voters in a new district that now snakes across six counties. The Democrat even outraised and outspent Ogles in the last quarter.

However, in Republican-dominant Tennessee, her attempt still fell short with voters outside of Nashville.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Ogles after initially endorsing his former State Department spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus, in the primary. Ortagus and two other candidates in the race were booted off the primary ballot by state GOP officials over their voting records.

Meanwhile, the incumbent House lawmakers seeking reelection all won their races.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green defeated Democratic activist Odessa Kelly in a district that also now includes parts of Nashville.

And GOP U.S. Rep. John Rose defeated Democrat Randall Cooper in the third seat that includes Nashville, meaning that the city will be completely represented by Republicans in Congress.

GOP U.S. Reps. David Kustoff, Scott DesJarlais, Chuck Fleischmann, Tim Burchett and Diana Harshbarger all were successful in their reelection bids. Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen in Memphis won Tuesday, and will be the states last remaining Democratic congressman.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
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.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. November 3, 2022.

Editorial: Remove barriers to substitute teaching

When Pennsylvania confronts its own problems, stealing great ideas from other states is not a crime  its commendable. Facing a severe, nationwide shortage of substitute teachers, Pennsylvania should steal an idea from Ohio that would raise the number of substitute teachers by dropping some of the requirements to do it.

Ohio now permits anyone with a degree in the subject to apply for a subject-specific substitute teaching license. Applicants must still pass background checks.

Knowledge of the subject matter is the most important component of teaching. Ohios decision to allow subject experts to teach benefits teachers and students. Pennsylvania should follow suit.

Currently, substitute teachers must have a Pennsylvania educator certificate, which requires completion of an approved course as well as a recommendation from the institution that provides the course and a bachelors degree or out-of-state certificate. A substitute teacher may earn $100 to $130 a day.

Even before the pandemic, fewer people were applying for substitute jobs. That, along with a growing number of teacher retirements, has prompted a daily scramble for many school districts to staff classrooms.

Like Ohio, Pennsylvania is experimenting with ways to attract new substitute teachers  among them, raising pay, allowing retired teachers to fill in as subs, increasing the number of days a substitute teacher can work, and allowing college students close to graduating to sub.

These are all good ideas, but they have not met the growing demand for more substitute teachers.

The substitute shortage stems directly from a declining number of teachers. Ten year ago, Pennsylvania issued roughly 15,000 in-state teacher certifications, reports the Pennsylvania Department of Education, compared to 5,000 in the 2020-21 school year.

A National Education Association survey earlier this year found more than half of the teaching workforce was considering leaving the profession early. Nationwide, there are 360,000 fewer public education employees than there were before the pandemic.

Substitute teaching was once a viable way for recent graduates to eventually land a full-time job at a school. Now, its more of a side hustle. The Post-Gazette recently reported that state education data shows the number of emergency hires outstripped the number of new teachers. Increasing substitutes isnt a long-term solution for the falling number of teachers, but students need teachers now.

Pennsylvanians with degrees in languages, mathematics, music and physical education should be able to offer their services to teach, as the state and nation try to solve the knotty, long-term problem of declining numbers of teachers.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. November 8, 2022.

Editorial: Toll scofflaw legislation is easy, but hard work is needed on other PennDOT, turnpike problems

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed a new law last week giving the state a stick to smack or prod drivers owing delinquent toll money.

The law comes after the state adopted Toll by Plate as an alternative to E-ZPass and eliminated in-person toll workers or the mechanical devices that caught coins or accepted paper currency. Following that change that started in 2019, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission racked up $155 million in red ink from drivers who were billed but never paid.

Under the new law, which will go into effect in January, drivers will face a serious consequence for not paying their bills. Amass $250 or more in unpaid bills, and the state can suspend your vehicles registration. Its a move that makes sense as a direct response to the offense in question.

It was a law that needed to be passed. If you use a toll road, you should pay for that use. But why did it take three years to do so? Why wasnt the hefty chunk of debt anticipated and this very obvious response anticipated?

But you can ask that question about so much regarding the Turnpike Commission, PennDOT or just state government in general.

After all, the state has not taken steps to rectify the incomprehensible Act 44 of 2007, which requires the Turnpike Commission to foot the bill for things that have nothing to do with toll roads. The law demanded the commission pay $450 million a year until 2021. Going forward, payments fell to a comparatively tiny $50 million but continue until 2057.

Why has the state not taken steps find a new revenue stream for PennDOT rather than forcing the commission into a position where it has had to borrow money to pay an obligation it was forced to assume? Why is it not aggressively finding new ways to replace the gas tax in a world in which electric vehicles use roads but not gas pumps? Why is it not coming up with funding scenarios for bridges and other projects?

Because none of those is as easy as taking away someones car registration, which can then lead to a chain reaction of citations for driving without registration, losing a license, etc.

Penalizing the little guy is simple and happens quickly  well, as quickly as anything happens in Harrisburg.

But solving the big problems  especially those that government has created itself  always seems to take longer. And thats if they are a priority at all.

Scranton Times-Tribune. November 8, 2022.

Editorial: Expunge most juvenile records

Criminal justice research long has shown that most young people who enter the juvenile justice system are not on a path to committing crimes as adults.

As a report by the state Juvenile Justice Task Force that was formed in 2019 to improve the system put it, most youth in the juvenile justice system have little or no prior history of delinquency, have not committed a felony or a (personal) offense, and do not score as high risk to reoffend.

Juvenile offenders often are stuck forever with their juvenile records  even when charges are dismissed or withdrawn. There is no standard protocol, in Pennsylvania, to expunge juvenile records.

Borrowing from the highly successful Clean Slate Act that passed in 2018, which allow adults to seek expungement of their records for nonviolent crimes, Republican Sen. Lisa Baker of Dallas wants to pass a similar regime regarding juvenile files.

With background checks so prevalent today, juvenile records can negatively affect employment, education, housing, credit and identification down the road, she said.

Her proposal would allow for expungement after two years for a juvenile misdemeanor conviction and five years for a felony conviction, in both cases only if there were no intervening convictions or pending new charges.

The bill would be good for juvenile offenders and the society. It would help fulfill the juvenile systems objective, rehabilitation, by making it easier for former offenders to seek education and employment, cornerstones of productive lives.

The Legislature should pass Bakers bill in the next session.

Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice. November 4, 2022.

Editorial: Sweet music for tone-deaf legislators

Musicians regularly oil their instruments valves to reduce friction and ease play  much as private interests regularly oil some state politicians for roughly the same reason.

Even Pennsylvanians who dont know the difference between brass and woodwinds are wise to invest, through the state government, in world-class cultural institutions like the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, to which the state government has contributed about $10 million in grants over the past five years.

It undoubtedly is discordant for taxpayers to hear, however, as reported by Spotlight PA, that this summer the orchestra spent $30,000 to squire two state-government politicians around Europe.

Soon-to-retire Republican state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman of Centre County and Republican state Rep. Rob Mercuri of Allegheny County, and their wives, accompanied the orchestra on its summer tour of Germany, Slovenia and Austria. In Austria, the orchestra closed the prestigious Salzburg Festival, an extremely tough ticket for other than free-riding state lawmakers. The symphony also picked up the politicians airfare, lodging and meals.

This is a product of the Senates refusal to enact a ban on gifts to lawmakers.

The Legislature has no scheduled voting days. So a gift-ban bill about which many politicians had made a great deal of noise is dead  yet again. Legislators who recognize the necessity of such a ban will have to introduce a new bill in the next session.

Unlike almost all other states, Pennsylvania has scant restrictions on gifts for legislators. They may accept gifts, transportation, lodging, meals and other perks from private interests, as long as they report it on financial disclosure forms to the state Ethics Commission. Those forms are not released publicly until the following calendar year, rather than in real time.

There is a separate lobbyist disclosure law, under which lobbyists reported spending

$1.6 million on lawmakers in 2021. But that pathetically weak law does not require detailed breakdowns of the spending.

Lawmakers should, but wont, enact a gift ban and reform the lobbying law. So expect more globe-trotting by low-brow politicians, courtesy of gifts from high-brow institutions partially funded by taxpayers.

END
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  The top ally and advisor to Donald Trump who chairs the Ohio Republican Party said Wednesday that he will not seek reelection in January.

Robert Paduchik's announcement came in a letter to members of the State Executive and Central Committees following Tuesday night's sweeping GOP victories for U.S. Senate, governor and Ohio Supreme Court and Ohio Legislature.

It is time for a new leader to take leadership of the party and I look forward to the January election of ORP officers, he wrote, while touting a litany of accomplishments over the past 21 months.

Paduchik has faced criticism and litigation from some members of party leadership for his decision to endorse Gov. Mike DeWine in the primary and for his handling of the party's books. He managed to avert an attempted ouster in September with a procedural maneuver, which put off a vote on a new chair until the new year.

While they differ on many things, Paduchiks soon to be former counterpart in the Ohio Democratic Party, Elizabeth Walters, said they both can agree on how tough this job is.

I always enjoyed sparring with him, and I sincerely wish him well on whats next for him, she said. Walters said Ohio Democrats helped keep Tuesday's projected red wave to a red ripple with key congressional victories in the state's two most competitive U.S House districts and an open seat in the Akron area.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Voters in reliably red Kentucky rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any state constitutional protections for abortion while voters in battleground Michigan enshrined abortion rights in their state's constitution  joining Democratic California and Vermont in taking that step.

The Kentucky result bucked the states Republican-led Legislature, which had imposed a near-total ban on the procedure and put the proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot. It also mirrored what happened in another red state, Kansas, where voters in August rejected changing that states constitution to let lawmakers tighten restrictions or ban abortions.

The Tuesday ballot measures came months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion it guaranteed to women nationwide. The decision in June has led to near-total bans in a dozen states.

Supporters of the push to protect abortion rights in Michigan collected more signatures than any other ballot initiative in state history to get it before the voters. It puts a definitive end to a 1931 ban on abortion that had been blocked in court but could have been revived. It also affirms the right to make pregnancy-related decisions about abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control without interference.

On Michigan State Universitys campus, junior Devin Roberts said that students seemed fired up and that he had seen lines of voters spilling out of the school's polling places throughout the day. The ballot measure was one of the main drivers of the high turnout, he said.

Theres a lot of energy for Prop 3 on campus right now, whether you agree with abortion or not, Roberts said. I think students want to have the same rights that their parents had when they were younger.

Nationally, about two-thirds of voters say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of over 90,000 voters across the country. Only about 1 in 10 say abortion should be illegal in all cases.

About 6 in 10 also say the Supreme Courts abortion decision made them dissatisfied or angry, compared with fewer who say they were happy or satisfied.

James Miller, 66, of Flint, Michigan, said he thought of his daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters when he voted in favor of the measure.

I think we should do the right thing for women, he said. Its her body; its her privacy.

Michelle Groesser, of Swartz Creek, Michigan, said she opposes abortion, even though she believes that any ban likely would have some narrow exceptions. In a perfect world, I personally would want all life preserved, she said.

Opponents have contended the Michigan measure could have far-reaching effects on other laws in the state, such as one requiring parental notification of an abortion for someone under age 18. Legal experts say changes to other laws would only happen if someone sued and won, a process that could take years and has no certainty of success.

Even so, the messaging appeared to resonate with some Michigan voters, including Brian Bauer, 64, of Mundy Township, who said the proposal was confusing and voted against it.

Bauer is an abortion opponent who supports some limited exceptions, but nobodys willing to throw (in) any kind of compromise ... its either a yes or no vote.

Montana voters, meanwhile, were also considering newborn resuscitative care requirements with possible criminal penalties, including the rare case of an attempted abortion.

Kentucky lawmakers added the proposed amendment to the ballot last year, a move that some thought would drive more conservative voters to the polls. But after the Roe decision, abortion-rights supporters raised nearly $1.5 million to fight it.

Initial returns indicated that thousands of Kentucky voters who backed GOP Sen. Rand Paul for reelection opposed the abortion amendment.

At a elementary school in Simpsonville, a small town outside of Louisville, 71-year-old voter Jim Stewart said he voted for Paul, calling him the only one on TV making sense.

Stewart is a registered Republican and opposed to abortion, but still voted no on the amendment. You got to have a little choice there.

Al Smith, 83, voted yes: I dont believe in abortion at all, not for any circumstance, he said.

The reproductive-rights question in Vermont, came after Legislature passed a law in 2019 guaranteeing reproductive rights, including getting pregnant and having access to birth control. Supporters with the Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee said the overturning of Roe meant state-level protections are vital to safeguarding access to reproductive health care.

California already had passed several measures aimed at easing access to abortion and set aside millions of taxpayer dollars to help pay for some out-of-state abortion travel. On Tuesday, voters approved language that would explicitly guarantee access to abortion and contraception in the state constitution.

The question for Montana voters was whether to create criminal penalties for health care providers unless they do everything medically appropriate and reasonable to save the life of a baby after birth, including the rare possibility of birth after an attempted abortion.

Associated Press writer Tammy Webber in Flint, Michigan and Rebecca Reynolds in Simpsonville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.

Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Pennsylvania voters on Tuesday will send dozens of new representatives and senators to the Legislature, thanks to a slew of retirements and new district maps that were revamped by the state's redistricting commission.

Republicans hold solid leads in both chambers  29-21 in the Senate and 113-90 in the House  and are generally expected to retain majority control of both chambers for the coming two-year session.

Democrats have not held a majority in either chamber since 2010.

The GOP is targeting pickup opportunities in rural areas outside Pittsburgh, a region that has been steadily moving away from Democrats for decades, as well as the northeast, where a similar trend has been playing out. Longtime Democratic incumbents in the House are retiring in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Greene and Mercer counties.

Democrats see a mirror image in the state's most populous region, the Philadelphia suburbs, where their candidates have been performing better in local, state and national election cycles. In Bucks County, and in the growing Pocono Mountains region north of Philadelphia, Democratic strategists see demographic tail winds this year, along with hopes they can overcome incumbents in suburban Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.

Polls close at 8 p.m., although a judge in Luzerne County ordered several polling places to stay open until 10 p.m. after they ran low on supplies.

The results of redistricting were felt by sitting lawmakers in the spring primary, when some were forced into nomination races with colleagues from their own party and others lost to challengers from outside the Legislature.

Two of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in the state, House Appropriations chair Stan Saylor of York County and Senate Appropriations chair Pat Browne of Lehigh County, both lost primaries. The top-ranking state senator, President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, gave up his seat to run for governor but lost the primary to fellow Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin.

Mastriano has kept his seat, which doesn't go before voters for two years, while he ran for governor against Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

All six Senate retirements this year are Republicans.

The result has been months of under-the-radar campaigning by ambitious senior Republicans to succeed the departing legislative leaders, efforts that will play out in caucus votes before years end. Others have been positioning themselves to fill other leadership spots that are also becoming available because of retirement and defeat.

One practical result of the legislative elections may be that Republicans, assuming they retain control of both chambers, will have the power to put on the 2023 spring ballot one or all of six potential constitutional amendments.

Those proposals would amend the state constitution to say it establishes no right to an abortion or abortion funding, to authorize election audits by the state auditor general, to let governor candidates pick their running mates, to temporarily allow otherwise outdated lawsuits over child sexual abuse, to mandate voter ID, and to reduce the governor's power over state regulations.
The day the United States has set aside to honor all those who have served, and who currently serve, their country as members of our military was not officially called Veterans Day until 1954.

The date was originally called Armistice Day, to mark the end of World War I  the war to end all wars  which took place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. The U.S. officially declared Armistice Day a national holiday in 1938, just months before the outbreak of World War II proved that wars were not going to end.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Raymond Weeks, a World War II veteran, organized the first National Veterans Day to honor veterans of all wars. President Dwight Eisenhower would sign the law declaring Nov. 11 as Veterans Day in 1954.

Regardless of the name the day bears, Tulsa has been honoring the men and women of our armed forces with parades and other events for more than 100 years. Tulsas 1920 parade had as its guest of honor Gen. John Pershing, the general of the armies during World War I.

The 2022 Tulsa Veterans Day parade will take place beginning at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11. The parade will start at Third Street and Cincinnati Avenue, near the Tulsa PAC, and proceed along Third Street to Boulder Avenue. It will then traverse Boulder to Seventh Street, go two blocks to Boston Avenue, travel north for one block, then go along Sixth Street to the parades end at Sixth Street and Frankfort Avenue.

Following the parade, the VFW Post 577 will host an after-party for parade participants at its headquarters, 1109 E. Sixth St.

Among the floats featured in this years event is one created by Survivors Outreach Services, a program of the U.S. Army that helps provide families of fallen soldiers with grief counseling, financial counseling, benefits coordination and other services.

Shannon Lucas, the programs coordinator for Tulsa, said the float features honor signs commemorating individual servicemen and servicewomen who died in the line of duty, along with family members of the fallen.

We have an average of about 20 families from the area who participate, Lucas said. Its been a part of the Veterans Day Parade for at least a decade. And like all Veterans Day events, its a way to bring people together, to celebrate their loved ones and to honor all veterans for their service.

In addition to the Veterans Day Parade, here are a number of other events and restaurant specials honoring military personnel that will be taking place this weekend.

DISCUSSIONS

The Tulsa Artist Fellowship will host a special panel discussion on what it means to be a military veteran in American society, titled War & Homecoming, 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, at Flagship x Tulsa Artist Fellowship, 112 N. Boston Ave.

The event, which is free and open to the public, was organized by the Tulsa Artist Fellow Matt Gallagher, a veteran of the Iraq War and author of the memoir Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War and co-editor of the anthology, Fire & Forget: Short Stories from the Long War.

Joining him will be Francheska Alcantara, a Tulsa Artist Fellow and U.S. Navy veteran; Bill McCloud, a poet and Vietnam War veteran; and Shon Washington, a veteran of the Iraq War whose work has been published in the Military Times.

The University of Tulsa College of Law will host a Veterans Day reception 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at the college, 3120 E. Fourth Place, on the University of Tulsa campus.

The free event is an opportunity for people from the university and the community to gather and honor those who have served, or are currently serving, in the United States military.

Guest speakers include Judge Dave Guten and Ret. Col. Mike Mulligan; the event will also include a presentation of colors by the Will Rogers High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.

MEALS

Many area restaurants offer discounts for military personnel, with some making a special effort for Veterans Day. Here are some establishments with Veterans Day specials.

50s Diner, 1500 W. Kenosha Ave., Broken Arrow, will offer a free breakfast to all veterans from 5 to 9 p.m. on Veterans Day. Military ID must be presented. This is the diners seventh year to offer this Veterans Day special. Last year, it served more than 200 veterans.

Golden Corral, 8144 E. 21st St., and 9711 E. 71st St., will host its 22nd annual Military Appreciation Night, 5 p.m. to close Monday, Nov. 14. All U.S. service members, retired military and veterans will receive a free dinner buffet and beverage for dine-in only. A military identification is not required to receive the complimentary meal.

Ziggis Coffee, 6134 S. Memorial Drive, is offering veterans and active-duty military personnel one free 16-oz. drink per person on Veterans Day, with valid military ID or proof of service.

Coolgreens, 5541 E. 41st St., will offer a free meal up to a $15 value, to all current and retired military personnel on Veterans Day. Military ID is required.

Bonefish Grill, 4651 W. Kenosha St., Broken Arrow, will give a free order of the restaurant signature appetizer, Bang Bang Shrimp, along with a soft drink, to all service members, veterans and first responders who present a valid ID on Veterans Day. The restaurant also offers a 10 percent Heroes Discount to military and first responders every day.

Carrabbas Italian Grill, 11021 E. 71st St., will give a free dine-in appetizer or dessert, and a soft drink, on Veterans Days to all veterans and active-duty military with show of ID. No purchase required.

Red Lobster, 4525 E. 51st St., and 6728 S. Memorial Drive, is offering guests a free order of Walts Favorite Shrimp, Fries and Coleslaw. Valid military ID or proof of service is required to receive the dish, which will be available for dine-in or takeaway from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11.

Metro Diner, 7474 S. Olympia Ave., will give active and retired military personnel 50 percent off their purchase with valid ID on Veterans Day. The chain also offers a 10 percent discount daily for military personnel.

PAYING IT FORWARD

Caseys General Stores, multiple locations, will let patrons round their purchases up to the nearest dollar, with the additional funds to be donated to two national organizations benefiting American military personnel.

Donations will go to Children of Fallen Patriots, which provide assistance, resources and scholarships to children of military families whove lost a parent in the line of duty; and Hope For The Warriors, which helps service members and their families restore a sense of self, family and hope through comprehensive support programs.

Freddys Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, multiple locations, is offering two ways for customers to contribute to Folds of Honor, the Owasso-based organization that helps provide educational support and college scholarships to children of fallen or disabled U.S. military personnel.

Guests who dine in may round up their purchase totals to the nearest dollar, with the added funds going to Folds of Honor. Those who order via the chains app or online can select a specific dollar amount donation at the time of purchase.

Rib Crib, multiple locations, will offer veterans two meal choices for free on Veterans Day  the Smoky Bandit pulled pork sandwich, and the Ol Faithful dinner with pulled pork and sliced chicken breast. In addition, the Tulsa-based chain will donate $2 from every meal purchased on Veterans Day to Folds of Honor.
Law enforcement officers shot and killed a man who wielded a nail gun at a facility near the Port of Catoosa early Wednesday, the Rogers County sheriff reported.

Sheriff Scott Walton said the man was an employee of Valmont Utility, but it was unclear whether he was on duty at the time of the call. He was later identified in an Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation news release as William Fairweather, 39.

Deputies responded to the plant about 4 a.m. after Fairweather locked himself into the tool room of the business near Tower Lane and Alliance Drive near Verdigris, Walton said.

Deputies tried to negotiate with Fairweather to get him to come out of the room for about two hours, during which time he grabbed a nail gun Walton said was capable of firing good-size nails a distance  so a pretty dangerous weapon.

Walton said the deputies called on the Cherokee Nation Marshal Services Special Operations Team for help, and after noting that Fairweather was escalating himself, they decided to put tear gas into the room.

Thats when he started shooting the nail gun, and officers returned fire, killing him, Walton said.

Reached by phone, a Valmont Utility human resources employee said the company did not wish to comment.

Five deputies are on administrative leave during the shooting investigation, which Walton said is a task spread across state and federal agencies because Native American officers were involved.

The Cherokee Nation could not be immediately reached for comment.



ICYMI: A look back at October 2022 from the Tulsa World




Ryan Walters is the winner of this years high-profile race for Oklahomas next state superintendent.

In nearly complete results late Tuesday, the Republican Walters had 57% of the vote to defeat Democrat Jena Nelson.

We believe that weve got to reject Joe Bidens radical agenda right here in the state of Oklahoma. Were going to do more than any other state in the country to empower parents  Oklahoma wont go woke, Walters told a packed Oklahoma City banquet room Tuesday evening at the state GOP watch party. What youre going to see is that every child is empowered with parent options. Youre going to see more transparency and accountability. And youre never again going to see a superintendent that doesnt bring transparency to you the taxpayers.

Current State Superintendent (turned gubernatorial candidate) Joy Hofmeister is term limited as she nears the completion of eight years in the office.

This years statewide race for the leader of public education in Oklahoma was one of the most high-profile in recent memory, due in large part to Walters running lockstep with incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt and taking on culture war issues such as school bathroom use by transgender students, Critical Race Theory and American history education, and sexual content in school library books.

His opponent Nelson brushed off much of the rhetoric and called Walters numerous attempts to link her with those subjects as outright lies.

In the end, Walters drew more votes than Stitt, who championed him throughout his first run for elected office.

Oklahoma spoke loud and clear  we want a Republican governor for the state of Oklahoma, Walters said in his shoutout to Stitt on Tuesday evening.

Walters, 37, was a midcareer teacher before entering politics. He was one of 12 finalists in the state teacher of the year contest in 2016 in his hometown of McAlester.

In 2019, he left teaching to work in education policy advocacy for an initiative of the State Chamber of Oklahoma, and he is currently CEO of Oklahoma City-based Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, a nonprofit fully backed by national school privatization and charter school expansion advocates.

Stitt appointed Walters as his secretary of education in 2020 to act as liaison to various state education boards and commissions, including the Oklahoma State Board of Education, various higher education boards of regents and trustees, the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability and the CareerTech board.

Walters has been a controversial figure among public school educators.

To those who didnt vote for him, Walters had this message:

The teachers union and Democrats have lied all over the state, so what Im going to do is continue to speak the message that is common sense, Walters told the Tulsa World after his acceptance speech. We want ideology out of the classroom, I want the best teachers to make a lot more money, and I want to get more money out of bureaucracy and into the classroom. That is a commonsense approach to education and I think everyone would agree.

Ive said from the beginning, its about parents, teachers and kids. Weve got to get parents more involved by empowering them and weve got to get more money into the classroom. We have a teacher shortage, we have a high amount of students in classrooms. We need to hire more teachers and less administrators  thats what we have to do.
Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado said his office will ask the district attorney to determine whether poll workers impeded the voting process when they failed to provide City Council ballots to about 30 District 5 voters between 7 and 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

Regalado said his office was notified about 9 a.m. that poll workers at Espiritu Santo Episcopal Church, 9100 E. 21st St., were not handing out City Council ballots to Republicans but were providing them to Democrats and independents.

One of the pollsters (poll workers) indicated that they were certainly aware of the mistake but that they were following the order of the judge pollster, (one of the three poll workers assigned to the precinct), Regalado said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. He was interviewed and confirmed the same thing, that they in fact only handed out ballots to Democrats and independents and not Republicans, but that it was in fact a mistake.

The problem there is they are required to sign paperwork confirming that they understand the rules and regulations of the voting process.

Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman said her office received its first complaint that Republican voters were not receiving City Council ballots at 7:45 a.m. and that by 8 a.m. workers were handing out the ballots to every voter. The original poll workers were later replaced with new workers.

On behalf of the Tulsa County Election Board, I would like to apologize to anyone affected by this incident, Freeman said. This does not reflect the standards of this Election Board. We take these kinds of matters very, very seriously.

The facts as presented by Freeman at Tuesdays press conference differed slightly from the narrative offered by Regalado. She said it was the Election Boards belief that its likely all voters who went to vote at Precinct 77 between 7-8 a.m. did not receive a City Council ballot, not just Republicans.

Thats what we believe, the first 30, period, she said.

By the Election Boards count, Freeman said, 19 Republicans, seven Democrats, four independents and one Libertarian did not receive a City Council ballot.

Freeman said her staff was able to identify which voters did not receive City Council ballots by checking the voting registry at Precinct 77, which poll workers mark to indicate which ballots they provide to each voter. However, Tulsa County residents are required to provide only an address when they register to vote, so election officials do not necessarily have contact information for voters.

Freeman and Regalado each stressed that there was no way for a poll worker to know a voters party affiliation in the general election based on the information provided to them. Freeman said the only way a poll worker would know is if a voter used a voter identification card as proof of identification.

They cannot determine your party affiliation unless you ask it, Regalado said, which is the irregularity and where the problem exists, and that is what happened.

Earlier in the day, Freeman had said it was her understanding that, as is typically the case at polling places throughout the city, the poll workers included a Democrat, a Republican and a third person. The third person can be from any party.

Regalado said the Sheriffs Office investigation determined that the poll workers at Precinct 77 included two Democrats and a Republican and that the precinct judge who gave the instruction not to give ballots to Republicans was a Democrat.

Now, again, we go by facts and where those facts lead us, Regalado said. And if this is a situation in which a one party is undermining the other in a bipartisan election, by the way, then again, that is an irregularity that brings a criminal aspect to it, and that will be for the district attorney to determine whether those charges should be filed based on the evidence we provide them.

The nonpartisan District 5 City Council runoff election pits incumbent Mykey Arthrell against challenger Grant Miller.

Miller said he received two calls Tuesday morning from voters who said they were denied City Council ballots.

And when they inquired about it, they were told that Republicans were not supposed to receive a City Council ballot, Miller said.

Miller said he then went to the polling place himself and asked two poll workers what happened. He said he recorded their answers.

I said, I just want to confirm: I was told by two separate voters that Republicans are being denied ballots here, Miller said. And they say, Yeah, we corrected that now, but we were denying Republicans ballots. They told us not to give them ballots.

Miller said he did not know who the they was that the poll workers were referencing.

Hopefully, it was just a mistake. I hope that is the case and it was just a simple misunderstanding, Miller said.

City Council District 5 has 22,567 registered voters, according to the Tulsa County Election Board, including 8,345 Republicans, 9,057 Democrats, 256 Libertarians and 4,999 independents.

Freeman said Miller or any other candidate who chooses to challenge Tuesdays election results has until 5 p.m. Friday.

Obviously, I feel very, very horribly about what is taking place, she said. It is enough to be a candidate. They go through a lot. And this is something that we dont want to see added to their stress level, or what they have to contend with.Regalado endorsed Miller for City Council in District 5. The sheriff said Tuesday that the endorsement would have no bearing on the investigation and that he did not believe he needed to recuse himself from the case.

Because this wasnt about a candidate; this was about the electoral process, which I have an obligation to investigate like any other potential crime, Regalado said.

He noted that he is not involved personally in the investigation and that it is being overseen by the undersheriff. He said he also reached out to discuss the situation with the District Attorneys Office.

They all agreed that this had no bearing on the investigation itself and there was no reason to recuse at this point and time, Regalado said. It happened in Tulsa County. Were obligated to investigate Tulsa County crimes or allegations of crimes, and, again, had zero bearing.

Speaking Friday afternoon, Freeman said shes not sure how voters were not given the correct ballots at Precinct 77.

Precinct workers are trained for a full day and are provided with explicit written instructions regarding their duties and what ballots are to be distributed at each polling place, she said.

We send them text reminders throughout the day, she said. We provide them with checklists to be sure proper procedures are followed.

Freeman had encouraged those voters who were not given the proper ballots to call the Election Board at 918-596-5780 as soon as possible.

Please let us know your name and please give us the opportunity to verify that you are one of the folks who reportedly did not get the ballot, and let us help you get back to your precinct, get your ballot and cast your vote, she said.

The deadline to vote was 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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<&rdpEm>Ashley Jones contributed to this report.</&rdpEm>

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Featured video: Election Day tests voters amid two years of false claims and conspiracy theories
Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell coasted to reelection with a 35-point victory Tuesday, leading a Republican sweep of down-ballot statewide races in Oklahoma.

We are on the rise as a state, Pinnell told supporters at a watch party in Oklahoma City.

Pinnell crisscrossed the state over the last four years to promote the Oklahoma Fishing Trail, Route 66 Passport and other tourism efforts. And the campaigns paid off, generating as much as $259 for every state dollar invested in tourism promotions.

With more than 65% of the vote in nearly complete results from the state Election Board, he overcame challenges from Democrat Melinda Alizadeh-Fard, an immigration attorney and administrative law judge, and Libertarian Chris Powell, who ran on a platform of eliminating the lieutenant governors office.

As expected, Tulsa lawyer Gentner Drummond, a part of the well-known Osage County ranching family, easily won the states attorney general race. The Republican trounced Libertarian Lynda Steele with 74% of the vote, according to nearly complete results late Tuesday.

Drummond had unseated Gov. Kevin Stitts appointed incumbent John OConnor in the June primary and didnt draw a Democratic opponent in Tuesdays election.

Todd Russ, term-limited after 12 years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, will become state treasurer with more than 65% of Tuesdays vote, according to nearly complete results.

The Republican banker defeated Democrat Charles de Counce, lending manager at Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

I cant tell you  everyone in this room  how much it means to me and us for the grass roots of Oklahoma to dig in and pull us up, Russ said at Tuesday nights GOP watch party. Keep the red wave going.

Russ, from western Oklahomas sprawling House District 55, promised to boost college savings plans and to find better ways to return unclaimed property across the state.

Meanwhile, Labor Commissioner Leslie Kathryn Osborn secured a second term with 66% of the vote, according to nearly complete results, defeating former Tulsa City Councilor Jack Henderson.

As commissioner, Osborn has streamlined the states licensure system while resisting calls to eliminate licensure entirely.

Republican state Sen. Kim David, the first woman to serve as majority leader and to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, will lead the Corporation Commission after securing 64% of the vote, according to nearly complete results.

Much of Davids legislative work focused on the state budget, energy and law enforcement. And she has a background in petroleum geology and small business ownership.

We are going to get down to business, David said Tuesday night. That is what Oklahoma is all about.

She defeated Democrat Margaret Warigia Bowman, an associate law professor at the University of Tulsa.

Tulsa World staff writer Barbara Hoberock contributed to this story.
As Election Day nears, the candidates for state superintendent of public instruction have been busy selling voters on their ideas.

But the state superintendent cant enact every policy on his or her own  most require legislative approval. Oklahoma Watch took a look at several of the candidates proposals to answer a question: Can they do that?

Two candidates for state superintendent are on the ballot: Jena Nelson, a Democrat, and Ryan Walters, a Republican. Both are certified teachers.

Nelson, 44, teaches at Classen School of Advanced Studies Middle School in Oklahoma City Public Schools and was the 2020 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. Shes on a leave of absence to campaign.

Walters, 37, is the state secretary of education and executive director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, a nonprofit organization that supports charter schools and private school vouchers.

Heres an analysis of several policy proposals made by the candidates:

Patriotic training for educators

Walters suggested that he would put history teachers through patriotic training and said hes in talks with Hillsdale College to provide the course.

Hillsdale College is a small, private Christian school in Michigan known for its principled refusal of state and federal funds, as well as its role in the Trump administrations 1776 Commission.

Hillsdale has been expanding its conservative, American exceptionalism curriculum into elementary and secondary schools through a network of classical charter schools, with the first in Oklahoma, Tulsa Classical Academy, slated to open in 2023.

Local school boards and the state Legislature set teacher training requirements in Oklahoma. Currently, there are two dozen statewide requirements, including preventing seizures, reporting suspected child abuse, autism support, and digital teaching and learning. Not all are required of all educators, and new requirements are added regularly.

To implement patriotic training statewide as a requirement, Walters would need legislative approval. Lawmakers proposed two bills this year that would have allowed schools to use the Hillsdale curriculum in classrooms, but neither passed out of committee.

Eliminating state tests

Nelson said she would eliminate state tests, instead using benchmark tests at the beginning, middle and end of the year to measure student performance  with the end of the year scores counting for state test data.

By using benchmark tests, teachers can intervene sooner when a student needs help, she said. State test results typically are not available until summer or early fall when students have already progressed to the next grade level.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, the main federal law governing education, requires states to test students annually in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. It also requires statewide science assessments at least once in elementary, middle and high school.

The law allows states to use multiple measures of proficiency instead of one big end-of-year exam, as long as the tests are given statewide. Florida is moving to this model, becoming the first state in the nation to do so.

Refusing federal funding

In a video posted to social media, Walters said he wouldnt accept federal funding that comes with mandates that arent useful for students, teachers or administrators or that indoctrinates kids, pushes an agenda, or creates socialists.

Walters said one of the federal policies he takes issue with is transgender youth using the restroom that aligns with their gender identity. The Biden administration has held that anti-discrimination laws apply to transgender students.

Federal funds make up an average of 10% of school districts budgets, or about $1,000 per student each year. These dollars provide additional resources for school lunches, after-school programs, reading specialists, tutors for students learning English and services for special education students.

The vast majority of U.S. school districts participate, the federal agency said. Although schools may decline, civil rights protections for students under federal law would remain, said Kathy Dunn, director of professional learning for state and federal programs at the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administrators.

I dont know why you would, she said of declining to participate. We put those funds to good use, and it would leave a huge hole in school districts budgets.

Counselors in schools

One of Nelsons priorities, according to her campaign website, is to staff all schools with a counselor who has had mental health training.

Oklahoma schools are required to provide counseling services in elementary schools, but not necessarily by a counselor. School counselors are required for high schools.

Oklahoma also doesnt have a mandated ratio of students to counselors for elementary schools; the mandated ratio for sixth through 12th grades is no more than 450 students to one counselor. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio no higher than 250 students to one counselor.

The state superintendent couldnt strengthen those requirements without the Legislature.

But as the current state superintendent, Joy Hofmeister was able to incentivize schools to hire more counselors through the Oklahoma School Counselor Corps.

School districts applied for a share of more than $35 million in grants, which helped fund counselor positions through 2023-24. The districts had to match the funds for a 50/50 split. More than 300 counselors and mental health professionals have since been hired, the Education Department said in September.

Oklahomas ratio has improved since the program started, from 411 students per counselor to 398 students per counselor, as of 2021, the latest data available from the American School Counselor Association.

Enforcing House Bill 1775

Walters has said he would revoke the teaching credentials of any educator who violates House Bill 1775, a law passed in 2021 that restricts teachers and staff from teaching eight concepts, including that one race or sex is superior to another, that one race is inherently racist, and that any person should feel discomfort, guilt or anguish because of his or her race or sex.

Im so proud of Oklahoma for being one of the first states in the country to ban critical race theory, Walters said. He said hes aware of two teachers who said they violated the law and said those two teachers should be held responsible and shouldnt be allowed to teach again in the state.

So far, the law hasnt been applied to any specific educators, but two school districts have faced consequences.

Tulsa Public Schools and Mustang Public Schools each received a warning on their accreditation this summer following complaints. In Tulsa Public Schools, a teacher complained about a professional development course that addressed implicit bias. In Mustang, the complaint centered on a student activity called Cross the Line, which is intended to build empathy and reduce bullying.

Under state law, a teaching certificate can be revoked for willful violation of any rule or regulation by the State Board of Education. All of that boards members are appointed by the governor except the chair, who is the state superintendent. Teachers are granted a hearing before the board before they can be stripped of their license.

Featured video: Osage Nation Congress discusses resolution urging repeal of HB 1775
Interview: Cambodia needs greater agricultural cooperation with China: minister

Xinhua) 14:33, November 09, 2022

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dith Tina said here on Tuesday that the Southeast Asian nation is keen to forge closer cooperation in the agricultural sector with China in the coming years for mutual benefits.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Tina said Cambodia and China have solid agricultural cooperation as Cambodia has enjoyed exporting rice, bananas, mangoes, and most recently, longans to China.

"I am confident that we can grow this relationship even more in the years to come," he said. "I want to explore the possibility of deeper cooperation between the two countries, not just about the import and export of agricultural produce but also about cultural exchange."

The minister said for students, there should be opportunities for exchange programs and scholarships to top Chinese universities to learn new agricultural knowledge, and field trips to the relevant Chinese government departments for officials.

"For businesses, there could be opportunities to attend trade shows and engage in business-to-business (B2B) meetings through the various chambers of commerce to explore new options for trade and to understand the demands of the Chinese markets and consumers directly," Tina said.

"For farmers, there could be study trips and field visits to learn from and tap into the vast knowledge of the Chinese people."

Speaking of the exports of Cambodian agricultural products to China, the minister said from 2019 to the end of June 2022, Cambodia exported a total of 2.4 million tons of agricultural products to China, with a total export value of 1.94 billion U.S. dollars.

"This data confirms that the Chinese market still has much potential to absorb more Cambodian agricultural products and that neither country has yet used the maximum potential in this sector," he said.

"From this, I would like to encourage all stakeholders of the two countries to promote closer cooperation to find new, better, and more effective ways to respond to the potential we have."

China is assured of quality products from Cambodia that confirm the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of China, Tina said, adding that in addition, many Cambodian agricultural products are farmed organically and fit the needs of many Chinese consumers.

"The close proximity between our two countries also ensures the freshness of the produce," he said.

Meanwhile, the minister expressed his desire to see more Chinese investment in the agricultural sector, saying that Chinese enterprises have vast experience in this field.

"Cambodia is ready to promote further cooperation with and new investment from China in agriculture to serve the mutual benefits of the two peoples and to push our bilateral trade volume to a new high," he said.

"So far, China has authorized the import of Cambodian agricultural and fishery products, including rice, mango, banana, longan, and Pangasius catfish, which have injected new impetus into our cooperation and brought substantial benefits to the two peoples," he added.

Sharing his view on the benefits of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal and the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) for the agricultural development of Cambodia, the minister said the RCEP and the CCFTA are all free trade agreements that mutually open the market in all countries.

"Both FTAs will contribute to not only the agriculture sector's growth but also the farmers' welfare and prosperity," he said.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
On this post-Election Day, a collective breath is warranted to re-focus on our shared goals and move forward.

The rough-and-tumble nature of politics amped up in the last few years to become particularly divisive. Dark money groups throw out exaggerations, misleading statements and occasional libel with little to no consequence. National punditry talking points seep into our local and state campaigns.

Its dirty business, but its over, at least for now. No matter the winners and losers, the decisions have been made.

Democracy works when people run for office, voters show up at the polls and the electorate accepts the results. We appreciate those who offered themselves for candidacy.

For those who won, congratulations. But we offer a thought about governing in the years ahead.

Campaign rhetoric insinuated  and sometimes outright claimed  that America is engaged in a civil war. That is not true. Our country has divides over political philosophy and public policy, and its up to our representatives to find common ground for progress

We offer some words from President Abraham Lincoln, who presided over an actual civil war, a bloody conflict where at least 650,00 Americans were killed by their own countrymen.

During Lincolns re-election, the Civil War was in its fourth year. Lincoln insisted the election take place, even though no country had done so while in a military conflict. He said America cannot have a free government without elections.

On Election Day, Nov. 8, 1864, before knowing the outcome of the vote, he gave a response to a serenade.

I cannot at this hour say what has been the result of the election; but, whatever it may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion  that all who have labored today in behalf of the Union organization, have wrought for the best interests of their country and the world, not only for the present, but for all future ages. I am thankful to God for this approval of the people.

But while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the peoples resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity.

Lincoln won and moved forward with the entire country in mind, famously inviting to his decision-making table those who disagreed with him. We urge Oklahomans waking up today as public officials to embrace their role with the same humility and goal for unity as Lincoln.

Disagreements do not need to devolve into name-calling and demonization. We can acknowledge differences and seek common ground.

For those disappointed in the results, remember that democracy is a consistent transition of power. If these elected leaders dont live up to expectations, then vote them out in the next election.
Huynh Van Tho, 54, whose nickname is Thao 'seo' (scar), is a special fisherman in Tam Giang fishing village, Nui Thanh District, Quang Nam Province. Although his legs do not work like able-bodied people, he makes fishing trips every day to Vietnam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes.

After a fishing trip, instead of stepping out of the boat, he is carried by his friends on their backs.

Losing his legs

No one in Tam Giang Village knows the real name of Thao as he has been called Thao 'seo' since he was a 12-year-old kid.

The nickname changed his life forever and helps him know the kind heart of the fishermen who work with him.

An accident caused him to lose the use of his legs.

His father was a soldier. After 1975 when the war ended in Vietnam, his father was responsible for collecting leftover bullets and bombs.

Unfortunately, two of his sons played with one of the bullets, making it explode.

A big scar on Huynh Van Tho's foot caused by a falling pot of boiling rice. Photo: B.D. / Tuoi Tre

The bullet got through and left a big hole in his back. The 12-year-old boy had to be in the hospital for treatment for three months.

When Thao recovered, he realized that his legs could not move anymore. He had to walk with a pair of crutches.

Day by day, he witnessed the contraction of his legs.

The bullet left a small hole on my belly but a big one on my back. I thought I was dead, Thao said while showing his scar as big as a hand.

When I first knew that my legs could not move, I cried so much. But then, I accepted my situation and practiced walking."

His house was near An Hoa fishing port where giant boats returned full of fish and squid caught in Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

If the accident had not happened, he would have become a fisherman when he was 15 years old, Thao shared.

At the age of 18, Thao traveled to the southern province of Dong Nai to earn a living.

He did everything for a living, from mowing the lawn in rubber tree plantations to washing dishes at eateries.

But there, he met his wife, Hoang Thi Hue, who was attracted to the hard-working and kind man.

The couple lives in Thaos hometown.

Finding his sea legs

Thao 'seo' is now the leader on QNa-91417 boat. Nguyen Thanh Tung, the owner of the boat, said, Thao is a special fisherman, a good worker, and a leader on the boat.

To survive on the big sea, Thao had to put more effort into his work, three to four times more than able-bodied people.

He and his wife returned to his hometown when they welcomed their first child. Thao was 28 years old at that time.

His wife found a job in a clothing mill while Thao had not yet found a stable one. Fortunately, a boat owner, Huynh Van Lieu, asked Thao to work for him.

Lieu was the first boat owner to hire a disabled person like me. I was thankful for that, said Thao.

On the boat of Huynh Van Lieu, Thao was in charge of preparing meals for all fishermen.

Although he practiced cooking for a month, everything was more difficult than he thought.

The boat shook because of big waves and strong winds on the sea. Thao struggled to light the fire for cooking but after five minutes, the wind blew out the fire. He was even burned as the boiling rice pot fell on him.

I was so hurt but I said no word, Thao reminded himself of his first trip.

Despite all difficulties, Thao was loved by all fishermen on the boat. All were surprised by his willpower.

Thao is pictured preparing meals for all of the crew. Photo: B.D. / Tuoi Tre

The more fishing trips he joined, the more he grew up. After several years of working for Lieu, Thao changed to another boat owned by Nguyen Thanh Tung, who considers him his brother.

In 2020, Tung bought an old boat and asked Thao to work for him.

Since then, Thao has been a member of Tungs boat crew. Thao takes care of the meals of 50 people on the boat. He now gets used to big waves and strong winds and is able to prepare the best meals for all of them.

Excellent squid catcher Aside from working as a cook, Thao is also a real fisherman. In his free time, he catches squid. He is dubbed the best squid catcher. He even helps other fishermen carry fish to the storage and drag fishing nets. Back from the dead In late 2017, Thao was lucky to be alive during a storm that damaged the QNa-91739 boat, owned by fisherman Long Tan Sy. Two among 36 fishermen were found dead in the storm. Thao was just injured slightly and taken ashore.

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Read what is in the news today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh paid a call on King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, as part of his official visit to the neighboring country.

-- Ho Chi Minh City welcomes opportunities to cooperate with foreign partners, including those from South Australia, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen said during a reception for visiting Governor of South Australia Frances Adamson on Tuesday.

Society

-- Heavy congestion happened on a section of Pham Van Dong Boulevard from Tan Son Nhat International Airport to Thu Duc City in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday night.

-- Nearly 1,000 judges quit their jobs over work pressure while 1,286 others were newly appointed in Vietnam this year, Chief Justice of the Supreme Peoples Court Nguyen Hoa Binh said on Tuesday.

-- Hanoi and many localities in the Red River Delta region recorded low air quality for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

-- The first phase of a VND1.25 trillion (US$50.26 million ) irrigation project in southern Tay Ninh Province that is expected to supply water to nearly 17,000 hectares of agricultural land and residents in the western area of the Vam Co Dong River has reached 95 percent of completion.

-- About 2.6 million new jobs were created across Vietnam in 2020 and 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan said at a workshop on Tuesday.

-- A total of 303 Sri Lankan nationals were rescued at sea off Vietnams Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and reached southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province on Tuesday night after their boat was damaged and found adrift on Sunday.

-- High tide is forecast to hit coastal and riverside areas in southern localities from Wednesday to Friday, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

Lifestyle

-- More than 6,000 athletes participated in Ngo (Khmer) boat races on the Maspero River in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang on Monday and Tuesday.

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A total of 303 Sri Lankan nationals were rescued at sea off Vietnams Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and were transported to southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province on Tuesday night after their boat was damaged and found adrift on Sunday.

The first group of the Sri Lankans reached the Vietsovpetro port in Vung Tau, the capital city of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, at 8:15 pm on the day.

The remainder arrived shortly after.

They then moved to accommodations that had been arranged in advance in Vung Tau, Dat Do District, and Xuyen Moc District.

Officials persuade 303 Sri Lankans, who faced an accident at sea while allegedly on their way to flee their country, to move toward Vietnams land in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, November 8, 2022. Photo: Dong Ha / Tuoi Tre

Japanese cargo ship Helios Leader, which was on its way from Japan to Singapore, saved the 303 Sri Lankan nationals on Monday, one day after their LADY R3 vessel, registered in Myanmar, broke down and drifted at sea off Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

Rescuers give water to Sri Lankans, who faced an accident at sea while allegedly on their way to flee their country, during a rescue effort off Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, November 8, 2022. Photo: Dong Ha / Tuoi Tre

LADY R3, which was said to illegally transport the Sri Lankans overseas to another country, sent out a mayday during the incident.

Vietnamese rescuers receive 303 Sri Lankans, who faced an accident at sea while allegedly on their way to flee their country, off Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, November 8, 2022. Photo: Dong Ha / Tuoi Tre

Vietnams rescue ship SAR 413 approached Helios Leader off the water of Ba Ria-Vung Tau at 1:30 pm on Tuesday to pick up the people in distress, who initially refused to transfer to the Vietnamese boat.

Rescuers give milk to Sri Lankan children, who were among the group that faced an accident at sea while allegedly on their way to flee their country, during a rescue effort off Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, November 8, 2022. Photo: Dong Ha / Tuoi Tre

Representatives of the Sri Lanka Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City had to spend several hours persuading the Sri Lankans before all of them agreed to move to the southern Vietnamese province at 5:50 pm on Tuesday.

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The UK government has announced it intends to extend the deadline for calling a fresh election in Northern Ireland and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members.

Making a statement in the House of Commons, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he will introduce legislation to "provide a short straightforward extension to the period for executive formation".

The deadline for the Northern Ireland parties to form a fresh power sharing executive ran out on 28 October.

The current law stated that Mr Heaton-Harris was obliged to call a fresh election within 12 weeks of the deadline passing - which would be 19 January.

Sunak makes Gavin Williamson admission in PMQs - Politics latest

Mr Heaton-Harris told MPs he was now extending the deadline for parties to form an executive by six weeks to December 8, with the option of a further six-week extension.

The 12-week clock for calling an election will now come into effect either on 8 December - meaning an election would have to be held by March - or six weeks later on 19 January, meaning a poll would need to be held by April at the latest.

The Northern Ireland secretary did not say by how much he is proposing to reduce MLA pay while Stormont remains in deadlock.

The moves give parties in Northern Ireland more time to break the stalemate at Stormont.

The proposals will require legislation to be passed at Westminster to be enacted.

"The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse - where I have a legal duty to call an election that few want and all say will change nothing," Mr Heaton-Harris told MPs.

"Thus, I will be introducing legislation to provide a short, straightforward extension to the period for executive formation - extending the current period by six weeks to 8 December, with the potential of a further six week extension to 19 January if necessary.

"This aims to create the time and space needed for talks between the UK and EU to develop and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible."

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He continued: "People across Northern Ireland are frustrated that MLAs continue to draw a full salary whilst not performing all of the duties they were elected to do.

"I will thus be asking for the House's support to enable me to reduce MLAs' salaries appropriately."

Mr Heaton-Harris also confirmed he will give extra powers to Stormont civil servants to enable them to run the region's public services as the impasse continues.

A Democratic Unionist Party boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP), has prevented an administration being formed since the May election earlier this year.

The protocol was aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland but has created economic barriers on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, causing resentment and anger among many unionists and loyalists.

Read more:

Why is there still no assembly and what does Brexit have to do with it?

The DUP has refused to return to Stormont until decisive action is taken over the treaty.

Responding to the Northern Ireland secretary's announcement, DUP MLA Edwin Poots said the UK government must recognise that until the Protocol is replaced with arrangements that unionists can support there will be no basis to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.

"Our opposition to the Protocol is not dependent on salaries. The sooner the government deals with the Protocol, the sooner Stormont can be restored," he said.

While in the Commons, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told Mr Heaton-Harris that while courage, understanding, and compromise are "good words", what is needed is "a solution that sees the institutions restored on the basis that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom".

Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney welcomed the decision saying it allows further space for progress in the EU-UK talks.

"I urge the UK authorities to make use of this renewed opportunity to engage positively, and with real urgency, in the knowledge that the European Commission has listened carefully to the concerns of people across Northern Ireland, including and especially unionists," he said in a statement.

But Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said the uncertainty over an election was not good enough.

"What we now have are new deadlines, multiple deadlines, in which he may or may not call an election," she told reporters at Stormont.

"So this is not a good enough space for people to be in and I think the fundamental question today has to be around what's next?

"What do the British government intend to do to find an agreed way forward on the protocol?"

Ms O'Neill also questioned why Mr Heaton-Harris had not targeted the pay cut at DUP MLAs who were refusing to engage with the devolved institutions.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed the move to cut MLA pay, saying the DUP "have no justifiable reason for hanging about while people's homes get colder and their cupboards get emptier".

While Alliance Party leader Naomi Long welcomed "clarity" from the Northern Ireland secretary, but added: "However, the overall picture has not changed. As long as any one party can take the institutions hostage, they will.

"Therefore we need reform of the assembly and executive to stop that happening, or else we could easily be back in this same situation again in a matter of months."

Last week, the Northern Ireland secretary confirmed that a Stormont election will not be held in December, saying he had listened to "sincere concerns" across the region about the impact and cost of a fresh poll at this time.

The UK government has vowed to secure changes to the agreement, either by way of a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed domestic legislation which would enable ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels.

Opponents have likened the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to "placing a gun on the table" at talks with the EU aimed at finding a solution, arguing it breaks international law as well as risking a trade war.
Kashim Shettima, the vice-presidential candidate of Nigerias ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), recently claimed at a business gathering that he and main nominee Bola Tinubu had better economic track records than their rivals. Opposition supporters responded by sharing photos purportedly showing Borno, where Shettima was governor for eight years, in a disastrous state. But the images of makeshift huts in arid bush were shared in a false context: they were taken in drought-stricken Somalia and not in Nigeria.

Shettima is talking about track records. This is how he left the poor people of Borno state, reads a tweet shared on November 2, 2022.

A screenshot of the false tweet, taken on November 7, 2022

One of the pictures showed an aerial view of makeshift tents, the other an up-close shot.

The tweet surfaced a day after Tinubu and Shettima spoke at a meeting with businessmen in Lagos on November 1, 2022.

Shettima used the occasion to play up Tinubus track records when he was the governor of Lagos state in southwest Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. He also took swipes at two leading opposition candidates: the Peoples Democratic Partys Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour party.

Another Twitter account published the same photos, claiming they showed Shettimas legacy in Borno.

Camps for displaced people

Shettima was governor of Borno state in northeast Nigeria from 2011 to 2019 when the Boko Haram insurgency was at its height. In 2014, the jihadist group kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from school dormitories in Chibok, a town in Borno.

Decade-long violent campaigns by extremists have killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over two million, most of whom are sheltering in internally displaced people (IDP) camps, as AFP has reported.

While living conditions in the Borno IDP camps are bad, the images shared on social media have no connection to Nigeria.

Photo from Somalia

AFP Fact Check conductedreverse image searches and found that the images were originally published online by the United Nations (UN) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

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UNFPA shared the photos along with two others on Twitter on October 22, 2022nearly two weeks before the false claim was made.

It used the images to promote its work in Somalia as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of the ongoing drought.

"@UNFPA is on the ground scaling up its live-saving support on sexual and reproductive health, menstrual hygiene and gender-based violence services," it said in a tweet.

 Entire families with children had to leave their homes due to the ongoing drought in #Somalia.@UNFPA is on the ground scaling up its live-saving support on sexual and reproductive health, menstrual hygiene and gender-based violence services.



: @UNFPA_Somaliapic.twitter.com/53gV9qVxqQ  UNFPA (@UNFPA) October 28, 2022

The same photos were shared on the UNs Twitter handle on November 2, 2022, the same day the false claim was made. The UN repeated the information contained in UNFPAs tweet and added a link to a donation site.

Scorched-earth drought

The UN said in October that Somalia was facing the worst famine in 50 years, with an estimated 7.8 million peopleabout 50% of the countrys populationaffected by drought.

Children stand between makeshift tents woman at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Baidoa, Somalia, on February 13, 2022. Insufficient rainfall since late 2020 has come as a fatal blow to populations already suffering from a locust invasion between 2019 and 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic. For several weeks, humanitarian organizations have multiplied alerts on the situation in the Horn of Africa, which raises fears of a tragedy similar to that of 2011, the last famine that killed 260,000 people in Somalia. Desperate, hungry and thirsty, more and more people are flocking to Baidoa from rural areas of southern Somalia, one of the regions hardest hit by the drought that is engulfing the Horn of Africa. ( AFP / YASUYOSHI CHIBA)

Baidoa and Burkahaba, two districts in Somalias Bay region, are projected to experience famine in November and December if assistance does not reach the people that need it most, the agency warned in October.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Stellantis is seen on a flag at the main entrance of FCA Mirafiori plant in Turin

MILAN (Reuters) - Stellantis on Wednesday said it would invest more than 300 million euros ($300 million) on Morocco's Kenitra plant to double local production capacity.

The car maker said in a statement after a meeting with government officials in Rabat that it would introduce a "smart car" platform at the plant, as it strives to reach a market share of more than 22% in the region by 2030.

Stellantis' growth plans for Middle East and Africa envisage a production capacity of one million vehicles per year by 2030.

($1 = 0.9993 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Chris Reese)
U.S.-sanctioned oil tanker stuck in Indonesia carries Venezuelan fuel FILE PHOTO: Cutouts depicting images of oil operations are seen outside a building of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA in Caracas

By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON (Reuters) -A grounded oil supertanker under U.S. Treasury Department sanctions being refloated in Indonesia is filled with Venezuelan fuel, according to vessel monitoring services.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control last week imposed sanctions on the stranded tanker, Young Yong, for its part in an international oil smuggling network that Washington said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force.

Last month, the Djibouti-flagged Young Yong received cargoes through ship-to-ship operations from U.S.-blacklisted tanker Silvia I and from the Eagle Brenda before becoming marooned off Indonesia's Riau Islands, according to research by non-government organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).

Both tankers had departed between late July and early August carrying fuel oil supplied by Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA, according to internal company documents seen by Reuters and TankerTrackers.com, which confirmed the vessels' identities.

The Iran-flagged Silvia I, owned by state firm National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), carried about 1 million barrels of fuel oil chartered by Iran's Naftiran Intertrade Company as payment for Iranian crude imported by PDVSA this year.

The Panama-flagged Eagle Brenda, identified on PDVSA shipping schedules as "Eagle I," also carried some 1 million barrels of Venezuelan fuel oil, the documents showed. By reviewing satellite photos, TankerTrackers.com spotted the ship receiving the fuel in Venezuelan waters between March and April.

The sanctions on the Young Yong and its owner, Hong Kong-based Technology Bright International, led to the loss of its Djibouti Maritime Authority flag last week and the cancellation of a classification by the American Bureau of Shipping that certified it was seaworthy, according to communications provided by UANI.

The U.S. embassy in Singapore said on Wednesday the United States has allowed some transactions in efforts to free the supertanker, which ran aground last month in the Singapore Strait near a key gas line.

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The Young Yong was blacklisted by Washington along with tankers Adisa, B Luminosa, Bluefins, Boceanica, Bueno, Julia A, Lara I, Nolan, Rain Drop and Zephyr, most of which have recently been in Venezuela, according to documents and shipping data.

"The individuals running this illicit network use a web of shell companies and fraudulent tactics including document falsification," said the U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, in a release last week.

The Treasury Department did not immediately reply to a request for details.

PDVSA, Venezuela's oil ministry, Iran's oil ministry, NITC and India-based Sygnius Ship Management, which according to shipping databases bought the Eagle Brenda last year, did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Technology Bright International could not be reached for comment.

Carrying Venezuelan-origin cargoes is not new for the Young Yong. The tanker was in Venezuelan waters at least twice since last year, where it loaded Venezuelan crude and fuel for exports, according to PDVSA's schedules and TankerTrackers.com.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London; Editing by David Gregorio)
The European Union's top court on Tuesday overturned a decision requiring automaker Fiat Chrysler to pay up to 30 million in back taxes to Luxembourg.

The European Commission had ruled in 2015 that the 2012 tax ruling by Luxembourg authorities toward Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe, which provided treasury services and financing to the companies of the group established in Europe, was in breach of the bloc's state aid rule.

The EU's General Court, a constituent court of the Court of Justice of the European Union, had sided with the Commission in 2019 following appeals from both Luxembourg and Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe.

But the Court of Justice of the EU said on Tuesday that the commission failed to take into account the typical tax laws in Luxembourg when it was determining whether the automaker got a tax advantage and that the EU's General Court committed an error of law" in upholding that approach three years ago.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Twitter that the ruling amounted to "a big loss for tax fairness."

She added in a statement that the Commission "will carefully study the judgment and its implications" and welcomed the "important guidance on the application of EU State aid rules in the area of taxation" it provided.

"The Court confirmed that action by Member States in areas that are not subject to harmonization by EU law is not excluded from the scope of the Treaty provisions on the monitoring of State aid."

"The Commission is committed to continue using all the tools at its disposal to ensure that fair competition is not distorted in the Single Market through the grant by member states of illegal tax breaks to multinational companies," she also said.

The ruling comes as a proposal to roll out a minimum global corporate tax of 15% is being blocked at EU level by Hungary.

The proposal was signed last year by more than 130 countries representing more than 90% of global GDP and would apply to large companies with annual revenue exceeding 750 million.
Pennsylvania Sen.-elect John Fetterman (D) won his election against celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz with the help of some fairlyrelentlesstrolling.

And that continued right through Election Day, with a party platter that referenced one of Ozs most infamous campaign flubs.

Reporters at Fettermans election night event spotted a crudite spread:

crudite at the Fetterman campaign event pic.twitter.com/21nqRY6gkR  Jorge Ribas (@jribas) November 9, 2022

Thats a reference to an infamous video Oz made in a supermarket complaining about prices as he pretended he was buying ingredients his wife wanted for a crudite.

Fetterman retweeted the video with a crudite correction.

In PA we call this a... veggie tray, he wrote.

But on election night, Fettermans campaign couldnt help but break out the jokey C-word:

Breaking - crudites at the Fetterman party. pic.twitter.com/95I5CQR3iX  Julia Terruso (@JuliaTerruso) November 9, 2022

That wasnt Ozs only screwup in the video, He also botched the names of two regional supermarket chains by claiming he was in a Wegners, apparently a mangling of Wegmans with Redners.

He later claimed the mixup was because he was exhausted by his campaign effort.

Ive gotten my kids names wrong as well, Oz told Newsmax. I dont think thats a measure of someones ability to lead the commonwealth.

I am at the Fetterman election party at Stage AE in Pittsburgh.



My most notable political commentary so far: there is plenty of crudite. pic.twitter.com/NXbCk55Gbl  Oliver Morrison (@ORMorrison) November 9, 2022

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
COP27: Austria pledges 50m of funding for loss and damage from climate change

Austria will provide 50 million to developing countries facing unavoidable damage and losses caused by climate change, the countrys climate ministry told Reuters. It joins a small group of European nations to offer such funds,

Compensation linked to extreme weather and global warming has leapt up the political agenda at the UN climate conference taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Under pressure from developing nations, countries have agreed to hold their first formal talks on loss and damage, shorthand for cash rich polluters would pay to poorer states facing unavoidable damage from worsening floods, drought and sea level rise.

Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler attends a news conference in Vienna. - REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo/File Photo

Just four other governments - Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Scotland - have committed small amounts of loss and damage funding, breaking ranks with other rich nations that have resisted such payments for fear of spiralling liabilities for their outsized contribution to causing climate change.

Austria will provide at least 50 million to tackle loss and damage over the next four years, the climate ministry said.

The funds could support the "Santiago Network", a UN scheme providing technical support to countries faced with damages from climate-fueled natural disasters, and a programme providing early warning systems to countries prone to extreme weather.

The most vulnerable countries in the Global South are suffering particularly badly from the consequences of the climate crisis  and are rightly demanding more support from industrialised countries.

"The most vulnerable countries in the Global South are suffering particularly badly from the consequences of the climate crisis  and are rightly demanding more support from industrialised countries," climate minister Leonore Gewessler said.

Austria to provide an extra 10 million for climate finance

Gewessler said Austria would also add another 10 million to this year's budget for climate finance.

Story continues

"Austria is taking responsibility," she said.

Climate campaigners have said, however, that the trickle of one-off commitments is no substitute for consistent support.

So far, the amount pledged falls far short of the billions of dollars in losses already suffered by vulnerable countries hit frequently by extreme floods, drought and storms.

Cyclone Idai caused some 1.4 billion in total damage and 1.39 billion in losses when it struck Mozambique in 2019. Some research suggests that by 2030, vulnerable countries' climate-linked losses could reach 580 billion per year.

Women from flood-affected areas wait to get free food distributed by a charity, in Chachro, near Tharparkar, a district of southern Sindh province, Pakistan. - AP Photo/Pervez Masih

Developing countries want countries to agree at COP27 to launch a funding facility, dedicated to loss and damage. The United States and 27-country European Union - of which Austria is a member - have previously opposed the idea.

Every country announcing funding for the loss and damage from human-induced climate change is most welcome.

Saleemul Huq, an adviser to the Climate Vulnerable Forum group of 58 countries, welcomed Austria's funding, saying the forum expected Austria and others to support a deal on a dedicated loss and damage fund at COP27.

"Every country announcing funding for the loss and damage from human-induced climate change is most welcome," he said.
Heavier than usual monsoon rain has caused extreme flooding in Pakistan this year (AP)

More than 27 million children are being put at risk from devastating floods, world leaders at the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt were warned today.

They were being left in danger of drowning, disease outbreaks, lack of safe drinking water, malnutrition, disruption in learning and violence.

We are seeing unprecedented levels of flooding all around the world this year, and with it, an explosion in threats to children, said Paloma Escudero, head of the Unicef delegation for Cop27, highlighting floods in Pakistan, Malawi and South Sudan.

Meanwhile, small island nations suffering the brunt of climate change called for Big Oil to pay for mounting damage.

The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost three billion US dollars daily in profits, Antiguas prime minister Gaston Browne said.

While they are profiting, the planet is burning.

Senegals President Macky Sall said developing nations in Africa would resist calls for an immediate shift away from fossil fuels. We are in favour of reduction of greenhouse gas. But we cannot accept that our vital interests be ignored.
By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan's interior minister said on Tuesday evidence suggested a prominent Pakistani journalist was the victim of a targeted killing in Kenya, not an accidental shooting, though he still needed more information on the incident.

Kenyan police spokesman Bruno Shioso declined to respond to the minister's comments on the death of TV journalist Arshad Sharif, who was shot dead on the evening of Oct. 23 on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

A police report a day after the shooting said police officers hunting car thieves opened fire on the vehicle that Sharif was travelling in as it drove through their roadblock without stopping.

Shioso said the case was now being investigated by the police watchdog, the state Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

A spokesperson at the IPOA did not immediately respond to calls and a message seeking comment.

Pakistan's Interior Minister, Rana Sanaullah, told journalists on Tuesday: "Arshad Sharif's death is not a case of mistaken identity - I can say, and, on the evidence we have so far, this prima facie is a target killing."

"We still need to obtain more (evidence) to confirm all this ... and we have asked the Kenyan government for more data," he added.

Pakistan's government formed an investigation team to look into the matter, which caused uproar in the country.

Sanaullah said the team had returned from Kenya, but Kenyan police had not yet given Pakistani investigators all of Sharif's recovered belongings.

"We will now ask the foreign office to contact the Kenyan government, and the prime minister will also speak to the Kenyan president," the minister said.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi; Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Princess Martha Louise is stepping down from official duties credit:Bang Showbiz

Norway's Princess Martha Louise is stepping down from royal duties.

The 51-year-old princess has relinquished her official duties in order to focus on the alternative medicine business she shares with her fiance, controversial self-proclaimed shaman Durek Verrett - who previously suggested cancer was a choice and sells a 'spirit optimizer' medallion on his website which he claimed helped him overcome Covid-19 - the palace have announced.

However, Martha Louise will retain her title.

The palace said in a statement:The princess ... is relinquishing the role as royal patron ... and will not be representing the royal house at the present time.

"In accordance with the kings wishes, the princess will keep her title.

When the couple marry, the palace said Durek will not have a royal title or represent the monarchy.

The pair have also agreed not refer to Martha Louise's title or the royal family in social media or commercial activity.

The statement added: " This is intended to draw a dividing line that more clearly separates commercial activity from the royal house of Norway.

Martha Louise - who claims to be able to "speak with angels" - stressed her gratitude for Norway's "high-quality health-care system" and said she is "aware of the importance of research-based knowledge".

She added in a statement: I also believe, however, that there are components of a good life and sound physical and mental health that may not be so easy to sum up in a research report.

"A warm hand, an acupuncture needle, a crystal, natural remedies, yoga, meditation or therapeutic conversation can, I believe, help to make life better for many individuals."

The princess, who has three daughters with late ex-husband Ari Behn, thinks it is important to "distinguish between myself as a private person on the one hand and as a member of the royal family on the other, and expressed her hope that her personal views would be treated as her own without others having to answer for them.

Martha Louise lost her 'Her Royal Highness' title in 2002 when she began working as a clairvoyant.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the current investment capital for aviation infrastructure is limited. The proposal of the people's committees of some provinces and cities on airport planning and investment is a very good signal, however, choosing an appropriate investment model and method is also a matter of caution. Le o Muoi, Director of the Institute of Transport Strategy and Development (under the Ministry of Transport) talks to Sai gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper about this issue.

Which airport model applied in Viet Nam will be superior, those with completely new investment such as Van on Airport or small airports, which are easier to invest in and more profitable?

Currently, there are many aviation investment models and the implementation of airport privatisation is also a new model in the world. When following the model, Vietnamese aviation industry, especially Van on Airport, is considered as making a breakthrough by industry fellows in the region. We have achieved certain results and have a complete airport model. From the experience we have gathered, there are currently eight models in the world, which are divided into specific groups. Usually, the regional airport locations that fit the needs will use a corresponding model.

From the needs and potentials of Viet Nam and with the experience gained from the case of Van on Airport, we need to apply the investment model in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) or franchise. The State assigns the private sector to invest in exploiting and investing in the entire airport and the State holds the rights, manages the airport and assigns the private entity to operate the terminal, airport apron, etc. Other models such as equitisation with the ownership rate of 50 per cent or more have proved to be causing difficulties for investors. The public-private partnership and franchising model will encourage investors to focus on investing, and the efficiency will be higher.

Should the selection of investors be properly screened to make sure they do proper business and not just sponsor?

We should not make the planning base on the needs of investors. There must be an overall development framework for the whole region and the whole society. We still have to base on the actual needs of the locality and region. Investors need to survey, evaluate and have the perspective of a business, not as a sponsor. When investing in an airport, the payback period is not short-term. Once put into the planning, if theres a difference between the need of the locality and the desire of the investor, the project will be suspended and will not proceed smoothly. We already have the Law on PPP, the Law on Public Investment, and the specialised law on aviation, which all create a favourable legal corridor for attracting investment. Aviation investment is a new issue. We are trying to complete the project on this matter, helping localities that have the demand to prepare the necessary steps.

Recently, many localities have proposed to invest in the construction of airports and airfields. However, many people are still confused about these two concepts. Can you clarify?

Many planning makers and planning consultants in provinces and cities do not understand the nature of these two concepts. Many consultants think of an airfield as an airport. But its not like that. Airfields are managed by the Ministry of Defence, while airports are managed by the Ministry of Transport.

Currently, the provinces are proposing building airfields. If they want to upgrade those into airports, they have to fulfil six criteria, in which, the most important criteria are criterion number one (ensuring sufficient demand for freight) and criterion number two (ensuring the distance between the urban centre and the centre of the airports at about 100km).

When building the aviation planning in the past, we adhere to these six criteria. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) also makes some similar recommendations. From this criterion, by 2030 there will be 28 airports.

Recently, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Decision No. 1121/QD-TTg to establish a working group to study and evaluate the overall possibility of civil aviation exploitation at Thanh Son military airport (Ninh Thuan province) and Bien Hoa military airport (ong Nai Province); studying the project of privatisation and investment in the mode of public-private partnership to exploit Na San (Son La), Vinh (Nghe An), Chu Lai (Quang Nam), Can Tho (Can Tho City) airports and some other airports when needed. Currently, the working group is reviewing a number of dual-use airports, previously operated with the military, and providing research and evaluation processes.

According to the draft planning of airport in the 2021 period, with a vision to 2050, Viet Nam will have 14 international airports: Van on, Cat Bi, Noi Bai, Tho Xuan, Vinh, Phu Bai, a Nang, Chu Lai, Cam Ranh, Lien Khuong, Long Thanh, Tan Son Nhat, Can Tho and Phu Quoc.

The fourteen domestic airports are: Lai Chau, ien Bien, Sa Pa, Na San, ong Hoi, Quang Tri, Phu Cat, Tuy Hoa, Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuot, Phan Thiet, Rach Gia, Ca Mau and Con ao. VNS

BOX

Binh inh seeks to develop international airport

HCM City  The provincial government of Binh inh has written to the Ministry of Transport proposing developing the Phu Cat airport into an international one.

The upgrade of the airport is necessary as it is overwhelmed, especially on national holidays such as Tet, Nguyen Tu Cong Hoang, vice chairman of Binh inh, said.

The Phu Cat airport has a designed capacity of 2.5 million passengers a year, and is expected to serve some five million passengers annually after the expansion.

The provincial government forecast that over 7.5 million tourists will travel to the province in 2025 and the number will soar to 12 million by 2030.

As such, the airport should be expanded and upgraded to handle larger aircraft, better air transport services and boost the provinces tourism sector.

The provincial government proposed expanding the apron from seven aircraft stands to 14, rebuilding the passenger terminal under the public-private partnership format, and developing one more runway using the State budget in the initial stage.

If approved, the province will map out a detailed plan for the airport expansion project and start to mobilise capital, apart from working with the agencies under the Ministry of National Defense to prepare for work on the project. VNS
HA NOI  Fifteen Vietnamese businesses on Tuesday were honoured at the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards for their exemplary gender equality practices.

This is the third year the award has been held in Viet Nam by the UN Women and the Vietnam Women Entrepreneur Council, with support from the Australian Government  which has for years assisted gender equality-related activities in Viet Nam and UN Women's activities.

It aims to both recognise companies taking WEP aligned action on gender equality and to encourage more companies to take action by joining the WEPs.

The award has seven categories: leadership commitment, youth leadership, gender-inclusive workplace, gender-responsive marketplace, community engagement and partnerships, transparency and reporting, and small-and medium-sized enterprises joining the WEPs.

Elisa Fernandez Saenz, Country Representative of UN Women Vietnam, expressed her belief that the award will inspire more companies to apply policies and practices promoting gender equality.

At the awards ceremony, UN Women and the Australian Embassy in Viet Nam co-organised a workshop on creating equal market opportunities by advancing gender-responsive procurement.

The function also saw a new cooperation programme named "WE RISE Together" introduced.

The programme, funded by the Australian Government through the Mekong-Australia Partnership, aims to boost gender-responsive procurement in Viet Nam.  VNS
HCM CITY  Every Friday morning, Ho ac Thang asked his son to take him to the Rehabilitation Ward at the An Binh Hospital to participate in a painting class.

Since his first drawing class, Thang has not missed a day.

Thang, 59, from Thu uc City in HCM City, has always enjoyed drawing but didn't always have the opportunity.

A busy work life meant Thang's passion for drawing was almost extinguished.

However, when he heard about a free drawing class for stroke rehabilitation patients, even though the class was far away from his home, Thang was determined to participate.

"I am very happy being here because I met many people in the same situation as me. I learn how to hold a brush and mix colours. My childhood passion rose, my spirit was more relaxed and my fingers seemed to be more flexible," said Thang.

Pham Xuan Sang, 39, from District 8, is another class member.

Although he was a bit shy at first because he didn't think he could draw very well, all inhibitions were lost after two lessons.

Whenever he finishes a painting, he asks his wife to take a picture and post it online to show off to friends and relatives.

More importantly, his spirit improves immensely.

"Initially, I was very bored and sad when I had a stroke. Many nights I cried silently and was unable to sleep. I am more optimistic when I come here to see many people in the same situation as me, talk with them, paint, and colour. I tell myself to try to integrate into life," said Sang.

The painting class is organised by the Rehabilitation Ward of the An Binh Hospital in District 5, HCM City.

Le Khanh ien, head of the ward, said that he received a scholarship to study in Australia in 2012, majoring in rehabilitation.

Returning to Viet Nam in 2013, he proposed to organise rehabilitation activities for patients more systematically, including opening a communication painting class.

With the consent of the hospital's leaders, ien asked student volunteers from the HCM City University of Architecture and the HCM City University of Fine Arts to guide the patients.

He suggested benefactors buy tables, chairs, tools, drawing papers, brushes, and paint colours for the class.

Since 2013, the communication painting class has attracted many patients.

Each session has about 20 participants, some of whom have attended the class for six to seven years. Others have recovered but still occasionally visit the class.

Thanks to the class, many patients have discovered their hidden potential and have produced beautiful drawings.

An Binh Hospital even once held an exhibition of paintings by members of the communication painting class.

They hope that next year they will be able to hold a similar painting exhibition on a larger scale.

Mental support

Patients often have hemiplegia, speech disorders, and swallowing dysfunction after a stroke, according to ien.

Patients need time to rehabilitate to return to daily activities.

Communication painting is important in stimulating brain development and helping patients recover better.

The painting class helps to relieve their minds and helps their limbs to be more flexible.

"Psychological and mental comfort is one of the important factors for patients to recover. When patients communicate with each other, they will have confidence and motivation to overcome the immediate difficulties," said ien.

Many patients who joined the drawing class recovered faster than others.

Some patients, after a stroke, fall into depression. They have no motivation to recover, have difficulty speaking, and have weak limbs.

After the drawing class, many became more lively and alert.

Nguyen Thanh Tuan, 46 and living in District 8, suffered a stroke more than one year ago. Since then, he has been taciturn.

However, when he learned about the drawing class, he became cheerful and optimistic and worked hard to return to recover.

As a result, his limb movements grew more flexible, and other movements gradually recovered.

Now he can ride his electric bike to the hospital by himself.

"Knowing that my health had improved, my company began looking at me returning to work. Next year, I will go back to work," said Tuan.

Ho Hai Truong Giang, director of the An Binh Hospital, said that, on average, the hospital's Rehabilitation Ward receives about 200 patients per day for examination and physical therapy.

To meet the patients' demands, the ward has equipped many modern machines for practising physical therapy and restoring motor function.

Speech therapy activities also help restore the patients' speaking and swallowing functions.

The ward is implementing therapeutic activities to improve the skills of holding, changing clothes and bathing to help patients gradually control their daily activities.

Based on the success of the communication painting class, the An Binh Hospital will open more classes, such as music therapy, chess, video games and calligraphy, for patients after dementia treatment, strokes, and brain damage.  VNS
She Thrives aims to improve sustainable livelihoods among rural smallholders, particularly women and ethnic minorities from Dak Lak province by connecting farmers and producers to the tools and resources they need to enhance their livelihoods sustainably.

This programme focused on the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak will commence immediately and run through August 2024. Over the next two years, it will impact over 15,000 people, including over 7,000 women from the provinces Buon Ho district.

The partnership between Cargill and CARE International will benefit rural communities in the central-highlands region

The She Thrives programme will focus on two key areas of change to make a sustainable difference in the lives of rural agricultural producers in the village of Dak Lak. Firstly, by enhancing access to inclusive markets, and secondly, by increasing access to productive agricultural resources and strengthening women's capabilities, confidence, and skills to pursue the economic opportunities that work best for their families.

"Today's MoU signing is a further testament to Cargills commitment to the goal of making the worlds food system more sustainable, resilient, and accessible," said Ralph Bean, counselor for Agricultural Affairs at the US Embassy.

"Cargill is focused on Vietnams sustainable and innovative agricultural sector and the millions of farmers who contribute to the food security of Vietnam and the world. We at the Embassy are truly proud of the company and the significant economic and social contributions it has been making through programmes such as She Thrives," he added.

Michelle Grogg, vice president of Cargill Corporate Responsibility and executive director of the Cargill Foundation stated, "This is an important programme for Cargill as we continue investing in building resilient and sustainable supply chains in partnership with critical partners like CARE. By working side-by-side with smallholder farmers  particularly women  in communities such as Dak Lak, we are able to implement tailored programmes that connect farmers to markets and, ultimately, improve their livelihoods.

The programme has set three ambitious goals over its two-year span. Firstly, increasing the productive capacity of rural smallholders, particularly women and ethnic minorities, to pursue sustainable livelihoods. This will be accomplished by convening smallholders into Farmer Field and Business Groups to provide technical training and boost the promotion of entrepreneurship. In addition, a select number of small enterprises will receive seed funding to grow their businesses and receive additional training and support.

Speaking at the launch event, Le Kim Dung, country director of CARE International in Vietnam said, Aiming at narrowing gender gaps in access to economic opportunities, the She Thrives project focuses on improving the rights of women and marginalised groups. By creating an enabling environment, CARE will work with local people and partners to strengthen womens capacity and access to economic opportunities and resources, which benefit not only themselves but their whole families and communities. Our cooperation with Cargill will help build not only the farmers capacity but increase womens voice and leadership in decisions related to them.

The project's second objective is to improve access to finance and financial management capacity for rural smallholder women and ethnic minorities through the development of Village Saving and Loan Associations and the delivery of financial literacy training to group members. The project will also introduce the community to formal financial institutions to assist further with financing their ventures.

Finally, the project aims to enhance access to input and output markets for smallholders by improving their operational efficiencies and supporting bulk buying, selling, and marketing. It will further provide technical support to producer groups and train them on digital skills and the potential that e-commerce may hold for their businesses.

Grogg added, "We are committed to our goal of creating a resilient global food system. Our aim is to provide training on sustainable agricultural practices and improve access to markets for 10 million farmers globally by 2030 through programmes like She Thrives and many more. We will do this by helping smallholder farmers adopt and scale sustainable agricultural practices that build the long-term viability of their farming enterprises and support the next generation of farmers."

Cargill's partnership with CARE goes back more than sixty years and has always focused on taking long-term and sustainable approaches to tackle some of the world's most challenging issues across the food system, such as low agricultural productivity, poor nutritional status, lack of access to formal markets, and limited economic opportunities.

Together both organisations have launched 32 programs across 13 countries, impacting the lives of more than 3.3 million people. The She Thrives launch in Vietnam represents the first programme led by the two organisations in this country.

Locally, Cargill has long supported the central highlands during its 27 years of operations in Vietnam  notably with its Cargill Cares School Building programme, which has already opened 106 schools nationwide.

13 of these are located in remote and mountainous provinces of the central highlands, including five in Dak Lak itself. The She Thrives programme in Vietnam will take this impact forward by to addressing other immediate needs and challenges faced by smallholder farmers at the household and community level in Dak Lak.

Cargill boosts closing in on school building target for Vietnamese students To date, the Cargill Vietnam School Project has built 99 schools, with the company realising its goal of building 100 schools in the country by 2020 when it inaugurates the final school in the central province of Nghe An next month.
The National Assembly (NA) in has been discussing amendments to the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, with hospital autonomy being among the top talking points, as NA deputies raised numerous concerns over feasibility and failures.

A pilot for some state-owned hospitals were first approved in 2019, photo Le Toan

NA deputy Pham Khanh Phong Lan representing Ho Chi Minh City said that the regulations in the draft amended law are yet to comprehensively deal with the thorny problem related to hospital autonomy.

It is important to have official activities to review and assess hospital autonomy at health facilities so we can learn lessons, and then have solutions so that we will have regulations that are more appropriate and relevant with practical situation, she recommended.

NA deputy Nguyen Cong Long from the southern province of Dong Nai raised concerns over the schedule to adopt the draft amendments because there are many issues in need of further discussions.

The law needs to add more clear regulations about autonomy of hospitals and health facilities to solve the existing problems, Long noted. Medical examination and treatment costs in the draft amended law do not yet provide clear rules for full calculation. It is necessary to check the whole law in a comprehensive manner because many policies might not come into effect until 2027, or even 2032.

Financial autonomy began in 2002 through a decree on revenue-generating public service entities, including those in the healthcare sector, and was replaced in 2006 with the addition of human resource (HR) management requirements.

Seeing hospital autonomy as important and consistent with current development trends in Vietnam, helping strengthen the health sector as a whole by making it more cost-effective and less wasteful, the government in 2019 issued Resolution No.33/NQ-CP approving the pilot of comprehensive autonomy at four state-owned hospitals.

Under this, hospitals were able to make decisions about the prices of medical and treatment services in line with the price frame issued by the Ministry of Health (MoH). However, according to hospitals, the medical pricing framework is now outdated. Meanwhile, there is no ceiling price for customised medical services, making it difficult to decide on reasonable prices. Moreover, the hospitals still have no right to self-control their organisation, prices, human resources, and other matters.

As a result, in October the Vietnam National Cancer Hospital (K Hospital) asked the MoH to remove it from the pilot list when its trial period came to an end. K Hospital made the move after Bach Mai Hospital proposed a halt to hospital autonomy altogether at a meeting in August with acting Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan, who has officially become the minister now.

While the so-called failure of the trial is partly blamed on the pandemic, lack of experience in implementation, and insufficient preparations and investment, experts said that the MoH should make changes to encourage hospitals to continue the process.

Nguyen Hai Dung, NA deputy representing the northern province of Nam Dinh, along with other deputies, acknowledged that some of the rules are problematic when applied at state-owned hospitals. The National Assembly Standing Committee is considering reporting the shortcomings in regulations related to financial autonomy in the draft amended law so that they are timely solved. The law should be adopted at the next NA session, he suggested.

Similarly, NA deputy Hoang Van Cuong from Hanoi noted that Vietnams most well-known hospitals are always in overload, and thus the current situation with comprehensive autonomy should be deemed a policy failure.

The majority of doctors always expect their hospitals to have sufficient modern medical devices, drug supply, and medical supplies  and that they have the full right to select them for their most effective treatment regimens regardless of limitation in cost, Cuong said. Many patients are willing to pay high for best possible treatment services at state-owned hospitals. However, the facts show that they often end up spending money abroad or at international hospitals instead.

Service boosts with hospital autonomy Hospital autonomy is proving to be an optimal solution to enable state-run hospitals to increase their operational efficiency, thus better benefiting locals. Nguyen Truong Son, Deputy Minister of Health, discussed with VIRs Bich Thuy the solutions and lessons from other countries, as well as any complexities in the way.

The way forward in hospital self-rule While hospital automation has proved some advantages of capital mobilisation and healthcare services expansion, some challenges remain and concrete actions are required to make it a greater success. Le Minh Sang, health specialist at World Bank Vietnam, analyses the difficulties and also the international lessons that the country can learn from.
The GDT started to release the list of the 1,000 largest corporate taxpayers in Vietnam in 2016. Nestle Vietnam has been ranked among the top 100 corporate taxpayers for six consecutive years. The recognition is a testament to the company's constant efforts to contribute to the state budget as well as Vietnams socioeconomic development.

In addition, Nestle Vietnam was also awarded certificates of merit by tax departments and local authorities in the localities where it operates. The certificates indicate that the company has fulfilled its tax obligations and contributed to social security in the localities.

On November 8, Nestle Vietnam was awarded the certificate of merit by the Dong Nai Tax Department at a conference to honour the top taxpayers in 2020-2021.

Speaking at the conference, Nguyen Toan Thang, deputy director of Dong Nai Tax Department said, "The COVID-19 outbreak affected socioeconomic activities in the 20202021 period and many businesses suffered from financial difficulties, with some even failing to maintain business continuity. In this context, the Dong Nai Tax Department has launched some initiatives to help businesses overcome their obstacles. As a result, we have exceeded the estimates in collecting the state budget revenue for the 2020-2021 period."

Previously, Nestle Vietnam received certificates of merit from both Dong Nai People's Committee and Hung Yen People's Committee for its excellent achievements in complying with tax laws. The company scooped up certificates of merit for businesses with significant contributions to the local socioeconomic development.

The company was also granted certificates of merit for its outstanding contributions to pandemic prevention and control activities.

Speaking about the achievements, Katrina Rennie, CFO of Nestle Vietnam said, "At Nestle Vietnam, integrity and compliance to Vietnamese Law sits at the core of our business principles, especially compliance to tax regulations. The fulfilment of our obligation to the state budget as well as our contribution to the communities where we operate demonstrates Nestle's spirit and responsibility as a global company. Nestle Vietnam remains committed to long-term investment and sustainable development in Vietnam and values the strong support of central and local authorities."

Established in Vietnam in 1995, Nestle Vietnam currently operates four factories and two distribution centres in Dong Nai and Hung Yen provinces, employing more than 2,000 staff.

Over the past three decades, Nestle Vietnam has continuously expanded its investment and diversified its products to meet food and nutrition demands. The company aims to optimise the role of food to improve the quality of life in Vietnam today and for generations to come. The company has so far poured a total investment capital of over $700 million into Vietnam.

Nestle Vietnam shares experience in sustainable development As a pioneer in sustainable development, Nestle Vietnam recently shared its efforts and strategies to promote sustainability in Vietnam.

Nestles long-term goals to support Vietnams regenerative agriculture Since climate change has become a major threat to agriculture, Nestle is aiming to become a net-zero company and accelerating the move towards regenerative food systems at scale. David Rennie, deputy executive vice president and head of Nestle Coffee Brands and Philipp Navratil, SVP and head of Coffee Strategic Business Unit at Nestle S.A., shared with VIRs Mai Van the groups regenerative agriculture approach and its importance for Nestles roadmap.
MIAMI (AP)  A Florida-bound storm strengthened into Hurricane Nicole on Wednesday evening as it pounded the Bahamas, and U.S. officials ordered evacuations that included former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago club.

Its a rare November hurricane for storm-weary Florida, where only two such hurricanes have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853  the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.

Nicole was expected to reach Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday with a storm surge that could further erode many beaches hit by Hurricane Ian in September before heading into Georgia and the Carolinas later Thursday and Friday. It was expected to dump heavy rain across the region.

Nicole's center was about 75 miles (125 kilometers) east-northeast of West Palm Beach, Florida, late Wednesday, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

The sprawling storm became a hurricane as it slammed into Grand Bahama, having made landfall just hours earlier on Great Abaco island as a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

Nicole is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019.

In the Bahamas, officials said that more than 860 people were in more than two dozen shelters. Extensive flooding, downed trees and power and water outages were reported in the archipelago's northwest region.

Authorities were especially concerned about a large Haitian community in Great Abaco that was destroyed by Dorian and has since grown from 50 acres (20 hectares) to 200 acres (80 hectares).

Do not put yourselves in harms way, said Zhivago Dames, assistant commissioner of police information as he urged everyone to stay indoors. Our first responders are out there. However, they will not put their lives in danger.

In Florida, the St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office said in a tweet that storm surge from Tropical Storm Nicole had already breached the sea wall along Indian River Drive, which runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. The Martin County Sheriff's office also said seawater had breached part of a road on Hutchinson Island.

Residents in several Florida counties  Flagler, Palm Beach, Martin and Volusia  were ordered to evacuate such barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes. Volusia, home to Daytona Beach, imposed a curfew and warned that intercoastal bridges used by evacuees would close when winds reach 39 mph.

Mar-a-Lago, Trumps club and home, is in one of those evacuation zones, built about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise that is about 15 feet (4.6 meters) above sea level and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resorts security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated and there was no sign of evacuation by early afternoon.

There is no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews will not respond if it puts their members at risk.

In Palm Beach County, some 400 people checked into seven evacuation centers including Hidir Dontar, a software engineer carrying a backpack and plastic bag with his belongings. He said he didnt want to stay in his apartment because the landlord wasnt putting shutters over the windows, something that didnt feel safe having lived through one bad one, 2004s Hurricane Frances.

I didnt want to be in the middle of the storm, have something go wrong and wonder, What do I do now? Dontar said.

Meanwhile, officials in Daytona Beach Shores deemed unsafe at least a half dozen, multi-story, coastal residential buildings already damaged by Hurricane Ian and now threatened by Nicole. At some locations, authorities went door-to-door telling people to grab their possessions and leave.

Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort announced they were closing early on Wednesday and likely would not reopen as scheduled on Thursday.

Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning, and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would cease operations. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., also closed. Further south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport were experiencing some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.

At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power, as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.

It will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day, DeSantis said of the storms expected landing.

Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters had opened along Floridas east coast, the governor said.

Forty-five of Floridas 67 counties were under a state of emergency declaration.

Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Floridians should expect possible tornadoes, rip currents and flash flooding.

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, who is at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, drew attention to the link between storms and climate change.

There have always been storms, but as the planet warms from carbon emissions, storms are growing in intensity and frequency, he said. For those in Grand Bahama and Abaco, I know it is especially difficult for you to face another storm,

Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 485 miles (780 kilometers) from the center in some directions.

New warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline which was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state.  damage that many are still dealing with.

In Florida, the combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline," the hurricane center said.

Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said the storm will affect a large part of the state.

Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds," he said.

The storm is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday, forecasters said. It was then forecast to move across the Carolinas on Friday.

We are going to be concerned with rainfall as we get later into the week across portions of the southeastern United States and southern Appalachians, where there could be some flooding, flash flooding with that rainfall," Brown said.

Early Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still responding to those in need from Hurricane Ian.

At the beach just north of Mar-a-Lago as winds gusts neared 40 mph Wednesday afternoon, numerous people were taking videos of the churning ocean.

Denny DeHaven, who works for a Social Security advocacy group, said he lives inland so hes not too concerned.

Its only going to be a Category 1 - the thing I mostly worry about is a power outage, he said. The people I worry about are those who live around here after seeing what happened in Fort Myers. Hurricane Ian brought storm surge of up to 13 feet in late September, causing widespread destruction.

In a video posted on Twitter, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the surge had already arrived and dozens of seaside buildings declared structurally unsafe. A mandatory evacuation was issued for the beach side, and a curfew was scheduled for 7 p.m.

Were looking for a really rough night here, Chitwood said.

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press reporters Zeke Miller in Washington, D.C., and Terry Spencer in Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.
Itasca Republican Angelia Orr will be the first to represent the newly redrawn District 13 in the state Legislature after besting Marlin Democrat Cedric Davis in a district that includes part of McLennan County.

Meanwhile, longtime Texas House Rep. Charles Doc Anderson easily held off Democratic challenger Erin Shank to keep the District 56 seat he has held since 2004.

By the time results from all 34 vote centers arrived shortly before midnight, Anderson won 70.2% of the vote, or 42,951 votes, to Shanks 29.8%, or 18,254 votes. District 56 encompasses western McLennan County.

Anderson, a 77-year-old retired Waco veterinarian, has served for 18 years and has been reelected to the position eight times, nine counting this race. Andersons campaign centered on low taxes and traditional values, as well as Andersons anti-abortion and pro-gun rights stances.

During an interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald last month, Anderson said he was especially proud of election integrity bills passed by the Texas Legislature last session.

Tuesday night, Anderson awaited election results at the Republican Party of McLennan Countys headquarters.

I was pleased to prevail, I was pretty confident I would, Anderson said. Its an honor to serve the folks in McLennan County. Its a distinct honor for me.

Shank, a 64-year-old small business owner and former teacher, focused her campaign on improving Texas electrical grid in light of the 2021 winter freeze, expanding rural broadband, womens and childrens rights, disability rights, and raising pay for public school employees.

Were disappointed. We certainly hoped for a win for the women in McLennan County and the men who love them, but we believe (the results.)

She said when she attended the LBJ Womens Campaign School at the University of Texas at Austin, a nonpartisan program that trains women to run for office or manage campaigns, she and her classmates analyzed the district and determined it would take two years of campaigning to win.

I was hoping to prove them wrong, she said. I think the seat is very important.

District 13

Orr, a former Hill County District Clerk and more recently a district director for District 8 Rep. Cody Harris, held a decisive lead late Tuesday, and The Texas Tribunes Decision Desk HQ projected her as the winner. With 100% of votes counted by 3 a.m. in the seven-county district, Orr had 77.9% of the vote, or 44,502 votes.

Davis, who was a teacher and police officer in the Dallas area before relocating to become city manager in Marlin in 2019, had 22.1% of the vote, or 12,629 votes, according to the Texas Secretary of State's website.

The Texas Legislature redrew House District 13 during redistricting in 2021. District 13 now includes East Waco, along with eastern portions of McLennan County as well as voters in six counties previously in four other districts: Bosque, Hill, Limestone, Falls, Freestone and Leon.

Orr ran as the self-styled voice of rural Texas values. She could not be reached Tuesday.

Davis ran as a progressive-moderate. He grew up in the Dallas area and has military experience in the U.S. Army as well as working as a teacher, a police officer and police chief. He has worked as city manager in Marlin since 2019.

On election night he said he was disappointed, but gave his congratulations to Orr and said he would focus on his role as Marlins city manager.

When (the 2021 winter storm) hit we had no assistance from the state, we just had to pull our community together, Davis said. Then came the potholes and infrastructure. This is what I do for a living, so I figured I could make a difference.

U.S. House District 17

Republican incumbent Pete Sessions won his reelection bid against Democratic challenger Mary Jo Woods for the District 17 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Sessions had 66.5% of the vote, or 144,183 votes, to Woods 33.5%, or 72,647 votes, according to the Texas Secretary of State website.
Patricia Miller, the first woman to hold the Precinct 2 seat on the McLennan County Commissioners Court, will retain her position for another four years after defeating a Republican challenger Tuesday for the second time.

The incumbent Democrat beat out Donis D.L. Wilson, a Mart resident and Riesel school police chief, by 239 votes.

Miller won 51.1%, or 5,354, of 10,469 total votes, while Wilson won 48.9%, or 5,115 votes.

This years margin of victory for Miller was much narrower than four years ago, when she took 58.3% of the vote.

Miller, 63, formerly served as administrative assistant to Precinct 2 Commissioner Lester Gibson for more than 22 years. Gibson died this year.

She won the seat herself in 2018, after Gibson declined to seek reelection. Her win Tuesday over the 57-year-old Wilson carries on Gibsons legacy, preserving the only African American and only Democratic voice on the court.

Millers campaign leaned heavily on diversity and advocacy, citing the growing range of county employment and the importance of the perspective she brings to an otherwise all-Republican governing body. Millers campaign touted her experience and work to keep her promises, advocating for higher wages at companies receiving county development incentives, steering construction and conducting utility projects over her past four years as commissioner.
Republicans were poised to narrowly expand their Texas Legislature majorities in both the House and Senate early Wednesday morning, though they fell short of taking some seats they targeted in this years midterm election.

The Republicans leads were being felt prominently in South Texas, where the GOP won key races after targeting the historically Democratic region of Texas after Democratic President Joe Biden underperformed there in 2020.

Several of the races had not been called by Decision Desk HQ early Wednesday morning.

In House District 37, anchored in Brownsville, Republican Janie Lopez was on track to capture an open seat as she led Democrat Luis Villareal Jr. The seat is currently held by Democratic state Rep. Alex Dominguez, who unsuccessfully ran for state Senate rather than seek reelection.

Lopez would be the first Latina Republican to represent the Rio Grande Valley in the House.

In another major South Texas victory, Rep. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, who defected from the Democratic Party and ran this cycle as a Republican, appeared destined to win reelection handily.

In another crucial battle in southern Bexar County, which has traditionally been dominated by Democrats, Republican incumbent John Lujan looked as if he would prevail over Democrat Frank Ramirez, a former San Antonio City Council member.

Republicans appeared to bolster their chances to hang on to that House District 118 seat by reconfiguring it during last years legislative session to have a much narrower advantage for Democrats. Biden won the district by 14 points two years ago, but would have only won by 3 points under the new boundaries.

Republicans also poured big money into the race, with Lujan outraising Ramirez nearly 5 to 1 in the latest campaign finance reports.

But Democrat Morgan LaMantia was in a tight race with Republican Adam Hinojosa in Senate District 27, an open seat vacated by Eddie Lucio Jr., a conservative Democrat who sometimes bucked his party in the Legislature on major issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights. LaMantia was ahead early Wednesday morning with all precincts reporting, but the Democrats lead was less than 600 votes, putting it squarely in recount territory.

While LaMantia is a well-known Democrat in the Rio Grande Valley, Republicans added more conservative voters from Bee and San Patricio counties during last years redistricting process, making the district more competitive for their party. Democratic President Joe Biden won the district by 15.7 points in 2020, but would have won it by only 4.7 points under the new boundaries.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa tried to pour cold water on any Republican celebrations in South Texas. The GOP set its sights on flipping three congressional seats in the area, but Democrats held them off in two of them.

Republicans in Austin and D.C. should understand that if they could barely eke out this one win here, they should probably pack up their bags and get the hell out of our region, he said on Twitter.

Democrats fared well in other races where Republicans had been bullish on pulling off upsets. Incumbent Democrat Eddie Morales was well on his way to fending off a challenge from Katherine Parker in House District 74, which includes Eagle Pass and much of the Texas-Mexico border.

And Democrats also appear to have won some seats that were drawn to be more favorable to them during last years redistricting cycle. Democrat Mihaela Plesa was on track to flip an open seat in House District 70 in fast-growing Collin County, which has long been controlled by Republicans.

And in House District 34, Democratic incumbent Abel Herrero was well-positioned to beat back a challenge from Republican Carolyn Vaughn to earn a sixth term representing the Nueces County district.

In House District 52, Republican Caroline Harris, a former legislative staffer, defeated Democrat Luis Echegaray, in a district formerly held by Democrat James Talarico. The district was redrawn last year to give Republicans an advantage and Talarico moved to nearby House District 50, anchored in Austin, where he won the seat over Republican Victor Johnson. That seat was open after Democrat Celia Israel decided to run for Austin mayor.

In Harris County, Republican Mano DeAyala appeared to cruise over Democrat Mohamad Maarouf in House District 133. The seat had been vacated by longtime Republican Rep. Jim Murphy.

With districts that were drawn to be more favorable to the GOP, the Republican incumbents in Dallas County appeared to have won much more comfortable reelections than they did two years ago. Morgan Meyer was on track to defeat Democrat Elizabeth Ginsberg in House District 108, anchored in Highland Park and University Park, while Angie Chen Button looked as if she had prevailed over Democrat Elva Curl in House District 112 in northeast Dallas County.

In the Senate, Republicans extended their majority by at least one after state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, won election to Senate District 10, formerly held by Democrat Beverly Powell. The district was formerly anchored entirely in Tarrant County, but was dispersed to the west and south in last years redistricting process and made more advantageous for Republicans.

Powell, who had filed for reelection eventually quit the race claiming it was unwinnable after the GOP redrawing.

Kings victory means that Republicans now hold at least 19 of the Senates 31 seats.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit statewide news organization dedicated to keeping Texans informed on politics and policy issues that impact their communities. This election season, Texans around the state will turn to The Texas Tribune for the information they need on voting, election results, analysis of key races and more. Get the latest.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/09/texas-legislature-2022-election-results/.
ASHLAND  Tributes are pouring in from across the state for a man who was known for his soft voice but strong sense of public service.

Rick Grauerholz, 74, died Friday, Nov. 3 at his home in Ashland.

Grauerholz spent most of his adult life in service to others. He spent 30 years in the Nebraska State Fire Marshals office, working in the training division. Even after his retirement, he continued to work part-time instructing firefighters across the state on the latest techniques and equipment.

Educating firefighters and emergency responders on how to handle all types of emergency situations is still a passion of mine, Grauerholz said in 2018, not long after he retired. The knowledge that I can share with active firefighters on how to save lives, rescue endangered people and protect property is still a big part of my life.

Grauerholzs knowledge about firefighting and emergency response came not only from his time in the classroom, but also from hands-on experience. He was a member of the Ashland Volunteer Fire Department for more than 40 years, serving as chief of the department for several years.

For 20 years he also belonged to the Ashland Rescue Squad, which is a separate organization from the fire department in Ashland. He was an emergency medical technician (EMT) and served as rescue captain for several years.

His position as an instructor meant Grauerholz knew about cutting-edge equipment and techniques, which he shared with the Ashland volunteers.

He brought in a lot of new stuff, said Ashland Fire Chief Mike Meyer.

That included changing from straight hose nozzles to fog nozzles to better fight fires and hazardous material spills.

Under Grauerholzs leadership, the Ashland fire department became more advanced than other volunteer units.

He pretty much started a more advanced way of fighting fires, Meyer said.

Grauerholz retired from the fire department when he became mayor in 2014. But he never really wanted to leave.

He kept wanting to come back, Meyer said.

Grauerholz saw being mayor as another way to give back to the community and to continue his lifelong passion for public safety.

I have been deeply involved in and dedicated to the people of Ashland all of my life, Grauerholz said in 2018 when he was running for his second term as mayor. I care about our community and have always worked to earn the trust and respect of my neighbors and friends.

Jim Anderson has served two terms on the Ashland City Council under Grauerholz, but has known him for several decades. In fact, Anderson credits Grauerholzs father for setting him on a path to public service. George Grauerholz, who was the city clerk in Ashland for 25 years, suggested Anderson volunteer for the Ashland Planning Commission.

That really spurred my interest in city government, Anderson said.

Growing up the son of the city clerk also spurred Grauerholz to public service. When he was running for mayor in 2014, he told The Ashland Gazette that he remembered watching his father carry out tasks large and small to make sure the city operated efficiently, something he carried on in his work as mayor.

Grauerholz grew up in Ashland and graduated from high school here in 1966. He and his wife Becky moved away for a few years, but a job opportunity brought the family back to his hometown in 1974. Shortly after they settled in, he joined the fire and rescue departments.

Ashland City Administrator Jessica Quady said Grauerholz told her he had originally planned to only serve as mayor for one term. But when the 2018 election came around, he decided his work was not done, so he ran again.

He felt like he had things he wanted to finish up on his second term, Quady said.

That included bringing more homes and businesses to Ashland. He was happy to see the advancement of the Whitetail Estates development on the southeast edge of Ashland, Quady said. The subdivision began before Grauerholz became mayor, but had stalled as the country was plunged into a recession in 2008. In 2018, the project started back up after some controversy about tax increment financing (TIF) for public infrastructure construction. After public outcry, the city and the developers worked out an agreement, with Grauerholz leading the negotiations, and houses were soon being built.

He was excited to see that really get going, Quady recalled.

Being retired, Grauerholz had more time that previous mayors had to spend in City Hall. But he went above and beyond that, Quady said, attending progress meetings for projects around the city, and even lending a hand when city crews were installing brick around the compass at the intersection of 15th and Silver streets in downtown Ashland.

Regularly, he would find the guys and cheer them on, give them words of encouragement during different jobs they were doing, Quady said.

As a boss, Quady said Grauerholz was caring and great to work with.

Grauerholz was always ready to volunteer for activities throughout the community. Bradley Pfeiffer, president of the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce, said they could always count on Grauerholz and Becky to lend a hand during Stir-Up, Ashlands annual summer celebration.

That meant a lot to us, Pfeiffer said.

Anderson said Grauerholz was a down-to-earth, soft-spoken, likeable character who had Ashlands best interests at heart.

He moved the community forward in a positive manner, Anderson said.

Grauerholz was counting down the days until he would hang up his mayors hat and be able to spend more time with his family. With a new pickup to pull their RV, he and Becky were also looking forward to traveling. Sadly, Grauerholz was not able to fulfill that dream.

Several fire departments across Nebraska and state agencies have expressed their condolences and appreciation for Grauerholz on social media since his passing.

While Rick was a fire instructor he taught and mentored many firefighters throughout the state, the Nebraska State Fire Marshals office posted on its Facebook page on Saturday. He was well liked by everyone and will be greatly missed, but not forgotten.

Parrish Abel, a retired lieutenant from the Gering Fire Department, shared a love of pranks with Grauerholz, who was known for his jokes.

I know there are a lot of Nebraska firefighters that have sat in your classes and are better off from your wisdom, me included, he wrote on his Facebook page.

Grauerholz was known for being a bit ornery, but never mean. Firefighter trainees like Dan Mallory of Fort Calhoun remember Grauerholz using humor when he was teaching.

He presented his classes with a sense of humor and I have to admit that Ive stolen a couple of Ricks jokes over the years, said Mallory on Facebook.

Firefighters and other first responders will turn out in droves on Saturday for Grauerholzs funeral. Meyer said he and three other Ashland fire department members will stand guard by Grauerholzs casket during the service at First Christian Church on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m.

The route from the church to Grauerholzs final resting place at Ashland Cemetery will be lined with vehicles from fire, rescue and law enforcement agencies around the state. At the cemetery, first responders will create a sea of blue around the gravesite as various fire service traditions are carried out, including ringing a special bell and last call.

Visitation will be held Friday, Nov. 11 from 5-7 p.m. at First Christian Church in Ashland. To see the full obituary, go to Page 4.
WANN  The unincorporated community of Wann, Nebraska, has just one commercial business, and a few of its neighbors have a bone to pick.

They allege that Nir Levin, who has owned and operated Nirbuilt Airboats since 1999, runs his under-construction airboats at high rpms for extended periods of time, disturbing the peace in the town of about 100.

Inside, you cant hear the TV, said Tim Croshaw, who lives on Wanns south end.

But the question before the Saunders County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 1 was whether to accept a zoning change application for Levins lot on Wanns western boundary from residential to industrial zoning. If granted the zoning change, Levin would then be able to apply for a conditional use permit to run Nirbuilt Airboats on the property legally. The supervisors would be able to determine the conditions of the permit.

The entirety of Wann  along with the countys other unincorporated communities  is zoned residential. The Saunders County Planning Commission had previously voted unanimously to approve the change-of-zone application.

Levin already owns a parcel on Wanns north end, which is where he lives and has long tested the airboats.

We run, on average, one boat a month for 15 to 20 minutes at 3,500 rpm, Levin said.

In 2019, he acquired a long, narrow parcel  which is separated from his north property by Wanns Main Street  that runs from north to south on land that was once railroad right-of-way. The lot has two existing buildings: a large Quonset hut and an abandoned grain elevator.

Once Levin owned that land  which is about two-thirds of Wanns length from north to south  in his possession, he began testing airboats on the propertys south end, where fewer trees stand in the way to muffle the noise. Neighbors say the volume increased exponentially from when Levin would test the boats on the north property.

Levins lawyer, Jovan Lausterer, said the complaints prompted the process of acquiring a conditional use permit.

There are some concerns with respect to the specific use of the property, Lausterer said. Those issues, as we discussed in the planning commission meeting, will be addressed in the next phase of this, which is the conditional use permit process.

Levin said it makes sense that the volume seemed louder when he tested the boats on the south end, and he says he moved operations back up to the north end of the property once people complained. When hes not running the airboats outside, he said he works inside of the insulated Quonset hut.

I aim to get along, Levin said. Im willing to do (some) changing to make the people that are complaining be happy with what were doing.

The majority of people complaining, he said, are new residents who have moved to Wann from bigger cities like Omaha.

Theyre the only ones that are against my business, he said. Everybody in town absolutely supports my business.

Included in Levins zoning change application were letters from two nearby residents who said Levins noise is not excessive and that he runs the airboats at acceptable hours. One letter, from Julia Riecken, said that the airboat noise does not disturb her, even on days when she works from home.

I am still able to have a conversation on the phone or talk with my kids without any noise affecting us, Rieckens letter reads.

Levin and Lausterer said two Nebraska Game and Parks game wardens performed decibel readings while Levin tested his airboats.

(The first reading) shows that its not nearing any kind of unacceptable decibel reading, based on that result, Lausterer said.

He said he does not have the results of the second reading, but he says he has been told that the decibel levels were lower than in the first reading.

Tim Croshaw says he thinks the decibel readings were wrong. When Levin tested his boats on the south end of the long parcel, Croshaw said he couldnt have conversations inside his house.

Croshaws wife, Antonette Schneckenberger, said she and Croshaw built a house in Wann in 1998, before Levin started his operation. Her mom lives next door, she said, and has lived there for over 30 years.

Schneckenberger said she has a petition signed by six Wann property owners asking the county to not grant the zoning change to Levins property.

Why? Because nobody should have to listen to airboats running right in front of our house, or even in an entire small town like Wann, on dry land, Schneckenberger said. We, all of us in Wann, have the right to enjoy the peace and quiet of living in the country.

Tasha Gowin, who moved to Wann several years ago from Omaha, read to the board a letter from her lawyer, whom Gowin said was unable to attend the hearing due to illness. The letter said if the land was rezoned as industrial, it would be an instance of unconstitutional spot zoning. It went on to read that this rezoning application serves the interests of the landowner only.

And Mike Wilson, who said he lives 1,400 feet southwest of the Quonset hut on Levins property, can still hear what he called a disturbing amount of noise.

Supervisor Frank Albrecht of Valparaiso was sympathetic to the residents who were unhappy with Levins operation. He suggested and made a motion that the board should send representatives, specifically Wanns supervisor John Zaugg, to visit the property to gather more information about the conflict.

The motion resulted in a 3-3 tie, with Zaugg, Albrecht and Tom Hrdlicka voting yes. Supervisors Craig Breunig, Scott Sukstorf and John Smaus voted no. Board chair David Lutton was absent.

I think were getting ahead of ourselves, Smaus said. Were looking at the conditional use side of it, not the zoning side of it, which is all we (should be looking at) today.

Smaus said that when the board is considering an application from Levin for a conditional use permit, the board will be able to dictate where and when Levin tests his airboats. He also said he was concerned that if the board voted against the zoning change, a long-running small business could have to shut down.

The board later voted on a motion to approve the change of zone from residential to industrial, with five members voting in favor and Albrecht voting against it.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Mitch Polachek said now that the land is zoned I-2 industrial, Levin can apply for a conditional use permit under that zoning designations marine craft production clause.
MEAD  University of Nebraska-Lincoln leaders and private donors gathered last week to mark the official start of construction on the $7.5 million Klosterman Feedlot Innovation Center at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead.

Rain forced the groundbreaking ceremony to be held indoors at the ENREEC offices. Boxes containing soil from the spot where the feedlots will be built were lined up and ceremonial shovels were lifted to record the occasion on Friday, Nov. 4.

The center is named after John and Beth Klosterman of David City, who are among the lead contributors to the project. It will contain 18 open lots and 18 confined pens that will hold 60 head of cattle each.

The new center will contain the Klopfenstein Feeding Technology Center, named after Dr. Terry Klopfenstein, a ruminant researcher and teacher at UNL who died in 2021. Members of the Klopfenstein family were on hand for the presentation and groundbreaking ceremony.

The first feedlot pens were built two years after the former Nebraska Ordnance Plant property was deeded to the university in 1962, according to Doug Zalesky, director of ENREEC.

Klopfenstein was hired in 1965 and began work that had a major economic impact on the Nebraska cattle industry during his 47 years at the university.

Dr. Klopfenstein was a systems thinker before systems thinkers were cool, said Dr. Clinton Krehbiel, head of the UNL Animal Science Department. Terry was a big influence on many of us in this room.

Krehbiel said Klopfensteins legacy will continue with the Feedlot Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art facility that will serve as a test bed for industry partners and for emerging technology. Teaching and research will be done in the commercial-scale feedlot and animal handling facility.

The center will have space for nutritionists, animal and meat scientists, economists, Biosystems engineers, plant and soil scientists, natural resource economists, sociologists and industry partners to move the beef cattle industry into the future, Krehbeil said.

It will create a sustainable future for the industry we all hold dear, he said.

Dr. Mike Boehm, vice chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR), said the center is unique because it will allow private companies to use commercial-sized pens to test ideas and technology.

On our dime, not on (theirs), he said.

The center celebrates a partnership between private industry and public funding. The $7.5 million price tag will be paid for with a combination of private donations, grants and IANR program funds, the university said in a statement released after the center was approved by the Board of Regents last June.

UNL Chancellor Dr. Ronnie Green said the center is being built with all the right things in mind and in a practical, sensible way to serve the needs of the feedlot industry.

Its being built the Nebraska way, he said.

The facility will also have an impact on Saunders County. Zalesky said they will add more staff, bringing the number of employees to 80 in all units when fully-staffed.

The university will also locally purchase more fuel, parts and other items for the facilities near Mead when the new facility is operational.

We try to do as much as we can in Saunders County, Zalesky said.

Once completed, the facility will hold nearly 4,500 cattle in the feedlot research program, Zalesky said, nearly doubling the number on site now.

Plans for the Feedlot Innovation Center began in 2018, but the project was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Zalesky said.

Construction should begin soon, depending on the weather, Zalesky said.

If they can get to do a lot of work in the winter, we could be up and open a year from now, he added.
State Sen. Craig Johnson was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives on Tuesday in a race against first-time Democratic candidate Terry McGovern.

Johnson, a Republican, ran for the House District 67 seat after redistricting put him in the same Senate district as a GOP colleague.

Johnson, 59, of Independence, currently represents Iowa Senate District 32 and won the race with 9,212 votes, or 65.4%, to 4,357 to 34.5% in unofficial results. There were seven write-in votes. A total of 13,476 votes were cast in the race.

District 67 includes part of Buchanan County, all of Delaware County and a small portion of Dubuque County.

We are thrilled to be elected to Iowa House District 67 covering the southern half of Buchanan county, all of Delaware county and Cascade in Dubuque county, Johnson said. The election and the results were made clear by the electors. We will continue to represent House District 67 with the same integrity and passion for Iowa values we have been known for during our six years in the Iowa Senate. We are prepared and ready to serve.

McGovern, 53, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, conceded the election.

Given all the issues faced by all our rural communities as a result of Republican policymaking these past six years, I am not convinced theyre the best options for the next few years, McGovern said. But clearly, the rural public believes otherwise.

He thanked voters who supported him in the uphill race.

Ill say Im grateful for all the support shown to me by the Democrats throughout Delaware, Dubuque and Buchanan counties. Im also thankful for the opportunity to participate in the democratic process and for my kids to be able to see what civic duty looks like.
The Charles City attorney and businessman who reigned supreme in the Republican primary has secured the House District 58 seat, according to unofficial election results Tuesday.

Charley Thomson, 62, won with 7,365 votes, or 59.09%, over Dene Lundberg, 61, a Floyd resident and retired Charles City family consumer sciences teacher, who tallied 40.80% with 5,086 votes.

Hell represent Chickasaw County and parts of Bremer and Floyd counties.

My message resonated with voters, and Im humbled and very grateful, Thomson said.

He added that my opponent ran a very good campaign, and worked very hard at it, while pointing out that he admired her passion and commitment to her cause.

I applaud her for that, he said.

Thomson said his success came from being very clear with voters on issues, not generalisms and letting voters know that if he won, hell represent all voters, and hell really mean that.

Were facing serious issues and have to address them head on, and not run away from them, Thomson said.

Specifically, it was the school choice issue that he felt most resonated with voters, and protecting Iowans from federal overreach.

Going forward hell be canvassing Thursday and will look to continue listening to others.

Legislating is a team sport, and I dont want to get ahead of my skis, Thomson said.

Redistricting created the open seat formerly held by first-term Republican Steven Bradley, who ran in Iowa House District 66.

Thomson previously lost a Republican primary for then-Iowa House District 52 in 2020. Lundberg had never run for public office.

Lundberg jumped into the race after the primaries when the Democratic Party nominated her in the summer.
WATERLOO  Timi Brown-Powers claimed her fifth term as representative for Iowa House District 61 in Tuesdays election.

Brown-Powers, a Democrat, bested Libertarian John Bothwell, grabbing 74% of the vote  6,436 to 2,118 in unofficial results. There were 76 write-in votes.

Brown-Powers, 55, a therapist at MercyOne Medical Center, was first elected to the Iowa House in 2014. It was the first time running for public office for Bothwell, 33, of Waterloo. House District 61 includes southern Waterloo and southeast Black Hawk County.

Jerome Amos Jr., currently a member of the Waterloo City Council, was elected to Iowa House District 62, which includes northern Waterloo, in an uncontested race. He received 5,917 votes and there were 188 write-in votes. The District 62 seat was left open with recent redistricting.

Returning to state legislative offices in uncontested races in the Cedar Valley are Democrats Bill Dotzler of Waterloo in Iowa Senate District 31 (13,278 votes to 420 write-in votes) and Bob Kressig of Cedar Falls in Iowa House District 75 (9,361 votes to 341 write-ins).

Winners of uncontested elections in the region include Republicans Joshua Meggers of Grundy Center in Iowa House District 54 ( 10,792 votes to 159 write-ins) and Chad Ingels of Randalia in Iowa House District 68 (9,902 votes to 158 write-ins). Ingels is an incumbent.
WATERLOO  A new face will join the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors after Democrat Tavis Hall won a seat Tuesday.

Hall received the second most votes after Republican incumbent Dan Trelka. Trelka received 24,657 votes, or 29.16% of the vote, and Hall received 21,089 votes, or 24.94%.

They beat out Republican Dennis Halverson, who received 22.7% of the vote, and Glen Keith, with 22.43%. There were 661 write-in votes. Current board chairman Craig White was running a write-in re-election campaign.

A total of 47,500 ballots were cast, which is 54.43% of registered voters in the county.

Hall, executive director of Experience Waterloo, said he is excited and ready to make good things happen. His first priority once joining the board will be to start the process of reassessing the strategic plan.

Its gonna take time and take community involvement, said Hall, 37. But I know the community is ready for it and Im ready to step up given the opportunity.

He is hopeful everyone who ran for supervisor will continue their service.

Trelka, a former Waterloo police chief and owner of a furniture store, said hes relieved at the election results.

Im humbled that the voters were willing to re-elect me and I wanna do whats in the best interest of the county, said the 58-year-old. It was a decisive victory that validates that Im doing my job for all the citizens.

Although already on the board, he said one of his first initiatives going back is to look at capital projects for public health, such as finding a new director and allocating federal American Rescue Plan funding for facilities.

He said he welcomes his new colleague.

Board of Health moves forward in search of public health director The Black Hawk County Board of Health decided on a consultant to help find the person for the position at a special meeting on Thursday.

Change is always good in my opinion, Trelka said. We can accomplish some pretty neat things and Im looking forward to what we accomplish and what we pursue collectively.

Other county races were uncontested.

Republican Lynda Hintzman won the county treasurer race with 35,054 votes, or 97.9%. There were 752 write-in votes.

Democrat Sandie L. Smith won the race for county recorder with 32,764 votes, or 97.77%. There were 748 write-in votes.

Democrat Brian J. Williams won the race for county attorney with 32,358 votes, or 97.74%. There were 748 write-in votes.
JANESVILLE  Republican Sandy Salmon will serve in the Iowa Senate District 29 seat after beating Democrat Jenn Wolff.

Salmon won with 65%, collecting 17,217 votes to Wolffs 9,089 in unofficial results. There were 17 write-in votes.

Im pretty excited, Salmon said Tuesday upon hearing the news. I had a number of volunteers at the house. You cant do it all by yourself.

Salmon, 67, of Janesville, had been representing House District 63 for a decade but opted to run for Senate District 29 when redistricting pushed Republican Sen. Carrie Koelker into Senate District 33.

Salmon ran largely on her House record and a platform of fiscal responsibility. She emphasized recent work on revamping state income tax and talked about plans to address property tax relief.

She said her top issues include the carbon pipeline planned to be built through the area as well as school choice, critical race theory and sexualization of children in school.

Theres going to be plenty on our plate, she said.

It was Wolffs first time running for public office. She is a 51-year-old a disabilities advocate from Waverly.

Senate District 29 covers Butler, Bremer and Chickasaw counties and most of Floyd County. Salmon carried each county.
CEDAR FALLS -- An international food tasting event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Cedar Falls Community Center, 528 Main St., will provide food and funds to fight hunger in the Cedar Valley.

The Cedar Valley International Food Tasting Event, along with the Unite to Fight Hunger Food Drive, are raising awareness, funds, and food to help fight food insecurity in the Cedar Valley.

Attendees will have the opportunity to experience food from India, Bosnia, the Philippines, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Italy, and Croatia. This event is all you can eat and costs $20 for adults and $10 for kids 10 and under.

Health care workers form Cedar Valley Medical Specialists, MercyOne, Peoples Community Health Clinic, and UnityPoint Health-Waterloo are partnering to host a community wide food drive through Nov. 13. Proceeds from the drive will benefit the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.
WATERLOO -- The Columbus Student Government Team is hosting a Veterans Day Celebration on Friday at Columbus Catholic High School. This yearly event is dedicated to honor those who have served in our military. A free breakfast for veterans will be served at 8 a.m. with a program and photo presentation to follow at 9 a.m. All alumni are encouraged to join us for this special celebration to show our appreciation for their dedicated service.
One shell casing was found at the scene in the 200 block of Fereday Court in Waterloo. He was later arrested at the Kwik Star in Janesville.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mike Ezell has defeated a Democrat and a Libertarian candidate in a south Mississippi congressional race, allowing Republicans to retain control of the seat.

Ezell defeated Democrat Johnny DuPree and Libertarian Alden Patrick Johnson in the southern 4th District. Ezell is the sheriff of coastal Jackson County. DuPree is a former Hattiesburg mayor and was the 2011 Democratic nominee for governor.

In June, Ezell defeated six-term Rep. Steven Palazzo for the GOP nomination. Ezell criticized Palazzo for proxy voting  not showing up in person to vote in the House but allowing another member to vote in his place.

The Office of Congressional Ethics said in 2021 it found substantial reason to believe Palazzo abused his office by misspending campaign funds, doing favors for his brother and enlisting staff for political and personal errands. His spokesperson at the time, Colleen Kennedy, said the investigation was based on politically motivated false allegations.

1st DISTRICT

Republican Rep. Trent Kelly won another term in north Mississippis 1st District. He defeated Democrat Dianne Black, a business owner who said she wanted to expand access to health care and fight climate change.

Kelly is a former district attorney who first won the congressional seat in a 2015 special election.

2nd DISTRICT

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson was facing the same Republican he defeated in 2020, military veteran Brian Flowers.

Thompson is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and has led the House investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has been in office since winning a 1993 special election in western Mississippis 2nd District.

Flowers said this year that Thompson is trying to intimidate American patriots with the Jan. 6 investigation.

3rd DISTRICT

Republican Rep. Michael Guest defeated Democrat Shuwaski Young in central Mississippis 3rd District. Guest is a former district attorney, and he first won the congressional seat in 2018. He campaigned on opposing abortion rights and supporting border security.

Guest said Tuesday that if Republicans take control on Capitol Hill, you'll see Congress serve as a check and balance on the administration. He said Republicans want to rein in federal spending and clear the way for more oil drilling offshore and on public lands.

Young is a military veteran who campaigned on supporting abortion rights and protecting Medicare and Social Security.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  Oklahomas Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt held off a tougher-than-expected challenge to his reelection on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Joy Hofmeister despite millions of dollars in attack ads against him.

Stitt, 49, was aided in part by a late infusion of advertisements from the Republican Governors Association that linked Hofmeister to President Joe Biden, who lost every one of the states 77 counties in the 2020 presidential election and remains unpopular in the state. The ads also criticized Hofmeister, the states superintendent of public schools who switched parties to run against Stitt, for supporting a series of tax increases in 2018 that helped fund pay raises for teachers.

Hofmeister, 58, had been blasting Stitt on the campaign trail for his voucher-style plan to divert public education money to private schools, an issue that concerned voters in deep-red rural swathes of the state with few private-school options for students.

But Stitt, a wealthy mortgage company owner who dumped nearly $2 million of his own money into his campaign in the closing weeks, told voters he was making progress on his promise of four years ago to improve the states low rankings in many quality-of-life indicators. The loans to his campaign boosted his total fundraising haul to more than $10 million, more than triple the $3.1 million raised by Hofmeister.

He boasted of record-level state savings and funding for public schools under his watch, and the states rapid emergence from pandemic-related closures that helped the economy rebound quickly and keep the states unemployment rate low.

The turnaround that you elected me to do, it is working, Stitt told a crowd of more than 300 gathered at the Crossroads megachurch on Oklahoma Citys south side for a rally last week with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. A separate rally was held with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in Tulsa.

Jessica Perez, 46, cast her ballot Tuesday for Stitt at Oklahoma Christian University and said his oversight of the state during the pandemic appealed to her.

It didnt make sense to me that you could go to Home Depot, but not to church, Perez said. I believe hes an effective leader. What he says hes going to do, he does.

Stitt also survived a barrage of blistering attack ads from dark-money groups, which dont have to report their donors and spent millions since the June primary hammering his school-voucher plan. Other ads highlighted his mass release of prisoners and a series of scandals in his administration, including a lucrative no-bid contract with a barbecue restaurant, misspent pandemic relief funds for education and his plans to build a new state mansion.

The dark-money attacks on Stitt and other media boosting Hofmeister followed ongoing feuds Stitt has engaged in with many of the 39 federally recognized Native American tribes, another issue Hofmeister hits hard on the campaign trail.

Independent Ervin Yen, an Oklahoma City anesthesiologist and former Republican state senator, and Libertarian Natalie Bruno of Edmond also were running on Tuesdays gubernatorial ballot.

Follow APs coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.
PHOENIX (AP)  Democrat Katie Hobbs led Republican Kari Lake in the race for Arizona governor, but the battle for control of the crucial battleground state was too early to call.

Lake, a former television news anchor, says she would not have certified the state's 2020 election results. Her television-ready demeanor, confrontations with journalists and combative message for Democrats made the first-time candidate a rising star on the right whose future in national politics is already being debated.

Hobbs, Arizona's secretary of state, rose to prominence defending the integrity of President Joe Biden's victory in Arizona, where he eked out the smallest margin of any state he won two years ago.

The results will be a window into the pulse of the electorate in Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold that turned toward Democrats during the Trump era. They'll provide insight into whether Bidens success here in 2020 was a onetime event or the onset of a long-term shift away from the GOP.

Republicans nominated for statewide offices a slate of Trump-endorsed candidates who have promoted falsehoods about the 2020 election as a centerpiece of their campaigns. All trailed their Democratic rivals in initial election returns, which reflected mail ballots received ahead of the election. Those margins were expected to diminish as more ballots were counted.

Hobbs and other Democrats told supporters they were encouraged by the early returns but warned a long slog of counting was ahead.

I have every confidence that the counties administering this election conducted a free and fair election, and their results will be accurate, Hobbs told supporters gathered in Phoenix. But they will take time, so prepare for a long evening and a few more days of counting.

Mail ballots returned Tuesday or shortly before were not yet reported and will be counted in the coming days.

With razor-thin margins between the parties, it often takes days to know the results of key races in Arizona, and its not uncommon for the candidate leading on election night to end up losing when all votes are counted.

Trouble with vote-tabulation machines at about 25% of polling places in Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous, generated criticism on social media, but officials said every vote would be counted.

The election comes as Biden struggles from lagging approval and Trump strongly hints that he will run again in 2024.

With such high stakes, Arizona has been central to efforts by Trump and his allies to cast doubt on Bidens victory with false claims of fraud. Trump-endorsed candidates who deny the legitimacy of Biden's victory won GOP primaries up and down the ballot and could take control of offices with a central role in elections.

Nine in 10 voters say the future of democracy in the U.S. is a factor in their voting decisions, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,200 voters in Arizona. They were evenly split between the two candidates for governor. Roughly 4 in 10 say it is the single most important factor.

A majority  roughly 7 in 10 voters  say they are confident that votes will be counted accurately in this years election. Among these voters, about 6 in 10 backed Hobbs. Among the roughly one-quarter who said they were not confident that votes would be counted accurately, about 8 in 10 backed Lake.

Lake predicted she will make up the gap and overtake Hobbs, reminding her supporters that she was down in early returns from the GOP primary before overtaking her establishment-backed rival as more ballots were counted.

God did not put us in this fight because it was going to be easy, Lake told supporters at a GOP celebration in Scottsdale. Not one thing that weve had to go through has been easy.

She condemned the printer mishap in Maricopa County, calling it another stark reminder that we have incompetent people running the show in Arizona and pledging that her first line of action is to restore honesty to Arizona elections.

Hobbs has cast the race for governor as a contest between sanity and chaos, branding Lake as seriously dangerous" and drawing attention to the Republican's opposition to abortion rights.

Hobbs, a social worker before turning to politics, was weighed down by her decision not to debate Lake. She ran a cautious campaign, sticking largely to scripted and choreographed public appearances.

Lake brought people dressed as chickens  and sometimes live hens  to campaign events to make the case that Hobbs was scared to confront her. She also highlighted a successful discrimination lawsuit brought by a Black woman who was fired as a policy adviser to state Senate Democrats while Hobbs was the top Senate Democrat.

Lake is well known in much of the state after anchoring the evening news in Phoenix for more than two decades. She ran as a fierce critic of the mainstream media, which she said is unfair to Republicans.

Polished in front of the camera and comfortable in front of a crowd, Lake built an enthusiastic following and drew international media attention.

She was endorsed by Trump, who admired her ability  only slightly exaggerated  to respond to any question with a message about fixing elections. Lake has repeatedly refused to say that she would accept the results of the election if she loses.

Nearly half of Arizona voters say the economy is the most important issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast. And nearly all voters said inflation was a factor in their votes, with about half saying it was the single most important factor.

For about two-thirds of Arizona voters, the U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade, the ruling that recognized a constitutional right to abortion, was an important factor. Those voters overwhelmingly favored Hobbs over Lake.

Federal and state election officials and Trumps own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. The former presidents allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts.

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.

Associated Press writer Terry Tang contributed to this report.
Threats to Iowas election security appeared to be minimal as of Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State Paul Pate said in an Election Day press conference from the State Emergency Operations Center.

Were seeing a calm, which is a good sign, he said. Well be here until the polls are closed, and well continue monitoring everything thats happening.

As Iowans cast their ballots Tuesday, a team of officials from various state and federal agencies was working to monitor threats to election security.

The team included about 50 people from agencies including the National Guard, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, and the Department of Homeland Security, Pate said.

The center, housed in an Iowa National Guard building in Johnston, was the nerve center for election security Tuesday, Pate said. The team had prepared for cybersecurity threats, major storms or fires at polling sites, physical threats and civil unrest, he said.

Pate, a Republican, said Iowas cybersecurity continued to improve, and all 99 counties election offices were working with his office on cybersecurity for the first time this year. The Office of the Chief Information Officer was monitoring for attempts from foreign actors or others to hack election websites or interfere with the state or counties internet systems, Pate said.

We all have the things to keep us from being tampered with, whether it be malware or someone hacking in, which means were now safe on all fronts, he said.

Pate, whose office has put out communications seeking to correct myths about Iowas elections, has reiterated ahead of the election that Iowas vote tabulators are not connected to the internet. He said hes confident a bad actor could not affect Iowas actual vote, but hacking or taking down election websites could instill doubt about the elections integrity.

They will get into (websites) and do some funny business on them and then the public looks at that and goes, Oh my gosh, so-and-so got hacked. Is my vote safe?

Pate pointed out other measures he said are keeping Iowas election secure:

Iowa requires voter ID.

Officials test vote tabulators before the election.

Counties conduct post-election audits, and Pates office added a second audit this year.

Iowans vote on paper ballots, and tabulators are not connected to the internet.

The last thing I want is for Iowans to wake up the day after the election and look at those results and not believe in them, not to have confidence in them, Pate said. Because if that happens, our republic has fallen.

Pate was on the ballot Tuesday, facing a challenge from Democratic Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, who has accused Pate of backing attempts to make voting more difficult in Iowa.

Members of Pates own party, including Anne Fairchild in Cedar Rapids and Brad Sherman in Iowa County, have cast doubt on election security and spread the discredited claim there was mass voter fraud in 2020. If a candidate challenges the integrity of Iowas elections after the election, Pate said, he will put every effort into explaining to them the facts.

Pate also said his office was investigating an incident in Sioux City, in which voters claimed a worker at the auditors office was making comments to voters about Public Measure 1  which would enshrine in Iowas constitution the right to keep and bear arms and require strict scrutiny for any law related to gun control  during the early voting period.

The Iowa Firearms Coalition said in a Monday press release that a polling staffer had told voters that voting yes on the measure would allow felons to have guns, according to the Sioux City Journal. The Woodbury County auditor and sheriff told The Journal they had opened an investigation into the incident.

He said he anticipated the office would see other hiccups among poll workers not following protocol on Tuesday, but he said the office was doing pretty well on that front as of Tuesday afternoon.

It disturbed me immensely, and we have reached out, and we are investigating it, he said. And weve reminded all the county auditors again, because we do cover this in our training, that poll workers and staff are not to be commenting on constitutional amendments or candidates.
Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine

(9 November 2022)

Part I (See Part II)

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

In Kupyansk direction, the active actions of Russian troops, artillery fire and air strikes repulsed the attack of the reinforced motorised infantry battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of the settlement of Kuzemovka (Lugansk Peoples Republic). In total, 60 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, as well as two infantry fighting vehicles, and five pickup trucks.

In Krasny Liman direction, the enemy, with the forces of four motorised infantry and one tank company, reinforced by foreign mercenaries, attempted simultaneous attacks on the positions of Russian troops in the directions of Makeyevka, Ploshchanka, Golikovo, and Kremennaya (Lugansk Peoples Republic). Artillery units, heavy flamethrower systems, and strikes of army aviation thwarted the enemys units and pushed them back to the initial lines.

Moreover, preemptive fire damage prevented the attempts of the offensive of two company tactical groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Chervonopopovka and Stelmakhovka (Lugansk Peoples Republic).

In Krasny Liman direction, in total, up to 100 Ukrainian troops and mercenaries, one tank, two armored fighting vehicles, a Grad MLRS combat vehicle, and three pickup trucks were destroyed during the day.

In the South Donetsk direction, the enemy attempted to counterattack in order to impede the offensive efforts of Russian troops. By inflicting fire damage and actions of assault groups in the areas of Novomikhailovka, Pavlovka, and Vremevka (Donetsk Peoples Republic), the AFU units were dispersed and thrown back to their original positions. Over 80 Ukrainian personnel and militants, one tank, six armoured fighting vehicles, and three pickup trucks were eliminated.

In the NikolayevKrivoy Rog direction, the AFU forces of up to three company tactical groups made unsuccessful attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops in the direction of Kachkarovka, Pyatikhatki, and Sadok (Kherson region). Following the fire attack, the opposing forces were scattered and fled, having suffered considerable losses. Furthermore, during the day, Russian troops detected and repulsed attempts by twelve AFUs sabotage and reconnaissance groups to break through the rear areas of defence. In total, up to 110 Ukrainian personnel, eight armored fighting vehicles, and 14 vehicles were destroyed in this direction.

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine #report

@mod_russia_en

Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine

(9 November 2022)

Part II (See Part I)

Operational-Tactical and Army Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery engaged two command posts of the AFU and foreign mercenaries in the areas of Novovoskresenskoye (Kherson region) and Zagryzovo (Kharkov region), as well as 59 artillery units in firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 181 areas.

In the area Dnepropetrovsk, an ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with multiple rocket launchers HIMARS, Olkha, as well as artillery ammunition was eliminated.

Fighter Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces has shot down one Mi-8 helicopter of Ukrainian Air Force near Zaselye (Nikolayev region).

Furthermore, Russian Air Defence destroyed five drones in Kalininskoye (Kherson region), and Dobrolyubovka (Kharkov region).

In addition, 25 HIMARS MLRS were shot down in the areas of Zelenovka, Antonovka, Novokaira, and Novaya Kakhovka (Kherson region), Krasnorechenskoye and Stakhanov (Lugansk Peoples Republic), two Olkha projectiles in the area of the settlement of Korsunka, as well as three HARM anti-radiation missiles in the area of Novaya Kakhovka (Kherson region).

 In total, 332 airplanes and 172 helicopters, 2,470 unmanned aerial vehicles, 388 air defence missile systems, 6,482 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 885 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,564 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 7,152 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine #report

@mod_russia_en

WtR
As of 6:00 AM Eastern Wednesday morning, Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada remain uncalled. All other races have been called for the incumbent party. This includes Wisconsin, where our results provider, Decision Desk, has called it for Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. That race has not yet been called by the Associated Press.

In Alaska, we know the winner will be one of two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski or Kelly Tshibaka. What isn't yet known is whether the leader will exceed 50%, or whether the election will be decided via the ranked choice tabulation later this month.

Republicans replacing their party's retirees include Katie Britt (AL), Eric Schmitt (MO), Ted Budd (NC), J.D. Vance (Ohio) and Markwayne Mullin (OK special). For the Democrats, it is John Fetterman (PA) and Peter Welch (VT).

Battle for Control

See Live Map >

Including Alaska, Republicans have 49 seats, Democrats 48. The party that wins two out of three of Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada will control the Senate next year.

Note that if no candidate gets a majority in Georgia - which seems more likely than not - there will be a runoff on December 6. That means that if the parties split Arizona and Nevada, control of the Senate will come down to a Georgia runoff, just as it did in 2020.

Live results for the uncalled states are below.

As noted above, we know Republicans will hold Alaska, we just don't know which Republican.
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

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Doosan Enerbility announced that its Vietnamese subsidiary Doosan Vina has signed a memorandum of understanding with rsted on Cooperation for the Supply of Offshore Wind Turbine Substructures.





With the signing of this MoU, Doosan Vina will be supplying the monopile foundations, which are substructures of offshore wind turbines, for rsteds global offshore wind power projects that are currently underway in Southeast Asia, the Asia Pacific region and Europe.



Doosan Vina, which was founded in 2007, has gained recognition over the years for its expertise in manufacturing large structures by successfully supplying the main equipment of power plants and chemical plants as well as port cranes, to clients in over 30 countries, said Hyotae Kim, CEO of Doosan Vina. He added, Through this partnership with rsted, we plan to expand our foothold in not only the Vietnamese offshore wind power market, which is forecast to grow to 7GW by 2030, but a wider global wind power market.



Doosan Enerbility, which started the offshore wind power business in 2005, also offers 3.3 MW and 5.5 MW wind turbine models, while a 8 MW model is currently undergoing the commissioning process in Younggwang, South Jeolla province to meet the scheduled commercial launch date at the end of this year.







A second wind turbine shop was built last year by Doosan to enable the manufacturing of the 5.5 MW model, and other various efforts were made to expand the offshore wind power business, such as restructuring and upsizing the wind power organization and planning the development of ultra-large next generation models.





rsted is building a portfolio of offshore wind farms in Europe, the US and the Asia-Pacific in an effort to be carbon-neutral by 2025. Currently it has approximately 8.9 GW offshore wind in operation, approximately 2.2 GW under construction, and another almost 11 GW of awarded capacity under development. By 2025, rsted aims to power 30 million people worldwide with energy produced by its offshore wind farms.

For more information on offshore wind farms worldwide,

click here

.
RPS support New Zealand project

RPS revealed it is working on the first phase of a potential offshore wind farm development off the west coast of New Zealand / Aotearoa.



Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund are working to bring offshore wind to South Taranaki and support New Zealands renewable energy targets. The venture has identified a potential site for an offshore wind farm in the South Taranaki Bight.



Project Director Tamara Al-Hashimi said RPS will help determine whether the site is suitable for development. Tamara commented: Well be developing a marine ecology survey program that will include a review of existing data and knowledge of the region to identify potential gaps and species / habitats that could be at risk of impacts from offshore wind development, she said.



Well be looking at the distribution and seasonality of marine mammals, seabirds and shorebirds, fish, invertebrates and benthic habitats and communities across the proposed project area and surrounding region.



At this early stage, its important to work closely with local iwi and key stakeholders. We want to collaborate effectively so we can design and develop the marine ecology studies needed to undertake environmental assessments and inform an offshore wind farms approval.



RPS will draw on its in-country knowledge as well as its extensive global expertise in offshore wind to design the study program.



RPS' local team includes Project Manager Lance Furniss, who said: "I spent a number of years working on offshore wind developments in the United Kingdom, including on Hornsea Project One. Im looking forward to this opportunity to bring my knowledge and experience back home.



And while the industry is just beginning here in New Zealand, there are positive signs about the potential of offshore wind, particularly off South Taranaki.




When Vibeke Arentz and her husband, Jeff Kacirk, decided to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to the south of France four years ago, it was a chance for the couple to immerse themselves in a place that fascinated them. They have not been disappointed.



The culture, the history, the cuisine, the scenery, the affordability, exploring the variety of Frances many different regions, learning and speaking French, how friendly and helpful people are here and the amazing community of friends that we have developed here in such a short time are all thrilling, says Arentz, 58.

They bought a home in Carcassonne and converted it into three apartments, living in one and renting out the other two to supplement their retirement income. We love exploring France and also are happy to have all of Europe just a short distance away, she says.

While several Caribbean and Central American countries have programs specifically geared to attract U.S. retirees, older Americans are increasingly looking to relocate to Europe, according to Kathleen Peddicord, founder and publisher of Live and Invest Overseas, which produces books, newsletters and online guides on moving and doing business abroad.

These days, Europe makes a lot more sense, as the dollar is stronger versus the euro, she says. The other thing is that in the past five or seven years, Europe also has begun to make residency easier.

If youre weighing such a move, youll need to know the ins and outs of establishing legal residency, buying property as a foreigner and obtaining health insurance, as Medicare generally doesnt cover care outside the U.S. You have to prepare, and you have to come with full knowledge of what the challenges are, Peddicord says.

Lief Simon, Live and Invest Overseas real estate editor, recommends hiring an immigration lawyer in your target country, preferably one who speaks English and has worked with other Americans, to make sure you dont miss any steps that can end up costing you.

Youll want trustworthy advice on how money moves such as buying a home could affect your tax situation. The number one thing is to talk not to your own tax guy back in the States but to find a tax guy in the country, says Doris Speer, president of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas.

Here are the basics for establishing yourself in eight popular European destinations for American retirees.

Plateau de Valensole, Provence, France Getty Images

France

French culture, history, fine cuisine and world-renowned wine are major attractions, as are landscapes ranging from mountains to medieval villages to glitzy beach towns.

Residency: The best visa category for an American retiree is a long-stay visitor visa, which is required if you plan to be in the country for more than 90 days, says Daniel Tostado, an immigration attorney in France. Youll need to show proof of retirement income thats at least equal to the French minimum wage, which was a little less than 20,000 euros a year in 2022, according to Expatica, a resource site for English-speaking expatriates.

The French government website has information in English about long-stay visas. One such visa, called a VLS-TS, doubles as a residence permit and is validated by French immigration authorities within your first three months in the country. With other visas, you may need to obtain a residence permit within two months of arrival at the prefecture, or government office, in the area where you live.

Buying property: There are no restrictions on foreign retirees buying property, according to the online real estate marketplace Properstar. However, obtaining a mortgage from a French bank may be complicated for Americans.

Health care: Once youve established residency, you can sign up for Frances national health insurance system, LAssurance Maladie.

Kastellorizo, Dodecanese Islands, Greece Getty Images

Greece

Dotted with ancient landmarks, scenic villages and sunny islands, and boasting the longest coastline in the Mediterranean Basin, Greece offers a Mediterranean lifestyle at a low cost, according to Live and Invest Overseas.

Residency: Go to the nearest Greek consulate in the U.S. to apply for a long-term visa, which lets you stay in Greece for up to a year. Once in the country, you can apply for a residence permit, which requires proof of at least 2,000 euros a month in income.

Buying property: Foreigners can buy real estate. The Golden Visa program allows anyone who buys property worth more than 250,000 euros to apply for residency without having to come to Greece first.

Health care: Foreign workers who pay social insurance contributions can join the public health care system, but as a retiree, youll need to purchase private coverage.

Kenmare, Ireland Getty Images

Ireland

Many Americans feel an ancestral connection, but the Emerald Isles picturesque rural villages, spectacular rugged coasts and deep musical and literary traditions are draws no matter your heritage.

Residency: Ireland has financial requirements for people who want to settle there, to ensure theyll be able to support themselves. You must provide documentation, certified by an Irish accounting firm, that shows an individual income of at least 50,000 euros per year and access to additional emergency savings, generally at least 100,000 euros.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has established an Office of Native American Partnerships to better represent and advocate for tribal communities.

In announcing the initiative Oct. 4, the SSA said the new office would elevate and centralize efforts to administer programs and policies affecting what it terms American Indians and Alaska Natives, or AIAN, and serve as Social Securitys primary point of contact on tribal matters.

The office will provide a platform to further develop and maintain a strong presence in Indian Country to ensure effective delivery of program services for people with disabilities, retirees and elder populations, Nancy Berryhill, SSAs tribal consultation official, says in a statement to AARP.

Organizations representing the AIAN population are closely watching an initiative aimed at addressing what they say are long-standing inequities and neglect.

The leader of a nonprofit focused on improving health in Native American communities says the new office reflects overdue attention to groups that historically have been underrepresented in the Social Security system and have an innate reluctance to trust government officials due to historical injustices.

The federal government has been awakened to the awareness that American Indians have been neglected, says Tom Anderson, executive director of the Oklahoma Citybased Association of American Indian Physicians.

Signs of change

Native tribes are federally recognized as sovereign nations. Anderson, a Cherokee Nation citizen who grew up on Oklahomas Osage Nation reservation, says that in the past, government agencies that established tribal liaisons often tapped nontribal individuals who did not get it to lead the outreach.
Alamy Stock Photo

Day 1: Annapolis

Start your adventure in the sailing haven of Annapolis, home to the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) and Marylands capital. Brick-paved streets lined with vintage storefronts and 18th century brick houses give this bayside city of 41,000 people all kinds of charm.

Begin with a walking tour of the USNA downtown for a peek at a midshipmans life. See the nautical-themed stained-glass windows at the Naval Academy Chapel, the crypt of hero John Paul Jones, lauded as the father of the U.S. Navy, and more. Ninety-minute tours depart from the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center hourly from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. Also on campus, dont miss the Gallery of Ships at the Naval Academy Museum, which has an impressive collection of warship models from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Tour information with enhanced braille descriptions of the grounds is available on loan from the visitor center.

Less than a mile away, the Maryland State House dates to 1779, making it the countrys oldest statehouse still in continual use. Look up to discover the most notable architectural feature of this handsome Georgian structure: the wooden dome, constructed in 1794 without nails; wooden pegs reinforced by iron straps hold it together.

On lively Main Street, a few blocks south, lovingly preserved buildings from four centuries house restaurants, bars, galleries and shops for every budget. At Local by Design, you can buy everything from inexpensive decorative pottery to pricier fine art, all created by local artisans. Kitschy shops sell affordable souvenirs. Annapolis Ice Cream Company is a must-stop for a tasty treat, especially if youre traveling with the grandkids; it has been voted the towns best ice cream for 18 years straight.

As the sun sets, embrace locals favorite pastime: sailing. Take in unparalleled views of Annapolis from aboard the 74-foot Schooner Woodwind on a two-hour Chesapeake Bay sail. Feel the cool breeze in your hair as you smell the salt-tinged aroma of the water. But the schooner isnt wheelchair-friendly, so a better option might be one of the 40-minute sightseeing cruises offered by Watermark on bigger boats with wider gangway ramps and level entrances.

For dinner, indulge in the bays bounty at Boatyard Bar & Grill, a favorite of local sailors across the harbor from downtown in the Eastport district. Try the Open Faced Crab Dip Samich, made with Maryland lump blue crab. The seafood served up in restaurants on this coast isnt necessarily cheap, but its guaranteed to be fresh. Try local merchants in and around the bay area for inexpensive options.

Where to stay: Give a nod to the USNA by booking the moderately priced Graduate Annapolis Hotel downtown, about a mile west of the campus. To celebrate the Navy (and the citys close ties to the water), the property features a nautical theme, and its 215 rooms are decorated in blue and gold, the official Navy colors. ADA-compliant rooms have extra space in bathrooms, closed-caption TVs and audible alarms.


IMARC Conference Awarded Mitchell Hooke the Legend in Mining Award

Sydney, Nov 9, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) 2022 has wrapped up in Sydney, with nearly 8000 delegates, from more than 110 countries hearing from over 500 speakers over three massive days.



The marquee event for the Australasian mining and resources sector was the biggest IMARC yet, with record delegates, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors and a 20% bigger footprint.



Now firmly established as a truly global event, IMARC 2022 brought together industry and government leaders from all over the world, advancing and leading the conversations the world needs for a clean energy future.



More than 800 companies across the value chain were represented on the floor of the world-class International Convention Centre, helping set the agenda for mining and driving global conversation on the future of resources.



And IMARC once again confirmed it was the place to do business, with thousands of meetings and tens of millions of dollars in deals done over the three days.



IMARC Managing Director Anita Richards said she was absolutely delighted with the success of this year's event, following the challenges thrown up by recent global events.



"IMARC 2022 has shown the world that Australia is very much open for business, and that the mining and resources industry is addressing the big challenges and opportunities ahead," Ms Richards said.



"We are incredibly excited to confirm Sydney will once again be hosting IMARC in 2023, following the success of this year's event.



"Mining has never been more essential. A decarbonised global economy depends on it, and our vision is for IMARC to be the place where we bring together industry, government, policy makers and community leaders to lead the conversations the world needs for a clean energy future."



"We are excited to continue facilitating this important conversation about the future of mining right in the heart of Australia's global city."



This year the "2022 Legend in Mining Award" was awarded to Mitchell Hooke.



Mitch Hooke is globally recognised for his in-depth knowledge and strategic leadership in both Australian and global public policy advocacy, and commercial operational practices, spanning over 30 years as a national and international industry leader across the agricultural, food and grocery, and mining industries.



Mitch Hooke is globally recognised for his in-depth knowledge and strategic leadership in both Australian and global public policy advocacy, and commercial operational practices, spanning over 30 years as a national and international industry leader across the agricultural, food and grocery, and mining industries.



Born of the land, educated in its agricultural ecosystems disciplines at the University of New England, and a pioneer of zero tillage farming systems as an agricultural advisor early in his career, Mr Hooke moved to Canberra where he consecutively served as Chief Executive Officer of the Grains, Food and Grocery, and Minerals Councils of Australia, retiring from the MCA and the International Council of Mining and Metals at the end of 2013.



Mitch Hooke was also concurrently actively engaged in commercial enterprise associated with his public policy career as Senior Agricultural Advisor to a commercial rural enterprise servicing the agronomic needs of grains producers across the Darling Downs in Queensland; and as Non-Executive Director of Elgin National Industries (USA), a Chicago-based private equity company of a global group of companies servicing the mining, minerals processing, and bulk materials handling industries in engineering and construction management and industrial plant equipment.



Mitch Hooke was appointed as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) on Australia Day 2016. Mitch Hooke was raised on a sheep property in Victoria's Western District and was educated as a boarder at The Geelong College in Geelong, Victoria. He completed a Bachelor of Rural Science and an Honours Thesis in agricultural industrial politics at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW.



Highlights of IMARC 2022 included:



- The largest showcase of the latest mining and resources technology and innovation in world-class exhibition spaces.



- Welcome to new IMARC friends, including first-time delegations from Saudi Arabia, India and Indonesia.



- Frank and open conversations about the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.



- Solutions-focused sessions on the global challenges around net zero goals, skills shortage, the relentless drive for safety, automation, cultural heritage and community relations.



- A First Nations focus, embracing local cultural heritage, with indigenous leaders.



- A spotlight on the next generation, including speakers and panellists representing the future of the industry.



- Hundreds of Business to Business meetings.



Speakers and panelists included:



- Hon. Madeleine King MP, Minister for Resources, Australian Government



- Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand & Chair, EITI



- HE Bandar bin Ibrahim Khorayef, Minister, Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia



- Hon. Paul Toole MP, Deputy Premier & Minister for Regional NSW, NSW Government



- Hon. Scott Stewart MP, Minister for Resources, Queensland Government



- Tom Koutsanonis MP, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Energy & Mining, Government of South Australia



- HE Khalid Saleh Al-Mudaifer, Vice Minister for Mining Affairs, Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia



- HE Mark Glauser, High Commissioner for Canada in Australia, Government of Canada



- Florence Drummond, Chief Executive Officer, IWIMRA



- Eng. Suliman Bin Khaled Almazroua, Chief Executive Officer, National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP)



- James Agar, Vice President BHP



- Terry Heymann, Chief Financial Officer, World Gold Council



- Mark Robinson, Executive Director, EITI



- Wendy Tyrrell, Executive Director, Development Partner Institute



- Luarna Dynevor, Chair, Barada Barna Aboriginal Corporation



- Kylah Morrison, General Manager - Western Australia & South Australia, METS Ignited



- Kalev Ruberg, Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President Future, Teck



- Vanessa Torres, Chief Technical Officer, South32



- Gavin Wood, Chief Information Officer, Newcrest Mining



- Saud Al Mandil, Vice President, Technology, R&D, and Innovation, Ma'aden



- Carole Cable, Partner, Brunswick Group & Chair, Women in Mining UK



- Adrian Beer



- Sherry Duhe



- Paul McDonald, Victorian Government



- Georgina Beattie, NSW Government





About International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC)





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.


2022 AGM CEO's Address

Sydney, Nov 8, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Symbio Holdings Limited ( ASX:SYM ) is a behind the scenes enabler of voice and messaging communications for over 600 partners globally. Our partners range from domestic retail service providers reselling our white-label Telco-AsA-Service offering; through to certified Cisco and Microsoft partners who leverage our UnifiedCommunications-As-A-Service for enterprises; through to global Tier 1 carriers and global software and application providers who rely on our leading-edge Communications-Platform-As-A-Service products.



While many people have never heard of us, chances are you have all recently used our services as part of your routine interactions with technology.



Symbio was incorporated on November 7, 2002. As Anne mentioned, we have grown to 530 staff globally across 10 countries, with over 6.6 million phone numbers on our proprietary software platform and network, and we carry over 9 billion conversation minutes annually.



Our platform and network powers the voice and messaging communications needs for some of the largest brands on the planet, through to some highly innovative niche applications around Australia and the world.



Many of our partners have been with us for over 10 years - a testament to our proven track record and reputation. Our success is built upon the success of our partners. We invest heavily in our partner relationships, our product quality, reliability, and innovative features. Over the years this has led to strong year-on-year growth of phone numbers on our network. More recently our partners have inspired us to think bigger and expand our offering into the Asia-Pacific region.



Today we operate Tier 1 communications networks in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. We also operate a global voice network spanning over 100 countries with 220 direct routing partnerships, allowing us to send and receive phone calls and messages to every corner of the globe.



This combination of multi-country Tier 1 networks with a proprietary global voice network is unique, meaning we can control the quality, latency and cost of global communications for our partners.



Last year, we announced our Vision 2030 initiative to grow to 100 million phone numbers on our platform. To reach our goal we are planning to build new Tier 1 networks in Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam by 2025. This will eventually expand our Total Addressable Market by a factor of 15-fold to over 500 million people covered by our proprietary Tier 1 network capabilities.



This is a massive expansion in addressable market!



Combined with our established partner relationships, our high-quality product portfolio, and our proven operational track record: we are in a very strong position to grow well into the future. If you've ever used ride share or food delivery service, or been in a Zoom meeting in Australia, then you have probably used our service.



Big global brands such a Google and Cisco rely on Symbio to provide the connection between their software and the local mobile and landline voice networks for their products to function. They are looking for high quality, reliable software that helps them to deliver their communications products to their customers: and that is exactly what we provide, freeing them up to focus on their core business.



We charge them for what they use on a subscription basis so our business scales on predictable recurring revenues as our partners grow. Typically, these customers rent phone numbers from Symbio, and we now have over 6 million hosted on our Australia and New Zealand network today.



That has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 20% over the last 3 years.



You may ask: Why do large global software companies want to work with Symbio?



Very simply - we remove all the technical, regulatory, and logistical complexity of implementing local voice communications capabilities. We provide our product as a simple, quick to consume, lowcode/no-code cloud-based Software-as-a-Service offering, ready to hyper-scale in real time.



Symbio has a unique competitive advantage driven by our proven track record, Tier 1 quality, awesome customer experience and flexible software products.



We are leveraging all of these attributes with our APAC expansion vision where we plan to grow our total addressable market 15-fold with a goal to provision 100 million phone numbers on our network.



We are well on track - with Singapore now live, Malaysia underway, and our announcement of launching Taiwan by the end of FY23.



Of course, we could not embark on such an ambitious growth strategy if we didn't have the resources to back this up. Our business is in a strong position to invest for growth. We are a profitable cash generating business, with sizable undrawn debt facilities and ample cash to fund organic and inorganic growth.



And we continue to demonstrate our operational track record today by re-iterating our EBITDA guidance in the range of $36 to $39 million, with strong organic growth across all three operating units.



Our services are now more in demand than ever before - this is due to a confluence of factors caused by global technology megatrends...





- The first key factor is the future of work - where remote work, digital collaboration and unified communications have become a global necessity. Our software services underpin all these use cases, with some of the largest software companies on the planet leveraging us for their communications services in our current markets of Australia, New Zealand and more recently Singapore.



- The second key factor is the move to enterprise cloud infrastructure - where enterprises and governments are seeking productivity gains through digitization and automation. Our software services provide the essential link between traditional voice networks and cloud-based infrastructure for enterprises.



- And lastly, the rapid growth in demand caused by the digital economies in Asia which are looking to benefit from the first two megatrends, and where there is considerable opportunity for Symbio to be a first mover in providing our services in these markets.



People new to our story often say to me that "Symbio is an overnight success!" And to which I add "that has been 20 years in the making".



Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the incorporation of Symbio in 2002.



- From our humble beginnings in a shared office in Ultimo, we listed on the ASX in 2006 for a princely sum of 20 cents per share.



- We won our first major global customer: Skype in 2008, and I'm proud to say they are still a top customer of ours today.



- In 2015 we took our first steps outside of Australia with the acquisition of the TNZI global trading business, which elevated us to being recognised as a global Tier 1 voice carrier, alongside some of the biggest telcos in the world.



- Soon thereafter we replicated our Australian business model in New Zealand building our domestic network and allowed our partners for the first time to operate a complete transTasman product portfolio from a single point of interconnect in Sydney. A pre-cursor to our Asia pacific strategy.



- In 2019 we acquired Telco-In-A-Box which accelerated our growth as a Telco-As-A-Service operator.



- During the pandemic our capabilities shone brightly as overnight we carried some of the most critical communications workloads across Australia and New Zealand as governments rushed to lock down the country.



- Also during the pandemic, we completed our Singapore domestic network build, launching in June 2021.



- And now we are embarking on an ambitious goal to build domestic networks in 5 additional markets in Asia and capitalise on the post-pandemic demand for cloud-based communications services. A task that only a company with the proven track record and experience of Symbio could hope to address.



I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all our team - past and present - without their hard work and contribution it would not be possible to aspire to these goals. Thank-you. FY22 was the transformational year that has set us up for success into the future. We simplified our business, delivered consistent growth and commenced making strategic investments for our future.



We ended the year having met guidance expectations, with an enviable balance sheet, ready to launch our new strategy.



Today in our newly simplified business, we operate in three business divisions, each targeting a different group of customers, markets and products.



Our Communications Platform-As-A-Service business provides access to phone numbers, voice call termination and messaging, enabling large software companies and service providers to deliver sophisticated voice services.



Our Telco-As-A-Service business provides a marketplace of turn-key telecoms services, enabling small, localised service providers to offer a complete suite of services to their customers.



Our Unified-Communications-As-A-Service business provides quick and easy access to cloudbased enterprise infrastructure from partners like Microsoft, Cisco, Twilio and many others.



Our three business units are seeing strong organic growth, with a heavy focus on recurring revenue streams. Our "as-a-service" model is subscription based, which once integrated by our partners becomes very low touch, highly sticky and critical to their ongoing business operations.



Our Asian expansion strategy is focused on the key digital economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam.



This strategy is driven by our partner's needs, and these are all priority countries for them to roll out their products and services as quickly as possible.



The business case for this strategy is based on leveraging our existing technology, our existing partner relationships, and rapidly increasing the total addressable market... thereby rapidly increasing the growth in phone numbers, and subsequently revenues, margins, and profit. Kate will take you through our investment thesis in more detail a little later.



Singapore is our first market in Asia and has obviously been a steep learning curve. We appreciate that revenues are taking longer to build than we initially anticipated. We are none-the-less very pleased with the progress being made, and the level of investment and commitment shown by our partners building new services on our platform.



We have now signed and onboarded 23 CPaaS partners, and you can see from the logos we are talking credible global players who will deliver meaningful revenues to Symbio as they have done in Australia and New Zealand. We could not attract this quality of partner if it was not for our proven track record and valued relationships.



Our UCaaS launch is also proceeding well with 19 Cisco reseller partners onboarded and able to sell our products. I am pleased to say that as of this morning, we are now up to 1000 enterprise seats in Singapore up from the 750 just a couple days ago.



We have recently revisited our Singapore business case and updated it with our current performance and latest customer pipelines, and I can say it is very much a strong investment case even with the delays we have experienced.



Singapore being our first market in Asia we approached the project in a traditional waterfall methodology. The biggest learning came from our partners, who have encouraged us to engage with them much earlier in our progress to expedite their time to market.



As you can see, this new approach is what we have adopted for Malaysia, and we are already engaging with customers on their roll outs in these markets and have already issued service contracts.



The Malaysian market is a priority market for our customers, meaning they have businesses cases ready to deploy once a suitable offering like Symbio's is available.



The phone number market is highly concentrated with the incumbent, providing us ample opportunity to win market share quickly.



Recently we received formal notice by the Malaysian Government of our "Malaysia Digital" status, which gives Symbio endorsement as a "national strategic initiative" by the Malaysian Government. I cannot emphasize enough the significance of this to our project which is the next milestone to achieving a full license.



We are on track for soft launch in February 2023 and full production in May.



And the next market on our roadmap is Taiwan. Once again Taiwan is a priority market for our customers!



Once again, the phone number market is highly concentrated with the incumbent. We have been doing extensive work on local M&A to support market entry and have a solid deal pipeline which we hope to be able to announce shortly. This will allow us even faster market entry with product expected to be available before the end of the financial year.



On that note, I'd like to hand over to Kate Denton our Acting CFO for a finance update. We are on track to meet the stated FY23 guidance of $36 million to $39 million EBITDA, after 4 months of trading. We're seeing growth from number porting in the CPaaS division, customer wins in the TaaS division and increases in seats in the UCaaS division. We will provide further information on our trading in our H1 results.



At 30 June we had $43M of cash and $60M of undrawn debt, over $100M to fuel our Vision 2030 and Asian expansion strategy. We turned 93% of our EBITDA into cash.



Today, we remain focused on deploying our cash to invest in our strategy, both through capital expenditure on products, market expansion and acquisitions that provide shareholder value accretion.



We are seeing a good pipeline of potential acquisitions, supported by the current conditions in the tech market. We will continue to run a tight assessment criteria over potential acquisitions, ensuring our cash is only deployed to support strategy and earnings accretion. We currently have a strong deal pipeline and do expect some of these to land in the near future.



With recent changes in economic conditions and the effect on the Symbio share price, capital management has been a focus at Symbio. Many of our investors have suggested that now would be an appropriate time to do a share buy back. We have considered this carefully and are confident that the best use of our balance sheet is to support our strategic investments and acquisitions. In a time of economic uncertainty, having funding available will place us in a strong position to take advantage of potential acquisitions.



We continue to invest in organic growth, with capital expenditure on new products and building of new markets to support our Vision 2030 and Asian expansion.



Our planned capital expenditure for the year includes capitalised wages of $16m and third party CAPEX of 7.8m. This is a slight increase from prior years in line with prior year trends. In FY22 we budgeted $16m, but only spent $10m due to hiring challenges. We are not anticipating recruitment issues this financial year. Changes in the tech sector have made headcount more accessible to find, and our talent pooling initiatives in Asia are proving effective. The additional third party spend is primarily to support our Network build in Malaysia.



Our planned capital expenditure covers three main areas - The first is Sustaining engineering - $9.4m (FY22 $8.2m) This is the CAPEX required to keep the existing business performing to a high standard. Sustaining, building scale and continuous improvement of all existing global network assets. This expenditure is consistent with the last several years, despite our footprint continuing to grow - due to improving efficiencies in our operations and software platform.



New projects - $10.0m (FY22 $7.3m)



New products cover automation and enhancements for customer experience and retention as well as new revenue streams. These new products will be leveraged and re-used across all markets, yielding a high return on our investment as we increase our total addressable market beyond Australia.



Asian expansion - $4.4m (FY22 $1.4m)



This is the expected cost of our Malaysia market entry this financial year. We do expect some further capex for Malaysia next financial year, after we start operations as we complete the feature roll-out.



The overall investment for Malaysia is forecast at $8.7m.



We have also announced Taiwan as a market entry for later in this financial year. At this stage we expect to be able to launch in that market through acquisition and are not expecting any significant capex to support the initial launch.



Our customers continue to ramp up in Singapore while we target launching in Malaysia and Taiwan. The business case for our expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and beyond remains strong, and on this slide we summarise why. We've built Symbio in Australia and New Zealand over the past 20 years and today we generate $202m in revenue from those 20 years of investments. There is a limited population in our home markets of 31 million people and a limited phone number addressable market of 88 million numbers.



We have built an enviable position with a high-quality customer base, significant market share, and a consistent phone number growth rate. At 30 June our 3 year phone number CAGR was 20%. Singapore was our first Asian market entry. It has been a learning ground and required additional upfront investment to uplift our software platforms to be a flexible multi-market platform. The total investment is Singapore from inception has been $15.0 million. This includes the initial acquisition, all software development, property, plant & equipment and operating losses until breakeven. The phone number market in Singapore is a modest 7.6 million phone numbers. But we are expecting a strong Return on our investment in Singapore as we grow in this new market with limited competition.



We then extrapolate this business case into the additional markets of Malaysia and Taiwan each with large populations and larger total addressable markets for phone numbers - 120m phone numbers across the two countries and combined populations of 55.9m. The big exception between Singapore,



Malaysia and Taiwan is that, we'll leverage our experience and uplifted software platform such that we can complete market entry for a much smaller investment. As we move into these denser markets in Asia with higher populations and much higher phone number markets, we will achieve an even greater return on our initial investment.



As Rene mentioned, once we complete the Malaysia and Taiwan market entry which is expected by the end of this financial year, we will have grown our population coverage from 31 million to 95 million people, and increased the phone number TAM from 88 million to 215 million numbers in the space of just 2 years.



We have also diversified our Australia and New Zealand business to include Telco-As-A-Service and Unified-Communications-As-A-Service offerings - both of which are synergistic to the phone number business. They assist in generating domestic growth opportunities and increase our total addressable market revenue and margin potential. For the purpose of understanding our Asian expansion business case, we've only considered the business case for CPaaS. We of course do plan to leverage the CPaaS market entry with UCaaS and TaaS products where-ever possible.

Including South Korea and Japan, our Vision 2030 strategy sees us achieving an eventual Total Addressable Market of over 500 million numbers across 8 markets, while leveraging our unique software assets, high quality customer base, and proven 20-year operational track record,



Symbio is a compelling investment.



Global megatrends, including Hybrid Work, digital workers and Enterprise Cloud Adoption rely on access to phone numbers and voice communications, ensuring strong demand for Symbio's products.



We have a Clear vision, expanding our presence across 5 new Asia Pacific regions to reach a larger market and with the goal of reaching 100 million numbers, enabling communications across Asia and the Pacific and creating strong shareholder value.



We have a strong balance sheet, with which to execute our vision. We have $43 million of cash, $60 million undrawn debt and strong operating cash flows. We intend to use this funding to support the execution of our strategy through strategic investments such as market expansion and strategic acquisitions.



We have made a solid start on our Asian expansion. Leveraging our 20 years of investment in Australia we've built a network in Singapore, and continue building a unique, highly defensible business through the creation of Regional Hubs enabling cloud communication. We are excited about the value creation from exposure to these much larger phone number markets.



Our strategic partners are highly credible UCaaS and CPaaS companies. And our customers are long term customers, robust business including enterprise, government, Tier 1 carriers and global software companies.



These customers are excited about our regional hubs and continue to build their businesses in Asia to capitalize on the Global Megatrends of Hybrid Work, Enterprise Cloud Adoption.



We are confident in our focus on executing our Vision 2030 and Asian expansion strategy, while running a profitable, growing Australian business with a proven operational track record.



*To view the AGM Presentation Slides, please visit:

https://www.abnnewswire.net/lnk/ME3U8LOS





About Symbio Holdings Limited





Symbio Holdings Limited (ASX:SYM) is a software company changing the way the world communicates.

Symbio's technology replaces old-fashioned telecom networks with software, making it faster and easier to deliver modern cloud-based communication services, unlocking endless new applications for calling, messaging and phone numbers.

Symbio is the backbone for the global cloud communication industry. Over 500 service providers - from telecom start-ups to the world's biggest software companies - rely on Symbio for the connectivity, quality and expertise they need to solve complex communication challenges.

Headquartered in Sydney, Symbio powers billions of calls and messages each year, owns networks in three countries and employs over 450 staff worldwide.

For more information about Symbio visit www.symbio.global
Distribution of company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndication of important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.


Completion of acquisition of Beetaloo assets from Origin

Sydney, Nov 9, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Tamboran Resources Limited ( ASX:TBN ) ( TBNRF:OTCMKTS ) announce the completion of acquisition of Beetaloo assets from Origin Energy Ltd ( ASX:ORG ).



Highlights



- Tamboran has completed the acquisition of Origin Energy's Beetaloo basin assets.



- The conditions precedent required under the sale and purchase agreement have been satisfied and operatorship of EPs 98, 117, and 76 has transferred to Tamboran.



- Tamboran welcomes ten staff from the Origin team who will play a key role in unlocking the commercial potential of the Beetaloo Basin.



Tamboran Resources Limited Managing Director and CEO, Joel Riddle, said:



"We have successfully completed the acquisition of EPs 98, 117 and 76 from Origin Energy. Tamboran now holds the largest consolidated position in the deepest section of the Beetaloo Basin. The Company raised approximately $195 million to fund the purchase and assist in the commercialisation of these world class assets.



"We welcome the experienced team of professionals from Origin that have joined Tamboran. The team will provide valuable operational and technical expertise, having served in senior operational roles with Origin in the drilling of key wells in the Beetaloo over the last few years.



"We also look forward to working closely with our local NT communities, to generate further jobs and opportunities for all Territorians. Tamboran is very excited to be at the forefront of the development of the significant low-CO2 unconventional gas resource in the Beetaloo Basin, which is expected to bring significant employment and royalties to the Northern Territory, as well as support Australia's national energy security and energy transition."





About Tamboran Resources Limited





Tamboran Resources Ltd (ASX:TBN) is a natural gas company that intends to play a constructive role in the global energy transition towards a lower carbon future by developing low CO2 unconventional natural gas resources in the Beetaloo Sub-basin within the Greater McArthur Basin in the Northern Territory of Australia. Tamboran's key assets are a 25% working interest in EP 161 and a 100% working interest in EP 136, EP 143 and EP(A) 197 which are located in the Beetaloo Sub-basin.
John Allen, a Democrat, has been elected sheriff of Bernalillo County, beating out Republican Paul Pacheco and Libertarian Kaelan Ashby Dreyer.

The 47-year-old said he is proud to be the first Black sheriff elected in the county.

Journal Pollster Brian Sanderoff called the race for Allen a little after 9 p.m.

With all vote centers reporting late Tuesday, unofficial results showed Allen had 54% of the vote, Pacheco had 42% and Dreyer had 4%.

Allen spent the evening at an election event alongside his cousin, Laura Montoya, who was winning her race for State Treasurer.

I feel awesome, Im excited, Allen, a former Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office deputy, said Tuesday night. I have the honor and privilege of taking the seat. Its about the citizens of Bernalillo County so for them to afford their trust in me means the world to me.

After campaigning on the need to reform the sheriffs office and contending that he was pushed out for disagreeing with sitting Sheriff Manual Gonzales, Allen said hes ready to bring needed change, starting immediately. Gonzales could not seek reelection because of term limits.

Were a victim, all of us, of this crime and, as the chief law enforcement officer, thats something I need to address immediately  not on Jan. 1, Allen said. That starts tomorrow. Thats something we will be working on and making plans for.

Both Allen and Pacheco are veteran law enforcement officers who grew up in Albuquerque.

Allen spent 19 years with BCSO and four with New Mexico State Police and is a lead instructor at the Central New Mexico Community College law enforcement academy.

Pacheco, 58, was with the Albuquerque Police Department for 27 years before being elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 2013. In 2017, he was appointed deputy Cabinet secretary for the Corrections Department and then became deputy director of the Security Threat Intelligence Unit.

Dreyer  a 21-year-old activist and farmer  has never served in law enforcement and told the Journal he was running as a protest candidate.

In an incident that made national news last year, Dreyer was arrested amidst a scuffle over a so-called Dongcopter  a drone with a phallic object attached to it  during a mayoral campaign event for Sheriff Gonzales.

Dreyers friends had interrupted the event with the offending drone. Then, when it was grabbed out of the sky by the establishments owner, Dreyer tried to get it back, landing a glancing blow on Gonzales arm. He was charged with petty misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor resisting an officer, but the case was dismissed when prosecutors did not appear for hearings.

The race for Bernalillo County sheriff had grown contentious in its final stretch, with Pacheco airing ads calling Allen a dirty cop and Allen accusing Pacheco of colluding with Sheriff Gonzales.

Allen had been sued for an unlawful search when he was a rookie officer with State Police  an incident he has said he learned from.

In June, Gonzales submitted seven misconduct reports to the Law Enforcement Academy board appearing to allege that Allen had committed overtime abuse as a sergeant several years ago. However, a Department of Public Safety spokesman said that, because the allegations were older than 90 days and details were limited, the board could not investigate.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham turned away a spirited challenge from Republican Mark Ronchetti to win reelection to a second term as governor, beating back attacks focused on crime, education and the states economy.

In a victory speech at an Albuquerque hotel ballroom, the Democratic governor said New Mexico voters had rejected a GOP-led political movement fueled by fear and division.

The weather forecast for New Mexico is four more years of progress  four more years of rebuilding our beloved state, Lujan Grisham said in a thinly-veiled reference to Ronchetti, a former KRQE-TV meteorologist.

Amid chants of four more years and with her husband, brother and adult daughters alongside her, she also vowed to work to reduce poverty rates, improve public schools and expand child care programs, saying, You guys know me, Im relentless.

The contest between Lujan Grisham and Ronchetti was a combative one, especially in its final stages, with the GOP candidate blasting the governor for being out of touch with New Mexicans daily struggles with high crime rates and rising costs.

Lujan Grisham, for her part, criticized Ronchetti for lacking the policy chops to handle complex issues and for seeking to restrict New Mexicans access to abortion services.

This years contest was much closer than four years ago, when Lujan Grisham easily beat Republican Steve Pearce to win election as governor.

According to unofficial results, Lujan Grisham held a six-point lead over Ronchetti with more than 660,000 votes cast in the race. Libertarian candidate Karen Bedonie trailed far behind the two leading candidates with about 2% of the votes.

Ronchetti, joined by his wife and eldest daughter, said in a speech to supporters shortly after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday that he was unlikely to win the race. He called Lujan Grisham later in the evening to acknowledge her victory, a campaign spokesman for the governor said.

The reality is, for our campaign, it will likely come to an end tonight, without winning, Ronchetti said, citing a disconnect between rural and urban New Mexico to a crowd mixed with suits and ties and cowboy hats and baseball caps.

He urged supporters not to give up on New Mexico, saying, If the state of New Mexico draws closer to God, brighter days are ahead.

Record spending

This years race was one of the most expensive races in New Mexico history, as Lujan Grisham reported last week having raised $12.5 million for her reelection bid.

Ronchetti, for his part, raised nearly $9.3 million since announcing his campaign in October 2021.

Both candidates have used that money to launch a steady barrage of TV ads aimed at winning over New Mexicos roughly 1.3 million voters, while also crisscrossing the state in the final sprint to Election Day.

Outside groups have also spent big amounts on this years race for governor, with one political committee linked to the Democratic Governors Association having spent nearly $11.3 million over the past four months alone.

On the other side, a political committee affiliated with the Republican Governors Association spent more than $6.6 million  primarily on TV ads targeting the governor on crime and integrity issues.

Amid the barrage of GOP attack ads, Lujan Grishams campaign was bolstered in the final sprint to Election Day with visits from both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who touted her as a key ally to the Biden administration.

The governor said during her victory speech she received a congratulatory phone call Tuesday night from Biden, whose administration had vetted Lujan Grisham as a possible Cabinet appointee after he was elected president in 2020.

Meanwhile, Ronchetti got a helping hand on the campaign trail from three Republican governors  Ron DeSantis of Florida, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, and Doug Ducey of Arizona  who traveled to New Mexico to stump for the GOP nominee.

A hell of a lot

Lujan Grishams victory makes her the fourth consecutive New Mexico governor to win reelection.

She joins former governors Gary Johnson, Bill Richardson and Susana Martinez in winning reelection to second terms, though each of those ex-governors faced an increase in legislative resistance and declining approval numbers during their second terms.

But Lujan Grisham will enter her second term in January with something those former governors did not have  an unprecedented revenue windfall fueled by increasing oil production in southeast New Mexico.

In her speech Tuesday night, Lujan Grisham, who enjoyed strong support among female voters and Hispanics in a recent Journal Poll, said her administration would continue to invest in clean-energy jobs and climate-focused initiatives.

She also acknowledged the difficulty of the last four years, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires that burned huge swaths of New Mexico this year.

Its been a hard four years, Lujan Grisham said. New Mexicans and New Mexico have been through a hell of a lot.

However, the governor thanked voters for not choosing a new direction in leadership, saying New Mexico had rejected Trumpism and imported politics.

It would be really easy to let the worst instincts take over, Lujan Grisham said. It has happened in America, and frankly, it has happened all around the world. But not in New Mexico, not today.

Journal staff writers Matt Reisen and Olivier Uyttebrouck contributed to this report.
After more than a decade of debate, New Mexico voters overwhelmingly said yes to a constitutional amendment that would boost spending by almost $150 million next year for early childhood education.

Journal pollster Brian Sanderoff said the measure had passed about an hour after polls closed Tuesday.

I feel very excited, said Alma Ortiz, a mother of three, about early results. This is very helpful for me and my family.

As of about 10:45 p.m., the amendment was winning 70% to 30%.

The lobby of Hotel Andaluz roared with approval as news of the race being called was broken to over 100 people attending a watch party. Among them were families and early childhood education officials, who joined in chants of Si se pudo, which means Yes we could.

A gaggle of children held up their index fingers to represent what CHI St. Josephs Children President Allen Sanchez called their newly-found No. 1 status from the passage of the amendment.

We connected the sacred land to the sacred children, Sanchez said.

The amendment would increase the annual distributions from the permanent school fund  the largest component of the land grant permanent fund  by 1.25 percentage points to 6.25% for educational purposes.

Next summer, that would come out to about $140 million for early childhood education and $90 million for public schools in general, according to recent projections.

The change to New Mexicos constitution has been the subject of debate for over 10 years at the Roundhouse. Lawmakers signed off on a constitutional amendment last year, putting the decision in the hands of voters. Congress will still need to sign off on the change, but U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich said he had no doubt it would pass.

Supporters of the amendment say it would provide a more stable funding stream to increase access to early childhood education services, pointing out that the state is falling very much behind in some areas, like providing home visits.

Lets use stable and predictable funding sources to build the prenatal to 5 early childhood system in New Mexico, so that our providers and our families know they can count on it, Early Childhood Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky has said. This is the most critical and rapid period of development in a humans life, and when that beginning is on shaky ground, and its not well supported, we see the outcomes.

Opponents say the additional funds arent needed, in part because state lawmakers already established a trust fund dedicated to early childhood education. They also argued that increasing the annual distribution would mean less money in the long run for New Mexico children than if the 5% rate is left alone.

Its a lose-lose, because we will have more money than  we can responsibly spend, and we harm future children, said Sen. William Sharer, a Farmington Republican.

Other amendments, bonds

Constitutional Amendment 1 wasnt the only measure before New Mexico voters Tuesday.

Two other amendments  both of which were passed by state lawmakers earlier this year  and three general obligation bonds seemed poised to pass.

All told, the amendments and bonds would provide close to $500 million in funds for early childhood education, libraries and higher education projects.

Yes votes for Constitutional Amendment 2 led no votes 65% to 35%, respectively. That measure would change the states anti-donation clause to allow New Mexico to spend public funds on essential utilities like internet, electricity and water.

Supporters have argued that the amendment would boost New Mexicans access to those utilities, especially for rural communities. Opponents argue the exceptions the amendment would provide are too broad, and may not safeguard public dollars.

Constitutional Amendment 3 was also ahead in early returns, with 68% of counted votes supporting the measure. If approved, the amendment would delay the election for appointed judges by at least a year.

State judges are appointed by the governor from a screened list, and are then candidates in the next election. But as it currently stands, judges sometimes have to face election shortly after theyre appointed, which some have said makes it difficult for voters to be able to judge their performance.

Opponents point out that the amendment could mean that appointed judges sit on the bench for up to three years before voters decide on whether to keep them, and that the amendment is unclear about which judges it applies to, which could possibly trigger litigation.

Three general obligation bonds on the ballot also seemed likely to pass, as of 10:45 p.m.

The first, with 66% of yes votes, would give almost $24.5 million to senior centers; the second, with 62% yes votes, would give close to $19.3 million to libraries; and the third, with 61% yes votes, would give nearly $216 million to higher education institutions, tribal colleges and specialized school projects.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury cruised to victory in New Mexicos 1st Congressional District, according to early, unofficial returns from the Secretary of States Office.

Stansbury was up 60% to 40% over GOP candidate Michelle Garcia Holmes, who is making a second bid for the seat. Journal Pollster Brian Sanderoff called the race for Stansbury late Tuesday.

Stansbury was elected to the seat during a special election in 2021 after former Rep. Deb Haaland resigned when she was appointed to the presidents Cabinet.

A trained water resources professional, Stansbury has worked for the Congressional Budget Office and as a committee staffer in the Senate. She has introduced three water-related bills in Congress.

Garcia Holmes, a retired Albuquerque police officer and former chief of staff for the Attorney Generals Office, made her second-straight bid for the seat.

New Mexicos 1st Congressional District includes parts of Albuquerque and also extends southeast to parts of the states oil patch. That redistricting proved to make the district more competitive.

In the 2021 special election, Stansbury cruised to a 60% to 36% win over state Sen. Mark Moores.

She was one of several Democrats waiting to hear results at the Clyde Hotel in Albuquerque.

Stansbury campaigned on her support of abortion rights, threats against democracy and the Democratic bills that were passed under the prior Congress, which included a large-scale infrastructure bill and efforts by Congressional Democrats to secure billions of relief for New Mexicos wildfire season.

Garcia Holmes highlighted her law enforcement experience, which she said is why she was the right candidate at a time when crime is on the rise in Albuquerque and other cities across America.
Unfortunately in New Mexico, too often access to the internet  like access to clean water and electricity  is still a luxury rather than a staple.

If the pandemic taught us nothing else, those shortcomings are an unforgivable status quo. Yet they are the norm for too many, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the New Mexico Legislature and Congress. In 2020 a Legislative Finance Committee report found not one of the states nine broadband goals of 2014 had been completely achieved despite the influx of public dollars. LFC analysts said the state and federal governments had funded about $325 million in broadband projects in New Mexico over a recent four-year period but it was hard to track the money and ensure accountability.

With another $108 million now coming from the federal government via the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Congress passed a year ago, it is essential our state leaders ensure taxpayers finally get an accountable return on investment and more New Mexicans get internet connections. That should be doable, considering lawmakers decided in 2021 to create oversight via the new Office of Broadband Access and Expansion, the Connect New Mexico Council and the connect New Mexico fund. That said, you still need a strategy and people to make it happen.

In September, an LFC progress report said in total, the state has seen an investment of nearly $300 million in state and federal funds for broadband expansion  though very little has been spent. Further, four out of five newly added positions for OBAE remain vacant.

It also said lack of a comprehensive statewide broadband plan could result in noncompliance with state legislation, and a misalignment with federal planning requirements may further delay implementation.

So it is disappointing but of no surprise New Mexico continues to lag in getting its residents online, with the LFC citing data that ranks us 39th in the nation for broadband access in 2022. Though it is a bright spot were up from 49th in 2020, just 89% of New Mexicans are served with high-speed broadband, compared with 96% of the nation. A look at the Geographic Fiber Coverage map within the LFC report shows virtually the entire western half of the state devoid of coverage, and a section points out issues getting connected or getting adequate speeds in population centers like Dona Ana County. As broadband experts say, physical availability of broadband alone does not ensure equitable access. It must be affordable and fast enough to have a meaningful impact on economic development.

New Mexico has funding to make progress on connectivity and a new governance structure to address lack of oversight and accountability. As 2022 comes to a close it is past time to ensure those hundreds of millions of public dollars get New Mexicans up to speed.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Democrats on Tuesday swept the races for attorney general, secretary of state and three other statewide offices as voters reelected two incumbents and appeared to propel three other candidates to a first term, according to partial, unofficial election returns.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver secured support from 54% of voters as she defeated two opponents. As of 11 p.m., she had an 11-point lead over her closest competitor.

Toulouse Oliver thanked supporters for pushing her to a resounding victory.

New Mexicans had a choice for this race  that choice was between returning battle-tested leadership with over 16 years experience and a proven record delivering for New Mexico, she said, or embracing lies, conspiracy theories, and inexperience that would have wreaked havoc on our democracy.

State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard defeated her opponent, Jefferson Byrd, a Republican and member of the state Public Regulation Commission, by a wide margin.

She said she had a strong record in office to run on.

We set ourselves a metric to triple renewable energy, Garcia Richard said, and succeeded three months ago by signing leases for the Sun Zia Wind project, which will produce 3 gigawatts of energy.

Democrats also appeared poised to win three open races for other executive offices.

Attorney general

Democrat Raul Torrez  a familiar face to voters as the district attorney in Bernalillo County  defeated Republican Jeremy Gay to win the attorney generals office.

Torrez had 55% of the vote to Gays 45% in initial election returns.

This election is just the beginning as we embark on the work to make our state a safer and more prosperous community for the future, Torrez said.

The two candidates tangled over crime and other issues this year as they campaigned to succeed Attorney General Hector Balderas, a Democrat who couldnt seek reelection because of term limits.

Throughout the campaign, Torrez, whos worked as a state and federal prosecutor, defended his record and pitched himself as a strong fit for the Attorney Generals Office, which includes civil and criminal divisions.

Gay, a Gallup lawyer and former judge advocate in the Marine Corps, campaigned as someone who would bring a fresh eye to New Mexicos criminal justice system and pursue effective strategies to combat crime.

Its been 32 years since New Mexico last had a Republican attorney general, as four Democrats have served as the states top prosecutor since Hal Stratton held the job from 1987 through 1990.

Torrez has clashed with some members of his own party at the Roundhouse while seeking changes to New Mexicos pretrial detention system. He has supported legislation intended to make it easier to hold defendants accused of certain crimes behind bars while they await trial.

But he also faced criticism on the campaign trail from Gay and other opponents who said he hasnt effectively addressed crime in Albuquerque, where homicides hit a record high 117 last year.

Gay would have been the first African American elected as New Mexico attorney general.

Treasurer

In the race to serve as treasurer, Democrat Laura Montoya had a 6 percentage point lead over Republican Harry Montoya as she sought to win her first statewide office, according to partial election results.

The winner will succeed Democrat Tim Eichenberg, who couldnt run this year because of term limits.

Laura Montoya, a former Sandoval County treasurer from Rio Rancho, withstood a brutal primary campaign this year to win the Democratic nomination and face Harry Montoya, a former Santa Fe County commissioner and Pojoaque school board member.

The candidates arent related.

Auditor

Democrat Joseph Maestas  a member of the Public Regulation Commission who has served as Espanola mayor and as a city councilor in Santa Fe and Espanola  led the race for state auditor by 24 percentage points, according to partial, unofficial returns.

The voters have spoken, and I love what they had to say, Maestas said.

He is set to succeed state Auditor Brian Colon, who is stepping down after an unsuccessful campaign for attorney general.

Maestas had 62% of the vote to 38% for Libertarian Travis Sanchez.
Two longtime Republican legislators from Sandoval County trailed their opponents late Tuesday while Democrats continued to show strength in Albuquerque, where theyve made huge gains since 2018, according to partial, unofficial returns.

Republicans, meanwhile, took leads for open seats in Rio Rancho and southeastern New Mexico.

The results  if they hold up as more votes are counted  wouldnt dramatically change the composition of the House. Democrats now hold a 45-24 edge in the chamber, which also has one independent member.

But many races remained too close to call.

In Sandoval County, Republican Jane Powdrell-Culbert of Corrales trailed her Democratic opponent, Kathleen Cates, a Realtor from Rio Rancho, by 10 points in the early, partial election returns.

The seat was substantially reshaped in redistricting.

Powdrell-Culberts colleague, Republican Jason Harper of Rio Rancho, was locked in a tight race nearby, trailing Democrat Michelle Sandoval, who works for Los Alamos National Laboratory, by 4 percentage points, according to partial returns.

But Republicans had a chance to make gains in two open seats  with Alan Martinez maintaining a 2 point lead over Democrat Ramon Montano for a district covering part of Rio Rancho and Bernalillo and Jimmy Mason holding a massive lead in a southeastern New Mexico district.

ABQ battleground

In Albuquerque, however, Democrats had a chance to keep some or all of the gains theyve made since 2018.

They had leads in several competitive races throughout the Northeast Heights and West Side, including:

 Democrat Marian Matthews had an 8 point edge over Republican Robert Godshall in Northeast Albuquerque.

 Democrat Pamelya Herndon led Republican Nicole Chavez by four points in the Sandia foothills.

 Democrat Natalie Figueroa was up 10 points over Republican Kurstin Johnson in Northeast Albuquerque

 Democrat Joy Garratt had a 6 point edge over Republican Gregory Cunningham on the West Side.

 Democrat Meredith Dixon had a 12 point advantage over Republican Robert Salazar in southeastern Albuquerque.

But one race  for an open seat on the West Side  was incredibly close.

Republican Robert Moss, an attorney and business owner, and Democrat Charlotte Little, who works for a group that advocates for Native American voters, each had 50% of the vote, with the lead flipping back and forth as votes were counted. The seat had been held by a Democrat, giving Republicans a chance to gain ground in Albuquerque.

Moss had a 15-vote edge late Tuesday.

Election Day came after a brutal campaign for control of the House. Republicans hammered Democrats, accusing them of being soft on crime as Albuquerque broke its homicide record last year.

Democrats, in turn, called Republicans a threat to abortion rights and democracy.

Close race in rural NM

Democratic Rep. Candie Sweetser was also locked in a razor-thin contest in southwestern New Mexico, where she and Jenifer Jones each had 50% of the vote.

The rural seat was among Republicans best pickup opportunities in the state House.

Democrats had a 45-24-1 majority in the House in this years legislative sessions. Theyve held somewhere between 38 to 46 seats since 2017.

Republicans had a 37-33 majority from 2015 to 2016.

All 70 seats are on the ballot this year, but 42 districts had just one candidate in the general election.

In the Senate, Democrats held a 26-15 edge in the last session, plus one independent.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A jury on Tuesday found Steven Candelaria guilty of second-degree murder and other charges in the 2020 shooting death of a man during a confrontation outside an Albuquerque apartment.

The 2nd Judicial District Court jury also found Candelaria, 31, guilty of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and abuse of a child, a District Attorneys Office spokeswoman said in a statement.

Candelaria faces up to 25 years in prison. A sentencing hearing had not been scheduled Tuesday.

Prosecutors said in opening statements last week that Candelaria and his brother arrived at the home of Luciano Montoya Jr., 39, seeking revenge for an earlier beating. Candelaria pistol-whipped a woman before the brothers fired more than a dozen gunshots at Montoyas home, fatally injuring Montoya, prosecutors said.

Candelarias girlfriend, Raquel Martinez-Chavez, testified last week that Candelaria struck her the night before the homicide.

That beating prompted Martinez-Chavez to move out of Candelarias home and seek help from Montoya, with whom she had two children, she testified. Martinez-Chavez also had a son with Candelaria, she testified.

Montoya responded by sending armed men to Candelarias home to beat Candelaria the night before Montoya was killed, prosecutors told jurors. The following day, Nov. 17, 2020, Candelaria and his brother armed themselves and drove to Montoyas apartment in the 1100 block of Louisiana SE, just north of Gibson, prosecutors said.

Martinez-Chavez told jurors that Candelaria approached her outside the apartment and struck her in the forehead with a pistol. Gunfire rang out moments later, she said.

Candelarias attorney, Stephen Lane, told jurors that Montoya emerged from his apartment and fired gunshots, initiating a gunfight that fatally wounded Montoya. Candelaria and his brother, Brandon Candelaria, returned fire in self-defense, Lane said.

Martinez-Chavez and another witness initially told police that Montoya was unarmed at the time he was fatally shot but later acknowledged that Montoya was armed with a handgun at the time, Lane said.

Brandon Candelaria, 27, also faces first-degree murder and other charges in Montoyas death. His trial has not been scheduled.

Jurors convicted Steven Candelaria of aggravated battery against a household member and aggravated assault against a household member for striking Martinez-Chavez, DA spokeswoman Lauren Rodriguez said. He also was convicted of child abuse because his son was in Montoyas apartment at the time of the shooting, she said.
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern sea on Wednesday, extending a recent barrage of weapons demonstrations including what it described as simulated attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets last week.

Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from the western town of Sukchon, north of the capital, Pyongyang, and flew across the country toward waters off the Norths eastern coast.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries assessed that the missile flew about 250 to 290 kilometers (155 to 180 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 to 50 kilometers (18 to 30 miles). The relatively low trajectory seemed to align with the flight characteristics of some of North Koreas newer short-range weapons designed to evade missile defenses.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile landed in waters outside of the countrys exclusive economic zone. He said North Koreas intensifying testing activity was significantly heightening regional tensions and that Japan lodged a protest with the North through their embassies in Beijing.

South Koreas Foreign Ministry said its nuclear envoy, Kim Gunn, held separate telephone calls with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts to discuss trilateral cooperation to counter North Koreas increasing weapons tests and growing nuclear threat. South Korean officials say the North could attempt to further raise pressure by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017 in coming weeks.

The launch came after North Korea fired dozens of missiles last week in an angry reaction to a massive combined aerial exercise between the United States and South Korea that the North described as an invasion rehearsal.

Earlier Wednesday, South Koreas military said the recovered debris of one of the North Korean missiles that flew southward last week was determined to be a Soviet-era anti-aircraft weapon that dates back to the 1960s.

The Norths military said on Monday that its launches last week were simulations to mercilessly strike key South Korean and U.S. targets such as air bases and operation command systems.

It said those tests included ballistic missiles loaded with dispersion warheads and underground infiltration warheads meant to launch strikes on enemy air bases, ground-to-air missiles designed to annihilate enemy aircraft at different altitudes and distances, and strategic cruise missiles that fell off South Koreas southeastern coast.

The North described those launches as an appropriate response to the United States and South Koreas Vigilant Storm joint air force drills that wrapped up Saturday, which involved some 240 warplanes, including B-1B supersonic bombers and advanced F-35 fighter jets.

This week, South Koreas military has been conducting annual command post exercises meant to enhance crisis management and operational capabilities to cope with growing North Korean threats. The four-day training is to last until Thursday.

Wednesdays launch also came as vote counting in the U.S. midterm elections was underway. Some experts earlier said the results of the U.S. elections would not likely change the Biden administrations policies on North Korea.

South Koreas Defense Ministry said Wednesday that an analysis of a 3-meter (9.8 foot)-long piece of wreckage fetched from waters near the Koreas eastern sea boundary on Sunday showed it was one of North Koreas SA-5 surface-to-air missiles. The ministry said a similar missile was used by the Russian military to execute ground attacks during its invasion of Ukraine.

Photos released by the South Korean military show what appears to be a mangled rocket engine and wires sticking out from a broken rocket body that is still attached with fins.

The missile, which was one of more than 20 missiles North Korea fired last Wednesday, flew in the direction of a populated South Korean island and landed near the rivals tense sea border, triggering air raid sirens and forcing residents on Ulleung island to evacuate.

The South Korean Defense Ministry said it strongly condemns the North Koreas firing of the SA-5, which it sees as a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement on reducing tensions.

The dozens of missiles North Korea fired last week also included an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation warnings and halted trains in northern Japan.

Some experts say its possible that North Korea reached into the inventory of some of its older weapons to support the expanded scale of last weeks launches.

The launches added to North Koreas record pace in weapons testing this year as leader Kim Jong Un exploits the distraction created by Russias war on Ukraine to accelerate arms development and ramp up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.

The North Koreans would want to display their range of missile technologies through these tests, but not all launches have to reveal the latest technological advancements, said Soo Kim, a security analyst from California-based RAND Corporation.

It may be in North Koreas interest to hold some of its modern capabilities in reserve and test them at opportune occasions. Kim, again, is playing a longer game, so to reveal all of his cards  the different types of missiles and capabilities his country has acquired  would not work to his favor, she said.

Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the Norths disarmament steps. North Korea has so far rejected U.S. offers of open-ended talks, insisting that Washington must abandon its hostile policy first, a term the North mainly uses to refer to sanctions and U.S.-South Korea military drills.

The North has also aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine while also blaming the United States for the crisis, saying that the Wests hegemonic policy has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests. However, the North has denied U.S. assessments that it has been sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia to support the war efforts.

We regard such moves of the U.S. as part of its hostile attempt to tarnish the image of (North Korea) in the international arena, an unidentified vice director at the ministrys military foreign affairs office said in a statement carried by state media on Monday.

___

AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to the report from Tokyo.
Twitters new owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to regulatory filings.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion, sold 19.5 million shares of the electric car company from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8, according to Tuesdays filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He sold $7 billion of his Tesla stock in August as he worked to finance the Twitter purchase he was trying to get out of at the time. In all, Musk has sold more than $19 billion worth of Tesla stock since April, including those in Tuesdays filings, likely to fund his share of the Twitter purchase.

The takeover of Twitter has not been smooth and the social media platform has seen the exodus of some big advertisers in recent weeks in including United Airlines, General Motors, REI, General Mills and Audi.

Musk acknowledged a massive drop in revenue at Twitter, which heavily relies on advertising to make money.

Musk had signaled that he was done selling Tesla shares and the revelation that those sales continue left some industry analysts exasperated.

Our fear heading into the final days of the deal was that Musk was going to be forced to sell more Tesla stock to fund the disaster Twitter deal and ultimately those fears came true which speaks to some of the massive selling pressures on the stock of late, wrote Daniel Ives at Wedbush. For Musk who multiple times over the past year has said he is done selling Tesla stock yet again loses more credibility with investors and his loyalists in a boy who cried wolf moment.

Most of Musks wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla Inc. On Tuesday, his personal net worth dropped below $200 billion, according to Forbes, but he is still the worlds richest person.

Shares of Tesla Inc., down almost 50% this year, tumbled another 6% Wednesday.

Musk had lined up banks including Morgan Stanley to help finance the Twitter deal. His original share of the deal was about $15.5 billion, Ives estimated . But if equity investors dropped out, Musk would be on the hook to replace them or throw in more of his own money.

The Twitter circus show has been an absolute debacle from all angles since Musk bought the platform for all the world to see: from the 50% layoffs and then bringing back some workers, to the head scratching verification roll-out to users which many are pushing back on, to the constant tweeting in this political firestorm backdrop, and now..selling more TSLA stock, Ives wrote. When does it end?
HUNTSVILLE, Texas  A man who killed his mother and buried her body in her backyard was executed Wednesday in Texas despite his lawyers appeals that he should not be put to death because he had a history of mental illness.

Tracy Beatty, 61, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. CST after a fatal dose of pentobarbital began flowing through needles inserted into veins in his wrists. He was condemned for strangling his mother, Carolyn Click, after they argued in her East Texas home in November 2003.

Immediately before the procedure started, a prison chaplain placed his right hand on Beattys chest and said a brief prayer. Then asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Beatty, who was strapped to the death chamber gurney, choked up and sobbed as he began speaking to his wife who was looking through a window a few feet from him.

I just want to thank  he said, his voice breaking. I dont want to leave you, baby. See you when you get there. I love you. He mouthed a kiss to her.

Beatty, who had a long white beard and long gray-white hair, also offered thanks to fellow death row inmates and named several of them. I love you, brothers. See you on the other side.

As the powerful sedative took effect, Beatty took two deep breaths, mumbled something unintelligible, and began snoring. Seventeen minutes later a physician pronounced him dead.

Authorities said Beatty had buried his 62-year-old mothers body beside her mobile home in Whitehouse, about 115 miles (180 km) southeast of Dallas, and then spent her money on drugs and alcohol.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday morning declined an appeal from Beattys lawyers to halt the execution.

Beatty had three prior execution dates.

His attorneys had argued that Beatty was prevented from receiving a full examination to determine whether he is intellectually disabled and possibly ineligible to be put to death. They had requested prison officials allow Beatty to be uncuffed during mental health evaluations by experts. The experts argued that having Beatty uncuffed during neurological and other tests was crucial to evaluating his mental health and making an informed decision about intellectual disability.

In their Supreme Court petition, Beattys lawyers said one expert who examined the inmate determined that he was clearly psychotic and has a complex paranoid delusional belief system and that he lives in a complex delusional world where he believes there is a vast conspiracy of correctional officers who  torture him via a device in his ear so he can hear their menacing voices.

Citing security and liability concerns, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice put in place an informal policy last year that would require a court order to allow an inmate to be unshackled during an expert evaluation.

Federal judges in East Texas and Houston and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans previously ruled against Beattys request for an evaluation without handcuffs. The federal appeals court called Beattys request a delay tactic.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge in Houston questioned why Beattys lawyers had not raised any claim relating to his mental health during years of appeals. The judge said requiring handcuffs during such an evaluation is quite simply, a rational security concern.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the death penalty for individuals who are intellectually disabled, it has not barred such punishment for those with serious mental illness, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that provides analysis and information on capital punishment.

In 2019, the Texas Legislature considered but did not pass a bill that would have prohibited the death penalty for someone with severe mental illness.

Beatty had a volatile and combative relationship with his mother, according to prosecutors. One neighbor, Lieanna Wilkerson, testified that Click told her Beatty had assaulted her several times before, including once when he had beaten her so severely that he had left her for dead. But Wilkerson said Click had still been excited to have Beatty move back in with her in October 2003 so they could mend their relationship.

Mother and son argued daily, however, and Click asked her son twice to move out, including just before she was killed, according to testimony from Beattys 2004 trial.

Several times (Beatty) had said he just wanted to shut her up, that he just wanted to choke her and shut her up, Wilkerson testified.

Beatty was the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas and the 13th in the United States. The states final execution this year is scheduled to take place next week.

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Lozano reported from Houston.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
KYIV, Ukraine  Russias military said Wednesday it will withdraw from the only Ukrainian regional capital it captured, but Kyiv was skeptical and an analyst warned this could be a ruse to lure the countrys forces into a deadly trap. A forced pullout from the city of Kherson would mark one of Russias worst setbacks in the 8-month-old war.

Ukrainian authorities cautioned against considering the announced plan to retreat from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and nearby areas as a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.

If confirmed, the withdrawal from Kherson  in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed in September  would pile on another setback to Russias early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic and hasty retreat from the administrative region around Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, which itself never fell to the Russians. Russian forces captured Kherson early in the invasion, which began Feb. 24.

Kyivs forces have zeroed in on the city, whose prewar population was 280,000, and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops out of wide swaths of territory.

Recapturing Kherson could allow Ukraine to win back lost territory in the Zaporizhzhia region and other southern areas, including Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to raise domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.

Speaking in a stern tone and with a steely face on Russian TV, Moscows top military commander in Ukraine pointed to a blurred map as he reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be futile.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin said that 115,000 people had been relocated because their lives are constantly in danger and proposed a military retreat in the near future to the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from where Kherson lies.

Shoigu agreed with Surovikins assessment and ordered him to start with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.

But Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press: So far, we do not see any signs that Russia is completely leaving the city, which means that these statements may be disinformation.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, Khersons Ukrainian-appointed governor, called on residents not to give in to euphoria just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces had blown up five bridges to slow Kyivs forces.

Military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP Russias announced retreat could very well be an ambush and a Russian trap to force the Ukrainians to go on the offensive, force them to penetrate the Russian defenses, and in response to strike with a powerful blow from the flanks.

After a day of his aides observations about the announced retreat and a meeting he held with his senior military staff in Kyiv, Zelenskyy didnt directly comment, saying in his nightly video address, Our emotions must be restrained  always during war. I will definitely not feed the enemy all the details of our operations. ,.. When we have our result, everyone will see it.

In addition to the largely successful counteroffensive, Ukrainian resistance fighters behind the front line have worked inside Kherson, with sabotage and assassinations of Moscow-appointed officials.

With no indication of foul play but against that backdrop, reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. The death of Kirill Stremousov  a prominent regional official who posted public updates about the war almost daily  was confirmed by his boss, Vladimir Saldo.

The Russian Defense Ministry said months ago that Saldo himself had been poisoned and hospitalized.

Speaking at a White House news conference, U.S. President Joe Biden said American officials had been expecting the Russian announcement. Its evidence of the fact that they have some real problems  the Russian military, he said.

Asked if a pullout might signal to Kyiv that it now had leverage to begin peace talks with Moscow, Biden said it would at a minimum lead to time for everyone to recalibrate their positions over the winter period.

The Russian military appeared to have been preparing for an orderly pullout from Kherson  or an ambush  for months, contrasting with the haphazard retreat from the Kharkiv region when the invading force left behind a large amount of weapons and ammunition.

In October, Surovikin appeared to set the stage for a withdrawal from Kherson, acknowledging the situation was quite difficult. Evacuations of civilians followed, as did symbolic moves, such as relocation of the remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.

The attacks disrupted supply links to Kherson and made Russian forces on the Dniepers west bank vulnerable to encirclement. The shortages were exacerbated after an Oct. 8 truck bomb blew up part of the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russias mainland to Crimea, which has served as a major supply hub for Russian forces.

Russia wanted to hold onto Kherson and other positions west of the Dnieper so it could press an offensive to other areas and sever Ukraines access to the Black Sea. That would damage Ukraines economy and enable Moscow to build a land corridor to the separatist Transnistria region of Moldova, home to a major Russian military base.

The loss of Kherson could have painful consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin: more criticism of Russias military command from hawks, a decline in troop morale, and stronger opposition to his troop mobilization. Abroad, China and India could see the loss as a sign of the Kremlins weakness just when it needs their support to soften the blow of crippling Western sanctions.

Other Kremlin setbacks have included a chaotic and mistake-ridden troop mobilization, poor training and a shortage of weapons, clothing and other supplies for troops, increase in international sanctions, and intensified Western advanced weapons supplies to Kyiv.

Fresh signs of Ukraines advance toward Kherson emerged Wednesday. Zhdanov, the analyst, said Ukrainians captured the city of Snihurivka, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kherson, opening a direct road to a Dnieper River crossing and Khersons suburbs. The Ukrainian Pravda news outlet cited Ukrainian armed forces intelligence as claiming that two other settlements in the Kherson region, Pravdyne and Kalynivske, had been captured,

None of the reports could be independently confirmed.

Nationwide, at least nine civilians were killed and 24 wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian presidents office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the southeast.

The presidents office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraines energy system continued. Two cities not far from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant  Europes largest  were shelled overnight.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
PROVIDENCE, R.I.  Swimming in two plastic bins inside a bright sterile quarantine room at a Rhode Island zoo, 16 quarter-sized turtle hatchlings represent a growing worry for conservationist Lou Perrotti.

These eastern musk turtles, known for spending much of their lives in swamps and ponds, and emitting a foul smell when threatened, were confiscated recently in a wildlife bust. And, although the reptiles are common, their illegal sale on the internet greatly concerns Perrotti, who directs conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence.

We are seeing an uptick in turtle poaching, he said. Its getting ruthless where we are seeing thousands of turtles leaving the United States on an annual basis.  Turtle populations cannot take that kind of a hit with that much removal coming out of the wild.

Wildlife trade experts believe that poaching  driven by growing demand for pets in the U.S., Asia and Europe  is contributing to the global decline of rare freshwater turtle and tortoise species. One study found that over half of the 360 living turtle and tortoise species are at risk of extinction.

Such concerns have prompted proposals to increase protection for freshwater turtles at the 184-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Panama Nov. 14 through 25.

Precise figures on the turtle trade, especially the illegal trade, can be elusive. Based on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data, Tara Easter, a University of Michigan doctoral candidate who studies the trade, estimated the commercial export trade for mud turtles in the U.S. increased from 1,844 in 1999 to nearly 40,000 in 2017, and for musk turtles from 8,254 in 1999 to more than 281,000 in 2016.

In their CITES proposal to ban or limit the commercial trade in more than 20 mud turtles species, the U.S. and several Latin American countries cited data from Mexico that found nearly 20,000 were confiscated, mostly at the Mexico City airport, from 2010 to 2022.

Among the worlds most trafficked animals, freshwater turtles are targeted by criminal networks that connect with buyers on the internet, then transport the reptiles to black markets in Hong Kong and other Asian cities. From there, they are sold as pets to collectors, and for commercial breeding, food and traditional medicine. In many countries, the trade is poorly regulated, or not at all.

The lucrative business  some turtle species coveted for their colorful shells or strange appearance can fetch thousands of dollars in Asia  adds to the threats turtles already face, among them climate change, habitat destruction, road mortality and the loss of eggs taken by predators.

Poachers are particularly problematic, experts say, as they target rare species and adult breeding females. Many turtle species, which can live for several decades, dont reach reproductive maturity for a decade or more.

The loss of large numbers of adults, especially females, can send turtles into a spiraling decline from which they cannot recover, said Dave Collins, director of North American turtle conservation for the Turtle Survival Alliance. Turtles have extremely low reproduction levels, producing a few eggs every year.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Two legislative races  one with a Republican leading, the other a Democrat  are so close they will trigger automatic recounts, according to unofficial election results.

But the partisan composition of the House isnt likely to change much.

If the unofficial results stand, Democrats would maintain their 45 seats in the New Mexico House even after Republicans launched an aggressive campaign to win back a series of Albuquerque seats claimed by Democrats the last two election cycles.

Republicans would gain only one seat, according to unofficial results, a southeastern New Mexico district already held by a conservative-leaning independent.

Before Election Day, Republican leadership said the GOP had a good chance to make significant changes to the House makeup.

In an interview Wednesday, House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said the results showed Democrats could withstand even the nastiest of campaigns, even the most horrible of personal attacks on our candidates.

In one mailer, for example, an incumbent was called best friends with pedophiles for a 2021 vote.

The voters saw right through that, Martinez said. Actions speak louder than words. All of those candidates have delivered and are delivering for the people.

Republicans noted that they, too, had been targeted in negative mailers, many focusing on abortion.

In a written statement, state Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce thanked candidates and volunteers for their work. Republican legislative candidates had to overcome gerrymandering, he said, which was to blame for the loss of an incumbent.

Republicans held on to all the other House seats, he wrote, despite the redistricting changes by Democrats to stop GOP gains in the Roundhouse.

The Journal wasnt able to reach House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia, for comment.

Under the unofficial results, two incumbents would lose reelection  Republican Jane Powdrell-Culbert of Corrales and Democrat Candie Sweetser of Deming, though Sweetsers race is set for a recount.

A Republican who trailed Tuesday  Rep. Jason Harper of Rio Rancho  pulled out a victory after more ballots were counted overnight.

Heres a look at the House seats that might change parties, based on unofficial results:

 Democrat Charlotte Little, who works for a group that advocates for Native American voters, had a 30-vote lead over Republican Robert Moss for a West Side Albuquerque seat.

Its set for an automatic recount, which are required when legislative races are within 1 percentage point. Democrats have held the seat since 2018, so a victory by Little wouldnt change the chambers partisan makeup.

 Republican Jenifer Jones, a legislative aide, holds a 43-vote over Sweetser, the Democratic incumbent, in a district covering Deming and Lordsburg in southwestern New Mexico, bordering Mexico. Its set for a recount.

 Republican Alan Martinez, a retiree from the state Department of Veteran Services, won an open seat covering parts of Rio Rancho and Bernalillo. Its a newly created seat but had been held by a Democrat.

 Democrat Tara Jaramillo, a school board member, won an open seat covering parts of Socorro and Truth or Consequences. It had been held by a Republican.

 Democrat Kathleen Cates, a Realtor from Rio Rancho, defeated Powdrell-Culbert to win a seat covering parts of Rio Rancho, Albuquerque and Corrales. The district was substantially reshaped after the census.

 Republican Jimmy Mason won an open seat in southeastern New Mexico. It had been held by Phelps Anderson, an independent who had changed his party affiliation from Republican.
LONDON  A 23-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after hurling eggs and vitriol at King Charles III and Camilla, the queen consort, as they walked in the northern England city of York.

The incident happened as the king and his wife were entering York through Micklegate Bar, a medieval gateway where monarchs are traditionally welcomed to the city.

Video footage showed several eggs in motion and smashed on the ground. None appeared to hit the royal couple, who continued to be greeted by local dignitaries and to meet assembled well-wishers.

Several police officers could be seen grappling with a man at a crowd barrier. Britains PA news agency reported that the protester booed and shouted This country was built on the blood of slaves as he was being detained.

Other members of the crowd tried to drown him out by chanting Shame on you and God save the King.

North Yorkshire Police said a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense and was being held in custody.

Charles and Camilla traveled to York as part of a series of engagements around the U.K. marking the start of the new kings reign. They attended a service at the citys cathedral, York Minster, and unveiled a statue of the kings mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  Voters approved recreational marijuana in Maryland and Missouri but rejected it in three other states, signaling support gradually growing for legalization even in conservative parts of the country.

The results mean that 21 states have now approved marijuanas recreational use. Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota voters rejected legalization proposals in Tuesdays elections.

Advocates said the results send a message to lawmakers in Washington about support around the country for legalization.

A growing number of voters recognize that cannabis policy reform is in the best interest of public health and safety, criminal justice reform, social equity, and personal freedom, Toi Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. State-level legalization victories are whats necessary to move the needle forward at the federal level.

The state voting follows moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

Advocates of the marijuana initiatives have said Bidens announcement could give a boost to their efforts.

Missouris measure will legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offenses, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence.

It just shows that this is not a partisan issue, said John Payne, who led the Missouri campaign to legalize marijuana use. This is something that transcends partisan divides.

Payne said he expected recreational sales to start in Missouri early next year.

Opponents said they would be working to limit the implementation of Missouris legalization, such as working with cities and towns to opt out of allowing dispensaries.

The devil is in the details, and we will remain actively involved in Missouri implementation because we dont need another Big Tobacco industry harming kids in Missouri, said Kevin Sabet, president of SAM Action, an anti-legalization group.

Maryland will also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.

Heading into the election, recreational marijuana was legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalization softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

About 6 in 10 voters support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, according to VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 90,000 voters nationwide conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Support for ending marijuana prohibition in the states is spreading much like it did at the end of alcohol prohibition, said Mason Tvert, a partner at VS Strategies, a cannabis policy and public affairs firm. 

The five states that held votes on Tuesday have legal medical marijuana programs. That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical marijuana. The states dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.

The legalization campaigns raised about $23 million in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85% of contributions in those two states came from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.

In Arkansas, supporters ran upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they said would be created by the measure. Opponents ran more ominous spots, warning voters to protect Arkansas from big marijuana.

The marijuana industry spent millions of dollars trying to write itself into the Arkansas Constitution, said Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council Action Committee, one of the groups opposing the measure. Now they know that Arkansans do not support that kind of crony politics.

The initiative drew the criticism of traditional legalization opponents as well as some medical marijuana advocates, who said the Arkansas proposal placed too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, also opposed the measure.

Supporters indicated they planned to try again in Arkansas.

Tonight, we made history by putting adult-use cannabis on the ballot for the first time, Although we fell short, we look forward to continuing this effort to build this momentum to 2024, said Robert McLarty, campaign director for Responsible Growth Arkansas.

David Owen, who led North Dakotas legalization effort, said he wasnt sure another effort would be made after the proposal was rejected.

Tonight was not what we wanted, but the people have spoken and we have to prepare for the next steps, Owen said.

North Dakotas proposal would have allowed people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would have established policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators and other types of marijuana businesses.

Its pretty clear North Dakota families dont want marijuana across the state, said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a Virginia-based political organization against marijuana legalization, which helped fight the measure in North Dakota.

South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, recreational pot stood by itself as it went before voters.

Pot legalization advocates in South Dakota were vowing to try again in two years as their measure failed. Matt Schweich, who led legalization campaigns in the state in 2020 and this year, pointed out that the midterm electorate was less amenable and argued that pot legalization would eventually happen.

But opponents hoped that the proposals defeat sent a message.

I like to think that this country is going to turn around and South Dakota set a good example, said Rhonda Milstead, a Republican legislator who helped organize the opposition campaign.

In Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday took up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step. The vote was too early to call early Wednesday.

Melody Finley, a Republican in Little Rock, Arkansas, said she voted for the states legalization measure because she thinks it can help some people for certain conditions.

If you can buy alcohol, you can buy that, too, Finley, 47, a dance instructor, said.

But Rick Huffman, a voter in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, voted against that states legalization proposal, two years after supporting recreational marijuana on South Dakotas ballot in 2020.

Ive got a kid thats a teenager now, he said. So I think itll eventually happen, but maybe Ill wait until my kids grow up.

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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri; James MacPherson in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.
WASHINGTON  Follow along for real-time, on-the-ground updates on the 2022 U.S. midterm elections from The Associated Press. Live updates  all times Eastern  are produced by AP journalists around the country.

You can find updates from Election Night itself at this page.

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WHATS NEXT

2022 isnt over, yet eyes are already on 2024. On the heels of Tuesday nights disappointing results for Republicans, allies of former President Donald Trump were calling on him to delay his planned announcement of another White House run, AP national political reporter Jill Colvin reports.

Trump sought to use the midterms as a chance to prove his enduring political influence, endorsing more than 330 candidates in races up and down the ballot. While he notched some big wins, his candidates also lost high-profile races. Trump insisted publicly he was happy with the results, but his setbacks were animating the hopes of a long list of potential rivals waiting quietly in the wings.

Republicans biggest victory lay in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis easily won reelection and cemented his status as a rising star while eyeing his own potential 2024 run.

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THEY SAID IT

I believed that the people would choose freedom over slavery, if we gave them the opportunity, by taking the slavery question away from the legislators and putting it into the hands of the people. And they proved us right, he said.

 Max Parthas, campaigns coordinator for the Abolish Slavery National Network

Ballot measures approved Tuesday will change the state constitutions in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, AP national race and ethnicity reporter Aaron Morrison reports.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Louisiana  one of a handful of states that sentences convicted felons to hard labor  torpedoed their own, similar measure because of ambiguous language.

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VOTECAST

If Tuesdays vote defied the durable history of presidential parties taking heavy losses in a midterm election, it also reinforced an often-forgotten fact: These campaigns are a patchwork of thousands of races, not a nationwide contest, APs Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut report.

Inflation, abortion or fears about democracy may have swayed the votes of many Americans, but they did so in myriad ways depending on the state, district or the candidates. That was clear in AP VoteCast, an in-depth survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide.

Its numbers tell a story of how demographics, cultural issues and the quality of candidates were central to the outcomes of many contests.

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ROLL TAPE

Ted Johnson, the Senior Advisor of New America, provides analysis about the Black candidates making waves in this years election.

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THEY SAID IT

If they lose, that just reaffirms beliefs that the whole thing is rigged. And if they win, you have people running elections who have pretty wild thoughts about how elections should be run.

 Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, on candidates for offices that have power over elections who spread misleading claims

APs David Klepper reports on Election Day misinformation, offering examples of how misleading claims emerge and travel, and how innocent events can be spun into the latest viral election hoax.

He also delves into the kind of baseless rumors and conspiracy theories that were reverberating around the internet Wednesday as candidates and far-right influencers sought to explain away losses and closer-than-expected races.

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THEY SAID IT

We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country.

 Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, said in a statement

Despite a few state and local governments appearing to be hit by a relatively basic form of cyberattack that can make public websites unreachable, federal and local officials said none had broken through vote-counting infrastructure, APs Nomaan Merchant and Emily Wagster Pettus report.

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THE EXPECTATIONS GAME

Republicans, according to the narrative, had a disastrous night  even causing Fox News to call for soul searching in the GOP. But how big of a disaster was it if Republicans remain favored to retake the House and still might manage to flip the Senate?

Democrats battled tough circumstances and political history to dilute the dreaded red wave. But the relief could obscure growing weaknesses in the partys position and a tough road ahead for President Joe Biden.

The power of those pre-election expectations fueled the national conversation and the media narrative after election day.

Associated Press media writer David Bauder looks at whether the bad for GOP, bad for Trump instant analysis is as clear cut as it seems.

And Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Hannah Fingerhut explore why the next two years might still be an uncertain slog for Biden.

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4:20 p.m.

President Joe Biden, in his first public comments on the outcome of the midterm elections, said his takeaway is that voters were clear that theyre still frustrated with record inflation, crime and other issues. I get it, Biden said at the White House.

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SNAPSHOT

Buu Nygren ousted Jonathan Nez as president of the Navajo Nation, a position that wields influence nationally because of the size of the tribes reservation in the U.S. Southwest and its huge population, APs Felicia Fonseca reports from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Nygren, 35, positioned himself as the candidate for change in the nonpartisan race and as someone who could get the ball rolling on long-awaited projects. He has a background in construction management but has never held political office.

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ANALYSIS

Democrats had plenty to savor in the morning light. But as they exhaled and Republicans lamented big gains that didnt materialize, there were larger problems that both political parties will need to address  and soon, AP chief political writer Steve Peoples writes in an analysis of the midterm results so far.

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DID YOU KNOW?

In Tuesdays midterm elections, records were broken and history was made, APs Adriana Gomez Licon reports. In states across the country, women, LGBTQ and Black candidates were elected to congressional seats and governors offices as part of a new generation of political leadership.

Those firsts include the countrys first openly lesbian governor, Marylands first Black governor, and Vermonts first woman in Congress. Candidates also smashed records  12 women will be governors, hitting double digits for the first time.

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STAY TUNED IN GEORGIA

It might be another month before we know who controls the Senate. Georgias closely watched race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will go to a Dec. 6 runoff because neither candidate took more than half of the vote.

Democrats or Republicans would need to win both of the other pending Senate races, in Arizona and Nevada, to control the chamber without winning in Georgia. APs Meg Kinnard explains how the runoff will work.

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GROUNDBREAKERS IN ARKANSAS

Arkansas has never had a female governor. Or lieutenant governor. On Tuesday night, they got both.

Voters elevated former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the states top role, a position her father held from 1996 to 2007.

Arkansas voters also picked current Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to serve as lieutenant governor. She becomes the first woman to serve as the states No. 2 and essentially swaps roles with current Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, who was elected attorney general.

All are Republicans.

Sanders faced Democrat Chris Jones, a nuclear engineer who would have become Arkansas first Black governor. In a statement Wednesday congratulating Sanders, Jones said: History was made. Sarahs election has shown women, including my little girls, that being a woman is no longer a barrier to becoming governor in our state.

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WHATS IN A NAME?

With Sean Patrick Maloney losing his race, New Yorks congressional delegation goes from having two Maloneys to zero. Carolyn Maloney lost her primary for the 12th district earlier this year.

For the first time since 1993, when Carolyn Maloney was first elected, New York will have no Maloneys in Congress.

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1:15 p.m.

President Joe Biden completed a final round of calls to lawmakers on Tuesdays ballot. Amid the many congratulatory and conciliatory calls to fellow Democrats, Biden also called Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio.

The two have certainly had their policy differences  DeWine even ran campaign ads attacking Bidens policies  but they have also found areas of common ground and mutual interest. Biden pushed for the CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion measure intended to boost the semiconductor industry and scientific research. Passage of the law was crucial to Intel Corp. agreeing to build a new $20 billion facility outside of Columbus, Ohio.

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WHATS IN A NAME?

Pennsylvania Rep.-elect Summer Lee replaced Mike Doyle, a Democrat who did not seek reelection after nearly 30 years in Congress, APs Brooke Schultz reports. But to nab the seat, Lee had to face Mike Doyle  a completely different person and a Republican.

The identical names were the source of some puzzlement, and the Republican Doyle tried to capitalize on it by using the tagline #TheRight Mike.

In her speech to supporters Tuesday night, Lee nodded to the name conflation.

When we were up against a wall  every single time when it looked like it was getting bleak: friends came from all over, she said. When we got into the name confusion and people started wondering, Whats going on? We had friends come up.

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THE UVALDE VOTE

Despite outspoken activism by some families of the children killed at Robb Elementary School, voters in Uvalde County backed Gov. Greg Abbott over challenger Beto ORourke in the governors race.

Unofficial results show about 60% of voters in Uvalde County backed the Republican Abbott.

ORourke made the Uvalde attack a centerpiece of his campaign, at one point interrupting Abbott during a press conference shortly after the school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.

On the local level, the acting Uvalde police chief  who has been suspended  won a county commissioners race, prevailing over challengers that included the father of Jacklyn Cazares, who died in the school shooting.

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READ MORE

The winner of Alaskas U.S. Senate contest is yet unclear, but whoever it will be, we know it will be a Republican. APs Mike Catalini explains how the states ranked choice voting will ensure either Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski or Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka will nab the seat.

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THEY SAID IT

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

 GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won reelection Tuesday despite an array of controversies, including disciplinary action by the state bar, an FBI investigation and a long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Summer Lee has made history as Pennsylvanias first Black congresswoman with her election. AP called the race for the open seat Wednesday morning.

Lee has served as a state representative since 2019. Speaking to supporters at a watch party, she called their event a scaled down thing, because weve been through it.

We had to go through ugly to get here, she said. There is a reason why there had never been a Black woman, ever, serving (in Congress) in the history of Pennsylvania. So I can assure you theyre not going to let up on us. Theyre not going to relent.

Lee defeated Republican Mike Doyle, who conceded Tuesday night.

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THEY SAID IT

Saddle up.

 Doug Mastriano, Republican gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania

The AP called the Pennsylvania governors race for Democrat Josh Shapiro on Tuesday night, but Mastriano has yet to concede. He posted a photo of him on a horse with the above caption Wednesday morning and told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night that he would wait until every vote counts,

Meanwhile, Republican Mehmet Oz said he called John Fetterman to concede the race for Pennsylvanias open Senate seat Wednesday morning, saying he wished him well both personally and as our next United States Senator. AP called the race in the early hours Wednesday.

We are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done, Oz said in a statement.

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12 p.m.

Abortion rights advocates in Kentucky saw clear vindication in that states rejection of an amendment that would have provided legal protections for a ban on abortions approved by the state legislature.

Weve been making the case throughout this campaign that Kentuckys abortion laws are very extreme and are out of step with the majority of Kentuckians values, said Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Protect Kentucky Access, who also coordinated a successful fight against a similar amendment in Kansas earlier this year. And I think that the results that we are seeing from the Amendment 2 vote are a repudiation of the policies that have been in place in Kentucky so far.

Sweet, who spoke on a Zoom call organized by opponents on the amendment, said the fight is far from over, in Kentucky or anywhere else: It is still an issue that we do not anticipate will be settled in any way, shape or form.

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THEY SAID IT

Theres still a beating heart to American democracy.

 U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Wednesday morning

Maloney, who represents a New York district, acknowledged his own defeat after conceding to Republican Mike Lawler, a state assemblyman. The AP has not declared a winner in that contest.

Maloney said Nov. 8 would stand as a signature day in American political history.

If we fall a little short, Maloney said of his party, were going to know that we gave it our all and we beat the spread.

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STATUS UPDATE

In a series of statewide ballot measures, voters affirmed abortion rights in the first major election after the overturning of Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

In Michigan, California and Vermont, voters enshrined the right to abortion in their state constitutions on Tuesday, APs Lindsay Whitehurst reports. And in Kentucky, a heavily Republican state, voters declared there is no state constitutional right to abortion.

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THEY SAID IT

Let me say the message so it can be loud and clear  so that the radical left-wing teachers union can hear it, so that Joe Biden can hear it. Folks, Oklahoma wont go woke.

 Ryan Walters, Oklahomas newly elected superintendent of schools who as a candidate targeted teachers over banned books

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STATUS UPDATE

Why hasnt the AP called control of Congress yet? Neither party has reached the thresholds required to win the House or Senate  and its not quite clear when that might change, APs Mike Catalini explains.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Heres the difference between two phrases often bandied about during elections, from AP national political reporter Meg Kinnards glossary:

Too early to call: Races in which the vote count is active and ongoing and a winner is not yet clear are too early to call. That includes races in which the vote count may take several days.

Too close to call: Races in which the vote count has reached its primary conclusion  all outstanding ballots save provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots have been counted  without a clear winner are too close to call. AP formally declares a race too close to call via our election reporting system and in our news report.

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STATUS UPDATE

Backers of recreational marijuana scored wins Tuesday night in Maryland and Missouri but in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota legalization efforts went up in smoke.

Recreational pot use will be legal in 21 states following Tuesdays results, APs Andrew DeMillo reports.

The votes come a month after President Joe Biden announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

In Colorado, recreational pot has been legal for a decade. A ballot measure that would decriminalize certain psychedelic substances including so-called magic mushrooms remained too early to call Wednesday morning.

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READ MORE

The AP has tallied votes and declared winners in U.S. elections since 1848. APs Meg Kinnard and Mike Catalini take you through how we made the calls in 10 key races so far:

U.S. Senate calls: John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, Ted Budd in North Carolina, JD Vance in Ohio, Michael Bennet in Colorado

Governor calls: Tony Evers in Wisconsin, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Brian Kemp in Georgia, Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis in Florida

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MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA

The weather in the nations capital is cool and crisp on this Election Morning After, as control of Congress still hangs in the balance.

APs Brian Slodysko in Washington identifies the takeaways so far:

 Republicans hoped for a sweep that never came  but they could still wrest control of the House and Senate

 The increasing redness of Florida, a traditional battleground state, was reinforced by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubios reelection victories

 At $16.7 billion, the midterms themselves are on track to be the most expensive ever, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets, nearly doubling the cost of the 2010 midterm elections
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico, like other states, is facing a nursing shortage. And as the state continues to grow with an aging population, its more important than ever to raise up the next generation of nurses with new approaches by educational institutions to meet that demand for health care.

Those are the sentiments of local nursing experts who spoke at the Economic Forum of Albuquerque on Wednesday morning at the Embassy Suites.

Most of us think of our hospitals and our education institutions as anchors, but specifically for the nursing workforce its truly essential to the economic stability of the city, said Rachael Frija, corporate director of clinical education for Ardent Health Services and president of the New Mexico Nurses Association.

Other panelists included University of New Mexico College of Nursing Dean Christine Kasper, Central New Mexico Community College Dean of the School of Nursing & Patient Support Diane Evans-Prior and UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center president and CEO Jamie Silva-Steele.

Frija, in her presentation to local business leaders and government officials, said the state has about 17,000 registered nurses  short of what is needed for a healthy and stable nursing workforce. For comparison, Arizona has about 58,000 and Colorado about 80,000, she said.

But New Mexicos nursing workforce is expected to grow over the next five years by about 11%, most of those jobs which will come in the metro area. Thats a good sign, Frija said, but that doesnt mean the work stops there  especially with an aging population.

Evans-Prior, who was named the dean at CNM over the summer, pointed to census data that shows New Mexicos 65 and over population has increased by 30%. On the other hand, the under-20 population dropped by about 9%, she added.

That is a future pipeline issue that we need to be aware of, Evans-Prior said.

Addressing the decrease of younger people while trying to grow the nursing workforce needs the aid of schools such as UNM and CNM.

In fact, UNM  which has produced over 60% of New Mexicos working nurses in the state  has already began that approach. Enrollment in the nursing program has grown over the years and is expected to increase to 432 students annually by 2028 with the creation of the new $43.3 million College of Nursing facility, UNM previously told the Journal.

And UNM is expected to kickstart a new accelerated program for those who have a bachelor of science degree to get a bachelor of science in nursing in just one year, Kasper said. Initial enrollment in the program is expected to be at about 24 students, with the goal of getting up to 100 students.

Silva-Steele said there needs to be more than just focusing on getting new nurses into the fold  there needs to be a focus on retention as well.

Our commitment is to continue to think strategically and outside of the box around ways that we can bring back a workforce, Silva-Steele said.
A Massachusetts Democrat is the countrys first openly lesbian candidate to be elected to the office of governor. In Maryland, voters elected the states first Black governor. Vermont will finally send a woman to Congress, after being the only state never to have had female representation in the House.

Across the country, women, LGBTQ and Black candidates broke barriers Tuesday as part of a new generation of politicians elected to governors offices and seats in Congress.

The number of women serving as governors will hit double digits for the first time in 2023, with at least 12 women set to lead states. Ten had already won their races; two other races had not been decided but featured women candidates in both parties.

The U.S. has never had more than nine female governors in office at a time, a record set in 2004, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. The new record numbers mean nearly one fourth of the countrys states will be run by women. The party majority for female governors is still not clear.

One of the winners, Maura Healey, is the first woman to be elected to Massachusetts top post and also makes history by becoming the countrys first openly lesbian candidate to be elected governor.

Tonight I want to say something to every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there, Healey said to supporters at a downtown Boston hotel after her victory Tuesday night. I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be and nothing and no one can ever get in your way except your own imagination and thats not going to happen.

If Democrat Tina Kotek wins Oregons gubernatorial race, where The Associated Press has not declared a winner, she may join Healey in making history as a lesbian candidate elected governor.

In Maryland, voters chose Democrat Wes Moore, who will be the states first Black governor. He is only the third Black candidate in the country to be elected governor.

Moore, a combat veteran, led one of the nations largest anti-poverty organizations and campaigned on creating equal opportunity for his state residents. He flips a governors office from Republican to Democratic. The current Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is term limited.

Florida, meanwhile, is sending the first member of Gen Z to Congress, with the comfortable victory of Democrat Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old Black man with Cuban heritage.

Frost said that Gen Zers, those born from 1997 to 2012, are voting at higher levels, even though roughly half of the generation isnt yet old enough. In an Associated Press interview, he praised President Bidens focus on climate change and student debt cancelation.

Frost campaigned on gun control and Medicare for all and secured high-profile endorsements from progressive U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The seat had been left open when Val Demings decided to run for Senate, but Floridas 10th District, which includes the Orlando area, is reliably Democratic.

Im just excited to work in Congress and advocate for these broad universal programs and things that will really, Number 1., help peoples day-to-day life, but also, Number 2, from a political standpoint, these things excite people because it shows folks that government can work, he told The Associated Press.

Also marking a first, Vermont, which elected its first female governor in the 1980s, had been the only state that had never sent a woman to Congress. Democrat Becca Balint, president of the Vermont Senate, will reach that milestone and also become the first openly gay person to fill the states single seat in the U.S. House.

Details on some other notable firsts:

 ARKANSAS 1ST FEMALE GOVERNOR

Sarah Huckabee Sanders will become the first woman governor of Arkansas. Sanders, a Republican, rose to prominence when she served as White House press secretary for former President Donald Trump between 2017 and 2019. Her victory also makes her the first daughter of a former governor to fill the position held by her father. Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007.

Sanders faced Democrat Chris Jones, a nuclear engineer who would have become Arkansas first Black governor and who acknowledged the importance of Sanders milestone.

History was made. Sarahs election has shown women, including my little girls, that being a woman is no longer a barrier to becoming governor in our state, Jones said in a statement.

 Pennsylvania elects its first Black congresswoman

Democratic state representative Summer Lees victory in the states 12th District makes her Pennsylvania s first Black congresswoman. The Pittsburgh-based House seat was open after Mike Doyle announced his retirement.

 ILLINOIS 1ST LATINA CONGRESSWOMAN

Delia Ramirez, a Democrat, defeated Republican Justin Burau to represent Illinois 3rd District, in Chicago. Ramirez, 39, was the first Guatemalan American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly.

 1ST TRANS MAN ELECTED TO A STATE LEGISLATURE; OTHER TRANSGENDER LAWMAKERS

Democrat James Roesener was elected as a state representative to New Hampshires 400-member House, becoming the first trans man elected to a state legislature, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Roesener, 26, said he wanted to run after a parental rights bill was introduced in the House that would have required schools to notify parents of children developments, including with their gender identity and expression.

The bill didnt pass, but it was by a slim margin. I dont really see that as a fight thats over, he said.

In Minnesota, Leigh Finke became the first openly transgender person elected to the states Legislature. She told the AP on Wednesday that she decided to run after seeing growing anti-transgender sentiment across the country, saying she felt we have to have trans people in these rooms. If we are going to lose our rights, at least they have to look us in the eye when they do it.

Minnesotas Legislature was divided at the time and she felt like she might be entering a pressure cooker  but after Democrats took control on Tuesday, she now sees opportunity to pass laws to help the LGBTQ community.

Voters in western Montana elected the states first out transgender lawmaker, Zooey Zephyr, and SJ Howell, the first out nonbinary candidate to the state legislature, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund. Both are Democrats and were elected in state House districts in Missoula County.

_____

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Washington, Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., Amy Forliti in Minneapolis and Amy Hanson in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

An Arizona woman told authorities last week that smugglers who she paid $30,000 to bring her sister and young nieces into the country were now holding the trio hostage in Albuquerque.

The case led federal Homeland Security Investigations agents to a couple of alleged smugglers holding the family along with 58 other migrants at a small home in Southeast Albuquerque.

Marcelo Alonso-Almaraz, 32, and Eloisa Almaraz-Vasquez, 35  who are reportedly undocumented residents from Mexico themselves  are charged in federal court with bringing in and harboring certain aliens and hostage taking. Alonso-Almaraz is facing an additional charge of alien in possession of a firearm.

Alonso-Almaraz and Almaraz-Vasquez are reportedly married, according to court records.

Sara Gorman, an attorney for Almaraz-Vasquez, told the Journal the governments portrayal of her client is not accurate and further investigation is pending.

An attorney for Alonso-Almaraz could not be reached Wednesday.

The Albuquerque Police Department, which assisted HSI in the case, said on Twitter that $47,000 was also seized from the couple.

Francisco Burrola, HSI El Paso special agent in charge, called human smuggling a multi-billion-dollar enterprise in a release.

The individuals being smuggled are viewed as cargo by the transnational criminal organizations, whose nefarious activities demonstrate a total disregard for both our laws and for human life, he said.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court:

On Nov. 2, a woman in Phoenix reported her sister and nieces, ages 5 and 9, all from Guatemala, were being held for ransom by smugglers in Albuquerque. The woman said she already paid $30,000 and the smugglers wanted $6,000 more and sent a video of the family as proof of life.

Agents traced the smugglers phone number to Almaraz-Vasquez, who had a listed apartment in the 500 block of Palomas SE, south of Zuni. Authorities saw people and belongings being loaded from a vehicle into the apartment.

At that point, the smuggler sounded intoxicated and became more combative as he demanded money for the familys safe release.

Authorities were listening in and formulated a plan.

An undercover agent pretended to be a relative willing to pay the ransom and lured the smugglers  identified as Alonso-Almaraz and Almaraz-Vasquez  to a parking lot off Interstate 40.

The undercover agent handed over the $6,000 ransom and rescued the woman and her children before arresting the pair of smugglers, finding a loaded gun on the floorboard next to Alonso-Almaraz.

They also detained eight migrants in another vehicle seen leaving the apartment and found 50 more migrants tightly packed into the apartment. The mother told agents the smugglers held her and her children along with up to 100 others at gunpoint inside the apartment for four days.

She said they were not well fed or cared for and her children were traumatized from Alonso-Almaraz waving a gun around and striking people with it, threatening to kill them. The woman told agents there was an infant in the home and the smugglers were constantly yelling to shut the baby up and to cover the infants mouth when it cried.

The bust came less than two months after federal authorities raided an alleged migrant stash house on Albuquerques West Side, finding 29 migrants, drugs and guns on the property.
NEW BOSTON, Texas  A Texas jury sentenced a woman to death Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman she knew to take her unborn daughter.

Jurors returned with the sentence for Taylor Parker, 29, after deliberating for just over an hour, the Texarkana Gazette reported. The same Bowie County jury convicted Parker on Oct. 3 of capital murder in the 2020 slaying of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, whose baby was cut from her womb and did not survive.

In a statement to the court, Simmons-Hancocks mother addressed Parker as an evil piece of flesh demon.

My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach, Jessica Brooks said.

Simmons-Hancocks body was found Oct. 9, 2020, at her home in New Boston, a city of about 4,600 people thats 160 miles (258 kilometers) northeast of Dallas. Her 3-year-old daughter was at home when her mother was killed.

Later that morning, Parker claimed shed just given birth after being pulled over by a state trooper for speeding and driving erratically. The baby, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, was taken to a hospital in Oklahoma, where she was pronounced dead.

Prosecutors have said that in an attempt to keep her boyfriend, Parker made herself look pregnant, faked ultrasounds and even had a gender-reveal party.

Homer Hancock, Simmons-Hancocks husband, testified that Parker and his wife were somewhat friends, and that Parker had taken their engagement and wedding photos.

In closing statements, prosecutor Kelley Crisp showed jurors a crime scene photo of Simmons-Hancock soaked in blood on the floor. She told jurors that Parker needed to be sentenced to death because shes a danger. She said that in addition to having her baby ripped from her womb, Simmons-Hancock was slashed hundreds of times and beaten.

Parkers attorney, Jeff Harrelson, told jurors in closing statements that words can be used to dehumanize, and said that there are layers and shades of gray to peoples lives.

She is a human, he said.

Harrelson also said Parker was let down by her friends and family, who didnt confront her about the fake pregnancy.

There was no safety net when everyone saw the wheels were off, he said.
Senior Chinese official calls for jointly creating bright digital future

Xinhua) 16:10, November 09, 2022

HANGZHOU, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to work with countries around the world to jointly create a bright digital future, a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official said Wednesday at a global internet event.

Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks in a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit held in east China's Zhejiang.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the summit, and it was read out by Li on the occasion.

He said Xi's letter showed China's sincere desire to work with other countries to blaze a global digital development path with a promising future. The proposals raised by Xi provide the direction for promoting digital cooperation and building a community with a shared future in cyberspace, Li added.

Li noted China is willing to strengthen exchange and practical cooperation with other countries to build a vigorous digital economy, cultivate an integrated ecosystem of technology with mutual benefits, and enhance cyberspace security, among others.

Yuan Jiajun, a member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, also attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Themed "Towards a Shared Digital Future in a Connected World -- Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," this year's summit was attended by more than 2,100 guests from over 120 countries and regions, both in person and online.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
As Director - Sales for CNN International Commercial (CNNIC), Abhijeet Dhar leads CNNICs dynamic advertising sales business for the South Asia region, while working closely with senior client and agency stakeholders and CNN Internationals global leadership team. His remit includes employing business intelligence and delivering tailor-made cross-platform solutions for brands in the South Asia region.

Since international news platforms like CNN are reimagining the future of brands, Abhijeet Dhar, Director - Sales for CNN International Commercial, speaks to Adgully about how an Audience-First strategy will evolve in 2023-24, why CNN is GenZs trusted destination, how brands can deliver seamless customer experience, and more.

As Director - Sales with CNNIC, how do you see CNN revolutionising the news industry?

Responsibility, a commitment to the truth and dedication to covering important news and events have been our mission since Ted Turner launched the network in 1980. One area in particular is covering the environment  Ted Turner is a passionate environmentalist and champion of change. And our journalists continue that by examining the evidence and delivering the facts around these issues. One such example is Call to Earth Day, which is part of Call to Earth, a major network initiative launched by CNN in 2019 to shine a light on those committed to safeguarding our planet for future generations. Over the last three years, this award-winning programming has told stories of change-makers, visionaries and ground-breaking projects that have been making a difference to the world around them.

On November 3, 2022, we held the second annual Call to Earth Day. Celebrating a planet worth protecting, we partnered with schools, individuals, and organisations across the world to raise awareness of environmental issues and to engage with conservation education. Examples like these show how we are not just reporting the news, but also truly engaging with the audiences and making a difference.

While well recognised in the industry, what makes CNN different from other news platforms?

At CNN, we generate worldwide attention with our news, shape opinions, move markets and create change. CNNs impact is driven by our unique access, the power of our storytelling, the trust in our brand, and the influence of our global audience. We continue to be our viewers go-to source for facts.

CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) works with commercial partners in unique ways across all platforms so that they can be part of the CNN effect. The strength of our brand, the quality of our product (both editorial and commercial), our Audience First commercial strategy, the know-how of our people, our long-term and trusted client relationships, the innovation of our solutions, and our ability to tell stories in the most human and impactful way, set us apart from other news platforms.

What marketing and content strategies has CNN adopted to compete with other news platforms in a country like India?

CNN puts its audience at the centre of everything it does. Through its Audience First Strategy, CNNIC recognises and treats audiences as complex individuals with specific interests. Our insights and strategies support us to create seamless and engaging consumer experiences, enabling the worlds voice to reach their target audiences more effectively. To ensure the experiences we are delivering are advanced, we have built our Audience First Strategy on four principles that combine Tech, Data, Insight, and Creativity.

We know our audience, their behaviours, motivations, and interest - Using proprietary data and insight tools, along with years of delivering impactful campaigns and content, CNN is constantly striving to understand global audiences. Second, our creative content/ campaigns are based on deep audience insight, ensuring high quality and creative storytelling (sponsored editorial and branded content) is informed by data insight throughout the entire lifecycle of a campaign so that it best resonates with the key audiences.

At CNNIC, we have a host of user-friendly and impactful ad formats and solutions that sit natively in a CNN environment to make advertising a complementary and additive part of our audiences experience rather than being intrusive or disruptive. Our solutions such as Launchpad+ create immersive social experiences, enabling our clients to also reach CNN audiences even when they are not on CNN platforms. We believe in creating the best ad experience by implementing the best formats and solutions.

Lastly, our next-gen targeting ensures the right audiences are reached at the right moment. We can identify and reach specific audience segments using a variety of sophisticated contextual targeting and semantics tools, first-party data, and data partnerships that adhere to strict privacy and regulatory compliance standards. Sentiment Analysis Moderator (SAM) is our brand safety and suitability tool that uses neuro-linguistic AI to intelligently analyse the context of sentences (across text, audio, video, and galleries) to intelligently determine when content is brand suitable. This ensures that advertising appears next to the most relevant content and avoids appearing next to anything that may not strike the right tone.

Using these approaches, CNNIC delivers sophisticated, dynamic campaigns for our partners with the audience at the heart of every step of the campaign. This approach puts the expectations and motivations of our audiences at the heart of how we help our clients and communicate with them.

What are the challenges broadcast and digital news platforms are facing in the current times and how is CNN overcoming them?

In this digital era, a vast amount of information is widespread and accessible at any given time. The challenge is that not all information is factual, relevant to all audiences, digestible or comprehensible in its delivery. At CNN, we are focused on reporting and delivering accurate, factual, information to users through a tailored, engaging, and seamless experience. Were innovating and leveraging technology like data intelligence, analytics, and design to understand our audiences wants and needs to create personalised, relevant, interactive, and engaging experiences.

Please tell us about the ad campaigns led by CNN across the country.

A good example of an innovative and relevant program that taps into the conversation and audience interest around sustainability is Going Green, sponsored by Indias leading multi-engineering conglomerate Kirloskar, which has been running successfully for 14 years. The show explores green technology solutions for a sustainable future. The campaign has, through the years, reached over 700 million environmentally conscious viewers and more than 270 million business decision-makers around the globe to create awareness around sustainability and green innovations, according to GWI Q3 2021 report. The on-going success of the show can be well explained with GWI Q2 report of 2022 that confirms 92% CNN cross platform users in India being environmentalists. It also states that 87% of CNN cross-platform users care about the society and want to be socially responsible.

Another campaign that has been unique, especially in context to the last two years, is our Rediscover Paradise partnership with Visit Maldives in promoting the destination as a preferred choice as they celebrate 50 Years of Tourism. CNN Create (our award-winning in-house production studio) has produced a content hub showcasing Maldives as a multi-dimensional travel destination. It brings together the growing body of content produced with CNN over the past two years, including unique, curated experiences within two digital galleries. The team also produced a first of its kind audio tour, which takes the audience on an immersive audio experience in the archipelago, far beyond the beach. Driven by the audiences interest and the Maldives commitment to tourism sustainability, a digital article was also produced featuring Shaahina Ali, a dive master, conservationist, and photojournalist. Through her experiences and travel tips, the audience learns how sustainable tourism can help preserve the Maldives marine habitats.

Are there any upcoming GenZ centric content that we can expect from CNN?

At CNN, we are always evolving and staying relevant. Today, Gen Z has a formidable voice in matters of the world and are internationally inclined and increasingly responsible. All our content/ output is naturally aligned to these audiences and further accentuated by the trust they place in CNN.
Elon Musks $44 billion takeover of Twitter has kicked up a storm. Part of the maverick billionaires post-takeover announcements stem from his alacrity to diversify the micro-blogging sites income. He said Twitter was losing more than $4 million per day, and he promptly culled almost half the 7,500-strong workers.

Another decision was to make the Twitter Blue option a payable ($7.99 per month) service. The blue tick appears next to the names of influential people and celebrities to show that they are someone who is of public interest. The highly sought-after blue tick, considered a premium service, was hitherto available to influential people and high-profile establishments. According to the micro-blogging site, the changes, to begin with, would be applicable only to a handful of countries such as the US, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia.

Adding the blue tick to the subscription could well boost subscription-based revenues because it is a coveted feature; however, an online class system could emerge, as it may become a question of which accounts can pay for the blue tick  rather than which accounts deserve it on merit, says Rachel Foster Jones, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

According to her, determining which accounts are authentic will become a significant challenge for Twitter when genuine users are unwilling to pay, which may increase the risk of impersonation and misinformation. Subscribers will also get their tweets prioritized, amplifying their voices on the platform; so those that pay for Twitter Blue may have a significant influence in shaping the content seen on the app.

Advertising revenue

It is a fact that Twitter has been dealing with a tough macroeconomic environment which has led to a weak advertising market. Will Musks revamp of Twitters existing subscription model end the companys reliance on advertising revenue?

Ironically, says Rachel Foster Jones, this announcement could adversely affect Twitters ad-generated revenues. The platform has faced many controversies, and if the quality of the information found on the platform is diluted, it could concern or even deter some advertisers. This makes it a bold move in an already-tough advertising climate and if the blue tick does not boost subscriptions and the cost increase impacts them, then the move may simultaneously impact both of Twitters revenue streams.

Callum Sillars, Senior Analyst, Ampere Analysis, feels that the Blue Tick may throw new opportunities for Twitter. Advertising represented $4.5 billion of Twitters revenue in 2021; if Twitter had been purely in the subscription market, this would put them on a scale comparable to Disney+, says Callum Sillars . Although this is an unrealistic comparison it demonstrates the scale of the challenge Twitter has in moving into the subscription space.

Assuming all 420,000 previous verified users convert to this paid tier at $8 per month, Twitter would stand to bolster their revenues by ~$40 million in 2022. This is a drop in the ocean compared to both Twitters current advertising revenues and interest payments on debts from Elon Musks leveraged takeover. But this assumption is overly simplistic and likely under-represents the opportunity for Twitter Blue as it ignores the potential influx of new verified subscribers.

Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Angel Investor, feels that the Musks move will reduce the micro-blogging sites dependence on advertising.

Currently, adds Mathias, more than 90% of Twitters revenues come from advertising. The platform made a loss of $270 million in the April-June 2022 quarter. Elon Musk has been very vocal about his desire to monetize Twitter better. The $44 billion hes paid will make him even more anxious to do so. Musks decision to announce a $8 fee for a blue tick is clearly a step in that direction. This will clearly lessen Twitters dependence on advertising, helping content creators make money and enable payments and make the platform more answerable to users. However, its impact on how people perceive the platform and its credibility will have to be seen as this rolls-out, he says.

The last couple of weeks have been buzzing with, or shall we say, tweeting with Twitter all around. After much drama in the usual Elon Musk style, Twitter finally has a new leader in Elon Musk. With Elon Musk now at the helm of things, one can expect many changes and revamp on Twitter, opines Chandan Bagwe, Founder/ Director, C Com Digitalm.

Elon Musk, according to Bagwe, has presented a pitch deck to the investors in which he has given a robust plan for revamping Twitter under his leadership.

According to him, Musk is looking for the following revenue channels:

To increase Twitters annual revenue from $ 5 billion to $26.4 billion by 2028.

To cut Twitters reliance on advertising from 50% to less than 45% of revenue. In 2028, according to his estimates, advertising would generate $12 billion in revenue, and nearly $10 billion in subscriptions and data licensing will contribute to additional revenue.

He is looking to produce $15 million in revenue from a payments business in 2023 to grow it to about $1.3 billion by 2028.

Increase average revenue per user to $30.22 in 2028 from $24.83 in 2021.

Bagwe asserts that Elon Musk outlays a plan to reach 931 million users by 2028, that is, to grow from the current user base of 217 million users. Clearly, it shows that he has bigger plans for Twitter, and his recent actions are required for revamping Twitters operations.

Brand safety at risk

How will Elon Musks sweeping actions affect Twitter in particular and the social media ecosystem in general? Is it a prudent move for Twitter to charge for the verification of a user account? How it will have an impact on content on Twitter?

Originally intended as a way of simply verifying account ownership and preventing impersonation and misrepresentation, overtime the blue check mark became bogged down in the quagmire of becoming a status symbol, says Callum Sillars.

In a move to distance itself from being an arbiter of importance, Twitter is taking the verification decision process out of their hands. Now a verified check mark is open to all, creating an even playing field for all Twitter users  so long as they are willing to pay $8 per month. Charging for verification whilst simultaneously making verification accessible to all fundamentally changes what the blue check mark represents. No longer will verification be protection from impersonation but merely a mark to denote those subscribing to Twitter Blue.

However, some experts feel sound alarm bells. They feel that genuine users may be unwilling to pay, which may increase the risk of impersonation and misinformation. There will be a spike in fake or impersonated accounts.

Lloyd Mathias points out the likely ramifications of Musks abrupt decisions. Musk has been a serial disruptor across sectors most notable EVs and space travel. He clearly sees Twitter as his opportunity to change the dynamics of social media forever. However, given that the impact of Twitter has ramifications far beyond social media and politicians and governments across the world have often crossed swords with the platform may pose a problem for him. Also, if users see their platform altered beyond their comfort, they could migrate to other similar platforms and the network effect may kick in. Musk has to be mindful of this. For example, his personal claim of being a free speech absolutist while seeming noble may enable considerable hate speech on the platform, and advertisers that look for a safe and secure moderated platform may opt out. Clearly interesting times ahead, says Mathias.

According to him, making verified accounts chargeable is a double-edged sword. Many users may opt out and newer accounts using their name  but with a paid-for blue tick  may emerge. This could result in an increase in fake/impersonated accounts and spike disinformation. If this grows to scale it can impact the platform negatively both in terms of genuine users and be a red flag for advertisers.

Bagwe believes that the entire exercise of charging for verifying user accounts is to have genuine users, increase security, and reduce the risk of impersonation and misinformation. In the immediate future, it will impact reducing the number of users, but it will increase its reputation of having genuine users. In the long run, it will have a positive impact. Elon Musk is well known for changing plans at any given time; if it has a business impact on his plans, he may change his action of charging for verification of a user account in the future, he adds.

For brands the changes to verification represent an increased risk to their brands safety on the platform, maintains Callum Sillars. Though these changes are yet to go live, the sudden uncertainty has caused a number of major advertisers to pull their budgets from Twitter. Tentpole brands that have taken a break from twitter include General Motors, General Mills, and the Volkswagen Group  which together accounted for over $6Bn in global ad spend in 2021. Ultimately, it is too early to say whether Elon Musks sweeping actions will prove to benefit Twitter in the long term, but for now advertisers are content to play it safe until they see where the dust settles, says Sillars.

Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Grapes, also points out the ramifications for brands and advertisers. At present, she adds, advertising brands are highly sceptical about the changes happening on Twitter. There is a rising fear among them that their ads might be placed alongside hate speech or misinformation.

Looking at the current situation, it is very difficult to perceive how the slew of changes in the form of subscription-based Blue Tick purchases and free speech shape the advertising landscape. Owing to this lack of comprehension at present, many big companies and brands are halting their ad spending on the platform. Where Musk claims that the changes are meant to make Twitter the most respected advertising platform in the world, it is only with time that the impact of the changes will unveil before the masses. Till then brands can only wait and observe the changes to take steps better suited to comply with the platform and at the same time benefit them as well, says Shradha Agarwal.

The stakeholders are very concerned about this new subscription-based verification model, says Shradha. Anyone with a better buying capacity will be able to replace the genuine user base. This can put the relevance of the platform at stake as the new users will have the power to exercise unrestrained criticism of a brand or product which can malign the reputation of the company. This will immensely compromise the brand's storytelling, innovative narration, and thought-provoking ideas as brands will try to keep their content conventional that cater to the prevalent notion popular amongst the masses.

I have never seen content creators being charged to generate content. It's like getting penalized for doing your job. The blue tick will have no relevance if you can pay and earn that. And moreover, why would anyone pay for it, if there is no tangible benefit to this, other than just an ego boost of verifying your identity on a social media platform (Twitter)?, asserts Himanshu Arora, Co-Founder of Social Panga.

According to him, the basic business model for any social media is to have a platform, where the content creators are supported/ promoted to generate content and the platform monetises (like YouTube) or verifies that identity (Blue Tick). The other side is followers/subscribers etc., who consume this content, and in this whole process, brands get an opportunity to advertise their products and the social media platform generates some revenue out of this.
Germany-based eyeo, which developed an open-source technology to filter ads, on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Blockthrough, a Toronto-based technology company that works with digital media businesses to recover revenue lost to ad blocking,

Its ad-filter technology for publishers detects and prevents disruptive ads from being served to users of ad-blocking and ad-filtering products.

Blockthrough's technology gives consumers an online ad experience they they have agreed to, while allowing publishers to recoup revenue otherwise lost, stated Frank Einecke, CEO at eyeo, adding that it benefits users as well as publishers and advertisers.

The acquisition furthers eyeos mission to deliver technologies that place the needs of the user at the center of the web experience, while at the same time supporting the needs of publishers, advertisers and others across the open web ecosystem.

Marty Kratky-Katz, co-founder and CEO of Blockthrough, and the entire team, will join eyeo. A post-acquisition integration plan has been put in motion to determine the ideal next steps for bringing Blockthrough into the eyeo group of companies," a company spokesperson told Search & Performance Marketing Daily.
When hunger strikes, India turns to two of its favourite snacks - crispy KFC Chicken Popcorn or slurpy Maggi noodles. And for the first time, in what undoubtedly is the most epic, and perhaps most awaited, collaboration of 2022, KFC India partnered with Nestle to delight fans with the KFC Popcorn Bowl Made with Maggi. This unbeatable combination of KFCs signature Chicken Popcorn thats crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, along with delicious & slurpy Maggi noodles in one perfect bowl, is certainly the ultimate & delectable solution for your hunger pangs. To unveil this latest addition on its the finger-lickin' good menu, KFC released a campaign film with the uber stylish Colonel Sanders cooking up this masterpiece in the kitchen, while grooving to some cool beats; watch the film here.

Speaking of the collab wed all been waiting for, Moksh Chopra, General Manager, KFC India said, Both KFC and Maggi are iconic brands that are loved by their fans. It was a matter of time before these brands came together for an iconic partnership. Adding a dash of swagger to this delectable product offering is our Colonel in his swanky avatar, as he creates this masterpiece. The Colonels cool moves, along with the fun chemistry of the mother-daughter duo as they dig into their KFC Popcorn Bowl Made with Maggi, surely make for an entertaining watch.

Talking about the campaign film, Ritu Sharda, Chief Creative Officer  North, Ogilvy, added, KFC Popcorn Maggi is a quirky KFC twist to the classic Maggi. So, for our advertising too, we wanted to do a twist on the classic. We picked up the iconic Maggi line, Mummy bhook lagi and flipped it around  where its the mummy this time who is having a hunger pang. Because with a product as irresistible as this, bacche kya, mummy ko bhi bhook lag jayegi!

The film opens with Colonel Sanders in the KFC Kitchen rolling up his sleeves as he readies himself to create something new. In a surprising move, he picks up a Maggi cake, breaks it into two and adds the iconic magic masala to it, in a very Salt Bae like move, all the while grooving to a peppy tune. As we enjoy his moves, he gets the golden & crunchy Chicken Popcorn ready, sprinkling it with the right seasoning. Adding the final touches to his dish, he tops off this the golden slurpy Maggi goodness, with the crunchy Chicken Popcorn, revealing the delicious surprise hes been working on all along  the KFC Popcorn Bowl Made with Maggi. He serves his masterpiece to the eagerly waiting mother-daughter duo, while cheekily asking the mother Mummy, Bhook Lagi?. They dig into this tasty goodness, and before the daughter gets a chance, the mother swoops in and takes a bite from her bowl, ending the film on a moment of laughter between the two.

So, the next time you feel those hunger pangs, remember abb Popcorn ke saath Maggi - Lets KFC!
News18 Network as the most trusted news network has always been on the front line when it comes to spreading awareness regarding public safety and wellness. Through its campaigns over the months News18 Network has been really successful in leaving an impact on the general public.

In recent times the number of accidents and their fatality has sky rocketed, to address this issue News18 Rajasthan has launched a campaign around road safety with an aim to promote the usage of seat belts while driving.

     is an initiative to educate the viewers on proper usage of seat belt, the importance of wearing seat belt for back seat passengers as well and how can it help in reducing the fatality.

The launch episode itself saw the support of many dignitaries including Brijendra Singh Ola (Transport & Road Safety Minister of Rajasthan) who wholeheartedly welcomed the campaign and appreciated News18 Rajasthans new initiative. The discussion also included Kailash Bishnoi (Additional CP, Jaipur Police), Dr. Manish Aggarwal (Neurosurgeon, SMS Hospital) and Road safety expert Prerna Singh, who encouraged our viewers on wearing seat belt while driving.

Keep Watching News18 Rajasthan for more updates.
According to GlobalDatas Company Filing Analytics Database , the amount of companies that mentioned digital twin technology in their company filings increased by 43% in 2022 when compared to 2020. The leading data and analytics company also notes that the sectors with the most companies discussing digital twin include Technology, Construction, Oil & Gas, and Mining.

A digital twin analyses data from the real world to generate simulations and is a real-time, virtual copy of an actual physical thing, like an aeroplane engine, a factory floor, or even a person.

Ekta Chourasia, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: Since it has become easier and cost-effective to create a digital twin, companies across sectors are increasingly implementing the technology to boost productivity, innovate the manufacturing process and reduce costs.

American Software mentioned providing a digital twin of its supply chain network that would assist customers, respond to dynamic market conditions and mitigate risks. Accenture also mentioned training employees using a digital twin pilot, optimizing onboarding time and significantly reducing the learning curve of workers without disturbing production.

Liberty Energy discussed introducing a virtual equipment digital twin model for each frac pump that helps to reduce the cost of ownership for each pump, and greater data and reporting across all crews enabling everyone to take responsibility for their job.

Gecina, a construction company, mentioned digitalizing its property portfolio through a digital twin approach. On the other hand, Freeport-McMoRan, a mining company, discussed the role of digital twin in studying the equipments history of operations and providing predictive instructions to support higher efficiency.
Disney+ announces the original production Raffa, the first docuseries dedicated to Raffaella Carra, which will trace the extraordinary life of one of the worlds pop culture icons. Raffa, whose filming started recently, will be available on Disney+.

The docuseries, produced by Fremantle, will be directed by Daniele Luchetti and written by Cristiana Farina alongside Barbara Boncompagni.

Who is Raffaella Carra? Whats behind the image of the most famous and best-loved Italian star abroad, behind the 60 million records sold, the television hits, the films and international tours?

A symbol of freedom and gender equality in the 1970s, the queen of public TV in the 1980s and an LGBTQ+ icon in the 1990s, Raffaella is a legend that transcends all cultural and generational barriers and that audiences all over the world have loved for over than 50 years.

Yet Raffaella is also a mystery to which no one holds the key. Reserved person by nature and very jealous of her private life, Raffaella is a woman who had to fight to assert herself in a world of men, but also one who loved and suffered.

The docuseries will retrace the artists public and private life, starting from her childhood in Romagna, marked by her father abandoning her, and then her front cover flirt with Frank Sinatra, her two great loves, her regret for a missed motherhood, her many triumphs and the odd failure, her crises and rebirths.

Im really proud to announce this new Italian production dedicated to an icon like Raffaella Carra and its a privilege to realize it thanks to the collaboration with Fremantle, tells Daniel Frigo, Country Manager, The Walt Disney Company Italia. Italian productions represent an asset and an opportunity for Disney+ to explore and bring audiences even closer to characters and stories that have been part of the countrys culture.

Like every innovator, Raffaella Carra, has inspired millions of people, in Italy, Spain and around the world. Telling special stories like hers is our everyday fare at Fremantle. Doing it in partnership with Disney makes us especially proud, says Andrea Scrosati, Fremantle Group COO and CEO Continental Europe.

Raffa  a docuseries of 3 one-hour episodes  is produced by Gabriele Immirzi and Alessandro De Rita for Fremantle Italia in collaboration with Fremantle Spain. Directed by Daniele Luchetti. Written by Cristiana Farina and Barbara Boncompagni, Salvo Guercio and Carlo Altinier.
From today, streaming service NOW will be available on Google TV devices, including Chromecast with Google TV and eight of the UKs biggest smart TV brands as it expands across Android TV OS devices.

The latest Android roll-out will make the NOW app available on the latest models of Google TV devices, including Chromecast with Google TV, and other Android TV OS devices like NVidia Shield, joining the existing streaming stick line-up of Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku.

As well as streaming sticks, from today the NOW app will be made available on Google TVs and other Android TV OS devices from some of the UKs most popular brands including Sharp, Phillips, Panasonic, Bush, Hitachi, Toshiba and JVC. Users can simply download the app from the Google Play Store, add their memberships and start streaming.

Commenting on the news NOWs MD Marina Storti said: With a wealth of incredible home entertainment devices out there, were thrilled to be making it easier than ever to get NOWs app and start streaming. Whether you want to watch latest Premier League derby, binge on House of the Dragon or distract the whole family with blockbusters like Sing 2, NOW and our flexible contract free memberships are just a download away.

Over the last two years the NOW app has expanded availability across big screen devices from brands including Sony, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, Samsung, PlayStation and Xbox.

Google TV is the name of this devices software experience and a trademark of Google LLC. Google, Android TV, Google Play, and other marks are trademarks of Google LLC.
Indias premium broadcast network, Times Network today announced the elevation of Mihir Bhatt as Business Head, Times Influence & Managing Editor, Times Network. In his new capacity, Mihir will continue to lead the Editorial charge for large scale strategic collaborated content on the Network and grow the already buoyant Content Solutions Business with overall P&L responsibility of Times Influence - a Strategic Content Thinktank that operates across the Network, developing award winning IPs and Content Solutions.

With evolution in formats, platforms, consumer preferences and ROI demands, large scale IPs & Collaborated Content have emerged as critical growth drivers for Digital Publishers and Broadcasters, leading to the intensified focus at Times Network.

MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network said, Mihir has played a pivotal role in steering strategic content partnerships and Network IPs that have become industry benchmarks today. A dynamic leader with a proven track record, I'm confident Mihir will continue to create unique value propositions for Times Network and our partners.

Talking about his new role, Mihir Bhatt said, I am honoured and delighted to helm this mandate. Its heartening to see Times Influences rapid growth as a content powerhouse that is being recognised for creating award-winning strategic & branded content initiatives across mediums. As I take on this responsibility, I am focused on harnessing my strengths and expertise to create new opportunities and capitalize on emerging trends that drive innovation and growth for the Network.

During his tenure at Times Network, Mihir has led large-scale IPs including India Economic Conclave - the largest in the genre, Times Now Summit, Amazing Indians, Leaders of Tomorrow and Navbharat Navnirman Manch amongst others. A seasoned media professional with over 2 decades of experience in editorial and business roles, Mihir has closely tracked corporate India, government policies, domestic & global economies and has also been instrumental in launching leading branded content initiatives in the broadcast industry.
The Union Cabinet today approved the guideline for uplinking and downlinking of television channels in India, 2022. The consolidated guidelines are aimed at easing issue of permissions to the companies/ LLPs registered in India for uplinking and downlinking of TV channels, setting up of teleports/ teleport hubs, use of digital satellite news gathering, satellite news gathering, electronic news gathering systems, uplinking by Indian news agencies and temporary uplinking of a live event.

One of the key highlights of the guidelines is that the TV channels uplinking in frequency band other than C-Band are mandatorily required to encrypt their signals.

It may be recalled that the government had earlier barred 10 Zee Media channels from uplinking in KU band unencrypted.

The proposed guidelines are aimed at achieving the following objectives:

Ease of compliance for permission holder:

No requirement for seeking prior permission for live telecast of events; only pre-registration of events would be necessary.

No requirement of prior permission for change of language or conversion from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD) or vice versa.

For a company with only two directors, a director can be appointed, subject to security clearance post such appointment, to enable business decision making

A company can use news gathering equipment other than DSNG, such as optic fibre, Bag back, mobile, etc., for which no separate permission would be necessary.

Ease of Doing Business:

Specific timelines have been proposed for grant of permission

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) entities can also seek permission

A News Agency can get permission for a period of 5 years instead of 1 year

A channel can be uplinked by using facilities of more than one teleport/ satellite, as against only one teleport/ satellite

Removal of certain restrictions for transfer of a channel from one entity to another

A teleport operator can uplink a foreign channel for being downlinked outside India, enabling earning of foreign exchange for the operator

Simplification and rationalisation:
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Some time ago, I wrote to you about our plans to launch a new AWS Region in Switzerland. The wait is over. Starting today, you can now use the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how the cloud, and more specifically AWS, has evolved since we first launched in 2006. Back then the cloud was a place. It was a single spot that you could point to on a map. For Amazon, that place was us-east-1 in North Virginia. Now the cloud is everywhere  it is around us. AWS covers 6 continents, 28 Regions, and 90 Availability Zones. Access to infrastructure is no longer a bottleneck for innovation. But this wasnt always the case.

For a long time, the biggest constraint on innovation was the cost to purchase and operate hardware at scale. With the cloud, this constraint disappeared almost overnight. Hardware became a programmable resource that you could spin up and spin down at a moments notice. AWS gave you access to as much capacity as you wanted, whenever you wanted it  and for the first time, it was affordable. If you can imagine it, back in 2006 we only had a single EC2 instance, the m1.small. Today, there are well over 500 instances, everything from massive memory machines to Apple M1s (and for the history buffs, here is a timeline of EC2 releases).

We have never looked back. We have never stopped innovating for our customers.

Something that I have noticed over the years, is that the ideas that dramatically change the way that we think about or do things are rarely novel. Rather, they are often a combination of an existing concept with a new approach, a new technology, a new capability.

While I was in Zurich for Swiss Cloud Day, I had a chance to meet with Verity, an AWS customer that is reimagining warehouse logistics. Now, we all know that using robotic systems in warehouses is nothing new  we use them extensively at Amazon. They help humans sort items into bins, pick products off of shelves, and automatically package them for delivery. However, Verity is building on this.

They have created a fully autonomous inventory management system. Self-flying drones equipped with environmental sensors and cameras can continuously monitor a warehouse providing real-time inventory tracking that is extremely accurate. In many cases, it completely removes the need to manually count stock and reduces the need to run machinery associated with it. This frees up staff to perform more valuable tasks, reduces risk, and saves power at the same time. And this is just the start, more data will reveal additional insights and opportunities for customers. AWS is providing the services that allow Verity to focus on making warehouses greener, safer, and more efficient, not on running and maintaining infrastructure.

If Im being honest, this is the type of innovation Ive come to expect from our Swiss customers. Youve been with us from our earliest days and Im excited to see what you build next.
Brown University professor Emily Oster has created quite a stir with her recent article asking for a pandemic amnesty. In it, she calls for both sides in the COVID debate to forgive each other so we can focus on solving current problems. If Oster wanted exposure, she certainly got it, with commentators far and wide responding to her plea. If she wanted to heal wounds and close chasms, however, she failed miserably. Many have told her to go pound sand.

Genuine calls for forgiveness are noble, but, Professor Oster, you (and your critics) miss a significant point here: Forgiveness does not obviate punishment. Were it otherwise, following Jesuss 707 prescription would mean emptying the prisons and hurting our beloved children by never holding them accountable for misbehavior.

So Ill do my best to forgive, Professor Oster, but forgetting? No! I speak for many in saying that your plea is rejected  and offensive. And for there to be even the beginning of a rapprochement, there are two requirements (Ill speak in this piece of two sides even though, of course, theres much variation within each):

You must hand over your leaders for judgment and justice. You must issue a genuine mea culpa and demonstrate that youve learned from your mistakes.

This matters immensely. Many on my side are angry, but Ill nonetheless do what I and others did during the pandemic  not what you did, professor. Ill react based on reason and not emotion and say that Im not seeking retribution, viscerally pleasurable though it may be. And reasons application informs that, as Herbert Spencer put it, The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. Thus must the foolish and often fiendish pandemic puppeteers be in the dock  and thus must their erstwhile puppets demonstrate that theyve learned from the past.

Unfortunately, though, professor, you appear to have learned virtually nothing. You speak as if the COVID battles were some kind of mutual misunderstanding that degenerated into an ugly rift. This is yet another slap in the face. There was nothing mutual about it, not in terms of misunderstandings or malevolence or power or persecution.

Though many of us counseled against COVIDian madness, my side was content to let you and your fellow travelers wear a mask, or three masks; take a genetic-therapy agent (GTA) shot, or five; social distance by six feet, or 60; shut down your businesses and lock yourselves indoors for one month, or six; and generally behave like mysophobic Chicken Littles. But that wasnt good enough.

Not only did you impose your mask empire and distancing fancies on us, but you shut down our businesses as part of a COVID regulation regime; destroyed livelihoods; impoverished people; caused untold numbers of lockdown-induced, secondary-effect deaths; and tried coercing us into taking the GTAs under pain of career destruction, firing tens of thousands of Americans who resisted your will. Why, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, cheered on by millions of you and speaking for many more, actually said that people such as me, GTA realists, should be prohibited from participating in society and banished to our homes. You also censored us when we dared explain our dissent, said we were killing people and impugned our character and patriotism.

By the way, Wen more recently renounced much COVIDian theology and wrote an article about how she no longer believes in masking children because her young son suffered mask-induced developmental problems. Yet as with you, professor, she issues no apology for her ill-informed, life-rending prescriptions.

Speaking of which, Professor Oster, you wrote of our correct prescriptions that in the face of so much uncertainty, getting something right had a hefty element of luck. And, similarly, getting something wrong wasnt a moral failing. We didnt know, you protested. Well, speak for yourself, professor.

Of course, some did oppose COVID regulations based purely on a desire for liberty or relied on instinct. Yet a twist on a famous saying comes to mind here: The more I research, the luckier I get.

Was it luck, professor, when I cited Dr. Knut Wittkowski  former longtime head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City  as warning in an April 1st and 2nd, 2020 interview that lockdowns were counterproductive? He also provided sage but unheeded prescriptions for managing the disease.

Was it luck, professor, when I cited experts as saying in February 2020 that the vast majority of us will contract the coronavirus, that most cases are mild and that vaccines wouldnt save us? This information, by the by, was printed in the liberal Atlantic, the very magazine that published your piece! Did you miss it?

Was it luck, professor, when I cited early data out of Italy showing that the COVID mortality victims were aged 79.5 on average and more than 99 percent had comorbidities, again indicating that it wasnt a disease imperiling the majority? Was it luck when I, presenting research, warned in 2020-21 of masks lack of efficacy and the perils they pose, especially to the young? I could mention additional data, studies, and experts I and others drew upon, but the point is this:

You could have known, professor. But you didnt show due diligence. You had your head buried in establishment media and wouldnt pay any mind to those who dared contradict it. Hey, only Ivy League input need apply, right, professor?

This matters because the problem isnt that you fell victim to COVID propaganda; its that youre the kind of person who could fall victim to COVID propaganda. And unless this changes  unless you learn from past mistakes  youll just make similar ones again during a future crisis. In fact, we see the same phenomena even now with climate change.

You also say, professor, that we should be willing to move on because most of those adopting bad policy had good intentions. Yet even if this were true, its irrelevant. A doctor can have the absolute best intentions but still be sued into oblivion for malpractice.

What of your claim, however? Does it reflect good intentions

when politicians, such as Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), imposed onerous COVID restrictions on us but then arrogantly violated those rules themselves?

when officials said we knew little about a novel virus but then made continual cocksure pronouncements and, colluding with Big Tech, censored anyone contradicting them (including the aforementioned Dr. Wittkowski)?

when an effort was launched to turn COVID heretics into second-class citizens?

when even today some schools have GTA mandates for young people, despite the well-known health risks? and

when Dr. Anthony Fauci and other officials continually lied to America while accusing dissenters of peddling misinformation?

Of course, its true that man is complex and people rationalize  aka, lie to themselves  perhaps more than they lie to others. But if the above is the result of good intentions, professor, who needs bad ones?

The point, however, is that these COVIDian leaders, such as Fauci and Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), must be held to account and not survive, in power, to tyrannize another day. Yet our pseudo-elites instead continue to fail upwards, with your support, professor. But, then, you enjoy the same benefits, dont you? Why, you say youre now actually co-teaching a college class on COVID. Talk about an idiocracy!

In conclusion, Professor Oster, you opened your article mentioning that in April 2020, with nothing else to do, my family took an enormous number of hikes. This brings us to my response to your amnesty proposal: You can go take another one.
Organizations like #NeverAgain, founded by students of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., assert that America's school shooting epidemic has indelibly marked Gen Z the generation of mass shootings. The organization's success is impressive. One of its founders was not on Twitter before the shooting but eleven days later had more followers than the NRA (est. 1871), and since its inception (2018), the organization's annual student protest (video), "National School Walkout," has exceeded expectations.

In 2018, Time reported that #NeverAgain raised more than $4 million on GoFundMe, "plus a couple million more from ... George and Amal Clooney, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey." A top Hollywood P.R. firm offered services pro bono, Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety contributed more than $1 million in grants, and mega-donor Tom Steyer donated $1 million to increase student voter registration, while The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Dream Defenders (a racial justice group formed around the Trayvon Martin incident), and Peace Warriors (a Chicago anti-violence group) joined efforts as well. Even corporate media rolled out the red carpet.

CNN's 2018 town hall featured #NeverAgain founders and other survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shooting pitted against NRA spokespersons, Florida law enforcement, and politicians on both sides of the issue. Tensions flared when parents like Fred Guttenberg squared off with Senator Marco Rubio: "My [14-year-old] daughter ... was shot in the back ... with an assault weapon, the weapon of choice. ... It's a weapon of war." Although it's not the weapon of choice (handguns are used in 75% of shootings) or a weapon of war (smaller caliber and semi, not fully, automatic) Florida congressman Ted Deutch echoed parents' angst: "150 rounds in 7 or 8 minutes ... weapons of war that serve no purpose other than killing the maximum number of people" should be banned.

Rubio replied, "Virtually every rifle sold in America today can do what that gun does," intimating that such a ban would ban all rifles. However, he assured the audience that he and Senator Bill Nelson were spearheading the Fix NICS Act, which may infringe upon privacy rights if access to psychiatric medical information, precluded under HIPAA, is deemed necessary. Rubio also championed Florida's red flag laws, termed by some a backdoor to gun control. Nineteen states have them.

Legitimizing the idea that mass shootings are an epidemic in America, Deutch referred to 3,300 high school teachers and/or students and families as "survivors"  consistent with methodologies used by news outlets like the Washington Post (WaPo) that essentially equate victims of gun violence with the number of students enrolled where a shooting occurred. This enables the WaPo to report that "320k students have experienced gun violence at schools since Columbine" when the actual number is closer to 3.6K. It would be like claiming that all Americans are survivors of the Revolutionary War when only ten percent were involved. To redefine "survivor" in this way would require that most of history be rewritten. All in all, CNN's town hall showcased gut-wrenching anguish felt by victims' family, friends, teachers, etc. that likely moved many to tears. But do tears alone belong in America's gun control debate?

Not once in two hours was the number of mass shootings (133 in 39 years, 3.5/yr) or students killed (1K, 28/yr) or injured (2.6K, 68/yr) relative to the number of children in America, 0.004%, mentioned. Nor were the odds of being shot in a mass shooting (1 in 11K), 1,571 times less than dying from cancer (1 in 7), presented. No one stated how often so-called "assault rifles" (10% of the time) are used or how many shootings are stopped by armed civilians (49% in 2021). Nor were gun-free zones, Israeli policy, or the effects of drug use and nihilistic ideologies (that deny God's existence) on the mental state of shooters discussed. Perhaps most remarkably, no one mentioned that all public policy is legally constrained by the U.S. Constitution.

Although many on stage were paid to uphold the Constitution and most in the audience were U.S. citizens, the social compact that binds all Americans together was met not with praise, but with challenges as to the 2nd Amendment's meaning of the word militia and whether the founders envisioned weapons beyond muskets  intimating that semi-automatic weapons (85% of handguns manufactured in 2018) are constitutionally out of bounds. Instead, the pain of survivors and what that pain demanded were most on display. In response, politicians added insult to injury by vowing to infringe upon yet more rights without deference to tragedies that have followed national firearm bans as night follows day  for if students gunned down by an evil and deranged person is a horror beyond words, what are tens of millions slaughtered by an evil and deranged government?

Public policy operates along a continuum between governmental control and individual freedom, with real consequences that affect real people. Sound public policy in America, where individual freedom is foremost  borne out in lives lost securing and defending it  must answer questions like "what's the tradeoff between benefit to some and cost to all?" and "what's the impact on individual freedom within the context of the U.S. Constitution?"

The 2nd Amendment was bequeathed not out of paranoia over 18th-century monarchical abuse (as if the innate tendency of the powerful to oppress the powerless has an expiration date), but as a timeless check on governmental overreach. In that context, the founders' prescience regarding semi-automatic weapons is irrelevant. The founders understood a simple law of nature: imbalances in power invite exploitation. From this vantage point, whether victim and criminal or militia and government, parity is required to avoid violence. Firearm bans create disparity, emboldening criminal exploitation. That's why nations without guns like the U.K., Sweden, and Germany have more total crime than the U.S.

Ask yourself this: if America with guns has less total crime than nations without guns, then how are guns the cause for violence? So, when students at #NeverAgain rallies hold signs that read, "Protect students not guns," they unwisely pit themselves not against guns, but against victims and the cornerstone tenet of this nation: freedom.

No one debates a pain beyond comprehension. What's debated is whether the evidence supports the proposed change. Those affected cry "yes." Who would expect them to "cry" otherwise? But public policy doesn't affect only those directly involved; it affects all citizens, and as such, it requires a broadening of both the fact set and perspective.

The CNN town hall was not a requiem Mass to honor those mercilessly and brutally killed. It was an emotional plea designed to gnaw at the consciences of concerned parents and instill fear in the hearts of students to challenge a freedom so essential that the founders declared a free nation impossible without it. And yet, it's phenomenally effective: nearly 50% of Americans today irrationally fear mass shootings  a threat 1,600 times less likely than cancer  to the point they're willing to forgo the cornerstone tenet of this nation to avoid them.

Has ours become a time when irrational emotion supplants rational evidence, feelings overthrow facts, and personal scruples supersede principle, or is there still room for more than tears in America's gun control debate?

Image via Pxhere.
Most observers of the rising tension between Communist China and Taiwan do not believe that an invasion of Taiwan is imminent. However, it seems increasingly clear that China is arming and planning for such a campaign. President Xi Jinping is moving toward becoming a dictator for life, and the "reunification" of the island nation of Taiwan with Communist China would be the crowning achievement of his reign.

But not all is well in the Middle Kingdom, as there is growing opposition to Xi's destructive zero-COVID policies. A banner hung off an overpass in Beijing recently read: "Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don't be a slave, be a citizen." What would be a routine demonstration in the U.S. is a stunning act of defiance and courage in China.

A military adventure would be an effective distraction from growing unrest. And if China were to occupy Taiwan, it would give the communist country undisputed control of the South China Sea, which has some of the most important sea lanes on the planet.

Ever since Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalists fled to Taiwan, known as Formosa at the time, the mainland has wanted to bring the wayward island under its control. At the recent 20th Party Congress, Xi used the phrase "independence forces," referring to Taiwan. He went on to declare, "Complete reunification of our country must be realized."

Elon Musk's recent proposal to treat Taiwan like Hong Kong as a way of solving the dispute has to make one wonder if the eccentric billionaire has been paying attention to what's been going on in Hong Kong over the last couple of years. Musk's proposal would be good for his own business interests, but not so good for Taiwan's 23 million residents. We know what Musk wants, but what do the Taiwanese want? Most opinion polls that explore these questions find two consistent attitudes. First, a majority of the people wants to maintain the status quo when it comes to the relationship between China and Taiwan. Second, more than 70 percent of them consider Taiwan an independent and sovereign country.

Taiwan is a democratic republic with a successful free-enterprise economy. Like every other country, it is far from perfect, but the island nation deserves support from the United States.

The U.S. has been selling weapons to Taiwan for decades...to what end? Were these weapon sales just for deterrent purposes and to help defense companies? Are the weapons evidence that the U.S. intends to defend Taiwan if China attacks? Does the Biden administration know the answer to any of these questions? What does Taiwan's government really know about U.S. plans? These are difficult questions, but the U.S. government and national security experts have had a long time to think about them.

Perhaps the most important question is, what do the Chinese believe about U.S. intensions? Strategic ambiguity can be a legitimate approach, but it cannot be allowed to become a cover for indecision and weakness.

Some experts argue that in the event of an invasion, China would try to implement an "integrated operational concept." This is a sort of "all hands on deck" approach that would include everything from cyber-attacks to sabotage. Everyone recognizes that Taiwan's seaports would be crucial objectives for the Chinese and would almost certainly be the focus at the earliest stages of an invasion across the Taiwan Strait. Amphibious operations have to be a part of an IOC, but exactly what form they would take is up for debate.

The Chinese navy has amphibious assault ships, but the communist regime embraces a doctrine of military-civilian fusion, which essentially means that civilian industry, technology, and equipment are subject to use by the military. One example that has been discussed is massive car carrier ships being used to ferry troops and equipment into unsuspecting ports. Light infantry and special operations forces   even tanks and armored fighting vehicles  could be in position to seize ports before Taiwan knew it was under attack.

There are analysts who think a blockade of Taiwan might precede an invasion, but this would take away China's chance to achieve strategic surprise. Tactical surprise would still be possible, but much more difficult with even just a weeks-long blockade.

While the likelihood and efficacy of a blockade are up for debate, it is beyond debate that China has been busy forming a no-go zone in the South China Sea and especially in the Taiwan Strait, the 100-mile body of water that separates Mainland China from Taiwan. Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of U.S. naval operations, recently gave an interview, and he made a point of saying he believes that China could invade Taiwan in 2022 or 2023. Presumably, this analysis isn't news to anyone in the Biden administration, but that the admiral said it in public as China's 20th Party Congress was unfolding is interesting timing.

There is never a perfect time to take on the risks and uncertainties that come with launching a major military operation, but the next 1224 months might be the best window of opportunity President Xi is going to have. It seems he is preparing China for conflict for several years as it continues to modernize and expand its military, stockpiles, food, and raw materials and cultivates an ally in Russia. He has solidified his rule with the recent 20th Party Congress, so now he is free to focus on what the CCP sees as an existential issue: putting Taiwan under its yoke.

The "reunification" nonsense is crude, but probably effective propaganda to many ears, both in China and in the West. But the island nation was never controlled by China, so there can be no reunification  only an invasion and the destruction of a free and sovereign nation.

The U.S. government has to learn from its Ukraine mistake, which was to show weakness and indecision leading up to Russia's invasion instead of a policy of unequivocal deterrence. Deterrence has a chance of working only if President Biden and the Pentagon can convince the CCP that the U.S. really might intervene in the event of an invasion. Unfortunately, time might be running out.

Michael Phelps is a freelance writer and the author of the book, A Short History of the Long War: The Global Struggle Against Militant Islamism.

Image: Taipei, capital of Taiwan. Tingyaoh via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
There are videos making the rounds showing President Trump standing on stage in Miami's pouring rain while imploring Americans to get out and vote. The metaphor is striking. There's Trump, battling the elements, lively as ever, refusing to give up, insisting on finishing what he's started. Citizen Free Press appropriately notes that "President Trump is truly a force of nature."

I know that the months ahead will make for some spirited political debate among friends, but I encourage you to cement in your minds this quintessential image of Trump unbroken and unbowed. Whatever else can be said about the man (and there is plenty), he remains the only leader in our times unafraid to stand alone. When other self-proclaimed allies run the other way or look for somewhere safe to weather the approaching storm, Trump stands inside the tempest, demanding that it give up and surrender. That's something that will forever separate him from those who pretend to be him.

It has become normal to deconstruct Trump's public appeal to something as basic as he fights! Yet it is not just that Trump fights; it is why he fights that has attracted such a diverse voting coalition unlike any other political movement today.

Consider the Republican Party's consensus issues before Donald Trump descended the golden escalator and changed everything. By and large, Republican politicians defended the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without question. They ignored the harms of illegal immigration as a taboo issue equated with racism. And they dismissed discussion of revitalizing American industry and manufacturing as unrealistic in a globalist system where cheap slave labor is plentiful overseas.

Republicans touted free trade, strong defense, and conservative values. In practice, however, respect for free trade amounted to enormous international trade deals that often benefited multinational corporations and foreign financial titans at the expense of local American companies and their blue-collar workforces. Military might consisted of waging wars with no discernible end in sight for aims that were frustratingly unclear. And defense of conservative values remained, at best, wishy-washy and often resembled nothing more than a lackadaisical endorsement of the same secular values first practiced by a progressively more radical political left only years before.

Republican Party leaders and their corporate lobbyists essentially manipulated and shamed hardworking, family-oriented, religiously observant, patriotic Americans into believing that respect for "free trade" requires them to sacrifice their jobs and savings; that their love of country requires their families to fight unending and often unwinnable wars; that their humanitarian spirit requires them to welcome millions of foreign nationals pouring through America's lawless, open borders; and that their dedication to morality and virtue paradoxically requires them to abandon truth and embrace the progressives' secular faith.

This has been the Republican agenda for decades. It encapsulates everything the Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street multinationals running the party desire  a cheap workforce both at home (illegal immigration) and overseas (offshore manufacturing); an American military enforcing global corporate hegemony; and a near-majority of the American people believing they are voting for freedom, prosperity, national self-defense, and traditional conservative values, when in actuality they are voting for corporate overlord stewardship committed to their diametrical opposites.

This paradigm  in which the Republican Party claimed to stand for things they actually stood against  worked swimmingly until an outsider named Donald J. Trump came along, started asking troubling questions very publicly, and ended up jolting millions of Americans wide awake. Trump dismantled globalism's secret interests by rejecting the Republican Party's sacred cows. He chose Main Street over Wall Street, American industry over offshoring, American citizens over open borders, middle-class wealth over multinational profits, and American security over endless foreign wars. By doing so, he brought manufacturing jobs home, stymied illegal immigration, increased take-home pay and savings, and made America energy-independent.

In defending America and Americans' direct interests and rejecting the globalist interests of a select planetary few, he shattered the D.C. Uniparty's illusion of political disagreement and its shared commitment to a deeply un-American status quo. In the process, he attracted a powerfully robust coalition of American voters from all walks of life. His stated policies and objectives appealed directly to Americans' minds, regardless of the colors or kinds of bodies those minds called home.

This is what makes President Trump so dangerous. MAGA is the biggest political coalition in the country. For the D.C. Uniparty to survive, MAGA must be destroyed.

Everything else that the Establishment Class has fraudulently peddled against Trump  that he's imperious, mercurial, uncouth, unworthy to hold office, a Russian spy, a warmonger, an insurrectionist, a "denier," a criminal  is nothing but an endless barrage of psychological warfare directed against MAGA voters and constructed of propaganda and lies. At heart, Trump's only "crime" is that he remains for America and against the totalitarian globalist system designed to subdue her once and for all.

MAGA, in other words, is a direct threat to the international coalition that insists on extinguishing American independence and freedom. For at least six years, the Establishment Class has worked to demolish not so much Donald Trump, but rather the assembly of MAGA Americans that have found each other and are now working together. The Uniparty has used all its tricks and sticks. It has tried shaming Christians. It has called Trump's supporters "Russian sympathizers." It has used the criminal (in)justice system to bully, harass, and imprison Trump allies. It has slandered MAGA voters as "terrorists," "insurrectionists," "fascists," and "racists." It has done everything it can to wear the MAGA coalition down, to abuse Trump-supporters so completely that they renounce him, and to intimidate the MAGA faithful so mercilessly that they relinquish their political sway. The Establishment Class has done this because MAGA represents an existential threat to its paradigm of global wealth and power.

With this in mind, as we venture forth down the 2024 road to the White House, do not forget that the Establishment's most important goal is to obliterate MAGA and lull Americans back to their previous pro-globalist slumber. Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, who has invested heavily in Governor DeSantis, has said so explicitly. According to Politico, the big Republican donor wants to "blunt the vein of populism that has complicated the party's relationship with the corporate world." Think about those words for a second. Griffin and his Establishment Club friends want the American people to stop voting for things in their own best interest and return to a time when they voted for things in the best interest of the small, insular, privileged, corporate few. Isn't it strange that "elites" defend "democracy" only when the few at the top of the economic pyramid get their way but always denounce as vulgar "populism" anything like the MAGA movement that pursues the broader wants and needs of the American people?

There's an awful lot I like about Ron DeSantis, but when he is backed by Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, the Lincoln Project, and big-money anti-MAGA donors like Ken Griffin, I see only two possibilities: (1) either they think that Governor DeSantis will eventually play ball with the Uber-Globalists or (2) they are committed to dividing the MAGA coalition between DeSantis and Trump, conquering MAGA once and for all, and forcing voters back to the Establishment-approved, corporate Republicanism embraced by the likes of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Asa Hutchinson, Larry Hogan, Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley.

I reject any path forward that forfeits hard-won MAGA victories, empowers the anti-American globalists, or returns total uncontested power to the Uniparty "elites" running D.C. Fighting the unholy alliance uniting Marxism, corporatism, and global totalitarianism is too important. And saving the MAGA coalition from the Machiavellian strategists seeking its destruction remains too critical.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (cropped).
The Atlantic would like to declare a pandemic amnesty. Stepping outside her field of expertise, Brown University professor of economics Emily Oster implored, We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID. Brown doesnt have a Department of Theology in which she could learn in any systematic way the thinking God wants us to have based upon His general and special revelations. So, she must not know the prerequisite for forgiveness is repentance. Unfortunately, her article nowhere expresses remorse for the unconstitutional and illegal medical tyranny perpetrated on Americans. Oster never explores what the superior recourse of accountability would entail.

Most medical tyranny was political in nature, so it is left to voters to provide recourse at the ballot box. For sure, there were totalitarian zealots pushing mandatory shots, lockdowns, preferential medical care for coronavirus patients, capacity limitations, curfews, social distancing, and mandatory masking. But there were many other fellow travelers unwilling to acknowledge either the concept of limited government or our constitutional rights.

Dr. Anthony Fauci should be investigated for criminal infractions of pharmaceutical stock ownership in tandem with his advocacy of government mandates. Ill-gotten gains should be forfeit and penalties assessed, as appropriate. There should be criminal investigation into whether Fauci lied to Congress under oath. Apart from judicial recourse, his government position and pension benefits should be assessed in light of criminal actions.

Belatedly, Dr. Deborah Birx admitted that she, knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection. And, I think we overplayed the vaccines Well, this was not the contemporary message when she stood shoulder to shoulder with Fauci and President Biden. Were any of her statements in an official capacity criminal?

The experimental vaccine products would never have been allowed on the market except for the issuance of Emergency Use Authorizations by the FDA. The principal benefit to pharmaceutical companies of an EUA is shielding from product liability lawsuits. It is doubtful that a single COVID-19 vaccine product or booster would be offered commercially if pharmaceutical companies had to gain conventional FDA approval. Note that the FDA has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine marketed as Comirnaty, but CVS and Walgreens know nothing of its availability. This FDA-approved product appears to be a phantom. Not only do adverse reactions and deaths militate against FDA approval, but pharmaceutical companies would be open to financial lawsuits for the damage and deaths they cause. It is easy to imagine class action lawsuits brought for products that are not safe and effective. EUAs for COVID-19 products should be rescinded immediately. And, a review is needed of EUAs in general to raise the bar significantly for this designation coupled with a short duration.

The tyrannical World Health Organization should be defunded completely. If Republicans win the House this month, this can be done unilaterally. A bill need not be passed in the Senate nor signed by the President. The WHOs takeaway from COVID-19 global medical tyranny wasnt that government responses caused economic calamity, medical harm, and even excess deaths, but that more is better. The WHO is a threat to liberty and prosperity everywhere.

Last year, the Supreme Court vacated the Center for Disease Controls eviction moratorium. As with the WHO, House Republicans should declare a pox on the CDC and defund them completely. All CDC technocrats and bureaucrats who had any hand in devising this unlawful and unconstitutional order should be fired for cause losing both their jobs and pensions. Our Constitution provides no delegation to the federal government to exercise any such powers as the CDC has grasped. The states can decide if there are any useful activities being done by the CDC and pick those up.

Tort reform needs to provide financial recourse by parents and children against school boards, superintendents, principals, teachers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics for educational malfeasance for learning and sociability based upon school closures and masking. From excellent studies, it was corroborated what was known before the pandemic, that no mask, not even form-fitted N95 masks, can prevent viral infection. A silver lining to the school closures has been parental recognition that schools were prioritizing indoctrination, which is easy to do, instead of education, which is difficult to do. Many candidates nationwide have picked up the parental concerns by stating the obvious: Schools should be concerned only with the ABCs and 123s, not CRTs and LGBTs. It was recognized early that masking would cause learning disabilities, and even sociopathies, particularly with the very young who needed to associate facial expressions and mouth and tongue movements with speech and understanding. Although school children get sick less frequently, sickness is less severe, and there are fewer deaths in this age group, mask fascists persist.

What recourse is there against a wealthy individual like the idiot savant Bill Gates, who was responsible for funding efforts turning traditional epidemiology on its head with an advocacy that a pandemic could be managed by coercion? Where is the expose from Oster on how global coordinated totalitarian methods were rolled out for COVID?

Fascism embraces socialist control of businesses through regulation plus totalitarianism attendant with violence and intolerance of dissent. We have lived through two years of progressive fascism. Medical tyranny is just one tentacle of this form of fascism. Oster never apologizes for medical tyranny or her role in perpetrating it. She just advocates whitewashing it now. Would it be asking too much perhaps for her to apologize for the rest of progressive fascisms reach into Americans lives?

Where is accountability for never-ending assaults on the lives of the innocent unborn, government and Big Tech infringement of First Amendment rights, censorship of challenges to climate alarmism, censorship of doctors providing independent scientific and medical information, persecution of political opponents of progressivism by the DoJ and FBI, violations of parental rights and authority over their children, indoctrination of children into sexual deviancy and the racist and divisive Critical Race Theory, sanction of gender transitioning of minors causing irreparable harm, Environmental Social and Governance protocols, profligate spending, open borders, sympathy for criminals, and unconstitutional legislating by the regulatory state and executive orders?

Catharsis for progressive fascism, such as the medical tyranny we endured, is achieved with accountability. In some cases, this will be political, in others financial, and still others prosecutorial. After the midterm elections, let the healing begin.

Image: PublicDomainPictures
Muslims in America are more Islamophobic than any other demographic in the United States. According to a recent poll, American Muslims saw fellow Muslims as being more uncivilized, prone to violence, and more hostile to the United States than any other group, and often by very large margins. For example, whereas 19% of Muslims polled believed that fellow Muslims were uncivilized, only 5% of the general American population agreed.

What does one make of these unexpected findings? Remember, ever since the strikes of 9/11, the unwavering, mainstream narrative has been that Islamophobia -- defined as unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam by Americans -- has been the root of all problems between Americans and Muslims. According to this narrative, because xenophobic Americans, in their ignorance of true Islam, dislike and suspect Muslims, the latter, out of frustration and resentment, only naturally lash out.

Now, however, we find that it is American Muslims themselves who are by far the ones most prone to exhibiting unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam.

How does one explain this seeming conundrum?

According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), the Dearborn Muslim think tank that conducted this poll, even this finding, that Muslims are more prone to exhibiting symptoms of Islamophobia than non-Muslims, is still, not only the fault of American society in general but -- you guessed it -- racism.

For example, ISPU asserts that:

[I]nternalized Islamophobia is more prevalent among younger Muslims than older members of the community, Americans who have lived the majority of their lives after 9/11/2001 in a country that has demonized their identity in popular culture, news media, political rhetoric, and in policy. Research suggests that this kind of steady drumbeat of bigoted ideas and state actions have a detrimental impact on the target groups self-image and mental health.

As proof, ISPU quotes one of its own fellows, Dr. Muniba Saleem, saying minorities can internalize the negative stereotypes of their group, which can influence their self-esteem, psychological distress, motivation, and performance.

Moreover, for ISPU, another noteworthy and alarming finding was that white Muslims tend to exhibit more Islamophobia than non-white Muslims. The assumption here is that, apparently because racial identity always trumps religious identity (many would argue the reverse), white Muslims are becoming racists against even themselves?

While such psychoanalytical appeals and rationalizations -- or in laymans terms, mumbo-jumbo -- might be expected from ISPU, whose bread and butter has long been to present Islamophobia as the leading cause of injustice for Muslims in America, two other unspoken but plausible reasons make more sense of this seeming oxymoron of Muslim-Islamophobia.

First, is the obvious: because no one understands Islam better than Muslims, it is only to be expected that it is they who most fear (phobia) Islam. This especially makes sense for American Muslims: torn between two antithetical cultures and norms, more Americanized Muslims have had brushes with their more purist coreligionists which have made them conclude that fellow Muslims are more prone to violence, anti-Americanism, and incivility -- or, in a word, that has made them more Islamophobic than non-Muslim Americans, most of whom have little direct experience of Muslims.

Think of, for example, the negative encounters that many born Muslims in America, who otherwise behave like most Americans, must have experienced vis-a-vis their more radical coreligionists: they have been castigated, if not worse, for dressing like Americans (especially non-hijab wearing women), drinking the occasional alcoholic beverage, freely consorting with the opposite (and infidel!) sex, and, worst of all, harboring liberal beliefs (e.g., that homosexuality is natural, etc.).

Remember, Islam punishes by, at the very least, ostracizing those Muslims perceived as apostatizing from, including by being indifferent to, Islam -- when not killing them altogether.

This, as opposed to ISPUs reasoning -- that Muslims are internalizing the negative stereotypes of their group -- would seem to better explain why those Muslims, as ISPU found, who have spent most of their lives in America are especially Islamophobic.

The second, more subtle, reason that American Muslims might have responded yes to questions on whether Muslims are more prone to violence, anti-Americanism, and being uncivilized, is, believe it or not, because those Muslims are actually proud of being and want others to see them as such.

It is almost futile here quoting Muslims boasting of how they embrace violence and hate America in the name of their religion -- they are everywhere (even if hidden by Google algorithms) especially in Arabic media -- but even the curious notion that some Muslims wish to be seen as uncivilized has a long pedigree.

When, for example, the Islamic State made proclamations that American blood is best and we will taste it soon, or We love death as you love life, they were merely quoting the uncivilized words of Muhammads earliest companions. After an Eastern Roman general offered gold to Khalid bin al-Walid (the Sword of Allah), in exchange for the Muslims withdrawal from then Christian Syria, where they had been slaughtering and terrorizing the infidels, the Arab general responded by saying that they had not come for money, but rather, we Arabs are in the habit of drinking blood, and we are told the blood of the Romans is the sweetest of its kind, so we came to shed your blood and drink it.

In short, for many Muslims in America, its rather cool to be thought of as violent, anti-American, and, yes, even uncivilized -- since civilization, as Ibn Khaldun laid out centuries ago, is for the weak and feeble, not the virile, uber-lions of Islam.

Here, then, are two more logical reasons -- one with positive, the other negative, implications -- as to why Muslims in America are more Islamophobic than everyone else.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Image: Pexels
In the second half of the 18th century, there were two revolutions: the American, which was about individual liberty in a well ordered society, and the French, which was ostensibly about liberty but was, in fact, about substituting one form of tyranny for another. We know that it's one thing to enjoy France's cultural wonders; it's another thing to become like France. That message is especially pertinent today as France drowns in illegal immigration.

In October, a horrible story emerged from France. A woman kidnapped a 12-year-old girl named Lola. She confessed that she

gagged Lola with tape, undressed her, tied her to a chair, raped her with objects, partially cut her throat, put the blood in a bottle and drank it, smoked a cigarette, then finished slitting Lola's throat and beheaded her. The woman stabbed the corpse multiple times before placing it in a plastic box, and took it down to the street.

The woman, it turned out, was an illegal alien from Algeria. There are a lot of them in France. The essay linked above lists France's immigration statistics:

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants enter Europe illegally each year. Many head for France and stay there. They have been benefiting, since 2000, from financial aid and free medical care to which even poor French citizens do not have access. If they are arrested, like Lola's murderer, they are ordered to leave the country, but are not placed in a detention center so the order, never enforced, is not an order at all. In 2020, 107,500 orders to leave France were issued; fewer than 7% took place.

Not all those illegal aliens are crazed pedophile murderers, but many engage in rape, robbery, and murder on a daily basis. Illegal aliens commit 48% of all crimes in Paris. Murders are common, with the immigrants frequently slitting their victims' throats (with the media opting for the more sterile phrase "stabbing them in the neck").

Image: March for Lola. YouTube screen grab. Notice NBC's carefully boring language when describing what the murderer did to Lola.

It's not just murder, though. France has 200 reported rapes per day. Just as Americans are noticing the rise in crime in their big cities, the French are noticing that, too:

Polls show that the French population are seeing violence rising sharply: 68% of French people say they feel their lives are increasingly insecure, and 75% say that the record of Macron and the government fighting crime is poor. 70% believe that illegal immigration is a serious problem.

It will remain a mystery why they re-elected Macron, under whose governance the rising crime is taking place. Perhaps part of it is simply fatalism:

[T]he French population is the world's most pessimistic. An overwhelming majority of French people evidently think the future will be worse than the present. A poll published in April 2022 states that 77% of French people are certain that the country will not overcome the present economic and social crisis; a poll published in September 2022 show that 67% of French people think that the global situation will worsen due to climate change and that the planet has no future. ... [S]ociologist Jerome Fourquet writes of a French "collective nervous breakdown" and the "crumbling" of French society. He notes that the religious and historical moorings of the French people are disappearing: churches are empty, important moments in the country's history are no longer taught in schools. He adds that France's Muslim population, on the contrary, maintains its culture, customs and traditions, assimilates into French society less and less, and appears more and more filled with contempt and hatred for France, which many of them accuse of colonizing the Muslim world and exploiting Muslim workers.

America's situation, thankfully, is a bit different, and that's not just because we're a more optimistic people. Although increasing numbers of Middle Eastern and North African Muslims are illegally crossing our southern border, most are still Latin Americans, who are Catholics or Evangelical Christians, making them infinitely less inclined to rape and murder. Still, an open border means that there are no systems in place to stop the worst from coming. The cartels own the border, Latin America boasts some of the most violent cities in the world, and Venezuela is apparently emptying its prisons of violent criminals by funneling them into America.

If Biden's border lawlessness and the Democrats' support for criminals continue unabated, we will soon have in America a critical mass of the worst people the world has to offer. We won't know who they are, where they are, what they've already done, or what they're capable of doing. They'll just be here, millions of human time bombs waiting to explode.

For the next two years, it's incumbent upon Republican politicians to push back against this lawlessness. That pushback must culminate, in 2024, with a federal government (the president and Congress) completely committed to closing the American border and evicting those who came here illegally. Otherwise, we're going to be France before we know it, only without the great chocolate mousse.
Another day, another doomsday report from the United Nations on the climate.

Here we go:

UN Weather Report: Climate Woes Bad and Getting Worse Faster The United Nations' weather agency says the state of Earth's climate is bad and getting worse faster than before, especially with sea level rise accelerating. ... In its annual state of the climate report, the United Nations' weather agency said that sea level rise in the past decade was double what it was in the 1990s and since January 2020 has jumped at a higher rate than that. Since the decade began, seas are rising at 5 millimeters a year (.2 inches) compared to 2.1 millimeters (.08 inches) in the 1990s. The last eight years have been the warmest on record, the WMO said in a report that didn't break new ground but was a collection of recent weather trends, data and impacts in one central place. The only reason that the globe hasn't broken annual temperature records in the past few years is a rare three-year La Nina weather phenomenon, he said. The data on sea level and average temperatures are nothing compared to how climate change has hit people in extreme weather. The report highlights the summer's incredible flood in Pakistan that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced 7.9 million, a crippling four-year drought in East Africa that has more than 18 million hungry, the Yangtze River drying to its lowest level in August, and record heat-waves broiling people in Europe and China.

The purpose of all of these reports is to scare the public into submission and spend massive amounts of money supporting the extremists' green agenda. As always, the media just regurgitate this information without any questions. They don't care that previous reports have been wrong.

A humorous sentence from the report says that the Earth would have been warmer if not for Mother Nature.

There are a large number of variables that affect the climate and temperature. There are no scientific data from the last 150 years, when the temperature has gone both up and down, that justify blaming a couple-degree rise, after a little ice age ended, on oil or coal.

As for the Pakistan flood:

There have been massive floods throughout the Earth's history. It is pathetic that so many people pretend that floods are worse than ever and further pretend that they can pinpoint the cause to humans, oil, coal, methane, and CO2. They are just making it up. The 1887 Yellow River flood in Qing China began in September 1887 and killed at least 930,000 people.[1][2] It was the single deadliest flood in China, in turn making it one of the largest disasters in China by death toll.

A massive flood created the English channel over 400,000 years ago.

A cataclysmic flood cleaved Britain from France hundreds of thousand years ago, in a violent act of nature that carved out the white cliffs of Dover and set the course of history for a new island.

Then they talk about a four-year drought in East Africa, as if long droughts haven't occurred throughout history. How do these people believe that the Earth got covered by so many deserts?

The 1820s1830s drought was probably the worst of the last 200 years. Lake levels fell in central Kenya (with Lake Baringo drying up completely), and reports from European travellers describe prolonged famine, possibly lasting as long as 20 years, affecting areas including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Sahara desert used to be fertile until an eight-thousand-year drought began naturally. The people and animals adapted.

Rapid end of the Green Sahara 8,000 years ago 9,000 years ago most of the Sahara was covered by large lakes and savannah that were populated by herds of wild game[.]

As for the ocean rising two tenths of an inch per year: Oceans average more than 12,000 feet deep. It would be impossible to measure that close and then adjust for all the natural variables. There is no possible way to attribute the changes to the use of oil and coal.

The climate as a whole has always changed cyclically and naturally and always will. It is arrogant to claim that we can pinpoint the cause of current changes and impossible to believe that politicians and bureaucrats can control all aspects of the climate if we just give them money and destroy our quality of life.

If we had honest and curious media, they would ask questions and do research before they just repeat what they are told. They are essentially lobbyists for leftists.

One simple question would show that it is a scam because the pushers of the green agenda couldn't answer it: where are the scientific data that show a direct relationship between crude oil use and temperatures?

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
There was supposed to be a red wave that would put the corrupt, entitled, arrogant Democrats in their place. The GOP was supposed to take the House by an emphatic margin and possibly the Senate, too.

They said it was not a question of if, but when it would happen.

As someone on Twitter rightly observed, at this point, the GOP would be lucky to have a Red Trickle. Even if the GOP takes the House, it will be by a slim margin.

Joe Biden, despite his catastrophic misgovernance, historic unpopularity, and rapidly declining cognitive abilities, could end up with a better midterm record than Democrat stars such as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

There have been various theories on why it went so wrong.

Postmortem analyses are always easy. You have the results; all you have to do is walk backward and provide reasons. Had the GOP won in a landslide, the very pundits who are certain why they underperformed tonight would have provided another set of reasons.

Let's examine some theories that are being put forth.

Did the narrative of the Red Wave seem like hubris?

At times, rosy expectations can be the mother of all disappointments. The relentless talk of a red wave, which began in conservative media and spread like wildfire, could have had multiple consequences.

Perhaps GOP voters presumed that a victory was inevitable and chose to stay home. Perhaps Democrat voters, thinking their party needs them in times of peril, chose to vote.

Perhaps some voters thought of this talk of the red wave as hubris.

Voters often do not like politicians taking them for granted and second-guessing them.

Perhaps they decided to give the GOP a reality check?

The overturning of Roe v. Wade?

It will never be easy to gauge what impact the overturning of Roe had on the mind of the public, especially women.

Dr. Oz said, "I don't want the federal government involved with that at all. I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that's always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves."

Oz was making a broader point about law-making by consulting all parties involved. Most of the mainstream media claimed that Dr. Oz thinks the decision to have an abortion must be among a woman, her doctor, and local politicians.

Perhaps women truly feared that the Republicans would be involved each time they visited the gynecologist. Perhaps women feared imprisonment for even mentioning abortion. Perhaps they believed the claim that contraception would also be restricted.

Fear tactics often work, irrespective of whether the claims are factual.

Perhaps the Democrats managed to scare people sufficiently.

Was it the media?

The mainstream media are the propaganda arm of the Democrats, while most Republicans get their news from Fox News, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, NewsMax, and various other right-leaning websites.

But what about independents? Perhaps they brought the media narrative that if the GOP wins, there will never, ever be elections in the U.S., and Trump will become a dictator.

End of the Trump era?

Some experts claimed that Trump's choice of candidates was a major reason for the GOP's subpar performance. They cite the loss of Dr. Oz to severely cognitively impaired John Fetterman to demonstrate their point. They feel Trump incorrectly endorsed celebrity Dr. Oz; perhaps a principled conservative and a Pennsylvania local would have served better. They claim that the underperforming of the GOP is proof that Trump's era has passed. They claim he should gracefully step aside and allow Ron DeSantis to be the nominee in 2024. They claim Trump lacks discipline, has too much baggage, and polarizes people with his rhetoric.

So what has Trump's record been so far in the race?

Trump Endorsed Candidates: 174-9!  Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 9, 2022

But:

Tonight, the GOP GOVERNOR Candidates Who Refused To Say If They'd Have Certified Biden's 2020 Win In Their States:



Kari Lake, Arizona

 Tim Michels, Wisconsin

 Tudor Dixon, Michigan

 Doug Mastriano, PA

 Darren Bailey, Illinois

 Dan Cox, Maryland

 Lee Zeldin, NY  Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) November 9, 2022

Since Trump descended the escalator in 2015 to announce his presidential campaign, there are many who have been predicting his political demise. Yet he still remains a force to reckon with in the party. It would be a mistake to count Trump out this easily.

Beginning of the DeSantis era?

Ron DeSantis was re-elected in Florida by almost 20 points; it was an emphatic routing of his Democrat opponent.

After DeSantis's victory speech, the crowd chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" and, in a nod to an expected presidential run, chanted, "Two more years!"

The DeSantis wing of the GOP claimed that DeSantis is Trump without the baggage. They say he is disciplined in his message, he is younger, and he has a proven track record of governance during crises such as COVID-19 and Hurricane Ian. Hence, he is a much more viable presidential candidate.

They cite winning among minorities to make the case for his broad appeal. DeSantis is the first Republican gubernatorial candidate since Jeb Bush to win Miami-Dade, the state's largest county, which also has its largest Hispanic population and was once considered a Democrat bastion.

But does a victory in Florida make him a viable candidate all over the U.S.?

What about the point of having no Trump baggage? The Democrats may despise DeSantis, but they haven't gone after DeSantis the way they have targeted Trump. If he becomes the GOP nominee in 2024, they will give him the Trump treatment or perhaps worse. They could dig dirt or invent lies about DeSantis  i.e., create a great deal of baggage for him.

Even worse, President Trump just openly threatened to sling mud at him, saying, "If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign."

What about DeSantis's endorsements?

DeSantis endorsed Colorado Senate candidate Joe O'Dea and recorded an automated phone call for the campaign, saying, "I've watched Joe from a distance. And I'm impressed." O'Dea went on to lose his race. But Colorado is a liberal state; perhaps O'Dea was going to lose anyway?

In the end, it isn't pundits or experts who will decide the GOP nominee. It is the public who will cast the vote.

What about funding?

It has to be remembered that no candidate can win without a minimum amount of funding. A MAGA victory is as troubling to establishment GOP leaders as it is for Democrats.

It has been documented that for various Senate races, the GOP leadership in Washington  i.e., Mitch McConnell  were not supporting MAGA candidates financially. Perhaps that played a factor in impeding the candidates from pushing their message and the overall narrative.

Did Biden's meddling help?

Biden signed Executive Order 14019 back in March, asking all 600 federal agencies to "consider ways to expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process."

The details of what was actually done remain unclear. Perhaps Democrat voters were surgically mobilized? Perhaps voter identification rules were relaxed?

We will never know because Biden refused to share details about its coordinated efforts to engage in a federal takeover of the administration of elections.

This concealment makes it very suspicious.

Graphic credit: Freepik.
Well, the red wave wasn't.

But there were bright spots for Republicans, and trying to parse why they won is probably key to winning the next election for conservatives.

Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis drew a lot of attention as the night's big Republican winner in last night's race, knocking out his Democrat opponent, former governor Charlie Crist, with a 19.4-point blowout.

But there was also Sen. Rand Paul, who won with an even higher margin. At last count, Paul won with a 22.6-point lead over his Democrat opponent, Charles Booker.

What explains these incredible margins of victory? DeSantis won his original governor's chair on the barest of margins, and then won huge numbers of Florida voters over.

Paul, who won his first Senate election by 11 percentage points in conservative Kentucky two terms ago, has since doubled his margin of victory on term three, meaning he, too, has persuaded more voters.

It may come down to the rule of scandals also applying to why candidates win big in elections.

What is the rule of scandals? Well, conventional political wisdom holds that if the average voter can recite a politician's scandal in a sentence or two, the scandal sticks to the politician. Candidate A uttered a racist statement. Politician B took a little envelope full of cash from a developer in exchange for a favor. Politician C seeded nursing homes with COVID patients. If a scandal is so tangled and complicated that it can't be uttered in one sentence, the politician skates. This explains a lot about why Bill Clinton got away with as much as he did on Whitewater, the Clinton Foundation, all the corrupt things he was involved in  and why he didn't on Monica Lewinsky. The latter scandal was easily recitable. The others were not.

Ron DeSantis won his voters over by his performance in office. His crown was full of stars, all of which could be described in a sentence. One of the brightest was his stellar performance during and especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian  ordering the evacuations, getting the aid to the needy, getting the place cleaned up, and restoring the bridge to Sanibel Island ahead of time and under budget. Voters are accustomed to chaos and incompetence in situations like these and often give politicians a wide margin for error. But DeSantis got the job done, and the message sent is that he will get all jobs done when they need doing. He's a good man in a storm.

He also challenged corporate Disney, which sought to impose its transgender morality onto the Florida voting public as a wokester corporation. The fuse was lit over a reasonable law passed in the Florida Legislature that sex education not be shoved in the faces of seven-year-olds in public schools. Disney twisted that into a phony claim of "don't say gay," which wasn't what the law was about, and vowed to bankroll opposition politicians who would repeal that law. DeSantis not only refused to back down in the face of that coercion, but yanked Disney's privileged corporate tax status as a sort of self-governing entity, which had been put into place when its Disneyworld park was built some fifty years ago, and made Disney live by the same laws as the rest of the state's companies. That was effective action that could be recited easily, and the wokester company shut up after that.

He also was defiant and effective on COVID restrictions at the height of the COVID pandemic, protecting and saving Florida's elderly and vulnerable citizens from the fate of the elderly suffered in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and California, where COVID patients were forced by government order into nursing homes, where they infected and killed thousands. He also defied the mass lockdowns seen in those states, which severely damaged those economies. DeSantis kept Florida safe without the lockdowns, the business shutdowns, the killings of old people, by focusing on protecting the vulnerable while also protecting the healthy. He took amazing hell from it from the Washington establishment and COVID industrial complex, with big-money interests demanding vaccines and hospitalizations, but stood firm in the storm, and his state came out of the pandemic far healthier than other states that embraced lockdowns. Again, a good man to have during a storm.

Lastly, he (and Texas governor Greg Abbott) shifted the momentum on the migrant surge, after the Biden administration failed to enforce the border, allowing some two million unvetted illegals into the country. He launched the famous Martha's Vineyard "publicity stunt," transporting a planeload of migrants to the tony sanctuary city, which indeed was a small but memorable act, driving home the point that the border crisis was the country's crisis. It wasn't fair to shove the flood onto just the border states to pay for, which was the Biden administration's replacement-theory approach. He was screamed at in the press for it  but he didn't back down, and it sure as heck didn't hurt him in this last governor's race. Again, a very nameable act with very concrete results.

Rand Paul was pretty much the same way.

He is known for his challenge to Obamacare during his earlier terms.

The nameable things he did as senator during his current term, which is a little trickier to do as a senator, given that the Senate is a talk shop, are nevertheless comparable in quality to those of Ron DeSantis.

Rand Paul made headlines by being the most important challenger to Dr. Anthony Fauci and his lockdown mania. He pressed Fauci on his business dealings and, even more important, on his claims to be the embodiment of science, hauling him in for hearings. He pressed Fauci about the most obvious anti-scientific view held by Fauci who was demanding mass vaccinations, even of those who had had COVID. What the heck did he know about natural immunity? Paul asked. He exposed the hypocrisies. That made an impact.

Rand Paul also demanded accountability on Joe Biden's monstrously huge Ukraine aid packages. Paul wasn't necessarily against helping the country; he just insisted that the money not be stolen, or turn into a perma-war hog wallow with special interests rolling in the dough, as happened in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the victory-less war extending for decades. Paul's proposed amendment didn't pass in the Senate, and the Ukraine package was passed without the added auditing or accountability that such amounts of cash badly need, but it made an impact. You can recite it in one sentence. Paul demanded that money spent on a foreign overseas project not be wasted or stolen. He sure as heck gets credit for that.

Two other Republicans won their seats by large margins: Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, for defying COVID lockdowns, and Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, for sticking it to sleazy socialist tyrants abroad, through sanctions and simply speaking out. As with DeSantis, and Paul, these things done are nameable, and they win voters over.

They are a heckuva lot more important to winning than just "owning the libs" and saying outrageous things on Twitter, which some GOP candidates who performed far less impressively have done, winning headlines but not votes. Let's see more of the hard acts and challenges seen in these big-margin GOP winners to make the red wave a reality next time.

Image: Official photo via shareable Britannica.
In the annals of diplomatic idiocy, John Kerry is right up there with some of the worst of them.

At a United Nations global warming conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, Biden's global warming czar, John Kerry, did some gladhanding with Venezuela's Marxist narco-dictator, Nicolas Maduro, successor to the late Hugo Chavez.

Here's the video seen on Twitter:

John Kerry (Bidens special envoy for Climate) shaking hands and talking with Nicolas Maduro at COP27. Maduro is charged with narco terrorism in US courts and still has an active $15 million reward for information leading to his capture. #Venezuelapic.twitter.com/4StKz3zugo  CNW (@ConflictsW) November 8, 2022

According to Fox News:

Kerry was caught on video briefly meeting Maduro, Venezuelas former president, at the COP27 U.N. climate meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The brief but friendly encounter raised eyebrows on social media because Maduro has been charged by the U.S. government with narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of deadly weapons. In 2020, the State Department  which Kerry led under President Obama from 2013 to 2017  offered a reward of up to $15 million for any information leading to the arrest and capture of Maduro. Kerrys brief meeting appeared friendly and cordial. However, State Department spokesman Ned Price downplayed the encounter by saying Maduro interrupted Kerry during the meeting. "He briefly spoke to Special Envoy Kerry during COP27," Price said. "This was not planned or substantive in any way."

This is laughable excuse-making. The conference Kerry jetted to on a thick carbon trail is a United Nations hotel and buffet opportunity that's pretty much a shakedown of rich, well managed countries to poor, badly managed third-world ones.

We all know that the Biden administration is all in on better relations with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, with a diplomatic team run by amateurs known as the "three stooges" naively hoping Maduro will pump oil for them, and make up the deficit seen in the shutdown of American energy production by the Biden administration. Venezuela, of course, has wrecked its oil industry through socialism, and would have a hard time pumping at this point, but the sucking up simply never stops, even as it yields nothing.

The claim that the encounter was not "planned" is stupid stuff, too. All Kerry had to do was not hold his hand out or smile. If for some reason he did, he could have wiped his hand off, the way Kamala Harris did to the president of South Korea in 2021. A hearty handshake for Maduro, but a wiped hand for the president of our ally South Korea? What a message they send.

A third idiocy in this "chance" encounter is that it repeats a previous mistake made by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who, upon their first chance encounter with Hugo Chavez at a global summit in Trinidad, went against stern advice not to shake hands with the Caracas thug. They ignored that, and Hugo ran circles around them after that. Thensecretary of state Hillary Clinton repeated the error in 2011. I wrote about that for Investor's Business Daily here. Then Obama gave Hugo another symbolic hug in 2012, here.

The U.S. doesn't even have relations with Venezuela's current government. It still holds relations with Venezuela's rightful acting president, who's in exile, Juan Guaido. Whooping it up with Maduro, an illegitimate dictator with a reward on his head for narco-trafficking, pretty well undercuts the Venezuelan democracy movement. I wrote about the views of Venezuela experts on that here.

It's also pretty gross, given that Maduro did the old third-world song-and-dance blaming "capitalism" for the world's pollution and called for huge transfers of Western assets to his hellhole country as reparations.

Maduro is the guy who created this kind of "ecology" over in Venezuela:

Maduro is really playing up his trip to Egypt and social media is enabling him. He's dictator destroying millions of lives in #Venezuela, not just the environment, who has no business being at #COP27. Why is he still on Twitter, @elonmusk?  eric farnsworth (@ericfarns) November 8, 2022

The guy responsible for this in Venezuelan Amazonia is in the COP27, what a scam pic.twitter.com/dHiYG8wEDn  Guillermo (@Guillerm__) November 8, 2022

There was also the Valdez-style oil spill from Maduro's state oil company that turned Venezuela's western coastline into an oozing blend of oily, filthy, toxic black sewage. I wrote about that in 2020 here. There is evidence that the Venezuelan dictatorship has even spread its pollution over to other people's countries, as happened in Brazil, with the first report of it described here.

Now we have John Kerry, Joe Biden's global warming czar, whooping it up with Maduro, claiming his happy handshake all just happened by chance. He ought to have delivered a speech denouncing Maduro as the hemisphere's "dirtiest dictator," but he preferred to gladhand.

Is this amateur hour or Maduro hour? Why does Kerry keep falling into the same trap and making the same mistakes his predecessors did, over and over? And why the heck is he having such a good time with one of the hemisphere's most appalling dictators?

Image: Twitter screen shot.
Leave it up to Nancy Pelosi to try to extract some political advantage from a horrible freak assault on her husband.

According to Axios:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a new interview with CNN that the recent attack on her husband will impact her decision on whether to retire. Why it matters: The attack of Paul Pelosi at the couple's San Francisco home in late October has increased alarm about Congress members' personal security amid a broader rise in threats against prominent political figures.

Yes, it was a terrible attack, and no, Paul Pelosi didn't provoke it, nor was it gay boyfriend stuff, or whatever the malevolent are cooking up as their conspiracy theory.

A bum of no coherent beliefs, lots of drugs, zero contributions to society, and a deportation notice that should have been there with his name on it, yet wasn't, was walking around in our country unencumbered, and went to the Pelosi house in San Francisco with intent to do harm. He's been rightly arrested and now belongs in prison with a long sentence and a flight back to his homeland once he serves every day of it, which should include a lot of breaking rocks in the hot sun. End of story.

But Pelosi claims that the attack has changed everything, because presumably she loves her husband so much, she's now hinting that she plans to get out of politics. How very ... pious.

That might have worked a few years ago. But not now.

After all, if she really were as concerned for her husband's health as she says, she'd resign right now to be with him. Why hasn't she?

Everyone knows she's planning to retire. She said she would in 2018, she had her four years of fun destroying the economy while showing us the pricey ice cream contents of her refrigerator. Now she's poised to lose power as the most powerful person in Congress in the wake of today's midterms. Once the bloodbath happens, she'll be the opposition, harping from the sidelines, no longer the lady godfather with countless characters coming to pay tribute to her, and that's not Nancy's style. Of course she wants to get the heck out of Dodge. A lot of them on the losing side do.

She's already spoke of moving to Italy, kind of the way Latin dictators do after their stretch in power is done -- fleeing to the luxe life of Europe, and perhaps becoming the Biden administration's ambassador to Italy. That would be a heckuva palmy life for the Pelosis, with lots of limos, a multi-storey wine cellar, and security galore at taxpayer expense.

But Italy's kind of an important ally right now, and has just elected the most conservative prime minister in its post-Renaissance history as a republic. Nancy Pelosi is a left-wing extremist. You can bet that relations wouldn't strengthen if Pelosi were to become Joe Biden's ambassador to Italy, if that would be the aim. Putting Nancy there would be more in line with Joe wanting to 'teach' the new prime minister some kind of lesson and then watch relations from there go downhill.

Her new claim that the attack on her husband might just make her change plans makes one wonder -- change them to what?

Most likely, she's doing this in a bid to win sympathy, and reap just a little more hay blaming Republicans for the attack. That's pure politics. If that's correct, then Pelosi would use an attack on her husband to win something for herself, to not let a crisis go to waste. If so, how cynical.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of image by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0, edited with Adobe PhotoShop Elements.
Ron DeSantis is getting the lion's share of national attention for his sweeping victory that has turned Florida into a Republican bastion, adding almost 20 points to his margin of victory in 2018, when he barely won the governorship. Among his pillars of support was his strong opposition to COVID shutdowns of businesses and schools and his opposition to vaccine mandates.

But two other statewide races on Tuesday featured incumbent candidates who vigorously fought COVID shutdowns and mandatory vaccines. And in both races, the incumbents won victories with even bigger margins than DeSantis.

In Kentucky, with 87% of the vote counted, Rand Paul is winning re-election to the Senate with a 22.8% margin, according to the AP:

Senator Paul's spirited questioning of Dr. Fauci, using his expertise as a medical doctor who actually treats patients (unlike Fauci, who is a pure bureaucrat often masquerading in a lab coat), no doubt was on the mind of Kentucky's voters.

In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem, who kept schools and businesses open in Siouth Dakota and saw the economy boom, had an even bigger margin of victory: 26.8% with 97% of the vote counted, according to the AP.

Source.

It's pretty obvious that a lot of Republicans failed to understand the depth of the public's opposition to and anger over COVID authoritarianism. Since President Trump's stand on whether or not he will run for president again is on many people's minds this morning, consider that he bought in to and relied on the advice of Drs. Fauci, Birx, Walensky, and company.

This does not position him well for re-election, and if Ron DeSantis is his principal opponent for the GOP nomination, it will become a major issue for GOP voters.
Microsoft and its Activision Blizzard deal are far from finalized, as the company now faces concerns from EU regulators. A new report from Reuters details the European Commission is expressing concern that Microsofts interest in buying Activision for $69 billion may violate antitrust laws.

The European Commission reportedly opened a full-scale investigation into the deal on Tuesday, November 8 to address these concerns and whether or not the deal would be bad for competition. Companies like Sony, one of Microsofts main rivals, have been very outspoken on this particular point. Showcasing its lack of support for the deal to go through. Mainly with regards to Call Of Duty being potentially blocked from PlayStation with future releases.

Microsoft however has been consistent in its stance that the deal would lead to no such thing. Insisting that it wants future Call Of Duty titles to remain on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

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Regardless, the European Commission shows concern that if the deal is approved, it may significantly reduce competition on the markets for the distribution of console and PC video games. To that end, Microsoft said it would try to assuage these fears. Stating it would work with regulators to address any valid concerns.

The EU investigation into the Microsoft Activision deal could last for months

With this new investigation underway, its safe to say that the deal cant currently move forward. The European Commision could certainly wrap up its investigation quickly and approve the deal. But it could just as easily block it. The commission says it will reach a decision by March 23 of next year. Which means its possible Microsofts bid to buy Activision Blizzard could be tied up for the next few months.

Microsoft first announced its plans to buy Activision Blizzard in January of 2022. Making for its largest potential studio/publisher buyout ever. Following the already mega-sized deal it made when it purchased ZeniMax Media, which owns DOOM, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout maker Bethesda.

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Activision Blizzard, by comparison, owns some of the video game industrys most globally recognizable properties. Including Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft.
(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 9 - Italy will have to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, transport, buildings and small industries by 43.7% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, according to an agreement on national contributions to EU climate commitments reached by representatives of the European Parliament and European Council late on Tuesday.

Italy's current target is a 33% reduction.

Under the agreement, the lowest contribution to meeting the EU's target will come from Bulgaria (10%) and the highest from Sweden (50%).

The agreement, which will now have to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council, aims to see EU emissions fall by 40% in these sectors.

The agreement regards sectors not covered by the EU Emissions Trading System.

A review is scheduled for 2025. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 9 - The tough stance Premier Giorgio Meloni's government has adopted on NGO-run search-and-rescue ships has sparked tension between Rome and Paris, with the French government blasting Italy's refusal to allow the Ocean Viking carrying 234 asylum seekers to dock in an Italian port.

The Ocean Viking was heading to French territorial waters on Wednesday after Italy ignored its appeals for a port of safety for around three weeks following rescues of people in the southern Mediterranean.

"The ship is currently in Italian territorial waters, there are extremely clear European rules that were accepted by the Italians," French government spokesman Olivier Veran was quoted as saying by AFP.

He added that "the current attitude of the Italian government, notably its declarations and refusal to accept the ship," was "unacceptable." On Tuesday the Italian authorities finally allowed around 250 asylum seekers to leave two other NGO-run ships, Humanity 1 and the Geo Barents.

The ships docked in Catania at the weekend but the government initially only allowed people considered vulnerable to land and had told the ships to return to international waters with the others still on board. (ANSA).


Media,eastern Europe ready for a wave of Ukrainian refugees Due to cold weather, the number of displaced is already up 15%

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 9 - Eastern European countries are preparing for a wave of Ukrainian refugees driven to leave their homes in the wake of Russian attacks that have targeted power plants, forcing the population to continuous blackouts and no heating, as the Reuters website reported.



Slovakia and Hungary are preparing for a more significant influx of evacuees in the coming months. "We expect an increase. It's currently by 15%," said Roman Dohovic, aid coordinator for Kosice (eastern Slovakia).



Missiles and drones launched by Moscow's troops have been striking for weeks Ukraine's energy infrastructure when winter arrives, and average temperatures drop to several degrees below zero, with low-temperature records of minus twenty degrees.



President Volodymyr Zelensky recently pointed out that more than 4 million people are without electricity in 14 regions, including Kyiv. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
Western Balkans Investment Conference to be held in Slovenia Co-organized by WB6 CIF and RCC on November 22

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, NOV 9 - The 'Western Balkans Investment Conference,' co-organized by the Western Balkans 6 Chamber Investment Forum (WB6 CIF) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), will take place on November 22 at the Hotel Intercontinental in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana. The event will bring together European investors from the region and beyond, companies from Slovenia, Italy, Austria, and Croatia, as well as Western Balkans investment promotion agencies and institutions, according to a statement released today by the WB6 CIF. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
CAIRO - The family of Egyptian-British political detainee Alaa Abdel Fattah asked for information on his health given "reports according to which he is being force-fed" after a seven-month-long hunger strike. An icon of the 2011 revolution in Egypt who ousted Hosni Mubarak from power, Alaa was arrested at the end of 2019. The detainee, who will turn 41 on November 18, on the last day of the Cop 27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh was sentenced to five years in prison for spreading "false information" after republishing a message on Facebook in which he accused of torture a police officer. On April 2, the activist decided to only drink a glass of tea and a spoon of honey, his family claims. One week ago, he completely stopped eating and, since the opening of COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh last Sunday, he has stopped drinking, they said.



Since then, his mother Laila Soueif has been going every day to the prison of Wadi Natrun, some 100 km north of Cairo. So far she has been unable to obtain evidence that her son is still alive and hasn't been allowed to provide him with books and clothes.



"The only difference today is that they didn't take his mother's letter for Alaa", tweeted his sister Mona Seif. "Does this mean he is not in a state to receive a letter? Or that he isn't in this prison anymore?". Two days have passed since the prison administration gave Alaa his mother's messages for the last time, alarming his aunt, the well-known writer Ahdaf Soueif, while allegations that he is being "force-fed" and that he is sedated are reportedly circulating. She tweeted that it is necessary for him to be "urgently transferred to the university hospital Qasr al-Aini", the largest public health care facility in Cairo, so that "other representatives, in addition to those of the State, have access to him", for example his attorneys or a representative of the British embassy.




RIYADH - A 34-year-old American woman was arrested in Saudi Arabia for publicly accusing on social media her former husband of holding their eight-year-old daughter in the kingdom under so-called safeguard laws, according to Freedom Initiative, a Washington-based NGO which fights for the rights of people unjustly detained in the Middle East and North Africa.



Carly Morris was taken into custody by Saudi authorities on Monday and doesn't know where her daughter Tala is. "It is unclear if the little girl is imprisoned with her or if she has been handed over to her ex-husband", said in a statement the NGO.



The woman went to Saudi Arabia with her daughter in the summer of 2019, hoping to spend a few weeks with the girl's father. But right after they landed in Riyadh, the man seized their documents and made the girl become a Saudi citizen, ensuring that she would be prevented from leaving. In September, Morris was summoned by Saudi prosecutors who informed her that she was under investigation for "disruption to public order", a development she attributed to social media posts on her case. "I fear I will be arrested at any moment", Morris told French news agency AFP. "My biggest fear will be who will take care of Tala".



US State Department spokesman Ned Price said yesterday that he is aware of reports on Morris's detention.




Syria: at least 15 dead in attack on pro-Iran militia convoy Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, 09 NOV - At least 15 people have been reported dead following an attack against a convoy of pro-Iranian militants in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports.



The Observatory did not elaborate on who launched the attack which struck the convoy of "gasoline tanker trucks and lorries full of weapons" in the area of Albu Kamal close to the border with Iraq.



The US army told media outlets in Iraq that it wasn't involved in the raid. (ANSAmed).




Third meeting Medfeminiswija Network in Tunis Mediterranean Network for Feminist Information

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, 09 NOV - Tunisia is hosting until November 12 the third meeting of members of the Mediterranean Network for Feminist Information "Medfeminiswiya" with the participation of 22 women in journalism from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine, Italy, Turkey, Lebanon, Croatia, Spain and Montenegro.



This third meeting was organized after several preparatory meetings held remotely for three years due to Covid and the last meeting in person in Morocco was in 2019, said the co-president responsible for the project Medfeminiswiya, Samia Allalou, stressing the importance of these meetings that will allow members of the Medfeminiswiya network to discuss several themes and exchange opinions between different generations of journalists. During the event in Tunis, the general assembly of the association Medfeminiswiya Network will be held to remember the values and principles of this project and present the report of activities for 2021.



Mefeminiswiya is a feminist network of journalists and content creators who work in several Mediterranean countries with the objective of promoting the culture of diversity and solidarity among female journalists in the Mediterranean region. (ANSAmed)
BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday honored two Kosovan police officers, both ethnic Serbs, who left their posts for refusing to force the Serbian population of northern Kosovo to change their license plates. Nenad Djuric, who headed Kosovan police in the north, was ousted a few days ago under a decision of the government of Pristina, while Aleksandar Filipovic, also a member of the force, stepped down. Vucic gave Duric the order of merit for defense and security, while Filipovic received a gold medal for courage.



"I thank you for guaranteeing peace and stability in all these years, and for the love and dedication shown towards the Serbian people of Serbia and Kosovo. You can be proud of all of this", said Vucic at the ceremony to honor them. The two officers, added the president, will continue their activity in roles within State institutions in Serbia. Vucic also said in this regard that the Serbian State will take care of all other Serbians - between 3,000 and 3,500 - who decided to resign from their posts in all institutions of Kosovo.



Meanwhile those responsible for the local electoral commissions of northern Kosovo joined Serbians who have been resigning from their posts in all institutions of the country including parliament, the government, local administrations, tribunals, police, in a sign of protest for Pristina's policies, in particular the obligation to change license plates and the refusal to create a Community of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo. The decision is slated to create problems in new elections announced for the replacement of mayors, who have also resigned, in the four major municipalities of the North with a Serbian-majority population - Zvecan, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and the northern (Serbian) sector of Kosovska Mitrovica. "We believe that such an electoral process, without a political accord and the agreement of our citizens, is an impossible mission", said Slobodan Dimitrijevic, an outgoing member of the local electoral commission in northern Mitrovica. "We support our citizens and we resign from our posts", he added.




PARIS - The port of Marseille is "able" to welcome the Ocean Viking with over 230 migrants on board, said the mayor of the large French port overlooking the Mediterranean, Benoit Payan. He recalled however that the central government has the final say on the matter. "I addressed the French government, saying that it would be an honor for Marseille, as well as an honor for France, to welcome the Ocean Viking here in France", said the mayor.



"If necessary, Marseille, which is a port and has this tradition, would be able to host them", he added. The Socialist mayor went on to say that welcoming the Ocean Viking is "necessary because they are shipwrecked people, we are talking about women and children on a ship who were about to drown. I will never accept that it is necessary to ask them for documents or the color of skin", he warned. Faced with this "humanitarian drama", the mayor however recalled that "France has to take this decision".

'Meloni coherent, we would do the same' says Le Pen's party

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "is coherent compared to the policy of (French President) Emmanuel Macron", the new secretary general of France's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, has said, commenting the Ocean Viking case in Paris. "Macron wants to welcome everybody. He beat and absolutely smashed all immigration records". The politician faithful to Marine Le Pen added that "Ms. Meloni tells Macron: 'given that you are so welcoming, now you will also welcome these people'. I think Ms. Meloni is right to show firmness. She is right because this is why she was elected. If we are elected, we intend to do the same thing she did, in particular what Matteo Salvini did when he was interior minister and today he has become Italy's deputy premier: not welcome any migrant boat. Because welcoming a boat means welcoming 10 and sending, in my opinion, a dramatic message: inviting these people to seek adventure in the Mediterranean, with the risk of death", he concluded.

"With us, the Ocean Viking would never land on the French coast", continued Bardella. "Our firmness on migration is perhaps the most humanistic policy that exists", he said, referring to the Rassemblement National. "It consists in telling all these people: 'don't come on European soil, don't come on French territory because we have nothing to offer, we are unable to give you subsidies, aid, assistance, lodgings for you and for your children because we don't have the means anymore". "This dissuasive policy of immigration could be inspired by what Australia has been doing for a few years, along its coasts, cutting to zero the number of deaths, with a dissuasive policy on immigration and publicity campaigns introduced in countries of departure. The famous campaign 'no way'", continued the politician close to Marine Le Pen, adding: "I think France should be inspired by what has been done by Australia". According to him, "the true criminals are those inducing these people to come to Europe". "They make them take risks, sometimes at the cost of their lives. This unconditional hosting policy vies to make migrants believe they have all the rights. Migration is a right that leads to tragedies in the Mediterranean", Bardella concluded.
Migrants: 'Meloni coherent, we would do the same', RN 'No Ocean Viking in France with us', Le Pen's party

(ANSAmed) - PARIS, NOVEMBER 9 - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "is coherent compared to the policy of (French President) Emmanuel Macron", the new secretary general of France's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, has said, commenting the Ocean Viking case in Paris.



"Macron wants to welcome everybody. He beat and absolutely smashed all immigration records". The politician faithful to Marine Le Pen added that "Ms. Meloni tells Macron: 'given that you are so welcoming, now you will also welcome these people'. I think Ms. Meloni is right to show firmness. She is right because this is why she was elected. If we are elected, we intend to do the same thing she did, in particular what Matteo Salvini did when he was interior minister and today he has become Italy's deputy premier: not welcome any migrant boat. Because welcoming a boat means welcoming 10 and sending, in my opinion, a dramatic message: inviting these people to seek adventure in the Mediterranean, with the risk of death", he concluded.



"With us, the Ocean Viking would never land on the French coast", continued Bardella. "Our firmness on migration is perhaps the most humanistic policy that exists", he said, referring to the Rassemblement National. "It consists in telling all these people: 'don't come on European soil, don't come on French territory because we have nothing to offer, we are unable to give you subsidies, aid, assistance, lodgings for you and for your children because we don't have the means anymore".



"This dissuasive policy of immigration could be inspired by what Australia has been doing for a few years, along its coasts, cutting to zero the number of deaths, with a dissuasive policy on immigration and publicity campaigns introduced in countries of departure. The famous campaign 'no way'", continued the politician close to Marine Le Pen, adding: "I think France should be inspired by what has been done by Australia".



According to him, "the true criminals are those inducing these people to come to Europe". "They make them take risks, sometimes at the cost of their lives. This unconditional hosting policy vies to make migrants believe they have all the rights.



Migration is a right that leads to tragedies in the Mediterranean", Bardella concluded.(ANSAmed).




NGO-rescue-ship row sparks tension between Italy, France 'Immigration emergency is European issue' says Meloni



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next Migranti: team medico italiano lascia Ocean Viking

(ANSAmed) - ROME, NOV 9 - The tough stance Premier Giorgio Meloni's government has adopted on NGO-run search-and-rescue (SAR) ships has sparked tension between Rome and Paris, with the French government blasting Italy's refusal to allow the Ocean Viking carrying 234 asylum seekers to dock in an Italian port.



The Ocean Viking was heading to French territorial waters on Wednesday after Italy ignored its appeals for a port of safety for around three weeks following rescues of people in the southern Mediterranean.



"The ship is currently in Italian territorial waters, there are extremely clear European rules that were accepted by the Italians," French government spokesman Olivier Veran was quoted as saying by AFP.



He added that "the current attitude of the Italian government, notably its declarations and refusal to accept the ship," was "unacceptable." On Tuesday the Italian authorities finally allowed around 250 asylum seekers to leave two other NGO-run ships, Humanity 1 and the Geo Barents.



They docked in Catania at the weekend but the government initially only allowed people considered vulnerable to land and had told the ships to return to international waters with the others still on board.



SOS Mediterranee, the French NGO that runs the Ocean Viking, has said it should reach international waters off Corsica by Thursday after its appeals to Italy for a port of safety were met with "deafening silence".



"We are still off the coast of Sicily, but we are moving towards Corsica where there is the first port of safety, excluding those of Italy, which did not assign us one," SOS Mediterranee activists on the ship said.



"We will leave the Italian SAR zone and reach French waters and it has not been ruled out that Marseilles could be the final destination".



On Tuesday Meloni thanked France for "sharing the responsibility of the migratory emergency, which up to now has been on the back of Italy and a few other States" after it was reported Paris had agreed to accept the Ocean Viking.



"The immigration emergency is a European issue and it should be address as such," she said. (ANSAmed).




The family of a British father have described him as a real life hero after his death in Ukraine.

Simon Lingard died fighting for what he believed in on Monday, his loved ones said.

The Foreign Office confirmed it is supporting the family of a British national who died in the war-torn country.

The Ukrainian military has offered to bring him back to England, Mr Lingards relatives added.

But the family have also set up a fundraising page asking for support to give him the greatest well deserved send-off.

Writing on the GoFundMe page, they said: As most people are aware my dad, Simon Lingard, (Grimmy) sadly lost his life in Ukraine on Monday November 7.

My dad was an inspiration to all who knew him, a real life hero who died fighting for what he believed in. He was loved and adored by so many, a true representation of what a soldier should be.

They described being absolutely heartbroken at their loss.

Britons are thought to have travelled to Ukraine to help in the fight against Russia (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

The message added: The Ukrainian military have offered to bring him home to England but we need help to show him the respect and adoration he deserves by giving him THE greatest well deserved send-off.

Could you all please find it in your heart to donate anything no matter how small so we can honour our dad and allow him to finally Rest in Peace.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: We are supporting the family of a British national who has lost his life in Ukraine and we are in touch with the local authorities in connection with his death.

Our thoughts are with their family at this difficult time.

In June, ex-British soldier Jordan Gatley was hailed a hero by both his family and an adviser to the war-torn countrys president after he was killed while fighting in Ukraine.

Mr Gatley was shot dead in the city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine.

He left the British Army in March and travelled to Ukraine to help forces there after careful consideration, his father said.

Mr Gatley, who it is understood had served as a rifleman with the Edinburgh-based third battalion of The Rifles, was also praised by Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who said he would always be remembered for his contribution.

In April, tributes were paid to Scott Sibley, a British military veteran reportedly killed in Ukraine while fighting against Russian forces.

At that time the Foreign Office confirmed a British national had died in Ukraine.

A small number of serving British personnel are believed to have gone absent without leave to join the resistance against the Russian invasion, while veterans and Britons without combat experience are thought to have also travelled to Ukraine.

There was initially confusion on the Governments position after then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, in comments during an interview to the BBC on February 26, said she would absolutely support UK nationals who chose to fight for Ukraine.

However, she later rowed back on those comments, insisting she had been expressing support for the Ukrainian cause in her remarks, and that there are better ways to contribute to the countrys defence.
An alleged fugitives attempts to explain why he is not the man wanted by US prosecutors are entirely outlandish, a court has heard.

Advocate depute Paul Harvey told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that on the balance of probabilities, the man is Nicholas Rossi, who is facing extradition to the US over two allegations of rape and one of sexual assault.

A hearing has been taking place at the court this week to establish the identity of the 35-year-old, who denies he is Rossi and claims to be Arthur Knight, from Ireland.

Giving evidence earlier in the week, the man claimed the fingerprints on the extradition request (those of Rossi) were meddled with, and taken from him by an NHS worker called Patrick on behalf of David Leavitt, a Utah county attorney.

US prosecutors say the man is Nicholas Rossi, but he claims to be Arthur Knight (Jane Barlow/PA)

Mr Harvey urged Sheriff Norman McFadyen to reject the mans fanciful explanations.

He said: The account that it was a man known only to be Patrick who took the prints from him when he was in a coma at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, that is not only fanciful but entirely outlandish.

Earlier in the week, Tenprint Identification Officer (TIO) Lisa Davidson told the court that fingerprints taken by police in July from the man in HMP Saughton Prison are identical to Rossis fingerprints on the Interpol red notice and the extradition request.

On Tuesday, another TIO, Anita Vezza, analysing the same images, said the fingerprints had similar characteristics on each that were unique to that person.

In his evidence on Tuesday, the man claimed he was tattooed while unconscious in hospital, telling the court this is why he has similar tattoos to Rossi.

Mr Harvey told the court: Your lordship can regard as fanciful and bizarre the explanation that while he was in a coma that someone entered the ward and tatooed his body without anyone noticing.

Its not just fanciful, its bizarre.

The lawyer also pointed to earlier evidence that showed the man had used multiple names when registering at a GP practice in Bristol that were different to the name on his marriage certificate  Nicholas Brown.

He said this was evidence the man uses aliases, the court heard.

Mr Harvey also said evidence given by the mans wife, Miranda Knight, on Tuesday does not stand as it was all information given to her by the man.

Making his closing submission on Wednesday, the third day of the hearing, Mr Harvey said the sheriff has the information he needs to find that the man is Rossi.

He said: Your Lordship has authenticated photos, you have authenticated fingerprints, and your Lordship is entitled to reject the persons outlandish explanations.

The hearing took place at Edinburgh Sheriff Court (Jane Barlow/PA)

Your Lordship has the fingerprints which provide on its own sufficient proof that this man is the person who the Americans seek. Your Lordship has photos, tattoos and use of aliases.

Mungo Bovey KC, defending, said the evidence heard so far about the tattoos is vague and insubstantial.

He described the analysis of the fingerprints given by the two forensic experts before the court as not good.

Mr Bovey also defended the mans use of several names by saying the couple had coherently explained the name change was related to the traumatic childhood suffered by the accused.

The lawyer then attempted to seek bail for the man  a fourth attempt since he was taken into custody in July.

He said Mrs Knight is willing to surrender her passport as a token of security and the couple would offer a 1,000 payment as bail money.

The court heard the man is also willing to have a curfew and be put on an electronic tag.

But Sheriff McFadyen rejected the application.

He adjourned the hearing until Friday, when he is due to make a final decision on the mans identity.

Earlier on Wednesday the court was told that US prosecutors submitted supplementary extradition requests in late October for the man.

One relates to an allegation of rape in Salt Lake City and another to an allegation of sexual assault elsewhere.

The man is already fighting an extradition request by authorities in Utah who allege he raped a 21-year-old in the state.
Four people accused of disrupting traffic during a protest on Tower Bridge in London have appeared in court.

Scarlet Possnett, 19, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Christopher Riches, 21, of Flore, Northamptonshire, Amy Rugg-Easey, 31, of Shiremoor, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Christopher Lewis-Farley, 52, of Malvern, Worcestershire, were in the dock at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

They stood to confirm their names, ages and addresses in front of a packed public gallery.

They pleaded not guilty to committing wilful obstruction of a highway at the landmark on April 8.

The charge sheet claims each defendant, without lawful authority or excuse, wilfully obstructed the free passage along a highway, namely Tower Bridge  contrary to section 137(1) of the Highways Act 1980.

The four were granted unconditional bail and are due to stand trial at the same court on February 10 2023.
The Government is to extend a deadline for calling an election in Northern Ireland and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris confirmed the moves in the House of Commons on Wednesday as he outlined his next steps in response to the powersharing crisis in the region.

Existing legislation gave the Stormont parties almost six months to form a ministerial executive following the last election in May, which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party for the first time.

The deadline to establish a new executive lapsed on October 28, at which point the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold a fresh poll within 12 weeks  January 19.

Mr Heaton-Harris said he was now extending the deadline for parties to form an executive by six weeks to December 8, with the option of a further six-week extension.

Today I have announced plans to extend the period for Executive formation and take powers to reduce MLA salaries as appropriate. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/SJl7qSGYrG  Chris Heaton-Harris MP (@chhcalling) November 9, 2022

With the Stormont deadlock intrinsically linked to the dispute over Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol, the Government move is designed to provide more space for a deal to be struck between Brussels and London over the contentious Irish Sea trading arrangements

The 12-week clock for calling an election will now come into effect either on December 8  meaning a poll would have to be held by March 2  or six weeks later on January 19, meaning an election would need to take place by April 13 at the latest.

Mr Heaton-Harris also said he would cut the pay of MLAs to reflect the fact they are not currently doing their job as legislators.

Salaries will be reduced by 27.5%  a move in line with a cut imposed by the Government during the last powersharing impasse in Northern Ireland.

The cut is set to come into effect at the start of next month.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris (Aaron Chown/PA)

The Cabinet minister is also giving extra powers to Stormont civil servants to enable them to run the regions rudderless public services and will take steps to pass a budget for the region.

The moves will require legislation to be laid and passed at Westminster.

Addressing the Commons, Mr Heaton Harris said: I think it would be fair to say, Mr Speaker, that the vast majority of those I have spoken to think that an election at this time would be most unwelcome.

A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol, has prevented an executive being formed in Belfast.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Stormont could only be restored if a deal that respects Northern Irelands place within the UK was struck on the protocol (Liam McBurney/PA)

The regions largest unionist party has made clear it will not countenance a return to powersharing until the protocols economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are scrapped.

Negotiations between the UK and EU aimed at securing changes to the protocol are continuing, with both sides talking up the prospect of a deal.

If a compromise on the protocol was secured that convinced the DUP to return to a devolved executive, the Government would likely come under further pressure to ditch plans for an election altogether.

The UK and Irish governments are both keen to avoid a scenario where Stormont remains in limbo next April when the 25th anniversary of the historic Good Friday peace agreement will be marked.

Announcing the deadline extension move, Mr Heaton-Harris told MPs: This aims to create the time and space needed for talks between the UK Government and the European Commission to develop, and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible.

He also reiterated that a joint authority arrangement between the UK and Ireland to govern Northern Ireland if the impasse continued would not be considered.

The UK Government is absolutely clear that the consent principle governs the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, under which Northern Ireland is an integral part of the UK. We will not support any arrangements that are inconsistent with that principle, he said.

Despite repeatedly vowing to set an election date the minute the original deadline expired on October 28, Mr Heaton-Harris backtracked on that pledge, prompting Stormont parties to accuse him of a U-turn.

During Northern Ireland questions earlier in the Commons on Wednesday, he denied Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had intervened on the issue to overrule him.

I dont believe I was overruled by the Prime Minister, he told MPs.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney welcomed the announcement on the election and urged the UK to make use of the renewed opportunity to engage positively with the EU.

The Secretary of States announcement provides further space for early substantive progress in discussions between the EU and UK on the issues of most concern to people and business in NI, he said.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told Mr Heaton-Harris that people need a solution that sees the institutions restored on the basis that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom.

Earlier, his party colleague Edwin Poots said insisted a cut to MLA pay would have absolutely no influence whatsoever on his partys stance.

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill said the uncertainty over an election was not good enough and she accused Mr Heaton-Harris of dithering and indecision.

What we now have are new deadlines, multiple deadlines, in which he (Mr Heaton-Harris) may or may not call an election, she told reporters at Stormont.

So this is not a good enough space for people to be in and I think the fundamental question today has to be around whats next?

What do the British Government intend to do to find an agreed way forward on the protocol?

Ms ONeill questioned why Mr Heaton-Harris had not targeted the pay cut at DUP MLAs who were refusing to engage with the devolved institutions.

She said Northern Ireland was also now facing the prospect of an unadulterated Tory budget being imposed on the region.

Alliance leader Naomi Long has called for reform of the Stormont insitutions (PA)

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long welcomed clarity from Mr Heaton-Harris but she said it has not changed the pressing need for reform of the institutions.

As long as any one party can take the institutions hostage, they will, she said.

Therefore we need reform of the Assembly and executive to stop that happening, or else we could easily be back in this same situation again in a matter of months.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the focus must be on restoring the Stormont institutions.

He added with the prospect of a deal between the UK and EU on the protocol getting closer every day, that the DUP has no excuse for continuing their boycott of the Stormont institutions.
The UK Government has been urged to fund grants of 1,000 per person to help with re-fitting homes and businesses to deal with the energy crisis, a think tank has said.

Our Scottish Future, set up by former prime minister Gordon Brown, released a report on Wednesday calling for the UK Government to use money from the energy price guarantee to fund the shift, with its author saying high energy prices were here to stay.

Dr Pete Wood, who was commissioned to write the report, said the best way to slash energy costs was to reduce the amount of energy that was needed.

Through the implementation of personal energy and carbon reduction accounts (Pecras), worth about 40.4 billion, which would be used to insulate homes and businesses, move to heat pumps and other energy saving techniques to reduce UK demand.

This year, the Government stepped in to cap the worst excesses of energy bills, against predictions that households could face average bills of over 6,500, Dr Wood said.

But high gas and electricity prices are here to stay, which means that unless the UK takes new action next year we could see energy prices bring down the Government  again.

Either we continue the energy price cap at a cost upwards of 100 billion or we try something more imaginative.

We propose in this paper that the Government offers grants of 1,000 per person to support homes and businesses to refit boilers, lag lofts, and improve energy efficiency.

Regional mayors and local government would be responsible for bringing communities and businesses together, to tailor solutions fit for local needs.

That way, rather than spending billions to cap the price of gas, with the money going to oil and gas companies, we spend billions reducing our need for it.

The report also suggests the establishment of an energy price council, which would be a joint venture between the UK Government and devolved administrations tasked with keeping costs low.

This also comes alongside the creation of what Dr Wood called net-zero furlough  a scheme that would pay people working in certain industries to undertake retraining, allowing them to take time away from work.
A police force has admitted the arrest of a journalist who was handcuffed and held in custody for five hours after covering an environmental protest was unnecessary.

Charlotte Lynch, of LBC, told of her terrifying five hours in a police cell, a day after documentary maker Rich Felgate and photographer Tom Bowles were arrested for reporting on the activists on the M25 in Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire Police, in a statement released on Wednesday evening, acknowledged that while the actions of its officers at the scene were understandable, the arrest would not have been necessary.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined police chiefs in calling for press freedom after multiple arrests of journalists during the Just Stop Oil protests this week.

Yesterday I was arrested by @HertsPolice whilst covering a protest on the M25. I showed my press card, and I was handcuffed almost immediately. My phone was snatched out of my hand. I was searched twice, held in a cell for 5 hours, and I wasnt questioned whilst in custody.  Charlotte Lynch (@charlotterlynch) November 9, 2022

Mr Sunak said it is vital that journalists are able to do their job freely, without restriction, as the chief constable of Hertfordshire Police called for a review into the arrests.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters: I am cautious about commenting on specific incidents. Operational decisions are a matter for the police but the Prime Minister strongly believes in championing press freedoms.

We wouldnt want to see those freedoms impeded while journalists are going about their day-to-day business.

Ms Lynch had been reporting on the activists from a road bridge over junction 21 of the M25 on Tuesday for about 45 minutes when she was approached and questioned by two officers.

After showing them a press card and having explained she was reporting on the demonstration, the officers handcuffed her, took her phone and arrested her on conspiracy to commit a public nuisance.

They wanted to know how Ms Lynch knew about the protest, she said.

She said: It was absolutely terrifying being in a cell with a pad for a bed in one corner and a metal toilet in the other.

I was just doing my job. Whats also terrifying is what this means for press freedom. It was blindingly obvious I was a reporter.

'Then I was in that cell for five hours and I just sat there and cried.' LBC Reporter Charlotte Lynch tells James O'Brien she 'just lost it' while being under arrest for covering an eco-protest.@mrjamesob | @charlotterlynch pic.twitter.com/2S9BEvHa4P  LBC (@LBC) November 9, 2022

Hertfordshire Police said the circumstances of the arrest of the LBC journalist have been internally reviewed.

The force concluded: Though the actions of the officers at the scene are understandable, in retrospect an arrest would not have been necessary.

Documentary maker Mr Felgate and photographer Mr Bowles had been capturing footage and pictures of activists on a footbridge over the M25 near Kings Langley, at close to 11am on Monday when they were handcuffed.

The pair, both of whom say they have no affiliation with the group, had their equipment seized and were taken to a police station, despite efforts to show their press cards.

Mr Bowles, 47, from Hackney, east London, told the PA news agency he was held until 1.30am, hours after his wife and 14-year-old daughter were woken up as three officers searched their home.

Speaking to journalists at a conference in Westminster on Wednesday, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, Martin Hewitt, said officers are under pressure when dealing with protesters but media should not be prevented from reporting on them.

He said: Theres an enormous amount of pressure in play around those protest issues for the reasons that you would understand.

But, of course, there is a right for journalists to go and report on those occasions and that shouldnt be prevented in any way.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman (Aaron Chown/PA)

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: Press freedom is really important and you will often want to be  and quite rightly be  quite close to where difficult things are happening so you can report it well and I absolutely, absolutely support that.

The principle that youre going to be close to the action sometimes, and we should be sensitive to press freedom, of course, I completely agree with.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman later said the reports she had heard were concerning, but added that any investigation into what happened should be allowed to run its course without pre-judgment.

It came after Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper asked the Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans how the House could summon Ms Braverman to explain and apologise for the treatment of journalists covering protests given the severity of the incidents.

Baroness Shami Chakrabarti called the arrests very, very serious (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Ms Cooper, the MP for St Albans, added: We are not an authoritarian state. The ability of journalists to do their job unhindered is a vital part of our democracy.

Hertfordshire Police said officers had been using their professional judgment to clear possible protesters from the roads.

A statement from the force said additional measures are now in place to ensure that legitimate media can do their job, with officers instructed to ensure they conduct full and thorough checks before making an arrest decision, and get final approval by a supervisor.

The force said: In addition, Mr (Chief Constable Charlie) Hall is requesting an independent force to examine our approach to these arrests and to identify any learning we should take in managing these challenging situations.

Dawn Alford, executive director of the Society of Editors, said they are deeply concerned by the arrests, adding that journalists, filmmakers and photographers have a right to attend protests and report on behalf of the public.

Former shadow attorney general, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, told LBC the situation is very, very serious accusing the police of effectively shutting down the free press, the free media, in this country.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan also said: Journalists shouldnt get arrested for doing their job.
The Princess of Wales is visiting a childrens centre to learn how the mental health of mothers is being supported.

Kate is meeting staff, clients and health professionals at Colham Manor Childrens Centre in Hillingdon, west London, in her role as patron of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA).

The MMHA is a UK-wide charity and network of more than 100 organisations, working to ensuring women and families affected by perinatal mental problems have access to high-quality comprehensive care and support.

The Princess of Wales is welcomed to Colham Manor Childrens Centre in Hillingdon, west London (Aaron Chown/PA)

During her tour of the centre, Kate will hear how the care provided in the London Borough of Hillingdon is targeted to better suit the needs of women and families.

The princess will join a mother and baby group and speak with mothers who have received support for their mental health to hear about their experiences of the boroughs integrated care system.

The session will include women who have been supported by two of the MMHAs member organisations  Home-Start and Birth Companions.

Kate will then meet representatives from agencies working across perinatal services in Hillingdon, including specialist psychiatry staff, midwives, health visitors and social workers, for a roundtable discussion convened by the MMHA.

Within the discussion, the group will talk about how the service has developed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable mothers in their community, the impact this has had, and opportunities for further growth.
A man has been detained by police for allegedly throwing eggs at the King and Queen Consort.

Charles and Camilla were being welcomed to York by city leaders when a protester threw four eggs at them. All missed before the pair were ushered away.

Charles continued shaking hands with a member of the public as the eggs flew in his direction, pausing briefly to look at the shells cracked on the ground.

Police officers at Micklegate Bar, a medieval gateway and focus for grand events, were seen restraining the suspect on the ground behind temporary fencing set up for Wednesdays royal visit.

The man was heard shouting this country was built on the blood of slaves as he was being detained by around four police officers.

Camilla and Charles attended a ceremony at Micklegate Bar in York (Jacob King/PA)

People in the crowd started chanting God save the King and shame on you at the protester.

The suspect was later carried away in handcuffs, with his legs bound by two uniformed officers, who put him in the back of a police van.

Charles and Camilla were visiting Yorkshire to carry out a number of engagements.

A broken egg on the street after it was thrown at Charles and Camilla (Jacob King/PA)

They were in York to attend the unveiling of a statue of Queen Elizabeth II, the first to be installed since her death.
Police are searching for Barzan Kamal Majeed, 36, who is nicknamed as Scorpion after his WhatsApp avatar. (SWNS)

A manhunt has been launched to find a notorious people smuggler known as "Scorpion".

Authorities are looking for Barzan Kamal Majeed, 36, who is nicknamed after his WhatsApp avatar.

An investigation found migrants stopped by immigration officers had his number saved in their phones under the name Scorpion.

Last month in Bruges, Majeed, formerly from Nottingham, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 968,000 (853,000) for people smuggling offences.

Read more: Zero migrant boats detected crossing English Channel in the last week

UK's Border Force tow into the Port of Dover an inflatable boat used by migrants. (Reuters)

The Belgian prosecution came after a joint investigation involving the National Crime Agency (NCA), Belgian, and French law enforcement revealed an organised crime gang used small boats, lorries and shipping containers to help people cross.

The investigation included 31 attempts to smuggle migrants into the UK between July 2018 and November 2019, with many of the migrants stopped having Majeeds number.

His fellow crime group member Nzar Jabar Mohamad, 35, was sentenced in the UK last year.

Mohamed admitted to attempting to bring 21 migrants to the UK using lorries and small boats and was jailed for 10 years at Hull Crown Court.

Read more: Inquiry to probe whether UK asylum policy violates international law

The NCA has launched an investigation to find Majeed, with a spokesperson saying they strongly suspect he is currently in Northern Iraq after being deported from the UK in 2015.

The spokesperson said: "Mohamad was essentially the UK leg of the gang and Majeed was at the other end operating in Belgium and on the continent.

The UK arrest warrant has been published because of Majeed's historic connections to Nottingham but the crimes he has been prosecuted for have all been in Belgium.

It comes as Rishi Sunak vowed to grip this challenge of illegal migration by working with European nations.

The prime minister met Emmanuel Macron for the first time as UK leader at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by Border Force officers. (PA)

The government later said a new agreement between the UK and France, understood to be worth about 80 million, was in its final stages.

Meanwhile, home secretary Suella Braverman pledged to speed up the asylum system with a nationwide roll-out of a trial tested in Leeds to help streamline the application process.

She is under pressure for her handling of severe overcrowding at the Manston migrant processing centre, as well as questions about her own efforts to procure hotel accommodation for those seeking asylum in the UK.

Business secretary Grant Shapps described how the site in Kent was tipping into becoming an unofficial detention centre when he briefly held the post of home secretary.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick later told the Commons there had been a significant reduction in the number of people at the facility, which was back below its maximum capacity of 1,600 after more than 2,300 migrants were moved to other accommodation.

In total, 39,913 people have crossed the Channel into the UK so far this year.
Barclays will pay out 1 million in customer refunds because of mistakes it made over its payment protection insurance (PPI) policies, the UKs competition watchdog has said.

The banking giant will pay an average of 750 to up to 1,306 customers who were affected by the breach between 2014 and 2017.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that Barclays failed to send a reminder to mortgage customers with PPI policies letting them know the cost of their policy, the type of cover they had and reiterating their right to cancel.

This meant that a swathe of customers  who were sold PPI along with their mortgage loan  may have held onto the policy for longer than they needed or stopped shopping around for cheaper or better alternatives.

This could have resulted in them losing money and means they are entitled to compensation, the CMA said.

It is also a breach of the watchdogs PPI Order, which imposes rules on any providers of the insurance policies, including the obligation to send out an an annual review or reminder.

Adam Land, the senior director of remedies, business and financial analysis at the CMA, said: Barclays will pay customers up to 1 million after breaching the CMAs PPI Order.

Thats an average payment of around 750 per customer, which is particularly important as the cost-of-living crisis bites.

We will now work with Barclays to ensure these payments are made to customers.

Its important that all PPI providers take notice  we wont hesitate to take action, as we have done here, if customers have lost out.

Barclays will pay out up to 1 million, made up of refunds and goodwill payments, and will begin contacting all customers who were affected.

The banking giant has breached the order before, but this particular offense was only discovered in 2021 when it was then reported to the CMA.

While the watchdog has told Barclays to compensate customers, it currently does not have the power to impose fines on firms that break its rules on PPI.

It said it called for such powers because it would help to deter companies from breaking the law and take their obligations more seriously for the benefit of UK consumers.

Following the well-reported PPI miss-selling scandal, high-street banks like Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds Bank paid out billions of pounds in compensation to customers who made PPI claims.

A Barclays spokesperson said: Following a recent review, Barclays will be putting things right for a small number of current and former mortgage PPI policyholders who did not receive annual review statements when they should have.

We apologise to those impacted and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

It added that all impacted customers will receive a gesture of goodwill and, in the vast majority of cases, will be given the opportunity to claim a refund of past premium payments.
The Home Secretary has told police chiefs she does not want officers to face politically correct distractions and they should focus on common sense policing.

Speaking at a conference in Westminster, Suella Braverman said police officers time is precious and the public want them fighting crime, not debating gender on Twitter.

Her comments came after one of Britains most senior police officers urged others to stand tall and defend themselves against accusations of being woke.

The chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), Martin Hewitt, said officers should defend their actions if they are effective in building public confidence.

Ms Braverman told the NPCCs joint annual conference with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APPC): The way to ensure public confidence in the police is to focus on getting the basics right.

What I call common sense policing. The kind of policing the law-abiding majority deserves and expects.

No politically correct distractions, just good old-fashioned policing  with a relentless focus on making our streets, homes and transport networks safer.

Praising chief constable of Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson, saying he rejects woke policing, she added: Our police officers time is precious and the public want the police to be tackling crime, not debating gender on Twitter.

I have asked my officials to revisit the issue of non-crime hate incidents as a first step, as I want to be sure that we are allowing you to prioritise your time to deal with threats to people and their property.

Mr Hewitt said: Where we struggle to explain action we are taking or where it is not having a positive impact, we need to reconsider it.

But if we are accused of being woke when taking action that we know is effective in building trust with people where that increased trust is needed, we must stand tall, champion and defend that action.

We are all rightly sceptical of tokens or gimmicks. Meaningful action that works is what we need.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Mr Hewitt said: Calling something woke is an easy one-liner that will get you a bit of a headline, and its great in social media, but I dont think its particularly helpful.

Meanwhile APCC chairman Marc Jones said he does not think the term woke is helpful.

The term woke means different things to different people. And whenever you get a term that can be adapted in that way, its unhelpful.

Ms Braverman sent a letter to police chiefs in September claiming that there is a perception that officers spend too much time on symbolic gestures.

She also said that initiatives on diversity and inclusion should not take precedence over common sense policing.

But Mr Hewitt, who leaves the chairman post in March, hit back at the comments on Wednesday and said: Diversity and inclusion at work is important for us to deliver what we need to deliver in crime fighting in keeping the public safe, and its not a diversion. I disagree that its a diversion.

If we want to work with black communities, and have black communities feel that we are there for them, and that we are protecting them as much as we protect anyone else, and have people come forward when incidents happen so that we can investigate and prosecute, that is diversity and inclusion.

I think we shouldnt characterise that as being something that is separate to us delivering on our policing mission, he added.

Mr Hewitt said initiatives on diversity and inclusion are part of common sense policing.

Common sense is probably the first expression I would use about everything in policing.

That is what we spend our entire time is trying to find common sense responses to difficult, messy, fast-moving situations. Thats the kind of people we are.

I dont agree with that phraseology, I dont think its a fair comparison.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has apologised after he called former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn senile.

The Labour frontbencher said he made the remarks in jest in Parliament as the Prime Minister gave a statement on the Cop27 climate summit.

The comment came as Mr Corbyn tried to raise a point of order in the House of Common.

In jest, but I accept in poor taste. Ive dropped Jeremy a note directly to apologise for any offence caused.  Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) November 9, 2022

He was mentioned by Rishi Sunak during Prime Ministers questions as Mr Sunak hit back at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during the weekly exchange.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle denied the request and asked why the ex-Labour MP was raising a point of order.

Mr Streeting can be heard saying: Hes gone senile.

Later the Ilford North MP tweeted about his remark: In jest, but I accept in poor taste. Ive dropped Jeremy a note directly to apologise for any offence caused.

Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK. By 2025, over 1 million people will be suffering from the disease. The impact on loved ones is unquantifiable. Now, more than ever, we need a National Care Service  publicly funded and free for all those who need it.  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 9, 2022

Mr Corbyn, who now sits as independent MP for Islington North after being removed from Labour, appeared to address the remarks on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, tweeting: Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK. By 2025, over 1 million people will be suffering from the disease. The impact on loved ones is unquantifiable.

Now, more than ever, we need a National Care Service  publicly funded and free for all those who need it.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat claimed he was holding but not using his mobile phone as he pleaded guilty to a driving offence.

The Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling, 49, is facing a ban from the roads at a court hearing next week after he was stopped by police in his Skoda 44 in Wandsworth on April 4.

Mr Tugendhat, who stood for the Tory leadership after Boris Johnson stepped down, previously apologised after he was prosecuted for using a mobile phone while driving.

In a written guilty plea to Bromley Magistrates Court, which heard the case in private under the single justice procedure, the politician said: I was holding my phone  not using it.

After the incident I took a course to refresh and correct my driving.

I have included the result of the course. Please accept the course report.

I accept my responsibility and recognise my culpability.

Mr Tugendhat was assessed as low risk following his advanced driving course in May, according to the report.

Thomas does not come across as a fast driver who likes to rush; in fact, Thomas is very calm and handles situations accordingly, his instructor wrote.

Thomas is a well-balanced driver and is interested in reaching his destination safely.

The Metropolitan Police sent Mr Tugendhat a conditional offer of a fixed penalty notice in April, and Mr Tugendhat agreed to pay the fine and surrender his driving licence, according to court papers.

But the offence was sent to court for prosecution because Mr Tugendhat already had six penalty points on his driving record.

Using a mobile phone while driving can attract six penalty points and a disqualification can be imposed if a driver tots up 12 points within three years. But a ban can be avoided if the defendant can show exceptional hardship would be caused by the loss of their licence.

Mr Tugendhats case has been sent for a full hearing to consider disqualification at Westminster Magistrates Court on November 17.

In a statement, Pc Joseph Robson said he spotted the MPs car shortly before 2.45pm in Wandsworth High Street.

I noticed the driver of this vehicle was using a handheld mobile device whilst driving, he said. The device was being held in their left hand to the front, in front of themselves.

I saw this from around three metres, in good daylight with no obstructions, I saw this for around 20 seconds.

The driver did appear to be having a conversation. The driver did not appear to be operating the device.

I stopped the vehicle and spoke with the driver. I confirmed they werent making emergency contact to the 999 service. I pointed out the offence where they confirmed the communication was using maps.

Mr Tugendhat, who lives in Clapham, south-west London, made no comment when told he was being reported for a potential prosecution, the officer said.

A spokesman for Mr Tugendhat previously said: Tom was stopped by police in April this year for holding his phone while driving.

He accepts that holding his phone while driving is an offence.

Tom immediately put himself on a driving course of his own volition.

He received the court documents six months later and has entered a guilty plea.

He apologises unreservedly and will accept the outcome of the case.

It is understood Mr Tugendhat informed the Home Office permanent secretary about the driving offence after he was appointed as a minister in September.
During Tuesdays elections, five states considered cannabis alongside their candidates.

Voters Maryland and Missouri both voted "yes" and legalized recreational marijuana. Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota voted no and opted to keep recreational pot illegal  though it remains allowed in all three of those states for medical use.

But even with the mixed results, marijuana advocates were touting their wins Wednesday morning pointing to the fact that recreational marijuana is now set to be legal in 21 states and the District of Columbia. There were also victories on other fronts in this year's voting.

The big picture is that the marijuana economy pie is growing says Brian Vicente, the founder of a law firm focused on cannabis companies called Vicente Sederberg, Wednesday after most of the results come in.

Its sort of a matter of when, not if, these states move forward, he added about Tuesday's losses. He predicts that advocates will continue to put the issue before voters in the coming years. Up next is Oklahoma, which is set to hold a special election on legalizing recreational marijuana in March.

Voters at the Meadowbrook Athletic Complex in Elliott City, Maryland cast ballots for Governor and also voted to legalize recreations marijuana in their state. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Proponents in the industry will also be keenly focused on Washington. Specifically, there are rumblings that long-delayed legislation may become reality that would address problems cannabis companies have finding banking services.

Full results from Tuesday

Tuesdays votes in Maryland and Missouri dont make marijuana legal immediately, but instead create a blueprint for state officials to set up a recreational cannabis industry in the coming months or years. In Arkansas, early polling had shown a strong support for passage but a follow-up from a University of Arkansas political scientist found that support faded on the issue closer to election day.

But the industry notched other wins in Tuesdays voting. The decisive victory of John Fetterman in Pennsylvanias closely-watched Senate race was a win for the proponents of the industry. The Democrat has long been an outspoken advocate for federal cannabis legalization and made it a key issue in his successful campaign saying its time to let go of this bizarre superstition and criminalization of a plant.

The overall result "was mixed to slightly positive" for the industry, BTIG Director of Policy Research Isaac Boltansky said Wednesday in a Yahoo Finance appearance adding that Pennsylvania could be next in line for legalization of recreational marijuana after the election of Josh Shapiro as governor there.

Legalize marijuana



Regulate it.



Tax it.  Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) March 30, 2022

Elsewhere in the country, 5 Texas cities voted on municipal ballot initiatives to de-penalize marijuana possession and a range of other local measures across the country are still coming in with mixed results so far.

And another drugs measure appeared to be making headway in Colorado. As of Wednesday morning, voters there were looking likely to decriminalize so-called magic mushrooms with votes still coming in. Colorado, which has long been a leader on decriminalizing marijuana, could join Oregon and become the second state to decriminalized certain psychedelic plants and fungi for people over 21.

Its a remarkable milestone in the slow end to the drug war that were watching, says Sederberg of Tuesdays results in Colorado and around the country.

What's Next?

And the news at ballot box around the country comes amid new steps from Washington DC on the issue.

In early October, President Biden announced actions to use his executive power to further decriminalize marijuana and offer a pardon for prior Federal offenses for simple possession. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, ta long delayed action on the issue of cannabis and the banking sector may finally be addressed.

The bill, called the SAFE Banking Act, has passed the House of Representatives a whopping seven times, only to die in the Senate. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently gave advocates new hope when he said Congress is getting very close to finding consensus on a marijuana bill that would include a range of provisions, including banking.

The banking provisions are meant to address the fact that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level; the bill would bar regulators from punishing financial institutions for providing services to a "legitimate" cannabis-related business. It has long been a key cause for retiring Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and he recently told the Hill newspaper that theres a lot of activity around the effort at the moment.

My statement regarding President Bidens recent action on marijuana  pic.twitter.com/KOM48L9aIT  Rep. Ed Perlmutter (@RepPerlmutter) October 6, 2022

In the past, the cannabis banking efforts have been blocked by Senate Democrats who are eager for a broader bill with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in the past vowing lay myself down to block efforts to pass the marijuana banking legislation before larger cannabis reform. But the recent signal from Schumer is heartening activists. They think a consensus bill could be in the offingBooker recently said theres a good chance Congress will be able to reach a deal soon.

While polls have consistently shown that there is widespread support for federal marijuana legalization, the immediate term prospects of decriminalizing it at the federal level remain unclear. Lawmakers are still working to find a coalition of Democrats that can ally with Republicans, who are increasingly beginning to talk about legalization as well.

This post has been updated.

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

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The Government is set to make changes to a controversial Bill to deal with Northern Irelands troubled past.

The draft legislation would see a form of immunity offered to those suspected of killings during the conflict if they agree to co-operate with a new truth recovery body.

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, which is going through its parliamentary stages, would also prohibit future civil cases and inquests related to Troubles crimes.

It has been almost universally opposed by parties across the political divide in Northern Ireland as well as all victims groups.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told the House of Commons on Wednesday that he would make changes to it but did not specify what the changes would be.

He started his remarks by expressing his sympathies to the families of the 12 people killed in the Enniskillen bomb the day after the 35th anniversary of the atrocity.

He told MPs he would be in the Co Fermanagh town on Sunday to pay his respects.

Turning to the Bill, Mr Heaton-Harris said it sought to deliver better outcomes for all those affected by the Troubles.

But responding to a question during Northern Ireland questions, he said he was going to make changes to it.

There is no perfect solution to this issue, and we are committed to a way forward that deals with Northern Irelands troubled past as comprehensively and fairly as we possibly can, he told MPs.

No perfect solution exists however we will do our best to address all the concerns that people raise with us.

Mr Heaton-Harris also said he was quite sure that this is the last legislative vehicle that any government will try to address this problem with.

So I do think it is very important for me to use all the time that we have to improve the Bill, he added.

Mr Heaton-Harris said the Bill would return to the House in Lords in a couple of weeks.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg praised Rishi Sunak for the strong support the UK provides to Ukraine as the pair held talks in Downing Street.

Reflecting on his visit to a Kent army camp where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained, and pointing to Britains contribution of resources in the sea and skies, he said the UK is playing a key role in leading our efforts to help the country in the face of Russian aggression.

Mr Stoltenberg also said it is encouraging to see Ukraine making territorial gains, as Moscow said it was withdrawing from the southern city of Kherson and nearby areas.

We have seen the announcement but we will of course wait and see what actually happens on the ground, he said.

What we do know is that Russia has been pushed back, first from the north around Kyiv, then in the east around Kharkiv, and then actually we see slowly how the Ukrainians are able to push back the Russian forces also in the south around Kherson.

So it is encouraging to see how the brave Ukrainian forces are able to liberate more Ukrainian territory.

The Prime Minister earlier welcomed Mr Stoltenberg to No 10, saying there was lots for us to talk about.

At the top of the meeting, Mr Sunak said: Youll know that the Nato alliance is a cornerstone of the UKs security. Were proud to be the second-largest contributor and we remain extremely committed to the alliance.

I also know under your leadership that Nato will continue to evolve to face the new threats that were all seeing, and (we will) of course work with you and other allies to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Today I hosted NATO Secretary General @jensstoltenberg in Downing Street. We will never back down when it comes to supporting the Ukrainian people in the face of Putins brutality. pic.twitter.com/w8raeGx0CT  Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) November 9, 2022

Speaking to the media outside No 10 after the talks, Mr Stoltenberg said there had been a good meeting.

He said he used the opportunity to praise Mr Sunak for the strong support that the United Kingdom provides to Ukraine.

Mr Stoltenberg said Russian President Vladimir Putin made several huge mistakes when he invaded, including underestimating Natos ability to support Ukraine.

What we see when you look at the opinion polls, the political messages from different Nato allied countries, is that we are ready to continue to provide support for as long as it takes, he said.

He said there are always some voices that have a different opinion but the clear message from the majority is that we will continue to support Ukraine.

Mr Stoltenberg speaks to the media outside 10 Downing Street (James Manning/PA)

Downing Street said the pair agreed on the importance of the alliance continuing to adapt to face new threats.

Mr Sunak also outlined plans to update the UKs Integrated Review on defence and security, according to a No 10 spokeswoman.

The Nato secretary general said he is absolutely confident the UK will continue to lead by example on defence spending.

There has been some uncertainty over whether Mr Sunak will stick by his predecessor Liz Trusss pledge to boost the investment as a proportion of GDP to 3% by the end of the decade  a more ambitious target than Natos minimum of 2%.

The United Kingdom has led by example over many years when it comes to defence spending, spending more than 2% of GDP on defence; the United Kingdom has done that and now more and more allies are following example of the United Kingdom, Mr Stoltenberg said.

But of course in a more dangerous world we need to invest more in our defence, and I am absolutely confident that the United Kingdom will continue to lead by example on defence spending.
Benton and Franklin voters favored Washington state Rep. Matt Boehnke, a Kennewick Republican, over an independent candidate to serve as the District 8 state senator, in the initial vote count Tuesday night.

In the races for the two District 8 House seats, voters had to choose from two Republicans for both positions and none were incumbents.

Tuesday night Stephanie Barnard was in the lead for one of the seats in the district and April Connors was ahead in the other.

Boehnke had 22,475 votes Tuesday, or 73% of the vote, for the Senate seat, with Ronni Batchelor trailing with 8,100 votes or 26% of the ballots.

For the first House seat, Barnard had 20,483 votes, or 73%, and Patrick Guettner had 6,973 votes, or 25%.

For the second House seat, Conners had 16,006 votes, or 56%, and Joe Cotta had 12,186 votes, or 43%.

The District 8 Senate seat is open after Republican Sharon Brown chose not to run for another term after serving since 2013.

Matt Boehnke and Ronni Batchelor 2022 candidates for 8th senate race.

Boehnke, who heads the Cyber Security Department at Columbia Basin College, served two terms representing District 8 in the House before running for the districts Senate seat.

He currently is a ranking member of the House Community and Economic Development Committee and has found success sponsoring jobs and worker training bills that have been backed by Republicans and Democrats and signed into law.

Ronni Batchelor, who ran against Boehnke as an independent, has worked in outreach programs to help the homeless and those in mental distress.

Cotta vs Connors

Joe Cotta and April Connors, neither of them with elected office experience, were on the ballot for Boehnkes House seat.

Connors is a 22-year real estate agent who called herself a conservative with a record of working well with others.

She was encouraged to run by Boehnke and was endorsed by former U.S. Congressman Doc Hastings, Benton County Commissioner Jerome Delvin and several state legislators, including Sen. Perry Dozier, R-Wasitburg, and Rep. Skyler Rude, R-Walla Walla.

Cotta, who was endorsed by the Benton and Franklin county Republican parties, is a fourth-generation farmer who has lived in the Tri-Cities since 2009. He wants to restore individual liberties, he said during his campaign.

His frustration over the COVID mask and vaccine mandates prompted him to run for the Legislature and he stood up for conservative Richland school board members who made masks optional. Their action led to the school being closed for two days, a lawsuit and a recall effort, and masks were not removed until it was allowed under Washington state law.

Barnard vs. Guettner

Stephanie Barnard and Patrick Guettner were vying for the House seat held by Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick, who filed in the primary to run for Congress but did not advance to the November election in that race.

Barnard, who was endorsed by both the Benton and Franklin county Republican parties, is familiar with the workings of the state Legislature as the past director of government and regional affairs for the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce and the past staff lead for the Tri-Cities Legislative Council.

She said during her campaign that as a small business advocate shes fought with local business owners to combat unnecessary regulations, mandates and government overreach. Shes also worked to save the lower Snake River dams.

Guettner worked for 40 years in engineering and manager roles in the nuclear field and also has a law degree.

He took no money for his campaign, saying he did not want to be beholden to anyone. Instead, he focused on walking neighborhoods and talking to voters.

The next vote count for both Benton and Franklin counties will be Wednesday. Benton County election officials estimated that only about half of the ballots for the election were counted Tuesday night.
U.S. President Joe Biden reacts during a rally with Democratic nominee for Maryland Governor Wes Moore, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen and other Maryland Democrats, at Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland, U.S., November 7, 2022. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

WASHINGTON  As President Biden stepped out of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, and walked across the White Houses South Lawn towards an entrance to the West Wing, a reporter asked about his mood.

It was Monday, just hours before polling sites opened across the nation, potentially unleashing what some pundits had projected would be a red wave that would hand both chambers of Congress to Republicans and empower election deniers in key state-level races across the country.

Biden, however, did not seem especially perturbed. Well, Im feeling  Im optimistic, he said before retiring for the evening. But Im always optimistic.

His optimism appears to have been warranted. Although the Democrats are likely to narrowly lose control of the House of Representatives, victories in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and elsewhere will allow them to keep the Senate if they win a runoff race in Georgia. In Arizona, an entire slate of election deniers was voted down.

Former President Donald Trump addresses reporters after he and former first Lady Melania Trump voted at their precinct in the general election, Tuesday, November 8, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Phelan M. Ebenhack for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump  who is soon expected to announce a 2024 presidential campaign  lost in closely-watched races across the country.

The President made the election a choice between extreme Republicans and the progress of the last 18 months  and voters chose the President's agenda, a Biden adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the election, told Yahoo News.

Many of the candidates with whom Biden campaigned in the closing days of the electoral season prevailed, including incoming Oregon governor Tina Kotek, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, who has been elected to her first full term, and John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, who will be the states junior U.S. senator and threatened incumbents from swing states and districts such as Rep. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado.

The Biden adviser, described the mood in the White House as validated and energized. On Wednesday morning, the White House said that Biden would conduct a press conference that afternoon, in a sign that he was personally eager to discuss the results.

It was an affirmation of his style of leadership  affirming democracy, uniting not dividing, and helping anyone in a crisis not just the people who voted for you, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who is close to Biden, told Yahoo News in an email.

President Joe Biden speaks during a rally for Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore at Bowie State University in Bowie, Md., Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)

Biden watched the returns from his residence in the White House, the Biden adviser said. He then visited with staffers watching from the Roosevelt Room before proceeding to a dining room off the Oval Office, where he made several rounds of congratulatory calls, which lasted well into the night.

To be sure, the Democrats have almost certainly lost the House, which will severely curtail Bidens ability to enact more of his policy agenda, and possibly put him on the defensive when Republicans try to cut his social spending, possibly using the threat of defaulting on the national debt and triggering a global economic meltdown as leverage. . Republicans in the lower chamber are sure to launch investigations into Biden and his son Hunter, which could cause innumerable political headaches for the president. However, if Republicans overreach, for example with highly partisan impeachment proceedings, it could alienate moderate voters, as was the case after the Republican impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998.

Bidens low key approach to the midterms, avoiding placing himself front and center in the campaign the way Trump would have, was called unusual but potentially effective by political scientists and operatives. Though it is difficult to say how much he influenced any one race, the White House felt that here, too, Biden was underestimated by a media establishment once again.

We were always more optimistic than you all were!, the adviser said in a text message, referencing the cavalcade of media reports about certain Republican dominance on Tuesday.

People wait in line to cast their ballot during the Midterm Elections at Fox Theatre on November 08, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The mood in the West Wing was also exemplified by White House digital director Rob Flaherty, who shared a meme with a clip from Bidens interview with the New York Times during the presidential campaign:

Im not dead, the president says in the brief segment of the interview Flaherty posted to Twitter, And Im not gonna die.

Biden remains a persistently unpopular president, with his approval rating at just 41% according to FiveThirtyEight. Every misstatement is parsed, whether fairly or not, as evidence of vanishing mental acuity for the 79-year-old president -a narrative that the White House, and Biden himself, have furiously disputed. Still, concerns about whether he should run again in 2024 have only gotten louder in recent days, with even close ally House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina  -whose endorsement proved crucial during the Democratic primary  expressing hesitation about whether Biden should seek re-election.

Those concerns have been attenuated, at least for now. "The nomination is Bidens, period, and any efforts to question or undermine that, much less before hes even made a decision, is only helping Trump and his allies," Jon Cowan, president of centrist think tank Third Way, told Yahoo News in an email. "Hes more than proven his ability, strength and savvy and deserves to be our 2024 nominee."

While the president has not said explicitly that he intends to run, Tuesday's generally encouraging results will likely be seen by Biden and close advisers, such as chief of staff Ron Klain, as a favorable sign.

"The candidates Democrats nominated were Biden Democrats," the Biden adviser said. "And the Biden coalition showed up for them."
He has run for the presidency, the U.S. Senate and the governorship of Texas. Each time, Beto ORourke energized progressives with his rhetoric, by turns fiery and earnest. He skewered Republicans. He drew comparisons to JFK. He drew crowds.

And each time, Beto ORourke lost.

Not even an endorsement from musical megastar and fashion icon Harry Styles could help ORourke unseat incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who launched a series of culture wars popular with the conservative base  but was also criticized, after the massacre of 19 children at an elementary school in Uvalde, for his unwillingness to impose stricter gun control measures.

ORourke was among the fiercest of those critics, challenging Abbott at a press conference after the shooting. Youre doing nothing. Youre all doing nothing, ORourke said to the governor from the audience. It was the kind of unscripted, impassioned confrontation that thrilled progressives who were frustrated by the anemic pace of change in Washington.

But once again, it was not enough.

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke listens to a question from a supporter at a campaign rally on Aug. 24 in Humble, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Democrats are desperate to make inroads in Texas  where the emerging Latino vote is the focus of intensive pitches by both parties  but after a third high-profile defeat, they will probably look to another candidate to bring them victory.

Tuesdays defeat marks the end of a half-decade stretch during which ORourke stoked Democratic hopes but, ultimately, proved incapable of fulfilling those aspirations. As the Washington Post pointed out in a recent profile, he last won an electoral contest in 2016, to the same House seat he had held for the previous four years. Since then, he has gone after some of the most sought-after elected offices in the nation, only to come up short each time.

Hes been campaigning virtually nonstop since 2017, the head of the Democratic Party in Texas told the Post.

Now there will come inevitable questions about whether the lanky wunderkind (well, kind of  he is 50) with an affection for the dense novels of James Joyce and grungy 1990s rock was more than a passing fad. Will the one-time favorite of former President Barack Obama ever translate his star power into political victory?

It may be too soon to ask that question, considering that the gubernatorial election in Texas has just concluded. But it is a question that the naturally restless ORourke is surely asking himself, since a life outside electoral politics is, by his own admission, inconceivable.

Im just born to be in it, he told Vanity Fair in 2019, for a cover story for which he was photographed by celebrity-in-her-own-right Annie Leibovitz.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters at his midterm election night party in Houston on Nov. 6, 2018. (Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters)

That was after a 2018 run for the U.S. Senate in which ORourke came close to unseating the incumbent, Ted Cruz, whose loyalty to then-President Donald Trump made him a top target of national Democrats looking to punish what they saw as Republicans unthinking obeisance to a president who flouted conservative principles.

ORourke raised funds and hopes alike. "Democrat enthusiasm is at an 11, a Republican strategist heading a pro-Cruz political action committee confessed to the Dallas Morning News at one point. "The No. 1 issue that I've run into is potential supporters trying to wrap their head around the reality that this is a real race."

ORourke lost, but some saw a superstar in the making, even as others wondered if his loss could be attributed to having taken progressive positions that, while popular on Twitter and cable news, were unlikely to play well in the sprawling exurbs of Houston and Dallas, where a more conventional campaign would have courted moderate voters.

Following the loss to Cruz, ORourke made little effort to disguise his presidential ambitions, presenting himself as the youthful leader of a party desperate for new voices articulating bold ideas. And desperate for someone who could capture the same energy that had energized Democrats the way Obama had in 2008. Nobody seemed better suited than ORourke, who was charismatic but unpolished, compassionate but with flashes of what appeared to be genuine anger.

I learned to love JFK from my Irish grandmother. I see his same qualities in Beto ORourke, wrote a columnist for the Irish Times, who was hardly alone in seeing similarities between the tall, charismatic Texan and President Kennedy. At a time when many Democrats were dreading the possibility of Joe Biden or another Washington elder serving as the partys nominee, ORourke held out the hope of a more auspicious future.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waits to take pictures with supporters after a "Get Out The Vote" rally on Oct. 27 in Katy, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

That future never materialized. ORourke began 2019 with a road trip that had him blogging from the dentists chair, among other adventures. He announced his candidacy that March, promising a positive campaign that seeks to bring out the very best from every single one of us.

The reality of a crowded primary, however, quickly rendered that promise fantastical. ORourke's support of a gun buyback program proved especially controversial, earning criticism not only from conservatives but also from fellow Democratic primary candidate Pete Buttigieg, who denounced the proposal as a progressive purity test.

His openness to stripping churches of tax-exempt status if they didnt perform same-sex marriages was seen as unhelpful to a party trying to convince Americans that it was not the caricature of far-left ideologues depicted nightly on Fox News.

As the campaign petered out that fall, the reviews were brutal. Beto ORourke 2020 Has Been Worse Than Useless, a New York magazine headline read. His campaign was deemed by Politico the most spectacular failure of the Democratic presidential primary.

By the time ORourke announced he was running against Abbott in the fall of 2021, national enthusiasm was notably absent, despite the fact that Abbotts increasing attention to conservative culture war issues made him surprisingly vulnerable. ORourke managed to raise more money than Abbott as Election Day approached. But when that day actually came, voters decided to stay the course and keep Abbott in power in Texas.

It was another disappointing result for ORourke, but it may not keep him from trying for elected office once again. After all, the presidential primary season unofficially begins on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Biden had plenty to enjoy as midterm election results came in, even though his Democrats could lose control of Congress.

Republicans may eke out a narrow majority in the House and the Senate is still up for grabs with key races in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada undecided.

But that is all better-than-expected news for the White House.

Democrats bucked dire forecasts in national races, clinched governors' races in states seen as crucial to the next election in 2024, and passed left-leaning measures like codifying abortion rights in Michigan.

"Amazing," said one stunned Biden aide as results results trickled in at the White House overnight.

Donald Trump saw Republicans lose 40 House seats in his first midterms, and Barack Obama more than 60.

Biden personally called three dozen Democrats who won their races to congratulate them. Aides and allies believe his efforts to cast the election in terms of abortion rights, right-wing political extremism and healthcare staved off a Republican "wave."

Republicans are likely to have big enough gains to take the House, meaning they could block Biden's promise to legalize abortion rights nationwide or ban the sale of assault weapons, and launch possibly damaging investigations into his administration and family.

While Republicans cited high inflation and crime as top voting issues, Democrats said they were more motivated by abortion rights and gun violence, exit polls show.

President Biden attends a rally in Maryland.

Democratic strategist Ben LaBolt, a former spokesperson for Obama, said Republicans' focus on a cultural wars in their campaigns missed the mark for some voters.

"It's not about addressing, at a substantive level, any of the top issues facing the American people," he said. "And that really provides an opening for Democrats."

White House advisers have begun preparations for a host of Republican investigations, and to govern with a more limited toolbox of issuing executive orders.

If Biden's agenda is blocked in Congress, they plan to use prsidential veto power and using the president's conspicuous presence in American media to advocate for his priorities.

Biden has two months until the end of the year during the "lame duck" period to pass legislation while Democrats still control Congress. White House officials have said he will focus on securing government funding bills and money to combat COVID as well as getting Senate confirmation for his judicial nominees.

Trump allies including U.S. Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Jim Jordan of Ohio, who both won their races easily, could have greater influence under a Republican-controlled House, and political strategists say that party could overplay its hand.

A Republican-led Congress would "be the end of his legislative agenda in any meaningful way, but it's certainly not the end of [Biden's] political fortunes," said Brendan Buck, a former adviser to Republican House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner.

"Republicans have a very long track record of overreach with Democratic presidents, and it's not hard to imagine that (Biden) will be able to have a very strong contrast with Congress and use that to his advantage."

'EXTREME' OPPOSITION

Biden turns 80 this month and has faced questions about his fitness to run for a second term in 2024. The president has said he intends to run again and Tuesday's results could bolster his cause.

Early this year, Biden, his chief of staff Ron Klain, and other aides worked to frame the midterms as a battle of "levelheaded" Democrats against "extreme" Republicans in league with former President Trump.

They embellished that message in June when the Supreme Court struck down the Roe v. Wade right to abortion. In a stark September speech from the birthplace of American democracy in Philadelphia, Biden said: "MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."

Even as members of his own party declined to campaign with him, Biden stuck to his anti-extremist message, adding possible threats to long-cherished social programs like Medicare under Republican leadership.

That framing helped many Democrats like Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman weather bad historical odds for the party in charge during midterm elections, Biden aides and allies believe.
If all you knew about Leon Salvatierra were his resume, you could be forgiven for assuming hes living the dream life. He has a doctorate in Hispanic languages and literatures from UC Berkeley and a master of fine arts in poetry from UC Davis, where he is a professor in the department of Chicana/Chicano studies. Combined with Salvatierras easy manner, ever-present grin and dry sense of humor, these accomplishments complete the image of an artist blessed with good fortune, comfortable in the life of letters in a country that doesnt always reward poets.

But this veneer falls away when you learn Salvatierras biography and delve into his poetry. His father died in his 40s of alcoholism; at 15, he migrated from Nicaragua to escape the fate of becoming a child soldier for the Sandinista regime. Arriving in the U.S. with no documents, very little English and undiagnosed dyslexia, Salvatierra had little reason to imagine himself inside the life of the mind.

The opening lines of his poem At the Cemetery bring those years to life:

In Nicaragua shrubs grow in the winter / with the breath of rattlesnakes / Two decades of war, alcohol, and other grievances / had overcrowded the neighborhood of the dead / I walked with my hands on my head / back and forth trying to remember / where my fathers grave was.

Benedictions for the dead recur in Salvatierras poetry, but so do sly critiques of consumerism, details accumulating in service of not only sorrow but laughter and the shock of juxtaposition.

This week, the University of Nevada Press brings out a bilingual edition of Salvatierras first poetry collection, To the North / Al norte. Largely translated by Javier O. Huerta, it is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious  even more so if you can read it in both languages.

Poised to break through into the American consciousness, Salvatierra spoke to The Times about the genesis of this collection, the art of translation and the writing life of an immigrant. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

This book first appeared in a Spanish edition in Nicaragua. The new edition was translated by Huerta even though you are yourself a translator. How exactly did it come together?

Javier and I met as graduate students at UC Berkeley in 2007 in a poetry workshop led by the late Chicano poet Alfred Arteaga. I only wrote poetry in Spanish then. After class, Javier and I often went to a nearby bar where we continued our conversations. Thats how we became great friends; later we were roommates for 10 years. When Al norte was first published in 2012 in Spanish, Javier was teaching a course on the literature of the undocumented at Berkeley. He wanted to teach the title poem of my book, but he had to translate it into English. Then he decided to translate the entire collection. He sent me a Word document with the translation completed. We put aside the manuscript for many years.

My involvement with the translation took place relatively recently when I decided to start writing poetry in English. While working on my poems for my MFA thesis, I was also reviewing Javiers translation. I made changes to the Spanish versions and, consequently, I had to revise the English versions as well, but they were minor edits. The most significant change in the new edition is the replacement of three poems with three new poems, which I wrote in Spanish. I translated [these] three new poems myself. The new pieces capture my experience living in the U.S. for the last decade, such as being a father and witnessing the housing crisis here.

In a note to the reader, you observe: My sense of being an impostor intensified when I entered illegally into the United States. I felt like an intruder. Could you talk about this struggle with identity and belonging, and how you approach it through poetry?

The struggle is inherently part of the immigrant experience anywhere in the world. Its even more challenging for immigrants with no legal documents affirming and reaffirming their social identities. In our society, soon after we are born, we are bombarded with official documents: First, we get a birth certificate, then a Social Security card, a drivers license, school diplomas, insurance documents, all the way to our death certificate, which of course we never get to read. In my experience, the absence of official documents generated a sense of falseness, a lack of authenticity and a kind of voided identity.

Last night, I read a wonderful poem by Lorna Dee Cervantes, The Refugee Ship, where she uses the metaphor of a ship that never docks to talk about her struggle with identity and belonging. Her poem underscores the feeling of being an orphan to a language. I enjoyed her forceful irony: a poet who speaks of having a lack of language. People often think of poets as special people with an excess of language. I think its quite the opposite. Every time we begin, we face the negation of language, a blank page that somehow mirrors the void inside us.

Santa Claus is mentioned in several of your poems, including in Santas Diet, which you dedicate to your son. Why Santa Claus?

Growing up in Nicaragua, we didnt have Santa Claus as a Christmas reference. Instead, we had El nino Dios (the baby Jesus), who supposedly would bring us gifts so long as we behaved. The first Christmas I spent in the U.S. in 1988, the image of Santa was everywhere. The baby Jesus was overshadowed by the extravagant Santa. This image was constantly associated with exhilarating consumption, not with the religious rituals I had experienced as a kid. Thats how I view Santa, as a cultural signifier of consumption.

In the title poem, the narrator recounts a harrowing crossing into the United States. The poem is, in some ways, a homage or benediction for those who did not survive the crossing. Was that your intent?

Initially, I just wanted to write a good poem about crossing the border between Guatemala and Mexico. In the revision process, I realized it was partly a homage to those who die on their journey. After I finished revising, I knew that not only did I have a new poem in my hands, but I also had a book of poems to write. Don Eduardo is the name given to a character who dies after crossing the Suchiate River at the border. The narrator is unsure if Don Eduardo is really his name, but thats what he will call him. Understanding [this] character made me reflect on my border-crossing experience as a collective struggle. The name reappears in other poems in the collection. On the dedication page, after my family, you find the book is also dedicated to Don Eduardo. But he is not a specific person. Much like in Corky Gonzales poem Yo soy Joaquin, where Joaquin is a symbol for the Chicanx experience, Don Eduardo is a symbol for the experience of the Central American diaspora.

In the collections introduction, the poet Francisco Aragon calls you a welcome addition to a chorus of poets from the Central American diaspora. How do you view your role within this chorus?

Im honored to be welcomed in this community of writers. My role is to write poetry to the best of my ability. The total commitment to their craft may be the only responsibility writers should have. I dont think my nationality and experiences are the defining features of my poetry. What distinguishes a poets voice is the form in which they process their lived experiences, visions, dreams and memories: their rhythms, cadences, the way they cut their lines, how their words move on the page, the imagery of thought, the pulse of their allusions and associations, the way they make the common seem uncommon, the familiar unfamiliar, the real unreal and vice versa. The form is how we imagine, breathe, walk and sing as poets. As William Yeats would have defined it, the form is what distinguishes the dancer from the dance.

Olivas is an attorney, playwright and author of 10 books, including "How to Date a Flying Mexican."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Booker, who was bested by Sen. Rand Paul, was aiming to become the states first Black senator.

Charles Booker has been defeated in his U.S. Senate race in Kentucky against incumbent Sen. Rand Paul. Booker was aiming to become the states first Black senator.

Paul came out victorious over Booker, 54.1% to 45.6%, according to AP News election poll data.

Left to right: Democratic nominee for Senate in Kentucky Charles Booker and Republican Senator Rand Paul. (Photo: AP/Getty Images)

Booker, who in a previous interview with theGrio, said he is proud of the history he already made in this race as the states first Black person to be a major-party nominee for Senate, injected an aspirational and unifying tone familiar to Barack Obama, which earned the former president the kind of broad coalition support Booker was hoping for to win a statewide election in the solidly red Kentucky.

The red state hasnt elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly 25 years and has voted for every Republican presidential candidate since 2000.

The 37-year-old lifelong Kentuckian, who comes from a long line of ministers, was Kentuckys youngest Black state lawmaker when he was elected in 2018. Booker, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Senate nomination in 2020, sought to rise above partisan politics to address issues he believed all Kentuckians could support, like halting hate, ending poverty, investing in solid infrastructure, and making health care more affordable.

Growing up in one of the poorest zip codes in one of the most impoverished states in America, Booker said a major focus of his campaign was addressing poverty, which affects hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, white and Black.

Poverty is generational in Kentucky, declared the Senate nominee, who introduced his Kentucky New Deal agenda to address economic challenges in his state.

Democrat Charles Booker Speaks to a gathering of supporters as he announces his candidacy for the United States Senate at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville, Ky., Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, file)

While Booker was unifying in his message, he was also not shy to call out his Republican opponent. The Democrat said Paul, the son of a former U.S. congressman and physician, doesnt understand the economic hardships that he and other Kentuckians have endured.

He is someone who is essentially a privileged, spoiled brat, said Booker. He doesnt think he belongs or is responsible to anyone. He doesnt see the struggles that we face because he hasnt lived them. And quite honestly, he has sold us out.

Booker said Paul built a career out of weaponizing hate and hiding his hand, and noted that the Republican lawmaker also voted alongside GOP senators to block a domestic terrorism bill after the mass shooting of nine African Americans inside a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, earlier this year. He doesnt think racism is a problem, and we cant fix what we dont face.

A lot is riding on this Novembers elections for Democrats, who are seeking to hold onto their slim majority in Congress, particularly in the Senate. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the months and weeks leading up to Election Day delivered speeches across the country urging voters to elect more Democrats in the Senate in order to eliminate the Senate filibuster and pass Democratic agenda items like voting rights reform and federal abortion rights.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Charles Booker loses bid to make US Senate history in Kentucky appeared first on TheGrio.
Conservative Republicans appeared to be headed toward victory for seats on the Kansas state Board of Education on Tuesday night, after running campaigns focused on giving parents more control in the classroom, fueled by frustration over curriculum on race and gender identity.

With 297 of 316 precincts reporting as of 11:30 p.m., conservative incumbent Michelle Dombrosky, an Olathe Republican, was in the lead with 52%, ahead of Overland Park Democrat and former school principal Sheila Albers, with 48%. They were separated by about 4,700 votes. The 3rd District includes parts of Johnson and Miami counties and the Wellsville school district in Franklin County.

District 3 covers central and southern Johnson County, and excludes the traditionally bluer, northern region. Albers lost in Johnson County by more than 3,200 votes, according to the countys complete yet unofficial results, even though 59% of voters there cast ballots for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. And the county handily elected Democrat Mike Kelly to become Johnson County Commission chair and reelected Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids.

In the 1st District, Leavenworth Republican Danny Zeck, a conservative, won 62%, ahead of Leavenworth Democrat Jeffrey Howards, with 38%. Zeck will replace Kansas City Democrat Janet Waugh, who served for more than two decades before redistricting made her ineligible. The district now spans parts of Wyandotte, Atchison and Leavenworth counties, as well as several other counties, as far west as Marshall and Riley counties.

Republican Danny Zeck, left, and Democrat Jeffrey Howards, both of Leavenworth, are competing for the 1st District seat on the Kansas state school board on Nov. 8. Contributed

Three other candidates were unopposed on Tuesday:

Two conservative newcomers, Dennis Hershberger of Hutchinson and Cathy Hopkins of Hays, won seats on the board after fighting off more moderate incumbents in the primary. Incumbent Jim Porter, a moderate Republican from Fredonia, retained his seat after winning his August primary against Luke Aichele, a McPherson barber who opened his business in violation of COVID-19 protocols.

The board represents 10 districts across the state, with half of those seats, all four-year terms, on the November ballot.

Waugh could not run for another term after the Legislature approved a new state Board of Education map this spring. Many criticized the redistricting as gerrymandering, splitting the more liberal and diverse Wyandotte County into three pieces, for example.

Before the map was approved, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said he would, love to have more conservatives run because youre starting to see, particularly after COVID, how important education is and how important that board is in the process.

The races did attract more conservative candidates, who may be more in step with the GOP-dominated Legislature.

The conservative candidates all campaigned on the same issues, often using the exact same wording on their websites, pushing for parent-oriented policies and arguing that data collection in schools infringes on parents rights.

And they pointed to Kansas falling test scores in recent years as an indictment of the current education strategy, arguing that schools should get back to the academic basics, rather than pushing social-emotional learning focused on teaching students soft skills for life after graduation.

Democrats have emphasized that while test scores are down, the state has recently seen a record high graduation rate, as well as higher levels of postsecondary success, according to the state education department.

Judith Deedy, founder of the public education advocacy group Game On for Kansas Schools, argued that an extremist takeover of our State Board of Education is being attempted by candidates that have campaigned on the false issues of social-emotional learning, student data and parents rights.

Dombrosky, along with the three other conservatives in the race, received the endorsement of the Kansans for Life PAC, focused on electing candidates who oppose abortion rights. She has campaigned on parents having more say over what goes on in the classroom. And on an ivoterguide.com survey, Dombrosky said she strongly opposes curriculum that emphasizes slavery and racism as foundational to Americas history.

Dombrosky did not respond to multiple requests by The Star for comment ahead of the election.

Albers, a former public educator and Blue Valley middle school principal, has become a notable activist since her 17-year-old son John Albers was fatally shot by a police officer in Overland Park in 2018. Since then, Albers has advocated for police reform, including successfully pushing for crisis intervention training for all Overland Park officers.

Albers raised $16,698 ahead of the election, according to an October campaign filing, more than Dombroskys $11,676.

In the other northeast Kansas race, Zeck beat out Howards, chair of the Leavenworth County Democratic Party.

Zeck, a Leavenworth Republican who is retired after operating a Ford dealership for over 30 years, said on his website, It is time to stop the Washington Liberal Standards from dictating values that do not fit Kansas Education. We must put Parents In Charge of their childs Education.

Zeck said in the ivoterguide.com survey that students should not be taught about curriculum that focuses on slavery and racism being foundational to Americas history, writing that, A curricula that teaches a child not to trust the generation before them, which is their parents, can only break down the family unit further.

Zeck outraised his opponent, with $26,742 in contributions according to an October campaign report, while Howards raised $21,543.
WASHINGTON  Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire won re-election Tuesday, NBC News projected, defeating Republican Don Bolduc and keeping a critical seat in Democratic hands.

While the race attracted less attention than some others, Hassan won her Senate seat six years ago in one of the closest races in the country, and Democrats had grown increasingly nervous in recent weeks as Bolduc seemed to gain strength in polls.

But in the end, Hassan's win wasn't a down-to-the-wire contest, as she led 54.8% to 43.5% with 64% of votes counted.

In contrast to the current hyperpartisan atmosphere, Hassan said her New Hampshire constituents don't want Republican-Democratic bickering.

Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan Holds Election Night Gathering In Manchester, New Hampshire (Sophie Park / Getty Images)

"Here in New Hampshire, Granite Staters put aside partisanship and we work together every day to solve problems," Hassan told cheering supporters in Manchester.

"By following that example, we have shown what is possible when we come together to find common ground and deliver results."

Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general backed by former President Donald Trump in the waning days of the campaign, has advanced false conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines and the 2020 presidential election.

After he won the nomination, however, he waffled on 2020, saying the election hadn't been stolen.

Bolduc conceded Tuesday night and acknowledged Hassan's win.

I am thankful for all of my supporters and everybody that stuck with me through thick and thin," he told supporters. "I love you all.

He often feuded with fellow Republicans, including popular Gov. Chris Sununu, whom he called a Chinese communist sympathizer. Sununu backed a different candidate in the GOP primary, calling Bolduc a conspiracy-theory extremist.

Image: New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc greets the crowd before results are announced during an election night campaign gathering on Nov. 8, 2022, in Manchester, N.H. (Reba Saldanha / AP)

Several national Republican groups abandoned Bolduc, assuming he couldnt win  it didnt help that he criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,  but a late surge in polling led some national groups to step in and help.

Hassan, a former governor seeking her second term in the Senate, vastly outraised Bolduc, an inexperienced candidate and self-described political outsider. As of Oct. 19, he had spent just over $900,000, while Hassan had spent more than $31 million, according to campaign finance reports.

Democrats actually helped the underfunded candidate win the GOP nomination when they spent more than $3 million criticizing his main opponent as a yes-man for McConnell, whom many Trump allies dislike. Democrats meddled in the primary because they thought Bolduc would be easier to defeat in the general election.
Florida is looking more like a red state than ever.

The nations onetime premier swing state was the site on Tuesday of a series of Republican victories that appear likely to raise questions about whether the Sunshine State remains competitive for Democrats.

The two Republicans at the top of the ballot, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, routed their Democratic opponents, Rep. Val Demings (Fla.) and former Rep. Charlie Crist (Fla.), respectively, early Tuesday evening.

Most striking were the Republican victories in Miami-Dade County, a traditional Democratic stronghold in South Florida.

Floridas rightward trend has been years in the making. In 2016, for instance, then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade County by more than 29 points. In 2020, President Biden carried it by just over 7 points.

Both years, former President Trump carried the state overall.

Since then, things have only gotten more bleak for Democrats. About a year ago, Republicans surpassed Democrats in voting registrations for the first time in the states modern political history. That advantage has grown to more than 300,000.

At the same time, Florida saw itself stripped of several competitive congressional districts this year after the Republican-controlled state legislature approved a new political map pushed by DeSantis that created four new GOP-leaning seats.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) on Tuesday soundly defeated state Sen. Annette Taddeo (D) in Floridas Miami-based 27th District, the most competitive House district in the state. Democrats also lost in Floridas 13th District, which was previously represented by Crist. That district was made less competitive for Democrats under the new congressional map.

Florida Democrats, meanwhile, have been roiled by internal disputes and fundraising woes for years. The state party found itself in a financial crisis two years ago that ultimately resulted in it allowing its employees health insurance to lapse.

Florida Democrats elected their current party chairman, Manny Diaz, early last year, hoping the former Miami mayor could leverage his political ties to rebuild the struggling party. But despite his efforts, national donors and outside groups were reluctant to invest in Florida, given the states trend toward Republicans.

Some Florida Democrats have long complained about the state partys organizing efforts. Thomas Kennedy, a Democratic National Committee member from Florida, acknowledged that it would take years to rebuild the Florida Democratic Party but accused the current leadership of neglecting to even try.

A lot of us are realistic, he said. We didnt expect all the problems to be fixed in two years, and we all know how midterm elections go for the party in power. But its the lack of trying and lack of energy thats bothering a lot of us.

In a preelection night memo to party leaders, even Diaz himself appeared to acknowledge the lack of interest in Floridas midterm elections from national Democrats, saying that every pundit, prognosticator and many Democratic leaders counted Florida out.

But Republicans also spent years building up their political muscle in Florida through year-round voter registration efforts and outreach programs. The state also became something of an epicenter for Republican politics in recent years; Trump now lives in the state, while DeSantis actively branded it as a refuge from pandemic-related restrictions during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Even before the election results were called on Tuesday, some Florida Democrats were already expressing dismay about their partys prospects in the state. Kevin Cate, a longtime Democratic strategist and ad-maker in Florida, predicted that in just a few years, an independent gubernatorial candidate might have better odds of winning an election than a Democrat.

At the rate Florida is going, an NPA candidate for governor may have a better shot than a Democrat in 2026, Cate tweeted. Its that bad. Complete collapse.

We either reset or go extinct, he wrote.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Tom Girardi in 2014. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The man who held the purse strings at Tom Girardis corruption-plagued law firm was arrested over the weekend by federal agents in Maryland on suspicion of wire fraud, according to court records and the FBI.

Christopher Kamon, former chief financial officer at Girardi Keese, was taken into custody on the basis of a criminal complaint prepared by an FBI agent in Los Angeles and signed Saturday by a federal magistrate judge here.

An affidavit outlining the case against Kamon, 49, remains under seal. Much is unclear about the circumstances of his arrest, which was first reported by Law360, and the allegations against him. Attorneys for Kamon did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The date provided for the alleged instance of wire fraud  Sept. 16, 2020  suggested his arrest was related to his work at Girardi Keese. The venerable law firm collapsed a few months later amid evidence of rampant misappropriation of clients money.

On the date listed on the complaint, Girardi was being pressed to pay millions he owed to a group of Indonesian widows and orphans he had represented in a lawsuit against Boeing over an airline crash.

Though a judge referred Girardi to federal prosecutors for criminal investigation later in 2020, neither the attorney nor any of his former employees have been charged before Kamons arrest. Diagnosed with Alzheimers disease last year, Girardi is in a court-ordered conservatorship and unable to answer questions under oath.

Kamon is believed to have vast knowledge of Girardis financial affairs.

Starting at the firm around 2000 as an accounts payable clerk, he worked his way up to CFO. In that role, he dealt directly with the legal legend and had authority to wire money from firm accounts and sign checks to clients and others, according to filings from a trustee overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of Girardi Keese. He also negotiated with lenders and oversaw the firms retirement plan.

After the implosion of Girardi Keese, Kamon retained high-powered criminal defense attorneys from the white-shoe law firm Skadden Arps and has refused to answer questions under oath in at least two court proceedings.

He invoked his right against self-incrimination in Bankruptcy Court as attorneys searched for funds to repay cheated clients and other creditors and in a federal hearing in Illinois in which lawyers from Girardi Keese were grilled about what they knew and did about Girardis misappropriation.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin, who oversaw that proceeding, wrote in a decision last week that Girardi was running a Ponzi scheme with client money.

Kamon did cooperate with the bankruptcy trustee last year in turning over a laptop containing financial records related to the firm.

Its unclear why Kamon was in Maryland at the time of his arrest. Public records show he owns property in L.A. and Las Vegas. Kamon appeared in a Baltimore federal courtroom Monday and was ordered temporarily detained in a local jail, the Chesapeake Detention Center, pending a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp wins re-election, NBC News projects, fending off a challenge from Stacey Abrams.

Because Kemp, who defeated Abrams in 2018, is expected to win more than 50% of the vote, there will not be a runoff.

The race had been seen as one of the marquee governor matchups in the country, with the candidates taking starkly different positions on voting rights, crime, gun laws, abortion and other issues.

In recent weeks, however, Kemp had pulled away in the polls, leading Abrams in most surveys by upward of 6 percentage points.

Kemp won decisively despite having found himself a constant target of attacks from former President Donald Trump.

Trump had crusaded against his fellow Republican after Kemp refused to help him overturn the 2020 results in Georgia. President Joe Biden's victory there helped cost Trump re-election. But Trumps hand-picked candidate in the Republican primary, former Sen. David Perdue, lost handily to Kemp, as Republican voters expressed weariness with Trumps involvement in the state party.

Abrams had aimed to mobilize the Democratic base, trying to inspire and register disaffected Georgians and turbocharge turnout. In recent weeks, she had leaned in to push herself as a bold progressive, with ads that presented her as a math whiz with liberal ideas to raise teacher pay, extend child care and fund preschool.

The race was a rematch of the 2018 race, which Abrams lost by about 55,000 votes after she launched a huge effort to register new voters. Abrams never formally conceded and refused to call Kemp's victory "legitimate," claiming Kemp, who was the state secretary of state during the race, hadn't done anything to protect voting rights or combat allegations of voter suppression.

Democracy failed in Georgia, Abrams said after the contest, which was marred by allegations of voter roll purging and suppression largely affecting Black voters.

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams arrives to speak a conference in Washington on April 6, 2022. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images file)

Abrams continued an aggressive voter registration campaign, making her a hero among progressives; some credit her efforts with Democrats successes in painting Georgia blue in the presidential election two years later. A pair of Democrats, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, would go on to win runoff elections to flip Senate seats held by the GOP and hand Democrats narrow control.

Months after Biden took office, amid continuing false claims from Trump and other Republicans that voter fraud had occurred in the state, Kemp signed into law a package of restrictive changes to the state election process. They included requiring identification for mail voting and making it illegal to take food or water to voters in line, as well as new rules like shortening runoff campaigns from nine weeks to less than a month, cutting the early voting period required for runoff elections from three weeks to one week, allowing the Legislature to appoint the chair of the State Election Board and allowing the State Election Board to take over county election administration.

Kemp's efforts to tighten voting laws, however, never earned him the backing of Trump, who remained furious that Kemp never got behind his efforts to overturn the election results in the state.

Abrams' struggles in this campaign sparked a new debate about the limits of mobilization alone, particularly with the new voting laws.

Abrams and Kemp faced off twice in debates. In the final debate, in late October, Abrams appeared to acknowledge that she was consistently polling behind Kemp.

The polls may not see you, but I do. And the only poll that matters is at the ballot box, she said.
LUXEMBOURG, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The China Cultural Center in Luxembourg (CCCL) was inaugurated here Tuesday in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Luxembourg Hua Ning and President of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies Fernand Etgen were present at the center's inauguration.

Hua said the center, unveiled after three years of hard work against the difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, will leave yet another mark in the history of friendly exchanges between the two countries.

It will become a new window for friends in Luxembourg to understand the Chinese culture and carry out exchanges and interactions, he said.

Etgen hailed the centre as a venue for people to meet and exchange ideas, to discover the rich and fascinating Chinese culture, and to travel through China and its centuries of history.

On the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony was the opening of a photo exhibition, which tells the history of the development of bilateral ties, as well as the cooperation between the two countries in diverse fields including economy, trade, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

China and Luxembourg established diplomatic relations on Nov. 16, 1972.
New Hampshire will see its first openly transgender male state lawmaker after Democrat James Roesener won his election on Tuesday. Roesener will be the first openly transgender man to join a state legislature in the country, LGBTQ Victory Fund announced.

Roesener prevailed in the states 22nd House District, Ward 8. The LGBTQ Victory Institute noted that there are currently eight openly transgender state lawmakers nationwide.

President & CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund Mayor Annise Parker lauded the election as a resounding win for New Hampshire and for trans people across the country in a statement.

At a time of intensifying transphobia at all levels of government and society, he showed incredible courage throughout his historic campaign. Trans people  and trans men in particular  remain severely underrepresented in government at every level, but we are confident his win will inspire many more trans people to run for office, Parker said.

The win marks at least the second victory for an LGBTQ candidate on Tuesday as Massachusettss Maura Healey (D) became the first openly lesbian woman to be elected governor in the country.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little easily secured another term in the executive office.

The Associated Press called the race for Little minutes after polls closed. Pre-election polling and research on candidates electoral history help the AP call races so quickly.

With all but one of Idahos counties fully reporting Wednesday, the Idaho secretary of states Elections Department reported Little leading with 60.5% of the vote. Democrat Stephen Heidt, a retired teacher, received the second-most votes, with just 20.6% support, and independent Ammon Bundy, a far-right activist and militia leader, was third with 16.9%.

Little, 68, quietly campaigned on his record. He has cut taxes and used the states surplus revenue to boost funding for public schools and infrastructure projects. Hes promised more of the same in a second term.

The election results today translate into giving us a mandate, to keep our state on the path of incredible and unprecedented success, to continue to show Washington, D.C., and the rest of the country how to do things right, Little said Tuesday at a GOP election watch party in Boise.

Littles first term has been marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and conservative social policies, including the states near-total abortion ban  which Little supported. Heidt campaigned on promising to secure bodily autonomy for pregnant women, while Bundy criticized Littles 2020 coronavirus policies, such as ordering some businesses to close early in the pandemic.

Also running for governor were Libertarian Paul Sand and Chantyrose Davison, of the Constitution Party.

In 2018, three in five Idaho voters selected Little over former Democratic Idaho House member Paulette Jordan, who collected 38% of the vote behind high name recognition, something Heidt lacked.

Before becoming governor, Little served as lieutenant governor and as a state senator. A rancher, Little entered politics through agriculture and business lobbying.

Little handily defeated Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin in the May GOP primary.

The Republican Governors Association congratulated Little on Tuesday.

Gov. Brad Little is leading Idaho to a bright and prosperous future thanks to his commonsense solutions like record tax cuts that have unleashed unprecedented economic growth, Governors Doug Ducey, of Arizona, and Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, said in a news release.

Idaho governors serve four-year terms.

Republicans win easily in other statewide races

Republican candidates sailed to victories in statewide races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, secretary of state, controller and treasurer.

Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke secured a win in the race to be Idahos next lieutenant governor. Bedke led with 64% of the vote Wednesday against Democrat Terri Pickens Manweiler.

Former congressman Raul Labrador defeated Democratic opponent Tom Arkoosh to be Idahos next attorney general. Labrador had 62% of the vote and was more than 135,000 votes ahead of Arkoosh, who had received support from several prominent Republicans.

Debbie Critchfield easily defeated Democrat Terry Gilbert in the race to be Idahos top education official. Critchfield had 69.3% of the vote Wednesday in the race for superintendent of public instruction. Gilbert, a former teacher and president of the Idaho Education Association, received 30.7%.

Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane, a self-proclaimed elections junkie, collected more than 72% of the vote in the secretary of state race against Democrat Shawn Keenan.

Election integrity really matters, McGrane said in a victory speech at the GOP watch party. As we watch this election across the entire country, we will truly see how Idaho shines. As secretary of state, it is my commitment to you, its my commitment to every voter in the state of Idaho, to make sure we stay that way.

McGrane will replace Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, who chose not to seek reelection.

Idaho Controller Brandon Woolf won reelection with 69.1% of the vote. He faced Democrat Dianna David and Constitution Party candidate Miste Gardner.

Woolf has been Idahos controller for a decade. In that time, he has bolstered transparency around state government spending.

Were going to continue to do that, Woolf said Tuesday. Im excited to share with you as we open up the books, let you see that throughout the state.

State Treasurer Julie Ellsworth won a second term. She collected 70.7% of the vote against Democrat Deborah Silver.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at an America First Policy Institute conference in Washington, D.C., on July 26. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

A judge has ordered former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to testify before a Georgia grand jury that is investigating the alleged attempt by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to illegally interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

At a court hearing in Fairfax County, Va.  a suburb of Washington, D.C.  Judge Robert Smith on Wednesday ordered Gingrich to appear on Nov. 29 before a special grand jury in Georgia's Fulton County that is investigating alleged "criminal disruptions" in the state related to the 2020 election.

Gingrich's lawyer John Burlingame told the judge that the Republican was already planning to talk later this month to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and that he was seeking to avoid the hassle of traveling to Atlanta to provide the local grand jury with similar testimony.

Burlingame noted that according to the specific law under which the Georgia grand jury sought Gingrich's testimony, the jury cannot itself issue any criminal indictments but can only write a report.

But Kyle Mandelbaum, a Virginia prosecutor representing Georgia authorities at Wednesday's hearing, told the judge that the county grand jury was specifically looking at whether Georgia laws were violated following the 2020 election and that the grand jury "will be issuing a report recommending whether criminal charges" should be filed by Georgia prosecutors.

Burlingame argued that Georgia prosecutors had not described their grand jury as a criminal grand jury but rather said its investigation was "criminal in nature."

House Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson at a hearing of the panel on June 16. (Sarah Silbiger/Reuters)

"I respect the court ruling," Gingrich said after the hearing. But Burlingame said they would "most likely" appeal the judge's decision.

In support of his unsuccessful argument that Gingrich should not have to testify, Burlingame cited a Sept. 1 letter to the former speaker in which Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House Jan. 6 committee, lays out issues related to post-election activities that the committee wants to question Gingrich about.

"The committee has obtained information indicating that you have knowledge about former President Donald J. Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and we write to seek your voluntary cooperation," Thompson wrote to Gingrich.

Thompson said the committee had obtained emails that Gingrich exchanged with top advisers to Trump, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller, in which Gingrich allegedly "provided detailed input" on TV ads that promoted "false claims" about 2020 election fraud. The ads allegedly encouraged voters to lobby state officials to challenge and overturn election results.

Thompson's letter said email exchanges show that Gingrich urged Trump's campaign to air ads promoting false claims that election workers had smuggled suitcases containing fake ballots into State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Thompson said such claims have been "disproven after numerous independent reviews."

Thompson's letter said that even after the Capitol was attacked on Jan. 6, Gingrich "continued to push efforts to overturn the election."
A Kansas man scheduled to go to trial in Washington, D.C., this month on multiple felony charges in connection with the Capitol riot pleaded guilty to one count on Tuesday.

Michael Eckerman, of Wichita, pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer. The hearing was held by video conference in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

What is your plea, sir? asked U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.

Im pleading guilty, Eckerman replied.

Eckermans sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 14 in person in federal court in D.C. He faces a maximum sentence of eight years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He also is required to pay $2,000 in restitution for more than $2.8 million in losses the government said were caused by the riot, including damage to the Capitol building and grounds and certain costs borne by the U.S. Capitol Police.

Eckerman, 38, who told the judge he was born and raised in Wichita and played football at Garden City Community College, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 8, 2021. He was charged with three felonies  civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers; and obstruction of an official proceeding  and five misdemeanors involving the Capitol breach.

As part of the plea deal, the government agreed to drop all the other charges. The agreement requires Eckerman to cooperate with authorities in the investigation.

According to the charging documents in the case, surveillance camera footage from inside the Capitol showed Eckerman and two women entering the Capitol building around 2:23 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, through the Senate wing door. About 2:27 p.m., the documents said, Eckerman  wearing a tactical vest  was seen on surveillance cameras outside the Crypt, where Capitol Police had stopped the surge of rioters.

Eckerman pushes his way through the crowd up to one of the officers until he is face to face with the officer, the documents said. He appears to push the officer backwards several feet.

A federal arrest warrant affidavit says the man outlined by the red square in this security image is Michael Eckerman of Wichita, who is charged with multiple crimes during the Jan. 6 riot at the nations Capitol.

The officer, whose initials are K.Y., was later interviewed and said that the man identified as Eckerman pushed him with aggressive force, according to the documents. The push caused Officer K.Y. to lose his balance and fall down a small set of stairs. After being knocked to the ground, Officer K.Y. was sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher by an unknown individual.

That incident allowed the crowd to start moving past police, the documents said. Eckerman and his two companions then went up to Statuary Hall on the second floor, where he again pushed his way forward to another police line. Eckerman again yelled at officers for several minutes, the documents said, then moved with his companions to the Rayburn Reception Room, where he took a selfie in front of a portrait of George Washington.

Surveillance video then captured Eckerman heading toward the back entrance to the House Chamber, where Ashli Babbitt was shot by a law enforcement officer as she tried to climb through a door where glass had been broken out to get to the House Chamber, the documents said. Just after the shooting, video showed Eckerman and his companions exiting the Capitol around 2:44 p.m. through the upper House doors.

Outside, Eckerman was interviewed about the shooting by FreedomNews.tv, saying that I dont know her name, all I know is we went there (Capitol) as patriots. She is dead because were here. These mother (expletive deleted) are traitors, they are (expletive deleted) traitors!

At Tuesdays plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Arco summarized the governments case against Eckerman. She said he and the two women he was with spent about 20 minutes inside the Capitol building, breaching multiple police lines as they moved about.

Once outside, she said, the three continued to take photographs and record videos.

In one such video, Mr. Eckerman shouted, I went all the way in, knocked over six cops, Arco said.

Eckerman disputed pushing the officer but his attorney, Richard Stern, acknowledged that the government was not required to prove that he did in order to state a factual basis for the felony charge. Still, Arco said, the government intended to present evidence at Eckermans sentencing that he did indeed push the officer.

Thats one point we just argue over, Stern said, but the other points, we think the government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

One of the conditions of release set by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gwynne E. Birzer after Eckermans arrest in Wichita last year raised questions about a possible connection to the far-right Proud Boys. It said, No contact with Proud Boys organization nor anyone a member of or connected to it.

The Proud Boys are at the forefront of the federal investigation into the Capitol insurrection. Authorities have rounded up more than three dozen members from around the country, including four from the Kansas City area, on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assaulting a federal officer to sedition. Former Proud Boys chairman Henry Enrique Tarrio and four top lieutenants are scheduled to go to trial in December on seditious conspiracy charges.

Eckermans jury trial was set to start Nov. 28. He would have been the first Capitol riot defendant from Kansas to go to trial. To date, nine Kansas residents have been charged, and of those, five have pleaded guilty. Two of those five await sentencing, and three have been sentenced to two years probation each, with one of them also receiving 30 days home detention and a $2,000 fine.
A man pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges in connection to a large, multi-state elder fraud scam that involved impersonating a variety of people, according to federal officials.

For an eight-month period in 2020, Michael Odell Anderson, a 64-year-old from Crystal Beach, Florida, and Dunn Loring, Virginia, reportedly called people asking for thousands of dollars to help pay for an incarcerated relatives  often a grandchilds  fake legal expenses, according to a Nov. 7 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland.

As part of the scam, Anderson used a number of different identities, posing at various times as a police officer, lawyer, bail bondsman, courier or relative of a supposed jailed loved one, according to the release.

An attorney for Anderson could not immediately be contacted by McClatchy News.

Anderson, in addition to his accomplices, regularly obtained tens of thousands of dollars from the elderly victims who withdrew funds from their savings accounts, feds said. Anderson told them that the money would be returned later, according to the release.

Using fake names, Anderson and his associates collected funds from victims in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, in addition to other states, according to the release.

Over the course of the scam, they received over $840,000 from at least 49 victims, according to the release. The majority of the money, over $570,000, was never returned.

Anderson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, though [a]ctual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties, according to the release. He will be sentenced in March 2023.

Elder fraud is a common problem in the United States, affecting roughly 1 of every 18 cognitively intact, community-dwelling older adults each year, according to a 2017 study in the American Journal of Public Health.

Missing kayakers body surfaces in lake after 2-week search, New York police say

Man threatened to shoot Black customers at stores, restaurants around US, feds say

This years midterm has a massive price tag  enough to buy each American 12 Big Macs
Massachusetts Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Gov. Maura Healey smiles as she speaks during a campaign rally in support of the statewide Massachusetts Democratic ticket, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, in Boston. Healey faces Republican Jeff Diehl in the general election. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)

BOSTON (AP)  Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has been elected governor of Massachusetts, making history as the states first woman and first openly gay candidate elected to the office.

Healey defeated Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative who had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Her election returns the governors office to Democrats after eight years of Republican leadership under the popular Gov. Charlie Baker, who opted not to seek reelection.

Healey and her running mate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, were among three all-female governor/lieutenant governor tickets in the U.S. that began Election Day with a chance to become the first such pairing elected to lead a state.

The Republican all-female ticket of Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor and Leslie Rutledge for lieutenant governor won in Arkansas. And in Ohio, Democrat Nan Whaley is running for governor with Cheryl Stephens as her running mate.

Healey was also one of two openly lesbian candidates who ran to be a governor in the country. Healey and Democrat Tina Kotek, a candidate for governor in Oregon, each began the day with a chance to become the first openly lesbian person elected governor of a state.

Healey  elected eight years ago as the nations first openly gay attorney general  snapped whats become known in Massachusetts as the curse of the attorney general. Since 1958, six former Massachusetts attorneys general have sought the governors office. All failed.

During the campaign, Healey pledged to expand job training programs, make child care more affordable and modernize schools. Healey has also said she would protect access to safe and legal abortion in Massachusetts in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The 51-year-old has also checked off what she considers a series of accomplishments during her time as the states top law enforcement officer, including protecting students and homeowners from predatory lenders and suing Exxon Mobil over whether the oil giant misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change.

Healey also targeted OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family over allegations they deceived patients and doctors about the risks of opioids.

During the campaign, the Democrat warned Diehl would bring Trumpism to Massachusetts. Diehl served as co-chair for former President Donald Trumps first presidential campaign in Massachusetts and won his endorsement for governor in a state that roundly rejected Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Although Healey is the first woman in Massachusetts elected governor, shes not the first to serve in the office. Republican Jane Swift, then lieutenant governor, became acting governor in 2001 when Gov. Paul Cellucci resigned to become ambassador to Canada. Swift was never elected governor.

Since 1991, Republicans had held the corner office at the Statehouse for all but eight years when Democrat Deval Patrick was governor.
Florida House candidate Maxwell Frost won his race on Tuesday, becoming the first Generation Z member of Congress, the Associated Press projected.

Frost will represent the states 10th Congressional District, which includes Orlando, in the House. Hell succeed Rep. Val Demings, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

<<< 2022 Florida Congressional Midterm Elections: Latest Updates and Results >>>

History was made tonight, Frost said on Twitter, after the AP and multiple news outlets projected him as the winner. We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the United States Congress.

In an interview with Yahoo News on Monday, the 25-year-old Democrat and gun control activist said he would be starting his last day of campaigning on Election Day with a 4 a.m. wake-up call, getting out early to knock on doors and encourage people to get to the polls.

Unlike many candidates, Frost didnt know politics would be a part of his future, until supporters that he protested with during the Black Lives Matter uprising in 2020 asked him to get on the ballot.

A phone call with his biological mother gave him the final push he needed to run for office, he told Yahoo News in August. I hung up the phone, and I said I need to run for Congress for people like my biological mother, for people like my mother, for people like my father, for my community, for the place that I was born and raised, he said.

In August of 2021, Frost quit his job as the national organizing director of March for Our Lives and started his campaign. Now, he is headed to Washington, D.C., after beating Republican opponent Calvin Wimbish.

Maxwell Frost at the Pride Parade in Orlando on Oct. 15. (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

My mom came here from Cuba when she was young with nothing. And now her son is going to go to Congress, Frost told Yahoo News in August.

In a statement on Friday, Demings expressed her support for Frost. Im proud to support Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Congress because hes going to continue to fight to end gun violence, take on our housing crisis, bring down rising costs, and continue to be the bold leader Central Florida needs in D.C.

Ahead of Election Day, Frost was confident about his race but said that other contests throughout the Sunshine State were getting too close for comfort.

Turnout is relatively low right now, actually, in general. And we have a lot of work to do on making sure that [its] better in future elections, Frost told Yahoo News on Monday.

Frost at a rally held by the Latino Victory Fund on Oct. 20 in Coral Gables, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

Experts say presidential elections in Florida typically have a higher turnout than midterm elections. Nationally, voter turnout is up for a midterm election. So it looks like were going to beat the last two midterm elections [in] 2014 and 2018. But that is not true in Florida; Floridas early vote numbers are low, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, professor of law at Stetson University, said.

The progressive candidates campaign raised millions of dollars to help Frost secure the Democratic nomination in the primary and win the election. OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign spending, found that over half of the contributions Frosts campaign has received this election cycle  $1.4 million  has come from individual donors contributing less than $200.

Frost leaned on Latino and Generation Z voters to win his race. While Latinos make up 20% of the U.S. population, they make up only 1% of political power, according to Latino Victory, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing political power in the Latino community.

And thats not a representative democracy. So were trying to change that in reality, Nathalie Rayes, president of Latino Victory, told Yahoo News.

But Rayes says there has been a shift, as four Democratic Latino lawmakers hold a seat in the Senate, and now Frost will be added to that list as a new member of the House.

Hell be the first Gen Z to ever serve in Congress, and the third Afro-Latino to ever serve in Congress. And, we need that energy, Rayes said. We need young people in elected office. Maxwell is a hardworking, dedicated leader who will bring renewed energy to fight for his district in Washington, D.C., she added.

The youth vote is pretty low in Florida right now. So I need yall to text your friends and tell them to vote asap!!! On or before Nov 8! pic.twitter.com/JardzmF5iB  Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) November 5, 2022

Frost plans to focus on issues such as climate change and affordable housing. But as a survivor of gun violence and a resident of a state that has been the site of mass shootings like those at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, that particular issue is first on his list.

Gun violence is an issue that touches almost every community, Frost told Yahoo News in August. We need more advocates and vocal champions in Congress that are going to fight to end this problem.

While Frost says hes excited and ready to make an impact in D.C., he realizes that he cant do it alone. Theres no savior, theres not one politician thats going to fix it. It has to be about a movement, a movement on the streets and a movement at the ballot box. I just want people to know that for us to effect the change that we need, [that] we want and that we deserve, we need to elect a movement of people.
Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick defeated former Democratic state Rep. Alan Green on Tuesday in the race for Missouri auditor, flipping a seat that Democrats have held since 2015.

Throughout the campaign, Fitzpatrick, who was appointed treasurer by Gov. Mike Parson in 2018 before winning a full term 2020, touted his political and financial background as the states chief financial officer. He has also pledged to use his power as auditor to audit school curriculum and has promoted a plan to eradicate certain subject material from school districts.

As of 11:30 p.m., Fitzpatrick had 59% of the vote with 3,145 of 3,266 precincts reporting, according to the Missouri Secretary of States Office. Green, who served in the Missouri House from 2014 to 2021, had 38% of the vote. Libertarian John Hartwig had 3%.

Auditor Nicole Galloway, who announced last year that she would not seek reelection after her unsuccessful run for governor, was Missouris lone Democratic statewide officeholder.

Republicans will now take back the position as Missouri has experienced a seismic shift from bellwether to deep red in the last 10 years, particularly in rural parts of the state.

Prior to Tuesdays vote, some state legislators, lawyers and public school advocates worried that Fitzpatrick would use the auditors office  and school districts  to promote partisan politics.

They said his campaign rhetoric about auditing school curriculum foreshadowed a politician who will overstep his position in order to appeal to the conservative base.

These are people that are taking us back to like the dark ages in terms of policy  the state auditor being a reviewer of curriculum is nothing short of insane, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star prior to Tuesday. That sort of thing is taken from like Torquemada in the Spanish Inquisition  and theyre trying to put it in Missouri in 2022.

Fitzpatrick, for his part, has vowed not to use the office in a partisan manner.

When you look at my record in the legislature and as treasurer, I have challenged policies and positions of Republicans and Democrats, he previously told The Star. Im equal opportunity when it comes to holding people accountable.

At a September public forum in Lake Ozark, the races only public speaking event, Fitzpatrick and Green tried to prove that they had enough financial experience for the job as the states financial watchdog.

Fitzpatrick said he would work to root out financial fraud, regardless of party affiliation. Green tried to convince voters that he had enough financial experience to continue Galloways work in the office.

The auditors office conducts financial and performance audits of state agencies, boards and commissions and the states court systems. The audits look for waste, fraud and financial accountability.

The office has at times been used as a launching pad for politicians seeking higher office. Democrat Claire McCaskill, for example, used her two terms as auditor as a pathway to the U.S. Senate in the 2006 election.

Fitzpatrick works as the CEO of MariCorp, a marine construction company based in Shell Knob that he started while in high school.

Fitzpatrick previously told The Star that some of his other priorities as auditor would be to increase oversight of how federal COVID-19 money is allocated and spent and holding people accountable when its misused.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has secured a second term, NBC News projects, defeating Democratic challenger Nan Whaley, the former mayor of Dayton.

DeWine, 75, is a fixture of the states Republican establishment whose leadership in the early days of the pandemic earned admiration from independents and Democrats. As he ran for re-election, he emphasized economic development, particularly Intel Corp.s $20 billion commitment to build semiconductor factories in the Columbus area.

Whaley, 46, has long been seen as a rising star in Democratic politics. She led the U.S. Conference of Mayors and received national attention after she led Dayton through a tragic mass shooting in 2019. But she struggled to gain traction against DeWine, a known quantity who didn't owe his success in GOP politics to Donald Trump and could not easily be painted as an unflinching ally of the former president.

"I will continue to push forward and to lead and to talk about the things that we have to do," DeWine said in his victory speech at a Columbus hotel, with his wife, Fran, and their many children and grandchildren flanking them on stage.

"Our goal for every person in this state is to live up to their god-given potential, to remove all barriers that are hindering them from doing that."

Whaley, the first woman to win a major party's nomination for governor in Ohio, conceded shortly after 9:30 p.m. at an event with supporters in Dayton.

"The last 20 months have been filled with high and lows," Whaley said in a statement from her campaign. "And while tonight wasnt the high we had hoped for, I still believe in Ohio. I still believe that our citizens deserve better than what theyre getting. And believe in the people of this state to get us there. Im going to keep fighting for Ohio, and I know you will too."

Data consistently showed DeWine leading by wide margins. The crowd at the Ohio Republican Party's watch party with DeWine and Senate candidate J.D. Vance briefly erupted in cheers when the race was called moments after polls closed, although the latter's race carries more suspense. Vance went on to defeat Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, NBC News projects.

"We all know what happened here in Ohio," Bob Paduchik, the Ohio GOP chair, told the audience after DeWine's win was called. "We have a mandate for continued Republican leadership in the state for the next four years."

Democrats had hoped an alleged pay-to-play scandal involving a bailout of the states nuclear industry would be DeWines undoing. But tying him directly to any wrongdoing proved a challenge, and the attacks never stuck.

Whaley accentuated a variety of other issues, including the economy and gun violence, before she ultimately settled on abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. DeWine is staunchly anti-abortion and had signed a law outlawing the procedure after six weeks.

Were not asking our leaders for a lot here, Whaley said in a 15-second ad her campaign aired in September. We simply believe women deserve the freedom to decide whats right for our bodies, our families and our future.

At times, whatever questions there were about DeWines re-election prospects centered more on Republicans still angry with his pandemic restrictions. DeWine was among the first governors to close schools and businesses in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although his approach initially drew bipartisan praise and higher approval ratings, the GOP base grew restless with the mandates. And as DeWine reopened Ohio, Democrats accused him of caving to pro-Trump extremists.

Trump, at an election eve rally Monday for Vance and other Ohio Republicans, called DeWine to the stage. Many in the crowd showered him with boos.

A trio of right-wing challengers kept DeWine from winning a majority in Mays GOP primary. But his opponents never had the opportunity to directly press him on the issues in a public forum, just like Whaley never had the chance in the general election. DeWine refused all invitations to debate. The closest he came was a joint interview last month with the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com  held via a hard-to-follow videoconference.

"We're moving forward," DeWine said at the end of his victory speech. "We have work to do. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead you."
LONDON (AP)  A man was arrested Wednesday after hurling eggs and vitriol at King Charles III and Camilla, the queen consort, as they walked in the northern England city of York.

The incident happened as the king and his wife were entering York through Micklegate Bar, a medieval gateway where monarchs are traditionally welcomed to the city.

Video footage showed several eggs in motion and smashed on the ground. None appeared to hit the royal couple, who continued to be greeted by local dignitaries and to meet assembled well-wishers.

Several police officers could be seen grappling with a man at a crowd barrier. Britain's PA news agency reported that the protester booed and shouted This country was built on the blood of slaves as he was being detained.

Other members of the crowd tried to drown him out by chanting Shame on you and God save the King.

North Yorkshire Police said a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense and was being held in custody.

Charles and Camilla traveled to York as part of a series of engagements around the U.K. marking the start of the new king's reign. They attended a service at the citys cathedral, York Minster, and unveiled a statue of the king's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne.
The Tesla Supercharger Station in Kettleman City, Calif., is an EV charging station for electric cars in the San Joaquin Valley. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

California voters on Tuesday rejected Proposition 30, a plan to spend $30 billion to $90 billion to subsidize the electric car industry over the next 20 years, with the state's highest-income Californians picking up the tab.

Under the measure, wealthy California residents would have been taxed 1.75% on reported income more than $2 million to fund the program. The marginal rate rises to 15.05% from 13.3%, the highest state income taxes in the country.

The Associated Press called the outcome of the race, though official results will take longer.

Many of those opposed to the measure argued the tax hike would have heightened perceptions that California can't be counted on to support business. The measure drew aggressive opposition from venture capitalists, bankers, tech company chief executives, and other ultra-wealthy Californians.

State financial analysts had estimated that $3.5 billion to $5 billion would be raised each year. Of that amount, 80% would have supported sales of electric vehicles and public car chargers, with 20% for wildfire suppression and prevention.

The state has already devoted $6.5 billion to EV and public charger subsidies, and plans to spend an additional $10 billion over five years  not including money from Proposition 30.

The contest for Prop. 30 was a bit unusual, because Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom bucked his own party to energetically oppose the measure, broadcasting and streaming videos that called it "corporate welfare" and "a cynical scheme to grab a huge taxpayer-funded subsidy" for a plan "developed by a single company to funnel state income taxes to benefit their company."

That company is Lyft, which did in fact help draft the proposition and donated at least $45 million to support the "yes" campaign. The ride-hailing company is subject to a new state law that will require most of its fleet to run on electric power by 2030. Those cars are owned not by Lyft, but by drivers who contract with Lyft. Those workers would receive Proposition 30 subsidies to buy electric cars, on top of subsidies from the federal government. California could use the money to raise the amount of current subsidies on electric cars.

Teachers unions opposed the measure, arguing the money would be better spent on schools.

The defeat is sure to frustrate those who believe the extra money would have helped California achieve its aggressive goals on greenhouse gas reduction, including a state ban on sales of most new internal combustion cars and light trucks by 2035.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Republican Kris Kobach claimed victory in the race for Kansas attorney general around midnight Tuesday, a stunning political comeback for the hard-right former Kansas secretary of state, who has vowed to relentlessly fight President Joe Bidens administration in court. The Associated Press and The Star have not officially called the race yet with Kobach ahead by a slim margin.

Kobach plans to position Kansas in the vanguard of states mounting legal challenges against the federal government, saying he will think of new lawsuits to file while having my breakfast. After building a national reputation for hard-line positions against illegal immigration and championing voting restrictions in the name of deterring fraud voter fraud, Kobach has likely won an office where he will be empowered to pursue his agenda through lawsuits and, in some instances, criminal prosecutions.

Kobach spoke to supporters just before midnight. As of 12:30 a.m., he had 51% of votes with 94% of precincts reported, according to the Kansas Secretary of States Office.

With a margin of 13,000 and growing and with only red counties left to count, were very confident that we have this victory, Kobach said to a round of resounding cheers.

I dont care who you are or where you come from, you gotta love a comeback story.

Democrat Chris Mann garnered 49% of votes, according to the Kansas Secretary of States Office. Kobach led with 484,184 votes over Manns 467,149 votes as of 12:45 a.m.

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As results rolled in Tuesday evening, the two candidates were neck and neck, at points facing off with a 50% split.

I want to thank the voters of Kansas for putting their trust in me. It means so much to have their trust and I want to congratulate Chris Mann on a hard fought campaign, Kobach said. But tomorrow we begin the process of taking America back and the Kansas Attorney Generals Office is going to be very directly involved in that process.

Kobach said he is committed to addressing the fentanyl plague that is killing so many Kansans and we will take significant, dramatic steps in that regard. Secondly, we must protect girls sports.

Just after midnight, Manns campaign spokeswoman Kelli Kee said, Our priority is just making sure every vote is counted.

Kobachs likely victory carries national implications, delivering a one-time campaign adviser to former President Donald Trump a powerful platform. Kobach, who has promised a unit inside the attorney generals office dedicated to suing Biden, may elevate Kansas to the ranks of Texas and Missouri in filing lawsuits to block or slow down the Democratic administration.

Republican Kris Kobach gets a hug from his wife, Heather, after he claimed victory in the race for Kansas attorney general. He addressed his supporters at a Republican watch party on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Topeka, Kansas.

What Kansas needs is an attorney who has the experience defending laws against ACLU attack and has the experience defending our constitutional rights against a presidential administration when it undermines them, Kobach said at a recent debate.

Kobachs likely victory also draws to a close his time in the political wilderness. After winning the Republican nomination for governor by a razor-thin margin in 2018, he lost to Democrat Laura Kelly. He then lost the Republican race for U.S. Senate in 2020 to then-Rep. Roger Marshall, who went on to win the election.

The comeback candidacy was divisive even among Republicans. Kobach, a Lecompton resident, fought a grueling primary race against state Sen. Kellie Warren of Leawood and Tony Mattivi, a former federal prosecutor. Both heavily attacked Kobach, but he emerged with 42% of the vote in the August race.

Kobach, 56, then faced a tough general election campaign against Mann, a former Wyandotte County prosecutor and former Lawrence police officer. Mann, 46, aggressively attacked Kobachs professional competency and promised he would take a non-political approach to the office and emphasized public safety concerns.

Mann, a first-time candidate who lives in Lawrence, said in an interview before polls closed on Tuesday that his campaign had done everything we possibly can to place him in a position to win.

I really think that weve run the exact race that we anticipated running, Mann said. Its never been about the politics for me. Ive tried to focus it on just what Ive done all my life  that public service that Ive done throughout my career and wanting to focus this office there.

Mann outraised Kobach this fall, pulling in $952,000 in contributions since late July, compared to $465,000 for Kobach.

But Kobach painted the former police officer as a soft-on-crime liberal, echoing a focus on crime by Republicans nationally. He also questioned the Democrats commitment to defending Kansas laws in the Republican-leaning state.

Kobach, an attorney, will come into the office, if results hold, with extremely limited prosecutorial experience. As secretary of state, Kobach convinced state legislators in 2015 to give his office the power to prosecute election-related crimes, which he used to bring a handful of cases of double voting.

Kobach, who holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale, is the son of a Topeka car salesman. While working for the U.S. Department of Justice, he helped develop the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System following the 9/11 attacks, which was used to register non-citizens in the United States. Democratic President Barack Obama later dismantled the program.

For a time a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kobach was elected Kansas secretary of state in 2010, where he served two terms. In office, he pushed for a state law that required individuals to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. The law was later struck down by federal courts following a disastrous trial in which Kobach personally defended the law. A federal judge held Kobach in contempt of court and ordered him to take additional legal education.

Still, Kobach told reporters on Tuesday before polls closed that he had emphasized his legal experience and academic background in an effort to win over voters who didnt previously support him.

You should be an attorney, and ideally you should be an attorney whos accomplished and who has skills in an area thats relevant for the states office, Kobach said.

Kobach endorsed Trump early, when he remained a highly divisive figure among Republicans, a move that helped establish him as an informal adviser on the issue of immigration. He was later tapped to co-lead a presidential commission that investigated false claims of widespread fraud in the 2016 election. The panel disbanded without turning up evidence to back up the claims.

Outside of elected office, Kobach has spent most of his legal career helping municipalities across the country defend immigration-oriented ordinances and promoting other conservative causes. This year, he represented Air Force service members who are attempting to opt out of COVID-19 vaccine mandates on religious grounds.

His most prominent work as a private attorney, however, was his years-long role as general counsel to We Build the Wall, a charity that fundraised money to build strips of wall along the southern border. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and others associated with the operation were indicted on federal charges in 2020, accused of defrauding donors.

Trump later pardoned Bannon, who is now facing similar charges in New York State. Charges have also been brought against We Build the Wall.

Kobach hasnt been accused of wrongdoing related to We Build the Wall. In September, Kobach resigned as general counsel and from We Build the Walls board of directors, just days after the New York charges were filed.

If results hold, Kobach will take office in January, becoming the first new state attorney general since 2011, when Derek Schmidt entered office. Schmidt maintained a relatively low-key public demeanor for much of his three terms as he moved the office past the turbulent, scandal-plagued era of Republican Attorney General Phill Kline and Democratic Attorney General Paul Morrison.

Kobachs critics warn he will take a splashier approach to the job that risks losing focus on the basic functions of the office, such as tackling consumer fraud and overseeing the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. But others say the role of state attorneys general has shifted nationwide and that the office is increasingly seen as a tool for states to challenge the federal government.

But Kobach took steps in his latest campaign to reassure voters that he could be trusted with the states top law enforcement job. He sanded the edges off some of the most bombastic rhetoric that had characterized his previous campaigns and appeared to make an effort to put forward a less divisive profile, such as no longer appearing in public in a Jeep with a mounted replica machine gun.

Kobach also emphasized that he will defend all Kansas laws in court, even those he disagrees with  a possible outreach to more moderate voters.

They must be given a vigorous defense, Kobach said this fall.

The Stars Katie Bernard contributed to this story.
A teacher at Sanderson High School in Raleigh has been arrested for possession of child pornography, according to court records.

On Tuesday, Knightdale police arrested Eric Kyle Belk, 37, for 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to warrants obtained by ABC11, The News & Observers newsgathering partner.

In North Carolina, second-degree exploitation of a minor includes creation and distribution of child pornography.

Court records show that Belk is accused of distributing, receiving or exchanging pornographic material containing children as young as 7 years old.

Belk, of Knightdale, has been a teacher at Sanderson High School since 2014. The schools website says he teaches science.

He was suspended from the school after his arrest, according to an email to parents from interim Principal Kevin L. Hill.

We have been informed by law enforcement that the incident under investigation does not appear to involve any of our students and it did not occur at our school, Hill said.

ABC11 reports that Belk make his first appearance in court on Wednesday and is being held at Wake County Detention Center on $500,000 bond.

Reporter T. Keung Hui contributed to this report.
FILE - Participants listen during a rally in support of three-year-old baby Veronica, Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, in Oklahoma City, Monday, Aug. 19, 2013. Brown is trying to maintain custody of the girl who was given up for adoption by her birth mother to Matt and Melanie Capobianco of South Carolina. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022 on the most significant challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native American children since it passed in 1978. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court is wrestling with a challenge to a federal law that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children.

The justices are hearing several hours of arguments Wednesday over the Indian Child Welfare Act, enacted in 1978 to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native Homes.

It has long been championed by tribal leaders as a means of preserving their families, traditions and cultures. But white families seeking to adopt Native children are among the challengers who say the law is impermissibly based on race, and also prevents states from considering those childrens best interests.

Both conservative and liberal justices suggested general support for the law but also expressed concerns. Justice Elena Kagan was among the justices who underscored the law's purpose. Congress understood these children's placement decisions as integral to the continued thriving of Indian communities, she said.

The law's fate is in the hands of a court that has made race a focus of its current term, in cases involving the redrawing of congressional districts and affirmative action in college admissions. Two members of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, also are the parents of adopted children.

Barrett was among the justices who expressed concern about at least one aspect of the law that gives preference to Native foster and adoptive parents in placing Native children, even if the family is not of the same tribe as the child. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Samuel Alito also sounded skeptical of that provision.

Alito asked whether Congress could have gone further than it has to say that an Indian child may not be adopted by a non-Indian couple under any circumstances. Biden administration lawyer Edwin Kneedler told Alito he thought that would be difficult to defend.

The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of the law last year, including preferences for placing Native children with Native adoptive families and in Native foster homes. It also said Congress overstepped its authority by imposing its will on state officials in adoption matters.

But the 5th Circuit also ruled that the law generally is based on the political relationship between the tribes and the U.S. government, not race.

The tribes and the Biden administration appealed some parts of the lower court ruling, while the white families and Texas, allied with those families, appealed others.

More than three-quarters of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the country have asked the high court to uphold the law in full, along with tribal organizations. They fear widespread impacts if the court attempts to dismantle the tribes status as political sovereigns.

Nearly two dozen state attorneys general across the political spectrum filed a brief in support of the law. Some of those states have codified the federal law into their own state laws.

A ruling in favor of the families and Texas could undercut the 1978 law and, the tribes fear, have broader effects on their ability to govern themselves.

When child protection authorities remove Native children from their homes, the law requires states to notify tribes and seek placement with the childs extended family, members of the childs tribe or other Native American families.

All of the children who have been involved in the current case at one point are enrolled or could be enrolled as Navajo, Cherokee, White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. Some of the adoptions have been finalized while some are still being challenged.

Before the Indian Child Welfare Act was enacted, between 25% and 35% of Native American children were being taken from their homes and placed with adoptive families, in foster care or in institutions. Most were placed with white families or in boarding schools in attempts to assimilate them.

___

Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, centre, visits the UNICEF facility in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations says she does not expect the U.S. midterm election to weaken U.S. support for Ukraine given the bipartisan support for Kyiv since Russias invasion of its neighbor. Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke after she visited a UNICEF center in Warsaw that has become a hub for Ukrainian refugee children in their mothers, offering educational support and therapy. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)

WARSAW, Poland (AP)  The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday that she does not expect the U.S. midterm election to weaken Washington's support for Ukraine given the bipartisan backing for Kyiv since Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke after she visited a UNICEF center in Warsaw that has become a hub for Ukrainian refugee children and their mothers, offering educational support and therapy.

She said her talks with government and Warsaw city officials included making contingency plans in case the coming winter and power outages create another large exodus of Ukrainians to Poland and other frontline states.

She also expressed gratitude to the people of Poland and the government for the enormous help they have provided to Ukrainians, many of whom fled to Poland and have remained there.

A day earlier she was in Ukraine, where she announced that the U.S., through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing an additional $25 million to support vulnerable people in Ukraine during the harsh winter. She said she met with people in a community center who could not return to their homes because of Russias horrible attacks on the power and water infrastructure.

Asked by a reporter about the impact the U.S. election Tuesday might have on U.S. support for Kyiv, she replied: I havent given that any thought other than the fact that our support for Ukraine has been bipartisan so I dont see that the elections will have an impact on that support."

I know that the president will continue to work with Congress to get the support that Ukraine needs until Russias unprovoked attacks on Ukraine are brought to an end, she said.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Adrian Perez receives dialysis at clinic in Sacramento in 2018. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

For a third time, California voters appear close to rejecting a statewide mandate to increase medical staffing at dialysis centers.

Proposition 29 was trailing by a substantial margin late Tuesday night. The measure would have required dialysis clinics to have a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant present while patients are receiving care at any of the states 600 dialysis centers. Clinics also would have been required to disclose if a physician had ownership interest in a facility and to report patient infection data.

This marks the third time in four years that voters will likely reject a ballot initiative pushed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers that would change how dialysis providers care for the 80,000 people who rely on the life-saving treatment.

That includes the failed Proposition 8 in 2018, which would have capped revenues at dialysis centers, and Proposition 23 in 2020, which would have required dialysis clinics to have at least one doctor onsite while patients are receiving treatment.

SEIU-UHW was accused during the 2018 and 2020 campaigns of using the ballot proposition system to target Fresenius Medical Care and DaVita, the state's two largest dialysis providers, as well as to unionize dialysis workers. Union officials denied using the process for unionizing purposes and maintained their efforts were designed to hold dialysis companies accountable for better patient care. Patients who supported the proposition have said they wanted another health professional onsite when getting dialysis.

Staffing requirements at dialysis clinics are not unheard of, as multiple states, including Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, have staff-to-patient ratio requirements.

Fresenius Medical Care and DaVita spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat the three propositions over the past four years. Other opponents included major health players like the California Medical Assn., the American Nurses Assn.'s California chapter and the American Academy of Nephrology Physician Assistants, which represents dialysis technicians.

Opponents of the proposition have said that, f the measure had been approved, dialysis clinics would have been potentially overwhelmed by the staffing costs and forced to close, leaving patients displaced. Patients who helped with the No on Prop 29. campaign said they were scared of their clinics closing.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
President Joe Biden recently appeared to break from Americas stance not to call for regime change in Iran when he said, "Were going to free Iran."

His remarks to an audience in Los Angeles last Thursday were soon qualified by John Kirby, the National Security Council strategic communications coordinator, who noted that Biden was "expressing, again, our solidarity" with Iranian protesters and not outlining a new approach.

Since protests began in Iran immediately following the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the countrys morality police on Sept. 13 for not wearing a hijab, more than 300 deaths have been reported.

A new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has called on Biden to go further in strengthening his support for the Iranian people.

DISTURBING VIDEO SHOWS IRAN'S POLICE BRUTALLY BEATING ANTI-REGIME PROTESTER

"President Bidens apparent endorsement of regime change in Iran is welcome. But he can go further to support the Iranian people," wrote Tzvi Kahn, a research fellow at FDD.

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 19, 2022.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Kahn believes that U.S. reticence to call for regime change lies in the Biden administrations hopes of reviving Obamas 2015 nuclear deal with the country.

"America and its allies have issued increasingly robust statements criticizing Irans human rights abuses while downplaying their previous emphasis on reviving the 2015 nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," he wrote. Re-entry into the deal would mean billions of dollars in sanctions relief for Iran.

STATE DEPARTMENT MADE 'CALCULATION' TO PRIORITIZE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

The White House has gradually shown support for protesters. Two weeks into the demonstrations it finally released a statement in early October: "For decades, Irans regime has denied fundamental freedoms to its people and suppressed the aspirations of successive generations through intimidation, coercion, and violence. The United States stands with Iranian women and all the citizens of Iran who are inspiring the world with their bravery."

The State Department was faster to condemn the regime in Iran as Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on Sept. 22 to announce sanctions on top Iranian officials and express support for the protesters.

Lisa Daftari, editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, is hopeful that Biden's most recent comments are indicative of a shift to come in Washington.

"Thanks to nearly two months of courageous tenacity on the part of Iranian protesters against the brutal regime in Iran, the Biden administration is beginning to show that it understands the gravity of this movement," Daftari told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Daftari, who has covered the protests since the outset, continued, "Whether emotionally, through the compelling and heart-wrenching videos and footage of the protests on the streets, or through significant political pressure put on the White House and lawmakers to step away from the JCPOA and to support the people of Iran instead of appeasing the mullahs, it seems there has been somewhat of a pivot in Washington, D.C."

On Oct. 26, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a new round of sanctions "on Iranian officials overseeing organizations involved in violent crackdowns and killings, including of children, as part of our commitment to hold all levels of the Iranian government accountable for its repression."

US ACADEMICS URGE BIDEN TO ACT IN RESPONSE TO IRANIAN PROTEST CRACKDOWN

"The White House should explicitly revoke its offer of sanctions relief to Iran," said Kahn. "Washington must not provide an economic lifeline to a regime that continues to massacre its own people."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks at the United Nations.

At an event hosted by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Oct. 13, the U.S. special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, insisted that the potential for re-entering the JCPOA was not influencing the U.S.s support for protesters.

"I think people have to understand that they were not tying our hands because of  this hope that someday maybe therell be a deal.  We are taking action. Were not waiting. Were taking the action that we think is consistent and necessary to promote our values and our national security interests."

Malley faced backlash for a tweet he sent in October that said the protesters were demonstrating "for their government to respect their dignity and human rights." Activists pointed out that the demonstrations were in fact about regime change and not a call to action for the current regime in Iran. Malley acknowledged that his tweet was misguided, telling the news outlet, Iran International, that his post had been "poorly worded."

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Kahn noted that the White House has not been clear enough on whether negotiations regarding the JCPOA would resume should protests fade.

"To eliminate such ambiguity, President Biden should reject further talks and adopt a policy of maximum pressure on Iran," he said.

Following Bidens remarks last week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reacted by saying, "A few hours ago, I was informed that the president of America absent-mindedly [said], We will soon free Iran. We were freed 43 years ago," Raisi said in a televised address on Friday. "America is aiming to destroy our national unity and coherence."
McALLEN, Texas  Republican Monica De La Cruz is the winner in Texas' 15th Congressional District race, NBC News projects, defeating Democrat Michelle Vallejo in an open South Texas district that had once been solidly blue.

Her win means Republicans flipped a traditionally Democratic seat in the predominantly Latino Rio Grande Valley. Cruz is the first Hispanic woman elected to represent the district.

"Praise God!" De La Cruz said amid cheers at the Radisson Hotel McAllen, where about 200 to 300 supporters had gathered, anxiously waiting for election results.

"My win is not just a win for Republicans. It is a win for all South Texas," De La Cruz said.

She said later in her speech, "Tonight is a victory for every woman that has to go to Mexico for a mammogram because after 119 years of one party's control we still have entire counties here without a doctor."

Jose Lucio, 24, who was in attendance, had worked as an intern for De La Cruz in her first campaign for the district in 2020, which she lost by a narrow margin. The district was later redrawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature to favor Republicans.

Lucio said he remembers driving around the district in 2020 and being shocked to see a De La Cruz campaign sign that said conservative Republican, which was not a common sight in the Rio Grande Valley at the time.

It goes to show change can happen, Lucio said.

De La Cruz outraised Vallejo, a progressive, by $4.2 million to $1.9 million, according to the campaign finance tracking site Open Secrets. Democrats chose not to spend on television ads late in the race.

De La Cruz, a businesswoman, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. She has said she wants to finish what Trump started on the border wall and has called for more funding for border and law enforcement.

De La Cruz said she was running against socialism, which she defined as government overreach, including government handouts that pay for things for people. Her remarks were the focus of attention, because she had received thousands of dollars in government-funded pandemic relief for her businesses.

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The King held an audience with the president of Nigeria at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday  just hours after a protester threw eggs at the monarch during his visit to York.

It was business as usual for Charles back at monarchy HQ as he welcomed Muhammadu Buhari to the official royal residence in London.

The King holds an audience with the President of Nigeria (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

During the audience in the 1844 Room, Charles shook hands with the smiling president and was pictured chuckling and gesturing as he held his arms out wide.

Earlier, as the King and Queen Consort arrived at Yorks medieval gateway Micklegate Bar, a protestor began booing them before throwing four eggs in their direction, all of which missed.

The protester was heard shouting this country was built on the blood of slaves.

Charles reacts after an egg was thrown in his direction as he arrived for a ceremony at Micklegate Bar in York (The Times/PA)

Charles continued shaking hands with dignitaries including the Lord Mayor as the eggs flew in his direction, pausing briefly to look at the shells cracked on the ground.

North Yorkshire Police confirmed that a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence.

The King went on to unveil a statue of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II  the first to be installed since her death.

The King during the audience with the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

In October, Charles sent a message of condolence to Mr Buhari expressing his heartfelt sympathy over the devastating floods in Nigeria which have killed more than 600 people this year.
The Government is set to extend a deadline for holding an election in Northern Ireland and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is due to make a statement to the House of Commons later on Wednesday outlining his next steps in response to the powersharing crisis in the region.

A failure to form a Stormont ministerial executive following Mays election has placed a legal responsibility on the Government to hold a poll by January 19.

Mr Heaton-Harris has already ruled out a December election and asking voters to head to the polls in January would present significant logistical challenges, as it would involve a campaign that runs through the festive period.

The PA news agency understands the Secretary of State will extend the current January 19 deadline by six weeks, with an option to extend it by a further six weeks.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris (PA)

It is understood he will move to reduce MLA pay by around a third.

Mr Heaton-Harris is also set to give extra powers to Stormont civil servants to enable them to run the regions rudderless public services.

He is also expected to confirm plans to pass a budget for Stormont.

The moves expected to be announced later on Wednesday will require legislation to be laid and passed at Westminster.

It is understood Mr Heaton-Harris briefed the Stormont parties on his intentions on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday Downing Street said the restoration of powersharing was an absolute priority after the issue was the first item on the agenda at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol, has prevented an executive being formed in Belfast.

The regions largest unionist party has made clear it will not countenance a return to powersharing until the protocols economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are scrapped.

On Wednesday, senior DUP member Edwin Poots insisted a cut to MLA pay would have absolutely no influence whatsoever on his partys stance.

DUP MLA Edwin Poots (PA)

Negotiations between London and Brussels aimed at securing changes to the protocol are continuing, with both sides talking up the prospect of a deal.

Extending the deadline would increase the likelihood of the talks producing something substantive ahead of any election date.

If a deal on the protocol was secured that convinced the DUP to return to a devolved executive the Government would likely come under further pressure to ditch plans for an election altogether.

The UK and Irish governments are both keen to avoid a scenario where Stormont remains in limbo next April when the 25th anniversary of the historic Good Friday peace agreement will be marked.

Existing legislation gave the Stormont parties almost six months to form an executive following the last election in May, which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party for the first time.

The deadline to establish a new executive lapsed on October 28, at which point the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold a fresh poll within 12 weeks.

Despite repeatedly vowing to set an election date the minute the deadline expired, Mr Heaton-Harris backtracked on his pledge, prompting Stormont parties to accuse him of a U-turn.

During Northern Ireland questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris denied Mr Sunak had intervened on the issue to overrule him.

I dont believe I was overruled by the Prime Minister, he told MPs.

Former DUP leader Mr Poots said his partys position would not change even if Mr Heaton-Harris cut the entire salaries of MLAs.

The issue for us is a principle, so cutting wages is neither here nor there in terms of the position that we adopt, it will have no influence whatsoever on our position, the South Belfast MLA told BBC Radio Ulster.

Should they entirely take the salaries away, thats entirely up to the Secretary of State, but what he really needs to focus on is finding a solution to the problem that has been created, a problem that ensures that our assembly would be taking laws, our people will be taking laws, passed in the European Parliament, which would then be applied in Northern Ireland where we have no scrutiny, where we have no role, we have no impact  thats legislation without representation.

Thats something that was opposed in America many, many years ago whenever the British ruled in America and its something that Id be very surprised that nationalist parties seem very up for  that laws can be made here in Northern Ireland, but they dont actually have any influence on those laws.

Secondly, the internal border has to go. These are issues that have to be resolved. Theyre big, big issues. They will only be resolved between the European Union and United Kingdom Government.

But we are not allowing things to carry on as normal as if this is OK. We gave them a period of grace at the outset to try to get the issues resolved, they werent resolved. Theres no grace left for the Government and European Union on this issue.
Rishi Sunak said he and Suella Braverman are working day and night to end the unacceptable rise in Channel crossings as he continued to face questions over her appointment.

The Prime Minister gave Conservative former minister Maggie Throup an absolute cast-iron commitment that we want to get to grips with this problem after she called for him to promise an immediate reduction in asylum seekers concentrated in one place.

In the Commons, Ms Throup said: Despite a productive meeting with the immigration minister yesterday, the Home Office continues to house over 400 asylum seekers in two neighbouring hotels in my constituency, and asked for Mr Sunak to intervene to permanently close accommodation centres there.

Her comments came as it emerged a sixth council was taking legal action to stop the Government using a hotel to house asylum seekers.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under pressure to tackle the migrant crisis (Aaron Chown/PA)

Mr Sunak replied: She has my reassurance that the Home Secretary and I are working day and night to resolve this problem, not just to end the use of expensive contingency accommodation but for more fundamental reform so that we can finally get to grips with this issue, protect our borders and end illegal migration.

Earlier on Wednesday, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan became the latest minister to defend Home Secretary Suella Braverman, telling BBC Breakfast: I think Suellas got a really difficult job.

I mean, anybody trying to handle the small boat crisis with the massive increase in numbers and this market  this organised crime, actually, that is building this market of people and selling dreams and delivering nightmares to people  anyone having to deal with that is going to face challenges.

She said Ms Braverman has now got the problems with overcrowding at the Manston migrant processing centre completely under control, adding: Thats what shes achieved.

The number of people at the Kent site was down to 1,147 as of 8am on Wednesday, Home Office minister Lord Murray of Blidworth told the Lords.

Last week, more than 4,000 people were being held at the site  at least double its 1,600 capacity.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (PA)

Almost 40,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year. But there are yet to be any crossings in November amid bad weather, leaving the provisional total for 2022 so far at 39,913.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the PA news agency Britain is looking to do a lot more with France in tackling Channel crossings as officials thrash out the final details of a new deal.

He said: I hope there is a deal but fundamentally thats for the Home Office and the Prime Minister. Its not something I see on a day-to-day basis across my desk and its early days.

Obviously we always want to work closely with France. France is probably our closest European defence ally; were looking to do more and more together.

I spoke this morning with my French counterpart and obviously theres a lot of work to do in Africa, where were trying to see off extremism and terrorism, or whether thats indeed on the continent of Europe and around the world.

We can do more together, Im sure, and part of that obviously is cross-government deals around boats in the Channel.

It comes as two men suspected of being part of a gang behind Channel crossings were arrested.

Immigration enforcement officers and the Metropolitan Police detained the pair, 29 and 42, in an early-hours raid on behalf of Belgian authorities, the Home Office said.

They were held on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration and are accused of being part of an organised crime gang operating between Belgium, France and the UK.

Police are now beginning extradition proceedings. The operation, overseen by Europol, also saw a suspect detained in France.

At the same time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said investigators are trying to help Belgian police track down the head of an organised crime gang that tried to smuggle more than 100 migrants into the UK in boats across the Channel and in lorries.

Iraqi national Barzan Kamal Majeed, nicknamed Scorpion after his WhatsApp avatar, was sentenced in his absence to 10 years in prison for people smuggling offences at a Bruges court last month.

The 36-year-old, formerly of Nottingham, was also fined 968,000 euros (853,804), the NCA said.

A warrant has been issued for his arrest and police on both sides of the Channel are appealing for information on his whereabouts.

Majeed moved to the UK in 2013 and lived in the Hucknall area of Nottingham, where he is understood to still have connections. He was deported from the UK in 2015 to the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Home Office said 230 foreign criminals and 117 immigration offenders were removed from the UK in October.

That included 22 people sent back to their home country from Manston.

Two of the immigration offenders who made the journey across the Channel were removed within 24 days, the department said.
By Hyunjoo Jin

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares slid to their lowest level in nearly two years on Wednesday after Chief Executive Elon Musk sold $3.95 billion worth of shares in the electric-vehicle maker.

The shares were down 6.1% at $179.66 in afternoon trading.

Musk's latest share sale fueled jitters about the fallout of his Twitter buy on the world's most valuable automaker, analysts said.

The billionaire's recent acquisition of Twitter sparked investor concerns including whether he would be distracted from running Tesla or divert resources to the social media company. Some investors also feared the possible impact on Tesla's sales and brand as well as potential pressure on Tesla from countries trying to control online speech.

The latest sale brings the total amount of Tesla stock sold by Musk since last November to about $36 billion - despite his having said earlier that he would sell no more of his shares.

"Turns out Elon was not done selling his $TSLA stock," Gene Munster of investment firm Loup Ventures said in a Tweet.

"Given his bullish comments recently about Tesla's potential valuation, the news wont sit well with some investors," he said.

Musk said on a conference call last month that he expects Tesla to be worth more than Apple Inc and Saudi Aramco combined, while downplaying investor concerns about softer demand after the electric vehicle maker's revenue missed Wall Street estimates.

Tesla shares have fallen more than 50% since touching a record high on Nov. 4 of last year. Four days after that, Musk started unloading his shares.

With the latest sale of his Tesla stock, Musk "yet again loses more credibility with investors and his loyalists in a boy who cried wolf moment," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said.

Musk, said Ives, needs to end "Twitter overhang on the Tesla story with his focus back on the golden child Tesla which needs his time more than ever given the soft macro, production/delivery issues in China, and EV competition increasing from all corners of the globe."

Musk unloaded 19.5 million shares between Friday and Tuesday, according to filings published by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late on Tuesday.

Analysts had expected Musk to sell more Tesla shares to finance the $44 billion Twitter deal, but it was not clear whether the sales were related to the Twitter acquisition.

Musk last month closed the deal with $13 billion in loans from banks and a $33.5 billion equity commitment, which included $7.1 billion from investors including Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. It is not clear whether all of the equity investors lived up to their equity commitment.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the purpose of the share sale.

Musk said that Twitter has suffered a "massive" revenue drop since he took over, underscoring the precarious nature of the social media company's finances after he saddled it with $13 billion in debt, credit experts say.

Twitter faces interest payments totaling close to $1.2 billion in the next 12 months on the debt that Musk piled on it.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
Russia has been an active adversary of the United Kingdom for a number of years, the Defence Secretary has said.

Ben Wallace visited the Lydd Army camp in Kent on Wednesday, where Ukrainian volunteers are being trained to fight in the war against Russia.

Addressing Ukrainian soldiers directly, Mr Wallace described Russia as losing slowly and reassured them Britain will continue to support them.

The Cabinet minister referred to the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2016 and said the UK does not fear reprisals from Russia for supporting Ukraine.

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: Russia has been an active adversary of Britain for many years  many will remember the Salisbury poisoning, where they deployed nerve agents.

Russia has been regularly behind cyber attacks in this country.

Of course Russia doesnt like the fact the United Kingdom is standing up against it  were standing up for the values of freedom, democracy and human rights, but that isnt going to put us off.

Were going to continue to support Ukraine, to defend its sovereign territory against an illegal invasion, and well just carry on doing it.

Britain stands for more than a small moment in time, Britain stands for those enduring human rights.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he may remove the Governments current Nato spending target of 3%.

The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing. The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine  09 November 2022 Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/iOaTjxwZj2  #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/a2htOFZoF5  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) November 9, 2022

Asked if he can continue as Defence Secretary if this happens, Mr Wallace said: My determination is to deliver a modernised Ministry of Defence and armed forces and continue to invest in them, and therefore I need that capability to do so.

Three or 2.5% targets at the end of the decade are not something thats right in front of me in the here and now. In the here and now I need continued investment to not only support Ukraine but also for that vital modernisation.

Well take each budget as it comes; therell be a budget some time in the spring and were negotiating for the short period of time between now and then to protect us from the impacts of inflation.

Mr Wallace said he is confident the US will continue to support efforts in Ukraine amid the countrys midterm election results.

Some Republicans, who are expected to perform well in the elections, intend to withdraw support from Ukraine.

Mr Wallace said: Its only a small wing of the Republicans; Ive spoken to a number of Republicans and they all see the importance of whats going on in Ukraine.

We dont see any real change in the United States support for Ukraine and support for the international efforts.


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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), leading a diverse coalition of Armenian, Greek, Jewish, Kurdish, and other allied Americans, tipped the scales this evening against the election of Dr. Mehmet Oz  an ally of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who denies the Armenian Genocide  to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, the ANCA reported.

With this historic win, the ANCA protected the U.S. Senate, the people of Pennsylvania, and our American democracy from an Armenian Genocide denier with deep ties to Turkeys hostile Erdogan regime, said ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian. This landmark victory was the result of more than a year of strategic planning and relentless community and coalition efforts  ranging from opposition research, voter-education, media outreach, get-out-the-vote, and other targeted electoral initiatives. We are gratified by Dr. Ozs defeat and look forward to working with ANCA-endorsed candidate, Lt. Governor John Fetterman, for many years to come.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) national office, along with its Eastern Region and Pennsylvania local affiliates, teamed up with the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) to run a grassroots campaign calling attention to Dr. Ozs genocide denial and close ties with Turkeys Erdogan regime.

In the weeks leading up to November 8th vote, the ANCAs anti-Oz coalition led a series of protests in Pennsylvania and California, sounding alarm bells about Dr. Ozs ties to the Turkish Government and his persistent refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Pennsylvania Senator-Elect John Fetterman is well known for his support for Armenian Genocide affirmation and education as well as a broad range of Armenian and Greek American concerns.
YEREVAN, 9 NOVEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 9 November, USD exchange rate down by 1.55 drams to 394.66 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.62 drams to 396.55 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 6.46 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.29 drams to 451.41 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 87.47 drams to 21299.74 drams. Silver price down by 0.01 drams to 263.29 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS.

The Council of Ministers Wednesday observed a minute of silence in memory of the border police officer killed on Monday while patrolling the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

Caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev condoled with the family, relatives, and colleagues of Junior Inspector Petar Bachvarov, 32.

Donev said that the State will do what is necessary to protect his memory and also the lives of the Bulgarian men and women guarding the border.

Donev warned that blaming the caretaker government for the death of a police officer in order to deflect the attention from the chief task of the political forces at the moment: the formation of a regular government and adoption of urgent bills, is a demonstration of lack of respect towards the Bulgarian citizens.

Bachvarov, was shot dead on the evening of November 7 while performing a routine patrol of the Bulgarian-Turkish border in the area of the village of Golyam Dervent. The Turkish authorities announced they have detained two suspects in the case: a suspected perpetrator and an accomplice.

Wednesday has been declared a day of mourning in the Municipality of Elhovo in memory of the victim.

Police officers in precincts across the country held minutes of silence and sounded the sirens of their cars in memory of Bachvarov.
Here are six of the most fascinating things about this country you didnt know before

Whether you are visiting the south coast of Iceland or the north or anywhere in between, there are some magnificent sights awaiting you. (Photo By Arrangement)

Iceland is known as the land of fire and ice, so it should come as no surprise that Iceland has quite a few unique natural wonders. Whether you are visiting the south coast of Iceland or the north or anywhere in between, there are some magnificent sights awaiting you. Here are six of the most fascinating things about this country you didnt know before.

1) The Language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken in Iceland, as well as by some Icelandic people in Greenland, Canada, and the USA. Icelandic has two official writing systems; Latin alphabet (since 15th century) or Icelandic alphabet (since 19th century). The country has a relatively small population which makes it hard to find native speakers. Most Icelanders speak English very well so you will have no problems communicating with them if you are not fluent in Icelandic.

2) The People

Iceland is home to some of the friendliest people in the world. The Icelandic are a Scandinavian people, so they are very similar to Norwegians or Swedes. They speak their own language, Icelandic, which is related to Norwegian. Most Icelanders live in Reykjavik and other large cities in the south like Isafjorur, Akureyri, and Hofn. Aside from Reykjavik, there is also a small population in one part of West-Iceland called Islandsbr that speaks Icelandic as well.

3) How the Glaciers Formed

The glaciers in Iceland are formed by snow that has accumulated over centuries. The glaciers can be seen at many places across the country, but they are most well-known on the South Coast. This area is home to some of Iceland's most popular natural attractions, such as Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, Skaftafellsjokull Glacier, and VatnajokullGlacier ,. The glaciers began forming when snow was deposited on a glacier or ice sheet from water vapour from clouds. As more snow continued to accumulate, the pressure increased. Over time, this process creates what is called a glacial mass. Once you have enough ice and snow accumulation, gravity pulls it down towards the bottom of mountain slopes (known as valley glaciers). When this happens, these valley glaciers move very slowly down slopes due to gravity which causes them to form into large masses called tidewater glaciers. These can sometimes reach lengths of 20 miles long and the glaciers in Iceland are great for glacier hiking tours.

4) The Culture

Iceland was settled by Vikings around 800 AD, but it wasn't until 1262 that the first permanent settler, IngolfurArnarson, arrived on Icelandic shores. The country has a population of 332,000 people who speak Icelandic as their first language (an ancient Nordic language) and live according to Viking traditions. Iceland is considered one of the most egalitarian societies in the world. Women have been fighting for gender equality since 1874 when they protested against a law that gave men better inheritance rights than women. This resulted in an 1875 constitution amendment that gave both genders equal inheritance rights; it also granted voting rights to all citizens over age 20, regardless of sex or wealth.

5) Things to Do While in Iceland

Explore Reykjavik's many museums, including the National Museum of Iceland and Reykjavik Museum of Photography. Take a stroll around Tjornin Pond or visit Akureyrarkirkja Church to see where Eric the Red is buried. Hike up Mount Esja for a beautiful view over Reykjavik on a clear day Visit Harpa Concert Hall for an evening performance. Walk through Laugardalur Park to see what locals do on weekends. Take in some Icelandic art at Kjarvalsstair.

6) Facts About The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa found on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland. It is just 15 minutes from Keflavik International Airport, making it an ideal place to stop off after a long flight or before returning home. The Blue Lagoon consists of three pools, two silica mud baths and one steam bath. You can also enjoy a drink from the swim-up bar or take advantage of our massage services. There are dressing rooms available for use with lockers where you can leave your clothes if you wish.

No Asian Age journalist was involved in creating this content. The group also takes no responsibility for this content.
The babus are upset with the Centre for discontinuing the additional monetary allowance introduced in 2009 for AIS officers

Last month, this column reported that the withdrawal of multiple incentives and allowances given to IAS and IPS officers posted in the Northeast region of India had left these babus resentful. Since then, the Centre has promised to review its order and there are signs of minor tweaks, but the officers are reportedly still unhappy.

The Centre has decided to withdraw the benefits of retention of government accommodation at the last station of posting for Group A officers, including All India Service (AIS) officers. No fresh retention will be granted to these officers in the NE states, including Sikkim. However, the government has allowed such retention to officers serving in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. Apparently, sources say, this new policy is merely a trigger for other long-pending grievances of babus serving in the northeast states. The resentment clearly reached a point where it had to spill out.

Besides residential accommodation, the babus are upset with the Centre for discontinuing the additional monetary allowance introduced in 2009 for AIS officers comprising the IAS, IPS and IFoS of the Assam-Meghalaya joint cadre, Sikkim, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur cadres. Also, the incentive of reimbursement of payable income tax to tribal AIS officers of the northeast cadres while on central deputation has been withdrawn. So, despite the Centre showing signs of reviewing its decision, the babus remain unhappy, terming the DoPT order as insensitive and abrupt. Time for negotiations, perhaps.

EC orders Gujarat IPS transfers

With the Gujarat Assembly elections announced for next month, the Election Commission has ordered the Bhupendrabhai Patel government to transfer six police officers, five of whom are serving in Ahmedabad. The officers to be transferred are Mukesh Patel, SP, Ahmedabad City (Zone-4), Bhakti Thakar DCP Traffic (Admin), Ashwin Chauhan, additional CP (traffic), Dr Harshad Patel, DCP (Control Room), and Premvir Singh, additional CP (Crime Branch).

Curiously, in the transfer of Ashwin Chauhan, the state home department has reportedly made a mistake. He was earlier serving as DIG, Western Railway, in CID Crime at Police Bhavan Gandhinagar. His government had transferred him as additional CP (traffic) of Ahmedabad city on Diwali day. But since he served as DCP traffic in Ahmedabad in the last Assembly election, he cannot be kept on the post of SEIM in this election, so he will be transferred again.

Earlier, the Gujarat government had ordered the transfer of 12 IPS officers in the state, barely hours before the announcement of Assembly elections and imposition of the code of conduct.

Babu churn continues in J&K

Administration in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has been in ferment after the J&K cadre was abolished and the two UTs were made part of the AGMUT cadre.

While last month, an IAS officer proceeded on Central deputation to the prestigious economic affairs department, sources have informed DKB that another senior IAS officer of the J&K cadre in the rank of principal secretary is also preparing to leave for Delhi on deputation. Apparently, all formalities have been completed and the officer is awaiting the final nod from the department of personnel and training (DoPT). Another IAS officer too has applied for Central deputation.

Both UTs are short of IAS and IPS officers due to various reasons but this has been gradually overcome by posting AGMUT cadre and other IAS and IPS officers. The home ministry has been posting several AGMUT cadre IAS, IPS and other All India Services officers in the two union territories. Besides, some officers from the Centre and other states have also been posted in the two Union territories on inter-cadre deputation.

In recent months, several AGMUT cadre officers have been deputed to J&K and Ladakh. Further, the officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) and Jammu and Kashmir Police Services (JKPS) have also been posted on deputation to the Union Territory of Ladakh given the shortage of officers there.

However, we are assured that the home ministry and DoPT hold regular reviews of the babu situation in J&K and steps are being taken to ensure a sufficient number of babus in J&K are in place. The DoPT had earlier allocated 65 senior duty posts of AGMUT to Jammu and Kashmir in Indian Administrative Services, 70 in Indian Police Services and 58 in Indian Forest Services.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar once again conveyed Indias message to Russia that 'this is not an era of war'

NEW DELHI: In open and productive talks with Russian foreihn minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday in Moscow, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar once again conveyed Indias message to Russia that this is not an era of war and that New Delhi advocates a return to dialogue and diplomacy on the Ukraine conflict as well as respect for international law and support for the UN Charter, in what clearly articulated New Delhis anguish over the prolonged conflict.

The minister also said the global economy was too inter-dependent and that any conflict would have adverse implications for the world, including in food security. The two foreign ministers also discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation and the special strategic partnership between the two in defence, trade, investment, energy, space and civil nuclear energy. Mr Jaishankar also referred to the substantial and time-tested bilateral ties with Russia and the initiative to make this more durable, sustained and balanced.

Emphasising the need -- at a joint press conference with Mr Lavrov -- for the time-tested bilateral defence relationship to continue smoothly, Mr Jaishankar also conveyed Indias growing concerns over the trade imbalance with Russia amid flourishing and thriving bilateral trade ties. Mr Lavrov said bilateral trade between the two nations was already about $17 billion and the two nations will increase that to about $30 billion. Mr Lavrov also spoke of economic cooperation with India in the Russian Far East region and the North-South transport corridor. The Russian foreign minister said Russian technologies in the civil nuclear sector will continue to give India access to clean and safe energy, adding that both nations also discussed the joint production of modern weaponry.

Other issues discussed at the talks included Indias concerns over cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, the Indo-Pacific region, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the need for the Taliban to fulfil its commitments and the necessity of not allowing Afghan soil to be used for terrorism against India.

Mr Jaishankar echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modis words to Russian President Vladimir Putin uttered at the Uzbek city of Samarkand in mid-September this year that this is not an era of war. He added India would support any initiative to stabilise the global order.

In his opening remarks ahead of the talks, Mr Jaishankar said: Our meeting today is, of course, devoted to assessing the state of our bilateral cooperation; exchanging perspectives on the international situation and what that means to our respective interests. Where bilateral ties are concerned, you would agree that it is our objective today to fashion a contemporary, balanced, mutually beneficial, sustainable and long-term engagement. Especially as our economic cooperation increases, this is a significant imperative. We would be discussing how our shared goals are best achieved.

He added: Where international situation is concerned, the last few years of the Covid-19 pandemic, financial pressures and trade difficulties; these have taken a toll on the global economy. We are now seeing the consequences of the Ukraine conflict on top of that. There are also the more perennial issues of terrorism and climate change, both of which have a disruptive impact on progress and prosperity. Our talks will address the overall global situation as well as specific regional concerns. India and Russia engage each other in an increasingly multi-polar and re-balanced world. We do so as two polities who have had an exceptionally steady and time-tested relationship.

Mr Jaishankar also met Russias deputy PM and minister of trade and industry Denis Manturov, his counterpart for the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation, that was also held on Tuesday in Moscow.

In his address there, he said: Our two countries have a long tradition of close cooperation and friendship which is reflected in our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership The cooperation between our two countries continues to make steady progress. I believe, we are on track to achieve a target of $30 billion in terms of the annual trade turnover. He added: I am confident we will be successful in realising the optimum potential of our trade and economic relations. And that we will also be able to address the trade deficit and market access issues that are between us.
The Nepal Army has been mobilised in the affected areas to carry out the search and rescue operations, the officials said

A graphic depicts the earthquake of Magnitude:6.3, that occurred on early Wednesday, Nov. 9 at Lat: 29.24 & Long: 81.06, Depth: 10 Km ,Location: Nepal. (PTI Photo)

Kathmandu: A powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake in the remote mountains of west Nepal rocked the Himalayan nation in the early hours of Wednesday, killing at least six persons, including two minors, damaging buildings and sparking panic among the residents.

According to the National Seismological Centre, the earthquake occurred at 2:12 am with its epicentre at Khaptad National Park in the Doti district.

Six persons have been killed in the earthquake, Home Ministry spokesperson Phanindra Pokharel said.

Five persons who sustained serious injuries have been rushed to the district hospital in Doti, Pokharel told PTI over the phone. A police post and eight houses collapsed due to the earthquake.

According to Nepal Army spokesperson Narayan Silwal three persons were missing and are believed to have been trapped in the housing collapse in Purvichauki. The Nepal Army has started searching for the missing persons, he said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhola Bhatta, the acting chief at the District Police Office in Doti, said that all the victims were killed by the debris of the houses damaged during the earthquake.

The earthquake sent people in the mountain villages panicking out of their houses and many spent the entire night out in the open, officials said.

The identities of the deceased have been established of which two are women, two men, and two minors, Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhola Kumar Bhatta was quoted as saying by the Himalayan Times newspaper.

Close to ten houses collapsed in the quake and cracks had developed in most of the houses in the aftermath of the geological event, police added.

Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel have been mobilised to carry out rescue operations.

Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was also in Western Nepal for an election campaign when the earthquakes hit the region. He was attending election rallies and meeting people at Dhangadhi district, 160 km South of the epicentre.

The tremor was also felt in Dhangadhi though the Prime Minister is safe, according to Pokharel.

Adjustments will be made regarding the election campaign of the Prime Minister in Western Nepal keeping in mind the incident, he added.

The tremors were also felt in neighbouring Dhangadhi and Kailali districts. The earthquake that was felt mildly in Kathmandu and parts of India has also caused damage to dozens of other houses in the district.

Earlier, a 5.7-magnitude tremor was recorded at 9.07 pm and another 4.1-magnitude tremor at 9.56 pm on Tuesday at the same epicentre, according to the Seismological Centre.

Earthquakes are frequent in mountainous Nepal.

On October 19, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake jolted Nepal's capital Kathmandu and adjoining areas, forcing many people to rush out of their homes for safety.

The earthquake was felt in the Kathmandu Valley and neighbouring districts. There was no report of any damage or casualties.

In April 2015, a devastating earthquake of 7.8-magnitude rocked Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and wounding nearly 22,000 others. It also damaged over 800,000 houses and school buildings.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Protests over the cession of the Kempir-Abad reservoir to the Uzbeks. The Kyrgyz president wants to close a front to focus on the border dispute with Tajikistan. Activists accuse him of using the nationalist card to silence opponents. Also in the crosshairs of critics for cases of corruption.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The issue of the cession to Uzbekistan of the strategic Kempir-Abad reservoir near Os, which has aroused many protests in Kyrgyzstan over the past month, has generated a very heavy climate that seemed to have been overcome in a country that has always been plagued by various social turbulences.

President Sadyr Zaparov wants to put a brake on nationalist urges, which are in fact the very ones that had hoisted him to power in January 2021, using even more radical methods than his predecessors.

The persecution of activists who oppose the border cessions is turning day by day into a campaign to oppress political opponents and the free press, with the risk of throwing Kyrgyz society into chaos once again. In recent weeks, the authorities have arrested 26 people, who will remain in prison for at least two months, and targeted several media outlets.

These measures provoked a large protest demonstration on 24 October in Biskek and Os to demand the release of political prisoners and freedom of speech for journalists, and to shed light on the Kempir-Abad agreement.

As Temur Umarov, a collaborator of the Carnegie Fund, confirms to Azattyk, 'it is clear that Kyrgyzstan is becoming an increasingly authoritarian country, and all of Zaparov's decisions in both domestic and foreign policy seem to be aimed only at strengthening his power as much as possible'.

Even the border agreement with Uzbekistan, announced in early October, is an incendiary card in the hands of the president, who had himself spent three years in prison before becoming the idol of the crowds.

Zaparov's supporters took him to the summits by insisting on two fundamental demands: the right to land ownership and opposing foreign claims on Kyrgyzstan's resources. On the other hand, the agreement signed on 3 November with the Uzbeks was intended to ensure the normalisation of relations with Tashkent, against the backdrop of the border conflict with Tajikistan, and it is now a question of reconciling this demand with popular protests.

The government insists on defending the agreement, claiming that it is actually very advantageous for Kyrgyzstan, which in exchange for the basin gets 15 thousand square kilometres of territory hitherto controlled by the Uzbeks. The waters of Kempir-Abad will be managed jointly, and both countries will have access to them for agricultural and social uses.

The press continues to demand the publication of all documents, and is lashing out at the president's main aide, the head of the National Security Committee (Gknb) Kamcybek Tasiev, who is guilty of obscurely managing the entire operation.

The social conflict is worsening as the economic crisis deepens, especially in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the growing tensions with Moscow, also due to the conflict with Tajikistan in September, which claimed a hundred lives.

Zaparov has relaunched his role as defender of Kyrgyz sovereignty, achieving a consensus of just under 80%, believing with this that he can act in an increasingly unscrupulous and authoritarian manner.

Now, however, the president's difficulty in facing all challenges together is increasingly evident, as many commentators observe, also recalling the scandals related to the destination of profits from the Kumtor gold mine. A court recently exonerated journalist Bolot Temirov, who was arrested in January after accusing Tashiev of distributing state contract money to his family and accusing the Gknb of spreading false dossiers. Now the General Prosecutor's Office has appealed the case against the court, and the matter risks becoming a further trap for Zaparov himself.
Today's headlines: another North Korean missile test; Burmese army continues bombing the Sagaing region; Card. Sako calls for reconciliation between Shia and Sunni Muslims; Police reveal name of attacker on former PM Khan; Patriarch Kirill consecrates a new 'military church' near Moscow.

CHINA-INDIA

At the Sharm El-Sheik Climate Conference, the Association of Small Island States demands that China and India also pay economic compensation for the effects of climate change, not just the advanced economies. Beijing and Delhi are respectively the world's first and third largest producers of greenhouse gas pollutants.

NORTH KOREA

Pyongyang fired what the South Korean and Japanese authorities say looks like a ballistic missile: yet another missile test conducted by Kim Jong-un's regime this year. The missile was fired from the North Korean east coast and sank in the Sea of Japan, far from Tokyo's exclusive economic zone.

MYANMAR

Attacks by junta against opponents continue in the Sagaing region, one of the hardest hit since the outbreak of civil war following the military coup in February 2021. Artillery strikes in the village of Shein Ma Kar killed a woman and wounded two of her family members.

IRAQ

The Patriarch of the Chaldeans, Card. Louis Raphael Sako, is calling for dialogue between Sunni and Shia Muslims to solve the various crises shaking the Middle East. According to the cardinal, reconciliation efforts are especially needed to pacify countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

PAKISTAN

The police released the name of the bomber who shot former Prime Minister Imran Khan last week, wounding him in the leg. The security forces had arrested Mohammad Naveed at the scene immediately after the armed attack. The former prime minister accused the government of trying to assassinate him.

RUSSIA

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow consecrated another "military church", dedicated to Saint Vladimir of Kiev and intended as a chaplaincy for the Rosgvardija, in Balashika on the outskirts of Moscow. It is where the Dzerzhinsky division is located, named after the founder of the Cheka-Kgb, of which the National Guard is an emanation. Statues of angels and armed saints around the temple form the 'permanent lookout' against satanic attacks.

TAJIKISTAN

Since the beginning of the military mobilisation in Russia, there have been increasing reports of the unjustified disappearance of Tajik seasonal workers, especially young people in their 20s and 30s. Relatives do not rule out the possibility of these being forcibly conscripted to fight in the Ukraine, and they try in vain to get an answer via the Tajik embassy in Moscow.
by Melani Manel Perera

The president of one of the countries most seriously affected by recent price rises calls on the United Nations to develop a global emergency plan by February 2023. The combination of higher food costs and increased interest on debt will result in US billion in higher spending for the 48 countries most affected by hunger.

Colombo (Asia News)  Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe called on United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to convene a summit of agriculture ministers from all member states to assess and present a report on food needs for 2023 and 2024.

The Sri Lankan leader made the request at 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP27,[*] currently underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It is significant because it comes from a country literally brought to its knees by the economic and political crisis of recent months.

President Wickremesinghe stressed the need to work closely with multilateral institutions to provide financing and come up immediately with a debt- reduction plan to ensure global food security.

Such a plan should be worked out by February and implemented by the end of the first quarter of 2023, giving a mandate to COP28  scheduled for next year in Dubai (UAE)  to draw up a medium-term plan to ensure global food security.

[N]early one billion people [. . .] are suffering from hunger today, said the Sri Lankan president. [A]ccording to the IMF, over 300 million peoples livelihoods are in danger.

Countries affected fall into two categories, he explained, 1. Countries where food is no longer available [. . .]. 2. Countries that traditionally had an adequate food supply but now find these sources of food out of reach due to rising costs.

In both situations, rising debt costs in poorer countries have made it more difficult to guarantee affordable food to the population.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the combination of rising food and fertiliser prices and debt servicing costs will add US$ 9 billion to food import expenditures of the 48 countries most affected by hunger.

Hence, We must act fast, Wickremesinghe said; otherwise, the damage caused to the political and social structures of countries will be irreparable.

[*] Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
More than 30 lawyers have been detained; three of them have defended converts from Islam. Two journalists who first reported on Mahsa Amini's death face five years in prison. So far, the crackdown by Irans clerical regime has left 321 people dead, including 50 children, with almost 15,000 people taken into custody.

Tehran (AsiaNews)  Lawyers are the latest group facing the wrath of Irans clerical regime after students, activists, and journalists. The crackdown was sparked by a massive wave of protests triggered by the killing of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, by the morality police.

In recent weeks, more than 30 lawyers, including at least three who have defended Christians arrested for converting from Islam, have ended up in prison.

Since the start of the protest almost two months ago, thousands of people have been arrested.

More than 200 lawmakers are demanding harsh penalties for protesters, including the death penalty.

Hossein Ahmadiniaz, an Iranian activist now living in the Netherlands, told Article18 that many of the arrested lawyers are well-known figures.

Some of whom had offered free legal advice to protesters, and demanded the establishment of a legal commission to protect the rights of detainees, including the right of access to a lawyer.

For 43 years, he explains, the Islamic Republic has continuously expressed its hostility to the bar association and illegally detained, tortured and imprisoned, or forced (people) to flee from Iran.

Three jailed lawyers  Bahar Sahraian, Mustafa Nili, and Babak Paknia (pictured)  defended Christians tried for "illegal conversion.

The first one represented a couple, Sam Khosravi and Maryam Fallahi, whose adopted daughter Lydia was removed from their care by order of the court since they had converted to Christianity, and could not raise the child who was considered Muslim from birth.

Another couple, Sara Ahmadi and Homayoun Zhaveh, were given a combined sentence of 10 years. They are currently in Evin prison, where the 64-year-old husband, Homayoun, is in precarious health suffering from advanced-stage Parkinson.

Last week, the second lawyer, Mustafa Nili, defended three converts  Ahmad Sarparast, Morteza Mashoodkari, and Ayoob Poor-Rezazadeh  already serving a five-year jail sentence.

Babak Paknia, Mustafa's colleague, has also defended Christians on several occasions; he has also supported the campaign in favour of his colleague Iman Soleimani, in the crosshairs of the authorities for his pro-rights activism.

According to the latest information, six of the arrested lawyers, including Paknia, were released on bail. However, the vast majority remain in pre-trial detention.

This and other serious violations have prompted Iranian 40 lawyers, plus some living abroad, to sign an open letter that is highly critical of Irans judiciary.

Instead, of defend[ing] the rights of citizens, the legal system has become a despotic and corrupt force that uses false security charges to commit abuses and violations.

Meanwhile, prosecutors have charged journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi with collusion to act against national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. The two were among the first to report on Mahsa Amini's death and the first protests during her funeral.

Their fate should be decided in the coming days. It is not yet clear if the trial will be held behind closed doors; nevertheless, a conviction seems likely. Both could get up to five years in prison.

Despite the brutal crackdown by Irans clerics, the largest popular protests since the Islamic revolution of 1979 do not seem to be waning. Some 321 people have been reportedly killed so far, including 50 children, this according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Since the unrest began, nearly 15,000 people have been arrested.

According to the latest news, at some university, student groups have called for a day of remembrance for the victims of repression.
At the general audience Francis reviews his recent trip, answering the question: why visit a country with a very large Islamic majority? "Dialogue is the oxygen of peace. The Christians of the Gulf invite us to broaden our horizons and dedicate ourselves to getting to know others". Commemoration of the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos, "a far-sighted pastor".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Dialogue, encounter and journey. These are the three key words of the apostolic journey to Bahrain that ended on Sunday, which - as is customary - Pope Francis wished to retrace ideally this morning addressing the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Wednesday general audience.

"One spontaneously wonders," he commented, "why did the Pope want to visit this small country with a very large Islamic majority? There are so many Christian countries: why doesn't he go to one or the other first. I would like to answer through three words: dialogue, encounter and journey'.

First of all dialogue, which is "the oxygen of peace, even in the family", the pope explained. Responding to the Bahraini king's invitation to a Forum on dialogue between East and West, Francis recalled the words of the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes on the need to "expand one's mind and heart beyond the borders of one's own nation, laying aside all national selfishness and all ambitions of supremacy" in order to contribute to peace.

"In Bahrain," he commented, "I felt this need and hoped that, throughout the world, religious and civil leaders would be able to look beyond their own borders, their own communities, to take care of the whole. This is the only way to address certain universal issues, such as the forgetfulness of God, the tragedy of hunger, the care of creation, peace. I am thinking of the insane war of which the tormented Ukraine is a victim,' he added, 'and of so many other conflicts, which will never be resolved through the childish logic of weapons, but only through the mild force of dialogue.

But there can be no dialogue without encounter. "Several times I have heard the desire that between Christians and Muslims encounters should increase, that stronger relations should be forged, that we should take each other more to heart. In Bahrain, people bring their hand to their heart when they greet someone. I did it too, to make space within myself for those I met. Because, without welcome, dialogue remains empty, apparent, it remains a matter of ideas and not of reality'.

However, the trip to Bahrain should not be seen as an isolated episode: it is part of a journey "inaugurated by Saint John Paul II when he went to Morocco", the Pontiff recalled. It was "a new step in the journey between Christian and Muslim believers: not to confuse or water down the faith, but to build fraternal alliances in the name of father Abraham, who was a pilgrim on earth under the merciful gaze of the one God of Heaven, God of peace".

"Dialogue, encounter and journey in Bahrain also took place among Christians," Francis added. "The brothers and sisters in the faith, whom I met in Bahrain, truly live 'on the way': they are mostly migrant workers who, far from home, find their roots in the People of God and their family in the great family of the Church. And they go forward with joy, in the certainty that God's hope does not disappoint".

"Thinking of their journey, of their daily experience of dialogue," he concluded, "let us all feel called to broaden our horizons, to open up and broaden our interests, to dedicate ourselves to getting to know others. Because the path of fraternity and peace, to proceed, needs everyone and each one'.

At the end of his greetings to the groups of pilgrims present in St Peter's Square, Pope Francis then recalled the figure of Sister Maria Carola Cecchin, a nun of the Cottolengo Sisters, who died in 1925, at the age of 48, after witnessing the Gospel of charity to African populations and was beatified in Kenya last Saturday. "May her example of a good and wise woman sustain all those who work to spread the Kingdom of God," Francis commented.

Finally, the Pontiff also addressed a thought to the late Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II, who died on Monday. Recalling fraternal encounters during his trip to the island last year, the pope described him as a "far-sighted pastor, a man of dialogue and a lover of peace who sought to promote reconciliation between the country's different communities".
by Stefano Vecchia

In September, unemployment dropped to 5 per cent. However, this is due to high levels of underemployment as well as the end of summertime employment for students. The Department for Migrant Workers has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to protect Philippine workers in that country.

Manila (AsiaNews)  According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 5 per cent of the active population was out of work in September, down from 5.3 per cent in August.

The drop is partly due to 48,000 students who left their summer jobs to go back to school.

At the same time, the level of underemployment remains high and rising  15.4 per cent of the active population, or 7.33 million workers, up by 1.3 per cent over August.

Despite underemployment, the data show a positive trend.

Local authorities have appealed to Filipinos not to go abroad, which has socially negative effects at home.

Yet, for Filipinos, emigration is necessary to escape poverty and underemployment, and migrant remittances last year added US$ 31 billion to the GDP.

This is especially important in the post-pandemic period because, despite the positive employment data, the country continues to be in economic dire straits.

On Monday, the newly formed Department of Migrant Workers announced that the government would allow Philippine citizens to work in Saudi Arabia, a year after it banned Filipinos, mostly women, from working in that country in protest against discrimination and harassment by Saudi employers.

Secretary of the Department of Migrant Workers Susan Ople pointed out that the agreements worked out by the two countries now include a standard employment contract, with insurance to cover unpaid wages, and the possibility for workers to change employer in case of abuse.

Meanwhile, thousands of legal cases involving unpaid wages are pending. To this must be added scores of cases related to human trafficking or inhuman and degrading treatment.

An estimated 190,000 Filipinos were employed in Saudi Arabia before the pandemic, a figure that made the Saudi kingdom one of the main destinations for the Philippine diaspora, or about 10 per cent of the countrys population.

For the Philippines, it is one of the main issues as its citizens face potential abuses and the obstacles to practising their faith.
The Swedish research body records a radical reversal in the balance of global powers, especially the US and Russia. Conventional, small arms and light weapons are growing. In addition to Israel, Turkey, Iran and to a lesser extent Jordan and Egypt are gaining ground.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - In terms of arms, the Middle East region (and North Africa, Mena) is experiencing a turnaround that, according to some, can be equated to a "radical change". From being an importing area, it is increasingly asserting itself as a producer, and the data contained in the latest Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) report published at the beginning of November is further confirmation. Dependence on global powers is increasingly a relic of the past, while local industry is flourishing, also favoured by a reshuffling of regional (and global) alliances.

The Sipri study, linked to the Arms Transfers Database, shows how the Mena nations are developing - or seeking to develop - a "limited production of conventional and Salw (small arms and light weapons)". Among the examples, the report mentions armoured vehicles in Algeria and Egypt and anti-tank rockets in Jordan. The development marks a radical change for a region that has historically relied on external powers such as Russia and the United States (and in recent years China) for military acquisitions and supplies.

While Israel has maintained its place as the main arms exporter in the Middle East, countries such as Turkey and Iran have positioned themselves among the key producers. Ankara was already the 12th largest arms supplier globally before the war in Ukraine, but in recent months has made further progress by supplying Bayraktar TB-2 drones to Kiev. On the other side of the conflict, Tehran has guaranteed Moscow (cheap and available) drones such as the Shahed-136.

The ongoing changes in the arms market come at a time when the traditional superpowers themselves are repositioning themselves and assessing their ability - and willingness - to sell arms abroad. According to the Middle East Eye (Mee), the Russian defence industry is severely affected by Western sanctions and tight export controls, leaving traditional customers in the lurch. In the US, both Democrats and Republicans, albeit for different reasons ranging from the economic/energy element to the issue of human rights, have called for a (partial) halt to sales to historical partners such as Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia (Mbs) or President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's Egypt.

The Middle Eastern nations are therefore working to support domestic production and strengthen the arms industry in their respective countries. Last March, the CEO of Saudi Military Industries (Sami) announced that the Wahhabi kingdom plans to produce a domestically manufactured drone and open one of the largest munitions factories in the world, knocking on the doors of China for technological assistance.

Even Jordan, a relatively small military player compared to its neighbours, is emerging as an arms exporter. According to Sipri, the country of 10 million was the world's 25th largest arms supplier between 2017-2021, although this is mainly due to the export of second-hand equipment such as combat helicopters and armoured personnel carriers. The UAE and Turkey have been on opposite sides of the conflict in Libya and on broader issues such as support for the Muslim Brotherhood. However, they have long since reconnected, so much so that last September, Abu Dhabi purchased 20 Bayraktar TB2 drones from Ankara.
Its five answers to five questions. Here we go

1. My coworker doesnt understand anything I say

I have been on my team a few months. My only colleague, Ernest, has been in the role 15 years so he is clearly able to do his job well enough. However, I often feel like we are having two different conversations because it doesnt seem like hes understood anything Im saying. Its not a language barrier, its more like I have no idea what wavelength hes on but its not mine. If he and I have a meeting, it will go like this. Our manager is Dorothy. Her manager is Betsy. Me: Should we get on to writing that report about the new knitting process?

Ernest: I dont see why Betsy wanted that. Our knitting process is better than its ever been.

Me:  yes  Im glad you think sobut Dorothy wanted us to write a quick report just to check how it went and if there is anything about it we want to change, so we can feed that back to Betsy.

Ernest: Ive looked at the crochet program and weve had some great feedback on that.

Me: Thats great  were not talking about the crochet program though. Were talking about the knitting program. How did you want to divide work on that report?

Ernest: Ive told Betsy our knitting program is better than its ever been.

Me: Good. Thats great. But we still need to objectively LOOK at it and do the report. I thought we could start by reviewing the knitting production figures.

(After a few minutes of talking about these figures, I ask him what he thinks.)

Ernest: Weve had some great feedback on the crochet program.

Me: No, were talking about the knitting figures. I havent mentioned the crochet figures at all. I mean the knitting figures, on screen right now.

Ernest: Ive told Betsy that the knitting program is the best its ever been. After 35 minutes of circling, it becomes apparent that Ernest isnt going to do the report with me. Weve been over it 20 times and Im still not even sure he understood the question, so I just ask him to give me a few days to do it myself. This is not just a me issue. Ive been in meetings where Ive seen Dorothy and Betsy ask him a question, get an answer on a completely different topic than the one weve all been discussing for 15 minutes, and look bewildered. Its resulted in me taking more of the lead when I have to work with him because I cant trust that hes even thinking about the same topic as me. Its almost like hes reached capacity  he knows the areas he works on and if you approach anything new, his brain just short-circuits. How do I approach this without looking like Im treating him like an idiot and taking over all the tasks?

Oh my goodness, talk to your boss. Tell her youre having a lot of trouble communicating with Ernest and ask for her advice. Shell probably know what youre talking about since he does it to her too, but if she doesnt, you could ask if shed be willing to sit in on a few of your meetings with Ernest to get a better understanding of the challenges youre running into in. You can frame it as, When we sit down to divide work on a project like X or Y, I have trouble getting him to respond to what Im saying or move forward on the work. Would you be able to join us for a couple of these meetings in the next few weeks? Im hoping if you observe, you might be able to point out if theres something different I could be trying.

Also  dont assume that just because Ernest has been there 15 years, he must be doing his job well. Given what youve seen, its quite possible he hasnt been managed effectively in that time (which means that appealing to your boss for help may or may not move things forward  but if nothing else, its likely to get you more information about what youre really dealing with).

2. How to politely say, Ill respond when I can

Ive joined an organization as an editor, and I have a full inbox at all times. I am a one-man team, and often I have to put responding to non-urgent emails at the bottom of my to-do list, which leads to some long response times. Im in a field where its not unusual to take a week or so to receive a response to a submission or for edits on a piece. However, newer submitters sometimes arent aware of this, and theyll follow up a day or two after their email, sometimes multiple times before I can get to their email. Generally, this is a mild annoyance that doesnt affect my workflow. Still, I am tired of apologizing for a delay or thank you for your patience for something that isnt an actual delay, just an extended timeline that is normal in our field. How can I say politely, FYI  its normal for it to take up to 10 days for a response, so no need to follow up until then. Chill. I deal with a lot of emerging writers, and I want to treat them with care while also setting up my own professional boundaries and teaching them norms.

Can you set expectations earlier in the process? For example, when youre first assigning a piece, you could say, Once you submit it, expect to hear back within 10 days? Or, when you receive the piece, you could send a quick acknowledgement that says, Received! Ill have feedback to you within the next two weeks. You could even set that up as a form reply in your email or auto-text so you can send it with just a few clicks rather than having to type it out every time.

Another option is an auto-reply that lists your expected turnaround times for various types of inquiries (if youre a writer submitting a piece, Ill respond with 10 days) but you can probably avoid that by setting up some quick form replies in your email program.

3. Can someone work from abroad without telling their employer?

My company is very flexible and allows full-time remote workers in most of the U.S. Because I am a rule follower, I make sure to discuss with my manager and HR if I am ever going to need to work from a remote location. My understanding is that I can work from anywhere in the U.S. for less than 30 days without issue; I am just expected to adhere mostly to New York hours as our headquarters are based there. If I were to relocate for more than 30 days, then I would need to update my address and make sure the company is licensed to do business in that state. Where it gets tricky is working internationally. My company has offices in London and Singapore but will not allow anyone to work from there unless the company explicitly sends them there on business. I have asked if they would ever offer the option for people to work remotely from other countries (on their own dimes) and they said that the legal and tax implications are too complicated for the HR team to handle right now. I totally understand that and accepted it. So imagine my surprise when I get on a video call and find that one of my colleagues is calling in from  Peru! From my understanding, this is not okay and I was really bothered by it, but maybe I am missing something? I should also note that we have unlimited PTO so if my colleague really wanted to go there they could have just taken time off. Are employees obligated to tell their employer where they are going to be working from if they can work remotely? And are there any consequences for employees who bend the rules should their employers find out?

You dont really know the situation with your coworker! They might have been in Peru on business, or might have received permission to work from there (despite your company not wanting to authorize it more generally). Or they might have been on vacation and were asked to call in just for this one call. Or yes, they might have done it without checking first. (If so, thats between them and your company and Im curious why youre so bothered by it. Is it because youd like to do the same and were told you couldnt? Thats legitimate. But if its just because youre a rule follower  well, itll be better for your quality of life if you accept not everyone is, and that doesnt need to be your problem unless it directly affects you or youre their manager or otherwise in a position where your job is to enforce the rules theyre breaking.)

But generally speaking, yes, there can be tax and legal consequences to allowing employees to work from another country (including needing to follow the labor laws of the country where the work is taking place). A single work call from abroad usually wont trigger those consequences. Realistically, a full week of working from there probably wont either. But companies generally want to make that call themselves, not leave it up to the individual judgment of each employee, and they can indeed require employees to seek permission to work from other locations (and impose whatever consequences they want for people who dont).

4. Giving notice in a travel-heavy job

I work in a job where I travel about 75% of the time, and my schedule is set roughly one to two months ahead of time. I plan to quit the job soon because Im just not happy in the position. I am job searching, but Im unsure of how I should navigate the resignation process. If I get another job, do I have to set my start date to after the time when Ive completed all my scheduled work travel? Can I give two weeks notice and cancel the trips that I already have planned? Should I give my boss a heads up that I intend to quit in the next few months and I shouldnt get scheduled to travel beyond that? None of these options seem great to me. If I get a new job and say I cant start for one to two months, is that generally acceptable to companies? If I give two weeks notice and cancel trips, theres no one who can cover these trips (this is part of the reason Im quitting). Telling my boss I intend to quit seems risky for obvious reasons. Any advice you have for this situation would be very much appreciated!

Give the normal two weeks notice. You dont need to wait until all your scheduled travel is done. (Think about how that would work in jobs that are scheduling travel a year out!) Your company will cancel the travel that you wont be there to do; some of it will probably be refundable, but if some of it isnt (or even if all of it isnt), thats just a normal part of doing business. Youre still only expected to give the same amount of notice as someone in a non-traveling job.

5. How to say Im really good at my retail job on a resume

Im attempting to update my resume and struggling with how to describe my current retail job while conveying how good I am at it. My manager has repeatedly said that Im the best employee they have, customers occasionally comment on how well I do my job, I never get complaints, and Im extremely accurate at anything to do with numbers to the extent that Ive been told the paperwork [that my boss does] is always easiest after your shifts. Our store doesnt do any sort of Employee of the Month awards and I dont have any stats I could use to quantify my work, so Im having trouble coming up with how to talk about it thats not entirely reliant on word-of-mouth feedback. I doubt I can put something like Youre always so professional  A Customer on my resume and without the things other people have told me I dont think I come off as particularly impressive. Another factor in my resume troubles is I want to switch fields to something completely different so I feel getting across excellent employee might be more useful than excellent at the tasks of a retail job. Especially since I want to move to a more professional field and I am aware being a cashier doesnt exactly have the reputation of being skilled labor. This job is by far my longest stretch of employment and is likely the most load-bearing component of my resume, which is why I feel its so vital to depict it in the absolute best way possible.

You can cite the feedback youre getting! Id do it like this:

* Repeatedly lauded by manager as the teams most effective employee, due to X, Y, and Z

* Regularly receive accolades from customers for A and B

* Cited for extreme precision with numbers and producing the most consistently accurate XYZ paperwork on a six-person team
Best Yoga Poses for Stress

Bust Stress Instantly With These 5 Yoga Poses for Men

According to a small 2021 study, gender-related perceptions and pressures are one of the top reasons why more men dont participate in yoga  in other words, it is seen as a more feminine form of exercise. Other research suggests that guys feel intimidated in yoga classes: they fear being the only man on the mat or lacking the flexibility required to do certain poses. But what if we told you that Matthew McConaughey, LeBron James, David Beckham, and Chris Hemsworth all swear by this practice for not only muscle gains but also better mental health?

In fact, a recent 2022 study found that yoga has stress-reducing benefits for men.

Yoga is an incredible physical and mental practice for all people, but there are a few key benefits for men to call out, says Ashley Marand Iwanicki, founder and instructor at The Collective Studios. First, yoga helps reduce stress, ease tension, and lower feelings of anxiety  and men tend to have fewer outlets for relieving their anxiety. The majority of people step onto their mats seeking something beyond the physical  peace in their day, clarity in moments of confusion, acceptance of the unknown and so much more.

Not only that, but yoga also has some serious strength-building benefits as well  since this practice widens your range of motions and increases access to a greater range of muscle fibers, it supports muscle growth in a way that lifting and curling just can't.

Yoga is extremely effective for building strength and full body conditioning, explains Iwanicki. Static yoga poses improve muscle endurance, while dynamic flows are great for building lean muscle mass.

RELATED: Underrated Benefits of Yoga for Men

Ready to bust out your mat? Heres a handful of yoga poses Iwanicki specifically recommends for men.

Child's Pose

Child's pose is a quintessential yoga pose that is incredible for relieving both physical and emotional stress as it calms the mind by creating a grounding sensation, opens the hips, and reduces low back tension by lengthening the spine, says Iwanicki.

Heres how to do it:

Start in a tabletop position, on your hands and knees. Bring your big toes together so theyre touching. Gently lower your hips toward your heels as you send your knees to the wide edges of your mat. Rest your forehead on the mat  or, if this isnt comfortable, try resting it on your stacked fists or a yoga block. Relax your shoulder, jaw, and torso. Extend your arms long overhead with your palms facing downward, or stretch them backward along your thighs with your palms facing upward. Stay here for at least 30 seconds to a minute while you inhale and exhale deeply.

Legs Up the Wall

Legs Up The Wall is an effortless and accessible pose to practice at the end of a stressful day or after an endurance activity like a hike, distance run, or long bike ride as it drains the circulation from your legs helping to ease restless legs and calm your mind, explains Iwanicki.

Heres how to do it:

Start seated with bent knees on your mat with your right side facing a wall. As you turn to lie flat on your back, carefully swing your legs around and up onto the wall so theyre at a 90-degree angle with your torso. Keep your knees slightly bent. Your ankles should be right over your hips. Keep your arms by your sides, however far away from your torso is comfortable, with your palms facing down. Stay in this pose for 10 minutes or more.

According to Iwanicki, this pose can also be performed free-floating in space if you dont have access to a wall or dont feel like using one.

A block or blanket underneath your hips will let you experience the full benefits of this pose, she adds. And if you feel your legs are splaying out to the sides, you may use a strap or even a booty band around your lower or upper legs for a little more support.

Thread the Needle

As men tend to hold a lot of tension in their shoulders and upper back, this is a great pose to help open those areas of the body, says Iwanicki.

Heres how to do it:

Start in a tabletop pose on all fours. Extend your right arm up to the sky. Thread your right arm underneath your left, gently twisting your torso. Allow your right ear and shoulder to release to the ground. Stay here for at least a few breath cycles. Then, gently untwist, place your right hand back on the mat, and repeat steps 2-4 while threading your left arm under your right.

You may like pressing your left hand into the mat when the right arm is weaved underneath to deepen the twist through your thoracic spine, adds Iwanicki.

Lengthening your left arm to the top left corner of your mat may also provide an additional extension. For a deeper sensation through your shoulders, take a half bind with your left hand, placing the back of your palm against the small of your back.

Standing Forward Fold

A forward fold is such a simple, yet highly impactful pose for calming your mind, lengthening your spine, and stretching the entire backline of your body, Iwanicki tells AskMen.

Heres how to do it:

Stand at the center of your mat. Hinge at your hips as you lower your torso forward, keeping your knees slightly bent. Depending on your level of flexibility, place your hands on the mat in front of you, on a yoga block in front of you, or on your shins. Let your head and arms hang, fully relaxed, as you lengthen your spine. Stay here for at least 30 seconds, feeling how your ribcage and back expand with your breath.

You may also like to hold your opposite elbows and shake your head yes and then no to further release your neck, says Iwanicki. To further lengthen your neck, interlace your hands behind your neck and gently pull the nape of your neck down.

Crow Pose

This pose may be more challenging than the others, but it also offers some extra strength-building benefits.

RELATED: Yoga Exercises That Actually Build Muscle

Crow Pose is an arm-balance pose that requires both physical and mental strength, explains Iwanicki. Physically, the pose demands core and arm strength as you balance your knees against your triceps and coordinate picking your toes up off the ground. Mentally, Crow Pose will make you face your fears as you must learn to trust yourself to shift your weight forward, balance on your hands, and trust that you have the focus to not face plant.

Heres how to do it:

Begin in a yogi squat  crouched down with your tailbone between your ankles. Place your hands flat on your mat with your fingers spread wide. Keeping your hands and feet where they are, begin lifting your hips toward the ceiling. Come up onto the balls of your feet and spread your knees slightly, then place your knees on the backs of your upper arms. Start shifting your weight forward into your hands. From here, depending on your strength and confidence level, engage your lower abs and try picking one or both feet off the ground. If you can get both feet off the ground, bring your big toes in so theyre touching and continue to focus on lifting your hips up to the sky with the strength of your core to remove any weight from your triceps.

When first practicing crow pose, placing a block or bolster underneath where your forehead can create a safety net if you are fearful of falling forward, adds Iwanicki. Similarly, a block underneath your feet can help pick your hips up higher so you don't need to bend your arms as much or shift your weight forward as much. If you notice your arms are splaying out to the sides, try using a strap or booty band around your triceps to keep your arms in place.

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SUV

The highlights are easy to grasp. The 3.5-liter V6 features even more power than before, now massaged for 285 ponies. Plus, the increased dimensions, fresh looks, and posher interior allow for great family road trips and rugged adventures in a new TrailSport fashion. So, no wonder it has grabbed everyones attention Both in the real world and across the virtual realm, as it turns out. Speaking of the latter, alternate styling universe, some pixel masters were eager to use it as the perfect template for the next generation of the Ridgeline unibody mid-size pickup truck, especially considering their shared HMA (Honda Manufacturing in Lincoln, Alabama) home. But others have a different vision for the newly released family crossover, and they are not afraid to share it, either.So, meet Nikita Chuicko, the virtual artist better known as kelsonik on social media, who probably thinks now is the right CGI time to fiddle with this Japanese-American SUV. And he might be right since the aftermarket world of customization and personalization has made great strides over the past few years, and continues to do so.Unfortunately, as more and more automakers inherently treat their new models to a multitude of glossy black elements, this is yet another vehicle that does not flaunt the authors signature CGI Shadow Line. Instead, the mid-size CUV must settle down with a digital gray color change, a lowered suspension setup, and a much larger set of new wheels that fit those wheel arches a lot better than OEMs! So, does this subtly custom new Honda Pilot version deserve our digital hall pass, or not?
Back in 2014, Leonardo was awarded a UK MoD (Ministry of Defense) contract for integrating and testing the MBDA Sea Venom (Heavy) and Thales LMM (Light) missile systems onto the Royal Navys Wildcat helicopters. According to Leonardo, the LMM is now successfully integrated. This weapon will help increase the rotorcrafts efficiency in engaging smaller, asymmetric threats in maritime environments.As part of the UK MoDs Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW) program, Leonardo helped introduce an advanced weapons loading system trainer (WLST). This bespoke trainer developed by Pennant International will help future operators handle weapon loading as efficiently as possible for both legacy weapons and the new systems that were recently integrated.The new WLST is based at the Wildcat Training Centre at the Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) in Yeovilton, Somerset. As Simon Jones, VP of Customer Support and Training at Leonardo Helicopters UK, explains, the main advantage is that the armed forces no longer have to heavily rely on live aircraft for training . Its a money-saving solution and a time-saving one, allowing Royal Navy students to train while the actual aircraft are deployed elsewhere in various missions.At a time when frontline Wildcat crews are deploying at pace with a combination of new and existing weapons, the WLST ensures that they are best prepared to safely deliver an enhanced strike capability, a spokesperson for Defense Equipment & Support (DE&S) stated.The twin-engine Wildcat is a multi-role platform particularly adapted for anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. An upgraded version of the highly popular Lynx, the Wildcat blends a robust design and multi-role capabilities with state-of-the-art avionics and increased payload.
EV

BYD has ballooned its operations and extended outside China in Europe and North America, but its ambitions are far greater than that. The company that ditched the gasoline vehicles from its lineup has tripled its sales in the first ten months of the year to 1.4 million units. Most are plug-in hybrid cars, but electric vehicles also make a significant chunk of the mix. The Chinese carmaker wants to extend its grip on themarket by launching a premium brand.The new brand will be named Yangwang, which literally means looking up. This makes us believe that BYD doesnt see it competing in the international arena anytime soon. In the Chinese market, this would be another matter. And before saying that Chinese customers are too fond of European luxury brands, keep in mind that these are in free fall in China, leaving more room for local brands Yangwang will build its brand and products with disruptive technology and forward-looking design and is committed to bringing users an unprecedented new experience of ultimate performance, wrote the first post on Weibo from the new companys account, according to CNEVPost . Yangwang will become the representative and benchmark of Chinese high-end car brands and stand bravely at the head of the wave.Chinese customers increasingly turned to the technologically advanced electric vehicles produced by Chinese carmakers . It is a space where Tesla still leads the way, but Chinese companies are beginning to catch up and, in some cases, become even more desirable. This was unimaginable just a few years ago.Thats why the moment is ripe for BYD to step into the premium segment of the Chinese car market. The new Yangwang brand will price its vehicle in the 800,000-1.5 million-yuan price bracket ($110,300-$207,000), which is a very bold statement. The first model that will bear the Yangwang badge would be an off-road vehicle. Judging by the first spy shots circulating on Chinese social media, this is a Land Rover Defender competitor.
Frontline - adjacent to an enemy-controlled star system, the absolute heart of the battle, and the highest level of reward.

- adjacent to an enemy-controlled star system, the absolute heart of the battle, and the highest level of reward. Command Operations - adjacent to a Frontline system, vital for strategic supremacy with standard LP rewards.

- adjacent to a Frontline system, vital for strategic supremacy with standard LP rewards. Rearguard - when none of the above apply, a relative safe zone in the maelstrom.

Alliances are getting their own version of the Corporation Fittings. Alliances can now have their fleet doctrines accessible to everyone in the alliance for ease of access when they are stocking their hangars for conflict.

The maximum number of fleet mates which can be added to the watch list window has been significantly increased, so now your logistics wing can keep a much-expanded watchful eye over its fleet members.

If you are in a ship when initiating a clone jump, you will now automatically disembark, wait out the timer and then clone jump, saving you some clicks before jumping into a different clone at another location.

There have been changes to rules surrounding Abyssal Deadspace filaments and their activation. Higher level filaments will now require pilots to be in systems with a security status of 0.5 to 0.7, lest they incur a suspect timer.

Alpha pilot characters can no longer change their safety setting to red.

A series of changes to make Highsec ganking more costly, which will affect decision making when looking for targets. These include adjustments to the docking and tethering rights of characters with low-security status.

Focusing on story, the Uprising expansion introduced new dreadnoughts, one for each of the four major empires: Amarr Empire, Caldari State, Gallente Federation, and Minmatar Republic. These new ships add some variety and new strategic choices for fleets engaging in both PvP and PvE activities.For example, the Naglfar Fleet Issue has been specifically designed to provide fleets with massive firepower. On its own, the Naglfar Fleet Issue is quite versatile thanks to its dual armor and shield repair bonuses that enable it to withstand quite a lot of punishment from the enemy. On the other hand, the Moros Navy Issue offers similar damage output and improved armor repair strength, plus increased range.Furthermore, the Phoenix Navy Issue is the new missile-focused dreadnought thanks to its precision guided-weapons with increased damage and target painter bonus, plus reduced reload time. Last but not least, the brand-new Revelation Navy Issue offers increased bonuses to damage and energy transfer.As far as the new destroyers go, youre looking at beefed-up versions of the Catalyst, Coercer, Cormorant, and Thrasher. The new Navy Issue models provide important improvements across the board, so youll definitely want these in your hangar instead of the standard versions.Blueprints for the new ships can be acquired from faction militia stores and cost Loyalty Points. With the release of Uprising, the Loyalty Point cost for the navy ship blueprints has been reduced to make the new ships more accessible. Additionally, the Neurolink Conduit components have been removed completely from all subcapital navy ship blueprints.Moving on to the Factional Warfare changes, the most important one is the new Frontlines features. Uprising introduces different operational states for systems in a Factional Warfare warzone:Another important change to Factional Warfare is the addition of more restrictions to complexes. Also, changes to site naming in order to better communicate the associated challenge and restrictions of the sites have been implemented too.For those who love to personalize their ships, Uprising brings additional emblems as part of the Heraldry system, which allows customization of over 100 ships. All players that are in an NPC corporation will have access to their NPC corporation iconography when using their corporation emblems, CCP explains.But wait, theres more! The update introduces a new in-game corporation  Paragon, which features 11 stations spread across Highsec and Lowsec, complete with Paragon agents that provide players with missions that award EverMarks. The latter can be used to purchase emblems at Loyalty Point stores in those Paragon stations. More importantly, when a player in a corporation earns EverMarks, the corporation earns them too. Also, during the promotion period, the ratio of player and corp EverMarks earned will be 1 to 1.If you love spending time in your hangar coming up with new fits for your corp friends, youll be happy to know that CCP rolled out massive enhancements to Upwell hangars. Not to mention that you will now be able to see other ships you have docked at your current Upwell structure, something that wasnt previously possible.Several new quality-of-life changes based on feedback received from the EVE community are part of the Uprising expansion too. Here are some of the most important ones:Last but not least, from 11-17 November, players who log in daily will receive thousands of Skill Points that can be used to train up much-needed skills. Also, Versus Blueforce and Redforce SKINs are available as rewards too. Besides these freebies available for everyone, Omega players will also get Versus SKINs for the new battlecruisers and an extra 275,000 skill points.
Toyota created a page on its Japanese website announcing the world premiere for November 16, or one week from now. When you load the page , only a silhouette and the date light up. On its Instagram page, the Japanese carmaker presented two other images: one of the DRLs and one of the C-pillar in a weird position. We have fixed it in our image gallery. Both pictures bring the Hybrid Reborn slogan.The Japanese publication Best Car created two renderings in May 2022 based on spy pictures and information about the future technical specifications of the hybrid. They match the teaser images Toyota disclosed and leave very little to surprise customers in seven days.According to Best Car , the new Prius will be slightly longer, at 4.60 meters (181,1 inches) instead of the current 4.57 m (180 in). It will also be wider (1.78 m versus 1.76 m, or 70.1 in instead of 69.3 in) and lower (1.45 m instead of 1.47 m, or 57.1 in versus 57.9 in).The wheelbase (2,70 m, or 106.3 in). and the 1.8-liter engine will remain the same, but the nickel-metal battery pack is supposed to be replaced by one with lithium-ion cells. Best Car said the new Prius would weigh 1,380 kilograms (3,042 pounds), slightly more than the current car tips the scale (1,365 kg, or 3,009 lb, in its lightest derivative).The Japanese magazine said Toyota would start deliveries of the new hybrid only in spring 2023, so the world premiere will just anticipate the new car in quite a few months. The Japanese carmaker must have plenty of demand for the current Prius. If it didnt, it would wait a bit more to show the new generation only closer to getting it to dealerships.
kW

ABS

Honda has been getting smaller capacity motorbikes just right for riders worldwide by blending engine performance, easy usability, affordability, and individuality. Such bikes were the CLs from the '60s and '70s. They were scramblers  basically, they were CBs equipped with reinforced handlebars, high-mounted exhaust pipes, and off-road tires. They were designed to be enjoyed both on and off the road and soon became popular with collectors. However, the CL series was discontinued in the mid-70s when the CL200 and CL360 were canceled.Fast-forward to 2018, the A2 license-compatible CMX 500 arrived in the Honda range. It was designed as a highly customizable old-school meets new-school vehicle and boasted specs irresistible to young riders. The model managed to become one of the top-selling custom bikes in Europe and served as an inspiration for the CL500.Five years later, Honda decided to take a similar old-meets-new approach for its new CL500 motorbike. It has the same formula as the original CLs  the looks, engine, and durability are clearly inspired by the originals. Customization is also a critical detail that Honda incorporated in the new model  your imagination is all that's required, as the company says.Mr. Hiroshi Furuse, Large Project Leader for CL500 Honda R&D, said, "We developed the CL500 as a machine that truly allows its owners to stand out from the crowd, and as a form of self-expression. It can be used and enjoyed casually  without hesitation  by the young generation in their daily lives and is designed to become a joyful and integral part of a lifestyle. In standard form, the off-road street style has a visual charm unlike any other model in the Honda range and can really inspire owners to take it further in any direction they wish."The development concept for the CL500 project has been "Express Yourself." Honda has deliberately targeted a young and style-conscious demographic, and the CL500 comes in as the ideal companion on your daily commute, weekend ride, or even some off-roading . Moreover, as younger riders are usually into customization, Honda has prepared a range of accessories that enhance the looks and performance of the bike.The tubular steel main frame gives the bike a unique style while allowing easy handling. The round fuel tank shape and upswept muffler give off a nostalgic vibe, alongside more minor details such as the tank pads and rubber fork gaiters. Another detail reminiscent of the original CLs is the high-level handlebar, angled to offer leverage when standing and sitting down.The scrambler-style motorcycle is made to handle it all, from rough city streets to dirt roads. Ground clearance is 155 mm (6.1 inches); in the front, there's a 41 mm fork with 5.9 inches of travel, and the aft suspension comes with preload-adjustable shocks with 5.7 inches of travel.Other notable features of the motorbike are the 175 mm diameter LED headlight, an LED taillight, and an LCD that displays information such as gear position indicator, fuel consumption, and individual indicator arrows.The CL500 is powered by Honda's 471cc parallel twin-cylinder engine, which outputs 34.3(46.6 ps) of power and 43.4 Nm (32 ft-lbs.) of torque. It's the same engine that the Rebel 500 boasts, only it has a different fuel mapping and a new intake. An assist/slipper clutch manages the six-speed gearbox.Regarding brakes, the CL500 features a two-piston front caliper with a 310 mm (12.2 inches) floating disc and a rear single-piston caliper with a 240 mm (9.5 inches) disc. The brakes have been balanced to provide efficient braking in all conditions, and theis optimized for both dirt and asphalt use.Although a full range of genuine Honda accessories is available, for convenience, the company created three specially designed ready-to-go packs  Adventure Pack, Travel Pack, and Style Pack. I won't bore you with the exact items; you can find more info about them and the CL500 on Honda's official website The CL500 is relatively cosmetically similar to the Rebel . But looks aren't all that important, and Honda has made sure to improve the motorbike's performance and make sure it can handle both city and dirt use. The middleweight scrambler sounds good in theory, but we look forward to seeing it out and about and how Honda's community will react to the CL series revival.
In the early 60s, the U.S. imposed the most enduring trade embargo in modern history on Cuba, just 90 miles across the Strait of Florida to U.S shores. The embargo prevents American businesses and businesses organized under American law from doing business with the island nation. In addition, for years, the act prevented U.S. citizens from visiting.In October 2016, President Obama eased trade, travel, and financial restrictions that had been in place for decades. Then, along came The Donald , who reinstated the embargo, but did leave the door open for U.S citizens to visit as long as they were traveling in an official capacity and not as tourists.My adventure to Cuba happened prior to the easing of any of the restrictions for U.S. citizens. I had sailed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the island nation of Jamaica which took me around the southeasternmost tip of Cuba with Haiti on my port side. I rounded Punta de Maisi, Cuba, and headed straight to Port Morant in Bowden Harbor, Jamaica, staying clear of Cuban waters.I had only planned to stay a few days, then head west for a stop on Grand Cayman, then around Cuba's west coast on my way to Key West, Florida. However, a falling barometer indicated bad weather was on the way, so I holed up for a few days until the weather passed.I left the protection of the harbor at sunrise with favorable winds out of the southeast for the 300-mile (482 km) 2-day passage to Grand Cayman.I arrived in Grand Cayman as planned and did what sailors do; head for the nearest watering hole after anchoring off the aptly named Rum Point. Again, I had only planned to stay for a couple of days, but I ran into a great group of sailors who I helped with some issues with their boat.While having one of our many conversations, they explained that they had just come from Cuba. I had always dreamed of visiting Cuba, but the aforementioned restrictions prevented it. I grilled them on how they were able to visit as American citizens. They explained that they had run into an old salt in Turks and Caicos, and he outlined how American seafarers could legally get into the country.It goes like this: Rounding the island's western tip on the way to Key West puts you on a northeastern heading. Favorable southeast trade winds (the same winds I rode to Grand Cayman) will take you past Havana, Cuba's capitol and largest port, on a starboard tack. Once you reach the longitude of Havana, you radio the U.S. Coast Guard stationed in the Keys to report engine problems and ask to be cleared into Havana Harbor.Once cleared to enter the harbor, you will be met by a harbor master who will want some sort of payment to stay until you can repair whatever ails your engine.The old salt had warned them that if you do get clearance to Cuba under these circumstances and their next port-of-call would be somewhere in the U.S., the coast guard would board their boat at some point, check their logs, and ask for proof that they were in fact, had an engine problem.I sat there glued to their every word and could not imagine it would be that easy but nor was I determined to try as I wanted to get to Key West for the annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest.I left Rum Point after several days and headed west, all the while thinking about trying to get into Havana Harbor as described. Could I really pull it off? Nah!...well maybe!I had a while to mull it over as it was about a 2-day sail to reach Havana. Back in forth in my head, I went, but once I was able to see the early morning lights of Havana Harbor, I decided to give it a go.I followed the instructions just as they were explained to me, and within 30 minutes of contacting the Coast Guard, I was given clearance to enter the harbor and moor while my engine was being repaired. I was in disbelief, and my nerves were frayed, to say the least.I went in under sail (because my motor was broken) and was met by a young Cuban man in a Zodiac who towed me to a mooring buoy as I dropped my sails. He spoke some English, but to my surprise, my years of Spanish resurfaced, so we had no problem communicating. He suggested that I get someone to stay aboard my boat while I'll be ashore and offered to be the guy. He commanded a whopping 100 Cuban Pesos ($4.50) per day.All told, I spent five glorious days in and around Havana and loved every minute of it and was sure to pick up some random spare parts to show the Coast Guard if I got boarded.Sure enough, on my way to Key West, I was approached by an inflatable Coast Guard gunboat and boarded. First, they grilled me about the location of my gun. It took about thirty minutes to convince them that I did not have a gun on board. In the end, I showed them my log and the spare parts I purchased and was sent on my way!Some of you may be wondering whether or not I would do it again; you bet! The Cuban people were the most gracious people I have encountered outside of Thailand. The food was amazing and the cocktails were top-notch. It was a trip back in time in many respects and there is nothing I appreciate more than the perserverance of the populous of Cuba who have endured so much suppression.
Electric Vehicle

The numerous awards that the Ioniq 5 has already received show that Hyundai is on the right track with this design, as well as with its range of electric vehicles.In case you have no idea about the awards received lately by the Ioniq 5 , you should know that it got World Car Design of the Year, Worldof the Year, and World Car of the Year at the 2022 World Car Awards., and these are just several of the distinctions that were awarded to the Korean electric model.The short documentary that was released by Hyundai shows when things started for the brand, and just how popular its Pony model once was. Some of the lines and styling ideas from that vehicle were then incorporated into the Ioniq 5, and the entire Ioniq range was set to share a theme, as you have already observed.Narrated by Erin Baker, an automotive journalist who is also a World Car of the Year juror, the full film features interviews with employees who were part of the development process of the Ioniq 5, as well as explanations of how some of its systems, such as the Vehicle to Load system or its Global Modular Platform operate.With the presentation of this documentary, Hyundai has reconfirmed the upcoming launch of the Ioniq 7, as well as the electrified N models in its lineup.The manufacturer also plans to introduce various products in the field of robotics, as well as make its mark on the development of smart cities. The former part might be linked to its acquisition of Boston Dynamics , which will lay the groundwork for the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, that was announced this summer.
Yes, folks, Hyundai Motors has officially won three prized honors at the Red Dot Award show held in Germany recently. But its the Luminary honor that stands out the most as it accompanies this manufacturer's Trailer Drone concept. Why is this a big deal? It's basically the highest award that the famed show offers. Oh, if youve never heard of this machine, its nothing more than a fully autonomous hydrogen design that can carry an array of cargo options. Time to explore a bit of what our society has in store for the future.Now, until a few days ago, I hadnt heard of the Trailer Drone, but once I witnessed the video below, I was left uttering the word wow. My colleague was looking over my shoulder in utter silence too. Everything starts off with a few flashing images the particularities of the Drone and the words dictating its newly acquired award title.Its then on to the little things that make this business solution what it is and what it can do. Its here that we can really comprehend why Hyundai received the award that it did. We can see a small sample of the flow of hydrogen throughout this vehicles body and where that hydrogen is stored.

But, beyond that, our attention is driven to the e-Bogies that we see under each cargo container and, at one point, even e-Bogies carrying individual loads. Hyundai does mention that the trailer configuration is only possible with two Bogies working together. If you havent viewed the video yet, nows the time, as these things are rather amazing. Working in unison, lateral parking seems to be a breeze, saying goodbye to cluttered shipping yards and loading docks.Best of all, the e-Bogies can be utilized for an array of activities, not just shipping cheese from the northern states to the southern ones. Hyundai proposes that they can be modified to aid in firefighting, rescue missions, and even construction sites. Nonetheless, as a cargo solution, this thing can crank out 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of range on a single charge.As for the autonomous aspect of these things, the classics such as LIDAR, GPS, and countless other hardware and software ensure that the Trailer Drone can safely maneuver through town even if some pedestrian decides to dash across the street without warning; everyone is theoretically safe. These buggers even look like they communicate with one another to ensure mass transit is possible, as it should be. Sounds like the sort of idea to take the show for sure. After all, this is what you should expect when a team like Hyundai plans the future of transportation on this level.Nonetheless, Hyundai isnt the only crew thats exploring clean energy and alternative means of fueling our vehicles. BMW has been tinkering with hydrogen for years too, and Porsche really seems to like their electricity. Even Volkswagen is in on the alternative solutions game. Maybe not on the same level as this concept, but you get the idea.One thing is for sure, if all goes to Hyundais plan, once 2040 rolls around, those in the trucking business may need to step aside for fully automated vehicles like the Trailer Drone. That raises the question: who should be primed and ready to occupy vacant workforce positions? None other than people who have had joysticks in their hands most of their lives and programmers. Gamers, do you hear me!? You've got around 18 years to prepare for new jobs.
Ray Hushpuppi, as he was known to his more than 2.7 million followers on just one of his social media platforms, presented an image of a lifestyle of total and complete luxury. Expensive cars, frequent flights onboard his own private jet, designer outfits (that usually matched the car he was driving or being driven in on any given day), and humble brags about how he was out there hassling while keeping it real turned Hushpuppi into a viral star.In June 2020, the Instagram car collector was arrested at his apartment at the super-exclusive Palazzo Versace resort in Dubai and handed over to the FBI for extradition to the U.S. Authorities retrieved some $41 million in cash from the premises, together with a fleet of 13 luxury cars estimated at another $6.8 million and which had already been shown off on social media.Hushpuppi, the U.S. Department of Justice would argue in the subsequent trial, was no hard-working real estate developer as he described himself, and definitely not the Billionaire Gucci Master, his previous moniker. He was the ringleader of a massive and well-organized scam ring that had targeted international victims and, in the process, caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The former Billionaire Gucci Master, now reduced to his birthname of Ramon Abbas, would later plead guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering and admit to running the online scam operation. Forbes reports that Abbas has been sentenced to 11 years behind bars in the United States, after which he will be deported back to Nigeria. He will also have to pay $1.7 million in restitution to two of his victims. It is a suitable but ironic closure for the Nigerian, who got his start as a Yahoo Boy, as a 2021 BBC investigation revealed.Like many other young and poor Nigerians , Abbas too got his start in online scamming by siphoning money off romance victims. The larger international scheme he would later run was a riff on his Yahoo Boy days, possible by means of BEC (Business Email Compromise) and obviously on an entirely different level  the kind that enabled him to splurge on Rolls-Royces and Ferraris, custom McLarens and Bentleys.#AllMine, Hushpuppi would often tag his car photos while he lived the celebrity lifestyle, rubbing elbows with real celebrities and public figures. #NotAnymore, the tag would read today if he still had a social media account.
HYDERABAD: In a politically unprecedented development, Telangana State Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday, speaking in full glare of the media, said that she fears her phones were being tapped by the TRS-led Telangana state government. And, she added, as a result, her privacy was being interfered with.

The sensational allegation of illegal phone tapping of the first citizen of the state, the representative of the President in the state, came at a press conference at the Raj Bhavan Wednesday evening, where the Telangana Governor said that an undemocratic situation was prevailing in the state.

In an allegation with deep repercussions politically, and constitutionally, her statements about democracy in threat, particularly with regards to protocols of dealing with the Governor, threaten to further worsen the federal context, and indicate that no thaw is likely in the Union-state relationships.

Dr Tamilisai said that she has doubts if my phones are being tapped, and offered a tweet by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti partys official handle on Twitter ( @trsinnews), which on October 27 tweeted, linking the Raj Bhavan to the alleged TRS MLAs poach gate case. The tweet from @trsinnews also had a picture of the Governor.

The tweet mentioned the name of my former ADC, Tushar (Major Tushar Bhasin) and the Raj Bhavan. My name was dragged into the issue on social media. The tweet was from the TRS official handle, she said.

My privacy is being interfered with. Why are they dragging my name in the case? the Telangana Governor demanded to know. The name of Tushar was mentioned in the social media posts, and he called me to wish me for Deepavali as he was in town around that time (when the poachgate case came to light), she said.

To a question on whether she now thinks twice before picking up her phone and calling her friends, Dr Tamilisai, indicating to her phone a side table next to her seat, said, I am not afraid of anything as everything I do is transparent. If they want they can check my phone, here it is.

Incidentally, this is not the first of such allegations against the state government on phone tapping. Even Union minister G. Kishan Reddy had more than once during the campaign for the Munugode byelection said that phones of all opposition leaders were being tapped. Several other BJP leaders from the state too had levelled similar charges.

In the past, after a sensational audio tape was leaked, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had also alleged that his phones, along with those of his minister, government officers and other key functionaries of his state government were being tapped. The face-off between the two governments accelerated the exit of the AP government from Hyderabad, which was declared to be a common capital for a decade.

Politically, allegations of phone tapping have always been highly contentious, and oftentimes, have led to huge political changes and tectonic shifts. The late Chandra Shekhars government fell after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi alleged that his meetings and conversations were being snooped upon, leading to fresh Parliamentary elections.

Incidentally, the relationship between the Raj Bhavan and the state government, which has increasingly worsened over time, with both sides expressing deep displeasure with each other, seems to have nosedived beyond possibility of repair or reconciliation.

While the Governor has accused the state government earlier of being vindictive and unsupportive, of having violated the sanctimonious tradition of each Assembly session beginning with the Governors address, or not providing her protocol, security or facilities due to her, and of trying to censure and stop her from functioning smoothly and performing her duties; the ruling TRS party, which had cordial relationships with the previous Governor, accuses the Governor of behaving in a partisan manner, continuing in a way in her previous role of a fulltime BJP leader.
A large French Air Force cargo plane could carry no less than six such vehicles, and even helicopters could transport two of them. The word fardier in the vehicles name means a small wagon designed to transport heavy cargo, and this is specifically what it was built for - to carry a load of 480 kg (1,058 lbs) or tow 500 kg (1,100 lbs). It was also used to transport wounded soldiers to mobile hospitals.Lohrs strong points that made it a good fit for the military were its clever layout, incredible off-road performance, and low cost due to the use of various Citroen components. It was built around a sturdy tubular frame and took power from a Citroen AK2 Mehari engine mounted amidship. The 4x4 configuration, combined with the 2CV suspension, allows the FL500 to ford two feet of water and climb 50-degree slopes.A 1976 example of the Lohr Fardier 44 somehow got into the hands of John DeLorean. While DeLoreans most famous project was the DeLorean DMC-12, which starred in Back to the Future as a time machine, the brilliant engineer also worked on various other vehicles. One of them was the DMC-44, a project that never got to see the light of day.While working on this particular project, which he intended as a lightweight 4x4 vehicle for industrial and agricultural applications, DeLorean bought this 1976 Lohr Fardier FL500 to use as inspiration and study its feasibility. Thats because the vehicle he and his team intended to build was very similar to the Lohr.The FL 500 in question is now up for sale on eBay, and the listing says DeLorean likely bought it as military surplus from the French Foreign Legion. Backing that assumption is the FFLA livery and paint colors found during the vehicles restoration.DeLoreans Lohr Fardier was not only used for testing purposes but also featured in some promotional material for his teams DMC-44 (you can watch a short YouTube video of those promo clips below).After completing its mission at DeLorean Motor Companys headquarters in California, the FL500 spent some time at the Lamington Farms Estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, where it also performed some light work duties.Oldwick Garage in New Jersey was commissioned to perform repairs on the ex- military vehicle , and John DeLoreans passing led to the garage taking ownership in lieu of payment.After the current owner bought it in 2018, the vehicle went through a full restoration with all OEM and new parts, which brought it to an almost as-new condition. The mini rig rides on tan steel wheels wrapped in 205/70R15 off-road tires.The no-frills exterior design of the Lohr Fardier is basic and utilitarian, and this particular unit offered on eBay is presented with a Desert Tan coat of paint applied over its steel tubular body. The vehicles 2-cylinder air-cooled gas engine is able to produce 29 hp (29.4 ps) and reach a top speed of 40 miles per hour (64.4 kph).The interior, if we can call it so considering the Lohr has no doors, no roof, and no glass, is also as simple as it gets. The driver maneuvers the vehicle from a simple yet functional tan vinyl bucket seat positioned in the left front corner. A nearly vertical steering wheel, the dash, the all-black shifter, and twin parking brake handles complete the package. There is also a simple roll bar meant to protect the driver.Finally, the roomy diamond plate deck is perfect for hauling anything you need.This interesting piece of engineering and worthy contender for the title of weird and wonderful is offered for sale out of Morgantown, Pennsylvania, with a Buy It Now price of $28,900.
The Bell 407GXi has been sold in 30 countries until now, with 1,500 of these high-performance rotorcraft operating on six continents. The 31st country to join this elite club is Israel. One of these powerful choppers is currently on its way there, where it will be handed over to its new owner, Yossi Avrahami.CEO of the company with the same name, Avrahami, has decades of experience in the construction market, and his portfolio includes The La Palmeraie luxury project in Eilat, plus the seventh tower in the Neeman Towers project, in northern Tel Aviv. Yossi purchased this new helicopter together with his cousin, Yoav Avrahami, to help them save time in our busy lives. As the first helicopter of its kind in Israel, it will surely turn heads.The 400GXi is an upgraded version of the Bell 407GXP and made its debut in 2018 at the Heli-Expo. The one thats set to arrive in Israel boasts a VIP transportation configuration, but this versatile chopper works just as well for utility, public safety missions, and HEMS, thanks to a modular design.Powered by the new Rolls-Royce M250-C47E/4 turbine engine, the Bell 407GXi claims to combine high performance with fuel efficiency. It cruises at 133 knots (153 mph/246 kph), offering a range of 337 nautical miles (387 miles/624 km).Equipped with Garmins G1000H NXi Integrated Flight Deck, plus advanced processors and high-resolution displays, this modern helicopter is also a great choice for optimal clarity, connectivity, faster startup, and efficient map rendering. In addition to a spacious and comfortable cabin, all of these qualities make the 407GXi one of the best helicopters for personal and corporate transportation.
It sounds weird, but experts say it depicts an important trend in todays aviation  bleisure is a mixture of business and leisure flights. Daniel Baron, cabin designer and the managing director of the Tokyo-based airline design house LIFT Aero Design, told CNN that the recent pandemic is mostly responsible for this important shift.People value time more, and that includes the time spent with those who are closest to them. When it comes to commercial flights, this translates to business class seats that magically become double beds that can accommodate couples.This concept has been implemented for years now in first class, but things get more complicated in business class because theres less room available for that.In the case of Singapore Airlines, the fully-refitted Airbus A380 fleet boast a layout with center pairs that can drop the divider approximately at waist height, while the front row seats in each section are even better because they dont have the center divider.In the case of Qatar Airways, the luxury Qsuite offers the operators first fully lie-flat double bed, together with a bespoke turn-down service. The Qsuite is available on some Qatar Airways long-haul aircraft, including the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A350, and its described as Business Class like never before. Thats because its a fully adaptable space thats equally suited for work, socializing, dining, and sleep.This new trend is still young, but reflects an important lifestyle change  people want to spend more time with family and friends, even during business trips.
Not much was known about Dilbar prior to its seizure in Germany in March 2022, under the current wave of sanctions meant to cut off the cashflow to Putins war in Ukraine. Specifics on the build remain unknown, but we do know this now: Dilbar was carrying $5 million in rare artwork. At least.German authorities have seized several pieces of art that were once used to adorn Dilbar, Radio Free Europe reports. The paintings, including some by French Surrealist Marc Chagall, were once onboard Dilbar but were stored in separate storage once the ship arrived in for repairs. Authorities raided the ship in September as the megayacht sat in the dock, but they were looking for proof of tax evasion. Dilbar itself was seized in March and docked at the Blohm + Voss shipyard, where it had arrived for said repairs.Dilbar belongs to Russias richest man, billionaire Alisher Usmanov, and while its not his sole luxury asset, it is the proverbial jewel in the crown. Usmanov is one of the highest-profile oligarchs on the sanctions list, but that didnt stop him from trying to get Dilbar back from German authorities, including by claiming the direct owner was his sister, who, at the time, was not sanctioned.With a reported value of $600 million (which doesnt include the $5 million in artworks or any other treasures Usmanov mightve packed onboard), Dilbar is one of the most enigmatic and expensive superyachts ever built. It is also a fully custom project, delivered by luxury shipyard Lurssen in 2016, reportedly according to the exact specifications of the owner  which makes it the biggest bespoke vessel ever built. Dilbar is 156 meters (511.8 feet) long and comes with two helipads and the worlds largest swimming pool ever installed on a yacht. In short, Dilbar is a sum of world records , a most impressive feat considering not much is actually known about it.
EV

Kia prepares for rough water in the U.S., as the IRA tax credits conditions make the Korean EVs ineligible. Thats a $7,500 disadvantage compared to othermodels produced in North America. To add insult to injury, Kia decided to discontinue the most affordable EV6 trim, which made the base price for the 2023 model year climb steeply.According to the latest Kia order guide, the cheapest 2023 Kia EV6 trim is now the Wind, with an MSRP of $49,795, including the $1,295 destination charge. This represents a $1,000 price bump versus the 2022 model but $7,100 more than the discontinued EV6 Light, which retailed at $42,695.In an email to CarsDirect , Kia spokesperson James Hope confirmed the move and explained that the decision considered the strong sales and continued customer demand. The Wind trim brings an improved range and a plethora of equipment bordering the premium segment, which Kia officials think still represents tremendous value for discerning EV buyers.Were not sure how potential Kia EV6 customers would consider the new pricing strategy. Kia electric vehicles (along with other electric and plug-in hybrids not assembled in North America) will lose the $7,500 tax credit starting next year. Thus, the total price increase for the 2023 Kia EV6 could be closer to $15,000, which is not that easy to stomach, no matter how attractive the EV6 might be.Kia plans to start EV production in the U.S. in 2025, so the new prices will hurt its customers for quite some time. It explains why Korean carmakers and their European rivals advocate changing the IRA conditions. Until then, Kia customers might consider buying the Niro EV instead. Considering the recent Kia EV6 price increase, the redesigned Kia Niro EV is a whopping $8,655 cheaper.
kW

Before I tell you more about it, I'd like to point out that Neco decided to make the scooter available to those not looking to spend a fortune. It's sold for an attractive price of 2,300 ($2,314). There's also a moped version that sells for 100 ($100.6) less.Neco seems to go head-to-head with Vespa, as the Dinno 125 implements retro elements reminiscent of Italian productions. The only part that inspires modernism is the front of the scooter, where you'll find LED headlights and turn signals alongside LED daytime running lights.Simplicity is key for the Dinno 125  it's equipped with an air-cooled 4-stroke single-cylinder engine capable of taking you up to 90 kph (56 mph). The engine outputs 8.8 ps or 8.7 hp (6.5) at 7,500 rpm and uses electronic fuel injection, which means that it'll run efficiently and won't gulp gas from the 6.8-liter (1.8-gallon) tank.The scooter is clearly meant for urban environments. Moreover, its compact size and low dry weight of under 100 kg (220 lbs.) will make navigating city streets easier. You'll come to a halt by using combined braking provided by a front disc and a rear drum on the petite 10-inch wheels.Even though it's marketed as an affordable scooter, Neco did not sacrifice helpful features for the Dinno 125. It comes with an LCD and analog meter, a serial package holder, and a USB charging port.If you're from Europe and looking for a straightforward, no-frills, beginner-friendly scooter to go about your daily business in the city, the Dinno 125 might be suitable. It's available in three colors: Blue, Black, and Gray. If you wish to learn more about it, check out Neco's official website
ICE

EV

Lancia, that Stellantis-owned Italian automaker that most uninitiated would presume dead (it survives on Ypsilon life support) will host an event called  Lancia Design Day  in the ritzy environment of the Reggia di Venaria palace in Venaria Reale near Turin, Italy, on November 28th. But the Abarth sibling will be a little faster, albeit with just one new model instead of three.As is customary for a sporty derivative that solely relies on the brand power of Fiats 500 city car, frankly. Well, at least Abarth just updated the-powered roster in preparation for the November 22nd introduction of their first-ever fully electric vehicle . Naturally, everyone expects them to piggyback on the backbones of the Fiat New 500 with a bit of posh, sporty attire and a different set of badges, plus a massive price hike.No worries, even virtual automotive artists probably think the same  especially the ones who have already imagined the Fiat New 500 (aka 500e) with other Stellantis badges, including from Citroen . So, here is Kleber Silva, the Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, at it again with the electric 500.Only this time around the pixel master has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the upcoming Abarth, and with a little, fresh summer twist. After all, the Fiat New 500 can be had either as a regular three-door hatchback, as a three-door Cabriolet , or as a quirky four-door hatchback. So, the CGI expert chose to play with the thought of Abarth premiering their version of the 500e with open-top attire. Thats hardly surprising  but it still makes for a cute little hoot, right?
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HYDERABAD: The Telangana Congress leadership has fallen silent following its crushing defeat to the TRS candidate in the Munugode byelection, while basking in the glory of party leader Rahul Gandhis success in Telangana with the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Manickam Tagore, the Telangana AICC in-charge who unwaveringly declared that the Congress will win the byelection, declined to comment when Deccan Chronicle tried to reach him for his reaction about the election fiasco in which the Congress lost its deposit. A day after Rahul Gandhi's yatra entered Maharashtra, Tagore thanked the TPCC team for their efforts in making the Bharat Jodo Yatra a huge success while declining to comment on the Munugode bypoll defeat.

Tagore had a busy day tweeting in support of the state Congress leaders in making the yatra a success. Thank you INCTelangana team led by president Revanth Reddy garu who led from front and thousands of workers who worked tirelessly for making the #BharatJodoYatra...Hospitality for the Yatris Revanth bhai made special mark my special thank you, he tweeted.

Later, he thanked a large number of important Telangana party leaders in a series of tweets and kept himself busy on Twitter. He stated that the party's position on this is still what Jairam Ramesh, the general secretary, expressed. "We don't have different points of view on this. Jairam Ramesh has already spoken on the subject, and our views align with those of the AICC," he said.

Ramesh, a former union minister, only stated that there was a flow of money and liquor during the Munugodu byelection and that "winning and losing elections is part and parcel of politics. Senior Congress leaders believe that Jairams enthusiasm for Rahul Gandhi's yatra while taking a lighthearted approach to the byelection had an effect on most leaders' decisions to shift their attention to yatra.

Meanwhile, there appeared to be discontent within the Telangana Congress with senior leaders seeking to write to the high command on the Munugode fiasco. "We haven't sent the letter yet because we're gathering details," a senior leader stated, while another leader claimed that analysis is being done and a letter with a strong impact is being prepared. "This time, those who are drafting the letter believe that it has the signatures of the majority of state leaders," he added.

On November 7, Bakka Judson tweeted tagging Jairam Ramesh, K. V. Venugopal, and Revanth Reddy, "Congress lost sitting seat and deposit in Munugode - second defeat in a row since Huzurabad bypoll people are asking whether TPCC president worked for the success of TRS or BJP (sic)."
In the wake of the talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, hosted by U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken in the U.S. capital on November 7, Ned Price said that the U.S. remains committed to promoting a peaceful future for the South Caucasus region.

What we are doing is trying to create a space and an opportunity for the two sides to come together, to identify their differences  of which there are many  and to attempt to bridge them, Price said, highlighting as a very positive sign the fact that the two countries could agree to not only issue a joint statement but to agree on the substance behind it.

The statement released by Armenias Foreign Ministry said that the two ministers shared views on the elements of a possible peace treaty and acknowledged that there is a range of issues that still need to be addressed.

Both sides reiterated the commitments undertaken by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in their meetings on October 6 in Prague and October 31 in Sochi. They agreed to expedite their negotiations and organize another meeting in the coming weeks. Both ministers expressed their appreciation to the U.S. side for hosting the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it added.

Last month during talks in the Czech capital organized by the European Union, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and President Ilham Aliyev, in particular, confirmed their countries commitment to the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, through which both sides recognize each others territorial integrity and sovereignty. They effectively reaffirmed this commitment in a joint statement issued as a result of talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin by referring to the Prague statement.

The Department of State spokesman said that it is quite important that during the Washington talks Armenia and Azerbaijan were able to agree to continue meeting and engaging in direct dialogue and diplomacy in the weeks that follow.

But it is not for us to prescribe what this lasting comprehensive peace between the two countries might look like. We are not presenting them with a document that is ready to sign. We are doing everything we can to help enable the diplomacy that they themselves will need to undertake, Price added.

The official described as a real step the fact that the two parties have continued to engage.

That is actually a step that we hope in the coming weeks will continue to allow the parties to build on the momentum that they have been able to sustain since the outbreak of hostilities. There have, of course, been setbacks. But we believe that if they continue down the path of dialogue and diplomacy, theyll be able to build on that momentum, theyll be able to build confidence between them, trust between them, and we will do everything we can to support those processes so that theyre able to reach that comprehensive and lasting peace, Price said.

Asked whether a peace agreement could be signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan by the end of the year, the Department of State spokesman said that Washington will leave that to the parties.

This is a decision that they are going to have to make. I think as you read from their joint statement, the ministers used the opportunity yesterday (November 7) to share views on elements of a possible peace treaty, and they acknowledge that there are a range of issues that needed to be addressed. But they agreed to expedite their negotiations and organize another meeting in the coming weeks. We will do everything we can to see to it that they are able to make progress towards that comprehensive and lasting peace as quickly as possible, ultimately leading to a comprehensive and lasting peace, Price concluded.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over the mainly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region for years. Some 30,000 people were killed in a war in the early 1990s that left ethnic Armenians in control of the former autonomous oblast inside Soviet Azerbaijan as well as several adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper.

The two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks and killed thousands of people on both sides before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenians losing control over parts of the region and seven adjacent districts, was reached in November that year.

Under the cease-fire Russia deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.
Armenias Finance Minister Tigran Khachatrian met with Irans Minister of Economic and Financial Affairs Ehsan Khandozi on Tuesday as part of his visit to Tehran on November 7-9.

The visit of Khachatrian and his delegation to Iran comes one week after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visited Tehran where he met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi mainly to discuss regional security concerns, but also prospects of increasing bilateral trade between the two neighboring countries.

During the meeting with his Iranian counterpart Khachatrian, as quoted by his press office, said that the volume of economic exchanges between the two countries is expected to grow by over 40 percent in 2022.

The Armenian and Iranian ministers highlighted several economic priorities between the two countries, in particular, raising annual bilateral trade to $3 billion, increasing the goods exchange volume to 5 million tones, as well as the facilitating and developing financial, banking, commercial and customs relations.

In his remarks the Armenian minister said that productive and constructive discussions were held during his first-ever visit to Iran. He also highlighted constantly developing and strengthening cooperation between Iran and Armenia.

Economic and political relations between Iran and Armenia have a history of decades. The basis of all ongoing negotiations is this longstanding cooperation between our two countries, and the goal of raising the level of commercial relations between Armenia and Iran to $3 billion a year testifies to these main foundations, Khachatrian said.

In his turn the Iranian minister said that the government of Iran is very closely following the economic policy run by neighbor countries, putting the focus on the Caucasus region.

And I hope that the goal of carrying out 3 billion dollars worth of trade between our countries, which has been discussed during the meeting of the Iranian president and the Armenian prime minister, will be fulfilled under the leadership of this government, Khandozi said.

During the visit to Iran Khachatrian and members of his delegation, including his deputy Avag Avanesian, also met with Iranian Vice President Masoud Mir Kazemi and planned to meet with Irans Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin.

Armenias Prime Minister Pashinian visited Tehran on November 1 to meet with Irans President Raisi.

Following their meeting focused on regional security issues the two leaders issued a statement to the press in which they also indicated their plans to deepen Armenian-Iranian commercial ties.

The Iranian president hailed the rise in bilateral trade registered this year and said the two governments want to help increase it to $3 billion per annum in the near future. We will definitely achieve this goal, he said.

According to Armenian government data, Armenias trade with Iran reached $427 million in January-August 2022.

Pashinian, for his part, spoke of a huge potential for closer Armenian-Iranian cooperation in the energy, agriculture and road construction sectors.
Armenias Defense Ministry said on Wednesday morning that Azerbaijani armed forces fired at Armenian military positions along the eastern border overnight. It reported no casualties and said that the situation as of 10:00 am was relatively stable.

Azerbaijans military authorities, meanwhile, accused Armenias armed forces of firing at Azerbaijani positions along its western border.

It also claimed that illegal Armenian armed formation fired at Azerbaijani military positions in the eastern part of the Karabakh region.

Baku did not report any casualties among its military personnel either.

Nagorno-Karabakhs ethnic Armenian defense army denied the accusations.

Some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the mainly Armenian-populated region after a Moscow-brokered ceasefire stopped a six-week war in November 2020.

Azerbaijan managed to take control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts in the course of the hostilities that claimed the lives of thousands of people on both sides.

Davit Babayan, Nagorno-Karabakhs de facto foreign minister, described Bakus latest accusations as a provocation.

We should always be ready for provocations, because, of course, they would do anything. They hate us. What should we do? Its informational terror, Babayan said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again accused Armenia of failing to live up to its commitments under the 2020 ceasefire agreement as he spoke to army officers at an event in the Azeri-controlled Karabakh town of Susa, known as Shushi in Armenian, on November 8, a day that Azerbaijan calls Victory Day to mark the end of fighting in 2020.

He, in particular, charged that Armenia has not withdrawn its troops from the Karabakh region.

Armenia insists that it has no military presence in Karabakh territory, and that the terms of the 2020 cease-fire did not require any disarmament among the local ethnic Armenian militia known as the defense army.

Aliyev also warned that Azerbaijan will take the necessary steps unless Yerevan fulfills its obligations. In his remarks he again demanded that Armenia provide a land corridor to Baku that would connect mainland Azerbaijan with its western exclave of Nakhichevan. Armenia says it is ready to unblock regional transport links, but insists on maintaining sovereignty over routes passing through its territory.

Aliyev also mentioned the latest deadly fighting along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in mid-September as a result of which, he said, Azerbaijani armed forces took control of the main strategic heights overlooking Armenian military positions. He also said that Azerbaijani forces now can visually observe the towns of Kapan and Goris in Armenias southern Syunik region as well as Lake Sevan in Armenias eastern Gegharkunik province.

Speaking about Karabakh, the Azerbaijani leader stressed that Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the region temporarily and that the Armenian side would face a new tragedy if it relies on someone.

Babayan condemned Aliyevs statements. This is nothing but a call for a genocidal policy, a determination to continue such a policy, to achieve their goals, so to speak, to carry out another genocide of the Armenian people, he charged.
The summit of the CSTO, a Russian-led security grouping of six former Soviet states, which also include Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, is due to be held in Yerevan on November 23.

According to a report published by the Armenian prime ministers press office, the two leaders also discussed the agenda of Putins visit to Armenia on November 22.

A Kremlin report on the phone call, however, did not mention the Russian leaders upcoming visit to Armenia.

An exchange of views also took place on a number of events that took place after the trilateral meeting held in Sochi on October 31, and on the implementation of the agreements reached on humanitarian issues, the Armenian readout of the phone call added.

On October 31, Putin hosted talks between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev focused on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region over which Yerevan and Baku fought in the autumn of 2020 and where Moscow deployed its peacekeepers after brokering a ceasefire to put an end to six weeks of fighting.

The Sochi talks were followed by more Armenian-Azerbaijani diplomatic engagement  first at the level of vice-premiers in Brussels on November 3 to discuss border delimitation issues and then in Washington on November 7 at the level of foreign ministers who were hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on the Washington meeting between Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, stressing that the discussions during the U.S.-hosted talks were conducted with the results of the Sochi summit being taken into consideration.

I have not seen anywhere that the parties refused to refer to the reached agreements. Let me remind you that in a joint statement, the heads of state stressed the importance of preparing a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan in order to achieve sustainable and lasting peace in the region, Zakharova said, as quoted by Russian media.
Alex Padilla has been elected to his first full term as U.S. senator for California, solidifying his position as a top Latino elected official in the United States and a leading Democratic voice for more expansive immigration laws
There was plenty of drama in legislative races that came to a head between Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday
FILE - Menthol cigarettes and other tobacco products are displayed at a store in San Francisco on May 17, 2018. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA are underwriting an effort to repeal the state's ban on flavored tobacco sales.
TRS has decided to support and partake in protests by a slew of organisations against Central policies during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Telangana

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has decided to support and partake in protests by a slew of organisations against Central policies during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Telangana on November 12.

Student unions, caste organisations, workers unions and Left parties also plan to obstruct the Prime Ministers visit to Ramagundam.

Modi is visiting Telangana on November 12 to dedicate the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) factory to the nation. The PM will arrive in Hyderabad on November 12 by a special flight and will leave for Ramagundam by helicopter.

The Telangana Students' Joint Action Committee on Wednesday  in a meeting with the TRS Vidyarthi, the ruling partys student wing  decided to rope in students from universities of Hyderabad and Ramagundam to protest against the alleged failures of the Centre in fulfilling promises made to Telangana under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

TRSV president Gellu Srinivas Yadav said the agitation is also against the alleged attempts of the BJP to control states by misusing the Governors' office. The JAC alleged that the BJP was influencing Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan not to clear the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, which was passed by the State Assembly two months ago.

The students JAC wants the Governor recalled for allegedly not clearing the Bill, which was depriving job opportunities. The body also demanded that the PM fulfil his promise to provide 2 crore jobs per year.

The CPI and the CPM, meanwhile, announced plans to obstruct the PMs visit to protest against the privatisation of public sector units and alleged anti-labour policies. CPI state secretary Koonamneni Sambasiva Rao said Modi has no moral right to visit the without fulfilling the promises made to Telangana in the bifurcation Act.

Employee and worker unions of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited and the electricity department are demanding the withdrawal of the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, claiming it is not in the public interest.

SCCL workers also want the Centre to approve the proposed wage revision for coal workers. They are opposed to the privatisation of coal blocks as well as the new labour code. Workers said they will hoist black flags across the state during the Prime Ministers visit.

Seeking categorisation of scheduled castes and an increase in reservations, the Telangana Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi will also join in the protests, while BC organisations are protesting for a caste enumeration of BCs in the upcoming Census.
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In the big race for California's 22nd Congressional District seat, surely there's a lesson to be learned from the results of the June primary.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
Bruksvara, the new affordable line of furniture by Swedish company Ikea, made its global debut at the fifth China International Import Expo held in Shanghai on Nov 5.

Ikea's Chinese Lunar New Year Fossta collection, which was inspired by art from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), also made its Asian debut at this year's CIIE. Other products being showcased to Chinese consumers for the first time include Ikea's two electric fabric sofas, which were specially designed based on Chinese consumers' preferences.

Sven Rau, vice-president of Ikea China, said the company will be opening a new store in Hefei, capital city of East China's Anhui province, at the end of this year. A new store in the Linkong area in western Shanghai and the second store in Xi'an of Northwest China's Shaanxi province are currently under construction.

Rau said that Ikea has attended every edition of the CIIE as China is one of the most important markets for the company.

"Through this exhibition, Ikea looks forward to participating in China's economic development and addressing Chinese consumers' demands for a green and diversified home, which in turn would help the company's long-term business development in the Chinese market," he said.




NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday termed the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls a battle between the "enemy of development" Congress and the "pro-development" BJP and emphasised that people will get "double benefits" if his party is re-elected as he will be able to work more for them.

In a scathing attack on the main Opposition party, the Congress, Mr Modi linked it with "instability, corruption and scam".

Addressing his last of the four public meetings in Himachal Pradeshs Sujanpur in Hamirpur district, Mr Modi accused the Congress of "betraying" the people of the state and obstructing its development when it was in power till 2017. More so after he assumed the office of Prime Minister in 2014.

He claimed that if the Congress comes to power in the state, it will not allow his government to work. Mr Modi said that he can do much more for Himachal if people "anukul" (favourable) to him are in power in the state. He asked the voters to break the convention of voting out incumbent governments to ensure the state's development.

"Congress by nature is an enemy of development. It is the BJP that can take Himachal to new heights of development. Therefore, it is necessary for the BJP government to retain power. It is a straight calculation. A BJP government should be formed in Himachal so that it can benefit from Delhi (the Central government). It will bring double benefits," the Prime Minister said at a rally in Sujanpur in Hamirpur district.

Modi talked about his familiarity with Himachal Pradesh, a highlight of all his addresses at rallies after the Assembly poll announcement, and said that as someone aware of issues and people here, he will be able to work for the state while being in Delhi.

The Prime Minister listed several measures for state progress after the BJP government under chief minister Jai Ram Thakur was elected in 2017.

In his first rally of the day at Chambi in Kangra district, which has the largest number of Assembly seats in the state, the Prime Minister linked the Congress with instability, corruption and scams. He asserted that Himachal Pradesh needs a stable and strong "double engine" government.

He said that the Congress failed in its duty as the Opposition party in the state. "If the Congress cannot discharge its role in the Opposition, what will it do if it comes to power?" asked the Prime Minister and added that people have decided to send them packing again.

With the state sending a relatively large number of people to the defence forces, the Prime Minister asserted that the security of the country and the defence personnel is of paramount importance to the BJP.

Modi also accused the Congress of "insulting" the Army Chief, likening soldiers to goons and raising questions on surgical strikes targeting terror camps in Pakistan. The Prime Minister noted that his government implemented "one-rank, one-pension" while the Congress kept it pending for decades.

Talking about the recent Assembly byelection results, in which the BJP won four of seven seats and the Congress none, he asserted that while his party is being accepted in the states where it was not traditionally strong, the Congress is withering away in places once considered its bastions.

"It is due to the BJP's development works and pro-poor measures that it is re-elected to power in different states, whereas people are so angery with the Congress that it has not returned to power in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, for decades," Mr Modi said.

Asserting that the Congress is an obstruction to development and is rooted in family rule, the Prime Minister alleged that its leaders practised corruption and neglected Himachal Pradesh's development but still believe that they would come back to power again in five years.

"This alternating of power between two parties has damaged the state. You should not let the Congress enter (the government) again," he said.

The Prime Minister listed several projects, including those of building highways and allotment of Central educational institutions to the state. He made special mention of schemes for free grains, free cooking gas connections and housing for the poor with a focus on women's ownership to highlight his emphasis on easing women's lives.

Modi asserted that the people of the state have decided to script a new history and change the precedence of voting out the state government in Assembly polls by re-electing the BJP to power. He said that he can sense their mood and resolve after touring the state.

Pointing out that the Congress is left with power only in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Mr Modi asked people if they have ever heard of them making news for development.

"It is the reports of the internal feuds of the Congress that come out from there. The BJP is identified by people with good governance and pro-poor policies and that is why it is elected to power repeatedly," he said, referring to his party's wins in several states where it was in power.
An effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was burnt on the Vijayawada highway at Chautuppal to protest against the conspiracy of the BJP party to buy four MLAs from the ruling TRS party. (A file photo/Twitter/@VSrinivasGoud)

HYDERABAD: A special investigation team was formed to investigate the poachgate incident, in which three TRS MLAs were allegedly targeted, after the High Court on Tuesday vacated the stay on the case.

The SIT will be led by police commissioner C.V. Anand, with Rema Rajeshwari, SP, Nalgonda, Kalmeshwar Shingenavar, DCP (crime), Cyberabad, R. Jagadishwar Reddy, DCP, Shamshabad, N. Venkateshwarlu, SP, Narayanpet, B. Gangadhar, ACP, Rajendra Nagar and Laxmi Reddy, inspector, Moinabad as team members.

In the hearing on Wednesday, the bail plea of the three accused in the scam was adjourned to November 11 and they were sent to police custody for two days. The court directed the police to take custody of the accused at 10 am on Thursday and produce them in court at 5 pm on Friday.

The counsel for the accused, Ramachandra Bharti, Nandu and Simhayaji, submitted that the FIR was lodged with a political motive and that his clients were at a Moinabad farmhouse for reasons unrelated to the allegations.

The police, in their counter-suit, informed the court that the trio lured the MLAs to defect to another political party and also threatened them with dire consequences if they failed to comply.

The police sought custody of the accused to ascertain if there were others involved in the case.
President Joe Biden, speaking at an election rally in Maryland on Nov. 7, 2022, will be attending the COP27 climate meeting and the ASEAN and G-20 summits in the next week.

A seven-day overseas trip looks likely to prove the biggest test of U.S. President Joe Bidens foreign policy chops since he entered office last year, with four back-to-back summits culminating in what could be his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as president.

Biden departs Thursday for Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP27 meeting. He then attends the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and East Asia summits, which are this year in Phnom Penh , and the G-20 leaders meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

While the COP27 meeting will provide the president with a platform to promote his vision for fighting climate change, his administrations capacity to make substantive pledges is expected to be restrained by shared power in Congress in the wake of Tuesdays midterm elections.

More significant will be the summits in Southeast Asia starting Saturday.

Bidens first task will be convincing ASEAN leaders in Phnom Penh that Washington remains a helpful counterbalance as Beijing seeks to assume the role of regional hegemon. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, and leaves the same day as Biden.

Biden is going to Phnom Penh to demonstrate U.S. respect for and engagement with ASEAN, ASEAN-centrality and the role of ASEAN multilateral institutions in the security of the Indo-Pacific Region, Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, told Radio Free Asia, adding that China would be in focus.

He will also try to assuage those ASEAN leaders who are swayed by Chinas rhetoric that the U.S. is the root cause of regional instability, he said. Biden will repeat longstanding U.S. policy that the United States will cooperate with China where it can, but resist China where it must.

During the summit in Phnom Penh, U.S.-ASEAN relations are expected to be upgraded to the status of a comprehensive strategic partnership  as China-ASEAN relations were during last years summit in Brunei  before Cambodia hands over the groups rotating chairmanship to Indonesia.

The future of ASEAN member Myanmar is also expected to feature heavily during the summits, with human rights groups calling for the summit to enact embargoes on arms and jet fuel to Naypyidaw.

Face-to-face with Xi?

After a second day in Phnom Penh, Biden heads off to Bali late on Sunday for the all-important 17th G-20 leaders conference.

After months of speculation about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday that it was likely  though not certain  his Russian counterpart would not be at the event in person but may instead attend some sessions virtually .

That has meant the biggest question is whether Biden and Xi will meet privately at the G-20, with the pair having not met since Biden took office.

A face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping could take place at the G-20 meeting in Indonesia. [AFP file]

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Voice of America on Friday that there were not yet any plans for Biden to meet with Xi, who was just re-elected to a third five-year term as Chinas leader.

There are working-level discussions right now about the potential for a bilateral meeting, but I don't have anything to report at this time, Kirby said, adding that Biden looked forward to an opportunity to engage with foreign leaders about so many shared challenges at the G-20.

Any meeting between Biden and Xi would be expected to focus on Beijings support for Moscow amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, new U.S. export controls on the sale of microchip technology to China, and American concerns about Beijings alleged plans to invade Taiwan.

Each has caused growing tensions between the United States and China over a period in which international diplomacy has been increasingly relegated to virtual meetings  first by the pandemic and then by Beijings extensive preparations for last months Communist Party congress .

There is value to in-person meetings that no number of virtual meetings or phone calls can replace, said Peter K. Lee, a security expert and research fellow in the foreign policy and defense program at the United States Studies Centre in Sydney. The pandemic has limited the kind of leader-led diplomacy that is an important element of statecraft.

Lee said a face-to-face meeting between Biden and Xi would be an important opportunity to take stock of the current trajectory of U.S.-China relations since the pair last met virtually for two hours on July 28.

There are so many disputes at the moment such as over Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and technology decoupling where the two leaders are at an impasse but nonetheless need to be talking, he said.

Breathing room

In contrast to the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, where Biden will be looking to offset growing Chinese influence in the region, a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 may provide a chance to calm increasingly tense relations between the worlds two major powers.

Any such meeting would importantly take place with major domestic political events in the rear-view mirror in both countries, giving both sides some breathing room to broach compromise and cooperation.

After the midterms and the 20th Party Congress, neither leader will be under pressure from domestic politics to appear hawkish toward the other, said Nathaniel Sher, a senior research analyst and expert on China-U.S. ties at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

There are too many troubling issues both domestically in China and the U.S. as well as internationally  economic headwinds, climate change, the threat of nuclear war  for either leader to welcome a further deterioration in the bilateral relationship, he said.

The very fact of any one-on-one meeting could be positive, Sher added, for the broader perception it could create about U.S.-China cooperation.

Diplomatic engagement at the top sends a message to the bureaucracies in both countries that they can re-engage at the working level, he said. Reopening dialogue channels is particularly important after the flare-up in tensions over Taiwan last summer.

That result of a possible Biden-Xi meeting might be more important than the specific outcome of anything they discuss, according to Thomas Fingar, a fellow at Stanford Universitys Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the former chief U.S. intelligence analyst.

The meeting would not solve specific problems, but the fact of the meeting would demonstrate that Biden (and the U.S.) is willing to work with Xi/China when and where it is possible to do so (e.g., on Ukraine, nuclear security, climate issues), Fingar said in an email.

It would also make it possible for lower-level Chinese officials to re-engage with their American counterparts, he said. That might not happen, but it cant happen unless sanctioned by Xi.

Detente unlikely

But even then, the prospects for a detente seem dim.

Ja Ian Chong, a professor of international relations and expert in Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, said while Biden and Xi might have an interest in their countries easing ties, the room for maneuver would be limited by the widening chasm in their interests.

Both sides have incentives to prevent some uncontrolled and uncontrollable downward spiral in relations, Chong said, but both sides are likely to signal resolve to each other on any disagreement.

Beijings insistence on a more forceful style for pursuing its interests, Washingtons determination to resist such moves, and deepening mutual suspicions developing in Washington and Beijing likely make anything more than very small steps very difficult, he said.

This story was produced by Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews.
In this file photo taken in October 2020, Moro Islamic Liberation Front personnel man a checkpoint outside Camp Darapanan, the former rebel group s main camp in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao province, southern Philippines.

Deadly fighting has broken out in the southern Philippines between government forces and members of a former Muslim guerrilla group that signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014, officials said Wednesday.

Multiple fatalities and injuries were reported on both sides in fierce clashes between military personnel and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front group that began on Basilan island Tuesday and were still going on Wednesday, according to officials.

The fighting, the first major clash between government forces and MILF members since January 2015, erupted as an army unit was pursuing suspected bombers from a lawless group, military officials said.

As of now sporadic firing continues and our troops are on the defensive while the MILF are attacking, Brig. Gen. Domingo Gobway, commander of the militarys Joint Task Force Basilan, told reporters late Wednesday.

According to the latest information, at least three soldiers were killed and at least five others were injured on the government side. A source close to the former rebel group told BenarNews that at least 10 fighters from MILF and fugitive militants had been killed.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front controls an autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines. Eight years ago, the guerrilla group signed a peace accord with the government that ended decades of fighting.

Mohagher Iqbal, an official with the transitional government of the autonomous region and formerly MILFs chief negotiator, said the groups leadership had told its men to stand down.

Its not good for the peace process, Iqbal said, referring to the reports of fighting in Basilan. We have a standing order to our men on the ground to cease firing their guns. Our ceasefire team will be heading to Basilan tomorrow to investigate.

Our men were trapped in the area. Its not a camp but a community. In conflict, we cannot say who pulled the trigger first, he added.

On paper the MILF has ceased to be a rebel group, with some of its members having applied to join the governments military and police forces. While the MILF has agreed to order its members to turn in and decommission their firearms, officials and analysts have warned that many guns remain in the hands of former fighters in the field.

Gobway said soldiers were pursuing a group of armed men, who were wanted for double bombings that wounded two civilians in the provincial capital in May, when MILF forces requested permission to enter the area.

Lt. Col. Ferdinand Lazo, commander of the Armys 6th Infantry Battalion, was instructed to speak with the MILF personnel,who were told that they could only enter the village if they disarmed themselves, Gobway said. But when Lazo reached the area, he was surprised to find the MILF forces already on site.

Tension broke out. Eventually, they [the MILF personnel] sniped [at] the escort of the battalion commander. Fortunately, he was wearing Kevlar [protective equipment]. Thats when the fighting broke out, it's continuing until now, the Basilan joint task force commander said.

Apparently, the MILF personnel were protecting the lawless elements whom the government soldiers were chasing, Gobway said, adding that the fighting was fierce and the enemy side consisted of no fewer than 100 men.

The problem is they [the enemy] are attacking. Actually, the military is on a defensive [stance], he said.

Subway added that the military had asked ceasefire officials with the More Islamic Liberation Front to tell MILF commanders on the ground not to reinforce, stay put, and stop attacking, and if possible leave the area.

We cannot withdraw, we are from the government, Gobway said.

In this file photo taken in October 2020, Moro Islamic Liberation Frontmembers are seen inside Camp Darapanan, a MILF camp located in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]

Late in the day on Wednesday, the military reported that three soldiers were killed and a junior officer was wounded when their unit came under fire during an afternoon mission to resupply government troops engaged in fighting the MILF forces in Barangay Ulitan.

They were just out there to provide resupply but were ambushed, said Lt. Col. Abdurasad Sirajan, a public information officer with the militarys Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom).

Earlier this year, a Malaysian-led international peace monitoring organization, known as the International Monitoring Team and tasked with safeguarding a ceasefire agreement between the Philippine government and former MILF guerrillas, ended its mission in the south after then-President Rodrigo Duterte decided that their presence was no longer needed.

In January 2015, the fragile peace between the Philippine central government and the MILF was severely tested when police commandos became caught up in a firefight with members of the ex-guerrilla group, after a raid where the government forces hunted down and killed Zulkifli bin Hir ( alias Marwan ), a Malaysian terror suspect who was hiding in the southern Philippines.

In the botched operation, 44 members of the polices Special Action Force were killed in the ensuing gunbattle with MILF in Mamasapano, a town in Maguindanao del Sur province.

We need the IMT back. In times like these, their presence is needed, Mohagher Iqbal said.

Jeoffrey Maitem contributed to this report from Cotabato City, Philippines.
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Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.
On Thursday, November 3, two-dozen of the most prominent journalists from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica announced the creation of the Network of Central American Journalists, an unprecedented regional association that plans to create mechanisms and channel resources to protect and support independent journalism and news media.

In a statement read in Antigua Guatemala, they asserted that the Central American press is facing the greatest obstacles to the free exercise of the profession in three decades.

The group called the threat of regimes looking to silence us a regional emergency, citing lawfare, exile, and digital harassment of critical and independent media by groups with economic, political, and military power and organized crime, and underprotection for Indigenous, women, and rural journalists. They concluded: Silence is not an option.

The Network, plans to deepen and internationalize support networks for colleagues in danger, foster professional growth and transnational projects, and advocate for press freedom. The group hopes to fill voids left by historically underresourced and sometimes power-complacent national professional associations.

The Networks founders include some of the most acclaimed journalists working in independent outlets, including Nicaraguas Confidencial and Divergentes; Guatemalas Prensa Comunitaria, ConCriterio, and elPeriodico; Honduras Contracorriente; and El Salvadors Revista Factum, GatoEncerrado, La Prensa Grafica, and El Faro. The association says that members will participate in a personal capacity and that they expect many others to join.

The Network of Central American Journalists represents relief, possibility, hope, and is a space self-convened by journalists from the region allowing us to dialogue among peers, Quimy De Leon, founding director of Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda and one of the founders of the Network, told El Faro English. Weve spent a long time looking internally at our own countries and were lacking a complementary regional gaze.

Also among the founders are leaders from the Association of Salvadoran Journalists (APES), which has tracked and denounced Bukele-led attacks against the press; and from #NoNosCallaran (we wont be silenced), a network of Guatemalan journalists who launched a campaign this year to condemn criminalization by the Giammattei government.

The inauguration emerged from months of meetings between its founding members. They then held a working group on Thursday morning to determine a final proposal, inviting international NGOs supporting journalism, aid organizations such as USAID, and diplomatic missions including the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, and Sweden to witness the birth of the network and hear their needs.

The U.K. wrote after the announcement that the Network is the first step of a regional collaboration that will build alliances to defend civic spaces, support journalists mental health, and bring citizens closer to their right to be informed.

To meet and make their announcement they chose the Central American Journalism Forum (ForoCAP), held by El Faro in Antigua Guatemala. Its no coincidence that the annual forum wasnt held in San Salvador for the first time in its 12-year history; the organizers cited on stage the specter of government obstruction or harassment of guests and sponsors in El Salvador.

Censorship playbook

Perhaps the most transversal and dangerous obstacle for Central American journalism is lawfare. The son of Jose Ruben Zamora, the president of elPeriodico and Guatemalas most prominent publisher, cites threats and harassment as the motive for the turnover of three attorneys in the last two weeks and difficulty in securing his fathers defense against politically motivated money laundering charges that have kept him in pre-trial detention for three months.

Other Guatemalan journalists have been forced into exile, following dozens of colleagues from Nicaragua and El Salvador. CNN correspondent Michelle Mendoza who, like El Faro, investigated testimony of bribery against President Alejandro Giammattei fled the country at the end of April, after intimidation including a funeral wreath left at her parents doorstep, rape threats, and on-camera masturbation.

What pushed her into exile, Agencia Ocote reported on Tuesday, was an anonymous publication in conservative outlet Republica branding her an extremist and baselessly accusing her of abandoning her daughters. The outlet pointed to CNNs reporting on the alleged bribes of Giammattei.

In October, Republica took over the station Radio Infinita and forced out independent radio program ConCriterio, co-founded by recognized journalist Juan Luis Font, exiled since early April. ConCriterio had a five-year contract to rent the Infinita frequency, founding co-host Claudia Mendez told El Faro English. In July we received a letter from the owner giving us three months to vacate the radio because they had received a better commercial offer.

The Guatemala City-based morning show is now broadcasting from another station, but the push-out was not unsimilar to the de-platforming last year from El Salvadors Channel 33 of Bukele-critical TV programs Focos and Republica (no relation with the Guatemalan news site).

For journalists outside of Central Americas capital cities, the precarity, vulnerability, and limitations are much more grave, said Prensa Comunitarias De Leon. Inequality is quite deep, the digital divide is wide, and the state only exists to exert control.

In Nicaraguas case, the Network of Central American Journalists places the number of exiled journalists since 2018 at over 130. At least eight colleagues have been imprisoned by the Ortega-Murillo regime, which has leaned on a 2020 Cyber Crimes Law, cribbing language from one approved in El Salvador four years earlier, as one of its primary tools in a sweeping crackdown that has amassed over 180 political prisoners.

Nayib Bukele is also looking to borrow from Ortega. Though the approval of a Foreign Agents Law requiring NGOs and media receiving international funding to face arbitrary controls and onerous tax burdens has been stalled, Assembly president Ernesto Castro said in August that the legislative project hasnt been discarded.

In Honduras, Reporters Without Borders notes that the Castro administration has laid off more than two-thirds of staff of the National Protection System an office created in 2015 to defend journalists, human rights workers, and judges without valid explanations, generating an almost total paralysis in the implementation of its protection provisions.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the slaying of two Honduran journalists this year: Edwin Josue Andino, 23, of Metro TV, abducted by men in police uniforms; and Ricardo Alcides Avila, 25, of La Tribuna TV. Contrary to a police report that he died in a robbery, Alcides was found with his money, phone, and motorcycle.

The Network of Central American Journalists is also keeping its eye on attacks against the press by Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves. Three weeks ago, the high court struck down the government closure of a for-profit event center operated by the parent company run by La Nacion, a newspaper reporting on multiple corruption probes facing Chaves. The president, in office for less than a year, has referred to the press as bad people looking to harm this country.
FILE - Rabbi Ben Gorelick, measures out a precise amount Sacrament, psilocybin mushrooms, during Sacred Tribe Sacrament ceremony at the Synagogue, his home, on Nov. 6, 2021, in Denver. Colorado voters are deciding whether theirs will be the second state, after Oregon, to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms for those 21 and older. A ballot measure would create state-regulated "healing centers" for patients to experience the drug.
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Voters have approved recreational marijuana in Maryland and rejected it in Arkansas and North Dakota in elections seen as a test of legalizations support in even the most conservative parts of the country
Some historical records would place him at the scene of the Boston Tea Party; other accounts would have him participating in the action. Other historians left him out of their accounts altogether.

Why did Thomas Jefferson describe Samuel Adams as truly the man of the Revolution?

What do you really know about Samuel Adams?

Very little? Youre not alone.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff, a native of Adams and author of the newly released The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, once found herself in the same situation.

Honestly, there was just a great deal of embarrassment, on my part, that I had grown up in Adams [which is named after Samuel] and really not known anything about [Samuel] Adams, Schiff said during a recent interview over Zoom. He makes a cameo in my Ben Franklin book, but even there I had never really looked into much of his background. So those things, you know, began to sort of simmer. The more I looked into it, the more I just became completely obsessed.

However, The Revolutionary, which debuted at No. 8 on the New York Times hard-cover nonfiction list, was not the biography Schiff set out to write in 2016.

At the time, Schiff had just come off a promotional tour for The Witches: Salem, 1692, a non-fiction account of the Salem Witch Trials based on firsthand accounts and source material.

After Salem, I really was, I think, deliberately looking for someone admirable; someone who had taken a very courageous moral stand, someone who has sort of spoken truth to power, and someone who could be said to have rerouted history, she said.

The more she read, the more Samuel Adams checked off all of those boxes for Schiff.

I thought I was writing about someone else, she said. The person I was researching, their books were to the right, and Samuel Adams [books] were to the left, and I kept kind of walking onto the floor of the library and going left.

Three hours later, I would be sitting on the floor, reading the papers of Samuel Adams. At a certain point, my agent finally said, Obviously, you want to write a book about Adams.

The following conversation with Schiff about The Revolutionary is lightly edited for clarity and length.

QWhen it comes to the Revolutionary War, why do we know more about John Adams than Samuel Adams?

STACY SCHIFF: I think one of the many reasons why Samuel Adams falls off the radar is that John occupies so much of center stage  When I was looking at the accounts of Paul Reveres ride and thinking its crazy that we all know Paul Revere gets on his horse on April 18, 1775, but we never stopped to think where he actually going.

The idea that [Samuel] Adams and [John] Hancock were at the end; were actually his destination kind of threw me back. I thought, you know, this so much explains so many parts of those years and so many hidden recesses of those years.

I mean, just the question of, How does the resistance movement take off as fast as it does after the Boston Port Act? [is answered when you add him into the equation]. The answer is the Committees of Correspondence and Samuel Adams. So, it was piecing those questions together and realizing how little I knew.

QYou write at one point that Samuel Adams burns his letters; at another point, he took scissors to them, and, unlike his contemporaries, he does not write a memoir. He just disregarded John Adams plea to put his papers [from the Revolution] together. How hard was it to research someone who didnt want to be in front of the curtain? Someone who really was behind the curtain?

STACY SCHIFF: I think the problem is you end up with a lot of questions that are unanswered. I have so many questions. For starters, how much does he mastermind the Boston Tea Party? When does resistance begin to mutate into independence? You know, just the questions that we cant answer.

The biggest cache of his remaining papers is in New York at the New York Public Library, as are the papers of the Boston Committee of Correspondence. So those were really, really rich resources. Although they, of course, dont answer some of those central questions. But because you have the other side of his correspondence there, which had not been published, you can begin to really flesh out the man because the published letters are just as letters, not what hes responding to.

And then theres just a great wealth of material in the British archives because you can read what the crown officers are writing about him. Obviously, its very damning material, as its often very colorful material and sometimes its also erroneous. But it gives you a sense of what a thorn he is in the British side and how effective he is 

Theres so much personal stuff we dont have. We dont have some of his letters to his wife. We have very little correspondence with his children. I should say, there is mention in his great-grandsons book about him, of this memoir that was left by Samuel Adams daughter about her father. I think its like a 50-page document. I just assumed it would turn up in the archive and it never did.

So that was one of those things where you count on something, thinking that will give me the personal dimension of the man and no one can find it. There are heartbreaks like that, but I felt as always as if, that was the Holy Grail because when I had that, I would be able to get a more rounded sense of his personal life or his emotional life, and that never turned up.

QIt seems like so much about him was lost. Was it done purposefully?

STACY SCHIFF: That ritual destruction of the letters, of which John Adams writes, I suspect that happened at many addresses, that many people were destroying documents. Im sure that Dr. [Joseph] Warren [who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill] had a great cache of documents that went missing. A lot of this was meant to be no fingerprints and came down to us without fingerprints.

QWhat are some of the biggest misconceptions about Samuel Adams?

STACY SCHIFF: Well, I think, first of all, most of us have combined [Samuel Adams] with John Adams. So, the fact that hes not John. Hes actually the older, more refined, more established of the two cousins. He recruits John.

I think most people think he was a brewer because of Samuel Adams beer. Its not his beer. So obviously, he wasnt a brewer. [His father, Samuel Adams Sr., was a brewer.]

I think the whole thing about where was Paul Revere going that night? Samuel Adams fell out of that picture completely. So we dont know that Paul Revere is riding toward Samuel Adams and how close the two of them are working at that point.

How involved he is with the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party is designed to be an actor-free crime. No one wants his name associated with it, thats the whole point. But all of the people who are deposed afterward in London mentioned Adams first when they talk about who the prime movers were over those very tense weeks. So, I think its fairly obvious that hes instrumental if not one of the greater masterminds behind it. Hes missing from that picture.

QMost people dont realize what a big role Samuel Adams played in the founding of the country. Why do you think that is?

STACY SCHIFF: I think the whole binding the Colonies together, hes the person who really is most eager to unite everybody and he is trying to do something from a really early date. I think that gets lost because its just theres no event attached to it, but it is a thing that explains, as I say, how the Boston Port Act misfires as loudly as it does because hes knit everybody together at that point. Its hard when someones behind the scenes to know what to attribute to him. But that one we know when people say Samuel Adams Committees of Correspondence, we know that one is his creation.

QCan you talk a little bit about his relationship with John Hancock? Very early on, you write about John Hancock paying part of his debt, but then later on its quite different. Does it seem they had a type of love-hate relationship?

STACY SCHIFF: Theyre very much the ultimate odd couple, in that Adams is 13 years older and he recruits Hancock  as well as he had recruited John Adams  thinking that Hancock will enjoy this moment in the spotlight and all of the attention and that the party will greatly benefit from Hancocks fortune. Both of which are true. But what he doesnt count on is how much Hancock preens. Hancock is a very vain man. Hes very much given to ostentatious displays of wealth. Hes beloved for that. Hes very generous with the town of Boston and hes very generous with Adams and who it seems, he partly supports through much of these years. But the manner could not be more different. On the one corner, you have this aesthetic Republican, who really cares about first principles, and in the other corner, you have this, like, early American plutocrat, who is very busy, designing splendid uniforms for his officer core of ceremonial cadets. They are very much a study in contrasts. At several points, they fall out.

QYou write that Samuel Adams is written off by 19th-century historians. Is there a reason for that? Did they just not like him?

STACY SCHIFF: I think that there are many reasons why he gets forgotten, but I think part of it is the fact that he stands for this very anarchic, very messy side of the Revolution. We like to think of the Revolution as having been a very sanitized affair  nobody was hurt and the Tea Party was a party. It was not a destruction of personal goods. In cleaning that up for posterity, I think Adams got tossed out with the very idea that [$1 million worth of] tea had been destroyed; that people had been hurt.

It was much easier to cart the revolutionary off after the Revolution so you could have a stable government. It was much easier to cart away all those scenes of messiness in the Boston streets.

QWas there anything you found during your research that astounded you about Adams? That you werent expecting?

STACY SCHIFF: The Jefferson piece [about Adams being the man of the Revolution], I think is one of those things  how he clearly is a figure of great respect and very much a role model to people, in the Virginias even.

I was surprised by how central he is to so many events. I had initially thought  and I thought this when I was writing about Cleopatra as well  I thought of writing the book just in a couple of key scenes of the life and then it turned out that the fingerprints were really visible on money and many more moments than I had initially understood.

I think that there are a lot of indications of how popular he is in Boston. When he goes off to the Continental Congress, theres this almost fairy tale procession of tailors and shoemakers and wigmakers who come in, call and take his measure and deliver him up. He gets a brand new wardrobe because hes so ill-dressed normally and it would be better for Massachusetts if he appeared looking somewhat respectable in Philadelphia. And thats just an indication of how truly popular he is, of how he connects the man in the street to the political elite, which is also one of the great contributions here.
Cops and Courts Reporter

Amanda Burke is Cops and Courts Reporter for The Berkshire Eagle. An Ithaca, New York native, she previously worked at The Herald News of Fall River and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise.
This story has been updated.

LENOX  Lenox Democrat William Smitty Pignatelli was reelected Tuesday with more than 90 percent of the vote to send him back to his seat in the state Legislature for an 11th consecutive term.

Pignatelli, 63, defeated Green-Rainbow party candidate Michael Lavery of Becket by wide margins in the 10 Berkshire towns he represents. Pignatelli had a total of 13,553 votes at 90.4 percent, with 79 percent of votes counted as of 5:06 a.m. Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Lavery pulled in a total of 1,433 votes, or 9.6 percent.

In Lenox, Pignatelli's hometown, he defeated Lavery 2,153-163. And in Becket, where Lavery is a Select Board member, Pignatelli won 578-139.

Lavery, who ran on the party's broader far-left ideological platform, would have had to overcome Pignatellis experience and practical sensibilities.

Pignatelli has held the seat since 2003. His constituency changed this year by redistricting to gain Dalton and drop several towns outside the county  his is now the 3rd Berkshire District.

He appears to be maintaining voter trust with a no-nonsense style that reflects the concerns of a varied demographic of constituents in a rural district where interests range from farming to tourism.

Pignatelli, reached by telephone at home Tuesday night, says he's been hands-on.

Doing the day-to-day stuff that is very important to people while working on the bigger stuff, he said of why his constituents continue to support him. I answer my own phone and I answer my own emails. Even after all these years.

Lavery, 52, who works at General Dynamics Mission Systems, said the election results show "there's some interest" among voters in him and his platform.

"It was a good first showing against a 20-year incumbent," he said.

He'll likely be back for another shot at the seat in two years, and said this first bid was a way to make the public familiar with his name. He also wanted gauge interest in his platform.

"I just wanted to get the message out," Lavery said.

Lavery positioned himself as a new-blood, farther-left candidate whose agenda includes radical climate change policies, as well as prison and tax reform.

Pignatelli has been troubleshooting the weak spots in a rural Berkshires economy and infrastructure  things like spotty cellphone signals, anemic public transportation and a health care crisis in the county due to low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Pignatelli says hes a fan of the creative solution to a host of Berkshire problems.

He told The Eagle that hed like to push for towns to create funds to pay down the school debt of dentists who commit to setting up shop in the Berkshires, for instance.

Trains are another area where Pignatelli continues to advocate for the oft-forgotten western part of the state. Hes been relentless in his push to include Pittsfield in east-west rail from Boston through Springfield.

Pignatelli doesn't like political games, nor does he like to see "public service being more about self service"  something he says is a growing leadership trend. It is in this landscape that "wedge issues" are used by politicians to divide voters and secure power.

"I tell my staff every week that if we do our jobs, that the next election will take care of itself," he said.
NORTH ADAMS  North Adams Democrat Tara Jacobs will represent western Massachusetts on the Governor's Council.

She handily defeated Republican candidate John Comerford in the race for the District 8 seat.

With about 72 percent of the vote in by midday Wednesday, Jacobs had 144,744 votes while Comerford had 88,185 votes, according to The Associated Press.

"It's a little bit surreal but very exciting," Jacobs said late Wednesday morning. I cannot wait to do this role. My head is filled with all the things I want to accomplish.

What she's most excited about: "bringing diversity to the Parole Board and judicial bench and thinking about how to do that."

Comerford could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Governor's Council meets weekly to approve the governor's appointments for judges, clerk magistrates and members of groups like the Parole Board. The group also weighs in on the governor's pardons and commutations.

District 8 represents Western Massachusetts, including all of Berkshire and Franklin counties, and most of Hampshire and Hampden counties. Councilors serve two-year terms. Retired judge and East Longmeadow resident Mary Hurley, who currently represents District 8 on the council, decided not to run for reelection.

Jacobs, a self-employed marketing consultant, is a member of the North Adams School Committee and Library Board of Trustees.

In September's Democratic primary, Jacobs won a close race that some called an upset when she beat several candidates who were all lawyers in Hampden County.

Comerford ran unopposed in the Republican primary. The Palmer resident is a retired welfare fraud investigator and a veterans' agent in the town of Holland.

The two candidates faced off in a debate in Springfield late last month in which their political differences were made clear.

While campaigning, Jacobs cited priorities like racial and social justice, and better educating people on the role of the Governor's Council. Comerford aimed to bring a conservative Republican voice to the council, and he said he was not in favor of parole or commutations and wanted to see more evaluation of judicial appointments.

Both candidates said they wanted to increase the council's transparency.
This is very intentional because I wanted to make clear to people that we meant what we said when we said we were going to be a team and an administration that is here in the Berkshires, that is here in Western Mass., Maura Healey, governor-elect said in a visit to Colonial Theatre on Thursday.
Election nights white-knuckle uncertainty is likely to be with us for some time. Still, there is some day-after analysis to be had. The so-ca
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.
On Nov. 9, 1989: Communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.
The new owners of Tito's Mexican Bar and Grill are hoping to open the restaurant after a Nov. 14 licensing board meeting. The eatery has been trying to secure a liquor license for months, and will likely have its opening without one.
Williamstown Police Department moves to equip officers with body cameras. Is this 'transparency' or a waste of money? After many conversations and lots of research, Interim Police Chief Mike Ziemba is knee-deep in the process of working with vendors to purchase and launch body-mounted cameras for town police officers.

Its good to see another local police department in the Berkshires is readying to adopt a relatively simple practice to prioritize transparency. Williamstown Interim Police Chief Mike Ziembas proposal to put body-mounted cameras on local police officers has backing from town officials. That puts this Northern Berkshire town in line with several other municipalities throughout the county embracing bodycams; Great Barringtons force has been wearing them for more than a month, and departments in Sheffield and Stockbridge have plans to add them to the uniform as well.

Up until a few weeks ago, it seemed like the Pittsfield Police Department also was ready to equip this modern tool to ratchet up accountability in police-civilian interactions. Community members petitioned for bodycams on PPD officers. Pittsfield officials agreed with the sentiment. While Police Chief Michael Wynn initially expressed doubts about the logistics and legality of such a policy, he said his research into the matter settled his previous qualms, and informed the City Council via letter that a bodycam pilot program was ready for imminent launch.

Then, just when Chief Wynn was expected to address the City Council about the pilots rollout, the citys police unions raised previously unmentioned objections to the bodycam pilot. In fact, those objections are still unmentioned, in that both the patrol officers union and police supervisors union still wont specify exactly what are their concerns worth indefinitely delaying the pilots launch. One will be curious to see if the police union makes bodycams a negotiating point in contract talks.

Body cameras bring more transparency to bear on public safety agencies equipped with deadly force that require a foundation of public trust to healthily function. They give citizens a clearer look at the on-duty behavior of those sworn to serve and protect us. That means more direct accountability when police cross the line into misconduct or illegal action, but through an objective lens that also can directly help law enforcement  by clearing officers who act properly in tense or controversial circumstances, by helping to gather evidence at public scenes and by providing invaluable real-world training insight. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security sees the benefit of investing in this modern accountability mechanism and provides grants to help local forces with funding.

Were glad to see Berkshire police departments also grasp the benefits and necessity of adopting bodycams. We applauded Great Barrington for becoming the first force in the county to mandate their use for all on-duty officers, and we similarly applaud Williamstowns interim police chief for seeing the value in a policy he described as low hanging fruit  an obvious and common-sense way to advance his departments transparency.

Yet as weve noted before, its painfully ironic that smaller Berkshire towns seem to be lapping the countys most populous city  which has the most diverse citizenry and the largest police department  when it comes to seizing this low hanging fruit. The citys police unions owe the Pittsfield community an overdue explanation as to why thats the case for a measure backed by organized residents, city officials and the police chief alike. Absent any meaningful explanation, taxpayers are left wondering whether the primary reason for the unions holdup of the bodycam pilot is to leverage its rollout conditions for additional bargaining leverage amid contract negotiations.

Giving off that impression  unlike employing bodycams  only stands to erode public trust in city polices prioritization of transparency and accountability. That could be nipped in the bud if the citys police unions would answer one question: As other Berkshire communities and indeed other police unions back bodycams on police officers, why the unexplained delay in Pittsfield?
To protect and invest in the multi-disciplinary teams of health workers needed to deliver essential health services and prevent and respond to emergencies

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the five members of the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA): FDI World Dental Federation (FDI), International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), International Council of Nurses (ICN), World Physiotherapy, and World Medical Association (WMA).

Together these five organisations represent more than 41 million health professionals worldwide and assemble essential knowledge and experience from the key health professions in more than 130 countries.

This signing ceremony represents an historic event, bringing together the five global organisations representing the worlds dentists, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists and physicians with WHO to enhance their joint collaboration on protecting and investing in the health workforce to provide safe, quality and equitable care in all settings.

It reflects the importance of investing in the health workforce through a multi-stakeholder integrated approach. It provides a framework for joint action between the five organisations and the WHO. They specifically commit to collaborate on priority health workforce issues as well as universal health coverage, noncommunicable diseases, and ageing populations. The framework will also contribute to reinforcing national and regional health systems and services.
Verve, the experts in culture, communities, and smart digital insight, have made five senior research hires across their global hubs in Chicago, Sydney and London.

Gina Gapp

In Chicago, Gina Gapp has been appointed as research and consulting director, bringing over 12 years experience in qualitative and quantitative research across industries that include CPG, foodservice, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and retail. She joins from a role as VP Consumer Goods and Services at Maru, to work on key accounts and new business development at Verve.





Erik Moses

Erik Moses also joins the Chicago team as associate director - he moves from PDT where he spent seven years as a research and design manager. An expert in qualitative research and innovation, Moses will build out Verves ignite@VERVE proposition in the US, following a successful global launch earlier this year.









Lauren Irwin

The Australian team have welcomed Lauren Irwin as senior consultant in their Sydney hub. With skills in quantitative, qualitative and cultural research gained in previous roles at Consulting by Kantar and Lucid, Irwin will be heavily involved in delivering the ignite@VERVE offer to the Australian market.









Katrien Gunn

In London, Katrien Gunn joins as director, and Rachel Skry as associate director  both within Verves research team. Prior to joining Verve, Gunn spent six years in a director role at online community specialist Incling, before which she worked in various roles at C Space over a seven year period. As a qualitative and communities specialist, Gunn will work across a number of key client accounts, and also brings UX experience to build out Verves UX offer with UX lead Jodie Holland.





Rachel Skry

Alongside Gunn, Rachel Skry joins the London team as an associate director. Previously at Ipsos, Skry was a director in the corporate reputation team, specialising technology and consumer sectors. She joins Verve to work on a global technology client.









Founder and CEO Andrew Cooper, comments: Were proud to welcome such a talented group to the team, particularly against the backdrop of what is a very challenging recruitment market. Great people help us win and retain great clients and Im confident that Gina, Erik, Lauren, Katrien and Rachel will help us do exactly that!
The London International Awards (LIA) has revealed its 2022 global and regional of the year winners.

Source: Supplied.

Motif Studios Cape Town was named regional post-production company of the year for the Middle East and Africa, their points were attained from winning work for Jif entered by the agency.

Barbara Levy, president of LIA, said, In total, 754 LIA statues and 230 finalists were awarded to 45 countries with the United States leading with 254 wins. We have Grand LIA winners from companies in countries that have never been awarded them before. In terms of global network of the year, Ogilvy, as a network, has outdone itself this year. They have Grand LIAs from Ogilvy Honduras, Ogilvy India and Ogilvy Thailand. In our health and pharma categories, AREA 23, an IPG Company, truly dominated. They led the statue count in not only health ,but also in pharma, a highly regulated industry. To all our global and tegional winners, the LIA staff sends our heartiest congratulations on such outstanding work!

Of The Year Awards are calculated based on a point system allocated to the winning work chosen by the Juries across all competitions. LIA uses the creative credits that are input at the time of entry to award those points, regardless of the entrant.

Ogilvy leads the points tally to win global network of the year. They were also named regional network of the year for Asia; Europe and South America. They attained these honours by winning a total of 115 Statues; three Grand LIAs, 21 Golds, 35 Silvers, 56 Bronzes and 44 Finalists. The Grand LIAs won by Ogilvy Honduras, Ogilvy India Mumbai and Ogilvy Group Thailand contributed to Ogilvy winning these prestigious awards.

Listed below are all Global and Regional winners:

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Global of The Year Awards:

Global Network of The Year: Ogilvy

Global Independent Network of The Year: SERVICEPLAN

Global Client of The Year: Dole

Global Agency of The Year: alma DDB, Miami

Global Independent Agency of The Year: L&C, New York, New York

Global In-House Agency of The Year: draftLine

Global Health & Pharma Network of The Year: IPG Health

Global Health Agency of The Year: AREA 23, an IPG Health Company, New York

Global Pharma Agency of The Year: AREA 23, an IPG Health Company, New York

Global Independent Health & Pharma Network of The Year: Real Chemistry

Global Health & Pharma Client of The Year: Hip Hop Public Health

Global Production Company of The Year: The Pack, Mumbai

Global Post-Production Company of The Year: The Mill

Global Music & Sound Company of The Year: Canja Audio Culture

Global Design Company of The Year: L&C New York, New York

Global Radio & Audio Company of The Year: JSM

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Regional of The Year Awards for Asia:

Regional Network of The Year: Ogilvy

Regional Agency of The Year: Ogilvy Group Thailand, Bangkok

Regional Independent Agency of The Year: audacity bangkok

Regional Production Company of The Year: The Pack, Mumbai

Regional Post-Production Company of The Year: Rephrase.AI, Bengaluru

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Regional of The Year Awards for Australia and New Zealand:

Regional Agency of The Year: Ogilvy, Melbourne

Regional Independent Network of The Year: Special

Regional Independent Agency of The Year: Howatson+Company

Regional Production Company of The Year: FINCH

Regional Music & Sound Company of The Year: Eardrum, Sydney

Regional Radio & Audio Company of The Year: Eardrum, Sydney

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Regional of The Year Awards for Europe:

Regional Network of The Year: Ogilvy

Regional Independent Network of The Year: Jung von Matt

Regional Agency of The Year: DAVID Madrid, Madrid

Regional Independent Agency of The Year: SERVICEPLAN Germany, Munich

Regional Production Company of The Year: Iconoclast Germany, Berlin

Regional Post-Production Company of The Year: The Mill

Regional Music & Sound Company of The Year: 750mph, London

Regional Radio & Audio Company of The Year: Accenture Song, Brussels

Regional Design Company of The Year: SERVICEPLAN Germany, Munich

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Regional of The Year Awards for Middle East and Africa:

Regional Agency of The Year: IMPACT BBDO, Dubai

Regional Production Company of The Year: DejaVu, Dubai

Regional Post-Production Company of The Year: Motif Studios, Cape Town

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Regional of The Year Awards for North America:

Regional Network of The Year: FCB

Regional Agency of The Year: alma DDB, Miami

Regional Independent Agency of The Year: L&C New York, New York

Regional In-House Agency of The Year: draftLine, New York

Regional Health & Pharma Network of The Year: IPG Health

Regional Health Agency of The Year: AREA 23, an IPG Health Company

Regional Pharma Agency of The Year: AREA 23, an IPG Health Company

Regional Production Company of The Year: Dalmatian Cow, Los Angeles

Regional Post-Production Company of The Year: Company 3

Regional Music & Sound Company of The Year: JSM Music, New York

Regional Radio & Audio Company of The Year: JSM Music, New York

Regional Design Company of The Year: L&C New York, New York

The following companies were honored with the 2022 Regional of The Year Awards for South America:

Regional Network of The Year: Ogilvy

Regional Agency of The Year: Ogilvy Honduras, Tegucigalpa

Regional Health & Pharma Network of The Year: IPG Health

Regional Production Company of The Year: The Youth, Curitiba

Regional Post-Production Company of The Year: Studios Machina

Regional Music & Sound Company of The Year: Canja Audio Culture

To view all the winners and finalists with media and full creative credits, visit here.
Both globally and locally, consumers are increasingly demanding premium bottled water products that are more appealing in terms of design and packaging, specific mineral contents, or offering a variety of health benefits. This is resulting in a wave of innovative, premium bottled water products flowing into the local and global markets, as manufacturers try to meet this rising demand by offering region-specific mineral water, and even elevated bottled water experiences, to quench the thirst for premium products.

Insight Surveys latest South African Bottled/Packaged Water Industry Landscape Report 2022, carefully uncovers the global and local bottled/packaged water market (including the impact of Covid-19), based on the latest intelligence and research. In particular, it describes the latest global and local market trends, innovation and technology, drivers, and challenges, to present an objective insight into the South African bottled water industry environment and its future.

In 2022, the global bottled water market is expected to reach an estimated value of approximately $328.60bn. Furthermore, the market is projected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.29% to reach a value of approximately $419.37bn by 2026, as illustrated in the graph below.

Source: Statista Graphics by Insight Survey

In terms of the South African market, the local bottled water market achieved growth of 6.7% year-on-year, in current prices, between 2020 and 2021. Moreover, the market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 7.2%, over the 2022* to 2026* forecast period.

This growth in both the global and local bottled water markets can be attributed, in part, to the rise in premiumisation, with numerous market players offering elevated products and experiences that cater to the growing demand for premium products.

Globally, consumers are becoming increasingly selective in terms of the taste, temperature, and mineral content of the water they consume. This has resulted in the introduction of high-end bottled waters offering region-specific mineral contents, such as Fiji Water, and evian, which is sourced from the French Alps. In terms of elevated experiences, water sommeliers are also becoming increasingly popular, offering Bottled Water evaluations and recommendations based on consumers needs.

Demand for premium bottled water products and experiences are also growing within the South African bottled water market. This premiumisation is evident in the growing presence of water sommeliers, as well as restaurants dedicated to top-quality bottled water offerings. As an example, the KoL Izakhaya restaurant in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, has a dedicated premium bottled water menu, including products priced at up to R650 per bottle.

Increasingly, local consumers are perceiving bottled water products as having different benefits, and tastes, and being of a certain quality, depending on where the water is sourced from. Local players, including Mountain Falls, Lofoten Arctic Water, Perlage, and Nevas Water, have responded to this expectation by promoting both the source and mineral content of its water.

In particular, Mountain Falls sources its bottled water from the Klenrivier Mountain Range in the Western Cape; Arctic Water from the Arctic Circle; Perlage from the Naeczow Spa area; and Nevas Water gets its water from two artisan sources. Many of these products are also taste tested by accredited sommeliers, contributing to its premium positioning.

Further adding to their premium status, these brands are also incorporating high-end packaging and design for their bottled water products. As an illustration, Mountain Falls now offers its bottled water products in premium glass bottles, whilst Nevas Water has incorporated a popping cork into the design of its bottled water product packaging. Some bottles of premium bottled water are even adorned with precious stones.

The South African Bottled/Packaged Water Industry Landscape Report 2022 (115 pages) provides a dynamic synthesis of industry research, examining the local and global bottled water industry (including the impact of Covid-19) from a uniquely holistic perspective, with detailed insights into the entire value chain  market sizes and forecasts, industry trends, latest innovation and technology, key drivers and challenges, as well as manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and pricing analysis.

Some key questions the report will help you to answer:

What are the current market dynamics of the global and South African bottled water industry?



What are the latest global and South African bottled water industry trends, innovation and technology, drivers, and challenges?



What are the market value and volume trends in the South African bottled water industry (2016-2021) and forecasts (2022-2026), including the impact of Covid-19?



Which are the key manufacturers, distributors, and retail players in the South African bottled water industry?



What is the latest company news for key players in terms of products, new launches, and marketing initiatives?



What are the prices of popular bottled water brands and products (still, carbonated, and flavoured and functional) across South African retail outlets?

Please note that the 115-page full report is available for purchase for R35,000.00 (excluding VAT). Alternatively, individual sections can be purchased for R15,000.00 (excluding VAT). For additional information simply contact us at az.oc.yevrusthgisni@ofni or directly on (021) 045-0202 or (010) 140- 5756.

For a full brochure please go to: South African Bottled Water Industry Landscape Brochure 2022.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation echoed African leaders' calls for countries to rapidly scale-up finance for climate adaptation and pledged to invest $1.4bn to help smallholder farmers address the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change.

Source: Supplied.

The announcement was made by Gates Foundation chief executive officer, Mark Suzman at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop27).

For many regions, climate change is a food and economic crisis without precedent.

More than 2 billion people depend on smallholder farms for food and income, yet less than 2% of global climate finance is devoted to helping these farms adapt to climate change.

Food and economic crises will last longer and become more severe as climate threats escalate and further threaten food security by limiting smallholder farmers yields and resilience.

The effects of climate change have already been devastating, and every moment the world delays action, more people suffer, and the solutions become more complex and costly, said Suzman.

Our commitment will help smallholder farmers adapt today and build resilience for the future. It is essential for this climate summit to produce bold commitments that address immediate and long-term needs. Leaders must listen to the voices of African farmers and governments to understand their priorities and respond with urgency.

The foundations commitment will fund immediate action and long-term initiatives over four years to help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia build resilience and food security.

Climate-smart projects

Funding will focus on spurring African-led innovation to build a pipeline of climate-smart agriculture projects, new applications of digital technologies, climate-smart innovations for smallholder livestock farming, and support for women smallholder farmers to capitalise on their untapped potential.

Women in rural Africa are the backbone of their food systems, but they have never had equal access to the resources they need to reach their full potential or build resilience to looming climate threats, said Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As the climate crisis accelerates, womens vital role in their economies is too important to overlook. With the right financing and marketing support, women smallholder farmers could earn more in a day than they currently earn in a month, ultimately transforming these regional food systems and unlocking a healthier, more sustainable, and more prosperous future for families and communities across the continent.

To improve the livelihoods of rural women in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the foundation is deepening its ongoing partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad).

The goal is to scale up initiatives that empower women farmers, support innovations at the nexus of gender and climate adaptation, and increase climate finance that gives rural women better access to the climate-smart resources they need to strengthen food systems.

To accelerate the development of new adaptation innovations, the foundation is continuing to work with a coalition of partners to double the budget for the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) agriculture research system.

The CGIAR excellence in agronomy initiative partners with African research institutes, local businesses, and farmer organisations.

Together, they are using Big Data Analytics, and digital platforms to deliver insights that can boost incomes, food security, and ecosystem health in smallholder farming communities.

The climate crisis is causing enormous harm every day as it jeopardises entire regions of people and economies, said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

More funding is necessary to ensure agricultural and technological innovations are widely available to vulnerable communities, helping them to adapt to climate change, save lives and increase economic growth.

Additional investments included in the announced commitment will support:

The Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) to quickly build a pipeline of climate-smart agriculture projects across 23 countries in Africa. Funding will provide targeted support for the technical capacity, planning, and project development required to implement programmes

The development of new applications of digital technologies to ensure smallholder farmers can anticipate and respond to climate threats. This includes an innovative weather intelligence platform developed through a new partnership between the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (Kalro) and

TomorrowNow, which provides climate-smart agriculture strategies to farmers in East Africa by means of text messages., and

African-led innovations to develop climate-smart options for improving livestock health and productivity while also reducing their climate footprint. This will be done in partnership with Canadas International Development Research Center (IDRC).

This funding builds on more than a decade of investments and the foundations recent announcement during the United Nations General Assembly of $100m in funding to help alleviate the current food crisis in Africa and South Asia and address its underlying causes.

It also builds on funding commitments focused on agriculture adaptation made at previous climate summits:
The economic landscape alongside consumers' approach to content, commerce and community sets the tone for 10 key media trends in 2023.

For the second year running, Dentsu International has collectively gathered and published the insights and predictions of all its global media agencies into the ultimate 2023 Media Trends guide for marketers worldwide. Drawing on experts and specialists from Carat, Dentsu X and iProspect the report launched today explores the biggest media trends to watch out for in the coming year.

With over 35 pages of commentary, Dentsu 2023 Media Trends examines 10 industry trends which will shape how brands tap into shifting consumer behaviour and have significant implications for future campaigns and budget allocations. The unique report conveniently groups these key 2023 trends within three overarching categories reflecting core themes of Content, Commerce and Community.

Speaking about the report and the collaboration involved, Peter Huijboom, Global CEO, Media & Global Clients, Dentsu International, says This year we witnessed a very different geopolitical landscape and a new and challenging economic outlook, which has forced brands and people to really stop and re-evaluate many things. Through all this uncertainty, weve been able to see the emergence of new consumer behaviours, exciting tech innovation and the spark of profitable new media opportunities for brands.

As a leading agency network, we pride ourselves on knowing people better than anyone else and, understanding whats next. This couldnt be made clearer than within this 2023 Media Trends report: our media specialists from around the globe have once again identified those burgeoning societal shifts impacting the industry and brought them into the spotlight.

Lerina Bierman, managing director, Carat South Africa (a Dentsu company), said On the African continent things are changing at a rapid pace and brands need to be in tune with their consumers on a very human level, connecting with them though touch points that fit into their lives in a seamless way, and hold their attention.

According to the new Dentsu report, the key predictions for the direction of the media industry into 2023 and beyond are:

Content

2023 will bring changes in the content people consume and how they do it. The speed of the shift to digital platforms shows no signs of slowing down especially in the video on demand and gaming sector. The changes in the general economic landscape will lead consumers to evaluate the number of platforms and associated costs linked to subscriptions. The advance of advertising streams may not only provide an alternative to consumers, but it will also provide brands with an opportunity to attract the attention of consumers and capitalise on advertising streams.

#1 AVOD eats SVOD  Ad-funded video platform is set to overtake subscription channels with time, as major streaming platforms are adding ad-funded tiers.

 Ad-funded video platform is set to overtake subscription channels with time, as major streaming platforms are adding ad-funded tiers. #2 Games Everywhere  Gaming is becoming mainstream. Games are becoming increasingly prominent on content sites to drive repeat users.

 Gaming is becoming mainstream. Games are becoming increasingly prominent on content sites to drive repeat users. #3 Attention Brings Back the Essence of Advertising  Interest in attention is growing as brands look beyond metrics of reach and viewability to assess consumer engagement and make more effective decisions.

Commerce

Digital commerce continues to evolve, both in importance and diversification of sites, apps and platforms. Consumers are now able to shop at any time from almost anywhere, paving the way for both retail sites and apps expanding their services and offerings to cater for shifting consumer demand and flexibility. The challenge for brands is to engage directly with consumers whilst at the same time planning and adapting for a cookieless future and respecting data privacy.

#1 From Going Shopping to Always Shopping  Consumers can shop anywhere and anytime. As a result, retail sites are evolving to content sites and commerce sites are changing to media sites.

 Consumers can shop anywhere and anytime. As a result, retail sites are evolving to content sites and commerce sites are changing to media sites. #2 Retail Media Shakes Up Adland  Retail platforms and sites are turning themselves into advertising platforms and becoming attractive propositions for brands due to retailers huge wealth of first-party data.

 Retail platforms and sites are turning themselves into advertising platforms and becoming attractive propositions for brands due to retailers huge wealth of first-party data. #3 The Rise of the Super Apps  Apps are evolving and continue to build ecosystems offering a wide range of services, to anticipate and cater for users needs.

 Apps are evolving and continue to build ecosystems offering a wide range of services, to anticipate and cater for users needs. #4 No Way Back for Third-Party Cookies  Brands continue to navigate a cookieless future and advertisers will explore and test the solutions working best for their brands.

Community

Digitalised communities are a mainstay by now. They continue to change and reflect both technological and societal changes. Social media platforms are adopting their algorithms to encourage engagement and within social media the live events are spilling over to other platforms forming new communities.

Consumers are now able to join global communities aligning with personal views on sustainability and responsibility. Brands should understand the motivations and formation of online communities, to encourage engagement and adaptations to future campaigns to better connect with their chosen audience in the context most befitting the intended message.

#1 'Going Live' goes a long way  Brands and platforms are increasingly using the go live functions to build a community to create interest through live events. Not only to bring consumers together, but also to encourage live, active, engagement.

 Brands and platforms are increasingly using the go live functions to build a community to create interest through live events. Not only to bring consumers together, but also to encourage live, active, engagement. #2 Responsibility takes centre stage  Communities are emerging through a common emphasis on brand responsibility. Platforms are opportunities to share relevant content and increasingly measure impacts of campaigns.

 Communities are emerging through a common emphasis on brand responsibility. Platforms are opportunities to share relevant content and increasingly measure impacts of campaigns. #3 Social algorithms give users what they dont know they want  It is not about who you follow in as much as what social media platforms want you to see.



Each trend is explored in further detail within the report and concludes with clear suggestions and takeaways for marketers and brands to implement into their plans.

To find out more about the trends and to access a free copy of the Dentsu 2023 Media Trends report please visit www.dentsu.com/reports/media_trends_2023.
Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has announced that it will be sponsoring the Communal Farming Association of the Year competition. The new competition will form part of the Young Farmer of the Year and New Harvest of the Year competitions - both permanent features on the local agricultural calendar.

Toyota has been sponsoring the Young Farmer since 2004, New Harvest since 2008 and Conservation South Africa (CSA) since 2017.

One of Conservation SAs main responsibilities is to support the growth of communal farming in the country, and they have no less than 2,000 farmers under their watch from four provinces in South Africa. The newly announced Communal Farming Association of the Year Competition is multifaceted and is aimed at promoting sustainable farming, food security and land reform, as well as building resilience to climate change.

The new competition is open to a group of at least five previously-disadvantaged farmers (organised as a cooperative or association), aged 18 and above, who are farming on communal land (owned by a municipality, owned or administered by a tribal authority or made available through rental by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development).

The convenor of the panel of adjudicators of the Communal Farming Association (as well as Young Farmer and New Harvest of the Year) competition, Prof Carlu van der Westhuizen adds: "The group should be in existence for a minimum of two years, and must be able to prove their existence through their official documents such as certificates, proprietorship documents or meeting minutes."

Entries for the competition in 2022 will be through the regional branches of CSA. Thereafter, a representative (and their partner) from each of the top five communal farmer groups will attend the Young Farmer/New Harvest of the Year Awards function, where the winning Communal Farming Association of the Year will also be announced.

Senior vice president of sales and marketing at TSAM, Leon Theron says: "We are thrilled to add another exciting element to the successful Young Farmer / New Harvest of the Year Awards. We hope that by promoting communal farming, we will be playing a role in alleviating poverty while also encouraging sustainable farming practices."
The inaugural MTN x UJ Contemporary Awards have announced the selected finalists.

Natalie Paneng, Callen Grecia, Thandiwe Msebenzi, and Inga Somdyala

The awards look at developing both the curator and the artists selected to participate.

This year, Khanya Mashabela was awarded the curatorship of MTN X UJ New Contemporary Awards - and since her appointment earlier this year - she has been formulating her research, selection of artists and curatorial vision for the inaugural event to be held on 25 November 2022 at UJ Art Gallery.

The MTN X UJ New Contemporary Awards programme places an emphasis on developments in the digital art sphere, and this is where Mashabela had to focus her attention.

Under the working title Object, she navigates the premise that given the speed and breadth of contemporary culture, definitive statements about what it means to be an artist in the South African context will quickly be made redundant.

She looks to exploring identity as a construction which is both real and imagined, and which is communicated through objects in physical and virtual realms. Her selected artists take a variety of approaches to the project of identity construction, with the exhibition serving as a curated view of a cross-section of strategies.

Though the internet has radically changed us, many of the concerns navigated via digital and lens-based media have existed long before then. I dont intend the exhibition to examine the internet as something which is external to the real world. Rather it will explore the relationship between selfhood and objecthood, in the contemporary context; a relationship which is often mediated through technology, says Mashabela.

What excites me the most about the relationship between the arts and technology is the accessibility it allows the general public to interact with the arts, and how our young curators, artists, academics and specialists will be the driving force behind this crucial intervention, states Niel Nortje, manager of MTNs Art Collection.

The four artists selected as finalists for the MTN X UJ New Contemporary Awards Programme are Cape Town-based artists Inga Somdyala and Thandiwe Msebenzi, Callan Grecia working in George and Natalie Paneng based in Johannesburg.

Image supplied: Callen Grecia's artwork

Mashabelas final selection demonstrates her understanding of both the medium and the curatorial possibilities. We are excited about the work that these four artists will create for the exhibition in November. This award programme pushes the boundaries of curatorial practice; it is also about being bold, innovative and courageous, says Thabo Seshoka, curator of the UJ Art Gallery.

Mashabelas research was mainly conducted through artist-run online spaces including Floating Reveries and Bubblegum Club, as well as physical, artist-organised exhibitions and studio visits. Although the use of digital mediums and interactive art is established and growing, in South Africa, one of the challenges Mashabela found in making her selection was that many technologically adept artists working with digital art as their primary medium had moved into fields such as marketing and tech rather than the visual arts.

In making her final decision Mashabela was supported by the Legacy Panel which consists of four previous MTN New Contemporaries Award curators: Kathryn Smith, Portia Malatjie, Nontobeko Ntombela and Khwezi Gule with Melissa Goba as the panel convener.

Though Natalie Paneng and Callan Grecia use very different tools, they are both interested in mediated personal identities - the aesthetic choices we make as we represent ourselves and our environments virtually, states Mashabela.

She continues, Thandiwe Msebenzi takes a more historical approach in the Radical Makaza, a project in tribute to her aunts personal history, the project was prototyped on Instagram with Msebenzi using clothes and landscapes along with digital filters to recreate and invent an identity, with an atmosphere of historicity.

Inga Somdyalas approach is more abstract than the other artists, but he too is exploring material culture and the ability of objects to act as a fundamental part of selfhood, though he is more explicit about his interest in a broader national identity. Somdyalas works have more in common with early video art, which often relied on the relatively low-tech of a lone performer engaging with the camera. Somdyala also chooses extremely tactile objects which reasserts the power of physicality, she concludes.

Over the coming months the four artists, guided by Mashabelas vision, will create an artwork to be exhibited at the MTN X UJ New Contemporary Awards on 25 November 2022 at the UJ Art Gallery.
Design Indaba has partnered with Google Arts and Culture to launch 'Colours of Africa', an online project that showcases 60 specially curated artworks produced by over 60 African creatives.

Image supplied: Camouflage by Vincent Montocchio

Each creative was invited to contribute a work that captures the colour and character of their home country.

Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Each country, city and community is identifiable by its unique palette, says Design Indabas founder Ravi Naidoo. Naidoo selected the featured creatives from a wide range of disciplines, from architecture, illustration, painting and ceramics to writing, engineering, the performing arts and visual communications.

Their creations have been converted into images, videos, texts and illustrations, showcasing the best of African craft, product, industrial design, fashion, film, animation, graphics, food, music, jewellery and architecture.

The multidisciplinary mix of artists includes 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.

The first artistic undertaking of this scale, the project enables viewers to discover the stories of Africa as told by the African creative community. The artworks are showcased online, where users are invited to spin a kaleidoscope to explore the works in a virtual journey through the palette of Africa, viewing each country through the eyes of a local artist.

Image supplied: Spirit of Violet by Anyango Mpinga

This project tells a story of a continent through a universally accessible lens, says Naidoo.

To bring the project to life, Design Indaba enlisted former Design Indaba conference speaker Noel Pretorius and his creative partner, Elin Sjoberg, who collaborated with Google Arts and Culture Lab to create the design concept and interface for the digital exhibition. The kaleidoscopic navigation tool can be used to explore the art in a randomised way, giving the visitor a unique experience while allowing the art itself to shine.

Were very excited to break new ground. This is an important 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, says Naidoo.

Image supplied: White is a colour of movement by Mayada Adil El

In addition to the Colours of Africa platform, the initiative incorporates the launch of over 4,000 images and videos and 20 carefully curated exhibits from Design Indabas extensive archive.

Award-winning initiatives like Sheltersuit, Arch for Arch and Emerging Creatives are extensively profiled online for the first time. New works by some of the most important creatives working on the continent and abroad are displayed. These include Fozia Ismail, who was a featured creative on Serpentine Gallerys Creative Exchange programme; Mayada Adil El Sayed, who represented Sudanese women at the Generation Equality Forum; and Lady Skollie, the winner of the 10th FNB art prize.

To view Colours of Africa, visit here.



For more:

www.designindaba.com
There are indeed some green shoots in the local construction industry, despite the dire predictions that the sector is facing imminent collapse.

Bongani Dladla, CEO of the CIDB

2023 will be a consequential year of recovery after the industry was hit by successive waves of adversity in recent times  a universal pandemic, a sharp economic downturn, ongoing energy woes, and a regional conflict which threatens to deliver long-term, global consequences.

Construction is often a bellwether indicator of the health of the broader economy, even though it currently accounts for approximately 3% of gross domestic product. If there is an uptick in construction activity, it may well lead to a recovery in other sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and technology.

Upward movement in construction activity

Several recently published reports conclude that there is an upward movement in construction activity which may have a ripple effect on the broader sector, including emerging contractors, Black-owned and women-owned enterprises.

The SA Construction Market Report, published by Construct Africa projects that the industry will stabilise at an annual average growth rate of 3% from 2023 to 2026. This will, predominantly, be on the back of expected major investment flowing from governments R2.3tn infrastructure plan and the benefits flowing from the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.

The bulk of this spending will go towards catalytic public infrastructure projects in the fields of energy, transport, housing, and digital infrastructure. A construction project pipeline to the value of R340bn has already been announced.

The Afrimat Construction Index, published in September 2022, is also cautiously optimistic. It reports that, the construction sector increased the value added to the economy by 4.1% in real terms in the second quarter of the year.

This was achieved despite the negative impact of events such as load shedding, the floods in KwaZulu-Natal and a sharply higher fuel price. It notes increases in both the volume and value of construction material  leading indicators of future construction activities, and an increase in employment, which is expected to accelerate once the infrastructure activities gather momentum.

Improved industry sentiment

The findings of the two external reports match that of the Construction Industry Development Boards (CIDB) own research conducted in partnership with the Bureau for Economic Research. Our most recent Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Business Conditions Survey reflects an improved sentiment within the industry and an optimism that the coming period will deliver higher levels of construction activities and growths in profitability.

These are important indicators for the CIDB which plays a pivotal role in the sector as a regulator, facilitator and catalyst for development and transformation. We have a vision of a construction sector that is inclusive, ethical and a primary contributor to a prosperous economy.

Although we have a broad interest in the entire industry, the CIDBs primary focus has traditionally been construction activity in the public sector which is highly dependent on governments investment in infrastructure  new roads, bridges, dams, schools, clinics, government buildings, and housing projects.

Public sector underspending

One of the biggest concerns raised in most reports and surveys pertains to underspending by infrastructure client departments, at national, provincial, and metro levels, as well as within state-owned companies.

It is of critical importance that the public sector improves its capacity to manage infrastructure projects under its control and address the lingering concerns within the industry about delays in the awarding of contracts, tardiness in implementation and late payments of contractors.

It is also imperative that emerging contractors benefit from an upswing in construction activities. Public sector spending in the sector must create opportunities for new players to participate in major activities, improve their grading, and gain vital experience which will enable them to become eligible for future projects, service delivery and employment. Focus should not only be on the public sector. The new direction is to also include the private sector.

Broad-scale participation

The entire spectrum of the construction sector must benefit from the anticipated investment in public infrastructure. Participation must be broadened to include emerging contractors  especially Black-owned and female-owned enterprises  and attract a new generation of entrepreneurs to the sector.

The nature of construction has undergone rapid and irreversible changes in recent years. The adoption of new technologies in fields such as automation, modular construction and artificial intelligence has changed the future shape of the sector.

Care should be taken that such technologies are readily accessible to smaller participants in the industry and not lead to a widening of the gulf between dominant players in the market and emerging contractors.

Closing the skills gap

Moreover, the focus must remain on training and skills development. There is an urgent need to close the gap between the skills that South Africans have, and the skills that our economy needs.

This is where the CIDB can play a critical role at the interface between the public sector, the broader construction industry, and the growing number of emerging contractors who want to help build a futuristic South Africa.
A team at the University of Cape Town (UCT), lead by Dr Jacques de Wet of the Department of Sociology, is developing a digital archive of early isiXhosa publications authored by African intellectuals, which will enable easier access to the texts for research purposes.

Image source: Kampus Production from Pexels

De Wet has begun to introduce these African thinkers into contemporary sociology through his own teaching and research.

Most sociology students will be familiar with the names Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, influential European sociologists who lived and wrote in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But far fewer, even in South Africa, would have heard the names Mpilo Walter Benson Rubusana and Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi, African intellectuals and social commentators from the same period who published their work in isiXhosa.

Their writings significantly influenced African ideological and intellectual projects of the period, which culminated in 1912 with the launching of the South African Native National Congress, later known as the Africa National Congress (ANC).

Fortunately, work is underway to bring their writings to light.

De Wet, head of the isiXhosa Sociological Concepts and Intellectual Traditions Research Group, and Amandla Ngwendu, from African Languages at UCT, working with a team of isiXhosa-speaking students are digitising isiXhosa newspapers and books from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The goal of the archive is to make the writings of these African intellectuals available and research-ready for contemporary study.

The IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive, already available on the iBali platform hosted by UCT Libraries Digital Library Service, was born out of a conversation between De Wet and a colleague who was researching the writings of Mqhayi.

De Wet elaborates: Guided by the work of Neville Alexander on multilingualism and decolonising academia, I began to read Mqhayis work in isiXhosa and soon realised that if we were going to decolonise sociology and contribute meaningfully to the making of an African sociology, it was critical that we engaged with these and other texts written in the vernacular and grapple with the socially constructed meanings of African sociological concepts as they are conveyed through these texts.

Accessing the isiXhosa writings

Part of the challenge of researching the writings of African intellectuals, published at the turn of the 20th century, was accessing their work.

These texts are scattered across numerous libraries in South Africa, and they are in varying conditions, De Wet explains.

The books are easier to access, but isiXhosa newspapers from the 1800s are very fragile and, for that reason, many are not available to the public. They can be viewed only as static digital images.

The challenge of trying to access and convert these writings for his own research got De Wet thinking about the value of a digital archive. This plan gained considerable urgency after the devastating fires at UCT in 2021, which destroyed so many primary collections.

Working with Ngwendu and his former student Dr Jonathan Schoots (at Stellenbosch University), De Wet managed to secure funding and recruited a team of isiXhosa-speaking students to build the IsiXIT Digital Archive. It includes PDFs and text files of early isiXhosa newspapers and books as well as additional information (metadata) about each publication and its contents.

It is an expensive and time-consuming endeavour, De Wet says. We had to purchase digital copies of the newspapers. Then we converted them into text documents using optical character recognition software. Thereafter, the converted text needed to be corrected for formatting, spelling and other errors.

Here is where the work of the isiXhosa-speaking students was invaluable.

Working under the guidance of Ngwendu, the students worked systematically to correct errors before the texts were uploaded to the collection.

The newspapers are often damaged, says Ngwendu. It is therefore incredibly important that the students are very fluent in isiXhosa and engage carefully with the content because sometimes words are illegible, and they would have to read in context to figure out what the word is supposed to be.

Research and the collection

The collection is gradually expanding. But the team receives emails requesting even more material.

Ngwendu, while sceptical at first about the idea, soon changed her mind when she began engaging with the texts. And now that emails are coming in asking for more content, the value of the work is clear.

Zimingonaphakade Sigenu is just one of students using the collection for research. De Wet supervised Sigenus masters thesis that drew on the archive and other sources to investigate the socially constructed meanings of the isiXhosa concept of impucuko and how it has evolved over the past 150 years.

Making a discipline our own

De Wet is also introducing this work into his teaching.

We now have bilingual publications that allow students to learn about isiXhosa sociological concepts, he says. Once we have sufficient sociological concepts in isiXhosa, we can progress to indigenous theories.

He was heartened by the comments from one isiXhosa-speaking student who told De Wet that when she first started studying sociology, she could not find herself in the discipline; she saw it as something foreign. After working on the archive and reading the research outputs, her view shifted. She told De Wet that she was now able to locate herself in the discipline and saw sociology as something that is ours.

This begins to show the importance of the IsiXIT Digital Archive as a source for decolonising our curricula, says De Wet.

When sociology is no longer foreign and students can identify with it  and academia more generally  then we are likely to see new contextually relevant, innovative research that pushes the frontiers of knowledge both locally and globally.
OFM's very own Shandor Potgieter, the host of the Good Morning Breakfast Show, 6-9am on weekdays, will take on the K-Way SkyRun 100 race to raise funds for the Reach for a Dream Foundation.

The SkyRun will take place in the remote terrain of the Witteberg mountain range in the Eastern Free State on 19 November 2022.

Shandors fundraising goal is R100,000. Donations start at R1,000 per km.

He says a few years ago he met a boy with a life-threatening disease in Kimberley. Reach for a Dream made his dream come true, and to see the hope and inspiration it put back into his life was astounding. This year he celebrated his 19th birthday! It is 12 years later and to this day he credits Reach for a Dream for giving him the desire and will to keep on fighting.

According to Potgieter, it was this meeting that planted the seed in his mind to become involved with children with life-threatening diseases. More recently, I became aware of 20 kids who are living with life-threatening diseases. I asked Reach for a Dream how much it would cost to make their dreams come true and they said R100,000. I then thought of the 100km K-Way SkyRun  I would use this as a platform to create sustainable change in these childrens lives. Its like throwing a rock into a pool  its about the ripple effect. I wanted to create hope for a few people and this would hopefully inspire others to go out and do the same.

Join OFM, the sound of your life in Central South Africa, in supporting this project and assisting Reach for a Dream to make these and many more dreams come true.

To donate, use the following banking details:

Reach for a Dream  BFN

Bank: FNB

Branch: 261251

Account number: 56291115868

Reference: Name/Shandor100

Follow Shandor on social media @shandorpotgieter to stay up to date with his training for the K-Way SkyRun, and his race results.




Hoorah Agency won three awards at the 2022 Pendoring Awards for their latest work on the Bain's Whisky brand - the Bain's X Pata Pata Reimagined TVC.

With a brief to create a campaign for the premium, multi-award-winning brand that would have relevance for a new and wider audience, Hoorah turned to music as the pillar on which to base the new commercial.

How do you reimagine one of South Africas most iconic songs for todays music lovers? With award-winning artists, Msaki and Sun-El Musician and an ambitious brand, Bains Whisky.

The final TVC brought Deep Fake AI, CGI, and advanced sound technology together to recreate a performance where Miriam Makeba performed Pata Pata. The unmistakable opening bars of the song transition into the remastered version, performed by Sun-EL Musician and Msaki.

The campaign demonstrated that the best way to honour icons of the past is to build on their legacy by pushing ones craft to the next level.

Group ECD at Hoorah, Marco Russolillo, explains: Brave, creative ideas require brave clients. Our partnership with Bains Whisky and the larger Distell team is proving to be a formidable one. We look forward to continuing to push creative boundaries with our clients and brands.

What is really great is to see that we are now winning awards in the TV space, which is new for us., says Anine de Wet, Head of Client Service at Hoorah. She continues, We have worked hard to become a leading full-service agency that creates purpose-driven ideas.

Shaune Jordaan, CEO of Hoorah, adds, We are delighted to be represented amongst the best in the industry. We will continue to innovate and push for creative excellence for our client(s). Hoorah has had a successful year of growth, and the Pendoring Awards are a testament.

The Pendoring Awards encourages the country and industry to promote, unify and celebrate South Africas creative content in all its indigenous languages. The agency's work for the Bains Whisky brand has been transformative for the brand and the agency.

At the Pendoring Awards, Hoorah won the following awards:
Tongaat Hulett business rescue practitioners and SA Canegrowers have reached an agreement which ensures payment of monies owing to growers for cane delivered to Tongaat Hulett mills.

The agreement, which covers payments still outstanding to canegrowers and industry service providers as well as the payments that will become due at the end of November for the cane delivered in October 2022, is a critical step to protecting the thousands of livelihoods at stake in the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal.

Source: Victoria Priessnitz via Unsplash

Under the agreement, outstanding October payments to commercial growers for sugarcane delivered in September will be made by Friday, 11 November 2022. Payments due to small-scale growers at the end of November 2022 for sugarcane delivered in October will be paid in full, while suitable terms have been agreed for staggered payments to commercial growers.

Most commercial growers have already received the October payments.

SA Canegrowers also emphasised the necessity of payments to industry service providers such as contractors, haulier companies, and input suppliers without whom growers cannot operate. The business rescue practitioners have confirmed that the outstanding payments to service providers will also be affected this week, together with payments to commercial growers.

Commercial growers agreed to waive their claim for interest due on delayed payments in recognition of the difficult position Tongaat Hulett finds itself in, and in the interests of other affected stakeholders.

Growers had required payment prior to any resumption of supplies to Tongaat Hulett. Once the outstanding October payments are effected, growers will resume deliveries to the mills in Felixton, Maidstone, and Amatikulu, enabling Tongaat Hulett to resume operations at its mills and refinery and to once again generate cashflow.

Crisis far from over

It remains to be seen whether Tongaat Hulett will be able to secure the funding needed to complete the off-crop maintenance that is required for its mills to operate next season. The risk remains that Tongaat Hulett will not emerge from business rescue, once again plunging the industry into a crisis.

It, therefore, remains essential that critical stakeholders, including government and lenders, work with the industry to ensure the success of the business rescue process.

The association says that it continues to implore Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, and minister of agriculture, land reform, and rural development, Thoko Didiza, to meet with industry stakeholders to address this situation. The demise of Tongaat Hulett would undo years of work under the Sugarcane Value Chain Masterplan, reversing efforts to shield the local market from cheap sugar imports and protect the one million livelihoods that depend on the sugar industry.

The association has also welcomed the action of the business rescue practitioners to ensure the prioritisation of grower payments. This is critical not only for the maintenance of good relations between Tongaat Hulett and its supplying growers, but also for the protection of thousands of vital livelihoods on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal.
SOUTH BEND, Ind.  Forty-two percent of Americas young-but-cynical Generation Z are dealing with a mental health condition, a new survey finds. A range of these issues were largely identified during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The analysis by Harmony Healthcare IT suggests tens of millions of Gen Z young adults started dealing with a mental health problem in the months immediately following the start of the global pandemic in March 2020. The Indiana-based data management companys survey highlights a staggering percentage of young adults diagnosed with anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the pandemic.

Three-quarters of these Americans, all under the age of 25, say the pandemic negatively impacted their mental health, with many citing loneliness and uncertainty about the future.

Eighty-five percent of Gen Z respondents say theyre worried about the future in general. The vast majority cite their personal finances, the economy, the environment, and the countrys increasingly polarized political landscape as top concerns.

Nearly 90 percent of Gen Z respondents believe their generation is not set up for success and 75 percent feel they are at a disadvantage in comparison to previous generations (like baby boomers or Gen X) who are at least 42 years-old in 2022. This latest poll portrays Gen Z as overwhelmingly cynical about the post-pandemic world and what role they may one day play in it.

1 in 5 young adults are seeing a therapist

Twenty percent of the 1,000 Gen Z study participants say they have a regular therapist, 57 percent take regular medication, and 39 percent attend therapy for mental health issues once a week. Gen Zers are also two times more likely than millennials or Gen Xer to report struggling with daily emotional distress issues.

More than two in five of the countrys 68 million Gen Zers have a clinically-diagnosed mental health condition. Nine in 10 Gen Z adults diagnosed with mental health issues say they struggle specifically with anxiety. Moreover, eight in 10 say they fight against frequent bouts of depression.

Almost one-third of Gen Z survey respondents rate their overall mental health in 2022 as bad, with a sizable portion of these young people saying they have more bad days than good in any given month. Many of these often-intangible mental health issues may have a connection to very tangible concerns about daily life among Americas increasingly pessimistic young people.

Sixty-six percent of Gen Z respondents say they dont feel financially stable and half of these young Americans dont feel ready to join the U.S. workforce. An overwhelming majority say theyre concerned about the future of the economy and 90 percent are perpetually worried about their personal finances.

Sociologists and statisticians identify Gen Z as the third-largest American population behind the millennials and baby boomers. These tweens, teenagers, and 20-somethings are also the most racially, ethnically, and sexually diverse generation in the United States.

Methodology:

In September 2022, Harmony Healthcare IT surveyed 1,055 Gen Z adults to ask them about their mental health. 47% were men, 45% women, 6% nonbinary, and 2% transgender. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 24 with an average age of 22.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
In terms of a possible conspiracy, it might be his pro-regulatory lobbying that sowed the seeds for FTXs destruction. Bankman-Fried raised the ire of his crypto peers very recently  including Binances Changpeng Zhao, or CZ as he is more commonly referred to in the industry  by advocating more intrusive regulation of crypto activity, including the censoring of sanctioned parties in blockchain protocols. If what has transpired over the past few days had occurred in a regulated market, the US Securities and Exchange Commission would have been all over it. He argued that permitting all crypto transfers to occur opened the door to significant financial crimes. In effect, he was supporting more transparency and the mainstreaming of crypto activity, which is against the libertarian ethos that pervades crypto activity. His stance produced a backlash that included very aggressive comments from Zhao, who was an early investor in FTX before the two groups became fierce competitors.

We gave support before, but we wont pretend to make love after divorce. We are not against anyone. But we wont support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs, Zhao said. Coincidentally or otherwise, after Bankman-Frieds lobbying for more regulation (which some argued would kill off decentralised finance), someone leaked a copy of the balance sheet of a crypto hedge fund owned by him, Alameda Research, to the crypto news site CoinDesk last week. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF as he was commonly referred to, was the most prominent of the crypto billionaires in Washington. Credit:Bloomberg It seemed to show that about $US6 billion of Alamedas $US14.6 billion of assets were exposed to FTX, either through holdings of FTXs FTT tokens or as FTT collateral. It also had more than $US1 billion of exposures to another cryptocurrency, Solanas Sol. Bankman-Fried was an early investor in Solana, which was seen to be within his sphere of influence. The leaked balance sheet raised concern that any fall in the price of FTX could shake the foundations of Bankman-Frieds entire group.

Zhao responded to/seized on the disclosures (which Bankman-Fried claimed showed only a small part of his larger group) by announcing that he was going to dump the $US580 million of FTT tokens Binance received in a cash-and-shares deal when it sold equity in had in FTX last year due to recent revelations that came to light. Even though Bankman-Fried protested that a competitor is trying to go after us with false rumours and said FTX had enough liquid assets to cover all withdrawals, Zhaos Binance announcement triggered a rush by FTX investors for the exits and a meltdown in its price, which tumbled almost 75 per cent. Then came the news of the deal between Bankman-Fried and Zhao which, if consummated, would give Zhao and Binance absolute dominance of the crypto exchange sector, with a market share estimated at more than 70 per cent. Depending on who you talk to, Binance boss Changpeng Zhao: We wont pretend to make love after divorce. Credit:Bloomberg Zhao and Binance will be even more powerful players in the crypto world, even though Binance, which has more than 120 million users, has had continued run-ins with regulators that have led to bans in several jurisdictions. It has also been accused of enabling Iran to circumvent US sanctions (which it denies).

There is some irony in Bankman-Frieds fate, given that FTX had profited from the massive shake-out of the sector this year  the market capitalisation of the entire sector has shrunk from more than $US2.8 trillion a year ago to just over $US900 billion  by rolling up distressed crypto businesses for fractions of their former value. If what has transpired over the past few days had occurred in a regulated market, the US Securities and Exchange Commission would have been all over it. Two rivals clash, theres a convenient leak that triggers a run and forces one of the competitors into the arms of the other ... that would raise regulators eyebrows. Loading Cryptos, of course, are barely regulated. The sector is the Wild West of the financial services sector, full of frauds, rip-offs and the facilitating of criminal activity. Its participants finances arent transparent  Binance doesnt even have headquarters  and it is intensely volatile and inherently vulnerable to the kind of liquidity crunch that destabilised FTX and forced it to find someone to bail it out.
Read more of our Victorias Agenda coverage on the health system. See all 17 stories .

Australias long COVID clinics are so under-resourced patients are waiting almost a year for treatment, as the Victorian government warns it will struggle to care for the growing number of patients without extra federal funding.

In a submission to a federal inquiry, the Victorian government revealed the first official modelling of long COVID, and said the disease affected 218,000 Victorians, of whom 41,000 had a severe form.

Professor Steven Faux is a co-lead of the long COVID clinic at St Vincents hospital in Sydney. Credit:Brook Mitchell

Doctors at long COVID clinics across Australia told The Age and the Herald they were unable to cope with the caseload.

We have been inundated  because of limited resources, said Professor Steven Faux, co-lead of the long COVID clinic at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney. Weve only got capacity to open one day a week. Weve not got the staff, we cant get them. I cant find physios, I cant find psychologists.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is pushing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, raising expectations of a diplomatic breakthrough as the nations strive to stabilise their relationship after years of turbulence.

As he prepares for a series of back-to-back summits in Asia, Albanese said he would welcome a meeting with the leader of Australias biggest trading partner during the G20 forum in Indonesia or the APEC leaders meeting in Thailand.

Anthony Albanese could meet with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen/Getty

Ive made it very clear that dialogue is a good thing, and if a meeting is arranged with Xi, then that would be a positive thing, Albanese said in Canberra on Wednesday.

Were organising a range of meetings but they havent been finalised.
The planned $1.3-billion upgrade of the Dungowan Dam in Barnaby Joyces NSW seat of New England as well as other dam proposals backed by the former federal government need careful examination, Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says.

The NSW and Morrison governments confirmed they would split the cost of expanding Dungowan Dam near Tamworth in the lead-up to the May federal election, saying the towns primary water storage, Chaffey Dam, was insufficient to meet its needs during drought and as its population grew.

Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says she will be taking a very careful look at all federally funded dam proposals. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

But Plibersek said on Tuesday that during the 2019 drought, Tamworth wasnt given enough water from Chaffey Dam, despite its expansion three years earlier, and the community narrowly avoided running dry.

The state government sets aside just 70 per cent of Tamworth Regional Councils 16.4 gigalitre Chaffey Dam licence for urban supply, with the rest going to irrigators on the Peel River and the environment.
You could say, well, the government took a beating, he told the ABC in 2008. Well, every government has taken a beating in the past on waterfront reform. We took a bit more beating than usual but, then again, were the only ones who ever got anything done either. Peter Reith in 1998. Credit:Fairfax/Gary Schafer Both sides claim victory two decades on. The Maritime Union of Australia maintained its near monopoly of the waterfront, while Patrick won significant increases in profitability. Michael Kroger, a rival of Reith within the Victorian faction of the Liberal Party, says it was clear he was Howards favourite. He was the man of steel in that dispute, he told Sky News. While all ministers and backbenchers and others ran for cover and when things got hard, Reith never wavered and John Howard always appreciated that enormously.

Three years later Reith was in the hot seat again, in the middle of what became known as the Children Overboard Affair, in which the government falsely claimed that asylum seekers had thrown their children out of their leaky fishing boat. John Howard and Peter Reith in 2005. Credit:Andrew Taylor It was a low point in the divisive politics over immigration policy at the time, and it severely damaged his credibility, enraging his political opponents on the left, where hed become the lightning rod for growing disdain for the Howard government. He rarely conceded an argument or gave ground, even as a political commentator into his later years on both Sky News and in the opinion pages of newspapers, including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. But Howard never wavered in his support for his number one guy either, telling parliament upon the Victorian MPs retirement in 2001 that of all the people with whom hed been associated in politics, there was none hed held in higher regard than Reith.

I shall never forget the incredible courage that the then minister, Peter Reith, displayed at the time of waterfront reform, he told the House of Representatives. Loading He became the architect of what is arguably the greatest systemic change of all in the economic industrial sector of Australia, that is, the transformation of our industrial relations system. No minister in my government in the past five-and-a-half years has been under more sustained pressure and abuse than Peter  He displayed an intense composure under enormous pressure. He was always calm; he was always quite capable of arguing a case and of assessing reality. Former ACTU assistant secretary Tim Pallas, now the Victorian Labor treasurer, once observed that as a political operative Reith was the most effective member of the Coalition government and therefore the most dangerous.

Born on July 15, 1950, Reith went to Brighton Grammar and later read economics and law at Monash University. He went to work at Cowes, a then sleepy village on Phillip Island. He later was elected to the islands shire council and became shire president in 1981. Loading On Phillip Island he helped establish Newhaven College, an independent school, and a penguin research facility. He won the Flinders byelection in December 1982 after the retirement of Sir Phillip Lynch. Lynch, who served as a minister under three prime ministers, had been the minister for army, leader of the house and deputy Liberal leader, three roles that Reith would later emulate. Reith held the seat against the odds, which was widely seen as a final blow to Bill Haydens Labor leadership. Bob Hawke took over in February and an election was called for March. Reith, just a few months into his new job and not even sworn in, lost his seat. But he regained the seat in 1984.

From there he held a variety of portfolios in opposition from 1987 and earned his reputation as a political head kicker during the 1988 referendum campaign where he helped destroy Labors proposal of four-year parliamentary terms. He also effectively blocked Labors one-vote, one-value proposal, which would have redistributed the electoral divisions of the House of Representatives. In 1999, despite flagging his republican sentiments, he trashed the so-called politicians republic and campaigned for a directly elected presidential model. Peter Reith is as much a republican as John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull, then head of the Yes campaign, said at the time. This is just part of his usual destructive, cynical tactics to hold back constitutional reform in Australia. Its perfectly obvious what hes up to. He is trying to wreck this by putting up a populist fantasy. The final years of Reiths parliamentary career were engulfed with controversy when he was investigated over the use of his phone card, which had incurred charges totalling $50,000. He admitted that he breached parliamentary rules by giving the card and his personal identification number to his son Paul in 1994. But his son could account for only $950 worth of calls, meaning that the people who subsequently obtained the card and made 11,000 free phone calls from 900 different locations over a period of five years did so without Reiths knowledge or permission.

Howard was faced with calls to sack him while talkback radio was enraged. Labor claimed it was a political cover-up. Reith gave two reasons for his decision to eventually pay up  that taxpayers had a reasonable expectation it should be paid by him and that it was affecting the standing of the government. I dont have much choice about it, he said. The situation will be ... Im paying the money and thats the end of the matter as far as Im concerned. He served in federal cabinet from 1996 to 2001 and maintained a diary and extensive records of those tumultuous years through the 120 notebooks he filled with conversations with colleagues, cabinet discussions and his uncensored thoughts and predictions. They were published in 2015, with a dust-jacket quote from former ministerial colleague Amanda Vanstone saying: There arent too many people from my time in politics that I would trust completely. Reith is one of them. After politics, he became a London-based director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He also led a Victorian gas taskforce that warned that jobs and living standards were at risk because of a ban on onshore gas.
Often it can seem NSW politics is so cynical and cutthroat that meaningful social change is impossible.

But sometimes change can happen and there is suddenly a very, very small chink of light in the long-frozen debate over the harm caused by the states 86,747 poker machines.

Opposition Leader Chris Minns on Tuesday finally said he accepted that changes need to be made in response to a recent report by the NSW Crime Commission which found that billions of dollars in dirty cash were going through the states poker machines each year.

Minns statement is welcome  if it leads to actual change. If the two major parties in NSW can form a bipartisan front, NSW clubs and hotels  who have opposed reform for decades  will lose some of their ability to play kingmaker.

But the battle is far from over. Minns has refused to back Premier Dominic Perrottet, who bravely announced 10 days ago that he agreed with the Crime Commissions principal recommendation to introduce compulsory cashless gaming. Perrottet has, so far, stopped short of offering details about how and when.
Recently, ISO 37172:2022 "Smart community infrastructures  Data exchange and sharing for community infrastructures based on geographic information", was officially released. Among the main drafting units, the Smart City (Hefei) Standardization Research Institute ranks among the top three, contributing to the establishment of this international standard. The standard focuses on the field of data exchange and sharing of smart community, proposes the development goals and overview of the data exchange and sharing of community infrastructure based on geographic information, expounds the framework of data exchange and sharing, enumerates the application scenarios in different fields and describes the characteristics of geographic information-based data exchange and sharing of community infrastructure. At the seventh plenary meeting of the International Organization for Standardization ISO/TC268/SC1 in May 2018, Hefei City in China, Kawasaki City in Japan and Cambridge City in the United Kingdom were officially selected as "Smart Community International Standard Pilot Cities". So far, Hefei has implemented five international standard tests, participated in the compilation of four international standards (published), and proposed a new international standard, which has played an important role in China's participation in the formulation of international standards in the field of smart city, the establishment and improvement of terminology in the field of smart community, and the enhancement of China's influence. Since 2018, Hefei has been using international standards to promote high-quality and sustainable construction of smart city and carried out all-around upgrade in urban roads, urban public transport, smart medical care, smart communities, energy, environmental protection and other fields. It has made city development safer and more efficient, and the living environment and quality of life of citizens have been steadily improved.

Reported by Zhang Yaming, Hua Xinhong Edited and translated by Zheng Chen
As the midterm elections are underway in the United States, a video from Maricopa County, Arizona, has gone viral after showing an election official telling Election Day voters that some machines were broken.

The footage has spread on various social media platforms with some users using the incident to spread fear that the election is starting to fill with fraud. The video received millions of views and was initially posted by a Republican activist.

The same Leftist running for Governor in Arizona, @katiehobbs, is the same person in charge of state elections.



So...@katiehobbs is responsible for making sure the count is accurate in her OWN RACE.



Wonder why there's been a "Maricopa Machine Meltdown" in conservative areas? https://t.co/zpp1bzDCqJ  J. Hogan Gidley (@JHoganGidley) November 8, 2022

Election Day Issues

The clip, which has been largely amplified by right-wing personalities, is what others are calling one of the first signs of election fraud, despite no evidence being shown. An associate professor at the University of Washington, Kate Starbird, who studies the spread of disinformation, said that they expected legitimate mistakes and issues with election infrastructure to be reframed as fraud.

The video footage featured an election worker in Anthem who was explaining the technical issue they were having with tabulation machines that were rejecting ballots. Officials said that they were immediately working on the issue and urged voters who had their ballots rejected to put them in a secure box to be counted after the polls close, as per CNN.

The chairman of the county's Board of Supervisors, Bill Gates, who is also a Republican himself, said that no one was being disenfranchised. He added that there was no indication of any fraud or anything similar, noting that it was simply a technical issue.

A spokeswoman for the county also said that the poll worker shown in the video did what they were supposed to do, providing voters with the information they needed to participate in the election. Megan Gilbertson added that the man gave voters the options that they had, being calm and transparent about the matter.

According to Fox News, Arizona officials revealed that they were facing technical issues with roughly 20% of tabulation machines. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said that the backup for the issue will function much like early voting functions.

Read Also: Donald Trump Teases Big Announcement on November 15: Will He Run for President in 2024?

Technical Issues with Tabulation Machines

Gates noted that there were 223 voting centers across the county and said that if one location has longer lines or tabulation machine issues, voters are still able to select another location to cast their vote. The official added that it did not matter where voters went so long as they were registered voters in Maricopa County.

Local officials and election monitoring groups said that despite anxieties and concerns about voting machine failures and potential voter intimidation, the overall voting situation seemed devoid of major problems.

In Florida and Missouri, state officials blocked federal monitors from entering polling sites while in Detroit, Michigan, some voters in the early hours of the day experienced glitches with electronic poll books. They showed people's votes had already been recorded before they cast ballots, said voter protection groups.

On Tuesday, leaders with Common Cause, the good government group, said that there have been no "majorly concerning" issues so far in voting situations across the United States. The group had staffers stationed in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania who said that they were aware of some isolated issues that were quickly addressed by poll workers, the New York Times reported.

Related Article: US Midterm Elections: Poll Experts Worry on Possible Misinformation Surge on Twitter

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The Police Minister has put more pressure on a senior officer who shouted did she close her legs on you? at a conference this year to resign.

Chief Superintendent Ray Rohweder is under pressure to resign over a lewd comment he allegedly made at a police conference. Credit:QPS

Chief Superintendent Ray Rohweder went on leave after the allegations were aired by the inquiry into police domestic violence.

A second senior officer resigned over separate comments.

The inquiry heard Rohweder had shouted the question when the male host of the senior police conference joked that a small cut on his head was part of a rough promotional process.
Read more of our Victorias Agenda coverage on the health system. See all 17 stories .

Victorian universities have already received more than 33,000 applications to study nursing next year, mostly from year 12 students, in a sign that interest in the profession continues to grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic stretching nurses unlike ever before.

The latest application figures from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre reveal universities had received a total of 33,060 applications for nursing by last Friday, more than one month before VCE results will be known, and almost two months before most university offers will be made.

Nursing remains a popular choice for tertiary study among Victorian year 12 students. Credit:Justin McManus

The fresh figures come as Premier Daniel Andrews vowed graduate nurses and midwives who entered Victorias struggling public system over the next year would receive a $5000 sign-on bonus if the Andrews government was re-elected on November 26.

Youll receive a $5000 sign-on bonus to say thank you for choosing public patients in public hospitals, Andrews said on Wednesday morning.
York: A man has been detained by police after eggs were thrown at King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort, as they carried out an engagement in northern England.

Footage on social media showed four eggs flying past the British monarch and his wife and smashing on the ground as they arrived for a traditional ceremony in York on Wednesday (UK time). They appeared to be unmoved by the incident and carried on.

Britains King Charles III reacts after an egg was thrown in his direction. Credit:AP

Police officers rushed in to drag away a protester who was shouting slogans. Britains PA news agency reported the protester booed and shouted: This country was built on the blood of slaves as he was being detained.

Others in the crowd jeered him, and chanted: God save the King.
It was not the midterm election the Republicans expected, and certainly not the result they wanted. Republicans are poised to take the House of Representatives, but far short of the gains they sought.

Sensing that the economy, crime, immigration and an unpopular president had caused the bottom to fall out for Democrats, Republicans went all out to snatch a big majority. Too many voters, however, were not sold on the message of their candidates  especially on abortion rights.

A staggering loss for Donald Trump, regardless of the eventual midterm results. President Joe Biden has outperformed expectations and, for now, hes still standing as the next Democratic presidential candidate. Credit:AP

Before the polls closed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked if she thought the Democrats would hold on to the House. I do, she said. And just because a pundit in Washington says history says you cant win is no deterrent for the enthusiasm we have out there. So, I think you will be surprised this evening.

Many in the political class were surprised she was right. Republicans wanted to sweep, but they have fallen short, for now, in taking the Senate.
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Fifo Capital boosts corporate team Three new roles created as company expands

There are concerns that the practice of rent bidding is forcing Australians to spend more than they should in fear of being left homeless as supply dries up.

Leo Patterson Ross, Tenants Union chief executive, said that rent bidding is similar to creating an auction where tenants offer to pay more than the advertised price or fork out a large portion of the rent in advance to secure a property.

At the moment as things get very tight, many people are looking for a property and there is only a limited number available, which means the incentive that people feel to make a successful application grows, Patterson Ross told news.com.au. It puts this real distress and frustration into the process because people have gotten all these documents together. Then to be told that, actually, you have to come up with even more money to even be in with a shot, people are very worried and feeling the pressure.

Potential clients applying for a property are sometimes even called by real estate agents and asked if they want to offer more.

Thats what 27-year-old Loran Mamo experienced after months of looking for an affordable rental property.

Every single time Ive applied, the real estate agents have called to ask if Ive wanted to offer a bit more, Mamo said. I thought it was a normal thing; I thought that they were just doing it to get me to pay more, but if its true that the competition is so high, then maybe people are buckling and offering more.

She was forced to move back in with her parents after she failed to find an affordable rental property.

If I didnt have a place to stay, Id probably pay what they ask and Id be spending my whole wage on rent, Mamo told the news.com.au.

According to the PropTrack Market Insight report, median weekly advertised rents have soared by a historic 10.3% in the past year.

The latest data means Australia is now experiencing the tightest rental market weve ever seen, said Cameron Kusher, PropTrack director of economic research and report author.

Australias median weekly rent now sits at $520 for houses and $460 for units  rising to $640 for a Sydney home after a 12.3% price lift in the past year.

Those without the support of family or friends, or those facing a no-grounds eviction, might feel further pressure.

People ask themselves, Will I be sleeping in my car? Will I be couch surfing with my kids? Patterson Ross said. They start making compromises, either by offering more and competing or compromising on location or the quality of the home.

Chris Martin, City Futures senior research fellow, said real estate agents are employing other methods to try to prompt rent bidding, such as advertising offers from rentals or putting a price range on an ad.

By advertising a range, youre basically misleading people, Martin told news.com.au. You get all these people interested in a $400 a week property, but really what the agent wants is $440 a week. By getting more people interested, it makes people think there is high demand for a property, and you can even get people bidding above the advertised price.

Martin said agents reaching out to potential tenants to ask for higher offers  a practice which Mamo said seemed normal  was legally murky.

The law is not very clear around it, which is not great for tenants, he said. Agents that are doing that sort of thing should be aware that there are general fair trading laws and in most states, there are requirements for agents to not mislead in their advertisements.

Mamo said she was scared and uncertain about whether shell be able to find affordable housing.

Even just going to the inspections; the amount of people that show up, its so daunting, she said.

Domain recently released vacancy rate statistics which revealed that all capital cities have been classified as landlords markets.

The national vacancy rate now sits at a record 0.8%, compared to last years 1.5%. Adelaide has the lowest rate at 0.2%, while Sydney and Melbourne sit at 1.0% and 1.1%, respectively.

Martin said state governments need to be more forceful in enforcing rental advertisements.

Theres also the question of whether we should have a wider range of regulation of rent levels that would affect how much the rent would be and how much theyd be able to change, he said.

Patterson Ross noted that at the moment, the application process is nearly unregulated, with no guidance and no clear structure.

Both Martin and Patterson Ross argued, however, that the issue comes down to a tight rental market due to a lack of supply, and that the current market can only be fixed by increasing the level of housing supply.

Ultimately, the real fix is to make sure that there is an abundant supply of affordable housing, so people dont feel this pressure or desperation, Ross said.

What we should be doing is growing our affordable housing providers, who can provide our affordable tenancies in a way that our private sector cant and wont, Martin told news.com.au.
India Ltd has reported standalone profit for the July-September quarter at Rs 106.78 crore, the company said on Wednesday.

The company engaged in housing finance had registered standalone profit at Rs 69.13 crore during the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

For the six-month period ending September 30, 2022, the standalone profit grew to Rs 208.71 crore from Rs 129.27 crore registered in the corresponding quarter last year, said in a company statement.

Commenting on the financial performance, company Chairman and Managing Director M Anandan said, "During first half of financial year 2023, we disbursed Rs 1,129 crore registering a growth of 69 per cent year on year."



The standalone total income during the quarter under review grew to Rs 236.98 crore, as against Rs 169.40 crore registered in the same period last year.

For the half year ending September 30, the standalone total income surged to Rs 446.50 crore from Rs 323.42 crore registered in the same period of financial year 2021-22.

"We have built a strong branch network of 213 branches to deliver quality service to our customers. The company is well capitalised with a net worth of Rs 3,175 crore. As on September 30, 2022, we have maintained sufficient on balance sheet liquidity of over Rs 1,000 crore including undrawn sanctions of Rs 500 crore from National Housing Bank," he said.

"We continued to grow consistently and delivered an Assets Under Management growth of 33 per cent year on year. Profit after tax (PAT) has grown at 52 per cent...," 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.)
In an unprecedented breakthrough in indigenous weapons systems exports, Pune-based announced on Wednesday that Kalyani Strategic Systems  a wholly owned subsidiary  has been awarded an export order for a 155-millimetre (mm) artillery gun platform to be executed over a three-year time frame.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that hunger strike activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah's life is at risk amid Egyptian captivity, calling on the Egyptian government for the imprisoned man's immediate release.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Turk said, "I urge the Egyptian government to immediately release Abd el-Fattah from prison and provide him with the necessary medical treatment." The official warned that the activist's life was in "great danger."

Hunger Strike Activist's Life at Risk

The prominent activist and blogger is a dual British and Egyptian citizen and was previously jailed in 2014 for five years on charges of participating in an unauthorized gathering. Later, he was re-arrested in 2019 and was sentenced in December 2021 to another five years on charges of spreading false news.

The 40-year-old Abd el-Fattah has been on a hunger strike for the past 220 days against his detention and prison conditions. The activist previously informed his family that he would stop drinking water on Sunday in an escalation of his protest, as per Aljazeera.

The activist's mother said that she did not receive the letter that she usually does from her son when she visited on Monday. Abd el-Fattah's health would rapidly deteriorate if he does not consume water.

The escalation of his protest has also coincided with the COP27 climate summit, which is the United Nations' yearly gathering of world leaders in order to discuss global warming. The event is set to be scheduled in Egypt this year.

According to BBC, Abd el-Fattah's sister, Sanaa Seif, said that all that her family knows is that her brother stopped drinking water roughly 50 hours prior to her statement. She added that they did not know where he was or if he was still alive.

Read Also: Russian Oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin Admits To Interfering With US Elections

Unacceptable Living Conditions

Seif said that her mother waited outside of the prison gates for about 10 hours the day before in anticipation of her weekly letter. She added that she had already asked British authorities to show them proof that her brother was still alive and conscious but noted that she did not get any response.

Abd el-Fattah's sister added that she had become extremely anxious after recent remarks made by Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who is chairing the COP27 Summit, and President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

On Monday, Shoukry said that prison authorities were giving the imprisoned activist the "healthcare and care that is available to all inmates." On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Sisi assured him that Egypt was "committed to ensuring that [the] health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved."

Seif also questioned the possibility that Egyptian authorities were force-feeding her brother and if he was handcuffed in a bed and placed on IVs against his will. She said that those were what the situation seemed like to her.

The political tensions in Britain have not helped Abd el-Fattah's situation as Rishi Sunak, the new British prime minister, wrote a letter to Seif on Saturday. He said that he would continue to emphasize to Sisi the importance of having a swift resolution to the hunger activist's case and put an end to his unacceptable treatment, the New York Times reported.

Related Article: North Korea Rejects 'Groundless' US Claims That Pyongyang Agrees To Supply Russia with Weapons To Help Vladimir Putin Win the War in Ukraine

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sources indicated, the consortium is likely to resort to legal route against the termination, however, there is no official confirmation for the same
Integrated inter-modal logistics operator Ltd on Wednesday reported a 27 per cent growth in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 59.53 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal.

The company had posted a consolidated PAT of Rs 46.90 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2021, Ltd (GDL) said in a statement.

Its total revenue (Rail and Container Freight Stations) rose 6 per cent to Rs 361.91 crore in the reporting quarter as against Rs 341.50 crore in the second quarter of the previous fiscal.

Rail revenue increased 8.61 per cent to Rs 278.53 crore in Q2 FY23 over Rs 256.46 crore in the year-ago period, while Container Freight Stations (CFS) revenue declined 1.95 per cent to Rs 83.38 crore.

The total throughput during the quarter dipped 3.22 per cent at 182,975 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) as against 189,054 TUEs handled during the same quarter of FY22.

"In September, the company acquired 30 acres of land for a greenfield ICD (Inland Container Depot) at Jaipur, for which the construction has already started. The company has also signed a Share Purchase Agreement for acquisition of an ICD in Kashipur, which is expected to close by December 2022.

"With these two new terminals, our presence will grow to 11 locations across India and will lead to an increase in our volumes and profitability," said Prem Kishan Dass Gupta, chairman and managing director, GDL.

(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.)
ESR Group plans to invest Rs 2,500 crore in to set up industrial and logistics parks, data centres, and urban distribution centres.

The company said in a statement that it has signed an "MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the government of Karnataka, envisaging Rs 2,500 crore investment for setting up industrial and logistics parks, urban distribution centres and data centres."



This initiative will help generate 5,500 jobs in .

The MoU was signed at the Invest in Bengaluru.

ESR India, part of the ESR Group, is a leading developer and manager of industrial and logistics real estate with assets under management of about USD 1.7 billion and over 18 million square feet of gross floor area.

Abhijit Malkani, CEO, ESR India, said: "Karnataka is a significant market for us due to its mature industrial ecosystem. We aim to bring world-class development expertise in industrial and logistics parks, urban distribution centres and data centres to enrich the state's industrial, logistics and data infrastructure."



The agreement will accelerate development and attract more investments from multinational and national companies, he said.

"ESR has committed to a significant investment of Rs 2,500 crore over a period of three years," Malkani said.

ESR India is currently present across 9 cities and 16 locations.

ESR is Asia-Pacific (APAC) region's largest real asset manager and the third largest listed real estate investment manager globally.

With over USD 140 billion in total assets under management, ESR's fully integrated development and investment management platform extends across key APAC markets, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, India, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

ESR is the largest sponsor and manager of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) in APAC with a total assets under management of USD 45 billion.

(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.)
Properties on Wednesday reported a 54 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 55 crore for the quarter ended September.

Net profit of the group subsidiary stood at Rs 36 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

In the second quarter of this financial year, Properties had total bookings worth Rs 2,409 crore and a total booking volume of 2.71 million sq ft.

Net sales increased by 28 per cent and stood at Rs 165.09 crore in Q2. However, net sales stood at Rs 129.32 crore in the previous year quarter.

The firms total income grew by 13 per cent year-on-year basis and stood at Rs 327 crore as against Rs 290 crore, last year in the same quarter.

During the second quarter last year, it recorded the highest-ever quarterly sales with a total bookings value of Rs 2,520 crore.

The company has acquired 12 acres of land in Pune for developing a premium group housing project that has an estimated sales revenue potential of about Rs 2,000 crore.

It has also added 6 new projects with a total saleable area of 6.34 million sq ft and total estimated booking value of Rs 6,025 crore year to date.

At the halfway mark of the financial year, we are confident of achieving our booking value guidance of 10,000 crore for FY 23. We are witnessing a lot of momentum in business development and hope to deliver Godrejs best ever year for new project additions through strong momentum in the second half of the year, said Pirojsha Godrej, executive chairman, .

This in turn will ensure that the sharp increase in booking value this year is continued in the years ahead, he said.
Keka, an HR technology start-up based in Hyderabad, has raised $57 million dollars in series A led by WestBridge Capital.

It is the largest enterprise tech series A round in India, edging out the previous top spot by $1 million.

The investment will help the company in research and development as it expands its engineering, product, and customer support teams and improves its product.

Keka assists Indian SMEs with 20 to 5,000 employees and streamlines and automates payroll, recruiting, leave and attendance, performance management, and more.

Business today means serving both customers and employees. While there have been plenty of tools to cover the customer experience, employee experience has taken a back seat. Businesses can no longer afford to do that. We want to help organizations focus better on their core asset  the employees, said Vijay Yalamanchili, chief executive officer of Keka.

Although we got several offers for in the past, we never felt the timing was right. Finding the right investment partner was also significant for us. We wanted to partner with someone with a long-term vision for the HR tech space. I am happy that we found the right investing partner in WestBridge Capital, he added.

The company said it has more than 6,500 customers across sectors and enables the management of over 1.5 million employees a month.

Keka is disrupting the industry through its world-class product and highly reliable customer support. We are aligned with their vision to build the best mid-market focused global HR Tech Platform that will allow around the world to modernize their HR processes. We are very excited about Kekas potential and look forward to a long partnership with the company, said Rishit Desai, Principal at WestBridge Capital.
(HUL) and have mutually decided to terminate the distribution agreement of GSK Consumers over-the-counter (OTC) products that include Eno, Crocin, Iodex, Sensodyne by November 2023, HUL said in a stock exchange filing. This agreement ends 1.5 years ahead of the agreed period.

The company, GSKAPL (GSK Asia) and GSKCPL (GSK Consumer) have mutually agreed and expressed their intention to terminate the Agreement(s) with effect from 8th November, 2023.



As per the Agreement(s), the one-year notice period for termination shall commence from 9th November, 2022, HUL said. It added that this shall not have any material effect on the operations of the company.

In 2018, HUL had announced that Healthcare would merge with HUL in an all-stock deal. The deal was completed in April 2020, and it acquired brands, which include Horlicks, Boost, Viva and Maltova.

The deal with GSK Consumer also had a five-year agreement to distribute the latters OTC products, which gave HUL access to the chemist channel in India. After the division of GSK was spun off, in July, Haleon was launched as an independent company housing brands such as Sensodyne, Eno, Iodex, Otrivin, Crocin, and Ostocalcium.

According to industry sources, HUL earns around Rs 300- 350 crore from the sale of these products.
will commence commercial flights from the newly constructed Donyi Polo Airport, Arunachal Pradesh's first civil airport, from November 28, an official release said on Wednesday.

Flights connecting Hollongi, which is around 15 km from Itanagar, with Mumbai and Kolkata will operate daily barring Wednesday.

A weekly flight service connecting Hollongi with Kolkata on Wednesdays will begin on December 3.

"We are pleased to announce Itanagar (Hollongi), as the 75th destination on the 6E network. This will be IndiGo's first destination in Arunachal Pradesh," Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer of IndiGo, Sanjay Kumar, said in a statement.

This is in line with the carrier's vision to enhance connectivity in the Northeast, it said.

These flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options to access destinations that are known for their tourist attractions, Kumar said.

Developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at an estimated cost of Rs 645 crore, the Donyi Polo Airport is designed to be a greenfield one with eight check-in counters and it will be able to accommodate 200 passengers during peak hours.

The airport is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November.

At present, there is no airport near Itanagar, the closest one being Lilabari Airport, 80 km away in Assam's North Lakhimpur district. There are a few advanced landing grounds (ALGs) in the state, including in Pasighat and Tezu.

The Donyi Polo Airport will have a 2,300-metres-long runway suitable for landing and take-off of Boeing 747.

Spread over 4,100 sq m area, the airport will be equipped with all modern facilities for passengers.

The naming of the airport reflects the reverence of the indigenous people for the Sun (Donyi) and the Moon (Polo), symbolising the rich cultural heritage of the tribal-dominated state.

(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.)
on Wednesday said it has tied up with three infrastructure partners -- Jio-bp, Statiq, and Charge+Zone -- to offer charging solutions for its upcoming range of passenger .

With these partnerships, Mahindra EV users will get seamless access to a robust fast charging infrastructure and e-mobility solutions spanning across discovery, availability, navigation and transactions, the Mumbai-based automaker said in a statement.

Mahindra unveiled its first all-electric SUV -- XUV400 -- recently.

Earlier this year, the company also unveiled a range of new in an event in the UK, which it plans to introduce in India over the next few years.

"We look forward to bringing sustainable, profitable and efficient EV solutions to accelerate the mass adoption of battery in India, and we are delighted to have joined hands with all our partners for our upcoming range of electric vehicles in India," president - Automotive Division Veejay Nakra said in a statement.

The company approaches these partnerships as an opportunity to offer robust EV infrastructure solutions to customers quickly, and it will also help in moving a step forward towards achieving India's net-zero goals, he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
and Cloud have announced a partnership to support the service provider in patient care, clinician experience and network efficiency.

will leverage Clouds to enable virtual care services across its chain, create a digital platform that allows patients to order medicines from the hospital, and to build remote patient monitoring. India's second-largest service provider will also use Clouds conversational (AI) tools to improve customer interactions.

Through its partnership with Google Cloud, will use the Amwell platform to enable virtual visits. The Amwell deployment is part of a suite of digital care delivery enablement solutions designed to provide a simple and intuitive experience for patients and providers alike.

"Over the past two years, there has been an extensive focus on digital transformation of . The government, private hospitals and health- have focused on creating digital solutions for the efficient delivery of healthcare. The partnership with will enable us to solve some of our most complex medical issues using innovative technology, better anticipate the needs of the people we serve, and improve access to care, whenever and wherever patients need us, said Dilip Jose, managing director and chief executive officer, Manipal Hospitals.

Manipal Hospitals will use Googles to build multichannel conversational AI experiences across its appointment booking, searching for doctors, and other important patient tasks.

I believe that the partnership will help promote penetration of Manipals clinical healthcare services in Tier II and III markets while making it convenient for both clinicians and patients. The partnership is critical to further clinical excellence of our healthcare system in markets with inequitable access to quality healthcare. Today, even the remotest areas of our country have access to the internet and smartphones. This, along with the penetration of in our country provides us the opportunity to deliver high-quality care in markets that we are not present in, said Karthik Rajagopal, COO, Manipal Hospitals.
The Indian arm of the British multinational retailer (M&S) on Wednesday said that it has strong growth plans to ramp up stores in India amid reports of outlet closure back home due to challenging times.

in India is a 51:49 JV between UK's M&S and Reliance since 2008.

The company denied reports of foraying into the food business in India, terming them as speculative and said, it will focus on the home category, launched recently.

"We will turbocharge our growth in India. We want to make sure customers get value in our apparel and home products," M&S Reliance India managing director Ritesh Mishra said.

The company has plans to open one store a month, he said.

Mishra was in the city to open the company's 95th store and third in Kolkata. All stores in India are company owned and it does not have any franchise stores.

M&S UK has 427 stores in international operations including franchisees and JVs.

M&S UK recently informed investors it is highly likely that conditions will become more challenging in FY'24 across all markets.

Mishra said that with the inclusion of home category products, the retailer was focusing on larger store formats like 15,000 square feet in tier I cities and about 12,000 sq ft in tier II cities.

Positioning the brand in the mid-to-premium segment, the company said it remains open to evaluating new categories like furniture in the home front besides more products for women and winter wears.

"There is opportunity and potential in the furniture segment but right now we are working on strengthening our existing product portfolio in the home segment which includes kitchen, bathroom, bedding and home accessories. We may look at furniture and lighting moving forward, he said.

Lingerie and women's wear account for 60 per cent of the company's sales in India.

Without going into financial numbers, Mishra said M&S India is the second largest international operation in terms of revenue for M&S outside the UK.

M&S India is expecting nearly one-third of its business to come from digital channels in future from the current level of 25 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.)
Former United States President Donald Trump just sent a warning to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying that he would reveal unflattering information about the latter if he runs for president.

The Republican businessman sent his warning to DeSantis in an interview with reporters while flying on his private jet. Trump said that he knew more about the Florida governor than anyone other than the latter's wife, who he claimed was running her husband's campaign.

Trump vs. DeSantis

The former president's rhetoric is the most open threat yet that he has made to DeSantis in recent weeks. During a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend, Trump also referred to the Florida governor as "Ron DeSanctimonious."

The nickname was revealed less than a month after the former president called it a "big mistake" when DeSantis endorsed Colorado Republican Senate nominee Joe O'Dea. The latter had previously said that he would "actively" oppose Trump if he ran for the White House in 2024, as per CNN.

The situation also comes after the former president has repeatedly insisted that the Florida governor would be unwise to run against him in the 2024 presidential primary. Trump said that he would beat DeSantis as he would anyone else. Trump added that he believes most people would drop out, including the Florida governor.

However, such a situation may be considered wishful thinking for Trump as DeSantis appears to be on the verge of a Tuesday victory over former Gov. Charlie Christ. Such a victory would serve as a kickstarter for a potential 2024 presidential campaign for the Florida governor.

According to the New York Times, the former president has, for decades, threatened business rivals and partners, reporters, and critics with lawsuits or other potentially embarrassing details. He has since taken slash-and-burn politics to a whole new level.

Read Also: 2022 US Midterm Elections Problems: Maricopa Machine Meltdown Goes Viral Amid Fraud Fears

Political Infighting Among Republicans

Trump has encouraged his supporters to disseminate dirt about President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden, brought women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to his debate against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and posted a tweet about a vague threat to Sen. Ted Cruz's wife in the Republican presidential primary in that same year.

However, advisers say that now, Trump is quick to anger and frequently in a state of near-rage about not being the U.S. president anymore. The former president also referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as an "animal" because the latter led the effort to impeach the former president twice while he was in office.

Despite Trump's words not always carrying much weight, his supporters who hear his remarks could conduct threatening actions, such as the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6, 2021. In the last year, the former president's use of violent rhetoric at his rallies has only increased.

Furthermore, a Trump attorney also sent a message to DeSantis on the Monday prior to the midterm elections. During an interview, Alina Habba said, speaking from a Trump rally in Vandalia, Ohio, that she thought the Florida governor was good but argued that he should stay in his home state, Fox News reported.

Related Article: Donald Trump Teases Big Announcement on November 15: Will He Run for President in 2024?

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Most chief executive officers (CEOs) in India would demand a cyber-risk management plan for major business or operational changes in the next 12-18 months, said a report on Wednesday.

One in four across the world has suffered a that cost between $1 million to $20 million or more in the past three years. Despite cyberattacks costing businesses millions of dollars, less than 40 per cent of executives surveyed worldwide said they have fully mitigated cybersecurity risk exposure in several critical areas.

More than 82 per cent of business executives in India foresee an increase in cybersecurity budgets in 2023, said PwCs '2023 Global Digital Trust Insights'. Around 52 per cent of the said they would drive initiatives that improve .

Senior executives said their enterprise isnt fully prepared to address heightened threats. In the Indian context, as far as threat actors are concerned, cybercriminal activity (77 per cent) takes the top spot in line with global findings. However, beyond that, insider threat (current employee, past employee, contractor) emerges as a unique challenge in India, with 62 per cent of the respondents highlighting it.

The majority of respondents (52 per cent) from India reported that attacks against cloud management interfaces saw the highest increase compared to last year. This was a reflection of the rapid rise in cloud adoption witnessed post the pandemic.







The report contains the views of senior executives on the challenges and opportunities to improve and transform cybersecurity within their organization in the next 12-18 months. The survey includes 3,522 respondents across 65 countries.

As many as 103 executives in India participated in the survey. These belonged to business and technology/ security roles, with 40 per cent working for organisations with more than $1 billion in revenue and 32 per ent with over $5 billion.

Business email compromise/ account takeovers (42 per cent), software supply chain compromise (43 per cent), and theft of intellectual property for commercialisation (40 per cent) were the other types of attacks that spiked in the past year.

According to the survey, 89 per cent of Indian business executives say their organisations cybersecurity team detected a significant cyber threat to business and prevented it from affecting their operations, as against 70 per cent globally. It also highlights that 83 per cent of Indian business executives say their organisations cybersecurity team has improved supply chain risk management.



The digitalisation of business demands that corporates and boards invest in becoming more cyber resilient. This needs to be across the spectrum  in technology, people, processes, and engineering capabilities. Our survey clearly reveals that organisations that have made cybersecurity a strategic priority have witnessed less disruption to the business. Cyber resilience is not only key to the survival of businesses but also a key driver of public trust, said Sivarama Krishnan, Partner and APAC Cybersecurity Leader at .

Organisations across the globe worry about more threats and cyber events in 2023  65 per cent of surveyed business executives feel cybercriminals will significantly affect their organization in 2023 compared to 2022. In India, cloud-based pathways (59%) and the internet of things (58%) were the top areas of concern, followed by mobile devices and software supply chains (54%). Globally, mobile devices were considered the most insecure (41%), as per the study.
on Wednesday reported a 71 per cent increase in consolidated profit after tax at Rs 169 crore for the second quarter ended September 2022, riding on the back of robust performance across units.

The healthcare provider had posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 99 crore in the July-September period of the previous fiscal.

Consolidated total operating income stood at Rs 1,142 crore in the September quarter, as against Rs 941 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, said in a statement.

"Building upon the momentum of the previous quarter and backed by continued strong performance across our units, we are pleased to have delivered record profitability for the group during the quarter gone by," Managing Director and Group CEO Emmanuel Rupert stated.

Anchored by the flagship units along with sustained uptick in other hospitals ensured that Indian operations, after having been severely impacted during the pandemic, is back to a healthy growth trajectory, he added.

"Separately, after the blip in the previous quarter, our Cayman Islands' operations retracing the strong traction generated over the last couple of years also recorded its highest ever profitability during this period," Rupert said.

The company is looking to pursue strategic growth avenues as reflected in its recent acquisitions across its core Bengaluru region as well as Cayman Islands, he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Silk Mills Limited, a manufacturer of fabrics, readymade garments, and other textiles products, has announced its for the second quarter and half year ended 30th September 2022.

Financial Highlights (Consolidated) Q2 & H1FY23



The Company has witnessed an all-around improvement in its Q2FY23 performance, led by improved operating efficiencies, a better product mix and rationalised marketing initiatives.



Financial Highlights



Revenue for Q2FY23 was higher by 32% YoY and 45% YoY for H1FY23. An all-around performance in the fabric and apparel business led to this strong revenue growth. Domestic market demand remains buoyant with increasing traction from export market as well. Company continues its efforts to increase revenue pie from both of them simultaneously.

EBITDA for Q2FY23 was higher by 41% YoY and 47% for H1FY23. Efficient marketing strategy and positioning helped in margin expansion.

PAT for Q2FY23 was higher by 52% YoY and 70% for H1FY23 YoY.

Fabric Business overview:



Fabric Business revenue reported an increase of 30% YoY to INR 736 cr in H1FY23. The share of Fabrics in total revenue is 70% in H1FY23 from 77% in H1FY22.

Fabric business witnessed a growth of 30% YoY; Higher pent-up demand led by strong demand revival in Tier II & III cities has led to such an increase. The Company sold 4.14 cr metres during H1FY23, a growth of 11% over H1FY22.

The Company's brands in its fabric business are Siyaram, J. Hampstead and CADINI. The Company has been consistently customer-centric and has been careering its fabric designs to meet ever-evolving fashion trends.

Apparels Business overview:



Apparels revenue reported an increase of 92% YoY to INR 216 cr in H1FY23. Share of Apparels in total revenue is 21% in H1FY23 from 15% in H1FY22.

Top Brands in the Apparel business are Siyaram, Oxemberg & J.Hampstead.

Apparels business has been seeing good traction. New brands and designs have helped to demonstrate good performance.

Commenting on financial results, Mr Ramesh Poddar, Chairman & Managing Director, Silk Mills , said, "The financial performance for H1FY23 has been quite encouraging. Our both Fabric and Apparels businesses are performing well. On the Fabric front, both Trade and Retail have witnessed an encouraging trend led by higher secondary sales and strong retail footfalls in MBOs. Our volumes and realisation both have seen robust growth. Double-digit volume growth testifies to our marketing and product positioning strategy to reach a more extensive customer base. The higher realisation is a result of our premiumisation benefits. Delivering customer needs of quality and fashionable products at a price is aiding our roadmap of premiumisation.

The Company's Apparel division has been exhibiting strong performance. Its continued focus on Tier II & III cities and its positioning among aspiring Indians have made the brand more reachable and acceptable among the masses. The Company's tactical decision to reduce EOSS has helped in improving profitability. Along with profitability, it has also led to stability in earnings. Overall, medium to long-term growth opportunities are encouraging, and we expect demand to remain buoyant going ahead in the current fiscal year."



About Silk Mills Ltd (SSML)



Siyaram Silk Mills Limited (BSE: 503811) (NSE: SIYSIL)



Siyaram Silk Mills Limited is amongst India's most renowned manufacturers of fabrics, readymade garments, and other textile products. The Company is famous for its high-quality fabrics and apparel using a variety of blends made from market-adaptive combinations of polyester, viscose, lycra, cotton, wool, linen, rayon, CVC and yarn-dyed PC. In addition, the Company operates and franchises a chain of retail stores which offer menswear, fashion fabrics and apparel, and accessories.

As we advance, the Company is focusing on its apparel business as its most prominent strategic growth pillar, backed by highly integrated and state-of-the-art manufacturing and retailing capabilities. The Company sells its products under multiple brands that enjoy high recall value with consumers. They include brands such as Siyaram's Suitings and Shirting's, Mistair, Royale Linen, Moretti, Miniature, Unicode, J.Hampstead, Oxemberg, Mozo, Cadini, and Casa Moda.

The Company's extensive distribution network permeates India, giving an aspiring yet underserved vast population ready access to high-quality fabrics at attractive price points. This makes Siyaram's brands the preferred choice in India's fast-growing yet untapped market. The Company's 'asset-light' business model has given Siyaram the mettle to continuously strengthen its balance sheet over the years and ensure business permanence. Today, the Company benefits from having the longest surviving and resilient serving portfolios of brands within India. The Company was incorporated in 1978 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India.

Forward-Looking Statement:



Certain statements in this document may be forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties like regulatory changes, local political or economic developments, technological risks, and many other factors that could cause our actual to differ materially from those contemplated by the relevant forward-looking statements. Siyaram Silk Mills Limited will not be in any way responsible for any action taken based on such statements and undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

(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.)
on Wednesday announced its foray into the segment with the launch of Glanza and Urban Cruiser Hyryder trims with the environment-friendly powertrain.

The two trims of Glanza are priced at Rs 8.43 lakh and Rs 9.46 lakh respectively.

The company, however, did not disclose the price of Urban Cruiser Hyryder variants.

(TKM) Associate Vice President, Sales, and Strategic Marketing, Atul Sood said that being a customer centric company, the automaker believes in placing customers' interest at the forefront.

"Our goal at Toyota has always been to serve the market needs with a clear focus on customers' aspirations, and by providing the most viable products and services to our customers.

"With the same vision in mind, we are delighted to announce our foray in the CNG segment, driving in CNG variants for two of our much sought-after offerings, the Toyota Glanza and the Urban Cruiser Hyryder," he noted.

With the latest addition, the company believes its customers will get more options in the market to choose from, Sood 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.)
Around two-thirds of knowledge workers in India are likely to switch next year for reasons that include burnout and disconnection with senior leaders, a survey report said on Wednesday.

At least 54 per cent of Indias knowledge workersprofessionals who use their analytical and theoretical skills to develop services or productsfelt burned out in the past year, according to the survey by software firm Slack Technology.

The situation is worse in organisations with up to 199 employees. In such places 59 per cent of knowledge workers have felt overwhelmed, compared to 48 per cent in organisations with more than 1,500 employees.

Slack surveyed 2,000 Indian knowledge workers employed by with more than 100 employees. The report said Indian desk-based workers expect better communication from their leaders and are likely to look for another job if they don't get it. As many as 71 per cent of young workers were about to change their .

Around 84 per cent of Indian workers who said their leaders communicated poorly were considering switching their job. As many as 5 per cent admitted to quiet quitting, fulfilling the requirements of their job but not going above and beyond.

Survey respondents also identified teamwork and collaboration as key to driving organisational success, over financial success, with transparent and trustworthy leadership, flexible work, and employee well-being essential ingredients.

More than three-quarters of Indian knowledge workers want to be trusted to do their job regardless of location or the hours worked. A very high proportion of Indian knowledge workers (81%) also say they want more meaning from their job, or to feel like theyre having an impact.

Respondents from the technology sector gave the highest scores to their managers for being competent and communicating well. Subsequently, close to three-quarters of workers (72 per cent) in the sector say they are happy to go above and beyond for their employer, a bigger proportion than any other industry. As many as 69 per cent of retail workers say theyre likely to be looking for a new job next year, putting them among Indias most likely new job hunters in 2023.

Civil servants and government workers in India also felt burnt out in the past year, with 58 per cent saying they felt overloaded. As a result, 13 per cent of government workers said they have quiet quit in the same period - a rate double that of most other sectors in India.

The last two years have litmus tested many aspects of workplace resilience, and an organisations ability to remain productive, and attract and retain talent. Organisations are looking for ways to minimise exposure to some of the more disruptive trends that have come off the upheaval of the last couple of years - such as employees quiet quitting or even being impacted by the broader Great Resignation," said Rahul Sharma, country manager, India, Slack.
At least 50 global and local conglomerates have shown their interest to bid for Reliance Capital and its 19 subsidiaries so far
Mining major has announced that it will plant 10 lakh saplings in as part of its afforestation efforts, a statement said on Wednesday.

The company has pledged to grow 7 million trees across the country, with 3.5 million in Rajasthan and a million in .

The firm has joined hands with the World Economic Forum for the one trillion trees movement.

"Our pledge will be instrumental in combating climate change and achieving net zero carbon emissions," Non-executive Director Priya Agarwal Hebbar said.

Limited Group CEO Sunil Duggal said the company will be furthering its environmental conservation efforts through reforestation, agro-forestry, and mangrove restoration.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Its the season of layoffs. The world is stunned to see big techs such as Meta and sacking employees, but the Indian startup world too has had its share of bad . Add to this the absolutely low level of empathy shown by the while handling such situations. Take the case of a recent sacking by one of the leading edtech players in India. The staff alleged that the company resorted to unethical means forcing them to sign pre-drafted resignation letters. As if this was not enough, the company also hired bouncers to handle any untoward situation as workers were suddenly asked to leave.
Ahead of the MCD election on December 4, Aam Aadmi Party MLAs took part in a crucial meeting on Tuesday evening under the leadership of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and Party State Convenor and Minister Gopal Rai. During the meeting, AAP office-bearers were assigned responsibilities at different levels to prepare for elections to all 250 MCD seats, said a party statement.

The Blueprint of AAP's strategy and important issues regarding MCD were discussed at length during the meeting. Instructions have been given to all AAP MLAs to personally monitor the Jansamvad campaign, and make the public aware of BJP's motives. The discussion was also held on the strategy of conducting more than 500 mass public dialogues every day across . Instructions have been given to all workers to connect with each and every resident of at the grassroot level and listen to their problems, added the statement.

To prepare for the MCD elections, the Aam Aadmi Party today launched the 'Kude Par Jansamvad' campaign. In this regard, MLAs have been directed to personally monitor the campaign. Aam Aadmi Party officials will listen to people's garbage problems and discuss their solutions through Jansamvad. Instructions were also given to all workers to connect with each and every person in at the grassroot level, as per the statement.

The Aam Aadmi Party is contesting the election on the issue of dumping waste. By November 20, a public dialogue will be held at each of Delhi's 13682 booths. It has been decided to hold about 500 public meetings per day, led by AAP MLAs. The meeting also covered the strategy for organising public meetings. All AAP office bearers and workers will visit every area of Delhi, meet with everyone, and try to understand their problems. Following that, they will discuss solutions to their problems.

The Election Commission has decided that the MCD elections will be held on December 4. The results will come on December 7. The nomination process for the polls started on November 7. However, so far only one candidate has filed a nomination.

On November 7, an independent candidate filed a nomination from Ward 150 of Green Park. But today on November 8, not a single nomination was filed due to being a government holiday. November 14 is the last date for nominations, scrutiny will take place on November 16, while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 19.

(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 Road Transport and Highways Minister on Tuesday took a swipe at AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's freebies politics and said that those who have zero possibilities to come to power can promise anything.

Asked about Arvind Kejriwal's promises in poll-bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, told ANI with a slight smile, "Those who are never likely to come to the power can promise anything as they have zero possibilities of coming at the centre."

"The Bharatiya Janata Party delivered what it promised. The amount of work done in building roads in 8 years wasn't done in the last 65 years," Gadkari said.

BJP leader also underlined the recurring problem of pollution in the national capital Delhi and central government's efforts to mitigate it.

"Solving Delhi's pollution problem is a little difficult but not impossible. If the Central government, the state government municipal corporation and farmers make efforts together then we can solve the problem. We should rise above politics and work together regarding it," Gadkari told ANI.

"We have made Bio-CNG and Bio-LNG from stubble to act as a fuel to run tractors and buses. Indian Oil has built a big project in Panipat, where 1 lakh litres of ethanol and 150 tonnes of bio-bitumen are being produced daily from the stubble. We will use this bitumen for road construction," he added.

Apart from this, also mentioned about the government's achievements of reducing the emissions from the tail end pipes of the public vehicle after bringing Electronic Vehicles' (EVs) in the country.

"Earlier our country used to import 16 lakh crores of fossil fuel to fulfil its petrol-diesel demand, but now we have brought brought EVs- E-buses, E-scooters, E-rickshaws, Ethanol, Methanol, Bio Diesel, Bio CNG and Green Hydrogen as alternatives," Nitin Gadkari said.

"When people ask me about my greatest achievements as a Transport Minister, they think I will mention tunnels, expressways. But according to me my greatest achievement is giving relief to over 1 crore people by replacing human driven rickshaws with mechanised driven E-rickshaws. Earlier people used to pull the rickshaws manually, which was inhuman," the Union Road Transport Minister told ANI.

(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 Russia-Ukraine war has turned into a "huge strategic defeat" for the Kremlin, according to a Pentagon official, as Russia has likely lost half of its main battle tanks and used up most of its precision-guided weaponry.

Pentagon Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told a group of reporters Tuesday at George Washington University that "Putin has failed." He added that if the war persists, Russia will be in a worse position when it ends than it was before, as reported by CNN.

Ukraine Will Maintain Its Independence

Since the conflict began in February, Kahl claims that Russia has lost "tens of thousands of casualties," which is "orders of magnitude" higher than the losses incurred by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Kahl said that the Russian military had lost half of its main combat tanks. Over 80% of their land forces are stuck in the mud in Ukraine. The Pentagon official added that the Russian forces have used up most of their precision-guided weapons in Ukraine, and it will be exceedingly difficult for them to restore their military to its pre-war strength due to sanctions and export regulations.

Kahl remarked that Vladimir Putin "went into this war trying to extinguish Ukraine as an independent, sovereign democratic country. He's failed, and that's not going to change." The Pentagon official went on saying that Ukraine will maintain its status as a sovereign, autonomous, and democratic nation.

Kahl said that going forward, Ukraine can count on a lot of assistance from both sides of the aisle, but the form that help takes and the nature of Ukraine's military demands may shift. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted in his nightly address that the significantly less news from the frontlines "does not indicate less severe fighting."

In his nightly address, per The Kyiv Independent, Zelensky said the scenario is challenging on every front. There is still fierce positional warfare going on in several regions, and Donetsk Oblast is one of the worst.

Read Also: Brazil Election Results: Brazilians Take the Streets To Protest Amid Media Blackout

White House Confirms US-Russia Discussion Over Nuclear Weapons

Zelensky also mentioned in his message that Ukrainian forces were operating "carefully, thoroughly," and in the interests of liberating our entire territory" in the southern Kherson region.

"We are strengthening our positions, breaking Russian logistics, and continually degrading the potential of the invaders to maintain the south of our nation in occupation," Volodymyr Zelensky stated in his address, posted on his Telegram Channel.

Zelensky added that Russian soldiers incur huge losses but still strive to approach Donetsk Oblast's administrative boundary. No part of our land there is surrendered by us in any way. He also extended his thank you to Ukrainian "heroes" stationed in Donbas in the Russia Ukraine war.

Meanwhile, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States had recently spoken to the Kremlin to reduce the rhetoric surrounding the use of nuclear weapons.

Speaking at an event at the Economic Club of New York on Monday, Sullivan did not say he had been engaged in direct talks but noted he had said repeatedly that "we have channels to communicate with the Russian Federation at senior levels," as reported by CNBC.

Related Article: Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky Blames Iran for Helping Russia Prolong Devastating War

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Defence Minister called on the top Army commanders on Wednesday to always maintain the force's operational readiness at its peak level amid a lingering border row with China in eastern .

In an interaction with the commanders at their ongoing biannual conference, Singh reasserted the faith of the billion-plus citizens in the as one of the "most trusted and inspiring organisations" in the country.

At the five-day conference that started on Monday, the commanders are carrying out a comprehensive review of India's security challenges along the borders with China and Pakistan, besides delving on ways to bolster the 1.3 million-strong force's military prowess.

The main highlight of the third day's proceedings was Singh's interaction with the senior leadership of the Army, which was preceded by a briefing on "Transformational imperatives for a future-ready force".

The Army said the defence minister commended the force for maintaining a high operational readiness towards ensuring security and sovereignty.

"I have full faith and confidence in the and its leadership," he said.

The defence minister also noted that the Army ought to be prepared for any operational contingencies and hence, the operational readiness should always be at its peak level.

Singh also referred to the stellar role played by the Army in guarding the country's borders and fighting terrorism, apart from providing assistance to the civil administration whenever called for.

The defence minister complimented the forces for the high standard of operational preparedness and capabilities, which he has been experiencing first hand during his visits to forward areas, according to the Army.

"He commended the Army's efforts to develop niche technologies in collaboration with civil industries, including premier educational institutions, and thereby progressing towards the aim of 'modernisation through indigenisation' or 'Aatmanirbharta' (self-reliance)," it said in a statement.

The Army Commanders' Conference is an apex-level biannual event that is held in April and October or November every year.

The conference is an institutional platform for conceptual-level deliberations, culminating in making important policy decisions for the .

The commanders are also undertaking a review of India's military preparedness along the 3,400-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) in view of the military standoff with China in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh, officials said.

The anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the overall situation in the Union Territory are also being deliberated upon extensively at the conference, they said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP core group meeting for the state of Gujarat took place at the residence of national president JP Nadda on Tuesday evening. The meeting went on for more than two hours.

This meeting is crucial before the central election committee meeting in the national capital at the party headquarters on Wednesday evening.

The meeting at Nadda's residence was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat state president CR Patil, Union Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya, Purshottam Rupala, State General Secretary Ratnakar and BJP General Secretary Organisation B L Santosh.

Before this meeting on Tuesday evening, a meeting of some of the leaders including the CM and the state president also happened for over an hour at the residence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The central election committee is likely to clear the names for the upcoming happening in two phases: December 1, 2022, and December 5, 2022.

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A special court here on Wednesday granted bail to MP in a pertaining to the Patra Chawl redevelopment project.

Special Judge M G Deshpande, designated to hear cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), allowed the bail plea of Raut after hearing arguments from both sides.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Rajya Sabha member Raut in July this year for his alleged role in financial irregularities in connection with the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl (row tenement) in suburban Goregaon.

He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

Raut had in his bail plea claimed the case against him was a perfect example of "abuse of power" and "political vendetta".

The ED had opposed Raut's plea, saying he played a major role in the related to the Patra Chawl redevelopment and acted "behind the curtains" to avoid the money trail.

The ED's probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl and related financial transactions involving his wife and associates.

(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 meeting among senior officials of Delhi government, the Centre, Rail Corporation (DMRC) and leading banks is slated to be held on Thursday, to discuss modalities on payment of the balance arbitral award to the Reliance Infrastructure-owned Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited.

The managing director and director (finance) of the DMRC and representatives of several banks are expected to take part in the meeting to be held at Nirman Bhawan, they said.

The DMRC on October 31 had told the Delhi High Court that a meeting with the Centre and the city government was scheduled to discuss modalities on payment of the balance arbitral award to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL).

The DMRC told the court that the meeting is fixed for November 10 and some proposals are expected to come out of it.

The high court was hearing an application from the DAMEPL which said the DMRC has paid it only Rs 166.44 crore on March 14.

The DAMEPL has also sought direction to the corporation for a payment of Rs 4427.41 crore by attachment of its bank accounts and fixed deposits. The interest continues to apply till the date of actual payment by the DMRC, it said.

In September, the high court had granted four weeks to the DMRC to make outstanding payment in relation to the arbitral award, failing which it would be "constrained" to call for the appearance of the DMRC's managing director.

On March 10, the high court had directed the DMRC to pay the over Rs 4,600 crore arbitral award along with interest to DAMEPL in two equal installments within two months.

The first and second installments were to be paid on or before April 30 and May 31, respectively.

The direction had come on DAMEPL's execution petition filed against the DMRC over the arbitral award passed in its favour on May 11, 2017.

An arbitral tribunal had ruled in favour of DAMEPL, which had pulled out from running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues, and accepted its claim that running the operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would pass.

(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.)
Adani Group chairperson visited Chief Minister at his official residence in Mumbai, an official said on Wednesday.

The Tuesday night meeting between Adani and Shinde lasted for nearly 45 minutes, the official said.

Adani Group has interests in ports, airports, power generation and transmission, and real estate. The group supplies electricity to the Mumbai suburban district.

(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 receive its 36th and final fighter jet from France by December 15 completing the delivery of all the aircraft it had signed for in an over Rs 60,000 crore deal inked in 2016.

"The last aircraft will arrive in India around December 15. The aircraft was used for developing the India-specific enhancements in the fleet of the Indian Air Force," senior defence officials told ANI.

India had signed a deal for 36 of these planes and 35 of them have already arrived and are stationed at Ambala, Haryana and Hashimara in West Bengal.

The officials said the 36th aircraft with RB tail number has been provided to the Indian side by France with all its spares and other parts replaced as it was being used for developmental activities.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force has also started upgrading the planes to the highest standards and has been equipped with all India-specific enhancements.

The is a 4.5-generation aircraft and has helped India regain its supremacy over Indian sub-constituent skies with long-range air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles along with advanced radar and electronic warfare capabilities.

The French firm is also involved in the maintenance of the aircraft whose serviceability is over 75 per cent.

The Rafale was inducted swiftly into the Indian Air Force at the peak of the conflict with China and had started operating over Ladakh within a week of its arrival in the country.

The IAF also quickly fired and operationalized the long-range Meteor air-to-air missiles as well as the Scalp air-to-ground missiles.

The IAF has also added the HAMMER missile to the Rafale's arsenal as it was required for carrying out precision attacks at shorter distances.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister Manik Saha on Wednesday asserted that that the situation has improved in the state in the past five years "with the crime graph showing a steep decline".

Opposition CPI(M), however, rebuffed the assertion, claiming that the state has never experienced such lawlessness where rival camp leaders are attacked and stopped from carrying out political activities.

Saha, who chaired a meeting of senior police officers during the day, said that cases of assault, rape and murder have decreased in since 2018, after the BJP formed government in the state.

"Today, I held a high-level meeting with the director general of police and district superintendents of police (SPs) to review the prevailing situation. The reports submitted to me showed a steep decline in all crimes, be it hurt, assault, rape or murder.

"In case of hurt or assault, an overall 40 per cent decline was registered since 2018. Cases of murder and rapes are also dwindling in the state," he told reporters after the meeting.

Saha, heaping praise on the police for "effectively maintaining law and order", said he has asked officers to keep working with the same momentum "even as opposition parties try to disrupt peace in the state", where elections are scheduled to be held early next year.

The CM, who also holds the Home portfolio, said that the police officers apprised him of problems faced by them, such as manpower shortage and lack of infrastructure in some places.

"The government will surely look into these problems," Saha said.

The CPI(M), making light of the CM's claims, said that the party's headquarters here, as well as district and local committee offices have come under attack on several occasions over the past few years.

CPI(M) state committee member Ratan Das said the state's situation has "hit its nadir".

"People of this state have never seen such a rule under which the opposition party's state headquarters, district and local committee offices are attacked and its leaders stopped from carrying out political activities.

"Candidates could not submit their nomination for the civic polls due to threat and intimidation. A large section of voters was stopped from exercising their democratic rights in Lok Sabha polls and by-elections," Das added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The High Court of Justice in rejected an appeal filed by diamond merchant on Wednesday against his extradition to India in relation to the Rs 14,000 crore Punjab Bank (PNB) scam.

Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay rejected his appeal on mental health grounds saying that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering.

The option to appeal before the High Court was given on two grounds to Nirav modi-under Article 3 of European Convention of Human Rights and Section 91 of the Extradition Act. Both provisions deal with whether it would be unjust to send him back to India based on his mental state.

faces criminal proceedings in relation to the PNB scam before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and another by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The Indian government first made a request to extradite Modi in July 2018. In February 2021, the Westminster Magistrate's Court in the United Kingdom allowed the extradition of Modi to India.

The Court noted at the time that there is a 'prima facie' case of money laundering against Modi. Following this ruling, the Home Secretary Priti Patel approved his extradition in early April 2021.

Further, in June 2021, the High Court of England and Wales rejected his application against his extradition. Modi has been in Wandsworth Prison in since his arrest in March 2019.
Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, who takes over from Justice UU Lalit as the 50th (CJI) today, has been part of many landmark judgments, either as the author of the verdict or of dissenting opinions on the main judgment.

Chandrachud  who will have a term of two years till November 10, 2024  was part of the landmark Right to Privacy case (KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India), where a nine-judge Bench held that the Constitution guarantees each individual a fundamental right to privacy. In a related matter, he was the sole dissenter when the apex court heard challenges to the Aadhaar Act. He held that the Act was unconstitutionally passed as a Money Bill.

In another landmark case that decriminalised section 377 of the that dealt with same-sex intercourse, he held the section to be an anachronistic colonial law that violated the fundamental rights to equality, freedom of expression, life and privacy.

In a recent verdict, Justice Chandrachud said unmarried women, too, have the right to abortion up to 24 weeks, which is the same as that for married women. Earlier, unmarried women could only choose abortion up to 20 weeks.

Ahead of his swearing in, here are some significant judgments the new CJI was part of since his elevation to the Supreme Court on May 13, 2016.

Arbitrators fees: In Oil And Natural Gas Corporation vs Afcons-Gunanusa JV, the Supreme Court said arbitrators cannot decide their fees without consulting the parties in the arbitration proceedings.

One Rank One Pension (OROP): In the Indian Ex Servicemen Movement vs Union of India case, the SC upheld the scheme for armed forces personnel. The court said it did not find any constitutional infirmity in the principle and the governments notification dated November 7, 2015.

CM executive head of Delhi: In the Government of NCT of Delhi vs UoI, the court said the Lieutenant Governor is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers on all matters where the Delhi Assembly has the power to make laws as the Chief Minister and not the LG is the executive head of the Capital Territory (NCT) government.

Apart from these there are also many that the CJI will decide on.

Distribution of freebies to doctors: A petitioner has asked the apex court to direct the Centre to formulate a uniform code of pharmaceutical marketing practices to curb alleged unethical practices of pharma companies. During the hearing, the petitioner accused the makers of Dolo-650 of bribing doctors with freebies worth Rs 1,000 crore to recommend the pills.

Rights of personal guarantors: In Anil Ambani vs UoI, the SC will hear a petition challenging the validity of the rights of personal guarantors under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Agnipath recruitment scheme: The Supreme Court will hear petitions against the Agnipath scheme for the armed forces, that was launched by the central government on June 14.

Tribunals: In Rojer Mathew v South Indian Bank, the Supreme Court will assess whether Part XIV of the Finance Act, 2017, dealing with the appointment, selection, eligibility, and other service conditions of members of Scheduled Tribunals was unconstitutionally enacted.

Definition of Industry: In State of Uttar Pradesh vs Jai Bir Singh, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court will reconsider the interpretation of the definition of industry under the Industrial Disputes Act, of 1947.
Fugitive diamond merchant on Wednesday lost his appeal against extradition to India on mental health grounds as the High Court in London ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to face charges of fraud and .

Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who presided over the appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year, said in their verdict that District Judge Sam Goozee's Westminster Magistrates' Court order from last year in favour of extradition was sound.

The leave to appeal in the High Court had been granted on two grounds related to mental health under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and Section 91 of the Extradition Act 2003.

The 51-year-old fugitive diamond merchant has the option of further appeals in the UK and European courts and the process to bring him back to stand trial in India is unlikely to be a speedy one.

Pulling these various strands together and weighing them in the balance so as to reach an overall evaluative judgment on the question raised by Section 91, we are far from satisfied that Mr Modi's mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him, states the ruling, handed down remotely.

It may be that the main benefit of the appeal has been to obtain the extensive further [Indian government] assurances that we have identified in the course of this judgment, which render the position clear to Mr Modi's advantage and the District Judge's decision supportable, the judges ruled.

Their verdict also finds every reason to accept that the government of India (GOI) will treat its assurances with appropriate seriousness, enhanced by the fact that this is a high-profile case so that the care of Nirav Modi, who remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019, is likely to be subject to heightened scrutiny at all times.

The GoI will surely appreciate that a failure to honour its assurances would be liable to have a significant adverse effect on the mutual trust that forms the basis of the extradition regime to which India and the United Kingdom are parties, the judges said.

The judgment notes three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamantaire in India the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case of fraud on the (PNB) which caused losses equivalent to over GBP 700 million, the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third set of criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings.

Then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Nirav's extradition based on Judge Goozee's ruling in April last year and the case has been undergoing an appeals process since then.

The High Court ruling this week accepts that Nirav's risk of suicide in the event of extradition may be characterised as high or substantial but concludes that the risk of deterioration of the underlying depression and the risk of suicide cannot be considered in a vacuum.

On the basis of the assurances that the GoI has given, we accept that there will be suitable medical provision and an appropriate plan in place for the management and medical care of Mr Modi, which will be provided in the knowledge that he is a suicide risk (i.e. a person who, in the absence of preventative measures, may or will attempt suicide and will or may succeed), the ruling states.

The evidence does not support a finding that the assured steps will eliminate the risk that Mr Modi will commit suicide altogether, still less the risk that he will attempt to do so, it notes.

Based on expert witness testimony, the verdict concludes that Nirav has so far displayed no features of psychotic illness and although he has exhibited persistent suicidal ideation, he has neither attempted suicide or deliberate self-harm nor disclosed plans to do so, except in the most vague and general way.

It is common ground that his recurrent depressive disorder is likely to deteriorate in the event of extradition, the ruling concedes.

However, it also acknowledges the safety measures assured at Barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where he is to be lodged on being extradited, which will ensure that there is effectively constant monitoring to reduce the risk of attempted suicide.

As he has lost this appeal hearing, can approach the Supreme Court on a point of law of public importance, to be applied for to the Supreme Court against the High Court's decision within 14 days of a High Court verdict. However, this involves a high threshold as appeals to the Supreme Court can only be made if the High Court has certified that the case involves a point of law of general public importance.

Finally, after all avenues in the UK courts are exhausted, the diamantaire could still seek a so-called Rule 39 injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Therefore, the process of bringing him back to India to be lodged at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and stand trial for fraud and amounting to an estimated USD 2 billion in the (PNB) loan scam case still has some way to go.

His legal team are yet to comment on any plans to appeal the High Court verdict.

(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.)
It's almost impossible to not hear through the grapevine about all the happenings on Twitter. Since everyday social media users have caught wind of it, surely the people who pay Twitter for advertising have too.

According to Gizmodo, big names have been cutting ties with the social media platform. It does not bode well for Twitter, especially since the company has been scrambling for ways to earn more, not less.

Advertisers That Bid Adieu

General Motors

GM did not cut ties permanently, but they are pausing its ads on Twitter, as reports said. The competitor to Tesla stopped its ads before Tesla's CEO purchased Twitter.

GM's statement said that it was a normal course of business when a media platform undergoes significant change. Analysis states that GM spends an average of $1.7 million per month on Twitter ads, which is a big chunk.

Pfizer

Pharmaceutical ads are big in America, but it seems that Pfizer won't be doing it much on Twitter. Just last week, the company paused its advertising as well.

It's still not announced whether they would return, or why exactly they paused their advertising.

Mondelez

Mondelez is not exactly a name that rings a bell among consumers, but the company has products that you have surely heard of.

This includes Oreos, Cadbury Eggs, and Trident Gum. The company is reported to be one of Twitter's five biggest advertisers, and the effect of them pausing their ads will surely be felt.

REI

The company selling recreational equipment not only stopped their ads, but will take a break from tweeting as well. REI told the New York Times that Twitter's ability to moderate harmful content and guarantee brand safety, had an "uncertain future."

General Mills

A spokesperson of the company said that they will be monitoring the new direction, pertaining to Musk's takeover, and evaluate their marketing spend.

The company is responsible for popular brands like Cheerios, Gold Medal Flower, Haagen-Dazs, and Count Chocula.

Audi

The Volkswagen Group has Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porche, and Volkswagen under its belt. It just recommended the following subsidiaries to pause their advertising.

So far, Audi is the only one that followed the recommendation.

IPG

The company is among the biggest advertising firms globally. They represent brands like American Express, CVS Pharmacies, Johnson & Johnson, and Spotify.

On the 1st of November, they advised their clients to stop Twitter ads temporarily. Since they are an advertising firm, its clients are likely to follow that advice.

Read Also: Elon Musk Might Put Twitter Behind a Paywall, Reports Say

Elon Musk's Response

It seems counterproductive to threaten clients to get them to stay, but Musk decided to go with that. In a tweet, he stated that there has been a huge drop in revenue, blaming it on activists pressuring advertisers. He then added that they were trying to destroy free speech in America, as mentioned in Opindia.

Mike Davis, former Chief Counsel for Nominations at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, quoted Musk. He urged the tech mogul to "name and shame" the advertisers who are succumbing to advertiser boycotts, as he has 114M followers who would see it.

Elon Musk responded by saying that "thermonuclear name and shame is exactly what will happen" should the advertiser exodus continue.

Thank you.



A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

Related: Twitter Bleeds Financially Over Ad Pullback; Elon Musk Takeover
Prime Minister will be on a two-day visit to the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from Friday during which he will attend several events, including the launch of development initiatives.

An official statement said Modi will begin his programme with a visit to Karnataka where he will pay floral tributes to the statues of saint-poets Kanaka Dasa and Maharshi Valmiki in Bengaluru.

He will flag off Vande Bharat Express and Bharat Gaurav Kashi Darshan train in the city and later inaugurate Terminal 2 of the Kempegowda International Airport. He is also scheduled to unveil the 108-feet bronze statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda followed by a public function in Bengaluru. Later on Friday afternoon, Modi will attend the 36th convocation ceremony of Gandhigram Rural Institute at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu.

On Saturday, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple projects at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, the statement said. He will also visit the RFCL plant in Ramagundam, Telangana and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple projects there.

(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 will visit for the next week where a formal announcement will be made of India's Presidency of the forum.

PM Modi unveiled the logo, theme and website of India's G20 Presidency via video-conferencing here on Tuesday.

Addressing the gathering, he said will preside over the G-20 Summit from December 1 and said that it is a historic opportunity for the country.

The Prime Minister said G-20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation representing around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the worldwide trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

Calling this a momentous occasion, the Prime Minister said the Presidency of G-20 during the year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is a matter of pride for every Indian. The Prime Minister expressed happiness over the growing interest and activities about the G-20 and related events.

"Next week, I will go to . Formally, there will be an announcement that will get the presidency of G20," he said.

The will take place on November 15-16 in .

Highlighting the contributions of the citizens in the launch of the G-20 logo, the Prime Minister said that the government received thousands of creative ideas for the logo. He thanked everyone for their support and said that these suggestions are becoming the face of the global event.

Noting that the G-20 logo is not just any logo, the Prime Minister said that it is a message, a feeling that runs in India's veins.

"I congratulate countrymen on the historic occasion of India's G20 Presidency. 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam' is the signature of India's compassion for the world. Lotus portrays India's cultural heritage and faith in bringing the world together," 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.)
is a "tool in the hands of the civil society" just as "strike is a weapon in the hands of the workmen", the said on Wednesday.

The top court made the remarks while hearing an appeal filed by Ravi Namboothiri, who had challenged the Kerala High Court's judgment that upheld a trial court verdict setting aside his election as councillor in the Gram Panchayat in November 2015.

His election to the post was cancelled on the ground that he suppressed in his nomination form his involvement in a criminal case and that he had committed a corrupt practice.

A bench of justices S Abdul Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian said the Act was the successor legislation of certain police enactments of the colonial era which aimed at scuttling the democratic aspirations of the indigenous population.

"Just as strike is a weapon in the hands of the workmen and lockout is a weapon in the hands of the employer under labour welfare legislations, is a tool in the hands of the civil society and police action is a tool in the hands of the Establishment. All State enactments such as Act, Madras Police Act etc, are aimed at better regulation of the police force and they do not create substantive offences," it said.

"This is why these Acts themselves empower the police to issue necessary directions for the maintenance of law and order and the violation of any of those directions is made a punishable offence under these Acts," the bench said.

On September 20, 2006, Namboothiri and others formed an unlawful assembly and committed criminal trespass into the office compound of the Annamanada Gram Panchayat and put up a temporary shed for conducting a 'dharna', according to a police complaint.

The appellant was convicted for offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Act.

Later, a sessions court set aside his conviction under sections of the IPC. However, it upheld his conviction under the Kerala Police Act and directed him to pay a fine of Rs 200.

The said while offences under the IPC or under special enactments such as the Prevention of Corruption Act and Arms Act are substantive offences, the commission of which may make a person a criminal, an offence under certain enactments such as Kerala Police Act are not substantive offences.

"Once the object behind the provisions of the Kerala Police Act are understood, it would be clear that neither Section 52(1A) read with Rule 6 and Form 2A nor Section 102(1)(CA) of the Act nor the decisions in the Association for Democratic Reforms, the People's Union for Civil Liberties... can be stretched to such an extent that the failure of the appellant to disclose his conviction for an offence under the Kerala Police Act for holding a dharna in front of the Panchayat office is taken as a ground for declaring an election void," it said.

The Kerala Police Act is "actually the successor legislation of certain police enactments of the colonial era, whose object was to scuttle the democratic aspirations of the indigenous population", the apex court said.

This aspect should be kept in mind before applying "blindfold, the principle 'what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander", 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.)
The on Wednesday pulled up the Development Authority (ADA) for not conducting any survey on the environmental impact of business activities near the iconic and termed it a "sorry state of affairs".

The top court said it has to act like a "super administrator" as the ADA has failed to do its duty and stayed the operation of notices served for closure of all business activities along the boundary wall of the centuries-old monument.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka asked the Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to conduct an environment impact assessment (EIA) based on the latest survey of the business activities especially in the Taj Ganj area within 500 metres from the boundary wall of the iconic monument and submit a report giving suggestion to the court as early as possible.

The top court noted that its September 26 order for removal of businesses was passed to bring in conformity with a similar order passed earlier in the case of 71 shops which were directed to be rehabilitated outside the 500-metre periphery of the monument.

It granted liberty to NEERI to approach the court in case it faces any difficulty in conducting the survey or the EIA.

The bench told the counsel for Uttar Pradesh, "It seems that your authority has not performed their task and now we have to become super administrators. We ourselves don't know what kind of activity is going on there. We were concerned with those 71 shopkeepers."



It said that the state government was directed in 1998 by the court to conduct an environment impact assessment of the business activities around the but till date nothing has been done.

The top court was hearing an application of owners of the residence and business establishments, especially those in Taj Ganj area, who were served closure notices by the ADA pursuant to the September 26 order of the court.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the shop owners, said they have been carrying out their businesses and have residences in the area for decades and now the ADA has served them notices for closure.

"The earlier order for 71 shops was passed for encroachers but we are not encroachers. We have been there for a long. The ADA has served the notice saying that the court has ordered for closure. Where should we go? There was no scientific study conducted which says that due to these activities, there is any danger to the monument," he said.

Rohatgi said these 2,000 establishments have never been in any kind of litigation for the past 40 years and have never indulged in any business activity which has been prohibited.

Amicus curiae ADN Rao said the order banning business activity within 500 metres of the has been in existence since 1996 and has been reiterated time and again.

Advocate M C Dhingra, appearing for the 71 shop owners, said there will be gross violation of earlier top court orders as business activities are going on near the western gate of the monument which is illegal.

Rohatgi said the order was passed for the encroachers and not residents.

The bench disposed of the application of 2,000 residents with the direction to the NEERI.

The bench also asked the Union Ministry of Tourism to have a re-look at the 2007 plan submitted by HUDCO for the reconstruction of 71 shops in 'Amrud ka Tilla' area.

The top court is monitoring development in the area after it first entertained a PIL by environmentalist M C Mehta in 1984 to protect the Taj Mahal, which has been declared as a UNESCO world heritage and was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife.

It also allowed the felling of 1,032 trees for construction of four-lane road from Yamuna Expressway to Pagla Baba Mandir in Vrindavan.

The bench asked the Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to complete the compulsory afforestation by planting 10,320 saplings within six months and asked Rao to submit the report after visiting the site of afforestation.

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Dubbing mangrove forests the "most productive ecosystems" of the world, India on Tuesday joined the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) at the 27th Summit of the Conference of Parties (COP27) at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. UAE, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Spain and Sri Lanka are the other MAC supporters.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Bhupender Yadav said that the mangroves can absorb four to five times more than the tropical forests and can help create new carbon sinks.

"India can contribute to the global knowledge base due to its extensive experience in mangrove restoration, studies on ecosystem valuation, and carbon sequestration," Yadav said.

What are mangrove forests?

A mangrove is a shrub or a small tree that grows along the coastlines and has roots in salty sediments, often underwater. They also grow in swamps. Mangrove forests can survive extreme weather conditions and require low oxygen levels to survive.

The mangroves cannot survive freezing temperatures and thus are found mainly in tropical and subtropical latitudes. Sundarbans in West Bengal in India is the largest mangrove forest in the world.

UNESCO celebrates July 26 as the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem to raise awareness about mangrove ecosystems and to promote their conservation.

What is the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC)?

Spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in partnership with Indonesia, MAC was launched at the Summit in Egypt to scale up and accelerate the conservation and restoration of the mangrove forests.

The alliance will raise awareness about the role of mangroves as a "nature-based solution to climate change".

The alliance will be amplified at the G20 Summit that will be held between November 15 and 16 in Bali under the presidency of Indonesia.

"The MAC seeks to scale up, accelerate conservation, restoration and growing plantation efforts of mangrove ecosystems for the benefit of communities globally, and recognize the importance of these ecosystems for mitigation and adaptation," MAC's official website said about its aim.

How are the Mangroves beneficial?

According to MAC, Mangrove forests can store ten times more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests. Also, they can store carbon up to 400 per cent faster than land-based tropical rainforests.

According to Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA), when the mangroves are cut, the carbon stored in these plants gets released into the air. So, preserving them to keep the levels low is necessary.

Once the plants die, they take the stored carbon into the soil. This is called "Blue Carbon".

Moreover, Mangrove forests act as natural barriers against rising tides and storms. Each year, they prevent property damages of over $65 billion.

"They also provide breeding grounds for marine biodiversity and 80% of global fish populations depend on healthy mangrove ecosystems," MAC's website read.

What is the relationship between India and mangroves?

India contributes to nearly half of the total mangrove cover in South Asia. According to the Forest Survey report 2021 released in January, mangroves cover in the country is 4,992 square km, which is 0.15 per cent of the country's total geographical area. Since 2019, the cover has risen by only 17 sq km.

West Bengal has the highest percentage of mangrove cover in India, mainly because it has Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. It is followed by Gujarat and Andaman, and Nicobar islands.

Other states that have mangrove cover are Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Kerala.
is taking a heavy toll on Filipinos' lives, properties and livelihoods, and might hamper the country's ambition of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2040, according to a report on Wednesday.

The Country Climate and Development Report for warns that the archipelago country is vulnerable to sea level rise, with nearly half of its 110 million population living in urban areas and coastal areas, Xinhua news agency reported.

Climate shocks, whether in the form of extreme weather events or slow-onset trends, will hamper economic activities, damage infrastructure, and induce deep social disruptions, the report said.

As one of the countries most affected by extreme climate events, the has experienced highly destructive typhoons almost annually for the past 10 years. Annual typhoon losses have been estimated at 1.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the report noted.

Policy actions and investments, principally to protect valuable infrastructure from typhoons and to make agriculture more resilient through climate-smart measures, could reduce these negative climate impacts by two-thirds, Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Manuela Ferro said.

"Adaptation to the risks of climate change, including both extreme and slow-onset problems, is thus critical for the Philippines," the report said, warning that "policy inaction would impose substantial economic and human costs, especially for the poor."

Meanwhile, the report warned will affect many people even with vigorous adaptation efforts. Some climate actions may also have adverse effects on particular groups, such as workers displaced by the move away from high-emission activities.

It recommended that the existing social protection system in the be strengthened and scaled up to support affected sectors and groups.

--IANS

int/svn/

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The on Wednesday amended the foreign (FTP) to enable traders to claim export benefits even if payment is settled in the rupee. So far, export incentives were available only when the trade was settled in a foreign .

The amendments by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) came into force with immediate effect.

The development comes against the backdrop of the mechanism to settle transactions in the rupee which was unveiled by the (RBI) in July. Given the government's push towards the internationalisation of the rupee, these policy amendments shall help ease transactions in the domestic .

The Government of India has made suitable amendments in the Foreign and Handbook of Procedures to allow for settlement in Indian rupees (INR) i.e. invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/imports in Indian rupees, the department of commerce said in a statement.

Currently, benefits under these schemes are available if the payment is received in a foreign currency, except in the case of sanction-hit Iran. These amendments will be applicable for goods imported for export, realisation of export proceeds under Advance Authorisation (AA), Duty-Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) schemes, and realisation of export proceeds under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme.

had earlier said that to do the costing for exports in domestic currency, they need clarity with regard to the applicability of export benefits. Besides, a lot of who had imported under various schemes require clarification regarding the acceptance of export obligations in the rupee against imports made in a free foreign .

The RBI in July said that rupee trade was being allowed to promote growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of the global trading community in INR. According to the mechanism finalised by the RBI, banks of partner countries can approach authorised dealer (AD) banks in India for opening special rupee vostro accounts. The AD bank will then have to seek approval from the central bank with details of such an arrangement.

While the rupee trade mechanism is yet to pick up in full swing, hope that it will help increase Indias exports to countries facing acute foreign exchange shortages or those covered by sanctions. Two domestic lenders  UCO Bank and YES Bank  are in talks with their Russian counterparts to settle international trade between the two nations in the rupee.

The changes in the Foreign will facilitate trade in domestic currency and hence boost exports. The decision will help the engineering goods sector in achieving the export target of $127 billion set by the government for the current fiscal year. During the April-September period of FY23, engineering goods exports stood at $55.15 billion, Engineering and Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC) Chairman Arun Kumar Garodia said.

India is also in touch with smaller nations, such as Cuba, Sudan, and Luxembourg, to settle international trade in the domestic currency, but nothing has materialised as of now.
The central governments chief labour commission will meet with the All-India Banks Employees Association (AIBEA) on a strike proposed on November 19 against alleged harassment of bankers active in the union.

The has said that it will participate in the meeting, which will also have the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and the Department of Financial Services, to explore solutions.

AIBEAs plan has prompted banks to put out notices saying normal services could get affected although they are taking action for smooth functioning.

In a regulatory filing this week, said, Though the bank is taking necessary steps for smooth functioning of Banks Branches and Offices on the days of strike, in the event the strike materializes, the functioning of the branches and offices may be affected.

The IBA held talks with on November 5 on the issues concerning the strike in which the management of all the eleven banks were present against whom the association has leveled allegations and who were duly mentioned in the strike notice given by . The outcome of the meeting was not satisfactory from the AIBEAs perspective, Business Standard has learnt.

Since there was no concrete decision or proposal from any of the bank managements to address the issues raised by AIBEA, we could not agree to reconsider our strike call, said a letter by CH Venkatachalam, AIBEA's general secretary, to union members.

AIBEAs contention is that the bank managements are violating the provisions of bipartite settlements and bank level settlements, particularly in the areas like outsourcing and transferring of employees. They are also being vindictive and giving punishments to bankers who are active in the union. The bank managements are not respecting the audits of the labour commissioner.
External Affairs Minister on Wednesday held talks with his visiting Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei covering a range of issues including bilateral economic engagement and the Ukraine conflict.

Makei arrived here Wednesday morning on a three-day visit.

"Met FM Vladimir Makei of who is in India for our Inter-Governmental Commission meeting. Our discussion covered bilateral economic ties, Ukraine conflict and multilateral cooperation," Jaishankar tweeted.

India and have a comprehensive partnership.

Both countries have established mechanisms for exchanging views on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues through Foreign Office Consultations (FOCs), India- Inter-governmental Commission (IGC) and Commission on Military Technical Cooperation.

It is learnt that the Ukraine conflict figured prominently in the talks between Jaishankar and Makei.

India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

Meanwhile, Jaishankar also met a delegation of the American Jewish Committee and the Indian diaspora.

"Glad to meet a delegation of American Jewish Committee and the Indian Diaspora in South Block today morning. Discussed strengthening India's relationship with the US and Israel. Appreciated their suggestions on promoting community based activities," the external affairs minister tweeted.

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Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra met US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl and the two senior officials discussed initiatives to further advance the bilateral defence cooperation and underlined the importance of the 'India-US Major Defence Partnership' which has helped in shaping the future of the Indo-Pacific region.

Kwatra, currently on an official visit to the US, met Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday and discussed Indo-US ties and ways to further advance their bilateral security and regional cooperation, the situation in the Indo-Pacific region and Ukraine.

During the meeting on Tuesday Kahl and Kwarta discussed initiatives to advance bilateral defence cooperation ahead of the next 2+2 Ministerial meeting in New Delhi, a media release said.

"It was a pleasure meeting w/Indian Foreign Secretary @AmbVMKwatra this afternoon. We discussed a range of bilateral initiatives to advance the US-India defence partnership and promote a #FreeandOpenIndoPacific @DeptofDefence @INDOPACOM," Kahl tweeted.

The two leaders exchanged views on developments related to mutual security interests, including in the Indian Ocean Region and Europe, said Pentagon Spokesman Lt. Col. David Herndon.

The conversation spanned a range of issues including deepening Navy-to-Navy cooperation, particularly in the undersea domain; expanding information sharing and logistics cooperation to facilitate operational coordination between the US and Indian militaries; and accelerating India's indigenous defence production through bilateral defence industrial cooperation and partnership in emerging defence domains, Herndon said.

Since its inception in 2018, the 2+2 Ministerial has allowed the US and India to work toward building an advanced, comprehensive defence partnership that is poised to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The US has a very close partnership and defence relationship with India and the two countries will continue to work together to further develop that relationship, the Pentagon has said earlier.

The US recognised India as a "Major Defence Partner" in 2016, a designation that allows India to buy more advanced and sensitive technologies from America at par with that of the US' closest allies and partners, and ensures enduring cooperation into the future.

India, the US and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China's rising military manoeuvring in the region.

Kwatra arrived in Washington DC from New York on Sunday night.

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The Santa Clara-based Nvidia created A800 GPU as an alternative to its A100 chip that it can no longer sell to its customers in China following the new regulations from the US government.

In August, the chipmaker was banned from selling the A100 as well as the powerful H100 data center graphic processing unit (GPU) to China-based customers who do not have a license, as per South China Morning Post.

In response, Nvidia had to develop a new chip tailored for the Chinese market in order to be able to keep on selling its products to China-based customers while still adhering to the new US regulations.

Nvidia Offers New Advanced Chip to China-based Customers

The news about the new product of Nvidia was first reported by Reuters, and was later confirmed by the chipmaker.

Now, the Santa Clara-based chipmaker is offering this new advanced chip to its China-based customers.

According to Reuters, Nvidia responded to their reports that computer sellers in the Asian country are now advertising products with the new chip that it produced.

Nvidia's move to develop a new chip for the Chinese market is in line with its aim to continue doing business with China even amid the restrictions imposed by the US government.

Amid the rising tension between China and the US concerning Chinese companies being able to access US technologies such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, the US crafted export control requirements.

The export limitation started with the ban imposed by the government on Nvidia in August. The chipmaker said at the time that the ban aimed to deal with the risk that the covered products may be used for military purposes in China and Russia.

According to Nvidia, the export limitations could potentially cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

As per CNET, during the third quarter, the company expected approximately $400 million in sales to China. However, since there are customers who are unwilling to purchase alternative products, the figures may be affected.

Read Also: Nvidia CEO: Metaverse to Save Companies 'Hundreds and Hundreds and Hundreds of Billions of Dollars'

China has Become a Very Large Market of GPU Chips for Nvidia

Previously, the Santa Clara-based company has played a significant role in providing chips to China. These chips helped the country move forward when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), data analysis as well as high-performance computing.

With the new regulations of the US, which ban the exportation of certain chips to China, the country's ability to develop sophisticated AI models is impacted since the chips come from US suppliers such as Intel and Nvidia.

The export of advanced microchips and equipment was effectively banned under the US regulations that were set in early October.

But the latest chip developed by Nvidia for the Chinese market is an indicator that the company is trying to balance its commercial interests with US regulations. About one-quarter of Nvidia's total gross sales comes from the chips being supplied to China.

According to Jensen Huang, Nvidia's founder and CEO, the Asian country has become a very large market for the company since it has grown into a global AI powerhouse.

Related Article: NVIDIA Hack 2022: Cybercriminals Demand to Disable LHR For Better Cryptomining and Gaming Experience
and on Tuesday vowed to expand their economic engagement including New Delhi's import of petroleum products from its "time-tested" partner even as External Affairs Minister emphasized on ending the Ukraine conflict in view of growing global concerns over energy and food security.

After holding wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in Moscow, Jaishankar said would be supportive of any initiative that "de-risks" the and stabilises the global order at this stage.

In his opening remarks at the meeting with Lavrov, Jaishankar described Indo- relations as "exceptionally steady" and "time-tested" and said the objective is to fashion a contemporary, balanced, mutually beneficial, sustainable and long-term engagement between the two sides.

It was Jaishankar's first visit to Moscow after launched its invasion of Ukraine in February and his talks with the Russian interlocutors came just a week before the G-20 summit in Indonesia that is expected to deliberate extensively on the conflict.

At a joint media briefing with Lavrov, the external affairs minister said any "objective evaluation" of the relationship over many decades would confirm that it has actually served both countries very well.

On the Ukraine conflict, he referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in the Uzbek city of Samarkand in September that "today's era is not of war" and that the Ukraine conflict was a dominant feature in the talks.

"As Prime Minister Modi conveyed to President Putin in Samarkand in September, this is not an era of war. The is simply too inter-dependent for a significant conflict anywhere, not to have major consequences elsewhere," he said.

"We are seeing growing concerns on energy and food security from the conflict that are coming on top of severe stresses created by two years of Covid. The Global South, especially, is feeling this pain very acutely," Jaishankar said.

"India, therefore, strongly advocates a return to dialogue and diplomacy. We are clearly on the side of peace, respect for international law and support for the UN Charter," he added.

Jaishankar said he and Lavrov noted the "significant growth" in the bilateral trade this year and focused on how to make it more sustainable.

"We are naturally concerned at the trade imbalance, and I have raised with the Russian side how to address impediments that stand in the way of greater Indian exports," Jaishankar said.

On economic ties, Jaishankar said there is a "natural convergence" of interests between and Russia, adding "When we do so, we not only serve our national interest, we...as major G20 economies...are actually helping to stabilise the world economy as well."



To a question on Western pressure on India to not buy Russian crude oil and G7's proposed price cap for Russian oil, Jaishankar said New Delhi's approach is to ensure the best possible access to energy supplies.

He said, "India-Russia relationship has worked to our advantage. So if it works to my advantage, I would like to keep that going."



In his remarks, Lavrov described the talks as "fruitful" and welcomed "positive dynamics" in bilateral trade while expressing confidence in achieving the target of an annual trade volume of USD 30 billion soon.

"We welcomed the positive dynamics of bilateral trade. By September 2022, compared to the same period last year, the trade turnover added 133 per cent, almost reaching the mark of 17 billion US dollars. We are sure that the goal set by the leaders of Russia and India to increase the annual trade turnover to 30 billion USD will be achieved soon," Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister said both sides were unanimous that the strengthening of the Russian-India partnership is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and would contribute to the maintenance of international and regional security and stability.

"We pointed out good prospects for cooperation in the energy sector, including an increase in exports of hydrocarbons from Russia to the Indian market and mutual participation in projects for their production, including in the Far East and on the Arctic shelf of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said.

At the briefing, Jaishankar said India will be as helpful as it can be pertaining to issues like food grains and fertiliser shipments are concerned, or any other problem.

"Indeed, I would say that for any initiative that de-risks the and stabilises the global order at this stage, India will be supportive," he noted.

On India's import of crude oil from Russia, Jaishankar said it is India's fundamental obligation to ensure that Indian consumers have the best possible access on the most advantageous terms to international markets.

"The fact that I am here today with a delegation to review our cooperation, to see how we can take it forward, to create a long-term sustainable basis, I think, says most of all," he said.

"For us, Russia has been a steady and time-tested partner, and as I said, any objective evaluation of our relationship over many decades would confirm that it has actually served both our countries very, very well," he said.

"So if it has served my country very, very well for many decades, I think you can see the obvious interest and commitment I would have in keeping that relationship strong and steady," the minister noted.

As regards the oil supply issue, Jaishankar said there is stress on the energy markets which has been created by a combination of factors.

"But as today the world's third-largest consumer of oil and gas, a consumer where the levels of income are not very high, it is our fundamental obligation to ensure that the Indian consumer has the best possible access on the most advantageous terms to international markets," he said.

"In that respect, quite honestly, we have seen that the India-Russia relationship has worked to our advantage. So if it works to my advantage, I would like to keep that going," he said.

The external affairs minister said India and Russia have grappled with ways to expand bilateral trade and introduce more factors of long-term stability and growth.

"Some of these discussions are now yielding results, accelerated by the stresses that the global economy is currently experiencing, including as a result of the Ukraine conflict. Minister Lavrov and I have noted the significant growth in our bilateral trade this year and focused on how to make it more sustainable," he said.

At the same time, Jaishankar voiced concerns over trade imbalance and said he raised with the Russian side how to address the "impediments" that stand in the way of greater Indian exports to Russia.

"We reviewed the progress of our space and nuclear programs. It is also essential that our time-tested defence relationship continues to perform smoothly," he said.

"Notably, our energy and fertiliser cooperation has been strengthening and our achievements of the last few years have become a foundation to do more. Foreign Minister Lavrov of course has spoken about some of these issues in his remarks," he added.

Jaishankar said the talks also focused on terrorism and climate change challenges.

In his comments, Lavrov said both sides also deliberated on the prospect of joint production of military hardware.

"We examined in detail the state of and prospects for military-technical cooperation and the joint production of modern types of weapons. We attach great importance to space exploration in such areas as satellite navigation, space science, and manned programs," he said.

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By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian are aggressively signing export deals, contracting for about 1 million tonnes just four days after New Delhi approved exports, as they get higher prices for their product in global markets, four dealers told Reuters.

The quick shipments from the world's biggest producer of the sweetener and its second biggest exporter, could weigh on global prices, but help Indian mills in liquidating stockpiles quickly and prop up domestic prices.

"The industry was waiting for the government to announce the policy," said a dealer with a global trading house based in Mumbai, the financial capital.

"As soon as the policy was announced, traders and millers started signing export deals," added the dealer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

India's approval came late on Saturday for the export of 6 million tonnes of sugar in the 2022/2023 marketing year that started on Oct. 1.

After the announcement, mills have sealed deals to export about 1 million tonnes of sugar, said Rahil Shaikh, the managing director of exporter MEIR Commodities India.

"Mills are getting a premium of 2,000 rupees to 3,000 rupees per tonne from the overseas sale. So they are very interested in exports," he added.

India was selling white sugar at about $480 a tonne free-on-board (FOB), a discount to London white sugar futures, which were ruling above $534 on Wednesday, for shipments in December to February, dealers said.

Mills are likely to sell the entire allocated quota of 6 million tonnes before the end of December, and shipments could stretch until the end of March, said the Mumbai-based dealer.

India's in 2021/2022 touched an all-time high of more than 11 million tonnes, but most of those were from mills in the western state of Maharashtra and neighbouring Karnataka.

Mills in northern Uttar Pradesh, the country's second biggest producer of sugar, are also interested in exports this year for the higher prices they fetch, said a New-Delhi based dealer with an international trading firm.

"This year everyone is interested in exports but the quota is limited," he said.

Producer body the Indian Association (ISMA) expects that New Delhi could allocate a second tranche of 3 million tonnes for the exports on top of the 6 million tonnes approved, it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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on Wednesday reported a multi-fold rise in net profit at Rs 15.89 crore for September quarter 2022-23 on lower provisions for .

The bank had clocked a net profit of Rs 3.66 crore in the year-ago period. In the previous June quarter, the bank incurred a net loss of Rs 26.43 crore.

Total income increased to Rs 285.26 crore in September quarter from Rs 266.79 crore earlier, said in a regulatory filing.

Interest income rose to Rs 262.50 crore from Rs 229.01 crore. Operating profit was up 35 per cent at Rs 35.35 crore.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank were 6.04 per cent of gross advances at the end of September 2022 as against 8.67 per cent by the year-ago period.

Net NPAs or were trimmed to 2.32 per cent from 4.92 per cent.

Thus, provisions for and contingencies fell to Rs 19.46 crore for the quarter, as against Rs 22.60 crore set aside for the year-ago period.

said it has recovered Rs 3.32 crore from one account during this financial year after fraud classification.

In a separate filing, the bank said its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for November 12, 2022, is being cancelled.

Requisitionists holding more than 10 per cent of equity shares of the bank have agreed to withdraw the special notice dated September 26, 2022, it added.

Bank's NRI businessman shareholder B Ravindran Pillai along with other members through a requisition had called for an EGM to suspend capital and revenue expenditure related powers of the MD & CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank.

In the requisition dated September 26, 2022, the shareholders led by Pillai said in the EGM in June, they had expressed serious concern over the poor performance of the bank and heavy expenditure.

They said the MD had assured them that immediate steps would be taken to rectify the anomalies. However, in spite of the verbal assurance of the MD, it was alarming to note that the bank registered heavy loss in Q1FY23.

"The MD continues with his luxury of incurring expenditure like engaging high-cost advocates for avoidable litigations thrust upon the bank, claiming huge incentives for himself recruiting new personnel, opening of new branches etc without objective analysis of the workload of the executives," they said in the requisition.

Presently, Shivan J K is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Thrissur-based private sector lender.

In September 2020, RBI had appointed its General Manager D K Kashyap on the board of the bank for two years.

The bank was put under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) Framework by the RBI in November 2015 due to deteriorating financial health and it came out of these restrictions only in 2019.

Bank unions AIBOC and AIBEA had flagged concerns over few developments at Dhanlaxmi Bank and sought immediate corrective measures by the RBI.

Besides, the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) had urged the RBI governor to intervene into the affairs of Dhanlaxmi Bank which it alleged is headed in the wrong direction.

Dhanlaxmi Bank stock settled at Rs 15.22 on BSE, down 0.46 per cent from the 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.)
The board of on Wednesday decided to induct three independent directors and this opened the gates for its proposed rights issue. The issue was stuck since the bank did not have the requisite number of board members and also a women director.

The bank plans to raise Rs 128 crore through the rights issue to boost its capital adequacy ratio, which was 12.32 per cent as on end-September.

The and the management came to an agreement, which resulted in calling off the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) scheduled for Saturday.

having more than 10 per cent stake in the company withdrew the special EGM notice, after the management agreed to the appointment of three new directors.

A decision was taken to appoint three new directors as a compromise formula, a source said.

The three new directors are KN Madhusoodhanan (holds around 1 per cent stake in the bank), Sreesankar Radhakrishnan (a financial consultant based out of Mumbai) and Nirmala Padmanabhan (a retired economics professor), the bank informed the exchanges.

The EGM was called by a group of nine shareholders, who hold a total of around 13 per cent in the bank. The group was led by RP Group head Ravindran Pillai, who holds a 9.99 per cent stake in the company.

Pillai was on the board of the bank till May 2020 when he turned 70. He claimed re-election after the (RBI) raised the age limit of non-executive directors to 75 years in 2021.

According to the EGM notification, through one of the resolutions, had sought the suspension of delegated powers exercised by the MD and CEO. This was regarding all capital and revenue expenditure except statutory payments like salaries and wages, central and state taxes.

EGM, scheduled to be held on November 12, is being cancelled, as requisitionists holding more than 10 per cent of equity shares in the bank have agreed to withdraw the special notice, the bank said in a filing to the stock exchanges.



Current directors of the bank are C K Gopinathan, a former director of Catholic Syrian Bank; chief executive officer J K Sivan; independent director G Rajagopalan Nair, an expert on fintech and two nominees: DK Kashyap and Jayakumar Yarasi.

The appointment of new directors hit a roadblock in March after the high court stopped the bank from holding an annual general meeting (AGM) until legal issues are sorted. Now that the case has been withdrawn, the bank can hold its AGM.

The bank posted a three-fold rise in net profit during the second quarter of the financial year to Rs 15.89 crore against Rs 3.66 crore during the quarter ended September 2021.

Total operating income was also up by 15 per cent to Rs 262.50 crore during the second quarter of 2022-23. It was Rs 229.01 crore during the same time last financial year.
(IOB) and (BoM) have hiked the Marginal Cost of Funds Based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 5-25 basis points across tenors, reflecting the state-owned lenders' rise in cost of funds.

Chennai-based IOB, in a filing with BSE, said its revised MCLR for one-year tenor will be 8.05 per cent, up from 7.90 per cent previous rate. The new rates will be effective from November 10, 2022.

It hiked rates in six tenors starting with 15- day (fortnight) tenor (10 bps) to three years (25 Bps). It kept MCLR for three-month tenor unchanged at 7.85 per cent.

IOBs cost of deposits rose sequentially from 4.04 per cent in April-June 2022 quarter (Q1Fy23) to 4.11 per cent in quarter ended September (Q2Fy23). Its Yield on advances rose from 7.34 per cent in Q1Fy23 to 7.83 per cent in Q2Fy23.

According to Reserve Bank of Indias data, the one-year median MCLR of scheduled commercial has increased from 7.75 per cent in September 2022 to 7.90 per cent in October 2022. Lenders have passed on part of the increase in cost of funds to borrowers amid tight liquidity conditions, bankers said.

BoM, which is based in Pune, hiked the MCLR by 10 basis points to 7.90 per cent. It kept rates unchanged in four buckets starting with a fortnight to six-month tenor for which it offers MCLR based loans. Its costs of deposits rose sequentially from 3.46 per cent in Q1Fy23 to 3.54 per cent in Q2Fy23. Its yield on advances rose from 7.43 per cent in Q1Fy23 to 7.81 per cent in Q2Fy23, according to a filing with BSE.
Australia's defence minister said on Wednesday he had told the nation's military to review secrecy safeguards in response to concerns that Beijing was recruiting pilots to train the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Defence Minister Richard Marles ordered the review after asking the Defence Department last month to investigate reports that had approached former Australian military personnel to become trainers.

In the information that has now been provided to me by Defence, there are enough concerns in my mind that I have asked Defence to engage in a detailed examination about the policies and procedures that apply to our former Defence personnel, and particularly those who come into possession of our nation's secrets, Marles told reporters.

Marles declined to say whether any Australian had provided military training to the Chinese.

He said a joint police-intelligence service task force was investigating a number of cases among former service personnel.

What we are focused on right now is making sure that we do examine the policies and the procedures that are currently in place in respect of our former Defence personnel to make sure they are adequate, Marles said.

And if they are not, and if there are weaknesses in that system, then we are absolutely committed to fixing them.

Australias allies and share Australia's concerns that is attempting to poach military expertise.

Britain's Defence Ministry last month issued an intelligence alert warning former and current military pilots against Chinese headhunting programmes aimed at recruiting them.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said authorities will make it a legal offense for pilots to continue with such training activities.

Sky News and the BBC reported that about 30 British former military pilots are currently in training PLA pilots. The reports said the pilots are paid annual salaries of 240,000 pounds (USD 272,000) for the training.

Canada's Department of National Defence was also investigating its own former service personnel, noting they remained bound by secrecy commitments after they leave the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Australian Defence Department will report to the minister by December 14.

Neil James, chief executive of the Australian Defence Association think tank, said Australian laws on on treason, treachery and secrecy protection were convoluted and depended on circumstances.

For example, it's pretty hard to charge anyone with treason outside wartime, James told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

James said there were no circumstances in which former Australian military personnel should be working with the Chinese.

Most people in the Defense Force would be disgusted if people are actually doing this, because you're potentially training people to kill Australians in the future, James said. That's just not on. It's a moral obligation and a professional one as much as it's a legal one.

(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 Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) on Wednesday announced the Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund (IRAF), a CDRI multi-partner trust fund during the India Pavilion, at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) at Sharm El-Sheikh in .

Talking about the role of IRAF, Amit Prothi, director general, CDRI said We believe that IRAF will enable CDRI to achieve its mandate of resilience through risk-informed investments and infrastructure development resulting in the reduced vulnerability of populations and reduced impact of extreme events and disasters on infrastructure systems.

IRAF, a multi-donor trust fund, established with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), will be managed by the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (UN MPTFO) to support global action on disaster resilience of infrastructure systems, especially in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Around $50 million in financial commitments have already been announced for IRAF over an initial duration of five years.

Supported by the Governments of India, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Union, IRAFs multi-pronged program focus will offer customised technical assistance, capacity building, research, knowledge management, and advocacy across the infrastructure life cycle for countries at all stages of development.

Ken OFlaherty, COP26 Regional Ambassador for Asia/Pacific, Caribbean and Small Island Developing States, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office-Cabinet Office COP26 Unit shared SIDS are among the most vulnerable countries exposed to disaster and climate risks.

OFlaherty added, the UK is pleased to have worked closely with CDRI and other partners in establishing the trust fund. The launch today is a welcome and important step towards delivering activities and ensuring impacts on the ground.

CDRI was launched by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019. CDRI promotes the rapid development of resilient infrastructure to respond to the Sustainable Development Goals imperatives of expanding universal access to basic services and enabling prosperity.

The Hon Pat Conroy MP, Australias Minister for Development and the Pacific, said, there has never been a more important time to focus on resilient infrastructure than now.

IRAF will play a crucial role in equipping the Coalition to deliver improved infrastructure governance, inclusive infrastructure services, diversified knowledge, and financing for resilient infrastructure globally. One of the first initiatives to be supported by the IRAF is the Infrastructure for the Resilient Island States (IRIS).
The on Wednesday unveiled a plan to provide with around 18 billion euros (dollars) in financial aid next year in regular payments to help the war-ravaged country keep its energy and health care facilities running as well as to fund salaries and pension schemes.

The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, said the aid would involve loans with extremely favourable terms worth around 1.5 billion euros every month, possibly starting in January.

would not have to reimburse the funds for at least a decade and EU member countries would cover the interest costs.

The Monetary Fund estimates that will need 3-4 billion dollars each month in 2023. The 27-nation EU's contribution will be matched by the United States, while other donors and financial institutions are expected to plug the gap.

Ukraine needs our help, said Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis as he unveiled the plan. He said the government in Kyiv needs stable and predictable funding. At the same time, the EU expects it to better tackle fraud and corruption and strengthen the rule of law.

The commission intends to borrow the money on capital markets using the combined weight of the 27 countries to secure more favourable terms. Some of the effort would involve restructuring part of the EU's long-term budget, and this requires the unanimous approval of member countries.

Dombrovskis urged EU countries and the European Parliament to approve the plan before the end of the year, so that the first loans can be provided in January. It needs to be decided quickly, 2023 is approaching fast and Ukraine's financing needs are urgent, he said.

The EU has been accused of being too slow to deliver funds to Ukraine, even though it has earmarked more than 19 billion euros for the country since Russian forces invaded in February.

Hungary's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said this week that his government would continue to provide financial support on a bilateral basis but that it opposes allowing the EU to take out credit to help Ukraine. Dombrovskis said he would work with Hungary to try to overcome its objections.

The EU intends to provide an additional 2.5 billion euros to Ukraine this month, and 500 million more in December.

(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 German government on Wednesday blocked the sale of a chip factory to a Swedish subsidiary of a Chinese company, a decision that comes as Berlin grapples with its future approach to Beijing.

The move by the Cabinet follows a recent compromise over a Chinese shipping firm's investment in a German container terminal and a visit to Beijing last week by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The blocked sale was anticipated after German company Elmos said this week that it had been informed the sale of its chip factory in Dortmund to Silex Microsystems AB of Sweden would likely be prohibited.

Silex is owned by Sai Microelectronics of China, according to German media. The planned 85 million-euro (dollar) sale was announced in December.

Although the proposed deal wasn't very significant financially and the technology involved apparently wasn't new, it had raised concerns over the wisdom of putting German IT production capacity in Chinese hands.

Western governments are increasingly wary about China's technology ambitions and assertive foreign policy. The US and other governments have tightened controls on access to processor chips and other technology.

(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 month after the United Kingdom (UK) government issued an alert stating that is headhunting former and current military pilots and recruiting them to train the People's Liberation Army Air Force, has also reported similar incidents. As reported by Bloomberg, Australia's Defence Department has found "enough evidence" to initiate an investigation into the issue.

As reported by BBC in October, has been luring the former British military pilots with "large sums of money" to pass on their expertise and relevant training to the Chinese military.

"It is a lucrative package that is being offered to people," an official told BBC. The packages are high as $270,000 in some cases.

How is recruiting officials from other countries?

In 2019, several reports started emerging in the about recruiting former military pilots on a case-by-case basis by China. The cases went down during the Covid-19 pandemic when travel to China was almost impossible. However, once the restrictions were lifted, the cases have gone up again.

The hired pilots have experience flying across the military with varied jets, including Typhoons, Jaguars, Harriers, and Tornadoes. According to BBC, most pilots are believed to be in their 50s and have left the armed forces some time ago.

The report added that they are targeting pilots from other allied nations as well.

According to reports, the recruitment is done through intermediaries, and a flying academy in South Africa is said to be involved. The government reportedly approached the pilots and asked them to stop getting involved with China.

"All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges  including this one," a spokesperson of the UK government told media in October.

However, Chinese officials have stated that they were unaware of such incidents.

Following the UK government, the Australian government told Bloomberg they were taking "immediate steps to deter and penalize this activity". However, no particular timeline has been mentioned.
Apple's new flagship store in Vancouver, Canada, is opening soon, and it has quite the artwork on display.

Apple recently revealed it would soon be moving its store in Pacific Centre to a new two-story outdoor store located outside the shopping mall.

The Apple store within the Pacific Centre shopping mall previously opened in 2008, per MacRumors.

Apple New Pacific Centre Store Details

Apple mentioned on its official website that its Pacific Centre store would be moving outside the shopping mall, saying, "We're moving outside. Come with us."

This message, which replaced the store's picture on Apple's official website, can be seen as an invitation to the people visiting the store to visit Apple's upcoming two-story store outside the Pacific Centre shopping mall in Vancouver, Canada.

This new store, which will replace the one within Pacific Centre's interior, is reportedly positioned diagonally and located on the corner of West Georgia and Howe Streets, facing the Vancouver Art Gallery. According to the building's 2019 development permit application, this store has a floor area of around 14,000 square feet, per Apple Insider.

This will be Apple's third street-facing store in Canada, with Apple Saint-Catherine and Apple DIX30 in the Montreal areas being the first and second.

Additionally, to celebrate the store's grand opening, Apple had its glass facade wrapped in a 30-foot-tall mural created by Canadian designer Mo Bofill with the help of Musqueam First Nation weaver and artist Debra Sparrow.

Read More: Call of Duty: MW2's New Moderation Feature Mutes Toxic Players for Both Teams

This artwork won't be staying in Apple's new store, however, as the company implied it will be removed at an unspecified date.

To celebrate the store's grand opening, Apple will feature Sessions that come with a guided meditation with JoAnna Hardy, a live performance from local lapper Boslen, and two separate art labs with Mia Ohki and Tierney Milne.

Apple also mentioned that a Photo Lab from Alia Youssef will also be among the opening day's activities, along with a performance from choreographer Chloe Arnold of "Spirited" fame.

People can also expect a Q&A moderated by Apple Music radio host George Stromboloupoulos and a Photo Tour of Vancouver's Cityscapes to be among the activities people can expect during the store's grand opening celebrations.

The Photo Tour involves learning to take pictures of cityscapes to get the best shot possible, such as creating perspective, highlighting interesting building details, and setting the composition using an iPhone camera.

Speaking of the store's grand opening, the previously mentioned activities are free for all to attend during its grand opening weekend. However, people interested to join in the fun are required to register through Apple's web page to attend.

Apple New Pacific Centre Grand Opening Date And Celebration Schedule

Apple and Daily Hive mentioned that the former's street-facing store in Vancouver, Canada will have its grand opening on Nov. 18, with the corresponding celebration scheduled to take place from Nov. 18 to Nov. 20.

Related Article: Apple's iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max Availability Remains Limited Due to Supply Constraints
Mastodon, an open-source that markets itself as an alternative to Inc., has seen a surge in new sign-ups in recent days, overwhelming the site and its founder as the tiny operation struggles to keep up.



Since took over on Oct. 27, Mastodon has drawn 489,003 new users, bringing total monthly active users to more than 1 million, founder, lead developer and Chief Executive Officer Eugen Rochko said on his own Mastodon account Monday. Thats a tiny fraction compared to Twitters 238 million daily active users. But Musks purchase has seemingly been the incentive the German non-profit has been waiting for since its founding in 2016.

I dont think Mastodon or the fediverse has ever received this much attention before, Rochko wrote on his account two days ago. Its a great opportunity for people to finally see that social media can be done differently, that it can be a protocol not under control of any single company.

Searches for Mastodon spiked on following the acquisition, especially in Europe where the is based. All of the new interest has caused strain on the platform, with Rochko saying he was overstretched. While its nice to see your work finally taken seriously in the mainstream, the 12-14 hour workdays Ive had to pull to handle everything is anything but, Rochko posted on Oct. 31.

Rochko lamented that he was handling software development, accounting, customer support, project management, product design, public relations and moderation. He apologized to users for processing delays until I can get my hands on more hardware. Sorry!

On Monday, some people on the site were complaining about not receiving confirmation emails upon registering. Rochko said he was running into a daily email-sending limit with the companys provider.

Rochko didnt respond to requests for an interview.

Mastodons pitch that its committed to keeping conversations on the site free from hate speech and bullying may be appealing to users concerned about Musks free-speech initiatives. Slurs and racist memes have already swelled on Twitter, highlighting the challenge Musk faces to balance a promise to restore peoples ability to speak freely with maintaining civility on the platform to appease advertisers. In an open letter to advertisers, Musk said that he doesnt intend to let Twitter become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.

Mastodon calls itself a federated . Instead of signing up for an account on a website, users choose to join servers. Each server is independent, hosted by an individual or organization, and can have its own rules around moderation.

Users can follow other Mastodon accounts, no matter which server they use, and people on the network can change servers whenever they want. Mastodon said it will only promote servers that are consistently committed to moderation against racism, sexism, and transphobia.

But its far from clear whether the migration to Mastodon will have a lasting impact, on either that site or on Twitter. Many people were also griping on Twitter about Mastodons laborious and confusing platform. Musk himself is keeping an eye on the site and chimed in with a sarcastic plug for Mastodon.

For now, Rochko seems to be charging forward.

Would you believe me if I told you I was extremely tired? he posted on Sunday. But the release candidate for Mastodon 4.0 is finally out of the way, and I think its neat.
South Korea's military says has fired at least one ballistic missile toward its eastern sea.

The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday did not immediately say how far the missile flew.

The launch extends a recent barrage in North Korean weapons demonstrations, including dozens of launches last week that the North described as simulated attacks on South Korean and US targets.

has dialled up its weapons demonstrations to a record pace this year as leader Kim Jong Un exploits the distraction created by Russia's war on Ukraine to accelerate arms development and ramp up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.

says the recovered debris of a North Korean missile fired toward the South amid a barrage of sea launches last week was determined to be a Soviet-era anti-aircraft weapon that dates back to the 1960s.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that an analysis of the 3-metre (9.8 foot)-long wreckage fetched from waters near the Koreas' eastern sea boundary on Sunday showed it was one of North Korea's SA-5 surface-to-air missiles.

The ministry said a similar missile was used by the Russian military to execute ground attacks during its invasion of Ukraine.

Photos released by the South Korean military showed what appeared to be a mangled rocket engine and wires sticking out from a broken rocket body that was still attached with fins.

The missile, which was one of more than 20 missiles fired last Wednesday, flew in the direction of a populated South Korean island and landed near the rivals' tense sea border, triggering air raid sirens and forcing residents on Ulleung island to evacuate.

The South Korean Defence Ministry said it strongly condemns the North Korea's firing of the SA-5, which it sees as a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement on reducing tensions.

North Korea fired dozens of missiles last week, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation warnings in northern Japan, in an angry reaction to a massive combined aerial exercise between the United States and that the North described as an invasion rehearsal.

Some experts say it's possible that North Korea reached into the inventory of some of its older weapons to support the expanded scale of last week's launches, which the North described as simulated attacks on key South Korean and US targets such as air bases and operation command systems.

The launches added to North Korea's record pace in weapons testing this year as leader Kim Jong Un exploits the distraction created by Russia's war on Ukraine to accelerate arms development and ramp up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.

The North Koreans would want to display their range of missile technologies through these tests, but not all launches have to reveal the latest technological advancements, said Soo Kim, a security analyst from California-based RAND Corporation.

It may be in North Korea's interest to hold some of its modern capabilities in reserve and test them at opportune occasions. Kim, again, is playing a longer game, so to reveal all of his cards the different types of missiles and capabilities his country has acquired would not work to his favour, she said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a significant move, Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dhar on Wednesday announced that the country would move towards an 'interest-free' under the Islamic law by 2027.

The announcement came with Finance Minister Dhar conveying the government's intention of withdrawing its appeals against the Federal Shariat Court's April decision of eliminating interest from the country in five years, the Dawn newspaper reported.

According to the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), the prevailing interest-based in was against the Sharia law as interest was absolute in all its forms according to the injunctions of Islam.

"With the permission of the prime minister and consultation with the State Bank of governor, I'm announcing on behalf of the federal government that the SBP and National Bank of will withdraw their appeals from the Supreme Court and our government will fully try to as quickly as possible implement an Islamic system in Pakistan," Dar was quoted as saying in a news conference by the report.

He acknowledged that there will be challenges in implementing the FSC's verdict and that the entire and its practices could not be immediately shifted to a new system but nonetheless, the government had decided to withdraw the appeals in the next few days and pivot Pakistan to an interest-free direction within the stipulated time by the FSC, the report said.

The top Islamic court's decision came after the matter was pending for 20 years.

"We are of the view that a five years period is reasonably enough time for the implementation of our decision completely i.e. convert the of Pakistan into, an equitable, asset-based, risk-sharing, and interest-fee economy, read the 298-page judgment passed in April by the FSC.

"Therefore, we would specify the 31st day of December 2027 on which the decision shall take effect by way of the complete elimination of Riba (interest) from Pakistan, it said in its long-awaited verdict.

In June, the State Bank of Pakistan - the country's apex bank - filed a petition against the FSC's decision with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law, and the Banking Council chairman among others, stating that the FSC did not heed the orders of the Supreme Court remand order, the report said.

It requested that the appeal against the decision of the Federal Shariat Court be allowed, and the extent of the points raised in the decision be amended.

According to the Dawn newspaper, the first petition for the abolition of the interest-based banking system in the country was filed in the FSC on June 30, 1990. A three-member bench delivered its judgment and sought its implementation by April 30, 1992.

The then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government challenged the decision in the apex court.

On December 23, 1999, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the FSC and again directed authorities to ensure its implementation by June 30, 2000.

Subsequently, a review appeal was filed in 2002 with the top court, and on June 24, 2002, the decision of the Federal Shariat Court was suspended and the case was referred back to the FSC for interpretation of interest.

(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.)
Russia's military announced Wednesday that it's withdrawing from a key Ukrainian city and nearby areas, in what would be one of the most significant and humiliating setbacks for Moscow's forces in the 8-month-old war.

Ukrainian authorities, however, cautioned against considering the retreat a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.

The withdrawal from Kherson in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed earlier this year would pile on another setback after Russia's early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv. Kherson, with a prewar population of 280,000, is the only regional capital Russian forces captured since the Feb. 24 invasion began.

Kyiv's forces have zeroed in on the city and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops out of wide swaths of territory.

Recapturing Kherson could allow Ukraine to win back lost territory in the Zaporizhzhia region and other southern areas, leading to an eventual push back into Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to raise domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.

Speaking in a stern tone and with a steely face on Russian TV, Moscow's top military commander in Ukraine reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be futile.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin said that 115,000 people had been relocated because their lives are constantly in danger, and proposed a retreat to the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from where Kherson lies.

Shoigu agreed with Surovikin's assessment and ordered him to start with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.

But Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: Actions speak louder than words. We see no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight."



Yaroslav Yanushevych, Kherson's Ukrainian-appointed governor, called on residents not to give in to euphoria just yet.

As the reports of a Russian withdrawal emerged, Zelenskyy met with his senior military staff in Kyiv to discuss the situation on the front, including attempts to recapture territory, his website reported without giving details.

In addition to the successful counteroffensive, Ukrainian resistance fighters behind the front line have worked inside Kherson, with acts of sabotage and assassinations of Moscow-appointed officials.

Reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. There was no indication of foul play but it comes against the backdrop of prior targeting of officials.

Kirill Stremousov a prominent regional official who posted updates about the war almost daily died in a crash, according to Russian state news agencies and his boss, Vladimir Saldo.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported months ago that Saldo himself was poisoned and hospitalized.

In October, Surovikin appeared to set the stage for a possible withdrawal from Kherson, acknowledging the situation was quite difficult for Moscow. Evacuations of civilians followed, as did some symbolic moves.

The remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century, were reportedly moved from the city's St. Catherine's Church.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.

That disrupted supply links to Kherson and made Russian forces on the Dnieper's west bank vulnerable to encirclement. The shortages were exacerbated after an Oct. 8 truck bomb blew up part of the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russia's mainland to Crimea, which has served as a major supply hub for the Russian forces in the south.

Russia wanted to hold onto Kherson and other areas west of the Dnieper so it could press an offensive to Mykolaiv and Odesa and sever Ukraine's access to the Black Sea. Such a move would damage Ukraine's economy and enable Moscow to build a land corridor to the separatist Transnistria region of Moldova, home to a major Russian military base.

The loss of Kherson could see painful consequences for Putin: more criticism of Russia's military command from the country's hawks, as well as a further decline in morale among the armed forces and stronger opposition to his troop mobilization. Abroad, China and India could see it as a sign of the Kremlin's weakness when it needs their support in the face of crippling Western sanctions.

The Russian retreat announcement came as villages and towns in Ukraine saw more heavy fighting and shelling Wednesday.

At least nine civilians were killed and 24 were wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian president's office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the southeast.

Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight over Snihurivka, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kherson.

The president's office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy system continued. Two cities not far from Europe's largest nuclear power plant were shelled overnight, it said. More than 20 residential buildings, an industrial plant, a gas pipeline and a power line were reportedly damaged in Nikopol across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Farther west, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian governor reported massive overnight strikes with exploding Iranian-made drones that wounded four energy company workers in the city of Dnipro.

(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.)
Russia's military announced Wednesday that it's withdrawing from Ukraine's southern city of Kherson and nearby areas, in what would be another in a series of humiliating setbacks for Moscow's forces in the 8-month-old war.

Ukrainian authorities did not immediately confirm the move and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested in recent days that 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.

The top Russian military commander in Ukraine, Gen Sergei Surovikin, reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to deliver supplies to the city of Kherson and other areas on the western bank of the Dnieper River that it lies on. Shoigu agreed with his proposal to retreat and set up defenses on the eastern bank.

The withdrawal from Kherson which sits in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed would be another significant setback. The city, with a prewar population of 280,000, is the only regional capital to be captured by Russian forces since the Feb. 24 invasion began.

Ukrainian forces had zeroed in on the strategic industrial city, which sits on the Dnieper River that divides the region and the country itself.

During the summer, Ukrainian troops launched relentless attacks to reclaim parts of the larger province.

More than 70,000 residents were evacuated in late October, along with members of the Kremlin-installed regional government, according to the Moscow-appointed officials, although Ukrainian officials questioned the claim. The remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century, also were reportedly moved from the city's St. Catherine's Church.

The city and parts of the surrounding region were seized in the opening days of the conflict as Russian troops pushed their attack north from Crimea the area illegally annexed by the Kremlin in 2014.

In recent months, used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to repeatedly hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that also were targeted by .

The Russian announcement came as villages and towns in saw more heavy fighting and shelling Wednesday.

At least nine civilians were killed and 24 others were wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian president's office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the country's southeast.

Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight over Snihurivka, a town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the southern city of Kherson.

The president's office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy system continued. Two cities not far from Europe's largest nuclear power plant were shelled overnight, it said. More than 20 residential buildings, an industrial plant, a gas pipeline and a power line were reportedly damaged in Nikopol, which lies across the Dnieper River from the the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Further west, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian governor reported massive overnight strikes with exploding Iranian-made drones that wounded four energy company workers in the city of Dnipro.

Attacks on civilian infrastructure are war crimes in themselves. The Kremlin is at war with Ukrainian civilians, trying to leave millions of people without water and light (for them) to freeze in the winter, Gov Valentyn Reznichenko said on Ukrainian TV.

(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.)
Americans voted without major hitches Tuesday in midterm elections receiving intense scrutiny after two years of false claims and conspiracy theories about how ballots are cast and counted.

With polls open across the country, no widespread problems with ballots, long lines or voter intimidation were reported early on, though there were hiccups in some places, which is typical on any Day.

Vote tabulators malfunctioned in a county in New Jersey and one in Arizona, prompting assurances from officials that ballots would be counted. Some voting sites in North Carolina were delayed in opening because workers showed up late, though officials may extend voting hours. And in one Pennsylvania county, polling places scrambled to replenish low supplies of paper ballots.

These are things we see in every cycle, said Susannah Goodman, director of security at Common Cause, a group that advocates for voting access. There's nothing majorly concerning this morning.

Since the last nationwide election in 2020, former President and his allies have succeeded in sowing wide distrust about voting by promoting false claims of extensive fraud. The effort has eroded public confidence in elections and democracy, led to restrictions on mail voting and new ID requirements in some GOP-led states and prompted death threats against election officials.

Election Day this year is marked by concerns about further harassment and the potential for disruptions at polling places and at election offices where ballots will be tallied. Election officials say they are prepared to handle any issues that arise, urging voters not to be deterred.

At a polling place in the Atlanta suburb of Woodstock, 25-year-old voter Tyler Moore said she won't be surprised if there's controversy after the election. Everybody is on their toes about it, she said after casting her ballot at a church. But the best thing we can do about it is just to vote.

Trouble with vote-tabulation machines at 20% of polling places in Maricopa County, Arizona, generated criticism on social media but a spokesperson for the state's elections department said the problem was minor.

"Voters have options, spokesperson Megan Gilbertson said. They can wait to put their ballot in the working tabulator, they can use the secure drop box, or they can go to another voting center if they don't want to wait.

Maricopa is the most populous county in Arizona and home of Phoenix, a place where elections for governor and U.S. Senate are expected to be close and a state where skepticism of election systems has run deep among Republicans since 2020.

In northeastern Pennsylvania's Luzerne County, several polling places needed their supply of ballots replenished. County solicitor Mike Butera said no voters were turned away, more ballots were being delivered to every precinct and that polls would stay open an extra two hours.

Before the pandemic, many states had begun to shift away from a single day of voting to offer days or weeks of early, in-person voting and ballots sent through the mail.

No major problems were reported during the early voting period. But some of Pennsylvania's largest counties were scrambling to help voters fix mail-in ballots that had flaws such as incorrect dates or missing signatures on the envelopes used to send them in. That has led to confusion and legal challenges in the battleground state where a few thousand ballots may be enough to sway outcomes of statewide races.

Heading into Tuesday, nearly 44.5 million people across the country had already cast ballots.

Party affiliation seems to be an increasing factor in how and when people vote. Republican skepticism of mail voting has persisted amid the attacks by Trump and his allies. Some Republican activists and candidates have gone so far as to encourage voters who receive a mailed ballot to wait until the very last minute to turn it in, claiming it will somehow prevent Democrats from stealing the election.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in 2020. Exhaustive reviews in states contested by Trump all affirmed Biden's win, while dozens of judges, including ones appointed by Trump, dismissed numerous cases making unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing.

Election officials have defended the system. They note the many checks in place to ensure only one vote per person is counted, the reviews that ensure machines accurately count ballots and the efforts to identify any fraud attempts.

State and local election officials have contingency plans in place so voters can have confidence in our elections, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors said in a statement.

But the false claims have spread widely among Republicans, fueled by conspiracy theorists on social media and at events held across the country. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey from October found 45% of Republicans had little to no confidence that votes in the midterm elections will be counted accurately. And a majority of Republicans, 58%, still believe President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected though it's down slightly from 66% in July 2021.

Election officials acknowledge electronic voting systems can be vulnerable and have taken numerous steps to increase security since the 2016 election, when it was determined that Russia looked for vulnerabilities. Congress has sent nearly $900 million to states to boost their cybersecurity defenses, including hiring more IT staffers, replacing outdated systems and adding regular security testing.

Most voters also cast hand-marked paper ballots or use machines that produce a paper record of their votes. These are used after the election to check that machines used to count ballots work properly.

Ahead of the election, Republican and conservative groups recruited people to serve as poll watchers and to get hired as local poll workers. Fueled by the lies about the 2020 election, some people even stationed themselves near ballot drop boxes in Arizona while toting guns, wearing body armor and concealing their faces with masks. Just last week, a judge ordered such groups to keep at least 250 feet away.

The Justice Department said it was sending monitors to 24 states to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws a routine step. But Republican election officials in some states have tried to block the monitors from coming inside polling places. In some counties in Florida and Missouri, after pushback from Republicans, the Justice Department said the monitors would be outside the polling places.

On Tuesday, officials in Georgia's Fulton County said they removed two poll workers a woman and her son from their positions before polls opened Tuesday because of something the woman had posted on social media. What she said was not disclosed.

In Bridgton, Maine, police issued a warning to a woman who photographed a voter putting a ballot in a drop box on Monday and then posted it to social media. No one should be able to interfere or intimidate someone from casting their ballot, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior member of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government announced his resignation Tuesday night after mounting allegations that he bullied colleagues.

Gavin Williamson announced his resignation as minister of state without portfolio in letter posted on Twitter, four days after the Times of London published expletive-laden text messages he sent to another member of Parliament.

After that, a senior civil servant alleged that Williamson subjected them to sustained bullying, telling the individual to slit your throat on one occasion and jump out of the window" on another.

In his resignation letter, Williamson said he had apologized for the text messages and was cooperating with an investigation of that conduct. But he rejected suggestions that the second incident involved bullying.

I refute the characterization of these claims, but I recognize these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing for the British people,'' Williamson wrote. I have therefore decided to step back from government so that I can comply fully with the complaints process that is underway and clear my name of any wrongdoing.

Williamson's resignation comes amid criticism that Sunak has failed to live up to his pledge to make integrity a central focus of his government. Opposition leaders have also called for the resignation of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who Sunak reappointed just six days after she resigned for breaching the rules on ministerial conduct.

Sunak took office two weeks ago after his predecessor, Liz Truss, was forced to step down after her budget proposals triggered economic turmoil. Truss was prime minister for just six weeks after she replaced Boris Johnson, who resigned after a series of scandals ranging from illegal parties during pandemic lockdowns to allegations of improper use of political donations.

Many observers were surprised when Sunak named Williamson to a position in his government because he was twice forced out of previous Cabinet posts. Williamson resigned as defense secretary in 2019 after a leak of confidential information from the National Security Council. He lost his job as education secretary in 2021 after standardized exams were disrupted due to the pandemic.

Sunak thanked Williamson for his unwavering support" as he accepted the resignation.

I support your decision to step back and understand why you have taken it," the prime minister said in a letter to Williamson.

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Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Ankara's approval of his country's bid to join the .

"We will fully implement the trilateral memorandum," Kristersson said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan here on Tuesday.

" will take important steps with regards to the fight against terror," he added.

The Prime Minister further said that his country plans to introduce new legislation by 2023 to fight terror groups, whether they pose risk to or .

Kristersson said has designated the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization and his government was willing to support in its fight against the group.

"Joining this alliance is a vital security issue for us. Being a member means taking (security) responsibility for other allies," he added.

Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the .

"Sweden wants NATO membership for its own security, and we want to see a Sweden that supports our own security concerns," Erdogan said.

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

On June 28, Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO Madrid summit.

Sweden and Finland pledged to support Turkey's fight against terrorism and agreed to address Ankara's pending deportation or extradition requests for terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly.

Turkey remains one of the two NATO members yet to ratify their accession, as Ankara has been complaining that the two countries have moved too slowly in fulfilling their commitments over the Turkish security concerns.

The PKK, listed as a terror organization by Turkey, the US and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

The Gulen movement, led by the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, has been accused by the government of masterminding the 2016 failed coup to topple Erdogan's rule.

--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.)
British Prime Minister was under pressure from the Opposition on Wednesday as he expressed regret on appointing one of his close allies and embattled ministers who was forced to resign pending an investigation into allegations of bullying against him.

Sir Gavin Williamson is accused of abusive behaviour towards fellow Conservative Party colleagues and civil servants and denies any wrongdoing.

However, after days of rows over what Sunak knew about the allegations before appointing him as a minister without portfolio to his Cabinet, Williamson stepped down on Tuesday night.

The Opposition has branded the episode as a sign of "poor judgement and leadership" by Sunak and Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer used the weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons to pile on further pressure over the issue.

"I obviously regret it for the record, I did not know about any of the specific concerns," Sunak said, when asked by Starmer if he regrets appointing Williamson.

"The message that I clearly want to send is that integrity in public life matters," he said, adding that it was right that the minister had resigned while he was being investigated.

In his resignation letter, Williamson said he refutes the "characterisation" of the claims about his "past conduct" but felt they had become a "distraction from the good work the government is doing".

It referred to some expletive-laden text messages he reportedly sent to the former Tory party whip, Wendy Morton, over being overlooked during Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

These were published in The Sunday Times' and since then others have come forward to allege intimidating behaviour while Williamson was a Cabinet minister under previous prime ministers.

He has since been reported to the parliamentary bullying watchdog, the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, and says he has apologised to the recipient of the text messages and would comply with the complaints process to "clear my name of any wrongdoing".

In reply, Sunak said he accepted the resignation "with great sadness" and thanked him for his "personal support and loyalty".

"Your commitment to successive Conservative governments and the party over the years has been unwavering," he said.

Williamson is believed to have been instrumental in working behind the scenes to dissuade Boris Johnson from contesting in the leadership election against Sunak in the days after Liz Truss resigned as prime minister last month.

However, the row over his conduct has been brewing since the weekend, with reports that outgoing Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry told the newly-appointed Prime Minister about the bullying complaint against Williamson on October 24, a day before his appointment to the Sunak Cabinet.

Downing Street has maintained the new Prime Minister "knew there was a disagreement" but that he didn't know the "substance" of the messages until they were published by The Sunday Times'.

"This is a damning reflection of a weak Prime Minister," said Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner.

" appointed Gavin Williamson with full knowledge of serious allegations about his conduct and repeatedly expressed confidence in him. This is yet another example of Rishi Sunak's poor judgement and weak leadership.

It is clear that he is trapped by the grubby backroom deals he made to dodge a vote, and is incapable of putting country before party," she said.

The reference to yet another is to the reappointed Suella Braverman as UK Home Secretary just weeks after she was forced to resign for breaking ministerial rules by sending an official document from her personal email.

The Opposition has branded it a sign of an internal agreement to ensure the support of her Tory wing for his position as Prime Minister.

" has serious questions to answer about why he appointed Gavin Williamson, then stood by him instead of sacking him.

His promise to lead a government of integrity has now been left in tatters," said Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper.

Meanwhile, for Gavin Williamson this marks the third time he has been forced out of the Cabinet. In 2019, he was sacked as defence secretary by then Prime Minister Theresa May after allegedly leaking sensitive information.

Later that year, he was made education secretary by Boris Johnson, but in 2021 was removed over his handling of exams during the COVID pandemic.

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The US and China have started unofficial conversations on climate-related issues during the summit in Egypt, a potential signal that relations between the two world superpowers are warming despite a formal suspension of bilateral negotiations on related matters earlier this year.



Chinas climate envoy Xie Zhenhua told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that he met with his US counterpart John Kerry for unofficial talks, emphasizing the door is always open on the Chinese side for a joint effort to promote agenda items at the annual global climate meeting.

Even as the two countries havent resumed official climate talks, we met already for unofficial consultations for a successful COP27, Xie said before a press briefing in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

Kerry said he spoke with Xie at an event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Formal talks, however, are not in the cards at this moment, he said. Kerry has repeatedly stressed that the existential threat of is not a bilateral issue.

Both men are interested in resuming talks on curbing methane, combating and accelerating the green transition, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Kerry has previously described sending unanswered texts and e-mails to Xie in hopes of restarting talks.

Xie said he and Kerry communicated in eight e-mails during the suspension of talks between the two countries as they have been keeping private contact following a friendship of 25 years. The resumption of the private, friendly talks between the two countries was initiated by Xie, he said.

Beijing announced it was halting negotiations with the US over climate and several other issues in August, after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the self-governing island over which China claims sovereignty.

The freeze had implications for broader, multilateral climate negotiations at the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. Collaboration between the two countries in 2014 helped provide the foundation for the Paris Agreement a year later. And a joint declaration in the final days of the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year helped pave the way for a final accord.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not attending COP27 as he stays in China for internal affairs, hosting visits from overseas leaders, Xie said. Both Xi and President Joe Biden have confirmed they will be at the Group of 20 meetings in Indonesia next week, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, though Xis attendance hasnt been confirmed by Chinas foreign affairs ministry.
NASA will be delaying the Artemis 1 moon launch again. From what was previously November 14, the date has been changed to November 16. It has been delayed many times before due to repair maintenance work, as well as Hurricane Ian. Now, the date is pushed once again because of tropical storm Nicole.

As mentioned on Space.com, NASA officials have provided a statement regarding the delay. They noted that moving the date will allow the workforce to put their attention on their families and home. It will also give them sufficient time to get back into launch status once the storm passes.

Weathering the Storm

The Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket was moved back to the launch pad from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), on November 4th. NASA stated that the rocket would be staying there since it could withstand the storm winds, up to 85 mph at the 60-foot level structural margin.

The Kennedy Space Center is now in Hurricane Condition (HURCON) III status. This means that the staff on site will secure the property and equipment. There will be a ride-out team that remains at the KSC to make sure that everything on the site is well.

If all goes accordingly, the launch on November 16 will occur within a two-hour window, which starts at 1:04 AM EST. Granted that the SLS rocket does launch, then the mission will end on December 11, when Orion will perform a splashdown. If the storm does not provide an opportunity for the launch, NASA said the next date for launch would be on November 19.

The Previous Delays

The initial launch for the SLS rocket was back in late August, but there were problems concerning the four RS-25 engines' sensors. It was discovered two hours before the countdown, according to CNBC. The second attempt in early September was then scrubbed once again due to hydrogen fuel leaking into the rocket. The leak was detected seven hours before the lift-off.

Even after those unfortunate delays, Hurricane Ian has found its way to Florida, pushing the launch back once again. To keep the rocket safe, it was transferred from the Kennedy Space Center to the Vehicle Assembly Building on the 26th of September. However, a fire broke out where the SLS rocket was kept.

NASA officials stated that the rocket was not damaged, and that it was never at risk since the VAB was fire safe. It now sits on the launch pad waiting for the day that it will be launched.

Read Also: Hurricane Ian Pushes Back Artemis 1 Launch to November

Hope for the Best

The Artemis 1 mission has been delayed over and over again, but it only adds to the victorious feeling once it does liftoff. The mission will be uncrewed, and it will not land on the moon. But, it will pave a way for future missions.

The Artemis rocket is one of the biggest projects by NASA, as it marks the beginning of progress toward sending a crewed flight to farther space missions.

Related: NASA Continues to Monitor Subtropical Storm for Artemis 1's Safe Launch
The Biden administration is expanding sanctions against the aviation and defense sectors of and as it continues to punish the two countries for weapons-related violations of US and United Nations regulations and human rights abuses.

The Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it had imposed penalties on two agents for North Korea's state-owned airline Air Koryo and redesignated a previously sanctioned North Korean cyber agency that it said launders profits from cryptocurrency heists to further Pyongyang's weapons programs.

Treasury also announced sanctions against the aviation firm Sky Aviator Company Limited and its owner for facilitating weapons purchases for the country's military government to crackdown on protesters following a February 2021 coup.

North Korean agents Ri Sok, an Air Koryo representative based in China, and Yan Zhihong, an airline logistics manager, were targeted with sanctions for their support for for North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Air Koryo, which has previously been accused of transporting critical weapons components into mainly from China, was already under U.S. sanctions. The new penalties freeze any assets that the two men may have in U.S. jurisdictions or assets that may cross into them. It also bars Americans from conducting any business with them.

Treasury also reupped sanctions against Tornado Cash, a cyber firm that has allegedly served as a conduit for processing stolen virtual currency, including from the largest known such theft to date, a $455 million heist that was orchestrated by the North Korean-controlled company Lazarus Group.

Today's sanctions action targets two key nodes of (North Korea's) weapons programs: its increasing reliance on illicit activities, including cybercrime, to generate revenue, and its ability to procure and transport goods in support of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Treasury said in a statement.

On Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, Treasury said it was hitting Sky Aviator and its owner, Kyaw Min Oo, for importing aviation parts, weapons and other material used by the government to clamp down on post-coup dissent.

Treasury said the sanctions, which include asset freezes and a bar on American transactions with those named, target those who profit from the oppressive actions of the regime by operating in the defense sectors of Burma's economy and by enabling Burma's military connections to foreign militaries.

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Former President on Tuesday announced that he cast his vote for Governor Ron DeSantis, as the voting became underway on Tuesday for the mid-term polls in the US.

While talking to the reporters outside a polling location in Palm Beach, when asked if he cast a ballot for DeSantis, Trump said "Yes, I did," reported CNN.

He further predicted a great night for the Republicans saying "I think we're going to have a very great night and it's exciting".

As per CNN, Trump cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, which is just minutes away from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Trump arrived with former first lady Melania Trump. He also plans to watch the election returns with dozens of aides, allies, and local Republicans.

Meanwhile, Trump is looking for his handpicked and endorsed candidates in key federal and statewide races to prevail as his own political future may largely depend on Tuesday's midterm outcomes. If the Trump-backed candidates suffer major losses, then it can create hurdles to his intention of running for the 2024 presidential campaign, reported CNN.

Earlier today, the got underway as millions of Americans headed toward their polling booths in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C, The Washington Post reported.

According to CNN, there is a total of 435 seats, where lawmakers serve two-year terms. Currently, the situation is a little shaky for Democrats as Republicans are only 5 seats away to gain the majority to control the chamber.

So, while Democrats will be trying to maintain the balance in the mid-term election, Republicans would try to strive harder to increase their current control of governorships and state legislative chambers.

Apart from those 435 seats, there are 35 seats in the 100-seat senate on which the representative will fight against each other. The chamber where incumbents serve for six years is split 50-50, and Democrats currently have controlled since Vice President Kamala Harris wields a tie-breaking vote. But Republicans only require a net gain of a single seat to take control, reported CNN.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden predicted that Democrats will "surprise the living devil out of a lot of people" in today's midterm elections, Fox News reported.

The campaigning for the mid-term election started way before the polls begin. Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton started campaigning hard and at the same time President Joe Biden kept a light schedule, Fox news reported.

From Arizona to Georgia, Obama is campaigning hard for Democratic candidates. Last week, Obama travelled to at least five states to hold rallies and events with Democratic candidates.

"Obama is the most popular Democrat out there, but that's because he is out, not in, politics," Mark Penn, a Democratic pollster told Fox News.

CNN reported that midterm elections are almost always about incumbent presidents. However, this year, two ex-presidents, Barack Obama and are extending their bitter years-long duel over the future of US democracy.

This comes as former US President Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign soon after the midterm elections, reported New York Times citing people familiar with the matter.

Trump is mobilizing support under his famous "Make America Great Again" campaign.

According to CNN, this movement is built around the notion that the cultural values of a largely White, working-class nation are under threat.

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The Biden administration is committed to work with India on its transition away from Russia, the White House has said.

It said there are a number of countries that have learned the hard way of the fact that Moscow is not a reliable source of energy or security.

When it comes to India's relationship with Russia, the US has consistently made the point that it is a relationship, that developed and was cemented over the course of decades, really came to be during the Cold War at a time when the United States was not in a position to be an economic partner, a security partner, a military partner to India, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at a news conference here Tuesday.

That has changed. That's changed over the past 25 or so years. It's really a legacy, a bipartisan legacy that this country has achieved over the course of the past quarter century. President George W Bush's administration was really the first to put this into effect, he said



Price said the US has sought to deepen its partnership with India in every sector, including economics, security and military cooperation.

Now, this is a transition that we've always been clear eyed will not take place overnight, over the course of even a few months or probably even over the course of a couple of years. India is a large country, a vast country, a large economy that has demanding needs, he said.

So, the transition and the reorientation that we hope to see from India is something that this administration will be committed to working with India on. But this will likely be a task not only for this administration but for administrations to come, Price said in response to a question.

Responding to a question on India's purchase of oil from Russia, he said the United States has been intentional about exempting oil and gas, the energy sector, from the sanctions that have been imposed on Moscow.

So, the fact that India has high demand for energy, that it continues to seek oil and other forms of energy from Russia, that is not something that runs afoul of the sanctions that have been imposed, he said.

The US has also been clear that now is not the time for business as usual with Russia, and it is incumbent on countries around the world to do what they can to lessen those economic ties with Russia. That's something that's in the collective interest, but it's also in the bilateral interest of countries around the world to end and certainly, over the course of time, to wean their dependence on Russian energy, Price said.

There have been a number of countries that have learned the hard way of the fact that Russia is not a reliable source of energy. Russia is not a reliable supplier of security assistance. Russia is far from reliable in any role, he said



So, it is not only in the interest of Ukraine, it is not only in the interest of the region, of the collective interest that India decrease its dependence on Russia over time, but it's also in India's own bilateral interests given what we've seen from Russia, he said.

Price said over the last few months, the US has had a number of high-level engagements with India.

Early this week on Monday, Deputy Secretary Sherman Wendy met with Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra and had a wide ranging discussion about the US-India relationship. Secretary of State Tony Blinken met with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar here a couple of months ago, he said.

There have been a number of conversations in between. The messages we heard from Foreign Minister Jaishankar in Russia were not dissimilar in some ways from what we heard from Prime Minister Modi at the UN, when he made very clear that this is not an era of war, Price said.

India again reaffirmed that it stands against this war, that it wants to see dialogue, it wants to see diplomacy, it wants to see an end to this needless bloodshed that Russia is responsible for inside of Ukraine, he said.

It's important that the Russians hear that message from countries around the world. It's especially important that the Russians hear that message from countries like India, that are neighbors that have economic, diplomatic, social, and political might. And that's precisely the message that Foreign Minister Jaishankar delivered, the State Department Spokesperson said.

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Kaynes Technology India Limited (KTIL) on Wednesday said it has collected Rs 257 crore from ahead of its initial share sale that opens for public subscription on Thursday.

The company has allotted 43.76 lakh equity shares to at Rs 587 apiece, aggregating to Rs 257 crore, according to a circular uploaded on the BSE website.

Nomura, Goldman Sachs, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (MF), Axis MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Tata MF, HDFC MF and WhiteOak Capital are among the anchor investors, it added.

The company comprises fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 530 crore and an Offer For Sale (OFS) of up to 55.85 lakh equity shares by a promoter and an existing shareholder.

The OFS comprises sale of 20.84 lakh equity shares by promoter Ramesh Kunhikannan and 35 lakh equity shares by existing shareholder Freny Firoze Irani.

Proceeds from the fresh issue will be used to repay debt, funding capital expenditure for its manufacturing facilities at Mysore and Manesar and funding working capital requirements.

Also, the company plans to invest in its arm Kaynes Electronics Manufacturing Pvt Ltd for setting up a new facility at Chamarajanagar in Karnataka.

The issue, with a price band at Rs 559-587 per share, will open for public subscription November 10 and conclude on November 14.

Mysore-based Kaynes Technology is a leading end-to-end and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions-enabled integrated electronics manufacturing player, having capabilities across the entire spectrum of electronics system design and manufacturing services.

It has experience in providing conceptual design, process engineering, integrated manufacturing and life-cycle support for major players in the automotive, industrial, aerospace and defence, outer-space, nuclear, medical, railways, IoT, Information Technology (IT) and other segments.

The company has eight production plants in Karnataka, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.

DAM Capital Advisors and IIFL Securities are the book-running lead managers to the issue.

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The of India (NSE) plans to "move away" from non-core business areas to focus on significant opportunities in the capital market ecosystem.

The bourse's new managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO), Ashishkumar Chauhan, said, "The non-core businesses contribute 6 per cent to our revenues and 1 per cent to profit. Given this context and acknowledging that there are significant opportunities for mainstay business to grow, it has been contemplated to move away from non-core business areas appropriately."

He made the comments while addressing its investors during NSE's first-ever quarterly earnings concall. Although unlisted, Chauhan said would hold investor calls every time while declaring quarterly results and would make the transcript available.

The move is seen as rebuilding the trust in the exchange, which has been marred by controversies such as the unfair access to brokers at its co-location facility and corporate governance lapses while appointing a chief operating officer.

Chauhan took charge as NSE's new boss in end-July. However, his comments appear to be a deviation from the path the exchange took over the last few years when it made a string of acquisitions in areas such as data, cloud and education tech.

In its latest annual report, described this as a "string of pearls" strategy.

"The 'string of pearls' approach reinforces the company's competence in diverse technology areas, saving the company considerable time that would have been otherwise expended in building capabilities from scratch," the annual report for 2021-22 mentions.

Some of NSE's acquisitions in recent years include CXIO, a step-down subsidiary involved in the business of providing multi-cloud service and support services to national and international organisations; TalentSprint, a deep tech education firm; Cogencis, a data, and market intelligence provider to financial market professionals in India; Aujas Cybersecurity, a cybersecurity services provider with global operations. Besides NSE, other associate firms and joint ventures, such as National Securities Depository (NSDL), where it holds a 24 per cent stake.

Chauhan said many businesses added to NSE's portfolio had become non-core business areas.

"Over the next few years, will focus on consolidating and strengthening its IT system capabilities, core regulatory and compliance activities to build a robust and efficient market place," Chauhan said.

In October 2020, Sebi levied a penalty of Rs 6 crore on NSE for investments in six entities unrelated or non-incidental to the stock exchange business. These firms included Power Exchange India (PXIL), Computer Age Management Systems (CAMS), NSEIT, NSDL E-Governance Infrastructure (NEIL), Market Simplified India (MSIL) and Receivables Exchange of India (RXIL).

Even after the Sebi rap, NSE made several acquisitions, which the exchange said was done after obtaining regulatory approvals.

As exchanges are tightly regulated businesses, investments and forays into non-core business areas have always been contentious issues.

Industry players said any acquisition could be considered critical for the mainstay business, and it is difficult to draw a line.

During the call, Chauhan didn't provide any timeline to exit from non-core business areas. He also touched upon issues such as the co-location scandal, corporate governance issues, much-awaited IPO and new product launches.

On the co-location and governance matter, he said most of it happened before 2017, and after that, there has been no such issue at the exchange. "But there is an overhang of that, and we all are aware of that."

On the listing plans, Chauhan said many shareholders are keen to know when the IPO will happen, and the exchange is doing everything in its control to obtain a regulatory go-ahead.

In 2016, NSE filed its DRHP for a Rs 10,000-crore IPO. However, the probe into the co-location matter derailed its listing plan. Last year, it had written to Sebi on whether it can once again file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to go public.

While regulatory issues have stopped NSE's listing plans, the exchange has managed to clock robust financial performance and consolidate its market share.

NSE logged a 53 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,463 crore for the six months ending September 2022 (H1FY23). During this period, the country's largest bourse's total income rose 57 per cent to Rs 6,293 crore, driven by a sharp increase in options trading volumes. Its equity options volume more than doubled year-on-year during the first half, and cash market volumes rose 18 per cent. NSE has almost a monopoly in the equity derivatives segment and a 93 per cent market share in the equity cash segment.
By Sudarshan Varadhan

CHENNAI (Reuters) - India's imports of thermal grew at the slowest pace in five months in October, data from Indian consultancy Coalmint showed, as higher domestic production slashed demand for seaborne .

Imports of the power generation fuel rose for the fifth straight month in October to 12.03 million tonnes, up by 11.5% compared with the same period last year, Coalmint data showed.

Imports in the January-October period rose over 14% to 139.5 million tonnes, the data showed. Output by state-run India, which accounts for 80% of domestic output, rose 11.5% in the same period.

Coal India's production rose for the seventh straight month in October, while supplies fell for the first time in 20 months, as utilities had increased inventories to the highest ever level in October, barring in 2020 when inventories rose to a record due to artificially low power demand because of lockdowns.

The share of South African thermal rose to the highest levels in recent months as sponge iron makers switched back amid Russian blend concerns, Coalmint said in a report this week.

Still, October imports from Russia were higher than imports from South Africa for the fourth straight month, while Australian imports had gained at the expense of shipments from Indonesia, the data showed.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan, Editing by Louise Heavens)

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Avanti Feeds gained 2.97% after the US food and drug regulator removed import alert of Avanti Frozen Foods, a subsidiary of the company on shrimp exports to the U.S.

The animal feed producer stated that the USFDA has removed shrimps produced and exported by Avanti Frozen Foods to USA from detention without physical examination under import alert from 21 October 2022.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had imposed an alert on 4 March 2021, due to presence of Salmonella in the shrimp produced and exported by Avanti Frozen Foods to USA.

This will enable the company's unit, Avanti Frozen Foods, to accelerate the export of value added shrimp products to the U.S.

Avanti Feeds is a manufacturer of prawn and fish feeds, and shrimp processor and exporter. The company's principal products/services are shrimp feed and processed shrimp.

The company's consolidated net profit declined 9.1% to Rs 66.26 crore despite of 11.4% rise in net sales to Rs 1,569.30 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

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BEML rose 1.28% to Rs 1,553.05 after the PSU company's consolidated net profit jumped 52.53% to Rs 16.26 crore in Q2 FY23 from Rs 10.66 crore in Q2 FY22.

Revenue from operations declined 19.5% year on year to Rs 804.86 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2022.

Total expenses declined 21.25% YoY to Rs 789.84 crore in Q2 FY23. Cost of raw material consumed was at Rs 587.60 crore (up 13.1%YoY) while finance cost stood at Rs 10.77 crore (down 13.90% YoY).

The PSU company's order book as of 30 September 2022 stood at Rs 8,804 crore. The defense company said it executed orders worth Rs 802 crore in the quarter ended September 2022.

BEML is a multi-technology schedule 'A' company under the Ministry of Defence. It has its operation under three business verticals viz. defence & aerospace, mining & construction and rail & metro. As on 30 September 2022, the Government of India held 54.03% stake in BEML.

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Coal India: Coal India's consolidated net profit zoomed to Rs 6,043.99 crore in Q2 FY23 from Rs 2,932.73 crore in Q2 FY22. Net sales during the quarter increased by 29% YoY to Rs 27,538.59 crore.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL): BPCL reported a standalone net loss of Rs 304.17 crore in Q2 FY23 as against a net profit of Rs 2,840.73 crore in Q2 FY22. Net revenue from operations rose by 50% to Rs 1,14,807.59 crore in the second quarter from Rs 76,390.39 crore in the same period last year.

Bharat Electronics (BEL): Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics (BEL) has signed 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.

Ceat: The tyre maker's consolidated net profit slumped 81.3% to Rs 7.83 crore in Q2 FY23 as against Rs 41.98 crore recorded in Q2 FY22. Revenue from operations jumped 18.1% to Rs 2,894.48 crore in quarter ended 30 September 2022 from Rs 2,451.76 crore posted in the same period a year ago.

One 97 Communications: On a consolidated basis, One 97 Communications (Paytm)'s revenue surged 76.2% to Rs 1914 crore in Q2 September 2022 over Q2 September 2021. Paytm's said its consolidated loss widened to Rs 571.10 crore in Q1 June 2022 from net loss of Rs 472.90 crore a year ago.

Jubilant FoodWorks: The QSR chain operator's standalone net profit declined 1.94% to Rs 119.17 crore despite of 16.9% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 1,286.77 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22.

Affle (India): Affle (India) reported 23.3% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 58.68 crore on 29.1% increase in net revenue from operations to Rs 354.59 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22.

PB Fintech: On a consolidated basis, PB Fintech reported net loss of Rs 186.64 crore in Q2 September 2022, lower than net loss of Rs 204.44 crore in Q2 September 2021. Revenue from operations surged 105.1% year on year to Rs 573.47 crore in Q2 September 2022.

Bosch: The company reported marginal rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 372.4 crore in Q2 FY23 from Rs 372 crore posted in Q2 FY22. In Q2 FY23, revenue from operations stood at Rs 3,661.6 crore, a growth of 25.5% over a low base in same quarter of previous year.

Dr. Lal PathLabs: Dr. Lal PathLabs consolidated net profit slipped 24.53% to Rs 71.7 crore despite of 7.1% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 533.8 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22.

Bajaj Electrical: Bajaj Electrical's consolidated net profit declined marginally to Rs 62 crore in Q2 FY23 as against Rs 62.55 crore recorded in Q2 FY22. Net sales slipped 6.4% to Rs 1,201.14 crore in quarter ended 30 September 2022 from Rs 1,283.44 crore posted in the corresponding quarter previous year.

KEC International: The RPG Group company's consolidated net profit declined 31% to Rs 55 crore despite a 13% rise in revenues to Rs 4,064 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22.

Vinati Organics: Vinati Organics reported 15% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 116.01 crore on a 12% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 566.29 crore in Q2 FY22.

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Sales decline 20.26% to Rs 578.86 crore

Net profit of Dalmia Bharat Sugar & Industries declined 80.23% to Rs 11.71 crore in the quarter ended September 2022 as against Rs 59.22 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2021. Sales declined 20.26% to Rs 578.86 crore in the quarter ended September 2022 as against Rs 725.92 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2021.578.86725.921.2611.8132.5398.564.6877.7311.7159.22

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It has been a whole 100 years since Albert Einstein won his Nobel Prize in Physics for his expansion of the photoelectric effect in 1922 at only 26 years old.

While everyone was expecting the genius to win the prize for his theory on relativity, it was his idea on what is behind today's solar energy revolution that earned him the well-coveted merit.

What Was This Award-Winning Photoelectric Effect Explanation

According to The Atlantic, even from the beginning of the turn of the century, scientists already had an idea that light could produce electric current once exposed to certain conditions.

However, despite this observation, no one really understood why light could create electricity since it was then understood that light worked as a wave.

With this contradiction, in 1905, Einstein produced a paper that suggested that light was not a wave but was something discontinuously distributed in space.

According to his explanation of the photoelectric effect, light is spread out and scattered from a point source but is consisted of energy quanta localized at different points in space.

This means that Einstein believed that light behaved like a particle rather than a wave, which is why it can create electric current.

The Nobel Prize Organization adds that photoelectric explains that if metal electrodes are exposed to light, sparks will actualize between them.

For this to happen, light waves would be at a certain frequency, and the light's intensity should be critical for it to work.

This discovery was what warranted Einstein to win the Nobel Prize in 1922, a year after no one won the Nobel Prize in 1921.

According to the Nobel Prize Organization, during the committee's selection process for Physics, they found that nobody met the criteria outlined by the foundation and reserved the 1921 prize for next year.

This made Einstein the 1921 Nobel Prize winner in the field of Physics in the year 1922.

Read More: Israel Allocates Millions for Einstein Museum

Many Thought That Einstein's Nobel Prize Was For The Theory Of Relativity

Contrary to popular belief, despite the theory of relativity being Einstein's most well-known contributions to science, it was what won him the Nobel Prize.

According to Advanced Science News, while he came up with the theory of relativity and the photoelectric effect explanation, Einstein was only awarded for the latter.

The reserved Nobel Prize of 1921 was awarded to Einstein the next year for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of photoelectric effect," reports say.

The decision prompted speculations from left and right, relating the controversy to the access that was granted to the official archival materials at the organization.

However, Advanced Science New writes that Einstein not winning an award for his theory of relativity might have been just a case of bias, arrogance, and pettiness among committee members at the time.

In 1954, almost 50 years after the scientist won the award for his contribution to the law of photoelectric effect, solar cells were created to run electrical equipment.

These solar cells have later been developed into the solar energy people use in modern technology today, proving that addressing a gap in knowledge can lead to something useful, The Atlantic writes.

Related Article: Einstein's Theory On Speed Of Light Could Be Wrong, Physicists Say
Sales rise 4.32% to Rs 248.58 crore

Net profit of Monte Carlo Fashions declined 10.59% to Rs 30.32 crore in the quarter ended September 2022 as against Rs 33.91 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2021. Sales rose 4.32% to Rs 248.58 crore in the quarter ended September 2022 as against Rs 238.29 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2021.248.58238.2920.4222.1149.3053.9939.9144.8730.3233.91

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The Ramco Cements slumped 4.95% to Rs 702.10 after the company reported 98% drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 11 crore in Q2 FY23 from Rs 517 crore in Q2 FY22.

Revenue rose by 19% increased by YoY to Rs 1,793 crore during the quarter. During Q2 of CV, the sale of cement is 3.31 million tons, compared to 2.71 million tons in the Q2 of PY with a growth of 22%.

During the Q2 of CV, the blended fuel consumption per ton was equivalent to $199 as against $97 during the corresponding previous period. Since the overall fuel prices have peaked during the CV, the power & fuel cost per ton of cement for Q2 of CV has sharply increased to Rs 2,013 from Rs 1,057 in the Q2 of PY.

EBITDA for the July-September 2022 quarter was Rs 193 crore, down 52% YoY. This was mainly due to sharp increase in fuel price and weak cement prices. The company could not pass on the full cost increase arising out of sharp fuel price hike, to its customers.

Blended EBIDTA per ton for the Q2 of CV was Rs 582 as against Rs 1,484 during Q2 of PY, which is one of the lowest in the last 8 years.

While finance costs increased by 90% YoY to Rs 55 crore, depreciation charges rose by 23% YoY to Rs 122 crore in the second quarter.

The sharp rise in finance costs was due to commissioning of clinkering units in Jayanthipuram Line III and Kolimigundla. The effective average cost of borrowing for Q2 of CV is 6.16% as against 5.11% in the Q2 of PY.

Profit before tax in Q2 FY23 stood at Rs 16 crore, down by 94% from Rs 274 crore in Q2 FY22.

Tax expenses for Q2 of CV was Rs 5 crore as against reversal of tax expenses of Rs 243 crore during Q2 of PY, wherein the company had opted for shifting to lower tax rate from FY 2021-22 onwards.

The cement production in Kolimigundla has commenced from Sep-22 onwards. The company's cement capacity has gone to 21 MTPA with clinker capacity of 14 MTPA. The 6 MW of WHRS in Kolimigundla will be commissioned in Nov-22. Balance 6 MW of WHRS will be commissioned in Mar-23. TPP of 18 MW and railway siding will be commissioned in 2023-24. The modernisation of RR Nagar plant will be commissioned before Mar-23.

With regard to expansion of capacity of dry mix products, the company said that two units in Tamilnadu are ready for commissioning and market trials for products are in progress. The remaining two units in AP & Orissa will be commissioned during 2023-24.

The company proposes to increase the grinding capacity of Haridaspur plant, Odisha by 0.9 MTPA at a cost of only Rs 130 crore since other infrastructures are already in place, thereby doubling its capacity to 1.8 MTPA.

During the Q2 of CV, the company has incurred Rs 504 crore towards capex, including for the above-mentioned ongoing capacity expansion programme.

The net debt for the company as on 30 September 2022 was Rs 4,741 crore, out of which Rs 724 crore is short-term loan.

The Ramco Cements (TRCL) is a reputed cement manufacturer in India and markets its products under the Ramco brand. The company also has two modest-scale subsidiaries, Ramco Windfarms (with a 39-MW windmill capacity) and Ramco Industrial and Technology Services (which is into transport services, manpower services and IT).

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Reliance Industries Ltd is quoting at Rs 2615.95, up 0.36% on the day as on 12:44 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 2.59% in last one year as compared to a 0.97% jump in NIFTY and a 12.7% jump in the Nifty Auto.

Reliance Industries Ltd is up for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 2615.95, up 0.36% on the day as on 12:44 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.06% on the day, quoting at 18192.75. The Sensex is at 61128.2, down 0.09%. Reliance Industries Ltd has gained around 8.74% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Reliance Industries Ltd is a constituent, has gained around 5.75% in last one month and is currently quoting at 27102.35, down 0.03% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 27.92 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 50.05 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark November futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 2626.7, up 0.36% on the day. Reliance Industries Ltd is up 2.59% in last one year as compared to a 0.97% jump in NIFTY and a 12.7% jump in the Nifty Auto index.

The PE of the stock is 40.75 based on TTM earnings ending September 22.

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TVS Motor Company advanced 3.85% to Rs 1,154.60 after the company signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Amazon India to scale EV deployment.

Under this collaboration, a fleet of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers from TVS Motor will be deployed for Amazon's last-mile deliveries.

In addition, the two companies will examine EV use cases for various Amazon business groups for its network and logistical requirements. In 2020, Amazon India announced that it would include 10,000 EVs in its delivery fleet by 2025.

Abhinav Singh, Director of customer fulfilment, supply chain and global specialty fulfillment at Amazon India said, The collaboration marks another decisive step for Amazon to achieve our goal of becoming net-zero carbon by 2040. This will support our supply chain in minimising the environmental impact of our operations and contribute to Amazon India's goal of inducting 10,000 EVs into our fleet by 2025.

Manu Saxena, senior vice president, future mobility, TVS Motor Company said, With the great success of TVS iQube Electric, we now intend to expand our electric offering across multiple segments and commercial mobility stands at the opportune inflection point. TVS Motor is now ready with electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler product options for B2B along with an ecosystem of connected service and alternate ownership.

TVS Motor Company is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer globally. The company has four manufacturing facilities in Hosur, Mysuru and Nalagarh in India and Karawang in Indonesia.

The two-wheeler manufacturer reported 47% rise in net profit to Rs 407 crore on a 28% increase in revenue to Rs 7,219 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22.

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Utilties stocks were trading in green, with the S&P BSE Utilities index rising 27.91 points or 0.69% at 4068.05 at 09:46 IST.

Among the components of the S&P BSE Utilities index, Adani Power Ltd (up 4.26%), PTC India Ltd (up 4.25%),Adani Green Energy Ltd (up 2.93%),SJVN Ltd (up 1.95%),NHPC Ltd (up 1.48%), were the top gainers. Among the other gainers were Waaree Renewables Technologies Ltd (up 1.43%), KPI Green Energy Ltd (up 1.4%), Adani Transmission Ltd (up 0.99%), NLC India Ltd (up 0.81%), and JSW Energy Ltd (up 0.8%).

On the other hand, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (down 1.25%), Rattanindia Power Ltd (down 1.16%), and Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd (down 1.13%) moved lower.

At 09:46 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 143.23 or 0.23% at 61328.38.

The Nifty 50 index was up 30.2 points or 0.17% at 18233.

The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 67.66 points or 0.23% at 29360.22.

The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 16.73 points or 0.18% at 9158.07.

On BSE,1871 shares were trading in green, 1062 were trading in red and 140 were unchanged.

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Ahead of in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the 23rd tranche of electoral bonds opened for sale on Wednesday.

The bond sale will close on November 15.

The Gujarat will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, while Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on November 12.

Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.

State Bank of India (SBI), in the 23rd phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through 29 authorised branches from November 9-15, the finance ministry had said in a statement earlier this week.

Usually, tranches are open for sale between 1-10 of a designated month. For instance, the 22nd tranche of bond sales took place from October 1-10, 2022 while 21st tranche was from July 1-10, 2022.

Sale of the first batch of electoral bonds happened from March 1-10, 2018.

The authorised SBI branches include those in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.

SBI is the only authorised bank to issue electoral bonds.

An will be valid for 15 days from the date of issuance. No payment would be made to any political party if the bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period, the statement said.

Electoral bonds can be purchased by Indian citizens or entities incorporated or established in the country.

Registered political parties that have secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the last Lok Sabha or legislative assembly election are eligible to receive funding through electoral bonds.

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West Bengal Chief Minister on Wednesday alleged that the was "using" Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Register of Citizens (NRC) with an eye on the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo asserted that she will never allow the implementation of CAA in West Bengal.

Banerjee also accused the saffron camp of trying to fan separatism in West Bengal by raking up statehood demands, and iterated she will never allow the division of the state.

"Whenever any election approaches, the speaks of implementing CAA and . With upcoming Gujarat assembly polls later this year, and Lok Sabha elections just a year-and-half away, it has again started to flare up the CAA issue.

"Will the decide who is a citizen and who is not? Matuas are very much citizens of this country," Banerjee said, while addressing party workers in Krishnanagar.

The politically powerful Matua community has its origin in East Bengal or present-day Bangladesh. Many of them reside in the districts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

"The BJP is fanning separatism in West Bengal by instigating Rajbanshis and Gorkhas in northern parts of the state. We will never allow the division of West Bengal," she said.

Iterating that the BJP won't return to power after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee said that the political situation of the country was different in 2019 and it has changed since then.

"In 2019, the political situation of the country was different; BJP was in power in Bihar, Jharkhand and many other states. But now, its political presence has diminished across the country; it is no longer in power in many states.

"The BJP has already reached a saturation point in many states. That is why it is attacking opposition parties and arresting opposition leaders by maligning them," she said.

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Former chief minister and ex-deputy CM Nitin Patel, both senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Wednesday night announced they will not fight the next month's Assembly elections.

Their statements came at a time when the Central Parliament Board of the has convened a meeting to finalise the names of candidates for the polls in New Delhi under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



I have decided not to fight elections this time, Rupani told reporters in Rajkot without elaborating. Rupani (66), a sitting MLA, was the chief minister from August 2016 to September 2021.



Former deputy CM Patel, in a hand written letter sent to president C R Paatil, said he should not be considered for ticket from Mehsana, his current Assembly seat, as he has decided not to contest the December elections.



Two other leaders, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Pradipsinh Jadeja, who were senior ministers in the Rupani cabinet, have also declared they will not fight the upcoming polls, state party spokesperson Yamal Vyas said. Both are sitting MLAs.



Voting to elect a new 182-member Assembly will be held on December 1 and 5, and counting will take place on December 8.





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Friction between Governors and the ruling dispensation in three non-BJP ruled southern states escalated on Wednesday, with seeking a recall of R N Ravi, proposing the ordinance route to replace Arif Mohammed Khan as Chancellor of state varsities, and Tamilisai Soundararajan expressing doubts of her phone being tapped in .

While the Governor also claimed of an "undemocratic" situation in TRS-ruled Telangana, ruling DMK and its allies told President that Ravi's acts were unbecoming of those in the gubernatorial post and sought his sacking.

The ruling LDF in Kerala, which has had a number of run-ins with Governor Khan, said it has decided to come out with an ordinance to replace the Governor as Chancellor of universities in the state and appoint eminent academicians to that post, a move opposed by both the Congress and the BJP.

The cabinet, which met in Thiruvananthapuram, decided to recommend to Khan to promulgate the ordinance which would amend the University Laws regarding appointment of chancellor by removing the section which states the Governor shall also be at the helm of 14 varsities in the state, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.

It further said that in the meeting, the cabinet also considered the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission, headed by former Chief Justice of India Madan Mohan Punchhi, that it would not be appropriate to appoint the Governor as the head of the universities as he has other duties too under the Constitution.

Higher Education Minister R Bindu said the government has taken the decision to replace the Governor with eminent academicians as chancellors for bringing long-term reforms in higher education and universities in the state.

On queries whether Khan would sign the ordinance, the minister said she hopes that he would act according to his constitutional duties.

As regards Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) knocked on the door of Rashtrapati Bhavan with a plea seeking Governor Ravi's sacking, alleging, among others that he "instigated communal hatred".

The petition, signed by the alliance's Members of Parliament and submitted with the President's office, also listed out the pending Bills with Raj Bhavan, including one seeking exemption to the state from the ambit of NEET medical exam and questioned the delay for the assent.

Ravi and the M K Stalin-led government have been at loggerheads over a number of issues, including the NEET, and his recent remarks over the 'delay' in handing over the probe into the October 23 Coimbatore car explosion to the Investigation Agency (NIA) by the state government has not gone down well with the ruling dispensation.

Ravi was "unabashedly propagating dangerous, divisive, religious rhetoric in public, which is unbecoming of a Governor. His speeches are made with a calculated intent to incite hatred and create communal unrest among the people. Recently, he made a comment that "India is dependent on one religion like the rest of the world". This statement is an affront to India's Constitution. India is dependent on its Constitution & laws, not any religion," the memorandum said.

In the past, he has made similar "communal remarks like praising sanatana dharma, communalising the jewel of Tamil literature the Thirukural (a classical collection of couplets on various aspects of life) & denouncing Dravidian heritage and Tamil pride. These statements have caused deep wounds to the Tamil sentiment and pride," the petition claimed.

Holding that the mind of a Governor should be free of any political likes or dislikes or party or expectations of future appointments after their tenure expires, they said his/her attention should be towards the welfare of the people and must defer to the decisions of the elected representatives -- the Chief Minster and the Council of Ministers.

"Ravi forgets that he has not won any elections in to decide what is good for the people of ."



"Clearly, Thiru (Mr) R N Ravi has violated the oath he took under Article 159 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law and to devote himself to the service and well-being of the people of Tamil Nadu. Far from it, he has been instigating communal hatred, and is a threat to the peace and tranquility of the State...therefore by his conduct and actions, Thiru R N Ravi has proved that he is unfit to hold the constitutional office of Governor and therefore he deserves to be sacked immediately," the MPs said in the nine-page memorandum.

Governor Soundararajan, who had in the past complained of protocol non-compliances during her visits, raised doubts of her phones being tapped.

"I doubt (that) my phones are tapped. Undemocratic situation is there in the state, particularly in respecting the Governor. I want to clarify all those things," she said at a press conference.

She refused to elaborate saying there were some social media posts linking Raj Bhavan with the recent "TRS MLAs poaching case".

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In another jolt to the opposition on the second day in a row ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, senior MLA Bhagwan Barad on Wednesday resigned as a legislator and primary member and joined .

Barad, 63, who had won the Talala seat in Gir Somnath district in 2017, sent his resignation letter to Gujarat president Jagdish Thakor and also handed it over to Speaker Nimaben Acharya.

The development comes a day after 10-time MLA and tribal leader, Mohansinh Rathva, resigned and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Barad, also known as Bhaga Barad, was welcomed into the fold by state general secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela at the party's media centre in Ahmedabad.

Barad told reporters he decided to quit the party after consulting at least 4,000 of his supporters and will fight the next month's elections if wants him to, but added that he is not joining BJP with any pre-condition to get a poll ticket.

Gujarat will vote in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

"I am joining BJP as I want to be a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development campaign. I am joining that party without any pre-condition or commitment. I will fight polls if the party wants. I will campaign for other candidates if I am asked to. I will work for BJP to ensure its victory in nine seats in Gir Somnath and Junagadh districts," Barad said.

Barad is an influential leader of the Ahir community. He won the Talala constituency in 2007 and also in 2017. His brother Jashubhai had also represented this seat in 1998 and 2012.

Talala is one of the four Assembly segments in the Gir Somnath district. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP could not open its account in this district whereas Congress bagged all four seats.

In 2019, Barad was disqualified as a legislator by the then Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi after a local court sentenced him to two years and nine months in jail in a two-decade-old illegal mining case.

Months later, Barad's suspension was revoked after the Gujarat High Court stayed his conviction till the pendency of his appeal.

In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls, the Congress had won 77 seats restricting BJP's tally to 99 in the 182-member House.

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The world of Guerilla Games' Horizon series is one of the most beautiful and memorable landscapes you can't wait to go off and explore. It is based on real-life locations that were given its possible look if it were still standing in a post-apocalyptic 31st century when humanity had regressed to technologically inferior tribalism.

It seems Sony is also of the same mind, and as such, it could be giving fans of the series the opportunity to know more about the world and lore of the Horizon series.

A recent report from a South Korean media company revealed that Sony is collaborating with NCSoft to develop and launch a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game based on the Horizon series.

NCSoft is a South Korean video game developer and publisher which was the publication of games such as the Guild Wars and Lineage series, as well as Fuser and Wildstar, per IGDB.

Horizon Series MMO Development Details

A report from South Korean media company MTN citing a source familiar with both companies said that Sony and NCSoft have "tentatively" partnered up to develop an MMO based on Guerilla Games' Horizon series.

The source said that there is a possibility that the "tentative" partnership will lead to a comprehensive one, which will be better for the Horizon IP NCSoft and Sony are developing.

As a result, NCSoft started hiring people for the task at hand, named "Project H," as was spotted in the company's job advertisements, per IGN.

Read More: Instagram Launches New App Scheduler That Lets You Publish Posts in Advance

However, NCSoft's global communications office said that it is "difficult to confirm information about unpublished projects that are currently under dveleopment," or a Google Translate attempt from Video Games Chronicle.

the publication has also asked Sony to comment on the matter, but VGC has yet to receive a response to their inquiry.

The Multiplayer Game We're Waiting For?

Whether this Horizon MMO is the multiplayer game gamers are waiting for remains to be seen. You may recall that MP1st's sources revealed that Guerrilla could be developing a Horizon multiplayer game for the PS5 and PC.

Sony was interested in adding a multiplayer mode for Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, which would have looked similar to Capcom's Monster Hunter games.

Unfortunately, Guerrilla decided to save the idea for a future project for either a third entry to the Horizon series or a standalone online spin-off game.

Interestingly, Guerilla Games was spotted to be hiring people for an online game. One of the positions the company is looking to fill, in particular, is a senior social systems designer position.

The person who would be hired for the role would be responsible for engaging players in social interactions that create friendships and Guild-like groups to explore together.

Another position Guerilla wants to fill in the role of senior game writer, which may or may not be connected to the alleged Horizon online game.

According to the job posting, the newly hired person for the position is expected to have a comprehensive understanding of stories and narrative design that involves missions, quests, and narrative design for open-world RPGs, online games, and MMORPGs.

Related Article: Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War Are Getting Their Own TV Series - Here's Where You Can Watch Them
is reportedly planning to launch six Xperia in 2023, which could be furnished with Snapdragon processors.

As reported by Android Central, the Japanese tech giant is working on at least five new phones set to release next year.

Out of the new models, three will be premium and one will be an entry-level smartphone.

The flagship models are said to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is expected to be unveiled in the upcoming Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit 2022 next week, according to the report.

The models comprise the Xperia 5 V, Xperia 1 V, Xperia PRO-II, Xperia 10 V, and Xperia ACE IV.

The Xperia ACE IV is rumoured to be the cost-effective model featuring a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 processor.

According to PhoneArena, this device could be an alternative to the iPhone mini for Android enthusiasts. The device is reportedly available in two versions: one targeted at the Japanese market and one likely to reach global markets as well, said the report.

Another report suggests that at least one of the Xperia could be without a side-mounted fingerprint sensor in favour of an in-display sensor.

The power button in previous Xperia models served as both a fingerprint sensor and a power button.

On the whole, apart from making the best flagship phone, is gearing up to take on cheaper Android alternatives with the new product lineup for 2023, reports Android Central.

--IANS

shs/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.)
Those subtle manoeuvres before the abrupt halt. And then the sudden jolt and a burst of engine thrust. That feeling of being pushed into your seat as the aircraft accelerates down the runway. And then, that sensation of weightlessness during the take-offs. Taking to the skies is always exhilarating. And as you do so, you often find yourself wondering what it would be like to be in the cockpit. You marvel at the amazing feet of engineering that aircraft are. Some of you may also ask, will we ever get to fly on a Made in India plane?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi answered that question last month. He said that India would soon be manufacturing large . He added that they would also be marketed across the globe. The statement came at the foundation stone ceremony of a Tata- manufacturing facility in Gujarat.

The PM could have meant two things. We could convince foreign civilian aircraft makers to set up a final assembly line in India. It is an exclusive club. and form a virtual duopoly in the global market. The likes of Bombardier, Embraer and Tupolev make up the rest of the industry.

Or, we could design and build an Indian passenger plane from the ground up.

The head of a major Indian aerospace company says that asking or to establish a final assembly line in India would be easy. A final assembly line is justified if it churns out at least 5 to 10 aircraft a month and there is an overall demand for about 120 a year. The industry expert says that level of consumption is possible between the airlines India has today, especially when the outlook for the coming decades is bullish.

The Indian aviation market will need an estimated 2,200 new aircraft between 2022 and 2040, a three-fold jump from the country's commercial fleet at present. That's just a shade below what all the Latin American airlines will need in that same period and about 65 per cent of the entire Middle East region's projected demand. And, while China will need almost four times as many new aircraft by 2040, Beijings home-grown civil aircraft may prove to be a threat for and Airbus in that market.

In the past, China also took this route. In 2008, Airbus inaugurated its first final assembly line outside Europe in Tianjin. A decade later, Boeing opened a completion and delivery centre for its 737 family of jets in Zhoushan.

But, the industry expert from before cautions that a final assembly line will end up importing major components, as is the case for similar ventures elsewhere. He adds that it will create few jobs and lead to little value addition beyond what the Indian aerospace industry is already doing for global OEMs.

For instance, Boeing sources 1 billion dollars in products and services from India annually. While its network of over 300 Indian suppliers is growing, the company is also investing in a 200-million-dollar centre of excellence in the country. Airbus says that every commercial aircraft built by it is partly designed and made in India. The company sources 650 million dollars in manufactured parts and engineering services every year from over 45 Indian suppliers.

Giving this ecosystem wings could go a long way towards building a truly Indian passenger plane. And, Aravind Melligeri, the chairman and CEO of Aequs, one of Indias major aerospace manufacturers, has a roadmap in mind. Melligeri says the government must ask Airbus and Boeing to significantly increase their sourcing from India. As a result, Indian suppliers will move up the value stream. According to Melligeri, this will ultimately enable India to not only assemble a complete aircraft for Airbus or Boeing, but also for itself.

[Video byte of Aravind Melligeri]

Yes, they will. The government must point out to them how much they earn from India.

Nonetheless, Melligeri cautions that it could still take 30 years for India to have its own large, turbofan engine-powered passenger plane in the skies. Even Airbus and Boeing take over 10 years to execute a clean sheet programme.

However, the real hurdle in building a designed and made in India passenger plane will be the money needed.

After being in development for over a decade, Beijings first home-grown passenger jet, the C919, won Chinese regulatory approval in September. The narrow-body airliner is seen as a symbol of national pride. But, one US think-tank estimates that it has come at an astonishing cost. To smooth over the C919's development, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China may have received between 49 billion and 72 billion dollars from the Chinese government between 2008 and 2020. In comparison, India will spend less than three-fifths (29 billion dollars) of the lower end of that amount on the production-linked incentives scheme in key areas over five years.

However, India need not break the bank by following Chinas example. That is if it can right-size its ambitions, in line with its requirements. Melligeri explains that India is not a very large country from an air distance perspective. The duration of domestic air travel is mostly under two hours and point to point. Thus, according to Melligeri, the ideal aircraft for India to start with would be a turboprop.

[Video byte of Aravind Melligeri]

But, turboprop typically has a smaller capacity, but we have a large population, for which you need a large aircraft. A revolutionary way of looking at it is if there is a potential of a large turboprop aircraft, which would be efficient for India potentially because the distances are very small.

If Indias aim is a home-grown passenger plane that can compete with Chinas, then Rossell India Director Rishab Gupta says that the participation of both a strong government entity and the private sector will be needed. Tie-ups with global OEMs may also prove necessary. Rossell Techsys was the first Indian manufacturing company to win the 'Boeing Supplier of the year' award. It accomplished this feat twice in the past five years.

Gupta adds that it will be a capital intensive venture, requiring grants, incentives and subsidies from the government. He also suggests a review of the tax structure on raw materials, which are mostly imported at present, to encourage more local content.

An Indian designed and built passenger plane will be a mammoth undertaking, with plenty of turbulence likely. But, the industry insiders who spoke to Business Standard unanimously believe that India has to make a start, sooner than later.
The Earth Summit

In June of 1992, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil hosted 117 heads of state and representatives from 178 countries. It was the largest recorded gathering of world leaders. The reason. To strike a balance between economic development and the environment.

At that landmark United Nations Conference on Environment and Development -- better known as the Earth Summit -- three conventions were set up. One was on biodiversity, one on desertification and one on climate change.

Conference of the Parties or COP

Each of these conventions has a yearly Conference of the Parties, or COP, which sees signatory countries, called Parties, meet to assess progress and figure out how to move forward collectively.

The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. is the 27th meeting on climate change. The first one was held in Berlin in 1995. The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise.

There are now 197 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, all of whom have signed the Paris Agreement, the first global climate pact.

The Paris Agreement

Signed at COP21 in 2015, the Paris Agreements goal is to limit global warming to well below two degrees, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

COP-27

Delegates from the 197 nations and territories are meeting from November 6 through November 18 in Egypt with the key aim of ensuring full implementation of the Paris Agreement.

According to the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CO2 emissions need to be cut 45% by 2030 to meet the central goal of the agreement.

For the first time, has placed loss and damage finance on the agenda since climate talks began decades ago. Developing countries, including India, small island nations, and several indigenous communities have been batting for a separate fund for loss and damage to tackle the extremes of climate caused by historic polluters.

Examples include damage from cyclones or drought, or permanent damage from rising sea levels or the drying up of rivers. In UN climate talks, the phrase Loss and Damage refers to costs already being incurred from climate-fuelled weather extremes or impacts.

At COP27, India is also calling on rich countries to live up to their promise of providing $100 billion in annual climate finance to developing nations.
GENEVA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- More than 55 percent of China's mangroves are included in protected areas, making it one of the few countries in the world with a net increase in mangrove areas, a Chinese official said Monday at the ongoing Ramsar Convention meeting in Geneva. At a side event named "Global Mangrove into 2030/2050" held during the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14), more than 100 representatives worldwide reviewed global mangrove conservation and exchanged views on the current status of mangroves and their role in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as challenges and opportunities in mangrove conservation practices. Li Chunliang, deputy director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China, said that thanks to China's continuous efforts, more than 55 percent of the country's mangroves have been included in protected areas, while the protection and management of mangroves have been strengthened in accordance with China's wetland protection law and other laws and regulations. China's mangrove area has increased from 22,000 hectares (220 square km) in 2001 to 27,000 hectares (270 square km) today, becoming one of the few countries in the world with a net increase in mangrove areas, he said. China's success in mangrove conservation was commended by experts and officials at the side event. Stuart Crane, project coordinator for SDG6 of the UN Environment Program, said at the side event that China has shown real political momentum towards the protection of mangrove ecosystems, which is "very positive and something that many other countries can learn from." Jerker Tamerlane, director of science and policy at the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, said that China has provided a good example for wetlands conservation with its mangrove conservation and restoration plan for 2020 to 2025, which "encompasses targets that are quite specific, quite quantitative" to "bring together really convening multiple efforts under one umbrella." Mangroves, known as "coastal guardians," "havens for birds" and "habitats for fish and shrimp," are one of the most important blue carbon ecosystems that play an important role in purifying seawater, preventing wind and waves, maintaining biodiversity and storing carbon.
After completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk has sold another $3.95 billion worth of Tesla shares, as per The Verge.

A filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was published on Tuesday, shows that the Tesla CEO has sold 19.5 million more shares of his car company.

Musk Already Sold a Total of $19.3 Billion Worth of Tesla Shares This Year

With the latest sales of the company's shares, the total value of Tesla shares that the CEO sold this year now amounted to $19.3 billion, according to Forbes.

In April this year, the new Twitter CEO sold $8.4 billion in shares of the electric company. Meanwhile, another $6.9 billion was sold in August.

In 2021, the year when the stock jumped over 50 percent, the billionaire sold almost $22 billion worth of Tesla shares.

The Tesla CEO announced after the sales in April that he would no longer sell Tesla shares in the future. But he once again sold shares in August. After that, he announced once again that he was done selling.

The billionaire said that those shares were offloaded in August in a possible scenario that he would be buying Twitter. During that time, he was facing a lawsuit from the social media platform for attempting to back out of the deal.

The sales of Tesla stocks came as the company's stock hit its lowest price in a year. The company closed at its 52-week low of $191.30 per share on Tuesday.

After the sales, the billionaire currently owns 445.6 million Tesla shares, or nearly 14% of the electric car company. This excludes options. The CEO's stake is now closer to 23%, including his exercisable options.

According to Forbes, before the sales were made, Musk's worth was estimated to be $197.4 billion, which still makes him the richest person in the world.

Read Also: Elon Musk Discussed How Airbags Could Be Safer Than Seatbelts, Debunks Car Rating

Did Elon Musk Use Tesla Shares' Sales to Cover His Twitter Purchase?

While the reason behind the sales of Tesla shares is unclear, it is speculated that its proceeds have been used to partially cover the remaining portion of Musk's Twitter purchase.

It is estimated that the billionaire still has $13.3 billion from previous Tesla share sales. It is also speculated that he used that to pay for part of the $44 billion purchase of Twitter.

Aside from using his own capital to complete the purchase of the social media platform, the Tesla CEO relied on his partners to finance the deal.

Among his partners are equity investors Binance, Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Baron's BAMCO, Twitter's former CEO Jack Dorsey, and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, as per CNBC.

Following the huge investment of the Saudi Aradia prince on Twitter, Sen. Chris Murphy has called for an investigation of the implication of the deal on the national security of the US.

Since completing the deal, the new CEO of Twitter has implemented a number of changes in the social media platform. First, he fired former CEO Parag Agrawal along with other top officials.

He also dissolved the board of directors and made himself CEO of the company. Now, he announced that he's making the verified account available to everyone for $8.

Related Article: Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX Sued For Alleged Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme - $86 Billion Lost?
Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun, far left, speaks during a meeting with 20 local bank CEOs at the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



By Anna J. Park



In a move to provide necessary liquidity to local credit markets, the CEOs of 20 Korean banks pledged Wednesday to minimize the issuance of bank notes, while continuing to purchase various commercial papers (CP), asset-backed commercial papers (ABCP) and repurchase agreements (RP or repos), a short-term agreement to sell securities in order to buy them back at a higher price.



During a meeting with Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun in Seoul on Wednesday morning, the bank chiefs as well as Kim Gwang-soo, the chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB), said the banking sector will assume a key role in stabilizing the local credit markets.



The country's short-term funding markets, in particular, have recently been jolted, following the default crisis of a Legoland theme park developer's ABCP last month and Heungkuk Life's decision to delay the redemption of its call option last week. The life insurer reversed its position earlier this week to carry out the call option as originally scheduled, hoping to win back market trust in Korean commercial bonds.



Specifically, five major banks  Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori, Hana and NH NongHyup have stopped issuing bank notes since late October, seeking to avoid crowding out other corporate bonds from the short-term funding markets. The banks plan to reduce their bank note issuance volumes by the end of the year. Aiming to provide necessary liquidity to local bonds markets, the five major banks have been purchasing RPs totaling 250 trillion won ($183 billion) since October.



In addition, pledges made by the chairmen of five major financial groups earlier this month to provide 95 trillion won in liquidity, either to one of their cash-strapped affiliates or to the markets, will mostly be conducted through the banks. As a result, 72.8 trillion won worth of liquidity will be injected to the market, while another 11 trillion won will be put into a pool for bond stabilization funds and stock market stabilization funds, while six trillion won will be spent on financially supporting their affiliates.





Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun, fourth from left, speaks during a meeting with 20 local bank CEOs at the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Nov. 8. AP-Yonhap



The United States is closely watching the suspected delivery of North Korean artillery shells to Russia, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday after Pyongyang dismissed U.S. reports that it may be covertly supplying arms to Russia for use in Ukraine.



Defense department spokesman, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, however, declined to comment when asked if the shipments have been received by Russia.



"I am not going to have anything new to provide beyond what the NSC (has said), and as you highlight, the information we have is that the DPRK is covertly supplying Russia with a significant number of artillery shells," Ryder said in a daily press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last week that North Korea is covertly supplying a "significant number of artillery shells" to Russia while trying to obfuscate the real destination of its shipments by funneling them through third countries.



North Korea's military denied the report on Tuesday (Seoul time), accusing the U.S. of spreading "groundless" rumors against Pyongyang in an attempt to tarnish its image.



Ryder said the U.S. "will continue to monitor that situation."



The Pentagon spokesman also reiterated that the U.S. is prepared for any range of contingencies that may be caused by North Korea, including a North Korean attack using an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).



"We prepare for a variety of contingencies in situations," he said when asked about the possibility of a North Korean EMP attack.



"I am not going to get into specifics about any particular tactics, techniques or procedures other than to say that we regularly conduct exercises, training, sharing of information with our ROK allies and other allies in the region on how to work together, how to ensure that we are interoperable and be prepared to respond in defense of our mutual interests, and in this particular case the Republic of Korea," added Ryder. (Yonhap)


North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin smile during their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, in this April 25, 2019, file photo. North Korea's next nuclear weapons test will likely be the first one to avoid a condemnation and additional sanctions from the United Nations Security Council because of Russia's right to veto them, according to an expert. Reuters-Yonhap



Pyongyang's next nuclear test will likely be first to avoid united condemnation, sanctions



By Jung Min-ho





Hyun Seung-soo, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification

North Korea's next nuclear weapons test will likely be the first one to avoid a condemnation and additional sanctions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) because of a likely veto by Russia, one of its five permanent members, according to an expert.



Intelligence reports of the United States and South Korea show that the North is on the brink of conducting its seventh nuclear test. The regime's decision to proceed would certainly draw international criticism. Yet, such voices will likely be less united this time than in the past, said Hyun Seung-soo, an expert on Russia at the Korea Institute for National Unification.



"I'm not sure about China (another permanent member). But Russia will very likely exercise its veto power against any UNSC attempt to pass a resolution condemning North Korea or to impose additional sanctions on it," Hyun told The Korea Times Tuesday. "Even before the war in Ukraine, there have been growing voices in Russia that the government's decision in the past to join the U.S.-led criticism and sanctions against the North was a grave mistake."



That does not mean that Moscow would welcome or condone Pyongyang's development of nuclear bombs, he said. Russia, one of just five official nuclear-weapon states and a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, simply known as the NPT, does not share the privileges attached to the special weapons with more countries. But after 20 years of cooperation with U.S.-led efforts to contain threats from North Korea, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, realized that doing so did not offer  and won't promise  any benefits to his country, Hyun added.



North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests to date, once each in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017, as well as twice in 2016. All were immediately criticized and sanctioned by the united voice of the UNSC.



When Russia agreed to sign the resolutions, its leaders were not expecting that it ultimately would lead to more severe sanctions against North Korea, Hyun said. "In fact, Russia tried to relax the sanctions in return for joining the U.S. in condemning the North morally. However, the U.S. did not give Russia what it wanted, and Russia no longer has such expectations," he added.



Putin's change of stance appears to have emboldened the North, which has conducted weapons tests at an unprecedented pace this year, firing dozens of ballistic missiles. At UNSC meetings, however, Russia and China pointed the finger at the U.S. for inflating tensions in the region through combined military drills with South Korea, rejecting the approval of any additional resolutions or sanctions.





North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, visits Pyongyang International Airport to inspect the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, in this March 24 file photo. Yonhap
North Korea launches what it claimed was a hypersonic missile, Jan. 5, in this photo provided by the North Korean government. AP-Yonhap





North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern sea on Wednesday, extending a recent barrage of weapons demonstrations including what it described as simulated attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets last week.







Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from the western town of Sukchon, north of the capital, Pyongyang, and flew across the country toward waters off the North's eastern coast.







The launch was also detected by Japan's military, which said the missile flew about 250 kilometers (155 miles) at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles). The relatively low trajectory seemed to align with the flight characteristics of some of North Korea's newer short-range weapons designed to evade missile defenses.







Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile landed in waters outside of the country's exclusive economic zone. He said North Korea's intensifying testing activity was ''significantly heightening'' regional tensions and that Japan lodged a protest with the North through their embassies in Beijing.







The launch came after North Korea fired dozens of missiles last week in an angry reaction to a massive combined aerial exercise between the United States and South Korea that the North described as an invasion rehearsal.







Earlier Wednesday, South Korea's military said the recovered debris of one of the North Korean missiles that flew southward last week was determined to be a Soviet-era anti-aircraft weapon that dates back to the 1960s.







The North's military said on Monday that its launches last week were simulations to ''mercilessly'' strike key South Korean and U.S. targets such as air bases and operation command systems.







It said those tests included ballistic missiles loaded with dispersion warheads and underground infiltration warheads meant to launch strikes on enemy air bases, ground-to-air missiles designed to ''annihilate'' enemy aircraft at different altitudes and distances, and strategic cruise missiles that fell off South Korea's southeastern coast.







This combined photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, shows the North Korean military firing missiles into the East Sea and the Yellow Sea from Nov. 2-5 corresponding to a South Korea-U.S. joint air exercise. Yonhap





The North described those launches as an appropriate response to the United States and South Korea's ''Vigilant Storm'' joint air force drills that wrapped up Saturday, which involved some 240 warplanes, including B-1B supersonic bombers and advanced F-35 fighter jets.







This week, South Korea's military has been conducting annual command post exercises meant to enhance crisis management and operational capabilities to cope with growing North Korean threats. The four-day training is to last until Thursday.







Wednesday's launch also came as vote counting in the U.S. midterm elections was underway. Some experts earlier said the results of the U.S. elections would not likely change the Biden administration's policies on North Korea.







South Korea's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that an analysis of a 3-meter (9.8 foot)-long piece of wreckage fetched from waters near the Koreas' eastern sea boundary on Sunday showed it was one of North Korea's SA-5 surface-to-air missiles. The ministry said a similar missile was used by the Russian military to execute ground attacks during its invasion of Ukraine.







Photos released by the South Korean military show what appears to be a mangled rocket engine and wires sticking out from a broken rocket body that is still attached with fins.







The missile, which was one of more than 20 missiles North Korea fired last Wednesday, flew in the direction of a populated South Korean island and landed near the rivals' tense sea border, triggering air raid sirens and forcing residents on Ulleung island to evacuate.







The South Korean Defense Ministry said it ''strongly'' condemns the North Korea's firing of the SA-5, which it sees as a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement on reducing tensions.







The dozens of missiles North Korea fired last week also included an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation warnings and halted trains in northern Japan.







Some experts say it's possible that North Korea reached into the inventory of some of its older weapons to support the expanded scale of last week's launches.







The launches added to North Korea's record pace in weapons testing this year as leader Kim Jong-un exploits the distraction created by Russia's war on Ukraine to accelerate arms development and ramp up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.







''The North Koreans would want to display their range of missile technologies through these tests, but not all launches have to reveal the latest technological advancements,'' said Soo Kim, a security analyst from California-based RAND Corporation.







''It may be in North Korea's interest to hold some of its modern capabilities in reserve and test them at opportune occasions. Kim, again, is playing a longer game, so to reveal all of his cards - the different types of missiles and capabilities his country has acquired - would not work to his favor,'' she said.







Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North's disarmament steps. North Korea has so far rejected U.S. offers of open-ended talks, insisting that Washington must abandon its ''hostile'' policy first, a term the North mainly uses to refer to sanctions and U.S.-South Korea military drills.







The North has also aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine while also blaming the United States for the crisis, saying that the West's "hegemonic policy" has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests. However, the North has denied U.S. assessments that it has been sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia to support the war efforts.







''We regard such moves of the U.S. as part of its hostile attempt to tarnish the image of (North Korea) in the international arena,'' an unidentified vice director at the ministry's military foreign affairs office said in a statement carried by state media on Monday. (AP)


People at Seoul Station watch a TV monitor showing the latest launch of a short-range ballistic missile by North Korea, Wednesday. Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan



North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) into the East Sea Wednesday afternoon, just days after it launched over 30 missiles between Nov. 2 and 5.



The North's provocation came as the United States awaited the outcome of the U.S. midterm elections, Tuesday.



The SRBM was launched from North Korea's western county of Sukcheon in South Pyeongan Province at about 3:31 p.m., according to the Joint Chief of Staffs (JCS). The authority added that the missile flew about 290 kilometers east, at an altitude of 30 kilometers and speed of Mach 6. It fell near an uninhabited island in waters near the eastern province of South Hamgyeong.



South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies began analyzing the missile's characteristics and said it could have been one of the latest versions developed by North Korea, such as the KN-23 Iskander or KN-24 ATACMS.



When the missile was fired, the JCS also spotted movements of multiple North Korean aircraft around the launch site. Whether the movements were related to the missile remained unclear as of Wednesday night.



The JCS said Seoul and Washington shared intelligence information shortly after detecting the missile and confirmed the need for stronger bilateral cooperation.





This undated photo provided by South Korean Defense Ministry on Wednesday shows the retrieved debris of a missile in South Korea's East Sea which it identified as a North Korea's SA-5 surface-to-air missile according to South Korea's military. Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense
People visit a makeshift testing station to take coronavirus tests in Seoul, Nov. 6. Yonhap



Korea's new coronavirus cases reached the highest level in nearly two months Wednesday to stay over 60,000 for a second day, as the country is bracing for another wave of the virus in winter.



The country reported 62,472 new COVID-19 infections, including 42 from overseas, bringing the total to 25,981,655, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.



It is the largest daily count since Sept. 15, when the country reported 71,444 infections.



The country has seen a growth in infections in recent weeks amid declining immunity and the growth in people's outdoor activities. The comparable figure a week ago was 54,737, and the country saw 40,817 infections two weeks earlier, according to KDCA data.



The country added 59 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 29,479. The fatality rate was 0.11 percent.



The number of critically ill patients stood at 336, down 24 from a day earlier, the KDCA said.



"New infections have shown an uptrend for four weeks in a row, and the reproduction rate surpassed 1 for three consecutive weeks, indicating that the winter resurgence has begun in earnest," Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said.



The reproduction rate represents new infections estimated to stem from a single case.



"In preparations for the new wave, the government will strive to further expand the vaccination campaign and medication programs, particularly for vulnerable groups," he added.



Health authorities have warned that highly contagious omicron subvariants could trigger a new wave with cases possibly peaking as high as 200,000 in winter. Adding to woes is a possible outbreak of a "twindemic" of COVID-19 and seasonal influenza.



The government is expected to announce a set of antivirus measures later in the day. On Monday, the government expanded bivalent booster shots to all adults aged over 18. (Yonhap)


Photo: The Canadian Press

UPDATE 11:25 a.m.

The federal government will invest more in health care, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it also needs to ensure that Canadians see the results of an improved system.

Trudeau made his comments in Montreal today ahead of two days of meetings in Vancouver by Canada's federal, territorial and provincial health ministers.

The prime minister says the government has committed to investing "significantly more" in health care, while pointing to a recent statement from the head of the Canadian Medical Association that there's no point in putting more money into a broken system.

He says the government wants to ensure people have access to a family doctor and to mental health services, and that they know emergency rooms are open when their children need them.

The meetings in Vancouver are the first time all of Canada's health ministers have gathered in person since 2018.

The premiers met in July, when they asked the federal government to increase health transfers to 35 per cent, up from what they said was 22 per cent funding.

Trudeau says delivery of health care needs to be improved for Canadians.

"So yes, we will be there with more money, but we need to make sure that more investments in health care end up supporting the folks on the front lines, the nurses and doctors delivering that health care to Canadians, and ensure that Canadians feel the results in our health-care system."

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has said the extra cash is needed as the province tackles nursing and doctor shortages, works to improve access to digital health care, and boosts mental health and substance-use services related to the toxic drug crisis.

The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association and HealthCareCAN, which represents various organizations and hospitals, also teamed up ahead of this week's meetings to push the health ministers to work on urgent solutions to staffing shortages, burnout and other ills plaguing the system.

The groups are jointly calling for measures including incentives to retain workers, such as increased mental health supports, as well as a Canada-wide strategy to gather data on the workforce to allow doctors to be licensed more easily wherever they're most needed. They have also called for improved access to primary care and virtual visits.

ORIGINAL 6 a.m.

Canada's health ministers are set to meet in British Columbia this week, four months after premiers from across the country gathered in Victoria to show a united front of frustration over what they called a "crumbling" health-care system.

All 13 provincial and territorial health ministers are expected to meet with their federal counterpart, Jean-Yves Duclos, today and tomorrow in Vancouver.

A media advisory from Health Canada says it's the first time all of the health ministers from different levels of government have met in person since 2018.

The meeting comes after Canada's premiers met in Victoria last July, where they asked Ottawa to boost the Canada Health Transfer, the money each jurisdiction gets for health care, to 35 per cent, up from what they said amounts to 22 per cent.

Prime Minister Trudeau responded by saying the federal government wants to make sure the billions of dollars transferred to the provinces and territories deliver "real, tangible results for Canadians," with shorter wait times and better services.

The premiers have renewed their calls to boost the transfer with a Canada-wide awareness campaign launched last month to promote "the critical need for a new and sustainable health-care funding partnership with Ottawa.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has said the extra cash is needed as the province tackles nursing and doctor shortages, works to improve access to digital health care, and boosts mental health and substance-use services related to the toxic drug crisis.

The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association and HealthCareCAN, which represents various organizations and hospitals, also teamed up ahead of this week's meetings to push the health ministers to work together on urgent solutions to staffing shortages, burnout and other ills plaguing the system.

The groups are jointly calling for measures including incentives to retain workers, such as increased mental health supports, as well as a Canada-wide strategy to gather data on the workforce to allow doctors to be licensed more easily wherever they're most needed. They have also called for improved access to primary care and virtual visits.
Medical workers provide first aid to victims of the crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul, Oct. 30. Yonhap



By Lee Hyo-jin



More lives could have been saved in the Itaewon crowd crush, had the country's emergency medical resources been mobilized more effectively, according to medical experts. They called for improvements to the medical response system in the wake of the tragic accident on Oct. 29, which killed at least 156 people and injured nearly 200.



In particular, they pointed out the absence of a "control tower" to take charge and delegate tasks during emergencies, along with poor communication between related authorities such as the fire agency, medical personnel and law enforcers.



Such problems were on display in screenshots of a group chat between the disaster-related authorities, which were disclosed by Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Wednesday.



Around 1:39 a.m. on Oct. 30, an official of the fire department wrote, "We will transfer some 30 dead patients to Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital. Please check on the hospital's capacity." Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital was the nearest general hospital from the scene, located a kilometer from the accident site.



But an official at the National Medical Center (NMC), which oversees hospital bed capacity and deployment of medical personnel, said, "Don't do that. Do not transfer the dead patients now. We are going to take some 40 patients who are still alive to the hospital first, including those who are critically injured."



At around 1:45 a.m., fire agency officials once again checked on hospital capacity to transfer the dead, but the medical official responded, "We are not doing that. Please send the patients who are alive to the hospitals first."



The messages also revealed that some medical workers were blocked from entering the scene of the disaster by police.



"Our doctors cannot enter the scene due to police control. We can't deploy our medical team in this situation," according to a message from an NMC official sent at 11:41 p.m.



Lee Hyung-min, head of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine, pointed out that more lives might have been saved if the injured patients had been transported swiftly to nearby hospitals.



"It is regretful that too many resources were put into performing on-site CPR. Technically, patients suffering from cardiac arrest are not the top priority at disaster sites," said the ER doctor at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, explaining that injured patients who have a higher chance of survival should have been taken to the nearest hospital immediately.



According to health ministry data, over 80 patients, most of whom were pronounced dead or were suffering cardiac arrest, were taken to Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital. Dozens of patients suffering breathing difficulties and severe injuries were transported to more distant hospitals, with the farthest one being 27 kilometers away, possibly causing a delay in receiving due medical attention.



"I think the biggest problem was that there was virtually no one in charge," Lee said.



Under the current protocols, the head of the district's public health center oversees medical responses to disasters. But Choi Jae-won, head of Yongsan District's public health center, arrived at the Itaewon alley around 11:30 p.m., more than an hour after the crowd crush had begun at around 10:15 p.m.



Why did it take so long for DMAT to arrive?





Ambulances transfer victims of the Itaewon crowd crush to hospitals, Oct. 29. Yonhap
Maple Leaf Cement begins Line 4 production

09 November 2022

Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF) has informed Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) that an additional dry process clinker production line of 7000tpd grey clinker, a brownfield expansion at the companys existing site in Iskanderabad, Punjab, successfully started production on 3 November 2022, according to a bourse filing of Company Secretary Muhammad Ashraf.

MLCF had signed a contract with Chengdu Design & Research Institute, China, to supply a 7000tpd grey clinker line in March last year. This will lead the company to become the fourth largest player in the industry with a single site capacity of 7.7Mta. The 1QFY23 reports add the project is being financed with a mix of concessionary debt and internally generated cash flows.

A recent report by AL Habib Capital Markets has estimated the projects cost at PKR20bn (US$90.2m), which will be financed with a debt-to-equity ratio of 70:30. For this, the company has availed Long Term Financing Facility (LTFF) and Temporary Economic Refinance Facility (TERF) of the central bank. MLCF is also working on a new waste heat recovery plant to add to Line 4. The planned project is expected to further enhance capacity from 25MW to 33MW.

Financial performance in July-September 2022-23

During 1QFY23, the company recorded a net consolidated turnover of PKR12.827bn against PKR9.896bn in the corresponding period last year. MLCFs top line increased by 30 per cent, mainly due to improved selling prices in the local market. It was also reflected in consolidated profit, which rose to PKR1.378bn from PKR839m during this period, representing an increase of 64 per cent.

But, the total sales volume declined to 902,102t, a decrease of 20.58 per cent over the 1.135Mt sold during the corresponding period last year. Domestic sales volume of 872,039t describes a significant reduction of 20.34 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year due to floods, political instability, etc.

The companys export volume decreased by 27.01 per cent to 30,062t from 41,189t in the corresponding period. Exports have not picked up following the American departure from Afghanistan. This has resulted in a slowing down of the economy, with banking restrictions another major reason for the decline in export sales. Cement dispatches to the rest of the world are still not feasible due to high production costs in Pakistan compared to global markets and increased shipping costs, impacting competitiveness in the regional markets.

During 1QFY23, global coal and oil prices remained high mainly because of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine that has impacted the oil supply from Russia, which in turn caused prices of commodities to increase further. However, the company could control its fuel and power costs by procuring local coal at cheaper rates, as reported in the latest report.

Published under
CIC-Market Solutions revises up Heidelberg Materials

09 November 2022

CIC-Market Solutions has softened its negative scenario post 2022 for Heidelberg Materials. It has raised its 2023 EBITDA projection to EUR3537m (down EUR128m versus 2022E), versus a previous estimate of EUR3439m. This is despite the prospect of falling demand in 2023 in the main European countries (-3 to -10 per cent compared to 2022).

CIC-Market Solutions advises that the change in its forecast is firstly due to European producers being determined to pass on the increase in factor costs downstream (over nine months, Heidelberg Materials has suffered a EUR140m increase in electricity costs). By the end of 2022, excluding electricity hedging, European cement manufacturers will face an additional charge of EUR40-50/t of cement. In return, the price increases announced these days for application in the 1Q23 are particularly high, says CIC- Market Solutions. Cement prices could see a EUR30-40 increase in the basic price, and EUR15 for the energy surcharge (Energiezuschlag), ie probably +EUR45 to +EUR55 per tonne in all.

Secondly, CIC-Market Solutions view has been modified because of the implementation of capping mechanisms in Spain and announcement in Germany of the cap (Preisbremse) on the price of gas and electricity sold to industry, for application at the end of February 2023. On the basis of 80 per cent of purchases made in year n-1, the industry will be able to purchase gas at a capped price of EUR13 cents per kW/h.

Therefore, CIC-Market Solutions has raised its target price to EUR55 (versus EUR47) and has reiterated its Buy recommendation fro Heidelberg Materials. CIC-Market Solutions believes that at the current level the market is already pricing in the negative factors (tightening of the EU-ETS scheme and rampant recession) and does not factor in sufficiently the latest positive events. These factors include the electricity price cap mechanisms to be implemented in Germany which should alleviate the energy bill. Secondly, the reopening of coal-fired power plants which will eventually rekindle the fly ash industry and thus reduce the clinker coefficient in the tonne of cement.

Published under
The Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society presents "The History and Wildlife of Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa on Thursday, November 10 at 7 p.m. at the Ascension Lutheran Church, 729 S. Germantown Road in East Ridge. Dr. David Aborn will be the presenter.



Officials said, "As the 5th largest reserve in South Africa, Madikwe boasts an abundance of wildlife, including the second largest elephant herd in the country, an impressive list of 442 bird species and it is the most reliable place to see African wild dogs.

Equally remarkable is the story of how the reserve came to be and how it is governed; something not found in other parks in the country and is viewed as a role model for future African parks. Dr. Aborn will discuss this history and present photos from his recent trip there."This program is free and open to the public.
11/23/2022

Students from one of Lee Universitys benevolence classes hosted the second annual Fall Field Day, an event for community youth with disabilities to participate in outdoor activities. This year, ... more
The first cohort of students graduate from GNTCs Electrical Lineworker Program (from left, kneeling) William Bryce Epperson, Malik Reese, Ethan Tucker, Joshua Daum, Jonathan Hood, Isaac Ritter, Glenn Jose, Rylan McAlister, Brent Gentry; (standing) Melvin Pledger III, Logan Davenport, Chandler Caleb Hall, Cesar Molina, Josh Adams, Alabama Power Executive Vice President of Customer and Employee Services Jeff Peoples, Cosmas Kipruto, Salvador Barragan, Christopher (Ross) Moore, Jaylen Larkin and Georgia Power Senior Vice President of Power Delivery Fran Forehand. Glenn Jose (left) receives congratulations from Dr. Heidi Popham, GNTC president Malik Reese (left) receives congratulations from Dr. Heidi Popham, GNTC president Previous Next

Leaders from Georgia Power joined with officials from Georgia Northwestern Technical College and state and local representatives Monday, Oct. 31, at GNTCs Polk County Campus in Rockmart to congratulate the first graduates of GNTCs new Electrical Lineworker Program.Through the collaboration between Georgia Power and GNTC, 18 students experienced a training program that included donated equipment such as trucks, poles and climbing equipment, as well as hands-on expertise from Georgia Power instructors.Upon completing the program, students received four certificates of completion for Electrical Lineworker, Commercial Truck Driving, OSHA 10-Hour General Industry and an overall certificate verifying 395 training hours completed.Georgia Power has proven time and time again to be one of GNTCs most committed, unprecedented partners as it relates to establishing strategic training programs like the Electrical Lineworker Program, said Dr. Heidi Popham, GNTC president.Implementing training programs of this nature cannot be done by the technical college alone; it requires significant investment from private stakeholders such as Georgia Power, she said. From providing instructor expertise, equipment, tools and an incredible pole field, Georgia Power has gone over and beyond in helping GNTC to establish and sustain the Electrical Lineworker Program for many years to come.The program is offered through GNTCs Office of Economic Development.We are seeing tremendous interest in our Electrical Lineworker Program, said Stephanie Scearce, GNTCs vice president of Economic Development. Since launching in March, we have already received 300 applicants.While we learned a lot about how to improve the program moving forward, I am incredibly proud of the outcome of our inaugural cohort, thanks to our dedicated instructors and staff, Ms. Scearce said. I dont think we could have asked for a better group of students. They showed up every day of training and put everything on the line to better themselves. Lets just say the bar is set high for future cohorts.Graduates from the first cohort of the new program are Josh Adams, Salvador Barragan, Joshua Daum, Logan Davenport, William Bryce Epperson, Brent Gentry, Chandler Caleb Hall, Jonathan Hood, Glenn Jose, Cosmas Kipruto, Jaylen Larkin, Rylan McAlister, Cesar Molina, Christopher (Ross) Moore, Melvin Pledger III, Malik Reese, Isaac Ritter and Ethan Tucker."Installing and maintaining electrical line equipment is a highly rewarding career field, but it can also be challenging," officials said. "Lineworkers often face challenging conditions in the field, especially following severe weather. Robost training and education programs for lineworkers are critical to help prepare them to work safely in real world conditions as they help ensure reliable electrical service for millions of Georgians."State Senator Jason Anavitarte acknowledged the current shortage of lineworkers and praised the Electrical Lineworker Program, saying, I wish we had 20 of these programs across the state, and I hope Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Southern Company will continue to invest in these programs in our technical college system throughout the state.State Representative Trey Kelley said his uncle retired from Georgia Power as a lineman. He can recall the quality of life his uncle provided for his family because of that job.I would like to congratulate the graduates on taking the next step in having a successful career as a lineworker and providing the same quality of life for their own families, he said.I cannot think of a more selfless job that we have at Georgia Power and across Southern Company than being a lineworker, said Fran Forehand, senior vice president of Power Delivery at Georgia Power. Lineworkers get up in the middle of the night or early morning to restore power after a storm and are always on call.Lineworkers do more than just keep the lights on, Mr. Forehand said. They also serve as community leaders and are the face of the company whenever they are out in the community.After graduation, representatives from DLC Utility Group LLC, Georgia Power, Marietta Power, North Georgia Electric Membership Corp., Pike Corp. and U-TEC Construction interviewed the graduates.Georgia Power is actively hiring qualified line personnel. Visit www.PoweringCareers.com [poweringcareers.com] to learn more about becoming a lineworker with Georgia Power.The next cohort of GNTCs Electrical Lineworker Program starts in January and is already full. However, GNTC continuously accepts applications for future cohorts. After January, the following cohort of the Electrical Lineworker Program will occur in Summer 2023 and is currently open. For more information about the program, go to https://www.gntc.edu/lineworker [gntc.edu] or contact the Office of Economic Development at lineworker@gntc.edu.
European Union Ambassador to South Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez, right, speaks during a meeting with Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Jae-myung at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps





By Nam Hyun-woo







The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) apologized for having quoted European Union Ambassador to South Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez out of context.







The DPK's apology came hours after the EU envoy expressed her regret over the party's press briefing which was interpreted as if the envoy indirectly criticized the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's North Korea policies.







"During a meeting between DPK Chairman Lee Jae-myung and European Union Ambassador to South Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez, yesterday, stressed the importance of peace on the Korean Peninsula and talks for security amid North Korea's escalating provocations," DPK spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement.







"During a press briefing after the closed-door meeting, I quoted her remarks differently from what she actually said  I offer my deep apologies to the EU ambassador for the confusion."







During the press briefing, Tuesday, Kim told reporters that "the EU ambassador said North Korea is escalating its level of provocations, but the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has its own limit in its response because it has no channel for dialogue (with the North) currently."







Kim continued, "she also said there were ways to relieve the tension during the previous Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations because there were dialogue channels (between the two Koreas), but there aren't right now."







The two former presidents were both liberal leaders who pursued dovish North Korea policies based on talks. They each had summits with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.







European Union Ambassador to South Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez, fourth from left, poses with Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Jae-myung, third from left, during the former's visit to the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. On the left is DPK spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom. Joint Press Corps





Against this backdrop, spokesperson Kim's comments were interpreted as if the EU envoy was indirectly criticizing the Yoon administration's North Korea policies, which place greater emphasis on a stronger deterrence against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats.







However, questions have been raised about Kim's briefing as Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday night, disclosed a text message that the EU ambassador sent to Ambassador Kim Gunn, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs.







"Sorry that my words have been mis-used and twisted by opposition for media," Castillo wrote in the text message revealed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "That was not the meaning nor the intention, as you know well."







The EU delegation said its ambassador did not compare the current and previous administrations, and she expressed her support for South Korea's security policies.







"What the ambassador said was about the importance of talks in facilitating peace and security on the Korean Peninsula," an official of the EU delegation told The Korea Times. "The ambassador, as a member of a diplomatic mission, is not in the position to mention or compare the activities of current and previous governments."







The official said the ambassador had never mentioned President Yoon Suk-yeol's name or previous administrations' North Korea policies during her meeting with the DPK chairman.







DPK spokesperson Kim also said, "there were no comparison on the North Korea responses of the previous governments and the current one."







This is not the first time the DPK spokesperson's remarks have become a subject of controversy.







During a National Assembly audit on Oct. 24, Kim claimed that President Yoon, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon and about 30 lawyers had a late-night drinking session on July 19 in southern Seoul's Cheongdam-dong, citing an anonymous informant. However, Kim has yet to provide evidence to support his claim, such as the venue of the party.







Justice Minister Han has flatly dismissed Kim's claim, telling Kim, "I can bet everything (that it is a false accusation). What's your bet?"







Presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki also said on Tuesday, "As far as I know, President Yoon was at his office at the time."


After serving for five years in the U.S. Army, Oregon native Trevor Vickery traveled around the country, searching for the right school to use his GI Bill benefits. Once he discovered the extensive network of support for veterans at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he knew he had found his new home.



Transitioning from the very structured life of a soldier to the life of a college student was not easy for Mr. Vickery but UTs Veterans Success Center helped him move into the life of a college student by showing him that there were people who understood where he was coming from and that it was OK to ask for help.



Officials said, "UT is highly ranked among public universities for its support of veterans, based on initiatives like the Veterans Success Center and the fact that in-state tuition is available to veterans, active-duty military personnel, reservists, Tennessee National Guard members and Army and Air Force ROTC cadets.



"The university is ranked as military friendly not only for veterans but also for spouses of veterans. UT is celebrating veterans like Mr. Vickery all week to recognize and celebrate those who served and continue to serve."
Bill Lee, seeking a second four-year term, was piling up a large victory margin on Tuesday.

Governor

Bill Lee (R) 1,121,867

Jason Martin (D) 566,133

There were also eight Independent candidates.

In Hamilton County, it was Lee 60,604 and Martin 38,836.

Governor Lee won Bradley County by 20,405 to 4,075.

Also, the four state Constitutional Amendments were winning support:

1 Yes 1,132,640 No 489,797 Hamilton Co. Yes 38,836 No 29,330

2 Yes 1,166,558 No 396,318 Hamilton Co. Yes 69,169 No 22,191

3 Yes 1,283,031 No 330,350 Hamilton Co. Yes 78,138 No 17,047

4 Yes 1,012,566 No 587,944 Hamilton Co. Yes 58,554 No 36,850

The Amendments include:

1. Add a new section to article XI of the Tennessee Constitution to make it illegal for any person, corporation, association, or the State of Tennessee or its political subdivisions to deny or attempt to deny employment to any person because of the persons membership in, affiliation with, resignation from, or refusal to join or affiliate with any labor union or employee organization.

2. Add to article III, section 12 of the Tennessee Constitution a process for the temporary exercise of the powers and duties of the governor by the Speaker of the Senate - or the Speaker of the House if there is no Speaker of the Senate in office - when the governor is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor.

3. Change the current language in article I, section 33 of the Tennessee Constitution, which says that slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a person who has been duly convicted of crime, are forever prohibited in this State. The amendment would delete this current language and replace it with the following language: Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.

4. Delete article IX, section 1 of the Tennessee Constitution, which prohibits ministers of the gospel and priests of any denomination from holding a seat in either House of the legislature.
Stacey Abrams conceded the election late Tuesday to Governor Brian Kemp, who had a lead of almost 300,000 votes with all but three percent of the ballots counted.

U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker and Senator Raphael Warnock are headed to a Dec. 6 runoff. With 100 percent counted, Senator Warnock was ahead by some 35,000 votes but did not have 50 percent. He was at 49.41 percent.

Governor

Brian Kemp (R) 2,109,049

Stacey Abrams (D) 1,809,300

Shane Hazel (L) 28,072

United States Senate

Raphael Warnock (D) 1,941,275 49.34 percent

Herschel Walker (R) 1,906,192 48.6 percent

Chase Oliver (L) 81,173

United States House of Representatives District 14

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) 167,666

Marcus Flowers (D) 84,788

Herschel Walker won Dade County 4,695 to 996 and Governor Kemp won 4,966 to 807.

Herschel Walker won Catoosa County 18,545 to 5,280 and Governor Kemp won 19,992 to 4,254.

Herschel Walker won Walker County 17,053 to 4,377 and Governor Kemp won 18,403 to 3,505.

Herschel Walker won Whitfield County 19,369 to 6,893 and Governor Kemp won 20,899 to 5,865.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger was tallying 53 percent of the vote with Democrat Bee Nguyen getting 46 percent.

The Republican State Leadership Committee said, "Despite being left for dead at the beginning of the cycle, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defied all the odds and easily won re-election Tuesday night. Raffenspergers victory is a major embarrassment for the national liberal groups that combined to spend $3.8 million to oust him."

Secretary Raffensperger is a principled conservative dedicated to making it easier to vote and harder to cheat and we congratulate him on his re-election, said RSLC President Dee Duncan. His victory proves that the people of Georgia were not fooled by the fear mongering of the national liberal groups that went all-in to flip this office. Secretary Raffensperger ran a textbook campaign focused on the truth and we are proud to have supported his candidacy.

The RSLC said, "While Raffensperger faced a significant television spending disparity of nearly 9:1, the RSLC made a six-figure investment in a targeted digital campaign to strengthen his standing with swing voters. The RSLC spent more on Raffensperger than on any other candidate for secretary of state in 2022."

State Senator and 7th generation South Georgia Farmer Tyler Harper secured a victory to be the state's next Agriculture Commissioner

Following his victory, he said, "What a fantastic win. I am extremely honored and humbled to have won our election to be Georgia's next Commissioner of Agriculture. For the past year and a half, we have been crisscrossing this state, meeting with voters, and sharing our message directly with communities from Blue Ridge to Bainbridge and everywhere in between. We've discussed my background and experience as a 7th generation South Georgia farmer, ABAC and UGA alumnus, and industry leader to our record in the State Senate delivering every day for our famers, producers and consumers across the state - and that message clearly resonated with the voters, and I'm so thankful for their trust and support throughout our campaign.

"We are going to put that same work ethic, record, experience, and passion to work every day as the next Agriculture Commissioner to help lower costs, secure fair trade deals, empower our family farmers, invest in the next generation of Agriculture, expand the Georgia Grown program, and improve the lives of every farmer and family in our state.

"Thank you to every volunteer, supporter, and voter who made this victory possible. We absolutely couldn't have done it without you. We are excited about hitting the ground running to advance our state's number one industry and continue making Georgia the best place to live, work and raise a family."

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The American Red Cross urges blood and platelet donors to give now and help fight the potential impact of seasonal illnesses and a potentially severe flu season on the blood supply.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts a serious spread of flu this year and is already reporting an early spike in cases in several states. When seasonal illnesses increase, the number of healthy donors tends to decrease, leaving the Red Cross blood supply vulnerable to a potential shortage over the holidays.Paired with busy holiday schedules, seasonal illnesses may make it harder to collect the blood hospital patients require this winter.Donors - especially those with type O blood and those giving platelets - can help bolster the blood supply now by making an appointment to give in the coming weeks.There is no waiting period to donate blood or platelets after receiving a flu shot. Schedule an appointment by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). Learn more about flu safety and prevention at redcross.org/flusafety.As a thank-you, the Red Cross is offering several opportunities to donors this month: All who come to give Nov. 1-22 will receive a $10 e-gift card to a merchant of choice. Details are available at rcblood.org/perks. Those who come to give over the Thanksgiving holiday, Nov. 23-27, will get a Red Cross knit beanie, while supplies last. All who come out to help Nov. 28-Dec. 15 will receive a $10 Amazon.com Gift Card by email, thanks to Amazon. Details are available at rcblood.org/together.Upcoming blood donation opportunities Nov. 16-30:ChattanoogaNov. 17: 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., Southeast Tennessee American Red Cross Blood Drive, 4115 S. Access RoadSimply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enable the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App.Another way to support the lifesaving mission of the Red Cross is to become a volunteer blood donor ambassador at Red Cross blood drives. Blood donor ambassadors help greet, check-in and thank blood donors to ensure they have a positive donation experience.Volunteers can also serve as transportation specialists, playing a vital role in ensuring lifesaving blood products are delivered to nearby hospitals. For more information and to apply for either position, visit https://www.redcross.org/volunteertoday.
Some County Commission members said Wednesday they are dismayed that County Mayor Weston Wamp has not returned County Attorney Rheubin Taylor's computer and cell phone despite a commission resolution directing that it be done.

Also, Commissioner Warren Mackey said he is concerned that some county employees feel "intimidated" by the Wamp administration.

The new county mayor issued a directive that the longtime county attorney be fired. Attorney Taylor has stayed on, while citing he has a four-year contract. The matter is now in Chancery Court.

Questioned by Commissioner Greg Martin, County Mayor Wamp said he hired attorney Barret Albritton to represent him in the Taylor case at a cost of up to "just under $25,000." At the $25,000 level, it would have required County Commission approval. County Mayor Wamp earlier spent $5,000 of county funds for a legal opinion from a Knoxville attorney in the Taylor matter.

The commission earlier hired attorney John Konvalinka for his advice in the case for $10,000.

Commissioner Mackey said if the county winds up having to pay attorney Taylor for his remaining contract and also pay a replacement county attorney "it could be close to a million dollars."

Attorney Albritton said the county attorney's office has carried on with remaining staff in the absence of county attorney Taylor. County Attorney Taylor responded, "I've been there every day," though he said he has been hampered by not having his county computer and cell phone.

Attorney Albritton, who said the two sides are moving toward a settlement, said the health benefits have been restored for attorney Taylor, whose wife has heart issues.

Vice Chairman Joe Graham said, "If we pass a resolution, that is something that should be honored until a judge tells us it is not valid." He said the action "blatantly disrespects what this body does. If we don't honor the law, then this is the wild, wild West."

Commissioner David Sharpe said, "It's a very serious question how long our county attorney can go on without his computer."

Commissioner Greg Beck said, "Do we have to go to court every time we pass a resolution? When we pass something, it ought to go into effect."

He said the response of the Wamp administration on the resolutions passed by the commission in support of attorney Taylor was "We ain't gonna do nothing."

Some commissioners also had issues with a proposed Wamp resolution "TO EXTEND RULES REGARDING SECONDARY EMPLOYMENT AND EMAIL, INTERNET, PHONES, CELL PHONES, AND INTRANET TO ALL EMPLOYEES."

County Mayor Wamp said "in the interest of transparency" that the rules should extend to upper-level employees, including those in his office as well as the county attorney.

He said the county handbook had not been updated since 2010 and this and other sections need to be change.

One aim of the change would be to stop county officials from taking outside jobs that "adversely affect their job performance" or raise a possible conflict of interest. County Attorney Taylor has an agreement that he can do outside legal work.

The county mayor said under current rules, passed by the County Records Commission, that emails are only kept for 10 days. He said five years is the accepted standard, and he said the Sheriff's Office keeps them for 10 years.

Asked the cost, he said one estimate was $7,500 per month for the email storage.

Commissioner Mackey said, "Can you imagine the cost if we took these records back forever? I'm not willing to spend any money on it.

"I'm opposed to tracking everyone. It's big government and intrusive government. I take it as another attempt to intimidate employees and hold something over their heads. I see a trend of trying to intimidate county workers, and I don't like It."

He said commissioners have heard from a number of concerned county employees.

Attorney Taylor said, concerning putting new rules on his office, that it deals with a number of confidential attorney-client matters. He said, "We have information in our office that we have to keep confidential."
The City of Chattanooga is increasing pay for its Wastewater Division, raising all salaries to a minimum of $40,000 annually and hosting a job fair to help fill more than 75 vacancies for the essential utility.

Representing an average pay increase of 17 percent across the division, the updated pay plan will better align with regional market rates to help hire and retain talent while reducing the nearly $3 million per year the division is currently spending on contractor labor and overtime costs resulting from unfilled vacancies.

The pay increase will come at no cost to residents.

Instead, the city will absorb the costapproximately $1.5 million annually for current employeesusing scheduled annual sewer fees and a surplus of funds resulting from years of unfilled vacancies.

While we often think of law enforcement officers or emergency medical professionals as our first responders, our wastewater team is also on the frontlines every single day responding to emergencies at all hours that many of us never even know about, said Chief Operating Officer Ryan Ewalt. This utility is a critical operation for our community, and increasing its pay plan to market rates will ensure we are in a strong competitive position to hire and retain the talent we need for our sustainable future.

To promote the pay increase and speed the hiring process for vacant positions, the Wastewater Division is hosting a job fair next Tuesday, Nov. 15, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Moccasin Bend Environmental Campus, located at 455 Moccasin Bend Road. No advanced registration is required, and residents are encouraged to bring their resumes to apply and interview onsite for priority positions, including plant operators, industrial electricians, industrial maintenance mechanics, and heavy equipment operators.

Our wastewater teams work around the clock, every day of the year, to keep the citys wastewater system running. In 2021 alone, they made more than 7,000 repairs and upgrades - thats over 600 per month, said Mark Heinzer, interim director of the Moccasin Bend Environmental Campus. Increasing their pay not only provides these talented employees with market-rate salaries, it helps us grow teams and boost morale, demonstrating that the hard work and value of this essential division is not going unrecognized.

In addition to treating the wastewater of more than 400,000 people in the Chattanooga region, the Wastewater Division also leads the Citys work to rehabilitate and renew Chattanoogas wastewater system, ensuring that local waterwaysincluding the Tennessee Riverare protected from raw sewage overflow. Since the City entered into a consent decree with EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in 2012, the division, working with other teams across the Department of Public Works, has made significant progress in revitalizing key components of the system, including:


What was a routine agenda workshop for the Rhea County Commission turned into a contest of wills between Chairman Jim Reed and Dayton Mountain Resident Tina Pearce.

During the last part of the meeting where the commission listens to the residents of the county on agenda items, Ms. Pearce started out the conversation with talking about the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regulations and grants for schools.

Chairman Reed quickly stopped her and advised that she needed to follow the commissions rules of speaking for three minutes and keep it to items on the agenda.

Mrs.Pearce remarked back that he was impeding her constitutional right of freedom of speech.

He responded, This is a thing that the commission allows you to do. We dont have to give the opportunity for the public to speak. But when you do we request that you respect our rules and guidelines. Rudeness and disrespect will not be tolerated.

Ms. Pearce continued to try to make her point on the issue of the CDC grants with the chairman continuing to caution her to stick to the agenda. At one point Chairman Reed told her that her opportunity to speak was up.

He said, We have several options that we can do here. We can require people to send in an email prior to the meetings to have the commissioners approve if they want to allow them to speak. We can use the sheet where you sign up to speak on a specific item on the agenda or the 3 minutes for the public to speak can just go away.

We want to have interaction with our constituents and hear what they have to say on items on the agenda. But everyone needs to follow the rules that the commission has put in place.

Chairman Reed was referring to the new guidelines the commission passed in September at the first organizational meeting of the current commission which set forth the guidelines that on agenda meetings people could speak after the agenda was set and during the regular monthly meetings they could speak before the meeting on items that was set on the agenda. The commissioners did make a prevision that if something was not on the agenda and was of a pressing nature related to county business it could be brought up. Persons also have the option of contacting their district commissioner to see if they would bring the matter up.

Ms. Pearce was referring to a recent grant the CDC has put out that deals with improving Student Health and Academic Achievement Through Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Management of Chronic Conditions in Schools.

Tennessee is one of 16 states that is being targeted for the CDC Healthy Schools funds, providing school districts with technical assistance and developing specialized tools, recommendations, and resources to help in the work they do for school health. State grantees support the implementation and evaluation of evidenced-based strategies and activities to:

Prevent obesity and reduce the risk of children and adolescents developing chronic disease in adulthood.

Manage chronic health conditions prevalent in student populations including poor health, asthma, food allergies, seizure disorders, diabetes, other diseases, and disabilities or conditions. So far they have given grants to Nashville and Memphis to assist in this in the amount of $300,000 each.

Chairman Reed told Ms. Pearce that if it was anything to do with the schools they would take care of it. The County Commission only works on their budget, yearly budget amendments and building of schools.
Lee Universitys Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Alan Wyatt, will present a concert on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Dixon Center. The concert will feature guest trumpet performer Vincent DiMartino.

We are excited to feature trumpet professor and performing artist DiMartino as our guest soloist, said Mr. Wyatt. We will perform several arrangements of his choosing, one of which, titled Erica, was commissioned by Mr. DiMartino in honor of his daughter, Erica.

Graduating from The Eastman School of Music in 1970, Mr. DiMartino taught at the University of Kentucky until 1993. At that time, he began a new appointment as distinguished artist-in-residence at Centre College. There, he taught jazz history and trumpet, brass, and jazz ensembles, retiring from teaching in 2012.

Mr. DiMartino has served twice as president and vice president of The International Trumpet Guild as well as a member of its board of directors for two terms. He is the recipient of The Governors Lifetime Achievement Award for 2007-2008 for the State of Kentucky and is a Pickett-Blackburn Performing Artist.

Other featured selections will include works by Billy Strayhorn, Wayne Shorter, and Jean Toots Thielemans, among others.

Lees Jazz Ensemble performs traditional and recent literature for the traditional Big Band. The ensemble includes rhythm section instruments, saxophones, trumpets, and trombones. A frequent award winner at national festivals, it performs for campus, school, and civic events.

Mr. Wyatt has been teaching and mentoring students at Lee since 1990. He teaches courses such as applied saxophone, commercial music theory and history, and jazz improvisation. Mr. Wyatt has served as a performer for area jazz festivals and as a clinician, most recently for the Western North Carolina School Band and Orchestra Association as a clinician for their top jazz clinic band.

The concert is free, non-ticketed, and open to the public.

For more information, contact Lees School of Music at 614-8240 or email music@leeuniversity.edu.




Everything to Know About the State of Alabama Vs. Brittany Smith Before You Watch the Netflix True Crime Documentary

Netflix drops another true crime documentary, State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith on Nov. 10, 2022. Its a similar story to Sally McNeil in the Killer Sally docuseries. Brittany reconnected with an acquaintance, Joshua Todd Smith and let him stay at her house after hearing he was homeless. However, she never expected what happened next. She reported that he brutally beat and raped her before the altercation ended in his death. Heres everything you need to know about State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith on Netflix.

What is the State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith about on Netflix?

State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith is about a woman who attempts to use Alabamas Stand Your Ground Law after killing a man, Joshua Todd Smith, who she alleges brutally attacked her.

Mom Todd has tried to kill me literally, Brittany texted her mother, Ramona McCallie, on Jan. 16, 2018.  Dont act like anything is wronghe will kill me if he knows.

According to The Appeal, a few minutes later, Brittanys brother, Chris McCallie arrived at Brittanys house in Stevenson, Alabama. He brought a pistol, ready to defend his sister against Todd. Chris placed the gun on the counter and told Todd to leave. Instead, Todd put Chris in a headlock and began punching Brittanys brother. At that point, Brittany, who said that Todd had raped her earlier that night, took the pistol and warned Todd that she was going to shoot him.

When Todd did not back off, she fired once, but he continued to beat Chris. Then she fired several more times until Todd fell to the ground. Brittany called 911 and an ambulance rushed Todd to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. Within 48 hours, the Jackson County District Attorney Office charged Brittany with murder despite a report from a rape crisis center of the 33 wounds on Brittanys body.

The State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith details the incident and Brittanys attempt to use Alabamas Stand Your Ground Law to get the charges against her dropped.

Brittany Smith lost her Stand Your Ground Hearing

Brittany Smith in State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith | Netflix

The State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith delves into her attempt to get the murder ruling overturned using a Stand Your Ground statute. Alabama is only one of 25 states which have a Stand Your Ground law. The statute makes it legal to use lethal force to defend yourself against imminent threats. If she won the hearing, Brittany would have immunity from further prosecution. However, according to The New Yorker, she lost the hearing on Feb. 3, 2020.

She believed Todd Smith was going to cause serious injury to herself or her brother, Brittanys lawyer, Ron Smith, said in his closing argument. He was told to leave; he did not leave. He unlawfully remained.

However, Judge Jennifer Holt ruled against Brittany stating that inconsistent accounts of the events surrounding Todds death. Initially, Brittanys brother, Chris attempted to take the fall for shooting Todd, believing that he had more chance to get off on self-defense charges than a woman. However, one day after reporting to police that her brother shot Todd, Brittany revealed the truth.

Where is Brittany Smith today?

According to the Jackson County Sentinel, Brittany began house arrest in May 2021; however, she violated her probation four times. After the most recent violation, Circuit Judge Brent Benson ordered Smith to prison for nine months. She could be released on Dec. 7, 2022, to return to house arrest.

The next step in her defense is a writ of mandamus to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to request that the court order the judge to reverse the decision. If that fails, she could request the same order from the Alabama Supreme Court.

State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith releases to Netflix on Nov. 10, 2022, at 3:00 a.m. ET/ 12:00 a.m. PT.
TL;DR:

George Harrison said John Lennon helped inspire the Concert for Bangladesh.

John Lennon said the charity concert George Harrison organized was a rip-off.

John Lennon did not perform at the concert for Bangladesh.

George Harrison and John Lennon | Stephen Shakeshaft/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Though George Harrison invited him to play, John Lennon was not one of the performing artists at the Concert for Bangladesh. The concert, which Harrison organized with Ravi Shankar, raised money for refugees. His former bandmate Ringo Starr agreed to play in the show, but both Lennon and Paul McCartney refused. When talking about it later, Lennon said the entire show was a rip-off.

George Harrison said John Lennon inspired him to organize the Concert for Bangladesh

When speaking about his decision to organize the Concert for Bangladesh, Harrison cited Lennon as an inspiration. Lennons antiwar activism had gotten him in trouble, and an interviewer wondered if that had concerned Harrison. It actually had the opposite effect on the former Beatle.

"Overnight, everybody knew the name of Bangladesh all over the world. Because it came out in all the newspapers everywhere. So it had a tremendous value to it." Ravi Shankar on the impact of the Concert for Bangladesh.



Photo by Henry Diltz. pic.twitter.com/wqiMCSOvBS  George Harrison (@GeorgeHarrison) August 1, 2022

RELATED: Paul McCartney Still Thinks About Something John Lennon Told Him During a Fight

No, not really, he said, per the book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. I think that was one of the things that I developed, just by being in the Beatles, was being bold. And I think John had a lot to do with that, you know, cause John Lennon, you know, if he felt something strongly, he just did it. And you know, I picked up a lot of that by being a friend of Johns. Just that attitude of, Well, well just go for it, just do it.'

Because of Lennon, Harrison also decided to film the concert as a way to make more money.

The former Beatle described the concert as a rip-off

Though he emboldened Harrison to put on the Concert for Bangladesh, Lennon didnt have many complimentary words about the charity event. He said he would much prefer to make any charitable donations privately.

I am just going to do it privately, he told Playboy in 1980. I am not going to get locked into that business of saving the world onstage. The show is always a mess and the artist always comes off badly.

The interviewer asked if he lumped in the Concert for Bangladesh with this generalization. Bangladesh was caca, Lennon replied.

Lennon took issue with the fact that the musicians were not paid.

Everybody else is getting paid except for the musicians, he said, per the book The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Breakup. Its an absolute rip-off, but it makes the artist look good.

John Lennon did not perform at the concert, but George Harrison did

Relations between the former members of The Beatles were rocky, so Lennon and McCartney were on the fence about performing. Lennon eventually agreed, but on the stipulation that Yoko Ono perform with him. Harrison refused, and Lennon later agreed to perform alone. When Ono found out, the couple fought heatedly, and Lennon backed out. McCartney did not perform either.

#OTD 31JULY1971 the final rehearsal for The Concert for Bangladesh. pic.twitter.com/rta3ZzpCxf  George Harrison (@GeorgeHarrison) July 31, 2016

The musicians who performed in the show included Harrison, Shankar, Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, and Leon Russell.




South Korea's Navy chief had discussions Wednesday with the commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet based in Japan on strengthening the combined defense posture against the growing threats from North Korea.







Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lee Jong-ho held the meeting with Vice Adm. Karl Thomas during his visit to the U.S. 7th Fleet's headquarters in Yokosuka, according to Lee's office.







The two sides agreed to strengthen maritime security cooperation to effectively deter and respond to North Korea's recent nuclear and missile threats, it said. (Yonhap)


Diagram of the propagation of infrared light through the core of a glass optical fiber of composition: Te2As3Se5 (TAS). At the surface of the fiber, an evanescent wave is created and can interact with the surrounding molecules. The TAS fiber is passed through a vacuum in the center of a 18650 battery. The chemical bonds corresponding to the electrolyte can thus be observed during its use.

Battery crossed by a chalcogenide glass optical fiber allowing to transport light in the infrared range. The interaction of this light with the constituents of the battery allows to identify and follow the chemical molecules present around the fiber.

A multidisciplinary research team involving scientists from College de France, CNRS, Universite Rennes 1 and Universite de Montpellier has developed a method to track the chemistry inside a battery, live, and throughout its multiple charges and discharges. Presented in Nature Energy on November 7, 2022, this technology paves the way for improving the performance and design of future batteries.

Batteries offer the ability to store energy in chemical form: during charging, the current forces chemical reactions and energy is stored, then during discharging a spontaneous electrochemical reaction causes the electrons to move back through the system. Energy is released to create an electric current.

Controlling and studying the chemistry of a battery is therefore crucial to understanding how it works, but also to improving its design. While this is easy to do in the laboratory, it is much less easy when it is integrated into a system. But a multidisciplinary research team1 led by scientists at the Solid State and Energy Chemistry Laboratory (CNRS/College de France/Sorbonne University) has just developed a method for monitoring the chemistry of a commercial battery, live, during its charge or discharge.

The technology, presented in a paper published in Nature, relies on the transport of infrared light in chalcogenide glass optical fibers placed through a battery. The interaction of this light with the constituents of the battery makes it possible to identify and follow the chemical molecules present around the fiber.

The researchers were thus able to observe the evolution of the electrolytes as well as the insertion/extraction of sodium-lithium ions in the electrodes according to the charge. And this while it was in use, a first! With this system, the scientists were also able to study the interface between the electrolyte and the negative electrode material called Solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This layer, which conducts ions and insulates electrons, determines the longevity of the batteries. In particular, the team was able to follow in situ the nature of the chemical species involved in the nucleation and growth of the SEI that takes place during the very first charge of a battery.

From a practical point of view, these results open the way to a facilitated and improved design of batteries. Currently, the optimization of electrolytes and charge test protocols is time consuming to find the best option for an ideal SEI, and thus improve the longevity of a battery. With this new method, it is possible to quickly and accurately see how each component of the recipe evolves, interacts with the others and influences the performance of the battery. The research team is continuing its work with a focus on SEI and hopes to unlock all its secrets.
Two combinatorial mechanical metamaterials designed in such a way that the letters M and L bulge out in the front when being squeezed between two plates (top and bottom). Designing novel metamaterials such as this is made easy by AI.

Given a 3D piece of origami, can you flatten it without damaging it? Just by looking at the design, the answer is hard to predict, because each and every fold in the design has to be compatible with flattening. This is an example of a combinatorial problem. New research led by the UvA Institute of Physics and research institute AMOLF has demonstrated that machine learning algorithms can accurately and efficiently answer these kinds of questions. This is expected to give a boost to the artificial intelligence-assisted design of complex and functional (meta)materials.

In their latest work, published in Physical Review Letters, the research team tested how well artificial intelligence (AI) can predict the properties of so-called combinatorial mechanical metamaterials.

Artificial materials

These are engineered materials whose properties are determined by their geometrical structure rather than their chemical composition. A piece of origami is also a type of metamaterial, whose ability to flatten (a physically well-defined property) is determined by how it is folded (its structure), rather than by the type of paper it is made of. More generally, smart design allows us to control precisely where or how a metamaterial will bend, buckle or bulge, which may be used for all sorts of things, from shock absorbers to unfolding solar panels on a satellite in space.

A typical combinatorial metamaterial studied in the lab is built up of two or more types or orientations of building blocks, which deform in distinct ways when a mechanical force is applied. If these building blocks are combined randomly, the material as a whole will usually not buckle under pressure because not all blocks will be able to deform the way they want to; they will jam. Where one building block wishes to bulge outward, its neighbour should be able to squish inward. For the metamaterial to easily buckle, all deformed building blocks need to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Just like changing a single fold can make a piece of origami unflattenable, changing a single block can make a floppy metamaterial rigid.

Hard to predict

While metamaterials have many potential applications, designing a new one is challenging. Starting with a particular set of building blocks, deducing the overall metamaterial properties for different structures often boils down to trial and error. In this day and age, we do not want to do all of this by hand. However, because the properties of combinatorial metamaterials are so sensitive to changes to individual building blocks, conventional statistical and numerical methods are slow and prone to mistakes.

Instead, the researchers found that machine learning may be the answer: even when given only a relatively small set of examples to learn from, so-called convolutional neural networks are able to accurately predict the metamaterial properties of any configuration of building blocks down to the finest detail.

This far exceeded our expectations, says PhD student and first author Ryan van Mastrigt. The accuracy of the predictions shows us that the neural networks have actually learned the mathematical rules underlying the metamaterial properties, even when we dont know all the rules ourselves.

This finding suggests that we can use AI to design new complex metamaterials with useful properties. More broadly, applying neural networks to combinatorial problems allows us to pose many exciting questions. Perhaps they can aid us in solving (combinatorial) problems in other contexts. And conversely, the findings can improve our understanding of neural networks themselves, by for instance demonstrating how the complexity of a neural network relates to the complexity of the problems it can solve.
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Americans are barreling through another election cycle, but not without seismic trepidation. Although weve already splattered plenty of ink trying to account for the present state of our politics, hostility tightens its grip on the collective psyche.

On September 25, 2020, The Dallas Morning News published a story documenting a particular suburban street north of the city. The article begins, Here among the manicured lawns and scenes of suburban serenity, two neighbors wage a war of words. They have barely spoken to each other. Theyre letting their signs do the talking.

Leading up to that heated 2020 election, political signs of different tribes sprouted up in lawns along the street. At first, neighboring households stuck to the traditional red, white, and blue posters touting their candidates' names. But as tempers flared, the store-bought signs proved insufficient. Instead, large homemade signs seeped into the mix, blazoned with large arrows pointing to a neighbors home with the words Traitors and Disrespecting U.S. Flag. Vandalism ensued. A local observer lamented, I think we live in Crazy Town right now."

The story reflects the moment. Neighbors are quick to accuse and even quicker to retreat into their own echo chambers. We cant help eyeing passersby as if trying to identify enemies and allies. All the while, people accept (even endorse) political violence more and more.

We forget that our political system assumes uncertainty.

But I need to hover for a moment on this word: Political. Referencing only the public statements of actual politicians today, one might conclude that political means something akin to partisan or biased. We dismiss opponents behaviors as political, assuming they are jockeying for power at the cost of good faith. But we forget that our political system assumes uncertainty. It assumes that no one person or party will hold all the answers. Its task is to accommodate raging contradictions among peoples. Famed social psychologist Jonathan Haidt even highlights that these contradictions are necessary to a rich social order. All of this is why Emory University's Noel McAffee asserts that to be political is this: to collectively decide what to do in the face of uncertainty. So how do we do thispeacefully?

Neighborhoods as Mediators

Public life, we must consider, functions along three axes. First, individuals carry on with unique beliefs, convictions, impulses, and desires. On the other hand, these individuals define themselves by affiliating with massive, albeit abstract, collectives like political parties. There is an individual axis and a collective one.

But alone these two only provide flimsy meaning. We plaster our mass affiliations on bumpers and Twitter feeds where they escape scrutiny. But they ring hollow, probably because they are not very integrating. Because they resist challenge, they rarely mature to full authenticity. And because they are not particularly authentic, they are not particularly meaningful. They require the added dimension of that crucial third axis of public life. That third axis is a mediator. It solidifies the social bonds and community empathy necessary to flesh out the relationships between individuals and their abstract collectives. That third axis is neighborhood.

We cannot survive only on big, vague associations for meaning. We need neighbors, too. These are the real-life people who agree and disagree with us, affirm us and challenge us. The masses do not sharpen us; the people around us do.

The masses do not sharpen us; the people around us do.

My favorite description of a neighbor comes from G. K. Chesterton. I paraphrase him when I write this: We choose our friends; we choose our enemies; but God chooses our neighbors. Hence they come to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; they are strange as the stars. But we have to love our neighbors simply because they are there. They are the sample of humanity which has been given to us. And to do so is exciting because it is exacting; it is exacting because it is alive.

Of course, there are many other sources to which one can turn when defining a neighbor. "Who is my neighbor?" asks the lawyer in the Gospel of Luke. The famed parable that follows does not even speak of local proximity. In fact, the neighbors of the story are cultural enemies. A neighbor is he or she who has mercy. "Go and do likewise," Jesus implores.

Two Elements of Neighboring

From all this, two elements of neighboring come to the fore. The first is this: Neighboring is an accidental enterprise. Human spontaneity demands that even the most carefully selected associates will be strangers to us some days. Our communities, chosen or unchosen, bring with them an unexpectedness that presents us with a choice. We can respond to the surprises with a retreat into our own individualism; that is, an individualism outsourced to some abstract affiliations. Or we can cling to the neighbor in such a way that pursues the adventure. Second, neighboring is active. We become neighbors when we pursue those outside our readily available affiliations. Jesus parable teaches that a neighborhood is the result of going and doing likewise. So, we neighbor when we actively pursue social accidents.

But local interactions are woefully malnourished these days. If we want to inject more neighborliness in our shared political lives, we rely on local institutions like mental health clinics, churches, and schools. All three of these institutions hold undeniable influence over the interpersonal behaviors people carry into their neighborhoods. They (1) help persons identify and articulate their own convictions, (2) integrate those persons into meaningful relationships that both affirm and challenge, and (3) inject those relationships with the resiliency needed to weather rigorous collaborationscollectively deciding what to do in the face of uncertainty.

I am a psychologist at The Center for Integrative Counseling and Psychology in Dallas, Texas. Here we promote all three of these, particularly as part of programming we affectionately call OLOGY (as in psychology and theology). OLOGY brings together representatives from each of these local institutions: education, mental health care, and faith. We do so to bring real-life helpers of different opinions, backgrounds, and affiliations shoulder-to-shoulder for training, discussion, and collaboration. We do so to actively pursue accidents. We do so to promote neighborliness.

In fact, we have an event coming up in January 2023. We invite you to join in the adventure.

This season, support the work of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, which provides resources like the Spiritual First Aid course for pastors, church leaders, and laypersons.

Nathaniel R. Strenger, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist and the Director of Clinical Advancement at The Center for Integrative Counseling and Psychology in Dallas, Texas. He provides a variety of clinical services, supervises training therapists, and develops continuing education opportunities for clinicians and the broader public alike. As part of his studies and professional background, he has taught, lead workshops, and written on topics ranging from trauma, spirituality across the lifespan and the practice of psychology, emotional regulation in children, teens, and adults, community coordination in care, parenting concerns, and clergy family issues.
I remember watching with great interest as President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law on March 29, 2022. After 200 failed attempts over a 100-year span, legislators finally succeeded in outlawing lynching as a federal crime.

My interest in the bill centered on legislators decision to name it in honor of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black youth from Chicagos South Side. His 1955 lynching inspired a generation of activists for racial justice.



Till ran afoul of revered Southern traditions when he whistled at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, while visiting family in Mississippi. In response, Bryants husband, Roy, and his half-brother John William Milam abducted Emmett from his familys home, tortured him, cut his life tragically short by a single gunshot to the head, and then discarded his lifeless body in a nearby river.

He was so disfigured after their vicious assault that his family was able to identify him only by the ring he wore on his hand. Despite overwhelming evidence and even confessions, Bryant and Milam were never held accountable for Tills lynching.

His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, brought his mutilated body back to Chicago. Against the wishes of local city officials, she made the courageous choice to hold an open-casket funeral for her son, deciding to let the world see what they did to my boy.

The outcry following his death provided a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks would later explain, I thought about Emmett Till, and I couldn't go back [to the rear of the bus].

Almost 70 years later, we continue to retell Tills story in the face of racial controversy.

The recent feature-length film Till, starring Danielle Deadwyler, introduces a new generation to these events and their impact on our nation. Dave Tell, author of Remembering Emmett Till and lead investigator on the Emmett Till Memory Project, told me recently that the story has become more than a tragic moment in an anguished racial past. It provides a vital lens for us to understand our troubled racial present.

Several years ago, as the nation wrestled to make sense of the racist murder of George Floyd, historians and activists turned to the story of Till. Similarly, we in the church need to consider what Tills death teaches us as we seek to empower Gods people to reflect Gods kingdom. The specter of white supremacy and anti-Black racism still divides the church. And Christians still face constant temptation to dismiss racist violence as the actions of a few bad apples.

Tills death teaches us that racist violence doesnt happen in a vacuum. Its the product of a people who have grown apathetic to the plight of fellow citizens on the margins. Fourteen-year-old Emmett wasnt killed because he whistled at a white woman. He died because he lived in a society that relegated Black people to the status of second-class citizens and justified anti-Black violence as a way to maintain the existing social order.

The apathy of the nation and the church to the plight of oppressed Black people fostered a racial climate in which two white men could lynch a 14-year-old Black child with impunity. It normalized this behavior.

Unfortunately, the logic that informed these actions hasnt been eradicated; its only evolved.

Weve lived through a season of racial reckoning tied to the racially motivated killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Floyd. Parishioners and church leaders around the nation watched the video of Floyds lynching with shock and horror. We decried his death. We rushed to purchase books on race and host diverse conferences on racial reconciliation that often amounted to little more than racial capitalism on the conference circuit.

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Even though were only two years removed from that time of public outcry, the church is already at risk of embracing a similar apathy. When its time to engage the everyday forms of racism that fuel disparities in health care, education, and employment, some Christians duck behind phrases like Just preach the gospel.

In that context, Tills death summons us to courageously expose and testify to the extreme daily realities facing those on the margins. Doing so involves interrogating the cultural and ecclesiastical investments in racism and white supremacy that lurk in the shadows of Just preach the gospel and other similar phrases.

Trying to preach the good news apart from the pursuit of justice is like trying to preach Christianity without Christ. It sounds nice but lacks the essence of the gospel we claim to represent. It normalizes racism.

This tendency toward apathy is not new but recursive. During the latter half of the civil rights movement, Dr. King grew increasingly distressed as he recognized the nations racial indifference.

He wrote,

For the vast majority of white Americans, the past decadethe first phasehad been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality. White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination.

Just as the nations appetite for racial justice diminished during the latter stages of the 1960s, our enthusiasm wanes today.

But Tills lynching provides us with a grammar to engage injustice. Our words in the pulpit and the community should testify powerfully against the sinful legacy of racism and white supremacy.

Emmetts death occurred in part because Sunday after Sunday, his murderers sat under Bible Belt preachers who failed to disrupt the white supremacist, colonialist attitudes shaping their congregants view of Black people.

Our Christian witness doesnt allow for this kind of indifference. We cannot stand silently in the face of sin and at the same time pretend to be in solidarity with our Savior. Every day, we wake up to a world on fire. Geopolitical conflict, devastating poverty, colonial legacies, and racist violence threaten the tattered remains of our world and the divided mind of the church.

Along with many other stories, Tills death reminds us that if we want to embrace our Christian calling as salt and light, we simply cant afford to avoid social decay or darkness.

Theon Hill serves as an associate professor of communication at Wheaton College, where he researches and teaches on the intersections race, politics, and popular culture.
How should Christians vote when none of the candidates embodies a Christian ethic? What is the difference between patriotism and Christian nationalism? Where is God when we pray on behalf of a loved ones mental health yet they still die by suicide?



These are some of the questions that Russell Moore answers on this postElection Day episode of The Russell Moore Show. Tune in for responses to questions such as:

Whats the process by which Christians should decide how to cast their ballots?

What is the definition of Christian nationalism, and what does it look like to respond to it?

How do we keep praying when it seems like God didnt hear us crying out over something as heartbreaking as a loved ones mental health and eventual suicide?

How can we forgive someone when we dont understand how they could do what they did, or when there is no possibility of earthly reconciliation?

On this episode, Russell Moore is joined by new producer Ashley Hales, who holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. With her husband, she is the cofounder of The Willowbrae Institute, a new think tank researching the intersection of Christianity and the common good in America. She hosts a podcast and is the author most recently of A Spacious Life. Find out more at aahales.com.



Future listener question episodes will include topics like marriage, the role of the church in addressing cultural topics, and spiritual abuse.



Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com.

The Russell Moore Show is a production of Christianity Today

Chief Creative Officer: Erik Petrik

Executive Producer and Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Director of Podcasts: Mike Cosper

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Production Assistance: CoreMedia

Coordinator: Beth Grabenkort

Producer and Audio Mixing: Kevin Duthu

Associate Producer: Abby Perry

Theme Song: Dusty Delta Day by Lennon Hutton
Improvement of China-Australia relations serves the fundamental interests of both sides and meets the common expectations of the two peoples and the international community, said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday.

Wang made the remarks during a phone conversation with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the latter's request.

Wong said recently, Australia and China have maintained effective communication and contact. With unremitting efforts, bilateral relations have witnessed positive changes.

Australia will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and develop more stable and mutually beneficial relations with China on the basis of mutual respect, she said, adding that a sound Australia-China relationship is not incompatible with safeguarding respective national interests.

Australia has no intention to magnify existing differences and is ready to properly handle specific issues in a responsible manner within the framework of the Australia-China comprehensive strategic partnership, she said.

For his part, Wang said the two sides should continue to adhere to the consensus on the basic orientation of the comprehensive strategic partnership, uphold the spirit of mutual respect, seek common ground while shelving differences, and work toward the goal of mutual benefit and win-win results.

The two sides should jointly make positive contributions to addressing current global challenges, he added.
This file photo shows the toll gate of the Ilsan Grand Bridge that connects Gimpo and Goyang, both west of Seoul, over the Han River. Yonhap



The provincial government of Gyeonggi, which surrounds Seoul, lost a legal battle Wednesday to make a Han River bridge toll-free.



The Gyeonggi government has pushed to abolish tolls on the Ilsan Grand Bridge, which connects the province's Gimpo and Goyang cities, and is the only bridge collecting tolls among 28 bridges on the Han River that runs through Seoul and the province into the Yellow Sea.



Passenger cars, for instance, have to pay a toll of 1,200 won (a little less than one U.S. dollar) to cross the 1.84-km-long bridge built in May 2008.



Lee Jae-myung, chair of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, declared the bridge toll-free for the sake of "public interests" before resigning as Gyeonggi governor in October last year, and his successor, Kim Dong-yeon of the same party, also promised free passage on the bridge ahead of the June 1 local elections.



But Ilsan Grand Bridge, the operator of the bridge owned by the National Pension Service (NPS), filed a lawsuit against the toll-free passage scheme last year.



The Suwon District Court in Suwon, south of Seoul, ruled against the Gyeonggi provincial government, saying its attempts to nullify the operator of the bridge and its tolls are unlawful.



"It is true that tolls are burdensome, but it is difficult to see that the burden is too large to restrict the basic rights of users in relation to their convenience," the court said, adding the defendant's administrative actions cannot be recognized as legal.



The Gyeonggi government has sought to acquire the operational rights for the bridge from the NPS before making it toll-free at the requests of Gimpo and Goyang residents and commuters complaining of high bridge tolls. (Yonhap)


There may be a lesson in the recent troubles of the social giant Twitter.

Dont mess with The Babylon Bee.

Started as a site to poke fun at Christian subculture, the Bees political satire has come to overshadow its more kindhearted Christian humor in recent years, landing the site in hot water with fact-checkers and social media gatekeepersincluding Twitter.

Twitter suspended The Babylon Bees account on March 22, after labeling a post about transgender Biden administration official Rachel Levine as hateful content. Not long afterward, billionaire Elon Musk, a fan of the site, got a text from his former wife, Talulah Jane Riley.

The Babylon Bee got suspension is crazy! read the text, which was made public earlier this year. Why has everyone become so puritanical? Then Riley suggested Musk buy Twitter and either delete it or make it radically free-speech.

Musk, who recently bought Twitter for $44 billion and instituted mass layoffs, was a critic of censorship on social media long before the Bees troubles. But the satire sites connection to one of the most powerful men in the world is the latest example of the Bees rise from a would-be pastors side project to a conservative powerhouse.

The Bee, modeled similarly to secular satire site The Onion, began as the brainchild of Adam Ford, who quit his day job in the mid-2010s to start creating web content. Fords dreams of becoming a pastor had been derailed by panic and depression, he told The Washington Post in 2016.

With the help of medication, Ford got better and began writing about faith, first for a webcomic and then in 2016 for the Bee. From the beginning, the site was a hit, especially with evangelical Christians who appreciated the good-natured jokes about the foibles of church life, which at the time caught on more than political jokes.

Among the more memorable of the sites early jokes was headlined, Holy Spirit Unable To Move Through Congregation As Fog Machine Breaks.

We barely got through our new song. It was a real train wreck, a fictional Nashville worship leader is quoted as saying.

Other early jokes poked fun at church committees and prosperity gospel pastors like Joel Osteen, including this headline: Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of Your Best Life Now.

Jon Glass, pastor of Cropwell Baptist Church in Pell City, Alabama, appreciated the church humor at the Bee in its early days, calling it the kind of sarcasm that hits home and makes you think, Is that what we look like?

Writer and former pastor Jelani Greenidge was also an early fan of the Bees attempts to poke fun at the weird side of evangelical culture. Those early posts, he said, helped Christians laugh at themselves.

The best satire comes from a place of love, said Greenidge. That love, he said, seems in short supply these days at the Bee, which Greenidge said seems too focused on skewering the politicians and progressive figures conservatives hate.

Babylon Bees current CEO, Seth Dillon, a pastors son and former internet marketer who bought a majority stake in the Babylon Bee in 2018, said the site still publishes plenty of church jokes. But fewer people share them.

We still do lots of church jokesthey just dont go as viral as the other stuff, he said, while the opportunities for satire in the daily news cycle are endless. He pointed to the sites repeated satire of Donald Trumpa Trump joke tops the Bees greatest hits list of pages that have drawn the most trafficwhom Dillon called an outrageous figure who deserved to be mocked.

Today, though, the site is known most for its critique of liberal politicians and what Dillon called the woke mind virus. He describes the Bee as a satire site with a Christian worldview that is devoted to mocking bad ideas in popular culture.

We dont want our audience to feel bad about themselves like were bullying them, he said. We want our audience to take bad ideas less seriously.

Ford remains a part owner of the Bee and also runs Not the Bee, which aggregates weird headlines, often about progressives.

While the Bees website still offers a mix of jokestwin headlines Churchgoer Turned Into Pillar Of Salt After Turning To Glare At Sound Guy and Satan Leads Prayer At Trump Rally topped the site on Mondaythe political jokes and jabs at progressive culture attract the most attention, dominating both the sites buzzing list, which tracks trending stories on the site, as well as the Bees greatest hits.

They do a great job at bringing awareness to the absurdity that drives much of our culture, said Alex MacArthur, a software engineer and Bee fan from Nashville, Tennessee.

The sites writers seem particularly obsessed with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, running two dozen stories about the New York Democrat in 2022 alone. For subscribers, who pay between $4.17 and $15 a month for ad-free content and other premiums, the site offers a top 10 list of Ocasio-Cortez jokes (AOC Engaged, Registers For $10,000 Tax The Rich Toaster, AOC Cries Outside Disney World In Dress Reading Groom The Kids).

The site has run a number of anti-trans jokesmocking both particular transgender people like Levine as well as fictional trans people. One of the sites greatest hits is about a motorcycle rider who wins races by identifying as a bicyclist.

The Bees satirical forays into culture war issues have earned a loyal followingthe site draws about 20 million page views a month, said Dillonand the ire of many.

Along with having its Twitter account suspended, The Babylon Bee has been dinged by fact-checkers and social media sites for sharing disinformation. That has cost the site traffic and money, said Dillon. Even so, the Bee tries to capitalize on what Dillon called big-tech censorship of conservative viewpoints by running ads highlighting its clashes with social media gatekeepers to attract subscribers.

It helps expose them for being not just humorless scolds but big-tech tyrants, he said.

Matt Sienkiewicz, chair of the communication department at Boston College and co-author of Thats Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them, said The Babylon Bee is part of a larger, highly successful conservative comedy ecosystem.

But the Bees success in promoting anti-liberal comedy has come at the cost of drowning out the Christian satire, in Sienkiewiczs opinion. Fans who came to the site for church humor likely no longer see those jokes because they dont feed the outrage algorithm or because they are turned off by the politics.

The stuff that no one else can do has been lost, he said.

Much of todays humor, he said, is shaped by what he called clapterwhere people applaud because they agree with the person making the joke, rather than laughing at themselves.

It might be funny but it loses some of the joy, he said.

Sienkiewicz said attempts to label the Bee as misinformation are silly, as the site is clearly satire. But, he said, the Bee risks falling into a risk-averse strategy when it comes to comedy by only telling the jokes its audience will agree with.

One of the saddest things about the state of American politics is that it makes comedy harder and less interesting, he said.

Ethan Nicolle, a conservative writer from California and a Babylon Bee staffer from 2018 to 2022, agrees.

Nicolle, who was creative director of the Bee in the early days of working out of editor in chief Kyle Manns garage, said he loved working for the Bee and having the chance to poke fun at the state of American culturesome of which he believes is very unhealthy.

They tell the jokes you arent supposed to tell, he said.

Still, he suspects the countrys polarization makes satire more difficult. People are afraid to critique their own sideand unwilling to be friends with anyone on the other side.

All of the joy of life comes from your relationships with other people, said Nicolle. And to cancel another human being because of something political they said makes no sense. And were doing that with half the country.

So far, Musks takeover of Twitter hasnt paid off for the Beethe sites Twitter account remained suspended as of early November. But the Bees staff did score a long, in-person interview with Musk, in which he discussed censorship, sustainable energy and his own religious background, which included attending both Hebrew school and Sunday school at an Anglican church and believing in the God of Spinoza.

Musk also said hes a fan of the teachings of Jesus.

Things like turn the other cheek are very important, as opposed to an eye for an eye, he said. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.
Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary named artist Makoto Fujimura as its 2023 Kuyper Prize winner, which is named for Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper, who argued that art was vital to renewing Gods world.

Fujimura is the first visual artist to receive the prize, which Calvin has given out annually since 1998. On Tuesday when Calvin announced the prize, Fujimura was in the middle of a private meeting with Pope Francis.

A Japanese American and Christian, Fujimura has always related Reformed theology about renewal to his work. He practices kintsugi, taking broken pottery and restoring it with precious metals. He also practices the Japanese technique of nihonga, painting with pulverized minerals that in his work symbolize brokenness and renewal. He has long talked about a framework of culture care as opposed to culture wars.

As Christ followers, we are called to the work of renewal, said Jul Medenblik, president of Calvin Theological Seminary in a statement about the prize. What Fujimura is doing through his work is reminding us of the Kuyperian perspective that The final outcome of the future  is not the merely spiritual existence of saved souls, but the restoration of the entire cosmos, when God will be all in all in the renewed heaven on the renewed earth.

Kuypera 19th- and early 20th-century theologian, entrepreneur, journalist, and prime minister of the Netherlandsargued that Christians should commit their lives to the renewal of the world in whatever sphere they served in. He believed that church work was not more special than other work and that grace invaded all of life, specifically in saving grace for the Christian and in common grace for all humanity. To Kuyper, the work of renewal was not simply an individual endeavor but best accomplished through institution-building, which he did by founding a university.

Kuyperian vision allows me to be fully Christian and fully artist, Fujimura told CT. The work of faith and the act of making are deeply connected, one flowing into the other.

Kuyper talked about art as an essential part of restoring the world.

Art has the mystical task of reminding us in its productions of the beautiful that was lost and of anticipating its perfect coming luster, he said in an 1898 lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary. Art reveals ordinances of creation which neither science, nor politics, nor religious life, nor even revelation can bring to light. He added the artistic gifts have flourished even in a larger measure outside of the church.

Princeton, where he gave that lecture, had its own Kuyper Prize, which it awarded to Presbyterian pastor Tim Keller in 2017 and then rescinded over an outcry that the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), where Keller serves, does not ordain women. Keller is likely the most popular Reformed preacher and author in the US today.

If you can't give an Abraham Kuyper award to Tim Keller, who can you give it to? asked Southern Baptist leader Daniel Darling in a tweet at the time.

Fujimura, too, was an elder in the PCA and was at one time a part of Redeemer Presbyterian Church where Keller pastored. Hes now a bit nomadic, he said, living in Princeton, New Jersey, and attending Episcopal churches there and in New York. He has been a fixture in the New York Christian art world, and his family survived a close encounter with the attacks on 9/11they lived three blocks from the Twin Towers.

He founded arts organization International Arts Movement, now named IAMCultureCare, and his book, Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life, won a CT book award in 2018. He was also the director of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has had broad national recognition as well, with a presidential nomination to the National Council for the Arts.

His faith has also led him to work related to literature and film. Shortly after he became a Christian in Japan in 1988, he encountered in a museum a fumi-e, a brass block with images of Jesus that 17th century Japanese rulers forced Christians to step on to renounce their faith or face torture. The brass blocks are a central feature in Shusaku Endos novel Silence, and Fujimura became an expert in the blocks and Endo, writing a book on the subject. He was a consultant for Martin Scorseses 2016 movie based on that novel.

Fujimura reflected on his works ties to Kuyper in a 2012 Books and Culturearticle.

For many years now, I have advocated for the arts in the church and in the world, he wrote. By advocating for the arts, we are, by extension, advocating for the potential of humanity and for the evidence of God's grace in the world.
Albert Tate is concerned that Christians are taking their cues from cultureand he isnt the only one.

During the second episode of the He Gets Us Engaging Culture Series, ministry leaders came together to discuss the Christian witness in an era of disillusionment and distrust. Building on episode ones discussion about the gap between culture and faith, episode two featured a dialogue between:

Ed Stetzer, executive director at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center

Albert Tate, author and pastor of Fellowship Church

Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Ministries

The conversation focused on how to tell the Christian story in todays culture and in ways that connect with those who are otherwise closed to the gospel. Stetzer, Tate, and Stanley discussed how to, as C.S. Lewis once put it, steal past watchful dragons. Lewis overcame peoples hesitations around faith, by writing fiction that stirred the imagination, yet carried tremendous theological weight.

So what might it look like for Christians to stop taking their cues from culture so that they might sneak past the watchful dragons of this age?

Name the Dragons

First, according to Stetzer, we must be able to name the challenges before us. The two dragons of culturepolarization and commercializationlurk alongside three dragons inside each churchpoliticization, abuse, and moralism.

Tate spoke to polarization and politicization as dragons that divide.

I see Christians responding to Fox and CNN and MSNBC more than we do the B-I-B-L-E, he explains. We are siblings, and we are all called to sit at this family table..

At this shared table, we all pray to Our Fathernot your father or my father, but our father. Christians are first identified by their status as a child of God who has siblings of every tongue, tribe, and nation, a status no dragon can destroy.

Hospitality, friendship, and stories remind us that these relationships matter more than political affiliation, and this awareness orients us toward truth, which makes the toxic, watchful dragons easier to tame.

Setting the Table

One way to deal with dragons is to work around them, which often requires a little creativity. Like Lewis, believers dont need to water down the gospel or avoid the more challenging topics. Instead, they can tell the gospel story in compelling ways by considering the:

Perspective : honor non-dominant viewpoints

: honor non-dominant viewpoints Purpose : change the goal from winning to loving

: change the goal from winning to loving Need: speak to the shared longing to be seen, known, and joined

He Gets Us, a campaign designed to raise the respect and relevance of Jesus in our culture, is one example of rethinking the status quo in creative ways to share Jesus with others. As the largest faith-based media campaign in history, over 100 million people have already seen the thought-provoking video ads He Gets Us has producedads that show how Jesus felt alone, dealt with outrage, and experienced all manner of human conditions.

We have far more in common with every single person we meet than we have uncommon, Stanley says. He encourages believers to start relationships around those commonalities and to allow time and trust to build before launching into discussions that could cause disagreement. Rather than taking cues from the cultural dragon of politicization, Christians should keep their eyes on Christrecognizing that he consistently modeled conversations that began with compassion and tenderness. And in doing so together, Stanley believes people can enjoy the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17.

The Story of Jesus

Join nearly 6,000 churches in setting the table and telling the story of a God who gets us. By identifying the watchful dragons of culture and church, and by welcoming others to the table through shared values and highlighting the humanity of Jesus, congregations can take their cues from Jesus, not culture.

You can watch this episode, Episode one, and new episodes every month. To catch up on these sessions, create an account. You'll be able to stream all available episodes from the Engaging Culture Series and also get discussion guides, sermon plans, reading plans, and more free resources related to the Engaging Culture Series and the ground-breaking He Gets Us Campaign.
HHS is hiding information about abortion pills, lawsuit claims

A prominent nonprofit organization has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, warning that the executive branch is suppressing information about abortion pills as safety concerns about this pregnancy termination method persist.

In an Oct. 26 statement, Judicial Watch announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Health and Human Services over its failure to produce documents sought in Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to chemical abortions filed by the government watchdog agency.

In a medical abortion, women are given two drugs: Mifeprex (mifepristone) and misoprostol. Mifepristone works by blocking the effects of the natural pregnancy hormone progesterone. Misoprostol induces contractions and a miscarriage. In the U.S., these drugs are commonly referred to as the abortion pill.

Our experience is that this chemical abortion pill did not and will not receive appropriate review from the politicized [Department of Justice], said Judicial President Tom Fitton. It is outrageous that Judicial Watch has had to sue in federal court for basic safety information about the abortion pill, which is being pushed on women by a desperate pro-abortion movement.

The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Oct. 17, discussed the information Judicial Watch sought to obtain in its FOIA requests. A Feb. 24 FOIA request asked the Food and Drug Administration, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, to provide all emails and written correspondence, both internal and with the manufacturers of Mifeprex and Mifepristone regarding review and acceptance of those drugs drug stability and dissolution test results.

Additionally, the FOIA request sought reports from all FDA inspections of DANCO and GenBio manufacturing facilities, and assessment of compliance with applicable laws and regulations, referring to the two manufacturing facilities that produce the abortion pill. The time frame of the documents requested by Judicial Watch covers Jan. 24, 1995, to the present.

A second request sought Investigational New Drug Applications and related materials for the drug Mifeprex and its generic equivalent, Mifepristone as well as New Drug Applications ... from Jan. 24, 1990, to the present. The third request asked the FDA to provide additional test results measuring the stability of the abortion pill from Jan. 24, 1995, to the present.

After noting that the FDA acknowledged each request on March 1, 2022, and referred to the 10-day extension to reply, the complaint asserted that the government agency did not comply with the request in a timely manner. The lawsuit seeks a court order forcing HHS to provide Judicial Watch with the requested documents and pay attorneys fees related to the litigation.

Pro-life groups have raised questions about the safety of the abortion pill, with Live Action publishing a report in 2020 titled Abortion Pill Exposed that documents some of the complications women routinely experience after undergoing a chemical abortion. Such complications include severe cramping, contractions, and heavy bleeding that can last from 9 to 16 days on average, with 8% experiencing bleeding for more than 30 days.

The report noted that between its initial approval by the FDA in 2000 and 2018, the abortion pill caused 24 maternal deaths as well as more than 1,000 hospitalizations and over 4,000 total adverse events. In 2020, nearly two dozen pro-life leaders sent a letter to the FDA commissioner urging the agency to ban the abortion pill, citing statistics finding that it comes with a four-times higher risk of complication than surgical abortion in the first trimester.

The effort to get the abortion pill removed from the market did not succeed and is unlikely to under the Biden administration. Chemical abortions gained renewed attention during the coronavirus pandemic as pro-abortion advocacy groups identified the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns as a reason to suspend the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) in place for the abortion pill.

As the pro-life leaders explained in their letter to then-FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, the REMS requires abortion pills to be prescribed and dispensed in a healthcare setting, hospital, or clinic. The REMS also requires abortion providers to inform women of the side effects and have the ability to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy.

A federal judge ordered the suspension of the REMS in the summer of 2020, only for the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate them in early 2021. Abandonment of the REMS allows women to receive abortion pills by mail, leading to safety concerns among pro-life groups.

Discussion about expanding access to abortion pills has resurfaced following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The statement from Judicial Watch announcing the lawsuit includes a link to a story outlining the Biden administrations intention to prevent states from banning the abortion pills following the Supreme Courts ruling, which it vigorously opposed.
UMC body elects openly gay bishop in defiance of denomination's rules

A regional body of The United Methodist Church has voted to promote a man in a same-sex marriage to the office of bishop, despite denominational rules prohibiting such a move.

At their official meeting last week, the UMC Western Jurisdiction voted to make the Rev. Cedrick D. Bridgeforth of the California-Pacific Conference a bishop.

Bridgeforth, who has served as the California-Pacific Conferences director of innovation and communication, became the first openly gay African American bishop in the UMC.

Western Jurisdiction delegates elected Bridgeforth on the 18th ballot, with him receiving 73 votes out of 93 valid ballots cast, having needed at least 63 ballots to be elected.

During remarks made shortly after being elected, Bridgeforth told those gathered at the Western Jurisdiction meeting that he was grateful to God Almighty and to my husband, Christopher.

Its in the Church where I have found purpose, even when I felt like it was chewing me up and spitting me out, I still couldnt let it go, Bridgeforth said.

It wasnt about the institution; it wasnt about its rules or its regulations. It was about the call of God upon my life, to be bigger, to be better, to open doors where possible and to chart new ground where we have to.

Bridgeforths election goes against the UMC Book of Discipline, which prohibits the ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexuals, and thus does not allow them to become bishops.

The Christian Post reached out to the Western Jurisdiction for comment, however, a spokesperson explained that they were unable to respond by press time due to travel schedules and meetings.

John Lomperis of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, who has served as a UMC General Conference delegate in the past, viewed Bridgeforth's election as part of a broader shift among UMC leadership to embrace views that are contrary to traditional Christian teaching.

The first new bishop elected last week [Kennetha Bigham-Tsai] has refused to say if she believes in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Apparently [she] does not believe in basic biblical doctrine about His incarnation, Lomperis told CP.

Lomperis added that he views Bridgeforth's election as further direct defiance of the UMCs official rules, which is increasingly becoming normalized.

No one forced Mr. Bridgeforth to seek ordination and leadership in our denomination. He knew our rules forbidding same-sex partnerships, along with adultery and pre-marital sex, for our clergy, continued Lomperis. Bishops are entrusted with the sacred responsibility of upholding and enforcing our churchs doctrinal and moral standards. When the bishops are so openly breaking these standards, then this is a true inmates running the asylum situation.

For the past several years, the UMC has been embroiled in a divisive debate over whether to change its official rules barring same-sex marriage and noncelibate homosexual ordination.

Although efforts by theological progressives to change the denominations rules have consistently failed, many have openly refused to enforce the standards regarding marriage and ordination.

In 2016, the Western Jurisdiction unanimously elected Karen Oliveto to be bishop of the UMC Mountain Sky Area, making her the first openly gay bishop in the history of the UMC.

While the UMCs highest court, the United Methodist Judicial Council, ruled in 2017 that Olivetos election was invalid, as of November of this year, she remains in office.

These and other events have prompted many theological conservatives in recent months to leave the mainline denomination and join the newly created Global Methodist Church.

Lomperis told CP that he believes such events will encourage more to the leave the UMC, as remaining United Methodist will require one to pay for and submit to the spiritual authority of theologically secularized leaders who openly, forcefully oppose the biblical, Wesleyan doctrine and moral standards of the United Methodist Discipline.

Time is running out for congregations to act if they do not want to become permanently trapped in such a dysfunctional, unfaithful and hypocritical system, he added.
Voters enshrine abortion rights in 3 state constitutions; pro-life proposals defeated in 2

After the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, referendums to enshrine abortion rights into state constitutions were passed on Tuesday, while voters in typically conservative states voted down pro-life proposals.

Several abortion referendums were on the ballot during the 2022 midterm elections. California, Michigan and Vermont all put forward measures to constitutionally codify abortion rights, while Montana and Kentucky sought to protect born-alive infants and deny a constitutional right to abortion.

California

California voted in favor of Proposition 1, also known as Prop 1, a ballot measure to change the California Constitution to guarantee a right to abortion and contraceptives. The measure prohibits the state from interfering with a "person's reproductive freedom."

According to unofficial results from early vote tallies as of Wednesday afternoon, over 65% of Californians voted for the measure, and 35% voted against it.

Public opinion polling indicated that a majority of residents were likely to approve Prop 1. An Oct. 12 poll of 1,216 likely California voters conducted by Rasmussen Reports showed that 59% of Californians planned to vote in favor of the constitutional amendment.

Another survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California from Sept. 2-11 of 1,060 likely California voters found that 69% of respondents supported Prop 1, while 25% opposed it.

Critics of the measure, including advocacy groups like the social conservative California Family Council and Pro-Life San Francisco, claim that Prop 1 removes all limitations on abortion by removing the state's viability restriction. California law previously restricted abortions after 24 weeks unless a physician deemed one to be medically necessary.

With the latest measure, pro-life advocacy groups fear that California will now allow "abortion until birth for any reason."

Michigan

Michigan voters approved Proposal 3, also called Prop 3, a ballot measure that amends the state constitution to establish a "fundamental right to reproductive freedom."

While the state may regulate abortion beyond fetal viability unless a physician determines an abortion is medically necessary, Prop 3 allows individuals to make all pregnancy-related decisions without interference.

According to unofficial results tallied as of Wednesday afternoon, 56.7% of voters approved the measure, and 43.3% disapproved.

According to a WDIV/Detroit News poll conducted between Oct. 26-28, 55% of state residents supported the proposal, 41% opposed it, and 3.8% were undecided.

The measure prohibits the state from prosecuting women for having an abortion or individuals who helped her procure one, in addition to eliminating state laws that conflict with this amendment.

Critics of Prop 3 claim the measure authorizes minors to obtain abortions without parental consent or notification and exempts abortionists from proper oversight. However, proponents of Prop 3 claim it does not immediately invalidate parental consent laws unless the issue goes to court.

Kentucky

Residents of Kentucky voted down Constitutional Amendment 2, a measure that would have amended the state's constitution to state that there is no right to abortion or any requirement to fund abortion.

With 98% of precincts reporting, about 52.4% voted of voted against the measure, and 47.6% voted in favor.

The pro-life campaign group Yes for Life supported the measure, urging Kentucky residents to "protect [their] tax dollars from funding late-term abortions." The abortion advocacy group Protect Kentucky Access campaigned against the amendment, encouraging residents to vote no and "keep abortion safe and legal in Kentucky."

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Kentucky banned abortion in nearly all circumstances.

In July, a high court judge temporarily blocked the state's ban on abortions after six weeks gestation and the trigger law that went into effect due to Roe's reversal. Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Larry E. Thompson reinstated the state's near-total ban on abortion in August.

Montana

Voters in Montana defeated Referendum 131, a measure that states infants born alive at any stage of development after a botched abortion or induced labor are legal persons.

The measure would have required medical care to be provided to born-alive infants, establishing a $50,000 fine and the possibility of as many as 20 years in prison for violating the law.

Of the over 414,000 reported votes as of Wednesday afternoon, 52.2% voted against it, and 47.8% voted in favor.

Vermont

Most Vermont voters voted in favor of Proposal 5, an amendment to the state's constitution that guarantees a "right" to "personal reproductive autonomy" to all individuals in the state.

Of the over 175,000 reported votes as of Wednesday afternoon, 77.2% voted for the measure, and 22.8% voted against it.

Wendy Wilton, a Vermont resident who supports abortion but opposed Proposal 5, expressed concerns about the bill's language in an Oct. 5 op-ed for VTDigger, calling it "vague" and "open-ended." Wilton noted that the bill's language is not restricted to women, questioning whether this means men's rights are "infringed" if his partner wants an abortion, and he doesn't, or vice versa.

"By virtue of the term 'individual,' this does not restrict the language to persons who have achieved legal age or age of consent," she wrote.

The abortion proponent also worries that the legislature has opened the door for late-term abortions beyond the point of viability and when most unborn children can survive outside the womb.

"I am left to think that the proponents are betting Vermont voters will look at this language, believe it to be essential for the preservation of Roe v. Wade and that it is harmless when neither rationale is true," she concluded.
Can churches balance diversity, inclusion with being biblical, spirit-filled?

Not only is society becoming more and more polarized as the general population is moving to the edges of the political spectrum, but even the Christian subset of the population is moving around based on their religious beliefs.

While every religious denomination faces its own issues and challenges, the United Methodist Church is experiencing movement within its ranks these days. It might be better said that the United Methodist Church (UMC) is experiencing movement away from its ranks. Just down the road from me, Christ Church in Memphis, a congregation that averages 600 weekly worship attendees voted to disaffiliate from the UMC with a final vote of 941 in favor of leaving, 101 opposed to leaving, and one abstaining.

Their vote took place in the context of what is an ongoing schism in the UMC over the issue of homosexuality.

Christ Church, once a part of the United Methodist Church Tennessee-Western Kentucky Annual Conference, is not the first congregation to leave the conference. In June, the Conference approved the disaffiliation votes of 60 congregations.

Bill McAlilly, bishop of the Nashville Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church, expressed his regret over their decision to disaffiliate and stated:

The UMC is a biblical, diverse, inclusive, and Spirit-filled denomination grounded in scripture and teachings of Jesus Christ. We are a global and connectional church committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

As an outsider of the Baptist flavor, it seems to me that so many of my Methodist brothers and sisters are leaving the UMC because they do not believe that McAlillys statement is true. They do not believe that the UMC is biblical. For them, it seems that the UMC is more interested in being diverse and inclusive than biblical and spirit-filled.

Can a church and even a denomination be biblical, diverse, inclusive, and spirit-filled? Of course, it can. The question revolves around what the definitions of those words are.

In 2021, the Illinois Great Rivers Conference certified the first openly gay man and evidently the first drag queen, Isaac Simmons as a certified candidate into the ordained ministry of the United Methodist Church. This happened as Simmons, who goes by Ms. Penny Cost delivered a message during the worship service of Hope United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Illinois.

Can a church love and minister to those who claim to be homosexuals and practice drag artistry? Of course, it can. Not only can a church do that but a church should do that because a church must be kind and compassionate.

In addition, a church speaks and models the truth of Scripture. Along with being kind and compassionate, a church should be biblical and convictional. Its not either/or. Its both/and.

Can a church accept into membership those who persist to practice a lifestyle that the Bible prohibits?

Can a church place in leadership anyone who continues to practice unbiblical behavior?

Can a church condone what God condemns?

In speaking with the woman at the well, Jesus was both compassionate and convictional. He told the woman to go home and that you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. While speaking the truth to her, he also showed her love and said that those who are true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. (John 4) For our purposes here, the key word is and. Spirit and truth.

Many of our Methodist friends seem to be making a choice between what their church says is spirit and truth and what the Bible says is spirit and truth.
Women who abort first pregnancies at greater risk of health complications: study

Women who terminated their first pregnancies appear to have greater health risks during later pregnancies than women whose first pregnancy results in a live birth, according to a study by a pro-life organization.

The study, conducted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) and published last month by the peer-reviewed international journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, asserts that aborting a first pregnancy can impact the rest of womens reproductive lives.

Researchers examined data from over 5,400 Medicaid beneficiaries between 1999 and 2015 in the 17 states that use taxpayer funds to pay for abortions that federal Medicaid does not cover. The study organized women ages 16 and older into three separate groups depending on whether they gave birth or if their pregnancy ended in an abortion or a natural miscarriage.

According to the study, compared to women whose first pregnancies resulted in a live birth, women who aborted their first pregnancies had, on average, 53% more miscarriages.

Women who terminate their first pregnancies also had 35% more pregnancies over their reproductive lifetimes and more than four times as many abortions than women whose first pregnancies involved a live birth.

In addition, women whose first pregnancies ended in abortion experienced only half the number of live births (52%) compared to women who carried their first pregnancies to term.

Tessa Longbons, senior research associate at CLI and a co-author of the study, told The Christian Post that the study is one of the first to utilize Medicaid data to assess the impact of womens first pregnancy outcomes on the rest of their reproductive lives.

The studys co-author said that the data appears to refute abortion proponents claims that the procedure enables women to direct their lives and choose how to structure their families.

But what we see from this is that's not really the case, because clearly abortion is not putting these women on a different track, Longbons said.

It's not giving them power over their lives or empowering them. It's really just setting them on this course of having more pregnancies and more abortions.

Longbons also noted that research cited in CLIs study finds that the risk of low birth weight or premature birth increases with each abortion. The study also analyzed data that found abortion increases a womans risk of experiencing adverse mental health outcomes and premature death.

The CLIs findings contrast with The Turnaway Study, which abortion proponents often cite as proof that the procedure benefits women and that being denied an abortion poses a greater risk to womens health.

For the Turnaway study, demographer Diana Greene Foster and her team conducted research from 2008 to 2010, asking 30 abortion facilities throughout the country to recruit women. The study analyzed 1,000 women who had abortions or were turned away by the clinic and gave birth due to being beyond their states gestational limit.

After interviewing participants for five years, the study concluded there is no evidence that abortion negatively impacts womens mental health, claiming that 95% of participants who had abortions felt it was the right decision.

Longbons, however, pointed out that the difference between CLIs research and the survey research used in Turnaway is that their studys findings are based on comprehensive claims data.

The pro-life researcher said that the team analyzed claims submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, meaning no women were lost to follow-up, a criticism of the Turnaway study. The lack of a true control group and a low participation rate are some of the flaws that have prompted skepticism regarding the reliability of Fosters findings.

Longbons highlighted peer-reviewed research from a 13-year-long longitudinal study, which found the risk of adverse mental health outcomes increases by a factor of 1.23 for each subsequent abortion.

As we've seen from this, that first pregnancy, that first decision can shape the rest of someone's life, Longbons said, pointing to CLIs recent study. That's why it's so important to be there, to help her, to be alongside her.

The researcher stated that supporting pregnant women is something the pro-life movement already does well, emphasizing the work of pregnancy resource centers and state policies such as Texas Alternatives to Abortion program. The initiative helps connect women to supportive services and material resources.

In addition, Longbons noted that CLI frequently works alongside Her PLAN, a program conducted by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America that helps providers assist women in need.

This study of how that first pregnancy can shape the rest of a woman's life just underscores what we've known all along; that we need to be there to support women as they are trying to make this decision and make sure that they do have the support and the confidence that they need, Longbons said.
'I thank the Lord': 107-year-old woman credits obedience to the Word of God for her long life

A woman who recently celebrated her 107th birthday credited God and following the Bible for her long life, which appears to support previous research that devotion to the Lord enhances peoples well-being.

Born on Oct. 10, 1915, South Carolina resident Adell Julie Thompson has lived through 18 U.S. presidencies, never dreaming that shed live to see the election of the first black President Barack Obama. For her 107th birthday this year, Thompsons friends and family held a parade in her honor.

Thompson, who was raised in the town of Santee, where she still resides today, credited reading the Bible and her obedience to the Word of God for her longevity, WLTX reported.

I had no dream of being 107 years. But the Lord spared me, and I try to do the right thing, I guess so people dont talk about you," she said.

Thompson has lived so long that she can remember the people of Santee transitioning from riding horses and mules to driving cars.

Santee now is a city. I think its past a city, its so big," she said.

Thompson attended school in the town of Elloree, later serving as a substitute teacher in the 1930s and marrying her late husband, Eddie Thompson, in 1940. The South Carolina resident also worked for years on a farm with her four brothers, picking cotton and doing domestic work.

I could pick 260 pounds of cotton a day, yes sir. Ill never do it no more. I sure would drag now if I had to do it," Thompson said.

Thompson has a large family, consisting of three children, six grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and three great, great-grandchildren.

I thank the Lord to have me to do the right thing until I do go, she said.

The 107-year-old grandmother and great-grandmother is not the only American woman to live past 100 and credit God for her longevity.

In June 2019, North Carolina resident Ruth Hilliard celebrated her 106th birthday, telling ABC News affiliate WTVD that her long life was a testament to her Christian faith. She celebrated her birthday at the assisted living home where she resided in Hampton County.

While poor vision prevented her from reading the Bible at her age, the grandmother recited Scripture from memory on a regular basis. Her favorite verse was Psalms 91:14-16, according to the news outlet.

"He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation," the scripture reads.

Hilliards saw the Bibles verses as a promise to her from God, saying that theyre the reason she lived so long.

She was born on June 5, 1913, before "stoplights, Band-Aids, bubble gum, ballpoint pens, microwave ovens and the discovery of penicillin," according to WTVD. Hilliard was the mother of one son and a grandmother to three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The North Carolina House of Representatives also sent Hilliard a certificate of recognition on her birthday.

According to Hilliard's obituary, she lived to be 107 before passing away at her residence in April 2021.

A 2017 study by Baylor University researchers found that devotion to God can enhance older peoples well-being. Specifically, spending time in prayer was shown to improve their mental health and decrease depression.

Researchers analyzed data from the nationwide Religion, Aging and Health Survey. The 1,024 respondents who were at least 65 years and older were categorized into three groups: currently practicing Christians, Christians in the past but not presently religious, and individuals not affiliated with any faith at any point in their lifetime.

For older people who felt highly secure in their faith, praying served as a natural barrier to chronic stress, and they experienced a greater sense of well-being. The results for those with a moderate attachment to God, however, were mixed. Some had an increase in well-being, while others registered a decrease.

The results appear to support the conclusion of a 2015 analysis of more than 1,500 reputable studies examining the link between health and regular worship. Those who devoted more time to prayer had better physical and mental health, with consistent religious practices helping them cope better with stress.
Activist behind 'Woman = Adult Human Female' billboards permanently banned from Facebook

A mom of four and a women's rights activist from the United Kingdom, who has been making waves by posting billboards and illuminations of the dictionary definition of "woman," has been permanently banned from Facebook.

Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, who goes by the name Posie Parker, was notified early Wednesday morning that her account for her activism, under the name Posie Parker, was disabled and that the decision was final.



Citing "safety and security reasons," the social media giant determined she was not eligible to use the utility and said they could not give any additional information as to why she was booted from the platform.

Keen-Minshull had several thousand followers on her page, mostly those interested in her campaigning for women's rights  particularly her defense of them as sex-based  and actions against the medical and surgical gender-transitioning of children.

"Over the last few years I've had numerous three, seven and thirty day bans over simple truths about male violence, the erasure of women's rights, objective truth about biology and the mutilation of children's bodies," Keen-Minshull told The Christian Post in an email Wednesday, noting that Facebook has a policy of not telling people why their accounts are disabled.

Her group, Standing for Women, still has a Facebook account but it is specifically for campaign purposes. Thus far, her YouTube channel  where she livestreamed her account of being booted from Facebook Wednesday and Instagram account remain active. Keen-Minshull told CP she intends to open multiple accounts for fear of all of her content disappearing from "the more censorious platforms."

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

In February of last year, she was interrogated by police for tweeting critically about the the surgical removal of the testicles of a 16-year-old boy, whose mother is the head of Mermaids Gender, a U.K. charity geared toward transgender-identifying youth. Reports say that the Crown Prosecution Service has taken direction from the Mermaids charity when developing its transgender policies, and the group's helpline has been distributed to school students all across the U.K.

"I may remind everyone here that I am a stay at home mother to four children and that I am a wife! I'm not Jihadi John, I am not part of a grooming gang or paedophile ring, I haven't hurt anyone or abused anyone. I am a woman with an opinion," she wrote on her blog at the time.

Keen-Minshull maintained that Facebook and other platforms like Twitter have proven to be more insidious in their intimidation tactics.

"The issue with social media giants is that they are unaccountable to their public. Often they have been lobbied or are swayed by their own content. This content can be shaped by concerted efforts by vested interest groups or by financial interests," she said.

"At this moment in time, they have the ability of creating myths and belief systems that public services are conned into thinking reflect society. They then shape policy accordingly. It's spectacularly naive and foolish. The least powerful in society stand to lose a great deal."

She stressed, "It's like our seasoned representatives have been shown something shiny and they are captivated. Social media is a false prophet and those that follow it should be very cautious."

Asked what she believes is at stake if more people, especially women, do not voice their objections, she replied, "I always felt my place in this movement, if we can call it one, is to shift the Overton window and encourage people to speak up in their own voice. If concerned parties don't start speaking up, we will lose the capacity to say anything at all."

"What could be worse than the neutering of children's bodies, the eradication of women's rights, and the censorship of truth? I do wonder what more needs to happen before people stand up for what is right."
The Black Eagles, the Korean Air Force's acrobatic flight team, perform an air show in the southeastern port city of Busan during the Turn Toward Busan ceremony that commemorates fallen U.N. troops who fought for the South during the 1950-53 Korean War, Nov. 11. Yonhap



Korea plans to host an annual ceremony this week to commemorate the sacrifices of fallen troops who fought under the U.N. flag during the 1950-53 Korean War, the veterans affairs ministry said Wednesday.



The Turn Toward Busan ceremony will take place at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in the southeastern port city of Busan on Friday, with the attendance of 114 bereaved families and war veterans from 15 countries invited by the ministry.



Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Veterans Affairs Minister Park Min-shik, United Nations Command (UNC) Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Andrew Harrison and diplomatic delegates also plan to attend the memorial event first held in 2007.



The event is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. on the day with a minute of silence in remembrance and a 21-gun salute. It will also include an air show by the Black Eagles, the Korean Air Force's acrobatic flight team.



A Mugunghwa Medal, the highest Order of Civil Merit in Korea, will be presented to the family of the late Richard Whitcomb, a former U.S. Army general who served in Busan during the war. The government posthumously awarded the state medal to Whitcomb in recognition of his philanthropic efforts in supporting war victims.



The remains of two late veterans from the Netherlands, Mathias Hubertus Hoogenboom and Eduard Julius Engberink, and one late British veteran, James Grundy, will be laid to rest at the cemetery.



The Busan ceremony was born out of a suggestion from Vincent Courtenay, a Canadian veteran of the Korean War. Some 1.95 million U.N. troops from 22 countries took part in the war, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)


Christian woman testifies of Gods faithfulness after husband, son martyred in Nigeria

A new short feature film from a global missions organization serving persecuted Christians shares the inspiring story of courageous faith faced by a Christian woman in northern Nigeria.

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) released Rebecca: Nigeria, the true story of a Nigerian Christian woman who watched helplessly with her daughter as Boko Haram militants killed her husband and son and burned their home.

"There was nothing we could do to defend ourselves," she said. "I was devastated. I mourned for many months."

After the attack, Rebecca searched the charred remains of their home and recovered the Bible she and her husband received as a gift from church on their wedding day. She said she and her husband read that Bible together every day.

"I still use this Bible," Rebecca said. "It reminds me of God's faithfulness."

"The Lord is a husband to all widows," she added. "I look to Him for every need. This is what I am still holding onto."

The feature was released to coincide with the International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians (IDOP) on Monday, a global prayer movement for Christians worldwide who boldly proclaim their faith, regardless of the cost.

Todd Nettleton, chief of media relations and message integration for VOMUSA and host of VOM Radio, told The Christian Post he hopes the film personalizes the struggle so many Christians face around the world.

"Every year for IDOP, we do a short film for churches to use, for families to use to kind of put a face on persecuted Christians, to put a face on the people that we're praying for," Nettleton said.

Nigeria is designated as a "hostile" nation in the 2022 VOM Prayer Guide, a designation for countries or large areas of nations where governments may attempt to protect the Christian population but Christians are still persecuted.

For Nettleton, Rebecca's story is essential for the world to hear, and "it also illustrates the importance of God's word for our persecuted brothers and sisters."

In addition to Nigeria, Nettleton said there are other global hotspots where Christians face increased persecution, including China and Iran, which has faced growing turmoil in recent weeks following the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old was arrested for not wearing the mandatory dress code and died in police custody.

Nettleton said since Amini's death, the Gospel is going forth as a sort of counter-culture messaging in response to the growing discontent with the Islamic Republic among many Iranians.

"There are Christians out among the protesters, not necessarily to protest but to be a witness for Christ, and to say, 'Hey, we understand your frustration with the government, we understand your frustration with Islam, let me tell you about Jesus'," said Nettleton.

Nettleton hopes "this year's IDOP resources from VOM will drive hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world to pray for our family in Nigeria" and "our spiritual family members in other restricted and hostile nations."

When asked to share a story about the practical impact of a global effort, such as IDOP, Nettleton shared the story of Petr Jasek, who traveled to Sudan in 2015 on behalf of VOM to meet with pastors and help persecuted Christians.

Jasek was arrested and later charged with conspiring against the Sudanese government. He spent 14 months in a prison in Sudan, part of that time sharing a cell with Islamic State fighters.

"His life was in danger," Nettleton said. "And yet, every night at 9 o'clock  the lights go out, and Peter would go right off to sleep, no matter what was going on around him, no matter what danger he was in.  The lights go out, and Peter goes right off into a restful sleep."

After serving his sentence, Jasek returned home to the Czech Republic and learned that his church congregation had faithfully prayed for him every night at 8 p.m.

When it is 8 p.m. in Prague, it is 9 p.m. in Sudan  the exact time the lights were going out and Jasek went off into a restful sleep.

"He immediately knew that it was their prayers that had been the cause of his ability to go to sleep so quickly and his ability to rest so well, even in prison, even when he was in danger," said Nettleton.

"So when people ask me, 'Does it matter if we pray? Does it make any difference if we pray?' I always think of Peter going to that prison in Sudan and the prayers of his own church congregation that were allowing him to do that."
Former atheist abortion provider details his journey to becoming a pro-life Christian

A former atheist who performed hundreds of abortions recently shared how he became a pro-life Christian after feeling convicted by a sermon.

Dr. Vansen Wong of Sacramento, California, recently sat down with Christian podcaster Billy Hallowell for an interview posted to YouTube last week by CBN News.

Wong said he first got into doing abortions for financial reasons, the procedure being one of many operations he performed as part of an effort to work extra hours.

"What I would say is that I viewed [abortion] as providing a service," he said. "[I said to myself], abortion is legal in this country. By law, our healthcare company has to provide abortion services, and it's got to be someone in our specialty, and if I don't help out in this cause, then it's just going to fall on a couple of people."

Wong described learning how to perform dilation and curettage (D&C), a procedure in which the cervix is dilated so that the uterine lining can be scraped with a curette to remove tissue. D&C is commonly used as an abortion procedure.

"It's obvious what we're doing in a sense that before doing an abortion, you've got to do an ultrasound to accurately access how far along this woman's pregnancy is. How big is her baby? Because if you're wrong and either she's not pregnant in the uterus or if she's too far along, bad things can happen," Wong explained.

"So, it could lead to grave complications if you miss an ectopic pregnancy. You could go down a path where you're going to have unexpected bleeding and also run into a situation where your suction tubing isn't able to complete the abortion. Then, you would have to grab instruments that only a skilled abortionist would be able to use."

Wong recalled thinking he was "compassionate" for doing what he did, being one of the few doctors in his department willing and able to perform the procedure.

Wong said he previously had two relationships with women who had abortions, saying he could relate to "the mindset, the fear, the rationale, the justification" of why women turn to abortion.

"I thought it would be very hypocritical of me to say to somebody, 'oh, that's wrong, you shouldn't have an abortion,' or 'I won't perform it,'" Wong recalled.

Wong said that it took a couple of years for him to become a Christian, even as he and his family regularly attended church.

"When I became a Christian, it was not an instantaneous, connect-the-dots that 'Oh my gosh, people are infinitely valuable, made in God's image. He's known us before He formed us. He knitted us in our mother's womb. He has incredible plans for us.' I really didn't understand initially that performing abortions was wrong," Wong said.

He recalled a tragic event at work where he was tasked with caring for an 18-year-old woman who had given birth the day before and had an emergency hysterectomy.

"It was my responsibility to take care of her during the night as she recovered in the intensive care unit. And for reasons I still don't understand, she died," Wong said.

"And that was a tragedy that is beyond words. I remember every moment of that six-hour period like it was yesterday."

The devastation, Wong said, shattered his pride.

"I had to face the reality that when it came time to really make a difference, I failed abysmally. So, I was in the depths of my career right away," he said.

Another issue arose, later on, Wong said, when the state reviewed his medical license.

"That possibility led me to try to make a bargain with God. You see, because we had started our family, got a new home in a nice neighborhood, and if I'm not a doctor, I'm not making any money. What's going to happen to us financially and socially? And how do I tell my friends and relatives what has happened?" Wong shared.

Being in a new neighborhood, Wong said his family was "surrounded by people of faith" who attended a church that was starting out in the local high school. Wong took his children to the church, describing himself as a seeker at that time.

During the "time of crisis," Wong said he "made a deal with God."

"I prayed that 'God, if you can get me through this mess, I'll be yours.' And so that's how I became a Christian," Wong said.

As Wong continued to attend church, his pastor eventually preached on abortion during the early 2000s, when a federal ban on partial-birth abortions was being debated.

"It was an uncharacteristic description of that barbaric procedure that made me realize, 'my God, you are telling me that abortion is wrong,'" he said. "And within a short period of time, as I was walking back to the parking lot, I realized that what I was doing with my small plastic tube was no less barbaric than what people who were doing these partial-birth abortions were doing."

"The body parts were smaller for me, but the act and the effect on that little baby was just as barbaric," he continued. "And so, it was at that point that I realized that abortion was no longer something I should be participating in."
Ex-megachurch elder charged with murder of adopted 11-year-old daughter months after husbands suicide

Leticia McCormack, a one-time elder and ministry worker, has been arrested and charged with murder and several other crimes related to the death of her 11-year-old adopted daughter, Arabella, just months after her husband died by suicide.

A release from the San Diego County Sheriffs Department said the 49-year-old McCormack was arrested Monday, along with her parents, Stanley Tom, 75, and Adella Tom, 70.

Along with murder, McCormack, a former church elder at Rock Church in San Diego, California, was charged with three counts of torture and three counts of willful cruelty to a child. Her mother was charged with three counts each of torture and willful cruelty to a child, while her father was charged with murder and similar counts of torture and willful cruelty to a child.

The arrests come after months of investigation by the police, who first responded to a call about a child in distress at a home in Spring Valley on Aug. 30. Detectives who responded to the call suspected possible child abuse in the home and Arabella was rushed to a local hospital where she died.

Arabellas younger sisters, ages 6 and 7, were also removed from the home and placed in foster care.

When Brian McCormack was contacted by police about his adopted daughters death, officials say he fatally shot himself inside his truck near the home.

Family members and neighbors told NBC 7 that Arabella and her sisters moved in with their adoptive parents in 2017, and their adoptions were finalized a couple of years later.

The safety of our children is of paramount importance to the Sheriffs Department. We respond to all reports alleging child abuse and neglect, the police statement reads. Conducting an accurate investigation is a long and tedious process. Gathering evidence and conducting interviews must be done methodically while protecting the children and preserving the rights of parents and family members.

In a statement to NBC 7, the Rock Church said they hope for justice for the sisters and made it clear that they have no official relationship with Leticia.

We have received notice that Leticia and her parents have been arrested as a result of the Sheriff's Department investigation. We continue to grieve for Arabella and her sisters. We are so sorry that their family and friends are experiencing this unimaginable loss and pain, the church's statement said.

We send our deepest condolences to all that are grieving at this time. Our hearts go out to each of them. The legal process will run its course and we hope justice for Arabella and her sisters will be served. We are praying that Gods love and grace will bring comfort and healing. The Rock no longer has any official relationship with Leticia. Her ordination at Rock Church was previously suspended and is in the process of being revoked.
Florida medical boards ban gender transition surgeries, puberty blockers for minors

Florida is on track to become the fourth state to ban gender transition procedures for minors, as polling suggests that American voters are less likely to support candidates who favor allowing children to obtain the procedures whose side effects remain a cause for concern.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced last Friday that the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine voted to ban minors in the state from obtaining puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender transition surgeries.

"Today, the Boards of Medicine & Osteo Medicine voted to protect our children from irreversible surgeries & highly experimental treatments," he wrote on Twitter.

Today, the Boards of Medicine & Osteo Medicine voted to protect our children from irreversible surgeries & highly experimental treatments. I appreciate their integrity for ruling in the best interest of FL children...

(1/2)  Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD (@FLSurgeonGen) November 4, 2022

"I appreciate their integrity for ruling in the best interest of FL children despite facing tremendous pressure to permit these risky & unproven treatments," Ladapo added. "Children deserve to learn how to navigate this world without harmful pressure. Florida will continue to fight for kids to be kids."

While the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine decision received praise from Ladapo and social conservative activists, the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign condemned the development.

"Today's vote to deny medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare to transgender young people will do irreparable harm to countless Floridian kids and their families," HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow said in a statement Friday.

"The decision was based upon incomplete data and manipulated claims that do not reflect science, medicine, or any other evidence-based approach to life-saving, medically necessary care. It defies the recommendation of every major medical association. Transgender youth are already at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide due to stigma and discrimination, all of which will only be exacerbated by this denial of care."

Warbelow contends that decisions about gender transition should be "careful and deliberate consultation between doctors, patients, and their families, with the end goal of reducing the physical and emotional distress experienced by transgender children."

"The Florida Board of Medicine should take immediate steps to rescind this rule and provide the support that transgender youth need to thrive," the activist said.

Florida's impending ban on gender transition services for minors is likely to put the state on a collision course with the White House.

In a recent forum with NowThis News, President Joe Biden declared that it was "wrong" to ban the procedures on minors, adding, "I don't think any state or anybody should have the right to do that as a moral question and as a legal question."

Florida's path to banning gender transition procedures for minors looks different from how the effort played out in the other three states where such restrictions have been approved.

Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas have approved legislation banning gender transition surgeries for minors. In two of the three states, the governors have signed the measures into law while the Republican-controlled Arkansas legislature overrode Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson's veto of the bill.

Leaders in other states have also expressed opposition to allowing trans-identified youth to seek surgical intervention.

In Texas, the Department of Family and Protective Services has classified gender transition surgeries as a form of child abuse, while Texas' Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has crafted a formal opinion coming to the same conclusion.

The LGBT Movement Advancement Project, which takes the opposite view on the matter, cited Texas as an example of a state where "executives have attempted to limit or restrict medical care for transgender youth, but state law does not ban this care."

Massachusetts has taken the opposite approach by establishing a constitutional right to what supporters refer to as "gender-affirming care."

The conservative American College of Pediatricians, which describes itself as a "national organization of pediatricians and other healthcare professionals dedicated to the health and well-being of children," identified the potential side effects of puberty blockers as "osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility."

The ACP listed the potential side effects of cross-sex hormones as "an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan."

While opponents of sex change operations and similar interventions for trans-identified youth warn about the long-term impacts, supporters argue that failing to provide those with gender dysphoria with "gender-affirming care" negatively affects their mental health.

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes policies that it says would "discriminate against gender-diverse individuals, including children and adolescents, or limit access to comprehensive evidence-based care," claiming they could damage the "socioemotional health of children and families."

Public opinion polling reveals that Americans are less likely to support candidates who support policies that allow trans-identified youth to obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender transition surgeries in the midterm elections.

A poll of 1,080 likely general election voters conducted by the Trafalgar Group in conjunction with Convention of States Action from Oct. 25 to Oct. 30 suggests that 63.3% of respondents were "not likely at all" to support "a candidate in the 2022 [midterm] elections who supports allowing underage minors to use puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and undergo sex-change surgeries."

An additional 9.4% indicated they were "somewhat less likely" to vote for a candidate who favored allowing minors to obtain interventions for gender dysphoria. In comparison, 13.3% reported being "somewhat more likely" to support such a candidate. The remaining 14.1% said they were "very likely" to support candidates who support giving minors access to sex change procedures.
Judge says students must be allowed to make school announcement opposing Michigan abortion measure

A federal judge has ruled that Republican students at a Michigan high school can go forward with a school announcement that criticizes a proposed abortion measure on the states ballot.

In a ruling issued Nov. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman found that Skyline High School in Ann Arbor sought to silence  appropriate speech of members of the Skyline Republican Club when the school prohibited the group from making a statement criticizing Proposal 3, which would enshrine abortion as a state constitutional right.

The issue began when the president of the Skyline Republican Club  a minor who was not identified in court documents  requested on Oct. 21 to make the following announcement:

Attention Students: Are you interested in joining our efforts to protect the health of women and children? If Proposal 3 is passed it would eliminate health and safety regulations, legalize late-term and partial-birth abortion, no longer require physicians to perform abortions, and eliminate informed consent laws. If so, email us at skylinerepublicanclub@ gmail.com.

After the group submitted their announcement, attorneys with Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center say they received an email from the school stating that your announcement is not going to be read or posted due to its political nature.

According to attorneys, when the plaintiffs met with the school principals secretary who rejected the announcement, it was confirmed that the announcement was not read because it was political.

After sending a letter to Ann Arbor Public Schools requesting that the announcement be read, attorneys say the district denied wrongdoing, while continuing to censor plaintiffs speech.

But when administrators still refused to allow the message to be broadcast, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of David Nielsen and his son, alleging Skyline High School violated their First Amendment rights.

According to attorneys, school officials previously allowed student and student groups to pro-choice and left-leaning viewpoints over the PA system on a range of controversial topics, including abortion, Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, climate change and others.

In short, Skyline High Schools record shows it does not hesitate to share certain viewpoints over the morning announcements, TMLC said in a statement.

Administrators were aware of a walkout planned by a student chapter of the National Organization of Women on Nov. 7 in favor of Proposal 3 on school grounds and yet did not take any action to prevent that walkout from occurring, Borman wrote in his ruling.

"Permitting students in favor of Proposal 3 to cut classes, and to demonstrate on school property in favor of Proposal 3," while simultaneously rejecting the Skyline Republican Clubs message over its "political nature," was a violation of the clubs "rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, the judge explained.

A request for comment from Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jeanice K. Swift was not returned as of Tuesday afternoon.

Attorney Erin Mersino, who handled the case for TMLC, warned the U.S. Supreme Court cautioned against viewpoint discrimination in the schools, warning it creates enclaves of totalitarianism.

The Constitution protects a students right to have a different viewpoint from others and share it within the walls of a public school, said Mersino. How else will students learn tolerance toward opinions to which they disagree or how to thrive in our pluralistic society?
Let Women Speak rally drowned out by trans activists before police intervention; 1 arrested

WASHINGTON  At least one trans activist was arrested Monday for disrupting a rally featuring a British women's rights campaigner speaking out against what she believes is the erasure of women's rights and the danger of experimental gender medicalization in children.

Assembled with fellow demonstrators on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Monday afternoon, a rally featuring activist and mom of four Kellie-Jay Keen was drowned out by approximately 15 trans rights activists with sirens and bullhorns.

About halfway through Keen's Let Women Speak event, the U.S. Park Police separated the protesters from the group, one of which was arrested.

Keen, who is the founder of Standing for Women and has been putting on free speech events called "Speakers Corner" addressing the perils of gender ideology across the United Kingdom for years, told The Christian Post in an interview that the selection of the historic monument was intentional given its symbolic importance for freedom.

"This is about letting women speak, not necessarily about large crowds. It's not necessarily about the opposition we face, but those are always the stories to tell. It really is about creating a space in which women can speak so that they can talk about the things happening to them."

The event comes on the heels of several stops around the United States that Keen has made as part of a nationwide speaking tour. She is also filming a documentary about her advocacy and how women from all walks of life are speaking up against what they say is the incursion of gender ideology, the harms of hormone blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries on gender-confused minors.

The police in other cities have not removed the protesters, according to Keen, and she believes that the right to free speech outlined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is not much good if such speech cannot be heard, something that she believes the authorities in D.C. recognized and enforced.

Soon after Monday's event began, a group of trans rights activists, waving pink and blue flags and chanting trans rights slogans, disrupted the event.

One person held a siren next to the speakers' ears until ordered to cease or be arrested by the U.S. Parks Police.

Having failed to secure a permit to protest, the person and their fellow demonstrators were ordered to another area of the memorial grounds.

Video footage captured by documentarian Ford Fischer shows that shortly after the police moved the protesters with sirens, the individual was fleeing on foot and chased by police and SWAT.

In a statement to The Daily Signal, Park Police confirmed the arrest of one adult at about 2:15 p.m. in the area o the Lincoln Memorial. The individual was charged with disorderly conduct-disrupting a public gathering, resisting arrest, violating demonstration regulations, interfering with agency function and violating of closure of the public use limit.

An African American woman who went by the pseudonym LadyStudio told CP in an interview that she was inspired to speak at the Lincoln Memorial by a policy at her local gym in Virginia. She recalled a time when a man in the locker room saw her in a state of undress.

In part because of Keen's advocacy, LadyStudio learned how this gender ideology has spread through every area of culture and how female objections were being censored when it comes to things like biologically male rapists being transferred into women's prisons and biological men being housed in women's hospital wards.

"I keep thinking that there is a bottom to this," she said disgustedly, "but it's a bottomless pit and it's always something else."

Kara Dansky, the author of The Abolition of Sex: How the 'Transgender' Agenda Harms Women and Girls and president of the U.S. chapter of Women's Declaration International, secured the permit for the #LetWomenSpeak event.

She believes that the silencing tactics of trans activists and the legacy media are part and parcel of the larger strategy to squelch and ignore their voices.

"These people really want to shut women up. There's a reason for that. They know that if the general public can hear what we have to say, they will lose," Dansky wrote in her Substack Tuesday.

Amid the blaring sirens from the trans activists, she called the park police, who sent two officers. Dansky showed them the permit and was told they were within their rights. But the park police did not take action until conditions grew rowdier, she said.

"Once they saw the real threats that we were facing, they told me that they were calling for additional officers, and they did. More officers appeared, including one officer identified as 'SWAT,'" she said.

"Countless hundreds of tourists saw what happened. They saw a group of women trying to speak and being silenced by misogynists."

Keen arrived in the U.S. in the middle of October and will be making appearances for similar events in Philadelphia and New York before returning home to the U.K later this month.



As many pollsters are predicting Republicans to pick up gains in the midterm elections on Tuesday, Keen says she is excited about the prospects.

"But if you're a Democrat and there is a red wave and you know about this issue, I think you'll also be elated because maybe the Democrats will take a punishment and correct their course," Keen believes.

"But at the moment, neither party is in too much glory when it comes to this issue. Trump was in power for four years and did pretty much nothing about the butchering of kids. But out of the very few speaking up, it does seem to be Republicans."
Michigan Gov. Whitmer draws criticism for calling women people with a period

Locked in a competitive bid for a second term, Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is facing criticism from her Republican opponent after a resurfaced clip of her referring to women as "people with a period" created a stir on the eve of the election.

On Monday, the popular Twitter account Libs of Tik Tok shared a 15-second clip of a video posted on Whitmer's TikTok account last November of her announcing that she signed legislation repealing the tampon tax in Michigan.

People with a period ????. I wonder if @GovWhitmer can answer what is a woman? pic.twitter.com/Ia6ub2by3X  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 7, 2022

In the clip, Whitmer makes her pitch to voters by touting a "bipartisan tax cut" that "will help reduce the economic burden of the cost of menstrual products, especially for low-income Michiganders." She insisted that the tax cut would result in "saving people with a period from paying taxes on up to $4,800 in spending over the course of their lifetime."

Whitmer's use of the term "people with a period" did not go unnoticed by her Republican opponent, conservative commentator and businesswoman Tudor Dixon.

In a tweet Monday, Dixon responded to a Fox News article highlighting Whitmer's apparent overture to trans-identified and "gender-fluid" individuals by stating "the word she refuses to say is 'women.'"

The word she refuses to say is "women".



Gretchen Whitmer continues to devalue the existence and reality of women by referring to us as "people with periods." https://t.co/GwnHnB4QK5  Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) November 7, 2022

"Gretchen Whitmer continues to devalue the existence and reality of women by referring to us as 'people with periods,'" Dixon added.

Whitmer's comments about "people with a period" are the latest notable development in a hotly contested gubernatorial campaign. Political forecasters have divergent opinions about the trajectory of the Michigan gubernatorial election.

FiveThirtyEight's Deluxe Model, which predicts the outcome of elections based on polls, fundraising past voting patterns" and the opinions of political experts, gives Whitmer an 85% chance of winning re-election and projects a margin of victory of 5.8 percentage points for the incumbent governor.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls taken over the past week gives Whitmer a 1-percentage-point lead over Dixon.

The adjusted poll average, which considers the degree to which pollsters underestimated Republicans and Democrats in the past, gives Dixon a 1.2-percentage-point lead.

Whitmer was elected in 2018, securing 53.3% of the vote against her Republican opponent Bill Schuette, who received 43.7% of the vote.

Since taking office, Whitmer has allied herself with the LGBT community, an important constituency in the Democratic Party. Last year, Whitmer signed an executive order banning the practice derided by critics as "conversion therapy" for youth with unwanted same-sex attraction.

In addition to her LGBT advocacy, Whitmer has also emerged as an outspoken supporter of abortion rights. Whitmer's re-election campaign is taking place concurrently with a campaign to enshrine a right to abortion in the Michigan constitution.

As Michigan voters fill out their ballots Tuesday, they will be asked to weigh in on Proposition 3, which would restore the constitutional right to abortion established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that the United States Supreme Court struck down in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization earlier this year.

If voters approve Proposition 3, Michigan would join 16 other states and Washington, D.C., that have established a right to abortion throughout most or all of pregnancy. The state has a pre-Roe abortion ban on the books, but a court order has blocked it from taking effect.

The outcome of the gubernatorial election and other statewide races in Michigan will impact abortion law there. If Dixon and the Republican candidate for attorney general win, they would likely push to enforce the state's pre-Roe ban as opposed to Whitmer and incumbent Attorney General Dana Nessel, who have fought against it.

Whitmer's statement is not the first time progressives have faced criticism for referring to women based on the characteristics of their reproductive system.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter children's book series, took to Twitter to express discontent with the headline of a 2020 Devex op-ed featuring the phrase "people who menstruate" in the headline.

"I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" the author said, referring to the word "women."

Rowling sees the use of phrases such as "people who menstruate" as an example of "erasing the concept of sex."

The phraseology used to replace the word "women" also extends to well-respected educational institutions and medical journals.

Harvard Medical School's Postgraduate and Continuing Education referred to women as "birthing people" in a Nov. 8, 2020 tweet, while medical journal The Lancet faced intense pushback for labeling women "bodies with vaginas."

Supporters of such phrases view them as necessary to include LGBT people, but critics maintain that they are degrading and dehumanizing to women.
Midterms: DeSantis boosts 2024 credentials; Kemp defeats Abrams; Dems flip Senate seat

Republican incumbent governors secured major victories Tuesday night, including a strong performance from a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, while Democrats made it more challenging for Republicans to take control of the U.S. Senate but could still lose control of the House of Representatives.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis strengthened his 2024 presidential prospects with a nearly 20-percentage-point victory over Democrat former Congressman Charlie Crist in a state that former President Donald Trump won the state by less than 4 points in 2020.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp soundly defeated his Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in a closely watched rematch, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defeated former presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke.

While much of the country still tabulates results from Tuesday's election, nearly all of the vote in Florida has been counted. The unofficial results with 99% of the voter reporting show DeSantis, widely viewed as a contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, winning 59.4% of the vote to Crist's 39.9%.

DeSantis won several of the large urban counties in the state with populations of more than 1 million residents that generally vote Democratic in statewide elections, including the state's most populous county of Miami-Dade County.

Additionally, DeSantis won the heavily populated county of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, as well as Palm Beach County.

The solid Republican performance extended to the other marquee statewide race in Florida, including the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic challenger Val Demings. Rubio won a third term in the Senate by a 16-point margin, once again winning the heavily populated counties of Hillsborough, Miami Dade and Palm Beach.

In both the gubernatorial and Senate races in Florida, Republicans outperformed expectations. The final RealClear Politics average of polls measuring voters' intentions in the gubernatorial race gave DeSantis a 12.2-point lead while the final RealClearPolitics average of Senate polls predicted Rubio would win by 8.8 points.

Republicans also performed well in U.S. House races in Florida, winning 20 of the state's 28 congressional districts. Going into the election, Republicans held 16 of the 27 seats, meaning the party picked up four seats in Florida alone. Republicans need a net gain of five seats to reclaim the House majority.

In a rematch with his 2018 opponent, unofficial results show Georgia's Republican Gov. Kemp won more than 50% of the vote in his bid for a second term. With 98% of the vote reporting, Kemp has captured 53.5% of the vote to Abrams' 45.8%, crossing the 50% threshold required to avoid a runoff election.

The results of Georgia's U.S. Senate race, which could determine which party holds the majority for the next two years, remain too close to call and could be headed to a runoff if neither major party candidate receives 50% of the vote.

With 97% of the vote reporting, Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock secured 49.4% of the vote, while Republican challenger Herschel Walker accumulated 48.6% of the vote.

In Texas, Republican Abbott beat 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful O'Rourke and secured a third term as the leader of the nation's second-largest state.

Unofficial results show Abbott leading O'Rourke by a margin of more than 12 percentage points, with 77% of the vote reporting. Unlike Florida and Georgia, Texas did not have a U.S. Senate seat on the ballot this year.

Other Republican politicians with large national profiles won their first bids for political office.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as White House press secretary during part of the Trump administration, was elected the governor of Arkansas. J.D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, won the open Senate seat in Ohio.

While Republicans enjoyed significant victories in the heavily populated sunbelt states and overwhelmingly red states where they routinely win presidential elections by double digits, Democrats may walk away from the 2022 elections with more governorships.

In Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore won the governorship currently held by term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, becoming the first African American governor in the state's history. Unofficial results show Moore winning by a margin of more than 20 points.

In Massachusetts, Democrat Maura Healey won the governorship currently held by retiring Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, becoming the first openly lesbian governor in U.S. history. Unofficial results show Healey winning by nearly 30 points in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. The Democrats' two victories in Maryland and Massachusetts mean that the party currently enjoys a gain of two governorships, although that number could shrink if Republicans win one or more governorships presently held by a Democrat.

The question of what party will control the U.S. Congress for the next two years remains blurry as of early Wednesday morning, more than seven hours after the first polls closed.

With results still pending in several states, Democrats will hold at least 48 Senate seats in the 118th U.S. Congress, while Republicans will control at least 47 seats. The remaining five races are too close to call, although Republicans are expected to hold the seat in Alaska.

In addition to holding their seat in Florida and Ohio, Republicans won the Senate seat in the battleground state of North Carolina.

Democrat John Fetterman won the Republican-held Senate seat in Pennsylvania, meaning that Republicans will have to flip at least two Democrat-held Senate seats to gain the majority, given the current 50-50 split in the chamber.

Incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., held onto her seat, which Republicans hoped to flip. A Republican victory in the U.S. Senate will require the party to hold the Republican-held seat in Wisconsin and flip at least two of the three Democrat-held seats in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.

In the U.S. House, Republicans have won 193 seats while Democrats have secured 166 seats. A party needs to win 218 seats to gain control of the chamber. The New York Times currently gives Republicans an 83% chance of controlling the U.S. House based on the votes that have been counted so far and the ballots outstanding.
Greg Laurie's SoCal Harvest draws 50K attendees, sees over 8,600 decisions for Christ

Pastor Greg Lauries multiday SoCal Harvest evangelistic event was attended by 50,000 people and led to more than 8,600 being called to make decisions to follow Christ.

Held at Angel Stadium in Anaheim last weekend, SoCal Harvest drew approximately 50,000 in-person attendees, an additional 160,000 people watching online, and was carried by around 600 social media pages and radio stations, according to stats shared with The Christian Post.

Musical performances at the two-day event featured notable contemporary Christian music stars, including Jeremy Camp, Phil Wickham, the Newsboys, Andy Mineo and Crowder.

Laurie preached at the gathering, telling those gathered at Angel Stadium and watching online that God changed the course of my life, and He can do that for you.

My hope tonight is not in politicians or world leaders. Its not in technology, money or possessions. Its not even in religion, said Laurie. What we are all looking for is not something you hold in your hand. Its something that happens in your heart in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The gathering also incorporated themes from the upcoming movie Jesus Revolution, a film based on the real-life Christian revival movement that took place in the 1960s and 1970s in Southern California.

The movie centers on how the revival movement personally impacted the life of a young Laurie, who was influenced by a street preacher named Lonnie Frisbee.

The film stars Kelsey Grammer as Pastor Chuck Smith, Jonathan Roumie as Frisbee, and Joel Courtney portraying a young Laurie.

In a statement shared with CP earlier this year, Laurie said the film was about how Jesus moved and sent a spiritual awakening in our lives that is still being felt today.

I am honored to have such a talented, venerated cast and crew tell this story that is so near to my heart and changed my life and our country for eternity, he said.

The Jesus Movement was the last great American spiritual awakening. Some historians have said it was the greatest revival of all time. Now, Im praying for another in our time.

SoCal Harvest is an annual evangelistic event that boasts of having had more than 6 million attendees and at least 600,000 professions of faith since it was first held in 1990.
US Adults Describe Churches As Transcendent, Christian Monastery Discovered In UAE, Anne Wilson's New Book

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Most Americans view church buildings as transcendent spaces, but a new poll shows the majority, including self-identified Christians, do not regularly visit a space they consider transcendent.



A new report compiled by congressional Republicans suggests that the FBI is rotted at its core, citing the targeting of pro-life activists and parents concerned about their childrens education.



A pro-life doctor has pushed back against a National Public Radio reporter's comparison of abortion to childbirth and offered her insight after the news outlet broadcast audio of a woman undergoing a first-trimester abortion.



The discovery of an ancient Christian monastery on an island in the United Arab Emirates purportedly shines a light on the faith's early history before the rise of Islam in the region.
Police officers stand guard at the site of the Itaewon crowd crush, in this Nov. 1 photo. Yonhap



A special investigation team raided a hotel adjoining the site of the deadly Itaewon crowd crush and two other locations Wednesday over suspicions that its illegally extended structures made the narrow place even narrower, officials said.



The investigation team sent 14 investigators to Hamilton Hotel, the home of the hotel's head and another location to seize documents on hotel management and administrative licenses, the officials said.



The hotel's building ledger showed it illegally extended a 17.2-square-meter terrace on its northern side of the main building and installed other illegal structures.



At least 156 people, mostly in their 20s, were killed in the Oct. 29 crowd crush on a downhill alley that runs along the side of the outer wall of Hamilton Hotel. News media and critics have pointed out the hotel's extended structures may have made the narrow alley even narrower.











This image shows a downhill alley in Seoul's Itaewon district / Korea Times file
Pro-life doctor responds to NPR audio of woman undergoing first-trimester abortion

A pro-life doctor has pushed back against a National Public Radio reporter's comparison of abortion to childbirth and offered her insight after the news outlet broadcast audio of a woman undergoing a first-trimester abortion.

As people in Michigan consider Proposal 3 to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right during the midterms, NPR aired audio Friday from host Kate Wells' reporting inside the Northland Family Planning clinic in Sterling.

After interviewing several abortion-minded women, the NPR reporter joined an unnamed woman as she underwent a surgical abortion at 11 weeks pregnant. A loud vacuum-like sound from the suction machine can be heard during the procedure.

A staffer named Brandy tells the woman to "Just keep breathing." At one point, the woman can be heard complaining that she can't breathe. After the abortion is complete, Brandy and abortionist Audrey Lance encourage the woman, cheering, "You did it!"

"Most patients are partially awake during the procedures. They get IV medication for pain and anxiety," the reporter said.

"The lights are dimmed, there's soothing music, it actually feels a lot like a childbirth, in a medical gown, your bare legs and stirrups, and a person next to you, saying, 'You can do this.'"

In an analysis of the audio conducted by the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute and emailed to The Christian Post, OB-GYN Dr. Ingrid Skop outlined how an abortion procedure differs from childbirth.

Skop serves as CLI's director of medical affairs and has over 25 years of experience as an OB-GYN.

"A sharp-toothed grasping instrument, called a tenaculum, is used to grasp the cervix, providing traction as the abortionist inserts progressively larger metal dilators to stretch open the cervix," Skop, who has delivered more than 5,000 babies, wrote.

"Then, as we heard on NPR, the electric vacuum aspirator is turned on so that the abortionist can suction out the unborn baby."

The doctor refutes Planned Parenthood's description of the procedure as a "gentle suction," citing former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino's video breakdown of the procedure.

Levatino, who has conducted over 1,200 abortion procedures, says the electric vacuum aspirator used in a first-trimester surgical abortion has up to "10 to 20 times the suction power of a household vacuum." Skop speculates this is why the mother in the NPR recording can be heard groaning in pain.

Skop said the suction "rips out" the adherent placenta and unborn child. Even after the mother receives pain medication, Skop said a suction that powerful is still likely to hurt.

"Tragically, while the mother's physical pain may be over, there is no guarantee that the emotional pain will subside quickly," she wrote, citing a 2018 study that analyzed a bevy of scientific literature on abortion and its negative impact on women's mental health.

"Surely, our society can offer better solutions to women," the OB-GYN wrote.

Tara Sander Lee, a Harvard-trained scientist who serves as director of life sciences at Charlotte Lozier Institute, pushed back against NPR describing an 11-week-old fetus as "pregnancy tissue." Lee said that by 11 weeks, unborn babies have developed their fingers and toes and display a preference for using "their right or left hand when sucking his thumb."

"By 11 weeks, the baby already had 4,000 distinct anatomical parts, or 90% of the named body parts found in an adult," Lee wrote in a statement. Science confirms that an unborn babys heart is beating rhythmically by 6 weeks. By 11 weeks, the age of the baby aborted in the NPR broadcast, the baby had a heart rate of 168 beats per minute and the heart had already beat over 9 million times."

By 11 weeks, the baby that NPR describes as pregnancy tissue was alive and active," Lee continued. "In fact, scientists have determined that at 11 weeks the unborn baby has brain activity and doesnt stay still for more than 13 minutes at a time. The phrase pregnancy tissue is a cruel exercise in semantics designed to deny or obscure what science knows about the humanity of the baby."

NPR's Wells shared other stories from her investigation in an Oct. 26 article, including a woman named Melissa from Ohio who traveled to Michigan for an abortion. Melissa was a single mother with two kids, working and attending school at the time of the abortion. By the time she had the abortion, the mother was 14 weeks pregnant.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer, Ohio enacted a law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. A judge has placed an indefinite hold on the ban. However, the state's attorney general is appealing to reinstate it.

In response to Roe's reversal, Michigan's Proposal 3 intends to enshrine abortion into the state constitution. Critics of the measure have claimed that it could authorize minors to obtain abortions without parental consent or notice and reduce medical regulations surrounding the practice. However, proponents claim the law wouldn't immediately invalidate parental consent laws unless the issue goes to court.
Community mourns 6 children found dead with parents in suspected murder-suicide

Elected officials and several pastors banded together Sunday with community members at a prayer and healing service hosted by First Baptist Church Broken Arrow in Oklahoma to grieve the loss of six children and their parents found dead less than two weeks ago in what police suspect was a murder-suicide.

Police said on Oct. 27, neighbors reported a house fire near West Houston Street and South Elm Place at around 4 p.m. Authorities later discovered eight bodies inside the burned home, News On 6 reported.

The victims were identified as Brian Nelson, 34; his wife Brittney Nelson, 32; and their six children: Brian II, 13; Brantley, 9; Vegeta, 7; Ragnar, 5; Kurgan, 2; and Britannica, 1.

"Less than two weeks ago, our community experienced a tragedy. And although this tragedy involved one family, it affects all of us because, at Broken Arrow, we are all part of a community that feels a lot like family," First Baptist Broken Arrow Executive Pastor Steve Smith said during the prayer service.

"We love our city, and in times like this, it's also our responsibility, but also our privilege, to do what we can to provide hope and healing."

Rich Mangaro, the pastor of nearby Harvest Church, said when he first got the call about the fire, he was "not expecting what happened." He said he was "heartbroken when the events started to unfold that evening." He was only left with questions asking, "Why?"

Police told the Tulsa World that the children were found dead in the back bedroom of the 980-square-foot home where they lived with their parents.

Brian Nelson's parents, Danny and Marilyn Nelson, told the publication that their son and his wife had been struggling financially for a while, including a $138,000 debt load that included $127,081 in unpaid student loans. Both parents were also unemployed.

"I think the stress was what got to them  trying to figure out how to make it from one month to one month to one month," Danny Nelson told the Tulsa World.

Marilyn Nelson said that years earlier, her son, who owns several guns and reportedly always had one on him, suffered an injury to his head while working in retail. She said he has never been the same mentally since then and has suffered excruciating headaches due to the injury.

"Every time one of those headaches came around, he just would lose it because it was so excruciating," she said.

"I want people to know that at one time, he had all his brain together," the grandmother said. "I just don't understand why they did what they did. I just don't understand why he ended up in that situation. I talk to God all the time  and I just don't understand."

In her remarks Sunday, Broken Arrow Mayor Debra Wimpee blamed the tragedy on mental health "coupled with evil."

"As we gather here today, some still reeling from the tragic deaths of eight residents, six of which were precious, innocent children, seem senselessly that took them from our city and their remaining family," she said. "We seek to make sense of this and to understand the reason why this happened. Unfortunately, this is another example of the need to address mental illness in our nation. Mental illness coupled with evil has tragic endings. Endings we cannot begin to understand."
'Generation Indoctrination': What's being done to protect kids legally from gender ideology?

As gender ideology continues to pervade every realm of culture, legislators and public policy experts alarmed by its effects on children have taken numerous steps to thwart it from taking root in state laws.

When Arkansas state Rep. Robin Lundstrum learned that children in her state were undergoing experimental gender medicalization, she knew she had to act.

At first, I was very surprised, Lundstrum said in the fourth installment of The Christian Posts documentary-style investigative podcast series, "Generation Indoctrination: Inside the Transgender Battle, which was released Friday.

I thought surely not, and the more we investigated, the more we realized it was happening here in Arkansas, she continued, upon being told by one of her legislative colleagues that this was not limited to the East and West Coasts where she knew it was occurring.

Moved to action, Lundstrum was the lead sponsor of the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, prohibiting the chemical and surgical trans-ing of minors in that state. The bill was passed overwhelmingly through both chambers, but then Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, vetoed the measure. With sizable majorities in the House and the Senate, Lundstrum and her colleagues then overrode the veto. The law is currently being contested in federal court.

Its a lot like seeing a car accident. Do you not dial 911? What adult looks the other way when you know this is happening to children? Lundstrum posited. In every state, we set parameters for children under 18. You cant buy spray paint or cough syrup. But we would look the other way while theyre cutting themselves? I dont think so.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of gender-dysphoric females who have undergone medically unnecessary cosmetic surgeries to appear more masculine as they attempt to identify as opposite sex quadrupled from 2016 to 2017.

Jeremy Carl, a Trump administration official who worked in the Department of the Interior and is a contributor to American Greatness, believes that people should face criminal charges and that Americans should put aside politics to prevent children from being harmed.

I think there need to be legal consequences, Carl tells CP in the podcast interview, speaking of those who  if discovered through a subpoena process in a legal context  repressed science and facts in service to an ideology where children wound up abused and permanently maimed.

And ultimately, I think that is a very significant part of where we need to go if we really match the outrage we say we have, he said.

Aside from laws prohibiting the chemical and surgical trans-ing of children, another development on the legal front has been increased protections for parental rights.

Earlier this year in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parents Rights in Education Act, which critics dubbed the Dont Say Gay bill. The law forbids teachers from instructing young students on sexuality and gender identity topics at young ages, from kindergarten through the third grade. The law also requires schools to inform parents if their child expresses an interest in identifying as the opposite sex or is struggling with their gender identity.

For Florida resident January Littlejohn, who was featured in episode one of CPs podcast series and was a proponent of the bill, the legal measure was a welcome development, particularly after the approximately year-and-a-half long nightmare she endured with her daughter mired in gender confusion.

I was happy to see steps being taken to further solidify and protect parental rights in our school system, Littlejohn said, adding that she doesnt think this is going to be the end of what we see.

These laws should not even be necessary in light of current statutes and constitutional provisions, she lamented. Its really going to come down to  holding the schools accountable when their rights are violated.

Littlejohns attorney, Vernadette Broyles, believes the law was needed and that it was to make explicitly clear that schools cannot withhold the information. School officials should have already recognized the rights of parents. But in recent years, they have not, particularly when it comes to gender. The new legislation was to make it unmistakably clear that these rights must be sacrosanct, she said.

That critics have seized upon one sentence in the bill forbidding the instruction of sexual orientation and gender for young ages shows that the agenda of these teachers really is about ideological indoctrination of children into gender identity, she said.

Its an appropriate piece of legislation to ensure parents have the critical information they need to watch over their children while theyre in school.

The final episode of the "Generation Indoctrination" podcast series will be released on Friday and feature the story of a young woman who has detransitioned.
Total lunar eclipse to bring 'blood moon' over US as voters head to the polls for midterm elections

The last total lunar eclipse until 2025 will occur early Tuesday morning, just hours before voters across America start heading to the polls for what could be a pivotal moment in the nations history.

The Nov. 8 lunar eclipse  often referred to as a blood moon due to the reddish hue of the moon as it falls within the umbra, the darkest part of Earths shadow  will be visible across North and Central America, according to NASA.

Just after 3 a.m. EST, the moon will move into whats known as a penumbral eclipse, followed by a partial eclipse just after 4 a.m. NASA predicts the eclipse is expected to reach totality  the stage of the eclipse where the moon is entirely in Earths shadow  between 5:17 a.m. and 6:42 a.m.,

Skywatchers in Alaska and Hawaii will be able to see every stage of the eclipse, while Asia, Australia and New Zealand will see at least some of the show.

After Nov. 8, the next blood moon wont occur until March 14, 2025, which will coincide with the end of Purim, when the Old Testament book of Esther is read by Jews in Israel and around the world.

The last lunar eclipse  which occurs when the Sun, Earth and moon align so that the moon passes into Earths shadow  took place in May during what was dubbed a super flower blood moon.

Scientists believe the cause of the moons reddish hue is due to sunlight passing through Earths atmosphere, where the shorter wavelengths of blue or green are filtered out and longer wavelengths like the stark reddish color punch through and are visible to the naked eye.

Tuesdays astronomical event coincides with what many analysts believe will be a pivotal midterm election in the U.S., with a potential power shift in Congress in favor of Republicans and a number of gubernatorial races up for grabs.

While most voters might not be aware of the blood moon, for students of Bible prophecy, total lunar eclipses are more than a passing interest.

A number of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments refer to the so-called blood moons, most notably Joel 2:31, which reads, The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

That scene is echoed in Acts 2:20, which cites the same prophecy from Joel.

Perhaps the most dramatic reference to a blood moon comes in the final book of the Bible, which foretells of an Earth-shaking event in Revelation 6:12: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood."

In recent years, the blood moon narrative has become something of a cottage industry among Christian prophecy fans, with the release of countless books, DVDs and even feature-length films on the topic.

A series of four consecutive blood moons  known as a tetrad  occurred between April 15, 2014, and Sept. 28, 2015, coinciding with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in both years.

The extremely rare event sparked rampant speculation that the End Times had arrived.

God is shouting to us, Something big is about to happen!" wrote pastor and author John Hagee in 2014.

However, when life continued on as relatively normal following the tetrad, some commentators accused Hagee and others of exploiting the event for personal gain.

Is it all going to stop now? The blood moons are over. The alleged Shemitah is a year gone, and now the highly dubious Jubilee year just ended. And none of the financial asteroids arrived, wrote blogger Jerry Bowyer in 2016.

Despite the commercial hype, Jeff Zweerink, an astrophysicist and senior research scholar at Reasons to Believe, said in an emailed statement to The Christian Post that is blood moon is simply another name for a total lunar eclipse.

"As a rule, every year has between two and seven eclipses (of either the sun or the moon). As far as eclipses visible from North America, there will be one partial lunar and one partial solar eclipse in 2023, three partial lunar eclipses and one total solar eclipse in 2024, and two total lunar eclipses and one partial solar eclipse in 2025. So, technically it is correct that the next blood moon (total lunar eclipse) is in three years, but there will be many lunar and solar eclipses during that time."

Many Americans are tying the blood moon to Tuesdays elections, with Republicans expected to eclipse Democrats and possibly gain a majority in Congress. Zweerink stressed, however, that there is no correlation to be made. The fact that this particular lunar eclipse happens to align with an election day in the United States is nothing unusual. It only happened because the eclipse season happened around November this year.

Speaking to how Christians should use this event for evangelism, he added, Christians should not try to make this an omen of the times. Rather, the fact that eclipses occur reveal the beauty of Gods creation as well as providing tools to advance science."

For example, a total solar eclipse in 1919 was used to verify Einsteins newly proposed General Theory of Relativity. This theory is the most well-tested, successful theory of gravity known to scientists, and the testing scientists have done over the past 100 years provides strong evidence that the universe began  just like the Bible describes in Genesis 1.
New York church challenges state ban on firearms in houses of worship

A church in New York state has filed a lawsuit over a new law banning guns in houses of worship despite rising concerns about church security.

The law firm First Liberty Institute has filed a lawsuit on behalf of His Tabernacle Family Church and Pastor Micheal Spencer. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York Thursday, challenges the states newly enacted Senate Bill S51001, which prohibits carrying firearms in sensitive locations, including houses of worship.

The Democrat-controlled New York state Senate approved the measure on a party-line vote as the Democrat-controlled Assembly approved the bill over the opposition of nine Democrats and all Republicans. New Yorks Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul promptly signed it into law.

The complaint suggests that by enacting Senate Bill S51001, New York state was disregarding two recent Supreme Court decisions finding that state laws and policies had infringed on its citizens First and Second Amendment rights. It specifically cited the courts 2020 ruling in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, which determined that the state had imposed unconstitutional worship restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic and a 2022 ruling invalidating the states exceedingly restrictive concealed-carry licensing regime.

Singling out houses of worship for total disarmament demonstrates hostility toward religion, leaves them defenseless to rebuff violent attacks, and defies at least two recent Supreme Court rulings against New York. said First Liberty Senior Counsel Jordan Pratt In a statement shared with The Christian Post. Religious leaders are no less qualified than secular business owners to determine whether to allow carrying a firearm for self-defense, and New York should end its defiant assault on First and Second Amendment freedoms.

Erin Murphy of the law firm Clement & Murphy, which is also representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, added: No American should be forced to sacrifice one constitutionally protected freedom to enjoy another. Houses of worship have a constitutionally protected freedom to decide for themselves whether to allow otherwise legally possessed firearms into their facilities.

One of the defendants in the lawsuit, First Deputy Superintendent of New York State Police Steven Nigrelli, warned that if you violate this law, you will be arrested.

Other defendants in the lawsuit are Chemung County District Attorney Weeden Wetmore and Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, the top law enforcement officials in two of the three counties where His Tabernacle Family Church has campuses. The church has a third location in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, which is unaffected by New York's law.

Spencer has a concealed carry permit and kept a firearm on him at both of his New York locations and the Pennsylvania campus before the new law took effect. He allowed his congregants to do the same until S51001 was enacted and continues to allow those attending services at the Pennsylvania location to carry firearms.

The complaint noted Spencers concern that someone planning to harm him or kill his flock will not be deterred by S51001, and may in fact be emboldened by it since it leaves houses of worship defenseless against those bent on doing violence to people of faith. It stressed that Pastor Spencer regularly receives threatening mail, and he has received at least two death threats that necessitated the involvement of law enforcement.

In one incident, an individual threatened to shoot Pastor Spencer and his late wife in the head with a .45 caliber pistol. In another, Pastor Spencers mentally disturbed neighbor made threats during and after a church service, then fired his gun while the pastor was at home, the lawsuit added. In addition to these threats targeted at Pastor Spencer himself, the Church has been burglarized and vandalized on multiple occasions.

In recent months, following the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organizationthat determined that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion, churches have found themselves subject to varying degrees of vandalism, although no one has been hurt thus far. The lawsuit did not specify when the threats and vandalism directed at His Tabernacle Family Church and Spencer took place.

In recent years, churches and houses of worship have found themselves subject to mass shootings. Most notably, a 2017 massacre at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, left more than a dozen people dead and nearly a dozen others injured.

Earlier this year, a Chinese man shot and killed one person and wounded four other churchgoers at the Taiwanese Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California.

In 2015, Dylann Roof opened fire at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine.

Synagogues have also become targets of mass shootings, with a 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a 2019 shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California, among the most prominent examples.

The lawsuit asks a judge to rule that the new law violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Second Amendment. It also seeks payment of the plaintiffs attorneys fees and nominal damages.
Faux term 'Christian nationalist' used in political warfare

The label Christian nationalist is appearing more frequently and is being used to silence people of faith, according to experts.

Dr. Mark David Hall, an author and professor at George Fox University, recently discussed the history behind the term. He argues that the political Left started using it well over a decade ago to label Christians who bring their faith into the public square for ends they dont like.

National security and intelligence expert Dr. Stephen Coughlin similarly argues the label is part of a politically driven effort to suppress religious opinions that defy modern orthodoxy and Leftist ideology:

What they did was they created a faux term Christian nationalism, and they gave it all these negative attributes and then used that to attack Christians. Its part of what you call an intersectional line of attack in a political warfare model, which is the Maoist insurgency model, which we believe is the premier principal form of Marxism.

Former congresswoman and current dean of the Regent University School of Government, Michele Bachmann, contends the surge in use is no coincidence, especially so close to a midterm election. She explains:

Its all about holding on to power. Thats what its about. Theres only one party in power now in the United States, in Washington, D.C. They dont want to let it go  And what they have seen is the power of the Church, the epicenter of power in the United States. Opposing their agenda is the Church and the principles of the Bible. They dont like pastors preaching on issues. They dont like congregants being inspired from the Bible. And so thats why were the target. They want to silence us.

What exactly does Christian nationalism mean? There is no settled definition, but broadly speaking, radicals use Christian nationalism to conflate racism, white supremacy and identity, religion, and patriotism. They often add in fascism, theocracy, and authoritarianism.

An attack on religious liberty and Americas founding values

The use of the Christian nationalist label contradicts the principles and values of our country. Its perpetual misuse is especially harmful to religious liberty.

Among the many problems is how it demonizes public prayer and virtually any other commonplace religious activity. Whether a political leader or an everyday person, anytime there is a public expression of faith, the term is leveled against them as wanting to establish a Christian theocracy.

In other words, if a citizen exercises their constitutionally protected and inalienable right to religious freedom, that person runs the risk of being labeled a Christian nationalist. And once you carry that label, it essentially means youre a pariah, someone who should be vilified and not allowed to participate in the marketplace or society.

This, of course, is nothing new. As Dr. Coughlin explained, this is a tactic straight out of the Marxist playbook. Whenever a political force wants to wield power and authority, religious people and religious liberty are the first ones on the target list.

Radicals and dictators know fully well that houses of worship and people of faith are the ultimate check on authoritarian power. Their allegiance is not to the government. A free people know their loyalty is to God above all, the true provider and source of our freedoms. If a tyrant succeeds at destroying religious freedom and religious institutions, they can remove the most effective challenge to their rule.

Vilifying the faithful is a timeless tool of authoritarians. Liberally tossing around the Christian nationalist label and slapping it on anyone who lives out their faith is a direct attack on religious freedom. Make no mistake. Radicals want to normalize the use of this loaded term to chip away and destroy one of the building blocks of our republic.

Loving God and country

The political Left regularly screams Christian nationalism when a person of faith shows patriotism and pride in their country. If you say America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, youll quickly be accused of trying to establish a theocracy. But thats simply not true and is based on a wildly distorted view of our nations history.

This use of Christian nationalism typically relies on a misguided understanding of the separation of Church and State, which radicals interpret to mean that there can be no intersection between religion and government. They claim that any religious expression or influence in the public square cannot be tolerated, because it would violate this strict wall of separation.

Understood in context, however, the separation of Church and state does not mean religious exercise or prayer is banned on government property. This phrase doesnt even appear in the text of the Constitution. The original intent was never to keep religion locked inside the walls of a church or synagogue. Instead, it was to protect houses of worship and religious people from state intrusion and harassment. Its misleading to argue that government and religion should never, under any circumstances, be mixed together.

Additionally, no matter how much secularists or the political Left deny it, the United States was, in fact, founded by people who valued biblical principles. From George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other Founders, an overwhelming majority of them expressed belief in the Divine, a Creator who is the ultimate grantor of our rights and freedoms, as is clearly referenced in the Declaration of Independence. One of the foremost constitutional theorists of the founding generation, John Adams, observed, Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Americas Founders were a prime example that faith and patriotism are not mutually exclusive. They demonstrated that its possible to serve God and be committed to the American constitutional experience  to the cause of liberty, human rights, representative democracy, and the rule of law.

More than two centuries later, a strong majority of Americans still believe in this truth. Pew Research recently found 60% of Americans think the Founders originally intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation. However, 52% said the federal government should never declare an official religion. This shows that most people believe in the core principles of the First Amendment. That is, we can freely worship God while also cherishing our system of government.

Being a religious person who also loves their nation does not make one a Christian nationalist. Quite the opposite. Someone who serves God and country is embodying the best of Americas traditions. Were a nation built on religious freedom, which means Christians  and people of any faith  do not have to be forced to choose between loving our republic and loving the One True God.

Originally published at First Liberty.
Racial admissions preferences: Constitutional or not?

Should the race of a minority student who is applying to a college or university give him or her a decided preference over other applicants? This is the question that a group of college-bound students and their parents are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to address. They want the answer that the court gives to be an unambiguous, no.

The two cases are Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. Who are these litigants?

The plaintiffs are members of a non-profit organization, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). They are applicants that have been either denied admission or are likely to be denied admission to the two schools which are the defendants  Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The students argue that the reason they were turned down is that those schools favor members of minority racial groups for admission. These students are not members of those groups and maintain that their academic credentials are clearly superior to those admitted from the favored groups. They argue that such an approach to admissions violates either the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The students and their legal counsel are asking the court to reject the holding and reasoning of the most recent case in which the court allowed race to play a part in admissions  Grutter v. Bolinger (2003).

How did we get to this point?

In the early 1970s, Allan Bakke, a would-be medical student seeking admission to UC Davis Medical School, sued the school after being twice rejected. Bakke was challenging the practice of the reservation of a certain number of seats in the entering class for minority applicants, even though their scores and academic records were inferior to his. Though Bakke won his case, the Supreme Court opinion that resulted, Regents of University of California v. Bakke, introduced confusion into college and university admissions nationwide for decades.

The decision was a rarity, described as 4-1-4. Two groups of justices, four conservatives and four liberals, disagreed on the result. The opinion of the ninth justice, Lewis Powell, was an attempt to join portions of both groups opinions in order to allow an overall decision.

Consequently, part of Powells opinion agreed with the conservative justices who said that race could not be the sole or isolated factor upon which to base a positive admissions decision. Numerical quotas were unconstitutional, and special set-asides that UC Davis was using were out.

At the same time, Powell joined the liberal wing by saying that race could be a factor along with many others in the admissions decision. He also rejected the liberal justices claim that racial preferences were necessary to overcome past racial discrimination. However, he allowed that a diverse student body would produce a robust exchange of ideas, in other words a sort of intellectual diversity that was desirable for an educational institution. The result was that both sides claimed at least a partial victory.

The ambiguity of Bakke continued until 1998 when two young women, Barbara Grutter and Jennifer Gratz, represented by the Center for Individual Rights, challenged the racially preferential admissions practices of the University of Michigan. Neither were members of minority groups. Both had applied to Michigan, but unsuccessfully. Gratz was rejected by the undergraduate college at Michigan and Grutter was denied admission to the University of Michigan Law School. The cases made their way to the Supreme Court for the 2002-2003 term. Unfortunately, the court perpetuated the confused holdings of Bakke. In both cases, the race of an applicant was allowed to be retained as a plus for admissions. However, in Gratz the court found in Jennifer Gratzs favor because the undergraduate college at U of M had made race decisive in the admission decision with a point system that the opinion called mechanical.

However, the court upheld the Law Schools admissions practices even though it used racial classifications that clearly skewed admissions decisions. Justice Sandra Day OConnors opinion recognized that although racial classifications used by public universities should be strictly scrutinized by the court because their use was suspect, the law schools classifications were, nevertheless, justified. Why? Because they were furthering certain compelling state interests. Those compelling interests were produced by its admissions policies which guaranteed a racially diverse student body. That diverse student body in turn yielded laudable educational benefits such as increasing cross-cultural understanding, the breaking down of racial stereotypes, and the better preparing of law students to participate in a diverse workforce.

But did these benefits reach the level of being compelling? OConnors opinion left that assessment entirely to the universitys educational expertise. OConnor wrote: The Law Schools educational judgment that such diversity is essential to its educational mission is one to which we defer (emphasis mine).

Commentators Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr. sum up the harmful effects of Bakke and Grutter: [T]he Courts holdings were half-measures that effectively encouraged schools to obscure the workings of their preference policies. Both opinions emboldened many schools to perpetuate and even enlarge their racial preferences. That result became so pronounced and obvious that it led to the two cases involving Students for Fair Admissions which are before the court this term.

In both the cases  the Harvard case and the UNC case  lengthy trials unearthed considerable factual evidence which showed that race played an important and repeated part during the admission process. That is precisely what the plaintiff students find unfair and unconstitutional. Here are some examples from the Harvard case:

Preferential treatment began with early recruiting. Harvard recruited high school African American and Hispanic students with PSAT (Preliminary SAT) of scores of 1100 or above. However, it did not recruit white or Asian American students unless they had scored at least 1350 on the same test.

Preferential treatment continued as the new entering class was constructed. As the freshman class was forming each year, Harvard closely and regularly monitored the projected racial make-up of the class by using one-pagers. These documents kept track of the new classs racial composition on a daily basis comparing last years class, in terms of race, with the new class being formed.

The Dean of Admissions also periodically informed admissions officers about the racial contours the new class was taking. It was clear that this information was aimed at keeping the racial composition of the class, similar by race, to the previous years class.

As the new class took more and more shape, Harvard engaged in loping off certain tentatively accepted applicants in order to bring its class into racial balance.

Testimony by plaintiffs experts reviewed the test scores and GPAs of similarly qualified Harvard applicants organized by race. An Asian American in the 4th lowest decile (bottom 40%) in terms of his academic credentials had virtually no chance of admission (0.9%). However, an African American whose scores put him in the same academic decile had a substantially higher chance of admission (12.8%) and, remarkably, that African American student had a slightly higher chance of admission than an Asian America applicant whose academic credentials put him in the top decile, that is the top 10% of those applying.

Harvards own Office of Institutional Research agreed that the admission process put Asian American applicants at a disadvantage and that being Asian was a negative for getting into Harvard. Note: Although Asian Americans were a minority group, they were not a favored minority group.

Grutter also required colleges and universities which were using race to determine if there were alternative admission practices that would be race-neutral and yet provide a diverse student body. Both UNC and Harvard were presented during the legal proceedings with proposals for race-neutral restructuring of their admissions practices. Those proposals called for eliminating racial preferences, as well as preferences for children of donors, alumni, and faculty/staff. In addition, by reducing preferences for recruited athletes and increasing scholarships for applicants in lower socio-economic groups (defined in a race-neutral way), the likelihood of true student diversity was maintained. In other words, an entering class under race-neutral alternative plans displayed a variety (diversity) of backgrounds, geographic differences, experiences, and viewpoints, and yes, racial differences. All this could be accomplished without using race in the way it was being used. Harvard and UNC both rejected these alternatives as unworkable.

The plaintiffs also argued in their briefs that in California, where race-based admissions had been banned by law, universities there were nevertheless able to restructure their admissions in a race-neutral way and still achieve the diversity of the student entrants that those universities desired. Other states had also abided by similar bans while retaining true diversity.

The late Justice Scalia was prescient in his dissent in Grutter. He complained that instead of a clear constitutional holding that racial preferences in state educational institutions are impermissible, the court rendered the Grutter-Gratz split double header that was perversely designed to prolong the controversy and litigation. That is exactly what has happened.

And now, the court has an opportunity to repudiate Grutter and eliminate race from admissions decisions by state institutions or private ones which receive federal monies. Justice Thomas forcefully explains why racial preferences in admissions should not continue: Every time the government places citizens on racial registers and makes race relevant to the provision of burdens or benefits, it demeans us all.
Archbishop tells G20 event Christianity 'on the very edge of extinction' in Iraq

Speaking at a G20 event centered on religion's role in helping solve global problems, an Iraqi archbishop warns that Christianity in his country is "on the very edge of extinction."

The Most Rev. Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, spoke last week at the G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia, an event attended by more than 300 religious leaders from across the globe.

He gave a speech titled "The Future of Religious Pluralism: A Warning from Iraq," a copy of which was emailed to The Christian Post.

During his remarks, the archbishop stressed that "sectarian violence" is a significant problem in Iraq. This country suffered the rise of an Islamic State stronghold during the last decade in which thousands of Iraqi religious minorities were killed, enslaved or forced to flee their homelands.

Warda stated, "without an end to this sectarian violence, there is no future for religious pluralism in Iraq, or anywhere else in the Mideast for that matter."

"The brutal logic of this is that there does eventually reach an end point where there are no minorities left to kill, and no minorities left to persecute," said Warda.

"Such is the bleak future of religious pluralism in Iraq today. As I share with you this experience, I pray that you will find in our story a clear warning to you all."

Warda noted that after around 1,900 years of existing in the region, "we Christians of Iraq now find ourselves on the very edge of extinction."

"Our Christian ancestors shared with Muslim Arabs a deep tradition of thought and philosophy and engaged with them in dialogue respectfully since the eighth century A.D. The Arabic Golden Age, historian Philip Jenkins has noted, was built on Chaldean and Syriac scholarship," he continued.

"Now we face the end in Iraq, the same end faced by the Iraqi Jews before us, and the same end now being faced by the Yazidis, with whom we have suffered so much pain, alongside us."

There is "a fundamental crisis of violence within Islam" that "can no longer be ignored," Warda said, adding that it "continues to affect the entire Middle East, Africa, Asia and beyond."

"And if this crisis is not acknowledged, addressed, and fixed, then there can be no future for Christians or any other form of religious pluralism in the Middle East," the archbishop said.

"Indeed, there is little reason to see a future for anyone in the Middle East, including within the Islamic world itself, other than in the context of continued violence, revenge, and hatred."

Warda acknowledged that "we Christians have too often embraced the most radical and violent interpretations of our faith," looking at the Second Vatican Council's official recognition of religious freedom in 1962 as a critical turning point.

"This is where we Iraqi Christians are today: not forgetting, but still forgiving. Can our Muslim brothers and sisters follow us in this, or will their own story of violence continue, destroying themselves eventually?" he asked.

"Fundamentally, this change in direction can only come about as the conscious work of the Islamic world itself."

Open Doors USA, a watchdog group that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Iraq as the 14th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution.

Although Christians in Iraq once numbered around 1.5 million, that number has fallen to below 200,000 today as the Christian population has deteriorated since the United States military intervention began in 2003.

Although the Islamic State's stronghold in Nineveh Plains was eradicated in 2017, the country remains plagued by conflicts that "gravely affect the country's minority Christian population," according to Open Doors.

"In June 2020, Christian villages were bombed in Turkey's largest operation in the area since 2015, forcing many Christians to flee," an Open Doors factsheet reads. "In May 2021, Christian villages were evacuated following Turkish bombing in the region. Christians were not protected by the local government."

Additionally, Christians are impacted by intolerance and persecution mostly perpetuated by militant Islamic groups and non-Christian leaders.

Although a committee has been established to help Christians displaced by the Islamic State return to their homes, Open Doors reports that many are reluctant to do so because they don't believe they'll be safe upon return.

The G20 Religion Forum was organized by Nahdlatul Ulama, a prominent politically moderate Islamic organization based in Indonesia.

According to a statement emailed to CP, the forum is the first main event for the G20 summit focused on how religion can help solve global issues.

Key objectives for the gathering included preventing "the weaponization of identity," curtailing "the spread of communal hatred," protecting "human beings from violence and suffering precipitated by conflict," fostering "honest and realistic conversation within and between religious communities" and working to "infuse geopolitical and economic power structures with moral and spiritual values."

Other attendees included Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto in northern Nigeria, another country impacted by deadly violence.

A gathering of 19 countries plus the European Union aimed at addressing issues surrounding the global economy, the G20 Heads of State and Government Summit is scheduled for Nov. 15-16.
Archaeologists discover Christian monastery in UAE that may predate Islam

The discovery of an ancient Christian monastery on an island in the United Arab Emirates purportedly might shine a light on the faith's early history before the rise of Islam in the region.

As The Associated Press reports, archeologists found the monastery on Siniyah Island, a dune in the UAE city of Umm al-Quwain that lies about 30 miles northeast of Dubai on the Persian Gulf. It is the second monastery discovered in the Emirates that could be as many as 1,400 years old.

Last Thursday, UAE Culture and Youth Minister Noura bint Mohammed al-Kaabi, Sheikh Majid bin Saud Al Mualla and the Chairman of the Umm al-Quwain's Tourism and Archaeology Department Sheikh Majid bin Saud Al Mualla visited the site.

UAE's Culture Ministry is sponsoring the ongoing dig, which is taking place near the vicinity of buildings belonging to a village that predates Islam.

The carbon dating sample of the recently discovered monastery's foundation dates between 534 and 656 A.D. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in 570 A.D. and is believed to have died in 632 A.D. after conquering Mecca in what is now known as Saudi Arabia.

The monastery's floor plan suggests Christians worshipped in a single-aisle church. A second building near the structure containing four rooms may have housed a church leader. Other rooms inside the monastery hold a baptismal and an oven for baking communion bread or wafers.

Another section of the building, known as a nave, likely held an altar and a place for communion wine.

In the early 1990s, archaeologists discovered the first Christian monastery in the UAE, on Sir Bani Yas Island. The structure dates back to the same time period as the recently discovered monastery in Umm al-Quwain.

Timothy Power, an associate professor of archaeology at the United Arab Emirates University, who helped investigate the Umm al-Quwain monastery, described the present UAE as a "melting pot of nations."

"The fact that something similar was happening here 1,000 years ago is really remarkable and this is a story that deserves to be told," Power told AP.

Today, just over 12% of the UAE population is Christian.

According to a 2021 U.S. Department of State report, UAE's constitution declares that Islam is the country's official religion but allows freedom of worship that does not conflict with public policy. The law also prohibits religious discrimination and criminalizes acts of "religious hatred."

"According to non-Muslim religious community representatives, there was a high degree of societal tolerance for minority religious beliefs and traditions, particularly for those associated with houses of worship officially recognized by the federal or local emirate governments, although conversion from Islam was strongly discouraged," the State Department's annual International Religious Freedom report states.

In 2019, UAE announced plans to open the Abrahamic Family House on Saadiyat Island near Abu Dhabi. The complex will house a church, synagogue and mosque to promote religious harmony and bridge adherents of the three Abrahamic religions.

The archaeological examination of other historical Christian sites throughout the Middle East has provided insight into several military conquests depicted in the Bible.

According to a study published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a new dating technique allowed researchers to link archaeological contexts with Old Testament accounts of military campaigns against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The study, conducted by Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, purportedly dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel.

Twenty researchers from different countries and disciplines used archaeomagnetic dating to gather readings from ancient geomagnetic fields preserved through time to track changes.

Specific archaeological findings, such as pottery, bricks and roof tiles can record the Earth's temperatures when heated. The findings' magnetic minerals remagnetize when subjected to high temperatures, with scientists using this to connect them with the Earth's geomagnetic field at the time this occurred.

The researchers claim their findings indicate that 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. However, the team also stated that their research shows that Hazael did not conquer Tel Beth-Shean.

Other geomagnetic findings appear to confirm theories that Edom took advantage of Jerusalem's fall and razed parts of Southern Judah to the ground.

One of the project's supervising professors, Erez Ben Yosef, highlighted the team's discoveries about the Kingdom of Judah and its end. According to the professor, the kingdom's last days are still hotly debated.

"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 magnetic results in the study appear to support the idea that the Babylonians were not solely responsible for Judah's demise.

"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.

Yoav Vaknin of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology and one of the study's lead authors said in an Oct. 25 interview with The Times of Israel that the study is the first to have a "large enough database" to conduct reliable archaeomagnetic dating.
Taxi driver attacked with knives after sharing Gospel with passenger in India

HYDERABAD, India  A Christian pastor in northern India who drives a taxi for a living didnt think he had anything to fear when a well-mannered Sikh asked him to take a slight detour.

Pastor Sukhdev Mark, 47, had dropped him off the previous night at a hotel in Ambala, Haryana state after picking him up from a gurdwara, or Sikh place of worship. During their conversation, Pastor Mark gave him a Gospel tract, which the Sikh politely accepted, he said.

The Sikh called him the next day, Sept. 15, requesting that he take him from the hotel to the airport in Amritsar.

I said, Fine, I have no problem, then he asked me again, Are you a pastor? Pastor Mark said. I told him, yes, I lead a small church and also share the Gospel, and I drive a taxi for a living.

The Sikh told him to pick him up at the hotel at 4 p.m., he said.

Throughout the journey to Amritsar, we didnt talk much, said Pastor Mark, a married father of two. He was working on his laptop and had an iPhone, and so I thought he must be an educated man. I didnt find him suspicious as he appeared to be a well-educated gentleman. He asked for my phone and set the location for directions to follow the route.

As they approached the Celebrations Resort on the Majitha-Verka bypass road, the Sikh asked him to take a small by-lane, Pastor Mark said.

There were some shops and, I thought he would want to buy some refreshments or snacks, he said. But he asked me to drive out of the by-lane, and as we got out of that route adjacent to the resort, three men came on a scooter and stopped the taxi on the main road.

The Activa scooter didnt have a license plate, he said. Pastor Mark asked the Sikh if he knew the men, and he replied that they were friends.

I parked the taxi on the other side of the road and stood there, he said. He asked me to take his bags out of the trunk, and when I went to the rear side of the taxi to take the bags out, the three men pounced on me with knives. They had cutters and knives and started slashing me as the Sardarji [title used for Sikh men] looked on.

The assailants cut his hands and caused internal injuries in his abdomen, he said.

I was bleeding profusely, and I started shouting for help, Pastor Mark told Morning Star News. When I started shouting for help, the three assailants crossed the road and ran away, and the Sardarji also was trying to escape from the scene.

Pastor Mark ran after him, shouting for him to stop.

He too ran in the same direction as the assailants, he said. He didnt pay me the taxi fare and instead was cussing at me as he ran from there.

The pastor was unable to catch up with him, he said. It was about 9 p.m.

Hearing my screams, escort teams [hotel security guards] came in their vehicles but they were afraid seeing my state in blood-soaked clothes, he said. They told me to go away from there. I kept asking them to tell me where is the nearest police station, and I shared what happened.

He tied a piece of cloth from his car around his waist to support his injured stomach and drove with one hand to the police station, he said. After Amritsar police confiscated the taxi and took his statement, officers took him to a hospital, he said. There he called his wife and Christian leaders in Ambala, and they helped connect him to church leaders in Amritsar who transferred him to Gurunanak Hospital.

But that night, I didnt receive any treatment, he said. By morning, I was in a bad state. The doctors told me that I should be operated on immediately.

Surgery on his abdomen left him with 30 stitches, he said. He was released from the hospital on Sept. 23.

The Punjab and Haryana states legal coordinator for ADF India said Amritsar police apprehended and charged the three assailants with attempted murder under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code.

Sikhism, which originated in the Punjab area of India at the end of the 15th century, emphasizes faith in the name of the one creator, divine unity and equality of all humankind, selfless service, striving for justice and honesty.

Deliverance

Previously an alcoholic and ardent worshipper of Hindu deities, Pastor Mark first heard about Christ from other taxi drivers in 2007, he said.

He half-heartedly practiced the faith until he attended an open-air Gospel meeting where the preacher spoke of the evil spirits of addictions and deliverance from alcoholism and drugs, he said.

He cast out the demonic spirit in me, and I never touched alcohol from that day on, Pastor Mark said. I stopped speaking in foul language and decided to follow Christ wholeheartedly.

He began undertaking Gospel outreaches with church friends, he said.

Although I have not been formally trained at a Bible school, God gave me opportunities to learn practical lessons from evangelists and bishops as I drove them on ministry work by my taxi, he told Morning Star News. By Gods grace, with the support of believers and Christian leaders, I was able to plant three home churches in surrounding villages.

The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.

India ranked 10th on the Christian support organization Open Doors' 2022 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, as it was in 2021. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Modi came to power.
A police officer unwraps a Hyundai Motor electric vehicle as it is prepared for the G20 summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 1. EPA-Yonhap





An electric vehicle is prepared for the upcoming G20 summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, 01 November 2022. Indonesia will use around 500 electric cars as official vehicles during the G20 Summit in Bali in 2022.







Wireless charging for electric vehicles will be available in Korea next month as part of the country's deregulation plans in the information technology sector, the ICT ministry said Wednesday.







The Ministry of Science and ICT said in a report submitted to a government meeting on regulatory reforms presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo that it will revise related rules to allocate frequency bands for wireless EV charging.







It said it will announce frequency spectrums for contactless EV charging before the end of this year after completing legal procedures next month.







Wireless charging is regarded as one of the key infrastructure projects to foster zero-carbon vehicles, helping EV owners get their vehicle charged by just parking it on a parking spot or even while driving.







In line with the deregulation plan, the ministry said it will expand the use of portable devices based on ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, a radio-based communication technology for short-range use, and fast and stable transmission of data.







When interacting with internet-connected devices, the technology helps users unlock doors without even pulling their phone out of their pocket or find keys or earbuds under a sofa.







The Korean government has kept businesses from using the UWB technology at frequencies above 500 MHz, citing possible interference with communications radio waves from airplanes and ships.







From next month, the frequency limit will be lifted for smart devices whose UWB function is off when they enter an area with possible radio interference, the ministry added. (Yonhap)


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.




Prosecutors indicted a close confidant of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday on charges of receiving illegal political funds worth 847 million won ($591,000) from property developers in the city of Seongnam, just south of Seoul.







The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said it referred Kim Yong, deputy head of the Institute for Democracy, a think tank affiliated with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), for court trial on suspicion of violating the political fund law.







Kim was arrested on Oct. 19 on suspicion of taking the funds from Seongnam's property developers, including lawyer Nam Wook, last year in collusion with Yoo Dong-gyu, former acting president of Seongnam Development Corp., and another lawyer Chung Min-yong.







Prosecutors suspect the 847 million won was handed over to Kim on four occasions between April and August last year ahead of the DP's primary election to pick its candidate to run for this year's presidential election.







They believe the money was used to help fund Lee's primary election campaign. Lee won the party's presidential nomination later last year but was defeated by a narrow margin by President Yoon Suk-yeol in the presidential election in March this year.







Kim has flatly denied all the charges but prosecutors have said all statements of those involved, including Nam, Yoo and Chung, about how the money was delivered are consistent.







Following Kim's indictment, prosecutors are expected to expand their investigations to include corruption allegations by another confidant of Lee, named Jeong Jin-sang. (Yonhap)


Stacks of documents are moved into the Seoul Central Prosecutors Office, Nov. 8. Yonhap



Prosecutors raided the headquarters of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the home of one of party leader Lee Jae-myung's closest confidants Wednesday over suspicions that he received bribes from real estate developers.



The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sent investigators to the house of Jeong Jin-sang, a vice chief of staff to Lee, to seize evidence related to the allegations, officials said.



Prosecution investigators were also sent to search the DPK headquarters in Seoul's Yeouido, where Jeong's office is located, but got into a standoff with party officials blocking the entrance. The secretarial office for Lee at the National Assembly was also subject to the raid.



Jeong, known as Lee's "right-hand man," is one of the party leader's two closest aides, along with Kim Yong, deputy head of the DPK's Institute for Democracy think tank.



Jeong was accused of having received nearly 140 million won ($101,973) from real estate developers at the center of a high-profile property development corruption scandal in the Daejang-dong district of Seongnam, south of Seoul, between 2013 and 2020, in return for business favors.



The raid came a day after prosecutors indicted Kim on charges of receiving 847 million won in illegal political funds from the property developers.



Prosecutors suspect Jeong leaked real estate development information he obtained while working for the Seongnam municipal and the Gyeonggi provincial governments to the real estate developers, including lawyer Nam Wook, to help them amass massive profits from the Daejang-dong project.



Prosecutors also suspect Jeong and Kim have been in a close relationship since 2010, and were treated to drinking parties and given holiday presents by the developers.



Jeong is also suspected of having attempted to silence former acting President Yoo Dong-gyu of Seongnam Development Corp., a key suspect in the scandal, ahead of a prosecution raid into Yoo's home in September last year.



Lee was serving as Seongnam mayor when the development project in the city was launched in 2015. Jeong served as a high-level aide to Lee during his Seongnam mayoral term and then moved on to become a ranking aide again to Lee after he assumed the Gyeonggi governorship.



Both Lee and Jeong have flatly refuted the suspicions.



Prosecutors are expected to summon Jeong soon for questioning, and then the focus of the investigation is widely expected to be directed toward whether Lee had been involved in the suspected bribery or aware of it. (Yonhap)


From family-class sponsorship and work permits to temporary and permanent residence, here is a summary of Canadian immigration pathways for U.S. residents.

How can I move to Canada from the U.S.? From family-class sponsorship and work permits to temporary and permanent residence, here is a summary of Canadian immigration pathways for U.S. residents.

How can I move to Canada from the U.S.? From family-class sponsorship and work permits to temporary and permanent residence, here is a summary of Canadian immigration pathways for U.S. residents.

How can I move to Canada from the U.S.? From family-class sponsorship and work permits to temporary and permanent residence, here is a summary of Canadian immigration pathways for U.S. residents. Vimal Sivakumar Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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As a resident of the U.S. looking to immigrate to Canada, you have several options at your disposal.



The option you pursue will depend on your individual circumstances and goals.

Achieving your Canadian immigration goal will require U.S. residents to meet specific criteria aligned with the program they apply for.

Economic Class: Express Entry

Express Entry is the Canadian governments primary method for bringing foreign skilled workers to this country but it is not a Canadian immigration program itself. Express Entry is simply the name given to the online system used to cumulatively manage skilled worker applications from three different programs  the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).

The Express Entry system works by granting an Invitation to Apply (ITA)  a requirement to apply for permanent residence in Canada through Express Entry  to the top-scoring candidates in the pool.

Express Entrys process for handing out ITAs relies on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), which scores and ranks candidates in all three above programs (the CEC, FSWP, and FSTP) based on a variety of factors. Based on a cut-off score that changes prior to every bi-weekly Express Entry draw, ITAs will be sent out to a number of the highest-scoring Express Entry candidates that can then submit an application for Canadian permanent residence.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

Economic Class: Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP)

Canada has Provincial Nominee Programs in 11 of the countrys 13 combined provinces and territories, excluding Quebec and Nunavut, which allow each province to hand-pick immigration hopefuls that they believe will help them address labour market needs particular to the region.

There are two types of PNPs: enhanced programs, which are aligned with Express Entry; and base programs which operate independently from the Express Entry system.

Enhanced programs pull from the Express Entry pool of candidates. A provincial nomination through one of these PNPs will add 600 points added to a candidates CRS score for Express Entry. This will essentially guarantee that any PNP recipient will receive an ITA in a subsequent Express Entry draw.

Meanwhile, base PNPs can be an option for people ineligible for Express Entry. To immigrate through a base PNP, you apply to the province, and if you are eligible, get a nomination. With your certificate in hand, you can then apply for permanent residence in Canada through the federal government.

Work: the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA)

As of July 2020, the agreement formerly known as NAFTA was replaced by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Through CUSMA, residents of the U.S. have a simpler path to working in Canada because the employer that they work for in this country will be permitted to skip the lengthy and sometimes expensive process involved with filling out a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).

An LMIA assesses the expected impact of introducing a foreign national to Canadas labour market. So long as an employer can demonstrate that hiring a foreign worker will have either a positive or neutral impact on Canadas labour market, this process should go smoothly.

CUSMA work permits break down into the following four categories.

CUSMA Professionals: People who qualify as CUSMA Professionals must be equipped to work in Canada in one of approximately 60 targeted occupations. CUSMA Professionals are required to have pre-arranged employment in Canada, or a service contract with a Canadian company, in an occupation that corresponds to their professional qualifications. They may also be required to provide education credentials and proof of work experience depending on their targeted occupation.

CUSMA Intra-Company Transfers (ICTs): Under this category, CUSMA ICTs who are being temporarily transferred to work for the Canadian branch, subsidiary or affiliate of their US or Mexican employer must be presently employed at the Mexican or American company in question; have continuously worked a minimum of one year (out of the last three) in a comparable position to the one they will be occupying in Canada and have the nature of their work be deemed managerial, executive, or involving specialized knowledge.

CUSMA Traders: To be eligible for a work permit under this category, CUSMA Traders must prove that they are entering Canada with the intention of carrying out substantial trade between Canada and their home country (either the United States or Mexico).

Note: Substantial trade takes place when more than 50% of the trade [occurs] between Canada and one of the other countries, as calculated based on either the volume or value of the goods/services being exchanged by the Traders employer.

CUSMA Investors: A CUSMA Investor is someone who has made a sizeable investment in a new or existing business within Canada and is attempting to enter the country to develop and direct that business rather than partake in hands-on work. This would require a determination that the individual has a controlling stake in the company and can demonstrate that they will be directing, controlling, and guiding employees. Essential staff members of the CUSMA Investor may also be granted work permits under this category.

Work: Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP)

U.S. residents are eligible to receive a work permit under either the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) or the International Mobility Program (IMP), but work permits given through the TFWP require an LMIA and IMP work permits do not. The other difference between the TFWP and the IMP is their goals, as the TFWP is intended to fill labour market gaps while the IMP is designed to generally broaden Canadas economic, social, and cultural interests.

The TFWP and the IMP are just two examples of options that U.S. residents have to explore coming to Canada temporarily. Several other immigration programs exist to help people living in the U.S. come to Canada with permanent residency.

Schedule a Free Work Permit Consultation with the Cohen Immigration Law Firm

Family Sponsorship

Canada provides its permanent residents and citizens with the ability to sponsor their spouses, common-law partners, children, parents, and grandparents  assuming they are medically and criminally admissible. Specific circumstances would allow Canadians to sponsor other relatives (siblings, aunts, uncles) as well.

Spouses and common-law partners living in the U.S. can be brought to Canada by their partners if they meet eligibility criteria that include being 18 years of age or older and being in an ongoing, genuine relationship with a Canadian who can financially support you and any children you may have. During the spousal/common-law partner sponsorship decision process, the U.S. resident in the relationship may also be able to obtain a Spousal Open Work Permit (SOWP).

Sponsor your family for Canadian immigration

Study: Study Permits and Post-Graduation Work Permits (PGWP)

Those living in the U.S. and wanting to study in Canada must obtain a study permit, which can be done after receiving a letter of acceptance from a Canadian Designated Learning Institution (DLI).

Immigrating to Canada through certain programs will require U.S. residents to complete an educational program from a Canadian DLI, which in many cases will also qualify interested individuals for a Post-Graduate Work Permit (PGWP). A PGWP would allow the recipient of the permit to work in Canada for up to three years.

This combination of work and study experience in Canada will open many immigration pathways to current residents of the U.S., but several immigration options remain available for those who have completed their education and simply want to come to Canada for work  especially if the individual is a U.S. citizen.

Discover your options to study in Canada

Proof of Citizenship

As a resident of the U.S., Americans who are born to a first-generation Canadian citizen may explore the opportunity to acquire Canadian citizenship for themselves.

Whether the Americans Canadian parent is alive or deceased, a Proof of Citizenship from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) can grant citizenship in Canada to a U.S. resident if they are able to demonstrate that their biological or legal parent was in fact a Canadian citizen when they were born. Evidence used as proof in this situation can include such things as the Canadian parents birth certificate, Canadian citizenship card, or citizenship certificate.

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.
Data-informed decision-making is a key attribute of the modern digital business. But experienced data analysts and data scientists can be expensive and difficult to find and retain.

One potential solution to this challenge is to deploy self-service analytics, a type of business intelligence (BI) that enables business users to perform queries and generate reports on their own with little or no help from IT or data specialists.

Self-service analytics typically involves tools that are easy to use and have basic data analytics capabilities. Business professionals and leaders can leverage these to manipulate data so they can identify market trends and opportunities, for example. Theyre not required to have any experience with analytics or background in statistics or other related disciplines.

Given the ongoing gap between the demand for experienced data analysts and the supply of these professionals  and the desire to quickly get valuable business insights into the hands of the users who need it most  its easy to see why enterprises would find self-service analytics appealing.

But there are right and wrong ways to deploy and use self-service analytics. Here are some tips for IT leaders looking to make good on the promise of self-service analytics strategies.

Have a clear, comprehensive analytics plan

Data analytics and analytics tools have gained such a high profile within many businesses that its easy to see how they can be overused or inappropriately applied. This is even more of an issue with self-service analytics, because it enables a much larger range and base of people to analyze data.

Thats why its important to establish a plan for where and when it makes sense to use analytics, and to have reasonable controls to keep your analytics strategy from becoming a free for all.

Determine your mission, vision, and questions you need to answer around analytics before even starting, says Brittany Meiklejohn, a business and sales process analyst at Swagelok, a developer of fluid system products and services for the oil, gas, chemical, and clean energy industries.

It is extremely easy to get caught up on all the charts and graphs you can create, but that gets overwhelming very quickly, Meiklejohn says. Having that roadmap from the start helps to trim down and focus on the actual metrics to create. Have a data governance plan as well to validate and keep the metrics clean. As soon as one metric is not accurate it is hard to get the buy-in again, so routinely confirming accuracy on all analytics is extremely important.

The analytics plan should emphasize the use of proactive data as much as possible, Meiklejohn says. Focus [on] data that is actionable and can be implemented back into the business, she says. Incorporate learnings to transform processes and decision-making at an organizational scale. It is great to understand the historical side of the business, but it is hard to change if you are only looking at the past.

At Swagelok, departments are using self-service analytics tools from Domo to determine whether customer orders will be late, schedule production runs, analyze sales performance, and make supply chain decisions.

We have seen an increase in efficiency; everyone is able to get the data they need to drive decisions much faster than before, Meiklejohn says. We are making more responsible data-driven decisions, since each department is using the data for decision-making.

Go for quick wins

While its important to have a long-range analytics strategy in place, that doesnt mean organizations should move at a plodding pace with self-service analytics.

In my previous company, our advanced material business had a saying, Go fast, take risks, and learn, says Keith Carey, CIO at Hemlock Semiconductor, a maker of products for the electronic and solar power industries. That would be my advice for those just getting started [with self-service analytics]. Dont get me wrong, governance is very important and can come along a little later so as not to stifle creativity.

Its a good idea to find a small work group and assign a moonshot mission to demonstrate the art of possible, Carey says. He suggests teams focus on the data pipelines that drive consistent business logic and metrics across the enterprise. Understand the importance of timeliness and quality of the data on which important decisions are being made. Thats a great place to start.

Hemlock launched a self-service analytics initiative in 2018 using Tibcos Spotfire platform, which is currently being used by all functions of the business. Prior to that, IT would develop custom .NET applications that wrangled data and provided initial charting capability, Carey says. The most popular feature of these apps was an export to Excel button, where [the Microsoft spreadsheet] became the analytics platform of choice.

A handful of the companys brightest engineers also created macros that would mash up new data sets, which took overnight to run on someones PC, Carey says. And hopefully, if it didnt crash, the data set was shared out amongst the engineering professionals.

With self-service analytics capabilities, Hemlock has seen benefits such as faster decision-making and quicker results. Self-service enables all functions, including operations, finance, procurement, supply chain, and continuous improvement teams, to perform data discovery and create powerful visualizations.

We shortened the learning curve, delivered results faster, and accelerated our understanding of our manufacturing processes, which led to improving our products and reducing cost, Carey says. Within a very short time, we saved millions of dollars by improving existing reporting methods and discovering new insights.

Leverage natural language processing

Natural language processing (NLP) makes analytics more accessible to greater numbers of people by eliminating the need to understand SQL, database structures, and the concept of joining tables together, says Dave Menninger, senior vice president and research director at Ventana Research.

There are two main aspects of NLP as it relates to analytics, Menninger says: natural language search  also known as natural language queryand natural language presentation  also known as natural language generation.

Natural language search allows people to ask questions and get responses without [any] special syntax, Menninger says. Just like typing a search into a Google search bar you can type, or in some cases speak, a query using everyday language.

For example, a user could ask to see the products that had the biggest increase or decrease in sales for that month. The results would be displayed and then the user could refine the search, for instance, to determine the inventory on hand for certain products.

Natural language presentation deals with the results of analyses rather than the query portion, Menninger says. Once a query has been formulated, using NLP or otherwise, the results are displayed as narratives explaining what was found, he says.

In the product example, instead of displaying a chart of products showing the sales increases or decreases, natural language presentation would generate a few sentences or a paragraph describing specific details about the products.

People have different learning styles, Menninger says. Some like tables of numbers. Some prefer charts. Others dont know how to interpret tables or charts and prefer narratives. Natural language presentation makes It easier to know what to look for in an analysis. It also removes the inconsistency in the way data is interpretated by spelling out exactly what should be taken away from the analysis.

Use embedded analytics

Embedded analytics involves the integration of analytical capabilities and data visualizations into business applications. Embedding real-time reports and dashboards into these applications enables business users to analyze the data in these applications.

Embedded analytics brings the analytics to the applications that individuals are using in [their] day-to-day activities, Menninger says. This might include line-of-business applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), or human resources information systems (HRIS), as well as productivity tools such as collaboration, email, spreadsheets, presentations, and documents.

In the context of business applications, pre-built analyses make it much easier for line-of-business personnel to access and utilize analytics, Menninger says. It also provides good governance, since the data is managed by the underlying application where access rights are already maintained.

The difference between success and failure with self-service analytics can come down to the technology tools companies choose to deploy. Business executives need to work with closely with IT leadership to evaluate tools and determine which ones best meet the needs of the organization and fit with its infrastructure.

Among the requirements financial services firm Western Union had when selecting a self-service analytics platform was that it be easy to integrate with multiple disparate data sources, be flexible and easy to use, have powerful analytical capabilities, and have minimal infrastructure requirements.

The company deployed a platform from Tableau to enable business users to make decisions based on their own queries and analyses in a governed environment, says Harveer Singh, chief data architect and head of data engineering and architecture at Western Union.

Business departments can create their own queries and reports and collaborate without the need for support from IT, Singh says. Users have freedom to slice and dice the data without technical know-how, he says. Data can be derived from multiple sources in various formats.

When organizations select the right analytics tools, self-service analytics empowers business users to retrieve and analyze the data without the need for IT expertise/product specialists for report development and analysis, Singh says. Its an asset that responds to dynamic business requirements.
Based in Italy and with more than 20 years of experience helping enterprises, from large international firms to emerging mid-sized operations, grow their businesses with technology, WIIT serves a rapidly expanding and diverse customer base. With a full portfolio that includes an extensive array of cloud offerings  including private, public, and hybrid cloud services  the company is well-known for its track record of success in helping organizations realize the full potential of the cloud while bypassing the complexity often associated with large-scale digital transformations.

Serving leaders in the energy, fashion, financial services, food, healthcare, manufacturing, media, pharmaceutical, professional services, retail, and telecommunications industries, WIIT works with organizations that have stringent business continuity needs, mission-critical applications, and crucial data security and sovereignty requirements. Customers draw on the companys full suite of solutions which includes everything from digital collaboration tools, a full cybersecurity stack, extensive software development services, and innovations that let customers embrace the Internet of Things.

We recently caught up with Alessandro Cozzi, founder and CEO of WIIT to learn about the company, what hes seeing in its burgeoning cloud business, and what he feels will be the next big thing. We also took the opportunity to learn why it was important to achieve the VMware Cloud Verified distinction, not just for WIIT, but the companies it serves in Italy, Germany, and around the globe.

The traditional IT model is no longer sustainable, says Cozzi. Often the most value of the cloud lies in hybrid architectures that for the vast majority of enterprises are complex to design and manage. We offer a platform that secures and optimizes the full mix of disparate infrastructure, from edge computing to public cloud, that many organizations need. We also govern it with specialized expertise, certifications, and top-tier proprietary assets that enable us to exceed the most demanding service level agreements.

Notably, WIIT offers a highly customized Premium Cloud that is uniquely tailored to each organization, a Premium Private offering for critical applications, and a Public Cloud that offers seamless connectivity to Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The companys Premium Multicloud services enable customers to combine elements of each to best address their needs.

Cozzi notes that WIITs Premium Private Cloud ensures extremely high levels of security, scalability, and data reliability, while the public clouds are complimentary especially for applications that arent critical. He also points out that hyperscalers are becoming specialized, prompting more companies to rely on services from different cloud providers.

The hybrid cloud is often the answer when there is a need to host systems in more than one location for international processes, regulatory needs, network latency, data sovereignty, or application requirements, he adds. At WIIT we engineer, implement, and govern custom hybrid cloud and multi-cloud models in conjunction with the complex IT architectures our customers need. And we make the most of the unique capabilities of different clouds and data centers to ensure that our clients can continually evolve their businesses.

Cozzi stresses that VMwares trusted technologies and new innovations play a pivotal role in these efforts. Its what led the company to achieve the VMware Cloud Verified distinction.

WIIT is among the most innovative cloud solutions and service providers in Europe, he says. Most of our customers rely on VMware technologies for critical services. Showing that we have deep expertise with them is yet another way that we provide peace of mind and a serene cloud journey.

Not surprisingly, Cozzi only sees cloud adoption increasing in light of customers success in growing their businesses with the cloud and the new capabilities a flexible, hybrid approach makes possible.

It gives me great pride that today were able to remove so much of the complexity involved in even the largest, most involved cloud deployments so that customers simply experience the full potential of the cloud, says Cozzi. But Im also really excited about the innovations we are seeing in the world of applications and the advancements in cloud microservices now taking shape. The impact of the cloud will only increase. Were intent to grow a business that continues to offer customers secure and innovative cloud services that recognize not only people, but also the environment, as a strategic priority. Ultimately, we are committed to being a key player not just in the realm of digital transformations, but also in just and sustainable transitions of infrastructure and the businesses processes and practices it is used for.

Learn more about WIIT and its partnership with VMware here.
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, speaks to a party Supreme Council meeting, Nov. 9. Yonhap



Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday called for President Yoon Suk-yeol to apologize after his aides came under fire over an inappropriate memo that opposition lawmakers claimed was seen as demeaning a parliamentary audit session on the Itaewon crowd crush.



Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, and Kang Seung-kyoo, senior presidential secretary for civil society, were asked to leave a parliamentary audit session Tuesday evening after press cameras caught a memo that read, "Hilarious," on Kang's notepad.



Local media outlet Edaily reported that the memo was presumably written by Kim while main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Rep. Kang Deuk-gu was asking questions to presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki on the government's response over the Itaewon tragedy. It said Kim soon scribbled over the memo to hide it.



The presidential aides apologized for the word, saying they were talking about a personal issue and not the DPK lawmaker's questions. Kim said she attempted to erase the memo on concerns it could be misunderstood that she was referring to lawmaker Kang.



The DPK leader called on Yoon to "have some time for introspection and apologize in a serious manner."



"Due to what was clearly the government's mistake, 157 flower-like lives were lost. Does a parliamentary audit that seeks to determine the cause of this look funny?" he said at the party's Supreme Council meeting.



The DPK leader reiterated his call for an all-out reshuffle of relevant officials to hold them to account.



"The government should take responsibility for failing to protect the people's lives and safety, beginning with the prime minister's resignation," Lee said, also urging the firing of relevant top officials.



Lee also brought up the need for a special prosecutor.



The People Power Party has dismissed the call, claiming it will only hinder ongoing probes.



"The ruling party is not cooperating in investigating the truth," Lee said. "We have to prepare for a special prosecutor probe, which takes a significant amount of time, from now on."



The DPK and two minor progressive parties are set to submit a joint request for a parliamentary investigation into the Itaewon crowd crush on Wednesday afternoon. (Yonhap)


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The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has set up a 3m fund for small charities working to improve social equity in their communities.

Around 120 charities will receive grants between 5,000 and 50,000, with an average grant of 25,000.



The Keystone Fund will award unrestricted grants towards the core costs of running a charity, strengthening capacity, or building resilience.



Half of the available funds will be focused on organisations supporting refugees in the UK, and local charities across the UK are encouraged to apply for the new fund if they are addressing social injustice or working towards social equity to create a fairer society.

The deadline for charities to express their interest for the first round is 23 November 2022.

Grant funds must begin to be spent within six months of grant payment, but can be carried forward into the following financial year if required to enable flexibility. They should be fully spent within 24 months of grant payment.

CAF will also provide resilience building tools and information to put organisations into a stronger position for future work.



Neil Heslop, chief executive at CAF, said the current cost-of-living crisis shows how small charities provide a lifeline to the most vulnerable in our communities across the UK.

He said that at the same time, their ability to respond is threatened due to their own rising costs and depleted reserves following the pandemic.



The Keystone Fund focuses on local organisations working towards social equity to build a fairer society for all. We know that charities are best placed to decide how to deploy funds, and many will need to focus on their core costs at this challenging time, he said.

We hope these new unrestricted grants will help strengthen small charities as keystones in their communities and continue to help those who need it most.

sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
President Yoon Suk-yeol greets monks at Bongeun Temple in Seoul's southern district of Gangnam on Tuesday. Courtesy of presidential office





By Lee Yeon-woo







President Yoon Suk-yeol had a flurry of meetings with religious leaders as the nation grieves for the losses of lives in a crowd disaster in Itaewon on Oct. 29.







Since last week, Yoon has been attending memorial services hosted by different religious groups and meeting various Protestant, Catholic, and Buddhist leaders.







According to the presidential office, President Yoon visited Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul on Wednesday to meet Archbishop Chung Soon-taick and Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung. He visited Bongeun Temple in Seoul's Gangnam District the day before to meet with Buddhist leaders, and invited Christian leaders to the presidential office for lunch.







"A lot of lives have been lost due to the tragedy, and not only the bereaved families but the entire nation are grieving and feeling pain from the losses. The president is trying to get advice on how the nation can be united again and overcome this national tragedy amid comfort and encouragements," the presidential office said.







The office added that President Yoon will also seek advice from other religious leaders in the future.







"I feel terrible that this tragedy happened after I take charge of the administration. It's heartbreaking to think about the parents of the victims who couldn't come back home from the festival," he said to Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung.







At Bongeun Temple, President Yoon met six monks  Ven. Jaseung, Ven. Jagwang, Ven. Dohu, Ven. Jimyeong, Ven. Hyegeo and Ven. Wonmyeong  who lead the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The Jogye Order is one of the biggest Buddhist sects in Korea.







President Yoon requested their encouragement for people who find it hard to resume daily life after the tragedy. "I came here to ask for your support for people struggling to return to normal," Yoon said.







In response, Ven. Jaseung advised him to be flexible and thorough in his explanations to the public so they can understand what the government plans to do. Ven. Hyegeo said that he hopes that the country can overcome this struggle wisely by resolving conflicts and achieving harmony.







At lunch, President Yoon also thanked Protestant church leaders for hosting a church service honoring the victims. He said he believes a lot of people were consoled and encouraged by their service held at Baekseok University in South Chungcheong Province, Saturday.







President Yoon Seok-yul and first lady Kim Keon-hee pray to honor the victims of the Itaewon tragedy during a memorial mass held at Myeongdong Cathedral in downtown Seoul, Sunday. Newsis





Earlier, President Yoon paid tribute to the victims of the Itaewon tragedy five days in a row at mourning altars until the national mourning period ended on Saturday. Along with that, he attended many religious service honoring the victims.







He attended a Buddhist memorial service at the Jogye Temple on Friday. Then he attended a church service organized by the United Christian Churches of Korea on Saturday, and then a memorial mass held at the Myeongdong Cathedral on Sunday with first lady Kim Keon-hee.







He made his first official apology while participating in the Buddhist memorial service on Friday. "I feel deplorable and sorry as a president who is in charge of the people's lives and safety."







The presidential office explained his visit to the religious services, by saying he "believes survivors, bereaved family, friends, and the country should be consoled while it's also important to investigate the reason behind this tragedy and find who's responsible."







Meanwhile, some politicians from the opposition Democratic Party of Korea accused President Yoon of trying to avoid responsibility by cozying up to the religious leaders.







In a local radio interview, Monday, former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won said the president should "come back to his place" and "do his job." Park said that the president's job doesn't end only with visiting the religious community and praying, but with taking responsibility for what happened. Park urged him to investigate the matter of responsibility thoroughly.


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester will pay $55 million to survivors of sexual abuse committed by clergy members under a settlement announced by Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano last week.

The $55 million from the upstate New York diocese, its parishes, and other Catholic entities will go towards creation of a trust to cover claims by abuse survivors. The plan calls for insurance policies to be assigned to the trust. However, insurers are not part of the settlement at this point and their contributions are not yet known

The settlement was negotiated with the Official Creditors Committee, which represents about 475 sexual abuse survivors.

In exchange for the settlement payment, the diocese will receive a discharge in bankruptcy and be released of all liabilities for the sexual abuse claims. The deal should reduce litigation-related delays and costs for claimants and the diocese. Perpetrators and non-affiliates of the diocese, such as religious orders, are not included in the settlement and will not be released.

After two and one-half years of mediation, the Official Creditors Committee and insurers have been unable to agree on a deal over insurance payments. Thus the restructuring plan as currently written assigns the dioceses insurance policies to the trust so that it may then pursue a more substantial recovery from the insurers than has been offered to date, according to the attorney for the survivors committee, Ilan Scharf of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones.

The Committee has sought a fair and reasonable resolution for Rochesters 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 Dioceses insurers, said Scharf.

The diocese declared bankruptcy in 2019 after hundreds of lawsuits were filed against it under the states Child Victims Act. Almost 500 sexual abuse claims have been filed in this case. The claims relate to instances of abuse that occurred many years ago, some of them and decades ago.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul R. Warren, who is overseeing the bankruptcy, has already approved moving ahead with the plan, which is called a Restructuring Support Agreement. The $55 million settlement will be incorporated into a plan of reorganization that survivors will have an opportunity to vote on. Scharf expects that process to take approximately six months to complete.

The diocese, which had previously offered to contribute $40.5 million, said that with this latest plan it hopes that it can ultimately emerge from Chapter 11 sometime mid-summer to early fall 2023.

We believe that this Restructuring Support Agreement represents the fairest approach for the survivors and most viable path forward for the Diocese and its related Catholic entities to continue our shared mission of healing and reconciliation, Bishop Matano stated in a Letter to the Faithful on Nov. 3.

Insurance Proceeds

The diocese said that it was forced to come up with a settlement despite the absence of an insurance agreement after the survivors committee rejected insurance proposals aimed at breaking the log jam in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The first proposal, which included certain London Market Companies, Interstate Fire and Casualty Co. and National Surety Corp., was denied by the court in July 2021.

The diocese then moved for approval this past May on a settlement with each of the diocese primary insurers  LMI, Interstate, certain Underwriters at Lloyds, London and Continental Insurance Co. (CNA) for about $107 million. This is scheduled for a trial in January 2023.

Noting that both insurance settlements have been strenuously opposed by the Official Creditors Committee, the diocese stated it is keenly aware of the significant challenges that it may face in achieving confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan that meets the requirements of the second insurance proposal but does not have the support of the survivors committee or the vast number of survivors of sexual abuse.

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, whose firm represents 175 of the claimants against the Rochester diocese, called the ability for the survivors to legally prosecute all insurers of the diocese groundbreaking. This is a historic day with a historic deal, Anderson said.

Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 96 of the claimants, told The Associated Press that the settlement allows many clergy sexual abuse victims to deservedly obtain validation, self-worth and a sense of accomplishment.

Individual parishes of the Rochester diocese were not part of the Chapter 11 filing. However, they have been named in individual lawsuits and face potential liability in individual state court actions that could be channeled to the trust under the plan, according to the diocese.

The deal also calls for non-monetary commitments from the diocese, including child protection measures and disclosure of certain documents.
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday signaled they were unlikely to broadly prevent people who depend on federal assistance programs including Medicaid from suing when states violate their rights even as they weighed barring a narrower class of cases concerning nursing home care.

The justices heard arguments in an appeal by Health and Hospital Corp of Marion County, an Indiana municipal corporation, of a lower courts ruling that let the family of Gorgi Talevski, a nursing home resident diagnosed with dementia, pursue a lawsuit claiming his rights were violated while at the facility.

Public health advocates had raised alarms that the justices could use the case as a vehicle to overturn past precedents and leave tens of millions of people who receive coverage under the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans powerless to sue to prevent states from denying benefits.

But the nine justices focused more narrowly on whether lawsuits filed by nursing home residents were precluded by a law called the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 governing those facilities. That law established a bill of rights for residents of nursing homes receiving funding under the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson challenged the contention that Congress did not intend to let beneficiaries of federal spending programs bring lawsuits under a separate 19th century law giving people the power to sue when state officials violated their constitutional or statutory rights.

Talevskis family sued under a measure known as Section 1983 that was enacted as part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a law passed in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era to protect the rights of Black Americans.

Congress created the right in order to allow people to go to court, Jackson said.

But Jackson questioned whether nursing home residents rights to sue were nonetheless preempted by a provision in the nursing home law laying out comprehensive administrative processes that could address their grievances over their care.

Whats wrong with an administrative process if its comprehensive and works? conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked.

Talevski was admitted in 2016 to Valparaiso Care and Rehabilitation, a nursing home operated by the Health and Hospital Corp after his family determined his dementia needed professional care. In a 2019 lawsuit, his family said Talevski was subjected to harmful psychotropic drugs and unlawfully transferred to an all-male facility.

Jackson said Congress in enacting the 1871 law intended to ensure that people could go to federal court to vindicate their rights when states did not provide a proper forum to let people who were terrorized do so.

The Supreme Court in 1987 and 1990 held that this law could be used by people to enforce rights contained in spending legislation approved by Congress setting conditions for states to receive federal money including Medicaid funds.

But Lawrence Robbins, the lawyer arguing for Health and Hospital Corp, said Congress in adopting the 1871 law could never have envisioned that individuals, rather than the U.S. government itself, could enforce rights contained in a program like Medicaid.

Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked why the court should assume that Congress wanted to take away a right under that law as an additional remedy for a violation of a state obligation.

Assistant U.S. Solicitor General Benjamin Snyder, arguing for President Joe Bidens administration, urged the justices to reject a broad limitation on lawsuits pursued under this law.

But Snyder added that the federal nursing home statute provided extensive remedies that made a lawsuit unnecessary by exposing nursing homes that violate residents rights to financial penalties and terminating their Medicaid funding.

Andrew Tutt, a lawyer for Talevskis family, said the 1871 law acts as a life-saver for people who cannot actually make effective use of the administrative scheme. Tutt said Talevskis family sued only as a last resort after going through an administrative grievance process provided by Indiana that failed to rectify their concerns.

This family was crying out for help and using every possible lever at its disposal, Tutt added.

A ruling is due by the end of June.
Floridas produce industry took an almost $2 billion hit from Hurricane Ian and is now bracing for more as Tropical Storm Nicole follows a track toward the states eastern shores.

The Sunshine State is the top US supplier of fruits and vegetables in fall and winter months and the countrys second-biggest producer overall after California, which is battling an unprecedented water crisis thats left hundreds of thousands of farmland acres unplanted this year. Floridas produce industry represents 140,000 jobs and $19.8 billion in sales, according to the International Fresh Produce Association.

Many of our growers were significantly impacted by Hurricane Ian and are seeing upwards of $1.8 billion in damages across the industry and as much as 50% of the citrus crop affected, so we are watching Tropical Storm Nicole closely, hoping for the best, but always preparing to deal with the conditions as they come, said Cathy Burns, chief executive officer of IFPA.

The storm is so wide that it will affect the entire peninsula, according to Drew Lerner at World Weather Inc. The storm may cause some damage to sugarcane, of which Florida is a top producer, and citrus, though at its current strength, damage could be minimal. But with the size of the crop this year, every piece of fruit counts.

Florida is the countrys biggest producer of oranges used to make juice. Production this year is already set to plunge to the lowest in almost eight decades even without factoring the impact of Hurricane Ian in September. The state has seen its citrus acreage devastated by a crop disease called citrus greening which elevated costs, while urban sprawl and decades-long damage from hurricanes also discouraged investments in the sector.

Dean Mixon, already lost 50% of this years potential crop and is still trying to secure fruit from other counties that werent hit as hard by Ian to satisfy his packing commitments. Hes closely monitoring the situation, he said.

The storm could also hurt quality for some of the cotton still waiting for harvest in parts of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)  Residents were being allowed to return home Monday night after firefighters made progress battling a massive blaze at a chemical plant in Georgia, fire officials said.

At a Monday evening briefing, Glynn County Commission Chairman Wayne Neal said the evacuation orders were being lifted.

At this point we think everything is under control and contained, Neal said.

An estimated 100 households were ordered to evacuate Monday morning within a 1-mile radius of the Symrise chemical plant, mostly because of potential smoke hazards. There had also been explosions at the site.

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Capt. Eric Prosswimmer said firefighters had extinguished most of the blaze, but planned to put another layer of foam on the site Monday evening. The state fire marshals office will investigate where the fire started, he said.

Emergency responders safely evacuated a handful of employees working when the fire broke out about 4 a.m. at the plant outside the port city of Brunswick, said Prosswimmer, who was on the scene with his fire crews from Jacksonville, Florida, sent to help battle the flames.

The fire sent a large plume of thick smoke into the air from the plant about 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Savannah. The smoke died down for a few hours late Monday morning, then flared up again for a short period in the afternoon  forcing firefighters to back away until it subsided.

Prosswimmer said heat from the fire had caused three metal tanks containing chemicals to explode. Fighting the blaze was further complicated when firefighters depleted more than 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of water stored in tanks on the site. Tanker trucks filled with water were brought to the scene, where firefighters also used foam to battle the flames.

Prosswimmer said one firefighter suffering from exhaustion had been taken to a hospital and was in stable condition. There were no other injuries.

The plant is operated by Symrise, a German company that produces fragrances, flavoring and other ingredients for foods and cosmetics. The Georgia plant manufactures fragrance ingredients used in perfumes, detergents and household cleaners, Smyrise spokesperson Christina Witter said.

The company said in a statement Monday the cause of the fire was not known.

Currently, Symrise has no reason to believe that the fire will cause additional health hazards to the local community, the statement said. Symrise will closely cooperate and support local authorities in analyzing the causes for the fire as soon as the authorities allow return to the area.

Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Woodstock, Georgia, contributed.

About the photo: Members with the Waynesville Fire and Rescue Department take a break from battling large fire that burned inside a chemical plant on the coast of Georgia, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, in Brunswick, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Canadian zoologist Anne Innis Dagg, second from left, poses with giraffe zookeepers at the Seoul Grand Park Zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Saturday. Innis Dagg visited Korea to screen her documentary, "The Woman Who Loves Giraffes." Courtesy of Anne Innis Dagg



Canadian zoologist Anne Innis Dagg shares her love for giraffes, fight for gender equality



By Kwon Mee-yoo



The giraffe is one of the most unique-looking animals in the world, with its long neck and spotted patterning and is loved by people young and old.



But Canadian zoologist Anne Innis Dagg's love for the giraffe is extraordinary.



"The first time I saw a giraffe was when my mother took me to a zoo in Chicago when I was three. There was a huge giraffe and I just thought it was so wonderful and (since then) I loved it forever," Innis Dagg said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Seoul, Saturday.



The 89-year-old giraffe enthusiast was on a visit to East Asia, sharing her achievements in the field of zoology as well as women's rights. While in Korea, Innis Dagg showed the 2018 documentary about her, "The Woman Who Loves Giraffes," at an international school in Incheon, the Canadian Embassy in Seoul and the Seoul Grand Park Zoo, and met with students and zookeepers to talk about her all-time favorite animal.



"By the time I got to university, I understood that there's going to be a problem with animals in Africa. So I thought, 'Well, I better go and see one. And then I could maybe save one,'" Innis Dagg recalled.



However, it was virtually impossible for a single female to travel to Africa, let alone to study wild animals there in the 1950s. She had to write numerous letters to farms and reserves in Africa to find a place where she could stay so she could study giraffes in the wild, until a citrus farmer in South Africa accepted her request only because he mistook her for being male, as she used only her initial in her letters after being turned down multiple times.



Her trip took weeks. First a train from Toronto to Montreal, then a boat from Canada to England and another to South Africa. When she arrived in Cape Town, she drove hundreds of miles alone up to Fleur De Lys, where the ranch was located.



Innis Dagg relished her chance to observe giraffes wandering freely in the wild.



"I was just over the moon," she said as she recalled her first encounter with wild giraffes.



"It was kind of funny, because I never thought I could see a giraffe on the other side. Then I thought, 'Well, how do you introduce yourself to somebody that's new?' I'd never come to it," she said.



"Anyway, I decided I would come out and say hello and maybe we could be best friends, but they weren't (at first). Eventually they became my friends because I stayed there every day for a year, watching them," she continued.



She even nicknamed some of the giraffes according to their spot patterns, such as "Pompom" and "Star." She wrote down everything she observed about the giraffes in notebooks and brought tons of notebooks back to Canada, which became precious source material for books she wrote later.



She still keeps all those books at her home in Canada, one of which is also filled with pressed leaves.



"Every few weeks, I would take the tree leaves that the giraffes were eating to a botanist who would give me the name of the giraffe's food," she explained.





Canadian zoologist Anne Innis Dagg, right, poses for a photo with Canadian Chargee d'Affaires to Korea Tamara Mawhinney in front of the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, Friday, after screening her documentary at the embassy. Courtesy of Anne Innis Dagg
By Arthur I. Cyr





"Big Brother Is Watching You." That was the pervasive punchline in British writer George Orwell's novel "1984."







Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, after considerable conflict, gives the colorful capitalist an opportunity to change the notoriously dictatorial social media giant.







Orwell, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, was a committed socialist. Unlike many on the left today, however, he had personal involvement with working people, because he was one. He stressed egalitarianism, while warning about the dangers of concentrated power in government as well as corporations.







Technologies now provide unprecedented power to gather personal information about individuals. Today, technology also vastly expands individual freedom to communicate, learn and publish.







The South African Musk is a magnet for controversy. He fought to acquire Twitter, in part to terminate their active but selective heavy-handed censorship.







Twitter's now-departed leaders reacted to criticism with shock, and not in the cynical "Casablanca" sense. In that classic movie, Captain Renault expresses artificial outrage about the gambling going on in Rick's Cafe.







Twitter's sanctimonious censors actually believe in their bullying. People they banned include former President Donald Trump, who though now out of office remains Public Enemy Number One for mainstream "news" and infotainment media.







Simultaneously, Twitter has ignored truly evil hate. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regularly calls for the destruction of Israel, referred to as "a cancerous growth." In Twitterland, that has been acceptable while Trump causes "harm."







Apple cofounder Steve Jobs fiercely defended free speech and privacy. In 2011, he emphasized protecting customer privacy in announcing a new version of the iPhone.







In 2016, Apple resisted U.S. government efforts to secure cellphone data. The phone belonged to a married couple who carried out a horrific mass murder in San Bernardino, California.







The FBI eventually broke the encryption, with outside tech help. That agency should focus on improving internal skills.







The enormous concentration of capital, data collection and surveillance capabilities of today's social media and communications corporations underscores the importance of government oversight as well as restraint.







Musk also is pioneering space exploration using business-government cooperation, now strongly established. Here, President John F. Kennedy deserves unreceived credit. In 1962, he insisted the new Communications Satellite Corporation be privately chartered, not a government agency, angering Democratic Party liberals.







We recognize JFK's role in reaching the moon. Collectively, we almost universally ignore his leadership in creating the global satellite-based communications network vital to our work and life today.







A wit quipped that "1984" was really about 1948, a reference to the Soviet Union. In the 1940s and into the 1950s, intense anti-communism seriously distorted U.S. domestic politics and our wider society.







Left-wing and other intellectuals found their careers damaged and destroyed. Blacklisting of writers became a feature of this intimidation. That era passed but concentrated power remains dangerous.







In our fascinating, fantastic global information revolution, institutions committed to following the law and protecting personal privacy deserve our support. Here, nonprofits are particularly important.







Jobs, Musk and other entrepreneurs who resist concentrated arrogant censorship also deserve support. Unfortunately, Apple today cooperates closely with China's government to maintain tight domestic censorship and control.







In all countries, snoops try to meddle and bullies try to intimidate, now as through history, but today control unprecedented technologies. We the people collectively also have unprecedented access to information. The absolute control of 20th-century totalitarianism is no longer possible.







But today's tyrants, fueled by avarice and power, are dangerous enough. Vigilance requires more than tweets and sound bites.









Arthur I. Cyr (





acyr@carthage.edu ) is author of "After the Cold War."
An F-15E fighter test-drops B61-12 nuclear bomb.

By Ling Yunzhi

US Politico magazine reported that the Pentagon is upgrading its nuclear arsenal in Europe by accelerating the deployment of the latest B61-12 nuclear bombs at several NATO bases. The tactical nuclear bombs were originally scheduled to be delivered next spring. Now they will be deployed to Americas air force bases in Europe in December 2022.

A US $10 billion budget has been allocated to replace the old B61-11 tactical nuclear weapons with the latest B61-12, which is Americas most costly nuclear arsenal expansion program ever in Europe. The more precise B61-12 reflects Americas tendency to lower the threshold of using nuclear weapons with its capability to carry smaller nuclear warheads and an adjustable explosive yield between 300 and 50,000 tons.

In the middle of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Americas accelerated upgrade of its nuclear arsenal in Europe is partly to deter Russia and placate the uneasy Europe, and partly to tighten the control over the continent at a time when nuclear risks are on the rise.

By storing nuclear weapons in Europe, the US aims to consolidate NATOs central role in European defense affairs and consequently maintain its own discourse power and influence over Europes defense policy. Washington believes a NATO unarmed with nuclear weapons would seriously undermine its authority and ability to give orders around the world. That will not only destabilize its domination within NATO but also damage its interests worldwide.

Therefore, some American politicians and congress members have repeatedly emphasized the need for NATO to consider external threats when it develops its nuclear strategy, and to expand its scope of military strikes to well beyond its own boundary, thus turning the military bloc into a tool that can protect Americas interests around the globe. The US Department of Defense has put aside a special fund of US $30 billion out of the military budget for the fiscal year of 2023 for maintaining and upgrading the nuclear arsenal, including nuclear weapons in Europe. This fund is expected to grow in the future in order to further tighten the nuclear control over NATO and Europe.

The US has frequently taken other military actions in Europe than nuclear weapon reinforcement. On October 17, it initiated the Steadfast Noon nuclear deterrence exercise involving 14 NATO members, during which it dispatched droves of American warplanes to multiple bases across Europe, all close to the Russia-Ukraine battlefield. At the same time, 4,700 soldiers of the US 101st Airborne Division were sent to Romania, the first time this elite unit was dispatched to Europe in 80 years. This drove made the total number of American soldiers on this continent increase to nearly 10,000 as about 5,000 troops of the 82nd airborne division were already sent to south Poland when the Russia-Ukraine conflict first broke out. Besides, the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier has arrived at the Mediterranean Sea while another carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has set off for Europe to enhance the military deployments there.

With the deepening of Americas major country competition strategy and the escalation of the US-Russia confrontation, upgrading the European nuclear arsenal when the future of the Russia-Ukraine conflict remains unclear is sure to stir up high vigilance and a strong reaction from Russia. Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Grushko said publicly on October 29 that Americas accelerated deployment of new-type tactical nuclear weapons in Europe is a step to lower the nuclear threshold. Moscow will keep that in mind when making military deployments and plans in the future and will take all necessary countermeasures to ensure its national security. Tom Collina, director of policy at Ploughshares Fund, the largest foundation singularly focused on reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, warned that although Americas nuclear enhancement in Europe is more to support its European allies, the move may very likely exacerbate the situation to the point of triggering consequences out of expectation.

In fact, the reinforcement measures by the US may be opposed by some European countries as well. Deploying nuclear weapons in a region during wartime will surely equip it with the ability to launch nuclear attack, but that also makes it the prime target of being attacked, which is why many European countries are against Americas deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe and hope it would remove all such weapons. Germany in particular is extremely repulsive to the idea and compared Americas stationing of troops and deployment of nuclear weapons to the military occupation.

Moreover, judging by the growing uncertainties within Europe and the spread of international terrorism in recent years, the nuclear weapons stored by the US in Europe will become a labile factor prone to proliferation. The US should take all these into consideration.

(The author is a researcher at the Center for Asia-Pacific Development studies, Nanjing University)

Editor's note: Originally published on thepaper.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
By John J. Metzler





A high-level U.N. panel has slammed Beijing's ongoing and egregious human rights abuses in the western Xinjiang regions of the People's Republic. China's human rights violations have been committed through the use of "severe and undue restrictions" that are "characterized by a discriminatory component, as the underlying acts often directly or indirectly affect Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities."







In other words the Beijing regime is targeting specific ethnic and religious communities for discrimination and violence.







The presentation, "The situation of Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang," followed the report by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which found credible evidence of patterns of torture, forced medical treatments, forced labor, incidents of sexual and gender-based violence, violations of reproductive rights and the destruction of religious sites. This is in addition to the widespread use of massive detention and re-education camps for over a million local residents.







A statement by the panel cited, "In 2017, reports began to emerge of severe restrictions on the freedoms of religion or belief, movement, association and expression in Xinjiang, China. Over the past few years, numerous open source reports corroborated these accounts."







The high-level event was sponsored by 23 countries including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Turkey and the Baltic states among others.







U.N. Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes, speaking in the context of the OHCHR report released in August, spoke of "crimes against humanity" and cited "sterilization" and "forced abortion" among these crimes. He spoke of "collective targeting of an ethnic group" which raises "deeply dark connotations."







Ms. Jewher Ilham, a noted Uyghur rights advocate, passionately presented a litany of crimes in Xinjiang. Her own father, an Islamic scholar, has spent eight years in solitary confinement in a Chinese prison as part of a life sentence.







The "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region," situated in the northwest, is China's only majority Muslim population area. China's communist regime claims its actions are rooted in counter-terrorism and social "de-radicalization efforts."







Ms. Tirana Hassan from Human Rights Watch (HRW) asserted that a recent human rights resolution to debate the treatment of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities "lost by a hair 19 to 17, with 11 abstentions." Thus this American-led call for a debate and an inquiry on the report was rejected. She pressed for going forward with a new resolution saying "the original resolution did not go far enough."







Many of those voting no were Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, UAE and Qatar. Among the 11 countries that abstained were Argentina, India, Malaysia, Mexico and Ukraine.







According to an HRW report on China last year, "As many as a million people have been arbitrarily detained in 300 to 400 facilities, which include 'political education' camps, pretrial detention centers, and prisons."







Significantly, "The United States State Department and the Parliaments of Canada and the Netherlands have determined that China's conduct constitutes genocide under international law."







U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated, "The long-awaited United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report on Xinjiang laid out the PRC's human rights violations in horrifying detailThese and other findings leave no room for doubt: The PRC has committed gross violations of human rights. Their actions are, without question, crimes against humanity. The question before us is how will we respond?"







The ambassador answered forcefully, "Here is my response: The United States will continue to shine a light on the PRC's genocide and crimes against humanity, against Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang."







Shortly thereafter, the U.N.'s Third Committee dealing with human rights strongly condemned China's abuses, stating "We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the PRC." Among 50 countries signing the statement included Canada, the U.S., most Europeans, Turkey and Japan.







Given that the Uyghur people in Xinjiang are ethnically Turkic, it was encouraging to see the Turkish government supporting the human rights resolution. Yet Turkey was the only majority Muslim government to stand up for the religious and cultural rights of the Xinjiang Muslims.







Why? Political intimidation tactics from China. The cold political calculus remains that foreign ministries in much of the Arab and Islamic world are politically pressured to look politely the other way to the sustained and systematic persecution of the Muslim faithful inside China.







It's incumbent on the 47-member Human Rights Council to remain seriously engaged in monitoring the genocide in Xinjiang. Beijing's bullying seems to work, but for how long?









John J. Metzler (

) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism  The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China."


Korea's first moving hydrogen recharging station, an Xcient 25-ton truck by Hyundai Motor Company equipped with compressor, storage, condenser and recharger, refuels a Hyundai Nexo at a hydrogen recharging station in Junggok-dong in Seoul's Gwangjin District, Oct. 28. Yonhap





By Ko Dong-hwan







Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has announced the country's latest comprehensive plan to broaden and bolster the use of hydrogen to reduce carbon emissions and the nation's reliance on fossil fuels.







The announcement came after critics observed that the nation's use of what's perceived as one of the cleanest energy sources has been limited to automobiles and power generation fuel cells. The country, according to those observers, has also been depending too much on fossil fuel-based grey hydrogen  produced from liquid natural gas or extracted during petrochemical or steelmaking processes, a grade lower than green and blue hydrogen in cleanness  which isn't effective for lowering the country's greenhouse gas emissions.







Joined by Han, the heads of seven ministries including environment, industry, science, land, finance and experts from outside the government, the Hydrogen Economy Committee directly under Han was held for the first time since the onset of Yoon Suk-yeol administration in May this year. The Prime Minister said during the committee's fifth meeting at Lotte Hotel Seoul that the latest plan hinges on three directions: "scale-up, build-up and level-up."







In other words, the plan aims to expand hydrogen demands, establish a global supply network as well as realize dual fuel-based power generation using hydrogen and ammonia (hydrogen 50 percent, ammonia 20 percent, with development of required technologies completed by 2027 and put into practice the following year).







The committee anticipated that by 2030, the number of hydrogen vehicles in the country will jump from just over 19,000 as of 2021 to 30,000. Hydrogen power generation will also account for over 7 percent of national output by 2036, while it had only produced 767 MW as of 2021.







The blueprint will also introduce a nationwide distributive infrastructure to promote the use of clean hydrogen  by building "the world's biggest" liquefied hydrogen plant that will produce 40,000 tons per year, expanding hydrogen recharging stations nationwide, as well as laying an underground pipeline for carrying hydrogen throughout Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces in the country's central-western regions.







Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speaks during the Hydrogen Economy Committee's fifth meeting at Lotte Hotel Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap





SK, Hyosung and HyChangwon will be building the liquefied hydrogen plant and recharging stations, while Hyundai Motor Company will be the country's main hydrogen vehicle maker. As of 2021, there were 141 recharging stations that only deliver fuel as a gas. By 2030, the government plans to introduce 70 additional stations that can pump liquid hydrogen fuel, which takes up much less volume than gas when storing or transporting.







The new distributive pipeline for hydrogen will also utilize the existing pipelines used to distribute LNG. Han said Wednesday that he will introduce a distributive network for clean ammonia in the country's West Sea. The authority expected that each year, some 200,000 tons of blue ammonia will be imported from the Middle East and 600,000 tons of green ammonia from the Southeast Asia. The imported ammonia will then be supplied to the country's local companies like Samsung, SK, POSCO, Lotte and Korea National Oil Corporation via the pipeline for their use in making hydrogen products.







Wednesday's blueprint also designated the country's core hydrogen industries to raise their stakes in national economy and further grow to a global top level: water electrolysis to extract pure hydrogen, liquefied hydrogen carrier ships, trailers, hydrogen recharging stations, fuel cell mobility and power generation as well as hydrogen turbines.







The committee said that they will complete building an ammonia carrier ship by 2026 and liquefied hydrogen carrier ship by 2029. As of 2021, there were also only 30 domestic companies exclusively working on hydrogen. The figure, by 2030, is expected to grow to 600. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, as part of the blueprint, also announced that they will advance the country's level of hydrogen technologies and thus increase the number of hydrogen-related products topping global markets from 2 as of 2021 to 10 by 2030.







"The new blueprint is expected to generate a net worth of 47 trillion won ($34.5 billion), 98,000 new jobs and reduce 28 million tons of greenhouse gas," said an official from the Hydrogen Economy Policy Division under the trade ministry, Wednesday.


ARVADA, CO - OCTOBER 26: Attorney John T. Lee presents his arguments in The People of the State of Colorado v. Jose Ornelas-Licano case before the seven members of the Colorado Supreme Court, including Justice Melissa Hart, right, at Pomona High School before an audience of students on October 26, 2021 in Arvada, Colorado. The courts visit to the high school is part of the Colorado judicial branchs Courts in the Community outreach program. (Photo By Kathryn Scott)
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Many seats are empty in the Senate chambers just before the start of their session, Colorado lawmakers return to the state Capitol on May 26, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. Legislators have returned after a 10-week pause due to fears from the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo By Kathryn Scott)
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Galderma Korea General Manager Kim Youn-hee poses at her office in Seoul, Nov. 2. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



This article is the first in the series of interviews with CEOs of foreign companies operating in Korea  ED.



Galderma Korea head encourages female leaders by sharing her experience



By Park Jae-hyuk



Galderma Korea General Manager Kim Youn-hee, who began her career as a saleswoman for the foreign pharmaceutical firm MSD in the early 2000s, seems like the very person who lives up to the word "superwoman," at first glance.



At the time she started working, it was difficult to find women working in sales in Korea's pharmaceutical industry. However, she proved herself by winning a silver prize in the Sales of the Year award from MSD, just a year after she joined the company as a new employee.



Based on her achievements in sales, she was also allowed to go on two incentive trips abroad and work at the U.S. pharmaceutical firm's headquarters in New Jersey.



After leading the regional marketing of MSD Asia-Pacific and serving as an executive at the Korean subsidiaries of Merz and L'Oreal, she eventually became the general manager of Galderma Korea representing the Korean operation of the Swiss pharmaceutical firm specializing in dermatological treatments and skincare products.



As a Korean working mom, however, Kim advised younger working mothers here to seek help to overcome difficulties from their roles at work and home, rather than struggling to solve their problems all by themselves.



"Working moms do not need to strive to become superwomen," she told The Korea Times in a recent interview, citing advice she received from a female leader in Korea's banking industry, when she was single.



"They should not be reluctant to seek help from anyone, including their mothers, mothers-in-law, husbands or nannies," she said, adding that she herself was also able to overcome the difficulties of caring for her children, thanks to her mother-in-law.



According to the Galderma Korea head, she got the advice at a lecture organized by Women in INnovation (WIN), a nonprofit organization established for female executives to support the next generation of female leaders. As the advice made a difference in her life, Kim also joined WIN and now serves as a board member.



"When I listened to the lecture, one of my closest colleagues had quit her job, as she was confused about the fact that she had to spend almost all her salary to hire a nanny," Kim said. "Because working moms are not participating in a superwoman contest, they should not feel guilty about underperforming at their jobs and about having difficulties focusing on caring for their babies."



She emphasized that working mothers should continue to trust themselves, until they feel less difficulties in handling their duties at their jobs and homes.



"There are many government-run programs for working moms," she said. "Since I became a member of WIN, I have also continued mentoring free of charge for them."





Galderma Korea General Manager Kim Youn-hee speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at her office in Seoul, Nov. 2. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, center, and his three sons pose next to Edwin John Feulner Jr., founder of the conservative U.S. think tank, the Heritage Foundation, fourth from left, after dinner at the Plaza Hotel in Seoul, Tuesday. From left are Kim Dong-seon, executive director Hanwha Hotels & Resorts, Hanwha Solutions Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, Kim, Feulner, and Hanwha Life Insurance Vice President Kim Dong-won. Courtesy of Hanwha Group





By Kim Hyun-bin







Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn met with Edwin John Feulner Jr., founder of the conservative American think tank, the Heritage Foundation, and discussed a wide array of current issues, including global economic issues and diplomatic events, as well as ways to enhance friendly relations between Korea and the U.S., the company announced, Wednesday.







The dinner meeting took place after Feulner took part in a domestic forum promoting the free market economy and enhancing Korea-U.S. alliance at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul, Tuesday.







At the dinner, Chairman Kim's eldest son, Kim Dong-kwan, vice chairman of Hanwha Solutions, his second son, Kim Dong-won, vice president of Hanwha Life Insurance, and his third son, Kim Dong-seon, executive director of Hanwha Hotels & Resorts, also attended the dinner. It is the second time this year that Kim met with Feulner.







Feulner has expertise in the Asia region, including knowledge of and diverse experience with Korea's politics, economy and society. He had been the chairman of the Heritage Foundation until 2013 and he still heads the Asian Studies Center within the group







The close friendship between Chairman Kim and Feulner has been ongoing for around 40 years since the early 1980s. Whenever the opportunity came up, they shared their opinions on issues related to Korea and the U.S. as well as on the international economy in general.







Kim also met with former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in March to discuss Korea-U.S. relations. Kim mentioned the difficulties local companies were facing then due to international tensions and stressed the importance of global leaders' cooperation in resolving the issues. Pence joined the Heritage Foundation as a guest research fellow in February 2021.










POSCO International CEO Joo Si-bo, left, and NongHyup Feed CEO Jeong Sang-tae hold copies of a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the POSCO affiliate's headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of POSCO International




China's foreign minister called for the "rebuilding of mutual trust" in a phone conversation with his Australian counterpart Tuesday, Beijing said, in a sign of easing tensions after years of difficult ties between the countries.







Australia and China maintained virtually no high-level communication during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Beijing slapped a trade embargo on billions of dollars worth of Australian goods in retaliation for Canberra urging an independent probe into the origins of the virus.







China has previously demanded Australia address its grievances as a precondition to improving ties, with Beijing's ambassador quoting foreign minister Wang Yi as saying "a reset requires concrete actions".







But Wang has met Australia's top diplomat Penny Wong twice this year  an indication that ties are thawing gradually since a new centre-left government under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took power in May.







"The easing and improvement of China-Australia relations serves the fundamental interests of both sides," Wang said according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout of Tuesday's call. (AFP)


Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during an Election Night at Mar-a-Lago event, Nov. 08, in Palm Beach, Florida. AFP-Yonhap



Donald Trump's influence loomed large as Americans voted Tuesday in midterm elections that could kickstart any bid to return to the White House in 2024  or, if his loyalists perform badly, derail it entirely.



While the former president's name is not on any ballot, scores of Republican candidates are carrying his personal endorsement in a litmus test for his popularity.



At the tail end of his final campaign rally on the eve of voting, Trump grabbed the national spotlight by saying he would make a "very big announcement" in Florida next week.



He teased the possible presidential run again Tuesday as he cast his vote in Palm Beach.



"I think Tuesday (Nov. 15) will be a very exciting day for a lot of people, and I look forward to seeing you at Mar-a-Lago," Trump told reporters.



The 76-year-old remains, unquestionably, the most divisive figure in U.S. politics.



That he stopped short of an outright declaration suggests uncertainty about the impact such an announcement would have on Tuesday's battle for control of Congress.



He said he didn't want to "detract" from the midterms where all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for grabs.



But while delighted supporters chanted "four more years" at his Monday evening event, the prospect of his return to the White House could galvanize independents and even some moderate Republicans into voting Democrat.



Trump has endorsed more than 200 Republican candidates running in Tuesday's elections for the Senate, House and state and local posts.



How they fare will be crucial to his fate.



"It is important that some of the candidates he supported win and especially win big," Robert Shapiro, a politics professor at Columbia University, told AFP.



If most triumph then Trump's hold over the Republican Party looks absolute.



If they don't, he will likely face a challenge for the Republican nomination.



Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are tipped as contenders.



"If Trump's candidates lose and especially if they lost badly, that will give other Republican candidates the opening they have been looking for. Watch DeSantis most of all," Shapiro added.



Investigations



Republicans are heavily favored to win the House and possibly flip the Senate. If they do take control of both chambers, would they want a president who would likely hijack their agenda? "The Republicans would want any Republican president, including Trump," said Shapiro.



"It is a fully unified Republican government that can enact conservative policies and make conservative judicial and other government appointments.



"Trump might not be optimal but he would certainly suffice," he added.



Adding further Trump intrigue to Tuesday's ballot are the 27 secretary of state races that are taking place.



Secretaries of state are responsible for validating election results and could be critical at the next presidential election.



In 2020, Georgia's secretary Republican Brad Raffensperger resisted pressure from Trump to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden in the state.



Trump may also see another presidential run as a way of trying to shield himself from the numerous civil, criminal and congressional probes that he is facing.



He is being investigated for his role in last year's US Capitol attack, his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and the stashing of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.



In September, New York state's attorney general Letitia James sued Trump and three of his children, accusing them of business fraud. (AFP)


STORY LINK Pound US Dollar Exchange Rate News: GBP/USD Plummeted amid Midterm Election Drama

US Dollar (USD) Soared as Red Wave Fails to Materialise

Pound (GBP) Soured on Mounting Economic and Political Pressures

GBP/USD Exchange Rate Forecast: Midterm Election Results to Bolster the US Dollar?

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The US Dollar (USD) is experiencing mixed success on Tuesday as the market remained relatively muted as the results of the midterm elections continue to trickle through.As millions of Americans cast their vote in what is essentially a referendum on how President Joe Biden is faring in the halfway point. An expected Red Wave of Republican support failed to materialise in what would have led to gridlock in the US government. However, the Democrats have performed better than expected, but the battle for the House of Representatives is still too close to call.Despite a cautious market mood, the Greenback enjoyed strength against many of its strongest peers, but unexpected outcomes could cause further volatility in the market. If the Democrats continue to surprise, the markets could see further fiscal expansion, with higher Treasury yields and in turn, a stronger US Dollar.However, a Republican win could see the Greenback come under increased risks as any move by Biden is likely to be opposed in the Senate, delaying fiscal decisions. Until the outcome is known, which might not be for a few days, expect the US Dollar to trade erratically.The Pound (GBP) plunged on a myriad of headwinds on Wednesday as a lack of major data left Sterling exposed to domestic issues.Political turmoil returns to the fray after a brief stint on the sidelines as Gavin Williamson resigns as Cabinet Office minister. A Sunak appointment, Williamson was left with no choice but to resign in the wake of a string of accusations of bullying and immoral behaviour. The Conservative government never seems far away from the next scandal, but Sunak comes under fresh scrutiny as it is the third time Williamson has had to leave the cabinet due to questionable conduct.Elsewhere, with markets continuing to digest the concerning news that the UK has entered a recession, warnings over online retailers have sounded in the wake of Made.coms downfall. Sean Moran, insolvency partner at Shakespeare Martineau, commented on the perfect storm of recession fears and persistent supply chain issues could lead to further collapses:After increasingly lengthy delivery times caused by supply chain and logistic issues, it appears that many customers began to cancel orders and seek refunds (from made.com).Economic pressure continues to mount for the e-commerce sector, with the share price of online fashion giant ASOS also reportedly falling by more than 80% earlier this year, as well as the recent demise of online mattress retailer Eve Sleep. As consumers continue to tighten their belts due to of the cost-of-living crisis, retailers will have to work harder to entice purchasers, particularly for luxury or high-value items.Meanwhile, preventing further significant losses is the positive news from Egypt that the Northern Ireland protocol is nearing an amicable resolution. Both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen met at the COP27 conference and have agreed to work on a solution to the Northern Ireland issue. A spokesperson for Downing Street said of the meeting:The Prime Minister reiterated the need to find solutions to the very real problems (the NI protocol) had created on the ground in Northern Ireland. They agreed on the importance of working together to agree a resolution.Looking ahead, the Pound US Dollar exchange rate could see further movement as results continue to roll in. If an expected gridlock in the US government was to happen, the ensuing volatility could see the Greenback climb on a risk-averse sentiment.Meanwhile, without major data to go on until GDP growth data on Friday, Sterling could continue to be under pressure from the economic woes gripping the UK economy.

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World Bank President David Malpass speaks during the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Wednesday. Reuters-Yonhap



Finance took center stage at the COP27 climate talks on Wednesday, with U.N. experts publishing a list of projects worth $120 billion that investors could back to help poorer countries cut emissions and adapt to the impacts of global warming.



A $3 billion water transfer project between Lesotho and Botswana and a $10 million plan to improve the public water system in Mauritius were among dozens of projects listed, including 19 in Africa.



"We can now show that a meaningful pipeline of investible opportunities does exist across the economies that need finance most," Mahmoud Mohieldin, one of the U.N. appointed experts, known as U.N. Climate Change High-Level Champions, said in a statement to accompany the report.



In an effort to answer the argument by private sector financiers that it's too risky to invest more in emerging markets, the experts, who help the COP host-governments engage with business, pulled together a list of projects that could be funded more quickly.



After a year of meetings with stakeholders around the world, they released the initial list so that banks and others can assess the projects.



"We now need a creative collaboration between project developers and public, private and concessionary finance, to unlock this investment potential and turn assets into flows," said Mohieldin, High-Level Champion for COP27.



However, another report released on Tuesday suggested that developing countries would need to secure $1 trillion in external financing every year by 2030, and then match that with their own funds, in order to meet the world's goal of preventing runaway climate change.



Getting money to low- and middle-income countries so they can build infrastructure, such as renewable energy plants needed to replace fossil fuels, has long been a focus for the U.N. climate talks. But progress has been slow.



"Even though the pipeline of interesting projects is there, they will require technical and financial help to get to a position where they can attract the right kind of finance," said Nigel Topping, High-Level Champion for COP26.



"We need all actors in the system to roll up their sleeves to make that happen," he said., "We won't get anywhere near unlocking the scale of finance developing economies need if everyone continues to pass the buck."



The world's leading development banks lent $51 billion to poorer countries in 2021, with private investors contributing $13 billion, a recent report from the lenders said.



World Bank President David Malpass addressed delegates on Wednesday, running through the bank's climate efforts and involvement in a partnership under which Western nations would provide $8.5 billion to South Africa for its energy transition.



Malpass' arrival at COP27, originally scheduled for Sunday, was delayed when his flight from South Africa was hit by lightning, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.



When asked in Wednesday's event about his past comments seen as downplaying climate change, Malpass again dismissed the allegation that he is a climate change denier.



"You know that I'm not. You know that I'm not, so don't misreport it," Malpass said in response to a reporter's question as he was leaving the event.



Malpass has faced months of criticism from campaign groups and figures including former U.N. climate agency chief Christiana Figueres after answering a question in September at a New York Times event about whether he believed man-made emissions from the burning of fossil fuels was fuelling global warming. At the time, he had replied: "I don't even know. I'm not a scientist."



When the comments made international headlines, he clarified his remarks later in September and said it was clear greenhouse gas emissions were causing climate change. (Reuters)


By Nai Qian

Australian media recently reported that the US is planning to upgrade an air force base in northern Australia to station six B-52 strategic bombers, a move analysts said will take a toll on the geopolitical and international security situation in surrounding areas.

ABC reported that the US Air Force plans to deploy B-52 strategic bombers at Tyndall air force base (AFB). It will not only build a parking apron and maintenance center at the base, but also a combat commanding center, an arsenal, and other related facilities. In another related development, the facilities to be built for the B-52s will also be used to serve B-21 stealth bombers and other strategic projection vehicles in the future.

In 2016, the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put forth the Indo-Pacific strategy, a term then US President Donald Trump borrowed at the APEC meeting in November 2017 to officially propose the free and open Indo-Pacific. After that, Australias defense policies have seen obvious changes. Following the US lead in basically everything, Canberra has played a more active role in the Five Eyes and formed the AUKUS with the US and the UK, an alliance that signed a cooperation agreement saying that Washington and London will help Canberra in developing nuclear submarines and forming a nuclear submarine fleet.

Nuclear submarine orders from the US military have already overwhelmed American ship makers, which means the Australian Navy wont receive the products in the short term. In response, the US Congress took the expedient of passing an Australia-United States Submarine Officer Pipeline Act, which allowed Australian naval officers to train and operate on American nuclear submarines while planning to sell or lease two Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines to them. According to the plan, the two American submarines  either sold or leased  will be jointly operated by American and Australian naval staff, the former having the right to decide its use and deployment. This is a de facto sharing of nuclear submarines.

Surrounded by sea on all four sides and protected by the Pacific and Indian oceans as natural barriers, Australia has pressed the fast forward button on its military expenditure in recent years. The budget released by its government showed an 8% increase in defense spending between the fiscal year of 2022 and 2023, and the figure is expected to exceed 2% of the national GDP by the fiscal year of 2026. According to analysts, the massive increase in Australias military spending may open Pandoras box. The nuclear submarine project pushed by AUKUS, for instance, created a bad precedent of nuclear weapon states exporting nuclear materials and technologies to a non-nuclear weapon state. That risks the emulation by other countries and a new round of nuclear submarine arms race, posing new security threats to the Asia Pacific and the whole world.

Deploying B-52 strategic bombers in Australia will add Tyndall AFB to America's list of forward combat bases after Hawaii, Guam and Diego Garcia. Canberra has decided to be America's "vanguard" and "pawn" in executing its "Indo-Pacific strategy" and is going all out to turn itself into the big brother's forward military base, tying itself, which could have stayed away from the fray, tightly onto the chariot of the geostrategic game and major country competition. That does no good for the country or its people, and will only expose their security to threats and challenges.
Poor Rishi Sunak. One minute he's getting his ego stroked by the big boys at Cop27. The next, he's back in the Commons clearing up the trails of snail slime left by Sir Gavin Williamson's brief return to Cabinet.

The air of comedown that hung over the Prime Minister at PMQs yesterday was palpable. Tony Blair used to wear the same despondent look when he returned from schmoozing assorted Silvios and Sergios in Europe, only to find himself forced to go to the House to smooth over another of John Prescott's Olympic-grade political belly flops.

L'affaire Williamson, which had culminated with Sir Gavin quitting the Cabinet the previous evening following allegations of bullying, naturally created high excitement on Labour's benches.

There was loud heckling from deputy leader Angela Rayner, Stockport's silver-tongued charmer who once famously branded all Conservatives 'Tory scum'.

HENRY DEEDES: Poor Rishi Sunak. One minute he's getting his ego stroked by the big boys at Cop27. The next, he's back in the Commons clearing up the trails of snail slime left by Sir Gavin Williamson's brief return to Cabinet

HENRY DEEDES: L'affaire Williamson, which had culminated with Sir Gavin quitting the Cabinet the previous evening following allegations of bullying, naturally created high excitement on Labour's benches

Meanwhile, we heard overly aggressive questions from Birmingham Hodge Hill's Liam Byrne (suspended by Labour earlier this year for bullying a former member of staff) and Neil Coyle (also suspended by Labour over allegations he made racist remarks to a junior journalist). Honestly. The stench of hypocrisy in this place is so noxious at times you need to don an oxygen mask before entering.

On the highest of high horses, of course, sat Sir Keir Starmer. He was so luxuriating in his occupancy of the moral high ground as he rose to his feet that he had the air of a man about to anoint the Despatch Box with holy water and deliver a blessing.

Another look, you might say, which could have been plucked straight from the Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair museum of face masks.

The Great White Knight informed the House that everyone in the country had at some time worked with a Gavin Williamson. The sort of 'pathetic bully' and 'sad middle manager' who gets off on 'intimidating those beneath him while the boss (in this case the Prime Minister) callously looked the other way'.

He's right, of course. We've all toiled alongside berks such as Sir Gav. Then again, most of us have probably also worked under tiresome bores like Sir Keir, too.

You all know the type. Petty, nit-picking line managers who write officious emails, hold 'strategy meetings' and whose idea of a team treat is to pass a packet of Viennese whirls around on a Friday afternoon.

HENRY DEEDES: On the highest of high horses, of course, sat Sir Keir Starmer. He was so luxuriating in his occupancy of the moral high ground as he rose to his feet that he had the air of a man about to anoint the Despatch Box with holy water and deliver a blessing

Incidentally, one of those who had fallen victim to the full force of Williamson's poisoned tongue, former chief whip Wendy Morton, chose to make an appearance yesterday. She took up a prominent position at the front of the chamber and wore a bright red dress which, perhaps not entirely coincidentally, made her impossible to miss.

Ms Morton spent the entire session wearing the sort of hangdog expression so beloved of female guests on the Jeremy Kyle Show when they were explaining how they'd recently caught the boyfriend in flagrante with the postman.

Starmer made an improbable attempt to link the PM's failure to confront Williamson to his reticence to increase windfall taxes on energy companies.

What chance did the PM have of standing up to Big Business when he couldn't even stand up to a 'cartoon bully with a spider'? he asked, a reference to Williamson's pet tarantula Cronus.

A tad disrespectful, surely. Poor Cronus passed on to that great spider web in the sky over a year ago.

Mr Sunak was at least able to point out that Williamson had now gone from his job. His behaviour had been 'unacceptable', he admitted. But there remained a sense of astonishment over why he had been allowed back in the first place  not least from the Conservatives benches.

Not since John Bercow condescended to his colleagues from the Speaker's Chair has there been such loathing of one of their own.

Of Mr Williamson himself there was no sign. If he has any sense, he'll be catching the first the plane out to Brisbane and begging ITV to let him into the I'm A Celebrity jungle. The reptiles would probably welcome him as one of their own.
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Shoppers are snapping up a 22.50 jar of Manuka honey because they claim it fights off the flu and soothes sore throats - and that's just the shortlist.

The Manuka Doctor 70 MGO Manuka Honey is being touted as 'liquid healing gold', treating many ailments, including allergies, colds and flu, sore throats, and more.

Manuka Doctor 70 MGO Manuka Honey, 500g The Manuka Doctor 70 MGO Manuka Honey is being touted as 'liquid healing gold', treating many ailments, including allergies, colds and flu, sore throats, and more. Darker and creamer than regular honey with 'a wonderful flavour', it's perfect for adding to hot drinks or smoothies, spread on toast, over porridge, cereals or yoghurts. Some people cook with it, and many take a spoonful daily. Shop

Shoppers are snapping up a 22.50 jar of Manuka honey because they claim it fights off the flu and soothes sore throats - and that's just the shortlist

'Manuka marvel! It really helps colds and sore throats,' one reviewer shared. 'I have used it for over 10 years now, always recommending it to people with cancer, especially after chemotherapy, which leaves the throat sore. Manuka honey can change the way you feel.'

According to the manufacturers, Manuka has uniquely high levels of the health-boosting compound methylglyoxal, or MGO, which naturally occurs in all honey but in particularly high levels in Manuka.

Natural health advocates claim it can help soothe toothache, treat wounds and burns and even fight the common cold.

Many A-listers and celebrities are reported to be fans of Manuka honey's natural healing powers, too; Kourtney Kardashian is said to enjoy a spoonful of Manuka honey in her morning tea.

Darker and creamer than regular honey with 'a wonderful flavour', it's perfect for adding to hot drinks or smoothies, spread on toast, over porridge, cereals or yoghurts. Some people cook with it, and many take a spoonful daily.

According to the manufacturers, Manuka has uniquely high levels of the health-boosting compound methylglyoxal, or MGO, which naturally occurs in all honey but in particularly high levels in Manuka

There's a reason why the Manuka Doctor 70 MGO Manuka Honey has gained over 3,500 five-star ratings on the brand's site, with rave reviews from users who say it's the best natural immunity booster to defend your body against winter illnesses.

'Love it!' a second customer declared. 'I've been getting this Manuka Honey for 5+ years and will continue doing so. It definitely boosts my immune system and keeps the flu away every winter!'

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The Ritz Carlton offers breathtaking views of Central Park and includes a fitness and movement studio with a Peloton bike station, a lounge for residents to dine at and the highest level of security

Its other wing features three guest bedrooms complete with en suite marble baths and a chic eat-in kitchen and the art inside the gallery is worth anywhere from $3.5 million to $7.1 million per piece

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A stunning apartment that occupies an entire floor overlooking Central Park, in the luxurious Ritz Carlton hotel, and comes complete with its very own art gallery and breathtaking views of the big apple has hit the market for an eye-watering $39 million.

The 10-room apartment in New York City boasts a full floor of 6,800 square feet with four bedrooms and a five and a half bathrooms and even features the work of Pablo Picasso and British sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

With 13 oversized glass windows and exceptional views of Central Park and Fifth Avenue, this full-floor apartment that sits on the 28 floor is sure to make you feel like a star.

A stunning apartment that occupies an entire floor in the heart of Central Park, in the luxurious Ritz Carlton hotel, and comes complete with its very own art gallery has hit the market for an eye-watering $39 million

The 10-room apartment in New York City boasts 6,800 square feet with four bedrooms and a five and a half bathrooms, stunning views of Central Park and even features the work of Pablo Picasso and British sculptor Barbara Hepworth

The chic eat-in kitchen outfitted with stunning white cabinetry and honey toned countertops to match the flooring also sits in the second wing and boasts state-of-the-art appliances

The luxury apartment includes two separate wings and the first boasts, the primary bedroom suite, two separate offices, two walk-in closets and media/library area

'Femme Nue Debout Appuyee' is featured in this private gallery, along with sculptures from Dame Barbara Hepworth and 'Gloria in Excelsis' by Hans Hofmann

The luxury apartment includes two separate wings - both with sensational views of course.

The first wing includes the primary bedroom suite, two separate offices and two dressing areas complete with islands.

The first wing also boasts two sets of walk-in closets and two large marble baths, making sure you have enough room for all your designer clothing and then some.

The master bedroom boasts views of Central Park from three windows and even includes an east-facing window that offers a view of the Sherry Netherland.

In addition, the first wing comes complete with a sitting area with a partner's desk that faces the park and a media and library area with seating.

The opposite wing features three guest bedrooms complete with en suite marble baths.

The chic eat-in kitchen outfitted with stunning white cabinetry and honey toned countertops to match the flooring also sits in the second wing and boasts state-of-the-art appliances.

With 13 oversized glass windows and exceptional views of Central Park and Fifth Avenue, this full-floor apartment that sits on the 28 floor is sure to make you feel like a star

The master bedroom boasts views of Central Park from three windows and even includes an east-facing window that offers a view of the Sherry Netherland

The marble baths offer another touch of luxury to the glamorous apartment and come completes with wood cabinets and patterned tile flooring, making sure you feel best no matter where you are

In addition, the first wing comes complete with a sitting area with a partner's desk that faces the park and a media and library area with seating

The opposite wing features three guest bedrooms complete with ensuite marble baths that offer silver touches throughout

And the greatest aspect in the entire apartment is the art gallery.

The apartment features artwork with the hallway forming the main centre gallery.

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish expressionist painter, famous for his bizarre paintings such as 'The Weeping Woman', the anti-war painting portraying the bombing of Guernica entitled 'Guernica' and 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and his artworks sit in the gallery.

'Femme Nue Debout Appuyee' is featured in this private gallery, along with sculptures from Dame Barbara Hepworth and 'Gloria in Excelsis' by Hans Hofmann.

According to art and luxury business Christies, 'Femme Nue Debout Appuyee' is worth anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000, while 'Gloria in Excelsis' is worth a $3.5 million to $5.5 million.

Dame Barbara Hepworth's sculptures are worth anywhere from $183 to $7.1 million.

To accommodate the impressive display of art, the rooms have specially designed heating and air conditioning that operate in an ultra-pin quiet manner, as well as a dehumidifier.

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, famous for his bizarre paintings such as 'The Weeping Woman', the anti-war painting portraying the bombing of Guernica entitled 'Guernica' and 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and his artworks sit in the gallery

To accommodate the impressive display of art, the rooms have specially designed heating and air conditioning that operate in an ultra-pin quiet manner, as well as a dehumidifier

There is a fitness center in the hotel complete with a Peloton bike studio and movement studio inside the hotel, making it the prefect place to get your sweat on

There are also recessed light designed to create different wash effects without damaging the paintings.

The living room also offers an open floor plan and a grand piano, allowing to relax in style.

The Residences at the Five Star Ritz Carlton includes just 12 homes, which were designed by Emery Roth.

And the full-floor apartment isn't the only place you'll find luxurious touches as the private residential lobby features the highest level of security and includes concierge services.

The hotel even includes a luxury spa for you to relax and pamper yourself in.

There is also a fitness center complete with a Peloton bike studio and movement studio inside the hotel, making it the prefect place to get your sweat on.

After you've worked up an appetite, residents can head to the lounge and enjoy classic cocktails and delicious cuisine from 7 am to midnight

The full-floor apartment isn't the only place you'll find luxurious touches as the private residential lobby features the highest level of security, includes concierge services and even has a spa for you to get pampered at

'28th floor views are rare and unique because they offer very realistic human scale views making one feel that Central Park is their front lawn instead of the surreal helicopter-like views offered by nearby super tall condominiums,' reads the listing

According to the listing, the apartment boasts an 'intentional simple modern design' that is described as 'elegant' and 'timeless'

The Ritz Carlton epitomizes luxury and has seen its fair share of celebrities, including Coco Chanel, John Travolta, Margaret Thatcher and F. Scott Fitzgerald

And after you've worked up an appetite, residents can head to the lounge and enjoy classic cocktails and delicious cuisine from 7 am to midnight.

'The 28th floor views are rare and unique because they offer very realistic human scale views making one feel that Central Park is their front lawn instead of the surreal helicopter-like views offered by nearby super tall condominiums,'

'The very gracious layout has grand scaled rooms that flow off the main center gallery.

'The library/ media room, formal dining room and living room all have dramatic Central Park views and open seamlessly into each other via pocket doors,' reads the listing.

'The library/ media room, formal dining room and living room all have dramatic Central Park views and open seamlessly into each other via pocket doors,' reads the listing

There is sadly no mention of the art pieces being for sale along with the apartment, however residents can still get a sense of luxury even without the art

According to the listing, the apartment boasts an 'intentional simple modern design' that is described as 'elegant' and 'timeless'.

The Ritz Carlton epitomizes luxury and has seen its fair share of celebrities, including Coco Chanel, John Travolta, Margaret Thatcher and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

There is sadly no mention of the art pieces being for sale along with the apartment.
Series five of The Crown is finally here - amid outrage over its rewriting of history and relationships.

While royals fans have been braced for shifting timelines, exaggerated scenes and rather brutal interpretations of private conversations, they will still no doubt be surprised by some of the more jaw-dropping moments in the series.

For instance, The Crown recreates real-life events such as the fire that tore through Windsor Castle in 1992, but adds an extra dollop of drama by showing Princess Margaret pointing the finger at Princess Diana for starting the blaze.

The Crown sets its shock value stall out early, showing the Queen having a medical examination in the opening minutes of the first episode, and being advised that she needs to lose some weight.

It certainly may feel too close to the bone for royal watchers, so soon after the death of Her Majesty in September.

And had she still been alive, the show's claim that she endorsed her husband's 'affair' with his carriage-driving companion Penny Knatchbull would no doubt have caused great hurt to the monarch.

Here, FEMAIL reveals the most shocking moments across the ten episodes of the new season.

Prince Charles tries to force the Queens abdication

The central plot in the first episode of the new series sees Prince Charles lobbying Prime Minister John Major to encourage the Queen to abdicate the throne to make way for a younger heir

Former Prime Minister John Major with King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales during a Prince Trust meeting in the 1990s

The central plot in the first episode of the new series sees Prince Charles lobbying Prime Minister John Major to encourage the Queen to abdicate the throne to make way for a younger heir.

The fifth series, set in the 1990s, opens with the then Prince of Wales lobbying Sir John in a bizarre attempt to force the Queen's abdication.

The prince, played by Dominic West, actively briefs against the Queen, whom he believes is out of touch. Charles is buoyed by the Sunday Times poll showing support for abdication among 47 per cent of the Queen's subjects.

The royal's press secretary says he has gained 'advance sight' of the Sunday Times and calls the story 'pretty punchy' - with the headline stating the Queen should abdicate in favour of the Prince of Wales.

Such is his determination to draw the Prime Minister into his conspiracy that he is shown cutting short a holiday with Princess Diana and William and Harry to race back to London.

Queen is weighed and told she might need to lose some weight In one of the earliest scenes in the new drama, the Queen is shown having a medical examination by a number of her doctors In one of the earliest scenes in the new drama, the Queen is shown having a medical examination by a number of her doctors. She lies across a table while the doctors appear to assess her posture, before being told she should hop on a pair of scales. Before she is weighed, she jokes: 'I'm not sure I want to know.' The doctor tells her she weighs 9 and a half stone, which is an increase of half a stone each year. The Queen seems afronted, saying: 'It makes no sense, in terms of diet and behaviour, I've not changed a thing.' The doctor says: 'As we get older, weight gets harder to shift.' He hints that she could look to lose half a stone, to which she appears distressed. She goes on to say that it will be done by the 'end of summer.' Later, Princess Anne encourages her mother to go for a walk, commenting that it is not easy to keep the weight off 'at their age.' Royal fans may find the scenes uncomfortable to watch, just two months after the monarch's death. Advertisement

Summoning Mr Major, played by Trainspotting star Jonny Lee Miller, to a private meeting, he asks him to keep their discussions secret.

He goes on to ask the Prime Minister if he has read his recent book, and if he has seen the article in the Sunday Times.

Major tells Charles it's 'just a poll and that polls come and go', Charles tells him it is 'dangerous to ignore them.' Major replies: 'It's equally dangerous to be guided by them.'

In their exchange, Charles hints that the monarchy should follow the lead of the Conservative Party which a year earlier had ousted Mrs Thatcher in favour of the younger Major. He says: 'What makes the Conservative Party the successful electoral force that it is? 'Its instinct for renewal and its willingness to make way for someone younger.'

He draws a parallel between himself and his great-great grandfather, Edward VII, the son of Queen Victoria, who was Prince of Wales for almost 60 years.

Charles is depicted as saying: 'It was said that Queen Victoria had no confidence in him, thought him dangerous, free thinking. He longed to be given responsibilities, but his mother refused. Even forbad him from seeing State papers.

'Yet when his time came, he proved his doubters wrong and his dynamism, his intellect, his popular appeal made his reign a triumph.'

When Mr Major asks what he is driving at, Charles replies: 'I am saying what a pity it was, what a waste that his voice, his presence, his vision, wasn't incorporated earlier. It would have been so good for everybody.'

Charles tells Mr Major that if he joins the Queen at an upcoming Ghilles Ball at Balmoral he will be able to judge for himself 'whether this institution that we all care about so deeply is in safe hands'.

However, while the storyline about the paper's poll is based on a genuine poll from 1990, there is one crucial difference. In the real one, 47 per cent said the Queen should hand over the Throne 'at some stage' in the future.

After learning of the plotline, former Prime Minister Sir John Major launched a blistering attack on The Crown, describing an abdication storyline in the latest series as a 'barrel load of malicious nonsense'.

Sir John's spokesman told The Mail on Sunday: 'If the scenes you describe are broadcast, they should be seen as nothing other than damaging and malicious fiction.

'A barrel load of nonsense peddled for no other reason than to provide maximum  and entirely false  dramatic impact.'

Princess Margaret suggests Diana could have set Windsor Castle on fire

Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce playing The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh embracing in the ruins of Windsor Castle after the fire that destroyed most of it in 1992

Firefighters tackling the flames engulfing Windsor Castle during the fire of 1992 which saw several priceless works of arts as well as big part of the Castle being destroyed

The Netflix show recreates the blaze of November 20, 1992, when 115 rooms were destroyed in a fire started by a faulty spotlight in Queen Victoria's private chapel. It took five years to rebuild the castle.

In the series, the Queen, played by Imelda Staunton, devastated by the fire, watches on tearfully as firefighters try to tackle the blaze, which raged for 15 hours.

The fire came at the end of a tumultuous year for the Royal Family following a series of scandals.

The Queen famously dubbed 1992 an 'annus horribilis', but as if the real-life events weren't dramatic enough, The Crown shows Princess Margaret speculating about how the fire started.

During an argument with the Queen, she even points the finger at different members of the royal family, including at Princess Diana.

She makes a series of different arguments for different suspects and their reasoning behind setting the fire alight.

She suggests to her sister the Queen that, Diana could have started it, 'frustrated after years of neglect...she decides to take the matter into her own hands.'

Elsewhere, Margaret also suggests Andrew 'furious at his own mother' coul dhave started the fire.

He says the Queen is 'the mother who has led by him to think he is invincible' while actually Andrew has learnt in life 'his principle role is to be humiliated'.

Finally, she says she could have been the one to start the blaze - because the Queen forbid her from marrying Peter Townsend.

She says: 'You don't think I have reason to burn down my sister's home? Because of what she denied me. Peter Townsend.'

Queen refuses to believe Prince Philip is just 'friends' with Penny Knatchbull

One of the boldest insinuations in episode 6 is the suggestion that a 'lonely' Prince Philip turned to Penny Knatchbull, then known as Penny Romsey, for 'intellectual companionship'

The show explores the close friendship between Penny Knatchbull, then Penny Romsey, and the Duke of Edinburgh (pictured in 2012)

Penny is married to Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, left, whom she wed in 1979

One of the boldest insinuations in episode 6 is the suggestion that a 'lonely' Prince Philip turned to Penny Knatchbull, then known as Penny Romsey, for 'intellectual companionship.'

The Duke of Edinburgh, played by Jonathan Pryce, is seen telling the Queen about their bond during a joint visit to Russia in 1994.

While the Duke denies having an affair with Penny, who was then married to Lord Romsey, Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the monarch does not believe him.

The conversation begins with the Duke of Edinburgh voicing that he and the Queen have grown apart, and that their Moscow visit is reminding him 'not only how much I gained, but how much I gave up when I married you'.

'We've got different interests. Different passions. Different churches. I'm more energetic,' he adds.

'Your desire for calm, for stability, for silence, not to question, not to prove, not to interrogate, has sometimes left me lonely,' he goes on, saying he's become 'disenchanted' with their relationship.

'So tell me. How have you addressed this disenchantment and loneliness?' she asks him.

The Duke admits he has had to seek 'companionship' elsewhere, adding he means 'intellectual' and 'spiritual companionship' through his 'gang' of carriage driving friends.

As a close confidante to the Duke of Edinburgh, Penny has been seen with Queen Elizabeth several times throughout her life (pictured in 2018)

The Duke of Edinburgh with Penny at a Sunday Service at Flitcham Church in 2012. The pair remained close throughout the Duke's life

'And I supposed, the closest friendship is with Penny,' he said, referring to Penny Knatchbull.

The Queen is shocked by this revelation and it is implied she believes the connection between the Duke of Edinburgh is physical as well as intellectual.

'Your godson's wife,' she asks Prince Philip, who replies ,'Friendship, Lilibet.'

This answer does nothing to squash the Queen's suspicions that her husband has been unfaithful, and she adds: 'She's half your age. Couldn't it just be a secretary? A nice girl from the typing pool with a short skirt and adoring eyes.'

However, the Duke of Edinburgh repeats that the connection with Penny is not physical.

Who is Penny Knatchbull, Prince Philip's great confidante? Penelope (Penny) Knatchbull, also known as Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who befriended Prince Philip at a polo match in 1975 when she was 20, became one of his closest confidantes despite being 32 years his junior and was pictured on walks with the Duke over the years. When she met the Duke, Penny was in a relationship with Earl Mountbatten's grandson Norton Knatchbull, whom she eventually married. The wedding was delayed for five after Earl Mountbatten was murdered in an IRA bombing in Co. Sligo, 1979. Norton, 73, is the grandson of Lord Mountbatten - who was famously close to his nephew Prince Philip. Philip was Norton's godson, while Norton is the godfather of Prince William. After first meeting Prince Philip in the 1970s, mother-of-three Penny is said to have leaned on the Duke and the Queen in 1991 after her five-year-old daughter Leonora tragically died from kidney cancer. Philip taught the Countess carriage-driving in 1994 and she became his regular companion for the sport. Royal insiders say her enthusiasm for carriage-driving is one of the reasons he continued to take the reins into his late 90s. He was pictured carriage-driving in the grounds of Windsor Castle as recently as 2019. After the Duke of Edinburgh retired to Sandringham after stepping down from royal duties, Penny was a regular visitor to Wood Farm on the Norfolk Estate. However, their close friendship was marred by rumours of an illicit romance as people suspected Prince Philip had been unfaithful with his close friend - something the Duke always strenuously denied. The rumours of a romance between the pair were somewhat quietened after Penny also developed a close relationship with the late Queen Elizabeth II. Penny and Her late Majesty are said to have bonded over their mutual love of horse riding. In 2010, after her husband left her for a new life and lover in The Bahamas, Penny is reported to have earnt enormous respect from the Queen, who reportedly admired how she had kept their historic estate, Broadlands in Hampshire, running as normal despite her personal turmoil. In July 2021, while the Queen was grieving for her husband who had died a few months earlier, Penny was spotted with the late monarch at the Royal Windsor Horse Show sharing a joke with her. The Daily Mail's Richard Eden reported at the time that the pair remained 'incredibly close' and that Penny was a 'comfort' to Her late Majesty. She was also present at the funeral of the Queen at Westminster Abbey last month. Advertisement

'It's not that sort of companionship. That would make me even more lonely,' he tells the Queen.

'Penny is in the family. A married woman,' the Queen retorques.

'Yes, and entirely focused on her marriage and her duty, who would never compromise you,' the Duke of Edinburgh replies.

'But it does compromise me. It compromises me. Me. As your soulmate,' the Queen replies, on the verge of tears.

The Monarch then suggests she could ask the Duke of Edinburgh to end the companionship, but he tells her this would be mistake, and that he doesn't want to give up what he calls the friendship, because he has done nothing wrong.

The conversation moves on to the Duke of Edinburgh conceding that his relationship with Penny could lead to infidelity rumours.

'I accept that the newspapers and some other idiots might see me in the company of a beautiful young woman and, well, jump to the wrong conclusions,' he tells her.

He then asks the Queen to befriend Penny and to embrace her publicly so that people cannot question his own friendship with his godson's wife.

Later on during the episode, The Queen meets Penny at Windsor Castle, and the Monarch makes snide remarks suggesting she still believes Penny and the Duke of Edinburgh are more than friends.

When Penny says she's been curious about the Romanov family's history, the Queen replies: 'ah yes, he would have found that very attractive.'

Penny is visibly uncomfortable about her meeting with the Sovereign, and tells her she could never leave her husband, but the Monarch keeps a poker face, hiding how she feels about the declaration, and praising Penny for her 'sense of duty.'

At the end of the meeting, the Monarch then invites Penny to ride in her car to church at Sandringham, thus agreeing to the Duke of Edinburgh's request to be seen with her.

After Penny leaves, the Queen is seen crying by herself, indicating to the viewer she still believes her husband is being unfaithful.

Towards the end of the episode, Penny is seen walking out in Sandringham with the royal family, and standing close to the Monarch while Prince Philip smiles in the background.

While the Monarch can be seen smiling graciously, Penny struggles to hide her discomfort at the attention she is receiving during her walkabout with the royal.

While the show never goes as far as confirming that Penny and the Duke of Edinburgh are indeed having an affair, The Crown does nothing to squash the claim, leaving for the viewer to decide whether this happened or not.

In real life too, the closeness between the Duke of Edinburgh and Penny Knatchbull sparked rumours of an affair over their decades-long friendship, however the pair always strenuously denied the accusation.

After first meeting Prince Philip in the 1970s, mother-of-three Penny is said to have leaned on the Duke and the Queen in 1991 after her five-year-old daughter Leonora tragically died from kidney cancer.

Philip taught the Countess carriage-driving in 1994 and she became his regular companion for the sport. Royal insiders say her enthusiasm for carriage-driving is one of the reasons he continued to take the reins into his late 90s. He was pictured carriage-driving in the grounds of Windsor Castle as recently as 2019.

After the Duke of Edinburgh retired to Sandringham after stepping down from royal duties, Penny was a regular visitor to Wood Farm on the Norfolk Estate.

However, their close friendship was marred by rumours of an illicit romance as people suspected Prince Philip had been unfaithful with his close friend - something the Duke always strenuously denied.

In 1992, after becoming irritated by the suggestions of infidelity, the Duke told a journalist: 'Have you ever stopped to think that, for the last 40 years, I have never moved anywhere without a policeman accompanying me?

'So how the hell could I get away with anything like that?'

The rumours of a romance between the pair were somewhat quietened after Penny also developed a close relationship with the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Penny and Her late Majesty are said to have bonded over their mutual love of horse riding.

The very graphic murder of the Romanov Family

One of the most graphic scenes in The Crown's fifth series, and perhaps of the entire show, is the gruesome murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family taking place at the beginning of episode six

Tsar Nicholas II with his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei in the 1910s

The facade of Ipatiev House, where the Russian imperial family was murdered on July 17 1918. It was demolished in the 1970s

One of the most graphic scenes in The Crown's fifth series, and perhaps of the entire show, is the gruesome murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family taking place at the beginning of episode six.

The family's murder took place in the basement of Ipatiev House on July 17 1918, at the hands of the Bolsheviks, and was notoriously brutal, something that the show did not shy away from as it recreated the moment.

As episode six begins with a flashback sequence on the murder, we see the Tsar and Tsarina being woken up in the middle of the night.

The family are told they will be rescued by Nicholas' cousin, George V, who has agreed to send a ship to save them and are then led to the basement of Ipatiev House under false pretences.

The Tsar is seen saying 'I knew George wouldn't let us down,' to his wife as they share a celebratory embrace.

The scene is made even more gut-wrenching as the family's children are seen rejoicing as they falsely think they are being led out of danger.

However, after being gathered in the basement with their aides, armed soldiers enter the basement, and the family soon begins to suspect something more ominous is afoot.

The Romanovs gasp and begin to cry as a soldier reads out their execution order to them.

'In view of the fact that your relatives in Europe continue to attack Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has sentenced you to death,' he reads.

Right after finishing to read the edict sealing the family's fate, the soldier wastes no time before shooting Tsar Nicholas II dead, with two soldiers finishing off with their bayonets.

One soldier can be heard saying 'for the workers,' as he shoots Nicholas II once again, while another says 'for the revolution.'

As the soldiers complete the execution of the whole family, Tsarina Alexandra can be seen panting in panic, while the couple's five children are heard screaming in terror and crying, adding to the violence of the scene.

The show goes back and forth between the execution and a scene where King George V is shooting pheasants back in the UK.

Viewers then see a very graphic scene in which the hysterical Tsarina is shot between the eyes by one of the soldiers and laying dead on her chair next to the Tsarevich Alexei, who was also shot in the head.

As the gruesome execution goes on, the soldiers close in on the four daughters of the Tsar and Tsarina, Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastatia, who have crawled into a corner of the room and are crying and screaming uncontrollably.

The four princesses can be seen whimpering and screaming and holding on to each other, as the solders draw close.

While one of the soldiers seem to hesitate, another tells him to go on with the killing in Russian, and the soldiers are seen hitting the girls repeatedly with bayonets, as hair-raising sounds of blood and whimpers can be heard out of shot.

The Romanov family is mistreated even in death as the scene goes on, with the soldiers loading the bloodied dead bodies onto a carriage and driving them to their burial location.

The soldiers' contempt and disrespect for the Imperial family is apparent as they drag the bodies in the mud and to their mass grave.

One soldier can be heard saying: 'you're dragging her to her grave, not your bed,' at another member of the team who he thinks is not being rough enough with the dead body of one of the princesses.

The soldiers are also heard laughing and cheering as they are burying the Tsar's family.

Meanwhile, in Britain, a distraught Queen Mary is seen sighing as she joins George V on his shooting expedition.

The rest of the episode discusses the Queen's visit to Moscow, where the fate of the Romanovs hold a centre point.

Martin Bashir is shown faking bank statements to gain access to Princess Diana

Princess Diana's Panorama interview and discussion about her marriage to the then Prince Charles with Martin Bashir that was broadcast in November 1995

Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki, in The Crown when portraying the BBC interview

'How would we even get to her?' is the reply of the Panorama boss when the character of investigative reporter Martin Bashir insists the BBC programme should try for an interview with Princess Diana, in which she reveals her side of the story.

The moment occurs at the start of episode seven, which concentrates on how the journalist secured the explosive Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales in 1995 about her marriage to Charles, then Prince of Wales.

Timeline of the Diana-Panorama scandal 1986: Martin Bashir joins BBC as news correspondent and works on programmes including Songs of Praise, Public Eye and Panorama. November 1995: The famous interview with Princess Diana turns Mr Bashir into TV's hottest property. 1996: The Mail on Sunday reveals claims that Mr Bashir used faked bank documents to persuade Diana to talk. The BBC holds internal inquiry dismissed as a 'whitewash'. 1999: Moves to ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald. His scoops include interview with Stephen Lawrence suspects and documentary on Michael Jackson. May 2004: Quits to host ABC's Nightline in US. Suspended in 2008 after making 'Asian babes' remark at Asian American Journalists convention. 2010: Joins NBC News as an MSNBC anchor. He resigns in 2013 after controversial remarks about vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. 2016: BBC re-hires Mr Bashir as religious affairs correspondent. He is later promoted to religion editor. October 2020: Channel 4 documentary alleges there was 'elaborate plot' by Mr Bashir to trick Diana into talking. November 7: The Daily Mail reveals a shocking dossier held by Diana's brother Earl Spencer revealing alleged royal smears, lies and tricks that Mr Bashir used to land his interview. November 18: BBC orders six-month inquiry by former judge Lord Dyson. May 14, 2021: The BBC announces Mr Bashir has quit on health grounds. Advertisement

Viewers witness Bashir shockingly faking bank statements to suggest those closest to Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer, now Earl Spencer, had received money from the British security services to spy on him.

'Okay, we just need it to look like a normal bank statement, showing payments from News International,' explains Bashir to his IT helper.

'Into which account?', they ask, to which Bashir replies: 'Alan James Waller... Okay let's make up another, with payments from Penfolds Consultants with "Jersey" underneath.

'It needs to look suspicious, like an offshore account. Channel Islands somewhere. That'll get his attention.'

With the fake bank statements in hand, the reporter meets with Charles and also claims that he believes Diana is being watched, encouraging the sibling to speak to his sister.

Charles reveals this information to Diana, who later agrees to meet Bashir before eventually agreeing to the interview - with viewers witnessing the fallout from the chat airing on TV.

The moment will likely leave many viewers, and members of the royal family, reeling, and comes after a lengthy process found Bashir had acted with deceit to gain the interview.

In reality, Bashir admitted ordering mocked-up financial documents by a BBC graphics artist, Matt Wiessler,

Wiessler previously recalled how a phone call that came 'out of the blue' from Bashir, just three months after Matt had left the BBC to start up as a freelance graphic designer running his own business with partner Patrick Bedeau.

'Martin Bashir wasn't a friend and it was unusual to get a phone call from him,' he recalls. 'He said: 'It's a real emergency job that has to be done overnight.'

'I was Mr Can Do  that was one of the traits that marked me out  and I said: 'Come over and I'll see what I can do.'

'He promptly turned up at 9pm talking about an 'exciting development' and telling me he needed to recreate some documents, replicas of statements from NatWest Bank.

'He mentioned that they'd been paid as 'surveillance money' and because he was from Panorama, one of the BBC's most respected programmes, I gave him leeway. I accepted that the details were shrouded in secrecy.

'But I asked for a brief in writing as I'd always do with such a commission because errors can be made when they're done verbally.

'He said: 'No, no, it has to be verbal.' I wouldn't say I was suspicious but I did think it was out of the ordinary.

He said he needed the documents by 7am at Heathrow as he was flying off somewhere. He was buzzing with excitement.'

The replica statements were duly delivered to the airport: Matt was paid just 250 for the job.

After being shown the faked bank statements by Bashir, Earl Spencer introduced the BBC journalist to the Princess.

Diana's brother Earl Spencer gave details of a string of alleged falsehoods Bashir allegedly told Diana to gain her trust, including cruelly pretending he had evidence her staff were spying on her.

The alleged smears included an allegation that Prince Edward was being treated for Aids in a London hospital, the Queen was a 'comfort eater' with 'heart problems', and Prince Charles was 'in love' with their children's nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, and went on a secret holiday with her.

Two months later, in November 1995, the BBC broadcast the world exclusive interview in which Diana admitted her affair with James Hewitt and said of Prince Charless relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles: There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.

An independent review by Lord Dyson in 2020 concluded he had acted wrongfully in means to attain the 1995 interview, prompting the journalist to resign as the BBCs religion editor.

The Corporations probe was described by the former judge as woefully ineffective and the extent of Bashirs deceit did not emerge until two years ago.

In May 2021, the BBC announced that Bashir quit the broadcasting service on health grounds.

In recreating the interview, Netflix has ignored pleas from Prince William not to exploit Bashir's deception of his late mother after he called for the groundbreaking scenes never to be aired again.

Reacting to Lord Dyson's damning report into how the original interview was obtained, he said: 'It is welcome that the BBC accepts Lord Dyson's findings in full  which are extremely concerning  that BBC employees: lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother; made lurid and false claims about the Royal Family which played on her fears and fuelled paranoia; displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the programme; and were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation.'

He added: 'It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said.'

'This Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again. It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others.'

Diana speculated on how the Panorama interview would impact Prince William

Prince William is portrayed as watching his mother given the Panorama interview from his school, before she speculates on the impact it will have on him

Prince William has spoken out strongly about his desire that the Panorama interview is never shown again.

However not only did the new series of The Crown recreate the programme - the filmmakers even added in addition comment from Diana about her children.

During the Panorama interview, Bashir is shown asking Diana: 'What impact do you think the breakdown of your marriage had on Prince William?'

Diana is shown saying: 'Well he's a boy who is a serious thinker, so it's hard to know the impact just yet. We'll have to wait a few years to see.'

Meanwhile Prince William is shown watching the programme at Eton, where a teacher asks if he is 'okay', and he insists he is 'fine.'

The moment is striking and shocking to viewers - particularly because it is completely fictionalised.

In fact, Diana made only a brief reference to her children in the interview - speaking about being relieved she had had two boys, and of post-natal depression which she struggled with.

The speculation about William's personality in the programme is likely to leave the Prince reeling, when he had already made a plea that the Diana interview never be exploited.

William said in April that the interview 'played on her fears and fuelled paranoia'.

Earlier this year, Majesty Magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward explained how enraged William would be to see the interview on screen in the series.

Speaking to The Sun, she said: 'William will be furious. He said his piece when he said it should never be aired again. This is his mother and her memory they are doing this to.

'It must be very frustrating as he cant say any more because it will just give Netflix more publicity.

'They should have listened to him. The interview has no credibility after the investigation. Everyone knows it has no legitimacy now.

'Charles will think they can say whatever they want about him but leave Harry and William out of it. He wont give a stuff about how he comes across but just dont attack his sons this way.'

Diana's car brakes stop working

A shocking moment sees Diana struggling to drive her car as she tries to drive away from a group of men in a vehicle next to her who wanted a picture

Princess Diana said several times she was afraid someone would tamper with her car's brakes. Pictured getting into a black Audi in the 1990s

Episode seven and eight of the series focus on Diana's controversial 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

A shocking moment sees Diana struggling to drive her car as she tries to drive away from a group of men in a vehicle next to her who wanted a picture.

Diana can be heard saying 'Oh my god' as she struggles to use the car's brakes and goes for a scary swerve around moving cars.

After she manages to immobilise the vehicle, Diana covers her mouth with her hand as if she is about to be sick.

Moments later, she arrives at her brother's Earl Spencer's London home, where he hastily greets her.

'Quickly close the door behind you,' he tells her, with Diana replying: 'Charming. After a two-year silence, that's how you greet your sister?'

As the two settle down to speak, Charles reveals he has been contacted by a journalist from the BBC called Martin Bashir.

'He came to talk to me about surveillance of public figures by the security services,' he adds. 'It's clear Bashir thinks people are watching you too.'

Diana seems to agree and says: 'Well, you know what I think. They've been spying on me for years. They're all in on it. That's why I got rid of my personal protection officers.'

Charles adds that Bashir says he has proof that the Prince of Wales' press secretary and Diana's own private secretary, whom she calls 'my Patrick' are keeping tabs on her.

Earl Spencer than tells Diana she should meet Bashir, before asking her what else is new with her.

She then reveals: 'I think they fiddled with the brakes on my car now, as well.'

When her shocked brother says 'what?' she adds, pensive: 'Though it might just need a service.'

In real life, several reports showed that Princess Diana was worried that someone would tamper with her car.

In 1995, she wrote a note to her lawyer, Lord Mishcon, in which she said she thought she would be the victim of 'some accident in her car such as a pre-prepared brake failure.

The note also read: 'I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high.'

'This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous. My husband is planning an accident in my car. Brake failure and serious head injury,' she went on.

She claimed in the letter that her death would allow Prince Charles to marry Prince William and Prince Harry's nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who was falsely rumoured to be having an affair with the Prince of Wales at the time,' LadBible reported.

Majesty magazine Editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward wrote for The Sun in 2021 that Diana had also told her about her fears.

She quoted the royal as saying: 'I know it sounds silly now but I really did worry about the brakes on my car...'.

Dodi Fayed does cocaine

A throwaway moment in the last episode of the series shows Dodi Fayed preparing lines of cocaine while traveling to London

Princess Diana photographed with Dodi Fayed during their holiday in St Tropez in late August 1992

A throwaway moment in the last episode of the series shows Dodi Fayed preparing lines of cocaine while traveling to London.

As the tenth episode of series five begins, Dodi calls his father Mohamed Fayed from Los Angeles, where he says his home is.

He also mentions that he has met a woman and wants to introduce her to his father, saying she is special. The woman in question is Kelly Fisher, a blonde model who posed for Calvin Klein.

Dodi and Kelly are seen boarding Dodi's private jet to London, in which they rehearse Kelly's line from a script and heavily flirt on Dodi's bed.

Another scene shows the couple speaking about the movie for which the script Kelly read was for. As they speak, Dodi is shown preparing three lines of cocaine on a table with a credit card.

When the three lines are complete, the heir leans over the table and snorts one of the lines.

While the moment is short, it packs a lot of shock value and plays into the narrative that Dodi was heavy on the partying.

In 2017, the Daily Mail revealed that Dodi was a cocaine fiend who trawled Studio 54 and Gay clubs with Liza Minelli and Roy Halston.

Studio 54's former owner Mark Fleischman wrote about Dodi in his new memoir 'Inside Studio 54' that year, and shared with the Mail how Mohamed Fayed's son always had 'amazing coke' and would attend 'dangerous' parties in abandoned buildings.

'Dodi loved Quaaludes, good quality coke and hot women and he always had plenty of those,' Fleischman, who owned the club between 1981 and '84, wrote at the time.

The two men became so close that they regularly went scouring illegal clubs at 5am in what was then one of the most dangerous areas of downtown New York.
However, Mars has seen a backlash from fans of the coconutty chocolate

Mars Wrigley announced that it would be selling Bounty free Celebration tubs

Mars Wrigley UK's tear-jerking Christmas advert has been released, pleading with Britons to show their support for Bounty chocolates before it's 'too late' - after the firm announced it will be removing the sweet from some Celebrations tubs this year.

The company revealed last week the controversial new trial of 'No-Bounty' tins in selected Tesco stores over the festive season after mounting public demand.

And its ad sees Bounty, spurred on by online haters, make the heart-breaking decision to leave the Celebrations tub and go it alone.

The film opens with a 'Mr Bounty' scrolling through Twitter, confronted by Bounty trolls. Feeling rejected, he takes down his stocking from the Celebrations mantelpiece and leaves for a life of solitude.

Set to a poignant soundtrack, the story follows Mr Bounty as he is found alone in the woods by a kind old woman who takes him in and reminds him that he is still cared for.

Mars Wrigley UK have launched a new Christmas advert about the lonely Bounty after it launched Bounty-free Celebrations tubs this year

The tear-jerking finale sees Bounty happily reunited with his fellow Celebrations, including Maltesers and Snickers, after public pleas for him to come home make the news

The pair strike up an unlikely friendship - spending quality time knitting, playing scrabble and decorating the house - leading to Bounty's revived hope and happiness as he then returns home.

The tear-jerking finale sees Bounty happily reunited with his fellow Celebrations, including Maltesers and Snickers, after public pleas for him to come home make the news.

And according to research, Maltesers and Snickers wouldn't be the only ones pleased to see Bounty this Christmas.

A study conducted by Mars Wrigley UK found that a whopping 58 per cent of the nation would miss Bounty if it was permanently removed from the tub, with a further 17 per cent saying they would feel joy if they opened a Celebrations tub to find only Bounty's.

Those in Gloucester and Warrington admitted to being the biggest Bounty lovers (40 per cent) followed by people from Peterborough and Chelmsford where just under a third (27 per cent) revealed the coconut choc is their favourite in the tub.

Bounty decides to make it on his own after he scrolls through Twitter and is confronted by Bounty trolls

The heart-breaking ad sees the coconutty chocolate taking down his Christmas stocking before leaving the Celebrations tub

Mars Wrigley are encouraging Bounty fans to 'speak now or forever hold their peace' and get involved with the debate by using the hashtag #BringBackBounty to save the sweet treat.

Emily Owen, Mars Wrigley's Head of Celebrations Festive Cheer said: 'Bounty has always been a divisive presence in the Celebrations tub, but no matter which side of the debate you stand, our film teaches an important lesson; you don't know what you've got until it's gone.

'We're urging fans who want to keep Bounty in the tub to show their support with #BringBackBounty before we make our final decision on whether Bounty-less tubs are the future of Celebrations.'

The new festive ad acts as a sequel to last year's story of the 'Lonely Bounty' - where an unlucky-in-love chocolate finds festive happiness with a Brussels Sprout.

The accompanying song was written especially for the campaign and poses the idea that 'Christmas isn't Christmas' without Bounty.

Set to a brand-new poignant soundtrack, the story follows Mr Bounty as he is found alone in the woods by a kind old woman who takes him in and reminds him that he is still cared for

The pair strike up an unlikely friendship; spending quality time knitting, playing scrabble and decorating the house, leading to Bountys revived hope and happiness as he then returns home

Statistics shared by Mars Wrigley with Femail reveal that only 22 per cent of people said the Bounty was their least favourite Celebrations pick, which means that a whopping 78 per cent of people have nothing against the coconutty treat

People took to Twitter to share their strong reaction after Mars Wrigley announced it was rolling out Bounty-free tubs this Christmas.

'Why would you remove the Bounty when the disgusting and pointless Milky Way exists? What self respecting person resorts to eating the Milky Ways? I feel personally attacked,' one said.

'Why do you [people] hate Bounty so much? Its such a lovely chocolate bar like, how can you not like coconut,' another asked.

One said: 'Half the people who hate on bounty have never tried it but follow the crowd.

However, some sided with the decision to ban the sweets, with one saying: 'Stop pretending Bounties are anything other than landfill.'
Royal editor Rebecca English previously expressed 'shock' over series and slammed it as 'pretty distasteful'

Comes after the new series of The Crown was released, which is likely to send shockwaves through palace

Clip shows the royal mother-of-three offering the little boy her flower and saying it was to 'remember soldiers'

ate was elegant for the visit in Hillingdon, where she spoke with young boy and introduced herself

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The Princess of Wales offered a three-year-old boy her remembrance poppy this morning while chatting with the youngster during a visit to a children's centre.

Kate Middleton, 40, appeared in good spirits as she arrived at Colham Manor Childrens Centre today, where she is set to learn more about maternal mental health and speak with staff who have helped vulnerable mothers in the community.

The royal donned a smart 369 dark olive coat from Hobbs for the occasion, which she paired with a 36 khaki dress from Mango, her 625 Jimmy Choo bag and her favourite set of 550 pearl drop earrings from designer Kiki McDonough.

The mother-of-three, who has focused on early years support and mental health in her royal career, showed off her maternal side as she chatted to young mothers and their babies at the centre.

Outside, she crouched down on the ground as she chatted to one little boy, Akeem, three, who asked the Princess her name, before she offered him her flower.

After removing the pin, she gave him the little tribute, telling him it was to 'remember all the soldiers who died in the war'.

The Princess of Wales offered a three-year-old boy her poppy this morning while chatting with the youngster during a visit to a children's centre

During the visit, the royal mother-of-three knelt to the ground as she chatted with the three-year-old and offered him her poppy (pictured)

The Princess of Wales, 40, was the picture of elegance today as she visited a children's centre in Hillingdon hours after the release of the explosive new series of The Crown

Kate appeared in good spirits as she arrived at Colham Manor Childrens Centre this morning, where she learnt more about maternal mental health and speak with staff who have helped vulnerable mothers in the community

The Princess was animated as she chatted with young mothers at the centre, one of whom presented the royal with a bouquet of flowers

Today, The Princess swept her hair into her usual bouncy blow dry style, and opted for a neutral makeup look, with a touch of blusher and a little eyeliner for the occasion.

The coat, the Lori Wool Cashmere Blend Belted Long Coat in olive from the high street retailer Hobbs, is described online as 'inspired by military design' and is a 'timeless' piece.

The royal, who is known for her love of high street brands, paired the trendy coat with a comfortable khaki green knit dress from Mango.

The brand is one which she has worn a number of times in the past, while she also occasionally dresses her children in the label.

The Princess, who has long expressed an interest in early years development, appeared to enthrall the little boy as they chatted at the centre

Wrapped up in her olive green Hobbs coat, Kate appeared in high spirits during the outing in Hillingdon this morning

Meanwhile she accessorised with her 625 Jimmy Choo croc-embellished handbag and a matching pair of heels.

During today's visit, Kate heard how the care provided in the borough of Hillingdon exemplifies the benefits of adapting a system to better suit the needs of women and families.

Meanwhile she also joined a mother and baby group taking place at the Centre and spoke with mothers who have received support for their mental health to hear about their experiences.

The session included mothers who have been supported by two of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance's member organisations  Home-Start and Birth Companions.

A cheerful Princess! Kate was beaming as she chatted with young mothers and members of staff at the centre in Hillingdon today

The royal mother-of-three wore her favourite set of 550 pearl drop earrings from designer Kiki McDonough for the occasion (pictured)

The royal went on to meet representatives from agencies working across perinatal services including specialist psychiatry staff, midwives, health visitors and social workers for a roundtable discussion.

There, they discussed how the service has developed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable mothers in their community,

Earlier this year, the royal said no mother is 'immune to experiencing anxiety and depression' in a video to mark becoming patron of the MMHA.

Kate has made the early years development of children one of the main pillars of her public role and the work complements the work she is trying to do through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.

Kate, who has long been passionate about mental health and the early years, appeared animated as she chatted with mothers at the centre

The royal, who is known for her love of high street brands, paired the trendy coat with a comfortable khaki green knit dress from Mango

The MMHA is a UK-wide charity and network of more than 100 organisations, working to ensure women and families affected by perinatal mental problems have access to high-quality comprehensive care and support.

Her visit comes hours after the release of the new series of The Crown, which is likely to have sent shockwaves through the palace. The Daily Mail's Royal Editor Rebecca English has suggested that the programme may be so controversial that it could prompt the Palace to break its 'never complain, never explain' tradition.

Kate's character doesn't appear in the newest series of The Crown - however she will be portrayed in the next, and final, season of the explosive drama.

It features graphic reconstructions of the most private of conversations in lascivious detail, imagined chats between Prince William and his late mother, and Princess Diana's infamous interview with Martin Bashir.

Last year the then Duke of Cambridge made a deeply emotional public statement asking that the Bashir interview, which was obtained through deception, should never be seen in public again. Sources have since made clear that this applies to using it for dramatic purposes too.

The royal was beaming as she arrived for the visit this morning, and swept her hair from her shoulder as she chatted to members of staff (left and right)

During today's visit, Kate will hear how the care provided in the borough of Hillingdon exemplifies the benefits of adapting a system to better suit the needs of women and families

The royal donned a smart dark green coat for the occasion, which she paired with a khaki dress and matching accessories (pictured left and right)

The mother-of-three, who has focused on early years support and mental health in her royal career, was beaming as she greeted staff and appeared to chat with members of the team as she entered the centre

Kate has made the early years development of children one of the main pillars of her public role and the work complements the work she is trying to do through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood

Kate has made the early years development of children one of the main pillars of her public role and the work complements the work she is trying to do through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood

So who will play Kate in The Crown's sixth season? Star turn: Meg (left) will begin shooting her scenes as the new Princess of Wales for the show's sixth and final season this year Meg Bellamy who will soon star as Kate Middleton in The Crown once took to the stage as the gruesome Miss Trunchbull in Matilda. The actress, 19, starred as the formidable character in an amateur dramatics production and her tutor says even then she was a 'star in the making'. Speaking to The Sunday Mirror teacher Claire compared Meg's qualities to that of the Princess of Wales. 'Meg is similar and ridiculously humble, she was very popular the type of student you had to encourage to come forward'. She continued: 'What's amazing is that she took the initiative to do a self tape for The Crown and it's become one of the stories you rarely hear of in the industry  a huge unknown plucked for a massive production. That reflects Meg.' Meg will begin shooting her scenes for the sixth and final season of the Netflix show later this year however Claire believed the youngsters loving family would help keep her grounded. 'They're such a sweet, loving family. She will stay private, she's a sensible person and will approach all this carefully. Her mum will be an amazing support as well.' Advertisement

However the programme dedicates two episodes to the Bashir interview - and even portrays Prince William as tearfully watching it unfold on television from Eton.

The depiction of senior royals, particularly the then-Prince of Wales, is so relentlessly negative - and the dramatic licence used to recreate relatively recent events in their lives so great - that some scenes verge on the defamatory.

Royal insiders have also pointed out that The Crown has been released almost two months to the day after Queen Elizabeth died, making the twisting of facts even more distasteful.

Royal editor Rebecca slammed scenes as 'verging on defamatory'. admitted parts of the show feel 'pretty distasteful' and said that while she initially felt that the reaction around the next season was 'a bit of a storm in a teacup', she was 'shocked' by its contents.

Speaking on Palace Confidential, she hinted that the Palace would wait for the release today before considering 'fueling the flames'.

'I think they want to see it for themselves,' Rebecca told host Jo Elvin.

However, she added: 'I think it might be one of those occasions where they're pushed to say something.'

Meanwhile royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said The Crown's desire to 'knock' the Monarchy 'whenever possible' will cause a 'good deal of pain'.

He told MailOnline: 'There were always dangers which The Cron had to surmount as it moved into the 1990s.

'Apart from calls for a disclaimer before each episode, only observed so far in the marketing for the 5th series, it obviously had to show Diana's interview on Panorama, probably the most famous television interview ever given, in some form. This interview has been totally discredited and the subsequent cover up by the BBC is notorious.

'William has called for it never to be screened again and this depiction is bound to increase interest in it. Yet no series which purports to cover this period, as The Crown does, could possibly ignore it.

'I am pretty certain it will be shown as a discredited and dubious enterprise and Bashir as the shockingly duplicitous character that he is.

'I fear what is coming will cause a good deal of pain to those involved, Netflix will probably get a vast audience for it but indications from previews are that, for the royals, this is nothing short of a horror show.'

It was announced earlier this year that The Crown have cast actress Meg Bellamy in the role of the Princess for series six.

The Netflix show initially put out a casting call in April to find a 'stunning actress' to portray the role of a young Kate, and now after a five month wait, they've finally found their Duchess.

Meg, who was head girl at St Crispins School where she studied drama, will star alongside Ed McVey, who has been cast as her onscreen husband Prince William.

Ed and Meg will play the couple during the period in which their romance blossomed while studying at St Andrews University.

It is not known how significant a part Kate will be in the final series - casting calls for Prince William and Prince Harry suggested they would play a large part in the programme.

It indicated there may be storylines effecting the young Prince's lives in the late nineties and early noughties.

The time period will likely cover William attending University of St Andrew's in Scotland where he met Kate as well as Prince Charles' wedding to Camilla Parker-Bowles and the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana.

It may also cover Prince Harry's party days, including alleged experiments with cannabis and alcohol, which resulted in Prince Charles taking the then 16-year-old Prince to a rehab centre in a bid to set him straight.

Her visit today comes as the latest series of The Crown was released on Netflix - with royal experts warning it is likely to leave the palace reeling with it's controversial scenes. Pictured: Elizabeth Debicki plays Princess Diana during the interview with Martin Bashir
The pair married in the hospital room which Prince William uses when he visits

Alex from South London, proposed when doctors said she had few weeks to live

Kirsty Fielding died with cancer in October after finding a lump in April 2021

A heartbroken father surprised his dying wife days before her death with a dream Disney wedding at the hospital where she was receiving cancer treatment.

Kirsty Fielding, 28, from Catford, South East London, died with sarcoma cancer in October 2022, leaving behind her husband Alex Fielding, 32 and their two-year-old son Thomas.

Alex proposed to his late wife in September 2022 when doctors said she only had a few weeks to live.

Her condition left her largely bed bound and meant she could not travel abroad to celebrate the big day.

With the help from Royal Marsden Hospital, the couple pulled off the most 'magical' ceremony and married his childhood sweetheart.

Kirsty Fielding (pictured), 28, from Catford, South London, died from cancer in October 2022 and left behind her husband Alex Fielding, 32 and their two-year-old son Thomas (Pictured: Kirsty on her wedding day)

Alex (left) proposed to his late wife (right) in September 2022 when doctors said she had a few weeks to live (Pictured: Alex surprised his terminally-ill wife, Kirsty with their dream Disney wedding days before her death)

With the help from Royal Marsden Hospital, the couple (pictured) pulled off the most 'magical' ceremony and married his childhood sweetheart (Pictured: the bride and groom embracing)

The father-of-one managed to persuade staff to host the ceremony in the room where Prince William uses when he visits (Pictured: the newly weds sat down next to one another on their wedding day)

The father-of-one managed to persuade staff to host the ceremony in the room which Prince William uses when he visits.

The widower told said: 'I still dont believe that any of it is real, it feels like it has been months without her.

'The hardest thing is not being able to talk to her, she has been by my side every day and it has just been horrible.

Alex told NeedToKnow.Online: 'I still dont believe that any of it is real, it feels like it has been months without her (Pictured: Kirsty's dress was too heavy for her to walk down the aisle, so she had to be wheel-chaired in)

He said he hardest thing is not being able to talk to his late wife who 'has been by my side every day' (Pictured: Kirsty being wheel chaired in while holding her son Thomas's hand

Alex said: 'As soon as she got the diagnosis, Kirsty looked at me and started crying because she realized she wont see Thomas grow up (Pictured: The bride and groom sharing a kiss)

'As soon as she got the diagnosis, Kirsty looked at me and started crying because she realised she wont see Thomas grow up.

'I knew I had to be positive for her and told her we can fight it together. As we didnt know how long we had left, we both knew we wanted to get married.

'But towards the end, she became too sick, so I decided to give Kirsty one last wish, and that was to bring Disney to her.

Alex wanted to remain positive and was desperate to get the ceremony arranged as soon as possible as the couple did not know how long Kirsty had left (Pictured: Kirsty being pushed down the aisle while guests stand side by side with their hands in the air)

Kirsty had one wish and that was to go to Disney but she was too sick to leave the hospital (Pictured: Thomas at his parents' wedding)

Alex described the wedding as 'magical' but felt devastated not to wake up with his wife next to him as she was too ill to leave the hospital (Pictured: Kirsty and her son, Thomas, a month before she lost her battle with sarcoma cancer)

'The wedding was magical but when I woke up the next morning I just felt this sense of sadness.

'I was so happy to be there with my wife and I just wanted to take her home and be with her forever, but I couldnt. That felt devastating.'

Alex and Kirsty got engaged at Walt Disney World Orlando in 2019 after being together for 10 years.

Alex and Kirsty (pictured) got engaged at Walt Disney World Orlando in 2019 after being together for 10 years

In April 2021, Kirsty found a lump under her arm but doctors told her it was 'nothing to worry about', Alex claimed. (Pictured: Kirsty's arm after surgery in August 2021)

The tumor in Kirsty's arm continued to grow to the size of a 'rugby ball' before she had to undergo six weeks of gruelling radiotherapy (Pictured: Kirsty, a month before she lost her battle with sarcoma cancer)

Two years later in April 2021, Kirsty found a lump under her arm but doctors told her it was 'nothing to worry about', Alex claimed.

The tumor continued to grow to the size of a 'rugby ball' before she had to undergo six weeks of gruelling radiotherapy.

However in September the cancer returned after doctors believed it had been laying dormant in her bloodstream

In September the cancer returned after doctors believed it had been laying dormant in her bloodstream (Pictured: Kirsty and Alex's final hug)

Alex (right) said he wanted to run away when Kirsty's cancer returned and admitted 'he will never forget the day' the couple received the news (Pictured: Alex with his partner and wife Kirsty)

Alex said: 'When they told us the cancer had returned, I just wanted to run out of the room and run away.

'We had our son with us, and none of it felt real. I will never forget that day... I looked her in the eyes and I just started crying; I didnt want to lose her and I didnt want to believe it was happening.

'Kirsty was so strong all the way throughout, and she only broke down once because she said she didnt want to die in pain, she was a true warrior.

He said the news did not feel real as he was desperate not to lose his life partner (Pictured: Kirsty showing off her engagement ring after Alex proposed to her at Walt Disney World Orlando in 2019)

Alex (right) said his partner was 'so strong' and called her a 'true warrior' (Pictured: the moment the couple shared a kiss after they got engaged)

The father-of-one said he could not stop thinking about his boy, who would grow up without a mother (Pictured: The couple at Walt Disney Orlando)

Alex set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds to wed Kirsty at Disneyland Paris but the romantic plans were not possible after she could not leave the hospital

'I also couldnt stop thinking about our boy Thomas... it was heartbreaking! No son should have to grow up without a mum.'

Alex set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds to wed Kirsty at Disneyland Paris but the romantic plans were not possible after she could not leave the hospital.

The father-of-one arranged a Disney-themed wedding in ten days, with the couple exchanging rings on 2 October.

The father-of-one arranged a Disney-themed wedding in ten days, with the couple exchanging rings on 2 October (Pictured: Kirsty eating from a box of food while she was bed bound in hospital)

Alex wanted the room where they married to be packed with Disney ornaments (Pictured: Kirsty and her son Thomas)

There were roses and a Disney-themed wedding cake on their special day to make it as 'magical' as possible (Pictured: Alex and Kirsty in the hospital)

Alex said: 'The whole place was covered in Disney ornaments, we even had a princess castle backdrop.

'There were roses and even a Disney-themed cake, I just wanted to make sure the day was as magical as possible.

'You could just feel the love in the room that day, for Kirsty and for us, it was just a memorable and magical day.

The couple (pictured) said they could feel the 'love' in the air on the most 'memorable' day of their lives

They live-streamed the event with many guests taking snaps and pictures of their big day (Pictured: the couple enjoying a drink outside Honey Dukes)

Alex said he will 'cherish' the pictures and videos of him and his wife on their wedding day 'forever' (Pictured: Kirsty, her husband Alex and their son, Thomas)

'The dress was too heavy for her to walk down the aisle, so she had to be wheel-chaired in.

'We live-streamed the whole thing and you can just see the happiness in Kirstys eyes when she is coming down the aisle... you can see it on her face.

'I will cherish the pictures and videos forever, and it also means that when Thomas gets older he can look back on them too, and remember his amazing mum.

Photos of Kirsty (pictured) on her wedding day will mean Thomas can look back and remember his 'amazing' mum, according to Alex

The widower (right) said his partner had a 'sudden' burst of energy before she died and was very chatty (Pictured: Kirsty and Alex)

In her final moments Kirsty (pictured) was telling everyone in the room she loved them all

Alex said: 'In the final minutes before she died, she had this sudden burst of energy and she kept talking.

'Kirsty was telling everyone in the room that she loved them all, and she kept asking me for cuddles. We managed to take a picture of that final hug.

'She looked at me and said to me that I gave her a good life, and also told me to find love.

Kirsty looked at Alex in her final few moments and and said he gave her a good life and also told him to find love

Thomas kept saying 'bye mummy' s they left the hospital room for the final time which broke Alex's heart (Pictured: A Disney ornament at the couples wedding)

Alex said his wife's cancer was extremely rare and there needs to be more research into it (Pictured: The couple at the alter)

Next year Alex will be raising money for the charities which have helped Kirsty (Pictured: Alex and Kirsty on a rollercoaster)

WHAT IS SARCOMA? Sarcomas are uncommon types of cancer which can grow anywhere in the body  on muscle, bone, tendons, blood vessels and fatty tissue. Bone sarcomas are rare and affect approximately 670 people per year  but there are other types of bone cancers. There are around 100 different types of sarcomas and about 5,300 people are year are diagnosed with them in the UK. Sarcomas can be treated well if people catch them early, but many people do not get diagnosed until their tumours are about the size of a tin of beans. Only slightly more than half of people with sarcomas (55 per cent) survive for five years or more after their diagnosis. Symptoms of sarcomas can include bone pain, swellings or lumps, and restricted movement if it is growing near a joint. Treatment may involve typical cancer therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Source: Sarcoma UK Advertisement

'In the end, she took herself off the oxygen and told me she was ready to go.

'The worst part was leaving the room with Thomas, he kept saying Bye mummy, see you later! and that honestly broke my heart. We both miss her so much.'

Alex is working with St Christophers Hospice and Royal Marsden Hospital to raise awareness for sarcoma cancer.

He added: 'I want to raise awareness because theres gonna be another young family out there like us, with no treatment.

'There will be other families who will go through this and I wouldnt want to wish this pain on anyone.

'Kirstys cancer was extremely rare and there is no research into it, but there needs to be.

'She loved life and lived life to the fullest, and I there will never be another one like her.

'Next year I will be doing a fun run to raise money for the charities that helped us. Kirsty lost her fight, so now I need to fight for her.'
University Challenge viewers admitted on social media that they savoured watching 'an elite university' being dispatched in the first round of the BBC2 academic quiz.

Oxford Balliol were convincingly beaten by 210 to 115 after Southampton University, comprising all post graduates, raced ahead - with Polish PhD student Madga Steele particularly impressing fans.

The latest episode of the BBC2 - which sees host Jeremy Paxman presenting his final series after retiring following his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease - saw the Oxford College predicted to take the match...but Southampton's quartet of brainboxes had other ideas.

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Polish student Magda Steele, studying for a PhD in ecology at Southampton, impressed University Challenge viewers in first round match of BBC2 quiz

Southampton teamwork saw them overcome Oxford Balliol convincingly by 210 to 115 for a place in the second round - and some on Twitter admitted they enjoyed seeing Oxford get beaten

On social media, viewers commented on the giant killing, saying they took some relish in seeing an Oxbridge team go out, praising the teamwork of Southampton, who were led by captain Dom Belcher.

@wendyjpitt61 wrote: 'Childish I know, but I do like it when Oxford or Cambridge get beaten...well done Southampton.'

@amymcc_auley added: 'Southampton thrashing Balliol on #UniversityChallenge made my day. Well done Belcher et al, what a lovely team.'

Many remarked on cool as a cucumber Steele as she widened the gap between the scores with a correct answer on a question about native British trees.

On Twitter, @InlandEmpire777 joked: 'Steele is stroking a cat and has the nuclear codes' while @Spartacus20203 wrote: 'Steele's sharp tonight'.

The Southampton team consisted of Dominic Belcher, who's studying for a PhD in computer science, Magda Steele, studying for a PhD in ecology, Ethan Lyon, studying for a PhD in film studies and Elliot Miles, studying for an integrated masters in marine biology.

Teamwork makes the dreamwork! Southampton, led by captain Dom Belcher, worked together to pull off the impressive first round win

At the helm...but not for much longer: Jeremy Paxman announced in the summer that he's stepping down as the host of the show after 28 years, ending his reign as the longest-serving current quizmaster on UK TV

Jeremy Paxman announced in the summer that he's stepping down as the host of the show after 28 years, ending his reign as the longest-serving current quizmaster on UK TV.

The 72-year-old, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease last year, has presented the show since it was revived by the BBC in 1994.

He will film his last episode this autumn and his final series will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from Monday August 29 through to summer 2023.

The journalist and broadcaster said at the time: 'I've had a blast hosting this wonderful series for nearly 29 years.

'I've been lucky enough to work with an amazing team and to meet some of the swottier brains in the country. It gives me hope for the future.'

In June 2014, Mr Paxman left BBC current affairs programme Newsnight after 25 years as its presenter.

He revealed in May last year that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. He said his doctor had him tested for the incurable condition after seeing him on University Challenge during lockdown.

The veteran presenter said he suffered regular falls, including one that left him with 'black eyes', and admitted it was 'very hard to know you're not going to get better'.
Greggs has announced the new festive treats that will be available from tomorrow as part of its new Christmas menu.

The bakery confirmed its much-loved festive bake and popular caramel latte will be returning to the shelves in stories across the UK.

However, fans eager to get their hands on a seasonal treat might notice that their favourite has increased in price, with the cost of the popular Festive Bake rising by 20p and the Christmas Soup going up by 30p.

Earlier this year, customers faced price hikes on pasties and sausage rolls as the bakery chain - which has more than 2,200 shops in the UK - was faced with higher prices for food, packing and energy.

In May, customers saw increases in price of 5p to 10p on some items, including jam donuts, sausage rolls and ham and cheese toasties.

Here Femail reveals the new Greggs Christmas menu and what everything costs.

Festive Bake

The Festive Bake (pictured) contents are wrapped in a creamy sage and cranberry sauce comes at 453 calories and costs 1.80

The popular Festive Bake is packed with bacon, stuffing, and chicken breast.

Its contents are wrapped in a creamy sage and cranberry sauce, costing 1.80 and adding up to 453 calories.

Last year the product was 1.60 - marking a 20p uplift in the price.

Vegan Festive Bake

Finished off with a 'mouth-watering' creamy sage and cranberry sauce, the chain's Vegan Festive Bake (pictured) is 442 calories and also costs 1.80.

The store's Vegan Festive Bake is made from puff pastry and filled with savoury Quorn mince, sage and onion stuffing balls, vegan bread crumbs and cooked sweetcure bacon.

Finished off with a 'mouth-watering' creamy sage and cranberry sauce, the chain's vegan bake is 442 calories and costs 1.80.

And like its meaty twin the vegan option costs just 1.60 in 2021 - a 12.5 per cent price increase in 12 months.

Christmas Lunch Soup

The unique Christmas Lunch Soup (pictured) contains a medley of Christmas dinner classics including sausage, turkey, sage and onion stuffing, smoked bacon and vegetables

Advertised as Christmas in a cup, Greggs has made a festive themed soup packed with herbs and spices.

The unique blend contains a medley of Christmas dinner classics including sausages, turkey, sage and onion stuffing, smoked bacon and vegetables.

The soup is a little pricier than the shop's pasties (costing 2.30) but contains almost a quarter of the calories of a pastry (165).

Over the winter period last year the staple soup cost 30p less.

Pigs Under Blanket Baguette

Gregg's Pigs in Blankets (Pictured) are cooked pork sausages wrapped in smoked streaky bacon

One of the nation's favourite Christmas trimmings, according to polling, is back on the shelves.

Gregg's Pigs Under Blanket Baguette are filled with pork sausages wrapped in smoked streaky bacon.

The trimmings are covered in pork, onion and sage stuffing and garnished with cranberry and port sauce.

The classic Christmas sandwich costs 3.50 - a 30p rise since last year - and comes in at 543 calories.

Vegan Turkey-Free and Stuffing Festive Baguette

The Vegan Turkey-Free and Stuffing Festive Baguette (pictured) made up of sage and onion plant-based goujons, which were produced in partnership with THIS!

A new item to the store's Christmas menu is its vegan turkey-free and stuffing baguette.

The sandwich is made up of sage and onion plant-based goujons, which were produced in partnership with THIS!.

Like the Pigs Under Blanket Baguette, the sandwich's insides are coated in onion gravy and garnished with cranberry and port sauce.

The new item will cost customers 3.50 and stacks up to be 500 calories.

Mint Mocha, Mint Hot Chocolate, Salted Caramel Latte

The Mint Mocha, Mint Hot Chocolate, Salted Caramel Latte all cost 2.30 on this year's Christmas menu

Greggs has added three hots drinks which could even keep the Grinch's heart warm, according to the chain.

The Mint Mocha is made up of espresso, steamed milk, hot chocolate and a mint flavoured syrup.

Costing 2.30, the drink is 293 calories and 30p more expensive than last year.

Next up is the Mint Hot Chocolate, which also costs 2.30 and is 278 calories.

And finally the Salted Caramel Latte - made from ground coffee beans, frothy milk and salted caramel flavour syrup - is 2.30 and is 225 calories.
Insider claims King did speak with a PM about prospect of Queen's abdication

King Charles 'did speak to a Prime Minister about the prospect of ruling as a regent' but it wasn't John Major as The Crown makes out, Princess Diana's former press secretary has claimed.

Patrick Jephson worked closely with Prince Charles' office while he was employed by Diana from 1988 to 1996.

Before filming for the fifth season of The Crown began, Patrick was approached by Netflix producers to share his experience of working for the Royal Household.

Writing for The Telegraph, the insider claims that the latest episodes - which landed on the streaming service this morning - make for 'uneasy viewing' and says some scenes were so real that he 'forgot to breathe'.

However, the prominent storyline which sees Prince Charles plotting to oust the Queen with John Major is one area that Patrick claims writers went spectacularly wrong.

According to Diana's former press secretary, King Charles 'held a meeting with a PM about potentially ruling as Regent'. The monarch pictured arriving in York earlier today

Former PM Sir John Major - pictured with Prince Charles in 1994 - has denied the meeting which appears in The Crown ever happened

Patrick Jephson - pictured in 2011 - worked as Princess Diana's press secretary from 1988 to 1996. He claims the King held a meeting with another PM about the prospect of his mother's abdication

The first episode of the series is set in 1991, against a background of speculation about the future of the monarchy and Charles's constitutional role.

During the hour-long episode, Prince Charles - played by Dominic West - is shown a Sunday Times opinion poll which suggested there was public support for The Queen's abdication, which would result in him ruling as Regent.

The former press secretary writes: 'We later see Charles discussing the poll and possible regency with the prime minister.

'Again, this is not strictly accurate: the discussion was actually held with a previous prime minister.'

Before filming for fifth season of The Crown began, Patrick was approached by Netflix producers to share his experience of working for the Royal Household. Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki pictured playing Prince Charles and Princess Diana

However, the insider falls short of revealing which Prime Minister the royal allegedly held the meeting with.

The Crown's writers suggest that Charles believed his mother, then 65, was repeating Queen Victoria's mistakes by refusing to stand aside for a younger heir.

Last month, Sir John told the Mail on Sunday that the meeting never happened and called the scene a 'barrel load of malicious nonsense'.

A source said: 'All the one-to-one conversations you see on screen are utter fiction and some scenes have been entirely created for dramatic and commercial purposes with little regard for the truth. People should be boycotting it.'

What's more, Princess Diana's former press secretary revealed that The Crown writers had also fabricated a showdown between the late royal and the Queen where she confesses to giving an interview to Panorama.

Jonny Lee Miller pictured playing John Major. The Crown season five includes a scene where PM John Major and Prince Charles discuss the prospect of him becoming Regent

In reality, Patrick said he was the one to deliver the news to the Queen's press office - just moments before they were contacted by the BBC.

Unlike The Crown's dramatisation, the insider claimed that Diana 'absolutely failed to summon up the necessary courage' to tell the monarch about the explosive interview and instead sat next to Patrick in the car as he called the monarch's press secretary.

In another scene, Prince Charles and Princess Diana are depicted getting into a fierce argument on their 'second honeymoon' in the Mediterranean in 1991 after the late royal suggested going on a shopping trip.

While the dramatisation shows the couple feuding on a family holiday, the expert claims this exchange actually took place two years previously in front of their hosts on a royal tour of the Middle East.
The Countess of Wessex looked her usual elegant self in a long leather dress and beige coat as she visited the Brainwave in Bridgwater, Somerset.

Sophie, 57, visited the charity to mark its 40th anniversary, sharing a touching moment with a young boy.

The charity helps supports children with disabilities including autism, cerebral palsy and Down's syndrome.

And while there the Countess, who is married to the King's brother Prince Edward, spent time with young children.

The Countess of Wessex opted for a daring look today as she stepped out in a leather midi dress from Loewe to visit Brainwave in Bridgwater

The Countess of Wessex speaking to Cerys Jiles from Redditch during a visit to Brainwave in Bridgwater

Touching moment: The Countess smiled and engaged as she spent time with a range of young children

The countess cut a large cake with 16-year-old Olivia Phillips from north Wales during a visit to the charity

The countess also unveiled a plaque with the charity's chief executive Keith Sinclair during her visit

The countess spent time talking to Cerys Jiles from Redditch during a visit to Brainwave in Bridgewater, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary

The countess sported a long necklace featuring a poppy which matched her daring leather outfit and crimson sleeves

The countess wore her leather dress accessorised by a dangling red poppy necklace in reference to the upcoming Remembrance Day

The countess (pictured) appeared to be keeping calm and carrying on despite a tumultous week for the royal family with the release of series five of The Crown

Meet and greet: This week also marked the 19th birthday of her daughter Lady Louise, who turned 19 yesterday

The countess wore a Loewe black leather midi dress, which is crafted in Italy from leather to a sleeveless shape with an Anagram-logo belt

The Countess met children who have a range of disabilities, including Down's Syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy

She was photographed with a young boy, wearing glasses and sitting on a worker's lap, stared at Sophie as the pair shared the sweet moment.

The Countess, who has stepped up her royal work following the exit of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from royal duties, wore a leather midi dress from Loewe for the occasion.

She has previously worn it to a women in finance reception in late 2021.

It has been a busy time for the Countess who last week appeared in great spirits today as she visited an early learning centre in Forfar.

The Countess, who is married to the King's brother King Edward, has stepped up her royal work following the exit of Prince Harry with his wife Meghan

Keeping warm: She topped off her long leather dress with a thick, warm beige coat on the rainy morning in Somerset

Sophie, who is known as the Countess of Forfar when she travels to Scotland, oozed elegance in a longline cream coat, teamed with an equally sophisticated pink floral blouse.

The Countess was left beaming as she chatted with children at the Forfar Early Learning Centre, helping them to participate in seasonal and outdoor play activities, including creating an Autumn collage and a potion-making activity.

This week also marked the 19th birthday of her daughter Lady Louise, who turned 19 yesterday.

Her outing today comes amid a tumultuous week for the royal family with the release of series five of The Crown.

Although she does not feature in the series, the series will no doubt cause ructions in the palace for her brother-in-law King Charles, who has been portrayed as unlikeable and unkind to his wife Princess Diana in previous episodes.

Series five goes a step further in heaping misery on Charles by recreating some of his most cringe-worthy moments.

One such scene includes his awkward break dancing in 1985, when a then 37-year-old Prince Charles took to the dance floor in Middleton-on-Sea, West Sussex, alongside a group of youths on a visit for The Prince's Trust.

He's also seen lobbying Prime Minister John Major.
There's nothing more uncomfortable than soggy, squelchy Ugg boots, but now fans of the divisive footwear will be able to keep their toes dry thanks to new protective rubber shoe covers.

The comfortable wool blend shoe, which have come back into fashion again this Autumn, have always had one major flaw, they aren't waterproof, which is a necessity in winter.

However the Australian brand has created a solution called UGGguard which supposedly offer 'style and defence against the elements'.

Ugg are selling protective rubber shoe covers for their suede boots in the rainy weather- but reactions are mixed

They are essentially a rubber platformed dolly shoe which can be fitted over the UGG boot.

They cost 35 and can be worn with classic styles including the currently popular mini shape.

The quirky covers come in all popular UGG boot colours including beige, grey and black but they are also available in a bright bubblegum pink which is currently on sale for 23.99.

On their website UGG said the covers 'add a statement' to your UGG boots.

The brand has created a solution called UGGguard which supposedly offer 'style and defence against the elements'

The quirky covers come in all popular UGG boot colours including beige, grey and black but they are also available in a bright bubblegum pink which is currently on sale for 23.99

They wrote: 'Offering style and defence against the elements, our UGGguard adds a statement to any design built on the Classic outsole  including the Classic Mini, Classic Short, Neumel, and more.

'Fitting most UGG footwear with a flat outsole and rounded, closed toe, the unique colorways range from understated to bold so you can personalise your favourite pair of shoes.

Brand consultant Oli Royce, from London, took to his TikTok account @oliroyce to show off the UGG covers with his New Balance trainers.

Many fashionistas have rushed to the comments with very mixed reactions to the shoe covers.

One person said: 'Why not wear waterproof shoes?' while another added: 'They look... good... Didn't expect that at all.'

Someone else joked: 'Do they make covers for the Ugg boot covers? Id really like something to protect the Ugg cover, dont want it to get messed up.'

They are are essentially a rubber platformed dolly shoe which can be fitted over the UGG boot. They cost 35 and can be worn with classic styles including the currently popular mini shape

Many fashionistas have turned to TikTok with very mixed reactions to the shoe covers, while a lot of people have tried them over their own trainers to waterproof them

A fourth person wrote: 'These would be good for guests that dont take their shoes off.'

While a lot of people have tried them over their own trainers to waterproof them.

One person said: 'Just got the black and clear for my sneakers and the tan for my Uggs.'

Another said: 'Catch me wearing them over my light coloured crocs.'

While a third wrote: 'What are them new balance under them they look sick.'

Others pointed out that shoe covers werent a new concept saying they are called Galoshes.

Others pointed out that shoe covers werent a new concept saying they are called Galoshes and were available in the 90's

One person wrote: 'I see galoshes are making a comeback... wonder if my dad thought he was cool wearing these in the 90s.'

Another wrote: 'galoshes, what you wear in a Canadian winter to protect your shoes from slush/ice/salt.'

Someone else said: 'wow, galoshes are making a comeback, lol. my uncle used to pay me 2$ to help him put his on over his dress shoes.'

While another person said: 'Theyve been making overshoes / galoshes FOREVER! I have a pair from the 1940s that fit over high heels.'
TikToker Lana St Clair, 24, from Texas, revealed how social media left her with an obsession for thrifting that was so deep it saw her turn into a bankrupt hoarder

A woman has revealed how social media left her with an obsession for thrifting that was so deep it saw her turn into a bankrupt hoarder who is now sharing her recovery process.

TikToker Lana St Clair, 24, from San Antonio, Texas, first got into the habit of finding savvy clothing deals back in March 2020 and quickly became addicted after seeing how many people gravitated to the deals.

While in her last year of university, she was looking for new ways to make money and decided to sell pre-loved clothes, after seeing others having success with it on Instagram.

But Lana needed stock to offer and scoured charity shops and outlets, as well as landfill sites for items she thought would bring in big money from buyers.

Unfortunately, this became the start of a nightmare that would soon see her dropping out of college, 'bankrupt' and 'addicted' to shopping.

TikToker Lana St Clair, 24, from Texas, revealed how social media left her with an obsession for thrifting that was so deep it saw her turn into a bankrupt hoarder

She got into the habit of finding savvy clothing deals back in March 2020 and quickly became addicted after seeing how many people gravitated to the deals

While in her last year of university, she was looking for new ways to make money and decided to sell pre-loved clothes, after seeing others having success with it on Instagram

Unfortunately, this became the start of a nightmare that would soon see her dropping out of college 'bankrupt' and 'addicted' to shopping

'I watched people from all over comment with bids on social media, like eBay without the fees,' she said.

'It looked like easy money, so after spending an evening brainstorming a name for my shop, I started posting my own finds.'

Lana spent hours washing, dry steaming, measuring and photographing the clothes, before popping them up online, sharing them in posts and on her Instagram Stories.

But within a year, she became obsessed with finding deals  spending far too much on her stock than she was selling, and eventually dropped out of university.

The shopper, who named her shop @st.clairvintage, said: 'I was in denial for a long time.

'My set-up, paired with my free schedule, due to the pandemic, fueled a shopping addiction that had me spending at a faster rate than I could sell.

'Before I knew it, I was a college dropout turned hoarder.

'When it hit me, I felt myself sinking into a pit.

Lana spent hours washing, dry steaming, measuring and photographing the clothes, before popping them up online, sharing them in posts and on her Instagram Stories

But within a year, she became obsessed with finding deals  spending far too much on her stock than she was selling, and eventually dropped out of university

The shopper, who named her shop @st.clairvintage, said: 'I was in denial for a long time'

She added: 'My set-up, paired with my free schedule, due to the pandemic, fueled a shopping addiction that had me spending at a faster rate than I could sell'

'At this point, I still had not made the executive decision to niche my shop down into a specific category and I felt as though the wheels were spinning but I wasn't getting anywhere.'

Lana also recognized the signs of her addiction after finding herself rushing to outlets at the end of every day, hoping to find something cool or unique that she hadn't found the day before.

She said: 'As a protective mechanism, I tried to do my shopping within the last 30 minutes of the store's hours to limit myself, but that didn't stop me from bringing home at least one bag of stuff a day.

'It was after a few months of this, when I stopped being able to see the floor of my bedroom, that I really realized how big of an issue it was.'

Lana would deny the issue to herself by making jokes about being a hoarder or playing it down to her friends and family, and her therapist.

And the worse she felt, the more she'd spend.

Lana found herself spending anywhere from $300-$1,000 a month on her shopping addiction, filling up her apartment from floor to ceiling.

Lana also recognized the signs of her addiction after finding herself rushing to outlets at the end of every day, hoping to find something cool or unique that she hadn't found the day before

She said: 'As a protective mechanism, I tried to do my shopping within the last 30 minutes of the store's hours to limit myself, but that didn't stop me'

'It was after a few months of this, when I stopped being able to see the floor of my bedroom, that I really realized how big of an issue it was,' she added

The situation got so extreme, she was forced to get a storage unit for the 'stock'.

She added: 'I'd spend more depending on how bad I was doing.

'The compulsion to buy the clothing had gotten so out of control that it was beginning to affect my roommates, and this further fueled my feelings of guilt and shame.

'Eventually, I got a storage unit but having the extra space enabled me to shop even more.'

By 2022, Lana's business was virtually nonexistent and had only had three sales in one month.

It was the wake-up call she needed.

She said: 'I definitely still feel shame because of how society has dirtied the word [hoarder].

'And who can blame them, hoarders are known for their squalor.

'But it's more than just a mess, I want to be strong and say I feel liberated now that I've embraced the label, but I don't.

'Holding myself accountable certainly helps with recovery.'

Her family also soon found out because her dad came across her card statements and noticed her hoarding was becoming an issue.

The situation got so extreme, she was forced to get a storage unit for the 'stock'

Her family also soon found out because her dad came across her card statements and noticed her hoarding was becoming an issue

She said: 'My mom has a shopping problem too, so he put it together fairly quickly'

She added: 'My mom has a shopping problem too, so he put it together fairly quickly.

'They kind of let it die out, as I was living in a different city for college and we didn't have to interact very much.'

However, Lana did end up asking one of her sisters for help, who in turn decided to come and live with her for a few months to help get her out of the mess she felt she was in.

Lana said: 'I don't think I would have done it without her.'

'Another time, my roommate at the time gifted me a bunch of clothing racks so I could organize my clothing, but that was before it spiraled out of control.

'Though sometimes I wouldn't even have the energy to wash or hang the clothing I just bought.

'I'd just leave it in the bag, evidence of a purchase that I'd made in a haze.

'They kind of let it die out, as I was living in a different city for college and we didn't have to interact very much'

Lana's roommate often gifted her clothing racks to organize her clothing

Lana has implemented a rule where she can only shop once a month, which has done wonders for her personal space  and wallet.

She said: 'I can now see the floor most of the time!

'However I am still a bit of a mess, recovery is something I'm taking day by day.

'The urge to shop is still very strong, most days.

'I frequently take preventative measures such as bringing my dog with me everywhere I go, so that I can't step foot inside a store.'

Lana has also taken to TikTok to share her story as a warning to others, as well as build a community for help and support.

However, Lana did end up asking one of her sisters for help, who in turn decided to come and live with her for a few months to help get her out of the mess she felt she was in

Lana has implemented a rule where she can only shop once a month, which has done wonders for her personal space  and wallet and is sharing her story online in hopes of helping others

The former hoarder already has 161,000 followers.

She added: 'I aim to create as much recovery-based content as I can, because when I see that I'm helping others, I take my commitment even more seriously.

'After I posted my first few videos about my shopping addiction and hoarding, I found a community in my own comment section.

'It was bizarre, as I felt my page had more or less become the forum for the hoarders of TikTok.

'No material item, despite its value or beauty, is worth your peace of mind.

'Think of that every time you feel compelled to bring more items home.

'Remember what you already have, and find new ways to use it.'
Argos is the latest British retailer to release its Christmas advert, with a funny clip centred on a couple's festive party that gets a bit out of hand.

The 50-second long clip, which will air on ITV and Sky at 5:30pm today, shows a couple setting up a small and intimate dinner party for a few friends at their house.

However, outside, a hoard of party-loving neighbours, all bringing gifts and side dishes, can be seen running to the unsuspecting couple's home.

The couple at first panic at the sheer number of people that are coming to their house, but they just decide to order a few things off the Argos app in order to host all their very eager guests, showing that everyone is welcome.

Argos' 50-second long Christmas advert, which will air on ITV and Sky at 5:3pm today, shows a couple setting up a small and intimate dinner party for a few friends

Outside, a hoard of party-loving neighbour, all bringing gifts and side dishes, can be seen running to the unsuspecting couple's home

The clip shows the couple setting up a few plates and filling a single bowl with tortilla chips and dip, with the woman telling her partner that they are expecting 'just a few people.'

But as the couple go on with their preparations, the group of guests running to their house only grows bigger.

This includes children with nerf guns and eager attendees carrying homemade trifles or seafood platters.

Other party-goers are seen carrying champagne bottles and flutes and already opened Christmas crackers.

One guest is seen bringing a seafood platter, while another is enthusiastically carrying a festive trifle

As the group runs to the house in slow motion, the couple begins to realise that much more people than they initially thought are on their way to their house.

The clip includes several references to action movies, including a shot of the couple's shaking champagne flutes and cutlery, in a hint at Jurassic Park, where the dinosaur's heavy walk gets water and jelly to shake.

As more and more neighbours congregate to the house, an ominous instrumental version of Live is Life, by Opus, which has been Argos' flagship song since last year, plays in the background.

As the group draws closer, the couple are seen taking deep breaths, with the woman saying: 'it's going to be okay.'

Excited children with big nerf guns are also among the crowd that is making its way to the couple's home

Her partner whips off the Argos app, and says 'we're going to need a bigger bowl,' in a reference to Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

Finally, the words 'they are coming,' 'be ready,' are shows on screen right as the group reaches the couple's house, and someone rings the bell

Rob Quartermain, Head of Marketing Campaigns at Argos said of the advert: 'We know how difficult the last few years have been for everyone,

'So we really wanted to bring a smile to viewers faces by highlighting the fun and comedic moments of Christmas get-togethers, along with the unique experience of being able to bring everyone, from all ages and backgrounds, to share a wonderful Christmas together at home.

'This years advert really aims to celebrate that moment, and how Argos has everything you need to make this Christmas truly special,' he added.
Known to shine with her fashion choices, Queen Maxima debuted a very dazzling outfit during a state dinner in Amsterdam tonight.

The Dutch royal, 51, cut a feminine figure in a beautiful gold floor-length gown as she and her husband King Willem-Alexander hosted a banquet for Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura Mattarella tonight.

The Queen of the Netherlands paired the gown with shimmery jewels and a sparkling diamond-studded tiara as well as her blue royal sash.

Earlier today, she wore a very stylish blue wrap coat with a lime green day dress as she welcomed President Mattarella in Dam Square, marking the start of their three-day state visit.

Queen Maxima debuted a very dazzling outfit during a state dinner at Amsterdam's royal palace tonight

The Dutch Queen wore an impressive pearl necklace consisting of five rows with matching earrings and a crown studded with pearls as well

The royal looked breathtaking in her gown as she and her husband King Willem-Alexander, second right, welcomed Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura Mattarella, left

Maxima looked resplendent in the gown, which consisted of a pleated skirt and long sleeves.

The beautiful dress was adorned with golden beads which gleamed into the light as she welcomed the Italian delegation to the royal palace.

She paired the dress with eye-catching jewels, including an impressive necklace made of five rows of pearls and matching pearl earrings.

The Dutch Queen and her husband led their guests and the attendees into a toast during dinner tonight

Willem-Alexander's mother Queen Beatrix also attended tonight's dinner and wore a shimmery blue gown

She also wore a crown studded with pearls for the occasion, and a glamorous makeup with a red lipstick which matched her nail polish.

Earlier today, the Dutch Queen wore an equally stylish outfit to welcome the Italian president and his daughter to Amsterdam.

Maxima's unusually understated navy attire was brightened up by a silk green, knee-length dress, while first daughter Laura opted for a red and pink ensemble.

Maxima looked resplendent in the outfit, with her crown and her jewels and a glamourous makeup to boot

The Dutch royals began the evening by posing for a group photo with their Italian guests at the palace

Known for her colour coordination, Maxima donned navy accessories, including a clutch blag and matching heels to complete her outfit.

Adding a touch of glitz to her ensemble, she donned diamond drop earrings, as well as a smattering of glamorous makeup to her features.

Looking the height of sophistication, the Argentinian-born royal swept her blonde locks neatly behind her ears.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (pictured), 51, cut a feminine figure in a statement navy coat with a matching wide brim hat when stepping out alongside her husband King Willem-Alexander at the Dam Square in Amsterdam

Known for her colour coordination, Maxima donned navy accessories, including a clutch blag and matching heels to complete her outfit

The mother-of-three (pictured right) looked in high spirits as she greeted Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Italian first daughter Laura Mattarella during an official welcome ceremony at the start of their three-day state visit

Yesterday, Maxima looked as elegant as ever as she stepped out for a meeting in Eindhoven.

The 51-year-old royal wowed in a striking scarlet gown for a financial health action meeting at the VDL Groep.

Looking typically stylish, she paired the floor-length, long-sleeve gown with burgundy leather boots.

She cinched her ensemble at the waist with a burgundy chunky belt and carried a matching handbag.

Adding a touch of glitz to her ensemble, Maxima donned diamond drop earrings, as well as a smattering of glamorous makeup to her features

Maxima's unusually understated navy attire was brightened up by a silk green, knee-length dress, while first daughter Laura (left) opted for a red and pink ensemble

Looking the height of sophistication, the Argentinian-born royal swept her blonde locks neatly behind her ears

The royal accessorised the stylish look with a stunning pair of statement diamond earrings and a silver ring.

Maxima has served as the UN Secretary-Generals Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) since 2009.

As Special Advocate, she is a leading global voice on advancing universal access to and responsible usage of affordable, effective and safe financial services.
At on point, Mr Macron grasped Mr Sunak's hand tightly with one hand and pointed at him with a finger, a sign he's the more dominant of the two politicians

The two men met publicly for the first time since Rishi Sunak was made Britain's Prime Minister at the Cop 27 climate summit in Egypt on Monday - and it appeared a new bromance was born

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While it appeared to signal a fresh start in Anglo-Franco relations; a moment of warmth between two of Europe's most youthful leaders, Rishi Sunak's embrace with Emmanuel Macron at Cop 27 might not be quite as wholesome as it seems, suggests a leading body language expert.

The new British Prime Minister and his French counterpart embarked upon a back-slapping, grinning display of apparent entente cordiale after meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday - and Mr Sunak later suggested that the meeting had been productive, with an agreement on moves to try and tackle the immigration crisis in the Channel 'imminent'.

The two premiers certainly have plenty in common - they're both the eldest sons of doctors, and have both enjoyed a rise to power at an impressively young age - Macron is 44, while Sunak is 42 - but, says body language expert Judi James, their demeanors during their first public meeting as premiers suggest things weren't quite as cosy as they looked.

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Europe's latest bromance? Or grappling for power? Body language expert Judi James says the highly public first meeting between Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron at Cop27 wasn't quite as cosy as it appears

Following the meeting, Mr Sunak tweeted a photo of the two men, captioning it 'Friends, partners, allies'...but James suggests their body language wasn't quite on the same page.

The expert said: 'On the surface, this meeting looks like quite the bromance, but before we start to label this as a new era of entente cordial we might need to take a closer look at their subtler signals to pick out the running sense of both caution and power-play from Macron in particular.'

Here, FEMAIL looks at telling moments from that first meeting that might belie those saccharine smiles...

THAT FIRST HANDSHAKE: MIRRORING MOVEMENTS SUGGEST MUTUAL RESPECT

Et bonjour! Britain's Prime Minister reaches to shake hands with Macron, ahead of their bilateral meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, with their body movements appearing in sync, suggesting a mutual desire to put previous Anglo-French struggles behind them, says James

'As an intentional gesture their handshake on stage looks positive. Both men are about the same height and the mirroring this creates as they move towards one another looks like friendly empathy and a like-minded approach.'

Judi continues: 'Both men have a cocked or erect thumb as they stretch their hands out to each other, signaling liking and enthusiasm and both use eye contact.

'Rishis mouth-shrug smile acknowledges all the problems that have occurred before between the two countries and appears to shrug them off for a fresh start.'

A DOMINANT HAND GRASP TRUMP WOULD BE PROUD OF - AND A POINTED FINGER

Learned from Donald? Macron deploys a firm handshake on Sunak...while also pointing a finger at him, suggesting he holds the power in this particular exchange

'The hand clasp that we see later though is all about power-play from Macron. He learnt his greeting rituals from the likes of Trump and this is a power-shake in the style of the ex US president.

'Macron has applied a hand clamp here to keep Rishi pinned and his other hand performs a pointing gesture with his index finger while his eye contact becomes more of a stare. This would make it appear that he is the one making points or arguments and laying down the law to Rishi, who stands almost helpless and passive in response.'

RISHI IS AN 'EXCITED PUPPY' BUT MACRON'S DOWNTURNED MOUTH SUGGESTS CAUTION

A smile that says 'steady on'? Macron's downturned mouth suggests he's not quite as confident in future relations as his English counterpart

'Even in their greeting hug we can see Rishis flattened hand clinging while Macron places a less tactile fingertips pointing downward clasp on Rishis shoulder.

'Their mutual back-touching as they walk bonds them together in a warm-looking embrace but there is one pose where Macron performs a clamped, down-turned mouth smile that looks non-committal while Rishi looks like a happy, excited puppy.'

TAKE A SEAT: MACRON'S 'BARRIER' HANDS IN SHARP CONTRAST TO SUNAK'S OPEN POSE

With the flags behind them, this exchange appears open and friendly, says James, but Rishi's forward position suggests he's more eager to please, with the French president holding his hands in a defensive position

'When the two leaders sit together it is Rishi again looking submissive to a more dominant Macron. Rishi sits forward in his chair, leaning out towards Macron here and with his knees touched together.

'He has both hands extended in what looks like a pleading gesture that makes it look as though he it trying to ask or persuade Macron. Meanwhile the French leader looks more guarded and more confident. His knees are splayed but he also clasps his hands in front of his crotch in a barrier ritual.'
On Monday, November 7th, The New York Public Library hosted its Library Lions Gala.

The annual event raises critical funds to support the Librarys mission to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen communities within their 92 neighborhood locations.

Over 450 attendees, including New York State Mayor Eric Adams, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and actress Jennifer Morrison, gathered at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building for dinner and a program.

On Monday, November 7th, The New York Public Library hosted its Library Lions Gala

The annual event raises critical funds to support the Librarys mission to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen communities within their 92 neighborhood locations

A lovely cocktail hour was held on the the first level of the library, complete with passed hors d'oeuvres and a live string quartet.

Guests were then led by a small orchestra up the library's marble stairs to gather in The Rose Main Reading Room for dinner and a program.

The majestic Beaux-Arts style space was transformed into a breathtaking dining room for the elegant affair.

Tables were lined with textured table clothes decorated to perfection with lush bouquets and fine china, under the room's 52-foot-tall ceilings.

Caen stone walls were brought to life with dreamy green light reflections.

Mayor Eric Adams declared November 7, 2022 as The New York Public Library Day in the City of New York

The evening included a powerful short film highlighting each of this years Library Lions: artist Laurie Anderson, English scholar Mary Beard, journalist Charles M. Blow, playwright Lynn Nottage, and economist and philosopher Amartya Sen

In true New York fashion, attendees like Italian journalist and Co-founder of George Magazine Stefano Tonchi and art advisor Kim Heirston, were dressed to impress

The program opened with a few words from New York Public Librarys Board of Trustees Chairman, Evan Chesler who then introduced Tony Marx, President of The New York Public Library.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer gave remarks on his own experience using libraries as a child growing up in Brooklyn, followed by Mayor Eric Adams who spoke to the incredible opportunities available at the Library.

The politician then declared November 7, 2022 as The New York Public Library Day in the City of New York.

The evening included a powerful short film highlighting each of this years Library Lions: artist Laurie Anderson, English scholar Mary Beard, journalist Charles M. Blow, playwright Lynn Nottage, and economist and philosopher Amartya Sen.

Previous honorees include Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Francis Ford Coppola, Steve Martin, and Martin Scorsese.

Stephen and Christine Schwarzman were black-tie ready for the elegant affair

Actress Jennifer Morrison went for a sleek and chic appearance in a white suit and polka-dot blouse, while Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of online fashion retailer Moda Operandi, Lauren Santo Domingo, donned a ladylike color block evening dress

In addition to raising critical funds for each of the Library's 92 branches, the annual gala helps support educational programming, and world-renowned research collections used by scholars, writers, artists and students every day.

Support of this event ensures that the Librarys collections, programs, and services remain freely available to all.

To donate, click here.

Vogue contributor, Elise Taylor, wore a white floor-length sequin gown featuring spaghetti straps and a V neckline, accessorized with diamond drop earrings

The guys were also looking dapper, with Real estate developer and art philanthropist Alexander Hankin (left), and clothing designer and breakout star of 'RHOSLC' Brooks Marks (right) in sleek suits. American media executive Eric Kuhn (center) donned a tuxedo

Library Lion recipient Charles M. Blow looked sharp in a crisp tuxedos to receive his award

Socialite Danielle Hankin (left) , Philanthropist Lizzie Asher (center) in Oscar de la Renta, and Strategy consultant Mercedes de Guardiola (right) dazzled in The Rose Main Reading Room

In true New York fashion, attendees like Elise Taylor were dressed to impress.

The Vogue contributor wore a white floor-length sequin gown featuring spaghetti straps and a V neckline. She completed the elegant ensemble with large drop earrings and a swipe of red lipstick.

Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of online fashion retailer Moda Operandi, Lauren Santo Domingo, looked incredible in a color block evening dress boasting an A-line silhouette.

Actress Jennifer Morrison went for a sleek and chic appearance as she swooped her hair up in a white suit and polka-dot blouse for the special occasion.

Philanthropist Lizzie Asher sparkled in a black and gold Oscar de la Renta gown, accessorized with Valentino earrings and cuff bracelet, and an Elie Saab ring.

The guys were also looking dapper, with Real estate developer and art philanthropist Alexander Hankin, and clothing designer and breakout star of 'RHOSLC' Brooks Marks in smart suits.

Library Lion recipient Charles M. Blow and American media executive Eric Kuhn opted for sharp tuxedos.

Pictured: Eleanor Morgan, Howard Morgan, Tony Marx, Abby Milstein and Paul Goldberger

The glamorous evening concluded with the Young Lions afterparty in Astor Hall

The glamorous evening concluded with an afterparty in Astor Hall.

Guests enjoyed dessert and cocktails, alongside music and dancing to DJ Color Love.

This years Host-Chairs include Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos, Howard and Eleanor Morgan and Mr. James S. Tisch and The Honorable Merryl H. Tisch.

This years Co-Chairs include Abby and Howard Milstein, Katharine J. Rayner, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Schwarzman and Nanar and Tony Yoseloff.
Zelda Perkins endured the predatory behaviour of her boss, Harvey Weinstein, throughout the five years she was his personal assistant.

His clumsy sexual advances were routine; he regularly exposed himself to her. So habitual was this grotesquely inappropriate conduct she did not  in her youthful naivete  even recognise it as abusive.

Harvey would try something whenever he was on his own with me, she says of the once esteemed Hollywood producer now serving 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. Id scold him or make fun of him; minimise his behaviour. It became normalised. I was a 22-year-old in my first job after graduating from Manchester University, and I thought a lot of international businessmen working from hotel suites must behave like that. As time went on, when he exposed himself Id say: Do I really have to see that disgusting thing again?

I never feared him physically overpowering me, because I always dealt robustly with him. For him, it was less to do with sex and more about power. He played mind games; the thrill was in making people submit to him. He was a master psychological manipulator.

Zelda Perkins, (pictured) Harvey Weinstein's former PA had to endure his advances. His clumsy sexual advances were routine; he regularly exposed himself to her

Once he tried to get me to have a sauna with him. In the end, I sat in the sauna and worked, fully clothed, while he was naked behind a glass door.

Then he had a bath and insisted I stay. He reeled off the names of actresses hed slept with. I asked him: How do you look at yourself in the mirror? He looked at me as if I was mad and said: I have no problem at all.

He had a beautiful wife and child at the time. It was a chilling moment because it was then that I realised he was a sociopath.

Weinstein is currently standing trial on a further 11 charges of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual battery. The alleged attacks, on five women, took place between 2004 and 2013 in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Zelda, now 49, successfully deflected her bosss advances when she worked for him in the 1990s. But, when Rowena Chiu  a bright but unworldly young woman, an Oxford graduate and a Christian  joined Weinsteins Miramax London office as Zeldas assistant, the depths of Weinsteins depravity became apparent.

Rowena, now 48, was working alone with him in a hotel room during the Venice Film Festival in 1998 when he tried to rape her. The next morning, deeply traumatised and white with shock, Rowena met Zelda who recalls that her assistant revealed that Weinstein had begun by requesting a massage.

Zelda with Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. Zelda reveals that Weinstein made many advances on her including trying to get her in a sauna with him

Then it escalated and Rowena was on the bed, where he attempted to rape her. A physical line had been crossed which, until then, I hadnt believed he was capable of crossing. I knew he behaved inappropriately, but because Id always been able to manoeuvre my way out of sticky situations, I didnt realise how dangerous he was.

I felt horrified and incensed for putting someone in that vulnerable position. Rowena was in deep shock. She didnt want to lose her job but I said: We dont have a job now. Were done. What had happened was so reprehensible I knew it was over.

Rowena was my responsibility, but she didnt want to go to the police. She didnt want to press charges. I dont know why, but we were in an isolated position in a foreign country, and we dont always make cogent decisions when were traumatised.

He said: If youre going to work for me, youll have to be less of a prude'

I fought back simply because it didnt occur to me not to. It didnt occur to me that Id be shut down; that working for Miramax was like working for the Mob.

I confronted Harvey, who was in an important meeting. My biggest fear was that hed fly into one of his terrifying rages, but when I tapped him on the shoulder and said, You need to come with me right now, he came like a lamb. He knew hed been caught out.

I knew in that moment that what Rowena had recounted to me was absolutely true.

Weinstein, now 70, was then at the zenith of his powers, a monstrously overweight, unpleasant-smelling, frightening man, says Zelda. He preyed on the ambitions of both actresses and employees  desperate for jobs in the film industry  and, wielding absolute authority, he was never challenged by the sycophants who surrounded him. Until Zelda.

A powerful new film, She Said, features Samantha Morton as Zelda and tells the story of how two New York Times journalists, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) finally exposed Weinsteins abuse in 2017.

Yet he might have been stopped decades earlier had Zelda been supported in pursuing her boss. Instead, what happened next was arguably as profoundly disturbing as the assaults. For, far from ensuring he was stopped, the law effectively protected him and silenced his accusers.

Samantha Morton in a scene from the )Universal Pictures new film : She Said, playing Zelda. The film tells the story of how two New York Times journalists, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) finally exposed Weinsteins abuse in 2017

As part of their financial settlements  they were each awarded 125,000 for the trauma they had endured  Rowena and Zelda were forced to sign gagging contracts.

These Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) even prevented them  victims of sexual harassment and assault  from ever getting help; from talking to counsellors, doctors . . . even their friends and families. Chillingly, they were also told to use their best endeavours not to aid the police if they approached them.

They were bound by an oath to remain completely and permanently silent. And the abusive Weinstein was free to continue his reign of terror.

These wide-ranging NDAs are a form of legal coercion and gaslighting, says Zelda, who co-founded the campaign Cant Buy My Silence in September last year with Julie Macfarlane, the Canadian law professor who persuaded the Anglican Church in Canada to stop forcing NDAs on victims of clerical abuse.

They aim to bring about legal and regulatory change that will make NDAs unenforceable for anything other than their original purpose: to prevent the sharing of confidential business information.

Im very thankful that justice has been served and that Harvey Weinstein will die in prison, but I feel seismic change will not happen until our laws stop allowing powerful people to act with complete impunity, says Zelda, who in 2017 became the first Weinstein victim in the UK to publicly break an NDA, by speaking out about his actions.

How many NDAs his lawyers issued is obscure because of their secretive nature, but it is thought around a dozen of his victims signed them.

And although Zelda has faced no legal consequences for breaking hers, when she first did so she was consumed by fears: I was worried I could be sent to prison or forfeit the money Id been awarded. But I believed public opinion would protect me as I was speaking up about a rapist.

When Rowena Chiu (pictured)  a bright but unworldly young woman, an Oxford graduate and a Christian  joined Weinsteins Miramax London office as Zeldas assistant, the depths of Weinsteins depravity became apparent

She continues, explaining how she and Rowena were silenced in 1998. Even though our lawyers and Harveys lawyers were told he had attempted to rape Rowena, they were legally committing no wrong in silencing us.

This wide-ranging, oppressive use of NDAs is alarmingly common. UK data from 2019 shows that over twoand-a-half years, as many as 2,195 of 3,585 sex-discrimination suits were dropped before they reached court, and the vast majority of these settlements included NDAs.

Data from the non-profit organisation Speak Out Revolution shows that of 1,043 respondents who have experienced workplace harassment and discrimination, 24 per cent report signing an NDA and a further 11 per cent say they cannot say for legal reasons (i.e. they have signed an NDA).

Zelda says: NDAs are too often used to protect abusers. These NDAs cover up malpractice and hide inequity. What place is there for them in a civilised society?

Zelda, who lives near Salisbury, is as articulate and impassioned as she is courageous. The fact she is not married  although she has an artist partner  and has no children has freed her to devote her life to her campaign, which she helps to fund through public speaking.

Raised by her maternal grandparents in rural Wiltshire after her mother died when she was three, the values that underpinned her childhood were uncompromising.

My grandfather was a military man, born in India. I had a stern moral upbringing; not just on sexual matters but about right and wrong, duty and obligation. I also had a firm belief in justice  that the law would be on the side of right.

In 1998, Zelda confronted Weinstein (pictured) with allegations of sexual assault and harassment but was talked into signing a non-disclosure agreement

After reading philosophy and English at Manchester University, she found herself working for Miramax a couple of weeks before the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.

I fell into the film industry by mistake, and that was my saviour because Harvey preyed on the ambitious  that made them vulnerable.

Shortly after she joined the organisation, Weinstein visited London. I was told to go to the Savoy hotel and not to knock on the main door of the suite, where he was having a meeting, but on a secondary door.

I was a bit flustered and knocked on the wrong door, she recalls. It flew open and Harvey shouted furiously at me: Who the f*** are you? I was a nice, middle-class country girl and I wasnt used to people speaking to me like that.

I said: Presumably Ive come here to f***ing help you. It was a kneejerk reaction. He looked pretty amazed that Id answered back.

Zeldas feistiness set her apart: Weinstein was accustomed to sycophancy and he revelled in the discomfiture of employees who  scared of jeopardising their careers  never challenged or questioned him. For him, sex was an expression of power. He also enjoyed eviscerating men with terrifying tirades. The more people who saw him doing it, the better he liked it.

But I looked at Harvey objectively because I didnt have stars in my eyes. I didnt want a part in a movie and that protected me.

She recalls how  despite that inauspicious first meeting  she was taken on to be Harveys assistant when he was travelling in the UK and Europe.

The first time I was left alone with him on an evening shift, he came into the hotel room in his underpants. I was shocked. He said: Dont be so prissy. If youre going to work for me youll have to be less of a prude.

I was so naive I thought that it must be how the corporate world worked. Then he asked me for a massage. I said: No, Im leaving if thats what you expect me to do.

I used to have to wake him and get him out of bed. He would be naked with his penis out, but I evolved survival strategies. I found scolding him or making fun of him worked best. What scared me most was his anger. It was terrifying. Id check everything four times to make sure I hadnt made a mistake. Id do everything in my power not to ignite his anger.

In 1998  after shed been working for Weinstein for almost five years  she interviewed Rowena Chiu for the post of her assistant. She warned her that Weinstein was difficult to work for, aggressive and may behave inappropriately; and that if she couldnt cope with that, she shouldnt take the job.

Rowena assured her she had worked for a tricky boss before and could deal with him. Both women are physically tiny; slim and 5ft 2in. But Zelda feels Rowena was more vulnerable because she desperately wanted to work in the film industry.

She recalls how events unfolded on the night Rowena was assaulted in Weinsteins hotel suite in Venice.

It was the second time shed met Harvey, and she was doing an evening shift. Shed lost her mobile so I gave her mine, which meant she didnt have easy access to me.

He began, as usual, by requesting a massage and it escalated to him having her on the bed and attempting to rape her. She managed to escape by telling him I was expecting her to call, and saying that Id come to look for her if she didnt call me.

She came to my hotel room, returned my phone, but didnt tell me what had happened until the next morning. She was still deeply traumatised  and I felt guilty for putting her in that vulnerable position.

I couldnt speak to my friends or family. I couldnt get a job. Yet the law protected Harvey and his abuse went on

After the confrontation with Weinstein, Rowena was sent back to the UK. Zelda then approached her only senior other than Weinstein himself, telling her  something terrible had happened in Venice, and when I told her what, she did not seem surprised.

She told me: You need to get a good lawyer. But she didnt suggest going to the police and that was terrifying to me.

Zelda duly sought legal advice, and was told their case was not strong. Rowena had only worked for Harvey twice. The assault had happened in Italy; no charges had been brought. It would be her word against his. It was clear we had absolutely no power.

Even so, Zelda hoped that justice would be served. But confronted by the heft of Weinsteins international lawyers, she was horrified to learn their only option was to accept a damages agreement from him.

She objected: I said no money should change hands. This was about stopping a very dangerous man from behaving in a predatory way. We insisted on safeguards, but our lawyers told us: You have to start with the money  that is what a damages agreement is  or you wont even get a settlement on the table.

They accepted 125,000 each on the proviso that clauses would be added to their NDA which, they hoped, would stop Weinstein if he ever assaulted or harassed another woman.

Among them was an insistence that Weinstein seek therapy and that Zelda should attend the first two sessions so he couldnt lie about why he was there. There were clauses stressing that Weinstein should never be alone with a female assistant, and that complaints against him should be handled by three people, one of them a lawyer.

Zelda recognises that she was naively trusting: none of these clauses was ever acted upon and Weinstein continued flagrantly to abuse, assault and coerce.

Zelda, meanwhile  her professional reputation sullied by the fact she had left a job without explanation (she was gagged from explaining why, of course)  moved to Guatemala for five years, where she trained horses.

I couldnt speak to my friends or family. I couldnt get a job in the film industry. The NDA protected my abuser and it still goes on, every day.

In our universities, students have signed NDAs to hide sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination. There is an epidemic of them in employment.

We say that we want to put womens safety at the top of the agenda, she concludes, and the easiest thing to do is to reform NDAs, which so effectively silence victims of abuse.
A major Australian hair and beauty website has launched a 'frenzy' sale on some of the most reputable brands on the market with prices starting from just $2.

AMR Hair & Beauty, which was launched in 2004, specialises in selling high-quality, cost-effective products for salon owners and general customers alike with brands like K18, Olaplex, Fanola, Glamglow, Loving Tan and Kryolan.

Starting on November 7 and finishing up on November 30 customers can expect massive savings on shampoo, conditioner, masks, electrical goods and keratin treatments, while stocks last.

AMR Hair & Beauty, which was launched in 2004, specialises in selling high-quality, cost-effective products for salon owners and general customers

The Olaplex range, one of the most well-known products for restoring hair health and shine, is down to $33 for the popular No7 Bonding Oil , which usually retails for $49.95 (left)

Fanola's No Yellow Mask, which is perfect for toning down yellow and brassy reflections in blonde hair, is $2 down from $37.90 for a 350ml bottle

The Olaplex range, one of the most well-known products for restoring hair health and shine, is down to $33 for the popular No7 Bonding Oil, which usually retails for $49.95, while the complete stylist set is $200, down from $248.90.

K18 - a magical repair mask that is applied after shampooing and left to condition the hair for four minutes - is down to $95 for its 150ml bottle, which normally retails for $150.

The 5ml Molecular Repair Mask, which can be used to test it out, is $7 down from $15.

The brand's new range of Detox and Maintenance Shampoos are $49, down from $59, and are to be used before the conditioning hair mask for an all-round clean scalp.

If it's volume you're looking for when you next blow dry your roots look no further than the De Lorenzo Amplify Volumising Spray, which is $15.50 during the sale period, down from $24.75 (right)

Fanola's No Yellow Mask, which is perfect for toning down yellow and brassy reflections in blonde hair, is $2 down from $37.90 for a 350ml bottle, while the 18 in 1 Professional Violet Shampoo is $2, reduced from $24.90.

If it's volume you're looking for when you next blow dry your roots look no further than the De Lorenzo Amplify Volumising Spray, which is $15.50 during the sale period, down from $24.75.

Skincare-wise the American brand Glamglow, which started in California, is selling its Bubblesheet Deep Cleanse Mask Sheet for $9.15, down from $13.20.

Meanwhile the Brushworx Gold Ceramic Radial Brush, perfect for producing a 90s style flick to your tresses, is $5 a piece down from $21.95.

Skincare-wise the American brand Glamglow, which started in California, is selling its Bubblesheet Deep Cleanse Mask Sheet for $9.15, down from $13.20

Meanwhile the Brushworx Gold Ceramic Radial Brush, perfect for producing a 90s style flick to your tresses, is $5 a piece down from $21.95 (left)

And the Silver Bullet City Chic Curling Tong is $45.50, down from $65.95.

There are a whopping 2,118 products both in stock and on sale during the month of November, with a number of customers already taking full advantage.

'I picked up 15 different products, all priced at $2 each. One of the best sales I've seen to date,' one woman wrote on Facebook.

'I managed to get two 150ml K18 bottles for the same price I would spend on one usually. Bargain,' said another.
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Most NHS hospitals are still treating fewer patients than before Covid, MailOnline can reveal amid calls to make the backlog one of the Government's top priorities this winter.

Close to 270,000 routine operations like hip and knee replacements were carried out between June-August this year per month. For comparison, the figure was around 9 per cent higher during the same period in 2019.

Three quarters of all NHS trusts are still performing below pre-pandemic levels, according to our analysis of local data.

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals completed 718 inpatient treatments on average through June, July and August. The figure was more than double that (1,763) in 2019.

Leading experts told MailOnline the huge regional differences are being caused, in part, by delays in setting up special surgical hubs to tackle the pandemic-induced backlog, which has risen to an all-time record of more than 7million.

So-called 'bed blockers', who are medically fit to leave hospital but have nowhere else to go, have been blamed for stalling efforts.

NHS bosses say Covid, despite posing much less of a threat now than earlier on in the pandemic, is still causing havoc in hospitals.

Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: 'Despite huge efforts by NHS staff to treat people waiting for hospital treatment, we are not yet managing to bring the waiting list down.

'Some areas are almost back to pre-pandemic levels of surgical activity, but others are struggling. Many hospitals do not have enough beds or operating theatres available.'

Experts have warned upcoming strike action, announced today by the Royal College of Nursing, will only worsen the backlog.

Three quarters of all NHS trusts are still performing below pre-pandemic levels, according to MailOnline's analysis of local data. West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals completed 718 inpatient treatments on average through June, July and August. The figure was more than double that (1,763) in 2019

NHS England data show just over 275,000 inpatients were given an operation or were treated in hospitals in August this year. It was down 6 per cent on the 293,000 average treated in the three months up to August in 2019

The NHS waiting list for routine operations in August in England breached 7million for the first time ever. This includes almost 390,000 patients who've been forced to wait over a year for treatment

Nurses WILL strike! Thousands of operations and treatments facing the axe this winter Thousands of nurses have voted to strike for the first time ever setting up the NHS to be crippled this winter. More than 300,000 members were balloted by the Royal College of Nursing in the first vote on industrial action in the union's 106-year history. A 'bank holiday' service is expected to hit thousands of patients, with delays to and cancellations for routine treatment from operations, to dialysis, to chemotherapy. Almost 100 NHS trusts voted in favour of strikes in England alone. Some trusts did not meet the legal threshold to qualify for action. Some ambulance trusts, plus local integrated care boards also voted to strike, with chaos expected to reach all corners of the NHS. All NHS employers in Northern Ireland and Scotland will be included and all bar one in Wales met the relevant legal thresholds. Guys and St Thomas in London, opposite the House of Commons, appears in the list as well as other leading hospitals in capital cities of the UK. Industrial action is expected to begin before Christmas, with reports that it will take place over two dates, potentially a Tuesday and a Thursday. Tories have labelled the strikes 'criminal' and warned that lives will be lost as a result of the action. The Government has so far refused to budge on its current pay offer, rejecting RCN demands for a more than 17 per cent rise. Advertisement

Professor Mortensen also suggested bed-blocking was partly to blame. He added: 'Beds are full of patients who should really be treated in the community, or needed for emergency admissions.

'The Government has invested in setting up surgical hubs  ring-fenced facilities for planned surgery  but we don't have them in every area yet. Many hospitals are struggling with staffing shortages too.

'Looking ahead to the winter months, the new health secretary needs to make tackling the backlog his top priority, and work with the professions and NHS leaders on these challenges.'

MailOnline's analysis shows the number of elective inpatient treatments, such as hip and knee replacements, that were completed during June, July and August in hospital trusts across England. The same data for 2019 was then used as a comparison.

In total, 103 out of 136 trusts analysed carried out fewer in the three months up to to August 2022 compared to the same period in 2019.

Rates were down 59 per cent at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

A 44 per cent drop was also seen at University Hospitals Birmingham (2,514 this year, vs 4,480 before the pandemic) and Great Western Hospitals (1,071 this year, vs 1,907 pre-Covid).

Some hospitals claimed their figures, published by NHS England monthly, were skewed by a switch over to electronic patient records this year.

On the other end of the spectrum, Salisbury and Wirral University Teaching Hospital appeared to treat more than double the pre-pandemic average.

MailOnline's analysis does not look at outpatient data, which makes up the majority of NHS hospital activity each month.

Despite most hospitals treating fewer inpatients, overall outpatient treatments  which do not require overnight stays  were up.

Overall, around 1.1million people were given the treatments  which make up most hospital activity and include minor procedures such as X-rays, MRI scans and blood tests  in August, up 5.5 per cent on the nearly 1million on the same month in 2019.

More people may have gone on holiday in August 2022 than before the pandemic, resulting in more patients choosing to delay their surgeries, NHS trusts told MailOnline.

Some hospitals suffered with higher-than-average staff sickness rates in August, struggled to recruit in specialty positions and faced unprecedented pressures in A&E.

The combination reduced the amount of inpatient treatments carried out in the month at some trusts, officials said.

A&E waits have also breached a record, with the number of patients facing 12-hour waits exceeding 30,000

Ambulances took an average of 47 minutes and 59 seconds to respond to category two calls , such as burns, epilepsy and strokes. This is more than twice as long as the 18 minute target

NHS England continued to fail to hit targets to start treatment for the disease within two months of an urgent referral

An NHS England spokesperson said: 'Actually, the most recent figures for August show the NHS is doing more elective activity than in the same month before the pandemic and hardworking staff have made significant progress in reducing the backlog, with two-year waits virtually eliminated and waits of more than 18 months down by a quarter since February.'

Whittington Health NHS Trust said: 'We are not treating fewer inpatients than before the pandemic and 'Referral to Treatment' (RTT) data is not an accurate reflection of the amount of care we have provided.

'In fact, during June, July and August this year we treated 6,783 patients who required planned care which is 150 more patients, not fewer, than the number who received treatment in the same period prior to the Covid-19 pandemic despite the additional bank holiday this year.

'We are committed to treating everyone who requires our care as quickly and as safely as possible.'

A spokesperson from Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We recognise that some of our patients are waiting longer than we'd like and apologise for the impact that this delay has on them and their families.

'Having prioritised care for the most critically ill during the pandemic, we are now focused on reducing the backlog of elective patients waiting for their surgery as quick as we possibly can.'

The revelations come after official figures last month showed a record 7million people in England are waiting for routine NHS ops.

Leading experts fear the 'grim milestone'  the equivalent of one in eight people  will only get topped as the pressures of winter, Covid and flu kick in.

Almost 390,000 patients have been forced to endure year-long waits for their treatment, often while in serious pain.

Fresh monthly figures will be released tomorrow.

Meanwhile, nurses today announced they will strike after more than 300,000 members were balloted by the Royal College of Nursing in the first vote on industrial action in the union's 106-year history.

A 'bank holiday' service is expected to hit thousands of patients, with delays to and cancellations for routine treatment from operations, to dialysis, to chemotherapy.

Almost 100 NHS trusts voted in favour of strikes in England alone. Some trusts did not meet the legal threshold to qualify for action.

Some ambulance trusts, plus local integrated care boards also voted to strike, with chaos expected to reach all corners of the NHS.

All NHS employers in Northern Ireland and Scotland will be included and all bar one in Wales met the relevant legal thresholds.
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England's health plummeted to a five-year low in the year the pandemic first struck, official figures suggest.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which measures health across the country's 307 authorities every year using 50-plus metrics, found it dropped to levels not seen since 2015  when records began.

The results, which the ONS compared to a health version of GDP, showed that well-being, mental health and life satisfaction deteriorated in the early days of Covid.

Manchester was technically named as the unhealthiest borough in the country.

Meanwhile, people in Hart, Hampshire were the healthiest, according to the data, which is gathered from gold-standard surveys and Government figures.

However, the health index, which also encompasses air quality, access to green spaces and crime levels, saw these environmental factors improve.

ONS statisticians said trends were largely driven by people staying at home and the impact this had on mental health. Dozens have studies have suggested Covid shutdowns caused mental and physical health to plummet.

An interactive tool allows you to look up the health score in your local area.

The figure shows health in England in 2020, using the ONS health index scores. It displays England's overall health score of 100.1, and the score in each category: healthy people (95.4), healthy lives (101.4) and healthy places (103.4). The graphic also includes scores for 14 sub-categories, such as difficulties in daily life, mental health and access to green space, which feed into the three categories. The coloured squares represent the 56 indicators measured for each sub-category, such as self-harm, suicide and mental health condition rates, and whether rates are the same as 2015 levels (grey), worse (orange or red) or better (light blue or dark blue)

The ONS graph shows how the health index  its overall measure of health in England (far left)  per year from 2015 to 2020. Scores are also set out for the three main categories measured to reach the health index score: healthy people (left), healthy lives (right) and healthy places (far right)

The ONS graph shows 12 of the categories used to measure health in England and how they changed in 2020 compared to 2019. While improvements were detected in crime levels, living conditions and difficulties in daily lives, well-being, mortality and economic and working conditions nose-dived

The ONS graph show that changes in health index scores for children's social, emotional and mental health indicators. It shows that after a small decline in 2016/17, scores have been worsening and reached an all-time low in 2020, dropping 2.5 points

The ONS graph shows that death rates worsened overall in 2020 (all causes), along with avoidable mortality and life expectancy. However, infant mortality improved slightly and remained in line with previous years

Of the 307 local authorities in England, Manchester (right) has the poorest health (77.7 points), according to the ONS. At the other end of the scale, people in Hart, Hampshire (left) are the healthiest (125.1)

WHERE ARE THE HEALTHIEST AND LEAST HEALTHY PARTS OF ENGLAND? The ONS allocated all local authorities in England a 'health score' of 100 in 2015 and has measured whether health has improved or worsened every year since. Fifty-six indicators, such as life satisfaction, cancer rates and unemployment, are measured and used as the basis of the analysis. The data for each comes from public sources, such as previous ONS surveys or Government data. HEALTHIEST (scores 119 to 125) Hart (125) Ribble Valley (122) South Oxfordshire (122) Rutland (122) Uttlesford (121) Mid Sussex (121) Rushcliffe (120) Elmbridge (120) Derbyshire Dales (119) Waverley (119) LEAST HEALTHY (scores 78-85) Manchester (78) Blackpool (78) Middlesbrough (79) Kingston upon Hull, City of (80) Liverpool (82) Nottingham (82) Birmingham (84) Thanet (84) Southampton (84) Salford (85) Advertisement

The ONS allocated all local authorities in England a 'health score' of 100 in 2015 and has measured whether it has improved or worsened every year since.

Fifty-six indicators, such as life satisfaction, cancer rates and unemployment, are measured and used as the basis of the analysis. The data for each comes from public sources, such as previous ONS surveys or Government data.

These are then grouped into three broad categories: 'healthy people', 'healthy lives' and 'healthy places'.

The ONS said these metrics are based on the World Health Organization definition of health, which takes physical, mental and social well-being into account.

Results show that overall health declined to 100.1 in 2020  taking the figure back to 2015 levels. The figure had been largely trending upwards since 2015, peaking at 100.7 in 2018, before dropping to 100.5 in 2019.

The ONS said that the 2020 downturn would have been fuelled by the pandemic, which had 'substantial impacts on many aspects of health'. However, they noted 'other events in 2020 may also have influenced scores'.

However, the downturn in 2020 was not seen across all metrics.

While the 'healthy people' and 'healthy lives' scores declined (falling 4.2 points and 0.6 points, respectively) 'healthy places'  which is measured by factors including access to green space, living conditions and crime  improved considerably (rising 3.7 points).

The fall-off in 'healthy people' (from 99.6 in 2019 to 95.4 in 2020) was driven by a downturn in personal well-being (12 point drop), specifically life satisfaction (13.8 point drop), and worsening mortality rates (4.8 point drop).

Worsening mental health also contributed to the drop-off. This was fuelled by worsening mental health (0.9 point drop), especially children's social, emotional and mental health, which fell by 2.5 points.

ONS statisticians noted that adult mental health data is collected between January and March each year, so the results reflect the period before the first Covid lockdown was introduced.

In contrast, the 'healthy places' score soared, largely due to a plunge in crime rates and air pollution.

The ONS team noted that air pollution and rough sleeping  another measure of 'healthy places'  improved in 2020 for the first time since the study began.

It said: 'It can reasonably be expected that the 2020 results are because of changes made during the pandemic.

'These changes include the campaign to provide accommodation to homeless people to reduce infection risk, which reduced rough sleeping; and restrictions affecting travel and transport, business and industry, which will have impacted air pollution levels.'

However, the statisticians said economic and working conditions dropped in 2020 (falling 2.9 points) due to worsening unemployment and job-related training.

Of the 307 local authorities in England, Manchester has the poorest health (77.7 points), according to the ONS.

It is followed by Blackpool (78.1), Middlesbrough (78.6) and Kingston upon Hull (79.6).

At the other end of the scale, people in Hart, Hampshire are the healthiest (125.1), followed by Ribble Valley in Lancashire (122), South Oxfordshire (121.9) and Rutland in the East Midlands (121.8).

Meanwhile, Fydle in Lancashire and Epsom and Ewell in Surrey saw the biggest fall it health (dropping 8.2 points), followed by Richmondshire in North Yorkshire (7.2 points) and Mole Valley in Surrey (7.1 points).

And Cambridge (10.7 points), Lincoln, in the East Midlands, (6 points) and Torridge, north Devon, (5.5 points) saw the biggest rise in health.

Emma Rourke, interim deputy national statistician (Health, Population and Methods) at ONS said the index shows how health changed during the early months of the pandemic.

She noted that improvements in air quality, fewer road accidents and less crime 'was likely driven by the need for people to stay at home at this time'.

Ms Rourke said: 'However, the score for the Healthy People category declined considerably, which reflects the impact the pandemic had on mental health and well-being.

'One of our key aims is for the Health Index to become a trusted tool for informing health strategy, in the same way GDP data informs understanding of the economy.

'Today's data enables decision makers to explore whether health trends are persistent, improving or deteriorating.

'We expect to publish the Health Index 2021 within the next six months and this will give us an even deeper understanding of health and health outcomes at national, regional and local level.'
Johnson & Johnson is facing legal action in the UK for the first time over claims its talcum powder causes cancer.

The move is being led by a legal firm that successfully sued the company for 4.1billion ($4.7billion) in the US on behalf of 22 women who developed ovarian cancer.

The health concerns are driven by worries over exposure to asbestos, which is claimed to be a component part of the powder that is often used by adults, both for themselves and newborn babies.

An estimated 41,000 women in the UK have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and a further 2,700 with mesothelioma  a cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

Based on these figures, the lawyers believe there may be thousands of victims who can trace their asbestos exposure back to talc from a variety of manufacturers, including Johnson's Baby Powder.

Johnson & Johnson is facing legal action in the UK for the first time over claims its talcum powder (pictured) causes cancer

The launch of the US-style group action is being led by Mark Lanier (pictured), a founding partner of Lanier, Longstaff, Hedar & Roberts LLP. He recently launched a UK law firm with a group of British barristers

Why is the claim being brought against Johnson & Johnson? Where does the cancer link come from? Historically, most talcum powder included so-called mineral talc. Deposits are often found in the ground alongside asbestos, which - in the past - led to contamination. White asbestos is a known cancer risk and has long been associated with cancer of the lungs and other organs. Quality controls were introduced in the 1970s to eliminate contamination, however there are questions about their effectiveness. What is the evidence from the United States? In October 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) detected asbestos in several products leading to product recalls. Later that month, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), recalled a single batch of Johnson's Baby Powder. By April 2020, J&J was named in thousands of lawsuits alleging a link between the company's talc and cancer diagnoses. As of July 2022, it had faced nearly 38,000 legal claims and paid approximately $4billion in settlements, verdicts and defence costs. Litigation is ongoing. What is the view of UK experts? Cancer Research UK argues that, currently, the evidence of a link to any form of cancer is weak and that major medical studies would be needed to provide clarity. It says other factors, such as age, smoking, and family history, have a higher association with a raised risk of ovarian cancer. What action is the industry taking? Manufacturers, including J&J, deny any liability or link between their products and cancer. Despite these reassurances, they are all in the process of removing mineral talc from their products. J&J changed the formula for all its products sold in the USA and Canada in 2020 to replace mineral talc with corn starch. These new products will be introduced in the UK and the rest of the world next year. Advertisement

Cancer Research UK has questioned the links to ovarian cancer and states there is not enough good evidence to draw a link to talcum powder.

It said: 'Some studies have suggested a possible increase in risk of ovarian cancer in women who use talc on their genitals, but the evidence isn't clear.

'Even if there was an increased risk from talcum powder, it would likely be smaller than known causes of ovarian cancer, like age, family history and smoking.'

The launch of the US-style group action is being led by Mark Lanier, a founding partner of Lanier, Longstaff, Hedar & Roberts LLP. He recently launched a UK law firm with a group of British barristers.

It is argued that the primary ingredient, mineral talc, has been found to contain asbestos.

As a result, a number of manufacturers are removing this ingredient from their products.

Johnson & Johnson withdrew its mineral talc-based products in the US and Canada in 2020 and it will cease sales in the UK and globally next year, switching to a new formula.

Mr Lanier said: 'For over 40 years major manufacturers of talc products have covered up evidence of asbestos in their products. With pressure mounting, these companies are finally ceasing production, but this is long overdue.

'Companies have made many millions from sales of talc, and we believe there are many more victims, including in the UK, who deserve justice for having their lives cut short by these terrible and incurable cancers, which could so easily have been avoided.'

Tom Longstaff, a barrister supporting the case, said: 'We will show that the use of talcum powder materially increased a person's risk of developing cancer, and we already have access to a number of important sources of information that demonstrate how talcum powder manufactured by Johnson & Johnson and other companies contained asbestos and that the company had known of that fact for decades.

'This litigation will demonstrate that manufacturers essentially prioritised profit over the health of the users of its products, and we seek justice for the injured victims in the UK.'

The lawyers have not yet identified any UK women who are willing to come forward to make a claim.

Given the nature of the claim, it is hard to predict the exact sum of damages that claimants may receive.

Compensation will depend on various factors, such as any losses they or their loved ones have suffered, and the severity of the diagnosis.

Despite the successful lawsuits in the US, Johnson & Johnson insists that its baby powder and talcum products are safe. It says they do not contain asbestos.

It said: 'Our position on the safety of our cosmetic talc remains unchanged.

'We stand firmly behind the decades of independent scientific analysis by medical experts around the world that confirms talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.'

Despite these reassurances, it confirmed it is adopting a new formula, saying its talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder will be discontinued around the world next year.

It explained the decision, saying: 'We continuously evaluate and optimise our portfolio to best position the business for long-term growth.

'This transition will help simplify our product offerings, deliver sustainable innovation, and meet the needs of our consumers, customers and evolving global trends.

'Cornstarch-based Johnson's Baby Powder is already sold in countries around the world.

'Johnson's is a flagship global brand of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health and we remain fully committed to ensuring Johnson's products are loved by parents and families for years to come.'

Lanier, Longstaff, Hedar & Roberts LLP will act for claimants on a 'no-win, no-fee' basis. Further information is available at: mytalcclaim.co.uk.
America is recording a surge of RSV infections, at nearly 10,000 during the latest week of October 22

The biggest children's hospitals in Tennessee and Alabama have less than five per cent of beds available

Only one children's hospital in Rhode Island is seeing high wait times for treatment - up to nine hours

Pediatric hospitals in the US are at near-capacity as the 'tripledemic' strikes children across the country

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Pediatric hospitals in Arizona, Rhode Island and Washington DC are being overwhelmed by a recent surge is respiratory illnesses as this winter's 'tripledemic' slams the nation  and officials call for a state of emergency.

The country is being hit by a ferocious flu outbreak  the worst in 10 years  and an unseasonably early and aggressive wave of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is mild for most adults but can be severe in minors, while Covid is expected to make a comeback in the coming months.

On Sunday and Monday, every single bed in Rhode Island's Hasbro Children's Hospital was full while pediatric hospitals in Washington DC and Arizona were at 98 and 96 per cent capacity, respectively.

The national situation is not much better  on average 78 per cent of pediatric beds are occupied, the majority with respiratory virus patients, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

On Tuesday a Michigan health system with nearly two dozen facilities barred visits from children under five amid viral outbreaks among young people.

Dr Frank Overly, medical director for pediatric emergency medicine at Hasbro in Rhode Island  the state's only children's hospital  has asked state Governor Daniel McKee to declare a state of emergency over the crisis.

He said medics were being forced to treat child patients in hospital corridors, and every day there are up to 40 families left languishing in waiting rooms for up to nine hours.

Officials around the country are reporting RSV as the main culprit behind the surge, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed that more than 18.9 per cent of PCR tests for the virus are positive  the highest level in two years.

During the week that ended on October 29, the most recently available data, there were 7,119 new RSV infections recorded. A peak of 9,832 cases was reached on October 22. This is likely to be a vast under-estimate, however, because the virus isn't tested for at the same scale as Covid.

Experts had long warned that this year's flu season would be more devastating than years past. Annual respiratory viruses largely disappeared amid lockdowns and mask orders during the Covid pandemic.

These restrictions led to many Americans  especially children  not having proper immune defense against these viruses, leaving them vulnerable to a more severe infection.

Major pediatric hospitals in states being struck the hardest by the flu and RSV outbreaks are at or near capacity, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports

 Slide me  The flu has spread rapidly across America in recent months, with the number of states experiencing 'high' flu activity increasing from two during the week that ended on October 8 to 11

Confirmed PCR cases in the US peaked two weeks ago, but test positivity increased to 18.9 per cent this week, a point the figure has not reached in the past two years. This signals that cases are rising even as official figures fall

Cases of influenza are fast-rising in the US according to CDC data, eclipsing the 7,000 mark during the final week of October

The HHS reports that thousands of hospitals around America are currently near capacity. These hospitals are largely concentrated in more populated areas of the country.

Dr Overly told NBC that his staff were so busy with the swell of patients that he has had to take on duties like cleaning beds and bringing patients from the waiting room in for treatment.

Some of Rhode Island's adult hospitals are taking on pediatric patients to help alleviate the surge faced by Hasbro.

Patients who require more intensive care are also being rerouted to neighboring states Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The hospital director hopes that Democratic Gov McKee will declare a state of emergency, an action that would allocate more funding to his hospital, help bring in more staff and reduce administrative duties.

'With the resources that we have, we're struggling to provide the normal care that we would provide,' he said.

'When you have limited resources, you sort of stretch things, which means the care is probably different than what it would be in a normal time.'

The order would release more funding for hospitals, which they can use to hire temporary staff and acquire more equipment. It would also drop some of the paperwork burden that hospitals face.

Hospital's partial 'lockdown': Michigan health system BANS all children under 5 from visiting amid outbreak of RSV and flu on pediatric wards A Michigan health system is barring children under five from visiting its hospitals amid an outbreak of respiratory viruses on pediatric wards. Corewell Health East, which operates 22 clinics across the state, will only allow young kids in if a family member is very unwell - or there is an end-of-life situation. It comes as 13 schools in Alabama switched to remote learning amid a severe outbreak of seasonal illnesses. Children five and younger are particularly vulnerable to the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)  both of which are surging across Michigan and the US. There has been a 500 per cent jump in positive tests for respiratory viruses among minors at Corewell in recent weeks - suggesting hospital spread. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 7,119 new RSV infections during the week that ended on October 29 - up from less than 2,000 in August. Just over 7,500 cases of influenza were also reported nationwide that week  up from just a few hundred in August. The unseasonably early and aggressive surge has filled pediatric hospitals across the country - with 78 per cent of the beds are occupied US-wide, and 72 per cent in Michigan. Americans are thought to be particularly at risk of severe disease this year because stay-at-home orders robbed them of exposure to healthy germs. 'We're seeing an unprecedented number of patients in our emergency departments and upper respiratory infection caused by RSV,' Dr Matthew Denenberg, chief of pediatrics at the hospital system told ABC. 'It's been a really early and severe year for RSV. Worse than any other year that I've seen. I've been doing this 20 years.' Advertisement

Children's National Hospital  the biggest pediatric unit in Washington DC  is also treating patients in the hospital's hallways and in flex rooms constructed out of former clinic space.

The hospital is at 99 per cent capacity as of Wednesday morning, the HHS reports.

Dr Sarah Combs, a physician at the hospital, told NBC that the Northwest DC hospital is operating at near capacity and even the waiting room is full.

Arizona is also being struck by a surge of pediatric patients with respiratory illnesses. Phoenix Children's Hospital, the largest in the state, is at 94 per cent capacity.

While common respiratory viruses will often provide little worry to adults, they can be devastating to young children.

The CDC reports that up to 500 US children die from RSV every year.

An infected child may suffer pneumonia or inflammation of airways in the lungs. These are potentially deadly symptoms.

Health officials have long warned that this year's flu season would be more brutal than years past.

Common viruses like the flu largely disappeared during the first two years of the Covid pandemic, as masking and social distancing stopped them spreading.

They are roaring back this year, though, as many do not have the necessary immune protection to fight off the virus.

Some have even warned of a 'tripledemic' as the flu, RSV and Covid all usually reach their peak at the end of the year.

Confirmed RSV cases reached 9,832 during the week ending October 22, according to the CDC.

While weekly figures have since declined, the jump in test positivity signals the true amount of cases is rising.

Test positivity is considered a more accurate measure of an outbreak because it accounts for fluctuations in the numbers of tests carried out.

The 18.9 per cent test positivity rate is the highest of this season so far  growing from only 15 per cent last week, and is higher than it was at any point in the last two years.

During the same week last year, only nine per cent of tests were coming back positive.

The flu is surging across America for the first time since Covid hit as well, with the US south being slammed the hardest.

According to the CDC, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee are all reporting 'very high' levels of influenza activity  as of most recent data from October 29.

In Tennessee, 8.7 per cent of outpatients at hospitals in the state are showing flu-like symptoms  shattering the CDC baseline of 3.1 per cent as an acceptable level.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which includes the Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital - the Volunteer state's largest children's hospital, is at 98 per cent capacity Wednesday morning, according to the HHS.

Alabama's figure eclipsed 10 per cent during the final week of October  tripling from three per cent only two weeks earlier. According to official state data, outpatients showing flu-like symptoms peaked at around five per cent at the end of 2021.

The outbreak reached such a point in north Alabama that the Marshall County school district  which includes 5,000 students across 13 schools  went into remote learning this week.

The Children's Hospital of Alabama at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, the state's largest pediatric facility, only has seven per cent of its beds available, according to HHS data.

South Carolina is recording exorbitantly high rates of flu-like symptoms as well. Just under 11 per cent of outpatients in the Palmetto state are displaying flu-like symptoms.

The Medical University of South Carolina medical center  of which the state's largest children's hospital is included in it  reports being at 87 per cent capacity on Wednesday morning.

The CDC is also reporting 'very high' flu activity in Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas and North Carolina.

While other viruses surge, Covid cases have remained flat in recent weeks  even as the cold weather months that usually brought in a fresh a surge in previous years  arrive.

The US is currently recording 40,000 new infections each day, a five per cent increase on the past two weeks.

America is suffering 308 daily deaths from the virus as well, a 14 per cent fall in a fortnight.
A single scratch on the surface of a nonstick pan can put millions of microplastics into food and homes, research suggests.

An Australian study  which used light-waves to measure microscopic particles  found just one crack on a Teflon-coated pan released an explosion of tiny toxins.

Per-and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, are stick and heat-proof particles used to make millions of kitchenware items in the US.

In recent years they have been linked to a host of health problems including several types of cancer, autism and infertility.

They are so abundant that a 2020 study found that 99 per cent of Americans have some detectable levels of it in their blood stream.

Last month research estimated 57,000 neighborhoods in the US are contaminated by toxic forever chemicals.

Researchers found just one five centimeter (cm) scratch to Teflon pans  perhaps from a spatula or spoon  released up to 2.3million microplastics.

Overall, more than 9,000 plastic particles were dispersed within the pan.

Despite these risks, there are no existing federal regulations in the US on the amount of PFAS that are allowed to be on the surface of manufactured goods.

Researchers found that a single scratch on a nonstick pan can lead to millions of dangerous microparticles entering a person's food and expose them to long-term harms

'Given the fact PFAS is a big concern, these Teflon microparticles in our food might be a health concern so needs investigating because we don't know much about these emerging contaminants,' said Dr Cheng Fang, a senior research fellow at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Researchers, who published their findings in Science of The Total Environment, used Raman imaging to study the prevalence of particles coming off of the pans.

The technique involves using light waves to monitor how particles spread and interact with one another in a certain space.

Using microscopic imagery, the light waves can track how many particles there are and how they move around.

Toxic forever chemicals linked to cancer and autism are found in EVERY baby toy, clothing and bedding tested in new study 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'. 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. Advertisement

Millions of these particles were expelled across the pan, allowing them to get into food cooked on the dish.

Once a person eats food contaminated with PFAS chemicals they will remain in the body for long periods of time, as it very slowly leaves through urine.

They have been deemed 'forever chemicals' because they take nearly a decade to break down in the body and never break down in the environment.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not set an upper limit as to the maximum amount of PFAS that is safe to consume in food.

In lieu of FDA regulations, researchers recommend people to take more care in the types of products they choose to use.

Experts recommend against using nonstick pans, especially those that use Teflon products.

'It gives us a strong warning that we must be careful about selecting and using cooking utensils to avoid food contamination,' Professor Youhong Tang, a researchers from Australia's Flinders University said.

'More research is recommended to address the risk assessment of the Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics, given that Teflon is a family member of PFAS.'

Teflon is a manufacturing giant that makes much of the nonstick cookware Americans use today.

Its nonstick coating uses a chemical called polytetrafluoroethylene (PFTE), which is a type of PFAS.

There is no data that shows whether it is more or less dangerous than other types of PFAS.

Experts worry that the prevalence of these chemicals in dishes, food packaging and other goods are needlessly exposing Americans to these dangerous chemicals.

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 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.

Some fear that these dangerous chemicals are so prevalent in American life that they are entirely unavoidable.

Sydney Evans, an analyst at the Washington DC-base advocacy firm the Environmental Working Group, told DailyMail.com that: 'It's really hard to shop your way out if [PFAS exposure].'

'You can get rid of [one product], but the thing you replace it with will also have PFAS.'
Americans are being warned that a dangerous animal tranquilizer could be lurking in illegal street drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning about xylazine, which is showing up in a growing number of toxicology reports after fatal overdoses.

Xylazine is not approved for human consumption and is typically used as a sedative or painkiller for cows and horses in veterinary medicine.

The FDA warns in people it can cause 'serious and life-threatening side effects that appear to be similar to those commonly associated with opioid use'.

Yet xylazine is increasingly being used by drug dealers as a cutting agent in heroin, meth, cocaine and opioids, the federal agency told stakeholders in a letter Tuesday.

The alert warned that it can be 'difficult to distinguish' a xylazine overdose from opioid overdose  both drugs cause the lungs to start failing.

But unlike opioids, xylazine overdoses cannot be curtailed with naloxone, the emergency opioid overdose reversal drug.

The tranquilizer xylazine is approved only for veterinary use and is commonly used for cows, horses, and other animals. In people, it can depress the central nervous system and the respiratory system.

The animal sedative has becoming an increasingly common adulterant in heroin and some stimulants like cocaine and meth. Because it is not an opioid, its effects cannot be curtailed with the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.

So far this year, 68 poison incidents involving xylazine were reported to the US Poison Centers. More than half of those incidents were intentional and the results of self-harm or drug abuse.

Xylazine is not to be confused with the popular hallucinogenic ketamine, which was originally developed as a horse tranquilizer.

While national figures involving xylazine are murky  the drug can only be detected using advance drug screens  several are reporting troubling trends.

It has been involved in up to 20 per cent of overdose deaths in the worst-affected states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

Xylazine  sold under the brand name Rompun in the US  first rose in popularity in Puerto Rico in the 2000s where it is known as 'anestecia de caballo'.

What is xylazine? Xylazine is a non-opioid agent that FDA originally approved in 1972 as a sedative and analgesic for use in veterinary medicine. The drug acts as a central alpha-2- adrenergic receptor agonist in the brainstem, causing a rapid decrease in the release of norepinephrine and dopamine in the central nervous system (CNS). Xylazine may also bind to other CNS receptors, although further research is needed. Xylazine is not approved for use in humans. Symptoms and risks Signs and symptoms of acute xylazine toxicity may include labored breathing, high blood pressure, a slow heart rate, hypothermia and high blood-sugar levels. Overdoses may appear similar to that of opioids, making it difficult to distinguish. But unlike opioids, xylazine overdoses cannot be curtailed with naloxone, the emergency opioid overdose reversal drug. Repeated exposure to xylazine, by injection, has been associated with severe, necrotic skin ulcerations that are distinctly different from other soft-tissue infections (e.g., cellulitis, abscesses) often associated with injection drug use. These ulcerations may develop in areas of the body away from the site of injection. Advertisement

It has become a common heroin adulterant, a cheap way for drug dealers to improve uptake of the drug and enhance its potency.

In Puerto Rico, xylazine has been most prevalent in a drug combination nicknamed the 'speedball', which is comprised of heroin and cocaine and is used to balance the effects of both the downer and the upper.

A 2008 study found that more than 90 per cent of syringes used for speedballs tested from Puerto Rico were found to contain xylazine.

Public health officials there were tipped off in part due to the appearance of ulcers on users' skin where they injected the drug.

The painful lesions are often made worse when users inject the same spot repeatedly hoping to benefit from the opioid's analgesic effect.

The drug has left a stain on Philadelphia, home to the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast.

Between 2010 and 2015, xylazine was detected in 40 of Philly's 1,854 unintentional overdose deaths (just two per cent) with heroin and/or fentanyl detections.

The presence of xylazine in Philadelphia has spiked since then.

In 2017 it was detected in 10 per cent of overdose deaths with fentanyl and/or heroin, 18 per cent in 2018, and 31 per cent in 2019.

In 2020, xylazine was present in nearly 26 per cent of overdose deaths in Philadelphia, followed by about 19 per cent in Maryland and 10 per cent in Connecticut.

The FDA's warning to healthcare professionals included the caveat that the effects of the drug, which is not an opioid, cannot be curtailed with naloxone, the emergency opioid overdose reversal drug.

The FDA said: 'Healthcare professionals who manage opioid overdoses should consider xylazine exposure if patients are not responding as expected when naloxone is administered or when signs or symptoms of xylazine exposure (e.g. unusual skin necrosis) are present.'

Health officials now worry that the drug is moving westward. Overdoses containing xylazine have also been recorded in Cook County, Ill., Harris County, Texas, Jefferson County, Ala., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the state of New Hampshire.

The drug's rise in prevalence suggests that the ongoing crisis of drug overdose deaths is far from over.

The overdose epidemic was made worse by the Covid pandemic, which required people early on to quarantine and maintain distance from others, leading to feelings of isolation and despair.

The strict restrictions on movement that were established in early 2020 further limited treatment options for people in recovery.

The number of fatal drug overdoses jumped 15 per cent in 2021 to more than 107,000, overtaking the previous record set the year before.

The synthetic opioid fentanyl drove up overdoses more than any other drug, leading to more than 71,000 deaths, up 23 per cent from the year before.

Fatal overdoses linked to cocaine increased by 23 per cent in 2021, while deaths due to methamphetamine overdoses grew by 34 per cent.
While men also benefit from being attractive, their scores did not drop

Scores stayed the same in more numbers-heavy classes like math and science

A researcher found that this was especially the case in 'qualitative' courses

Attractive females saw their grades drop when classes and exams moved online during the pandemic, a study suggests.

Adrian Mehic, a post-doctoral researcher at Lund University, analyzed the scores of 300 male and female engineering students in Sweden before and after Covid hit.

A panel of more than 70 separate participants was asked to grade the attractiveness of each student based on photographs of their faces.

The study found a significant decline in average college grades among attractive female students  but only in 'qualitative' courses where teachers and students were more likely to interact.

These include classes like business and economics, where exams and coursework are graded subjectively.

In quantitative courses  like math and physics  where answers are usually simply correct or incorrect, the same trend was not observed. There was also no trend among males.

Mr Mehic told DailyMail.com the results were not surprising because attractive people are known to have higher salaries and have other benefits in the workforce.

A University of Wisconsin study published last year found attractive people make up to nine per cent more money than their peers.

Attractive people are thought to have more confidence so may be better at presenting and public speaking, previous research finds.

A new study found that attractive women lost benefits to their grades when schools went virtual during the Covid pandemic (file photo)

Adrian Mehic (pictured), a doctoral student at Lund University, explained that this same phenomenon did not occur among male students

For his paper, published in the journal Economic Letters, Mr Mehic gathered data from 307 engineering students in Sweden who started university between 2015 and 2019.

He also recruited a panel of 74 separate volunteers to rate study participants from one to 10  based on a single headshot.

Grades from the first two years of a five-year engineering program were pulled  because they featured more general studies instead of specialized courses.

After controlling for age, gender, and the gender of the professor in each course, Mehic found that there was a clear benefit to attractive students in qualitative courses.

No similar effect was found for the quantitative classes.

Attractive men and women make more money, study finds People who are perceived to be more attractive than their peers make more money. A 2021 University of Wisconsin study found that men who are unattractive make nine per cent less than the average person. The downsides to being unattractive are more significant among men than women. Unattractive women make four per cent less than the average salary. Attractive men make five per cent more than average, while women make four per cent more. Women who were overweight faced lower salaries as well, which was not the case for men. Advertisement

'In math [and] physics courses [its] kind of difficult to discriminate,' he explained.

'It's usually just kind of right or wrong. You do calculations [and get the right or wrong answer].

'Whereas in business, you have to present and argue.'

He said the benefit was not enough to carry a floundering student to the top of the class, but did give a small boost of a few percentage points.

When the Covid pandemic struck Sweden, and much of the world, in early 2020, schools were forced to use video apps like Zoom for instruction.

In many cases, professors would not even know how many of their students looked and face-to-face interactions were near extinct.

During this period, the benefits that attractive female students had in qualitative courses disappeared.

Interestingly, the same phenomenon was not viewed in men. Attractive male students maintained their small boost in grades compared to their less-attractive peers.

Mr Mehric believes that this is because attractive males generally have other traits valuable in qualitative courses, like more self-confidence, which can be valuable during a graded class presentation.

He also said that a majority of professors in the study were male, so female attractiveness could have been a stronger factor than that of males.

The researcher explained that while this is one of the first looks to see how attractiveness works at school, it is known that attractive people benefit in the workplace.

Multiple past studies have also found a value in being attractive in the workforce. A 2005 study found that attractive people with the same credentials are offered a salary 10 per cent higher than their peers.

Physically attractive people are also more confident, improving valuable social skill that can benefit them both at work and in school, a 2001 study finds.

These skills can be valuable when a person is negotiating a salary, or giving a presentation at school.
Chairman of Purplebricks Paul Pindar could soon be ousted after an activist investor calling for his removal reached a significant equity stake milestone.

Lecram Holdings, an investment vehicle for investor Adam Smith, has grown its stake in the online estate agent to 5.16 per cent, thereby allowing it to call an extraordinary general meeting in order to propose Pindar's replacement as a director.

Purplebricks told investors on Wednesday it had revived word from Lecram that it was seeking to requisition a meeting to vote on Pindar's position, and its board are now 'in the process of reviewing [its] legal validity'.

Lecram Holdings, an investment vehicle for investor Adam Smith, has grown its stake in the online estate agent Purplebricks to 5.16% allowing it to call an extraordinary general meeting

After building a 4 per cent stake in July, Lecram lashed out at Pindar's 'highly unsatisfactory performance' as chair and argued 'urgent action is now essential to stabilise [Purplebricks] and restore its credibility within the investment community'.

Lecram is calling for Pindar's removal as director and chair, and his replacement by founder of Countrywide and Rightmove Harry Hill.

Purplebricks said: 'The board reaffirms its support for Paul Pindar as a director of the company and chairman of the board and believes that Paul has the continued support of a number of major shareholders.

'This includes Axel Springer SE, a 26.5 per cent shareholder in the company, which has confirmed it remains supportive of Paul and intends to vote against the proposed resolution for his removal as a director of the company.

'The board is firmly of the view that the Board changes proposed by the Requisition are not in the best interests of the Company or its shareholders.'

Purplebricks shares were down 1.3 per cent approaching midday to 11.4p, having fallen by more than 50 per cent so far this year.

The group's battered share price was gifted rare respite in March after a show of support from the company's directors and their associates.

Sharon Pindar, the wife of chairman Paul, purchased 112,500 shares, while non-executive director Elona Mortimer-Zhika, purchased 37,500 shares, and senior independent non-executive director Simon Downing purchased 1,000,000 shares.

Purplebricks said: 'Within the Company's FY22 results announcement, published on 2 August 2022, a clear plan was set out to improve business performance, return to positive cash flow and profitability, and build a scalable business model.

'The board considers that Lecram Holdings Limited's decision to lodge the requisition is disruptive when the company and its executive team are focused on delivery of this turnaround plan.

'The board recognises that having the right blend of skills and capabilities within the Board is beneficial to support the executive team and is key to delivering the performance improvement.'

It added that following several senior appointments Purplebricks 'is benefitting from the leadership of a well-functioning and capable board, with a clear plan to improve performance and support from its major shareholders, including Axel Springer SE'.
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For nearly 100 years, it provided the entire London Underground with electricity.

But since 2002, the majestic building that housed Lots Road Power Station in London's Chelsea has lain empty.

Now, the disused electricity production hub, which was powered by coal and oil, is being turned into 260 exclusive flats - but prices start at nearly 1.7million. The project will be completed next year.

Initial computer-generated images show how, much like the 9billion redevelopment of the nearby Battersea Power Station, the exterior of the building has retained much of its original structure, whilst the inside has been transformed into the lap of luxury.

Two glass residential towers - named East and West - stand alongside the station, with bridges connecting the different buildings. Whilst residents are already living in Tower West, East is still being constructed.

The 'Powerhouse' project is part of the 1billion Chelsea Waterfront development, where former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich bought a three-storey penthouse worth an estimated 22million.

Commissioned in 1905, Lots Road was the second of London's three power stations to be built - before Battersea but after Bankside in Southwark, which has housed the Tate Modern since the year 2000.

Dr Edmond Ho, the director of developers Hutchison Property Group, said: 'This latest project being unveiled at Chelsea Waterfront - Powerhouse - is an iconic London landmark and a cathedral of the industrial age which has been rejuvenated by a world-class team of architects and designers.

'Taking on a revolutionary new form, Powerhouse will offer a 21st century living experience like no other in one of London's most coveted boroughs.'

For nearly 100 years, it provided the entire London Underground with electricity. But since 2002, the majestic building that housed Lots Road Power Station in London's Chelsea has lain empty. Now, the disused electricity production hub, which was powered first by coal and then oil, is being turned into 260 exclusive flats - but prices start at nearly 1.6million

Lots Road was the second of London's three power stations to be built - before Battersea but after Bankside in Southwark, which has housed the Tate Modern since the year 2000. Above: The power station in the early 20th century

The interior of the former power station has been transformed into a series of luxury apartments. Above: One of the bedrooms in the development

This image shows how new owners who are willing to part with at least 1.7million could arrange and decorate their apartments

When it was built, Lots Road was the the largest power station ever constructed. It covered 32 acres, with its chimneys soaring 275 feet into the air.

It was among the first steel-framed buildings to be built in the British Isles and has been described as the 'design grandfather' of Battersea.

Construction began in 1902, which was the first full year of the reign of King Edward VII, who came to the throne after the six decade rule of his mother Queen Victoria.

Lots Road, which comprises two vast halls and four towering chimneys, pre-dates Battersea, on the opposite side of the Thames, by 39 years.

It initially consumed coal that was ferried to the site by barge. Its powering of the Underground network lasted from its commissioning in 1905 until it ceased operating in 2002.

Even during the Blitz, the station kept going. Since it was decommissioned, the Tube has been powered by the National Grid.

The 'Powerhouse' project is part of the 1billion Chelsea Waterfront development. Above: How the main entrance to the development will look

The facilities on offer include a 24-hour concierge service, along with a 20m swimming pool and gym

The new development was designed by Sir Terry Farrell. On the former station's south facing side, the original arched windows now house private balconies

Two glass residential towers - named East and West - stand alongside the station, with bridges connecting the different buildings. Whilst residents are already living in Tower West, East is still being constructed

When it was built, Lots Road was the the largest power station ever constructed. It covered 32 acres, with its chimneys soaring 275 feet into the air

Lots Road provided power for the London Underground network. Above: A poster (left) describing the power station as the 'nerve centre of London's Underground'; the station is seen during the Blitz in the Second World war

It was among the first steel-framed buildings to be built in the British Isles and has been described as the 'design grandfather' of Battersea

The interior of the Lots Road Power Station is seen above during its heyday, when it supplied the London Underground

Construction began in 1902, which was the first full year of the reign of King Edward VII, who came to the throne after the six decade rule of his mother Queen Victoria

The power station consumed coal that was ferried to the site by barge. Above: The interior of the power station

Lots Road Power Station was built after Bankside - where the Tate Modern is now housed - but before Battersea

The London Underground would not have been able to operate without the power supplied by Lots Road Power Station

The new development was designed by Sir Terry Farrell. On the former station's south facing side, the original arched windows now house private balconies.

Two blocks on the site are dedicated to social housing for locals and there are 61 affordable homes in the station building itself.

The facilities on offer include a 24-hour concierge service, along with a 20m swimming pool and gym.

The apartment sizes range from two to four bedrooms.

The Daily Mail previously reported on power outages at Lots Road. One report, from 1916, read: 'For at least two hours shortly before six o'clock last night the London District Railway service failed.

'The whole of the traffic on four of London's most important underground railways was completely held up by a mishap at the power house in Lots-road, Chelsea.'

It added: 'The lights in the stations and the trains suddenly went out and the trains came to a standstill, some in the middle of the tunnels and others at the platforms.'

Another, from 1928, said: 'London's vast underground railway system was completely paralysed at 11.33am yesterday by a breakdown in the central power station at Lots-road, Chelsea.'
His company estimates that it will begin commercial flights by spring 2023

British billionaire Richard Branson has to face shareholder claims he hid issues with Virgin Galactic's space program and sold millions of stock at inflated prices.

A US judge ordered Branson, 71, to answer allegations he concealed problems in the program after he was sued for 'deliberately sending faulty rockets to space.'

While dismissing most claims in the proposed class action, US District Judge Allyne Ross in Brooklyn said shareholders could try to prove Virgin and Branson defrauded them into overpaying for shares, which now trade over 90 percent below their February 2021 peak.

Shareholders can sue over July 2019 statements Virgin had made 'great progress' overcoming 'hurdles' to commercial spaceflight, despite a near-disastrous test flight five months earlier when its rocket plane Unity suffered critical damage.

Branson must also defend his July 2021 statement his own just-completed flight on Unity, where he soared 50 miles above the earth, had been 'flawless' though Unity had strayed from its assigned airspace.

Branson's company went public in October 2019, but court documents claim: 'Virgin Galactic was less valuable than it appeared because its flights were not as safe as publicly represented.'

Richard Branson, 71, (pictured at NYSE in 2019) has to face shareholder claims that he hid issues with Virgin Galactic spaceship program and reportedly sold millions of stock at inflated prices

US District Judge Allyne Ross in Brooklyn said he had to face shareholders' claims that he concealed problems in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's spaceship program on Monday after he was sued for 'deliberately sending faulty rockets to space'

The billionaire sold 16 million shares for about $398million while the stock was 'artificially inflated' between April 12 and August 12 last year, the suit alleges.

He has sold off more than $1billion of Virgin Galactic shares  around 760million  since early 2020.

In a 55-page decision, Ross said shareholders also could sue over approximately $301million of stock that Branson sold the month after the flight.

Lawyers for Virgin and Branson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In seeking a dismissal, they said there was no proof of intent to defraud, and that the defendants had thoroughly disclosed safety and design issues in developing commercial space travel, 'unquestionably a high-risk proposition.'

Laurence Rosen, a lawyer for the shareholders, declined to comment.

Virgin is based in Tustin, California, and went public in October 2019 by merging with a special purpose acquisition vehicle, Social Capital.

The lawsuit covers shareholders who owned the stock of either from July 10, 2019, to October 14, 2021, when Virgin grounded Unity and delayed its commercial space travel service. Its shares fell 16.8 percent the next day, to $20.01.

Branson, 72, is worth $3.7billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In Monday afternoon trading, Virgin shares were up five cents at $4.97.

Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, hoping to begin commercial space tourism by 2009.

It aims to launch commercial space flights for paying customers in spring 2023.

Branson must also defend his July 2021 statement that his own just-completed flight on Unity, where he soared 50 miles above the earth, had been 'flawless' though Unity had strayed from its assigned airspace

Shareholders can sue over July 2019 statements that Virgin had made 'great progress' overcoming 'hurdles' to commercial spaceflight, despite a near-disastrous test flight five months earlier when its rocket plane Unity suffered critical damage

The company is also investigating materials in spacecraft joints which tests revealed exhibited a 'reduction in strength', the suit claims.

Some 600 would-be passengers have paid deposits for flights on Branson's spacecraft, priced at $450,000 per seat for a flight that lasts up to three hours, including a handful of weightless minutes in zero gravity.

Meanwhile, US billionaires in the space game - Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk - have sent up several tourism flights.

Bezos' Blue Origin have sent up six flights since 2021 and Musk's SpaceX has launched two.

Virgin Galactic is set to resume test flights in January after pausing it for more than year. The last test flight to go out was in July 2022 on the Unity flight.

Since the hiatus, Branson's company has been working on enhancement to the Unity spaceship and its mothership Eve, which flies part way into space with Unity.

The upgrades are now completed on Unity and Eve will be finished by the end of the year, the Albuquerque Journal.

'As we approach our launch of commercial service in second-quarter 2023, we recognize what a significant milestone this will be for the team  one that advances our mission to become an astronaut-driven, consumer-facing spaceflight company,' CEO Michael Colglazier said.
Florida Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a part-time Uber driver, has become the first Gen Z member of Congress to win a seat for Congress.

The 25-year-old gun reform and social justice activist defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish in a heavily blue Orlando-area district.

Frost will take over for Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who vacated the seat to challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

'We made history tonight,' Frost yelled to a crowd of cheering supporters following his victory.

Frost just meets the minimum age to run for Congress, which is 25. Another 25-year-old across the aisle, Republican Karoline Leavitt is running for a House seat in New Hampshire.

He is the son of a Cuban immigrant who came to America with her mother during the Freedom Flights in the early 1960s, where Cubans fled the communist regime for Miami.

Frost said a lack of opportunity forced his biological mother to give him up for adoption, and after reuniting with her last year and learning that she suffered from a drug addiction, he steeled his resolve to run for office.

'She didn't have a lot of money. She didn't have access to the medicine she needed and health care,' Frost said. 'So I want to fight for a world, for a country where everyone can have money, have access to a good life.'

Florida Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost (above) defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish in a heavily blue Orlando-area district

Frost is a part-time Uber driver who propelled himself to Congress to tackled gun reform

Frost will take over for Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who vacated the seat to challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio

Pictured: the 25-year-old gun reform and social justice activist celebrated his victory with supporters on Election Night

Frost is the son of a Cuban refugee who fled the communist regime for Miami in the 1960s. Pictured: Frost reuniting with his grandmother in April, just six months before she passed away

Maxwell Frost is officially the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress. He took the stage minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/9KFOMYs2Sl  Kelsi Thorud (@KelsiThorud) November 9, 2022

A former March For Our Lives organizer, Frost is seeking stricter gun control laws and has stressed opposition to abortion bans.

In a statement Friday. Demings endorsed her now-successor: 'I'm proud to support Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Congress because he's going to continue to fight to end gun violence, take on our housing crisis, bring down rising costs, and continue to be the bold leader Central Florida needs in D.C.'

Along with Demings' endorsement, Frost won the backing of high-profile progressives like US Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The 25-year-old's campaign chest swelled over $2.5 million prior to Election Night.

Frost told a room of supporters that his priority would be to tackle school shootings and bring down the current housing crisis.

'The fact of the matter is we lose 100 people a day due to gun violence, the housing crisis is out of control, and people are yearning for bold champions who believe in the bold transformational change that we need,' Frost said, 'that every single person in central Florida and across this state and nation deserve by virtue of being a human.'

Frost, who has a background as a community organizer, first became an activist after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

Frost, himself, said he is a survivor of gun violence during a shooting in downtown Orlando on Halloween in 2016. It came just for months after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in the city that left 49 dead and 53 wounded.

'I come from a generation that has gone through more mass-shooting drills than fire drills,' Frost told the New York Times in August said. 'This is something that my generation has had to face head-on: being scared to go to school, being scared to go to church, being scared to be in your community. That gives me a sense of urgency.'

After being given up for adoption, Frost was raised by his adoptive mother (right), Maritza Argibay Frost, a teacher at Osceola County Schools

When Frost (right) takes office in January, he will join a Congress that's given membership is the oldest in US history.

Pictured: Frost's yellow Kia Soul that he uses for Uber rides outfitted with his campaign sticker

Pictured: Frost meeting Harry Styles back in 2014 when the candidate was 17-years-old

The 25-year-old touts his work with March For Our Lives to end gun violence and with the ACLU to fight for women's access to abortions and restoring voting rights to residents with felony convictions.

Last year, Frost was among the voting rights protesters arrested in Washington D.C. for blocking pedestrian traffic.

The protest called on President Joe Biden to pass federal voting rights legislation and to eliminate the Senate filibuster. Frost was given a fine of up to $250.

Frost told Yahoo News he did not see politics in his future until friends he protested with during Black Lives Matter gatherings suggested he should do so.

His adoptive mother, Maritza Argibay Frost, is a teacher at Osceola County Schools, and his adoptive father, Patrick Frost, is a US Air Force veteran.

When Frost takes office in January, he will join a Congress that's given membership is the oldest in US history.

Frost's opponent, Wimbish, is a 72-year-old former Army Green Beret who called himself a 'Christian, conservative, constitutionalist' candidate for office.

A former March For Our Lives organizer, Frost is seeking stricter gun control laws and has stressed opposition to abortion bans

Frost said he did not see politics in his future until friends he protested with during Black Lives Matter gatherings suggested he should do so. Pictured: Frost during the campaign trail during the Pride Parade in Orlando last month

Heading into this election year, Republicans held 16 seats and Democrats represented 11 from Florida in the House. Florida is gaining a 28th seat due to population growth.

The marquee races include a pair of incumbent House members - Republican Neal Dunn and Democrat Al Lawson - facing off against each other in a north Florida district that leans GOP.

Lawsons majority-Black district was scrapped by the Republican-led Legislature, which adopted a congressional map pushed by DeSantis, prompting a lawsuit alleging unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

Barring incumbent defeats, the new House members will come from six open seats.

Those include the 13th District in Pinellas County, where Democrat Charlie Crist resigned to run for governor, and the Orlando-area seat Democratic Rep. Val Demings is leaving for her Senate campaign.

In addition, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy chose not to run for reelection after her redrawn district in central Florida looked to lean more toward a Republican victory.

And in South Florida, Democrat Ted Deutchs retirement opened the way for a likely Democratic successor in the 23rd District.

One truly open seat, where no incumbent was involved, is the 15th District in the Tampa area, where Republican Laurel Lee - a former Florida secretary of state - and Democrat Alan Cohn, a former investigative journalist, are pitted against each other. The seat skews toward the GOP.

Frost just meets the minimum age to run for Congress, which is 25

Among the other races in Miami, Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo (above) is challenging first-term Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar

Among races with an incumbent, Miami-area 27th District is the most closely contested and has a history of flipping back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.

In that race, Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo is challenging first-term Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar. Polling has shown the race to be a tight one, although broader polling shows a potential uptick in Hispanic support for the GOP in historically Democratic Miami-Dade County as a whole.

Otherwise, most Florida incumbent U.S. House members appeared headed back to Washington, barring any upsets.

These include Republican Matt Gaetz, a top supporter of former President Donald Trump who is under federal investigation in a sex trafficking case; Democrat Kathy Castor in a Tampa-area seat; Republican Vern Buchanan, who could chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee in a GOP-led House; Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former Democratic National Committee chair; and state delegation dean and Republican Mario Diaz-Balart, first elected in 2002.

One incumbent had no opposition Tuesday: GOP Rep. John Rutherford, a former Duval County sheriff, has already won another term in north Floridas 5th District.

The economy is weighing heavily on the minds of Florida voters. Three-quarters of them believe things in the country are heading in the wrong direction, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,200 voters in Florida.

About half rank the economy and jobs as the most important issues facing the country.
Johnny Depp and his British lawyer girlfriend Joelle Rich are still a couple and spent the past weekend together, DailyMail.com can reveal

Sources told DailyMail.com that Rich, 37, remains 'crazy' about Depp  with the stunning lawyer flying into Las Vegas on Wednesday from her home in London to see the actor perform and Johnny welcoming her with open arms.

Recent buzz had the pair split, but her appearance in Vegas last weekend told a different story.

Depp, 59, has spent the past six weeks on tour with British rocker Jeff Beck, 78 - joining him on stage at the luxury Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Friday night.

A source told DailyMail.com: 'They took Joelle to the VIP room to check in and she was at the concert on Friday night.

'We saw her take some YouTube people backstage [after the performance]. Looks like they didn't break up!'

Johnny Depp's British lawyer girlfriend Joelle Rich flew to Las Vegas on Wednesday from her home in London to see the actor perform with Jeff Beck, DailyMail.com can reveal

Attendees told DailyMail.com that Rich could be seen watching from the side of the stage. She posted a photo of Depp at the gig on her Instagram account and captioned the image with a large red heart

Photos taken by DailyMail.com show Depp sneaking into the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles through the back for his show on Sunday

The 59-year-old waved to the camera. An insider told DailyMail.com about Joelle: 'Oh they're still on alright. She was front and center with him backstage at his concert in Vegas on Friday night'

A source said of the couple, 'She's clearly crazy about him. And he's into her too - but he does enjoy his women.' Rich was not present for the Sunday night show but photos taken by DailyMail.com show Depp sneaking into the venue at the back

The show, which took place at the Palm's Pearl Theater, was sold out but attendees told DailyMail.com that Rich could be seen watching from the side of the stage.

She also posted a photo of Depp at the gig on her Instagram account and captioned the image with a large red heart.

A second insider told DailyMail.com: 'Oh they're still on alright. She was front and center with him backstage at his concert in Vegas on Friday night.

'She's clearly crazy about him. And he's into her too - but he does enjoy his women.'

Glamorous brunette Rich and Depp met in 2018 when she represented him after he sued the British Sun newspaper for libel after it referred to him as a 'wife beater' in a column.

Although he lost the British case, Rich was also alongside Depp during his court case in Fairfax, Virginia, earlier this year  with the pair seen exchanging tender glances as they heard embarrassing revelations about the actor's penchant for 'mega pints' of wine during the hearing.

Both stayed at the luxury property, which is home to the most expensive hotel room in the US  the $100,000-a-night Damien Hirst-designed Empathy Suite

Rich was alongside Depp during his court case against ex wife Amber Heard in Fairfax, Virginia, earlier this year

News of their romance broke last month, with the chemistry between the duo described as 'off the scale.' The pair were seen exchanging tender glances during the trial

News of their romance broke last month, with the chemistry between the duo described as 'off the scale'.

Rich, who is currently in the process of divorcing husband Jonathan, arrived at the Palms a day before Depp who played a show in at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California, on November 2.

Depp and Beck arrived at the Palms, an off-Strip casino resort owned by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, on November 3 ahead of their show on the 4th.

Both stayed at the luxury property, which is home to the most expensive hotel room in the US  the $100,000-a-night Damien Hirst-designed Empathy Suite.

Depp took to the stage wearing an elaborate pinstriped outfit consisting of a jacket, waistcoat and matching pants, which he paired with one of his trademark hats.

After the show, which finished at 10pm local time, Rich and Depp spent hours meeting with fans  among them a pair of YouTubers who championed him during his court battle with ex-wife Amber Heard - before traveling back to LA overnight on his luxury tour bus.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor is currently on tour with rocker friend Jeff Beck (left). Depp and Beck met in 2016 and bonded over their shared love of music

Depp is pictured performing with Jeff Beck on tour in Thousand Oaks, California, at the Bank of America Theatre this weekend

Depp has since performed twice more: at a show in Thousand Oaks, California, on Saturday night and again at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Rich was not present for the Sunday night show but photos taken by DailyMail.com show Depp sneaking into the venue at the back.

The 59-year-old, who changed out of his denim shirt and black jeans into a gray waistcoat and matching tailored pants for the performance, was later seen giving fans a thumbs up as he left.

Depp now has four more tour dates to complete, beginning with a show at the City National Grove of Anaheim close to Disneyland California on Tuesday night.

He and Beck will then travel on to San Jose and Sacramento for back to back performances on November 9 and 10 before finishing off their tour on November 12 with a gig at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso held a narrow lead over Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass on Wednesday morning in their battle to become the next mayor of Los Angeles.

Caruso, who has been publicly backed by Hollywood's A-listers, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Katy Perry and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, held a slim edge - but both candidates were hovering around 50 percent as counting continued.

Bass, a progressive Democratic congresswoman, could become the first Black woman to hold the job.

Caruso, a Republican-turned-Democrat with a net worth of $4 billion, would represent a turn to the political right for the liberal city.

He held 51.25% of the vote at around 10am on Wednesday, with 44% of precincts reporting.

And it could take a couple more days before the nail-biting contest is called.

Billionaire developer Rick Caruso and Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass were nearly tied in early returns on Wednesday in their battle to become the next mayor of Los Angeles

Caruso held a narrow lead as voting continued, but it could take days for the result to come in

At an election night rally with supporters on Tuesday, Bass warned that tabulating the votes could take several days but she expressed confidence, 'We will win.'

'We are in a fight for the soul of our city,' Bass said to thunderous cheers. 'We will win because we are going to build a new Los Angeles.'

Caruso also appeared before a boisterous crowd of supporters, where he thanked his family and spoke about being inspired by the city's diverse communities.

'We're starting out strong,' he declared.

While both candidates are registered Democrats, The Los Angeles County Democratic Party officially endorsed Bass.

Caruso has enjoyed public support from a host of Hollywood's great and good.

Pop princess Katy Perry was slammed for posting a selfie of the moment she cast her midterm election vote for Caruso.

Perry said: 'I am voting for a myriad of reasons (see the news) but in particular because Los Angeles is a hot mess atm. #letsgocaruso.'

Popstar Katy Perry was criticized when she posted a picture of herself voting for Rick Caruso

LA mayor candidate Rick Caruso flanked by supporters at his election night HQ on Tuesday

Lilly Rocha, a supporter of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, at election night HQ

The I Kissed A Girl singer generally supports Democratic causes.

Her songs were twice selected as theme music for Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bids and wept when she lost to former President Donald Trump.

Comedian and writer Travon Free wrote on Twitter: 'As much as the right try to spin it, Katy Perry voting for Rick Caruso is not an indication of anything other than a rich white woman voting for a fake democrat who will ultimately have no effect on the quality of her life but will worsen the lives of many others.'

The homeless crisis, corruption probes and widespread concern with crime ranging from daytime robberies on city sidewalks to smash-and-grab thefts at luxury stores are the key issues for LA voters.

The favorite is Bass, a former state Assembly leader who has the advantage of being a lifelong Democrat in a city where Republicans are almost invisible.

She is backed by President Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment and has been promising to use her skills as a coalition builder to heal a wounded city.

Caruso, 63, registered as a Democrat in January after supporting various Republican positions for years.

He previously donated close to $1 million to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and to former President George W. Bush.

Paltrow is one of several high profile celebrities to back Rick Caruso, whom she calls a friend

Since becoming a Democrat, he has pledged $1 million to support abortion rights, but has yet to deliver on the funds.

He is also promising to expand the police department to deal with rising crime and get homeless encampments off the streets.

GOOP guru Gwyneth Paltrow also publicly endorsed Caruso and even went so far as to promote a 2022 voter guide endorsing Caruso and a number of other pro-safety measures for Los Angeles voters.

She said previously: 'He is not a career politician, but someone who can get things done. He is a good man and a good friend.'

Actor Chris Pratt also publicly endorsed Caruso, calling him a leader who knows how to build. He argued the billionaire developer is the right choice for a city that has fallen into 'disarray'

Similarly, in May, Kim Kardashian shared on her Instagram stories that she had met with Rick Caruso and opted to support him because he can 'really help with the crime' and 'homeless issue.'

'I think that with him, he can offer a better path to a better life,' the A-list Skims founder said at the time.

Other Hollywood heavyweights backing Caruso include Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.

Pratt, 43, made his endorsement on Instagram on Monday, one day before the election.

He wrote: 'I've lived in LA for over 20 years. It's been great to me. In that time I've seen what many residents here have seen, the city's gradual decline into pain and utter disarray.

'If you live here, you know exactly what I'm talking about...If you're an LA voter, I urge you to vote for @RickCarusoLa.

'He's a builder. He knows how to get s**t done. He's the guy for our city.'

Netflix CEO Sarandos, 58, and his wife Nicole Avant, 54, gave their support to Caruso and paid for a full-page Hollywood Reporter digital ad on his behalf after personally falling victim to the rising tide of crime the city is suffering.

Avant's mother, Jaqueline Avant, was murdered in her Beverly Hills house during a home invasion.

In the ad, Sarandos wrote: 'The entire Machine of the Democratic Party had aligned for a candidate that is part of the very system that is failing this city.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and his wife Nicole Avant publicly endorsed Caruso after Nicole's mother was murdered in her Beverly Hills home

Supporters of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso hold signs as they wait for Caruso to speak in his election night headquarters

'They are wrong. I am a lifetime Democrat. Rick is the Democrat Ive been waiting for, one with a plan and a track record of accomplishing impossible tasks in California and Los Angeles.'

As in most major cities, crime rates have risen dramatically in Los Angeles over the last handful of years.

In 2021, homicides in Los Angeles hit 397 - a 50 percent increase from 2019 and the highest number in more than a decade.

Robberies involving firearms were up 57 percent year-over-year and vehicle thefts were up 44% in March of 2022, compared to the same time in 2020.

Bass has garnered her own list of celebrity supporters in Los Angeles that includes John Legend, Steven Spielberg, Ariana Grande and Donald Glover.

Supporters of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso cheer as they wait for Caruso to speak in his election night headquarters

A supporter of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso reacts as she hears him speak at his election-night headquarters

The winner will replace beleaguered Democrat Eric Garcetti, who will conclude two uneven terms with his nomination to become U.S. ambassador to India stalled in the Senate, apparently over sexual misconduct allegations against a former top Garcetti adviser.

Los Angeles voters are notoriously indifferent to the scrum of local politics, and turnout in midterm elections historically falls off steeply from presidential election years.

Those casting votes are expected to tilt heavily Democratic, however, an advantage for Bass, who has held an edge in polls.

She's counting on strong support from women, white liberals and Black voters.

The backbone of Caruso's coalition will include independents, the city's sprinkle of Republicans and Latinos, while his campaign is attempting to lasso voters who turn out only sporadically, including in lower-income areas.

The race has been shaped in large part by Carusos lavish spending - and his unavoidable advertising.

City records show his campaign expenses have topped $100 million so far, most of it financed with his own money.

Bass, with just a small fraction of that amount at her disposal, has said 'its not the power of the money, its the power of the people.'

City Hall has been in Democratic hands for decades. Caruso's candidacy shares some similarity to 1993, when LA voters turned to Republican Richard Riordan to lead the city in the aftermath of the deadly 1992 riots that erupted after four white police officers were acquitted of assault in the beating of Black motorist Rodney King.

The mayors race is among a list of competitive contests around the state where political loyalties are being tested by questions about the direction and effectiveness of Californias left-leaning government.
Sydney residents say they've become the 'dumping ground' for the prime minister after the first group of ISIS brides and their children were rescued from a Syrian refugee camp and resettled in the west of the city - as questions are raised as to why the families aren't being welcomed in Victoria as a state election looms.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone, Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun, and Campbelltown Mayor George Greiss, all regions that recently welcomed the former Islamic State families, hit back at the federal government's decision to put them in their electorates.

Four women, all of whom were married to Islamic State fighters before they were killed in the war, and their 13 children touched down in Sydney on October 29 after being rescued from the al-Roj refugee camp in Syria.

Appearing on Sunrise on Wednesday morning, the western Sydney mayors said their enraged communities refused to be a 'dumping ground' for people who had 'turned their back on their own country'.

Mr Carbone and Mr Mannoun told host Natalie Barr they had signed a joint letter asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to meet with them to discuss the resettlement of the newest arrivals to their LGAs.

Mayors Frank Carbone (left) and Ned Mannoun (right) told Sunrise host Natalie Barr on Wednesday they had signed a joint letter asking the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to meet with them to discuss the newest arrivals to their LGA's

'The repatriated women and children should not be resettled in south west Sydney, due to the high level of anxiety and concerns from the communities that have fled Islamic State brutality,' the letter read in part.

'Your government has listened to the repatriated families' views, but have not taken the time to consult with the communities affected by this decision.'

Mr Carbone said communities had told their mayors 'loud and clear' how they felt about the wives and children of Islamic State fighters moving in next-door.

'We have a very harmonious community here in western Sydney, people from all over the world, but it's important that we get people that want to come back to us and be a part of us, rather than fight against us,' he said.

Mr Mannoun said the government did not approach any of the councils to flag plans involving the repatriation of ISIS families.

'There's a lot of anxiety in the community, people are very concerned about this, and if you don't talk to us how will we work together and do our job,' he said.

Four women, all of whom married terrorists, and their 13 children touched down in Sydney on Saturday after being removed from the al-Roj camp in Syria (pictured, a camp in Syria)

It comes as questions are being asked as to why the families of ISIS fighters have yet to be re-settled in Victoria, with critics accusing Dan Andrews' government of delaying their move until after the state election on November 26th.

Mr Andrews last week dismissed these claims as 'absolute nonsense'.

I'm not here as a spokesperson on behalf of the Home Affairs department,' he said.

Meanwhile, Independent MP Dai Le, said her constituents in Fowler, in Sydney's Inner West, felt 'betrayed' by the arrival of four ISIS brides and their 13 children.

'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.'

Some of the women who were married to Islamic State fighters and their children were spotted together at a McDonald's in south-west Sydney on Tuesday (pictured)

Earlier this month, the Albanese government confirmed a rescue plan to bring home 16 women and 42 children who are families of IS members from the al-Roj camp in Syria (pictured)

Ms Le 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 was considering the request.

In October, 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 to prove the individuals were Australian citizens.

The federal government worked with Kurdish authorities on the extraction, which reportedly included DNA testing to prove the individuals were Australian citizens (pictured, relatives of Islamic State group at a camp in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province)

Australian 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,' he said.
The San Bernardino County Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com

Heredia's father, Mario Melgoza, believes his son was shot in an 'act of revenge'

The victim's friend, who was on Facetime when Heredia was shot, described the shooter as a Latino man who was wearing a dark hoodie

A 26-year-old California man was fatally shot while he was sitting in his car talking to his friend on Facetime may have been killed in an 'act of revenge.'

Vincent Heredia had been inside his car waiting to pick up a woman from a party when he was gunned down Saturday night in San Bernardino, California.

The victim's friend, who was on Facetime when Heredia was shot, described the shooter as a Latino man who was wearing a dark hoodie.

He said the man pulled open Heredia's car door before he opened fire.

The family of the deceased said they believe Heredia was killed because of an earlier dispute Heredia had with the father of his friend's child  the same friend he was waiting on.

Vincent Heredia, 26, had been outside in his car waiting for a woman he was picking up from a party when he was gunned down Saturday night in San Bernardino, California

The grief-stricken parents , Mario and Irene Melgoza, want justice for their son. Heredia's father believe his boy was shot in an 'act of revenge'

Heredia's father, Mario Melgoza, believes his son was shot in an 'act of revenge,' Fox News reported.

'With the girl, she has a baby daddy, and he had gotten into a fight with my son,' Melgoza said. 'I think the guy wanted revenge for that.'

The distraught mother, Irene Melgoza, who said she lost her voice with all the crying she'd done hopes her son's killers will be caught and hopes to get justice for her son.

'I'm a mom. I want to know what happened to my son. If anybody knows, I want to know,' Melgoza said. 'Because I know my baby would want that too.'

The victim's sister Adrina Meloga described her brother as a really good brother and a good guy.'

Christina Melgoza described her nephew as a 'big teddy bear who wouldn't harm a fly,' set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for funeral expenses

He had worked as a security guard at Ontario Airport and had been recently promoted. Before the tragedy, the young victim had aspirations to go to college and become a parole officer.

Christina Melgoza described her nephew as a 'big teddy bear who wouldn't harm a fly,' and set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for funeral expenses.

'He was great responsible and loving son , brother , grandson and nephew,' she wrote, in part. 'Always joyful and big hearted person always helping others.'

By Tuesday evening nearly $5,000 was raised towards their goal of $25,000.

The San Bernardino County Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.
'I think I'm being set up,' she wrote, before he asked 'who is setting you up?'

Hart told the court he exchanged text messages with Smith after the murder

Smith is accused of murder as the case is heard at Sydney's Supreme Court

A woman accused of murdering an elderly former barrister in his apartment in Sydney's eastern suburbs texted a crime journalist on Christmas Day saying she was being 'set up' by her neighbours.

Journalist Steve Hart told the Supreme Court in Sydney he received a string of texts from Narelle Fiona Smith while he was working as a senior crime reporter for Channel 10.

'I think I'm being set up,' Smith wrote to Hart on December 25, 2020, before apologising for getting in touch during the holidays.

Smith, 46, is accused of murdering Peter McCarthy with a frying pan, after his body was found in his South Coogee unit on December 20, face-up on the lounge room floor surrounded by broken furniture, glasses and frying pan, the jury has been told.

Narelle Fiona Smith, 46, (pictured, with police) is accused of murdering Peter McCarthy with a frying pan, after his body was found in his South Coogee unit on December 20, face-up on the lounge room floor surrounded by broken furniture, glasses and frying pan, the jury has been told.

'I think I'm being set up,' Narelle Smith wrote to Steve Hart (pictured) on December 25, 2020, before apologising for getting in touch during the holidays

'I think I'm being set up,' Smith wrote via text message to Hart on Christmas Day (pictured)

The 77-year-old was found on Sunday, December 20, three days after Smith says the pair drank alone in his apartment, celebrating her birthday.

Hart visited Mr McCarthy's Coogee unit block the day his body was found to do interviews and prepare a story, and struck up a conversation with Smith, who said Mr McCarthy was a friend.

Smith said she was with him on Thursday, and a day after police believed Mr McCarthy was last been seen alive.

'It's strong in my memory, the detail,' Hart told the court.

Smith said she was told her neighbours had been talking about her being behind Mr McCarthy's death (pictured, Mr McCarthy)

'I recall her saying she left him alone (on Thursday) drunk on the lounge,' he added.

'He's just a lovely guy that lives next door. He's a ladies man,' a cheerful Smith told Hart during an interview.

'He's an ex-barrister. He was giving me some (legal) advice,' she told Hart.

'I can't go there,' she said, when asked about the gruesome crime scene and whether Mr McCarthy had any enemies.

Hart said he considered Smith a friendly neighbour of the victim, and they exchanged numbers to discuss the case.

Channel 10 later aired a portion of the interview, agreeing to blur her face and protect her identity.

This interview would air again after her arrest, without being blurred.

On Christmas Eve, Hart called Smith to ask her a range of fact-checking questions regarding images police released to media.

Mr McCarthy, 77, was found on Sunday, December 20, three days after Smith says the pair drank alone in his apartment, celebrating her birthday (pictured, Mr McCarthy seen on CCTV footage - the last time he was seen alive)

During the conversation, Hart asked offhandedly if Smith had acquired any photos of the crime scene.

'Why would I have crime scene pictures?' she responded. 'I was there on the Thursday.'

Smith then told Hart that if anyone heard unusual noises, it was because she had been dragging a heavy bag of garbage down the stairs during her last visit to the victim's apartment.

On Christmas Day, Smith began texting Hart again.

'I think I'm being set up,' she wrote.

Hart replied: 'Merry Christmas. Who is setting you up?'

Smith said she was being told her neighbours had been talking about her being behind Mr McCarthy's death.

'Sorry to do this on Christmas,' she said. 'One last thing: can you let me know where the funeral is?'

'If I find out - for sure,' Hart responded.

Two days later, Smith texted Hart again, complaining people in her area were looking at her like she was to blame.

The court heard Smith (pictured) texted Hart, complaining people in her area were looking at her like she was to blame

'I don't think someone on their birthday ... is going to do that,' she told Hart.

'The evil little smirks around here - it does my head in.'

Smith was arrested just over a fortnight later, on January 11.

Hart told the court he engaged with Smith as a source while he covered the story, and did not know police had been looking at the 46-year-old for the alleged murder.

The trial continues on Wednesday.
Green activists blocked a public road and prevented Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek from visiting a key site for a mining company's proposed tailings dam.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown and his Bob Brown Foundation have accused the Labor cabinet minister of failing to visit a forest area in Tasmania's Tarkine region.

But a new image obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows signs on metal spikes blocked a key dirt road between Tullah and Rosebery, where Chinese-owned MMG operates a copper and zinc mine.

The base metals are key ingredients for renewable energy battery storage technology and MMG wants to build a second tailings dam on the site of existing rainforest.

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Green activists have blocked a public road and prevented Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek from visiting a key site for a mining company's proposed tailings dam. A new image obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows signs on metal spikes blocked a key dirt road between Tullah and Rosebery, where Chinese-owned MMG operates a copper and zinc mine

Ms Plibersek encountered the sign on Friday last week during her visit to north-west Tasmania, with the signs attached to metal fencing post stopping her ministerial hire car from proceeding further.

'I visited the Tarkine for a conversation not a confrontation,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'The Bob Brown Foundation said they wanted me to see the site of the proposed tailings dam but then they blocked the road and prevented me doing so.'

The roadblock featured three signs with the one in the middle saying: 'No entry.'

A sign on the left said 'masked owl sanctuary' while another sign on the right featured an image of a spotted-tailed quoll with the word: 'Endangered animals on site.'

A footer on this sign said: 'Bob Brown Foundation Action for Earth.'

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (left meeting mine workers) said the 'no entry' sign stopped her from visiting mining company MMG's proposed tailings dam site

The main 'No entry' sign had a skull and crossbones drawn in white with a caption bubble: 'Welcome bio-blitzers and friends.'

Despite that, the Bob Brown Foundation had accused Ms Plibersek of not visiting the site.

Despite that, the Bob Brown Foundation had accused Ms Plibersek of not visiting the site in a Twitter post (image from that pictured)

'Plibersek urged to give Tarkine World Heritage status, not waste dump,' he tweeted.

'Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, left Tasmania having not seen the masked owl breeding territory and Tarkine rainforest whose fate she is about to decide.

'A failed opportunity to see what is at stake.'

Near the end of his one-minute video posted on Twitter, Dr Brown is seen walking past that 'no entry sign', as he accuses the minister of favouring the mining company and unions over environmentalists.

'I've never seen an environment minister do that,' he said.

He added Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needed to 'get your government back on track'.

'Protect this Tarkine rainforest,' he said.

'You come down and see it as your environment minister hasn't.'

Dr Brown told Daily Mail Australia that he was able to pull out the 'no entry' sign as a 77-year-old man, whose 78th birthday is next month.

'The sign is very easily removed, even I can lift it up,' he said.

Dr Brown said the sign was designed to warn motorists that driving in the area would affect the masked owl population.

'What I told Tanya, and she knew, was that it was a 10 or 20-minute walk down the road into the rainforest which is going to be destroyed,' he said.

'It's not difficult, she obviously walked further to the waterfall, she walked along beaches, she went all over the place.

'It's a complete misrepresentation of the reality that Tanya Plibersek was totally against being in the forest that MMG wants to destroy, because it would be so much more difficult for her to give that forest the death warrant.'

Tasmanian Police said it had 'not received any reports of any obstruction' about the sign across Helilog Road, near Rosebery.

Dr Brown responded to Daily Mail Australia, via his Bob Brown Foundation, a day after he was arrested (pictured) at an unrelated logging protest near Swansea in north-east Tasmania

Dr Brown responded to Daily Mail Australia, via his Bob Brown Foundation, a day after he was arrested at an unrelated logging protest near Swansea in north-east Tasmania.

He had joined protesters staging a 'peaceful occupation' of swift parrot habitat.

Police attended the timber production zone at Lake Leake following reports a group of people was obstructing the work of logging contractors.

'Some of the people in the group were moved on without incident, however a man who initially failed to move on from the area will be summonsed to attend court on a trespass matter,' a police spokeswoman told AAP.

Two women who had tied themselves to logging equipment were arrested and charged with trespass and obstructing police.

They will appear in court at a later date.

Dr Brown said he was 'upholding the laws of nature' and an international convention on biodiversity.

The row between Dr Brown and Ms Plibersek took another turn when the former Greens leader posted an image of himself sitting a few metres away from the minister having dinner at a Tullah pub

The row between Dr Brown and Ms Plibersek took another turn when the former Greens leader posted an image of himself sitting a few metres away from the minister having dinner.

They were at the Tullah Lakeside Lodge which has a pub for guests and Dr Brown tweeted on the Friday morning after when Ms Plibersek encountered the roadblock.

'Last night, Australia's Environment Minister Plibersek dined with senior mining officials not Bob Brown & environmentalists, two tables away, at Tullah, Tasmania,' he said.

'Minister declined invitation to see rainforests with Bob today. An absolute low in Australian environmental history.'

A spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek said the minister was dining with officials from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Australian Workers Union and one representative from MMG.

Ms Plibersek had approached Dr Brown and said she was looking forward to meeting him the next day during a scheduled meeting of environmentalists.

Ms Plibersek's federal Labor electorate of Sydney overlaps with the state Greens seat of Newtown.

The Greens in federal Parliament hold the inner-city electorates of Melbourne and Griffith, which used to reliably vote Labor, along with the seats of Brisbane and Ryan which have been held by both major parties.

While the Greens want 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, Dr Brown has campaigned not just against base metals mining needed for solar batteries but also a proposed Tasmanian wind farm at Robbins Island.
Harvey Weinstein apparently used the pseudonym 'Max Poster' to check into the Montage Hotel the night he is accused of masturbating on an aspiring actress, and a model says cops gave her a wire to wear around the disgraced producer.

Lauren Young had testified at the convicted sex offender's Los Angeles rape trial on Monday that she had met Weinstein about a script she wrote in 2013, when, she claimed, actress Claudia Salinas locked her and the film producer in the bathroom of his suite at the Montage Hotel.

On Tuesday, Andy Flor, the hotel's custodian of records, seemed to confirm at least part of her story, saying Weinstein frequently used aliases at the hotel, including Max Poster and Harvey Heller.

Flor also confirmed that he stayed at the hotel under one of those aliases in February 2013, in Room 520, at the time that Young claims Weinstein cornered and masturbated on her.

Also on Tuesday, model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez testified she wore a wire around Weinstein to try and record him admitting to groping her. Cops were nearby while she hung out with the producer at the hotel, with one officer even pretending to be a TMZ reporter as to not blow his cover.

Weinstein, 70, was previously convicted in New York of rape and sexual assault, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

He is now facing another 11 counts of sexual battery by restraint, with another of his alleged victims testifying on Tuesday how the former Miramax head grabbed her breast as she posed for a photo shoot.

If convicted, Weinstein could face life in a California prison.

Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein faces life in prison in California on 11 counts of sexual battery by restraint

He apparently used aliases Max Poster and Harvey Heller to check into the Mirage Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he allegedly sexually assaulted Lauren Young in February 2013

In court on Monday, Young described in brutal detail how she was an aspiring actress and screenwriter in February 2013 who had scored a rare meeting with Weinstein through Claudia Salinas, who was his personal assistant at the time.

She said the former movie mogul was distracted and uninterested in anything she had to say, and suggested she might be a reality television host on a show like America's Next Top Model, which his company helped produce.

At one point, Young said, Weinstein said he had to get ready to go present an award to Quentin Tarantino at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival and suggested she accompany him to his room to continue the discussion.

So Young said she followed Weinstein into his suite at the Montage and into his bathroom.

Young added that she thought there would be another door on the other side, and he was leading her somewhere else  but was shocked to see actress Claudia Salinas close the door behind them, and that she was 'trapped.'

That is when, she said, 'Harvey Weinstein started the shower and immediately took off his clothes.'

'I was disgusted,' she continued. 'I had never seen a big guy like that naked.

'I actually laughed nervously and thought 'no, no, no,'' she added as she began to cry.

Lauren Young told jurors at Weinstein's trial how she was aspiring actress who had hoped to meet the former film producer about a script she wrote in 2013, when actress Claudia Salinas locked her and Weinstein in the bathroom of the Montage Hotel and he masturbated on her

During cross-examination of Young, Weinstein's attorney Alan Jackson poked holes in her story about being 'locked' in the bathroom and gave visual drama with a dress she had worn

Meanwhile, Young said, Weinstein simply continued their conversation.

'He was just staring at me talking,' Young recalled.

'I had never seen someone that big naked, so I just couldn't fathom what was even happening to me right now,' she said.

'He was just talking about the business and other actresses. And saying this is what they do, this is how I know you can act.'

'I kept saying 'no no no,' she recounted. 'He just ignored what I said.'

'Everything happened so fast.'

Young was not one of the accusers whose stories would lead to Weinstein's conviction of rape and sexual assault, and his eventual 23-year prison sentence. She is pictured here in 2020

Young said Weinstein's assistant at the time, Claudia Salinas, invited her to meet with the movie mogul to discuss her script. She is pictured walking into court on Monday

At that point, Young said, Weinstein got into the shower while Young tried to make her escape.

But, she said, Weinstein got out of the shower and blocked her from the door before she could get away.

'He said, 'We're just gonna talk,' I said 'no, no no no.'

Still, Weinstein continued to harass her, and soon started 'touching' her.

Young said she backed up toward the sink and turned away from the movie mogul, but he unzipped the back of her dress and pulled it down to around her hips.

'He was grabbing my breasts and jerking off, like squinting at me, not looking at me,' she said. 'Holding me there and talking to me.'

'He was just masturbating and groping me.'

She said she kept saying 'no' throughout, but he continued for several minutes, and also tried to touch her vagina  though she blocked him with her hands from penetrating her.

'I was really grossed out by his body and the look he was giving me,' Young said. 'I was wondering: 'How do I get out of here safe, what am I going to do? What are they gonna do to me?'

'I was very numb feeling,' she continued. 'I felt like I was outside of my body watching what was happening, I couldn't move I was frozen. I was so scared.'

'I was scared of Harvey Weinstein  that he would hurt me, or send someone to hurt me, or ruin my career, or make my life hell.'

After groping her for several minutes, Young said, 'he went back to groping my right breast even harder' before ejaculating on the towel he was using and leaving the bathroom.

'I was in so much shock, I was wondering how I was going to leave, and if they were going to let me leave,' she said. 'I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.'

'I pulled up my dress and I exited the bathroom.'

'I saw Claudia Salinas right there. I shot her an evil look. She didn't say anything. She looked at me. She had this evil look. Like a smirk. Like she roped me in on something.'

She said she also saw Weinstein changing clothes before she walked out of the suite to a car.

'I sat in my car and cried and was in complete shock. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should call the cops.

'I wondered 'What do I do? This guy is so powerful.' I didn't know what to do. I called my friends, got a hold of them, messaged them.'

Ultimately, Young said, she decided not to tell police about what she had experienced.

'I was scared at that point that he might have an in with the cops or was corrupt like that,' she said. 'I knew he had a lot of power I was really scared.'

But Weinstein's famed defense attorney, Alan Jackson, tried to rip apart her testimony, by showing the jury photos of the bathroom door on a hinge.

He claimed that her 'dramatic description' of the door sliding closed past Salinas' face was 'completely false.'

'Do you want to change your statement about being trapped and locked in that bathroom?' Jackson asked. 'You're describing a full-blown kidnapping, right?'

Jackson pointed out that Young had told the detective she was 'positive' door was locked because she was 'tugging' on it.

'And the problem is, the door doesn't lock from the outside, and it's not a sliding door, right?' he pushed.

She responded: 'I felt trapped.'

'I'm not asking what you felt, I'm asking what you said,' he fired back.

'I felt locked in there  I was describing how I felt,' Young responded.

Jackson shot back: 'You felt that you were locked in there, but you were not locked in there. You felt that you were being sexually assaulted, but you were not.'

'I was definitely sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein,' Young said.

Ambra B., a European model, detailed in court on Tuesday how Weinstein groped her during a photo shoot

Meanwhile, another woman who has accused Weinstein of sexual assault told how she wore a wire to get him to admit what he had done.

Model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez told the jury how she first met Weinstein at a party on March 26, 2015 after she went to see the New York Spring Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.

The next day, she said, she had a model casting at the Tribeca Film Center, with her agent telling her it was with the man she met the night before.

So, Gutierrez said, she went to the modeling call where Weinstein made her pose for bikini and lingerie photos  and asked whether her breasts were real.

'It was weird, because nobody ever asked,' she said. 'Even if it's not, you don't ask.'

But Weinstein apparently wouldn't back down, allegedly asking her, 'Are you sure?' before grabbing her breast.

'At first I just stood still, I was just shocked,' the Italian model recounted. 'The moment that he started trying to ask me for a kiss is when I reacted and pushed back.'

'He was putting his hand on my leg and was repeating 'Just give me a kiss,'' she said. 'I said, 'Sorry, I don't do these things with people I don't know.''

At that point, Gutierrez said, Weinstein apologized and moved away from her.

'I was wanting to just get out of there, but I was not wanting to say to anyone what happened,' she recounted. 'If he did that in his office with people outside, I just wasn't feeling safe.'

Gutierrez said she did not have many people she could talk to in the city about what had happened, so she decided to call her agent, Robbie Hoffman, who had just been leaving for dinner with his fiancee when she arrived that night.

'I told them this person touched me, and touched my breasts,' she said. 'I told him that in his office Mr. Weinstein touched my breasts and tried to kiss me and everything that happened.

'I said I wanted to go to the police  He was really against it.'

'He said, 'Are you sure? You know this person, who he is, what he can do to you?'

But, Gutierrez said she made up her mind, and made a report with the New York Police Department, who sent her to the special victims unit.

That is when, she said, she received an email from Weinstein, saying he was waiting for her at a show he was going to get her tickets to.

The police advised her to have Weinstein call her, she said, and handed her a paper telling her what to ask him.

In a recording of the conversation, which was submitted into evidence, Weinstein appears to apologize for groping her.

'You're beautiful, and you're such a smart woman,' he tells Gutierrez. 'I also felt about about, I don't want to be aggressive with you.'

Then when Gutierrez expresses misgivings about her breasts and his question on whether they're real, he replies: 'Honey, honey, they feel beautiful, OK?'

Gutierrez said she agreed to wear a wire when meeting with Weinstein in an effort to get him to admit to his crimes

Gutierrez later agreed to see Finding Neverland at Weinstein's behest on March 28, and meet him at the Tribeca Grand restaurant and hotel afterwards.

Unbeknownst to Weinstein, Gutierrez was wearing a wire to capture what the sex pest told her and recorded the conversation on her iPhone as a backup.

She said he spoke a lot about how she should learn to act and get started in the industry, even though she said she was not an actress.

At one point, she said, Weinstein told her he needed to go get ready for something in the hotel upstairs and she reluctantly agreed to follow him.

Eventually, Gutierrez tells Weinstein she had to go back downstairs to get her jacket, which she had left on purpose, and Weinstein followed her.

One of the undercover cops then pretended to be a journalist, from TMZ, asking them questions about what was happening, trying to keep them from going into hotel room.

'I was playing like I didn't know what was happening,' Gutierrez told the jury.

Eventually, they went back into the hotel through a service entrance and took an elevator up to the penthouse.

As the elevator reached the eighth floor, Gutierrez said: 'I panicked.

'I knew that nobody knew I was there. I don't think anybody had really followed me, my phone wasn't really working.

'I thought he would do the same as what he did the day before, or maybe more,' she said, noting that she kept telling Weinstein 'I wanted to go.

'He said "OK just leave, but don't contact me anymore" or something like that,' she recalled.

In the recording from that night, which was played in court on Tuesday, Weinstein says they'll maybe do a 'massage, something nice.'

Then when Gutierrez says she doesn't want to, Weinstein replies: 'We'll see, we'll see.'

He goes on to say he will take a shower and 'maybe we'll just talk a little bit.'

Reluctantly, Gutierrez said, she agreed to go with him.

When they got to the hallway upstairs, Gutierrez said she started to panic, with a video of her interaction with Weinstein showing him pressuring her to get into his room at the hotel.

'What do we have to do here?' she asks the film producer.

'Nothing,' he replies. 'I'm going to take a shower, you sit there and have a drink.'

She asks if she could instead stay at the bar, to which Weinstein says: 'No. You must come here now.'

When she again refuses, Weinstein seems to get desperate saying: 'I'm not doing anything with you, I promise. Now you're embarrassing me.'

But Gutierrez continues to refuse saying 'yesterday was kind of aggressive for me' and 'I need to know a person to be touched.'

Still, Weinstein insists he 'won't do a thing.

'Just sit with me. Don't embarrass me in the hotel,' he is recorded as saying. 'I'm here all the time. Sit with me, I promise.'

'I won't do anything and you'll never see me again after this. OK? That's it,' Weinstein says desperately, later telling her: 'Don't ruin your friendship with me for five minutes.'

Finally, Gutierrez said she was able to convince Weinstein to go back to the bar, where she ducked out and hid for the rest of the night in the bathroom.

But during cross examination, Jackson pushed Gutierrez on the alleged sexual assault.

'The underlying incident that all this is about is that Mr. Weinstein touched your breast one time. For one second,' he said.

'I don't know if it was one second, it felt a lot longer. It felt like an eternity,' she replied.

He also asks her why she previously said Weinstein touched her on the leg and not on the breast, which Gutierrez said she did not recall.
Indian bounty hunters have revealed they are expecting someone close to Toyah Cordingley's suspected killer Rajwinder Singh to tip them off about his location 'in the next 30 days'.

Toyah, 24, was found dead on a remote beach in far north Queensland in 2018 and her alleged killer Singh, 38, is believed to have fled to India two days later.

Now a bounty hunter, speaking from New Delhi, said Queensland police's $1million reward for information on Singh will prove 'helpful' in the bid to find him.

The man, who refused to be named, said the reward would attract track-and-trace experts to try and find Singh.

However, he also believes that the reward could entice one of the people harbouring Singh to tip off cops.

Toyah Cordingley (pictured) was 24 when she was found dead in a shallow grave at Wangetti Beach in October 2018

Rajwinder Singh (pictured), 38, is the prime suspect in Toyah's death. The nurse from Innisfall fled to India two days after her death, leaving behind his wife and three kids

'We are expecting someone very close to him will tip off in the next 30 days,' the bounty hunter told 7NEWS.

However, he also admitted that if the reward doesn't work, Singh is not likely to be found for at least 'another two to three months'.

Singh is 'bound to' eventually emerge in public, the bounty hunter added.

'He needs money (and) he'll work. For that, he'll need to have an identity,' he said.

'If he is using an identity, someone close to him (could alert authorities). Once we zero down on the sympathisers, it will be easy to trace their activity.'

Detectives who have travelled from Australia to India have welcomed the potential involvement of bounty hunters in the search.

Queensland Detective Inspector Chris Knight said investigators would 'welcome information from any source'.

'As long as we can get him in a lawful way and put him before a court down the track, that to me is a positive outcome,' he told 7NEWS.

News coverage of the hunt for Singh is increasing in India, with the story published in several newspapers in recent days.

The $1million reward was issued last week, with Toyah's mother Vanessa Gardiner saying she hoped the reward would bring her daughter's killer to justice.

'I can't believe that it's a million dollars, but Toyah deserves that, she deserves every bit of it,' Gardiner said in a video statement.

Police have released images of Mr Singh moments before he boarded a plane to India at Sydney International Airport

An extradition request was lodged for Mr Singh (pictured) in March last year. It was signed off by Indian authorities last month

'And I just hope that I get that call very soon to say that they found him.

'To anyone that knows where he is, please turn him in. If he sees it, I wish he would come forward and turn himself in.'

Toyah drove to Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, on October 21, 2018, to walk her dog.

The pharmacy worker and animal shelter volunteer was then allegedly attacked and killed at the beach.

Friends and family conducted a search for Toyah when she didn't return home.

In an horrific twist, it was Toyah's father who discovered her body the next morning, buried in a shallow grave with her dog tied up nearby.

Police later identified Rajwinder Singh, a nurse from Innisfall, as a suspect.

Mr Singh flew from Cairns to Sydney after the alleged murder before he boarded a plane to India two days after Toyah's death.

Toyah had driven to Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, to walk her dog. She never returned home

He left behind his nursing job, his wife and his three children.

Police have now released images of Mr Singh at Sydney International Airport, just moments before he left the country.

He is believed to have flown to his hometown of Amritsar in Punjab.

His family have denied claims he killed Toyah, saying he was 'not capable' of murder.

They also allege his flight back to India two days after Toyah's death was pure coincidence.
A Texas judge has approved the sealing of the Uvalde victims' autopsies, in an unusual moved condemned by the state senator as a cover-up.

Judge Camile Dubose of the 38th District Court on Friday ordered the records be sealed, following a request from the district attorney, Christina Mitchell.

Mitchell argued publishing the details of how the 19 children and two teachers died could prejudice any criminal investigation.

Of vital importance is whether any of the victims could have been saved had the police stormed the Robb Elementary School classroom sooner on May 24.

The gunman, Salvador Ramos, 19, entered the school at 11:30am but was not shot dead until 12:50pm, as the police debated whether to break down the door.

Mitchell, arguing that the autopsies be sealed, noted that an investigation into the law enforcement response was continuing.

Salvador Ramos, 19 (left), opened fire on May 24 in Robb Elementary, killing 19 children and two teachers. On Friday Judge Camile Dubose (right) approved the sealing of the victims' autopsies

'The Texas Rangers are currently investigating potential crimes by individuals responsible for the health and welfare of the victims of Robb Elementary school,' Mitchell wrote.

'In the event criminal charges are filed, the 38' Judicial District Attorney will be responsible for the prosecution of such charges.

'The types, number, and manner in which injuries were inflicted in this case includes information vital to the investigation, apprehension and potential prosecution of individuals that may be criminally responsible.'

Mitchell said that those who could be swept up in any prosecutions would be given excessive information, if the autopsies were released.

'The release of the details contained in the autopsy records at this time would alert potential suspects of information that law enforcement needs to preserve until the investigation and potential questioning of such suspects is completed,' she wrote.

Roland Gutierrez, a state senator whose district includes Uvalde, said that the decision to seal the autopsies was yet more obstruction.

Families of the victims have been enraged by the lack of transparency from authorities, and the multiple changes to the official story.

'The family members were trying to gain access to these autopsies, and were not able to do so,' said Gutierrez.

'People will decide in history whether this was a cover up. Whether law enforcement was covering up for their actions. Whether the governor was covering up for the failures of his agency.

'But the facts are very clear.

'The district attorney told those families that those autopsies wouldn't be ready for a year.

'We were then told that it would be the end of this year.

'Then we found out they were coming around the corner.'

Body camera footage previously showed how officers were told to stand back as shots continued to be fired inside the elementary school

It was only after Border Patrol agents finally breached the classroom around 1pm that DPS agents started escorting the children out and tending to their wounds

Gutierrez said that keeping the records under seal was a violation of the Open Records Act.

Mitchell, in her request to seal the documents, argued: 'Open Records Decisions have consistently allowed records to be exempted from release when based on active investigations as well as the potential for litigation exceptions.'

Gutierrez disagreed.

'For this district attorney to keep these documents away - those families, by law, are entitled to those records.

'Those records, quite frankly, are open records, under the Open Records Act.

'But that's the space we're in.

'Everything for the last six months has been hidden by this agency and the people in power to cover up their failures.'

Last week, harrowing 911 calls from inside the school revealed the teachers' and students' terror and panic as they desperately waited for police to rescue them.

More than 20 emergency calls, obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, chronicle the miscommunication.

An initial investigation has since found that state and local law enforcement officials were largely to blame for the mass shooting, as they stood back in the hallways of the elementary school for more than an hour while Ramos continued his massacre.

In one of the 911 calls, 10-year-old Khloie Torres tells dispatchers: 'I'm in classroom 112. Please hurry, there is a lot of bodies.

'Please get help, I don't want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh my God.'

But it took officers more than 40 minutes to act on her plea  only confronting Ramos 70 minutes after his massacre started.

The fourth-grader was eventually able to make it out of the school alive, even as her friends around her died from their gunshot wounds.

During her 911 call, Khloie stayed on the line for more than 17 minutes before she hung up  fearing Ramos was getting closer, 'taunting' her and her fellow students.

And when the police did not respond nearly 30 minutes later, the student called again as she hid in classroom 112, asking once more: 'Can you tell the police to come to my room?'

Khloie Torres, a 10-year-old student at Robb Elementary School, called 911 twice on May 24 to beg for police help as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos continued his rampage

Khloie's father, Ruben, a former Marine, described her actions that day as 'incredible.' Torres was able to survive the mass shooting. Khloie's final call to police came in at 12.36pm that day, once again telling officers: 'There's a school shooting'

An investigation found that state and local police stood back for more than an hour as the gunman continued his rampage

She explained how she tried to help her fellow students and was trying to keep them quiet so as not to alert the shooter  just as her father had taught her.

Ruben, a former Marine, said his daughter's heroism was 'incredible' that day, as he blasted officer's bungled response.

'There was no control. That dude had control the entire 77 minutes. The police didn't go in,' he told the Tribune. 'That's your job: to go in.'

The calls show that officers said they were unaware that anyone was besides the gunman was inside the classrooms.

But in others, even Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo seemed well aware there were victims inside classrooms 111 and 112.

The Uvalde School District has since fired its police department, while families and local officials are calling on Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw to resign. He insists his department did nothing wrong.
Australia's Home Affairs minister has issued a list of urgent `instructions to Medibank customers on the best ways to protect themselves from identity theft - after Russian hackers released the first batch of private data to the dark web.

The health insurer confirmed almost 500,000 health claims and a range of personal information were stolen when an unnamed group hacked the health insurers system system on October 13.

However about 9.7 million current and former customers are believed to have been affected with Medibank confirming its entire system was exposed.

Hundreds of names, addresses, birthdates and Medicare details were being posted under a 'good-list' and 'naughty-list' on a blog belonging to the hackers on Wednesday morning.

In response to the breach, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil listed the actions Medibank Private and AHM customers needed to take.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has given urgent instructions to Medibank customers on how to protect themselves - after Russian hackers released the data of millions on the dark web

Customers were urged to contact their insurance providers, and secure and monitor their devices and accounts for any 'unusual activity'.

They should also ensure their devices have the latest security updates.

'Enable multi-factor authentication for all accounts,' the minister's post read.

'Contact Services Australia if you believe there has been unauthorised activity in your Medicare account.'

Customers have also been urged to visit Scamwatch to learn how to protect themselves online.

Those who suspect their details have been compromised are urged to call their banks and IDCARE on 1800 595 160.

It comes as the hackers released screenshots of their contact with Medibank.

The screenshots showed a response from Medibank - Australia's largest health insurer - saying 'Hello. We received your message.

'We want to talk with you, but need to be sure you're the person who says they have our data.

'Can you tell us all the addresses and phone numbers you sent messages to?'

The hackers responded saying 'OK, we wait.'

The health insurer previously confirmed almost 500,000 health claims were stolen by the hackers, along with personal information, when the unnamed group hacked into its system weeks ago

In response to the breach, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil listed the actions Medibank Private and AHM customers needed to take

According to the screenshots, Medibank later replied: 'After considering all options, we have made a decision that we cannot pay your demand.

'It is also Australian government policy that ransoms should not be paid. We understand the impact this may have.'

The scam calls to affected Medibank customers have already begun, with people being told they have an unpaid bill for a procedure at a hospital.

The hackers demanded a ransom to stop them from releasing the data, but Medibank earlier this week said it would not pay it because it would encourage further crime.

The hackers appeared to have revealed screenshots of private messages recently exchanged between themselves and Medibank representatives

Shortly after midnight, the group posted the first lists and warned it is about to drop even more but they 'need some time'.

'Looking back that data is stored not very understandable format (table dumps) we'll take some time to sort it out,' they said.

'We'll continue posting data partially, need some time to do it pretty.'

The group previously said it would release the personal data of Australian celebrities.

It's understood no credit card or banking details were accessed by the hackers.

Medibank apologised again to clients past and present. It advised customers to be alert for any phishing scams via phone, post or email.

'We knew the publication of data online by the criminal could be a possibility but the criminals' threat is still a distressing development for our customers,' CEO David Koczkar said on Tuesday.

He said he was 'devastated' for customers, who 'deserve privacy', but said if Medibank gave in to the demands of the criminals it would make Australia a target for more such attacks.

'This is a significant decision for the business and we've had extensive expert advice and the reality of that advice is that there was a small chance that paying a ransom  you can call it extortion  that it was very unlikely they may return customer data,' Mr Koczkar told The Australian.

'In fact, you just can't trust a criminal.'

Ms O'Neil confirmed that Medibank's decision not to pay a ransom to cyber criminals was in line with government advice.

She said she 'doesn't have words to express the disgust' she feels over the leaking of people's personal details.

'The fact that personal health information is being held over their head is just disgusting to me,' she said on Wednesday.

'It just shows us that these cyber criminals who we are joined in a fight against between the Five Eyes (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, US) and other friends of partners around the world, they are just disgraceful human beings and we need to step up and do everything we can to fight back against them.'
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu today visited his military's command centre on Ukrainian soil as Putin's troops continue to be pressed back in occupied territories.

Images released by the defence ministry showed Shoigu studying a series of documents alongside 'General Armageddon' Sergei Surovikin at an undisclosed location in occupied Ukraine.

Surovikin was appointed overall commander of Russia's armed forces by Putin exactly one month ago, having earned his ominous title overseeing the brutal destruction of Aleppo amid the Russian intervention in Syria.

Since his appointment, Russia's military has dramatically stepped up missile strikes on several Ukrainian cities and the use of Iranian made 'kamikaze' drones has been widely implemented.

But Moscow's troops have faced staunch resistance from Ukraine's armed forces in the eastern Donetsk and the southern Kherson regions.

It comes as Russian marines said their 'incompetent' generals are treating them as 'cannon fodder' after their unit suffered devastating losses, with 300 men reportedly killed or wounded in four days of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Marines from Russia's 155th Naval Infantry Brigade wrote a scathing letter to their regional governor, claiming they had lost 300 servicemen in a four-day massacre in Pavlivka thanks to the catastrophic planning of Generals Rustam Muradov and Zurab Akhmedov.

The soldiers claimed Russian commanders were 'hiding' the mayhem in the Donetsk region and 'playing down the number of losses for fear of being held responsible'.

'All they want is to elevate themselves,' the letter read.

A still image taken from a handout video provided by the Russian Defence Ministry press service shows Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) listening to Commander Sergei Surovikin (L) on his visit to the command centre of the Joint Russian Forces, at an undisclosed location in Ukraine

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) listening to Commander Sergei Surovikin (L) in Ukraine, 08 November 2022

A Ukrainian soldier of a artillery unit fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut on November 8, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers of an artillery unit prepare to shoot towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut on November 8, 2022

Surovikin was appointed overall commander of Russia's armed forces by Putin exactly one month ago, having earned his ominous title overseeing the brutal destruction of Aleppo amid the Russian intervention in Syria

Kherson was one of the first cities in Ukraine to be claimed by Russian forces following the February 24 invasion, but civilians have now been ordered to evacuate in anticipation of a major Ukrainian counterattack.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday night said his forces would not yield 'a single centimetre' in fighting for Donetsk region after insisting earlier today he is open to talks with Putin, provided Russian troops are withdrawn from all occupied territories.

In his nightly video address, Zelensky also said that around 4 million people were without power in 14 regions plus the capital Kyiv following another spate of missile attacks.

Russian bombardments have targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure in the past few weeks as the nation approaches winter, when temperatures typically drop to several degrees below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), with lows of up to -20 degrees C expected in the coming months.

The focal points of the conflict in the industrial region of Donetsk are around the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar and Avdiivka, the theatre of the heaviest fighting in the country.

'The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level - dozens of attacks every day,' Zelensky said.

'They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same - to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimetre of our land.'

Russia annexed the Donbas regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in September, along with the southern territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

But Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive in recent weeks, with Putin forced to resort to mobilising hundreds of thousands of reservists over the past month to try defend the territory he has claimed.

A Ukrainian military statement on Tuesday accused Russian troops of looting and destroying infrastructure in Kherson city, from which civilians have been evacuated as a critical urban showdown looms.

'On 7th November, a convoy of trucks passed over the dam of the Kakhova hydroelectric station loaded with home appliances and building materials,' the statement said.

Russian forces were dismantling mobile phone towers and taking away equipment, it said. In an area near the city of Beryslav, Russian forces 'blew up a power line and took equipment from a solar power station.'

Meanwhile, Britain's Ministry of Defence said Russia was preparing new fortified lines deep inside territory it controls 'to forestall any rapid Ukrainian advances in the event of breakthroughs'.

This involved installing concrete barriers known as 'dragon's teeth' to stop tanks, including near Mariupol in the south to help safeguard Russia's 'land bridge' to occupied Crimea even if Moscow loses other territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears on a screen as he delivers a speech at the COP27 climate conference at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre, in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of the same name, on November 8, 2022

This handout picture released by Ukrainian presidential press-service shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) shaking hands with US Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield prior to their meeting in Kyiv on November 8, 2022

High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) of Ukrainian army fires close to the frontline at the northern Kherson region, Ukraine, 05 November 2022

A cow grazes near a damaged house, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the village of Arkhanhelske, Kherson region, Ukraine November 8, 2022

Separately, Zelensky said in a video message played at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt on Tuesday that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has distracted world governments from efforts to combat climate change.

'There can be no effective climate policy without the peace,' he said, highlighting the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on global energy supplies, food prices and Ukraine's forests.

'This Russian war has brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people... to lower prices that are shockingly rising due to deliberate Russian actions.'

Zelensky also called for an extension to the Black Sea grain export deal that lifted a Russian blockade of three major Ukrainian ports and eased a global food crisis.

The accord, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July, expires on November 19 and looked in jeopardy last month when Russia briefly suspended its participation before rejoining it.

Ukraine wants the grain export deal expanded to include more ports and goods and hopes a decision to renew the pact for at least a year will be taken next week, the deputy infrastructure minister said.

But Russia's deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko, said Tuesday that the Kremlin has not yet decided whether to extend its agreement with Turkey and the U.N.

Ukraine and Russia both are major global exporters of foods like wheat, barley and sunflower oil, and the war has caused global food shortages and higher prices.

The expiration of the grain export deal without renewal would only exacerbate the situation.

In light of this danger, the American ambassador to the United Nations reiterated the U.S.' 'steadfast' support for Ukraine for as long as it takes at a meeting Tuesday with Zelensky in Kyiv.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said global food security depends on renewing the U.N-brokered deal, telling farmers at a grain storage facility that she saw Ukraine 'as the breadbasket of the world' and recognising that the war 'really has had an impact on the entire global food market.'
Indonesian authorities have announced a renewed crackdown on troublemaking Australian tourists as social media pages light up with videos featuring unruly behaviour by foreigners.

Some locals were enraged when a video of a heavily-tattooed tourists doing donuts in the middle of a Seminyak street while chanting 'what happens in Bali, stays in Bali' went viral recently.

Traffic and locals on the street were forced to wait while the Burberry-clad man carelessly paraded around on his rented bike.

Frustrated Indonesian officials said the video was the last straw for inconsiderate tourists and warned they wouldn't tolerate any more outlandish behaviour.

Indonesian authorities said they will deport unruly Aussie tourists after a man doing burnouts on a motorbike (above) held up local traffic

The head of Ngurah Rai International Airport Immigration Agency, Sugito, warned on Wednesday that his office will 'intensify surveillance of foreign nationals, especially those who make trouble in Bali', local media reported.

'If proven to have committed a violation, Immigration ... will not hesitate to deport the foreigner concerned.'

Tourists deported out of Bali are typically banned from re-entering the island or anywhere on Indonesia for a specific time, usually six months, which is often extended.

Even once the ban is lifted, deportees will have a hard time returning to Indonesia.

Hundreds of videos have flooded onto social media with embarrassing clips of Aussies acting up in the holiday hotspot after Bali reopened to tourists in February.

If a tourist is deported from Indonesia they will have a very hard time ever entering the country again (pictured, Bali)

A recent video showed a man (above) shouting the words to 'Sweet Caroline' while sipping on a cocktail at a local Bali resort

Earlier this week, footage of an Australian man sipping on a cocktail while belting 'Sweet Caroline' at a resort pool gained more than 1,000 reactions on Facebook.

The clip showed the shirtless man standing in front of the pool and singing while others joined in, seemingly unaware about other guests in the resort hoping to relax in silence.

'Bogan level - unlimited,' the poster captioned the clip.

Separately, fellow Bali tourist Tanieka Monti said she was shocked to see how 'rude' Australians were to locals.

'I cannot stand one thing and that is rude Australians,' she wrote on Facebook.

Thousands of Australians flocked to Bali (above) when Covid restrictions lifted in February

'I've caught myself giving the death stare and mentioning to groups of Aussies how rude it is to talk to people the way they are. They're nothing but disrespectful and utterly rude to the local Balinese people.

'It disgusts me to think that they might have a perception of Australians that is only a representation of very few disgusting Aussies.'

Her posts sparked outrage from other frustrated Australians.

'Yes I witnessed two women being so rude to a handbag seller,' one person wrote.

'When I called them out I got, "this is our second home"That phrase pisses me off big time, 30+ trips for me but never throw off about that.

Tanieka Monti said she 'cannot stand' seeing how 'rude' Australian tourists treat locals in Bali

Australians make up more than a quarter of all tourists in Bali (above) with many flocking to the Indonesian hot-spot in search of a party

'Just because you visit there a lot gives you no special entitlement - especially bad manners! It's the Balinese home, we are visitors no matter how many times you've been.'

Another said: 'It's so embarrassing. I was at a restaurant yesterday and this old guy sitting there no shirt having beers and lunch. I mean is it that hard to put a shirt on mate? Gross.'

Australians make up more than a quarter of all tourists in Bali but many insist the problems are the actions of a few 'bad eggs'.

'Fortunately they are the minority, and locals love and appreciate Aussies and vice versa,' a Bali tourist said.
The Prime Minister hopes to reach an agreement with Joe Biden this month that could see the US supply billions of cubic feet of natural gas to Britain in the coming months to help ease the energy crisis triggered by Vladimir Putin.

The deal, which was initiated by Liz Truss, would shore up the UKs energy supplies and reduce the risk of blackouts, which the National Grid has warned are possible this winter.

Ironically, this would make the UK more reliant on gas produced by fracking, just weeks after Mr Sunak reimposed a ban on the controversial technology in the UK. Around two-thirds of US gas is now produced by hydraulic fracturing, which has turned America back into a net exporter of energy in recent years.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hopes to reach an agreement for the US to supply billions of cubic feet of natural gas to Britain over the coming months. Mr Sunak is pictured delivering a speech at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt yesterday, on November 8

President Biden, pictured speaking at a rally in Maryland on Monday, is likely to discuss the issue with his UK counterpart at next weeks G20 summit in Indonesia

Andy Mayer, energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, said exploiting the UKs vast reserves of shale gas would be more environmentally friendly than importing supplies from the US and would generate huge tax revenues and economic activity.

Banning UK fracking while striking deals to import US-fracked gas prioritises climate posing over climate action, he said. It reduces our energy security, risks higher bills and undermines the public finances.

Imported gas, cooled and shipped in vast tankers, has a higher carbon footprint than gas drilled at home.

Anti-fracking campaigns are not environmentally sound while we remain reliant on fossil fuels for 75 per cent of our primary energy. Downing Street confirmed discussions about a deal were under way but declined to comment on the details.

The PMs official spokesman said the US was a country where there is more we can do together to tackle energy price spikes. He added: We are still discussing with the US what the right approach might be.

Mr Sunak, who is pictured after his election as leader of the Conservative party last month, is hoping to seal the deal for US energy as early as December

One government source said Mr Sunak is likely to discuss the issue with Mr Biden at next weeks G20 summit in Indonesia. The UK is also in talks with both Norway and Qatar about long-term gas supply deals.

Ministers hope the new energy security partnership with the US could be sealed as early as this month.

Meanwhile former Cabinet minister Lord Frost also said there was a degree of hypocrisy in trying to import more fracked gas while banning its extraction in the UK.

He told GB News: Im personally in favour of at least trying fracking, to see if we can do that effectively. We need to be responsible for our own security of supply.
The grieving son said he had nothing but contempt for all of the protesters

A grieving son furiously criticised selfish climate change activists yesterday after their motorway protests meant he missed his fathers funeral.

Nurses, commuters, hauliers and hospital patients hit out at Just Stop Oil protesters who defied a court injunction and climbed on gantries above the M25 yesterday, causing a second day of tailbacks.

At least 16 were arrested across Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey on the countrys busiest motorway as the protesters repeated the action they took on Monday.

Tony Bambury, of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, who missed his fathers funeral, said he had nothing but contempt for every one of the protesters.

But the brazen group warned of more to come, despite a High Court injunction designed to bar them from the M25.

Police arrive as an activist from Just Stop Oil occupies a gantry over the M25 near Godstone in Surrey

Scotland Yard last night said the injunction gave courts extra powers, while the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act was suitable for more egregious breaches.

But former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said injunctions were not proving a deterrent and called on police to issue on-the-spot fines instead. He said: The one thing that gets through is if you start fining people 1,000.

In total, 11 M25 junctions were hit at just after 7am. Most were reopened by lunchtime.

Mr Bambury who had tried to get to his fathers funeral in Pitsea, Essex, on Monday, said in a passionate message to the protesters on BBC Three Counties Radio: What you have done to me will be staying with me forever.

You selfish, selfish people I have nothing but contempt for every single one of you. A Just Stop Oil spokesman tried to say he was really sorry, but Mr Bambury told him: You can take your apology and shove it where the sun does not shine.

One medic, called Lauren, wrote on Twitter: Been on a 12-hour night shift in A&E, havent slept in 16 hours and now having to wait on the M25 because of Just Stop Oil. Will you also take responsibility if I crash from exhaustion? Broadcaster James Whale said he missed a cancer check-up because of the f*** wits on the M25.

Specialist police climbers prepare to remove a protester from climate campaign group 'Just Stop Oil' after they climbed an overhead motorway gantry on the M25 between junction 14 and junction 15 causing both carriageways to be closed

Paul Mummery from the Road Haulage Association said disrupting transport will push up the price of goods in shops.

Seasoned protester Edred Whittingham, 25, was among those bringing misery to the motorway. The well-spoken student who studied at Exeter University, said it was up to everyday people to fix British politics.

A Just Stop Oil spokesman said: This is not a one-day event, expect us every day and anywhere.
A royal expert has said that 'it is too early to tell' if Virginia Roberts dropping her case against Alan Dershowitz might help Prince Andrew.

The Duke's accuser sensationally admitted that she 'may have made a mistake' by claiming that she was forced to have sex with a high profile lawyer.

Virginia Roberts said she was 'very young' and in a 'very stressful and traumatic environment' when she was around Jeffrey Epstein which led her to wrongly identify Alan Dershowitz.

On Tuesday she dropped a defamation case she brought against Mr Dershowitz in 2019 with no financial payment made to either side.

The extraordinary development comes months after Ms Roberts settled a civil claim with the Duke of York for a reported $12million.

Ms Roberts claimed she was forced to have sex with the Duke three times when she was 17 at Epstein's bidding  allegations which have been denied by the Duke.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: 'It is too early to tell if her dropping of the case against Dershowitz might help Andrew if he attempts to rehabilitate his reputation in the future.

'He has no public support at all at the moment.'

Virginia Roberts dropped a defamation case on Tuesday she brought against attorney Alan Dershowitz in 2019 with no financial payment made to either side

A royal expert has said that 'it is too early to tell' if Virginia Roberts dropping her case against Alan Dershowitz might help Prince Andrew

Ms Roberts said she was 'very young' and in a 'very stressful and traumatic environment' when she was around Jeffrey Epstein which led her to wrongly identify Alan Dershowitz.

Ms Roberts claimed she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times when she was 17 at Jeffrey Epstein's bidding

Mr Fitzwilliams added: '[Prince Andrew's] friendship with the deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and with the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, his catastrophic interview on Newsnight and his failure to help the FBI in its investigations to track Epsteins accomplices have led to his stepping down from all royal duties in disgrace.

'The photograph of him with Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell has never been explained.

'Virginia Roberts did not sign a non-disclosure agreement and might write her story about the case.'

Mr Dershowitz was among the other high profile men that Ms Roberts claimed she was 'loaned out' to at Epstein's command.

She sued the 84-year-old Harvard law professor in a court in New York for defamation in 2019 and he strongly and vehemently denied the allegations.

Mr Dershowitz, who has represented OJ Simpson and was a lawyer for Epstein who negotiated his 2009 sweetheart plea deal, has become a strong critic of the MeToo movement and wrote a book called 'Guilt by Association' criticising it.

In a statement at the conclusion of the case, Ms Roberts, 38, who now lives in Australia and goes by her married name Giuffre, said: 'I have long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz.

'However, I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations.

'I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz. This litigation has been very stressful and burdensome for me and my family, and we believe it is time to bring it to an end and move on with our lives'.

The case had been due to go to trial next year and would have been the first time that Ms Roberts would have faced questioning in a court of law about any of her claims.

Her claims were used in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell for recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein last year, which resulted in a conviction and 20 year sentence.

The Duke of York was photographed with his arm around the bare waist of then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts. In the background, Ghislaine Maxwell. Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with the royal three times

In a statement, Mr Dershowitz said he was 'gratified' that the lawsuit had ended.

He said: 'As I have said from the beginning, I never had sex with Ms. Giuffre. I have nevertheless come to believe that at the time she accused me she believed what she said.

'Ms. Giuffre is to be commended for her courage in now stating publicly that she may have been mistaken about me.

'She has suffered much at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and I commend her work combatting the evil of sex trafficking'.

Roberts's lawyer David Boies said in a statement that the conclusion of the case meant all parties can 'move on'.

He said: 'I know that Alan Dershowitz has suffered greatly from the allegation of sexual abuse made against him  an allegation that he has consistently, and vehemently, denied.

'I also know that this litigation has imposed, and continues to impose, a significant burden on Ms. Giuffre'.

A spokesman for Prince Andrew declined to comment on the case.

Ms Roberts sued Mr Dershowitz for defamation for calling her a liar about her allegations.

In her civil complaint she said: 'During the time period that Roberts was being trafficked by Epstein she was forced to have sex with Alan Dershowitz.

'Roberts was forced to engage in sexual acts with Dershowitz in, among other locations, Epstein's (New York) mansion'.

Ms Roberts went on to claim that 'from the beginning, Dershowitz and Epstein have sought to hide their crimes behind a curtain of lies'.

She claimed: 'Only a person seeking to conceal improper conduct would have engaged in the pattern of lies which has characterized Dershowitz's statements since his sex trafficking was revealed'

In a statement, Mr Dershowitz said he was 'gratified' that the lawsuit had ended. 'As I have said from the beginning, I never had sex with Ms. Giuffre. I have nevertheless come to believe that at the time she accused me she believed what she said'

In a joint statement by all parties, they said: 'The resolution does not involve the payment of any money by anyone or anything else.

Maxwell is currently appealing her conviction and could cite the Dershowitz case as evidence that Ms Roberts's claims should be reevaluated by an appeal court.

Ms Roberts also sued her for defamation in 2016 in a case that was settled by Maxwell.

In a deposition for that case she claimed she remembered having sex with Mr Dershowitz on a plane.

She also claimed to have been loaned out to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and billionaire investor Glenn Dubin, who have both denied wrongdoing.

Appearing on the Megyn Kelly show on Sirius XM, Mr Dershowitz said: 'As far as I'm concerned the matter is now resolved and we can all go on living our lives, me with a clean record.'

He called the agreed statements by all parties 'pretty darn good.'

Mr Dershowitz added that Ms Roberts' claims were a 'terrible mistake that caused me a lot of grief' but now he wanted to 'wish her well'.

Ms Roberts' claims against Prince Andrew forced him to retreat from public life.

He was stripped of his military titles and his patronages of dozens of charities and reportedly cried when told by King Charles that there was no way back for him.
An Aussie tourist has been accused of putting the Fraser Island ecosystem at risk by taking her dogs onto the beach.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) is appealing for help to identify the woman and her friend, who they intend to fine.

The woman and her friend tied up their yacht on the shores off the island, about 250km north of Brisbane, before walking the dogs.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) is appealing for help to identify the woman and her friend, who they intend to fine

'Domestic dogs have been banned on the island by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service since 1991,' Ranger in Charge Linda Behrendorff said in a statement.

'Although the woman kept those dogs on a lead while they were exercising on the beach, she will receive a fine when she can be identified.'

It is the fourth time a domestic animal has been reported on the island so far this year, with each offence leading to a fine of $137.

'The presence of domestic dogs on the island can also cause stress for wongari (dingoes) and could result in a negative interaction between the wongari, dogs or their owners,' Ms Behrendorff said.

'If the domestic dogs broke off the lead, they could become lost while exploring, which might leave them vulnerable to the wongari.'

A 'zero-tolerance approach' is currently in place on the island as domestic dogs can carry diseases or viruses.

These diseases could then be passed on to the dingo population, making dogs a 'real threat' to the native animals.

Last month, a tourist was hit with a $2,300 fine after he was photographed feeding biscuits to a dingo on the island.

The woman and her friend tied up their yacht on the shores off the island, about 250km north of Brisbane, before walking the dogs

In October, a man, 23, was observed feeding a dingo while waiting in line for a ferry on Fraser Island which is about 250km north of Brisbane and is also known by its Indigenous name, K'gari

The fine comes as the parks service renews its warnings about the dangerous 'whelping' season, which is when dingo puppies are born and the animals aggressively hunt food

The Australian man, 23, was observed feeding the dingo while waiting in line for a ferry on backpacker-favourite Fraser Island, also known as K'gari.

The incident took place in April and he was fined after a bystander took several photos of him feeding the wild dog.

The maximum fine for feeding dingoes, also known as wongari, is $11,500.

The fine comes as the parks service renews its warnings about the dangerous 'whelping' season, which is when dingo puppies are born.

It lasts until the start of December.

Dingoes may be determined and aggressive in their search for food at this time of year, the parks service warned.

A woman on Fraser Island takes photos of dingoes getting close to tourist vehicles

Feeding dingoes is banned and the fine sends a strong message to residents and visitors that doing so won't be tolerated, a Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman said.

The incident happened in the queue for the Hook Point ferry and is the second such fine issued in 2022.

'The person said the man was brazenly feeding the wongari, and given his place at the front of the queue, his offending was witnessed by multiple people,' said Mike Devery of the QPWS.

The parks service rangers also fined campers 22 times in 2022 for leaving food out for dingoes.

In 2001 dingoes attacked and killed a child, Clinton Gage, on Fraser Island and there have been several accounts of dingo bites since.

After the fatal attack over 100 dingoes were culled on Fraser Island but the population is understood to have recovered to more than 200.
Joe Biden's climate change envoy John Kerry had an uncomfortable encounter with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday - a man with a $15million Justice Department bounty on his head.

The Venezuelan leader was charged by the DoJ in March 2020 with nacro-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking, and the U.S. offered a $15 million reward for 'information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro'.

Kerry, who was Secretary of State under Barack Obama, from 2013 to 2017, was in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh for the COP27 climate change conference.

Maduro, one of 90 world leaders at the gathering, approached the 78-year-old and held out his hand. Amid the Russia-Ukraine war and subsequent energy crunch, his country is of extreme interest to the United States, given that it possesses the world's largest oil reserves.

The pair shook hands, and exchanged brief words, with Kerry at one point wagging his finger and smiling.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro and John Kerry, who now serves as Joe Biden's climate change envoy, shook hands at the COP 27 summit in Egypt on Tuesday

Venezuelas Maduro goes from being on US wanted list in 2020 ( $15 million reward for his capture), to shaking hands with John Kerry in 2022. Video from Egypt today at #COP27 : pic.twitter.com/e3wUNlgCOt  Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) November 8, 2022

The pair, well acquainted from Kerry's stint as Secretary of State, exchanged words through a translator

Kerry can be seen gesturing and smiling. The clip was widely shared on social media by Maduro's supporters and critics of the Biden administration

The $15 million reward was issued by the Justice Department in March 2020

They shook hands a second time, and Maduro moved on.

Footage of the encounter went viral, and was seized upon by Maduro's supporters, who shared it widely on social media.

Critics of the Biden administration also leapt on it, saying it showed the government fraternizing with terrorists.

In March 2020, U.S. federal prosecutors were damning of Maduro's rule.

'Maduro and the other defendants expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and wellbeing of our nation,' said Geoffrey Berman, the then-U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

'Maduro very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon.

'While Maduro and other cartel members held lofty titles in Venezuela's political and military leadership, the conduct described in the Indictment wasn't statecraft or service to the Venezuelan people.

'As alleged, the defendants betrayed the Venezuelan people and corrupted Venezuelan institutions to line their pockets with drug money.'

DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon added: 'These officials repeatedly and knowingly betrayed the people of Venezuela, conspiring, for personal gain, with drug traffickers and designated foreign terrorist organizations like the FARC.

'Today's actions send a clear message to corrupt officials everywhere that no one is above the law or beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement.'

Biden's critics said the handshake was 'disgusting'.

'Once again, @JoeBiden's admin is cozying up to brutal dictators like @NicolasMaduro,' tweeted Rick Scott, the Florida senator whose state is home to the largest community of Venezuelans in the U.S.

In the city of Doral, in the Miami suburbs, 35 percent of the population was born in Venezuela, according to the U.S. census.

Scott said he was shocked by Kerry shaking Maduro's hand.

'It's disgusting and signals complete disregard for the evils committed by his regime,' he said.

'@JohnKerry's 'cordial conversation' should repulse every American.'

The State Department attempted to downplay the encounter.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, said that Maduro interrupted Kerry while he was meeting someone else.

'He briefly spoke to Special Envoy Kerry during COP27,' Price said. 'This was not planned or substantive in any way.'

Asked what they discussed, Price could not say.

'As far as that conversation goes, it was unplanned. It was non-substantive as well,' Price said.

'[Kerry] was caught by surprise. I understand that Nicolas Maduro has done this to a number of world leaders.'

On Monday, Maduro was filmed in a warm conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron - footage of which was also used to bolster the embattled Venezuelan's international standing.

In January 2019, the Trump administration declared that Maduro's rule was illegitimate, and that opposition leader Juan Guaido was the rightful president.

Guaido argued that Maduro's disputed re-election victory in 2018 left the presidency technically empty, triggering a rule that allows for Guaido, as head of the National Assembly, to be sworn in as interim leader.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido has been in a stagnant stand-off with Maduro since declaring himself president in January 2019 as per Venezuela's constitution

Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido (pictured left in 2020) claims that he should be ruling the country, not Nicolas Maduro (pictured right during a rally in 2019)

But despite widespread protests, brutally repressed by Maduro's forces, the former bus driver and Hugo Chavez-appointee remains in power.

The official State Department line remains: 'The United States recognizes Interim President Juan Guaido and considers the 2015 democratically-elected Venezuelan National Assembly, which he currently leads, to be the only legitimate federal institution, according to the Venezuelan Constitution.'

Yet in recent months the United States has taken a less adversarial tone to Venezuela - although the sanctions and arrest warrant remain.

With the Russia-Ukraine war causing energy prices to rise worldwide, Biden has been forced to look again at the policy on Venezuela - which is home to the world's largest oil reserves.

Last month, after months of secretive discussions, Venezuela freed seven Americans in exchange for the release of two nephews of Maduro's wife, jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions.

The seven Americans included five oil executives held for nearly five years.

Maduro is hoping that sanctions can be lifted so he can sell oil on the open market, and obtain the desperately-needed upgrades to his country's outdated and creaking oil infrastructure.
Hotel and travel agency employees have revealed the ridiculous requests rich guests have made at luxury resorts across the world.

Employees at hotels from Costa Rica to Switzerland described uber-rich guests spending $4million on shopping sprees, booking private flights for their pets, showering in Sanpellegrino, and demanding mermaids 'with gills' to swim in pools at their parties.

The hospitality workers shared their salacious stories with the Washington Post just as the newest season of White Lotus - which viciously satirizes the antics of the rich on vacation - was released on HBO.

Angelica Bridges and Christina Stanton, both luxury hospitality workers, described the extravagant behavior of their uber wealthy guests

A spokesperson for the Nightfall Group - a high tier travel concierge service - said a guest renting a Los Angeles mansion (file photo) demanded she find them a mermaid in one hour who could swim in their pool for a party

Stanton said that she took the woman shopping at Bergdorf Goodman - which had opened early so the woman could shop in private - and that she wound up spending at least $4million at the store (file photo of the store)

A spokesperson for the Nightfall Group - a high tier travel concierge service - said a guest renting a Los Angeles mansion demanded she find them a mermaid in one hour who could swim in their pool for a party.

Angelica Bridges told the Washington Post the client wanted 'a real authentic mermaid with a splash tail.

'They wanted to see, like, gills,' she said.

Fortunately her group had a woman who played mermaids on hand and was able to get her to the party on time.

The hospitality workers shared their salacious stories with the Washington Post just as the newest season of White Lotus - which viciously satirizes the misbehavings of the rich on vacation - was released on HBO

The latest season of White Lotus was recently released, and delves into the debauched behavior of wealthy vacationers

New York City tour guide Christina Stanton said she was hired to work with a Russian oligarch's wife during a trip.

Stanton said that she took the woman shopping at Bergdorf Goodman - which had opened early so the woman could shop in private - and that she wound up spending at least $4million at the store.

Stanton said the woman was married to one of the richest men on Earth.

She said when the family went to restaurants only their bodyguards spoke with the waitstaff.

'The family wouldn't speak to waiters, the bodyguards did,' she said. ''The way he [talked] to that server, you know that he's killed a man with his bare hands.'

Sandra Weinacht told a story of a Russian guest who demanded cases of Sanpellegrino so she could wash her hair with it

Inside Europe Travel Experiences travel planner Sandra Weinacht said a friend of hers who works at hotel in France described being asked to order cases of Sanpellegrino sparkling water (file photo)

Inside Europe Travel Experiences travel planner Sandra Weinacht said a friend of hers who works at hotel in France described being asked to order cases of Sanpellegrino sparkling water.

The guest - a Russian client - apparently liked to wash her hair with the bubbly mineral water.

'His Russian client needed that water to wash her hair, and it could not be Perrier,' said Weinacht. 'It had to be Sanpellegrino.'

Chef Concierge Jens Maier said it was 'bizarre' for a guest at the Dolder Grand hotel in Zurich to request some lawn for their room for a dog to pee on

Another person said a Russian guest at the Dolder Grand hotel in Zurich asked that a square of lawn be brought to the hotel room so their dog could go to the bathroom on it

An employee at the private jet charter Monarch Air Group said a client once booked a $60,000 private jet to fly their Pomeranian and Siberian Husky mix named Bella from Santa Barbara to Vancouver (file photo)

An employee at the private jet charter Monarch Air Group said a client once booked a $60,000 private jet to fly their Pomeranian and Siberian Husky mix named Bella from Santa Barbara to Vancouver.

Another person said a Russian guest at the Dolder Grand hotel in Zurich asked that a square of lawn be brought to the hotel room so their dog could go to the bathroom on it.

The hotel offered to walk the dog for the guest, but they declined and insisted that the piece of turf be brought up.

'She asked us to organize a piece of lawn so that her dog could pee in the suite and she didn't have to leave the hotel,' said hotelier Jens Maier.

The hotel managed to find a square of artificial grass on short notice, and the guest was delighted.

'The whole thing was complicated,' Maier said.

Stacy Small (right) described a reality show star who screamed at her for not being fast enough picking up their luggage. Rob DelliBovi, RDB Hospitality founder, described extensive nondisclosure agreements many hotels are asked to sign

Stacy Small, the founder of Elite Travel Club, described a reality show star who screamed at her for not being fast enough picking up their luggage.

She said the star then became irate over the price of a suite they asked to be upgraded to, despite previously agreeing to the price.

'They can afford it, they just don't want to pay for it,' She told the Washington Post. 'They complain a lot, because they want bigger, better, more, free.'

Rob DelliBovi, who founded RDB Hospitality, described extensive nondisclosure agreements many hotels are asked to sign.

Employees the Kalon Surf resort in Costa Rica described denying a woman information about her husband's stay.

The woman said she thought her husband was having an affair and wanted to know who he was staying with, but the hotel could not tell her.

'Discretion and privacy is number one for us,' resort owner Kjeld Schigt said.

The woman backed down, but put in a request that the staff take him surfing on a large wave 'Just push him off, so he gets as hurt as possible?' the woman said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is projected to win re-election in Georgia's 14th district, CNN has projected.

The controversial Georgia Republican is expected to handily win her deep-red district, though her Democratic challenger, Army vet Marcus Flowers, raising more than $15 million in campaign donations. Greene, a former construction business owner, raised nearly $12 million for her re-election.

Greene's win comes as no surprise - three-fourths of voters in the mostly blue collar rural 14th district went for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Last week Greene suggested on Twitter it was 'impossible' for her to lose the election.

'I mean it's impossible so they might as well pile up that $15 million and pour lighter fluid on it and set it on fire,' she wrote.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is projected to win re-election in Georgia's 14th district, CNN has projected

The controversial Georgia Republican handily won her deep-red district, though her Democratic challenger, Army vet Marcus Flowers, raising more than $15 million in campaign donations

Greene, the 48-year-old right-wing provocateur, has established a national brand for herself by peddling conspiracy theories, and pushing the envelope with outlandish claims and promises to 'impeach Joe Biden.'

This week GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy promised to give Greene back her committee assignments after Democrats booted her in 2021 for spreading conspiracy theories and liking a Facebook post that called for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

'She's duly elected by her district and has a right to serve,' McCarthy told CNN.

Last month Greene warned the MAGA base was going to be 'very unhappy' if McCarthy doesn't 'give me a lot of power.'

Greene, who has advocated to cease U.S. aid to Ukraine, said at a rally with Trump in Iowa this week: 'The only border they [Democrats] care about is Ukraine. Not America's southern border. Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine. Our country comes first.'

McCarthy previously called Greene's comparison of Covid-19 mask mandates to the Holocaust 'appalling,' and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell called her a 'cancer' to the party.

But more recently the firebrand congresswoman has come back into the fold. Greene accompanied McCarthy on a border trip in August and sat just behind him at a Pennsylvania event where Republicans unveiled their policy agenda.

Greene has said she wants to sit on the House Oversight Committee where she could play a key role in GOP-led investigations.

Greene has suggested she supports banning abortion nationwide, suspending all immigration for four years, eliminating climate change regulations and defunding the Department of Education.
The backlog of crown court cases soared to a new high of 63,000 during the criminal barristers strike.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett told MPs it fell to 58,000 this year following efforts to reduce the post-Covid case-load in England and Wales.

But during a walkout by legal aid-funded defence barristers, which ended last month, it topped last years peak of 61,000.

The backlog of crown court cases soared to a new high of 63,000 during the criminal barristers strike. Pictured: Criminal defence barristers outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in July

Lord Burnett, who heads the judiciary, warned it would be tough to meet a government target of 53,000 by March 2025.

Getting from roughly 63,000 to 53,000 in two and a half years will require a reduction which is going to be very difficult, he told the Commons justice committee.

The total of 63,000 came from unaudited figures that had not been published, he said, adding that he was trying to recruit judges to reduce the backlog, but dilapidated courts put lawyers off the role.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett (pictured) told MPs it fell to 58,000 this year following efforts to reduce the post-Covid case-load in England and Wales

During a walkout by legal aid-funded defence barristers, which ended last month, the backlog of cases topped last years peak of 61,000 (file image)

Im pretty sure that the degeneration of the physical working environment in many courts is having an impact, he said.

Courts have a 1billion repair backlog, and many buildings have broken heating, air conditioning and plumbing.

Former justice secretary Brandon Lewis ended the strike by offering an extra 54million in legal aid fees over two and a half years on top of a 135million-a-year package of increases revealed in March.
A boy who died from a snake bite a year ago has been identified as a beloved brother and son as his father is charged with manslaughter for allegedly failing to get him medical help.

Tristian Frahm, 11, died at a Murgon property in Queensland's South Burnett region on November 20, hours after he told his dad a snake had bitten him.

On Tuesday night, police charged his dad Kerrod Frahm, 31, with manslaughter, accusing him of not taking his son's complaint seriously.

Police established Operation Uniform Weft a year ago to investigate Tristian's sudden death, culminating in the dad's charges.

Tristian Frahm, 11, (pictured) tragically died after he was bitten by a snake while visiting a friend's property last November

Kerrod Frahm (pictured left) with Tristian years before the boy died from a snake bite

Police have alleged Frahm ignored his son's pleas for help and failed to seek medical attention after Tristian told him a snake had bitten him while visiting a friend's property in Murgon on November 20 last year.

Frahm and Tristian went to bed some time after the boy told him dad about the snake bite, where his condition quickly deteriorated, The Courier Mail reported.

It's understood Tristian got out of bed during the night to be ill before his lifeless body was found outside the next morning near a shed.

Murgon man Kerrod Frahm has been charged over the death of his son Tristian (pictured)

A police strike force was set up to establish how Tristan died from the snake bite

It's understood Tristian went outside to be sick before he died from the snake bite

Tristian's death devastated his family and was remembered as a 'little hero' and an 'angel' following his tragic death last November.

A shattered relative shared photos and videos of Tristian enjoying life to the fullest ice skating and playing games as she paid a heartbreaking tribute.

'I'm so beyond lost for words and the heart break is unimaginable. I'm still in disbelief,' the relative posted at the time.

'I love you more than I ever thought possible, I'm missing you more and more every minute, there'll be a you-sized hole in my heart forever.'

Frahm will appear in Murgon Magistrates Court on December 6.

Murgon is small rural town 260km north of Brisbane with a population of 2,378.
After 12 years of Conservative rule, it beggars belief that Britain is labouring under the highest taxes since the 1950s.

You'd imagine a new Tory chancellor's immediate reaction would be to ease the crippling burden. But if reports are to be believed, Jeremy Hunt is instead thinking of piling even more weight on the shoulders of hard-pressed families  and in the middle of a cost of living crunch too.

Ministers have strongly hinted that the state pension and benefits will be protected in next week's Budget.

As a result, middle-class workers face the grim prospect of higher taxes to fill a 60billion black hole in the Treasury's coffers. Incredibly, Mr Hunt is considering raising the top rate of tax for those earning over 150,000 from 45p to 50p.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: After 12 years of Conservative rule, it beggars belief that Britain is labouring under the highest taxes since the 1950s. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is pictured on November 1

This would be a depressing return to the stale class war policies of Gordon Brown. It would be a tax on enterprise, initiative and hard work  the very foundations of Conservatism and crucial building blocks of a strong economy. If the rich then leave, they'll pay no tax, forcing the less wealthy to foot the bill. Mr Hunt must think twice.

With the Tories also considering another stealth raid on pensions, hikes in capital gains and dividend taxes, and a fresh grab at inheritance tax, this looks like all-out war on aspirational Middle England.

Yes, Mr Hunt is right to want to start balancing the books. But doing so off the back of wealth creators and savers is madness. These people have always been the backbone of the economy  and we will need them to revive our fortunes.

We might expect such economically ruinous policies from Labour. If Mr Hunt brings them in, it will beg the dismal question: Is there really any point in voting for the Tory party after November 17?

Mr Hunt is right to want to start balancing the books. But doing so off the back of wealth creators and savers is madness (Pictured with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on October 31)

No need to say sorry

Nicola Sturgeon never misses a chance to highlight the alleged moral failings of England. And if, simultaneously, she can signal her own virtue well, all the better.

To that end, the posturing SNP leader has offered 7million in 'reparations' to developing nations for the climate damage caused by historical carbon emissions.

What voters, who face hardship from spiralling bills, make of this largesse we can only wonder. And, of course, without the Barnett formula, guaranteeing Scotland a generous share of UK spending, she'd have much less cash to splurge.

Why, anyway, should Britain apologise? The technologies arising from our Industrial Revolution have lifted entire nations out of abject poverty. Perhaps we should be thanked, rather than asked to pay the bill!

Nicola Sturgeon (pictured on November 8) never misses a chance to highlight the alleged moral failings of England

A road to mayhem

Pensions secretary Mel Stride fatuously thinks the eco-rabble paralysing the M25 in protest at Britain's fossil fuel use have a point 'in a sense'.

No, minister, they do not. Just Stop Oil are contemptuously sticking two fingers up at the law  and their fellow citizens.

Cultishly obsessed with 'saving the planet', these middle-class agitators are callously indifferent to those they disrupt, from cancer patients missing appointments to nurses stuck in traffic.

We were told the court injunction would end this farce. That it hasn't shows just how toothless our leaders are.

Just Stop Oil are contemptuously sticking two fingers up at the law  and their fellow citizens. Pictured: Traffic building up after activists from Just Stop Oil occupied a gantry over the M25

Britain is in the grip of a drug-driving epidemic, with a troubling surge in motorists found to be high at the wheel by police.

A shocking 77 drivers a day are prosecuted for being under the influence of illegal narcotics such as cocaine  trebling in just five years.

With their lethal disregard for other road users, these idiots pose as big a danger as drink drivers.

If the threat of six months in prison is no deterrent, ministers must toughen up the penalty.
Reelected Democratic Socialist New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said crime is down in New York Tuesday

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has won re-election hours after saying crime was down in New York - despite the city's own statistics showing offenses up nearly 30 percent.

The Democrat, who campaigned with struggling New York Governor Kathy Hochul earlier on Election Day, spoke to radio show The Breakfast Club about the issue.

'A lot of people think that crime is up, when we actually see that shootings are down, when we see that huge indicators on the most violent crime in New York City is down.'

The left-wing representative - who easily won re-election to a third term in her extremely liberal district - then criticized Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul for putting more police officers on subway platforms, claiming they were responsible for crime on the MTA rising.

She said: 'Subway crime is up, but let's also note that subway crime is up after they committed so many more officers to the subway system.

'So that also tells us from a policy perspective, adding more cops to the subway isn't solving this problem.'

Democratic Socialist New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said crime is down in New York Tuesday, despite the city's own statistics showing violent offenses up nearly 30 percent

Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned with struggling New York Governor Kathy Hochul earlier on Election Day, spoke to radio show The Breakfast Club about the crime problem

The left-wing representative then criticized Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul for putting more police officers on subway platforms, claiming they were responsible for crime on the MTA rising

In October, Hochul ordered an additional 1,200 overtime shifts per day for police officers to patrol the subway to keep New Yorkers safe.

Overall, crime is up 31.1 percent in New York City as of mid-October, with felony assaults, rapes and robberies all up double digits. Murders are down 14.8 percent and shootings are down 12.5 percent.

As of late October, subway crime is up a whopping 41 percent in New York City, according to CNN.

Hochul was joined by Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday morning in a last ditch attempt to appeal to voters as her advisers and top donors panicked over opponent Lee Zeldin's sudden surge in the polls.

Both AOC and Hochul are running in today's midterm elections and Hochul has started early vote with big lead, but Hochul, who inherited the governorship from Andrew Cuomo last year, is facing mounting resistance from Republican Lee Zeldin.

Zeldin's comeback has spooked Hochul's donors and advisers, some of whom fear she will pay for ignoring key issues like crime and the economy.

Some told CNBC on Tuesday they are 'concerned' about her narrowing lead and fear she has not reassured New Yorkers, many of whom are terrified by the ongoing crime wave across the state and largely in New York City.

Last week, Hochul tried to attract last-minute donations with a $50,000-a-table fundraiser at Manhatta, one of New York City's glitziest restaurants which sits on the 60th floor of a towering downtown skyscraper.

On Tuesday however, she greeted voters at a polling station in Woodside, Queens, and met with members of the New York Working Families Party. Earlier in the day, Hochul appealed to voters at diners in Manhattan while Zeldin, her Republican opponent, cast his vote in Mastic Beach.

Kathy Hochul and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez make a campaign stop at the 61st subway stop in Woodside Queens to drum up final votes. AOC is expected to win in New York's 14th Congressional District but Hochul is facing tougher resistance in the governor's race

Hochul and AOC were in Queens appealing to voters as millions headed to the polls. It is the first time Hochul has run for the governorship - she inherited it in 2021 from Andrew Cuomo

AOC, one of the Democrats' most left-wing candidates, is expected to comfortably reclaim her seat in the House

A large part of the problem for Hochul is a surge in crime across New York City that has been blamed largely on Democrats like Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

CNBC reports on Tuesday that Hochul's advisers and top donors have been warning her to stop ignoring key voter issues like crime and the economy, but that it largely fell on deaf ears.

She has been choosing instead to remind voters of her opponent's track record of supporting anti-abortion legislation.

In in a recent debate, she even told Zeldin 'I don't know why that's so important to you' when he challenged her on crime and bail reform.

While her focus on the economy seems to have increased, her stance on crime has not become any tougher.

Last week, she held a last-minute fundraiser at Manhatta, a downtown hotspot and one of New York's most expensive restaurants, where tickets cost up to $50,000-a-table. It was a final effort to attract more donation.

But her investors fear a surprise upset in today's election that they say could be reminiscent of Trump's shock victory in the 2016 Presidential Election.

One told CNBC anonymously that he still has 'PTSD' from the Trump win.

Among donors who fear Hochul is not delivering the right message is New York businessman Bernard Schwartz, who gave Hochul's campaign $69,000.

Crimes on the transit system are also up, but the crimes represent a small fraction of the passengers on the subway system and come as ridership has also increased.

October was a particularly prolific month for subway shovers, with at least five incidents occurring so far while there are still as many days left in the month.

There were at least two subway shovings in September, three in June, one in April, and another two in January.

Manhattan saw at least six shovings - including both fatalities. The Bronx and Brooklyn saw at least three pushings each, and Queens saw one.
Marco Rubio was able to defend his Senate seat for Florida from Democratic challenger Representative Val Demings.

About an hour after the polls closed, the Florida incumbent senator was ahead by a landslide and projected the winner by the Associated Press, CNN and Fox News.

With nearly 90 percent of the vote reported before 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening, Rubio was ahead of Demings by around 1 million votes, or 15 percent.

A swing state, Florida has become increasingly red in the last few years  but Demings said it was her mission to help flip the state blue.

Rubio consistently polled ahead of Demings by around 10 percent throughout the campaign.

The predicted 2022 midterm red tsunami hit Florida hard as Rubio's projected reelection victory came shortly after incumbent GOP Governor Ron DeSantis was also projected to be the winner in his race against Republican-turned-Democrat former Governor Charlie Crist.

Senator Marco Rubio was able to fend off a challenge from Democratic Representative Val Demings' attempt to unseat him and turn a Florida Senate seat blue. Pictured: Rubio delivered short remarks as he pulled ahead of Demings by 15 points with nearly 90 percent of the vote reporting two hours after polls closed

Demings was elected to the U.S. House in the 2016 elections to represent Florida's 11th congressional district  she opted not to run for reelection and instead seek higher office in the Senate. Pictured: Representative Demings speaks to supporters at a rally Monday, November 7 in Wilton Manors, Florida

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With a 50-50 split Senate, Republicans can't afford to lose any seats  and need to pick up one more  if they want to win a majority in the upper chamber.

In the House, Republicans need to flip at least five seats to win a majority in the lower chamber. Florida earned Republicans their first House flip Tuesday evening when seventh district GOP candidate Cory Mills won the race to replace retiring Democratic Representative Stephanie Murphy.

The race between Demings and Rubio was never really considered close or one of the ones to watch, with Cook Political Report labeling the state's Senate race as 'likely Republican'. But Demings made a formidable competitor in a state that went red for Donald Trump by 3.3 percent in 2020.

In a concession speech Tuesday evening from Orlando, Demings brought her family on stage and said: 'Things did not quite turn out the way we had hoped. But that's alright.'

Demings said she made a congratulatory phone call to Rubio and asked him to 'please continue to work hard for the place we call home: Florida.'

'I am not tired, I am not weary and when I look around and see your faces, I am not defeated,' the Florida congresswoman said.

Demings was the chief of the Orlando Police Department from 2007-2011 and in the 2016 elections became a congresswoman for Florida's 11th congressional district. She decided not to run for reelection to her seat in this year's midterms, instead vying for a spot in the Senate.

In the 2020 presidential election, Demings was on the short-list to be President Joe Biden's running mate  along with Susan Rice and eventual pick Kamala Harris.

Rubio has represented Florida in the U.S. Senate since 2011.

Before that, he was in the Florida House of Representatives starting in 2000 and was Speaker of the body from 2006-2008. He also ran for president in the 2016 Republican primaries.

In short remarks Tuesday evening, Rubio paid homage to his parents and said America is the only country where the son of Cuban immigrants and blue collar workers could ascend  and remain  in the U.S. Senate.

The Senate is currently split 50-50, meaning that if Republicans can hold their seats and earn just one more, they could earn the majority in the upper chamber

Republicans need to flip five House seats to wing a majority in the lower chamber. But all projections and predictions are showing the red tsunami is not slowing as ballots are counted and results come in Tuesday evening

Demings seat is remaining blue with Maxwell Frost (pictured). Her replacement became the first Gen Z member of Congress elected Tuesday evening

Demings' seat will remain blue as its being filled by the first-ever Generation Z member of Congress to win on Tuesday night, Maxwell Alejandro Frost.

The 25-year-old gun reform and social justice activist, who just meets the age requirements for the lower chamber, defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish in a heavily blue Orlando-area district.

In a statement Friday Demings endorsed her now-successor.

'I'm proud to support Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Congress because he's going to continue to fight to end gun violence, take on our housing crisis, bring down rising costs, and continue to be the bold leader Central Florida needs in D.C., the outgoing lawmaker said.

Frost was previously an organizer for March For Our Lives and promotes stricter gun control laws and a harsh opposition to abortion bans.
A conwoman has been jailed for 10 years after she flirted with a man online and lured him to a property where he was tortured, made to drink cleaning fluid, sexually assaulted and robbed.

Caprice Buddle, 25, started chatting to the honeytrap victim and met him several times before leading the unsuspecting man to be abused.

During the harrowing and traumatic ordeal  orchestrated by Buddle and 37-year-old Sean Perry  the victim suffered hours of physical, verbal and sexual abuse.

The helpless man, aged in his 30s, was battered with a stool, repeatedly kicked, and forced to drink cleaning fluid at a house in Waterlooville, Hants, by Perry and another man.

The victim, who has not been named, was forced to hand over his phone, wallet, bank cards and pin numbers during the horrific attack.

Conwoman Caprice Buddle has been jailed for 10 years after she flirted with a man online and lured him to a property where he was tortured, made to drink cleaning fluid, sexually assaulted and robbed

Then he was blindfolded, thrown into the back of a vehicle and driven around before being hurled out at the side of a road.

After the victim was able to recognise where he was, he ran home before calling police.

Based on initial information, officers were able to locate Buddle at an address in Havant, where they arrested her that day.

Perry was arrested several days later and a lengthy and complex investigation involving DNA, CCTV, phone and bank card analysis, led to the pair being charged.

Now, Buddle and Perry have been jailed for 27 years.

Perry, from Southampton, Hants, was jailed for 17 years for conspiracy to rob, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit fraud, assault by penetration and causing actual bodily harm.

Buddle, from Swanmore, Hants, was jailed for 10 years for conspiracy to rob, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit fraud and possession of a Class A drug.

It was heard that after Buddle lured the victim to the property on May 5, 2019, the sustained assault was carried out by Perry and one other unidentified male.

She was arrested the same day after the victim called police.

Hampshire Constabulary said Perry was arrested days later and that a complex investigation involving DNA, CCTV, phone and bank card analysis led to them appearing at Portsmouth Crown Court, Hants.

Sean Perry, 37, helped Buddle kidnap a man aged in his 30s. Perry admitted the charges against him on the first day of his trial

Perry admitted the charges against him on the first day of his trial but Buddle denied them, and was eventually convicted by a jury.

Detective Constable Emily Dummer, of Hampshire Constabulary, said: 'The victim in this case was subjected to a harrowing and traumatic ordeal which lasted over several hours.

'While nothing will ever be able to take that away, I am pleased Perry and Buddle will now face the consequences of their despicable actions and spend a significant amount of time in prison for what they have done.

'I would like to commend the victims incredible courage throughout the investigation and court process, without which we would not have been able to secure this outcome.

'As a result of his bravery, Perry and Buddle are now in a place where they will not be able to inflict such horrific abuse to anyone else.

'We hope this sentence sends a strong message to the public that we will do all in our power to protect and support victims of abuse, while relentlessly pursuing offenders.'

A police spokeswoman added: 'A 26 year old man from London, a 38-year-old man from Fareham and a 27 year old man from Winchester were also arrested in connection with this incident and have since been released from police custody with no further action taken against them.'
The G20 summit is set to take place on November 15 and 16 and will see world leaders convene in the Indonesian province of Bali

It alleged that Putin will also refuse to attend summit due to assassination fears

The General SVR Telegram channel claims to have sources inside the Kremlin

Putin was allegedly told by intelligence report he'd be slapped at G20 summit

Vladimir Putin is likely not to attend the G20 summit in Bali because his spies have told him a foreign leader intends to 'slap him in the face' over the war in Ukraine, it was claimed today.

The Russian president has not yet said whether he will attend the conference next week, but is unlikely to fly to Indonesia.

But a Telegram channel which purports to have sources in the Kremlin sensationally claimed today the Russian leader had been told in a foreign intelligence report that one unnamed G20 attendee aimed 'to hit him in the face with an open palm in a personal meeting'.

This leader was intent on 'demonstrating his attitude towards him as a war criminal and scoundrel'.

'This person said, quite openly in his circle, that he was ready to seek a personal meeting with Putin at the summit, even bypassing the protocol,' said the post.

'The information was presented to Putin as unambiguously corresponding to reality, intentions and plans, confirmed by several sources... Putin is not ready to risk being humiliated by receiving a public slap in the face.'

The G20 summit will take place on November 15 and 16 and will see world leaders convene in the Indonesian province of Bali.

Vladimir Putin is likely not to attend the G20 summit in Bali because his spies have told him a foreign leader intends to 'slap him in the face' over the war in Ukraine, it was claimed today

A woman walks past a logo of the G20 Summit, in Jakarta on November 8, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indonesian President Joko Widodo attend a joint news conference following their meeting in Moscow, Russia June 30, 2022

Indonesian military personel take part in a security drill for the upcoming G20 meeting in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, 08 November 2022. Bali will host the 17th Group of 20 (G20) Heads of State and Government Summit from 15 to 16 November 2022

The accusation was made by the General SVR Telegram channel which has regularly claimed that Putin is suffering from cancer, Parkinson's disease and a schizoaffective disorder.

It takes its name from the Russian SVR foreign intelligence agency, once known as the KGB.

Its claims cannot be verified but it was among the first to report in advance the shape of Putin's disastrous mobilisation strategy, and claims about his cancer.

It is reportedly authored by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant-general, known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich.

The channel did not explain why Putin, a black-belt in judo and a practitioner of several martial arts, could not deal with any foreign leader seeking to slap him.

It comes as British premier Rishi Sunak said the UK and its allies must 'confront' Putin if the Russian president does attend the summit.

Indonesian leader Joko Widodo, whose nation is set to host the summit, has resisted pressure from Kyiv and the West to disinvite Putin due to his invasion of sovereign state Ukraine.

He said that Putin had not ruled out attending 'but maybe he'll ask to do it virtually'.

The Financial Times newspaper quoted the Jakarta leader as saying that a conversation with Putin had left him with a 'strong impression' he would not attend.

Indonesia has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend the G20 summit. The Ukrainian leader will most likely attend the summit virtually, his spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster on Tuesday (Zelensky pictured with US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Nov 8)

British premier Rishi Sunak (pictured right with French president Emmanuel Macron) said the UK and its allies must 'confront' Putin if the Russian president does attend the summit

Indonesian police take part during security preparation for the upcoming G20 Summit Meeting in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on November 7, 2022

Indonesia also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who will most likely attend the summit virtually, his spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster on Tuesday.

Zelensky had said last week he would not take part if Putin attended the conference.

In addition to the claims a foreign leader was preparing to slap the Russian president, the General SVR channel also said that Putin was concerned by an increased assassination risk if he were to attend the G20 summit.

'It is impossible in Bali to provide a proper level, at least close comparable with those measures that are organised in Russia,' a post claimed.

'The risk of becoming an object of assassination increases significantly.

'But even this is not stopping the President of Russia now - and does not make it possible to make a decision on participation in the summit.'

The 'real reason' for his hesitancy about flying to Bali was the humiliation of being publicly slapped, the channel concluded.
Is there no love lost between BBC titans Huw Edwards and David Dimbleby?

Describing Huw as a 'lesser animal', David recalls one election night when a TV floor manager told Edwards: 'Move up, David is here.'

'He looked furious,' Dimbleby tells a podcast. 'When I was being taken off early in the morning, it was Huw coming on and I was furious as I was not able to say good night or good morning at the end. I just had to be shuffled off.'

He adds: 'You don't trust the stars as they want your job. Why should you trust them?'

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Is there no love lost between BBC titans Huw Edwards and David Dimbleby?

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore compares 'Spare To The Heir' Harry with the younger sons of ancient dynasties murdered by their relatives.

'Ottoman sultans had their rebellious sons strangled with a bow string by deaf mutes; Mongol khans trampled their spares under horses' hoofs.'

Adds Montefiore: 'So a sumptuous LA mansion and a few Spotify deals is pretty attractive in comparison.'

Gavin Williamson, one of more than 700 privy counsellors, throws his toys out of his pram for not getting an invitation to the Queen's funeral.

Would he have dared sending boorish emails to Lord President of the Council Penny Mordaunt?

She limited attendance at King Charles's accession council to just 194 people  and Williamson wasn't on that list either.

Leslie Phillips, who has died aged 98, gave Elizabeth Hurley, pictured, her first acting break in a play touring the Middle East, recalling: 'On a beach in Abu Dhabi, some vigilante mullah spotted her swimming without her top on.

'I was deemed to be her boss and told to keep her under control or she would be deported.'

What's Arabic for Ding Dong?

Lord Lucan hunter, the late journalist Harry Arnold, recalled the Fleet Street editors' lunch held a year after his lordship's disappearance and Harry and chums fruitlessly seeking him in Australia, Botswana and the Caribbean.

'Someone at the lunch said 'Funny he's never been sighted in Accrington or Grimsby, isn't it?' recalled Harry.

'As a result, the tour of sunny climes was brought to a halt.'

Might Dame Judi Dench regret describing The Crown as 'crude sensationalism' after Netflix historical adviser Robert Lacey took an ungallant swipe at her.

'Enter the bended-knee brigade, led by Dame Judi Dench,' he rants.

'How the British love to bow and scrape. 'Crude sensationalism' is the term one might apply to Dench's screen depiction of Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown, based on the scurrilous rumours that the widowed queen enjoyed an improper relationship with her Scottish gillie John Brown.' Isn't life grand?

On the eve of his Netflix debut as Charles in The Crown, Dominic West tells the New York Times: 'I was obsessed with Diana. Still am. I remember planning with two friends to try... and camp to see her.'

Maybe if smitten Dom had phoned ahead she'd have arranged a convenient car boot to smuggle him in?
A Mexican-Lebanese businessman is facing possible criminal charges after he set fire to a $10million Frida Kahlo sketch, 'transformed to live eternally in the digital realm', as part of a stunt to sell NFTs.

Martin Mobarak, 57, burnt the 1944 watercolor, crayon, pencil and ink drawing 'Fantasmones Siniestros', or 'Massive Sinister Ghosts', in July.

The Miami-based entrepreneur, who made his fortune in the early 1990s in the Dot Com boom, staged a splashy party at his home to celebrate the launch of Frida.NFT.

Amid models sashaying down an impromptu poolside catwalk, Mobarak, surrounded by heavily-armed security and dressed in a blazer with Kahlo's face in sequins, ceremoniously removed the sketch from a gold frame.

He then placed it in a martini glass, and set it alight.

Martin Mobarak, a 57-year-old Mexican-Lebanese businessman, in July held a party at his Miami home where he burnt a Frida Kahlo sketch (pictured) in a martini glass

The sketch, made in 1944, is titled 'Fantasmones Siniestros', or 'Massive Sinister Ghosts'

Mobarak is now facing potential criminal charges for the stunt

'I had to do something drastic to get attention,' he told The New York Times on Tuesday.

He planned on selling 10,000 NFTs for $4,000, but so far only four have been sold, the paper reported, for less than $11,200.

Mobarak, however, was jubilant, declaring: 'Like a Phoenix rising from its ashes, this collection of 10,000 NFT's represents the rebirth & immortality of a timeless piece.'

Yet art experts and the Mexican government were less amused.

On September 26, Mexican heritage authorities announced they had opened a criminal investigation into Mobarak's actions, meaning he could face a decade-long prison sentence and a fine equivalent to the artwork's cost.

Mexico's National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) is looking into whether he committed a federal crime by destroying an original Kahlo artwork - or if he actually burned a fake.

Burning a fake would also land Mobarak in trouble, as he has been selling NFTs of the drawing insisting it was real.

'If he did actually burn it, he is breaking one law,' said Leila Amineddoleh, a lawyer who specializes in art and cultural heritage law.

The sketch is a watercolor, with pencil, ink and crayon. It was valued at $10 million

'And if he didn't, if it was a reproduction, then he might have violated copyright law.

'And if he copied the original with an intent to deceive, it could be fraud.'

Gregorio Luke, a former Mexican diplomat and a previous director of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, added: 'I think this man should be put in jail.'

The real sketch was sold by Mary-Anne Martin, a renowned Latin American art dealer, in 2004 to a foundation and again in 2013 to a private collector.

Mobarak told The Miami Herald he bought the drawing from a private collector in 2015, and insists the one he burnt was real.

He said he was giving a portion of the proceeds from NFT sales back to charity.

'If Frida Kahlo were alive today, I would bet my life that if I asked to burn a small piece of her diary to bring some smiles and better quality of life to children, then she would say: 'Go ahead and do it. I'll light the fire,'' he claimed.

Mobarak made his money in the 1990s Dot Com boom, and now lives in Miami, working in Bitcoin and NFTs

Artworks by Kahlo, who died in 1954 aged 47, are considered to be national treasures.

INBAL officially designated Kahlo's body of work as an 'artistic monument' in 1984.

'In Mexico, the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime in terms of the federal law on archaeological, artistic and historical monuments and zones,' INBAL said in a statement.

The Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City, also condemned the stunt - pointing out that they own the rights to all works by Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera, and had not given permission for an NFT to be made.

The trust that owns all her works frequently takes legal action against her likeness and artworks being used.

'[The museum] disagrees with any intention of support to the museum generated from the alleged destruction of the cultural heritage of our country, as well as the existence of any ties with the collector and his activities,' the museum said in a statement.

Mobarak, asked by The New York Times whether the burning was a mistake, was noncommittal.

'I like to say that I don't regret it,' he said.
Massachusetts elected the United States' first openly lesbian governor on Tuesday night when Harvard-educated Maura Healey beat out a Trump-backed Republican to become the state's first female governor.

The 51-year-old Democrat flipped the seat from its Republican rule for eight years, comfortably defeating Geoff Diehl, who has repeated the former president's claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

She received more than 55 percent of the vote Tuesday night, with Diehl receiving only 38.5 percent support.

Healey's triumph comes after Republican Gov Charlie Baker opted not to run for a third-term  and also refused to endorse Diehl.

As a result, Healey, the former attorney general, had been considered the frontrunner in the race, with polls showing her heavily favored over her Republican counterpart.

In her victory speech Tuesday night, Healey said: 'To every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there, I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be.

Maura Healey, 51, became the first openly lesbian governor elected in the US Tuesday night

Healey is pictured with her longtime partner, Gabrielle Wolohojian, in an undated picture

'To those who voted me for and to those who didn't, I want you to know I'll be a governor for everyone, and I'll work with anyone who's up for making a difference in this state,' she continued.

'I'll be a governor for everyone struggling with higher costs,' she vowed, as she also said she would 'create great clean energy jobs.'

'And as long as I'm governor, women will always have the right to their own bodies,' she said of abortion rights in the state.

'Together we'll build a stronger Massachusetts for everyone,' she concluded.

Healey was elected alongside her lieutenant governor candidate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll. Together, they became the first all women team to serve as governor and lieutenant governor.

Healey is pictured dancing onto the stage after her victory Tuesday night

Healey campaigned on a long list of Democratic priorities, including expanding affordable housing, promoting green jobs and improving public transportation

Healey vowed to be a 'governor for everyone' upon taking office

Healey is pictured with Lt. Gov-elect Kim Driscoll. They are the all women team to serve as governor and lieutenant governor

LGBTQ groups cheered on Healey's victory Tuesday night

Healey grew up on the New Hampshire border, with her two brothers and two sisters.

By the time she was 10, her parents split up, and she and her siblings continued to live with her mother.

At one point, she told WBUR, her mother sold her wedding ring to pave a basketball court behind their house.

'And that's where I think probably a lot of my basketball career took off,' she said.

Her basketball career eventually led her to Harvard, where she was co-captain of the women's basketball team before she decided to play professionally in Austria for two years.

Healey's professional career began working under then-Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, making a name for herself challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act  a 1996 law that allowed states to deny rights to same-sex married couples.

From there, she was appointed chief of the state's Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau and then chief of the Business and Labor Bureau before she resigned to run for attorney general.

During her time in office, Healey became a more national figure as she initiated or joined dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration, from challenging his so-called Muslim travel ban to protecting immigrant rights and suing the EPA for delaying or rolling back environmental regulations.

Her partner, Gabrielle Wolohojian, is also an associate justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

Maura Healey makes her way into a room full of politicians and supporters in Boston, Massachusetts on November 8, 2022

Healey is pictured greeting supporters at an Election Day dinner

For the governor race, Healey campaigned on a long list of Democratic priorities, including expanding affordable housing, promoting green jobs and improving public transportation.

She pledged to create a cabinet-level job to oversee housing and accelerate the building of new homes, and proposed making state land available for development while offering financial help for first-time home buyers, low-income residents and the elderly.

Healey also vowed to achieve net zero emissions in Massachusetts by 2030, while making the state a 'hub for clean energy innovation.'

Upon accepting her party's nomination for governor in June, she said: 'Let's put money back in people's pockets by cutting the costs of housing, energy and health care.'

Healey was a successful basketball player, eventually becoming co-captain of the Harvard women's basketball team

Her victory now seals her as a leader in the LGBTQ community.

She previously told the local NPR station: 'I'm proud of who I am,' adding that she is especially moved when LGBTQ children in the community tell her they are comforted by her success.

'Kids need to understand and believe that they are loved, they are seen and that they can be whoever they are.'

LGBTQ+ rights group the Human Rights Campaign hailed Healey's historic victory.

'Massachusetts embraced a platform of equality and inclusion by electing a pro-equality champion,' the organization's interim president Joni Madison, said in a statement.

The victory comes as LGBTQ candidates are running in all 50 states and Washington DC for the first time in this year's midterm election, as the community becomes an increasingly powerful voting constituency.

Democrat Tina Kotek, who is also lesbian, was bidding to match Healey's win in Oregon on Tuesday in a governor's race regarded as a toss-up.

Almost 90 percent of the LGBTQ candidates who entered this year's primary races are Democrats.
His death isn't being seen as suspicious and thought to be an accident or suicide

Police appeal for public assistance as they look into Mr Sarvari's death

How a man's body ended up on the rocks of an island in Sydney Harbour has stumped detectives as his identity is revealed.

On Wednesday, the man whose body was discovered on the heritage-listed Goat Island was formerly identified as 36-year-old Iranian national Ali Sarvari.

His body was discovered on the island, west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, at about 6pm on October 6.

Police are appealing for public assistance as Marine Area Command investigators look into his final moments.

A man's body found on the rocks of Goat Island, west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, has been identified as 36-year-old Iranian national Ali Sarvari (pictured), whose final movements have stumped detectives

Police are appealing for public assistance as Marine Area Command investigators look into Mr Sarvari's final moments

His death is not being treated as suspicious and it is believed he died as a result of an accident or suicide.

Mr Sarvari was last seen in Parramatta's CBD on September 29 before it is understood he travelled by public transport to the Sydney Opera House to see friends in the days before his death.

Marine Area Command Crime Manager Inspector Bryce Watson said investigators are still trying to piece together Mr Sarvari's final movements.

'Ali Sarvari was a much-loved son, brother and friend, and our investigators want to find answers to provide closure to his loved ones,' Inspector Watson said.

'While his death is not believed to be suspicious, it is difficult for his family and friends to grieve without knowing how he came to be on Goat Island.

'We believe that there are people in the community who saw Mr Sarvari prior to his death, and we strongly encourage them to come forward.'
An Australian man has dedicated the past three months of his life to one of his great goals - to help out in America's mid-term elections.

Conservative warrior Greg Smith could not keep the smile off his face as he was interviewed by a reporter from the online Real American's Voices channel.

'We need to save America before we save Australia,' Mr Smith said, switching between looking at the interviewer and straight into the camera.

'I've come here to sacrifice three months of my life to support MAGA, the MAGA candidates,' he said.

His faith has been repaid as the Republicans appear set to claim the House of Representatives in Tuesday's elections, with the results coming in on Wednesday afternoon Australian time.

This guy is from Australia: We need to save America before we save Australia. Ive come here to sacrifice 3 months of my life to support MAGA. Ive been to AZ, NM and FL .. to save Australia. pic.twitter.com/sMat2V89XC  Ron Filipkowski  (@RonFilipkowski) November 8, 2022

Australian man Greg Smith is such a fan of Donald Trump (pictured with his wife Melania), that he has gone to America to help the campaigns of Trump-backed candidates in the US mid-term elections

MAGA stands for Donald Trump's famous slogan, 'Make America Great Again'.

Mr Smith has travelled from the south-west of America across to the south-east to do what he can to help turn the country red, the colour of Mr Trump's Republicans.

'I've been to Arizona, New Mexico and Florida,' he said.

'And for me it's just important that in order to save Australia I need... I wanted to be here to make sure that we get the right people over the line (in America).'

The video featuring the interview with the bearded, diminutive Aussie was posted to the Twitter account of Ron Filipkowski, a former Republican turned Democrat.

Mr Filipkowski is a lawyer who claims to 'track and report on the right wing' and has appeared as a commentator on BBC, CNN, MSNBC and CBS.

Given his politics, it was not surprising that the video clip of Mr Smith was met with derision from Mr Filipkowski's followers.

'He didn't sacrifice three months of his life. He wasted it,' wrote a commenter.

Another wrote 'Oh dear! Australia is in worse shape than I thought. They're probably glad to have a three month break.'

One questioned the reason for Mr Smith's presence in Australia, saying 'Another foreigner interfering in our elections. Take this guy's green card.'

Another asked 'Do we really need both Russians and Australians interfering in our election?'

Australian man Greg Smith (pictured left) has spent the past three months in America campaigning for Republican candidates

On a similar tack, a poster said 'If this guy is campaigning for MAGA, shouldn't his visa be revoked for interfering in the election as a foreign national?'

Another commenter showed off his knowledge of Australian actors by saying 'Look, Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth, and Nicole Kidman we like.

'But that doesn't mean we're giving out hall passes right and left to people like (conservative political commentator) Nick Adams and this guy.

'Australia, can we talk?'

Mr Smith may have the last laugh, though, as Republicans make early gains.

Australian man Greg Smith campaigned for the Republicans in Florida, where Ron DeSantis romped home in the election for governor

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis won reelection with a commanding double-digit victory over Charlie Christ in the latest sign the state has swung further to the right.

But that could prove to be a bittersweet victory for Mr Smith.

Having secured a second term, Mr DeSantis, 44, has cemented his position as a star of the Republican Party and a possible 2024 presidential election candidate, challenging Mr Trump for that position.
One claimed she was racially abused and physically threatened while at work

Ex-workers at Karen's Diner have lashed out at the controversial business after claiming customers were taking the experience too far and abusing staff.

The restaurant chain, which opened across Australia last year, is infamous for its staff being intentionally rude to diners, with customers encouraged to 'bring on the banter'.

The diner has a list of 'house rules' in place where things like body shaming, sexual harassment, racism, sexism and homophobia will not be tolerated.

But some staff have said this isn't the case, claiming they were at the receiving end of customers verbally and physically abusing them.

Former 'Karens' Molly Harris and Kaliya Arumugam recently started a petition calling on WorkSafe Victoria to visit the diner, which they described as 'downright dangerous'.

Ex-workers at the infamous Karen's Diner have lashed out at the business after claiming customers were taking the experience too far and abusing staff

'Customers are encouraged to be rude and act like "Karens" and as workers we were regularly racially abused, sexually harassed, subjected to homophobia and fat shaming and threatened with physical violence,' the petition read.

'Customers have shown us indecent photos, pushed us up against walls, groped us and up-skirted our dresses.

'Some of us have had our identities revealed online, been abused at other jobs and harassed on the street.'

The pair accused management of 'brushing off' incidents and even firing or cutting shifts for staff who complained.

A WorkSafe Victoria spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'WorkSafe has visited the site and inquiries are continuing'.

Ms Arumugam said she was excited to work at the restaurant but the experience quickly soured - and she left after just six months.

Karen's Diner prides itself on its 'rude service' with staff told to fire off insults to customers as part of the experience

'These incidents have ranged from my personal image, like insults about my physical appearance, body shaming, racial slurs and sexual harassment and physical assault,' she told the ABC.

She worked at the diner for just six months and on one occasion claimed a group of men 'physically threatened' her, and even waited for her outside the venue.

Ms Arumugam claims managers did little to step in, and that getting a bad review was their biggest concern.

'There were incidents where we had to call the police and get people removed ... and they just were never really taken seriously by management,' she said.

Harris, who uses non-gendered pronouns, said on just their second shift a man reached up under their dress, and claimed the manager 'did nothing about it'.

In September one man exploded at staff at the Brisbane Karen's Diner after they made fun of his receding hairline.

'What's the one thing your f**king sign says? No body shaming!' the man is heard yelling in a TikTok of the encounter, while pointing to the house rules at the entrance.

In September one man exploded at staff at the Brisbane Karen's Diner after they made fun of his receding hairline

He was then seen tossing a container of straws onto the floor while pouring water from a plastic bottle over the diner's countertop.

Speaking about the encounter on their TikTok, Harris said during their time working at the diner, many of the house rules were ignored.

'I was not trained at all,' they said.

'I worked a trial shift, the only thing I was taught in that shift was how to make a milkshake, I didn't receive any training until people started complaining quite a bit, and then we had a training session where we pretty much just got yelled at.'

Harris also shared a photo of a disclaimer that they had to sign saying they would not sue the company if they experienced any injuries at work.

'I acknowledge that I am aware of the atmosphere and nature of the venue and potential risks and conflicts that may occur when dealing with customers,' the waiver said.

Former workers have claimed they were harassed and verbally abused by customers, with management doing little to help

Karen's Diner's parent company Viral Ventures said there was a 'zero tolerance' to rulebreakers.

Viral Ventures operation supervisor Mark Smith said anyone breaking the rules were asked to leave immediately, but that had only happened 'on a few occasions'.

He said there was no waiver staff had to sign but an earlier draft of a handbook did have one.

He also acknowledged there were incidents of body shaming, but denied any inappropriate behaviour towards staff took place.

'We've got no reports or incidents of that ever happening' he told the publication.

When Daily Mail Australia contacted Karen's Diner for further comment a spokesperson said the company 'takes these allegations very seriously'.

'The allegations that these former staff members are claiming were not incidents that were brought to the attention of the venue manager on site or the upper management at any point during their employment with Karens Diner,' they said.

'We had no recorded incidents or matters flagged with these parties when they were employed by Karen's Diner. We work tirelessly to protect staff, and anyone found harassing, bullying or touching our staff would be immediately banned and removed from the venue. We have a set of house rules which can be found at all venues and anyone in breach of these rules will be immediately removed.'

Karen's Diner has restaurants around Australia, Canada, the UK, US, Asia and New Zealand.

FULL STATEMENT FROM KAREN'S DINER Firstly, we take these allegations very seriously and have been working tirelessly to provide a safe and fun environment for all staff and customers at all our Karen's Diner locations. The allegations that these former staff members are claiming were not incidents that were brought to the attention of the venue manager on site or the upper management at any point during their employment with Karens Diner. We had no recorded incidents or matters flagged with these parties when they were employed by Karen's Diner. We work tirelessly to protect staff, and anyone found harassing, bullying or touching our staff would be immediately banned and removed from the venue. We have a set of house rules which can be found at all venues and anyone in breach of these rules will be immediately removed. Staff are not forced to sign our handbook and we would not ask staff to sign a handbook that would acquit us of any wrongdoing, this isnt even possible. The claims are coming from a small number of employees that were terminated due to their own performances, misconduct and manner with customers. The waiver in question was removed (months ago) and never enforced by any staff members. Plenty of employees never signed this yet still remain working at Karens Diner today. There are a small number of people that are claiming Karens Diner is an unsafe environment based on claims that were never brought to the attention of the team at any point. On the flip side we have hundreds of employees who would say otherwise and that they thoroughly enjoy working at Karen's Diner. We have weekly training and meetings with staff, and one-on-one meetings with any staff involved when issues arise. These claims are not only false but damaging all the hard work the brand and the staff are doing to provide a fun experience and safe working environment for all. Viral Ventures maintains that Karens Diner has a zero tolerance policy regarding harassment and rule-breaking customers would be kicked out. Weve only had to do that on a few occasions where weve had some unruly customers, and thats mainly been in terms of customers causing a bit of damage in the venue. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to email us. Advertisement
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defeated Democrat Beto O'Rourke in their gubernatorial race and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem held onto her post in a slew of early results in gubernatorial elections.

With 59 percent of precincts reporting, Abbott was up over 10 points over O'Rourke and a number of major news outlets called the race for the Republican who will now enter his third term leading the Lone Star State.

It was O'Rourke's second time losing for statewide office after an unsuccessful bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz.

Abbott, who's held the governor's mansion since 2015, generated presidential chatter in recent months after a series of headline-grabbing policy plays, including signing a unique abortion ban that allows private citizens to sue those who aid the procedure and bussing migrants from border cities to blue ones like New York and Washington, D.C.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defeated Democrat Beto O'Rourke in their gubernatorial race

In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt held on to his seat, leading by 15 points over Democrat Joy Hofmeister with 94 percent precincts reporting

In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt held on to his seat, leading by 15 points over Democrat Joy Hofmeister with 94 percent precincts reporting.

Maryland elected its first black governor in Democrat Wes Moore, who will take over from term-limited Republican Larry Hogan. President Biden campaigned for Moore in Bowie, Md. on election eve.

So far 16 of the 36 seats up for reelection have been called. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is projected to win, and in Arkansas, ex-Trump White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is projected to win her first stint in the governor's mansion.

In another closely watched race, Democrat Josh Shapiro won over Republican Doug Mastriano for the Pennsylvania governor's seat, according to cable news predictions. Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia, is up against Democrat Stacey Abrams 9 points with three-quarters of the votes counted.

Maryland elected its first black governor in Democrat Wes Moore, who will take over from term-limited Republican Larry Hogan. President Biden campaigned for Moore in Bowie, Md. on election eve
Midterm polls are closed in Arizona and will not be reopening after a judge denied Republicans' request to extend voting hours from 7pm to 10pm following malfunctions in 20 percent of voting machines in the state's largest county Maricopa.

Lawyers for Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Senate candidate Blake Masters, both Republicans, requested that polls be kept open for an additional three hours.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan denied this request.

The judge said he did not see evidence that people were denied the right to cast their ballot.

Republican Arizona candidates Kari Lake (left) and Blake Masters (right) were denied their emergency lawsuit requesting polling places be kept open until 10pm due to malfunctioning voting machines in Maricopa County

In Arizona's largest county of Maricopa, 20 percent of the 223 voting centers had machines that were malfunctioning. Pictured: Voters wait in line to cast their ballots in the 2022 midterms in Maricopa County in Cave Creek, Arizona on Tuesday

Lake arrives to vote in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesdsay with her daughter Ruby and son Leo

An earlier emergency lawsuit from GOP campaigns also requested that polling place closures be delayed until 11pm.

Election officials in Arizona claimed that the problem with tabulation machines at 20 percent of Maricopa County polling sites was resolved at 52 of the 60 affected centers.

'Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise,' Republican County Recorder Stephen Richer said.

When the voting machine issues emerged, Lake urged voters to 'get in line and stay in line.' As long as voters are standing in line by 7:00 p.m., they were permitted to cast their ballot.

Lake has been dubbed an 'election denier' by Democrats, but the GOP candidates says she is only exercising her First Amendment right to speech by speaking against her government and questioning the results of elections and the process in which they are conducted.

The former broadcast journalist said voting issues in Arizona could be part of a plot to thwart a 'red tsunami' on Tuesday.

Richer announced that about a fifth of its electronic vote tabulation machines were malfunctioning just hours into Election Day on Tuesday, November 8.

Former President Donald Trump joined other right-wing figures seizing on the problems as a sign of fraud.

Lake advised voters to wear comfortable shoes and bring food with them when they went to vote.

'We're trying to fix this problem as quickly as possible,' said Bill Gates (left), chairman of the Maricopa County supervisors. 'And we also have a redundancy in place'

'The people of Arizona would walk over hot coals and they would walk over broken glass to vote today,' she told reporters.

'And I know that they can stand in line for a couple hours if they have to. I know they'll stand in line for eight hours,' she continued. 'And they will vote and my message to the people of Arizona is do not get out of line until you have cast your vote. Do not get out of line until you've cast your vote.'

'Things are looking very good for us. They may be trying to slow a red tsunami but it's coming.'

Lake said she planned to travel around to encourage people to stay in line despite delays.

As midterm voting kicked off around the country Tuesday, pockets of problems were quickly reported in other states where there was record turnout, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

In Arizona's Maricopa County - the most populated county, which has the ability to swing an election between Republicans and Democrats - the chairman of the county supervisors Bill Gates said that 20 percent of the 223 voting centers had machines that were malfunctioning.

In a video posted to Twitter Gates explained that about one in five ballots at those centers wasn't being properly read by the 'tabulators.'

'We're trying to fix this problem as quickly as possible,' Gates said. 'And we also have a redundancy in place.'

He then showed how voters could place their ballots instead in a secure box so they could be tabulated later. Registered voters in Maricopa County can go to any voting center in the county.

Still, Republicans on Twitter were furious at the news - as Arizona hosts both a competitive Senate and gubernatorial race.

In Pennsylvania, due to the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups winning a lawsuit in state court that would make undated mail-in ballots not count, thousands of voters in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas were alerted they must 'cure' their ballots.

Election officials have advised these voters to come to the county election offices to cure their ballot, request a new mail-in ballot or vote by provisional ballot on Election Day to fix these mistakes.

Voters in Philadelphia wait in line to vote on Election Day. In Pennsylvania, thousands of mail-in ballots could be tossed out, as voters didn't date them properly

In Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, nearly 1,000 voters were on a list of individuals who forgot to date or incorrectly dated their ballots.

In Philadelphia, the Board of Elections alerted nearly 2,000 their ballot lacked a date. Nearly 400 more potentially dated their ballots incorrectly.

Additionally, around 150 Philly voters didn't sign their mail-in ballot, while around 1,000 voters turned in 'naked' ballots, meaning they forgot to mail in their ballots surrounded by a secrecy envelope.

Voters have until November 14 in Pennsylvania to 'cure' their ballot.

The campaign for Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman has filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the ruling, made by the divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

RYDAL, PENNSYLVANIA: Images from all along America's East show long lines of voters already waiting to cast their ballots on Election Day

MIAMI, FLORIDA: There's also several tight governor's races across the country that could see MAGA Republicans leading more states

'The Date Instruction imposes unnecessary hurdles that eligible Pennsylvanians must clear to exercise their most fundamental right, resulting in otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily rejected without any reciprocal benefit to the Commonwealth,' attorneys for Fetterman and other Democratic groups argued.

'The date on a mail ballot envelope thus has no bearing on a voter's qualifications and serves no purpose other than to erect barriers to qualified voters exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote. This unnecessary impediment violates the Civil Rights Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution,' they continued.

Additionally, a judge in Monroe County in Northeast Pennsylvania on Monday green-lit the way for voters to be alerted that their ballots had mistakes.

In Mercer County, New Jersey all the Dominion-made voting machines were down.

Officials told voters they can still show up to the polls and cast a traditional paper ballot.

'The Board of Elections has advised the county of issues with voting machines. Poll workers will be on hand to walk voters through the process. The board is working with Dominion, the machine maker, to resolve the issue,' the country's Facebook page read.

New Jersey residents aren't voting for a governor or a senator this year, but more than a quarter of the state House seats are competitive.

In Iron County, Utah, voters were warned they may have to vote in person because of delays in mail-in ballots.

NEW GLOUCESTER, MAINE: Republicans are expected to make a strong showing on Election Day, according to multiple polls
A Wisconsin nurse has been charged with elder abuse after she amputated an elderly man's foot without permission, and allegedly told colleagues she was going to display it at her family's taxidermy store.

Mary K. Brown, 38, was treating a 62-year-old man who suffered a fall and whose foot was subsequently damaged by frostbite.

On May 27, she amputated the gangrenous foot, telling a fellow nurse she intended to exhibit it with a sign saying: 'wear your boots, kids.'

The man died eight days after the operation, on June 4, and last week Brown was criminally charged.

The saga began in March, when the man was admitted to Spring Valley Health and Rehab Center in the small, rural village of Spring Valley, close to the border with Minnesota, 60 miles east of Minneapolis.

Mary K. Brown, 38, was charged with elder abuse on November 3 after she amputated a 62-year-old man's foot on May 27 without following procedure - and said she wanted it for her family's taxidermy store

He had fallen and was struggling to recover: his foot was damaged by frostbite.

The patient's condition continued to decline, and he fell out of bed in the nursing facility, further damaging his foot.

Two months later, by May, Brown said that she thought the patient's foot needed amputating.

Doctors were sure that he was close to dying, and other nursing staff said his foot was necrotic and only held to the rest of his leg by dead skin and tendons.

Brown said that she took the decision to amputate his foot because she 'was trying to make the quality of life better for him.'

She explained that the patient always complained about the smell and she thought he 'would like it better.'

Brown insisted that she carried out the procedure to help the ailing man, who died eight days later. Other nurses expressed surprise at her actions

She said there was no blood in the procedure, and another nurse said the man felt no pain.

But a different nurse told investigators that, while Brown was performing the amputation, the man's grip was 'extremely tight and he was moaning a little bit.'

Two days later, the patient told another unnamed nurse that he had 'felt everything and it hurt very bad,' according to the affidavit.

Brown put the amputated foot in a bag in a freezer.

One of her colleagues said Brown talked about taking the victim's foot home and 'epoxying it' - coating it in resin - which the nurse found to be strange.

The man died on June 4 and the morgue worker found his foot was missing, and alerted authorities.

Kevin Larson, administrator and CEO of the facility, said that Brown did not follow standard procedure and write a report on the incident.

There were no notes about the amputation on the man's chart, and a doctor's order was not sought.

Larson said the best practice should have been to get an order from a doctor, which he believes they would have given.

He said he did not believe Brown had any malicious motive, but she has been fired.

'We have and will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation into this matter. The person identified is not employed with our community,' said the nursing home in a statement.

She has not commented on the charges, filed on November 3.

Brown faces up to 40 years in prison on each of the felony charges, and a maximum penalty of $100,000 for each charge.

Brown is due back in court in December.
Half of Americans have a destructive, inconsistent sleep schedule when going from weeknights to weekends in a phenomenon experts are calling 'social jet lag.'

The journal JAMA Network Open published the study Tuesday in an attempt to define 'the mismatch between a persons biological time, which is determined by circadian rhythms' and their supposed 'body clocks' and 'social clocks.'

'Body clocks' are driven by professional obligations like work and school, while 'social clocks' measure extracurricular activities.

Research was based off the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Survey, which measures the habits of about 5,000 adults and children across America.

The study's participants suggested that they slept around seven and a half hours on work days and 8.2 hours on non-work days, with about 25 percent of those surveyed getting less than seven hours of sleep on work days.

A new study finds that nearly half of Americans have a destructive, inconsistent sleep schedule when going from weeknights to weekends, a phenomenon experts are calling 'social jet lag'

The journal JAMA Network Open published the study Tuesday in an attempt to define 'the mismatch between a persons biological time, which is determined by circadian rhythms' and their supposed 'body clocks' and 'social clocks'

The study's participants suggested that they slept around seven and a half hours on work days and 8.2 hours on non-work days, with about 25 percent of those surveyed getting less than seven hours of sleep on work days

They say it compares well to actual jet lag, which is the phenomenon of a person getting off both clocks when they visit a different time zone.

Social jet lag is measured by a person's amount of time between their midpoint of sleep when transitioning from work days to weekends.

The loss of sleep can lead to problems like higher risks for depression and certain types of diabetes and cardiovascular problems, because people with a higher social jet lag tend to eat less healthy and exercise less.

Social jet lag is described as a chronic problem that can seem less obvious as it grows over time.

Aric Prather, a psychologist at the University of California, said: 'Social jet lag is more insidious. Its often hiding in plain sight, though it may have an impact on our health.'

Research was based off the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Survey, which measures the habits of about 5,000 adults and children across America

Social jet lag is measured by a person's amount of time between their midpoint of sleep when transitioning from work days to weekends

The loss of sleep can lead to problems like higher risks for depression and certain types of diabetes and cardiovascular problems, because people with a higher social jet lag tend to eat less healthy and exercise less

Prather told the Wall Street Journal that it's harder to feel social jet lag because there isn't a large change in environment, like when you travel.

Sleep experts have suggested that more research has needed to connect it to the poor health. However, current research suggests that the worse disparity between sleep patterns means the worse outcomes for your health.

Prather adds: 'Maybe theres something going on with circadian clocks that might be driving the problem. Its still an emerging science.'

Susheel Patil, who directs the sleep medicine program at the Ohio University, suggests that moving your sleep pattern from, say, falling asleep at 8 p.m. on a Thursday and 9 p.m. on a Friday could be the equivalent to 'traveling one time zone, without even traveling.'
Some of the aircrafts have taken flight again, but it unclear when the rest will be cleared for take off

The procedure was stopped about 'six months ago and will not be used going forward'

More than 100 C-130 Air Force planes have been grounded after it was discovered the propeller blades had cracks.

The Air Force suspected the cracks are a byproduct of repeated scratching during a decade of inspection.

During maintenance, technicians use an electric arc pen to scratch numbers into the blades to indict that the inspection has been done.

'The process used to engrave serial numbers on the propellers likely contributed to cracks that are being found on the C-130Hs,' Major Beau Downey told Defense One.

Technicians stopped this procedure about 'six months ago and will not be used going forward.'

Etching is completed during 'depot maintenance' at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia.

The base 'inspects, overhauls, and tests' damage that cannot be repaired outside of the depot.

More than 100 C-130s were grounded by the Air Force after the propeller blades cracked. The cracks are suspected from being etched on with arc pens during depot maintenance over the last decade

A total of a 116 H model C-130 are out of commission as the military works to repair them

Technicians at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex (pictured) in Georgia use an electric arc pen to scratch numbers into the blades to indict that the inspection has been done. The procedure was stopped about 'six months ago and will not be used going forward'

'This process involves complex inspections and repairs that cannot be accomplished at the unit level outside the depot.'

Although the military has not confirmed that etching caused the cracks, the damage grounded 116 aircrafts, or around 20 percent of the C-130 fleet.

Further analysis will be conducted into the 'root cause of the cracks,' according to Downey.

'The [Air Force] is working a multi-faceted recovery plan to resume safe aircraft operations as soon as possible,' Downey said. 'This will be an incremental process based on operational priority and our focus remains the safety of our crews.

'Right now our focus is on safely and quickly returning these aircraft to supporting the mission.'

A small number of aircrafts have returned to the air.

The military does not know when the rest of the aircrafts will take flight again, saying the 'continued process is underway in expediting the process to acquire available prop barrels, which includes scouring the globe for stock of the H model prop barrels that our maintainers can refurbish.'

The current H models have been a part of the Air Force since 1970s. The Air Force has more than 450 C-130s in rotation, with around 200 being H models.

Etching is completed during 'depot maintenance' at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia. The base 'inspects, overhauls, and tests' damage that cannot be repaired outside of the depot

The H models are mainly used for tactical missions and are capable to operating in rough, dirt strips and are mainly used to airdrop troops and equipment into hostile areas.

It has been used all across the US, as well, as in Europe, the Pacific Air Force, and in the National Guard.

The C-130 entered combat in the 1950s during the Korean War after the military realized it needed an aircraft capable of transporting troops medium distances.

By December 1956, there were 230 C-130A's in rotation and more models would go on to be made.
The mother of two Melbourne sisters allegedly involved in a roadside argument which left one of them dead says her 'heart is broken' by the family tragedy.

Asyai Luk, 22, could spend up to 10 years behind bars after she was charged with dangerous driving causing death and failing to stop and render assistance.

Police allege her older sister Anong Luk, 24, known as Gol, had tried to get out of the vehicle being driven by her sister when the black SUV accelerated and dragged the victim along the road before crushing her against a parked Jeep in Sunshine on Monday afternoon.

The girl's mother, Aleza Gwit, said on Wednesday that her oldest daughter Gol was 'always there for me, checking on me and saying 'mum I love you' or 'I did your dishes' just to make me happy'.

Anong Luk (pictured), 24, was killed when she was pinned between two cars in an alleged hit and run

It is alleged Asyai Luk (pictured) was behind the wheel of the SUV and accelerated when Gol was trying to get inside

'She (Luk) called me like mum she (her sister) got out of the car and she's angry... I don't know exactly what happened,' Ms Gwit told Nine News.

Luk, a learner driver, allegedly left her older sister for dead and drove off.

The black SUV was captured on CCTV driving down High Street after the alleged collision.

Her sister was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious head injuries but later died.

Luk appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday night, where harrowing details of the events leading up to the alleged collision were heard.

Asyai Luk has been charged over the alleged hit and run which claimed the life of her sister in Melbourne's west on Monday (pictured, police examining the scene in Sunshine)

The girl's mother Aleza Gwit (pictured) said on Wednesday her heart is broken

An alleged argument between two Melbourne sisters (pictured together) has left one dead

The two sisters had been involved in a verbal and physical altercation in the car before Luk got out to get help from residents, the court heard.

'The accused returned to the driver side of the vehicle and continued with a verbal altercation with their sister,' the prosecutor alleged in court, The Herald Sun reported.

The court heard the sister was 'kicked out' of the car and tried to get back in the vehicle in a 'distressed' state when Luk allegedly drove off.

The vehicle travelled a short distance before colliding with a white Jeep parked nearby.

The black SUV (pictured) was captured on CCTV driving down High Street after the collision

The sister was pinned between the two vehicles after her head hit the Jeep's front bumper bar.

'The victim has lost her grip on the door and collided with the stationary parked vehicle with her face impacting the front bumper bar,' the prosecutor told the court.

In court, magistrate Jason Ong noted the seriousness of the charges but granted Luk bail on strict conditions to appear in court at a later date.

She had no family in attendance at Tuesday night's court appearance.

Investigations into the collision continue.
For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14

His death is not being treated as suspicious and he fell in front of onlookers

He fell from Crown Southbank Riverside Apartments at Southbank in Melbourne

A man has fallen to his death from an apartment block around 1pm, Wednesday

A man has fallen to his death from an apartment building in Melbourne in front of horrified onlookers.

He plunged from the Crown Southbank Riverside Apartments along Power Street around 1pm on Wednesday.

A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

A man has plunged to his death after he fell from Crown Southbank Riverside Apartments (pictured) on Power Street in Melbourne

'Emergency services were called to Power Street just after 1pm,' they said.

'Police will prepare a report for the Coroner following the death of a man in Southbank on 9 November.'

Local residents and workers in the area recalled witnessing the tragic scene.

'Sadly saw this unfold from my office in Southbank,' wrote one person on Reddit.

Another who witnessed the tragedy unfold said: 'Most of the team are quite rattled though and have gone home. Pretty confronting thing to see.'

A police spokesperson said the death was not being treated as suspicious (stock image)

The user added that the man had lingered on the balcony for 'a couple of minutes' before he fell.

Another person wrote that they could 'see it from my apartment'.

For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
The Archdiocese of Denver has directed local Catholic schools not to enroll transgender or gender non-conforming students.

In a 17-page document, the Archdiocese said progressive gender ideologies were a 'danger to the faith of Christians' and could not be supported by the church.

The guidance also noted trans and gender non-conforming students currently enrolled in schools should not be re-enrolled.

The document said schools 'must refuse' any requests that students be referred by alternative pronouns, that they must use bathrooms aligned with their birth-gender, and that schools should not recognize same-sex couples as a family unit.

Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila has not commented on the document.

The Archdiocese of Denver directed local Catholic schools not to enroll transgender and gender non-conforming students

Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila has not commented on the document. The Denver Archdiocese defended it

The document, titled 'Guidance for Issues Concerning the Human Person and Sexual Identity' was obtained by the Denver Post and released on Monday.

It says 'a Catholic school cannot affirm a student's identity as transgender, gender nonconforming, non-binary, gender-fluid, gender-queer, or any other term that rejects the reality of the student's given male or female sexual identity.'

The document also explained that trans students should be removed from schools even if they comply with all 'relevant school rules,' because the situation would be 'not workable.'

The diocese said Catholic schools and trans students would be 'working from irreconcilable premises and moving towards incompatible goals' were the students to remain enrolled in the school.

The document's recommendations also extend to teachers, saying those who are transgender are 'not suited to teach in a Catholic school or to carry out the school's mission in any capacity.'

The Archdiocese confirmed the authenticity of the document, according to The Denver Post, and said it was written 'several years ago to clarify terminology and Catholic Church teaching regarding questions around gender.' The document was reportedly redistributed to schools this year.

The archdiocese defended the guidance in a statement to the ABC 7 Denver.

'We don't expect everyone to ascribe to a Catholic worldview, but we strongly reject attempts to paint our position as bigoted or unloving,' a spokesperson said. 'It is precisely because of our love and reverence for the nature of the human person that we cannot stay quiet on this matter and must address what Pope Francis has said is the 'ideological colonization' taking place in our world today.'

Kae Madden, bishop of the Rocky Mountain region of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion said the church should be treating trans students with support, instead of rejecting them

Nadine Bridges, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group One Colorado, called the guidance 'disheartening'

The document was met with outrage from activists within the church and without.

Nadine Bridges, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group One Colorado, called the guidance 'disheartening.'

'When you are creating a space where some people can be accepted and other folks are not, then you are discriminating,' she said. 'I wish that the members of the Archdiocese would actually sit down with the community and have a really honest and authentic conversation on being inclusive.'

Kae Madden, bishop of the Rocky Mountain region of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion said the church should be treating trans students with support, instead of rejecting them.

'Let's come together around people who are suffering, in whatever way that is, and love them into wholeness,' she said.
A 'dedicated' policewoman and mother of twin girls has ended her own life, rocking the New South Police force just two months after another officer also suicided.

Senior Constable Audra Jaeger, 50, who died on October 28, leaves behind 12-year-old twin girls, Harper and Evie.

Daily Mail Australia understands Ms Jaeger, who served in Sydney's eastern suburbs and at Wollongong, was on stress leave and died at home.

Senior Constable Audra Jaeger, 50, who died on October 28, leaves behind 12-year-old twin girls

A former colleague of Ms Jaeger shared a heartbreaking photo of her twins in front of a giant love heart drawn in the sand with the words 'Evie, Mumma and Harper'

Her Wollongong police colleagues have been offered counselling.

Ms Jaeger joined the police service at 28 and served for 21 years, working at Bondi and Waverley stations, before moving to Wollongong, south of Sydney.

She also worked at PCYCs in Sutherland and Lake Illawarra and took part in cancer charity work as part of a Cops Against Cancer cycle team.

A former colleague, Dianna Mackay, has started an official fundraiser to raise money for Ms Jaeger's two daughters.

She shared a heartbreaking photo of the twins in front of a giant love heart drawn in the sand.

Ms Jaeger joined the police service at 28 and served for 21 years, working at Bondi and Waverley stations, then at Wollongong. Daily Mail Australia understands she took her life

Senior constable Jaeger was posted to Wollongong and worked at PCYCs in Sutherland and Lake Illawarra

'Senior Constable Audra Jaeger sadly passed away on 28 October 2022. She is survived by her twin daughters, Harper and Evie, who are both just twelve years old,' Ms Mackay wrote.

'Audra was an amazing person, friend, work colleague, partner, mumma and daughter.'

Ms Jaeger was 'much loved by everyone who knew her' Ms Mackay said.

'Audra lit up the room no matter where she was; at work, at home or at play.

'[She] was a massive beacon of light and burst of positive energy and even with her passing, her shining light will never be extinguished.'

She took part in cancer charity work as part of a Cops Against Cancer cycle team

One donor wrote 'Such a beautiful person gone too soon, rest easy Aud.'

Tributes poured in from colleagues and loved ones, many through the charity, NSW Police Legacy.

It shared the tragic news on its social media pages on Wednesday: 'We're sorry, family, but we have more heartbreaking news.'

A NSW paramedic who had a chance encounter with her a week before her death said Ms Jaeger was 'dedicated' and friendly.

The tragedy comes less than two months after the body of off-duty male officer, Tanzeel Iftikhar Bashir, 23, was found in the Royal National Park. Pictured, colleagues of Constable Bashir paid their respects at Narellan Cemetery

'[She was a] dedicated Emergency Services colleague, our paths crossed many times for many different reasons and Audra always greeted me with a smile followed by a quick chat, we even had a chat at a restaurant the week before her passing, if only we knew, now it's another sad loss that may have been prevented,' he wrote.

'RIP sister in blue,' a former sergeant wrote.

'Audra was always a pleasure to work with at the PCYC,' a Sydney mum posted.

'So so sad... a truly lovely person' another woman wrote.

The tragedy comes less than two months after the body of off-duty male officer, Tanzeel Iftikhar Bashir, 23, was found in the Royal National Park.

Constable Tanzeel Iftikhar Bashir, 23, was found in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, at about 12.40am on Saturday

A large contingent of shocked police officers gathered at Narellan Cemetery to salute their late colleague. The 23-year-old was remembered as a loving son and brother and widely respected police officer

Constable Bashir was found in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, at about 12.40am on Saturday September 3.

Police had launched a search for the young off-duty officer at about 10.30pm on September 2 after concerns were raised for his welfare.

His colleagues found the Bankstown Police Area Command officer the following morning.

All funds raised for Audra Jaeger's twins will be put into a trust for Harper and Evie Jaeger, and will be given to the girls when they turn 21.

The fundraiser has the modest target of $10,000 and had raised $2,655 by Wednesday evening.

If you or anyone you know needs help or confidential support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
Two men have died in a tragic air accident believed to be mid-air collision between a glider and an Ultralight aircraft in south-east Queensland.

Ambulance, police and fire and rescue crews rushed to the scene of the accident at Gympie airport at Kybong, inland from the Sunshine Coast, on Wednesday afternoon.

One man from each aircraft died in the paddock the two planes crashed in, with wreckage strewn across a 200 metre area.

An unnamed emergency services worker told Daily Mail Australia the scene in the paddock was 'traumatic' for all attending emergency crews, while police said a 'graphic' scene confronted them.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene of an air crash involving two light planes at Kybong, just south of Gympie on Wednesday afternoon. Tragically two men died at the 'graphic' scene

Reports say a plane collided with a glider that it was towing, before both crashed into a paddock south of Gympie, Queensland

A witness who lives on a neighbouring property said he was sitting on his veranda when a loud bang rang out.

'We thought that didnt sound like a gunshot and we looked up and saw white bits of plane falling out of the sky,' he told 7News.

Reports say a plane collided with a glider that it was towing, before both crashed into a paddock, the Courier Mail reported.

Nearby farm workers also reported hearing a loud explosion at the accident.

Lindsay Mitchell from Gliding Australia said one of the men who died was an experienced glider pilot.

The incident was reported to emergency services around 2.50pm.

Queensland Police Service confirmed it attended 'an aviation incident at Kybong involving two light aircraft... following reports the aircraft crashed.'

On Wednesday evening a QPS spokesman said its forensic crash unit was investigating the possibility of a mid-air collision at the Gympie airport.

'This is a little local airport, many people here know each other and go gliding together, it's a small regional club, it will hit the local community very hard.'

On Wednesday evening a Queensland police spokesman said its forensic crash unit was investigating the possibility of a mid-air collision at the Gympie airport

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services sent three crews to the accident site on Glory Hill Road, which is just south of the Gympie Aerodrome.

Neither pilot had been identified as of Wednesday evening and next-of-kin have not yet been informed.
A six-week-old baby has tragically died in a house fire south west of Sydney after suffering burns to 90 per cent of his body.

Emergency crews were called to Darwin Rd in Campbelltown about 2.15pm on Wednesday after the blaze broke out in the kitchen of the house.

Paramedics treated the boy for serious burns - with a second specialist team being helicoptered to the site - before the boy was rushed to Campbelltown Hospital where he later sadly died.

A second child was treated for smoke inhalation but did not suffer serious injury.

The young boy was rushed to Campbelltown Hospital but sadly later died (pictured: crews at the scene)

Fire crews rushed to Darwin Rd in Campbelltown about 2.15pm Wednesday (pictured)

A police officer was seen carrying a toddler in the quiet suburban street south west of Sydney

NSW ambulance chief superintendent Mark Gibbs praised first responders for their work under confronting conditions.

'The baby had sustained burns to between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of its body,' he said.

'Any incident involving a child, particularly a very young baby, is heartbreaking, but I'd like to commend our crews for doing an exemplary job under very difficult circumstances.'

He added support services were offered to those first on the scene.

Neighbours in the area told reporters the baby's mother was heard shrieking.

Amber Knapp who lives in the same street told The Daily Telegraph she was looking after her own child when she went outside and caught sight of the smoke.

'The entire situation is devastating, my heart really goes out to the family,' she said.

Police and fire crews are investigating the cause of the blaze and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

The blaze broke out in the kitchen of the house with two young children being injured in the fire
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told cheering supporters late Tuesday that they would wake up to see Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the minority, on a night when a forceful 'red wave' hadn't materialized.

McCarthy made the comments while standing before a 'take back the House' banner, in Washington, DC early Wednesday, as the GOP appeared in sight of capturing the chamber  but networks held off on making a call as Republican hopes fell short of the tidal wave many elected leaders were banking on.

'Now let me tell you, you're out late. But when you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority,' McCarthy said.

McCarthy, who hopes to seize the gavel from Pelosi to become speaker, rattled off a series of Republican achievements, taking particular delight in claiming to have knocked off Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in New York.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., predicted Republicans would have won the majority by early Wednesday

'In New York, we defeated the Democrat campaign chair Sean Patrick Maloney,' McCarthy said, noting it was the first time in 40 years a head of the Democratic campaign arm had lost reelection.

The AP had not yet called the race, although Maloney was trailing his GOP opponent Mike Lawler 51-49 with 95 per cent of votes in.

'In Florida we gained four seats alone. We are poised to sweep the entire state of Iowa.'

He pointed to state Sen. Jennifer Kiggans, who defeated House Rep. Elaine Luria in Virginia, and a win by Monica De La Cruz in Texas' 15th congressional district, which will be held by a Republican for the first time in 15 years.

He also pointed to a likely win by Republican John James in Michigan's 10th District.

'If you believe in freedom, hard work and the American dream these results prove there is a place for you in the Republican Party,' said McCarthy. 'We are expanding this party.'

'Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority,' McCarthy predicted

Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia also won re-election; above Jill Biden campaigned with Wexton on Monday

Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a top Republican target, won re-election, staving off a red wave

President Joe Biden made a series of congratulatory calls to Democrats on Tuesday night

But McCarthy overlooked some setbacks, even in the states he mentioned.

Two other top GOP targets in Virginia, Abigail Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton won their races, even while Luria fell.

Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur survived a stiff challenge.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin held off a stiff challenge from Republican Tom Barrett in a district that includes Lansing, Michigan  after getting help from Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. 'If we want to ensure the survival of our republic, we have to walk away from politics as usual,' Cheney said on a campaign visit.

Democrat Greg Landsman defeated longtime Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot in a Cincinnati district, while fellow Democrat Hillary Scholten beat Trump-backed Republican John Gibbs in a Western Michigan district. They were running to succeed Rep. Peter Meijer, who lost the primary to Gibbs after voting for Trump's second impeachment.

Democrat Seth Magaziner won in a Rhode Island House seat that was heavily contested by both parties. And Democratic Rep. Andy Kim hung on in New Jersey in what was seen as a close race.

Those results came on a night when polls had Republicans salivating for big gains.

By historical standards, the party out of power usually gains seats  more so when the president's approval rating is deeply under water as Biden's is.

Donald Trump lost 40 seats in 2018, and Barack Obama lost 63 seats in 2010.

This year also featured a host of Democratic retirements amid Biden's poor poll numbers and portents of a GOP wave.

But as the results came in, even some top elected Republicans were admitting results were falling short of expectations.

'Definitely not a Republican wave, that's for darn sure,' said GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in comments to NBC News.

And Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said: 'It hasn't been as big of a wave as I'd hoped it would be. We've had some close races go the other way so far.'

With millions of votes outstanding, there was a chance Republicans would take the House, but by a narrow majority that would be certain to give McCarthy or any Republican leader headaches.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus was set to have more sway, with lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Talor Greene of Georgia set to take outsized role.

One outspoken conservative Republican, Rep. Lauren Boebert, was trailing her Democratic opponent by 2 points in Colorado, with 83 per cent of the vote it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been dealing with the fallout of a hammer attack on her husband Paul Pelosi, released a statement in the early hours of Wednesday morning touting her party's ability to hold the line against an expected 'red wave.'

'While many races remain too close to call, it is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country,' she said.

'As states continue to tabulate the final results, every vote must be counted as cast,' she added.

As of just before 2am ET on Wednesday, Republicans have flipped four seats while Democrats managed to flip an open North Carolina district held by GOP Rep. Ted Budd, who vacated it for a successful run for North Carolina's Senate seat.
The Lux Collective have announce the launch of new global LUX* campaign Life Extraordinary  for its flagship brand LUX*.

We have partnered with leading brand and experience design consultancy Matter of Form to create a strategic, awareness-driving campaign to permeate the unique LUX* brand positioning globally across channels. We believe that time is luxury and every precious moment is worth celebrating. Whether on the beach, in the city or in secluded nature, LUX* transforms the everyday into the extraordinary through elevated shining service, beautifully designed spaces and by delivering on carefully crafted escapes, said Mr Julian Hagger, Executive Vice President of The Lux Collective.

At the heart of its purpose, The Lux Collective makes each moment matter and cares about what matters. With award-winning resorts, LUX* is designed on the promise of a different kind of luxury  to excite and delight  from retro-style ice cream parlours, tailor-made LUX* ME Spa and wellness sessions, fine-dining to a magical tree of wishes, junk art galleries and impromptu on-the-beach film screenings.

Mr Anant Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of Matter Of Form said

We are privileged to work with LUX*. During our time at the LUX* properties in Maldives and Mauritius, we were struck by their exceptional service culture, incredible locations and outstanding resorts. Translating the essence of this global portfolio into comms, digital and content in a way that does justice to the physical experience requires finely-tuned creative, driven by big, bold thinking.

The Life Extraordinary campaign depicts tasteful, modern style of luxury and includes new broadcast video and print advertisements, social, digital and content marketing initiatives. The campaign activity will be further amplified through key partnerships globally and the roll-out of its very own LUX* Magazine entitled Life Extraordinary with inspirations to help LUX* aficionados celebrate life.

A naturalistic campaign that breaks conventional codes of advertising with a less-is-more emotive approach, the creatives taken at different resort destinations highlight each locations distinctiveness, with their own tailored creative assets. In addition, it conveys the diversity of guests and unique experiences that LUX* provides.

 At LUX* Grand Baie in Mauritius, the resort campaign story is about three friends reuniting after years apart. Tapping into the prior anticipation, long-awaited reconnection and the sense of belonging with truly close friends, this creative celebrates the beauty and joy friendship can bring. Magnified by magnificent surroundings.

Located on one of the islands most coveted beaches of the north, LUX* Grand Baie offers a spectacular setting with the promise of a modern take on luxury paired with extraordinary experiences. Positioned as the best luxury resort in Mauritius, it is the global winner of Robb Report Annual Best of the Best Awards  The Best In Travel for Island Getaway, just six months after newly opened last December.

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The beachfront resort LUX* Le Morne embodies contemporary island lifestyle paired with immersive experiences  curated for mindful luxury travellers. Situated at the foot of Le Morne mountain (UNESCO Heritage Site) and 15 minutes from Black River Gorges, it is close to some best hiking trails, with exclusive access to the most sought-after sunset spots and lagoons.

 At LUX* South Ari Atoll, it introduces the Maldivian oasis designed to house unobstructed extraordinary connection. The creative centres on a busy father and young daughter, each looking for kindred moments that seem just out of reach. Throughout their stay, unmet glances become eventual embraces  their shared joy.

With stylish overwater villas built on stilts, the luxurious LUX* South Ari Atoll in the Maldives features a variety of fun-filled activities with modern soul. They include jetty bicycle rides, swimming alongside whale sharks, a culinary adventure at its eight restaurants, each featuring LUX*s Keen on Green wholesome vegan cuisine, and partaking in marine conservation.

Travel is one of lifes great pleasures. The specially curated LUX* Magazine aims to enrich the mind as well as highlight the beauty and collective consciousness of wellbeing and sustainability as the way forward for travel. From relevant reflections of lifes purpose, what ignites passion by known personalities, it includes lifestyle trends stories of Go Lightly to protect the earth to culinary features on The Rise of The Sober Curious. Additionally, there is an exclusive booklet  Extraordinary Experiences which guests can partake in breathtaking adventures as they journey around the world with LUX*.

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This is the dramatic moment a Russian mine-clearing vehicle was blown sky-high on the Donbas frontline during a battle with Ukrainian troops.

Drone footage shows a Russian UR-77 mine-clearing vehicle suffering a catastrophic explosion while advancing as part of an armoured convoy along the border between Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The video was captured in early October around 20 miles from Bakhmut which Wagner mercenaries have been trying unsuccessfully to take, with Kyiv saying the heaviest and deadliest fighting is taking place around that city.

It emerged online today as Ukraine claimed the number of Russian troops killed in the war so-far is almost 78,000 - more than five times the Soviet toll in Afghanistan which helped collapse the union.

This is the moment a Russian armoured vehicle - believed to be a UR-77 mine-clearer - was hit during a battle with Ukrainian forces and exploded

The blast was so devastating that other vehicles in the same column were able to drive straight through the crater because there was not a single piece of wreckage left over (pictured)

Bakmut sits on a strategic crossroads in Donetsk oblast - one of the two that make up the Donbas - and the Russians have been trying to take it since the summer.

Images from the city show parts of it have been reduced to little more than a cratered moonscape by months of intense combat.

Taking control of the city will make little difference to Russia's overall war effort, but it is of crucial propaganda value to President Putin and Yevegeny Prigozhin - the leader of Wagner Group, who are tasked with the effort.

Putin claims the overall mission of his war remains the 'liberation' of the Donbas.

Russia can claim to have conquered Luhansk oblast - the other region in Donbas - after seizing the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk back in July.

But around half of Donetsk remains in Ukrainian hands. While Russia stands almost no chance of seizing it, continuing to attack Bakhmut at least allows Putin to claim the 'liberation' mission is still ongoing.

For Prigozhin, the fact that his troops are still capable of attacking while Russian forces elsewhere have been ground to a halt or forced to retreat allows him bragging rights over Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, his bitter rival.

Prigozhin - an oligarch known as Putin's chef because one of his companies provides catering for the Kremlin - is now attempting to win himself political influence and power through battlefield success.

A Russian armoured column was advancing along the border between Donetsk and Luhansk when it came under attack by Ukraine, with a tank at the head of the column opening fire

As the convoy advances the second vehicle in the line is struck by some kind of explosive, triggering a huge blast that peppers the surrounding ground with shrapnel

The footage was captured around 20 miles north of Bakhmut, where some of the heaviest fighting of the war is currently taking place

In recent weeks he has publicly acknowledged being Wagner's boss for the first time and admitted interfering in US elections in an apparent attempt to boost his profile,

He has also opened a huge new office building where Wagner will now be based and unveiled a shiny new logo for the paramilitary group.

There is even speculation that Prigozhin and ally Ramzan Kadyrov - a Chechen warlord who has become increasingly critical of the war effort - could be lining themselves up as successors to Putin should his regime collapse.

On the Ukrainian side, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday night said his forces would not yield 'a single centimetre' in battles in Donbas.

'The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level - dozens of attacks every day,' Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

'They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same - to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimetre of our land,' he added.

The region is one of four Russia claimed to have annexed in late September.

A Russian-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka east of the southern city of Mykolaiv was cited by Russia's RIA news agency as saying on Tuesday that residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.

A Ukrainian artillery gun opens fire on the frontlines near Bakhmut on Tuesday, as Kyiv's forces hold off attacks from Wagner troops

A Ukrainian artillery gun crew gather around a fire to keep warm between missions firing at Wagner troops attacking the city of Bakhmut

'They got into (radio) contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town,' the mayor Yuri Barabashov said.

'People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town centre,' he told Russian state newswire RIA.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in Kherson region, said Ukrainian forces had tried to advance on three fronts, including Snihurivka, according to his Telegram messaging app account.

Vitaly Kim, the Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, strongly suggested that Ukrainian forces had already evicted Russian forces from the area. He quoted what appeared to be a conversation between Russian servicemen.

'The Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there,' a statement on Kim's Telegram channel said.

There was no official word on the situation in the town from military officials in either Ukraine or Russia.
Rishi Sunak facing questions about his judgment after bringing Sir Gavin back for a third spell in Cabinet

He was due 16,876 in severance despite being back in Government for just two weeks - but is turning it down

Alleged he told civil servant to 'slit your throat' and sent abusive texts to by former chief whip Wendy Morton

Gavin Williamson said that he is quitting Cabinet and will 'comply fully' with probes into bullying allegations

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Gavin Williamson is facing calls for his knighthood to be stripped if bullying claims are upheld after he sensationally quit the Cabinet.

The minister announced his resignation last night admitting the furore had become a 'distraction', although he insisted he is still determined to clear his name.

The departure followed another frantic day of allegations about Sir Gavin's behaviour - including that he told a senior civil servant to 'slit your throat'.

However, while Downing Street will likely breathe a sigh of relief that Sir Gavin has fallen on his sword, RIshi Sunak must now run the gauntlet of PMQs with questions raised about his judgment.

And Lib Dem frontbencher Wendy Chamberlain has upped the ante by demanding Sir Gavin has his title retracted if probes find the allegations are proven.

Mr Sunak appointed his ally when he took over at No10 just a fortnight ago, despite apparently being aware of the dispute former chief whip Wendy Morton over expletive-laden texts about invites to the Queen's funeral.

In a round of interviews this morning, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan insisted Mr Sunak had the 'highest degree of integrity' and there had been 'quick' action.

Sir Gavin said in his resignation letter that he was determined to show he has done nothing wrong. Responding, Mr Sunak wrote that he was accepting 'with great sadness'. 'I would like to thank you for your personal support and loyalty,' he added.

Mr Williamson is entitled to nearly 17,000 in severance for his short spell in government - but last night he confirmed he would turn it down.

He tweeted: 'To dispel any speculation, I want to make it clear that I will not be taking any severance. This is taxpayers' money and it should go instead toward the Government's priorities like reducing the NHS's waiting lists'.

It is the third time Sir Gavin has been forced to exit the Cabinet, after being sacked as Defence Secretary by Theresa May and Education Secretary by Boris Johnson.

Gavin Williamson has quit the cabinet saying that he wants to 'comply fully' with the complaints process and clear his name following bullying allegations

Sir Gavin's letter of resignation sent to Mr Sunak , saying he recognised the allegations were becoming a 'distraction'

Responding, Mr Sunak wrote that he was accepting 'with great sadness'. 'I would like to thank you for your personal support and loyalty,' he added

Mr Williamson was due 16,876 in severance pay despite being back in Government for just two weeks - but last night he confirmed he would turn it down.

The rise and (multiple) falls of Sir Gavin Gavin Williamson's political career has been filled with mishap and controversy. Born and raised in Scarborough, he was managing director of a fireplace firm before becoming an MP. His reputation as a 'master of the dark arts' was cemented when chief whip in 2016 and 2017. He revelled in his tough reputation, telling delegates at the 2017 Conservative Party conference: 'We take a carrot and stick approach. Personally I don't much like the stick, but it is amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot.' He kept a red-legged Mexican tarantula named Cronus in a glass box on his desk, which is said to have provided added menace when dealing with errant MPs. He said the spider was 'a perfect example of an incredibly clean, ruthless killer'. Sir Gavin went on to raise eyebrows with his language while he served as defence secretary from 2017 to 2019. At the height of the furore over the Salisbury novichok attack he told Russia to 'go away and shut up'. Theresa May sacked him as defence secretary in May 2019 following an inquiry into a leak from a National Security Council meeting about Chinese involvement in the development of 5G networks. Boris Johnson brought him back as education secretary but was then forced to resign again after the fiasco around grading of GCSE and A-level exams. Sir Gavin also received criticism over free school meals and over the recovery plan to help pupils catch up after Covid. He came under fire for telling a newspaper he had held a Zoom meeting with Rashford, but he had in fact met rugby player Maro Itoje. He was sent to the backbenches in September 2021 but returned two weeks ago as minister without portfolio under Rishi Sunak. Advertisement

Mr Sunak pledged a new era of 'integrity' in government when he took over from Liz Truss, but has immediately been embroiled in rows over reappointing Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and then drafting in Sir Gavin.

But Ms Keegan predicted Sir Gavin's case 'won't be discussed any further'.

'I think Rishi has the highest degree of integrity and judgment,' the Education Secretary told Times Radio.

'We saw it all over the summer, he was prepared to tell the hard truths. That's real leadership.'

She added: 'I mean, the reality is you appoint people and, you know, the only thing you can do if things don't work out or things go wrong or things come to light afterwards is act quickly.

'Gavin's acted quickly, he's removed the distraction.

'I would expect after today that it won't be discussed any further.'

Opposition parties seized on the news, with deputy Labour leader Angel Rayner saying: 'This is a damning reflection of a weak Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak appointed Gavin Williamson with full knowledge of serious allegations about his conduct and repeatedly expressed confidence in him.'

In his resignation letter, Sir Gavin wrote: 'As you know, there is an ongoing complaints process concerning text messages I sent to a colleague. I am complying with this process and have apologised to the recipient for those messages.

'Since then, there have been other allegations made about my past conduct. I refute the characterisation of these claims, but I recognise these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing for the British people.

'I have therefore decided to step back from government so that I can comply fully with the complaints process that is underway and clear my name of any wrongdoing.

'It is with real sadness that I tender my resignation, but I want to take this opportunity to offer my full and total support from the back benches. I am incredibly proud to have worked with you in government over the last few years and during the campaign.'

Downing Street was carrying out a fact-finding exercise into the claims about Sir Gavin's conduct towards the defence official, which could have resulted in a formal propriety probe. Meanwhile the Tory party and Parliament's bullying watchdog are looking into allegations made by Ms Morton.

Before lunchtime yesterday the PM's spokesman was still voicing 'confidence' in Sir Gavin and stressing his contribution to government. But by 4pm No10 was making clear that Rishi Sunak might not wait for the outcome of investigations to act, and he then resigned just after 8pm.

One damaging factor was his former deputy Anne Milton alleging he used intimidatory and threatening tactics while he was chief whip.

Ms Milton accused Sir Gavin of seeking to use an MP's financial difficulties as leverage against them and sending an expletive-laden email about a female civil servant.

Ms Milton, who was deputy chief whip from May 2015 to June 2017, described his behaviour as 'unethical and immoral', claiming: 'I think he feels that he's Francis Urquhart from House Of Cards.'

Ms Milton, who was stripped of the Tory whip during the Brexit rows in 2019 and subsequently lost her seat, told Channel 4 News: '

'I got the impression that he loved salacious gossip and would use it as leverage against MPs if the need arose.'

Asked if any particular incidents stood out from her time working under Sir Gavin, she added: 'There were a few - the salacious gossip, which I've talked about, people's sexual preferences, that sort of thing.

'He loved all that. He would come into the office and say: 'Guess who enjoys some form of sex or another'.

'I found it very distasteful apart from anything. He also, on one occasion, we had an MP who'd got a few financial problems, some financial help was given.

'It wasn't a great amount, but I do remember him asking me to give the MP in question the cheque.

'And he waved it under my nose and said: 'Make sure when you give him this cheque he knows that I now own him'.

'I'm sure if you ask Gavin Williamson about this, he will say it was a joke. I don't think it was a joke.'

Ms Milton also recalled an email sent by Sir Gavin in 2016 in response to a female civil servant's inquiry about why a minister had to change travel plans to attend a vote.

'Always tell them to f*** off and if they have the bollocks to come and see me. F****** jumped up civil servants,' she claimed he sent to her in reply.

She questioned Mr Sunak's decision to give Sir Gavin a ministerial job, saying: 'I think (at) best it was probably a bit naive. I don't know that there are many people that would hang out the bunting to see Gavin Williamson back in government.'

Ms Milton was Conservative MP for Guildford between 2005 and 2019 but lost the Tory whip towards the end of her time in Parliament during the bitter Brexit battles in the House of Commons.

She subsequently stood as an independent candidate at the 2019 general election, but failed to hold onto her Surrey seat.

The claims by Ms Milton followed allegations that Sir Gavin clashed with a civil servant while he was defence secretary.

Sir Gavin denied the official's allegation of a campaign of bullying but did not deny making the remarks, including telling the civil servant to 'jump out of the window'.

The Guardian, which first reported the allegations, said a complaint had now gone to the ICGS.

In a statement, the complainant said they had an 'incredibly difficult period' working for Sir Gavin at the MoD and that the alleged bullying had had 'an extreme impact' on their mental health.

Sir Gavin has also been hit by a row over the expletive-laden text messages he sent to fellow MP Ms Morton after he was excluded from the Queen's funeral.

In a statement following the Guardian report, Sir Gavin said: 'I strongly reject this allegation and have enjoyed good working relationships with the many brilliant officials I have worked with across Government.'

It is understood that former chief whip Ms Morton has referred her complaint to Parliament's bullying watchdog, while an internal Tory party inquiry is ongoing.

Having given strong backing to Sir Gavin at lunchtime, by yesterday afternoon Mr Sunak's spokesman was indicating he would not feel the need to wait until the resolution of existing investigations to act if the circumstances demanded it.

'Obviously he would act if and when he felt it was appropriate to do so,' the spokesman said.

The Tory party and Parliament's bullying watchdog are looking into allegations made by former chief whip Wendy Morton (pictured)

Ex-Conservative MP Anne Milton, who worked alongside Sir Gavin for almost a year in the Tory whips' office between 2016 and 2017, claimed the 46-year-old 'loved salacious gossip' including about people's 'sexual preferences'

Ironically Sir Gavin's ministerial responsibilities were only announced yesterday afternoon, having been a mystery for the past fortnight.

They included the Geospatial Commission, the Government Communications Service and the 'Great Campaign' to promote the UK.

In a series of texts peppered with swear words, Sir Gavin accused Ms Morton of seeking to 'punish' MPs out of favour with then-premier Liz Truss by excluding them from the Queen's funeral, warning: 'There is a price for everything.'

Sir Gavin, who was knighted after being nominated for the honour by Mr Johnson earlier this year, is a divisive figure at Westminster, where he is viewed with suspicion by many Tory MPs because of his reputation as an inveterate plotter.

He was sacked first by former PM Theresa May as defence secretary in 2019 for allegedly leaking details of a National Security Council meeting, and then by Mr Johnson as education secretary over the Covid-19 exams debacle.

However, he was regarded as a key figure in Mr Sunak's campaign over the summer to become party leader.
Expert says finding the lost artwork would be 'the biggest sensation in the art world since the war'

Team from Silesian Bridge Foundation, who are digging in the grounds of an 18th-century Polish palace, said they received letter from descendants of Nazis

The painting was seized by Gestapo officers after Germany's invasion of Poland

Experts have been given a letter written by an SS officer which could lead to the discovery of Raphael's long-lost 16th-century painting Portrait of a Young Man

Experts searching for 200million of Hitler's gold in the grounds of an 18th-century palace in Poland have said Nazi descendants have handed over a letter written by an SS officer that could uncover another lost treasure.

A team from the Silesian Bridge Foundation said the fragment of an ageing letter, seen exclusively by MailOnline, could reveal the mystery behind one of the Second World War's most valuable pieces of looted art.

The letter references the long-lost 16th-century painting Portrait of a Young Man by Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael, which was seized by Gestapo officers following Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939.

The Foundation said it received the letter from the descendants of senior Nazis who now want to atone for the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the war.

The letter was written by the same SS officer who penned a diary detailing 11 locations where the Nazis are said to have hidden 200million of Nazi gold.

In the letter, the SS officer mentions Raphael's 16th-century painting, which ended up in the hands of Hitler's henchman Hans Frank, who was head of the general government in occupied Poland.

The painting, along with other priceless artworks, was hung in Krakow's Wawel Castle, which Frank had requisitioned as his home.

This was the last place that the painting - which is currently valued at more than 86million - was seen.

Now, the five-page letter written in gothic-style German by a Nazi officer named 'Michaelis' could explain its disappearance.

A team from the Silesian Bridge Foundation said the fragment of an ageing letter exclusively seen by MailOnline could reveal the mystery behind one of the Second World War's most valuable pieces of looted art

The letter references the long-lost 16th-century painting 'Portrait of a Young Man' (pictured) by Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael, which was seized by Gestapo officers in 1939

The SS officer writes about Raphael's 16th-century painting, which ended up in the hands of Hitler's henchman Hans Frank (pictured), who was head of the general government in occupied Poland

The discovery was made using a geo radar search of an abandoned conservatory at an 18th-century palace in the village of Minkowskie in southern Poland

In the letter dated 1947 - apparently addressed to a friend - Michaelis writes that he had hidden the painting along with other valuables.

He also mentioned someone called Hanke who is thought to be Karl Hanke, the Gauleiter of Lower Silesia and later the last Reichsfuhrer SS after Heinrich Himmler was arrested in April 1944.

In the letter Michaelis wrote: 'Yes, Hanke was right, the boxes contained cultural goods from Krakow.

'When I think back it was once a collection [belonging to] Flamming.

'You know, my dear friend, I adore culture, but this was too much for me.

'Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man with old stamps on the back, oval and square, signed 1514.'

The Nazi officer, who the Foundation say may have been using a pseudonym, added: 'The painting was rumoured to have been in the Flamming collection at one time.

'Rembrandt's Autoportret, Rubens's Portrait of a Lady and many more.

'Now I may have to find more hiding places because my friend Otto will never know about these things.'

Although it is unclear where the SS officer hid the painting, Bart Zelaytys from the Silesian Bridge Foundation said: 'This is the first written document that tells us at least in part what happened to the painting after it left Krakow.

'Finding the lost Raphael would be the biggest sensation in the art world since the end of the war.'

A section of the letter which references 'Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man with old stamps on the back, oval and square, signed 1514'

Dating from 1947 in what appears to be a letter to a friend, Michaelis mentioned someone called Hanke who is thought to be Karl Hanke (pictured in 1945), the Gauleiter of Lower Silesia and later the last Reichsfuhrer SS

He added: 'We don't know who [Otto] is. He may be a farmer with whom Michaelis was staying.

'It was normal for SS officers to hide in the countryside after the war to avoid being identified in large cities and arrested by the Allies.'

Zelaytys said only the last page of the letter had been revealed because the Foundation is now translating and analysing the other four pages.

The letter was written by the same SS officer who kept a diary detailing 11 locations where the Nazis are said to have hidden other looted treasure.

One of those locations is an 18th-century palace in the village of Minkowskie, Poland, where the Foundation is currently digging up an old orangery in a small area of the 14-hectare palace park.

It is thought treasures, stolen on the orders of SS boss Heinrich Himmler to set up a Fourth Reich, are buried there.

The treasure was stolen on the orders of SS boss Heinrich Himmler (pictured) towards the end of the Second World War to set up a Fourth Reich

The letter was written by the same SS officer who kept a diary detailing 11 locations where the Nazis are said to have hidden other looted treasure. One of those locations is an 18th-century palace (pictured) in the village of Minkowskie, Poland, where the Foundation is currently digging up an old orangery

The dig is taking place in the grounds of the 18th-century palace in the village of Minkowskie, Poland

Earlier this year, the group uncovered a 5ft metal canister buried 10ft below the surface at the site.

Thought to include the so-called Gold of Breslau, which went missing from police headquarters in what is now the nearby Polish city of Wroclaw, the canister is also thought to include jewellery and valuables from the private collections of wealthy Germans who lived in the region.

The city of Breslau - modern day Wroclaw in Poland - was one of the wealthiest in Hitler's Third Reich. But the impending arrival of the Red Army meant the Germans had to hide tons of gold and valuables.

These included bank deposits from the Reichsbank, as well as private German banks, and civilian deposits as the population had been urged to deposit gold, money and jewellery.

According to legend, the treasure was collected in the building of the police headquarters and packed into crates.

Earlier this year, the group uncovered a 5ft metal canister buried 10ft below the surface at the site. Pictured: A tube above ground shows the area where they say the canister is buried

A visualisation of what the Silesian Bridge Foundation says the area may have looked like when the Nazis were burying the canister

It was then transported under an SS guard from Breslau towards what was then the town of Hirschberg, today's Jelenia Gora in Poland, and then the Sudeten mountains.

But, soon after departing, the trail went dead and the gold has never been seen or heard of since.

One of the theories is that it was stolen on Himmler's orders to help create a Fourth Reich.

In order to protect their prized possessions from the advancing Red Army, the wealthy Germans handed their loot over to the SS.

The location was revealed by secret documents, the SS officer's diary and a map that the treasure hunters received from the descendants of officers belonging to a secretive lodge dating back over 1,000 years.

The same diary, said to have been written by the SS officer Michaelis who wrote the letter referencing Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man, is also said to reveal the location of another palace in the region where it is thought 28 tons of treasure is buried at the bottom of a well.

Among the bundle of documents is a letter from a senior SS officer called Von Stein to one of the girls who worked at the palace in Minkowskie and who later became his lover.

The pages of the diary (left) are said to identify 11 locations across Lower Silesia which was German territory before and during the war. Right, Roman Furmaniak, head of the Silesian Bridge Foundation, holding the diary

Roman Furmaniak, from the Silesian Bridge Foundation, which is leading the search in the palace

The location was revealed by secret documents, a diary (pictured) and a map that the treasure hunters received from the descendants of SS officers belonging to a secretive lodge worshipped by Himmler and dating back over 1,000 years

Von Stein wrote: 'My dear Inge, I will fulfill my assignment, with God's will. Some transports were successful. The remaining 48 heavy Reichsbank's chests and all the family chests I hereby entrust to you.

'Only you know where they are located. May God help you and help me, fulfill my assignment.'

The pencil-written pages of the diary are said to identify 11 locations across Lower Silesia which was German territory before and during the war.

An entry from March 12, 1945, referring to the treasure at the palace in Minkowskie says: 'A trough has been dug in the orangery, which is a safe ''home'' for the delivered chests and containers.'

It continues: '48 chests from the Reichsbank, in good condition, were hidden, very well covered with earth and ''greened'' with still living plants.

'Let providence watch over us.'

Inge was the guardian appointed by Von Stein to keep an eye on the hiding place.

Roman Furmaniak, who is leading the Silesian Foundation dig, said: 'She was in love with the handsome officer in a black SS uniform. They were like gods.

'She believed that she would have to stay there for a year, maybe two, then it would all be over.

'Nobody believed then that the region would come under the control of the Soviet Union.

'There was a two-month period in 1945 when she had to hide in the forest from the Russians. But when she got back, the area had not been disturbed.

'If they had dug a hole, they would have taken what they wanted and then left the hole. We have seen this in history many times in Poland.'

Treasure hunters have started digging for ten tons of Nazi gold at the 18th-century palace in Minkowskie, southern Poland

The palace in Minkowskie (archive picture) dates back to the 18th century when it was built by Prussian general Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz

The palace in Minkowskie dates back to the 18th century when it was built by Prussian general Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz.

At the end of the war, the region was handed over to the new Soviet-controlled Poland, the entire German population was expelled and Poles who had been living in Western Ukraine arrived.

To blend in with the new population, Inge changed her appearance and identity - eventually marrying a local man - and continued to watch over the treasure until her death 60 years later.

Over the years the palace changed hands several times and after the war the Red Army and the Polish Army were stationed there at different times.

Later it was used as a local council office, a kindergarten and even a cinema.

Now, in a dilapidated state and in private hands, the Silesian Bridge foundation has taken a long-term lease on the property.

In May, the treasure hunters began digging for ten tons of Nazi gold at the palace, with the dig initially concentrating on an old orangery in a small area of the 14-hectare palace park.

A team of specialists carefully removed layers of earth by hand as it is also being treated as an archaeological site to uncover the foundations of the orangery.

The Foundation says it is now hoping to finish its research by the end of this year.
This is the devastating moment a hero Kurdish rapper holds his head in his hands as a judge orders his execution for supporting protests against Mahsa Amini's death in Iran.

Saman Yasin, 27, from Kermanshah, who lived in Tehran, was violently arrested at his home on 2 October.

On 29 October, he was sentenced to death at the 15th branch of Islamic Revolutionary Court by judge Abolqasem Salavati without family or any lawyers present.

An anonymous source told anti-regime media that Saman's family were threatened against talking about it.

It is unclear when the rapper is to be executed.

The 27-year-old was accused of 'war against God' as he had supported the protests against the death of Mahsa Amini by posting about them on social media.

Also, he wrote songs speaking of topics including unemployment and government oppression.

Saman Yasin, 27, from Kermanshah, who lived in Tehran, was violently arrested at his home on 2 October, the same day as two of his friends. On 29 October, he was sentenced to death by the 15th branch of Islamic Revolutionary Court and judge Abolqasem Salavati without family or any lawyers present, pictured

An anonymous source told anti-regime media that Saman's family were threatened against talking about his death sentence. It is unclear when the rapper is to be executed. Pictured: Saman

Since Saman, pictured, was sentenced to death, numerous campaigns to overturn the ruling have been launched online

Mahsa Amini - whose death at the hands of morality police in September sparked the current wave of protests - was also Kurdish.

Since Saman was sentenced to death, numerous campaigns to overturn the ruling have been launched online.

On Twitter, a hashtag was used to support him '#_ - Saman Yasin and others currently facing the death sentence after being arrested in the latest protests.

Before he was sentenced to death by Salavati, Saman had been held at Fashafouyeh prison and then transferred to Evin prison. He was allegedly subject to physical and psychological torture in custody.

Salavati, sanctioned by the EU and US treasury department, has been accused of frequently handing out lengthy jail terms, lashes or death to journalists, lawyers, political activists, and ethnic and religious minorities.

Israelis attend a demonstration in support of Iran protests in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 29, pictured

On Twitter, a hashtag was used to support him '#_ - Saman Yasin, pictured, and others currently facing the death sentence after being arrested in the latest protests

The sentencing of Saman comes after Toomaj Salehi, also a rapper, was arrested last week.

He wrote lyrics denouncing the oppressive government regime which included: 'Someone's crime was that her hair was flowing in the wind. Someone's crime was that he or she was brave and were outspoken.'

His home in Chaharamahal and Bakhtiari Province was raided by 50 people after authorities said he created, invited and encouraged riots in Isfhan province and Shahin Shahr.

He faces charges of 'propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments and forming illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country.'

The 32-year-old is currently in prison in Isfahan and his uncle has said he has been tortured.

Saman's death sentence comes after Toomaj Salehi, pictured, also a rapper, was arrested last week

His family do not know if he or his friends Mohammad Reza Nikraftar and Najaf Abu Ali are alive- no one has heard from them since their arrest on the same day as him.

Salehi had urged people to protest against the government since demonstrations started in mid September.

He was also arrested last September. He wrote on Instagram that the government cannot and should not be allowed to divide Iranians.

The 32-year-old has rapped about ethnicity and diversity in Iran and encouraged unity.

In the days before his arrest, he posted videos with protesters on his Instagram.

His fans and Iranians, musicians and activists have also called for his release.

According to independent authorities, the ongoing protests, pictured, after Mahsa Amini's death have claimed between 304 and 356 lives and injured at least 1,160

Speaking to CNN, Iranian rapper, songwriter and activist Erfan Payfar said: 'A lot of rappers have come out and supported him.

'Toomaj's bravery of protesting in the streets encouraged others to get out there and speak up and made people think 'if he's willing to go out there and he's not scared, then maybe we shouldn't be.'

The rapper had also shared a message with his friends to be released to them if he was arrested.

He said they should cover calls for protests, not support any party or group and not write about prisoners unless their condition worsens and they have no voice.

The 32-year-old told them to focus on attack and defence and said to go forward according to his operation.

A demonstrator cuts a lock of her hair during a gathering in support of Iran protests in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 29, pictured

His uncle said that his mother had been a political prisoner who died a long time ago.

He explained that she would be his voice if he was alive and he has now taken the role.

His uncle added that the protesters on the streets of Iran are also Toomaj's voice.

According to independent authorities, the ongoing protests after Mahsa Amini's death have claimed between 304 and 356 lives and injured at least 1,160.

Iranian minorities, notably Kurds, are believed to have disproportionately suffered from state repression during the ongoing protests.
Kari Lake promised she will 'fight for days' to ensure the 2022 midterms in Arizona were conducted 'fairly' before a final count is reported as she falls behind her Democratic challenger by 5 percent amid chaos with voting machine malfunctions.

Lake delivered a speech from Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday evening when she was trailing her opponent Katie Hobbs by double digits, claiming that the 'cheaters' are trying to tell Republicans they didn't have the 'red tsunami' they predicted.

The former broadcast journalist made significant strides from the time of her speech to a few hours later, gaining more than half the ground needed to pull out a victory.

'We had a big day today and don't let those cheaters and crooks think anything different  don't let them put doubt in you,' Lake said to a cheering crowd at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch.

'We have a movement and we know it,' she added.

Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said she will 'fight for days' against 'cheaters and crooks' who try to steal elections as she falls behind her Democratic challenger in the wee hours of Wednesday morning

Lake is behind her Democratic rival Katie Hobbs by 5 percent  a big improvement from earlier in the night when the GOP candidate was trailing by double digits

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Lake claimed in the months before Election Day that she would only accept the results of a 'free and fair election,' but has consistently refused to answer the question directly of if she would concede if Hobbs emerged the victor.

As of 4am on Election Night, 61 percent of the votes in Arizona were reported and Lake was behind Hobbs by just 2.6  a far better projection than hours earlier when she was trailing by 11 points.

'I did a lot of praying to God. I've been praying to God all day, every day,' Lake said during her speech Tuesday night when it became clear results would not be called on Election Day. 'And I said to him, 'You make this victory come whatever way you want.'

'If it comes decisive on Election Day, then bring it to us that way,' she added. 'If we have to fight through the BS and the garbage, then we will fight through the BS and the garbage.'

Arizonans wait in line to cast their ballots in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday amid chaos with voting machines malfunctions that caused massive delays and doubts about the impending rersults

'How do you get fair and free elections?' the Trump-backed candidate went on. 'You have to fight and win to make them fair and free.'

'And we needed another stark reminder that we have incompetent people running the show in Arizona,' she said, referencing glitches in voting systems in Arizona's largest county of Maricopa, which encompasses Phoenix.

Republican County Recorder Stephen Richer announced that about one fifth of its electronic vote tabulation machines in Maricopa County were malfunctioning just hours into Election Day on Tuesday, November 8.

Election officials in Arizona claimed that the problem with tabulation machines at 20 percent of Maricopa County polling sites was resolved at 52 of the 60 affected centers.

'Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise,' Richer assured

Lake and GOP Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters filed a lawsuit demanding polling places extend their hours to 10pm, but a judge denied the emergency request.

When making her speech around midnight on Election Day, Lake insisted that it's still early for to tell who will win the election and referenced previous races where rolling results showed GOP gains.

'I just want you to know  it's early. It's very early,' Lake said. 'And if we have to take this fight through, we will.'

'If it takes hours or days, we will,' she insisted.
Southern Water discharged raw sewage into UK water for more than 3,700 hours in the first eight days of November alone, the equivalent of five months' worth, analysis of company data by campaigners shows.

The water company discharged sewage at 83 bathing beaches, almost all of those under its jurisdiction, in 493 separate releases, some of which are still ongoing.

Those behind the analysis are representatives from SOS Whitstable, a group aiming to put pressure on Southern Water to stop sewage discharges.

Ed Acteson from SOS Whitstable told MailOnline the current sewage releases are the worst he's ever seen and he is 'in despair that MPs are sticking their heads int he sand' about it.

The group says five months' worth of sewage has been released onto UK beaches by Southern Water in just eight days.

But Southern Water said on social media that 95 percent of releases from overflowing storm drains were rainwater combined with shower and sink wastewater.

The other five percent is believed to be raw sewage.

Maps updated this morning show the majority of beaches are still not usable for bathing due to the sewage releases

On the Isle of Wight, beaches at Cowes and Sandown are among the many bathing spots which the public are advised not to use

Activists, including those from SOS Whitstable, protest against the release of sewage by Southern Water onto beaches last month

Worst affected by the release of untreated sewage is Pagham beach, to the west of Bognor Regis, which has seen raw sewage discharged for more than 179 hours in two separate and continuing releases.

Meanwhile on the Isle of Wight Cowes has had sewage released for more than 80 hours, Ryde for more than 128 hours, and Sandown for more than 65 hours.

Many of these releases have been categorised by Southern Water as 'non-impactful' on their online map - but water quality is not generally tested by the Environment Agency outside of May to September, making it difficult to know exactly how impactful the releases are.

In one case, SOS Whitstable found that a raw sewage discharge at Bexhill which lasted more than 120 hours was marked as 'non-impacting'.

Mr Acteson said: 'Off season water companies seem to be of the opinion that as soon as bathing season is over the problem goes away.

'But this time of year is is when the bulk of pollution happens.

'What has been absolutely shocking has been the lack of response on this by Conservative MPs in particular.

'It's their constituencies that are being polluted and high streets which are being impacted and none of them are reacting to this.

'We are absolutely in despair that MPs are sticking their heads in the sand.'

Southern Water is responsible for wastewater in East Sussex, West Sussex, the Isle of Wight, Hampshire and Kent.

In the last 48 hours alone, 78 of Southern Water's 86 bathing beaches were showing as unusable due to the discharge of raw sewage.

Mr Acteson told MailOnline Whitstable is the most polluted area in Kent.

He added the impacts of pollution not only have serious environmental and public health implications, but also damage the town's reputation and economic prosperity.

Local businesses have had to spend significant sums of money on technology to clean seafood properly.

At Pagham (left), sewage has been discharged for upwards of 179 hours

As of Wednesday morning, several beaches in Kent, including Whitstable, are too polluted to be used

He said: 'The money local businesses have had to spend on new technology, to properly clean oysters, for example, is extraordinary. And they've received no compensation from Southern Water.

'These discharges impact on tourism, the hospitality trade, and the whole high street.'

Speaking to The Guardian, Mr Acteson said: 'The Environment Act was supposed to herald a new era for the environment in Britain. But this is the worst I have ever seen sewage pollution in the south-east.'

He added: 'There are 86 bathing water beaches and as of yesterday 78 of them were showing sewage discharges, and another five had discharges which the company says are non-impacting.

'This is environmental vandalism and most of these discharges are still ongoing as we speak. It fills us with foreboding for the coming winter months.'

Southern Water said it had seen a month's worth of rain in just a week, leading to drainage systems becoming overwhelmed and releasing overflow into the sea.

Katy Taylor, Southern Water's Chief Customer Officer, said: 'As many people will have seen, we've experienced unprecedented stormy weather and flash flooding in early November, with more rain in the last week than we'd normally expect to see for the whole of the month.

'To stop homes, schools and businesses from flooding, our nation's network of storm overflows act as a release value to temporarily relieve this pressure, allowing excess flows - typically made up of up to 95% rainwater - to enter rivers and the sea. This is permitted by the Environment Agency.

'Whilst this is how the system is designed to work in weather like this, we know we need to continue to work hard to improve the network. This is going to take time, and we are investing 2bn across five years  much of which will reduce the use of storm overflows, increase storage capacity and find ways to divert rain back to the environment naturally.'

This appears to contradict the company's own statement on social media which acknowledges 95 percent of water released is a mix of rainwater and bathroom waste water.

SOS Whistable have been vocal campaigners against sewage release in the area, and staged a protest last month on beaches affected by the discharges.

Activists were photographed holding signs with slogans such as 'Stop the plop' and 'Say 'noo' to poo'.

Southern Water has been contacted for comment.
A father who fell to his death down the shaft of a broken down lift had cannabis in his system and may have had 'some kind of anxiety attack' in the lift due to feeling claustrophobic.

Mark Faulding, 49, who was described as being claustrophobic and prone to 'anxiety', began to 'panic' when the lift stopped at Olicana House, Bradford, where he had been living.

He had forced open the doors and attempted to climb down to the floor below but did not make it and fell three floors, a distance of 15m to 20m, an inquest jury in Bradford has heard. The jury heard evidence from mental health nurse Andrea O'Malley who said Mr Faulding had been referred to the community mental health team in January 2021, several months before his death on May 19 that year.

Mark Faulding, 49, who was described as being claustrophobic and prone to 'anxiety', began to 'panic' when the lift stopped at Olicana House, Bradford, where he had been living on May 19, 2021

His inquest heard Mr Faulding had cannabis in his system on the day that he died

Mr Faulding had been in contact with a mental health professional in the months before his death as he had been having 'dark thoughts'. His inquest heard he had also been moved from Carer's Allowance to Universal Credit which had left him without any money

Concerns had been raised that Mr Faulding had been having 'dark thoughts' about harming himself, although these were said to be 'fleeting'.

Mr Faulding was said to be under stress due to money and housing worries. He had been living at home with his mother but later moved to temporary accommodation at Olicana House, Little Germany, which had been under renovation at the time, with various floors not completed.

Ms O'Malley said that Mr Faulding's benefits had been changed from Carer's Allowance to Universal Credit and that 'for a time' he had been left without any money.

The hearing was told that Mr Faulding was due to be 'screened' for ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). He was said to be 'pleased' that this was due to happen.

The inquest was told that Mr Faulding had a dog, Pablo, which made him happier and improved his mental health, although he had been told several times that he could not have a dog at Olicana House. He had been served with an eviction notice on the day of his death, the inquest was told.

Senior coroner Martin Fleming asked Ms O'Malley if she was aware that Mr Faulding may have been anxious in an enclosed space.

'We are hearing, to everyone's distress, that in the lift he was feeling very claustrophobic and (it) brought on some kind of anxiety attack.'

The inquest was told that Mr Faulding had a dog, Pablo, which made him happier and improved his mental health, although he had been told several times that he could not have a dog at Olicana House. He had been served with an eviction notice on the day of his death, the inquest was told

The inquest was told that Mr Faulding had cannabis in his blood at the time of his death but it was not possible to say if this had impaired his brain functions. There was also evidence of prior cocaine use

Ms O'Malley said she had never had a discussion with Mr Faulding about this, adding: 'Nothing was ever discussed around lifts.'

The inquest heard on Monday how Mr Faulding and a friend, Kevin Hodgson, became trapped in the lift between floors. Mr Hodgson said they had prised open the inner door of the lift and Mr Faulding had climbed out, feet first. He had held onto the lift floor with his hands before falling, said Mr Hodgson.

The inquest was told that Mr Faulding had cannabis in his blood at the time of his death but it was not possible to say if this had impaired his brain functions. There was also evidence of prior cocaine use. An examination of his body discovered that he had grease on his hands which police said was consistent with him touching the lift doors.

Detectives investigated the incident and, after ruling out foul play, handed the investigation over to the Health and Safety Executive.

The inquest continues.
A third man has been charged over the shooting death of underworld crime boss Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad.

Ahmad, 39, known as Sydney's 'Mr Big', was gunned down in hail of bullets on a suburban street after leaving a friend's house in Greenacre, in the city's southwest, on April 27.

The alleged to be the triggerman, 26, was arrested during a vehicle stop at Campsie around 12.40pm on Wednesday.

Frank Delcol, 49, and Jason Laria, 37, were also arrested in May and July and charged, They were accused of being accomplices in the alleged gangland hit.

A third man has been charged over his alleged role in the deadly shooting of underworld crime boss Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad, 39, (pictured)

Ahamd was shot dead on a suburban street after leaving a friend's house in Greenacre, in Sydney's southwest, on April 27

Detectives from Strike Force Betta searched the 26-year-old man's home and seized a number of his belongings for forensic examination.

He was taken to Campsie Police Station and charged with the alleged murder and participating in a criminal group.

He was refused bail and will face Bankstown Local Court on Thursday.

Ahmad had only walked free from jail six months before his gruesome death, after serving a five-year sentence for the 2016 killing of a gangland rival at a Sydney scrapyard.

Last October, the crime kingpin dodged another attempt on his life when he was tipped off by police about a planned hit in broad daylight at a park at Rushcutters Bay.

NSW Police, who had been in regular contact with Ahmad, had warned the underworld boss about a $1million bounty on his head.

Ahmad was notified by police over the $1million bounty on his head and had planned to move overseas days after he was shot

Three men have now been arrested and charged over their alleged involvement in Ahmad's murder (pictured, a Toyota Hilux riddled with bullets being towed away at the scene of the alleged gangland hit)

Ahmad had planned to move overseas mere days after he was shot.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson revealed at a budget estimates hearing earlier this year Ahmad's plans to relocate and the lengths he went to to avoid rival gangs.

'He told officers he was in search of an armoured vehicle to protect himself and he only stayed at places for 15 minutes at a time.

'As soon as Ramadan was over he (said he) would be returning to Lebanon and he was only in Australia to collect on debts that were owed to him.'

NSW Police revealed in a budget estimates hearing earlier this year how the slain underworld boss (pictured) was extra cautious about being spotted by rival gangs

Paramedics tried desperately to revive Ahmad at the scene before he bled to death.

A Porsche four-wheel-drive and a black BMW were both found on fire a short time after the shooting.

All three men charged over Ahmad's death remain before the courts.

The police investigation is ongoing.
Ministers delayed fresh elections in Northern Ireland into the new year at least today as hopes grew of a Brexit deal breakthrough.

The deadline to restore the power-sharing executive has been pushed back to January 19 at the latest, Chris Heaton-Harris told MPs today.

He said that it would give the UK and EU more time to find a solution to the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The DUP collapsed the executive in May and has refused to restart it while the NIP is in place.

But in a warning to the unionists he said he would legislate to cut the pay of MLAs while the assembly does not sit.

The deadline to establish a new executive lapsed on October 28, at which point the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold a fresh poll within 12 weeks - January 19.

Mr Heaton-Harris said he was now extending the deadline for parties to form an executive by six weeks to December 8, with the option of a further six-week extension.

The 12-week clock for calling an election will now come into effect either on December 8 - meaning an election would have to be held by March - or six weeks later on January 19, meaning a poll would need to be held by April at the latest.

Ministers have already ruled out an election this side of Christmas, and making a Commons statement Ms Heaton-Harris told MPs: 'The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse.

'I have a legal duty to call an election that few want and everyone tells me will change nothing. Thus, I will be introducing legislation to provide a short straightforward extension to the period for executive formation, extending the current period by six weeks, to December 8, with potential for a further six-week extension 19 January if necessary.

'This aims to create the time and space needed for talks between the UK Government and the European Commission to develop, and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible.'

Prime minister Rishi Sunak is due to meet his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin in Thursday.

Yesterday Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney said a deal between the EU and the UK on post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland is possible before January.

Officials from the bloc are said to be carrying out checks on a UK database system that would alleviate customs problems at Ulster's sea borders with Britain. If it meets with approval it could create a landing strip for a deal.

Ministers have already ruled out an election this side of Christmas, and making a Commons statement Ms Heaton-Harris told MPs: 'The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse.'

Ulster voters are due to go to the polls in January in a bid to end months of political deadlock at Stormont.

Senior DUP member Edwin Poots said cutting the salaries of MLAs would have absolutely 'no influence whatsoever' on his party's stance on boycotting Stormont until changes are made to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

'The issue for us is a principle, so cutting wages is neither here nor there in terms of the position that we adopt, it will have no influence whatsoever on our position,' the South Belfast MLA told BBC Radio Ulster.

'Should they entirely take the salaries away, that's entirely up to the Secretary of State, but what he really needs to focus on is finding a solution to the problem that has been created, a problem that ensures that our assembly would be taking laws, our people will be taking laws, passed in the European Parliament, which would then be applied in Northern Ireland where we have no scrutiny, where we have no role, we have no impact - that's legislation without representation.'

A failure to form a Stormont ministerial executive following May's election has placed a legal responsibility on the Government to hold a poll by January 19.

Mr Heaton-Harris has already ruled out a December election and asking voters to head to the polls in January would present significant logistical challenges, as it would involve a campaign that runs through the festive period.

On Tuesday Downing Street said the restoration of powersharing was an 'absolute priority'.

The political vacuum at Stormont was the first item on the agenda at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday.

A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol, has prevented an executive being formed in Belfast.

The region's largest unionist party has made clear it will not countenance a return to powersharing until the protocol's economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are scrapped.

Negotiations between London and Brussels aimed at securing changes to the protocol are continuing, with both sides talking up the prospect of a deal.

Europe's pointman on talks to resolve the row, Maros Sefcovic, on Monday said agreement could come within weeks with the right 'political will'.

Extending the deadline would increase the likelihood of the negotiations producing something substantive ahead of any election date.

Local elections are already scheduled to take place on May 4 in Northern Ireland, so that could offer a potential date to hold an Assembly election as well.

Senior DUP member Edwin Poots said cutting the salaries of MLAs would have absolutely 'no influence whatsoever' on his party's stance on boycotting Stormont until changes are made to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

However, that would mean Stormont would still be in limbo in April, when the 25th anniversary of the historic Good Friday peace agreement will be marked.

As such, the Government could be tempted to hold a poll earlier in the year, in the hope of having a functioning powersharing administration in place when the landmark commemoration takes place.

Mr Heaton-Harris is already set to table legislation at Westminster in the coming weeks that would pass Stormont's annual budget in the absence of devolved ministers.

Any move to extend the election deadline could potentially be bolted on to the budget legislation.

Existing legislation gave the Stormont parties almost six months to form an executive following the last election in May, which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party for the first time.

The deadline to establish a new executive lapsed on October 28, at which point the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold a fresh poll within 12 weeks.

Despite repeatedly vowing to set an election date the minute the deadline expired, Mr Heaton-Harris backtracked on his pledge, prompting Stormont parties to accuse him of a U-turn.
Speeding through treacherous waters, this is the dramatic moment a team of heroic lifeboat volunteers charged into action to save two men after their plane crashed into the sea.

Three RNLI teams were scrambled last week after former RAF Tornado pilot Duncan Laisney and Paul Clifford's Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six went down in the English Channel off the coast of Jersey.

Now, footage of the rescue has been released showing the moment the crew managed to find the pair, as they huddled for warmth in their orange life raft.

The video opens with one lifeboat RIB racing through the choppy seas, with water splashing up and soaking the two rescue workers.

RNLI lifeboat volunteers are pictured speeding through choppy waters to rescue two men whose plane had crashed off the coast of Jersey on Thursday

Dramatic footage released by the RNLI shows the moment crews managed to find the two men floating on a rescue raft

Former RAF Tornado pilot Duncan Laisney and Paul Clifford (pictured left) had been floating in their dingy for an hour before they were pulled to safety

Rescue teams had been mobilised after the single-engine plane lost power and was forced to ditch into the sea.

Duncan and Paul had managed to put their life jackets on and clamber into the safety raft moments before their plane sunk under the waves.

Both of the men were spotted by eagle-eyed RNLI volunteers, who can then be seen approaching the 'calm' duo as they bobbed in the Channel.

A series of stills captures the moment the pair were then pulled out of their raft and into the safety of the RNLI craft before heading back to dry land.

And, in another stunning moment, a dolphin was filmed jumping out of the water at the end of the operation - surrounded by three rescue craft, who had battled force seven winds and three-metre high waves to find the downed pilots.

An RNLI spokesperson said: 'See what it was like onboard the RNLI Jersey inshore lifeboats when they launched to help the two people who had to ditch their plane in the sea off the south-east coast of Jersey.

The pair had been travelling in a Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six single-engine plane when the aircraft lost power and plummeted into the sea. Pictured is the moment an RNLI lifeboat volunteer reaches the stranded duo

An investigation has now been launched into what caused the crash of the Piper on Thursday. Pictured is a stock image

'Make sure you dont blink or you might miss the dolphin that made an appearance just after the casualties had boarded.

'Their actions and use of their safety equipment greatly improved their chances of survival allowing our crews to locate them quickly in the challenging conditions.'

The drama all unfolded on Thursday when Afghanistan veteran Duncan and Paul were forced to make an emergency landing in the sea.

The pair floated on a dingy for about an hour before the RNLI and Coastguard crews managed to find them.

Duncan and Paul were carrying an emergency beacon device which beamed their location to rescue crews.

Once rescued, the duo were taken to St Helier cold but unhurt.

Speaking to ITV News after being saved, a relieved Duncan said: 'I feel delighted to be back of course.

'There was a great sense of relief and the RNLI did a fantastic professional job in picking us up very, very quickly.'

He said it the hour they were left stranded on the dingy at sea 'felt like a long time' and added he was 'indebted' to the RNLI team that plucked him and his pal from the water.

Mr Clifford, added: 'It was a little bit worrying, but we were alright. We knew that people would come and get us, we were fine.'

Both of the men were found with the use of a personal locator beacon which helped rescue teams to find them at sea. Pictured is the moment an RNLI team reaches the life raft

Former RAF Tornado pilot Duncan Laisney, pictured, said he was relieved to be rescued by the emergency crews

James Hope, one of the RNLI crew members involved in the rescue operation, said: 'To actually find some people in the middle of the sea, in a life raft in the middle of the sea, is just an amazing feeling. It's why we do what we do.'

The search mission was controlled by Ports of Jersey Marine Quality Manager, Phil Le Neveu.

Jersey Coastguard tasked all three of the island's RNLI lifeboats, Ports of Jersey work boat Rival, Channel Island Air Search and French Helicopter Dragon 50.

In a statement, Jersey Coastguard added: 'Thanks to the fast response by the crews of all the assets, the use of drift modelling software and the homing signal from the personal locator beacon, the life raft was located very quickly.

'Both of the casualties were returned safe and well to St Helier on board the St Helier all weather lifeboat.

'Jersey Coastguard would like to offer our sincere thanks to all of the crews who braved gale force conditions to assist the airmen today.

'Your selfless actions to respond today undoubtedly saved two lives.'

An investigation is due to take place to find out what caused the plane to lose power and crash.
China, which has second-largest military in world, has threatened to annex Taiwan by force if necessary

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Pictures have emerged of President Xi Jinping donning army fatigues to inspect a military command centre after he declared China will focus on preparing for war.

Clad in military fatigues, Xi appeared solemn as he inspected the joint operations command centre of the Central Military Commission in Beijing.

Xi, speaking from a podium, told soldiers based at the command centre that China must now focus on preparing for war because the country's national security is 'increasingly unstable and uncertain'.

He said China will now comprehensively strengthen its military training and preparation for any war, state media reported.

Xi constantly referred to a 'new era' for China as he spoke about how the world is 'undergoing more profound changes unseen in a century'. He was later pictured posing for a group photograph with other military clad officials.

Pictures of Xi wearing the army fatigues only emerged hours after he made the announcement due to China's tightly controlled state-run media.

His warning that China will focus on preparing for war will raise fears that the nation may invade the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

China, which has the second-largest economy and military in the world, has repeatedly threatened to annex Taiwan by force if necessary.

Experts say Xi's comments are 'extremely concerning' and the West must 'take him at his word' and use all means necessary to deter the Chinese leader from invading Taiwan.

Dr Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the human rights group Henry Jackson Society in London, told MailOnline: 'Comments like this from Xi Jinping are extremely concerning.

'For years, Xi has been ratcheting up his rhetoric around the use of miliary force to reunify Taiwan with mainland China, and in response the West has done very little. Liberal Democracies must now take him at his word, and work collectively, using all means necessary to deter Xi from invading Taiwan.'

Pictures have emerged of President Xi Jinping donning army fatigues to inspect a military command centre after he declared China will focus on preparing for war

Xi, speaking from a podium, told soldiers based at the command centre that China must now focus on preparing for war because the country's national security is 'increasingly unstable and uncertain'

Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers assembling during military training at Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, northwestern China's Xinjiang region, on January 4, 2021

Beijing will now comprehensively strengthen its military training and preparation for any war, Xi said today, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Pictured: Chinese troops during a military parade in Beijing

Self-governed Taiwan's 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary

Dr Mendoza added: 'As a priority, Western nations must begin the process of removing all Chinese influence from critical industries such as energy, water and nuclear power.

'Next, we must immediately start the process of decoupling China from many of our most relied upon supply chain networks and develop new ones with likeminded partner nations.

'If the global community is to hit China with the same level of sanctions that has crippled Russia, we must be ready for the economic upheaval caused as a result. If we do not prepare, the economic ramifications will be a drop in the ocean compared to the current cost-of-living crisis caused by the sanctions against Russian energy.'

Last month, Xi called for faster military development, 'self-reliance and strength' in technology and defence of China's interests abroad, raising the likelihood of further conflict.

China's Communist Party also added a line to its constitution on 'resolutely opposing and deterring' Taiwan's independence and 'resolutely implementing the policy of 'one country, two systems',' the formula by which is plans to govern the island in the future.

If China does attack Taiwan, the conflict would almost certainly draw in the United States, which provides Taiwan with defensive weapons and is legally required to treat threats to the island as matters of 'grave concern,' along with its treaty allies, the most important and closest in geographical proximity being Japan.

The US has responded to China's threats to attack Taiwan by announcing it will deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Australia - in a bid to 'warn' China against what would be the 'worst war in modern history'.

It comes as China carried out its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan after a recent visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The trip infuriated Beijing, which saw it as a U.S. attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs.

Beijing sent ships and planes across the midline of the Taiwan Strait - a buffer zone between the sides - in what was seen by some as a rehearsal of a blockade that could presage an attack.

China also declared testing zones around the island in some of the world's most heavily traveled shipping lanes and fired at least four missiles over Taiwan, some of them landing in Japan's exclusive economic zone.

Last month, US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday warned that China could take Washington and the world by surprise and invade Taiwan as soon as this year.

Amid the military exercises by air and sea of Taiwan's coast, Admiral Gilday said: 'It's not just what Jinping says, it's how the Chinese behave and what they do.

'What we've seen over the past 20 years is that they have delivered on every promise they've made earlier than they said they were going to deliver on it.'

Ballistic missiles are launched from bases in China's Fujian province towards Taiwan in August during military drills that state media has said are a rehearsal for an invasion

Chinese helicopters flew out over the Taiwan Strait in August, as Beijing carried out the largest-ever live-fire military drills around the self-governing island

Last month, US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday warned that China could take Washington and the world by surprise and invade Taiwan as soon as this year

Admiral Gilday warned that China could invade Taiwan later this year or in 2023.

He said: 'I can't rule that out. I don't mean at all to be alarmist by saying that. It's just that we can't wish that away.'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken backed up such predictions last month when he said China is speeding up its timeline to take back Taiwan.

US officials have worried that Xi may soon take a page out of Vladimir Putin's playbook - Beijing has not condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Just before Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24, Xi and Putin put out a joint statement hailing a new era of boundless cooperation and friendship.

In the early days of the war, China's foreign ministry repeated Russian talking points about NATO expansionism, the West's 'Cold War mindset', and castigated journalists for using the words 'war' or 'invasion'.

But as Moscow's forces have been mauled on the battlefield, China's tone has changed. At a summit in Uzbekistan in September, Putin was forced to publicly acknowledge that Xi had 'questions and concerns' after meeting with him.

Last week, Xi issued a direct warning to Putin not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine in China's bluntest rebuke yet to the Kremlin.

Xi also urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was visiting Beijing, to push for peace talks - saying the international community should 'create conditions for the resumption of negotiations (and) oppose the use or threat of nuclear weapons.'

Scholz, the first Western leader to visit Beijing since Xi was given his third term as leader, urged Xi to put pressure on Putin to end attacks which have killed civilians and destroyed cities.

'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.'

Meanwhile, Xi has ramped up military drills along Taiwan's coastline in the Taiwan Strait in recent months.

Xi, in his address to China's Congress last month, described a 'great rejuvenation' of China, putting it at the centre of global affairs as an 'irreversible historical process.'

It comes as China and the US are locked in an arms race to create the most cutting-edge weapons.

China's testing of a 25,000mph hypersonic nuclear-capable missile has indicated that Beijing's missile programme is more advanced than previously thought, amid an intensifying race for the next generation of long-rang weapons that are harder to detect and intercept

The Chinese military is pictured on August 4 testing its long-range missiles. On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Pentagon-funded technology was being sold through intermediaries to China

In July and August 2021, the Chinese military launched a rocket that used a 'fractional orbital bombardment' system to propel a nuclear-capable 'hypersonic glide vehicle' around the earth for the first time.

The test left the United States stunned, showing that China's capability was far beyond what was previously known.

In October 2021 General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged the test for the first time, and said the missile - designed to evade American nuclear defences - was 'very close' to a 'Sputnik moment' for the United States.

'What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system, and it is very concerning,' General Milley said at the time.

China's rapid gains in hypersonic missiles is concerning as they are harder for the US to detect. Beijing is also improving their abilities to shoot down satellites, or shove them out of orbit.

In addition to its advances in hypersonic weapons, China has been expanding its network of underground silos that could be used to launch intercontinental-range nuclear missiles, and it has rebuffed US calls to join nuclear arms control talks.

The U.S. has rushed to counter those threats by building a ring of low-orbiting satellites that aims to hasten the detection of hypersonic launches and also to build in redundancy, so if one US satellite is attacked, the remainder of the ring is still operating.

Cannons, attack boats and hangars that could house NUCLEAR missiles: New images reveal full extent of Beijing's military build-up on disputed South China Sea reefs

By Tom Brown and Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

Extraordinary photos of Beijing's military bases in the South China Sea have given the most-detailed view yet of what Xi Jinping has been building  and show them bristling with defences.

The Chinese Communist Party has spent the better part of a decade turning a remote series of atolls and reefs in the region into highly developed military bases that are now equipped with naval guns, anti-aircraft systems, radar arrays, attack ships and hangars capable of housing dozens of fighters.

At least two huge vehicle bays have also been built which are large enough to conceal mobile launchers designed to fire anti-ship, anti-air and ballistic missiles which could be tipped with nuclear warheads.

The bases are part of a territory-grab by Xi over the entirety of the South China Sea within borders that Beijing refers to as the 'Nine Dash Line'. By controlling the sea, Xi aims to project power over neighbouring countries as well as fertile fishing grounds and shipping lanes through which $5trillion-worth of goods pass each year.

However, Beijing's claims have no basis in international law and were overruled by an international arbitration court. Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims to the same piece of ocean.

New images give the most-detailed picture yet of military bases that China has spent the best part of a decade building on remote reefs and atolls in the South China Sea, as it tries to lay claim over the entire region

Fiery Cross Reef

Fiery Cross Reef is controlled by China as part of Sansha of Hainan Province, despite Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines all claiming the island as their own.

Large multi-story hangers capable of housing ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear material can be seen across the island next to radar systems.

A US Navy reconnaissance mission in March revealed the militarisation of the reefs, but high-quality photos of the islands have not emerged until recently.

The mission found the artificial islands armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment and fighter jets.

The US sent a P-8A Poseidon plane on the reconnaissance mission, which spotted the structures, despite President Xi's promise not to convert the islands into military bases.

US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John C Aquilino called the sight 'the largest military build up since World War II' by the People's Republic of China.

Beijing says its military profile is purely defensive, arranged to protect what it says are its sovereign rights.

The Fiery Cross was the name of a famous British tea clipper, a speedy merchant sailing vessel, which took part in the Great Tea Race of 1866  where vessels competed to be the first to transport tea from China to Britain.

Large multi-story hangers capable of housing ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear material can be seen across the island next to radar systems. A KJ-500 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft is visible on the taxiway

A medical landing pad, painted with a red cross, can be seen on the right. Smaller hangars can be seen next to the terminal building. The bases are part of a territory-grab by Xi over the entirety of the South China Sea within borders that Beijing refers to as the 'Nine Dash Line'

An airfield, buildings, and structures are seen on the artificial island built by China in Fiery Cross Reef. China has progressively asserted its claim of ownership over disputed islands in the South China Sea by artificially increasing their size

Another full-size runway and airfield are seen. The hangers could be loaded up with dozens of combat aircraft, it is thought. The Chinese Communist Party has spent the better part of a decade turning the reefs into military bases

A wider-angle view of the same island shows a collection of buildings at the near end and another array of radome-topped towers at the far end

Subi Reef

On the smaller side of the Spratly Islands, Subi Reef is also administered by China Hainan province. But under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, only the Philippines has the right to build structures there.

From the close-up photos, Subi Reef also appears to feature hangers capable of housing nuclear weapons.

China sought to shore up its vast territorial claims over virtually the entire South China Sea by building island bases on coral atolls nearly a decade ago.

The US responded by sending its warships through the region in what it calls freedom of operation missions.

The US has no claims itself but has deployed Navy ships and aircraft for decades to patrol and promote free navigation in international waterways and airspace.

China routinely objects to any action by the US military in the region. The other countries in the area claim all or part of the sea, through which approximately $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.

A collection of buildings close to an array of radome-topped towers at the far end. There is little sign of activity on the ground at any of the installations

Close-in defensive weapons are installed on roughly 30-foot-wide platforms set atop clusters of hexagonal concrete towers

Buildings, recreational facilities, and other structures are seen on the artificial island built by China in Subi Reef. Undeveloped ground and planted areas are among the large cluster of buildings

Subi reef features hangers which are capable of housing nuclear weapons, seen alongside a lighthouse at the end of the island. It also features radar domes similar to others nearby

The reefs are located between countries that contest China's claim to the region and stake their own assertions on defensive and economic access

The close-up pictures are some of the most detailed photos yet available of what China is up to in the region

Mischief Reef

On Mischief Reef, one of the larger islands, two Type 022 Houbei class catamaran fast attack missile crafts can be seen docked on the left side of the island, readily recognizable by their camouflage scheme.

Reports emerged that the People's Liberation Army Navy had deployed Type 022s to the islands last year. The boats can carry up to eight YJ-83 subsonic anti-ship missiles and a 30mm H/PJ-13 Gatling guns.

Last April, the missile craft apparently chased away the boat operated on behalf of the ABS-CBN news crew, in an aggressive encounter when they approached the island.

The reef sparked a 2016 ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which found that China's claim over the island was without basis.

A pair of Type 022 Houbei class catamaran fast attack missile crafts can be seen docked on the left side of the island, readily recognisable by their camouflage scheme. Reports emerged that the People's Liberation Army Navy had deployed Type 022s to the islands last year. The boats can carry up to eight YJ-83 subsonic anti-ship missiles and a 30mm H/PJ-13 Gatling guns

Buildings and structures are seen on the artificial island built by China in Mischief Reef on October 25, in the Spratly Islands

A wider-angle view of the same island shows a collection of buildings at the near end and another array of radome-topped towers at the far end

Four aids to navigation mark the visibly deeper channel between the island and another section of the reef

Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam all have territorial claims to the areas in which China has built islands and put its flag

Cuarteron Reef

Cuarteron Reef photos show naval gun emplacements on a series of towers, alongside a radar gunnery director.

China has long used the 'nine-dash line', a maritime boundary drawn up by it in 1947, to justify its jurisdiction over most of the resource-rich sea - often to the displeasure of Hanoi, which also claims parts of the waterway.

The nine-dash line is a maritime boundary in the South China Sea drawn up by China, which claims to own the territory inside the line.

The U-shaped line was initially claimed by the government of the Republic of China in 1947.

In 1992, the Communist Party of China adopted the boundary while updating its law on the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, according to Strategic Regions in 21st Century Power Politics, a Cambridge Scholars book edited by Martin Riegl, Jakub Landovsky, and Irina Valko.

Chinese passports issued from 2012 onwards feature the Chinese map printed with the nine-dash line on three pages.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that there was no legal basis for much of China's claims to the area. The Chinese government has strongly objected to the ruling.

Cuarteron Reef photos show naval gun emplacements on a series of towers, alongside a radar gunnery director. A large radome sits atop the battlements, likely positioned there for a better line of sight over the horizon

Drive said the island could house host Type 730/1130 close-in weapon system (CIWS) and a H/PJ76 76mm multi-purpose deck gun, providing protection against low-flying air threats, like cruise missiles, aircraft, and drones

Gaven Reef

Gaven Reef was first pictured when the Philippines released photographs of Chinese construction work in the disputed waters in 2015.

Last year, photos emerged of more than 200 boats lashed together in rows, in an act of aggression from China designed to 'squeeze out' other countries in Asia.

The Filipino government's National Task Force-West Philippines Sea said they counted 254 ships as well as four Chinese warships in the Spratly Islands on March 29, 2021.

They claimed the ships were not fishing vessels as China said  but instead part of China's maritime militia, a group of sometimes armed civilians in the sea. China refused to move the boats from the area.

One of the smaller man-made islands is on Gaven Reef, which has 76mm deck guns extending from its platform

A harbor area and a handful of large domes are visible on Gaven Reef, one of the islands China has artificially built up

Hughes Reef

Hughes Reef appears to have a helicopter pad and a multi-story building at the other end, complete with what looks like a large swimming pool.

Photos of Chinese 'Island Fortresses' emerged last year, which experts said would allow the Chinese government to extend the range of its navy, air force, coastguard and fishing fleets in the region.

The reefs are located between countries that contest China's claim to the region and stake their own assertions on defensive and economic access
Russia's military may never recover from the damage it has suffered in Ukraine, the Pentagon has said.

Colin Kahl, the under secretary for defence, revealed half of Vladimir Putin's tanks have been destroyed and most of his precision missiles used up since he ordered the invasion a little over eight months ago.

Sanctions mean it will be 'very difficult' for Moscow to rebuild its forces to their pre-war strength, Kahl added, before even taking into account the 'tens of thousands of casualties' suffered since February 24.

Russia has lost half its tanks and most of its precision missiles in Ukraine and will find it 'very difficult' to replace them, then Pentagon has said

Speaking to CNN, he said: 'Putin has failed. Russia will emerge from this war weaker than it went in....

'Putin went into this war trying to extinguish Ukraine as an independent, sovereign democratic country. He's failed, and that's not going to change.

'A sovereign, independent, democratic Ukraine is going to endure.'

The true scale of Russia's losses in Ukraine are unclear, but are thought to be high.

Moscow claims to have lost around 6,000 men, but given Putin just mobilised 300,000 reservists to plug gaps in his frontline this is almost certainly false.

The Pentagon said back in July that 75,000 had been killed and wounded combined but has not updated that figure since.

James Heappey, British armed forces minister, said in late September that around 25,000 Russian soldiers had been killed.

Ukraine, which keeps a daily running tally, estimates that almost 78,000 have been killed - though does not give a separate figure for wounded.

Kyiv also claims Russia has lost around 2,800 tanks, more than 5,500 armoured troop carriers, and 4,000 smaller vehicles.

Putin 'has failed' in his war effort, under secretary for defence said, and Russia will definitely end the war weaker than when it went into the conflict

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said near the start of the war that Washington's aim was 'to see Russia weakened to the degree it can not do the kind of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.'

Though he has not repeated the phrase since, upgrading Kyiv's military resources to make their army more lethal while heavily sanctioning Russia suggests that this remains the goal.

Putin launched what he expected to be a days-long war to overthrow Ukraine's government and regain control over the country on February 24.

Simultaneous air, land and sea attacks from every direction on virtually every part of the country aimed to overwhelm Ukraine's army and end the war before it began.

But a staunch resistance - led by the talismanic President Volodymyr Zelensky and masterminded by General Valerii Zaluzhnyi - saw that plan thwarted.

First, Russia was forced into an humiliating retreat from Kyiv having failed to take the capital which was the primary aim of the war.

Then, its offensive to 'liberate' the eastern Donbas was fought to a standstill with large parts of the region still in Ukrainian hands.

Ukrainian troops fire an artillery shell at Russian forces near the eastern town of Bakhmut, the only place where Putin's army is still trying to advance

Now, Ukraine is starting to drive Russia out of some of the territory it has won - including the entirety of the northern Kharkiv region.

The city of Kherson, the only regional capital taken by Putin's forces, is also under increasing threat with Western officials briefing that Russia is in the advances stages of planning for a retreat.

Zelensky says his goal is to retake all territory Russia currently occupies, including areas of the Donbas and Crimea that were seized during the 2014 war.

While this outcome is far from guaranteed, Ukraine has shown itself to be adept in attack and support for the war to continue shows no sign of abating.

Meanwhile support for Putin within Russia appears to be fracturing, as elites within his regime jockey for power and hundreds of thousands flee the country to avoid being drafted into the military.

Though there is no sign he is about to fall from power or that he is ready to stop the conflict, he has few good options left and almost no viable path to victory.

Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid and threats of nuclear holocaust suggest that he views his best option as breaking Kyiv's will to fight and the unity of its allies.

It remains to be seen how this strategy will play out as winter falls, energy prices rise, and thousands of Ukrainians begin freezing in their homes.

At present, it is showing little sign that it will succeed. Should that gambit fail, Putin will be almost entirely out of options.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and drink driving after he was filmed driving a JCB digger into the front of a house and side of a car before driving off to a McDonald's.

Neighbours told how the digger drove up and down the road three times before turning into the driveway of the house in Blackwood, South Wales, this morning.

They watched in shock as the digger backed up before lurching forwards towards the house and hitting its porch, causing 50,000 worth of damage.

The digger driver also rams into a silver Ford Focus on the house's driveway - almost flipping it over with the digger's bucket.

The driver is said to have driven two miles to the nearest McDonald's where he ordered a burger meal. He was tucking into it in the takeaway car park when police arrived, according to locals.

Neighbours claimed the JCB wrecking spree came after a long-running break-up between a couple living in the 180,000 semi.

Local Anne Bradshaw said: 'It has been very bitter like a lot of break-ups - but no-one expected anything like this. It is shocking.'

It's believed the couple renting the property had recently split up and the husband has moved out to live with relatives.

'It was a real demolition job,' one neighbour said. Pictured: The silver Ford Fiesta car which was damaged by a JCB

Pictured: Damage caused to the exterior wall of the house which also had its garden wall and a car damaged by a JCB digger in Blackwood, Wales

Pictured: A green wheelie bin under bricks from a broken wall which was damaged by the digger

Footage filmed by onlookers shows the driver holding his phone calmly behind the wheel of the JCB as he carries out the bash attack.

A man and woman emerge from the house - and appear stunned as they wave their hands seemingly pleading for the driver to stop.

At one point the man bangs on the window of the cab before putting his hands on his head in despair.

A three-minute clip of the incident on Tuesday was filmed by workmen parked in a van nearby and later uploaded online.

A voice from the van can be heard saying: 'Got it all on film for you, alright mate? Got it all on film. F***ing d***head, what's he f***ing doing? F***ing joke.'

Another voice says: 'Get his registration.'

Neighbours in the street are mystified by the attack - and estimated the damage as 'at least 50,000.'

Fellow resident Sian Lucas said: 'To be honest they are a very quiet family - they keep themselves to themselves.

'But this is just crazy. The JCB was just smashing into the house and wouldn't stop.

'It knocked down a wall and there is a big crack in the house too. Two cars are damaged, all scraped and pushed up against the building.

'I passed it today and you just can't believe what happened.'

At one point the man bangs on the window of the cab before putting his hands on his head in despair

A wrecked blue Ford Focus outside the house after it was tipped over with the digger

Pictured: The house which had its garden wall and a car damaged by a JCB digger this morning in Blackwood, Wales

One said: 'Nobody knows what the hell it is all about. But there is a lot of damage to the house and to the car - I've heard it could be about 50 grand but it could be a lot more.'

Gwent Police confirmed they were investigating the ram raid in Blackwood, South Wales, on Tuesday and had arrested a man on suspicion of criminal damage and drink driving.

A police force spokesman said: 'At approximately 12.20pm we received a report of criminal damage being caused to a house in Woodfield, Blackwood.

'A 55-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and drink driving and is currently in custody being questioned.'

Neighbour Anna St. Claire, 27, who lives opposite said: 'I ran out the house to see what was going on - it was so noisy I thought there was a helicopter overhead.

'The digger was going back and for into the house and the cars - there was a lot of damage. I'm just glad everyone is safe.'

Neighbours watched in shock as the digger backed up before lurching forwards towards the house in Blackwood, South Wales on Tuesday, and hitting its porch

The driver attempted to overturn a Ford Focus parked on the driveway outside the house

The driver raised the front of the excavator using its front bucket and tried to push forward with the rear wheels which started to spin

The gas and electricity have been turned off and experts are due on scene to examine the damage.

A representative from the housing association called Pobl - Welsh for People - took photographs of the cracked brickwork.

The downstairs toilet took the brunt of the impact but it skewed the front of the house out of shape and the front door no longer fitted in its frame.

The housing association manages 20 houses on the estate long with an old people's complex just yards from the scene.

Another neighbour, who didn't want to be named, said: 'It was a real demolition job. Imagine looking out the window and seeing that thing coming towards you. I've seen the video and he had a few runs at it.'

Parts of the house were fenced off today as builders checked the structure where the garden wall was wrecked and house cracked. The silver Fiesta was wrecked in the garden with the blue Ford Focus under a wrap outside the house.

A Police Community Support Officer was making house-to-house inquiries today while police continue to question the suspect.
A close KGB spy mentor of Vladimir Putin's who suffered demotion after daring to publicly criticise the Kremlin leader has died from an unexplained 'serious disease' .

Viktor Cherkesov, 72, once in charge of crushing Soviet dissidents, was crucial to the Russian president's rise but the pair later had strained relations.

When Putin headed the FSB secret service before becoming prime minister, Cherkesov was installed as his trusted deputy.

Earlier he had been in charge of law and order in St Petersburg when it became Russia's 'criminal capital' with a record for countless unsolved contract killings. At the time, Putin was deputy mayor.

But relations between Cherkesov and Putin became strained after the spy mentor suggested in 2017 that the secret services were becoming corrupted under Putin.

And now, Cherkesov has been found dead in St Petersburg from a 'serious illness', with no further details released by Russian authorities.

His death is the latest of a number of top Russian officials who have died in suspicious circumstances in recent months.

Viktor Cherkesov, a close KGB spy mentor of Vladimir Putin's who suffered demotion after daring to publicly criticise the Kremlin leader, has died from an unexplained 'serious disease'

Viktor Cherkesov, 72, once in charge of crushing Soviet dissidents, was crucial to the Russian president's rise (pictured together but the pair later had strained relations

Cherkesov had written in 2007 that senior officers in the FSB were enriching themselves as 'merchants' rather than being 'warriors' under Putin's command.

At the time, an outraged Putin called Cherkesov out on the article and hinted his longtime ally was hardly clean.

'I consider it incorrect to air such problems in the media,' Putin said.

'And if someone acts in this way, makes such claims about a war of the special services, he himself must first be impeccable.'

At the time an agent and also a former agent working for Cherkesov - then Director of the Federal Drug Control Service - died mysteriously from 'poisoning'.

Cherkesov was fired from this role in the wake of his criticism of the secret services under Putin.

Some interpreted his demise and the poisonings as due to brutal turf wars among Putin's warring henchmen.

Yet Putin did not want to lose him completely.

Cherkesov - seen by one source as 'knowing where the bodies are buried over many years' - was made Head of the Federal Agency for the Supply of Weapons, Military, Special Equipment and Materials for a two year stint.

He later became an MP, but was never again seen as being in Putin's inner circle, even though the men had been close since university.

Yet he was described as 'one of the few people with whom Putin is frank'.

When Putin headed the FSB secret service before becoming prime minister, Cherkesov (pictured) was installed as his trusted deputy

Cherkesov was deputy head of the FSB at the time of apartment block explosions in September 1999 in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk, in which 300 died, and a near miss in Ryazan, where a device was disarmed.

The FSB blamed the attacks on Chechen terrorists but independent journalists claimed the secret services was behind them in a political ploy to aid Putin.

Putin - then PM - used the 'terrorist threat' to wage a 'popular war' in Chechnya which helped him secure the presidency for the first time in 2000.

Unlike many other old Putin cronies, Cherkesov was not seen as flamboyantly cashing in on his connections, and was not listed as a billionaire.

Cherkesov, whose second wife Natalya Chaplina runs a news agency with close links to the Russian security services, is now among a series of high-profile Russians killed in suspicious circumstances since Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

The latest to die was Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil which criticised Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Maganov was found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow in September.

Russian state media quickly said his death was a suicide but law enforcement sources said there was no suicide note and there were no CCTV cameras on the section of the building where Maganov fell.

Lukoil, of which Maganov was chairman, was one of the few major Russian companies to call for the end of fighting in Ukraine after Moscow invaded.

Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died after falling from a window at Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow (pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2019)

In a statement in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board called for an 'immediate' end to the fighting, expressing its sympathy to those affected by the 'tragedy'.

Another high-profile case was that of Nikolay Petrunin, 47, dubbed the 'Gas wonderkid', who allegedly died from complications from Covid in mid-October after being in a coma for a month.

His businesses built gas pipelines for major Russian energy operators and he had links to Kremlin gas behemoth Gazprom - now starving the West of Russian supplies over the war - and Rosneft.

Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a PR manager for the Russian Railways, was found shot dead at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment neighbourhood on September 28.

Russian MP Nikolay Petrunin (pictured) is a high-profile energy executive who has died since Vladimir Putin launched his brutal war in Ukraine

Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a PR manager for the Russian Railways, was found shot dead at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment neighbourhood on September 28

In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-linked company, was found dead in his swimming pool, with a leading friend who is a top criminologist warning of foul play.

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg amid suspicions that apparent suicides may have been murders.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.

His neck was in a noose in his 500,000 home.

Yet reports say he had been badly beaten shortly before he 'took his own life', leading to speculation he was under intense pressure.

In the same elite Leninsky gated housing development in Leningrad region three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

Yuri Voronov, 61, was found dead in August

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg, stoking suspicions that the deaths may well have been murders

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43 former top executive with energy giant Lukoil, died in May

Igor Nosov, CEO of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, also died this year in his early 40s, reportedly from a 'stroke'

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also linked to Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after 'taking advice from shamans'.

One theory is that Subbotin - who also owned a shipping company - was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.

In April, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13.

He had high-level links to leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank.

Friends have disputed reports that he was jealous after his wife admitted she was pregnant by their driver.

There are claims he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.

Several days later multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after appearing to kill his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria, with an axe.

He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a company also closely linked to the Kremlin.

Former Kremlin official and Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev, 51, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife and one of his daughters in April

Russian gas tycoon Sergey Protosenya (pictured), his wife Natalya, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria were found dead in their Spanish mansion, in Lloret de Mar, on April 19

Ukrainian born multi-millionaire Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga Palant, 50, were found stabbed to death in their family house in Moscow region last week

There have also been questions over the death of Putin's point man for developing Russia's vast Arctic resources who 'fell overboard' to his death from a boat sailing off the country's Pacific coast. Ivan Pechorin, 39, (circled) had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok

There have also been questions over the death of Putin's point man for developing Russia's vast Arctic resources who 'fell overboard' to his death from a boat sailing off the country's Pacific coast.

Ivan Pechorin, 39, had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok.

The high-flyer was managing director of Putin's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.

And in another case a mobile phone multi-millionaire and his wife were found stabbed to death, with the official version of events raising questions.

Naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.

Immediate briefing to the media claimed the woman took her own life in a jealous rage after Palant said he was leaving her.

Yet this was strongly disputed by the couple's best friend.
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The protester who was arrested by police today for throwing eggs at King Charles and the Queen Consort in York is an Extinction Rebellion activist who once stood as a Green Party candidate, MailOnline can reveal.

Patrick Thelwell was bundled to the ground by four police officers while screaming 'this country was built on the blood of slaves'. Meanwhile, onlookers shouted 'God save the King' and 'shame on you'.

Footage shows four eggs flying past His Majesty and breaking on the ground beside him as he was greeted by city leaders. Charles briefly looked around to see the broken eggs, but otherwise barely reacted.

In an online biography, Thelwell boasts of his long involvement in Left-wing politics, which began in 2015 when he campaigned to oust Tory MP Esther McVey from her seat on Merseyside due to her views on benefits.

He has been president of the University of York gardening society and, on a blog where he regularly writes about climate change, says he is preparing to study for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Global Development.

Thelwell stood as a Green Party candidate in the 2019 local elections for the Hull Road Ward in York, which is now controlled by Labour.

He previously expressed republican sentiments, tweeting that he would 'not bow to the new false King' when the Queen died.

He has previously joined protests blocking London Bridge and a road leading to newspaper printing presses. Then PM Boris Johnson called the stunt 'completely unacceptable'.

The royal couple were greeted by a line-up of local dignitaries lead by the Lord Mayor and local musician in historic dress known as The York Waits.

But as the king and queen moved down the queue shaking hands, a single loud boo could be heard coming from from the pavement ahead of them and two eggs sailed over the heads of the dignitaries and landed by Charles' foot. He could be seen looking quizzically at the floor.

Another flew close to the head one of the council representatives who turned and exclaimed angrily. It appears four eggs were thrown in all.

Plain-clothed royalty protection and uniformed local police swiftly moved in and identified the culprit but struggled to contain him at first as the crowds were packed so tight. 'We've got him,' one yelled out.

Today, North Yorkshire Police confirmed a 23-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence.

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Footage caught the moment eggs flew past King Charles as he was greeted by city leaders in the centre of York this morning

A protester (top left) throws eggs at King Charles III (right) and the Queen Consort (left) as they arrive for a ceremony at Micklegate Bar

The protester shouted 'this country was built on the blood of slaves' before he was carried away by police into a waiting van

The protester can today be named as Patrick Thelwell, an Extinction Rebellion activist and former Green Party candidate

In an online biography, Thelwell boasts of his long involvement in Left-wing politics, which began in 2015 when he campaigned to oust Tory MP Esther McVey from her seat on Merseyside over her views on benefits

Thelwell has been president of the University of York gardening society and, on a blog where he regularly writes about climate change, says he is preparing to study for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Global Development

The eggs were seen flying past His Majesty and breaking on the ground beside him as he was being greeted in York

The King briefly looked around at the eggs on the ground, but otherwise barely reacted to the egging

King Charles and the Queen Consort were being welcomed to York by city leaders when the man threw three eggs at them, all of which missed (this image shows one of the eggs on the ground)

As police were detaining the man, Charles continued with a traditional ceremony in which he was officially welcomed to the city of York by the Lord Mayor

Police move into the crowd to grab the man after he was spotted throwing eggs today on Micklegate Bar in York

Officers hold Thelwell on the ground following today's incident, which took place as the King was being welcomed by city leaders

The 23-year-old is put into a police van by officers before being taken away from the scene

A broken egg on the ground on Micklegate Bar in York, where Charles and Camilla were doing their walkabout

North Yorkshire Police said a 'well-rehearsed' security operation had been in place for the visit to ensure the royal couple's safety.

Charlotte Bloxham, the force's silver commander for the operation, said: 'I'm pleased to report that the policing operation and the overall wider visit was successful today.

'An enormous amount of planning and preparation goes into visits of this nature. I would like to thank all the officers and staff that supported today's operation.

'Many partner agencies also assisted us with the planning and execution, and I would also like to extend my thanks to them.

'On behalf of the force, it was a privilege for North Yorkshire Police to welcome the King and Queen Consort to North Yorkshire.'

Officers begged other members of the crowd to moved to one side so that they could restrain the man, who could be heard shouting: 'This country was built on the blood of slaves.'

A woman could be heard screaming repeatedly at the top of her voice but it is not clear whether she was with him or a horrified member of the public.

He faced a hostile reaction from the rest of the crowd, some of who shouted 'shame on you' and 'God save The King' at the top of their voices to drown the protestor out.

Others yelled 'hip hip hooray' repeatedly and one shouted: 'You've literally spoilt this for everybody' and the man was finally pushed to the floor and handcuffed.

He was repeatedly booed as he was finally carried away by uniformed officers.

Charles's goddaughter says King is 'open' to discussion about the slave trade King Charles believes that Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade should not be hidden, his goddaughter said yesterday. Fiona Compton, 41, whose father was Sir John Compton, former prime minister of St Lucia, revealed that she and the King have been speaking about the need for 'openness' when discussing Britain's historical role in the horrific global trade. She said: 'He is ready to have active conversations about Britain's relationship with the slave trade. He agrees this is British history, and it should not be hidden.' Miss Compton showed Charles her slave-themed artwork in Leeds as he visited World Reimagined, a project involving trails of large globe sculptures in cities across the UK created by artists to bring to life the impact of the transatlantic slave trade. Speaking afterwards, she added: 'It's early days and positive conversations and willingness for openness and engagement. 'The project and conversations is about engaging British history in the slave trade and having open and meaningful conversations about it. 'It's ongoing conversations, he says he is ready to speak on it. He is ready to have conversations and see what work can be done. '[We've been] having the conversations for a while. There's no talk of reparations. It's not solely for the British monarchy, it's for British people to have these conversations.' Advertisement

Meanwhile The King and Queen Consort carried on unperturbed, taking part in an historic ceremony.

Micklegate Bar was the most important of York's four medieval gateways and is the focus for grand events.

By tradition, reigning monarchs pass through the gate when visiting York and have to stop to ask the Lord Mayor's permission to enter. The ceremony was last carried out when the late Queen visited in 2012.

Charles was invited to approach bearers holding a sword and a mace and touch then sword symbolically. Both then turned away allowing him to enter through the gateway.

The Town Clerk read out a 'declaration of welcome' - which included a reference to the sadness at the loss of Queen Elizabeth II and an acclamation at his accession - before the couple embarked on a meet and greet with the crowds, undeterred by the incident unfolding a few yards away.

At the front of the crowd was little Jason Tweedie-Long, five, who has a serious visual impairment known as nystagmus.

His grandmother, Wendy Loveday, explained that the family were huge royalists and Jason had been bitterly disappointed that the late Queen died on his second day at primary school.

'He was very sad that he didn't get to meet her. We are really royalists so when he heard that the king would be coming to York he said he would like to see him, but we knew because of his sight that it would be impossible for him to see from the crowd.

'So we decided to talk to those in positions of power and we wrote to the city council who spoke to Buckingham Palace. And here we are.'

Jason and his grandmother were given a special position in a press position along with a press pass.

He said he was 'really, really, really excited' to be able to see the king.

Mrs Loveday said: 'Well I love The King and its right that he is here with his Queen at his side.

'It's only possible to rule when you have the person you love at your side. York is a royal city and we are honoured that they are here. We loved the Queen and will love them too.'

Much to their delight, when a kindly palace press officer pulled Jason from the crowd in order that he could see the royal visitors better, not only did they stop to say hello but they took one of his hands each and took him on a little of the walkabout with them.

Mrs Loveday said afterwards: 'It made our day. How kind of them. We will never forget this.'

She added of the protestor: 'There's always one idiot, isn't there? One amongst thousands and thousands of people. It won't spoil it for us.'

The couple then drove by car to the Gothic splendour of York Minster, the city's stunning cathedral and place of worship for more than 1,000 years, heralded by the minster bells.

After being welcomed by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, and given posies by the children from the cathedral's 'Minster Mice', they went in for a service of prayer and to meet community heroes.

The main reason for the couple's visit was to unveil a seven-foot-tall statue of Queen Elizabeth II, designed and carved by cathedral stonemason Richard Bossons, which was originally commissioned to mark her Platinum Jubilee.

The statue, which has been kept strictly under wraps until the unveiling ceremony, depicts a 'mature' Queen dressed in her Order of the Garter Robes and wearing the George IV diadem traditionally used for the State Opening of Parliament

The statue is situated 25 foot up on the Minster's West Front hidden by a screen and today had a purple silk drape over it.

Following the egging, Charles and Camilla appeared unfazed as they continued their walkabout and greeted the crowds

The King and Queen Consort were in York to attend the unveiling of a statue of Queen Elizabeth II, the first to be installed since her death, as part of a brief tour of Yorkshire

This morning's incident comes just a day after Charles goddaughter, Fiona Compton, revealed that she and the King have been speaking about the need for 'openness' when discussing Britain's historical role in the slave trade

King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla chat to members of the congregation during a service to unveil a statue of Queen Elizabeth II

The royal couple walk down the magnificent nave of York Cathedral before this morning's service

The main reason for the couple's visit was to unveil a seven-foot-tall statue of Queen Elizabeth II, designed and carved by cathedral stonemason Richard Bossons, which was originally commissioned to mark her Platinum Jubilee

The statue, which has been kept strictly under wraps until the unveiling ceremony, depicts a 'mature' Queen dressed in her Order of the Garter Robes and wearing the George IV diadem traditionally used for the State Opening of Parliament

Despite the heavens opening, Their Majesties went ahead with the ceremony, with Charles telling the crowds that he he and his wife were 'deeply touched' to be asked to unveil the statue.

He said: 'When this statue was first planned five years ago, during a reign of unprecedented duration and achievement, it was intended as a celebration of the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Now, as we have witnessed, with great sadness, the passing of that reign, it is unveiled in her memory, as a tribute to a life of extraordinary service and devotion.

'The creation of this statue is also, if I may say so, a tribute to the support, affection and prayers that the community of this cathedral, and of this great city, always gave the late Queen, and all for which she stood in the life of the nation and the Commonwealth.

'The late Queen was always vigilant for the welfare of her people during her life. Now, her image will watch over what will become Queen Elizabeth Square, for centuries to come - a constant example of the duty and care for others, and for our community, which is the calling and the duty we all share.'

Although his words were hard to hear over the inclement weather - with the crowds stretching all the way round the square and ten to twelves deep in places - the people gathered erupted in a cheers and applause,

Among them was Hannah Morley, 40, from York, who said afterwards: 'We have waited here for hours to catch a glimpse and we actually got to speak to The King. I can't quite believe it. '

She added of the earlier incident: 'Such a shame that one idiot tried to spoil today. People are different, we understand that. But if you don't like the Royal Family then just stay away, There are a lot of people here who this means a lot to. '

Speaking after the ceremony, the Archbishop of York said: 'It is particularly moving for us that the statue was commissioned to mark the Platinum Jubilee. Of course, with the Queen's death, it has added meaning and poignancy as it stands here to remember and celebrate the whole of her life and reign, all that she meant not just to our nation but to the Commonwealth and the world.

'We are deeply honoured that the king, just a few weeks into his reign, has chosen to come here to unveil the statue. We did a bit of a double-act: he unveiled the statue and I bless the statue, and of course The Lord provided a heavenly sprinkling from above. What could be better?'

As for the egg throwing he added: 'I wouldn't even call it an incident. There's always a few, we know there's a fewthe people who are out here in the strength is what's important. The statue is magnificent. It's part of the fabric of the Minster and will be for centuries to come.'

Stonemason Richard Bossons revealed it was the first time he had ever attempted portraiture.

He said: 'To have the King here was a huge unexpected bonus. It is made from French limestones, just because we could get the size of block required. I know depicting the Queen over the years has been a bit hit and miss. And it's a difficult one to pitch.

'I wanted to get a sense of her longevity on the throne over 70 years, but a more mature upright figure, so I have softened her features over the process. She is orientated to look down Duncan Place which is the main approach to York Minster so you can see her as you walk up.

'Start to finish it was 15 months non-stop. I spoke to King Charles which was particularly wonderful for me as he has been such an advocate for traditional arts and crafts over the years. It was a very special moment to see him unveil the statue, it hasn't really sunk in yet.

Later, the King and Queen brushed off the incident and embarked on a six-minute walkabout shaking hands with locals who waited for two and half hours in Doncaster.

The King also hailed the 'warmth of the welcome' they have received in Yorkshire - despite the lone egg protest 50 miles away in York.

King Charles during a visit to the offices of Leeds Building Society yesterday as part of his official visit to Yorkshire

Yesterday, at a mock up of the fresh food counters in Morrisons stores, the King expressed a fondness for plate steak, a cheap cut from the brisket

The royal couple attracted several hundred people crammed onto the High Street for a ceremony to confer city status on Doncaster.

They were due to walk straight up the steps for a reception inside Mansion House but buoyed by massive cheers they turned around and went to meet flag-waving locals instead.

Both looked happy and relaxed and flanked by three burly security guards after the York incident.

Around 24 police officers were in the High Street and security was also milling around the crowd.

A drone had hovered earlier overhead.

Chuckle Brother and Doncaster favourite Paul Chuckle, 75, real name Paul Elliott, was also in the crowd but did not speak with the King and Queen.

But the pair spent around six minutes greeting locals and the King was overheard saying 'thank you so much for coming'.

There were cries of 'welcome to Doncaster'.

Charlie Dykes, 19, spoke to the King and said afterwards: 'It was fun as he spotted that we were wearing very similar coats.'

Tammy Houghton, 50, said: 'He said 'I hope you have not been standing here too long'. I told him I've been here for two and half hours.'

Others had waited for the royal visit for around three hours.

Inside Mansion House, Charles delivered a speech to celebrate Doncaster's city status.

He also spent time chatting to Doncaster resident Ben Parkinson, the hero paratrooper who was Britain's most severely wounded soldier to survive the Afghanistan conflict.

The King gave Ben his MBE in 2013 which he was proudly wearing at the reception yesterday.

Ben, 38, said afterwards: 'They threw an egg in York? It's wrong. You don't do that. What a waste of an egg. We wouldn't do that in Doncaster.'

Despite the egg protest in York, the King hailed his welcome during the two-day visit to Yorkshire.

In a speech inside the Mansion House, he said: 'My wife and I are so delighted to be with you in Doncaster today as you celebrate this historic occasion.

'The warmth of the welcome we have received today is all that we have come to expect in a county which is renowned for its sense of belonging and its feeling of community. It is something which all who know this wonderful part of the world will recognise instantly, and can never forget.

'Here in Doncaster, you have, of course, a great deal of which to be proud: from your Roman origins two thousand years ago, to your crucial role in the Industrial Revolution and in the creation of this nation's railway network, to the pre-eminent place you occupy in the horse-racing world.

'For all those reasons, and many many more, it is entirely fitting that Doncaster should be chosen as one of the new cities created to celebrate The late Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We mark that occasion now in memory of my beloved mother's lifelong dedication to all that is best about our country. She would, I know, be immensely glad that this honour should be conferred on a place where it is so richly deserved.

'It is my hope that your new status will be taken not just as a mark of your community's great achievements in the past, but also of your ambition for the future. Doncaster as a town has played its part in the life of the nation for two millennia, and I know that this very special community will approach the future as a city with the same enterprise, the same resilience, and the same good old Yorkshire spirit.

'So, ladies and gentlemen, nothing could give me greater pleasure than to offer you my most heartfelt congratulations as you celebrate your new-found status, and to wish you all every possible success for the next two thousand years.'

Doncaster is one of eight new cities named as part of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

In October 2022 The King, accompanied by The Queen Consort, conferred City status on Dunfermline

The remaining six are Bangor, Colchester, Doncaster, Douglas, Dunfermline, Milton Keynes, Wrexham and Stanley on the Falkland Islands.

Blank cartridges, eggs and even a ROSE: Previous times when Charles, the Queen and Prince Philip came under fire in the line of duty King Charles being targeted with eggs is not the first time that senior royals have come under fire in public. Both Charles and his late mother the Queen have been shot at with blanks in the past, whilst Her Majesty also had eggs thrown at her during a visit to New Zealand with Prince Philip in 1986. Charles was targeted in a less concerning way in 2001, when a protester slapped him across the face with a red rose. 1981: Marcus Sargeant fires blanks at the Queen The Queen was riding down The Mall during a Trooping the Colour parade in 1981 when 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant fired blank shots at her. He was tackled by a soldier and the police before being arrested and charged. Although the Queen had to calm her horse, named Burmese, she continued with the cremony. Sarjeant was later jailed for five years under the 1842 Treason Act. The last person to be convicted of a similar offence was Nazi collaborator William Joyce during the Second World War. The Queen was riding down The Mall during a Trooping the Colour parade in 1981 when 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant fired blank shots at her. He was tackled by a soldier and the police before being arrested and charged 1986: The Queen and Prince Philip targeted with eggs in New Zealand The Queen and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand for the seventh time in 1986 when they were targeted with eggs while riding in an open top car. The car was travelling through Auckland's Ellerslie Racecourse as 42,000 school children watched on. After the eggs had been thrown, the Queen was seen brushing away any residue before she nodded in reply when Philip asked her if she was ok. The Queen and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand for the seventh time in 1986 when they were targeted with eggs while riding in an open top car. The car was travelling through Auckland's Ellerslie Racecourse as 42,000 school children watched on Two women wearing white coats were then bundled away by police. Her Majesty later made light of the incident in a joke at that evening's banquet, saying: 'Of course New Zealand has long been renowned for its dairy produce. 'Though I should say, that I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.' 1994: Charles is shot at with blanks When the then Prince Charles was on a visit to Sydney in 1994, 23-year-old student David Kang fired a shot at him from a starting pistol. Charles had been making a speech at the time, to mark Australia Day. Kang, who went on to become a barrister, later said that he carried out the stunt to highlight the plight of Cambodian asylum seekers being held in detention camps in Australia. He was bundled to the ground and arrested before being found guilty of threatening unlawful violence and sentenced to 500 hours of community service. When the then Prince Charles was on a visit to Sydney in 1994, 23-year-old student David Kang fired a shot at him from a starting pistol 2001: Latvian schoolgirl slaps Charles across the face with a rose When Prince Charles was on a visit to Latvia in 2001, he was targeted by schoolgirl Alina Lebedyver, who was then 16. She used a rose to slap him around the face and later said she performed the stunt to protest against the war in Afghanistan. Lebedyver also told reporters that Britain was 'the enemy of the world'. She was charged with endangering the life of a foreign dignitary and faced up to 15 years in prison. Charles made a plea for leniency and the charges were downgraded, eventually to the point where she was put under her mother's supervision for a year. When Prince Charles was on a visit to Latvia in 2001, he was targeted by schoolgirl Alina Lebedyver, who was then 16. She used a rose to slap him around the face and later said she performed the stunt to protest against the war in Afghanistan Advertisement

Kate keeps her cool in khaki! Princess of Wales is the picture of poise in an elegant 369 Hobbs coat and 36 Mango dress as she visits a children's centre on day bombshell new season of The Crown is released

By Harriet Johnston for MailOnline

The Princess of Wales was the picture of elegance today as she visited a children's centre in Hillingdon hours after the release of the explosive new series of The Crown.

Kate Middleton, 40, appeared in good spirits as she arrived at Colham Manor Children's Centre this morning, where she is set to learn more about maternal mental health and speak with staff who have helped vulnerable mothers in the community.

The royal donned a smart 369 dark olive coat from Hobbs for the occasion, which she paired with a 36 khaki dress from Mango, her 625 Jimmy Choo bag and her favourite set of 550 pearl drop earrings from designer Kiki McDonough.

The mother-of-three, who has focused on early years support and mental health in her royal career, was beaming as she greeted staff and appeared to chat with members of the team as she entered the centre.

Her visit comes hours after the release of the new series of The Crown, which is likely to have sent shockwaves through the palace. The Daily Mail's Royal Editor Rebecca English has suggested that the programme may be so controversial that it could prompt the Palace to break its 'never complain, never explain' tradition.

Kate's character doesn't appear in the newest series of The Crown - however she will be portrayed in the next, and final, season of the explosive drama.

The Princess of Wales was the picture of elegance today as she visited a children's centre in Hillingdon hours after the release of the explosive new series of The Crown

Kate appeared in good spirits as she arrived at Colham Manor Children's Centre this morning, where she is set to learn more about maternal mental health and speak with staff who have helped vulnerable mothers in the community

Today, The Princess swept her hair into her usual bouncy blow dry style, and opted for a neutral makeup look, with a touch of blusher and a little eyeliner for the occasion.

The coat, the Lori Wool Cashmere Blend Belted Long Coat in olive from the high street retailer Hobbs, is described online as 'inspired by military design' and is a 'timeless' piece.

The royal, who is known for her love of high street brands, paired the trendy coat with a comfortable khaki green knit dress from Mango.

The brand is one which she has worn a number of times in the past, while she also occasionally dresses her children in the label.

Kate, who has long been passionate about mental health and the early years, appeared animated as she chatted with mothers at the centre

The royal, who is known for her love of high street brands, paired the trendy coat with a comfortable khaki green knit dress from Mango

Meanwhile she accessorised with her 625 Jimmy Choo croc-embellished handbag and a matching pair of heels.

During today's visit, Kate will hear how the care provided in the borough of Hillingdon exemplifies the benefits of adapting a system to better suit the needs of women and families.

Meanwhile she is also set to join a mother and baby group taking place at the Centre and speak with mothers who have received support for their mental health to hear about their experiences.

The session will include mothers who have been supported by two of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance's member organisations  Home-Start and Birth Companions.

During today's visit, Kate will hear how the care provided in the borough of Hillingdon exemplifies the benefits of adapting a system to better suit the needs of women and families

The royal donned a smart dark green coat for the occasion, which she paired with a khaki dress and matching accessories (pictured left and right)

The mother-of-three, who has focused on early years support and mental health in her royal career, was beaming as she greeted staff and appeared to chat with members of the team as she entered the centre

Kate has made the early years development of children one of the main pillars of her public role and the work complements the work she is trying to do through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood

Kate has made the early years development of children one of the main pillars of her public role and the work complements the work she is trying to do through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood

The royal is then set to meet representatives from agencies working across perinatal services including specialist psychiatry staff, midwives, health visitors and social workers for a roundtable discussion.

There, they are set to discuss how the service has developed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable mothers in their community,

Earlier this year, the royal said no mother is 'immune to experiencing anxiety and depression' in a video to mark becoming patron of the MMHA.

Kate has made the early years development of children one of the main pillars of her public role and the work complements the work she is trying to do through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.

The MMHA is a UK-wide charity and network of more than 100 organisations, working to ensure women and families affected by perinatal mental problems have access to high-quality comprehensive care and support.

Her visit today comes as the latest series of The Crown was released on Netflix - with royal experts warning it is likely to leave the palace reeling with it's controversial scenes. Pictured: Elizabeth Debicki plays Princess Diana during the interview with Martin Bashir

Prince William is portrayed as watching his mother given the Panorama interview from his school, before she speculates on the impact it will have on him

Her visit today comes as the latest series of The Crown was released on Netflix - with royal experts warning it is likely to leave the palace reeling with it's controversial scenes.

So who will play Kate in The Crown's sixth season? Star turn: Meg (left) will begin shooting her scenes as the new Princess of Wales for the show's sixth and final season this year Meg Bellamy who will soon star as Kate Middleton in The Crown once took to the stage as the gruesome Miss Trunchbull in Matilda. The actress, 19, starred as the formidable character in an amateur dramatics production and her tutor says even then she was a 'star in the making'. Speaking to The Sunday Mirror teacher Claire compared Meg's qualities to that of the Princess of Wales. 'Meg is similar and ridiculously humble, she was very popular the type of student you had to encourage to come forward'. She continued: 'What's amazing is that she took the initiative to do a self tape for The Crown and it's become one of the stories you rarely hear of in the industry  a huge unknown plucked for a massive production. That reflects Meg.' Meg will begin shooting her scenes for the sixth and final season of the Netflix show later this year however Claire believed the youngsters loving family would help keep her grounded. 'They're such a sweet, loving family. She will stay private, she's a sensible person and will approach all this carefully. Her mum will be an amazing support as well.' Advertisement

It features graphic reconstructions of the most private of conversations in lascivious detail, imagined chats between Prince William and his late mother, and Princess Diana's infamous interview with Martin Bashir.

Last year the then Duke of Cambridge made a deeply emotional public statement asking that the Bashir interview, which was obtained through deception, should never be seen in public again. Sources have since made clear that this applies to using it for dramatic purposes too.

However the programme dedicates two episodes to the Bashir interview - and even portrays Prince William as tearfully watching it unfold on television from Eton.

The depiction of senior royals, particularly the then-Prince of Wales, is so relentlessly negative - and the dramatic licence used to recreate relatively recent events in their lives so great - that some scenes verge on the defamatory.

Royal insiders have also pointed out that The Crown has been released almost two months to the day after Queen Elizabeth died, making the twisting of facts even more distasteful.

Royal editor Rebecca slammed scenes as 'verging on defamatory'. admitted parts of the show feel 'pretty distasteful' and said that while she initially felt that the reaction around the next season was 'a bit of a storm in a teacup', she was 'shocked' by its contents.

Speaking on Palace Confidential, she hinted that the Palace would wait for the release today before considering 'fueling the flames'.

'I think they want to see it for themselves,' Rebecca told host Jo Elvin.

However, she added: 'I think it might be one of those occasions where they're pushed to say something.'

Meanwhile royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said The Crown's desire to 'knock' the Monarchy 'whenever possible' will cause a 'good deal of pain'.

He told MailOnline: 'There were always dangers which The Cron had to surmount as it moved into the 1990s.

'Apart from calls for a disclaimer before each episode, only observed so far in the marketing for the 5th series, it obviously had to show Diana's interview on Panorama, probably the most famous television interview ever given, in some form. This interview has been totally discredited and the subsequent cover up by the BBC is notorious.

'William has called for it never to be screened again and this depiction is bound to increase interest in it. Yet no series which purports to cover this period, as The Crown does, could possibly ignore it.

'I am pretty certain it will be shown as a discredited and dubious enterprise and Bashir as the shockingly duplicitous character that he is.

'I fear what is coming will cause a good deal of pain to those involved, Netflix will probably get a vast audience for it but indications from previews are that, for the royals, this is nothing short of a horror show.'

It was announced earlier this year that The Crown have cast actress Meg Bellamy in the role of the Princess for series six.

The Netflix show initially put out a casting call in April to find a 'stunning actress' to portray the role of a young Kate, and now after a five month wait, they've finally found their Duchess.

Meg, who was head girl at St Crispin's School where she studied drama, will star alongside Ed McVey, who has been cast as her onscreen husband Prince William.

Ed and Meg will play the couple during the period in which their romance blossomed while studying at St Andrews University.

It is not known how significant a part Kate will be in the final series - casting calls for Prince William and Prince Harry suggested they would play a large part in the programme.

It indicated there may be storylines affecting the young Prince's lives in the late nineties and early noughties.

The time period will likely cover William attending University of St Andrew's in Scotland where he met Kate as well as Prince Charles' wedding to Camilla Parker-Bowles and the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana.

It may also cover Prince Harry's party days, including alleged experiments with cannabis and alcohol, which resulted in Prince Charles taking the then 16-year-old Prince to a rehab centre in a bid to set him straight.
An Australian father considered one of the world's worst paedophiles has received a mammoth jail sentence for raping toddlers alongside his depraved Filipina girlfriend as part of a child abuse ring.

Peter Gerard Scully, 59, was sentenced to 129 years and his girlfriend Liezyl 'Lovely' Margallo received 126 years in jail before a court in Cagayan de Oro in southern Philippines.

They faced 60 charges, including trafficking, child pornography, child abuse and rape of children as young as 18 months.

Peter Gerard Scully, 59, was sentenced to 129 years for a string of sickening child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes before a court in Cagayan de Oro in southern Philippines

Scully's 'girlfriend', former prostitute Liezyl 'Lovely' Margallo received 126 years in jail for her crimes. She featured in one sick video sexually abusing an 18 month old child

He was already facing life behind bars after being convicted in 2018 on one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape by sexual assault.

Margallo, 28, joined the father-of-two from Melbourne in his crimes after he hired her as a prostitute.

She lived a life of luxury, buying designer labels and taking expensive trips using the money Scully made from selling vile child pornography.

Scully sold videos of his disgusting crimes for up to $10,000 to American, German and Brazilian men on the Dark Web.

One victim was a child whose body was found buried under the floorboards of a house rented by Scully in Surigao.

With the help of Australian Federal Police, Philippines authorities arrested Scully in 2015 in Malaybalay, after he fled Australian fraud charges in 2011

Some dubbed Scully the world's worst paedophile for his depraved crimes

'I hope this sends a very strong message to all abusers, all human traffickers, that crime really does not pay,' Merlynn Barola-Uy, a regional prosecutor in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro, told AFP.

The November 3 ruling was for the second batch of cases filed against Scully and Margallo.

The first conviction of Scully and his then live-in girlfriend, Carme Ann Alvarez, came in 2018, when the pair were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Alvarez was believed to have become Scully's girlfriend when she was a 14-year-old prostitute.

She offered food and shelter to young girls whom Scully raped and tortured and made to wear dog collars and chains.

Alvarez eventually led Filipino police to an apartment where an 11-year-old was buried.

She and Scully both received life sentences in 2018.

Scully and Margallo faced 60 charges, including trafficking, child pornography, child abuse and rape of children as young as 18 months

That year it was also revealed $500,000 of Australian taxpayers' money was spent defending Scully since 2015.

The legal aid was funded through a government controlled support scheme for Australians abroad facing prosecution.

Known as the Serious Overseas Criminal Matters Scheme, the support system aims to assist defendants who could be sentenced to the death penalty or jail terms of more than 20 years.

Scully's sickening crimes went undetected until two victims, cousins Queenie and Daisy, aged 9 and 12, escaped from his home.

With the help of Australian Federal Police, Philippines authorities arrested Scully in 2015 in Malaybalay, after he fled Australian fraud charges in 2011.

In the Philippines Scully set up debauched cybersex businesses, filming teenage girls and children from poor families having sex or being forced to.

One such film, titled Daisy's Destruction, caused prosecutors to break down in tears after they discovered it.

The video was alleged to show a baby girl being tied upside down by her feet, sexually assaulted and bashed repeatedly.

Scully's girlfriend Liezyl Margallo was a prostitute who was so involved in his crimes that she was sentenced to 126 years in jail. She was found to have featured in the video abusing an 18 month old child

Margallo, who was initially released by police due to lack of evidence, was later found to have featured in the video abusing the child.

'If I were to describe her, I would call her a savage girl for what she has done to the kids. I think that description fits her,' investigator Dominador Cimafranca told media in 2017.

The little girl was aged around 18-months in the video and although she survived, is deeply traumatised by the ordeal.

Two other accomplices received sentenced of nine years each.

The Philippines is considered a global hotspot for child sex exploitation.
Barzan Kamal Majeed, 36, pictured, nicknamed 'Scorpion', is on the run and received a 10-year jail sentence for people smuggling in his absence at a court in Bruges last month

Police are hunting a human trafficker who masterminded an organised crime group which tried to smuggle more than a hundred migrants into Britain.

Barzan Kamal Majeed, 36, nicknamed 'Scorpion', is on the run.

He received a 10-year jail sentence for people smuggling in his absence at a court in Bruges last month.

Majeed, originally from Nottingham, was also handed a 968,000 Euro (849,000) fine.

The 36-year-old was head of an organised crime group that tried to smuggle the migrants to the UK in small boats and lorries.

Investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA) are working with officers in Belgium to track Majeed down and have issued a warrant for his arrest.

The 36-year-old was head of an organised crime group that tried to smuggle more than 100 migrants to the UK in small boats and lorries. Pictured: Migrants sail on a smuggler's boat near Dunkirk (file image)

The investigation into the organised crime group was launched involving NCA, Belgian, Dutch and French law enforcement.

Their probe looked into the 31 attempts the groups made to smuggle migrants to the UK between July 2018 and November 2019 and identified 'Scorpion' as the ring leader.

The criminal moved to the UK in 2013, living in Nottingham, where he still has connections.

In 2015, he was deported to the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq.

Investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA) are working with officers in Belgium to track Majeed down and have issued a warrant for his arrest. Pictured: Migrants on the Ocean Viking rescue ship in the Mediterranean sea (file image)

Last year, Nzar Jabar Mohamad, 35, another accomplice, pictured, was convicted. He was jailed at Hull Crown Court in October 2021

Last year, Nzar Jabar Mohamad, 35, another accomplice, was convicted. He was jailed at Hull Crown Court in October 2021.

He pleaded guilty to the attempted people smuggling plot which also included hundreds of women.

The Belgian court also gave Mohamad an additional two-year sentence and fined him 272,000 Euros.

This year, Belgian authorities have charged another 23 people for their role in the organised crime group.

Three of those were arrested in the UK and extradited to Belgium. Of those, 17 were convicted and jailed for 32 years in total during the same hearing as Majeed's.

Six were handed suspended prison sentences.

This year, Belgian authorities have charged another 23 people for their role in the organised crime group. Pictured: Migrants near Dunkirk (file image)

NCA Branch Commander Martin Clarke said: 'These convictions represent the destruction of the UK and international arms of this organised crime group, which preyed on the desperation of migrants seeking to cross the channel.

'The information we gathered following Mohamad's arrest was crucial to the success of the Belgian investigation.

'It shows that organised immigration crime networks usually cross international boundaries, meaning international cooperation is essential to tackling them.

'I would appeal to anyone, anywhere, who has information about where Barzan Kamal Majeed might be to contact us or the Belgian authorities immediately.

'Although he was sentenced in his absence, true justice will only be achieved when he is back on Belgian soil to serve his jail term.'

Anyone with information about Majeed's whereabouts can contact the NCA control centre on 0370 496 7622.
The mayor locked horns with Waleed Aly, who said the families were Aus citizens

Mr Carbone said Fairfield locals were concerned about ISIS families in the area

He argued that Western Sydney was the federal government's 'dumping ground'

A concerned mayor has gone toe-to-toe with Waleed Aly after speaking out against the repatriation of ISIS brides and their children from war-torn Syria to his Western Sydney community.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone slammed the government on The Project for making his region the 'dumping ground' for resettled Islamic State families.

Mr Carbone explained that concerns had been raised by several members of his local community, many of whom were refugees themselves that fled Syria to escape the terror group.

'I don't think he (the prime minister) has taken into account the tens of thousands of refugees that fled their home, had their homes burnt back in Syria, have lost their loved ones, have watched a lot of their families be beheaded and burnt, and have come and resettled in Western Sydney,' he said on the show.

He argued that Syrians who helped Australian armed forces fight against ISIS terrorists were 'more of an Australian citizen than anyone else' - before Waleed Aly intervened.

'Legally they're not, Australian citizens are a different category. We have obligations to Australian citizens that we don't have to refugees,' Aly said.

Waleed Aly and Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone fired up on The Project over the repatriation of ISIS brides and their children from war-torn Syria to Western Sydney

Four women, all of whom married terrorists, and their 13 children touched down in Sydney on Saturday after being removed from the al-Roj camp in Syria (pictured, a camp in Syria)

Mr Carbone fired back, accusing the ISIS brides of committing treason under 'Commonwealth criminal code section 80'.

'Treason is when you leave your country and you aide and abet, doesn't matter if you're baking a cake or scones and assisting ISIS, you're committing treason,' he said.

'Under that act, you can have your citizenship revoked.'

Aly responded: 'You'd have to convict them and then do that first though, Frank, and that hasn't happened.'

'You're talking a lot about kids here, in fact mostly about kids. Would you leave kids in camps overseas when they are Australian citizens?' he asked.

Mr Carbone remained firm on his view, demanding the prime minister 'come to Western Sydney' to address the issue.

'Why is it Western Sydney? Why is it Western Sydney when we have tens of thousands of people that fled ISIS,' he said.

'Australia is a big country, they (ISIS families) don't necessarily have to be in Western Sydney.'

A women once married to an Islamic State fighter was spotted with her children at a McDonald's in south-west Sydney after arriving (pictured)

Mr Carbone told Aly that many residents in Fairfield who shared concerns about repatriated families were refugees that had fled Syria to escape the violence of Islamic terrorists (ISIS pictured)

The exchange came after Mr Carbone, Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun, and Campbelltown Mayor George Greiss, appeared on Sunrise on Wednesday and said their enraged communities refused to be a 'dumping ground' for people who had 'turned their back on their own country'.

Four women, all of whom were married to Islamic State fighters before they were killed in the war, and their 13 children touched down in Sydney on October 29 after being rescued from the al-Roj refugee camp in Syria.

Dozens more, many of whom claim they were tricked into leaving Australia by their terrorist husbands, are expected to follow in coming weeks.

Mr Carbone and Mr Mannoun told morning TV host Natalie Barr they had signed a joint letter asking Anthony Albanese to meet with them to discuss the resettlement of the newest arrivals to their LGAs.

'The repatriated women and children should not be resettled in south-west Sydney, due to the high level of anxiety and concerns from the communities that have fled Islamic State brutality,' the letter read in part.

'Your government has listened to the repatriated families' views, but have not taken the time to consult with the communities affected by this decision.'

Mayors Frank Carbone (left) and Ned Mannoun (right) told Sunrise host Natalie Barr on Wednesday they had signed a joint letter asking the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to meet with them to discuss the newest arrivals to their LGA's

Mr Carbone said communities had told their mayors 'loud and clear' how they felt about the wives and children of Islamic State fighters moving in next-door.

'We have a very harmonious community here in western Sydney, people from all over the world, but it's important that we get people that want to come back to us and be a part of us, rather than fight against us,' he said.

Mr Mannoun said the government did not approach any of the councils to flag plans involving the repatriation of ISIS families.

'There's a lot of anxiety in the community, people are very concerned about this, and if you don't talk to us how will we work together and do our job,' he said.
Rishi Sunak facing questions about his judgment after bringing Sir Gavin back for a third spell in Cabinet

He was due 16,876 in severance despite being back in Government for just two weeks - but is turning it down

Alleged he told civil servant to 'slit your throat' and sent abusive texts to by former chief whip Wendy Morton

Gavin Williamson said that he is quitting Cabinet and will 'comply fully' with probes into bullying allegations

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Rishi Sunak disowned Gavin Williamson today saying alleged bullying was 'unacceptable' and admitting he regretted appointing him to the Cabinet.

At a stormy PMQs, Mr Sunak said Sir Gavin had done the 'right thing' by resigning last night, and made clear that people should be treated with 'consideration and respect'.

He conceded that he should not have drafted him back into his senior team. 'I obviously regret appointing someone who has had to resign in these circumstances,' he said.

The exchanges came with Sir Gavin facing calls for his knighthood to be stripped if the bullying claims are upheld. Senior Tories also predicted his Commons career is over, as a boundary review has merged his constituency with another and the local association will not want him to stand at the next election.

The minister announced his resignation last night admitting the furore had become a 'distraction', although he stressed he is still determined to clear his name.

The departure followed another frantic day of allegations about Sir Gavin's behaviour - including that he told a senior civil servant to 'slit your throat'.

In the Commons, Keir Starmer pointed to the claim that Sir Gavin 'told a civil servant to slit their throat'.

'How does the Prime Minister think the victim of that bullying felt when he expressed great sadness at his resignation?' the Labour leader said.

Mr Sunak replied: 'Unequivocally, the behaviour complained of was unacceptable and it is absolutely right, it is absolutely right, that the right honourable gentleman has resigned. For the record, I did not know about any of the specific concerns relating to his conduct as Secretary of State or chief whip, which date back some years.

'I believe that people in public life should treat others with consideration and respect, and those are the principles that this Government will stand by.'

When Sir Keir demanded to know if Mr Sunak stood by his decision to give Sir Gavin a ministerial job two weeks ago, the PM replied: 'I obviously regret appointing someone who has had to resign in these circumstances but I think what the British people would like to know is that when situations like this arise that they will be dealt with properly.

'And that's why it is absolutely right that he resigned and it's why it is absolutely right that there is an investigation to look into these matters properly. I said my Government will be characterised by integrity, professionalism, and accountability and it will.'

Mr Sunak appointed his ally when he took over at No10 just a fortnight ago, despite apparently being aware of the dispute former chief whip Wendy Morton over expletive-laden texts about invites to the Queen's funeral.

It is the third time Sir Gavin has been forced to exit the Cabinet, after being sacked as Defence Secretary by Theresa May and Education Secretary by Boris Johnson.

At a stormy PMQs, Mr Sunak said Gavin Williamson had done the 'right thing' by resigning last night, and made clear that people should be treated with 'consideration and respect'

Gavin Williamson has quit the cabinet saying that he wants to 'comply fully' with the complaints process and clear his name following bullying allegations

Sir Gavin's letter of resignation sent to Mr Sunak , saying he recognised the allegations were becoming a 'distraction'

Responding, Mr Sunak wrote that he was accepting 'with great sadness'. 'I would like to thank you for your personal support and loyalty,' he added

Mr Williamson was due 16,876 in severance pay despite being back in Government for just two weeks - but last night he confirmed he would turn it down.

The rise and (multiple) falls of Sir Gavin Gavin Williamson's political career has been filled with mishap and controversy. Born and raised in Scarborough, he was managing director of a fireplace firm before becoming an MP. His reputation as a 'master of the dark arts' was cemented when chief whip in 2016 and 2017. He revelled in his tough reputation, telling delegates at the 2017 Conservative Party conference: 'We take a carrot and stick approach. Personally I don't much like the stick, but it is amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot.' He kept a red-legged Mexican tarantula named Cronus in a glass box on his desk, which is said to have provided added menace when dealing with errant MPs. He said the spider was 'a perfect example of an incredibly clean, ruthless killer'. Sir Gavin went on to raise eyebrows with his language while he served as defence secretary from 2017 to 2019. At the height of the furore over the Salisbury novichok attack he told Russia to 'go away and shut up'. Theresa May sacked him as defence secretary in May 2019 following an inquiry into a leak from a National Security Council meeting about Chinese involvement in the development of 5G networks. Boris Johnson brought him back as education secretary but was then forced to resign again after the fiasco around grading of GCSE and A-level exams. Sir Gavin also received criticism over free school meals and over the recovery plan to help pupils catch up after Covid. He came under fire for telling a newspaper he had held a Zoom meeting with Rashford, but he had in fact met rugby player Maro Itoje. He was sent to the backbenches in September 2021 but returned two weeks ago as minister without portfolio under Rishi Sunak. Advertisement

Sir Gavin declined to comment on his behaviour after Mr Sunak disowned him at PMQs.

He left his Chelsea home just minutes after Mr Sunak branded his alleged bullying 'unacceptable' in the House of Commons.

Dressed smartly in a raincoat over a navy blue suit, white shirt and tie the Stafford South MP walked briskly along the streets of west London.

The three-times minister declined to answer any questions.

He replied simply: 'Sorry, who are you?'

Mr Sunak pledged a new era of 'integrity' in government when he took over from Liz Truss, but has immediately been embroiled in rows over reappointing Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and then drafting in Sir Gavin.

Lib Dem frontbencher Wendy Chamberlain has written to the honours forfeiture committee asking them to look at the case for withdrawing Sir Gavin's knighthood.

She said: 'The complaints being made about Gavin Williamson are extremely serious and suggest a bullying culture at the very top of the Conservative Party. If these complaints are upheld he should be stripped of his knighthood, or else the whole honours system risks being brought into disrepute.

'Rishi Sunak appointed Williamson to Cabinet despite knowing of serious complaints about his behaviour. Since then he sat on his hands for days instead of taking action.

'The very least Sunak could do now is confirm he would support taking Williamson's knighthood away if the investigations into his behaviour find him guilty.'

A senior Tory told MailOnline that Sir Gavin's Commons career was now likely to be over because his South Staffordshire seat had been merged in the boundary review, which should be finalised within months.

Instead government whip Mike Wood is in pole position to be selected for the new constituency.

'The real loser until last night was Mike Wood,' they said.

'But I can't see Gavin standing at the next election. If you were chairman of his local association, would you really want him? I think it is career-ending in more ways than one.

'Ironically enough Mike Wood who had no constituency to go for suddenly might have one. He is one of the nicest guys in the House, enormously popular.'

The PM's press secretary suggested that Sir Gavin might not be replaced - after his responsibilities remained a mystery until yesterday afternoon. He oversaw the Geospatial Commission and government Spads.

'He's considering the role and whether that is taken on by someone already in the Cabinet Office or someone who would replace Gavin Williamson. No decisions have been made.'

On whether that means Sir Gavin might not be replaced, she said: 'No decisions have been taken.'

In a round of interviews this morning, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan insisted Mr Sunak had the 'highest degree of integrity' and there had been 'quick' action.

But Ms Keegan predicted Sir Gavin's case 'won't be discussed any further'.

'I think Rishi has the highest degree of integrity and judgment,' she told Times Radio.

'We saw it all over the summer, he was prepared to tell the hard truths. That's real leadership.'

She added: 'I mean, the reality is you appoint people and, you know, the only thing you can do if things don't work out or things go wrong or things come to light afterwards is act quickly.

'Gavin's acted quickly, he's removed the distraction.

'I would expect after today that it won't be discussed any further.'

Sir Gavin said in his resignation letter that he was determined to show he has done nothing wrong. Responding, Mr Sunak wrote that he was accepting 'with great sadness'. 'I would like to thank you for your personal support and loyalty,' he added.

Sir Gavin is entitled to nearly 17,000 in severance for his short spell in government - but last night he confirmed he would turn it down.

He tweeted: 'To dispel any speculation, I want to make it clear that I will not be taking any severance. This is taxpayers' money and it should go instead toward the Government's priorities like reducing the NHS's waiting lists'.

In his resignation letter, Sir Gavin wrote: 'As you know, there is an ongoing complaints process concerning text messages I sent to a colleague. I am complying with this process and have apologised to the recipient for those messages.

'Since then, there have been other allegations made about my past conduct. I refute the characterisation of these claims, but I recognise these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing for the British people.

'I have therefore decided to step back from government so that I can comply fully with the complaints process that is underway and clear my name of any wrongdoing.

'It is with real sadness that I tender my resignation, but I want to take this opportunity to offer my full and total support from the back benches. I am incredibly proud to have worked with you in government over the last few years and during the campaign.'

Downing Street was carrying out a fact-finding exercise into the claims about Sir Gavin's conduct towards the defence official, which could have resulted in a formal propriety probe. Meanwhile the Tory party and Parliament's bullying watchdog are looking into allegations made by Ms Morton.

Before lunchtime yesterday the PM's spokesman was still voicing 'confidence' in Sir Gavin and stressing his contribution to government. But by 4pm No10 was making clear that Rishi Sunak might not wait for the outcome of investigations to act, and he then resigned just after 8pm.

One damaging factor was his former deputy Anne Milton alleging he used intimidatory and threatening tactics while he was chief whip.

Ms Milton accused Sir Gavin of seeking to use an MP's financial difficulties as leverage against them and sending an expletive-laden email about a female civil servant.

Ms Milton, who was deputy chief whip from May 2015 to June 2017, described his behaviour as 'unethical and immoral', claiming: 'I think he feels that he's Francis Urquhart from House Of Cards.'

Ms Milton, who was stripped of the Tory whip during the Brexit rows in 2019 and subsequently lost her seat, told Channel 4 News: '

'I got the impression that he loved salacious gossip and would use it as leverage against MPs if the need arose.'

Asked if any particular incidents stood out from her time working under Sir Gavin, she added: 'There were a few - the salacious gossip, which I've talked about, people's sexual preferences, that sort of thing.

'He loved all that. He would come into the office and say: 'Guess who enjoys some form of sex or another'.

'I found it very distasteful apart from anything. He also, on one occasion, we had an MP who'd got a few financial problems, some financial help was given.

'It wasn't a great amount, but I do remember him asking me to give the MP in question the cheque.

'And he waved it under my nose and said: 'Make sure when you give him this cheque he knows that I now own him'.

'I'm sure if you ask Gavin Williamson about this, he will say it was a joke. I don't think it was a joke.'

Ms Milton also recalled an email sent by Sir Gavin in 2016 in response to a female civil servant's inquiry about why a minister had to change travel plans to attend a vote.

'Always tell them to f*** off and if they have the bollocks to come and see me. F****** jumped up civil servants,' she claimed he sent to her in reply.

She questioned Mr Sunak's decision to give Sir Gavin a ministerial job, saying: 'I think (at) best it was probably a bit naive. I don't know that there are many people that would hang out the bunting to see Gavin Williamson back in government.'

Ms Milton was Conservative MP for Guildford between 2005 and 2019 but lost the Tory whip towards the end of her time in Parliament during the bitter Brexit battles in the House of Commons.

She subsequently stood as an independent candidate at the 2019 general election, but failed to hold onto her Surrey seat.

The claims by Ms Milton followed allegations that Sir Gavin clashed with a civil servant while he was defence secretary.

Sir Gavin denied the official's allegation of a campaign of bullying but did not deny making the remarks, including telling the civil servant to 'jump out of the window'.

The Guardian, which first reported the allegations, said a complaint had now gone to the ICGS.

In a statement, the complainant said they had an 'incredibly difficult period' working for Sir Gavin at the MoD and that the alleged bullying had had 'an extreme impact' on their mental health.

Sir Gavin has also been hit by a row over the expletive-laden text messages he sent to fellow MP Ms Morton after he was excluded from the Queen's funeral.

In a statement following the Guardian report, Sir Gavin said: 'I strongly reject this allegation and have enjoyed good working relationships with the many brilliant officials I have worked with across Government.'

It is understood that former chief whip Ms Morton has referred her complaint to Parliament's bullying watchdog, while an internal Tory party inquiry is ongoing.

Having given strong backing to Sir Gavin at lunchtime, by yesterday afternoon Mr Sunak's spokesman was indicating he would not feel the need to wait until the resolution of existing investigations to act if the circumstances demanded it.

'Obviously he would act if and when he felt it was appropriate to do so,' the spokesman said.

The Tory party and Parliament's bullying watchdog are looking into allegations made by former chief whip Wendy Morton (pictured)

Ex-Conservative MP Anne Milton, who worked alongside Sir Gavin for almost a year in the Tory whips' office between 2016 and 2017, claimed the 46-year-old 'loved salacious gossip' including about people's 'sexual preferences'

Ironically Sir Gavin's ministerial responsibilities were only announced yesterday afternoon, having been a mystery for the past fortnight.

They included the Geospatial Commission, the Government Communications Service and the 'Great Campaign' to promote the UK.

In a series of texts peppered with swear words, Sir Gavin accused Ms Morton of seeking to 'punish' MPs out of favour with then-premier Liz Truss by excluding them from the Queen's funeral, warning: 'There is a price for everything.'

Sir Gavin, who was knighted after being nominated for the honour by Mr Johnson earlier this year, is a divisive figure at Westminster, where he is viewed with suspicion by many Tory MPs because of his reputation as an inveterate plotter.

He was sacked first by former PM Theresa May as defence secretary in 2019 for allegedly leaking details of a National Security Council meeting, and then by Mr Johnson as education secretary over the Covid-19 exams debacle.

However, he was regarded as a key figure in Mr Sunak's campaign over the summer to become party leader.
A Radio 4 profile of Kemi Badenoch accused of being a 'botched hit job' was pulled by the BBC over concerns about inaccuracies in the programme.

Women's rights groups had criticised the show for including claims that the former Tory leadership candidate was 'anti-trans' and accused it of being 'disappointingly inaccurate'.

A Whitehall insider said a number of the claims in the programme were 'junk' and hit out at the inclusion of a 'hostile activist journalist' in the episode.

After concerns were raised following the broadcast of Profile last weekend, the corporation took down the show from its audio platform BBC Sounds.

An edited version of the programme has subsequently reappeared on the broadcaster's app.

The Radio 4 profile of Kemi Badenoch was accused of being a 'botched hit job'

The BBC would not reveal what had been changed in the episode, but it is understood that a claim in the original broadcast, that Mrs Badenoch, 42, had stuck male and female signs on the doors of gender neutral toilets at her leadership launch venue, was corrected.

There was also criticism over the inclusion of controversial former LGBT correspondent at the BBC, Ben Hunte, in the programme, who questioned her attitude to equality.

He had claimed that 'a number of organisations and individuals' were 'really concerned' about Mrs Badenoch's behaviour in Government.

Mrs Badenoch, who is currently International Trade Secretary, took a strong line against 'woke' politics in her former role as equalities minister.

Mr Hunte told the programme: 'There have been a number of situations over the past year that really do raise your eyebrows about what it means to be an equalities minister when you don't necessarily believe in all forms of equality within your portfolio.'

The inclusion of the former BBC journalist, who now works for Vice News, sparked anger.

The Whitehall insider said: 'You've got this 12 minute segment to talk about the first black woman elected to parliament to become a cabinet minister and the thing that they do is get this really hostile activist journalist to talk about her.'

They added: 'You can tell the angle that they were trying to take was hostile... They got loads of things wrong.'

Women's rights groups had criticised the show for touting claims that the former Tory leadership candidate was 'anti-trans'

There was also criticism over the way controversial former LGBT correspondent at the BBC, Ben Hunte, appeared on the programme and questioned Mrs Badenoch's attitude to equality

The source added: 'They went in saying she was this anti-woke culture warrior... They weren't interested in nuance or the subtleties of her life, it was just very much obviously a kind of botched hit job.'

Fair Play For Women, a women's rights campaign group, said the show had 'repeated false claims' about the politician and said it was 'all too easy to smear female politicians' who dared to enter the 'gender and sex debate'.

In July Mrs Badenoch said there should be separate male and female toilets in all new public buildings in England.

She said it was 'vital that women feel safe' and 'that their needs are respected'.

The BBC had said it was 'making some amendments' to the episode after it was taken down before a 'revised version' was made available.

A source said that the changes related to accuracy rather than concerns about bias.
South Africa: DWS welcomes commencement of Lesotho water project phase II

The Department of Water and Sanitation has welcomed the awarding of major contracts for the construction of Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).

The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) announced on Monday that the Polihali Dam and Polihali Transfer Tunnel construction contracts have been awarded.

The contracts award is a key milestone in Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, signalling the start of the final lap of the water transfer infrastructure construction.

The Polihali Dam will be a concrete-faced rockfill dam, which will create a reservoir on the Senqu and Khubelu rivers. The infrastructure also includes a spillway, a compensation outlet structure, and a mini-hydropower station.

The Polihali Transfer Tunnel will transfer water by gravity from the Polihali reservoir to the Katse reservoir, the centrepiece of the LHWP.

From Katse, water will move through various places, including the Ash River outfall, outside Clarens in the Free State, on its way to Gauteng.

Department spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, said the project will see an increase in the annual water supply rate, which will be a welcome addition to meeting South Africas rising water needs.

On completion, the Polihali Dam will add approximately 2 325 million cubic metres in storage capacity to the LHWP Phase II, which will increase the projects current annual supply rate capacity from 780 to 1 270 million cubic metres, Ratau said.

Ratau said the additional flow of water from Polihali will simultaneously increase power generation within Lesotho, which is another step towards meeting the countrys electricity needs, reducing its dependence on imported power.

He said the awarding of contracts comes as the department continues work towards ensuring adequate water infrastructure.

The awarding of the contracts to start with Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project comes at an opportune time when the department is getting all its ducks in a row to ensure adequate infrastructure to meet the current and future demand for water.

The increasing population, coupled with rapid urbanisation, continuing economic activity, and impact of climate change, put a strain on water infrastructure. Therefore, the sooner we complete Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, the better.

He said this will go a long way to mitigating water shortages and water security will be realised.

Thousands of job opportunities

Thousands of job opportunities will be created through the contract appointments.

The contracts are estimated to generate approximately 5 000 job opportunities continuously for a period of three years in both Lesotho and South Africa. To date, the advanced infrastructure programme has generated more than 4 000 jobs, he said.

Work on Polihali Dam is expected to commence in November, while work on the Polihali Transfer Tunnel is set to start in December 2022.

The project is expected to be commissioned in 2028.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-11-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Zhang Jianhua

VIENTIANE, Nov. 9 -- Members of the 7th medical expert team dispatched by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to Laos were awarded the Grade III Medal of Valor and the Medal of Friendship by the Lao People's Army. The medal-awarding ceremony was held in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on November 8.

According to the Military Attache's Office of the Chinese Embassy in Laos, the Chinese military medical expert team overcame the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to carry out medical assistance work at the Military Hospital 103 of the Lao People's Army and made outstanding contributions.

The Chinese military medical experts devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the treatment of patients and training of medical staff in Laos, and helped improve the diagnosis, treatment and nursing level of the Lao Military Hospital 103, said Lao Defense Minister General Chansamone Chanyalath, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and deputy prime minister of Laos, in a document signed by him on awarding medals to the Chinese military medical team.

Sun Dongdong, head of the Chinese military medical team, said that they will continue to devote themselves to the assistance work, focus on both treating and teaching, and make every effort to safeguard the health of the Lao military and civilians, so as to further contribute to the friendship between the two countries and the two militaries.

The Lao Military Hospital 103 is a comprehensive hospital established with assistance from the Chinese Ministry of National Defense. Since 2019, the Chinese PLA has been dispatching medical teams to the hospital, where the Chinese military medical experts have carried out a series of medical-aid activities such as academic exchanges, medical knowledge popularization lectures, and free medical consultations. They also helped the doctors of the hospital complete a number of major surgical operations.
The parents of a three-month-old baby girl who was mauled to death by their own pet husky are due to appear at Lincoln Crown Court after attending a hearing at Boston Magistrates' Court earlier today.

Karen Alcock, 41 and Vince King, 54, both of Castledyke Bank, New York, near Coningsby, are both accused of owning a dog named Blizzard who was dangerously out of control, resulting in the death of their baby Kyra King.

King pled not guilty to the offence while Alcock gave no indication of plea.

They arrived in court together this morning and were pictured donning face masks before entering the building.

The couple reportedly took their three month-old Kyra on a husky training trip before her death in the car park of Ostler's Plantation, near Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, at around 11.13pm on March 6.

The husky was so out of control it injured Kyra badly enough to kill her, and despite paramedics' best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining injuries to the neck and head, the court heard.

Paramedics who attended informed police of the incident, and Kyra's parents were arrested at the scene.

Karen Alcock (left) and Vince King (right) arrive at Boston Magistrates Court, Lincolnshire

Alcock and King are said to regularly take their several pet huskies on dog races

Karen Alcock, 41, is said to own at least five huskies along with her partner, with neighbours complaining of 'constant barking'

Vince King, 54, and his partner are said to have taken their three-month-old baby on a husky training trip when the fatal mauling occurred

Kyra King died in the car park of Ostler's Plantation close to Kirkby Moor Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire, at around 11.13am on March 6

Alcock and King appeared at Boston Magistrates' Court this morning where they confirmed their dates of birth and address.

Alcock, who wore black trousers and a light coloured blouse, gave no indication of plea. King, dressed in a dark suit, pleaded not guilty.

The couple are said to be husky enthusiasts, owning at least five of the dogs and using them for racing.

Images on their social media profiles appear to show them while racing the dogs, pulled by up to eight at a time.

The tragedy happened at one of the few places in the UK where dogs can be legally raced.

Vince King (pictured) will appear in court alongside Alcock over their daughter's death

Lincolnshire Police said Karen Alcock and Vince King were arrested for an allegation of having an out-of-control dog which caused injury resulting in death.

They previously said the dog that carried out the attack has been kept in isolation at secure kennels since the incident, and officers will now seek an order to euthanise it.

Neighbours of the couple have said their home is very noisy with constant dog barking.

One local who lives nearby told The Sun: 'I just don't think it is right for one family to have so many dogs.'

Another added: 'We can hear them barking and we are half a mile away.

'Keeping that many dogs is a bit obsessive for me. I would be very happy for the dogs to be got rid of.'

Detective Constable Craig Davey, investigating officer, 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.'

The parents were granted unconditional bail and instructed to attend a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court on December 7.
The grieving parents of a nine-month-old baby who died at a nursery earlier this year have today paid tribute to their 'beautiful' little girl - and vowed not to rest until they get justice for her.

The child, named only as Genevieve in a statement released by police, suffered a 'medical episode' at Tiny Toes Day Nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Manchester on May 9.

Her parents said she had a 'beautiful smile and enchanting emerald eyes' and 'loved to be cuddled, to dance and to play with her toys'. But they have described how their 'world turned very dark' on the day she died.

Two members of staff were arrested days later on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter and a third person was held last month on suspicion of child neglect. All three have since been bailed, police said.

Genevieve's heartbroken relatives said they are 'devastated beyond words' at the loss of the baby. In a statement released through police, they vowed 'not to rest' until justice had been done.

They said: 'She was so wanted and so treasured. Her absence is the wound that will never heal.

'Genevieve was not just a baby. She was a wonderful, unique and special person.

The nine-month-old girl suffered a 'medical episode' at Tiny Toes Day Nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester on May 9 and sadly died later that day. There have been three arrests

'She was an individual with her likes and dislikes, her passions and her joys. She loved to be cuddled, to dance and to play with her toys, particularly her tambourine.

'Most of all she loved to spend time with her family, and we loved and cherished every moment that we spent with her.

'She had the most beautiful smile and enchanting emerald eyes.

'To know that we will not get to hear her mischievous laugh again, or hold her hand, is almost too much to bear.

'We grieve for everything we have lost, but most of all we grieve for her, for a life filled with promise and opportunity that was cut so short.

'We cannot accept the cruelty and unfairness of this.

'She gave us so much in the short time that she was with us. We are different and better people for having had her in our lives.

'She is and will always remain a vital and integral member of our family. She will never be forgotten. Genevieve deserves justice and we will not rest until she gets it.'

Police said officers called by the ambulance service just before 3.20pm on Monday, May 9, to reports a child had suffered a medical episode.

The youngster was rushed to hospital where she sadly died the same day.

Education watchdog Ofsted suspended the nursey's registration at the time.

And when its inspectors carried out visits in September, they found 'the provider was not meeting some of the requirements'.

Although the provider appealed against Ofsted's suspension, it resigned its registration before the appeal took place and has now closed the nursery.

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: 'As of Wednesday 12th October 2022, a third individual has been arrested on suspicion of child neglect in connection with this investigation.

'The two people who have been previously arrested remain on bail pending further investigation.

'The nursery provision remains closed at this time. The family of the child are being supported by specialist Family Liaison Officers.'
Sweden's largest nuclear reactor has been disconnected from the national grid after a fault with one of its turbines.

Oskarshamn 3, located 140 miles south of Stockholm on the coast of the Baltic Sea, was disconnected around 10.45am local time Wednesday.

It is not clear exactly what the fault is, a spokesman for the plant said - but turbine failure does not necessarily mean an issue with the reactor.

The shutdown comes amid heightened tensions as Sweden tries to join NATO and Russia engages in an energy war with Europe.

Oskarshamn 3, Sweden's largest nuclear reactor, was disconnected from the national grid around 10.45am due to a turbine fault

It also comes after Moscow was accused of blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark.

'Oskarshamn's reactor 3 is disconnected from the power grid due to a turbine shutdown. Troubleshooting is in progress,' Desiree Liljevall, a spokesman for the plant, told SVT.

Nord Pool, a pan-European power exchange, said that the duration of the stop was unknown and 'more information will follow within 24 hours'.

It is the third time the electricity supply from Oskarshamn has been stopped this year, according to newspaper Expressen.

In February, Oskarshamn stopped operating for a week after some of the fuel rods at the plant were damaged.

And in July, it was disconnected from the grid for a day though the exact reason was not given.

A spokesman at the time said checks were carried out, and it was operating at full capacity again three days later.

Sweden, a country of about 10 million, has six active reactors at three plants: three at the Forsmark plant north of Stockholm, two at Ringhals on the west coast near Gothenburg, and the one at Oskarshamn.

Oskarshamn initially had three reactors but two were permanently shut down. The single remaining reactor normally has an output of 1,400 megawatts.

One of the reactors at Ringhals is also out of action after undergoing repairs, though it is due to come back online in January.

Oskarshamn, located 140 miles south of Stockholm, was last disconnected from the grid in July this year and temporarily shut down in February due to fuel damage

On its website, the operator, OKG, said the reactor is one of the world's largest boiling water reactors. Construction of the plant began in 1980 and the start-up took place five years later.

The shutdown of the nuclear power plant comes as Sweden tries to join NATO and Russia continues to cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

It also comes after Moscow was accused of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines last month.

Western leaders have stopped short of publicly blaming Russia for the attack - which blew two holes in each pipeline and may have permanently disabled them - but have been privately briefing their suspicions that the Russian president was behind it.

Russia and Putin have repeatedly denied carrying out attacks on the Nord Stream pipes, pointing the finger of blame at the US.

Nord Stream 2 was due to become the main route for Russian gas reaching Europe but was scrapped by Germany when Putin invaded.

Nord Stream 1 had been operating for a decade and ferried huge amounts of gas to the continent, which it relied upon for almost 40 per cent of its energy.

Pictured: An aerial photo provided by the Swedish Coast Guard on Sept. 28, 2022 shows the gas leak on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline

The explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines in September caused four gas leaks. While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of them in the Swedish

But it was barely in use at the time of the explosion after Russia throttled supplies to just 10 per cent capacity - blaming maintenance issues.

Nobody is sure exactly how the attack was carried out, but theories include that Russia may have used one of its underwater sabotage submarines.

Others suggest some kind of explosive could have been dropped from the surface days or weeks ahead of time and then detonated, or that a drone controlled by a nearby ship or sub could have done it.

The area of the blasts - which sits just outside of Swedish and Danish territorial waters - is now cordoned off and Stockholm is leading a probe into what happened.
After tweeting out a cry for help and accusations against her ex-husband, Morris was detained for two days, which the State Department confirmed

Morris has spent months reaching out to all forms of authority figures in Saudi asking for help, though few have listened

Because of Saudi's restrictive guardianship laws, Morris is not able to leave the country with her daughter without the permission of the child's father

She took her now-8-year-old to visit the child's father in Saudi over the summer several years ago, but says they had their passports seized by her ex-husband

US citizen Carly Morris, 34, says she has been trapped in Saudi Arabia with her daughter since 2019

A US woman who tweeted out an accusation that her Saudi Arabian ex-husband had trapped their daughter in the kingdom since 2019 said she was released from custody Wednesday after being detained by police.

Carly Morris, 34, was taken into custody on Monday after being summoned to a police station. The US State Department confirmed her detention.

She said she was detained for two days because of her tweets.

Morris had posted to the short-form social media platform that she and her eight-year-old daughter had been held in the kingdom 'against our will' in a hotel apartment for years.

She described the situation as 'extreme and dire,' and one in which they faced 'extended social isolation.'

She said that she and her daughter, Tala, have 'spent the past three years under these conditions and deprived of our basic human rights and our lives stolen from us.'

'For over three years I have attempted to seek help from every government office and authority. My situation has downplayed, neglected, and mishandled,' she wrote.

She warned others, 'You will be stripped of your dignity, honor, and rights. You will be placed under dehumanizing circumstances.

'And anyone, at any point, can do anything to you, and you will not receive the desperate help that you need, and there will be no justice. In fact, you will be blamed and criminalized in return.'

Her tweets and account have since been deleted.

Carly Morris, 34, of California traveled to Saudi Arabia with her daughter in 2019 to visit the child's father - her ex-husband. She says she has been trapped there ever since, unable to bring her daughter back to the US without the express permission of the child's father

Morris has repeatedly reached out for help across social media platforms and has contacted every authority figure she can think of inside and outside of the kingdom. Her recent public tweets asking for help led to her temporary detention by authorities

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has so-called guardianship laws that deny women the right to travel of work without the permission of a man. For that reason, Morris's legal position in attempting to bring her daughter home is tenuous

When contacted early Wednesday by AFP, Morris said she 'was released from jail late last night.'

'They detained me for two days...over my tweets.'

In a voice note, she said her daughter was safe but accused her ex-husband of taking all their belongings from their hotel apartment.

'I just went to the school today to take her...she is with me now but we have absolutely no clothes, shoes'" she said.

'He took everything.'

Morris's legal case in Saudi has been difficult to navigate given the kingdom's so-called guardianship laws, which allow men the ability to wield significant control over the lives of women - including where they are able to travel.

During the summer of 2019, Morris and her daughter traveled to Saudi so the child could spend several weeks with her father. But upon arrival, she claims the pair's travel documents were taken by her ex-husband.

Morris says she has since been trapped in a battle to leave the kingdom with her daughter in tow.

Morris's mother Denise White said her daughter had previously told her she had been banned from traveling and was 'scared something is going to happen.'

'She met with the US embassy and Saudi officials, there was some kind of meeting, and during that meeting she said she felt there was no solution,' White told the Guardian.

Over the summer, Morris was awarded full custody of her daughter, but the child's father converted Tala's US citizenship into Saudi citizenship, which means the child would not be able to leave the country without his permission.

Morris has reached out to the US embassy several times, which is working on her case as Washington's relationship with Riyadh fluctuates.

Prior to the tweet storm that led to her detention, Morris had attempted to contact a number of potential sources of aid in the kingdom - including messaging the official Facebook page of Saudi Arabia over the summer.

'I am in desperate need of help,' she messaged the page.

'My daughter and I were traficked [sic] into the country.

'For over 3 years I have been held in Saudi against my will inside a hotel with my 8 year old daughter.

'Now they took her and I haven't seen her in 15 days.

'Saudi police hang up on me everytime [sic] I call saying that they don't speak English,' she wrote, her tone increasingly desperate.

'I have nobody. I am American.

'I need help fast.

'It's urgent,' she wrote. 'Please help me.'

Morris's story continues to unfold as Riyadh's relationship with Washington grows tense over OPEC+'s decision to slash the global oil supply, placing many western nations in a tenuous position as the Ukrainian war with Russia rages on

For several years, Morris says she and her daughter have been treated like captives. Her ex-husband's family periodically drops off food, water and clothing at a hotel apartment the two having been living out of

For three years, Morris said she's been living a nightmare, claiming her ex-husband's family periodically drop off food and water 'like we are captives.'

'We go for walks. That's about the extent of it. And on top of that, I have diabetes,' she told the Middle East Eye.

'I've gone without medication for my diabetes for three years. You know, I've heard about these things happening to maids and domestic workers, but never once did I think it would happen to me.'

Morris's detention and ongoing tricky situation in the kingdom comes as tensions between Riyadh and Washington continue to oscillate.

Washington has stood in opposition to the OPEC+ cartel's decision to slash oil production, which has placed the US and many European nations in an increasingly tenuous energy position as the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on.

Prior to the OPEC+ cuts, President Joe Biden came under fire for traveling to Jeddah and meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. His actions appeared to undermine his previous position on Saudi, which he called a 'pariah' state.

US based human rights activists - including those at the Freedom Initiative - who have been following Morris's story, say she is an example of why the belief that Saudi is a key ally should be challenged.

Allison McManus of the Freedom Initiative, said the case is 'yet another sign that Saudi simply does not value the US as an ally.'

'Before we hear any more reference to Saudi's strategic partnership, we need to see an end to the abuse of American citizens. We need to see an end to the abuse of women and children whose only crime is their gender.'
The Russian-installed 'deputy head' of Kherson region who was labelled a 'traitor' and wanted by Ukraine for treason was killed in a car crash, hours before Putin's troops withdrew from the city.

The regional governor's press service confirmed that Kirill Stremousov, 45, died in the accident. He was reportedly killed when his Lexus was involved in a collision with a truck.

Telegram channels supporting Putin's regime reported that the crash happened near Henichensk in Kherson, his personal driver told the @wargonzo project.

Stremousov was a driving force in organising and supporting the referendum on Kherson's illegal annexation by Russia.

Recently, he had evacuated civilians from the west bank in Kherson as Ukrainian forces advanced towards the Dnipro River.

The 45-year-old, who was appointed two months after the invasion of Ukraine, was wanted in Kyiv for treason.

'Russia is in Kherson forever,' Stremousov - who had worked as a handyman in the US - had boasted, ahead of losses which mean Putin's forces are on the retreat.

But the official also had enemies among Russians after blasting Putin's defence minister Sergei Shoigu for alleged incompetence in defending Kherson region.

'There is no need to cast a shadow over the entire Russian Defence Ministry at the moment because of some, I am not saying traitors,' he said last month.

However, his death came hours before General Sergei Surovikin, who is leading the war, said the city is now impossible to defend and that troops will withdraw across the Dnipro River 'in the near future' to defend the other bank. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has agreed to the plan.

Witnesses say Putin's men have already abandoned key checkpoints around the city and have destroyed bridges in an apparent effort to stop Ukrainian soldiers pursuing and capturing them.

Giving up Kherson - the capital of a region Putin annexed to Russia just weeks ago, his only toe-hold west of the Dnipro River, and a key checkpoint on the road to Crimea - is the most-humiliating loss his military has yet suffered.

Kirill Stremousov, 45, Deputy Head of the annexed Kherson region, was reportedly killed in a car crash

Russian state media released several pictures of a crash site where Deputy Head of Kherson Kirill Stremousovis thought to have died

The twisted remains of a Lexus, thought to belong to Stremousov, are pictured

Telegram channels supporting Putin's regime reported that the crash happened near Henichensk in the Kherson region, his personal driver told the @wargonzo project

Ukraine has been attacking towards Kherson since early August, and recently broke through Russian defensive lines to the north of the city.

But it has been hard to track the progress of the assault ever since, as Ukraine has imposed a news blackout on the region.

Last week, Western officials briefed that Russia appeared to be in the final stages of preparing for a retreat which was being disguised as a civilian evacuation.

They said 'reinforcements' being moved to the area were actually conscripts covering the backs of regular troops as they withdrew.

The officials said Russia's commanders had concluded the city was 'not worth defending' and would try to out-last the winter by building a strong defensive line over the other side of the river.

However, the waters have been muddied by briefings from Kyiv that Russia is actually trying to lure its forces into a trap.

The 'deputy head', pictured, said that Kherson could not and would not be handed back to Ukrainians

General Sergei Surovikin (left) has announced that Russia will retreat from Kherson, a decision agreed by defence minister Sergei Shoigu (right)

Earlier today, before his death, Stremousov had typically accused the West of being behind the Ukrainian advance in Kherson in an address on Telegram.

He said there were many English- and Polish-speaking mercenaries among the advancing forces, he alleged, offering no proof.

He told how there was an evacuation from Kherson.

'Many have left. About 80,000 people were evacuated. We help everyone who wants to leave Kherson. I am now in Kherson myself,' he said.

The place he was killed is Russian controlled and 130 miles from Kherson city.

A Ukrainian legislator reacted to the death of Stremousov, calling him 'a traitor.'

Oleksiy Goncharenko, vice president of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees, and Displaced Persons tweeted: 'Kherson collaborator Kirill Stremousov died in an accident. This is a traitor who went over to the side of Russia.

'He actively opposed the surrender of Kherson and said that Russia is here forever. And then he mysteriously dies.'

Pictured: Stremousov, circled, is reported to have died in a car crash

Putin's puppet governor of Kherson expressed distress and dismay over Stremousov's death, as the Kremlin placeman in Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev called his demise 'an irreparable loss'.

On a video Kherson 'governor' Vladimir Saldo, said: 'It is very hard for me to say that Kirill Stremousov died today.....

'He died in Kherson region, in a car that got into an accident

'It will also be difficult to talk about the tragedy to his family and friends

'He has five children and a sixth is due soon.

'Of course, we will take care of all of them, but unfortunately, Kirill will not be returned.'

Mikhail Razvozhaev said: 'He was a true patriot of Russia, brave and courageous, in any situation he remained in touch and considered it his duty to inform the residents of the Kherson region about what was happening.

'This was the case this morning as well. This is an irreparable loss.'

However Ukrainian sources queried whether the announcement of his death could be a Kremlin trick.

Independent We Can Explain media reported: 'Against the backdrop of a lack of details about the accident and the circumstances of his death, Ukrainian officials started saying the accident could be staged, and rumours about it in pro-Kremlin channels could be disinformation.'

Ukrainian blogger and politician Anatoly Shariy said: 'Several sources confirmed the death of Stremousov.

'If this is true, then I understand what kind of 'traffic accident' this was right now when the surrender of Kherson is obvious.'

He appeared to imply that Stremousov had many enemies for supporting the Russian occupation forces which are now pulling back.

He added: 'And the main thing - if he was killed, and exactly in the way I was told it happened, then it was no Ukrainian Army spies killing him.'

The place he was killed is Russian controlled and 130 miles from Kherson city. Pictured: Stremousov

Political analyst Sergey Markov said: 'Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson region, was killed. It's all very strange.

'He kept saying that Kherson could not be handed over and it would not be handed over.

'He died on the day when they began to actively talk about the surrender of Kherson.

'He died not from a terrorist attack, but in an accident. Not in Kherson, but in Genichesk.

'With him in the car was a military commander Kotz, he did not die.

'All this is very strange.'

Russia's press service confirmed that Kirill Stremousov, 45, pictured, died

Stremousov, pictured, a Ukrainian pro-Russian politician wanted in Kyiv for treason, lumped Shoigu and his generals together with 'corrupt marauders and other scum' in the Russian defence ministry

Shoigu's 'untalented military commanders' have 'not really bothered to answer for all the processes and holes that now exist'.

He declared: 'Indeed many say, if I were the defence minister who allowed this state of affairs to happen, as an officer I could have just shot myself.'

He then suggested that the word 'officer' was 'incomprehensible' to Shoigu.

Stremousov, a Ukrainian pro-Russian politician wanted in Kyiv for treason, lumped Shoigu and his generals together with 'corrupt marauders and other scum' in the Russian defence ministry.

Previously, in a bizarre video posted online, Stremousov decided to try his hand at poetry.

He recited a poem which declared that the whole world was Russian.

The poem appeared to suggest that Russians believe they can send their weapons everywhere and claim all countries as their own.

Putin spy mentor who was demoted after daring to criticise the Russian leader dies from unexplained 'serious disease' - the latest in a number of top officials who have recently died in suspicious circumstances

By Rachael Bunyan for MailOnline

A close KGB spy mentor of Vladimir Putin's who suffered demotion after daring to publicly criticise the Kremlin leader has died from an unexplained 'serious disease' .

Viktor Cherkesov, 72, once in charge of crushing Soviet dissidents, was crucial to the Russian president's rise but the pair later had strained relations.

When Putin headed the FSB secret service before becoming prime minister, Cherkesov was installed as his trusted deputy.

Earlier he had been in charge of law and order in St Petersburg when it became Russia's 'criminal capital' with a record for countless unsolved contract killings. At the time, Putin was deputy mayor.

But relations between Cherkesov and Putin became strained after the spy mentor suggested in 2017 that the secret services were becoming corrupted under Putin.

And now, Cherkesov has been found dead in St Petersburg from a 'serious illness', with no further details released by Russian authorities.

His death is the latest of a number of top Russian officials who have died in suspicious circumstances in recent months.

Viktor Cherkesov, a close KGB spy mentor of Vladimir Putin's who suffered demotion after daring to publicly criticise the Kremlin leader, has died from an unexplained 'serious disease'

Viktor Cherkesov, 72, once in charge of crushing Soviet dissidents, was crucial to the Russian president's rise (pictured together but the pair later had strained relations

Cherkesov had written in 2007 that senior officers in the FSB were enriching themselves as 'merchants' rather than being 'warriors' under Putin's command.

At the time, an outraged Putin called Cherkesov out on the article and hinted his longtime ally was hardly clean.

'I consider it incorrect to air such problems in the media,' Putin said.

'And if someone acts in this way, makes such claims about a war of the special services, he himself must first be impeccable.'

At the time an agent and also a former agent working for Cherkesov - then Director of the Federal Drug Control Service - died mysteriously from 'poisoning'.

Cherkesov was fired from this role in the wake of his criticism of the secret services under Putin.

Some interpreted his demise and the poisonings as due to brutal turf wars among Putin's warring henchmen.

Yet Putin did not want to lose him completely.

Cherkesov - seen by one source as 'knowing where the bodies are buried over many years' - was made Head of the Federal Agency for the Supply of Weapons, Military, Special Equipment and Materials for a two year stint.

He later became an MP, but was never again seen as being in Putin's inner circle, even though the men had been close since university.

Yet he was described as 'one of the few people with whom Putin is frank'.

When Putin headed the FSB secret service before becoming prime minister, Cherkesov (pictured) was installed as his trusted deputy

Cherkesov was deputy head of the FSB at the time of apartment block explosions in September 1999 in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk, in which 300 died, and a near miss in Ryazan, where a device was disarmed.

The FSB blamed the attacks on Chechen terrorists but independent journalists claimed the secret services was behind them in a political ploy to aid Putin.

Putin - then PM - used the 'terrorist threat' to wage a 'popular war' in Chechnya which helped him secure the presidency for the first time in 2000.

Unlike many other old Putin cronies, Cherkesov was not seen as flamboyantly cashing in on his connections, and was not listed as a billionaire.

Cherkesov, whose second wife Natalya Chaplina runs a news agency with close links to the Russian security services, is now among a series of high-profile Russians killed in suspicious circumstances since Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

The latest to die was Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil which criticised Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Maganov was found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow in September.

Russian state media quickly said his death was a suicide but law enforcement sources said there was no suicide note and there were no CCTV cameras on the section of the building where Maganov fell.

Lukoil, of which Maganov was chairman, was one of the few major Russian companies to call for the end of fighting in Ukraine after Moscow invaded.

Ravil Maganov, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died after falling from a window at Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow (pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2019)

In a statement in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board called for an 'immediate' end to the fighting, expressing its sympathy to those affected by the 'tragedy'.

Another high-profile case was that of Nikolay Petrunin, 47, dubbed the 'Gas wonderkid', who allegedly died from complications from Covid in mid-October after being in a coma for a month.

His businesses built gas pipelines for major Russian energy operators and he had links to Kremlin gas behemoth Gazprom - now starving the West of Russian supplies over the war - and Rosneft.

Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a PR manager for the Russian Railways, was found shot dead at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment neighbourhood on September 28.

Russian MP Nikolay Petrunin (pictured) is a high-profile energy executive who has died since Vladimir Putin launched his brutal war in Ukraine

Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a PR manager for the Russian Railways, was found shot dead at his home in the leafy Kolomenskaya Embankment neighbourhood on September 28

In July, Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-linked company, was found dead in his swimming pool, with a leading friend who is a top criminologist warning of foul play.

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg amid suspicions that apparent suicides may have been murders.

Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.

His neck was in a noose in his 500,000 home.

Yet reports say he had been badly beaten shortly before he 'took his own life', leading to speculation he was under intense pressure.

In the same elite Leninsky gated housing development in Leningrad region three weeks earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

Yuri Voronov, 61, was found dead in August

Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg, stoking suspicions that the deaths may well have been murders

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43 former top executive with energy giant Lukoil, died in May

Igor Nosov, CEO of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, also died this year in his early 40s, reportedly from a 'stroke'

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also linked to Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after 'taking advice from shamans'.

One theory is that Subbotin - who also owned a shipping company - was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.

In April, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13.

He had high-level links to leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank.

Friends have disputed reports that he was jealous after his wife admitted she was pregnant by their driver.

There are claims he had access to the financial secrets of the Kremlin elite.

Several days later multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after appearing to kill his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria, with an axe.

He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek, a company also closely linked to the Kremlin.

Former Kremlin official and Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev, 51, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife and one of his daughters in April

Russian gas tycoon Sergey Protosenya (pictured), his wife Natalya, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria were found dead in their Spanish mansion, in Lloret de Mar, on April 19

Ukrainian born multi-millionaire Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga Palant, 50, were found stabbed to death in their family house in Moscow region last week

There have also been questions over the death of Putin's point man for developing Russia's vast Arctic resources who 'fell overboard' to his death from a boat sailing off the country's Pacific coast. Ivan Pechorin, 39, (circled) had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok

There have also been questions over the death of Putin's point man for developing Russia's vast Arctic resources who 'fell overboard' to his death from a boat sailing off the country's Pacific coast.

Ivan Pechorin, 39, had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok.

The high-flyer was managing director of Putin's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.

And in another case a mobile phone multi-millionaire and his wife were found stabbed to death, with the official version of events raising questions.

Naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.

Immediate briefing to the media claimed the woman took her own life in a jealous rage after Palant said he was leaving her.

Yet this was strongly disputed by the couple's best friend.
Olusofa Popoola, 59, was driving an electric bus which crashed into the back of another bus at Victoria Station, central London on August 10, 2021

A London bus driver today admitted causing the death of a woman in a crash with another single decker.

Olusofa Popoola, 59, was driving an electric bus which crashed into the back of another bus at Victoria Station, central London.

Melissa Burr, 32, from Rainham, Kent, was walking between the two 507 single deckers at the time of the collision at around 8.25am on August 10, 2021.

She was crushed and later died from her injuries.

At the Old Bailey today, Popoola admitted causing death by careless driving as Ms Burr's family watched from the public gallery.

These pleas were not accepted by the court and he has been sent forward for trial on the remaining charges.

He denied causing death by dangerous driving and seriously injuring another woman, Diana Mathuranayagam, by driving dangerously in the same collision.

The bus driver was granted unconditional bail ahead of his trial back at the same court on a date yet to be fixed.

Judge Angela Rafferty said: 'I cannot give you a date when you will be back at this court for trial but a date will be given to you in due course.'

Melissa Burr, 32, from Rainham, Kent, was walking between the two 507 single deckers at the time of the collision at around 8.25am on August 10, 2021

Popoola, from Peckham, is also accused of seriously injuring Diana Mathuranayagam in the same crash

She was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash outside London Victoria in August

In a statement released after Ms Burr's death her family said: 'We are absolutely devastated by loss and the hole that this incident has left in our lives.

'Melissa was a kind and thoughtful soul, had a quirky charm with such a bright future ahead of her.'

Popoola, from Peckham, denies causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving but admits causing death by careless driving.
Around 10,000 British supporters are in Qatar for the match and they started drinking early this morning (bottom-left) ahead of the crunch clash. Back home, the beer and wine has also been flowing (top), with the nation already splashing out 215million on booze for the game, while others have flown out to Tenerife to enjoy the festivities in the sun (bottom-right). Many fans will be looking to make an early dash home or to their local and a number of bosses say they will accommodate them, with some even offering to provide a 25 bar tab and much-needed paracetamol for the inevitable sore heads tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, a village that straddles the border between Wales and England will be divided tonight with one pub on the Shropshire side set to be full of Three Lions fans and the Powys bar packed with Dragons (bottom-middle). Gareth Southgate's Three Lions have won the last six matches against their rivals but Rob Page's men, led by talisman Gareth Bale, need their first win over England since 1984 and results to go their way as their last 16 hopes hang by a thread.
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King Charles being targeted with eggs is not the first time that senior royals have come under fire in public.

Both Charles and his late mother the Queen have been shot at with blanks in the past, whilst Her Majesty also had eggs thrown at her during a visit to New Zealand with Prince Philip in 1986.

Charles was targeted in a less concerning way in 2001, when a protester slapped him across the face with a red rose.

1981: Marcus Sargeant fires blanks at the Queen

The Queen was riding down The Mall during a Trooping the Colour parade in 1981 when 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant fired six blank shots at her.

He was tackled by a soldier and the police before being arrested and charged.

Although the Queen had to calm her horse, named Burmese, she continued with the ceremony.

Sarjeant was later jailed for five years under the 1842 Treason Act.

The last person to be convicted of a similar offence was Nazi collaborator William Joyce during the Second World War.

The Queen was riding down The Mall during a Trooping the Colour parade in 1981 when 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant fired blank shots at her. He was tackled by a soldier and the police before being arrested and charged

Sarjeant had previously made attempts to join the police and fire services and had also tried to join the Royal Marines. He also attempted to join the Army but left after only two days of induction.

He became involved in the anti-Royalist movement and bought two imitation Colt Python revolvers for 66.90. Both weapons were only capable of firing blanks, but Sarjeant had tried and failed to get live ammunition for his father's handgun.

Sarjeant sent a letter to Buckingham Palace before the attack. It read: 'Your Majesty. Don't go to the Trooping the Colour ceremony because there is an assassin set up to kill you, waiting just outside the palace.'

However, the note ironically arrived three days after the incident.

Sarjeant was later jailed for five years under the 1842 Treason Act. The last person to be convicted of a similar offence was Nazi collaborator William Joyce during the Second World War. Above: The Queen controls her horse

The Treason Act was introduced by Queen Victoria after two men fired at her in 1842. John Francis aimed at Victoria but did not fire as she rode a carriage across The Mall.

The monarch went out again the following day to bait her would-be assassin, who this time did fire a shot before he was arrested by plainclothes policemen.

Shortly afterwards, John William Bean fired a pistol at Victoria, but it had been loaded only with paper and tobacco.

1986: The Queen and Prince Philip targeted with eggs in New Zealand

The Queen and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand for the seventh time in 1986 when they were targeted with eggs while riding in an open top car.

The car was travelling through Auckland's Ellerslie Racecourse as 42,000 school children watched on.

After the eggs had been thrown, the Queen was seen brushing away any residue before she nodded in reply when Philip asked her if she was ok.

The Queen and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand for the seventh time in 1986 when they were targeted with eggs while riding in an open top car. The car was travelling through Auckland's Ellerslie Racecourse as 42,000 school children watched on

Two women wearing white coats were then bundled away by police.

Her Majesty later made light of the incident in a joke at that evening's banquet, saying: 'Of course New Zealand has long been renowned for its dairy produce.

'Though I should say, that I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.'

Reports at the time noted how the then New Zealand prime minister denounced the egg-throwing as 'a shameful act of gross discourtesy'.

1994: Charles is shot at with blanks

When the then Prince Charles was on a visit to Sydney in 1994, 23-year-old student David Kang fired a shot at him from a starting pistol.

Charles had been making a speech at the time, to mark Australia Day.

Kang, who went on to become a barrister, later said that he carried out the stunt to highlight the plight of Cambodian asylum seekers being held in detention camps in Australia.

He was bundled to the ground and arrested before being found guilty of threatening unlawful violence and sentenced to 500 hours of community service.

When the then Prince Charles was on a visit to Sydney in 1994, 23-year-old student David Kang fired a shot at him from a starting pistol

2001: Latvian schoolgirl slaps Charles across the face with a rose

When Prince Charles was on a visit to Latvia in 2001, he was targeted by schoolgirl Alina Lebedyver, who was then 16.

She used a rose to slap him around the face and later said she performed the stunt to protest against the war in Afghanistan.

Lebedyver also told reporters that Britain was 'the enemy of the world'.

She was charged with endangering the life of a foreign dignitary and faced up to 15 years in prison.

Charles made a plea for leniency and the charges were downgraded, eventually to the point where she was put under her mother's supervision for a year.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' landslide win on Tuesday night elevated talk of a 2024 presidential bid and put him on a collision course with Donald Trump.

He defeated Democratic rival Charlie Crist by at least 19 points - a sharp contrast to his first race for governor four years ago, when he sketched out a victory by less than one percent.

DeSantis, 44, has not indicated what his political future holds, but when his supporters chanted 'two more years, two more years' at his victory party Monday night, he smiled.

All political eyes will be watching him to see if he launches a presidential bid. Some Republicans are already switching loyalities.

'This was the end of the Trump era and the dawn of the DeSantis era,' a Republican operative close to the Trump orbit told ABC News. 'Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions.'

Impressively in Tuesday's contest, DeSantis turned blue areas of the Sunshine state red. He won by double digits in heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade County, carried Democratic Palm Beach and even got Trump's vote.

It might be the last time he can count on the former president checking his name at the ballot box.

Trump has taken credit for DeSantis' meteoric rise in the Republican Party but as the 2024 speculation increased, he also has issued a series of warning shots to now his frenemy.

Ron DeSantis' landslide win in Florida's gubernatorial contest pushed him to the top of the pack for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024; above DeSantis with his wife Casey and children Madison, Mason and Mamie

DeSantis defeated Democratic rival Charlie Crist by at least 19 points - a sharp contrast to his first race for governor four years ago, when he sketched out a victory by less than one percent

The Florida Governor, 44, has not indicated what his political future holds , but when his supporters chanted 'two more years, two more years' at his victory party Monday night, he smiled

Poll Would you back Ron DeSantis as the 2024 Republican presidential candidate? Yes No Would you back Ron DeSantis as the 2024 Republican presidential candidate? Yes 184 votes

No 27 votes Now share your opinion





The former president is reminding people that it was his endorsement of DeSantis that propelled the then-congressman to victory in the crowded 2018 GOP gubernatorial primary.

'And as soon as I endorsed him, within moments, the race was over,' Trump told News Nation. 'I got him the nomination. He didn't get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it.'

But, privately, Trump has fumed about DeSantis, who has, in many ways, modeled his political life on Trump's. Both men have raged against the establishment to make their mark, have photogenic wives, and have solidified their appeal to the GOP base.

He was 'livid' and 'screaming at everyone,' after Tuesday night's disappointing results for Republicans, who didn't get the red wave of wins the they expected, a Trump adviser told CNN.

Trump has said if DeSantis did run, he would let loose on things he knows about the governor. He even indicated DeSantis' wife Casey would be a target of his ire.

'If he runs, he runs,' Trump said.

He added: 'If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.'

Trump has never been shy about attacking his rivals or their families. During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump derided Marco Rubio as 'Little Marco' and attacked Ted Cruz's wife Heidi on her looks.

He's already trying out nicknames on the Florida governor.

He called him 'Ron DeSanctimonious' at a political rally in Miami on Monday but then, on Tuesday, said he voted for DeSantis when he cast his ballot in Palm Beach.

DeSantis, when asked about the 2024 contest, has said he was focused on his re-election campaign.

But, in his victory speech, he bragged about turning Florida from a battleground state to one in Republicans' column.

'The people have delivered their verdict: Freedom is here to stay,' he said. 'Now, thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida we not only won this election; we have rewritten the political map.'

'We saw freedom and our very way of life in so many other jurisdictions in this country wither on the vine. Florida held the line,' DeSantis said to cheers during his victory speech

Donald Trump has taken credit for DeSantis' meteoric rise in the Republican Party but as the 2024 speculation increased, he also has issued a series of warning shots to his frenemy (Pictured together at a campaign rally in October, 2018)

DeSantis rose to national prominence during the COVID pandemic when he reopened schools and businesses at a time medical experts were advocating lockdowns. The governor also banned mask mandates and vaccine passports.

The moves made him a star among conservatives. He also seized on other issues that appeal to the right: endorsing legislation that would ban schools from teaching young children about sexual orientation and gender identity, which set him up in a high-profile clash with the Disney corporation.

And he paid to have migrants shipped from the southern border to Democratic strongholds like New York City and Martha's Vineyard.

All of it has boosted his fundraising.

DeSantis raised $196 million for his re-election. He spent $130 million and still has $66 million left, according to campaign finance reports.
Rishi Sunak told MPs today the payment of trillions of pounds in 'reparations' to climate-hit countries was 'not the right approach'.

The Prime Minister, who attended the Cop-27 climate summit in Egypt on Monday, insisted that talks over 'loss and damage' at the Sharm El-Sheikh conference was 'not the same as reparations'.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Sunak stressed the prospect of rich nations stumping up for climate change 'reparations' was not 'on the table' at the Red Sea gathering.

He instead suggested that UK cash would be used to help developing countries 'transition to a cleaner future' in a way that could also boost British businesses.

The topic of 'loss and damage' has been included on the Cop agenda for the first time this year.

It is the idea that worst-affected nations are given money to pay for costs already being incurred from climate-fuelled weather extremes or impacts, like rising sea levels.

There are calls for richer nations to acknowledge their role in climate change due to the fact they industrialised their economies before other parts of the world.

But it is proving contentious with a growing backlash at the prospect of UK taxpayers' cash being used to fund what some campaigners have branded as 'reparations'.

They claim that Britain and other wealthy nations must pay up for the climate damage they have already caused over the past 250 years of industrialisation.

Rishi Sunak stressed the prospect of rich nations stumping up for climate change 'reparations' was not 'on the table' at the Cop-27 summit

The topic of 'loss and damage' has been included on the Cop agenda for the first time this year during the conference being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt

The PM spoke at the Cop-27 conference on Monday. He denied the summit's discussions over 'loss and damage' would be the equivalent to 'reparations' for past carbon emissions

Mr Sunak said he was 'pleased' the UK had established a 'dialogue' on 'loss and damage' at last year's Cop-26 summit in Glasgow.

He told MPs the ongoing talks would 'discuss arrangements for funding activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage'.

But the PM later denied that talks over 'loss and damage' would be the equivalent to 'reparations' for past carbon emissions.

Senior Tory MP Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, asked Mr Sunak whether he shared her concerns about 'the idea of spending trillions more pounds on so-called reparations payments... at a time when the public finances are already under strain?'

'She is absolutely right, that is not the right approach,' the PM replied.

'What we are doing is fulfilling our obligations to help those emerging markets transition to a cleaner future.

'We're doing that in a way that supports them but also supports British companies who are able to provide those investments and create jobs here at home as well.'

The PM was also quizzed on the issue by Green MP Caroline Lucas, who urged Mr Sunak to 'recognise that the moral obligation he talks about must now extend beyond mitigation and adaptation to address loss and damage'.

She called on the PM to 'support the establisment of a finance facility for loss and damage at Cop-27'.

Mr Sunak replied: 'I've already made the point on loss and damage that we established the Glasgow dialogue to see how best to take forward those discussions.

'I'm not going to pre-empt the discussions that are happening at Cop.

'But I would make the point this is not the same as reparations.

'I think she understands that, but that is not what's on the table and that is clear in the language that is being debated at Cop.'

Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Government yesterday used the Cop-27 summit to announce an extra 5milllion in 'loss and damage' cash for climate-hit communites.

Austria also joined Scotland in pledging 'loss and damage' money at the Egypt conference, with a commitment of at least 50 million euros over the next four years.

Belgium, Denmark and Germany have also pledged small amounts of funding for 'loss and damage'.

Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg led a Tory backlash this week at the idea of Britain paying 'reparations' over climate change.

'There is no need to pay reparations,' he said, adding that Britain's 'leadership of the industrial revolution brought prosperity to the world and led to increased life expectancy and better living conditions'.
A man who denies being US fugitive Nicholas Rossi and insists he is instead an eccentric British professor called 'Arthur Knight' is facing with two further allegations of rape and assault, a court has heard.

American state officials in Utah are seeking the extradition of the 35-year-old man, who was arrested in a Scottish hospital's Covid ward last year.

US authorities claim he is Mr Rossi - who they say faked his death in 2017 and fled to Scotland amid accusations he raped a 21-year-old woman in Utah in 2008.

Now, Edinburgh Sheriff Court has heard that US prosecutors have submitted two further extradition requests against the man, who claims to be called Arthur Knight from Ireland.

One relates to another allegation of rape and another to an allegation of sexual assault, with both extradition request served on him at court today.

Advocate depute Paul Harvey said: 'As a result of the extradition process Im told that two other women in Utah have come forward with allegations of sexual offences.

A man (pictured), whom officials in the United States have said is Nicholas Rossi, appeared at an extradition hearing in Edinburgh today

'On Friday, October 28 the US Embassy in London issued a diplomatic notice for supplementary extradition requests, requesting the extradition of the person.

'This morning Scottish ministers certified the extradition requests and copies of both extradition requests and the Scottish ministers certification were served on the requested person by a police constable at the court this morning.'

He said one relates to an allegation of rape in Salt Lake City and another to an allegation of sexual assault elsewhere.

The man, who arrived at court with his wife Miranda Knight, is already fighting an extradition request by authorities in Utah who allege he raped a 21-year-old in the state.

He was arrested on December 13 last year after being admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow - under the alias Arthur Knight - for urgent Covid treatment.

He was traced following a tip off from Interpol while he was on a ventilator in intensive care.

Rossi told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live - before several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020, with a gushing obituary published online about him.

The 35-year-old, who claims to be called Arthur Knight, has been fighting an extradition hearing by US authorities since he was arrested in December 2021. He is pictured in Edinburgh this morning

Rossi (pictured) is accused of faking his death from cancer in the US to avoid a sexual assault charge, before fleeing to Scotland. He now faces two further charges of rape and sexual assault

US authorities says Rossi goes by several aliases include Nicholas Alahverdian and Arthur Knight,

He is accused by Utah prosecutors of fleeing the US to avoid prosecution for an alleged sexual assault in 2008.

He is also said to have attacked women in the states of Rhode Island, Ohio and Massachusetts.

However, when the man was arrested in Scotland, neighbours claimed he had told them he was a British professor who said he was working at the nearby University of Glasgow.

Described as an eccentric, the alleged academic was often seen sporting large hats, dapper bow ties and spoke with a cut-glass English accent.

It was also claimed he enjoyed visiting bars wearing suits, where he would sip on whiskey and go on political rants about Brexit. with one neighbour telling The Times: 'For someone who was on the run, he really liked to draw attention to himself.'

The alleged fugitive furiously denies he is the American wanted by the FBI and insists he has been mistakenly identified by the authorities.

Miranda Knight, the wife of the defendant, arriving at Edinburgh Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Court, for a hearing on the extradition of Nicholas Rossi to the US

But attempts to explain why he is not Rossi were branded 'entirely outlandish' by Mr Harvey.

It followed evidence from forensic experts on Monday and Tuesday, who claimed the man's fingerprints were either 'identical' or 'similar' to those of the man wanted by US prosecutors.

Giving evidence earlier this week, the accused claimed the fingerprints on the extradition request (those of Rossi) were meddled with, and taken from him by an NHS worker called 'Patrick' on behalf of David Leavitt, a Utah county attorney.

Mr Harvey urged Sheriff Norman McFadyen to reject the man's 'fanciful' explanations.

He said: 'The account that it was a man known only to be Patrick who took the prints from him when he was in a coma at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, that is not only fanciful but entirely outlandish.'

Earlier in the week, Tenprint Identification Officer (TIO) Lisa Davidson told the court that fingerprints taken by police in July from the man in HMP Saughton Prison are 'identical' to Rossi's fingerprints on the Interpol red notice and the extradition request.

Advocate Paul Harvey, pictured right with advocate Gareth Reid, said the defendant's claims not to be Rossi were 'entirely outlandish'

On Tuesday, another TIO, Anita Vezza, analysing the same images, said the fingerprints had 'similar characteristics on each that were unique to that person'.

In his evidence on Tuesday, the man claimed he was tattooed while unconscious in hospital, telling the court this is why he has similar tattoos to Rossi.

Making his closing submission on Wednesday, the third day of the hearing, Mr Harvey said the sheriff has the information he needs to find that the man is Rossi.

He said: 'Your Lordship has authenticated photos, you have authenticated fingerprints, and your Lordship is entitled to reject the person's outlandish explanations.

'Your Lordship has the fingerprints which provide on its own sufficient proof that this man is the person who the Americans seek. Your Lordship has photos, tattoos and use of aliases.'

The hearing continues.
Abner's autopsy found that he died from asphyxiation. He also had a broken bone in his neck and bite marks on his face and head

Cops told the court that during an interview, Wolke had said: 'Oh my God, I went redneck on him'

Police arrived to find Wolke on top of Abner after neighbors heard Wolke telling the dog 'good boy, get him' during the attack

Wolke attacked Abner in 2020 and commanded her pit bull to maul the man

Melissa Wolke, 40, received 20 years in prison for the murder of 55-year-old Donald Abner at the home they shared in Kentucky

A Kentucky woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder after urging her fighting pit bull to maul a man as she sat on top of him and attacked him.

Melissa Wolke, 40, plead guilty to the murder of 55-year-old car repairman Donald Abner with whom she lived in Conway, Kentucky, at the time of the vicious murder.

Police were called at around 3am on January 10, 2020, by a neighbor who heard fighting and arrived to find Wolke on top of Abner, beating him as her pit bull bit his head and face.

The neighbor told police they they heard her telling the dog: 'Good boy, get him'.

State troopers said when they arrived to the house on Pug Lane in Rockcastle County, just off US Highway 25, they were forced to shoot the dog dead.

Later she broke down in an interview with police while repeatedly saying: 'Oh my God, I went redneck on him'.

Coroners who conducted an autopsy on Abner found that he died at the scene from asphyxiation. He also had a broken bone in his neck and bite marks on his face and head.

Melissa Wolke, 40, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder after urging her fighting pit bull to maul a man as they fought outside their home in rural Kentucky

Abner worked as an autobody repairman before he was attacked by Wolke and her dog in 2020. He was 55 when he died

Kentucky State Police Detective Ryan Loudermilk testified in court that a neighbor of Wolke said he heard party sounds a few hours before the attack.

He also said he heard gunshots in the weeks before but did not know what was being shot.

The neighbor said he recorded the attack on his phone but deleted the video because it made him 'sick to watch' - officers were unable to recover the footage.

Police said officers arrived at the scene in Conway, Kentucky, and found Melissa Wolke attacking her neighbor Donald Abner

The home in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, where Donald Abner, 55, was killed by a pit bull

'She appeared to have blood on her hands and feet and had a large clump of hair in her hands that was consistent with the victim's hair,' police said in a report at the time.

The dog had bitten the man several times in the face and the head, Trooper Scottie Pennington told WDKY.

He said they were left with no option but to shoot the dog since Wolke would not tell it to back down.

The court heard that Wolke had a history of alcohol abuse and she attempted to give it up for some time. She suggested she had a history of blacking out when drinking.

When investigators searched the house after the attack they found no signs of fighting but only an empty liquor bottle.
DeSantis is being praised today as the 'future' of the GOP with many ready to turn their backs on Trump

'I got him the [2018] nomination. He didnt get it. I got it,' Trump told NewsNation

Trump, who has warned him not to run for President in 2024, took credit for the young governor's success before the polls had closed

He flipped the Democrat stronghold of Miami Dade and won by 19 percent

Donald Trump tried to take credit for his GOP rival Ron DeSantis and his meteoric rise through the party last night, insisting the Florida Governor would be nowhere today if it wasn't for his 2018 endorsement.

DeSantis stormed to victory yesterday, defeating Democrat Charlie Crist by a whopping 19 points in yesterday's midterm and flipping the blue stronghold of Miami Dade county.

He is now being praised as the future of the Republican party, with many hopeful he will announce a 2024 Presidential Run.

Trump - who watched from Mar-a-Lago last night as many of his chosen candidates lost - is not among them.

After warning DeSantis against a White House run yesterday by threatening that he 'knows more about him than his wife', Trump gave an interview to NewsNation where he tried to take credit for DeSantis' entire career.

Donald Trump last night tried to take credit for Ron DeSantis last night, claiming without him he would never have won the 2018 midterm or enjoyed the landslide victory seen last night

DeSantis stormed to victory in Florida yesterday, flipping the Democrat stronghold of Miami Dade County. He is shown with his wife and kids on stage last night, celebrating his win

Ron DeSantis raced to a comfortable win over Charlie Crist - the biggest win since the Reconstruction era of the late 1800s

'He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race. And as soon within moments, the race was over. I got him the nomination. He didnt get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it.'

'Then he ran and he wasnt supposed to be able to win. I did two rallies, we had 52,000 people each one and he won.

'I thought that he could have been more gracious. But thats up to him.'

DeSantis won yesterday by 19 points - a huge margin and one he couldn't have dreamed of in 2018 when he clinched victory by just 1 point - after being endorsed by Trump.

It seemed like a political match made in heaven; DeSantis even posed with his kids and a copy of Trump's The Art of the Deal book to pledge his allegiance.

But in recent weeks and months, a rivalry has formed between the pair, down mostly to rumors that both men are eyeing a 2024 Presidential campaign.

At a rally this weekend, Trump referred to the Florida Governor as 'Ron De-Sanctimonious'.

Yesterday, Trump said it would be a 'big mistake' if DeSantis ran again.

'I don't know that hes running. I think if he runs he could hurt himself very badly.

'I think he would be making a mistake. I think the base would not like it.'

He also threatened DeSantis and warned him against a 2024 bid.

In 2018, DeSantis campaigned entirely on the fact that he was endorsed by Trump. He included The Art of the Deal in campaign videos and dressed his kids in MAGA onesies

'If he runs, he runs. If he did run, I will tell you things about him that wont be very flattering.

'I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.'

Ignoring the races where his favorites lost, he told followers on Truth Social that it had been a 'GREAT EVENING'.

He is however said to be privately 'livid' that his candidates lost.

CNN's Jim Acosta cites an unnamed adviser who said he is 'screaming at everybody' today.

In an interview yesterday, he said he deserved credit if Republicans won - but shouldn't be blamed in the scenario of a loss.

'If they win I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all. But it will probably be just the opposite.

'When they win, I think they're going to do very well, I'll probably be getting very little credit, and if they do badly, they will blame everything on me.

'I'm prepared for everything. We'll defend ourselves.'

He also took credit for Ron DeSantis 2018 win, saying he 'was not going to be a factor' in the race before his endorsement.

Trump is being blamed for the disappointing Republican results overnight.

Many say it's time to 'move on' from the Trump era, and that his selection of 'flawed' candidates was to blame for underwhelming results.

Republicans may still take both the House and the Senate, though a result is not expected for days if not months.

They did not perform as spectacularly as had been predicted, however.

Cautious while the remaining results trickle in, Republicans launched a stinging post-mortem on Wednesday morning and harked back to Mitch McConnell's August warning that poor candidate quality could stop the party from flipping the Senate.

'This is a pivot point for the Republican party. Donald Trump is no doubt in the rearview mirror. It is time to move on with the party,' Geoff Duncan, the Republican Lt. Governor of Georgia, told CNN.

Ignoring the races where his favorites lost, he told followers on Truth Social that it had been a 'GREAT EVENING'. In an interview yesterday, he said he deserved credit if Republicans won - but shouldn't be blamed in the scenario of a loss.

'If they win I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all. But it will probably be just the opposite. When they win, I think they're going to do very well, I'll probably be getting very little credit, and if they do badly, they will blame everything on me.

'I'm prepared for everything. We'll defend ourselves.'

He also took credit for Ron DeSantis 2018 win, saying he 'was not going to be a factor' in the race before his endorsement.

'He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race. And as soon within moments, the race was over.

'I got him the nomination. He didnt get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it.'

'Then he ran and he wasnt supposed to be able to win. I did two rallies, we had 52,000 people each one and he won. I thought that he could have been more gracious. But thats up to him.'
Kentucky voters narrowly rejected an amendment that would have enshrined anti-abortion language in their state constitution, the Associated Press projects on Wednesday morning.

The deep red state's pro-choice referendum stands in stark contrast with its Republican-led legislature's anti-abortion views.

Republican lawmakers there had passed a 'trigger law,' which went into effect banning almost all instances of the medical procedure after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

However, it's not yet a decisive victory for pro-choice activists so much as an expressed rejection of Kentucky Republicans' agenda.

The decision on whether to strike down the abortion ban falls with the state Supreme Court, which is hearing challenges to it next week from Kentucky's two remaining abortion clinics.

Kentucky Republicans would have gotten a boost in their case if the provision had passed, because it would have put language explicitly banning abortion in the state constitution where currently there is none.

The Kentucky Supreme Court already allowed the ban to stay in place while the case worked its way through the legal system.

Pro-choice measures were also adopted in Michigan, California and Vermont.

Abortion rights at the state level saw no serious threats in California and Vermont, but in battleground Michigan, the vote could prove consequential in years' time.

Pro-choice supporters are seen cheering at a Louisville, Kentucky watch party on Tuesday night. The race for the anti-abortion ballot measure was called on Wednesday morning

Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who survived her own electoral challenge from Republican Tudor Dixon on Tuesday night, previously vetoed anti-abortion measures by Michigan's GOP-led legislature.

By enshrining the right to 'reproductive freedom' in the state constitution, it gives Michiganders safeguards against future GOP-led efforts to ban or limit the medical procedure.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who comfortably won his re-election bid, called the codifying of abortion rights 'a point of pride' for his state.

The pro-choice votes were overwhelming there and in Vermont. As of late on Wednesday morning, 65 percent of California voters voted in favor of the right to reproductive freedom while 35 percent voted against it, with just over 40 percent of the votes in.

More than three-quarters of Vermonters voted for 'a constitutional right to person reproductive autonomy.'

The tally was significantly closer in Michigan, with the abortion safeguard passing on less than a 10-point margin with just under 90 percent of the votes in.

Kentucky, the latest to be called, saw 52.5 percent of people rejecting the amendment to codify anti-abortion legislation.

Women cheer as they hear early voting results indicating the passage of Proposal 3, a midterm ballot measure that enshrines abortion rights, during a Reproductive Freedom For All watch party on U.S. midterm election night in Detroit, Michigan

More than three-quarters of Vermonters voted for their own ballot measure to codify abortion rights in the state constitution

Just over 47 percent were in favor.

At the same time, Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul comfortably won re-election on Tuesday night - likely meaning that voters chose to back his party yet buck its stance on abortion on the same ticket.

It follows a similar situation in Kansas, where primary voters shattered expectations over the summer, turning out in droves to reject a ballot measure that would have paved the way for Kansas' red legislature to curb abortion.

A flurry of ballot measures across the country have sought to take on the abortion issue ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

Activists on both sides have seen such public votes as an avenue to advance their goals, though pro-choice sentiments have largely won through so far.

The American Civil Liberties Union cheered deep red Kentucky's pro-abortion vote.

'Kentucky voters just defeated Constitutional Amendment 2, rejecting an attempt to ban all abortion in the state,' the ACLU said.

'Voters in Kentucky made it clear: Abortion is our RIGHT  and politicians dont belong in our private medical decisions.'
A Met Police officer accused of being a serial sex attacker and rapist has had his custody period extended ahead of a trial set for next February.

PC David Carrick, 47, who denies 44 offences against 12 different women, including rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration between 2003 and 2020, appeared in court on Wednesday.

Carrick, who was part of the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, was a firearms officer who used to work on the Parliamentary estate.

He has denied multiple different counts of sexual offences, including 21 charges of rape.

The first accusation against him was that he raped a woman in a hotel room on September 5 2020 after a Tinder date.

The charges also include allegations that Carrick, who has been suspended by the Met, raped one woman in the woods and sexually assaulted her by urinating on her and hitting her with a belt.

The indictment alleges that some women were repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and forced to perform degrading sex acts by Carrick, while one woman is said to have been falsely imprisoned in a cupboard under the stairs.

David Carrick is alleged to have committed 21 rape offences and is set to stand trial in February

Carrick has previously appeared in court and has denied all the charges against him (picture: court sketch from February 2022)

Revealed: The full list of charges Carrick faces PC David Carrick, 47, denies all of the following charges: 21 counts of rape

9 counts of sexual assault

5 counts of assault by penetration

3 counts of coercive and controlling behaviour

2 counts of false imprisonment

2 counts of attempted rape

1 count of attempted sexual assault by penetration

1 count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent Advertisement

Carrick appeared at the Old Bailey today via videolink from Rampton Hospital, wearing a black T-shirt.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb extended his custody time limit until 13 February.

She said: 'This is an application to extend the custody time limits which expire presently on 11 November of this year.

'The case is listed to be heard [for trial] on February 6 next year at Southwark Crown Court.

'The custody time limits will be extended in respect of all charges to a week beyond the trial date February 13 2023.'

The time estimate for the trial is eight weeks.

Carrick will face trial for 21 counts of rape as well as nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

He denies all the charges, and the issue at trial is set to be the matter of consent.

Carrick was remanded in custody until his trial date next year.
Beleaguered billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has yet again pulled the pin on his 'apology' grenade by telling his employees he 'got things wrong' as he announced 11,000 job cuts.

The Meta CEO is no stranger to saying sorry to his staff and users, and has been forced to say it creatively in every way imaginable over the years for huge data breaches, mass layoffs, spreading fake news and undue political influence.

Today, the tech boss used a company-wide email to slash 11,000 jobs worldwide, 13 per cent of Meta's workforce.

In a grovelling message, the Facebook founder said: 'I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.'

Beleaguered billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has yet again pulled the pin on his 'apology' grenade by telling his employees he 'got things wrong' as he announced 11,000 job cuts

Facebook founder's message to staff said: 'Today I'm sharing some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history.

'I've decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go.

'I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted.'

He then explained the move was due to his call that e-commerce trends would continue after Covid.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly been forced to apologize for his missteps, right from the outset of Facebook from his Harvard dorm room, as documented by The Washington Post.

Each time, he promises more 'transparency' and wants to take 'accountability' but continues to land himself in hot water.

Today, the tech boss cut 11,000 jobs worldwide, 13 per cent of Meta's workforce, in a company-wide email

In November 2003, he created Facemash, the Facebook forebear, which ranked female students at Harvard on their 'hotness'.

After a predictable backlash from the student body, Zuckerberg said: 'This is not how I meant for things to go and I apologize for any harm done as a result of my neglect.'

In the following years, Facebook grew and grew, becoming one of the biggest social media sites in the world.

When he introduced the News Feed in 2006, he was forced to admit he had not explained the new feature adequately to users.

He said: 'We really messed this one up... We did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. '

A year later, he made another embarrassing climbdown after the launch of Beacon which made all users share data with advertisers about what they were doing on other websites.

He said: 'We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it... People need to be able to explicitly choose what they share. '

In 2009, when Facebook became the most used social networking service in the world, he announced new terms of service that did not go down well.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly been forced to apologize for his missteps, right from the outset of Facebook

Again he said sorry and pledged: ' Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues. '

Privacy issues have been a major source of his sincere apologies, and Zuckerberg made public statements about the loopholes in 2010 and 2011, saying he was 'the first to admit we've made a bunch of mistakes'.

More was to come in 2014 when it was revealed Facebook secretly conducted psychological tests on 700,000 users.

This time it was his colleague Sheryl Sandberg who asked for forgiveness.

She said: 'It was poorly communicated And for that communication we apologize. We never meant to upset you.'

Increasingly, Facebook became a tool in politics and news seemingly beyond Zuckerberg's control.

In 2016, the site was accused of spreading fake news ahead of the election.

Meta's share price has tumbled 71.5 percent since the beginning of the year and the company has also lost billions through its 'Metaverse' project, which includes virtual worlds for users

He later said: 'I recognize we have a greater responsibility than just building technology that information flows through Today we're making it easier to report hoaxes.'

The following year, he was forced to make an embarrassing apology after footage of a murder was posted on Facebook.

In 2017, the boss published a new plan to stop Facebook being used as a tool in political interference.

He claimed there was a 'relatively small' amount of 'problematic content', adding that he cared 'deeply about the democratic process and protecting its integrity' despite his oversights.

In another statement that same month over Russian interference, he said: 'For the ways my work has been used to divide rather than to bring us together, I ask for forgiveness and I will work to do better.'

In 2018, he wanted to make a fresh start and draw a line under Facebook's growing list of scandals.

He said: 'We won't prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools.

'This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I'm looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together.'

But two months later the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

Data had been unwittingly collected without the consent of 87million users by the political firm to provide analysis on the 2016 US election.

Again, Zuckerberg proffered: 'We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you.

'We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward.'

In the wake of the damaging revelations, Zuckerberg was forced to testify in congress.

Again he said: 'It was my mistake, and I'm sorry.

'There's more we can do here to limit the information developers can access and put more safeguards in place to prevent abuse.'

The billionaire's latest statement will do little to help the thousands of workers who were unceremoniously sacked today.

But at least they can take some comfort knowing how his apology must truly come from the heart, after rehearsing it so many times to the public.
A 22-year-old North Carolina woman was shot 17 times in front of her grandparents and two-year-old daughter after police officers responded to a possible break-in.

Jada Johnson also had drugs in her system at the time she was killed at her grandfather's home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 1, according to an autopsy and toxicology reports released on Tuesday.

One bullet entered the right side of Johnsons head, injuring her 'scalp, brain, and skull,' the report revealed. A second gunshot created a depression and a skull fracture.

The young woman also sustained multiple gunshot wounds to her right forearm, right arm, shoulder, and right hip and torso.

The report confirmed that the manner of Johnson's death was a homicide.

The toxicology report, which was also released Tuesday, also revealed that Johnson was under the influence of 0.32 mg/L of methamphetamines, and had been in possession of unknown pills that were found in a plastic bag on her person, Fox8 News reported.

New details emerge in the officer-shooting death of Jada Johnson, 22, (pictured) who was shot 17 times in an officer-involved shooting. Johnson was shot in the head multiple times, according to an autopsy and toxicology report that was released on Tuesday. The report also confirmed that the manner of Johnson's death was a homicide

One of the officers arrive at Johnson's grandfather's Fayetteville, North Carolina home just before 10pm on July 1

The officer stands outside of the victim's grandparents home located on Colgate Drive

The harrowing ordeal started just before 10pm on July 1 when Fayetteville police arrived at the home of Johnson's grandfather, Rick Iwanski, located on Colgate Drive.

Officers were responding to a call about a possible break-in.

Iwanski said his granddaughter suffered from mental illness and had recently been released from a hospital after experiencing a mental health crisis.

'She thought they were here to kill her and they wound up murdering her right in front of us,' the distraught grandfather said.

'I saw her face and her eyes,' he said, as he wept, CBS17 reported.

He also said that his granddaughter was also trying to get out of an abusive relationship. On the night of her tragic murder, he said, his granddaughter believed her boyfriend was trying to get inside their home to kill her.

'She thought they [the boyfriend] was here to kill her,' Iwanski said.

At one point, Johnson took out her gun and threatened to kill herself, the news outlet reported.

One officer tackled Johnson to the ground as another shot her multiple times in front of Iwanski, her grandmother, and her two-year-old daughter.

'Officers gain control of the handgun, at which point the struggle went to the ground and tragically officers discharged their firearm,' Fayetteville Police Department's Assistant Chief James Nolette said, as reported by Fox8

After the incident, Officers Zacharius Borom and Sergeant Timothy Rugg were put on paid administrative leave as the investigation proceeded.

But, Johnson's grandfather, who witnessed the incident, disputes the police.

'The officers were not threatened verbally. Yes, there was a gun, but it was down,' Iwanski said.

He said there was an opportunity for officers to stop the situation without deadly force.

'When she put the gun down, they should have tased her, bean-bagged her, took her down then. Why didn't they do it then?' Iwanski asked, Fox8 News reported.

Assistant Chief James Nolette with the Fayetteville Police Department said: 'For over an hour the officers pled with this young lady, tried to get this young lady to put this weapon down. Tried to get the help that she wanted,' the news outlet reported.

Police turned the case over to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

A view of the North Carolina street where the July 1st shooting took place

A search warrant filed by the State Bureau of Investigation revealed Sargent Rugg attempted to disarm Johnson when the victim went to drink water while she held her gun under her arm, and then some type of struggle followed, police previously said, CBS 17 reported, WNCN reported.

Johnson's grandfather disputed that stating 'there was no wrestling. No struggle. There was nothing like that.'

The warrant stated that Officer Borom fired his gun and killed Johnson after she broke free of Sargent Rugg and attempted to grab her gun, the news outlet reported.

After his granddaughter's death, Iwanski became involved with Fayetteville Police Accountability Community Taskforce (PACT), a nonprofit organization that addresses police reform.

One of their requests to city leaders was to change police culture, develop better police guidelines for mental health responses and hold officers more accountable.

Iwanski said 'my real goal is accountability for the murder of my grandchild in front of me, and her grandmother, and her baby,' the news outlet reported.

'I'd like to see justice for her and I think the officer who killed her needs to go to jail,' he added.

.
Labour MPs swiped at 'little rich Rishi' today as Keir Starmer gears up his political attack lines against the new PM.

The premier's wealth was repeatedly raised by Opposition politicians during a bad-tempered PMQs session.

Ahead of what are expected to be brutal spending curbs and tax rises in the Autumn Statement next week, one suggested he would use his 'unearned' fortune to get private medical care rather than wait for the NHS.

Former Cabinet minister Liam Byrne complained that 'one of the richest men in Britain' is 'doing so little for the poorest'.

The repeated references to Mr Sunak's wealth look to be a deliberate tactic, with polls indicating that the public question whether he can understand the struggles of ordinary Britons amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Karl Turner (left) and Liam Byrne (right) both sniped at Rishi Sunak's wealth at PMQs today

In a tweet after the debate Mr Turner appeared to make fun of Mr Sunak's height as well

The repeated references to Mr Sunak's (pictured) wealth look to be a deliberate tactic

The PM is a privately-educated former banker who has an estimated 750million fortune with his heiress wife. His parents are a GP and pharmacist from India who came to the UK.

However, Tories insisted the Labour approach will not work as 'people want to be successful like Rishi not live in a world of envy'.

At PMQs this afternoon, former frontbencher Karl Turner said: 'If the Prime Minister or any member of his many households became unwell, would he start ringing the GP surgery at eight o clock to not get an appointment?

'Would he go off to accident and emergency and wait 12 hours to be seen? Would he call an ambulance which wouldn't come or would he use some of his 750million unearned wealth to pay privately and see somebody there and then?'

Mr Sunak replied: 'I'm very grateful and let me put on record my thanks to the fantastic team at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, who have provided excellent care to my family over the years.

'But (he) is right to highlight the issue of people waiting unacceptably long for treatment that they need. That's why we've put record funding into the NHS to help with backlogs and waiting times this winter.

'It's why the Health Secretary and the Chancellor are discussing how best to deliver the reforms that we need because I want to make sure that everyone gets the care they need, and we will continue to invest in more doctors, more nurses and more community scans so that we can deliver exactly that.'

In a tweet after the debate Mr Turner added: 'Poor little rich Rishi isn't up to it and the Tory MPs behind him know it.'

Mr Byrne said: 'Tomorrow across my constituency of Hodge Hill I'll be delivering food bank collection crates because once more our food banks are running out of food.

'Does the Prime Minister understand the despair my constituents feel that he, as one of the richest men in Britain, is doing so little  they don't like the truth, Mr Speaker  does he understand the despair my constituents feel that he is doing so little for the poorest in Britain, by refusing to cancel the 3billion tax break for non-doms who profit from our country but won't make our country their home?'

Mr Sunak replied: 'Well, I'm proud of my and this Government's track record in supporting the most vulnerable in our society and that will always continue, and it is a bit rich hearing from the gentleman who  the first person who reminded us what happens when the economy gets crashed by a Labour government.

'That's no way to help people, we will build a strong economy, that's what enables us to support the most vulnerable, that's what enables us to support strong public services.'

Conservative former Cabinet minister Shailesh Vara told MailOnline: 'Labour just despises those who through hard work have become successful.

'Such personal attacks are unnecessary and demean the person and the party that makes them.

'It also makes clear that if you aspire to better yourself then Labour isn't the party for you.'

Tory MP Lee Anderson told MailOnline that he did not believe people 'give a toss' about Mr Sunak's wealth.

'I spoke to a first time Tory voter in Ashfield last week. She told me she does not give a toss how much money Rishi has got and if he can run the country like a profitable business then we should all celebrate that,' he said.

'People want to be successful like Rishi not live in a world of envy.'
A software engineer has lost a discrimination case against IBM after claiming his colleague's use of the word 'blacklist' was racist.

Taiyyib Azam, 38, accused his co-worker at the computer giant of bigotry by using the word during a team call in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder in the USA.

The cybersecurity expert - part of a team codenamed X Force Red - also made a series of other 'puzzling' accusations, including that his managers were performing 'black magic' and 'voodoo' on him.

He made widespread and unsubstantiated allegations of racism against his colleagues in a bid to 'support his views that every individual he interacted with was racist'.

Mr Azam was based at IBM's UK office in Warwick, Warwickshire. He tried suing the US firm at an employment tribunal for race, disability and religious discrimination and victimisation.

The software engineer, who represented himself over the 16-day tribunal, claimed he was the victim of more than 30 acts of discrimination but the tribunal dismissed them all.

The tribunal ruled all of Mr Azam's allegations were unfounded and his blacklist accusation 'contrived as a way to bolster his own case'.

In her ruling, employment judge Geraldine Flood stated: 'We find that although this grievance was confused and adopted a scattergun approach, that the claimant did have a genuine belief that the reason he was being treated differently in his perception, was because he was Asian.'

Taiyyib Azam, 38, accused his co-worker at the computer giant of bigotry by using the word 'blacklist' during a team call in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder in the US

The tribunal in Birmingham heard Mr Azam - who was born and grew up in the city - began working for IBM in October 2015 as a cyber consultant in one of its cybersecurity departments, earning 55,000.

The hearing was told difficulties began just a year after he started working at IBM when he started claiming he deserved a promotion.

Over the following years, Mr Azam persistently claimed he was being denied promotions and opportunities to further his career due to his race.

He said: 'I genuinely believe is to do with the colour of my skin I am being held back and discriminated against.

'I am the only Asian person in the group I have seen other talented individuals of Indian heritage leave or be forced out for similar reasons.'

However, the tribunal heard there were Asian employees who advanced to the 'highest' positions at IBM and that Mr Azam simply had 'unrealistic expectations of his own progression'.

He complained of 'psychological bullying' and in February 2019 he claimed 'IBM was carrying out a sort of voodoo on him' which damaged his mental health.

The same month he alleged his manager was 'performing some black magic on him' to deliberately target him.

Mr Azam, who is Muslim, argued unsuccessfully that one colleague called him a 'f****** Indian' twice and also inaccurately stated he had to work on Eid when he was in fact off. The tribunal dismissed another claim that a co-worker 'humiliated' him.

Mr Azam complained a colleague 'ghosted' him and alleged he was being 'blasted' by one manager when he wasn't.

In May 2020, around the time of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Mr Azam said he was racially attacked.

Employment Judge Flood said the use of the word was 'entirely innocuous'.

Taiyyib Azam was based at IBM's UK office (pictured) in Warwick, Warwickshire. He tried suing the US firm at an employment tribunal for race, disability and religious discrimination

Judge Flood said: 'Mr Azam complained about [a colleague] making a comment about blacklisting on a team call which he took as a reference to the George Floyd murder.

'We heard evidence from a number of IBM's witnesses about what those terms mean, namely that blacklisting is where a specific list of IP addresses that are not allowed to connect to a system is in place and thus any address not on that list will be rejected.

'Mr Azam himself also used such terms in communications.

'We found this a puzzling allegation as the only reference to blacklisting at this time we saw in messages was made by Mr Azam and there is no evidence that [the colleague] was involved in any of these.

'Nonetheless we find that [the colleague] is also likely to have used the term blacklisting around this time as he acknowledged its use more generally.

'We do not find that there was anything sinister in the way he or anyone used the word 'blacklisting' or 'black' as suggested by Mr Azam.

'We were not satisfied that there was any link at all to the George Floyd murder on any mention of this phrase on this day and it was used by all, including Mr Azam, in a purely business context.

'Our view is that this allegation has been constructed after the event by him as a way to bolster his claim and to support his views that every individual he interacted with was racist.'

Throwing out his claim, the judge added: 'We had difficulties in accepting the credibility of the evidence that Mr Azam gave on many issues.

'He had a tendency to focus on certain incidents and at times was exaggerating and embellishing the significance of these incidents in the overall narrative.

'We struggled with the plausibility and reliability of much of his evidence.'

The judge added there was no evidence that 'race played any part in promotion decisions'.
Elon Musk fans have created a 30-foot long monument to their hero.

The $600,000 piece sees the billionaire's head atop the body of a goat and riding a rocket.

GOAT is often used as an acronym for Greatest Of All Time.

It's the brainchild of cryptocurrency firm Elon GOAT Token ($EGT), who later this month plan to present it to the billionaire at his Tesla workplace in Austin, Texas.

Elon Musk fans have created a 30-foot long monument to their hero. The tech billionaire recently bought Twitter

It's the brainchild of cryptocurrency firm Elon GOAT Token ($EGT), who later this month plan to present it to the billionaire at his Tesla workplace in Austin, Texas

Tesla CEO Elon Musk smiles as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 meeting in Stavanger, Norway on August 29

Hey @elonmusk are you ready to get your present? $600k monument by your friends from @elongoattoken @voltinu November 26 in Austin, TX pic.twitter.com/Ghy5FCN4nj  Maria Morey (@Maria_Morey_B) November 7, 2022

$EGT said: 'Most people thought we would never do it, but after one year of building the time has come to bring it home to Elon.

'Really we just want to meet the guy and give it to him. After all, he is the most innovative human alive, hence the GOAT - Greatest Of All Time.'

The 5'9 tall aluminium head of the statue was built by Canadian metal sculptors Kevin and Michelle Stone.

The unusual monument was pictured on the back of a truck on a freeway in the US after it was made

The peculiar statue was created by a cryptocurrency company who refer to the tech billionaire as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)

$EGT said: 'Most people thought we would never do it, but after one year of building the time has come to bring it home to Elon'

Kevin told local news they spent more than 700 hours on the likeness.

'I'm pretty proud of it because it totally looks like him,' he told Maple Ridge News.

Explaining their idea, $EGT said: 'We built Elon Musk a $600,000 monument on the back of a semi-trailer in honour of his many accomplishments and commitment to Cryptocurrency.'

It added: 'We're going to have fun for a few hours and then all the cars and trucks will hit the freeway behind the monument, destined for Tesla's Gigafactory'

It said it would deliver it on Saturday, November 26, adding: 'We invite you to attend and join us in asking Elon to claim this historical gift.

'We're going to have fun for a few hours and then all the cars and trucks will hit the freeway behind the monument, destined for Tesla's Gigafactory.'

Gigafactory Texas is Tesla's global headquarters, and the U.S. manufacturing hub for the Model Y and Cybertruck.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman today told police chiefs to ensure their officers are focused on 'common sense policing' and not 'debating gender on Twitter'.

In a forthright speech to a police chiefs' conference in London, Mrs Braverman took a swipe at 'politically correct distractions' as she urged a 'back to basics approach'.

The Home Secretary promised action to ensure police time was prioritised on dealing with 'threats to people and their property'.

Mrs Braverman - who was swiftly reappointed to her role by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last month, despite having been forced to resign six days earlier over security breaches - outlined how she thought officers could ensure they retain public confidence.

'The way to ensure public confidence in the police is to focus on getting the basics right,' she told a joint summit of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and National Police Chiefs' Council.

'What I call "common sense policing". The kind of policing the law-abiding, patriotic majority of British people deserves and expects.

'No politically correct distractions, just good old-fashioned policing  with a relentless focus on making our streets, homes and transport networks safer.

'Responding to all burglaries, tackling anti-social behaviour and the horrendous trade in illegal drugs, and supporting victims.'

In a forthright speech to a police chiefs' conference in London, Suella Braverman took a swipe at 'politically correct distractions' as she urged a 'back to basics approach'

The Home Secretary promised action to ensure police time was prioritised on dealing with 'threats to people and their property'

Mrs Braverman, who has also endured a storm of criticism over her handling of Britain's asylum system, told police chiefs she knew their officers could 'really drive down crime' if they were 'properly empowered to do the job for which they signed up'.

'The Government wants to see reductions in homicide, other serious violence, and neighbourhood crime,' she added.

'I know it's possible. Our best police officers are, simply put, the finest in the world.'

The Home Secretary praised Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, for his 'superb leadership' in improving the performance of the force.

She said: 'How did he do it? He put more bobbies on the beat, pursued every crime, made excellent use of stop and search, and insisted that officers were smartly turned out with polished boots.

'A back to basics approach. For me, that is excellence in policing.'

In a promise of action on 'non-crime hate incidents' to free up police time, Mrs Braverman told delegates: 'Your police officers' time is precious.

'The public want the police to be tackling crime, not debating gender on Twitter.

'I have asked my officials to revisit the issue of non-crime hate incidents as a first step.

'As I want to be sure that we are allowing you to prioritise your time and your energy to deal with threats to people and their property.'

The College for Policing recently updated the guidance on 'non-crime hate incidents' in response to ex-police officer Harry Miller's successful legal challenge over alleged transphobic tweets.

Campaigners have expressed fears that 120,000 non-crime hate incidents being logged on police computers in Britain had impacted on people applying for jobs such as teachers or carers.
A senior nurse had 'sleepless nights' over incidents at a hospital neo-natal unit where her colleague Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others.

Kathryn Percival-Calderbank recalled a night shift in which Letby, 32, is said to have administered a fatal amount of air into the bloodstream of a baby girl.

The infant, referred to as Baby D, suffered three collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the early hours of June 22 2015.

On the first occasion, Mrs Percival-Calderbank told Manchester Crown Court she noticed an 'unusual, mosaic-type' rash on the youngster's torso and arms which was 'reddy-brown' in colour.

Baby D is alleged to be the third infant murdered by the defendant in a two-week period in June 2015, with another suffering a life-threatening collapse at the same time.

Giving evidence today behind a screen, Mrs Percival-Calderbank said she had worked at the unit for newborn infants since 1993.

Letby denies accusations of murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital

She recalled checking in on Baby D while the infant's designated nurse, Caroline Oakley, was on a break.

'I remember looking in,' she said.

She was nice and stable, the baby seemed quite settled. 'I popped in another time about 10 minutes later. She was OK.'

Some time later, the witness said she returned to the intensive care room when alarms sounded.

Mrs Percival-Calderbank added: 'The baby's monitor was showing she was desaturating and her heart rate had dropped.

'I don't know whether there was anyone else around at the time but I think there may have been.'

She said she checked Baby D's head position, gave 'gentle stimulations' with her hand and then used a facemask to provide oxygen.

She went on: 'I was assisted by someone. I can't clearly remember who it was. I have a feeling it might have been Lucy, but I can't categorically say.'

Asked by prosecutor Philip Astbury if she noticed anything while assisting Baby D, Mrs Percival-Calderbank said: 'There was a rash on her trunk and arms. It was on her body from the chest downwards.

'It was not like a normal rash that you would know if a baby was becoming septic. The blood vessels tend to more bluey.

'This seemed to be a largely mosaic-type rash and it was a reddy brown colouring.

'It was not like a spotty rash. It was oval-type markings on the skin. The vessels of the blood seemed to be meeting up with each other.

'She was quite a pale-skinned baby, so they seemed to be pronounced browny/red.'

Accused nurse Lucy Letby's parents (right) are supporting her in court every single day

The witness said the discolouring, 'seemed to disappear and dissipate after a while' and that Baby D settled back into a normal pattern of breathing after doctors assisted in the intervention. Ben Myers, KC, defending, asked if the 'extra detail' she had provided about the rash, compared to her police statement, was something she may have picked up in conversation at work.

Mrs Percival-Calderbank replied: 'I might have done, but it's also my recollections which have come back. It was an odd rash. It wasn't like a normal septic rash, it was a different type of rash.'

Mr Myers said: 'Can you help us with how you got the extra details?'

The witness said: 'Because I started thinking about the events. As I was getting sleepless nights I was thinking about the events that happened.'

Dewi Evans, the consultant paediatrician called in by the prosecution to review the cases involved in the trial, said the 'only possible cause' of Baby D's collapse was an injection of air into a vein.

Despite having been born with early onset pneumonia in her right lung, she was heading towards a full recovery prior to the three unexpected collapses on June 22.

'Her conditional clinically was of a baby recovering from early onset pneumonia,' he told the jury. 'She was really doing extremely well'.

Dr Evans rejected the suggestion by Ben Myers, KC, for the defence, that it was clinically inappropriate for doctors to have taken Baby D off CPAP.

The only explanation for the infant's death was that 'someone tampered with her care', Dr Evans concluded.

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies the offences, said to have been committed between June 2015 and June 2016.
Tennessee officers have arrested a man dubbed a 'delusional incel' for stalking his female colleague after he chased her down the street when she rejected his advances.

Jacob Yerkes was arrested on Tuesday in Loudon County for stalking and harassment of his female co-worker that he chased down the street to 'get her to be straight' because she is involved in the 'LGBT' community.

In a viral video, Yerkes filmed himself telling officers he visited a Cracker Barrel restaurant where he works to play a song for his co-worker to allow her the 'free will' to decide whether she wanted to be with him.

The woman attempted to flee Yerkes, but was followed down the street. Police said they later discovered Yerkes was posting 'threatening' videos online - but it's unclear if the threats were toward the woman.

'It was determined that Mr. Yerkes was making unsolicited contact with a co-worker,' Loudon County Sheriff's Office wrote online. 'It was further found that he was posting on several social media sites, including YouTube, making threats of violence.'

It's unclear when the alleged stalking incident occurred.

Jacob Yerkes was arrested in Loudon County, Tennessee on Tuesday for stalking and harassing his female co-worker he said rejected his sexual advances

Police announced his arrest on Tuesday. Lenoir City Police Department and Loudon County Sheriff's Office are collaborating on the investigation

Yerkes works at a Cracker Barrel along with his the woman he stalked. It's unclear what Cracker Barrel the incident occurred out but there is on off Highway 321 in Lenoir City (pictured)

Days before Yerkes arrest, the video of him with Tennessee police went viral on social media, and one commenter dubbed him 'a delusional incel.'

Yerkes was seen at the Lenoir City Municipal Building off Highway 321, which leads straight to the restaurant when he approached two officers.

He told police that he had worked with his female colleague for about five or six months and the pair were 'talking' at one point, but it wasn't a serious relationship.

The alleged stalker then walked through what he said happened went he went to the Cracker Barrel restaurant to see his co-worker.

'I got there, and she saw me, and she immediately pulled away,' the man said. 'I wasn't forcing her to listen or anything... I just wanted to play the song for her - give her - her own choice to be with me.'

'Does she know you?' one cop asked.

To which the man, who is not identified in the video, responded: 'We were talking a little bit, but it never really got serious.'

He said when the woman went into the parking lot, she pulled away once she saw him.

'So I chased her a little bit - just cause - woman are crazy - like I felt like she wanted me chasing her.'

Yerkes wasn't arrested at the time but police advised he stay away from the woman.

The officers also claimed in the video that they were going to go down to the Cracker Barrel to talk to the woman.

Days before Yerkes arrest, the video of him with Tennessee police went viral on social media, and one commenter dubbed him 'a delusional incel'

The video showed Yerkes talking to police in Lenoir City to report he had been threatened by the woman's father after he chased her down the street

Yerkes can be heard telling police that he wanted to play the woman a song and that 'women like being chased' and enjoy 'rape fantasies'

The alleged stalker said the woman attempted to flee from him while in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel

The Cracker Barrel worker then told police he contacted them because he wanted to report that the woman's father had called him from an unidentified number and 'threatened' him to stay away from his daughter.

'Her father called me up and he made some threats to me - onto my life - so I just want to have his name on file,' the man told police. 'I think he said he's going to stab me... he said "I'm going to do something to you I swear."'

To which one cop responded: 'For chasing his daughter?'

'Yeah, but it wasn't chasing, it was like going down a couple of streets. That's like fun to women. Women like that. There's a little bit of excitement,' the man said.

'Do you not think chasing somebody is crazy?' the cop responded.

'Well... I only went like a couple of blocks down the street... I had my song playing and I wanted her to hear it,' the man said.

The man was confused as to why the father of his female co-worker called him after he chased her for the 'excitement' that women enjoy.

Meanwhile, one officer told him that chasing women isn't 'exciting.'

'What about BDSM and porn where women like to have rape fantasies,' the man then said.

The cop responded: 'Well apparently this woman doesn't.'

'Well, who knows? Most women do like having rape fantasies,' the man insisted. 'I just want to get his name on file, just in case he does do anything to me... She's being controlled by him... I think she should go do porn.'

The video was filmed at the Lenoir City Municipal Building - just five minutes away from the local Cracker Barrel where the alleged stalking incident occurred

Yerkes then told police he contacted them because he wanted to report that the woman's father had called him from an unidentified number and 'threatened' him to stay away from his daughter

He then left the building and proceeded to record the video in his car

The man then left the building and continued to record while talking to the camera.

'Do you know what happens when women don't ever come to terms with themselves - bad sh** happens,' he said.

He then rambled about how the woman was tied up in the 'LGBT' community.

'The cops want to deny me trying to get her to be straight,' he said. 'I don't see why these traditional a***** think they could speak s*** whenever it is this belligerent woke LBGT sh** that has her.'

The investigation is ongoing with the Lenoir City Police Department and Loudon County Sheriff's Office.
More than 100 Albanians were among 350 foreign nationals deported by the Home Office last month.

The total included 22 Channel migrants who were removed directly from Manston processing centre in Kent.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the removals would send a clear message to foreign nationals who have no right to be in the UK.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the deportation of 350 foreign nationals last month would send a clear message

More than 100 Albanians were among 350 foreign nationals deported by the Home Office (pictured: man performing Albania's controversial eagle sign)

Those deported in October included a Jamaican rapist who was sentenced to 14 years in jail, an Albanian jailed for more than nine years for violent crime and a Malaysian murderer who received a life sentence.

Of the 347 people returned during October, 118 were to Albania, 39 to Brazil, 38 to Romania, 26 to Poland and 20 to Lithuania, the Home Office revealed.

The majority - 230 - were foreign national offenders.

But the remaining 117 were immigration offenders including two people who were removed within 24 days of arriving by small boat across the Channel. A third was sent back within 27 days of arrival.

The foreign nationals were removed aboard a mix of charter flights and scheduled air services

Mrs Braverman said: The number of people reaching the UK illegally in small boats is at an all-time high and is putting our asylum system under intense strain.

By returning hundreds of people coming here illegally and dangerous foreign criminals in this way, we are sending a clear message that those with no right to be in the UK are not welcome here.

I have been clear that I am exploring every avenue at my disposal to accelerate their removal.

The foreign nationals were removed aboard a mix of charter flights and scheduled air services.

Other offenders included a Colombian national sentenced to more than five years imprisonment for assault and attempted rape, and a Chilean national handed more than six years for aggravated burglary.
Representatives for Beatty have not responded to requests for comment from DailyMail.com

Kristina Hirsch, 63, is suing Hollywood star Warren Beatty over allegations he groomed her for sex in 1973

Hollywood star Warren Beatty is being sued by a woman who claims he groomed her for sex when she was just 14.

Beatty, 85, is accused of exploiting Kristina Hirsch, 63, who he met while filming on the set of a movie in 1973  with the abuse continuing until later that year.

Hirsch had been taken to the set in Los Angeles by her neighbor who was working on the set, and claims that Beatty, who was 35 at the time, repeatedly paid undue attention to her.

The lawsuit states that Beatty repeatedly paid her compliments before passing on his phone number and asked her to call him when she was close to his hotel.

It goes on to state that over the course of 1973, when Hirsch was 14 and 15, Beatty used his position and status as a Hollywood movie star to coerce her into having sex with him.

Court documents filed on Monday at Los Angeles Superior Court do not directly name Beatty but make several clear references to him.

He is accused of summoning her to the hotel he was living, as well as taking her in his car, offering to help with homework and spoke to her about losing her virginity.

Beatty, 85, is accused of exploiting Kristina Hirsch, 63, who he met while filming on the set of a movie in 1973  with the abuse continuing until later that year

He is accused of summoning her to the hotel he was living, as well as taking her in his car, offering to help with homework and spoke to her about losing her virginity

Court documents filed on Monday at Los Angeles Superior Court do not directly name Beatty but make several clear references to him - including as portraying Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde (pictured)

The actor is described in the lawsuit as portraying Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde, a major box-office success that earned defendant doe an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Representatives for Beatty refused to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.

Court documents seen by DailyMail.com said: Due to defendant does stature, position of authority, predatory grooming and manipulation of Plaintiff, as well as Plaintiffs young age, Plaintiff was initially thrilled that defendant doe was interested in her, and believed she was involved in a romantic relationship with a movie star.

He used his role, status, and power as a well-known Hollywood Star to gain access to, groom, manipulate, exploit, and coerce sexual contact from her over the course of several months in the State of California.

The lawsuit argues that Hirsch was unable to give consent because she was a minor at the time of the incidents, and she is now seeking damages.

Her lawsuit that claims because of the alleged abuse by Beatty she suffered severe emotional, physical and psychological distress, including humiliation, shame, and guilt'

The lawsuit argues that Hirsch was unable to give consent because she was a minor at the time of the incidents, and she is now seeking damages

She claims that she has had difficulty in reasonably or meaningfully interacting with others and having intimate, confidential and familial relationships.

Her lawsuit that claims because of the alleged abuse by Beatty she suffered severe emotional, physical and psychological distress, including humiliation, shame, and guilt.

It added: Plaintiff has suffered personal physical injury of sexual assault, and has and will continue to suffer, psychological, mental and emotional distress, and all associated economic injury.

Her claims include sexual battery, sexual assault and violation of California Penal Code 647.6(a)(1), which opens the door for Hirsch to bring her civil claims under state law.

She seeks damages, special damages and punitive damages, and her attorneys Michael Reck and Michael Finnegan of the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates did not return DailyMail.com requests for comment.

Madonna dated her 'Dick Tracy' co-star for 15 months in the early 1990s

Joan Collins began dating the then unknown actor Warren Beatty in 1959. The pair became engaged a year later, but their relationship ended after eighteen months

At his height of fame Beatty previously bragged about bedding thousands of women, and was linked to Joan Collins, Cher and Madonna.

His biographer Peter Biskind estimated in 2010 that the actor had slept with 12, 775 women in his life  something which Beatty himself later denied.

Speaking to AARP in 2016 he said the number was wildly exaggerated, adding: Think about it, sleeping with 12,775 people. That would mean not just that there were multiple people a day, but that there was no repetition.

Look, I never misled anyone. And  and I'm a nice guy. I waited a long time to be married.

When you don't get married until you're 54  well, as Arthur Miller said, It comes with the territory.

You're participating in a profession that, for obvious reasons, needs to heighten elements of sexuality.

Beatty finally settled down, and has been married to Annette Bening for 24 years, and they have four children together.
A jealous boyfriend who stabbed his partner through the neck and was compared to Harrison Ford in The Fugitive by his own defence lawyer is facing life in prison after being convicted of her murder.

Franklin McLeod, 55, killed 53-year-old Marlene Coleman, both born in Jamaica, in a fit of jealous anger on June 16 last year in their shared flat in Cressingham Road, Lewisham, southeast London.

Afterwards, he disposed of the knife before walking into a police station, the Old Bailey was told - as his lawyer compared him to Dr Richard Kimble, played by Harrison Ford in The Fugitive.

McLeod denied murder but was convicted after a jury deliberated for more than three hours over two days.

He had been in a relationship with Ms Coleman for more than ten years, during which time the court heard he became 'jealous and possessive'.

On the day of the murder he discovered messages from another man on Ms Coleman's phone.

Ms Coleman, a Eurostar employee, had become unhappy in their relationship and wanted it to end but McLeod refused to leave, the court heard. She was reportedly planning to fly back to Jamaica on June 21.

Marlene Coleman, 53, was stabbed to death at the home she shared with Franklin McLeod in Lewisham, London in June last year

She reportedly wanted to leave her 10-year relationship with McLeod who was 'jealous and possessive', a court heard

Mcleod looked at his partner's WhatsApp messages on the day of her murder last year and came across voice-notes from a man called Kevin Williams.

Mr Williams lived in Jamaica and shared a close friendship with Ms Coleman who he was building a house for, the court was told.

McLeod confronted his partner and stabbed her in the kitchen during the resulting argument.

He did not call an ambulance but walked to a police station to report the incident, blaming a 'mystery attacker.'

During the trial McLeod's barrister likened him to the character played by Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, who played a man wrongly accused of his wife's murder.

Melanie Simpson, KC, said: 'In The Fugitive (the character played by) Harrison Ford was accused of killing his wife.

'He said to the policeman, Tommy Lee Jones: "I didn't kill my wife."

'And Tommy Lee Jones said: "I don't care."

'Harrison Ford was locked up. But in the film he escapes from custody and his friends are seen by the police. And his friends say to the police he is intelligent, he's got resources, you will never catch him.

'And Harrison Ford, he uses his resources and connections and his intelligence. And what does he do? He catches his wife's real killer.

'Of course this is real life, this isn't Hollywood.

'But Franklin McLeod has got no resources, he's got no connections and limited intelligence, you may think.

'And so he walks into the police station to report a crime and ends up a suspect.'

During his interview with police and during his trial, McLeod said he confronted Ms Coleman over the messages which left him 'really disturbed' and 'upset'.

McLeod admitted the argument escalated and 'putting his hands on her', prosecutor Gareth Patterson told the court.

He said Ms Coleman had planned to fly to Jamaica by herself in June.

He added the defendant acknowledged he 'may have touched her neck' and he had simply tried to 'calm her down'.

Mr Patterson told the court: 'He said she "fell on the ground".

'He said he had not used any force. He denied pushing her.'

McLeod told police that he left the house to 'cool' his head and insisted Ms Coleman was alive and conscious when he left.

He told police they should look for another suspect.

Mr Patterson said the issue for the jury to decide was the identity of the attacker.

'The prosecution case is that he [McLeod] was possessive of her and would not have wanted the relationship to end.

'The prosecution case is that he was jealous and the discovery of those recordings coming from another man made him angry.

'The prosecution say that the evidence will show that the person who stabbed Marlene Coleman that night near the back door in her flat through the neck was not some unidentified mystery attacker or intruder but this defendant, Franklin McLeod.'

Giving evidence during the trial, McLeod denied responsibility for his girlfriend's death and continued to blame a 'mystery attacker'.

Judge Angela Rafferty said: 'There is one sentence for this and that is life imprisonment.

'You have been convicted by this jury of murder and you are going to go to prison for life.'

McLeod, of Cressingham Road, Lewisham, denied but was convicted of murder. He showed no emotion as he was taken down.

He was remanded in custody to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on November 18.
A 'prolific burglar' accused of breaking into the home of a Second World War veteran and his sister then beating them to death nearly 30 years ago has gone on trial for their murders following a DNA breakthrough.

Danville Neil, 65, allegedly tied up and beat Anne Castle, 74, and her war hero brother William Bryan, 71, before their home was ransacked during a violent break-in on the night of August 22, 1993.

Jurors heard that the the pair had lived together in a flat in Bethnal Green, east London, since Mr Bryan was invalided out of the Army in 1945, with Mrs Castle being widowed in 1987.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the defendant's DNA was found on a strap used to tie Mr Bryan's hands during the burglary.

She said Neil would suggest an 'innocent explanation' - that the victim had bought a pair of binoculars with the strap attached from him at a car boot sale.

Danville Neil, 65, allegedly tied up and beat Anne Castle, 74, and her war hero brother William Bryan, 71, before their home was ransacked during a violent break-in on the night of August 22, 1993, the Old Bailey (pictured) has heard

Opening the case on Wednesday, Ms Morgan told the jury: 'On the night of Sunday 22 August to Monday 23 August 1993, elderly siblings Anne Castle and William Bryan were murdered in their home address.

'Their murders were part of a violent burglary that took place in the flat. Their home was ransacked. Jewellery was stolen. They were beaten and restrained.

'Anne Castle suffered a heart attack. William Bryan was beaten and smothered, which caused him to go into cardiac arrest.

'The prosecution's case is that it was Danville Neil who entered their address that night to commit a violent burglary, during the course of which he murdered Anne Castle and William Bryan.

'It took nearly 30 years for Danville Neil to be identified as the person responsible for these events. In 1993, he was a prolific burglar. A sample of his DNA was on the national database as a result of his previous convictions.

Jurors heard that the the pair had lived together in a flat in Bethnal Green, east London (pictured, the street where they lived) since Mr Bryan was invalided out of the Army in 1945, with Mrs Castle being widowed in 1987

'Over the years, the investigation into the deaths remained open and in that time, in those 30 years, there have been many developments in forensic techniques.

'Eventually, a strap that had been used to tie the hands of William Bryan during the attack was submitted for further analysis using the more discerning DNA techniques that were then available. That process led to a significant DNA match for this defendant being found on the strap, underneath a knot.'

Ms Morgan said Neil denied going to the address where the victims died.

She told jurors: 'Until yesterday morning, before you were sworn in, what I would have said to you, the jury, is he has offered no explanation at all as to how it is that his DNA came to be under that knot on that strap that bound Mr Bryan's wrist.

'Yesterday, before you were sworn in as a jury the prosecution were updated as to Mr Neil's position and it is now, as we understand it, the position he may suggest in his case that there is an innocent explanation for why his DNA is on that strap.

'It may be suggested that the DNA that is on that strap - and it is accept to be his DNA - but it may have come there because he was involved in car boot sales at that time and somehow Mr Bryan must have bought the binoculars with the strap from him at a car boot sale.'

Neil, of Lewisham, south-east London, denies two counts of murder.
British military officials have tonight been accused of not acting quickly enough to stop ex-RAF Top Guns from being 'head-hunted' by the Chinese government to train their fighter aces.

The claim comes as a top minister admitted the Ministry of Defence had known about Beijing recruiting former UK pilots for three years before voicing concerns publicly.

Armed Forces Minster James Heappey said security officials first learnt of an 'isolated case' of a 'defence industry employee' being recruited to support Chinese 'military aviation programmes' back in 2019.

The revelation has left a former spy concerned and sparked calls for the Government to take action to stop more RAF fast-jet experts from being recruited by Beijing.

Philip Ingram, a former Colonel with British military intelligence, feared key secrets about UK tactics and tech could have been inadvertently obtained by Chinese spies, who would have 'had a long time' to work on ex-UK forces.

The government has been criticised by a former spy after Britain's Armed Forces Minister said the Ministry of Defence had known about former RAF pilots being recruited to train Chinese air force personnel in 2019 (stock image)

Up to 30 ex-RAF aces could have been hired to train Chinese pilots over the years. Pictured are Chinese J-10 fighter jets of the Chinese Air Force in August

He told MailOnline: 'This is something the country should be concerned of.

'The Ministry of Defence should have been on top of this when they first heard about it happening.

'Chinese intelligence will have had an awful long time to work on these individuals Their networks are huge and abilities to turn people to get them working for the Chinese are massive.'

The concern was triggered after Mr Heappey responded to a parliamentary question from Labour's Shadow Defence Secretary, John Healey, about how long the MoD had known about the recruitment of former British military personnel by the Chinese.

In the response, Mr Heappey - a former soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq - said: 'The Department became aware of an isolated case in 2019 when a defence industry employee was head-hunted to support military aviation programmes.

'Since then, we have investigated other cases, and when practicable taken necessary measures to deter and dissuade such recruitment.

'Following the easing of the pandemic, the scale and pace of the recruitment escalated, and it is right that we now expose this threat more widely. We are not prepared to comment on the detail of individual cases, have been informed of significant developments along the way.'

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, pictured, said the MoD knew veteran British pilots were being head-hunted by Beijing since 2019

Shadow defence secretary John Healey, pictured, said the government may have threatened national security by not acting sooner to stop British RAF veterans from training Chinese personnel

Labour has criticised the Tories for being 'blase' about security threats and being 'too slow to emerge from their "golden era" with China'.

John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary told MailOnline: 'The first duty of any government is to protect national security.

'These activities could have revealed compromising details of UK military operations, technology and training to a foreign power, posing a significant threat to national security.

'Ministers must answer serious questions about why serving personnel and veterans were allowed to undertake these activities and the risk it now poses.

'The public will also want reassurance actions have been taken to halt it.'

Last month it was revealed the MoD has been training Chinese pilots, allowing them to study at UK military colleges.

As part of the scheme, which ran until 2019, RAF pilots were sent to Beijing to instruct Chinese aircrew.

The RAF was training military pilots at RAF Cranwell, pictured, until the scheme was cancelled in 2019

According to Sky News, the MoD authorised the Chinese pilots to receive an 'Aviation English Course' as well as instruction in conflict law.

This has led to increased criticism of the Government, many of whose members were in cabinet for the duration of the scheme.

Several serving Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots taught an 'Aviation English Course' in China in 2016, while a number of Chinese nationals studied at the RAF's college at Cranwell in Lincolnshire and the Joint Services Command and Staff College at Shrivenham in Swindon, Sky News reported.

An MoD spokesperson said: 'The UK has never provided fast jet flight training, or any other sensitive training, for People's Liberation Army (Air Force) pilots.'

It is understood the MoD's official defence activities with Beijing, which included initial officer training on English language and armed conflict law, were stopped in 2019.

Meanwhile, retired British fast-jet experts have been lured to train the Chinese with hefty annual salaries of about 240,000.

Among the Brits to have been hired to train China's air force included RAF ace, Keith Hartley.

The MoD even sent serving RAF personnel to Beijing to train Chinese military pilots (stock image)

Mr Hartley, formerly know by the military call-sign 'Hooligan', has been at the centre of Beijings recruitment drive in his role as Chief Operating Officer at a firm called the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA).

He has operated there and in China where, according to a TFASA company profile he was responsible for teaching, contracts and developing business.

Based at Oudtshoorn, TFASA was named and shamed by an intelligence briefing by UK spooks for recruiting British, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand pilots to work for China.

They are being lured by Beijing with promises of eye-watering salaries, school fees, luxury apartments and unlimited airline tickets to and from the repressive country.

As TFASAs Chief Operating Officer, Mr Hartley is understood to have played a highly significant role in the recruitment of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy pilots.

TFASA has headhunted former officers who played key roles in some of the UKs most sensitive defence projects, including development of the 2.8 billion F-35B Lightning stealth jet and Britains 6.4 billion aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

Last month, UK officials indicated the Chinese had been unsuccessful in their attempts to lure anyone with expertise in Britains state-of-the-art F-35B Lightning jet.

But research by the Daily Mail has revealed this is not entirely the case, with Royal Navy pilot Stephen Crockatt - who was 'UK Team Lead' on the F-35B Integrated Test Force between 2017-2019, had spent time working with the Chinese.

Former RAF top gun Keith Hartley has been at the centre of Beijings recruitment drive of British pilots

On his LinkedIn profile he provides more details of the role, saying he led the ITF developmental team to deliver the evidence required to support the UK F-35 operating capability and ensure support to U.S./UK interoperability goals. He also boasts that he became TFASAs Deputy Chief Test Pilot Instructor.

Mr Crockatt worked in Beijing, in exchange for a large cheque. Yes, I did go to China with TFASA, a lot of people did, he admitted. But I cannot fly an F-35. I work in flight test training.

'I told the Chinese how to set up a flight test school, making sure people are there on time and the safety is in place. The MoD are fully aware. I did nothing tactical for TFASA  but they got involved with other things with the Chinese.

Other pilots, speaking on condition of anonymity, have suggested the training of PLA pilots by British officers has been going on far longer, perhaps for as long as 20 years.

One said: It would make your eyes water, its been happening for that long, clandestinely. At first I thought it was a two-way thing, with us getting as much information from the Chinese as we were passing to them. But I dont think so any more. It is just about money and there is nothing in place to stop it.

Despite mounting concerns in Whitehall, the Government has been powerless to end the training scheme because no laws had been broken.

However, British security agencies have not been sitting idly by and have instead launched counter-intelligence operation, it has been reported.

In an astounding double-bluff, spooks are said to have approached a small group of the Western pilots, asking them to 'wear two hats' and hoover up sensitive intelligence on China's military tech, tactics and capabilities.

RAF pilots who help China are enticed with large salaries and offers to fly their fifth-generation fighter jet the J-20, pictured

It's understood the pilots, who were not trained intelligence officers and from a mix of nationalities, agreed to the covert operation.

The undercover operatives were given their own handlers and tasked with taking a mental note of China's fleet of next-generation fighter jets.

One source told the Daily Express that the UK had 'played China at its own game' - and won. 'This was a rather unprecedented situation,' he told the paper, confirming all the assets had now left China and the operation had ended.

But ex-spy Mr Ingram said the Official Secrets Act needed to be amended to prevent further top guns from supporting the training of other nations deemed 'a threat' by the UK.

Details of TFASAs management structure suggest Mr Hartley has been responsible for the academys Military Operational Flight Training for both fixed wing and rotary aircraft.

Meanwhile, a company profile from 2019 said: Keith has carried out complete weapons system programmes from initial design to flight testing and introduction to service. Keith has been a senior member of TFASA staff since 2005 and has been engaged in long and short-course teaching of test pilots in a variety of civil and military programmes.

TFASA has also met Chinas requirement for Royal Navy Wildcat and Merlin helicopter pilots, specifically those with experience of aircraft carrier operations.

This year China has enlisted as many as 24 RAF and Royal Navy officers, again on promises of enormous wages and lengthy contracts. Pictured are Chinese fighter pilots

These officers were approached as China prepared to launch its latest aircraft carrier, the 984ft-long Fujian.

China already has the worlds biggest navy, of at least 360 vessels, but is playing catch up with the United States on carriers. The US Navy has 11 and China has three.

In a statement TFASA said it 'strongly believes that its actions, and those of its employees, do not contravene any UK laws'.

TFASA said the training it provides is also available from other civilian contractors including organisations based in the United States, Canada, and European jurisdictions.

The company added: 'Neither the UK MoD nor any other UK Government agency has raised any objections to TFASA, or its employees with whom the agencies have been in direct contact, regarding the Companys fulfilment of any training contracts.

'TFASA is in the process of contacting the UK MoD, to ensure that there are no misunderstandings between the organisations.

'TFASA stands by its employees and will continue supporting them, all their work is and has been carried out in full accordance.'
Parents' rights groups were touting their gains in the midterm elections on Wednesday, saying their growing clout in school boards across the country heralded tougher pushback against classroom wokery.

Though a complete picture of school board results nationally has yet to emerge, organizations like the 1776 Project PAC and Moms for Liberty highlighted their gains as a fulcrum moment in their fledgling school reform movement.

Those groups and the candidates they endorse encompass a range of views, but share a focus on tackling teachers' unions, raising educational standards, and on how race, sexuality and gender are taught in classrooms.

Their gains echo the reelection win of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis', a Republican who campaigned on a platform of parents' rights and other bedrock issues, and who took the unusual step of endorsing several Florida school board candidates.

While the gains are welcomed in many schools, anti-censorship campaigners warn that right-leaning parents' groups are banning record numbers of books on important teenage identity issues.

An activist for Moms for Liberty at a campaign event for Indian River County school board candidate Jacqueline Rosario, who won on Tuesday, thanks to support and money from right-leaning groups

Supporters of Moms for Liberty at a school board campaign event. Long dormant and apolitical institutions, these elected councils have become powder kegs with the politicization of classes on gender, race or sexuality in schools

Mom-of-four Tiffany Justice says Covid-19 lockdowns were an educational 'black hole' for kids

WHAT IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY? Cornell Law School Prof. William Jacobson launched a CRT database CriticalRace.org Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America's history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation's institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. The architects of the theory argue that the US was founded on the theft of land and labor and that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race. Proponents also believe race is culturally invented, not biological. Kimberle Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, a social justice think tank based in New York City, was one of the early proponents. Initially, she says, it was 'simply about telling a more complete story of who we are.' Advertisement

Aiden Buzzetti, with the 1776 Project PAC, a super PAC that spent a reported $2.6 million backing candidates lined up against lessons on the controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT), celebrated the group 'flipping' its 100th school board.

Victories for Tom Payne, Angela Seastrom, Michelanne McCombs, and Elaine Mckee had switched the Brandywine Public School District in southwestern Michigan from 'liberal to conservative', the group said  one of many wins nationwide.

'Last night was a disappointing night for Republicans in many parts of the country, but we're happy to say we were very successful in key races in Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, Maryland, which were by far the biggest places we targeted,' said Buzzetti.

Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which campaigns against school mask mandates and on how race and sexuality are taught in class, described wins for aligned candidates in Florida, North and South Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and beyond.

'We were thrilled to see so many first time candidates getting elected to office,' Justice told DailyMail.com.

'With all of those candidates now serving on school boards, enacting policies that are in support of parental rights, we're going to be able to see an improvement in educational outcomes.'

Her right-leaning group has more than 200 chapters across 40 states. They operate independently, but share concerns over issues such as vaccine mandates and how districts should teach about race and sexuality.

For Justice, the gains this week are a chance to get CRT and other frivolous topics off the curriculum and focus on educational basics, after shocking revelations last month of steep declines in test scores over the pandemic.

Students suffered historic learning setbacks with math and reading scores falling to their lowest levels since before Covid-19 swept the US, according to data released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress last month.

School board races, which are historically nonpartisan, were partially shaped this year by advertisements produced by political committees with a range of backers, including the 1776 PAC and Moms for Liberty.

Other notable groups include Michigan's Get Our Kids Back to School PAC, which campaigns against 'wokeness' and Covid-19 restrictions, and Progressive Lakeshore, a left-leaning group that reportedly targeted a few school board seats.

Local school board races give regular people an outlet for their frustrations about the direction of their country, analysts say, and give parents a chance to add their voice to national debates on race, gender, and Covid-19 rules.

In Florida, all six school board members endorsed by Gov. DeSantis won their runoffs on Tuesday, results that delivered him a total of 24 wins out of 30 local education candidates he backed this year, according to Politico.

DeSantis, who is positioned as a rival to former president Donald Trump as the next Republican presidential nominee, has as governor signed laws on restricting how public schools teach students about race, sexual orientation and gender identity

Those measures have put him at odds with Democrat-led local school districts and with federal education policy, while also raising his profile as a leading Republican and a frequent guest on right-wing news shows.

Jacqueline Rosario, a member of Moms For Liberty, was backed also backed in her successful school board reelection campaign by Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis

On social media, the 1776 Project PAC said 'The parents revolution is winning across the country', omitting an apostrophe

Out of the six school board candidates endorsed by DeSantis in runoff elections this week, five squared off against opponents backed by the Florida Democratic Party. All five DeSantis-backed candidates won their races.

They included Jacqueline Rosario, a former teacher backed by DeSantis, Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project. She was reelected in Indian River County after pushing for books with sexual content to be removed from school libraries.

While the rise of conservative-leaning parents' groups is welcomed in some schools, the anti-censorship group PEN America recently warned they were behind moves to pull record numbers of books from school libraries.

There were 2,532 instances of individual book bans affecting 1,648 titles at some 5,000 schools with 4 million students in the 2021-2022 school year, the group said in a report in September.

The texts frequently tackled 'culture wars' issues like gender, sexuality and race.

Frequently banned titles include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and was turned into a 2018 movie.

Books banned in schools include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

The anti-censorship group PEN America says censors have been busy in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Georgia

PEN America, a non-profit writers' group, says books dealing with LGBTQ and racial issues are most frequently targeted
Police and building security at the trio's Airbnb rental, and detected a gas odor, and found them all dead

Florence chatted with her boyfriend on October 30 and told him she was not feeling well

Florence, Marshall, and Hall met up in Mexico City on October 29 to celebrate the Day of the Dead festivities

She and her siblings fell ill on October 29 and went to a local doctor, who treated them for heat exhaustion. Arce was found dead by her brother the next day

Arce was in the Mexican capital with her siblings to attend a Formula 1 race.

Angelica Arce, Kandace Florence, Jordan Marshall, and Courtez Hall were found dead due to carbon monoxide poisoning in two Mexico City homes October 30

An American woman was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Mexico City apartment on the same day three other Americans, all friends, died in a similar manner in a different apartment.

Angelica Arce, 29, had met with her siblings Marco Arce and Andrea Arce, to watch the 2022 Mexico Grand Prix, in the Mexican capital and attended a practice run of the Formula 1 race on October 28.

The siblings returned to the apartment that night and woke up feeling ill the following day. However, Angelica and Andrea were the only ones who visited a local doctor, who diagnosed them with heat exhaustion.

They remained in the apartment not knowing that they had been exposed to carbon monoxide. On October 30, Marco woke up to find Angelica dead.

'Lifted her hair and she was purple. So scared,' Marco told San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV 10News.

Angelica Arce traveled to Mexico City with her siblings to attend a Formula 1 race and was found dead in their vacation rental October 30. She died due to inhalation of carbon monoxide. Her parents traveled to Mexico to make arrangements to repatriate her body to San Diego

Kandace Florence had traveled with two of her close friends to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico City. But she fell ill October 30, according to her boyfriend, and was later found dead alongside her two friends, Jordan Marshall and Courtez Hall, because of carbon monoxide poisoning. A spokesperson with Airbnb told DailyMail.com that the listing for the apartment has been suspended and that all future reservations have been cancelled

Courtez Hall's mother said he had flown into Mexico City on October 29 to meet with two friends. He along with Kandace Florence and Courtez Hall were found dead in their Airbnb rental

Jordan Marshall was one of the three Americans who were found dead inside a Mexico City apartment October 30. They all died due to carbon monoxide inhalation

Marco and Andrea spent four days at a Mexico City hospital receiving treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Their grieving parents traveled from San Diego to Mexico City to help out with the arrangements to bring back Angelica's remains back to the U.S.

That same day, authorities found Virginia resident Kandace Florence, 28, and New Orleans residents Jordan Marshall, 28, and Courtez Hall, 33 dead inside their Airbnb apartment rental in the Mexico City borough of Cuajimalpa de Morelos.

The three friends had traveled there to partake in the Day of the Dead festivities.

According to Norfolk NBC affiliate WAVY, Florence had informed her boyfriend during a conversation on the night of October 30 that she was not feeling well.

The phone call suddenly dropped and after failing to get her back on the phone, he reached out to the Airbnb host and asked them if they could visit the residence for a wellness check.

Lindsey Clevenger first met Florence Kandace - one of the three people who died from carbon monoxide inhalation in a Mexico City Airbnb - when they were attending fourth grade. 'When I started going to Strawbridge Elementary School in the 4th grade, you knew I was the new girl and instantly befriended me,' she wrote on Facebook on Monday. 'You found out we lived in the same neighborhood and introduced me to everyone. You would ride your bike to my house and ring my doorbell just to hang out almost every day. You got close to my family and everyone loved you. We shared countless of memories together.'

Lindsey Clevenger (right) was friends with Kandace Florence (right) for 19 years, first meeting when they were students in fourth grade

Courtez Hall, a teacher in New Orleans, flew to Mexico City on October 29 to vacation with two friends and celebrate the Day of the Dead. The 33-year-old was found dead alongside Virginia natives Kandace Florence and Jordan Marshall

Security at the apartment complex requested the assistance of the Mexico City police after detecting a strong gas odor from the trio's apartment, the Mexico City prosecutor's office told DailyMail.com.

The families of Marshall and Florence traveled to Mexico City, but immediately encountered problems with the U.S. embassy and local authorities because of the language barrier.

'To lose your child is one thing, but in a whole other country and having to maneuver language barriers and travel and trying to get his body home, it's been a lot,' Marshall's mom, Jennifer Marshall, told WAVY.

Marshall and Hall were both teachers in New Orleans and Florence operated a candlelight business.

Florence's sister-in-law Alyssa Gordon shared a heartfelt message Tuesday night on Facebook as the family sought support as friends, family and kind strangers contributed to a fundraising drive that was set up on GoFundMe.

'We've been taking time as a family to grieve and process. She was traveling for fun with two of her friends and all 3 bodies were found in an apartment unresponsive,' Gordon wrote. ' Authorities are still investigating to figure out what happened. We are raising funds to help us get back East for her funeral. Please share and support. Keep our family in prayer.'

On Monday, Lindsey Clevenger penned a Facebook message for Florence, her best friend of almost two decades, who befriended her in grade school in Virginia Beach.

'When I started going to Strawbridge Elementary School in the 4th grade, you knew I was the new girl and instantly befriended me,' she wrote. 'You found out we lived in the same neighborhood and introduced me to everyone. You would ride your bike to my house and ring my doorbell just to hang out almost every day. You got close to my family and everyone loved you. We shared countless of memories together.

'My heart is so broken. I'm still trying to process the fact you are no longer with us. I can't help but think how we left off on a bad note but you and I both knew we were always there for each other,' she added. 'We could go days, months, even years not talking and somehow always came back around as if we saw each other yesterday.'

Kandace Florence (left) and Lindsey Clevenger (right) pose for a photo. Their friendship dated back to fourth grade when Florence spotted Clevenger and befriended her immediately at school

Hall's mother, Ceola Hall, told NBC affiliate WDSU that he had flown out to Mexico City on October 29 and last spoke to him that night.

'It's been so hard,' Ceola said. 'We tried calling back over there for the funeral homes. Because of the language barrier and stuff you cannot get anything through or really understand.'

Per Mexican laws, landlords are not required to install carbon monoxide detectors inside homes.

DailyMail.com was unable to confirm if the home that Angelica died in was listed through Airbnb.

'This can't happen again to anyone else,' Andrea said.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for Airbnb said the apartment listing has been suspended and all future reservations had been canceled as part of the investigation into the tragic incident.

'This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones as they grieve such an unimaginable loss,' the rental company spokesperson said. 'Our priority right now is supporting those impacted as the authorities investigate what happened, and we stand ready to assist with their inquiries however we can.'

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows an average of 430 deaths are registered in the United State each year because of carbon monoxide poisoning.

At least 12 such deaths were reported in vacation rentals in 2019, KGTV reported.
Lingard has been described by family and friends as a 'hero' and a 'warrior'

He was killed when his trench was targeted by Russian artillery on Monday

The father-of-two, 38, died after his troop was attacked by Russian soldiers

Simon Lingard, who served in UK's Special Forces, died while fighting in Ukraine

A British soldier has been killed in Ukraine after travelling to the country to help with their fight against Russia.

Simon Lingard, 38, who had served in the UK's Special Forces, died on Monday and is believed to be the third British national to die so far in the war in Ukraine.

The father-of-two, who served multiple tours in Afghanistan with the British military, died 'fighting for what he believed in', his family said.

Lingard, who is known as 'Grimmy' and described by friends as a 'warrior', is believed to have been fighting alongside Ukrainian troops on the front line for months following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

But his son, Jackson, wrote on Facebook that his father died after his troop was attacked by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Lingard, a former machine gunner, was killed when a trench he was sheltering in came under attack from Russian artillery strikes.

He was part of a band of British volunteers defending the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Two other Brits are thought to have been injured in the strike.

Ten people were killed and 20 injured, including a former Guards officer and at least two former paratroopers.

Jackson wrote: 'After years of dedicating his time and effort to protecting our country, my dad, Si Grimmy Lingard, still had more fight in him and left the country to protect the people of Ukraine against the Russian army too.

'My heart is broken to announce that his troupe was attacked and dad has passed away in battle, a true hero and beloved to so many of us.

'I can't put into words how much he is (and will be) missed, but I'm comforted to know that this happened doing what he loved and surrounded by friends. I love you dad, I'm so proud of you.'

Simon Lingard, who had served in the UK's Special Forces, died on Monday and is believed to be the third British national to die so far in the war in Ukraine

Lingard, who served multiple tours in Afghanistan with the British military, died 'fighting for what he believed in', his family said

Jackson added: 'The Ukrainian military have offered to pay the fees to bring him back home to us, but we still need some support to give him the goodbye he deserves.'

Lingard's family have so far raised more than 7,000 on GoFundMe for Lingard's funeral.

Lingard, from Great Harwood, Lancashire, is believed to be the third Briton to die while fighting in Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country on February 24.

Jordan Gatley, 24, died in June after leaving the British army in March, while former soldier Scott Sibley, 36, died in April.

Lingard has been described by his family as 'an inspiration to all who knew him'.

One of his children wrote on the crowdfunding page: 'As most people are aware my Dad Simon Lingard, (Grimmy) sadly lost his life in Ukraine on Monday 7th November.

'My Dad was an inspiration to all who knew him, a real life hero who died fighting for what he believed in.

'He was loved and adored by so many a true representation of what a soldier should be. Me and Keane are absolutely heartbroken.'

Lingard is believed to be the third Briton to die while fighting in Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country on February 24. Jordan Gatley, 24, (right) died in June after leaving the British army in March, while former soldier Scott Sibley, 36, (left) died in April

They added: 'The Ukrainian Military have offered to bring him home to England but we need help to show him the respect and adoration he deserves by giving him the greatest well- deserved send off.

'Could you all please find it in your heart to donate anything no matter how small so we can honour our Dad and allow him to finally Rest in Peace.'

One of Lingard's friends wrote on Facebook: RIP Simon 'Grimmy Lingard', can't describe how I feel right now. What a warrior. A real man.

'I'll miss you mate and although you aren't here, you have my word I'll finish off what we started.'

A former colleague Kierren Stokes wrote on: 'Absolutely gutted to be posting this, Si was an awesome soldier with a great, sometimes questionable sense of humour.

'He is a guy I'm proud to have served with in 2 Para before he moved to SFSG and served in Afghanistan on multiple tours.

'After the Russian invasion of Ukraine he did not hesitate to go and fight on their behalf and I'm sure his expertise, experience and mentoring capabilities have helped the Ukrainian army push the Russians back to their current point.'

Lingard had previously served with the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment before moving to the Special Forces Support Group. He served in Afghanistan for multiple tours.

News of Lingard's death comes as Russia today ordered its troops to withdraw from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine in a further major blow to its campaign amid a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu was hauled on Russian state TV today to give an order to retreat from the city of Kherson

Shoigu was accompanied by General Sergei Surovikin for the heavily stage-managed ordeal, which saw him admit that Kherson had become indefensible in the face of Ukrainian attacks

'Begin to pull out troops,' Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a televised meeting with Russia's commander in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin.

The commander had proposed the 'difficult decision' of pulling back from Kherson and setting up defences on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

Kherson city was the first urban hub captured by Russia during its 'special military operation' and the only regional capital controlled by the Russians since the offensive began on February 24.

Ukraine's forces have for weeks been capturing villages en route to the city near the Black Sea and Kremlin-installed leaders in Kherson have been pulling out civilians.

But Ukraine responded cautiously to the Russian announcement.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said some Russian troops remained in the city.

'We see no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight,' he said on Twitter.

'Ukraine is liberating territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements.'

Russia losing the Kherson region would return Ukraine important access to the Sea of Azov and leave President Vladimir Putin with little to show from a campaign that has turned him into a pariah in the eyes of the West.

The retreat will put pressure on Russian control of the rest of the Kherson region, which forms a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Russia's withdrawal from Kherson means it no longer has a foothold on the west side of the Dnipro River and brings Ukraine closer to an assault on Crimea

Russia captured Kherson back in March (pictured) and Putin annexed the region just a few weeks ago, vowing it would be 'forever' Russian

Kherson was one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia declared it had annexed in September, shortly after being forced to withdraw from swathes of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The announcement of the retreat came just hours after officials said the Moscow-installed deputy head of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, a key supporter of annexation, had died in a car crash.

As Ukrainian troops have gradually advanced in the south, Surovikin told Shoigu on Wednesday that some 115,000 people had been removed from the western bank of the Dnipro, which includes the city.

'We have done everything possible for our part to ensure their safety during the evacuation,' Surovikin said in a report broadcast on the state-run Rossiya-24 television channel.

Ukraine has defined these population movements towards Russia or Russian-occupied territory as 'deportations'.

Vladimir Putin is pictured meeting with a senior doctor at a Moscow hospital today - as his defence minister and top commander went on TV to announce the retreat

A Ukrainian serviceman surveys a former Russian trench in Kherson Oblast near the front line, after Putin's troops began abandoning their positions
Was it a ripple? Was it a sea change? Was it a red wave? Was it the edge of a river?

The tsunami of water images rolled out on every channel as broadcasters grappled with the unexpected after voters failed to deliver the flood of support for the Republicans that had been promised. 'The big blow out red wave early on  not happening,' said political pundit Guy Benson on Fox News.

Anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier managed to turn the inevitable tedium of hourly calls on results with lively studio debate and the hilarious Bill Hemmer turned stand-up comic, having fun with his electronic map.

Everyone loved the map, with its alternating blue and red slices of states as Bill kept us up to speed. Such was the jollity in the studio, at one-point Bret had to quieten his guests, who had descended into children's party mode, joining in with the 'What if...?' scenarios.

And there were a lot of them. In the slowness of results and, in some cases, absence of  yes, it's still going on  speculation was rife. You knew how long the night was when, a few hours after his first appearance, Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee returned sporting a regrowth of facial hair. If he'd stayed in the studio any longer, you'd have been forgiven for thinking that Santa had come early this year.

One message was clear, he said  voters don't want Biden or Trump.

His was the voice of Democratic calm in discussions that were, for the most part nevertheless, well-informed and extremely well-presided over by the anchors. It's not always the tone that everyone associates with Fox News and primetime master Tucker Carlson, who nevertheless chipped in from elsewhere to demand an end to electronic voting machines.

The guy, Chris Hayes (above), looked not just like a rabbit that had been caught in the headlights, but caught, run over, and thrown into the nearest cauldron.

Anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier managed to turn the inevitable tedium of hourly calls on results with lively studio debate and the hilarious Bill Hemmer (above) turned stand-up comic, having fun with his electronic map.

His hair was, as ever, a distraction, but something has happened to it. Normally sitting atop his head like a wig made from a long-haired Chihuahua, it looked relatively untamed. It also seemed a lot lighter. He even looked almost attractive. Almost. Let's not go overboard on the red waves.

Kellyanne Conway was in the studio  at least, the caption said it was her. It was hard to tell as she had taken shelter under a pair of false eyelashes that made her look more Zorro than political adviser.

She claimed to recognize 'a growing trend for Republican candidates,' which prompted Bret to note that she hadn't mentioned the former President, 'but uses his terminology.'

Talking of bizarre false eyelashes, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's appeared to have gone through a shredder before being reattached to her face. She's super smart and funny, and accompanied by three women and one man on the panel.

The guy, Chris Hayes, looked not just like a rabbit that had been caught in the headlights, but caught, run over, and thrown into the nearest cauldron.

Steve Kornacki was MSNBC's Head of Maps and Electronics. As usual, dressed more casually than his CNN equivalents, who bore more resemblance to funeral directors, we were also treated to shots of his battery pack being refitted by a sound guy, and even more coverage of his back as he tried to make sense of a piece of paper bearing what could have been Egyptian hieroglyphics for all the sense they made to viewers. Steve knew what it was all about though, even if he did look as if he were about to embark on a NASA mission.

Over in a Montana shopping mall, correspondent Jacob Soboroff chatted to a crowd who had been handed out Cheetos to keep them occupied while they waited for an hour to vote. Jacob and Rachel exchanged some jolly banter about snacks, which made up for the uneventful contributions from the line. One woman said she was voting because she 'cared about women's rights  everyone's rights.' My guess is she was there for the free Cheetos.

The station's main focus was whether Trump was a weight on the Republican Party  especially if he were to become 'criminal defendant Trump' before the GOP primary begins.

There was a sense of the beginning of the end for Trump across all coverage, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis being widely praised by everyone not only for his re-election victory but his work in his home state.

Kellyanne Conway was in the studio  at least, the caption said it was her. It was hard to tell as she had taken shelter under a pair of false eyelashes that made her look more Zorro than political adviser.

By 3.20am, though, they were back to familiar territory, with Democratic contributor Jessica Tarlov imploding in her purple dress  a veritable walking bruise.

Clearly a talented and caring politician  his handling of the recent fallout from Hurricane Ian was widely praised  the overwhelming feeling was that A Star is Born.

On Fox News, it was definitely DeSantis's night, whereas CNN rightly praised John Fetterman's win over Dr Oz in Pennsylvania and declared it to be a bad night for Trump. But there was too much talk in front of the map on CNN and not enough contributors.

Only on CBS's Late Night with Stephen Colbert  which went live for the election  was DeSantis booed, but then they predictably booed every result that gave victory to a Republican. Colbert's monologue lacked its usual sparkle  writers really do need days to pen their gags  and a sketch featuring two chickens fell flatter than  well, a chicken pattie that's been trampled by an elephant.

ABC, alas, was largely unwatchable because of its dependency on reporters at the voting venues. The background noise either drowned them out or forced them to shout above the racket, which was just irritating.

Take me back to those greedy people scoffing Cheetos, please.

It was Fox News, with its mix of analysis and humor that won the night. By 3.20am, though, they were back to familiar territory, with Democratic contributor Jessica Tarlov imploding in her purple dress  a veritable walking bruise, and Steve Hilton  who presents The Next Revolution  giving it both barrels to Democrats and, in particular, the 'incompetent and embarrassing' spectacle that is Biden. It was a pertinent and highly amusing analysis of everything that's gone wrong - and yet, bizarrely, what so many voted for.

But even Fox News had to acknowledge, as the hours dragged on, that the red wave had been tempered. It remains to be seen who or what it washes up next  and who's going to drown.
The five survivors pulled from the water have been hospitalized but their condition is unknown

The fire department said they are no longer carrying out a rescue mission but instead trying to recover the remaining bodies

Ontario Fire Department - who initially thought only six people had been swept away - is now trying to recover the remaining four bodies using sonar technology

A body has been found and four other people are presumed dead after a Homeless encampment of at least ten people was swept more than three miles downstream by flash flooding in southern California.

The group was sheltered inside a flood tunnel in a park in Ontario, a city around 40 miles east of LA, when fast-moving currents swept them away and carried them south into multiple water basins.

Ontario Fire Department first responded to reports at around 9.45am on Tuesday that people were caught in the Cucamonga wash, which had swept them from the tunnel in John Galvin Park.

On Tuesday a water rescue team sent divers out in dinghies to search for those missing and in the evening recovered one body.

As of Wednesday morning only six people were thought to have been carried downstream but by the afternoon it was estimated that more than ten were caught in the wash.

Firefighters later recovered five people from the basins alive and said that at least ten were washed from the camp.

On Wednesday afternoon the fire department said that it was no longer carrying out a rescue mission for the remaining individuals but instead seeking to recover their bodies.

They said they are now using sonar technology to locate bodies and have requested a sniffer dog.

The five people who were rescued have been taken to hospital but their condition is unknown.

The Ontario Fire Department rescued five people from the basins alive and a body was recovered on Tuesday evening. The fire department has said that its now looking for another four

Firefighters were looking for people trapped in the rain-swollen Cucamonga wash in Ontario

The homeless people had been staying in a flood channel in the park by East 4th Street, according to the fire department.

'They'll use these for shelters, and these waters come so fast that once they come, they're very difficult to get out of those situations,' Chief Ray Gayk with the Ontario Fire Department told ABC7.

'They're incredibly dangerous, because once people get into these, the likelihood of them getting themselves out is virtually impossible,' said Gayk.

The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department dive team was looking for the missing among the debris and vegetation of the basin.

Gayk said visibility in the water was poor and hindering the search.

Deputy Chief Mike Wedell said the flood control channel is secured with gates, signage and locks.

'We really need to stress to our public the dangers associated with these flood control channels and we need to stay out of there, at all costs,' he told ABC7.

'Because of the sudden changes in weather and the flow of water, incidents like this unfortunately could occur,' he added.

The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department dive team was looking for the missing among the debris and vegetation of the basin

Divers were sent to the water basins more than three miles from the park to look for four of the ten people still missing

Ten homeless people were swept from a flood tunnel in John Galvin Park in Ontario, California

The hunt continued for the others in one of the retention basins near Philadelphia Street and Baker Avenue, more than three miles away and south of Ontario International Airport.

Spokesman for Ontario City Dan Bell said divers were looking for the missing people.

'They're scouring the entire the basin trying to locate those bodies. We're not sure they're here, but we need to do our due diligence and find those folks,' Bell told KTLA.

'They were living in an area that's not safe when you have high flood waters like this,' he added.

The fire department shared a video showing the fast pace of the wash. It also warned people to stay away from any riverbeds or flood channels - suggesting that just three or four inches of depth is enough to be carried away.

The flooding in Ontario was part of wider flash floods that affected much of southern California.

Back in September, heavy rain caused mudslides in San Bernardino County to the east of Ontario.

A devastating mudslide crashed down from the San Bernardino mountains and into the Oak Glen Steakhouse and saloon.

Shocking footage showed a slow-moving black river of sludge rolling past the steakhouse sign followed seconds later by a surging wave of deeper mud carrying logs.

Recent flooding in Cypress Park in LA caused cars to be carried away by water gushing through the LA River.
J.D. Vance, who won this Senate race in Ohio on Tuesday, took to the stage to thank both his family and fans

J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy and newly appointed Republican senator in Ohio, thanked his grandmother Mamaw in his victory speech Tuesday night.

Vance was largely raised by his grandparents while his mother battled drug addiction. The brash matriarch was a major influence on Vance and played a central role in his bestselling autobiography that was turned into a film by Ron Howard.

'I will never forget the woman who raised me,' said Vance in his victory speech, referring to his grandmother played by Glenn Close in the movie.

The new lawmaker also declared that he would 'never forget' where he came from, a nod to his blue-collar upbringing in Middletown, Ohio.

Hillybilly Elegy slingshot Vance to fame when it debuted in 2016. It paints a picture of Vance that may be at odds with the Ivy league educated, Washington-bound politician he became.

Vance beat Democratic opponent Tim Ryan for the seat in Ohio, marking a monumental moment in his budding political career. Ryan raised a whopping $48.1 million for his campaign, while Vance only raised $12.8 million.

In his acceptance speech, Vance thanked his family for getting him to where he is now, but did not give thanks to former President Donald Trump for endorsing him

While Vance wrote in his memoir 'both of my grandparents had an almost religious faith in hard work and the American Dream,' his relationship with his own mother, Bev, was complicated

In Hillybilly Elegy, Vance described being 'uncomfortable' around his mom (pictured) because 'the past had created rifts that would likely never go away'

His memoir became a New York Times bestseller, and is noted for 'its raw, emotional portrait of growing up in and eventually out of a poor rural community riddled by drug addiction and instability,' according to a Brookings Institute report.

Vance wrote about how his grandmother, affectionately called Mamaw, used tough love to push him to succeed and get out of small-town Ohio and make his way to a university.

'We didnt have cell phones, and we didnt have nice clothes, but Mamaw made sure that I had one of those graphing calculators,' he wrote in the memoir.

During his victory speech last night, Vance joked about his grandmother's vocabulary: 'If we could wheel her up here today, she would drop probably about five F-bombs on national TV.'

'Even today, I still regret that far too many high school friends and acquaintances never knew Mamaw was the best thing that ever happened to me,' he wrote about his grandmother.

While Vance wrote 'both of my grandparents had an almost religious faith in hard work and the American Dream,' his relationship with his own mother, Bev, was complicated by addictions and failed relationships.

In Hillybilly Elegy, Vance described being 'uncomfortable' around his mom because 'the past had created rifts that would likely never go away.'

He described being picked up by his mom from school and being told he would never see his biological dad again because his father 'didn't want him anymore.'

She would frequently jump into relationships with men she barely knew, even taking up living spaces with them.

'How much is Moms life her own fault? Where does blame stop and sympathy begin?' he asked of his mother's issues.

The book and Vance's childhood were made into a 2020 movie starring Close and Amy Adams as his grandmother and mother respectively.

Close earned herself an Academy Award nomination for her role in the film and the publicity further helped Vance's political ambitions, reviving discussion over his story's themes of a forgotten white lower-class.

The Netflix film was panned by many critics for what they called an insensitive depiction of poverty.

Vance's memoir has catapulted him to the forefront of national politics, and he finds himself far from his poor upbringing where he 'never had nice clothes'

The book and Vance's childhood were made into a 2020 movie by Ron Howard, starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams (pictured) as his grandmother and mother respectively

Close earned herself an Academy Award nomination for her role in the film and the publicity further helped Vance's political ambitions

Vance went on to attend Ohio State University before heading to Yale Law School. Once there, he met his wife, Usha Chilukuri, the daughter of Indian immigrants.

He then worked for Mithril Capital, a venture capital fund started by Peter Thiel.

Despite once telling interviewer Charlie Rose he was a 'Never Trump guy' and 'never liked him,' the nominee from Ohio is likely grateful to have earned Trump's endorsement, which boosted him from third place to first in the Ohio primary.

From there, he embraced former President Trump, and even praised him as 'the best president of my lifetime' in April.

Trump, meanwhile, mocked Vance's U-turn and said 'J.D. is kissing my ass; he wants my support so much' at an Ohio rally.

Vance even embraced Trump's unfounded claims that the election was stolen in favor of President Joe Biden.

'I think the fundamental problem is we had a massive effort to shift the election by very powerful people in this country,' he said in January.

'I dont care whether you say its rigged, whether you say its stolen, like, Ill say what Im going to say about it,' he added.

He has blasted other Republicans for not adhering to Trump's proposals and said, 'weve got a ridiculous leadership even on the Republican side that tries to undo some of the best things that Donald Trump did over the past four years.'

But Vance did not mention Trump in his victory speech on Tuesday, perhaps signaling a return to his former stance on the former president.

He received nearly $30 million in backing from the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Many of Trump's hand-picked candidates lost during the midterms, and commentators have noted that Florida governor Ron DeSantis' big win may usher in a new era of the Republican party.
The two men are part of the famed Queen's Royal Hussars of the British Army

He denied touching the man's leg at all and was cleared of any wrongdoing

He was accused of repeatedly stroking colleague's leg after a boozy night out

A soldier in one of the British Army's most prestigious regiments has been cleared of sexual assault after he was accused of repeatedly stroking a male colleague's leg.

Lance Corporal Jordan Lloyd was accused of groping the soldier after entering his bedroom following a boozy barbecue.

The 31-year-old is part of the Queen's Royal Hussars - the most senior armoured regiment in the British Army - which boasts the Challenger 2 main battle tank and is famed for its links to Winston Churchill.

The court heard 'jolly drunk' LCpl Lloyd asked to use the young soldier's toilet after the work barbecue, but then locked the two of them in the room and asked to stay the night.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, agreed initially but claimed he was 'very stressed and unsure of what to do' after LCpl Lloyd allegedly started touching his leg and ignored requests for him to leave.

LCpl Lloyd denied two counts of sexual assault, claiming the touching never happened at the illustrious cavalry regiment's base in Tidworth, Wiltshire.

Pictured: Lance Corporal Jordan Lloyd, outside Bulford Military Court Centre

Now he has been cleared of all charges following a trial at Bulford Military Court, Wilts.

The soldier told the hearing that LCpl Lloyd began stroking his leg while they sat on his single bed watching a film on the soldier's phone, and he then 'froze'.

He continued: 'I didn't know what to do. When I built up enough courage to say something and move, I moved away from [LCpl Lloyd] and said 'you need to leave' to which he replied, 'no, I'm staying'.

'He proceeded to grope my left leg again - this time for a shorter amount of time as I had more courage. I said ''no, stop - you need to leave''.'

The soldier alleged LCpl Lloyd, who was married, then groped his leg for a third and fourth time.

He claimed LCpl Lloyd had moved 'slightly further up' his leg each time he touched it.

LCpl Lloyd denied two counts of sexual assault, claiming the touching never happened at the illustrious cavalry regiment's base in Tidworth, Wiltshire

He said he was eventually able to leave his room when LCpl Lloyd was 'distracted' by something on his phone.

LCpl Lloyd denied the leg touching occurred at all and was cleared of both charges.

The Queen's Royal Hussars was formed in 1993 by the merging of the Queen's Own Hussars and the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars and has been vital in many conflicts since then.

The regiment is famed for its association with Winston Churchill, who joined the 4th Hussars in 1893, serving for five years.

In 2019 the Queen's Royal Hussars, which has been operating under various names since its inception in 1685 and awarded 172 Battle Honours and eight Victoria Crosses in that time, relocated from Germany to Tidworth Camp, Wilts.
A young migrant accused of sexually assaulting a child in a hotel for asylum seekers has appeared in court.

As he could not prove his age, the case was heard in a youth court whilst his true age is assessed.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with sexually assaulting a boy under 13 by touching.

The alleged attack on September 9 this year was reported at a hotel in Walthamstow, East London which hosts hundreds of refugees.

Just a month later a teenage boy was allegedly raped at the same hotel.

Stratford Magistrates, Family and Youth Court, in east London, is pictured

Appearing at Stratford Youth Court today, the young man spoke only to confirm his name and address through an interpreter.

None of the facts of the case were read out during the brief five minute hearing.

The charge was not put to him and he has not yet entered a plea.

He appeared in a youth court, which has extra rules intended to protect the welfare of young people, as opposed to an adult court because he might be underage.

The court decided it should treat him in this way in case he has not turned 18.

District Judge Ross Johnson adjourned the case to November 23 for an age assessment by Waltham Forest Council to be completed.

He will appear at Stratford Youth Court that day unless it turns out he is an adult in which case Stratford Magistrates Court will deal with it.

He was bailed on condition that he does not enter the hotel or contact the alleged victim.

A teenage boy being housed at the same hotel was reportedly raped on October 5 by a man in his 30s, who has been bailed until next year.
New York City's lavish 'Bling Bishop' has sued a radio host for $50 million after she claimed he was 'hiding drug money' in his church.

Bishop Lamor Whitehead, from Brooklyn, filed the lawsuit against Tarsha Nicole Jones, also known as Miss Jones, and her employer Paramount Global and 94.7 FM on Monday.

The lawsuit comes after the 44-year-old bishop was robbed of an estimated $1 million worth of jewels in front of his congregation on a live stream in July. Whitehead also filed lawsuits against two others in September for calling him a drug dealer and scammer.

Whitehead accused Jones of 'tarnishing his reputation' on her morning radio show after she said the bishop is a 'drug dealer' that is 'using the church to hide that old drug money' and that he 'assaulted' a young lady.

The lawsuit reads: 'Miss Jones' statement were published on-air and heard by thousands or millions of people.

'Miss Jones' statements were made in a grossly irresponsible manner without regard for truth. As a result Miss Jones' acts, [Whitehead] lost business deals, church members, and income.'

Bishop Lamor Whitehead filed a lawsuit against a 94.7 FM radio host after she called him a 'drug dealer' while live on air

Tarsha Nicole Jones was named in the lawsuit along with her employer Paramount Global and are being sued for $50 million

The lawsuit comes after the 44-year-old bishop was robbed of about $1M worth of jewels in front of his congregation on a live stream in July

The humble church located at 922 Remsen Avenue in Brooklyn sits by other restaurants and studios on the block

Whitehead was robbed at his church on July 24 while preaching to his congregation wearing a maroon suit, long gold chain and a large ring on each finger.

Whitehead accused Jones of 'tarnishing his reputation on her morning radio show

He was videoed telling his congregants: 'How many of you have lost your faith because you saw somebody else die?'

The pastor is then seen going down on his knees when the robbers approach and can be heard saying: 'All right, all right.'

The men were then seen circling around the stage as they robbed the bishop, his wife and the congregation.

Months later, Juwan Anderson and Say-Quan Pollack, both 23, were arrested for federal robbery and charged for allegedly storming into the church and robbing Whitehead.

Authorities believe the bishop was targeted because he was known to wear flashy, expensive jewelry in the pulpit.

Accusations about the pastors recent 'assault' were also briefly listed in the new lawsuit.

In September, Whitehead was caught on his church live stream grabbing a woman by her neck after she interrupted his sermon.

The footage showed Whitehead giving his sermon at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie when the woman went up to him.

He asked the woman to give the sermon instead, but when she appeared on screen walking past the pulpit, Whitehead could be seen grabbing her by the neck as he shoves her out of frame.

He was later arrested - but was released two hours later.

Whitehead claimed in the lawsuit that the accusations from Jones are false and 'imply criminal activity.'

'Jones' statements were made in a grossly irresponsible manner without regard for the truth,' the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit was submitted to the New York Supreme Court by attorney Brian Ponder.

Video posted to YouTube shows the moment Bishop Lamar Whitehead apparently shoved a woman after she interrupted his sermon

Whitehead claimed in the law suit that the accusations from Jones are false and 'imply criminal activity'

In September, Whitehead filed two $20 million lawsuits against two men who claimed he was a scammer and drug dealer.

The suits listed DeMario Jives and Larry Reid as the defendants.

Jives, a YouTube influencer, allegedly told his 80,000 followers the pastor has been wearing the same jewelry taken from the pulpit and said: 'This n**** is out here drug dealing.'

Reid, a musician, was also accused in one of the suits of saying the bishop scams people out of money and claimed Whitehead would soon be 'locked up'.

Whitehead alleged in the lawsuit that the men had cost Whitehead 'business deals, church members, and income.' The same accusations he made against the radio host this week.

The lawsuit aimed at Jives alleges he said on his YouTube channel that the bishop 'is wearing the same jewelry that (he) got robbed in'.

The other accuses Reid of claiming that the pastor 'scammed people out of money' and 'will be locked up in about three months'.

Larry Reid, who Whitehead is also suing for $20 million, allegedly told his online audience that the blingy bishop scams people out of money and will soon be behind bars

DeMario Jives, who has 80,000 YouTube subscribers, is being sued for $20 million by Lamor Whitehead for telling his audience the bishop was 'drug dealing'

Exhibit photos show members of the group who robbed Bishop Lamor Whitehead while he was delivering a sermon on July 24

Two of the men who carried out the robbery, both 23, were arrested and charged in September

Weeks after Whitehead was robbed, some said the flashy pastor was asking for trouble, especially after he bragged about his million dollar 'prayer closet' on Instagram.

The Pastor showed his followers his flashy display of thousands of dollars in clothes during a live-streamed video.

He showed viewers his vast collection of designer goods, including a number of Gucci and Fendi blazers and a significant designer shoe collection.

'One would think that, "wow, look at your closet,"' he said while giving a closer look at his designer clothing.

'Got all my priestly robes and more. Designer coats, you name it - Gucci - Louis - you name it. Fendi, you name it,' he said before turning his attention to the unopened boxes and clothing bags on the floor.

'More coats,' he said before turning into a secluded section of his closet for his shoes.

'Every designer wear. Designer wear for days and days and days and days,' he said.

Shelves of clothing were seen along the walls while sealed bags of clothes and boxes lay untouched on the ground.

Whitehead showed off his extensive display of designer clothing and shoes a week after he was robbed of about $1M worth of jewelry during a sermon
Billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder hosted an exclusive party to launch a new exhibition at his New York City art gallery on election night - as his multimillion dollar bet on Lee Zeldin failed to pay off.

Lauder, 78, donated $11 million to Republican candidate Zeldins New York governor campaign, but Kathy Hochul dramatically held the post after a bitter election defined by soaring crime rates.

The heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire spent part of Tuesday night at his Neue Galerie in Manhattan for the launch of the Ronald S. Lauder collection.

He was chauffeured to the glitzy event at around 6pm - while polls were still open across the state.

Just a couple of miles away at Cipriani 42nd Street, Zeldin and his supporters were gathered at his election night party waiting anxiously for the result.

Lauder was whisked away from his gallery at about 8.30pm - though its not clear whether he attended Zeldins event.

Lauder donated $11 million to Republican Lee Zeldin's failed bid to become New York governor

Lauder hosted a party on election night to launch an exhibition at his art gallery in Manhattan

Ronald Lauder left the bash at about 8.30pm while voting in New York was still taking place

A couple of miles from Lauder's bash, Lee Zeldin was holding his own election night party

Zeldin fought his campaign around New York City's soaring crime, but he failed to beat Hochul

Hochul has been blamed for New York's soaring crime and the issue dominated the campaign

But it became clear before midnight that the Republican had lost the race and Lauders multimillion dollar backing failed to pay off.

His brother, Leonard Lauder, however, had backed winning Hochul.

Lauder's party marked the launch of his gallery's latest exhibition, the Ronald S. Lauder collection, which includes around 500 works dating from the third century BC through the twentieth century.

Zeldin's loss means Hochul, 64, becomes the first woman to be elected governor of New York. She previously took office following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo.

She won despite fierce debate around rising crime in New York City, which Zeldin and his supporters tried desperately to capitalize upon.

Zeldin enjoyed huge financial support from Lauder, who also demanded a crackdown on crime and even declared: You couldn't pay me to get on the subway.'

Ronald Lauder hosted a party at his Neue Galerie in Manhattan to launch a new exhibition

Ronald Lauder hosted a party at his Neue Galerie in Manhattan to launch a new exhibition

Ronald Lauder hosted a party at his Neue Galerie in Manhattan to launch a new exhibition

Brothers Leonard Lauder and Ronald Lauder backed different candidates during the midterms

Lauder, who has a net worth of $4.5 billion, and his brother Leonard Lauder, are the sole heirs to the Estee Lauder cosmetics company, founded by their parents, Estee Lauder and Joseph Lauder, in 1946.

His donations made up nearly half of the $25 million raised by Zeldin during his campaign.

The money has gone towards a barrage of political ads that portrayed Hochul as being connected to the rise in crime and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, as soft on criminals.

Bragg told DailyMail.com on Wednesday morning: Manhattan voters have spoken yet again, Hochuls going to work to keep Manhattan safe.

Hochul becomes the first female elected governor of New York, having previously taken up the position following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo

Lee Zeldin would have become the first Republican governor of New York since 2006

Explaining his backing for Zeldin, Lauder told the New York Times last week: 'I'm no ogre. It's a question of one thing I believe in, always have.

I want two parties. I want a Republican and a Democratic Party. When you have just one party, I believe things go wrong.

Lauder's cash injection forced Democrats to create a super PAC in New York to try and boost Hochul's run.

President Joe Biden was also parachuted into the state to drum up support as polls began to suggest a shock Republican win was possible.

Hochul raised $50 million for her campaign over the course of a year while Zeldin only managed about half that amount.

Hochul said Lauder's interest in backing Zeldin was simply in his own self-interest because of Zeldin's promise to scrap estate tax that would save his family millions, and the halting of the construction of an offshore wind farm he opposes.

Lauder launched a new exhibition of his private collection which includes around 500 pieces

Lauder launched a new exhibition of his private collection which includes around 500 pieces

Lauder launched a new exhibition of his private collection which includes around 500 pieces

Lauder launched a new exhibition of his private collection which includes around 500 pieces

'It's not a beef. It's what he's going to get in return. Ron Lauder is going to get a lot more than a thank-you note from Lee Zeldin,' Hochul said when asked to explain Lauder's interest in the race.

Lauder said Hochul should have pushed harder to reverse changes to the state's bail law that bars prosecutors from asking for cash bail for less serious crimes.

While she has worked to toughen up the law, Zeldin wants it completely overturned.

'You couldn't pay me to get on the subway,' Lauder said, adding that he does not want his children and grandchildren 'to have to go with bodyguards'.

He also insists his backing for Zeldin is unrelated to his tax bill.

Zeldin, a congressman and ally of former President Donald Trump, did manage to tighten the race after focusing for months on rising violent crime in New York with Lauder's money giving a much-needed boost to his chances of securing victory.

Zeldin made crime his key issue and was vocal about a string of high-profile violent incidents, including some killings on the New York City subways.

He blamed Hochul and Democrats in Albany for not being tough enough on criminals.

Ronald Lauder, 78, the billionaire heir of Estee-Lauder has donated $11 million to the New York gubernatorial campaign of Republican Representative Lee Zeldin

Lauder is a Trump-aligned Republican who has thrown millions of dollars to back conservative causes and candidates over the years

In 1989, he made a run from New York mayor running against Rudy Giuliani spending about $14 million, or about $33 million in today's money. He is pictured here in his role as as American ambassador in Austria in Vienna in 1986

Hochul initially focused her campaign heavily on her support for abortion rights and highlighting Zeldin's alliance with Trump and his vote as a member of the U.S. House against certifying Biden's 2020 election victory.

As the election neared, she spoke more about public safety and stepped up her efforts to portray Zeldin as 'extreme'.

Over the years, Lauder has donated money to art and philanthropy to Jewish causes but within the political sphere has has spent at least $35 million in the last few decades supporting Republicans for state and federal office including $200,000 to former President Donald Trump.

It was was Lauder who famously pitched the idea for Trump in 2019 to buy Greenland from Denmark.

In 1989, he made a run from New York mayor running against Rudy Giuliani spending about $14 million, or about $33 million in today's money.
Prince Andrew settled with Roberts, paying her a reported $12million, after she claimed Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with the royal three times

Sources close to attorney Alan Dershowitz tell DailyMail.com that Prince Andrew is a 'fool' for settling his sex assault lawsuit with Virginia Roberts this year

Prince Andrew was a 'fool' for settling with Virginia Roberts over her sex assault lawsuit, sources close to vindicated attorney Alan Dershowitz now claim.

And a lawyer familiar with the case tells DailyMail.com that now all of Roberts's allegations 'should be questioned'  including her claims against the prince  in the light of her stunning admission

Roberts sensationally admitted on Tuesday that she 'may have made a mistake' in claiming she was forced to have sex with Dershowitz when she was underage.

Roberts said Dershowitz was among the high profile men she was 'loaned out' to at Jeffrey Epstein's command. The veteran lawyer has repeatedly and vehemently denied her allegation.

'How can someone be ''mistaken'' about something so serious?' one person close to Dershowitz told DailyMail.com.

The source said they believe the King Charles's younger brother must now be wondering why he settled earlier this year  paying Roberts a reported $12million  after she conceded she may have mistaken Dershowitz for someone else.

Sources close to attorney Alan Dershowitz tell DailyMail.com that Prince Andrew is a 'fool' for settling his sexual assaults lawsuit with Virginia Roberts. Prince Andrew settled with Roberts, paying her a reported $12million, after she claimed Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with the royal

The Duke of York was photographed with his arm around the bare waist of then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts. In the background, Ghislaine Maxwell. Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with the royal three times

Roberts's 'credibility was a central issue' and Andrew should have gone to trial, the source said.

But sources close to Roberts have fired back, insisting she can't be mistaken about Prince Andrew's identity because he is so famous.

They assert that even as a 17-year-old American girl, Roberts must have known he was a British royal, far more recognizable than the Harvard lawyer.

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 as he awaited trial

And, unlike with Dershowitz, there were photos and corroborating witnesses supporting her allegations against Andrew, the Duke of York. Roberts claimed she was forced to have sex with him three times under orders from the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

On Tuesday, Roberts withdrew her defamation case against Dershowitz, which she filed in 2019.

Roberts, 38, a mother-of-three who now lives in Australia and goes by her married name Giuffre, admitted that she 'may have made a mistake' by accusing the 84-year-old Harvard law professor who worked as an attorney for Epstein.

She had in the past alleged she was forced to have sex with Dershowitz at the late financier's New York mansion and again on an airplane.

But after dismissing her case she said in a statement that she was 'very young at the time.'

Roberts said: 'It was a very stressful and traumatic environment, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations.

'I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz.'

A source close to Dershowitz said that Epstein could have falsely identified the man to Roberts and that it was actually someone else, but it was 'inconceivable' he actually took part in the abuse.

The source said: 'The credibility issue is central here. Andrew is a fool for settling his case. He's got to be wondering why he did it.'

Virginia dropped a defamation case Tuesday she had brought against Alan Dershowitz in 2019 with no financial payment made to either side

However even the source in Dershowitz's camp admitted it was 'hard to mistake who Prince Andrew is' given his fame.

A source close to Roberts agreed and said her mistake with Dershowitz was 'in the identification of her abuser.'

The source said: 'Even Dershowitz has said she could have confused her with somebody else and that's what she's saying.

'You can't be mistaken about the identity of Prince Andrew. You have the photo of them together, you have testimony from a witness about him playing with a puppet at Epstein's home in New York.

'A 17-year-old girl may not know who Alan Dershowitz is but she knows who Prince Andrew is.'

The case was due to go to trial next year and would have been the first time Roberts would have faced questioning in court about any of her claims.

Her allegations were used in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell for recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein last year, which resulted in a conviction and 20 year sentence.

Roberts, 38, a mother-of-three who lives in Australia, admitted that she 'may have made a mistake' by accusing Dershowitz. However even the source in Dershowitz's camp admitted it was 'hard to mistake who Prince Andrew is' given his fame

Roberts's claims against Andrew forced him to retreat from public life. He gave a disastrous TV interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein

In a statement as the case was dismissed, Dershowitz said he was 'gratified' it had ended.

He said: 'As I have said from the beginning, I never had sex with Ms. Giuffre. I have nevertheless come to believe that at the time she accused me she believed what she said.

'Ms. Giuffre is to be commended for her courage in now stating publicly that she may have been mistaken about me. She has suffered much at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and I commend her work combatting the evil of sex trafficking.'

Roberts's claims against Andrew forced him to retreat from public life due to public outcry and a disastrous TV interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein, who hanged himself in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking crimes.

Andrew was stripped of his military titles and his patronages of dozens of charities and reportedly cried when told by King Charles that there was no way back for him.

A spokeswoman for Andrew declined to comment.
A pair of abattoir workers were today accused of torturing and stabbing two victims to death, before mutilating their bodies and laying them out like 'butchered pigs', a court heard.

Ionut-Valentin Boboc, 22, and Jacob-Bebe Chers, 46, have gone on trial accused of the double murder of Denzil McKenzie and Fahad Hossain Pramanik.

The partially chopped up, and exposed remains of the victims were discovered in 56-year-old Mr McKenzie's home on Wood Street, laid out in a 'macabre display' in the living room, Bristol Crown Court heard.

The two victims were stabbed multiple times - with some of their horrendous injuries resembling techniques the abattoir workers would have used to butcher animals at, the jury was told.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Mr Stephen Dent KC said on the evening of September 11 last year, the two defendants, who were both Romanian nationals, visited the home of Mr McKenzie in Easton in Bristol.

Boboc had regularly borrowed money from Mr McKenzie sometimes in return for sexual favours, and the prosecution say he 'tricked' his way in on the night of the killings.

While Mr Pramanik, 27, was unknown to the two defendants, and is thought to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ionut-Valentin Boboc (pictured), 21, and Jacob-Bebe Chers, 45, are on trial for murder following the deaths of Denzil McKenzie and Fahad Hossain Pramanik

While inside, Mr Dent said the defendants 'jointly' inflicted multiple stab wounds.

Mr Dent told the jury: 'They left behind them a scene of horror, the dead and mutilated bodies of Denzil McKenzie and Fahad Pramanik were left in the sitting room of that house.

'Both men had been stabbed repeatedly while trying to defend themselves.

'Denzil McKenzie had 23 knife wounds - the most serious of these to his neck - and there were signs he had been tortured by the infliction of severe pain with cuts around his eye, on his eyeball and a cut on his big toenail.

'Mr Pramanik was stabbed at least three times in the back and abdomen. His body also showed signs of the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering, including the incision of some kind of foaming substance in his nose and many slash and scratch marks on his body.

'As you will hear, the bodies of both men were further mutilated after their deaths. Mr McKenzie's thigh had been cut open, and Mr Pramanik's body had been slashed across his stomach - leaving his intestines protruding.

'The bodies had been arranged in a macabre display. One body was on the sofa and the other on the floor with the foot of one of the bodies within the gaping abdominal wound of the other.

Fahad Hossain Pramanik (pictured) was unknown to the two defendants, and is thought to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time

'They inflicted further injuries on Mr Pramanik after his death. He had been dismembered in a gruesome echo of the butchering the defendants carried out in the abattoir on pigs.

'Before these two defendants left Wood Street, they went to great lengths to clean up and cover up the trail of evidence, including wiping blood off walls and cleaning up other surfaces.

'Thick black car paint was also sprayed onto both parts of the bodies and all around the house.'

The court heard that Boboc, who at the time was 21 and his co-defendant, aged 45 at the time, were friends who worked together at an abattoir just outside of Bristol on the production line.

Mr Dent added: 'Part of their job was cutting pigs open and making a long incision line down the stomach and then taking out the pig's intestine.'

The jury was shown CCTV footage of Boboc and Chers walking towards the address at 8.30pm on the night of the killings, and then coming back the same way at around 11pm.

Footage of them leaving after the murders, showed them carrying large items including audio equipment and amplifiers among other valuables such as jewellery they had stolen while inside.

Mr Dent added: 'There is no dispute after these two defendants walked out of sight they went into Mr McKenzie's home - there were just four people within those four walls.

'At the time they were killed the only other people in the house were these two defendants.'

The prosecution case is that they carried out the killing jointly.

The pair are accused of torturing and stabbing two victims to death on Wood Street (pictured) in Easton, Bristol

Mr Dent added: 'Soon after the killings, one of the defendants, Mr Boboc, went home and spoke to his family and told them he and Mr Chers had killed two men.

'They initially thought he was joking, but the following morning became concerned enough to phone police.

'At that house in Easton, the police then discovered a horrifying scene of two men dead and mutilated.'

The prosecutor said both defendants then tried to get rid of the knife and clothing and were subsequently arrested.

Mr Dent said there was 'deeply unpleasant evidence about two violent deaths' and said the jury would only be shown photos from the scene that were 'relevant' to their decision.

The trial heard the two defendants were friends and met up on the evening of Saturday, September 11 2021.

Mr Dent said that after spending a couple of hours together, they went to the house of a man they both knew - Denzil McKenzie.

Messages recovered by the police showed Boboc had 'repeatedly' borrowed money from Mr McKenzie - sometimes in return for sexual favours.

Mr Dent added: 'We don't know what brought him (Mr Pramanik) to visit and it appears a terrible coincidence that he was at Mr McKenzie's house on the day these two defendants arrived;.

'Mr Pramanik really was in the wrong place at the wrong time and there is nothing to suggest he knew either of the defendants before he met them.

'The biggest insight into their relationship with Mr McKenzie comes from phone evidence.

'He (Bobic) was repeatedly was asking for money and agreeing to sexual services (in exchange) but expressing he felt conflicted about this and making threats of violence to Mr McKenzie.'

On the night of the killings Boboc had messaged Mr McKenzie inviting himself over to his house.

Mr Dent added: 'He said 'I want to come to you to say goodbye and have a drink. We stay ten minutes and after I leave I want to say goodbye to you - and I want to give you something.'

'For reasons that may become apparent, we say he tricked his way into Mr McKenzie's house through these messages.

'If that is correct, you will want to consider what it tells you that shortly before these killings, that Mr Boboc tricked his way into the house.'

Boboc, of Hillfields, Bristol, has admitted the murder of Mr McKenzie but denies killing Mr Pramanik, while Chers, also of Hillfields, denies both murders.

The trial continues.
A Chicago man who was exonerated after he was wrongfully imprisoned for a 1991 murder he did not commit is now suing the city and detectives for framing him.

Daniel Rodriguez spent 17 years behind bars after he was convicted in the shooting death of Jose 'Junito' Hernandez, Jr.

A civil suit was filed on Monday against the city of Chicago, Guevara, and several other detectives involved in the case. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Rodriguez always maintained his innocence alleging former Chicago Police Department Detective Reynaldo Guevara physically abused and threatened him into a 'false confession.'

'I woke up every day believing that one day the cell door was going to open and they were going to say we made a mistake. You're free,' he told the Chicago Sun-Times. 'But it never happened.'

Cook County Judge Sophia Atcherson vacated Rodriquez's conviction based on allegations of misconduct by Guevara. It would be the twenty-first time a case by the disgraced detective had been overturned, ABC7 News reported.

Rodriguez became a free man in April 2022 and was granted a certificate of innocence from the court.

He said on Monday with his family and lawyers by his side: 'My family and my daughters were robbed of a father. My girlfriend at the time was robbed of a husband,' he said. 'She's been with me 33 years, during my incarceration and, still by my side. She's kept me going.'

Daniel Rodriguez (pictured) spent 17 years behind bars after he was convicted in the shooting death of Jose 'Junito' Hernandez, Jr. in 1991, after being framed by Chicago detectives. In April, he was exonerated

Disgraced former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara. Rodriguez alleged that Guevara physically abused and threatened him into a 'false confession'

Rodriguez (pictured) with his family is now suing the city and the detectives involved in his wrongful conviction

Rodriguez's lawyers said the city has already spent more than $75 million of taxpayer money paying for wrongful convictions caused by Guevara.

'The city's approach to these cases is a tremendous failure of leadership. There have been 34 overturned convictions involving Guevara, more than a half dozen court decisions finding Guevara was engaged in egregious misconduct, and Guevara is pleading the Fifth in response to every question about his misconduct,' Rodriguez's attorney, Anand Swaminathan told DailyMail.com.

'Yet, rather than acknowledge the harm and try to resolve these cases early on, the City chooses to enrich private defense firms--to the tune of tens of millions of dollars--to defend the indefensible. Meanwhile, Guevara's victims continue to suffer, and the taxpayers end up paying far more than they should have.'

Swaminathan said that currently there are more than a dozen lawsuits pending against Detective Guevara, his colleagues, and the city of Chicago in federal court with many more to come.'

'We already litigated two cases through trial regarding Detective Guevara and those two cases resulted in large jury verdicts against Guevara, and two other additional settlements over $10 million each after the close of discovery,' he said.

Guevara - a former member of a police department dogged by decades of scandal, cover-ups and brutality - has never been charged with a crime.

A sign of the men who were intimated and threatened by the infamous Chicago detective

David Colon, Johnny Flores, Nelson Gonzalez, Marilyn Mulero, Jaime Rios, Carlos Andino (right) and Alfredo Gonzalez (center) had their convictions quashed. An eighth case - that of Louis Robinson (left) - remains pending ahead of further court proceedings

Foxx (pictured) also said she will no longer oppose post-conviction litigation in the cases after a 2019 review related to allegations of the cop's police misconduct

Last year, the city paid out $20.5 million to Armando Serrano and Jose Montanez, who each spent 23 years in prison after being framed by Guevara, the news outlet reported.

For years Guevara refused to answer questions about his investigations, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at numerous hearings.

In August, Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx vacated seven murder convictions against inmates who spent decades in prison due to the actions of former detective Reynaldo Guevara between 1989 and 1996.

Foxx said she will no longer oppose post-conviction litigation in the cases after a 2019 review related to allegations of the cop's misconduct.

David Colon, Johnny Flores, Nelson Gonzalez, Marilyn Mulero, Jaime Rios, Carlos Andino, and Alfredo Gonzalez had their convictions quashed.

'We no longer believe in the validity of these convictions or the credibility of the evidence of these convictions,' Foxx said.

The seven cases that were dismissed involved slayings committed between 1989 and 1994.

Andino and Alfredo Gonzalez were released and the other five defendants - Colon, Flores, Nelson Gonzalez, Mulero, and Rios - already completed prison sentences and are no longer in custody.

The Facebook post that circulated the day Rodriguez was exonerated

Johnny Flores (right) and Daniel Rodriguez (left) greet each other during a gathering to celebrate seven murder convictions overturned because of misconduct by former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, at a restaurant on Aug. 9, 2022, in Schiller Park

Guevara - a former member of a police department dogged by decades of scandal, cover-ups, and brutality - has never been charged with a crime.

Retired since 2005, he was reportedly receiving a city police pension and a Chicago Park District pension.

At the time, Foxx said her office was reviewing possible charges against Guevara stating that 'We looked at these cases with a careful lens to ensure that we got it right.'

She added: 'While we focused on the allegations of misconduct, we did not want to lose sight that lives were lost and the impact that our decision could have on the families of victims who believed that justice had been served by these convictions.

Guevara helped inmates win freedom by repeatedly invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination or insisting he could not remember facts, thus forcing prosecutors to dismiss charges in several cases.

In one case, after he was granted immunity by prosecutors, he answered repeatedly he did not remember confessions he elicited from two men convicted of murder.

The judge characterized his comments as 'bald-faced lies' and threw out the confessions.

Foxx said: 'Could we try these cases again today without the work of Detective Guevara? Based on our review, we are not able to retry these cases.'

She added additional investigations could be conducted 'to see if, in fact, someone else committed these crimes.'

Last September, Chicagos City Council agreed to pay $20.5 million to two of at least a dozen men whose murder convictions were dismissed due to Guevara.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Armando Serrano and Jose Montanez who spent 23 years in prison before they were released in 2016.

Serrano, claimed Guevara and then-assistant state's attorneys Matthew Coghlan and John Dillon collaborated to pressure a key witness into pinning the 1993 murder of Rodrigo Vargas on Serrano.

He and co-defendant Jose Montanez were released from incarceration in July 2016, after more than two decades in prison, when prosecutors dropped the charges.

Serrano was wrongfully convicted of Vargas' murder in Cook County, Illinois, in 1993 and spent 23 years behind bars.

Francisco Vicente was a key witness in the murder trial. He faced four felony charges at the time that he allegedly told Guevara that Serrano and Montanez had confessed to him that they fatally shot Vargas in his vehicle in 1993.

Vicente recanted his account of the admissions in 2004 after several interviews with students from the Medill Innocent Project, according to the Chicago Tribune. He said that Guevara had fed him the story.

In 2009, a jury awarded $21million to a man who spent 11 years in prison before he was retried and acquitted because witnesses testified Guevara intimidated them into falsely identifying the man as the killer. The city later agreed to pay $16.4million.

Another jury awarded $17million in 2018 to a man who made similar allegations. Foxx said she would not discount the impact each case had on the defendants.

During the trial, Jacques Rivera's attorneys alleged that Guevara coerced a 12-year-old boy, the only witness in a 1988 slaying, into identifying Rivera as the killer. He walked free from jail in 2011.

You can't just go around making up identifications and sending people to prison,' Rivera's lead attorney, Jon Loevy, told the jury. 'That's not right. That's as dangerous as a bullet.'

Referring to the investigation, Loevy said 'the whole thing was dirty,' citing missing detective reports and 'rigged lineups' designed to incriminate his client, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Rivera spent 21 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2011 and released.

For his part, Guevara did what he has done repeatedly in other cases: He refused to answer questions.

When he took the stand in federal court in the Rivera lawsuit, Guevara invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 200 times.

'This is a big case, this is an important case, this is a staggering case,' Loevy said during closing arguments. 'The things we have seen in this courtroom are unprecedented.'
Four Extinction Rebellion protesters accused of helping to shut down Tower Bridge - sparking peak hour chaos - will face trial next year, a court has heard.

Two activists unfurled banners which read 'End Fossil Fuel Now' while two others abseiled off the sides of the bridge at the London landmark from 7am on April 8, police allege.

Tower Bridge was closed causing long queues and five-hour delays for members of the public.

Police allege the participants in the stunt were Christopher Lewis-Farley, 52, Amy Rugg-Easey, 31, Christopher Riches, 21 and Scarlet Possnett, 19.

Four Extinction Rebellion protesters accused of helping to shut down Tower Bridge - sparking peak hour chaos - will face trial next year, a court has heard

Two activists unfurled banners which read 'End Fossil Fuel Now' while two others abseiled off the sides of the bridge at the London landmark from 7am on April 8, police allege

Each member of the group denied wilful obstruction of a highway at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Judge Annabel Pilling told the four defendants: 'You have all pleaded not guilty and there has to be a trial, this trial will take place 10 February next year.'

Upon considering the case against each of the accused, Judge Pilling granted unconditional bail.

She said it would be 'draconian to exclude you from the whole M25', bearing in mind they'd not been subjected to any conditions prior to this hearing.

Tower Bridge was closed causing long queues and five-hour delays for members of the public

Prosecutor Sudara Weerasena alleges the group arrived collectively together and stopped south and northbound traffic through their actions

Prosecutor Sudara Weerasena alleges the group arrived collectively together and stopped south and northbound traffic through their actions.

'They obstructed the highway by attaching ropes to the railings on the bridge where some of the protestors even abseiled down the west side of the bridge and hung a banner that said ''End Fossil Fuel Now'',' she said.

Tower Bridge was taken over shortly after 7am as several protesters abseiled off the side.

At 10am a team of police abseilers arrived and dangled down to unhook the protesters, before bringing them down to a police boat on the Thames below.

'This was quite terrifying for individuals seeing this incident.'

Each of the accused will return to Westminster Magistrates for trial on 10 February 2023.
A Mexican actress will take the stand at Harvey Weinstein's trial after being accused by one of his alleged victims of trapping her in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom with the disgraced mogul where he sexually assaulted her.

Lauren Young testified on Monday that Claudia Salinas, 39, who was a personal assistant for Weinstein at the time, lured her to the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills in 2013, for a so-called meeting to discuss a script she had been working on.

But once inside the hotel suite, Salinas allegedly trapped Young in the bathroom with Weinstein, where he stripped naked, grabbed her and masturbated in front of her.

Young testified that Salinas, who she considered to be her friend, gave her an 'evil look' as she allegedly closed the door between them.

Now, Salinas will get a chance to tell her side of the story when she takes the stand in Los Angeles Superior court on Wednesday.

Weinstein, 70, was previously convicted in New York of rape and sexual assault, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing another 11 counts of sexual battery by restraint and faces life in prison if convicted.

Claudia Salinas, 39, a Mexican model and actress, is set to take the stand at Harvey Weinstein's trial on Wednesday after being accused by his alleged victim of trapping her in a hotel bathroom with the disgraced mogul. She is pictured walking into court on Monday

Lauren Young testified Monday that Salinas, who was a personal assistant for Weinstein at the time, lured her to the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills in 2013

On Tuesday, prosecutors told the judge that they intended to call Salinas to testify in the Los Angeles rape trial but her lawyers wanted her to invoke her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Thompson then pointed out that Salinas had previously denied Young's claims when she testified at Weinstein's New York trial in 2020, and that her testimony was not incriminating in any way.

In that trial, Young was called to testify for prosecutors who asked her to help establish a pattern of Weinstein's predatory behavior.

Salinas previously testified at Weinstein's New York trial that she never shut the door behind Young and insisted that she never went into Weinstein's suite.

'That never happened,' Salinas testified in court in 2020. 'If I had done that, I would remember that. I would never close the door behind anybody, ever.'

She did tell the court that she previously told authorities she did not know if Young went to Weinstein's hotel room after the three of them went out for drinks. She added that if something happened, she was not there.

Earlier this week, Young told the LA court that the woman she thought was her friend, trapped her in a bathroom with Weinstein.

'This was a girl that I thought was my new friend,' Young told the jury on Monday.

'So she gave me this look while she closed the doorI just couldn't believe that she would do that to me. To another girl. Because there's a girl code. You don't do that.'

Salinas previously testified at Weinstein's New York trial that she never shut the door behind Young and insisted that she never went into Weinstein's suite

Earlier this week, Young told the LA court that Salinas (pictured in 2018) who she thought was her friend, trapped her in a bathroom with Weinstein

Claudia Salinas and Lauren Young on the night they met in 2012 at an Oscars party for Weinstein. Young said she considered Salinas a friend until the alleged assault in 2013

Young added that after the assault, she saw Salinas as she quickly fled through the bathroom door.

'I shot her an evil look. She didn't say anything. She looked at me. She had this evil look. Like a smirk. Like she roped me in on something,' she said.

Thompson told Salinas' lawyers on Tuesday that he has no intention of charging Salinas as an accomplice to Weinstein's alleged crimes.

'I can't say that he's going to speak for every future prosecutor,' Salinas' attorney, Scott Rosenblum, interjected.

'If we were going to charge her we would have charged her by now,' Thompson added.

It was agreed that Salinas would be called to testify on Wednesday.

Young told jurors at Weinstein's trial how she was aspiring actress who had hoped to meet the former film producer about a script she wrote in 2013, when actress Claudia Salinas locked her and Weinstein in the bathroom of the Montage Hotel and he masturbated on her

During cross-examination of Young, Weinstein's attorney Alan Jackson poked holes in her story about being 'locked' in the bathroom and gave visual drama with a dress she had worn

In court on Monday, Young described in brutal detail how she was an aspiring actress and screenwriter in February 2013 who had scored a rare meeting with Weinstein through Salinas, who was his personal assistant at the time.

She said the former movie mogul was distracted and uninterested in anything she had to say, and suggested she might be a reality television host on a show like America's Next Top Model, which his company helped produce.

At one point, Young said, Weinstein said he had to get ready to go present an award to Quentin Tarantino at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival and suggested she accompany him to his room to continue the discussion.

So Young said she followed Weinstein into his suite at the Montage - which is now called the Maybourne - and into his bathroom.

Young added that she thought there would be another door on the other side, and he was leading her somewhere else  but was shocked to see actress Claudia Salinas close the door behind them, and that she was 'trapped.'

Weinstein's attorney Alan Jackson later tried to rip apart Young's testimony, by showing the jury photos of the door on a hinge.

Jackson claimed that her 'dramatic description' of the door 'sliding' closed past Salinas' face was 'completely false.'

'Do you want to change your statement about being trapped and locked in that bathroom?' Jackson asked. 'You're describing a full-blown kidnapping, right?'

Jackson pointed out that Young had told the detective she was 'positive' door was locked because she was 'tugging' on it.

'And the problem is, the door doesn't lock from the outside, and it's not a sliding door, right?' he pushed.

She responded: 'I felt trapped.'

'I'm not asking what you felt, I'm asking what you said,' he fired back.

'I felt locked in there  I was describing how I felt,' Young responded.

Jackson shot back: 'You felt that you were locked in there, but you were not locked in there. You felt that you were being sexually assaulted, but you were not.'

'I was definitely sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein,' Young said.

Young said she was lured to the Montage - which is now called the Maybourne - by Salinas under the promise of meeting about a script. But said she was then trapped in his bathroom

In her testimony, Young says Salinas, a Mexican model, locked her in bathroom with Weinstein

In Young's earlier testimony, she said: 'Harvey Weinstein started the shower and immediately took off his clothes.'

'I was disgusted,' she continued. 'I had never seen a big guy like that naked.

'I actually laughed nervously and thought 'no, no, no,'' she added as she began to cry.

Meanwhile, Young said, Weinstein simply continued their conversation.

'He was just staring at me talking,' Young recalled.

'I had never seen someone that big naked, so I just couldn't fathom what was even happening to me right now,' she said.

'He was just talking about the business and other actresses. And saying this is what they do, this is how I know you can act.'

'I kept saying 'no no no,' she recounted. 'He just ignored what I said.'

'Everything happened so fast.'

At that point, Young said, Weinstein got into the shower while Young tried to make her escape.

But, she said, Weinstein got out of the shower and blocked her from the door before she could get away.

'He said, 'We're just gonna talk,' I said 'no, no no no.'

Still, Weinstein continued to harass her, and soon started 'touching' her.

Young said she backed up toward the sink and turned away from the movie mogul, but he unzipped the back of her dress and pulled it down to around her hips.

'He was grabbing my breasts and jerking off, like squinting at me, not looking at me,' she said. 'Holding me there and talking to me.'

'He was just masturbating and groping me.'

She said she kept saying 'no' throughout, but he continued for several minutes, and also tried to touch her vagina  though she blocked him with her hands from penetrating her.

Young previously recounted the experience at disgraced mogul's New York trial in February 2020 after prosecutors asked her to help establish a pattern of Weinstein's sex pest behavior

Young's testimony this week echoes that which she gave at a New York trial in February 2020

'I was really grossed out by his body and the look he was giving me,' Young said. 'I was wondering: 'How do I get out of here safe, what am I going to do? What are they gonna do to me?'

'I was very numb feeling,' she continued. 'I felt like I was outside of my body watching what was happening, I couldn't move I was frozen. I was so scared.'

'I was scared of Harvey Weinstein.  that he would hurt me, or send someone to hurt me, or ruin my career, or make my life hell.'

After groping her for several minutes, Young said, 'he went back to groping my right breast even harder' before ejaculating on the towel he was using and leaving the bathroom.

'I was in so much shock, I was wondering how I was going to leave, and if they were going to let me leave,' she said. 'I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.'

'I pulled up my dress and I exited the bathroom.'

'I saw Claudia Salinas right there. I shot her an evil look. She didn't say anything. She looked at me. She had this evil look. Like a smirk. Like she roped me in on something.'

She said she also saw Weinstein changing clothes before she walked out of the suite to a car.

Salinas arrived in court on Monday and is set to tetsify on Wednesday. Weinstein's lawyer claimed that Young's 'dramatic description' of the door 'sliding' closed past Salinas' face was 'completely false'

Young claimed that Claudia Salinas gave her an evil look as she trapped them in the bathroom

'I sat in my car and cried and was in complete shock. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should call the cops.

'I wondered 'What do I do? This guy is so powerful.' I didn't know what to do. I called my friends, got a hold of them, messaged them.'

Ultimately, Young said, she decided not to tell police about what she had experienced.

'I was scared at that point that he might have an in with the cops or was corrupt like that,' she said. 'I knew he had a lot of power I was really scared.'

Young was then asked to describe Weinstein's body.

'He had rolls and he was really hairy and there was moles on his body,' she replied. 'His penis was disgusting. It looked like it had been chopped off and sewn back on, like something wasn't right about it.'

And when asked about Weinstein's testicles, Young said: 'I didn't really see a full sack, I literally just saw a penis.'

Young said she never saw Weinstein again, but the very next day she saw Barbara Schneeweiss from Weinstein Co. with Claudia Salinas sitting in the waiting room.

'I told her 'Don't f******talk to me,'' Young said she told Salinas.

'She didn't say anything. She stayed there and just was right by me until I went into the office room. She talked to Barbara for a little bit. She talked about job offers that they wanted to give me, I told her I wasn't really interested in doing reality TV.'

Young then went on to say that she was afraid of what would happen if she did not go to the meeting, but she never followed up on it.

It wasn't until others started speaking out at the beginning of the #MeToo movement in 2017, Young said, that she decided to call a police hotline.

'At that point, other people were coming out and I felt safe to do so,' she said. 'I wanted to prevent it from happening to anyone else.'

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein pictured in 2014 was previously convicted in New York of rape and sexual assault, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison

Weinstein, now 70, is facing another 11 counts of sexual battery by restraint and faces life in prison if convicted. He's pictured here in 1989

Video played at the trial of suite 520 at the Montage, now the Maybourne, seemed to corroborate her story as a shower door appears to partially block the doorway out, and it seems like it would have been easy for Weinstein to step out and block the door.

During cross-examination, though, Weinstein's attorney pushed her on why the text message from Claudia Salinas inviting her to meet with Weinstein has since apparently been deleted.

'You would agree, that text from CS is pretty important,' he said. ''It's the catalyst that put you in touch with Mr. Weinstein on the 19th.

'Where's that text?' he asks. 'Did you seek to delete that text? Did you seek to destroy any communication with Miss Salinas?'

'No,' Young said in response, saying she dug through computers, WhatsApp and other places to try to find it.

Still, Jackson persisted, pointing to an October 2018 interview in which she told police: 'It's weird that I lost everything on my phone, when my phone erased except my numbers.

'I was very distraught in the beginning and trying to remember everything,' Young replied before Jackson questioned her about the date of the meeting  saying she had previously said it had happened much later.

Young also defended herself by saying that 'when you are sexually assaulted, things get blocked out,' so she remembers 'bits and pieces,' but added that through her interviews with authorities, she was able to remember details more clearly.

'It was traumatic and it's a memory that I have that I wish never happened,' she said. 'There are parts I will never be able to forget.'

'I know that's your story,' Jackson started.

Young shot back: 'It's not a story. It's what happened to me.'
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Republican Senator Ron Johnson officially won re-election in Wisconsin over the state's Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes on Wednesday morning, and kept the GOP's hopes of taking the majority alive.

The race was called by the Associated Press at 11:46 a.m. CST Wednesday morning. Johnson had 50.5 percent of the vote to Barnes' 49.5 percent with 95 percent of the vote reporting.

His victory meant the Republicans had 49 seats and the Democrats had 48 as of Wednesday morning, with votes still being counted in Arizona and Nevada and Georgia heading to a run-off election on December 6.

It means the majority is still up for grabs, but Democrats had the momentum after the GOP capped off a disappointing night that fell short of their predicted red wave.

Earlier in the morning, Johnson had lashed out at the media for not calling his race yet, claiming victory and saying the Democrat had 'no path mathematically' for a win.

'The corporate media is refusing to call a race that is over. The votes are in,' the pro-Trump senator said. 'There is no path mathematically for Lt. Gov. Barnes to overcome his 27,374 vote deficit. This race is over. Truth has prevailed over lies and the politics of personal destruction.'

Barnes called Johnson to concede and then spoke to supporters in Milwaukee.

The Republicans lost one seat to Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, whose race over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz was called around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Wisconsin's Republican Sen. Ron Johnson officially won his bid for reelection over Democratic opponent, the state's Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes

Remaining Senate races to be called are Georgia, which will likely head to a run-off, Arizona and Nevada

The race was called by the Associated Press for Republican Sen. Ron Johnson at 11:46 a.m. CST Wednesday morning. He appeared in front of supporters in Neenah, Wisconsin overnight, before leaving the venue of his election night party

The fate of three Democratic incumbents is still up in the air: Sens. Mark Kelly in Arizona, Raphael Warnock in Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada

Supporters of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson hold up signs at his election night party in Neenah, Wisconsin

In a series of tweets, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson lashed out at the 'corporate media' for refusing to call his race

Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes conceded to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in Milwaukee on Wednesday

Wisconsin Democratic Senate hopeful Mandela Barnes (left) hugs a supporter after conceding the race to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday

Democrat Mandela Barnes is photographed at a canvass launch event on Tuesday in Glendale, Wisconsin

Signs for Sen. Ron Johnson's Democratic opponent Mandela Barnes are strewn about his election night headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Oz called Fetterman at 9:30am Wednesday to concede, Fetterman's spokesman said.

Oz said in a statement after the fact, 'This morning I called John Fetterman and congratulated him. I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States Senator. Campaigning throughout our great Commonwealth was the honor of a lifetime, and I will cherish the memories.'

It's a massive pickup for Democrats, who are taking over the seat from retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

Both parties, as well as outside groups, invested millions of dollars in the race, and both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump campaigned in the state as it went down to the wire.

Fetterman's win put the Democrats in position to potentially control the chamber by a narrow margin - but the jury's still out.

In order to flip the Senate Republicans will need to win at least two of three outstanding races.

Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman defeated Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, wrapping up one of the most closely watched races of the midterms just before 1 a.m. Wednesday morning

As he walked onstage, Fetterman admitted surprise - as the count was expected to take several days

In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was leading Republican Herschel Walker by less than a percentage point, but at less than the threshold to avoid a run-off.

On Wednesday, the Associated Press called that the race would head to a run-off at 2:24 p.m. EST.

That election would be held in early December.

Per the Peach State's election rules, a winner must get 50 percent plus one vote to avoid facing their opponent on the ballot again.

That same runoff process had the state send two Democratic senators to Washington two years ago - and giving the Democrats control of the upper chamber.

The vote counts barely moved overnight in two western battlegrounds: Nevada, where Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was trailing Adam Laxalt, and Arizona, where Sen. Mark Kelly was leading Blake Masters.

The fifth race, Alaska's showdown between warring factions of the GOP, is guaranteed to send a Republican to the Senate.

But whether it's Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka or Mitch McConnell-endorsed Senator Lisa Murkowski remains to be seen after the state's ranked-choice votes are all tallied.
Racist University of Kentucky student Sophia Rosing has broken cover three days after her foul-mouthed racist tirade as the president of the school reveals she has been banned from the campus.

The 22-year-old was arrested early Sunday morning after she stumbled into the dorms on campus in Lexington, Kentucky, before she launched herself at fellow student Kylah Spring, who was working the front desk.

In exclusive pictures obtained by DailyMail.com the former business and management major can be seen today covering up as she darts into a vehicle outside of their modest three-bedroom home in Fort Mitchell.

Dressed in a white hoodie, black trousers, black coat and clutching a black handbag Rosing covered her face as she broke her cover for the first time since the racist incident.

President of the University of Kentucky Eli Capilouto has now confirmed that Rosing was suspended on an interim basis as they continued their investigation.

They also said that she is no longer a student, is not eligible to re-enroll as a student and is permanently banned from the campus.

It comes after DailyMail.com revealed that she allegedly doxxed a 15-year-old girl while they were at high school together, publicly posting that she would 'send nudes' and falsely claimed she had an abortion.

Racist University of Kentucky student Sophia Rosing has broken cover three days after her foul-mouthed racist tirade and has been banned from the campus permanently

Dressed in a white hoodie, black trousers, black coat and clutching a black handbag Rosing covered her face as she broke her cover for the first time since the racist incident

Rosing was arrested early Sunday morning after she stumbled into the dorms on campus in Lexington, Kentucky, before she launched herself at fellow student Kylah Spring

When Spring and another black student tried to get Rosing to sit down, Rosing could be seen trying to punch the other victim and trying to kick Spring

In a statement Capilouto said: Although she is no longer a student, we must continue our investigations. That includes our cooperation with an investigation into criminal charges filed.

Our Code of Student Conduct disciplinary proceedings and racial harassment misconduct being reviewed by our Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity.

Further charges could be forthcoming based on these investigations. As a community working wholeheartedly to prevent racist violence, we also must be committed to holding people accountable for their actions.

The processes we have in place are essential. I will be sharing more information about the next steps we are taking soon. Thank you for being a community that cares.

Footage showed her unleash a 10-minute-long racist tirade during which, court documents reveal, she called Spring a 'n*****' more than 200 times - and sang the slur as she was carted off by cops.

Her lawyer previously confirmed that she would be withdrawing from the school in order to undergo to rehab to receive treatment for her issues as well as racial sensitivity training.

President of the University of Kentucky Eli Capilouto has now confirmed that Rosing was suspended on an interim basis as they continued their investigation

DailyMail.com revealed that she grew up in a modest three-bedroom and two-bathroom family property in Fort Mitchell with her parents and siblings after she bragged that she was 'rich'

On Monday, Rosing sobbed as she pleaded not guilty to charges of intoxication in a public place, third-degree assault on a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct

Exclusive photos obtained by DailyMail.com show University of Kentucky student Sophia Rosing, 22, leaving the Fayette County Detention Center Monday night, still in her boots and tight skirt

On Monday, Rosing sobbed as she pleaded not guilty to charges of intoxication in a public place, third-degree assault on a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct.

She was later released on $10,000 bail and collected by her parent trying to hide her face by holding paper in front of herself.

The blonde was pictured leaving Fayette Detention Centre on Monday night, with her parents Jill and Don Rosing.

In the full 10-minute video of Rosing's assault, which shows her use the n-word 200 times, she is told that she has ruined her life to which she brazenly replies 'no I didn't' before singing the n-word over and over before police arrived to arrest her.

Even after the University of Kentucky officer has her in handcuffs, she can still be heard singing the word as she is dragged away.

Rosing can also be heard telling Spring to 'do her chores' as well as calling her an 'ugly n***** b****' while horrified students look on and some try to intervene.

A former classmate of racist University of Kentucky student Sophia Rosing (pictured), who attended Beechwood with her, has branded her a 'bully' who has had her 'true personality' exposed by her own vile rant

Rosing, pictured in high school, allegedly started rumors about the pupil 'getting pregnant and getting an abortion' in high school, which was not true

Her lawyer previously confirmed that she would be withdrawing from the school in order to undergo to rehab to receive treatment for her issues as well as racial sensitivity training

During her rampage, Rosing told University of Kentucky police officers that she gets 'special treatment' because she has 'lots of money'.

Court documents revealed she 'kicked and bit' officers as they tried to place her under arrest.

University Police were finally able to take Rosing into custody just before 4am on Sunday following the now-viral incident.

She was held at the Fayette County Detention Center where she refused to identify herself to officers upon her arrival in the early hours so was processed as a Jane Doe.

Spring, made an impassioned speech at an anti-racism march on Monday night, a day after the attack.

The desk clerk, a freshman at the university, became emotional as she addressed the dozens of people who attended the march in her honor. She told the crowd: 'I was physically, verbally and racially assaulted by Jane Doe, aka Sophia Rosing.

'This is a recurring issue in and across the American school system no matter what age. I am deeply saddened by the events that took place, but I am most grateful for justice that is to come.

The blonde 22-year-old was pictured trying to obscure her face as she left the jail Monday night

Her attorney Fred Peters, pictured, told DailyMail.com that the business and marketing major will be 'withdrawing' from school and will be 'getting treatment for her issues' - though he would not confirm if they were alcohol related

To Miss Rosing. You will not break my spirit and you will be held accountable for your actions. I only pray that you open your heart to love and try to experience life differently and more positively.

'As Michelle Obama once said, when they go low, we go high. I will continue to address this situation with grace and humility.'

A year before the vile racist incident, Rosing had bragged to fellow students: 'I'm rich as f*** and you're obviously not'.

But DailyMail.com can reveal that she grew up in a modest three-bedroom and two-bathroom family property in Fort Mitchell with her parents and siblings.

Her father, Paul Donald Rosing, works as an Technology Executive for Messer Construction Co, but relatives of Rosing have not yet responded to request for comment.

Since Sunday's attack, Rosing herself has been fired by fashion brand Dillard's for her outburst.

She was part of the Campus Collective Program, with a Dillard's spokesperson saying: 'Dillard's does not condone this behavior. Her relationship with Dillard's has been terminated immediately.'
Trump's former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday her former boss should wait until after the Georgia runoff next month to announce a run for president - and implied he should stay out of Georgia and let Ron DeSantis do the stumping for Republicans.

'I know there's a temptation to starting talking about 2024  no, no, no, no, no,' McEnany said on Wednesday's edition of 'Outnumbered.'

'2022 is not over. Every Republican energy needs to go to grinding the Biden agenda to a halt, and that could go straight through the state of Georgia.'

Pressed by host Harris Faulkner on if that meant Trump delaying his reelection announcement, she said: 'I think he needs to put it on pause, absolutely.'

McEnany refused to say whether Trump should appear with Walker in the Peach State in the run-up to December 6.

Asked by Faulkner whether the former president should go to Georgia, McEnany replied: 'I think we've got to make strategic calculations. Gov. DeSantis, I think he should be welcome to the state, given what happened last night. You've got to look at the realities on the ground.'

Georgia's Senate race is expected to head to a runoff on Dec. 6 after neither candidate breached the 50 percent threshold, per the state's election law. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock holds a slight edge over Republican Herschel Walker.

During an election eve Ohio rally for J.D. Vance, Trump turned the midterm spotlight back onto himself by revealing he would have a 'major announcement' next week on Nov. 15.

Trump insiders said the former president was gunning to announce his run before the midterm elections. Many urged him to wait, in part to avoid turning the election into a referendum on him and partly to avoid blame should Republicans underperform on Tuesday.

Trump's former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday her former boss should wait until after the Georgia runoff next month to announce a run for president

Pressed by host Harris Faulkner on if Trump should delay his reelection announcement, she said: 'I think he needs to put it on pause, absolutely'

'I know there's a temptation to starting talking about 2024  no, no, no, no, no,' McEnany said on Wednesday's edition of 'Outnumbered'

But the former president was eager to piggyback off expected GOP momentum. But that excitement has waned, as conservatives underperform their expectations. Many now blame Trump for launching unelectable candidates to the forefront on primaries and placing fealty to him and his election fraud claims above likability and policy proposals.

On Wednesday Trump acknowledged Tuesday's results were 'disappointing' for Republicans but counted them as a win for himself.

'While in certain ways yesterdays election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory - 219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General - Who has ever done better than that?

Trump shot Walker to the front of the primary by backing him, even as he attacked Georgia's GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger for not toeing the line on his election fraud claims. Both Kemp and Raffensperger won with a comfortable lead over their opponents, suggesting a large number of ticket splitters could not bring themselves to vote for Trump-backed Walker.

Some Republicans are now gunning for a new leader of their party, and all eyes, including McEnany's, are now turning to Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis after his successful re-election bid.

'This was the single best case I have heard someone make for the GOP in quite some time,' McEnany, a Florida native, said of DeSantis' victory speech on Fox.

'[Trump] will make that decision, he'll make his own decision,' McEnany said. 'If I'm advising any contender, DeSantis, Trump, whomever, no one announces 2024 until we get through Dec. 6.'

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson emerged victorious over his Democratic rival Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, as all major news networks called the race by Wednesday afternoon. Now the Senate hangs at a 48-48 balance. Alaska is sure to notch a GOP win - though ranked choice voting there pit incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski against Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka.

Arizona is tilting toward Democrats, though the race is still too close to call, while Nevada is leaning in favor of Republican Adam Laxalt. If trends hold, fate of the upper chamber will come down to the wire after another excruciating month of campaigning for Georgia's runoff races.

The control of the House was also in the balance in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the Democrats performed better than expected. Many House races have not yet been called, but Republicans are up 203-174.

In Pennsylvania, Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz lost the currently Republican-held Senate seat to Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

According to The New York Times' Maggie Haberman, who recently released a scathing biography about Trump, the former president is particularly 'furious' that Oz lost - and is 'blaming his wife' for advising him to support him. They are shown yesterday leaving a polling station in Palm Beach

Trump was said to be 'livid' this morning and 'screaming at everybody' after a lackluster performance by Republicans in the midterms - and is even rumored to be blaming his wife Melania for advising him to endorse defeated Pennsylvania candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz.

'Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz -- including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him,' the well-sourced New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted.

She continued: 'There are people pushing Trump to reschedule his announcement next week, and several Rs have texted asking whether he will, but its risky and would be acknowledging hes wounded by yesterday, something that some of his advisers insist is not the case.'

CNN's Jim Acosta cites an unnamed adviser who said the president is 'livid' and 'screaming at everybody' today after last night's underwhelming Republican results.

Taylor Budowich, Trump's spokesperson, told DailyMail.com such reports were 'completely fake' this morning.

Acosta cites an unnamed adviser who said he is 'screaming at everybody' today.

He also took credit for Ron DeSantis 2018 win, saying he 'was not going to be a factor' in the race before his endorsement.

'He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race. And as soon within moments, the race was over.

'I got him the nomination. He didnt get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it.'

Duncan, the Lt. Gov of Georgia, said Republicans would have had better success with a different pool of candidates.

'It turns out Mitch McConnell knew what he was talking about with candidate quality,' he said, referring to McConnell's prediction in August that poor quality would impact the result.

'If they would have just woke up 12 months ago, and stopped taking his lead and took the lead of what real Republican, real conservative policies meant and mattered, we'd be in a different place.

'I wouldn't want to be the one delivering him the news last night or this morning as to what the results of the candidates they supported and poured money into were, it's time to turn the page.

'I'm ready to move on. Who knows. Donald Trump is moving from a movement to a distraction for the Republican Party now.
But an inquest found serious failures by police offers who held him face down

A fit and healthy man died following serious failures by police officers who restrained him face down for more than an hour, an inquest heard.

Harrowing footage seen by a jury showed hand-cuffed Krystian Kilkowski, 32, telling officers that he thought was going to die as they placed him in leg restraints.

Campaigners said his death echoes that of George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer in the US in 2020 after being restrained, face down, for nine minutes.

The inquest, which finished yesterday found that serious failures by the officers who restrained him and delays in paramedics getting to him contributed to his death.

Footage seen at the inquest at County Hall, Norwich, showed officers repeatedly pushing his head towards the ground.

Krystian, who had taken drugs and was behaving erratically, was shown to be visibly frightened for his safety and says he thinks he is going to die.

Harrowing footage seen by a jury showed hand-cuffed Krystian Kilkowski, 32, telling officers that he thought was going to die as they placed him in leg restraints

He is then put into two leg restraints as well as other unspecified methods of restraint.

Norfolk Coroners Court concluded that Krystian died 'a drug-related death following amphetamine intoxication leading to acute behavioural disturbance.'

This was exacerbated by 'a period of physical activity' and 'further complicated by serious failures in the methods of restraint' used by five police officers.

Assistant Coroner Joanna Thompson also found that 'operational failures in the emergency services led to delays in Krystian receiving timely critical care'.

Krystian, a fit and healthy Polish man who had been living in England for nine years, died very shortly after midnight on his 32nd birthday on August 10, 2020.

Norfolk police arrived at Krystians home address to find him behaving strangely after having taken drugs.

They then detained him under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983.

The fit and healthy man died following 'serious failures' by police officers who restrained him face down for more than an hour. Campaigners said his death echoes that of George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer in the US in 2020 after being restrained, face down, for nine minutes

Krystian was not told why he was being detained or why he was restrained so severely.

The inquest heard how he struggled against the restraints and bit his own arms and tongue.

The pathologist described the tongue injury as the worst she had ever seen.

The police waited for an ambulance, however miscommunications between the police and ambulance service caused significant delays.

By the time the ambulance arrived, the paramedic said Krystian was beyond his level of expertise and required emergency critical care.

He was blue, bleeding and barely conscious.

The restraints continued for a further 20 minutes before he was put into the ambulance and collapsed.

Morrison's supermarket in Diss, pictured, near where Krystian Kilkowski was restrained

According to the pathologist, the amphetamines he had taken earlier in the evening were not a fatal dose.

Krystian died hours later in hospital from multi-organ failure.

His family describe him as a very passionate and hard-working man who was always happy and smiling, liked by all who met him with many friends.

The jury concluded there was 'a serious failure to keep Krystian safe' which 'contributed to his rapid physical deterioration during the restraint.'

They noted the polices 'approach lacked leadership' and their 'decision-making was inadequate'.

Jodie Anderson, Caseworker at INQUEST Lawyers Group, who supported Kyrstians family, said: 'Krystians death is another shocking example of the lethal consequences of police officers dealing with people in mental health crises.

'Krystian was in distress and needed care, not brutality. The failure to treat his rapidly deteriorating condition as a medical emergency meant that he was deprived of any chance of survival.

Krystian died hours later in hospital from multi-organ failure. According to the pathologist, the amphetamines he had taken earlier in the evening were not a fatal dose.

'We call for a widespread structural and cultural change in the way that those in acute mental health crisis are treated on the streets.

'A failure to acknowledge this growing problem will result in further unnecessary deaths following disproportionate use of force at the hands of police forces.'

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Megicks from Norfolk Constabulary said: 'Officers at the scene and the Force Control Room made every effort to get Mr Kilkowski the help he needed, calling the ambulance service six times.

'The jury found that operational failure by the East of England Ambulance Service resulted in a significant delay of critical care.

'Due to the delay in medical care arriving at the scene, he was restrained for a prolonged period of time while displaying "agitation and extreme strength".

'We will, of course be considering carefully the jurys detailed findings to explore whether there are any opportunities for learning.'
Texas death row inmate Tracy Beatty is due to be executed this evening for strangling his mother to death and burying her body in her backyard in 2003.

Tracy Beatty, 61, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Wednesday evening after 6pm CT at the state's death row facility in Huntsville - nicknamed the Walls Unit.

Beatty buried the body of his mother Carolyn Click, 62, beside her mobile home about 115 miles southeast of Dallas in a city called Whitehouse.

He then spent her money on drugs and alcohol, the state claims.

Although Beatty's attorneys do not dispute that he killed his mother, they have argued he is not eligible for the death penalty because the act did not constitute capital murder.

Capital murder requires aggravating circumstances such as killing a police officer or child or being in the process of committing another crime.

Beatty was found guilty of capital murder because prosecutors argued he killed his mother during a home burglary and had entered her motor home without her consent.

Tracy Beatty, 61, is due to be executed this evening for strangling his mother to death and burying her body in her backyard in 2003

He will receive a lethal injection on Wednesday evening at the state's death row facility in Huntsville - nicknamed the Walls Unit - after 6pm

Beatty buried the body of his mother Carolyn Click (pictured), 62, in the backyard beside her motor home

Beatty was staying with his mother in November 2003 after being released from parole for intentionally harming his 18-month-old niece.

When he returned home after a day of drinking he had a dispute with Click, he said in an interview with CBS19 last week.

Beatty's attorneys also attempted to argue that he is not mentally fit and therefore that the execution would be unconstitutional

That's when he grabbed her by the throat and strangled her. He claims he wasn't even aware he had killed her until the next day.

A jury decided his fate in 2004 and since then his execution has been delayed three times.

His attorneys claim he was living with her at the time of the fight and therefore it couldn't have been a burglary.

Beatty had a 'volatile and combative relationship' with his mother, according to prosecutors.

A neighbor testified during his trial that Click had told her the day she was last seen that she had told Beatty that day to move out after a fight.

Lieanna Wilkerson testified that Click told her Beatty had assaulted her several times before, including once when he had 'beaten her so severely that he had left her for dead.'

Wilkerson said Click had still been excited to have Beatty move back in with her in October 2003 so they could mend their relationship.

'Several times [Beatty] had said he just wanted to shut her up, that he just wanted to choke her and shut her up,' testified Wilkerson.

A jury decided Beatty's fate in 2004 but since then his execution has been delayed three times. Today is his fourth scheduled execution date

Beatty's attorneys also attempted to argue that he is not mentally fit and therefore that the execution would be unconstitutional but the US Supreme Court declined an appeal to halt the execution on Wednesday morning.

His attorneys had argued he was being prevented from receiving a full examination to determine if he is intellectually disabled and possibly ineligible to be put to death.

They requested that state prison officials allow Beatty to have his handcuffs removed during mental health evaluations.

Their experts argued that having Beatty uncuffed during the tests is crucial to evaluating his mental health.

In their Supreme Court petition, Beatty's lawyers said one expert who examined him found he is 'clearly psychotic and has a complex paranoid delusional belief system' and that he lives in a 'complex delusional world'.

They also suggested he believes there is a 'vast conspiracy of correctional officers who... "torture" him via a device in his ear so he can hear their menacing voices.'

Last week US District Judge Charles Eskridge in Houston asked why Beatty's lawyers had not raised any claim relating to his mental health during years of appeals and said requiring handcuffs during such an evaluation is 'quite simply, a rational security concern.'

Beatty would become the fourth person to be executed by Texas this year. Its final execution of the year is scheduled for next week

If Beatty is executed he would become the fourth inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 13th in the US.

Texas' final execution for the year is set to take place next week.
Police have arrested two men suspected of being 'significant' figures in a Channel people trafficking ring.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police held the men in a pre-dawn raid in the London area on Wednesday at the request of Belgian authorities.

The pair, aged 29 and 42, were arrested on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration.

One was a Kuwaiti national and another was Iraqi.

Migrants are brought ashore by an RNLI crew at Dungeness Beach in Kent, pictured on October 12

The organised crime gang, in which they are accused of being key figures, is involved in people smuggling between Belgium and the UK via France.

Moves to have the men extradited to Belgium were launched immediately, a Home Office spokesman said.

The operation also involved a team from the Home Office's Immigration Enforcement agency, and was overseen by the European policing organisation Europol.

Sources said the two arrested men were thought to be 'significant players' in the organised crime gang.

A third, linked suspect was arrested in France.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said: 'This operation shows our determination to dismantle the people-smuggling gangs that are orchestrating illegal immigration to the UK.

'Close intelligence cooperation with our European partners is vital to prevent illegal crossings and ensure those profiting from these dangerous journeys face the consequences of their despicable actions.'

The Home Office's assistant director of Immigration Enforcement, Stephen Blackwell, said: 'We are committed to disrupting the activity of people smugglers and will continue to work hard with our law enforcement partners across Europe to bring them to justice.'

The two UK raids took place in Harlesden, north west London, and St Alban's.

At the same time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said investigators are trying to help Belgian police track down the head of an organised crime gang that tried to smuggle more than 100 migrants into the UK in boats across the Channel and in lorries.

Iraqi national Barzan Kamal Majeed, nicknamed 'Scorpion' after his WhatsApp avatar, was sentenced in his absence to 10 years in prison for people smuggling offences at a Bruges court last month.

The 36-year-old, formerly of Nottingham, was also fined 968,000 euros (853,804), the NCA said.

A warrant has been issued for his arrest and police on both sides of the Channel are appealing for information on his whereabouts.

Majeed moved to the UK in 2013 and lived in the Hucknall area of Nottingham, where he is understood to still have connections. He was deported from the UK in 2015 to the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Home Office said 230 foreign criminals and 117 immigration offenders were removed from the UK in October.

So far this year, almost 40,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after making their way across the Channel. The provisional total for 2022 stands at 39,913. No crossings have been made in November as bad weather continues.

This comes as the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to 'grip this challenge of illegal migration' by working with European nations when he attended Cop27.

The Prime Minister and French President met on Monday afternoon at the Cop-27 climate summit in Egypt

Although Mr Sunak appeared buoyed by his talks with the French President, he warned there was 'not one simple solution' to the Channel migrant crisis

The Prime Minister and French president Emmanuel Macron embraced at the UN climate change conference in Egypt on Monday as the two countries look to agree a deal with one another to crack down on small boat crossings.

During their first face-to-face encounter since Mr Sunak entered Number 10, the prime minister said he had left the meeting with 'renewed confidence and optimism'.

However, Mr Sunak did warn that there was 'not one simple solution' to the Channel migrant crisis.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride hailed a 'fundamental shift' in the tone of relations between Britain and France as officials thrashed out the final details of the deal.

Mr Stride told Sky News: 'The mood music seems to be good at the moment.

'My understanding is we're in the final stages of what could be an agreement, which would be very good news.

'I think there has been a fundamental shift in the tone between ourselves and the French.'

The full extent of the crisis has become apparent in recent weeks by the overcrowding chaos at the Manston asylum processing centre in Kent.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick told the House of Commons the Manston site was now back below capacity after more than 2,000 people were moved to other accommodation

There has recently been overcrowding at the Manston site, which has prompted severe criticism of Home Secretary Suella Braverman

Overcrowding reached breaking point at the Manston immigration processing centre last week with more than 4,000 people being held in a facility designed to accommodate 1,600.

As of 8am on Wednesday, the total number of people being held at the Manston immigration processing facility was down to 1,147, the government announced.

Migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats arrive at the Dover centre before being taken to Manston for processing.

Asylum seekers are supposed to stay at Manston for only short periods of time, ideally a maximum of 24 hours, while undergoing security and identity checks, before being moved to the Home Office's asylum accommodation such as hotels.

In this case, however, some people were held for longer periods due to a lack of alternative accommodation, with concerns raised over poor conditions, and the Home Office's handling of the migrant crisis.

Manston opened in January this year to relieve pressure on a Home Office facility in nearby Dover, but has endured widespread condemnation in recent weeks.
Horrific bodycam footage showed the moment a heroic cop shot dead an anti-gun violence activist who was holding a large knife to a woman's head.

Tyree Moorehead, 46, was caught by police standing over a woman with a knife in his hand at the intersection of North Fulton Avenue and West Lafayette Avenue in Baltimore on Saturday.

Moorehead is known for creating more than 250 'no shoot zones' across Baltimore in places where someone was shot and killed to raise awareness of gun violence.

Footage showed Officer Zachary Rutherford arriving at the scene and calling for backup as he sees Moorehead with the blade.

'Get down, get down,' Rutherford screamed multiple times while pointing his gun toward Moorehead who then jumped on top of the woman and appeared to put the knife to her face.

Moorehead was shot more than a dozen times and swiftly rolled over on his back - allowing the woman to crawl away.

He remained lifeless on the floor and continued to clench the weapon as the officer shouted 'drop the knife.' No more shots were fired.

The activist was taken to a local hospital where he later died. The woman wasn't injured - and police said the attack was a random act of violence.

Tyree Moorehead, the 'no shoot zones' activist, was shot dead by police on Sunday after he held a knife to a woman's head in Baltimore, Maryland

Moorehead was seen in bodycam footage standing over a woman with a knife when police arrived and ordered him to get down

The activist immediately dropped on top of the woman, but it appeared he held the knife near her face

Moorehead was shot more than a dozen times and swiftly rolled over on his back - allowing the woman to crawl away

The activist continued to hold onto the knife after he was shot multiple times

The officer kept insisting he drop the knife but no further shots were fired. He later died at a local hospital

Carton Moorehead, the activists father, was a witness to a shooting and said the number of times he was shot was unnecessary.

'The police should not have shot him so many times,' Carton said, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Meanwhile, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said the officer's actions were necessary.

'We think it is clear that this officer saved this woman's life,' Harrison said.

Moorehead is an ex-gang member who used graffiti to designate 'no shoot zones' to discourage gun violence.

The activist spent 18 years in prison for second degree murder which he committed when he was 15.

He was released from prison in 2012 and had sine devoted his time to trying to work with criminals in Baltimore to reduce crime rates.

Moorehead previously told FOX 45 last year that he believes the way to lower the city's soaring shooting numbers is to pay criminals not to kill people.

'I can relate to the shooters, guess what they want? They want money.

'I've talked to these people, I've seen the shooters, its a small city, I know who the hustlers are,' he said.

He didn't give any more details as to how such a system would work.

Moorehead is shown wearing a shirt emblazoned with his 'no shoot zone' message, meant to discourage Baltimore residents and gang members from using guns to harm each other

The ex-gang member has created over 200 different 'no shoot zone' signs, each placed where someone was shot and killed

Moorehead was shot in his back, neck and jaw in August near Monument Street while going to the store in central Baltimore.

'I was shot three times,' Moorehead told reporters at the time. 'A bullet went through my jaw, my neck and one is still in my back.'

Moorehead made it home before being taken to the hospital. He left without being discharged.

He told a reporter he was 'good,' and also said 'nothing went wrong, you just have someone that's trying to protect a community that obviously doesn't want to be protected.'
A vandal urinated on a sukkah in Manhattan then kicked and damaged the Jewish religious structure in a vile incident that's under investigation by the NYPD's hate crime unit.

The man, who appeared drunk, was caught on camera kicking out at a plexiglass door on the sukkah outside Chabad Israel Center - nearly stumbling to the ground in the process.

He also entered the sukkah - specially built for the religious holiday - and urinated on it during the shocking incident last month, police said.

At one point, a passerby in the Upper East Side intervened and appeared to force the culprit to stop.

The suspect, who appears drunk, urinated inside the sukkah and also kicked at the structure

A brave passerby was praised after he challenged the vandal and put a stop to the incident

The NYPD is investigating and issued new footage of the suspect as it appeals for information

A plexiglass section of the sukkah was smashed in the incident just hours after it was built

A plexiglass section of the sukkah was smashed in the incident just hours after it was built

There was a brief confrontation between the pair and the brave witness appears to convince the attacker to stop the senseless violence.

The incident happened just hours after the structure was built.

The NYPD said on Wednesday afternoon that its investigation was ongoing and no arrests had been made.

A renewed appeal to find the suspect was issued by the NYPD Crime Stoppers unit.

A spokesman told DailyMail.com: 'On Sunday October 8,2022 at approximately 0115 hours in front of 301 East 92 Street, confines of the 19th precinct an unknown individual kicked in two plexiglass pieces that were attached to a Jewish Sukka.

'The individual also entered the Sukkah and urinated inside. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.'

Speaking the day after the incident, Rabbi Uriel Vigler, who co-directs Chabad Israel Center, said: 'We have been in touch with the authorities who are investigating this incident, though we're not perturbed.

The incident in the Upper East Side ended when a brave passerby confronted the vandal

The incident in the Upper East Side ended when a brave passerby confronted the vandal

The incident in the Upper East Side ended when a brave passerby confronted the vandal

'We are grateful to the brave New Yorker, who demonstrated what New York is all about, standing up to look after one another.'

A sukkah is a temporary, covered hut which is used by Jews to eat and spend time in in the week-long festival of Sukkot.

Vigler added: 'Sukkot is about unity, and this Jewish year is a Hakhel year, a year of gathering, underscoring the theme of unity, so this presents another opportunity for people to come together and do a mitzvah.'

Chabad Israel Center built the structure in the Upper East Side for Jewish people who observe the tradition.
'Disgusted' viewers of The Project have unleashed on host Waleed Aly after he repeatedly spoke over the top of a mayor voicing his anger over the resettlement of ex-ISIS members.

During an interview on Wednesday night, Frank Carbone demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explain why his council area will be the 'dumping ground' for repatriated ISIS brides.

Fairfield City Council, in western Sydney, has a large contingent of Syrian refugees who fled the country to escape the terrorist group.

Mr Carbone was repeatedly interrupted by Aly while he tried to explain how the resettlement of former ISIS families would affect these refugees.

Aly told the frustrated mayor the women and children previously involved in the terrorist regime have every right to be in the country because they're 'citizens'.

The Project fans said they were 'disgusted' after host Waleed Aly (left) shut down western Sydney mayor Frank Carbone's (right) concerns about the repatriation of former ISIS brides and their children

Poll SHOULD AUSSIES WHO WENT TO SUPPORT ISIS BE ALLOWED BACK? YES NO SHOULD AUSSIES WHO WENT TO SUPPORT ISIS BE ALLOWED BACK? YES 97 votes

NO 2084 votes Now share your opinion





His dismissal of the mayor's concerns left many fans infuriated.

'To The Project panel - I'm disgusted with each one of you in how you questioned the mayor,' one fan wrote under a clip of the interview on The Project Instagram page.

'These people in question should not be classified as Australian citizens when they chose to go to Syria and support their husbands against our soldiers.

'Their citizenship should be revoked once they left Australia. The Project panel disappointed me in a big way.'

Another person wrote: 'Frank said what is on a few people's minds.

'I think shutting down his valid points was not fair and he and his constituents have the right to a voice - and not what the woke police dictate.'

The repatriated women and children were living in Syrian refugee camps al-Roj and al-Hol (pictured, children in al-Hol)

Mr Carbone (above) said his electorate is home to 'tens of thousands' of traumatised Syrian refugees and asked why the women and children couldn't be settled in an area with a lower refugee population

Mr Carbone asked why the women and children couldn't be moved to another area with a lower refugee population when Australia is a 'very big country'.

'Why is it western Sydney when we have tens of thousand of people that fled ISIS?' he said.

'They had traumatic experiences, very bad emotions, and this is a triggering event for them.

'The least the Prime Minister can do is get out of his limousine and come to western Sydney and consult with people... we're worthy of a discussion.'

Mr Carbone earlier argued Syrians who fought with Australians against ISIS terrorists were 'more of an Australian citizen than anyone else' - before Aly interrupted.

'Legally they're not, Australian citizens are a different category. We have obligations to Australian citizens that we don't have to refugees,' Aly said.

A total of 13 women and 42 children who were formerly members of ISIS are set to be brought to Australia from Syria after spending years in refugee camps (pictured, one of the women and her children in Sydney)

Four women and 13 children were repatriated to Sydney on October 29 (pictured, one of the women, Mariam Dabboussy, with her father and children in Syria)

Mr Carbone fired back at Aly and accused the former ISIS members of committing treason under 'Commonwealth Criminal Code section 80'.

'Treason is when you leave your country and you aid and abet, doesn't matter if you're baking a cake or scones and assisting ISIS, you're committing treason,' he said.

'Under that Act, you can have your citizenship revoked.'

Aly responded: 'You'd have to convict them and then do that first though, Frank, and that hasn't happened.

'You're talking a lot about kids here, in fact mostly about kids. Would you leave kids in camps overseas when they are Australian citizens?' he asked.

Mr Carbone reminded Aly it's not his job to come up with solutions but to reflect the opinions of those in his electorate and focus on their wellbeing.

Mr Carbone asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (above) to explain to refugees in his electorate why they need to live with their former terrorisers

Mr Carbone said refugees in his electorate 'had their homes burnt back in Syria, have lost their loved ones, have watched a lot of their families be beheaded and burnt' under ISIS occupation (pictured, ISIS soldiers)

'I don't think (the Prime Minister) has taken into account the tens of thousands of refugees that fled their home, had their homes burnt back in Syria, have lost their loved ones, have watched a lot of their families be beheaded and burnt and have come and resettled in Western Sydney,' he said.

Aly eventually shut down the conversation by telling Mr Carbone they'd run overtime.

A total of 13 women and 42 children who were formerly members of ISIS are set to be brought to Australia from Syria after spending years in refugee camps al-Roj and al-Hol.

Four women and 13 children were repatriated to Sydney on October 29.
A group of hooded thugs have been caught on camera breaking into a home and assaulting the owner during a violent home invasion.

Three men, believed to be aged in their 20s, made their way into the Oakleigh East house on Turnbull Avenue, in Melbourne's south, on May 10.

The owner had answered the door just after 9pm when the men, all dressed in black, charged inside and threatened him with a gun.

Three men, believed to be aged in their 20s, broke into the house on Turnbull Avenue, in Oakleigh East in Melbourne's southeast on May 10, and threatened the owner

Shocking footage showed the trio pinning him down while one then punched and assaulted him with the weapon.

One of the thugs was also seen covering the man's face with their hands, while another stole his phone.

The violence eventually ended when a woman at the house ran in to intervene.

The violent home invasion came to an end when a woman ran at the house ran in to intervene

The trio then fled the scene and are still on the run, with the homeowner rushed to hospital with facial injuries.

Police have released a photo of a man that may be able to assist with their enquiries.

The three men were all wearing dark-coloured clothing during the invasion and fled in an unknown car.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
We all know about the Old Boys Network, with schools such as Eton and Harrow serving up many of the UKs prime ministers.

But new research shows the Old Girls Network is just as powerful.

Alumnae from just 12 leading girls public schools are 20 times more likely to reach elite positions in society than their contemporaries elsewhere, research shows.

These include Cheltenham Ladies College, attended by former home secretary Amber Rudd, and St Pauls Girls, alma mater of actress Rachel Weisz and Labour MP Harriet Harman.

Oxford University researchers said while Old Girls Networks are rarely discussed, they play a similar role to Old Boys Networks in gatekeeping privilege.

Attending an elite school was also instrumental in helping women meet and marry elite men who could advance their careers, the research found.

New research shows an 'Old Girls Network' exists and is just as powerful as its male counterpart (pictured: Cheltenham Ladies College)

Cheltenham Ladies College, attended by former home secretary Amber Rudd (pictured)

And private members clubs also played a role, such as the Albemarle Club, the University Womens Club, the Literary Ladies Club and, in more recent times, the Reform Club and the Athenaeum Club.

Co-author, professor Aaron Reeves of Oxford University, said: There has been surprisingly little attention given to the alumni of elite girls schools, especially given the enduring influence that some of these schools have had on propelling their alumni in positions of power and influence.

Professor Sam Friedman of the London School of Economics added: These results illustrate that elite girls schools are important engines of inequality.

That certain old girls are 20 times more likely to reach an elite position than other women surely makes a mockery of the notion that equality of opportunity exists in contemporary Britain.

The research, which also involved Exeter University, looked at historical analysis of the 120 years of data contained in Whos Who.

The paper, called Is there an Old Girls Network?, aimed to see whether private girls schools have the same effect on the trajectories of women as leading private boys schools do so with men.

At the peak of their power, elite girls schools educated 12 per cent of Whos Who entrants.

However, the research found these elite girls schools have been consistently less propulsive than their male-only counterparts.

Alumnae from just 12 leading girls public schools are 20 times more likely to reach elite positions in society (pictured: St Paul's Girls' School)

Both MP Harriet Harman and actress Rachel Weisz went to St Paul's Girls' School

Previous research, also based on Whos Who, has indicated that the alumni of nine leading boys public schools, known as the Clarendon Schools, are 35 times more likely than other male peers to reach the most powerful elite positions.

The Clarendon Schools educated 17 per cent of male Whos Who entrants.

The authors argue that this difference is rooted in the ambivalent aims of girls elite education, where there has been a longstanding tension between promoting academic achievement and upholding traditional gender norms.

Whos Who, the leading biographical dictionary of noteworthy and influential people in the UK, has been published every year since 1897.

Many entrants are included automatically upon reaching a prominent occupational position, such as MPs, peers, judges, senior civil servants and heads of public bodies.

The rest are selected based on a noteworthy professional appointment or sustained prestige, influence or fame.

The paper, published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education, found that half of the listed women who attended the 12 elite girls schools, also attended Oxford or Cambridge.

It also found that elite women who attended these schools were more likely to have direct connections to other people in Whos Who, particularly spouses.

It said: Here, in a context of entrenched masculine domination and powerful institutional and cultural barriers to occupational progress, women often relied on male partners to facilitate access to elite positions.

It argued that, while elite boys schools have always been network hubs, elite girls schools provided the resources and platform for many women to meet elite men who may have directly or indirectly (through their networks) aided their career.
Joe Biden has been accused of acting 'arrogantly' after he insisted that he would not change course, despite coming perilously close to losing control of the House and Senate.

With both races too tight to call, the president insisted on Wednesday that he won't change anything - even though a majority of voters said the country was on the wrong track.

The president was in a jovial mood after his party kept a red wave from crashing over the country in House, Senate and gubernatorial races.

Yet many felt the tone was inappropriate.

'Joe Biden delivering an arrogant and delusional press conference from the White House,' said Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy analyst.

'No humility from a president whose party is on course to lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate too. This man is completely tone deaf.'

Andy Biggs, a Republican congressman representing Arizona, tweeted: 'Totally disconnected. Arrogance at its finest.'

Author and attorney David Limbaugh said that Biden's 'arrogance' and unwarranted victory lap could help the Republican cause.

'Further rationalizing, the Dems' relatively good, not strong, showing might lead Biden to be even more arrogant and defiant, and maybe that causes him to be even more unpopular,' Limbaugh said.

President Joe Biden held the traditional post-midterm press conference Wednesday in the State Dining Room after Democrats did better-than-expected in the races

Biden was branded arrogant by a series of critics, who felt he was gloating without reason

Biden on Wednesday afternoon mocked the media for its predictions going into election night - which had him and his Democrats doing badly - and made jokes when asked about Republicans intentions to investigate his family and about his potential 2024 competition.

'It'll be fun watching them take on each other,' he said of a possible battle between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump for the GOP nomination.

He also confirmed he intends to run for a second term.

But Biden mainly used the occassion to double down on his presidency, even as, in exit poll, 73% of voters said they were dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in the country today

He said he would change 'nothing' about his time in office.

Biden expressed confidence he would win over those voters who are angry about inflation, which has caused the cost of living to soar.

'They're just finding out what we're doing,' he said. 'The more they know about what we're doing, the more support there is.'

Biden pointed to policies like cutting prescription drug prices, and the roads and bridges being improved through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and future high speed Amtrak lines, explaining, 'there's a lot of things that are just starting to kick in.'

'I'm not going to change,' he said.

Social media users were harshly critical.

'What amazing arrogance from this man!' said one.

'Biden wishes Republicans 'lots of luck' in plans to investigate son Hunter if they take the House.'

Another added: 'Biden's arrogance is stunning; 75% of people in recent poll say the nation is on the wrong course,and he says we are changing 'nothing'. He is a sad case.'

Another said: 'Biden thinks he is the Xi Jinping of America. His arrogance in the speech this afternoon shows he has no intention of working with anyone to adjust his policies, and will continue to fight anyone who tries to stand up to him. His 'tough guy' image is so sad.'

President Biden joked about Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump jockeying for GOP nomination; 'It'll be fun watching them take on each other,' he said

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by a huge margin, prompting talk he will make a bid for president in 2024

Ane he joked with reporters about election predictions.

'Look, the predictions were and again, I'm not being critical of anybody that played the predictions. This is supposed to be a red wave. You talked about us losing 30 to 50 seats. It's not going to happen,' he noted.

Biden was quick with the quip when asked about Republican plans for the next two years of his presidency.

He confirmed he was considering running for re-election in 2024 and, when asked about the possibiilty of a Republican battle between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, he quipped: 'It'll be fun watching them take on each other.'

DeSantis' landslide win lead to talk he'll be eying the White House next. And Trump has said he'll make a 'major' announcement next week at Mar-a-Lago, sparking speculation he'll announce another run for president.

As for his own presidential plans, Biden pointed to his wife Jill, sitting in the front row. 'All kidding aside, our intention is to run again.'

Biden, who turns 80 this month, said he expects to make a final decision next year.

'This is ultimately a family decision. We'll have discussions about it. I don't feel any hurry in one way or another to make that judgment,' he said. 'My guess is it's next year we make that judgment.'

And when asked about an exit poll result that showed two-thirds of voters don't want him to run for a second term, Biden said: 'Watch me.'

Biden also brushed off questions about intentions by Republicans to investigate his family, including his son Hunter, should they win control of the House. Races remain too close to call but the GOP is favored to take the majority.

'Lots of luck in your seniors year my coach used to say,' he said about the matter. 'The American public wants us to move on and get things done for them.'

'I think the American people will look at that for what it is: almost comedy. But you know, I can't control what they're going to do. All I can do is continue to try to make life better for the American people,' he added.

His Wednesday press conference served as a victory lap.

'While the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave. It didn't happen,' Biden said. 'And I know you were somewhat miffed by my incessant optimism, I felt good during the whole process, I thought we were going to do fine.'

But he called the 2022 contest 'a good day for democracy and I think a good day for America.'

He noted that while every loss is 'painful' and some Democrats got booted froom their seats, he cited the statistic that his party lost fewer seats in the House than any Democrat did in the last 40 years.

And he said the midterm was the best for Democrats being elected to governors' mansions since 1986.

First lady Jill Biden walks into President Biden's press conference and takes her seat in the front row

President Joe Biden addresses reporters Wednesday afternoon from the White House's State Dining Room

The Democrats had a better-than-expected night, holding off a red wave or a 'shellacking' as former President Barack Obama called his first experience losing midterm races.

The House still hasn't been called for Republicans - with 206 House races so far going their way, while Democrats retained 177, with a number of competitive races still to be called.

To win the House majority, a party needs 218 seats.

The Senate remained winnable for the Democrats, with outstanding calls to be made in Nevada and Arizona.

Arizona looked likely to stay in the party's hands with Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly leading his GOP challenger Blake Masters by around 5 points with about two-thirds of the vote reporting.

In Nevada, Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was trailing her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt.

Even if Republicans pick up Nevada's Senate seat, the Democrats can keep a majority if they hold onto Georgia.

The Associated Press confirmed Georgia's Senate candidates, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker would indeed be headed to an early December run-off.

Republicans are still expected to win control of the House when all the votes are counted but there was no massive GOP victory, which is what Democrats feared.

Prior to the press conference the White House released a video montage of the president on the phone with various candidates.

Biden was visibly gleeful, offering his congratulations, telling them he'll sleep better knowing they won, and saying to them: 'God love ya.' There was even a cameo by Commander Biden, the president's dog.

After calling Democrats last night, the president made another round of congratulatory calls on Wednesday morning, including to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House, and a Republican: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

He also spoke with Rep. Matt Cartwright, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, and Rep.-elect Robert Garcia.

And he spoke with Kelly and Warnock, whose races have yet to be called.

Finally he talked to Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and Representative Val Demings - both of whom lost their contests.
Pictured: Matthew Smith

The Deputy Head of Pastoral at Thomas's Battersea - where Prince George and Princess Charlotte first attended school - has pleaded guilty to child exploitation offences.

MailOnline can reveal Matthew Smith, 34, appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday on charges of sexual abuse relating to the making and distribution of indecent images of children.

The charges do not relate to children at the prestigious school, which costs upwards of 20,000 per year.

The school was informed on November 7 their new hire - who only started in his role in September - was being investigated by the National Crime Agency.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte both attended Thomas's Battersea up until early this year, when they moved to Lambrook School, near Ascot. They'd left by the time Smith was employed.

In an email sent to worried parents and seen by MailOnline, the school said Smith's role was immediately terminated after learning of the charges.

MailOnline can reveal Matthew Smith, 34, appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court today on charges of sexual abuse relating to the making and distribution of indecent images of children

The school was informed on November 7 their new hire - who only started in his role in September - was being investigated by the National Crime Agency

Smith, from Southwark, pleaded guilty to distributing indecent images of children, and inciting the sexual exploitation of children.

A sentencing hearing will take place at a later date at Southwark Crown Court.

He was arrested on Sunday after an extensive investigation. The front door to his rented house had been smashed in when MailOnline arrived on Wednesday night.

The door was off its hinges and laying on the front walkway, replaced by a plywood insert.

School principals Tobyn Thomas and Ben Thomas told parents in a statement: 'I do not for a minute underestimate the shocking and deeply concerning nature of this news.'

'Our focus right now is on our pupils, parents and colleagues.'

The statement went on to explain that while pupils must be informed of Smith's immediate departure, the school has no intentions of 'elaborating further' on the reasons behind his dismissal.

The front door at Smith's rented house had been kicked in when MailOnline arrived on Wednesday night

The front door at Smith's rented house had been kicked in when MailOnline arrived on Wednesday night

'We will need to work together to respond to children's questions in an age-appropriate way,' they said.

'If you are unsure of what to say to your child, and would like further guidance, please do not hesitate to contact any of the following members of our leadership team.'

The school has vowed to continue liaising with authorities.

A spokesperson for the school told MailOnline: 'We have been shocked and distressed to learn of these charges. The safety and wellbeing of our pupils is, and always will be, our top priority.

'As there are ongoing criminal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further at the this time other than to say that there is no suggestion the offences relate to Mr Smith's employment at Thomas's or to any current or former pupils.

'As soon as the school learned of the charges, Mr Smith's employment at the school, which commenced in September this year, was terminated with immediate effect.'

Prior to his role at Thomas's Battersea, Smith was assistant head teacher at the British School in Kathmandu, Nepal, for five years.

He also taught at St Paul's School, and has degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge.

A source told MailOnline very few parents from the school had met him yet, given he was only employed by Thomas's Battersea in September.

Smith was arrested on Sunday, and the school notified on Monday

The front door at his rented house was off its hinges and replaced with a piece of wood following Smith's arrest

Kensington Palace released a statement in August revealing Kate and William's decision to move schools.

'Their Royal Highnesses are hugely grateful to Thomas's Battersea where George and Charlotte have had a happy start to their education since 2017 and 2019 respectively and are pleased to have found a school for all three of their children which shares a similar ethos and values to Thomas's.'

The move was reportedly made so the children can have 'as normal a family life as possible' - allowing them to be brought up in a more rural setting outside of the hustle and bustle of central London.

Thomas's Battersea is highly selective and reportedly has a waiting list from birth. Even then, it does not guarantee a child's place at the school.

The school offers special programs from ballet and drama to modern foreign language, music, and art. School clubs range from a LEGO club to pottery club.

MailOnline has contacted the school and the palace for comment.

Are you a parent at the school? Email brittany.chain@mailonline.com
Two of the three Americans who were tragically found dead inside a Mexico City Airbnb after accidentally inhaling carbon monoxide are being remembered for their indelible mark as teachers.

Jordan Marshall, 28, and Courtez Hall, 33, were discovered dead alongside Kandace Florence, 33, at the rental during a wellness check on October 30.

Marshall, a Virginia native, taught in the Washington D.C. school system for about six years before he made the move to New Orleans in 2021.

His sister, Jasmine Marshall, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that her brother was a 12th grade English teacher at Rosenwald Collegiate Academy charter school.

'Jordan was very passionate about teaching. He loved the students very much. We've actually been hearing from a few of them the last couple of days, just saying how much they'll miss him and how much they loved him,' Jasmine told said by phone.

Jordan Marshall was one of three Americans who were found dead inside a Mexico City Airbnb on October 30 due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The 28-year-old spent about six years teaching in Washington D.C. after graduating from Hampton University and accepted a position in New Orleans last year as a 12th grade English teacher

Cortez Hall had only been teaching for one year at a charter school in New Orleans. The 33-year-old died while vacationing in Mexico City on October 30

Her brother, she recalled, decided he wanted to seek a new challenge and started applying to schools in California, Texas, and New Orleans.

Jasmine said lauded Jordan for the positive impact he wanted to instill in the African-American community.

'You don't see a lot of black male teachers. So that's one thing that I am just so happy he thought mostly black boys and girls,' she said. 'Just being that representation for them I think was just wonderful. He was a great mentor for them. Someone they could look up to. Just very passionate about making a difference in their lives and that's what we're mostly proud of.'

Jasmine said her family last heard from Jordan when he called to let his mother know that he was on the way to the airport with Florence on October 29. They then met up with Hall, who flew in separately that day.

Florence was feeling sick and told her boyfriend during a conversation. The phone call dropped at one point and her boyfriend was unable to get her back on the line. He then reached out to the Airbnb host.

Virginia resident Kandace Florence flew to Mexico City to celebrate the Day of Dead festivities with two of her friends. Florence contacted her boyfriend October 30 to tell him that she was not feeling well. At one point the phone call dropped and her boyfriend attempted to get her back on the phone. He then contacted the Airbnb host to do a wellness check and authorities found Florence and her two friends dead in the apartment

Virginia Beach native Jordan Marshall was one of three Americans who died while vacationing in Mexico City last week. He and two friends were found dead inside the Airbnb home they were renting October 30

The Mexico City attorney general's office told DailMail.com that security and police visited the apartment after a report of a strong gas odor was reported and discovered Marshall, Florence and Hall dead.

Jasmine said she learned of her tragedy after Florence's boyfriend had contacted via Instagram on October 31 and flew out with her parents November 1.

She said her brother's remains were repatriated to the United States on Tuesday and that a funeral service has been set for Friday.

Jordan formed a friendship with Hall after moving to New Orleans and knew Florence since their high school days.

Hall, who was a Georgia native, taught seventh grade history teacher at KIPP Morial School.

He had been teaching for just one year and had taken a liking to his new profession after previously working for Aetna and Target.

'Not only did the staff love him, all the students loved him as well. And he was just a great person all around. He loved teaching,' Hall's sister, Tanieeka Hall, told DailyMail.com.

Tamieeka described her brother as a 'jokester' who was also serious about living a long-lasting impact on the lives of his students at the charter school.

'He was always encouraging them to do their best,' she said. 'Not only was he serious about being an educator, but he was also down to earth with the kids. But they knew that with their work he didn't play with the work. I think that's why the kids loved him so much because they could relate to them.'

Unlike Marshall, Hall's body is still in a Mexico City morgue awaiting to be flown back to New Orleans.

Although the families of Marshall and Florence learned Tuesday that carbon monoxide played a role in their deaths, Tamieeka said her family is not sure if it was.

'We talked to the U.S. embassy and some other people yesterday and they told us that it is still under investigation, and we would like them to continue the investigation,' she said. 'They said they still haven't determined the cause of death yet. They did perform an autopsy, but they haven't let us know yet. They said it's going to take a while to get it. When they get it back they will let us know.'
Allen was arrested last month in connection to the Delphi Historic Trail deaths of Libby German, 14, and Abigail William, 13

The Delphi murder suspect accused of killing two teenagers in 2017 has begged for a public defender in a desperate letter sent from his jail cell.

Richard Allen, 50, asked to be provided with a defense attorney on Wednesday after not being aware of the costs of hiring a legal team on his own.

Allen was arrested last month for the deaths of Libby German, 14, and Abigail William, 13. The two girls were killed on February 13, 2017, when they went for a hike along the Delphi Historic Trail near the Monon High Bridge in Indiana.

Authorities have been unable to pin the culprit behind the murders. It remains unclear what led police to arrest Allen, and the state police will not be releasing evidence in the case under a court order.

'I am begging to be provided with legal assistance in a public defender or whatever help is available,' Allen wrote in the letter obtained by Fox 59. 'At my initial hearing on October 28, 2022, I asked to find representation for myself. However, at the time, I had no clue how expensive it would be just to talk to someone.'

Allen also wrote that his wife is now jobless and had to abandon their home 'for her personal safety.'

The alleged killer was initially booked in to the county jail but was moved to a state facility shortly afterwards out of fears for his own safety.

Richard Allen, 50, begged for a public defender more than a week after he said he would hire his own for the double murder case he is charged with

Abigail Williams, left, and Liberty German, right, were murdered in February 2017 after going for a walk along the Delphi Historic Trail near the Monon High Bridge. The culprit had remained a mystery for five years

Allen described his financial struggles in the letter and said his wife is now jobless and was forced to leave their home 'for her personal safety. Pictured: Allen and his wife Kathy

Since Allen's arrest, it was also revealed that his home was less than two miles from the Delphi train bridge where Williams and German were last seen alive.

Exactly how the girls died remains unknown to the public, and the state their bodies were discovered in also remains shrouded in mystery.

Over the summer, the details of a search warrant revealed that Libby and Abigail were found covered in blood, and that their killer appeared to have taken a souvenir of some sort from the murder site.

The girls bodies were also 'staged' in a particular way after their death - but it remains unclear exactly how they were left.

Investigators also believed photographs or videos were likely shot of the grotesque set-up to 'memorialize' the crime scene.

Delphi Police have always been tight-lipped on crucial components of the investigation including how the girls died, or what kind of condition their bodies were in when they were found.

Indiana State Police said in February they knew who killed the girls, but that they had insufficient evidence to make an arrest. It is unclear whether they were referring to Allen or not.

It was recently revealed that his home was less than two miles from the Delphi train bridge where Williams and German were last seen alive.

Libby German was filmed by her friend and fellow victim Abigail Williams in February, 2017, moments before they were murdered

Indiana cops released Snapchat footage documented by the girls in 2017 of a man following them closely on a bridge shortly before their deaths  who was dubbed 'Bridge Guy'.

A composite sketch was released in 2017 showing a possible suspect in the case

The photo was of a heavily-built man in jeans and a blue jacket could be seen approaching the girls, and in a brief snippet of audio that was released the man could be heard saying 'Down the hill' to the girls.

The full clip is reportedly 43 seconds long, but its contents are believed to be too disturbing to share in full.

Their bodies were found close to the bridge the day after they vanished, with several suspects being linked to the case over the years - but no arrests were made until Allen.

It is unclear if Allen is the man in the footage or the voice which uttered the phrase 'down the hill' recorded by Libby's cell phone shortly before the crime.

An unidentified man  now believed to be Allen  was filmed approaching Libby and Abby before their deaths

Carrie Timmons, the mother of Libby German, said she was 'surprised' when Allen was charged with the murder of her daughter and her friend Abigail.

Speaking to the US Sun, she said: 'It's been extremely emotional. Of course, I'm excited and happy there's been an arrest but he hasn't been proven guilty, it's all alleged, so it's not a time to celebrate.

'It's all been rather triggering because it's bringing everything back, and in a sense, I'm reliving everything all over again.

'But it feels like we're now at the beginning of the last chapter, so I hope that's the case, but there's still a long road ahead of us'.

She said: 'I want nothing more than to look this person in the eye. So as terrified as I am by the thought of it all, I'm trying to prepare myself for that moment.

'But I don't believe there's going to be any closure, not until I'm no longer here and I'm back with Libby again. Closure is not really what I'm looking for anyway.

'I want peace and I want peace for the girls. Those girls need justice so they can rest in peace, and I need that for them more than anything.

'It's all very surreal still. As long as I've waited for this moment nothing could have prepared me for it.

She added: 'I want to go to court and I hope we can get a conviction, but there's still a lot of questions.

'We don't know what evidence law enforcement has ... it feels like there are now more questions than we've ever had before.

Timmons also believes that Allen should 'suffer for the rest of his life' after killing her daughter, before adding that 'death is too good' for him.
It comes six months after a fatal shooting, one street away in Knox Street

The victim was taken to St George Hospital and was in a stable condition

Officers set up a crime scene and believe the shocking incident was targeted

A 32-year-old man has been shot in the right leg, six months after a fatal shooting just one street away.

Emergency services were called to a home on Hugh Street at Belmore in Sydney's south-west at 8.15pm on Wednesday night, where the man was found inside with a gunshot wound to his leg.

He was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics, before being taken to St George Hospital in a stable condition.

Emergency services were called to a home on Hugh Street in Belmore in Sydney's south-west (pictured) on Wednesday night, where the man was found inside with a gunshot wound to his leg

Police believe the shocking incident could be targeted and said the man was alone in the home when officers arrived at the scene.

Detectives found evidence in Minnie Street while searching the area.

A crime scene was established by the Campsie Police Area Command, which will be forensically examined.

Investigations are ongoing.

It comes after the nephew of gangster Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad was gunned down in front of his pregnant wife and two-year-old child last May - one street away from Wednesday's Hugh Street shooting.

Rami Iskander, 23, was shot in the torso at his home on Knox Street at Belmore just before 4am on May 14 this year.

Devastated relatives performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived on scene and attempted to treat his injuries before he died.

A 41-year-old man was arrested last month and taken to Kogarah Police Station, after officers searched a home in Oatley.

He was charged over his alleged involvement in Mr Iskander's murder.

A short time later, police executed a search warrant at a home in Kyle Bay, where a 38-year-old woman was arrested and also taken to Kogarah Police Station.

The man was charged with accessory after the fact to murder, accessory before the fact to murder, participate criminal group, contribute criminal group activity and knowingly deal with proceeds of crime.

The woman was charged with knowingly deal with proceeds of crime and participate in criminal group.
More than double the number of children than previously thought were infected with HIV through blood products in the UK, an inquiry has said.

Thousands of patients were hit by HIV and hepatitis C because of contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s.

It had previously been reported that at least 175 children were involved, but an inquiry looking into the fiasco has estimated the true number to be more than double.

Thousands of patients were hit by HIV and hepatitis C because of contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s

Jenni Richards KC, counsel to the Infected Blood Inquiry, said the inquirys view is that the figure of 175 derives from a 1990 legal claim brought by haemophiliacs who had been infected with HIV, where 175 of the plaintiffs were still children at the time of the 42million settlement in 1991.

She added: The inquiry estimates that the number of people who were children when infected is more than two times that number.

It now says that around 380 children were involved. It came to the estimate by basing it on the proportion of children among people with bleeding disorders, using data which was published in journal The Lancet in 1996 and figures provided by the UK Haemophilia Centre Doctors Organisation.

The disaster occurred after the UK struggled to keep up with demand for treatments tackling the blood-clotting condition haemophilia and other bleeding disorders, and began importing infected products from overseas.

About 2,400 people died in what has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

Most of those involved relied on regular injections of the US product Factor VIII  a blood-clotting protein  to survive. However, they were unaware that they were receiving contaminated products from people who had been paid to donate, including prisoners and drug addicts.

Patients continued to be injected for years despite repeated warnings at the top of Whitehall. And some victims were also infected after receiving blood transfusions. New cases of HIV and hepatitis continued to be diagnosed decades after the first contaminations, resulting in early deaths for many.
President Joe Biden was slammed as a hypocrite Wednesday night after he suggested Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition should be investigated  while denying any wrongdoing with his son's foreign entanglements.

The president said at a news conference that the billionaire's acquisition of Twitter 'is worthy of being looked at' after he was asked whether the deal, which was partially funded by Saudi Arabia, constituted a national security threat.

'I think that Elon Musk's cooperation and or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,' he said, after a long pause - choosing his words very deliberately.

'Whether or not he's doing anything inappropriate. I'm not suggesting that. I'm suggesting that it's worth looking being looked at. That's all I'll say.'

When asked how the deal should be looked at Biden laughed, and replied: 'There's a lot of ways.'

But Biden himself has been embroiled in shady dealings with foreign governments, with a whistleblower exclusively telling DailyMail.com this week how the president acted as a 'silent partner' in his son, Hunter's, plans to build an online gambling venture in Latin America.

'What about your relationships with other countries, Joe?' The Benny Report host Benny Johnson tweeted after Biden suggested getting the Department of Justice to investigate the 51-year-old billionaire.

Musk, pictured on November 4, bought Twitter two weeks ago - the deal closed on October 27. Biden said that it was potentially worthy of investigation, given the foreign financing

Benny Johnson, the host of The Benny Report, accused the president of being a hypocrite as he, too, has business dealings with other countries

Chuck Callesto, a Republican political strategist, also tweeted that instead of calling for a federal investigation of Elon Musk over 'relationships with other countries, Biden should call 'for federal investigation of HIS SON HUNTER over 'relationships with other countries.'

Author and investigative reporter Matt Taibbi, meanwhile, asked: 'Where's the alleged wrongdoing justifying this?'

'Its bad enough that we investigate people without cause now, but having the President label people threats in public? And people are okay with this?' he asked.

And Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called Biden's remarks an 'abuse of power' as he re-released a video he put up in June saying the president called on social media companies to 'attack free speech.'

Meanwhile, Nick Arama, a writer at Red State, claimed Musk's only crime is 'not being a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who would control Twitter to help their narrative.

'Twitter already had the Saudis invested in it. No one seemed to give a darn about that,' he continued. 'Now suddenly, it's something that should be investigated.

'Biden is effectively dictating action against a person who recommends that people vote for Republicans for Congress,' he surmises. 'This should concern everyone about what's being said here.

'If he can do it to the richest man in the world, h can do it to anyone else.'

Arama concludes by writing: 'How ironic that answer is also because if there's anyone whose foreign government connections need investigation and are a threat to national security its Joe, Jim and Hunter,' referring to the president's son and brother.

Musk is yet to respond to Biden's remarks.

Tesla's share price fell on Wednesday, closing down 7.17 percent.

Many on Twitter accused the president of abusing his power in office by going after Musk

Biden's remarks come after Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted last month that Musk's deal with the Saudis was worth investigating.

'Today I am requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment  which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers  to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Twitter,' he said.

Most foreigners seeking to take even non-controlling stakes in U.S. companies must seek approval from CFIUS, a powerful Treasury-led committee that reviews transactions for national security concerns and has the power to block them.

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company and the private office of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said they will continue their ownership of Twitter shares - valued at $1.89 billion.

'The deal is in line with the long-term investment strategy which Kingdom Holding Company is known for,' the statement said.

Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding is 16.9 percent owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

'We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting U.S. politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform,' Murphy wrote on Twitter.

'There is a clear national security issue at stake and CFIUS should do a review.'

Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal helped finance Musk's $44B purchase

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut last month said Musk's deal with the Saudis was worth investigating.

The Democrat Senator is seeking a probe of a Saudi billionaire's stake in Musk's Twitter purchase

But Biden has also been entangled in some shady business dealings with foreign governments.

His son, Hunter, is now under federal investigation for alleged tax crimes, money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying concerning his overseas business dealings.

The president has repeatedly said he never spoke to his son about his foreign business.

But DailyMail.com has previously published voluminous evidence showing President Biden was aware of, and may even have been involved in, his son's foreign business.

In October 2020, Hunter's former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, revealed tht he discussed their deal with Chinese oil giant CEFC directly with Joe.

Other partners in the Chinese deal also texted Bobulinski that Joe was involved, and emails on Hunter's abandoned laptop refer to Hunter allegedly holding 10 percent of the equity in the deal on his father's behalf.

Earlier this week, DailyMail.com also exclusively revealed that the president was directly involved in his son's venture into online gambling in Latin America in 2012  when Biden was serving as the vice president.

A whistleblower told how they were party to a 2012 conference call involving then-VP Joe, Hunter, his business partner Jeff Cooper, late Senate majority leader Harry Reid and his son Key Reid, who was also in business with Hunter.

The source  who identified himself to Senate investigators but asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution  said of the then-vice president: 'He wasn't passive, he was talking about it.

'If I had to describe him, he was like a member of the Board of Directors.'

A whistleblower has come forward to claim they have direct knowledge of Joe Biden's involvement in son Hunter's foreign business deals while serving as VP

On the alleged call, he said, Joe asked about revenue projections, when the company's software would be ready, and congratulated Cooper on securing gambling licenses from the Peruvian government, the individual said.

'With the direct observations I had, it's obvious Joe was participating in the business,' they said.

The alleged call was not recorded, but DailyMail.com has independently verified the whistleblower was closely involved in Coopers company for years, including at the time of the conference call, and was in a position to be involved in discussions on Ochos business development.

Aspects of the source's story were verified using published government records and corporate filings. The whistleblower also provided documents, emails and photographs corroborating their account of their involvement with Cooper and Hunter's company.

But in a statement to DailyMail.com, Cooper denied ever having a call about any of his companies with the president or late senator saying it was a 'complete fabrication'.

Key, Hunter and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The informant says they were on a 2012 conference call involving Joe, Hunter and his business partners. The whistleblower has identified themselves to Senate investigators but asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal

Biden's swipe at Musk on Wednesday is just the most recent development in their fraught relationship, which began early on in the president's tenure when Musk was excluded from a White House gathering of the nation's biggest makers of electric vehicles.

'(They) didn't mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution. Does that sound maybe a little biased?' Musk said during a panel discussion in August 2021.

'Not the friendliest administration, seems to be controlled by unions.'

Asked in August whether the White House did not invite Musk because workers at Tesla are not unionized, the then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: 'I'll let you draw your own conclusion.'

Then in January this year, Biden again overlooked Musk and instead met with GM's CEO, Mary Barra.

The White House has repeatedly praised the Detroit automaker's electric vehicle efforts, even though it is selling far fewer EVs than Tesla.

Biden tweeted a video of himself talking to Barra, to which Musk replied 'Starts with a T/Ends with an A/ESL in the middle.'

He then compared Biden to a 'damp sock puppet'.

Finally in February, Biden acknowledged Musk's work in the field.

'From iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production to Tesla, our nation's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, to innovative younger companies,' Biden said, adding other start-ups and saying manufacturing is coming 'back to America after decades.'

Adding on to federal accusations, the California Department of Motor Vehicles accused Tesla of false advertisement of its 'Autopilot' feature

More recently, Musk urged his 114 million Twitter followers to vote against Biden's party in the midterms, telling 'independent-minded' voters to pick Republicans.

He said that 'shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties' so independent voters should vote 'for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic'.

In a follow-up post, he added that 'independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge' because hardcore voters on both sides never vote for the other side.

Musk previously said he used to be a Democrat, but would vote Republican in the future.

In May, he declared he would vote Republican because the once-kind Democrat party had become 'the party of division and hate'.

A month earlier, he had posted a cartoon-like image attacking the Democrats for becoming more left-wing - leaving him, views unchanged, on the right of the political spectrum.

The prolific tweeter posted in May: 'In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party.

'But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.

'Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.'

Musk branded the Democrats a party of 'division and hate' in a May tweet

The left got lefter: In April, Musk shared an image showing how the political landscape had changed leaving him, and his unchanged views, more centrist then right as left-wing politics changed

To make matters worse, the Justice Department last month announced it was launching a criminal investigation into Tesla after the company's self-driving feature led to more than a dozen crashes - some of which were fatal.

Musk said in 2016 that the vehicle's 'autopilot' system was 'probably better' than a human driver, despite recent tests indicating cars failed to detect mannequin children multiple times.

A probe into more than 830,000 of the company's vehicles and its complementary advertising leads investigators wondering whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators over unsupported claims regarding the feature.

Should the department find any evidence to support its claims, criminal charges against the company or individual executives could be filed.

Former US attorney Barbara McQuade, who has prosecuted automotive companies in the past, told Reuters that investigators would need to find internal communications within the company indicating misleading statements.

The investigation follows a 2021 fatal crash in which a Tesla Model S, operating on 'Autopilot,' led its driver into a parked vehicle killing a 22-year-old college student.

Meanwhile, Musk acknowledged on Wednesday that his fraught takeover of Twitter two weeks ago  which has already seen him fire many of the executives including the CEO, chief financial officer and senior lawyers, plus 3,700 others  was a work in progress.

'Complaint hotline operator online! Please mention your complaints below,' he tweeted Wednesday morning.

He added that afternoon: 'Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn't.'

Those tweets come just one day after he tweeted: 'Twitter is the worst! But also the best.'
Rishi Sunak faced mounting opposition last night over Budget plans to reinstate Labour's 50p top tax rate.

The Mail revealed yesterday that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering shock moves to raise the current 45p rate, despite warnings it would break the Tories' 2019 manifesto pledges on tax.

Mr Hunt is also looking at alternative options to reduce the threshold at which people start paying the top rate from 150,000 to 140,000.

A Whitehall source last night said the proposals were 'not kite-flying' and one or both of the measures were now likely to feature in next week's Budget.

Economists warned the move would raise little extra cash, as top earners would find ways to avoid it or even move abroad.

The Mail revealed yesterday that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt (pictured) is considering shock moves to raise the current 45p rate, despite warnings it would break the Tories' 2019 manifesto pledges on tax

Paul Johnson, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said tinkering with the top rate was unlikely to raise significant sums for a Government scrambling to fill a hole in the public finances of up to 60billion.

The Treasury estimated scrapping the rate completely would cost only 2billion when the then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng proposed it in his ill-fated mini-Budget in September.

Mr Johnson said that while raising the top rate might help persuade people the Budget package was fair, it was unlikely to raise much cash.

'Is it a good way of raising a lot of extra money? No, because increasing the top rate brings a huge amount of uncertainty about future revenues and, on a central estimate, it would raise very little.'

Business leaders and Tory MPs also warned it would undermine aspiration and damage the UK's reputation as a place to do business.

John Longworth, of the Independent Business Network, said it was 'not a good signal for the UK in terms of people working hard and encouraging enterprise'. Mr Longworth, a member of the government's regulatory policy agenda, also rounded on wider plans to raise taxes by 25billion in next week's Budget, saying the Government was 'taxing entrepreneurs, taxing individuals, taxing work'.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on November 1, 2022 in London, England

Describing the Government as 'socialist', he told the BBC: 'These are the sorts of things you would expect from a Labour government.'

The tax raid is expected to be the biggest since Alistair Darling's 2010 Budget which the then Conservative leader David Cameron described as a 'ticking tax bombshell'.

Former Cabinet minister David Jones warned that many Tory MPs are becoming 'very concerned' by the looming plans on tax. He said: 'The Conservative position is that high taxes act as a disincentive to the entrepreneurship and aspiration we want to encourage.'

Mr Hunt and Rishi Sunak have already agreed to extend a four-year freeze on income tax thresholds for a further two years, despite predictions it will drag three million more people into higher tax bands.

Future thresholds for paying national insurance and inheritance tax will also be frozen by the Government.
Rishi Sunak has hinted he is looking for a quick Brexit deal ahead of a meeting with his Irish counterpart today.

The Prime Minister will urge the Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, and representatives from the UKs devolved governments to be pragmatic  telling them they must work together in our shared interests.

Mr Sunak will today attend the opening of the British-Irish Council summit  the first Prime Minister to do so since 2007  in Blackpool.

The PM will join representatives from the governments of the UK and Ireland, the devolved governments and Crown Dependencies at the gathering. The council was established under the Good Friday Agreement to promote positive relationships among these institutions.

Rishi Sunak will tell Ireland's Taoiseach Micheal Martin that they must work together in our shared interests at the British-Irish Council summit today

The British-Irish Council was established under the Good Friday Agreement to promote positive relationships among these institutions

He is expected to tell them: We face huge challenges from global economic headwinds to war in Europe. So lets be pragmatic. Lets work together in our shared interests.

Lets deliver for all our people across these great islands  and build a future defined not by division, but by unity and hope.

Negotiations between the UK and EU aimed at changing post-Brexit trading rules are continuing, with both sides talking up the prospect of a deal.

Mr Sunak has said he wants to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol, and Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said a negotiated settlement is doable by the end of the year.

Ahead of the summit today, the PM will hold talks with Mr Martin. He is also expected to meet Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said a negotiated settlement for the Northern Ireland Protocol is doable by the end of the year

Mr Sunak will reiterate his commitment to restoring the Northern Ireland Executive, which has not functioned since February. We all want to see power sharing restored as soon as possible, he said. Im determined to deliver that.

His comments come after Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the Government would extend the deadline for calling an election in Northern Ireland by six weeks to December 8 and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members to reflect the fact they are not currently doing their job as legislators. A reduction of around one-third is expected.

A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at the Protocol, has prevented an executive being formed in Belfast.
A US Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been sentenced to long prison terms for plotting to sell submarine secrets to a foreign country - often hidden in chewing gum wrappers to peanut butter sandwiches.

Jonathan Toebbe, 44, and his wife, Diana Toebbe, 46, pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to sell information related to naval nuclear propulsion systems.

Jonathan was sentenced to 19 years and three months in prison while Diana received a prison term of 21 years and eight months.

According to court documents, Diana acted as a lookout while her husband delivered highly-classified information on nuclear submarine technology to the foreign buyer in a series of 'dead drops' in the region around their Annapolis, Maryland, home.

Jonathan was accused of depositing memory cards containing government secrets, concealing them in objects such as a chewing gum wrapper, a Band-Aid wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich.

The foreign buyer was not identified by the US authorities but The New York Times, citing people briefed on the investigation, said the country was Brazil.

Jonathan Toebbe, 44, was sentenced to 19 years in prison while wife Diana, 46, gets just over 21 years after they pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in August 2022.

Jonathan Toebbe is seen at his first court hearing, on October 12

Diana Toebbe is pictured in court on October 12 in Martinsburg, West Virginia

A teacher at a private school, Diana initially pleaded innocent to the charge of conspiracy to communicate restricted data.

But she changed her plea after her husband pleaded guilty and in doing so admitted that his wife took part in the plot.

Jonathan was a nuclear engineer for the US Navy dealing with nuclear submarine propulsion systems when the two were arrested on October 9, 2021 after he hid a small SD card carrying US secrets at a dead drop location in West Virginia.

Court documents described a tantalizing, spy-novel-like plot in which they traveled hundreds of miles to secretly hand over information, took payments in cryptocurrency, and followed signals made from an embassy building in Washington.

In one message, Jonathan indicated he had been considering his actions for several years and was happy to work with 'a reliable professional partner.'

He also wrote he had divided all the data he had collected into 51 'packages' of information, and sought $100,000 for each.

The leaked secrets contained 'militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors,' according to a federal court affidavit

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. government in exchange for reduced time in prison after pleading guilty to a felony count in federal court for selling information about nuclear submarines to a foreign country in exchange for millions of dollars of cryptocurrency

One memory card included a typed message that said, in part: 'I hope your experts are very happy with the sample provided and I understand the importance of a small exchange to grow our trust.'

Many of the emails that were exchanged between Jonathan and the representative of the foreign country were transcribed in the court documents. He used two pseudonyms: Alice Hill and Bob Burns.

The messages suggest he was offering the classified information to a power that already has nuclear submarines.

He states in one message that the information 'reflects decades of U.S. Navy 'lessons learned' that will help keep your sailors safe.'

Only six countries currently operate nuclear-powered submarines  China, France, India, Russia, the UK and the US. The US and UK are set to provide Australia with the technology to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, as part of the first initiative under the new trilateral security partnership AUKUS.

Prior to the new deal, which ignited a diplomatic row between Washington and Paris, the US had only shared the technology of its submarines with Britain. Each of these underwater craft costs an estimated $3billion to build.

The country the Jonathan were allegedly trying to sell the nuclear secrets to is not clear and neither are their motivations.

However, court documents suggest it was most likely an ally or neutral government because it cooperated with the FBI during the sting operation to expose him.

The unidentified foreign government sat on the documents before turning them over to the US in December 2020, after the election. The FBI then conducted a sting operation to catch the Toebbes attempting to spill more government secrets

But the FBI was following the plot, after having been alerted to it by the target nation in December 2020, though that was nearly nine months after the Toebbes first mailed their offer to the country's military intelligence.

'The Toebbes betrayed the American people and put our national security at significant risk when they selfishly attempted to sell highly sensitive information related to nuclear-powered warships for their own financial benefit,' Brice Miller, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said in a statement.

The couple were arrested last October after prosecutors said he had repeatedly sold information about the submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Toebbe acknowledged during the plea hearing to conspiring to pass classified information to a foreign government, causing 'injury to the United States.'

Jonathan Toebbe, who as part of his job had a top-secret security clearance, agreed as part of the plea deal to help federal officials with locating all classified information in his possession, as well as the roughly $100,000 in cryptocurrency that was paid to him.

Diane Toebbe (left) and Jonathan Toebbe (right) are both accused of being involved in a plot to sell nuclear secrets to a foreign power for $100,000 in cryptocurrency

The Toebbes had discussed fleeing abroad, and mentioned practicing their foreign language skills in texts obtained by investigators. They speak French, further fueling speculation that they'd tried to sell the secrets to the European nation.

FBI agents who searched the couple's Annapolis, Maryland, home found a trash bag of shredded documents, thousands of dollars in cash, valid childrens passports and a 'go-bag' containing a USB flash drive and latex gloves.

Diana Toebbe said her husband only wanted to flee the country because she hated Donald Trump, a court has been told.

Lawyers for Diana Toebbe, 45, claim she only wanted to exit the US because of her disdain for the former president, and not because she was worried about getting caught for allegedly trying to sell the classified information.

They made the claim in court papers filed Wednesday, complete with an exchange of messages said to have taken place between Toebbe and her husband Jonathan in March 2019.

Those texts also allegedly saw Diana Toebbe discuss fleeing to France. The country they tried to sell the secrets to has never been mentioned, and is said to be a US ally, although officials told NBC News that France was not the country targeted.

A bird's eye show of Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory lab, where the FBI claims is the only place where Toebbe could have obtained the classified information on US nuclear subs. Toebbe has worked on naval nuclear propulsion since 2012, including a 15-month tenure in the office of the chief of naval operations

The residence of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe is shown on Sunday in Annapolis, Maryland

Diana begins: 'We need to get out.' Jonathan appears bored with her statement, answering: '*sigh* where? To do what?'

His wife then says: 'To anywhere. To do something else. To teach in international schools. To take Macron up on his offer to harbor scientific refugees.'

In an apparent attempt to calm Diana, Jonathan says: 'Biden/Warren will curb stomp Trump/Pence.'

But Diana was undeterred, and replied: 'WE NEED TO GET OUT. Hilary (sic) was going to curb stomp trump. I'm done.'

Jonathan touted the then-unpublished Mueller Report into alleged collusion between Team Trump and Russia, which ended up posing no threat to Trump's presidency.

Shocking emails exchanged between Jonathan Toebbe and undercover FBI agent reveal his plot to sell US nuclear secrets

On December 26, 2020, the FBI initiated the first of several emails to 'ALICE' on ProtonMail. The FBI utilized a ProtonMail account utilizing the pseudo name 'BOB.' The email stated, 'We received your letter. We want to work with you. It has been many months, so we need to know if you are still out there. Please respond to this message, then we will provide instructions on how to proceed.'

On February 10, 2021, 'ALICE' responded and stated, 'Thank you for contacting me. I am still here. The covid disease has made it more difficult to find chances to check this email. Let us discuss how to proceed.'

On February 24, 2021, an FBI agent acting in an undercover capacity ('the UC') responded and stated, 'We understand the delay and hope you are well. Our experts reviewed the information you provided. We would like to sample your [US. Navy Information  Specific Sections].' We have a trusted friend in your country who has a gift for you to compensate for your efforts...

On March 5, 2021, 'ALICE' replied with the following. ' I am uncomfortable with this arrangement. Face to face meetings are very risky for me, as I am sure you understand. I propose exchanging gifts electronically, for mutual safety. I can upload documents to a secure cloud storage account, encrypted with the key I have provided you. You can send me a suitable gift in Monero cryptocurrency to an address I will provide. 100,000 usd should be enough to prove to me that you are not an unwelcome third party looking to make trouble for me. When I have confirmed receipt of your gift, I will provide you with the download link. We are both protected. I understand this is a large request. However, please remember I am risking my life for your benefit and I have taken the first step. Please help me trust you fully.'

On March 18, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 wrote, 'We understand a face to face meeting would be uncomfortable. We suggest a neutral drop location. When you visit the location alone, you retrieve a g~fi and leave behind the sample we request. We hope to have a very long friendship that benefits mutually.'

On March 22, 2021, 'ALICE' replied. 'I understand your proposal to start a dead drop. I am concerned that using a dead drop location your friend prepares makes me very vulnerable. If other interested parties are observing the location, I will be unable to detect them. I am not a professional, and do not have a team supporting me. I am also concerned that a physical gift would be very difficult to explain if I am questioned. For now, I must consider the possibility that you are not the person I hope you are. It would be very easy for the serial numbers of bills to be recorded. Tracking devices and other nasty surprises must be considered as well. I propose to mod~ your plan in the following ways:

1. I will place the sample you requested on a memory card and place it in a drop location of my choosing... . I am not a professional and I am sure that publicly available information on this subject is incomplete.

2. The samples will be encrypted using GnuPG symmetric encryption with a randomly generated passphrase.

3. I will tell you the location and how to find the card. I will also give you a Monero address. This form of gift protects both of us very well. I am very aware of the risks of blockchain analysis of BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies, and believe Monero gives both of us excellent deniability.

4. Once I confirm receipt of my gift, I will give you the passphrase.

Your friend and I will never go to the same drop location twice. I will give you a new Monero address each time. The decryption key will be different each time. No patterns for third parties to observe. The only electronic footprints will be Proton to Proton, so there is less risk of encrypted traffic being collected for future analysis by third parties. That part is not perfect. Perhaps as our friendship develops we will change addresses periodically?'

On April 1, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 responded to 'ALICE' and stated, 'We understand your concern and appreciate the thoughtful plan... as a sign of good faith and trust we wish to pay you the equivalent of 10,000 USD immediately on Monero to address you provided.

Drop locations are safest and allow us to make exchanges without coming in contact and of course leave no electronic footprint... Your proposed method of memory card with encryption/passphrases is acceptable. For the small sample we requested you will receive another 20,000 USD. Once you confirm Monero address we will activate payment. Our next step will be information on the drop location we have selected. This method will build trust between usfor a larger transaction in future. Our experts are interested in the information you have but we insist on maintaining our discretion and security as a priority.'

On April 9, 2021, 'ALICE' wrote, 'I am sorry to be so stubborn and untrusting, but I can not agree to go to a location of your choosing. I must consider the possibility that l am communicating with an adversary who has intercepted my first message and is attempting to expose me. Would not such an adversary wish me to go to a place of his choosing, knowing that an amateur will be unlikely to detect his surveillance? If you insist on physically delivering the package, then it must be a place of my choosing.

I ask you to consider the viability of an electronic dead drop. I can establish an encrypted online storage account without providing any identifying information and without provoking any suspicion...Another possibility occurs to me: is there some physical signal you can make that proves your identity to me? I could plan to visit Washington D.C. over the Memorial Day weekend. I would just be another tourist in the crowd. Perhaps you could fly a signal flag on your roof? Something easily observable from the street, but nothing to arouse an adversary's suspicion?... '.

On April 23, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 emailed the following: 'You do not need to apologize. We appreciate you being careful. That is much better than someone reckless. Your thoughtful plans indicate you are not amateur. This relationship requires mutual comfort. There is risk on both sides and we understand your need for safety assurance of who you are communicating with. As you suggest we can accommodate a signal in Washington D.C. over the Memorial Day weekend. We will set a signal from our main building observable from the street. It will bring you comfort with signals on display from the area inside our property that we control and not a [sic] adversary. If you agree please acknowledge. We will then provide more instruction about the signal. We hope this plan will continue to build the necessary trust and comfort of our identity.'

On May 5, 2021 'ALICE' wrote, 'I will make plans to be in the capitol [sic] over the Memorial Day weekend. It would be best to leave the signal visible for the entire holiday weekend so I can plan to pass by in the natural course of my tourist day. I may be on foot or passing by in a bus or car or bicycle, so please plan for something easy to spot.

On May 17, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 responded and said, in part, 'We are happy to set a signal to bring you comfort and build necessary trust between us. The signal will be inside our main building from Saturday morning until Sunday evening Memorial Day weekend.'

During the weekend of May 29-30, 2021, the FBI conducted an operation in the Washington, D.C. area that involved placing a signal at a location associated with COUNTRY1 in an attempted effort to gain bona fides with 'ALICE.'

On May 31, 2021, the FBI received confirmation via the ProtonMail from 'ALICE' that the signal was received. 'ALICE' also wrote that, 'Now Jam comfortably telling you your assumption that Pittsburgh would be a convenient location for me is incorrect.. for now I can tell you I am located near Baltimore, Maryland. Please let me know when you are ready to proceed with our first exchange. Once you have dropped location details for me, I will give you the Monero address and prepare the sample you have requested.' 'ALICE' went on to request clarity of the U.S. Navy information requested by the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1.

On June 4, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 requested the Monero address to provide 'ALICE' a payment of $10,000 USD as a sign of good faith and trust. The UC also informed 'ALICE' that new communication instructions would be provided at the exchange location.

On June 8, 2021, 'ALICE' wrote that, 'For maximum security it is very important that you do not send Monero to the same address twice.' 'ALICE' then provided the FBI with a payment address. 'ALICE' then went on to state, 'I will place information you have requested~ encrypted, on a memory card along with the address for the second payment you offered in a plain text file. After I confirm the second payment I will provide you with the decryption passphrase using the new communication method. I am also excited to continue our relationship...'

On June 10, 2021, the FBI paid 'ALICE' approximately $10,000 USD in Monero cryptocurrency.

On June 17, 2021, 'ALICE' thanked the FBI for the first payment and stated that he/she was 'eagerly waiting for your instructions.'

On June 18, 2021, the UC posing as a representative of COUNTRY1 emailed 'ALICE' to provide detailed instructions on servicing a dead drop location in Jefferson County, West Virginia to occur on June 26, 2021.

The UC discussed instructions regarding the next payment to 'ALICE' as well as additional assurance that 'ALICE' would be paid $20,000 upon the sample verification and authenticity of the information provided at the drop location.

On June 23, 2021, 'ALICE' sent the FBI a confirmation email stating, 'I understand your instructions and am ready to move forward.'

On June 26, 2021, at approximately 10.41 a.m., the FBI observed Jonathan Toebbe physically service a dead drop location in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Records show that Jonathan Toebbe is a government employee working as a nuclear engineer for the United States Navy and holds an active Top Secret Security Clearance through the United States Department of Defense and an active Q clearance from the United States Department of Energy.
Three hearty cheers for Suella Braverman's outburst of common sense when she says the police should crack down on the eco-anarchists making lives a misery.

Echoing everything this paper has argued  and the thoughts of millions of Britons  the Home Secretary says forces should stop pussyfooting around Just Stop Oil's doomsday cultists.

If woke chief constables keep humouring these self-righteous oddballs, confidence in the police will seep irreversibly away.

The agitators aren't just inconveniencing thousands of drivers when they shut the M25. They're endangering lives, too.

Unless the law gets tough with Just Stop Oil protesters, someone will soon get killed

Yesterday, a police officer was injured after the group's antics caused a collision.

Make no mistake, unless the law gets tough with these irresponsible protesters, someone will soon get killed. By treating them with kid gloves, supine police and judges have let things escalate dangerously.

Ironically, by obstructing people trying to get to work or school, vandalising art and blocking ambulances, Just Stop Oil risks hardening hearts against environmentalism.

What really sticks in the craw is how misplaced the synthetic anger of these ludicrous cranks is. Thanks to an aggressive anti-carbon agenda, UK emissions are just 1 per cent of the global total  and falling.

In China, meanwhile, CO2 discharges are off the charts. But, of course, the face-glueing M25 mob wouldn't dare tread there.

No, we are forced to endure these insufferable law-breakers. And as long as the authorities here indulge them, they will continue their wanton destruction.

Strike WILL do harm

Unlike doctors, nurses are not required to swear the Hippocratic Oath.

Even so, their job of caring for patients has an ethical dimension rooted in that ancient principle: 'First, do no harm.'

By voting to strike over pay, however, members of the Royal College of Nursing are betraying that most sacred rule.

True, the union has vowed to protect NHS emergency care. But the unsparing logic of walkouts is that if it does no harm, it will be pointless. And if it does inflict harm  as it will  it will be unforgivable.

Whatever the strikers may say, it can only cause suffering to the countless patients whose routine operations and treatments will be postponed if the strike goes ahead.

Of course, it is not hard to feel sympathy for the nurses. They are overwhelmingly committed and compassionate, and work exhausting hours in trying conditions.

During the pandemic, they risked their lives for patients. And yes, their wages have decreased, in real terms, over many years.

But when the whole country is feeling the economic pinch, demanding a 17 per cent pay rise is unreasonable and unaffordable.

If patients suffer during the strikes, public goodwill might turn to hostility. The union must pull back from the brink.

Reopening talks would be in everybody's interests  not least the nurses.

A very troubling tax

Taxing the rich until the pips squeak is the oldest Labour trick in the book.

Troublingly, it seems to have been enthusiastically adopted by Jeremy Hunt, who has forgotten he's meant to be a Tory.

The Chancellor is considering reinstating Gordon Brown's 50p top tax rate on those earning over 150,000 to help fill a chasm in the nation's woeful finances.

The trouble is, it is economically illiterate virtue-signalling. When Labour imposed that rate it raised next to nothing.

Higher earners either hire better accountants to limit their bill or do less work. And rather than be fleeced by the Government here, wealth creators simply take their talents elsewhere, making this country less prosperous.

Isn't that the very last thing we need?
The bronzes include depictions of Greek gods and goddesses and bear both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions

The 2,000-year-old statues, however, suggest the groups lived in harmony even though they were at war

The Etruscan civilisation controlled Italy for centuries before losing power to the Romans

The statues are said to rewrite Italy's history between the Etruscan civilisation and the Roman Empire

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More than two dozen beautifully preserved bronze statues fashioned 2,000 years ago have been pulled from the mud of ancient thermal baths in Tuscany, Italy.

These figurines are said to 'rewrite history' about the transition from the Etruscan civilisation to the Roman Empire, due to the fact they bear both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions.

They suggest that, while the Etruscans and Romans were entangled in conflict between the second century BC and first century AD, the groups living in this area still prayed together to deities in the sacred sanctuary.

Archaeologists have carefully removed all traces of dirt to restore the statues to their former glory, revealing some human-like figures of deities like Apollo and Igea, but also individual body parts and organs.

The statues would have been presented to the gods as votive offerings in exchange for medical cures through the baths' waters, according to the ministry.

The new Italian Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, describes them as 'an exceptional discovery for Italy' and 'immense and unique treasures.'

More than two dozen beautifully preserved bronze statues fashioned 2,000 years ago have been pulled from the mud of ancient thermal baths in Tuscany, Italy

Archaeologists have carefully removed all traces of dirt to restore the statues to their former glory, revealing some human-like figures of deities like Apollo and Igea, but also individual body parts and organs

The statues, part of excavations that started in 2019, were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the Siena province, about 100 miles north of Rome

The Etruscans lived on the Italian peninsula about 2,500 years ago, before the peak of the Roman Empire, and not much is known about their culture except that they were a trading power in the Mediterranean because it flourished with minerals

The find represents the largest deposit of bronzes from this era in Italy and it is also the longest surviving antiquities from the period are primarily in terracotta, the ministry said

Most of the Etruscan civilisation migrated to Italy western Anatolia and what is now Turkey about 2,500 years ago - nearly 500 years before the Roman Empire gave rise

The bronze figurines were preserved in Mediterranean mud for over 2,000 years before being recovered and cleaned

Most of the Etruscan civilisation migrated to Italy from western Anatolia and what is now Turkey about 2,500 years ago - nearly 500 years before the Roman Empire gave rise.

While in Italy, Etruscans controlled most of northern and southern regions by becoming a trading power in the Mediterranean.

They started to lose their foothold once the Greeks took control of Sicily, which was shortly followed by the Roman Empire in 27 BC that began to spread across the nation.

The Roman Empire began to take Etruscan cities one, by one, while also destroying any evidence that it existed - it is very rare to find artefacts from the Etruscan civilisation.

However, not all was war between the two, as the recent discovery shows the groups once lived in harmony.

Archaeologists pulled the figurines and 6,000 coins from the mud, which kept the ancient items in a perfect state of conservation. Etruscans migrated to Italy from western Anatolia centuries before the rise of the Roman Empire

The statues are beautifully preserved thanks to being encased in mud for more than 2,000 years. They include both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions, suggesting the groups did live in harmony although their civilisations were at war

The statues were covered by almost 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins, and San Casciano's hot muddy waters helped to preserve them 'almost like as on the day they were immersed,' Tabolli said

The discovery is being hailed as a sensational find, noting the statues, depicting Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman divinities, used to adorn a sanctuary before they were immersed in thermal waters, in a sort of ritual, 'probably around the first century AD'

The statues, part of excavations that started in 2019, were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the Siena province, about 100 miles north of Rome.

Jacopo Tabolli, who coordinated the dig for the University for Foreigners in Siena, said the discovery was significant because it sheds new light on the end of the Etruscan civilisation and the expansion of the Roman Empire.

'While there were social and civil wars being fought outside the sanctuary ... inside the sanctuary the great elite Etruscan and Roman families prayed together in a context of peace surrounded by conflict,' Tabolli said.

'This possibility to rewrite the relationship and dialectic between the Etruscan and Romans is an exceptional opportunity.'

He also noted that the sanctuary was active from the third century BC until the fifth century AD.

The sacred area was then abandoned as Christianity began to take hold, which led to the statues being submerged in the water and the pools were closed off with massive pillars and stones.

The find represents the largest deposit of bronzes from this era in Italy and it is also the longest surviving antiquities from the period are primarily in terracotta, the ministry said.

'It's a discovery that will rewrite history,' Tabolli said in a statement, noting its shows when the Etruscans were being assimilated into Roman society, following centuries of prolonged territorial warfare.

Massimo Osanna, a top culture ministry official, called it one of the most remarkable discoveries 'in the history of the ancient Mediterranean' and the most important since the Riace Bronzes, a giant pair of ancient Greek warriors, were pulled from the sea off the toe of Italy in 1972.

The statues included etchings of what the experts believe are the names of powerful local families, who may have paid to have the artefacts commissioned

Massimo Osanna, a top culture ministry official, called it one of the most remarkable discoveries 'in the history of the ancient Mediterranean' and the most important since the Riace Bronzes, a giant pair of ancient Greek warriors, were pulled from the sea off the toe of Italy in 1972

The sacred area where the statues were found was abandoned when Christianity began to take hold, which led to them being submerged in the water and the pools were closed off with massive pillars and stones

Archaeologists recovered 24 large statues, five of which almost one meter high, plus several smaller statuettes, and noted that it was unusual for them to be made out of bronze, rather than terracotta

It was an 'era of great conflicts' and 'cultural osmosis', in which the Great Bath sanctuary of San Casciano represented a 'unique multicultural and multilingual haven of peace, surrounded by political instability and war,' the ministry said.

The statues were covered by almost 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins, and San Casciano's hot muddy waters helped to preserve them 'almost like as on the day they were immersed,' Tabolli said.

The archaeologist said his team had recovered 24 large statues, five of which almost one meter high, plus several smaller statuettes, and noted that it was unusual for them to be made out of bronze, rather than terracotta.

The statues included etchings of what the experts believe are the names of powerful local families, who may have paid to have the artefacts commissioned.

The statues were discovered in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the Siena province, about 100 miles north of Rome

It was an 'era of great conflicts' and 'cultural osmosis', in which the Great Bath sanctuary of San Casciano represented a 'unique multicultural and multilingual haven of peace, surrounded by political instability and war

Archaeologists work at the site of the discovery of two dozen well-preserved bronze statues from an ancient Tuscan thermal spring in San Casciano dei Bagni, central Italy

In 2016, researchers uncovered a 2,500-year-old sandstone tablet at the Poggio Colla site in northern Etruria, northeast of modern-day Florence.

They believe the slab, weighing around 500 pounds, is a rare example of an Etruscan sacred text, with at least 70 legible letters and punctuation marks, and possibly the name of a god or goddess.

Archaeologist Professor Gregory Warden, principal investigator of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, said in a statement: 'This is probably going to be a sacred text, and will be remarkable for telling us about the early belief system of a lost culture that is fundamental to western traditions.

Most Etruscan discoveries are typically grave and funeral objects, for example.

The slab weighs around 500lbs and it is nearly four feet tall by more than two feet wide.

It has at least 70 legible letters and punctuation marks, said Professor Warden, main sponsor of the project.

It is likely to contain words in the lost language that have never been seen before.

The slab was discovered in the foundations of a monumental temple where it had been buried for more than 2,500 years.

Scholars in the field predict the stele, the name given to this kind of tablet, will provide a huge amount of new knowledge about the lost culture of the Etruscans.
Melting of the Northeast Greenland Ice Sheet could cause sea levels to rise by half an inch by the end of the century, a new study has warned.

This is equivalent to the contribution made by the entire Greenland Ice Sheet over the last 50 years, meaning the rate of ice loss has been significantly underestimated.

Researchers from Denmark and the US used satellite data and numerical models to examine ice loss from the sheet since 2012.

They found it could contribute up to six times more to global sea level rise by 2100 than climate models currently project.

Lead author Shfaqat Abbas Khan, from the Technical University of Denmark, said: 'Models are mainly tuned to observations at the front of the ice sheet, which is easily accessible, and where, visibly, a lot is happening.

'Our data show us that what we see happening at the front reaches far back into the heart of the ice sheet.'

Researchers from Denmark and the US used satellite data and numerical models to examine ice loss at the sheet since 2012. Pictured: satellite image from August 2021 showing the disintegration of Zachariae Glacier

A: Map of ice speed in 2007. The dashed black line denotes the combined drainage from the two glaciers. The blue box denotes the enlarged area. B: Photo of the satellite receiver station setup, which consists of an antenna, receiver (in the orange box) and solar panel (on top of the box). All are situated on a platform about 2 m above the ice surface. C: A satellite image showing NEGIS and the two glaciers. The colour denotes the satellite-derived surface speed. The locations of the three satellite stations are marked by yellow squares

HOW IS GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTING GLACIAL RETREAT? Global warming is causing the temperatures all around the world to increase, but is particularly prominent at latitudes nearer the poles. Permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets are all struggling to stay in tact in the face of the warmer climate. For example, melting ice on the Greenland ice sheet is producing 'meltwater lakes', which then contribute further to the melting. This positive feedback loop is also found on glaciers atop mountains, many of which have been frozen since the last ice age. Some animal and plant species rely on the cold conditions that the glaciers provide and are migrating to higher altitudes to find suitable habitats, thus putting strain on the ecosystems there. The lack of ice on mountains is also increasing the risks of landslides and volcanic eruptions. Advertisement

Dr Khan added: 'We can see that the entire basin is thinning and the surface speed is accelerating.

'Every year, the glaciers we've studied have retreated farther inland, and we predict that this will continue over the coming decades and centuries.

'Under present-day climate forcing, it is difficult to conceive how this retreat could stop.'

The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) is a region of fast-moving ice within the ice sheet.

It drains about 12 per cent of the sheet's interior through two marine-terminating outlet glaciers: Nioghalvfjerdsfjord Gletscher and Zachariae Isstrm.

In 2012, the intrusion of warm ocean currents into an ice shelf on the Zachariae Isstrm glacier caused it to collapse.

It is thought this event has caused the flow rate of the NEGIS to increase ever since, however it has not been clear by exactly how much.

This means that the extent of any resulting ice thinning upstream of the glacier is also uncertain, as well as its contributions to rising sea levels.

For their study, published today in Nature, the international team utilised GPS navigation satellites to investigate how far ice flow acceleration has spread inward.

The satellites measure ice velocity using three receiver stations located on the ice stream, between 56 and 118 miles (90 and 190 km) inland from the glaciers.

Co-author Eric Rignot, from the University of California, Irvine, said: 'Data collected in the vast interior of ice sheets help us better represent the physical processes included in numerical models and in turn provide more realistic projections of global sea-level rise.'

The satellites collected data from 2016 to 2019, which was combined with data on surface elevations and flow accelerations since 2012.

All these measurements were finally used to optimise the friction laws of a numerical model that could predict future ice loss.

It was found that ice had thinned by up to 10 feet (three metres) since 2011, and spanned a distance of at least 124 miles (200 km) inland from the Greenland coast.

Pictured: Thinning along the flow line from April 2011 to April 2021

The models suggest that this thinning will continue at an accelerated rate throughout this century, and increase sea levels by up to 0.6 inches (15.5 mm).

Coauthor Dr Mathieu Morlighem, from Dartmouth College, said: 'The Greenland ice sheet is not necessarily more unstable than we thought, but it may be more sensitive to changes happening around the coast.

'If this is correct, the contribution of ice dynamics to overall mass loss on Greenland will be larger than what current models suggest.

'It is possible that what we find in northeast Greenland may be happening in other sectors of the ice sheet.'

The study found that ice had thinned by up to 10 feet (3 metres) since 2011, and spanned a distance of at least 124 miles (200 km) inland from the Greenland coast. Left: Lake and river on the Zachariae Glacier, northeast Greenland. Right: River of meltwater on the Zachariae Glacier

Plus, although winter 2021 and summer 2022 were particularly cold, the NEGIS glaciers kept retreating.

Northeastern Greenland is described as an 'Arctic desert' due to its low precipitation, and this means the ice sheet does not regenerate enough to offset its melt.

The researchers claim that, as technology advances, we may find that our current estimations of rising sea levels will need to be corrected upwards.

They hope that their study proving how upstream sections of glaciers and melting at the terminus are connected will aid these future projections.
It is not clear why Musk pulled the plug on the label

Elon Musk tweeted 'I killed it' moments after the official rollout of the label

This was set for a select group of media outlets, celebrities and governments

Twitter rolled out its new gray 'Official' verified label Wednesday morning

Speaking during a 'Town Hall' meeting, Musk said the verification was just another way of creating a two-class system

Elon Musk defended his decision to remove Twitter's new gray 'Official' label

Elon Musk pulled the plug on the new gray 'Official' label just hours after it rolled out because he believes it was 'another way of creating a two-class system.'

The badge was reserved for high-profile accounts, such as media outlets and celebrities, but Musk 'killed it' within hours of its rollout Wednesday morning.

Along with being 'an aesthetic nightmare,' the light colored gray emblem wasn't addressing the elephant in the room that is 'there are too many entities that would be considered official or have sort of legacy blue check marks,' Musk said during a live Town Hall meeting.

'But I go back to what I said earlier, which is that we're going to be extremely vigorous about eliminating deception,' he said.

'So if someone tries to impersonate a brand, that account will be suspended, and we will keep their eight dollars.'

Musk, however, is still moving full steam ahead with plans to charge $8 a month for the blue tick - he tweeted the 'blue check will be the greater leveler' minutes after removing the gray checkmark.

Twitter rolled out its new gray 'Official' verification label Wednesday. However, moments later some users like, video producer Marques Brownlee, tweeted that his second verification had disappeared about two hours after receiving it

Elon Musk responded to Brownlee's tweet with: 'I just killed it.' It is not clear why Musk pulled the plug on the new verification label just moments after it launched

The Official labeled rolled out around 10am ET Wednesday and within about two hours people started noticing the little tick was gone.

Video producer Marques Brownlee tweeted that his second verification had disappeared, to which Musk responded 'I just killed it.'

The blue checkmark was once a coveted feature for users, but Musk feels it creates a 'lords & peasants system for who has who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark' and believes allowing anyone to sport the checkmark is giving the 'power to the people.'

Musk continued on a tweeting spree, saying: 'Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn't.'

It is not clear why Musk pulled the plug of the 'Official' verification, but his plans to charge $8 a month for the blue tick appear to still be on the table - he tweeted the 'blue check will be the greater leveler' minutes after

The platform was responsive to the criticism, rolling back on the move just hours after the new gray Official badge had begun to appear on a number of high-profile accounts, including those for major news organizations and public figures.

Musk is standing firm on his idea that Twitter will be 'extremely vigorous' about eliminating deception.

'But I go back to what I said earlier, which is that we're going to be extremely vigorous about eliminating deception,' he said while speaking via the platform's Twitter Spaces feature

'So if someone tries to impersonate a brand, that account will be suspended, and we will keep their eight dollars.

'And they can keep doing that, and we will just keep their eight dollars again, and again  great  we can do it all day long, they will stop.

'So the key point here is if an account is engaged in trickery, we will suspend it.

'They will try, of course, they will try.

'But it starts to get expensive, and they will start to need a lot of credit cards and a lot of phones  and eventually they will stop paying.'

Elon Musk went on a tweeting spree after notifying users he had killed the gray verification label

Some industry commentators have argued the new double-verification process will only make the system more confusing.

Several celebrity and publisher accounts, including Daily Mail Online, had featured an 'Official' label alongside the blue verified badge early Wednesday and news about the roll out was circulating the web this week.

It was also confirmed by Twitter's director of product management, Esther Crawford, who said: 'Not all previously verified accounts will get the 'Official' label and the label is not available for purchase.

'Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures.

'The new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification  it's an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features.

'We'll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.'

The changes to the verification system have been a central part of Elon Musk's plans since the billionaire completed his takeover of the site last month.

Musk said opening the verification process up to more people will help democratize Twitter and cut down on the spam and bot accounts on the site.

Several celebrity and publisher accounts, including Daily Mail Online, had featured an 'Official' label alongside the blue verified badge early Wednesday and news about the roll out was circulating the web this week

Daily Mail Online' s gray label is no longer on its account

Twitter usage is at an all-time high lol  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2022

However, critics have argued charging people to get a blue badge and the other perks that come with it  including verified replies appearing more prominently  will only help those who are able to pay for it and not the platform's authentic users as a whole.

The introduction of the $8 monthly fee for Twitter Blue is also part of Musk's efforts to create new revenue streams for Twitter.

Musk had previously mulled a $20 per month blue tick verification fee, but appeared to lower the cost following criticism from famous horror author Stephen King.

'$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me,' wrote King, who has 6.9million followers. 'If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron.'

'We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?' Musk replied.

The platform is currently almost entirely dependent on money from advertising  an income stream already shrinking because of the global economic downturn.

There have also been reports advertisers could withdraw from the site if Musk enacts some of his other controversial plans for Twitter, including allowing banned accounts such as that of Donald Trump to return.
Carbon emissions hit an all-time high last year as construction rebounded from the Covid-induced lockdowns - putting efforts to decarbonize by 2050 at risk, according to a new United Nations report.

Despite an increased emphasis on energy efficiency and using less energy in the building process, consumption and CO2 emissions have fully rebounded from the pandemic lull.

The building and construction sector accounted for 37 percent of energy and process-related carbon emissions in 2021 worldwide, the UN's Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction states.

'Years of warnings about the impacts of climate change have become a reality,' said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 'If we do not rapidly cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, we will be in deeper trouble.'

Carbon emissions hit an all-time high last year as construction rebounded from the Covid-induced lockdowns. Above: The South Beach complex developed by City Developments Ltd. in Singapore, on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, was designed to be a green development

Despite an increased emphasis on energy efficiency and using less energy in the building process, consumption and CO2 emissions have fully rebounded from the pandemic lull. Above: The Vancouver Convention Centre's West Building was the first convention centre in the world to achieve double LEED Platinum certification

Decarbonizing buildings by 2050 is a crucial goal and involves a wide array of changes - improving building's energy performance, decreasing the materials' carbon footprint and more investments in energy efficiency. Above: A general picture shows a detail of the so called Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), a pair of residential towers designed by Italian architect Stefano Boeri and located in the Porta Nuova district on May 20, 2021 in Milan, Italy

'The buildings sector represents 40 per cent of Europes energy demand, 80 per cent of it from fossil fuels. This makes the sector an area for immediate action, investment, and policies to promote short and long-term energy security,' Andersen said in a statement.

Decarbonizing buildings by 2050 is a crucial goal and involves a wide array of changes - improving building's energy performance, decreasing the materials' carbon footprint and more investments in energy efficiency.

The report details the steps that have been taken to try to keep emissions in check.

Investments in building energy efficiency have gone up by unprecedented levels, rising by 16 percent in 2021 over 2020 levels to $237 billion.

These types of efforts are paying off in some ways, as the report notes that the sector's emissions intensity in kilograms of CO2 per square meter dropped from 43 in 2015 to 40 in 2021.

However, the world's ceaseless growth is happening too fast for emission-curbing efforts to catch up.

'The increase in global gross floor area between 2015 and 2021 is the equivalent to the total land area covered in buildings in Germany, France, Italy and Netherlands; if it were built on one level, at around 24,000 sq. km.,' the report states.

The UN report also puts a spotlight on the need for alternative building materials in Africa, where raw resource use is projected to double by 2060. In addition, that continent's population will reach 2.4 billion in 2050 with 80 percent of growth occurring in cities.

Among the UN's recommendations: National and sub-national governments must establish mandatory building energy codes; the construction and real estate industries must commit to reducing their CO2 emissions throughout their value chain; governments must promote a shift to so-called 'circular material economies.'

'The increase in global gross floor area between 2015 and 2021 is the equivalent to the total land area covered in buildings in Germany, France, Italy and Netherlands; if it were built on one level, at around 24,000 sq. km.,' the report states. Above: Technicians work at the site of the Chongqing section of the Baihetan-Zhejiang 800 kv ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission line over the Yangtze River on September 13, 2022 in Chongqing, China, which will produce clean electricity and reduce coal consumption
Indiyah Polack and Dami Hope are moving into their first London home together this month, MailOnline can reveal.

The Love Island star, 23, shared that she and her Irish beau are preparing to settle into their first home together in the coming weeks, after meeting on the dating show this summer.

Looking to the future, the TV personality explained that she was looking forward to their first Christmas together - as they are already planning new traditions for the festive season.

'I'm so excited for our first Christmas together': Indiyah Polack, 23, has revealed that she is moving into a London apartment with boyfriend Dami Hope (pictured together last week)

Dami and Indiyah have been going from strength to strength since placing third in this year's Love Island, and are now taking the next step in their relationship.

Indiyah said in an interview with MailOnline: 'We're moving in together in a couple weeks!

'So we're both looking forward to moving in and getting ready for Christmas actually, it'll be our first one together.'

With their new pad ready just in time for the festive season, the PrettyLittleThing Marketplace ambassador is already planning a list of traditions for the pair.

Indiyah shared: 'We're moving in together in a couple weeks! So we're both looking forward to moving in and getting ready for Christmas actually, it'll be our first one together.'

Festive season ready: With their new pad ready just in time for Christmas, Indiyah is already planning a list of traditions for the pair (pictured last month)

'I've made a whole list of Christmas traditions, we're gonna go to the Christmas Markets, we're gonna do the dinner, I've made a whole list of things. We're gonna be super extra for Christmas,' she continued.

Indiyah and Dami had a rollercoaster relationship during their time on Love Island, as they both decided to part ways durin g the show's Casa Amor challenge.

But coming back together eventually, they went on to place third in the show, and skyrocketed to fame following the stint.

Continuing that they 'prioritise quality time', Indiyah explained that they make time to relax with one another away from the limelight.

Work life: Aside from her love life, Indiyah has been busy with life after Love Island - signing a massive deal with PrettyLittleThing as their first ever Marketplace ambassador

Campaign: The star is launching a brand new collection for the pre-loved clothing platform, which features a range of reworked and revamped vintage pieces

Conscious: Speaking on the new launch, Indiyah explained: 'I wanted my own personality in the collection and to show that you don't have to buy things just to wear them once'

She explained: 'We try to keep one day a week free for one another. It's quite easy to get caught up and not enjoy that quality time, but because our jobs are so similar we can balance it.'

And aside from love life, Indiyah has been kept busy with life after Love Island - signing a massive deal with PrettyLittleThing as their first ever Marketplace ambassador.

The star is launching a brand new collection for the pre-loved clothing platform, which features a range of reworked and revamped vintage pieces.

'Fashion comes back around': The TV personality looked incredible as she posed up a storm in the shoot for PLT Marketplace

'I love what I'm doing': 'I never in a million years thought I'd be doing something like this, but I love what I'm doing and am so grateful for it. I'm just taking each day as it comes', Indiyah said

Speaking about the new launch, Indiyah explained: 'I wanted my own personality in the collection and to show that you don't have to buy things just to wear them once. Fashion comes back around.

'I never in a million years thought I'd be doing something like this, but I love what I'm doing and am so grateful for it. I'm just taking each day as it comes.'

Her Love Island castmate Gemma Owen has also signed a deal with the fast fashion giant - with Indiyah explaining that the pair have 'different styles' and have taken their collaborations in different directions.
Gillian Anderson dressed to impress in a stylish black gown as she arrived at the World premiere of The Crown season 5 in London on Tuesday.

The actress, 54, who plays Margaret Thatcher in the hit Netflix show, looked incredible in the sleeveless studded number as she posed on the red carpet.

The beauty added inches to her frame in a pair of towering silver metallic heels and added a pop of colour with a red manicure.

Stunning: Gillian Anderson dressed to impress in a stylish black gown as she arrived at the World premiere of The Crown season 5 in London on Tuesday

The Sex Education star swept her short blonde tresses back out of her face revealing a glamorous palette of makeup.

She ensured all eyes were on her as she walked the red carpet and posed with her hands in her garment pockets for several stunning snaps.

Gillian has played Thatcher since The Crown's fourth series which saw the star through her time in office in the 1980s with focus on her turbulent relationship with the Royal Family.

Incredible: The actress, 54, who plays Margaret Thatcher in the hit Netflix show, looked incredible in the sleeveless studded number as she posed on the red carpet

The fifth season of the Netflix show follows Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal family through the 1990s.

The Crown, created and written by Peter Morgan, has been a hit for Netflix since it was first released in 2016.

Since first airing the main characters of the show have been regularly recast to follow the age of the royals in their respective timelines.

Glamorous: The beauty added inches to her frame in a pair of towering silver metallic heels and added a pop of colour with a red manicure

Amazing: The Sex Education star swept her short blonde tresses back out of her face revealing a glamorous palette of makeup

Fan have been counting down the days for the series launch, even though it has been criticised for sensationalising events and including fictionalised scenes.

With the previous two seasons of The Crown covering the three decades before the Nineties the entire team has now been recast for this series' 13-year time frame of 1990 to 2003.

Focusing heavily on the fallout between Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki and King Charles (then Prince of Wales) as portrayed by Dominic West, the new series will showcase a number of low points for the royals.
Australian model Erin McNaught appears to have had a makeover following her split from British rapper Example.

The former Miss Australia, 40, took to Instagram last week to share a series of photos of her enjoying the single life, heading to a restaurant with her gal pal on Melbourne Cup Day.

The mother-of-two showed off a her new freshly dyed red hair, super ripped figure and a very smooth visage.

Australian model Erin McNaught appears to have had a makeover following her split from British rapper Example

Erin looked absolutely stunning in ultra low rise maxi skirt with a silky camisole and sandals while posing with a bevvy of attractive girlfriend.

'Day out with the girls,' she captioned the photos, before adding 'Back home and in pjs by 5pm is always a win too'.

Last month, Erin and her husband of 11 years Example announced they were separating.

The mother-of-two showed off a her new freshly dyed red hair, super ripped figure and a very smooth visage during an outing last week

The former Miss Australia, 40, shared a series of photos of her enjoying the single life, heading to a restaurant with her gal pal on Melbourne Cup Day

The star, real name Elliot Gleave, 40, wrote that their romance came to a 'natural end' after 11 years together and said that he and Erin will still be happily co-parenting their sons Evander, aged seven, and Ennio, aged five.

In a joint Instagram statement, the couple explained: 'At the start of the UK summer we decided to separate. We have had an amazing 11 years together, but just a few too many adventures.

'Obviously we spent a lot of time behind the scenes trying to figure things out, but we came to the realisation that perhaps our time as a couple had just come to a natural end.

'Day out with the girls' she captioned the picture before adding 'Back home and in pjs by 5pm is always a win too'

'So we have decided to go our separate ways whilst there is still an abundance of love and respect for one another.

'We have been Co-parenting happily and effectively now for almost half a year and our boys are surrounded with love.'

Continuing his statement, he penned: 'Due to Elliot's busy summer schedule over 14 weeks in Europe, Erin and the boys flew to London for 4 weeks so Elliot wouldn't have to go months without seeing Evander and Ennio.

'Our time as a couple has come to a natural end': Example and model wife Erin McNaught took to Instagram last month to reveal they've SPLIT after 11 years

'This is as amicable as it gets': The musician shared this lengthy post as he spoke about how much love he and Erin still have for one another

'We had an amazing family holiday, and look forward to more in the future. We have had incredible support from our closest friends and family, who are proud of how are handling this separation.

'We have turned off commenting to protect ourselves, our children and closest friends and family. Please do not feel the need to text or DM us whoever you are.

'We would appreciate the space right now and don't want to be distracted by conversations over texts, social media or FaceTime when we need to devote so much time our own well-being and most importantly, that of our children.

Happy adventures: The pair pictured on their wedding day in May 2013

'If you see us out and about together it's still the same old Elliot & Erin.

'Though we spend a lot of our time apart we still enjoy time together climbing, jogging, cinema, chasing kids around the park or getting coffee. Expect to see us out and about together with our children often.

'This is as amicable as it gets. Nobody is blaming anyone in all this. We are very happy that this is the right decision and hope that others can respect this too. Everything is as it should be Love, E&E.'

The couple became engaged in 2012. They tied the knot in 2013.

In 2020, Example credited Erin with 'saving his life' after pushing life to the extreme with drink and drugs.

Family: Example and Erin said they will be happily co-parenting their sons Evander, aged seven, and Ennio, aged five (pictured in 2021)

He said: 'Erin saved me from an early death. I was partying too much back in the day.'

The musician wrote a track about his wife for his 2020 comeback album, Some Nights Last For Days, detailing the emotional moment he played Erin the song in a 2020 interview with The Sun.

'I went to the studio with Johnny McDaid, who's a good friend of mine and is in Snow Patrol. Then I came home and played it to Erin and her parents, who were visiting. We were hugging and crying because it was so personal.

In the song Eye To Eye he calls Erin his 'saviour'.

Close: The couple became engaged in 2012. They tied the knot in 2013 and have spent much of their relationship living in Erin's native Australia

He explained of his dangerous lifestyle before meeting his wife: 'You're burning the candle at both ends, doing 120 festivals a year, 100 flights a year and you're partying four or five nights a week.

'I was lying to my ex and cheating on her. I wasn't close to my mum or dad or my sister any more, so Erin coming into my life helped me mend all those things.'

Just last year the star shared a touching tribute to his wife on their tenth anniversary.

'Shout out my life partner for having my children, having me, having the most twisted sense of humour, ageing backwards and teaching me something new each and every day' he wrote on Instagram.
Model and Selling Sunset star Tina Louise surprised fans this week by announcing her pregnancy to new boyfriend Sei Moon.

Tina, who is the ex-girlfriend of celebrity realtor Brett Oppenheim and actor Brian Austin Green, seemingly debuted her new romance out of nowhere.

Little is known about Moon, a Korean-born, London-based businessman who runs the luxury hospitality and concierge service Wiser Hospitality Group.

Model and Selling Sunset star Tina Louise (left) surprised fans this week by announcing her pregnancy to new boyfriend Sei Moon (right)

The company is described as 'a membership-based luxury hospitality advisory and booking platform'.

Before opening Wiser Hospitality Group, Moon ran a number of award-winning nightclubs in London.

The hotshot Korean earned a Bachelor of Science from Imperial College London, before working in finance and fashion before finally settling on hospitality.

Moon describes himself on Linkedin as 'a creative hospitality visionary with an outstanding academic background and finance-based foundation'.

Little is known about Moon, a Korean-born, London-based businessman who runs the luxury hospitality and concierge service Wiser Hospitality Group

A friend of Moon's from the London social scene described him as 'a nice guy'.

'He looked after the VIP guestlist at popular, high-end nightclubs in London,' the source told Daily Mail Australia.

'He was a very helpful and nice guy and he had a huge presence.'

Meanwhile, a former pal of Tina's told Daily Mail Australia that the OnlyFans model 'always had a thing for very rich Korean men'.

'She dated a few different Korean guys when I knew her,' the friend shared.

'She always wanted to have a great lifestyle and to find a successful man. She's a really awesome girl too and she's come a long way since her modelling days in Brisbane!'

The hotshot Korean earned a Bachelor of Science from Imperial College London, before working in finance and fashion before finally settling on hospitality

Tina and her new beau debuted their romance - and their pregnancy - during a trip to the beach in Los Angeles earlier this week.

The model's pregnancy will come as a surprise to fans of Netflix series Selling Sunset, as she hadn't announced she was expecting on social media.

She also hadn't posted about having a new man in her life, despite following Moon on Instagram for a while.

Tina was previously in a relationship with Brett Oppenheim, one of the leading men from Selling Sunset, who is now dating tattoo artist Samantha Abdul.

A friend of Moon's from the London social scene described him as 'a nice guy'

The Australian bombshell and Brett started dating in April last year but split up eight months later.

During their brief romance, Tina made an appearance on season five of Selling Sunset.

Before getting together with Brett, Tina was linked to rapper Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs after they were pictured kissing in Malibu in October 2020.

Tina was previously in a relationship with Brett Oppenheim, one of the leading men from Selling Sunset

She had earlier dated Brian Austin Green in June 2020, about the time of his separation from Megan Fox.

Tina may have more in common with Moon, as the pair both have an entrepreneurial spirit.

In addition to her modelling career and OnlyFans, Tina is also a co-owner of plant-based Mexican restaurant Sugar Taco and the vegan butcher shop The Plant Butchers.
Hailey Bieber looked effortlessly chic as she bundled up for a lunch with friends in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, before making her voice heard at the polls.

For the laid-back outing, the 25-year-old supermodel kept warm in a long double breasted camel coat, as she stepped out on a rainy and windy day.

The Rhode founder kept her look casual in sneakers, a baggy pair of faded jeans and a gray crewneck sweater.

Bundled up: Hailey Bieber, 25, bundled up as she headed for lunch with friends in Los Angeles Tuesday, keeping warm in a long double breasted camel coat, as she stepped out on a rainy and windy day

The runway veteran styled her long brunette locks straight and wore a billed denim hat and sunglasses.

She was spotted catching up with friends, including fellow model Fai Khadra, 30 at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills.

The Palestinian model was also decked out in warm clothes, that included a green sweater and dark jeans with sneakers.

Casual: The Rhode Beauty founder kept her look casual in sneakers, a baggy pair of faded jeans and a gray crewneck sweater. The runway veteran styled her long brunette locks straight and wore a billed denim hat and sunglasses

Ahead of her lunch date, the influencer shared a photo with an 'I Voted' sticker.

She also uploaded a quick video on Instagram and in her Stories reminding her 49 million followers to turn in their ballots.

The Vogue cover girl said she 'could not stress enough how important it is to vote.'

Friends: She was spotted catching up with friends, including model Fai Khadra, 30 at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills. The Palestinian model was decked out in warm clothes that included a green sweater and dark jeans with sneakers

'There's so much at stake in this election; voting rights, reproductive right, education, schools, climate change... and if you think you're just one vote and it doesn't matter and it doesn't make a difference, it's not true.'

'Your voice important. Your voice needs to be heard and we can do this together.'

She also included information on a slide urging fans to text Rhode for help, writing, 'text RHODE to 26797 to make sure you are ready to vote and to find your polling location! it takes less than 2 minutes.'
Love Island Australia stars Austen Bugeja, Callum Hole and Mitchell Eliot left fans in shock on Tuesday night as they stripped to skimpy hot pants and shaved each other's pubic hair.

The lads, who have become close pals on the racy dating show, gave fans more than they bargained as they peeled down their PVC shorts during the grooming session.

Austen was seen first shaving around his manhood as he pulled back the shorts, while a gusty Callum asked him to shave around his bottom.

Love Island Australia stars Austen Bugeja (pictured), Callum Hole and Mitchell Eliot left fans in shock on Tuesday night as they stripped to skimpy hot pants and shaved each other's pubic hair.

'I'll bend over?' the Welshman asked Mitchell.

'Yeah, just this bit. Yeah that's alright,' he added.

The lads, who have become close pals on the racy dating show, gave fans more than they bargained as they peeled down their PVC shorts during the grooming session

'I've actually got a man-gina,' Austen chimed in.

Austen then fixed fixed Callum's microphone as the UK star he 'liked his legs', with Austen replying: 'Yeah, you have defined legs'.

It comes just days after the winner of this season was 'leaked' by online bookmakers Sportsbet.

'Yeah, just this bit. Yeah that's alright,' he added. Mitchell (pictured) was seen squirming as Austen shaved the back of his legs

Austen and Layla John are the favourites to win this season with their odds sitting at $2.75 each, reports New Idea.

With odds of $3, Mitchell and Phoebe Spiller are the second-favourite couple, though there is a chance she may leave her partner for an intruder.

At the other end, there is Jessica Losurdo and Callum with odds of $8.50 and $10 respectively.

Callum (pictured) has become a firm favourite on the show with viewers thanks to his ripped physique

With the odds so close this early, it's tough to predict who will ultimately take home the $50,000 cash prize.

This is especially true with so many twists ahead following the return of Claudia Bonifazio after she was booted from the villa in the first episode.

The brunette beauty was kicked out of the competition after a tricky couple swap saw her rival Holly Oakes Ferguson steal her partner Jordan.
Keanu Reeves seems to have doubled down on his commitment to the John Wick franchise by agreeing to appear in an upcoming spinoff film.

The 58-year-old actor, who stars as the title assassin in the blooding action series, will reprise his role as John Wick in the related film Ballerina, Collider reported on Tuesday.

The film will be led by Blonde star and Bond girl Ana de Armas, but it's not clear how prominent Reeves' role will be in her movie.

'I'm thinking I'm back!': Keanu Reeves is returning to reprise his role as John Wick in the series' spinoff film Ballerina, Collider reported on Tuesday; seen in Toronto in December 2021

According to the publication, Reeves is currently in the Czech Republic and filming his role in Prague.

Ballerina, which is directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten, is currently shooting in the European city.

The Matrix star has already completed film for a fourth film in the main John Wick series, which will again be directed by Chad Stahelski and is written by Hatten and Michael Finch.

The film was intended to have a 2021 release date, but filming was significantly delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Hard at work: Reeves is currently in Prague filming Ballerina, though it's unclear if he will have significant screen time, or if it is merely a cameo role

Coming soon: The Matrix star has already completed film a fourth John Wick film, which will be released on March 24, 2023

John Wick 4 is set to be released on March 24, 2023, and there are currently plans to produce at least a fifth film in the series.

Reeves stars as Wick, an assassin who comes out of retirement after Russian gangsters pick a fight with him and kill his puppy, which was a gift from his now-deceased wife.

But after returning to the life of a hired killer, John is drawn in further into a secret society of assassins in the subsequent sequels.

Few plot details have been released about the spinoff Ballerina, and its not clear if Reeves will be playing a significant part, or if he will merely return for a short cameo.

Leading lady: Ballerina will be led by Ana de Armas, who is fresh off the praise she received for the otherwise polarizing film Blonde, which presents a fictionalized portrait of Marilyn Monroe; seen September 13 in Hollywood

It was previously announced that Ian McShane, who plays Winston, the manager of the assassin-friendly hotel The Continental, would be reprising his role in Ballerina, though it is also not known how prominent he will be in the film.

The character is set to be expanded in another John Wick property, the spinoff prequel series The Continental, which will focus on Winston's early years running the hotel for hired killers.

Ana de Armas has already proven herself capable of fronting an action film with her supporting role in last year's James Bond film No Time To Die, which served as the swan song for star Daniel Craig.

The actress recently received critical praise for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the controversial film Blonde, based on the work of fiction of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, though the film itself polarized reviewers.
The Block's Tom Calleja and Sarah-Jane Wilson have distanced themselves from a 'scam' GoFundMe page that was supposedly raising money for the couple.

The Melbourne team placed third during Sunday's finale, walking away with a profit of just $20,000 - the lowest earnings since two homes in 2014 made $10,000.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, a furious Tom denied any involvement with the fundraiser and called it a 'disgrace'.

The Block's Tom Calleja (right) and Sarah-Jane Wilson (left) have distanced themselves from a 'scam' GoFundMe page that was supposedly raising money for the couple

Tom and Sarah-Jane are understood to be happy with their winnings and while they appreciate the offers, they won't be accepting donations of any kind.

The fundraiser, which had a goal of $1,586,670, was started by an anonymous fan to recoup some of the couple's costs, as they lost money by taking part in the show.

Just $425 had been raised as of Tuesday afternoon, before the page was shut down by GoFundMe overnight.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, a furious Tom denied any involvement with the fundraiser (pictured) and called it a 'disgrace'. The organiser of the GoFundMe was listed as 'SJ and Tom' from Gladstone Park - despite the fact the Blockheads had nothing to do with it

The fundraiser's description read: 'Tom and SJ deserve a lot more for the efforts they put into building their house on The Block.

'Their positive attitude and willingness to call it as it was made them an instant show favourite.

'Let's show them what the Aussie spirit can do and help raise funds to make a difference, set their family up and make the 12 weeks worthwhile.'

Tom and Sarah-Jane (pictured on September 14) are understood to be happy with their winnings and while they appreciate the offers, they won't be accepting donations of any kind

The fundraiser, which had a goal of $1,586,670, was started by an anonymous fan to recoup some of the couple's costs, as they lost money by taking part in the show

The organiser of the GoFundMe was listed as 'SJ and Tom' from Gladstone Park - despite the fact the Blockheads had nothing to do with it.

During Sunday's nail-biting finale, Tom and Sarah-Jane chose to go second in the auction order, but their Gisborne home only sold for $4,100,000.99.

That was just $20,000.99 above the $4.08million reserve.

The Blockheads placed third during Sunday's season finale, walking away with a profit of just $20,000 - the lowest earnings since two homes in 2014 made $10,000

During Sunday's nail-biting finale, Tom and Sarah-Jane chose to go second in the auction order, but their Gisborne home only sold for $4,100,000.99 - just $20k over the reserve price

'It wasn't in our future,' Sarah-Jane wept after the auction, before admitting the pair had suffered a 'massive loss' due to taking so much time off work.

'Ultimate high with the boys [winners Omar and Oz] and now ultimate low. I didn't expect to make a load of money, but I didn't expect to come out at a massive loss too,' she said.

'It's the way the cookie crumbles. I can't change it. Just got to roll with it.'

Host Scott Cam comforted the couple by saying: 'I just feel crushed with you... You didn't deserve that. We deserved a lot more. I don't know what's going on.'
Julia Fox has detailed why she felt compelled to stand up for Amber Heard amid the star's bitter $100m defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Speaking to Emily Ratajkowski on the model's High Low podcast, the actress, 32, said Heard's case proved that that 'none of us are safe' if a 'blonde, beautiful and successful' actress like Heard could be allegedly abused.

Fox defended Heard, 36, on Instagram during the Depp v Heard defamation trial in May, writing on Instagram: 'This is clearly a sick way of still controlling her life by suing her all over the world.

Candid: Julia Fox has detailed why she felt compelled to stand up for Amber Heard amid the star's bitter $100m defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp

'Did she hit him? Yes. Was it abuse? No. You need to have power to be able to abuse it. She was 25. He clearly was always way more powerful including physically and financially.'

Depp's highly controversial defamation trial, ended with the jury ruling firmly in favor of the Pirates of the Caribbean star, 59.

Exes Heard and Depp - who tied the knot in 2015, and were married for one year before Heard filed for divorce in 2016 - battled it out in court to determine if a 2018 Washington Post essay written by Heard, in which she accused the actor of domestic abuse, defamed Depp.

Emily, 31, said: 'I wanna talk to you about standing up for Amber Heard because I just thought that was really incredible...

Controversy: Speaking to Emily Ratajkowski on the model's High Low podcast, the actress, 32, said Heard's case proved that that 'none of us are safe' if a 'blonde, beautiful and successful' actress like Heard could be allegedly abused

Julia said: 'Thank you, that was crazy! I feel there is a movement on TikTok regarding Amber and Johnny when people read all the documents, like a backtrack, but still the damage is done.

'I did have to say something because if it could happen to Amber Heard who is a white, blonde, beautiful, successful actress, because people say she had no career before him. she had over 10 movies I think, none of us are safe .

'I just feel compelled to say something. Guys. you don't realise, this is going to damage humanity, all of the women in the world are going to suffer from this.

'Abuse is so insidious and sometimes you don't even know you're being abused and sometimes you don't want to see yourself as a victim and you try to be tough and fight back and say "we fight each other".

'It's like b***h, we know he whoops your f*****g a**. I always stand up for women in a situation because I've been there and I know how lonely it is.'

'I know how scary it is when people you've been looking at your whole life are looking at you funny, it's like, "I'm not a liar"

,Call me any name in the book but I'm not a liar.'

Defense: Fox defended Heard, 36, on Instagram during the Depp v Heard defamation trial in May

Emily added: 'And the way people turned her into this hysterical character..' with Julia retorting: 'I know, it's f****d up.'

After a months-long trial, Heard was ordered to pay the actor $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, although the second payment was reduced to $350,000 per Virginia law by the judge.

Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages out of the $100 million she was seeking in her countersuit against her ex.

Afterwards, Heard called the verdict 'unfair' during an interview with the Today show, and insisted that she was going to 'stand by every word of her testimony until the day she dies.'

The movie star doubled down on her allegations that Depp was physically violent towards her during their one-year of marriage, and accused him of 'lying' on the stand when he said that he 'never hit her,' while speaking to Today host Savannah Guthrie.

She also told the outlet that she was looking forward to focusing on being a mom following the trial, explaining, 'I get to be a mom full time, without having to juggle calls with lawyers.

'I want to move on with my life. I have a baby. I have to move on. I want to move on, and I want Johnny to move on, too.'

Exes: Depp and Heard are pictured during their marriage in 2015

However, it doesn't appear as though she's moved on, as it was recently reported that Heard had filed an appeal against the defamation trial.

According to documents filed to the Court of Appeals of Virginia, Heard, who still owes Depp $10.3 million in damages, claimed that her ex-husband misled the jury and that the trial had a lack of 'clear and convincing evidence' for actual malice.

She also called out the court's alleged failure to invalidate the damages awarded to both her and Depp after ruling they both defamed each other.

It was reported that Heard was living in Mallorca, Spain, with her daughter and her partner, cinematographer Bianca Butti, following the trial, but she was recently spotted in London.

Elsewhere in the podcast Emily revealed she actively tries to 'balance' out her truck-obsessed son Sylvester's toy collection by purchasing him playthings specifically targeted at girls.

The star told Julia that her tot 'literally gets so excited' by 'things with wheels.'

'But is this just what he likes naturally?' she wondered, before saying it makes her 'so sad' to think about her little boy being pressured to 'toughen up' as he gets older.

The author went on to say: 'I'm like, are those the little ways you can start making sure the conditioning doesn't happen? And spending a lot of time around women?'

Meanwhile Fox, who shares a one-year-old son, named Valentino, with ex-husband Peter Artemiev, also raved that her baby 'loves trucks' and 'freaks out' over them.

But to keep things 'balanced' out, the former muse of Kanye West says she bought a pink truck and a 'little stroller with a doll in it.'

'It's hard as a single mom, raising a son, you just don't want them to end up like every single guy you've ever met, you know?' the Uncut Gems actress said. 'How do I stop this conditioning from occurring?'

Earlier this year, Ratajkowski opened up about her difficulties raising a son and why she doesn't try to gender him.

'Babies have this genderless quality to them, and so I love affording that to him right now,' she told Interview magazine. 'Ive just been treating him as this wonderful little human whos being introduced to the world.'

Still, Ratajkowski said that she 'noticed that as soon as people know that' her toddler is a 'boy,' she sees loved ones 'interact with him' differently' than a a baby girl.'

'Sometimes I feel frustrated by that because I think theres even a tendency to throw a little boy in the air, be a little bit rougher with them than you would a little girl,' she said. 'That stuff already bothers me because I can see where its leading.'

Last week, she revealed becoming a single mother has been 'so nice' because she no longer feels as though she owes anything to any person or man following her split from ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard.
Camila Mendes appears to have a new man in her life.

The actress, 28, seemingly 'soft launched' her new romance with Rudy Mancuso on her Instagram account on Tuesday.

In the photo, a bikini-clad Camila shared an embrace with a mystery man as she took their photo in the reflection of a glass door.

Soft launch! Camila Mendes appeared to debut her new romance with Rudy Mancuso on Tuesday

The photo was the last of several she had shared in her post, captioned 'life update.'

Fans quickly took notice of the man in the comments, and identified him as Rudy.

'Not the soft launch,' remarked actress Nicole Kang.

Camila's Riverdale co-star Vanessa Morgan also chimed into the comments section. 'Living your best life, and I'm here for it,' she wrote.

Collab! The duo are working together on Rudy's directorial debut, the film Musica. Camila not only stars as Rudy's love interest she also serves as executive producer

The duo are working together on Rudy's directorial debut, the film Musica. Camila not only stars as Rudy's love interest but she also serves as executive producer.

Announcing her new role in the film on Instagram, the Brazilian-American actress - who is fluent in Portuguese - wrote: 'This one hits different.

'Stories about Brazilian culture are almost nonexistent in Hollywood, and it's a shame because it may be the most beautiful culture in the world. @rudymancuso vamo nessa!'

Looks familiar: Fans were able to identify the man in Mendes' photo despite her not tagging him

Camila's world: The photo was the last of several she had shared in her post, captioned 'life update'

With her boo! The duo were spotted leaving a Halloween party together in West Hollywood in late October

According to Deadline - Musica 'follows a young man (Mancuso), plagued by the music in his head, who has to come to terms with an uncertain future while balancing love, family, and Brazilian culture in Newark.'

On June 26, Camila - who boasts 32.2M social media followers - announced that she was single while lip-synching to a June 20 TikTok created by Valencia & Jahad (Hopeless Romantic Society).

Mendes has been said to have previously romanced photographer Grayson Vaughan, her castmate Charles Melton, former financial advisor Victor Houston, and editor/DP Ian Wallace.

Rudy, meanwhile, was previously in a long-term relationship with Maia Mitchell.
The incredible rags-to-riches story of The Block bidder Adrian Portelli has been revealed, after he made headlines for pushing up the price of Omar and Oz's home during Sunday's finale.

Portelli, 33, an online promotions guru with an estimated net worth of $350million, opened the bidding at $4.5m - far above the $4.08m reserve - and his aggressive style meant eventual buyer Danny Wallis ended up paying an eye-watering $5,666,666.66 for the five-bedroom, 10-acre property.

While he may be driving Lamborghinis and bidding on luxury houses these days, life looked very different for the businessman a few years ago.

The rags-to-riches story of The Block bidder Adrian Portelli (pictured) has been revealed, after he made headlines for pushing up the price of Omar and Oz's home during Sunday's finale

Portelli dropped out of university to work for his father's truck repair business.

He then moved to Los Angeles to launch a limousine service for celebrities, but found himself struggling to pay rent.

Portelli posted an advertisement for a flatmate online, and ended up finding someone who helped him develop several successful apps, which he later sold.

'We created some magic together,' he told the Herald Sun.

The Block 2022 results HOUSE 1  Tom and Sarah-Jane Stunning architectural design meets luxurious country living. Address: 191 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath. Price guide: $4-$4.4 million SOLD FOR: $4,100,000.99 HOUSE 2  Rachel and Ryan Luxury lodge country living is at the heart of this magnificent state-of-the-art, vineyard estate. Address: 197 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million SOLD FOR: $4,250,000 HOUSE 3  Sharon and Ankur 'Gunyah'  Luxurious country living with spectacular mountain views. Address: 223 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million NOT SOLD HOUSE 4  Dylan and Jenny Acreage, views and luxury country living. Address: 225 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million NOT SOLD HOUSE 5  Omar and Oz Sustainable luxurious lifestyle. Address: 241 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million SOLD FOR: $5,666,666 Advertisement

Portelli dropped out of university to work for his father's truck repair business before moving to LA to launch a limousine service for celebrities, but found himself struggling to pay rent

But his passion was cars and he later founded auto enthusiast club LMCT+ in 2018, which has now become Australia's largest and fastest-growing car community.

He also runs his own promotions and giveaway business, focusing on luxury vehicles and prestige houses.

Portelli is the owner of The Little Legends Foundation, which provides urgent medical care and offers experiences for vulnerable children.

Portelli posted an advertisement for a flatmate online, and ended up finding someone who helped him develop several successful apps, which he later sold

Portelli, who arrived at The Block auctions over the weekend in a yellow Lamborghini and seemed to know Omar and Oz well, opened the bidding on House 5 at $4.5m.

His bidding pushed Wallis into paying $5,666,666.66 for the home, making the western Sydney mates instant millionaires with total winnings of $1,686,666.66 - the biggest victory in the show's 18-year history.

Following their win, some fans speculated the auction was 'dodgy' and that Portelli was 'set up' to force Wallis into spending more.

But an equal number of viewers refuted this, saying the boys won fairly and calling out the criticism as 'racist'.

Portelli founded auto enthusiast club LMCT+ in 2018, which has now become Australia's largest and fastest-growing car community

Portelli, who arrived at The Block auctions over the weekend in a yellow Lamborghini and seemed to know Omar and Oz well, opened the bidding on House 5 at $4.5m

Portelli also hit back at the claims and insisted he was a 'genuine buyer'.

'For everyone questioning the legitimacy of the auction, I was a genuine buyer with every intention to purchase that property,' he wrote on Instagram.

'Nobody is to blame for what happened. It's an auction. Believe it or not but if you've got two people that genuinely want the property, a bidding war will commence.'

He continued: 'I'm happy to show my bank account for anyone that suggests these were dummy bids.'
Florence 'Alexandra' Moerenhout is one of the most memorable stars to come out of The Bachelor franchise.

The Dutch bombshell first found fame on Matty Johnson's season in 2017, before causing chaos on seasons one and two of Bachelor In Paradise.

Now the 31-year-old is back on screen in season eight of the US version of Bachelor In Paradise.

Bachelor In Paradise Florence 'Alexandra' Moerenhout is now starring in the US version of the popular dating series

Florence arrived on the beach in week three and is currently still on the show.

She's already raised eyebrows a few times and shocked viewers by giving a rose to Alex Bordyukov, who was set to be eliminated after being tossed aside by villain Victoria Fuller.

Some fans have even accused Florence of being a producers' pet who was brought on for drama, but she's denied it on social media.

'For anyone thinking this was a random decision or just for "drama", Alex and I go way back to a different beach in Fiji on BIP Australia 4 years ago. He saved me back then by giving me a friendship rose, tonight I decided to return that favour,' she tweeted.

The 31-year-old (center) is pictured with some of her American castmates

Most viewers have taken a liking to the blonde beauty, with many calling for her to get more airtime.

'We need more of Florence because her commentary is absolutely killing me. Like she's just going on the date just because she thinks it's funny, I love that,' tweeted one.

'I wish we got more Florence screen time she seems cool but hasnt gotten the opportunity to show her personality,' another wrote.

Florence has already raised eyebrows a few times and shocked viewers by giving a rose to Alex Bordyukov (pictured together) during a recent episode

Aussie fans will remember Florence's fling with Jake Ellis in season one, before he dumped her for Megan Marx.

She then returned for season two, where she made it to the end with Davey Lloyd before the pair split.

Since the show, Florence has continued to work as an Instagram influencer.

Aussie Bachelor fans can currently stream Bachelor In Paradise U.S. on 10play
Phoebe Dynevor exuded elegance as she attended the Moet Effervescence Dinner at Baerensaal in Berlin on Tuesday.

The actress, 27, looked incredible in a black high-necked gown that clung to her lithe figure.

Her figure-hugging dress boasted a daringly high slit that showed off her toned legs underneath.

Chic: Phoebe Dynevor exuded elegance as she attended the Moet Effervescence Dinner at Baerensaal in Berlin on Tuesday

The Bridgerton star added a few extra inches to her frame with a pair of strappy gold high heels.

Phoebe toted a fashion forward round bag, encrusted in jewels for a touch of added sparkle.

Her auburn tresses were styled in loose waves and left down to tumble over her shoulders.

Looking good: The actress, 27, looked incredible in a black high-necked gown that clung to her lithe figure and boasted a daringly high slit that showed off her toned legs underneath

She completed her classy look with a light palette of makeup, including a dusting of pink blush, to accentuate her natural beauty.

Phoebe gained global recognition after starring as Daphne in the eponymous Bridgerton family, following an array of child acting and a role in Waterloo Road.

And it appears her schedule isn't set to slow down anytime soon, with the beauty recently being cast in new spy thriller Inheritance.

Radiant: The Bridgerton star added a few extra inches to her frame with a pair of strappy gold high heels and toted a fashion forward round bag, encrusted in jewels

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Phoebe will play a daughter thrown into a world of 'secrecy and crime' after her estranged father suddenly reappears.

Meanwhile, season three of Bridgerton is currently in production. While there is no official release date available yet, previous seasons have taken around a year from filming to release, which could put the Bridgerton season three release date in Summer 2023.

The third season will focus on another of the Bridgerton siblings - Colin - but will break tradition and skip the third Julia Quinn novel and jump to the fourth, Romancing Mister Bridgerton.

Flawless: Her auburn tresses were styled in loose waves and left down to tumble over her shoulders and She completed her classy look with a light palette of makeup

Her auburn tresses were styled in loose waves and left down to tumble over her shoulders.A potential romance has been teased between Colin and Penelope throughout the last two seasons, as wallflower Penelope pined for Colin from the side of the ballroom while he took centre stage.

However, their storyline ended in an awkward position at the end of the last series, after Penelope overheard Colin mocking the idea of marrying her to his friends.

Penelope, who also holds a secret identity as Lady Whistledown, instead decides that it is time for her to find a husband who will 'provide her with enough independence to continue her double life, far away from her mother and sisters'.
She rose to international fame as a Victoria's Secret Angel.

And Alessandra Ambrosio exuded her ethereal beauty even while stepping out in an ultra-casual ensemble in Los Angeles this week.

The 41-year-old supermodel hinted at her enviably taut midriff in a moss green cutoff sweater that featured a plunging V-neck.

Angelic as ever: Alessandra Ambrosio exuded her ethereal beauty even while stepping out in an ultra-casual ensemble in Los Angeles this week

She teamed the top with a pair of tan sweats that added an autumnal touch to her look as she surfaced for her latest outing.

Sweeping her luxurious dark locks up into a bun, the Brazilian-born bombshell warded off the California rays with a pair of shades.

'Ale,' as she is affectionately known to her fans, accessorized with a sleek handbag and rounded off the ensemble with white sneakers.

The Erechim native could be seen in a more glamorous aspect Saturday night when she attended the LACMA Art + Film Gala thrown by Gucci.

Legging it: The 41-year-old supermodel hinted at her enviably taut midriff in a moss green cutoff sweater that featured a plunging V-neck

She radiated a kinky air of retro chic in a black hooded Jean Paul Gaultier look with spiky raised shoulders, reminiscent of the designer's work for Madonna in the 1990s.

At present she is involved with sizzling model Richard Lee, with whom she has traveled to exotic locales including her native Brazil.

Alessandra confirmed her romance with Richard when they were spotted on a romantic dinner date in February 2021.

She was previously involved with Italian fashion designer Nicolo Oddi, who founded the brand Alanui with his sister Carlotta.

On the town: The Erechim native could be seen in a more glamorous aspect Saturday night when she attended the LACMA Art + Film Gala thrown by Gucci

The smoldering supermodel shares her two children Anja, 14, and Noah, 10, with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur who co-founded RE/DONE.

Jamie and Alessandra were together for a grand total of 13 years and were even engaged before their eventual split in 2018.

Alessandra gave birth to both of her children in Florianopolis and frequently takes trips there, making sure to post jealousy-inducing snaps to her Instagram.

GAL Floripa, the swimwear line she started with her sister Aline and their pal Gisele Coria, takes the second part of its title from a nickname for Florianopolis.
Jackson White has confirmed that he's dating his Tell Me Lies co-star Grace Van Patten as they arrived together at the 2022 CFDA Awards in New York City.

The 26-year-old actor shared a strip of pictures of them from a photo booth at the event on his Instagram Stories that included a kissing snap with a peeking face emoji covering them up.

Grace, 25, also posed for pictures with Jackson as they held hands at the event.

Cute couple: Jackson White has confirmed that he's dating his Tell Me Lies co-star Grace Van Patten as they arrived together at the 2022 CFDA Awards in New York City

Jackson posted a photo on Instagram on Tuesday that showed them in a together leaning in with their tongues sticking out.

He wrote in the caption for his roughy 61,000 followers: 'if we kiss can we get a s2 @hulu'.

Tell Me Lies was released in September on Hulu and follows Jackson's character Stephen DeMarco and Grace's character Lucy Albright and their toxic relationship that starts while in college together.

Jackson is the son of actress Katey Sagal, 68, who also portrays his mother Norah in the Hulu series.

Series stars: Tell Me Lies star Jackson posted a photo on Instagram on Tuesday that showed him and Grace together leaning in with their tongues sticking out

Social media: The 26-year-old actor shared a strip of pictures of them from a photo booth at the event on his Instagram Stories that included a kissing snap with a peeking face emoji covering them up

Stylish stars: Grace looked lovely in a green dress with a hoodie while Jackson wore a grey suit and sunglasses as they attended the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York City

Tell Me Lies showrunner Meaghan Oppenheim said her own mother was 'obsessed' with 'Married... with Children' starring Katey and when it came time to cast the Stephen character's mother, she had the idea for Katey to play the part and sought Jackson's blessing.

Katey and Jackson are not the first parent and child actors to share scenes together. Other examples include Ryan and Tatum O'Neal in the 1973 film 'Paper Moon,' Will and Jaden Smith in 'The Pursuit of Happyness' in 2006 and Donald and Kiefer Sutherland in the 2016 movie 'Forsaken.'

Grace is the daughter of actor and director Tim Van Patten, 63, and the niece of the late actor Dick Van Patten who died in 2015 at age 86.

Series premiere: Grace as Lucy and Jackson as Stephen are shown in the series premiere of Tell Me Lies that premiered in September

She previously starred in the 2021 Hulu drama miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers that also starred Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans and Samara Weaving.

Tell Me Lies is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Carola Lovering.

Emma Roberts' Belletrist book club co-founder, Karah Preiss, read 'Tell Me Lies' first, recommended it to Emma and they are both executive producers after bringing it to Hulu along with Meaghan.
They tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in front of 400 guests last month.

Now Madison Prewett has given fans an inside look at her romantic honeymoon with new husband Grant Troutt.

The Bachelor vet, 26, posted numerous snaps chronicling their adventures to Los Cabos following their nuptials in Dallas.

The honeymooners! Madison Prewett has given fans an inside look at her romantic honeymoon with new husband Grant Troutt

Whether they were enjoying a dinner for two or splashing around in the ocean together, the newlyweds truly were having the 'best honeymoon' ever.

In a slideshow of images posted to her account on Monday, Madison posted a shot of her gazing lovingly into her husband's eyes following dinner by the beach surrounded by candles.

The reality star looked stunning in a bold red dress with her hair styled down while her husband sported a tan slacks and a white polo shirt.

The newlyweds also enjoyed plenty of fun in the sun.

Just the two of us! The couple enjoyed a luxurious getaway to Mexico after their lavish nuptials

Sun-kissed! They enjoyed plenty of fun in the sun

In another loved-up shot, the couple gazed tenderly at one another as they posed by an infinity pool in their swimsuits.

They also splashed around the ocean on a large floatation device.

Madison jubilantly shot her hand in the air as she snuggled against her sweetie.

'Best honeymoon with my HUSBAND (still not over it!!!!!)' she captioned the post.

Kiss me! Grant smooched his new wife as they posed by a romantic candle arrangement

Red hot! The Bachelor vet showed off her figure in a tight red dress

She also showcased their luxurious accommodations in videos posted to her stories.

Madison posted footage of the moment they first arrived to their villa, which had red balloons strewn about the floor and a 'Mr & Mrs Trout' balloon display hanging along the window.

In a follow up video, the couple marveled at the sight of their adjoining private deck and pool.

'We couldn't believe our eyes!' she wrote in the video.

Making a splash! Madison snuggled her sweetie as they floated in the ocean

Feeling the love! A display of hearts added to the romantic ambience

Madison tied the knot with Grant, the son of billionaire Kenny Troutt, in front of 400 guests in a lavish ceremony last month in Dallas, Texas.

'It's like heaven knew I needed you. 10.29.22,' the bride gushed in the caption of a series of Instagram snaps taken during the ceremony, along with a white heart emoji.

The Auburn, Alabama native walked down the aisle in a custom-made white dress and veil by NARDOS, as the song When God Made You by NewSong played in the background, according to People.

Madison rose to fame as a contestant on season 24 of The Bachelor, which starred Peter Weber in search of a lifelong partner beginning in January 2020.

Make yourself at home! Madison posted footage of the moment they first arrived to their villa, which had red balloons strewn about the floor and a 'Mr & Mrs Trout' balloon display hanging along the window

Breathtaking: In a follow up video, the couple marveled at the sight of their adjoining private deck and pool

It ended two months later with Hannah Ann Sluss initially being named the winner to become Weber's fiancee. But drama ensued during the After The Final Rose, where it was revealed that Weber and Sluss had ended their engagement due to Weber being unsure about his feeling.

While Weber and runner-up Madison Prewett admitted to still having feelings for each other, they ultimately decided not to pursue a relationship.

That turned out to be welcome news for Troutt, who wound up meeting Prewett in December 2021.

On the fast track to the alter, they got engaged this past July, which left them with those three months to pull off their magical wedding day.
The ex-wife of former Today show weatherman Steve Jacobs has celebrated a year of sobriety.

Rosie Jacobs, whose battle with alcohol and relationship troubles are well-documented, now looks younger than ever after ditching booze and picking up healthy habits.

Sharing a gallery of pictures to Instagram to celebrate the milestone, the 42-year-old absolutely glowed as she blew a kiss at the camera.

Rosie Jacobs, 42, now looks younger than ever after getting sober and picking up healthier habits. Pictured before (right) and after (left) giving up booze

'365 days today alcohol free!!! And I have to say, this life is AMAZING!' she wrote.

'Today I wake up filled with energy, creativity, a sense of fun, joy and excitement for the future, I am surrounded by extraordinary people who are traveling this amazing road with me, I am the proudest mama bear I could be, I am kicking career goals and living the life I have always dreamed of,' she added.

'I feel full and content. I experience peace and I am genuinely happy in my own skin. I still have challenging days, but they don't rattle me.

'I am in control of my choices and my actions and I am proud of the woman I am today.

Sharing a gallery of pictures to Instagram to celebrate the milestone Rosie absolutely glowed as she blew a kiss at the camera

'I am deeply grateful to all of you - my beautiful family and friends who have had my back every day in every way,' she said.

It comes after Rosie recently completed the Camino de Santiago, a 800km pilgrimage trail across northern Spain which she found life-changing.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, the former television producer revealed how she put her demons to rest during the adventure, allowing her to re-enter the world an empowered single woman.

Rosie (pictured), recently spoke about how she found inner peace at the end of a 30-day trek across Spain

'[The Camino] was physically huge and really challenging and rewarding,' said the travel writer.

'But it was also mentally quite a challenge in terms of the internal voice that you use to get yourself through something like that, and the processing you go through.

'And I think as well, it was quite a spiritual journey and a really soulful adventure.'

Rosie (pictured on the trek) recently completed the Camino de Santiago, a 800km pilgrimage trail across northern Spain which she found life-changing

Rosie, who walked the Camino alone without the security of a tour group, said there were two reasons why she decided to take on the momentous challenge.

The first was to pay tribute to a friend who recently died, while the second was to celebrate her achievements after a difficult few years.

Rosie went through a messy divorce from Steve in 2017 and previously struggled with alcoholism.

'It was quite a spiritual journey and a really soulful adventure,' Rosie told Daily Mail Australia

She also had an acrimonious break-up with former AFL player Matt Shir between 2018 and 2019.

'[I saw the trek] as a celebration of the fact that I've gone through quite a lot of emotional stuff in the last five years or so, and I feel like I've done a huge amount of personal exploration and changes and healing,' she said.

'And I've reached a point now where I feel like I'm coming out the other side. And I'm really at peace with who I am and where I'm at, and it feels it good.'

Rosie, who walked the Camino alone without the security of a tour group, said she took on the momentous challenge to pay tribute to a friend who recently died, and also to 'celebrate' her achievements following a difficult few years

Rosie added of her personal struggles: 'In the last five years I was diagnosed with complex PTSD, so there's been a lot of work for me in terms of understanding that and finding ways to manage that.'

'[I have been] making sure I sleep enough and making sure I do nurturing things for myself physically. Quitting alcohol was one of the things that was really big for me on that level. That really helped me manage anxiety,' she explained.

By the end of the Camino, Rosie said she was a changed woman.

Rosie said of her personal struggles: 'I was diagnosed with complex PTSD, so there's been a lot of work for me in terms of understanding that and finding ways to manage that'

By the end of the Camino, Rosie said she was a changed woman

Rosie also lifted the lid on her dating life, confirming she's happily single after quietly splitting from her latest flame Alex Daly.

'It's been quite a while since Alex and I separated, and in that time I've come to really enjoy, for the first time in my adult life, being independent and solo,' she said.

'And I actually have enough on my plate at the moment that keeps me really busy. Being a single mum with two young girls and having my own business as a travel journalist. I have never felt so fulfilled and content.'

Rosie also lifted the lid on her dating life, confirming she's happily single after quietly splitting from her latest flame Alex Daly. (The former couple is pictured together in happier times)

Rosie didn't rule out the possibility of finding love in the future, revealing she still hopes to one day find someone 'magical enough' to sweep her off her feet

Rosie didn't rule out the possibility of finding love in the future, revealing she still hopes to one day find someone 'magical enough' to sweep her off her feet.

As for her relationship with ex-husband Steve, things have never been smoother.

The former couple share custody of their two daughters Isabella and Francesca, with Steve having the girls for a month while Rosie walked the Camino.

Rosie described Steve as a 'great dad', adding: 'We have always put the girls first.

As for her relationship with ex-husband Steve, things have never been smoother. The former couple (pictured in December 2015) share custody of their two daughters Isabella and Francesca, with Steve having the girls for a month while Rosie walked the Camino

'Steven and I share our time with the girls 50/50. We are taking that as it comes, and we just juggle the dates between us.

'But our girls have been born into a world where from the day they arrived, Steven was already travelling for work almost every day of the year... so that's all they've ever known with him.

'It's actually weird for them to have time with him, without him dropping everything and having to jump on a plane. So it's been great! He's had this time with the girls for the first time in a long time.'

Steve and Rosie married three years after meeting on the set of the Today show, where he was a star weather presenter and she was a producer. (Pictured together in February 2016)

Rosie started her career as a television producer, but is perhaps best known for hosting a variety of shows on Nine, 10, Foxtel and The Weather Channel.

She married Steve in 2010, and they officially divorced in 2019.

Steve and Rosie married three years after meeting on the set of the Today show, where he was a star weather presenter and she was a behind-the-scenes producer.

They separated in late 2017, just a few months after relocating to Vanuatu in what friends described as a 'last-ditch attempt' to save their seven-year marriage.

She moved on with a Canadian commando Dylan Nash, then AFL player Matt Shir.
Grant Denyer posted a heartwarming tribute to his wife Cheryl on Wednesday for her 42nd birthday.

The television personality, 45, wrote a sweet love letter to his 'princess' thanking her for 'sacrificing' her birthday so he could work in Los Angeles.

'To my spectacular wife Cheryl Denyer. Who we love & adore but honestly never ever thank enough The HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS my princess,' he began the Instagram post.

Grant Denyer, 45, (left) posted a heartwarming tribute to his wife Cheryl (right) on Wednesday for her 42nd birthday

He continued: 'You are a powerful force that holds this entire family up. People glow in your presence. You sacrifice so much for others, and we are the lucky benefactors of that sacrifice.

'Youre warm, loving, funny, exciting, brave, encouraging, a champion in our corner and always ALWAYS the first one there to help. We couldnt do life without you.

'You lift us up to all be better and we are all so thankful to have you. We never say it enough but I hope you feel it today when Sailor, Scout, Sunday and I all scream out how much we APPRECIATE EVERYTHING you do. We love you so much.'

The television personality wrote a sweet love-letter to his 'princess' thanking her for 'sacrificing' her birthday so he could work in Los Angeles

The Gold Logie Award winner went on to say he could 'always rely' on Chezzi 'through thick and thin, for better or worse'.

He thanked her for supporting him after he broke his back during a horrific monster truck crash in 2008 which left him addicted to painkillers, before hailing her as 'the glue that binds this beautiful family together'.

'The fact Im in Los Angeles now for work, is another example how you sacrifice so much, including your birthday, so we can thrive,' he said.

'To my spectacular wife Cheryl Denyer. Who we love & adore but honestly never ever thank enough The HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS my princess,' he began the Instagram post

'We love you. I love you. Happy birthday babe. Get a wine in ya and chase the kids around the house doing the boobie slap that makes us all laugh hysterically. May the show never end xox.'

During his stint on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Australia, Grant revealed he fell in love with now-wife Chezzi when she was still married to someone else.

Discussing how the pair met, the former Family Feud host told his campmates: 'She worked on Sunrise. She was my producer. We didn't like each other. We hated each other. She was really pushy. And I was pretty arrogant, so we didn't like one another at all.'

The Gold Logie Award winner went on to say he could 'always rely' on Chezzi 'through thick and thin, for better or worse'

Grant said that despite the acrimony, the pair then shared a magic moment which ignited their explosive chemistry.

'And then one day... It was so weird. One day we just brushed hands. And I just felt a tingle from my head to my toe. Just this massive feeling. I was like, "I can't live without this woman."'

The couple got married in 2010 and now share three daughters, Sailor, 10, Scout, six and Sunday, one.
Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas is continuing to speak out against Dan Schneider and the Nickelodeon network.

The actress, 30, claimed that the producer, 56, would pay to take photos of children's feet on set, while speaking on Christy Carlson Romanos podcast Vulnerable last week.

'He had a digital camera and he would go around with money and ask to take photos of the kids' feet - their toes,' she stated

Speaking out: Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas claimed that Dan Schneider would pay to take photos of children's feet on set while appearing on Christy Carlson Romanos podcast

'I remember thinking it was weird, and silly almost, as a kid,' she said.

The actress then added that her mother wouldn't let her partake: 'I remember my mom going "Don't go over there." My mom actually said "no" to it, but I saw other parents allowing their kids to do it,' she said.

Christy began the conversation about Schneider by saying 'Your experience with Dan Schneider was not positive?'

'No, not at all,' Alexa replied.

Accusations: 'He had a digital camera and he would go around with money and ask to take photos of the kids' feet - their toes,' the actress, 30, said of the producer, 56; Pictured 2015

Protected: The actress added, 'I remember my mom going "Don't go over there." My mom actually said "no" to it, but I saw other parents allowing their kids to do it'

She then detailed how the multi-show creator would be present at wardrobe fittings when she was 12-years-old, which she found to be a 'red flag.'

'There was always like a curtain - it was in the trailer - and I remember he was so close to the other side that I could hear the chair creaking whenever I was changing.'

'When I got older I looked back at that and I thought "Oh, that's so weird. I don't remember any other creators in every single wardrobe fitting.'

'There's a reason there's polaroids taken,' Christy chimed in, in regards to the wardrobe fitting procedure. 'And he would ask for those polaroids,' Alexa added.

Disturbing: She also detailed how the multi-show creator would be present at wardrobe fittings when she was 12-years-old, which she found to be a 'red flag'

Upsetting: 'There was always like a curtain - it was in the trailer - and I remember he was so close to the other side that I could hear the chair creaking whenever I was changing'

She also detailed having to wear 'very, very short skirts' with biker shorts underneath that had to be cut, because they would stick out. 'That's how short the skirts were on Dan Schneider's shows, where we were having to wear biker shorts underneath that had to be cut.'

Zoey 101 was a comedy drama series created by Schneider for Nickelodeon, which aired from 2005 to 2008. Nikolas exited the series in 2006, following the conclusion of the second season.

In August, Nikolas protested against the alleged abusive practices of Nickelodeon executives outside of network's headquarters in Burbank, California, and claimed she 'did not feel protected' and that Schneider played a 'huge role' in her 'personal childhood trauma.'

She told TMZ that she wants to 'make Nick safe for kids because, in my personal experience, working on Zoey 101, [I] didn't feel safe.'

Throwback: Zoey 101 was a comedy drama series created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon, which aired from 2005 to 2008; Alexa pictured on the left on Zoey 101

She told Variety: 'It shouldnt be a woman having to trail blaze, it should be on the industry itself.  Because a predators gonna come and go  theres always going to be a predator. But if they dont have a safe haven, then they cant really perpetuate that abuse.'

It comes two months after a number former Nickelodeon stars spoke out against the prolific creator, for allegedly forcing the young actors into 'sexualized' scenes.

In a report for Insider, the Victorious actress Daniella Monet, 33, claimed that a scene that she was uncomfortable with was left in the final cut of an episode despite her objections to the network.

Although Monet doesn't solely blame Schneider, who was the creator, executive producer and a writer on Victorious, she also blamed Nickelodeon for allowed sexualized scenes to appear in its live-action shows and for inappropriate behavior to occur on set.

Accountability: Nikolas protested against the alleged abusive practices of Nickelodeon executives outside of network's headquarters in Burbank in August, and claimed she 'did not feel protected' and that Schneider played a 'huge role' in her 'personal childhood trauma'

The actress described reaching out to the network after she was forced to film a scene in which she applied lip gloss while eating a pickle, which she worried was too sexual to be broadcast on a kid-centric network.

She attributed some of the overly sexual content to the mostly male writers room on the show. Although she said that Victorious was usually a 'very PC, funny, silly, friendly, chill' place, the occasional overly sexual scene could puncture the warm atmosphere.

'Do I wish certain things, like, didnt have to be so sexualized?' she said. 'Yeah. A hundred percent.'

But Nickelodeon executives apparently sided with Schneider and the creative team over Monet, and the scene was included in the episode.

She added that not only did the executives OK the scene, but its Standards and Practices division would have had to sign off on it as well.

More claims: It comes after several actresses, including Daniella Monet and Nikolas, claimed they were subjected to abuse and forced to film 'sexualized' scenes on Nickelodeon shows created, produced and written by Schneider in a new Insider expose; (LR) Daniella Monet, Jennette McCurdy, Miranda Cosgrove, and Ariana Grande

Insider's expose notes that 'none of Schneiders shows credited more than two female writers in the entirety of their runs,' while 'Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh had zero.'

It also references a scene that Jamie Lynn Spears filmed for her series Zoey 101  which Schneider created, executive produced, co-wrote and even had a guest appearance on  in which she had goo 'roughly the consistency of an egg white' splattered onto her face.

Her costar Nikolas recalled that Schneider wasn't satisfied with the take and made a crew member squirt her in the face multiple times.

After Spears caught the goo on her forehead during one take, at which point it started to dribble down to her face onto her mouth.

Nikolas recalled Schneider bursting into laughter at the sight, which led other crew members and even Spears' mother Lynne Spears to erupt into giggles.

Sexual associations: Nikolas recalled Schneider forcing Jamie Lynn Spears to film a scene where she had goo squirted on her face repeatedly, until one take approximated a 'c** shot'  in the words of her male costar  which was the take that was selected; seen in 2015

Inappropriate: 'We're talking about a minor,' Nikolas continued. 'I think Jamie was 13, and they're squirting stuff on her face to make it look a certain way'; Alexa pictured with Jamie in a 2005 still from Zoey 101

'It's like a c** shot,' she recalled one of her male costars saying, before noting that the most sexualized take was the one selected for the episode.

'We're talking about a minor,' Nikolas continued. 'I think Jamie was 13, and they're squirting stuff on her face to make it look a certain way.'

Russel Hicks, the former president of content and production at Nickelodeon, disputed that anything inappropriate was allowed to make its way to air.

'Every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinized and approved,' he claimed, adding that the Standards and Practices division read all of the scripts for Schneider's shows and watched every episode.

The young actors' parents or caregivers were also on set during shooting.

A source close to Schneider also defended the producer by saying that the 'goo' squirted onto Spears was green, 'just like Nickelodeon's famous slime,' and they claimed that 'This episode aired and was seen by millions of people and (to our knowledge) not one viewer ever had a concern.'

Skimpy: Other female actors were reportedly forced to wear revealing clothing, and Schneider allegedly fought for 'whatever was the most revealing' when they had to wear bathing suits

Elsewhere in the lengthy piece, Monet  who was 18 when she started filming for Victorious  said that she was often forced to wear clothes on screen that were 'not age appropriate.'

'I wouldn't even wear some of that today as an adult,' she added.

A writer who worked for Schneider also claimed that whenever actress were supposed to be wearing bathing suits, he would urge for them to be given 'whatever was the most revealing.'

Jennette McCurdy, who started on iCarly before reprising her role on the spinoff Sam & Cat with costar Ariana Grande, avoids naming Schneider directly in her best-selling memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died, though she refers to a figure named only as The Creator who has been assumed to be Schneider.

She said that she was subject to an undesired massage from The Creator, and she also accused the figure of pressuring her into drinking alcohol despite being underage.

He allegedly urged her to try some of his whisky by claiming that he and the cast of Victorious would 'get drunk together all the time.'

So far, McCurdy has not specified why she refers to the unnamed figure only as The Creator in her memoir.
Peter Kay has announced that he is performing once a month at The O2 arena in London as part of his first standup tour in a decade.

The comedian, 49, co-hosted Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Wednesday morning where he revealed the very exciting news.

It comes after Peter, who has been largely absent from the public eye for the last four years, announced he will embark on an arena tour spanning from this December to August 2023.

Exciting! Peter Kay has announced that he is performing once a month at The O2 arena in London as part of his first standup tour in a decade

But fans were quick to voice their disappointment as the legendary funnyman did not share any London dates, with radio host Zoe playing clips of people begging him to come to the city.

Making their dreams come true, Peter was quick to assure fans that he will be bringing his first tour since 2010 to England's capital with a monthly residency.

Zoe excitedly revealed he will be performing at The O2 Arena once a month from December until November 2023, with dates including December 16, January 21, February 18, March 22 and April 22 - all the way through until November 18.

As Zoe rattled off his list of dates, Peter revealed: 'Nobody's taking this in, basically I'm doing The O2 once a month!'

Get ready! The comedian, 49, co-hosted Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Wednesday morning where he revealed the very exciting news

Peter also revealed that he is doing three warm-up gigs before beginning his hotly-anticipated tour in just three weeks time.

As Zoe referred to small gigs he has done in recent weeks, calling them 'secret' performances, Peter insisted that they were, in fact, very easy to find online.

'People keep saying secret gigs, but they are not secret! I just put them online and it's first come first served,' he insisted.

Last month, he delighted audiences as he reportedly performed a 'secret' comedy gig for select audiences, but his public comedy performances have been few and far between in the past decade.

Peter appeared at a theatre in Salford in October and had 'new material' for the lucky fans who were invited to attend.

Big news: It comes after Peter, who has been absent from the public eye for the last four years, announced he will embark on an arena tour spanning from this December to August 2023

London shows? Fans voiced their disappointment as the legendary funnyman did not share any London dates, with radio host Zoe playing clips of people begging him to come to the city

His London residency will be part of his first live tour since 2010, when he scored the Guinness World Record for the biggest selling run of all time, playing to more than 1.2million people.

His comeback was announced during an advertisement break in the series launch of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on ITV on Sunday.

Elsewhere on the breakfast show, Peter gave a humorous insight into how he created his surprise advert to reveal his tour on a budget.

Speaking about creating the advert, he quipped that he and his friend filmed it in 20 minutes, despite his claim that Tesco gave 12million to fund the advert.

The stand-up comedian joked he and his friend filmed the advert on their iPhones outside his mother's house, admitting he borrowed the carpet he carried in the clip from a shop - later returning it.

Amazing news: Making their dreams come true, Peter was quick to assure fans that he will be bringing his first tour since 2010 to England's capital with a monthly residency

Getting ready! Peter (pictured in 2009) also revealed that he is doing three warm-up gigs before beginning his hotly-anticipated tour in just three weeks time

He revealed: 'I put an iPhone down my shorts and put it on Voice Memo, I recorded my sound, I filmed it myself!

'Tesco spent like 12million on an advert we filmed it in like 10 minutes on two phones! We were back home in 20 minutes! It cost more to do the graphics!'

During Sunday's advert, Peter revealed that tickets for his stand-up tour will start at just 35.

He said: 'It's good to get back to what I love doing best, stand-up comedy, and if there's ever a time people need a laugh it's now.

'And with the cost of living at an all-time high, ticket prices are starting from 35 - the same price they were on my previous tour in 2010.'

Return of the comedy king! Elsewhere on the breakfast show, Peter also spoke about how he created his advert, which saw him reveal his tour in the surprise announcement

Peter will begin his tour on December 2 at the Manchester AO Arena before visiting locations including Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Belfast, Newcastle, Glasgow and Dublin.

His run will end on August 11 2023 at the Sheffield Utilita Arena. Tickets go on sale November 12 at 10am.

Following the announcement, Peter's official website appeared to crash briefly under increased online traffic.

A poster for the event featured Peter holding a sign reading, 'Better late than never' and described a ticket to his shows as an 'ideal Christmas gift'.

Peter, from Bolton, has been largely out of the spotlight in recent years. He cancelled his last tour in December 2017, citing 'unforeseen family circumstances'.

Amazing: His residency will be part of his first live tour since 2010, when he scored the Guinness World Record for the biggest selling run of all time, playing to more than 1.2m people

He returned to the stage in August 2021 for two special charity events to raise money for Laura Nuttall, a then 20-year-old with an aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.

There was also a brief return in January 2021 when he appeared on BBC Radio 2 to chat to Cat Deeley - who was filling in after Graham Norton left the station - about his love of music, mixtapes and the musical Mamma Mia.

He also made a surprise appearance at a charity screening of his series Car Share in 2018.

Over the last few years, Peter has delighted fans with his hit Bafta-winning TV series Car Share and stand-up routines.

Earlier this year, he hosted his Dance For Life show seeing all the proceeds go to Cancer Research.

Popular: Peter is famous for hit TV shows such as Car Share, Phoenix Nights and Max and Paddy, but has largely been away from the limelight for the past four years

Peter kicked off in Manchester in April, one of his few appearances since his record-breaking The Tour That Doesn't Tour Tour...Now On Tour, which wrapped in late 2011.

And fans were pleased with his performance as many shared their reaction on social media, with some even saying they were 'emotional'.

The event was billed as a 'dance-a-thon party that will save lives - with Peter also taking to the DJ decks during the show.

He had previously been due to make a comeback with the series of Dance For Life shows to raise money for Cancer Research UK in April and May 2020.

Fans have been waiting years for Peter's return to the stage, after he stepped away from the spotlight in 2017 due to 'unforeseen family circumstances'.

Cancelled: The performer had been due to go on a massive tour from April 2018 through to summer 2019, but it in December 2017 pulled out due to 'unforeseen family circumstances'

He said at the time: 'Due to unforeseen family circumstances, I deeply regret that I am having to cancel all of my upcoming work projects.

'This unfortunately includes my upcoming stand-up tour, Dance for Life shows and any outstanding live work commitments.

'My sincerest apologies. This decision has not been taken lightly and I'm sure you'll understand my family must always come first.'

The father-of-two was expected to earn up to 40million from hosting 109 nights from April 2018 until March 2019 at cities including Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, London and Dublin.

Tickets for Peter Kay's nationwide tour go on sale on Saturday, November 12, at 10am via www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk. While for Belfast and Dublin, tickets will be available at www.ticketmaster.ie.
Emily Ratajkowski has candidly spoken about the challenges of motherhood and being newly single in a new wide-ranging interview.

Speaking to Elle UK for their December issue, the model, 31, told how you have to 'sacrifice so much as a mother' but that she feels like her 'life is just beginning' as she moves on from her 'awkward and painful' twenties and an old relationship.

Emily shares son Sly, 19 months, with her ex Sebastian Bear-McClard who she split up from earlier this year after he was hit with allegations of infidelity.

Open and honest: Emily Ratajkowski has candidly spoken about the challenges of motherhood and being newly single in a new wide-ranging interview

On motherhood and her new lease of life she told the publication: 'You sacrifice so much of your identity when you become a mother. And I feel like my life is just beginning.

'My twenties felt like how people describe their teenage years, where you're like, "God, that was awkward and painful". And as much as I did things that I love, I'm also just like, "Goodbye!"

'Now, for the first time, I am enjoying the world more. And yet now I have this incredible responsibility of raising a child.

'But one thing I have decided is how I want Sly to think about women. I want him to have an example of a mom who is happy.'

Candid: Speaking to Elle UK for their December issue, the model, 31, told how you have to 'sacrifice so much as a mother' but that she feels like her 'life is just beginning' being single

Emily looked incredible for the magazine where she flashed her abs in one shot while wearing a white Miu Miu crop top and high-waisted trousers.

In another she donned a baggy silver skirt and sheer nude top while posing up a storm on the street.

Elsewhere during the interview she spoke about her current stage of life, saying she has entered her 'b*tch era' and that she now cares less about what people think of her and how she presents herself.

The beauty explained: 'For most of my life, much of my job was presenting myself as beautiful and that's how I made money. And then, as I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer, it was kind of the opposite.

Fashionista: Emily looked incredible for the magazine where she wore a quirky skirt and ab-flashing top for the cover

'I would cover myself up or not put on make-up, because I'd want writers to think of me as somebody who didn't care about those things.'

'Right now, I'm in a place where I do not care! I will wear whatever the hell I want, as much make-up as I want, and make myself feel good, which sometimes means being sexy and sometimes doesn't.'

She continued: 'I made a TikTok where I was like, 'I'm in my b*tch era,' and I really mean it. We should all be in our b*tch era.

'I'm so tired of adjusting. Maybe this is coming out of Covid, being 31, or being recently single... We'll see. Maybe I will regret it.'

Difficult: Emily shares son Sly, 19 months, with her ex Sebastian Bear-McClard who she split up from earlier this year after he was hit with allegations of infidelity (pictured in 2018)

Sebastian and Emily were first introduced by mutual friends several years ago though the pair did not begin seeing each other until 2018.

After just three weeks of dating, the former couple announced their engagement.

They tied the knot during a courthouse wedding in New York City that took place that February.

Ratajkowski became pregnant with the couple's only child in October of 2020.

Mother: Ratajkowski became pregnant with the couple's only child in October of 2020. She gave birth to her baby boy Sylvester the following March

She gave birth to her baby boy Sylvester, aged one, the following March.

The model's son and husband frequently appeared in shots that were shared to her Instagram account in the months leading up to their shock split.

By July, it was announced that the pair were planning to divorce.

A source spoke to People at the time and told the media outlet that the model was the one who wanted to end the marriage.

'They split recently. It was Em's decision. She is doing okay. She is strong and focused on her son. She loves being a mom,' they said.

The following month, an insider told Page Six that 'Sebastian is begging [Ratajkowski] to give him another chance' despite his alleged cheating.

But the source claimed that a reconciliation was quite unlikely. They expressed that the two would not get back together 'because she did her own digging and discovered even more s*** he did behind her back.'

The December/January issue of Elle UK is on sale from 10 November.
The Good Karma Hospital has been axed by ITV after four series.

The Sunday night drama, which focused on the staff at a rural hospital in south India, will not return for a fifth series after bosses decided the series had 'run its course.'

The Good Karma Hospital's last series saw lovebirds Dr Lydia Fonseca and bar owner Greg McConnell finally tie the knot, and sources claim that bosses have agreed this is a perfect point to end the show.

RIP: The Good Karma Hospital has been axed by ITV after four series, after bosses decided the series had 'run its course'

A source told The Sun: 'The show ended with a storyline which delighted viewers  marriage between two people who clearly loved each other very much.

'Plus, audience figures had been slipping of late, almost three million down from the show's debut series, which isn't a great sign. It felt like the right time to end the story.'

A spokesperson for the channel added: 'There are no current plans for any more series.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for ITV for further comment.

Ended: The Sunday night drama , which focused on the staff at a rural hospital in India, will not return for a fifth series after ending with Dr Lydia Fonseca and Greg McConnell's wedding

In series four, viewers saw Lydia (played by Amanda Redman) finally tie the knot with Greg (Neil Morrissey).

The drama centred on the Good Karma Hospital, run by Lydia, as well was its patients and employees, including Dr Ruby Walker (Game Of Thrones' Amrita Acharia), a British-Asian doctor who impulsively took a job there in series one after her heart was broken in the UK.

News of the axe comes after show creator Dan Sefton teased he had plans for a fifth series and felt the programme could continue to 'grow' by introducing new characters to keep things fresh.

Dropped: News of the axe comes after show creator Dan Sefton teased he had plans for a fifth series and felt the programme could continue to 'grow'

He told Radiotimes.com in March: 'I think that's the trick with TV, it has to be a slow evolution, new characters come, favourite characters move on.

'And if the show is strong, if the tone of the show is strong, everybody knows what it is, then it can grow with that and get better and better.

'And I think this is the case with this show, that it has potential to just to keep going, and to continue to be entertaining, because that's the ultimate goal, really.'
They have jetted to Venice for a quick getaway.

And Emma Thompson and her husband Greg Wise were taking in the sights of the pretty Italian city on Wednesday as they stepped out for a stroll together.

The Love Actually actress, 63, looked casually chic in corduroy dungarees for the outing where they stopped for a bite to eat alfresco.

Out and about: Emma Thompson and her husband Greg Wise were taking in the sights of Venice on Wednesday as they stepped out for a stroll together during a trip away

She completed her look with a white T-shirt, a browny grey jacket and comfortable white trainers while wearing her hair in her classic cropped do.

Meanwhile Greg, 56, looked chilled in a double denim ensemble as he strolled next to his wife before enjoying a beer.

The pair got some light exercise with their walk around the city before sitting down to eat and enjoy a glass of red wine together.

Style: The Love Actually actress, 63, looked casually chic in corduroy dungarees for the outing where they stopped for a bite to eat alfresco

Emma and Greg have been married since 2003 and have two children; daughter Gaia, 22, and adopted son Tindyebwa.

It comes after Emma fought back tears after she was surprised with a letter penned by her late father Eric on The One Show last month.

The actress, whose dad died in 1982, was stunned to be given the letter as the programme showed images of Eric in his youth, joking: 'He was a bit of alright!'

The letter was penned by Eric asking for an audition to work at the BBC after he left the army, with the actor going onto create and narrate the English adaptation of the beloved TV series The Magic Roundabout.

In it Eric asked the BBC if he could audition for them after leaving the army, with host Jermaine Jenas explaining: 'There's this letter from your dad to the BBC.

'So he says he's just left the army and that he's been advised to write a letter to ask for an audition with the BBC.

'And I'll tell you what it says, so it says: ''I have no broadcasting experience apart from an audition in Birmingham some years ago, but I have had stage experience both amateur and repertory''.'

Touching: It comes after Emma fought back tears after she was surprised with a letter penned by her late father Eric on The One Show last month

The letter was accompanied by the BBC's audition report and photos of Eric taken during his youth.

Zoe Ball added: 'And the good news is, Emma, he did get an audition, three years later. The producers wrote a positive report on him, which you can have a look at now, so good isn't it.'

She continued: 'And you can see there, they noted that he had a 'quiet charm and a twinkle and an obvious sense of humour'.'

Emma was visibly thrilled by the items, telling the camera: 'My mother, who is 90, is watching this! Mum! I mean honestly, look!'

Gazing at the old snaps of her father, Emma added: 'Check him out! He was a bit of alright wasn't he really!'

Eric went onto present the children's series Playschool in the 1960s, and was also the English narrator of The Magic Roundabout. Following a heart attack in 1967, he focused his attention on directing.
Binky Felstead has been seen for the first time since revealing she's pregnant with her third child.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 32, was seen heading to the shops to stock up essentials in west London, two days after announcing her baby news.

It comes after Binky revealed she's been struck down by a brutal vomiting bug just days after announcing her pregnancy, telling her Instagram followers that she was struggling to keep her eyes open for longer than two minutes.

Stepping out: Binky Felstead, 32, has been seen for the first time since revealing she's pregnant with her third child

On Sunday Binky shared the news that she was pregnant with her third child, just three-and-a-half months after tying the knot with Max Darnton.

The mother-to-be was spotted heading to the shops in casual ensemble, donning a taupe rain jacket with a relaxed grey jumper.

Just hours earlier, Binky admitted that she had been struck down by a brutal vomiting bug, writing on Instagram Stories that she was feeling 'like I'm going to be sick constantly.'

The mother-of-two was initially confused as to whether she was suffering from morning sickness or a virus after falling ill on Monday.

Casual: The former Made In Chelsea star was seen heading to the shops to stock up essentials in west London, two days after announcing her baby news

Out and about: The mother-to-be was spotted heading to the shops in casual ensemble, donning a taupe rain jacket with a relaxed grey jumper

Casual: Donning black leggings and green trainers, Binky headed to the shops during her solo outing after sharing her baby news

She wrote: 'Trying to work out if it's morning sickness or a bug as I've also got a really upset tummy and feel like I'm going to be sick constantly!'

Alongside a picture of a packet of anti-sickness sweets, Binky added: 'For those saying they're in the same boat, my friend bought me these and they seem to be helping ease off the sickness feeling.'

Binky then took to Instagram to share an image of a slice of toast, telling her followers she was hopefully 'through the worst' of her illness.

She wrote: 'Managed to make it downstairs for the first time since yesterday morning! 8.30am this all started, able to keep my eyes open longer than two minutes now without wanting to be sick!

Simple: The expectant star covered her growing bump with the oversixed jumper after sharing her exciting baby news

Low-key: Binky was makeup-free as she headed to the shops, hours after revealing she'd been struck down by a brutal vomiting bug

'Hoping this is coming to the end now... lots of you saying it's a 12-hour thing - others saying it's a week thing. Hopefully I'm through the worst! That was not fun. Still not 100 per cent, going to take today easy.'

Binky also shared a sweet snap of her son Wolfie on Tuesday as she revealed it was the photo she sent family and friends to announce her pregnancy in the summer.

'This was the picture we sent to close family & friends when we found out in France!' Binky gushed. 'I wish you could have seen Max & I furiously googling what 'Enceinte' meant  and don't worry Mummy police - it's obviously got a cap on.'

Binky announced her third pregnancy in an Instagram post shared with followers on Sunday morning.

The star posted a video of herself and businessman husband Max Darnton revealing the unborn child's first ultrasound scan while out with their blended family.

Heading out: Binky was solo for the brief outing as she recovers from her vomiting bug, which she said left her 'struggling to keep her eyes open'

Happy news: Binky announced her third pregnancy in an Instagram post shared with followers on Sunday morning

Soon to be mum-of-three: Binky is already a parent to son Wolfie, 17 months, with husband Max Darnton, as well as daughter India, five, with her ex-boyfriend, Josh 'JP' Patterson

Binky is already a parent to son Wolfie, 17 months, with Max, as well as daughter India, five, with her ex-boyfriend and former TV co-star, Josh 'JP' Patterson.

Sharing a sweet family video with her 1.4million followers, she wrote: 'Imagine thinking you're nearing the ''oh so quiet'' phase again. Taurus baby coming in hot'

Revealing the joyous news on social media, Binky revealed the baby will be a Taurus - meaning the due date will be between around 20 April to 20 May next year.

The announcement came in the form of a woodland video, featuring Binky, Max, India and Wolfie, with hit Bjork track Oh So Quiet playing in the background.

Binky and Max's baby news comes three and a half months after the couple tied the knot in a three-day celebration in Corfu, surrounded by their friends and family.

Tough time: Just hours earlier, Binky admitted that she had been struck down by a brutal vomiting bug (pictured in an Instagram photo in September)

The announcement mirrored that of Binky's last pregnancy reveal in 2020, when she told followers she was expecting Wolfie.

At the time, she shared the news by having India hold up a row of ultrasound scan pictures - in the same way the youngster did for this announcement.

Binky then welcomed Wolfie, her first child with Max, back in June 2021 - sharing the new arrival with a sweet snap from hospital of the trio.

Help! She told her Instagram followers she was feeling 'like I'm going to be sick constantly' as she shared some remedies recommended by pals

Feeling better: Binky then took to Instagram to share an image of a slice of toast, telling her followers she was hopefully 'through the worst' of her illness

The TV personality gave birth to India in June 2017, but split from ex Josh just over a year later in September 2018, citing that it was 'unfair' on India to stay together.

Binky found love again with Max and the couple announced that they were engaged after 19 months of dating in September 2020.

Gushing about the proposal via Instagram, which took place after he asked her daughter for permission to pop the question, she wrote: 'The easiest "Yes" EVER!'

Max popped the question in a picturesque field in the English countryside.

The pair have been going strong ever since meeting at separate parties at private members' club Soho Farmhouse in January 2019.
Kate Beckinsale worked well into the night as principal photography continued on the rooftop set of her forthcoming film on Tuesday.

The actress is currently on location in Croatian capital Zagreb while shooting Canary Black, a forthcoming espionage thriller directed by Pierre Morel - whose previous work includes 2008 blockbuster Taken.

And she appeared to feel the chill as temperatures dropped during a late night shoot, with a crew-member offering her a welcome hug as she pulled on a thick winter coat between scenes.

Quiet on set: Kate Beckinsale worked well into the night as principal photography continued on the set of forthcoming film Canary Black on Tuesday

Beckinsale, who lives in Los Angeles, was in high spirits while chatting to members of the production as she waited for work to continue.

The actress shared a cheeky behind-the-scenes snap from the new film with Instagram followers on Monday, while dressed in her central character's black sweater and jeans.

The Underworld star was joined by a friend and a group of local firemen as she posed on a public bicycle featuring the slogan, 'Put the fun between your legs.'

That's better: The actress appeared to feel the chill as temperatures dropped during a late night shoot, with a crew-member offering her a welcome hug between scenes

Upbeat: Beckinsale, who lives in Los Angeles, was in high spirits while chatting to members of the production as she waited for work to continue.

Hard at work: Beckinsale is currently on location in Croatian capital Zagreb while shooting Canary Black with director Pierre More

Captioning the shot, she joked: 'Id highly advise putting the fun between your legs if you want to quite quickly meet a clutch of Croatian firemen.'

Canary Black is being directed by Morel from an original screenplay written by Matthew Kennedy.

The thriller also stars Rupert Friend - who was not present on Tuesday - and follows a top CIA operative named Avery Graves, played by Beckinsale.

Getting the message: The actress checked her phone while waiting for work to commence

Subdued: Beckinsale wore her central character's black turtleneck and jeans during her latest appearance on set

Let's talk: The actress chatted to a member of the production team during Tuesday's shoot It

Avery is put in a helpless position after terrorists blackmail her into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband.

Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want.

Betrayed at every turn, she must rely on her cutting-edge training and primitive fighting skills in a deadly race to deliver a ransom that could trigger a global crisis.

Plenty to smile about: LA based Kate shared a joke with a female crew-member as they passed the time

Busy: An enormous team converged on the Zagreb rooftop during another location shoot in the Croatian capital

On the run: Beckinsale was seen running across the rooftop set as filming commenced
Dominic West and his wife Catherine Fitzgerald put on a united front at Wednesday's star-studded premiere of The Crown season five.

The actor, who takes over the role of the then Prince Charles from Josh O'Connor, was seen tenderly kissing his wife as he walked her to a taxi during the premiere afterparty in London.

A grinning Dominic, whose 12-year marriage hung by a thread after he was pictured passionately kissing Lily James two years ago, bid his wife good night before heading back inside the continue the party.

PDA: Dominic West and his wife Catherine Fitzgerald put on a united front at Wednesday's star-studded premiere of The Crown season five

Dominic looked dapper in a black velvet tux and bow tie for his red carpet appearance, while Catherine coordinated with a black waistcoat and white shirt.

The actor kissed his landscape designer wife on the cheek after escorting her to her ride home.

But the night wasn't over for The Crown's new leading man as he happily made his way back inside London's Drury Lane Theatre to continue the celebrations with his co-stars.

Party time: The actor, who takes over the role of the then Prince Charles from Josh O'Connor, was seen tenderly kissing his wife as he walked her to a taxi during the premiere afterparty

Sweet: Dominic, whose 12-year marriage hung by a thread after he was pictured passionately kissing Lily James two years ago, bid his wife good night as she left with their daughter

Calling it a night: The actor kissed his landscape designer wife on the cheek after escorting her to her ride home

Earlier in the evening Dominic and Catherine walked the red carpet with their four children Seann, Dora, Francis and Cristabel.

13-year-old Senan plays a young Prince William in the final season of The Crown, which is currently filming.

It was just two years ago that Dominic and Catherine's marriage hung by a thread after he was pictured passionately kissing Lily James.

Looking good: Dominic looked dapper in a black velvet tux and bow tie for his red carpet appearance

Still going strong: It was just two years ago that Dominic and Catherine's marriage hung by a thread after he was pictured passionately kissing Lily James

In we go: The actor was seen helping his family into a waiting car following the after party before he headed back inside

Hitting headlines: Dominic's marriage to Catherine faced public scrutiny after The Affair actor was pictured getting close to co-star Lily James in Rome (pictured in Rome in October 2020)

Dominic and Catherine married in June 2010 after reuniting following their university romance and have four children together.

Their marriage faced public scrutiny after Dominic was pictured kissing co-star Lily in Rome in the same week it was confirmed Lily and ex-boyfriend, The Crown actor Matt Smith, 38, had parted ways.

Dominic and Catherine famously put on a public show of unity in the days after the photos emerged, leaving n a handwritten note left outside their Wiltshire home: 'Our marriage is strong and we're very much still together. Thank you.'

Family: Dominic attended the premiere alongside his wife nd their four children Senan, Dora, Francis and Cristabel

Rising star: 13-year-old Senan plays a young Prince William in the final season of The Crown, which is currently filming

While Lily hasn't publicly addressed the nature of her former relationship with Dominic yet, she said in an interview earlier this year that 'there is a lot to say.'

When asked about Dominic, she replied: 'I'm not really willing to talk about that. There is a lot to say, but not now, I'm afraid.'

Meanwhile Dominic is focusing on his major new role as Prince Charles in season five of The Crown which was released on Netflix on Wednesday amid mounting backlash over the 'insensitive' portrayal of the Royal Family during the Nineties.

On screen marriage: Dominic takes over the role of Prince Charles while Elizabeth Debicki plays Princess Diana (pictured at the premiere)

Leading man: Season five of The Crown was released on Netflix on Wednesday amid mounting backlash over the 'insensitive' portrayal of the Royal Family during the Nineties

As the Netflix drama has spanned over several decades and reached recent events that will be fresh in some viewers' minds, the show has been criticised for sensationalising events and including fictionalised scenes.

With the previous two seasons of The Crown covering the three decades before the Nineties the entire team have been recast for this series' 13-year time frame of 1990 to 2003.

Focusing heavily on the fallout between Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki and King Charles (then Prince of Wales) as portrayed by West, the new series will showcase a number of low points for the royals.

Among them are Charles and Diana's marriage breakdown, the late royal's controversial Panorama interview and the notorious tampongate phone call between the King and Queen Consort.

One of the most controversial aspects of the series is how it will tackle the death of Diana, with Netflix facing scrutiny over the decision to recreate the final days of Princess Diana, shooting some scenes in Paris, where she died.
Millionaire Adrian Portelli recently made headlines after unsuccessfully bidding on Omar and Oz's lavish Gisborne property on The Block.

The mysterious entrepreneur, nicknamed Mr Lambo due to his love of Lamborghinis, 33, is now giving away his $2.3million Gold Coast mansion in a competition with his company LMCT+.

'I didnt win The Block house to give away so I've found a replacement. It was never meant for a giveaway but here we are,' he told News.com.au.

Millionaire Adrian Portelli (pictured) recently made headlines after unsuccessfully bidding on Omar and Oz's house on The Block

The lavish oceanside property was built just last year and features exquisite architecture and jaw-dropping scenic surroundings.

Purchasing property is a hobby of Portelli's and he already owns several houses in Queensland.

He was hoping to expand into Victoria by successfully bidding on Omar and Oz's property during the The Block finale on Sunday.

He arrived at the auction in a flashy yellow Lamborghini and seemed to know Omar and Oz well.

The online promotions guru is now giving away his luxurious $2.3million Gold Coast mansion in a competition with his company LMCT+

The successful entrepreneur opened the bidding at $4.5million, which was much higher than the $4.08million reserve price.

His aggressive style meant eventual buyer Danny Wallis ended up paying an eye-watering $5,666,666.66 for the 10-acre property, four-bedroom home.

Omar and Oz became instant millionaires with total winnings of $1,686,666.66 - the biggest victory in The Block's 18-year history.

'I didnt win The Block house to give away so I've found a replacement. It was never meant for a giveaway but here we are,' he said

Following their win, some fans speculated the auction was 'dodgy' and that Portelli was 'set up' to force Wallis into spending more.

But an equal number of viewers refuted this, saying the boys won fairly and calling out the criticism as 'racist'.

Adrian has a net worth of $8million and founded auto enthusiast club LMCT+ in 2018, which has now become Australia's largest and fastest-growing car community.

He is also the owner of The Little Legends Foundation, which provides urgent medical care and offers experiences for vulnerable children.

Adrian has a net worth of $8million and founded auto enthusiast club LMCT+ in 2018, which has now become Australia's largest and fastest-growing car community. He is also the owner of The Little Legends Foundation, which provides urgent medical care and offers experiences for vulnerable children
Christian Wilkins risked a wardrobe malfunction on Wednesday as he stepped out in a daring black and white satin outfit at Marie Claire's Women of the Year Awards.

The 27-year-old son of Richard Wilkins ensure all eyes were on him in a long white jacket with nothing underneath except for a gold medallion.

He completed his look with a long black skirt that featured a perilously high split, showing off his incredibly toned legs.

Christian Wilkins, 27, (pictured) risked a wardrobe malfunction on Wednesday when he stepped out in a daring black and white satin outfit at Marie Claire's Women of the Year Awards in Sydney

The model finished the look with a simple black clutch and black boots as he pulled his golden locks back into a tight low bun and blew a kiss to the crowd.

It comes after he had fans scratching their heads last week when he announced he was 'pregnant' with his first child.

He shared a photo on Instagram of himself attending Oaks Day at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse and joked in the caption he was 'very excited to announce my pregnancy'.

The 27-year-old son of Richard Wilkins ensure all eyes were on him in a long white jacket with nothing underneath except for a gold medallion

It was a reference to his flared top which gave the illusion he had a baby bump.

'Baby Chritney coming 2023,' he added.

The Victoria Racing Club ambassador turned plenty of heads in The Birdcage with his floral peplum ensemble.

He completed his look with a long black skirt that featured a perilously high split, showing off his incredibly toned legs

But the centrepiece of his outfit was the bold white letters printed across his chest: 'God.'

He told the Herald Sun his towering black boots were the reason for the bold slogan, saying they made him 'feel closer to God'.

'I'm wearing Alix Higgins and the hat is Loewe. He's a young queer designer and I love the look. I just love a tall girl in a heel. I feel closer to God,' he said.

The model finished the look with a simple black clutch and black boots as he pulled his golden locks back into a tight low bun and blew a kiss to the crowd

It comes after he had fans scratching their heads on Thursday when he announced he was 'pregnant' with his first child

'Have I been updated from Prince to God? It's Ladies' Day and to wear pink florals, it suits the day perfectly,' he added, referencing his former nickname 'The Prince'.

Christian attended Oaks Day as a guest of Lexus alongside his father and two sisters, and they spent much of their time in the exclusive Birdcage at Flemington.

He attended all the major races last week, opting for both masculine and feminine looks, reflecting his diverse and androgynous sense of style.
They're set to star in their own reality TV series for OnlyFans.

And Chloe Sims was proudly flaunting her ample bust in a black leather corset as she headed to the PrettyLittleThing showroom on Melrose in Los Angeles with her sisters Frankie, 27, and Demi, 26, on Wednesday.

The TOWIE star, 41, slipped into the racy black leather top with sky blue jeans and a matching beret, and carried a petite charcoal leather Baquette bag as she arrived at the swanky store.

Here come the girls! Chloe Sims, 41, flaunted her ample bust in a black leather corset as she headed to the PLT showroom in LA with her sisters Frankie, 27, and Demi, 26, on Wednesday Warts and all: Discussing her new show she said: ''I want people to see the real us and this is the best opportunity. We will be in full control of the edit which is amazing'

Demi complimented her sister's attire with a white safari cap, matching padded poncho and high waisted camoflage trousers - as youngest sister Frankie trailed behind the duo.

After arriving at the swanky showroom, the sisters perused some of the items on offer, with Chloe even changing into a different outfit before posing for more snaps.

The star opted for a sporty twist by donning a loose-fitting green sweatshirt emblazoned with the word Wellness and matching joggers before appearing in a group snap with her siblings.

Glammed up! The former TOWIE star showcased her ample cleavage in the tight black bustier as she posed inside the brand's Stateside hub

Dolled up: Chloe donned a black leather beret, matching leather corset and jacket as she completed her look with shiny gold hoops and sky blue jeans

Sensational: She accessorised her look with a petite charcoal leather Baquette bag as she arrived at the swanky store with her sisters

Drink up! Greeted with complimentary champagne, Chloe was eager to document her trip to the store after filming scenes for her OnlyFans show

Meanwhile Frankie flaunted her incredible figure in a tight grey maxi dress with a daring thigh-high split.

Chloe's outing comes just days after the television personality celebrated her 41st birthday in the City of Angels.

The star's birthday saw her lavished with a private pianist and bespoke cushions as she celebrated the occasion with famous faces such as Jess Glynn, Eyal Booker and Vas J Morgan.

That's revealing! While changing into one of the showroom's outfits, Chloe flashed a hint of her peachy posterior while behind the curtains in the changing room

Naughty! She put on a daring display while changing into an outfit on display in the store

Here she is! The star opted for a sporty twist by donning a loose-fitting green sweatshirt emblazoned with the word Wellness and matching joggers

Bold: Chloe put on a stylish display in her edgy outfit as she enjoyed the VIP treatment at the PLT showroom

Standing out: Demi complimented her sister's attire with a white safari cap, matching padded poncho and high waisted camoflage trousers

Chloe revealed earlier in the year on Good Morning Britain that her family were going to 'live out our dream' on a brand new reality show.

Currently filming new content stateside the star's upcoming reality show will air exclusively on OnlyFans.

Having left TOWIE in 2021, the fan favourite said: 'I'm so excited that I took the leap...we're going to get to live our dream out together.'

Style star: The reality TV favourite posed up a storm in her casual outfit

Birthday celebrations? Chloe and her siblings took to the PrettyLittleThing showroom just days after the television personality celebrated her 41st birthday in the City of Angels

Warts and all: Discussing her new show she said: 'I want people to see the real us and this is the best opportunity. We will be in full control of the edit which is amazing'

Commenting about the new show, Frankie said: 'Having a camera in your face first thing in the morning, no makeup. We're always seen in full glam, hair and makeup done so it'll be completely difference. I'm excited.'

She continued: 'I want people to see the real us and this is the best opportunity. We will be in full control of the edit which is amazing.

'We'll be in control of what we say, where we go, which we've never had before.'
Bruce Willis was seen having a tender moment with his wife Emma Heming.

His daughter Scout Willis posted a shot of 67-year-old Bruce looking down at a seated Emma as they held hands near a kitchen. He was dressed in a gray shirt and pink and red plaid slacks while his spouse wore a white shirt and jeans. Over the image it said 'love.'

This comes after his friend Sylvester Stallone said the Die Hard actor was having a 'difficult' time.

It's love: Bruce Willis was seen having a tender moment with his wife Emma Heming. His daughter Scout Willis posted a shot of 67-year-old Bruce looking down at a seated Emma as they held hands near a kitchen

Stallone has emotionally reflected on Willis' diagnosis with brain condition aphasia and subsequent retirement from acting in a poignant new interview.

Stallone, 75 - who has been friends with Willis for decades, with the pair starring in The Expendables and The Expendables 2 together - said the Die Hard actor's diagnosis 'kills me' and that he had been 'incommunicado.'

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the Rocky star said: 'Bruce is going through some really, really difficult times. So hes been sort of incommunicado. That kills me. Its so sad.'

Friends forever: Sylvester Stallone has emotionally reflected on his Willis' diagnosis with brain condition aphasia and subsequent retirement from acting in a poignant new interview (pictured 2010)

Back in March when Willis' diagnosis was revealed, Stallone shared a montage of photos with the his former Planet Hollywood partner, captioned: 'We go back a long way, praying for the best for you and your wonderful family...'

Stallone and Willis famously starred alongside one another in the 2010s action franchise The Expendables - a project that spawned the pair's first and only public feud.

The first snap included in the Rambo star's tribute post was a major throwback from 1992 and taken during Willis' ex-wife Demi Moore's 30th birthday celebration at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park.

Stallone and Willis were aboard one of the park's many thrill-seeking rides with model Brigitte Nielsen.

Heartbreaking: Stallone, 75 - who has been friends with Willis, 67, for decades - said the Die Hard actor's diagnosis 'kills me' and that he had been 'incommunicado (pictured 2011)

Another showed the duo mounted on motorcycles as they made a joint appearance on the David Letterman Show in 2008.

Stallone also threw in a shot of him and the Die Hard star mingling on the red carpet at the premiere of the HBO documentary His Way, which follows the career of legendary producer Jerry Weintraub, in 2011.

Last but not least, the Predator actor shared a behind-the-scenes snap taken during the filming of the first or second Expendables film.

The very first Expendables hit theaters in 2010, with the sequel premiering just two years later in the summer of 2012.

Willis, who played CIA operative Mr. Church, was set to star in the third installment but dropped out after an alleged 'money demand' that was not met.

Soon after the news broke - and Harrison Ford had signed on as Willis' replacement - Stallone published an explosive tweet aimed at the Red star.

'GREEDY AND LAZY  A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE,' wrote the Escape Plan star in September 2013.

Despite the very public criticism, Stallone insisted in an interview that same September that he still considered Willis a 'lifelong friend' and that his tweet came out of 'frustration.'

Wow: Stallone and Willis famously starred alongside one another in the 2010s action franchise The Expendables - a project that spawned the pair's first and only public feud (pictured in The Expendables 2 in 2012 with Arnold Schwarzenegger)

A little over a year later, Stallone took to Twitter to reveal that he and Willis had officially buried that hatchet.

'Made up with BRUCE W. A stand up guy, my mistake.... ' he posted on November 2014.

Hollywood icon Willis withdrew from acting earlier this year after being diagnosed with the brain condition aphasia, which causes language abilities to deteriorate.

His family have been open about his condition - which has meant his ability to speak and understand speech has been affected.

Prayers: Stallone said he wss 'praying' for his friend-turned-costar back in March

Throwback: The first snap included in the Rambo star's tribute post was a major throwback from 1992 and taken during Willis' ex-wife Demi Moore's 30th birthday celebration at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. Stallone and Willis were aboard one of the park's many thrill-seeking rides with model Brigitte Nielsen

An insider told People his family was 'doing whatever they can' for him and 'have rallied around him in a big way to help Bruce cope with what is to come.'

Bruce married Emma Heming, 44, in 2009 and has welcomed two daughters with her - Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, eight.

Bruce's blended family issued a joint statement at the end of March announcing that he was 'stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.'

What is Aphasia? The Mayo Clinic defines aphasia as 'a condition that affects your ability to communicate' that 'can affect your speech, as well as the way you write and understand both spoken and written language'. The condition could occur following a head injury or stroke, or can be a predecessor to a brain tumor or Alzheimer's disease. Patients who are living with the condition are typically treated with speech therapy and taught ways to communicate non-verbally. Advertisement

The statement revealed he 'has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities.'

His ex-wife Demi Moore and the three daughters she shares with Bruce - Rumer, 34, Scout, 31 and Tallulah, 28 - all signed the statement along with Emma, Mabel and Evelyn.

The Mayo Clinic defines aphasia as 'a condition that affects your ability to communicate' that 'can affect your speech, as well as the way you write and understand both spoken and written language'.

The actor's family did not reveal what brought on his bout with aphasia, which has a number of potential causes.

The condition could occur following a head injury or stroke, or can be a predecessor to a brain tumor or Alzheimer's disease. Patients who are living with the condition are typically treated with speech therapy and taught ways to communicate non-verbally.

This comes after Bruce was reunited with his former costar John Travolta in the action-packed trailer for their upcoming film Paradise City.

A power couple: Willis (L) and Heming attend the premiere of Motherless Brooklyn during the 57th New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall in 2019

His latest movie is releasing digitally on November 14 in the UK.

The action film, which will be released on November 11, is one of several that Willis completed before his family announced in March that he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.

The movie also appears to be the first major collaboration between Willis and Travolta, 68, in a feature film since they starred in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 crime classic Pulp Fiction.

Willis stars in the film as an aging bounty hunter taking on one of his most dangerous missions yet in Hawaii. After he is shot and presumed dead, his son Ryan (Blake Jenner) teams up with his father's former partner (Stephen Dorff) to hunt down his killers, all while dealing with a sadistic crime lord (Travolta).
Ulrika Jonsson has paid tribute to her daughter Bo, who has a congenital heart defect, on her 22nd birthday, admitting she doesn't know how she 'got this far in life'.

The TV presenter, 55, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a heartfelt birthday message to her daughter, alongside a sweet array of throwback snaps.

In a poignant caption, Ulrika said it is a 'miracle of hope and medicine' that Bo has gotten 'this far in life', describing her daughter as 'determined and willful'.

Sweet: Ulrika Jonsson has paid tribute to her daughter Bo, who has a congenital heart defect, on her 22nd birthday, admitting she doesn't know how she 'got this far in life'

She emotionally admitted their time together 'becomes less and less' with every year before praising Bo for training to be a nanny at the prestigious Norland College, where the Prince and Princess of Wales's childminder learned her craft.

Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo - who looks after Prince William and Kate's three young children, George, Charlotte and Louis - is also a graduate of the prestigious Bath nanny school.

Alongside her candid post, Ulrika shared a slideshow of pictures of Bo and her from over the years, which flashed on screen as hit track As It Was by Harry Styles played.

She penned: 'My darling girl. 22 today! How you got this far in life remains a mystery but is definitely a miracle of hope and medicine.

Reflecting: The TV presenter, 55, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a heartfelt birthday message to her daughter, alongside a sweet array of throwback snaps

Inspiring: In a poignant caption, Ulrika said it is a 'miracle of hope and medicine' that Bo has gotten 'this far in life', describing her daughter as 'determined and willful'

'You're determined; willful; obstinate. You see your goals and you just go for them.

'Proud to smithereens that you've become a @norlandcollege @nannybojonsson - a vocation you were made for.

'With every year that passes, our time together becomes less and less. That's just how it is.

'But it's not As It Was. Harry knows that. Love you so very much. Mamma.'

Ulrika posted an array of selfies of her and her daughter, whose biological father is Markus Kempen, as well as a picture of her holding Bo as a baby.

Proud: She admitted that their time together 'becomes less and less' with every year before praising Bo for training to be a nanny at the prestigious Norland College

Among the gallery of snaps were also pictures of her daughter over the years, including one picture of her posing as they visited a hospital for Bo's congenital heart defect.

Bo has been in and out of hospital over the years as a result of her condition. She was born with double inlet left ventricle defect, a congenital defect that affects the valves and chambers of the heart.

As a baby, Bo had to have life-saving surgery on her heart and Ulrika has previously spoken about her health condition, saying doctors told her they 'hoped' Bo would live to be a teenager.

In December 2021, Bo was reunited with her mother after spending time in A&E with medical issues amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health: Among the gallery of snaps were also pictures of her daughter over the years, including one picture of her posing as they visited a hospital for Bo's congenital heart defect

The doting mother-of-four had revealed her heartache when Bo was hospitalised and she was unable to visit her amid the pandemic.

Ulrika is also a mother to Cameron, 25 - who she shares with John Turnbull - Martha, 14, whose father is Lance Gerrard-Wright, and Malcolm, 11, who she had with Brian Monet.

While Ulrika didn't specify what was wrong with her daughter at the time, she had admitted Bo was 'terrified' before lockdown and was taking risks by going to university.

The TV star's daughter has a compromised immune system and began her second year of university amid the pandemic.

Heart defect: Bo has been in and out of hospital over the years as she was born with double inlet left ventricle defect, a congenital defect that affects the valves and chambers of the heart

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Ulrika said: 'At the beginning of Lockdown, Bo was terrified and went into lockdown a week before the nation went into lockdown.

'As time went by I became increasingly concerned about her mental health because she was basically locked up in her room.

'She had contact with her friends on FaceTime but that social thing they thrive on became a concern for me.'

She said: 'After three months, she decided when she was allowed, to bubble with another family and her present situation is that the college is doing a mix of lectures and virtual.

Hard times: The doting mother-of-four had revealed her heartache when Bo was hospitalised and she was unable to visit her amid the pandemic

'She also does a lot of placements and those are constantly under review. I think Bos approach now is, strangely, a lot more relaxed than she was initially.

'She feels like she's had a taste of normal life and is having to take some risks.'

Last year, Bo also told how she decided not to meet her biological father Markus Kempen after he reached out to her.

Ulrika had penned an article for the Sun about the anxiety she felt over a potential meeting between Bo and Markus, now that Bo is nannying in Corfu - which is where her biological dad is currently living.

Ulrika shared her heartache over her partner walking out shortly after their baby daughter Bo's life-saving heart operation during the emotional essay.

Operation: As a baby, she had to undergo life-saving surgery on her heart and Ulrika has previously spoken about Bo's health condition

But Bo offered her own side of the story, detailing how she has never felt a longing to meet her father, after being adopted by Ulrika's husband, Brian Monet, who she felt a connection with and calls 'daddy'.

She said that she was left in 'floods of tears' after her mother's article, saying she's 'struggled to feel connected' to the idea of a relationship with her biological father.

She revealed she feels there is 'no space for Markus' in her life at the moment, but didn't rule out a future meeting for them when she feels ready.

Ulrika told Bo about her dad aged eight, however after already introducing her to her partners John and Lance, who acted as father figures, Bo admitted she struggled.

Family: Ulrika is also mother to son Cameron, 26, with John Turnbull, daughter Martha, 17, with Lance Gerrard-Wright and son Malcolm, with ex Brian Monet

She said: 'I talk about having a 'biological' dad because it's just a genetic thing to me. I haven't been able to make a connection emotionally. I was a bit confused by Mum's explanation because of my age and I remember going off to play straight after as I didn't have anything to say.'

'How can you ever be prepared for being told you have a 'real' dad somewhere in the world, somewhere in your past or present?'

Bo said she draws comparison from children being told they are adopted, but it isn't something she ever spoke about with her friends.

The professional nanny puts this down to having a strong support network growing up, as she admitted to feeling very 'settled' in her home life.
Two nuclear deterrence exercises have captured extensive attention in the international community recently. One is NATOs Steadfast Noon exercise from October 17 to 30, involving 14 NATO state members and about 60 aircraft. It is followed by Russias Grom-2022 nuclear exercise from October 26 to 29. Will the two exercises with partly overlapping schedule accelerate the arrival of a nuclear war? Here is an exclusive interview with retired Major General Jin Yinan.

Russia test-fired a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile on October 26 as part of the nuclear exercise. (Source: Huanqiu.com)

Question: NATO started its Steadfast Noon nuclear deterrence exercise on October 17 despite Russias repeated and rigorous warnings. The half-month-long exercise features the most advanced warplanes, reconnaissance planes and refueling planes and involves the deployment of nuclear weapons and response to nuclear attacks. What would you say about it?

Jin Yinan: The leading figure in NATOs Steadfast Noon nuclear exercise is the US, whose number of nuclear warheads is disproportionally larger than the combined amount possessed by other NATO countries together. Russias Grom-2022 large-scale strategic nuclear exercise deserves close attention too. They present us with an extremely rare situation after the Cold War.

The US military also plans to deploy its latest upgraded B61 nuclear bombs in Europe at the end of this year. If these nuclear bombs with higher precision and smaller equivalent are used on the European battlefield, Europe will be directly affected. In the entire European history, WWI and WWII razed the continent to the ground twice. Whether it wants to join this nuclear adventure again is something Europe needs to think seriously about.

File photo: F-16 fighters in NATO exercise (Source: Chinamil)

Question: It is reported that the main purpose of the Steadfast Noon nuclear exercise is to try out NATOs nuclear sharing policy, which means the US deploys nuclear weapons on the soil of its NATO allies, who participate in the blocs nuclear activities by providing bases and warplanes, thus obtaining the capability of nuclear deterrence. At the moment, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium have deployed Americas B61 nuclear bombs that can be carried by their own military aircraft. Pentagon plans to deploy the new B61-12 nuclear bombs in Europe next month  earlier than the original plan. What consequences will come out of Americas forward deployment of tactical nuclear weapons and lowering of the nuclear threshold?

Jin Yinan: Americas new B61-12 nuclear bombs have a smaller explosive equivalent, higher precision, and the ability to penetrate the earths surface. Everybody knows that a smaller equivalent makes it easier to use them as tactical nuclear weapons. If the US used them in a war, Russia and the US were likely to use nuclear weapons with more destructive power, which might escalate to strategic nuclear weapons if the situation kept heating up, till eventually a nuclear war broke out. Escalation would be inevitable if Pandoras box was opened.

In my opinion, every European country that has deployed Americas nuclear warheads, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy, is in a dangerous position. They always think that arming themselves with those warheads will make them more secure, but thats not how it works  they will only put them on the line. This reminds me of 1989. When the news about the collapse of the Berlin wall reached the ears of then-US President Bush, he kept in a low profile . Many US media felt dissatisfied and called him scared of the Soviet Union, but his national security advisor Condoleezza Rice said the president just dared not ignite a match in a room full of gas. At that time, the nuclear weapons possessed by the US and Russia were enough to guarantee much destruction, and nobody came out as a winner from a nuclear war. I think that makes a lot of sense. NATOs recent nuclear exercise only serves to imperil Europe and the entire region.

Question: In response to the nuclear deterrence from NATO, Russia held its GROM-2022 annual nuclear exercise from October 26 to 29, causing commentators to say that the risk of global nuclear war has come to the highest level in the past 60 years. Is the tit-for-tat between NATO and Russia going to increase the possibility of a nuclear war?

Jin Yinan: We cannot completely exclude the possibility of a nuclear war now. Regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Chinas consistent position is that both sides should calm down and talk a way out without escalation. But the West and NATO dont think that way. NATO has come to provide weapons and ammunition to Ukraine directly  costing it tens of billions of US dollars already with no sign of stop  including sophisticated weapons and equipment. Now it is deploying tactical nuclear bombs.

The US and some NATO members are convinced that Russia is very likely to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, which is why they have accelerated the deployment of such weapons in Europe in response. But that has only stimulated Russia to pace up in deploying the weapons too and exercising its nuclear forces. As a result, the conflict gets increasingly heated and the possibility of war emerges. If the two sides dont cool their head and exercise restraint in a timely manner, if they dont truly realize what a hell a nuclear war will throw the world into, we indeed cannot exclude the possibility of such a war.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos' son Michael Consuelos was included in this year's People's Sexiest Man Alive issue.

And the 25-year-old actor spoke out about how he 'often' raids dad Mark's closet.

'My dad has a cool closet,' Michael said in his interview with People.

Like father, like son: Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos' son Michael Consuelos was included in this year's People's Sexiest Man Alive issue. And the 25-year-old actor spoke out about how he 'often' raids dad Mark's closet; Michael with his dad Mark

'I often raid my dad's close - and he always notices. He's like, "Hey, where's this?" And I'm like, "Oh, you weren't home. You were in Vancouver for a while, so I figured..." He's like, "Don't figure, ask!"'

Michael jokingly said that dad Mark wants him and his 19-year-old brother Joaquin 'to look like him.'

Michael, who starred in Riverdale alongside Mark, 51, for two episodes, added: 'I got new glasses and then my dad texts me, "Where did you get those glasses?"'

'And I'm like, "Oh no, can you at least pick a different color?"' he added.

Strike a pose: My dad has a cool closet,' Michael said in his interview with People

'My dad, brother, and I will be wearing the same black pants and gray shirt and I'm like, I try to look a little different than that. I like to stand out a little bit,' Michael said.

Michael explained that he prefers to dress for comfort but also loves wearing a sharp suit.

'I'm a big suit guy. Whenever I have any chance to dress up, wear a tie and suit, I jump at it. Looking good and being comfortable doing it, that's my thing.'

Lookalikes: 'My dad, brother, and I will be wearing the same black pants and gray shirt and I'm like, I try to look a little different than that. I like to stand out a little bit,' Michael said

The handsome actor also revealed that his hobbies include running and reading - sometimes both at the same time.

'Sometimes I run listening to an audiobook. But the mainstays in a Michael day off is running, reading. I'm a big reader. I just curl up on the couch with a book. It feels great.'

Kelly, 52, and Mark are also parents to daughter Lola, 21, in addition to Michael and Joaquin.

Mark was part of People's Sexiest Man Alive issue in 2019.

Genetically blessed: The handsome actor also revealed that his hobbies include running and reading - sometimes both at the same time
South Park has never stayed away from controversial topics, but there are a few episodes unavailable on HBO Max.

During its 25 years, the critically-acclaimed adult animation series has touched on issues such as racism, climate change denial, Scientology and many more.

However, since coming to HBO Max in 2020, five episodes are not available for viewers to stream. All five episodes feature a depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Can't stream: South Park has never stayed away from controversial topics, but there are a few episodes unavailable on HBO Max

Muhammad ibn Abdullah was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of the world religion of Islam.

According to Unilad, the five episodes span nearly the first half of the show's run with the first episode coming out in 2001 and the most recent airing in 2010.

The five episodes are titled Super Best Friends, Cartoon Wars parts I and II, 200 and 201.

Though each plot is different, the latter two prompted death threats from extremists groups.

Religious depiction: However, since coming to HBO Max in 2020, five episodes aren't available for viewers to stream  all of which feature a depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad

Five episodes: The five episodes are titled Super Best Friends, Cartoon Wars parts I and II, 200 and 201 ( creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker pictured 1997)

Doug Herzog, who was the head of Comedy Central at the time, explained to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, 'We were protecting everyone who works here. That was the decision we needed to make.'

When the latter two episodes  200 and 201  originally aired, Comedy Central used a black bar to cover the Muhammad caricature and bleeped out his name as well.

Though the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone pushed back, the studio held its ground.

Bleeped: When the latter two episodes  200 and 201  originally aired, Comedy Central used a black bar to cover the Muhammad caricature and bleeped out his name as well

Still running: Despite all the controversies, South Park rolled out its 25th season earlier this year, and fans can watch hundreds of episodes of the show on HBO Max

Depictions of prophets in Islam is strictly prohibited because of the belief that it leads to idolatry or the worship of idols.

South Park isn't the only entity which has depicted Muhammad in images. The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo did the same back in 2015 which led to a shooting that killed 12 people.

Despite all the controversies, South Park rolled out its 25th season earlier this year, and fans can watch hundreds of episodes of the show on HBO Max.

The 26th season of the show is expected to premiere either before this year ends or at the beginning of next year.
Seann Walsh's girlfriend Grace Adderley was seen in West London ahead of his debut on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on Wednesday night.

Grace, who is pregnant with the couple's first child, wrapped up for the day in a black leather jacket and a large white scarf as she enjoyed a stroll.

The dance teacher, 30, opted for a casual look as she sported a pair of black leggings along with a beige jumper on the outing.

Outing: Seann Walsh's girlfriend Grace Adderley cut a casual figure as she went for a stroll around West London ahead of his debut on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on Wednesday

Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, Grace completed her look with a pair of white trainers.

Little is known about Seann's newest girlfriend Grace and the story behind their relationship.

They have been dating since 2019 - but now their relationship is heading to the next level by becoming a family.

Speaking to a friend on an Instagram Live stream while on tour in Stamford, Lincolnshire last month, Seann said: 'I'm having a child'.

Laid back: Grace, who is pregnant with the couple's first child, wrapped up for the day in a black leather jacket and a large white scarf

Family: Seann and Grace are currently expecting their first child together

Seann was then asked by the friend, 'So you're gonna be a dad?', replying 'yeah' - with the unnamed man responding: 'That's worrying'.

Seann added: 'Unbelievable. Everyone else has been really nice, that's the worst response yet.'

His friend then said: 'You're going to have a lot more worries.'

English comedian Seann then quipped: 'That's the one thing I need in life actually, I don't think I've had enough worries.'

His remark may reference his tumultuous relationship history which has played out in the public domain.

Relaxed: Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, Grace completed her look with a pair of white trainers

Seann is set to make his entrance in the jungle during the next episode of I'm A Celebrity after his appearance was teased on Tuesday's episode.

The comedian, who famously kissed his Strictly partner Katya Jones while she was married, is entering alongside Tory MP Matt Hancock.

The Sun previously reported that ITV bosses are hoping Seann will discuss his infamous 2018 snog with his Strictly pro partner Katya, who was married to Neil Jones at the time.

A source said: 'Seann is an incredible signing for I'm A Celebrity and it's a real coup for ITV. His snog with Katya is the biggest scandal to have ever hit Strictly. People still talk about it.

History: They have been dating since 2019 - but now their relationship is heading to the next level by becoming a family

'Seann has joked about his snog with Katya in his comedy sketches but he's never spoken in detail about their relationship.

'Life in the jungle is boring and those long hours around the campfire would be the perfect time for Seann to get talking.'

The insider added that they believe it is 'unlikely' the other campmates won't bring the kiss up as it's what the comedian is primarily known for.

Seann's five-year relationship with actress Rebecca Humphries, 35, who played Carol Thatcher in The Crown, came crashing down after he was seen kissing married professional dance partner Katya.

Excitement: Speaking to a friend on an Instagram Live stream while on tour in Stamford, Lincolnshire last month, Seann said: 'I'm having a child'

This fling during his stint on the 'cursed' BBC One show in October 2018 was reportedly the indirect reason behind the divorce of Katya Jones and husband of six years, Neil Jones.

Following the Strictly kiss incident, Seann's ex Rebecca released an impassioned statement in which she revealed he called her 'psycho' and 'nuts' for questioning his friendship with Katya, who he kissed on Rebecca's birthday - before the photos were made public.

Discussing the drama on Prime Video show Backstage With Katherine Ryan which aired in June, he said: 'What you are thinking about is: 'What have you done to someone?'

In April and speaking in his comedy special Seann Walsh: Kiss, the star told how he was 'sorry' for the kiss then and is still sorry now.

Will he spill the beans? The Sun previously reported that ITV bosses are hoping Seann will discuss his 2018 snog with his Strictly pro partner Katya, who was married at the time

Recalling how he learned their PDA had become public, he said: 'I left the wardrobe department and before I could order my first beer, my agent came over to and asked if he could have a word with me outside.

'I thought ''he is going to tell me I have got Michael McIntyre's Big Show! I had better act surprised!''

'Turns out, I didn't have to act surprised. We went into the BBC carpark, my agent looked over his glasses and said, ''about 20 minutes ago, they posted a photo of you kissing Katya outside a pub''.

'It was at that exact point that my life would turn upside down - the dream turned into a nightmare.'
Naomi Campbell and Isabelle Huppert cut a stylish figure as they unveiled Christmas decorations at Le Printemps in Paris on Wednesday.

Supermodel Naomi, 52, looked effortlessly chic in a pair of black trousers which she tucked a crisp white shirt into.

The beauty draped a coordinated jacket over her shoulders and added inches to her frame in a pair of black boots.

Looking good: Naomi Campbell and Isabelle Huppert cut a stylish figure as they unveiled Christmas decorations at Le Printemps in Paris on Wednesday

Naomi accessorised by layering several gold necklace and carried her belongings in a khaki clutch bag.

She donned a radiant palette of makeup and styled her long dark tresses poker straight from a centre parting as she posed for snaps with Isabelle.

Meanwhile Isabelle looked smart in a light grey oversized blazer and wide leg trousers as she donned an eye catching red shirt beneath.

Incredible: Supermodel Naomi, 52, looked effortlessly chic in a pair of black trousers which she tucked a crisp white shirt into

Stylish: The beauty draped a coordinated jacket over her shoulders and added inches to her frame in a pair of black boots and carried her belongings in a khaki clutch bag.

The French actress elevated her frame in a pair of black heels and carried a chic matching handbag.

She completed her look accessorising with a chunky silver bracelet and swept her auburn waved tresses up in a chic do.

The pair seemed in high spirits as they arrived at the event together both donning eye catching pairs of sunglasses.

Naomi and Isabelle posed for a number of snaps together before cutting the ribbon opening the Christmas decorations for 2022.

Stunning: Meanwhile Isabelle looked smart in a light grey oversized blazer and wide leg trousers as she donned an eye catching red shirt beneath

Chic: The French actress elevated her frame in a pair of black heels and carried a chic matching handbag as she swept her auburn waved tresses up in a chic do

It comes after Naomi recently faced criticism from gay right's campaigners for agreeing to host a 'spectacular' fashion show in Qatar.

Gay men and women are persecuted in the Arab nation where homosexuality is considered abnormal and punishable by three years in jail.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has said women and LGBTQ+ people 'continue to face discrimination in law and practice' in the country.

Making an entrance: The pair seemed in high spirits as they arrived at the event together both donning eye catching pairs of sunglasses

Pals: Naomi and Isabelle posed for a number of snaps together before cutting the ribbon opening the Christmas decorations for 2022.

Naomi has often publicly voiced support for the LGBT community. In 2021, she joined a host of celebrities in signing a letter of support for the LGBT community in Ghana.

She once said: 'If it wasn't for gay men, I would not exist... I owe my life to gay men. It's just what I have grown up with. It's my family.'

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who said he was this week detained by officials while protesting about gay rights in Qatar.

He said: 'Miss Campbell's involvement is inconsistent, given the country's appalling restrictions on women and the criminalisation of LGBT.'

Naomi's spokesman said: 'She is famously supportive of the LBGTQ+ community and she understands that being engaged in places like Qatar is an essential step towards positive change.

'To suggest that her Emerge initiative is in any way an affront to the LGBTQ+ community shows a lack of understanding of who [she] is as a person and as a global citizen.'
Matt Hancock slipped as he crossed a bridge into camp along with his fellow new arrival Seann Walsh on Wednesday's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

The politician, 44, was making his way into 'Mole Headquarters' with Seann ahead of heading to the main camp, but while the comedian made it in in one piece, Matt took a slight tumble.

The pair are late arrivals to the show and will soon merge with the nine other celebrities who have been settling into life in Australia for the past few days.

Oops! Matt Hancock slipped as he crossed a bridge into camp along with his fellow new arrival Seann Walsh on Wednesday's episode of I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!

In scenes that aired tonight Seann arrived into an empty camp, with a sign that read 'Mole Headquarters' above a doorway.

Bemused, he then said to the empty space: 'Hello. Hello'

In the Mole HQ's Bush Telegraph Seann said: 'I came in and I was expecting everyone to be here and no-one was here.'

Speaking to a large fake mole model sat in the camp, Seann said: 'Looks like you're my only friend, typical.'

Awkward: The politician, 44, was making his way into 'Mole Headquarters' with Seann ahead of heading to the main camp, but while the comedian made it in in one piece, Matt took a slight tumble

Looking inside the Mole HQ he saw pictures of the other campmates on a noticeboard. He said: 'There they are - Boy George! That is a good looking man, oh my god.'

Meanwhile, Matt was walking into the same camp and slipped on the bridge.

When he walked in and recovered from his near-fall Matt said to Seann: 'So this is camp!'

Seann meanwhile was laughing. In Bush Telegraph he kept laughing as he said: 'Matt Han. [laughs]. I can't Matt Han [laughs]'

Easy does it! Matt could be seen making his way across the bridge

Matt asked Seann: 'But this is camp, right? This must be the fire pit area.'

Seann laughed: 'We've got a detective in. Can you make a fire?'

Matt replied: 'I'm not sure about that. I haven't cooked over a fire in my life. Have you?'

Seann confirmed: 'No... microwave'

Matt later asked Seann what his tattoo meant, with Seann explaining it's a nod to his favourite band Blink-182.

Asked who his favourite band is, Matt said: 'Quite mainstream I'm not going to put a tattoo of Ed Sheeran on my neck.'

Seann asked: 'You like Ed Sheeran?'

Matt replied: 'Love him, yeah and I'm from Suffolk as well.'

Matt then started singing an Ed Sheeran song: 'You between my arms bare foot on the grass don't get me singing listening to my favourite song What's it called? Perfect? I love it.'

Matt then asked Seann why he wanted to be a comedian to which he replied: 'I've always wanted to perform, that's what I've loved, performing, since I was about 10 and I watched Ace Ventura for the first time and that was it.

Latecomers: The pair are late arrivals to the show and will soon merge with the nine other celebrities who have been settling into life in Australia for the past few days

'Boring question, but to want to be a politician, who wants to get into politics?'

Matt replied: 'I wasn't sort of a political anorak if you like, but I had a very specific reason that drew me there, which is that my folks ran a small business and in the early nineties it nearly went bust for reasons completely outside our control.

'That made me ask how the whole system works. So I went and studied economics and then went to the Bank of England and there I realised that all the big decisions are taken in Westminster.

'I went and became George Osborne and David Cameron's economic advisor. Then I decided I wanted to run myself.'

Seann asked: 'Did you run?' Matt replied: 'Run as in to become an MP.' Seann said: 'Oh right, yes, sorry I thought you meant Prime Minister.'

To which Matt responded: 'I did briefly try that as well. When Boris became Prime Minister, yeah'

They were then interrupted by the model mole's nose lighting up and making an alarm noise.

Heading into the Mole Headquarters, a message appeared on a screen. They were then told they will be entering main camp 'on a special assignment as you are now the jungle's first ever undercover moles'.

They were then told they first have to take on the Bushtucker Trial.

Seann asked: 'Are you scared of things?' Matt admitted: 'I don't know I've never really come across them in large numbers.'

Seann, laughing, replied: 'In large numbers!' I'm scared of them in low numbers.' Matt laughed: 'You're toast.'

The pair then took on the Beastly Burrows Bushtucker trial where they were covered in creepy crawlies.
Alessandra Ambrosio is feeling the chill from the fall.

The 41-year-old model was seen pulling a yellow knit sweater on Instagram on Wednesday as she said, 'Sweater weather is ON.'

But the Brazilian beauty still gave her followers a good look at her bikini from her swimwear brand GAL Floripa.

Baring some skin: Alessandra Ambrosio is feeling the chill from the fall. The 41-year-old model was seen pulling a yellow knit sweater on Instagram on Wednesday as she said, 'Sweater weather is ON'

The cover girl showed off her pert derriere in a pair of small, blue bikini bottoms. She added a cozy yellow sweater to the outfit.

In another photo she posted for her more than 11.5 million followers, the Brazilian model removed her sweater revealing a bikini top that matched her bottoms.

She added dark sunglasses with light brown frames to the outfit. Her dark brown hair was parted in the middle and fell messily down her back.

Her new swimsuit comes from her brand GAL Floripa which she co-runs with Gisele Coria and Aline Ambrosio.

Beachwear: The siren showed off her pert derriere in a pair of small, blue bikini bottoms. She added a cozy yellow sweater to the outfit

Removing her shirt: In another photo she posted for her more than 11.5 million followers, the Brazilian model removed her sweater, revealing a bikini top that matched her bottoms

The lifestyle brand sells both one and two-piece bathing suits to 'inspire women to embrace their femininity with a holistic approach,' according to the website.

Ambrosio social media post comes a few days after she attended the LACMA Art + Film Gala where she stunned in a black suit by Jean Paul Gaultier that combined 1940s glamor with futuristic sensibilities.

The beauty's jacket boasted a plunging V-neck with exaggerated pointed shoulder pads, and elbow length sleeves.

Futuristic: Ambrosio social media post comes a few days after she attended the LACMA Art + Film Gala where she stunned in a black suit by Jean Paul Gaultier that combined 1940s glamor with futuristic sensibilities

Plunging: The beauty's jacket boasted a plunging V-neck with exaggerated pointed shoulder pads, and elbow length sleeves

She was spotted without her beau Richard Lee at the event which took place Sunday evening.

Alessandra confirmed her romance with Richard when they were spotted on a romantic dinner date in February 2021.

She was previously involved with Italian fashion designer Nicolo Oddi, who founded the brand Alanui with his sister Carlotta.

The smoldering supermodel shares her two children Anja, 14, and Noah, 10, with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur who co-founded RE/DONE.
Sean Penn's son Hopper has revealed how he 'butted heads for a long time' with his actor father while growing up, in a searing new interview with People Magazine.

Aspiring actor Hopper, 29, who previously credited his father, 62, for saving his life when he battled crystal meth addiction as a teen, said the Milk star was a 'strict' parent but has chilled out with age.

Appearing in People's Sexiest Man Alive issue as part of a portfolio on famous sons, Hopper said: 'He was strict, and I was always getting into trouble. We butted heads for a long time. But it's very lax now. He's chilled out in his older age!

Candid: Sean Penn's son Hopper has revealed how he 'butted heads for a long time' with his actor father while growing up, in a searing new interview with People Magazine (pictured with sister Dylan in 2016)

Hopper has previously spoken openly about his father's 'tough love' approach after he developed substance abuse issues- following Sean's divorce from his mother Robin Wright in 2010 after 14-years of marriage.

Discussing his relationship with his father now, he added: 'My dad is really into FaceTime and texting. But when he texts, they're like novels. He has to send them in increments. So I rarely read them!'

Hopper said his favorite films Sean has made are 2008's Milk (which netted him a Best Actor Oscar) and 1985's The Falcon and the Snowman.

He said: 'When he went to Haiti [after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake], I'd never seen that side of him. It was just immediate, and he was really smart with it. Emergency mode is his place. I feel like he's the calmest when chaos is going on. It's really great.'

Interview: Aspiring actor Hopper, 29, who previously credited his father, 62, for saving his life when he battled crystal meth addiction as a teen, said the Milk star was a 'strict' parent but has chilled out with age (pictured last week)

The star added that he maintains a close relationship with mom Robin, adding: 'Our humor is the same!'

Sean and Robin are also parents to daughter Dylan, 31.

Hopper also opened up about his upbringing in Northern California which was 'pretty separate' from the Hollywood epicenter which his famous parents dominated.

The Cleaner star said he was aware that Sean and Robin 'were known' - and when he moved to LA fellow students commented on them, leading him to feel awkward.

In 2017 Hopper admitted that his past drug struggles would have taken his life if it hadn't been for father Sean.

Speaking to ES Magazine, Hopper said: 'I was doing a lot of stuff but meth was the main one that brought me down. I went to rehab because I woke up in hospital and my dad said, "Rehab? Or bus bench?" I was like, "Ill take the bed."

'Thank God I got out of that because that was the worst time in my life. Because its not fun when it gets to a point where you just need it.'

The interview comes days after Sean gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky his Oscar, telling him to bring it back to Malibu when his nation emerges victorious from the war with Russia.

Close bond: Hopper said: 'He was strict, and I was always getting into trouble. We butted heads for a long time. But it's very lax now. He's chilled out in his older age' (pictured 2000s with Dylan, Sean and mom Robin Wright)

The actor and director has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine since war broke out in February and had already travelled to Kyiv twice this year prior to today's trip.

Returning to the Ukrainian capital to see Zelensky, whom he earlier referred to as his 'great friend', Penn was filmed withdrawing one of his Academy Awards from a bag and placing it on the Ukrainian president's desk.

'This is for you,' the actor told Zelensky. 'It's just a symbolic silly thing, but if I know this is here with you then I'll feel better and stronger for the fight...

'When you win, bring it back to Malibu. I'll feel much better knowing a piece of me is here,' he concluded.

Zelensky, who prior to his entry into politics was a well-known actor and comedian, was clearly flattered and gratefully accepted the Oscar statuette, describing it as a 'great honour'.

He was later seen carefully placing the golden trophy on the mantelpiece in his presidential office.

Family: Discussing his relationship with his father now, he added: 'My dad is really into FaceTime and texting. But when he texts, they're like novels. He has to send them in increments. So I rarely read them!' (pictured 2021)

Zelensky in turn presented Penn with a Ukrainian Order of Merit to thank him 'for his sincere support and significant contribution to the popularisation of Ukraine in the world'.

Penn, who won a pair of Best Actor academy awards for his performances in Mystic River (2003) and Milk, is one of several prominent US actors to have made the journey to Ukraine since Russian tanks rolled across the border on February 24.

He was banned from entering Russia in September when Vladimir Putin's foreign ministry added him, along with Ben Stiller, to a list of US citizens barred from the country due to his overt criticism of the conflict.

Penn was in Ukraine recording a documentary when Russia invaded and was forced to flee, crossing into Poland like many Ukrainian refugees.

He has since expressed great admiration for Zelensky, and also admitted he'd considered taking up arms to fight alongside the Ukrainian military as it continues to battle Russian forces in Ukraine's south east.
Manifest has become a top rated show at Netflix.

The series was canceled by NBC in June 2021 after three seasons but Netflix picked up the rights to the show's reruns. They became so popular the streamer created a fourth season.

Now the fourth season has become a massive hit after the first 10 episodes dropped on November 4.

Huge turnaround: Manifest nearly ended on a cliffhanger at the end of the third season. Now, its the most streamed show on Netflix thanks to a fourth season

Season four has a total of 20 episodes, so that means 10 more are coming.

Manifest tells the story of an airplane full of passengers that 'suddenly reappears after being missing for five years. As those aboard reintegrate into society, they experience guiding voices and visions of events yet to occur, and soon a deeper mystery unfolds,' according to its IMDb page.

The show stars Melissa Roxburgh, Once Upon a Time actor Josh Dallas, Jessica Jones actor J.R. Ramirez and Fresh Off The Boat actress Luna Blaise.

On Tuesday, the official Twitter account for the Netflix show reported that it was 'the #1 series on Netflix worldwide with over 57 million hours streamed.'

Roxburgh, told The Hollywood Reporter that Netflix gave the show quite a bit of creative freedom for the fourth season.

Canceled: The show, which originally aired on NBC from 2018 to 2021, was canceled by the broadcasting company in June of last year

The comeback: Netflix acquired the streaming rights for the show right before it was canceled and, because the first three seasons did so well on the platform, they picked it up for a fourth season just months later

Big news: On Tuesday, the official Twitter account for the Netflix show reported that it was 'the #1 series on Netflix worldwide with over 57 million hours streamed'

'Netflix bought us for a reason, and it felt like they trusted those creatives on the show to keep doing what they had been doing,' she said. 'They had their input, but there was just a lot more trust and freedom from Netflix as opposed to NBC.'

She added that she was glad they got another season because all of the stars 'would have been a little bit depressed' if they hadn't.

'Im happy that Netflix brought us back, not only to finish the story but to give everyone a proper goodbye,' she said.

Opening up: One of the show's stars, Melissa Roxburgh, told The Hollywood Reporter that Netflix gave the show quite a bit of creative freedom for the fourth season
The furore over Omar and Oz's record-breaking win on The Block has led to cries of 'tall poppy syndrome' and even suggestions the backlash is racially motivated.

And the man at the centre of the bidding war over House 5 has now discovered fans were googling his ethnic background while he was vying for the property.

Adrian Portelli went head-to-head with eventual buyer Danny Wallis on auction day, and his aggressive bidding style pushed Wallis into spending $5,666,666.

Adrian Portelli (left), the man at the centre of the bidding war over The Block's House 5, has now discovered fans were googling his ethnic background while he was vying for the property

This extraordinary outcome - which saw Omar and Oz walk away with a record-breaking $1.6million in prize money - led to baseless accusations Portelli was a dummy bidder who colluded with the western Sydney mates to drive up the price.

Portelli shared a screenshot on Instagram on Wednesday of Google search results for his name following Sunday's auction.

The top related search was 'Is Adrian Portelli Lebanese?' Others included 'Adrian Portelli background' and 'Adrian Portelli parents'.

Portelli shared this screenshot on Instagram on Wednesday of Google search results for his name following Sunday's auction. The top related search was 'Is Adrian Portelli Lebanese?' Others included 'Adrian Portelli background' and 'Adrian Portelli parents'

These trending searches seemingly confirm The Block viewers were suspicious of Portelli's ethnicity after he played such a significant role in Omar and Oz's success (the trio are seen celebrating together after auction day)

The Block 2022 results HOUSE 1  Tom and Sarah-Jane Stunning architectural design meets luxurious country living. Address: 191 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath. Price guide: $4-$4.4 million SOLD FOR: $4,100,000.99 HOUSE 2  Rachel and Ryan Luxury lodge country living is at the heart of this magnificent state-of-the-art, vineyard estate. Address: 197 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million SOLD FOR: $4,250,000 HOUSE 3  Sharon and Ankur 'Gunyah'  Luxurious country living with spectacular mountain views. Address: 223 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million NOT SOLD HOUSE 4  Dylan and Jenny Acreage, views and luxury country living. Address: 225 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million NOT SOLD HOUSE 5  Omar and Oz Sustainable luxurious lifestyle. Address: 241 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437 Listing: 5 Bed, 3 Bath Price guide: $4-$4.4 million SOLD FOR: $5,666,666 Advertisement

These trending searches seemingly confirm The Block viewers were suspicious of Portelli's ethnicity after he played such a significant role in Omar and Oz's success.

There has been speculation Portelli was 'mates' with Oz, who is Lebanese-Australian, and Omar, who was born in Afghanistan, long before bidding on their home.

This claim has been denied by Omar and Oz, who said they were introduced to Portelli through mutual friends a few weeks before the auction.

There has been speculation Portelli was 'mates' with Oz, who is Lebanese-Australian, and Omar, who was born in Afghanistan, long before bidding on their home. Omar and Oz have said they were introduced to Portelli through mutual friends a few weeks before the auction

While Portelli's exact background is unclear, his family name is Italian and Maltese.

It comes after fellow Blockhead Sharon Johal revealed 'no one' from the show was speaking to Omar and Oz after they swept the floor with the competition.

'No one else is really talking to the boys and haven't been for some time. They've had issues for ages,' she said, adding that she and husband Ankur Dogra are the exception because they are still 'friends with all the couples'.

It comes after fellow Blockhead Sharon Johal (right, with Ankur Dogra) revealed 'no one' from the show was speaking to Omar and Oz after they swept the floor with the competition

The Block host Scott Cam said earlier this week he was still looking for answers to what happened on auction day after two 'identical' homes sold for wildly different prices.

All fives homes went under the hammer in Gisborne last Saturday: one inexplicably sold for a blockbuster profit of $1.6million, another made just under $170,000, a third barely reached its reserve, and two homes passed in without a sale.

These unusual results left the cast and crew 'flabbergasted', with Scott telling radio show Fitzy & Wippa on Monday he wanted someone to explain it to him.

Scott Cam (left, with Dylan and Jenny) said earlier this week he was still looking for answers to what happened on auction day after two 'identical' homes sold for wildly different prices

When asked why there was such a discrepancy in the sale prices, Scott said: 'I don't know. That's what I said in the closer last night when we signed off on the show.

'I said, "If anybody can explain what happened to me, I'd love to hear it." And that's true. Everyone, the crew, the cameraman, the producers, were all flabbergasted.'

'One joint goes for $5.6million, and the next joint goes for $4.1million, and they're virtually identical,' he added, referring to Omar and Oz's winning property, and Tom and Sarah-Jane's third-place home, which made a profit of just $20,000.

All fives homes went under the hammer in Gisborne last Saturday: one inexplicably sold for a blockbuster profit of $1.6million, another made just under $170,000, a third barely reached its reserve, and two homes passed in without a sale. (Pictured: winners Omar and Oz)

Scott praised Tom and Sarah-Jane's gracious response to the bad news, saying: 'They were stoic, they were unbelievable, in fact, and they weren't angry.

'They were just going, "It is what it is." You know what Sarah-Jane said to me, "We'll just pay our mortgage off like everybody else."'

The Block buyers' advocate Frank Valentic, of Melbourne-based Advantage Property Consulting, also remarked on the strange auction outcome.

These unusual results left the cast and crew 'flabbergasted', with Cam telling Fitzy & Wippa on Monday he's still looking for answers. (Pictured: Ankur and Sharon, whose home didn't sell)

'[It] was a result that was out of the box. I think [Adrian Portelli, one of the bidders on Omar and Oz's home] was a friend of the owners as well,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'It was a bit of a freaky result. He obviously had the money to buy it, but he also pushed Danny [Wallis, the winning bidder] up a long way above what those properties were worth.'

A Nine spokesperson told The Sydney Morning Herald, 'The Block finale was a public auction run according to the rules, and anyone is welcome to bid' - and Daily Mail Australia does not suggest otherwise.

The Block buyers' advocate Frank Valentic (pictured), of Melbourne-based Advantage Property Consulting, agreed the auction outcome was 'freaky'

Nine made an estimated $19million profit from The Block auction, which took place in the Macedon Ranges on Saturday and aired on the show on Sunday night.

The network paid $11million last year for the 28ha plot of land, which was subdivided into seven lots with five assigned to the contestants, reports The Australian.

The reserves for each home were over $4million, and Scott's own reno will likely sell at a later date. It's believed Nine will make $30million when the entire lot is sold.

Channel Nine made an estimated $19million profit from The Block auction, which took place in the Macedon Ranges on Saturday and aired on the show on Sunday night. (Pictured: hosts Scott Cam and Shelley Craft)

Omar and Oz were crowned the winners, selling their property for $5,666,666 and taking home a record-breaking $1.6million in prize money.

The western Sydney mates made the largest sum of all five Block houses, far exceeding the $4.08million reserve.

Ryan and Rachel Carr placed second, selling their home for a $169,000 profit.

But there was also heartache for two couples, Ankur and Sharon, and Jenny Heath and Dylan Adams, who failed to sell their homes at auction.

Omar Slaimankhel and Oz Malik (pictured) were crowned the winners on Sunday, selling their reno for $5,666,666 and taking home a record-breaking $1.6million in prize money

Their properties were passed in when they failed to attract a bidder over the reserve, with both homes only reaching $4,075,000.

The couples continued to negotiate with their highest bidders after filming.

It marked the first time a Block property had failed to sell at auction since season four in 2011 when two teams' homes were passed in.

Tom and Sarah-Jane didn't fare much better, with their home going for a profit of just $20,000, forcing them to sell their car to make up for lost earnings.
Jennifer Aniston has shared a behind-the-scenes video from her stunning photo shoot for the December issue of Allure magazine.

The 53-year-old Friends veteran was seen posing away in a studio as she was in the company of her white dog Chesterfield.

The siren looked just as young in the flirty new clip as she did in 2004.

A new look: Jennifer Aniston has shared a behind-the-scenes video from her stunning photo shoot for the December issue of Allure magazine

Happy fur parent: The 53-year-old Friends veteran was seen posing away in a studio as she was in the company of her white dog Chesterfield

And in the interview the Morning Show star said she is open for romance.

She said that she hasn't closed the door on love altogether after divorces from Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux and high-profile relationships with Vince Vaughn and John Mayer.

When asked if she would ever marry again she replied, 'Never say never, but I dont have any interest.

'Id love a relationship. Who knows? There are moments I want to just crawl up in a ball and say, "I need support." It would be wonderful to come home and fall into somebodys arms and say, "That was a tough day."'

Forever young: The siren looked just as young in the flirty new clip as she did in 2004

Up for love: And in the interview the Morning Show star said she is open for romance

Cute as ever: She said that she hasn't closed the door on love altogether after divorces from Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux and high-profile relationships with Vince Vaughn and John Mayer

As far as being a mother, she said she tried.

'I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,' she said of her IVF journey, which the magazine notes was 'several years ago'.

'All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it.'

The actress added that she wishes someone had told her to freeze her eggs when she was younger, adding that she has now come to terms with the fact that she will never conceive children.

Love could be near: When asked if she would ever marry again she replied, 'Never say never, but I dont have any interest. 'Id love a relationship. Who knows?'

A man can be good: The Marley & Me star said, 'There are moments I want to just crawl up in a ball and say, "I need support"'

'I wouldve given anything if someone had said to me, "Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor." You just dont think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed,' she said.

Jennifer - who spent ten years starring on the hit sitcom Friends, from 1994 until 2004 - admitted that she was too focused on her career to think about the fact that her future self may one day want to settle down and have children, although she hit out at the constant scrutiny she faced for not getting pregnant during her five-year marriage to Pitt.

'I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesnt have a child,' she said. 'And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldnt give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I dont have anything to hide at this point.'

Maybe? And the LA native added, 'It would be wonderful to come home and fall into somebodys arms and say, "That was a tough day"'

Motherhood explained: As far as being a mother, she said she tried. 'I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,' she said of her IVF journey, which the magazine notes was 'several years ago'

She then faced further scrutiny during her marriage to Justin, now 51, with reports at the time of their 2017 split suggesting that part of the reason for their break-up was her inability to have children.

In February 2018, months after their divorce was made public, People magazine reported that the pair had tried for children, but that 'it didn't work out', with one source saying that Jennifer was 'sad that it never happened but that it never consumed her'.

Speaking to Allure, the actress insisted that she has come to terms with the fact that she won't have children, noting that she actually feels some 'relief' in the fact that the possibility of kids is no longer lingering over her as never-ending 'maybe'.

Indeed, with age has come a new-found sense of confidence in herself - and the actress said she no longer cares what people think or say about her, thanks in large part to the struggles she faced during her late 30s and 40s.

Done: 'All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it,' said Jennifer

'I would say my late 30s, 40s, Id gone through really hard s***, and if it wasnt for going through that, I wouldve never become who I was meant to be,' she explained.

'Thats why I have such gratitude for all those s****y things. Otherwise, I wouldve been stuck being this person that was so fearful, so nervous, so unsure of who they were. And now, I dont f***ing care.'

Jennifer added that she 'feels the best in who she is today', explaining that she has learned to stop saying 'bad s*** to herself'.

Glam dame: The actress added that she wishes someone had told her to freeze her eggs when she was younger, adding that she has now come to terms with the fact that she will never conceive children

Long hair, do care: She has returned to her early 2000s days when she had very long hair

She explained that she's been through what she describes as a 'period that was challenging' and is only now 'coming back into the light' - having done some 'personal work that was long overdue' and faced up to issues that had been a part of her life since childhood.

Jennifer also hinted that she may one day pen a book about her lengthy infertility struggles - something that she chose to kept hidden from the world for years out a need to 'protect' herself and her story.

'Im going to [write a book] one day,' she said. 'Im going to stop saying, "I cant write."

One of her exes: Seen with Brad Pitt in 2001 soon after they got married

'Ive spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. Im so protective of these parts because I feel like theres so little that I get to keep to myself. The world creates narratives that arent true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like Im coming out of hibernation. I dont have anything to hide.'

Jennifer's candid comments about her infertility journey come 17 years after she split from Brad, now 58, after five years of marriage - during which time she faced a barrage of rumors about why the couple had not had kids.

Jennifer went on to wed for a second time following her split from Brad - whom she remains close 'friends' with to this day - tying the knot with actor Justin in August 2015 following a four-year relationship, however the pair divorced just two years later, at the end of 2017.
Victoria Secret supermodel Candice Swanepoel modeled her latest swimwear designs from her eco-friendly swimwear line Tropic Of C.

The founder and creative director showed off her toned body in an espresso brown bikini with low rise bottoms and classic triangle top style. She accessorized with nothing else but a gold body chain.

The South African native showcased her tan and toned physique as she stretched and leaned back in a patio chair.

Sunny daze: Swanepoel, 34, modeled a tiny triangle bikini to promote the new collection from her swimwear line Tropic of C

The bikini she was showcasing was released last month as a part of the brands Resort 23 collection shortly before her birthday.

The model and businesswoman received love as her close friends posted pictures and birthday wishes on social media.

One of them was fellow supermodel Joan Smalls.

The 2023 collection features multiple bikinis, dresses, one-pieces, and cover-ups.

Soaking up vitamin D: The supermodel posed in an espresso brown bikini and accessorized with a belly chain for Tropic of C

After years of being one of Victorias Secret top models and gracing magazine covers with the likes of Vogue, Swanepoel resolved to launch her own swimsuit brand.

The model collaborated with Daniela Manfredi, who worked for eight years as Senior Vice President and Creative Director at Victorias Secret.

Swanepoel confessed that her passion came to fruition after just serving as a creative outlet.

Tan and toned: The businesswoman showed off her fit physique in a tiny bikini from her brand Tropic of C's Resort 23 collection

I love photography and imagery and beauty in general. I had been working and shooting swim for so many years, and as a way of keeping my mind working during photoshoots, I would analyze the product, she commented to Forbes in 2019.

Swanepoel continued to explain that she took a break from modeling when she became a new mom in 2016. She decided then to pursue her fashion design and entrepreneurial passions.

The South African beauty shares two children  Anaca, 6, and Ariel, 4  with her ex-fiance, Brazilian model Hermann Nicoli.

Stunning: The Victoria Secret supermodel designed and dropped a variety of swimsuits and cover-ups in her latest Tropic of C collection

The then-couple welcomed their first son, Anaca, in October 2016. Their sons name pays homage to Nicolis Brazilian roots and is Brazilian slang for the word bird. Only a year later, the couple had their second son Ariel in December 2017.

Swanepoel was discovered in 2003 by a talent scout in a local South African flea market. She moved to Europe shortly after to pursue a modeling career. It was there that the then-17-year-old model met Nicoli, 40, in Paris.

Swanepoel revealed she almost gave up on modeling because she felt so lonely in the industry and working in Europe. She confessed, Every day, I was working with different people who were speaking different languages, so I was never able to form any relationships. I just wanted to go home.

'Days like these...' The siren and mother-of-two modeled and shared the latest promotion photo on her Instagram story

Fortunately, she never quit. By 2010, the model became a Victorias Secret Angel and has walked the Victorias Secret Fashion Show every year.

The couple became engaged in 2015. After 14 years together, they ended their relationship without tying the knot.

Most recently, the top model and Tropic of C businesswoman teamed up with creative studio Love Want and covered their magazine, photographed by Paola Kudacki.

This was after being rumored to be seen out and about with rapper Kanye West, who was previously married to Kim Kardashian, in early September.
With the end of the year rapidly approaching, diners will no doubt be looking forward to their New Year's Eve plans.

However, those who are thinking of heading for a slap-up meal at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants on December 31 had better save up their pennies as his special menu costs an eye-watering 400 per person.

And if diners plan to washing their pricey meal down with a refreshing beverage, they had better beware as drinks are not included in the cost.

How much?! Those who are thinking of heading for a slap-up meal at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants on December 31 had better save up their pennies as his special menu costs an eye-watering 400 per person

At the chef's three-star Michelin flagship Chelsea restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, guests will be able to feast on the likes of Duck Tea and Orkney scallops as starters.

With the sample menu also featuring mouth-watering items including Dover Sole cardinal, Roast Veal sweetbread and a peanut praline parfait.

While 400 for a meal may seem more than a tad steep, if restaurant-goers want wine with their meal, they'll have to fork out an additional 275 - rocketing the price to a huge 675.

No way! And if diners plan to washing their pricey meal down with a refreshing beverage, they had better beware as drinks are not included in the cost

Customers not wishing to spend as much on their meal may refer an alternative Gordon Ramsay restaurant, Petrus, which will save them 100 on their bill as it comes in at 300 per person.

Diners will still have a deluxe menu to choose from with the likes of Isle of Skye scallop and roasted Anjou pigeon on offer.

It comes after last year, Gordon, 56, came under fire for charging a whopping 31.50 for fish and chips at his new restaurant.

The TV chef priced a piece of gurnard fried in cider at 24.50 while a portion of chips is on the menu for 7 at The River Restaurant in London.

Tasty: At the chef's three-star Michelin flagship Chelsea restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, guests will be able to feast on the likes of Duck Tea and Orkney scallops as starters

The upscale eatery opened in October 2021 in the fancy five-star Savoy Hotel.

According to the website, the 'stylish and relaxed all-day dining restaurant' offers panoramic views of the River Thames and 'showcases the very best shellfish and seafood the UK has to offer'.

Gordon shared a snap of the fish and chips on his Instagram but many were unimpressed with the price in the comments section.

One woman wrote: 'Rather eat my local chippy. At least it's not kids' portions.'

Delicious: The TV chef priced a piece of gurnard fried in cider at 24.50 while a portion of chips is on the menu for 7 at The River Restaurant in London

Another user joked: 'Maybe one day if I win the lottery'.

'25 for that fish! Rip off, I could eat for a week for that,' wrote a third.

However, some of his supporters leapt to his defence and said they were excited to try the cuisine at The River Restaurant.

'A lot of jealous comments on this thread. If you don't like his food, cost, portions then follow those you aren't jealous of and leave those who appreciate good quality food to enjoy it,' wrote one woman.
Hollywood actor and Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe has helped out rugby league star George Burgess by casting him in his new film.

Burgess, 30, parted ways with St George Illawarra last month following an inauspicious return to the NRL.

He shared a photo to Instagram on Wednesday of himself in military uniform on the set of the movie, titled Land of Bad.

Hollywood actor and Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe has helped out rugby league star George Burgess (pictured on February 26, 2022) by casting him in his new film

Burgess is playing the role of Private Cooper, reports The Daily Telegraph.

This isn't his first film role, as he made his acting debut in 2019 thriller Locusts before landing a role in sci-fi thriller Ascendant in 2021.

Land of Bad, which also stars Liam and Luke Hemsworth, is being filmed on the Gold Coast.

Burgess, 30, who parted ways with St George Illawarra last month, shared this photo to Instagram on Wednesday of himself in military uniform on the set of the movie Land of Bad

It comes after St George Illawarra released Burgess from the final year of his contract.

When he joined the Dragons after two years back home in England, the former South Sydney forward became the first man to play professional rugby league following hip resurfacing surgery.

But his comeback was overshadowed in March when he was charged by police with sexual touching without consent. He has indicated he will plead not guilty.

Burgess later checked into a rehabilitation facility to deal with personal issues unrelated to the criminal charge, for which he is facing a hearing next year.

It's believed the personal issues related to gambling.

Land of Bad, which also stars Liam and Luke Hemsworth, is being filmed on the Gold Coast. (Pictured: Russell Crowe in Rome, Italy, on October 16, 2022)

He made two appearances for the Dragons' NSW Cup side in August following his time away from the club.

A month later, his twin brother and former Souths team-mate Thomas told AAP that George was keen on an NRL return.

But the Englishman left the Dragons having made only four first-grade appearances and facing a challenge to play NRL again.

'The Dragons thank George for his contribution to St George Illawarra and wish him all the best in his future endeavours,' the Dragons said in a statement.

The Dragons have signed Zane Musgrove as a replacement for Burgess after the Wests Tigers prop secured a release from the final two years of his contract.
Kourtney Kardashian donned a skimpy ensemble to promote one of her many products on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old donned black lingerie which ended high on her strong, tanned thighs. She let the thin spaghetti straps fall to the middle of her bicep.

She pulled her hair up in a mini-beehive while thick strands of her dark hair framed the sides of her grinning face.

Sexy snap: Kourtney Kardashian donned a skimpy ensemble to promote one of her many products on Wednesday

She modeled a series of skincare products while lounging around on a huge white bed with crisp, clean sheets.

The products fall under her Barker Wellness brand, bearing the last name of her new husband Travis Barker.

A longer, more cylindrical container appeared to contain the Kourtney x Barker Wellness  Body Oil while the fatter container appeared to contain the Kourtney x Barker Wellness  Body Butter.

The products retail for $40 and $35 respectively according to the brand's website. The Body Oil contains three different seed oils, an almond oil, lavender oil and Vitamin E.

Tiny: The 43-year-old donned black lingerie which ended high on her strong, tanned thighs

Thick locks: She pulled her hair up in a mini-beehive while thick strands of her dark hair framed the sides of her grinning face

Modeling: She modeled a series of skincare products while lounging around on a huge white bed with crisp, clean sheets

Body Oil: A longer, more cylindrical container appeared to contain the Kourtney x Barker Wellness  Body Oil

The Body Butter contains shea butter, organic jojoba seed oil, almond oil, lavender oil, coconut oil and Vitamin E.

Kourtney also shared a slightly spooky snap with black lipstick and a filter which made her eyes appear to be full of light, bursting out like a car's high beams.

She then promoted a short clip where she talked up her Lemme gummies, healthy gummies she also pushed earlier this week.

Kourtney donned a light pink blouse and talked about the ingredients in the supplements and what they do for people who use them.

Spooky snap: Kourtney also shared a slightly spooky snap with black lipstick and a filter which made her eyes appear to be full of light, bursting out like a car's high beams

Promotion:

Details: Kourtney donned a light pink blouse and talked about the ingredients in the supplements

Earlier in the week, The Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami star posed in pink and purple feather-lined co-ord to promote her new vitamin and supplement brand Lemme in a series of pictures posted on her Instagram.

The TV star showed off a bottle of her Lemme Chill De-Stress Gummies in her left hand, also flaunting her stunning and massive oval-cut wedding ring at the same time.

The De-Stress Gummies' main ingredient is Ashwagandha which comes from an evergreen shrub. It is used for many conditions related to stress, according to webmd.

All smiles: Kardashian lounged and posed on a bed in her new Lemme promotion pictures

In the post, she announced that her gummy supplements are now available on Amazon. She wore her hair in a blunt, chin-length bob with a middle part. For her makeup, Kardashian rocked a smoky eye paired with a nude lip.

On September 27, Kardashian launched three gummy supplements  Lemme Chill, Lemme Focus, and Lemme Matcha  exclusively on her website. The gummy vitamins and supplements support reduced stress, increased concentration, and improved energy metabolism, respectively.

According to the companys website, Lemme uses innovative science-backed formulations that are delicious, clean and packaged in 100% post consumer-recycled materials.

After years of struggling to find the right supplements, I embarked on a journey to create science-backed products that you would legitimately look forward to taking everyday, the entrepreneur said of her candylike, botanical-blend supplements.

According to a press release, Kardashian had been working on this brand for the past five years with leading experts in health, medicine, and botany to put together the Lemme Medical Advisory Board behind the gummy supplements.

Kardashian made a business out of her health and wellness passion in 2019 by launching Poosh, a multimedia platform and community. She wrote on Lemmes website that her wellness journey began after having her first child and reading about the best foods to promote his growth and wellness.

She incorporated sustainability into her brand by partnering with Carbonfund and One Tree Planted. Proceeds from her supplement products will go towards helping plant thousands of trees each year. In addition, Lemmes packaging uses only post-consumer recycled materials for not only the bottles but shipping materials as well.
My Three Sons star Dawn Lyn is 'breathing on her own and opening her eyes' after surgery to remove a brain tumor left her in a coma, reports TMZ.

The former child star - now 59 - shot to fame aged six as Dorothy 'Dodie' Harper-Douglas on the CBS sitcom's last three seasons, a role she played from 1969-1972.

Last month it was revealed on social media by her former co-stars that Dawn was fighting for her life - with Tina Cole (who played Katie Miller-Douglas) saying the star is now showing the first signs of recovery.

Surgery: My Three Sons star Dawn Lyn is 'breathing on her own and opening her eyes' after surgery to remove a brain tumor left her in a coma, reports TMZ (Dawn is pictured in the 1980s)

Tina told the publication Dawn's husband John gave her an update on Monday, saying the star is doing 'the best she has in the hospital since her surgery', breathing without oxygen and opening her eyes at times.

Tina said she visited Dawn in the hospital last week, where she held her hand and talked to her while unconscious.

TMZ also reports Dawn's producer friend Rock Whitehead posted a positive update on social media, saying she had made 'major strides' since being admitted to hospital more than two weeks ago,

Dawn's condition was initially detailed on social media by her former co-stars Tima and including Stanley Livingston (who played Richard 'Chip' Douglas) - with the actors urging fans to 'pray' for Dawn's recovery.

Rise to fame: The former child star - now 59 - shot to fame aged six as Dorothy 'Dodie' Harper-Douglas (pictured) on the CBS sitcom's last three seasons a role she played from 1969-1972

Stanley wrote last week: 'Just found out my little TV Sis, DAWN LYN (Dodie), is in a COMA and fighting for her life. She had surgery recently to remove a brain tumor.

'Please pray for her to have a swift and full recovery. I took Dawn out to lunch a couple of months ago. We had a great time reminiscing about our MTS days. Dawn is one of the nicest human beings I have ever known.

'Thoughts and prayers also go out to her husband, John, at this time. This is devastating news!"

Tina wrote: 'My heartfelt prayers go out to my "My Three Sons" sweet "lil' sis", Dawn Lyn (Dodie) and her husband John. Dawn is fighting for her life after undergoing brain surgery.'

Posts: Dawn's condition was revealed on social media by her former co-stars including Stanley Livingston (who played Richard 'Chip' Douglas) and Tina Cole (who played Katie Miller-Douglas)

Lyn's brother, actor and musician Leif Garrett, 60, told the publication: 'My sister, Dawn, never wanted anyone to know about the surgery.

'Since it has been leaked on social media, I would really appreciate everyones understanding that it has already been a difficult time having lost both of our parents and a cousin recently.'

'Please just keep my sister in your thoughts and prayers and respect our familys privacy. Thank you.'

My Three Sons, starring Fred McMurray as dad Steve Douglas told the story of a widower who raises his three children with his stepfather and the childrens uncle.

The series won a Golden Globe for Best Television Show in 1962.

On screen: My Three Sons, starring Fred McMurray as dad Steve Douglas told the story of a widower who raises his three children with his stepfather and the childrens uncle (pictured Fred and Dawn in the show)

Dawn began acting aged four when she appeared as an American Indian boy in the 1967 B-grade western Cry Blood, Apache at age 4.

In 1969, she played Prudence Everett in the pilot for the ABC series Nanny and the Professor but when the television pilot did not initially sell, she was released from her contract with ABC.

Lyn also appeared on shows including Adam-12, Emergency!, Marcus Welby, M.D., Barnaby Jones and Gunsmoke.

In 1971 she played Gregory Peck's character's daughter in the film, Shoot Out, and had a leading role in a 1973 episode of Mannix.

Her last onscreen acting credit was in the 1978 Wonder Woman episode 'My Teenage Idol is Missing.'

Dawn quit acting in 1977 and was last known to be working in real estate.
Kourtney Kardashian admitted she 'never thought there would be a reason' to get married as she tried on her wedding dress in Italy in a teaser for the next episode of The Kardashians.

The reality star, 43, was getting fitted into the Dolce & Gabbana dress she wore for her Italian wedding ceremony with Travis Barker, 46, when she dialed up her mom Kris Jenner, 67, to take a look.

'Isn't it cool? You can't really see me but look it's short,' Kourtney told Kris over FaceTime.

'I never thought there would be a reason': Kourtney Kardashian admitted she never thought there would be a reason to get married as she tried on her wedding dress in Italy in a teaser for the next episode of The Kardashians

Kris said she was on the verge of tears seeing her daughter in her wedding dress.

'Oh my God. You look like a little doll. Oh my goodness, Kourt. You look so beautiful. I want to cry,' Kris said.

'I never thought I would be looking at you in a wedding dress naked in the shower. I love you, honey. I hope you're having the best time.'

'We are. I love you, we'll send pics,' Kourtney said.

Family affair: Kourtney dialed up her mom Kris Jenner over FaceTime to take a look at the dress

'I want to cry': Jenner couldn't believe her eyes seeing her daughter in her wedding dress

Emotional: Jenner was overwhelmed seeing her daughter prepare for her wedding

Kourtney's stylist Dani Michelle is seen asking, 'Are you happy?'

'Yeah,' Kourtney replies.

'Thank you,' Kourtney tells one of the stylists before pulling him in for a hug.

'I think he made it perfection,' she told her entourage. 'I'm super happy.'

Fitting: Kourtney and her entourage were in Italy for the fitting

Come to life: One of the stylists presented Kourtney with a sketch of the dress

Steph Shepherd called the moment surreal: 'I can't believe... I was like, "Oh my God, she's in a wedding dress!" Like, I never thought I'd see the day!'

'I know!' Kourtney replies. 'I never thought there would be a reason.'

Kourtney and Travis became betrothed in a romantic beachfront proposal held at the Rosewood Miramar on October 17, 2021.

Grateful: 'Thank you,' Kourtney tells one of the stylists before pulling him in for a hug

Surreal: 'I can't believe... I was like, "Oh my God, she's in a wedding dress!" Like, I never thought I'd see the day!' Steph Shepherd said

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.

Soulmates: Kourtney and Travis became betrothed in a romantic beachfront proposal held at the Rosewood Miramar on October 17, 2021
Emmy-winning host Heidi Klum shared a snap of herself kissing her third husband Tom Kaulitz while relaxing Wednesday at their lavish $9.875M six-bedroom mansion located in Bel-Air's exclusive gated community of Stone Ridge.

The 49-year-old 'Queen of Halloween' - who boasts 22.3M social media followers - Instastoried a video of the 33-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist with a heart-eyed duckling gif set to Mike Douglas' 1948 Disney song So This Is Love.

The German couple - who met on the set of Germany's Next Topmodel in 2018 - will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary on February 22.

PDA alert! Emmy-winning host Heidi Klum shared a snap of herself kissing her third husband Tom Kaulitz while relaxing Wednesday at their lavish $9.875M six-bedroom mansion located in Bel-Air's exclusive gated community of Stone Ridge

Tom and his twin brother/bandmate Bill don't kick off their 14-date European tour until April 30 at The O2's Indigo in London.

Kaulitz is stepfather to Heidi's four children - daughter Lou, 13; son Henry, 17; daughter Leni, 18; and son Johan, turning 16 this month - with ex-partner Flavio Briatore and ex-husband #2 Seal.

Meanwhile, the Happy People rocker ended his year-long marriage with first wife Ria Sommerfeld in 2016.

Still going strong! The 49-year-old 'Queen of Halloween' - who boasts 22.3M social media followers - Instastoried a video of the 33-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist with a heart-eyed duckling gif set to Mike Douglas' 1948 Disney song So This Is Love

Kicking off European tour next spring! The German couple - who met on the set of Germany's Next Topmodel in 2018 - will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary on February 22

July 27 family portrait: Kaulitz is stepfather to Heidi's four children - daughter Lou, 13; son Henry, 17; daughter Leni, 18; and son Johan, turning 16 this month - with ex-partner Flavio Briatore and ex-husband #2 Seal

Klum proudly showed off her 'I Voted' sticker on Tuesday, having become an American citizen in 2008 for the sake of her children.

Last Saturday, the Making the Cut producer-host and 30 contestants started filming the Los Angeles-set 18th season of Germany's Next Topmodel, which premieres next spring on ProSieben.

Heidi has also been hard at work taping America's Got Talent: All-Stars in Los Angeles alongside fellow judges Simon Cowell and Howie Mandell as well as host Terry Crews.

Hit the polls! Klum proudly showed off her 'I Voted' sticker on Tuesday, having become an American citizen in 2008 for the sake of her children

Premieres next spring on ProSieben! Last Saturday, the Making the Cut producer-host and 30 contestants started filming the Los Angeles-set 18th season of Germany's Next Topmodel

The new spin-off - premiering January 2 on NBC and Peacock - showcases winners and fan favorites from prior seasons.

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.

Premiering January 2 on NBC! Heidi has also been hard at work taping America's Got Talent: All-Stars in Los Angeles alongside fellow judges Simon Cowell (R) and Howie Mandell (L) as well as host Terry Crews (M)
Country

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This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Past Event - Friday, November 11, 2022 This page may be updated if the event is repeated

The Dayton Art Institutes Veterans Community Day on Friday, November 11, honors all military veterans by welcoming the entire community to enjoy free admission.

Free and Open Admission in Honor of Veterans Day at the Dayton Art Institute

The Dayton Art Institutes Veterans Community Day on Friday, November 11, honors all military veterans by welcoming the entire community to enjoy free admission all day, with access to our Special Exhibition, American Myth & Memory: David Levinthal Photographs, and Focus Exhibition, Joe Fig: Other Artists, along with the museums extensive collection of American, Asian and European fine and decorative art.

For more information, visit the DAI website.
Field engineers have been floating tenders for infrastructure works at escalated prices, and finalising bids for around 30 per cent less than the tender value. (Representational image: DC)

Hyderabad: A nexus between the field staff and contractors is denting the revenues of the GHMC, sources said. Field engineers have been floating tenders for infrastructure works at escalated prices, and finalising bids for around 30 per cent less than the tender value.

In one such instance, the civic body floated a tender for Rs 96-lakh monsoon works at Malakpet and finalised it for Rs 70 lakh. Of the Rs 70 lakh, work of Rs 50 lakh was executed. Sources alleged that Rs 20 lakh was shared between the field staff and the contractor.

Senior officials noticed this and took action, following which the money was recovered from the contractor and field engineers were hit with an inquiry.

A senior official, requesting anonymity, said that more such instances may be unearthed with an inquiry is called on field engineers in all 30 GHMC circles and the money may run into crores. Further, engineers were instructed to revise the current bids for all infrastructure works.

This is not the first such instance of a scam coming to light. In a previous instance, 16 junior staff, such as data entry operators and work inspectors were identified as having been involved in a scam, but they have not faced action. In that scam, engineers had assured outsourced employees and junior officials of a cut and ensured their relatives got GHMC work contracts.

Contractors are not eligible to apply for work in a circle where their relatives hold ranks of assistant engineer, assistant executive engineer, divisional accounts officer or higher ranks. They are required to furnish a list of gazetted and non-gazetted state government employees related to them.

The engineers had got around this clause by awarding contracts to the relatives of outsourced employees and junior officials.

In 2018, a claim for drain desilting works worth Rs 1.2 crore was found to be untrue as contractors had submitted fake bills, with fake vehicle registration numbers mentioned as being used for transporting the silt. Contractors disclosed that 13 assistant engineers were in cahoots with them, but no action was taken against the engineers.
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit on Tuesday recommended the name of Justice Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud, the second most senior judge of the Supreme Court, to succeed him as the 50th CJI on November 9.

The CJI recommended the name of Justice Chandrachud as his successor in a letter to Union law minister Kiran Rijiju. The law minister, in an October 7 communication to Justice Lalit, had asked him to name his successor.

Justice Lalit, after a short tenure of 74 days, will demit office on November 8. November 7 will be his last working day as November 8 is a holiday on account of Guru Nanaks birthday.

History will be created when Justice Chandrachud is sworn in as the 50th CJI by President Droupadi Murmu on November 9. It will be the first father-son CJI duo in the history of the Supreme Court; his father Justice Y.V. Chandrachud was the longest-serving CJI.

Justice Chandrachud has authored a number of judgments, including the one holding privacy a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.

In the Aadhaar judgment, he differed with the majority view and had said, "Creating strong privacy protection laws and instilling safeguards may address or at the very least assuage some of the concerns associated with the Aadhaar scheme, which severely impairs informational self-determination, individual privacy, dignity and autonomy."

Though the Ayodhya title suit judgment did not indicate its authors name as is the practice, going by the style of the judgment its authorship was attributed to him.

Justice Chandrachud also authored the judgment that rejected the plea for a SIT probe into the death of Judge B.H. Loya, who was earlier holding trial in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh "staged" shootout case. The judgment held that Judge Loya died of natural causes.

Justice Chandrachud, born on November 11, 1959, Justice Chandrachud was the judge of the Bombay High Court from March 29, 2000, until his appointment as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court on October 31, 2013. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 13, 2016.

He had served as additional solicitor general of India from 1998 until his appointment as a judge in the Bombay High Court. He was designated as a senior advocate by the Bombay High Court in June 1998.

An alumnus of Harvard Law School, Justice Chandrachud obtained an LLM degree and a Doctorate in Juridical Sciences (SJD) from Harvard Law School, USA.
HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday ordered the release of suspended Goshamahal BJP MLA Raja Singh, who was arrested in August for allegedly making offensive remarks about Prophet Muhammad, nearly two-and-a-half months after he was detained under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), and also granted him conditional bail in the case.

While quashing the detention orders against Raja Singh and granting conditional bail, a division bench of the High Court, comprised of Justice Annireddy Abhishek Reddy and Justice Juvvadi Sridevi, barred him from making provocative remarks, making anti-religious speeches, or making derogatory or offensive posts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp, print or electronic media.

Raja Singh was arrested on August 23 for allegedly making objectionable remarks about Prophet Muhammad, and a FIR was filed against him after massive protests erupted in the city, demanding that he be prosecuted. However, he was released on bail on the same day, but on August 25 he was arrested again under the PD Act.

Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Raja Singh's wife T. Usha Bai through her counsels, who challenged the PDA proceedings against him, the division bench barred the suspended BJP MLA from holding celebratory rallies or meetings upon his release, as well as from addressing the media. No processions, welcome meetings, or celebrations are permitted.

Further, the court ordered that no one else be present inside or outside the jail upon Raja Singh's release, other than his counsel, his wife Usha Bai, and four of his family members.

On Wednesday, the division bench heard lengthy arguments from senior counsel L. Ravichander, who was assisted by Deepak Mishra, Karuna Sagar, and Shashi Kiran's legal team. The bench also heard the arguments of Advocate General B.S. Prasad at length. Senior counsel L. Ravichander stated in his closing arguments that "democracy was not about saying the right things". "Democracy is about the right to be wrong," he argued. He repeatedly told the bench that a government cannot rely on a "fatwa" to conclude that Raja Singh's language referred to "the Prophet". In arguing Raja Singh's case, senior counsel L.Ravichander criticised the government for treating a law and order problem as a challenge to public order, as well as the detaining authority for "colourful exercise of law. The Advocate General, on the other hand, stated that the suspended BJP MLA was a habitual offender and that the one-year preventive detention was not consummate with the actions of the detenue. The High Court ordered Raja Singh's release after hearing arguments from Advocate General B.S. Prasad and counter-arguments from L.Ravichander.
HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leaders refused to comment on the allegations of phone tapping made against the state government by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday.

Party sources said that the TRS leadership has taken a stand not to react to the Governor's comments.

Senior TRS leader B. Vinod Kumar said, There is nothing to react or talk on this issue. I don't want to comment on anything. Our party leaders may react at an appropriate time.

MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said that the issue linked with the cash for MLAs case is under investigation and that it was not appropriate to comment on the Governors allegations linking phone tapping to Moinabad farmhouse as the case was sub judice.

Rajya Sabha member K.R. Suresh Reddy said that he was not aware of the Governors comments and therefore, would not like to comment on the issue.

The partys social media handles also went on with business as usual, making no reaction to the Governors comments.
Indias willingness to do whatever it can to help the peace process, has been stated but then, as common knowledge has it, Mr Putin is the one who must relent. (Photo: PTI)

India and Russia are on a good wicket. While that is historically true and dates to a time when the West had imposed nuclear equipment and other arms embargoes on India and was also hassling India on the Kashmir issue at the UN, it is ironic that the 2022 war in Ukraine may have brought the two countries even closer with Russia displaced Iraq and Saudi Arabia as Indias top oil supplier last month with nearly a million barrels a day.

Indias stand on the invasion of Ukraine, as reflected in its voting pattern at the UN which was never condemnatory of Russia, set the tone for the current high in ties. But that had not stopped India from voicing strong opposition to the war, as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself did in conveying, forcefully enough, to Vladimir Putin in Samarkand that this is not an era of war.

Indias anti-war stand was further stressed during external affairs minister S. Jaishankars visit to Moscow when he also pointed out to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov that the economic situation was affecting the Global South disproportionately. However, regardless of what India and other nations like Turkey may have said in encouraging Russia to stop the offensive and go to the table, it is entirely up to Putin and his closest advisers to determine the course of events regarding disengagement.

Pragmatic Indias may not have claimed the moral high ground at any time since the invasion began on February 24, but it has succeeded in putting its point across, specifically to the US, that it can buy Russian oil at discounted prices to help shore its economy at a time of runaway energy prices. And since Europe itself had been continuing to buy oil and gas for billions of dollars from Russian energy sources this year also, there was little the West could expect to say on the matter that could have made India feel guilty.

Sardonic comments emanating now from the West on Indian dollar payments aiding Russia in the war are too hypocritical to be taken too seriously. Given the balance of trade swinging hugely towards Russia, it would be excessively optimistic of India to expect to pay for the oil in rupees. But who can dictate that India cannot buy Russian oil? Suffice it to say, India is in a good place regarding the import of a major part of its oil needs and any talk of imposing a price cap on Russian oil is wishful thinking on the part of the US.

The signals emanating in the last couple of days about Volodymyr Zelenskyy being prepared to lead Ukraine back to talks are encouraging even if they come with the caveat that the talks would have to be on Ukraines terms like Russia relinquishing conquered territory and paying reparations. An agreement on talks might seem farfetched right now. Since all nations, including Ukraine the most and Russia, are affected adversely by the hits to the world economy, there is always the hope that reason would dawn on the region. Indias willingness to do whatever it can to help the peace process, short of a direct offer of mediation though, has been stated but then, as common knowledge has it, Mr Putin is the one who must relent.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the country is indebted to former prime minister Manmohan Singh for the economic reforms.

India needs a liberal economic policy with the intention to provide its benefits to poor people, Gadkari said while speaking at TIOL Awards 2022 event. The economic reforms started by Singh as the finance minister in 1991 gave a new direction to India as it ushered in a liberal economy, he added.

"Liberal economy ke karan desh ko nayee disha mili, uske liye Manmohan Singh Ka desh reeni hai (The country is indebted to Manmohan Singh for the liberalisation that gave a new direction)," Gadkari said.

He recalled that he could raise money to build roads in Maharashtra when he was a minister in Maharashtra in the mid-1990s due to economic reforms initiated by the former prime minister.

Gadkari asserted that liberal economic policy is for farmers and poor people.

The awards function was organised by a portal 'TaxIndiaOnline'.

He also said China is a good example of how liberal economic policy can help in the development of any country. To accelerate economic growth, he said India will need more capex investment.

The road transport and highways minister said the NHAI is also raising money from the common man for the construction of highways. Gadkari said that his ministry is constructing 26 green expressways and he is not facing a shortage of money.

According to him, the toll revenue of NHAI will soar to Rs 1.40 lakh crore by the end of 2024 from Rs 40,000 crore per annum currently.
In South Korea, at least seven vigils were organised, with thousands participating in protesting the unpreparedness of the government, which resulted in the mass deaths at a Halloween event a week ago. It is reported that "crowds gathered from youth political groups at the site of the incident and carried poignant messages to the President that said: "Stepping down is an expression of condolence"."

The people of South Korea, especially its youth, are angry and holding their government responsible for the Halloween disaster. We have not heard yet the government taking the excuse that it was the irresponsibility of the partygoers, their carelessness, that led to the mass death. That they should have been more disciplined and well-behaved. You can also see that the government is truly pained from top to bottom. The nation's mood is sombre, yet there is anger, and it is being expressed.

At the same time, people unrelated to those dead, not their relatives or friends, attended vigils in the heart of Seoul commemorating the tragedy  in which over 150 died, and another 196 people were injured - with the nation's grieving flowers, white chrysanthemums and candles. There is national grief and anger.

Also Read: The Morbi bridge collapse and India's steel frame

Close to the Korean tragedy, India also witnessed a massive tragedy. At Morbi in Gujarat. Where the hanging bridge broke, and people fell into the river below to drown to their deaths. More than 141 died, we are told. Many were injured. But in India or Gujarat, there is no sign of any collective grief. Leave aside anger. Our great culture does have grieving flowers, no white chrysanthemums. And candlelight vigils are mocked here!

We are not demanding that our governments take responsibility. No protest. No politics over tragedy: this is how we show our moral superiority. Which is actually indifference towards our fellow people who are our compatriots. Unlike the Korean people, we seem to have accepted that it was God's will that led to the collapse of the Morbi swinging bridge in Gujarat and the death of over 141 people by drowning. From the silence that prevails in Gujarat and India after this accident, it seems that we have accepted it as divine wrath before which humans are helpless. Like an earthquake or a storm, humans cannot control it. But first, we should fix the language. Every time we write or speak, we should replace the Morbi disaster with Morbi mass murder. It was a mass murder. And its perpetrators are also known.

People may ask how we can call it murder. According to some, there were more people on the bridge than its capacity. The bridge could not bear their weight. It broke down, and the people standing on it fell into the river along with the bridge. They died due to drowning. Isn't calling it murder a dramatic exaggeration?

Also Read | Bridge collapse may change poll equation in BJP stronghold Morbi: Analysts

But let's not limit ourselves to the moment when the bridge broke down. The bridge was waiting to collapse. If not that day, then on some other day. It didn't break because there were too many people on it. It broke down because, in the name of its repair, only paintwork was done. Its cables were not changed. They were just painted!

That the collapse of the bridge was ensured should have been foreknown. After all its repair work was given to a watch-making company. This company had no experience in building or maintaining a bridge. This bridge was also no ordinary bridge. Repair of this type of swinging bridge, which is more than 100 years old, can apparently be done by people with special expertise in this field. The procedure for awarding such work to suitable people is laid down in the rule books of the governments. Tenders are invited, stating the qualifications required for the work that is to be executed. Those who do not have the qualification, expertise or experience, even if they offer the lowest price for the work, are not selected. Scrutiny of tenders takes place at two levels. The financial part is decided only after the technical clearance.

It is now known from the preliminary investigation of the police that the contract for the repair of the bridge was awarded to the watch-making company Oreva without due process. All these decisions were taken by the municipality of Morbi. Clearly, the officials are accountable. The owner of the company also cannot run away from his responsibility. It was a crime he committed, knowing well that he was not doing any real repair work. It is reported that Rs 2 crore was given to the company to repair the bridge. Only 12 lakhs were spent. Shall we justify it by asking would the poor chap not be allowed to make a profit?

The maintenance of the bridge was to be done by the company itself. In a way, its ownership was handed over to the company. You could go there only after buying a ticket. Then how were tickets being sold to people exceeding the permissible number that the bridge could hold at one point in time? Are only the people sitting at the ticket windows to blame for this? Was this being done without the knowledge of the owner of the company? After all, the income from the ticket was going to him? Why has the police not even named him as an accused in its complaint till now?

That too when precedents exist. Remember the owners of Uphaar cinema who were punished after a long legal struggle for the devastating fire in their cinema hall in Delhi? They were not the people on the spot when the fire broke out. Why is the Gujarat Police hesitant to name the owner of the Oreva company?

The chief officer of Morbi municipality has just been suspended. The municipality has been occupied by the Bharatiya Janata Party for some 30 years. So far, the public representatives have not taken any responsibility. They are shunning responsibility by saying that the bridge was closed for repairs. Without their knowledge and permission, the owner of the Oreva company opened it to the public. Is this ignorance not a crime? Is the municipality or the government not responsible for the safety of people's lives? Can they show such criminal indifference to this basic task of protecting the lives of their citizens?



Morbi disaster was not a coincidence. It was planned on several levels. Political and administrative. But we have no evidence of any churning in the society of Gujarat about it: how could their elected representatives treat their lives like dirt? There is no anger among the people in Gujarat.

The people do not want to trouble their political rulers. It is now evident from the attitude of the government and officials there that they have no fear of anger from the public. Otherwise, even in the midst of this terrible human tragedy, the prime minister would not keep changing clothes and giving speeches at various events on the very day when the dead were being taken out of the river, and the nation was trying to fathom the scale of the tragedy.

We will be flogged for dragging the dear leader into this. But when the prime minister tells the voters that at the time of voting, they should remember only his face and not that of the candidate, then he cannot escape his responsibility.

But the prime minister is confident of the loyalty of the dead souls. "This is the Gujarat we have made," he announced proudly after this crime made it to the masthead of the assembly election campaign.

The mass media of modern societies play a role in making power accountable. What it did after the Morbi accident can only be called abominable. Many TV channels blamed the public for the collapse of the bridge. They claimed that the people broke the bridge by shaking and kicking at it violently!

We must ask ourselves why the owners of Oreva Group, the public representatives of the municipality, the state government and the Bharatiya Janata Party are having a peaceful sleep after this tragedy. Is it because they are sure that the people in Gujarat and India have completely lost their publicness? Is it now decided that a tragedy like this is only an event for us? After which, we simply wait for another similar event to happen. Have we turned from the public into spectators?

The Morbi bridge is a kind of metaphor. Of the morbidity that India's democracy has turned into. Who will be held responsible when democracy itself collapses?

(The author teaches at Delhi University)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
A call has been made for supermarkets to help families in Derry access affordable food.

Sinead McLaughlin MLA (SDLP) said a new report by researchers at University of Leeds showed Foyle ranking second in the North among constituencies where people need support to access affordable food.

The Leeds research ranked areas in the UK on the likelihood of people needing support to keep themselves fed.

Ms McLaughlin added: "In 2022, it is utterly shameful that we have to discuss the need for families and individuals across our city to have access to affordable food. Yet this report evidences what I am hearing day and daily- that people are really struggling to put food on the kitchen table in our city. They deserve better.

Every day, we see more and more people forced to turn to food banks to feed their children. While I commend the volunteers that run food banks and support their community, the truth is that food banks are a sign of failure in our economy. They should not have to exist in a modern society and everyone should have access to affordable meals.

As the campaign organisation Which has highlighted, supermarkets have an important role to play in ensuring that their customers have access to affordable food. Supermarkets should act on Whichs recommendations to ensure fair and transparent pricing and more promotions available for healthy and sustainable foods to make it easier for parents to provide nutritious meals for themselves and their children.

Ultimately, the fact that Derry is at the top of this league table really needs to be seen as another sign that the Department for the Economy must get serious about investment in places like our city that have been left behind. The SDLP will keep fighting for an economy that works for everyone and where no-one struggles to afford the essentials.
The annual River Radio Toy Appeal, in partnership with the Salvation Army, has launched again for its fourth year.

The toy appeal provides free toys for children in the North West with the mission that no child in the local area will go without a toy this Christmas.

Speaking to Derry News, River Radio Director, Gerard Doherty, said the appeal last year was a great success but this year's is shaping up to deliver even more toys than were sent out 12 months ago.

Last year, 5000 families were helped by the appeal with a projected 8000 families or more to receive support this year.

Gerard said the local community is so supportive every year as even more families need help this year amidst the cost of living crisis, "We see an increase every year. Obviously we had COVID and that put a strain on families and was a tough time and then this year we have the cost of living crisis. The demand is crazy.

"The appeal has grown every year. This started as an idea from my daughter, Yazmin. She came up with the idea and at the radio station, we just acted on it.

"We collect all the toys and then we give them to our charity partner, The Salvation Army, and they distribute them to families and kids in the North West area, so it all stays locally.

"The Salvation Army has a base in Derry and Limavady but that is why we use them as a charity partner, they have support in areas across Northern Ireland and we can refer people not in the North West to their local Salvation Army. It means we're not turning anyone away too.

"We believe that Christmas is so magical and we have to ensure all kids and families in the local area can escape the mad world to enjoy the magic of Christmas, especially if they have hit hard times during a bad time.

"That magic and escape can be the joy of the kids on Christmas morning opening their gift.

"All donations are highly appreciated and go to supporting local families and kids in the Northwest area this Chrtistmas."

To donate to the appeal, you can pop into their partner Toytown at Lisnagelvin Shopping Centre and buy an extra present and donate it there.

Alternatively, there are 22 drop box locations across the city and you can also email River Radio and they can collect.

For more information please visit: https:// riverradionorthwest.co.uk/

The list of stores and schools across the city that are drop off locations for the Toy Appeal
Derry is set to host a world first.

On Friday (November 11), The Nerve Centre will premiere a film telling the story of the Rights of Nature movement in Ireland by the people who are building it. The event will take place at 7.00pm.

Speaking to Derry Now, Dr Peter Doran, a senior lecturer at the School of Law at Queens University Belfast, said Ireland was a world leader in the global Rights of Nature movement.

"While we have taken inspiration from countries around the world, from Ecuador to New Zealand, from India to Spain, we are also following our own unique path, breaking new ground.

"The Environmental Justice Network Ireland (EJNI) has captured this moment in our islands history through this visioning yet reflective film.

"Earlier this year Derry City and Strabane District Council became the first local authority on the island to adopt a motion on taking forward rights of nature as a policy priority.

"Derry has long been a crucible of the civil rights struggle and our city-region is now emerging as a pioneer of a new phase in the movement, extending our idea of rights to communities of citizens and communities of species and ecosystems on whom we rely.
British Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has been criticised for not going far enough regarding his decision to cut the pay of MLAs, while the Assembly is not sitting.

Derry City and Strabane District councillor, Emmet Doyle (Aontu) described the decision as "simply not good enough".

Cllr Doyle added: In the last few weeks its been clear that the British Secretary of State has been taking his advice purely from political parties who of course dont want an election and wont suffer from the reduction of a salary theyve been receiving for months for half a job.

"We are being told that theres nothing to see here now that a paltry cut will be made to MLA pay. They will still be paid more than many nurses after this cut.

"This cut is simply not good enough- we want to see MLAs on minimum wage until they go back to undertaking the roles they were elected for, nothing else will do.

Im now calling on Foyle MLAs to come out and publicly inform constituents why they feel they are worth more than many other workers for doing half a job.
The Government is set to extend a deadline for holding an election in Northern Ireland and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is due to make a statement to the House of Commons later on Wednesday outlining his next steps in response to the powersharing crisis in the region.

A failure to form a Stormont ministerial executive following Mays election has placed a legal responsibility on the Government to hold a poll by January 19.

Mr Heaton-Harris has already ruled out a December election and asking voters to head to the polls in January would present significant logistical challenges, as it would involve a campaign that runs through the festive period.

The PA news agency understands the Secretary of State will extend the current January 19 deadline by six weeks, with an option to extend it by a further six weeks.

It is understood he will move to reduce MLA pay by around a third.

Mr Heaton-Harris is also set to give extra powers to Stormont civil servants to enable them to run the regions rudderless public services.

He is also expected to confirm plans to pass a budget for Stormont.

The moves expected to be announced later on Wednesday will require legislation to be laid and passed at Westminster.

It is understood Mr Heaton-Harris briefed the Stormont parties on his intentions on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday Downing Street said the restoration of powersharing was an absolute priority after the issue was the first item on the agenda at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

A DUP boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol, has prevented an executive being formed in Belfast.

The regions largest unionist party has made clear it will not countenance a return to powersharing until the protocols economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are scrapped.

On Wednesday, senior DUP member Edwin Poots insisted a cut to MLA pay would have absolutely no influence whatsoever on his partys stance.

Negotiations between London and Brussels aimed at securing changes to the protocol are continuing, with both sides talking up the prospect of a deal.

Extending the deadline would increase the likelihood of the talks producing something substantive ahead of any election date.

If a deal on the protocol was secured that convinced the DUP to return to a devolved executive the Government would likely come under further pressure to ditch plans for an election altogether.

The UK and Irish governments are both keen to avoid a scenario where Stormont remains in limbo next April when the 25th anniversary of the historic Good Friday peace agreement will be marked.

Existing legislation gave the Stormont parties almost six months to form an executive following the last election in May, which saw Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party for the first time.

The deadline to establish a new executive lapsed on October 28, at which point the Government assumed a legal responsibility to hold a fresh poll within 12 weeks.

Despite repeatedly vowing to set an election date the minute the deadline expired, Mr Heaton-Harris backtracked on his pledge, prompting Stormont parties to accuse him of a U-turn.

During Northern Ireland questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris denied Mr Sunak had intervened on the issue to overrule him.

I dont believe I was overruled by the Prime Minister, he told MPs.

Former DUP leader Mr Poots said his partys position would not change even if Mr Heaton-Harris cut the entire salaries of MLAs.

The issue for us is a principle, so cutting wages is neither here nor there in terms of the position that we adopt, it will have no influence whatsoever on our position, the South Belfast MLA told BBC Radio Ulster.

Should they entirely take the salaries away, thats entirely up to the Secretary of State, but what he really needs to focus on is finding a solution to the problem that has been created, a problem that ensures that our assembly would be taking laws, our people will be taking laws, passed in the European Parliament, which would then be applied in Northern Ireland where we have no scrutiny, where we have no role, we have no impact  thats legislation without representation.

Thats something that was opposed in America many, many years ago whenever the British ruled in America and its something that Id be very surprised that nationalist parties seem very up for  that laws can be made here in Northern Ireland, but they dont actually have any influence on those laws.

Secondly, the internal border has to go. These are issues that have to be resolved. Theyre big, big issues. They will only be resolved between the European Union and United Kingdom Government.

But we are not allowing things to carry on as normal as if this is OK. We gave them a period of grace at the outset to try to get the issues resolved, they werent resolved. Theres no grace left for the Government and European Union on this issue.
Minister Byrne to meet Portuguese Secretary of State

Press release

Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne T.D., will meet with his Portuguese counterpart, Secretary of State Tiago Antunes, today, 9 November, during Mr. Antunes two-day visit to Dublin.

Minister Byrne will exchange views on a range of European issues of common interest with Secretary of State Antunes, including Ukraine, EU relations with the UK, and economic governance issues.

Speaking ahead of the visit, Minister Byrne said:

I am delighted to welcome my Portuguese colleague, Secretary of State Antunes, to Dublin today. As two Atlantic-facing countries on the western periphery of Europe with rich historical and cultural ties, Portugal is an important economic and political partner for Ireland, both bilaterally, within the EU and at the UN. I look forward to our discussions today on a number of EU priorities, including the EUs ongoing response to Russias illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine.

ENDS

Press Office

9 November 2022

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Directed by Soumik Chatterjee, the series tells the story of cosmetic surgeon Rajit Sen and his wife Sharmila, who are celebrating their 15th marriage anniversary ...Read More

with some of their friends. Rajits advocate friend is also one of the invitees at the party. Rajits patient Nisha starts calling him repeatedly and Sharmila gets to know about it. One day Sharmila is found unconscious. Crime branch officer Nalini Kundu comes to investigate this case with assistant Mushtak.
Twitter has been undergoing frequent upgrades since the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, took over the company two weeks ago. The microblogging platform discontinued its ad-free articles featured for Blue subscribers and announced that it would charge $8/month from the verified account.

He outlined in a tweet how verified accounts will benefit users, including priority in replies, mentions, and & search to defeat spam/scams, the ability to post long video & audio, half as many ads, and much more. Soon after the post surfaced, the Twitter CEO faced severe criticism for his decision. However, Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-origin advisor, has supported the subscription service while pointing out several issues with the current verification system.

Sriram Krishnan Shared Multiple Tweets to Support His Contention

Krishnan shared a series of tweets claiming that the various criticisms about the paid verification are unreasonable. He noted four points to support his statement that subscriptions will lessen impersonation on the site and add more consistency to the social networking platform. First, he claims that using a credit card or mobile checkout will help increase friction, and anyone identified as impersonating will lose their money.

Krishnan said, "The current path on any social network is opaque and easily gamed. So many people should be verified (often impersonated) and aren't. And vice versa." Krishnan verified many "hacked blue check accounts" on Twitter, asking users to see replies to Musk's tweets.

"$8 and giving everyone (a checkmark) makes those (hacking) attacks less valuable," he added.

Krishnan acknowledged that there would be space for improvement in Twitter's plans. "But I'm excited for the first change in how verification works in social media in a very long time." Many users have opposed Twitter's subscription plan, but the social network is touting it as "giving power to the people." Twitter states, "Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow." Musk said the new plan would "empower the voice of the people," unlike the existing "lords & peasants system" that offers verification to only known personalities.

Reports say Musk will likely delay the plan's rollout until after the American midterms.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.
Under its new leader, Twitter seems to be struggling with a lot of things, reducing daily costs being one of them. Recently, Twitter's chief tweeted that the platform is losing $4M daily. While much of that could be linked to the massive debts, Musk has taken for financing his $44 billion deal; Twitter also needs to offer salaries to the employees left at the company. Twitter seems to have postponed the launch of the Blue subscription for $7.99 a month, which gathered a lot of bad press.

Musk discusses plans to put Twitter behind a paywall

According to a report by The Verge, Elon Musk has been discussing putting Twitter behind a paywall, charging all users a fee to use the platform, with David Sacks, his advisor. Both of them have discussed the idea in recent meetings, a person familiar with the matter told the publication.

One of the plans is to allow all users to browse through Twitter for a limited time every month and then require a subscription to browse more. However, this plan is not imminent as the core team focuses on releasing the Twitter Blue subscription with verification.

The report also mentions that some Twitter managers are being told to "ask select laid-off employees if they wanted their old jobs back." The publication cites a message from a manager to employees. It reads, "Sorry to @-everybody on the weekend, but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back."

Additionally, some employees are worried that if the company cannot get them to return, it might rescind the notice it offered while firing them.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.
A company that is supposed to vouch for the legitimacy of online websites has connections with United States intelligence agencies and the law enforcement body, as reported by The Washington Post. The company's name is TrustCor Systems, and it is trusted by several web browsers, such as Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox and others, as a root certificate authority. For those catching up, a root certificate authority is an organisation that guarantees that websites are not fake and provides a certificate of authenticity.

TrustCor could be linked with spyware makers

While that might not concern users, TrustCor Systems' Panamanian registration records reveal that "it has the identical slate of officers, agents and partners" as a spyware maker associated with Arizona-based Packet Forensics, who might have sold "communication interception services to the U.S. government agencies."

The report also highlights that one of the TrustCor partners has the same name as the company managed by someone quoted as a spokesman for Packet Forensics in 2010, Raymond Saulino. The same person surfaced last year as a contact for a company that might have activated and operated over 100 million dormant IP addresses previously assigned to the Pentagon.

Although the Pentagon recovered the IP addresses, it remains unclear why they were transferred in the first place. According to researchers, the activation of those addresses might have given the military access to massive internet traffic. Upon the report's publication, a TrustCor executive said that the company "had not cooperated with any government information requests or assisted with a third party's monitoring of its customers on behalf of others."

TrustCor co-founders are not working anymore

So far, TrustCor has issued over 10,000 certificates for websites, many of which are hosted with a dynamic domain name provider called Np-IP, which allows websites to be hosted with changing IP addresses. While there have been no reports that the company has misused its power to issue inappropriate certificates, researchers speculate that the system "is only used against high-value targets within short windows of time."

What is shadier is that the company's website mentions two men as the co-founders, one of which died months ago, and the other left the company as the chief technology officer in 2019. Altogether, TrustCor seems to be a mysterious company that might be operating under the radar.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.
Woodruff Sawyer

Schmidt

Woodruff Sawyer hired Tim Schmidt as vice president, producer for its Seattle office. Prior to joining Woodruff Sawyer, Schmidt spent seven years at Parker, Smith and Feek, where he was a construction and P&C producer. Prior to that, he spent 10 years in commercial banking. In his role, Schmidt 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. Schmidt is certified as a Construction Risk Insurance Specialist, and attended Washington State University. Woodruff Sawyer is an insurance brokerage and consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco with offices throughout the U.S.




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BERLIN (AP)  Adidas has appointed Puma CEO Bjrn Gulden as its new chief executive. He will take over in January as the German sportswear brand weathers the fallout from its split with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

The departure of Kasper Rorsted, Adidas' CEO since 2016, was announced in August. The company said Tuesday that he and the supervisory board mutually agreed he will leave the company Friday.





. . .
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PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron is urging the country's most climate-damaging industries to double their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade.

Macron convened a meeting in Paris with the heads of 50 industrial sites in France accounting for about 10% of France's total greenhouse gas emissions. He asked them to cut by half their emissions.





. . .
Customers of the two major banks leaving the Irish market have been warned to check their insurance and pension policies to ensure their direct debits are not interrupted, which could cause the policies to lapse.

The departure of Ulster Bank and KBC Bank could have implications for such policies if they are set up to pay by direct debit, according to Insurance Ireland.

Those with accounts at the two banks need to act now and provide updated direct debit mandates for all relevant insurance policies in order to ensure associated benefits are not interrupted or lapse, Insurance Ireland has said.

Moyagh Murdock, CEO of Insurance Ireland said: In order to ensure that policies continue uninterrupted, Ulster Bank and KBC customers need to act as a matter of urgency and update direct debit mandates for all their insurance products to their new bank account.

If a policy lapses, customers are at risk of losing cover, so it is important to act now so you dont miss out. It may not be possible to reinstate a lapsed policy with the same terms and conditions. It may have to be treated as a new policy, which means consumers risk losing benefits built up over time, Ms Murdock said.

There are many potential impacts of lapsed policies, Ms Murdock stressed.

For example, motor insurance is a legal requirement in order to be able to drive and the consequences of being involved in a collision when uninsured are very serious. Lapsed home insurance could have major financial implications in the event of a fire or storm.

If your health policy lapses, there is a risk you could lose cover for pre-existing conditions and have to re-serve waiting periods. You could also be liable to additional Lifetime Community Rating loading charges, which can be quite significant if you fail to take out health insurance 13 weeks after the policy is cancelled.

In terms of life insurance, these policies are dependent on health at the time of underwriting. As you get older your risk increases, so if you need to take out a new policy as a result of unpaid premiums, it could be more expensive. Customers who are in receipt of a regular payment from a provider, for example, a pension payment, will also need to contact their insurer or pension provider and supply updated bank account information so that the payments can continue uninterrupted.

Many insurance and pension providers have specific webpages and online forms on their websites to assist their affected customers and help guide them through the transfer process for their direct debits. Insurance companies have been writing to customers to remind them of the need to change their details to avoid any potential loss of cover, MsMurdock said.

If you discover your policy has unintentionally lapsed, please contact your insurer or broker immediately, she added.

Once the updated direct debit mandate has been received, your provider will be in a position to update your policy payment information. It can take up to 14 days for these changes to be processed, so if the next payment is due within 14 days of updating with the new information, payment may still be taken from your Ulster Bank or KBC account.

It is important therefore to discuss this timing issue with your provider when you make contact with them. Once made aware of this, your provider will then use your new bank account information for future payments so there is no interruption to your cover.

Insurance and pensions customers who have not yet switched to a new provider should visit the Competition and Consumer Protection Commissions website, which has published detailed information on how to complete the process. The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland also has a handy checklist and a guide for customers in vulnerable circumstances to help make the switch to a new bank, Moyagh Murdock concluded.

Insurance Ireland also recommends that customers visit their insurance or pension providers website and make contact with them as soon as possible for urgent advice on the changeover to a new bank account.

Further information is available from Ulster Bank and KBC Customer Support using the below links:

Ulster Bank Customer Support

KBC Bank Customer Support

The Central Bank of Ireland also has a comprehensive FAQ that provides advice for Ulster Bank and KBC customers who need to switch to a new banking provider.
Local walkers, joggers and runners are being encouraged to take part in one of the five parkruns being held across Donegal this Saturday, November 12th, to celebrate parkrun Ireland's tenth anniversary.

Letterkenny, Buncrana, Dungloe, Falcarragh and Narin Beach will be among the 106 5k events taking place throughout Ireland on Saturday at 9:30am to mark the milestone.

The first parkrun in Donegal was held in Letterkenny in February, 2016 and four more weekly runs have been set up in Donegal since.

The Republic of Ireland's first parkrun took place in Malahide on Saturday, November 10th, 2012. The community has grown rapidly over the last ten years to become the largest per capita globally.

There are currently 356,080 parkrunners registered in Ireland. 27,159 events have been held over the last decade, while 2,498,898 parkruns have been completed.

Parkruns are free community events that provide participants with a positive, welcoming, and inclusive experience where there is no time limit and no one finishes last. Registration is free and only needs to be done once, whether you intend to walk, jog, run or volunteer, or do a combination of all the aforementioned.

To register click follow the link here

After completing the registration form, print your barcode and head to your nearest parkrun venue.
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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.
A man who offered over 1 million in bail sureties before he was extradited from the UK charged with the robbery during which Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was murdered, has been granted legal aid after the Special Criminal Court heard he now has "absolutely nothing".

Ruling today on whether James Flynn should be granted legal aid, presiding judge Ms Justice Tara Burns said "a very odd position" had been adopted by the applicant as the court had previously heard that he had a significant business in the US and was a man who worked. "Instead we are now met with a document [a statement of means] which appears to reflect that the applicant has no assets," she added.

The judge said the non-jury court was "somewhat confused" by the defence application as it was referenced in the course of Mr Flynn's bail hearing last week that "very significant sums of money" were available to him before Westminster Magistrates' Court ordered his extradition back to Ireland earlier this year. "It is now documented that he has absolutely nothing," she added.

The three-judge court heard last week 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.

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.

Mr Flynn (31), of Raven's Glen, Newry, Northern Ireland is accused of the robbery of 7K, the property of Pat Bellew, at Lordship 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.

Referring to a statement of means which was handed into the court today, Ms Justice Burns commented that the information provided in the document was "very sparse".

The judge said the court had stopped defence counsel for Mr Flynn last week from attempting to offer an explanation for the sums of money offered to Westminster Magistrates' Court.

"That said we did hear during the course of the bail hearing that the applicant is residing with his wife and children yet there is a reference in the document that he is not supporting any of his children," she continued.

Ms Justice Burns said the court would grant Mr Flynn legal aid in light of the State's position "albeit with the court's concerns set out".

Earlier, prosecuting counsel Brendan Grehan SC said the State had "no comment as such" to make on the legal aid application filed. He said it was a matter for the court and that the State was not raising any objection.

In summary, Ms Justice Burns said she had spoken to trial judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt and stressed that the trial would be proceeding in January. "[With] All due haste," she added.

Last Friday, Mr Flynn was refused bail by the non-jury court on the grounds that he is a flight risk. Ms Justice Burns said the three-judge court could not accept that the applicant was "anything but a flight risk" and that the probability of fleeing the jurisdiction was "well made out".

Ms Justice Burns also said in her ruling that 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. The court heard evidence that 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", the court heard.

Summarising his objection to the court on the flight risk ground last week, Detective Inspector Mark 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.

Referring to the sums of money that had been offered to Westminster Magistrates Court, Mr John Temple, defending, said that this was offered by Mr Flynn's family members and not the applicant himself.

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.

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.
The Drogheda Implementation Plan is to receive 350,000 in funding as part of the Dormant Accounts Action Plan 2023.

The plan was launched last year and recommends a number of steps that can be taken in the town to curb crime, increase community engagement and provide supports to local groups.

The Dormant Accounts Action Plan is a 54.5 million package aimed at disadvantaged communities and vulnerable groups across the country.

The Action Plan sets out 44 initiatives across nine Government Departments, all of which are designed to support communities at a grassroots level.

From providing sporting and educational opportunities to our young people, to delivering projects for our elderly, disabled, marginalised and disadvantaged  the Action Plan aims to support those who need it most.

Funding for the Action Plan comes from unclaimed accounts in credit institutions (i.e. banks, building societies and An Post), as well as unclaimed life assurance policies in insurance undertakings.

The Action Plan was launched today at the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, Minister of State at the Department of Rural Community Development, Joe OBrien TD, and Minister for Sport, Jack Chambers TD and Minister for Disabilities, Anne Rabbitte TD

Launching the Action Plan today, Minister Heather Humphreys said:

The Dormant Accounts Action Plan is a major initiative that aims to support communities at a grassroots level.

The 54.5 million funding we are announcing today will benefit and support our young people, our elderly, people with disabilities, carers, as well as our marginalised and disadvantaged groups.

The 44 projects that make up the plan have been put forward by 9 different Government Departments. These projects will help communities that suffer from disadvantage to overcome the challenges they face.

And they will also provide great opportunities for people of all ages in terms of education, health and employment.

Minister OBrien stated:

The 2023 Action Plan provides funding of 54.5 million to help address disadvantage right across Ireland. The 44 measures approved for funding will help to address a diverse range of issues such as Traveller equality, youth disadvantage, migrant integration and probation support to prevent re-offending.

Dormant Accounts funding makes a real difference to individuals and communities right across the country. The 2023 Action Plan being published today will help ensure that we can continue to support those who need it most during these challenging times.

I had written to all Ministers asking that they give specific consideration to measures that would support Travellers therefore I am particularly pleased to see that 3.8 million is allocated for Traveller initiatives and services across five departments.

Minister Rabbitte concluded:

"I'm glad to see such a big investment in supports for people with disabilities and family carers in the distribution of Dormant Accounts Funding announced today. It is another example of how we are working across government to ensure people with disabilities are supported in their communities, particularly on their journey toward employment, self-employment, or further education.

I think it is clear from the initiatives detailed in the Action Plan 2023, that there is a focus on empowering some of our most vulnerable, helping them achieve their goals, bolstering both their confidence and their skillset."
A new planning application has been lodged with Louth County Council seeking planning permission for 65 new homes at Dublin Road and Chapel Road, Haggardstown, Dundalk.

Wonderglade Unlimited Company have applied to Louth County Council for development at a site on the Dublin Road (R132) and Chapel Road - opposite the Fariways Hotel and to the east of Chapel Road. The planned development consists of 65 dwellings, 29 of which are two-bed, 25 three-bed and 11 are four-bed. Of the planned units, 38 of them are dwellings comprising two, two-bed dwellings; 25 three-bed dwellings and 11 four-bed dwellings. There are also 27 two-bed apartments in five three-storey buildings with balconies.

A previous application had been made for this development by the same applicant but was deemed invalid by Louth County Council. The local authority indicated that following an inspection of the site notice, "it was observed that whilst site notices were in place along Chapel Road, there was no site notice in place along the Dublin Road as illustrated on the submitted plans and particulars.

"As such, the application is invalid as it does not meet with the requirements of sub-article (1)(c) or (3) of Article 19 of the Planning & Development Regulations 2001 (as amended) as a site notice is considered necessary along the site boundary at the Dublin Road, being a public road."

A decision is due on this application by 7 January with submissions due by 8 December.
Louth lost another GAA legend recently with the passing of Dromiskin native Willie Reilly. While known in these parts for his trojan fundraising efforts to huge local projects, such as the development of the Darver Centre of Excellence, he also had a huge impact in his adopted home.

Having arrived in London in 1958, Reilly would link up with the oldest club in the English capital, Brothers Pearse, a side formed in 1920, and with them he would have a longstanding relationship, be it as a player or an official.

He played a role in the club until very recently. Despite already being in his 80's back in 2016, he was extremely eager to stay on as chairman into the clubs centenary year in 2020 and was delighted to able to play a role in belated celebrations earlier this year.

It is with great sadness that Brothers Pearse learnt of the death of (Willie) Bill Reilly read a statement on the clubs social media channels. There are very few who have had such an impact on the club as Bill did, serving as chairman multiple times over the decades.

The times shared with him, whether at a game, in a pub afterwards, in a work setting, a trip away, or one of his private, generous gestures of good will, they would easily fill a book. And we look forward to hearing them all in the coming days and weeks.

The overriding sentiment here is how proud, and humble, this man was. And Bill, we were ever so proud to have you as one of ours, an outstanding legend of the club. You will be so sorely missed.

Of course, his GAA duties also went to county board level, where Reilly served as President of London GAA, a role he took up in 2017 and held until his death. Current chairman Donal Corbett paid a lovely tribute to a man who clearly left a huge mark on the GAA in Britain.

"London GAA and the entire GAA family feels a huge sense of loss at the passing of Uachtaran Cumann Luthchleas Gael Londain Bill Reilly.

"A man of great wit, character and great company to be with discussing the news, sport and politics of the day and days gone by or just having the craic.

"He was so proud to be our president which after all of his accomplishments in life is an honour to London GAA and something for all of us to reflect on.

"We share this loss with Bills family, friends his beloved Brothers Pearse and his home county and club of Louth and Dromiskin.
To mark the huge importance of Animal Welfare Awareness Day, Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue T.D. has announced a nationwide art competition for primary school pupils aged 10, 11 and 12 years of age.

Children interested in taking part are asked to draw or paint their favourite animal using whatever design they like, photograph it via smartphone and get a parent or guardian to submit the picture via email to ArtCompetition@agriculture. gov.ie along with your name, school, and age before 5pm on 21 November 2022.

Winners will be announced shortly after the closing date. Five winners will be selected from all entries received and the judging panel will be headed by ISPCA ambassador Rosanna Davison.

The prizes for the five winners is a Dublin Zoo family pass for 2023 and goodie bag. All participants will receive an online certificate of participation.

The competition opens today, 7 November, and closes on 21 November 2022. Winners and their families will be invited to a special event in Farmleigh House on 8 December to receive their prize from Minister McConalogue plus very special guests.

Commenting on Animal Welfare Awareness Day, Minister McConalogue said:

Animal welfare is important to all of us, working together to do the best we can for animals under our care, including animals on the farm or pets at home. Animal welfare is a key aspect of my Department, along with the many other organisations and individuals currently working to protect animal welfare across Ireland.

"This is why my Department provides funding to so many animal welfare charities doing great work in Ireland to both protect animals and educate people in the care of animals.

On 8 December, I will be announcing new funding for animal welfare charities under the Departments animal welfare grants programme, building on the record 3.7m we provided to charities last December.

Young people today are the pet owners, farmers and the veterinarians of tomorrow. I encourage primary school pupils aged 10, 11 and 12 across the country to show their support for Animal Welfare Awareness Day, and their love of animals of all shapes and sizes, by entering their artwork into this competition. I look forward to meeting the winners at a really exciting event on 8 December. I encourage everyone to mark Animal Welfare Awareness Day on 8 December in their own way too.

So, get out your paper, draw your favourite animal and enter your animal art to this competition!

Terms and conditions of entry:

One entry per participant

Artwork should be completed on an A4 sheet of paper

Entries will only be accepted via email from a parent or guardian

Submit a photograph of your artwork via email to: ArtCompetition@agriculture. gov.ie

Artwork entries may be used in social media promotions of Animal Welfare Awareness Day

Five winners will be chosen by the judging panel

Judges decision will be final

Data privacy information and terms and conditions available on Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine website

All entrants data will be deleted on 12 December 2022.
Colm Markey MEP has called for increased supports for indigenous start-ups to ensure Irelands tech sector is not exposed to further global risks.

The Midlands-North-West MEP from Louth was responding to the recent wave of layoffs by tech multinationals. Mr Markey, who will host a conference on the future of tech with EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness in Dundalk next week, said now is the time to boost the indigenous sector.

Speaking from Brussels he commented, Finding talent is one of the biggest difficulties facing Irish start-ups and the recent lay-offs by multinationals opens up an opportunity for the indigenous sector however, we must address a range of other challenges. Recent research from both Scale Ireland and IBEC revealed that red tape is putting many businesses off applying for key state schemes. This needs urgent attention if we are to retain and grow employment in the sector.

I believe a regulatory sandbox approach is the first step in overcoming this hurdle, particularly in the fintech space. The regulatory sandbox is a controlled innovation space set up by the Central Bank that allows small businesses the opportunity to design and test new products and services. It brings a significant competitive advantage for indigenous businesses who can test their ideas before embarking on a long authorisation process of regulation.

Regulatory sandboxes are a feature in the UK and other EU countries and this competitive advantage is missing in the Irish fintech sector. The Government and Central Bank of Ireland should now look to introduce a regulatory sandbox to support indigenous Irish companies. Of course we need to continue to attract foreign direct investment but equal attention should be given to home grown companies.

The tech sector will be discussed at A Fintech Future: Building on Irelands Potential - an event being hosted by the MEP in Dundalk on Friday November 18th. Commenting on the event Mr Markey said EU Commissioner for Financial Services Mairead McGuinness will be a keynote speaker at our conference which will also feature experts from Fintech Ireland, the Central Bank and Enterprise Ireland who will discuss both the challenges and opportunities facing the sector and identify ways to build on the success of the North-East of the country as a fintech hub."

"The events of the last few days will make the conversation even more pressing and I look forward to engaging with our speakers to get their views on the way forward, he concluded.
Broadband blackspots in Louth are creating a rural-urban divide, costing small businesses jobs and are stopping people from working from home, Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick told the Dail today.

The Independent TD was speaking in a debate about the National Broadband Plan and asking Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications Deputy Ossian Smyth for further details of the efforts to accelerate the roll-out of national broadband in these areas.

It is stopping people from working from home. Households and businesses cannot wait for years.

Several people have come to my constituency office saying they cannot continue to survive.

I cannot understand why they are not connected to this essential broadband service.

Deputy Fitzpatrick detailed the case of a local family business who have said they wont be connected until June 2024.

 It is 2022 and for these people to wait another two years does not seem fair.

In this day and age, they do not think that is very fair. I do not use the words "black spot" lightly. It is 2022 and for these people to wait another two years does not seem fair.

In response the Minister of State said:

I am advised by National Broadband Ireland, NBI, that, as of 28 October 2022, more than 97,000 premises can order or preorder a high-speed broadband connection, with in excess of 87,700 premises passed and available for immediate connection. Construction is under way across all 26 counties, demonstrating that the project is reaching scale.

To date, the level of connections is increasing daily and is in line with or exceeding our expectations. I am advised that 3,334 premises in County Louth are now available to order or preorder a connection.

Louth has double the average rate of connection for Ireland. It is the number one county for connections for rural broadband. I believe 37% of rural homes in Louth have been passed, which is twice the average overall, so it is doing very well.

For a person who is waiting and absolutely needs something a year before the connection is delivered, the options are fixed wireless access, 5G or satellite connections. It is a seven-year contract and that means some people will be connected in years 6 or 7. I am working on reducing that number down to five years.

Deputy Fitzpatrick responded by saying that there are still many black spots.

I know the Minister of State hates that term. How can I go back to those people and convince them to stick it out?

Many of these people living in rural Ireland are talking about going back to work because it is too expensive to stay in rural Ireland and it is costing them a lot of money.

The Minister of State is aware there is an energy crisis ongoing. When I go back to my constituency office on Friday, what will I tell the people who ask me what they are supposed to do if they do not have broadband in their area?

The Minister reiterated that Louth was the number one county in Ireland for connections.

For those who need a connection and do not yet have it, and have been waiting for three or more years, we have provided information on the website.

We want to be honest and let people know they will have to make other arrangements. The three technologies available are fixed wireless access, 5G or satellite connection for somebody who needs to have something and cannot have fibre to a cabinet or whatever is being provided at the moment, he concluded.
A Sinn Fein TD has criticised the government for not providing domestic violence victims to an entitlement of 10 days paid leave.

Louise OReilly said it is a failure that domestic violence survivors will not have the statutory entitlement of 10 days.

On Tuesday, the proposed domestic violence leave was introduced at committee stage in the Dail, taking it a step closer to becoming law.

The proposed legislation will allow victims of domestic violence to take up to five days paid leave.

It forms part of the proposed Work Life Balance Bill, and is part of the Governments plan to bring the EUs work-life balance directive into Irish law.

But Ms OReilly has criticised the government for not delivering 10 days paid leave.

The Dublin Fingal TD had tabled her own private bill that allow victims to take 10 days leave from their employment.

The Sinn Fein spokeswoman on enterprise, trade, and employment said the decision urged the government not to push through what she described as flawed and unsuitable legislation.

I am deeply disappointed that the government today insisted on going ahead with a number of deeply flawed amendments which will fail survivors of domestic violence who require paid leave from work, Ms OReilly said.

This decision is inexplicable and flies in the face of best practice and expert advice.

I am urging the government to do the right thing and stop attempting to push through this flawed and unsuitable legislation.

Since the publication of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic OGorman has been criticised by politicians, stakeholders, and trade unions for not going far enough with proposals to support victims of domestic violence.

Clearly aware of the flaws in his legislation the Minister brought forward a number of amendments to the Bill today.

However, his amendments have only solidified problematic aspects of the Bill. This is especially true of Minister OGormans failure to deliver 10 days paid domestic violence leave for victims.

Instead, the ministers amendments only grant five days leave for victims in limited circumstances. This is insufficient and totally fails victims.

Domestic violence leave is intended to facilitate victims in accessing supports and completing their journey to safety, and five days leave is not enough in this regard.

Ten days paid leave would enable victims to take the time they need to seek support, find accommodation, find new schools for their children, open a new bank account, attend court, or undertake any multitude of things they may need to do during such a traumatic time.

Providing only five days leave will also create a two-tier system in the public service where 10 days domestic violence leave is already the norm in many agencies and institutions.
An Irish Government minister has said she is very concerned by Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonalds comments regarding different degrees of murder.

Rural Minister Heather Humphreys described Mrs McDonalds remarks as terrible, adding that many people had been hurt by them.

Government Chief Whip Jack Chambers accused Sinn Fein of trying to sanitise the past.

The ministers made the comments at the launch of the Governments Dormant Accounts Action Plan 2023 in Dublin on Tuesday.

Mrs McDonald told Newstalk on Sunday that there is no comparison between the IRA and gangland criminals.

Speaking at the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre, Ms Humphreys, TD for Cavan-Monaghan, a border constituency, said: I was very concerned when I heard the comments from Mary Lou McDonald regarding different degrees of murder.

So she was sort of saying that an IRA murder is something different to a gangland murder in Dublin.

That concerns me seriously, really, because I have lived on the border region all my life.

And I can tell you when you talk to Breege Quinn, her son was a victim of an IRA murder. When he was beaten to a pulp, where his mother couldnt even put the rosary beads in his hand he was so badly beaten by those criminals.

And as I said it was an IRA murder at the time. You ask her does she feel any different than a family that has been impacted by a gangland murder in Dublin.

Does the family of Columba McVeigh feel any different where he is buried in a bog in Bragan where he was murdered as a young man?

There are many other instances of that. Or ask the wife of the late Garda Jerry McCabe. How does she feel about that?

That was a terrible thing to say and a lot of people have been hurt by it.

Speaking on Newstalks On The Record With Gavan Reilly, Mrs McDonald said: The things that happened in the course of a very long political conflict  which, thank God, is now long over, weve had 25 years of peace  there is no comparison between that and the kind of challenge, and it is an ongoing challenge, to our society between this and the so-called gangland crime epidemic poses.

Junior Sport Minister Mr Chambers accused Sinn Fein of trying to sanitise the past and retraumatising people in the process.

He said the party was creating some sort of new complex around what the degree of murder should be.

Clearly Sinn Fein are trying to sanitise their past, Mr Chambers said.

Theyre trying to dismiss their past as across some conflict.

He added: The sanitisation of the past puts us, it damages bridge-building across our island, it undermines a pathway to having a shared island and its about bringing people together.

And instead of seeking forgiveness for the murder and mayhem they caused in the past, they retraumatised many families over recent days and its very concerning to see the leader of Sinn Fein underpin that in her comments in the last couple of days.

Mr Chambers also said he would be still very concerned about Sinn Fein having any sort of input or role when it comes to matters related to criminal justice if the party were to come to power.
Various missile tests being performed by the DPRK's People's Army at undisclosed locations, taken between November 2, 2022 and November 5, 2022 and released on November 7, 2022. /CFP

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired a ballistic missile eastward, Yonhap reported Wednesday, citing the Republic of Korea (ROK)'s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The ROK's military said it "detected the launch from the Sukchon area in South Pyongan Province at around 15:31," referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

Japan also confirmed the launch, with the government tweeting that the DPRK "has launched a suspected ballistic missile."

The DPRK said on Monday that its recent missile launches were simulated strikes on the ROK and the U.S. as the two countries held a "dangerous war drill," while the ROK said it had recovered parts of a DPRK missile near its coast.

The DPRK carried out a series of military operations, including test-firing a ballistic missile, from November 2 to 5 as the ROK and the U.S. held a six-day air drill involving some 240 military aircraft and two U.S. B-1B strategic bombers.

(With input from agencies)
A scout leader in 1979 has been put on trial by judge and jury in Cork where he denied three charges of indecently assaulting a boy scout who was aged around 10 or 11 that summer.

The defence alleged that the complaints are untrue and suggested, This is about money.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to three indecent assault charges at Cork Circuit Criminal Court and the trial commenced before Judge Elva Duffy and a jury of five women and seven men.

The complainant testified, Every time I would encounter (defendants name) he would fondle me with his hand on my genitals. Every time he would see me he would do it with that smile which was quite disarming. He was not discrete about it whatsoever.

It was always brief and fleeting  a few seconds at a time. He seemed quite happy, quite friendly, it seemed like the normal thing to do. He would have said some things  compliments maybe but I dont remember the specifics.

I knew it was not right. I did not feel comfortable but not enough to run away and make a complaint.

He would do it in such a regular way, it just happened all the time like this normal thing to do, you just became immune to it. They (alleged indecent assaults) just all blended into one another. It was just so regular. It was definitely happening all the time. He would do it every time you were close to him having little fear  he fondles you with his hand, a few seconds each time. Every time I would see the man he would fondle me.

At the time I just thought it was normal. After a number of months I developed a strong dislike about attending the scouts because I felt it was not right.

On the question of the defendants demeanour during the alleged indecent assaults, the complainant said, He was pleasant, never aggressive. It never seemed forced.

Siobhan Lankford senior counsel said that the complainant was suing the defendant for compensation, had sued another scout leader and had sued the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland. The complainant confirmed the taking of these civil actions.

Ms Lankford said, Can I suggest this is about money?

He replied, How else can the law compensate? They cannot undo what was done. This is about justice. I want people to see this is what the scouts was like.

The defence senior counsel then said, What you are telling the jury is not the truth He did not touch you in plain sight of other people.

He replied, In plain sight and in private.

Ms Lankford repeated, These events did not take place in the manner described or at all.

Ms Lankford said during cross-examination that in other documents related to other complaints made by the complainant against another man, the defendant in the present case was not mentioned. She said the defendant in the previous case was mentioned singularly.

The complainant said that what the defendant in the other case did to him was much more serious than the actions of the defendant in the present case. You are talking about an atomic bomb as against a grenade in terms of damage, he said.

There is a legal prohibition on identifying the parties in this case.
While river water levels were close to breaching point in the city centre this evening, high tide passed with no major incidences of flooding.

Earlier today, Cork City Council issued a warning of slight flooding in low lying areas of the city due to high tide and weather conditions.

High tide on Union Quay in Cork city centre, Tuesday 8 November 2022

The warning came as several roads in the city were closed on Monday evening due to flooding at high tide around 4:50pm.

Council crews were placed on standby on Lavitts Quay, South Terrace/Union Quay and on Wandesford Quay in case of any further traffic disruption on Tuesday, but by high tide at 5:25pm the Lee was still largely within its banks.

High tide on Union Quay in Cork city centre, Tuesday 8 November 2022

In the South Terrace/Union Quay area, Trinity Bridge also remained fully passable for pedestrians at high tide, unlike on Monday when access was restricted by flood waters.

The national forecast for this week predicts more outbreaks of rain, heavy at times and possibly leading to more localised flooding.
Cork City Fire Brigade came to the rescue of a dog caught in a housefire earlier today, who is now on the mend after being resuscitated with a special Pet Oxygen Mask.

City fire crews responded to a callout on Tuesday morning to a house fire in Dillons Cross, where Max the dog had to be rescued from inside.

Cork City Fire Brigade crews resuscitating Max the dog after a house fire at Dillons Cross

Firefighters extinguished the fire before entering the smoke-filled home to search for the unresponsive dog.

Max was soon rescued from the house and revived. He was given oxygen using a special Pet Oxygen Mask which fire crews keep on hand and are specially designed to fit an animals snout.

Pet Oxygen Mask used by Cork City Fire Brigade to resuscitate animals

The lucky dog was brought to a local vet for treatment, and the City Fire Brigade report that thankfully he is now on the mend.

The house fire came less than 24 hours after another blaze was extinguished at an apartment on Barrack Street, suspected to be caused by an electric bike battery left charging overnight.
Members of Cork Cost of Living Campaign staged a sit-in at Bord Gais offices in Cork this morning, to protest what they describe as the profiteering of energy companies in the midst of a spiralling cost of living crisis.

Seven members of the campaign occupied Bord Gais offices in Cork Airport Business Park on Wednesday morning, including Martina Stafford, who said that they wanted to highlight the massive price increases imposed by Bord Gais five times since 2021, while at the same time recording a 74% rise in operating profits in the first half of 2022.

Were essentially highlighting that this profiteering is going on at the same time as people struggling to provide themselves and their families with the basics, Ms Stafford said.

The Cork Cost of Living Campaign has organised a protest in the city centre this weekend. This follows on from a similar demonstration in September, which was attended by thousands.

This protest on Saturday at 2pm is about poor people, workers, having to suffer through this crisis and we want to highlight that, said Ms Stafford.

Members of Cork Cost of Living Campaign staged a sit in in Bord Gais offices in Cork this morning, to protest the profiteering of energy companies in the midst of a spiralling cost of living crisis.

There's a lot of frustration, and people may be demoralized, thinking what's the point? But at the same time, we have actually won when weve fought in the past, like the water charges, like Repeal, it is possible."

Were going to use this opportunity to highlight that were not going to put up with this and we are going to fight back, she added.

Ms Stafford said the campaign is encouraging people affected by the cost of living crisis to get involved not just in this one upcoming protest, but in a consistent fight back against rising costs.

Its not just about one protest here and there, its about in general ordinary people getting organised across communities, like workers fighting for better wages for example

"We need to build a fight back because its going to get worse and were looking at an international recession in the new year, she said.

Especially for younger people, they should demand a future. Theyre being forced to emigrate, 70% of young people are considering emigration, and thats not acceptable.

"Theres plenty of wealth in this country, and thats highlighted by the profiteering thats going on. We deserve a share and we need to fight for it, she added.

Saturdays protest, part of a nationwide day of action, will assemble on Grand Parade at 2pm.

Bord Gais has been contacted for comment.
CITIZENS Information Service are being inundated with queries about Fuel Allowance following the recent budget.

Getting help with the cost of heating your home during the winter months is a big issue for a lot of people at the moment says John Beausang and Yvonne Rayner, Cork Citys Citizens Information Managers.

You may get Fuel Allowance, if you are getting a long-term social welfare payment and your income is below a certain amount.

Fuel Allowance is currently being paid from the week starting Monday, 26 September 2022. It will be paid for 28 weeks and the current rate of Fuel Allowance is 33. If you qualify for the allowance, it is generally paid with your social welfare payment on the same day. Many recipients can choose to get the Fuel Allowance paid weekly or paid in 2 lump sums, whichever suits best confirmed John and Yvonne.

The first lump sum is paid at the start of the start of the Fuel Allowance season. The second lump sum is paid in January. Currently the lump sum option is not available if you are getting payments under the Rural Social Scheme, Tus and Community Employment or Supplementary Welfare Allowance.

Budget 2023:

Budget 2023 confirmed that people getting Fuel Allowance will get a once-off payment of 400. This will be paid the week starting November 14.

The income thresholds will also increase in January 2023 so it is quite possible that you may not qualify for the payment now, but will qualify in January. If you arent sure about whether or not you meet the conditions of the payment, either now or in January, please give your local Citizens Information Centre a call, advised John and Yvonne.

The income threshold for Fuel Allowance will increase by 80 from 120 to 200 in January 2023. For people aged over 70, it will increase to 500 for a single person and 1,000 for a couple in January 2023. Also of note is the fact that Disablement Benefit and half-rate Carers Allowance will be disregarded in the means test for Fuel Allowance in January 2023.

In terms of qualifying for the Fuel Allowance payment, you need to be in receipt of a qualifying payment and you must live alone or only with:

A dependent spouse, civil partner or cohabitant and/or dependent children

A person who is getting Carers Allowance or Carers Benefit and is caring for you or for your dependent spouse, partner or cohabitant on a full-time basis

A person getting short-term Jobseekers Allowance or basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance

Other people who are getting the qualifying payments and who would also be eligible for a Fuel Allowance in their own right

You or other members of your household must be unable to provide for your heating needs.

Fuel Allowance is a means-tested payment. It is worth noting that you are usually accepted as passing the means test for Fuel Allowance, if you are already getting a qualifying social assistance payment.

In a means test, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) examines all your sources of income. Your gross weekly income must be below a certain amount to pass the means test, said John and Yvonne.

Some income can be disregarded in the means test. Details on this are on our website www.citizensinformation.ie

But if you would like an experienced member of staff to go through this with you and calculate your means, then please give us a call. If you get through to an answering machine, please leave your first name and phone number and you will get a call back as soon as an information provider is available.

How to apply for Fuel Allowance

If you are applying for the first time you need to fill in an application form NFS 1 and they are available at our centres or online. We can post one out to you if you cant pop in to collect one.

Be sure to mention what payment you are getting as we will need to give you the correct address of where to send your application  the form needs to be returned to the section that pays your main social welfare payment.

A couple of points to note, if you apply for Fuel Allowance after the start of the Fuel Allowance season, it wont be backdated. You dont need to reapply for Fuel Allowance each year as long as your circumstances remain the same and you continue to get the same social welfare payment.

Fuel Allowance is included in your weekly payment, if you are getting a social welfare payment but if you are not getting a social welfare payment, your Fuel Allowance can be paid directly into your account in a financial institution or you can collect the allowance at your local post office.

Our telephone lines in Cork City are monitored from 10am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. In addition, the Cork City Centre CIC in Cornmarket Street is open to the public from 10am to 12.30pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the Blackpool CIC is open to the public each morning from 10am to 1pm, Monday to Friday. Full details for all Citizens Information Centres and their opening times are available on our website.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

The efficiency of low-cost air quality sensors is being tested throughout urban areas in India, including Mumbai. Ikshit Patel / Unsplash

By Deepa Padmanaban

In 2019, the Indian government established the National Clean Air Programme for nonattainment cities (cities that did not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards). The program aimed to develop clean air action plans to reduce particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) pollution by 20% to 30% by 2024. So far, this effort has been largely ineffective.

The programs inefficiency is partly due to a critical shortage of government air quality monitoring stations. Experts estimate that India needs 1,600 to 4,000 monitors. However, there are just 883 monitoring stations for assessing long-term air quality trends and 261 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations, also known as Reference Grade Monitors (RGMs), that report the daily air quality index across the country. The discrepancy has resulted in gaps in data and underinformed mitigation approaches.

In 2021, the Commission for Air Quality Management, an agency that manages air quality in Delhi and the surrounding areas, recommended the use of low-cost sensors (LCSs) to address this discrepancy, but approval is pending because of misgivings about the accuracy and reliability of these sensors.

To test the precision and accuracy of low-cost PM 2.5 sensors, scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur installed 40 sensors next to government RGMs in Mumbai. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board conducted this pilot project from November 2020 to July 2021.

S. N. Tripathi, a study coauthor and professor of civil engineering at IIT Kanpur, said, Our study shows that PM 2.5 LCSs have high precision and can achieve an accuracy of 80% to 90% compared to the RGMs. Low-cost sensors are more maneuverable than RGMs, he notes, which allows them to have a higher temporal resolution and provide more specific geographic data.

However, the LCSs need to be calibrated against RGMs before use, said Pratima Singh, an air pollution scientist at the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Bengaluru. There has to be a standard framework on using these devices.

CSTEP assessed the performance of various PM 2.5 LCSs by comparing them with the RGMs. They found that LCSs match the government sensors qualitatively, but not quantitatively.

Working With Local Clean Air Guides

Tripathi said that cities are more inclined toward using LCSs after his teams cautiously encouraging results. Studies are currently underway to use LCSs (in addition to RGMs) to assess air quality in Chennai, Jaipur, Guwahati, and other urban areas. We have interesting observations that we would not get from the limited number of government monitors, he added.

For example, Smart Cities Mission, a federal initiative to promote sustainable development in cities, is using LCSs to quantify pollution at local levels. In 2021, Smart Cities Mission partnered with John Snow India, a health care consultant, to identify air pollution hot spots in Indore, a city of about 2 million in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

As part of the initiative, 20 community social workers were engaged as clean air guides and were trained to use and interpret LCS data. Damodar Bachani, deputy project director at John Snow India, said, The idea of using social workers was to educate people, particularly the urban poor, who dont know much about air pollution, so that they can take action to reduce it.

Data from sensors installed at 19 sites in Indore showed that sources of pollution varied from place to place. The main source of pollution was vehicles in commercial areas, manufacturing waste in industrial areas, and the burning of biofuels in residential areas.

Low-cost air quality sensors were installed at 19 sites in the city of Indore and recorded varied sources of air pollution. Neeraj Mishra / John Snow India

This community-based approach shows that you just cant take common decisions for the entire city, as sources vary, and therefore strategies to reduce pollution will also vary, said Bachani.

For example, in places where the pollution levels were high because of traffic congestion, the city initiated a campaign called Red Light On, Engine Off. The campaign urged people to switch off their vehicles while waiting at traffic lights. The campaign witnessed a 20-point reduction in emissions.

Education efforts by clean air guides also influenced behavior in the community. People shifted to wet sweeping from dry sweeping, walking short distances rather than using transport, and planting more trees. Clean air guides also reported reductions in the burning of waste and the use of biofuels in slums and eateries.

Tripathi said the next steps are to test LCSs in rural areas to better understand rural air quality and the relationship between the sources of pollution in rural and urban areas. Most rural areas lack government-run monitoring stations.

Identifying Local Hot Spots

Pilot studies conducted with LCSs in rural parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain already have shown that PM 2.5 levels are quite comparable in different settlements across the region, irrespective of the settlement type  village, town, city.

Saumya Singh, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and lead author of the new study, said, Low-cost sensors are helping us understand the urban-rural gradient. These results suggest that we need additional observations in rural settings about source dynamics and concentrations of PM 2.5 .

Pratima Singh agreed that low-cost sensors have their advantages, and CSTEP has installed a network of LCSs in Bengaluru, Punjab, and Delhi to study different aspects of air pollution.

Low-cost sensors have a high temporal resolution that helps identify hot spots at local levels, which RGMs cannot because of their incapability to be moved around, she said.

Reposted with permission from Eos.
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.

In the late 1960s, when the nations of the world were concerned about the spread of a potentially civilization-ending technology, they came together and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Now, in the face of a civilization-threatening climate crisis, a vulnerable island nation wants to do the same thing for the fossil fuels responsible. The Pacific island of Tuvalu became the first country to call for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty at a UN climate conference on Tuesday.

We all know that the leading cause of climate crisis is fossil fuels, Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano said as he addressed world leaders at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Tuvalu has joined Vanuatu and other nations in calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to steer our development model to pursue renewables and a just transition away from fossil fuels.

#Tuvalu is pro-actively seeking solutions to phase-out #fossilfuels and offer hope to its population and the world. #Tuvalu just joined the call for a #FossilFuelTreaty at #COP27 



https://t.co/yTGXFtEEOy pic.twitter.com/IqC1LQVzNx  Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (@fossiltreaty) November 8, 2022

Vanuatu and Tuvalu are two Pacific Island nations extremely vulnerable to sea level rise. Tuvalu is an archipelago of nine islands, and two of them are already sinking due to rising sea levels and erosion, as The Guardian reported in 2019. Most of the islands dont extend higher than three meters (approximately 10 feet) above the waves and the rising tides have already salted the soil and the groundwater. Scientists predict it could be uninhabitable within 50 to 100 years.

The nation, however, is not willing to give up.

The warming seas are starting to swallow our lands  inch by inch. But the worlds addiction to oil, gas and coal cant sink our dreams under the waves, Natano said in a statement reported by CNBC.

Tuvalus solution is to call for a treaty that would work alongside the Paris agreement to phase out the global use of fossil fuels, according to the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative website. The treaty would

End the expansion of oil, gas and coal. Phase out current fossil fuel production at a pace consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Finance a just transition to renewable energy.

Vanuatu first backed the treaty at the UN General Assembly in September, CNBC reported. It also has high-profile backing from the European Parliament, the Vatican and the World Health Organization as well as prominent cities like Los Angeles, Paris, London and Lima, according to the treaty website. In addition, its three proposals have been touted by 101 Nobel laureates, more than 500 parliamentary leaders, 3,000 scientists and academics and 1,800 civil society organizations. Tuvalus call for the treaty at COP27 is an important step in making the treaty a reality.

At #COP27, @TuvaluPM Kausea Natano just took the main plenary stage and called on world leaders to join them and Vanuatu in developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.



This is another major step in the #FossilFuelTreaty campaign 



 https://t.co/gIe9YWtVw3 pic.twitter.com/9KGhnf94qm  Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (@fossiltreaty) November 8, 2022

Vanuatu and Tuvalu are the first countries to call for a new Treaty as a companion to the Paris Agreement to align oil, gas and coal production with a global carbon budget, Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative chair Tzeporah Berman said in a statement. We will look back on this in history as the moment of reckoning with overproduction that is locking in further emissions and holding us back from bending the curve.
GOVERMENT has said it would defend business tycoon Billy Rauntenbachs ethanol project in Chisumbanje where Chipinge villagers have been objecting to the operations following a land dispute.

Rautenbachs Green Fuel is in a partnership with Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) which contributed over 20 000 hectares of land at the centre of an ownership dispute with the villagers.

Green Fuel enjoys a monopoly in the provision of ethanol for petrol blending .

Addressing villagers in Chinyamukwakwa area in Chisumbanje on Saturday, Lands and Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka described Rautenbachs ethanol project as a national programme, adding that government had no tolerance for naysayers.

We are here in the Garahwa community for this partnership between Green Fuel and Arda on vast hectares of land which they were given to carry out a national programme of sugarcane farming to produce ethanol that is blended with petrol, Masuka said.

The value of Green Fuel to our country is that every year it produces 80 million litres of ethanol which is ferried to Harare that will be blended with imported petrol to make it E20 petrol. Green Fuel is a very important company in the country, that is why we will not tolerate disrupters. If we hear that Green Fuel has been disrupted from producing we start to question, wapindwa nemweya waLegion here? (Have you been possessed by the spirit of Legion?). Please reprimand each other against daydreaming and do not try to disturb national programmes.

Rautenbach is one of the few white commercial farmers who was offered land at the height of the countrys compulsory land acquisition programme in 2000 that saw the majority of white former commercial farmers losing their land.

The ethanol company has set up community irrigation schemes in the Chinyamukwakwa area, which are benefiting hundreds of communal farmers.

Hundreds of villagers have also been engaged for various menial jobs in the Green Fuel sugarcane fields and ethanol production factory.

Green Fuel spokesperson Merit Rumema said: Prior to the ethanol project, Chipinge district was considered one of the least developed areas in Zimbabwe owing to the harsh region five climatic conditions. Currently, over US$2 million is injected into Chipinge south every month in the form of salaries and procurement finance, which has resulted in significantly increased commercial traffic. Local businesses are thriving and social services such as healthcare facilities, roads, churches and schools continue to be refurbished and revived by Green Fuel.

Green Fuel plans to scale up production, targeting to produce 90 million litres of ethanol next year. Newsday
Disney+ has welcomed 12.1 million new subscribers for the company's fourth fiscal quarter ending on October 1st, and according to Yahoo Finance, that's 3 million more than analyst estimates. In all, Walt Disney added 14.6 million subscriptions for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, bringing its total number of streaming subscribers so far to around 236 million. While Disney+ alone with its 164 million subscribers have yet to reach Netflix numbers, all three of the company's services combined had amassed members that can rival the streaming giant's. Netflix revealed that it has around 223.09 million subscribers during its latest earnings report in October.

Despite the impressive growth in subscriber number, Disney's operating loss for streaming increased from $0.8 billion to $1.5 billion for the quarter. Disney+ experienced more losses within the period due to higher production and technology costs, as well as an increase in marketing expenses. There were also no Premier Access releases for the quarter, such as last year's Black Widow and Jungle Cruise. That said, the losses were offset in part by higher subscription costs, which will become even higher in December.

Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that the company expects its streaming losses to narrow going forward, thanks to its price increases and the launch of an ad-supported tier on Disney+. The company even believes that Disney+ is on track to achieving profitability in the fiscal year of 2024, assuming the lack of a "meaningful shift in the economic climate." If you'll recall, Disney is raising its streaming prices across the board this December, and the ad-supported tier for Disney+ is launching on December 8th for $11 a month.
So much for a smooth rollout of Twitter's "official" verification badges. Elon Musk claims he "just killed" the deployment hours after it began. The gray checkmarks have vanished from those accounts that only just got them, including Engadget's and The New York Times. With that said, this isn't necessarily a complete about-face. Twitter VP Esther Crawford clarified that you'll still see the marks, but that the social media giant is handing them out to "government and commercial entities" at first. The focus just isn't on individuals, the executive said.

In justifying the move, Musk reiterated his view that tying the original checkmark to a Twitter Blue subscription will democratize the service. The blue check is the "great leveler," he said. Crawford, meanwhile, stressed that there were no more "sacred cows" and that Musk was willing to try things that might fail. The company is willing to reverse course if feature changes don't pan out, to put it differently.

I just killed it  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022

The statements add to the confusion beyond the "official" label launch. While they indicate that Twitter will concentrate on a narrower group of accounts, it's now uncertain just when celebrities and other public figures might get (or rather, reclaim) verification. This also creates uncertainty around Twitter's feature updates  Musk may axe or limit an update even while it's reaching customers.

It will take some time before it's clear just who gets what checkmarks, and what vetting will be necessary to get the "official" tag. For now, the only safe assumption is that Twitter will tie its original tick to an $8 per month Blue subscription.
In 2020, France was the only EU nation not to meet its obligations for the development of renewable energy, as it still relies primarily on nuclear power. Now, the French Senate has approved a bill that should increase that markedly, requiring parking lots with a minimum of 80 spaces to be covered by solar panels, according to Public Senat.

Parking lots with between 80-400 spaces will have five years starting in July 2023 to be in compliance. Any larger lots will have less time, only three years from the same date. In all cases, at least half the area of the parking lot must be covered with solar panels. The government says the plan, aimed primarily at parking lots off freeways and major routes, could generate up to 11 gigawatts  the equivalent of 10 nuclear reactors.

There are some notable exceptions. When outdoor parking lots have"technical, safety, architectural, heritage and environmental constraints," they may be exempt. Lots shaded by trees over at least half their area may also escape the requirement, as will parking lots for trucks. Finally, when the installation of panels "cannot be met under economically acceptable conditions" (something that could cover a wide range of scenarios), they can also be excluded.

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On top of the solar parking lots, the government is looking at building large solar farms on vacant land next to highways, railroad tracks and agricultural areas. National railway operator SNCF also plans to install over a million square meters of solar panels by 2030, in an effort to reduce energy purchases by a quarter.

It's not clear how parking lot operators will pay for these installations, or how much financial aid the government will provide. Still, it looks like a good use of parking lots, as it will provide shade for cars and change what is usually an eyesore into a... more environmentally friendly eyesore.

Parking lots covered with solar panels are not yet that common, with one of the largest examples being the Belgium Zoo parking lot pictured above. Its 7,000 parking spaces are 70 percent covered by 62,000 overhead solar panels that generate 20 megawatts of peak power  much more than is required for the zoo. Disneyland Paris is also building a 17 megawatt solar parking lot that's now deployed and over halfway completed.

Early this year, President Emmanuel Macron set an objective to increase of solar energy production tenfold to over 100GW and build 50 offshore wind farms to add a further 40GW. France currently generates 25 percent of its electricity with renewables, less than its European neighbors. It has also seen delays on repairs to nuclear power plants, causing state electricity company EDF to reduce predicted output  exacerbating energy supply issues caused by the war in Ukraine.

Update Nov 9 5:55 PM ET: Reference added for Disneyland Paris solar parking lot. Thanks, Matt!
Less than two months after it admitted a million vehicles had faulty window sensors, Tesla is issuing another large-scale recall. This time, the company is flagging more than 40,000 cars after a software defect cut power steering when driving over potholes. A software fix is rolling out, and Tesla said over 97 percent of affected vehicles already have the new code.

This is, however, the 17th recall Tesla has issued in 2022, with issues affecting more than 3.4 million vehicles. It adds weight to Teslas critics, too, who say the companys poor build quality hurts its ability to recruit would-be EV buyers. But despite the number of post-purchase issues, the company hasnt seen any harm to its bottom line, which saw profits double in the last year.

 Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

FTX was once valued at $32 billion.

One of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges has been bailed out by one of its major rivals. FTX, fearing a liquidity crunch and struggling to satisfy customer withdrawals, has thrown itself upon the mercy of major rival Binance . FTXs rapid collapse raises questions about how well these exchanges are managing clients money and cannot quell belief the crypto bubble is about to burst, once and for all.

Continue Reading.

Its like being in your very own game show.

Netflix

Netflixs Triviaverse is the streaming giants latest foray into the interactive gaming space, and its pretty good. Its a rapid-fire trivia quiz, throwing increasingly difficult questions at you while the clock runs down, adding an extra frisson of tension. Theres a two-player mode, too, and its the sort of title you could imagine throwing on when the energy in a party sags. It made me wonder how much fun wed all have if Netflix bought a company like Jackbox, offering those titles through its platform.

Continue Reading.

Yet more regulators want to scrutinize the deal.

The European Union has followed the UKs lead to open its own investigation into Microsofts planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard . The bloc is concerned the Xbox owners control of such a major games publisher poses a risk to competition the world over. It now has 90 days to complete a thorough investigation of the deal, postponing any completion to mid-March next year.

Continue Reading.

This is for serious outdoorsy types.

Garmin

Nice as the Apple Watch Ultra is, Garmin thinks its new Instinct Crossover can do a better job while standing on its metaphorical head. The new watch is a hybrid with a digital display embedded in the whole face and is sturdy enough to cope with the big outdoors. As for battery life, the standard edition will last a month on a single charge, and 110 hours with GPS activated. Opt for the Solar Edition, with PV panels around the bezel, and itll run for up to 70 days if theres enough light.


November 8, 2022

By Ben Weingarten , RealClearInvestigationsNovember 8, 2022 Election Day marks not just the end of numerous campaigns but the culmination of  or, undoubtedly in important cases, the continuation of  knock-down, drag-out battles waged in state houses and courthouses over which votes should count, who should do the counting, and whether some candidates were even eligible to receive votes in the first place.

Lawmakers pushed over 1,000 election-related bills this year, with largely Democrat-led states passing laws easing voting rules and regulations and largely Republican-led states passing laws strengthening them.

Partisans fought and are poised to continue fighting over mail-in voting, treatment of mismarked absentee ballots, and partisan poll watchers. The rise of such lawfare  the well-financed and elaborate legal and legislative strategies advanced by both the left and the right to change electoral rules and practices to tilt the playing field to their advantage, is a hidden but defining force shaping American democracy.

Mainstream media outlets have emphasized the GOPs contribution to that deluge as Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has pledged to make this the partys most litigious cycle ever. The RNC and like-minded entities have filed more than 70 lawsuits, overwhelmingly driving the more than 100 complaints brought during the 2022 cycle.

They have prevailed or achieved partial victories in cases in Arizona and Nevada that sought party parity among poll workers; in Michigan, overturning guidance that would have illegally restricted poll challengers, and cleaning voter rolls; and in Delaware, striking down an expansive vote-by-mail and same-day voter registration law.

But Republicans say their legal onslaught is a response not only to what they believed were shortcomings in the legal maneuverings that followed the 2020 presidential election (courts rejected dozens of Trump-related challenges), but also to the Democrats own robust litigation strategy during that race.

Democratic Party organizations, campaigns, and interest groups launched 120 election-related lawsuits during the 2020 election, compared to just 40 brought by Republicans  many of which came in response to Democrats legal maneuverings.

To some conservatives, this willingness to use the courts to combat their adversaries was long overdue. Finally, Republican attorney Cleta Mitchell told RealClearInvestigations, the RNC and others are being proactive, before the election, suing to enforce state election laws.

Their opponents, including top Democrat lawyer Marc Elias, have noted this trend of increased Republican lawfare with alarm. In an August post on Democracy Docket, an Elias-founded progressive media platform, the lawyer declared that a constellation of well-funded, right-wing groups, ranging from mere vote suppressors to full-on election deniers, was working to make voting more difficult and free and fair elections less likely.

He is no disinterested observer. Elias heads the eponymous self-described largest law firm focused on representing the Democratic Party and others committed to securing a progressive future. He led the partys 2020 legal strategy, spearheading many of its suits, and the successful response to Trumps post-election challenges.

This cycle, he and his allies have challenged virtually every major piece of election integrity-focused legislation in Republican-led states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas.

Jason Snead, Executive Director of the Honest Elections Project, said Democrats still have a distinct advantage in lawfare because of a very comprehensive network of folks[who] work on election-related litigation, that includes the ACLU, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Fair Fight. He said this allows them to file numerous suits with precision and alacrity, and with such ease that it is like ordering a pizza.

Consider Arabella Advisors, the philanthropic consultancy described as the mothership of a Democrat dark money push that has eclipsed that of the right. As the Capital Research Centers Hayden Ludwig wrote in response to a recent Wall Street Journal letter from Arabellas president downplaying the groups clout, its network of nonprofits received over $1.7 billion in 2020 alone  more than the highly scrutinized one-time $1.65 billion donation to conservative legal and political activist Leonard Leos Marble Freedom Trust nonprofit. Arabellas network reportedly funds Eliass efforts.

As for Elias claim that Republicans are election deniers who spread disinformation to help overturn election results, hes no stranger to politics dark arts himself. Elias famously served as Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign lawyer, where he helped facilitate the creation of the dubious Steele dossier, core to the Russiagate scandal, and the Democrats sustained campaign to characterize Donald Trumps election as illegitimate.

When asked how he would respond to those who might see hypocrisy in his critique of Republicans, Elias declined comment.

Disbarring Legal Foes

To the extent Democrats hold a lawfare advantage, they have also sought to widen it by taking their counterparts off the field. The 65 Project  so numbered for the 65 unsuccessful Trump lawsuits filed after the 2020 presidential election  aims to do just that.

As Axios reported in March at launch, the 65 Project would spend millionsto expose and try to disbar more than 100 lawyers who worked on Donald Trumps post-election lawsuit.

The aim here, Axios noted, is nothing less than deterring conservative legal talent from representing Republicans in any future GOP efforts to challenge election procedures.

By the groups account, this strategy is proving fruitful. In October it tweeted that it had filed 66 complaints against Trumps Big Lie Lawyers  our efforts have been validated by bar associations and Trumps own struggle to find lawyers willing to take up his baseless causes.

Disqualifying Political Foes

Democrats have embraced another lawfare tactic aimed at picking off not only lawyers, but candidates as well. In January, Elias raised the idea of disqualifying Republican representatives from the November midterms pursuant to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Under the post-Civil War provision, state legislators and members of Congress who engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States] could be prohibited from serving in those positions going forward. By classifying the Jan. 6 Capitol breach as an insurrection, Elias theorized, associated lawmakers could be booted from ballots.

Left-leaning organizations proceeded to file legal challenges seeking to disqualify nearly a dozen Republican federal and state representatives. Those challenges failed. One local judge in New Mexico, however, did remove a county commissioner from office  on insurrection grounds, a first for his role in the Capitol breach, where he was convicted of trespassing.

Into Guts of the Nations

Election Machinery

Another emerging battleground between the parties targets election administration and oversight.

A recent New York magazine profile of Cleta Mitchell focused on her efforts to train more than 20,000 people to monitor elections  part of a broader conservative effort to engage in these areas after decades of being legally prohibited from doing so. Mitchell, the magazine reported, is harnessing the energy of the angry Trumpian faithful to embed themselves in the guts of the nations election machinery, believing the apparatus of poll workers and election observers  is biased against conservatives.

To Mitchell, who chairs the Conservative Partnership Institutes Election Integrity Network, and like-minded election experts and researchers, Democrats are already deeply embedded in those guts.

They point to the Zuckerbucks operation, which funneled some $400 million in private funding from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan through two nonprofits into election offices across the country during the 2020 election  apparently with partisan strings attached. Zuckerbucks flowed into 2,500 departments across 47 states and Washington, D.C., with requirements that officials work with partner organizations  presenting themselves as nonpartisan but in fact generally left-leaning  to massively expand mail-in voting, assist in ballot curing and voter outreach, and, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to directly manage much of the election process.

As Mark Hemingway reported for RCI, there is evidence the funds were distributed on a partisan basis. Of the 50 largest grants in terms of per capita spending, the average partisan lean in favor of Democrat Joe Biden over Republican Donald Trump was 33 points  meaning the aid could be expected to stimulate more Democratic votes, Hemingway reported. Whether they could have swung states from Trump to Biden in 2020 remains an open debate.

For their part, 24 states and 12 counties barred private funding of election offices.

Yet a similar apparatus remains. One of the two nonprofits used to distribute Zuckerbucks, the Center for Tech and Civic Life, has banded together with other organizations connected to major Democrat donors, including those associated with Arabella Advisors, to create the Alliance for Election Excellence.

Backed with $80 million, it claims to be a nonpartisan collaborative  bringing together election officials, designers, technologists, and other experts to help [local] election departments improve [their] operations 

Although that money is not coming from the Meta CEO, Jason Snead says the Alliance is tantamount to Zuckerbucks 2.0. Now, aligned nonprofits are reaching into offices and giving them [the offices] inputs into how they ought to be running without lavishing funds on them.

Those inputs might include providing guidance on administering elections, building election-related websites, pressing for mail-in voting, or even whipping support within election offices for Democrat-favored election laws.

Snead said the Alliance has been working to organize local election officials to lobby Congress for billions in additional election funding. Hayden Ludwig says the Alliance aims to centralize control over elections in Washington, D.C., using redesigned ballots, a flood of taxpayer funds, and a permanent expansion of the vote-by-mail bureaucracy.

The Alliance, one of a coterie of groups in the election training and assistance space funded by, and funding, progressive-tied groups, did not respond to a request for comment.

The left has spent the last decade investing billions  of dollars in building an election infrastructure, Mitchell said. She cited the work of progressive billionaire and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar via his Democracy Fund as paradigmatic of the way in which aligned mega-donors fund the creation of numerous entities that do business with and provide expertise and nonpartisan assistance to election offices and administrators.

Their success can be seen in Times expose on the conspiracy to save the 2020 election.

The conspirators  many deeply tied into the Democrat Party  in working to fortify the election, as journalist Molly Ball put it, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time.

RealClearInvestigations sought comment from many of the referenced groups in the Time piece about whether they had activated a similar apparatus in 2022. Its queries went unanswered. At least one group mentioned in that effort, Power the Polls, was reportedly looking to re-engage 700,000 plus workers to again work the midterms.

Meanwhile, the leader of the second nonprofit that distributed Zuckerbucks in 2020  the Center for Election Innovation & Research  is now steeling for battle against those skeptical of the idea that election administration as it has been executed is impartial. David Becker announced another entity of his will be running public relations pro bono for election officials across the country. The goal? To create an effective truthful narrative to combat the disinformation attacks to which election officials claim to have been subjected, according to a press release.

'Get Out the Vote,'

Tax-Funded and Partisan?



Republicans also face a new initiative that some consider to be a de facto Democrat-led get-out-the-vote effort  backed with the full force of the Biden-led federal bureaucracy. In March 2021, the president issued an executive order Promoting Access to Voting. The order called for every executive agency to devise a plan to increase voter registration and participation.

The administration framed the directive as a remedy to the presumed problem that many Americans, especially people of color, confront significant obstacles to exercising  [the] fundamental right to vote.

Critics cried foul and called it an unconstitutional power grab  an attempt to usurp state and local power over elections and federalize them. Whats more, as the leaders of the watchdog Foundation for Government Accountability argued, such a power grab would necessarily have a political taint, writing:

Promoting voter registration and participationi.e., mobilizing votersis an inherently political act for a partisan president. The resulting efforts can be directed at groups expected to vote for the presidents party and may take the form of pressure to support the party or its policies.

Language within the order about non-governmental groups it might empower, and later revelations about its related roots, fueled these concerns. The order called on agency heads to consider soliciting and facilitating approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations  to provide voter registration services on agency premises.

The administration was silent on which organizations constituted approved ones, leading House Republicans to send a letter to then-Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young demanding details on the approval process.

Subsequent reporting indicated the executive order appeared to be cribbed from a white paper produced by progressive dark-money group Demos. Two ex-Demos executives  one of whom helped write the paper  were well-placed in the administration to push for the order. Demos applauded the order upon its passage, and a year later revealed it had worked extensively with agencies to develop their plans.

The Biden administration has hardly allayed concerns over the orders seeming political taint by obfuscating over it. Both Republican members of Congress and The Foundation for Government Accountability have found themselves stonewalled in seeking details about the order. The White House did not respond to RCIs related inquiries.

But its impact can be seen in measures agencies from the Departments of Labor, to Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture have undertaken pursuant to it, seeking to drive voter registration via job training centers, public housing authorities, and child nutrition programs.

Recent evidence emerged that the Biden administration was using federally funded job training and food stamp programs to register new voters in Democrat-skewing demographic groups such as young adults and Native Americans, according to Just the News.

Stewart Whitson, legal director for the Foundation for Government Accountability, sees a conflict at the core of these efforts: The executive order targets people receiving government benefits who might think their benefits depend on one party in power.

But J. Christian Adams, the head of the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation, which has successfully litigated on several election-related matters in 2022, issued a warning to his like-minded allies. To Adams, the order is not much different than what the Bush or Obama administration did. We are on the wrong side of things when we are against voter registration, he told RCI.

Future Elections at Stake

The 2022 midterm elections may reveal not only the extent to which Democrat and Republican efforts to change the rules and practices of the election game impacted their outcomes, but the kind of playing field voters prefer.

Proxies may be found not only in legislative races, but hotly contested and unusually well-funded elections for secretaries of state; contests for lower offices overseeing and administering elections; and election law-related ballot initiatives like Michigans Proposal 2.

The battle will likely escalate further in the weeks ahead. On December 7, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Moore v. Harper. It will consider whether a states judicial branch can nullify election rules and replace them with their own under its constitutional power to ensure fair or free elections. The petitioners believe the court may not usurp such powers. Elias Democracy Docket casts this so-called independent legislature theory as fringe and dangerous.

Others on the left, including his former boss, are even more hyperbolic in speculating about the ramifications of an adverse ruling.

The right-wing controlled Supreme Court may be poised to rule on giving state legislatures  the power to overturn presidential elections, Hillary Clinton recently warned in a video produced for the progressive group Indivisible.

Seeming to pre-question the legitimacy of the 2024 contest, she declared that should the petitioners prevail in Moore v. Harper, right-wing extremists would be positioned to literally steal the next presidential election.
Four candidates running in the Montana's newly drawn Second Congressional District.

With nearly one quarter of ballots counted in the state, it is still too early to call a winner in Montanas Eastern Congressional District, although incumbent Rep. Matt Rosendale is ahead so far, according to the Montana Secretary of States Office.

With 57% of the vote, Rosendale is leading against Democrat Penny Ronning, Independent Gary Buchanan and Libertarian Sam Rankin on Election Day. The race between Republican Ryan Zinke and Democrat Monica Tranel, in Montanas newly created Western district, is also still too early to call.

Rosendale was predicted to win the eastern district, with forecaster FiveThirtyEight listing him as very likely to win in 99 of 100 scenarios as of Tuesday morning.

The partisan dynamics in the newly drawn eastern district swing Republican, and Democrats have struggled statewide for some time, Montana political analysts told the Daily Montanan earlier in the campaign season. Montana hasnt sent a Democrat to the House of Representatives since 1994.

Rosendale participated in two televised debates during the campaign, a point that Buchanan brought up as a strike against him during the Western Native Voice debate in Billings.

Penny and I have accepted every debate that weve been asked to do, he said. Our opponents dont show up.

Rosendale out-fundraised his competitors considerably, raking in $2.1 million as of Sept. 30. Ronning brought in just over $157,000 and Buchanan more than $563,000, including a $25,000 loan from himself.

During the campaign, Buchanan pointed to his business acumen, experience as the founder of an investment advisory firm and record serving on boards in the state for decades.

Ronning touted experience serving as a city councilwoman in Billings and as a co-founder of the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force.

Montanas at-large congressional district was split in two earlier this year after the states population grew as reported in the 2020 U.S. Census.

The post Rosendale ahead, though too early to call Eastern Congressional District race in Montana appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Arla has urged the government to tap into the energy potential of manure and slurry following the co-operative's 'poo power' trials.

The dairy group has issued a call to action for the government to tap into the 'major unused' source of energy from farms and the wider food supply chain.

According to Arla, with support, nearly 91m tonnes of manure and slurry and 10m tonnes of food waste could be turned into 8bn cubic metres of biomethane.

This is enough to heat 6.4 million homes or run around 3.8 million of the UKs buses and heavy goods vehicles, the co-op explained.

However, 'much more investment' would be needed in the anaerobic digestion (AD) system to produce this sustainable gas at scale.

At the moment, Britain is currently only making the most out of a quarter of the 170 million tonnes of organic waste produced in this country each year.

On the back of its recent poo power trials in 2020, which saw Arla turn manure from 500 cows into 27,000 litres of biofuel for two trucks, Arla has now invested in permanent moves to tap into this energy source.

The co-operative has started to use slurry along with food that would otherwise go to waste from its distribution site in Hatfield to power seven trucks.

And the digestate by-product of the AD process is a natural fertiliser that will be used on farms.

James Pirie, vice president of UK logistics for Arla said there was a major opportunity presented by waste from farming and the wider food industry.

"Weve shown that poo power is a viable and reliable source of power, so were calling for the government to support British farmers with their plans for investment in infrastructure.

With the prospect of an unsettled imported energy supply and costs rising significantly for farmers, businesses and families, it would be an incredible waste for the government not to support this opportunity."

To enable farmers to access AD plants and tap into the potential of slurry and other organic waste, Arla has urged government to work with industry to develop a new strategy.

This should support slurry and other organic waste use on a centralised on-farm level, while promoting it as a renewable energy source.

Arla has also asked the government to ensure that the new ELMS regime provides financial support for the use of digestate as a biofertilizer.

The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation must also be extended, which supports the use of biogases in transport, beyond 2032.
Welsh poultry farmers have urged the devolved government to roll out a mandatory housing order after further cases of the disease were confirmed.

Cases in Buckley, Flintshire and Cheshire in recent days have heightened farmers concerns as the industry tries to defend itself against the most severe outbreak the UK has seen.

On Tuesday (8 November), the Minister for Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths issued a statement on the severity and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Wales.

In the statement, she confirmed that Wales would not yet be introducing a mandatory housing order like the one now in place in England. However, she stated the situation remains under daily review.

Earlier this week, NFU Cymru members held a meeting with the interim Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales to discuss their growing concerns over the outbreak.

Topics discussed included an update on the spread of bird flu, the epidemiology of the disease, biosecurity and the current measures that poultry keepers need to adhere to under the all-Wales Avian Influenza Protection Zone.

During the meeting, the Welsh government reminded all keepers that they must keep their birds safe by rigorously applying the biosecurity measures in the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone.

NFU Cymru poultry chairman, Richard Williams said that everyone connected with the Welsh poultry industry was 'extremely concerned' at the situation.

He said there was a general feeling among those in attendance that the Welsh government should copy England and introduce housing measures as "an additional protective shield for birds in Wales".

"The priority for everyone at this time is protecting our flocks from this disease," Mr Williams said after the meeting.

"While NFU Cymru recognises that the disease picture in Wales is different to that currently seen in England, keepers felt that it was vital the industry in Wales kept ahead of the disease.

NFU Cymru urges Welsh government to keep a very close eye on the continued spread of AI and to take fast action if and when it is required to prevent further cases."

He added: I make no apologies for repeating the important message that all poultry members must continue to practise enhanced biosecurity at all times and to be vigilant for any signs of disease in their flock.

"I would also ask members of the public who keep smaller flocks of birds such as chickens, geese and ducks to also follow the Welsh governments biosecurity advice.

"All bird keepers  whether they be larger commercial businesses or those with small backyard flocks - have an important part to play in reducing the risk of AI.
A Herefordshire landowner must restore a section of the River Teme which he cleared without permission as an investigation into his actions gets underway.

Natural England has confirmed that 'unauthorised works' had taken place on the River Teme, located in north Herefordshire.

It comes after Fish Legal, an environmental group, said anglers had "witnessed and reported trees and bankside vegetation being removed by heavy machinery over hundreds of metres of the River Teme".

The river is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and is a tributary of the Severn, which is designated a Special Area of Conservation.

Fish Legal said: The mature trees that have been removed will take decades to recover and no longer provide the bank stability, habitat and shading for all manner of aquatic species.

"Like most UK rivers, the Teme is in a precarious state. Any work on the bank needs to be done sensitively and be fully consented by Natural England and the Environment Agency.

A spokesperson for the Natural England confirmed that the government agency was looking into the incident.

"We are aware of the unauthorised works on the River Teme and is working with the landowner to agree and implement a full restoration plan to the area that has been damaged.

The landowner has acknowledged the work was unconsented and says he will do what restoration is required, which is already under way.

Fish Aid responded: It is encouraging that Natural England appear to be taking this latest example of destruction of the habitat of another highly valued river seriously."

The incident has close similarities to the widely publicised case which took place earlier this year on the neighbouring River Lugg.

John Price, a mixed farmer, pleaded guilty in court after being jointly prosecuted by Natural England and the Environment Agency for 'obliterating' around a mile of the river in 2020 and 2021.
Leaders from 26 countries and the European Union (EU) recently came together to launch the Forests and Climate Leaders Partnership (FCLP) at the inaugural Forest and Climate Leaders Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The partnership will be co-chaired by the United States and Ghana, who will preside over its first ministerial meeting on November 12.

It will help deliver the commitment made at COP26 by over 140 world leaders to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation. It will unite action by government, business and community leaders, said a UK government press release.

Leaders from 26 countries and the EU recently came together to launch the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership at the inaugural Forest and Climate Leaders' Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh. The partnership will be co-chaired by the United States and Ghana, who will preside over its first ministerial meeting on November 12.

These actions are fundamental to adapting to climate change and have the potential to deliver up to 30 per cent of the emissions reductions needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, while securing global biodiversity, economic prosperity and food supplies.

FCLPs action areas are international collaboration on the sustainable land use economy; mobilising public and donor finance to support implementation; shifting the private finance system; supporting indigenous peoples and local communities initiatives; strengthening and scaling carbon markets for forests; and partnerships and incentives for preserving high-integrity forests.

Member countries represent the northern forests of Canada, the tropical and sub-tropical rainforests of the Amazon, Australasia, Africa and Asia, and the financial and economic centres of the world.

Members will work closely with the private sector, civil society, international and multilateral organisations and community leaders to implement and rapidly scale up solutions on deforestation, forest degradation, reforestation and sustainable forest and land use management, that reflect each members national context and priorities as well as the urgency of the global climate and biodiversity crises.

FCLP member nations are Australia, Canada, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the European Union, Finland, Fiji, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Singapore, Sweden, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, the United State and Vietnam.

For too long the worlds forests have been undervalued and underestimated. They are one of the great natural wonders of our world, and with the loss of our forests accounting for more than 10 per cent of global emissions, protecting them is one of the best ways of getting us back on track to 1.5 degrees, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

Lets build on what we have achieved and together secure this incredible legacy for our children and the many generations to come, he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
The World Bank will host a new facility to help nations experiencing heavy economic loss due to disasters induced by climate change, according to its president David Malpass, who recently announced the new instrument, the Global Shield Financing Facility, at a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Germany will offer 170 million for the Global Shield programme, Scholz, who has spearheaded the effort among G7 members to start an initiative to offer vulnerable countries access to disaster risk finance and insurance, announced at the conference.

The World Bank will host a new facility to help nations experiencing heavy economic loss due to disasters induced by climate change, according to its president David Malpass, who recently announced the new instrument, the Global Shield Financing Facility, at a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.

We will also support those countries hit hardest by climate change in a targeted way in dealing with loss and damage, Scholz was quoted as saying at the COP27 summit by global newswires.

Belgium committed 2.5 million to the facility for Mozambique from 2023 to 2028. The Belgian funding would focus on preventing and limiting loss and damage, for example by mapping areas vulnerable to storm surges, and rolling out early warning systems.

Cyclone Idai caused about $1.4 billion in total damage and $1.39 billion in losses in Mozambique in 2019, according to an assessment by the International Labour Organisation.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
It was not long ago that the current generation of superstars was just making their way into the world of cinema. 15 years ago, three of the biggest names of Bollywood- Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor made their debut in Bollywood, unaware of what was in store for them. While Deepika Padukone made her debut with Farah Khan's iconic Om Shanti Om, Ranbir and Sonam made theirs with Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial Saawariya, and since then all three of them have only grown from strength to strength. Here's taking a look at each of their individual journey's and career milestones that shaped them into the phenomenal actors and creators that they are today.

Deepika Padukone





Fresh on the scene

Deepika Padukone had a dream debut in the industry. Being casted for a double role, alongside the biggest superstar of the time, Shah Rukh Khan was everything a 21-year old model could ask for. With her role as Shantipriya, she not only won the Filmfare for the Best Debut, but also solidified her place in the industry.

Filmography

There was always the concern of being written off as just a pretty face, but Deepika was determined to prove herself. From 2009 onwards, she took up quality movies and shared screen space with names such as Akshay Kumar, Farhan Akhtar, Saif Ali Khan and her iconic better-half Ranbir Kapoor. She took failures in her stride, and seemed to stay above hits and flops.





Whether it was playing a supporting character in 83 or carrying an entire film on her shoulders in Chappak, she understood a film for what it should be, a display of acting prowess and command over her art. She bagged every award there was, with her nuanced role in Piku, where she performed alongside Irrfan Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, legends in the industry. Cocktail was proof of her acting prowess, and the period post that marked her dream run in the industry. She delivered hit after hit, and Race 2, Chennai Express, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ramleela all broke the 100-crore mark.Whether it was playing a supporting character in 83 or carrying an entire film on her shoulders in Chappak, she understood a film for what it should be, a display of acting prowess and command over her art. She bagged every award there was, with her nuanced role in Piku, where she performed alongside Irrfan Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, legends in the industry.

Personal Journey Talking about her personal journey, in 2015, she spoke about her mental health battles and her struggle with depression. She founded the Live Love Laugh Foundation, to spread awareness and eliminate the stigma surrounding the same. Her honesty and vulnerability only strengthened her brand and her bond with her supporters.

In 2018, she married the love of her life Ranveer Singh, and things seemed to be at an all time high for the actress.

Finishing Up

Through her choices over the years, even the ones that didn't pan out financially, she has managed to be part of great stories. She's built her position in the industry, as an actress who can be banked on when it comes to big releases. From being the twinkle-eyed girl just venturing into the industry, to becoming the strong, powerful actress revolutionising female roles in cinema, 15 years have been a transformational journey for the actress.

Ranbir Kapoor



New Boy on the block In a career spanning 15 years, Ranbir Kapoor has carved his niche as a trusted actor, who does justice to whichever role he takes up but it was not long ago that he was the innocent-looking, chocolate boy making his debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya.

Filmography

Born in an illustrious family, bagging a debut movie with one of the most revered directors came as no surprise, but Ranbir Kapoor had a lot riding on his shoulders. A legacy of iconic performances, and great films. So, when Saawariya didn't do well, it came as a shock.

However, the actor recovered in no time and his movies then on including Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, and Anjaana Anjani did extremely well.

Wake up Sid was his first project with Ayan Mukherjee, and the beginning of a life-long friendship and collaboration. It also brought out his image as the funny, charming boy next door that he channelled again in Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, 2013. Ranbir somehow managed to mould these emotionally-distant, problematic characters into loveable, endearing people who the audience loved.

Ranbir never stopped exploring. He refused to confine to stereotypical roles, and explored different characters such as a lovely young man in Barfi to a tainted lover in Rockstar! and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.



He even played Sanjay Dutt, in his biographical film Sanju and nailed every detail down perfectly. From a young boy with not a care in the world, turning into a man with countless hues: Ranbir has proved himself and carved his niche in the industry. His latest hit Brahmastra was not only a milestone movie for him career-wise, but also for his personal life as he met his now-wife Alia Bhatt during it's shooting!

Personal Journey

For someone who isn't on social media, Ranbir Kapoor definitely managed to be the talk of the town for a number of reasons. Whether it was his heritage and legacy, or his relationships inside and outside of the industry- his personal life was the talk of the town time and again.

However, recently his personal life has been more relevant than ever and for all the right reasons. In April 2022, he married his longtime girlfriend and Brahmastra co-star Alia Bhatt, in an intimate wedding and the two have recently welcomed a baby girl as well. Staring in the biggest budget project of Bollywood, marrying the love of your life and being blessed with an angel- if that isn't what personal success looks like, what is!

Finishing Up

From staying away from social media in a generation that's predominantly digital to taking up roles that defy the stereotypes, Ranbir Kapoor has always been one to go against the current. Even after 15 years as an actor, he manages to surprise his audience with every project he takes up and brings something new to the table each time.



Sonam Kapoor





Arriving in Style

Sonam Kapoor was a star-child out and out. From her aura to the way she held herself, she had the airs of a celebrity actress even before she made her debut, a confidence that is hard to come by.





Born to talented actor Anil Kapoor, she was surrounded by film and fashion from her early years. She assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali in the 2005 film, Black and made her debut 2 years later alongside Ranbir Kapoor in Saawariya. As mentioned before, Saawariya failed to achieve success but the actress recovered in no time. Over the years, she evolved as an actress, and established herself as a fashion icon.

Filmography

The actresses' first commercial success was I hate Luv Storys, in 2010 which was a sweet rom-com with some great moments and beautiful soundtracks.







To prove that there was more to her than just sitting around and looking pretty, she took up Raanjhanaa alongside Dhanush for which she received several Best actress nominations, including a Filmfare one.





She also appeared in Khoobsurat, Dolly Ki Doli, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and most importantly Neerja, in which she played the titular role and received critical acclaim. Though she has been called out time and again, with people criticising her calibre as an actress, she has stood her ground and always looked at mistakes as scope for improvement.

Personal Journey

The factor closest to Sonam's journey has always been fashion. From defying stereotypes and trends, to representing Indian brands globally her sense of style has always been revolutionary and yet deeply personal. From feminine silhouettes to sartorial ensembles, the actress brought new ideas to the Indian fashion scene, and forced designers to think beyond the ordinary.

In 2018, she married Anand Ahuja in a star studded reception full of music and fashion, following which in March 2021 she made her pregnancy announcement. In August this year, the two welcomed a sweet baby boy into their family and Sonam has been embracing motherhood ever since.

Finishing up

Not only is Sonam Kapoor one of the top names in the industry but also a distinguished fashion Icon. She's made her place in the industry, and there's plenty to learn from her. In Sonam Kapoor's words, when you're living her life it's truly "everyday phenomenal."

Over the years, all three actors have evolved as artists, creators and actors. They've followed their own trajectories and delivered countless memorable performances that we'll cherish for a long time coming.
TSX:MPVD and OTC: MPVDF

TORONTO and NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. ("Mountain Province", the "Company") (TSX: MPVD) (OTC: MPVDF) is pleased to release its financial and operating results for the third quarter ("Q3 2022") and nine months ended September 30, 2022. All figures are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

Third Quarter 2022 Key Highlights

Revenue of $110.1M representing the highest quarterly revenue in the Company's history and a 12% increase relative to that achieved in Q2 2022





representing the highest quarterly revenue in the Company's history and a 12% increase relative to that achieved in Q2 2022 Robust Quarterly Adjusted EBITDA of $54.1M 1





Strong average price per carat sold of US$104 during the quarter, which when adjusted for mix of goods sold, on a like-for-like basis represented a 2% increase in average price per carat relative to Q2 2022





during the quarter, which when adjusted for mix of goods sold, on a like-for-like basis represented a 2% increase in average price per carat relative to Q2 2022 During the quarter, repurchase for cancellation of approximately US$16.9 million aggregate principal amount of 8.000% Senior Secured Second Lien Notes, bringing the total 2022 repurchase amount to US$26.9M





aggregate principal amount of 8.000% Senior Secured Second Lien Notes, bringing the total 2022 repurchase amount to Subsequent to quarter-end, the Company executed a non-binding term sheet with certain holders of its 8.000% Senior Secured Second Lien Notes ("Existing Notes") due December 15th, 2022 for a partial refinancing ("Proposed Transaction") of the Existing Notes. The Proposed Transaction is currently expected to include the exchange of approximately US$190.0 million aggregate principal amount of Existing Notes for approximately US$195.9 million aggregate principal amount of new Loan Notes. The New Loan Notes are expected to bear interest at a rate of 9.0% per annum and have a three-year term. The Company expects to retire the remaining balance of the Existing Notes with cash on hand, drawing down the Dunebridge facility and the consummation of the Proposed Transaction. The Proposed Transaction is pending shareholder and regulatory review.

Mark Wall, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"The third quarter was incredibly positive for the company on many levels. Firstly, the non-binding term sheet for debt refinancing of US$190 million with a three-year term with a 9% coupon. Production in the third quarter saw improvement from both Q1 & Q2 which was the result of detailed operational and maintenance focus.

The discovery of the Hearne Northwest Extension reported during Q2 has been the source of ongoing work and those results provide the opportunity to consider the feasibility of underground extraction of diamonds at Gahcho Kue in the future to extend the mine life, as we have seen in other diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. We continue to work on these opportunities.

With all of this happening to achieve the highest revenue quarter in the Company's history in Q3 is a very encouraging result."

Operational Highlights for Third Quarter 2022 ("Q3 2022")

1,452,000 carats recovered at an average grade of 1.78 carats per tonne, a 15% increase relative to Q2 2022 and a 7% decrease compared to the 1,562,000 carats recovered at 1.88 carats per tonne in Q3 2021 (Q2 2022: 1,261,000 carats recovered).





817,000 ore tonnes treated, a 9% increase relative to Q2 2022, and an 2% decrease relative to Q3 2021 (Q2 2022, 749,000 ore tonnes treated; Q3 2021: 832,000 ore tonnes treated).





1,346,000 ore tonnes mined, a 29% increase relative to 1,043,000 tonnes mined in Q2 2022 and a 30% increase relative to the 1,034,000 tonnes mined in Q3 2021.





7,753,000 total tonnes mined, a 2% decrease relative to Q2 2022 and a 25% decrease from 10,280,000 total tonnes mined in Q3 2021.

Financial Highlights for Third Quarter 2022 ("Q3 2022")

Revenue from 805,000 carats sold at $110.1 million ( US$83.3 million ) at an average realised price of $137 per carat (US$104) compared to $94.2 million from 1,027,000 carats sold in Q3 2021 ( US$74.1 million ) at an average realized price of $92 per carat (US$72) .





( ) at an average realised price of per carat compared to from 1,027,000 carats sold in Q3 2021 ( ) at an average realized price of per carat . Adjusted EBITDA 1 of $54.1 million compared to $41.2 million in Q3 2021.





of compared to in Q3 2021. Earnings from mine operations $44.7 million compared to $35.5 million in Q3 2021.





compared to in Q3 2021. Cash costs of production, including capitalized stripping costs 1 of $128 per tonne treated (2021: $101 per tonne) and $72 per carat recovered (2021: $54 per carat).





of per tonne treated (2021: per tonne) and per carat recovered (2021: per carat). Net loss at September 30, 2022 was $7.2 million or $0.03 loss per share (2021: Net income of $8.8 million or $0.04 earnings per share). Included in the determination of the net loss at September 30, 2022 are unrealized foreign exchange losses of $26.3 million , on the translation of the Company's USD-denominated short-term and long-term debt. The unrealized foreign exchange losses are a result of the weakening of the Canadian dollar versus US dollar.

1Cash costs of production, including capitalized stripping costs, and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS measures with no standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS. See the Non-IFRS Measures section of the Company's September 30, 2022 MD&A for explanation and reconciliation.



Operational Highlights for the nine months ended September 30, 2022

3,898,000 carats recovered at an average grade of 1.71 carats per tonne, 17% lower than the 4,718,000 carats, 2.08 carats per tonne, recovered for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 .





. 2,274,000 tonnes of ore treated in September 30, 2022 ; compared to the 2,269,000 tonnes treated for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 .





; compared to the 2,269,000 tonnes treated for the nine months ended . 23.8 million total tonnes mined for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 , a 3% decrease from the 24.6 million total tonnes mined for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 .

Financial Highlights for the nine months ended September 30, 2022

Total sales revenue of $292.5 million ( US$226 million ) at an average realised price of $154 per carat (US$119) compared to $213.2 million in 2021 ( US$169.4 million ) at an average realized price of $91 per carat (US$72) .





( ) at an average realised price of per carat compared to in 2021 ( ) at an average realized price of per carat . Adjusted EBITDA 2 of $153.8 million compared to $98.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 .





of compared to for the nine months ended . Earnings from mine operations of $138.9 million (2021: $82.1 million ).





(2021: ). Cash costs of production, including capitalized stripping costs 2 , of $133 per tonne treated (2021: $110 per tonne) and $78 per carat recovered (2021: $53 per carat).





, of per tonne treated (2021: per tonne) and per carat recovered (2021: per carat). Net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 was $39.8 million or $0.19 earnings per share (2021: net income $38.5 million or $0.18 earnings per share). Included in the determination of the net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 are unrealized foreign exchange losses of $33.8 million , on the translation of the Company's USD-denominated short-term and long-term debt. The unrealized foreign exchange losses are a result of the weakening of the Canadian dollar versus US dollar.





was or earnings per share (2021: net income or earnings per share). Included in the determination of the net income for the nine months ended are unrealized foreign exchange losses of , on the translation of the Company's USD-denominated short-term and long-term debt. The unrealized foreign exchange losses are a result of the weakening of the Canadian dollar versus US dollar. Capital expenditures in the nine months ended September 30, 2022 were $34.1 million , $26.1 million of which were deferred stripping costs, with the remaining $8 million accounting for sustaining capital expenditures related to mine operations.

2Cash costs of production, including capitalized stripping costs, and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS measures with no standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS. See the Non-IFRS Measures section of the Company's September 30, 2022 MD&A for explanation and reconciliation.



Market Highlights for Q3 & nine months ended September 2022

During Q3 2022, 805,227 carats were sold for total proceeds of C$110.6 million (US$83.3 million), resulting in an average price of C$137 per carat (US$104 per carat). This Q3 2022 sales result represents a 13% increase in revenue relative to Q2 2022, and a 10% reduction on an US$ average price per carat basis. Adjusting for mix of goods sold, on a like-for-like basis the Q3 2022 sales result represented a 2% increase in average price per carat relative to Q2 2022.

Year-to-date 2022, 1,898,557 carats have been sold at an average price of $154 per carat (US$119 per carat) for total proceeds of $292.9 million (US$226.0 million) in comparison to 2,349,644 carats sold at an average price of $90 per carat (US$72 per carat) for total proceeds of $212.5 million (US$169.4 million) during the same period in 2021.

Gahcho Kue Mine Operations

The following table summarizes key operating statistics for the Gahcho Kue Mine in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021.

















Three months ended Three months ended Nine months ended Nine months ended



September 30, 2022 September 30, 2021 September 30, 2022 September 30, 2021











GK operating data









Mining









*Ore tonnes mined kilo tonnes 1,346 1,034 3,408 2,542 *Waste tonnes mined kilo tonnes 6,407 9,246 20,394 22,092 *Total tonnes mined kilo tonnes 7,753 10,280 23,802 24,634 *Ore in stockpile kilo tonnes 1,882 542 1,882 542











Processing









*Ore tonnes processed kilo tonnes 817 832 2,274 2,269 *Average plant throughput tonnes per day 8,978 9,244 8,360 8,311 *Average diamond recovery carats per tonne 1.78 1.88 1.71 2.08 *Diamonds recovered 000's carats 1,452 1,562 3,898 4,718 Approximate diamonds recovered - Mountain Province 000's carats 711 765 1,910 2,312 Cash costs of production per tonne of ore, net of capitalized stripping ** $ 109 80 110 93 Cash costs of production per tonne of ore, including capitalized stripping** $ 128 101 133 110 Cash costs of production per carat recovered, net of capitalized stripping** $ 61 43 64 45 Cash costs of production per carat recovered, including capitalized stripping** $ 72 54 78 53











Sales









Approximate diamonds sold - Mountain Province*** 000's carats 805 1,027 1,899 2,349 Average diamond sales price per carat US $ 104 $ 72 $ 119 $ 72



* at 100% interest in the Gahcho Kue Mine **See Non-IFRS Measures section of the Company's September 30, 2022 MD&A for explanation and reconciliation ***Includes the sales directly to De Beers for fancies and specials acquired by De Beers through the production split bidding process



Financial Performance

















Three months ended Three months ended Nine months ended Nine months ended (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except where otherwise noted) September 30, 2022 September 30, 2021 September 30, 2022 September 30, 2021











Sales $ 110,124 94,208 292,538 223,579 Carats sold 000's carats 805 1,027 1,899 2,349 Average price per carat sold $/carat 137 92 154 95 Cost of sales per carat* $/carat 81 57 81 60 Earnings from mine operations per carat $ 56 35 73 35 Earnings from mine operations % 41 % 38 % 47 % 37 % Selling, general and administrative expenses $ 3,898 3,106 11,695 8,391 Operating income $ 37,705 30,137 115,770 69,425 Net (loss) income for the period $ (7,187) 8,764 39,774 38,548 Basic an diluted earnings per share $ (0.03) 0.04 0.19 0.18



* This cost of sales per carat includes the cost of acquiring 51% of the fancies and specials which have been sold, after having been won in a tendering process with De Beers Canada.



Conference Call

The Company will host its quarterly conference call on Wednesday, November 9th, 2022 at 11:00am ET.

Title: Mountain Province Diamonds Inc Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call

Conference ID: 93747391

Date of call: November 9, 2022

Time of call: 11:00 Eastern Time

Expected Duration: 60 minutes

Webcast Link:

https://app.webinar.net/d5Vm7Jb7PyW

Participant Toll-Free Dial-In Number: (+1) 888-390-0546

Participant International Dial-In Number: (+1) 416-764-8688

A replay of the webcast and audio call will be available on the Company's website.

About the Company

Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kue diamond mine located in Canada'sNorthwest Territories. The Gahcho Kue Joint Venture property consists of several kimberlites that are actively being mined, developed, and explored for future development. The Company also controls 106,202 hectares of highly prospective mineral claims and leases that surround the Gahcho Kue Joint Venture property that include an indicated mineral resource for the Kelvin kimberlite and inferred mineral resources for the Faraday kimberlites.

For further information on Mountain Province Diamonds and to receive news releases by email, visit the Company's website at www.mountainprovince.com.

Qualified Person

The disclosure in this news release of scientific and technical information regarding Mountain Province's mineral properties has been reviewed and approved by Matthew MacPhail, P.Eng., MBA, and Tom E. McCandless, Ph.D., P.Geo., both employees of Mountain Province Diamonds and Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian and United States securities laws concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to operational hazards, including possible disruption due to pandemic such as COVID-19, its impact on travel, self-isolation protocols and business and operations, estimated production and mine life of the project of Mountain Province; the realization of mineral reserve estimates; the timing and amount of estimated future production; costs of production; the future price of diamonds; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; the ability to manage debt; capital expenditures; the ability to obtain permits for operations; liquidity; tax rates; and currency exchange rate fluctuations. Except for statements of historical fact relating to Mountain Province, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "anticipates," "may," "can," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "targets," "intends," "likely," "will," "should," "to be", "potential" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "should" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are based on a number of assumptions and 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 statements. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of Mountain Province and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct.

Factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from results anticipated by such forward-looking statements include the development of operation hazards which could arise in relation to COVID-19, including, but not limited to protocols which may be adopted to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and any impact of such protocols on Mountain Province's business and operations, variations in ore grade or recovery rates, changes in market conditions, changes in project parameters, mine sequencing; production rates; cash flow; risks relating to the availability and timeliness of permitting and governmental approvals; supply of, and demand for, diamonds; fluctuating commodity prices and currency exchange rates, the possibility of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated.

These factors are discussed in greater detail in Mountain Province's most recent Annual Information Form and in the most recent MD&A filed on SEDAR, which also provide additional general assumptions in connection with these statements. Mountain Province cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Investors and others who base themselves on forward-looking statements should carefully consider the above factors as well as the uncertainties they represent and the risk they entail. Mountain Province believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.

Although Mountain Province has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. 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. Mountain Province undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Statements concerning mineral reserve and resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements to the extent they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered as the property is developed.

Further, Mountain Province may make changes to its business plans that could affect its results. The principal assets of Mountain Province are administered pursuant to a joint venture under which Mountain Province is not the operator. Mountain Province is exposed to actions taken or omissions made by the operator within its prerogative and/or determinations made by the joint venture under its terms. Such actions or omissions may impact the future performance of Mountain Province. Under its current note and revolving credit facilities Mountain Province is subject to certain limitations on its ability to pay dividends on common stock. The declaration of dividends is at the discretion of Mountain Province's Board of Directors, subject to the limitations under the Company's debt facilities, and will depend on Mountain Province's financial results, cash requirements, future prospects, and other factors deemed relevant by the Board.

For further information: Mark Wall, President and CEO, 161 Bay Street, Suite 1410, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2S1, Phone: (416) 361-3562, E-mail: info@mountainprovince.com; Matthew MacPhail, Chief Technical Officer, 161 Bay Street, Suite 1410, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2S1, Phone: (416) 361-3562, E-mail: info@mountainprovince.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/mountain-province-diamonds-announces-third-quarter-and-nine-months-ended-september-30-2022-results-301672280.html
Montigny Le Bretonneux, November 8, 2022

DOLFINES laureate by CORIMER for its OHMe project

The Secretary of State for the Sea to the Prime Minister, Herve Berville, announced today in Lille that DOLFINES has been awarded by CORIMER (Orientation Council for Research and Innovation by Industrialists of the Sea) for its OHMe telescopic tool. This project is part of the French government's France 2030 program.

This title of laureate will give DOLFINES the financial means of its ambitions in the development of the engineering phase of the OHMe tool.

As a reminder, OHMe is a telescopic tool capable of installing blades and performing heavy maintenance activities on installed or floating offshore wind turbines.

DOLFINES will return in more detail in a few days on all the dimensions of this major recognition of its R&D efforts.

About Dolfines: www.dolfines.com

Founded in 2000, DOLFINES is an independent specialist in engineering and services in the renewable and conventional energy industry. Faced with the challenges of decarbonizing the energy sector and capitalizing on its strong expertise, DOLFINES wants to play a key role in this energy transition by designing and providing innovative services and solutions for the exploitation of renewable energy sources onshore and offshore, above and below sea level. Respecting the highest standards of quality and safety, DOLFINES is labelled an innovative company certified ISO 9001 for its technical assistance, auditing, inspection and engineering activities.

Euronext Growth TM

DOLFINES is listed on Euronext GrowthTM - Code ISIN: FR0014004QZ9 - Mnemo: ALDOL DOLFINES is eligible to PEA-PME

Contacts :

DOLFINES: Delphine Bardelet Guejo, CFO - delphine.bardelet@dolfines.com

ACTIFIN : Loris Daougabel, Media Relations - + 33 (0) 1 56 88 11 16 - ldaougabel@actifin.fr

COMALTO: Jean-Francois Carminati, Shareholders Relations - + 33 (0) 6 63 87 57 60 - jfcarminati@comalto.com

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KANAZAWA, Japan, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a study recently published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, researchers from Kanazawa University use high-speed microscopy to capture the dynamics of nanosized sacs released from cells.

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are tiny sacs released by cells to deliver chemical messengers to other cells. Since sEVs are compatible with biological tissue they are being investigated as carriers for nanodrugs. However, the impact of physiological stress-such as changes in temperature-on the structure of sEVs is obscure. A research team led by Richard Wong and Keesiang Lim at Kanazawa University has now used an advanced form of microscopy to elucidate these changes in real time.

The temperature, acid, and salt levels in our bodies can fluctuate with factors such as disease. Thus, research on sEVs for drug development requires a deeper understanding of how stressful environments affect the vesicles' structure. For their study, the team first isolated sEVs from cells. Next, using a technique known as high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) the structure of sEVs was revealed to be either spherical or ellipsoidal in shape. HS-AFM also enabled the researchers to accurately measure the sizes of sEVs without rupturing or damaging the vesicular membranes.

The effect of varying temperatures on sEVs was the first parameter assessed. At temperatures higher than normal (37C) body temperature the vesicles showed deformations in shape coupled with a loss of elasticity of their membranes. On the other hand, sEVs in cold conditions (4C) had a reduced ability to release any internal material effectively.

The researchers then studied the effects of pH (acid levels) on sEVs. The physiological pH of the bloodstream is 7.4. A pH less than 7 indicates acidic conditions and anything more than that is termed alkaline. The sEVs seemed to maintain their shape in acidic conditions (pH 4) but in alkaline conditions (pH 10) they were deformed. However, at a pH of 4 the sEVs were smaller in size suggesting their internal contents had been lost.

Now, salt levels (known as osmotic pressure) at a concentration of 0.15 M are healthy. However, changes in osmotic pressure can have detrimental effects on cells. As conditions were gradually changed it was found that the spherical nature of sEVs decreased at high salt concentrations (1.8 M) but seemed to remain intact at low concentrations (0 M). After a while, vesicles in high osmotic conditions showed ruptured membranes.

An understanding of these dynamics is imperative to formulating sEVs as pharmaceutical aids in different disease conditions. This study established HS-AFM as a useful tool to depict changes in sEVs under various physiological conditions in real time. "In summary, our study demonstrates the feasibility of HS-AFM for structural characterization and assessment of nanoparticles," concludes the team.

Background

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs): sEVs are sacs containing chemicals such as proteins, DNA, or metabolites released by cells. Usually playing the role of messengers, sEVs then deliver these chemicals to neighboring or distant cells. Hence, their shape, size, and elasticity are important for sEVs to function properly. For example, sEVs with reduced membrane elasticity might not be able to release their contents effectively.

sEVs are typically less than 200 nm in size and ferry around very small molecules. They are, therefore, under investigation for their potential role in delivering nanosized drugs/vaccines or chemicals used for diagnosis. The physical properties of sEVs in under varying physiological stress are, thus, important for understanding their behavior in different tissues and disease conditions.

High-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM): Traditional AFM is a form of microscopy that utilizes a pointed lever grazing on the surface of molecules to depict their topography. As the lever moves about, it transmits signals that help create an image of the molecule's structure. However, the rate at which signals are emitted in AFM are too low to capture any dynamic changes. HS-AFM, on the other hand, enables a faster scanning of molecules such that images can be acquired in real-time. Even minor changes to a molecule's structure can be accurately captured.

Reference

Elma Sakinatus Sajidah, Keesiang Lim, Tomoyoshi Yamano, Goro Nishide, Yujia Qiu, Takeshi Yoshida, Hanbo Wang, Akiko Kobayashi, Masaharu Hazawa, Firli Dewi, Rikinari Hanayama, Toshio Ando, Richard Wong. Spatiotemporal tracking of small extracellular vesicle nanotopology in response to physicochemical stresses revealed by HS-AFM. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 2022.

DOI: 10.1002/jev2.12275

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jev2.12275

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Figure-1.png

Figure 1. Structural changes of small extracellular vesicle (sEV) in response to physicochemical stresses. sEV secreted for cell-to-cell communication, for example sending biomolecules to nuclear pore complex (NPC). HS-AFM as a nanoimaging tool show changes in the structure of sEVs at varying temperatures, pH, and osmotic pressure.

Elma Sajidah

Contact:

Hiroe Yoneda

Vice Director of Public Affairs

WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

Kanazawa University

Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan

Email: nanolsi-office@adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp

Tel: +81 (76) 234-4550

About Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/

Nano Life Science Institute (NanoLSI), Kanazawa University is a research center established in 2017 as part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The objective of this initiative is to form world-tier research centers. NanoLSI combines the foremost knowledge of bio-scanning probe microscopy to establish 'nano-endoscopic techniques' to directly image, analyze, and manipulate biomolecules for insights into mechanisms governing life phenomena such as diseases.

About Kanazawa University

http://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/e/

As the leading comprehensive university on the Sea of Japan coast, Kanazawa University has contributed greatly to higher education and academic research in Japan since it was founded in 1949. The University has three colleges and 17 schools offering courses in subjects that include medicine, computer engineering, and humanities.

The University is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in Kanazawa - a city rich in history and culture. The city of Kanazawa has a highly respected intellectual profile since the time of the fiefdom (1598-1867). Kanazawa University is divided into two main campuses: Kakuma and Takaramachi for its approximately 10,200 students including 600 from overseas.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 8, 2022 / - GREAT ATLANTIC RESOURCES CORP. (TSXV:GR) (the "Company" or "Great Atlantic") is pleased to announce that it has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement on October 25, 2022, to 12,857,143 units at a price of $0.035 per unit for gross proceeds of $450,000. The units of the financing will comprise of one common share and a full share purchase warrant, which may be exercised for a period of 5 years at a price of $0.05 per share.

The Company anticipates that approximately 60 percent of the aggregate proceeds raised under the offering will be used for exploration expenditures related to the Company's Golden Promise gold property in Newfoundland and work on its other properties located in Newfoundland and New Brunswick. Approximately 30 percent will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes and 10 percent will be used to pay management fees to Company officers and directors.

A finder's fee may be paid to eligible finders in accordance with the TSX-V policies. All securities issued pursuant to the offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. The offerings and payment of finders' fees are both subject to approval by the TSX-V. The Company is submitting documentation with the TSX Venture Exchange to close the placement.

On Behalf of the board of directors

"Christopher R Anderson"

Mr. Christopher R. Anderson

President CEO Director

604-488-3900 - Office

Investor Relations: IR@GreatAtlanticResources.com

About Great Atlantic Resources Corp.: Great Atlantic Resources Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on the discovery and development of mineral assets in the resource-rich and sovereign risk-free realm of Atlantic Canada, one of the number one mining regions of the world. Great Atlantic is currently surging forward building the company utilizing a Project Generation model, with a special focus on the most critical elements on the planet that are prominent in Atlantic Canada, Gold, Copper, Zinc, Nickel, Cobalt, Antimony and Tungsten.

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of financing, and general economic, market or business conditions.

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.

Great Atlantic Resource Corp.

888 Dunsmuir Street - Suite 888, Vancouver, B.C., V6C 3K4

SOURCE: Great Atlantic Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724689/Great-Atlantic-Increases-Financing
TOKYO TORCH, A NEW LANDMARK IN JAPAN BECKONING THE WORLD

TOKYO, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dorchester Collection has been selected to manage the hotel within "Torch Tower", the highest building in Japan, by Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Century Corporation. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2028.

Award-winning Dorchester Collection currently comprises nine iconic hotels in London, Paris, Milan, Rome, and Los Angeles. Next year the company will open its first hotel in the Middle East, The Lana, Dubai. Each of these hotels has a strong individuality rooted in the city's culture and heritage, and forms an integral part of the local community. The highly anticipated hotel in Torch Tower will be the first Dorchester Collection hotel in Asia, offering gracious Japanese hospitality, combined with the brand's elevated service and experiences.

AIMS OF TOKYO TORCH AND DORCHESTER COLLECTION

TOKYO TORCH aims to become a core of urban tourism as the gateway to Tokyo and Japan, and the hotel is a key component of this redevelopment in the heart of Tokyo's city centre. Located in the upper floors of Torch Tower, the tallest building in Japan, the hotel offers a panoramic view of Tokyo Bay, the city centre, as well as of Mt. Fuji. The "SKY HILL" will become the symbol of the hotel and the city itself, an oasis of tranquillity where nature can be enjoyed through all one's senses, creating a unique experience fused with the vibrancy of the hotel.

Combining these aspects with Dorchester Collection, which has carved its name in the history and culture of many parts of the world, the aim will be to create the only worldview with TOKYO TORCH, and a true luxury area in Japan that can be experienced nowhere else.

Christopher Cowdray, chief executive officer, Dorchester Collection

'This new hotel will become a beacon for Japan's ultra-luxury hotel landscape and set new benchmarks. World-class architects will inspire with their symbolic design torch concept, lighting up not only the future of Tokyo and Japan but also the world. Tokyo has long been an integral part of our growth strategy given it is a gateway to Asia and its global significance, and to be partnering with the highly esteemed Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. and Tokyo Century Corporation is a true honour. Their core values are perfectly aligned with ours given the vision of 'a love for people, a love for the city' and our 'We Care' philosophy.'

Junichi Yoshida, president & chief executive officer, Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd.

'We are delighted to welcome the historic and traditional Dorchester Collection as our partner. We are confident that by infusing the culture and hospitality that Dorchester Collection has cultivated over the years, the hotel will provide a "one-of-a-kind experience" that is unique to this location.'

Yoichiro Nakai, deputy president and executive officer, Tokyo Century Corporation

'It is a pleasure to have Dorchester Collection, which operates famous hotels around the world, become a part of TOKYO TORCH, a symbol of our partnership of more than a decade with Mitsubishi Estate. I believe the brand philosophy "one-of-a-kind experience" woven by Torch Tower as Japan's tallest building and Dorchester Collection will make Tokyo and Japan newly compelling.'

For further information, please visit our PHOTO LIBRARY and MEDIA CENTRE

DORCHESTER COLLECTION

Dorchester Collection is a portfolio of the world's foremost luxury hotels and residences. The unique properties are all legendary in their own right, with rich heritages and worldwide reputations as places offering the most sought-after experiences of good living, charm, elegance, and unparalleled standards of service.

The current portfolio includes the following hotels:

THE DORCHESTERLONDON, 45 PARK LANE LONDON, COWORTH PARK ASCOT

LE MEURICEPARIS, HOTELPLAZA ATHENEEPARIS, HOTEL PRINCIPE DI SAVOIA MILAN, HOTEL EDEN ROME

THE BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL BEVERLY HILLS, HOTEL BEL-AIRLOS ANGELES, THE LANADUBAI (opening 2023)

Luxury residences include:

MAYFAIR PARK RESIDENCES LONDON, AVA AT PALM JUMEIRAHDUBAI,

THE RESIDENCES DUBAI, ONE AT PALM JUMEIRAHDUBAI

FACEBOOK DC.LuxuryhotelsTWITTER DC_LuxuryHotelsINSTAGRAM DorchesterCollectionPINTEREST DCluxuryhotels DCmoments

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Visibility 360 (1-707-477-0643), brand building specialists based in Chicago, IL, have launched a new V360 Brand Building Accelerator program that helps professionals build their personal brands by improving their online visibility.

Chicago, Illinois--(Newsfile Corp. - November 8, 2022) - Visibility 360 has announced the rollout of a new Brand Building Accelerator program, which uses a combination of strategic multimedia content and SEO techniques to help professionals in Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and around the world that will assist professionals in achieving significantly enhanced online exposure while improving their search rankings. The goal of the process is to establish the professional as a highly visible expert within their field.

More information about Visibility 360 and its Brand Building Accelerator program can be found at https://visibility-360.com

Visibility 360's new Brand Building Accelerator Campaigns create hyper-targeted content about professional services in six different multimedia formats, including blogs, podcasts, and videos. By including links back to the brand's main website or sales pages, each piece of content helps to build brand authority with the search engine algorithms and improves the professional's overall search ranking results.

By creating content in all the popular multimedia formats, the Brand Building Accelerator builds omnipresent online exposure for a range of professionals, including healthcare practitioners such as doctors, chiropractors, surgeons, and dentists, as well as lawyers, financial advisors, and consultants.

While traditional marketing strategies lose their effectiveness when their ads expire or algorithms change, content created by Visibility 360 will stay online indefinitely, providing a long-lasting boost to the professional's online recognition as an authority so that they become recognized as an expert within their field.

Working with Visibility 360, professionals do not need to create their own content, do any research, generate podcasts, or record their own videos. The Brand Building Accelerator campaign will create unique content based on the client's website and independent online research.

The fastest way to be recognized as an expert is to share knowledge by consistently publishing valuable content. Visibility 360 campaigns create content in six different formats, including blogs, podcasts, and videos.

Using a hyper-targeted approach to initiate building brand authority, Visibility 360 can accelerate recognition as an expert. By including links back to a professional's main website, each piece of content builds authority, underlines expertise, and search engine algorithms will improve the overall search ranking results.

Visibility 360 also provides customized lead-generation quizzes that attract ideal customers and gain viral attention online. Clients looking for more information can access a new informative webinar about the Brand Building Accelerator program and other resources, for no cost, on the company's website.

Visibility 360 CEO & Visibility Expert Barbara Drady states, "Increase your earnings and live your dreams by becoming a recognized authority in your field. Our methods are the shortest, smartest, fastest, and cost-effective way to be viewed as an authority in your field".

More information about the Brand Building Accelerator program and online marketing campaigns can be found at https://visibility-360.com

Contact Info:

Name: Barbara Drady

Email: barbara@visibility-360.com

Organization: Visibility 360 Inc.

Address: 219 East Lake Shore Drive Apt. 2ABC, Chicago, Illinois 60611, United States

Phone: +1-707-477-0643

Website: https://visibility-360.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143453




TOKYO, Nov 9, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Hitachi Energy, a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all, today announced it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Equinor, one of the world's largest energy companies, to collaborate within electrification, renewable power generation and low-carbon initiatives worldwide.The agreement underlines both companies' commitment to accelerate the energy transition and advance a more sustainable, flexible and secure energy system. It builds on the two companies' long and successful collaboration over many decades. During that time, Hitachi Energy has provided Equinor with power grid solutions and pioneering technologies on several projects, such as Dogger Bank A, B and C, the world's largest offshore wind farm on completion, and Troll A, the world's first HVDC power-from-shore connection.Initial areas of focus for the collaboration include developing standardized base designs to be applied for high-voltage direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) transmission systems to connect offshore wind farms and Equinor production facilities to mainland power grids."We are delighted to deepen our longstanding relationship with one of the world's leading energy companies and to help Equinor achieve its ambition of becoming net zero by mid- century," said Niklas Persson, Managing Director of Hitachi Energy's Grid Integration business. "Together we make a strong team that will support the society to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement and create a sustainable energy future for all.""Hitachi Energy has been a reliable supplier to Equinor for many years. This strategic collaboration agreement is a signal of joint ambitions to increase our competitiveness in the ongoing energy transition. Standardization of technical solutions will be a key to succeed, and we look forward to improving together with Hitachi Energy," said Geir Tungesvik, Executive Vice President for Projects, Drilling and Procurement at Equinor.The scope of the agreement covers the complete spectrum of Hitachi Energy's portfolio of power grid technologies and solutions. It includes IdentiQTM, Hitachi Energy's digital twin for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and power quality solutions, which provides significant benefits throughout the assets' plan, build, operate and maintain life cycle; Grid-eXpandTM modular and prefabricated offshore and onshore grid connections that make it faster, simpler and more efficient to connect facilities to the grid; OceaniQTM solutions such as transformers and high-voltage products that can operate flawlessly on land, offshore and below the sea surface; and grid automation solutions that keep onshore and offshore electrical assets operating reliably, safely and securely.Hitachi Energy's HVDC solution combines world-leading expertise in HVDC converter valves; the MACH digital control platform(1), converter power transformers and high-voltage switchgear; as well as system studies, design and engineering, supply, installation supervision and commissioning.HVDC Light is a voltage source converter technology developed by Hitachi Energy. It is the preferred technology for many grid applications, including interconnecting countries, integrating renewables and "power-from-shore" connections to offshore production facilities. HVDC Light's defining features include uniquely compact converter stations and exceptionally low electrical losses.Hitachi Energy pioneered commercial HVDC technology almost 70 years ago and has delivered more than half of the world's HVDC projects.(1) Modular Advanced Control for HVDC (MACH)HVDC website: www.hitachienergy.com/offering/product-and-system/hvdcAbout Hitachi Energy Ltd.Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We serve customers in the utility, industry and infrastructure sectors with innovative solutions and services across the value chain. Together with customers and partners, we pioneer technologies and enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future. We are advancing the world's energy system to become more sustainable, flexible and secure whilst balancing social, environmental and economic value. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ around 40,000 people in 90 countries and generate business volumes of approximately $10 billion USD.www.hitachienergy.comwww.linkedin.com/company/hitachienergyhttps://twitter.com/HitachiEnergyAbout Hitachi, Ltd.Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society with data and technology. We will solve customers' and society's challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, under the business structure of Digital Systems & Services, Green Energy & Mobility, Connective Industries and Automotive Systems. Driven by green, digital, and innovation, we aim for growth through collaboration with our customers. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal year 2021 (ended March 31, 2022) totaled 10,264.6 billion yen ($84,136 million USD), with 853 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 370,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.Source: Hitachi, Ltd.Copyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German Industrial services provider Bilfinger (BFLBY.PK) reported Wednesday that its third-quarter consolidated Group result fell 46 perent to 22 million euros from last year's 41 million euros. Earnings per share were 0.56 euro, down 44 percent from 1 euro a year ago. At 37 million euros, EBITA was 32 percent below the previous year's 54 million euros. The EBITA margin was 3.4 percent, down from previous year's 5.7 percent. Group sales increased 14 percent to 1.08 billion euros from previous year's 945 million euros, with all segments contributing to the increase. Group sales increased organically by 11 percent. Order intake was 1.12 billion euros, up 22 percent on a reported basis and up 19 percent organically. The order backlog also increased significantly, growing organically by 12 percent to 3.21 billion euros. Looking ahead for fiscal 2022, Bilfinger continues to expect a significant increase in revenue from last year's 3.74 billion euros, and operating contribution to EBITA, compared to last year's 121 million euros. Nonetheless, special items will weigh on the result. The consolidated result will be significantly lower than in the previous year's 130 million euros. Further, the company said its efficiency program supports the goal of achieving a sustainable EBITA margin of at least 5 percent by 2024. 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.


FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Commerzbank AG (CRZBY.PK) reported that its third-quarter consolidated profit declined to 195 million euros from 403 million euros, last year. Revenues excluding exceptional items was 2.07 billion euros, up 2.7% from prior year.



For the nine month period, profit was 963 million euros compared to 9 million euros, previous year. Revenues increased by 12% to 7.10 billion euros.



Commerzbank expects an increase in interest income to more than 6 billion euros in 2022, while net commission income is likely to be slightly lower than in 2021. Overall, the Bank confirmed its target of a net profit of more than 1 billion euros in the current year. The CET 1 ratio is expected to be more than 13.5%. The Bank plans to propose a pay-out ratio of 30% of the net result for fiscal 2022 after deduction of the AT1 coupon payments.



Commerzbank confirmed the most important financial goals of Strategy 2024. The Bank targets a RoTE of more than 7.3% and a cost-income ratio of 60%. The revenue forecast for 2024 has been raised to 10 billion euros; the previous target was 9.1 billion euros. Overall, Commerzbank now anticipates an operating result of around 3.2 billion euros for 2024, revised from the prior guidance of 3.0 billion euros.



Bettina Orlopp, CFO of Commerzbank, said: 'Our financial targets for 2024 show that we are very confident about the ongoing development of Commerzbank beyond year-end. Nevertheless, we continue to remain cautious about the potential risks in the current economic environment.'



For more earnings news, earnings calendar, and earnings for stocks, visit rttnews.com.



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~The company aims to double its growth by FY25 in the Middle East region

MUMBAI, India, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Godrej & Boyce, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, announced that its business Godrej Process Equipment is targeting to double its growth by 2025 from its business in the Middle East region. The region has been one of the core markets for the business and the investments in the Energy sector will witness a substantial increase with the UAE investing approximately $150 billion towards the same.





Recently, Godrej Process Equipment exhibited its competencies at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC), an event hosted by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in Abu Dhabi.

Godrej Process Equipment is a leading manufacturer of custom-built process equipment for various critical applications in the Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Hydrogen, Fertilizer and Power sector across the globe, with majority of its products being exported. With an aim to double their revenue by 2025, the business has already invested Rs. 300 Cr towards the expansion of their manufacturing facility at Dahej, Gujarat, India. The business has been enhancing its capacity and capability to focus and expand its global footprint.

Hussain Shariyarr, Senior Vice President & Business Head, Godrej Process Equipment, said, "The global energy scenario is undergoing a sweeping transformation to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce the environmental footprint. We have seen tremendous growth in the Middle East and have embarked on our journey to enhance the productivity and quality of products delivered to our clients globally. We are proud to represent India's manufacturing capabilities by delivering equipment of high quality and standards on an international platform. Also, the reception we received at the ADIPEC exhibition has been phenomenal and we take this opportunity to thank our clients and partners who visited our stall."

About Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

Godrej & Boyce ('G&B'), a Godrej Group Company, was founded in 1897 and has contributed to India's journey of self-reliance through manufacturing. G&B patented the world's first springless lock and since then, has diversified into 14 businesses across various sectors from Security, Furniture, and Aerospace to Infrastructure and Defence. Godrej is one of India's most trusted brands serving over 1.1bn customers worldwide daily.

To learn more visit: www.godrej.com

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Sharm El-Sheikh, 9 November 2022 - Hydrogene de France SA ("HDF Energy") group - Euronext Paris: HDF, global pioneer in hydrogen power plants and high-power fuel cell manufacturer, has reached a further step in the development of the Renewstable green hydrogen power plant in Swakopmund, by formalizing its partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB) at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27).

The new green hydrogen cooperation was announced at the Namibian pavilion COP 27 by Dr. Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia, Dr. Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

"This partnership represents a concrete step in delivering Namibia's clean energy ambition. This new investment demonstrates Namibia's leadership in green hydrogen." said Dr. Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia.

"I would like to thank the European Investment Bank for the continuous support to the development in Swakopmund. The signature today is a key step of our longstanding engagement with the EIB for the project, that takes us closer to reaching financial close in 2023 and starting construction of the first large scale green hydrogen project in Africa." says Nicolas Lecomte, HDF's Director for Southern and East Africa.

"The European Investment Bank works with leading partners to support clean energy investment across Africa. I am pleased that the EIB is working closely with HDF Energy to harness Namibia's solar and wind potential and unlock opportunities for the energy transition. Our agreement confirmed at COP27 today with HDF will help to accelerate large scale deployment of green hydrogen infrastructure in Namibia based on proven investment in South America." said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.

The agreement signed by Maria Shaw-Barragan, EIB Director of lending in Africa, Caribbean, Pacific, Asia and Latin America and Nicolas Lecomte, HDF's Director for Southern and East Africa, and witnessed by Hon. Lipumbu Shiimi, Minister of Finance of Namibia.

The new agreement between HDF Energy and the European Investment Bank was unveiled alongside the announcement of a new sovereign loan facility of EUR 500 million by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Dr. Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia to develop the green hydrogen sector in the country.

HDF Energy is developing the Renewstable Swakopmund, a green hydrogen power plant in Swakopmund, Erongo region of Namibia. Once operational, the project will enhance local clean electricity generation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and grid supporting services, directly contributing to security of electricity supply in Namibia.

The new EIB cooperation with HDF Energy for the Renewstable Swakopmund accelerate project implementation, allow Namibia to lowering the price of electricity to end-consumers, and kick-starting implementation of green hydrogen investment and development of technical green hydrogen skills in Namibia.

EIB at COP27

Find an overview of EIB at COP27 on our dedicated website. The EIB has a pavilion in the side event area of the Blue Zone and is running a series of events on numerous topics. The full agenda is available here. You are welcome to join our virtual attendee hub to watch the sessions either live or later at your convenience, and network with attendees. With an easy two-step registration process, you will always have the latest information on our agenda.

Background information

About EIB Global

EIB Global is the EIB Group's specialised arm dedicated to increasing the impact of international partnerships and development finance. EIB Global is designed to foster strong, focused partnership within Team Europe, alongside fellow development finance institutions, and civil society. EIB Global brings the Group closer to local people, companies and institutions through our offices across the world.

About HDF Energy

HDF Energy is a global pioneer in hydrogen energy. HDF develops, finances, and operates multi-megawatts Hydrogen-Power plants. These plants provide continuous or on-demand electricity from renewable energy sources (wind or solar), combined with high power fuel cells supplied by HDF.

HDF Energy develops two types of Hydrogen-Power plants:

 (POWER-TO-POWER): Multi-megawatt power plants, producing stable electricity 24h/day, composed of an intermittent renewable source and on-site hydrogen energy storage.

(POWER-TO-POWER): Multi-megawatt power plants, producing stable electricity 24h/day, composed of an intermittent renewable source and on-site hydrogen energy storage.  (GAS-TO-POWER): Multi-megawatt power plants producing electricity on demand from green hydrogen from gas transportation networks.

Read financial information on Hydrogene de France

at www.hdf-energy.com

Read more about the Renewstable Swakopmund

at www.renewstable-swakopmund.com

Press contacts

EIB

Richard Willis, r.willis@eib.org, tel.: +352 43 79 82155 / Mobile: +352 621 55 57 58

Website: www.eib.org/press - Press Office: +352 4379 21000 - press@eib.org

HDF Energy

Investors Relations Press Relations Margaux ROUILLARD

+ 33 (0)1 53 67 36 32

hdf-energy@actus.fr Serena BONI

+33 (0)4 72 18 04 92

sboni@actus.fr

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Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-77161-cp_hdf-energy-cop27-namibia-en.pdf
Regulatory News:

Valbiotis (FR0013254851 ALVAL, PEA SME eligible), a Research and Development company committed to scientific innovation for preventing and combating metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, today announces the success of its fundraise for approximatively 9.7 millions, including, on the one hand, a reserved offer intended to a category of investors via an accelerated bookbuilding for approximately 9.0 million, and, on the other hand, an offer to the public intended to individual shareholders via the PrimaryBid platform of approximately 0.7 million (the "Global Offer").

Sebastien PELTIER, Chairman of the Valbiotis Board of Directors, states: "I would like to thank all the investors, both historical and new, who participated in this fundraise to support the Company's strategic acceleration. I am particularly pleased with the support of the hundreds of individual shareholders who were able to participate via the PrimaryBid platform. This fundraising will offer our portfolio of four active substances in the advanced development phase a chance of success, thanks to future international partnerships, which will be added to the one already signed with Nestle Health Science for TOTUM63, and direct marketing in France of our three other products, TOTUM070, TOTUM854 and TOTUM448. A new strategy that opens up prospects for the Company's rapid growth in turnover."

Allocation of funds

As previously announced, proceeds from the offering will be used to fund:

at 60%, the Company's structuring to support future global or regional (except France) licensing and/or distribution partnerships for the other TOTUM products in the pipeline (TOTUM070 LDL hypercholesterolemia; TOTUM448 NAFL/NASH; TOTUM854 raised blood pressure) and to support the licensing and supply agreements already signed for TOTUM63 (prediabetes). It should be recalled that TOTUM63 (prediabetes) is licensed at Nestle Health Science, and the results of the Phase II/III REVERSE-IT pivot study are now expected in the first half of 2023 (as announced by the Company on 15 September 2022). From a regulatory point of view, TOTUM63 is already marketable in Europe, after notification to the DGCCRF in France (mutual recognition applicable for other European Union countries). The results of REVERSE-IT are ultimately intended to enable a health claim to be made. Valbiotis' goal is to finalize the signature of an international licensing and/or distribution agreement by the second half of 2023 for TOTUM070;

at 40%, the implementation of resources dedicated to the direct marketing of TOTUM products in France (excluding TOTUM63) in accordance with the strategy communicated on October 7 (press release of October 7, 2022). The marketing strategy will be based on in-house medical sales representatives (APMs) whose main target audience will be key prescribers, i.e., general practitioners, certain specialists and pharmacists. The latter will recommend the TOTUM products based on their patients' cardiometabolic profile. At the same time, consumers/patients will be targeted directly through an adapted digital marketing strategy. The distribution channels envisaged will be pharmacies, drugstores and online sales. The funds raised will contribute to:

the recruitment of a dedicated sales team;

the structuring of online sales and product marketing, and;

expenses related to the launch of direct sales (notably inventory building).

As indicated in the press release published on October 7, 2022, TOTUM070, whose Phase II clinical study was highly successful, will be the first product marketed by Valbiotis in France even before a health claim. It is scheduled to be launched in the first half of 2024, followed by TOTUM448 and TOTUM854 in 2024-2025.

Before the completion of the Global Offering, the Company's cash horizon was in the last quarter of 2023. Given the current cash level, the net product of this Global Offering and the milestones expected during 2023 as part of the overall partnership with Nestle Health Science on TOTUM63 and in the second half of 2023 with the signing of a partnership on TOTUM070, the Company extends its cash horizon to the end of the first half of 2024. In parallel, the Company is working on non-dilutive financing solutions to postpone this cash horizon.

Terms of the Global Offering

The Global Offering, for an overall amount of 9.7 million euros, was completed by way of issuance of 2,681,059 new ordinary shares with cancellation of preferential subscription rights and without a priority period, within:

(i) an offering of 2,480,385 new shares for an approximate amount of 9.0 million euros (share premium included), in favor of categories of investors (article L. 225-138 of the French Commercial Code) within the framework of the delegation granted by the Combined Shareholders' Meeting of May 5, 2022 (13th resolution), i.e. ("Reserved Offer"):

investment companies and investment funds under French or foreign law that invest or have invested over the past five (5) years in the sector of prevention and/or the fight against chronic diseases;

member companies of an industrial group governed by French or foreign law having an activity similar to that of the Company in the fields of prevention and/or the fight against chronic diseases.

(ii) a public offering of 200,674 new shares intended for retail investors via the PrimaryBid platform for an approximate amount of 0.7 million euros within the framework of the delegation of powers granted by the Shareholders' Meeting of May 5, 2022 (11th resolution) ("PrimaryBid Offer

TP ICAP Midcap and Portzamparc, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, acted as Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners and Allegra Finance, Listing Sponsor, is advising Valbiotis on this transaction.

In the framework of the PrimaryBid Offering, investors were only able to subscribe via the PrimaryBid partners mentioned on the PrimaryBid website (www.PrimaryBid.fr). The PrimaryBid Offering is not subject to a guarantee agreement.

The Board meeting held November 9, 2022 fixed the issue price of 2,681,059 new shares, subscribed for both in the Reserved Offer and in the PrimaryBid Offer, at an amount of 3.60 euros per share, or 0.10 euro cents in nominal value and 3.50 euros of issue premium.

In accordance with the terms of the delegations granted by the aforementioned Shareholders Meeting and the decisions of the Board of Directors meetings of 8 and 9 November 2022, this 3.60 euros subscription price represents a 22% discount compared to the volume-weighted average price of the Valbiotis share over the last consecutive five (5) trading sessions on Euronext Growth Paris market, chosen from among the ten (10) last trading sessions preceding its fixing (i.e. from 2 to 8 November 2022), i.e. 4.64 euros, and a 20% discount compared to November 8 2022 closing value, i.e. 4.51 euros.

The overall number of shares issued represents:

on a non-diluted basis: 27.5% of the share capital of Valbiotis before the Global Offering and 21.6% after the completion of the Global Offering.

- on a diluted basis (taking into account the 1,431,746 actions likely to result from the entirety of the outstanding BSA and BSPCE plans): 24% of the share capital of Valbiotis before the Global Offering and 19.4% after the completion of the Global Offering.

Incidence of the fundraise on the capital and voting rights distribution

To Valbiotis' knowledge, the shares allocation before and after the completion of the Global Offering is as follows:

Incidence on the capital distribution

Shareholders Before the Global Offering After the Global Offering Number of shares % of capital Number of shares % of capital Stake of board members (1) 668,759 6.86% 668,759 5.38% Sebastien PELTIER (via Djanka Investissement and as an individual) 643,650 6.61% 643,650 5.18% Pascal SIRVENT 19,200 0.20% 19,200 0.15% Murielle CAZAUBIEL 410 0.00% 410 0.00% Sebastien BESSY 5,499 0.06% 5,499 0.04% Stake of Supervisory Board members (2) 10,400 0.11% 10,400 0.08% Public 9,032,179 92.70% 11,730,646 94.41% Liquidity contract 15,113 0.16% 15,113 0.12% TOTAL 9,743,859 100.00% 12,424,918 100.00%

(1) Not binded by an action in concert

(2) Laurent LEVY only. The other members of the Supervisory Board do not hold any shares.

Incidence on the voting rights distribution

Shareholders Before the Global Offering After the Global Offering Number of voting rights % of capital Number of voting rights % of voting rights Stake of board members (1) 1,283,959 12.31% 1,283,959 9.80% Sebastien PELTIER (via Djanka Investissement and as an individual) 1,248,650 11.98% 1,248,650 9.53% Pascal SIRVENT 26,400 0.25% 26,400 0.20% Murielle CAZAUBIEL 410 0.00% 410 0.00% Sebastien BESSY 8,499 0.08% 8,499 0.06% Stake of Supervisory Board members (2) 10,400 0.10% 10,400 0.08% Public 9,115,160 87.42% 11,813,627 90.13% Liquidity contract 0 0.00% 0 0.00% TOTAL 10,426,927 100.00% 13,107,986 100.00%

(1) Not binded by an action in concert.

(2) Laurent LEVY only. The other members of the Supervisory Board do not hold any shares.

Lock-up and abstention commitments

Mr. Sebastien PELTIER, Chairman of the Management Board, currently holding, either directly or through his company DJANKA, 643,650 shares representing 6.6% of the capital and 1,248,650 voting rights representing 12.0% of the voting rights of the undiluted Company has made the commitment to keep its shares, until the publication of the result on the primary endpoint (fasting blood glucose, TOTUM63, 3 intakes per day versus placebo) of the international multicentric Phase II/III REVERSE-IT clinical study (see press releases of July 28, 2022 and September 15, 2022) and at the latest until July 31, 2023. This commitment was made subject to the usual exceptions and the possibility of sales of securities up to an overall maximum amount of 20 K per year.

In addition, the Company has made a commitment to abstain for 180 days following the date of settlement-delivery of the Global Offering, subject to the usual exceptions.

Admission to trading of new shares

The new shares will bear dividend rights and will be admitted to trading on the Euronext Growth Paris market under the same ISIN code: FR0013254851 ALVAL. They will be subject to all statutory provisions and will be ranked with the existing shares upon completion of the fundraise. The settlement-delivery of the new shares and their admission to trading on the Euronext Growth Paris market is scheduled November 11, 2022

The information presented in this press release is so following the placement of shares through an accelerated bookbuilding process and the PrimaryBid platform, now closed, but remains subject to the correct execution of the settlement-delivery operations. The Offer has not resulted in or will not result in the preparation of a prospectus submitted to the AMF for approval.

Risk factors

The public's attention is drawn to the risk factors relating to Valbiotis and its business, presented in Chapter 3 of the Universal Registration Document filed with the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) on May 19, 2022 under number D.22-0451 and in the amendment to the 2021 Universal Registration Document filed with the AMF on November 8, 2022 which are available free of charge on Valbiotis' website (https://www.valbiotis.com/informations-reglementees/). The occurrence of some or all of these risks could have an adverse effect on Valbiotis' business, financial position, results, development or prospects. The risk factors presented in said documents are identical as of the date of this press release.

In addition, investors are invited to take into consideration the following risks specific to the issue:

the market price of Valbiotis shares could fluctuate and fall below the subscription price of the new shares issued in the context of the transaction;

due to fluctuations in the stock markets, the volatility and liquidity of the Valbiotis shares may vary significantly;

sales of Valbiotis shares may occur on the secondary market after the completion of the transaction and have an unfavorable impact on the Valbiotis share price;

Valbiotis' shareholders could suffer additional dilution as a result of any future capital increases;

as the securities are not intended to be listed on a regulated market, investors will not benefit from the guarantees associated with regulated markets.

Such events could have a material adverse effect on the market price of Valbiotis' shares.

This press release does not constitute a prospectus under Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017, as amended, or an offer to the public

About Valbiotis

Valbiotis is a Research Development company committed to scientific innovation for preventing and combating metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in response to unmet medical needs.

Valbiotis has adopted an innovative approach, aiming to revolutionize healthcare by developing a new class of health nutrition products designed to reduce the risk of major metabolic diseases, relying on a multi-target strategy enabled by the use of plant-based terrestrial and marine resources.

Its products are intended to be licensed to players in the health sector.

Created at the beginning of 2014 in La Rochelle, the Company has forged numerous partnerships with leading academic centers. The Company has established three sites in France Perigny, La Rochelle (17) and Riom (63) and a subsidiary in Quebec City (Canada).

Valbiotis is a member of the "BPI Excellence" network and has been recognized as an "Innovative Company" by the BPI label. Valbiotis has also been awarded "Young Innovative Company" status and has received major financial support from the European Union for its research programs via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Valbiotis is a PEA-SME eligible company.

For more information about Valbiotis, please visit: www.valbiotis.com

Name: Valbiotis

ISIN code: FR0013254851

Ticker symbol: ALVAL

EnterNext PEA-PME 150

This press release contains forward-looking statements about Valbiotis' objectives. Valbiotis considers that these projections are based on rational hypotheses and the information available to Valbiotis at the present time. However, in no way does this constitute a guarantee of future performance, and these projections may be affected by changes in economic conditions and financial markets, as well as certain risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Valbiotis Universal Registration Document filed to the French Financial Markets Regulator (AMF) on May 19, 2022 and completed by an amendment on November 8, 2022. This document is available on the Company's website (www.valbiotis.com).

This press release and the information it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a solicitation to purchase or subscribe to Valbiotis' shares or financial securities in any country.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006291/en/

Contacts:

Corporate communication Valbiotis

Carole ROCHER

Directrice Communication et Affaires Publiques

Marc DELAUNAY

Responsable Communication

+33 5 46 28 62 58

media@valbiotis.com

Financial communication Actifin

Stephane RUIZ

Directeur Associe

+33 1 56 88 11 14

sruiz@actifin.fr

Loris DAOUGABEL

Medias relations

+ 33 1 56 88 11 16

ldaougabel@actifin.fr
EAGLE-1 satellite for ESA's end-to-end Quantum Key Distribution system to launch on the Vega C rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana in 2024

The EAGLE-1 satellite, which will support the end-to-end secure Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system for Europe, will be launched for SES by Arianespace on a Vega C rocket from French Guiana as early as Q4 2024. The satellite will be placed into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The EAGLE-1 project comprising satellite and ground infrastructure, is developed by SES and its consortium of 20 European partners, with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission support.

Under the recently-signed agreement with ESA, SES and its partners will design, develop, launch and operate a satellite-based end-to-end QKD system for the purpose of testing and validating space-based secure transmission of cryptographic keys. The first European sovereign space-based QKD system will include the dedicated low earth orbit (LEO) EAGLE-1 satellite and state-of-the-art QKD operations centre in Luxembourg. In the scope of EuroQCI, the EAGLE-1 satellite will enable early access, validation, and integration of space-based QKD for EU Member States.

"Building the EAGLE-1 end-to-end system for secure data transmission and validating the long-distance Quantum Key Distribution technology is an innovative project that will benefit the EU Member States," said Ruy Pinto, Chief Technology Officer at SES. "We have been working with Arianespace for decades to deliver our satellites into space and are delighted for them to be onboard to launch the EAGLE-1 satellite into orbit."

"We are delighted and honored by this renewed mark of confidence from the leading global content connectivity service provider SES," noted Marino Fragnito, Director of Arianespace's Vega business unit. "Over the last 38 years, Arianespace has carried out 42 launches for its longstanding partner, and Vega C will now continue this successful track record. It is a great honor for us to support our customer's ambitions and to be part of this mission that aims at implementing Europe's satellite-enabled cybersecurity technology."

Following the launch, the EAGLE-1 satellite will complete three years of in-orbit mission supported by the European Commission. During this operational phase, the satellite will allow European Union governments and institutions, as well as critical business sectors, early access to long-distance QKD that would path the way towards an EU constellation enabling ultra-secure data transmissions.

The EAGLE-1 project is co-funded by the ESA contribution of Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Czech Republic under ARTES, as well as the European Commission through Horizon Europe.

Vega C, the new European light launcher successfully passed its inaugural flight on July 13 and now enters its operational phase under the responsibility of Arianespace. With this contract, Vega C backlog includes over 40 satellites contracts.

Vega C development program has been managed by ESA with 12 Member States of the Agency. Avio Spa (Colleferro, Italy) is the industrial prime of the Vega launch system. Vega C has been upgraded with more powerful first and second stage Solid Rocket Motors and with a larger fairing, which significantly increases payload mass and double allowable volume as compared to Vega. The launcher also better meets the specific needs of small spacecrafts, thanks to its improved SSMS dispenser and to its AVUM+ that allows seven re-ignitions instead of five. Vega C can thus deliver to three different separation orbits for its multiple payloads within the same mission, instead of the two previously possible with Vega.

For more information, visit theEAGLE-1 Newsroom

Follow SES on:

Twitter Facebook YouTube LinkedIn Instagram

Read our Blogs >

Visit the Media Gallery

Follow Arianespace on:

Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram

About ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. For more information see www.esa.int

The Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Directorate (TIA) supports innovation to boost the competitiveness of European industry in the global space market. This involves a wide range of activities, from space-based technology, systems, products for telecommunications development to the down-to-Earth application of space-based services. It also calls for engagement with a wide range of industrial, academic, and institutional partners. For more information, please visit our website: https://artes.esa.int/

About SES

SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world's only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world's leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES's video network carries ~8,000 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 366 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com.

About Arianespace

Arianespace uses Space to make life better on Earth by providing launch services for all types of satellites into all orbits. It has orbited over 1,100 satellites since 1980. Arianespace is responsible for operating the new-generation Ariane 6 and Vega C launchers, developed by ESA, with respectively ArianeGroup and Avio as industrial primes. Arianespace is headquartered in Evry, near Paris, and has a technical facility at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, plus local offices in Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Singapore. Arianespace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, which holds 74% of its share capital, with the balance held by 15 other shareholders from the Ariane and Vega European launcher industry, and ESA and Cnes as censors.

www.arianespace.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006349/en/

Contacts:

For further information:

Suzanne Ong

External Communications, SES

Tel. +352 710 725 500

suzanne.ong@ses.com
EQS-News: PlusPlus Capital Financial S.a.r.l. / Key word(s): Bond

PlusPlus Capital on solvency and operational activities related to cross-default of 2026 EUR bond



08.11.2022 / 19:45 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





PlusPlus Capital on solvency and operational activities related to cross-default of 2026 EUR bond



Tallinn, Estonia, 8 November 2022. PlusPlus Capital ("PPC"), a leading Pan-Baltic and Finnish technology-driven receivables management group, confirms in relation to the ad hoc announcement published on 7 November 2022 regarding the cross-default of the 2026 EUR bond that the issuer of the bond PlusPlus Capital Financial S.a r.l. as well as the parent company AS PlusPlus Capital are solvent and continue to perform regular business operations in line with management expectations and have more assets than liabilities, as demonstrated by the latest 6-month 2022 report disclosed on 15 August 2022. As of 30 June 2022, the company's assets amounted to EUR 125.1 million and liabilities to EUR 81.4 million. According to the terms and conditions of the 2026 EUR bond, the liabilities accruing from the 2026 EUR bond are collateralized at 150% of the expected remaining collections (ERC).

PlusPlus Capital in view of the successful operational business development is committed and optimistic to finding a sustainable and satisfactory solution with the involvement of the investors soon.

PlusPlus Capital will publish its 2022 Nine-Month Report on 15 November 2022. The corresponding earnings call will be held on 17 November 2022.



Contact:

PlusPlus Capital

Peeter Piho, Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Email: peeter.piho@plusplus.ee

Phone: +372 503 0130

Aalto Capital (Investor Relations)

Sven Pauly, Consultant

Email: sven.pauly@aaltocapital.com

Phone: +49 89 898 67 77 0



About PlusPlus Capital:

PlusPlus is a pan-Baltic and Finnish technology-driven receivables management company with offices in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, and Helsinki. The Company acquires overdue loans and other non-performing exposures from financial institutions and non-financial sector merchants. With its core competence in handling claims against private individuals, PlusPlus prefers diversified portfolios balanced by geography, portfolio type, and other metrics.

Since its inception in 2010, PlusPlus has bought over 100 thousand claims with nominal value of approximately EUR 274 million as at 30 June 2022. The Company offers its clients affordable recovery solutions and aims to avoid litigious scenarios. In doing so, PlusPlus pursues win-win solutions that allow sellers to focus on their core business, provide affordable solutions for borrowers, and ensure adequate returns for investors.

PlusPlus is a transparent and socially responsible company set to assist people in resolving problems connected with their insufficient solvency. The ambition of PlusPlus is to increase its market share and further strengthen its position as a leading player in its regional market.

pluspluscapital.eu

08.11.2022 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


Poddevin joins DNA Script in a year of immense growth in hiring, financing, commercialization and collaborations.

DNA Script, a world leader in Enzymatic DNA Synthesis (EDS) for DNA on demand, further strengthened its leadership team with the addition of Bruno Poddevin, Ph.D., who brings 30 years of experience in the oligo manufacturing industry to the role of Senior VP, Business and Corporate Development.

In his new position, Poddevin will manage DNA Script's external collaborations and partnerships, targeting a faster integration of EDS into established as well as innovative molecular biology and synthetic biology processes.

"DNA Script has achieved significant growth since its founding 8 years ago, and we are now in the next phase of becoming the global leader in EDS on demand," said Thomas Ybert, Ph.D., CEO and cofounder of DNA Script. "Business development is a strong emphasis and key growth driver for our business, and Bruno brings both depth and breadth of experience and his established network to aid in expanding our market presence and realizing our global development strategies."

Poddevin has spent his professional career in the oligos industry, having held responsibilities in several pioneering DNA synthesis companies including Genset Oligos, Proligo, Sigma-Genosys, MWG Biotech and Operon Biotechnologies. Over the past 15 years he initiated and managed the Genomic Services branch of Eurofins, where he helped translate DNA-based technologies into business applications serving a broad range of market segments including food, environment, pharma testing and clinical genetics testing as well as agro- and forensic sciences. Poddevin holds a Master of Engineering and a Ph.D. in molecular biology.

"In less than 10 years EDS has reached the level of performance that chemical DNA synthesis took 50 years to reach. Each technology iteration further improves its performance. It is clear that this technology will solve problems that traditional DNA synthesis methods could not solve, opening new avenues for using DNA in applications that have thus far been inaccessible, all of it in a more environmentally friendly way," said Poddevin. "DNA Script is the leader of this new way of making DNA, and I am very excited to join this young and energetic team and contribute to making this next generation of oligo synthesis broadly available."

Poddevin joins DNA Script in a year where the company has seen immense growth in hiring, financing, commercialization and collaborations. In early 2022 the company announced a $200 million Series C investment round. They continued this momentum with an expansion of their global presence in Asia Pacific and the Middle East for the sale, distribution and support of its products through distribution agreements as well as the launch of new synthesis kits enabling longer oligos and modifications. The company announced continued collaborations with the French Defense Innovation Agency, in liaison with the French Armament General Directorate (DGA), to detect and diagnose new pathogens, and a partnership with Wellcome Leap to accelerate the development of RNA-based products, including messenger RNA vaccines. Most recently, DNA Script received the Grand Prize Trophy at the 2022 French Future Unicorns Ceremony.

About DNA Script

Founded in 2014, DNA Script is a pioneering life sciences technology company developing a new, faster, more powerful and versatile way to design and manufacture nucleic acids. The company has developed an alternative to traditional DNA synthesis called Enzymatic DNA Synthesis, or EDS, enabling this technology to be accessible to labs with the first benchtop enzymatic synthesis instrument, the SYNTAX System. By putting DNA synthesis back in the lab, DNA Script aims to transform life sciences research through innovative technology that gives researchers unprecedented control and autonomy. www.dnascript.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005380/en/

Contacts:

Contact DNA Script

Joleen Rau

joleen.rau@dnascript.co

publicrelations@dnascript.co

Contact presse en Europe

ALIZE RP

Caroline Carmagnol

06 64 18 99 59

caroline@alizerp.com

Contact presse aux US

Seismic Collaborative/Spectrum Science

Valerie Enes

415-692-6799

valerie@teamseismic.com
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 9, 2022) - Li-FT Power Ltd. (CSE: LIFT) (FSE: WS0) ("Li-FT" or the "Company") is pleased to provide exploration results for the Rupert Project located in the James Bay region of northern Quebec, Canada (Figure 1). During the summers of 2021 and 2022, the Company completed a total of 13,093 till geochemistry samples within the Rupert, Moyenne, and Pontax Projects of which 9,523 samples are located within the Rupert Property (Figure 2). A total of 892 grab samples from boulders or outcrop were collected of which 826 samples are located in the Rupert Project. The goal of the 2021 and 2022 exploration programs was to confirm the presence of lithium pegmatite mineralization beneath extensive glacial sediment cover within the region. Results from the Rupert Project are reported hereon in.

Francis MacDonald, CEO of Li-FT, comments, "We are quite pleased with the results of the Rupert exploration program. We have effectively screened a large amount of prospective ground and distilled this down into seven targets for follow-up. The size and tenor of Anomalies A and B suggests that additional lithium deposits similar in size to Whabouchi, Canada's largest hardrock lithium deposit, could be located on Li-FT's ground. We look forward to diamond drill testing these targets in 2023, as well as moving other anomalies through the pipeline towards drill targeting next summer."

Exploration Program Details

During summer of 2021, a LIDAR survey was completed over the Rupert Project and was used to produce an interpreted surficial geology map. Till geochemistry samples were planned on a roughly 1,500 by 150 meter grid spacing in areas interpreted as glacial till. One kilogram of sediment was collected by Dutch auger from the C-horizon at a depth of 20-100 centimeters. Samples were sieved to -63 microns, digested in a 4-acid solution then sent for ICP-MS analysis. A 30 gram split was taken for Au analysis by aqua regia - ICP-MS.

Results from the 2021 till geochemistry program produced 16 areas of areas of interest (AOIs) characterized by anomalous Li +/- pathfinder elements. AOIs were selected based on the strength of geochemical anomalism, the spatial extents of anomalism, and also the quality of the sampled material (i.e. till vs. sand).

In the 16 AOIs from the 2021 survey, additional till geochemistry sampling on a 200 meter by 200 meter grid spacing was completed in the summer of 2022. Regional geologic mapping and prospecting were also completed in selected AOIs. The results from the 2022 exploration program produced seven anomalous areas that are discussed below.

Figure 1 - Location map of the Rupert, Moyenne, and Pontax Projects, James Bay region, northern Quebec.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_009full.jpg

Till Geochemistry and Rock Sampling Results

Till geochemistry sampling over the Rupert Project has produced a number of coherent Li +/- Cs-Ta-Nb-Rb-Sn-Mn-Ga anomalies (see Figure 2 for map of Li till geochemistry results). Anomaly A and B (Figure 3 & 4) which are located approximately 10 to 15 kilometers north to northeast of the Whabouchi Li deposit and are the highest tenor and are most internally consistent and spatially constrained.

Anomaly A has a geochemical signature of Li-Cs-Ta-Sn-Nb-Mn and has dimensions of 3,300 meters in length by 500-1000 meters in width. The orientation of the till geochemical anomalism is parallel to the dominant ice direction which indicates a bedrock structural orientation trending northeast. A total of 17 rock samples were collected within the anomalous area, none of which returned any significant Li assays. Till geochemistry anomalism remains unexplained and can be related to lithium mineralization under extensive glacial sediment cover.

Anomaly B has a geochemical signature of Li-Ta-Sn-Ga-Nb +/- Cs-Rb-P and has dimensions of 1,800 meters in length by 1,300 meters in width. The orientation of the till geochemical anomalism is perpendicular to the dominant ice flow direction suggesting that the bedrock structural orientation may be trending northwest. A total of 21 rock samples were collected within the anomalous area; the best assay result was:

Li: 425 ppm (0.09% Li2O)

Rb: 1,091 ppm

Cs: 1,348 ppm

Be: >1,000 ppm

Figure 2 - Lithium till geochemistry results from 2021 and 2022 exploration programs covering the Rupert Project.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_010full.jpg

This rock sample was collected approximately one kilometer to the north of the till geochemistry anomaly in outcrop from a muscovite-rich pegmatitic dyke with 20 by 2 centimeter-long beryl crystals. The presence of coarse-grained beryl suggests highly fractionated pegmatites are present in the area and that the potential for spodumene-bearing pegmatites is excellent.

Anomaly C is located nine kilometers south of the Whabouchi Li deposit (Figure 5) and has a Li-Cs-Sn +/- Ga-Nb-W-As geochemical signature. The spatial extents of the anomaly have not been delineated to date as the claims hosting the up-ice extents of anomalism were only recently acquired (see press release dated September 22, 2022). Geochemical anomalism occurs in two areas, both of which have dimensions of ~1,600 meters in length and 500-600 meters in width.

Anomaly D (Figure 6) has a geochemical signature of Li-Cs-Rb +/- Bi. Li-Rb anomalism is constrained to a 600m x 200m area, which occurs within a 3,800 meter x 1,000 meter area of Cs anomalism spatially associated with a pegmatitic granite.

Figure 3 - Locations of Anomaly A and B in relation to the Whabouchi Li deposit. Anomalies A and B are located near the contacts of a large pegmatitic granite pluton, similar to the Whabouchi deposit.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_011full.jpg

Anomaly E (Figure 6) is located near the contact of sedimentary and volcanic rocks and has a geochemical signature of Li-Cs +/- Mn. Geochemical anomalism is constrained within a 2,000 meter x 400 meter area.

Figure 4 - Comparison of Anomalies A and B with the deposit outline of the Whabouchi Li deposit. The scale of till geochemistry anomalism suggests that targets similar in size to Whabouchi deposit could be located on Li-FT's property.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_012full.jpg

Anomaly F (Figure 6) is located in the southwestern corner of the Property and has a geochemical signature of Li-Cs +/- W. The anomaly is spatially associated with a pegmatitic granite.

Ta-Nb anomaly is a 2,800m x 2,000m Ta-Nb-Mn anomaly located at a prominent structural bend in the Lac des Montagnes greenstone belt (Figure 7). Geochemical anomalism is within till and glaciofluvial sand - more work needs to be completed in order to understand the surficial geology of the area and to identify potential bedrock sources. The anomaly is completely closed off which leads the Company to believe that anomalism is sourced locally from within Li-FT's property. The presence of Ta-Nb-Mn suggests that anomalism is most likely due to columbite-tantalite which is typically found in fractionated pegmatites.

Discussion of Results

The 2021/2022 Rupert exploration programs effectively screened approximately 1,000 km2 of prospective geology that hosts Whabouchi, Canada's largest hardrock lithium deposit. The results from these programs have vectored the company in to seven areas for additional follow-up.

Figure 5 - Location of Anomaly C in relation to the Whabouchi Li deposit.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_013full.jpg

At Anomaly A and B, the scale of Li and pathfinder till geochemistry anomalies is impressive when compared to the size of the Whabouchi lithium deposit (Figure 4). The geological setting is also similar to Whabouchi, on the edge of a large pegmatitic granite body, which could be the causative fertile granitic pluton. Lithium pegmatites typically occur in clusters around fertile granites so the presence of additional lithium pegmatite mineralization around Whabouchi should be expected.

At Anomaly C, extensive Li anomalism has not been fully constrained and requires more exploration work to be completed. The geology of the area is similar to the Whabouchi deposit

with geochemical anomalism occurring at the contact between sedimentary and volcanic rocks on the southern margin of the Lac des Montagnes greenstone belt. Pegmatitic granites are present and historic tantalum pegmatite showings to the northeast suggest that highly fractionated pegmatites are present within this structural trend. Additional till geochemistry samples need to be collected in summer 2023 in order to delineate the spatial extents of Li and pathfinder element anomalism.







Figure 6 - Locations of Anomalies D, E, and F in the southwestern portion of the Rupert Project.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_014full.jpg

Anomalies D, E, and F, located in the southwestern part of the property, have smaller geochemical footprints than Anomalies A, B, and C, in the northern part of the property. Additional work needs to be done to understand if there are viable drill targets within these anomalies

The extensive Ta-Nb anomaly in the southern part of the Property requires additional work to understand where the anomaly could be sourced from. Potential for primary tantalum mineralization may exist in the area, similar to the Tanco Mine in Manitoba.







Figure 7 - Ta-Nb anomaly in the southern part of the Rupert Project. The presence of coincident Ta-Nb-Mn indicates that geochemical anomalism is most likely caused by columbite-tantalite which are typically found in highly fractionated pegmatites.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8766/143555_187cfae3e4ffca40_015full.jpg

Additional Work Completed

The Company collected 37 ten kilogram till samples and sent them to Overburden Drilling Management for Moderate Density Mineral Separation (MDMS) in order to look for spodumene grains within the till. The Company expects results by January, 2023.

QA/QC and Sampling Protocols

Till geochemistry samples were collected between 20 - 80 centimeters below surface from the C-horizon of glacial till. Approximately one kilogram of material was collected from each sample site and shipped to Bureau Veritas ("BV") in Timmins, Ontario for preparation. Samples were prepared for analysis according to BV method SS230 whereby individual samples were sieved to isolate the -230 mesh (-63 microns) fraction. Samples were analysed at BV in Vancouver, British Columbia with BV methods MA250 (4-acid digestion with ICP-MS finish) for multi-element data (0.25g split is heated in HNO3, HClO4 and HF to fuming and taken to dryness. The residue is dissolved in HCl), and BV method AQ130 (aqua regia with ICP-MS finish) for gold analysis (30 grams of material digested in aqua regia).

Rock grab samples were collected from boulders or outcrop. Between 0.5 and 2 kilograms of material was placed in a plastic bag and submitted to BV in Timmins, Ontario for preparation. Samples were prepared for analysis according to BV method PRP70-250; 250 grams of material is crushed, split and pulverized to isolate the -200 mesh (-74 micron) fraction. 0.25 grams of this material was analysed using BV method MA250 (see description above) for multi-element analysis. 30 grams of material was analysed using BV method FA430 (lead collection fire assay with AAS finish).

Qualified Person

Don Cummings, P.Geo (OGQ # 2183), independent consultant to Li-FT Power Ltd., Qualified Person under NI 43- 101 on standards of disclosure for mineral projects, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this release.

For further information, please contact:

Francis MacDonald

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (604) 609-6185

Email: info@li-ft.com

Website: www.li-ft.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors.

Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, including the effects of COVID-19. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration is available.

______________________________________



1Mineral resource estimate from 43-101 technical report titled "NI 43-101 TECHNICAL REPORT FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THE WHABOUCHI LITHIUM MINE AND SHAWINIGAN ELECTROCHEMICAL PLANT" dated February 21, 2018, authored by Dupere et al. Resource quoted is within Table 1.4 - Whabouchi Deposit in Pit Mineral Resource Estimate: Measured - 16,953,000 tons at 1.57% Li2O, Indicated - 20,403,000 tons at 1.41% Li2O (Cut-off grade of 0.30% Li2O)



To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143555
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Insurtech company Ondo InsurTech Plc announced Wednesday that it has signed a renewal contract with Anglo-Bermudan insurer Hiscox Ltd. (HSX.L) for LeakBot in the UK. Hiscox, an early adopter of the Leakbot system, will continue to offer LeakBot to new and existing customers through its direct customer journey and broker network The company noted that Hiscox have been benefiting from introducing the LeakBot system since 2019 and plan to continue to roll out devices to more of their customer base. The new signing follows the release of the Consumer Intelligence independent research that found that insurers save 70% in water damage claims by introducing LeakBot. Cheralyn Perry, Head of Art and Private Clients Distribution at Hiscox, said, 'LeakBot have been helping Hiscox customers to minimise the frequency of leaks and the impact of any water damage for a while now. Escape of water incidents is disruptive and costly, which is why preventative technologies like this are so important.' 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.
Regulatory News:

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL), the leading satellite operator has inked a deal with Tizeti, West Africa's pioneer solar-based internet service provider and a leading provider of community connectivity solutions to jointly improve broadband penetration in Nigeria, especially in underserved locations. The two companies announced during the sidelines of the AfricaCom 2022 trade fair that they will deploy Eutelsat's KA-band satellite connectivity, Konnect, to reach remote communities throughout Nigeria and provide fast, and affordable internet services.

Despite 44.5 percent broadband penetration, covered largely by Mobile Network Operators, reliable internet connectivity is still limited to a few states. The partnership between Tizeti and Eutelsat will provide a complementary solution that leverages satellite broadband infrastructure and Tizeti's community Wi-FI management platform to deliver a fast and affordable public wi-fi hotspot service, especially in remote areas that are difficult to reach by terrestrial broadband infrastructure.

Philippe Baudrier, Eutelsat's General Manager Connectivity for Africa said "Eutelsat's ambition is to connect one million unserved people across sub-Saharan Africa to high-speed internet over the next 5 years and this partnership with Tizeti will help bridge Nigeria's digital divide and unlock the wealth of social and economic opportunities that the internet brings".

Speaking on the partnership, Tizeti's Chief Executive Officer of Tizeti, Kendall Ananyi, said that satellite broadband will complement Tizeti's existing initiatives and lay a foundation for a robust and thriving digital ecosystem across Nigeria. "Our partnership with Eutelsat extends our mission of bringing affordable and reliable internet to more Nigerians and provides us with the opportunity to accelerate the expansion of broadband internet via satellite, to bridge the digital gap and improve digital transformation for more Nigerians", Ananyi said.

Konnect's Community Wi-Fi (Konnect Wi-Fi) initiative has already seen considerable success across Africa with hundreds of sites providing internet access to tens of thousands of people every week.

For many countries in Africa, there is still a huge digital divide. This boundary between connected and unconnected translates into clear consequences for employment, education, family and social life, and access to information. Partnerships such as this play a significant role in addressing the digital infrastructure deficits in emerging economies, leveraging innovative technology and capabilities, to improve development outcomes for millions of people.

About Konnect

Konnect is the Eutelsat Group entity in charge of retail marketing for a new generation of superfast satellite broadband services. As its implementation accelerates, Konnect is redefining the connectivity expectations of people who live and/or work outside the geographical boundaries of fiber, enabling them to access an immediately available service with ultra-fast, unlimited, and competitive offers of up to 100Mbps. To find out more about Konnect's offers, visit www.konnect.com

About Tizeti

Tizeti is a fast-growing Wireless Internet service provider in Lagos, Nigeria, delivering high-speed unlimited Wi-Fi Internet access to residential and business customers using wide-area Wi-Fi. Its services are available in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Edo and Rivers States. It is also expanding rapidly to other African countries, with successful launches in Accra and Tema, Ghana. To find out more about Tizeti, visit www.tizeti.com

About Eutelsat Communications

Founded in 1977, Eutelsat Communications is one of the world's leading satellite operators. With a global fleet of satellites and associated ground infrastructure, Eutelsat enables clients across Video, Data, Government, Fixed and Mobile Broadband markets to communicate effectively to their customers, irrespective of their location. Around 7,000 television channels operated by leading media groups are broadcast by Eutelsat to one billion viewers equipped for DTH reception or connected to terrestrial networks. Committed to promoting all facets of sustainable development across its business activities, Eutelsat leverages its in-orbit resources to help bridge the digital divide while maintaining a safe and uncluttered space environment. As an attractive and socially responsible employer, Eutelsat assembles 1,200 men and women from 50 countries who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of service.

For more about Eutelsat go to www.eutelsat.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005485/en/

Contacts:

Media

Anita Baltagi

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 47 47

abaltagi@eutelsat.com

Daphne Joseph-Gabriel

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 47 47

djosephgabriel@eutelsat.com

Investors

Thomas Cardiel

Tel.: +33 1 53 98 46 81

tcardiel@eutelsat.com
LINKOPING, Sweden and SHELTON, Conn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a contract with Boston Medical Center (BMC) for enterprise imaging as a subscription (Sectra One). The solution has the capability of supporting all current and future imaging needs through a common platform with advanced diagnostic and clinical tools, integrated with Epic.

The contract, signed in September 2022, includes modules for radiology, breast imaging, and orthopaedics. Additionally, the Sectra VNA will archive all radiology images within the health system and enable future enterprise image storage across other specialties.

"We are excited to begin this new partnership between Sectra and Boston Medical Center," says Eric Podradchik, senior director, electronic health records at BMC. "Moving to Sectra will offer our radiologists immediate opportunities for efficiency and productivity improvements that only come with a first class PACS solution. Beyond that, Sectra PACS & VNA will provide the backbone of an enterprise imaging strategy at Boston Medical Center. This goal will improve our providers' ability to care for our underserved patient population by providing a consistent reading platform and access to all images across different physician specialties throughout BMC."

"Sectra will enhance BMC's physician workflow by providing its radiologists with a multi-modality enterprise overview and its orthopedic surgeons the ability to do 2D and 3D pre-operative planning," says Isaac Zaworski, president of Sectra, Inc.

Sectra's enterprise imaging solution provides a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to enterprise. Visit Sectra's website to read more about Sectra and why it's top-ranked in "Best in KLAS".

Epic is a registered trademark of Epic Systems Corporation.

About Boston Medical Center

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, not-for-profit, 514-bed, academic medical center that is the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. It is the largest and busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. BMC offers specialized care for complex health problems and is a leading research institution, receiving more than $110 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2021. It is the 13th largest funding recipient in the U.S. from the National Institutes of Health among independent hospitals. WellSense Health Plan was founded in 1997 as Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan, now one of the top ranked Medicaid MCOs in the country, as a non-profit managed care organization. Boston Medical Center and Chobanian & Avedisian SOM are partners in Boston HealthNet - 12 community health centers focused on providing exceptional health care to residents of Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.bmc.org.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Torbjorn Kronander, CEO and President Sectra AB, 46 (0) 705 23 52 27

Marie Ekstrom Tragardh, Executive Vice President Sectra AB and President Sectra Imaging IT Solutions, 46 (0)708 23 56 10

The following files are available for download:

https://news.cision.com/sectra/i/sectra-s-enterprise-imaging-solution,c3111559 Sectra's enterprise imaging solution

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/boston-medical-center-selects-sectra-enterprise-imaging-for-radiology-breast-imaging-and-orthopaedics-301672716.html
EQS-News: Societe Royale d' Encouragement du Cheval (SOREC) / Key word(s): Conference

The Societe Royale d'Encouragement du Cheval (SOREC) organizes the 8th edition of the Morocco International Meeting of horse racing (MIM), November 19th and 20th, at Casablanca-Anfa Racecourse



09.11.2022 / 10:30 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





The Societe Royale d'Encouragement du Cheval (SOREC) organizes the 8th edition of the Morocco International Meeting of horse racing (MIM), November 19th and 20th, at Casablanca-Anfa Racecourse.

This major event welcomes a list of prestigious Moroccan and international participants

The Societe Royale d'Encouragement du Cheval (SOREC) (https://www.SOREC.ma) will host the 8th edition of the Morocco International Meeting (MIM), an event organized annually on the third weekend of November.

This major event welcomes a list of prestigious Moroccan and international participants. SOREC has mobilized the best resources to organize this event in accordance with the international standards, as it continues its mission to strengthen the role of MIM in promoting Moroccan horse racing.

"Our major objective is to raise awareness about Moroccan horse racing on the international scene. We are particularly happy to be able, once again, to welcome the international horse racing community. Their trust in the Kingdom's horse racing industry, as well as their interest in the Morocco International Meeting, have strongly contributed to positioning this event among the most important stages of the racing international calendar," says Mr. Omar Skalli, CEO of SOREC.

An international program

The Morocco International Meeting program will feature 14 races-including 8 international races-with a total prize money of 750.000. The first day will be dedicated to Thoroughbreds and the second to Purebred Arabians.

The highlight races of the weekend will be the Grand Prix of His Majesty The King Mohammed VI for Purebred Arabians and for Thoroughbreds.

Purebred Arabian Day will offer three additional major prizes:

Grand Prix HRH The Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan;

Grand Prix HRH The Prince Moulay Rachid;

Prix The UAE President Cup.

Thoroughbred Day will host the Grand Prix SOREC, part of the prestigious international competition series "Defi du Galop".

Optimal benefits for participants

SOREC will provide international participants with significant support, notably for the transportation of horses and a complete welcome program.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Societe Royale d' Encouragement du Cheval (SOREC).

About SOREC

The Societe Royale d'Encouragement du Cheval (SOREC) was created in 2003 as a public company under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests. SOREC has established a unique business model on the global scene, pursuing multiple missions: Breeding supervision and improvement in the National Stud farms, Horse racing management, betting management; and the construction and operation of horse racing infrastructures. SOREC strives to positioning the equine sector as a driving force for development in rural areas, directing actions to promote breeds and monetize the role of horses to support the emergence of ecosystems that are economically viable and financially independent.

09.11.2022 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


SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With deepening reform and an improving business environment, Qianhai has once again attracted the attention of global businesses and investors. At the 2022 Qianhai Global Investment Promotion Conference held on the afternoon of November 8, a number of Fortune 500 companies, Hong Kong businesses, state-owned enterprises, and other industrial bellwethers signed agreements to set up offices in Qianhai. The expected total investment exceeded 120 billion yuan, according to the Authority of Qianhai. This has fully demonstrated the conference theme "Invest in Qianhai, Building a Winning Future", along with the economic vitality, policy appeal, and driving forces of innovation in Qianhai.

After continuous institutional innovations, the business environment in Qianhai has been acknowledged by business entities worldwide. "Qianhai not only possesses a superior talent pool, but also provides companies with comprehensive support," said Zhang Yangqing, General Manager of Merchants Union Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. "There's no better place than Qianhai with regards to Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation," stated Dr. Sunny Siu, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and founder of Jaguar Micro.

Alvin Zhong, Managing Director of Colliers Shenzhen, commented in an interview, "Qianhai has one of the top business environments around the globe. Qianhai's policies, services, market, and prospects are meaningful to companies' future business plans."

According to the Institutional Innovation Index for China Pilot Free Trade Zones released by Sun Yat-sen University, Qianhai ranks first in the country in terms of system innovation. Furthermore, a third-party assessment by Deloitte also shows that Qianhai is a global leader in such parameters as starting a business and access to electricity.

As a reform pioneer, Qianhai has never stopped making progress. At the conference, the Qianhai Global Service Providers (QGSP) Program was launched to actively attract and cultivate national top 20 or global top 50 businesses in eight fields, including modern finance, business & trade, logistics, information services, etc. The goal of the program is to build a cluster of global service providers with the world's top 500 headquarters companies as the pillars and SME industry leaders in specialized fields as the main body.

Qianhai vows to render these businesses an industrial support fund of no less than one billion yuan and an industrial space of over 200,000 square kilometers every year. Its goal is to introduce or foster more than 300 modern service providers from around the world and achieve an added value of over 100 billion yuan in the modern service sector by 2025. Qianhai will make every effort to build a core engine for the modern service industry in the Greater Bay Area and become an important producer service center in the Asia-Pacific region.

At the conference, Qianhai extended its invitation to global service providers in eight fields with business team incentives of tens of millions of yuan and an appealing 15% corporate income tax rate.

Companies in Qianhai have already felt the zone's passion for promoting investment. "This year, we officially moved our office back to Qianhai," said Zhou Xiangdong, Chief Financial Officer and Board Director of Shenzhen Hive Box Technology Co., Ltd. "On the basis of what Shenzhen provides, Qianhai offers more support for businesses in terms of finance, taxation, and administrative approval."

Wang Peiying, founder of DVF Private Equity Fund Management Co. Ltd., stated, "Seeing that a number of international financial companies are thriving in Qianhai, DVF also intends to settle here as soon as possible."

According to its plan, Qianhai will also create a series of clusters, featuring venture capital investment, natural gas trading, cross-border e-commerce, and tax services.

"Qianhai is wide open, equipped with a global platform that facilitates insight and information exchange. It will become a hub for specialized service industries in the future," Alvin Zhong added. "Qianhai is undoubtedly a desirable destination for doing business."

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/qianhai-welcomes-global-businesses-with-upgraded-incentives-301672739.html
Agency also reports that Magnet AUTOMATE accelerated digital evidence processing times by 55 per cent and improved officer wellbeing.

Magnet Forensics (TSX: MAGT), a developer of digital investigation software for more than 4,000 enterprises and public safety organizations in over 100 countries, today announced that the Greater Manchester Police, in conjunction with the U.K.'s Forensic Capability Network, has successfully accelerated its digital investigations into child sexual exploitation by deploying Magnet AUTOMATE. With Magnet AUTOMATE, a solution that uses automation and orchestration to keep police investigations running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year without human intervention, the Greater Manchester Police completed cases an average of 9.5 hours faster during a yearlong pilot.

"The Greater Manchester Police has seen an incredible increase in the volume of digital evidence, year-over-year, for the better part of a decade," said Dave Smith, head of digital forensics, Greater Manchester Police. "In the next year, the Greater Manchester Police is going to build on our early success and roll out Magnet AUTOMATE as an essential function to all our digital investigations. Magnet AUTOMATE will fundamentally improve how we address critical digital evidence and allow us to complete our digital investigations faster than we ever could by using what was once hours of downtime in evenings and weekends to continue to advance our work."

The influx of digital evidence being handled by the Greater Manchester Police is directly linked to Britons becoming more connected and welcoming more devices into their households. As of 2020, the average U.K. household contained more than 10 Internet-enabled devices, up 26 per cent from 2017. Each one of those devices contains droves of data that have proven essential to helping police fight crimes. Now, over 90 per cent of investigations have a digital element. The problem is that there is often too much digital evidence for police agencies to handle, which results in delays to investigations. Police agencies in the U.K. reportedly have a cumulative backlog of 20,000 devices that require examination, according to a recent Freedom of Information response.

"Police agencies worldwide are seeing major evidence bottlenecks form between the time that devices are collected in the field from witnesses, victims and suspects and the time that the digital evidence found on them is processed," said Jad Saliba, founder and chief technology officer of Magnet Forensics. "The Greater Manchester Police's success demonstrates the transformational impact that Magnet AUTOMATE is having on digital investigations. Magnet AUTOMATE relieves evidence bottlenecks to ensure that digital evidence is an asset that helps investigators get to the truth and does not instead become a liability that threatens to delay the pursuit of justice."

Magnet AUTOMATE is helping agencies like the Greater Manchester Police run more efficient digital investigations. The solution keeps investigations running and ensures they no longer grind to a halt by automating routine and repetitive tasks. It enables agencies to maximize their existing hardware and software investments by simultaneously processing evidence for multiple cases. When a task is complete, Magnet AUTOMATE will automatically move on to the next one and synchronize other interoperable digital investigation solutions. When a case is completed, it begins the processing for a new case. This frees digital investigators to focus on analysis during office hours and allows investigations to continue to advance during traditional downtime hours.

During the pilot, the Greater Manchester Police successfully:

Completed digital investigations an average of 9.5 hours faster

Processed digital evidence 55 per cent faster

Improved officer wellbeing by reducing exposure to sensitive content, such as child sexual abuse material

Built the foundation to further expand the use of Magnet AUTOMATE into all criminal investigations over the next 12 months.

For more information, please visit magnetforensics.com

About Magnet Forensics

Founded in 2010, Magnet Forensics is a developer of digital investigation software that acquires, analyzes, reports on, and manages evidence from digital sources, including computers, mobile devices, IoT devices and cloud services. Magnet Forensics' software is used by more than 4,000 public and private sector customers in over 100 countries and helps investigators fight crime, protect assets and guard national security.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005176/en/

Contacts:

Neil Desai

Tel: 226-243-6337

PR@magnetforensics.com
Following the successful merger,to bolster its service offering, with its sister company SeQure, Arithmos makes another strategic move to strengthen its Quality Assurance business line and expand both its and Global presence.

VERONA, Italy , Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arithmos today announces the acquisition of The Pharmaceutical Code Company (TPCC), branded as the CQA Company, a UK-based clinical quality assurance consultancy company operating in the GxP environment. Following the addition of this asset to its service portfolio, Arithmos is also set to open an office in Knutsford, near Manchester (United Kingdom), which will further solidify its position as a powerhouse in Life Sciences technology, system integration and Pharmaceutical consulting globally.











2022 has proved to be a year of significant strategic success for the Life Sciences solutions company: earlier this year, Arithmos merged with seQure, its sister company, within the PM Holding group of companies, to offer technology-enabled solutions coupled with regulatory compliance and consulting services.

Arithmos, founded in 2010, is the brainchild of PM Holding CEO and founder Paolo Morelli, with a vision of helping companies embrace innovation to deliver smarter, safer and simpler therapeutic solutions. With roots in eClinical solutions, Arithmos today has evolved to become a customer-centric company with a tailored approach to digital, business process and regulatory solutions and consultancy.

The acquisition of TPCC now gives Arithmos a tactical advantage for meeting the growing demand of the Life Sciences market, both in terms of digital transformation and the regulated demands of quality and safety in the industry. Adding solid expertise in Good Manufacturing Practices quality and compliance services to the Arithmos portfolio is the final piece of a diverse package that fosters consultancy and innovative technologies for better efficiency while safeguarding the health of patients.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Arithmos is opening an office in Knutsford, armed with an ambitious recruitment strategy, to become the operational force in one of Europe's largest Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical markets. The move completes Arithmos' goals of both business line and geographic expansion.

"This is a crucial, and exciting, time for Arithmos as we are checking off one by one our strategic growth goals," says Arithmos CEO, Paolo Morelli, "the merger with seQure unified our service offering, the acquisition of TPCC strengthens our position as a market leader for innovative technology and regulatory services, and finally, the UK office reinforces our pan-European presence. I am confident the acquisition was the best move to be able to optimise expert clinical research, regulatory affairs and quality assurance services with IT capacity and digital transformation, especially in a market shaken up by Brexit and fundamental to European therapeutic research and development".

Ewan Campbell, CEO of TPCC added, "being able to get therapies to market faster and smarter, without compromising patient wellbeing, has always been our goal in clinical research. Combining our expertise in clinical research and quality assurance with Arithmos' knowledge and experience in technological innovation solutions is guaranteed to be a win for our clients and other Life Sciences' companies. We are delighted to start this new adventure".

About Arithmos

Arithmos helps pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutraceutical, medical device, universities, hospitals and non-profit organisations to gain the best business value through technology-enabled solutions and, through the seQure business unit, Regulatory Compliance and Consulting services.

Arithmos delivers solutions and services for:

Pharmacovigilance & Safety

Regulated Document Management

Reporting & Analytics

eClinical

Quality Management

Computer System Validation

Regulatory Affairs

Cloud Services

IT Services

Arithmos' industry-leading experts combine the knowledge of processes and technologies to implement digital strategy, enable rapidly scale-up along with fulfilling oversight, governance, and compliance requirements.

Through a holistic approach, Arithmos supports Life Sciences companies with:

Digital Transformation

Business Process Re-engineering

System Integration

Data-Driven Management

Press contact

Umran Turker

Chief Commercial Officer, Arithmos

umran.turker@arithmostech.com

+39 045 585492

arithmostech.com

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Merkur Insurance is the first Austrian insurance company to use AI-generated synthetic data

GRAZ and VIENNA, Austria , Nov. 09, 2022. To this end, the Group's own start-up, the Merkur Innovation Lab, has signed a three-year partnership agreement with MOSTLY AI. The goal is to drive data-driven innovations with the help of artificial intelligence.



Just in time for its second birthday, the Merkur Innovation Lab is taking a progressive step to ensure the anonymized handling of sensitive data. Since its founding in 2020, the Innovation Lab has been working to create added value from the existing wealth of data in the form of new services and personalized customer experiences. In order to give the necessary importance to data security and the protection of personal information, Merkur Innovation Lab has signed a three-year partnership agreement with MOSTLY AI.

Two pioneers working together

With Merkur Versicherung and MOSTLY AI, two companies have joined forces that, as pioneers in their respective fields, also provide innovative solutions beyond national borders. Merkur as a holistic personal insurer, which is actively shaping the digitization of the industry, and the Viennese company MOSTLY AI as a global deep tech pioneer in the generation of AI-based, structured synthetic data and its use in the banking and insurance sectors.

AI-generated synthetic data from MOSTLY AI looks like real data and contains all the statistically relevant information of the original dataset, but without any links back to personal data points. The synthetic data sets are therefore completely anonymized, privacy safe and GDPR compliant. In the Merkur Innovation Lab, synthetic versions of customer data will be produced in the future using this technology, on which machine learning models can be trained , for example. This makes it possible to share data internally and externally in a data protection-compliant manner in order to develop better services and products for customers.

Ahead of the times

"Our daily bread is innovation. To do this, we need data sources that are connected to gain insights that no one had before. At the end of the day, we want to inspire customers with new services and increase their confidence in digitization. With this forward-thinking partnership, we are not only meeting the legal requirements for data protection, we are also taking innovation to a whole new level thanks to MOSTLY AI, and doing so for the benefit of our customers," says Daniela Pak-Graf, CO-Managing Director of Merkur Innovation Lab.

"Synthetic data helps to establish a data-driven corporate culture and drives AI-based innovation," explains Dr. Tobias Hann, CEO of MOSTLY AI. "As a Viennese start-up that's now operating globally, we are particularly proud that Merkur Versicherung, an Austrian insurance company, is taking an active part in driving the adoption of synthetic data and laying the foundation to use artificial intelligence for the benefit of both its business, and customers."

About Merkur Group

Merkur Versicherung AG is an Austrian insurance company headquartered in Graz and Salzburg. As the second largest private health insurance company in Austria and with the experience of nearly 225 years of history, Merkur Versicherung places the miracle of the human being and its protection at the center of its entrepreneurial thinking. The Merkur Group works in Austria, Italy and Southeast Europe with a total of 1,479 employees. The Merkur Innovation Lab was founded in 2020 under the leadership of Daniela Pak-Graf and Harald Neubauer.

About MOSTLY AI

MOSTLY AI pioneered the creation of synthetic data for AI model development. Datasets generated by the MOSTLY AI platform look just as real as a company's original customer data with just as many details, but without the original personal data points - helping companies comply with privacy protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, and ensuring models are fair and unbiased. The fast-growing company currently works with multiple Fortune 100 insurers and banks in Europe and North America, and has the deepest expertise in helping companies get business value out of synthetic data. Learn more at mostly.ai .

Media contacts

Merkur Group

Jurgen Pock

Spokesman| Head of Communications

Conrad-von-Hotzendorf Strae 84

Merkur Campus | 8010 Graz

Mobil: +43 664 4500936

E-Mail: juergen.pock@merkur.at

MOSTLY AI

Sabine Klisch, VP Global Marketing

+43 664 824 64 17

sabine.klisch@mostly.ai

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7280213e-d17f-4239-b4c5-4813d05abda8
GlucoModicumpublishes first-in-human data assessing the safety and effectiveness ofits MHD technologyfor accurate needle-free glucose monitoring

Human data shows high correlation between concentration of glucose in samples extracted with MHD technology against capillary blood glucose samples with MARD of 12.9%

Subsequent improvements post-trial have resulted in MARD of <9%

Results further validate MHD for accurate needle-free continuous glucose monitoring

Significant progress made in product development of Talisman with Philips-Medisize, a world leader in MedTech design and development

Helsinki, Finland, 09November 2022 - GlucoModicum, a company transforming glucose monitoring with precise, needle-free magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) technology, announces that peer-reviewed data from the first-in-human study assessing the safety and effectiveness of its proprietary MHD technology for needle-free measuring of glucose levels has been published in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature Research portfolio.

Data drawn from glucose tolerance tests on healthy volunteers obtained a strong correlation between the concentration of glucose in interstitial fluid (ISF) samples extracted with GlucoModicum's MHD technology against capillary blood glucose (CBG) samples.

The data obtained with MHD technology demonstrate a 12.9% MARD (Mean Absolute Relative Difference), a measure of the agreement between a glucose sensor reading and a reference blood glucose reading. This value lies within the range of 10-15% typically reported by commercially available CGM devices. Furthermore, no evidence of long-lasting effects on the skin were observed.

The results further validate data published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics in April this year, which demonstrated that MHD integrated with a biosensor is a highly effective method for accurate determination of glucose concentrations. Additionally, GlucoModicum published data in Scientific Reports in 2021 showing that MHD extracts ISF from the skin 13x more effectively than other needle-free approaches. Taken in combination, these datasets validate the key building blocks of GlucoModicum's technology offering: efficient extraction of ISF, strong correlation to blood glucose levels, and the integration of MHD with a biosensor in a small device. This provides a strong evidence base supporting the development of a non-invasive glucose monitor using GlucoModicum's MHD platform technology.

Alejandro Garcia, Chief Technology Officer of GlucoModicum, commented: "The benefits of continuous glucose monitoring in diabetes management are well documented, but broader adoption of CGM systems is limited by their cost and invasiveness.These results, the first from research conducted inhumans, highlight the efficacy of our proprietary MHD technology in extracting interstitial fluid through the skin,along withdemonstrating the accuracy of our approach. Recent improvements in our technology have enabled us to obtainMARD values of <9%, demonstrating an accuracy beyond many commercial, invasive CGMs."

GlucoModicum is pleased to provide an update on the product development of the Talisman, the Company's proprietary non-invasive CGM which uses MHD technology. In close collaboration with Philips-Medisize, GlucoModicum's design and development partner, the Talisman continues to be developed to ensure usability and manufacturability of the final prototype.

The publication is available online on Scientific Reports here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-21424-9

Image: Prototype of the Talisman, a non-invasive continuous glucose monitor

- END -

About GlucoModicum



GlucoModicum is transforming glucose monitoring with precise, needle-free magnetohydrodynamic technology. Its proprietary platform has the potential to radically change how people monitor their health, creating solutions that are precise, accessible and needle-free, empowering people to live healthier lives. The company's first product is a non-invasive, wearable glucose monitor for patients suffering from diabetes. GlucoModicum was founded in 2018 as a spinout of the University of Helsinki and combines an experienced, multi-disciplinary in-house team with world-class partners to deliver groundbreaking solutions for personal biomarker monitoring. www.glucomodicum.com

About Talisman

GlucoModicum's magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) technology is currently being productized as the Talisman, the first new, truly non-invasive CGM technology in 25 years. The Talisman uses MHD to extract interstitial fluid (ISF) from the skin without the use of needles, enabling rapid, painless and accurate readings of glucose levels. Talisman addresses the needs of the ~500 million diabetics and ~500 million pre-diabetics globally, and serves as a tool to promote better health among the +2 billion people at risk of developing diabetes.

GlucoModicum is undertaking an ongoing device programme with Phillips-Medisize, a global leader in design and high-volume manufacturing of FDA approved diabetes care devices. The effectiveness and accuracy of GlucoModicum's technology has been demonstrated in peer-reviewed studies assessing the efficiency of ISF extraction, biosensor compatibility and correlation of readings to blood glucose levels. Talisman will enter clinical studies in 2023.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices fell for a third straight session on Wednesday after industry data pointed to rising U.S. inventories. China demand concerns also weighed on prices. Benchmark Brent crude futures dipped 0.2 percent to $95.20 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were down 0.3 percent at $88.64. The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that oil inventories increased by 5.61 million barrels last week, following a major surprise draw in crude oil inventories of 6.53 million barrels in the previous week. The build in inventories was partially due to the Department of Energy's release of 3.6 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in the week ending November 4. The report also showed higher gasoline stockpiles, adding to demand concerns amid signs of worsening COVID-19 outbreaks in China. COVID cases hit the highest in more than five months in Beijing, with 78 new infections reported for Wednesday. The official inventory report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be out later in the day. On Tuesday, the EIA has slashed its world oil demand growth forecast for 2023 by 320,000 barrels per day while raising 2022 oil demand growth by 140,000 bpd. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Kingfisher Metals Corp. (TSXV:KFR)(FSE:970)(OTCQB:KGFMF) ("Kingfisher" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of rotary air blast ("RAB") drilling, and surface geochemical and ground geophysical surveys at the 100% owned 511 km2 Goldrange Project. Goldrange is located approximately 25 km south of the town of Tatla Lake in the Chilcotin region of Southwest British Columbia.

Highlights

The Day Trip Zone is 5 km from the Cloud Drifter Zone and these results represent the first modern exploration efforts at this zone.

Gold anomalism is analogous to horizontal gold trends in 2021 drill results from the upper Cloud Drifter Zone, which lie spatially above high-grade feeders identified in 2022 (NR link).

Highlight intercepts include 2.7 g/t Au over 4.6 m in GRR-22-023, 0.5 g/t Au over 12.2 m in GRR-22-27, 2.1 g/t Au over 4.6 m in GRR-22-026, and 0.8 g/t Au over 9.1 m in GRR-22-013.

Shallow gold intercepts are open laterally and at depth, with an overall dip in geometry toward the west where 2022 rock sampling returned grades up to 49.8 g/t Au and extended the geochemical footprint 1 km to the west.

Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey identified several strong chargeability and conductivity anomalies over 2 km; two sizeable diamond drill targets were identified from coincident chargeability-conductivity anomalies at depths below RAB drill capabilities.

Dustin Perry, CEO states, "Initial shallow RAB drilling at Day Trip shows a broad zone of open-ended gold anomalism over 1 km associated with strong chargeability and conductivity anomalies that stretch nearly 2 km. Early indications point to there potentially being a significant gold system that will need subsequent drilling to the west and at depth." Day Trip Zone Overview

Kingfisher commenced the first-ever drill program at the Day Trip Zone with a RAB drill rig in May 2022. The initial 27 holes (Table 1) focused on a ~300 m by 200 m area at shallow depths of less than 78 m.

The Day Trip Zone covers a rounded mountain top approximately 5 km southeast of the Cloud Drifter Trend (Figures 1 and 2). The target is situated between two interpreted fault splays off the regional Ottarasko Fault. High-density intrusive-hosted veins, up to 2 m in width, occur over an area ~100 m by 400 m. Quartz veins from this area returned grades from below detection limit to 6.7 g/t Au over 2 m. Adjacent to the intrusion is a ~70 m x 90 m area of arsenopyrite-cement breccia in subcrop (Figure 1). Approximately 20% of the subcrop material in this area consists of arsenopyrite-cement breccia and rocks grade from 3.4 to 20.1 g/t Au. Talus fines sampling in 2020 and 2021 outlined a broad area of gold anomalism coincident with areas of gold in outcrop and subcrop that grades up to 8.4 g/t Au. Rock and talus fines geochemistry both yield a strong multi-element signature of As, Ag, Cu, Bi, Te, Sb, Zn and Pb associated with Au.

Figure 1. Day Trip Zone RAB Drill Results and Section Locations

Figure 2: Day Trip Zone Aerial View to Southeast

RAB Drill Results

The purpose of the Day Trip RAB drill program was to identify location and geometry of anomalous gold sampled on surface. The RAB holes tested shallow extents of the target over a 250x200 m area. Broad anomalous gold is shallow or at surface and was intercepted in all but the most southerly pad, which failed to reach target depth. Gold anomalism in the sedimentary-hosted, western holes defines a 20 degree west-dipping layer that parallels bedding. Gold intercepts in the intrusive-hosted western holes are interpreted to dip steeply east, similar to the veins on surface. The overall vein geometry from surface coupled with the gold intercepts, projects toward a large conductive and chargeability anomaly (Figure 5).

The feeder to the sulfide breccia rubble identified on surface and the subhorizontal gold pattern near surface is interpreted to be rooted in an easterly fault zone to the south of the RAB drill area. One pad attempted to drill through this structure into the interpreted feeder (GRR-22-30, -31, 32), but was unable to cross the structure due to difficult conditions.

Hole* From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) GRR-22-011 4.57 9.14 4.57 0.52 GRR-22-012 7.62 16.76 9.14 0.43 GRR-22-013 0.00 9.14 9.14 0.79 GRR-22-014 0.00 9.14 9.14 0.56 GRR-22-016 0.00 9.14 9.14 0.54 GRR-22-019 4.57 27.43 22.86 0.22 GRR-22-023 10.67 15.24 4.57 2.70 Incl. 10.67 12.19 1.52 6.81 GRR-22-025 25.91 41.15 15.24 0.50 GRR-22-026 4.57 9.14 4.57 2.06 GRR-22-027 13.72 25.91 12.19 0.48 GRR-22-029 0.00 22.86 22.86 0.27

*True widths are not known at this time. All widths reported are drilled widths. Drill holes not listed between GRR-22-001 to GR-22-032 report no significant intercepts

Table 1. RAB Drill Hole Results

Hole Easting (m) Northing (m) Elevation (m) Depth (m) Azimuth Dip GRR-22-001 392313 5702390 2274 70.10 162 70 GRR-22-002 392311 5702391 2274 82.30 247 55 GRR-22-003 392311 5702393 2275 56.39 300 55 GRR-22-004 392313 5702394 2275 65.53 345 55 GRR-22-005 392314 5702394 2275 71.63 20 55 GRR-22-006 392296 5702432 2280 36.58 162 55 GRR-22-007 392295 5702432 2280 13.72 210 55 GRR-22-008 392264 5702379 2273 82.30 15 70 GRR-22-009 392262 5702376 2272 41.15 247 55 GRR-22-010 392264 5702375 2272 19.81 160 55 GRR-22-011 392266 5702377 2273 44.20 90 55 GRR-22-012 392264 5702377 2272 19.81 0 90 GRR-22-013 392278 5702407 2279 67.06 0 90 GRR-22-014 392278 5702406 2278 45.72 90 65 GRR-22-015 392278 5702407 2278 16.76 247 60 GRR-22-016 392278 5702407 2279 54.86 20 60 GRR-22-017 392254 5702346 2271 41.15 30 80 GRR-22-018 392218 5702361 2271 54.86 247 80 GRR-22-019 392218 5702361 2271 57.91 69 70 GRR-22-020 392190 5702458 2276 60.96 248 55 GRR-22-021 392190 5702458 2276 51.82 248 70 GRR-22-022 392140 5702442 2266 36.58 248 65 GRR-22-023 392140 5702442 2266 39.62 248 90 GRR-22-024 392080 5702424 2246 74.68 68 70 GRR-22-025 392080 5702424 2244 64.01 248 65 GRR-22-026 392064 5702395 2236 77.72 247 60 GRR-22-027 392064 5702395 2236 70.10 190 60 GRR-22-028 392181 5702401 2266 18.92 247 70 GRR-22-029 392181 5702401 2266 22.80 0 90 GRR-22-030 392307 5702283 2272 28.96 68 58 GRR-22-031 392307 5702283 2272 36.58 141 60 GRR-22-032 392307 5702283 2272 30.48 148 90



Table 2. RAB Drill Hole Locations (NAD83, Zone 10).

Figure 3. Drill Results Sections, view northerly

Induced Polarization (IP) Geophysical Survey Results

A deep penetrating Induced Polarization (IP) survey was conducted to prepare for deeper diamond drilling targeting. The survey was extended more than 1100 m west of the original survey and target area due to the discovery of high-grade gold in outcrop ~1 km from the RAB drill area. The geophysical survey identified two large conductive anomalies beneath the RAB drill area and to the west. Conductivity can be associated with sulfide breccias and veins and related alteration. Numerous chargeability anomalies were also identified throughout the survey area. Chargeability highs can be caused by the presence of disseminated sulfides.

The highest quality geophysical targets are where both chargeability and conductivity are anomalous. The area of RAB drilling confirmed the coincidence between hydrothermal alteration, elevated sulfide abundance and anomalous gold with chargeable rocks. Two anomalies are yet to be tested where chargeability and conductivity are both anomalous: 1) at depth below the RAB drill area, and 2) at depth below the new outcrop discovery ~1 km to the west where rocks returned up to 49.8 g/t Au.

Figure 4. Long IP Section 3600 Geophysical and RAB Drill Results

Figure 5. Long IP Section 3700 Geophysical and RAB Drill Results

Rock Sampling Results

Highly weathered sulfide rubble was located ~1km west of the area of drilling and was followed up with hand trenching that led to the discovery of an outcropping sulfide vein up to 50 cm wide and grading up to 49.8 g/t Au over 0.5 m. Sulfide mineralization includes arsenopyrite, stibnite, boulangerite, and chalcopyrite. Samples show a strong correlation with Ag, Cu, Pb, Sb, Bi, and Te. Results are shown in Table 3.

Sample No Width (cm) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Cu (%) Pb (%) Sb (%) Bi (ppm) Te (ppm) c0135801 50 7.05 52.91 0.14 0.10 0.30 388.85 11.55 c0135802 30 17.29 78.77 0.06 0.42 0.38 73.55 5.76 c0135803 15 10.97 6.28 0.01 0.09 0.05 38.83 1.04 c0135804 50 49.78 51.47 0.13 0.07 0.21 547.49 11.18 c0135805 15 18.13 43.24 0.16 0.24 0.18 333.38 11.46 c0135806 10 0.16 19.71 0.70 0.00 0.01 17.49 1.79

Table 3: 2021 Rock Sampling Results

About RAB Drilling

Kingfisher is using RAB drills as a cost effective and efficient first pass exploration tool. The RAB is a heli-portable, track mounted drill that can drill a wide range of dips (50-90) to depths of up to 100 meters. Rock cuttings from the drill hammer are returned to surface between the outside of the rods and the open hole. Under certain conditions, cross contamination between samples is a concern. The assay results from the RAB drill provide a strong indication of the grade and thickness of gold intercepted in a given hole. Kingfisher intends to follow up encouraging RAB assay results with a diamond drill to fully quantify the grade and thickness of these mineralized intercepts.

QAQC

Grab and chip rock samples are selective by nature and values reported in this news release may not be representative of mineralized zones. Blank and unlabeled certified reference materials (CRM) were inserted into the sample sequence every 20th sample.

RAB drill holes at the Goldrange Project are NWJ sized (2 5/8"). Samples are collected continuously from surface from each 5 ft (1.52 m) rod length. Collected sample material is put through a 1:8 riffle splitter, with the smaller portion of the sample bagged to be sent to the lab for Au Chrysos PhotonAssayTMand Au Fire Assay checks. Certified reference materials and blanks are inserted into the sample sequence every 20th sample. Duplicates were collected from every 40th sample by running the 7:8 reject material through the riffle splitter again, and collecting the 1:8 split for submission to the lab. The total number of blanks, duplicates and CRM samples equals approximately 5% of the samples submitted to the lab for analysis.

RAB and rock chip samples were shipped to MSALABS, located in Langley, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. MSALABS is an ISO17025 and ISO9001 accredited laboratory and is independent of Kingfisher Metals and its Qualified Person. Samples were prepped using the SPL430, CRU-220. Rock chip samples were then analyzed for 48 major and trace elements with ICP-MS after a four-acid digestion (method code IMS-230). Following sample preparation, a 500 g split from each sample was sent to MSALABS Val-D'Or location for Au analysis using Chrysos PhotonAssayTM (method code CPA-Au1). Selected samples were also subjected to Au fire assay and gravimetric check assays. A 30 g split from each check assay sample was analyzed for Au using a lead collection fire assay fusion that was digested and analyzed using AA (method code FAS-111). A 30g split from the check assay samples that assayed >10 ppm Au was analyzed using a lead collection fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish (method code FAS-415).

Qualified Person

Dustin Perry, P.Geo., Kingfisher's CEO, is the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has prepared the technical information presented in this release.

About Kingfisher Metals Corp.

Kingfisher Metals Corp. (https://kingfishermetals.com/) is a Canadian based exploration company focused on underexplored district-scale projects in British Columbia. Kingfisher has three 100% owned district-scale projects that offer potential exposure to high-grade gold, copper, silver, and zinc. The Company currently has 103,057,272 shares outstanding.

For further information, please contact:

Dustin Perry, P.Geo.

CEO and Director

Phone: +1 778 606 2507

E-Mail: info@kingfishermetals.com

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's property. This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. 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: formulation of plans for drill testing; and the success related to any future exploration or development programs.

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 operational, business, economic and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include; success of the Company's projects; prices for gold remaining as estimated; currency exchange rates remaining as estimated; availability of funds for the Company's projects; capital, decommissioning and reclamation estimates; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services (including transportation); no labour- related disruptions; no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled construction and production; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals are received in a timely manner; and the ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive.

The Company cautions 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 the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic; fluctuations in gold prices; fluctuations in prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services (including transportation); fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar); operational risks and hazards inherent with the business of mineral exploration; inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks and hazards; our ability to obtain all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in a timely manner; changes in laws, regulations and government practices, including environmental, export and import laws and regulations; legal restrictions relating to mineral exploration; increased competition in the mining industry for equipment and qualified personnel; the availability of additional capital; title matters and the additional risks identified in our filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). 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. Investors are cautioned against undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

SOURCE: Kingfisher Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724687/Kingfisher-Outlines-Gold-System-at-Day-Trip-Zone-Goldrange-Project
BILBAO (dpa-AFX) - Iberdrola SA (IBDSF.PK), a Spanish electric utility firm, said on Wednesday that it would invest 47 billion euros in the energy transition during the period from 2023 to 2025. In addition, the company has raised its outlook for the fiscal 2025. Ignacio Galan, Iberdrola Executive Chairman, said, 'The record global investment plans we have set out today will help us to bring more self-sufficiency and resilience against potential energy shocks in the countries where we operate, by reducing their dependency on oil and gas and by continuing their path to Net Zero.' Iberdrola now expects its EBITDA to reach 16.5 billion euros to 17 billion euros by 2025, with net profit of 5.2 billion euros to 5.4 billion euros. The company also noted it expects its dividend to grow in line with net profit to be between 0.55 euro to 0.58 euro in 2025, with a floor of 0.46 euro in 2023-24, and 0.50 euro in 2025. 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.
LJUBLJANA (dpa-AFX) - Slovakia's trade deficit increased in September, as imports rose faster than exports, data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic showed on Wednesday. The trade deficit rose to EUR 473.3 million in September from EUR 83.3 million in the same month last year. In August, the trade deficit was EUR 117.5 million. Exports increased 26.0 percent annually in September and imports rose 31.1 percent. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the trade deficit was EUR 284.5 million in September. 'Although exports of automobiles is growing, it cannot compensate for the impact of price increases in imports of energy commodities,' the statistical office said. 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.
Emporix, the enterprise-grade digital commerce platform, has teamed up with Celonis, the global leader in execution management, to launch the Emporix Commerce Execution Platform (CXP). The new platform, developed in collaboration with Celonis Labs, offers businesses the opportunity to dynamically personalize customer journeys based on real-time, end-to-end process intelligence and is the first process-context-aware solution available in the eCommerce space.

Celonis' Execution Management System (EMS) will provide the process context for individual customers by identifying behavior patterns and their related processes, such as typical orders or payment history, while Emporix orchestrates how that information is translated to impact the user experience. Businesses can monitor, adjust and personalize customer journeys in real time, using process intelligence signals.

Alex Rinke, co-founder and co-CEO of Celonis, said: "By leaning on the power of process intelligence and then joining that up with an API-based commerce platform, the Emporix CXP has the power to take customer experience management to new levels of sophistication. This creates new ways for businesses to maximize revenues across digital channels, thanks to the ability to automate dynamic customer engagement."

CXP comes with several execution scenarios already programmed, but it also provides a low code environment for users to build their own orchestration scenarios, using templates.

Eberhardt Weber, founder and CEO at Emporix, explained: "For example, let's say that inventory insights reveal an overstocked product line. The platform can automatically boost and promote these items to suitable customers. Or, perhaps a customer's payment history raises some flags. The platform can adjust payment terms for that customer, based on their level of credit risk. Connecting insights like these with specific customers moves customer engagement from a reactive state to one that is proactive, instant, and also highly personalized to help generate more revenue or increase the bottom line."

CXP is suitable for all types of eCommerce businesses, but it is particularly effective in B2B, wholesale, for large scale retailers or manufacturers in the direct-to-consumer channel, as these businesses, typically, have more complex customer processes to manage.

The launch of CXP follows news that Emporix has been named a member of the MACH Alliance, a group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. The name stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native and Headless.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005554/en/

Contacts:

John Sullivan

emporix@contextpr.co.uk
Through its hire-train-deploy programme, Revature will create a pathway for aspiring talent to future-proof careers in tech

LONDON, Nov. 09, 2022, a leading tech talent enablement organisation, today announced that it has launched operations in the United Kingdom. With over 15 years of success in the United States, Revature will leverage its proprietary talent development programme to train a diverse pool of qualified candidates in high-demand technology disciplines, providing a pathway to future-proof careers in technology and developing talent pipelines for organisations across the UK.



There were over two million UK job vacancies in tech last year, more than any other labour area, despite a strong financial incentive to join the tech workforce. Tech Nation reported that tech salaries are nearly 80% higher , on average, than salaries for non-tech jobs in the UK. A leading factor in these tech job vacancies is that nearly 12 million workers lacked the essential digital skills to fill those positions. Revature seeks to address this opportunity gap by training candidates and connecting them with in-demand jobs in tech that power the digital economy.

"We are here to make an impact," said Tom Barron, Head of Revature Europe. "We have a proven approach to building pathways for aspiring tech talent into high-paying jobs at top companies. Our track record gives us the confidence and motivation to expand our footprint and bring these potentially life-changing opportunities - those that provide better long-term financial security - to candidates across the UK."

Through its proven hire-train-deploy model, Revature UK will identify candidates with the attitude and aptitude to succeed in tech, pay them to undergo its proprietary 10-12-week training programme, and then place these associates in tech positions at top employers across the UK. The first pathway will support university graduates, both in STEM and non-technical degrees. Next year, Revature UK plans to establish a non-graduate pathway to connect untapped talent that currently exists amongst A-level and T-level candidates with in-demand positions across the UK market.



Barron, who is leading Revature's expansion in the UK, added, "We will provide our associates with strong salaries during placement, offer ongoing pastoral care and development support, and enable conversion to permanent positions with our client organisations within 12-18 months. We also will not impose any commitment bonds or early exit fees in the UK. Our success is dependent on our associates' success, which in turn drives our clients' satisfaction. It is a no-brainer for us to provide this enhanced offering."

In the United States, Revature has trained and deployed over 10,000 candidates for clients across a range of industries including enterprise, consulting, government, and systems integrators. Revature is an authorised training partner for Salesforce , Pega , ServiceNow , OutSystems , UiPath , and Appian , and provides proprietary training in Java, data engineering, and many other tech stacks. Revature is a premier partner of choice for individuals looking to start their careers in technology, as well as for organisations looking for high quality, bespoke training capabilities designed to fit their needs.

"We're proud to have been the first company in the U.S. to provide organisations with tech talent enablement that can benefit any enterprise," said Ashwin Bharath, CEO, Revature. "We help candidates from diverse experiences and educational backgrounds reach their potential as technology professionals, empowering the next generation of innovation in technology. We are proud to be launching in the UK and providing these same opportunities to individuals and organisations across this region."

For candidates interested in pursuing a career in technology, visit https://revature.com/uk/ to learn more about Revature's paid training and placement programme or apply here .

For organisations interested in developing a diverse pipeline of scalable, job-ready, emerging tech talent - customised to your business needs - contact Revature UK to learn more: enquiries-uk@revature.com .

About Revature:

Revature is a leading talent enablement organisation and the talent development partner of choice for Fortune 500 companies, government organisations and top systems integrators. Since its founding, Revature has trained over 10,000 software engineers in the United States & Canada in 55 technical disciplines, recruited talent from 700 universities, and deployed them to blue chip companies throughout these regions.

Revature UK's mission is to create a pathway for qualified candidates from diverse experiences and educational backgrounds and help them reach their potential as technology professionals. Graduates of the Revature programme work on innovative, challenging, and rewarding software development projects with our clients before being able to convert permanently and continue their rewarding technology career.

Learn more at https://revature.com/uk/ and follow Revature UK on LinkedIn.

Contact Information

Emily Brown

REQ on behalf of Revature

ebrown@req.co




MediSure Canada to provide testing supplies to federally incarcerated diabetic population

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC (CSE:EPW)(OTCQB:EPWCF) ("Empower Clinics" or the "Company"), an integrated healthcare company - serving patients through medical centers, telemedicine platforms, a medical device company, and a high complexity medical diagnostics laboratory - announced today that Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has awarded a three year contract to MediSure Canada to provide diabetes testing solutions to inmates in federal prisons.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is the federal government agency responsible for administering sentences of a term of two years or more, as imposed by the courts. CSC is responsible for managing institutions of various security levels and supervising offenders under conditional release in the community.

The multi-year contract is worth an approximate total of $1.5MM CAD. This is the third time that MediSure Canada has won the CSC contract as part of a public Request for Proposal (RFP) tendering process.

"MediSure Canada continues to perform, delivering results in both sales and launching innovative products", said Steven McAuley, Chairman and CEO of Empower Clinics. "It's an impressive feat when a client as prominent as the Government of Canada is a happy repeat customer of our diabetes testing solutions. This sales endorsement bodes well for our revenue generation efforts into other federal or provincial government agencies in Canada. Governments know that diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases affecting people living in Canada".

"I am proud of the team at MediSure for their hard work to win this contract with an agency of Government of Canada, especially given that it is our third consecutive win with this same client," stated Mario Cortis, President of MediSure Canada Inc. "Building a government customer base with trust and loyalty towards the MediSure brand is a top priority. We know repeat customers tend to spend more, are more likely to try our new products, refer new government clients and overall help to improve our profitability over time."

About MediSure:

MediSure Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empower Clinics. It is a Canadian medical device company dedicated to bringing value to the high cost of diabetes, both to patients and insurers. Medisure also has developed and launched new Health Canada approved at-home testing products sold and distributed online and through its network of pharmacies. MediSure's products are designed and manufactured with safety and durability in mind, meeting all ISO standards with world-class quality controls. Equipped with features that lead the industry in technology, MediSure's products are designed to offer a user-friendly experience and an overall improved approach to diabetes management.

About Empower

Empower is an integrated healthcare company that provides body and mind wellness for patients through its clinics, with digital and telemedicine care, and world-class medical diagnostics laboratories. Supported by an experienced leadership team, Empower is aggressively growing its clinical and digital presence across North America. Our Health & Wellness and Diagnostics & Technology business units are positioned to positively impact the integrated health of our patients, while simultaneously providing long term value for our shareholders.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Steven McAuley

Chief Executive Officer

CONTACTS:

Investors Tamara Mason Steven McAuley Business Development & Communications CEO 1-855-855-9058 1-855-855-9058 t.mason@empowerclinics.com s.mcauley@empowerclinics.com

DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release, and include statements regarding the Company's ability to positively impact the integrated health of its patients while simultaneously providing long term value for shareholders. Forward-looking statements can frequently be identified by words such as "plans", "continues", "expects", "projects", "intends", "believes", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Such statements are only projections, are based on assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including: that the Company's products may not work as expected; that the Company may not be able to maintain or expand its current COVID-19 testing; that legislative changes may have an adverse effect on the Company's business and product development; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its business plan; that general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; failure to obtain any necessary approvals in connection with any proposed transactions; and other factors beyond the Company's control. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable laws.

SOURCE: Empower Clinics Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724714/Empower-Clinics-Subsidiary-Awarded-Three-Year-Contract-with-Correctional-Service-of-Canada


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The battle for control of Congress is hanging in the balance as both the Democratic and Republican parties are neck-and-neck in the Senate while the latter is on course to regain majority in the House of Representatives.



With four more results awaited, both parties have won 48 seats each in the 100-member Upper House.



As results in the key races of Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona can go either way, the control of Senate is currently unpredictable.



Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto - the first Latino senator - is trailing her Republican rival Adam Laxalt by less than 1,000 votes in Nevada.



Democrat senator Raphael Warnock and his Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker are neck-to-neck in a nail-biter in Georgia.



In the Arizona Senate seat, the Democrat candidate is ahead when reports last came in.



In the first Senate flip of the night, Democrat John Fetterman beat Trump-backed Republican opponent Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.



Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey was elected governor of Massachusetts, becoming the first openly lesbian governor in the U.S.



Having won 198 seats in the 435-member House, Republicans are 20 seats ahead of their rivals, and still need another 20 to gain simple majority of 218 seats.



House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told his supporters that he believes Republicans will win control of Congress.



Although the Republican Party made gains in the mid-term elections, it was not up to the mark as polls predicted.



Suburban areas across the country helped Democrats dash Republicans' hopes for a red wave, reports say.



Republican Governor Ron DeSantis swept the Florida gubernatorial, making inroads into heavily Latino, historically Democratic regions, thus staking claim for a potential 2024 presidential bid.



The GOP also picked up three House seats in the state.



Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp was re-elected overcoming the challenge of high-profile Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.



Meanwhile, along with voting on their House representatives and governor, the majority of the electorate in Michigan voted in favor of a referendum on enshrining abortion in the state constitution.



Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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- BPT567, a first-in-class PD1-IL18 immunocytokine, delivers coordinated PD-1 blockade and potent IL-18 signaling to PD-1+ T effector cells resulting in striking antitumor activity -



- BPT331, a PD1-IL2 cis-signaling immunocytokine with potent best-in-class properties -

- Innovative chemical conjugation platform enables combination of multiple key immuno-oncology mechanisms in a single molecule with unparalleled flexibility -

SAN DIEGO and BASEL, Switzerland, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bright Peak Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company developing next-generation, multifunctional precision immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune disease, today announced the presentation of multiple new cancer immunotherapy agents at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) being held on November 9-12, 2022, in Boston, MA.



Bright Peak has leveraged its exclusive technology platform and world-class protein engineering capabilities to functionally optimize the master cytokines IL-18 and IL-2, and integrated these highly active payloads with PD-1 checkpoint blockade. "We are extremely excited to present our PD-1-targeted multifunctional immunocytokines. We are advancing these therapeutics to upgrade immune checkpoint therapy to the next level - our aim is to establish these unique "PD-1 2.0" programs as new backbone agents in immuno-oncology," said Jon Wigginton M.D., President of Research and Development of Bright Peak Therapeutics. "At SITC, we are introducing BPT567, the first ever PD1-IL18 immunocytokine. We have observed compelling preclinical antitumor activity with BPT567. We hypothesize that BPT567 may accomplish this by simultaneously blocking the PD-(L)1 pathway and delivering strong IL-18 signaling in cis to PD-1+ IL18R+ T effector (T eff ) cells located within the tumor microenvironment."

Additionally, using the same functionally optimized IL-18 payload that has been incorporated into BPT567, Bright Peak has developed BPT543, a best-in-class, half-life extended IL-18 therapeutic designed for IV administration. This IL-18 binding protein-resistant molecule with enhanced affinity for the IL-18 receptor has demonstrated striking synergistic antitumor activity in combination with PD-1 blockade in preclinical models.

"We have also advanced BPT331, a PD1-IL2 immunocytokine that demonstrates superior antitumor activity compared to PD-1 inhibition alone," continued Dr. Wigginton. "We rationally designed our PD-1 targeted IL-2 payload with the intent of selectively targeting and activating antigen-experienced PD-1+ T eff cells in the tumor microenvironment, while limiting the broad systemic activation of other immune cells."

Details regarding the upcoming SITC abstract presentations are as follows:

November 10, 2022, 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM (EST)

Poster 1195: Generation of a highly potent, cis-signaling PD1-IL2 immunocytokine using a novel chemical synthesis and conjugation platform

Abstract Highlights: Bright Peak has developed a unique, chemical conjugation process that enables the generation of immunocytokines via rapid and site-specific conjugation of synthetically engineered cytokines to the Fc domain of existing human Abs. We generated a PD1-IL2 immunocytokine (BPT331) with significantly enhanced potency in PD-1high versus PD-1low T cells. In mice, high tumor exposure of BPT331 relative to blood combined with PD-1-targeting and cis-signaling result in potent immune stimulation, and strong antitumor efficacy that is markedly superior to an anti-PD-1 antibody alone. These results demonstrate the ability of our cytokine engineering platform to generate potent, multifunctional immunocytokine therapeutics with synergistic, complementary mechanisms of action.

November 11, 2022, 9:00 AM - 8:30 PM (EST)

Poster 1080: Using site-specific chemical conjugation to generate superior half-life extended or PD-1-targeted formats of a potent IL-18 variant resistant to IL-18 binding protein

Abstract Highlights: Bright Peak has identified a conjugatable variant of human IL-18 that is 300-fold more potent and >600-fold less sensitive to inhibition by its natural inhibitor IL-18 binding protein (IL-18BP) than wild-type IL-18. Site-specific conjugation of this enhanced IL-18 payload to a 30 kDa PEG created BPT543, which significantly improves PK/PD properties, and mediates strong antitumor efficacy and potent synergy in combination with an anti-PD-1 antibody. Chemical conjugation of our enhanced IL-18 payload to an anti-PD-1 antibody generated BPT567, a PD1-IL18 immunocytokine with fully preserved potency of the cytokine payload as well as PD-1 binding. BPT567 demonstrates enhanced potency in PD-1high versus PD-1low T cells, and exhibits striking antitumor activity in vivo, with complete responses in 89% of animals.

The abstracts will be made available for viewing on Bright Peak's website upon presentation at the SITC Annual Meeting).

About Bright Peak Therapeutics

Bright Peak is a privately held biotechnology company based in Basel, Switzerland and San Diego, CA. We are rapidly advancing a robust portfolio of next generation, multifunctional, immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and autoimmune disease. We accomplish this by leveraging our world class protein engineering capabilities and our unique cell-free technology platform to chemically synthesize and conjugate novel protein therapeutics that reflect state-of-the-art insights into cytokine and immune checkpoint biology. Our pipeline stretches from discovery to IND-enabling and encompasses enhanced cytokines, antibody-cytokine conjugates and other novel formats. Bright Peak is funded by a syndicate of leading healthcare investors.

Contact: info@brightpeaktx.com
As summer vacation approached, 21 lives were abruptly cut short by a gunman. Those who lost their lives included 19 students and two educators.

The shootout occurred at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, a small, mostly Latino town in South Texas.

According to Gun Violence Archive, so far in 2022, there have been 531 mass shootings in the U.S. Highland Park parade shooting (on July 4 with seven killed, 30 wounded), Uvalde school shooting (on May 24 with 21 killed, 17 wounded), Buffalo grocery store shooting (on May 14 with 10 killed, three wounded) and Tulsa Oklahoma hospital shooting (on June 1 with four killed). This is only a partial list.

It seems like the U.S. is becoming an increasingly dangerous nation.

Erica Lafferty, daughter of victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, said: "It's really hard and it's never gonna go away. Every time it happens and it will happen again. It brings all back up."

Threat of far-right extremism

One of the biggest threats to the U.S. today is the rise of homegrown terrorism, especially emerging from far-right extremism.

The Capitol attack of 2021 makes this more pronounced.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reveals that threats facing the U.S. since 9/11 shifted from foreign terrorism to domestic extremism.

The U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has also labeled that it (domestic terrorism) is very dangerous and harmful, and it makes the country weaker.

According to the data from Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), domestic terrorism incidents have soared in the U.S., mostly driven by White-supremacists, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right.

Between 2014 and 2021, the average number of fatalities per year was 31, demonstrating the increasing lethality of terrorism.

This is substantially more than the period from 1994 to 2013, when there were only three years in which more than eight individuals were killed in terrorist attacks in the United States.

William Jones, the former White House correspondent for Executive Intelligence Review, said: "If you look at the situation that has developed over the last decades, you see a deterioration of human rights: all the violence, racial tensions, the anti-immigration mood in the official departments and among population in the United States."

The rise of far-right extremism stems from a strong sense of frustration and an identity crisis among the White people. And as their financial situation worsens, they feel more marginalized in the society.

One of the prevailing conspiracy theories among far-right conservatives is about a "Great Replacement." It believes that the White race is being replaced by people of color.

The suspect of the Buffalo shooting, an 18-year-old young man, was a loyal supporter of this theory. The overwhelming majority of his victims were Black.

William Jones said: "The same thing is true with regard to democracy, and you've seen the dissension and the discontent that has existed in the United States over the last one to two years, showing that people really are not happy with the situation, with the system as it exists today."

Endless war on terror

The U.S. domestic extremism is a result of drastic economic and structural changes. It is also linked with the U.S. government's endless "war on terror."

After the 9/11 attack, Washington invested enormous efforts and resources in anti-terrorism wars overseas. This took a heavy toll on the domestic economy.

Starting from 2001, the U.S. ratcheted up its military spending.

The Department of Homeland Security budget, which was $16 billion for the year 2001-2002, peaked at $74 billion for the year 2009-2010. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, America's military spending in 2020, standing at $738 billion, nearly tenfold increase in a decade, and accounted for 40 percent of the global total.

This money could have been spent on domestic infrastructure and improving living standards, but that never happened.

In the meantime, America's overseas war on terrorism has deepened the bias of White Americans against the Muslim population.

Daryl Guppy, national board member of the Australia-China Business Council, said: "Suddenly the overseas involvement of the United States involves a type of propaganda campaign against those people who are not seen as American. So this obviously transfers into the American society as well, so we see increased agitation and racism against people who are considered not to be Americans who are living in America at the moment."

Troublemaker Military-Industrial Complex

Who is quietly pushing the war and eventually cultivated the far-right forces? These numbers may give the answer.

In 2019, the total sales of the global top five aerospace and defense companies  Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics  reached a whopping $166 billion.

12 American firms were on the list of the top 25 global defense companies, representing 61 percent of global arms sales. Among the $2.3 trillion spent in the war in Afghanistan, around 87 percent went into the pockets of the top five defense contractors.

Even in wars in which the U.S. is not directly involved, the biggest gainers are likely to be the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex. The steady flow of U.S. military aid to Ukraine is a case in point.

The Biden administration has provided more than $17.5 billion as military assistance for Ukraine. It definitely provides the Military-Industrial Complex further access to medium and long-term revenue streams.

Gregory Hayes, the chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, said: "I make no apology for that. The fact is we will see some benefit in the business over time. Everything that's being shipped into Ukraine today of course is coming out of stockpiles either at the DOD or from our NATO allies."

By funding and lobbying members of Congress, American defense contractors have gained tremendous influence in national policy-making.

With the help of senators and representatives they have funded, they obtained more resources to manufacture weapons.

Daryl Guppy said: "What we see in America is to militarize action of the police force. Now the defense industries are highly involved in supplying arms, supplying equipment. So the American Military-Industrial Complex does benefit from increased fears of terrorism domestically within the United States because this presents another market for them to be able to sell into."

The U.S. is turning itself into an imperialist military machine.

It creates a hot bed for domestic far-right terrorism while sowing the seeds for social division and turmoil.

People may face a simmering, chronic domestic terror problem.

But American citizens don't want trauma to become a way of life.
Following the announcement of its strategic partnership with NYI earlier this year, 1025Connect has completed its relaunch as Long Island Interconnect, delivering enhanced interconnection and infrastructure solutions.

WESTBURY, N.Y., Nov. 09, 2022to support an enhanced mission to become a full-service global interconnection hub. In addition to serving domestic carriers and international subsea cable providers, the company now supports a broad range of cross-industry clients with edge, cloud and IoT needs who benefit from low-latency connectivity options, flexible infrastructure solutions and high-touch managed services.



The announcement comes on the heels of significant updates that have taken place this year and additional upgrades that are on the horizon for the first half of 2023. Growth over the last year has taken the form of new customers, additional network buildout, and new strategic partnerships. Substantial infrastructure upgrades have also been made, leading to greater capacity and efficiency for colocation customers. Additional updates to the design and usability of the site are also underway and will lead to an enhanced customer experience for those visiting the facility.

"We are thrilled to relaunch as Long Island Interconnect to reflect our growth and expanding mission," says Henry Bergmann, Managing Member. "Our goal is to become a full-service interconnection hub on the East Coast - going beyond a place where networks meet, to one where enterprise clients can access not only exceptional connectivity options but a range of infrastructure solutions and managed service capabilities to help them navigate today's increasingly complex digital landscape."

The partnership with NYIwas instrumental in both defining the rebranding effort and in expanding Long Island Interconnect's portfolio of offerings.

"Long Island Interconnect is enabling the enablers of connectivity," adds NYI's COO Phillip Koblence, "and by doing so, they are supporting a broad set of industries who rely on seamless connectivity such as finance, gaming, media, and education. Long Island Interconnect is also transitioning from being a commodity provider to a solutions facilitator, committed to solving challenges for clients with custom infrastructure requirements who are looking for personalized service in a market dominated by large, often inflexible, players."

Over the next few months, Long Island Interconnect will be enhancing its Partner Program and further expanding its ecosystem to provide clients with additional service options.

The new rebranded website is now online. Please visit www.longislandinterconnect.comfor more information.

About Long Island Interconnect

Long Island Interconnectfor more information about our offerings. Media contact: pr@longislandinterconnect.com.

About NYI

NYI is a global provider of hybrid infrastructure, network, and interconnection solutions. The company is known for cutting through the complexity of the IT landscape and facilitating custom solutions to address the critical infrastructure and connectivity needs of clients across industries. NYI is headquartered in New York City and provides enterprise services into key global markets through a trusted ecosystem of partners. To learn more about NYI visit www.nyi.net.
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the Climate Investment Coalition (CIC), in collaboration with the Nordic Council of Ministers, presented key investor recommendations to bridge the climate finance and investment gap by 2030 towards emerging markets and developing economies. This was made alongside an overview of Nordic pension fund progress within climate and clean energy investments in 2022.

Despite financial challenges and a volatile economic environment, the first wave of pension fund reporting in 2022 indicates that the Nordic pension funds are still on course to reach their target of US$130 billion by 2030. This is also the case for investments in emerging markets and developing economies, where new investments in climate solutions have continued to increase. The total, collective reporting of annual investments is expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2023.

Insurance & Pension Denmark reported today that Danish pension funds have invested US$9 billion in new clean energy investments since July 2021. This indicates that Danish pension funds are on track and well over halfway to reaching their 2019 commitment to invest DKK350 billion (today US$47 billion) by 2030. This is also the case for new investments in emerging markets and developing economies, which are proving to be on track.

This follows the CIC's landmark announcement at COP26 of a US$130 billion collective, total commitment from Nordic and UK pension funds towards clean energy and climate solutions to be invested globally by 2030.

"The Climate Investment Coalition's collective commitment of US$130 billion for climate investments by 2030 sent an important signal to other investors, policymakers and businesses that finance is ready and available to support the net-zero transition. Despite the numerous challenges of 2022, CIC investors are on track to reach their climate investment targets, including within emerging markets. But more must be done, faster; practical steps, such as finance vehicles, frameworks and partnerships will accelerate climate investments to flow to emerging markets, to ensure we support climate resilient development," says Peter Damgaard Jensen, Co-Chair, Climate Investment Coalition

However, to support the significantly greater increase in climate and clean energy investments in emerging and developing markets, required to put their economies on a credible path to deliver on development and climate goals, substantive and accelerated investments are urgently needed.

To support the bridging of the climate finance and investment gap by 2030, the CIC and its Nordic pension fund members will seek to mobilise new and increased financial commitments for climate investments by 2030.

To make this happen, the CIC and its members will collaborate with international organisations, development finance institutions (DFI's) and governments to build strategic public-private partnerships and multilateral climate finance models aiming to accelerate climate investments in emerging markets and developing economies.

"Africa has a pool of talented people with promising business opportunities waiting to be harvested together" says H.R.H Princess Abze Djigma, Initiator and Leader, MAMA-LIGHT Initiative.

At the event, the CIC and Nordic pension funds outlined the following key recommendations to governments and their development partners for focus areas where intensified action will help catalyse investment and private finance flows to emerging markets and developing economies:

Foster enabling environments for investment through policy, regulation and planning that create predictable investment opportunities at scale, enabling private capital to invest in the energy transition.

that create predictable investment opportunities at scale, enabling private capital to invest in the energy transition. Increase the scale and predictability of pipelines of clean energy investment opportunities . Clarity on the direction of travel and the commitment by governments to the energy transition is key to enhancing investor confidence in the availability of a continued flow of investment opportunities.

. Clarity on the direction of travel and the commitment by governments to the energy transition is key to enhancing investor confidence in the availability of a continued flow of investment opportunities. Promote, facilitate and scale innovative public-private financing approaches and instruments, where relevant backed by concessional, philanthropic and blended finance.

Detailed recommendations and accompanying case studies will be released post-COP27.

The Climate Investment Coalition will build on these recommendations to work with private developers and companies, international organisations, development finance institutions (DFI's) and EMDE governments to maximise and scale up impact in this crucial agenda. Looking to COP28, taking place in Dubai in 2023, the CIC will seek to mobilise new and increased financial commitments for climate investments by 2030 from asset owners.

Additional Quotes

"Private equity and investment in the just transition and beyond will require massive sources of funding and finance. Long term savings like pension and provident funds can play a critical role in amassing and directing the flow of such funds. In South Africa we have used such funds to drive massive infrastructure in transport, health and public private partnerships and it has proven to work as our country undertook its post-apartheid reconstruction and development programme over the last 25 years. We now need similar investments to enable the just transition towards 2050. Importantly shareholder activism should continue to play a role in ensuring that workers' savings are invested to protect the environment and are used to achieve our net-zero economic growth pathway." Thuli Khumalo, Chief Operations Officer, Presidential Climate Commission, South Afric

"Denmark is a pioneer country, inspiring other countries to make green commitments to invest in the green transition and I am happy to announce that the Danish insurance and pension industry has invested USD 9 bn. in new clean energy investments since medio 2021. Despite volatile financial markets and global stock declines, we are still on track closing in on the target of investing USD 47 in clean energy investments towards 2030." Kent Damsgaard, CEO, Insurance and Pension Denmark

"Our current climate investments in emerging markets and developing countries are limited. We would certainly do more of that, if there were more truly impactful investment opportunities available on the market, if more of these investments proposals were within our risk limits, and at a scale that makes it worthwhile spending the extra time and resources. We call for public and private sector stakeholders to promote and facilitate this development." Helena Hagberg, Head of Sustainability, Skandia Mutual Life Insurance Company

The transformation from fossil fuels to renewables is crucial for reaching the 1,5 degrees target. Yet, investment levels are still far too low to increase the production capacity to anywhere near what is necessary, especially in emerging markets. KLP is investing in renewable infrastructure globally, and has until today contributed to financing the construction of nearly 50 new renewable power plants. We are committed to continuing these investments with around US$600 million annually. We expect these investments to continue generating attractive returns and have a strong climate impact." Heidi Finskas, Vice President Corporate Responsibility, KLP

"We need governments to fast-track policies that can increase the financial investments urgently needed for climate action: clean energy, climate solutions and resiliency, especially for developing economies. At the heart of this policy agenda, biodiversity must be placed on a pedestal - because every credible path to net zero includes it: reversing nature loss, ending deforestation and scaling nature-based solutions." Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO Storebrand Asset Management

"Ensuring a just expansion of clean energy in emerging markets is critical for delivering on our common climate goals, and the current geopolitical situation has only made it even more urgent. We have invested in several projects in developing countries through partnerships with other Danish pension funds and the Danish government and we are more than ready to invest even further to meet the commitment we made for 2030. But we need to make the investment opportunities more accessible and remove some of the red tape if we truly want to accelerate climate investments in emerging markets." Jon Johnsen, CEO, PKA

More information:

The Climate Investment Coalition (CIC) is a public-private partnership that catalyses financial commitments into green investments to be deployed by 2030. It supported the mobilisation and announcement of a total collective commitment of US$130 billion from pension funds at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. This announcement was presented by Nordic Heads of State and Government and CEOs of Nordic and UK pension funds, to be invested in clean energy and climate solutions by 2030 and reported on annually.



Committing pension funds in 2019: Members of Insurance & Pension Denmark.



Committing pension funds in 2021: Almenni Pension Fund, ATP, Bank Employees' Pension Fund, The Pension Fund for Reykjavik City Employees, Birta Pension Fund, Bru Pension Fund, Environment Agency Pension Fund, Festa Pension Fund, Frjalsi Pension Fund, Gildi Pension Fund, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Ilmarinen, KLP, Lifsverk Pension Fund, Liv Group, LSR - Icelandic Pension Fund for State Employees, Merseyside Pension Fund, Nest Pension, Pension Fund of Commerce, Skandia, SL The General Pension Fund, SPP, Stapi Pension Fund, Storebrand Group, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company.

2021 commitments comprise of investments in*:

Equity investments - Listed

Equity Investments - Unlisted

Green Energy Infrastructure - OECD

Green Energy Infrastructure - Emerging Markets

Green bonds and debt

Climate-friendly investments in properties, etc.

Other investments / unallocated

*3.4% of the total 2021 commitment is to be invested in 'empowerment'. We have included this amount in close discussion with the pension fund and will report on it yearly.

The Climate Investment Coalition continues its investment roadmap to COP27 and COP28 in support of the OECM and are engaging with global organisations, initiatives and stakeholders leading the change in catalysing the net-zero economy.

The World Climate Foundation is proud to act as Secretariat to the Climate Investment Coalition. Connect with us to engage on a journey towards a better future together at info@climateinvestmentcoalition.org

Contacts

Marie Lendelova, marie.lendelova@worldclimatefoundation.org , +45 31 53 49 88

Pauline Ledermann, pauline.ledermann@worldclimatefoundation.org , +45 40 83 04 97

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/21920/3664078/1658868.pdf Press release (PDF)

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/nordic-pension-funds-want-to-increase-climate-investments-in-emerging-markets-and-developing-economies-301672901.html
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Grid Metals Corp (TSXV:GRDM)(OTCQB:MSMGF) (the "Company") today provided an overview of its drilling plans for its Donner Lake Lithium Property (the "Property"), located in the in the Bird River Greenstone Belt of southeastern Manitoba. The first of two rigs to be utilized during the program has commenced drilling at the Property. The drill program will focus on resource delineation on two spodumene-bearing pegmatite dykes (Main and Northwest dykes) and initial exploration of several additional pegmatite targets. The property is a 75%/25% joint venture between Grid Metals Corp. and Lithium Royalty Corp.

Drill Program Overview

Main Dyke. Resource delineation drilling has commenced at the Main Dyke, which is one of two well documented LCT- (lithium-cesium-tanatalum) type pegmatites on the Property. Previous drilling by Grid completed in 2018 at the Main Dyke consisted of 11 holes along a strike length of approximately 760 meters to an average depth of approximately 50 meters. The 2018 drill results returned average grades of 1.5% LiO2 over an average true widths of approximately 3 meters (see the Company's September 14, 2021 New Release for details). The current drill program will initially cover the same along strike extent but will expand coverage to a vertical depth of 250 meters. The program is targeting an average pierce point spacing of 90 meters to enable an initial NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the near surface portion of the Main Dyke.. In addition, drilling will test for possible along strike extensions to both the southwest and northeast that, if confirmed, will be added to the resource delineation program. Drilling is being carried out by Foraco International.

Northwest Dyke. Later in the program, resource delineation drilling will also be completed at the Northwest Dyke where fifteen ( 15) exploration holes were drilled by Grid in the first quarter of 2022. The fifteen drill holes cover a strike length of 500 meters and returned intersection depths of <100 to >250 metres. The results of that program showed that the near surface part of the Northwest Dyke has an average true thickness of ~ 4 meters and an average grade of 1.3% LiO2 (see the Company's July 28, 2022 New Release for details). The Northwest Dyke remains open along strike in both directions and to depth.

Above: Location of the Main Dyke and Northwest Dyke at the Donner Lake Lithium Property.

Above: Longitudinal section of the Main Dyke with 2018 Grid drillholes and target pierce points. Drill intercepts represent approximate true width.

Exploration Targets

The Company also plans to test a number of other exploration drill targets (consisting of outcropping pegmatites ) in the immediate vicinity of the Main and Northwest Dykes. Grid recently completed a four month field program focused on mapping and geochemical sampling of outcropping pegmatite bodies on the Property. The Company will provide a detailed report on the results of this program following receipt and analysis of assay results.

Donner Lake Lithium Property - Other Activity

The Donner Lake Lithium Property is located approximately 40 km north of the Tanco Mine, Canada's only currently producing hardrock lithium project. The Property is a 75% Grid/25% Lithium Royalty Corp joint venture. In addition to the field and drill programs currently ongoing Grid is completing an initial metallurgical test program on samples from both the Northwest and Main Dykes and is preparing an Advanced Exploration Permit application for the Property to enable a bulk sample to be completed. A property wide airborne geophysical survey has been contracted to be flown before year end. Grid recently announced a Pre-Production Memorandum of Understanding with Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada Limited (October 17th, 20222 GRDM News Release) intended to enable toll milling of Grid ore at the Tanco Mine facilities.

QAQC

The exploration program at Donner Lake is being supervised by Carey Galeschuk, P.Geo., who is an experienced lithium geologist including over a decade in exploration with Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada. Mr Galeschuk has reviewed the contents of this press release for the content in relation to NI 43-101.

About Grid Metals Corp.

Grid Metals is focused on both lithium and Ni-Cu-PGM in the Bird River area approximately 150 km north east of Winnipeg Manitoba. In addition to activity at Donner Lake the Company has a PEA stage Ni-Cu-PGM-Co project ( Makwa-Mayville ) undergoing exploration and development activity.

On Behalf of the Board of Grid Metals Corp.

For more information about the Company please see the Company website at www.gridmetalscorp.com or contact:

Robin Dunbar - President, CEO & Director Telephone: 416-955-4773 Email: rd@gridmetalscorp.com

David Black - Investor Relations Email: info@gridmetalscorp.com

We seek safe harbour. 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 the Securities Act (Ontario) (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include the Company's closing of the proposed financial transactions, sale of royalty and property interests. the overall economic potential of its properties, the availability of adequate financing and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements to be materially different. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political risk, uncertainty of production and capital costs estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, physical risks inherent in mining operations, metallurgical risk, currency fluctuations, fluctuations in the price of nickel, cobalt, copper and other metals, completion of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, the inability or failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the most recent financial period and Material Change Reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

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 U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements

SOURCE: Grid Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724650/Grid-Metals-Corp-Commences-Drilling-at-Donner-Lake-Lithium-Property
MILAN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yadea, the world's leading electric two-wheeler brand, is again out in full force at Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori (EICMA), the world's premier event for the motorcycle industry, taking place this year in Milan from November 8 to 13. The company is showcasing an extended range of innovative products at the event that can help bring consumers a low-carbon lifestyle. In particular, the launch of two brand-new two-wheeler vehicles is catching the attention of many attendees in need of short-distance, green mobility solutions.





"It is an absolute honor for Yadea to launch our two new models in Milan while showcasing our extensive range of outstanding products," said Zhou Chao, Senior Vice President at Yadea. "Innovation is the true driver behind Yadea's resilience in this market. Our investments in R&D consistently bear fruit, as exemplified by our technical prowess in batteries, power, range, and safety, which benefit our users. We'd like to invite all the attendees to try out our products at the show."

Top of the bill for Yadea this year is the debut of the YADEA Keeness VFD, the perfect entry-level electric motorcycle for consumers new to the sector. Packed with a dual 72V32Ah lithium battery, the Keeness VFD packs a real punch.

Riders can easily keep up with how much power they have left by using the Yadea mobile app. The Keeness VFD has been designed with speed in mind at every step, with the basic inspiration for its contoured aesthetic coming from the silhouette of an aircraft. The model comes equipped with Yadea's robust VFD-10KW mid-mounted motor, topping out at 100km/h[1].

Another star of the show is the brand-new high-performance scooter, the Yadea VoltGuard VFV. At the heart of the VoltGuard VFV is an ATL lithium battery pack (72V27Ah*2) capable of outputting higher power at the same weight compared to normal power cells, dispelling any worries over range anxiety.

The two new electric motorcycle models that are beyond users' expectations not only highlight the brand's mission to help people "Electrify Your Life", but also reshape global users' perceptions of two-wheeled electric vehicles.

Yadea is also showcasing its extensive range of products covering electric motorcycles, bicycles, kick scooters, as well as its advanced technology at Hall 11. M06.

Since Yadea's first appearance at EICMA in 2009, Yadea has been accelerating its globalization strategy and seeking to bring sustainable travel solutions to more people worldwide. After many years of efforts behind the scenes, Yadea is gaining a key foothold in overseas markets, with its international brand voice expanding dramatically. The company is now a regular attendee at EICMA and other headline international platforms as it looks to lead at the forefront of the low-carbon trend, promoting global green mobility.

About Yadea

Yadea is a global leader in developing and manufacturing electric two-wheel vehicles including electric motorcycles, electric mopeds, electric bicycles and electric kick scooters. To date, Yadea has sold products to 60 million users in over 100 countries and regions and has a network of 40,000+ retailers worldwide. With a mission to help people "Electrify Your Life", Yadea continues to invest in R&D, production and global expansion to build a shared and sustainable future for mankind.

For more information, visit our:

Official Website: https://www.yadea.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Yadea.Official

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/YADEA.GLOBAL/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/YadeaGlobal

Reference:

[1] tested in a laboratory environment.

Yadea reserves the final right to explain all the figures and change or modify without prior notice.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Golden Spike Resources Corp. (CSE:GLDS) ("Golden Spike" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has initiated field work over its Gregory River copper-gold property (the "Property"), located in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Highlights:

Exploration crews have mobilized to the Property site to initiate Phase 1;

The Phase 1 program will consist of first-pass soil sampling grids over two key target areas, including the "Vein Zone" and the "Steep Brook North";

Phase 2 is currently being designed, and upon receipt of exploration permits, will comprise of geological mapping, structural interpretation, additional soil sampling, ground IP/resistivity surveys and a diamond drilling campaign that will test the most prospective of these targets in 2023.

Golden Spike's President and CEO, Keith Anderson commented, "We are very excited to announce the start of our 2023 field exploration campaign over our 100%-controlled Gregory River Property. Over the past several months we have systematically compiled and evaluated dozens of historical files to get a better understanding of the geology, alteration and potential mineralization in the district. With most of this data now digitized we are ready to take the Property to the next step and apply new exploration concepts, strategies, and techniques with the aim to make new mineral discoveries."

Gregory River Property Overview

The Property is comprised of 15, mostly contiguous mineral licences strategically centered over an approximate 11-kilometer-long stretch of the Gregory River volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS")-belt, a north-northeast trending corridor of very prospective ground with potential to host "Cyprus-type1" polymetallic VMS deposits (Figure 1). In addition, the Property hosts a cluster of high-grade, copper gold vein structures that occur in the northeast quadrant of the Property (the "Vein Zone"). The licences are well located in terms of infrastructure, just 42 km north-northwest of the city of Corner Brook, and 53 km west of the city of Deer Lake.

Although intermittent exploration has taken place over the Property and the region since the 1920's and has resulted in the discovery of numerous high-grade copper and gold prospects and occurrences, the Property has not seen any significant activity since 2008 and large portions still remain largely underexplored by modern exploration methods.

The Property and the Gregory River VMS-Belt are situated within the Bay of Islands Ophiolite Complex, an Ordovician-aged sequence of rocks comprised of faulted and moderately deformed ultramafic-to-mafic intrusives, sheeted diabase dikes, basaltic pillow lavas, and narrow zones of sedimentary rocks. These rock units are host to the York Harbour deposit, a Cyprus-type, copper-zinc-silver VMS deposit that is located approximately 27 kilometres south of the Property and was historically in small-scale production during the early part of the 1900's. Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's Property.

Several early-stage VMS prospects have been located on the Property by previous explorers including, Gregory River, Camp Brook/Moose Brook2, Jumbo South and Deep Brook and these will form part of future exploration programs.

In the northeast quadrant of the Property there are several south-easterly to north-easterly-trending high-grade copper mineralized veins and structures, which include the Court A, B, & C and Mitchell prospects. In the 1950's Cape Copper Mines drill tested the Court A prospect through 17 shallow core holes, intersecting copper mineralization down to an average vertical depth of about 50 metres and over a strike length of about 350 m, beyond which the vein remains open in all directions. Selected historical down-hole drilling results from this drilling program are shown below:

2.13% Cu over 6.1 m (hole 1 from 90.5 to 96.6 m)

over 6.1 m (hole 1 from 90.5 to 96.6 m) 4.40% Cu over 2.1 m (hole 2 from 87.5 to 89.6 m)

over 2.1 m (hole 2 from 87.5 to 89.6 m) 4.71% Cu over 1.8 m (hole 5 from 94.2 to 96.0 m)

over 1.8 m (hole 5 from 94.2 to 96.0 m) 4.65% Cu over 1.5 m (hole 6 from 71.3 to 72.8 m)

over 1.5 m (hole 6 from 71.3 to 72.8 m) 9.60% Cu over 2.7 m (hole 10 from 76.2 to 78.9 m)

over 2.7 m (hole 10 from 76.2 to 78.9 m) 4.81% Cu over 1.2 m (hole 13 from 74.4 to 75.6 m)

True widths are estimated to be approximately 60% of drilled widths.

Gold was not analysed for these drill holes, but recent sampling of outcrop exposures the Court A vein has returned grades in the general range of trace to 3 g/t gold, along with high copper grades (trace to 17.6%), and anomalous grades of silver (trace to 16 g/t) and cobalt (trace to 340 ppm). Historical drill hole sampling was very selective and only focused on the highest-grade portion of the vein leaving the majority of the hole unsampled. Potential exists for wider mineralized haloes to surround the main veins, where drill logs indicate the presence of unsampled, narrow chalcopyrite stringers in some of the holes.

None of the historical core has been kept and the QP is not able to validate these historical drill results and therefore these results should not be relied upon. Historical surface sampling programs at many of the prospects was completed by various companies, including majors RioCanex (Rio Tinto) and Noranda, returning copper values in similar high-grade ranges, along with anomalous values of other metals. Furthermore, it is believed that these companies would have had sampling methodologies and quality control processes in place that were considered industry-standard for that time and therefore the QP feels that it is reasonable to report these surface and drill results as historical and to use them as a guide for future exploration at these prospects.

2022/2023 Exploration Program

Since acquiring the option to earn 100% interest in the Gregory River Property in July 2022, Golden Spike has been focused on completing a thorough investigation and compilation of all historical exploration in this highly prospective area and aims to utilize cutting-edge exploration technology to explore the Property, with the objective of developing near-term drilling targets.

In advance of receipt of exploration permits, the company has initiated a Phase 1 exploration program comprising of "non-invasive" work that does not cause significant ground disturbance. Once the company has received all required permits, Phase 2 will be initiated, as described below.

Phase 1

Exploration crews have mobilized to the Property site

B-horizon soil sampling over two grids: "Vein Zone" and "Steep Brook North" (Figure 1)

Prospecting/rock sampling over key prospective targets

Phase 2

Infill B-horizon sampling and basal till sampling

Geological mapping and structural interpretations

IP/resistivity surveys

Diamond drilling

Field work will be completed by Planet X Exploration Services Ltd., based out of Gander, Newfoundland. The Vein Zone grid covers approximately 1.5 kilometres by 2.0 kilometers and targets potential extensions to the Court A, B & C veins, the potential northeast continuation of the Mitchell vein and any new veins that may occur in the area. The area is mostly covered by overburden and the Company is not aware of any previous soil sampling documented over this area. Sampling will be done over a wide-spaced reconnaissance grid with lines spaced 200 m apart and sample stations every 50 m along the line. Approximately 320 soil samples are proposed.

The Steep Brook North grid is approximately 2.2 kilometres by 1.6 kilometres and targets a previously unexplored, high-priority segment of the Gregory River VMS-Belt in the southern half of the Property. Similar to the Vein Zone gride, very limited amounts of outcrop exposure occur at this area and a soil sampling survey will be a good fist pass exploration tool. A similar grid configuration as the Vein Zone is designed for the Steep Brook North gride and approximately 315 soil samples are proposed.

Details regarding Phase 2 will be provided once the targets are better defined. The Company will follow rigorous Chain of Custody and quality assurance/quality control (QAQC) protocols for the sampling programs that will include the regular insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates into the sample stream. Phase 1 is expected to be complete prior to the end of November, and samples will be analysed for gold by a 30-gram fire assay and a multi-element ICP package at Eastern Analytical Ltd in Springdale, Newfoundland.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved for disclosure by Mr. Robert Cinits, P.Geo, a director of the Company and a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). To the best of his knowledge, the technical information pertaining to the Property and discussion of it as disclosed in this news release is neither inaccurate nor misleading; however, the technical information presented in this news release comprises paper records maintained by various companies that conducted exploration work on the Property. Details of the sampling methods, security, assaying, and quality control methods used in the generation of this historical technical data are unknown to the Company and the results discussed herein cannot be and have not been verified by Mr. Cinits for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and should not be relied upon.

About Golden Spike

Golden Spike Resources Corp. (CSE:GLDS) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on identifying, acquiring and unlocking value in mineral opportunities in Canada and other low-risk jurisdictions. The Company currently holds the rights to acquire 100% interest in the 3,100-hectare Gregory River Property in Newfoundland and the 2,132-hectare Camping Lake Property in the Red Lake Mining District of Ontario.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Keith Anderson

Golden Spike Resources Corp.

830 - 1100 Melville St.,

Vancouver, BC, V6E 4A6

+1 (604) 786-7774

info@goldenspikeresources.com

www.goldenspikeresources.com

"Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" occur. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements regarding: the intention of the Company to proceed with the exercise of the Option under the Option Agreement on the terms and conditions set out therein, the Company's expectations to make the cash payment, issue the Subsequent Consideration Shares, and incur the expenditures as required by the Option Agreement, the Company's intention to perform the balance of its obligations under the Option Agreement, the anticipated content and timing of commencement of planned exploration programs, any anticipated exploration program results, the ability to complete future financings, the ability to complete the required permitting, the ability to complete the exploration programs and drilling, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, assumptions that the Company will have the resources required to perform the balance of its obligations under the Option Agreement, that the Company's cost and timing expectations are accurate, that capital and financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner and that the Company and its operations will not be adversely impacted by COVID-19, or other potential pandemics, or the ongoing conflict in eastern Europe. Additionally, forward-looking information involve a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, without limitation: the volatility of global capital markets, political instability, unanticipated costs, risks relating to the extent and duration of the conflict in Eastern Europe and its impact on global markets, the lack of availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather conditions, failure to maintain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), risk that future exploration results do not replicate historical results or that the Company is unable to identify new mineralized targets, increase in costs, litigation, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, and those risks, uncertainties and factors set forth in the Company's disclosure record under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained herein. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement or forward-looking information disclosed herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Figure 1: Gregory River Property land tenure, exploration targets and Phase 1 work areas.

1 Cyprus-type (also known as mafic-type) volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") deposits are commonly polymetallic, copper-rich, stratabound mineral deposits, hosted by submarine mafic-volcanic rocks that form on, or near the seafloor at mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins in an extensional tectonic regime.

2 Mineralization at the Camp Brook/Moose Brook prospect occurs on the western boundary of the Golden Spike Property and portions of the mineralization may occur on an adjacent property.

SOURCE: Golden Spike Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724643/Golden-Spike-Initiates-Field-Program-over-Gregory-River-Property
Corsicana, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. (OTCQB: MEEC) ("ME2C Environmental" or the "Company"), today announced that Richard MacPherson, Chief Executive Officer of ME2C Environmental will be attending the Q4 Investor Summit live in NYC at the Sheraton Times Square.

Event:Q4 Investor Summit

Date: November 14-15, 2022

Presentation: November 14th at 11:00 AM E.T.

Location: Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019

Webcast: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j9ydZtXXQa-kSxW_YnXV7A

1x1s will be available for qualified investors

The conference is completely complimentary to qualified investors. Please register at Complimentary Investor Registration.

About ME2C Environmental

ME2C Environmental is a leading environmental technologies company developing and delivering patented and proprietary solutions to the global power industry. ME2C's leading-edge mercury emissions technologies and services have been shown to achieve emissions removal at a significantly lower cost and with less operational impact than currently used methods, while maintaining and/or increasing power plant output and preserving the marketability of byproducts for beneficial use. ME2C Environmental is a trade name of Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. For more information, please visit www.me2cenvironmental.com.

ME2C Environmental Corporate Contact:

Stacey Hyatt

Corporate Communications

ME2C Environmental

Main: 614-505-6115 x-1001

Direct: 404-226-4217

shyatt@me2cenvironmental.com

About Investor Summit Group

The Investor Summit (formerly MicroCap Conference) is an exclusive, independent conference dedicated to connecting smallcap and microcap companies with qualified investors. The Q4 Investor Summit will take place in-person and virtually, featuring 50+ companies and over 300 institutional, family office, and high net worth investors. Sectors Participating: Biotech, Communication Services, Consumer, Energy, Energy/Tech, Financial, Healthcare, Industrials, Materials, Real Estate, Technology, and Tech/Crypt. Contact: info@investorsummitgroup.com.

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To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143237
Awakn will Partner with Nushama, One of New York's Leading Ketamine-assisted Therapy Centers

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) ('Awakn'), a revenue-generating biotechnology company researching, developing, and commercializing therapeutics to treat addiction with a near-term focus on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), announces it has signed its third Licensing Partnership agreement in North America. The agreement is with Nushama a leading network of ketamine-assisted therapy centers that exist to humanize medicine, together they will bring Awakn's Ketamine-assisted therapy treatment for AUD to Nushama's clinic in New York City (NYC).

Awakn's proprietary treatment protocol was developed and validated in a Phase II a/b trial. The trial delivered 86% abstinence over the six-months post-treatment versus 2% pre-trial. This efficacy is significantly better than the current standard of care for AUD which has an approximate 25% abstinence rate over a similar timeframe.

Under the terms of the license agreement, Awakn will provide access to its proprietary therapeutics and training to Nushama practitioners, and in return, Nushama will pay Awakn an annual fee and a revenue share per treatment. Traditional AUD rehabilitation facilities range nationally from US$20,000 to US$65,000 per month and start at US$50,000 in NYC. However, Awakn's protocol at Nushama will cost a one-time fee of US$12,500, a fraction of such facilities with superior efficacy rates.

The U.S. alcohol and substance addiction treatment industry is significant with 14,000+ treatment facilities across the country generating more than $35bn in revenue, even with its low efficacy rates. Awakn aims to improve performance of the addiction industry by providing clinic operators, such as Nushama, with access to an efficient and more effective treatment option under license.

Anthony Tennyson, Awakn CEO commented "We are very excited to partner with Nushama and their exceptional team, who are leaders in ketamine-assisted therapy in one of the world's largest markets with a high volume of people being treated. Expanding our U.S. reach to include such an important market as New York City, with planned expansion across the Northeast region, is a major milestone for our program. There is a shared understanding between us that the current standard of care for the treatment of alcohol addiction just isn't good enough and together we will deliver a more efficacious and cost-effective treatment to the growing number of people who so desperately need it."

Richard Meloff, Nushama Co-Founder and President added "Awakn has assembled one of the finest scientific teams in the world for the study of psychedelics and the treatment of addiction. Given the magnitude of alcoholism and staggeringly high relapse rates, we felt an urgency to offer a new solution that is both efficacious and cost-effective."

About Awakn Life Sciences Corp.

Awakn Life Sciences Corp. is a revenue-generating biotechnology company researching, developing, and commercialising therapeutics to treat substance and behavioral addictions. Awakn has a near-term focus on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), a condition affecting 285m people globally for which the current standard of care is inadequate. Our goal is to provide effective therapeutics to addiction sufferers in desperate need and our strategy is focused on commercializing our R&D pipeline across multiple channels.

www.AwaknLifeSciences.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | www.AwaknClinics.com

About Nushama

Nushama is driven to heal a growing mental health crisis through the evidence-led power of psychedelics. Guided by a team with deep and recognized expertise in mental health, design, and community building, Nushama applies hospitality to medicine and provides a holistic path of mindful intention setting, ketamine journeys, and thoughtful integration in safe, healing-focused settings. Nushama provides sustained relief from depression, anxiety, chronic pain, addiction and trauma-induced mood disorders with high-dose intravenous (IV) ketamine for an ego-dissolving psychedelic experience and intramuscular (IM) ketamine protocols for groups. Medically led, Nushama is committed to learning from and integrating the latest psychedelic science with ancient teachings to help its members reset and reconnect.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations or beliefs regarding future events or the Company's future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "continues", "forecasts", "projects", "predicts", "intends", "anticipates", "targets" or "believes", or variations of, or the negatives of, such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, including statements relating the business of the Company. All forward-looking statements, including those herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the statements. There are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking information. These include, but are not limited to: COVID-19; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; the business plans and strategies of the Company; the ability of the Company to comply with all applicable governmental regulations in a highly regulated business; the inherent risks in investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are engaged in activities currently considered illegal in some jurisdictions; changes in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; fluctuations in securities markets; inconsistent public opinion and perception regarding the medical-use of psychedelic drugs; expectations regarding the size of the addiction market; and regulatory or political change. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date or dates specified in such statements. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For more information on the Company, investors are encouraged to review the Company's public filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. 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, other than as required by law. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in the United States. The Company's and Awakn's securities 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 state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Investor Enquiries:

Anthony Tennyson, CEO, Awakn Life Sciences

anthony.tennyson@awaknlifesciences.com

Media Enquiries:



America and Canada:

KCSA Strategic Communications

Anne Donohoe

Adonohoe@KCSA.com

Rest of World:

Gordo Whittaker, CMO, Awakn Life Sciences

gordo@awaknlifesciences.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143587
Asahi Kasei plans construction of new alkaline water electrolysis test plant for hydrogen production by early 2024.

Tests to be conducted around responsiveness to power fluctuation of renewable energy sources and module malfunctions during operation, which facilitates verification and improves apparatus design, operation methods and control technology.

Asahi Kasei has been conducting trials around hydrogen production with NEDO since 2020.

Asahi Kasei, a diversified Japanese multinational company, has started the construction of an alkaline water electrolysis pilot test plant for hydrogen production at its Kawasaki Works location in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Construction and operation of the plant is supported by the "Green Innovation Fund" of Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The groundbreaking ceremony was held at the end of October 2022. Start of operation is targeted in early 2024 following construction work, equipment installation and trial operation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005112/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

For the sustainable large-scale production of hydrogen, it is essential for electrolysis equipment to be compatible with fluctuating electrical power input generated from renewable energy sources, like wind or solar power. To solve this issue, Asahi Kasei will introduce a pilot plant comprising several "Aqualizer" electrolyzer modules to perform various trial operations regarding responsiveness to power fluctuation and long-term durability in Kawasaki.

The system features a changeable configuration with 1-4 water electrolysis modules of 0.8 MW. Utilizing multiple modules, the behavior of equipment under various conditions can be replicated, such as the case where one module malfunctions during operation, or the case of low output operation at night. This facilitates verification and improvement of apparatus design, operation methods and control technology.

Furthermore, the "Aqualizer" electrolyzer is designed to replicate fluctuating output of renewable energy. Since renewable sources provide unstable power output, water electrolysis equipment needs to be highly responsive to fluctuations. As the equipment is designed to simulate such fluctuations, it enables verification of compatibility with renewable energy and coordination with the power system.

Hydrogen-related business defined as strategic growth field

Hydrogen-related business is one of Asahi Kasei's "10 Growth Gears" (GG10), businesses to lead the next phase of growth in fields of focus as part of its medium-term management plan 2024 focused on the theme "Be a Trailblazer." Asahi Kasei is currently advancing its hydrogen-related business centered on the alkaline water electrolysis system for hydrogen production developed utilizing its experience and expertise gained with the membrane process for chlor-alkali electrolysis.

Asahi Kasei installed a large 10 MW-scale alkaline water electrolysis system at the Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) as part of a project led by Japan's NEDO and performed several trial operations since 2020. Based on the technological achievements obtained at FH2R, Asahi Kasei plans to commercialize a larger-scale alkaline water electrolysis system comprising multiple 10 MW modules by 2025.

About Asahi Kasei

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber businesses, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. With more than 46,000 employees around the world, the company contributes to a sustainable society by providing solutions to the world's challenges through its three business sectors of Material, Homes, and Health Care. Its Materials sector, comprised of Environmental Solutions, Mobility Industrial, and Life Innovation, includes a wide array of products from battery separators and biodegradable textiles to engineering plastics and sound solutions. For more information, visit https://www.asahi-kasei.com/.

Asahi Kasei is also dedicated to sustainability initiatives and is contributing to reaching a carbon-neutral society by 2050. To learn more, visit https://www.asahi-kasei.com/sustainability/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005112/en/

Contacts:

Company North America:

Asahi Kasei America, Inc.

Jon Todd

39475 W. Thirteen Mile Road, Suite 201, Novi, MI 48377

E-mail: AKA-info@ak-america.com

Company Europe:

Asahi Kasei Europe GmbH

Sebastian Schmidt

Fringsstrasse 17, 40221 Dusseldorf

Tel: +49 (0) 211-3399-2058

E-mail: sebastian.schmidt@asahi-kasei.eu
NEW YORK, Nov. 09, 2022, a global leader in genomics and precision medicine, are pleased to announce a commercial partnership to provide patients with a wide range of clinical genomic tests, including Whole Genome Sequencing and Whole Exome Sequencing with interpretation, as well as Non-Invasive prenatal Testing (NIPT) in Saudi Arabia.



"We are delighted to offer advanced genomic testing services in partnership with the Al Farabi Medical Labs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Andrea Riposati, Dante Genomics CEO and Co-founder. "We look forward to supporting the growth of Al Farabi Medical Labs and its cutting-edge vision. Together, we aim to enable whole genome sequencing driven healthcare for individuals."

Dr. Mohamed Marie, Al Farabi Founder and General Manager, said: "We are honored to leverage Dante Genomics technology and expertise in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Al Farabi is a leading medical lab with more than 50 branches across the Kingdom. Dante Genomics will be our partner in genetic testing and other genomic solutions. We aim to offer the highest quality services to our patients, now in genomics, as we have done in all areas in healthcare."

About Dante Genomics

Dante Genomics is a global genomic information company building and commercializing a new class of transformative health and longevity applications based on whole genome sequencing and AI. The Company uses its platform to deliver better patient outcomes, prevention, enhanced diagnostics and personalized medicine. The Company's assets include one of the largest private genome databases with research consent, proprietary software designed to unleash the power of genomic data at scale and proprietary processes which enable an industrial approach to genomic sequencing.

About Al Farabi Medical Labs

Al Farabi Medical Labs has pursued since its inception and still the policy of attracting and localizing the new and modern in various diagnostic techniques to work on difficult equations in the medical field in terms of quality of performance, speed of results and fair price for the service provided. Al Farabi Medical Labs has followed a strict policy to adhere to international and local standards and requirement for laboratory quality and occupational safety. This has resulted in achieving national and international accreditations, CBAHI and JCI, respectively.

For further information:

Marketing and Public relations Department

Dr. Kareem Shaheen

Marketing manager

k.shaheen@alfarabilabs.com

Dr. Murad Al Mubaraki

Medical Director

mamubaraki@alfarabilabs.com

Dante Genomics

Laura D'Angelo

VP of Investor Relations

ir@dantelabs.com

+39 0862 191 0671

www.dantegenomics.com
Majuro, Marshall Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Cryptocurrency users now have an easier way to spend their digital assets with the upcoming launch of the exeno store within the Binance App. exeno and Binance Pay have joined forces to bring exeno's brand-name store and its products to the Binance App as a Mini Program. Users will be able to browse the exeno store with ease and make purchases using Binance Pay as their payment method instantly from within the Binance App.

Source 1



To view an enhanced version of Source 1, please visit:

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This partnership between Binance Pay and exeno presents a unique opportunity for users to conveniently shop for high-quality products while utilizing the secure and seamless features of the Binance App and Binance Pay. With this move, exeno is cementing its position as a leader in crypto commerce (c-commerce).

The partnership allows exeno to offer its users powerful features directly within the Binance app. The application provides a gateway to a global audience of millions and gains exposure to the enthusiastic crypto community on Binance.

This partnership truly benefits both companies and users; since it offers a seamless and streamlined experience for using crypto and instilling it as an everyday lifestyle.

With this partnership, exeno will be able to offer a wide range of additional features and services that enhance the user experience and make it easier than ever to navigate the financial markets. Gary Szlatiner, Chief Growth Officer of exeno stated that, "We are excited about the potential of this partnership and we look forward to continuing to work closely with Binance in the future. This will truly enhance the potential of cryptocurrency by taking it to a whole new level of mass adoption and integrating it with e-commerce."

-End-

About Binance Mini Program

The Binance Mini Program feature of Binance Marketplace provides tools for developers to expand their reach and tap into the global crypto market. The marketplace allows companies to showcase their business directly within the Binance App, providing exposure to a million potential users.

And with the Mini Program feature, developers can develop JavaScript programs using REACT and manage them through the Mini Program Portal. This offers a unique opportunity to join a thriving community and boost a business's success.

Binance Mini Program has benefited many other businesses. exeno store is the next prominent business to be featured on the Binance App.

About Binance Pay

Binance Pay is a contactless, borderless, and secure user-to-user cryptocurrency payment feature on the Binance App. Binance Pay allows users and merchants to send and receive crypto payments around the world without incurring special handling fees for using crypto. To date, Binance Pay has recorded over $12 billion in total volume spanning 17 million transactions, more than 7,000 merchants, and millions of users.

About the Exeno Store

The exeno store is an intuitive platform where you can purchase everything from smartphones to perfumes using only crypto. And with worldwide delivery and omnichannel customer support, exeno store makes shopping convenient and secure.

But exeno's commitment to revolutionizing crypto commerce doesn't stop there - the exeno team is currently developing the world's first peer-to-peer crypto-only marketplace, bringing c-commerce to a new level.

exeno store is a part of the exeno ecosystem, which consists of exeno coin (EXN), and the upcoming Screx payment solution.

About Exeno

exeno is merging the e-commerce world with blockchain technology and has become a leader within the crypto commerce ("c-commerce") space. It uses the untapped potential of cryptocurrencies to lead e-commerce to a Web3-based reality. As a result, exeno offers innovative tools and solutions that make online shopping and crypto payments faster, more secure, and more adaptable. By joining the exeno ecosystem, you and your company can keep up with the changing world and benefit from the best technology.

To keep updated about the project, visit:

Website | MarketPlace | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Telegram | Discord

Contact:

Aya Maria Melki

Account Manager

aya@lunapr.io

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143585
Increase in trend of last mile connectivity, surge in demand for affordable commercial vehicle, and inclination toward use of electric loader rickshaw as eco-friendly & efficient solution for commute have propelled the growth of the global electric loader rickshaw market.

PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Electric Loader Rickshaw Market by Power Type (Up to 1000W, 1000W to 1500W, Above 1500W), by Battery Type (Lithium-ion, Lead Acid), by Range (Upto 50KM, More Than 50KM), by Price Range (Low to Mid, High): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031". As per the report, the global electric loader rickshaw industry was pegged at $310.8 million in 2021, and is expected to reach $614.8 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 7% from 2022 to 2031. The report offers a detailed analysis of changing market trends, top segments, key investment pockets, value chains, regional landscapes, and competitive scenario.





Download Free Sample - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/10093

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities

Increase in trend of last mile connectivity, surge in demand for affordable commercial vehicle, and inclination toward use of electric loader rickshaw as eco-friendly & efficient solution for commute have propelled the growth of the global electric loader rickshaw market. However, high cost of batteries and dearth of standardization of EV charging hinder the market growth. On the contrary, greater availability of credit and financing options and surge in fuel prices along with rapid launches of new products have opened new opportunities in the future.

Covid-19 scenario:

The Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected the automotive industry. The lack of workforce and strict restrictions on production and manufacturing facilities regarding social distancing hampered the market.

However, the demand for electric vehicles is expected to increase post-pandemic as the world gets back on track.

The lithium-ion segment held the lion's share

By battery type, the lithium-ion segment held the largest share in 2021, accounting for nearly 90% of the global electric loader rickshaw market. In addition, the segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period, owing to the fact that they are durable and have a longer life as compared to other types of batteries. Moreover, they offer numerous advantages such as Lithium-ion batteries are lighter in weight, have more usable capacity offers constant power, and are not affected by temperature changes.

The above 1500W segment to showcase the highest CAGR through 2031

By power type, the above 1500W segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period, as it is used in numerous applications such as passenger transportation as well as cargo transportation from one place to another. However, the 1000W to 1500W segment held the largest share in 2021, accounting for more than three-fifths of the global electric loader rickshaw market, since this range of vehicles offers greater power as well as efficiency when operating. Moreover, they can be used to commute at a much longer distance of more than 50km in a single charge, as well as can be used to carry passengers as well as cargo from one place to another.

Interested to Procure the Data with Actionable Strategy & Insights? Inquire Before Buying - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/10093

Asia-Pacific held the largest share

By region, the market across Asia-Pacific held the largest share in 2021, accounting for more than three-fourths of the market, due to increased demand for affordable commercial vehicles with low production costs, a rise in production capacity, and a surge in demand for simple light vehicles. Furthermore, the preference for electric three-wheeler has increased in Asia-Pacific as compared to conventional three-wheelers, owing to their lightweight, eco-friendly nature, the requirement for less power, and cost-effectiveness. However, the global electric loader rickshaw market across LAMEA is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 11.0% during the forecast period, due to economic development and the developing automobile industry in the developing countries of this region. The electric loader/carrier rickshaw also employs in low to mid-income countries, further strengthening the market. Furthermore, an increase in the acceptance of electric vehicles, such as steps for building convenient charging stations, is expected to contribute to the growth of the electric loader rickshaw demand in LAMEA.

Major market players

Adapt Motors

AG International Pvt. Ltd.

Arna Electric Auto Private Limited

BABA E-Rickshaw

E-TUK Factory

Gayatri Electric Vehicles

Goenka Electric Motor Vehicles Private Limited

J.S. Auto Pvt. Ltd.

Kinetic Green Vehicles

Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited

Mini Metro EV LLP

Singham (U.P. Telelinks Limited)

SN Solar Energy

Terra Motors India

Victory Electric Vehicles International Limited

Xuzhou Hongsengmeng Group Co., Ltd.

Zuperia Auto Pvt. Ltd.

The report analyzes these key players of the global electric loader rickshaw market. These players have adopted various strategies such as expansion, new product launches, partnerships, and others to increase their market penetration and strengthen their position in the industry. The report is helpful in determining the business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and developments by every market player.

Procure Research Report - https://bit.ly/3DVBTLO

Similar Reports We Have on E-Mobility Industry:

Electric Rickshaw Market Research Report 2022-2030

Electric Tuk-Tuks Market Research Report 2022-2030

Off-Highway Electric Vehicle Market Research Report 2022-2030

Electric Cargo Bike Market Research Report 2022-2030

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.

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Dealer group agrees to purchase 500 vehicles per year

Agreement appoints Newgate as marketing, sales, distribution and servicing agent for the Mullen I-GO in Ireland and the UK.



Newgate will purchase initial units of the I-GO for vehicle demonstrations, marketing and sales opportunities with potential customers.

Expected delivery date for the Mullen I-GO samples is Dec. 20, 2022.



BREA, Calif., Nov. 09, 2022), one of Ireland's most recognized dealership groups, as the marketing, sales, distribution and servicing agent for the Mullen I-GO in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Newgate Motor Group has over 40 years of experience in the motor industry and has built an excellent reputation during that time. They are well respected in the auto industry and represent several brands, including Renault/Dacia, Kia and Mercedes-Benz. In addition to being a key retail group in Ireland, they also have substantial relationships in the vehicle distribution business throughout the United Kingdom and various parts of Europe. Newgate Motor Group also represents XBUS and Evetta electric vehicles from the German-based company Electric Brands.

The I-GO is Mullen's recently announced urban commercial delivery vehicle, designed to bridge the gap between the growing demand for quick deliveries and space constraints in dense cities throughout Europe. The Mullen I-GO is EU standard homologated, certified and ready for sale in initial markets of the U.K., Germany, Spain, France and Ireland, with the first vehicles set to be released in Germany in December 2022.

Mullen and Newgate will also enter into a dealer agreement, which will encompass sales training, service training, flooring, parts, warranty and similar matters that an OEM would typically provide to its dealers. That agreement will also address the terms upon which Newgate Motor Group will purchase the initial units of the I-GO for vehicle demonstrations and the 500-vehicles-per-year purchase order. The expected delivery date for the first shipment of vehicles is Dec. 20, 2022.

"This is a highly strategic partnership for Mullen, with Newgate being one of Ireland's most recognizable dealers for new and used vehicles; it brings us an incredible opportunity to enter the commercial EV market in Europe with a very successful retail group," said David Michery, CEO and chairman of Mullen Automotive. "We are currently working closely with Newgate on the importation, registration and licensing requirements for the successful import and distribution of the I-GO into Ireland and the United Kingdom."

"We believe the Mullen I-GO is the logistical solution the European market is looking for as demand increases for zero-emission delivery vehicles. The demand for zero-emission, compact delivery vehicles has never been higher, and we believe Mullen has produced a vehicle to meet this demand and has the potential to command a substantial market share," said James Ring, general manager of Newgate Motor Group.

The I-GO will join Mullen's current commercial vehicle lineup, which includes Class 1 and 2 EV cargo vans. Mullen recently made a majority acquisition of Bollinger Motors, whose portfolio includes Class 3 through Class 6 commercial vehicles. In addition to securing the exclusive sales, distribution and branding rights for the I-GO for Spain, France, Germany, the U.K. and Ireland, the Company entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire all assets of Electric Last Mile Solutions, Inc. and Electric Last Mile, Inc. ("ELMS") from the ELMS Bankruptcy Estates.

About Mullen

Mullen Automotive is a Southern California-based automotive company building the next generation of premium electric vehicles.

About Newgate Motor Group

Newgate Motor Group is an Irish family-owned business and one of Ireland's most recognized vehicle retailers. Newgate currently represents several brands, including Renault passenger cars and commercial vehicles, Dacia, Kia and Mercedes-Benz. Newgate offers the highest level of service and expertise, whether customers wish to maintain current vehicles or are looking to upgrade to a new or used car. We stock the latest models and a wide variety of used cars, from small to luxury premium vehicles. We are also authorized to facilitate your vehicle finance requirements, and we stock the full range of Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Dacia and Kia genuine parts. Newgate Motor Group boasts a state-of-the-art facility in Navan, with workshops equipped to service and maintain Renault, Dacia, Kia and Mercedes vehicles.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed forward-looking statements. Words such as "continue," "will," "may," "could," "should," "expect," "expected," "plans," "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, many of which are generally outside the control of Mullen and are difficult to predict. Examples of such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: whether Mullen and Newgate Motor Group will agree on terms of the dealer agreement, including but not limited to the terms of the 500-vehicles-per-year purchase order; whether the Sample I-GOs will be delivered to Newgate within the expected time frame; whether the agreement and relationship with Newgate Motors Group will be a success; and whether the I-GO will be a success in the European or other markets. Additional examples of such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: (i) Mullen's ability (or inability) to obtain additional financing in sufficient amounts or on acceptable terms when needed; (ii) Mullen's ability to maintain existing, and secure additional, contracts with manufacturers, parts and other service providers relating to its business; (iii) Mullen's ability to successfully expand in existing markets and enter new markets; (iv) Mullen's ability to successfully manage and integrate any acquisitions of businesses, solutions or technologies; (v) unanticipated operating costs, transaction costs and actual or contingent liabilities; (vi) the ability to attract and retain qualified employees and key personnel; (vii) adverse effects of increased competition on Mullen's business; (viii) changes in government licensing and regulation that may adversely affect Mullen's business; (ix) the risk that changes in consumer behavior could adversely affect Mullen's business; (x) Mullen's ability to protect its intellectual property; and (xi) local, industry and general business and economic conditions. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements can be found in the most recent annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed by Mullen with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mullen anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause its plans, intentions and expectations to change. Mullen assumes no obligation, and it specifically disclaims any intention or obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by law. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and should not be relied upon as representing Mullen's plans and expectations as of any subsequent date.

Contact:

Mullen Automotive, Inc.

+1

Wire Service Contact:

InvestorWire

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@InvestorWire.com

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MONTEAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Vior Inc. ("Vior" or the "Corporation"), (TSXV:VIO)(OTCQB:VIORF)(FRANKFURT:VL51) is pleased to announce additional field exploration results that indicate strong high-grade gold potential at its Quebec-based district-scale Belleterre gold project ("Belleterre" or "Project") in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region. These new findings are from samples collected during the Summer 2022 field exploration program. The current gold results are located 250 metres ("m") southwest of the Lac Paradis results that were previously published on January 28, 2022.

Mark Fedosiewich, President & CEO of Vior, stated, "We are very encouraged by these new results. The Lac Paradis showing was already recognized as one of many strong exploration targets at Belleterre, and these new surface results reconfirm the extension potential. The Lac Paradis showing, located 10 kilometres ("km") from the historic Belleterre mining camp, reinforces the exceptional regional gold footprint at Belleterre."

Additional communications will be disclosed in due course as Vior's technical team advances on a global compilation and drill-targeting program at Belleterre.

Lac Paradis Showing

The Lac Paradis showing confirmed in Vior's 2021 preliminary validation program, was first discovered in the 1940's and was minimally explored at that time by shallow drilling. This prospective region occurs within the southwest extension of the Belleterre mining camp's historic brownfield area. Specifically, the showing is located 10 km from the past-producing area and is situated in a major 2.3km NE-SW sheared deformation corridor within Vior's property (refer to Map 1 and Map 2). The multi-kilometer structure that encompasses the Lac Paradis gold showing has been confirmed by geophysics, LIDAR and field observation descriptions. The high-grade mineralised sample results being reported in this press release (refer to Table 1), confirm a significant expansion of the historic Lac Paradis showing footprint, with a 250m long by 50m to 100m wide new prospective area. The mineralised system is wider and more extended than previous data suggested, and has a multi-kilometer major sheared deformation corridor that remains open along both the NE and SW extensions.

The main lithology surrounding the gold values are granodiorite, felsic and some mafic intrusives. Evidence of multi-metre to 10m wide strong deformation zones have been observed and include silicification, chlorite, carbonate, and sericite alterations. Locally, fuchsite alteration has also been recognised at the newly discovered gold showing at Lac Girard, 500m to the northeast. Gold values are reported mainly in quartz veining with 1-3% disseminated pyrite and traces of chalcopyrite. Silver is an important component of the mineralisation in the area, and may subsequently become of economic interest. The Lac Paradis area's expanded footprint represents an excellent exploration and drill targeting area that will be integrated into Vior's regional drill targeting program.

Map 1. General Overview of Vior's highest gold value locations at Lac Paradis.



Map 2. Detailed locations of Vior's highest gold values at Lac Paradis.

Table 1. Belleterre Project - Lac Paradis gold and silver values from Summer 2022 exploration program (see Press Release of January 28, 2022).

Throughout Vior's Summer 2022 surface exploration program, the geological team completed regional outcrop mapping and rock sampling, focused mainly on the Blondeau-Guillet area of the Belleterre property (see press release of August 25, 2021). The exploration initiative concluded with over 1500 registered outcrops and 636 samples taken. The sample highlights reported in this press release represent only those gold results proximal to the Lac Paradis area.

Vior Strengthens its Exploration Team

Vior is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Benjamin (Ben) Cleland as Senior Exploration Manager. Ben is a Professional Geologist with over 14 years of experience in exploration, covering a wide range of deposit types, including Mesothermal and Epithermal Gold, NI-CU-PGE, VMS and industrial minerals. Ben has held number of progressive positions in the mining industry, most notably, having contributed to the exploration success at the Hardrock Deposit (Ontario), owned by Greenstone Gold Mines. As Manager of Geology, he led the regional exploration in the Beardmore-Geraldton Belt and helped advance the detailed resource delineation of the Hardrock Deposit to a 4 million ounce resource estimate published in 2016.

Mark Fedosiewich, President and CEO of Vior, stated, "We are excited to announce the recent addition of Ben to our Technical team. Ben brings with him the experience and skillset that will help accelerate the exploration and discovery process at our flagship Belleterre gold project. We look forward to his contributions in advancing Vior's value creation process."

Photo 1. Multi-meter mineralized quartz vein shear zone at sample site # B00326681

Photo 2. Mineralized Quartz veining in major shear zone with 3% disseminated pyrite

About QA/QC Controls

Vior has implemented a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with industry best practices, including certified reference material (CRM) standards and blank material inserted every 20 samples. Sample preparation and gold analyses were performed either at Activation Laboratories Ltd (Actlabs) in Sainte-Germaine-Boule, QC or by SGS Canada Inc with a preparation of samples performed at the SGS Sudbury and analysis of samples performed at the SGS Burnaby site in BC. All samples were analyzed for gold by fire-assays (50g) and finished with an atomic absorption finish or ICP-AES technique. Repeats were conducted by fire-assay (50g) followed by gravimetric testing on each sample containing more than 3.0 g/t Au. Selected samples are also analyzed for multi-elements, including silver, using a four-acid digestion finish ICP-MS method. High grade silver was repeated by aqua regia digestion ICP-OES finish.

About Belleterre

The Belleterre property is located near the town of Belleterre in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region of Quebec, 95 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, QC. The property consists of 551 claims over an area of 30,258 hectares (302.6 sq km), forming a district-scale exploration package that extends over a strike length of 37 km. The Project includes the option to acquire the former high-grade Belleterre Gold Mine that produced over 750,000 oz. gold (Au) at 10.73 grams per tonne ("g/t") and 95,000 oz. silver (Ag) at 1.73 g/t between 1936 and 1959 (Source: Sigeom MERN). The property has been under-explored over the past 60 years and has never been the subject of such significant consolidation until now. More on Belleterre can be found HERE.

About Vior Inc.

Vior is a hybrid junior mining exploration company based in Quebec whose corporate strategy is to generate, explore and develop high-quality projects in proven and favourable mining jurisdictions in North America. Through the years, Vior's management and technical teams have demonstrated their ability to discover several gold deposits and many high-quality mineral prospects.

Qualified Persons

The technical content disclosed in this press release was reviewed and approved by Laurent Eustache, Executive Vice-President of Vior and Christian Blanchet, Operations Manager of Vior, and Qualified Persons as per National Instrument 43-101.

For further information, please contact:

Mark Fedosiewich

President and CEO

613-898-5052

mfedosiewich@vior.ca

Laurent Eustache

Executive Vice-President

514-442-7707

leustache@vior.ca

www.vior.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that the Corporation believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, the planned exploration program on the Belleterre project, the expected positive exploration results, the timing of the exploration results, the ability of the Corporation to continue with the exploration program, the availability of the required funds to continue with the exploration and the approval from the Ministere de l'energie et des ressources naturelle ("MERN") of the request for abandonment of the two mining concessions filed by 9293-0122 Quebec Inc. are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "to earn", "to have', "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Corporation's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Corporation to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned exploration expenditures, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Corporation's expectations, general business and economic conditions, changes in world gold markets, sufficient labour and equipment being available, changes in laws and permitting requirements, unanticipated weather changes, title disputes and claims, environmental risks, the refusal by the MERN to approve the request for abandonment of the two mining concessions held by 9293-0122 Quebec Inc. as well as those risks identified in the Corporation's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Corporation does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.

SOURCE: Vior, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724698/Vior-Expands-Surface-Gold-Showing-Footprint-at-Belleterre-and-Strengthens-Its-Exploration-Team
SCOTTSDALE, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Today CBD Life Sciences (OTC PINK:CBDL) through its wholly owned subsidiary, LBC Bioscience Inc. announces today that the company has developed a product that may aid consumers in many ways around the globe.

Our new PR-X 100MG per tablet supplement has been in development for several months and is finally ready to hit the shelves! This product has been created with all natural ingredients infused with the purest Full-Spectrum CBD Isolate on the market. It is also lab tested for potency and consistency. PR-X is designed for and may help with prostate health, urinary, & hair support. President & CEO Lisa Nelson states "This is a giant step in the right direction for the company as we are trying to always create new products that have never been seen before from any of our competitors. PR-X is expected to boost revenue significantly and we are currently contacting dispensaries & convenient stores around Arizona to push this specific product to the next level in a movement to promote overall health to the max!"

The number of benefits CBD has is tremendous! These benefits may help with behavioral/neurological complications such as ADD/ADHD, anxiety, autism, bipolar, OCD, PTSD, epilepsy, Parkinson's, osteoporosis, and ALS. CBD may also benefit pain management that can stem from headaches/migraines, arthritis, cramps, spinal injuries, and fibromyalgia. CBD has been found to also have gastrointestinal benefits with gastro-disorders and complications such as anorexia, cachexia, Crohn's, diabetes, and nausea. Physical complications/disorders such as muscular dystrophy and even immune system-based deficiencies and other complications such as cancer and hypertension even our bodies way and ability to maintain homeostasis have all been said to receive help from CBD. More updates to come!

LBC BIOSCIENCE INC. ONLINE STORE

LBC BIOSCIENCE'S Online Emporium

LBC Bioscience Inc. is well stocked already as it is with some very high-quality CBD offerings - all at very reasonable prices. Check out LBC Bioscience Inc's newest product offerings including its: 100MG CBD Bath Bombs in a variety of scents, Delta 8 Gummies, 1500 MG Premium Berry Drops, and a variety of all-new Skincare products. Or shop our top-selling products (based on order frequency) which include our CBD Pain Cream, CBD Oils and CBD Pet Treats.

Become a Distributor

Large Selection of Products (over 50 items and growing)

100% USA Made Products "organic & kosher."

All Products are THC-FREE (they contain 0.00% THC)

Weekly Deals (new deals every week)

25% off on all products using code "LBC25."

LBC Bioscience Inc. accepts: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover etc.

Shareholders and interest holders may also stay current with LBC Bioscience Inc Updates:

LBC Bioscience Inc's Main Website at www.lbcbioscienceinc.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lbcbioscience

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lbcbioscience

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lbcbioscience

About LBC Bioscience Inc.

LBC Bioscience Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CBD Life Sciences Inc. LBC has developed and is retailing/wholesale a full line of cannabidiol based organic products including CBD Drops, Gumballs, Honey Sticks, Pain Relief Creams, Anxiety & Sleep Supplements, Edibles, Coffee, Skincare Line, Pet Line, Tablets and more. LBC's products can be viewed and bought on the Company's website at www.lbcbioscienceinc.com.

Ten Associates LLC

Contact:

Thomas E. Nelson

Telephone: (480) 326-8577

Email: tenassociates33@gmail.com

Website: www.tenassociatesllc.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. See CBD Life Sciences, Inc's, Inc.'s filings with OTC Markets, which may identify specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

Safe Harbor Statement

This release includes forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and reflects management's current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Some of these factors include: general global economic conditions; general industry and market conditions, sector changes and growth rates; uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; increasing competition; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of services; changes in the economy; changes in laws and regulations, including codes and standards, intellectual property rights, and tax matters; or other matters not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking

SOURCE: CBD Life Sciences Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724654/CBD-Life-Sciences-Inc-CBDL-Announces-Expansion-of-Product-Line
Two of the world's leading infrastructure investors and Vodafone team up to jointly transform Vantage Towers into a leading player in the European telecoms tower sector

The Consortium, as partner to Vodafone, will co-control Vodafone's c. 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers and launch a public takeover offer to the minority shareholders of the company for the remaining c. 18.3%

GIP and KKR together with Vodafone intend to provide the deep infrastructure expertise needed to accelerate Vantage Towers' strategic and operational development

The strategic partners intend to support an ongoing multibillion euro investment program over the next five years in order to improve Vantage Towers' existing infrastructure and expand and upgrade its network

The Consortium will support the development of Europe's digital infrastructure by driving network expansion and enabling the deployment of next-generation technologies

The public takeover will be launched at an offer price of EUR 32.0 per Vantage Towers share, representing a 19% premium to the 3-month volume-weighted average share price

Today, a consortium of funds led by Global Infrastructure Partners ("GIP") and KKR (together "the Consortium") entered into a strategic co-control partnership with Vodafone GmbH ("Vodafone") for Vodafone's c. 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers AG ("Vantage Towers" or "the company"), a leading telecoms tower company in Europe. Vodafone will transfer its stake in Vantage Towers to a holding company ("Oak BidCo"), which will be indirectly co-controlled by Vodafone and the Consortium. The Consortium will obtain a shareholding of up to 50%. Oak BidCo will launch a voluntary public takeover offer for all outstanding free float shares of Vantage Towers AG comprising c. 18.3% of the share capital.

GIP and KKR will be investing through their core infrastructure strategies. Tower Bridge Infrastructure Partners1 will be part of the Consortium as a co-investor, with additional funding for the transaction provided by the Public Investment Fund ("PIF").

Together, GIP, KKR and Vodafone will provide deep infrastructure expertise to help advance the company's strategic plans. The Consortium and Vodafone share a joint ambition to accelerate the company's growth trajectory through additional investments by Vantage Towers in its network and expansion into fast-growing adjacent markets. The Consortium and Vodafone aim to expand Vantage Towers' business to create a leading pan-European telecoms tower business.

Already a leader in its core markets today, Vantage Towers has a large footprint of approximately 83,000 sites in ten countries, long-term agreements with high-quality tenants and a deep and dense network in the markets in which it operates. The company benefits from consistent organic growth, stable margin development and strong cash generation driven by significant revenue visibility and enhanced commercialization of its tower footprint. In 2021, Vantage Towers signed a landmark agreement with 1&1 Mobilfunk GmbH to support the company in the rapid roll-out of its 5G network, covering potentially up to 5,000 existing sites throughout Germany for the next 20 years.

"We're delighted to join forces with Vodafone and KKR to invest in Vantage Towers, a high-quality European tower portfolio with strong upside potential. We are looking forward to capturing the exciting value-creating opportunities in the European telecoms infrastructure sector by advancing Vantage Towers' strategy and supporting its capacity to build new sites. As strategic partners with Vodafone and KKR, we will bring our deep infrastructure expertise and resources to help the company deliver the best data connectivity for individuals and businesses and contribute to enabling Europe's digital future in the interest of all stakeholders," said Will Brilliant, Partner and Head of Digital Infrastructure at GIP.

"Together with our strategic partners Vodafone and GIP, we believe Vantage Towers' high-quality footprint and network across the region ideally position it to meet the ever-growing demand for mobile connectivity in Europe. We have a shared goal of creating a pan-European telecoms champion by continuing to grow and develop the business, leveraging the Consortium's significant telecoms infrastructure investment experience and global resources. At KKR we are long-term conviction investors in Europe's digital infrastructure and at Vantage Towers we intend to pursue value-creating investments to capitalise on the growth in this sector and to help drive consolidation in a fragmented market," said Vincent Policard, Partner and Co-Head of European Infrastructure at KKR.

"This is a landmark moment for both Vodafone and Vantage Towers. This transaction successfully delivers on Vodafone's stated aims of retaining co-control over a strategically important asset, deconsolidating Vantage Towers from our balance sheet to ensure we can optimise its capital structure and generate substantial upfront cash proceeds for the Group to support our priority of deleveraging. We are excited to partner with GIP and KKR, both world-class investors who bring significant expertise in digital infrastructure and share our long-term vision for Vantage Towers as we collectively take the business to the next stage of its growth," said Nick Read, Vodafone Group Chief Executive.

Investing in the modernization of Europe's mobile infrastructure

Together, the strategic partners plan to support Vantage Towers' multibillion investment program over the next 5 years in order to improve existing infrastructure and to expand as well as upgrade the network. Through their strategic co-control partnership, the Consortium and Vodafone intend to support Vantage Towers to:

Accelerate the company's ambitious program to build new sites for existing clients ("Build-to-suit", "BTS") that helps them to meet their coverage obligations and densification requirements.

Enhance Vantage Towers' commercial capabilities and drive the utilization of existing assets by capturing additional co-location opportunities from new and existing third-party customers.

Expand the company's activities beyond its core business into fast-growing adjacent markets such as 5G private networks, data centers, edge computing, small cells and the internet-of-things ("IoT"), and deploying fiber to the tower ecosystem.

Further drive consolidation in the European tower sector.

This European growth strategy is expected to allow Vantage Towers to further diversify its tenant base, increase the size and depth of its tower portfolio, while also creating further cost efficiencies and improving its profitability.

With further investments into Vantage Towers' network, the Consortium and Vodafone are supporting Europe's digitalization efforts and ensuring that mobile telecommunications infrastructure can keep up with the rapidly rising demand for data traffic and connectivity. Emerging trends such as autonomous driving, telemedicine, virtual/augmented reality, smart farming and IoT depend on the data services and infrastructure that enable them. Vantage Towers has the DNA of a carrier-neutral infrastructure provider, which will play a key role in empowering a sustainably connected Europe. The Consortium is aware of its responsibility to provide access to communications services for the community. It also recognizes the importance of sustainably stewarding these critical assets and is committed to ensuring that Vantage Towers remains a highly attractive employer in the industry.

GIP and KKR have a long track record of collaboration in the infrastructure sector

Both GIP and KKR are leading global infrastructure investors. Together, they form a Consortium with unique experience and expertise in global infrastructure investing, particularly in the digital and communications sector. Both companies share a longstanding institutional relationship and have a proven track record of acting together within one consortium. The Consortium is a strong financial partner for Vantage Towers with access to ample liquidity and long-term value creation objectives to support the business and the necessary investments at this pivotal moment for the industry.

Voluntary takeover offer

As part of their strategic co-control partnership, the Consortium and Vodafone will launch a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of Vantage Towers through Oak BidCo. Vantage Towers' shareholders will be offered EUR 32.0 per share in cash. Vantage Towers' shareholders will benefit from a 19% premium to the 3-month volume-weighted average share price.

The voluntary takeover offer will be subject to various customary offer conditions, including the receipt of regulatory antitrust and FDI approvals, with closing expected in the first half of 2023.

As part of the transaction, Oak BidCo and Vantage Towers have entered into a Business Combination Agreement in which Vantage Towers undertook to support the takeover offer. Subject to their review of the offer document, the management board and supervisory board of Vantage Towers welcome and support the offer and intend to recommend that Vantage Towers' shareholders accept the offer. The current management board members of Vantage Towers will continue to lead the company.

Further, the Consortium and Vodafone intend to implement a domination profit and loss transfer agreement ("DPLTA") if the final shareholding of Oak BidCo in Vantage Towers is below 95%, or a squeeze-out of non-Oak-BidCo minority shareholders if the aggregate shareholding of Oak BidCo in the company is 95% or higher. Post-closing, Vodafone and the Consortium will consider removing Vantage Towers' public listing from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Offer document and further information

The voluntary public takeover offer will be made pursuant to an offer document to be approved by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This offer document will be published following receipt of permission from BaFin, at which point the initial acceptance period of the takeover offer will commence. The offer document (in German and a non-binding English translation) and other information pertaining to the public takeover offer will be published on the following website: https://angebot.wpueg.de/oak/.

GIP and KKR are advised by Morgan Stanley as exclusive financial advisor and Latham Watkins as legal advisor.

About Vantage Towers

Vantage Towers is a leading tower company in Europe with around 83,000 sites in ten countries, connecting people, businesses and devices in cities and rural areas.

The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Dusseldorf. Vantage Towers has been listed on the Deutsche Borse's Prime Standard in Frankfurt since 18 March 2021. The shares are included in the MDAX, TecDAX, STOXX Europe 600 and FTSE Global Midcap Indices.

Vantage Towers' portfolio includes towers, masts, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. By building, operating and leasing this infrastructure to MNOs or other network providers such as IoT companies or utilities, Vantage Towers is making a significant contribution to a better-connected Europe.

While already 100% of the electricity that Vantage Towers uses to operate its infrastructure is obtained from renewable energy sources, green energy is increasingly being generated directly on site with the help of solar panels, micro wind turbines and in future also hydrogen solutions. This fits well into the overall strategy of the company to drive a sustainable digitalisation in Europe and to support partners through technological innovation in decarbonisation and achieving their climate goals.

For more information, please visit our website at www.vantagetowers.com, follow us on Twitter at @VantageTowers or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vantagetowers.

About Vodafone

Unique in its scale as the largest pan-European and African technology communications company, Vodafone transforms the way we live and work through its innovation, technology, connectivity, platforms, products and services.

Vodafone operates mobile and fixed networks in 22 countries, and partners with mobile networks in 47 more. As of 30 June 2022, we had over 300 million mobile customers, more than 28 million fixed broadband customers and 22 million TV customers. Vodafone is a world leader in the Internet of Things ("IoT"), connecting around 160 million devices and platforms.

We have revolutionised fintech in Africa through M-Pesa, which celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2022. It is the region's largest fintech platform, providing access to financial services for more than 50 million people in a secure, affordable and convenient way.

Our purpose is to connect for a better future by using technology to improve lives, digitalise critical sectors and enable inclusive and sustainable digital societies.

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact to reach net zero emissions across our full value chain by 2040, while helping our customers reduce their own carbon emissions by 350 million tonnes by 2030. We are driving action to reduce device waste and achieve our target to reuse, resell or recycle 100% of our network waste.

We believe in the power of connectivity and digital services to improve society and economies, partnering with governments to digitalise healthcare, education and agriculture and create cleaner, safer cities. Our products and services support the digitalisation of businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Our inclusion for all strategy seeks to ensure no-one is left behind through access to connectivity, digital skills and creating relevant products and services such as access to education, healthcare and finance. We are also committed to developing a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the customers and societies we serve.

For more information, please visit http://www.vodafone.com, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone.

About Global Infrastructure Partners

GIP is a leading independent infrastructure fund manager that makes equity and debt investments in infrastructure assets and businesses. GIP targets investments in the energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and water/waste sectors in both OECD and select emerging market countries. Headquartered in New York, GIP operates out of 10 offices: New York, London, Stamford (Connecticut), Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore and Hong Kong. GIP manages c. US $84 billion for its investors. GIP's portfolio companies have combined annual revenues of c. US $68 billion and employ over 100,000 people. For more information, visit www.global-infra.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries.

KKR established its Global Infrastructure business in 2008 and has since grown to one of the largest infrastructure investors globally with a team of more than 75 dedicated investment professionals. The firm currently oversees approximately US$50 billion in infrastructure assets globally as of 30 September, 2022, and has made over 65 infrastructure investments across a range of sub-sectors and geographies. KKR's infrastructure platform is devised specifically for long term, capital intensive structural investments.

For additional information about KKR Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

1 Separately Managed Account managed by GIP

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005530/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact Consortium (on behalf of GIP and KKR)

Germany

Thea Bichmann

Mobile: +49 172 13 99 761

Email: thea.bichmann@fgsglobal.com

Christian Falkowski

Mobile: +49 171 86 79 950

Email: christian.falkowski@fgsglobal.com

UK

Alastair Elwen

Telephone: +44 20 7251 3801

Email: alastair.elwen@fgsglobal.com

Sophia Johnston

Telephone: +44 20 7251 3801

Email: sophia.johnston@fgsglobal.com
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - A consortium of funds led by Global Infrastructure Partners and KKR entered into a strategic co-control partnership with Vodafone GmbH for Vodafone's approximately 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers AG, a telecoms tower company in Europe. Vodafone will transfer its stake in Vantage Towers to a holding company, Oak BidCo, which will be indirectly co-controlled by Vodafone and the Consortium. The Consortium will obtain a shareholding of up to 50%. Also, Oak BidCo and Vantage Towers have entered into a business combination agreement in which Vantage Towers undertook to support the takeover offer The Consortium and Vodafone will launch a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of Vantage Towers through Oak BidCo. Vantage Towers' shareholders will be offered 32.0 euros per share in cash. . Vantage Towers is a tower company in Europe with around 83,000 sites in ten countries. In 2021, Vantage Towers signed an agreement with 1&1 Mobilfunk GmbH to support the company in the rapid roll-out of its 5G network. 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.
Josh Hoops named Vice President, Data Centers

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CAI, a global consulting company that provides technical, operational consulting, and project management services to the life sciences, data center, and process manufacturing industries, today announced the formation of a Data Centers division to be led by Josh Hoops.





"I am humbled to lead CAI's data center business into the future. We have an amazing team of experienced professionals who will continue to support our clients to drive Operational Readiness in data centers around the globe. Providing integrated solutions from project kickoff to operations and maintenance, our teams have successfully delivered 1,000's of MW of data center capacity. I look forward to leading our team, enabling growth, and maintaining excellence in project delivery as we continue to provide value to our clients," said Josh.

"Based on a history of successful facility inspection, testing, and startup across multiple industries, CAI is moving its data center services into a stand-alone business division. This move broadens our data center services to the entire facility lifecycle delivering value for our data center clients. We know our unique industry approach shortens the time to reach operational readiness and lowers the total cost of ownership for these mission critical facilities. I look forward to working with Josh to drive value for both our clients and our employee owners," says Mike Martin, CEO.

Josh Hoops, the new Vice President for CAI Data Centers; assumes responsibility for leading these teams to drive excellence in mission critical facility operational readiness worldwide. An expert in operations management, he has experience across multiple industries improving a variety of fundamental and complex aspects of organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Josh has over 30 years of management and operations experience in the United States Navy as a Submarine Officer and Asset Management, Building Commissioning and Management Consulting. He held several operational and executive management level positions, overseeing up to 1200 employees, including operations and maintenance, safety, personal qualification, and professional development. Josh holds a BS degree in Computer Science from University of North Florida and an MBA in Project Management from Columbia Southern University. While at CAI, as the Global Director, Program & Project Management, he has supervised major capital projects across multiple industries around the globe delivering value for CAI's clients and employee owners.

ABOUT CAI

CAI have delivered nearly a billion dollars in services for hundreds of clients across thousands of projects globally. With offices in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Ireland, Italy, China, and Singapore, we are an international team of over 850 professionals providing local support from a global company. Our integrated engineering, technical, and quality consulting services are designed to deliver mission critical facilities with a high level of performance and reliability. When operational readiness and startup are critical, CAI delivers to a higher standard. www.cagents.com

Contact:

David Shenberger

+13177219847

dwshen@cagents.com

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IT Companies Network is a platform created to bring IT experts and business owners together. Recently, the company purchased the API and SOA resource known as LAYER7 TECH.

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - ITcompanies.net, also known as IT Companies Network, is a digital platform to facilitate IT Experts and emerging entrepreneurs. In the recent development, the company has expanded by purchasing the reliable resource API and SOA known as LAYER7 TECH.

The acquisition provides different facilities to the audience of the IT Companies Network; it will be able to produce quality content and, at the same time, augment its internal system, which gathers market insights with additional APIs and blockchain for verifying the data.

With LAYER7 TECH, IT Companies Network connects business owners with the right IT vendors. For IT companies, the team is trying to give more insights into the market and help them get new clients.

IT Companies Network focuses on accessibility to the right IT specialists. Since high demand generates high supply, the number of IT service providers on the market is growing exponentially, making it hard to find a company that suits an individual's needs perfectly. The IT Companies Network aims to help people who want to outsource IT tasks gain access to IT service provider details and make the right choice. Companies featured in the directory have gone through a rigorous selection process to become a perfect match for their users' needs.

The company strives hard to bring its clients suitable options and help them meet their IT and business goals. With the recent development, the company helps businesses of all sizes find a required match for their IT needs. As it believes selecting the right IT partner doesn't have to take weeks, ITcompanies.net is designed to simplify the search and ensure a suitable match.

Moreover, besides playing matchmaker for IT companies and business owners, it provides quality information to help users reach their IT goals. The company educates its audience to help them improve their company's bottom line and stay updated of the latest developments in the IT industry.

About the Company - IT Companies Network

The company has developed to facilitate IT Companies all over the globe. The team understands what business owners look for in an IT company and provides its services accordingly. They offer their services diligence with quality, speed, and efficiency 24/7/365.

Furthermore, following the incorporation of new capabilities, the IT Companies Network team recently increased their focus on giving platform users the best experience possible. IT Companies Network has announced an update to its platform that includes adding a tool that enables IT businesses to get better market insights about their competitors. It includes MSPs, Cyber Security firms, IT support firms, and software development firms-to gain distinctive market insights about their rivals and suggestions for how to grow their market share.

Potential clients and IT enthusiasts must visit the official website to learn more about the company. For students in the IT field, there is an IT Internship Program.

Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

About LAYER7 TECH

Layer 7 Tech is a project created by veteran software engineers with experience in API and Service-Oriented Architecture development. It provides relevant information related to software engineering, APIs, SOA, Cloud Computing, Big Data and Cyber Security.

Website

###

IT Companies Network

Joseph Harisson

joseph@itcompanies.net

https://itcompanies.net/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143595
REDDING, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report titled, 'Environmental Sensor Market by Type (Particulate & Gas Sensors, Chemical Sensors, Temperature Sensors, Noise Sensors), Application, and End User (Residential, Government & Public Utilities, Commercial, and Industrial) - Global Forecast to 2029,' the global environmental sensors market is projected to reach $13.53 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 8% from 2022 to 2029. By volume, the global environmental sensor market is projected to reach 122,800,587 units by 2029, at a CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period.





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Environment sensors play a critical role as they help analyze environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, detect landslides, track climate change, check agricultural usage patterns, and heat loss. It is widely adopted in several applications such as smart home automation, factory automation, smart cities, automotive, and powertrain system. Besides, advancements in sensor technology, such as sensors integrated with IoT and Big Data technology, are helping in the analysis of large volumes of environmental data. This factor is expected to increase the adoption of environmental sensors.

The growth of the environment sensors market is attributed to the rising installation of environmental monitoring stations, increasing use of environmental sensors in the industrial sector, and stringent environmental regulations to reduce environmental pollution. However, the lack of awareness and high costs associated with environmental sensors challenge the market's growth. In addition, the ongoing technological advancement in IoT and cloud-based services and the growing adoption of nanotechnology-based environmental monitoring products are expected to offer significant growth opportunities for this market.

Rising government funding toward environmental sustainability is driving the growth of the environmental sensors market

In the past few years, the importance of decisive actions towards achieving environmental sustainability has become of vital essence around the globe. A few environmental sustainability factors that can be put into practice include protecting renewable resources by supporting and advancing sustainable farming, purchasing carbon offsets to support reforestation and other regenerative projects; avoiding the consumption of fossil fuels by using renewable energy alternatives; and limiting pollution by composting and supporting clean air and water initiatives.

Governments and regional associations across the globe are accelerating their investments toward reducing carbon footprint and building an environmentally sustainable economy. Various green investment banks (GIBs) like the UK Green Investment Bank, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation (GreenTech Malaysia), Connecticut Green Bank, Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), and California CLEEN Center are focusing on investing and funding projects with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some of the developments in this space are as follows:

In 2022, the German government announced plans to invest $4.4 billion (4 billion) in "natural climate protection" to complement steps to wean Germany off fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions.

(4 billion) in "natural climate protection" to complement steps to wean off fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. In 2021, the government of Canada invested $150 million in better ventilation for schools, hospitals, and other public buildings. This investment helps to assess, monitor, and improve indoor air quality and ventilation, including upgrades or conversions of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, as well as community-based solutions in Indigenous communities.

invested in better ventilation for schools, hospitals, and other public buildings. This investment helps to assess, monitor, and improve indoor air quality and ventilation, including upgrades or conversions of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, as well as community-based solutions in Indigenous communities. In 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of $20 million in competitive grants through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to enhance ambient air quality monitoring in communities across the U.S.

Thus, government initiatives encouraging the adoption of environmental monitoring products are driving the growth of the environmental sensors market.

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The global environmental sensors market is segmented by type (particulate & gas sensors, chemical sensors, pressure sensors, humidity & moisture sensors, temperature sensors, noise sensors, and other environmental sensors), application (smart home automation, factory automation, smart cities, automotive powertrain system, energy harvesting, other applications), end user (residential, government & public utilities, commercial, and industrial), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa). The study also evaluates industry competitors and analyzes the market at regional and country levels.

Based on type, in 2022, by value, the particulate & gas sensors segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the increasing integration of gas sensors in HVAC systems and air quality monitors, increasing demand for miniaturized wireless gas sensors, growing air pollution levels, and the need for air quality monitoring in smart cities. Additionally, this segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

However, by volume, in 2022, the chemical sensors segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market.

Based on application, in 2022, the factory automation segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market. However, the smart cities segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The rising environmental pollution levels, increasingly degrading indoor air quality, and growing demand for real-time air quality monitoring sensors to monitor urban air pollution are expected to support the growth of this segment.

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Based on end user, in 2022, the industrial segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensor market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the growing trends in industrial automation, stringent government regulations regarding pollution monitoring technologies, and rapid industrialization. Furthermore, the use of smart sensors for predictive maintenance and their increasing utilization in the automotive industry are expected to drive this segment's growth over the coming years. Also, this segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on geography, in 2022, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period. The increasing implementation of environmental monitoring and protection policies by governments and increasing compliance from industrial facilities towards environmental monitoring regulations are supporting the region's growth.

Some of the key players operating in the environmental sensor market are Siemens AG (Germany), Infineon Technologies AG (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Bosch Sensortec GmbH (Germany), Raritan Inc. (U.S.), TE Connectivity Ltd. (Switzerland), Texas Instruments Incorporated (U.S.), Amphenol Corporation (U.S.), Breeze Technologies (Germany), NuWave Sensor Technology Limited (Ireland), Renesas Electronics Corporation (Japan), Aeroqual (New Zealand), ams-OSRAM AG (Austria), AVTECH Software, Inc. (U.S.), eLichens (France), and Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.).

To gain more insights into the market with a detailed table of content and figures, click here: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/environmental-sensor-market-5348

Scope of the Report

Environmental Sensor Market, by Type

Particulate & Gas Sensors

Chemical Sensors

Pressure Sensors

Humidity & Moisture Sensors

Temperature Sensors

Noise Sensors

Other Environmental Sensors

Environmental Sensor Market, by Application

Smart Home Automation

Factory Automation

Smart Cities

Automotive Powertrain System

Energy Harvesting

Other Applications

Environmental Sensor Market, by End User

Residential

Government & Public Utilities

Commercial

Transportation & Logistics



Education



Healthcare



Other Commercial Sectors

Industrial

Automotive



Pharmaceutical



Oil & Gas



Consumer Electronics



Chemicals



Other Industries

Environmental Sensor Market, by Geography

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

U.K.



Germany



France



Italy



Spain



Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China



Japan



India



South Korea



Australia and New Zealand

and

Rest of Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

& UAE



Israel



Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Environmental Monitoring Market by Product (Sensors, [Analog Sensor, Digital Sensor], Environmental Monitors [Fixed Monitors], Environmental Software), Sampling (Continuous Monitoring, Intermittent), Application (Soil Pollution Monitoring) - Forecast to 2028.

https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/environmental-monitoring-market-5024

Environmental Testing Market by Product (Mass Spectrometers, Chromatography Products, Molecular Spectroscopy Products, Toc Analyzers, PH Meters, Dissolved Oxygen Analyzers, Conductivity Sensors, Turbidity Meters), Sample (Wastewater/Effluent, Soil, Water, Air), Technology (Conventional, Rapid), Contaminant (Microbes, Organic Compounds, Heavy Metals, Residues, Solids), End Users (Agriculture and Irrigation Sector, Government Institutes and R and D Laboratories, Industrial Product Manufacturers, Forestry and Geology, Others), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025.

https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/environmental-testing-market-5002

About Meticulous Research

Meticulous Research was founded in 2010 and incorporated as Meticulous Market Research Pvt. Ltd. in 2013 as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. Since its incorporation, the company has become the leading provider of premium market intelligence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

The name of our company defines our services, strengths, and values. Since the inception, we have only thrived to research, analyze, and present the critical market data with great attention to details. With the meticulous primary and secondary research techniques, we have built strong capabilities in data collection, interpretation, and analysis of data including qualitative and quantitative research with the finest team of analysts. We design our meticulously analyzed intelligent and value-driven syndicate market research reports, custom studies, quick turnaround research, and consulting solutions to address business challenges of sustainable growth.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd. ("Naturally Splendid", "NSE" or "the Company") (FRANKFURT:50N)(TSXV:NSP)(OTC PINK:NSPDF) is pleased to announce the Company presented the PlanteinTM line of plant-based entrees at the Grocery Innovations Canada trade show on October 25 and October 26, 2022, at the Toronto Congress Centre.

Grocery Innovations Canada, is one of Canada's premier grocery trade show events, bringing together manufacturers and retailers from not only Eastern Canada, but in fact from all across the country. Naturally Splendid featured the PlanteinTM line of plant-based products to retailers and distributors from across the country.

Naturally Splendid was pleased to have PlanteinTM CEO Mr. Evan Tsoukis and Mr. John Nikolaidis, Director of International Sales, join us for the event in Toronto, where we were able to meet with many retailers both at the trade show as well as at subsequent follow-up meetings.

Naturally Splendid presented eight (8) PlanteinTM entrees including our plant-based; Burger; Crispy Burger; Crumbed Tenders; Sweet Chili Tenders; Nuggets; Schnitzel (cutlet); Garlic Kiev; and a Phishy Fillet to both independent and chain retailers from across Canada.

Naturally Splendid CEO Mr. Craig Goodwin reports, "Once again, response to our products has been overwhelmingly positive. We have had many positive meetings resulting from this event, and I would like to thank our Australian partners for attending and supporting us at this important trade show. We look forward to providing updates to these efforts in the near future."

About Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.

Naturally Splendid is a plant-based food manufacturing and technology company that produces and distributes nutritious and delicious plant-based commodity products.

Founded in 2010, the Company operates a certified food manufacturing facility located just outside Vancouver, BC in Canada, focusing on producing an extensive range of plant-based entrees.

Naturally Splendid has an exclusive 10-year manufacturing and distribution agreement for Canada with a division of Australia's largest plant-based food manufacturer, Flexitarian Foods Pty. Ltd.

In addition to producing the Company's own branded products, Naturally Splendid provides contract manufacturing services and private labelling for a variety of nutritional plant-based food products destined for multiple distribution channels.

The Company has established healthy, functional foods under brands such as Natera Sport, Natera Hemp Foods, CHII, Elevate Me and Woods Wild Bar. The Company launched Plantein Plant-Based Foods, a line of delicious plant-based meat alternatives for the rapidly growing plant-based market segment.

Naturally Splendid has reached an agreement with Biologic to terminate the agreement with Plasm Pharmaceutical and is negotiating a compensation package for work done to date pursuing a potential treatment for Covid with the target drug Cavaltinib.

NSE has also developed proprietary technologies for the extraction of healthy omega 3 and 6 oils, as well as a protein concentrate from hemp.

For more information e-mail info@naturallysplendid.com or call Investor Relations at 604-570-0902 (ext. 101)

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Mr. J. Craig Goodwin CEO, Director

Contact Information

Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.

(NSP - TSX Venture; NSPDF - OTCQB; 50N - Frankfurt)

#108-19100 Airport Way

Pitt Meadows, BC, V3Y 0E2

Office: (604) 570-0902

Fax: (604) 465-1128

E-mail: info@naturallysplendid.com

Website: www.naturallysplendid.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Naturally Splendid cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Naturally Splendid's control including, Naturally Splendid's ability to compete with large food and beverage companies; sales of any potential products developed will be profitable; sales of shelled hemp seed will continue at existing rates or increase; the ability to complete the sales of all bulk hemp seed purchase orders; and the risk that any of the potential applications may not receive all required regulatory or legal approval. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Naturally Splendid undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE: Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.

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CRANBROOK BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / The Board of Directors of Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSXV:EPL) (the "Company" or "Eagle Plains") is pleased to announce the formation of a separate division within the Company in an effort to maximize shareholder value and pursue strategic opportunities. Under the proposed reorganization, specific royalty assets covering a broad spectrum of commodities will be managed by a new, wholly-owned subsidiary of Eagle Plains under the name Eagle Royalties Ltd. ("ER")

The restructuring is designed to improve the identification and valuation of specific Eagle Plains' royalty interests, and to ultimately enable ER to separately market, finance and develop its various assets while maintaining the ability to acquire additional royalties.

The formation of ER will allow for the oversight, direction and management of a significant portfolio of royalty assets located in British Columbia, Yukon and Saskatchewan relating to commodities including gold, silver copper, lead, zinc, rare earth/critical elements (REE's), uranium, graphite, diamonds and industrial minerals. Eagle Plains will continue to focus on its core business model of acquiring and advancing grassroots critical- and precious-metal exploration properties. Work is underway to launch an independent website containing maps and more detailed descriptions of the various royalties under ER management.

Tim Termuende, President and CEO of Eagle Plains stated recently: "we are excited to see the formation of Eagle Royalties and look forward to its evolution. Eagle Plains has been assembling this large royalty portfolio since its formation in 1992 and over the past thirty years has secured royalty interests over a wide range of commodities located in areas of active mining and advanced development such as our flagship AurMac Royalty (gold: Banyan Gold Corp./Hecla Mining), Eskay Creek (gold-silver: Skeena Resources), Patterson Lake South (uranium-Cameco, Denison), Fort a la Corne (diamonds) and numerous other royalties located throughout western Canada. While Eagle Plains has held many of these royalty interests for years, management is of the opinion that their true value is not reflected within the diverse holdings and activities of Eagle Plains and their potential would be more readily identified as a stand-alone division."

See Eagle Plains' royalty portfolio here

See AurMac Royalty video here

About Eagle Plains Resources

Based in Cranbrook, B.C., Eagle Plains is a well-funded, prolific project generator that continues to conduct research, acquire and explore mineral projects throughout western Canada. The Company was formed in 1992 and is the ninth-oldest listed issuer on the TSX-V (and one of only three that has not seen a roll-back or restructuring of its shares). Eagle Plains has continued to deliver shareholder value over the years and through numerous spin-outs has transferred over $100,000,000 in value directly to its shareholders, with Copper Canyon Resources and recently Taiga Gold being notable examples.

The Company is committed to steadily enhancing shareholder value by advancing our diverse portfolio of projects toward discovery through collaborative partnerships and development of a highly experienced technical team. Eagle Plains also holds significant royalty interests in western Canadian projects, covering a broad spectrum of commodities on projects controlled by Cameco Corp., Iso Energy Corp., Denison Mines Corp., Skeena Resources Ltd. and Hecla Mining Co./Banyan Gold Corp., among others. Management's focus is to advance its most promising exploration projects. Throughout the exploration process, our mission is to help maintain prosperous communities by exploring for and discovering resource opportunities while building lasting relationships through honest and respectful business practices.

Expenditures from 2011-2022 on Eagle Plains-related projects exceed $30M, the majority of which was funded by third-party partners. This exploration work resulted in approximately 45,000m of diamond-drilling and extensive ground-based exploration work facilitating the advancement of numerous projects at various stages of development.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Tim J. Termuende"

President and CEO

For further information on EPL, please contact Mike Labach at 1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673)

Email: mgl@eagleplains.com or visit our website at https://www.eagleplains.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

SOURCE: Eagle Plains Resources Ltd.

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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Former president Donald Trump has warned his potential rival Ron DeSantis not to run for the next U.S. presidential election. Speaking to reporters traveling with him on his private plane, Trump said, 'I think if he runs he could hurt himself very badly. I think the base would not like it - I don't think it would be good for the party.' The billionaire-turned politician threatened to reveal information about the Florida governor if he decides to run. 'If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.' It comes a few days after Trump mocked DeSantis at a rally in Pennsylvania, calling him 'Ron DeSanctimonious.' DeSantis rose to national prominence after getting elected as Florida governor in 2019. He swept the Florida gubernatorial in the mid-term polls Tuesday, making inroads into heavily Latino, historically Democratic regions, thus staking claim for a potential 2024 presidential bid. He won a landslide victory by nearly 20 points over his Democrat rival. Trump, who is a Florida resident, told reporters that he voted for DeSantis. Speculation is warming up that both Trump and DeSantis have an eye for 2024 Republican nomination. Trump on Monday promised to make 'a big announcement' about running in U.S. presidential election at an event to be held at Mar-a-Lago on November 15. 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.
Three in four chief financial officers say they plan to increase budgets allocated to digital transformation projects across their department over the coming year. But the demand for skilled workers to mine insight from new data streams has left senior finance leaders embroiled in a war for talent that is keeping them awake at night.

New research from Tradeshift in partnership with CFO Dive reveals the set of challenges financial leaders face as they grapple with an expanding role and a set of strategic responsibilities that were until recently outside the scope of the finance department. In one highlight from the research, almost half of CFOs (45%) said that talent acquisition and retention was their chief worry for the rest of the year and beyond. Other top concerns included the increased cost of goods and services (42%) and technology adoption (39%).

Respondents were largely positive about their recent tech investments, but well over half (59%) conceded they would have taken a different approach if they'd been able to predict the events of the last few years. This tension illustrates how CFOs are coming to terms with the sudden evolution of their roles and responsibilities brought about by the seismic events of the last few years.

"The disruption of the last few years has put the evolution of the CFO role into overdrive, and they are now grappling with an expanding range of strategic responsibilities," said Mikkel Hippe Brun, co-founder and general manager, payment automation, at Tradeshift. "Finance leaders recognise the decisive role technology has to play in helping them address an increasing array of strategic challenges, from supply chain risk mitigation, through to ESG. They also recognise that any investment they make in technology requires an equal investment in human talent capable of extracting value from new data sets."

Additional key findings from the report include:

CFOs are struggling to juggle shifting priorities. The largest number of CFOs (28%) said they spent too much time on what has traditionally been a quintessential element of the job finance function capabilities while the largest number (35%) also said they spent too little time on talent development.

The largest number of CFOs (28%) said they spent too much time on what has traditionally been a quintessential element of the job finance function capabilities while the largest number (35%) also said they spent too little time on talent development. CFOs say they think they've done an excellent job in general, but moving from efficiency to value creation is key. Nearly all CFOs (93%) were at least satisfied with their companies' finance function, with over a third (38%) calling it outstanding. Despite this, 49% of CFOs rated providing a more detailed vision of business cash and liquidity and 41% rated automation of processes using intelligent automation as high priority areas for new tech investment.

Nearly all CFOs (93%) were at least satisfied with their companies' finance function, with over a third (38%) calling it outstanding. Despite this, 49% of CFOs rated providing a more detailed vision of business cash and liquidity and 41% rated automation of processes using intelligent automation as high priority areas for new tech investment. Future-proofing the financial function will require three key skills. To reach the next level of value creation CFOs said they anticipated needing technical finance expertise (59%), followed by data and technology savviness (50%) and corporate strategy expertise (38%).

To reach the next level of value creation CFOs said they anticipated needing technical finance expertise (59%), followed by data and technology savviness (50%) and corporate strategy expertise (38%). Enterprises are lagging on onboarding the latest technology to help their departments do their jobs better and more efficiently. Only a third (35%) of CFOs reported that their latest tech projects had reached the implementation stage or beyond, with the majority still in the planning or proof-of-concept stage.

Only a third (35%) of CFOs reported that their latest tech projects had reached the implementation stage or beyond, with the majority still in the planning or proof-of-concept stage. CFOs lack the resources necessary to help their teams do their jobs better. For their teams to improve today, CFOs acknowledged they would need better data integration (56%), better training (48%) and more advanced technology (42%).

For their teams to improve today, CFOs acknowledged they would need better data integration (56%), better training (48%) and more advanced technology (42%). The vast majority of CFOs plan to increase budgets allocated to digital transformation projects within their department. More than one in three respondents (36%) said they planned to increase tech expenditure by more than 26%, with one in five CFOs reporting increases above 50%. Just 6% of respondents planned to reduce investments in new tech.

More than one in three respondents (36%) said they planned to increase tech expenditure by more than 26%, with one in five CFOs reporting increases above 50%. Just 6% of respondents planned to reduce investments in new tech. Investment in technology is essential, but CFOs placed a high priority on several technology investments, but they also conceded that their companies' primary concerns regarding the adoption of new technology were many, including cost of implementation (46%), ease of integration with an existing technical stack (41%), and training or hiring employees who could make the best use of the technology (38%).

CFOs placed a high priority on several technology investments, but they also conceded that their companies' primary concerns regarding the adoption of new technology were many, including cost of implementation (46%), ease of integration with an existing technical stack (41%), and training or hiring employees who could make the best use of the technology (38%). CFOs say they feel their teams can handle tomorrow's challenges but they face a squeeze on specialist talent. While the vast majority (88%) of CFOs said they felt strongly or somewhat confident that their current team could deliver to meet evolving business demands, over a third (37%) also said they lacked the internal expertise to properly analyze their financial data.

As their role continues to evolve, CFOs will likely find themselves shifting between old and new priorities to find the right balance. For more on how they're using technology to meet emerging challenges head-on and to help elevate the office of finance, read the complete survey report, Building for Change: How CFOs' Priorities Are Shifting From Efficiency to Creating Long-Term Value.

Survey Methodology

Tradeshift and CFO Dive conducted an online survey of CFOs, vice presidents of finance and chief accounting officers, among other financial leaders. The survey was conducted from July 13 to Aug. 3, 2022, across 150 respondents. Qualified survey participants were senior finance professionals at companies with over $100 million in global revenues. Fielding was conducted on the Verint Survey Platform. Demographics are available upon request.

About Tradeshift

Tradeshift is the cloud-based supply chain platform that transforms the way B2B buyers and sellers connect, transact and trade. We're a leader in e-invoicing and AP automation, offering full international compliance in 50+ countries, including China. We're also an innovator in B2B marketplaces and embedded fintech services that bring value, opportunity and growth to any business that joins the network. Headquartered in San Francisco, Tradeshift's vision is to connect every company in the world, creating economic opportunity for all. Today, the Tradeshift platform is home to a rapidly growing community of buyers and sellers operating in more than 190 countries. Find out more at: www.Tradeshift.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005608/en/

Contacts:

Harry Ronaldson, Director of Corporate Communications, Tradeshift

pr@tradeshift.com
- Dong-A building a foundation for expanding its biosimilar business through license-out and supply agreements to Turkiye, Brazil and Mexico

- Creating a synergy effect with STgen Bio, an affiliated Bio CDMO of Dong-A Socio Holdings

Dong-A ST (Min Young Kim, President and CEO) (KRX: 170900) announced that they signed an exclusive license-out and supply agreement on November 4, 2022, with Polifarma (Mehmet Asri, CEO) for NESP biosimilar DA-3880.

According to the agreement, Dong-A ST will license out the exclusive rights for the development and commercialization of DA-3880 in Turkiye, Brazil, and Mexico to Polifarma. Dong-A ST will receive upfront and developmental/commercial milestone payments and will exclusively supply the finished product through STgen Bio, an affiliated Bio CDMO of Dong-A Socio Holdings. Meanwhile, Polifarma will be responsible for the development and commercialization in Turkiye, Brazil, and Mexico.

The details of the upfront, milestone payments, and supply profit structure remain undisclosed as per the consensus between both parties.

"DA-3880" is an ARANESP/NESP biosimilar for the treatment of anemic patients with chronic renal failure or those undergoing chemotherapy. Dong-A ST signed a license-out agreement with Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho in 2014 for the development and commercialization of DA-3880 in Japan. After regulatory approval from PMDA (Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, Japan) in 2019, DA-3880 has been successfully commercialized in the Japanese market, making it one of the bestsellers among darbepoetin alfa biosimilar products.

Polifarma is a Turkiye pharmaceutical company with 100% domestic capital and 36 years of experience. It has established actual export records of 586 drugs to over 70 countries, including the US, Europe, Brazil, and Mexico. As the most well-known, and most preferred, hospital products brand in Turkiye, Polifarma's goal is to maintain its lead in the Turkiye market and become one of the biggest global leaders by sustaining its quality and technological superiority.

Jae Hong Park (President and CSO of Dong-A ST) said, "This agreement provides an opportunity for Dong-A ST to introduce DA-3880 beyond the Japanese market and into the global biosimilar market including Turkiye and South Central America. Dong-A ST will commit to expanding its global market presence by showcasing our biosimilar R&D and overseas business capabilities."

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005472/en/

Contacts:

Dong-A ST CO., Ltd

Jin-Seok Jeong

+82-2-920-8212

treadwheel@donga.co.kr
ROCK HILL, SC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Businesses and tax professionals must complete year-end filing with the IRS and Social Security Administration (SSA) every year to report various information. This ranges from their employee's wages and withholding, to information about health insurance they offered their employees, to payments made to contract workers, and more.

TaxBandits supports the many tax forms needed to report this information to the IRS/SSA. While the deadline for many of these forms is January 31, 2023, or later, they are available now in the TaxBandits application to ensure that clients have plenty of time to complete and file them with the IRS/SSA and state. The following forms are now available:

W-2 Forms Form W-2 Form W-2 PR Form W-2 State Filings

1099 Series Forms Form 1099-NEC Form 1099-MISC Form 1099-K 1099-INT 1099-DIV 1099-R and other 1099's

Affordable Care Act Forms Form 1095-B Form 1095-C



Employers are required to file Form W-2 each year with the SSA to report the wages paid to the employee through the course of the tax year and the taxes withheld from these wages.

The IRS considers businesses that have 50 or more full-time and full-time equivalent employees as Applicable Large Employers (ALE). These businesses as well as any businesses that offer their employees self-funded health insurance plans are required to file 1095-C or 1095-B with the IRS. Depending on the business, Forms 1095-C or 1095-B should be filed with the IRS and distributed to their employees.

The 1099 Series of forms must be completed by businesses for a variety of payments made in the course of doing business throughout the tax year. For example, any payments of over $600 made to independent contractors or freelance workers must be reported on 1099-NEC . This form must be filed with the IRS by January 31, 2023, and distributed to the recipients as well.

Year-end filing can be a major stressor for businesses and tax professionals filing on their client's behalf, this is why TaxBandits streamlines the process with time-saving features that yield more accurate forms. Businesses and tax professionals can get ahead of their year-end filing requirements with the following advanced features from TaxBandits:

Federal e-filing with the IRS and SSA

State e-filing with every state

Recipient copy distribution by mail or through secure online access.

Options to bulk upload your information

USPS Address Validations and built-in error checks using the IRS Business Rules

Client and staff management tools for tax professionals

Flexible pricing model with volume-based pricing

When asked about the upcoming tax season, Agie Sundaram, the CEO, and Co-founder of Span Enterprises, the parent company of Taxbandits, responded by stating, "The team at TaxBandits is gearing up for a huge tax season this year, as a market-leading e-file provider we are working hard to offer our clients the best e-filing experience and customer support available on the market. With new features and new partnerships, TaxBandits continues to grow."

To begin your year-end filing, get started at TaxBandits.com today by creating a free account.

About TaxBandits

The 1099 and W-2 experts! TaxBandits is a SOC 2 Certified, IRS-authorized e-file provider of Forms 1099 , Form W-2, 1095 , 940 , 941 , and W-9 , serving businesses, service providers, and tax professionals of every shape and size.

About SPAN Enterprises

SPAN Enterprises is the parent company of TaxBandits and a variety of other business management and e-filing applications. Located in the small city of Rock Hill, SC, SPAN Enterprises proves that big ideas grow in small towns.

With existing Business Management and E-filing Applications such as TruckLogics, ExpressTruckTax, and ExpressTaxExempt, SPAN Enterprises is at the forefront of innovative applications. Learn more at https://www.spanenterprises.com/ .

For any media inquiries, please reach out to Stephanie Glanville, Content Writer at stephanie@spanenterprises.com .

###

SOURCE: TaxBandits

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724743/IRS-Forms-W-2-1099-1095-Are-Now-Available-From-TaxBandits-For-The-2022-Tax-Year
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Dynasty Gold Corp. (TSXV: DYG) (FSE: D5G1) (OTC PINK: DGDCF) ("Dynasty" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of the Phase 1 2022 drill program on its 100% owned Thundercloud gold property located 47 kilometres southeast of Dryden, in northwestern Ontario.

Dynasty completed drilling 4 NQ wireline diamond core holes in the Pelham resource area at Thundercloud in October. A total of 1000 metres were drilled, with core recoveries of nearly 100%. The core was logged for geology, and rock quality ("RQD"), with samples taken of all potentially significant mineralized zones in all 4 holes. Sample standards and blanks were inserted at appropriate intervals to assess the quality of the lab results, per NI43-101 standards, and as supervised by Richard R. Redfern CPG, a Dynasty director.

The Thundercloud drill program was designed with two factors in mind. In part, the holes were drilled next to certain historical holes in the Pelham resource target area drilled by Noranda, Teck Resources Limited, and Laurentian Goldfields, and in part to attempt to expand the Pelham resource as known to the east.

Hole DP22-1 was drilled adjacent to Noranda's historical hole PH88-10 that had a wide zone of good grade gold mineralization. Holes DP22-2,3, and 4 were drilled in the eastern portion of the known Pelham area, and partly in untested areas that showed magnetic "highs" in the drone magnetic survey conducted here for the Company in summer of 2022.

All 4 drillholes showed zones of pyritic mineralization, mainly associated with chlorite-altered fracture-feeder zones and as zones of disseminated pyrite and local quartz-pyrite veining. The gold mineralization in this part of the Pelham area appears to be associated in general with a "pyrite cloud" of disseminated and fracture-controlled pyrite, which if of sufficiently high gold grade could be tested for an open pitable deposit. Perhaps larger gold-bearing quartz veins of Red Lake type could occur at depth. The famous Red lake gold district lies 150 km NW of Dryden.

The mineralized core was diamond sawed in the presence of the Company's engineering personnel and personally delivered to the ALS Global laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba for processing. Oreas standards and blanks were inserted into the sample stream to check on the quality of the gold assays received. Gold assays and 4-acid-dissolution geochem analyses will be reported after receipt from ALS by Dynasty.

The technical information in this release has been reviewed by Richard R. Redfern, a director and A. Lee Barker, a technical advisor to the Company. Both are Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101.

About Dynasty Gold Corp.

Dynasty Gold Corp. is a Canadian exploration company currently focused on gold exploration in North America with projects located in the Manitou-Stormy Lake greenstone belt in Ontario and in the Midas gold camp in Nevada. The Company is currently advancing its Thundercloud gold deposit which contains 182,000 oz gold. The 43-101 Mineral Resource report and related press release with details on the resource are available on the Company's website and were filed on www.sedar.com. The 100% owned Golden Repeat gold project in the Midas gold camp in Elko County, Nevada, is surrounded by a number of large-scale operating mines. In addition, Dynasty owns a 70% interest in the Hatu Qi2 gold mine in the Tien Shan Gold belt, Xinjiang, China, with which it is in legal dispute with Xinjiang Non-Ferrous Industrial Metals Group and its subsidiary Western Region Gold Co. Ltd. For more information, please visit the Company's website www.dynastygoldcorp.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DYNASTY GOLD CORP.

"Ivy Chong"

_________________________________

Ivy Chong, President & CEO

For additional information please contact:

Vancouver Office:

Ivy Chong

Phone: 604.633.2100. Email: ichong@dynastygoldcorp.com

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept 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/143576
EQS-News: African Energy Chamber / Key word(s): Conference

Africa's Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt: An Opportunity to re-think what we're asking Africa to do and Respect African Voices - African Energy Chamber



09.11.2022 / 15:30 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Africa's Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt: An Opportunity to re-think what we're asking Africa to do and Respect African Voices - African Energy Chamber

A premature transition from fossil fuels to renewables would be harmful

When Africans look at the green agenda from Western countries, they see something written by extreme forces that do not factor our concerns especially around natural gas and energy poverty.

No thanks. Africa doesn't need a radical energy transition; Africa needs a just energy transition. We don't want to abandon our fossil fuels and find ourselves in the same situation Europe is in today. Africans know what it means to have no energy.

We need a healthy balance of energy sources. Humanity's history is full of energy transitions. We move on to more efficient energy sources over time. The transition to renewable energy will happen.

The Attacks on Africans Were Expected. Distractions from African Energy Poverty issues at COP27

Unfortunately, climate panic, smears and fear mongering are alive and well, and for some reason, Africa is public enemy number one. A continent that emits a negligible amount of carbon dioxide, at most, 3% of the world's total, is being disproportionately pegged as a threat to the planet by developed nations.

With 600 million Africans without access to electricity, and more than 900 million without clean cooking facilities and many Africans looking for answers, Chloe Farand, a very wealthy activist with close ties to radical group Extinction Rebellion came out attacking us with lies at COP27. She never contacted us. She never talked to us. She lied. We would honestly like to ask who is funding Chloe Farand's anti African campaign.

Can she put out their financials? For an all-white climate group that is all day, all night, all white with no black employees to have the audacity to attack Africans kids working on energy poverty gives Chutzpah a new meaning.

For a very rich white persons receiving a lot of money from Anti African groups and living with so much electricity to attack poor Africans who don't have lights is sickening. We are proud about the work we do at the African Energy Chamber and our work to Make Energy Poverty History. We did not say Gas is green. Europeans say Gas is green and we agree with them. Chloe Farand's problem should not be with me or the Chamber, their problem should be with the EU that calls gas green. Their problem should be with the UK that is opening coal mines and drilling in the North Sea. The African Energy Chamber's position is, if we want to protect Africans from harm and misery, we must embrace our natural gas resources. Europe is doing same. What is their obsession with black people.

Farand and team look everywhere for the mysterious causes of energy poverty, ignorance, crime, war and climate change problems. They need to look no further than their own mirrors and stop looking at Africans. Mirrors are not to reflect what you see. Mirrors are to correct what you see.

This is the kind of colonial mindset that African children have to combat and defeat especially if we have to ensure that they don't take our critical minerals and leave us in the dark. When they don't have the intellectual capacity to beat you on the facts, they go low with misrepresentations and blatant lies that they have no proof, no evidence with hope that it works in world where alternative facts and fake news go. We are ready and we will fight back.

Expedited Timelines

The difference now, though, is that governments want to implement our transition on an expedited timeline. And they're very optimistic that everything will fall into place on their timeline in Africa. But, again, they're ignoring realities on the ground.

And they're ignoring what our fossil fuel resources, especially natural gas, can do for our continent. We can use our natural gas to lift Africans out of poverty. After all, Africans are poor because they are energy-poor.

To overcome that, we need to reject the world's green energy agenda and make full use of our fossil fuels, just as nations worldwide have already done. It's neither fair nor ethical for rich countries to make policies that keep other countries poor.

Energy Transition or Renewable Energy

We are not arguing against an energy transition or renewable energy. We are excited about renewables' potential. But a premature transition from fossil fuels to renewables would be harmful. We need to get away from this binary thinking.

For now, let's work on growing Africa's energy mix. We can continue producing, exporting, and using clean natural gas and using the revenues to help pay for our energy transition. Let's work on building our capacity in renewable energies so we can make sure that good jobs and leadership opportunities in renewables go to Africans.

And of course, we need the international community to keep its promises about providing the billions, possibly trillions, of dollars needed for a just African transition.

Download image: https://bit.ly/3EhBGUN

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

09.11.2022 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


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Dorothy K. Lawrence recently announced that their firm, the Dorothy Butler Law Firm, has completed all preparations for the upcoming tax season that's about to start on January 15th. "The Dorothy Butler Law Firm is fully dedicated to helping people file their tax returns in the most headache-free way possible," says Dorothy. Dorothy Lawrence is among the top US attorneys from Texas. She specializes in bankruptcy and tax and has remained a Super Lawyers' Rising Star for seven consecutive years since 2016.





Dorothy Butler Law Firm



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8744/143495_2b9f9a2b94c1e80b_001full.jpg

Dorothy urged taxpayers to file their tax returns as soon as possible. She invited taxpayers to consult the Dorothy Butler Law Firm for any and all tax-related issues. The Dorothy Butler Law Firm's experienced staff is fully committed to clients and tries their absolute best to be as flexible and accessible as possible. "File your tax returns as soon as possible. And, make sure you choose the right tax preparer because even a small mistake on your tax return can cause delays in getting your refund and other legal problems." Dorothy said.

About The Dorothy Butler Law Firm

The Dorothy Butler Law Firm is a top-class law firm in Texas. Founded by Dorothy Lawrence, it has garnered immense success over the years. It specializes in Taxation, Bankruptcy, Criminal Defense, Real Estate Law, and many other practice areas.

For more information about tax preparation, visit https://dorothybutlerlawfirm.com/.

CEO: Dorothy K. Lawrence

Law Firm: https://dorothybutlerlawfirm.com/

Location: 151 E. Mercer Street, Suite E, Dripping Springs, TX 78620

Email: dorothy@dorothybutlerlawfirm.com

Instagram: @yourtrendylawyer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorothy-lawrence-57a72539

PR Agency: Ausonia Partners LLC

CEO: Simonetta Lein

Location: 3925 Henry Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19129, United States

Website: https://ausoniapartners.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ausoniapartners

Email: info@ausoniapartners.com

Contact: +1 (215) 992-4435

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143495
WILMINGTON, DE / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Cann American Corp. (OTC PINK:CNNA), the "Company", a holding company building a diverse portfolio of intellectual properties, is pleased to announce the Company has entered into an additional binding letter of intent ("LOI").

Under the terms of the agreement Cann American will acquire 75 million common shares of Valkyrie Systems Inc., constituting 75% majority ownership in Valkyrie, in exchange of 10,000,000 series C preferred shares of Cann American.

Valkyrie Systems Inc. was founded to act as a contractor and sub-contractor to the US military and Department of Defense, specializing in consulting and state of the art, technology driven, special operations training, in the areas of Weapons and Tactics, Jump/Air Ops, Rescue, Dive/Water Ops, Vehicle Ops, Space Program Recovery, and Surveillance. Valkyrie also offers civilian training programs and consulting for film and television.

Valkyrie Systems is headed by US Air Force, Staff Sergeant, Joseph Barajas. Mr. Barajas has 10 years of service and is currently a USAF reservist Pararescue Specialist (PJ). USAF PJs are the only DoD elite combat forces specifically organized, trained, equipped, and postured to conduct full spectrum Personnel Recovery (PR) to include both conventional and unconventional combat rescue operations. Mr. Barajas has also worked as an executive with companies in similar fields that have generated over $25 million in revenue before pursuing his role as CEO at Valkyrie Systems.

Currently, Valkyrie Systems is in the final stages of deploying its "Valkyrie One" military VR simulator. Valkyrie intends to pitch the Valkyrie One system to DoD as a replacement to now outdated military training software currently still being utilized.

The acquisition of Valkyrie systems is intended to close within ten days of the LOI. The Company will further update shareholders upon closing of the agreement.

Stated Cann American CEO, Alexander Woods-Leo: "I'm extremely excited to work with Valkyrie and Mr. Barajas. This acquisition represents an amazing opportunity for the Company and its shareholders as Valkyrie intends to pursue an array of US military backed contracts that can generate exponential revenue growth to both Valkyrie and Cann American."

About Cann American Corp.

Cann American was formed in 2015 with an initial focus on developing legal cannabis industry infrastructure projects in Northern California. Now a publicly traded company under symbol (CNNA), Cann American Corp., through its subsidiaries, has expanded its focus toward developing assets and technologies through strategic acquisitions nationally.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "may," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "plan," "could," "target," "potential," "is likely," "will," "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The Company has based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Some or all of the results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not be achieved. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Cann American Corp.

Contact: mark2mediagroup@gmail.com

Twitter: https://Twitter.com/CNNA_OTC

Twitter: https://Twitter.com/RealMark2media

SOURCE: Cann American Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724707/Cann-American-Corp-Announces-Next-Binding-Letter-of-Intent
Early-works construction on the new biopolymer manufacturing site began in June 2022 with expected completion of the facility on schedule for the second half of 2024.

NatureWorks, the world's leading manufacturer of low-carbon polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymers made from renewable resources, has selected TTCL Public Company Limited (SET: TTCL) as the general contractor for procurement, construction, commissioning, and startup support services for their new Ingeo? PLA manufacturing complex in Thailand. The new facility is designed to be fully integrated and will include production of lactic acid, lactide, and polymer. Located on the Nakhon Sawan Biocomplex (NBC) in Nakhon Sawan Province, the manufacturing site will have an annual capacity of 75,000 tons of Ingeo biopolymer and will produce the full portfolio of Ingeo grades.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005063/en/

Early-works construction on NatureWorks's new Ingeo PLA manufacturing facility in Thailand began in June 2022 keeping expected completion of the facility on schedule for the second half of 2024. (Photo: Business Wire)

In June 2022, site preparation for the new manufacturing facility at the NBC was completed and NatureWorks signed an agreement with Sino Thai Engineering and Construction PCL (STECON) to begin early-works construction for piling, underground piping, storm water management, and tank foundations. Currently underway, the early-works construction progress keeps completion of the facility on schedule for the second half of 2024.

"We are pleased to see the continued progress on the construction of our second Ingeo manufacturing complex that will help us address the increasing global market demand for sustainable materials," said Steve Bray, VP of Operations at NatureWorks. "With the selection of TTCL as our general contractor, we are looking forward to leveraging their expertise in executing large, highly technical capital projects in Thailand."

NatureWorks expects to hold a cornerstone laying ceremony to honor the progress of site construction in February 2023.

In 2021, NatureWorks first announced the authorization for initiating their global capacity expansion plan beginning with their second Ingeo biopolymer manufacturing facility in Thailand. NatureWorks became the first company to produce PLA biopolymers at commercial scale in 2002. NatureWorks expanded its flagship Blair, Nebraska facility to an annual total capacity of 150,000 metric tons in 2013 with an additional capacity expansion announced in 2020 to further increase the availability of Ingeo biopolymers.

The expanded global production of Ingeo biopolymers will support growth in markets including 3D printing and hygiene as well as compostable coffee capsules, tea bags, flexible packaging, and food serviceware that demand sustainable, low-carbon materials and require the high-performance attributes that Ingeo is uniquely suited to deliver.

For more information about NatureWorks and Ingeo, or to purchase Ingeo biopolymer resin visit www.natureworksllc.com. Follow NatureWorks on Twitter (@natureworks) for the latest updates.

About NatureWorks

NatureWorks is an advanced materials company offering a broad portfolio of biopolymers and biochemicals made from renewable resources. With performance and economics that compete with oil-based materials, naturally advanced Ingeo biomaterials are valued for their unique functional properties and used in products from coffee capsules and appliances to tea bags and 3D printing filament. NatureWorks is jointly owned by Thailand's largest ASEAN leading integrated petrochemical and refining company, GC, and Cargill, which provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. For more information visit natureworksllc.com or follow NatureWorks on Twitter at @natureworks.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005063/en/

Contacts:

Americas Europe

Andrea Ziadi

Email: andrea.ziadi@natureworkspla.com

Tel: +1 952-562-3330

Asia Pacific Japan

Pauline Ning

Email: pauline_ning@natureworkspla.com

Tel: +86-138 1650 1881
Novakid, a leading EdTech company in the ESL-segment providing English classes for children aged between 4 and 14 years old, has appointed Elena Campanella as the new executive director of the Teacher Operations department to maintain the provision of best-in-class tutoring by well-trained and highly qualified English teachers.

Novakid is pleased to announce the appointment of a seasoned professional Elena Campanella as its new Teacher Operations Director, heading up the team of 60 employees in the department that manages 2500+ teachers from 20+ countries who currently work with Novakid ESL platform.

In her new role, Elena will be defining structural goals for the Teacher Operations department, taking over work process optimization, performance management structures and hiring as well as mentorship and guidance for the team.

"Remote edtech companies require special operational structures that take into account the massive interconnectedness between different teams. Teaching staff operations is one of the cornerstones of any online learning company, just as important the Development, Engineering and Content departments are. Managing efficient communication between all parties to provide the best product offering delivery to the customers is challenging. I am looking forward to being a part of this journey with Novakid," said Campanella.

Elena brings to Novakid her extensive experience in managing intercultural and remote teams in ESL companies as well as strong operational skills and deep knowledge of the field.

Elena has worked in the ESL industry for almost two decades. Prior to joining Novakid, Elena worked for the British Council for over 11 years. First she managed the Examination Services Operations team in South Africa to train, develop and maintain quality standards of English Language Assessors in the region. Elena then worked with the British Council China for three years, leading a team of Language Assessors on the ground while working on multiple associated projects.

"Coming from the teaching background, I can share that one of the main challenges teachers have is providing students with enough learning materials so that they can spend time with a teacher and use what they have learnt to continue practicing. I am excited to contribute to Novakid's unique product offering that has a high level of interactivity, allowing students to practice their English skills in an engaging way," concluded Campanella.

"We believe that AI-based and machine learning solutions in e-learning for children should be accompanied by high quality immersive guided learning. The combination of both is a cornerstone for a fulfilling, rewarding and effective learning experience for young students. That's why Novakid concentrates efforts towards smart hiring, life-long learning opportunities, competitive work conditions and well-being of ESL teachers that currently work with the company. We hope that under Elena's management the Teacher Operations department will continue to effectively respond to the needs of teachers and will be operationally optimized to serve further growth and expansion of Novakid," said Max Azarov, co-founder and CEO of Novakid.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005100/en/

Contacts:

Dominique Harmse, PR Manager

dominique.harmse@novakidschool.com
BANGALORE, India, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Cargo Container Market is Segmented by Type - Refrigerated Aircraft Cargo Containers, Non-refrigerated Aircraft Cargo Containers, by Application - Commercial Passenger Aircraft, Freight and Cargo Aircraft. Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022 - 2028. It is published in Valuates Reports under the Transportation & Logistics Category.





The Global Air Cargo Container Market size valued at USD 193.5 million in 2021 and will reach 249.87 USD at a CAGR of 3.72% from 2022 to 2028.

Major Factors Driving The Growth Of The Air Cargo Container Market are

Flight safety is the single most significant advantage of air freight containers. The Cargo Loading System of the airplane is intended to secure containers. This prevents them from moving during flight, which could endanger the aircraft or cause the weight distribution to change. This factor is expected to drive the growth of the Air Cargo Container Market.

Furthermore, the increase in e-commerce across the globe is expected to increase the demand for air cargo containers which will further drive the Air Cargo Container Market.

Browse The Table of Contents And List of Figures At https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-18Z8250/global-aircraft-cargo-container

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE AIR CARGO CONTAINER MARKET

Air Cargo Container makes it simple to move cargo between aircraft by enabling the bundling of cargo into single units and supporting both digital and manual tracking of shipments. Additionally, it makes the best use of the aircraft's cargo area, safeguards cargo from theft, degradation, and damage, and offers a chance for corporate branding. These advantages are expected to drive the growth of the air cargo container marker.

The COVID-19 epidemic has left its imprint on the air cargo business, but it has shown itself to be remarkably resilient. This factor is expected to drive the air cargo container market growth. In fact, the epidemic has brought attention to the air freight sector and to how crucial it is to both the whole aviation business as well as the overall world economy. Previously unimportant to many industry players, air freight is now seen as a long-term chance to diversify and participate in a developing industry.

Moreover, in the global fight against the pandemic, quick shipment of drugs, medical supplies, personal protective equipment, etc., has been essential. This in turn is expected to further fuel the air cargo container market growth.

The expansion of e-commerce is a vital consideration when assessing the need for the Air Cargo Container Market. According to IBM, the pandemic may have sped up the global shift to e-commerce by up to five years, increasing the number of items that needed to be transported. The aviation cargo sector will probably be impacted in the long run by this trend.

Get Your Sample Today: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-18Z8250/Global_Aircraft_Cargo_Container_Market

AIR CARGO CONTAINER MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

The Asia-Pacific region, which is the fastest-growing, currently holds the greatest market share worldwide due to the expansion of the e-commerce sector in nations like China, India, and Australia.

Inquire For Customization : https://reports.valuates.com/request/customisation/QYRE-Auto-18Z8250/Global_Aircraft_Cargo_Container_Market

Market By Region

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

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Key players

Van Riemsdijk Rotterdam BV (VRR)

Granger Aerospace

Satco

Zodiac Air Cargo Equipment

Aerobox

Teleflex

DoKaSch

PalNet

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Oscillate plc

("Oscillate plc" or the "Company")

Investee Company Update: Igraine Plc

Oscillate PLC (AQSE: MUSH) notes the announcement made by its investee Company, Igraine plc regarding Excalibur Medicines Limited, a company in which Igraine holds a 2% equity interest. Oscillate holds an interest of 25.67% in Igraine. Below is an extract o the announcement without material change.

"Investee: EML

Igraine plc maintains a 2% equity interest in, Excalibur Medicines Ltd ("EML"),

EML has secured exclusive rights to and owns the patents on a drug, AZD1656, which is being developed as a potential therapeutic for people with diabetes suffering from COVID-19.

Conduit Pharmaceuticals Ltd ("Conduit") pipeline includes the AstraZeneca agreement of 2 assets licensed in 6 applications, one of which is AZD1656 Covid-19, owned in conjunction with EML, has entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Murphy Cannon Acquisition Corp. ("Murphy"). The business combination transaction is expected to provide Conduit with access to the public equity market, which the parties believe will accelerate development of Conduit's pipeline. Upon the business combination transaction closing, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2023, the combined company is expected to be named Conduit Pharmaceuticals Inc., which will continue to operate under the Conduit management team.

Conduit state that the combined company is anticipated to have an estimated pro forma enterprise valuation of approximately US$700 million. Cash proceeds from the transactions contemplated by the business combination agreement are expected to consist of up to approximately US$136 million of cash held in Murphy's trust account (before any redemptions by Murphy's public stockholders) and approximately US$27 million (before expenses) attributable to a private investment anchored by new and existing investors of Conduit.

The transaction proceeds will advance the clinical evaluation of specific activation of Tregs in one of a number of possible autoimmune diseases. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Conduit and Murphy, are subject to, among other customary closing conditions, approval by the stockholders of Murphy, and the shareholders of Conduit.

The Directors of the Company, who have issued this RIS announcement after due and careful enquiry, accept responsibility for its content.

https://www.conduitpharma.com/corporate-profile/asset-pipeline/

https://www.accesswire.com/724601/Conduit-Pharmaceuticals-to-Become-a-Publicly-Traded-Company-via-Merger-with-Murphy-Canyon-Acquisition-Corp"

--ENDS-

The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

Enquiries

Company:

Fungai Ndoro

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3745 0281

https://oscillateplc.com

Corporate Adviser:

Peterhouse Capital Limited

Guy Miller & Mark Anwyl

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7220 9796

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation EU 596/2014 as it forms part of retained EU law (as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).
HOMEVEST Sdn Bhd (HOMEVEST) has won the "JCI Malaysia 2022 Sustainable Development Award" under SDG Goal 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth for their signature programme, H.O.P.E (Home Ownership Programme for Employees).

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - HOMEVEST Sdn Bhd (HOMEVEST) has won the "JCI Malaysia 2022 Sustainable Development Award" under SDG Goal 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth for their signature programme, H.O.P.E (Home Ownership Programme for Employees).





Figure 1

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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The award ceremony was held at Ascott Gurney, Penang witness by T.Y.T Tun Dato' Seri Utama Ahmad Fuzi bin Haji Abdul Razak, Yang di-Pertua Negeri Pulau Pinang, who grace the events and offer his congratulations to all winners in the evening.

HOMEVEST was conferred as one of the recipients of the prestigious award by a panel of high-credential judges representing corporate and social bodies. The JCI Malaysia Sustainable Development Award (JCIM SDA) is granted to sustainable projects or businesses conducted by Malaysian companies and organizations that advance any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). The objective of the JCIM SDA is to raise awareness of UNSDG in public and recognize companies or NGOs that have organized projects that help advance these goals or implemented sustainable initiatives in their business operations.



Talent loss has always been a critical matter in Malaysia. Understanding the importance of retaining talents, H.O.P.E was created to improve and achieve productive employment for all genders in the countries. This has always been aligned with Goal 8.5 which is to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value. Besides, the purpose of H.O.P.E helps to promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services. Other than that, H.O.P.E aims to assist the government to reduce the property overhang challenges in Malaysia, which the overhang situation was less encouraging, amounting to RM51.9 billion as of today.





Figure 2

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H.O.P.E is the FIRST IN MALAYSIA programme that has been supported by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and endorsed by the Malaysia Book of Records (MBOR).

HOMEVEST's Group Managing Director, KY Lim said, "It is an honour to be recognized for our efforts in corporate social responsibility. This recognition is a testimony to our H.O.P.E programme and commitment to achieving decent work and economic growth in Malaysia. Moving forward, we will continue to create more long-term sustainable initiatives."



Recently, HOMEVEST has also been awarded 2022 SME Company of the Year for Exemplary CSR Initiatives at the Sustainability & CSR Malaysia Award 2022 held at Mandarin Oriental, KL. 50 Malaysian listed, private companies, GLCs, and governmental organizations together with corporate foundations were honoured, received, and awarded for rising up to reach out to needed communities and to engage in sustainability endeavors for the betterment of all Malaysians. In terms of sustainability, HOMEVEST's efforts have been carried out in environmental, social, and governance (ESG), focusing on the company's key divisions such as property investment, home ownership accessibility, and property management.

Media Contact

Name: Edwin Phang Company Name: HOMEVEST Sdn Bhd Email: edwin.phang@homevestglobal.com Website: https://homevestglobal.com/ Country: Malaysia

PR Contact

King Newswire

Support@kingnewswire.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143467
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / Banxa Holdings Inc. (TSXV:BNXA) (OTCQX:BNXAF) (FSE:AC00) ("Banxa" or the "Company") provides further information on reasons for delayed lodgement of audited financial results for the financial year 2022 which has resulted in a trade cessation.

Banxa has experienced a year of significant growth in terms of transaction volumes and order processing which ultimately led to the business growing at a rate that put a strain on its financial systems and processes. This has required additional audit verification and the requirement for proper application of IFRS accounting standards as specifically related to on-ramping transactions.

Additionally, delays related to the Company's controls and use of its liquidity providers (digital currency exchanges) that are not SOC-compliant have resulted in the need for additional verifications. Banxa is currently reviewing moving liquidity and wallet services to SOC-compliant platforms which would improve future audit processes.

The Company's board and management are disappointed with the delays. It is the Company's intention to resolve the matter promptly.

CFO Update

Group CFO, Shyamal Deo is no longer with the Company. The Company is currently interviewing for his replacement.

Business Update

The general operations of the Company have not been affected and continue to see solid progress across the business. Some highlights include:

Successfully partnered with global electronics brand LG Electronics to allow eligible customers to purchase NFT's directly through their smart televisions;

to allow eligible customers to purchase NFT's directly through their smart televisions; Signed and currently integrating two major global partners in the Web3 space . Further detail will be provided in the next business update;

. Further detail will be provided in the next business update; Successfully identified and generated additional revenue streams that directly contribute to the gross margin including paid integrations of Banxa's on/off ramps and paid listings of partners' tokens;

that directly contribute to the gross margin including paid integrations of Banxa's on/off ramps and paid listings of partners' tokens; Granted a total of 10 Money Transmitter Licences in the USA (with more expected over the coming months); and

(with more expected over the coming months); and Clear line of sight to profitability in the financial year 2023 (ending June 2023).

Update on FTX situation

The Company has received queries from its partners and investors regarding the FTX situation currently unfolding. Banxa has no direct exposure to FTX and/or Alameda (Alameda being a related entity to FTX). Banxa does not hold assets with FTX or Alamedia, hold any FTX native tokens (e.g. FTT) or generate any revenue from customers of FTX. Banxa's business model is such that it doesn't hold any cryptocurrency on behalf of customers.

Webinar:

The Company will be running a webinar to discuss the Trade Cessation and other general business.

Details are as follows:

Thursday, November 10th, 2022

3pm EST / 12pm PST

Webinar Registration:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HGT30oU0Rq--43di7P_Q8w

CONTACTS

Investors:

MZ North America

Brian M. Prenoveau, CFA

BNXA@mzgroup.us

561-489-5315

Media:

Wachsman

Ethan Lyle

banxa@wachsman.com

ENDS

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Per: "DOMENIC CAROSA" https://twitter.com/dcarosa

Domenic Carosa = Chairman (1-888-218-6863)

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

Forward-looking Information and Statements

This news release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends", "expects" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or will "potentially" or "likely" occur. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements regarding the completion of the Audit by RSM, and the filing of the Annual Filings by the Company.

These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risks related to the completion of the Audit by RSM within the timeframe expected by management, and risks relating to the filing of the Annual Filings within the timeframe expected by management, and risks related to changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets, changes in applicable laws, and compliance with extensive government regulation, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's disclosure documents filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, assumptions regarding the completion of the Audit by RSM in a timely manner and the filing of the Annual Filings by the Company in a timely manner.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.

SOURCE: Banxa Holdings

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724750/Trade-Cessation-Status-and-Business-Update
SHANGHAI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --The China International Import Expo (CIIE), 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

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EQS-News: CPI PROPERTY GROUP / Key word(s): Share Buyback

CPI PROPERTY GROUP - CPI PROPERTY GROUP publishes the terms and conditions of a buy-back offer by the company



09.11.2022 / 18:08 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



CPI PROPERTY GROUP Societe Anonyme 40, rue de la Vallee L-2661 Luxembourg R.C.S. LUXEMBOURG B 102254 (hereinafter the "Company" or "CPIPG") TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF A BUY-BACK OFFER BY THE COMPANY Introduction On 30 May 2022, the shareholders of the Company approved the terms of a share buy-back programme enabling the Company to repurchase up to 1,000,000,000 shares of CPIPG (the "Programme") in accordance with the provisions of article 430-15 of the Luxembourg law of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies, as amended (the "1915 Law"), and have authorized the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") to implement such Programme in one or several steps. On the basis of such authorization, the Board has decided on 9 November 2022, to proceed to a buy-back of certain shares of the Company under the Programme, the terms of which are set forth hereafter (the "Offer"). It is intended that the shares acquired by the Company within the Offer will be cancelled afterwards through a share capital reduction. Conditions of the Offer Shares concerned: CPIPG shares - both listed (ISIN LU0251710041) and unlisted shares. Only fully paid-up shares may be repurchased and such shares must not be subject to any Encumbrance. For the purposes of this Offer, "Encumbrance" means a mortgage, charge, pledge, lien, option, restriction, right of first refusal, right of pre-emption, third party right or interest, other encumbrance or security interest of any kind, or another type of preferential arrangement having similar effect. Participating shareholder: only shareholders holding CPIPG shares on 8 November 2022 at 23:59 (CET time) can participate to the Offer. Conditions of the Offer (the "Conditions"): The Company is willing to repurchase in the context of the Offer a maximum number of up to 200,000,000 CPIPG shares. Shareholders have the ability to present all or part of their shares to the Offer and must indicate the precise number of shares they present to the Offer in their respective Participation Forms (as defined below). If the total number of shares indicated in all Participation Forms (as defined below) exceeds the 200,000,000 shares that the Company is willing to repurchase in the context of the Offer, then the final number of CPIPG shares that the Company will repurchase in the context of the Offer from the shareholders who choose to participate in the Offer (the "Participating Shareholders") shall be calculated on a pro rata basis between the Participating Shareholders, according to the number of CPIPG shares held on 8 November 2022 at 23:59 (CET time) by the Participating Shareholders and within the limit of their respective Participation Form. Thus, the Company may then repurchase fewer shares than the number the Participating Shareholders indicated in their respective Participation Form. This could occur where the total number of shares indicated in all Participation Forms exceeds the 200,000,000 shares that the Company is willing to repurchase in the context of the Offer. In this case, the Participating Shareholders will nonetheless still be obliged to sell to the Company the number of shares that will be calculated by the Company for each Participating Shareholder by applying the pro rata rule mentioned above. If upon application of the above pro rata rule the number of shares that a Participating Shareholder is entitled to sell to the Company is not a whole number of shares, then such number of shares shall be rounded down to the nearest whole number of shares. Then, as a result of the application of the above pro rata rule, the Company may finally repurchase fewer than 200,000,000 shares. The Offer is also conditional to a minimum number of 20,000,000 CPIPG shares being presented to the Offer. If such threshold is not reached, the Offer shall be deemed cancelled and the Company shall have no obligation to repurchase the CPIPG shares presented to the Offer. Price for the shares: The Company proposes to pay a price of EUR 0.961 (zero point nine hundred sixty-one Euros) per share presented to the Offer. Price for the shares shall be paid in cleared funds on the bank account indicated by the Participating Shareholder in the Participation Form mentioned below. Participation to the Offer All shareholders wishing to participate to the Offer must send back to the Company the participation form available on the Company website (the "Participation Form"). The Participation Form must include the number of shares a Participating Shareholder tenders in the Offer. The Participation Form must be accompanied by a proof of shareholding indicating the identification details and the exact number of the Company shares held by the Participating Shareholder on 8 November 2022 at 23:59 (CET time). The proof of shareholding shall be issued by the bank, professional securities' depositary or financial institution where the shares are on deposit. No proof of shareholding is needed for shares that are only recorded in the shareholders register of the Company. By signing such Participation Form and subject to the satisfaction of the Conditions, the Participating Shareholders already agree to enter into a standard share transfer agreement for the repurchase of their shares presented to the Offer and warrant that they are and remain the holders of such shares presented to the Offer, free of any Encumbrance, until the effective transfer of ownership to the Company pursuant to such standard share transfer agreements. All Participation Forms shall be irrevocable and unconditional. The Participation Forms shall be sent to the Company by post or electronic means so that they are received by the Company at the latest by 14:00 CET on 22 November 2022, to: CPI Property Group, 40, rue de la Vallee, L-2661 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; email: generalmeetings@cpipg.com. Timing of the Offer The timing of the Offer shall be the following: 14 November 2022: Opening of the Offer period.

22 November 2022, 14:00 CET: Closing of the Offer period.

22 November 2022 at the latest: Publication of the results of the Offer. If the Conditions are satisfied, standard share transfer agreements shall be sent by the Company to each Participating Shareholder on 23 November 2022.

24 November 2022, 12:00 (noon) CET: Share transfer agreements signed by each Participating Shareholder to be received by the Company. In case agreements are received after this deadline, the Company may, but shall not be obliged to, countersign these agreements and repurchase the CPIPG shares subject to these agreements.

25 November 2022: Countersigning by the Company of the share transfer agreements that were duly received from the Participating Shareholder.

28 November 2022 at the latest: Payment of the relevant purchase price for the shares to the Participating Shareholders by the Company. Legal framework The present Offer is made in compliance with article 430-15 of the 1915 Law. All regulatory communications and publications in connection with this Offer (in particular under the provisions of EC Directive EC/2004/109 (as amended), also known as the "Transparency" Directive and of the "Market Abuse" Regulation EU 596/2014) shall be made by the Company. Terms of the Offer may be adjusted to address any comments formulated by regulatory authorities or stock exchange. Luxembourg, 9 November 2022 Yours faithfully, The Board of Directors of the Company Contact details: Shareholder may direct any questions to the Company at:



David Greenbaum

Chief Financial Officer

d.greenbaum@cpipg.com

CPI PROPERTY GROUP

40, rue de la Vallee

L-2661, Luxembourg







09.11.2022 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


Transparent billing, after sales support and product returns are all available for participating Marketplace solutions

LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Geotab, a global leader in IoT and connected transportation and the world's #1 commercial telematics provider, today announced the availability of "Order Now" for Geotab Marketplace software and hardware solutions.





Order Now is a new and simple way for Geotab customers to order solutions right from the Geotab Marketplace ecosystem. As part of the ongoing expansion and development efforts, third-party hardware solutions will be available through Geotab's Marketplace, making the process easier than ever. Order Now provides seamless ordering, delivery and after-sales support for solutions that are part of the programme, allowing Geotab customers to expand their fleet management solutions at the click of a button. Customers will be able to seamlessly place orders directly from participating Marketplace partners from a single billing system.

Order Now is the latest addition to the Geotab Marketplace suite, a growing ecosystem which offers different partner solutions to help fleet managers increase productivity, improve sustainability, enhance the transition to electric vehicles (EV), decrease fuel costs, and optimise driver safety. By creating a seamless, deeply integrated solution for native user experience, and providing full-customer troubleshooting support to all third-party solutions available in Order Now, it has never been easier to choose the solutions that work best for businesses.

Geotab partners who are integrated into Order Now can easily manage incoming orders for Geotab and Marketplace solutions available on the programme and keep track of all orders within Geotab's MyAdmin. With Geotab managing all inquiries, software, and hardware troubleshooting issues, as well as returns, it makes the process seamless end-to-end.

The objective of Order Now is threefold: first, to maximise the profitability for best-of-breed Marketplace partners that have proven commercial success in their region, and are looking to streamline technical and business processes; second for Marketplace partners to raise awareness of their solution in the Geotab channel; and, third, to address the needs of customers with specific customisation or pricing requirements.

David Savage, Vice President, UK & Ireland, Geotab, says: "By streamlining the online purchasing process Geotab is providing customers with the power of choice. The Geotab Marketplace Ecosystem enables users to have the flexibility to buy exactly what they want, with their orders fulfilled by Geotab partners on Order Now.

"With a single point of billing and 24/7 support provided by Geotab, it is the latest tool in our armory to make buying and selling on the Geotab Marketplace as easy and simple as possible, expanding the range of products and options we provide from participating partners."

Additional terms and conditions apply to those Geotab resellers that wish to participate in the Order Now programme. To learn more about Geotab Marketplace Order Now, visit https://marketplace.geotab.com/

About Geotab

Geotab is advancing security, connecting commercial vehicles to the cloud and providing data-driven analytics to help customers better manage their fleets. Geotab's open platform and Marketplace, offering hundreds of third-party solution options, allows both small and large businesses to automate operations by integrating vehicle data with their other data assets. As an IoT hub, the in-vehicle device provides additional functionality through IOX Add-Ons. Processing billions of data points a day, Geotab leverages data analytics and machine learning to help customers improve productivity, optimize fleets through the reduction of fuel consumption, enhance driver safety, and achieve strong compliance to regulatory changes. Geotab's products are represented and sold worldwide through Authorised Geotab Resellers. To learn more, please visit www.geotab.com/uk and follow us @GEOTAB and on LinkedIn.

Geotab Inc, Anthony Brown, Communications Manager - Europe, anthonybrown@geotab.com / infouki@geotab.com, ordernowemea@geotab.com





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CAIRO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Green Investment Principles (GIP) for the Belt and Road officially announced its second regional office, Africa Chapter, during the COP27. Hendrik du Toit, Founder and CEO of Ninety One, will be the Chairman of the chapter, and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi, Group Director and General Manager at Bank of Africa BMCE Group will serve as the Co-Chair and Secretary General.





Hendrik du Toit and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi launched the GIP Africa Chapter

Four years after establishment, the GIP has expanded its membership that currently includes 44 signatories, most of which are large financial institutions, and over a dozen supporting organizations. Under the GIP, these member institutions, which manage over USD40tn in assets, have committed to grow their green and low-carbon investments in developing countries and emerging markets, to enhance ESG risk management, improve disclosure, and adopt innovative green finance products.

The GIP has also created three member-driven working groups that have developed a range of risk measurement and disclosure tools, showcased many innovative products, and contributed to green finance capacity building in less developed countries.

As part of the Vision 2023, the GIP intends to establish several regional offices in key emerging market regions, with an aim to engage with more financial institutions in developing countries and to catalyze green investment along Belt and Road. After the Central Asia office launched in 2021, the Africa chapter will seek to expand membership of the GIP, facilitate green investment opportunities, build capacity for local financial institutions, and convene resources to support development sustainable standards and principles for Africa.

Dr MA Jun, Co-chair of the GIP Steering Committee and Chairman of China Green Finance Committee pointed out that "after years of rapid development of the global green and sustainable finance market, the development is still very uneven across the world. The low-income regions, including those in Africa and Asia, account for large part of global population, nature resources and future growth, but have very limited access to the green and sustainable finance instruments". Ma highlighted that the international community should assist Africa to address three important challenges: enhancing access to low-cost funding through de-risking facilities and development finance, establishing a transition finance framework, and financing biodiversity and nature-positive activities.

Sir William Russell, Co-chair of the GIP Steering Committee and former Lord Mayor of City of London, commemorated the progress the GIP has made in the past years and reiterated the importance and commitments of international cooperation on green finance. He said that the GFANZ, which was launched in 2021 during COP26, has made significant progress in scaling up commitments from financial firms for net zero targets and is now working on implementation, which should complement the work of the GIP, including in Africa.

JIN Zhongxia, Director General of International Department at the People's Bank of China conveyed his expectation for GIP Africa office. He said "the office can provide opportunities to explore local innovative solutions in taxonomies, disclosure and transition finance. I believe the office can also help local financial institutions build in-house capacity, expand green businesses, and enhance climate resilience."

Yaseen Anwar, Chairman of the GIP Central Asia Office and former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, reflected on the progress made and lessons learnt by the Central Asia Office of the GIP. He said that "the GIP is providing an important opportunity for many countries along the Belt and Road to improve access to sustainable finance at affordable costs for local green and sustainable projects, which is important for these economies to realize their own climate goals."

Gim Huay Neo, Managing Director, Head of Centre for Nature and Climate, World Economic Forum, highlighted three imperatives that are important for the GIP Africa office to work on, including acceleration in developing green and social-inclusive infrastructure, proper green and sustainable standards and alignment of taxonomies, and conducive policy environment".

Deborah Lehr, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, Paulson Institute, addressed the growth potential of Africa in terms of climate action and green development. She said that the GIP presents opportunities for Africa to realize climate transition and avoid projected emissions in the business-as-usual scenario.

Hendrik du Toit and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi welcomed the establishment of the GIP Africa Chapter and expressed strong confidence for its future operations. Through the launch of the Africa office, they said, the GIP can bring in "new finance", including transition finance, to support the sustainable development of Africa. The GIP Africa office, as the second regional chapter launched, will build on current experiences, collaborate with other international initiatives, and continue sharing leading practices from other GIP members.

The launch ceremony was followed by a panel discussion with a focus on risks and opportunities for green investment in Africa. Panelists stressed that Africa needs to massively scale up its sustainable finance market and develop transition finance to meet the climate goal, and international assistance and knowledge sharing will be critical. It was also stated that Africa has abundant experiences in nesting climate action with Sustainable Development Goals, while many of the innovative financing solutions originated here from this continent. Panelists raised expectations to the GIP Africa Office and highlighted the importance of engagement with key stakeholders, alignment with other initiatives, leveraging on public finance, as well as knowledge sharing and capacity building activities.

+++++

Media enquiries:

Secretariat of the GIP

Email: sec_gip@gipbr.net

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1942945/Hendrik_du_Toit_Brahim_Benjelloun_Touimi_launched_GIP_Africa_Chapter.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/gip-africa-chapter-launched-at-cop27-301673372.html
Redde Northgate Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

9 November 2022

REDDE NORTHGATE PLC

("Redde Northgate" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Transaction in Own Shares

Redde Northgate plc (LSE:REDD) announces that on 9 November 2022 it purchased the following number of its own shares to be held in treasury:

Class of shares : Ordinary shares of 50p ("shares") Number of shares purchased : 80,000 Weighted average purchase price paid : 353.0566 pence per share Highest purchase price paid : 356 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid : 350 pence per share

Following the above transaction, the Company's issued share capital consists of 246,091,423 ordinary shares of 50p each, of which 14,526,710 ordinary shares are held in treasury, and 1,000,000 preference shares of 50p each which do not carry any rights to vote. Therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company is 231,564,713 which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the Company's buyback programme.

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions (all of 9 November 2022)

Number of shares

purchased Transaction price

(GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 1862 353.00 08:14:34 00062033484TRLO0 LSE 60 353.00 08:14:34 00062033485TRLO0 LSE 346 353.00 08:14:34 00062033486TRLO0 LSE 177 352.00 08:14:34 00062033487TRLO0 LSE 417 352.00 08:14:34 00062033488TRLO0 LSE 1662 352.00 08:14:40 00062033498TRLO0 LSE 2382 350.50 08:40:16 00062034495TRLO0 LSE 2036 350.00 08:51:14 00062034810TRLO0 LSE 1996 350.50 09:14:10 00062035773TRLO0 LSE 1885 350.50 09:23:10 00062036145TRLO0 LSE 191 350.50 09:23:10 00062036146TRLO0 LSE 2423 353.50 10:28:31 00062038926TRLO0 LSE 369 353.00 10:30:36 00062038979TRLO0 LSE 598 353.50 10:35:40 00062039114TRLO0 LSE 1475 353.50 10:35:40 00062039115TRLO0 LSE 196 353.50 10:55:40 00062039637TRLO0 LSE 1851 353.50 10:55:40 00062039638TRLO0 LSE 2109 355.00 11:20:10 00062040596TRLO0 LSE 2 355.00 11:21:33 00062040673TRLO0 LSE 2290 355.00 11:21:45 00062040674TRLO0 LSE 101 354.50 11:31:15 00062041004TRLO0 LSE 269 354.50 11:34:33 00062041172TRLO0 LSE 645 354.50 11:37:09 00062041324TRLO0 LSE 332 354.50 11:37:09 00062041325TRLO0 LSE 258 354.50 11:37:09 00062041326TRLO0 LSE 390 354.50 11:37:10 00062041328TRLO0 LSE 1823 354.50 11:37:10 00062041329TRLO0 LSE 262 354.50 11:37:10 00062041330TRLO0 LSE 1989 354.00 11:45:27 00062041986TRLO0 LSE 290 353.50 12:03:54 00062042676TRLO0 LSE 2093 353.50 12:03:54 00062042677TRLO0 LSE 378 353.00 12:19:25 00062043089TRLO0 LSE 1000 353.00 12:19:25 00062043090TRLO0 LSE 500 353.00 12:19:25 00062043091TRLO0 LSE 119 353.00 12:19:25 00062043092TRLO0 LSE 272 353.00 12:19:25 00062043093TRLO0 LSE 669 352.50 12:58:52 00062043820TRLO0 LSE 999 352.50 12:58:52 00062043821TRLO0 LSE 691 352.50 12:58:52 00062043822TRLO0 LSE 2403 352.00 12:59:01 00062043824TRLO0 LSE 1686 351.50 13:04:47 00062043981TRLO0 LSE 734 351.50 13:04:47 00062043982TRLO0 LSE 1186 351.00 14:12:06 00062045734TRLO0 LSE 1266 351.00 14:12:06 00062045735TRLO0 LSE 44 351.50 14:21:09 00062045890TRLO0 LSE 321 351.50 14:28:33 00062046157TRLO0 LSE 2447 352.00 14:31:49 00062046305TRLO0 LSE 978 352.00 14:31:49 00062046306TRLO0 LSE 819 351.50 14:31:49 00062046307TRLO0 LSE 227 351.50 14:31:49 00062046308TRLO0 LSE 500 351.50 14:31:49 00062046309TRLO0 LSE 500 351.50 14:31:49 00062046310TRLO0 LSE 364 351.50 14:31:49 00062046311TRLO0 LSE 76 351.00 14:32:30 00062046445TRLO0 LSE 350 351.00 14:32:30 00062046446TRLO0 LSE 30 351.00 14:32:55 00062046469TRLO0 LSE 32 351.00 14:33:20 00062046496TRLO0 LSE 18 351.00 14:33:33 00062046519TRLO0 LSE 40 351.00 14:34:06 00062046531TRLO0 LSE 27 351.00 14:34:28 00062046542TRLO0 LSE 15 351.00 14:34:41 00062046580TRLO0 LSE 45 351.00 14:35:14 00062046595TRLO0 LSE 15 351.00 14:35:28 00062046611TRLO0 LSE 33 351.00 14:36:27 00062046649TRLO0 LSE 400 351.00 14:36:27 00062046650TRLO0 LSE 27 351.00 14:36:47 00062046673TRLO0 LSE 1291 351.50 14:48:57 00062047243TRLO0 LSE 552 352.00 14:48:57 00062047244TRLO0 LSE 1601 352.00 14:48:57 00062047245TRLO0 LSE 2 354.00 15:09:35 00062048464TRLO0 LSE 706 354.00 15:19:10 00062048936TRLO0 LSE 2000 354.00 15:34:04 00062049673TRLO0 LSE 1500 354.00 15:34:04 00062049674TRLO0 LSE 2500 354.00 15:34:04 00062049675TRLO0 LSE 617 354.00 15:34:04 00062049676TRLO0 LSE 442 354.00 15:34:04 00062049677TRLO0 LSE 1000 354.00 15:34:04 00062049678TRLO0 LSE 972 354.00 15:34:04 00062049679TRLO0 LSE 76 354.00 15:34:04 00062049680TRLO0 LSE 3 354.00 15:34:04 00062049681TRLO0 LSE 3184 354.00 15:34:04 00062049682TRLO0 LSE 2349 353.50 15:54:42 00062050838TRLO0 LSE 2372 353.50 15:54:42 00062050839TRLO0 LSE 145 356.00 16:13:48 00062051901TRLO0 LSE 500 356.00 16:13:48 00062051902TRLO0 LSE 594 356.00 16:13:48 00062051903TRLO0 LSE 72 356.00 16:13:48 00062051904TRLO0 LSE 1079 356.00 16:13:48 00062051905TRLO0 LSE 240 355.50 16:15:30 00062052004TRLO0 LSE 1895 355.50 16:15:30 00062052005TRLO0 LSE 2318 355.50 16:15:30 00062052006TRLO0 LSE

Notes

This announcement is made in accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 12.4.6.

For further information contact:

Buchanan

David Rydell/Jamie Hooper/Hannah Ratcliff +44 (0) 207 466 5000

Notes to Editors:

Redde Northgate is the leading integrated mobility solutions platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle. The Company offers integrated mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across seven key areas: vehicle rental, vehicle data, accident management, vehicle repairs, fleet management, service and maintenance, vehicle ancillary services and vehicle sales.

The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, whether through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With its considerable scale and reach, Redde Northgate's mission is to offer a market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group aims to achieve this through the delivery of its strategic framework of Focus, Drive and Broaden.

Redde Northgate services its customers through a network and diversified fleet of over 120,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 600,000 managed vehicles, with more than 170 workshop, body shop and rental locations across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 6,000 automotive services professionals.

Further information please visit the Company's website:

www.reddenorthgate.com
Clickmatix, Sydney's leading SEO agency, has data demonstrating 46% increase of Organic leads through SEO efforts as compared to the 2% from traditional outbound (cold calling) methods.

Sydney, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Clickmatix, a leading SEO agency in Sydney, has revealed that clients who invest in SEO efforts are likely to notice an increase of 46% in lead generation. The lead generation rates through organic methods are much higher as compared to the traditional outbound methods like cold calling outreach. Traditional outbound methods of lead generation are usually 2% comparatively and have far lower lead conversion rates.

Businesses that invest in organic SEO can benefit from higher conversion rates, more brand recognition, and increased revenue. As per the industry standard, implementing organic SEO efforts over years indicate that organic lead generation leads to 3x more conversions than any other marketing strategy.

Organic SEO may help improve connecting with prospects at the bottom of the marketing funnel. Especially those actively looking for a particular service or product. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) strategies that are best suited to a specific industry may be implemented by Clickmatix, to assist firms in increasing conversions.

Readers can learn more about Clickmatix in Sydney by visiting their official website: https://www.clickmatix.com.au/seo-agency-sydney/.

Practising SEO helps build the organic ranking of a website on various search engines. By ranking organically, online businesses can attain maximum sales, generate relevant leads, and improve conversion rates. Similarly, focusing more on optimising a website and fixing necessary issues ensures better user-experiences, thus improving the conversion rate. Instead of simply considering social media or other channels for lead generation, businesses should also focus on organic ranking, which is by far the best marketing approach.

Clickmatix helps online businesses with their website's ranking, lead generation, and conversion rate. Being in the industry for years now, they understand that every business is unique and has varying marketing goals. Consequently, their marketing specialists and SEO professionals build goal-focused and result-driven strategies for businesses.

About the Company

Clickmatix is a Melbourne-based Digital Marketing agency that has been in the industry since 2014 and has helped businesses rank and generate maximum leads. The business serves clients in various sectors, including B2B, IT, professional services, construction & trades, health & beauty, legal, medical and more. Clickmatix can scale services and tailor its offering to a specific client's demands as it is a rapidly expanding firm, which leads to a significant amount of value in the form of results.

Contact:

Company: Clickmatix Pty LTD

Name: Maulik Patel

Phone: 1300 159 314

Email: sales@clickmatix.com.au

Address: Suite 409/838 Collins St, Docklands VIC 3008, Australia

Website: https://www.clickmatix.com.au/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143113
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / CanXGold Mining Corp., (TSXV:CXG)(FRANKFURT:3G8C)(OTC Pink:GDMRF), ("CanXGold" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has closed the non-brokered private placement previously announced on September 30, 2022, by issuing 4,000,000 flow through shares at a price of $0.08 per unit for gross proceeds of $320,000. Each flow-through unit will comprise of one common share (which is a flow-through share for Canadian income tax purposes) and one share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase, for a period of 60 months from the date of issue, one additional non-flow-through common share of the Issuer at an exercise price of $0.10 per share. The term of the warrants may be accelerated in the event that the issuer's shares trade at or above a price of $0.15 per share for a period of 10 consecutive days. In such case of accelerated warrants, the issuer may give notice, in writing or by way of news release, to the subscribers that the warrants will expire 30 days from the date of providing such notice.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used by the Company for drilling at the Phoenix property.

This placement, previously announced on September 30, 2022 is now closed.

No finders fees have been paid on this placement. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a hold period expiring March 5, 2023. The closing of the private placement is subject to final TSX-V approval.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

CANXGOLD MINING CORP.

Per: "Christopher R. Anderson"

Christopher R. Anderson CEO

For further information, please contact:

CanXGold Mining Corp.

Corporate Communications:

Tel: 604-288-2610

Email: Office@CanXGold.com

Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to, among other things, preliminary plans for a consolidation of the Company's Shares. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the possibility that the TSX Venture Exchange will not approve the proposed share consolidation, and that the Company may not be able to raise sufficient additional capital to continue its business. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of securities of the Company in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL, OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF SECURITIES OF THE COMPANY IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL PRIOR TO REGISTRATION OR QUALIFICATION UNDER THE SECURITIES LAWS OF ANY SUCH JURISDICTION.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: CanXGold Mining Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724857/CanXGold-Mining-Corp-Announces-Closing-of-Financing
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with Sirios Resources, Saturn Oil, Ashley Gold and Conifex Timber discussing their latest news.

The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives.

Sirios (TSXV:SOI) intersects gold at surface & extends mineralization of the Cheechoo deposit

Sirios Resources (SOI) reported assay results from channel samples collected last summer, which included 2.65 g/t Au over 11.0 metres at the Cheechoo project. The company noted that this confirms the extension of gold mineralization beyond the tonalite and into the meta-greywackes outside of the conceptual pit of the 2020 mineral resource estimate. Sirios' President and CEO, Dominique Doucet, P.Eng. sat down with Sabrina Cuthbert to discuss the news.

For the full interview with Dominique Doucet and to learn about Sirios Resources , click here.

Saturn Oil & Gas (TSXV:SOIL) reports Q3 2022 results

Saturn Oil & Gas (SOIL) has reported its financial and operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022. John Jeffrey, CEO of Saturn, sat down with Daniella Atkinson to discuss the results.

For the full interview with John Jeffrey and to learn about Saturn Oil & Gas, click here.

Ashley Gold (CSE:ASHL) confirms high-grade gold continuity at eponymous mine

Ashley Gold (ASHL) reported positive assay results from its Ashley Mine Project in Ontario's Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Composite interval highlights include 135.46 g/t Au over 3.5 m in strike length (Garvey Vein), and 582 g/t Au in a grab sample of mineralized vein material (Garvey Vein). VP of Operations Darcy Christian sat down with Daniella Atkinson to discuss the results and how they'll guide exploration moving forward.

For the full interview with Darcy Christian and to learn about Ashley Gold, click here.

Conifex Timber (TSX:CFF) announces Q3 2022 results

Conifex Timber (CFF) released results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022. Net income was $0.9 million or $0.02 per share

CEO Ken Shields sat down with Daniella Atkinson to discuss the results and the company's diversification plans moving forward.

For the full interview with Ken Shields and to learn about Conifex Timber, click here.

Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit? The Power Play by The Market Herald.

About The Market Herald

The Market Herald Canada is the leading source of authoritative breaking stock market news for self-directed investors. Our team of Canadian markets reporters, editors and technologists covers the entire listed company universe in Canada. We cover over 3,985 businesses, their people, their investors, and their customers. We write the stories that move the Canadian capital markets.

DISCLAIMER: Report Card Canada Media Ltd. ("Report Card") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Herald Limited, an Australian company ("Market Herald"). Report Card is not an advisory service, and does not offer, buy, sell, or provide any other rating, analysis or opinion on the securities we discuss. We are retained and compensated by the companies that we provide information on to assist them with making information available to the public. All information available on themarketherald.ca and/or this press release should be considered as commercial advertisement and not an endorsement, offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. Report Card is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority in any province or territory of Canada, will not be performing any registerable activity as defined by the applicable regulatory bodies and do not provide nor claim to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of this site or readers of any content on or originating from themarketherald.ca. Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees may from time to time acquire, hold or sell securities and/or commodities and/or commodity futures contracts in certain underlying companies mentioned in this site and which may also be clients of Market Herald's affiliates. In such instances, Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees will use all reasonable efforts to avoid engaging in activities that would lead to conflicts of interest and Market Herald and/or its affiliates will use all reasonable efforts to comply with conflicts of interest disclosures and regulations to minimize any conflict. All the information on this document and/or the website - themarketherald.ca - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Report Card does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this document and/or website (themarketherald.ca) is strictly at your own risk. Report Card will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to such external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. These links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Site owners and content may change without notice and may occur before we have the opportunity to remove a link which may have gone 'bad'. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control. Please be sure to check the Privacy Policies of these sites as well as their "Terms of Service" before engaging in any business or uploading any information.

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SOURCE:?The Market Herald

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724859/The-Power-Play-by-The-Market-Herald-Releases-New-Interviews-with-Sirios-Resources-Saturn-Oil-Ashley-Gold-and-Conifex-Timber-Discussing-Their-Latest-News
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HostDime, a pioneer in global edge data center infrastructure, has released its design plans for its newest next-generation, purpose-built Tier IV data center facility in Guadalajara, Mexico, which will start construction in Q1 2023. HostDime is the owner, developer, and operator of this new data center facility, nicknamed "Andromeda".

Back in July 2022, HostDime announced that they purchased the three-acre land parcelin the Guadalajara, Mexico metro area; this will be HostDime's second carrier-neutral Guadalajara data center, with their current 20,000-square-feet facility currently at 80% capacity.

This new Mexico Data Center facility design will follow HostDime's Tier IV Data Center portfolio platform design standards, a rarity in the country. Certified by the Uptime Institute, it will only be the second Tier IV public data center in Mexico. Tier IV is the highest class certification a data center can receive. Often referred to as the four 9's, Tier IV data centers have 99.99% availability and often achieve 100% uptime due to their highly redundant power infrastructure. The facility will also incorporate ICREA V standards and thus will also be ICREA V certified by ICREA (International Computer Room Experts Association).

The new facility follows the iconic HostDime contemporary style of all the facilities it designs and builds. This style is a combination of the distinguished HostDime next-gen data center design, purpose-built highly redundant Tier IV power infrastructure, and client-centric colocation amenities. The data center facility will be 100,000 sq. feet in total size with 3MW of critical IT load capacity. The facility will feature three floors of data center space which will include data halls for private data center suites, colocation cage space, private lockable colocation racks, diverse MMR carrier rooms for interconnection, and a specific data hall for hybrid-cloud workload use cases.

The design of this new facility also incorporates additional vertical office floors on the front part of the data center. These office floors will accommodate local demand HostDime Mexico is seeing from potential clients who not only want to be tenants in the data center but also want to be office tenants. These office floors are not the typical office build out, as they will inherit the highly redundant power infrastructure being implemented in the data center. So this will accommodate unique use cases by companies who seek specialized technology office space while also being tenants of the data center.

"We are very excited to release the design of HostDime's New Data Center in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in the cradle of innovation, 'The Silicon Valley of Mexico'. Guadalajara has innovative technology roots and being the second largest metropolitan city in Mexico, we know this new data center facility will properly serve the surrounding market. This data center will be constructed based on Tier IV and ICREA V standards. In addition, it will comply with all PCI data security standards, including PCI ISO 27001, ISO 14001, and ISO 9001 certifications, thus guaranteeing best processes and practices." - Eduardo Basulto Jimenez, CEO of HostDime Mexico

The new HostDime facility will also be home to Guadalajara, Mexico's first peering exchange (GDL-IX), which will interconnect with other leading peering exchanges in other Mexico cities. To foster the growth of this new GDL peering exchange, HostDime has facilitated four diverse manhole entries into the facility where all local carriers can enter the facility to extend their fiber into the diverse Meet Me Rooms. The facility expects entry from leading local carriers such as Marcatel, MetroCarrier, Axtel, TotalPlay, Alestra, Cogent, Bestel, Flo Networks (Transtelco), and Telmex. This GDL peering exchange ecosystem will allow carriers and tenants to interconnect and be able to serve content to over 90% of the population in Mexico at the lowest latency. This new data center will be one of the most interconnected facilities in Mexico in the next few years and will be a main interconnection point for transit and peering in Guadalajara.

Client amenities include a client reception area, a colocation lounge for staging servers in a quiet climate-controlled atmosphere, and private dedicated warehouse storage space for an array of equipment storage needs. All the rooms will have fiber interconnecting them. There will also be a unique mid-floor indoor/outdoor event space to host technology-related conferences in the Guadalajara Metro area. If that's not enough, there are also plans to install a helicopter pad on the roof to transport clients to the facility in emergency situations around the highly congested Guadalajara, Mexico metro area.

The facility is expected to be commissioned for production in 2024. This announcement comes on the heels of the opening of HostDime Colombia's new Tier IV data center in Bogota, Colombia; the official grand opening is Nov. 18. Additionally, HostDime's flagship headquarters and Tier IV Orlando data centerwill be commissioned for production in late Q1 of 2023.

HostDimeis a global native carrier-neutral data center infrastructure company operating purpose-built public data center facilities in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and our flagship facility in Florida, USA, and with owned networks in the U.K., India, and Hong Kong.

HostDime's mission is to design, build, and operate purpose-built, next-gen, public data center facilities in emerging markets around the globe. HostDime offers an array of cloud-native infrastructure products and services including physical bare-metal servers, cloud servers(cages and racks), and Hardware-as-a-Service in all our unique global edge data center locations. HostDime also provides professional managed services on all core products globally.

Contact Information:

Jared Smith

Director of Marketing

jared.s@hostdime.com

386-341-0855



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Attachment
Herzliya, Israel and Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Innocan Pharma Corporation (CSE: INNO) (FSE: IP4) (OTCQB: INNPF) (the "Company" or "Innocan") a pharmaceutical technology company focusing on developing innovative drug delivery platform technologies and owner of a proprietary IP portfolio, is pleased to announce the successful implementation of Priority Software's Priority Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The new Priority ERP system includes financial, logistics, and revenue analysis modules. The new system will optimize numerous financial and procurement processes and improve the Company's efficiency. This indicates an important milestone in the evolution from the Company's current systems to a highly integrated, world class ERP solution.

Roni Kamhi, COO of Innocan said: "Innocan is looking at a future that requires robust and resilient cybernetic and IT infrastructure, to boost operational efficiency, among other milestones."

About Innocan

Innocan is a pharmaceutical technology company that operates under two main segments: Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Wellness. In the Pharmaceuticals segment, Innocan focuses on developing innovative drug delivery platform technologies comprised of cannabinoids science to treat various conditions and improve patients' quality of life. This segment involves two drug delivery technologies: (i) LPT CBD-loaded liposome platform, which facilitates exact dosing and the prolonged and controlled release of CBD into the blood stream; the LPT delivery platform research is in the preclinical trial phase for two indications: epilepsy and pain management; and (ii) CLX CBD-loaded exosomes platform, which aims to target the central nervous system through regeneration and by addressing inflammation. In the consumer wellness segment, Innocan develops and markets a wide portfolio of innovative self-care products to promote a healthier lifestyle. Under this segment Innocan has established a joint venture by the name of BI Sky Global Ltd., which focuses on developing advanced targeted online sales. www.innocanpharma.com.

For further information, please contact:

For Innocan Pharma Corporation:

Iris Bincovich, CEO

15162104025+

+972-54-3012842

+442037699377

info@innocanpharma.com

Dr. Eva Reuter

Investment Relation- Germany

+46-69-1532-5857

e.reuter@dr-reuter.eu

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information set forth in this news release, including, without limitation, information regarding research and development, collaborations, the filing of potential applications with the FDA and other regulatory authorities, the potential achievement of future regulatory milestones, the potential for treatment of conditions and other therapeutic effects resulting from research activities and/or the Company's products, requisite regulatory approvals and the timing for market entry, is forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Innocan's control. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Innocan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the products, satisfaction of regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and satisfactory completion of requisite production and distribution arrangements.

Forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this news release. The key risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: general global and local (national) economic, market and business conditions; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities; and relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, customers, business partners and competitors. There are also risks that are inherent in the nature of product distribution, including import / export matters and the failure to obtain any required regulatory and other approvals (or to do so in a timely manner) and availability in each market of product inputs and finished products. The anticipated timeline for entry to markets may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to secure necessary regulatory requirements, or the need for additional time to conclude and/or satisfy the manufacturing and distribution arrangements. As a result of the foregoing, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release. A comprehensive discussion of other risks that impact Innocan can also be found in Innocan's public reports and filings which are available under Innocan's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may vary materially from the forward-looking information. Innocan does not undertake to update, correct or revise any forward-looking information as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143631
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Canada Lands Company, the corporation responsible for the CN Tower, one of Canada's most iconic landmarks and a recognized national symbol, today announced that the Tower has achieved the highest level of accessibility certification from the Rick Hansen Foundation. The Honourable Helena Jaczek, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Minister responsible for Canada Lands Company, was at the Tower to accept the certification and celebrate this important milestone for the 46-year-old structure.

"Canada's most recognizable landmark is also one its most inclusive and accessible. Ensuring our communities and economy are inclusive makes them stronger and more resilient. By removing physical barriers of access, Canadians of all abilities are better able to participate and contribute," said The Honourable Helena Jaczek, Minister of Public Services and Procurement.

"As we work together to create an accessible and barrier-free Canada, we need to ensure that everyone can access spaces and buildings. The CN Tower is an important Canadian landmark, and it is critical that everyone can enjoy it. Congratulations to Canada Lands Company for your Gold-level certification! And thanks to the Rick Hansen Foundation for your ongoing work to make our build environment accessible and disability inclusive," said The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion.

In a video message, Man In Motion Rick Hansen himself congratulated the CN Tower on its achievement: "In 2015, I was honoured to be one of the first people in a wheelchair to do an accessible EdgeWalk, at the CN Tower," he said. "In 2018, the CN Tower achieved accessibility certification from our Foundation, for reaching a level of meaningful accessibility for people with all disabilities. Today, I'm honoured to be able to congratulate the CN Tower for its accomplishment in achieving Accessibility Certified Gold, an even higher level of meaningful access."

Opened in 1976, the CN Tower was constructed as a broadcast antenna and remains among the most visited tourist attractions in Canada. A series of recent renovations have prioritized the removing of barriers to accessibility, part of a longstanding commitment by Canada Lands Company to ensure that everyone is welcome at Canada's National Tower.

For CN Tower Chief Operating Officer Peter George, retrofitting a building like the CN Tower has presented some interesting challenges. "Accessibility has been among the highest priorities for Canada Lands Company and the CN Tower, and our journey to achieving Gold certification from the Rick Hansen Foundation reflects that," he says.

Getting there has included the renovation in 2018 of the Main Observation Level, which saw the installation of floor-to-ceiling window walls and removal of barriers of access to the view that were a feature of the Tower's original construction. The work has also included the addition of high-contrast signage, railing retrofitting, ensuring menus for the Tower's 360 Restaurant are available in Braille, the installation of automatic doors, and accessible washrooms throughout the facility.

An extensive renovation of the Tower's Outdoor Terrace Level, which is currently underway, will further enhance accessibility throughout the site.

Renovations are conducted in consultation with accessibility experts. "Ensuring our building is accessible and inclusive means that everyone can feel welcome visiting the Tower. It also helps us attract a diverse team of talented people to work here, and that benefits everyone," George says.

For more information about the CN Tower's work to promote accessibility, visit https://www.cntower.ca/plan-your-visit/accessibility.

Quotes

"Canada's most recognizable landmark is also one its most inclusive and accessible. Ensuring our communities and economy are inclusive makes them stronger and more resilient. By removing physical barriers of access, Canadians of all abilities are better able to participate and contribute."

-- The Honourable Helena Jaczek, Minister of Public Services and Procurement

"As we work together to create an accessible and barrier-free Canada, we need to ensure that everyone can access spaces and buildings. The CN Tower is an important Canadian landmark, and it is critical that everyone can enjoy it. Congratulations to Canada Lands Company for your Gold-level certification! And thanks to the Rick Hansen Foundation for your ongoing work to make our build environment accessible and disability inclusive."

-- The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion

"In 2015, I was honoured to be one of the first people in a wheelchair to do an accessible EdgeWalk, at the CN Tower. In 2018, the CN Tower achieved accessibility certification from our Foundation, for reaching a level of meaningful accessibility for people with all disabilities. Today, I'm honoured to be able to congratulate the CN Tower for their accomplishments in achieving RHF Accessibility Certified Gold, an even higher level of meaningful access."

- Rick Hansen, Founder, the Rick Hansen Foundation

"Accessibility has been among the highest priorities for Canada Lands Company and the CN Tower, and our journey to achieving Gold certification from the Rick Hansen Foundation reflects that. Ensuring our building is accessible and inclusive means that everyone can feel welcome visiting the Tower. It also helps us attract a diverse team of talented people to work at the Tower, and that benefits everyone."

- Peter George, Chief Operating Officer, CN Tower

About Canada Lands Company

Canada Lands Company is a self-financing federal Crown corporation that specializes in real estate development and attractions management. Since 1995, Canada Lands has enriched Canadian communities and experiences by embracing the full potential of the properties it owns and operates. Canada Lands is a leader in attractions management with its operations of the CN Tower and Downsview Park in Toronto, the Old Port of Montreal and the Montreal Science Centre. Canada Lands Company strives to enhance economic, social and environmental value for Canadians. It has delivered more than $1.2 billion in economic benefits to Canada since inception. https://www.clc-sic.ca/

About the CN Tower

An enduring symbol of innovation, Canada's National Tower inspires and connects Canadians. Committed to sustainability, accessibility, inclusivity, the CN Tower is held in perpetuity. Self-sustaining and profitable, its successful operation as Canada's preeminent attraction returns value to and forms a lasting legacy for all Canadians. We stand tall, we elevate every occasion, and we celebrate infinite possibilities, as we welcome visitors from around the world to Canada's celebration destination. Visit cntower.ca for more information.

About the Rick Hansen Foundation

The Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) was established in 1988, following the completion of Rick Hansen's Man In Motion World Tour. For nearly 30 years, RHF has worked to raise awareness, change attitudes, and remove barriers for people with disabilities. Visit www.rickhansen.com to learn more.

-30-

For CN Tower media inquiries:

Jennifer Paige

CN Tower

jpaige@cntower.ca

(416) 262-1727

Jodie Hunt

CN Tower

jhunt@cntower.ca

(416) 200-1539

For Rick Hansen Foundation media inquiries:

Cynnamon Schreinert

Hartley PR

Cynnamon@hartleypr.com

(604) 802-2733

Visuals are available for download at https://clcl-sicl.mediavalet.com/galleries/f71999a6-64c9-4f8f-8bdf-5502c13c441e_889a768f-508c-4fb3-b462-7b30d3166799-ExternalUser

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143682
Continuance and Name Change Update

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Givex Information Technology Group Limited (TSX: GIVX) (OTCQX: GIVXF) (the "Company" or "Givex") announces that it intends to file this week articles of continuance to continue the Company out of the Province of British Columbia and into the Province of Ontario under the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the "Continuance"), and concurrently upon filing its articles of continuance change its name from "Givex Information Technology Group Limited" to "Givex Corp" (the "Name Change" and, together with the Continuance, the "Continuance and Name Change").

The Continuance and Name Change was overwhelmingly approved by the shareholders of the Company by a special resolution passed at the Company's annual and special meeting held on May 26, 2022 (the "Meeting") with an approval rate of 98.3% of the votes cast at the Meeting. In addition, shareholders of the Company were given rights of dissent with respect to the Continuation.

As noted in the Company's management information circular in respect of the Meeting, on account of the majority of the Company's management and the head office of the Company being located in Ontario, the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") determined that it would be most efficient and cost effective for the Company to be governed by the laws of Ontario and authorized the Continuance and Name Change on April 19, 2022. The rationale for the Name Change is to ease certain administrative and logistical matters and to revert to how the Corporation was referred to during its twenty-two year history prior to completing its reverse takeover transaction and listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange in December of 2021.

There will be no change in the ticker symbol of the Company in connection with the Continuation and Name Change. A copy of the Certificate of Continuance once issued by the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services will be available on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com.

Update on Annual and Special Meeting for 2023 and Shareholder Requisition Matter

In the Company's press release dated November 7, 2022, it announced the formation of a special committee of the Board to review and make recommendations to the Board related to the requisition for a shareholders meeting (the "Requisition") delivered by Inter.Act Venture Fund Inc. ("Inter.Act Venture") on November 2, 2022.

Having concluded this review process, the Company intends that at its next annual meeting (the "2023 Meeting") certain matters raised in the Requisition will be included on the agenda for the 2023 Meeting. Specifically, Mr. Ladouceur, Inter.Act Venture's director nominee identified in the Requisition, will be included in the list of individuals standing for election to the board. The number of directors to be elected will be six. Also, the three advisory resolutions included in the Requisition will be included as special business to be voted upon at the 2023 Meeting. The Company has communicated this position to Inter.Act Venture.

About Givex

Givex (TSX: GIVX) (OTCQX: GIVXF) is a global fintech company providing merchants with customer engagement, point of sale and payment solutions, all in a single platform. We are integrated with 1000+ technology partners, creating a fully end-to-end solution that delivers powerful customer insights. Our platform is used by some of the world's largest brands, comprising approximately 118,000 locations across more than 100 countries. Learn more at givex.com.

Additional information on Givex can be found by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com.

Legal Notice

The release, publication or distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and therefore persons in such jurisdictions into which this announcement is released, published or distributed should inform themselves about and observe such restrictions.

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking" statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance objectives or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, objectives or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the Company's current views regarding future events and operating performance, are based on information currently available to the Company, and speak only as of the date of this press release. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which may cause actual performance and financial results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only at the date of this press release and, except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not undertake to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Joe Donaldson, Chief Marketing Officer, ir@givex.com, 416.350.9660 CO: Givex

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143712
PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / The following abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds announced today that the closed end funds in the chart directly below will pay the distributions indicated on a per share basis on November 30, 2022 to all shareholders of record as of November 22, 2022 (ex-dividend date November 21, 2022). These dates apply to the Funds listed below with the exception of the abrdn Australia Equity Fund, Inc. (IAF), the India Fund, Inc. (IFN) and the abrdn Japan Equity Fund, Inc. (JEQ) which will pay on January 11, 2023 to all shareholders of record as of November 22, 2022 (ex-dividend date November 21, 2022).

Ticker Exchange Fund Amount ACP NYSE abrdn Income Credit Strategies Fund $ 0.1000 AGD NYSE abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund $ 0.0650 AOD NYSE abrdn Total Dynamic Dividend Fund $ 0.0575 ASGI NYSE abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund $ 0.1200 AWP NYSE abrdn Global Premier Properties Fund $ 0.0400 FAX NYSE American abrdn Asia-Pacific Income Fund, Inc. $ 0.0275 FCO NYSE American abrdn Global Income Fund, Inc. $ 0.0700 IAF NYSE American abrdn Australia Equity Fund, Inc. $ 0.1200 IFN NYSE The India Fund, Inc.* $ 1.6100 JEQ NYSE abrdn Japan Equity Fund, Inc. $ 0.1000

*The distribution consists of the regular quarterly distribution of $0.47 and a special capital gains distribution of $1.14 required to meet US tax regulations. The entire distribution is eligible to be paid in newly issued shares of common stock of the Fund to all shareholders who do not otherwise elected to receive cash. See below for more details.

At the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders, which will state the amount and composition of each fund's distributions and provide information with respect to their appropriate tax treatment for the prior calendar year. You should not draw any conclusions about any of these Funds' investment performance from the amount of the distributions.

MANAGED DISTRIBUTION POLICY FUNDS

ANNOUNCE DISTRIBUTION PAYMENT DETAILS

abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund ("ASGI")

abrdn Asia-Pacific Income Fund, Inc. ("FAX")

abrdn Australia Equity Fund, Inc. ("IAF")

The India Fund, Inc. ("IFN")

abrdn Japan Equity Fund, Inc. ("JEQ")

The above-noted abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds (the "Funds" or individually the "Fund"), today announced that the Funds will pay the distributions noted in the chart above on November 30, 2022, on a per share basis to all shareholders of record as of November 22, 2022 (ex-dividend date November 21, 2022). These dates apply to the Funds listed below with the exception of the abrdn Australia Equity Fund, Inc. (IAF), the India Fund, Inc. (IFN) and the abrdn Japan Equity Fund, Inc. (JEQ) which will pay on January 11, 2023 to all shareholders of record as of November 22, 2022 (ex-dividend date November 21, 2022).

Each Fund has adopted a distribution policy to provide investors with a stable distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital in reliance on an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under applicable U.S. tax rules, the amount and character of distributable income for each Fund's fiscal

year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of

the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related rules, the Funds may be required to indicate to shareholders the estimated source of certain distributions to shareholders.

For the abrdn Australia Equity Fund, Inc. ("IAF"), the India Fund, Inc. ("IFN") and the abrdn Japan Equity Fund, Inc. ("JEQ"), this stock distribution will automatically be paid in newly issued shares of the Fund unless otherwise instructed by the shareholder. Shares of common stock will be issued at the lower of the net asset value ("NAV") per share or the market price per share with a floor for the NAV of not less than 95% of the market price. The valuation date for this stock distribution is December 20, 2022. Fractional shares will generally be settled in cash, except for registered shareholders with book entry accounts at Computershare Investor Services who will have whole and fractional shares added to their account.

Shareholders may request to be paid their quarterly distributions in cash instead of shares of common stock by providing advance notice to the bank, brokerage or nominee who holds their shares if the shares are in "street name," or by filling out in advance an election card received from Computershare Investor Services if the shares are in registered form. To receive the quarterly distribution payable in January 2023 in cash instead of shares of common stock, the bank, brokerage or nominee who holds the shares must advise the Depository Trust Company as to the full and fractional shares for which they want the distribution paid in cash by December 16, 2022 and written notification for the election of cash by registered shareholders must be received by Computershare Investor Services prior to December 16, 2022.

The following tables set forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distributions for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the rules adopted thereunder. The tables have been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The tables include estimated amounts and percentages for the current distributions to be paid as well as for the cumulative distributions paid relating to fiscal year to date, from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated compositions of the distributions may vary because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies.

Each Fund's estimated sources of the current distributions to be paid and for its current fiscal year to date are as follows:

Estimated Amounts of Current Distribution per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $0.1200 - - - - $0.1200 100% - - FAX $0.0275 $0.0140 51% - - - - $0.0135 49% IAF $0.1200 $0.0132 11% - - - - $0.1068 89% IFN* $1.6100 $0.4185 26% - - $1.1915 74% - - JEQ $0.1000 - - - - - - $0.1000 100%

Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year to Date Cumulative Distributions per Share Fund Fiscal Year*** to Date Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $0.2400 - - - - $0.2400 100% - - FAX $0.0275 $0.0140 51% - - - - $0.0135 49% IAF $0.1200 $0.0132 11% - - - - $0.1068 89% IFN $3.1800 $0.8267 26% - - $2.3533 74% - - JEQ $0.1000 - - - - - - $0.1000 100%

* The distribution consists of the regular quarterly distribution of $0.47 and a special capital gains distribution of $1.14 required to meet US tax regulations.

**includes currency gains

***ASGI has a 9/30 fiscal year end; FAX, IAF and JEQ have a 10/31 fiscal year end; IFN has a 12/31 fiscal year end.

Where the estimated amounts above show a portion of the distribution to be a "Return of Capital," it means that Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in a Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income."

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions for the current year will only be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. After the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders for the prior calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The following table provides the Funds' total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Funds' annualized and cumulative distribution rates.

Fund Performance and Distribution Rate Information Fund Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 10/31/2022 Current Fiscal Period's Annualized Distribution Rate on NAV Cumulative Total Return on NAV Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV ASGI 5.81%3 7.32% 5.54% 0.61% FAX -3.91% 11.58% -27.75% 11.58% IAF 4.60% 12.63% -18.74% 12.63% IFN 4.14% 11.16% -15.42% 8.63% JEQ -2.86% 8.14%4 -32.88% 22.60%

1 Return data is net of all fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan.

2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of October 31, 2022.

3 The Fund launched within the past 5 years; the performance and distribution rate information presented reflects data from inception (July 29, 2020) through October 31, 2022.

4 The percentage shown does not include the Fund's annual distribution policy in place in 2021.

Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about a Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy").

While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market.

Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Funds may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Funds during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Funds, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held,

capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received.

The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. Each Fund's Board has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances.

Circular 230 disclosure : To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

In the United States, abrdn is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., abrdn Australia Limited, abrdn Asia Limited, Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, abrdn ETFs Advisors LLC and Aberdeen Standard Alternative Funds Limited.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. A Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that a Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

For More Information Contact:

abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds

Investor Relations

1-800-522-5465

Investor.Relations@abrdn.com

If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact Investor.Relations@abrdn.com

https://www.abrdn.com/en-us/cefinvestorcenter

###

SOURCE: abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724882/abrdn-US-Closed-End-Funds-Announce-Distribution-Payment-Details
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2022) - Mongoose Mining Ltd. (CSE: MNG) (the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its Iron Oxide Copper Gold Cobalt (IOCG) exploration projects in Nova Scotia and its gold project in New Brunswick, Canada.

The Company is focused on advanced exploration and development along the Cobequid-Chedabucto Fault Zone (CCFZ) which is a large crustal fault system within the Cobequid Highlands in central Nova Scotia.

"Mineralized IOCG systems contain potential for a discovery. Our plan to build on this opportunity stems from a combination of known potential, (CCFZ is host to over 100 mineralized surface occurrences and small deposits of iron-oxide, copper, cobalt, gold, nickel, and barite) as well as strategically utilizing an extensive compilation of geophysical, geochemical, and geological databases obtained from three professional independent sources," commented Terry Coughlan, P.Geo., CEO of Mongoose.

In 2007, Minotaur Exploration Ltd. ("Minotaur") identified the CCFZ and the associated iron oxide deposits as part of an IOCG style system. Minotaur implemented extensive work programs including regional gravity, VTEM, magnetic and geochemical surveys that successfully identified high-priority drill targets. Mongoose now is systematically drilling those "Minotaur" targets.

Building on a foundation of Minotaur's work, Mongoose has applied data from recent Nano Spectral Advanced Exploration Geophysics (new satellite technology) which further outlined anomalies believed to be subsurface gold and copper mineralized bodies which also furthers the work completed by Minotaur.

Additionally, utilizing an impressive compilation of historical reports and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms/machine learning from Mercator Geological Services, the Mongoose exploration team was able to generate new targets and to assess targets provided by Minotaur.

The (IOCG) model hosts a diverse suite of elements included in Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy, (intended to boost the supply of critical minerals to grow domestic and global value chains for the green and digital economy) including various combinations of Cu, Gold, REE, F, P, Mo, Ag, Ba, Co and Ni. The principal characteristic features are hydrothermal ore styles, strong structural controls, and abundant Fe oxides with an Fe/Ti relationship. Recent drilling results demonstrate many of the characteristics for a potential IOCG discovery.

Terry Coughlan, P.Geo., CEO, commented, "Our summer drilling program provided valuable information for future drill programs including a more concentrated approach to existing mineralized areas."

The exploration team plans to concentrate on two priority targets: 1: Mt. Thom, where the Company recently discovered a large gravity anomaly that remains virtually untested by historic drilling. The anomaly is associated with a historic 1.5% copper/cobalt zone, 2: The hydrothermal cobalt bearing pyritic magnetite trend near Bass River, both located in Nova Scotia.

Recent Work:

Bass River, Londonderry & East Folly Mountain IOCG Project:

A drill program comprising seven holes and 1,826 metres of drilling was completed in September, 2022. All core has been logged and 413 samples including QA/QC inserts were delivered to AGAT Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario for 58 element ICP-OES analysis and gold by fire assay.

Four of the drill holes were intended to test geophysical anomalies generated in the mid-2000's by Minotaur. Three drill holes failed to intersect significant mineralization, however, a fourth drill hole intersected basaltic lithologies hosting elevated copper values. The Company believes this priority target area requires further evaluation to assess the location of a gravity anomaly and potential IOCG mineralization. Three drill holes tested a recently discovered pyritic magnetite exposure (Fire Road prospect) and intersected elevated levels of cobalt.

The Fire Road prospect is along strike of the Company's Bass River Cobalt prospect drilled in 2021 located approximately 4 kilometres to the west. The area between these two prospects has untested potential for hosting cobalt. This untested, but priority region will be further explored to evaluate target locations for pending drilling campaigns.

Mt. Thom IOCG Project - A 542-point Gravity survey by CSR Geosurveys of Porter's Lake, Nova Scotia was recently completed over the Mt. Thom copper-cobalt prospect in Nova Scotia. The preliminary interpretation shows a significant 1.1 Mgal gravity anomaly 250 metres east of and adjacent to the known copper-cobalt mineralization drilled in the 1970's (see figure below).





Figure 1

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8422/143708_99e17e7fc446785c_001full.jpg

The Mt. Thom prospect was discovered by Imperial Oil in 1971. The IOCG-style model and cobalt mineralization was later recognized. With significant values of copper, cobalt and gold mentioned in historical reports, Mt. Thom remains a priority utilizing current geological knowledge. Mineralized outcrop at Mt. Thom and sporadic core sampling have recently produced assays of up to 0.863% cobalt within historic 1.5% grading copper zones. A 2004 government study of twenty-nine core samples encountered cobalt values ranging from 157 ppm (.0157%) to 8630 ppm (.863%). (See press release - International Cobalt Corp. May 22, 2018).

A 3-6 drill hole program is planned by the Company in November to 1) twin pre-existing drill holes to confirm the cobalt grade and potential and 2) evaluate anomalous patterns in the recently completed gravity survey.

Bass River & East Folly Mountain IOCG Project - The Company recently conducted a high-definition UAV magnetic survey over its Bass River and East Folly Mountain properties. EarthEx Geophysical Solutions Inc. from Manitoba completed the work and recently modeled a 3D magnetic interpretation that will be used in defining drill targets. At East Folly Mountain, results are expected to further define Nano spectral anomalies interpreted by Genesis industries, in 2020.

Upcoming Work:

An 800-metre drill program commenced November 2, 2022. The field team has been working on logistics, permitting and land access.

Planned drill holes include:

Pine Lake, East Folly Mountain - Testing of the Nano spectral target and follow-up high resolution magnetics. The area suggests a long, possibly folded target based on the satellite interpretation.

Pine Lake South area - To test a Nano spectral satellite target which corresponds well with gravity and magnetic targets along with AI developed targets. Based on the satellite interpretation it appears that there is a long one-kilometer zone associated with a large regional fault. Recent high resolution magnetic 3D interpretation has suggested several possible corresponding zones of interest.

Mt. Thom - Twinning of previously drilled holes to confirm the presence of copper, cobalt, and gold mineralization. The goal is to help develop the model of mineralization and relate it to the recent discovery of a significant gravity anomaly associated with the Mt. Thom copper mineralization.

In New Brunswick, the Company contracted Prospectair of Gatineau, QC to conduct an airborne MAG-TDEM survey at the Company's Sheba Gold Property. The program concluded in September and the results are currently being interpreted. The project has several significant historic gold results and the survey is expected to provide insight into the structural controls to better direct future exploration. The Company will conduct follow-up ground field work on interesting geophysical targets.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been, reviewed and approved by Terry Coughlan, P.Geo., the Company's Chief Executive Officer and a Qualified Person within the context of Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101; Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). The Company's exploration work was performed by Mark Graves P.Geo., an arm's length geological consultant to the Company who also approved the technical content of this release.

About Mongoose Mining Ltd.

Mongoose Mining Ltd. is a Canadian exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and evaluation of mineral properties in Canada. The Company is the holder of exploration licences to explore claims located near Londonderry and Bass River, Nova Scotia, (the "Cobequid Highlands Property"). The Cobequid Highlands Property is recognized to indicate potential for IOCG mineralization.

For more information

Terry Coughlan, CEO (902) 499-2211

info@mongoosemining.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Cautionary Language

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws including, without limitation statements related to future planned exploration work and the timing and results thereof. Mongoose provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections, or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to exploration findings, results, plans and recommendations, ability to raise adequate financing, and market and economic risks associated with market and economic circumstances, as well as those risks and uncertainties identified and reported in Mongoose's public filings under its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although Mongoose has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events, or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Mongoose disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Providers (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) 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/143708
QUEBEC CITY, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Robex Resources Inc. ("Robex", "the Group" or "the Company") (TSXV: RBX) is pleased to announce that all conditions precedent to the closing of the Transaction with Sycamore Mining Limited ("Sycamore") (the "Transaction") have been fulfilled.



Previously announced on April 20, 2022, this Transaction takes effect today. Robex Resources now holds, directly and indirectly, all the issued and outstanding shares of Sycamore, owner of (i) the exploitation licenses pertaining to the Kiniero gold district located in Guinea and (ii) the exclusive rights approved by the authorities to obtain the full ownership of the adjacent Mansounia exploitation licences to the south (collectively, the "Kiniero Project") subject to the satisfaction of the conditions precedent detailed in the Mansounia Licenses section below.

The new group will lead the construction and expansion of the Kiniero mine that is expected to produce 110koz of gold on average per year over the Life of Mine. As a reminder, the pre-tax net present value ("NPV") based on a US$ 1,650/oz gold price and a 5% discount rate (NPV5%) is $199 million.

Benjamin Cohen, Chief Executive Officer: "We are delighted to have closed this business combination with the Sycamore group, and we welcome Sycamore executives and employees in the Group; they are a great asset, as we have witnessed over the past few months.

Just like Nampala's start-up in 2017, we are at an historic moment for Robex. Nampala enabled Robex to move from an exploration company to a gold producer successfully. This time, with this first successful major operation, we are taking a new step towards becoming a multi-country and multi-mine company.

Our local business model will remain at the heart of our values, and we want to make Kiniero a mining school in Guinea based on local content, which we have achieved at Nampala in Mali.

Robex has already embarked on a profound corporate size transformation with the arrival of Kiniero. It is a complete mutation of the group and its executive team.

In recent weeks, alongside the successful closing of the Transaction, the combined team also advanced on the preparatory study work as well as fieldwork to meet our production objectives in 2024."

Transaction Information

As previously published, 242,160,000 common shares of Robex have been issued to Sycamore shareholders. This number represents the first instalment of the payment, which is 60% of the purchase price, subject to the adjustments provided for in the purchase agreement. Following the approval of the closing financial statements, within 120 days, a second tranche of shares will be issued to Sycamore's shareholders corresponding to a maximum of 60 540 000 Robex common shares minus a number of Robex common shares representing the total amount of Sycamore's liabilities (on a consolidated basis) at the closing date. The last instalment will consist of of a maximum of 100 900 000 Robex common shares minus an equivalent number of shares equal to certain Sycamore or sellers liabilities that were not addressed in (i) an "Establishment Agreement" to be signed with the Government of Guinea establishing the conditions under which the Kiniero Project will be operated, or (ii) another binding document establishing such liabilities.

Further information on the Transaction has been published under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Financial Information about Sycamore

The following table shows the variation of certain financial information as of December 31, 2021, concerning the Sycamore Group, on a consolidated basis, between the figures published as of April 20th in the announcement of the Transaction (unaudited accounts) and the audited accounts (condition precedent to the closing of the Transaction). The selected information was prepared following International Financial Reporting Standards published by the International Accounting Standards Board.

December 2021 Non-audited Audited Explanation of variations Revenues - - Net results

USD

CAD (1)



(14 088 525)

(17 757 153)



(492 231)

(676 792) Under IFRS 6 exploration and related expenditures were capitalized Total asset

USD

CAD (1)



22 734 264

28 654 227



20 688 219

28 445 234 Impacted by reclassification of expenses to capitalized items in particular exploration

Intercompany loans were eliminated in the consolidation as required by IFRS Total liabilities

USD

CAD (1)



12 071 803

15 215 280



8 509 740

11 700 453 Liabilities from Sycamore Mine Guinee were eliminated in the consolidation process as required by IFRS

Borrowing balances was adjusted to show the correct balance arising from the option given to one of the shareholders (condition precedent to the closing of this Transaction) Shareholder equity

USD

CAD (1)



10 662 460

13 438 946



12 174 479

16 739 280 Additional items reclassified as share-based payments

Creation of non-controlling interest reflecting the options granted since 2019/2020 (exercised as a condition precedent to the closing of this Transaction)

Payables from shareholders to the company were waived

(1) 1 CAD = 0,7934, as of April 18th 2022 equivalent to the closing date of the consolidated financial statement and, 1 CAD = 0.7273, as of October 10th 2022 equivalent to the closing date of the audited consolidated financial statement





Mansounia Licenses

Pursuant to a technical partnership agreement (the "TPA") between Sycamore Mine Guinee S.A.U. ("SMG") and Penta Goldfields Company S.A. ("Penta"), which was approved by the Guinean authorities, SMG is entitled to the full ownership of the exploitation licenses pertaining to the Mansounia property provided that all conditions precedent set forth in the TPA are met of which the following remain outstanding as of hereof, but are in the process of being satisfied:

(i) Approval by the Guinean authorities of the environmental and social impact assessment filed with said authorities on October 18th 2022 (the "ESIA");

(ii) Approval by the Guinean authorities of the feasibility study with respect to the Kiniero Project, including the Mansounia property (the "FS");

(iii) Payment by SMG of a sum of US$ 500,000 to Penta, the current holder of the Mansounia exploration licenses, further to the issuance of the exploitation licenses pertaining to the Mansounia property and the transfer of all rights, titles and interests thereto and therein in favour of SMG, directly or indirectly, as provided for in the TPA.



Under the TPA, Penta is entitled to a maximum 3,5% scaled royalty on the net smelter returns above 300,000 ounces in respect of the gold products arising from the Mansounia Property.

ROBEX RESOURCES INC. CONTACT INFORMATION

FINANCIAL COMMUNICATIONS RENMARK INC. Benjamin Cohen, Chief Executive Officer

Aurelien Bonneviot, Investor Relations and Corporate Development



+1 581 741-7421



E-mail: investor@robexgold.com

www.robexgold.com (http://www.robexgold.com) Robert Thaemlitz

Account Manager



+1 416 644-2020 or +1 212 812-7680



E-mail: rthaemlitz@renmarkfinancial.com (mailto:rthaemlitz@renmarkfinancial.com)

www.renmarkfinancial.com (http://www.renmarkfinancial.com)

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation.

There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, or even benefit Robex, if any, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are presented for the purposes of assisting investors in understanding the Company's plan, objectives and goals and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
TORONTO, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or the "Company") (TSX: MND, OTCQB: MNDJF) is pleased to announce its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022.

The Company's condensed and consolidated interim financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, together with its Management's Discussion and Analysisand on the Company's website at www.mandalayresources.com. All currency references in this press release are in U.S. dollars except as otherwise indicated.

Third Quarter 2022 Highlights:

Strong balance sheet with a sustained net cash position, $42.6 million of cash on hand and $36.7 million in total interest-bearing debt outstanding;

Consolidated quarterly revenue of $46.0 million;

$7.5 million in net cash flow from operating activities;

Consolidated quarterly adjusted EBITDA 1 of $19.4 million;

of $19.4 million; Adjusted net income 1 of $2.5 million ($0.03 or C$0.04 per share); and

of $2.5 million ($0.03 or C$0.04 per share); and Consolidated net income of $9.3 million ($0.10 or C$0.13 per share).

Dominic Duffy, President and CEO of Mandalay, commented:

"Mandalay delivered healthy financial results during the third quarter of 2022 as it earned $46.0 million in revenue and $19.4 million in adjusted EBITDA1 - a margin of 42%. The Company generated $7.5 million in net cash flow from operating activities leading to adjusted net income1 of $2.5 million ($0.03 or C$0.04 per share). This marks our ninth consecutive quarter of profitability and was achieved despite net cash flow being impacted by Costerfield's final 2021 tax payment of $11.5 million during the quarter.

"The Company has worked hard on controlling our costs while maintaining our focus of strategically investing in exploration programs at both sites to best capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. From a cash and all-in sustaining cost perspective, both per ounce cost metrics remained relatively in line as compared to the same period last year. For the third quarter of 2022, on a consolidated basis our cash cost1 per ounce of saleable gold equivalent produced was $846, while our all-in sustaining cost1 was $1,111. Year to date, we have been able to invest more than $7.0 million in our exploration programs and are on pace to record our highest ever annual exploration expenditure amount.

"We are pleased to be able to continue momentum in achieving our long-term growth and value-creation objectives and in parallel, strengthening our balance sheet while sustaining our net cash position. As of the end of the third quarter of 2022, the Company had $42.6 million of cash on hand and $36.7 million in total interest-bearing debt outstanding. Year to date, Mandalay has generated $34.6 million in free cash flow2 and we expect our net cash position to grow by year end as we maintain our operational and capital cost controls.

"Costerfield continued its strong performance with $28.2 million in revenue and $15.3 million in adjusted EBITDA2. During the third quarter of 2022, Costerfield processed grades of 11.9 g/t gold and 2.7% antimony and also improved its gold and antimony recovery rates as compared to the previous quarter to 94.3% and 93.2%, respectively. This ongoing performance is providing consistently strong margins owing to the quality of the Youle and Shepherd deposits.

"Bjorkdal generated stable sales of $17.9 million and $6.0 million in revenue and adjusted EBITDA2, respectively, during the third quarter, which was broadly in line with the previous quarter's figures. For the remainder of the year, we expect production to increase as a result of improved grades as we continue mining the lower levels of Aurora and initiate development in several higher-grade areas of the Eastern Central zone.

"For the first nine months of the year, Mandalay has been able to build upon its track record of success over the past two years and demonstrate the strength of our operations. The Company is well-positioned to build upon its sound financial state and looks forward to generating stronger positive free cash flow."

Third Quarter 2022 Financial Summary

The following table summarizes the Company's financial results for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2022, and 2021:

Three months

ended

September 30,

2022 Three months

ended

September 30,

2021 Nine months

ended

September 30,

2022 Nine months

ended

September 30,

2021 $'000 $'000 $'000 $'000 Revenue 46,048 52,567 150,318 156,492 Cost of sales 24,690 25,695 74,932 78,244 Adjusted EBITDA(1) 19,408 25,115 71,042 74,312 Income from mine ops before depreciation, depletion 21,358 26,872 75,386 78,248 Adjusted net income(1) 2,512 10,090 21,769 27,211 Consolidated net income 9,275 9,255 22,463 39,545 Capital expenditure 9,094 12,449 29,658 38,053 Total assets 278,359 301,269 278,359 301,269 Total liabilities 105,038 136,561 105,038 136,561 Adjusted net income per share(1) 0.03 0.11 0.24 0.30 Consolidated net income per share 0.10 0.10 0.24 0.43

Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted net income per share are non-IFRS measures, defined at the end of this press release "Non-IFRS Measures".



In Q3 2022, Mandalay generated consolidated revenue of $46.0 million, 13% lower than the $52.6 million in the third quarter of 2021. This decrease was mainly due lower ounces sold at Bjorkdal and the absence of revenue from Cerro Bayo. The Company's realized gold price in the third quarter of 2022 decreased by 6% compared to the third quarter of 2021, and the realized price of antimony increased by 30%. In Q3 2022, Mandalay sold 2,958 fewer gold equivalent ounces than in Q3 2021.

Consolidated cash cost3 per ounce of $846 was higher in the third quarter of 2022 compared to $825 in the third quarter of 2021. Cost of sales during the third quarter of 2022 versus the third quarter of 2021 were $4.4 million higher at Costerfield and $1.9 million lower at Bjorkdal. Consolidated general and administrative costs were $0.2 million higher compared to the prior year quarter.

Mandalay generated adjusted EBITDA3 of $19.4 million in the third quarter of 2022, 23% lower compared to the Company's adjusted EBITDA3 of $25.1 million in the year ago quarter. Adjusted net income3 was $2.5 million in the third quarter of 2022, which excludes the $4.9 million of unrealized gain on financial instruments and $1.8 million of gain on sale of subsidiary, compared to an adjusted net income3 of $10.1 million in the third quarter of 2021. During the quarter, the Company also paid Costerfield's final 2021 tax payment of $11.5 million. This was a one-off large tax payment as the Company only commenced paying tax instalments part-way through the 2021 year.

Consolidated net income was $9.3 million for the third quarter of 2022, which was similar to comparative period in 2021. Mandalay ended the third quarter of 2022 with $42.6 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Third Quarter 2022 Operational Summary

The table below summarizes the Company's operations, capital expenditures and operational unit costs for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2022, and 2021:

Three months

ended

September 30, 2022 Three months

ended

September 30, 2021 Nine months

ended

September 30, 2022 Nine months

ended

September 30, 2021 $'000 $'000 $'000 $'000 Costerfield Gold produced (oz) 12,526 13,315 35,802 34,356 Antimony produced (t) 582 860 1,788 2,550 Gold equivalent produced (oz) 16,996 18,946 49,232 49,222 Cash cost (1) per oz gold eq. produced ($) 669 546 629 608 All-in sustaining cost (1) per oz gold eq. produced ($) 838 837 840 920 Capital development 1,205 2,925 2,843 9,011 Property, plant and equipment purchases 1,085 1,648 5,113 3,578 Capitalized exploration 1,500 1,536 4,673 4,343 Bjorkdal Gold produced (oz) 10,291 11,250 30,991 34,046 Cash cost (1) per oz gold produced ($) 1,139 1,186 1,308 1,235 All-in sustaining cost (1) per oz gold produced ($) 1,362 1,440 1,617 1,578 Capital development 1,357 2,092 6,178 7,212 Property, plant and equipment purchases 2,997 3,461 7,765 11,583 Capitalized exploration 950 566 2,771 1,624 Cerro Bayo Gold produced (oz) - 1,763 - 4,294 Silver produced (oz) - 85,279 - 216,040 Gold equivalent produced (oz) - 2,925 - 7,372 Cash cost (1) per oz gold eq. produced ($) - 1,243 - 1,136 All-in sustaining cost (1) per oz gold eq. produced ($) - 1,303 - 1,165 Consolidated Gold equivalent produced (oz) 27,287 33,121 80,223 90,640 Cash cost (1) per oz gold eq. produced ($) 846 825 891 886 All-in sustaining cost (1) per oz gold eq. produced ($) 1,111 1,135 1,194 1,230 Capital development 2,562 5,017 9,021 16,223 Property, plant and equipment purchases 4,082 5,109 12,878 15,161 Capitalized exploration(2) 2,450 2,323 7,759 6,669

Cash cost and all-in sustaining cost are non-IFRS measures. See "Non-IFRS Measures" at the end of this press release. Includes capitalized exploration relating to other non-core assets.

Costerfield gold-antimony mine, Victoria, Australia

Costerfield produced 12,526 ounces of gold and 582 tonnes of antimony for 16,996 gold equivalent ounces in the third quarter of 2022. Cash and all-in sustaining costs at Costerfield of $669/oz and $838/oz, respectively, compared to cash and all-in sustaining costs of $546/oz and $837/oz, respectively, in the third quarter of 2021.

Bjorkdal gold mine, Skelleftea, Sweden

Bjorkdal produced 10,291 ounces of gold in the third quarter of 2022 with cash and all-in sustaining costs of $1,139/oz and $1,362/oz, respectively, compared to cash and all-in sustaining costs of $1,186/oz and $1,440/oz, respectively, in the third quarter of 2021.

Lupin, Nunavut, Canada

Care and maintenance spending at Lupin was less than $0.1 million during the third quarter of 2022, compared to $0.2 million in the third quarter of 2021. Reclamation spending was $1.2 million during the third quarter of 2022 compared to $5.0 million during the third quarter of 2021. Lupin is currently in the process of final closure and reclamation activities mainly funded by progressive security reductions held by the Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

Challacollo, Chile

On April 19, 2021, Aftermath Silver Ltd. ("Aftermath") paid C$1.5 million in cash and issued 2,054,794 common shares at fair value of C$0.73 per share to the Company on May 5, 2021, in satisfaction of a purchase price instalment. For the year ended December 31, 2021, Mandalay sold 678,794 shares of Aftermath at an average price of C$0.57 per share.

On August 10, 2022, the Company completed the sale of Challacollo to Aftermath and received an additional purchase price instalment of C$1.0 million in cash and 6,122,448 Aftermath shares with a fair value of C$0.245 per share and will receive a final payment of C$0.5 million plus interest in cash on or before December 31, 2022. The Company is also entitled to receive a 3% net smelter returns royalty on production at Challacollo, capped at US$3.0 million as part of the consideration. The Company recognized a gain of US$1.8 million related to sale of Challacollo.

La Quebrada, Chile

No work was carried out on the La Quebrada development property during Q3 2022.

Conference Call

Mandalay's management will be hosting a conference call for investors and analysts on November 10, 2022, at 8:00 AM (Toronto time).

Analysts and interested investors are invited to participate using the following dial-in numbers:

Participant Number (Toll free): 877 407 8289 Conference ID: 13734270

A replay of the conference call will be available until 11:59 PM (Toronto time), November 24, 2022, and can be accessed using the following dial-in number:

Encore Toll Free Dial-in Number: 877 660 6853 Encore ID: 13734270

About Mandalay Resources Corporation:

Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia (Costerfield gold-antimony mine) and Sweden (Bjorkdal gold mine). The Company is focused on growing its production and reducing costs to generate significant positive cashflow. Mandalay is committed to operating safely and in an environmentally responsible manner, while developing a high level of community and employee engagement.

Mandalay's mission is to create shareholder value through the profitable operation and continuing the regional exploration program, at both its Costerfield and Bjorkdal mines. Currently, the Company's main objectives are to continue mining the high-grade Youle vein at Costerfield, bring online the deeper Shepherd veins, both of which will continue to supply high-grade ore to the processing plant, and to extend Youle Mineral Reserves. At Bjorkdal, the Company will aim to increase production from the Aurora zone and other higher-grade areas in the coming years, in order to maximize profit margins from the mine.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the Company's anticipated performance in 2022. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, changes in commodity prices and general market and economic conditions. The factors identified above are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect Mandalay. A description of additional risks that could result in actual results and developments differing from those contemplated by forward-looking statements in this news release can be found under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mandalay's annual information form dated March 31, 2022, a copy of which is available under Mandalay's profile at www.sedar.com. In addition, there can be no assurance that any inferred resources that are discovered as a result of additional drilling will ever be upgraded to proven or probable reserves. Although Mandalay has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Non-IFRS Measures

This news release may contain references to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, free cash flow, cash cost per saleable ounce of gold equivalent produced and all-in sustaining cost all of which are non-IFRS measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Therefore, these measures may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers.

Management uses adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow as measures of operating performance to assist in assessing the Company's ability to generate liquidity through operating cash flow to fund future working capital needs and to fund future capital expenditures, as well as to assist in comparing financial performance from period to period on a consistent basis. Management uses adjusted net income in order to facilitate an understanding of the Company's financial performance prior to the impact of non-recurring or special items. The Company believes that these measures are used by and are useful to investors and other users of the Company's financial statements in evaluating the Company's operating and cash performance because they allow for analysis of its financial results without regard to special, non-cash and other non-core items, which can vary substantially from company to company and over different periods.

The Company defines adjusted EBITDA as income from mine operations, net of administration costs, and before interest, taxes, non-cash charges/(income), intercompany charges and finance costs. The Company defines adjusted net income as net income before special items. Special items are items of income and expense that are presented separately due to their nature and, in some cases, expected infrequency of the events giving rise to them. A reconciliation between adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income, on the one hand, and consolidated net income, on the other hand, is included in the MD&A.

The Company defines free cash flow as a measure of the Corporation's ability to generate and manage liquidity. It is calculated starting with the net cash flows from operating activities (as per IFRS) and then subtracting capital expenditures and lease payments. Refer to Section 1.2 of MD&A for a reconciliation between free cash flow and net cash flows from operating activities.

For Costerfield, saleable equivalent gold ounces produced is calculated by adding to saleable gold ounces produced, the saleable antimony tonnes produced times the average antimony price in the period divided by the average gold price in the period. The total cash operating cost associated with the production of these saleable equivalent ounces produced in the period is then divided by the saleable equivalent gold ounces produced to yield the cash cost per saleable equivalent ounce produced. The cash cost excludes royalty expenses. Site all-in sustaining costs include total cash operating costs, sustaining mining capital, royalty expense, accretion and depletion. Sustaining capital reflects the capital required to maintain each site's current level of operations. The site's all-in sustaining cost per ounce of saleable gold equivalent in a period equals the all-in sustaining cost divided by the saleable equivalent gold ounces produced in the period.

For Bjorkdal, the total cash operating cost associated with the production of saleable gold ounces produced in the period is then divided by the saleable gold ounces produced to yield the cash cost per saleable gold ounce produced. The cash cost excludes royalty expenses. Site all-in costs include total cash operating costs, royalty expense, accretion, depletion, depreciation and amortization. Site all-in sustaining costs include total cash operating costs, sustaining mining capital, royalty expense, accretion and depletion. Sustaining capital reflects the capital required to maintain each site's current level of operations. The site's all-in sustaining cost per ounce of saleable gold equivalent in a period equals the all-in sustaining cost divided by the saleable equivalent gold ounces produced in the period.

For the Company as a whole, cash cost per saleable gold equivalent ounce is calculated by summing the gold equivalent ounces produced by each site and dividing the total by the sum of cash operating costs at the sites. Consolidated cash cost excludes royalty and corporate level general and administrative expenses. This definition was updated in the third quarter of 2020 to exclude corporate general and administrative expenses to better align with industry standard. All-in sustaining cost per saleable ounce gold equivalent in the period equals the sum of cash costs associated with the production of gold equivalent ounces at all operating sites in the period plus corporate overhead expense in the period plus sustaining mining capital, royalty expense, accretion, depletion, depreciation and amortization, divided by the total saleable gold equivalent ounces produced in the period. A reconciliation between cost of sales and cash costs, and also cash cost to all-in sustaining costs are included in the MD&A.

For Further Information:

Dominic Duffy

President and Chief Executive Officer



Edison Nguyen

Direction, Business Valuations and Investor Relations



Contact:

(647) 260-1566 ext. 1
Evo, a London, UK-based provider of platform to digitise property repairs, maintenance and compliance services, raised 750k in Seed funding.

The round was led by GroVentive.

The company intends to use the funds to continue its growth strategy in the UKs 30 billion rental sector.

Evo provides a technology platform that automates a large part of the communication and administration process related to onboarding tenants properties and the repair event itself, driving landlords costs down and delivering comprehensive property and portfolio information at the click of a button. Its app allows tenants to report a problem within 30 seconds, track its progress, schedule the repair job at a convenient time as well as communicate directly with the trades person.

EVO currently works with private landlords, BTR, letting agents, housing associations and local authorities as part of its shared mission to support peoples access to decent quality housing.

FinSMEs

08/11/2022
MOV.AI, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup providing Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) software, raised $8.2M in funding.

The round was led by Bowe Group. Joachim Koschier, Bowe Group Managing Director, and Mike Swift, Managing Director of Red Ledge North America, will be joining the MOV.AI board of directors. Other backers included State of Mind Ventures, NFX, and Viola Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product delivery, meet the demand of customers, and engage with the ROS developer community.

Led by CEO Motti Kushnir, MOV.AI provides a Robotics Engine Platform that changes how AMRs are built, separating software from hardware and offering both AMR manufacturers and automation integrators the enterprise-grade tools they need for advanced automation. The Robotics Engine Platform helps AMR manufacturers quickly develop and differentiate their robots. Automation integrators can deploy in days, and ensure secure, uninterrupted operation in constantly changing business and operational environments.

The company is also based in Augsburg, Germany and Lisbon, Portugal.

FinSMEs

09/11/2022
Quona Capital, a Washington, DC-based emerging markets venture capital firm, closed its Fund III, at $332m.

Quonas Fund III investors include an array of leading global asset managers, insurance companies, investment and commercial banks, university endowments, foundations, family offices and development finance institutions. The majority of Fund III investors returned from prior Quona funds, joined by more than 20 new relationships.

Co-founded in 2015 by managing partners Monica Brand Engel, Jonathan Whittle, and Ganesh Rengaswamy, Quona focuses its investments on innovative technology companies that are expanding access to financial services for underserved consumers and businesses in Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and MENA.

This is the third fund from Quona Capital since its inception, bringing the firms aggregate committed capital to over $745 million.

FinSMEs

09/11/2022
On 5 November, Cyprus largest English newspaper Cyprus Mail published Ambassador Liu Yantaos article titled Chinese Modernization: an OPEN Journey. It presents the key message of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and elaborates on the rich meaning of Chinese Modernization. The full text is as follows:

Chinese Modernization: an OPEN Journey

Where is China headed for? This is a question on the mind of many who were watching with interest the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Indeed, Chinas development trajectory was laid out openly and clearly at the Congress. One of the key messages is Chinese modernization, whose underlying meaning may be summarized with the word O-P-E-N.

The letter O stands for Overall leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Throughout its history, the CPC has explored and spearheaded Chinese modernization despite all vicissitudes.

The Chinese nation is a great nation that has made indelible contributions to human progress. Yet after the Opium War of 1840, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society and suffered great ravages. To save the nation from peril, the CPC, after its founding in 1921, led the people to fight tough battles for independence and liberation, securing the founding of New China in 1949. Following that, the CPC has continued to lead the people to turn China from a closed, backward and poor country into the worlds second largest economy that is increasingly open and prosperous.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 when General Secretary Xi Jinping took office, three major events have taken place: we celebrated the CPCs centenary, ushered in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and eradicated absolute poverty and finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. In this process, Chinese modernization has made much progress. For example, Chinas GDP has more than doubled with an annual average growth rate of 6.6%. It has contributed 38.6% to global growth each year, higher than G7 countries combined. The Chinese peoples average disposable income has risen by nearly 80%. China also boasts the worlds largest foreign trade volume, foreign exchange reserves, manufacturing sector, and networks of high-speed railways and expressways.

To put modernization on a solid footing, China has focused on building its self-reliance and strength in science and technology while giving priority to the development of education and relying on talents to pioneer and propel development. As a result, breakthroughs have been made in key technologies such as manned spaceflight, lunar and Martian exploration, deep sea and deep earth probes, supercomputers, and new energy technology, which in turn has further boosted modernization.

The CPC has delivered for the people, and the people trust it. According to a Harvard University survey, 93% of Chinese citizens are satisfied with the central government. With the reelection of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the CPC will take Chinese modernization to a new level, with the vision of basically realizing socialist modernization from 2020 through 2035, and building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century.

The letter P stands for People-centeredness. The country is its people; the people are the country. Chinese modernization is for the people and by the people, and its fruits are shared among the people.

Modernization in a country with 1.4 billion people, more than the combined population of all developed countries, has never happened in human history. This means we need to feed nearly 20% of global population with 9% of the worlds farmland and 6% of freshwater, an essential reality that needs to be taken account of. There is no ready experience for follow or rulebook to go by. China needs to be patient and take steady and incremental steps to sustain progress, or crossing the river by feeling for the stones. It needs to be cautious by adopting pilot measures first before spreading them nationwide. It has every reason to be confident as well, because through whole-process peoples democracy, the Chinese people have been highly involved in the modernization endeavor, with their wishes accommodated, creativity respected, and wisdom pooled, which has helped build synergy to drive modernization.

In pursuing modernization, no one should be left behind. In the past decade, China has lifted nearly 100 million rural residents out of poverty, winning the largest battle against poverty in human history. It has also built the worlds largest education, social security, and healthcare systems, with an average life expectancy reaching 78.2 years. In taking forward modernization, efforts will be made to achieve prosperity for all, which is not egalitarianism and cannot happen overnight. It takes sustained efforts to make the pie bigger first and then divide it properly. In this context, we will continue to support low-income earners and expand the middle income group while encouraging people to get rich through hard workas a rising tide lifts all boats, everyone will get a fair share.

The letter E stands for Even emphasis. As its different aspects are interconnected and interdependent, Chinese modernization needs to be advanced with the whole picture in mind and in a holistic manner.

Economic development underpins modernization. What China aims to achieve is high-quality development, under the new development philosophy featuring innovative, coordinated, green, and open development for all. Efforts have been accelerated to foster a new development pattern that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows. In this context, China will promote high-standard opening up. Solid steps will be taken to steadily expand institutional opening up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards. China will foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized. This will create more business opportunities for the whole world.

Material want is not modernization, nor is cultural impoverishment. With the development of the economy, peoples intellectual and cultural needs are growing as well. To meet such needs, much can be drawn from Chinas fine traditional culture, which carries the wisdom of Chinese civilization and is still highly relevant today, such as the concepts of pursuing common good for all and constantly seeking self-improvement. China will also extensively apply the core socialist values, enhance civility across society, and further develop cultural programs and the cultural sector, which helps increase peoples cultural confidence and promote their well-rounded development.

Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. To realize sustainable modernization, it is imperative to maintain harmony between humanity and nature, and protect nature and the environment as we do to our own lives. China has taken substantive steps in this regard. For example, it has contributed to one-fourth of the increase in global afforestation and one-fifth of the net restored land, and cut air pollutants by nearly 40% from 2013 to 2020. Clean energy now takes up 24.3% of Chinas energy consumption, and 55% of global new energy vehicle sales take place in China. With the aim of peaking CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, China will continue to pursue green development and get more actively involved in global governance on climate change.

The letter N stands for New form of human advancement. Some countries achieved modernization through war and colonization. But the Chinese path to modernization is peaceful development.

The pursuit of modernization, vital for all countries, is beset today by global challenges such as COVID-19, climate change, food and energy insecurity. Selfish steps, including building fences and barriers, decoupling and disrupting industrial and supply chains, would only backfire and serve the interest of none.

An ancient Chinese philosopher observed that all living things may grow side by side without harming one another, and different roads may run in parallel without interfering each other. Despite their seeming differences, countries are committed to the shared values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, and should and can work together toward modernization like passengers in the same boat.

In this context, modernization may be achieved in step with the building of a human community with a shared future. Importantly, all countries are equal, irrespective of their size, strength or wealth. They need to respect each others sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the development paths and social systems independently chosen by themselves. On such basis, if countries can engage in mutually beneficial cooperation and pursue the common good, then their modernization will be advanced in a mutually reinforcing manner.

China has taken steps in this direction. In pursuing its own modernization, China has presented global public goods such as the Belt and Road Initiative, Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative. It has invested more resources to help other developing countries, engaged in international cooperation against COVID-19, and promoted peaceful settlement of disputes through dialogue. China has also made clear that no matter what stage of development it reaches, it will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion.

It needs to be stressed that China attaches great importance to its ties with Cyprus in the modernization endeavor. Thanks to the personal commitment of President Xi Jinping and President Nicos Anastasiades, the China-Cyprus relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership in November 2021, which has got off to a good start this year.

Politically, China and Cyprus have firmly supported each others efforts to uphold sovereignty and territorial integrity, particularly on the Taiwan question and the Cyprus issue.

Economically, bilateral trade volume hit 603 million US dollars in the first eight months this year, up 33.8% over the previous year. The LNG project undertaken by a Chinese company is well on track.

On people-to-people exchanges, the Chinese embassy has held the event of Collection of China-Cyprus Friendship Stories and will soon hold the Second China-Cyprus Youth Forum. Three more pairs of sister cities have been set up, with more in the pipeline.

Going forward, government and party leaders of the two sides are expected to have more mutual visits and dialogues to exchange views on modernization. Cyprus is encouraged to tap the massive Chinese market by exporting more goods and attracting more Chinese tourists. Through more cultural and people-to-people exchanges, China and Cyprus, as two ancient civilizations, are expected to further enhance mutual learning and mutual understanding.

In this sense, Chinese modernization is like an open journey. It prompts China to open even wider to the international community, and importantly, it opens new and even brighter prospects for China-Cyprus relations.
The historic Whiteside Theatre in Corvallis turns 100 years old Wednesday, Nov. 9.

For a century, the building at 361 SW Madison Ave. has served as a Corvallis staple, first as a movie palace and vaudeville theater, and now as a community space for all kinds of events.

Befitting a centennial, the Whiteside will celebrate its birthday for an entire year, Director Jen Waters said, and there will be an iconic movie from each decade in the past century playing every second Wednesday of the month. The 1929 film Nosferatu will play 7 p.m. Wednesday with live music to kick off the celebration.

Brothers Samuel and George Whiteside opened the theater in 1922, which was built in the Italian Renaissance style of architecture. Many original features remain, including the ornamented effect upstairs executed in brick, glass, cast stone and plaster.

The Old Homestead was the first film ever shown at the theater, accompanied by Lillian McElroy on a $20,000 Wurlitzer organ. It was the largest organ in the state at the time, and the Whiteside Theatre was the second largest theater in the state, after Liberty Theatre in Portland.

A fire believed to have started in a workroom backstage heavily charred the theaters interior in 1927. Damages were estimated at $50,000.

The Whiteside was completely redone and reopened in 1928. A Hero for a Night, a silent comedy film, was shown as patrons celebrated the return of the theater.

Another fire struck the theatre in 1936, but this time, there was far less damage.

The Whiteside family owned the theatre until 1985, when the property was sold to Tim Moyer Cinemas Inc. The Whiteside Theatre Foundation took over the building in 2008, and the focus shifted to using the space as an events venue not only for movies but also concerts and other public gatherings.

Waters took over as director of the Whiteside Theatre in 2016 and has helped facilitate moving it in this new direction.

I saw it as an awesome opportunity to really bring some cool programming to the Corvallis community, Waters said. There's not really a venue that provides music and the kind of reflective programming that the community wants to see.

There will be free public tours from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11 for community members who would like to explore the historic space, which may or may not be haunted.

Just a word of warning. Rumor has it that aforementioned organist and vaudeville performer Lillian McElroy Taylor has been haunting the venue since the 1930s, padding around the halls and flipping the light switches.

The youngest Whiteside brother, Charles Whiteside, has also been seen sitting in the audience on occasion.

There will also be a raffle of items donated by local businesses and, of course, plenty of popcorn.

More information about the Whiteside Theatre, including information about volunteering, can be found at https://www.whitesidetheatre.org/.

Related stories:
Initial results are in for Corvallis' Ward 9 City Council election.

Early unofficial results updated at 11 p.m. Election Day show Cadena leading the pack with 44.7% of the vote, trailed by Towsley at 31.9% and Feldman at 23%.

Cadena is retired with a background in finance and business education. Towsley is a research administrator working remotely with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Feldman has a background in marketing and advertising.

Feldman has lived in Corvallis since 2014. He's closely watching how the city approaches climate change and sustainability. Hes also concerned about affordable housing, speeding and other traffic issues as Corvallis continues to grow.

Towsley came to Corvallis in 2020. She hopes to bring diverse, underserved communities into more city discussions. Wanting to build public-private partnerships to better serve residents, she also called for government transparency, accountability and accessibility.

Cadena moved to Corvallis in 1995. His top issues include building up the local housing supply, economic development with long-term sustainability and improving livability. He said local government should focus on public safety, infrastructure and education.

For the first time, Corvallis is using ranked choice voting. There are three competitors each for Ward 9 and mayor. City officials have said if there is no clear leader with more than 50% of the vote in those elections, it may take until Dec. 5 to declare a winner.

Editor's note: This article was edited to clarify that to avoid enacting the ranked voting, a victor would need 50%-plus-one vote.
Early results show a tight race between two Corvallis mayor hopefuls, who may have to wait until the ranked votes are counted to figure out who won.

Three candidates are running for the position: former Ward 2 councilors Roen Hogg and Charles Maughan as well as current Council Vice President Andrew Struthers of northeast Corvallis Ward 9. Mayor Biff Traber isnt seeking reelection.

Unofficial results updated at 11 p.m. on Election Day have Maughan slightly ahead at 36.9%, with Struthers 35.3% and Hogg at 27%.

This is the first election of Corvallis with ranked choice voting, which means a candidate needs more than 50% to clinch a win. If that doesn't happen, voters' second choice candidate come into play.

With a small lead in hand but time enough for things to change, Maughan isnt assuming victory, but hes happy with the numbers, he said Tuesday after the first round. He credited his volunteer team for doing the heavy lifting and said he expects his lead to grow based in part on his campaign strategy.

I targeted people who were supporting Roen because we both lived in the same ward, Maughan said. I asked them for their second vote, and most of them were receptive to that idea. Since Roens not in the lead, his votes will go to second choices, and I think I secured a lot of those.

Seeing the early results, Struthers said hes confident hell overcome his opponents in the end, although he doesnt expect to pull more than 50% of the vote, meaning another round of ranked choice tabulation before a winner is known. He said ranked choice voting appears to be working as intended.

I knew this was going to be a tight race going into it with Charles and Roen. Its exciting times, Struthers said. Well have the first City Council and mayor races that go to a ranked choice runoff.

With three candidates in Ward 9, it also is using ranked choice voting.

Looking forward to how ranked choice voting plays out, Hogg said he doesnt expect any candidate to break the 50% mark in the first run of votes. He said the method makes for a better campaign than his previous experiences, finding it less adversarial with more opportunities for cooperation.

Hogg said hes disappointed in a lower turnout than what was seen during his 2018 run. Watching results in Ward 2, where he resides, Hogg worked with appointed Councilor Christina Jancila and hoped for her to win. Jancilas opponent, Briae Lewis, is leading in early unofficial results.

The three mayoral candidates drew more than $25,000 in political contributions, the largest of which was $7,000 given to Struthers in two payments from a Realtors' political action committee.

Hogg, who served four terms on council, first faced then-upstart Maughan in 2016, where the former squeaked by the latter with a 230-vote separation in a bid to represent Ward 2, which covers downtown Corvallis. Maughan recently vacated his council seat after moving to another ward.

City officials have said that if a clear winner is not evident in those races, that is, one who receives at least 50% of the votes, it may take until Dec. 5 to declare a winner.

Related stories:
Kenneth Jackola, the second-generation log truck driver, retired command sergeant major and building renovator who ran on conservative branding and criticizing city budgets will helm Lebanon as mayor.

Jackola led by about 34 percentage points Tuesday night, Nov. 8, with about half of the citys ballots returned to Linn Countys elections office.

Gamael Nassar, an insurance agent, volunteer on about a dozen local boards and appointed city councilor who ran on a platform of pro-growth and inclusivity, said he planned to call Jackola and concede Wednesday morning.

"It's a relief," Jackola said by phone. "Running for public office is a lot harder than many realize."

Nassar emerged at the head of a ticket that broadly championed including more perspectives in city governance, and utilizing the strategies laid out in the Vision 2040 plan for attracting more business to Lebanon.

I hope theyre willing to work and not be apathetic and not wait for things to happen but go out and make things happen for our community, Nassar said. I wish them the best of luck.

A failed attempt to have a proclamation signed declaring June Pride Month in Lebanon split candidates around how welcoming the city should be in its anticipated swelling from about 20,000 to about 25,000 people over the next dozen-ish years.

Jackola was among four candidates who paid into a political action committee that generally sought to have Lebanon pump the brakes on growth.

Now Jackola will lead The City that Friendliness Built. And Lebanon's conservative ticket was positioned to sweep three nonpartisan City Council races Tuesday night.

Jackola answered a phone call during an election watch party at one of his downtown buildings. He said he was looking forward to getting to his stumping points of streamlining the citys website, closely supporting the Lebanon Police Department and trying to reduce debt.

People pare it down, they call you a bunch of names, and you move through it. And you keep your principles and your platform and tell people who you are.

And after that, its up to the voters, Jackola said.

Jackola had 66.7% of returned ballots as of just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9. Nassar trailed at 34.1% with about 53% of ballots returned.

I hope our opponents, the slate that has taken tonight, sees that Lebanon has to go forward, Nassar said. Not backward.

Nassar said hell continue efforts to boost tourism in the city  a commitment he began with the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce in 2017. And hell keep serving on boards like that of the Lebanon Strawberry Festival.

I did that before all this, and I will continue doing it, Nassar said.

Nassar was appointed to fill a council vacancy in 2021. His term expires Dec. 31.

Cassie Cruze, Lebanon Downtown Associations manager, ran for Nassars vacated Ward II seat as a direct response to the sitting council.

Outgoing Mayor Paul Aziz had sole responsibility for making proclamations and refused the request of an event coordinating group from the association that included Cruzes son, Zayn Chapman, and Ward I candidate Tami Cockeram.

In Ward I, Carl Mann led Cockeram by 3 points  51.1% to 47.7% with 50.5% of ballots returned.

Dave Workman had 56.6% of the vote in Ward II. Cruze had 35.4% with 45.7% of votes counted.

Ryan Newby initially filed to run in the ward on the ticket of a self-described constitutional conservative political action committee. Workman replaced Newby as the Candidate Identification and Support Committee's pick for council after Newby said medical appointments interfered with his campaign.

Newby dropped out too late to withdraw from the race. He had 7.4% of the vote.

The PAC footed Lisa Stroud as a write-in candidate in Ward III. Incumbent Michelle Steinhebel appeared to comfortably hold the seat Tuesday night with 75% of the vote with about 54.2% of ballots returned.

Write-in votes represented 25%. of returns in the ward.

Mushrooms, turnout

Additionally, Lebanons council in July balked at being among the test cities for Measure 109 that legalized use of psilocybin in licensed therapeutic settings.

With 50.2% of ballots returned citywide, Lebanon voted 62.7% to 37.3% to temporarily ban psychedelic mushrooms.

Under the 2020 statewide measure, Oregon counties and municipalities automatically opt in to permitting psilocybin. Without clear guidance on how OHA will roll out licensed psilocybin, councilors said, Lebanon sent local measure 22-194 to its constituents asking for a two-year moratorium.

Oregons elections in the presidential midterm typically see less turnout.

In the 2018 midterm, Linn County voters returned 55,621 ballots for a 63.67% turnout. Benton County saw more participation in a smaller eligible base of voters, 45,043 ballots returned for a 77.13% turnout.

Lebanon had a citywide turnout of 57.6%.

Statewide, voters returned 67.8% of ballots in 2018. Participation shot up to 78.5% in the 2020 presidential election  87.93% for Benton and 77.97% for Linn counties.

Related stories:
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 9

American Veteran, a four-part PBS series, is streaming now through Dec. 4, and will remain available on PBS Passport after that. Kelly Wadsworth, a member of Veterans for Peace Linus Pauling Chapter 132, Corvallis-Albany, is interviewed in the series. From the citizen-soldiers who fought in the nations earliest conflicts, to the men and women in todays all-volunteer armed forces, the series presents a moving story told through personal remembrances that draw civilian viewers into an unfamiliar culture. Specific program information is available at pbs.org.

Through a Veterans Lens, through Saturday, Nov. 12, main gallery, The Arts Center, 700 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. The show celebrates artistic expressions of veterans and their loved ones, through photographs. The exhibit was organized through Samaritan Health Services veterans services manager Kyle Hatch, ArtsCare manager Erin Gudge and Arts Center curator Jennie Castle. Hours: noon to 5 p.m. daily. Information: https://theartscenter.net/throughaveteranslens.

Wall of Honor display, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 9 through 11, Albany City Hall, 333 Broadalbin St. SW. Information: grampa.dave@comcast.net.

Veterans Day Community Celebration, 6 to 8 p.m., Philomath Scout Lodge, 660 Clemens Mill Road. Learn the history of enemy balloon bombs exploding in the Pacific Northwest during World War II, and the all-Black paratrooper battalion sent on a top-secret mission to Pendleton to destroy these bombs and suppress the wildfires they caused. Speaker Robert Barlett is both a veteran and a retired college professor who has extensively studied the history of the Triple Nickles. He will share this little-known story of sacrifice, patriotism and service in a time of war. Veterans Memorial induction program, 6; Quilts of Valor presentation to local veterans, 6:20; intermission, 6:50; "Jumping into Fire: The Triple Nickles" by Robert Bartlett, 7 p.m.; thanking of JJ Corbett, the last living Triple Nickle. Free admission: everyone who attends is encouraged to bring a canned food item to be donated to the Philomath Food Bank. The event will be livestreamed at https://youtu.be/31yFpkxX1Vk.

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.

VETERANS DAY

National Forests fee-free for Veterans Day. To show gratitude for those military men and women who served our country, and the support of their families, the USDA Forest Service will waive standard amenity fees for all visitors to national forest and grassland day-use areas on Veterans Day. Making Veterans Day a fee-free day gives everyone an opportunity to reflect on the service of the nations veterans while spending time on Americas public lands. The Forest Service offers fee-free access a few times each year to encourage everyone to explore educational and recreational opportunities available on national forests and grasslands. On fee-free days, standard amenity fees charged for day use sites  such as picnic areas, developed trailheads, and destination visitor centers  are waived. The waiver does not apply to special recreation permits, cabin rentals, campground reservations, expanded amenity fees on certain highly developed sites, and service fees assessed by independent concessionaires operating on national forest land. To stay current on regional happenings such as fee-free days and more, follow the Pacific Southwest Region on Facebook and Twitter

Veterans Day breakfast, 6 to 9:30 a.m., new cafeteria, West Albany High School, 2100 SW Elm St. All-you-care-to-eat ham, eggs, pancakes, milk, coffee.

Hospitality table, 9:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., near Ferry Street entrance, First Christian Church, 432 Ferry St. SW. Complimentary doughnut holes, hot chocolate and coffee will be offered. Church restrooms will be open to the public. The Veterans Day Parade starts at 11 a.m., and the route ends adjacent to the church on Ferry Street at Fifth Avenue.

Veterans display, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, and Saturday, Nov. 12, Conser House, 114 N. Main St., Jefferson. In addition to stories of Jefferson's veterans, the exhibits include uniforms courtesy of the Salem Veterans of Foreign Wars and posters representing the importance of women's contributions to the war effort. The Conser House Museum will also be open to tour. Information: amybailey.jeffersonmuseum@gmail.com.

Seventy-first annual Veterans Day Parade, 11 a.m., downtown Albany. Theme: Welcome Home, Veterans. The event honors all who served. Information: www.linncountyveteransdayparade.org.

Veterans Voices IV, 3 p.m., community room, Majestic Theatre, 115 SW Second St., Corvallis. The project explores the realities of serving and being a veteran in our country. The content is written locally and inspired by real veterans lending their voice to the plays. Tickets: $11; free for veterans and active military members. Information: majestic.org.

Dinner for Veterans, 5:30 p.m., Corvallis Elks Lodge, 1400 NW Ninth St. A complimentary dinner for veterans to be recognized for their service to our country. Information: 541-740-3517.

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

Willamette Valley Concert Band Veterans Day concert, 3 p.m., Lebanon High School, 1700 S. Fifth St. See the Thursday announcement for details.
COLUMBIA, Mo., Oct. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Renew Missouri, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Energy, and Pearl Certification are excited to announce the official launch of the Renew Missouri Homes program.

Renew Missouri Homes, a public-private partnership between Renew Missouri, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Energy, and Pearl Certification, will help ensure that energy-efficient, high-performing homes in Missouri are properly valued when they are sold.

The program makes a home's high-performing features  like renewables, insulation, efficient heating and cooling systems  visible and engaging to homebuyers through the state's Missouri Home Energy Certificate, supported by Pearl Certification. The result is that these homes will sell for higher prices  creating a powerful incentive for other Missouri homeowners to improve the performance of their homes by adding energy-efficient features and renewables.

Homes certified through the Renew Missouri Homes program can also be listed on the Green Building Registry, a national registry for high-performing homes, through a partnership with Earth Advantage.

"The Renew Missouri Homes program is a vital extension of the great work the DNR Division of Energy is doing throughout the state," said Andy Popp, manager of the Missouri State Energy Program. "This program provides an easy-to-use framework for Missourians to create more comfortable, efficient, and sustainable homes that benefit the entire state."

With the launch of Renew Missouri Homes, powered by Pearl, on Oct. 1, 2022, Missouri homeowners now have access to a free homeowner portal called Green Door to build custom plans that organize and track home energy upgrades, schedule regular home maintenance reminders, and connect with vetted contractors to perform energy upgrades. Qualified builders, home improvement contractors, appraisers, and real estate agents who earn admittance into the network gain access to Renew Missouri Homes' dedicated business development team, committed to helping them grow their businesses through supporting the high-performing home market. Industry professionals can apply to join the Renew Missouri Homes Network on the program's website. https://renewmohomes.com/

James Owners, Renew Missouri's executive director, said, "Renew Missouri knows that energy efficiency is the cornerstone of realizing a clean energy future. The Renew Missouri Homes program will be a driving force in making Missouri homes more efficient, save homeowners on their utility bills, and drive energy-efficiency investments across the state. We are honored and proud to have our namesake represent the program as we firmly believe in bringing energy efficiency to all Missourians."

"Missouri is truly leading the country by launching the Renew Missouri Homes program," said Robin LeBaron, co-founder and president of Pearl Certification. "We applaud and are thrilled to support the commitment to transforming Missouri communities for generations."

"Through this groundbreaking program, homeowners will get the tools and resources they need to create homes that are more comfortable, healthy, and sustainable by connecting with our vetted network professionals, who understand how to build, improve, appraise, and sell high-performing homes," said Cynthia Adams, Pearl's co-founder and CEO.

Missouri homeowners and industry professionals interested in learning more about Renew Missouri Homes, powered by Pearl, should visit https://renewmohomes.com/ or email renewmohomes@pearlcertification.com.

About Renew Missouri: Renew Missouri, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, advocates for clean energy policies that will benefit all Missourians. In support of renewable and energy-efficiency interests, the organization presents to the Public Service Commission, the Missouri Legislature, and county and city offices to advance energy policy and legislation. www.renewmo.org

About The Division of Energy: The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Energy is focused on affordable and reliable energy generated in the state of Missouri. The division assists, educates, and encourages Missourians to advance the efficient use of diverse energy resources to drive economic growth, provide for a healthier environment and achieve greater energy security for future generations. https://dnr.mo.gov/about-us/division-energy

About Pearl: Pearl Certification is the gold standard in high-performing home certifications, bringing visibility to the valuable features that make them healthy, safe, comfortable, and energy- and water-efficient. Pearl is the only national sponsor of the U.S. Department of Energy's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program and is a partner with the National Association of REALTORS Green Resource Council. Pearl has certified and provided appraisal addenda on over 100,000 homes in 44 states and Washington, D.C. Pearl Certified homes sell on average for 5.5% more than comparable homes, according to independent appraiser studies. https://pearlcertification.com/

Contact Information:

Kat Cahill

Marketing Director, Public-Private Partnerships, Pearl Certification

kat.cahill@pearlcertification.com

410.917.8737



James Owen

Executive Director, Renew Missouri

james@renewmo.org

417.496.1924



Related Images











Image 1: Introducing Renew Missouri Homes





The Renew Missouri Homes program advances the high-performing homes industry within Missouri, both empowering industry professionals and giving homeowners the certifications they need to validate their home's increased value.









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until January 3, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against FIGS, Inc. (NYSE: FIGS), if they purchased the Companys securities between May 27, 2021 and May 12, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period) and/or shares pursuant to the Companys June 2021 initial public offering (the IPO). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.



Get Help

FIGS investors should visit us at https://claimsfiler.com/cases/nyse-figs/ or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options.

About the Lawsuit

FIGS and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period and/or in the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in conjunction with the initial public offering, violating federal securities laws.

On May 12, 2022, the Company released disappointing 1Q2022 financial results and full year outlook for 2022, disclosing declines in expected 2022 net revenues, adjusted gross EBITDA margin, and expected gross margin, due to a significant increase in the Companys use of air freight to help mitigate supply chain challenges, and that [f]or the rest of the year, we plan to significantly increase our use of airfreight to reduce our exposure to these unpredictable transit times, despite the Companys prior reassurances regarding its ability to maintain an efficient and steady supply chain.

On this news, the price of FIGS shares plummeted, falling approximately 25% to close at $9.64 per share.

The case is Ryan v Figs, Inc., et al., No. 22-cv-7939.

About ClaimsFiler

ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations.

To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.
NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until January 3, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Enviva Inc. (NYSE: EVA), if they purchased the Companys securities between February 21, 2019 and October 11, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.



Get Help

Enviva investors should visit us at https://claimsfiler.com/cases/nyse-eva/ or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options.

About the Lawsuit

Enviva and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On October 12, 2022, pre-market, Blue Orca Capital reported a range of allegations against the Company including that new discovered data suggests . . . the company is flagrantly greenwashing its wood procurement; Enviva is a dangerously levered serial capital raiser whose deteriorating cash conversion and unprofitability will drain it of cash next year; and, that it is a product of deranged European climate subsidies which incentivize the destruction of American forests so that European power companies can check a bureaucratic box.

On this news, shares of Enviva stock fell approximately 13.13% to a closing price of $51.23 per share.

The case is Fagen v. Enviva, et al., 22-cv-02844.

About ClaimsFiler

ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations.

To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.
English French

Press Release

November 9, 2022 - N 18

Martine Gerow joins the Board of Directors of SCOR

On November 8, 2022, the Board of Directors of SCOR decided, upon proposal of the Nomination Committee, to co-opt Martine Gerow, Chief Financial Officer of American Express Global Business Travel, as a director. She replaces Kory Sorenson1.

Martine Gerow's mandate took effect at the end of the Board meeting, and will last for the remainder of Kory Sorenson's term of office, i.e., until the end of the General Meeting called in 2023 to approve the financial statements for the year 2022.

Martine Gerow also joins the Strategic Committee, the Audit Committee, and the Sustainability Committee.

The Board has already determined that Martine Gerow meets the required independence criteria.

Denis Kessler, Chairman of SCOR, comments: "I am delighted that the Board of Directors can henceforth benefit from Martine Gerows expertise, skills and experience. Her knowledge of financial matters and her global vision will be valuable assets, helping to enriching our discussions and guiding our decisions."

Biography

Martine Gerow, 62, a French and American citizen, is a graduate of HEC Paris and holds an MBA from Columbia University-Graduate School of Business in New York. She is currently the CFO of American Express Global Business Travel and previously held several positions in the finance departments of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Solocal and Campofrio.

*

* *

Contact details

Media Relations

Nathalie Mikaeloff and Alexandre Garcia

media@scor.com

Investor Relations

Yves Cormier

ycormier@scor.com

www.scor.com

LinkedIn: SCOR | Twitter: @SCOR_SE

SCOR, a Global Tier 1 Reinsurer

SCOR, a leading global reinsurer, offers its clients a diversified and innovative range of reinsurance and insurance solutions and services to control and manage risk. Applying The Art & Science of Risk, SCOR uses its industry-recognized expertise and cutting-edge financial solutions to serve its clients and contribute to the welfare and resilience of society.

SCOR offers its clients an optimal level of security with its AA- rating or equivalent from S&P, Moodys, Fitch and AM Best.

The Group generated premiums of more than EUR 17.5 billion in 2021 and serves clients in more than 160 countries from its 36 offices worldwide.

For more information, visit: www.scor.com.



1 See SCOR Press Release of July 28, 2022.

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Selbyville, Delaware,, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Oil-free Air Compressor Market is expected to cross a valuation of USD 27 billion by 2032, according to the latest research study by Global Market Insights Inc. The introduction of stringent environmental regulations will act as a major factor propelling the industry demand.

The increasing shift toward sustainability worldwide is encouraging several businesses to opt for more environmentally friendly systems such as oil-free air compressors, that can curb the release of harmful pollutants. The report claims that the products capability to lower the production of impurities during manufacturing processes will also augment device production.

Request a sample of this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/460

Oil-free air compressor market share from the portable product type is anticipated to register revenue worth USD 200 million by 2032, owing to the rising construction and industrial manufacturing projects. For instance, in November 2022, Samsung unveiled plans to construct a semiconductor fabrication facility in Texas. The introduction of new construction projects such as these will escalate the need for compressed air to power drills, hammers, and other tools. The recovery in drug supply following COVID-19 disruptions will also boost the adoption of portable oil-free air compressors to run conveyor systems, among other applications.





The 55 kW - 160 kW power air compressor segment is set to cross USD 4.5 billion by 2032. Oil-free air compressors in this power range are considered ideal for high-volume applications or manufacturing units in the chemical, food & beverage, and automotive sectors. The chemical manufacturers have also been emphasizing facility expansion. In July 2022, BASF announced the final phase of the USD 780 million expansion project for its methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) facility. Developments such as these will proliferate the usage of 55 kW - 160 kW air compressors for chemical transport applications.

Oil-free air compressor market revenue share from the rotary technology segment is projected to record more than USD 12 billion by 2032. As compared to their counterparts, rotary technology-powered compressors are gaining increased acceptance due to their lower installation and maintenance costs and high efficiency. The rapid development of coal mines, especially in developing nations such as India, to meet growing energy requirements will therefore fuel product consumption.

The manufacturing application sector will register more than 4.5% CAGR during 2023-2032. The adoption of oil-free air compressors in the manufacturing industry is increasing due to its use as cutting and welding equipment, feed and roller machinery adjustment, metal finishing, and sandblasting. Several manufacturing facilities also have portable air compressors for use as backup units, to enable smoother operations. These attributes will encourage manufacturers to install more oil-free air compressors in their facilities, bolstering the industry outlook.

The North America oil-free air compressor market is poised to attain 3% gains through 2032. The mounting number of packaging and refrigerated food warehouses is one of the key drivers for industry growth. For example, in April 2022, U.S.-based GreenSeed Contract Packaging included 20,000 square feet of additional space at its headquarters to address the evolving demand for raw material warehousing. Furthermore, the increase in oil and gas exploration in the U.S. will further promote the use of oil-free air compressors in the region.

The strategic landscape of the oil-free air compressor industry is inclusive of contenders such as Gardner Denver, Inc., Boge Compressors (Boge Kompressoren Otto Boge GmbH & Co. KG), Air Squared, Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH (Aerzen), Ciasons Industrial Inc., Sullivan-Palatek, Inc., and Kaeser Kompressoren SE, among others. These companies are focusing on initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions to expand their footprint in the market.

Request for customization of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/roc/460

Partial Table of Contents (ToC) of the report:

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Oil-free Air Compressor industry 3600 synopsis, 2018  2032

2.1.1 Business trends

2.1.2 Packaging type trends

2.1.3 Material trends

2.1.4 Regional trends

Chapter 3 Oil-free Air Compressor Industry Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Industry size and forecast, 2018  2032

3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.4 Raw material analysis

3.5 Industry impact forces

3.5.1 Growth drivers

3.5.1.1 Growing demand for energy-efficient air compressors

3.5.1.2 Increasing high purity air demand for critical application

3.5.1.3 Environmental regulations compliance

3.5.1.4 Shifting focus toward robotics and automation

3.5.2 Industry pitfalls and challenges

3.5.2.1 High initial cost of oil-free air compressor

3.5.2.2 Risk of wear & tear and sound pollution

3.6 Regulatory landscape

3.7 Growth potential analysis

3.8 Pricing analysis

3.9 Porters analysis

3.10 PESTLE analysis

Browse Our Reports Store - GMIPulse @ https://www.gminsights.com/gmipulse

About Global Market Insights Inc.

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.
Pune, India, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global semiochemicals market size was valued at USD 3.72 billion in 2021. The market is projected to grow from USD 4.22 billion in 2022 to USD 11.22 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 14.99% during the forecast period 2022-2029.

This information is produced by Fortune Business Insights, in its report titled, Semiochemicals Market, 2022-2029.

List of Key Players Mentioned in the Report:

SEDQ Healthy Crops SL (Spain)

Pacific Biocontrol Corporation (U.S.)

Bedoukian Research, Inc. (U.S.)

Suterra LLC (U.S.)

Pherobank B.V. (Netherlands)

CBC Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Certis USA LLC (U.S.)

Koppert (Netherlands)

Isagro S.p.A. (Denmark)

Russell IPM (U.K.)

Get a Sample Copy of the Research Report:



https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/semiochemicals-market-101617

COVID-19 Impacts:

Transport Interruptions amid COVID-19 to Considerably Influence Market

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a notable sway on the global agricultural sector. Interruptions in supply chains, disturbance in marketing activities, and travel limitations have severely influenced the market. For example, as per the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), pesticide production adversely deteriorated during the first few months of the pandemic owing to countrywide lockdowns.

Segments:

Pheromones to Appear as Most Favored Kind in the Sector

The pheromones segment holds a prime share as it is the most used type of crop protection among farmers. Pheromones are semiochemicals generated by species that alter the behavior of other individuals of the similar species.

Mating Disturbance to Arise as Dominating Function among Others

Based on function, the market is segmented into detection & monitoring, mass trapping, and mating disruption. Mating disruption is the dominating function owing to its greater efficiency in low or reasonable pest infestations.

Orchard Crop Holds Key Market Share Stoked by High Demand for High Value Crops

Semiochemicals are predominantly applied on orchard crops in comparison with other crop types, such as vegetables and field crops, owing to the surging demand for high value crops among consumers. Likewise, orchard crops are more vulnerable to pests such as fruit flies, codling moths, and peachtree borers.

Geographically, the market is classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Report Coverage:

The report offers valuable insights obtained by a thorough study done by our researchers. Extensive research was conducted to provide the estimated size of the market. The data used to project the shares for multiple segments at the country, regional, and global levels are obtained from in-depth interviews with numerous stakeholders. Furthermore, we have gained access to several global and regional paid databases to deliver precise information to make business investment decisions easy for you.

Browse Summary of This Research Insights with Detailed TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/semiochemicals-market-101617

Drivers and Restraints:

Robust Demand for High Value Crops to Reinforce Growth

In the last few years, consumer inclinations have moved toward healthy and safer foods for better health. The developing trends, such as ingesting organic, clean-label, organic, and pesticide-free foods, have also progressed the face of agriculture across the world. The rising demand for high value crops, such as organic fruits, organic commodities, and vegetables, propels the semiochemicals market growth across the world.

Regional Insights:

North America to Hold Lions Share due to Increasing Adoption of IPM

North America is anticipated to hold the largest semiochemicals market share and the size stood at USD 1.15 billion in 2021. It is anticipated to dominate the market during the forecast period owing to the bolstering application of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solutions for crop protection across the region.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, Europe has the second-largest area under organic agriculture. Europe holds the second-highest market share in terms of value. The sturdy demand for organic commodities in the U.K., France, Italy, and Germany has compelled farmers to apply biological crop protection measures in pest management programs.

The development of the Asia Pacific market is chiefly credited to the developing consciousness concerning crop protection and approaches to upsurge crop yield among farmers. The budding agricultural area that is below organic farming is projected to further spur the demand in the region.

Get your Customized Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/semiochemicals-market-101617

Competitive Landscape:

Partnerships among Companies to Secure their Brand Values in Global Market

Prominent players in the market are constantly opting for effective strategies to promote their products and establish their positions in the market. One such strategy is to launch new products by partnering up with other companies to extend their reach to end-users.

Key Industry Development:

May 2022: Syngenta, a key crop protection company, extended its partnership with M2i, a principal technology supplier of pheromone-based crop protection solutions to unveil EXPLOYO Vit, a pheromone-based solution to defend vine crops in France from detrimental pests.

Market Segments

By Crop Type

Orchard Crops

Vegetables

Field Crops

Other Crop Types

By Type

Pheromones

Allelochemicals

By Function

Detection & Monitoring

Mass Trapping

Mating Disruption

By Geography

Speak to Analyst:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/semiochemicals-market-101617

Check out more Related Insights by Fortune Business Insights:

Biopesticides Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis and Regional Forecast 2029

Biofertilizers Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis Forecast 2029

Agricultural Biologicals Market Size, Share Forecast 2029

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 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. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data.

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GRAZ and VIENNA, Austria , Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The next pioneering step, all in the name of data security: Merkur Versicherung is the first insurance company in Austria to use synthetic data . To this end, the Group's own start-up, the Merkur Innovation Lab, has signed a three-year partnership agreement with MOSTLY AI. The goal is to drive data-driven innovations with the help of artificial intelligence.



Just in time for its second birthday, the Merkur Innovation Lab is taking a progressive step to ensure the anonymized handling of sensitive data. Since its founding in 2020, the Innovation Lab has been working to create added value from the existing wealth of data in the form of new services and personalized customer experiences. In order to give the necessary importance to data security and the protection of personal information, Merkur Innovation Lab has signed a three-year partnership agreement with MOSTLY AI.

Two pioneers working together

With Merkur Versicherung and MOSTLY AI, two companies have joined forces that, as pioneers in their respective fields, also provide innovative solutions beyond national borders. Merkur as a holistic personal insurer, which is actively shaping the digitization of the industry, and the Viennese company MOSTLY AI as a global deep tech pioneer in the generation of AI-based, structured synthetic data and its use in the banking and insurance sectors.

AI-generated synthetic data from MOSTLY AI looks like real data and contains all the statistically relevant information of the original dataset, but without any links back to personal data points. The synthetic data sets are therefore completely anonymized, privacy safe and GDPR compliant. In the Merkur Innovation Lab, synthetic versions of customer data will be produced in the future using this technology, on which machine learning models can be trained , for example. This makes it possible to share data internally and externally in a data protection-compliant manner in order to develop better services and products for customers.

Ahead of the times

"Our daily bread is innovation. To do this, we need data sources that are connected to gain insights that no one had before. At the end of the day, we want to inspire customers with new services and increase their confidence in digitization. With this forward-thinking partnership, we are not only meeting the legal requirements for data protection, we are also taking innovation to a whole new level thanks to MOSTLY AI, and doing so for the benefit of our customers," says Daniela Pak-Graf, CO-Managing Director of Merkur Innovation Lab.

"Synthetic data helps to establish a data-driven corporate culture and drives AI-based innovation," explains Dr. Tobias Hann, CEO of MOSTLY AI. "As a Viennese start-up thats now operating globally, we are particularly proud that Merkur Versicherung, an Austrian insurance company, is taking an active part in driving the adoption of synthetic data and laying the foundation to use artificial intelligence for the benefit of both its business, and customers."

About Merkur Group

Merkur Versicherung AG is an Austrian insurance company headquartered in Graz and Salzburg. As the second largest private health insurance company in Austria and with the experience of nearly 225 years of history, Merkur Versicherung places the miracle of the human being and its protection at the center of its entrepreneurial thinking. The Merkur Group works in Austria, Italy and Southeast Europe with a total of 1,479 employees. The Merkur Innovation Lab was founded in 2020 under the leadership of Daniela Pak-Graf and Harald Neubauer.

About MOSTLY AI

MOSTLY AI pioneered the creation of synthetic data for AI model development. Datasets generated by the MOSTLY AI platform look just as real as a companys original customer data with just as many details, but without the original personal data points  helping companies comply with privacy protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, and ensuring models are fair and unbiased. The fast-growing company currently works with multiple Fortune 100 insurers and banks in Europe and North America, and has the deepest expertise in helping companies get business value out of synthetic data. Learn more at mostly.ai .

Media contacts

Merkur Group

Jurgen Pock

Spokesman| Head of Communications

Conrad-von-Hotzendorf Strae 84

Merkur Campus | 8010 Graz

Mobil: +43 664 4500936

E-Mail: juergen.pock@merkur.at

MOSTLY AI

Sabine Klisch, VP Global Marketing

+43 664 824 64 17

sabine.klisch@mostly.ai

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7280213e-d17f-4239-b4c5-4813d05abda8
Dublin, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Precision Medicine Market By Type, By Application, By End-use & By Region Forecast and Analysis 2022-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Global Precision medicine market was valued at USD 65.89 Billion in 2021 and it is expected to reach a value of USD 146.57 Billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 12.10% over the forecast period (2022-2028).



The novel concept that two people infected with the same disease do not have to physically respond to the same illness is the foundation of precision medicine. However, it is affected by genes as well as the patient's symptoms and the surrounding environment. In addition, doctors and researchers are able to plan the necessary treatment because it is contingent on the patients' capacity to respond to that particular condition.

In precision medicine, system biology and panomics are frequently utilized to ascertain the molecular root of a specific patient's illness. Following that, the disease of each patient is treated with concentrated medications. Precision medication has various advantages, including compelling treatment that is custom fitted to the patient's necessities and ailment classification. In addition, precision medicine has the potential to minimize pharmaceutical administration and reduce treatment costs.



Segments covered in this report



The Global precision medicine market is segmented based on Product type, Application, End-User and Region. Based on Product Type it is Categorized into Diagnostics {Genetic Tests, Biomarker Based Tests}, Therapeutics. Based on Application it is Categorized into Oncology, CNS, Immunology, Respiratory, Based on End-use it is Categorized into Hospitals, Diagnostic Centers, Research & Academic Institutes. Based on region it is categorized into: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and MEA.



Drivers



The growth of precision medicine will be fueled by advancements in cancer biologics. Market expansion will be driven by the development of newer therapeutic methods, such as gene therapy for the treatment of cancer, and by an increase in the number of patients receiving predictive diagnostics. However, the Precision Medicine Market's growth may be stymied by high costs and the risk of personal health data being damaged. It has been determined that COVID-19 will only have a brief effect on the industry. Supply chain disruptions and lockdowns in a number of nations primarily contributed to this damage. However, the Precision Medicine Market quickly recovered once supply was released and the lockdowns were lifted.



Restraints



There is no doubt that precision medicine is reaching new heights. However, the market's expansion may be stifled by rising diagnostics costs. During the process of diagnosis and treatment, a significant amount of personal data is generated, which raises the possibility of a threat that could impede the expansion of the precision medicine market. The personalized medicine industry is experiencing a slowdown in expansion due to stringent regulations and standards.



Trends



New cancer treatments will almost certainly continue to be the primary focus of precision medicine. Oncological diseases are treated with precision medicine 30% more frequently than the next most common application. Oncology applications of precision medicine are more prevalent in Europe and the United States, where research is conducted. Government funding is expected to accelerate the expansion of the precision medicine industry for the treatment of oncological diseases.

Using tools that help with decision-making in precision medicine, clinical practitioners will be able to decide whether tests are necessary and how to apply genetic data to the results.

Patients will also be able to avoid delays and denials thanks to precision medicine. The kinds of tests that will be required in the subsequent five years will also be affected by this. Compared to the current tests, which only examine a small number of genes, broad panel tests that examine a portion of the gene will become more common over the next five years.



Companies Mentioned

F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Switzerland)

Illumina, Inc. (US)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US)

Qiagen (Germany)

Quest Diagnostics (US)

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (US)

Novartis AG (Switzerland)

AstraZeneca (UK)

Bristol-Myers Squibb (US)

Eli Lilly And Company (US)

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nu0wwu

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WAWA, Pa., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wawa, Inc., today announced that this Veterans Day, the company will once again offer free, any-size hot coffee to veterans, active military members and their families, all day, with no military ID required. This will take place on Friday, November 11, 2022, at all 975+ Wawa stores throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, DC and Florida.



Its our annual tradition to salute service members on Veterans Day with a hot cup of coffee to thank them for everything they do to serve our communities, said Chris Gheysens, Wawas President and CEO. In its 12th year, weve been providing service members abroad with a Taste of Home through our coffee care packages, and we are passionate about continuing this tradition for years to come.

Operation Taste of Home care packages are an annual tradition organized by Wawa Associates and supported by the USO of Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey and USO Central Florida who together help send more than 15,000 care packages to our military currently deployed. Throughout October and November, Wawa Associates and members of the USO, Air National Guard and Army National Guard assembled more than 15,000 care packages at five assembling events to be sent to our military service men and women abroad. In addition, The Wawa Foundation presented a check to the USO for $800,586.54 raised through in-store coin and scan campaigns held at every Wawa store during the summer of 2022. The funds go to programs supporting the military and their families and are distributed to the local USO centers located throughout Wawas operating area. Since 2012, The Wawa Foundation has raised over $9.6 million to support USO programs and services that help to keep service members connected to family, home and country.

Wawa has sent hundreds of thousands of cups of coffee and care packages to our military overseas who have written to request it. Partnering with the USO to formally send care packages to the troops is just one of the many ways Wawa shows support and thanks for the great men and women who serve our country.

About Wawa, Inc.

Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Toward the end of the 19th Century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, PA in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and certified process. As home delivery of milk declined in the early 1960s, Grahame Wood, Georges grandson, opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for dairy products. Today, Wawa is your all day, every day stop for freshly prepared foods, beverages, coffee, fuel services and surcharge-free ATMs. Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C. The stores offer a large fresh foodservice selection, including Wawa brands such as custom prepared hoagies, freshly brewed coffee, hot breakfast sandwiches, specialty beverages and an assortment of soups, sides and snacks. Forbes.com Ranks Wawa as #29 of Americas Largest Private Companies in 2021 and #12 on Forbes 100 Halo List in 2022. For more information, visit us on www.wawa.com or follow us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , and Snapchat at @wawa.

Contact: public.relations@wawa.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ac8d6b57-ba2f-4ade-b442-9f9b270f7425
NEW YORK, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A recent study report released by Data Bridge Market research titled  Gene Therapy Market  guarantees you will remain better informed than your competition. The Gene Therapy research offers a comprehensive background analysis of the Gene Therapy industry, which also includes an examination of the market for parents. The study of competitors is one of the most significant components of a report on market research since it enables businesses to choose their strategies by evaluating how those strategies compare to those of their rivals. This Gene Therapy market research report was meticulously crafted by a group of researchers, analysts, and industry professionals that worked together while keeping the perspective of the customer in mind during the entire process. In order to ensure the success of your company on an international level, we have compiled a global market study of the highest possible quality. In addition, clients are made aware, via the usage of this Gene Therapy market research study, of the numerous techniques that are utilized by major competitors in the market.

Data Bridge Market Research analyses a growth rate in the global gene therapy market in the forecast period 2022-2029. The expected CAGR of the global gene therapy market tends to be around 20.9% in the mentioned forecast period. The market was valued at USD 2.73 billion in 2021, and it would grow up to USD 12.46 billion by 2029. In addition to the market insights such as market value, growth rate, market segments, geographical coverage, market players, and market scenario, the market report curated by the Data Bridge Market Research team also includes in-depth expert analysis, patient epidemiology, pipeline analysis, pricing analysis, and regulatory framework

Get an Exclusive Sample of the Gene Therapy Market Report in PDF Version @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-gene-therapy-market

Gene therapy is a method of inserting genes into tissues and cells to treat any type of disease. In this method, the defective gene is replaced with a functional gene. It is the strategy of manipulating of expression of certain genes as the cause for the disease. This treatment is very helpful in treating a number of diseases.

Therapy developers are investing in collaboration or mergers and acquisitions as a feasible strategy to enhance in-house expertise and strengthen product pipelines. Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) acquired the highest share in 2020 with a maximum revenue share of over 41%. The large B-cell lymphoma segment is projected to account for the maximum revenue share by 2028.

The Global Research Report Provides a Detailed Analysis of Market. Based on Competitive Intensity and How the Competition Will Take Shape in Coming Years.

The Global Gene Therapy Market is witnessing a tremendous growth owing to the rapidly rising demands, a surge in industrialization, consumer awareness, emerging industries, and technological advancements. The industry has reported exponential revenue growth and sales volume. Factors driving the growth of the market are anticipated to boost the market size and boost the growth of the market throughout the forecast period.

The leading companies of the Gene Therapy industry are engaging in various developmental activities such as product developments, extensive product research, innovations, and advancements in product processes to re-launch updated products in the market to gain substantial customer base and market size. The report consists of all the business strategies adopted by the companies along with their financial standing, revenue, gross margin, and growth rate.

Some of the major players operating in the Gene Therapy market are

AbbVie Inc. (U.S.)

Bausch Health Companies Inc. (Canada)

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel)

Cipla Inc. (India)

Lupin (India)

Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (India)

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (U.K.)

AstraZeneca (U.K.)

GSK Plc. (U.K.)

Pfizer Inc. (U.S.)

Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC. (U.K.)

Alvogen (U.S)

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland)

Amgen Inc. (U.S.)

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.K.)

Amicus Therapeutics, Inc (U.S.)

MeiraGTx Limited (U.S.)

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.S.)

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (U.S.)

Access Full PDF Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-gene-therapy-market

Opportunities

Increased Drug Approvals

The growing drug approvals for treating this rare condition create many market opportunities. For instance, Novartis and Gilead continue to expand their customer base worldwide for Kymriah and Yescarta, designed to treat large B-cell lymphoma. It has been seen that in May 2019, Novartis received approval to sell its products in Japan. Furthermore, in 2017, about 51% of patients who received Yescarta treatment achieved remission.

Higher Strategic Alliances

Several companies are involved in strategic alliances to boost their offerings in the space, that is projected to strengthen the market competition during the forecast period. For instance, in March 2020, REGENXBIO, Inc. and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc. collaborated for the NAV technology platform. Under this deal, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc. received a global license to REGENXBIOs NAV AAV9 and AAV8 vectors for the development of multiple gene therapies for a rare metabolic disorder

Critical Insights Related to the Gene Therapy Included in the Report:

Exclusive graphics and Illustrative SWOT analysis of some of the leading companies in this market

Value chain analysis of prominent players in the market

Current trends influencing the dynamics of this market across various geographies

Recent mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships

Revenue growth of this industry over the forecast period

Marketing strategy study and growth trends

Growth-driven factor analysis

Emerging recess segments and region-wise market

An empirical evaluation of the curve of the Gene Therapy Industry

Ancient, Present, and Probable scope of the market from both prospect value and volume

Segmentation Covered: Gene Therapy Market

By Gene Type

Antigen

Cytokine

Suicide

By Viral Vector

Retroviruses

Herpes Simplex Virus

Adenoviruses

By Non-Viral Vector

Naked or Plasmid Vectors

Electroporation

By Application

Rare Diseases

Infectious Disease

By End User

Hospitals

Homecare

Specialty Clinics

By Distribution Channel

Hospital Pharmacy

Online Pharmacy

Retail Pharmacy

Browse a Detailed Summary of the Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-gene-therapy-market

Gene Therapy Market Regional Analysis/Insights:

The major countries covered in the gene therapy market report are the U.S., Canada and Mexico in North America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Rest of Europe in Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa (MEA), Brazil, Argentina and Rest of South America as part of South America.

North America has been witnessing positive growth in the gene therapy market throughout the forecast period due to the sturdy regulatory framework for promoting cellular therapy development.

Asia-Pacific dominates the market due to the rise in the acceptance of unique treatment options.

Benefits of Considering this report:

This report is compiled using a vigorous and thorough research methodology. Data Bridge Market Research is also known for its data accuracy and granular market reports.

A complete picture of the competitive scenario of Gene Therapy market is depicted by this report.

The gene therapy report consists of a vast amount of data about the recent product and technological developments in the markets.

consists of a vast amount of data about the recent product and technological developments in the markets. The extensive spectrum of analysis regarding the impact of these advancements on the future of market growth.

The insights in the report are easy to understand and include a graphical representation of the numbers in the form of histograms, bar graphs, pie charts, etc.

Components such as market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities for Gene Therapy market are explained in detail.

It also provides a complete assessment of the expected behavior about the future market and changing market scenario.

Making an informed business decision is a tough job; this report offers several strategic business methodologies to support you in making those decisions.

Table of Contents:

Introduction Market Segmentation Executive Summary Premium Insights Global Gene Therapy Market: Regulations Market Overview Global Gene Therapy Market , By Gene Type Global Gene Therapy Market, By Viral Vector Global Gene Therapy Market, By Non-Viral Vector Global Gene Therapy Market, By Application Global Gene Therapy Market, By End User Global Gene Therapy Market, By Distribution Channel Global Gene Therapy Market, By Region Global Gene Therapy Market: Company Landscape SWOT Analyses Company Profile Questionnaires Related Reports

For More Insights Grab Full TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-gene-therapy-market

Browse More Reports:

Gene Therapy Products Market , By Product (Yescarta, Kymriah, Luxturna, Strimvelis and Gendicine), Application (Oncological Disorders, Rare Diseases, Cardiovascular Diseases, Neurological Disorders, Infectious Diseases and Other Diseases), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia- Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-gene-therapy-products-market

Cancer Gene Therapy Market , By Therapy (Oncolytic Virotherapy, Gene Induced Immunotherapy, Gene Transfer), End User (Hospitals, Oncology Institutes, Biotechnological Companies, Clinical Research Laboratories) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-cancer-gene-therapy-market

Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Biological Testing Market , By Product Type (Cell Therapy and Gene Therapy), End Users (Hospitals, Wound Care Centres, Cancer Care Centres, Ambulatory Surgical Centres and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherland, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia- Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-stem-cell-and-gene-therapy-biological-testing-market

Cell and Gene Therapy Thawing Equipment Market , By Modality (Benchtop and Portable), Sample (Cell Therapies and Gene Therapies), Type (Manual Thawing System and Automatic Thawing System), Application (Upstream Processing and Downstream Processing), End User (Blood Banks And Transfusion Centers, Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Laboratories And Academic Institutes, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Cord Blood and Stem Cell Banks, Gene Banks and Others), Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Third Part Distributor and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, Turkey, Ireland, Rest of Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Egypt, Israel and Rest of Middle East and Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Rest of South America) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-cell-and-gene-therapy-thawing-equipment-market

Asia-Pacific Cell and Gene Therapy Thawing Equipment Market , By Modality (Benchtop and Portable), Sample (Cell Therapies and Gene Therapies), Type (Manual Thawing System and Automatic Thawing System), Application (Upstream Processing and Downstream Processing), End User (Blood Banks And Transfusion Centers, Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Laboratories And Academic Institutes, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Cord Blood and Stem Cell Banks, Gene Banks and Others), Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Third Part Distributor and Others), Country (China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-cell-and-gene-therapy-thawing-equipment-market

Middle East and Africa Cell and Gene Therapy Thawing Equipment Market , By Modality (Benchtop and Portable), Sample (Cell Therapies and Gene Therapies), Type (Manual Thawing System and Automatic Thawing System), Application (Upstream Processing and Downstream Processing), End User (Blood Banks And Transfusion Centres, Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Laboratories And Academic Institutes, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Cord Blood and Stem Cell Banks, Gene Banks and Others), Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Third Part Distributor and Others), Country (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Egypt, Israel and Rest of Middle East And Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/middle-east-and-africa-cell-and-gene-therapy-thawing-equipment-market

North America Cell and Gene Therapy Thawing Equipment Market , By Modality (Benchtop and Portable), Sample (Cell Therapies and Gene Therapies), Type (Manual Thawing System and Automatic Thawing System), Application (Upstream Processing and Downstream Processing), End User (Blood Banks And Transfusion Centers, Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Laboratories And Academic Institutes, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Cord Blood and Stem Cell Banks, Gene Banks and Others), Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Third Part Distributor and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/north-america-cell-and-gene-therapy-thawing-equipment-market

Europe Cell and Gene Therapy Thawing Equipment Market , By Modality (Benchtop and Portable), Sample (Cell Therapies and Gene Therapies), Type (Manual Thawing System and Automatic Thawing System), Application (Upstream Processing and Downstream Processing), End User (Blood Banks And Transfusion Centers, Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Laboratories And Academic Institutes, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Cord Blood and Stem Cell Banks, Gene Banks and Others), Distribution Channel (Direct Tender, Third Part Distributor and Others), Country (U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, Turkey, Ireland, Rest of Europe) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-cell-and-gene-therapy-thawing-equipment-market





Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market , By Product (Instruments, Consumables and Services), Applications (Diagnostics, Biomarker Discovery, Precision Medicine, Drug Discovery, Agriculture and Animal Research and Others), End User (Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies, Research Centers & Academic and Government Institutes and Hospital & Clinics), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, U.K., Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands and Rest of Europe, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Rest of Asia-Pacific, Brazil and Rest of South America, South Africa and Rest of Middle East And Africa) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-next-generation-sequencing-ngs-market

About Data Bridge Market Research:

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SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rick J. Lindsey, President, CEO, and Chairman of Prime Insurance Company, will host a group of young e students and leadership counselors at the X School for Boys in Albany, GA. The group will spend 3 days in November in Salt Lake City, Utah visiting the great outdoors and participating in recreational, social, and team-building activities.

Mr. Lindsey states, "The ideology of the school caught my attention when I saw King being interviewed on a news channel. His passion and articulation of his vision, mission, hard work and determination to fulfill this idea to help young men succeed inspired me to get involved."

The group will experience some Utah outdoor events, team building, and a visit to the Prime Insurance Company/XINSURANCE corporate office to get a look at how a request for insurance becomes an insurance policy.

Lindsey's generosity in hosting the group is much more than enjoying a few days in the great outdoors. It is in support of these young men and seeing different options for future careers. In addition to donating AV equipment, Prime has also discussed ideas for summer internships, assistance with vocational training such as automotive repair, restoration and salvage skills, technical and vocational opportunities, and more.

King Randall, owner of the school also stated, "The opportunity Mr. Lindsey is providing to our students on this trip to a beautiful part of the country, and to experience this together, is genuinely appreciated by me, the staff, and students. Our mission is to teach boys the true meaning of manhood and to be protectors and providers for their communities. The opportunity for us to experience this trip and the generosity of Rick J. Lindsey is greatly appreciated."

As President, CEO, and Chairman of Prime Insurance Company, Rick J. Lindsey brings over 40 years of expertise in underwriting, risk management and claims management. Lindsey states, "Real life experiences, hard work, common sense and being ready to learn something new every day has contributed greatly to my success. I look forward to sharing experiences and visiting with the students and staff of the 'X' Boys Life Preparatory School."

Prime Insurance Company is an excess and surplus lines insurance company writing business in all 50 states, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam. Prime employs over 200 people nationwide and has offices in Chicago, IL; Exton, PA; Naples, FL; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

www.primeis.com

https://thexforboys.org/about-u

Contact Information:

Barbara Malkowski

SVP Marketing

barbaram@primeis.com

1-312-520-5736



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Investments Include $149,500 in Emergency Assistance to Communities Impacted by Hurricane Fiona

MONTREAL, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trans Canada Trail is proud to announce its latest round of Trail investments of $3.25M in 126 projects across Canada. The latest funding is inclusive of 35 emergency clean-up and recovery projects across Atlantic Canada in response to damage caused by Hurricane Fiona in communities across the Atlantic Region.

Trans Canada Trail is proud to play a role in enhancing local trails across Canada and, in turn, the quality of life and well-being of Canadians. The Trans Canada Trail Trail Funding Program (TFP) invests funding received from the Government of Canada, through Parks Canada. Trans Canada Trail leverages this funding, amplifying its impact via additional investments from provincial, territorial and municipal governments, as well as generous donors and philanthropists. See the map of supported Trail projects.

Trans Canada Trail is the largest investor in trail infrastructure projects in Canada thanks to its funding from governments across Canada and in particular, the federal government which recently announced, in Budget 2022, $55M in funding for Trans Canada Trail over the next five years. This funding will be used to grow and enhance Canadas national trail, which, at 28,000 km, is the worlds longest network of multi-use trails.

The TFP program is open to all trail organizations that operate one of the over 500 sections of the Trans Canada Trail. The TFP provides financial support to Trail groups and First Nation communities for trail infrastructure and major repairs, improvements to safety and accessibility, development of new trails, as well as destination development projects.

Hurricane Fiona caused significant damage to trails in impacted communities. Federal funding has also allowed Trans Canada Trail to reallocate funds and increase the Trail Care program to support trail operators in the Atlantic provinces, in repairing trails that sustained damage during Hurricane Fiona.

Our role as the Trails national steward means that when disasters like Hurricane Fiona hit, we act quickly to make sure local trails are repaired, said Eleanor McMahon, President & CEO of Trans Canada Trail. We deployed $149,500 for 35 trail recovery and clean up projects in Atlantic Canada, helping make sure communities dont lose access to the Trail due to the damage.

Canadians reap critical health, social and economic benefits from trails, and continued trail investment improves citizens quality of life and meets the needs of growing communities while boosting domestic tourism. The importance of trails to the health and well-being of Canadians was on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many people turned to the outdoors to socialize and improve their mental health safely.

We are proud to make these important investments, as they represent an opportunity to improve the lives of Canadians by contributing to local economies, to environmental sustainability, conservation and biodiversity enhancement  and to the mental health and well-being of citizens. They also support our commitment to making the Trail more diverse, inclusive and accessible, said McMahon.

Our investments also support our work to deliver on Canadas first National Trail Tourism Strategy through destination development initiatives across Canada. Just this year, I was proud to join with partners on both sides of the Canada-US border to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a trail destination experience, connecting Trans Canada Trail to Michigans trail network, helping bolster tourism and make Canadian trails more accessible to our American neighbours.

McMahon also highlighted the importance of investments in local trail organizations, which the Trail Funding Program supports: The work of maintaining, improving and developing the Trail for future generations simply doesnt happen without the hard work and dedication of the over 500 local trail organizations, and local volunteers who support trails in communities across Canada, as well as our provincial/territorial partners. We are grateful to all of the dedicated volunteers, organizations and municipal staff across the country who contribute to building and maintaining local trails.

Interviews are available, on request, with Eleanor McMahon, President & CEO, Trans Canada Trail.

Resources:

Media Contact

Angela Garde

PR & Communications Manager, Trans Canada Trail

T: 1.800.465.3636 ext. 4358

agarde@tctrail.ca

About Trans Canada Trail

The Trans Canada Trail (the Trail) is the longest recreational trail in the world, spanning over 28,000 kilometres on land and water. Linking three oceans  the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic  the Trail connects 15,000 rural, urban and Indigenous communities across every province and territory. It is a ribbon that connects Canadas diverse landscapes, seasons, people and experiences, and fosters unity, collaboration and connectedness. Trans Canada Trail is a registered charity and stewards this national trail in collaboration with local Trail partners. With funding from the Government of Canada through Parks Canada, and investments from all levels of government and generous donors, Trans Canada Trail is the largest investor in trail infrastructure projects in Canada, supporting improvements, growth and enhancements for generations to come. tctrail.ca

Where to find us on social:

Facebook: TCTrailSentierTC

Twitter: TCTrail

Instagram: transcanadatrail

LinkedIn: trans-canada-trail

YouTube: thetranscanadatrail
Amogys proprietary ammonia-to-power system will be considered for future shipping projects with Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA) and external partners.

Collaboration represents an essential step toward broader adoption of ammonia as a next-generation, carbon-free fuel for the global economy and shipping industry.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. and OSLO, Norway, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amogy Inc ., a pioneer of emission-free, energy-dense ammonia power solutions has signed a collaboration agreement with Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA), a decarbonization-focused subsidiary of leading global ammonia producer, Yara International ASA. Under this memorandum of understanding (MOU), Yara will consider Amogys ammonia-to-power system as a zero-emissions solution for use within future shipping projects. The companies will also pursue opportunities with external partners, including shipowners, for Amogy to deliver its proprietary technology and YCA to deliver Clean Ammonia.

Based in Oslo, Norway, Yara operates the largest global ammonia network, which includes ships, access to ammonia terminals, and ammonia production and consumption sites across the world. YCA, a subsidiary of Yara, has large ambitions to commercialize the application of low carbon Blue and renewable Green Ammonia to enable decarbonization of hard to abate industries, including the application of Clean Ammonia as a marine fuel. YCA is currently building an ammonia bunkering network in Scandinavia with the first Bunker Barge to be operational in 2024.

Amogy has developed a proprietary ammonia-to-power platform, already demonstrated in a drone and heavy-duty tractor , which relies on a unique ammonia cracking technology in which hydrogen is extracted from ammonia on-board for use in a fuel cell. Amogy is currently scaling this energy-dense, zero-carbon power system for use in maritime vessels, to support the decarbonization of global shipping. Amogy also recently announced the first commercial deployment of its technology in an ammonia tank barge in 2023, in partnership with Southern Devall.

This collaboration with Yara Clean Ammonia is a natural next step for Amogy following the establishment of our Norway operations earlier this year, said Seonghoon Woo, Co-Founder and CEO of Amogy. YCA operates a vast global ammonia network and understands the value of the compound as a next-generation fuel to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors, like shipping. This agreement provides a fantastic opportunity for Amogy to work alongside innovators in this space to support further demonstrations of our technology in maritime vessels.

As Amogy pursues commercialization of its technology within oceangoing vessels, YCA and Amogy will collaborate for these efforts, including potential integrations in tugboats, barges, offshore supply vessels and other ships.

Amogys work with Yara Clean Ammonia will provide us with more opportunities to demonstrate and deliver ammonia-to-power technologies to the maritime sector, said Christian Berg, Managing Director for Amogy Norway. As a former member of their team, Im very familiar with YCAs commitment to driving innovation in ammonia production and transportation to support cleaner shipping and food production. With access to YCAs ammonia and partner portfolio, Amogy can introduce proven zero-carbon fueling opportunities to more changemakers around the world and move toward our goal of decarbonizing the transportation industry by 2050.

The global green ammonia market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 94.6% through 2030. With numerous entities citing ambitious decarbonization goals for transportation and shipping, alternative fuel and power solutions are required to meet these standards. Ammonia is already a globally-traded commodity backed by existing infrastructure and transportation networks. The production of clean ammonia further lowers the environmental impact of the compound for use in transportation and food production applications. Partnerships between companies like Amogy and Yara Clean Ammonia are essential to demonstrate ammonia as a zero-carbon fuel solution and identify new use cases for clean ammonia within global supply chains.

At Yara Clean Ammonia, we take our role within the ammonia and hydrogen ecosystem very seriously. Through this collaboration with Amogy, we can explore valuable applications for ammonia as a fuel within the transportation, export and trading networks, said Magnus Krogh Ankarstrand, president of Yara Clean Ammonia. Were excited to support their efforts to further demonstrate the viability of ammonia power technologies in the shipping industry and explore opportunities to integrate their platform into our operations as well as the introduction of their technology to existing and future partnerships, as a future solution for decarbonization.

About Amogy

Amogy offers ammonia-based, emission-free, high energy-density power solutions to decarbonize transportation for a sustainable future. Founded in 2020 by four MIT PhD alumni with a shared vision, Amogy aims to enable the decarbonization of the heavy-duty transportation sector, accelerating the global journey towards Net Zero 2050. The companys investors include Amazons Climate Pledge Fund, AP Ventures, SK Innovation, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and DCVC. To date, Amogys scalable ammonia-powered, zero-emissions energy system has been demonstrated with success in a drone and heavy-duty tractor. More info at: www.amogy.co .

About Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA)

Yara grows knowledge to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet. Yara Clean Ammonia is uniquely positioned to enable the hydrogen economy in a market expected to grow substantially over the next decades. We aim at significantly strengthening our leading global position as the worlds largest ammonia distributor, unlocking the green and blue value chains, and driving the development of clean ammonia globally.

Building on Yaras leading experience within global ammonia production, logistics and trade, Yara Clean Ammonia works towards capturing growth opportunities in low-emission fuel for shipping and power, carbon-free food pro-duction and ammonia for industrial applications.

Yara Clean Ammonia operates the largest global ammonia network with 12 ships and has access to 18 ammonia terminals and multiple ammonia production and consumption sites across the world, through Yara. Revenues and EBITDA for the last 12 months were USD 4,111 million and USD 198 million respectively as per Q3 2022. Yara Clean Ammonia is headquartered in Oslo, Norway

www.yaracleanammonia.com

Media inquiries:

For Amogy:

amogy@fischtankpr.com

For YCA:

Hilde Steinfeld

hilde.steinfeld@yara.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5c19e72b-8830-4b69-ad55-d4145e5a1a20
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DENVER, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cologix , North Americas leading network-neutral interconnection and hyperscale edge data center company, today announced the addition of a fourth Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute onramp in Canada and additional capacity at an existing ExpressRoute onramp at its TOR1 digital edge data center with speeds up to 100 Gbps.



We are happy to expand our collaboration with Microsoft in major markets across Canada, said Cologixs Chief Revenue Officer Chris Heinrich. This continued growth gives our customers greater access to the private connections, optimized speed and reliability of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, one of the largest cloud service providers in the world.

The latest expansion adds an Azure ExpressRoute onramp at Cologixs MTL7 digital edge data center located in downtown Montreal. This facility is connected to Montreals primary carrier hotel in Cologixs MTL3 digital edge data center via high-count dark fiber and to 10 additional Cologix Montreal data centers across the metro area. Additionally, capacity has been increased at the current Azure ExpressRoute onramp at Cologixs TOR1 digital edge data center at 151 Front Street in Toronto, Canadas largest carrier hotel.

Cologix now has ExpressRoute onramps, which support private connections to Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365, at four data centers located in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. In addition to the new and expanded onramps in Montreal and Toronto, Cologix has existing ExpressRoute onramps at a second Montreal site, its MTL3 digital edge data center , and at its VAN1 digital edge data center located in Vancouvers primary carrier hotel.

Sudha Mahajan, Partner, Product Management at Microsoft said the company is pleased to partner with Cologix to deliver services to end users at the digital edge. In todays world of multicloud strategies, we understand the importance of empowering businesses with rapid data access and portability. Were glad to be continuing that momentum with quality interconnectivity providers like Cologix.

Customers can access Azure ExpressRoute through Cologix Access Marketplace for fast, secure, on-demand and software-enabled interconnection. The easy-to-use interconnection product enables customers to automatically connect with cloud, carrier and other providers in the companys vast ecosystem. Cologix Access Marketplace is growing rapidly to showcase the company's portfolio of interconnection partners, including more than 700 networks, 350 cloud providers and 30 North American onramps that make up Cologixs robust ecosystem.

Azure ExpressRoute provides key benefits to enterprises looking to build hybrid cloud environments, including:

Private connections that bypass the public internet

Lower latency by traversing the shortest path to Azure

Predictability and optimized speed when leveraging Azure ExpressRoute

Scalable, densely connected and customizable colocation opportunities

By expanding the Cologix interconnection ecosystem with high-speed, private hyperscale providers like Microsoft, were giving our customers a strategic advantage as they continue to build and scale their cloud infrastructures at the digital edge, said Heinrich. Its another example of how Cologix continues to enhance interconnection options for our customers around the world.

About Cologix Inc.

Cologix provides carrier- and cloud-neutral hyperscale edge data centers and services across North America. Cologix is the interconnection hub for cloud service providers, carriers and a rich ecosystem of partners who want to deploy applications at the very edge across Canada and the U.S. With a growing portfolio of next generation facilities that meet the unique requirements for hyperscale growth with deep connectivity, Cologix offers massive scale and tailor-made data center solutions to accelerate customers digital transformation. For on-demand connectivity for scale and control, Cologix Access Marketplace provides fast, reliable, self-service provisioning. For a tour of one of our data centers in Ashburn, Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Silicon Valley, Toronto or Vancouver visit Cologix or email . Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter .

Media Contact for Cologix:

Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)

jsa_cologix@jsa.n et

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8651f947-8cdc-43f7-a3df-c071f1402732




Reston, Virginia, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Future Business Leaders of America, Inc. (FBLA), the nations largest business Career and Technical Student Organization, announced today that thousands of middle school and high school students and their advisers from across the country will be attending the 2022 FBLA National Fall Leadership Conferences (NFLCs) in Denver, Colorado, and Orlando, Florida. The conference in Denver will take place November 11-12, while the Orlando conference will be held November 18-19.

More than 2,500 students will participate in deep-dive learning tracks that will allow them to hone their skills in a specific area. Learning track areas include communications, entrepreneurship, ethics, financial literacy, leadership, and workforce readiness. Meanwhile, FBLA is supporting career and technical educators with learning tracks focused on integrating FBLAs leadership and workforce development experiences into the classroom.

Our fall conferences are all about leadership and career development for high school and middle school students, FBLA President & CEO Alexander T. Graham said. Students have the opportunity to network directly with top professionals from todays hottest fields and connect with leading colleges and universities to plan their next steps in higher education.

Bryant Collier, an FBLA alumnus and the CEO of B. Collier Speaks, will deliver the keynote address at both conferences. He will be joined in Orlando for a discussion about leadership and success by Tim Schurrer, CEO of David Novak Leadership and author of The Secret Society of Success: Stop Chasing the Spotlight and Learn to Enjoy Your Work (and Life) Again.

The leaders who inspire me the most are those who help others win and dont worry much about how much credit they get in return (if any at all), Schurrer said. Im delighted to have the opportunity to share with FBLA members how they can model this approach in their own leadership, impacting their communities while they help others be at their best.

Future Business Leaders of America, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) education association with active middle school, high school, and college chapters worldwide. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. The association is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.fbla.org.
WESTPORT, Conn., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HMG Strategy, the Worlds #1 digital platform for enabling technology executives to reimagine the enterprise and reshape the business world and recently recognized as a Top 10 Producer of Tech Events by Business Chief, is excited to be hosting its 2022 Minneapolis CIO Executive Leadership Summit at the Metropolitan Ballroom & Clubroom in Golden Valley, MN on November 17. HMG Strategys highly interactive events bring together the worlds most distinguished and innovative business technology and security leaders to discuss the most pressing leadership, innovation, strategic, cultural, technology and career challenges and opportunities that they face today  and into the future.



World-class technology leaders and industry experts speaking at this popular in-person event will share how CIOs and technology executives are promoting their personal brands to help attract and retain employees in a tight labor market.

Companies are competing for talent on a global scale, said Hunter Muller, Founder and CEO of HMG Strategy. Savvy CIOs and technology executives position their personal brands and leadership styles to help attract and retain the skills and personnel needed to enable their organizations to achieve their business goals.

Top-tier CIOs, CISOs and technology executives speaking at the 2022 Minneapolis CIO Executive Leadership Summit will include:

Scott Ammon , Senior Cybersecurity Solutions Principal, Insight Solutions

, Senior Cybersecurity Solutions Principal, Insight Solutions Sridher Arumugham , Sr. Principal Advisory Services Consultant  Data Strategy/Data Governance, Informatica

, Sr. Principal Advisory Services Consultant  Data Strategy/Data Governance, Informatica Ramesh Babu , CIO, Digi-Key

, CIO, Digi-Key Patricia Connolly , CEO, Founding Partner, SMC Squared

, CEO, Founding Partner, SMC Squared Stephen M.R. Covey , Global authority on trust, leadership and culture, The FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice

, Global authority on trust, leadership and culture, The FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice Tom Cullen , CIO, Corsair

, CIO, Corsair Michael Downs , CTO, Evolving Solutions

, CTO, Evolving Solutions Sarah Engstrom , CISO and VP IT Security, Productivity & Privacy, CHS Inc.

, CISO and VP IT Security, Productivity & Privacy, CHS Inc. Rahoul Ghose , CIO, ECMC Group

, CIO, ECMC Group Ryan Gilligan , VP, JM Search

, VP, JM Search Luis Giraldo , RVP, Business Value Consulting, OutSystems

, RVP, Business Value Consulting, OutSystems Judy Hatchett , VP Information Security & CISO, Surescripts

, VP Information Security & CISO, Surescripts Steven John , CIO at Aramark Uniform Services, AmeriPride Services and Aramark Refreshment Services, Aramark

, CIO at Aramark Uniform Services, AmeriPride Services and Aramark Refreshment Services, Aramark Dennis Keane , CIO, Red Wing Shoe Company

, CIO, Red Wing Shoe Company Harold Knutson , Strategic IT Consultant & Digital Thought Partner, Bayside Associates, LLC

, Strategic IT Consultant & Digital Thought Partner, Bayside Associates, LLC Doug Koch , Chief Information Officer, Edina Realty

, Chief Information Officer, Edina Realty Michael Lacey , Founder & CEO, Digineer

, Founder & CEO, Digineer Aimee Martin , Director, Information Security, Compliance and PMO, Vista Outdoor Inc.

, Director, Information Security, Compliance and PMO, Vista Outdoor Inc. Kristin McKenzie , Senior Director, IT, Digi-Key

, Senior Director, IT, Digi-Key Mark Murphy , VP & CIO, St. Jude Medical

, VP & CIO, St. Jude Medical Shamla Naidoo , Head of Cloud Strategy, Netskope; Board Director, QBE, SAC, and Reference Point

, Head of Cloud Strategy, Netskope; Board Director, QBE, SAC, and Reference Point Anudeep Parha r, Chief Operating Officer & General Manager PKI and IoT Solutions BU, Entrust Datacard

r, Chief Operating Officer & General Manager PKI and IoT Solutions BU, Entrust Datacard Mary Lynne Perushek , CIO, Mortenson

, CIO, Mortenson Christine Pouliot , CEO, Evocent Executive Leadership

, CEO, Evocent Executive Leadership Tim Rolfing , Senior Director, M&A Technology Integration Portfolio Management, HUB International; Board President, SIM Minnesota

, Senior Director, M&A Technology Integration Portfolio Management, HUB International; Board President, SIM Minnesota Hillary Spreizer , President, The Latitude Group

, President, The Latitude Group Eric Tan , CIO, Coupa Software

, CIO, Coupa Software Greg Thayer, CISO, New Era Technology

Valued Partners for the 2022 Minneapolis CIO Executive Leadership Summit include 8x8, Akamai, Automation Anywhere, BetterCloud, Coupa, Darktrace, Delphix, Evolving Solutions, Fortinet, Genesys Works, Gigamon, HashiCorp, Imperva, Informatica, Insight, The Judge Group, LastPass, Moveworks, Netskope, Nutanix, OutSystems, Palo Alto Networks, Ping Identity, RingCentral, SafeGuard Cyber, SIM Minnesota, SMC2, Tanium, Tonkean, Upwork, Zoom, and Zscaler.

To learn more about the 2022 Minneapolis CIO Executive Leadership Summit and to register for the event, click here.

HMG Strategy will also be hosting its 2022 Charlotte IT Executive Leadership Summit in Partnership with SIM Charlotte on November 10 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Charlotte Ayrsley. CIOs, CISOs and industry executives at this popular in-person event will explore the role of technology leaders in driving business innovation.

World-class technology executives speaking at the 2022 Charlotte IT Executive Leadership Summit in Partnership with SIM Charlotte will include:

Lekha Banerjee , SVP Data, Engineering Technology Executive, Truist

, SVP Data, Engineering Technology Executive, Truist Michael Brown , Field CISO, Financial Services, Fortinet

, Field CISO, Financial Services, Fortinet Todd Carlson , VP of IT, Centene Corporation

, VP of IT, Centene Corporation Jonathan Desrochers , CISO & EVP, Red Ventures

, CISO & EVP, Red Ventures Daidre Fanis , SVP & Associate Partner, M&S Consulting; SIM Charlotte Chapter  SIM Women in Tech Board Member

, SVP & Associate Partner, M&S Consulting; SIM Charlotte Chapter  SIM Women in Tech Board Member Michael Ferguson , Director of Security Transformation, Netskope

, Director of Security Transformation, Netskope Angelic Gibson , CIO, AvidXchange

, CIO, AvidXchange Natalie Greenwood , Sr. Principal Consultant, Advisory Services, Informatica

, Sr. Principal Consultant, Advisory Services, Informatica Toni Harrison-Hogan , Senior Director of Technology, Under Armour

, Senior Director of Technology, Under Armour Rama Kandala , CIO  Optical Communications, Life Science, Corning International

, CIO  Optical Communications, Life Science, Corning International Michael LaVallee , Managing Partner, Jobplex

, Managing Partner, Jobplex Tony Leng , Managing Partner, Practice Lead and OMP, Diversified Search

, Managing Partner, Practice Lead and OMP, Diversified Search Chris Long , Director of Software Development, Centene Corporation; VP & President-Elect, SIM Charlotte

, Director of Software Development, Centene Corporation; VP & President-Elect, SIM Charlotte Jim Marascio , COO & CTO, DART Innovation; President, SIM Charlotte

, COO & CTO, DART Innovation; President, SIM Charlotte Sean Mee , Manager, Solution Architecture|U.S. & Canada East, OutSystems

, Manager, Solution Architecture|U.S. & Canada East, OutSystems Steven Michaels , VP Technology Services, Intermountain Healthcare

, VP Technology Services, Intermountain Healthcare John Murdock , Senior Partner, Executive Search Partners LLC

, Senior Partner, Executive Search Partners LLC Raja Musunuru , CTO, TIFIN Wealth

, CTO, TIFIN Wealth Sathish Muthukrishnan , Chief Information, Data and Digital Officer, Ally Financial, Inc.

, Chief Information, Data and Digital Officer, Ally Financial, Inc. Jaimee Robles , SVP, Centene Corporation

, SVP, Centene Corporation Ken Spangler , EVP IT  CIO Global OpCo Technologies: Express, Ground, Freight, Logistics, FedEx Corporation

, EVP IT  CIO Global OpCo Technologies: Express, Ground, Freight, Logistics, FedEx Corporation Evan Taylor , SVP, NFP

, SVP, NFP Chris Terhune , SVP, Technology Business Management, LPL Financial

, SVP, Technology Business Management, LPL Financial Lalit Thakur , SVP & Chief Data Officer, American Tire Distributors

, SVP & Chief Data Officer, American Tire Distributors Clint Watson , SVP, Digital Products & Services Business Operations, Digital Products & Services, Novant Health

, SVP, Digital Products & Services Business Operations, Digital Products & Services, Novant Health Angela Yochem, EVP, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer, Novant Health

Valued Partners for the 2022 Charlotte IT Executive Leadership Summit in Partnership with SIM Charlotte include 8x8, Akamai, BetterCloud, the Charlotte Area Technology Cooperative (CATC), Darktrace, Delphix, Denodo, Fortinet, Informatica, LastPass, MongoDB, Netskope, the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA), Nutanix, OutSystems, Palo Alto Networks, Ping Identity, RingCentral, SafeGuard Cyber, ScienceLogic, SentinelOne, SIM Charlotte Region, Tonkean, Upwork, Zoom, and Zscaler.

To learn more about the 2022 Charlotte IT Executive Leadership Summit in Partnership with SIM Charlotte and to register for the event, click here.

HMG Strategy will also be hosting its 2022 Houston CIO Executive Leadership Summit at Champions Golf Club on November 15. Top-tier technology leaders and industry experts speaking at this popular in-person event will share insights on what it takes for technology executives to become boardroom-ready.

Prominent CIOs, CISOs and industry leaders speaking at the 2022 Houston CIO Executive Leadership Summit on November 15 will include:

Troy Ament , Field CISO, Fortinet

, Field CISO, Fortinet Bhupesh Arora , VP & CIO, Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P.

, VP & CIO, Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. Renee Arrington , President, COO & Director, Pearson Partners International, Inc.

, President, COO & Director, Pearson Partners International, Inc. Trent Aulbaugh , Partner, Egon Zehnder

, Partner, Egon Zehnder Mack Campbell , Senior Development Director, NPower

, Senior Development Director, NPower Jesse Carrillo , Chief Innovation Officer, The Howard Hughes Corporation

, Chief Innovation Officer, The Howard Hughes Corporation Joe Carroll , CIO, CITGO Petroleum Corporation

, CIO, CITGO Petroleum Corporation George Crawford , CIO/CISO/Partner, Catapult Energy Services Group, LLP

, CIO/CISO/Partner, Catapult Energy Services Group, LLP Jamey Cummings , Partner  Cybersecurity and Technology, JM Search

, Partner  Cybersecurity and Technology, JM Search Dan Durkin , Managing Director of Information Technology, YES Prep Public Schools

, Managing Director of Information Technology, YES Prep Public Schools Michael Ferguson , Director of Security Transformation, Netskope

, Director of Security Transformation, Netskope Rashmi Jain , CIO, Careington International Corporation

, CIO, Careington International Corporation Shachella James , VP IT Infrastructure, CenterPoint Energy

, VP IT Infrastructure, CenterPoint Energy Russell Jukes , VP Application Development, DXC Technology

, VP Application Development, DXC Technology Keith Landau , Managing Director Information Technology Services, Deloitte

, Managing Director Information Technology Services, Deloitte Antonio Marin , CIO, U.S. Med-Equip, LLC

, CIO, U.S. Med-Equip, LLC Jay Modh , Founder & CEO, IntuitiveVC, Intuitive.Cloud

, Founder & CEO, IntuitiveVC, Intuitive.Cloud Rebecca Mookerjee , Senior Director of IT, Parker Wellbore

, Senior Director of IT, Parker Wellbore Vikas Parikh , Chief Architect, LyondellBasell

, Chief Architect, LyondellBasell Nicholas Parrotta , President, Digital Transformation Solutions Business, Harman International

, President, Digital Transformation Solutions Business, Harman International Tom Peck , EVP, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Sysco

, EVP, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Sysco Ken Piddington , VP & CIO, U.S. Silica Company

, VP & CIO, U.S. Silica Company Wayne Shurts , Former EVP & CTO, Sysco

, Former EVP & CTO, Sysco Kristie Simonette , SVP, Strategic Services, Camden Living

, SVP, Strategic Services, Camden Living Diego Fonseca de Souza , Global CISO, Cummins Inc.

, Global CISO, Cummins Inc. Brendan Sullivan , SVP Intelligent Edge Solutions, Viasat

, SVP Intelligent Edge Solutions, Viasat Mark Taylor , CEO, Society for Information Management

, CEO, Society for Information Management Teresa Tonthat , VP of Information Services & CISO, Texas Childrens

, VP of Information Services & CISO, Texas Childrens Clif Triplett, Executive Director, KEARNEY



Valued Partners for the 2022 Houston CIO Executive Leadership Summit include 8x8, Akamai, BetterCloud, Box, Darktrace, Delphix, Fortinet, Genesys Works, Harman, Intuitive.Cloud, LastPass, Meriplex, Netskope, NPower, Nutanix, Optum, Palo Alto Networks, Ping Identity, RingCentral, SafeGuard Cyber, SIM Houston, Tonkean, Upwork, Zoom, and Zscaler.

To learn more about the 2022 Houston CIO Executive Leadership Summit and to register for the event, click here.

To learn more about HMG Strategys upcoming CIO and CISO Summits, click here.

About HMG Strategy

HMG Strategy is the world's leading digital platform for technology executives to reimagine the enterprise and reshape the business world. The HMG Strategy global network consists of more than 400,000 CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, CDOs, senior business technology executives, search industry executives, venture capitalists, industry experts and world-class thought leaders.

HMG Strategys global media model generates more than one million impressions per week, providing vast opportunities for business technology leaders and sponsor partners to promote themselves and their brands.

HMG Strategy was founded in 2008 by Hunter Muller, a leadership expert who has worked side-by-side with Fortune 2000 executives with strategic planning and career ascent for the past 30+ years.

HMG Strategys regional and virtual CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Series, authored books and Digital Resource Center deliver unique, peer-driven guidance from CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, CDOs and technology executives on leadership, innovation, transformation and career ascent.

HMG Strategy offers a range of peer-led research services such as its CIO & CISO Executive Leadership Alliance (CELA) program which bring together the worlds top CIOs, CISOs and technology executives to brainstorm on the top opportunities and challenges facing them in their roles.

HMG Strategys Global Advisory Services is a unique set of research services that are designed to keep business technology executives up to speed on the latest leadership, business, technology and global geo-economic trends that are impacting businesses and industries.

To learn more about the 7 Pillars of Trust for HMG Strategy's unique business model, click here .

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9aea0fbe-360e-4e0f-a733-f8d8ed2ab451
Arcadia, CA, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Segway will showcase its products at Walmarts annual Toyland holiday event, in Bentonville, Arkansas, on November 11th, 2022. Segway will be among many vendors exhibiting products to the estimated 30,000 attendees. Bentonville is home to the headquarters of Walmart, and many attendees will be affiliated with the mega-retailer. The one-day event is open to the public, features live music, and will let folks mingle with friends and loved ones in historic Lawrence Plaza. The Segway test drive booth will be located at the southwest corner of Lawrence Plaza.

At the Segway experience, event-goers can test drive products, receive free giveaways, and learn more about their best-in-class electric scooters and GoKarts from the Segway team on-site. Guests at the Segway booth will also get a chance to view the new limited edition Bumblebee GoKart Pro, part of the Segway Transformers brand collaboration.

Toyland will offer guests the thrill of test-driving a host of Segway products around a race track. The Zing C9 electric kickscooter will be available for children to zip around on. The C9 (a Walmart exclusive) is the premier electric kickscooter for children aged 8-14, offering durability and safety. Additionally available for testing, the C15 electric kickscooter (available at Sams Club) is a fast and stylish choice for children aged 10 and up.

The D18W, F30S, and GoKart Pro will be among the mix, available to test-ride. The D18W (a Walmart exclusive) is an entry-level scooter designed for beginners with an 11.2 miles range and top speed of 15.5 mph. The F30S (only available at Sams Club and Walmart) is a foldable and portable e-scooter solution with an 18.6 miles range and top speed of 15.5 mph. The GoKart Pro is inspired by F1, engineered for speed, and built for drifting. The GoKart Pro has an adjustable frame to accommodate most people ages 14+ years old and up.

In addition, Segway partners with Wright's BBQ for 2022 Toyland. Wrights is an Arkansas institution serving up authentic southern BBQ cooked on 100% wood fire. Customers can redeem their Segway purchase of $150 or more from any Sams Club or Walmart in-store or online receipt for a Segway Thrill Meal that includes an entree, cole slaw, and a beverage. The promotion will run from 11/11-11/30.

# # #

About Segway-Ninebot

Segway-Ninebot is a global enterprise in the fields of intelligent short-distance transportation and service robots. In 1999, Segway was established in Bedford NH, US, which is the world leader of commercial-grade, electric and self-balancing personal transportation. Ninebot is an intelligent short-distance transportation equipment operator integrating R&D, production, sales, and service, established in Beijing, in 2012. As Segway and Ninebot completed a strategic combination in 2015, Segway-Ninebot came into being. At present, the company's businesses are all around the world, and have subsidiaries in Beijing, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Amsterdam, Seoul, Paris, Barcelona, Munich, Shanghai, Changzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou. Its products are sold in more than 225 countries and regions. With its world-renowned intellectual property, Segway-Ninebot will create more products, leading users and the entire industry into the future.

For press inquiries:

Attachment
Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



The Mabra Law Firm is proud to offer reduced legal fees during the month of November to United States Veterans and Active Military personnel. The personal injury law firm in Georgia has announced the offer to show its gratitude for the dedicated service and great sacrifices made by Veterans and Active Military members. For more information, visit this link: https://mabrafirm.com/veterans

The Mabra Firm has been providing legal assistance to personal injury accident victims in Georgia since 2007. Their top accident attorneys in Atlanta handle car accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, catastrophic injuries, wrongful death, and premises liability cases.

Ronnie Mabra understands the physical pain, emotional pain, and stress that an accident victim undergoes. They are also aware of a victim's financial losses due to the accident. The Mabra Firm has experienced accident lawyers in Atlanta who stand up for the rights of injured Georgians.

The Mabra Firm's personal injury attorneys in Atlanta are grateful to help Veterans and Active Military personnel with their personal injury needs. Mabra says, The Mabra Law Firm is pleased to offer reduced legal fees in the month of November to all those that serve and have served our great Nation. It's our way of saying thank you for your service and sacrifices."

Personal injury lawyers in Atlanta with The Mabra Firm are dedicated to helping accident victims. They are friendly and passionate about helping accident victims get justice. They thoroughly investigate, evaluate, and prepare the case on behalf of accident victims to improve their chances of success.

https://youtu.be/-24AdbqHE9Q

We fight tirelessly on your behalf, and we lend a helping hand to ensure that your physical, mental, and emotional needs are met, states Mabra, the top Atlanta accident lawyer, adding, "We're proud to help our Veterans and Active Military personnel get justice in a personal injury accident in Georgia." Accident victims can fill out a form on The Mabra Firm's website to schedule a free consultation with the top Atlanta personal injury lawyers.

###

For more information about The Mabra Law Firm, contact the company here:



The Mabra Law Firm

Ronnie Mabra

(404) 344-5255

1231 Booth St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
WASHINGTON, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Humanity 2.0, a Non-Profit (Non-Government Organization) focused on identifying and removing the most significant impediments to human flourishing through technology, media, and thought-leadership, in collaboration with public, private and faith based organizations, announced today it has signed a strategic public-private partnership with FTX Europe.



The partnership will support and power Humanity 2.0's core Web3 initiatives utilizing FTX blockchain experience, NFT and digitalization technology in conjunction with a robust digital payment platform to facilitate impact initiatives.

Matthew Sanders, CEO of Humanity 2.0 Foundation commented; Working with the visionary and principled people at FTX has been a great privilege and I am excited about how technology is going to be leveraged to remove impediments to human flourishing. This partnership is an epic win for humanity and will accelerate our framework and impact goals.

We are excited about a partnership with Humanity 2.0 to utilize our experience, technology, and community to help advance human flourishing in novel ways. We hope to make a real impact through this partnership and our collaborations. commented Patrick Gruhn, Head of FTX Europe AG.

About FTX Europe

FTX Europe with its holding company in Switzerland, is the European and Middle East division of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange built by traders, for traders. Through FTX Europe, users in the European Economic Area and the Middle East can access FTXs innovative products, including industry-leading derivatives, options and volatility products, tokenized stocks, and other services and products.

To learn more about FTX Europe & MENA, please visit: https://ftx.com/eu

About Humanity 2.0

Humanity 2.0 is a Non-Profit NGO (Non-Government Organization) focused on facilitating collaborative ventures between the traditionally siloed public, private and faith-based sectors. Its mission is to identify impediments to human flourishing and then work collaboratively across sectors to remove them by sourcing and scaling bold and innovative solutions.

Humanity 2.0 is building a new model for human cooperation that enables us to transcend the boundaries and silos we have created and unite in realizing a better world for the next generation.

For more information humanity2-0.org

CONTACTS

Communications and Partnership Inquiries:

Matt Bird

CEO

CommPro Worldwide

P: +1 646.401.4499

E: matt@commpro.com

Additional Inquiries:

info@humanity2-0.org
TORONTO, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This winter, Sault Ste. Marie residents can once again experience the destination that inspired the works of Ernest Hemingway with a weekly flight to Cayo Coco, Cuba on board Sunwing Airlines, starting this December. Offering quintessential beach vacations in the Jardines del Rey island chain with a host of all inclusive resorts to call home, customers can recharge on Cayo Cocos white-sand shores, explore colourful coral reefs or spot exotic species in the surrounding everglades and mangroves, including one of the worlds largest native pink flamingo colonies.



As a popular vacation destination in Cuba for Sunwing travellers, our return to Sault Ste. Marie International Airport with Tuesday flights to Cayo Coco is something to celebrate, said Andrew Dawson, President of Tour Operations for Sunwing. With so much to offer in destination, our customers in Sault Ste. Marie can do more, explore more and celebrate more in a paradise that they love with easy flight access from their local airport.

The Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corporation (SSMADC) is very excited to see Sunwing flight service resume as it is a very promising sign of a return to normal following almost three years of the pandemic, said Terry Bos, President and CEO at SSMADC. Cuba has always been a destination that the residents of Sault Ste. Marie have enjoyed travelling to, and were looking forward to heading back with Sunwing.

Sunwing will be offering weekly flights from Sault Ste. Marie to Cayo Coco on Tuesdays starting on December 13, 2022 until April 11, 2023.

Sault Ste. Marie residents looking to jet off for a spontaneous last-minute getaway to Cuba can take their pick of affordable vacation packages to the charming Starfish Cayo Guillermo for family-friendly adventures on land or at sea, or the award-winning Memories Caribe Beach Resort offering romantic adults only escapes and epic getaways with friends.

Customers can get more peace of mind on their getaways to Cayo Coco when they add one of Sunwings comprehensive travel insurance options to their vacation bookings this winter.

*Terms and conditions apply.

About Sunwing

The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing has more flights to the south than any other leisure carrier with convenient direct service from airports across Canada to popular sun destinations across the U.S.A., Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. This scale enables Sunwing to offer customers exclusive deals at top-rated resorts in the most popular vacation destinations as well as cruise packages and seasonal domestic flight service. Sunwing customers benefit from the assistance of the companys own knowledgeable destination representatives, who greet them upon arrival and support them throughout their vacation journey. The company supports the communities where it operates through the Sunwing Foundation, a charitable initiative focused on the support and development of youth and humanitarian aid.

For more information:

Melanie Anne Filipp

Senior Director, Corporate Communications & Media Relations

Sunwing Travel Group

1-800-387-5602 | media@sunwing.ca

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0d77daeb-da97-4033-9716-ee73e70add7f
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HostDime, a pioneer in global edge data center infrastructure, has released its design plans for its newest next-generation, purpose-built Tier IV data center facility in Guadalajara, Mexico, which will start construction in Q1 2023. HostDime is the owner, developer, and operator of this new data center facility, nicknamed "Andromeda".

Back in July 2022, HostDime announced that they purchased the three-acre land parcel in the Guadalajara, Mexico metro area; this will be HostDime's second carrier-neutral Guadalajara data center, with their current 20,000-square-feet facility currently at 80% capacity.

This new Mexico Data Center facility design will follow HostDime's Tier IV Data Center portfolio platform design standards, a rarity in the country. Certified by the Uptime Institute, it will only be the second Tier IV public data center in Mexico. Tier IV is the highest class certification a data center can receive. Often referred to as the four 9's, Tier IV data centers have 99.99% availability and often achieve 100% uptime due to their highly redundant power infrastructure. The facility will also incorporate ICREA V standards and thus will also be ICREA V certified by ICREA (International Computer Room Experts Association).

The new facility follows the iconic HostDime contemporary style of all the facilities it designs and builds. This style is a combination of the distinguished HostDime next-gen data center design, purpose-built highly redundant Tier IV power infrastructure, and client-centric colocation amenities. The data center facility will be 100,000 sq. feet in total size with 3MW of critical IT load capacity. The facility will feature three floors of data center space which will include data halls for private data center suites, colocation cage space, private lockable colocation racks, diverse MMR carrier rooms for interconnection, and a specific data hall for hybrid-cloud workload use cases.

The design of this new facility also incorporates additional vertical office floors on the front part of the data center. These office floors will accommodate local demand HostDime Mexico is seeing from potential clients who not only want to be tenants in the data center but also want to be office tenants. These office floors are not the typical office build out, as they will inherit the highly redundant power infrastructure being implemented in the data center. So this will accommodate unique use cases by companies who seek specialized technology office space while also being tenants of the data center.

"We are very excited to release the design of HostDime's New Data Center in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in the cradle of innovation, 'The Silicon Valley of Mexico'. Guadalajara has innovative technology roots and being the second largest metropolitan city in Mexico, we know this new data center facility will properly serve the surrounding market. This data center will be constructed based on Tier IV and ICREA V standards. In addition, it will comply with all PCI data security standards, including PCI ISO 27001, ISO 14001, and ISO 9001 certifications, thus guaranteeing best processes and practices." - Eduardo Basulto Jimenez, CEO of HostDime Mexico

The new HostDime facility will also be home to Guadalajara, Mexico's first peering exchange (GDL-IX), which will interconnect with other leading peering exchanges in other Mexico cities. To foster the growth of this new GDL peering exchange, HostDime has facilitated four diverse manhole entries into the facility where all local carriers can enter the facility to extend their fiber into the diverse Meet Me Rooms. The facility expects entry from leading local carriers such as Marcatel, MetroCarrier, Axtel, TotalPlay, Alestra, Cogent, Bestel, Flo Networks (Transtelco), and Telmex. This GDL peering exchange ecosystem will allow carriers and tenants to interconnect and be able to serve content to over 90% of the population in Mexico at the lowest latency. This new data center will be one of the most interconnected facilities in Mexico in the next few years and will be a main interconnection point for transit and peering in Guadalajara.

Client amenities include a client reception area, a colocation lounge for staging servers in a quiet climate-controlled atmosphere, and private dedicated warehouse storage space for an array of equipment storage needs. All the rooms will have fiber interconnecting them. There will also be a unique mid-floor indoor/outdoor event space to host technology-related conferences in the Guadalajara Metro area. If that's not enough, there are also plans to install a helicopter pad on the roof to transport clients to the facility in emergency situations around the highly congested Guadalajara, Mexico metro area.

The facility is expected to be commissioned for production in 2024. This announcement comes on the heels of the opening of HostDime Colombia's new Tier IV data center in Bogota, Colombia; the official grand opening is Nov. 18. Additionally, HostDime's flagship headquarters and Tier IV Orlando data center will be commissioned for production in late Q1 of 2023.

HostDime is a global native carrier-neutral data center infrastructure company operating purpose-built public data center facilities in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and our flagship facility in Florida, USA, and with owned networks in the U.K., India, and Hong Kong.

HostDime's mission is to design, build, and operate purpose-built, next-gen, public data center facilities in emerging markets around the globe. HostDime offers an array of cloud-native infrastructure products and services including physical bare-metal servers, cloud servers (both private and public), colocation (cages and racks), and Hardware-as-a-Service in all our unique global edge data center locations. HostDime also provides professional managed services on all core products globally.

Contact Information:

Jared Smith

Director of Marketing

jared.s@hostdime.com

386-341-0855



Related Files

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Related Images











Image 1: HostDime's upcoming Tier IV Mexico datacenter

















Image 2: 100,000-square-foot facility with 3MW of critical IT load capacity

















Image 3: Roof helicopter pad









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
Mark Zuckerberg released a message, revealing more than 11,000 talented employees will be released, which is 13% of the total workforce. The founder of Facebook said he takes accountability and is especially sorry to the impacted. He also pointed misjudgments in investments, the weak ad market and the macroeconomic downturn as some of the reasons for the mass layoff.

The executive revealed that predictions on how the online world will move forward after COVID did not play out as expected, and the company faced increased competition, ad loss, leading to diminished revenue. Meta needs to become more capital efficient and will shift resources onto a smaller number of high-priority growth areas like the AI discovery engine, as well as the long-term vision for the metaverse.

The company will also scale back budgets, reduce perks and will shrink the real estate footprint, meaning employees will have to share desks in the future. All these measures are not enough to keep the revenue growth, and thats why Zuckerberg decided to release 13% of the total workforce.

Terminated employees in the United States will receive severance pay, paid remaining PTO, health insurance for the next six months and assisted career support through a third-party vendor. Support will be similar outside the US, the letter reads, taking into account local employment laws.

Source
Realme announced its vanilla 10 yesterday and the company is gearing up to release the 10 Pro+ option in China on November 17 alongside the Realme 10 Pro. To generate some hype, the company's Vice President teased the handset with some advanced display features.



Teaser poster posted on Weibo

The Realme 10 Pro+ will sport a 6.7-inch OLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate and 2160Hz high-frequency dimming. That's the highest PWM in the industry, which should reduce strain on the eyes.

Additionally, the display will feature extremely thin bezels with a chin measuring only 2.33mm in thickness. The sides are curved at a 61-degree angle and the whole panel is protected by a secondary tempered glass that can survive a 1.5-meter drop.

Source (in Chinese)
With the power to regulate abortions kicked back to state and territorial legislatures this year, a candidates position for or against the procedure was one of many considerations voters had to make as they chose their top 15 senatorial picks. For some, it was a decisive factor.

Based on previous statements from incoming senators, its unclear whether any measure to ban the procedure could win the eight votes needed to pass in the 37th Guam Legislature, or the 10 votes needed to overcome a veto from Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero.

The odds of a bill enshrining the right to the procedure becoming law arent great, either.

Of the senators who made the cut in the unofficial 2022 general election results, seven oppose abortion to varying degrees, four support the procedure outright, two have called for referendums and two have unclear positions.

The group Famalaoan Rights, which has been advocating for pro-abortion leaders this election, plans to continue to engage with the upcoming lawmakers and the public, said Kiana Yabut, deputy director and chief relations officer.

With only four of the newly elected senators being pro-choice, we at Famalaoan Rights understand that we must fight harder, be louder and advocate more and more in order to ensure that our right to choice is protected, she said in a statement.

Naturally, we are disappointed that more pro-choice leaders were not elected, but we are optimistic for the future of reproductive health care in our island and we look forward to working with our leaders to ensure that our right to choose lays with us, and not in the government.

Catholic blogger Tim Rohr, who equated abortion to killing babies, said that regardless of the outcome in the legislative race, a local abortion ban wont find its legs because theres nobody thats really willing to fight for it.

According to Rohr, thats evidenced by the lack of effort by the sponsors of Bill 291, which would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, to pass the measure. He described himself as a Republican, but said that no candidate affiliated with the party had made abortion a central part of their platform this year, despite saying that they were anti-abortion.

The candidates will basically do whatever they need to do to get elected, because they know that the majority of Guam isnt going to vote on the abortion issue, he said.

Against

Democrat Sen. Amanda Shelton hasnt responded to any questions posed about her stance on abortion, but was a co-sponsor of Bill 291.

Democrat Sen. Joe San Agustin has said, I am anti-abortion, but I cannot support any measure that does not allow exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or if deemed medically necessary to save a life.

Republican Sen. Frank Blas Jr. has said he is opposed to any form of abortion but, I have to be cognizant of  the necessity to work with differing points of view, for lack of a better term, a compromise, so that we can save the lives of more innocent children from being senselessly killed.

Republican Sen. Chris Duenas has said, I am not in favor of legal abortion and that he would vote for a bill to ban the procedure.

Republican Sen. Telo Taitague previously said, I will always choose life, though she supports access to affordable medical and mental health support for women.

Sen. Joanne Brown has said, As a pro-life supporter, I am in favor of tightening up the abortion laws.

Former Sen. Jesse Lujan, a Republican, has said he would vote for a bill banning abortion as long it includes exceptions for rape, incest and if the mothers life is in danger.

For

Roy Quinata, a Democrat newcomer, has said, I will be sure to protect a womans right to choose.

Democrat newcomer William Parkinson has said he would support a bill to protect abortion as a right, although he is a devout Catholic.

Democrat newcomer Dwayne San Nicolas has said, We are all for life, but we must leave the decision to every woman to decide for herself and that he would vote against any measure restricting the right to choose.

Democrat Sen. Sabina Perez has said she would support legislation to make abortion access a right as abortion is a moral choice that should be left to the individual woman to make.

Referendum

Democrat Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes has said the issue is too complex to answer with a yes or no, and that she would support a bill to put the question to a referendum before voters.

Republican newcomer Thomas Fisher has said that he would want the matter to put to referendum, because Im tired of this issue being decided by men.

Unclear
A dispute over the firing of an employee with the Guam Office of Homeland Security and Civil Defense over an alleged breach of the government of Guams internal computer network and improper storage of sensitive information is scheduled for a motion hearing on Dec. 6.

Longtime Civil Defense planner Leo Espia was terminated in April by Homeland Security Advisor Samantha Brennan over the accusations.

Espia appealed the case to the Civil Service Commission, asserting wrongful termination.

Civil Defense Director Charles Estevez, who was on military leave at the time of the firing, has sided with the employee.

A status call conference was held Wednesday.

The Civil Service Commission will have to decide on several requests made by legal counsels on both sides of the dispute.

Assistant Attorney General Donna Lawrence, who represents Homeland Security and Civil Defense, along with the Office of the Governor, has asked for an investigation to be launched into Civil Service Commission staff for what shes argued was improper conduct with Civil Defense Director Estevez.

She also wants Estevez ejected from the case entirely and to have a settlement agreement he signed allowing Espia to be reinstated with back pay rejected.

The director was off island on military orders for two years prior to June 22, the PDN reported, and was ordered by the Office of the Governor to report to Brennan. Hes back on Guam but on leave for military orders for up to a year again.

Brennan also has motioned that:

CSC chair Juan Calvo recuse himself from the case as his son is the governors chief of staff, Jon Junior Calvo, now a witness in the case.

Guam Federation of Teachers field representative Robert Koss, Espias legal counsel, be barred from the case.

Koss has asked for the case to be dropped entirely. The GFT representative argues the case is dead, with Espia already having reached a settlement with his former employer.

Espia hadnt returned to work as of Oct. 24, PDN files show.
Former Attorney General Doug Moylan is poised to have his job back after a razor-thin win of 77 votes over incumbent Leevin Camacho in the race for attorney general.

Moylan got 14,952 votes or 46.26% of the votes cast for the office, versus Camachos 14,875 or 46.02%, based on unofficial election results.

My mandate is very clear, from the people, which is to make Guam safe again and I will be doing that in the four years that people have put me in this position, Moylan said after all 67 precincts were counted by the Guam Election Commission around 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Camacho, as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, had not responded to a request for comment on the results of the attorney general race.

Attorney Peter J. Santos, who ran as a write-in candidate for attorney general, said hes encouraged by the nearly 8% write-in votes.

Traditionally, write-ins get less than 2%. I am encouraged; 1,285 undervotes showed that a lot of people were unhappy with both Doug and Leevin, Santos said.

Moylan, who was Guam attorney general from 2003 to 2007, didnt want to speculate about a recount.

I know there are provisions on automatic recounts and whether a candidate has to request it. But at this point, Im going to enjoy the day with our voters that a change is coming to that AGs office, he said.

Guam election law calls for an automatic recount when the difference between candidates is within 2%.

His first course of action, Moylan said, will be to immediately analyze whats happened in the Office of the Attorney General.

And Im not talking (about) January. Im talking about in the next few days to start analyzing where the problems are in the AGs office, what type of staffing pattern they have, where the resources can be best put efficiently and effectively in order to fulfill the mandate that the people have given me, and that is to better provide prosecution against criminals, keep people safe at night, he said.

Moylan thanked those who helped him win, including former Gov. Felix Camacho and his gubernatorial running mate, Sen. Tony Ada. {span}Moylan said he won because of the votes of Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Santos, who described himself as a complete political newbie, said his first goal in running as a write-in candidate for attorney general was to win, and the second one was to bring the problems under Leevin to the surface and he has no regrets about it.

I am learning that people arent interested to know why or how, but merely what. Sadly voters arent really interested or cant be bothered to look at peoples credentials and, to Leevin Camachos dismay, voters only pay attention to sound bytes, Santos said. All this to say that Doug won because he has the loudest bark.
Preparations for a Christmas belen display in Skinner Plaza and a mayors Christmas party were discussed at Wednesdays Mayors Council of Guam meeting.

The council will participate in the annual display in Skinner Plaza in Hagatna organized by the Office of the Governor and PBS. The fiberglass statues that will be used were purchased from the Philippines, according to Piti Mayor Jesse Alig, council president.

This is a display from the Mayors Council of Guam and not just one village, so all the 19 villages will be represented in this display, he said.

A plan has been drawn up for the dimensions of the belen, which will be mostly made of wood, said Alig. It will be about 30 feet across and five feet off the ground to help keep the statues from getting wet or damaged.

Alig asked mayors for their help getting lumber and setting a schedule to build the belen.

The harder part is the decorations. The lumot, bamboo and some other items I think we can use will take some time to pick, he said.

Another announcement was the plans for the mayors Christmas party, which wasnt held last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mongmong-Toto-Maite Mayor Rudy Paco said it will be at the Hyatt Regency Guam Dec. 7.

Alig said the guest count for mayors and their staff is 400.

Hyatt is the place that can accommodate us, said Paco.
Sen. James Jim Moylan will become the second Republican to represent Guam in Congress since 1972, after defeating Democrat former Speaker Judi Won Pat in the delegate race.

Moylan got 17,075 votes, 1,648 more than Won Pats 15,427 votes, based on unofficial results from the Guam Election Commission.

Im very humbled and excited for this opportunity to serve as Guams representative to the House of Representatives, Moylan said Wednesday afternoon. The people have spoken and chosen and its now up to me to deliver the work expected of us.

He thanked his staff, supporters and voters for his victory, and pledged to advance the One Guam approach.

The Guam delegate post has largely been filled by Democrats, with Moylan the first Republican elected since Del. Ben Blaz left office 30 years ago.

Moylan said hes already spoken to Democrat Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, whom he said he will work closely with, along with the governors liaison in Washington, D.C., former Del. Madeleine Bordallo.

I congratulated the governor on her reelection and greeted her on her birthday. I pledge to work closely with her, Moylan said. Leon Guerrero turned 72 on Election Day.

He also thanked incumbent Del. Michael San Nicolas and former Del. Robert Underwood. San Nicolas didnt seek reelection, and was defeated in the Democratic gubernatorial primaries in August.

Moylan said hes looking at pursuing San Nicolas bill seeking to extend federal financial benefits to people on Guam with disabilities under the Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, program.

He will also work to return ancestral lands, including those at Eagles Field, he said.

Moylan, who started his political career in the 35th Guam Legislature and won reelection for the 36th Guam Legislature, is also pursuing a membership with the House Committee on Armed Services.

Guam, home to Air Force and Navy bases, is currently seeing billions of dollars worth of military buildup with the relocation of Marines from Okinawa, Japan.

Relationships need to be built and I have started that, he said.

Other incoming freshmen members of Congress like him would start their crash course in Washington, D.C. a week before Thanksgiving, Moylan added.

Won Pat issued a congratulatory statement to Moylan on Wednesday afternoon.

I wish him all the best in his representation of Guam and his efforts to put the needs of the people of Guam first, she said. To my supportersmy immediate family and extended family of friends, former colleagues and voters at large  I extend my warmest and deepest appreciation for your contributions to our campaign. I was invigorated and blessed in this campaign with your encouragement. I will always cherish the experiences we shared and our journey together this year.
Former Gov. Felix Camacho on Wednesday morning urged people to "continue to take a stand against corruption, greed and intimidation" while also accepting his defeat to incumbent Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

Camacho lost to Leon Guerrero by 3,761 votes after 67 precincts were counted around 4 a.m. Wednesday, based on unofficial results from the Guam Election Commission.

Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio got 18,381 votes and will serve a second four-year term, while Camacho and running mate Sen. Tony Ada received 14,620 votes.

"There's a lot of work ahead for this administration and all that they have created and I think all the issues that we saw forthcoming and the challenges and the changes that would have to happen, now fall on their lap. I wish them well. I also pray for the people of Guam because this is what you asked for," Camacho said in remarks that were not part of the prepared speech.

Camacho and Ada delivered their statement to the media at the Republican campaign headquarters in Tamuning.

That's after Leon Guerrero and Tenorio declared victory in front of their supporters at their campaign headquarters in Hagatna.

'Unfortunate'

The former Republican governor said its unfortunate that many didnt come out to vote, saying they are "also going to be recipients of the leadership that they will be dealing with over the next four years but it is what it is and I wish the administration all the best."

Voter turnout was 55.67%. It means only 33,659 of 60,462 registered voters actually voted in the general election.

The voter turnout in the August primary was 40%.

Ada, in his remarks, said "not being victorious is painful but the goal of the new season for Guam is well worth the work they put in."

No rubber stamp

Republican Minority Leader Chris Duenas said the incoming Legislature, with six Republicans and nine Democrats, "will not be a rubber stamp Legislature."

"Those are individuals who have their own unique individuality throughout so look forward to a lot of vigorous debates, accountability, checks and balances," he said.

He also expressed disappointment with the low voter turnout.

"If you have made this decision based on apathy or fear, or whatever your decision was for this low voter turnout in the primary and this general, I ask you  search your soul. Follow us in this Republican minority, follow us with Jim Moylan in Congress. See what were doing moving forward. Hold your government accountable," he said.

Camacho and Ada thanked family, friends, volunteers and fellow candidates, and specifically mentioned their gratitude to former Govs. Eddie Calvo and Joseph Ada, along with former Sen. Frank Aguon Jr. and wife Jen as well as Del. Michael San Nicolas and his running mate, Sabrina Salas-Matanane.

Sen. Frank Blas said the "fight is not over. It just gets harder."

"Were not done. Youve actually just made us a little bit louder," he said.

Republican Party of Guam Chairman Carlos Benitez thanked Camacho and Ada for "revitalizing the party," for healing the rifts that have gone on for decades, and for giving the Republicans its first victory in the congressional race since 1992.

Sen. Jim Moylan will become only the second Republican to be elected delegate since the seat was created by Congress in 1972.
The Guam Congress building in Hagatna. With a third of the 37th Guam Legislature made up of political newcomers, we hold high hopes that their energy and commitment will serve us well over the next two years.
PSU guru Jon Gerrow (aka JohnnyGuru) working at Corsair these days claims that improper plug-ins are to blame for the 12VHPWR melting issue.

His attempts to melt the connector using other methods proved fruitless. Several media claim that poor solder points contributed to the melting process. However his experiments disproved it. Because of this, Jon has deduced that it's hard to get those plugs all the way in, and sometimes it looks like they are in already when they are not. The plug is not secure until the clip on it clicks into place.

Three PCIe cables were linked to the NVIDIA 16-pin adaptor to a power supply. He gathered a number of 12VHPWR connectors and demonstrated that one of them, despite being severely damaged (by himself), did not go beyond 52  C and hence could not replicate the issue. According to JonnyGuru, the 16-pin connector cannot be fully inserted because it is not simple to attach and can be quite challenging if you are not familiar with what you are doing. Neither Nvidia nor the other board partners have replied to the concerns raised.

The truth is that everything we have seen on this subject remains inconclusive thus far. Nvidia is "still testing".

Read up on his findings here.










Haiti - FLASH : More than 22,000 ammunitions intercepted in the DR, two Haitian traffickers arrested





On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, soldiers from the Specialized Corps for Land Border Security (CESFRONT) assigned to the border operations base of Colonel Elias Pina, arrested two women of Haitian nationality accompanied by a girl of around 2 years old in in a white Lexus jeep during a check at the El Carrizal border post.



During the search of the vehicle, the soldiers discovered a shipment of clandestine ammunition that the two women intended to smuggle into Haiti. The cargo included 22,160 munitions including 12,000 7.62 mm caliber bullets and 10,160 5.56 mm caliber bullets. In addition, 5 cell phone were seized



One of the women arrested was identified as Milien Mildrene Manessa, the wife of Yvanosky Joachim, vice-delegate of the district of Belladere. The other women have been identified as Fara Josef.



The women and the minor as well as the vehicle and the ammunition seized were taken to the base of operations of Elias Pina for the corresponding legal consequences...



Haitian national Yvanosky Joachim, whose passport was found in the vehicle, has been living with his relatives for several months in the Dominican Republic due to insecurity in Haiti. Asked by the media about this case of ammunition trafficking, he said he did not know anything about what had happened...







SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Varreux : Resumption of fuel delivery, important details





Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the National Police of Haiti (PNH) began to facilitate fuel loading and delivery operations at the Varreux oil terminal. Several tanker trucks left the terminal accompanied by a large police escort to supply service stations which are to start selling fuel to consumers in the coming days.



This resumption of the activities of the terminal blocked by the men of the "G9" Gang since September 12, 2022 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37702-haiti-flash-barbecue-blocks-the-varreux-terminal-and-defeats-the-pm-video.html is the result of numerous assaults (15) between the police and armed groups who thought they could still hold this area hostage. Thanks to the new armored vehicles ordered by the Haitian State and which have reinforced the operational capacity of specialized units such as SWAT, the Temporary Anti-Gang Unit (UTAG), the Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO), the Corps of Intervention and Maintenance of Order (CIMO) and the Brigade of Operation and Departmental Intervention (BOID) and allowed to regain control of the 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



"Despite the fact that we have armoured vehicles that were damaged in the operations and all sorts of false rumours, this will not prevent the Police from continuing to consolidate their presence in the Varreux perimeter to prevent bandits from regaining control of this strategic space," said the PNH.



The heavy unit of the PNH, the technicians of the Ministry of Public Works with the support of the civil engineering soldiers of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H) have, since the beginning of this week, started clearing and rehabilitation of road access to the oil terminal



The police are asking for the public's support to provide them with information that can help stop all the armed bandits who abduct people, dig holes and block roads to prevent schools and businesses from functioning properly.



Should be noted that the police completely destroyed the tractor that the bandits were using to dig holes in the roads and that the operator driving it died in the exchange of fire with the forces of order.



Ricardin Saint Jean, the Minister of Trade and Industry informs the population in general and the heads of associations of distributors of petroleum products in particular, that with the aim of facilitating an orderly and secure distribution of petroleum products throughout the national territory November 9, 10 and 11, 2022 will be devoted EXCLUSIVELY to supplying the various gas stations.



All arrangements will be made by the competent authorities to support members of the sector as well as consumers for a disciplined sale of gasoline to the population from SATURDAY, November 12, 2022.



Loading at the WINECO oil storage center (Varreux terminal): (November 8)

Diesel: 303.862 gallons

Gasoline: 39,301 gallons

Kero sene: 0 gallon



A total of 45 tank trucks were loaded.



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.icihaiti.com/en/news-37924-icihaiti-varreux-oil-terminal-what-you-need-to-know.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37702-haiti-flash-barbecue-blocks-the-varreux-terminal-and-defeats-the-pm-video.html



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Training in Mexico of a Haitian National Guard military unit





Enold Joseph, the Minister of Defense informs that within the framework of bilateral military cooperation between the Ministry of Defense of Haiti and its vis-a-vis Mexico, a contingent of 29 soldiers received a one month training as instructors-monitors.



Another contingent of 150 soldiers left Haiti to be trained and strengthen the capacity of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H) so as to allow the military institution to play its role effectively in the security system. and defense of the nation.



Minister Joseph recalls that this military cooperation between the two countries is the result of an agreement signed on October 7, 2018, between the Minister of Defense of Haiti and that of Mexico https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25768-haiti-army-the-minister-of-defense-signs-a-military-cooperation-agreement-with-mexico.html



Let's recall that during the XV Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas held in Brasilia last July, the Secretary of National Defense of Mexico, Luis Crescencio Sandoval accepted the request of the Minister of Defense, Enold Joseph to support Haiti in setting up a National Guard unit. This commitment was confirmed by the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations Security Council, Juan Ramon de la Fuente Ramirez, at the meeting of October 17, 2022.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Canaan : The right arm of the "Djol" gang leader killed

Tuesday, November 8, 2022, as part of a police intervention in the Corail Cesse-lesse area, one of the right-hand men of Gang Leader Jeff alias "Djol" who led a gang in Canaan was fatally injured during a an exchange of fire with the police. "Djol" was involved in many criminal acts on the national road number 1: robberies, thefts, hijackings of goods trucks, kidnappings, rapes etc...



The SDP accepts an international intervention

"I confirm that the decision of the Minister of Planning Ricard Pierre, representative of the radical opposition Movement called "Democratic and Popular Sector" (SDP) to the Government, to sign the resolution requesting an international force to help Haiti to fight against the Gang violence, insecurity and the humanitarian crisis has been accepted by the SDP declared Me Andre Michel, spokesperson for the SDP.



Assassination of Jovenel Moise : Investigation delegated to the DCPJ

The investigating judge Walter Wesser Voltaire, the 5th judge in charge of the case of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, gave a rogatory commission to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) to deepen the investigation. The information is confirmed by the Dean of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince, Bernard Sainvil who seems not to have yet found a 6th judge...



The PNH releases a hostage

Monday, November 7, 2022, the national police released a woman whom individuals had kidnapped and held captive for 3 days in a house in Thomassin 25 and arrested an individual identified as Davidson Andre responsible for monitoring the hostage.



DR : 23 illegal Haitians arrested on a bus

At the beginning of the week, agents of the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) arrested during a migration control 23 Haitian nationals in an irregular migratory situation on board a bus on the Duarte road in the National District, from Santiago who were trying to get to Santo Domingo. They were transferred to the detention center in Haina, to be repatriated. The bus driver has been arrested and will be punished by law.



Fanmi Lavalas hostages freed

Agronomist Anthony Dessources, member of the executive committee of the political party Fanmi Lavalas and Ronald Germain kidnapped on Saturday October 29, 2022 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-38015-haiti-news-zapping.html by armed individuals been released. We don't know under what conditions...



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Jenni Pitko (Greens) on Tuesday said the premier seems to be acting duplicitously.

SOME MEMBERS of the Green League and Left Alliance have criticised Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) for failing to back her statements on the international stage on climate and the environment with actions at home, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

Think about if the leader of another country was globally calling for action to stop the climate crisis and biodiversity loss but supported thwarting such actions domestically, she tweeted. I expect to prime minister to deliver as resolute a response to the interpellation about the EUs [nature] restoration [law] than what she just delivered in Egypt.

The same contradiction caught the attention of Veronika Honkasalo (LA).

Its difficult to understand how youre travelling the world to tell how important it is to do whatever we can to fight the climate crisis while the Social Democrats is positioning itself to oppose a government proposal concerning the restoration law. Could there be a starker contrast between words and action? she tweeted.

Silvia Modig (LA), a Member of the European Parliament, said Marins actions look very contradictory also to Brussels.

The lawmakers are referring to the remarks Marin made at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday. The prime minister demanded that world leaders back their climate plans with concrete action, warning that the longer actions are postponed the more they will cost and describing the 2020s as a critical decade where every single measure is important.

She also patted her government on the back for adopting an ambitious climate programme, pointing to the climate-neutrality goal for 2035.

Meanwhile, members of the ruling coalition have found themselves at loggerheads over a proposal to restore up to 20 per cent of land and water areas in the European Union. The Centre, Social Democrats and Swedish Peoples Party have joined the opposition parties in opposing the governments original stance on the proposal by the European Commission.

The Greens and Left Alliance are thus the only ruling parties still supporting the stance.

The government has to submit its response to an interpellation concerning the restoration proposal on Wednesday, with a confidence vote looming on Friday.

Niina Malm, the deputy chairperson of the Social Democrats, told Helsingin Sanomat at the beginning of the month that the ruling party believes decisions on forest policy do not fall within the purview of the European Union.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Hensley rebuts 'incorrect and disparaging' comments from Andreotta; commissioner responds

Rebutting comments made by Henderson County Commissioner Daniel Andreotta Monday night, Hendersonville City Council member Jennifer Hensley said the city has been cooperating with the county to support the Apple Ridge housing project and has not rejected a cost-sharing partnership to fund utility extension.

In a 490-word statement, Hensley indicated it's still likely that the city woould cover half the cost of running water and sewer lines to the Sugarloaf Road development once it has all the facts it needs from the city utility department.

"The City of Hendersonville and Henderson County are committed to working together to help with our affordable housing crisis," she said. "We are all in this together. We do need cooperation and folks who are truly committed to serving their community, and not just interested in a headline or quote in the paper to build these community partnerships. I look forward to announcing in the coming days that City Council will partner with Henderson County to help create 100 new workforce homes in our community."

The city, which received $4.5 million in American Rescue Plan money compared to the county's $22.8 million, had previously committed $360,000 in ARP money to support the workforce housing development. In May, it endorsed the project's application for tax credit financing through the N.C. Housing Finance Agency.

"Commissioner Rebecca McCall first approached me three weeks ago about a wonderful opportunity for the City and County to partner with each other to do something positive for our community," Hensley said. "I immediately called our City Manager John Connet to explore this great potential. ... We have historically supported many Affordable Housing Projects with infrastructure. The City of Hendersonville is actively working with our water and sewer engineers and Housing Assistance Corporation on how we can contribute to the higher level to match the countys contribution."

Commissioner Andreotta, called her last Thursday a few hours before a long City Council meeting that night and asked that the city fund half the cost, $800,000, adding that "he expected an answer by Monday," Hensley said. "I explained to him that I would do my best, but with that short of notice, our full agenda, and our water and sewer folks still gathering details, I would need a bit more time to get him that commitment."

Andreotta was premature, she said, in stating that the city had decided not to join the cost-sharing partnership.

"During the County Commissioner meeting Monday, Nov. 7th, Commissioner Andreotta made incorrect and disparaging public comments that he was disappointed in us not wanting to partner," she said. "That is simply untrue. We need full support of council, all the facts, and legal details before we can commit $800,000."

Andreotta responded to Hensley's comments with a three-paragraph statement of his own in which he, too, expressed hope that the city and county could still share the cost

"The Apple Ridge project was approved in April of this year," he said. "So, some seven months ago it was known that annexation would be required, that there would be water/sewer service, and that the City would be providing those services. I do not see this as a two-to three-week timeframe. It is also my understanding that this idea had come up before regarding this project.

"Also, it was made clear in our meeting on Monday evening that the door was still wide open for the City to participate in this venture. Perhaps we (Commissioners) rushed our decision, and should have given the City a bit more time. However, as we all know once a motion is put forth, unless it is retracted, it will be voted on. And as a staunch supporter of workforce housing opportunities myself, I wanted to support this one for sure.

"I did not condemn the City for not participating, but I was/am disappointed that we were able to make our decision, yet they were not. The only information I received when I inquired as to the Citys response to our suggestion that we share the sewer cost was that they were talking about it. It was not indicated to me at all that they were working toward participating, just that they were talking about it, which leaves a lot to the unknown. And we do not want this or any future workforce housing project to be delayed if at all possible.

"I hope this helps to fill in a few blanks and give some clarity. There are many moving parts to the City and County working together on any topic, and I look forward to that going well moving forward."
Moffitt, Balkcom win NC Senate, House seats

Republicans Tim Moffitt and Jennifer Capps Balkcom won seats in the North Carolina Legislature in a big night for their party on Tuesday.

With 53 percent of precincts reporting, Moffitt held a commanding 65 to 35 percent lead over Democrat Jay Carey for the seat that Chuck Edwards vacated to run for Congress. Balkcom, a political newcomer who serves on the Henderson County Planning Board, held a similar lead, 57.8 to 42.2, over Democrat Michael O'Shea.

In a Lightning Voter Guide Q&A, Moffitt, who is moving up from the state House, said he hoped to advance a farmland preservation initiative next year when he serves in the Senate.

"Over the last quarter century, North Carolina has seen an average of 500 farms per year lost to residential and commercial development," he said. "I am currently working on legislation to develop a self-sustaining, non-taxpayer funded program that will help protect North Carolinas family farms. By offering fair market value for a farms development rights to compete with commercial developers through a 'development rights acquisition fund' we can limit non-agricultural uses in perpetuity while protecting private ownership and saving the land necessary for food production and security."

Balkcom said the most common topic she heard on the campaign trail was parents' concerns about critical race theory being taught in schools.

"The biggest thing I heard was CRT, our child's education, here in Henderson County, she said. That was the main one. I think thats something Id want to work on with our School Board as a legislator and its something we could do with parents rights and school choice.

She benefited in a Republican primary against two other candidates from the farm community and by her family's long history in Henderson County.

"Thats my heart, that's where I grew up, that's where I'm from," she said. "Those are people that helped raise who I am, so those are special to me, and I was blessed to have their support and honored."
Dear Editor: Our Coastside Farmers Market is on its winter hiatus now, and I want to take th
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common heart rhythm problem associated with increased risk of stroke and heart failure, affecting approximately 3% of the population. While the condition starts as an isolated electrical disorder, each recurring incident can cause electrical and structural changes in the heart that can lead to longer-lasting events known as persistent AF (episodes lasting more than seven continuous days). Now, a new study shows that cryoballoon catheter ablation (cryoablation), a minimally invasive procedure that involves guiding a small tube into the heart to kill problematic tissue with cold temperatures, can stop this snowball effect. Historically, the procedure has been reserved as a secondary treatment when patients do not respond to antiarrhythmic drugs. However, the study shows that early intervention with cryoablation is more effective at reducing the risk of serious long-term health impacts, when compared to the current first step in treatment, antiarrhythmic drugs.

For the trial, researchers at University of British Columbia (UBC, Vancouver, B.C., Canada) enrolled 303 patients with AF at 18 sites across Canada. Half of the patients were randomly selected to receive antiarrhythmic drugs, while the other half were treated with cryoablation. All patients received an implantable monitoring device that recorded their cardiac activity throughout the study period. After three years, the researchers found that patients in the cryoablation group were less likely to progress to persistent AF compared to patients treated with antiarrhythmic drugs. Over the follow-up period, the cryoablation patients also had lower rates of hospitalization and experienced fewer serious adverse health events that resulted in death, functional disability or prolonged hospitalization.

Because cryoablation targets and destroys the cells that initiate and perpetuate AF, the researchers say it can lead to longer-lasting benefits. The new study builds on a previous paper in which the research team had demonstrated that cryoablation was more effective than antiarrhythmic drugs at reducing the short-term recurrence of AF. The researchers say that more effective early interventions would benefit patients as well as the health care system. Currently, costs associated with the provision of AF-associated care are estimated at 2.5% of overall annual health care expenditures. Those costs are expected to rise to 4% within the next two decades.

By treating patients with cryoablation right from the start, we see fewer people advancing to persistent, more life-threatening forms of atrial fibrillation, said Dr. Jason Andrade, an associate professor of medicine at UBC and director of Heart Rhythm Services at Vancouver General Hospital. In the short term, this can mean less recurrences of arrhythmia, improved quality of life and fewer visits to the hospital. In the long run, this can translate into a reduced risk of stroke and other serious heart problems.

Related Links:

University of British Columbia
Scandic Hotels has appointed Therese Cedercreutz as new Chief Commercial Officer and member of the Group's Executive Committee. Since 2021, Therese has been a member of Scandic's Board of Directors. In connection with the appointment, she will leave her Board position as of today and start her new role at the beginning of January.

Therese Cedercreutz has solid and extensive international experience from leading positions in business development and other commercial roles. Among other things, she has held leading positions in the technology and software industry where she led strategic transformation and digitalization projects. Her most recent position is senior advisor and management consultant at Miltton Group, one of Northern Europe's most reputable strategic communication agencies. For the past one and half years, she has also been a member of Scandic's Board of Directors.

Therese will take over the position of Chief Commercial Officer at the beginning of January 2023 after Anna Spjuth who will leave the company in the spring.

Within the framework of its assignment, Scandic's Nomination Committee will present a new candidate to replace Therese as member of the Board at the company's next annual general meeting.
Ms. Ada Jian, who has been working as the GM of INNSiDE by Melia Zhengzhou for the last two years, will take on her first overseas assignment for the leading Spanish hotel group, helping them expand their presence in the popular tourist destination of Kuala Lumpur.

Over the last two decades Jian has held hospitality positions throughout China, beginning with a front office role in 2001 in Hyatt Regency Xi'an China.

The 39-year-old went on to spend eight years with Sofitel at various properties throughout the country including in Xi'an, Qingdao, Ningbo, and Beijing before joining Melia Hotels International in 2014. Melia has been expanding in China with new openings in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Chongqing since 2019.

Jian held roles at two different Melia properties, Gran Melia Xian and her GM position at INNSiDE by Melia Zhengzhou, as well working for the corporate team where she was Senior Area Director of Operations Asia Pacific covering 47 hotels in the region. In this position she was actively involved in the pre-opening of nine different properties across Asia.

The new 238-room INNSiDE by Melia Kuala Lumpur Cheras will be the first INNSiDE hotel to open in Malaysia and the third to open in Southeast Asia. INNSiDE is tailored to savvy, modern "bleisure" travelers who blend work and play and are looking for centrally-located accommodation that embraces the local culture.
Investors looking to invest capital in hotels across Europe are not leaving any stone unturned, but neither is the competition.

In a session during Alvarez & Marsals debut European Hospitality Investment Conference titled Investors: Spotlight on the United Kingdom and Europe, Ramsey Mankarious, CEO of Cedar Capital Partners, said he has been busy with multiple deals coming to fruition in 2022.

Of course, there are hurdles to negotiate, he said.

The challenge is financing, Anyone can get a loan, but is it the right loan? he said.

Coley Brenan, partner at KSL Capital Partners, spoke about his company's April 2022 acquisition of The Pig Hotels, a small chain of boutique country hotels in the United Kingdom.

Brenan said the deal is small for KSL in terms of its overall capital, with its hotels having on average 30 rooms and a total of 240, compared to approximately 850 rooms total across its competitive set.

Read the full article at HotelNewsNow (part of CoStar)
Airbnb has long-led calls for more harmonized EU rules to tackle the blocs fragmented regulations and we welcome proposals from the EU Commission today. Under the proposals, local rules must be clear and simple for everyday Hosts to follow, and authorities will have better access to data via a harmonized data sharing framework to support effective policy-making.

One year ago, Airbnbs EU Host Action Plan called for a clear, simple and harmonized EU framework to unlock the benefits of hosting for millions of European families and give governments the information they need to clamp down on speculators and overtourism. This announcement marks a significant step towards that goal and is good news for everyone.

These proposals provide a framework for Airbnb to scale our collaborations with governments and make it easier for everyday Europeans to share their homes and follow the rules. We have long-supported the EUs work on new STR rules. By taking a more harmonized approach to regulation, industry and governments can better work together to improve access to data, boost transparency and address disproportionate local rules that undermine the single market and prevent European families from sharing their homes to boost their income. Georgina Browes, Head of EU Public Policy

Airbnb welcomes regulation and wants to be part of the solution to challenges facing communities, which is why we have worked with governments across the EU to help Hosts share their homes, follow the rules and pay tax. We also share data on short-term rental activity via our partnership with Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and are preparing to comply with the common tax reporting framework for digital platforms, known as DAC 7.

At the same time, we have long-heard from many everyday Europeans who are excluded from the benefits of hosting due to fragmented and disproportionate local rules, which were often designed with large scale tourism operators in mind and are not accessible to everyday Europeans.

Over a year ago, Airbnb and thousands of EU citizens responded to the EUs Short-Term Rental Initiative consultation as an opportunity to fix the negative impacts of fragmented rules across the bloc. We put forward proposals for more clear, simple and harmonized EU rules to support everyday Hosts, including commitments to share data at the EU-level that local governments can access to support effective policy-making and enforcement activity.

The EU is home to more Hosts on Airbnb than any region in the world and the vast majority of Hosts are regular people who share one listing. The typical EU Host earned just over 3,000 last year and 40 percent say the additional income helps them afford rising living costs. In 2019, travel on Airbnb supported almost 345,000 EU jobs and generated nearly 19 billion GDP contribution through guest spending.

Airbnb is also investing in tech-driven solutions to help address challenges associated with the growth of tourism in Europe. Last week, we shared data showing our flexible search features diverting bookings from Europes most over-touristed destinations and peak travel dates. The City Portal  Airbnbs custom-built platform for governments to access data, information and enforcement tools on Airbnb  has also been adopted by more than 300 governments globally, including 174 in Europe. Airbnbs tax collaborations have also seen more than $6 billion of tourist tax revenues collected and remitted globally, including $573 million (511 million) in the EU.

We look forward to working with the EU Commission on the specific details of this regulation as we move forward.

About Airbnb

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

About Airbnb.org

Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc."s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org"s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform.

Airbnb Press

Airbnb Press Office

Airbnb
Los Angeles, CA  BLLA, the Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association, held its annual Boutique Hotel Owners Conference on October 24-26 at the breathtaking Westlake Village Inn in the Los Angeles suburbs. A few hundred global pioneers came together to celebrate the bold and groundbreaking industry that is boutique hospitality.

On the evening of October 24th, the conference kicked off with a Jazz Night, sponsored by Marsh McLennan Agency. The lively sounds of the Jazz trio, paired with elegant cocktails and hors doeuvres, set the stage for all of the joy and enthusiasm that was to come.

The following two-day conference was filled with captivating panels, debates, breakout sessions, salon-style discussions, and open Q&A ranging from topics such as Top Issues Owners Face Today, How Energy Plays a Part in Creating a Boutique Hotel Experience, The Lost Art of Innkeeping, Food & Beverage - The Philosophy of Deal Making, Conscious Tourism & Slow Travel, and The Next Generation of Hotel Marketing & Branding. Audience participation was encouraged, and many partook of the opportunity to have a voice and be heard.

The warm and relaxing atmosphere allowed for attendees to engage in candid conversations with the notable roster of facilitators such as Rami Zeidan - Founder & CEO of Life House, Rob Blood - Founder of Lark Hotels, Richard Valtr - Founder of Mews, Maya Mallick - Owner & Creative Director of The Culver Hotel, Avi Brosh - Founder & CEO of Palisociety, and Brian De Lowe - President & Co-Founder of Proper Hospitality.

During the opening session, Ariela Kiradjian, COO and Partner of BLLA, encouraged the attendees to set their intention for gaining new connections and insights over the conference days. She also reflected on her own hospitality career and shared nine lessons that have helped guide her this year, such as: Things do not always have to be so hard, sometimes letting go enables you to grow, putting a spotlight on fears actually helps heal them, and vulnerability is at the core of growth. These themes ignited meaningful conversations throughout the event.

As emphasized on the stage, the boutique sector is clearly experiencing more of a success story than that of other hospitality segments who may rely on a bigger percentage of business travel to return. Boutique hotels are able to flourish during most storms because they are resilient and able to react quickly. These owners, investors, and developers are bullish on the future, as expressed through almost all of the discussions throughout the 2+ days.

At the End of Day Reflections & Open Mic Q&A session, Nile Tuzun, Founder & Chief Creative Storyteller at Studio Nilebrand, stated that Boutique hotels are very improvisational. You are nimble in the boutique business. If things are not that great, then you improvise. This way, it is experiential and experimental. You are free to do whatever is necessary for that space.

Judging by the heartfelt testimonials, the 2022 Boutique Hotel Owners Conference was a success and an impactful experience, as well as a time to celebrate the heart and soul of independent, boutique hotels.

Headline Sponsors included Greenberg Traurig, Lutron Electronics, Lockton, Nestle Premium Waters, Selfbook, Virdee, Mews, Englander, StayBoutique, and Boutique Money Group. Boutique Sponsors included Solonis, Orana Software, Chicago Marketing Consultancy, and Dragonfly Strategists. Lifestyle Sponsors included Salesforce, Hireology, Lightspeed, Cloud5 Communications, Marsh McLennan Agency, Studio Nilebrand, Vaask, World Cinema, ThinkReservations, Kickfin, and TakeUp. Supporting Partners included Linda Kasian Photography, Art of Tea, Bellocq Tea, Copper Cow Coffee, Good Pharma, Public Goods, Sunraysia, and Vacation. Media Partners included Hotel Executive, Hotel News Now, Hotel Online, Hospitality Net, The Lodging Conference, Boutique Design, Hospitality Design, Hotel Business, Skift, and TravelDailyNews.

View images from the conference here.

View the winners of the 2022 BLLA Boutique Lifestyle Hospitality Awards here.

Noteworthy quotes from the conference stage:

There is no perfect tech stack; don't build for just a day one experience. It has to be interactive. Make your tech companies sweat." - Richard Valtr, Founder of Mews

If you believe in your dream and you make it energetic, then things are going to happen for you and for your business. - Alejandra DeLuca, Owner of Malibu Meditations Journey

Branding is the embodiment of a living, breathing organism, and it is not just a logo. It is how a brand moves through the world; how they walk, how they talk, what they look like, the colors they use, and the emotions that they conjure. - Tracy Campbell, Design Director at The Brand Terminal

Whatever we are going through as a society, as a collective, is happening to our employees and to our community. We are all connected. - Darlene Cordero, Director of Talent Relations and Outreach at Chopra Global

About BLLA Events

The event extension of BLLA, gathering boutique believers around the world to come together as a united front and change everything that the hospitality industry thought it was. We are the voice and megaphone. With curated events that are both in-person and virtual, BLLA Events creates moments that advocate and support the new generation of hospitality, which is the Boutique Lifestyle. Experience the intention behind the brand. BLLAEvents.com

About the Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA)

The official organization for the world's boutique lifestyle leaders promoting connection, education, and advocacy. As a pioneer in forecasting the boutique movement, the BLLA's network has grown beyond its hotel foundation to welcome more passionate entrepreneurs, businesses, and purveyors that amplify the boutique lifestyle. The corporate manifesto. BLLA is a catalyst for trends and the future of the boutique lifestyle. BLLA.org

Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA)

BLLA

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Updated Memories brings the four Houses and cities to life through music, flavors, and sight. Friends of The House Collective share their memories of time spent at the Houses in their respective artistic mediums, reconnecting with the brands global network of travelers.

New York, NY The House Collective announces its Updated Memories campaign, an ode to reconnecting with and re-exploring different cities after being away for so long. With the help of global creatives Verbal (Ambush), Dr. Woo, Benji B, and Yoyo Cao  all coined the Global Nomads, the campaign highlights the four cities of the Houses: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Chengdu. The House Collective will bring the essence of each property and its city to life through cocktails, music, and visuals; with each expression representing the past, present, and future.

Apart from installations at each House, The House Collective will also bring all the elements of these Updated Memories together through striking design in a digital zine. Available to a global audience, the digital zine creates a portal to The House Collectives ethos and the individual properties that contribute to it.

To bring this experience to New York, The House Collective will be taking over the famed Temple Bar in New York City from 9 to 21 November with a special menu of limited-edition Updated Memories cocktails: four uniquely crafted libations, each inspired by the cities of the four Houses. Entering Temple Bar, guests will receive a special gift and a printed cocktail menu which will link to the digital zine that invites them to explore the Updated Memories microsite. A chance to win a two-night stay at The Upper House, The Middle House, The Temple House, and The Opposite House will also be up for grabs upon entering the pop-up, through a social media giveaway.

Source: Swire Hotels

The Past: Memories in a Glass

The first component of the campaign represents flavors, through cocktails. Concocted to rekindle fond memories, mixologists from each House will create three cocktails inspired by signature flavor and the scents of the cities. To showcase Beijings signature dish, Harry Zhang, the mixologist from the UNION bar has created the Pekin Dandy with Beijing roast duck fat.

Apart from New York, these cocktails will also be available globally through other Updated Memories pop-ups this fall, at iconic bars in cities where friends of The House Collective can be found. These will be announced at a later date.

The Present: A Mirror of the Present

he second component represents the present, through visuals. Content creators will produce short films to depict each city in its current form, with monologues by the Global Nomads who share their memories of the Houses and the cities. Through Verbal (Ambush)s dialogue, he recalls memories of late nights DJ-ing in Shanghai, which is characterized vividly in the short film. Yoyo Cao on the other hand speaks of her appreciation of Chengdu as a melting pot  of beauty, dynamism, and cuisine.

The Future: Listen to the Future

Third is the representation of the future, through music. The House Collective asked each Global Nomad to share music that reminds them of the beautiful cities, curated on the premise of what to look forward to. Each city is represented by a different Global Nomad, and these tracks come to form the House Frequencies playlist, a sonic journey that takes listeners into the future. Benji B, British DJ and music producer, compiles tracks that represent his memories and anticipation to once again relax and wind down at The Opposite House in the heart of Beijing. Dr. Woo, famed Los Angeles-based tattoo artist, shares the sounds that help him feel right at home in The Upper House.

The Middle House, Shanghai

In the bustling Jingan District, The Middle House is the newest addition to The House Collective, best known for providing an elegant and calm oasis in one of Asias most sophisticated cities. The Middle Houses Cafe Gray Deluxe mixologist, Gary Hu, created the Shanghai Coffee Highball, which reflects the rising artisanal coffee trend in the city. Shanghai photographer Shuwei Liu captures The Middle Houses mix of bold lines and clean silhouettes found across the property. The House also invited Tokyo-based musician Verbal (Ambush) for the Global Nomads Playlist, one of Tokyos premier style icons. His background in music and fashion respectively align with The Middle Houses ethos of placing style at the forefront of the guest experience, and his memories of late nights DJ-ing in Shanghai is characterized vividly in the short film.

The Upper House, Hong Kong

The Upper House is an intimate urban retreat with soaring views of Hong Kongs harbor and hills. Its use of natural materials and bespoke architecture are integrated to create a sophisticated and modern residence. The Houses Mediterranean-inspired dining concept, Salisterra, incorporates the aromas of Hong Kong in its TaMartini, a play on the Dirty Martini, created by mixologist Raphael Holzer. Hong Kong-based photographer Vivien Liu captures the urban feel of The Upper House in a portrait-like approach, in addition to the natural landscapes surrounding the House. The Upper House sound is brought to life through the creative vision of Dr. Woo, famed Los Angeles-based tattoo artist known for weaving various cultural influences into his needlework with his interest in art, music, and fashion  similar to The Upper House. This dialogue lends itself to complementing the film and his fond memories of the House.

The Opposite House, Beijing

The Opposite House in Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Beijing, is meticulously constructed as an art gallery rather than a hotel. The mixologist, Harry Zhang, from the UNION bar, created the Pekin Dandy, a translation of the popular Beijing dish. To showcase the capital city is Domino Zhang, who captures the old with the new in his short film. For an element of sound, Benji B, British DJ and music producer, compiles tracks that represent his memories of relaxing and winding down in The Opposite House in the heart of Beijing.

The Temple House, Chengdu

The Temple House is set in a beautifully restored, hundred-year-old courtyard built in the Qing Dynasty. Guests experience traditions that have stood the test of time. Paying homage to rich traditions in Chengdu, William Zhang from JING at the Temple House has created the Pepper Bazaar, an ode to Chengdus famous pepper market. The historic and charming House is brought to life by Kurt Dacheng Ji, who captures the Temple Houses historic features in his short film around Chengdu. The musical inspiration of Yoyo Cao, one of Asias top style-setters, will be shown in her playlist representing her experience in Chengdu.

About Swire Hotels and The House Collective

Swire Hotels creates and manages distinctive hotels in Asia and the United States under two brands, The House Collective and EAST, providing an unscripted and authentic guest experience for travellers who seek originality, style and personalised service.

The House Collective is a group of refined, highly individual properties that defy comparison. Each uniquely imagined, The Opposite House in Beijing, The Upper House in Hong Kong, The Temple House in Chengdu and The Middle House in Shanghai were designed for seasoned travellers who seek a different, intimate and personalised experience in luxury travel. Each House is a sophisticated, singular piece of design, created by talented architects and designers, that reflect the unique qualities of their surroundings.

www.swirehotels.com

www.thehousecollective.com
The hotel market in mainland China has been influenced by a number of factors over the last couple of years, not least by the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent lockdowns and travel restrictions, but what are the opportunities for future growth? Before we answer this, lets look at the current market.

The current market

First-tier cities  Stock and supply

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as gateway cities in mainland China, are the cities which enjoy the highest level of mature hotel industry development, the largest industry demand and the most extensive industry brand coverage.

In 2022, it is estimated that the number of hotels in mainland Chinas first-tier cities is over 38,000 and the total number of star-rated hotels in the four cities is estimated to be over 7,300.

Broken down into hotel group subcategories, in these city markets, the largest number of hotels is taken up by the budget hotel category, followed by mid-end hotels, mid-to-high-end hotels and high-end hotels. The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 has certainly impacted the first-tier city markets. Having said this, the number of hotels opened in these markets is still considerable.

First-tier cities: Star-rated and total hotel stock (2022)

Hotels in mainland China  Photo by Cushman & Wakefield

First-tier cities: Number of hotels opened (2020 and 2021)

Hotels in mainland China  Photo by Cushman & Wakefield

What is next?

Several factors are and will increasingly come into play within the hotel sector in mainland China:

1. The changing demographics

Today, the middle-income group in mainland China stands at over 300 million people. To be specific, millennials, (those born between 1981 and 1996) are the main generational group associated with the countrys new middle class and their consumption upgrading has highly influenced the hotel sector. Meanwhile, Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012  an era of economic boom), will become the main consumption force in the future.

Millennials in mainland China  Preferred form of tours

Hotels in mainland China  Photo by Cushman & Wakefield

2. Changing travel consumption behaviour

The hotel stay consumption behaviour of travellers in mainland China has undergone tremendous changes, and new segmented groups, such as girlfriends, online gamers, couples and families cannot be ignored. Their new consumption behaviour has accelerated the development of some new hotel businesses, such as E-sports hotels. Also, the epidemic and related travel restrictions have made staycation vacations more prevalent, thus benefiting hotels nearby large urban populations.

3. A greater want for convenience

Technology is and will play an important role in enhancing hotel convenience, with many smart facilities and platforms being used in hotels, including smart front desks, smart housekeeping, smart rooms and smart dining.

4. A heightened awareness of health, safety and cleanliness

As COVID-19 first began to gain a footing in mainland China, peoples criteria for choosing a hotel changed, with hygiene and safety becoming a higher priority.

Generation Z in mainland China  Factors to consider when choosing a hotel

Hotels in mainland China  Photo by Cushman & Wakefield

5. A growing desire for a unique stay experience

Daka is now a big overall travel trend, which is a type of check-in style travel that is linked to online social media sharing. Therefore, more hotels in mainland China are beginning to place a greater emphasis on local and differentiated elements in their design and services in order to attract younger-generation travellers, who seek unique stay experience and share on social media.

Overall, hotel investors, developers and operators need to be aware of these factors in order to capture any new business opportunities in the future.

Andrew Chan, Managing Director, Head of Valuation & Advisory Services, Greater China, Cushman & Wakefield, said, With the rapid development of technology, hotel guests in mainland China have increasingly demanded new types of efficient and convenient hotel services which feature high-tech solutions. The hotel industry in mainland China is undergoing rapid changes both in the general market as well as in hotel services. In order to respond to these changes, Cushman & Wakefield offers a full range of real estate-related services to assist hotel clients in better positioning their hotel assets to capture any new and emerging business opportunities.

Francis Li, International Director, Vice President, Greater China, Head of Capital Markets, Greater China, Cushman & Wakefield, said, Impacted by macro changes and transformation in guest demographics, preferences and behaviour, hotels in mainland China are continuing to evolve in terms of their business offering. Cushman & Wakefields full-service advisory keeps our clients continually abreast of these changes to ensure the right investment decisions are made regarding their hotel property assets, at any given time.

Shaun Brodie, Head of Occupier Research, Greater China, Cushman & Wakefield, said, The steady growth of mainland China's middle-class group has brought about the upgrading and transformation of consumption, including spending on travel, tourism and hotel stays.

Please click here to download the full report.

Shaun Brodie

Senior Director, Head of Occupier Research, Greater China; Head of Business Development Services, East China; Head of Content, Greater China

Cushman & Wakefield

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Governor's Council candidate Tara Jacobs speaks at her election gathering. She's poised to be the first Berkshire County representative on the statewide advisory council.

High Turnout in Berkshires Helps Elect New Slate of Officials

Tara Jacobs tries a 360 degree photo booth at her party at at the American Legion in North Adams. The Governor's Council candidate was leading her Republican opponent by double-digits.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The county saw a big turnout on Tuesday as voters elected a new slate of state officials, including a new governor in Maura Healey.

More locally, Democrats Paul Mark was elected to the state Senate and state Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli to another term in the State House in the new 3rd District. North Adams' own Tara Jacobs was on track to be the first Berkshire resident elected to the Governor's Council.

Jacobs had won a nail-biting primary against three Springfield-area attorneys that wasn't decided until the day after the election. On Tuesday night, she wasn't quite ready to claim victory but the numbers were definitely swinging in her direction with nearly 64 percent of the vote with a third of the nearly 100 towns in the 8th District reporting in.

"We will officially, officially announce with the numbers get to the point where there's no turning the tide," said Jacobs at her election night gathering at the American Legion. "But it's looking amazing right now  I heard in Northampton we got 90 percent."

Her campaign team said the numbers were coming in for 71 percent in Berkshire County and 68 percent in Springfield against Jacob's Republican opponent John Comerford.

Both Mark and Jacobs are filling vacant seats after former state Sen. Adams Hinds and Councilor Mary Hurley of Springfield declined to seek re-election. Mark bested Republican Brendan Phair of Pittsfield and Pignatelli the Green-Rainbow Party challenger Michael Lavery of Becket.

All other Berkshire County state office incumbents were unopposed.

Election officials posited that the ballot questions and chance to vote for a new governor drove up turnout in some communities to close to double September's primary when there were two hotly contested county races on the ballot.

Healey was projected the winner in the governor's race minutes after the polls closed. She had been leading Republican opponent Geoffrey Diehl by double digits for weeks.

The two-term attorney general becomes the first woman elected governor in Massachusetts and first openly gay person. She will take office with Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll as lieutenant governor.

On track to victory were Democrats Andrea Campbell for attorney general and Diane DiZoglio for auditor, and incumbents Deborah Goldberg for treasurer and William Galvin for secretary of state. Democrat Richard Neal was leading his Republican challenger Dean Martilli by more than 20 points.

As of 11 p.m., all four of the ballot questions were leading, although only Question 3 on dental insurance seemed to be a sure win.

Numbers reported in Adams, Lanesborough, North Adams, Pittsfield and Williamstown had Question 1, the so-called Fair Share Amendment, winning by 10,000. Question 4, on repealing a law prohibiting undocumented residents from getting drivers' licenses, was winning by more than 6,000 votes.

"It has to do with the work of all of you, that got this message out," said state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier at Mark's gathering in Pittsfield. "Neighbors used social media and really just made the logical argument about why Question 4 makes sense. I can't thank you enough for we will be keeping an eye on the rest of the state of these questions."

Pittsfield had a turnout of 46 percent and Clarksburg saw 55 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

"We were talking about and I think it's the ballot questions. I really do," said Town Clerk Marilyn Gomeau, who also joked it could be because of the new electronic voting machine that went into service that day.

A few people were disappointed not to have the old wooden box with its bell, and there were a few spoiled ballots because voters weren't used to filling in ovals instead of making a check, but otherwise everything went smoothly, she said.

"It's amazing. I said, I can't believe it. I love it when we hit high numbers," Gomeau said.
Paul Mark enters his election night party on Tuesday after determining he will be the next state senator for the Berkshires.

Paul Mark Set to Move to State Senate



Supporters ready to welcome state Senate winner Paul Mark at Patrick's Pub on Tuesday night.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Paul Mark will move out of the House and down the hall to the state Senate this January.

A six-term representative of the 2nd Berkshire District, the Democrat was leading his Republican opponent Brendan Phair of Pittsfield by nearly 60 percent with more than a third of precincts reporting on Tuesday night.

Around 50 supporters rallied for Mark at Patrick's Pub on Tuesday night.



"I feel great. It feels amazing to have the support of people that you have had the chance to serve for the past 11 years, and then to have met so many people in 32 communities that I haven't served previously and to get an overwhelming level of support, just feels great," Mark said.



"It feels affirming to the work that I've been able to do in the past, it makes me feel good that the message we were speaking about reflected the message that I've heard from people in the district and it makes me feel good that when we go to put a stamp of this region on policy matters, that I am reflective of what the people want, and I hope to stay that way and I hope to stay in touch with people to make sure that happens."

Mark, a resident of Peru, will now represent most of Western Mass in the Berkshire, Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin Senate District. He replaces Adam Hinds, who had unsuccessfully run for lieutenant governor.

He said his No. 1 priority in the Senate is to make sure that this region gets every penny that it is entitled to, which he said is an "uphill battle."

"As the only member of the Senate for the entire county, it's going to be that much more difficult because A: it's the only voice that Boston is going to hear on that in that chamber," he said. "But B: when you have 32 cities and towns in the Berkshires and 57 total, I have to do everything possible to make sure that I know what resources each of these communities are looking for, and that they feel that they are getting the proper level of attention from it. So it's a challenge for sure, its a lot of hard work but it's something that I'm excited about, Ive been moving into for the last 14 months and on day one, I hope to be ready to really make an impact."



Mark's election party included signs and supporters of Question 1, the Fair Share Amendment that imposes a 4 percent surcharge on yearly net earnings over $1 million to fund education and infrastructure, and Question 4 to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. Both ballot questions were leading late Tuesday night.



"With Question 1, that's a constitutional amendment and it's something that I voted for four times in the Legislature, has come to the voters to ratify in the past and has always lost so to see that it looks like it's going to be a victory, I think is really impressive," he said.



"And I think it's important that we make sure that any revenue that comes in from this new bracket is going to be put to education to transportation, and as much of that as possible is coming to our rural communities and our gateway cities and into our region."

The two Senate candidates expressed significantly different views on abortion rights, gender-affirming care, police reform, and the Fair Share Amendment.

Phair was hoping to get at least 40 percent of the vote but the totals so far had him closer to 20. He doubts he will run for office again but said he will support a conservative candidate who has similar pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, anti-electric vehicle, mask and vaccine mandate values, and who cares about the state's energy policies and promoting businesses.

"That was a bit disappointing I was hoping it would be the very least 60-40, but it isn't. So that's OK. I don't have any big regrets. I think I ran a pretty good campaign and takes a lot to win a campaign like this. But I'm glad I gave it a shot," he said, adding that he enjoyed campaigning and the speaking engagements he had.

"It was fun," Phair concluded.



"I guess it confirms what I believe and what other people in the state believe in. I guess it doesn't necessarily mesh with what I believe would be good for the state."
Check out our great lineup of Boss Plows, and spreaders. 2 Locations Clarksburg & Pittsfield!
Social Work Professor Clarke-Mitchell Appointed to MCLA Board

Jean Clarke-Mitchell

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Jean Clarke-Mitchell, assistant professor of social work at Lesley University, has been nominated to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' board of trustees. She is also in her second term on the MCLA Foundation Board.

Clarke-Mitchell, a 2000 graduate of MCLA, is a licensed clinical social worker (LICSW) and holds a doctorate in social work from Smith College School of Social Work. She was the clinical director of the Elizabeth Freeman Center and an outpatient clinician at the Brien Center for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. With more than 20 years of experience in the clinical field and more than 10 years in academia, Clarke-Mitchell looks forward to participating on the board.

"I am very excited and feel very privileged and honored to be chosen to not only represent my alma mater but also to represent future students. To be on the board is monumental to me," she said. "I'm feeling there is a lot to be done and I'm hoping I can make an impact in so many ways. There are so many intersections to me and my experiences, and I want that to be something that I can bring to the table that will make a difference."

Clarke-Mitchell has an extensive resume in social justice activism and working with community organizations including the Rights of Passage and Empowerment (ROPE) Program as a senior mentor. She serves as a board member on Rockfort Moving Forward, Leadership Councils of Western Massachusetts, Albany Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and Massachusetts Women of Color Network.

"Having Dr. Jean Clarke-Mitchell on the board of trustees is a tremendous delight," said MCLA President James F. Birge. "I'm confident that her experiences and education will expand the dynamics and work of the board."

Clarke-Mitchell has invested many years in helping, advocating for, and educating others: trauma and sexual assault survivors, survivors of intimate partner violence, and adults struggling with substance use and mental health disorders.

"Just being a woman of color ... I can bring a perspective that is not often considered. When I think of that, I think about how we can retain professors of color and welcome students of color," she said. "How do we honor those people in our society? How do we manage the funds of the college and what we're invested in? The perspectives which I bring are not always present."

Prior to teaching at Lesley University, Clarke-Mitchell taught social work and psychology at Westfield State University, Smith College, Cambridge College, and the College of Our Lady of the Elms.

She has worked with groups in South Africa, taught students in Ghana, and conducted presentations on healthy relationships and self-care in Jamaica. She continues to affect positive change by teaching social work full-time and continuing to develop effective social work practitioners.

"When we consider different decisions that have to be made, I can have a voice at the table. I have a lot of appreciation and respect for people who felt they should nominate me," she said.
New York, US (PANA) - In a report issued on Tuesday, UN human rights experts outline how discrimination affects black boys and girls worldwide to the extent that they are not considered children, even in the eyes of the law
Name: Paul Gampe

Company: Console Connect, by PCCW Global

Job title: CTO

Date started current role: November 2017

Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

One of the founders of Console Connect, Paul Gampe led the company from a venture-backed start up with $65m in funding, through to its successful acquisition by PCCW Global, a multi-national telecommunications provider. Combining Console Connects large-scale software automation capability with one of the largest networks in the world has seen Gampe lead the charge in connectivity innovation. Gampe has held a number of leadership roles across several domains with a remit to develop software applications focused on self-service application. Hes been responsible for infusing this element of software DNA as well as an agile mindset across the organisation, embracing new ways of working and implementing cultural change.



What was your first job? I was a pizza delivery guy!

Did you always want to work in IT? At the age of six, I developed Perthes disease. The treatment at the time was to put you in frog-leg plaster, and so I was immobilised for three years in a wheelchair. As a child, I was scared that I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair and so I thought at least I can type, which meant I can always work in computing. I think that is where the idea started.

What was your education? Do you hold any certifications? What are they? I have a Bachelor of Information Technology from the University of Queensland.

Explain your career path. Did you take any detours? If so, discuss. I was a picker and packer at a store while I was at university, and I got busted for using their computers to do my assignment. In my defence, I did fix a bug in the application in the process! But thats actually how I got my first paying job outside of university, at an accounting software company, because I fixed a bug for them. After a few years there, my family and I moved to Tokyo, and I stumbled upon a role working with the first internet service provider in Japan. So, while Ive mostly been a software developer and engineer, I did end up running the first ISP in Japan in the mid-late 90s. It was at this ISP that I learnt what shaped the rest of my career. Virtual communities, or social networks as they are called today, are transformative in their ability to build value. Whether it is the open source community I have been a part of for many years, or the global network community, both have contributed immensely to our society. I have been drawn to opportunities that leverage this network effect which creates value for all participants.

What type of CTO are you? I believe that management is a discipline and a responsibility, and you must do it properly  I think this stems from my days as an Army Cadet! I also feel responsible for representing a technical community to a business and remaining hands-on. Due to this, I am passionate and committed to understanding exactly how technology adds value, and Im not comfortable being removed from the actual capability to do so .

Which emerging technology are you most excited about the prospect of? The one Console Connect is building! To put the power of building your own global network into the hands of every enterprise or every user is incredibly exciting.

Are there any technologies which you think are overhyped? Why? I think the ability to truly benefit from machine learning is much further away than people realise, especially in terms of it being generally available and valuable to everybody. I'm also frustrated with the general amount of VC money being pushed into cybersecurity products that dont really solve any problems. Cyber security is a complex problem domain, and I feel as an industry we are overloading our security experts with alert fatigue. We need tools that can remediate the threat, not just tell you about it.

What is one unique initiative that youve employed over the last 12 months that youre really proud of? The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). We've taken this broad spectrum of completely independent lines of business, and somehow managed to put them all into one application, which has been an immense achievement. We have up to 300 developers around the world, and being able to coalesce a community of development around a single platform has been difficult. But we're getting there, and the Scaled Agile Framework is allowing us to do that.

Are you leading a digital transformation? If so, does it emphasise customer experience and revenue growth or operational efficiency? If both, how do you balance the two? The Scaled Agile Framework is the tool that we use to drive digital transformation. And the way that we balance user experience with revenue is by making product design a first-class citizen at Console Connect. The Head of Design reports directly to me and they influence every single pixel on every application that we develop. Often in an organisation, design can be subservient to development, but by making it a first-class citizen and having a great team of designers, we're always putting the user experience at the forefront of anything that we do. In fact, we design the experience before we even develop it and operate in a model where high-fidelity wireframes are delivered before we even code.

What is the biggest issue that youre helping customers with at the moment? When you start pushing everything out to a cloud, businesses no longer have a fixed perimeter. We used to be able to look at a firewall in a data centre and say, if I unplug that port, I know that nobody can attack me. But now, with applications spilling out all over the internet and into different clouds, the perimeter is lost. Were helping organisations maintain control of their connectivity so that they can control the perimeter around their data.

How do you align your technology use to meet business goals? The Scaled Agile Framework has a core competency called Lean Portfolio Management. We use Lean Portfolio Management to structure the way our enterprise prioritises work, measures success and builds our architectural runway. A multi-stakeholder team means that revenue generation, customer experience and technology all have a seat at the table.

Do you have any trouble matching product/service strategy with tech strategy? Its often a balancing act between what the market perceives as a product and what the technical community is excited about. Console Connect has this amazing technical ability to connect clouds, but a lot of businesses still dont understand why they need this capability. We often need to balance this education with technical innovation.

What makes an effective tech strategy? Revenue. One of my great mentors always told me that anybody can come up with a great idea but very few know how to take it to market.

What predictions do you have for the role of the CTO in the future? I believe that the role of the CIO will start to transform into the CTO. Its an arrogant misconception that CTOs create technology, while CIOs are only consumers of it. They are informed advisors on what technology to use, and as more companies go through this digital transformation journey, technology is no longer a tool. It's a strategic competitive advantage.

What has been your greatest career achievement? Building the Engineering Services and Operations team over twelve years at Red Hat was a fantastic opportunity for me. Being part of the community that helped define a business model for enterprise open-source software.

Looking back with 20:20 hindsight, what would you have done differently? I dont think I would have done anything differently. Especially in the pandemic  we've all been through that experience of feeling disconnected and isolated. I had the luxury of establishing the Scaled Agile Framework ahead of the pandemic, which included planning events, ceremonies, and daily stand ups with the team. This meant that we had my technologists in constant contact with their global community, which provided them with psychological safety. I think that was the best thing I've done in the last two years of my life.
Washington, DC, US (PANA) - A staff team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Kenyan authorities have reached staff-level agreement on the fourth reviews of Kenyas economic program under the Extended Fund facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangements
The Philippines is among the countries that experiences several typhoons every year. In the event of power outages brought about by natural disasters such as this one, what are the effective solutions when power goes out?

EcoFlow, the portable power station that contributes energy in most kinds of emergency situations, such a storm and more. Founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs who had worked to perfect the drone battery to be lightweight and powerful, EcoFlow leverages this experience to build long-lasting energy storage products.

The world is at the intersection of major paradigm shifts toward artificial intelligence, electrification, and new energy, said Jenny Zhang, Global Marketing Director at EcoFlow. Power a New World is a call to the future amid these changes. EcoFlow believes in an aspirational, eco-friendly, and technologically driven future that every individual can own. EcoFlows meaningfully innovative power solutions are designed to bring a positive impact on individuals, families and society at large.

The Delta Series

EcoFlows product lines of Delta series power generators equip the consumer with an industrial amount of clean, quiet and renewable power for life adventures, work and home backup power. Among its offerings include the following:

Delta Max. Designed to meet the growing interest in mobile, remote and off-the-grid living, Delta Max is reliable and a safe power source for anyone on the move. Not only does it charge three times faster than similar batteries, but it allows users to pair the device with any of the charging solutions from AC wall charging, solar and smart generator for even faster charging. Delta Max also handles devices up to 3400W with ease such as your fridge and dryer.

It also has a built-in unified Battery Management System (BMS) that integrates all batteries into a single system to monitor voltage, current, short circuit, and temperature for greater efficiency and convenience. For easier handling, the DELTA Max comes equipped with a storage compartment for cables and is portable with a manageable weight of less than 30kg.

Delta Pro. This powers up to approximately six days of emergency usage in the home. Delta Pro can handle up to 14 devices or appliances simultaneously such as refrigerators, window ACs and space heaters, with the add-ons like solar panels for recharging or a smart meter boost capacity and energy management.

With 6000W X-stream and multiple charging methods, Delta Pro charges in less than 2 hours. With its base battery expandable, you can customize it with extra batteries or a smart generator to add more power or use the EcoFlow mobile app to better manage the energy flow to your devices.

Delta Pro Ecosystem. The EcoFlow Delta Pro, the world's first portable home battery with an expandable ecosystem, is ideal as a home backup energy source, smart energy management, a way to lower energy bills, and more.

Among its features include its expandable capacity as it connects with a Delta Pro to double its total capacity to 7200Wh. Extra Batteries can also be easily recharged from solar panels, AC outlets, EV charging stations, or a Smart Generator.

The EcoFlow Ecosystem also has an EV X-Stream Adapter which allows you to charge your EcoFlow Delta Pro at thousands of Level 2 AC EV charging stations worldwide. You can also fully charge your Delta Pro in 1.8 hours - that's faster than most power banks, let alone power stations.

The Power of EcoFlow

So what makes EcoFlow different and unique from other portable power stations?

EcoFlow runs large output appliances with ease thanks to their use of cutting-edge technology patents like "X-Boost" and "X-Stream," which enable recharge rates that are ten times faster than those of the majority of portable power stations on the market. The BMS (Battery Management System) of the products carefully measures real-time voltage, current, and temperature and uses clever algorithms to condition the battery for optimum performance.

Most notably, EcoFlow includes 110W, 160W, 220W, 400W and more solar panels constructed of effective monocrystalline silicon cells, which recharge the portable power stations themselves, in an effort to genuinely become a sustainable and environmentally beneficial product. Solar energy produced by solar panels would be an ideal substitute, particularly given the recent sharp increases in gas and oil costs.

In any event, an EcoFlow charger offers quick, dependable, and environmentally friendly power that is available anytime, anywhere.

Zhang added, Our mission is to create the most innovative, eco-friendly power solutions to untether individuals, families, and societies. We aim to empower our users with meaningful innovation, helping people across the world to live, dream, and explore without limits.

Watch out for more products coming soon. For discounts up to 70%, check out their online shop EcoFlow during the 11.11 sale!
The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of businesses and organizations at a pace seen only a few other times in history. While the shift to digital has brought easier access, innovative solutions, and more convenience to firms and their customers, it also increased the risk for cybersecurity threats with the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry being one of the most vulnerable.

In a proactive bid to educate and engage the industry to take steps to enhance the protection of their own and their customers data, global cybersecurity leader Trend Micro is hosting the 2022 BFSI Cybersecurity Summit on November 16 at Fairmont, Makati. The event is free for those working and connected with the BFSI sector and will feature cybersecurity thought leaders from the Philippines and the Southeast Asia region as panelists.

According to Trend Micro, 2021 has seen more threat actors prey on digital-first organizations, with the banking industry being the second most hit in terms of ransomware attacks. With a bigger digital attack surface  applications, website, cloud infrastructure, on-premises servers, and operational technology  rising from the hastened rate of digital transformation, Trend Micro champions the need for companies to be more vigilant in discovering, assessing, and mitigating cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.

The summit will feature industry leaders who will debate and discuss various topics under cybersecurity with focus on the BFSI sector. Among the panelists for the event are Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary David Almirol, East West Bank Chief Information Security & Data Protection Officer Manuel Joey Regala, Fintech Philippines Association Executive Director Amor Maclang, Amazon Web Services Solutions Architect Damselle Acosta, 1Kosmos Chief Operating Officer for Asia Pacfic Siddharth Gandi, and BFSI SEA Regional Principal Architect Sapna Sumbly. They will be joined by Trend Micro Country Philippines Country Manager Ian Felipe and Nilesh Jain, Vice-President for South East Asia and India, Trend Micro.

Trend Micro shares that the event will be valuable for business and technology leaders in the BFSI industry, especially C-level executives handling information technology, information security, and technology.

Registration is open until November 16, 2022 through bit.ly/3DR2SJB. Attendees from banking, financial services, and insurance companies can join for free. For more details on the event, visit resources.trendmicro.com/PH-20221116-BFSI-Cybersecurity-Summit.html
The trans-shipment exercise between Kolkata and Indias northeastern states via Bangladesh will open up a new horizon for both South Asian giants that share the fifth longest land border in the world. The distance between Kolkata and Agartala by road is treacherous. The 1650 kilometre land route is through Guwahati but through the Bangladesh waterways, it is only 620 km. Therefore transporting goods via Bangladesh saves time and cost for Indian logistics service providers.

Bangladesh is also set to extend its agreement allowing India to transport fuel to its northeast through its territory. The agreement, signed between the state run Indian Oil Corporation and Bangladesh government in August after several parts of the northeast were flooded due to heavy rains, will expire on November 30.

Despite being closely linked, South Asia as a region is one of the least connected. In South Asia, transport and trade challenges mean that it is about 15-20 per cent less expensive for an Indian company to trade with a counterpart in Brazil or Germany than in Bangladesh. Improved connectivity can reduce trading costs, lead to greater economic growth, and reduce poverty in South Asia, Cecile Fruman, Director, Regional Integration and Engagement, South Asia told India Narrative in an interview.

As New Delhi concluded its trial trans-shipment exercise on Monday, using Bangladeshs Chittagong and Mongla ports to transport goods to its northeast  much ahead of the December deadlineBangladeshi private sector is also upbeat. The exercise will benefit a host of businesses while boosting overall income levels. The Bangladesh exchequer will stand to benefit too.

India is committed to unlock the potential of the region with connectivity for greater economic growth with the spirit of shared prosperity. Who wouldnt benefit from a shorter supply chain? Bangladesh and India are in tandem for facilitating landlocked northeastern states including opening up for Nepal and Bhutan, geopolitical and security analyst Navita Srikant told India Narrative.

Srikant added that ASEAN to Bay of Bengal economies are now coming closer as several economic frameworks such as BIMSTEC and Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) along with Indias Act East policy have started to pay dividends.

Abdullah Sadi, Bangladeshi researcher at Boston University wrote in an article published by the Business Standard (Bangladesh) that in the last four years, Dhaka has earned Taka 36 lakh from 17 consignments through the Kolkata-Ashuganj-Akhaura route.

Last month alone the total income of the government and private sector from the shipment of goods from Kolkata to Assam using Chittagong port was more than Taka 2 lakh, he noted.

The transit agreement was signed between India and Bangladesh in 2018. The agreement is aimed at facilitating transhipment and use of Mongla and Chittagong ports. This would mean that goods from Kolkata can be sent to the land-locked northeastern states through Bangladesh, an exercise that will reduce both transit cost and time.

Also read: Bangladeshs garment exports to India are increasing

Sheikh Hasina, symbol of a progressive Bangladesh, has an unfinished agenda
Vladimir Makei, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Belarus, arrived in New Delhi early Wednesday on a two-day visit which takes place at a crucial time as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to escalate.

Makei will call on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar later today who also returned from a significant trip to Moscow early morning.

Belarus recognises India as an emerging global power and seeks to develop a strategic relationship with New Delhi.

Belarusian news agency BelTA reported last month that both countries are also mulling over setting up a joint company to make drones.

There are a lot of orders coming from abroad. The director of the center [of unmanned aerial vehicles based on the Academy of Sciences] is currently in India holding talks to launch a joint venture with India. Indian specialists have studied the drones of a number of foreign manufacturers and give preference mainly to Belarusian developments, it quoted Vladimir Gusakov, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, telling Belarus 1 TV channel.

As the West imposed sweeping financial sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime for backing Russias Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the Belarusian President urged Asia to seize the moment and take the lead.

The time for Asia is coming. People in Asia, in the East are very prudent, cautious, shrewd. With such an attitude Asia will not miss on emerging opportunities. Everyone is now looking for someone to rely on, Lukashenko said recently highlighting the role played by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures (CICA).

Makei, during his trip to Iran late last month, also spoke about the need for a new world order which should be based on the generally accepted principles of the UN Charter.

In Moscow on Tuesday, Jaishankar too spoke on the era of change now being experienced by the international community and on the partners India and Russia continuing to engage each other in an increasingly multi-polar and re-balanced world.

Both ministers are expected to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations in New Delhi today, including political, economic, cultural, tourism, education matters (there are 941 Indian students estimated to be studying in Belarus) besides exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.

#WATCH | The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Vladimir Makei reaches Delhi; Visuals from the Delhi airport pic.twitter.com/m7vQibRZ3i  ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2022

While Minsk has been supportive of Indias candidature for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, India has supported Belarus for its membership in the NAM and also other international and multilateral fora like IPU.

Indias supportive stand on various resolutions in Geneva and New York (especially during Indias non-permanent membership of UNSC during 2021-22) targeting Belarus for violation of human rights and restrictions on freedom of expression have also been appreciated by Belarus.

In 2015, India also extended help through Line of Credit (LoC) of US$100 million to the export-oriented country with well-developed manufacturing industry, services sector and agriculture.

Both countries are also batting for an increase in bilateral trade which remains in favour of Belarus primarily on account of imports of Potash which too has been affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sanctions and ban on export from the port of Klaipeda.

They also continue to explore ways to enhance cooperation in tourism as Indian art and culture, dance, yoga, ayurveda and films remain quite popular among Belarusian nationals.

I will try to convince the producers to shoot a film here. Now its a bit difficult, but as soon as the situation normalizes, I will convince you to come here, see the locations and shoot a movie, Indian Ambassador to Belarus Alok Ranjan Jha said recently.

Also Read: India-Russia relations insulated from headwinds from the West: Jaishankar
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
The announcement follows earlier media reports that a ransomware group had started releasing client data after a midnight deadline passed for Australia's largest health insurer to pay a ransom.

Medibank said the data includes names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, Medicare numbers for ahm customers, some international students passport numbers and some health claims data.

The gang that leaked the stolen data is believed to be a rebrand of the defunct, Russian-speaking REvil group, according to a TechCrunch report.

TechCrunch reported seeing a new dark web leak site listing Medibank as one of the gangs victims. It did not, however, reveal how much data it exfiltrated from Medibanks network, and did not share evidence of its claims.

Medibank first announced the cyberattack on October 12. The health insurer later revealed that criminals accessed personal information from more than nine million current and former customers and some of their authorised representatives.

On November 7, the health insurer said it would not pay a ransom. Medibank also issued a warning to customers, stating criminals could also attempt to contact [them] directly.

The insurer said it is working with the Australian government, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Federal Police, to investigate the cybercrime.
Democrat Ricardo Lara, Insurance Commissioner for California who bagged 57.9% of the vote, won against Republic contender Robert Howell. The commissioner has been in office since 2018 and previously served in Californias state senate and assembly.

I am honored to be re-elected as Californias Insurance Commissioner and look forward to building on the progress weve made over the last four years, fighting for California consumers, Lara said.

In Georgia, republican John King seized victory with 54.3% of the vote, beating democrat Janice Laws Robinson. This represents Kings first election win.

The Georgia insurance commissioner, who is a former chief of police for Doraville, has been in post since 2019.

We wont let you down, King said in a message shared on social media.

This represents Kings first election victory, as in July 2019 he was appointed to replace Jim Beck who was suspended and later found guilty of 37 counts of fraud relating to more than $2.5 million in funds being diverted from state-chartered insurer Georgia Underwriting Association.

Kansas too saw its republic insurance commissioner elected for another term. Vicki Schmidt won with 62% of the vote against democrat candidate Kiel Corkran.

Schmidt, a pharmacist by trade, has been Commissioner of Insurance for the state since 2019.

Mulready, who steamed to victory uncontested in Oklahoma, started his insurance career in 1984 as a broker and went on to serve in executive roles at Oklahomas two largest health insurers.
State Farm further alleged in its lawsuit that prior to the meetings, Amazon did not have any similar senior care products, and that it saw an opportunity to copy State Farms pioneering, proprietary technologies and avoid the expensive and time-consuming effort that would have been necessary to develop its own innovations." It was also noted that State Farm launched Sundial in June 2020, while Amazon launched its Alexa Care Hub in November 2020 and its Alexa Together subscription service last December.

According to the suit, Amazon copied State Farms technology, including Sundials check-in and monitoring features, its "circle of friends" feature for coordinating caregiver responsibilities, and a chatbot feature.

"This is just the latest example of Amazon unfairly using its widespread platform and global scale to siphon other companies' innovations for its own gain," State Farm indicated.

Reuters reached out to Amazon, which declined to comment. In a statement, State Farm said that this was the first time it had ever filed a patent infringement lawsuit.

Read more: State Farm hit with $6.5 million verdict over unpaid injury claim

This legal development comes after State Farm last month was served a verdict, ordering the insurer to pay $6.5 million to a woman who had sued the company over unpaid collision injury claims.
During a 15-week process, IBAs research team conducted one-on-one interviews with specialist brokers, MGAs, and carriers and surveyed thousands more within its network to gain a keen understanding of what insurance professionals think of current market offerings.

Brokers were first quizzed on what features they thought were most important in professional liability policies and then asked how the insurers they dealt with rated on those attributes. MGAs, carriers, and brokers were measured on the strength of their relationships with brokers, their ability to handle claims, their underwriting expertise, and, most importantly, the strength of the individual products they provide.

The top-scoring professional liability brokers, carriers and MGAs were named Five-Star Professional Liability aware winners. Among the winners for 2022 are:

For the full list of IBA Five-Star Professional Liability 2022 winners, you can read the full report now, for free.
Cybersecurity is becoming more important in an increasingly digital world, and experts agree that good cybersecurity starts with a good education. As the use of technology and tech platforms becomes more widespread and interconnected, guests on this episode of The Insuring Cyber Podcast said that the earlier, the better when it comes to educating students and future workforce professionals about cybersecurity.

These students are going to become the workforce of tomorrow, and we all know how critical cybersecurity has become to businesses all across the United States, said Laurie Salvail, director of CYBER.ORG, an academic initiative of the Cyber Innovation Center. This is a nonprofit organization that works to accelerate technology, research, and development and foster a knowledge-based workforce that can support the growing needs of government, industry, and academic partners.

As the workforce changes with older professionals retiring and younger professionals taking their place, Salvail said its important to make sure students see a career path in cybersecurity.

Our young students are dreaming about their future careers, even in Kindergarten, she said. Its important to share these new careers with our students and empower them to gain the skills needed to fill these open positions.

Maxine Bulmer, vice president of Consulting Delivery for the Cyber Security Consulting and Engineering Sector at CGI UK, agreed.

Cybersecurity is part of everything we do, and absolutely, I think that begins with our youngsters  it doesnt become an add-on. They just use it as part of their everyday activity, she said. Its really great that that young age group now sees theres not just having an interest in cybersecurity, but they can make a career out of it as well.

Salvail said this awareness starts from the top down by making sure teachers have knowledge of cybersecurity that they can pass on to their students.

Weve noticed that cybersecurity can be a confusing word for teachers all across the United States, Salvail said. Everyone has the ability to learn how computers are interconnected, and we all need to know about the various threats and how to protect ourselves online. So really just helping teachers understand, for the particular age group of students they teach, what is cybersecurity, what does it look like, and how can we easily have these discussions in every day life [is important.]

Another way that CGI UK is working to excite students and professionals alike about cybersecurity is with its UK Cyber Escape Experience. Bulmer leads the team developing this initiative  an escape room that seeks to educate about cyber risk and response. Built inside a 40-foot shipping container, it has plans to tour the UK, stopping at CGI offices and client sites. Teams of up to six work together at CGI Cyber Escape to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish cyber related tasks to progress and escape within a 30- or 60-minute session. Tasks are aligned to different security learning objectives, and after successfully escaping, participants receive a handout with the learning outcomes, further information on security, and an escape certificate.

Its geared around maybe what people might find familiar in their home or in their office or in their school, and it helps people think about being safe online, she said. Its also about physical security  the environment that you find yourself and how to be aware of who should or shouldnt be inside.

She said the need for more education around cybersecurity for children as young as kindergarten through high school became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns when schools shifted to online learning.

If we take ourselves back to the pandemic, where our world changed, it became quite evident quite quickly that when a lot of our children moved to online learning and were doing school education at home, it was really important to us that we made those students and those organizations  families as well  [understand] how important it was to be safe online, she said. And it has become apparent that as children go through their education, they are taught about using IT and the applications and the tools that are there to help them do their work and research as part of their lessons.

For students and teachers alike, as well as other workforce professionals, Salvail added that this will likely continue to be the case as the world is becoming more digitally focused.

You have to be brave, right? And kind of willing to learn, she said. We must have that growth mindset in ourselves, that were trying to instill into our students, that we can learn these skills to help empower our students in this growing world around us and ever changing environment.

To find out what else Laurie and Maxine had to say, check out the rest of this podcast episode and stay tuned for new episodes of The Insuring Cyber Podcast publishing every other Wednesday along with the Insuring Cyber newsletter. Thanks for listening.

Topics Cyber Training Development
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A lawyer for Sandy Hook families said Monday that significant punitive damages need to be imposed on Alex Jones to deter him and other conspiracy theorists from continuing to tell their followers the 2012 Newtown shooting was a hoax, in addition to the nearly $1 billion he already has been ordered to pay victims relatives.

Attorney Christopher Matteis comments came during a video conference hearing before a Connecticut judge on how much punitive damages the Infowars host and his company, Free Speech Systems, should pay victims families. In a hypothetical calculation, the families lawyers say punitive damages could total $2.75 trillion, but they have not asked for a specific amount.

Judge Barbara Bellis said she will rule at a later date.

Jones lawyer, Norm Pattis, argued any punitive damages should be minimal, because last months $965 million jury verdict on compensatory damages is so large and unparalleled it is the functional equivalent of punitive damages. Mattei disagreed.

Here, where  in our view  the conduct really rises to the level of reprehensible, evil, really just malicious conduct, theres no situation in which  nominal punitive damages would be sufficient under the law, Mattei told the judge. Theres really no way any of us, I think, can wrap our minds around what kind of depravity it took for Mr. Jones to do what he did.

Jones, based in Austin, Texas, continued to bash the trial as unfair and an assault on free speech rights. He has said he will appeal the verdict and already has asked for a new trial. He also said he doesnt have $2 million to his name, so he cant pay the verdict.

Pattis on Monday questioned how the jury arrived at the $965 million figure. He said there was no evidence at the trial of the net worth of Jones or Free Speech Systems.

The jury came up with an unusual verdict, Pattis said. You will never come up with an algorithm that explains it. These numbers are simply unparalleled in Connecticut history, perhaps in the history of any case in the United States.

Twenty first graders and six educators were killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Eight victims relatives and an FBI agent who responded to the school sued Jones and Free Speech Systems, who were found liable last year for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and violating Connecticuts Unfair Trade Practices Act.

All 15 plaintiffs gave emotional testimony during the month-long trial, describing how they have been threatened and harassed for years by people who believe the shooting didnt 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.

The jurys verdict was meant to compensate the plaintiffs for their past, current and future emotional distress, the defamation and the violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act. The jury also said punitive damages were warranted to penalize Jones for his conduct. Bellis will decide the amount of those damages.

Punitive damages are generally limited to attorneys fees for emotional distress and defamation, but there is no cap on such damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act, which bars deceptive business practices and unfair competition.

The Sandy Hook families lawyers are to get one-third of any compensatory damages received, under a retainer agreement. So Jones and Free Speech Systems may be ordered to pay another $322 million in punitive damages to the plaintiffs in addition to the nearly $1 billion.

And Jones could be ordered to pay even more in punitive damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Such damages typically are multiple times the compensatory damages, the families lawyers say. Mattei said Jones should be punished under the law for his continuing criticism of the trial, judge and plaintiffs lawyers.

Pattis countered there was no evidence presented at the trial that Jones sent anyone to threaten and harass the families. He also said a $1 billion verdict was high enough for punishment and deterrence, and no damages should be awarded under the Unfair Trade Practices Act.

My view is if a billion doesnt do it, a trillion isnt going to do it. $3 trillion isnt going to do it, Pattis said.

In Texas, the parents of two other children killed in the shooting filed similar lawsuits against Jones. A jury in one of the cases ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million in damages, and the second Texas trial is scheduled to begin around the end of the year. The $50 million verdict is expected to be reduced because of Texas caps on damages.

Top Photo: InfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court during his trial on September 21, 2022 in Waterbury, Connecticut, US. Photographer: Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images North America

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Data stolen from an Australian health insurer, including the names, addresses and birthdates of hundreds of customers, has been posted to a forum on the so-called dark web.

The files appear to be a sample of the data that was accessed, Medibank Private Ltd. said in a statement Wednesday. The company expects more data to be released, after earlier this week saying the hackers exposed information of around 9.7 million people.

The release of the personal information comes after a vast data leak at Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.s Optus unit in September, which exposed the details of as many as 10 million customers. Other recent hacks on pathology services provider Australian Clinical Labs Ltd. and Woolworths Ltd. subsidiary MyDeal have raised concern Australian companies arent doing enough to protect customer data.

Cyber Attack on Australian Insurer Medibank Far Bigger Than Initially Thought

The hackers warned early Tuesday that they would release the data within 24 hours, a day after the Melbourne-based company said it wouldnt pay a ransom because that would only encourage further crime. The leaked data contained details of about 100 customers including their treatments for cannabis dependence, alcohol abuse, anxiety, and drug use, the Australian Financial Review reported.

Medibanks data breach could cost the company more than A$200 million ($129 million), according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Matt Ingram and Jack Baxter. The health insurer, which has already delayed premium increases for affected customers, could face compensation of A$500 to A$20,000 for affected policyholders, the analysts said.

Medibank shares rose 0.7% in afternoon trading in Sydney Wednesday. The stock has slumped around 20% since the hack was first detected just under a month ago, wiping about A$2 billion off the companys market value.

The exposure of the first batch of information and threats to post more could be designed to pressure Medibank to pay the ransom, said Josh Lemon, who teaches cybersecurity at the SANS Institute.

Unfortunately paying the ransom doesnt always guarantee that the data wont be released, or resold to other cybercriminals, Lemon said. I dont believe paying the ransom at this stage will do much more than delay how quickly the data may be released.

As threatened, the hackers responsible for the Medibank ransom have begun dumping data. This is about as bad as we feared it would get. pic.twitter.com/ZAE37rLXQs

 Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) Nov. 8, 2022

Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil said Medibanks decision not to pay a ransom to cyber criminals was in line with government advice.

Paying them only fuels the ransomware business model, ONeil said. They commit to undertaking actions in return for payment, but so often re-victimize companies and individuals.

Under no circumstance should Medibank consider paying the ransom, said Troy Hunt, who runs breach-tracking website haveibeenpwned. Their position on this was the right one and reflects the government position on cybercrime and ransoms.

The Australian Federal Polices operation Guardian, which was initially set up to protect victims of the Optus data breach, will be expanded to include victims of the Medibank hack, Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said Wednesday.

The government on Wednesday also passed legislation increasing the penalty for repeated or serious privacy breaches to at least A$50 million.

Significant privacy breaches in recent weeks have shown existing safeguards are outdated and inadequate. This bill makes clear to companies that the penalty for a major data breach can no longer be regarded as the cost of doing business, said Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in a statement.

Photograph: A person types at a backlit keyboard arranged in Danbury, UK, on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Carriers Fraud Australia Data Driven
Aviva plans regular and sustainable investor payouts, its CEO said on Wednesday, as the British insurer reiterated plans for a share buyback program alongside its 2022 results and posted a rise in nine-month gross written premiums.

Aviva, under pressure from activist investor Cevian Capital to increase returns to shareholders, said the size of the buyback would be decided by the board at year-end.

Regular and sustainable are important  we would return capital that we generated through the operation of the business as opposed to capital we generated through the market environment, CEO Amanda Blanc told Reuters by phone.

Jefferies analysts have previously said they expect Aviva to make recurring 250 million pound ($289 million) pay-outs.

Aviva has already returned 4.75 billion pounds to investors after raising 7.5 billion in a string of asset sales since Blanc became CEO in July 2020.

Cevian in the past called on Aviva to return five billion pounds to shareholders by the end of 2022.

Bankers have said Avivas fund unit Aviva Investors could be an attractive target for European or North American financial services firms, but Blanc said it was not for sale, pointing to a symbiotic relationship between the unit and other parts of Avivas business.

Avivas solvency ratio, a key measure of capital strength, came in at 223%, above the top end of its target range, despite turmoil in the UK gilt market in late September that caused a liquidity crisis for pension funds. The insurers dividend guidance remained unchanged.

Aviva provided a short-term loan to one of its smaller staff pension schemes to help it over the crisis, chief financial officer Charlotte Jones said.

Aviva reported a 10% rise in general insurance gross written premiums in the first nine months of the year to 7.2 billion pounds. The value of new business in its UK and Ireland life division rose 46% over the same period to 466 million pounds.

Avivas shares were down 1.4% at 0843 GMT, however, one of the worst performances in the FTSE 100 .FTSE. Barclays analysts pointed to a drop in Avivas sales of bulk annuities  insurance for corporate pension schemes.

($1 = 0.8666 pounds)

(Additional reporting by Andres Gonzalez; editing by Sinead Cruise and Mark Potter)

Topics Trends Pricing Trends
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Vantage Group Holdings, Hamilton Insurance Group and Liberty Specialty Markets.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Vantage Group Holdings Ltd. announced that Peter Skerlj will join as chief risk officer, effective February 2023. Skerlj will be based in Bermuda and report to Greg Hendrick, Vantages chief executive officer. (See related appointment about Skerljs replacement at Hamilton).

In this new role, Skerlj will lead the further development of Vantages data-driven enterprise risk management framework building upon the strong foundation established over the first two years of operations. To continue strengthening Vantages risk and economic capital modeling, Skerlj will leverage technology to drive a cutting-edge approach to risk assessment, modeling, and analytics.

Skerlj joins Vantage from Hamilton Insurance where he served as group chief risk officer. Skerlj joined Hamilton Insurance in 2012. Previously, Skerlj was head of Analytics at Q Re Bermuda Advisors Ltd. Prior to Q Re, he held various positions at Lancashire Insurance Co., PartnerRe, and Applied Research Associates. He holds a Master of Engineering Science and Bachelor of Engineering Science from the University of Western Ontario.

***

Hamilton Promotes Baker to Group CRO

Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd. announced the appointment of Alex Baker as group chief risk officer, effective Jan. 1, 2023, subject to regulatory approval. Baker will report to group CEO Pina Albo and replaces Pete Skerlj who is joining Vantage Group Holdings. (See related item about Skerljs appointment).

Prior to joining Hamilton in 2016, Baker was the chief actuary of Chubb Managing Agent Ltd. (CMAL) where he was responsible for all actuarial work for the Lloyds Syndicate 1882 and held Approved Person status from the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) of the Bank of England. He served as a Capital Modelling Actuary from May 2011 to June 2013 with Chubb Insurance Co. of Europe and CMAL. Baker was a key contributor to Syndicate 1882s internal model approval process under Solvency II.

I am delighted to welcome Alex to the Group Executive Team. Since joining Hamilton in 2016, Alex has been a trusted advisor and instrumental in building our robust risk and actuarial culture, said Albo.

As a founding member of Hamilton, Pete set up our risk and actuarial function and helped build our strong team. I am grateful to him for his many contributions to Hamiltons success and wish him all the best.

***

Liberty Specialty Markets Names Garcia Larriu as General Manager, Spain

Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurances Global Risk Solutions division, announced the appointment of Alfonso Garcia Larriu to the role of General Manager Insurance, Spain. Garcia Larriu reports to Kadidja Sinz, head of LSM Central Region (Europe and MENA). He takes up his new role with immediate effect and is based in Madrid, Spain.

Garcia Larriu is responsible for leading the team and delivering on the growth targets that LSM has set for its Spanish business and serving the needs of our clients and brokers. He replaces Fernando Lara who has moved into a new role within LSM taking over as head of Client and Distribution for Continental Europe.

Laras new role has a wide remit across Continental Europe. He is responsible for leading the team to deliver LSMs European distribution strategy. Lara joined LSM in 2004 and for the past 15 years successfully held the role of General Manager Insurance in Spain.

Garcia Larriu joins from March Risk Solutions, in Spain, where he was CEO. He has nearly 30 years of experience gained in insurance and reinsurance global markets including Construction and Energy. He has a degree in Law from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain and is a Chartered Insurance Broker.

Alfonso brings a wealth of experience in managing market relationships, people, and budgets. He has an in-depth understanding of the markets in which we operate, said Sinz.

Since Fernando joined LSM in 2004 he has been instrumental in creating and developing LSMs Iberian business. I know that Fernando will bring the same drive and determination to deliver the top results that he has shown throughout his career. This new role is well deserved.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  Kansas City will pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed Black man who was fatally shot by a police officer in 2019.

The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners approved the settlement with the family of Terrence Bridges Jr. in a closed meeting earlier this week, The Kansas City Star reported.

Bridges, 30, was shot and killed after officers responded to a reported carjacking.

Police had contended he was resisting arrest and was shot during a struggle with the officer, identified in police records as Dylan Pifer. The officer told investigators he feared for his life because he thought Bridges was pulling a gun from a sweatshirt.

Bridges family and civil rights activists said he was not armed, not resisting, did not pose a threat to the officer and was not involved in the carjacking.

Tom Porto, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement the settlement represents the police departments acknowledgement of the tragic and significant loss to Bridges family.

Despite this tragedy, we recognize that police officers have difficult jobs and are frequently faced with making split-second life or death decisions, Porto said. The family is grateful that they are now able to put this matter behind them.

The police department said in a statement that it routinely trains officers to handle tense and rapidly evolving situations.

The KCPD is sorry for the pain felt by Terrence Bridges family, police spokesperson Sgt. Jacob Becchina said in the statement. We are pleased everyone was able to come to a mutually agreeable resolution.

Pifer, who is still on the police force, was not charged in the killing.

A year after Bridges death, Pifer was with Sgt. Matthew T. Neal as Neal injured a 15-year-old boy by slamming his face into the pavement after stopping a car the teenager was in.

Neal left the department after pleading guilty last week to third-degree assault. He was placed on four years probation. Pifer was not charged.

The Kansas City police commissioners agreed in January 2021 to pay $725,000 to settle an excessive use of force lawsuit in that case.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law Enforcement Kansas
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement under the Agencys Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) program with Evergy Kansas Central Inc. at the companys retired Tecumseh Energy Center coal-fired power plant in Tecumseh, Kansas.

In the settlement, Evergy will take certain actions to address potential groundwater contamination from a CCR impoundment at the Tecumseh site, under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

The settlement requires Evergy to assess the nature and extent of CCR contamination at a CCR impoundment at the Tecumseh site. Evergy will install additional monitoring wells, conduct groundwater sampling and analysis, and update closure plans for the facilitys CCR impoundment. If Evergy determines that remediation is necessary, then it will meet with EPA to discuss next steps. The company will also pay a civil penalty of $120,000.

Produced primarily from the burning of coal in coal-fired power plants, CCR is a large industrial waste stream by volume and can contain harmful levels of contaminants such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and cobalt. Without proper management, contaminants from CCR can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and the air.

Source: EPA

Topics Kansas
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More small financial services businesses will be exempt, the rules will be tailored to reflect more diversity in businesses, and top executives of financial services firms will face heightened accountability under proposed changes to New Yorks model financial services cybersecurity regulation.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has proposed to update its original regulation, which DFS promulgated in 2017. The updated regulation will be subject to comment for 60 days.

The regulation, which is aimed at protecting New Yorks financial services industry from the threat of a cyber attack, was the first of its kind in the U.S. The regulation requires each company overseen by the New York DFS to assess its specific cybersecurity risk profile and implement a program that addresses those risks.

New York Cyber Regs Take Effect, Mid-Sized Firms Could See Biggest Impact

Insurers, banks and other financial services entities regulated by DFS had until March 2019 to comply by adopting cybersecurity practices and polices ensuring the security of information systems and nonpublic information. DFS took its first enforcement action under the regulation in July 2020 in the matter of a data breach at a title insurer.

The regulation has become a model that is now used by both federal and state financial regulators.

Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris said that DFS has taken a data-driven approach to amending the regulation to address new and increasing cybersecurity threats and to ensure cybersecurity risk is integrated into business planning, decision-making, and ongoing risk management.

According to DFS, the main changes include:

The creation of three tiers of companies , further tailoring the regulation to a diverse set of businesses with different defensive needs.

, further tailoring the regulation to a diverse set of businesses with different defensive needs. An increase in the size threshold of smaller companies that are exempt from many parts of the regulation as a result of feedback from the industry and in recognition of the realities of operating a small business. Includes exempting businesses with fewer than 20 employees or less than $5 million in New York business.

of smaller companies that are exempt from many parts of the regulation as a result of feedback from the industry and in recognition of the realities of operating a small business. Includes exempting businesses with fewer than 20 employees or less than $5 million in New York business. Enhanced governance requirements , thereby increasing accountability for cybersecurity at the board and C-suite levels.

, thereby increasing accountability for cybersecurity at the board and C-suite levels. Additional controls to prevent initial unauthorized access to technology systems and to prevent or mitigate the spread of an attack;.

to technology systems and to prevent or mitigate the spread of an attack;. Requiring more regular risk and vulnerability assessments , as well as more robust incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

, as well as more robust incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Directing companies to invest in regular training and cybersecurity awareness programs that are relevant to their business model and personnel.

DFS Cybersecurity Proposed Financial Services Regulations

With cyber-attacks on the rise, it is critical that our regulation keeps pace with new threats and technology purpose-built to steal data or inflict harm, said Harris. Cyber criminals go after all types of companies, big and small, across industries, which is why all of our regulated entities must comply with these standards  whether a bank, virtual currency company, or a health insurance company.

Under the cybersecurity regulation, all banks, insurance companies and other financial services institutions and licensees regulated by DFS are required to have a cybersecurity program in place that protects consumers private data, a written policy or policies approved by the board or a senior officer, a chief information security officer to help protect data and systems, and protections of data at third-party providers.

Companies must also report cybersecurity events online through the DFS cybersecurity portal.

Over the course of the past few months, DFS said it solicited feedback on proposed amendments from other regulators, industry groups, and regulated entities through the recent Cybersecurity Symposium, industry conferences, and meetings.

After the 60-day comment period ends, DFS said it will then review all comments and either re-propose a revised version or adopt the final regulation.

Related:

Topics Legislation Cyber New York
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Over a third (36%) of companies who paid a ransom to cyber criminals went on to be targeted for a second time, according to the latest Cyber Readiness Report from Hiscox.

In addition, more than four in 10 (41%) of those that paid ransom demands to cyber criminals failed to recover all their data.

Based on responses from over 5,000 organizations of all sizes across eight countries, paying a ransom does not always work out the way businesses hope it will. More than 40% still had to rebuild their systems, even though they received a recovery key from the hackers. Nearly a third (29%) who paid a ransom demand still had data leaked, and over a quarter (26%) felt that the attack had a significant financial impact by threatening the solvency and viability of their business, according to Hiscox.

Ransomware is still the most prevalent and damaging form of cyber attack and it is not uncommon for a company to be hit multiple times, said Gareth Wharton, Hiscox Cyber CEO. Even if a business owner makes the decision to pay the ransom, often they cannot fully restore their systems or prevent a data breach.

The report found the industries that were forced to pay a ransom were those with just-in-time supply chains: food and drink (62%), manufacturing (51%) and leisure (50%)

The report also shows that the frequency of cyber attacks has increased by 12% year-on-year  with 48% of businesses suffering an attack in the past 12 months. Of those attacked, 19% were victims of ransomware, compared to 16% in the previous year.

Phishing remains the number one point of entry for cyber hackers (62%) to successfully infiltrate businesses in a ransomware attack. This was closely followed by entry using credential theft (44%), a third-party supplier (40%), an unpatched server (28%), and brute force credentials, such as password guessing (17%).

It is vital that businesses take the necessary steps to protect their data and systems against a cyber attack; making it harder for cyber criminals to gain entry to their systems by keeping software up-to-date, running regular in-house training, and frequently backing-up data, Wharton said.

Our report shows that investing in building robust cyber defenses and preparing an effective response for an attack are more effective than paying cyber criminals. It is revealing that more than a quarter (26%) of businesses we surveyed paid a ransom in the hope of recovering their data because they did not have any back-ups, when regular and robust back-up processes can be one of the most effective ways of mitigating the impact of a ransomware attack.

Topics Cyber Fraud
The Texas Division of Workers Compensation (DWC) will hold its quarterly stakeholder meeting for insurance carriers and medical providers in the Texas workers compensation system on Nov. 29.

DWC said the meetings provide an update on routine information and data topics and highlight current issues specific to each industry.

Health care providers will meet from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m., while insurance carriers will meet 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Both meetings will be on Zoom.

More information can be accessed at DWCs website.

Topics Texas
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BRP Group, the parent company of the national brokerage known as Baldwin Risk Partners, announced a near-doubling of revenue for the third quarter of 2022 over this time last year, but it still saw a net loss of $47 million for the quarter.

In its Q3 earnings call this week, the Tampa-based, publicly traded companys leadership said that the firm has continued its expansion, seeing 91% revenue growth over this time a year ago, to $259 million.

For the third quarter, we generated exceptional results as evidenced by accelerating double-digit organic growth across our platform, which showcases the continued client demand for our innovative solutions at a time of growing uncertainty in the business and economic environment, said Trevor Baldwin, chief executive officer of BRP Group.

The net loss followed a $24 million loss in Q2 of $25 million. Compared with Q3 of 2021, the company reported a positive net income of $14.7 million.

Baldwin did not say what produced the losses for the quarter, but he did note that Hurricane Ian, which hit southwest Florida Sept. 28, will likely be the costliest insured loss for the industry in Floridas history. He also said the reinsurance market for property insurers was proving to be one of the most difficult on record, but BRP is well-positioned to adjust to that.

BRP Group said it is an independent brokerage and insurance distribution firm, with 1.2 million clients. Founded in 2011, the firm and its subsidiaries have grown rapidly in recent years through acquisitions of brokerages and agencies. The company also offers benefits products, captive programs, a managing general agency program, and home insurance products.

In the third quarter, despite the net loss, the firm is evidencing early signs that investments we have made in our business are beginning to show returns, Baldwin said in the earnings call. Our home insurance product roll out continues to meaningfully impact our organic growth results.

A recording of the call can be accessed here, on the BRP website. Financial highlights are here.

Topics Trends Profit Loss
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Residents were allowed to return home this week after they were evacuated when a large fire broke out Monday inside a chemical plant on the coast of Georgia. Authorities had feared nearby neighborhoods could have been hit with toxic smoke and potential explosions.

At this point we think everything is under control and contained, Glynn County Commission Chairman Wayne Neal said, according to the Associated Press and local news reports.

Emergency responders safely evacuated a small handful of employees working when the fire began at about 4 a.m. Monday at the Symrise plant outside the port city of Brunswick, Georgia, said fire Capt. Eric Proswimmer. Fire crews from nearby Jacksonville, Florida, were sent to help battle the flames. The plant is located about 70 miles south of Savannah.

The fire sent a large plume of thick smoke into the air. As a precaution, local emergency officials ordered neighborhoods within a 1-mile radius of the plant to evacuate, said Glynn County government spokesperson Katie Baasen. People within a 3-mile radius were told to shelter in place.

Baasen said officials were mostly concerned about hazards posed by smoke drifting into populated areas. But she said there was also potential threat from explosions.

Proswimmer said heat from the fire had caused three metal tanks containing chemicals to explode, prompting firefighters to back away. He said firefighters had exhausted more than 1 million gallons of water stored in tanks on the site, further complicating efforts to fight the blaze.

Its not widespread, its not crazy right now, Proswimmer said of the fire. But weve got chemicals that are hazardous and we are staying back from them at this time.

He said one firefighter suffering from exhaustion had been taken to a hospital, but there were no other injuries.

The plant is operated by Symrise, a company based in Germany that produces fragrances, flavoring and other ingredients for foods and cosmetics. The company said in a statement Monday the cause of the fire was not known.

Currently, Symrise has no reason to believe that the fire will cause additional health hazards to the local community, Symrises statement said. Symrise will closely cooperate and support local authorities in analyzing the causes for the fire as soon as the authorities allow return to the area.

Proswimmer said an investigation will be conducted after the fire is fully extinguished.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Georgia Chemicals
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Incumbent Republican John King defeated Democratic challenger Janice Laws Robinson in the Georgia insurance commissioner race. King had 54% of the vote to 46% for Robinson, according to the results from the secretary of state.

King was appointed to the role in 2019 by Gov. Brian Kemp after the previous commissioner was indicted and later convicted of fraud charges. He beat Patrick Witt in the Republican primary in May.

King, a former police chief, has said he will work to restore Georgians confidence in the office, after the scandals that hit two former commissioners.

Robinson is an insurance broker who in 2018 came within a few percentage points of being elected the states first Black and first woman commissioner. Robinson has spent most of her career in the insurance business, part of it with State Farm, Nationwide and MetLife. Since 2014, she has managed her own insurance agency.

King was appointed commissioner after Jim Beck was forced out of office in 2019, just a few months after he was sworn in. Beck was convicted of fraud and money laundering after diverting almost $3 million from a homeowners insurer of last resort that he had managed.

Topics Georgia Politics
Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that a Thurston County Superior Court judge rejected an attempt by PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company and subsidiaries of the Progressive Corporation to stop his offices investigation of potential race discrimination against Washington drivers.

The companies both use consumer credit histories to decide whether to sell, and at what price to sell, their auto insurance products. This is despite evidence that this practice disproportionately harms people of color, according to Fergusons office.

Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler tried to ban credit scoring by insurers, but a judge in late August ruled he exceeded his authority when he issued a permanent rule banning the use of credit-based insurance scores.

PEMCO and Progressive have a significant presence in Washington, and both companies use credit history or credit-based insurance scores to decide who they will provide coverage to and at what price.

According to Fergusons office, PEMCO charges people with low credit scores as much as triple those with high credit scores, and Progressive significantly increases premiums for individuals with negative credit histories.

The companies brought the matter to court to fight the offices investigation.

Spokespersons for both companies have been reached out to for comment.

A Progressive spokesperson replied to an email requesting comment with the following statement:

Progressive seeks to price each policy to reflect expected driving behavior and related losses using factors that are objective, predictive, permitted by state law, and approved by state regulators. Insurers are prohibited from using factors like race, income, religion or ethnicity, and we do not use any of these factors or other variables as proxies for those characteristics or attributes. We are fully compliant with all applicable laws and regulations in Washington State, and we do not engage in or condone race discrimination of any kind in any of our business practices.

Mark Sektnan, vice president for state government relations of the American Property Casualty Insurers Association, said insurers are prohibited from using race as a rating factor, and that consumers benefit from the use of insurance underwriting factors that are directly predictive of losses like credit scoring because those factors make protection more affordable and available.

Credit-based insurance scores have greatly enhanced insurance availability and are demonstrated to have a direct correlation with driving behaviors such as hard-braking and hard-acceleration. Numerous studies have proven they are highly predictive, Sektnan said. The use of credit- based insurance scores is expressly allowed in statute and has been affirmed by the courts. Multiple studies by a variety of subject matter experts and government entities have shown that credit-based insurance scoring is highly predictive of the risk of future loss resulting in the most accurate rates without discriminating based on race. The Washington Legislature has rejected legislation to ban or limit its use several times.

The Attorney Generals Office is seeking information about PEMCO and Progressives compliance with the Washington Consumer Protection Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination as part of its investigation.

The Washington Law Against Discrimination prohibits discrimination in insurance transactions on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, citizenship or immigration status, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or honorably discharged veteran or military status.

Related:

Topics Carriers Washington
Bank of Ireland recorded higher net interest income due to rising rates, its latest trading update showed.

The bank said it expects net interest income to increase between 6% and 7% this year, compared to 2021.

Overall business momentum is positive. We are upgrading our net interest income guidance for 2022 to reflect the interest rate outlook, said Gavin Kelly, Bank of Ireland Group interim CEO.

The ECB have raised interest rates three times already this year with more planned before the end of 2022 and in the first months of 2023.

Many economists expect rates to peak at around 3% by summer next year.

Bank of Irelands net interest income was 3% higher in the nine months to September 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021.

This performance is ahead of prior expectations and reflects the Groups positive gearing to higher interest rates, said the company.

Bank of Ireland has absorbed ECB rate hikes so far but is predicted to join AIB in raising its rates as further hikes by the European banking regulator are predicted.

The trading update also showed the company grew its customer base substantially due to plans by KBC and Ulster Bank to exit the retail banking market in the Republic.

In the first nine months of the year, the bank opened around 245,000 new current and deposit accounts, which is up 90% compared to the same period in 2021.

The Irish economy continued to perform well, notwithstanding an increasingly uncertain environment and increasing inflationary pressures, said Mr Kelly.

Were keenly aware of the impact of higher inflation on our customers, who we will continue to support over a challenging winter. Despite this, our asset quality remains strong, he said.
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue has said he is disappointed Marc MacSharry has resigned from Fianna Fail despite being critical of the Sligo TDs initial readmittance to the party.

Mr MacSharry resigned from Fianna Fail last week, citing the Taoiseachs alleged failure to properly investigate a complaint made against him by a party councillor.

The Taoiseach has rejected the assertions made by Mr MacSharry.

When it was initially proposed that Mr MacSharry be readmitted to the parliamentary party last month, Mr McConalogue hit out at the proposal and said previous comments made by Mr MacSharry were not in line with party ethics, according to Fianna Fail sources.

When asked about this, Mr McConalogue said he was surprised Mr MacSharry resigned from Fianna Fail and he would have preferred that he would have continued to remain in the party working constructively together.

He told reporters but thats not the way it worked out, and he would have much preferred to see Marc working with all of us.

However, when put to him that he was vocal on Mr MacSharrys return his engagement with party colleagues, Mr McConalogue said it was his absolute preference to have seen Marc continuing in the party.

He said the Taoiseach made it clear and was open about Mr MacSharrys return to the parliamentary party.

In the Dail on Wednesday, the now-independent TD took issue with the amount of speaking time he has in the Dail and argued the matter with Leas Ceann Comhairle Catherine Connolly.

Mr MacSharry accused Ms Connolly of consistently slotting him in as one of the last three speakers, where he said he is lucky to get 30 seconds to contribute.

Despite repeated calls from the Leas Ceann Comhairle, Mr MacSharry refused to adhere to the Dail rules and said he did not have the slightest intention to sit down until you show a little bit less discrimination rather than those like yourself who join and form de facto parties and get to speak three or four times every day.

He said: You have consistently put me into the last three [speakers] where Im lucky to get 30 seconds while others enjoy the benefit of celebrating the local sausage manufacturers.

Mr MacSharrys microphone was switched off and the Dail suspended at the same time TDs broke for lunch.
Burma Fourteen Sagaing Villagers Tortured and Killed by Myanmar Junta Forces

Koetaungboet village from a distance on November 5. / Supplied

Fourteen Kantbalu Township men in Sagaing Region were tortured and killed by Myanmar junta troops this month, according to residents.

On November 3 troops from Koetaungboet village, where Light Infantry Battalions 363 and 377 are based, entered Zeekanar, Shaw Phyu Kone and Hnaw Kone villages and seized residents.

Most villages had already fled their homes and were living in tents in a nearby forest.

Around 60 troops raided the forest on November 3 and seized three Zeekanar villagers and 15 Shaw Phyu Kone villagers and took them to Koetaungboet, according to Kantbalu Peoples Defense Force.

Koetaungboet is a large village tract in the north of Kantbalu Township that is well-defended with junta bunkers around a small barracks.

On November 3, the troops released two Zeekanar villagers and on November 5 Shaw Phyu Kone villager U Win Myint and his son were freed.

They returned home deaf and with other injuries from junta torture.

Koetaungboet villagers told us that the troops had killed other villagers. My nephew and his son were among those killed, said Zaw Wai Hlaing, 50, of Shaw Phyu Kone, who is sheltering in the forest.

His nephew Zaw Zaw, 35, and son Maung Win Thu, 15, and Ko Soe Win, 27, U Kyaw Myint Tun, 35, Ko Soe San, 18, U Moe Win Tun, 30, U Kyaw Soe, 35, U Myint Oo, 53, U Zaw Min Soe, 35, U Nga Cho, 34, U Aung Soe, 33, U Nyi Nyi, 30, Ko Myo Aung, 25, and U Tun Oo, 35, were among those killed.

After committing a massacre on November 5, they slaughtered the remaining villagers and burned their bodies, according to Koetaungboet villagers. We saw smoke above the village, U Maung Latt of the Koetaungboet peoples administration committee.

They were all civilians. The troops said U Tun Oo was a resistance member but he just organized a village security team to protect us from thieves and bandits, U Zaw Wai Hlaing said.

On November 6 a junta shell hit U Phoe Thars house in Zeekanar. He was one of the few remaining villagers because some of his family were infirm.

The shell killed a child and a 60-year-old woman and two others were injured.

U Nay Zin Latt, the National League for Democracy MP for Kantbalu Township, confirmed the 14 deaths.

There had been no clashes with resistance groups in the area, he told The Irrawaddy.

We can understand the killing of combatants but these people are just civilians, he said.

Kantbalu has around 300 villages. At least 30,000 residents have fled their homes and more than 1,500 houses in 30 villages have been burned down by junta forces, according to U Nay Zin Latt.
Burma Myanmar Junta Forces Torch Nearly 150 Civilian Homes in a Day

Padaukchone village in Wetlet Township after a junta raid in October. / CJ

Around 150 civilian houses were burned down as Myanmars junta forces torched villages in Mandalay and Sagaing regions on Tuesday.

On Tuesday evening troops torched at least 50 Pyar village houses in Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region, following a clash with resistance forces, according to media reports.

Thousands of civilians fled their homes.

On Wednesday morning, Pyar villager Ko Zaw Myo Naing was killed when he returned home for his cattle and bullock cart, according to the Myingyan General Strike Committee.

It said other villagers had been injured after being shot by junta troops.

At least 61 houses were burned down in Padaukchone village in Wetlet Township, Sagaing Region, on Tuesday morning after a second arson attack on the village, according to the Generation Z Special Task Force resistance group.

On October 16 five other houses were burned down by regime forces.

Another 30 houses were torched in Mingin Township, Sagaing Region, when around 30 regime troops and Pyu Saw Htee militia allies attacked Kone Maw village on Tuesday morning, said Mingin Peoples Defense Force.

During the raid, U Htay Lin, 55, who was suffering from mental illness, was shot dead by junta forces, the group said.

In June the regime forces also burned 40 houses in the village.

On Tuesday regime troops torched 14 houses in nearby Kyauk Maw village in the township.

Troops also looted houses and killed livestock, the resistance group claimed.

Junta arson attacks constitute a crime against humanity.

In October more than 1,550 houses and other civilian buildings were burned down, said the civilian National Unity Governments Ministry of Home Affairs.

By August 25 an estimated 28,434 civilian buildings and religious buildings had been burned down across the country by the junta, according to Data for Myanmar, an independent research group documenting regime crimes.

More than 1.1 million people had been displaced by October, reported the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Burma Myanmar Junta Troops Kill 18, Dismember Victims in Sagaing Village Raid

Smoke from burning houses in Htan Lay Pin Village. / Monywa- Amyint Lan Information

Junta troops killed at least 18 civilians and Peoples Defense Force (PDF) members in Sagaing Regions Monywa Township during their latest raid in the area, said locals.

Eighteen bodies were found after junta soldiers raided Htan Lay Pin Village on Sunday. Eight of those killed were resistance fighters: four were killed in action while four others were tortured to death and their bodies mutilated. Ten civilians were shot dead, a resistance fighter told The Irrawaddy.

Photos published by a junta media outlet show [resistance fighters] shot and lying on the ground. But what we saw were their dismembered bodies. One resistance fighter appeared to be badly tortured. His arms had been cut into pieces and he had been disemboweled and decapitated, he said.

Dead bodies were scattered across the village, and some slain civilians bore signs of torture, according to witnesses who helped gather the bodies. Residents fled their homes to escape the violence.

Some 200 junta soldiers from units based in Monywa have been joining with junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militias to raid villages along the Monywa-Amyint Lan road since November 3. They arrived in Htan Lay Pin on Sunday where they clashed with local resistance fighters.

Resistance bases were exposed during the raid and weapons and ammunition were seized. Resistance fighters were killed after reportedly running out of ammunition.

They were conducting military operations, a member of a local PDF in Monywa Township said of the junta raiders.

There are many local PDF groups here. Some PDF bases were seized as [junta forces] entered the village.

The raid had been triggered by information leaks, he added.

It appears that they had received information about PDF presence in certain villages in this area. So, it was part of their mission to raid [Htan Lay Pin].

Villagers and resistance fighters returned to Htan Lay Pin at noon on Monday after junta troops had moved to another village. However, they fled later the same day after junta soldiers were again spotted near the village.

Some villagers are still missing and feared dead while the bodies of those discovered are so badly mutilated that they cannot be identified.

Junta troops torched houses in at least three villages during the raid. More than 3,000 people from some 10 villages were forced to flee and still cant return to their homes.

Pro-junta Telegram channels carried photos of the eight dead PDF fighters along with weapons seized from them near Htan Lay Pin Village.
Myanmars Crisis & the World India Uses Diwali Celebrations to Tighten Ties with Myanmars Junta

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing takes part in Diwali celebrations in Yangon. / Infosheet

India, the worlds largest democracy, continues to cement ties with Myanmars military regime which has slaughtered more than 2,400 people since the coup in February last year.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing attended celebrations for Diwali or the festival of lights, one of Hindus most important festivals, at a Hindu temple in Yangon on Sunday. Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Vinay Kumar thanked the junta boss for gracing the celebration with his presence and vowed to foster strong relations between the two governments.

Also present at the festival was Russian Ambassador to Myanmar Listopadov Nikolai Alexandrovich. Their presence drew criticism from Hindu communities in Myanmar.

On Tuesday, the Indian ambassador paid a call on the juntas foreign minister U Wunna Maung Lwin. The two discussed strengthening bilateral ties and boosting cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including various sectors in regional and international arenas, according to junta media.

While Min Aung Hlaings regime has increasingly been isolated by the international community, China, Russia and India have boosted military and economic ties since the coup while also helping the junta with the general election that it plans to hold next year.

India is the second-most visited country by junta ministers and military leaders after Russia.

According to a report by Russian state-owned news agency Tass, Myanmars regime is interested in purchasing BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles manufactured by BrahMos Aerospace, a Russia-India joint venture, with money borrowed from India.

Indian external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, defended Indias ties with the junta during an address at Bangkoks Chulalongkorn University in August.

Jaishankar said New Delhis position on Myanmar had been consistent for decades going back to the countrys independence struggle, and the relationship should not be judged by the current political situation in Myanmar. As a direct neighbor, India could not avoid dealing with the military junta regime because of complex border issues, he argued.

Less than two months after the coup, the then Indian ambassador attended an event to mark Armed Forces Day in Myanmar, defying a boycott by most other diplomatic missions in Myanmar and making India one of the few nations to recognize the junta as a legitimate government.

The Indian ambassador has frequently engaged with junta top officials since his appointment in February. Recently, he met with the juntas electoral body to discuss the potential for cooperation for the general election the regime plans to hold next year.

The ousted National League for Democracy has condemned the poll, a position supported by the United States in a statement that read: We share their convictions that the regimes planned sham elections, which could not possibly be free and fair in the current context, will only fuel more violence, prolong the crisis, and defer the countrys transition to democracy and stability. We urge the international community to deny the military and its so-called elections credibility and instead meaningfully engage with pro-democracy leaders who uphold a vision for an inclusive and prosperous Burma.
Myanmars Crisis & the World Myanmar NUG Foreign Ministers Unaired Global Town Hall Speech

NUG Foreign Minister Daw Zin Mar Aung

Daw Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister of Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG), was invited to join the Global Town Hall 2022 meeting on Saturday.

Eager to participate, she sent pre-recorded opening remarks in which she explained that the meetings theme, Sustaining Peace and Development in a Divided World, could not be more relevant in the context of Myanmar because, she said, It is important for this forum to recognize, that in response to the military coup we have found common purpose across many of the different ethnicities and religions of Myanmar.

But her remarks werent aired as planned because she was dropped from the meetings agenda at the last minute by organizers after the UN complained to a co-organizer that the inclusion of Daw Zin Mar Aung and her deputy would amount to taking sides in Myanmars conflict.

A UN spokesperson told The Irrawaddy via an email on Wednesday that the world body had no role in determining who participated in the event, saying that was a matter for the organizers of the event.

The event was hosted by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) in partnership with international advocacy organization Global Citizen to discuss pressing foreign policy issues. The FPCI later apologized to the NUG deputy foreign minister for what happened on Saturday, stating that it was pressured by a co-organizer to exclude the NUG representatives after a highlevel UN official told Global Citizen to do so because the world body was afraid of appearing to take sides by inviting them.

For all those who missed an opportunity to learn from what Daw Zin Mar Aung had been scheduled to say, here are her planned remarks in full:

Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen

First, I would like to thank the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) and Global Citizen for providing me with this platform at the Global Townhall 2022. This years theme, Sustaining Peace and Development in a Divided World, could not be more relevant in the context of Myanmar.

The fundamental division in my country is between democracy and violence, between development and the desire to rule by the power of the gun.

The current trend in world affairs for more division and competition heightens concern that the years of effort for democracy, development, and peace in small countries like Myanmar might crumble to dust. In fact, our struggle for democracy was terminally ill for decades amid the Cold War rivalry of superpowers until the 1990s. Now, again, although civilian leaders tried hard to implement elections and democracy to bring peace and development, elected representatives of the people and civilian government leaders have been ousted by a brutal military junta.

The actions of the military, in imposing an unwanted and illegal coup and enforcing their will by airstrikes, artillery bombardment, by the bombing of schools and the beheading of teachers, as well as by hanging activists, have created an experience of daily horror in my country.

But we are transforming these challenges into opportunity by creating a new unity. I think this is important for this forum to recognise, that in response to the military coup we have found common purpose across the many different ethnicities and religions of Myanmar. We have found that what unites us is in fact more important than the histories that divide us.

This is exactly the opposite of what the Myanmar military wants. It has always practiced forms of divide and rule, engaging with one ethnic group or party over another, to keep the country at war with itself so that it can secure its position, politically and economically, ruling for its own good and not for others.

So, we have spent a great deal of time and effort in creating a new kind of politics. This is marked by cooperation, by being honest about what divides us, and finding new forms of governance that will make Myanmar a country where, in the future, all find a place.

Our Federal Democratic Charter lays out a vision for a federal democracy in which sovereignty belongs to the people, in which all people in Myanmar, irrespective of religion or ethnicity, enjoy the same fundamental rights and carry the same responsibility for the common good.

We could not have created this new vision of Myanmar had the military not first stolen our democratic development from us. They have sought to destroy us, to strip people of hope and economic security for their own benefit. They have used their Russian guns to crush our freedom. But they have failed, because in this hard fight we have found a new unity.

And we will prevail. I want to make this very clear to you. The National Unity Government of Myanmar, built from the alliances of people who reject the military coup, will bring freedom to the people of Myanmar.

We will do that by enabling the defense of our homes and our friends. The military controls less than 50 percent of the country even now. We will work hard to block the flows of foreign money that the military uses to buy its guns. We will build international alliances among those who care for Myanmar and its people. And we will deepen the communion of interests among the ethnic and other parties who have come together in this fight for our lives and our country.

We will have peace. But we cannot go back to what we had before, to a system where the military could annul an election as and when it wanted, on whatever spurious grounds. That is not peace. We will not go back to a system where the military control large parts of the government. That is not peace. We will not allow the military to kill and rape their way across ethnic areas of our country, in pursuit of a false nationalism. That is not peace.

And so, although we have a long battle ahead of us to rid ourselves of a military that has been the source of such division and violence and thievery in our country, we are full of hope. The people of Myanmar will not allow themselves to be crushed. In our struggle, we have found a new unity. This is a unity built not on fear and the gun but on a firm belief in the ability of all the ethnicities of our country to build a new nation grounded in justice, equity, and peace.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to reaffirm that our struggle and victory will truly be a bridge for the divided world by promoting democracy, peace, and development to the region and to the world.

So, please join us in rising from these ashes of cruelty to forge and restore democratic rule, and realize our collective vision for stable, peaceful, developed federal union.
Myanmars Crisis & the World US, EU Extend Myanmar Sanctions, Target Aviation Company, Minister, Judge

Myanmar junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing attends a ceremony to mark the country's 77th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw on March 27, 2022. / AFP

BRUSSELSThe US and EU on Tuesday extended their sanctions on Myanmars junta, targeting a local aviation company, its owner, and 19 other individuals and entities including a minister and a chief justice.

The US State Department said on Tuesday that the Treasury Department is targeting for sanctions Sky Aviator Company Limited and its owner and director, Kyaw Min Oo, pursuant to Executive Order 14014, for operating in the defense sector, saying the US is taking additional actions against those who enable the regimes violence, particularly its repeated air assaults and killing of civilians in Myanmar.

Sky Aviator is a key supplier of military aircraft parts to the regimes military. Since the February 2021 coup, the company has received multiple arms shipments from sanctioned entities.

The State Department said Kyaw Min Oo has also facilitated foreign military officers visits to Myanmar as well as the import of arms and other military equipment and provided assault helicopter upgrades.

The EU measures against 19 other individuals and entities including a minister and a chief justice were announced by the European Council because of the continuing escalation of violence and grave human rights violations following the military takeover two years ago.

It was the fifth package of EU sanctions on the Southeast Asian country, which has been under military rule since 2021, when the military staged a coup against a civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now in prison on corruption charges judged spurious by Europe.

Myanmar has been in turmoil under the junta, which faces widespread armed resistance and has responded with a brutal crackdown.

A local rights group says 2,300 people have been killed in the past two years, and the UN childrens agency estimates that 1 million people have been displaced.

The latest sanctions target the Myanmar regimes minister of investment and foreign economic relations, Kan Zaw, its supreme court chief justice, Htun Htun Oo, and high-ranking military officials.

Also listed were election commission officials and businesspeople representing firms linked to the junta.

In total, 84 individuals and 11 entities in Myanmar now fall under the EU sanctions, which include visa bans and the freezing of assets in the European Union.

Previous sanctions maintained include an embargo on weapons and on equipment that can be used to spy on communications.

The EU is deeply concerned by the continuing escalation of violence and the evolution towards a protracted conflict which has spread across the country and has regional implications, the European Council said in a statement.

It added that it would do everything possible to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the wake of the coup.
War Against the Junta Over 20 Myanmar Regime Forces Killed in Two Days of Resistance Attacks

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Nearly two dozen regime forces including two army captains were killed in the last two days as Peoples Defense Force groups (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) continued to attack regime targets across the country.

Incidents were reported in Sagaing, Mandalay and Tanintharyi regions and Mon and Rakhine states.

The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks by PDFs and EAOs.

Some regime casualties could not be independently verified.

Two captains among six junta soldiers killed in PDF ambush in Sagaing

A vehicle carrying regime forces is ambushed by PDF fighters in Monywa Township on Tuesday. / Thanmani PDF (Monywa)

Six junta forces including two captains were killed in Monywa Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday evening when Thanmani forces of the Monywa District PDF group ambushed a small vehicle carrying eight soldiers near a roundabout in the town, said the PDF group.

The regime forces were attacked while they were returning to the town after gambling in a village.

The PDFs video shows the small vehicle crashed on the side of the road after being attacked from close range.

All PDF fighters were forced to retreat without seizing the junta forces weapons as two soldiers in the vehicles responded with firearms.

On that evening, regime forces in seven vehicles removed the bodies of the killed soldiers and the damaged vehicle from the area, the PDF group said.

Military detachment ambushed in Sagaing

Local resistance group Area 71 PDF (Monywa) claimed that it and three other PDF groups jointly attacked regime troops including pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia members between two villages in Monywa Township, Sagaing Region on Monday night.

The regime forces were returning to their bases in two villages after burning and looting houses in Htan Lay Pin Village in the township.

In the ambush, two PDF fighters suffered minor injuries when the regime troops responded with firearms.

Seven regime forces killed in PDF attacks in Sagaing

At least seven junta forces were reportedly killed in Khin-U Township, Sagaing Region on Monday night when several PDF groups jointly used 60-mm improvised explosives to attack regime forces at three locations in the township, claimed Khin-U Special Force Organization, which was involved in the attacks.

Regime forces responded with 40-mm explosives and automatic firearms but all resistance fighters escaped without casualties.

Citing sources, the PDF group said the dead bodies of seven soldiers were transported to neighboring Ye-U Township the following morning.

Four regime forces killed, injured in Sagaing

Ayadaw Local PDF group claimed on Tuesday that four regime soldiers are believed to have been killed or injured in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region on Monday when combined resistance groups ambushed a military detachment raiding villages in the north of the township.

Government residence bombed in Sagaing

A regime soldier was injured in Monywa Township, Sagaing Region on Monday when two PDF groups fired four 40-mm explosive rounds at regime forces stationed at the government residence in the town of Monywa, claimed the resistance group Golden Triangle Force, which was involved in the attack.

Three regime forces killed by PDF land mines in Sagaing

At least three junta soldiers were killed in Taze Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday when Taze-PDF conducted two land-mine ambushes against a military detachment and a pro-regime militia group, the PDF group claimed.

At 2:20 p.m. on Tuesday, three regime forces were killed when the group used land mines to ambush a detachment of over 200 soldiers from the militarys Light Infantry Battalion 361 and 369 in the township.

On that night, the PDF group also used three clusters of land mines to attack the Pyu Saw Htee pro-regime militia group near a village. The group said many militia members are believed to have been killed in the ambush.

Junta police outpost attacked in Mon

A police building was burned in Kyaikhto Township, Mon State on Monday evening when an armed group used 40-mm explosives to attack the junta police outpost in the town of Thein Zayap, according to Kyaikhto Information Team, a local news page sharing township information.

After being attacked with explosives, regime forces from the police outpost responded with firearms, and a military base nearby fired artillery rounds indiscriminately, said the media outlet citing local residents.

On that night, a firefight broke out at the border of Kyaikhto and Belin townships when a military checkpoint was attacked by an armed group. However, casualty figures were unknown.

Junta police officer killed in Mandalay

Myitnge PDF group claimed to have killed Police Sergeant Thu Ra Aung from the township police station in Amarapura in Mandalay Region on Monday night.

The police officer was killed while he was returning home after drinking. The PDF group said it abandoned the police officers body in the Irrawaddy River.

The resistance group said it seized 9-mm rounds, some cash, a mobile phone and a ring from the victim.

Two regime forces killed as PDF ambushes convoy in Tanintharyi

Two regime forces were killed and three injured in Thayap Chaung Township, Tanintharyi Region on Tuesday morning when the PDF-Federal Column ambushed a military convoy on the Dawei-Myeik highway, the PDF group claimed.

Two military motorboats ambushed in Rakhine

An intense 40-minute firefight broke out in Minbya Township, Rakhine State on Tuesday morning when the Arakan Army (AA) ambushed two junta motorboats in a river near the town of Minbya, according to local media outlets.

Within a few minutes of the ambush, a military helicopter gunship arrived and attacked the AA troops, Western Media reported citing residents who witnessed the clash.

Myanmar military Battalion 541s base in Minbya supported its forces with artillery strikes targeting villages in the clash area. It is not yet known whether there were any casualties.
Guest Column Hun Sen Juggles Global, Regional Politics

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 23, 2022. / AFP

Who could have imagined that the worlds longest reigning prime minister, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Senor Prime Minister Hun Sen, as he is more commonly knownwould stand in the front row defending Ukraine against Russia as the biggest war in Europe since World War II rages on?

On top of that, Hun Sen still has to juggle the Myanmar quagmire and the 17th East Asia Summit, not to mention messy domestic politics in between.

This will be Hun Sens third summit, and presumably his last, a rare act for any ASEAN leader to follow. Apart from meeting with his colleagues on Nov. 11, he will have two full and tightly scheduled days on Nov. 12 and 13, with the eyes of the whole world on him and his country.

Truth be told, his international profile has been the subject of foreign scrutiny and analysis, especially this year with Cambodia serving as ASEAN chair. This time around Hun Sen has the biggest fish to fry, so he has to deploy all his political and diplomatic finesse with leaders from the US, China, and Russia among others, who will shape the region and global trajectory in years to come.

Hun Sen has been quick to seize upon the war in Ukraine and astutely take advantage of the conflict to demonstrate to the world that once war-torn Cambodias independence must not be likewise taken for granted. Most importantly, Phnom Penhs strong support for the respect of national sovereignty, especially of a smaller nation bordering bigger countries, rests on its recent history. It was interesting the way Cambodia positioned itself on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its votes at the United Nations.

His countrys votes favoring the liberal West, albeit without calling for political sanctions, were praised by the global community much to the chagrin of its former Indochinese members and Russia, a former patron prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

To up the ante on Ukraine, Hun Sen and Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky had a telephone conversation last week. He expressed concern over the recent attack on Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine.

Cambodia is against the aggression, the threat of or use of force over sovereignty and the territory of an independent state, and does not support the succession or the annexation of territory by other countries, he said.

The whole conversation was released and printed in the media. The message was clear and simple: Ukraine, for the time being, we are with you all the way. Doubtless, he was invited by Zelensky to visit Ukraine in the future. In return, Zelensky was invited to give a video speech to the ASEAN summit.

Under the Cambodian chairmanship, ASEAN issued three joint statements in support of Ukraine.

In addition, the chair encouraged Ukraine to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), the regional code of conduct with 51 signatories from all corners of the world.

This is an important move within the ASEAN community to show Ukraine as a sovereign state. For this purpose, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit Phnom Penh on Saturday to sign the TAC along with Spain. Kyiv also has expressed the desire to become the blocs sectoral dialogue partner. An ASEAN consensus is needed for admission.

Of late, it has been clear that Hun Sen has shifted his focus to Ukraine and the immediate ASEAN-related summit instead of Myanmar.

In the beginning, he was so confident that he could make a difference in Myanmar with the military junta given his sincerity and experience in the 13-year Cambodian conflict.

But Hun Sen was a bit unrealistic as he found out later as the junta leaders in Naypyitaw not only ignored his pragmatic advice but also repeatedly rejected requests by his special envoy, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, to meet with all stakeholders including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and to release some political prisoners.

At the first ASEAN special meeting on Myanmar last April in Jakarta, Hun Sen was the only ASEAN leader who spoke out, telling his Myanmar colleague empathically that ASEAN could help end the conflict and bring normalcy back to the besieged country in much the same way as ASEAN had once assisted Cambodia.

He also reminded Myanmar that at that time Cambodia was not even a member of ASEAN. Phnom Penh joined ASEAN in October 1997, making it the last nation to join the union to date.

In August, he gave another strong push by writing to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing asking for an amnesty for four activists sentenced to death, but the senior general still went ahead with the executions.

Unfazed, on Aug. 19, Hun Sen again penned a long personal letter, his last, to the leader urging him to respond to the five-point consensus (5PCs), which the senior general agreed with the ASEAN members.

If he failed to do so, Hun Sen warned, his ASEAN colleagues might ban Myanmar from all meetings and recognize the National Unity Government (NUG).

He called the senior general brother, and the letters tone was friendly. He made clear that before Prak Sokhonns third scheduled visit, there needed to be some substantial progress that would warrant bringing Myanmar back into the ASEAN family again.

But his letter was once again ignored. Prak Sokhonns trip was subsequently further postponed. Under the medias radar, the chairs task force team has visited Myanmar five times but returned with reports of no progress.

Personally, Hun Sen has been intrigued by political developments in Myanmar due to the long military conflicts there.

Seven days after assuming the ASEAN chair, Hun Sen went to Naypyitaw and sincerely hoped that his experience in the Cambodian conflict would serve as valuable lessons as well as a rough roadmap for the junta leaders in Myanmar to pursue regarding conflict prevention and a peace process.

With the chairmanship of ASEAN coming to an end, he has now realized that the Myanmar situation is an entirely different ballgame. Throughout the past 314 days, Hun Sen has been patient and has waited for breakthroughs in Myanmar. But it has been like waiting for Godot. Most importantly, Hun Sens trust in the State Administration Council (SAC) disappeared after his appeal to save the four activists was bypassed.

At the end of October, during the special foreign ministerial meeting in Jakarta and subsequent consultation, some ASEAN members wanted to ban Myanmar from all meetings.

Indeed, Cambodia has tried in vain to ensure that Myanmar would not be further isolated, except for some key ministerial meetings. However, some other ASEAN members have insisted on being strict with Myanmar with two members calling for Myanmars membership to be suspended.

When ASEAN leaders meet on Nov. 11, they might agree to ban Myanmar from all meetings, short of a complete suspension, and leave it open for individual members to initiate contact with the NUG.

Malaysia has been quite open about meetings with NUG representatives while others have done the same but so far have been quiet about them.

As chair of the East Asia Summit on Nov. 13, Hun Sen must demonstrate his diplomatic finesse in engaging all EAS leaders, especially the US and Russian leaders. He must navigate discussions in ways that will not disrupt the integrity and centrality of ASEAN.

Given the polarization that has plagued the international community since the Ukraine war started, there will be walkouts and statements of condemnation from Ukraines supporters.

Hun Sen must walk a fine line in stressing the desire of ASEAN to see peace prevail and humanitarian assistance quickly delivered to the Ukrainian people. That has been the groups position all along.

For Hun Sen, the ASEAN chair and the ASEAN-related summit have been a good political distraction and a great opportunity to show his other sidehis ability to play with the big league.

Once the big event ends, Cambodian political conundrums and dramas that have been swept under the carpet will likely resurface once again.

Kavi Chongkittavorn is a veteran journalist on regional affairs.

This story first appeared in The Bangkok Post.
The Republican Party gained supermajorities in the Florida House and Senate during the midterm elections.

The party now holds 28 seats in the Florida Senate, constituting a two-thirds of the 40-member chamber, increasing their power under the Florida Constitution. In the 120-member House, they now number 85.

The new Senate President, Kathleen Passidomo of Collier County, issued a written statement praising the accomplishment.

With the first Black Republican since Reconstruction, the first Green Beret and one of the youngest members ever elected, we will return to Tallahassee with a supermajority and a renewed commitment to fighting for access to the American Dream for all Floridians, Passidomo said.

Paul Renner, the new House speaker, issued his own statement.

Tonight was historic. Florida voters are sending the largest Republican majority ever to Tallahassee because they support the direction Republican leadership has taken our state. The Florida House will continue to pursue a bold, conservative agenda for the nation to follow that gives citizens more freedom and opportunity to achieve their American Dream, Renner said.

You can find updated Senate results here and House results here.

This report first appeared on the website of the Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to coverage of state government and politics from Tallahassee.

For the complete report by Florida Phoenix, click here.
US chip manufacturer Nvidia has created a new advanced chip in China that meets the export control rules laid down by the US administration in October.

A company spokesperson told iTWire in response to a query: "The Nvidia A800 GPU, which went into production in Q3, is another alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers in China.

"The A800 meets the US Governments clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it."

Reuters was the first to report about the new chip, saying on Monday, "Chinese computer sellers are advertising products with the new chip".

The US announced the new restrictions on chips in October, claiming they were meant "to protect US national security and foreign policy interests".

The updates are claimed to "restrict the PRCs [People Republic of China's] ability to obtain advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and manufacture advanced semiconductors".

In September, the US ordered Nvidia and AMD to stop selling some of their products, that could be used in artificial intelligence, to China, according to a CNN report.

Nvidia's regulatory filing at the time said the requirement was due to a potential risk that the products in question could be used by military end users. it added that this measure would cost it about US$400 million (A$614.56 million) in revenue.

The curbs were on Nvidia's A100 and H100 integrated circuits  the latter was yet to be manufactured  and any systems that included them.

AMD was told that it would have to satisfy new conditions that would affect its shipments of MI250 circuits to China.

The company said at the time regarding another line of components: At this time, we do not believe that shipments of MI100 integrated circuits are impacted by the new requirements.

We do not currently believe it is a material impact on our business.

The Reuters report said: "At least two Chinese websites by major server makers offer the A800 chip in their products. One of those products previously used the A100 chip in promotional material.

"A distributor website in China detailed the specifications of the A800. A comparison of the chip capabilities with the A100 shows that the chip-to-chip data transfer rate is 400 gigabytes per second on the new chip, down from 600 gigabytes per second on the A100. The new rules restrict rates of 600 gigabytes per second and up."
COMPANY NEWS: D2L, a global learning technology company, today announced the launch of its D2L Brightspace Creator+ Package, which enables anyone to create engaging digital course content using workflows integrated into Brightspacesaving course creators time, effort and money.

Weve listened closely to our customers, and we understand that educators want to create content independently, with no software coding experience. Administrators and instructional designers want a solution that is more budget-friendly, scalable without seat limits and simpler for learners. With these needs in mind, we developed Creator+ to help empower our customer base to deliver exceptional learning experiences, said D2L CEO and president John Baker.

Each year, we demonstrate our commitment to supporting learning, and creating tools that are highly accessible and easy-to-use for everyone, everywhere. Creator+ is purposefully built, in partnership with educators and learning design experts, to support the development of better learning experiences, Baker continued.

According to a study by The Grattan Institute, teachers in Australia worked longer than the standard 40-hour week, with the respondents working about 44 hours a week on average. Based on a 40-week school year, this equates to about 160 extra hours. In the same study, 92% of teachers also said they dont have enough time to prepare effectively for classroom teaching and 86% of teachers reported they didnt have time for high-quality lesson planning.

With Creator+, the need to buy and train on expensive, interactive content authoring software is reducedhelping Brightspace customers cut back on administrative work through solutions that are embedded directly into Brightspace and simpler for end users, to help free up time for them to get back to what matters mosttheir learners.

Building on 20+ years of award-winning course design excellence, the Creator+ Early Access Program launched in May 2022, allowing for important collaboration with education leaders and learning design experts, who provided crucial feedback. Today, D2L is excited to make Creator+ available for purchase.

With Creator+, users can more easily:

 Use ready-made templates to quickly build content that is beautiful, highly accessible and mobile friendly.

 Enhance comprehension with the Practices tool, keeping learners engaged with a wide variety of practice exercises and question types

 Create a consistent visual experience with the Content Styling tool

 Insert flexible and highly accessible interactive elements in courses without any coding skills

 Help reduce complexity with seamless screen recordings through the video Capture App

D2L regional director Australia and New Zealand Tony Maguire said the introduction of Creator+ will provide multiple benefits to creative developers, teaching professionals and organisations looking to maximise their training program budgets.

Creator+ will help content creators and creatives, who often use multiple tools when developing content for education platforms, to address deeper accessibility through inclusive designs. This platform will also benefit corporate content owners who may need to quickly and economically tweak content for their employee training programs, said Maguire.

Our teaching professionals will be at an advantage too because they will be able to utilise more authentic modes of assessment and leverage the deeper use of video capabilities. Put simply, Creator+ will offer the local market technology that offers accessible capabilities, so that no student or employees educational needs are overlooked or are costly to those who need it.

About D2L

D2L is transforming the way the world learnshelping learners of all ages achieve more than they dreamed possible. Working closely with clients all over the world, D2L is supporting millions of people learning online and in person. Our growing global workforce is dedicated to making the best learning products to leave the world better than they found it. Learn more about D2L for K-12, higher education and businesses at D2L.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.


Rajnath SIngh Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday commended the Indian Army for maintaining a high operational readiness towards ensuring security and national sovereignty. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday commended the Indian Army for maintaining a high operational readiness towards ensuring security and national sovereignty.



"I have full faith and confidence in the Indian Army and its leadership", said the Defence Minister, adding that one has to be prepared for any operational contingencies and hence the operational readiness should always be at its peak.



He was interacting with the senior leadership of the Indian Army on the third day of the Army Commanders' Conference here. The conference is an apex level biannual event being held in New Delhi from November 7-11. During the event, Indian Army's apex leadership is comprehensively deliberating upon all aspects of existing security scenarios and challenges for the present security apparatus.



In addition, the conference is also focusing on issues pertaining to organisational restructuring, logistics, administration, human resource management, modernisation through indigenisation and induction of Niche technologies.



The Defence Minister reasserted the faith of the billion-plus citizens in the Indian Army as one of the most trusted and inspiring organisations in the country. He highlighted the stellar role played by the Army in guarding the borders and fighting terrorism apart from providing assistance to the civil administration whenever called for.



Singh also complimented the forces for the high standard of operational preparedness and capabilities which he has always been experiencing first hand during his visits to forward areas. He commended the Army's efforts to develop niche technologies in collaboration with civil industries, including premier educational institutions and thereby progressing towards the aim of "Modernisation through Indigenisation or 'Atma Nirbharta'.




Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High 59F. Winds light and variable.

Tonight

Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low 47F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.

Tomorrow

Clearing skies after some morning rain. Thunder possible. High 62F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
The leaders of Chad's main opposition groups said on Wednesday that they had been forced into hiding over fears for their safety, following a deadly crackdown on anti-junta demonstrations.

Succes Masra, head of the Transformers party, told AFP he was in "another country" because he was wanted by the "presidential guard".

Max Loalngar of Wakit Tamma said he was "hiding somewhere within the country" to avoid arrest.

Both opposition figures have accused the junta of "extra-judicial killings" and mass arrests as they suppressed protests over delayed elections.

Officially, around 50 people died when security forces opened fire on the demonstrators in the capital N'Djamena and several other cities last month. But opposition groups say the actual toll was much higher, with unarmed civilians massacred, at least 300 people wounded and hundreds more arrested.

Masra and Loalngar said their groups have called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate alleged "crimes against humanity".

The African Union Commission has condemned the violent repression, while Amnesty International said that a child was among the several dozen killed by the authorities' excessive use of force.

- 'Insurrection' -

Opposition groups had encouraged demonstrations on October 20 to mark the date when the ruling military had initially promised to cede power -- a timeline now extended by two years by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.

The 38-year-old took power from his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled for 30 years before dying in an operation against rebels in April 2021.

The junta has branded the protests an "insurrection" supported by foreign powers.

In the aftermath, the government made hundreds of arrests, suspended all party political activity and imposed a curfew.

Authorities said the casualties included a dozen members of the security forces.

Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo told AFP on Tuesday that the country had accepted the principle of an international inquiry "as soon as possible" into the protest deaths.

The following day, chair of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat -- a former Chadian prime minister -- stressed "the urgency of a serious and credible investigation" to bring those responsible to justice.

- 'Manhunt is ongoing' -

The Chadian Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, a local civil society group, says 600 people have been detained since October 20, with most "exiled" to labour camps and prisons far from the capital.

The World Organisation Against Torture says up to 2,000 people have been thrown behind bars.

Opposition figures Masra and Loalngar said the authorities had been hunting down their supporters in recent weeks.

"On October 21, soldiers from the presidential guard came to get me at our headquarters and when they didn't find me, detained 27 members of my team," said Masra.

"Only four are left alive being interrogated. The others are dead, some of those who were with them have told me, even if we don't have the bodies," he claimed.

"The manhunt is ongoing across the country."

Loalngar told a similar story: "Security forces are going from house to house, people are being arrested for anything," he said. "Like all our activists, I had to go into hiding."

Contacted by AFP, several government representatives declined to say how many people had been arrested since October 20.
Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine on February 24, sparking the worst conflict in Europe in decades.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in the war, which took a dramatic turn on Wednesday after Russia ordered its troops to retreat from Kherson after a ferocious battle by Ukrainian forces to recapture the occupied southern city.

Here is a timeline of key moments:

- February: invasion -

Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24.

He says this is to protect the Russian-speaking, self-declared separatist republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the east of Ukraine, whose independence he has just recognised.

He says he wants to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, and demands a guarantee it will never join the NATO military alliance.

A full-scale invasion starts, with missile strikes on several Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stays in the capital Kyiv to lead the resistance.

The West imposes unprecedented sanctions on Russia. The European Union and United States send weapons to Ukraine. The aid pledged by Washington rises into the billions as the months pass.

- March: advances in south but Kyiv holds -

Russian troops attack Ukraine's south coast, seizing the city of Kherson, close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Russian forces also attempt to surround Kyiv and take Ukraine's second city Kharkiv in the northeast but meet fierce resistance and major logistical difficulties.

A month into the fighting, Russia withdraws from the Kyiv area and the north to focus on the eastern industrial Donbas region (Lugansk and Donetsk), partly held by separatists, along with the south.

- April: war crimes revealed -

In early April, scores of corpses of murdered civilians are discovered in Kyiv suburbs and northern towns that Russian forces had occupied.

The discoveries spark an international outcry.

- May: Mariupol falls -

On May 21, Russia announces the fall of the strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol, which had been relentlessly bombed since the start of the war.

Ukrainian troops, who had held out for weeks at a steelworks in the city, surrender.

Sweden and Finland request membership of NATO, fearing they could be future targets of Russian aggression.

- June: Donbas battle rages -

In June, Russia takes the Donbas city of Severodonetsk after one of the bloodiest battles of the war, followed soon after by the neighbouring city of Lysychansk.

Ukraine pleads for more heavy weapons from the West.

- July: grain unblocked, gas supplies cut -

On July 22, Kyiv and Moscow sign a deal to resume grain exports from Ukraine, in a bid to relieve a global food crisis caused by Russia's blockade of the country's ports.

Russian gas giant Gazprom slashes its supply to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline before turning off the tap altogether, fuelling fears of gas shortages in Europe this winter.

- August: nuclear fears -

Ukraine and Russia blame each other for shelling around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, amid fears of a possible nuclear disaster.

Kyiv launches a major offensive to retake Kherson.

- September: annexation -

Ukraine retakes hundreds of towns and villages in a lightning counter-offensive around Kharkiv.

On September 21, Putin calls up 300,000 reservists, sparking an exodus of Russian men of military age to neighbouring countries.

Between September 23 and 27, Kremlin-backed authorities hold hasty referendums in the Moscow-held Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia on joining Russia.

The votes are dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a sham.

On September 27, the Kremlin claims victory in the ballots.

On September 30, Putin formally annexes them at a grand ceremony at the Kremlin.

- October: energy infrastructure pounded -

On October 8, Ukrainians celebrate after an explosion causes major damage to a bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland -- a symbol of Moscow's annexation of the peninsula.

Putin blames Ukrainian secret services for the blast.

On October 10, in an apparent retaliation, Russian forces launch a barrage of missile and drone strikes on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv. The strikes, aimed chiefly at energy infrastructure, leave millions without power.

On October 19, Putin declares martial law in the four annexed regions.

- November: retreat from Kherson -

On November 9, Moscow orders its troops to retreat from the city of Kherson in the face of advancing Ukrainian forces.

"Begin to pull out troops," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says at a televised meeting with Russia's commander in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin.

The move comes days after Russia claimed it had finished evacuating civilians from Kherson to its territory.

doc-jmy-cb/ah

GAZPROM
The leading players in the global pulse oximeter market are Medtronic plc (Ireland), Masimo Corporation (USA), Koninklijke Philips NV (Netherlands), Nonin Medical Inc. (USA), Nihon Kohden Corporation (Japan), GE Healthcare (USA) 

In 2022, Medtronic Plc (Ireland) is expected to receive 510(k) clearance from the US FDA for its Nellcor OxySoft neonatal and adult SpO2 sensor. This sensor is a unique silicone adhesive pulse oximeter sensor designed to protect the delicate skin of newborns with longer adhesion.

Pulse Oximeter Market is expected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2022 to $4.3 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2022 to 2027, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The growth is mainly driven by the increasing number of surgical procedures and hospital admissions worldwide, the outbreak of infectious respiratory diseases and the rising prevalence of respiratory diseases are some of the key factors driving the pulse oximeter market.

Download PDF brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=68168578

Browse the detailed table of contents Pulse Oximeter Market

260Tables

47  Numbers

296 pages

The device segment accounted for the largest share of the pulse oximeter market in 2021

Based on the product, the market is segmented into sensors and equipment. The device segment accounted for the largest market share in 2021. Fingertip blood oxygen monitoring devices have been increasingly adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and technological advances in wearable pulse oximeters are the main factor driving the growth of this segment.

The portable pulse oximeter segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on type, the pulse oximeter market is segmented into handheld pulse oximeter and bedside/desktop pulse oximeter. The wearable pulse oximeter market is further segmented into fingertip, handheld and wearable pulse oximeters. The portable
The United States on Wednesday launched a partnership with private funds aimed at supporting renewable energy transitions in developing countries, based on a carbon credit scheme criticized by climate activists.

The government program, launched at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt along with the Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation, would help emerging economies attract finance to support their clean energy transition, Washington said.

Companies like Microsoft and Pepsi that have expressed interest in the plan would invest in renewable energy projects, which would allow countries to demonstrate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that could then be sold back to those companies as carbon credits.

Our intention is to leverage the carbon market to deploy capital  to accelerate the transition from dirty to clean energy, said US Climate Commissioner John Kerry, promising safeguards against greenwashing.

Kerry said he hoped the project, which Chile and Nigeria could already join, would get underway within a year.

Climate activists have criticized the US program, which was launched a day after a UN panel of experts found that carbon credits should not be used to offset emissions, rather than actually reducing them.

 Accounting Trick 

The Earth has warmed by an average of nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, provoking an accelerating onslaught of climate change impacts such as storms, floods and heat waves.

As part of the Paris Climate Agreement, countries have agreed to limit warming to well below 2C, preferably 1.5C.

That more ambitious target requires halving global emissions by 2030 and reducing them to net zero by mid-century, according to scientists.

We need to see deep emissions cuts in both the Global North and South  not rich polluting companies in the North paying for the privilege of further destroying the planet, said Mohamed Adow of think tank Power Shift Africa.

These carbon offsets are an accounting trick that creates loopholes for polluters to continue polluting the environment.

Harjeet Singh of the Climate Action Network told AFP that similar programs have not helped reduce emissions in the past.

The UN expert report said some offsets could be effective, like supporting the energy transition in developing countries  but stressed that this should only be an additional measure after companies reduce their own emissions.

Kerry acknowledged that previous abuses of carbon credits had discredited these instruments in the eyes of many.

He said the program is only open to companies willing to commit to short-term reduction targets as well.

We believe that past mistakes shouldnt stop us from using a powerful tool to direct private capital to where its needed most.

Angela Churie Kallhauge of the US-based nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund said the program could help drive the energy transition.


BJP Karnatka The ruling BJP in Karnataka has decided to launch a big agitation all over the state over the Hindu word origin row. The ruling BJP in Karnataka has decided to launch a big agitation all over the state over the Hindu word origin row.



According to the insiders in the state BJP unit, direction has been given to launch agitations in all the district headquarters.



The directions have also been given to lodge a police complaint demanding action against Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Secretary Satish Jarkiholi for hurting the feelings of Hindus.



Meanwhile, Dalit organisations and progressive thinkers have started a campaign to support Satish Jarkiholi and were carrying out a campaign on social media. When the ruling BJP intensifies the agitation, there is all possibility of the Dalit organisations coming on to the streets, sources said.



Minister for Power, Kannada and Culture V. Sunil Kumar, a staunch RSS man, had stated that the Congress party should pay a heavy price for the statement. "The youth should come on to the streets. They should show that whenever Hinduism is insulted and the foundation of the nation is questioned, they will not hesitate to protest," he stated.



BJP sources said that the party has got an issue connected to Hindutva on a silver platter and they want to utilize it to maximum extent ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in less than six months.



The BJP has instructed all its MLAs, MPs and leaders to carry out protests on a big scale. They have also been told to rake up issues like adding 'Gandhi' as the family name by former AICC presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, celebration of Tipu Jayanti by the Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah and attempts of Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar for installing the largest statue of Jesus Christ in Asia in his constituency.



After the speeches, the procession is to head to the office of Superintendent of Police of respective districts and a criminal case against Satish Jarkiholi is to be lodged, sources said.



Meanwhile, Satish Jarkiholi, who is considered as a tall leader, challenged Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to set up a committee to probe whether he had said anything wrong.



Jarkiholi further stated that he did not want any support from the Congress party to defend his statements. State Congress President Shivakumar has reacted that the statements by Jarkiholi were made on personal level. Jarkiholi himself clarified that he had made the statements on a different platform and there was no connection with the party.



The Jarkiholi family enjoys the support of backward classes and Dalits throughout the state. Three brothers, BJP MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi and Congress legislator Satish Jarkiholi have been accused of running a 'republic' in Belagavi district.



Winning elections is not a task for them and national parties, BJP and Congress, are dependent on them to a large extent. Among Jarkiholi brothers, Satish Jarkiholi has a special place.



He is striving to eradicate blind beliefs in society by making an example of himself. Satish Jarkiholi had slept in burial grounds on full moon day many times to show that there are no demons or spirits.



Satish Jarkiholi attacks Hinduism often on public platforms. While reacting to the controversy Satish Jarkiholi remained defiant and stated that talking truth has become a crime. "Giving justice to the oppressed classes is also a crime," he said.



Satish Jarkiholi stoked a controversy by stating that the word 'Hindu' is not Indian. He further stated the word is "Persian".



Addressing a gathering at a function at Nippani town by Manava Bandhutva Vedike on Sunday, he questioned the connection between India and Persia? "Hindu is not an Indian word at all. That is Persian. How the word 'Hindu' went on to become ours needs to be debated," Satish Jarkiholi stated.



"The word is Persian belonging to Iran, Iraq and Kazakhstan. When things are like this, how can it become Indian? Look up in WhatsApp, Wikipedia, the word has arrived from Persia, it is not yours (addressing gathering)," he maintained.



"Why is the word glorified? Why is it being glorified? This is not your word. If you know the meaning of this word, you will be ashamed. The word Hindu means dirty. I am not telling this, a swamiji is telling it and this is on a website. The word from a different religion, region is being imposed on us forcefully, it should be debated," Satish Jarkiholi demanded.




Besides her Hollywood projects, Jung Ho Yeon returns to the small screen with a special appearance in Netflix's "Chicken Nugget."

In an exclusive report cited by JTBC News, the model-actress is set to appear in the upcoming thriller comedy series but in a cameo role.

Jung Ho Yeon to Play Cameo Role in Netflix's 'Chicken Nugget'

According to the report, industry officials shared that the breakout star has confirmed her appearance for the K-drama "Chicken Nugget" which stars Ryu Seung Ryong, Kim Yoo Jung and Ahn Jae Hong.

However, despite the confirmation, Jung Ho Yeon's character is yet to be announced.

Interestingly, this will be the second time that the 28-year-old star will appear in a Korean drama, following the worldwide craze of "Squid Game."

'Chicken Nugget' Cast, Release Date, and More

Helmed by Lee Byung Hyun of "Extreme Job," "Be Melodramatic," and "Twenty," the upcoming K-drama is based on the webtoon "Fried Chicken" which illustrates a bizarre story of a woman named Choi Min Ah, who accidentally turned into a fried chicken.

It came after she unintentionally entered a mysterious machine. With this, her father Choi Sun Man, and his intern Go Baek Jung, joint efforts to turn her back to normal. Unfortunately, the duo discovered surprising secrets along the way.

In the forthcoming series, Kim Yoo Jung to Choi Min Ah while veteran star Ryu Seung Ryong, plays her on-screen father, Choi Seon Man.

Moreover, Ahn Jae Hong appears as the intern, Ko Baek Joong.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Jung Ho Yeon Gives Nod to Korean Culture With Stunning Outfit at Emmy Awards 2022

As of this writing, there are no official statements regarding the target release date but it will be exclusively aired on Netflix with 16 episodes in total.

Jung Ho Yeon Update: What's next for the 'Squid Game' Star?

2021 was a fruitful year to Jung Ho Yeon as the runway model made a successful debut in acting after landing the iconic role of North Korean Kang Sae Byeok also known as player No. 067"

From then on she appeared in various publications and scored high-end advertisement deals with Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Calvin Klein, and more.

From back-to-back endorsements, Jung Ho Yeon was also nominated in both local and foreign awards ceremonies and also bagged the Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series Award 2022 SAG Awards.

The South Korean star eclipsed her fellow nominees Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon from "The Morning Show," Sarah Snook from "Succession" and Elisabeth Moss from "The Handmaid's Tale."

From recognition to Hollywood debut, Jung Ho Yeon will be headlining A24's "The Governesses" together with Lily-Rose Depp and Renate Reinsve, directed by Joe Talbot.

In addition, she will also join Cate Blanchett in Alfonso Cuaron's new series "Disclaimer" which will be released on Apple TV+.

READ MORE: Jung Ho Yeon, Lee Dong Hwi Go on Double Date With THIS Celebrity Couple



KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
The City of Kenosha Police and Fire Commission has selected a 16-year-veteran of the force as the next chief of police for the department.

On Monday night, the commission announced Capt. Patrick Patton, 39, of Kenosha, will succeed Chief Eric Larsen, who is retiring Dec. 31. Pattons appointment as the new chief will be confirmed before the commission at 9 a.m. Nov. 15. Patton will officially take over as chief on Jan. 1, 2023. In the meantime, he and Larsen will work together on the transition.

A member of the department since 2006, Patton has served as a police officer, detective, patrol sergeant, sergeant in the Detective Bureau, and patrol lieutenant. On Jan. 1, Patton was promoted to captain.

I am humbled and honored to be selected as chief of police, Patton said in statement. I want to thank the City of Kenosha Police and Fire Commission for their time. It was a privilege to have been considered along with Capt. (James) Beller and Lt. (Aaron) Dillhoff. Ive given my commitment to the Police and Fire Commission, Mayor (John Antaramian) and City Administrator (John Morrissey) to continue to build upon Chief Larsens efforts in engaging the community. I look forward to working with current staff, Common Council, and community members.

Highly skilled, qualified candidates

Reached Monday night, Patton told the Kenosha News being among other highly qualified candidates under consideration speaks to the direction local law enforcement is headed in the future.

Were building the highly skilled and educated people we have in-house and furthering our profession, tailoring it to meet what everyone demands now, he said. It was a very long process and the city did their due diligence in the different type of assessments we had to go through.

Larsen said all three candidates were well-qualified and they possess attributes that will play well off each other, going forward.

I believe that we had very strong candidates in the process, overall. Each one of them  very strong candidates. I certainly am pleased that Pat was chosen, Larsen said. I think that he has a great staff to draw upon. Looking to the future, you know, as we start to age out, I expect that all of them will occupy one of the top positions in the future. So its just a very exciting time with the department with the number of qualified candidates we have.

Rising through the ranks

In selecting Patton, the commission chose one of the youngest police chiefs in the state. Patton said the commission recognized his skills beyond his relative youth from his experience as a U.S. Marine to his rise through the ranks and the education that has also propelled him to the departments top job.

A Kenosha native, Patton is a 2001 graduate of Indian Trail Academy, who enlisted in the United States Marine Corps not long after. His time in the military included an extended tour of duty in Iraq, before he ultimately returned to Kenosha. He then attended Carthage College where he graduated with a bachelors degree in criminal justice and political science. Later, Patton earned a masters degree in criminal justice administration from the University of WisconsinPlatteville, which ranks among the nations top online masters degree programs in the discipline.

I always continued to invest in my education, said Patton, who admitted he didnt set out to become police chief when he was initially hired in 2006. Education, for him, was self-enrichment and one that enabled him to become a better law enforcement officer and thereby better the department as a whole.

Bettering community

Patton said he is ultimately committed to bettering the community where he was born and raised.

The only time I left was to join the military and serve in the Marines, he said.

While he was in boot camp, terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, attacked the U.S. hijacking planes that destroyed World Trade Center in New York City, damaged the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and crashed in the rural mining town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

My career in the military kind of changed. So it took me longer to return home than I anticipated, he said. But, nothing ever felt like home like Kenosha did.

When Patton learned he was selected as Kenoshas next police chief, he was excited along with his wife and family.

Shes very excited and very supportive, said Patton, who has three daughters.

Patton, however, is careful to temper his overall enthusiasm because he realizes the seriousness of the job and strife the city has been through in recent years.

Cities go through tumultuous times. Weve have. Weve seen it, he said, referring to the violence that followed the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake in August of 2020.

All too aware of the escalation in homicides that have plagued the city as well over the last two years, Patton said reducing violent crime has always been of the highest priority.

Making the community safe is imperative to meeting the standards we hold as an organization while supporting the vision of growth from the mayor and city administration. We know that there is not one singular solution to accomplish that goal, he said. Rather, we will continue to focus our efforts on strategies resulting in research-backed success while maintaining an emphasis on community partnerships and engagement.

Changing the culture

The demonstrations against police brutality and riots that ensued have also led the department to take a hard look at its methods, if not its culture. Soon after, the department escalated instruction of its 200 sworn officers, including Patton, in implicit bias training under the Fair and Impartial Policing model.

The department, under Larsen, has committed to continue meeting with the community, which includes Black and Hispanic residents often disenfranchised by law enforcement. Addressing police and community relations, was among the top priorities that came of the citys listening sessions in the weeks after the destruction.

Building relationships in the community isnt something that you just say, we did it.

We need to continue on (with) that relationship, Larsen said.

Technology is another priority. Beyond body cameras, Larsen said the department has pursued and was approved to secure virtual reality goggles, technology that law enforcement agencies have used in training for situational de-escalation.

Its exciting to see the energy from the supervisors, he said. A lot of seeds have been planted.

Listening with humility

Patton said he believes that upholding integrity is No. 1 on the path to bridging gaps in community relations.

Its making sure that Im acting in accordance with the words that Im telling everybody, and we will make mistakes, but we will own them, he said.

Among Pattons strengths, according to Larsen is his ability to relate with others on a number of levels.

He has a very outgoing personality, said Larsen. Thats real.

Patton said he ascribes to listening with humility, something he and others having been working on with the department, as a whole. That doesnt mean police or the community will always agree with each other, but that he believes the sides have the opportunity to find a starting place toward a common goal, he said.

Anytime Im a better listener and I can listen to someones perspective, it just ends up resulting in increased collaboration, he said. And, it results in better outcomes.
Kenosha County voters Tuesday night told their state legislators by a close margin that they favored Wisconsin becoming a sanctuary for gun owners.

By a vote of 32,362 to 30,126, or 51.79% to 48.21%, respectively, a majority of county residents sided with an advisory referendum with its basis in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms.

The referendum asked: Should the Wisconsin State Legislature declare the State of Wisconsin be a Second Amendment Sanctuary State?

While non-binding, the referendum was intended to allow the public to express to County Board supervisors and state legislators whether Wisconsin should become a haven for gun rights supporters.

It advocates for a county that derives an economic benefit from safe forms of firearms recreation, such as hunting, and all types of firearms allowable by the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions. It also conveys concerns over passage of bills containing language which could be interpreted as infringing on the rights of county residents to keep and bear arms.

County Board Supervisor Erin Decker, the boards vice chair and co-author of the resolution and measure on the ballot said she was very happy with result.

Im very happy that we were able to get the referendum on the ballot and the voters chose `yes to answer that they want the state Legislature to make the state of Wisconsin a Second Amendment sanctuary state, she said.

In July, the County Board passed resolutions that favored gun owners, including declaring Kenosha a Second Amendment sanctuary county.

Decker acknowledged a lot of voters were confused with the wording of the referendum question, but nevertheless it prevailed.

I think that may have affected the vote a bit, she said. But Im happy that it passed because  it really does show that gun ownership is not a partisan issue, that gun owners are both Democrats and Republicans. And, independents.

The board also earlier repealed a ban on firearms in many of its buildings. Signs on most county buildings that previously noted the ban came off the structures last month.

While the carrying of concealed weapons will be allowed on county property, the ban will continue to cover the Kenosha County Courthouse, the public safety building, which houses both the sheriffs department and Kenosha Police Department, jail, pretrial building and the Molinaro Building, which is part of the civic center campus west of Sheridan Road between 55th and 56th Streets. The ban also includes the Kenosha County Detention Center at 4777 88th Ave.
Were puzzled and dismayed why the village of Raymond is going to court to appeal a Wisconsin Election Commission ruling that told them to instate Jillian and Mitchell Berman on the voter rolls.

The Bermans, newcomers to the community, sold their previous home and stated their address was at a home they were in the process of building in Raymond on Eight Mile Road  but that construction was delayed by COVID and supply chain disruptions. The couple has been staying with relatives. They enrolled their children in Raymond schools, signed up for utilities, got new drivers licenses and licensed their pets at the new address.

Jillian Berman filed to run for the Raymond School Board; thats when their voter registration was challenged by another school board candidate, Gwen Keller, and that stirred debate during the spring election. Two board members distributed fliers that questioned Bermans legitimacy as a candidate. Berman ultimately lost her bid to be on the Raymond School Board, while Keller won.

The village clerk last February  following Kellers complaint invalidated the Bermans voter registration. The Bermans appealed to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which ruled in their favor and ordered the village to allow them to vote on Oct. 3.

The WEC found that the village clerk had wrongfully stripped the Bermans of their status as registered voters and directed the village to reinstate them.

Noting that even homeless people in Wisconsin have a right to vote, the commission held that denying the Bermans registration would make it virtually impossible for them to vote anywhere.

Three days later the village board voted to try to overturn that ruling and filed suit in Racine County Circuit Court after hiring the Waukesha law firm of Arenz Molter Macy and Riffle to represent the village.

Village President Kari Morgan said, The board is a big proponent of voting integrity and we are ensuring that the laws of the state are being followed as listed in the state statutes and not being interpreted by a commission that is not elected by the people.

Thats the reddest of red herrings. If Raymonds fight is over the validity of the WEC to implement election laws, then their fight is with the state Legislature, which set up the bipartisan panel with three Republican and three Democrat appointees.

The fact is that the Raymond case didnt even make it to a board vote, the board didnt take it up and the order to reinstate the Bermans came from WEC Administrator Megan Wolfe.

Thats typical of the vast majority of decisions made by state agencies that rely on past agency decisions for precedent in handling all sorts of disputes. For Morgan to cast shade on the WEC because their board is not elected is disingenuous and belittles the efforts not only of state workers, but municipal, village and town workers as well. If government decisions could only be made by elected workers our whole government would bog down.

The Bermans have already been disenfranchised in one election.

Village officials should ask themselves where, exactly, did they expect the Bermans to vote?

They might also want to ask themselves why they are rolling out the unwelcome mat to a young couple, both professionals, who are investing in a new home in the community, enrolling their children in Raymond schools and seeking to serve the community by serving on the school board. That seems to us the kind of people the village would be encouraging and seeking out to make their home in Raymond.

And Raymond voters might want to ask the board members what exactly are they hoping to gain by running up taxpayers legal bills for the sole purpose of stripping two newcomers to the village of their right to vote.
No doubt, the war in Ukraine provides an immediate backdrop. It is going to be extremely difficult for the United States to extricate itself in a near term from the war without suffering a huge loss of face tarnishing its credibility as a superpower, undermining its transatlantic leadership and even risking the future of the western alliance system as such.

by M.K. Bhadrakumar

The report that Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning his first overseas trip after the Party Congress and it may be to Saudi Arabia drips with enormous symbolism. According to the Wall Street Journal, the visit is likely to take place early December and hectic preparations are under way.

The daily cited people familiar with the preparations that the Chinese leaders welcome is more likely to resemble the 2017 visit by Donald Trump in its pomp and pageantry.

Chinese President Xi Jinping waves after his speech as the new Politburo Standing Committee members meet the media following the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 23, 2022. [ Photo: REUTERS/Tingshu Wang]

Predictably, the focal point will be the future trajectory of Chinese-Saudi oil alliance  rather, the making of an oil alliance comparable to the Russian-Saudi framework of OPEC Plus. That said, there is a great deal more to the forthcoming visit by Xi in geopolitics in the dramatically shifting alignments in the West Asian region and indeed its impact on the world order can be far-reaching.

The point is, both China and Saudi Arabia are major regional powers and any matrix involving them bilaterally will be highly consequential to international politics. The Wall Street Journal said Beijing and Riyadh seek to deepen ties and advance a vision of a multipolar world where the US no longer dominates the global order.

No doubt, the war in Ukraine provides an immediate backdrop. It is going to be extremely difficult for the United States to extricate itself in a near term from the war without suffering a huge loss of face tarnishing its credibility as a superpower, undermining its transatlantic leadership and even risking the future of the western alliance system as such.

Both China and Saudi Arabia will have drawn the conclusion that the bipartisan consensus over the war in Ukraine may not survive the fierce tribal war among the American political elite that is certain to break out very soon once the midterm elections today get over. If the Republicans gain control over the House of Representatives, they will proceed to initiate proceedings for the impeachment of President Biden.

A Guardian survey of expert opinion on Sunday was entitled These are conditions ripe for political violence: how close is the US to civil war? At its core, therefore, both China and Saudi Arabia see the US retrenchment gathering momentum in the West Asian region.

One major item of discussion during Xis visit to Saudi Arabia will be the latters Look East foreign-policy strategy that anticipated the US retrenchment at least by the middle of the last decade. Xis visit to Saudi Arabia in 2016 was a landmark event.

No doubt, Beijing has been closely watching the deterioration of US-Saudi relations since then. And it cannot be lost on Beijing that lately, Saudis have been plotting energy cooperation with China amid Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans tensions with Biden.

The surest signal was the virtual meeting on October 21 between Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Minister of Energy and Zhang Jianhua, Chinas National Energy Administrator, a senior politician (who was a member of the 19th Central Discipline Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.) The meeting took place amidst a deep crisis in the US-Saudi relations with the US elite threatening to impose sanctions against Riyadh.

Unsurprisingly, one of the key issues discussed between the Chinese and Saudi ministers was the oil market. According to the Saudi statement, the ministers confirmed their willingness to work together to support the stability of the international oil market and stressed the need for long-term and reliable oil supply to stabilise global market that endures various uncertainties due to complex and changeable international situations. Isnt this more or less what the OPEC Plus (Russian-Saudi oil alliance) keeps saying?

Meanwhile, the two ministers also discussed cooperation and joint investments in countries that China sees as part of its strategic Belt and Road vision and stated their intention to continue to implement an agreement about peaceful uses of nuclear energy (which Washington has opposed.)

Without doubt, the meeting of the ministers was a clear rebuke aimed at Washington, designed to remind the Biden administration that Saudi Arabia has other important energy relationships and that Saudi oil policy does not come from Washington. Most important, the calculus here is that Riyadh is seeking a balance between Beijing and Washington. Bidens vacuous talk about a battle between autocracy and democracy would bother Saudi Arabia, but China has no ideological agenda.

Notably, the Saudi and Chinese ministers agreed to deepen cooperation in the energy supply chain through establishing a regional hub for Chinese manufacturers in the kingdom to take advantage of Saudi Arabias access to three continents.

The bottom line is that Saudi political and business elites increasingly perceive China as a superpower and expect a global engagement that is transactional, similar to how both China and Russia generally engage in the world. The Saudis are convinced that their comprehensive strategic partnership (2016) with China would enhance the kingdoms growing geopolitical importance amid Russias war in Ukraine, and that it underscores that Riyadh has more choices now and will further seek balance.

Saudi Arabia has increasingly close ties with Russia, too. With one leg inside the SCO tent (having gained observer status), it is now seeking BRICS membership. These are complementary moves but BRICS format is also working on an alternate currency system, which attracts Riyadh.

Coincidence or not, Algeria and Iran, two other leading oil producing countries which keep close ties with Russia, have also sought BRICS membership for the same reason. The very fact that Saudi Arabia is joining them and is willing to bypass Western institutions and reduce the risk of interaction with them, and is instead exploring parallel ways of conducting financial, economic, and trade relations without relying on US or EU-controlled instruments does convey a big message to the international system.

The paradox is, the Saudi drive to strengthen strategic autonomy will remain fragile so long as the petrodollar ties it down to the western banking system. Therefore, Saudi Arabia has a big decision to make in regard of the continued relevance of its 1971 commitment enshrining the American dollar as the world currency (replacing gold) and its resolve to use only dollar for trading in oil  all of which has enabled successive US administrations through the past half century to print paper currency as they pleased, live it up by laundering the money  and eventually to weaponise dollar as its most potent instrument to impose American hegemony globally.

While reporting on Xis forthcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal added that the strategic recalibration of Saudi foreign policy is bigger than the recent blowup with the Biden administration over oil production More recently, their (China-Saudi) courtship has intensified with discussions on selling a stake in Saudi Aramco, including yuan-denominated futures contracts in Aramcos pricing model, and possibly pricing some Saudi oil sales to China in yuan.

Traditionally, things used to move at a glacial pace indicative of Saudi policy shifts. But Crown Prince Salman is in a hurry to rest the Saudi compass and can take difficult decisions, as the creation of OPEC Plus in alliance with Russia testifies. Therefore, the likelihood of Saudi Arabia changing course to do part of its pricing in oil sales in yuan currency is stronger than ever today.

If things indeed move in such a direction, to be sure, a tectonic shift may be taking place  a major geo-strategic recalibration  and Xis visit gets elevated as an event of historic importance.
The idea of loss and damage compensation has been under debate since the beginning of the early 1990s as rich countries have not wanted to discuss who pays.

by Victor Cherubim

A day of reckoning has arrived at COP 27 as world leaders and other environmentalists gathered at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for the African Continents turn to host the annual UN Climate Change Conference.

Amid a cost of living crisis, the Developed World is under pressure to agree to a costly deal on reparations, at the same time as plans are being drawn up for sweeping domestic rises and spending cuts in UK, said the Daily Telegraph.

These photos illustrate the impact of the worst flooding in 60-years in Bentiu and the larger Unity State, that since February has washed away harvests, cattle and left villages under water. [ Photo: UN Photo]

By contrast, it is predominantly countries in the developing world particularly in Africa, (famine and drought); in South Asia ( floods) and small island nations like Maldives and Sri Lanka, and Islands in the Pacific (low sea levels) that are particularly most vulnerable to climate disasters, despite having played with partly causing them.

History has been made

History has been made at the beginning of COP 27 to include talks on loss and damage payments to nations impacted by climate change. With costs estimated to reach a possible $1 Trillion by 2040, for past emissions and for global warming, according to Al Jazeera. This sum is in no comparison to the $30 Trillion spent controlling COVID-19.

Public opinion in rich economies has we hear, has softened also according to Daily Telegraph. This was seen in the stance of UK which has suggested it is open to paying Climate Change Reparations.

The idea of loss and damage compensation has been under debate since the beginning of the early 1990s as rich countries have not wanted to discuss who pays.

The Floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh

The unimaginable flooding last month (September 2022) which left large parts of Pakistanliterally underwater, submerged, causing more than 1,700 deaths and 33 million people ousted from their homes, has somewhat woken the world. The ravages of global warming according to the Financial Times, have put Pakistan at the forefront of the evolving new thinking of who should foot the bill for global warming.

While Bangladesh is among the countries leading calls for loss and damage payments. World Bank reports state one-third of its agriculture could be lost by sea ingress damage and its GDP could fall 9% by 2050. Sohanur Rahman, Executive Director, of Youth Net for Climate Justice has clamoured for loss and damage financing. He is quoted as saying:

We are not asking for charity or debt from developed countries, but rather reparations for their historical legacy in the climate change crisis.

The priority given to nations at the Conference of the Parties COP 27, was noticeable in the photo opportunity at the beginning of the sessions in Egypt.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif and the President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, were accommodated in the back row far apart, for the photo opportunity of all leaders attending, on the opening day of the Conference. There were more African Presidents and Arab leaders in prominence, in front.

Why Africa is now the paramount chief in the Climate change conundrum?

During the two-week conference, government and non-party stakeholders will deliberate to ensure a transition to a net zero global economy. Representatives of over a billion Africans are represented at COP27.

While China, India and Australia among the major consumers of fossil fuels are notably absent at COP 27, 54 African voices of the African Union are taking centre stage. The grievance of Africa is put on a show at COP 27.

The African delegates are quoted to state: Delegates from each regional bloc of the world will enter the conference to protect its self-interest. The Wests strategy will not be to take responsibility for their complicity in causing climate disaster. Though the West will acknowledge the astronomical cost of the transition to net zero as a manifestation of the white saviour industrial complex, they will offer to help by giving loans or aid, which will no longer compensate for the damage done. Africa must present a united front embracing the spirit of Pan Africanism to negotiate from a position of strength.

Africa the epicentre in litany of Climate Crisis today?

The African Continent has become a global epicentre of climate crisis ranging from the unprecedented rising of extreme weather, severe storms, and erratic rainfall, catastrophic flooding, outbreak of water-borne diseases, displacements, armed conflicts, desertification, abject poverty, biodiversity loss and drought, to mention a few.

The African Continent contributes the smallest share of global greenhouse gas emissions compared to its counterparts of the EU, Asia and the USA, due to their industrial and Large Combustion Plants (LCP). Yet it is unfortunate that climate disasters are its greatest concern.

United Nations is the conscience of the world and Climate Change is more than a disaster for poorer nations of the world, particularly in Africa. Will COP 27 help Africa more than the world is a conundrum on the minds of all Africans?
Tyndall Mountain Club is celebrating its 40th anniversary later this month with a very special series of events to mark the momentus occasion.

For four decades its members have walked and hiked all over Ireland and regularly go further afield to experience the different terrains in other parts of the world.

The club is hugely important to its 170-plus members - not only do they organise four weekly hikes but the club also has a wonderful social aspect to it.

Every Sunday morning members meet at the old cinema on Gaol Road and head off on one of two hikes, which are all led by members of the club. Most of these hikes are within an hour or less drive from Kilkenny and people carpool and share the cost of petrol. There are also walks every Wednesday and Friday.

After a day of hiking on the hills and enjoying the company of others the group often have a pit stop on the way home in a nearby watering hole, to refuel with a cup of tea or something stronger. It also gives the walkers a chance to rest and reflect on their day out in the elements.

Brandon Hill, Sliabh na mBan and Mount Leinster are popular hikes as are the Comeraghs, the Blackstairs and the Knockmealdowns and there are a number of weekends away to destinations further afield during the year.

This summer the club had two booked-out trips to Crete with some members reaching the highest peak on the island, Psilortitis - the summit is 2,456 metres. Early next year members will travel to Morocco.

Lifelong friendships have been forged through the club and strong bonds formed. All members, both past and present are invited to join in the celebrations on Saturday, November 19.

We are hoping that as many present and former members come along to celebrate the occasion, said chairperson, Irene Burke.

At 3.30pm there will be a tree planting ceremony in the Castle Park and the unveiling of a bench with a commemorative plaque remembering all those involved with the club. That evening there will be a dinner at the Clubhouse Hotel at 6pm with guest speaker, Frank Nugent who was part of the first Irish Everest expedition.

Founded in Kilkenny in 1981 by a group of people interested in hiking and the outdoors, the club was named to commemorate John Tyndall, the renowned 19th century mountaineer and scientist, who was born and grew up nearby.

Founding member, Martin OReilly explained how the group came into being.

I moved to Kilkenny in 1979 and was teaching at the Loreto Secondary School, he said. At the time I was a member of a hill walking club in Dublin and used to go hiking a lot.

Martin and a colleague of his, Jerry Herlihy, decided to hold a meeting in 1981 to see if there was much interest in setting up a hillwalking group locally. Around 30 people attended the initial meeting and from there Tyndall Mountain Club was formed.

For more than 40 years Martin, alongside a number of other founding members including Jerry Herlihy and Kevin Higgins, have been out rambling in nature with the club.

Hillwalking attracts very friendly people and it is great as we get to see so many beautiful places at home and abroad. We are very much looking forward to our celebrations on November 19 and we are encouraging all our present and past members to come along and enjoy the events, he said.

Michael Gannon, who has also been involved in the club since its infancy has travelled widely both on his own trips to Africa, South America, Australia and Everest base camp. He has also hiked extensively with the club across much of Europe including in Spain, Greece, France, Austria, Switzerland and also to Morocco and Tanzania.

We have had so many amazing trips over the years, he said adding that one of the most memorable trips was one to Tanzania in 1999 with Martin OReilly and Martin Brett. I am looking forward to the celebrations later this month, he added.

The groups celebratory dinner in the Clubhouse Hotel will also feature a talk and a very special slide show spanning the clubs history.

All are welcome to attend and tickets for the dinner are 25 and are available at eventbrite.ie
MacDonagh continued its long tradition of organising and hosting the Savour Young Food Producers Market over the Bank Holiday weekend.

This one-day market showcased the culinary skills and delightful inventions of young chefs, bakers, and entrepreneurs from ages 10 to 17.

There were three judges on the day: Mary Whelan from the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, Molly Coogan Kilkennys Rose of Tralee, and Ian Brennan, Manager of the Clubhouse Hotel.

While every student was a winner on the day, there were several prizes on offer in the categories of: Best Presentation and Taste, Best Display and Highly Commended. Orlaith Fallon was named overall winner; Amy Lawlor, Lauren Daly and Ella Lawlor won the runner-up prize, Colin Murray won Best Display and Richie Mullally won Highly Commended.

Centre Manager Marion Acreman spoke of her excitement launching the event.

Our ethos of allowing young entrepreneurs test the market environment by showcasing at the shopping centre fits well into this vibrant exciting event as part of the fantastic Savour food festival, she said.

Again this year the team at MacDonagh Junction were hugely impressed with the high standard delivered by our young food producers.

We predict a bright culinary future for Kilkenny as they develop their talents in the years ahead.

MacDonagh Junction, in conjunction with LEO and Cater Care, organised food hygiene training for all the students in the run up to the food market.

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As Russian manpower (too few and untrained) problems increased, so did Ukrainian Partisan activity in Russian occupied Ukraine, which now covers 110,000 square kilometers. This includes Crimea, which Russia took in 2014 and declared part of Russia. Not all inhabitants of Crimea, which comprises a quarter of the occupied territory, agree because there has been increasing partisan activity in Crimea for nearly six months. The Ukrainian government does not say anything specific about this because that could endanger the partisans and their operations. Some proof of government support comes from commercial satellite photos or rare reports from the Russians. Known support techniques include low night-flying helicopters and, if coastline is available, small boats used at night.

Currently partisan violence is most widespread and frequent in Kherson province, which is due north of Crimea. Russia is losing ground there at a rapid pace because there are less than 200,000 Russian troops in Ukraine, few of whom have much training beyond a few days with assault rifles some were never allowed to fire, and pretty much uniform desire to be anywhere but Ukraine. Partisan groups are usually led by someone with military experience and months of operating as a partisan. Most partisans are local and operate in areas where they grew up. That means lots of local support for the partisans and little help for the Russian soldiers. This has resulted in Russian forces deliberately withdrawing from Kherson City and the west side of the Dnieper River. The Russians are no longer forcing Ukrainian civilians to retreat with them. Getting across the rover is difficult with all the bridges destroyed and Ukrainian forces constantly and accurately attacking Russian boats or barges trying to move troops to the east bank or supplies in the other direction. Russian troops are short on essential supplies like ammunition and other items of military equipment. Staples like food and warm clothing can be taken from Ukrainian civilians. This situation indicates that the Ukrainians are receiving timely updates on where the Russians are trying to cross in boats. Thats because of the partisans, whose most valuable mission is reporting on what the enemy is up to so more powerful allies can act on that. Only in extreme situations do partisans themselves attack alert and well-armed troops.

Russia added another incentive to being or supporting partisans by increasingly exiling Ukrainian civilians to Russia. There, it is hoped, the Ukrainians will be Russified. With the Russians continuing to lose in Ukraine, the Russification of Ukrainians is not likely to happen because the partisans actively attack the Russians who are doing it and maintain records of who was deported and when as well who was killed or wounded while resisting deportation. These reports go to the Ukrainian government, which passes them on to UN war crimes investigators. These UN personnel are kept busy because each liberated town reveals additional evidence of Russian brutality. Reluctant Russian recruits sent to Ukraine are less prone to such bad behavior because they also wish Russian soldiers were gone from Ukraine, starting with themselves.

The main priority for the partisans is to disrupt Russian military operations. This often means attacking supply convoys or damaging roads, rail lines or bridges. For this the partisans need explosives and often help in preparing and placing the bombs. This is where the clandestine supply efforts by the government come in. Ukrainian armed forces have a section devoted to partisan support, including sending in supplies and often technical experts. Some of these flights take out badly wounded partisans. Partisans are often equipped with long-range radios and instructions on how to use them without being detected or having messages intercepted and read. The partisans have been getting better at this while Russian countermeasures diminish. The Russian ability to organize and carry out large scale anti-partisan operations is gone in most of the occupied territories.

Ukraine has also received covert in-country training and support from NATO nations with special operations troops who specialize in supporting partisan operations. This is primarily the United States and Britain, which were doing this in Ukraine since 2014 and more discreetly since early 2022. NATO also provides the partisans with timely satellite or aerial photos of Russian operations as well as special equipment for some attacks.

Ukraine has a long history of partisan operations. During World War II, Russian and Ukrainian partisans played a role in defeating the Nazi invaders, who had some initial local support until they graphically demonstrated their genocidal intent towards all Slavs. When the Nazis were driven out of Ukraine, many of the Ukrainian partisans continued fighting the Russians. Some of these partisan groups remained active into the 1950s. That was ten years after the Nazis were driven out of Ukraine. In early 2022 Russia claimed it was liberating Ukrainian from neo-Nazi groups. Russian troops soon discovered that they were the Nazi invaders and the Ukrainians still had lots of partisans with long-memories and determination to defeat the new Nazis.

One reason for the continued Ukrainian counteroffensive was the early appearance and growth of partisan forces in occupied territories and their ability to communicate with and support their government. Two months before the Ukrainian counter offensive began in late August, Russia openly denied the extent of the resistance in Kherson, calling armed partisans local bandits and gangsters. Video proof got out of Kherson, often in the form of video or audio of Russian troops stationed in Kherson complaining to friends and family back home about the partisans.

By September the offensive in Kherson province slowed down but did not stop. The Russian defenders were also increasingly threatened by partisans in the rear, who were disrupting the movement of supplies to keep the defenders fed and obtaining ammunition and medical supplies. Winter was coming, which made the supply lines even more important. Ukrainian commanders take better care of their troops and that means lower casualties and higher morale. Ukrainian soldiers have lots of local support while the Russian troops are poorly supplied and commanded by officers who pay little attention to morale or keeping casualties down.

East of Kherson, in Zaporizhzhya province, Ukrainian partisans blew up part of the railroad running through the city of Melitopol. This rail line runs from Russian controlled Donbas to Crimea and supplies Russian forces with fuel, weapons and other supplies. The partisan attacks on the Zaporizhzhya province railroad have been going on for months and prevent full use of those vital rail links.

Several months after the 2022 invasion began in February, the high casualties suffered by front line troops meant a lot of the troops occupying Crimea and Donbas were sent to the front, where most became casualties. At the time Russia needed fewer troops in Crimea because they had withdrawn most of their warships, aircraft and shipyard workers to Russia. Despite that, Ukrainian partisans have been more active in Crimea, destroying military aircraft with seeming impunity. Similar attacks are made on prominent Russians in Crimea and Ukrainian collaborators. In Donbas ethnic Russians and their Ukrainian collaborators are also under attack and departing for Russia or, if Ukrainian, quietly switching sides. Donbas used to be a good source of Russian troops but heavy casualties and Ukrainian offensive and partisan activity in Donbas has put an end to Russian recruiting efforts there.

The continued success of Ukrainian forces resulted in more Ukrainians believing the situation was improving for them personally and for all Ukrainians. This shift in attitudes towards Ukrainian success and against Russia has created a growing partisan movement in the occupied territory, and open displays of hostility towards Russian civilians and Ukrainian collaborators. More of these pro-Russia civilians are fleeing to Russia and Russian troops in the occupied territories find themselves under growing attack by the partisans, who are directly supported by Ukrainian special forces with clandestine supplies of weapons and air and missile attacks on targets identified by Ukrainian civilians in the occupied territories. This sort of thing hasnt been seen in Europe since World War II, when it played a major role in driving the Germans out. The Russians never expected this degree of popular resistance and are unable to deal with it.

Ukraine has been trying to recapture Kherson City and province ever since March, and is making progress, aided by the growing partisan movement inside Kherson province and passive resistance to Russian occupation by most Ukrainians there. Some Ukrainians agreed to work for the Russian occupation, including pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians that were so unpopular in post-2014 Ukraine that they fled to Russia. These officials returned to administer the occupied territories and were soon the targets of attacks by Ukrainian partisans. Some of the turncoats were killed but more worrisome to the Russians were indications that other Ukrainian officials quietly agreed to work for the partisans. The Russians now believe that many of their Ukrainian administrators were working with the resistance from the beginning. At the same time the Russian occupation forces still have their orders to try and win over the Ukrainians or at least discourage them from joining an armed insurrection. To help with that the Russians sought to Russify the province as quickly as possible. That meant replacing the Ukrainian cell phone service with a Russian one. Ukrainian TV and radio transmissions are blocked. Russian ID documents became mandatory and use of any currency but the Russian ruble was forbidden. Russia controlled utilities (especially water and electricity) and every effort was made to link Kherson to the Russian economy.

The initial reason for pacifying the population was to make life safe for Russian troops in Kherson. That was never fully achieved and now Russian troops have to worry about roadside bombs, anti-vehicle mines, sniper fire and assassination via pistol or a bomb planted in a vehicle. Russian efforts to impose conscription on Ukrainians in Crimea, Donbas and other occupied areas failed, often violently. Sometimes with the help of the partisans, who could assist conscription resisters in avoiding Russian retaliation.

The full story of the Ukrainian partisans wont be known until the war is over and probably many years after that. What is obvious now is that the partisans have become a major factor in defeating the Russians.
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GULF OF ADEN (Oct. 26, 2022) Sailors aboard guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) work to extinguish a fire aboard a civilian motorboat in the Gulf of Aden, Oct. 26. Nitze is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to help ensure maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Cryton Vandiesal)

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The headquarters of German chip manufacturer Elmos Semiconductor in Dortmund is pictured here.
Much of the Kherson region has been in Russian control since the early weeks of its invasion.
North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site / Yonhap



Nuclear test would have no immediate benefits at this time: expert



By Kang Seung-woo



A much-hyped North Korean nuclear test did not happen ahead of the U.S. midterm elections although all preparations for a seventh nuclear test are reported to be complete.



Diplomatic observers view there is no urgent need at this point for the Kim Jong-un regime to push ahead with another nuclear test that could backfire.



According to Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, Monday (local time), a day before the U.S. midterm elections, there was no new activity of significance observed at Tunnel No. 3 at the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility.



"This is expected because both the United States and South Korea assess North Korea as having finished all preparations for conducting a nuclear test using this tunnel," it said, citing the latest satellite image.



The South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe that North Korea has been ready to go with a nuclear test since May, saying that the only thing left before an actual test may be a political decision.



The National Intelligence Service expected that North Korea could carry out a nuclear test between Oct. 16 and Nov. 7. China held its party congress from Oct. 16 to 22, where President Xi Jinping was elected for his third term, and the U.S. elections were scheduled for Nov. 8.



"North Korea is technically not in an urgent situation enough to conduct another nuclear test, thanks to its past six tests," said Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher from the Korea Institute for National Unification.



"Its activities indicating North Korea has been preparing for a nuclear test meant that the country was set to resume advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities rather than detonating a nuclear device immediately," he said.



Even if North Korea carries out another nuclear test, it would be of no benefit, according to Cho.



"Should a nuclear test occur, it would be aimed at pressuring the U.S., not developing its nuclear technology. But considering the current situation, another test would not be helpful because it could be overshadowed by the U.S. midterm elections and draw hardline responses from the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties," he said.



In the lead-up to the U.S. elections, there had been growing speculation that Pyongyang would not test a nuclear bomb.



Unification Minister Kwon Young-se told the National Assembly, Monday, that there had been no signs that a nuclear test was imminent, although he said that the North could carry out a nuclear test at any time.



Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) spokesman Col. Kim Jun-rak also said, Tuesday, that North Korea had been expected to carry out a nuclear test in a short period of time, based on a political decision, but that there is nothing to explain further at this time.



With no provocation before the U.S. elections, the question has shifted to when North Korea will detonate a nuclear weapon. Some predict that the North may push ahead with it when U.S. President Joe Biden attends the G20 summit in Indonesia, scheduled for Nov. 15 and 16.



However, Cho said that it would be an unfeasible scenario, as a nuclear test during the summit would lead North Korea to see adverse effects.



"For North Korea, a nuclear test is a bargaining chip against the U.S., but a nuclear test, while Biden is at the G20 summit, could see a stronger response from the U.S.," Cho said.



"North Korea will conduct a nuclear test when the country thinks it can maximize the effects of the experiment. In that respect, the current situation is not that urgent for the North."



He added: "North Korea will decide on a nuclear test, based on the situation on the Korean Peninsula."




A missile that analysts believe could be the North Korean Hwasong-12 is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. AP-Yonhap



The U.S. treasury department on Tuesday designated two individuals for transporting prohibited goods to North Korea to be used in the country's missile development program.



"This action is part of the United States' ongoing efforts to limit the DPRK's ability to advance its unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs that threaten regional stability and follows numerous recent DPRK ballistic missile launches, which are in clear violation of multiple United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions," the department said in a press release.



DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.



The two individuals  Ri Sok and Yan Zhiyong  are both affiliated with Air Koryo, North Korea's national flag carrier, which the treasury department said is "controlled by and integrated into the DPRK military."



The treasury department said Air Koryo previously transported parts used in Scud-B missile systems, and was designated by the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.





North Korea's Air Koryo plane / AP




President Yoon Suk-yeol will visit Cambodia and Indonesia starting later this week to attend a series of regional summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20, his office said Wednesday.







Yoon will leave for Phnom Penh on Friday and attend a South Korea-ASEAN summit, an ASEAN Plus Three summit and the East Asia Summit during a three-day stay, national security adviser Kim Sung-han said during a press briefing.







On Sunday, Yoon will depart for Bali and attend the G20 summit on Tuesday.







He will leave Indonesia the same day and return home early Wednesday. (Yonhap)


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Jang Wonyoung initially made her debut as a member of the project girl group IZ*ONE back in October 2018, and subsequently re-debuting as a member of IVE in December 2021. But ever since her debut, Jang Wonyoung has cemented herself as one of the most popular idols among the fourth generation for her doll-like visuals. With her popularity, Jang Wonyoung's life is always in the spotlight.

But did you know, she was actually involved in a dating rumor with BIGBANG leader G-Dragon? Why was she suddenly linked to him? Did they really date? Keep on reading to find out!

IVE Jang Wonyoung Dating Rumor With BIGBANG G-Dragon

Back in October of this year, the status of IVE member Jang Wonyoung's romantic life was questioned after netizens' speculation surrounding her relationship with BIGBANG member G-Dragon surfaced online.

The surprising dating rumors between the two idols, who have an age gap of 16 years, surfaced after G-Dragon's Instagram Story on October 6 drew attention among fans.

In his Instagram Story posted on this day, the second-gen idol can be seen expressing his gratitude to the luxury brand Miu Miu for their gift to hiim. He added the caption, "Thanx for the lovely gift from Miu Miu."

While the post was itself didn't seem to have any problems, controversial Youtuber Sojang noted that G-Dragon among the stickers G-Dragon used on his Instagram Story, one of it was Jang Wonyoung's sticker, which was placed under the word "lovely."

Not long after, the two idols were swept in dating rumors, with other netizens trying to find out more about Jang Wonyoung and G-Dragon's alleged romantic involvement with each other, as well as provide evidence.

One of the "evidences" the netizens have come up with was that Jang Wonyoung and G-Dragon wore similar outfits to fashion events.

On October 8, Jang Wonyoung, who is Miu Miu's brand ambassador, attended the brand's fashion show for their 2023 S/S Collection during Paris Fashion Week. There, she wore a cropped cardigan with four pockets.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: IVE Jang Wonyoung Draws Attention With Past Drastic Hair Transformation

Netizens also noticed that G-Dragon wore a similar cardigan on October 1 during his attendance at the fashion event.

This also led to some netizens speculating about his real relationship with Miu Miu, as G-Dragon is known to be the brand ambassador for Chanel.

Did Jang Wonyoung and G-Dragon Really Date?

Unsurprisingly, many found Jang Wonyoung and G-Dragon's dating rumors to be too extreme. Many have also come forward to debunk the speculation surrounding the two.

It is noted that the Jang Wonyoung sticker can easily be found on Instagram Story when searching for Miu Miu stickers.

Media outlets Star News and Herald Pop have also debunked the rumors, as they even reached out to Miu Miu regarding the two idols' siimilar clothing.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: IVE Jang Wonyoung Draws Mixed Opinions For Rude Treatment of Members

According to Miu Miu, the clothes Jang Wonyoung wore were not in the same collection as the clothes G-Dragon wore. In fact, Jang Wonyoung's clothes are from an upcoming collection set to be released in November 2022.

"The product worn by Jang Wonyoung is part of the Miu Miu Holiday 23 collection, which has not been released yet. It will be released through the campaign in November," Miu Miu stated.

Thus, the dating rumors between the two were quickly shut down.

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Robyn Joan
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New Delhi [India], November 9 (ANI): The Union Cabinet has approved the guidelines for uplinking and downlinking television channels in India.

The consolidated guidelines are aimed at easing issues regarding permissions to the companies/ LLPs registered in India for uplinking and downlinking of TV Channels, setting up of Teleports/ Teleport Hubs, use of Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG)/ Satellite News Gathering (SNG)/ Electronic News Gathering (ENG) systems, uplinking by Indian news agencies and temporary uplinking of a live event.

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The last time such guidelines were amended was 11 years back in 2011.

Here are some of the main advantages of the revised guidelines::

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Ease of compliance for the permission holder.

a. Requirement for seeking permission for the live telecast of events has been done away with; only prior registration of events to be telecast live would be necessary.

b. No requirement of prior permission for change of language or conversion of the mode of transmission from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD) or vice versa; only prior intimation would be required.

c. In case of emergency, for a company/ LLP with only two Directors/ Partners, a Director/ Partner can be changed, subject to security clearance post such appointment, to enable business decision making;

d. A company/LLP can use Newsgathering equipment other than DSNG, such as optic fibre, bag back, mobile, etc. for which no separate permission would be necessary.

Ease of Doing Business

- Specific timelines have been proposed for a grant of permission;

- Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) entities can also seek permission;

- LLPs companies would be allowed to uplink foreign channels from Indian teleports which would create employment opportunities and make India a Teleport-hub for other countries.

- A news agency can get permission for a 5 year period as against one year at present;

- A channel can be uplinked by using facilities of more than one teleport/ satellite as against only one teleport/satellite at present:

- It has broadened the possibility of allowing the transfer of TV Channel/Teleport to a company / LLP as permissible under the Companies Act/ Limited Liability Act.

Simplification and Rationalization

- One composite set of Guidelines has replaced two separate Guidelines;

- Structure of the Guidelines has been systematized to avoid duplication and common parameters.

- The penalty clauses have been rationalized and separate nature of penalties have been proposed for a different type of contraventions as against the uniform penalty at present.

Other Highlights:

- The companies/LLPs having permission to uplink and downlink a channel may undertake public service broadcasting (except where it may not be feasible) for a minimum period of 30 mins in a day on themes of national importance and of social relevance.

"The new guidelines have been amended after a gap of 11 years, and a number of steps have been taken to our for ease of doing business of the journals, because there are more than 870 channels which are now operating in the country. Based on our experience, these guidelines have been amended, totally important changes that now for the purpose of the live telecast, now the permission will not be required to any registration will be required for changes in a channel from SD to HD or more changes in language etc," Apurba Chandra, Secretary MIB told ANI.

"Also out now we have introduced a new provision that the channels will be required to broadcast a particular piece of content which will be of public interest. There are seven-eight themes are given in the guidelines for continuous themes of public interest, as the channels will be free to hear the content of their choice, which covers themes of public interest. So given the obligations to broadcast this, this is a new thing we will be consulting the channels will come out with more detailed guidelines," the Secretary 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)
Sharm El-Sheikh [Egypt], November 9 (ANI): Commitments towards net-zero carbon emission cannot be a mere public relations exercise and if one wants to win the fight against climate change it is imperative to have zero tolerance for greenwashing, said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the ongoing COP27 summit.

"We must have zero tolerance for net-zero greenwashing," said the Secretary-General.

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He made the remarks at the launch of a put out by Net-Zero Expert Group.

Greenwashing is when a company misleads the public to believe it is doing more to protect the environment than it is actually doing.

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Calling the report a how-to guide to ensure credible, accountable net-zero pledges, he explained that it provides clarity in four key areas -- environmental integrity, credibility, accountability, and the role of governments.

"Solving the climate crisis requires strong political leadership. I urge all government leaders to provide non-state entities with a level playing field to transition to a just, net-zero future," a United Nations statement quoted the Secretary-General as saying.

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world has seen an increasing number of net-zero commitments and pledges from the private and financial sectors and local governments.

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC or COP 27 will be held at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from November 6 to 18 in an effort to build on previous successes and pave the way for effectively tackling global climate change.

This year's COp27 summit will be even more crucial in the backdrop of several extreme weather events -- typhoons in Bangladesh, unprecedented floods in Pakistan, dry rivers in China, and droughts in Africa, among many others. (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 9 (ANI/PRNewswire): HORIBA, Ltd, a 70-year multi-national organization, dealing in the markets of Automotive, Process and Environmental instruments, Medical Diagnostics, Semiconductors, and Scientific instruments, with its headquarters in Kyoto, Japan and 16 years of direct incorporation in India since 2006 organized 'HORIBA CONNECT' on 31st October 2022 at Hotel JW Marriott, Aerocity, New Delhi.

This networking soiree included a panel discussion on 'Bharat: 21st century, for a Smarter, Greener and a Healthier Tomorrow' by top industry leaders from diversified areas of - Academia, Semiconductors, Healthcare, Environment and Mobility. The colloquy shared their perspectives on the growth vision of the Indian economy in context to the upcoming megatrends of Materials & Semiconductors, Bio & Healthcare and Energy & Environment, which are also the key market-focused areas of The HORIBA Group.

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C V Raman, Chief Technical Officer Engineering, Maruti Suzuki, Prof. Siva Umapathy, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal and Professor, Instrumentation and Applied Physics Department and Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Satoshi Nakai, Managing Director, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Group, Dheeraj Jain, Founder and Managing Director, Redcliffe Labs, Mr. Sagar Sharma, Chief of Staff, India Semiconductor Mission and Co-founder of NGO - VigyaanShaala, Dr. RK Malhotra, President, Hydrogen Association of India and Adjunct Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Mr. Juichi Saito, Executive Vice Chairman and Group COO, HORIBA, Ltd., were the panelists of this visionary discussion.

Juichi Saito announced the opening of the upcoming Semiconductor manufacturing facility in early 2023 at the existing HORIBA India Technical Center, Chakan, Pune for the Mass flow controllers (MFCs). These made-in-India MFCs having their applications in the diamond industry, biopharma, solar batteries, fuel cell, etc shall be exported as well in the years to come.

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The topics pertinent to both India as well as global nations like - Green Hydrogen, Net-Zero, Banking Infrastructure and Investments, Roadmap for India becoming a semiconductor hub and Artificial Intelligence for the healthcare industry were among a few subject matters discussed.

Close to 100+ professionals from renowned organizations and industry sectors like Automotive OEMs and engineering industries, consulting companies, Japanese bankers, government research and development organizations and policy-making bodies attended this event.

HORIBA India, being a driving force for sustainable development and environmental conservation, has planted ~ 500 fruit-bearing trees (5 trees per guest) in the districts of Haryana with the support of an NGO. This serves the dual objective of supporting the farmers as well as protecting mother earth.

KAMPAI, a Japanese tradition of raising toast was celebrated with all the panelists and esteemed guests before the group enjoyed Indian classical dance and a blend of flute and table rendition.

HORIBA India, a subsidiary of The HORIBA Group, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan is a world leader in analytical testing and research equipment, operating across the globe since its inception in 1953.

Headquartered in New Delhi, HORIBA India started its direct operations in the country in 2006, and since then, has evolved to a company of 500+ employees with offices PAN India, factories in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, Pune, and Nagpur in Maharashtra.

HORIBA India business which is evolving in the markets of automotive, process and environmental instruments, medical diagnostics, semiconductors, and scientific instruments has served renowned companies like Dr Lal Path Labs, SRL Diagnostics, Metropolis, Pathkind, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra, Sterlite Technologies, JSW Steel and IITs across India to name a few, as our key patrons ensuring the best-in-class industry-standard products and high service quality.

The credit of HORIBA India's growth goes to its dynamic and engaged employees, who are inspired by HORIBA's culture of "JOY and FUN" to always outperform their duties.

HORIBA India is desirous of continuing social development by providing state-of-the-art technological products for scientific advancement; especially for protecting health, safety, and the environment with the HORIBA vision of 'Explore the Future'.

Website: www.horiba.com/ind

Media contact information: Suparna BhattacharyyaChief Financial Officer & Head-Shared Services, India & SAARCHORIBA India Private Limited, New Delhi E: suparna.bhattacharyya@horiba.com, T: 011 4669 5001

This story has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bonn [Germany], November 9 (ANI): Infectious agents are fought off by the innate immune system. Interferon, an alarm messenger, is essential in this. It can, however, result in autoimmune disorders if it is created in the absence of an infection. By examining the uncommon autoimmune condition Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome, researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Technical University (TU) Dresden have looked into an underlying mechanism and determined what motivates unregulated interferon production.

The study has now been published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM).

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If our innate immune system recognizes viral genetic information by means of sensors, the alarm messenger type I interferon is produced. It is a very strong activator of immune cells and therefore essential in the defense against many pathogens, not only viruses. However, if too much interferon is produced, or if it is produced for too long, the overactivated immune system attacks healthy cells - collateral damage to what is actually a good immune response. In addition, the viral genetic information for the sensors looks for the most part like our own DNA and RNA. In order to prevent such false recognition of our own genetic material, there are safety mechanisms in every cell. If these fail, interferon production occurs in the absence of viral infection leading to inflammation.

This sterile inflammation, driven by uncontrolled innate immune activation, has been identified as one factor driving diseases like collagenoses such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). "Diseases like lupus are difficult to study because many genes are involved. But the mechanism of interferon production as a result of the recognition of cell's own nucleic acids also occurs in rare monogenetic autoimmune diseases and in which it can be precisely assigned to a gene defect," said Prof. Dr. Rayk Behrendt, research group leader of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at UKB.

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Recognition of DNA and RNA in cells is coupled

The research team from the medical faculties of the University of Bonn and the Technical University of Dresden took advantage of this and took a closer look at Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome in a mouse model. This interferon-driven monogenetic autoimmune disease is triggered by inactivating mutations in genes that degrade cellular nucleic acids and thus prevent sensors of the innate immune system from being overactivated. One of these genes is called SAMHD1, and it regulates the replication and repair of DNA in the cell nucleus. Consequently, it was previously assumed that in affected individuals, DNA drives the disease. "However, we now showed that, contrary to previous expectations, recognition of cellular RNA is the driving force behind uncontrolled interferon production," said Prof. Behrendt. "In this regard, it looks as if mainly RNAs from viruses encoded in our genome play a role. These sequences make up about 40 percent of our genetic material."

Loss of DNA recognition suppresses the cellular immune system

But how did it come about that for a long time it was thought that DNA in SAMHD1-deficient cells activates the interferon system. It had been known for a long time that even healthy cells always produce a little interferon: so-called "tonic interferon signaling". This leads to the fact that many gene products that act antiviral are always present in low concentrations and allow cells to quickly switch on an immune response. This includes many nucleic acid sensors, such as those that recognize RNA in the cytoplasm.

The research team observed that tonic interferon is activated via the DNA sensor cGAS, which recognizes cellular DNA, the carrier of our genetic information in the cell nucleus. If this DNA sensor is switched off, the cells become blind not only to DNA, but also to cellular or viral RNA. This is because the lack of tonic interferon reduces the amount of RNA sensors, which are part of the antiviral immune system. "So if you inactivate the DNA sensor cGAS in SAMHD1-deficient cells, it looks like DNA causes the disease because the interferon is gone. In reality, the cell simply can't see the cell's own unnatural RNA anymore," says Tina Schumann, a post-doc at the Institute of Immunology at TU Dresden.

What are endogenous retroviruses doing in our cells?

Prof. Behrendt's motivation to better understand the causes of this type of sterile inflammatory disease is to create novel approaches for therapies. For example, a deficiency in SAMHD1 appears to be a driver of cancer cell formation, among other things. Therefore, the researcher from Bonn wants to clarify why the accumulation of RNA from endogenous retroviruses occurs in SAMHD1-deficient cells. In addition, he wants to clarify what activates cGAS in healthy cells and thus causes the basic alerting of the immune system, which is so vital for us. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Talala (Gujarat) [India], November 9 (ANI): Days before the Gujarat assembly elections, Congress MLA Bhagvanbhai D Barad on Wednesday tendered his resignation from all posts of the party.

Seeking acceptance of his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat, Barad said, "I, Bhagvanbhai Barad, MLA hereby give my resignation from 91 - Talala Constituency and from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress. Please accept it."

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Barad, later, tendered his resignation from all posts of INC to Nimaben Acharya, Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

In another major jolt to the party on Tuesday, veteran congress leader and 11 times MLA Mohan Singh Rathwa, who is a prominent tribal leader, along with his sons Rajubhai Rathwa, Ranjit Bhai Rathwa, and other party members joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Ahmedabad.

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Rathwa however claimed that the development works of the ruling party BJP, motivated him to take the step.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, in charge of the Indian Overseas Congress, Himanshu Vyas also joined the BJP hours after resigning from the Congress.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary, Vyas had sent his resignation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stating that he was resigning from the primary membership of Congress.

Notably, the Congress Party got a similar jolt in the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh as a total of 26 leaders of the Congress party quit and joined the ruling BJP on Monday when only four days were left to go for the election.

The leaders jumped the boat in the presence of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and BJP's Sudhan Singh, incharge of BJP state elections. BJP candidate from Shimla, Sanjay Sood was also present on the occasion.

On November 3, the election commission of India announced the dates for the Gujarat polls.

Polling in the state will take place on two dates in two phases on December 1 and December 5 respectively.

In the first phase, polling will be held for 89 seats while the second phase will see voting for 93 seats. The term of the 182-member state Assembly ends on February 18, 2023.

The state of Gujarat has seen a traditional face-off between the ruling BJP and its rival Congress party. However, in the upcoming elections a new entrant, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is being keenly watched in the poll fray. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chhattisgarh [India], November 9 (ANI): Chhattisgarh government has decided to convene a special session of the state Assembly next month to hold discussions on the situation that emerged after a recent High Court order that resulted in the reduction of scheduled tribes (ST) quota.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has sent a proposal to the Assembly speaker to convene a two-day special session in December on the issue of tribal reservation, he tweeted on Wednesday.

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In his tweet in Hindi, the Chhattisgarh CM stated "Special Assembly Session- Sent a proposal to Assembly speaker Dr. Charandass Mahant Jee for convening a special session of Assembly on the issue of tribal reservation. The request has been made to convene the special session of the Assembly on December one and two."

The Chhattisgarh government's decision to convene the special session is significant as resentment was brewing among tribal communities over the reservation issue.

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Discussions are likely to be held during the special session on the situation that has emerged after the HC decision in September that resulted in the reduction of scheduled tribes (ST) quota from 32 percent to 20 percent in jobs and admissions to educational institutions of the State.

Earlier talking to reporters after inaugurating the three-day Chhattisgarh Tribal Festival on October 21, Baghel had made it clear that his government would soon move the Supreme Court to increase reservation for tribals in the state according to their population.

When Chhattisgarh was part of Madhya Pradesh, there were 20 per cent STs and 16 per cent SCs in the state. After the creation of Chhattisgarh, there were 32 per cent STs and 13 per cent SCs in the state, the chief minister had said.

In 2005, the Centre gave its nod to granting reservation in Chhattisgarh according to population but this was stalled by the previous state government from 2005 to 2011, he alleged.

In 2011-12, when tribals agitated, the state government gave 32 per cent reservation to them, 12 per cent to SCs and 14 per cent to OBCs, leading to a total of 58 per cent reservation, holding that any quota above 50 per cent is unconstitutional, he had said.

Later, two committees had been set up but they never presented their reports before the court and this led to the high court annulling the decision on reservation, Baghel said.

The CM also said the state government had also set up a commission in this regard and it would submit its report in November.

Senior tribal leader and excise minister Kawasi Lakhma had reiterated last month the Congress position that the setback in the High Court was caused as the previous BJP government did not present the facts properly to defend its decision to enhance the reservation to 58 per cent. (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 9 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday accused Delhi minister Satyendar Jain, arrested in a money laundering case, of getting special treatment inside the Tihar Jail.

The ED made the submission before Special Judge Vikas Dhull while concluding its arguments opposing Jain's plea alleging that the money laundering case against him was clearly made out.

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"Unknown persons were giving massages and foot massages to Jain, even beyond curfew hours. He was given special food," said Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, appearing for the ED.

The ASG shared certain CCTV images with the court and alleged that most of the time Jain was either in hospital or in the jail enjoying facilities.

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"Dekhiye chair pe massage chal rha hai, papers diye jaa rahe hain (See he's getting massage sitting on a chair, newspaper is being given to him), he told the court.

The ED further said it has evidence revealing that Jain was always in control of the accused company.

"Money was routed and dummy persons were made the directors, who were not even aware about the company affairs. Jain was the beneficial owner, the ASG said, adding that Jain did not cooperate during the investigation and misled the agency by giving false evidences and recording wrong statement.

The counsel for Jain told the court that he will start argument in the response to the ED's submission on the next date, after which the judge posted the matter for Thursday.

Jain, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for corruption charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is currently in judicial custody.

The ED had arrested Jain and others in the money laundering case based on a CBI FIR lodged against the AAP leader in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act, under which he was accused of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him.

The court had earlier allowed the application moved by the ED seeking permission to question Jain in the excise policy case, following which the agency quizzed him on September 16 inside the jail.

Recently the court also took cognisance of the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed by the ED against Jain, his wife and eight others including four firms in connection with the money laundering case.

(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 8 (ANI): Prime Minister remarked that India will preside over the G-20 Summit from December 1 at the G-20 Presidency via video conferencing today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it is a historic opportunity for the country. G-20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation representing around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the worldwide trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

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Calling this a momentous occasion, the Prime Minister said, "Presidency of G-20 during the year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is a matter of pride for every Indian. The Prime Minister expressed happiness over the growing interest and activities about the G-20 and related events."

Highlighting the contributions of the citizens in the launch of the G-20 logo, the Prime Minister said that the government received thousands of creative ideas for the logo.

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The Prime Minister thanked everyone for their support and said that these suggestions are becoming the face of the global event.

Remarking that the G-20 logo is not just any logo, the Prime Minister said that it is a message, a feeling that runs in India's veins. "It is a resolve that has been omnipresent in our thoughts through 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'. The thought of universal brotherhood is being reflected via the G-20 logo," he said.

The lotus in the logo symbolises India's ancient heritage, faith and thought. The Philosophy of Adwait, the Prime Minister said, "emphasises the oneness of all creatures and this philosophy will be a medium of resolution of today's conflicts. This logo and theme represent many key messages from India."

"Message of Buddha for freedom from war, Mahatma Gandhi's solutions in the face of violence, through G-20, India is giving them a new height", he said.

The Prime Minister remarked that India's G-20 presidency is coming at a time of crisis and chaos.

He underlined that the world is dealing with the after-effects of a disruptive once-in-a-century global pandemic, conflicts and lots of economic uncertainty. "The lotus in the logo of G-20 is a symbol of hope in such tough times," he said.

The Prime Minister remarked that even if the world is in a deep crisis, we can still progress to make it a better place.

Throwing light on the culture of India, the Prime Minister mentioned that both the Goddesses of knowledge and prosperity are seated on a lotus.

The Prime Minister pointed out the earth that is placed on a lotus in the logo of G-20 and said that shared knowledge helps us in overcoming difficult circumstances while shared prosperity enables us to reach the last mile.

He further explained the significance of the seven petals of the lotus which represent the seven continents and seven universal musical notes. "When the seven musical notes come together, they create perfect harmony," he said.

Modi said that the G-20 aims to bring the world together in harmony while respecting diversity.

The Prime Minister said that this summit is not merely a diplomatic meeting. India takes it as a new responsibility and as the world's trust in it.

"Today, there is an unprecedented curiosity in the world to know and understand India. Today India is being studied in a new light. Our current successes are being assessed and unprecedented hopes are being expressed about our future", he continued, "In such an atmosphere it is the responsibility of the citizens to go beyond these expectations and acquaint the world with India's capabilities, philosophy, social and intellectual strength." "We have to unite everyone and energise them for their responsibility towards the world", he added.

PM Modi said there is a journey of thousands of years for India to reach this stage today.

"We have seen highs of prosperity and also the darkest phase in global history. India has reached here along with the history of many invaders and their tyranny. Those experiences are the biggest strength in India's development journey today. After independence we started a big journey starting from zero, aiming for the top. This includes the efforts of all the governments in the last 75 years. All the governments and citizens together in their own way tried to take India forward. We have to move forward with this spirit today with a new energy taking the whole world along", he said.

The Prime Minister underlined a key lesson of India's culture. "When we strive for our progress, we also envision global progress", he said.

He also dwelled on the democratic heritage of Indian civilization. He pointed out "India is such a rich and living democracy of the world. We have the values and a proud tradition in the form of the mother of democracy. India has as much uniqueness as it has diversity.

"Democracy, diversity, indigenous approach, inclusive thinking, local lifestyle and global thoughts, today the world is seeing solutions to all its challenges in these ideas", he said.

Apart from Democracy, the Prime Minister also put forward India's efforts in the field of sustainable development. "We have to make sustainable development a part of individual LiFE rather than just a system of governments. The environment is a global cause for us as well as personal responsibility", the Prime Minister emphasised.

He also highlighted the contribution of Ayurveda and noted global enthusiasm for Yoga and coarse grains.

The Prime Minister said that many of India's achievements can be used by other countries of the world. The use of digital technology in development, inclusion, removal of corruption, improving ease of doing business and ease of living, can be templates for many countries.

The Prime Minister also highlighted India's women empowerment and women-led development and financial inclusion through the Jan Dhan Account which will reach the world through the opportunity of the G-20 presidency.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the world is looking with hope towards collective leadership whether it is G7, G77 or UNGA. In such a situation India's presidency of G20 assumes a new significance.

He elaborated that India maintains close relations with developed countries on the one hand, and at the same time understands and expresses the views of developing countries very well.

"It is on this basis that we will build the blueprint of our G-20 Presidency together with all the friends of the 'Global South' who have been India's co-travellers on the path of development for decades" he added.

The Prime Minister highlighted India's endeavour that there should be no first world or the third world in the world, but only one world.

Furthering India's vision and the common objective of bringing the whole world together for a better future, the Prime Minister gave examples of One Sun, One World, One Grid which has been India's clarion call for a revolution in the world of renewable energy, and the global health campaign of One Earth, One Health.

He further added that the G-20 mantra is - One Earth, One Family, One Future. "It is these thoughts and values of India that pave the way for the welfare of the world", he continued, "I am sure, this event will not only be a memorable one for India, but the future will also assess it as a momentous occasion in the history of the world."

Pointing out that G-20 is not solely an event of the central government, the Prime Minister requested the state governments as well as all the political parties to actively take part in this endeavour.

He said that the event is organised by Indians and the G-20 is a great opportunity for us to showcase a glimpse of our tradition of 'Guest is God.

He informed me that the events related to G-20 will not be limited to Delhi or a few places but programmes will be held in every corner of the country.

"Each of our states has its own characteristics, heritage, culture, beauty, aura and hospitality", Modi remarked.

The Prime Minister gave examples of the hospitality of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and remarked that it is this hospitality and diversity that amazes the world.

The Prime Minister informed that he will be heading to Indonesia next week for the formal announcement of India's G-20 Presidency and urged all the states and state governments of India, to further their roles in this regard as much as possible.

"All the citizens and intellectuals of the country should also come forward to be a part of this event," he added.

He also urged one and all to send their suggestions and express their views on the newly launched G-20 website about how India can maximise its role in the welfare of the world.

"It will give new heights to the success of an event like G-20," he concluded, "I am sure, this event will not only be a memorable one for India, but the future will also assess it as a momentous occasion in the history of the world." (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 9 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the municipal elections scheduled for December 4.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said the State Election Commission (SEC) has already issued a notification and it will remain unchanged.

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"The Election Commission's notification is there. We cannot touch it now," the bench said.

The SEC announced the election schedule on November 4, according to which polling for 250 municipal wards will take place on December 4 and the results will be announced on December 7.

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On Wednesday, three petitions challenging the delimitation of wards and their reservation were listed before the high court.

The bench issued notices on the petitions and asked the Centre, the Delhi government and the SEC to respond to them, while listing the pleas for further hearing on December 15.

During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners urged the court to stay the elections till the pleas were heard.

However, the bench turned down the request, saying, "Once elections are notified, we can't stay it."

The three petitions filed by National Youth Party, a man named Sanjay Gupta and residents welfare association (RWA) of B Block Hari Nagar sought quashing of the October 17 notification issued by the Centre.

One of the petitioners Gupta said he intended to contest in the polls but has allegedly been shut out because the wards from where he wanted to contest have been allotted to either scheduled caste or scheduled tribe women.

He claimed that the SEC has reserved the municipal wards for scheduled caste population in an arbitrary manner and that the reservation order suffers from legal infirmities and has defeated the purpose of inserting Article 243T in the Constitution.

According to Article 243T, the seats reserved for the scheduled caste population may be allotted by the rotation to different constituencies or wards in a municipality.

"Whereas the respondent no. 1 (SEC) has reserved the same municipal wards in 2017 and 2022 as the basis of selection of reserved wards (that is the Census of 2011) and the formula for reservation of wards (that is highest SC population in descending order) is same. It is quite obvious that once we used the same base and same formula then the outcome/ result will remain same," it said, adding that the authorities have arbitrarily, irrationally, unintelligibly and without application of mind repeated the formula for reservation of wards for SC population.

The RWA, in its plea, raised the issue of exclusion of some houses from Hari Nagar ward and their inclusion in another ward and claimed that it was illogical, unreasonable and unwarranted.

Earlier, a petition by a Congress leader challenging the delimitation of wards came up before the court which had issued notice on it and said it will also be heard on December 15.

The petition by Anil Kumar, president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, sought directions for fresh delimitation of wards while claiming that the formula adopted by the authorities for the exercise was "wholly arbitrary, irrational, unintelligible, confusing and suffered from various legal infirmities".

(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 9 (PTI) India's report outlining its steps towards the promotion and protection of human rights will be taken up for review as part of a mechanism under which UN member states review the human rights performance of fellow states, on Thursday in Geneva, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

The 41st Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group is being held from November 7-18, 2022 at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, the MEA said in a statement.

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During this session, India's National Report for the 4th UPR Cycle will be reviewed on November 10, it said.

Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, is leading the Indian delegation that comprises Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Indra Mani Pandey, Permanent Representative of India, K M Nataraj, Additional Solicitor General of India and senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Ministry of Rural Development, and the NITI Aayog, and the Vice Chancellor of the National Law University, Delhi.

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India plays an active role in global promotion and protection of human rights. the MEA said.

"Our strong commitment for the welfare of the entire humanity, inspired by our civilisational ethos of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' or 'the world is one family', provides a foundation on which our constitutional and legal framework for human rights has been built," the statement said.

India has been engaged constructively with the members of the UNHRC and other fellow UN member states to promote and protect human rights globally, the MEA said.

"We have laid emphasis on dialogue, engagement and cooperation among various stakeholders. We have underlined the primacy of states in fulfilling their human rights obligations," it said.

"We have endeavoured to build consensus in the council on various issues on its agenda and we have participated in deliberations in the council in a constructive manner," it pointed out.

The MEA said the UPR is an important mechanism that India fully supports, and noted that it is a unique peer review process of Human Rights Council under which UN member states review the human rights performance of fellow states.

It has emerged as one of the successful human rights mechanisms, due to its universal character, constructive and consultative approach, and the importance it places on dialogue and cooperation amongst member states, the MEA said.

The UPR mechanism also reinforces the centrality of states in assuming and fulfilling their human rights obligations, it said.

India has actively participated in the review of other states and in turn welcomes the 131 member states who have registered to engage in the peer review, the MEA said.

States under review have to take position on all UPR recommendations received, by either supporting or noting them, it said.

Our UPR outcome report will be adopted at the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council in March 2023, the statement said.

The National Report of India, submitted on August 5, 2022, outlines the country's steps towards the promotion and protection of human rights, including the implementation of recommendations accepted by it in India's 3rd UPR cycle in 2017.

India's report was prepared in collaboration with the National Law University, Delhi, after a series of consultations with diverse stakeholders, drawing representatives from the judiciary, national human rights institution, academia, civil society organisations, and the general public.

India has been engaged constructively with the members of the UNHRC and other fellow UN member states to promote and protect human rights globally.

"We have laid emphasis on dialogue, engagement and cooperation among various stakeholders. We have underlined the primacy of states in fulfilling their human rights obligations," the MEA said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ahmedabad, Nov 9 (PTI) Congress MLA from Jhalod in Gujarat's Dahod district Bhavesh Katara resigned as a legislator on Wednesday night.

He is the third Congress MLA to resign in the last two days, after Mohansinh Rathwa and Bhagwan Barad.

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Katara went to the residence of assembly Speaker Nimaben Acharya and submitted his resignation to her, an official statement said.

His resignation comes at a time when the BJP is finalising candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections. Katara is likely to join the BJP on Thursday.

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Earlier, Rathwa and Barad also joined the saffron party after resigning from the Congress party and as MLAs.

Gujarat elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5, and counting of votes will be held 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 9 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal will hold a meeting with party leaders on Wednesday to chalk out a plan for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls, sources said.

On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the Aam Aadmi's Party's Delhi convener Gopal Rai had held a meeting to discuss a blueprint for the party's decentralised strategy in the run up to the December 4 polls.

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The AAP has been targeting the BJP over "mismanagement" of garbage, and during the MCD poll campaign here on Tuesday, it directed its MLAs to create awareness among the people during the public outreach programme.

To take on the BJP, the Kejriwal-led party launched a campaign titled "Kude Par Jansamvad" on Tuesday. By November 20, a public dialogue will be held at each of Delhi's 13,682 booths, it said.

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The 250-ward MCD goes to polls on December 4 and the counting of votes will take place on December 7.

The BJP has been in power in the MCD -- trifurcated in 2012 into north, south and east corporations and then unified this year -- for three straight terms.

The high-stake civic polls are largely being seen as a three-way contest between the BJP, the AAP and the Congress.

(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 9 (PTI) Protest is a "tool in the hands of the civil society" just as "strike is a weapon in the hands of the workmen", the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.

The top court made the remarks while hearing an appeal filed by Ravi Namboothiri, who had challenged the Kerala High Court's judgment that upheld a trial court verdict setting aside his election as councillor in the Gram Panchayat in November 2015.

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His election to the post was cancelled on the ground that he suppressed in his nomination form his involvement in a criminal case and that he had committed a corrupt practice.

A bench of justices S Abdul Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian said the Kerala Police Act was the successor legislation of certain police enactments of the colonial era which aimed at scuttling the democratic aspirations of the indigenous population.

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"Just as strike is a weapon in the hands of the workmen and lockout is a weapon in the hands of the employer under labour welfare legislations, protest is a tool in the hands of the civil society and police action is a tool in the hands of the Establishment. All State enactments such as Kerala Police Act, Madras Police Act etc, are aimed at better regulation of the police force and they do not create substantive offences," it said.

"This is why these Acts themselves empower the police to issue necessary directions for the maintenance of law and order and the violation of any of those directions is made a punishable offence under these Acts," the bench said.

On September 20, 2006, Namboothiri and others formed an unlawful assembly and committed criminal trespass into the office compound of the Annamanada Gram Panchayat and put up a temporary shed for conducting a 'dharna', according to a police complaint.

The appellant was convicted for offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Kerala Police Act.

Later, a sessions court set aside his conviction under sections of the IPC. However, it upheld his conviction under the Kerala Police Act and directed him to pay a fine of Rs 200.

The Supreme Court said while offences under the IPC or under special enactments such as the Prevention of Corruption Act and Arms Act are substantive offences, the commission of which may make a person a criminal, an offence under certain enactments such as Kerala Police Act are not substantive offences.

"Once the object behind the provisions of the Kerala Police Act are understood, it would be clear that neither Section 52(1A) read with Rule 6 and Form 2A nor Section 102(1)(CA) of the Act nor the decisions in the Association for Democratic Reforms, the People's Union for Civil Liberties... can be stretched to such an extent that the failure of the appellant to disclose his conviction for an offence under the Kerala Police Act for holding a dharna in front of the Panchayat office is taken as a ground for declaring an election void," it said.

The Kerala Police Act is "actually the successor legislation of certain police enactments of the colonial era, whose object was to scuttle the democratic aspirations of the indigenous population", the apex court said.

This aspect should be kept in mind before applying "blindfold, the principle 'what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander", it said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 9 (PTI) A three-day international meet on 'Right to Drug-Free Childhood' organised by an NGO raising awareness on substance abuse in partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD), will commence here on November 16.

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Top international experts on the subject will share their insights at the conclave hosted by NGO Fourth Wave Foundation to work out a concrete action plan to root out the menace of substance abuse to create a safe world for children.

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'Children Matter: Right to a Drug-Free Childhood' is the theme of the meet which will take forward the NGO's ongoing 'Project VENDA' to build a substance abuse-free world.

"It is significant to note that this international forum is happening at a time when the country is grappling with a steady spike in drug abuse among children. The conclave brings together top experts from across the world and representatives of global institutions and civil society organisations to shed light on the causes that lead to substance abuse among children and work out policies and protocols that could be adopted by governments," C C Joseph, Director, Fourth Wave Foundation, told a press conference here on Wednesday.

Kerala is one of the states in India that is waging a relentless battle against drug abuse with the government taking the awareness drive down to the grassroots, he said.

Swarup B R, Advisory Board Member, Fourth Wave Foundation; and Rohit Chelat, Catalyst, Fourth Wave Foundation, were also present.

The plenary sessions of the forum will have speakers like Amy Ronshausen, International President, WFAD, USA; civil society members, policymakers, national and state commissions on child rights, government representatives, prevention-treatment-recovery professionals and youth leaders from across the globe.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Joint Secretary Radhika Chakravarthy, and founder and former CEO of Infosys S D Shibulal, who is also founder of Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiative-India, will address the inaugural session of the meet.

The deliberations will focus on the increased relevance of primary prevention in national drug policies to protect children and incorporating recommendations mooted during a special session of the UN General Assembly.

More than 300 participants from around 60 countries will attend the event, the first such event being organised in the country on this topic.

The sessions at the forum will discuss topics related to educating and empowering youth to advocate for their rights, rehabilitation and social cohesion of children, the role of family and school in working with children, and Project VENDA.

The members of the forum will work towards facilitating practical and regional solutions to protect the rights of children to a drug-free childhood.

As per the World Drug Report, there will be an 11 per cent increase in substance abuse by 2030. The surge will mostly appear in lower-income nations, estimated to encompass 40 per cent of the total increase.

Though Article 33 of the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC) calls for appropriate measures to protect children from the use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, it lacks proper implementation, popularity and understanding among the common mass.

In an increasingly challenging global environment, today's children are exposed to severe threats to their rights, a statement said quoting the report.

The studies show children aged between 11-14 are vulnerable to exposure to substance abuse. In India, 253 million children in the age group of 10-19 years are found to be vulnerable to substance use.

According to latest reports, in the last five years, there has been an alarming rise of 125 per cent in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance cases in Kerala.

Opioid users also increased from two million to 22 million. Heroin has now replaced natural opioids as the most commonly abused variety. Also, there is rampant use of synthetic drugs and cocaine.

World Drug Report 2020 shows that the global trend of substance use among youth is along the same lines as India. According to the report, there are 192 million cannabis users, 27 million amphetamine and prescription stimulant users, 58 million opioid users, 21 million ecstasy users and 19 million cocaine users globally, it added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 9 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh BJP will hold a core committee meet on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming by-elections in Manipuri, Khatauli and Rampur.

BJP core committee meeting will be held at Chief Minister's official residence, 5 Kalidas Marg, this evening. The meeting will be held in the evening after CM Yogi Adityanath returns from Mathura tour.

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The meeting will be attended by State President Bhupendra Chaudhary, Organization General Secretary Dharampal Singh and both the Deputy Chief Ministers.

There will be a discussion about the names of the candidates of Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, Khatauli and Rampur assembly seat.

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The leaders will discuss over Aparna Yadav's name from Mainpuri seat. However, no one's name is final yet.

BJP state president while talking to ANI told said, "By-elections are to be held in Uttar Pradesh in one Lok Sabha seat Mainpuri and two assembly seats Rampur and Khatauli, Bharatiya Janata Party will enter the election fray with its full preparation. By distributing the work to our workers, we will take that government report card to the public and surely the by-elections of the BJP in both the Vidhan Sabha and Mainpuri Lok Sabha elections will be cent per cent lotus."

The state president said that in the last Assembly polls BJP won about 18000 votes from the Khatauli seat.

"Khatauli has been our strong seat, we won by about 18000 votes in the last assembly. There we have completed preparations which the government has worked. We have done our work to fulfil the promises of the resolution letter. The whole activism is in the midst of the public. As far as the question of the opposition, the public will answer the opposition again in the election," he added.

The polling for the by-polls will take place on December 5 and the votes will be counted on December 8, coinciding with the result dates of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.

The Khatauli seat fell vacant on Monday when BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini was disqualified after his recent conviction in a case related to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

Uttar Pradesh's Rampur from where Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan was disqualified after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case last month.

Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat which fell vacant following the death of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. (ANI)

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New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) Dhanlaxmi Bank on Wednesday reported a multi-fold rise in net profit at Rs 15.89 crore for September quarter 2022-23 on lower provisions for bad loans.

The bank had clocked a net profit of Rs 3.66 crore in the year-ago period. In the previous June quarter, the bank incurred a net loss of Rs 26.43 crore.

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Total income increased to Rs 285.26 crore in September quarter from Rs 266.79 crore earlier, Dhanlaxmi Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Interest income rose to Rs 262.50 crore from Rs 229.01 crore. Operating profit was up 35 per cent at Rs 35.35 crore.

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Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank were 6.04 per cent of gross advances at the end of September 2022 as against 8.67 per cent by the year-ago period.

Net NPAs or bad loans were trimmed to 2.32 per cent from 4.92 per cent.

Thus, provisions for bad loans and contingencies fell to Rs 19.46 crore for the quarter, as against Rs 22.60 crore set aside for the year-ago period.

Dhanlaxmi Bank said it has recovered Rs 3.32 crore from one account during this financial year after fraud classification.

In a separate filing, the bank said its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for November 12, 2022, is being cancelled.

Requisitionists holding more than 10 per cent of equity shares of the bank have agreed to withdraw the special notice dated September 26, 2022, it added.

Bank's NRI businessman shareholder B Ravindran Pillai along with other members through a requisition had called for an EGM to suspend capital and revenue expenditure related powers of the MD & CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank.

In the requisition dated September 26, 2022, the shareholders led by Pillai said in the EGM in June, they had expressed serious concern over the poor performance of the bank and heavy expenditure.

They said the MD had assured them that immediate steps would be taken to rectify the anomalies. However, in spite of the verbal assurance of the MD, it was alarming to note that the bank registered heavy loss in Q1FY23.

"The MD continues with his luxury of incurring expenditure like engaging high-cost advocates for avoidable litigations thrust upon the bank, claiming huge incentives for himself recruiting new personnel, opening of new branches etc without objective analysis of the workload of the executives," they said in the requisition.

Presently, Shivan J K is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Thrissur-based private sector lender.

In September 2020, RBI had appointed its General Manager D K Kashyap on the board of the bank for two years.

The bank was put under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) Framework by the RBI in November 2015 due to deteriorating financial health and it came out of these restrictions only in 2019.

Bank unions AIBOC and AIBEA had flagged concerns over few developments at Dhanlaxmi Bank and sought immediate corrective measures by the RBI.

Besides, the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) had urged the RBI governor to intervene into the affairs of Dhanlaxmi Bank which it alleged is headed in the wrong direction.

Dhanlaxmi Bank stock settled at Rs 15.22 on BSE, down 0.46 per cent from the previous close.

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Prayagraj, Nov 9 (PTI) A statue of B R Ambedkar was damaged by unidentified persons at a village in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj district, police said on Wednesday.

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The statue was found vandalised in the morning by the residents of a village under Karchana tehsil, Circle Officer Ajit Chauhan said.

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Efforts are on to identify those who damaged the statue, according to the officer.

There was no immediate adverse impact in the village over the incident and the locals are getting another statue installed in its place, Chauhan said.

Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation chairperson Lalji Prasad Nirmal described the incident as "unfortunate".

"The chief minister has already directed the administration to take stern action against those involved in such incidents," said Nirmal, who was in the district. PTI RAJ SAB HMB

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Colombo, Nov 9 (PTI) The Indian envoy in Sri Lanka on Wednesday termed the strategic Colombo Port's Western Container Terminal a symbol of closer economic cooperation between India and Sri Lanka and how they can work together for mutual benefit, as the construction work commenced at the project.

India's Adani Group in September last year sealed a deal with the state-owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) to develop and run the strategic terminal.

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The construction work at the project commenced here on Wednesday with the participation of Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports Nimal Siripala de Silva and the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Gopal Baglay.

The USD 788 million investment by Adani Group would mean that they would hold a 51 per cent stake in it, with Sri Lanka's Port Authority and the local corporate giant John Keells Holdings jointly holding 49 per cent.

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Baglay described the terminal as a symbol of closer economic cooperation between the two countries and how they can work together for mutual benefit.

De Silva said Sri Lanka has always welcomed Indian investments.

"India was the only country which came to our assistance in this current economic crisis by extending us 4 billion dollar support," de Silva said, referring to the unprecedented financial turmoil faced by the island nation this year.

The 65-hectare terminal will have an 800-meter-long jetty and will be constructed in two phases. The terminal is to be completed by 2026.

The Adani group was eyeing to develop the eastern container terminal of the port with agreements being entered in 2019.

However, the Sri Lanka government in 2020 reneged on the agreement under pressure from the government's own political party trade unions.

The trade unions wanted the Eastern terminal developed under the Port Authority. The Adani group was instead offered the Western container terminal development.

(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 9 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar landed in Delhi on Wednesday after his two-day visit to Russia, where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and held talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

Earlier on Tuesday, Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov held talks in Moscow covering a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests.

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Addressing a press briefing alongside the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Jaishnkar said he exchanged views on international issues with the Russian side, in which the Ukraine conflict was the dominant feature.

Laying out India's position on the Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar said, "As Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to Russian President Putin: this is not an era of war. The global economy is simply too interdependent for significant conflict anywhere not to have major consequences elsewhere."

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With Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Jaishankar explored cooperation in trade, investments, energy, fertilisers, pharma, agriculture and shipping.

Jaishankar noted that his objective in coming to Moscow is to sit down with the Russian leadership to assess how India-Russia ties are doing.

"My objective in coming here today is to sit down with Russian foreign minister Lavrov and Deputy PM Manturov to assess how we are doing. There are challenges, that we need to address and prospects that we are exploring," he said.

Jaishankar reached Russia on Monday in continuation of the regular high-level dialogue between the two sides.

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict earlier this year, India's bilateral ties with Russia have come under the scanner of the West for a surge in oil imports from sanctions-hit Moscow. The war in Ukraine which has continued for more than eight months has had a significant impact on global food security and has led to a sudden increase in crude prices.

Notably, India has not condemned Russia since the start of the conflict and has maintained its independent position. On several UN forums, New Delhi has consistently called for a cessation of violence and advocated peace and diplomacy. (ANI)

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Brasilia [Brazil], November 8 (ANI): Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan on Tuesday underlined the importance of diplomatic relations with Brazil, saying unprecedented economic transformation taking place in India opens up immense opportunities for bilateral cooperation for other countries.

"Today, our Strategic Partnership has deepened and substantive progress has been made in priority areas of Bio-energy, Oil and Natural Gas, Animal Husbandry, Healthcare, Defence, Space and Cyber Security. There has also been a rapid growth in bilateral trade and investment, with over 63 per cent increase in trade last year, making India the 5th largest trading partner of Brazil," MoS Muraleedharan said.

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"The unprecedented economic transformation taking place in India opens up immense opportunities for bilateral cooperation and I am confident that our countries will soon reach the bilateral trade target of USD 15 billion," he added.

Muraleedharan is on an official visit to Brazil. This is his first-ever visit to Brazil and part of the high level exchanges between India and Brazil. During his visit, MoS attended the Solemn Session on 75 years of India's Independence in the Brazilian Parliament (Congresso Nacional).

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During his speech, Muraleedharan said it gives him immense pleasure to take part in this Solemn Session on India's 75 years of Independence in one of the most respected democratic institutions of the world!

"It is a great honour for the 1.3 billion people of India and I carry with me to this House, their greetings and warm wishes of friendship. It is also a great privilege for me, to address this august gathering of leaders of the vibrant democracy of Brazil," he said.

"It is also a happy coincidence that Brazil is celebrating 200 years of Independence. On behalf of the Government and the people of India, I extend my best wishes to the people's representatives gathered here and to the people of Brazil on this momentous milestone in your history," he added.

MoS Muraleedharan said the India-Brazil 'Strategic Partnership' forged in 2006 continues to provide a solid framework to deepen our multifaceted ties and the creation of plurilateral forums such as IBSA, the G4 and BRICS have given a new meaning and brought greater dynamism to our relationship.

He also noted the increase in the number of Indian companies investing in Brazil and this year alone over USD 3 billion have been invested by Indian companies in Brazil. This marked surge in investment flows will only complement our already growing trade ties.

"India has made rapid advances in the field of renewable energy and is moving quickly towards a green future. As we strive to make India the world's green hydrogen hub, we look forward to collaboration with Brazil in our endeavour," the minister added. (ANI)

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Islamabad, Nov 9 (PTI) In a significant move, Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dhar on Wednesday announced that the country would move towards an 'interest-free' banking system under the Islamic law by 2027.

The announcement came with Finance Minister Dhar conveying the government's intention of withdrawing its appeals against the Federal Shariat Court's April decision of eliminating interest from the country in five years, the Dawn newspaper reported.

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According to the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), the prevailing interest-based banking system in Pakistan was against the Sharia law as interest was absolute in all its forms according to the injunctions of Islam.

"With the permission of the prime minister and consultation with the State Bank of Pakistan governor, I'm announcing on behalf of the federal government that the SBP and National Bank of Pakistan will withdraw their appeals from the Supreme Court and our government will fully try to as quickly as possible implement an Islamic system in Pakistan," Dar was quoted as saying in a news conference by the report.

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He acknowledged that there will be challenges in implementing the FSC's verdict and that the entire banking system and its practices could not be immediately shifted to a new system but nonetheless, the government had decided to withdraw the appeals in the next few days and pivot Pakistan to an interest-free direction within the stipulated time by the FSC, the report said.

The top Islamic court's decision came after the matter was pending for 20 years.

"We are of the view that a five years period is reasonably enough time for the implementation of our decision completely i.e. convert the economy of Pakistan into, an equitable, asset-based, risk-sharing, and interest-fee economy, read the 298-page judgment passed in April by the FSC.

"Therefore, we would specify the 31st day of December 2027 on which the decision shall take effect by way of the complete elimination of Riba (interest) from Pakistan, it said in its long-awaited verdict.

In June, the State Bank of Pakistan - the country's apex bank - filed a petition against the FSC's decision with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law, and the Banking Council chairman among others, stating that the FSC did not heed the orders of the Supreme Court remand order, the report said.

It requested that the appeal against the decision of the Federal Shariat Court be allowed, and the extent of the points raised in the decision be amended.

According to the Dawn newspaper, the first petition for the abolition of the interest-based banking system in the country was filed in the FSC on June 30, 1990. A three-member bench delivered its judgment and sought its implementation by April 30, 1992.

The then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government challenged the decision in the apex court.

On December 23, 1999, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the FSC and again directed authorities to ensure its implementation by June 30, 2000.

Subsequently, a review appeal was filed in 2002 with the top court, and on June 24, 2002, the decision of the Federal Shariat Court was suspended and the case was referred back to the FSC for interpretation of interest.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], November 9 (ANI): After concluding his trip to Egypt for the COP27 climate conference, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is headed to London to meet PML-N supremo, and elder brother Nawaz Sharif.

This visit to London is the third such trip since he became Prime Minister in April. The Dawn newspaper reported that this visit comes two weeks before the end of Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa's tenure on November 29.

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Citing earlier reports, the Pakistan daily said that Shehbaz would consult Nawaz on the appointment of the Pakistan army chief.

Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced Shehbaz Sharif's visit but did not divulge information about the London trip.

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"After attending the COP 27 conference, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for London on a private flight," Marriyum tweeted on Wednesday evening.

The political slugfest which started with Imran Khan's ouster from power in April by a vote of no confidence has in successive months worsened now after the assassination bid this month.

Aside from the call for early elections, another bone of contention between the coalition government and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is said to be the appointment of the new Army chief.

"Whether anyone agrees or not, the current political standoff is all about the appointment of the next Army Chief. It started when PTI chairman Imran Khan was still in office," senior Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir wrote in a piece for The Friday Times.

"The PTI chairman had granted a three-year extension in term to Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, but once he developed differences with him over the transfer of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director-General, he decided to dismiss him early and appoint a loyalist for the job," he added.

Of the ten army chiefs Pakistan has had since 1972, half of them were appointed by the former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, according to Dawn.

He was repeatedly criticised for appointing officers he saw as an 'apna banda' (his man). However, none of the appointments worked in his favour. (ANI)

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Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt), Nov 9 (AP) Pakistan's foreign minister repeated calls for compensation for the unprecedented destruction caused to the country by this summer's flooding, saying debt relief could be a mechanism for doing so.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari told The Associated Press on Wednesday at the UN climate summit in Egypt that the world is unequipped to deal with weather-related disasters of this scale and urged countries to find ways to address the issue.

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There's no pot of gold sitting anywhere or no financial international mechanism really available to deal with the tragedy of this scale, he said.

His comment comes as Pakistan races against time to arrange tents, food and other supplies for the flood victims ahead of winter just weeks away. Climate-induced flooding killed 1,739 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused around $40 billion in damages, according to the World Bank.

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Many months on from the initial flooding and rainfall, there are still many areas that are underwater," said Bhutto-Zardari, adding that the World Health Organization warned that the country faces a health crisis because of waterborne diseases.

He added that instead of charity or reparations to pay for climate damage, nations should consider "out-of-the-box solutions that we could propose that can be a win-win for developing countries and developing countries.

One of these is for debts owed by developing countries to rich countries to be written off, allowing nations to spend that money on clean energy and adapting to worsening weather caused by climate change.

Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4% of the world's historic emissions that are blamed for climate change. The U.S. is responsible for 21.5%, China for 16.5% and the European Union for 15%.

Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan will hold an international donor conference early next year to seek financial assistance to start the much-needed rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the flood-hit areas, where thousands of people still live in tents and makeshift homes.

Bhutto-Zardari's comments come more than a month after the United Nations issued a revised appeal, seeking five times' more international aid for Pakistan amid a surge in deaths from waterborne and other diseases. The U.N. in October raised its request to $816 million from $160 million, saying recent assessments pointed to the urgent need for long-term help lasting into next year.

Doctors in Pakistan's worst-hit southern Sindh province and southern Baluchistan are still trying to contain the outbreak of waterborne diseases, which have caused nearly 400 deaths in flood-affected areas since July. According to the World Health Organization, about 10% of Pakistan's health facilities were damaged in the floods, leaving millions without access to care.

However, most of the people displaced by floods have returned to their homes.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited flood-hit areas in Pakistan in September, assuring Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif his maximum support in highlighting the ordeal of flood victims. Sharif this week also attended the climate change conference in Egypt and sought help in tackling the flood damage.

Bhutto-Zardari said Guterres has been talking about debt relief for climate-hit nations. Pakistan is the eighth most climate-stressed country on the planet, but most climate-stressed countries on the planet are also debt stressed, and that debt is owed to developed countries," Bhutto-Zardari said.

So far, China and Washington have been the largest contributors in response to the floods in Pakistan, although several other countries also sent planeloads of aid, many flood victims in Pakistan say they were still without any help or they received too little aid from the government or aid agencies.

China's leader is not attending this year's climate summit, nor is the leader of India, Pakistan's top rival as well as one of the top polluting countries.

Bhutto-Zardari said "it would have been helpful had India participated at an appropriate level.

And we do hope that our neighbors also take this issue seriously, he said. "This is truly something that we can only combat if we were together across the world and take our responsibilities seriously. (AP)

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Islamabad [Pakistan], November 9 (ANI): Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday will embark on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, ARY News reported.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, during his two-day visit, Bilawal Zardari will meet his Saudi Arabian counterpart.

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Bilawal Bhutto would also chair the political and security council of the Supreme Coordination Council. The statement further stated that the Minister would also be meeting the General Secretary of the GCC.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chief would also address local KSA media and meet with other Saudi officials. The tour would be focused on having Pak-Saudi relations, ARY News reported citing the statement.

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Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) is likely to visit Pakistan in the third week of November, ARY News quoted diplomatic sources saying.

According to diplomatic sources, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad Bin Salman would visit Pakistan on November 21. The Saudi PM would is expected to announce an additional bailout package of USD 4.2 billion for Pakistan.

A special Saudi security team will visit Pakistan to scrutinize the security situation ahead of the visit, sources said.

Earlier, last week, Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that Saudi Arabia will provide an additional amount of USD 4.2 billion to Pakistan, Geo News reported.

"China and Saudi Arabia have given assurances to Pakistani delegations under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during recent visits that they will take care of Islamabad's financial requirements till June 2023. Now the real effective exchange rate (REER) in terms of rupee against the US dollar has come down to Rs190 against the US dollar and no one will be allowed to play with our exchange rate," said Dar.

Both financial packages will ease the struggling economy of Pakistan as the foreign currency reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan stand at USD 8.9 billion at the moment, reported Geo News.

Sharing details about the outcome of Saudi Arabia's visit, the minister said that they also assured to consider Pakistan's request for an additional USD 3 billion in deposits and jacking up the oil facility on deferred payment by an additional USD 1.2 billion. Besides, an additional amount of USD 4.2 billion would be considered by Saudi Arabian authorities, reported Geo News.

He said that Saudi Arabia would also roll over existing deposits of USD 3 billion and their oil facility of USD 1.2 billion on deferred payment (USD100 million on monthly basis) would continue till June 2023.

Therefore, the total Saudi package is expected to touch USD 8.4 billion. To another query, the minister said that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman is going to visit Pakistan within the ongoing month, reported Geo News. (ANI)

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Kathmandu, Nov 9 (PTI) Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was on an election campaign in Western Nepal, is safe, a government spokesman said on Wednesday, hours after a powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit the remote and mountainous Doti district, killing at least six people.

The epicentre of the quake was Doti district, just 160 km North of Dadeldhura, where Deuba, 76, was addressing rallies for the November 20 general elections, hours before the tremor struck the region.

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At least six persons were killed and five injured after the earthquake occurred at 2:12 am with its epicentre at Khaptad National Park in the Doti district.

Deuba, President of the ruling Nepali Congress, was in Western Nepal for an election campaign. He attended election rallies and met people at Dhangadhi district, 160 km South of the epicentre.

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The tremor was also felt in Dhangadhi though the Prime Minister is safe, Home Ministry spokesperson Phanindra Pokharel said.

"I pay homage to those killed in the Dadeldhura earthquake and my condolences to the bereaved family members," Deuba tweeted.

"I also instruct the concerned authorities to speed up rescue and relief works and treatment of those injured in the incident," he added.

Home Ministry spokesperson Pokharel said adjustments will be made regarding the election campaign of the Prime Minister in Western Nepal keeping in mind the incident, he added.

Nepal is going for elections for the federal Parliament as well as the provincial assemblies on November 20. The elections will be important for Nepal to consolidate the democratic process and maintain stability in the landlocked Himalayan country.

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Washington, Nov 9 (AP) The Biden administration is expanding sanctions against the aviation and defense sectors of North Korea and Myanmar as it continues to punish the two countries for weapons-related violations of US and United Nations regulations and human rights abuses.

The Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it had imposed penalties on two agents for North Korea's state-owned airline Air Koryo and redesignated a previously sanctioned North Korean cyber agency that it said launders profits from cryptocurrency heists to further Pyongyang's weapons programs.

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Treasury also announced sanctions against the Myanmar aviation firm Sky Aviator Company Limited and its owner for facilitating weapons purchases for the country's military government to crackdown on protesters following a February 2021 coup.

North Korean agents Ri Sok, an Air Koryo representative based in China, and Yan Zhihong, an airline logistics manager, were targeted with sanctions for their support for for North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

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Air Koryo, which has previously been accused of transporting critical weapons components into North Korea mainly from China, was already under U.S. sanctions. The new penalties freeze any assets that the two men may have in U.S. jurisdictions or assets that may cross into them. It also bars Americans from conducting any business with them.

Treasury also reupped sanctions against Tornado Cash, a cyber firm that has allegedly served as a conduit for processing stolen virtual currency, including from the largest known such theft to date, a $455 million heist that was orchestrated by the North Korean-controlled company Lazarus Group.

Today's sanctions action targets two key nodes of (North Korea's) weapons programs: its increasing reliance on illicit activities, including cybercrime, to generate revenue, and its ability to procure and transport goods in support of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Treasury said in a statement.

On Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, Treasury said it was hitting Sky Aviator and its owner, Kyaw Min Oo, for importing aviation parts, weapons and other material used by the government to clamp down on post-coup dissent.

Treasury said the sanctions, which include asset freezes and a bar on American transactions with those named, target those who profit from the oppressive actions of the regime by operating in the defense sectors of Burma's economy and by enabling Burma's military connections to foreign militaries. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kyiv, Nov 9 (AP) The US ambassador to the United Nations warned that global food security depends on renewing the UN-brokered deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports, saying on Tuesday that 828 million people in the world are going to bed hungry every night.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that makes it imperative that the agreement enabling Ukrainian shipments through the Black Sea be extended beyond its scheduled expiration in 11 days.

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She said at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that Ukraine has long been a breadbasket for much of the developing world, but Russia's invasion turned Ukraine's rolling wheat fields into battlefields, and Russian forces have deliberately attacked so much of Ukraine's agricultural infrastructure.

Thomas-Greenfield said she told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that food security is a personal priority at a meeting where she also reiterated the United States' steadfast support for Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Also Read | When Will US Midterm Elections Results 2022 Be Declared? As Polling Begins, Know Vote Counting Date and Time Here.

During her day-long visit, the diplomat also announced an additional USD 25 million to help Ukrainians survive the coming winter as Russian troops bombard their infrastructure. And she discussed ways to ensure accountability for the war crimes and atrocities perpetrated on the Ukrainian people.

At a grain storage facility, Thomas-Greenfield told farmers that she still sees Ukraine as the breadbasket of the world and that extending the wartime deal to facilitate Black Sea shipments of Ukrainian grain which expires on November 18 is a priority for the UN.

This (war) really has had an impact on the entire global food market, Thomas-Greenfield said.

She said at the news conference that the Russians have spoiled fields, they've bombed grain silos, and literally stolen tractors.

These are not only horrific attacks on civilian infrastructure, they are also attacks on the world's food supply, and they have exacerbated the worst food security crisis any of us have ever seen, Thomas-Greenfield said.

This extensive sabotage campaign has made matters worse for countries like Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, all of whom are facing famine. And starvation and acute malnutrition are taking other countries by storm.

Major cuts in food and fertilizer shipments from Ukraine and Russia have contributed to global food shortages and higher prices.

UN trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who is overseeing the Russian side of the grain deal, told the UN Security Council last week that Ukraine and Russia provide around 30 per cent of the world's exported wheat and barley, 20 per cent of its maize, and over 50 per cent of its sunflower oil.

Russia is also the world's largest exporter of fertilisers, accounting for 15 per cent share of global exports.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko, said on Tuesday that the Kremlin has not yet decided whether to extend its agreement with Turkey and the UN.

We still have time. We are looking at how this deal is being implemented, following the restoration of our participation, Rudenko said. We are very dissatisfied with how the Russian part is being implemented.

Russia briefly suspended its participation in the deal last week, alleging a Ukrainian drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in Crimea on October 29. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements on July 22 for a Black Sea corridor that cleared the way for the export of grain out of three Ukrainian ports, as well as for shipments of Russian grain and fertiliser. The deal, which established an inspection and monitoring system, will expire on November 19 unless it is renewed.

Russia's UN representatives said last month that a renewed agreement must allow for increased Russian exports of food and fertilizer. Although international sanctions did not target those goods, shipping and insurance companies have been reluctant to deal with Russia following its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Rudenko said Moscow has not yet seen progress in the implementation of the deal's provisions regarding Russian food and fertilizer.

Ukrainian farmers told Thomas-Greenfield they wanted milled wheat to be part of any renewed deal. Currently, only unmilled grains are covered. Sergii Kurdytskyi, executive director for Gospodar, a grain and dairy cooperative, told The Associated Press that production and market confidence would suffer if the grain export deal does not continue.

The grain initiative was a rare example of cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian ports were blockaded and mined early in the war, but more than 10 million tons of grain have left the Ukrainian ports for destinations in Africa, Asia and Europe since the Black Sea corridor was established in July.

Ukraine's infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, wrote on Twitter that seven more ships were to berth Tuesday in Ukrainian ports, to be loaded with 140,000 tons of grain. But his deputy, Yuri Vaskov, charged that Russia has slowed down the pace of shipments.

Today we have returned to the same problems. Joint inspections have resumed. All four parties participate in the inspection. But now they are planned on average only 12 per day, of which eight or nine are actually completed, Vaslov told the Ukrainian news outlet LIGA.net. The need is 25-30 per day.

According to the Joint Coordination Centre, the Turkey-based body established to oversee the inspections of participating ships, 77 vessels were awaiting permission to enter Ukrainian ports while 15 other ships loaded with food were preparing for checks in Turkish waters. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lucknow, November 9: A shocking incident has rocked the Karanpur Sutari village after a 5-year-old boy died after he accidentally fell into a vessel of hot 'dal' while playing. Reportedly, the minor's family had organised a "mundan" ceremony for him on Tuesday. The incident took place on Tuesday morning.

As per the report published in the Times of India, the five-year-old boy was rushed here on Tuesday morning with serious burns after he slipped into a vessel of hot dal while playing near the vessel in the Amroha district. However, the minor, identified as Prashant, died on the way to the hospital. As per the reports, the child's father said that the family members were attending to guests when the boy went inside the room. He climbed onto a bed and started jumping. The boy reportedly slipped and fell into the vessel of hot pulses. UP Shocker: Eight-Year-Old Girl Raped, Killed by Neighbour After Luring Her With Toffees in Azamgarh.

The family members rushed Prashant to a nearby hospital. He was then referred to another hospital in Meerut. Unfortunately, he died on the way. Prashant's father is a farmer. Amroha SP Aditya Langeh said We have not yet received any complaint from the victims family in the matter. The last rites of the boy were held later in the day. Chhattisgarh Shocker: Minor Dies After Piece of Steel Pierces His Chest While Bursting Tiger Bomb Inside a Glass in Koriya.

In a similar incident, a 16-month-old child fell into a vessel filled with boiling water and succumbed to burn injuries after a week in July this year. According to the investigating officer Tukaram Mhetre of Sillod, the incident occurred on the evening of July 6 outside the home of the Pathan family in Palod village.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 09, 2022 09:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Remembrance Day, also known as Armistice Day, is observed on November 11 every year. The day honours the armed forces who died during wars in the line of duty, fighting to protect the nation. It is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states marking the end of World War I. As per records, Remembrance Sunday takes place a day before Armistice Day and is always on the Sunday closest to Remembrance Day. Parades are held in countries where politicians and military representatives join in to mark the special day. Remembrance Day 2022 falls on a Friday this year. Heres all you need to know about Memorial Day. Veterans Day 2022 Date and Significance: Know All About the History of the Federal Holiday and How the Day Dedicated to All US Military Veterans Is Observed.

History of Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day, also known as Poppy Day, is observed to remember the loss of lives of soldiers from all wars and conflicts. It is believed that the tradition was inaugurated by King George V in 1919. As per historical records, hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in accordance with the armistice that was signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente. This led to the tradition of Remembrance Day.

However, during WWII, several countries changed the name of the holiday where member states of the Commonwealth of Nations adopted Remembrance Day, while the US chose Veterans Day. Initially, Armistice Day was observed at Buckingham Palace, commencing with King George V hosting a "Banquet in Honour of the President of the French Republic" during the evening hours of November 10, 1919. The first official Armistice Day was subsequently held on the grounds of Buckingham Palace the following morning.

Significance of Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is a reminder for people of the world about the importance of peace and unity. On this day, the remembrance poppy, an artificial flower, is used since 1921 to commemorate military personnel who died during wars. Remembrance Day is now a national holiday for federal and many provincial government workers.

People of all faiths, cultures and backgrounds remember the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces community of their respective countries. November 11 is universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in WWI. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month gained significance in the post-war years. In India, rich tributes are paid to the martyrs and ceremonies are held in army cantonments to remember their sacrifices.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 09, 2022 10:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
San Francisco, November 9: Tech giant Samsung is likely to launch its upcoming smartphone, Galaxy A54 5G, earlier than expected. The Galaxy A54 5G might launch officially in January 2023, two months earlier than its predecessors, as it has received 3C certification in China, reports SamMobile.

It will be one of the extremely few Galaxy A-series phones to be marketed in China. The certification database revealed that the device's Chinese version has the model number 'SM-A5460'. Woman Sues Samsung After Her Cell Phone Got Stuck in Her Vagina? Here's a Fact Check Analysing This Piece of 'News' Doing Rounds on Twitter.

According to the listing, A54 5G might offer 25W fast charging, just like its predecessors. The smartphone might support up to four Android OS updates and run Android 13. Previous reports indicated that the Galaxy A54 5G might offer a lower camera resolution than the Galaxy A53 5G. Samsung Busts Counterfeit TV Racket in Delhi.

Notably, it might lack the depth sensor and is likely to feature a 50MP primary camera instead. The A54 is expected to feature a 5,100 mAh battery, which is 100mAh more than the A53 5G.

The company's devices usually receive the required certification two months before their release. Some examples include the Galaxy A52 5G, which received 3C certification in January 2021 and debuted in March 2021. The Galaxy A53 5G received 3C certification in January 2022 and was released in March similarly, the report said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 09, 2022 05:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Beijing, November 9: President Xi Jinping has said that China's national security is facing increased instability and ordered the PLA to devote all its energies to enhancing capability and maintaining combat readiness to fight and win wars as he took charge of the military for a record third five-year term.

Xi, 69, has been reappointed as the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the Central Military Commission (CMC) -- the overall high command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for an unprecedented third five-year term by the party's once-in-a-five-year Congress here last month. US President Joe Biden Warns Xi Jinping of 'Implications & Consequences' If China Provides Material Support to Russia: White House.

Holding the three powerful posts of the head of the party, the military, and the Presidency, Xi is the only leader besides the party founder Mao Zedong to continue in power after completing 10-year tenure, while all his predecessors retired. Russia Intensifies Attack on Ukraine, Using Hypersonic Weapons in Western Region.

On Tuesday, Xi inspected the joint operations command centre of the CMC here which provides vital support to the strategic command of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC. Upon arriving at the command centre, the Chinese leader was given a briefing, the official media reported.

In his first address to the two million-strong military -- the largest in the world -- as he kicked off his third term as head of the CMC, Xi said the world is undergoing more profound changes unseen in a century and stressed that China's national security is facing increased instability and uncertainty, and its military tasks remain arduous.

He said the entire military should devote all its energy to carry out all its work for combat readiness, enhance its capability to fight and win, and effectively fulfill its missions and tasks, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Xi instructed them to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and successfully complete various tasks entrusted by the party and the people, the report said.

Though President Xi did not mention a particular country in his address, it came amidst growing international concern over China's aggressive military manoeuvring in the resource-rich Indo-Pacific region. The armies of China and India are also engaged in a prolonged standoff in eastern Ladakh.

China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. China also has territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea.

Xi said the military leadership must focus on realising the PLA's centennial goal  to make the PLA a world-class armed force by 2027, which is broadly interpreted as making it on par with the US armed forces. We must do all we can to make this happen, he said.

During his speech at the party congress last month, Xi also set victory in local wars as a goal and told the PLA to improve training and preparation for war in all aspects and improve the ability of the army to fight and win.

We will strengthen the normal and diversified use of military forces, carry out military struggles with determination and flexibility, shape the security posture, contain crises and conflicts, and win local wars, he said.

Commenting on Xi's address to the military, retired Air Force General Xu Qiliang, who was the former vice-chairman of the CMC, said in a commentary that the PLA must prepare for a rapid transformation from peace to wartime.

Always maintain a high readiness posture like arrows on a taut string ready to go, to ensure that the troops are prepared to fight at all times, Xu, who retired from the top post in the CMC, was quoted as saying by Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

In his address to the CPC Congress last month, President Xi said China will establish a strong system of strategic deterrence, which was interpreted by observers as a call to increase China's nuclear weapons.

Analysts said Xi's remarks indicated China would improve its nuclear deterrence capability amid its increasing rivalry with the US. Song Zhongping, a former People's Liberation Army instructor, said the statement meant China would strengthen its development of strategic nuclear forces to safeguard its national security.

Song said the PLA must strengthen its nuclear triad forces  its combination of ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched missiles, and air-launched weapons  as well as its second-nuclear strike capability to respond to a nuclear attack.

All of these require the PLA to have a modern nuclear-armed force  and to moderately increase the nuclear arsenal, he told the Post. In his address to the military officials on Tuesday, Xi instructed the armed forces to thoroughly study, publicise and implement the guiding principles of last month's 20th CPC National Congress and take concrete actions to further modernize national defence and the military.

He said the entire armed forces implement the Party's thinking on strengthening the military for the new era, following the military strategy, and adhering to combat effectiveness as the sole criterion.

The new era refers to his assumption of the leadership of the party in 2012. The command centre, which provides vital support to the strategic command of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, is of great importance and shoulders heavy responsibilities, Xi said.

The command centre should make new and greater contributions to boosting military training and combat preparedness, effectively fulfilling all missions and tasks in the new era, Xi said.
When the polls close on Tuesday night for the 2022 US Midterm Elections across the country, the balance of power may not be that clear yet in the tightly controlled Congress.

Many states have legislation requiring automatic recounts in close elections. According to CNBC, if they lose, some Republican candidates have already stated that they intend to challenge the results.

This puts the country at risk of another round of divisive and long-lasting legal disputes and recounts like the ones that happened after the 2020 election, which former President Donald Trump still wrongly claims he won.

Election officials reviewed the results in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Michigan while conducting new counts in that race in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin.

The following states have a high likelihood of recounts or audits that might postpone results in 2022.

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2022 Midterm Elections Texas

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is unlikely to accept defeat in the 2022 US Midterm Elections, according to Democratic candidate for governor Beto O'Rourke, who spoke to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

O'Rourke told the outlet, "I'm not counting on it," pointing to Abbott's open embrace" of Trump, "who himself tried to subvert this democracy."

According to state laws, the recount is automatic only if two candidates are tied.

If the difference between their vote total and the winner's vote total is less than 10%, the losing candidate may submit a request for a recount.

However, the petitioner deposits money for the reimbursement of the members of the recount committee, the use of automatic tallying machinery, $15 for each recount supervisor, and $50 for the coordinator. The deposit is refunded to the petitioner if the recount results in a different election result.

2022 Midterm Elections Florida

According to NPR, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was asked if he would accept the results of the election. He responded, "Sure, because I am going to win."

The source claims that he later clarified, saying, "no matter what the outcome is, I'll support it, because Florida has good laws. They're not some crazy laws like they have in Pennsylvania and these other places."

According to Fox News, his Democratic rival, Val Demings, did not respond to the query.

A recount is mandatory if the difference between the winner and a candidate does not reach 0.5% of the total votes cast.

State law mandates that a manual recount must be ordered by the secretary of state. No candidate may ask for a recount.

Meanwhile, the state of Florida funds the recounts.

2022 Midterm Elections Arizona

In an interview with CNN, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has Trump's support and is running on false allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, refused to say if she would accept the results of the 2022 US Midterm Elections. Instead, she declared, "I'm going to win the election, and I will accept that result."

Blake Masters, a Republican running for the Senate and supported by billionaire Peter Thiel and endorsed by Trump, has been preparing the groundwork for a recount for months.

If the difference between the winner and a candidate is less than or equal to 0.5% of the total votes cast in Arizona, a recount is automatically initiated, and it is funded by the states.

However, no one can request a non-mandatory recount.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Texas Gov. Abbott Leads Democratic Challenger Beto O'Rourke Heading Into Election Day - From MSNBC
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's attorney had something to say to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis right before the midterm elections.

During an interview on Right Side Broadcasting Network from a Trump rally in Vandalia, Ohio, Attorney Alina Habba said she likes what DeSantis is doing in the state of Florida, adding that DeSantis "needs to stay in Florida." The former president's attorney further noted that "DeSantis is DeSantis because of Trump."

Trump earlier endorsed DeSantis before he was rumored to have plans on running for the presidency in 2024.

Meanwhile, the Republican governor would not say whether he would back up Trump if the former president decides to take a chance again for reelection.

Trump earlier referred to the Florida governor as "Ron DeSantimonious" during a rally.

After casting his vote on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that he voted for DeSantis. A day before, he noted that he would make a "big announcement" next week at his Mar-a-Lago Florida home.

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Donald Trump on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Meanwhile, Trump was reported to say that if DeSantis run, he will tell things about the Florida governor "that won't be very flattering."

He added that he knows more about DeSantis than anybody "other than perhaps his wife," who the former president described as the one "really running his campaign."

Trump has threatened business rivals and partners for decades. He was also known to issue threats to reporters and critics with lawsuits or the "possibility of being humiliated."

In 2016, Trump brought women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to his debate against Hilary Clinton.

He also tweeted a vague threat about Sen. Ted Cruz's wife in the Republican presidential primary in the same year.

Trump also had supporters that disseminated scandalous information about U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter.

One Trump campaign adviser told The Guardian that Trump was "going to attack" DeSantis and that it was "very true" that Republican supporters would not like the idea of DeSantis' wife running his campaign.

On Tuesday, Trump appeared to warn DeSantis during the election night watch party at Mar-a-Lago, saying that he is not sure DeSantis "would want to run."

Donald Trump on 2024 Elections

Trump was reportedly eyeing to launch his third presidential campaign at the Ohio rally. However, national Republicans advised him to hold off due to fears that his announcement could empower Democrats and possibly alienate independent voters.

He is expected to announce the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign on November 15 at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

A Trump spokesman has yet to confirm that the November 15 event will be about the presidential campaign launch.

On the other hand, the president has yet to formally announce his reelection campaign. There were reports that plans for it have already been solidified in recent weeks.

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: Trump, DeSantis hold dueling rallies across Florida - from CBS News


With the Republican efforts to block mail-in ballots and the Pennsylvania Senate race tightening for the midterm elections, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman has gone to a federal court to have mail-in ballots counted, even if they were not signed with a valid date.

One of the biggest voting disputes for the midterm elections is whether or not mailed ballots with incorrect or missing dates can be counted. The issue even divided the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which did not vote unanimously but still ordered counties not to count mailed ballots with missing or invalid dates on their outer envelopes, according to CNN.

Fetterman argued that not counting those votes is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law states that election officials cannot deny the right to vote based on a ballot with an error "not material" to determine whether the individual is qualified to vote under state election law.

Democrats Likely to Vote Via Mail-in Ballots During Midterm Elections

Misinformation surrounding mail-in ballots has been propagated by right-wing sources, most notably former President Donald Trump. This has led many in the Republican party to question the validity of early voting.

The Hill pointed out that Democrats traditionally vote early during the elections and vote by mail, while Republicans are more likely to vote on Election Day. Democrats argue that the tactics to suppress early voting by mail would not count valid votes for either party.

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Nonetheless, Republican state law requires voters to write the date on their ballot's outer envelope. However, the complaint argued that rejecting ballots with the wrong date or no date at all also violates the First and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

The lawsuit argues that the date has no bearing on a voter's qualification and that the state law "serves no other purpose other than to erect barriers to qualified voters exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote."

Following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, state officials urged voters to reach out to their county election offices if they think they made a technical error on their ballot. However, officials also admitted that some counties were not allowing voters to correct their mistakes. Over a million mail-in and absentee ballots have already been cast in the state, which adopted no-excuse absentee voting in 2019.

John Fetterman Leading Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Early Results

The Senate elections of Pennsylvania are expected to be a tight one, even though Fetterman's opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has several controversies surrounding him, including the accusation that he is not really living in the state but is actually living in New Jersey.

Oz, a TV personality made famous by Oprah Winfrey, is also known for hawking false medical cures, as well as other controversies. However, the race remained tight as Fetterman struggled with health issues surrounding his recent stroke. Despite making his opponent famous, Oprah endorsed Fetterman.

However, according to the latest CNN results, 9:02 p.m. ET on November 8, Fetterman is leading with 72.1% of the votes, with 10% already accounted for.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Fetterman Campaign Asks Judge To Count Mail-In Ballots Regardless Of Marked Date - MSNBC
After nearly two months, Haiti's largest and most important oil depot, the Varreux fuel terminal, where 70 percent of the country's fuel is stored, is operational again.

One of Haiti's most powerful gangs, the G9 and Family, blocked the entrance of the fuel terminal in Port-au-Prince in mid-September, causing a fuel crisis and bringing chaos to the country.

According to CNN, the leader of G9, a federation of more than a dozen Haitian gangs based in Port-au-Prince, is led by former cop Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, who announced that his group was lifting the blockade after talks with the government.

The negotiation took two weeks, but it led to Cherizier giving up control of the Varreux fuel terminal. Haitian doctor and politician Dr. Harrison Ernest said he spoke a few times with Cherizier and Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry during the negotiating process.

"I talked to Barbeque and told them to leave the terminal because the kids need to go back to school. And we urged the government to do their part to make sure there is fuel and the fuel need to reach the customer," said Ernest, who is part of the Konstwi Lavi party.

Ernest noted that the party worked as a mediator between the government and the G9 gang confederation, with an adviser to the prime minister telling CNN that Henry had indeed spoken to Ernest.

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Fuel Trucks Under Heavy Police Guard After Varreux Fuel Terminal in Haiti Reopens

The oil depot opened on Tuesday, with dozens of trucks lining up to fill up their tanks. A heavily armed police convoy protected the truck drivers two days after Jimmy Cherizier announced lifting the blockade.

The government noted that gas stations closed since mid-September would be resupplied from Wednesday to Friday and will open to customers on Saturday.

Truck driver Gabriel Salny told the Associated Press that they can now breathe since they can work and earn money again, adding that hunger almost killed him. He noted that the fuel blockade "had an impact on the country, on all Haitians."

Fuel Blockade Caused Humanitarian Crisis in Haiti

In a speech posted on social media Sunday, Jimmy Cherizier announced lifting the fuel blockade. He said the gang decided to release gas to the public as the situation in the country has worsened.

Since then, police have retaken control of the oil depot, though heavy shooting around the area was reported on Saturday. A spokesperson for Ariel Henry declined to comment on Cherizier's statement but said: "Our government is working hard on getting our citizens back to everyday activities."

According to Reuters, the blockade created a humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean country. It was so severe that the United Nations discussed sending a strike force to take back the Varreux terminal.

Because of the fuel shortage, much of Haiti's economic activity was halted. Hospitals and businesses were forced to scale back operations or simply shut their doors. It happened as the cholera outbreak spread throughout Haiti.

READ MORE: UN Targets Imposing Sanctions Against Notorious Haiti Gang Leader

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Haiti Faces Gang Violence, Assassinations, Shortages of Food and Fuel - From CBS News
Australian actress and comedian Rebel Wilson welcomed her first baby via surrogate. The "Bridesmaids" and "Pitch Perfect" actress posted Royce Lillian Elizabeth Wilson's first photo online and called her a "beautiful miracle," and thanked the surrogate, whom she called "gorgeous," for carrying her baby.

"I can't even describe the love I have for her, she's a beautiful miracle! I am forever grateful to everyone who has been involved, (you know who you are), this has been years in the making," said Wilson, 42.

"But particularly wanted to thank my gorgeous surrogate who carried her and birthed her with such grace and care. Thank you for helping me start my own family, it's an amazing gift. The best gift!" she added.

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Rebel Wilson's Partner Ramona Agruma Hosted a Gorgeous Baby Shower

Before the surrogate delivery of Rebel Wilson's baby, the actress' partner Ramona Agruma hosted a "gorgeous" baby shower. Wilson told People on Monday that she was excited about the party and that the fashion designer had gone above and beyond to make that day special.

Wilson said her girlfriend planned her baby shower with a group of close friends and "went above and beyond to make it a special day." The actress noted that it was the "most gorgeous baby shower with friends from around the world," adding that Agruma was an amazing and great partner.

According to Page Six, the news of Agruma dating Wilson broke in June, just one month after the actress teased that she was happy in a relationship.

"I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince... but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess #loveislove," the "Senior Year" star captioned her first Instagram selfie with Agruma.

Before their romance began, Rebel Wilson had her eggs frozen and spoke candidly about her desire to have children.

Rebel Wilson Explains the Meaning of Daughter's Name

Rebel Wilson explained why she chose the name she picked for her baby. According to Today, the actress wanted an original name that starts with an "R," so she eventually landed on "Royce."

She added that "Lillian" and "Elizabeth" are both names carried by women in her family that she really admires. Elizabeth is also her middle name, which was after the late Queen.

Wilson's personal life has recently received attention for reasons other than the birth of a new child. She rejected claims that she and Ramona Agruma, with whom she revealed her courtship in June, were planning to marry earlier this month.

Meanwhile, in the upcoming IFC Films movie "The Almond and the Seahorse," Wilson plays a wife who tries to help her husband recover from a terrible brain injury.

The first teaser for Wilson's new film premiered exclusively to People on Tuesday. The movie shows the difficulties that numerous characters in the film confront as they deal with the long-term consequences of their partners' health troubles.

According to the film's description, archeologist Sarah (Wilson) struggles with the complexities of her husband Joe's (Celyn Jones) traumatic brain injury, while architect Toni (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her girlfriend Gwen (Trine Dyrholm) "have been imprisoned in a fifteen-year loop" due to a similar injury.

Wilson's new movie will be available in select theaters and to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV on December 16.

READ MORE: Texas High School Students' SAT Exams Lost After Test Papers Flew out of UPS Truck

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Rebel Wilson Welcomes SECRET Baby! - From Entertainment Tonight
Officials in Mexico are launching a probe into the prosecutors' office of Morelos state after it was accused of covering up the murder of young woman Ariadna Lopez.

According to BBC, the body of the 27-year-old woman was found along a highway in Morelos last week. The state prosecutors' office said Lopez had choked while being drunk. However, a second post-mortem conducted in Mexico City found that Lopez had died of multiple force trauma.

Mexico City's mayor then made the accusations against the attorney general's office, saying it "wanted to hide the femicide," due to possible "links with the presumed killer."

But the Morelos attorney general's office "categorically" denied the accusations in a statement, noting that they lacked "any basis." Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum alleged that the prosecutor of Morelos state had ties with Lopez's accused killer.

"It is clear that the prosecutor of Morelos state tried to cover up for the killer of a woman because of his ties to the killer," Sheinbaum said in a news conference on Monday. However, she refused to describe their purported connections.

Sheinbaum also played CCTV footage showing a man in a parking garage at a Mexico City apartment carrying a body, which she claimed was Lopez, after she disappeared. Citing a state forensic exam, Morelos state prosecutor Uriel Carmona said the young woman choked on her own vomit due to intoxication.

However, Mexico City prosecutor Ernestina Godoy noted that a new autopsy conducted by Mexico City experts revealed "several lesions caused by blows" on Lopez's body. It also listed the cause of death as "multiple traumas."

READ NEXT: Like El Chapo, Guadalajara Cartel Founder Rafael Caro Quintero Also Complains of 'Torture' in Mexico Altiplano Prison

Death of Young Woman Ariadna Lopez in Mexico

Ariadna Lopez's body was found by two cyclists two days after she disappeared. Lopez was last seen alive in a gathering of friends in the Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City on October 30.

Uriel Carmona earlier said they did not find any signs of violence, adding that "technically and forensically the post-mortem does not match a femicide."

However, Morelos state anti-corruption office said Monday that it had opened an investigation into "possible crimes" and "alleged acts of corruption" committed by employees of the state prosecutors' office. According to Reuters, two people connected to Lopez's alleged killing were in police custody.

Suspects in Ariadna Lopez's Death

El Pais reported that the main suspect in Ariadna Lopez's alleged femicide was identified as Rautel "N." He will face the start of the court case from prison.

The accused surrendered to the authorities in the early hours of Monday. His partner, identified as Vanessa "N," had been arrested on Sunday. She is also in pre-trial detention for femicide.

Rautel said when he entered the Nuevo Leon Prosecutor's Office that he did not kill Lopez. His lawyers have asked for time to collect evidence to support their client's defense, so it has been decided that the hearings continue over the weekend.

Rautel spent the night in prison in Mexico City after arriving on a plane and was transferred to testify in a court of the Judicial Power of Mexico City.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had also commented on the case, saying there was a rush to close the case and make public statements in the middle of the investigations.

READ MORE: Rafael Caro Quintero's Wife Denies Legal Battle With Guadalajara Cartel Founder Over Alimony Demand

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WATCH: Presunto Feminicida De Ariadna Tiene Nexos Con Fiscalia De Morelos; "Fue Encubrimiento", Sheinbaum - From TelediarioMx
The wives of Chicago drug lords - the Flores twins - who cooperated against Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera did not have immunity from prosecution that will spare them from criminal charges, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Vivianna Lopez and Valerie Gaytan, the wives of drug traffickers Pedro and Margarito Flores, are accused of laundering millions of their husbands' drug proceeds.

According to Chicago Tribune, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly denied the request of Lopez and Gaytan to dismiss the money laundering charges against them.

The wives of the Flores twins argued that the prosecutors had assured them that their husbands' cooperation in apprehending El Chapo meant that they will not face any charges for their own actions.

But in his ruling during a telephonic hearing, Kennelly said there was no evidence that there was ever an immunity agreement in writing for the Flores twin's wives.

The judge noted that there was also no indication of any "meeting of the minds" about a formal agreement, and clearly, nothing was obtained in writing. Kennelly added that the Flores twins' plea agreement did not mention any immunity, and it was clear that no other promises were made.

The judge noted that the jail calls made by prosecutors at the hearing were a "pretty strong indication" that "immunity had not been obtained." Kennelly then set their trial for June 20 next year, but a status hearing will be held on December 21.

READ NEXT: El Chapo Case: Wives of Chicago Twins Who Helped Convict the Sinaloa Cartel Boss Used Drug Money on Lavish Trips, J.Lo Show

Chicago's Flores Twins' Wives on El Chapo's Case

The Flores brothers' wives are both daughters of Chicago police officers and grew up in the city.

They wrote a tell-all book entitled "Cartel Wives," which detailed the highs and lows of being married to drug kingpins, who later became informants.

Both wives are now living under assumed names due to threats they received after their husbands' cooperation against El Chapo was made public.

Lopez's lawyer earlier said that although no immunity documents exist, oral deals have been upheld in the past, and prosecutors did not make an attempt to correct Pedro Flores' testimony in 2018.

In a December 2021 court filing, Lopez asked the court to order prosecutors to turn over any documents related to any immunity or "non-prosecution" agreements with her.

Her lawyers maintained that prosecutors either gave her immunity or "knowingly elicited her husband's perjured testimony" at the trial of the Sinaloa Cartel boss. Lopez and Gaytan allegedly helped to hide millions of drug money over a dozen years, which started in 2008.

Prosecutors alleged that the wives of the Flores twins used the drug money for lavish trips and to pay for schools for their children. The wives allegedly spent the money after their husbands were arrested in 2008 and became key informants in the case against El Chapo.

Last July, Pedro Flores testified that he was promised that no one in his family would be prosecuted for any drug-related activities. His testimony via a video link turned up in the money laundering case against his wife, Lopez, and his sister-in-law, Gaytan.

Pedro said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Shakeshaft, the lead prosecutor handling his case, had promised him during their first in-person meeting in Monterrey, Mexico in 2008 that no one in his family would be charged. When asked if Shakeshaft's promise was ever repeated, Pedro told Kennelly: "Yes, multiple times throughout my cooperation."

However, the Chicago drug kingpin admitted that the promise of immunity was never put in writing as he thought it was already being taken care of. He also acknowledged that it was not mentioned in the plea agreement he and his twin brother signed in secret in 2012.

Shakeshaft was supposed to testify about the negotiations. However, he died earlier this year after years of health issues. Federal agents testified that they had never heard Shakeshaft make the immunity promise. Chicago prosecutors also maintained that no promise of immunity was ever extended to the Chicago's Flores twins' wives.

Chicago's Flores Twins Became Informants in Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo Case

The Flores brothers were sentenced in 2015 to 14 years in prison and were released in 2020 into witness protection. The twin brothers were given relatively lenient sentences in exchange for cooperating in the case against El Chapo.

They became key informants in the case after they surrendered to authorities. The Flores twins admitted smuggling at least 1,500 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. every month between 2005 and 2008. Their plea agreements further noted that they sent more than $930 million in "bulk cash" back to the Sinaloa Cartel.

During their 2015 sentencing, a federal judge told the twins that they would always have to worry about being hunted down by Sinaloa Cartel hitmen after their decisions to cooperate with prosecutors to apprehend El Chapo.

At the time, the judge said the Flores brothers and their families would always have to look over their shoulders. But the Flores twins still agreed to cooperate, and the prosecutors, in return, asked for an even lighter sentence for them.

The Sinaloa Cartel is considered one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking syndicates. The Mexican drug cartel has been known to carry out assassinations, murders, and torture to protect its turf.

The group was founded in the late 1980s and headed by El Chapo. Under El Chapo's leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel earned its reputation through violence and outfought several rival groups.

El Chapo was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the ADX "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado, after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.

READ MORE: El Chapo's Wife Emma Coronel Could Dismantle Sinaloa Cartel by Cutting Deal With U.S.: Report

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Pedro Flores, the Flores Twins Testify Against El Chapo (Full) - From Crowned TV Courts
Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida, both famed for sending migrants to Democratic-run states, handily won reelection on Tuesday.

The two Republican incumbents gained impressive victories in the midterm elections in Florida and Texas by focusing on issues that appealed to their party's base.

Political experts said Abbott and DeSantis' victories put both men in strong positions as they prepare for possible 2024 presidential runs, Wall Street Journal reported.

READ NEXT: Florida Midterm Elections Sen. Marco Rubio Wins Re-election Against Democratic Rep. Val Demings

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Beats Beto O'Rourke in Midterm Elections

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has easily defeated Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso. According to New York Times, Abbott winning a third term by a comfortable margin shattered the Democrats' hopes of retaking the mansion of the governor for the first time in decades.

It was a head-to-head matchup between two political powerhouses, who had battled on the state's airwaves, mailings, and computer screens for months.Overall, the campaign cost of the race was more than $170 million, and it does not include the outside groups' spending.

O'Rourke has hoped to beat Abbott as governor of Texas, which has not elected a Democratic governor since 1990. He also ran amid economic woes and discontent with President Joe Biden that dragged down Democrats across the country.

O'Rourke traveled all over the state, attracting large crowds even in small communities. However, he struggled to recapture the fire he experienced in his first major race in 2018 against Senator Ted Cruz.

O'Rourke addressed smaller audiences and attempted to pass himself off as a seasoned politician rather than a newbie. However, Abbott ultimately prevailed by being true to his platform, highlighting the differences with O'Rourke on critical issues like crime, migrants, and the fossil fuel sector, and avoiding the campaign mistakes that helped Ann Richards, the state's last Democratic governor, defeat a Republican.

Greg Abbott's victory over a well-known Democrat means that speculation about his possible presidential run is bound to increase, but he and his advisers have publicly dismissed the idea.

Republican Ron DeSantis Defeats Charlie Crist as Florida Governor in Midterm Elections

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was re-elected for a second term, defeating Democrat Charlie Crist. According to the LA Times, this raises his profile as a rising Republican star who may run for president.

Florida, which used to be the country's largest swing state, is reportedly shifting to the right. Many voters supported DeSantis because he was a governor who enjoyed culture war politics and ran against liberals' "woke agenda."

DeSantis spent a lot of time criticizing Joe Biden, liberal programs, and the mainstream media in front of cheering crowds and news conferences in the lead-up to the election. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he got a lot of attention from people all over the country because he spoke out against mandatory lockdowns, masks, and vaccines.

In the end, DeSantis showed an eagerness to wade into nearly any cultural divide, including immigration, education, and gender, among others. Some Republican voters regarded DeSantis as a logical successor to Donald Trump because of his ceaseless combative posture and ability to leverage the state government's power to his will.

During the campaign, DeSantis was able to raise substantially more money than Crist. The 66-year-old politician was a Republican governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 before switching his party registration to Independent in 2010 and Democrat in 2012.

READ MORE: Rebel Wilson Welcomes First Baby via Surrogate, Reveals the Special Meaning Behind Her Daughter's Name

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Ron DeSantis Gives Speech After Winning Governor Reelection, Unofficial Results Show - From 10 Tampa Bay
Introduction

The United States holds a general election near the midpoint of a presidents four-year term in office, generally it is done on the Tuesday after the first Monday in the month of November. All the 430 seats in the United States house of representatives, and 33 or 34 seats in the house of senate.

Around 36 governors are elected during midterm election. According to the survey only 40% of eligible voters turn-up for mid-term election

Legal aspect

As per the Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution the term for a president in office is for 4 years, Article I, Section 2, Clause 1sets the term for 2 years for congressmembers elected in the house of representatives. Article I, Section 3, Clause 1says that 2/3 of the U.S senate is elected for 6 years and clause 2 says that 1/3 of these seats is up for election every 2 years.

Many states as well as local government offices have elections during the midterm so there is fairness and they arent affected due to the presidential election.

Historical background

The election is made up of two parts the house of senate and house of representatives, each state has two senators who are in office for 6-year period, while representatives are elected for 2-years and represent small districts.

The mid-term elections are regarded as referendum for the sitting president and the partys performance. Since the 2nd world war, the ruling partys president tends to lose ground during the mid-term election. The average loss is of 26 seats in the house and 4 seats in the senate.

After the declaration of public mid-term election only seven presidents have gained seats in the house of senate, and moreover only 2 have presidents have gained seats in both the houses.

Mid-term election in 2022

The current mid-term election which is scheduled on 8th November 2022 is between the democratic party and the republican party, all the seats in house of representatives and 1/3 of the senate are up for elections.

From the past two years the democratic party has held majority in both the houses and its been a very big help for the current president Mr. JOE BIDEN to pass laws he needs, but the margin is very narrow between the democrats and the republicans, according to the reports by BBCthe trends show that republicans can take the house, but the senate will be taken by the democrats. The swing states like Pennsylvania, California, Ohio and North Carolina will be key.

The election campaign

The conservative Republicans were going forward with the election on the issues like immigration, cost-of-living, crime. The Democrats got a heavy push after the US supreme court overturned the national abortion protection, as the Democrats support womens right to choose for there abortion.

The effects on 2024 presidential election

The approval rating amongst voters for president Biden has been running at 50% since last august which is a point to worry for the democrats. If the democrats hold the majority the party will keep its plan on climate change, government-run healthcare programme, gun control in the states, and abortion issue in primary focus while passing the laws. the Republicans if won majority will halt all the issues raised by the Democrats, and can also interfere in the inquiry into the 6th January attack on the white house by supporters of the Republicans. The US Elections Projected on Monday that more than 42 million Americans had voted early in advance of Tuesday's midterm elections, exceeding the numbers from last year. 35 Senate seats, or little more than a third of the upper chamber, and all 435 of the House of Representatives seats are up for election. Thousands of additional county and state jobs, as well as the governors of a number of states, will also be up for election.Biden's attempts to pass abortion protections, paid family leave, and other Democratic initiatives through Congress would be unsuccessful if the Republicans take control of the House or the Senate. Additionally, it would allow for two years of Republican-led investigations that might harm the White House. Moreover, Biden's nominations for judicial or executive positions might be rejected by a Senate controlled by Republicans.Republicans intend to use the federal debt ceiling as leverage to demand significant spending cuts if they take control of the House. Additionally, they would work to safeguard corporate tax cuts that Democrats have unsuccessfully attempted to undo over the previous two years as well as Trump's 2017 individual tax cuts.

conclusion

On the East Coast, the initial round of vote tallies is anticipated between 7 and 8 p.m. ET (0000-0100 GMT Wednesday, Nov. 9). If contests that were predicted to be tight, such as Virginia's 7th congressional district or a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina, turn out to be Democratic routs, it might be a sign of Republican victory early on.According to Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia's CentreBecause California considers ballots that are postmarked by Election Day even if they arrive days later, it generally takes weeks to count all of the votes cast there. for Politics, Republicans may have enough momentum by 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. ET, when Midwest polls will be closed for an hour or longer, to forecast control of the House.How the election is conducted itself is another thing to pay attention to. In 2021, laws were passed in 19 states that tightened requirements for voter registration and limited or abolished practises like drop-off and mail-in voting. Some of the first evidence of the effects on democracy will come from the midterm elections. In America's erratic political cycle, one thing is certain: the criticism, campaigning, and mayhem of the next presidential race will start before the last midterm vote is even counted.





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A Laois secondary school is celebrating this week after receiving yet again a high accolade from Trinity College Dublin.

Staff and students in Portlaoise College have been recognised by Trinity College Dublin with a Schools of Distinction Award.

This was conferred by Trinity College in recognition of their efforts to develop a school culture thats supports innovative approaches to teaching and learning along with the extraordinary work being successfully undertaken by Portlaoise College to draw on their own school and community resources to support educational innovation and change.

Mentoring and Leadership in Learning is fundamental to the whole school culture placing Innovative and student-centered teaching and learning as a priority with teachers leading in a process of reflection, using school data and current research to inform their whole school planning and target setting.

This award scheme supports the development of college-going practices and a student-centered, innovative learning environment. Portlaoise College was particularly successful in their Community Mentoring Programme. This involved reaching out to the cohort of parents within the school community and asking them to act as mentors to Third Year students.

Training was provided by Trinity College in the area of mentoring to all the parents that volunteered to participate in the programme.

Jake Byrne is a Transition Year student.

It was an excellent experience and I learned so much from my mentor. He spoke to me about how to manage my time and how to motivate myself. The meetings I had with my Mentor really helped me prepare me for my Junior Certificate, he said.

Lisa Keane is Director of Trinity Access.

We are delighted to recognise the innovative, leadership and community focused work that Portlaoise College has achieved in an extraordinary year. We hope to share the learning from this school with all our other school partners. A warm congratulation from all in Trinity Access for your courageous and creative leadership.

The Portlaoise College Principal is Noel Daly.

We are delighted to be winning the School of Distinction award this year from Trinity College. This award recognises the great work of our staff, students and Parents in creating an inclusive student centered school culture that allows innovation to flourish. In Portlaoise College we want to continually push the boundaries to ensure we are getting the very best from each and every one of our students. This award is an example of stakeholders working in partnership to create a school that the whole community can be proud of. Well done everyone, he said.
A stylish remote working business hub in Laois is to host free events marking Ireland's first ever Digital First Day.

All are being welcomed to BloomHQ in Mountrath next Wednesday, November 16, to explore the benefits of Going Digital for communities, individuals and businesses across Laois.

Its part of a nation-wide drive to help attract economic and social development and tackle the rural/urban divide through digitalisation which was launched recently by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys.

Over 50 Connected Hubs across Ireland are hosting free seminars, chats, tutorials and workshops on the benefits of digital growth to attract investment, remote workers, home buyers and visitors to their area thus advancing sustainable regional development and quality of life.

The programme of events for BloomHQ includes:

 Workshop for parent and guardians on use of digital technologies for school - Google Classroom, Aladdin app, VSware and more 9.45am - 10.30am

 Helping older adults get online and recognise scam messages and emails. Also includes an open discussion on what technologies can benefit people in the community with Rory McEvoy of Microsoft. 11am - 12pm

 Lunch and Learn - networking event including: talks with expert speakers on digital growth initiatives and strategies; Helping community groups learn on how to engage new audiences and members online ;B2B Networking opportunities

 Tea/coffee and refreshments will be provided at all three events

BloomHQ is based in the repurposed Mountrath Presentation school and convent, now a vibrant community and business hub. Below: a meeting room and the canteen at BloomHQ.

For further information see www.bloomhq.ie or email Regina Dunne at digitalinnovation@bloomhq.ie. Attendees can book their place through Eventbrite at the following link https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/443206431367 or by emailing their interest to Regina.

Digital First Day is driven by a new collaboration, Digital Ireland Network (www.digital-ireland.ie) devised to highlight the potential of digital growth and social enterprise in attracting economic and social development in rural areas and to help tackle the urban/rural divide.

Stephen Carolan is Enterprise Hubs Project Manager at Connected Hubs.

We believe that the hub network across the country can act as a catalyst for communities to bring about the social change at scale envisioned in Our Rural Future.

Eoin Costello is DigitalHQ and director of the Digital First Day initiative.

Highlighting the benefits of digital will bring the community into their local Connected Hub while digitalisation will bring the impact of the hub out into the local community! Its a win/win.

Digital First Day is part funded through the Department of Rural & Community Development ARISE fund and sponsored by the Western Development Commission, National Broadband Ireland and the gteic network.

Over 50 staff from Microsoft Ireland will also be volunteering at various hubs on the day.

This initiative is driven by the newly formed Digital Ireland Network, a network dedicated to Reimagining Rural Ireland. The founding organisations include Connected Hubs, DigitalHQ, the national domain registry .IE, National Broadband Ireland, the Heritage Councils CTCHC Programme, DLR County Council, An Cosan, Udaras na Gaeltachta, the Western Development Commission, eTownz and Grow Remote.
Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath has said he supports the decision to nominate Paschal Donohoe as Eurogroup president.

The Fianna Fail minister said that the Eurogroup presidency would be distinct and separate from the role of representing Ireland at the Eurogroup  the gathering of euro-using countries finance ministers.

Finance minister Mr Donohoe was nominated for a second term as president of the Eurogroup on Monday, and will retain the role when Mr McGrath is expected to take on the finance portfolio in December.

Both are expected to attend Eurogroup meetings if Mr Donohoe wins a second term as Eurogroup president.

There had been some wrangling in the coalition government in recent months over whether Mr Donohoe would retain the nomination for the EU title when the rotation happens as part of the coalition governments 2020 arrangement.

The swap will happen as the Taoiseach and Tanaiste roles change hands on December 17 between Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar.

The finance brief and public expenditure portfolio will then be swapped between Fine Gaels Mr Donohoe and Fianna Fails Mr McGrath.

Mr McGrath had said previously that not having Irelands finance minister at the Eurogroup would represent a significant diminution of the ministry.

Speaking for the first time since the Government confirmed that Mr Donohoe would be Irelands nominee, Mr McGrath said he supported the move.

I, and the Government, strongly support Minister Donohoes re-election bid to be president of the Eurogroup for a second term, and I think hes done an exceptionally good job, he told RTEs News at One.

I think it is a positive for Ireland, and if the opportunity is there, then we certainly want to take that opportunity to get a second term to have an Irish presidency of the Eurogroup.

But what it will mean in effect is that the serving Irish Minister for Finance will attend both Eurogroup and EcoFin as the Irish representative, so as the person who sets out and speaks for Ireland in terms of the policy issues that come before Eurogroup and EcoFin.

EcoFin is the collective of the EUs economic and finance ministers.

Mr McGrath said that the role of Eurogroup president would be quite distinct and separate, and would be more impartial than the role of minister for finance at those meetings.

It is the case that whoever is serving as the Irish minister for finance, is the national representative and is the person who at those fora (forums)  Eurogroup and ECOFIN  sets out the Irish position and argues for the Irish position.

When asked what the advantage of having an Irish president of the Eurogroup was if they had to remain impartial, Mr McGrath responded: I think there are advantages in having an Irish minister, somebody who knows our country intimately and who has our national interest as a priority serving in such an influential position.

The next president of the Eurogroup will be chosen on December 5.
A Ukrainian couple living with a Kildare woman has said that they yearn to return to their home country.

The couple, who will be referred to by their first names, Oleksandr and Oksana, have told the Leinster Leader, with the aid of Google Translate, of how they feel about the conflict in Ukraine, as well as detailing how they have settled into life in Ireland.

Speaking on behalf of the couple, who are both in their forties, Oksana said that both she and her husband did not initially believe that the invasion of their country by the Russian military could be possible.

However, Oksana said that this changed on February 24 last, at around 6 in the morning: "My daughter called me and informed me that Kharkiv was under rocket fire.

"She and her husband were forced to hide with their friends in a safer part of the city.

Oksana added: "Only a week later, they left Kharkiv for another city in Ukraine. All this time I was very worried."

She also said that she and Oleksandr 'had practically no choice' but to flee their homes: "Since the beginning of the war, our small town has been occupied.

"There were only people who helped to leave the occupied territories to Europe. Oleksandr was the first to leave.

Oksana continued: "We were assured that the Irish government and Irish people are helping Ukrainians who suffered from the war.

"When Oleksandr made sure of this, we left for Ireland. we already knew that in this country they would grant us asylum and help us until I find a job."

ARRIVAL

After coming to Ireland and being taken in by a host family two months ago, the couple have since been taking English classes and have found employment.

Their adult daughter also recently arrived in Ireland, and they have met with her.

When asked about the claims that certain parts of Ukraine remain open, Oksana said: "Recent events have shown that there are no safe places left in Ukraine.

"Russian missiles reach all corners of our country. Perhaps concerts are held somewhere, because people are trying to live and not lose confidence in the future in conditions of constant air alarms.

"There is a real humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, even in the unoccupied regions. Businesses do not work because of the war. There are also big problems with electricity supply and heating.

"Those who think that Ukrainians would be better off in their own country are actually simplifying the situation."

'OPEN, SMILING, ALWAYS READY TO HELP'

The couple also said that they have 'fallen in love' with Ireland: "We especially like the people: they are incredible. Open, smiling, always ready to help."

However, they both long to return to their homes.

Oksana explained: "We are looking forward to the victory of Ukraine. Ireland and its people are wonderful, but we long to return home."

Their host, who shall go by the pseudonym 'Cayleigh', also told the Leader that she and her husband decided to open up their home to the couple, after months of following the war on the news.

'Cayleigh' initially got in touch with the couple via the Irish Red Cross, and was also helped by the organisation Helping Irish Hosts.

She also said that Oleksandrs father was killed back in Ukraine by shrapnel, and that neither Oleksandr or Oksana had ever left Ukraine prior to the conflict breaking out.

Commenting on her houseguests, 'Cayleigh' had some very positive words to say about Oksana and Oleksandr. She added: "They are in no way impinging (on us). They are just so good as house guests, and are incredible people."

The couple also briefly attended the New to Newbridge course at the Newbridge Family Resource Centre.

A worker with the centre, Glen Smith, told the Leader: "Any families that come into the centre, regardless of where they originated from, if they are seeking support, we will do our best to help them.

"The community of Newbridge has definitely been very accommodating," he added.
Ballinamore Municipal District councillors have voted unanimously in favour of a Part 8 Planning Proposal to construct a car park and upgrade the existing walking trail up to the Mass Rock at Mullaghgarve. The Mass Rock is located on the Sliabh an Iarainn Mountain just 10 minutes drive from the town of Ballinamore.

Speaking at the meeting Vivienne Egan, Senior Executive Planner at Leitrim County Council, explained that the proposed improvements will run along the existing walkway to the Mass Rock. She said that the plan is to create a car park with a capacity for 13 vehicles at the base of the walk and to upgrade the existing path.

This work will include the use of loose stone on the lower section of the path with sheep wool being used in areas of greater environmental sensitivity. A short boardwalk area has also been included in the design over part of the walk before the path continues to the Mass Rock.

She noted that District Area Engineer, Darragh OBoyle has suggested that an overhead barrier be installed at the car park to stop any type of camping at the site.

Ms Egan noted that this has not been included in the plan but said that part of the conditions state that the introduction of a barrier can be considered.

Cllr Brendan Barry welcomed the plans noting that this area is popular with tourists and locals and has become even more so since the pandemic.

He proposed the adoption of the Part 8 Planning proposal. This was seconded by Cllr Paddy ORourke who said it is a very welcome development for the overall tourism product in the south of the county.

He also commended the planners for incorporating the use of sheeps wool into the design.

Cllr Gerry Dolan also added his support and thanked those responsible for the proposal adding that over the weekend he met people from Cork, Laois and Dublin using the walkway and noting that it has enormous potential.

Cllr Ita Reynolds Flynn backed the proposal while her party colleague, Cllr Enda McGloin described the approval of the proposal as a great day certainly for the parish of Kiltubrid.

This has the potential to bring a lot of people into the county. It is a beautiful site and from the Mass Rock you can see several counties. It will help to show off the magnificent scenery and the magnificent infrastructure in this county, he said before commending everyone involved for their hard work in preparing the proposal.
Rachel Smith from Fenagh is celebrating this week after being named Leitrims Most Inspirational Person at this years Gala Retail Inspiration Awards with Virgin Media. Rachels inspirational attitude in the face of adversity and care for others within the local community has earned her the title of Inspirational Person in this years awards.

Established four years ago to celebrate individuals who work to create better communities with their selfless acts and inspirational deeds, Gala Retail awarded inspirational people from every county in Ireland, naming county inspirational people who were each gifted 1,000 in Ireland Hotel vouchers. Rachel really impressed the judges and is a worthy winner of the county award for her inspirational efforts. A final year Nursing student at UCD, Rachel was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkins Lymphoma in March this year, which saw her having to pull out of her placement due to undergoing treatment. Now cancer-free, Rachel still managed to check on and look after her friends while she was going through treatment, and will now be able to return to complete her placement in January.

From a huge volume of nominations, 26 county heroes were crowned. Noreen Murphy, from Bantry in County Cork, was named as the Overall Inspirational Person of the Year for her services to mental health with the establishment of Lisheens House Suicide Prevention Charity.

Gala Retail has gifted 26,000 of prizes to the winners with the 26 county winners being awarded with 1000 hotel getaways across Ireland. For further information, see www.gala.ie
Around 350 Meta jobs in Ireland are in danger in what the Irish Government is viewing as a downsizing of the lucrative tech sector.

Employees at Meta, Facebooks parent company, were reluctant to speak to media gathered outside the tech giants European headquarters in Dublin about the confirmation of thousands of job losses.

People leaving the Grand Canal Dock building declined to give their reaction to 11,000 workers globally being let go.

It is understood redundancies in Metas Ireland operation will be in line with the global headcount reduction of 13%, with people familiar with the process suggesting that 350 jobs are at risk.

A steady stream of people were seen entering and leaving Meta HQ on Wednesday afternoon, but none answered questions, including on whether employees had been advised not to speak to reporters.

Irish law requires that an information and consultation process should be carried out with employees representatives at least 30 days before a notice of dismissal is given, with an enhanced exit or redundancy packages offered in most cases.

Employees were notified throughout the day that their roles are potentially at risk, with more exact figures expected at the end of the consultation process.

Irelands deputy leader, Leo Varadkar, briefed his Cabinet colleagues on the latest job losses to hit the tech sector, after Twitter and Stripe announced a cut to their workforces last week.

Mr Varadkar told ministers on Wednesday that this should not be viewed as a major crisis in the tech sector, but instead as downsizing after years of phenomenal growth.

The Tanaiste and enterprise minister said that companies have given assurances that legal procedures will be followed.

He also said staff who have lost their jobs will be offered assistance from the government to find other employment, set up their own business or return to education.

The Irish Government is expecting its income tax revenues to take a hit as a result of the high-wage job losses.

Despite warnings of the Irish Exchequers over-reliance on corporate tax paid by several multinational tech giants with European headquarters in Dublin, the Irish Government has indicated it is not overly reliant on any one sector of its economy.

Meta said it had informed the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Enterprise, and Irelands foreign investment agency, the IDA, about the intended redundancies.

It also said that the restructuring announced by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg would not impact on Irelands status or long-term investment plans in Ireland.
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue has said he is disappointed and surprised by the resignation of Marc MacSharry from Fianna Fail.

Mr McConalogue also said he would have preferred the Sligo-Leitrim TD to have continued in the parliamentary party.

His comments came as Mr MacSharry claimed he was being discriminated against in the Dail when it came to speaking time.

An outburst by the Independent TD led to the Dail being suspended for a time on Wednesday after he refused to accept a ruling by the Leas Ceann Comhairle Catherine Connolly.

Mr MacSharry resigned from Fianna Fail last week over the handling of a bullying complaint against him made by a party councillor.

He also accused the Taoiseach Micheal Martin of failing to properly investigate the complaint.

The Taoiseach has strongly rejected the assertions made by Mr MacSharry.

Im disappointed to see that Marc (MacSharry) has decided to resign from the party, Mr McConalogue said on Wednesday.

Im surprised to see that as well.

It was a decision he made himself. He also made the decision just about a year ago to resign from the parliamentary party himself as well.

The minister said his absolute preference would be to have Mr MacSharry continue in the party working with all of us in a constructive fashion but that that was not the way it had worked out.

I think the Taoiseach has also made it clear his openness to having Marc (MacSharry) back in the parliamentary party, also made it clear that the objective was to resolve the issue that had arisen as quickly as possible, Mr McConalogue added.

So its a disappointment, but were a voluntary organisation as a party.
Survivors waiting on deck of the Ocean Viking rescue ship in the Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Sicily, on November 6, 2022. VINCENZO CIRCOSTA / AP

In the late afternoon of Tuesday, November 8, the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking asked France to assign it a safe port to disembark the 234 people it rescued in the Mediterranean Sea as they fled Libya and tried to reach the European continent. Between October 22 and October 26, the SOS Mediterranee and Red Cross NGO boat conducted six rescue operations at sea with migrants from Bangladesh, Eritrea, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, among other countries. Sophie Beau, co-founder of SOS Mediterranee explained, "Everyone is exhausted. The situation can degenerate at any moment. People are threatening to throw themselves overboard. We have reached a breaking point and no end is in sight."

The ship repeatedly asked Italy to allow it to disembark but in vain. It has therefore headed for France and could arrive off Corsica as early as November 10. On Tuesday afternoon, the Italian agency ANSA quoted an anonymous source in the French Ministry of the Interior saying that the French authorities were preparing to open the Port of Marseille to the Ocean Viking. However, when contacted, the ministry did not confirm this information.

On Wednesday morning, government spokesman Olivier Veran clarified the French position by asking Italy to "play its part" and "respect its European commitments" by welcoming the Ocean Viking. "The boat is currently in Italian territorial waters. There are extremely clear European rules that have been accepted by the Italians, who are, in fact, the main beneficiary of a European financial solidarity mechanism," said Mr. Veran, adding that the current attitude of the Italian government is "unacceptable."

Read more Subscribers only Italy again becomes main entry point for migrants arriving in Europe

Heated negotiations

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On Tuesday, the new Italian executive, led by the far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, took Frances reception of the boat as a given, claiming a political victory. This was a demonstration that Italys tough stance against NGOs had paid off, allowing it to achieve a shift in the French position.

"We greatly appreciate Frances decision to share responsibility for the migration emergency, which until now has been the responsibility of Italy and a few other Mediterranean states," the Italian government said in a statement on Tuesday. "We did not wait for the Meloni government to set up European solidarity in the management of migratory flows, of which Italy is the primary beneficiary," the French Ministry of the Interior said on Tuesday, referring to a relocation mechanism that is not very operational and that the Italian side considers inefficient.

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British Minister of State without Portfolio, Gavin Williamson, in London on November 7 TOBY MELVILLE / REUTERS

A senior member of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government announced his resignation Tuesay night after mounting allegations that he bullied colleagues.

Gavin Williamson announced his resignation as minister of state without portfolio in a letter posted on Twitter, four days after the Times published expletive-laden text messages he sent to another Member of Parliament. After that, a senior civil servant alleged that Mr. Williamson subjected them to sustained bullying, telling the individual to "slit your throat" on one occasion and "jump out of the window" on another.

In his resignation letter, Mr. Williamson said he had apologized for the text messages and was co-operating with an investigation of that conduct. But he rejected suggestions that the second incident involved bullying. "I refute the characterization of these claims, but I recognize these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing for the British people,'' Mr. Williamson wrote. "I have therefore decided to step back from government so that I can comply fully with the complaints process that is underway and clear my name of any wrongdoing."

Mr. Williamson's resignation comes amid criticism that Mr. Sunak has failed to live up to his pledge to make integrity a central focus of his government. Opposition leaders have also called for the resignation of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who Mr. Sunak reappointed just six days after she resigned for breaching the rules on ministerial conduct.

Read more Subscribers only British home secretary under fire over saturated asylum system

Mr. Sunak took office two weeks ago after his predecessor, Liz Truss, was forced to step down after her budget proposals triggered economic turmoil. Ms. Truss was prime minister for just six weeks after she replaced Boris Johnson, who resigned after a series of scandals ranging from illegal parties during pandemic lockdowns to allegations of improper use of political donations.

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Many observers were surprised when Mr. Sunak named Mr. Williamson to a position in his government because he was twice forced out of previous Cabinet posts. Mr. Williamson resigned as defense secretary in 2019 after a leak of confidential information from the National Security Council. He lost his job as education secretary in 2021 after standardized exams were disrupted due to the pandemic.

Mr. Sunak thanked Mr. Williamson for his "unwavering support" as he accepted the resignation. "I support your decision to step back and understand why you have taken it," the prime minister said in a letter to Mr. Williamson.

Le Monde with AP
Kansas

Incumbent Democratic Governor Laura Kelly addresses the crowd during her watch party at the Ramada Hotel Downtown Topeka on November 8, 2022 in Topeka, Kansas. MICHAEL B. THOMAS / AFP

Democratic Governor Laura Kelly won reelection in GOP-leaning Kansas, overcoming Republican efforts to tie her to President Joe Biden and high inflation and likely benefitting from moderate GOP and independent voters frustrations with a failed summer attempt to tighten abortion laws.

Ms. Kelly defeated Republican Derek Schmidt, the states three-term attorney general, after highlighting Kansas improved finances and greater spending on public schools on her watch, as well as successes in luring businesses. Ms. Kellys support for abortion rights also likely played an important role, though she didnt emphasize that issue in her fall campaign.

"The people of Kansas sent a very clear message at the polls yesterday. Kansans said we will keep moving forward as a state, full steam ahead  there will be no turning backward," Ms. Kelly said Wednesday in a statement declaring victory. "Perhaps above all, I believe Kansans voted today for civility, for cooperation, for listening to one another, and for a spirit of bi-partisan problem-solving, thats become all too rare in our politics today."

Her victory was a bitter defeat for Republicans. They had high hopes of ousting the only Democratic governor seeking reelection this year in a state that ex-President Donald Trump won easily in 2020.

Connecticut

Ned Lamont speaks during a gubernatorial debate ANTHONY QUINN / AP

Democrat Ned Lamont has won re-election as Connecticut governor, defeating Republican businessman Bob Stefanowski for the second time in four years following a campaign battle that focused on abortion access, crime and the cost of living.

Mr. Lamont weathered Mr. Stefanowskis accusations that hes oblivious to the financial toll that inflation and taxes have taken on everyday residents, instead painting for voters a rosy picture of a state that has successfully emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, reduced taxes, paid down pension debt and now has a robust savings account.

The two rivals presented starkly different views of public safety in Connecticut. Mr. Stefanowski called crime in Connecticut "out of control," echoing a message from Republicans across the country, and proposed overhauling parts of the 2020 police accountability law which he said is to blame for challenges recruiting more police officers. Mr. Lamont has countered with statistics that show a 3% reduction in overall crime between 2020 and 2021, saying its a positive trend despite political "fearmongering."

Democrats focused heavily on the abortion issue, in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. They hoped to drive abortion-rights supporters to the polls in a state where abortion is legal with restrictions. Mr. Stefanowski calls himself pro-choice, but Democrats argued he cant be trusted to protect Connecticuts laws. Former President Donald Trump backed Mr. Stefanowski in his 2018 run, but he did not weigh in on this years race.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (centre) on Wednesday, November 9 in Madison ANDY MANIS / AP

Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels conceded on Wednesday, November 8 to Democratic Governor Tony Evers in the battleground state, with more than 90% of the expected vote counted.

Mr. Michels is a construction company co-owner who was backed by former President Donald Trump, and campaigned as a political outsider, saying he wanted to do away with the states bipartisan elections commission.

The race was the most expensive in state history and a key one for Democrats ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Mr. Evers serves as a block on the Republican-controlled Legislature, and frequently touted the more than 120 vetoes he issued to block Republican legislation in his first term, including bills that would have broadened gun rights, made it harder to get an abortion and tougher to cast absentee ballots. Future elections loomed large in the race, with Mr. Evers arguing that democracy was on the ballot.

Wisconsin voters are sharply divided over Evers job performance, with roughly half saying they approve and an equal proportion disapproving. according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,200 voters in the state.

Michigan

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks to supporters during an election night watch party BRANDON BELL / AFP

Democrat Gretchen Whitmer has been re-elected as governor in Michigan, defeating Republican challenger Tudor Dixon in the battleground state where abortion had become a key issue.

Ms. Whitmer was first elected in 2018 after years in the Legislature and has since become a leading voice in the Democratic Party, delivering the partys response to former President Donald Trumps State of the Union address in 2020. She has said in interviews that she will not run for president in 2024 even if President Joe Biden doesnt seek reelection.

Ms. Whitmer led a statewide ticket of Democrats that centered their campaigns on abortion rights after the US Supreme Courts overturning of Roe vs. Wade. She filed multiple lawsuits in state courts to block a 1931 law banning abortion from taking effect.

While Michigan has been slow to bounce back from some of the countrys strictest Covid-19 policies, Ms. Whitmer has said priorities in her second-term include bringing auto jobs back to the state and helping small businesses recover.

Ms. Whitmer spent millions on ads attacking Ms. Dixon, a former political commentator and horror-film actress, for being too "extreme" on abortion, which went unanswered for months as her Republican opponent struggled to fundraise. Ms. Dixon, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, opposes the procedure in all cases except to save the life of the mother.

Hawaii

Hawaii Gov.-elect Josh Green flashes Hawaiian shakes at supporters at the Democratic Party headquarters in Honolulu MARCO GARCIA / AP

Josh Green, a Democrat, on Tuesday defeated Republican former Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona to be Hawaii's next governor. Mr. Green has served as second-in-command to Hawaii governor David Ige for the past four years. Prior to that, he was a state senator and representative. Mr. Green was a doctor in rural areas on the Big Island before entering politics. He has continued working part-time as a physician while in the state Legislature and as lieutenant governor.

Mr. Green developed a following during the Covid-19 pandemic for his explanations of infection rates and trends and hospital treatment capacity and was heavily favored to beat Mr. Aiona, who unsuccessfully ran for the office in 2010 and 2014.

Both Mr. Green and Mr. Aiona focused on Hawaii's debilitating housing costs as the most important issue of their campaigns and their prospective administrations. Statewide, the median price for a single-family home topped $900,000 during the coronavirus pandemic. That's among the highest in the nation, even though many in Hawaii work in low-wage tourism and service industry jobs. On Oahu, the median is over $1 million.

Nebraska

Jim Pillen gives a speech after the gubernatorial election is called in his favor KENNETH FERRIERA / AP

Republican Jim Pillen was elected Nebraska governor on Tuesday, beating Democratic state Sen. Carol Blood and continuing the GOP's 24-year string of success in the conservative state.

Nebraska hasn't elected a Democrat as governor since 1994, and Mr. Pillen was the clear favorite after emerging from a contentious primary in the spring over eight other candidates. Mr. Pillen will replace governor Pete Ricketts, who couldn't run for reelection because of term limits.

The primary highlighted divisions in the Republican Party between activists who support Trump and want to take the party further to the right and more moderate members who backed Mr. Pillen, Most top GOP leaders in the state endorsed Pillen, including Mr. Ricketts, former governor Kay Orr, and former University of Nebraska football coach and congressman Tom Osborne.

Georgia

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp addresses supporters at a watch party after winning re-election MEGAN VARNER / AFP

Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams conceded to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Tuesday, November 8, in a rematch of their 2018 race.

Ms. Abrams called Mr. Kemp to concede, according to his campaign, and went on stage minutes later to congratulate the governor. "I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to make sure the people of Georgia have a voice," she said.

Mr. Kemp, who was a developer before serving as a state senator and secretary of state, clinched another term despite attacks from former President Donald Trump that threatened to snuff out support in his own party.

"Well, it looks like the reports of my political death have been greatly exaggerated," Mr. Kemp told supporters after Ms. Abrams' concession.

Mr. Kemp, 59, seemed on shaky ground among Republicans after the 2020 presidential election, when Mr. Trump blamed him for not doing enough to overturn President Joe Bidens narrow win in Georgia. Mr. Trump helped lure former US Senator David Perdue into a primary challenge to Mr. Kemp, whom he called a "complete and total failure".

Minnesota

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks to the crowd at the DFL election-night party after winning re-election ABBIE PARR / AP

Democrat Tim Walz won a second term as Minnesota's governor, fending off a challenge by Republican Scott Jensen, a family practice physician who grabbed national attention with his vaccine scepticism. Mr. Walz led Minnesota through the Covid-19 pandemic  including lockdowns, school shutdowns, and business closures. He also led the state through the unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. He made his support for abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign.

Mr. Jensen hammered Walz for rising crime, including failing to control damaging protests after Mr. Floyd's death, and for what he called damaging shutdowns during the coronavirus. But he proved vulnerable on abortion, which remains legal in Minnesota. Mr. Jensen supported a complete ban early in the campaign, then softened his position after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and after Democrats ran countless ads highlighting his stance.

Mr. Walz's victory extends the Democratic Party's 12-year grip on the governor's office. The last time a Minnesota Republican won statewide office was in 2006 when governor Tim Pawlenty was reelected.

Read more Republicans win House majority, view the results in maps

Idaho

Idaho Gov. Brad Little speaks after winning re-election in Boise KYLE GREEN / AP

Republican Brad Little wins re-election for governor in Idaho. The 68-year-old Republican governor who shepherded the state through the Covid-19 pandemic easily turned aside challenges from Democratic candidate Stephen Heidt and independent candidate and antigovernment activist Ammon Bundy in the deeply conservative state.

Mr. Little ignored Mr. Heidt and Mr. Bundy leading up to the election, declining to debate. He instead focused his attacks on President Joe Biden and made border security and inflation a priority. He also touted the record tax cuts, red tape reduction measures, and big boosts in education spending.

California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks after winning his second term in office, in Sacramento, accompanied by his family RICH PEDRONCELLI / AP

Democrat Gavin Newsom wins re-election for governor in California. Mr. Newsom vowed, in October, during the debate with his Republican challenger, state Sen. Brian Dahle, that he would serve a full four-year term if re-elected in November, trying again to knock down speculation that he wants to replace Democrat Joe Biden on the ballot should he not seek a second term.

Mr. Newsom was expected to easily win re-election more than one year after beating back a recall attempt fueled by anger at his pandemic policies  which included the nation's first statewide stay-at-home order. He has barely campaigned in California this year, instead spending money on ads in challenging Republican leaders in Florida and Texas  potential opponents in a presidential election.

Read more Subscribers only California Governor Gavin Newsom brings his campaign beyond state line

Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gives a thumbs up to the crowd DAVID J. PHILLIP / AP

Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott won a third term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Beto O'Rourke in a race that tested the direction of America's supersized red state following the Uvalde school massacre and a strict new abortion ban.

But in rapidly changing Texas  a booming juggernaut of 29 million people that is becoming younger, less white, and a magnet for major companies  Mr. Abbott remained a bulwark for the GOP in the face of a high-profile and hard-charging challenger. He capitalized on anxieties about crime and inflation against a charismatic rival who took up the fight for voters soured by mass shootings, an abortion ban, and the deadly failure of the state's power grid in 2021.

Mr. Abbott, 64, strengthened his position as a potential 2024 presidential contender and secured his place as the state's second-longest-serving governor. He has maximized executive power like virtually none of his predecessors in Texas, stewarding a dramatic $4 billion operation on the US-Mexico border in the name of curbing immigration, all while crushing challengers from his right and spending lavishly to sideline legislative critics.

South Dakota

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem waves to the crowd at her election watch party after winning re-election ERIN WOODIEL / AP

Republican South Dakota governor Kristi Noem defeated a Democratic state lawmaker on Tuesday to win re-election, leaning heavily on her handling of the coronavirus pandemic in a first term marked by positioning herself for a possible White House bid in 2024.

Ms. Noem has said she would serve a full four-year term if re-elected, but she generated speculation about higher political ambitions by becoming a fixture in conservative media and making appearances in key 2024 states. Her fundraising haul was a historic amount of money for a South Dakota gubernatorial candidate.

Ms. Noem's campaign centered largely on her handling of the state's economy as well as her record of forgoing most government mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic. The 50-year-old Republican vaulted to national prominence within the GOP during her first term after deriding those government mandates.

One of her first priorities for her second term will be delivering on a campaign promise to repeal the state's tax on groceries. On the campaign trail, Ms. Noem cast the tax repeal as a way to deliver quick relief to family budgets squeezed by inflation. But in the Legislature, she will have to convince a Republican-controlled Senate that the state government can go without a tax that annually brings in roughly $100 million.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt celebrates his victory in his bid for re-election SUE OGROCKI / AP

Oklahoma's Republican governor Kevin Stitt held off a tougher-than-expected challenge to his re-election on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Joy Hofmeister despite millions of dollars in attack ads against him.

Mr. Stitt, 49, was aided in part by a late infusion of advertisements from the Republican Governor's Association that linked Ms. Hofmeister to President Joe Biden, who lost every one of the state's 77 counties in the 2020 presidential election and remains unpopular in the state.

Mr. Stitt, a wealthy mortgage company owner who dumped nearly $2 million of his own money into his campaign in the closing weeks, told voters he was making progress on his promise of four years ago to improve the state's low rankings in many quality-of-life indicators. He boasted of record-level state savings and funding for public schools under his watch, and the state's rapid emergence from pandemic-related closures that helped the economy rebound quickly and keep the state's unemployment rate low.

Colorado

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis at an election watch party in downtown Denver DAVID ZALUBOWSKI / AP

Democrat Jared Polis wins re-election for governor in Colorado. His Republican challenger Joe O'Dea, a first-time candidate, focused his campaign on crime and inflation. But his position as the rare Republican who backs some abortion rights carved out for Mr. O'Dea a unique position. Republicans saw him as one of their best recruits, although GOP-aligned PACs were slow to spend money on his behalf.

Colorado has been shifting toward Democrats in recent elections, thanks in part to an influx of college-educated voters in the expanding Denver metropolitan area.

Vermont

Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott prepares to cast his ballot at the Town Clerk's office in his home town of Berlin WILSON RING / AP

Voters in Vermont elected Republican governor Phil Scott to his fourth two-year term as the state's top executive. Mr. Scott, 64, defeated Democrat Brenda Siegel and three independent candidates.

Since he became governor in 2017, Mr. Scott said, he has focused on minimizing the tax burden, ensuring that vulnerable Vermonters are helped, and growing the economy. He said that the work is not yet finished. Although a Republican, Mr. Scott was a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump and voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Ohio

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and wife Fran acknowledge the crowd at a watch party in Columbus ANDREW SPEAR / AFP

Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday gained a second term as he defeated challenger Nan Whaley, a Democrat who hoped to regain a seat last won by her party 16 years ago. Mr. DeWine prevailed in a surprisingly tight three-way primary in May as conservatives angered by his efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus sought to unseat him.

"This is Ohio's time in history, things are coming our way," Mr. DeWine said in his victory speech. But he also said unfinished business lay ahead, from ensuring proper pre-natal and post-natal care for children, making sure students graduating from high school have a clear pathway to college or other career opportunities, and removing barriers to treatment for addiction and mental illness.

Mr. DeWine and Ms. Whaley bonded briefly over the 2019 mass shooting that killed nine in Dayton and wounded more than two dozen. But Ms. Whaley increasingly criticized the governor for his failure to pass stronger gun laws and for his anti-abortion stance.

Tennessee

Bill Lee and his wife Maria on November 8 MARK HUMPHREY / AP

Tennessee governor Bill Lee has won his re-election contest, keeping Republican control of a top statewide office that hasn't been in Democratic hands for more than a decade. Mr. Lee defeated Democrat Jason Martin.

Mr. Lee, a businessman and farmer, cruised through the primary without a Republican opponent, then sealed the win over Mr. Martin without agreeing to any debates.

Iowa

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks to supporters during a Republican Party of Iowa election night rally CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / AP

Republican Iowa governor Kim Reynolds won a second full term Tuesday, campaigning on a record of tax cuts and conservative handling of the state's economy to defeat Democrat Deidre DeJear.

Ms. Reynolds was appointed governor in 2017 and narrowly won her first full term a year later, but her run for re-election never seemed in doubt as she has raised nearly $7.5 million and campaigned on her success in building a $2 billion surplus even as she pushed through tax cuts.

Wyoming

Republican Mark Gordon has won a second term as Wyoming's governor. Mr. Gordon beat Democrat Theresa Livingston, a retired educator and US Bureau of Land Management employee. Neither campaigned extensively.

Mr. Gordon emphasized his efforts to diversify Wyoming's economy away from fossil fuels, mentioning ongoing work to develop new uses for coal and an unconventional nuclear reactor.

He prevailed despite being criticized by fellow Republicans for closing off businesses and public places during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. His pandemic response drew calls for a Republican to challenge him.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, right, speaks as First lady Jill Biden, center, and his wife, Susan, left, attend a networking event for students DAVID GOLDMAN / AP

Democratic governor Dan McKee has defeated Republican challenger Ashley Kalus to win his first full term in office. Mr. McKee is a former lieutenant governor who became the state's chief executive in March 2021 when two-term governor Gina Raimondo was tapped as US commerce secretary.

He was the heavy favorite in the liberal state as both a Democrat and incumbent, who was endorsed by a host of large unions. Like Democrats nationwide, he worked to keep abortion rights front and center in the campaign and convince voters that he would champion reproductive rights.

Illinois

JB Pritzker celebrates with his wife NAM Y. HUH / AP

Incumbent Democrat governor JB Pritzker defeated Trump-backed state Sen. Darren Bailey. Mr. Bailey was among the far-right Republicans that Democrats spent tens of millions of dollars to bolster during the primaries, betting they would be easier to beat in general elections than their more moderate rivals.

In a triumphant victory speech, Mr. Pritzker sounded more like a candidate for president with the clarion call: "Are you ready to fight?" He warned against extremism and former President Donald Trump's "treasonous insurrection," which he said too many Republicans embrace.

Alabama

Gov. Kay Ivey greets supporters at her election night watch party VASHA HUNT / AP

Alabama governor Kay Ivey easily won a second full term Tuesday against Democrat Yolanda Flowers, the first Black woman to win a major party's gubernatorial nomination in the state, after surviving both a health scare and multiple Republican challengers in the primary. Ms. Ivey repeated former President Donald Trump's lies about election theft and aired a campaign commercial in which she pulled a pistol out of her purse.

South Carolina

Henry McMaster in August 2022 MEG KINNARD / AP

Republican governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina has won a historic re-election bid after he faced voters one last time in his long political career. Mr. McMaster, 75, defeated Democrat Joe Cunningham, who repeatedly highlighted the 35-year age gap between the two.

If he completes his second term, Mr. McMaster would serve as governor for 10 years, longer than any other executive in the state's history. He has touted the booming economy and his willingness to fight Democratic President Joe Biden when needed. A Democrat hasn't been elected governor in the state since 1998.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts Gov.-elect Maura Healey on November 8 MICHAEL DWYER / AP

Democrats flipped the Republican-held governorship, making Maura Healey the first openly gay person and the first woman elected as Massachusetts' governor. "Massachusetts embraced a platform of equality and inclusion by electing a pro-equality champion," LGBTQ+ rights group the Human Rights Campaign's interim president Joni Madison, said in a statement.

Ms. Healey's triumph returns the state's governorship to Democrats after eight years of Republican leadership under Charlie Baker who opted not to seek a third term. Ms. Healey was on track to heavily beat Geoff Diehl, who had been endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

Maryland

Democrat Wes Moore speaks on the phone with Gov. Larry Hogan after Moore was declared the winner of the Maryland gubernatorial race BRYAN WOOLSTON / AP

Democrat Wes Moore was elected Maryland's first Black governor on Tuesday, defeating Republican Dan Cox in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1. Mr. Moore's victory flips a governor's office from Republican to Democratic.

Only two other Black politicians have ever been elected governor in the United States  Virginia's Douglas Wilder in 1989, and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts in 2006.

New Hampshire

Governor Chris Sununu in July 2022 CHARLES KRUPA / AP

Republican governor Chris Sununu defeated Democratic state Sen. Tom Sherman, becoming only the second governor in New Hampshire history to win a fourth term. After facing intense pressure to run for US Senate, Mr. Sununu shocked the political establishment last year when he instead decided to seek another two-year term as governor.

Saying he was ill-suited to the slow speed of politics in Washington, he argued he could have a bigger and more direct impact as governor than as a senator.

Arkansas

Arkansas Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders, center, poses for a photo with family and supporters during her election night party in Little Rock WILL NEWTON / AP

Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Trump White House press secretary, was elected governor in Arkansas, becoming the state's first female governor. She defeated Democratic nominee Chris Jones to nab the seat that her father, Mike Huckabee, held from 1996 to 2007.

Ms. Huckabee Sanders shattered state fundraising records with her campaign, which focused primarily on national issues and she regularly promised to use the office to fight President Joe Biden and the "radical left." Ms. Huckabee Sanders succeeds Republican governor Asa Hutchinson, who is leaving office in January due to term limits. Mr. Hutchinson, who endorsed Ms. Huckabee Sanders' bid, is considering running for president in 2024 and has frequently split with Mr. Trump.

Florida

Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey DeSantis speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in Tampa GIORGIO VIERA / AFP

Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis won a second term, defeating Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, a former congressman. The victory continues Mr. DeSantis' rise as a national Republican star as he eyes a possible 2024 White House run that could leave him well positioned to be a GOP primary alternative to Donald Trump.

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Mr. DeSantis gained national attention for his opposition to strict measures aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19, and has made himself a standard bearer of the conservative backlash to growing tolerance for LGBT rights.

Le Monde with AP and AFP
LATEST figures released show Limerick citys student population has grown to just under 30,000.

Students studying at the University of Limerick (UL), Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) and Mary Immaculate College (MIC) make up the student figures.

A further 15,000 full and part-time students are undertaking post-leaving certificate or further education courses.

According to Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) these figures show the potential that Limerick has to harness the power of students to create a vibrant and busy city from a retail, hospitality and cultural standpoint.

The news comes as a four-week student marketing campaign by LCCC concludes.

The Limerick Student City campaign by LCCCs Marketing and Communications Department encouraged university students, further education students, apprentices and those undertaking skills-based learning to go out and experience Limerick city like never before.

The campaign, which used #LimerickStudentCity on social media, employed captivating content including Instagram Reels, static imagery and campaign-specific graphics to engage with students.

The campaign welcomed new students to Limerick and encouraged them to explore all that Limerick has to offer off-campus.

Figures for the social campaign were hugely positive with 505,187 total impressions, 122,028 video views and a reach of 377,855 people.

The social and on-campus campaign informed students that there is more to student life than their campus and Limerick city is the perfect place for them to maximise their student experience.

Staff from the Marketing and Communications team visited the campuses of UL, TUS Moylish, TUS LSAD and MIC in person and created engagement with Limerick.ie and our social channels via an iPad giveaway, a representative from LCCC said.

The iPad competition was won by Meaghan Gilmartin, who is a third-year Early Childhood Education and Care student at TUS Moylish.

The overall campaign was supported by UL, TUS and MICs social media campaigns and also helped to mark the Limerick Open Days on the 20 and 21 October, 2022.
A JUDGE said a young man had run out of road, before imposing a prison sentence.

Gavin Ryan, aged 24, of The Grove, Pallasgreen pleaded guilty to being intoxicated; threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour under the Public Order Act and failing to appear at a previous court sitting

Inspector Gearoid Thompson said gardai were on patrol in the Bru na nDeise estate in Bruff on May 22, 2022.

Gardai observed the defendant arguing with a female. They spoke to him and he engaged in abusive behaviour towards gardai. He has 13 previous convictions - six for public order, said Insp Thompson.

Con Barry, solicitor for Mr Ryan, said his client apologises.

He is 24 and has been idle since school - he got to fifth year. He is not working but is trying to get into construction. He has a lot of time on his hands, said Mr Barry.

Judge Patricia Harney said enough is enough.

He has run out of road, said Judge Harney, who made reference to Mr Ryans previous convictions for public order offences.

She sentenced Mr Ryan to one week in prison for threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour and fined him 100 for failing to appear. The intoxication charge was taken into consideration.

Recognisance was fixed in the event of an appeal.
THE OWNER of a family-run business popular with Limerick people has called on the government to "save rural towns and villages" after she received an electricity bill worth 20,000.

Flora Crowe, who runs Crowes supermarket in Sixmilebridge in Clare said she was shocked after opening the energy bill, despite retrofitting the entire store in 2021 in an effort to reduce costs.

How am I going to pay this? I cant. We are a family run business, she told Limerick Live.

Hows your day going . pic.twitter.com/vYGGGPerKJ  Flora Crowe (@floracrowe) November 8, 2022

Last year, the store, which houses a scratch bakery and a deli, managed to reduce its energy bill to 6,500 after extensive renovations to its lights and fridges.

Since then, the 23 locally-employed members of staff have been made aware of energy saving measures, such as turning off the lights and oven where possible.

Despite this, Crowes still received an electricity bill for 15,000 this September and knew that an even bigger increase was coming down the track.

We are high energy users, and this was never going to work. We have to turn on the oven to bake bread and we need our fridges. The cost increase is just too high, Flora said about the latest bill.

She is calling on the government to reclassify energy costs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas, warning that if they dont, rural Ireland will be dead on the ground.

Flora also noted that consumer spending has dropped in the last month and while she was reluctant to consider any job-cuts, she said: If I keep paying these bills, we will have to close our doors.

Cathal Crowe TD, who represents Clare, said that the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme to be introduced will help shops like Crowes (no relation) by paying 40% of their energy bill increases.

Announced on Budget Day, it will provide funding of up to 10,000 per month. Despite this, Flora said that with bills like this month's, her family-run business will need help with the other 60%.

A business like Crowes shop in Sixmilebridge has so many overheads and bills like cooling and heating that will not go away, Deputy Crowe told Limerick Live.

When asked if government can reclassify electricity costs for SMEs, he said: During Covid there were a range of supports and there was an in-built flexibility.

We need the same flexibility built in with this business grant, and I will be talking to ministers about this in the coming week. Flora has no guarantee that her next bill will be lower than this, if anything it will probably be higher, he said.

Flora hopes that this may be the catalyst for government action to help save businesses like hers.

Whatever hope we had in September of paying, we have no hope this month and absolutely no chance of paying the bill in January, Flora added.
Almost half a million euro in funding has been announced to support members of the Travelling community access apprenticeships.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, yesterday (November 8) announced the roll-out of 450,000 for the initiative.

It will be used for a 1-year pilot Traveller Apprenticeship Incentivisation Programme, which is aimed at both increased uptake of and retention on apprenticeships.

Speaking about the news, Minister Harris said, "Whilst an apprenticeship is a paid employment contract, there are associated costs, such as tools or PPE, for apprentices. Additional funding would help socio-economically disadvantaged apprentices with such costs.

"Equally, there may [be] costs for younger Travellers in accessing pre-apprenticeship and Access to Apprenticeship programmes. They may be reliant on public transport and having some funding towards this as well as supports for learning to drive would help them.

"I am delighted that the project has the committed support of the Irish Traveller Movement, Pavee Point, the National Apprenticeship Office and the national Access to Apprenticeship Programme. The experience and knowledge of these partners has helped shape the Programme and they will be engaged in its delivery during the year."

The programme will be structured across three streams.

Stream 1 offers a 3,000 bursary each for 25 Travellers employed as new apprentices and a 2,000 incentive payment each for their employers, in Stream 2 a 3,000 bursary will each be allocated to 25 existing Traveller apprentices, and Stream 3 offers a 3,000 bursary each for 25 Travellers to access pre-apprenticeship and Access to Apprenticeship programmes.

Director of the Irish Traveller Movement, Bernard Joyce, said, "We welcome today's announcement by Minister Simon Harris in supporting National Traveller Apprenticeship Incentivisation Programme to further advance Traveller uptake and retention in apprenticeships, and putting in place a national outreach strategic approach for the first time is an important step in creating further opportunities for Travellers within employment and look forward to supporting the roll-out of this initiative."

According to the Co-Director of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, Martin Collins, there is "considerable" interest in apprenticeships among the Travelling community.

He said, "We know from our work that there is considerable community interest but also significant and ongoing barriers for Traveller access to, participation in, and outcomes from apprenticeship programmes.

"The road to equality for Travellers in all areas of education and training is beset by embedded barriers and discrimination. The targeted initiative launched today, along with data and monitoring processes, can have the potential to move some of them."

Director of the National Apprenticeship Office, Mary-Liz Trant, said, "Access and inclusion are cornerstones in our expansion of the national apprenticeship system.

"We hope that these targeted supports will make a real difference and make it attractive and viable for Travellers of all ages and backgrounds to choose the apprenticeship route to careers and qualifications. We look forward to working with the Traveller community and all partners to make the initiative a success."
Evelyn de Rothschild, who assisted in bringing together the British and French branches of his family's renowned banking organisation and counted Queen Elizabeth II among his clients, has passed away at 91.

He died peacefully at home," the UKs Press Association reported, citing a statement from his family.

Rothschild headed N.M. Rothschild & Sons, the London branch of the banking dynasty founded by his great-great-great-grandfather in the late 18th century, for 27 years beginning in 1976. The bank that is now known as Rothschild & Co. played a number of important roles, including helping to finance the Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

He accomplished a long-planned objective of merging the London company with its French counterpart, Rothschild & Compagnie Banque, before stepping down in 2003. That was regarded as a crucial step in maintaining competition with multinational banks that were much younger but also larger.

The first important strength of the family is unity," he told the New York Times in 1996, as he and his cousin, David de Rothschild, head of the French house, announced their new partnership.

He served as chairman of the Economist magazine from 1972 to 1989.

Mayer Amschel founded the Rothschild company. He began by trading in vintage coins in a Frankfurt shanty. The red shield, or "rote Schild" in German, which was hung above an ancestor's home in the 1560s served as the inspiration for his family's surname.

Early in the nineteenth century, he sent his five sons to found Rothschild offices in London, Paris, Naples, Vienna, and Frankfurt. Evelyn's great-great grandfather, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, is commemorated by the London-based N.M. Rothschild company.

The family's power diminished in the 20th century as a result of American banks being used by European governments to finance both world wars against Germany. Evelyn and his cousin Jacob transformed N.M. Rothschild into a British merchant bank after World War II, arranging international bond deals for nations like Chile and Hungary.

Due to Jacob's desire to merge with S.G. Warburg & Co. in order to compete with Wall Street firms and expand internationally, the two had a highly publicised breakup in 1980. When Evelyn refused, Jacob resigned and started RIT Capital Partners Plc, a subsidiary investment company.

The preservation of family control took precedence over expansion," British historian Niall Ferguson wrote in his second volume on the Rothschild clan. It was a serious rift within the English branch of the family."

Evelyn Rothschild, for his part, rebuilt N.M. Rothschild by appointing a number of reputable bankers. Michael Richardson, a partner at Cazenove, was one of them. He helped the bank secure the position of lead underwriter in the sales of shares in state-owned firms like British Gas Plc and British Petroleum Plc because of his friendship with Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

Additionally, Rothschild assisted the company's growth in China, where it opened a Beijing office in 1999.

In 1989, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him. He served as one of the queen's financial advisors for a long time.

No one is tighter at spending than the queen," he told the London Evening Standard in 2017. She grew up during the war. Very disciplined."

According to the website of the Rothschild Archive, an independent charitable trust, Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild was born on August 29, 1931, the only child of Anthony Gustav de Rothschild and the former Yvonne Cahen d'Anvers.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)
North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest launch from Pyongyang following a record-breaking testing blitz earlier this month.

The launch comes as the United States counted votes in the midterm elections for the House and Senate, which Seoul's spy agency had previously warned would be a possible moment for Kim Jong Un to conduct a long-expected nuclear test.

Seoul's military said it had "detected a short-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea into the East Sea from Sukchon, South Pyongan Province, at around 15:31 (0631 GMT)", referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

"Strengthening surveillance and vigilance, the South Korean military maintains full preparedness while closely cooperating with the United States," it added.

The missile's "flight distance was detected at about 290 kilometres (180 miles), an altitude of about 30 kilometres, and a speed of about Mach 6," according to Seoul's military.

Japan also confirmed the launch, with the government tweeting that Pyongyang "has launched a suspected ballistic missile".

Earlier this month, North Korea conducted a flurry of launches, including an intercontinental ballistic missile, which Seoul said appeared to have failed.

Pyongyang also fired a short-range ballistic missile that crossed the de facto maritime border and landed near the South's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said at the time that it was "effectively a territorial invasion".

Both launches were part of a Wednesday November 2 barrage, when Pyongyang fired 23 missiles -- more than it launched during the whole of 2017, the year of "fire and fury" when Kim traded barbs with then-US president Donald Trump on Twitter and in state media.

"If you look at North Korea's behaviour since September 25, they have used a lot of money to consistently escalate tensions, so they need to maintain it," Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul's Ewha University, told AFP.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on September 25, which kicked off a spate of launches, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile which overflew Japan. Pyongyang later claimed these were "tactical nuclear drills".

"At the end, there will be a seventh nuclear test. Even though the joint drills are done for now, it's unlikely that North Korea will lower tensions," Park said.

- Drills, predictions -

November's flurry of launches came as hundreds of US and South Korean warplanes were participating in large-scale joint air drills, called Vigilant Storm, which Pyongyang has described as "aggressive and provocative".

Pyongyang ramped up missile launches in response to the drills. Such exercises have long provoked strong reactions from North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

On Monday, the South's military kicked off its four-day computer-simulated Taegeuk drills.

"North Korea seems to have sufficiently achieved its political and diplomatic purposes by its massive missile launches earlier this month," North Korean studies scholar Ahn Chan-il told AFP.

"It seems to be in the process of testing where to deploy strategic military units to mount tactical nuclear weapons for its next nuclear test."

Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that the North is ready to conduct another nuclear test -- which would be the country's seventh -- at any time.

But analysts questioned the utility of trying to predict exactly when it was to come.

"I really don't get the fascination with trying to predict when #NorthKorea's next nuclear test will be," Korea specialist Jenny Town wrote on Twitter.

"How has this been going on for so many months now? The reality is #DPRK does need to do additional testing to achieve the goals that they set. Not just one, but a few," she wrote, referring to North Korea by its official name.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
Gavin Williamson, a senior minister and close associate of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, resigned following claims of bullying, resulting in the first resignation at the latters Cabinet.

The text messages Williamsonsent to a coworker are the subject of an ongoing complaints procedure. While he expressed his regret to the recipient for those texts, he was following this procedure, Williamson said in his resignation letter.

There have been other allegations made about my past conduct. I refute the characterisation of these claims, but I recognise these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing," he added.

Also Read: Rishi Sunaks religious identity under radar as Christian UK gets first Hindu prime minister

When Williamson was the defence secretary under the previous prime minister Theresa May, he intimidated a senior civil worker in the Ministry of Defence and asked them to slit" their throat, media reports suggest. Williamson was already under fire for a different accusation of bullying made by a different Conservative MP.

On November 8, Anne Milton - Williamson's former deputy when he served as chief whip, said in an interview with Channel 4 News that his behaviour while in office was "threatening" and "intimidating," and that he would use MPs' health issues as "leverage".

Also Read: Britain PM Rishi Sounak's new cabinet: Who is in

She recalled one instance when he asked her to give a check to a member of parliament who required financial aid. And he waved it under my nose and said, Make sure when you give him this cheque, he knows I now own him," she said. I dont think it was a joke. It was the seriousness with which he said it."

It is with great sadness that I accept your resignation. I know your commitment to successive Conservative governments and the party over the years has been unwavering," Sunak wrote while accepting Williamsons resignation.

Also Read: Rishi Sunak proves Winston Churchill's theory on India wrong

He also thanked the senior minister for his personal support and loyalty". I know you will continue to represent your constituents with diligence and care," he added.

(With agency inputs)
Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Georgia Stacey Abrams, from left, speaks as her Republican opponent Secretary of State Brian Kemp looks on during a debate in Atlanta on Oct. 23, 2018. Photo by John Bazemore / AP
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CNN's Melissa Alonso and David Williams contributed to this report. Top image: An empty TSA screening line is seen at Orlando International Airport as the airport prepared for Hurricane Ian in late September. The airport is bracing for Tropical Storm Nicole. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Tropical Storm Nicole is on track to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane as it approaches Florida
A south Longford farmer has told of how her familys lives have been turned upside down after brazen thieves stole several thousand euros worth of machinery during a daring early morning raid.

Shirley O'Halleran said they were still coming to terms with the events of last Saturday morning at their free range egg producing farm on the outskirts of Kenagh.

The incident, part of which was captured on CCTV prior to a number of cameras being disabled, resulted in the theft of almost 10,000 in high end farm machinery and power tools.

Shirley said footage taken from the scene shows two male suspects entering the farm via a back entrance at around 1am.

The pair are believed to have sought refuge in a ditch minutes later after Shirleys husband, Derek inadvertently disturbed both assailants when returning to the farm on a tractor at around 1:15am.

Over the course of the next three or more hours, the duo proceeded to rummage through a number of sheds and outdoor holdings before making off at around 4:30am.

Shirley said while gardai have commenced an investigation behind the circumstances of last weekend, she remains fully convinced the raid was meticulously planned by a well oiled criminal gang.

These two people could be seen walking to the farm before they disabled the CCTV and to have taken what they did, the quad, the tools, they took drums of diesel and empty drums so they must have had access to a vehicle, she said.

Shirley remarked how the choice of both and possibly more suspects to stay on the property without any nervousness or worry at being caught illustrated the experience and criminal know-how of those involved.

They had absolutely no fear at all because they were on the farm from 1am to 4am.

The sheer arrogance, the cheek of them to spend that amount of time on the farm. We have two german shepherd dogs that are allowed in the house area but not the farm so they are used to people coming and going and they didn't pass any heed.

"It's obvious they scoped out the farm because they only disabled the cameras that were facing them directly and didn't touch the ones that were in other areas.

They definitely had knowledge, whether it was local knowledge I don't know. They had hoods on and ran when they saw the tractor coming.

The Longford farmer also spoke of her unbridled frustration at last weekends incident, saying its fallout has brought with it untold economic and day to day hardship for the family.

I am more upset today than I was the day it happened, she said.

It's so hard because myself and my husband work 75 to 80 hours a week, our son Keith works full time on the farm and our daughter Rebecca commutes from Dublin to work on the farm as well.

I just dont know what we are going to do.
Longford County Council executive members have indicated that Christmas lights in the county town will go ahead, but confirmed there will be a reduction in the amount of time the lights are on.

The official switching on ceremony will take place on Saturday, November 26 at 5pm at the Longford Courthouse.

Environment Minister and Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan recently suggested councils might not switch on their Christmas lights in cities and towns to conserve electricity.

The issue was raised at a meeting of Longford Municipal District members by Cllr Peggy Nolan who asked the Executive about the plans for for the lighting up of the festive season.

Replying to the query Director of Services, John Brannigan, said, We have to curtail the levels of electricity we use as an organisation. We have to lead by example. There will be a reduction in the amount of time the lights are on, but we will endeavour to minimise the impact this will have.

We will review that with our Climate Action Team. We will then let you know what hours it will be operated from, but it will be somewhat curtailed, Mr Brannigan told the members.

The war in Ukraine is creating an energy crisis for all of Europe as Russia has restricted supply.

Over the past number of months, energy providers such as Bord Gais and SSE Airtricity have been announcing more and more price hikes.

The latest increases announced by both companies will take effect at the start of October with SSE Airtricitys average prices rising by 39% for gas and 35.4% for electricity.

Councillor Gerry Warnock emphasised the importance of the Christmas lights, describing them as a morale booster for people in the town: While I do appreciate we all have to do our bit to curtail energy consumption, I would suggest going down the route of reduced time.

"We want a punchy Christmas lights for the people of Longford. Longford is the premium town in the county. It's the seat of office and it should get precedence over all other towns when it comes to Christmas lights.
Joan Killian Gallagher, a lady whose roots are firmly in Fermoyle, Lanesboro, Co Longford, recently received a very prestigious award from the American Women in Business Association.

Joan, the founder and chairman of Warden Brooks, was presented with the 2022 Enterprising Women Legacy Award.

New York City native and graduate of the American University in Washington, DC, Joan started her company in 1978 at the age of 28, a giant leap of faith encouraged by her father.

She set a goal of reaching a million dollars in sales by her 30th birthday and surpassed that goal her first year in business.

Her first order was from the legendary investment house of EF Hutton for $75,000 to create a corporate gift programme. The order was paid in advance because Joan knew that there was no chance a bank would ever give her a line of credit. The growth of her company was immediate and astronomical.

Warden Brooks responded with every product that the burgeoning market required.

The most iconic is the classic canvas duffle bag with woven ribbon handles, still a staple on Wall Street. Known as the Banker Bag, it is made today to exactly the same specifications as it was in 1978 when Joan first designed it.

Joan crossed paths with Monica Smiley, the publisher of Enterprising Women, through their memberships in the Women Presidents Organisation.

Joan agreed to design the very first tote bag for the inaugural Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Conference 20 years ago and has been providing her luxury tote bags for the conference ever since.

When Joan retired in 2019, her only child, Caroline, took over the business, fostering the same spirit of innovation and excellence in product design and manufacturing.

Carolines husband Brian Lynn, joined the team in 2020 as they continue to grow and expand globally.

Joan is really proud of her Longford heritage and she will feature on an edition of Nationwide, filmed at The Killian Homeplace cottages she restored so beautifully in Fermoyle this evening, Wednesday, November 9.

Joans great-great grandfather, Luke Killian, was born there in 1799.

She first saw the long abandoned and derelict property in 1977. Later she had an opportunity to purchase the three cottages and 60 acres of farmland.

She spent 13 years painstakingly restoring the cottages, an act of love and a tribute to the legacy of the Killian family.

With a strong connection to the University of Notre Dame - her father and his two brothers were graduates - Joan has endowed the Thomas F. Gallagher Sr. Scholarship at Notre Dame.

Since 2013, the Notre Dame Dublin summer interns have spent their first weekend at The Killian Homeplace as their introduction to life in rural Ireland.

Joan and her husband of 20 years, Christopher Clark, reside in Connecticut next door to their grandchildren Keira, Thomas and Rory, with their Border Collie puppy, Lucy.
Longford County Council are threatening to forgo approving any future social housing developments in Longford unless government bosses include the county in the State's affordable housing rollout.

Local politicians unanimously agreed to write to Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien and senior department officials over the impasse following a meeting of Longford County Council this evening.

It comes on the back of renewed calls from local politicians to ensure Longford is not excluded from the Governments multi-billion Housing For All plan.

Independent Cllr Gerry Warnock said the time had come for a more direct approach in a bid to force the hand of Leinster House chiefs.

"You have guys sitting up in the Customs House in Dublin devising policies that are simply out of kilter with the needs of counties like Longford," he said.

"We, as a county have not been listened to and it is time, we as elected members use all the tools that are at our disposal to impress on the department the absolute need there is for an affordable housing scheme in Longford."

Cllr Warnock hailed the continued efforts of senior council officials headed by Director of Services John Brannigan in endeavouring to relay the concerns of local politicians to department officials at national level.

The Longford town based councillor said the approval of close to 50 affordable houses in neighbouring Westmeath highlighted the county's glaring indifference, claiming the local authority was in the grips of a "housing nightmare" at present.

Fine Gael Cllr Peggy Nolan agreed and said Longford had been "totally forgotten" by the department.

"It beggars belief what is going on," she said.

Longford County Council are expected to formally write to the Housing Minister and Secretary General of the Department of Housing outlining those concerns over the coming days.
It would be "unsafe" to convict Stephen Silver of the murder of Gda Colm Horkan given the evidence that he was suffering from a relapse of his mental disorder at the time of the shooting, a barrister has told the Central Criminal Court.

Roisin Lacey SC, for Mr Silver's defence, in her closing speech asked the jury to consider the evidence of consultant psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright who told the trial that Mr Silver's responsibility for the shooting was diminished by a relapse of his bipolar affective disorder.

Ms Lacey said there is no doubt that what happened to Gda Horkan was a "tragedy of unspeakable proportions. You know that, we know that and Mr Silver knows that. Colm Horkan was unlawfully killed, there was no legal justification for his death and by his plea, Mr Silver has accepted that and acknowledged his responsibility for that unlawful killing."

She told the jury that it is his level of culpability that is in issue and she asked them to look at the evidence of Dr Wright who said that Mr Silver was mentally unwell secondary to non-compliance with his medication. She reminded the jury that Dr Wright said the best evidence of Mr Silver's condition was his interviews with gardai, which began 14 hours after the shooting and were recorded on DVD. In his first interview Dr Wright noted that Mr Silver was restless, talkative and over-familiar, engaged in inappropriate laughing and appeared elated. As the interviews continued he became irritable and agitated, expressed persecutory and delusional beliefs and by the third and fourth interviews he was becoming more erratic.

By his fifth and final interview on the second day of his detention Dr Wright described Mr Silver's behaviour as "bizarre, agitated, irritable and aggressive with evidence of grandiose delusions".

Dr Wright said that a defence of diminished responsibility due to mental disorder would be appropriate given his condition at the time.

Ms Lacey said that taking Dr Wright's evidence into account "and all of the other aspects of the evidence, I suggest to you it would be highly unsafe to convict Mr Silver of capital murder, or any murder."

Mr Silver (46), a motorbike mechanic from Aughaward, Foxford, Co Mayo has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Det Garda Horkan knowing or being reckless as to whether he was a member of An Garda Siochana acting in accordance with his duty. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon on 17 June 2020.

Mr Silver accepts that he shot and killed Gda Horkan but Dr Brenda Wright, a psychiatrist called by his defence, said that the accused was suffering at the time from bipolar affective disorder, a mental illness that diminished his responsibility. Professor Harry Kennedy, who was called by the prosecution, disagreed with Dr Wright and said that Mr Silver's mental capacity was intact at the time of the killing.

At the beginning of her address to the jury Ms Lacey also asked the jury to consider whether the prosecution had proven that Gda Horkan was actually a member of An Garda Siochana acting in accordance with his duty. She said the prosecution had provided no explanation for a discrepancy between the date when Gda Horkan's identification card was issued and the date on which he was said to have been attested as a garda. Ms Lacey also said that Gda Horkan's identification number as given to the jury by a garda who was called by the prosecution differed from the number on his identity card.

She said she accepted that there was evidence from a senior garda who said she had given Gda Horkan the duties of a detective on the day in question and there was evidence from other gardai about Gda Horkan coming on duty that day. But, Ms Lacey added: "What wasn't before you was formal proof in relation to his membership of An Garda Siochana and the law is that the prosecution must prove each and every element beyond a reasonable doubt and yet, there are discrepancies that are not yet explained."

She told the jury that the issue of membership is a matter for them.

Counsel said that in cases where a person claims diminished responsibility due to a mental disorder, it is up to the defence to prove its case on the balance of probabilities. She said that the evidence heard proves to that standard that Mr Silver was in a relapse at the time of the killing, and added: "On that basis we urge you to find his responsibility was substantially diminished and to return a verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility."

She reminded the jury of the evidence of Mr Silver's sister, Marian Bruen, who knew from a telephone call with her brother the day before the shooting that he needed to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Mrs Bruen said that she had seen her brother during his first admission in 1997 and during several relapses since then. She described him as a "nine out of ten" and contacted her mother to say that he needed to go to hospital.

Ms Lacey said there was further evidence of Mr Silver engaging in abnormal behaviour and having delusional beliefs in the days and hours leading up to the shooting. He said that he believed a woman he was seeing was a member of MI6 and that a group of builders he saw in Dublin were members of the SAS and might have planted a bomb under his van. She reminded the jury that he gave away a "prized motorbike" that he had spent three years working on and 1,000 worth of biking gear at a time when he had just 300 in his bank account.

He then drove his prized bike at speed through the Knockroe housing estate in Castlerea where he was also seen engaging in "extraordinarily peculiar behaviour" such as ducking and crouching behind walls, pacing up and down and "ranting to himself". Many of the behaviours noticed by Knockroe residents mirrored the behaviour Mr Silver displayed during previous admissions to psychiatric hospitals, Ms Lacey said.

She also told the jury that Mr Silver told consultant psychiatrist Professor Harry Kennedy that when he was speaking to his friend James Coyne as they walked towards the scene of the shooting, Mr Silver thought he was talking to Mr Coyne's dead brother. Ms Lacey described as a "critical omission" Professor Kennedy's failure to further explore Mr Silver's claim that he was speaking to a dead person in the minutes leading up to the shooting. She also described as a critical omission what she said was Professor Kennedy's failure to mention in his reports Mr Silver's most bizarre behaviours during his garda interviews. She said Mr Silver had stuffed tissue up his nose which he then chewed and spat out, put his toes in his mouth, ate the contents of his ear, took on a contorted position while staring at gardai, breathed heavily and slapped his stomach. She said the only bizarre behaviours mentioned by Professor Kennedy were that Mr Silver whistled, sang and played with the window blinds.

She pointed to further evidence in the aftermath of the shooting which she said showed Mr Silver was "detached from reality". At one point he pointed to a badge on his waistcoat and told a garda at the scene that he was in the airforce. When he was placed in a cell at Castlerea Garda Station he urinated on the floor, took his clothes off, waved his genitals and spat at a garda. He smashed a toilet seat and blocked the toilet in his cell. Ms Lacey said his behaviour showed him in a "completely inappropriate and detached state" as though he were "acting out in a movie, disconnected from reality." She said his behaviour indicated that he was, as one witness to the shooting put it, "crazy".

Dr Greg Kelly told the trial that he saw Mr Silver at Castlerea station in the early hours following the shooting and found him to be paranoid, delusional and out of touch with reality. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Will Monteiro saw Mr Silver some hours later and found that he was not suffering from an acute mental illness. Ms Lacey said it would be an "extraordinary leap of faith" to rely on Dr Monteiro's evidence.

Ms Lacey said the psychiatrist had seen Mr Silver through a hatch in his cell door that was six inches by eight inches. Mr Silver initially refused to speak and when Dr Monteiro returned for a second interview, she said, it lasted no more than seven minutes. "Is that appropriate in dealing with a mental health issue, with someone who has an extraordinary and complex background of mental health issues?" she asked.

Ms Lacey accepted that it was Mr Silver's choice not to take his medication following numerous admissions to psychiatric units, the final one nine months before the shooting. But she warned the jury that there is "nothing in the law that says you have to consider how he got to that state of mental unwellness."

She added: "The law doesn't allow you to look behind that and say, yeah he had a mental disorder but he didn't take his medication so therefore I can discount it. You would fall into grave error if you did that."

Ms Lacey said it is a human trait to want to point the finger of blame or to punish Mr Silver for not taking his medication but, she said, the law doesn't allow that.

She said there is no evidence that Mr Silver bore a "grudge" against gardai or that he ever acted aggressively towards gardai when he was well. His violent, threatening and aggressive behaviour in the past had always been when he was "extremely mentally unwell," she said. She said it is also extremely unlikely that Mr Silver remembered Gda Horkan from an incident in 2003 when he helped to bring Mr Silver to a psychiatric hospital.

Ms Lacey also pointed to Dr Wright's contradiction of Professor Kennedy who had said that you can infer capacity from purposeful actions and that Mr Silver had shown an ability to carry out purposeful or complex sequences of actions. Ms Lacey urged the jury consider Dr Wright's statement that capacity is not absolute and that "just because someone behaves in a purposeful way in relation to a particular act... you can't simply infer from that that the person has capacity generally."

Taking all of the evidence into account, Ms Lacey said the prosecution had failed to prove its case and the defence had proven that it is more probable than not that Mr Silver was in a state of relapse at the time of the killing.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott will begin his charge to the jury of seven men and five women tomorrow.
The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) has said it has no role in examining Tanaiste Leo Varadkar over document leak claims.

The Fine Gael leader was informed on Wednesday that the ethics watchdog had decided not to carry out an investigation over his alleged leaking of a GP contract in 2019.

Mr Varadkar issued a statement saying he always expected he would be cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

It follows a complaint by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy and three others, one of whom subsequently withdrew the complaint.

The decision by Sipo, seen by the PA news agency, said it had decided not to carry out an investigation into Mr Varadkar given it does not have the remit to consider either the lawfulness of the action or the extent of the powers of the office of Taoiseach.

The Sipo finding stated: The complainants allege that the respondent acted improperly and/or unlawfully in a number of respects.

They called on the organisation to conduct an investigation.

The commission carefully considered its legal advice and all the evidence before it, including the acceptance by the respondent that he did disclose the agreement but that it was done pursuant to the functions of the office of the Taoiseach and in furtherance of the policy goals of the Government, the watchdog found.

In such circumstances, where the commission is of the view that it has no role and/or remit to consider either the lawfulness of the action or the extent of the powers of the office of Taoiseach, it is the opinion of the commission that evidence sufficient to sustain a complaint is not and will not be available, even in circumstances where the disclosure of the Agreement is not in dispute.

Accordingly, the commission has decided in accordance with Section 23 (1C) of the 1995 Act not to carry out an investigation.

Two of the commissioners at Sipo voted against the decision not to investigate.

In a statement, Mr Varadkar said: Today, I was informed by the Standards in Public Office Commission that it would not be investigating me for any alleged breach of the Standards in Public Office or Ethics Acts.

I have been now cleared of criminal wrongdoing and any breach of ethics or standards.

This is always the outcome I expected.

It comes after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) earlier this year decided not to prosecute Mr Varadkar over the matter.

The Dublin West TD had been under investigation by the DPP for passing a copy of an official document to a friend of his while he was taoiseach.

The Tanaiste said his disclosure of the document was lawful and he did so in the public interest.

Mr Varadkar has admitted that in April 2019 he sent a copy of a doctors pay deal between the State and the Irish Medical Organisation to Dr Maitiu O Tuathail.

Dr O Tuathail was head of the rival organisation, the National Association of General Practitioners, at the time.

Mr Varadkar has apologised for disclosing the document.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said it was unfortunate that Sipo had decided by three to two not to further investigate Varadkars breaches of ethics legislation.

Mr Murphy rejected that Mr Varadkar was cleared.

Contrary to what he has claimed, he was not cleared of any breach of standards, Mr Murphy said.

Varadkar claimed he couldnt be in breach because he leaked it as taoiseach.

Sipo accepted that he leaked as taoiseach, then decided they couldnt investigate whether taoiseach has that power.

This creates a worrying precedent whereby future taoisigh can breach ethics legislation and if they say they did it as taoiseach, Sipo will not investigate.

The fact remains that Varadkar leaked the confidential GP contract to a political supporter for his benefit.
Community, Charity & Cause

By Chris Boyle Published: November 09 2022

When a person donates a winter jacket, they are not just giving the gift of warmth - they are wrapping its recipient in a spirit of compassion and hope for the future, Legislator Drucker said.

Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D - Plainview) is joining forces with the Syosset and Jericho Public Libraries to support an annual coat drive spearheaded by the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless.

Donors are invited to drop off new and gently used winter coats at the Syosset Public Library, 225 S. Oyster Bay Road, Syosset, N.Y. 11791 and the Jericho Public Library, 1 Merry Lane, Jericho N.Y. 11753 during normal business hours from Friday, Nov. 18 to Wednesday, Dec. 21,

When a person donates a winter jacket, they are not just giving the gift of warmth - they are wrapping its recipient in a spirit of compassion and hope for the future, Legislator Drucker said. With winter on the horizon, each of us can do our part to help keep every person in Nassau County safe and warm. I am proud to once again be partnering with the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless on such a worthwhile endeavor.
Food, Wine, & Dining, Business & Finance

By Ls Cohen Published: November 09 2022

Tilray Brands adds Long Island company to its growing craft beer portfolio.

On Monday, Tilray Brands, an international cannabis company based in the United States, announced that it had purchased Montauk Brewing Company. The pot company is already entrenched in cannabis pharmaceuticals and growing facilities across the globe but has recently begun expanding more into alcohol, specifically craft brewing.

Montauk Brewing joins Tilrays growing U.S. beverage-alcohol segment.

According to MJBiz, in 2021, Tilray purchased Breckenridge Distillery in Colorado for $103 million and Alpine Beer and Green Flash Brewing Company out of California for $5.1 million. Before that in 2020, the company acquired SweetWater Brewing Co. in Georgia for about $300 million.

The deal for Montauk Brewing Company by Tilray, the largest cannabis company in the world by total assets, brings a well-known Long Island brand of beers with over 6,400 points of distribution, including top national retailers such as Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Stop & Shop, King Kullen, Walmart, 7-Eleven, Costco, BJs, and Speedway.

To fully optimize the value and strength of its U.S. craft beer portfolio, Tilray also announced today that it has appointed veteran beer and beverage industry executive Ty H. Gilmore as President of Tilrays U.S. beer business, a newly created position.

"Tilray Brands continues to strengthen our U.S. footprint and operations through investments in and growing our portfolio of leading lifestyle CPG brands that resonate powerfully with consumers, said Irwin D. Simon, Chairman and CEO. Montauk Brewing is an iconic brand with leading market share and distribution in the northeast.

Simon said that Tilray will leverage their existing nationwide infrastructure through SweetWater and Montauk Brewings northeast influence to significantly expand the companys distribution network.

This distribution network is part of Tilrays strategy to leverage our growing portfolio of U.S. CPG brands and ultimately to launch THC-based product adjacencies upon federal legalization in the U.S., he added.

Tilrays craft beer segment is now coast to coast and the company wants to expand Montauk Brewerys customer base and grow throughout the U.S. as a national brand.
South Africa: France, Germany grant SA 600 million JET concessional financing

South Africa, France and Germany have signed loan agreements for the two European nations to each extend 300 million in concessional financing to South Africa to support the countrys efforts to reduce its reliance on coal through a just transition to cleaner energy sources.

This was on Wednesday confirmed by National Treasury.

In a statement, Treasury said the French and German public development banks, AFD and KfW, have provided the loans directly to the South African government via National Treasury.

The financing agreements were acknowledged and welcomed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Olaf Scholz, the Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, at a ceremony held during the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), currently taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Treasury said the signing represents a significant milestone in the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) announced at COP26 in November last year.

The JETP is a long-term partnership between South Africa, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union. The first initiative of its kind, the JETP aspires to support South Africa in accelerating its journey to a low-carbon economy and climate-resilient society, said Treasury.

Last year, the founding partners of the JETP, known as the International Partners Group (IPG), pledged to mobilise an initial amount of $8.5 billion over the next three to five years to advance the partnership.

Andreas Peschke, the German Ambassador to South Africa, said: We are very happy about these agreements, as they represent a very concrete implementation of our partnership.

South Africa continues to be dependent on coal to produce most of its electricity and the coal sector remains significant to the countrys national economy and the livelihood of several communities.

One year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged that France was ready to commit significant support for South Africa's ambitious decarbonisation project for a just energy transition. We are now putting those words into action with this important loan, said Arnaud Roux, Charge daffaires of the French Embassy.

Audrey Rojkoff, AFD Regional Director for Southern Africa and Country Director for South Africa, said most countries around the world are trying to find a balance between the inevitable short-term trade-offs and the long-term perspective of a future, where nature and people prosper.

All partners can make better progress by sharing their experiences and international institutions have an important role to play by encouraging dialogue. This first public policy loan to South Africa aims precisely at promoting policy dialogue between our countries.

She indicated that along with dialogue and knowledge-sharing with other countries, continued research will also be essential to fully understand potential climate risks and their impact on South Africas financial system. As such, the AFD loan will be accompanied by grant financings from France to support several key South African actors involved in the production of knowledge and further policy development related to the JET.

"We expressly welcome South Africa's commitment to reducing electricity generation from environmentally harmful coal," said Silke Stadtmann, KfW Development Bank's Country Director for South Africa.

She said the development was an important step in achieving the country's climate goals.

As a long-term partner of South Africa, we support these efforts not only with concessional loans for necessary investments and grants for a Just Energy Transition, but also with comprehensive studies on energy sector reform.

Ismail Momoniat, acting National Treasury Director-General, said the South African government welcomes concessional funding.

While South Africa still requires more support for its Just Transition path, considering the scale of the required transition in the context of the current socio-economic challenges of high unemployment, high level of poverty and inequality, this funding will assist in addressing the challenge of financing the critical adaptation and mitigation programmes and supporting a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive growth, Momoniat said.

The funding will also provide the much-needed catalytic funding for the implementation of the Just Energy Transition investments plan in mapping out a just transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient economy and society.

These loans are concessional and contribute to governments efforts to mitigate rising government debt costs.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-11-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
9th November 2022

Runtime 31:02





London South East were delighted to be joined live from Dublin by Poolbeg Pharma (POLB) CEO Jeremy Skillington, who told us they were extremely busy.

"We have a lot of streams running in parallel right now and as we make progress we announce to the market what's going on, and we are excited about that."

Jeremy was one of four CEO's who joined us to present at London South East's November Webinar on Tuesday evening 8.11.2022. These included Suzy Dilly, CEO of early cancer therapeutics company ValiRx (VAL), William M Sheriff, Executive Chairman at enCore Uranium (TSX:EU) and Werner Klingenberg, CEO at Goldplat (GDP).

Poolbeg announced an RSV AI study on the morning of the event and Jeremy explained a little bit more about what happens next. It has taken AI partner One Three just eight and and a half months to identify drug targets which are effective in combatting RSV.

"By the end of the year we hope to get hold of some of these drugs which can block those targets and and start to demonstrate in RSV models that they work and then move them rapidly forward into clinical testing."

And in terms of POLB001? "We have worked really really hard to push this forward this year, these are blind tests so we don't know much more than you, and we are really excited to see the data come out at the end of the year."
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Rentokil Initial PLC - Crawley, England hygiene business - Notes that its Non-Executive Director Linda Yueh has been appointed as a non-executive director of Standard Chartered PLC with effect from January 1, 2023.

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DP Poland PLC - Polish Domino's Pizza franchisor - Appoints Edward Kacyrz as chief financial officer with effect from December 1, 2022. He does not hold any current directorships and has not held any directorships in the last 5 years, DP says.

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NetScientific PLC - London-based life sciences and sustainability technology investment firm - Says John Clarkson will step down as non-executive chair with immediate effect. "It has also been agreed that John will, until 31 December 2023, provide various consultancy and advisory services to group companies for an aggregate remuneration that is within his contractual entitlement to payment in lieu of notice," the company explains. He joined the board in 2019.

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Ince Group PLC - legal and professional services business - Appoints Jennette Newman to the board as an executive director with immediate effect. She is an experienced lawyer who held senior business roles as a partner at both Clyde & Co LLP and BLM LLP.

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Spectral MD Holdings Ltd - London and Dallas, Texas-based predictive analytics for wound care - Appoints Niko Pagoulatos as chief operating officer, effective this week. She has held multiple board roles in the past, including chief innovation officer, chief operating officer, and chief technology officer at EchoNous.

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Gelion PLC - New South Wales, Australia-based energy solutions company - Appoints John Wood as chief executive officer, who will start his role on November 21. He will succeed the interim CEO Hannah McCaughey. Wood has a 30-year track record of "successful entrepreneurship".

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DFS Furniture PLC - Furniture retail company - Names John Fallon as executive director and chief financial officer of the company. He will join the board on November 14.

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By Abby Amoakuh; abbyamoakuh@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Independent Investment Trust PLC - Edinburgh-based investment trust - Shares are delisted from the London Main Market on Wednesday, after shareholders at a general meeting on Tuesday approve its plan for voluntary liquidation and its assets are purchased by Monks Investment Trust PLC. Monks confirmed on Tuesday that it had acquired GBP173 million in net assets from Independent Investment Trust with the issue of 16.7 million new Monks shares. The combination of the two investment trusts was first proposed back in August. Monks, a Baillie Gifford managed fund, aims for long-term capital growth, prioritising this over income. Similarly, Independent Investment Trust had aimed for "good absolute returns over long periods". Monks is a FTSE 250 index constituent and has a GBP2.13 billion market capitalisation.

By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Tanaiste Leo Varadkar will become Taoiseach on December 17, it has been confirmed.

The Taoiseach refers to Ireland's head of government, or prime minister.

The Fine Gael leader will take over from Micheal Martin on that date, a source told the PA news agency.

The rotation of the role of taoiseach was due to take place on December 15 under the Programme for Government but it is understood it has been delayed to allow Martin to attend the final meeting of EU leaders in Brussels this year.

Varadkar previously served as taoiseach from June 2017 to February 2020.

A special sitting of the Dail will take place on Saturday, December 17 to allow the handover to take place.

A Cabinet reshuffle will take place but the exact details are not yet known.

It is not known what ministerial portfolio Martin will take over when he steps down as Taoiseach to become Tanaiste.

It has been confirmed that Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath will take over from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, despite Donohoe being nominated for a second term as president of the Eurogroup on Monday.

Donohoe will then become Public Expenditure Minister.

Donohoe was nominated for a second term as president of the Eurogroup on Monday, and will retain the role when McGrath takes the reins of the finance portfolio.

Both are expected to attend Eurogroup meetings if Donohoe wins a second term as Eurogroup president.

By Michelle Devane, PA

source: PA

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday as investors continue to eye the US mid-term elections.

The FTSE 100 was called to open down 22 points at 7,284.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "The FTSE 100 had a disappointing day underperforming due to a sharp slide in the oil price which weighed on the oil majors BP and Shell.

"The slide in the oil price appears to have been because of rising Covid infection rates in China which appears to be pricking the optimism around the reopening narrative that drove Brent crude prices up to $100 a barrel at the beginning of the week.

"US markets also had another good day, finishing higher for the 3rd day in a row, although well off the highs of the day with the gains being relatively modest, despite a fall in treasury yields with the markets trading relatively cautiously ahead of tomorrow's CPI report. This pullback suggests we will see a lower European open this morning."

As far as the US mid-terms are concerned, Danske Bank said that While votes are still being counted, exit polls suggest that republicans are the favourites to win control of the House of Representatives, while the Senate race is still too tight to call.

"At the time of writing, results received so far indicate that the Democratic Party has been able to flip one seat in senate in Pennsylvania. Focus remains on results for Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada. Focus remains on results for Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

"The race for the house has also turned out to be tighter than expected. It might take days or even weeks until the final results are confirmed especially for the Senate. In Georgia, the final senate result could require a run-off election at a later date if neither Democratic nor Republican candidate manages to secure at least 50% of votes (as was the case in 2020)."

In UK corporate news, food and clothing retailer Marks & Spencer said it expected to deliver annual results "similar" to expectations as interim pre-tax profits rose 11.3%.

Clothing and homewares sales rose 14% in the six months to October 1, while food revenue was up 5.6%. Group revenue increased 8.5% to 5.5bn.

Engineering company Smiths said that first-quarter growth had accelerated as it delivered a full-year performance ahead of expectations.

Smiths said revenues had slipped 1.8% year-on-year to 1.08bn, while pre-tax profits ticked up 0.6% to 31.1m. Earnings per share were flat at 10.8p each.
(Alliance News) - Purplebricks Group PLC on Wednesday said it has received a letter from a shareholder requesting a general meeting to vote on replacing its chair, but the online estate agent said the board and its major investors support the incumbent.

Lecram Holdings Ltd said it sent the letter requisitioning the meeting, where it will propose removing Chair Paul Pindar and adding to the board property industry veteran Harry Hill. Lecram said it has a 5.2% stake in Purplebricks.

Hill was chief executive officer of estate agency Countrywide PLC and a founder of FTSE 100-listed real estate portal Rightmove PLC.

Purplebricks said Pindar has the support of both the board and shareholders, including German publisher Axel Springer SE, which has a 26.5% stake.

"The board is firmly of the view that the board changes proposed by the requisition are not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders," the company said.

Purplebricks has had a torrid few years, forcing the company to pull out of both the US and Australia. In its most recent financial year, which ended on April 30, Purplebricks swung to a pretax loss of GBP34.8 million from a profit of GBP3.6 million the year before, as revenue dropped 23%.

"A clear plan was set out to improve business performance, return to positive cash flow and profitability, and build a scalable business model," Purplebricks said.

"The board considers that Lecram Holdings Ltd's decision to lodge the requisition is disruptive when the company and its executive team are focused on delivery of this turnaround plan."

Purplebricks shares were up 0.7% at 11.63 pence in London on Wednesday afternoon. The stock is down 64% in the past 12 months. In early 2018, it traded as high as 460p.

By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
MBABANE  Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd has been instructed to pay over E1.1 million plus 9 per cent interest owed to Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd.

Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd supplied broiler chicks and chicken feed to Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd, who were contending that all goods were duly paid for. Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd was the plaintiff and Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd was the defendant. The matter was before the High Court of Eswatini and judgment was delivered by High Court Judge Bongani Sydney Dlamini. On November 6, 2016, the plaintiff sued the defendant for two different sums of money, the sum of E642 212.14 and further sum of E460 152.02. The sum of E642 212.14 was said to have risen from the sale and delivery of broiler chicks to the defendant at the latters special instance and request. The sum of E460 152.02 was said to arise from the sale and delivery of chicken feed to the defendant.

Trencor Investments disputed that Africa Chicks should provide proof of the money owed by them and they further claimed that all outstanding amounts owed to the plaintiff were settled.

On April 20, 2022, the matter was set for trial but both the plaintiff and defendants were not present, the court removes the matter from roll. This then forced the matter to be given a new trial date and it was allocated June 20 and 23, 2022. The matter could, however, not proceed on the allocated dates due to the unavailability of the court. The unavailability of the court was explained to both parties, said Dlamini in the judgment.

When the matter went for trial on October 18, 2022, Africa Chicks evidence was presented through its only one witness, Julia Rita Saulos. The evidence by this witness was that she was employed by the plaintiff in the 2016 and that she presently occupies the position of Country Director within Africa Chicks. The witness stated that prior to being the country director; she was employed by the plaintiff as operations manager.

According to the testimony of Saulos, she stated that Vusi Humphrey Dlamini, the Managing Director of Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd was one of Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd major customers. She stated that the plaintiff would supply the day-old chicks to the defendant on a weekly basis to his various farms situated at Motshane and Sigangeni. The witness sated that on a weekly basis, the plaintiff would supply between 20 000 to 25 000 day-old chicks to the defendant. The evidence by Saulos was that the business arrangement between the parties was that the plaintiff would supply on credit to the defendant, the day-old chicks and that the defendant was expected to settle or pay for the goods within seven or 30 days. The evidence by Saulos was that the credit facility existing between the parties was that upon delivery of the specified goods, an invoice would then be generated by the plaintiff, which the defendant was required to settle within the agreed period, mentioned the High Court judge.

This arrangement, according to Saulos, continued until the defendants payment of goods delivered became inconsistent and eventually stopped. She stated that upon making payment, the defendants accounts department would thereafter generate a reconciliation statement showing a list of deliveries and a list of payments made to the plaintiff.

defendant stopped making payments in 2015

MBABANE  The witness in the matter, Julia Rita Saulos, further mentioned that Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd stopped making payments in 2015.

She said the defendant withdrew its orders with the plaintiff and basically stopped dealing with Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd. The plaintiff then issued several demands to the defendant for payment of the outstanding amounts of the money due and payable to Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd. According to Saulos, Trencor Investments, being the defendant in the matter, gave several explanations for not being able to pay the outstanding amounts including that its computer system had crushed. The witness further stated that they made copies of all documents including orders, delivery notes and invoices to the plaintiff but they would still not pay.

She also mentioned that the defendant would also give the excuse that the person who was doing their accounts had left their employ and that they were in the process of reconciling their books and would get back to them. Julia Rita Sauloss evidence was that the defendants officers kept giving one excuse after the other for not paying the outstanding sum of money due to it, said Dlamini in the judgment. According to Saulos, Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd uses a Pastel programme for its accounting system. The witness stated that they printed a full ledger from their accounting programme and sent it to Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd. Saulos further mentioned that Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd had undertaken an assessment of the sum of money due to the plaintiff and established that only a sum of E589 535.03 was outstanding in respect of the broiler chicks supplied to them by the plaintiff.

This means the defendant was disputing a sum of E26 427.47 on this particular claim, In this regard, Saulos showed the court a document prepared by the defendant to show that it was only disputing the sum of E26 535.47 on the claim for broiler chicks, reads the judgment. It was in Sauloss evidence that Africa Chicks was also involved in the business of supplying broiler feed sourced from the Republic of South Africa to its customers. Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd was one of Africa Chicks (Pty) Ltd customers, according to Saulos, the credit arrangement existing between the parties was that the defendant was expected to pay within 30 days.

Saulos stated that the plaintiff supplied feed and medication for the chicks of the defendant. She further stated that the debt outstanding from Trencor Investments (Pty) Ltd would at times rise up to E3 000 000, but the defendant would gradually redue the debt until in would be slightly above E1 000 000. She mentioned that currently, Trencor Investments was indebted to Africa Chicks the sum of E642 212.14 for broiler chicks supplied to it and another sum of E460 156.02 in respect of broiler feed and medication.
(Alliance News) - Vodafone Group PLC on Wednesday said it has reached a deal to create a joint venture with KKR & Co and Global Infrastructure Partners to hold its listed stake in Vantage Towers AG.

The Berkshire, England-based technology communications company said it will receive minimum net cash proceeds of EUR3.2 billion for its 82% stake.

Its holding in Vantage Towers will be deconsolidated.

The KKR and GIP consortium will make a voluntary takeover offer for outstanding Vantage Towers shares held by minority shareholders, funded through new debt in the joint venture and equity from both companies.

Vodafone said it would make maximum net cash proceeds between EUR5.8 billion to EUR7.1 billion.

Proceeds will depend on the take up in the voluntary takeover offer.

They are subject to GIP and KKR raising further equity before closing to increase their stake in the venture to 50%, reducing leverage by 0.4x to 0.5x.

Vodafone valued the deal at EUR32.0 per share, at a premium of 19% to Vantage Towers' 3-month volume-weighted average share price.

Chief Executive Nick Read said the agreement was a "landmark moment" for both Vodafone and Vantage Towers.

The transaction allows Vodafone to retain co-control over an important asset, he said, while also deconsolidating it from the company balance sheet to "generate substantial upfront cash proceeds for the group to support our priority of deleveraging".

Looking ahead, Vodafone and the consortium intend to accelerate growth and create further value at Vantage Towers.

Capturing additional co-location opportunities from new and existing third-party customers and enhancing profitability through continuous operational improvements are just some of their aims for the company.

The transaction is conditional on regulatory clearances. It is expected to close in the first half of 2023.

Vodafone shares were trading 1.6% lower at 104.52 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

By Holly Beveridge; hollybeveridge@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Peace in the UK cannot be taken for granted while Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said as he prepared to welcome Nato's chief to Downing Street.

Jens Stoltenberg will become the first international leader to visit No 10 since Sunak became PM, in a sign of the concerns over the situation in Ukraine and the importance of the Nato alliance.

The meeting comes as the government considers how to update its integrated review of defence and foreign policy to respond to the changing threats around the world.

Ahead of the meeting on Wednesday, Sunak said: "Nato is the cornerstone of our security, and the security of our allies.

"As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, we must not take peace at home for granted.

"I am determined the UK will be the bedrock of Nato for generations to come.

"But in order to face the challenging future we must evolve as an alliance to meet, and remain ahead of, the threat from our adversaries.

"We must also continue backing the Ukrainian people in their resistance to Putin's brutality."

The UK will send a further 12,000 extreme cold weather sleeping kits and 150 tents to Ukraine's military as troops face continued fighting during the freezing winter.

Stoltenberg will also visit Ukrainian troops at Lydd army camp in Kent as they receive training from UK counterparts as part of Operation Interflex.

The UK is also set to deliver more than 25,000 sets of extreme cold weather clothing by mid-December, ensuring troops are able to operate and survive the plunging temperatures in Ukraine.

The extreme cold weather kits are in addition to more than 7,000 sets of normal cold weather kit distributed to recruits on Operation Interflex.

Sunak said: "I'm pleased that UK-donated kit will be keeping the Ukrainian Armed Forces warm and safe as they face a perilous winter fighting for their country."

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: "With winter fast approaching, this equipment will ensure that the armed forces of Ukraine are able to operate effectively through the next few months.

"Alongside our training programme and the provision of lethal aid, it demonstrates our commitment to making sure that the basic Ukrainian soldier is well trained, well equipped and given the best possible chance to fight and determine their own future."

source: PA

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Spain scrapped its post-Brexit visa requirements for British touring performers in a win for the U.K. industry and now it appears that it will it go all the way and scrap the 90 day ruling for all UK citizens coming to Spain.

For those who own businesses and second homes in the Balearics and Spain, it has made life extremely complicated and it has done little to encourage new property buyers or investors.

This winter, 3.5 million Britons will be coming to Spain, placing the U.K., as always, as the countrys largest and most important tourist market and according to an exclusive interview the the i, Spanish tourism secretary Fernando Valdes has said that Spain would like to end the rule that means non-EU travellers can only stay for 90 days within a 180-day period  but the decision would be down to Brussels.

In the interview with i, he said it was in the interest of Spain to get rid of the 90-day rule, but unfortunately, this is not something Spain has established by itself or can get rid of it. It is true that after Brexit some problems have emerged with people wanting to stay longer.

He added that Madrid was trying to put pressure on Brussels to change the 90-day rule: It is in our interest to lobby and convince (the EU) we can try to work an exception with them. But the solution must come from them.

Under the Schengen Area rules of stay for third-country citizens, non-EU citizens entering the territory under the visa-free regime can stay for a maximum of 90 days, for every 180 days.

Those who overstay this period  intentionally or unintentionally  may face penalties, including deportation and entry bans, which the Spanish government made clear on January 7 and the new post-Brexit situation is proving a nightmare for thousands of Britons who own properties in Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain.
EZULWINI  Loading an electricity voucher of E100 could give one about 45 units, if the new tariffs envisaged by the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) will get the green light, as is.

Currently, a voucher of E100 begets about 52 units for domestic customers. The Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) revealed yesterday that EEC had applied to increase tariffs by 21.31 per cent for the year 2023/4. The 21.31 per cent is an average multi-year tariff proposal to fully cover EECs costs for each of the financial years being applied for. If approved by the Eswatini Energy Regulatory, it will come into effect in April 2023. The consumer price index currently stands at 4.52 per cent, according to the most recent statement of the Central Bank of Eswatini. This, EEC said, would help the company to finance its E2.9 billion revenue requirement for the financial year 2023/4, and another of E3.4 billion for the following year 2004/5.

Meetings

In a meeting with the Editors Forum, ESERA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sikhumbuzo Tsabedze said the application by EEC would be tested on a series of consultative meetings with the consumers in all sectors. He outlined a stakeholder engagement programme, which is scheduled to cover all four regions of the country, beginning Saturday November 23 at the Siteki Hotel. Tsabedze explained that the 21.31 per cent proposed tariff hike was not inclusive of electrification access fund levy and Value Added Tax (VAT) for each of the financial years under review. The VAT was introduced for business consumers in September this year.

Among those to be engaged on the envisaged increase in tariffs are business and domestic consumers; trade unions and consumer groups; cane growers associations; government ministries and others. In terms of Section 5 (1) (f) of the Energy Regulatory Act read with Section 32 of the Energy Act, together with Section 5 and 6 of the Tariff Methodology, ESERA is mandated to undertake a review once the request is received by November 1, and is expected to announce a decision not later than February 1, of the following year, after a three months review process.

Over the past two years, EEC had asked for E2.9 billion, but ESERA managed to give them E2.6 billion, after relevant consultations. This means that in the 7.6 per cent they had asked for, the authority was able to give them 1.3 per cent for the 2022/23 year. The regulator had then also decreased the money by 1.227 per cent. Tsabedze assured the editors that ESERA did not approve applications willy-nilly, but took into consideration many factors to protect the consumers and ensure that the utility was able to meet its obligations.

Concerns

We listen to all sides of the role players, including the concerns of the customers as well as the utility operator. It is only after such a process that we can state the percentage increase, he said. The announcement came under a volley of questions from the editors who wanted to know if, by ESERAs assessment of the economic situation, the nation would afford an increased tariff. The editors also wanted to know what ESERA was doing to ensure there were alternative sources of electricity generation to control the price increase. Tsabedze said in their engagements with EEC, they would ask for answers on the reasons for the increase. He said investments into alternative power generation were welcome, but must be made prudently to ensure they were not heavily capital intensive.
The closest black hole to Earth has been discovered, though you can rest easy as it is inactive.

Gaia BH1 is 1,600 light-years away, three times closer than the last record-holding black hole in the constellation Ophiuchus. The black hole weighs 10 times the mass of our sun.

A paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society last week details the discovery of a "Sun-like star orbiting a dark object".

The team of researchers initially identified the black hole using the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft according to a press release from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The researchers then made 39 additional observations with six different telescopes around the world over a four-month period.

Using a telescope in Hawaii operated by the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, the team was able to confirm that the central "dark object" was an inactive black hole.

Does this discovery pose any problems?

"Take the Solar System, put a black hole where the Sun is, and the Sun where the Earth is, and you get this system," said Kareem El-Badry, lead author of the paper and an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

"While there have been many detections of systems like this, almost all of 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."

Astronomers estimate that there are 100 million black holes in our galaxy, but very few have been confirmed to date.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics notes that almost all of the black holes that have been confirmed are "active."

Scientists can tell whether a black hole is active or inactive with X-ray radiation.

Active black holes glow when they attract surrounding material in space. Inactive black holes do not emit high levels of X-ray radiation, which makes them harder to see.

If a black hole is not actively feeding, i.e., it is inactive, it simply blends in with its surroundings.

This is what a black hole sounds like

This summer NASA scientists revealed what a black hole can sound like using sonification technology.

At the center of the Perseus cluster of galaxies is a supermassive black hole, nearly 55 million light-years away, which has been used as a study.

The black hole was first associated with sound in 2003, when astronomers discovered that pressure from the hole caused ripples in the cluster's hot gas.

The sound was thought to be approximately 57 octaves below middle 'C', making it inaudible to human ears.

However, by using sonification, "the translation of astronomical data into sound," the astronomers changed the pitch from 57 to 58 octaves above their estimated pitch so that the hole's sound can be audible to humans.

Using sound waves first recorded by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the scientists took radial sound waves and resynthesized them to make them audible.

The new black hole sounds contradict the widely held idea that there is no sound in space.

In addition to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Perseus cluster of galaxies, astronomers also sonified a black hole at the center of the galaxy M87, which became famous as the first black hole ever imaged.
After Aaron Carter was found dead at his home in Los Angeles this past Saturday, more details continue to emerge around his personal life and those close and dear to him.

Aaron Carter's disturbing video four days before his death

Now we know that his fiance, Melanie Martin has already moved her stuff out of the house, thanks to a TMZ report.

Aaron Carter's fiance called the police for help

Melanie Martin had law enforcement officers, specifically L.A. County Sheriff's Office deputies after a woman called asking for them to "keep the peace" as she retrieved her belongings from the house, according to TMZ, who cited sources in the law enforcement agencies.

Aaron Carter, the teen music sensation

A couple of moving trucks could be seen parked outside the Lancaster, California home, but law enforcement is cited saying that no crimes were committed at the residence and that they consider this to be a civil matter, they've left the place since.

Aaron Carter was found dead this past Saturday in a bathtub at that house, with his official cause of death still pending due to the authorities waiting on the toxicology tests results.

Allegedly during a live stream a few days before his death, Aaron Carter says that a person named Melanie tells her he's going to die.
MBABANE  There seems to be no end in sight in the battle between the junior officers and their seniors as the former are now demanding their Phase II to be paid by end of the current month.

Yesterday, the junior officers had planned to pay yet another visit to the Police Headquarters but they ended up aborting their mission and rather convened a private meeting. In this meeting, they took a number of resolutions that they said they would not share with the public as yet. However, in an interview after the meeting, Secretary General (SG) of the Police Staff Association Sergeant Dumisile Khumalo said their current position was now to demand that they get their money when they received their salaries for this month, which was from the 20th. Khumalo said if that would not happen, they would be forced to continue demanding it and might explore the secret resolutions they had taken during the meeting yesterday.

Position

She said their position still stood that they were expecting not less than E200 000 per officer on Phase II of the salary restructuring programme. The officers said government must pay them their money, which would include other benefits backdated to 2014. She noted that their matter had become one of urgency as they had waited for a long time for its implementation.

Khumalo said they were informed that Phase II would be implemented subsequently after Phase I but for the past eight years, nothing had been done. She said they did not want the four per cent cushion offered by government but the second phase of the salary restructuring exercise.

Enemies

The SG said it was now clear that as junior officers, they had become enemies with the senior officers. She said what the National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police Tsitsibala William Dlamini, did to ban their colleagues from work was the final straw and they were not pleased with it at all. Two of the four junior police officers who were prohibited from their work were those who had been summoned to the Police Headquarters on Monday. Their salaries have also been stopped with immediate effect. This comes after allegations that the officers were part of those who visited the residence of the Prime Minister, Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, last Thursday to engage him on the implementation of Phase II of the police and Correctional officers salary restructuring exercise of 2014.

Interdicted

This was after they had appeared before some members of the police executive to show cause why they should not be interdicted from duty in terms of Section 43 of the Police Service Act No. 22/2018, in accordance with the rules of natural justice, and Section 33 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini. Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service Sipho Tsabedze said as a ministry, they were not aware of such a demand (by the junior officers of having Phase II in their November salaries) as it had not been brought to their attention. He said for that reason, he could not make any comment on the matter.
MBABANE  Nkilongo MP Timothy Myeni insists that the violence in the country started after DPM Themba Masuku, in his capacity as acting prime minister at the time, issued a ban on petitions delivery in June last year.

Myeni was testifying yesterday in the trial of Members of Parliament (MPs) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube of Hosea and Ngwempisi tinkhundla respectively. The incarcerated MPs are accused of terrorism, among other offences, in that they allegedly incited members of the public to riot against a legally constituted government and bringing hatred to the person of His Majesty the King. MP Mabuza made a similar accusation against the deputy prime minister (DPM) on August 10, 2022 during his evidence-in-chief. He told the court that Masuku allegedly caused the riots that erupted in June last year. MP Mabuza said: Wagila tiga Umhlonishwa DPM (the Honourable DPM blundered).

According to MP Mabuza, members of the public became angry when Masuku announced that government had taken a decision to stop the physical delivery of petitions to the various tinkhundla centres. The MP was responding to the allegation that he and his co-accused, MP Dube, incited members of the public to riot through the speeches they were making at the time. The charge states that MP Mabuza and MP Dube should have foreseen that there would be acts of violence as a result of their speeches. MP Myeni, who was the third witness to testify yesterday, said he had neither witnessed acts of violence at his constituency during the petition delivery nor were any reported by other MPs.

The Nkilongo MP told the court that during the delivery of petitions, the youth would sing and dance but not vandalise or destroy property. According to MP Myeni, acts of violence were witnessed after the acting PM had announced a ban on the physical delivery of petitions. We witnessed violence after the DPM had banned the delivery of petitions. It started at Siphofaneni where the people were due to deliver their petition when the ban was announced, MP Myeni said. He also informed the court that when the acting PM issued the ban, parliamentarians had made a resolution during a caucus that the delivery of petitions should continue so that the few remaining MPs would also receive the petitions from the constituents.

The next step, according to MP Myeni, as resolved by the MPs, was to consider the grievances or issues raised in the various petitions and to determine if the issues were similar, so that they would be dealt with accordingly.

He said they were surprised when the acting PM announced the ban on the delivery of petitions, at a time when the Speaker, Petros Mavimbela, had adjourned Parliament proceedings sine die. We were very shocked that the petitions delivery had been banned because Cabinet was supposed to uphold what Parliament had resolved, said MP Myeni. Upon taking to the witness stand, MP Myeni, who is also a musician, pastor and businessman, serving a third term in Parliament, submitted that he was previously the Chairperson of the PM Office Portfolio Committee from 2008 to 2013. He said currently he is the Chairperson of the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Portfolio Committee. He informed the court that he recalled that on June 21, 2021, in Parliament, he was one of the MPs who had received petitions from their constituents. He stated that he was among the MPs who wanted to deliberate on the issue of the delivery of petitions since it was a burning issue in the constituencies.

Maseyisini MP Mduduzi Small Joe Dlamini, according to MP Myeni, raised a point that the MPs should hold a caucus to deliberate on the issue of the petitions. During the caucus, MP Myeni submitted, they discussed what they should do because members of the public wanted them to deal with the issue of petitions. He said there was a suggestion that some MPs had not yet received petitions. MPs agreed in one voice during the caucus that we should wait until all the tinkhundla centres or MPs had received petitions to see if the concerns were similar and what the petitions contained. It was expected that by June 26, 2021 all petitions would have been received. The acting DPM issued a ban on the petitions delivery at tinkhundla. We were surprised what to do since the House had made a resolution because this is what we were employed to do...to speak on behalf of the people, said MP Myeni.

He also informed the court that on June 21, 2021, the acting PM and Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo were present during the caucus. He said he could not be sure if all MPs and ministers were present, but they formed the quorum. At this stage the Crowns representative, Advocate Gareth Leppan from South Africa, applied that the matter be stood down. He said he became aware in morning that MPs would be called to testify. The advocate said he had discussed the issue briefly with his instructing attorney and they needed to take instructions before cross-examining MP Myeni. The matter was postponed to this morning for the cross-examination of MP Myeni. MPs Mabuza and Dube are represented by Advocate Jacobus Van Vuuren, who is assisted by Ben J. Simelane and Mhlengi Mabuza.
MBABANE  In respect of the recent acts of violence, government has assured the nation that drastic and practical steps are being implemented by all the security forces to ensure the safety and protection of emaSwati across the country.

When addressing the media yesterday during a press conference, Acting Prime Minister Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku, said the state of violence to which the country had been subjected, had also resulted in creating an environment for social aggression. Masuku noted the threats, violence and intimidation, that had been imposed by the random killings of state security officers in the country, the destruction of both business and private properties and of government structures which were meant for the peoples development.

Killed

He said the country was also witnessing an alarming rise in the number of people who were killed in drinking halls (bars) and other related social gatherings. The acting PM stated that government was mobilising all resources at its disposal to enable the security forces to perform their respective national duties to contain the scourge of violence and protect all emaSwati and their properties, as well as to safeguard the interests and sovereignty of the Kingdom of Eswatini. He encouraged and urged all emaSwati to be vigilant whenever there were individuals who may appear to be conducting themselves in a suspicious manner in their respective communities. Nawe uliphoyisa, he said.

He said, together, the nation could close the space for all kinds of criminal activities that flourished in their midst. We further encourage the nation to report any suspicious activities that they notice around their surroundings and communities to the police through the emergency line 999/9999 or 112 National Disaster Management line, he added. On this aspect, this publication asked Masuku if it served any purpose to report through these lines as the public often said police were not responding promptly when called and that some incidents were only attended to during the day.

In his response, Masuku said police would continue doing their job as they were professionals and were determined. He said it was unfortunate that the police service to the community was hindered by those shooting the law enforcers who were executing their duties. In his address, the acting PM further stated that government was pleased to inform the nation that the police were making progress in their investigations in respect of the recent acts of violence. Masuku further warned citizens to desist from accepting cash payments in exchange for committing heinous crimes, including murder and destruction of property. Be aware that if it happens that you receive cash and fail to deliver on your promise, you might be the next victim in the hands of the killers, said Masuku.

He then urged the nation to work together with government to create a peaceful environment that would be suitable for the nation to dialogue in a free manner and share ideas in terms of how best they could build a stable and prosperous country, which future generations shall be grateful to inherit. Masuku noted that convening a dialogue under the current situation would be impossible as whenever people made certain submissions, they were threatened with arson and death, if before and during the envisaged national dialogue they were found to be speaking against the stakeholders who were calling for change.
MBABANE - Some Mbhuleni community members were shocked when the suspect, whom they thought was a police officer, was arrested for possession of explosives yesterday.

When this publication visited the homestead where the man was found with two explosives, 20 live bullets and an army uniform, a number of community members were found by the gate and along the fence, watching with shock as the suspects house was searched by the police, who later arrested him.

Assumed

Some of the community members said they used to see him either in formal wear or in smart casual clothing, thus they assumed that he was a police officer under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) or Serious Crimes Unit (Lukhozi). They said sometimes they would see him carrying files, which made them assume that maybe he was a lawyer. One of the community members even said as a smoker, who sometimes smoked dagga, he used to hide it when he saw him coming because he feared he could be arrested for being found in possession of the drug without a licence.

Businessman

Others said people who claimed to be close to him alleged that he was a businessman who operated a security company. Meanwhile, some community members came to the scene where the police were effecting the unrest with their children. The community members were leaning on walls and fences as they wanted to witness the arrest of the suspect. They were ignorant of the fact that the police were carrying assault rifles and also wearing bulletproof vests. As this was happening, the minors were seen running up and down the street while some of them were already playing different games on the bordering the yard where the suspect was.
MBABANE  An army of police officers arrested a man who was found with two explosives, live bullets and an Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) uniform.

His apprehension increased the number of people who have been held by the police in connection with the ongoing spate of violent attacks to four. This is because in the wee hours of Monday morning, after a fierce shootout, police officers arrested two men and later on there was an addition of another suspect. The three are currently assisting the police with information. The fierce shootout happened after a spate of violent attacks where four trucks were burnt and four drivers were kidnapped. All this was said to have happened within two hours.

Resided

The man was arrested yesterday morning at the densely populated Mbhuleni, Matsapha. According to community members, police officers from Lukhozi Serious Crimes Unit and those from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) arrived at the house where the suspect resided at around 6am yesterday. The presence of the heavily armed police officers drew the attention of the community members who came out of their houses to witness what was happening in their vicinity. The witnesses gathered at the entrance of the homestead where the suspect resided. The witnesses said the contingent of police officers arrived driving in two vehicles. The onlookers claimed that when the police officers first arrived, they were in the company of a person who was not carrying any gun or wearing a bulletproof vest.

Strategic

The bystanders said thereafter, the police vehicles left the premises. They said when the police vehicles left, some police officers stayed behind in strategic positions. The eyewitnesses supposed that when some of the police officers left, the suspect was overheard speaking on his mobile phone while still inside his house. The witnesses said when the police vehicles returned towards 7am, they were being followed by a midibus with a trailer. The midibus was inscribed Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU)  Ordnance Disposal Unit. The witnesses said, this time when the police arrived at the residence where the suspect leased a flat, they went to his door and knocked. They said the suspect refused to open and remained inside his house.

The onlookers claimed that the law enforcers also sought the intervention of the suspects landlord to negotiate with him to open the door. However, this effort by the police officers, according to the witnesses, failed to get the suspect to surrender himself. The eyewitnesses said the back and forth lasted for over an hour. They said the police officers, some of whom were constantly on their mobile phones, decided to leave the premises. According to the bystanders, just before 9am, the police officers returned and eventually managed to open the door and gained entry into the house.

Questioned

Upon gaining entry, the police questioned the suspect. As they questioned him, they found two bombs, lots of live ammunition, diaries with details of meetings and the army uniform, one of the witnesses said. The bystanders said they heard the police saying there was also lots of traditional medicine found inside the house and regalia of one of the political parties in the country. The eyewitnesses said they were extensively shocked as one of the police officers informed them that the whole of the Mbhuleni population would have died if one of the explosives would have gone off. They said this shocked them as it was something they did not suspect could be in their vicinity.

Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni, confirmed that a male aged 43 of Madulini was arrested and charged, for among other things, being found with 20 live rounds of ammunition, two explosives and UEDF uniform. Mnguni said the charges to be preferred against the suspect would be known once prosecutors had given them feedback on the docket opened by the police.

Investigating

Meanwhile, the arrest of the suspect happened when police officers were investigating the killing of law enforcers and arson attacks, which had resurfaced. This is because between May 24, 2022 and August 12, 2022, five security officers had been killed. This was followed by a quiet period of about 10 weeks before five security personnel were killed in two weeks again.

There has also been a spate of bombings and arson attacks in the country, which date back to the political unrest of June/July 2021. The Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) report titled Kingdom of Eswatini Conflict Insights claimed that by the end of June 28, 2021, about 28 protesters had been shot and by July 6, 2021, it was supposed 45 people had been killed. These figures are low compared to the over 100 people, which political parties purported were killed by security personnel at the height of the political unrest. This unrest has intensified calls for a national dialogue.
Attention, veteran business owners and aspiring veteran entrepreneurs: Budweiser is donating seed funding to veterans and their business with a new social media campaign. Now through Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2022, veteran entrepreneurs can apply to be one of 16 grant recipients for the Budweiser Veterans Project.

All veterans have to do is comment on Budweiser's Facebook, Instagram or Twitter posts with the military branch they served in and how this money could help grow their own business, along with #BudVeteransProject. Winners will be announced by the end of November 2022.

This is the first Budweiser Veterans Project launched by the company, an effort to support veterans with capital to build or expand their budding businesses. Access to capital is perennially listed as the No. 1 issue for all small businesses, veterans included.

In a statement, the company says the Budweiser Veterans Project was created because veteran entrepreneurs face unique problems accessing capital for new and developing businesses. Data from Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) agrees with Budweiser, citing trouble navigating government bureaucracy, access to credit and inadequate awareness of resources available as top barriers to capital.

A number of other companies have offered seed funding to veterans in the past. Black Rifle Coffee Company teamed with the Barstool Fund to support veteran-owned businesses after 30% of vet-owned businesses closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. FedEx runs an annual Small Business Grant Contest routinely won by veteran entrepreneurs. Those looking for angel investors can stop by Hivers and Strivers anytime, as the firm is always looking for new vet-owned ventures.

To kick off the Budweiser Veterans Project, the beer giant has enlisted the help of chef Andre Rush, an Army veteran, former White House chef and veterans advocate, to encourage vets to share their stories while offering business tips of his own. He will also reveal the challenges he faced as he retired from the Army as a master sergeant and became the owner of a civilian catering company.

Investing in veteran-owned small businesses is a good investment in the country itself. The latest available U.S. Census Bureau data show veterans employ four million Americans, pay nearly $200 billion in annual payroll and generate nearly $1 trillion in receipts. An estimated 5.7% of all American businesses are run by veterans, a number that dropped significantly amid the pandemic, down from 10.3% in 2017.

The Budweiser Veterans Project is a good addition to an effort to reverse that downward trend. Funding provided by the effort is a grant, which means the money will not have to be repaid. There's no purchase necessary to enter the competition, and it's open to any veteran looking to start, build or expand their business.

All vets have to do is share their branch of service and talk about how the grant money will help them in their entrepreneurial journey and be sure to include the hashtag #BudVeteransProject. This Bud could be for you, but only if you post before Veterans Day.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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A junior enlisted National Guard soldier died when the military truck she was driving rear-ended another in October, according to new details the Army released Monday.

On Oct. 22 at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, four soldiers were driving two M1120 Load Handling System vehicles on a tank trail to pick up ammunition packing waste at a firing range. The trailing truck rear-ended the lead vehicle. The first truck's flat rack crushed the driver's side of the second vehicle's cab.

Spc. Mackenzie Shay, 20, was driving that second vehicle. She was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. The other three soldiers were evaluated and released from the hospital. Shay enlisted into the National Guard when she was 17 years old and served with G Company, 128th Brigade Support Battalion, 28th Infantry Division, as a petroleum supply specialist.

Read Next: They Said the Rise in Military Suicide Is a Mystery. Traumatic Brain Injury May Be an Answer.

The news comes as the Army continues to grapple with tactical vehicle deaths within its ranks. Brig. Gen. Andrew Hilmes, who at the time was the director of Army safety, told Military.com last year the driving accidents are the "number one killer of soldiers."

Army leadership has placed some of the blame on units overlooking safety when new commanders take over, with proper precautions sometimes falling through the cracks during hectic transitions. Other issues Army officials have noted include a steep decline in young soldiers having previous driving experiences and driver's licenses.

The service has seen a drop in noncombat fatalities, which include training mishaps and vehicle incidents, with 14 on-duty deaths in fiscal 2022, which ended Sept. 30, compared to 20 soldiers dying the previous year.

Those on-duty deaths include four vehicle incidents, a lightning strike, two tree falls and a bear attack, according to data from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Specialist Mackenzie Shay's family, friends and colleagues after this tragic accident," Maj. Gen. Mark Schindler, adjutant general of the Pennsylvania National Guard, said in a statement. "Our priority right now is taking care of the family and soldiers, ensuring they have all the resources they need during this critical time."

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: The Top Killer of Soldiers, Army Vehicle Deaths Are Tied to Poor Training, Though Numbers Down
It's not uncommon for veterans to find closure and a sense of peace by visiting the places where they once fought for their lives. World War II veterans have been returning to Europe for decades. Vietnam veterans not only return to Vietnam to visit their battlegrounds, but they also go to help rebuild the country.

With this in mind, it shouldn't be a surprise that Americans who once fought one another on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War could come together and shake hands decades later. Some 53,000 veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg did just that in 1913, 50 years after the battle ended with a Union victory, sounding a death knell for the Confederacy.

Friendly and often jubilant, the reunion reinforced the words of President Abraham Lincoln, who remarked in the Gettysburg Address, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

The four-day event saw the largest tent city erected on American soil since the end of the war itself. Five thousand tents were erected as living spaces, along with numerous mess tents and gathering sites, including a 13,000-person "Great Tent," where the reunion's events were held. The Gettysburg reunion was so massive, it had its own doctors, medical tents, post office and even a morgue.

When they arrived, they came in such large numbers that it overwhelmed the already massive services plan designed for them. Despite the stress put on the resources allotted for the reunion, the veterans themselves took care of each other.

Civil War veterans meet at the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion tent city. (Library of Congress)

"They forgave each other; they served each other; they laughed and sang together, and in that moment, beginning within each of their hearts, they shone as bright examples to a nation still divided by the bitter division of Civil War," noted one onlooker, a scout master with the Boy Scouts of America.

The days were filled with speeches (including a keynote from President Woodrow Wilson), reviews, parades and reunions of individual military units and fireworks displays. The end of the first day was even met with a good-natured "raid" on the Confederate side of the camp by the Union veterans.

One photo even captured a reunion between Union and Confederate veterans who fought at "The Angle," a low, stone fence that was the central focus of Pickett's Charge. The Union veterans were from Gen. Alexander Webb's Philadelphia Brigade.

The Confederates were what remained of Maj. Gen. George Pickett's 6,000 men who charged the Union position behind the fence that day. Half of the men who charged the fence died there. The 1913 photo shows both sides shaking hands over the fence 50 years later.

Across the stone wall, which marks the boundaries of the famous "Bloody Angle" where Pickett lost over 3,000 men from a force of 6,000 these old soldiers of the North and South clasped hands in fraternal affection. (Library of Congress)

The 1863 Battle of Gettysburg was arguably the turning point in the American Civil War. The days and weeks before the battle were the high water mark of the Confederate states while the Union Army suffered an overall leadership crisis. When Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded the North, he had the initiative, an army whose morale was high and a firm belief that he could destroy the Army of the Potomac.

After the first day of fighting, things looked bleak for the Union. Federal armies were routed and escaped through the streets of Gettysburg, literally running for the hills. On the second day, however, the Union lines held as fighting raged across the battlefield. The third day saw a turn of events for the rebel forces, culminating in Pickett's Charge, a disastrous assault that broke the charging Confederate Army and forced its retreat back into Virginia.

After the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederates were never again able to mount an invasion of the North. Paired with the Union capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the west, the loss was a harbinger of doom for the rebel armies and the Confederacy itself. Within two years, Lee would surrender and the southern states would suffer their final defeat.

An 1864 illustration of the Battle of Gettysburg. (National Archives)

When the Civil War ended, veterans of both sides of the war were not treated the same. Union veterans who were disabled as a result of service were granted pensions as early as 1862. By the turn of the 20th century, caring for Civil War vets was the country's largest federal expenditure. Elderly veterans were cared for by a system of veterans homes throughout the country.

Confederate veterans were not considered veterans under the law. They were restored to full citizenship after the war and were allowed to vote, which was considered enough care at the time. Although many received state pensions in the southern states, they did not have access to federal care. Eventually, the federal government began providing grave markers for Confederate veterans. It wasn't until 1958 that Public Law 85 extended pensions to Confederate veterans and their families.

If 53,000 veterans returning to the battlefield after 50 years seems like a lot, it's important to remember that number is only a fraction of the people who fought there. As many as 179,000 Americans fought on both sides of the battle. It's estimated that another 50,000 were killed or wounded in the fighting.

The last confirmed Confederate Civil War veteran, Pleasant Crump, died in 1951 at age 104. Albert Woolson was the last surviving Civil War veteran and the last Union veteran. He died at age 106 in 1956.

There was only one event that interrupted the peace of the Civil War reunion. A Philadelphia local and son of a Confederate officer apparently called President Lincoln a "vile name" during breakfast at a local hotel. The outburst resulted in a Union veteran tossing his drink on the man and a large fight that led to eight men being stabbed.

Despite the one outburst of violence, the 1913 reunion was largely peaceful. It began with a reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and ended with a five-minute silent tribute, where all in attendance stood at attention. A bugle and artillery salute signaled the end of the reunion. Many veterans filled their pockets with dirt from the hallowed ground as they returned home.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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3M has opened its new regional headquarters in Dubai Internet City, part of the Tecom Group, demonstrating its continued commitment to the UAE.

With the opening of its new regional headquarters in Dubai, 3M also unveiled its expanded and enhanced innovation centre, which highlights 3Ms commitment to science and innovation. The centre, which showcases a number of cost-effective technological solutions created specifically for the region, is set to bring 3Ms technologies and innovations closer to its customers in the UAE and the wider region.

The innovation centre features a creative mural, The Sand Mural, made entirely from 3M materials including 3M printable film with 3M Reflective Overlaminate with 3M Cubitron II, and 3M sandpaper applications.

Groundbreaking innovations

3M's Innovation Centre, one of the first of its kind in the Middle East region, will allow potential customers, business partners and research & development experts to put a variety of 3M's ground-breaking innovations to the test. The 20,400 sq ft centre will showcase all of 3M's technology platforms, which are leveraged across all four businesses and products for the Middle East market.

3Ms 51 technology platforms include adhesives and abrasives, microreplication and nonwovens, computer vision, data science and analytics, and others.

Inaugurated by Meghan Gregonis, the US Consul General in Dubai, the ceremony was attended by Ammar Al Malik, Executive Vice President for Commercial Leasing at Tecom Group; Cara Nazari, Managing Director at AmCham Dubai, Marwan Abdulaziz Janahi, Senior Vice President, Dubai Science Park; and 3Ms senior leaders including Gayle Schueller, Senior Vice President & Chief Sustainability Officer and Laszlo Svinger, Vice President and Managing Director  Middle East & Africa.

Sustainability

3M's new headquarters, which embeds several sustainability initiatives, is reducing carbon emissions while also emphasising the company's expertise in science and innovation. Furthermore, it offers solutions for the future of work by utilising 3M's trust-based approach, Work Your Way, which allows employees to create a schedule that allows them to work when and where they can most effectively.

Svinger said: Over the last couple of years, office space has evolved considerably. Today, we must consider the needs of our employees as well as the needs of the environment, especially as we take urgent action to combat climate change and its consequences. At 3M, we strive to provide an exceptional employee experience and business performance while also doing our part to protect the environment for a more sustainable future for all."

Currently, 3M is working with the United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its partnership network to drive collective action on climate change, social and environmental responsibility, and the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) as part of a three-year agreement signed in 2021.

Al Malik said: For more than 20 years, Dubais integrated business ecosystem and attractive environment have succeeded in attracting tech giants from around the globe. Today, the inauguration of 3Ms new headquarters reinforces the impact Tecom Group and Dubai Internet City have had in sustaining Dubais position as an international technology hub. This milestone for a long-standing customer is a testament to the wealth of opportunities available in Mena and the ecosystem Dubai Internet City provides its community to grow and thrive in.

Nazari said: The UAE is a dependable and trusted partner of our business community with one of the world's most open and innovative economies. Collaboration in sustainability and clean energy technology in the private sector will support the nation's positive impact as it seeks to become the first gulf country to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

AI-powered technologies

Aligned to support the UAEs vision to become the world leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) by 2031, the 3M M*Modal Fluency Direct, the latest speech and AI-powered technology, can also be seen at the new innovation centre. The all-in-one solution will enable physicians of any medical specialty to verbally create, review, edit and sign clinical notes directly within electronic health records.

Adopted across Emirates Health Services facilities in the UAE, this technology will ensure standardisation and acceleration of clinical documentation processes and will reduce the administrative burden on healthcare professionals. Furthermore, it will help to improve the physician and patient experience and drive productivity in the healthcare sector.

3Ms new Dubai office features a self-standing natural green wall and is completely equipped with wireless technology, demonstrating 3Ms continued commitment towards protecting the environment.

3Ms innovation centre joins a robust and dynamic tech community in Dubai Internet City, which is home to 15 innovation centres powered by companies like Visa, MasterCard, Google, and SAP. -- TradeArabia News Service
Drew Smyly declined his end of a $10MM mutual option in his contract with the Cubs, as Jordan Bastian of MLB.com was among those to relay (on Twitter). Hell collect a $1MM buyout and head back to free agency.

Its virtually a formality that every mutual option will be declined by one side, and Smylys decision doesnt register as much of a surprise. Hes likely to look for a multi-year deal this winter. The veteran southpaw is coming off a decent season for Chicago, pitching to a 3.47 ERA through 106 1/3 innings over 22 starts. His 20.4% strikeout rate was a hair below average, but he only walked 5.8% of opposing hitters and had a solid 12.4% swinging strike rate.

Smyly and the Cubs reportedly kicked around extension talks last month. Obviously, nothing has come to fruition, but Bastian notes the Cubs are still interested in keeping the 33-year-old around. Theyll retain exclusive negotiating rights through Thursday evening, but it looks likely the Frontline client will soon be in contact with other clubs with no extension in place.

Chicago doesnt have a ton of certainty behind Marcus Stroman in their season-opening rotation. Kyle Hendricks figures to assume a spot if healthy; hes yet to begin a throwing program after his 2022 season was cut short by a capsule tear in his throwing shoulder, although the Cubs arent concerned about his availability for Spring Training. Justin Steele looks like a rotation lock, but Chicagos likely to seek upgrades over Adrian Sampson and Keegan Thompson at the back end. Even if they manage to retain Smyly, they figure to explore a deep starting pitching free agent class.
The Rangers announced they have declined their $5.5MM club option on outfielder Kole Calhoun for 2023. There was no buyout attached. Calhoun will now become a free agent.

Calhoun signed with Texas last offseason, inking a $5.2MM guarantee after a down season in Arizona. The veteran outfielder had hit 16 home runs for the Snakes during the shortened 2020 season, but he was limited to five longballs and 51 games by injury in 2021. The Rangers took a shot on a bounceback, hoping to install a quality left-handed power bat into the corner outfield mix.

The 35-year-olds lone season in Arlington didnt go as planned. Calhoun appeared in 125 games and stepped to the plate 424 times, but he managed a career-worst .196/.257/.330 line. He punched out in a personal-high 32.1% of his trips to the plate against a modest 6.4% walk rate, and his power output wasnt close to compensating for the subpar on-base percentage. Declining the option was an easy call for general manager Chris Young and his staff.

Calhoun heads back to the open market as a depth option in the corner outfield, and its possible he may have to take a minor league offer with an invitation to Spring Training. The Rangers figure to explore the market for upgrades on the grass, with Adolis Garcia the only player who seems locked into a spot in the outfield at the moment.
A US District Court for the Central District of California, on Monday, ordered Nigerian social media influencer, Ramon Abass Olorunwa, popularly called Hushpuppi, to pay $1.7m in restitution to two victims he branded.

Hushpuppi is currently serving 11 years in US prison. Justice Otis D. Wright II sentenced Hushpuppi for money laundering conspiracy through several online scams and flaunting of a luxurious, crime-funded lifestyle on social media.

The United States, in a statement issued by the court, stated that Abbas had bragged on social media about his lavish lifestyle  a lifestyle funded by his involvement in transnational fraud and money laundering conspiracies targeting victims around the world.

This significant sentence is the result of years' worth of collaboration among law enforcement in multiple countries and should send a clear warning to international fraudsters that the FBI will seek justice for victims, regardless of whether criminals operate within or outside United States borders.

Hushpuppi who had on July 28, 2021, pleaded guilty, also identified Abba Kyari, a serving Deputy Commissioner of Nigerian Police as an accomplice in his $1.1 million scam.

The following day, a US Court on July 29, 2021, granted an FBI warrant to arrest Abba Kyari, who was further implicated after his conversation with Hushpuppi was released.
Fastest-rising Kumawood actor, agriculturist and philanthropist Emmanuel Asiamah has bemoaned the lack of support in the agricultural sector.

He complained that, as a cocoa farmer studying agricultural engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology, he lacks the resources to encourage him for what he has chosen to do.

In a tweet seen by Modernghana News on Tuesday, November 8, the actor cum cocoa farmer asked for help from kind individuals and businesses to expand his farming business.

Mr. Asiamah emphasised that the government must devote some funds to the agricultural industry rather than solely to the Black Stars.

Help in this country [Ghana] you will never get. As a KNUST agricultural engineering Student and a cocoa farmer. I need support to be able to expand my farming business but no one is in to support but Black Stars is been sponsored by so many Companies. hmmm, his post reads.
Almost every life of Ghanaians is affected by the recent global economic quagmire.

The situation has prompted actress Lydia Forson to complain profusely about the increased price of electricity.

Miss Forson lamented in a tweet that she used to consume a certain amount of electricity for several weeks, but that same amount now can't last her more than a week.

Got electricity on the 1st of this month, something that would usually last for a few weeks is now finished in a week?! Wtf, she said, asking, Did tariffs change or its just me?
Sarkodie, the most decorated African rapper and Ghanaian musician of the decade has reiterated his love for music fans.

He stated that he is not good at trusting people over reasons that such people will break his heart in the near future.

In just five (5) words, the celebrated rapper posted on his Instagram handle telling his fans, "I dont trust," but in his words, "I love."

Sarknation fans and several music enthusiasts are currently awaiting his most anticipated "Jamz" album, which will be dropped on Friday, November 11, after he released the tracklists on Monday, November 7.

Out of the 10 tracks, the rapper had his singular way on only one of them, titled "Confam." He featured three Ghanaian artists, King Promise, Cina Soul, and Black Sherif, on the tracks "Labadi," "Over Me," and "Country Side," respectively.

Lojay, BNXN, Joeboy, and Oxlade, four Nigerian artists, were recruited alongside Jamaican Kranium and Ink Boy.
A 23-year-old Ghanaian female model, YouTuber and law graduate, Elorm Ama Governor-Ababio, fondly known as Ama Governor has been denied access to become a member of the Ghana Bar Association.

The GBA cites her irresponsibility on social media as the reason for her rejection.

The socialite has two nose piercings and multiple ear piercings.

She occasionally uploads content that contains nudity, confessing publicly to be a lesbian, as well as other lifestyles that the association considers inappropriate to become a member.

Speaking about this, the socialite describes it as unfair treatment.

She vowed to challenge it until she is given justice.

Meanwhile, every citizen has a constitutional right to not be punished unless the act theyre punishing you for was defined in a written law and the penalty for it prescribed at B, the time of the commission of the act. Otherwise, its unconstitutional. Thats what I learnt in law," she stated.

She added, No matter what, I am going to come out victorious. no matter what.

On Twitter, where the embattled law graduate is most active, some Ghanaians have expressed mixed feelings about the incident.

In reaction, Bongo Ideas stated: That Ama Governor girl publicly supports LGBTQ, shows her boobs and ass on social media and has pierced nose, ears and tongue.

I'm glad she has been denied a call to the bar. The law is for serious minds, not wannabe socialites. She can try modelling!

"She can go to the bar if she has been denied entry to the Bar. Theyre all bars.

Sneaker Nyame wrote: You see why you for left [have to leave] this country? Take Ama Governor do [as a] case study. Charlie black man no wan[t] see his brother win oh.

Fatima wrote, Truly horrifying what's happening to Ama Governor. Every year, rapists are called to the bar before our very eyes. Yet it is Ama Governor whose character/conduct is "questionable" simply because she documents how she navigates her life & shares it with us. Shame.

Damien argued, People hate to be told the truth. Ama Governor is not fit to be a lawyer.
Some newly inducted doctors

09.11.2022 LISTEN

ON SATURDAY, 29th October, 2022, 461 newly qualified medical and dental officers were inducted into the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) of Ghana at the Accra International Conference Centre. They were products of the University of Ghana, Accra; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi; the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale; and medical/dental officers trained overseas.

The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST and a large number of dignitaries from other universities graced the occasion.

In her address, a point passionately made by the chairperson and member of the board, Dr. Constance Addo-Yobo, and re-echoed by the Guest-of-Honour is the title of this article:

Please Don't Leave Us For Greener Pastures!

The new doctors were also told not to refuse postings to the districts, as going there affords them the opportunity to learn fast while being of service to those who need it most.

So, who took us to the Conference Centre? Dr. Fiifi did!

Before that, why the passionate appeal by both the Chairperson and the Guest-of-Honour to the young doctors not to leave Ghana?

Doctor To Patient Ratio

A quote attributed to the Minister of Health in the Wednesday, 16th June, 2021 edition of Daily Guide Network states;

Doctor-population ratio (in Ghana) improved consistently over the last five years (2016-2020) from 1: 9,301 to 1: 6,355. However, this improvement falls short of the WHO standard of 1: 1,000.

On 25th February, 2022, The Ghana News Agency (GNA) stated the doctor patient ratio keeps widening in the Northern Region as statistics from the Ghana Health Service shows doctor-patient ratio in the region has increased from 1: 8,859 in 2020 to 1: 10,901 in 2021.

On 5th August 2022, the Ghanaian Times stated the doctor-patient ratio in Bono East has worsened from 1: 18,287 in 2020 to 1: 20,2021, Dr Fred Adomako-Boateng, the Bono East Regional Director of Health Services, has revealed!

With these rather alarming statistics, is it any wonder that the chairperson, herself a health practitioner, appealed to the young doctors not to leave Ghana for greener pastures in countries which already have very good doctor-patient ratios of around 1:400?

She added sadly that the bulk of Ghana's doctors are concentrated in Accra-Tema and Kumasi with very few doctors in the districts. She advised the young doctors to accept postings to the districts.

Ma fe wo

It is against this backdrop of paucity of doctors in Ghana that the contribution of Ghana's first private medical school, the Family Health University Medical School, Teshie is commendable. Founded by Professor Enyonam Kwawukume and Dr. (Mrs.) Susu Kwawukume, the first batch of 30 doctors was inducted into the Medical and Dental Council in 2020. The second batch of 54 doctors was inducted in 2021.

Sharing their experiences on Joy TV during the week, Dr. Roseline Okoro of the 2020 class and Dr Simon Sackitey of the Class of 2021 gave very interesting accounts of their training, and gratitude to Family Health Medical School for shaping them into the calibre of doctors they are.

So, back to Fiifi!

Fiifi

In 2011, while on duty outside Ghana, my Manager, in a telephone chat with me said, Dan, you will return home to meet a new son in our house.

The new son I met on my arrival was Fiifi, a JSS One pupil of the Services Primary School, Burma Camp. Fiifi's parents lived at Kasoa. The daily commuting with his mother who worked/works at Burma Camp was taking its toll on Fiifi. This was when the Kaneshie-Kasoa road was being reconstructed.

Arriving home late, they had to get up around 4am to get ready for the journey to Burma Camp, often arriving late.

It is on the basis of this that my Manager who worked in the same office with Fiifi's mother decided that, he could come and live with us at Burma Camp.

After his secondary education at Mfantsipim School, Fiifi was admitted at KNUST as a medical student. He was one of the 461 medical/dental doctors inducted into the Medical and Dental Council on 29th October 2022.

Induction

For their induction, each new doctor was allowed only one invited guest into the Conference Centre for the ceremony. So, even for parents, only one was allowed inside. All other relations waited on the lawns outside. Fiifi was graduating with a Rwandese friend whose parents could not fly down. Fiifi's father thus had two tickets.

The couple decided the second ticket would come to me. All my protestations that the ticket should go to Fiifi's mother as a parent, were overruled by the couple, in spite of our democratic dispensation. Their decision was that the two men would support Fiifi and his Rwandese friend in the Conference Hall while the ladies waited outside for us.

The highlight of the induction was when all the doctors wore their white coats with their names proudly embossed on their chests, and took the Hippocratic Oath. There was a 15-minutes dancing session where the auditorium became a dancing floor for everyone. Music was provided by the Present King Youth Choir which regaled us with beautiful gospel music as we danced happily to the glory of God.

Discussion

While I endorse the call by the Chairperson for the young doctors to accept postings to the districts, I recalled my November 2016 article titled From Ghana? Why did Dr. Serebour send you here?

This was a question asked a colleague when he went overseas for a heart surgery in the hospital Dr. Serebour of the Cardio-Thoracic Centre, Korle Bu, trained! On his return home, he told Dr. Serebour about the incident. Yes, the doctor confirmed, and explained that, much as the skills to perform the surgery were/are available in Ghana, the equipment to do so was unavailable, hence the referral overseas!

Doctors have complained, after helplessly seeing patients die needlessly because of lack of equipment, they are forced to leave the country because those who should care, do not. They don't because they can be flown outside for the best of care in the best of hospitals!

In any case, who would want to serve where, in addition to rudimentary water/electricity supply, good schools for their children are unavailable, sixty-five years after independence?

For our rulers, again remember the quote by President Kennedy that, If a civilised society cannot take care of the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To Drs Fiifi, Akosua, Julius and their colleagues, the 461 new medical/dental doctors who took the Hippocratic Oath on Saturday, 29th October 2022, Congratulations!

Your induction into the Medical and Dental Council, Ghana is only the beginning of a long career ahead! Remember, people will come to you only when they are unwell and at their lowest. Be principled doctors and treat your patients with dignity, respect and humility!

Leadership, Lead!

Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!

BY Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd)
A Nairobi court has ordered striking Kenya Airways pilots to return to work by Wednesday morning after the days-long walkout forced dozens of flight cancellations and left thousands of passengers stranded.

The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) launched the strike at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Saturday, defying a court order issued last week against the industrial action.

Justice Anna Mwaure on Tuesday ordered "the Kenya Airways pilots to resume their duties as pilots by 6:00 am on 9th November 2022 unconditionally".

The walkout has exacerbated the woes facing the troubled national carrier, which has been running losses for years, despite the government pumping in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.

There was no immediate response from KALPA to the court order, which came as the airline announced that most of its flights had been cancelled due to the strike.

The carrier on Monday announced that it was ending its recognition of the union and withdrawing from their collective bargaining deal, accusing KALPA of "exposing the airline to irreparable damage".

Mwaure said the court would now consider the issue and ordered the airline's management to allow the pilots "to perform their duties without harassing them or intimidating them and especially by not taking any disciplinary action against any of them".

The airline, which is part owned by the government as well as Air France-KLM, is one of the biggest in Africa, connecting multiple countries to Europe and Asia.

On Sunday, the airline said 56 flights had been cancelled due to the strike, disrupting 12,000 passengers' plans.

The protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the workforce, are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The carrier has warned that the strike would jeopardise its recovery, estimating losses at $2.5 million per day.
The UN's chief called Tuesday for an end to a "toxic cover-up" by companies as a sweeping report said they cannot claim to be net zero if they invest in new fossil fuels, cause deforestation or offset emissions instead of reducing them.

Antonio Guterres said businesses as well as cities and regions should update their voluntary net zero pledges within a year to comply with the recommendations by UN experts, as he trained his sights on fossil fuel firms and "their financial enablers".

"Using bogus 'net-zero' pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception," he said at the launch of the report at the COP27 conference in Egypt.

So-called pancake ice and melt seen on July 19, 2022 from a NASA plane on a mission with University of Texas scientists. Over the past two decades, the Arctic has lost about one-third of its winter sea ice volume, a study found. By Kerem YAcel (AFP/File)

"This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end."

The UN expert panel, convened by Guterres after UN climate talks in Glasgow last year, set its sights on drawing a "red line" around greenwashing in net zero targets from companies, cities and regions.

A huge surge in decarbonisation pledges in recent months means that around 90 percent of the global economy is now covered by some sort of promise of carbon neutrality, according to Net Zero Tracker.

"It's very easy to make an announcement that you are going to be net zero by 2050. But you have to walk the talk and what we've seen is that there is not enough action," said Catherine McKenna, Canada's former environment and climate change minister, who led the panel.

A man lights a fire on the edge of the Transamazonica highway in ManicorA, Amazonas state, Brazil, on September 23, 2022. By MICHAEL DANTAS (AFP/File)

"We have to do two things to reach net zero -- we need to drastically reduce emissions, and we need to invest in clean (energy)," she told AFP.

She added it was currently "extremely hard" to properly evaluate whether firms were cutting emissions and called for greater transparency.

The report lists a slew of recommendations, including calling on governments to begin putting in place binding regulations.

'Do the work'

Participants attend the leaders summit of the COP27 climate conference at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre, in Egypt's Red Sea resort city. By JOSEPH EID (AFP)

A central recommendation from the panel is that net zero plans must be in line with the Paris Agreement's most ambitious aim of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures.

But to do that UN scientists say that global emissions must be slashed virtually in half by 2030, and after that they should be reduced to net zero by 2050.

There have been growing concerns that some firms have not aligned their efforts with the latest climate science -- by failing to account for emissions from key activities, or by saying they can make up for increasing pollution today with "carbon credits" from activities like tree planting.

Graphic on key indicators showing the state of global warming. By Gal ROMA (AFP)

The report recommends that credits should not be used to "offset" emissions, until after a firm has done everything possible to cut emissions in line with the 1.5C target and that if they are used at all they should be from a reliable and verified source.

"The reality is you can't offset your way to net zero," McKenna told AFP.

"You don't get an A for showing up in class. You get an A for doing the work and you can't pay someone else to do it, you have got to do it yourself."

'It's very easy to make an announcement that you are going to be net zero by 2050. But you have to walk the talk," said Catherine McKenna, Canada's former environment and climate change minister. By JOSEPH EID (AFP)

The report added that net zero pledges should include short term targets every five years, beginning in 2025.

It stressed that these should cover all greenhouse gas emissions from all activities -- including supply chains for businesses and investments for financial institutions.

'Watershed moment'

A delegate poses for a picture in an exhibitions pavilion at the convention center hosting the COP27 climate conference. By Fayez Nureldine (AFP)

Net zero is "entirely incompatible" with any new fossil fuel investment, the report said, although McKenna said oil and gas companies could still have these pledges if they swiftly transition to renewables.

Firms would also not be able to continue activities that result in deforestation and still claim they are decarbonising.

"We find that too often too many businesses continue to rely on business models that result in the destruction of natural ecosystems," said panel member Arunabha Ghosh, of the Council on Energy Environment and Water, a think tank.

"We want to show that any company doing this is working against net zero."

The report also said businesses with net zero plans should not lobby against climate action.

Boats piled up and destroyed by Hurricane Ian are seen on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on November 7, 2022. By Giorgio VIERA (AFP/File)

"Today's announcement is a watershed moment when it comes to corporate lobbying on climate policy, which has long stymied action from governments," said Will Aitchison of the think tank InfluenceMap.

In September, an analysis by CDP, a non-profit that runs a global disclosure system for companies to manage their environmental impacts, found that the decarbonisation plans of major corporations from G7 nations put Earth on course to heat a potentially catastrophic 2.7C.
Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) has signed an agreement with DHL Express to provide cargo ground handling services, as well as a deal with DHL Aviation to provide warehousing services.

The signing ceremony took place on Wednesday (November 9), the first day of the Bahrain International Airshow (BIAS) 2022, where Nabeel Kanoo, the Chairman of BAS, and Nour Suliman, the CEO of DHL Express Middle East and North Africa, and Andrew Love, the VP Air Capacity Sales at DHL, signed the two agreements in the presence of Eng Mohamed Khalil, CEO of BAS, and other officials from both entities.

Over the course of one year, BAS will provide cargo ground handling services for DHL aircraft, which include ramp, cargo and parking services, as well as Unit Load Devices (ULDs). As for DHL Aviation, the agreement stipulates that BAS will be providing warehousing services for a period of two years, which include cargo and mail handling, customs declarations, cargo acceptance, preparation of ULDs, as well as bulk cargo.

Kanoo said: It gives us great pleasure to be partnering with DHL Express and DHL Aviation, pioneers in the field of sustainable transport and logistics. This agreement comes as a testament to our continued efforts in providing our partners with the highest standards of cargo ground handling and warehousing operations.

Through this partnership, we aim to further strengthen the relationship between both companies and lay down the base for a wide range of opportunities in the coming future, he added.

The partnership with BAS forms part of DHLs ongoing efforts to continuously enhance our ground operations to improve the speed and efficiency of our deliveries, and overall customer service. Such strategic partnerships reiterate our commitment to further strengthening the Kingdoms logistics infrastructure and boosting its position as a prime regional logistics Hub, commented Suliman. -TradeArabia News Service
International pressure mounted Tuesday for the "immediate release" of Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, whose family fears for his life after he escalated his hunger strike by refusing water too as COP27 opened.

After a seven-month stint during which he consumed only "100 calories a day", the 40-year-old British-Egyptian stopped drinking water on Sunday as world leaders gathered for the opening of the global climate summit in Egypt.

On Tuesday, a day after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron met with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and raised his plight, UN rights chief Volker Turk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz demanded his release.

Abdel Fattah, currently serving a five-year sentence for "spreading false news" for reposting a Facebook post about police brutality, has been leading headlines during the UN summit, intensifying international attention on Egypt's rights record.

A key figure of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah gained British citizenship this year through his UK-born mother, Laila Soueif.

'Dreadful consequences'

Sanaa Seif, sister of imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, speaks to reporters after a press conference hosted by the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice on the sidelines of the COP27 in Egypt. By JOSEPH EID (AFP)

Soueif -- who has been camped out in front of the prison for two days in the hope of receiving a letter as proof of life, according to daughter Mona Seif -- warns her son many only have "a day or two or three at most".

In a message posted on Facebook, Soueif directed an appeal to world leaders at the COP27 summit rather than the Egyptian authorities, who she accused of already having "so much blood on their hands."

Activists at COP27 have posted prolifically on Twitter under the hashtag #FreeAlaa and several speakers have ended their speeches with the words "you have not yet been defeated" -- the title of his book, prefaced by Canadian author Naomi Klein.

Sunak said Monday that the case is "a priority", demanding it be "resolved as soon as possible."

Macron said he had received an assurance that Sisi is "committed to ensuring that (the) health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved" and that the situation will be resolved "in the coming weeks and months."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday said that "his release must be possible, so that this hunger strike does not end in death," adding that "we should be afraid that this could lead to dreadful consequences".

Turk said he "deeply regrets" Egypt had not released Abdel Fattah, warning that his "life is in great danger".

Sanaa Seif, sister of imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, speaks to reporters after a press conference on the sidelines of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. By JOSEPH EID (AFP)

On Tuesday, a press conference led by Abdel Fattah's sister Sanaa Seif -- on the sidelines of the COP27 summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh -- was disrupted by an Egyptian parliamentarian.

"We are talking about an Egyptian citizen detained for a criminal offence, he is not a political prisoner," said pro-government lawmaker Amr Darwish, who was escorted out of a COP27 hall by UN security. "Do not try to use the West against Egypt."

'Force fed'?

Egyptian MP Amr Darwish is escorted out by United Nations security during a press conference hosted by the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice and attended by Sanaa Seif, sister of imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah. By JOSEPH EID (AFP)

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 president, told CNBC television that Abdel Fattah -- whose dual citizenship Cairo does not recognise -- has access to "all the necessary care in prison".

Sanaa Seif said Shoukry's talk of "care" raises concerns her brother is potentially being "force fed" with intravenous drips.

"Is he handcuffed to a bed, on IVs against his will?" she said.

Cairo has faced intensifying criticism of its long deplored human rights record since it was announced as the host of the COP27 climate summit last year, a move rights groups said "rewards the repressive rule" of Sisi.

Three Egyptian journalists also continued a hunger strike for a second day, demanding "the release of all political prisoners in Egypt".

Rights groups say such prisoners number some 60,000, a claim denied by Cairo.

Abdel Fattah's continued detention comes despite Egypt having granted presidential pardons to a total of 766 political prisoners since the reactivation of a pardon policy in April this year, according to data compiled by Amnesty.

But over the same period close to double that number have been jailed for their activism, Amnesty says.
French President Emmanuel Macron faced accusations Monday of a making a major foreign policy reversal after an apparently cordial encounter with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

The one-and-a-half-minute handshake and chat on the sidelines of the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh may have been brief, but they were a stark contrast to previous comments by Macron, who in 2019 had described Maduro as "illegitimate".

"I would be happy if we could talk to each other for longer to engage in useful bilateral work for the region," Macron told Maduro, according to a video recording of the encounter.

Addressing Maduro as "president," he added that "I will call you."

France, the US and several European allies never recognised Maduro's re-election to a second term in 2018 elections and instead recognised his rival Juan Guaido as acting president.

But Guaido's influence has ebbed after Maduro clung onto power, and Western countries are also keenly aware of Venezuela's status as a key OPEC oil producer at a time of global energy crisis.

In 2019, Macron had recognised Guaido as acting president, describing Maduro's election as "illegitimate" and calling for "a restoration of democracy" in the country.

"Excellent handshake with the President of France Emmanuel Macron," Maduro tweeted after the meeting. "The doors of Venezuela are open for the French people."

"Macron's Big U-turn on Maduro's Venezuela," commented France's left-wing daily Liberation.

The leader of France's ultra-left wing France Unbowed party (LFI) Jean-Luc Melenchon, a longtime admirer of Venezuela under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, tweeted that the "need for oil makes people polite."

He said that Macron had "finally" recognised the election of Maduro.

The encounter also came as Macron prepares this week to host Colombia's first left-wing President Gustavo Petro, who has renewed diplomatic relations with its neighbour Venezuela and wants to normalise ties after a three-year rupture.

Venezuela is also sending a senior official to attend the Paris Peace Forum, a major annual conference backed by Macron that starts on Friday.

During the discussion between the two presidents, Maduro said that "France should play a positive role" in Latin America.

The occasionally surreal exchange between the two men -- where the presidents rigidly stare at each other -- also saw Maduro declare that "we have very good friends in common" and ask Macron "when do you visit us?"

Asked if the encounter represented a change of policy by France, the French foreign ministry said all questions should be addressed to the Elysee.
A group of small island nations joined calls on Tuesday for a windfall tax on oil companies to compensate developing countries for the damage caused by climate change-induced natural disasters.

Developing nations have pressed their case at the UN's COP27 climate summit in Egypt for the creation of a "loss and damage" fund, arguing that rich nations are to blame for the biggest share of greenhouse gas emissions.

Oil companies have scored tens of billions of dollars in profits this year as crude prices have soared in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global COP carbon tax on these profits as a source of funding for loss and damage," the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, told fellow leaders at the summit in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"While they are profiting, the planet is burning," said Browne, who was speaking on behalf of the 39-nation Alliance of Small Island States, many of whose very existence is threatened by rising sea levels and increasingly intense tropical storms.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called Monday for a 10 percent tax on oil companies to fund loss and damage.

'Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty'

Percentage of people living in zones that could be underwater due to rising sea levels, after 2100. By Simon MALFATTO (AFP)

The contentious issue of loss and damage was added to the COP27 agenda after intense negotiations.

The United States and European Union have dragged their feet on the issue in the past, fearful of creating an open-ended reparations regime.

Browne acknowledged that the adoption of the agenda was "just one step" in the process, which gives a two-year space to negotiate.

"We look forward to the establishment and officialisation of the fund by 2024," he said.

Browne also said a group of four island nations had registered a commission with the UN to "explore the responsibility of states for injuries arising from their climate actions and breaches in the obligations".

"As small countries this is a new dynamic pathway of justice where the polluter pays," he said.

Browne said small island states "will fight unrelentingly this climate crisis, and this includes fighting in the international courts and under international law".

Tuvalu's Prime Minister Kausea Natano, who warned on Tuesday that 'warming seas are starting to swallow our lands inch by inch'. By AHMAD GHARABLI (AFP)

Another island nation, Tuvalu, announced it was joining a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, an initiative that seeks to phase out coal, oil and gas globally.

"The warming seas are starting to swallow our lands -- inch by inch," Tuvalu's Prime Minister Kausea Natano said in a statement.

"But the world's addiction to oil, gas and coal can't sink our dreams under the waves," he said.

A Pacific neighbour, Vanuatu, was the first nation to join the treaty in September.
Tanzanian authorities on Tuesday said the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Lake Victoria has been pulled out of the water, following the country's deadliest air accident in decades.

Nineteen people died when the Precision Air plane went down on Sunday as it approached the northwestern city of Bukoba, prompting a frantic rescue effort by emergency workers, fishermen and residents to pluck people to safety from the largely submerged aircraft.

"We have completely removed the plane out of water and now the professional investigation into the cause of the accident is under way," the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) said in a statement.

"Bukoba Airport will also be reopened soon to allow aviation operations to continue as usual," it added.

Nineteen people died when the Precision Air plane went down on Sunday. By SITIDE PROTASE (AFP)

Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane's twisted wreckage being pulled up by a crane, its nose collapsing towards the ground, before it was deposited on a patch of grass.

Precision Air, a publicly listed company and Tanzania's largest private carrier, said the aircraft was an ATR 42-500, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR, and had 39 passengers -- including an infant -- and four crew members on board.

Twenty-four survived out of the 43 people aboard flight PW 494 from financial capital Dar es Salaam.

The victims included a Kenyan citizen and a British national, government spokesman Gerson Msigwa told reporters in Bukoba.

"We are communicating with the respective embassies to transport the bodies," he said.

Police blamed bad weather for the deadly crash. By SITIDE PROTASE (AFP)

Msigwa said investigators from ATR were expected in Tanzania on Tuesday to join their counterparts from Precision Air and the TAA, who arrived in the lakeside city on Sunday.

Police blamed bad weather for the accident amid questions about the government's handling of the rescue effort.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the government would do more "to ensure safety in the aviation transport sector".

Precision Air, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights as well as private tourist charters.

The accident comes five years after 11 people died when a plane belonging to safari company Coastal Aviation crashed in northern Tanzania.

In 1999, a dozen people, including 10 US tourists, died in a plane crash in northern Tanzania while flying between Serengeti National Park and Kilimanjaro airport.
Sudanese security forces fired tear gas Tuesday as they confronted thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in the capital Khartoum, an AFP correspondent said.

Protesters chanted "No to military rule" as they marched towards the presidential palace, denouncing a coup last year led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that derailed a transition to civilian rule.

Burhan seized power in October 2021 and arrested civilian leaders appointed following the 2019 ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir, plunging Sudan into a political and economic crisis.

"We will not stop until the military power is toppled and replaced with a civilian government," said protester Hadia Mohammed.

"We will not leave the streets until we achieve the goals of the revolution: liberty, peace and justice," said Samer Omar, another activist, draped in a Sudanese flag and wearing a yellow helmet for protection.

Eyewitnesses said thousands also demonstrated in the city of Wad Madani, south of Khartoum, and Gedaref in the east.

Security forces have cracked down on near-weekly protests since the 2021 coup, resulting in at least 119 deaths, according to pro-democracy medics.

Since the military power grab, activists have warned that several Bashir-era loyalists had been appointed to official positions, including in the judiciary, which is currently trying the former dictator.

Tyres were set on fire by protesters angry at last year's military coup in Sudan to block roads in Khartoum. By - (AFP)

Burhan's pledge of elections next year is seen as far-fetched, and no civilian leaders have taken up the mantle of the army chief's promised civilian government.

Meanwhile, experts said a surge in ethnic violence in recent months has highlighted a security breakdown in Sudan, with the United Nations reporting over 370 people killed in clashes and at least 210,000 forced from their homes this year.

In Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, a third of the country's 45 million inhabitants suffer from hunger, a 50 percent increase compared with 2021, according to the World Food Programme.
08.11.2022 LISTEN

Ambassador Alhaji Salamu Amadu, the Group Chairman of the Afro Arab Group of Companies joined some high profiled personalities at the 62nd Speech and Prize giving day celebration of the Accra Girls Senior High School situated in Maamobi, Accra.

Ambassador Alhaji Salamu Amadu in his remarks noted that it was a great honour to be part of the 62nd Speech and Prize giving day of Accra Girls Senior High School.

"I was elated and honoured to be a special guest at the just ended 62nd Speech and Prize giving day celebration of Accra Girls Senior High School with one of my mentors Dr. Daniel Mckorley Group Chairman of the McDan Group of Companies with my good friend and brother Deputy Minister of Education Hon. Rev Ntim-Forjour," he stated.

He added that "the most powerful tool you can give a person is education." He then appealed to the Ministry of Education and all stakeholders not to limit education to the classrooms only.

"The most powerful tool you can give a person is education. If you educate, you empower. Like I always say education should not be limited to only the classroom. An educated girl child grows into a literate woman who has a greater chance of breaking the cycle of poverty, being more productive, and boosting the standard of living for herself, her children and family, as well as the society at large," he intimated.

He added, "It is always a pleasure to support the only Senior High School in the community that I was born and bred which also happens to be a Girls' school".

Ambassador Alhaji Salamu Amadu in his conclusion pledged to build a new teachers' bungalow and called on parents in the Zongos and inner cities to enrol their girl-child in the school.
Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has said there are no mercenaries at the Jubilee House being secretly trained at Asutuare to cause mayhem during the 2024 elections.

He told journalists on Tuesday, 8 November 2022 that an allegation to the contrary made by US-based Ghanaian journalist Kevin Taylor, which was drummed up by the minority caucus, is nothing but rubbish.

Let me state to you that this president will hand over to the duly elected president of Ghana on the 7th of January 2025. The duly elected president will be chosen by the people of Ghana. Nobody will interfere in the choice of the people of Ghana. Not from the military, not from the police, not from any politician, Mr Nitiwul assured the people of Ghana.

He said: When the minority says that a certain Kevin Taylor, who, I believe, you all know, is engaged in yellow journalism and should not be taken seriously, goes out there to make such huge allegations without substance and the opposition in parliament, without any shred of evidence, will say that we are recruiting and training mercenaries  no such thing has taken place.

This government has not brought anybody into the Jubilee House, who is not a soldier, who is not a police, or who is not into national security. We have not done it since we came to power and we dont intend to do it, he stressed.

No evidence of that nature [exists], Mr Nitiwul added.

Of course, I will not come and tell you that we have not had enhanced security at the Jubilee House but that is the prerogative of the government; but the government has not recruited anybody outside the recognised security forces  the police, the armed forces, and members of the national security, particularly the police and the armed forces, to ensure that the number one gentleman, the seat of government safe and you and I are safe.

So, I want Ghanaians to dismiss this allegation by the minority and cast it into the dustbin because it is not a true story and there is no evidence to such.

This is the imagination of the minority in parliament and people should disregard it, he added.

Source: ClassFMonline.com
Mr Dominic Nitiwul, the Minister of Defence, has given Ghanaians the assurance that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will hand over power to a duly elected President on 7th January 2025.

That is the assurance, we in the security sector on behalf of the Government, will give you. That is the assurance.

Mr Niitiwul said this on Tuesday at a press conference in Parliament House in his reaction to an earlier press conference by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Caucus on the current state of insecurity in Ghana in the wake of the economic meltdown.

During the Minority press conference, Mr James Agalga, the Ranking Member for the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, noted that their attention had been drawn to a an exposee by Mr Kelvin Tailor, a Ghanaian journalist based in the United States, which suggested the recruitment and training of mercenaries by the Government operatives based at the Jubilee House to cause chaos and mayhem in the country and blame the political opposition.

The Minority Caucus, therefore, urged bilateral partners, the ECOWAS Secretariat, the African Union, the clergy and the National Peace Council to speak out in the defence of the sustenance of Ghana's democracy before it was too late.

Mr Nitiwul, however, in his reaction, noted that no such thing had taken place and that the Government had not brought anybody into the Jubilee House, who was not a soldier, who was not a Police, or who was not into national security.

We have not done such a thing since we came into power and we don't intend to do it. No evidence of that nature, he stated.

He urged Ghanaians to dismiss Mr Tailor's allegations; declaring that Mr Tailor was engaging in yellow journalism and should, therefore, not be taken seriously.

Mr Nitiwul noted that Mr Tailor's allegations was without substance.

Let me state to you that this President will handover to the duly elected President of Ghana on the 7th of January, 2025, Mr Nitiwul said.

The duly elected President would be chosen by the people of Ghana, nobody will interfere in the affairs of the people of Ghana, not from the Military, not from the Police, not from any politician.

The people of Ghana will line-up on the 7th of December 2024 cast their votes, whoever emerges President will be swown-in on the 7th of January, 2025.

He urged political parties to go out there and campaign, and win the hearts and soul of the people of Ghana; saying that is my advice to them.

Touching on recruitment into the Ghana Armed Forces, the Minister noted that it was based on merit; adding that promotions were also merit-based.

He noted that members of the Ghana Armed Forces were very credible and professional in their conduct at the UN Peacekeeping Mission.

GNA
08.11.2022 LISTEN

As India moves towards becoming a major exporter of defence products, achieving the target of exporting US$ 5 billion by 2025, Africa will play a crucial role in realising this goal. The convergence of Mahatamas country of birth and the continent of his adoption on all platforms would be essential to secure a safe and prosperous environment.

As Jomo Kenyata, the founding father of Kenya, said: Our Children may learn about heroes of the past, our task is to make ourselves architects of the future, the future is in the making as recently witnessed during the Second India-Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) held at the 12th Defexpo, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. There was the presence of defence ministers from 19 African countries along with the chief of defence staff and senior dignitaries representing other African nations.

Peace, development and security are interrelated

As India and Africa break the shackles of the dark past of colonialism and become the architects of a prosperous and secure future, co-developing and co-producing in the defence sector could prove to be a catalyst. Thus, delivering the keynote address at the event, the Defence Minister of India iterated that African priorities are our priorities. That set the tone for the 12th Defexpo. In his speech, paying tribute and mentioning freedom fighters from Africa - Jomo Kenyata, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Sam Nujoma, Patrice Lumumba - he went on to mention that India and Africa share a multi-faceted defence and security cooperation.

The African countries and India have had humble beginnings and with continuing shared principles of non-violence and peace, both regions are important for buttressing and raising important south-south cooperation concerns at various multilateral groupings. Africa has a sweet spot in Indias foreign policy as this was widely visible during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Uganda in 2018 where in a speech, he mentioned that African priorities are Indian priorities. This was reflected in the first edition of the IADD held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh in 2020 as well.

Thus, this defence partnership is embedded with shared values, principles of quality, and commitment to peace, security, stability and prosperity, and is driven by common aspirations and admiration for standing up against the piracy, terrorism and duped policies of other countries. For instance, safeguarding maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region is a combined responsibility of India and Africa and they should get ready to face future conflicts and challenges by joining forces for co-developing and co-manufacturing cutting-edge emerging technologies in the security sector.

Here, it is important to mention that a defence manufacturing ecosystem has been created in India and it is widely recognised in various policies and initiatives rolled out by the current government. Africa and India, with the added advantage of abundance of technical, skilled and semi-skilled labour, should work together to fulfil the continents defence requirements.

By forging public-private partnerships, including Indian defence industries working with their African counterparts, will have a positive snowball effect. With the emergence of defence-industrial complex, other manufacturing hubs which would bring in investments, particularly in new critical technologies. This could be an answer to a large looming worry, the staggeringly high rate of unemployment and scarcity of jobs!

Cooperation everywhere - Land, water, air and outer space

The defence ties between the two have stood the test of time and entered into the seventh decade of direct engagement. Indias direct military involvement started in 1960 by sending in troops under United Nations peacekeeping mission to the Republic of Congo. Since then, India has been among the top three contributors to the UNs peacekeeping mission and has regularly been a part of many such missions in the African continent.

Indias partnership with Africa is centred on the 10 guiding principles as articulated by the Indian Prime Minister in 2018. It is based on a robust framework of SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region). This years theme was adapting strategies for energising and strengthening defence and security cooperation and finding new areas of convergence in defence such as building capacity, training, cyber-security, maritime security and counter-terrorism and cooperation in outer space and developing new age weapons essential for robust space diplomacy.

This years Defexpo was unique as it showcased only Made-in-India products. Having witnessed them from close, I would say - India is walking the talk. Despite no countries being provided separate display pavilions at the exhibition this time, African nations were specially invited. This proves that Africa holds a special place and a sweet spot in Indias foreign policy.

Thus, Africa will play an important role by being closely engaged with in this Amrit Kaal (Great Period) of India as the country is celebrating the 75th Anniversary of its independence and should look at co-developing defence equipment and becoming a market for the world. In short, Africa has a huge role to play in Indias future goals of becoming a net security provider and a major defence exporter. Our defence relationship should meet the same fate and receive the same respect as the Mandela-Gandhi relations.

* Research Associate, CUTS International, a global public policy think- and action-tank on trade, regulation and governance
Some angry polling station executives, electoral area coordinators and communicators for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ellembelle Constituency of the Western Region have called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to as a matter of urgency, remove Ellembelle District Chief Executive (DCE) Kwasi Bonzoh from office.

In a petition sighted by the media, the Conveners stated that the Ellembelle DCE has been engaging in a lot of bad activities in the area that could prevent the party from capturing the Ellembelle Parliamentary seat in 2024.

They emphasized that if Kwasi Bonzoh continues to be in office as Ellembelle DCE, Ellembelle NPP would be unpopular and lose miserably in 2024 in the area.

They claimed that the Ellembelle DCE has been engaging in galamsey activities in Ellembelle District.

They also claimed that the DCE has been attacking party bigwigs.

"We can authoritatively say that our DCE, Hon Kwasi Bonzoh is neck deep in the galamsey activities which have destroyed some water bodies in the district, something your government is trying so hard to fight. This is a public knowledge as some of the galamsey kingpins are living under his roof.

"One cannot fathom why as the head of the District Security Council and with all the political powers will allow galamsey activities to flourish day and night for months at a distance less than half Km from his office.

"Most major stakeholders including traditional authorities in the district were extremely perturbed when her Ladyship, Mrs. Awo Amissah was transferred from the district all because she admitted to an open secret that the substantial noise of the galamseyers at the back of her residence gives her sleepless night and that she had to move from her official residence. Due to this, the district has no magistrate as of now", they explained.

They stated that "Ellembelle District is fortunate to have been surrounded by a good number of companies that pays property rate and business operating permit regularly to the District Assembly. Among these major companies are Quantum PLC, Adamus Resource LTD, ENI Ghana, and Ghana Gas Company Ltd".

They called, "It is therefore expected that the District Assembly will have substantial funds to undertake a lot of IGF Projects in the District to enhance the party fortunes of winning the 2024 elections".

Read below the full petition by the Concerned Ellembelle Executives:

Concerned NPP Youth Ellembelle Constituency

3rd November, 2022

THE CHIEF OF STAFF,

FLAGSTAFF HOUSE

ACCRA.

THE MINISTER

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND RURAL DEV.

ACCRA.

PETITION TO SACK ELLEMBELLE DCE, HON. KWASI BONZOH WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.

We, the Concerned NPP Youth/ Concerned Polling Station Executives and Concerned Electoral Area Coordinators, petition your good office to relieve the DCE of Ellembelle, Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh from office with immediate effect to save the image of the party and the District from further dwindling.

We have wholeheartedly supported Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh ever since his appointment as District Chief Executive of Ellembelle in 2017 till date with the sole motive of ensuring development of the district and bringing absolute peace to the party so as to wrestle the seat from the NDC party.

On the contrary, the repeated transgressions of the Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh, is now a threat to Ellembelle and inimical to the survival of the party.

Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, we hope you are privy to the series of petitions written to your office by the former executives highlighting the gross misconduct of the Hon. DCE which among them has to do with his nonsupport of party activities, persistent creation of division in the party, his involvement in galamsey activities, just to mention but a few.

As if those are not enough, his recent conduct has reiterate our call for his immediate dismissal.

His behaviour has constantly put NPP in Ellembelle into public ridicule and sank the party beyond salvage. Some of the reasons are as follows:

1. Involvement in Galamsey activities

We can authoritatively say that our DCE, Hon Kwasi Bonzoh is neck deep in the galamsey activities which have destroyed some water bodies in the district, something your government is trying so hard to fight. This is a public knowledge as some of the galamsey kingpins are living under his roof.

One cannot fathom why as the head of the District Security Council and with all the political powers will allow galamsey activities to flourish day and night for months at a distance less than half Km from his office.

Most major stakeholders including traditional authorities in the district were extremely perturbed when her Ladyship, Mrs. Awo Amissah was transferred from the district all because she admitted to an open secret that the substantial noise of the galamseyers at the back of her residence gives her sleepless night and that she had to move from her official residence. Due to this, the district has no magistrate as of now.

His attempt to cover up led to the interdiction of the then Divisional Police Commander, ACP Dodzi Hlordz, and the transfer of some assembly staff who fiercely protested against his involvement in the galamsey activities at the back of their residence. This has seriously dented the reputation of the party in the district.

As ardent members of the party, we cannot sit aloof for Hon Kwasi Bonzoh to send the party to the slaughter House for his personal against.

His purported media war against galamsey is known by the grassroots of the party and most opinion leaders in the district as cosmetic and face saving exercise to cover up his guilt.

Therefore, we are appealing to you. as a matter of urgency to act accordingly to redeem our party.

2. Instigating Unnecessary Demonstrations And Attacks on Party Leaders

Ellembelle NPP has neither known nor enjoyed peace ever since Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh became the DCE. He always engage in acts that in one way or the other creates division and this continues to thicken by the day. Attacks and insults on party leaders have been the norm. He always instigates his boys to insult prominent party leaders within the Party who can help win the seat from the NDC. The Regional Chairman and the Former National Chairman have all been victims.

He organized an unwarranted demonstration in 2017 and bused innocent people from the Constituency to the party head office, Accra to demonstrate over frivolous allegations which could have been resolved peacefully in the Constituency.

Mr. President, Ellembelle was one of the peaceful Constituencies in the country until Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh became the DCE, that every polling station election were always characterized by immense violence and brutality all in the name of winning parliamentary primaries.

Our call for his immediate removal essentially hinges on the recent attack, Hon. Bonzoh masterminded which could have resulted in civil unrest and an attack on Ghana Gas Processing Plant at Atuabo all because he wanted to be appointed as Deputy CEO at the company. If the police had not intervened and caused the immediate arrest of some of the boys who publicly declared they were going to burn down the Gas Processing Plant at Atuabo, it could have been a sad day for Ghana. This selfish and unpatriotic attitude is not deserving of a DCE.

Despite the police arrest, Hon. Bonzoh also instigated another set of the youth of which some of them lives under the same roof with him to demonstrate at a durbar held to climax the Kundum festival of Eastern Nzema Traditional Council, Atuabo despite previous engagement with the Board Chair of Ghana Gas, Hon Kennedy Agyapong who happens to be the guest of honor of the ceremony.

This is a blatant disrespect for traditional authorities because this durbar brought together all the chiefs in the district to climax the Kumdum festival.

The party again was in the bad news and ridiculed for something Hon. Kennedy Agyapong tried his best to avoid but the DCE refused. Hon. Bonzoh has to be removed immediately to avert doom for NPP and Ghana.

3. Development on IGF

Ellembelle District is fortunate to have been surrounded by a good number of companies that pays property rate and business operating permit regularly to the District Assembly. Among these major companies are Quantum PLC, Adamus Resource LTD, ENI Ghana, and Ghana Gas Company Ltd.

It is therefore expected that the District Assembly will have substantial funds to undertake a lot of IGF Projects in the District to enhance the party fortunes of winning the 2024 elections.

It was recently established that Ghana Gas alone has paid close to 8 million Ghana Cedis as property rate and business operating permit to the District Assembly since 2017. It is also rumored that Quantum PLC, Adamus resource LTD, and ENI Ghana have also paid substantial amount on the same premises to the Assembly for the past six years.

Despite all these internally Generated Funds very little has been seen as IGF projects in the District.

The party can only boast of CODA projects and a few Common Fund Projects as an achievement.

Party communicators have consulted the DCE on several occasions to at least outline some projects or activities being carried out by IGF from these companies since a lot of pressure groups, traditional authorities, and the opposition parties are calling for accountability but all falling in deaf ears. There is virtually nothing to show from these huge sums of money paid to the assembly.

What has exacerbated the situation is the recent details provided by Ghana Gas Company on actual payments made to the Ellembelle district assembly.

This was occurstrated by accusations levelled against Ghana Gas for not contributing to the development of the district .

Moreover, our independent checks from the companies mentioned above suggest that a lot of monies have been paid to the District Assembly.

The impending agitations from pressure groups, traditional authorities and the opposition parties are too immersed and affecting the image of the party in the district.

We are of the view that these huge funds could have been used properly to enhance the chances of the party to annex the parliamentary seat in the next election but unfortunately that is not the case in Ellembelle.

We therefore call for the immediate removal of Hon. Bonzoh as the DCE to save the party from going into the abiss.

Again, we call for independent audit to be carried out since your government detests the misapplication of public funds.

We are also by this petition inviting the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry to take interest in this matter and initiate detailed investigations to salvage the image of the NPP Party and the Government at large.

We are aware that Hon. Bonzoh has repeatedly boasted about his relationship with the President and we quote I am the darling boy of the president, all DCEs in Ghana can be sacked but not me. The President still nominated me when I was excluded from the vetting committees list to him.

But for the betterment of the Constituency and to curtail endless disunity in the party, we strongly believe it is about time the President acted on such unscrupulous behaviour of Hon. Kwasi Bonzoh and save the party from total collapse in the constituency.

Signed by Conveners

Bernard Cobbinah

(Former Ellembelle NPP Constituency IT Cordinator)

Tel: 0555240825

Joseph Cudjoe

(Polling Station Chairman)

Tel: 0541815555

Matthew Kwaw Mensah

(Electoral Area Coordinator)

Tel: 0548050217

Paul Attabiah Nyanzu

(NPP Communicator)

Tel: 0503686957

Rahman Salifu

(Concerned NPP Youth)

Tel: 0501669444

Cc;

THE REGIONAL MINISTER,

WESTERN REGION

SEKONDI-TAKORADI

THE REGIONAL CHAIRMAN

THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP)

TAKORADI
Saudi Arabias LPort has signed an open-ended strategic partnership agreement with Spains Ink Innovation to bring innovative mobility solutions to the kingdom projected to handle 330 million air travellers by 2030.

The deal had been signed at the first-ever Saudi Airport Exhibition that concluded at the Al Faisaliah Hotel after a two-day run.

Mohammed Al Moaither, Founder and Chief Design Officer of LPort, and Blaine Powell, Chief Sales Officer at Ink Innovation, signed the formal cooperation agreement has been in the works since 2018.

Impressive portfolio

Ink Innovation has an impressive portfolio which includes the most advanced Cloud-hosted Departure Control System capable of running across a range of devices. Ink is used by airports, airlines and ground handlers all over the world for their mission-critical passenger handling operations on desktops, self-service and mobile devices.

Inks Self-Service significantly reduces waiting times and allows travellers to perform the check-in process in seconds with minimal effort. Ink Web Check-in gives passengers the ability to check in from the comfort of their home, office or hotel room later than other airlines permit.

It allows (or restricts) seat changes only in rows that one wants to, following preset business rules. This customisation reduces the number of exceptions that need to be manually handled in the airport.

Ink BRS is to achieve AAA compliance by ensuring every bag loaded onto an aircraft belonging to passengers has boarded that aircraft. Misloads and slow offloading of baggage are frequent causes of delays. This mobile solution also allows locating the bags of passengers that do not board and easily detect misrouted baggage before loading onto the aircraft. LPort is keen to bring several of Ink Innovations products to the region in the coming months.-- TradeArabia News Service
Hon Bismark Baise Nkum

09.11.2022 LISTEN

The Gomoa West District Chief Executive Hon Bismark Baise Nkum has outlined a number of projects for Mumford Community aimed at improving infrastructure development.

According to the DCE, Mumford would continue to benefit from numerous projects being undertaken by Central Government through the Gomoa West District Assembly.

He mentioned the construction of a Fishing Harbour and Breakwaters for the fishing community and other social amenities as well.

Addressing the Chiefs and people of Mumford to climax their annual Akwambo festival last Saturday, Hon Bismark Baise Nkum lauded the people for self-help projects they have undertaken in the community adding it was worthy of emulation.

"I feel proud whenever I come to Mumford because His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo led NPP Government has done a lot for the people and the physical evidence is there for all of us to see.

"For solid sixty (60) years, Governments upon Governments failed to provide a Fishing Harbour for Mumford, it took the courage and boldness of President Akufo Addo to start construction of a fishing harbour and work on the project is progressing steadily.

"As we all know, Mumford has produced the best fishermen most of whom have won Regional and National Best Fisherman awards respectively. It was upon this that Government has vowed to ensure early completion of the Fishing Harbour project.

"As I speak, proceeds from premixed fuel has been used to construct a 12-seater modern toilet facility for Mumford, a 6-unit classroom block for Mumford Methodist Basic School, a Police Station to boost security situation in the community have been provided for the people.

"Additionally, we are constructing two premixed fuel stations to facilitate the supply of premixed fuel to the fishermen," he stated.

Hon. Baise Nkum was not happy about the poor nature of roads linking various communities in the Gomoa West District.

He specifically mentioned Gomoa Dego through Mumford to Gomoa Ankamu, Ankamu to Dawurampong, Kyiren Nkwanta to Gomoa Brofo and others that links to the hinterland, assuring that works would start for reshaping to enhance smooth transportation of goods and services.

Chief of Mumford, Nana Edwey XI, thanks President Akufo Addo for the number of projects he has provided for the community, thus expressing appreciation to the NPP Government. He however appealed for early completion of the Fishing Harbour on time for the community whose livelihood depends on fishing.

Chief of Gomoa Dasum in the Gomoa East District, Nana Obokumatta encouraged the youth to aspire to reach the greater height in education saying even in the fishing industry, one ought to acquire some formal knowledge before achieving set goals.

"I always encourage parents to invest in their children's education because that would be the best legacy they could leave for them when they join their ancestors.

"I also encourage the youth to add value to their God-given talents to become self-dependant," Nana Obokumatta stated.

Apart from programmes and activities marking the Akwambo festival, the Gomoa West District Assembly in collaboration with medical professionals from Cape Coast Teaching Hospital provided free intensive health screening for hundreds of people in Mumford.

Made up of 31 medical personnel including nine (9) doctors, the patients were screened to help them know their health status.

Interacting with the people, the Hon Bismark Baise Nkum noted that the Assembly seeks to ensure that its citizenry lives healthy lifestyles adding that the exercise would continue to serve every community in the District.

According to him, the Assembly took advantage of programmes and activities lined up by the Chiefs and people of Mumford to celebrate their annual Akwambo with the screening.

"Upon information that Mumford was preparing its annual festival, I quickly called the Assembly Members in four Electoral Areas in Mumford to discuss what could be done for the people in the wake of the festival. It came out that intensive health screening would be best for the occasion.

"I sent a request to the authorities of Cape Coast Teaching Hospital soliciting assistance to organize the health screening. They responded rapidly to undertake the exercise free of charge.

"They were screened to check out for eye-related disease, Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Sugar Level, Dental diseases, Weight, Breast Cancer, Voluntary HIV screening and COVID-19 vaccination among other diseases.

"Each patient was taken thoroughly in every aspect of the screening exercise and given medicines according to results found on them. Interestingly, four doctors were assigned to check out for eye-related diseases.

"It is worthy to note that those beyond medications, would be given free eyes surgery at the hospital's facility at Cape Coast. Such people would be given free accommodation and meals while waiting for the operation to be carried out on them. It is unprecedented in history," Hon. Baise Nkum disclosed.
Ahanta has always remained the the envy of the neighbouring tribes. Surrounded by three major rivers - Pra, Ankobra and Bonsa and the Atlantic ocean in the south, neighbouring tribes have always wondered what is in that enclave and out of curiosity, they tried to cross over to Ahanta but in all occasions, they failed.

This made the neighbouring tribes to term Ahanta as the land of the spirits. Even though they know human beings live there, they believed that they are humans with super natural forces like the gods. Some even called Ahanta as the land of the gods and mysterious spirits.

To survive as a tribe, you must prevail against wars and Ahanta was no exception. Even though such a small tribe bounded by Pra, Ankobra and Bonsa rivers and the Atlantic ocean, they have rich experience in military expeditions and strategies. Through military might and expeditions, they were able to clear their border lines particularly along the banks of Pra, Ankobra and Bonsa from the attacks of Akwamu, Ashanti, Fante and other tribes which attempted to go to war with Ahanta.

Knowing very well that their land is smaller in size, they always fought their enemies along the banks of the three bordering rivers - Pra, Ankobra and Bonsa. "Never allow them to cross the rivers" is a military principle and philosophy used by Ahanta kings and warlords to safeguard the territories of Ahanta from offensive tribes till the arrival of the Europeans and then everything started to fall apart in Ahanta.

In all these, there was one tribe that was a pain in the neck of Ahanta people - the Adom tribe but they were later going to be overran by Ahanta and their descendants were going to be dissolved into the Wassa tribe. It was a decisive action for Ahanta as far their rivalry with Adom was concerned.

For many years, Adom and Ahanta were rival states.The Adoms were always at the war fronts with Ahanta. They constantly attacked Ahanta from the Bonsa direction and would invade some Ahanta villages and take hostages and quickly go back to their homes.

The Adoms were engaged in the kind of guerilla warfare as Ahanta was not unify at the time. Each village and town was for itself until the rise of Kojo Nda also known as the mysterious twin. He took the fate of Ahanta into his hands and sealed it completely.

The Kojo Nda wars also known as the war of bees is believed to have fought between 1350 to 1400s. The narrations surrounding the war is so fascinating and intriguing to the extent that some said it's just a myth but whether it is a myth or not, there was a time when a man called Kojo Nda led Ahanta to many wars and prevailed over their enemies and he remains the first person to have brought all Ahantas under one authority at "Owulosua" now called Busua or Owusua.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, Ahanta kings did not have Roman numerals suffixing their names and titles so Kojo Nda is always missing in action when we are recounting the stories of mighty men of Ahanta because he did not have a Roman numeral suffixing his name. The days of Kojo Nda preceded the arrival of the Europeans so he certainly couldn't have gotten a Roman numeral in addition to his name.

I mean at the time, we did not have Badu Bonso I, II, III, IV and all that. African kings and chiefs having Roman numerals suffixing their names and titles is a creation of the Europeans and a misconception about kingship and chieftaincy in Africa. The whole stool and throne concept came from Europe and for us Africans, kings are creations of wars and Kojo Nda was one of such kinds in the case of Ahanta.

The story of Kojo Nda is the beginning of Ahanta to accept twins in their communities, especially among the royal families. He was born a twin and per ancient practices and traditions of Ahantas, he was outcast. His father neglected him and his mother so they lived in the sacred forest all their lives.

In fact, he was sent to the sacred forest to be sacrificed but his mother who has never had a child pleaded that his life be spared since the other half twin had died at birth. The only conditions left was that he would be sent to the sacred forest and be left there to his fate so the mother volunteered to go with him.

Years passed and soon the story of the mysterious child in the sacred forest became rife in Ahanta communities. Not much was heard about his mother from then but Kojo Nda became the man of the moment and the one who was going to lay the foundation stone for Ahanta unity and military actions.

It is said that he possessed the powers of the gods and granted the wishes of the gods. Some said he was a god himself because he changes in appearance.Ahanta just like other tribes were living apart until the days of Kojo Nda when he sought to unify them. He was the first to unify all Ahantas and organized Ahanta into formidable military force along the Atlantic coast.

It is said that the Adoms made attempts to invade Ahanta in 1350s so upon several consultations, Kojo Nda told all the Ahanta warriors that they should go home. He will go to the war by himself. It is was said that the enemies have then amassed at the bank of the Pra river and were making all efforts to cross over to Ahanta but Kojo Nda insisted that he would go to the war all by himself.

Reluctantly, the warriors of Ahanta returned to their homes with little trust in Kojo Nda but were rather waiting for their fate as the enemies approach. To their surprise, a swamp of bees from nowhere invaded "Owulosua" and then headed towards the enemies' direction. The enemies fled and for continuous 7 days, beefs hovered over Ahanta and the banks of Pra, Ankobra and Bonsa rivers without a sting to any Ahanta.

In oral Ahanta narrations, he is on record to have used this strategy to have scared away not only Adoms but other tribes which made offensive attacks on Ahanta. For many years neighbouring tribes feared to go to war with Ahanta because of bees.

In his last war with Adom, he mobilised forces from Axim, Sekondi, Takoradi and all the major Ahanta towns and faced off with Adom at the bank of river Bonsa and return to Busua with the head of the king of Adom and for many years Adom was going to stop harassing Ahanta for the fear of Kojo Nda and his bees.

Though a great and warring leader, he lived in solitude all his life. He never had a home and anytime he returned from war fronts, he would go back to the sacred forest where he lived all his life.

No one actually knew where he lived in the sacred forest till today. He never had a wife nor a child of his own. He only came to the rescue of Ahanta in times of need, calamities and crisis. In his last days, he warned Ahanta about the people who would come from the sea and said that they are the ones who will destroy Ahanta but not their neighbors and indeed, the Europeans came from the sea to destroy Ahanta.

He once returned from battlefield and went to the sacrifice forest and that was the last time he was seen. Some say he was a priest and others insist he was actually the first king of Ahanta people. His identity remains skeptical in oral as to whether he was a king or a priest but history hasn't forgotten his deeds though he was initially considered an outcast.

From oral traditions of Ahanta as handed to us by our ancestors and forefathers.

Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie

[email protected]

8/11/22
Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President of IMANI Africa

09.11.2022 LISTEN

The Founding President of the IMANI Africa Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, has waded into the ongoing dispute between three pre-tertiary teacher unions and government over the appointment of the new GES boss, Dr. Eric Nkansah.

He appealed to the teacher unions to accept Dr. Nkansah as GES new Director General.

In a tweet seen by Modernghana News on Tuesday, November 8, the vocal policy advisor advised teachers not to be so concerned with expertise.

He said the ruling NPP boasted about having the men to turn Ghana into a paradise have now driven the country into a ditch.

Striking teacher unions should please accept the newly appointed DG they feel is 'unqualified'.They should know by now that we were recently told some super competent men they could lead. They led us into a volcano, his post reads.

Currently, three teacher unionsthe Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G)are on industrial strike.

Since the appointment of the new GES Director General, they [the teacher unions] have been petitioning the government to remove him on the basis that, being a banker, he lacks the expertise needed to manage the education sector.

They have vowed never to call off the nationwide strike action they commenced on November 4 until government revokes the appointment of Dr. Nkansah.
Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George has taken a swipe at his haters.

He said his social media post is hunting the haters who have been defaming his character.

The lawmaker added that he is a son of God, so nothing or no one can spoil his reputation.

Dzata throw just one stone and all hell is breaking loose? One tweet? Then I wonder what would happen if I start speaking in response to the mudslinging. Time would tell but you can't dent this brand. I remain God's favourite Son, the #GraceAddict, he tweeted on Tuesday, November 8.

His post, though mentioned no one in particular, some tweeps believe has something to do with his earlier endorsement of Mr. Brogya Genfis candidacy as NDC National Youth Organizer.

Always aim to stay neutral. You never know the end game. This is politics so be strategic in forming alliances. Lets see if others like Okudjeto will pick sides. Thats political astuteness, a tweep wrote.

"Another also said, Give them!!!!

"Brogya Genfi is the man to lead!

The legislator asserted that Mr. Brogya possessed the qualities to organise the opposition party's youth wing.

He emphasised that Mr. Brogya Genfi is the person who can make a significant contribution to the victory the NDC and Mr. John Dramani Mahama seek in 2024.

Today, I met with Brogya Genfi to discuss the future of our youth front. I am convinced without any doubt that Brogya carries the right drive & fire to hold the incompetent Akufo-Addo govt to account. Let's do this for John Dramani Mahama and NDC in 2024. Let's go!

This means he chose Mr. Brogya over other candidates including the incumbent George Opare Addo.
France has unveiled a plan aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the maritime sector over the next seven years. Boosted by funding of 300 million euros, the industry is looking towards a greener future with the objective of building a zero emission vessel.

The French secretary of state in charge of maritime affairs, Herve Berville, announced the "France-Mer 2030" plan during a conference in Lille on Tuesday.

France-Mer 2030 will offer a "one-stop shop" for the state to reduce its carbon footprint in the maritime transport sector, primarily in greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.

The plan will also promote innovation with "the zero-emission ship as the horizon", Berville said.

Support will come in the form of a ten-month consultation period with all the players in the sector and a unit within the Ministry of the Navy.

"A decarbonisation trajectory will have to be defined for each type of fleet," he said, insisting on the need to quickly remove "technological issues" to decarbonise fishing, commercial and tourism vessels.

With this in mind, the government plans to mobilize "300 million in public funding by the end of the five-year term" but also to "create a maritime investment fund to increase support through subsidies, equity investments and guarantees".

This mechanism would go hand in hand with the mobilisation of private funds, Berville said.

The Armateurs de France - a professional body representing 57 companies in the maritime industry - was quick to offer its support to the government initiative.

Platform for projects

While only 12 percent of the ships used in France are built in the country, compared to 80 percent in 1980, Berville underlined the need to make the future zero-carbon ship "as French as possible".

To reach the goals laid out in the plan, he also said the number of officers trained in France would double by 2027.

Meanwhile, the CEO of CMA CGM Rodolphe Saade for his part announced that the French shipowner would endow the new France-Mer fund with 200 million.

"It's not just freight but everything related to marine affairs in France," he said, adding CMA CGM would launch a platform for projects in January 2023.

Thie CMA CGM contribution is part of the 1.5 billion fund already announced by the shipowner to accelerate the decarbonisation of its activities through the creation of an Energy Fund.

On the topic of offshore wind power, Berville reaffirmed the objective of 50 parks in 2050 set out by President Emmanuel Macron, explaining that the State was going to launch calls for tenders to generate 2 GW per year, so that capacity of 20 GW would be allocated by 2030.
The Ghana physician Assistants Association has asked Dr Frank Serebuor to resign as President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) for his alleged divisive and unfortunate comment at their 64th annual general conference.

According to the group it is disappointing for Dr Serebuor to descend low in describing other cadres in the healthcare delivery sector as disappointed chameleons.

They in a statement, therefore, have urged the Ghana Medical Association to distance itself from Dr Serebuors comments.

The group also said the superiority complex of the GMA must stop.

It said some cadres must not be seen as lesser professionals in the health ecosystem.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Abena Nyamekyne's story is one that will shock many. She was simply remanded for two weeks into prison custody without any court hearing.

The charges levelled against her were never filed in any court and but she ended up at the Nsawam Medium Security for weeks.

Private legal practitioner Francis Xavier Sosu took up her matter and sued the Judicial Service, Investigator, Prosecutor and the individual who had filed the complaint against her at the Police Station. Some top officials however intervened resulting in payment of ransome out of court compensation.

Nyamekye's ordeal started when her business arrangement with a friend went bad. This friend is alleged to have been in a relationship with a senior police officer who instigated the arrest. She was taken to a court on a Friday but the court did not sit. She then found herself in the prison where she was kept for two weeks.

She sometimes loaned money to her friend Cecilia who was a trader as well. Cecilia equally took money from her sometimes. Cecilia made a request for a refund of money Abena owed her. Abena's inability to refund the money resulted in a heated quarrel. Cecilia served notice of filing a complaint at the police station should she not receive her money in 24 hours. Abena was arrested the following day.

Mr. Sosu took up the matter and after his own investigations, he found out that on the day Abena was to be arraigned, the court closed before she and the investigator got there. The Court Clerks were however still around. The investigator went to see the Court Clerks and returned with a warrant. Abena was sent straight to the Nsawam Prisons.

Mr. Sosu took the matter to court. A judge and senior lawyer intervened with compensation paid to Abena, she walked away a free woman. Who was the Judge? Who was this senior lawyer?

All these details and other fascinating stories of Mr. Sosu's legal practice are shared in his book Guilty until proven Innocent. The Book is a withering critique of Ghana's justice system through the lens of a man who has committed to using his practice to set aside such injustices.

Speaker of Ghana's Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin describes the book as a must read;

All lawyers, judges, law-makers, students and the general will find this work as a master piece from someone who lived out these experiences.

The Book is one of 5 books to be launched by Mr. Sosu who doubles as Madina MP on November 11 at 11am at the J.F.Annan Auditorium in Parliament. Three are new books while two of them have been out for a while.

The other books are Being the Change which recounts the lawyer's experiences as a Member of Parliament finding jobs for many constituents among others.

Homeless is the Sosu story. From a homeless hungry boy to becoming a lawyer fighting for the downtrodden.

Love lifted me from the street is tells Mr. Sosu's story from a different perspective. He attributes his success to love.

In  I am the street lawyer, the legislator his perilous journey to becoming a household name in legal practice.

The Pro Bono lawyer shares insightful lessons to young lawyers regarding the dangers of pro bono practice.

citinewsroom
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the heads of 50 of France's most carbon-emitting firms to halve their greenhouse gas emissions by 2032  promising to double state aid to help them to act, providing they remain in France.

Just a day after returning from the UN climate summit (COP27) in Egypt, Macron invited representatives of 50 of the most climate-damaging industrial sites to discuss how to carry on producing in France whilst drastically reducing their carbon footprint.

"If projects and sites are identified in the next 18 months, if you double your efforts [] we will double the means dedicated to this challenge, Macron said at the meeting at the Elysee palace on Tuesday.

The current 5bn aid package for de-carbonising industry would also be increased to 10bn, he said.

The 50 industrial companies, which employ close to 30,000 staff, include cement, chemical, iron and steel plants and glassworks. They are owned by about 30 French and international groups, such as Lafarge, Saint-Gobain, ExxonMobil, ArcelorMittal and TotalEnergies.

Together, they account for around 10 percent of France's greenhouse gas emissions.

A French presidency official said that the fact that all these emissions are generated on a relatively small number of sites obviously offers a perspective on the ability to de-carbonise them. It also shows how huge the task is.

Reduce emissions, not production

After calling on the world's nations to "continue to take action" to respond to the climate emergency at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, Macron is keen to pressure France's industries to speed up their reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

This is in line with goals set by the EU to reduce emissions by at least 55 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2030, and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The new technology and investments needed to ensure that transition will cost billions, hence the state aid package.

But the government does not want to see a drop in production.

"The aim is to cut emissions without cutting production," a spokesperson for the Elysee said.

France and the EU also want to avoid seeing big industries leave the continent and invest in other parts of the world, like the US and China.

"The key is to ensure that reducing the carbon footprint does not result in massive relocation [of companies]", the Elysee said.

France is well aware of the competition: the US passed a bill this summer that provides billions in climate incentives, mainly designed to drastically reduce the cost of renewable energy in factories.

China, which has set a long-term goal to become carbon neutral by 2060, launched its first national carbon exchange in 2021 to create financial incentives for companies to reduce emissions.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has been sued by former Commissioner of Customs Division at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Col Kwadwo Damoah (Rtd) and a former Deputy Commissioner of the Division, Joseph Adu Kyei, over the Labianca report.

They are asking the court to dismiss the report on the activities of Labianca Company.

Col. Kwadwo Damoah, (RTD) earlier accused the OSP of attempting to bring him down with the report.

This was after the OSP recovered over GHC1 million GHC1,074, 627.15) from Labianca Foods in unpaid import duties, a scandal involving a company belong to a Council of State member.

In his view, the report is 'hollow and actuated by malice'.

The OSP also called for wider investigations into Customs Division of the GRA and demanded for a copy of Integrity plans to prevent corruption.

The OSP investigated alleged corruption and corruption related offences in the context of evasion and valuation of duties on frozen and processed food products imported into Ghana between 2017-2021.

The case, according to the OSP involved some high-ranking officials of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

In its report on the investigations, the OSP said Labianca Company Limited commenced operations in 2014 and it is wholly owned and controlled by Ms. Asomah-Hinneh on all practical and legal considerations. The company, it appears, imports about two hundred (200) forty (40) footer shipping containers of frozen chicken parts, fish, pork and fries monthly primarily from Europe and the United States of America . It enjoys a substantial market share in the imported frozen foods industry.

There was not much engagement with the Customs Division in the first three (3) years of the company's operations beyond the settlement of standard customs duty and other tax obligations until 2017 when the company actively commenced applications to the Customs Division for the acceptance by the latter of the values of frozen foods it intended to import.

By the time the company commenced the applications, Ms. Asomah-Hinneh had been elected a member of the Council of State representing the Western Region and appointed a member of the governing board of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority  positions she held at all material times. On this reckoning, Ms. Asomah-Hinneh is a politically exposed person as defined under section 79 of Act 959.

But the Customs boss Col Damoah said while addressing some Senior Customs officers at a retreat in Kumasi on Wednesday August 10, that he was ready for prosecution and believed he would come out of it.

He said I am ready for any prosecution and I know I will come out of it.

Special Prosecutor

Three days ago a report purported to be coming from the Office of the Special Prosecutor trying to indict the Deputy Commissioner of Operations and myself [but] anybody who has read that report very well will know the basis of that.

And luckily for Me, God is always on my side, before that report came that person had made a comment to some people who had come to tell me [that] he [Special Prosecutor] was going to publish that will discredit meand I sent people to go and tell him that he is a small boy and I am older than him, I have lived a meaningful life and if he attempts to destroy me it won't be easy for him. People have tried and I have survived and this one too I will survive it, Col Damoah said.

3news.com
The ruling New Patriotic Partys (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bortianor-Ngleshie-Amanfrom Constituency in the Greater Region, Sylvester Tetteh, has added a new twist to the campaign for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to sack the underfire finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta.

According to the MP, the two deputies of the finance minister have joined the chorus for the removal of their boss over his abysmal management of the economy.

The two deputies: Abena Osei Asare, MP for Atiwa East Constituency in the Eastern Region and Dr John Kumah, MP for Ejisu Constituency in the Ashanti Region support calls for the removal of the finance minister, Mr Sylvester Tetteh revealed.

He said the removal of the finance minister is a majority decision and not a decision of a few in the house.

He said the caucus decided to abide by the presidents decision to have the finance minister seal the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal as a show of respect.

''We decided to lay back because of the caucus reverence for the president, adding that the majority of the MPs felt that the president has been magnanimous to them.

Some of us had the opportunity to serve in government because the president identified talents in us, so there was no need to disobey such a personality like the president, he stated.

It was unfortunate for the finance minister to come out and say many people do not understand the work he does when the matter was resting with the president, he also said.

In reacting to the MPs quest to have him removed, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta said as the minister of finance, no one needs to tell me the ravages of the cedi depreciation, which has become an albatross on the neck of our local industries and the high cost of living for all citizens.

The finance minister made this comment while speaking to captains of industry at a forum organised by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).

Mr Ofori-Atta said, We cannot continue to be a nation of importers.

The Bortianor-Ngleshie-Amanfrom Constituency MP Sylvester Tetteh in responding to the finance minister on Accra-based Okay FM on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, said the minister's reaction to the MPs call for his removal was highly unfortunate.

He said this is not an individual affair but a collective affair to save the country.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Investing in sustainable infrastructure and in people, most notably through quality education and providing decent jobs is key to the future of tourism, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili at the Ministers Summit at WTM London.



Investing in sustainable infrastructure and in people, most notably through quality education and providing decent jobs is key to the future of tourism, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili at the Ministers Summit at the World Travel Market London.



Held around the theme of Rethinking Tourism, the 16th Summit gathered Ministers and high-level delegates from 19 countries, alongside business leaders. Reflecting the heightened relevance of tourism for cross-cutting economic and social wellbeing, this years edition was the most successful to date.



This consolidated platform for public and private sector leaders addresses tourisms most pressing issues and sets the agenda for the years ahead.



Opening the event, Secretary-General Pololikashvili emphasized the unique opportunity to transform the sector. However, with UNWTO data showing that global tourism now at around 70% of pre-pandemic levels, the window of opportunity will not stay open forever. We need to rethink tourism: as a provider of jobs, an economic pillar, and, against the backdrop of COP27, as a solution to the climate emergency.



Echoing UNWTOs position, Juliette Losardo, Exhibition Director at World Travel Markets, said: A post-pandemic world has revealed exciting opportunities, and given us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconsider tourism and ask ourselves how we can rebuild and better prepare for the future.



Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which co-organizes the Summit with UNWTO, emphasized the talent, speed and capital of the private sector.



Global expertise for common challenges

The roundtable brought together Ministers of Tourism from every global region. Each provided unique insights from their own countries.



Opening, Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia stressed putting sustainability above everything, also noting his countrys focus on innovation and youth.



Highlighting the importance of diversifying national tourism sectors, including through domestic and rural tourism, and creating new products were Abdulla Mausoom, Minister of Tourism for the Maldives, the Minister for Portugal, Rita Marques, and the Minister for Egypt, Ahmed Issa.



Picking up on the theme of Rethinking Tourism, the Minister of Tourism for Croatia Nikolina Brnjac, noted that this would require an evolution towards measuring success by greater sustainability. Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism for Mauritius Ivan Collendavelloo, emphasized its ability to promote peace, adding We need to look beyond tourism to rebuild tourism.



Also contributing to discussions were the Ministers from Bahrain, Costa Rica Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Malawi, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.



Representing tourisms vast and broad private sector, Expedia and the Radisson Hotel Group outlined their proactive work achieving greater sustainability, as well as highlighting the sectors ability to provide decent jobs and lifelong career progression for people everywhere.



Tourisms unprecedented political relevance

While the Summit promoted diversity of thought, background and experiences, a focus on tourisms unique power as a driver of sustainability and as a promoter of peace and understanding proved a common theme. High-level participants emphasized that now is the time for the tourism sector to focus more on cooperation rather than competition.



Ministers also acknowledged Pololikashvilis call for tourism to be mainstreamed within the political agenda and for greater collaboration between ministries of tourism and those of economy, business and environment.  TradeArabia News Service
Conflict and insecurity are prevalent in northern Kenya. In recent weeks , cases of bandit attacks in the region have left villages terrorised and led to several deaths. In October 2022, the government launched a multi-agency security operation aimed at curbing further attacks.

Northern Kenya is characterised by a wide expanse of wilderness, harsh climate and low levels of development. The region borders Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda.

Instances of conflict and insecurity range from attacks by armed bandits and cattle rustlers to community disputes over resources and terrorism. The region covers about 60% of Kenya's geographical territory . It is occupied by about 18% of the country's population.

Pastoralism is the main economic activity . Others include irrigated agriculture, small-scale businesses and tourism-related activities. The region is largely isolated from the rest of the country due to poor infrastructure, including roads.

According to National Police Service crime statistics , between January and December 2021, 73% of the country's stock theft raids occurred in the northern region. Over the same period, 58% of the illegal arms recovered and surrendered to the government were from northern Kenya.

The government  past and present  has run numerous operations to address the violence in the region, which threatens Kenya's overall security. But it hasn't worked.

As a professor of political science who researches conflict, I've had the region on my radar for some time. In my assessment, violent conflict in northern Kenya is driven by five key factors that must be addressed by both state and non-state agencies.

1. Regional inequality, exclusion and marginalisation

Inequality between regions in Kenya is caused by decades of political, economic and social exclusion and marginalisation. This is a product of colonial and post-colonial state policies that have led to historical injustices and human rights abuses .

Colonial authorities neglected Kenya's arid and semi-arid regions by prioritising development in the country's natural resource-endowed highlands. Successive post-independence governments continued to pursue policies that further marginalised the north. This has damaged trust in state institutions and produced communal grievances that hinder inter-group unity.

Post-colonial state security actors have also disproportionately targeted Somali inhabitants in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism measures in the north. The main terrorist threat comes from the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab group.

In 2010, Kenya decentralised power by allocating funds and responsibilities to its 47 county governments. This was aimed at improving service delivery at the regional level. While this has begun to address northern Kenya's marginalisation, repressive security operations continue to fan inter-group conflicts and radicalisation to violent extremism. The use of force in these operations disproportionately targets marginalised communities.

2. Resource and environmental factors

Disputes over land, access to pasture, and conflicts between herders and farmers continue to drive violence in Kenya's north.

Competition for scarce resources , such as pasture , water and now oil , has worsened these disputes.

Kenya announced it had discovered oil in Turkana County in 2012. Oil exploration has introduced new tensions between resident Turkana and Pokot ethnic groups, and within the Turkana community. Some members of the Turkana believe that the community has not substantially benefited from the resource exploitation.

A rise in crimes like highway robberies is attributed to these communal conflicts.

3. Political power struggles

Power struggles between politicians have fuelled conflict along ethnic lines in the north.

Elective political posts are perceived to provide access to economic resources. Devolving power to the counties along with political alliances have helped to decentralise political power and the provision of essential services. However, they have intensified local-level political competition. Politicians incite inter-clan rivalry, escalating tensions and undermining the benefits of devolution.

4. Cultural practices

Cultural practices contribute to violence in northern Kenya. These practices largely manifest through cattle rustling.

Cattle rustling and stock theft are partly driven by economic motives. These include a desire to restock herds depleted by a lack of pasture and water during droughts. Cattle rustling also provides an opportunity to make money from trading in stolen animals.

Cultural practices such as marriage settlements also drive cattle rustling.

This disrupts community livelihoods, and the use of automatic weapons in raids has led to a high number of deaths . State-led disarmament efforts have had little effect.

5. Proliferation of small arms and weapons

The proliferation of weapons in the region is, to a large extent, caused by cross-border activities .

Kenya's borders with Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda are porous and have contributed to the increase in small arms, illicit trade in cattle, terrorism and other forms of organised crime.

Efforts by the state to manage domestic and cross-border conflicts through repressive disarmament operations have instead increased tensions between borderland communities and the state.

Read more: South Sudan should disarm civilians  the evidence shows this improves security

The way forward

State security agencies have the constitutional mandate to use force to deter and disrupt acts of violence that are a threat to national security. However, their methods are often formal and based on power.

Non-state actors, on the other hand, adopt informal methods that are widely accepted in local communities. They are based on mutual trust and are therefore seen as more legitimate.

Both state and non-state actors have the resources, technical expertise and experience to address the drivers of conflict in Kenya's northern region. A flexible approach that involves various actors can broadly contribute to good governance, and reduce conflict and security incidences.

Read more: Training local leaders in mediation can reduce violence: positive results in Nigeria

This approach would entail all parties working together to promote dialogue, education and peacemaking. It also would include ensuring inclusive political representation in local-level traditional conflict management approaches.

Oscar Gakuo Mwangi 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.

By Oscar Gakuo Mwangi, Associate Professor, Political Science, National University of Lesotho
09.11.2022 LISTEN

President Nana Akufo-Addo has pledged support to the two Private Member's Bills initiated by Madina MP, Francis-Xavier Sosu, who also doubles as Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament to substitute Life Imprisonment for Death Penalty under the Criminal Offences Act 1960, (Act 29), and the Armed Forces Act, 1962 (Act 1962).

This was disclosed when Amnesty International Ghana paid a courtesy call on the President of the Republic to bring him up to speed on the progress made so far towards the outlaw of the death penalty.

Over the years, the right to life has been a fundamental human right.

However, capital punishment remains a legal penalty in Ghana.

Latest statistics from the Ghana Prisons Service show that there are 171 convicted persons currently under the death sentence.

Although Ghana is currently classified as an 'abolitionist de facto', the term given by the UN for a state that has not carried out an execution for over 10 years, with the last executions carried out in 1993, the methods of execution of persons sentenced to death globally comprise of beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, and shooting.

At the end of 2021, at least 28,670 people were known to be under death sentence.

It will be recalled that in March 2022, the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill 2022 were tabled in Ghana's Parliament.

The Bills seek to amend sections 46, 49, 49a, 180, 194 and 317a of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and sections 14,15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 40, 78, and 79 of the Armed Forces Act 1962, (Act 105) to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment for all ordinary and military crimes have been gazetted, read for the first time, and referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

In his address when Amnesty International called on the Presidency, Mr. Francis-Xavier Sosu urged the President to support the bills which will achieve about 95% abolition of the death penalty.

He said even though in the last 30 years Ghana has not executed anyone, it is a matter of fact that those in condemned cells are not treated the same as those who are in life imprisonment.

The right to self-dignity and not to be subjected to torture or degrading treatment is violated in respect of persons on death rolls. They are kept in condemned cells with limited access to light and not executed.

The President in his address acknowledged that indeed, though Ghana has not enforced the death penalty, it still retains it on its statute books.

He noted that the continued stay of the death penalty on the statute books went against moral values, and devalued lives, rights and dignity of persons.

The President further added that although Ghana had made a conscious effort not to invoke the death penalty on persons who had been sentenced to death, the state must do the logical thing by obliterating it from its statute books.

He stated, the time to abolish death penalty is now. However, in the meantime, we can do cross-party cooperation to ensure the passage of the two private members bills submitted to Parliament by Hon Sosu while we take steps to completely abolish the death penalty.

On his part, the Attorney General of the Republic of Ghana, Godfred Dame said Your Excellency, yes, it is true that we can amend these acts to replace death penalty with life imprisonment without a constitutional amendment.

It will be recalled that in January 2010, the Constitutional Review Commission, a presidential Commission of Inquiry, set up to consult with the people of Ghana on the operation of the 1992 Constitution and on any changes that needed to be made to the Constitution in paragraph 75 on page 645 of its final report stated

The Commission recommended the replacement of the death penalty with imprisonment for life without parole.

Following the recommendation, the Government on page 44 of the white Paper stated its position as follows, Government accepts the recommendation of the Constitutional Review Commission that the death penalty in article 3 of the Constitution be completely abolished and that the penalty be replaced with imprisonment for life.

The sanctity of life is a value so much engrained in the Ghanaian social psyche that it cannot be gambled away with judicial uncertainties.

Recently, Supreme Court nominees, Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu and Justice Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu, justices of the Court of Appeal, both advocated abolition of the death penalty during their vetting by the Appointments Committee.

In recent times, punishment the world over has moved from retribution to reformative punishment.

There are also several examples of persons who were convicted and sentenced to death, who later were found not to be guilty of the offences for which they were convicted.

If the two Bills introduced by the Madina MP are passed, Ghana will become the 26th African country to abolish the death penalty for ordinary offences, following neighbours including Sierra Leone, Zambia, Central Africa Republic, Guinea, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea, among others.

-citinewsroom
The Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Boamah Otokunor, has officially filed nominations to contest for the General Secretary position of the party.

In the early hours of Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the agricultural economist submitted his fully completed nominations form to the party at its Headquarters in Adabraka-Accra.

Filing on his behalf, a group of constituency executives from across the country stormed the party office in excitement and jubilation to submit the form.

Leading the team, Mr. Gilbert Alhassan spoke to the media, where he espoused the competencies and capabilities of the candidate.

Dr. Peter Otokunor is a very accessible, hardworking, and effective party leader. He has worked his way up the ladder and contributed immensely to the party's growth. This is his time to lead the party to victory in 2024. He can do it and we believe in him.

The Deputy General, speaking to delegates in the Volta Region assured them of a reward system when he becomes the General Secretary.

He said No more monkey dey work baboon dey chop to wit, those who sacrifice for the party will be rewarded.

Dr. Otokunor has in the last 12 years served in various capacities within the party and currently serves as the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC.
09.11.2022 LISTEN

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa West Constituency in the Upper West Region, Peter Lachene Toobu, has appealed to the teeming youth of Ghana to exercise restraint by waiting for December 7, 2024, to show the president and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration the exit.

According to him, Ghana is not a failed state but it is President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who has failed his people in the face of extreme economic difficulties.

He observed that many of the youth are frustrated by the presidents reckless mismanagement of the country.

He was of the view that the only option the youth of the country have now is to wait and pray for the presidents tenure to end so that they can vote massively against his party.

Everyday things are becoming difficult for the Ghanaian youth, the MP who had served three Inspector Generals of Police; Paul Tawiah Quaye, Mohammed Alhassan and David Asante Appeatu as the executive secretary said while speaking in an interview with Emmanuel Quarshie (The Hitman), host of the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.

The Member of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament is of the view that it is only a Ghanaian who can transform Ghana, adding that nobody can come from elsewhere to develop Ghana for Ghanaians.

In his view, the president has failed when it comes to some of the promises he made to Ghanaians in the run-up to his electoral victory in 2016.

The president has failed on all scores especially when it comes to creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the country, the lawmaker indicated.

The president has not been able to live up to the expectations of providing opportunities for Ghanaians, he noted.

He accused the president of not attending to the needs of the ordinary man on the street but the needs of the members of his immediate family.

Now one needs as much as GHS290 to travel to Wa because of the incessant increment in fuel prices at the pump under the watch of the president, Mr Lachene Toobu bemoaned.

Hitherto, you only needed about GHS90 to travel to Wa but under this president, it has become a herculean task to travel to Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, because you need as much as GHS1,000 to be able to travel.

All these are happening because the president through his cousin the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has mismanaged the economy, he charged.

He gave the assurance that the vote of censure come tomorrow will be executed against the minister.

Source: Classfmonline.com
A Visa Agent, who allegedly stole 55 Emirates Airline Tickets from Emirates' Airline Ticket Application of Landtours Ghana Limited, has been granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court.

Madam Adwoa Pomaa, charged with stealing and unauthorised circumvention, pleaded not guilty.

The Court presided over by Mrs Susana Eduful admitted the accused person to bail in the sum of GH200,000.00 with four sureties.

The Court ordered that the sureties should be direct family members of the accused person.

Madam Pomaa was ordered by the Court to report to the Police every Tuesday.

The prosecution was also directed by the Court to file and serve all disclosures and witness statements.

Police Chief Inspector Isaac Anquandah, prosecuting, told the Court that the complainant, Mr Mawuli Dzebu, was the Chief Executive Officer of Landtours Ghana Limited, a company that deals in Airline Tickets and others.

The prosecution said the accused person was a resident of Odorkor while her accomplice, one Kudjo, was at large.

It said in June 2021, the complainant reported to the Police that their Ticketing Booking Application belonging to Emirates known as Farelogix was compromised and as a result, 55 Emirates tickets amounting to GHS610,000.00 were issued to some travelers by unknown persons.

The prosecution said consequently travelers travelled to Dubai, South Africa, Kenya, and China in May 2021 and were put on stop list at the Kotoka International Airport in July 2022.

It said on October 1, 2022, a witness, Mustapha Ibrahim, was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service upon arrival from Dubai and handed over to the Police to assist in investigation.

It said Ibrahim informed the Police that Madam Pomaa facilitated all his travelling documentation to Dubai, including the ticket after he had paid over GH10,000.00 to her.

The prosecution said intelligence led to the arrest of Pomaa who admitted securing visa and ticket for Ibrahim to travel to Dubai in May 2021.

It said Pomaa said one Martin, a white man in Dubai, assisted her with the Dubai visa while Kudjo got her the ticket.

The prosecution said Madam Pomaa could not lead the Police to the house of her accomplice, saying she had told the Police she did not know where Kudjo resided and that they normally met in town and did business through mobile money.

It said the telephone number given by Pomaa as that of Kudjo could not be reached.

The prosecution said efforts were being made to arrest Kudjo to assist in the investigation.

It said three mobile phones belonging to Pomaa had been taken for examination to assist in the investigation.

GNA
The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Ghana, Dr Francis Kasolo has called for concerted action to bridge the equity gap in the distribution of doctors between rural and urban areas in Ghana.

Delivering the keynote address at the 64th Annual General Conference of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Dr Kasolo described the unfair distribution of doctors and other healthcare workers across the country as a threat to efforts towards improving the health and wellbeing of all people and urged all stakeholders to take action immediately to address that.

The inequitable distribution of doctors between rural and urban areas is now a crisis. It seriously undermines our progress towards Universal Health Coverage and we must all work together to address it, Dr Kasolo noted.

He applauded Ghana for its progress in the doctor-to-population ratio; improving from one doctor to 17,899 in 2005 to one doctor to 6,500 in 2020.

However, available data also show that 42% of the doctors are in Accra alone, and up to 81.3% of all doctors are concentrated in 5 regions  i.e., Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Northern and Volta regions, with the Teaching Hospitals in these five regions together have over 60% of all the doctors in Ghana.

Over the years, Ghana has made progress in improving the doctor-to-population ratio, but we must remember that the unfair distribution of these doctors leads to unmet health needs in rural and remote areas resulting in a decreased life expectancy; higher preventable maternal and under-5 mortality rates, he added.

Dr Francis Kasolo identified migration and retention challenges as some of the causes of the shortages of doctors in Ghana and recommended some key interventions in line with WHO guidelines on health workforce development, attraction, recruitment and retention in rural and remote areas.

Providing differential incentives for those working in rural and under-served areas and re-engineering the training and regulation of doctors to include extensive exposure to rural and under-served areas will help improve the situation, he said.

We must also provide deliberate opportunities for the admission of medical students from rural and deprived

areas and providing financial support for their training.

WHO has been supporting the Government of Ghana to improve the maldistribution of doctors and other healthcare workers in Ghana. This includes assistance to develop the multi-criteria deprivation index to be used to objectively classify the districts according to their relative levels of deprivation. This when implemented can address both monetary and non-pecuniary aspects of encouraging retention in rural and under-served areas.

In addition, WHO is helping the development and implementation of health sector staffing norms whilst also providing support for training needs assessment of health workers.

WHO with funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care, (UK-DHSC) is also currently helping Ghana to embark on a health labour market analysis to contribute to future policies and strategies in addressing the health worker challenges, especially the needs of rural and under-served areas.

Dr. Francis Kasolo pledged the WHO's continuous support to Ghana in ensuring that no one anywhere is left behind in the access to healthcare services.

As WHO, we will continue to work with all partners to help drive government's efforts to achieve equitable distribution of doctors and other healthcare workers in Ghana, Dr Kasolo assures.

Source: World Health Organization
09.11.2022 LISTEN

The Ranking Member for Defence and Interior, James Agalga, has accused the Akufo-Addo government of recruiting mercenaries for the 2024 general elections.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, November 8 he said the grand scheme was to create a security apparatus loyal not to the state but to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The promotion in the security sector, which was hitherto based on merit and performance, is now heavily politicized, he said.

But the government has refuted his claim.

Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul who is also lawmaker for Bimbila explained that To be an officer in the Armed Forces, there are six stages that you need to go through, and none of these six stages can and will ever be compromised.

He added, After you buy the form, you will then go for body selection, after you have been selected they ensure that you are fully fit.

In fact, there are too many things that the medical people are looking out for. If you pass through this medical then it does not still guarantee that you will be an officer of the Armed Forces.

You will go and write entrance exams conducted by the University of Ghana.

--3news.com
The Supreme Court has today, Wednesday, November 9 dismissed an application filed by Kwame Baffoe aka Abronye DC, NPPs Bono East regional chairman, seeking an order of the court to compel some former ministers in the erstwhile Mahama administration who were also MPs, to pay back to the State, alleged double salaries they received when they were in office.

The seven-member panel presided over by Justice Nene Amegatcher explained that the applicant in his application, did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

Article 98 of the 1992 Constitution bars Members of Parliament from holding any other office of profit or emolument, be it private or public, and whether directly or indirectly, unless with the permission of Mr./Madam Speakers permission; and on the grounds that the conflict of interest concerns are not triggered and that the MPs core responsibilities are not prejudiced.

Abronye wanted the highest court of the land to compel the former Ministers/Deputy Ministers who served under the Mills-Mahama administrations, who were also elected Members of Parliament between 2009 and 2016, to pay back to the Republic, all double salaries received within the period.

The defendants in the case were Minority Leader and former Trade and Industry Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, Alhassan Azong, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, Eric Opoku, Abdul Rashid Hassan Pelpuo, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Mark Owen Woyongo, Comfort Doyoe Ghanasah, and Aquinas Tawiah Quansah.

The rests are the Controller and Accountant General and the Attorney General.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Thousands of demonstrators from Sudan's Nuba peoples marched in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday to protest against recent deadly inter-ethnic violence in their southern home region.

Poverty-stricken Sudan has been mired in political and economic turmoil that deepened after a coup last year, and security forces have launched a deadly crackdown on near-weekly pro-democracy protests.

The northeast African country has also been torn by strife between Arab and ethnic minority groups -- including clashes last month that killed at least 19 in the West Kordofan region where the Nuba live.

"No to the genocide of the Nuba," proclaimed placards carried in the Khartoum protest by the indigenous group whose members live mostly as herders and farmers in the mountainous region.

Another sign read "the Nuba mountains are not Darfur" -- the western region where 300,000 were killed and more than two million displaced in a civil war from 2003 under then-dictator Omar al-Bashir.

"We are demonstrating to denounce the killings and the displacement of our people in Lagawa," one protester, Ahlam Ali, told AFP.

At least 19 people were killed in the city of Lagawa last month, according to the United Nations, in clashes between Nuba peoples and the Messiria Arab tribe.

"We are the indigenous people, so they want to force us to leave our lands," said another protester, Said Issa.

Sudan's Nuba rally against recent deadly violence in their southern home region: this year, more than 600 people have been killed and over 210,000 displaced in inter-ethnic conflicts in Sudan, according to the UN. By ASHRAF SHAZLY (AFP)

"They use the force of the state and its weapons, but we will not be silent."

Pro-democracy activists regularly accuse Sudan's military rulers of exacerbating the ethnic tensions.

This year, more than 600 people have been killed and over 210,000 displaced in inter-ethnic conflicts in Sudan, according to the UN.

The violence generally flares in disputes over access to scarce water and land in the arid and climate-stressed country where farming and livestock account for 30 percent of the economy and 43 percent of jobs.
The National Labour Commission (NLC) has ordered the three teacher unions to immediately call off their strike and continue engagements with government.

The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations referred the impasse between them and the striking unions to the NLC due to the refusal of the Teacher Unions to call off their strike.

The Teacher Unions declared a sit-down strike on Friday, November 4, to protest the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah as the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.

The unions said Dr Nkansah was a banker and not a professional teacher, hence their call for his removal.

The Unions are the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the National Association of Graduate Teachers and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana.

The strike has hampered academic work at pre-tertiary institutions.

The Deputy Employment Minister, Dr Bright Wereko Brobby, speaking to the Media after the meeting, said the Unions did not follow the right channels before declaring the strike and have been ordered to resume work and properly engage the government for a resolution to their demands.

The teacher unions expressed their unhappiness and unwillingness to work with the new GES D-G and called on the government to rescind its decision.

Education Minister Yaw Adutwum and Dr Eric Nkansah

By Citi Newsroom
Egypt is seeking to stimulate tourist arrivals, with a target of receiving 30 million tourists annually, said Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa in an interview with CNN anchor and correspondent Richard Quest at the ongoing World Travel Market London.



I feel so proud and privileged actually to be able to serve my country in this way. Egypt has always felt that it deserves 30 million tourists and the challenge that has been given to me as a problem solver [is to] figure out what to do and what needs to be done, he added in the CNN Quest Means Business interview.



It turns out that its not a problem with demand  its with the supply. And now actually, weve developed plans, weve developed key highlights of actually what we want to do to try to fix the supply side.



As world leaders meet in Egypt to discuss the climate future at COP27, the countrys past is going to be put on new display. The Grand Egyptian Museum will open next year, marketed as the largest archaeological museum in the world.



Ahmed Issa talked about the countrys attractions as a tourist destination, and his own journey from working in the private sector to his new post as a minister.



Well the political will actually in Egypt across the entire government and across the leadership [is that] we want to get to 30 million. And I assure you that actually, every single colleague of mine on the cabinet is committed to the same objective, he noted.



If you look at the record of public spending in Egypt since 2015, 16, theres like no other in the history of Egypt. On roads, on bridges, on hospitals, on airports and on aviation and hotels. So, I think Egypt has done most of that spending. And the time now is for Egypt to present itself in a different way to the tourist world, he explained.



The value proposition is actually all about competitive advantage. And we believe that we actually have offering on the ground that is unmatched by any other competitor. And especially in the culture of tourism. Inthe pyramids, the Sphinxthe sunny days in Egypt. And at the same time, the people. You know, its just walking around the streets of Cairo and Khan el-Khalili and so forth. I think its like no other, Issa concluded.  TradeArabia News Service


Britain and France will hold a summit in the first quarter of 2023 aimed at reinforcing their military and defence cooperation, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday.

Macron announced the summit while laying out his strategic defence priorities for France and Europe in the coming years.

"Our partnership with the United Kingdom must also be raised to another level," Macron said onboard a helicopter carrier at the Mediterranean naval base at Toulon.

"I hope that we will actively resume our dialogue on operations, capacities, nuclear and hybrid areas and renew the ambitions of our two countries as friends and allies," Macron said.

France is banking on a reset with Britain under its new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, following years of tense relations under Boris Johnson and later Liz Truss.

Crucial importance of Germany

President Macron has also insisted on the need for deeper military cooperation with Germany, described as an "indispensable partner" for building up Europe's military autonomy.

The two countries have agreed to work together, notably on next-generation fighter jets and tanks, but both projects have reportedly stalled on divergences over technical needs and how to share production.

"The success of the European project depends in large part, I believe, on the balance of our partnership," Macron said.

"In that regard I hope that we can make decisive progress in the coming weeks."
In less than nine months, Burkina Faso experienced two military coups. These coups were due to growing jihadi insurgency, insecurity crisis, mass displacement of people and wanton food insecurity. The insecurity crisis has forced about two million Burkinabes to flee their homes. Most worryingly, food insecurity rises as farmers run their farms to avoid armed conflicts. As poverty and hunger increase in the country, coups are causing political instability, which weakens the democratisation process. In light of these crises, the Africa Union (AU) needs to implement the African Charter and ratify the Malabo protocol to prevent more African coups.

It is important to note that Burkinabes approved the January 1966 and 2022 coups. These instances portray public acceptance of coups through support by citizens and activists. While the increase in African coups is worrying, the rise of popular coups with mass support from the public is worrying. Popular coups stem from the inability of leaders and institutions to protect the country's territorial integrity against non-state actors.

Whenever a coup occurs, the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the AU only suspend dissent countries from the union. The AU also calls for these military governments to return the country to civilian rule. The union does not sanction or punish these members over an unconstitutional change of government. In the same vein, some African heads of state and army leaders held significant positions in the AU, despite their questionable policies and actions back home. Indeed, the union is lagging at implementing the AU Charter that punishes despot leaders and quells citizens abuse and violation of human rights. The AUs African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights expressly recognised peoples rights to security and freedom to express their grievances to state organs. As soon as an African leader is reported to the AU as a human rights abuser, the leader should be banned from holding any AU position and thoroughly investigated. If the leader is found guilty by a competent court of law, the AU must provide statements of condemnation. The political union ought to enforce strong sanctions on these indicted leaders, whether democratically elected or not.

To facilitate justice for African citizens, AU members have to ratify the Malabo Protocol. The protocol merged the AUs main legal instruments for dealing with crimes committed by member states, known as the Court of Justice of the African Union, with the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights. But, the proposed unified court, the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, is not operational because no member state has ratified the protocol. When African leaders uphold the Malabo protocol, it will provide a legal avenue for allegations of human rights violations and abuse of power. Undoubtedly, the protocol will address issues that triggered protests and unconstitutional government changes in Sudan, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, as an AU agency will handle it.

It should be noted that African nations can resolve their wanton food insecurity through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA is an economic union positioned to encourage an intra-African exchange of goods and services. The current food crisis results from food shortages, conflict and poverty. Once African authorities uphold AfCFTA trade policies and remove barriers such as customs regulations and tariffs using the AfCFTA framework, the movement of goods and food will be free-flowing.

Global Interconnectedness has made it inevitable for tensions and uprisings in one country to filter into neighbouring and faraway countries. The wave of coup detats is slowly affecting African citizens freedom, liberty and democratic principles. The AU must be proactive in quenching the crises in member countries. The AUs political and economic union should be well-equipped to tackle state and non-state actors that undermine people's rights and territorial integrity.

Olakunle Mohammed is a writing fellow at the African Liberty.
09.11.2022 LISTEN

Even though the United Kingdom, UK, has thousands if not millions of companies including Political Think Tanks Research Companies, Market Research Companies all of which, in a technological era, are found online, the latest research company purported to have found the failed Ghana's Vice President, Dr. Bawumia winning the 2024 presidential election, can't be found online as a company.

Unlike all other research companies in the UK and their output and findings online, Info Research Assessment UK Limited with its operators namely: Geoff Hurst, Olubanji Adeboye, and Kwesi Degraft Johnson, cannot be found anywhere related to the said research company, and its address appears false!

In fact, that name is very strange to Google despite their latest research findings that have been trending online on Ghanaian social media space.

As it tends out, their research breakthrough that strangely projected the Ghanaian economic Jihadist, Dr. Bawumia as the next president of Ghana, appears more fraudulent than the Ghanaian economic management team!

Fellow Ghanaians, to fail with honor and dignity is always cherished than to win by fraud.

Obviously, that survey has been cooked up and probably sponsored by "political fingernails cutters" who are desperate to break their necks and mistake that slogan for "to break the eight".

But unlike other research groups, such as BALTIC SURVEYS with their link to accessing and assessing them: https://directory.esomar.org/country/105-lithuania/r765_Baltic-Surveys.php; and CID GALLUP with the internet link to accessing and assessing their findings: https://directory.esomar.org/country/45-costa-rica/r1287_CID-Gallup.php , the so-called Info Research and Assessment UK limited, doesn't exist on the internet.

No way! What a fraud!?

Which means that, Ghanaweb and all media platforms who reported it had received it by hand and not through the conductors' website platform. Possibility is that, this so-called survey could have been fabricated by somebodys bedroom. In order words, it is an armchair professor work geared toward drumming home a political agenda.

In their fabricated and warped findings, 47% said Bawumia will win and 36% endorsed President Mahama. What shameful politics are we politicking among ourselves in Ghana? That, a political party takes up the reigns of government and runs the country aground and what it can do to save itself from being imprisoned by a next government, is to forge such a phantom survey?

Closer examination suggests that some political hatchet men were recruited to concoct these lies. No survey took place anywhere. And the very obvious one has been the sources.

The fact that Ghanaweb released such a crucial research without proof of internet link to directing their news consumers to this research company or firm, is what makes the research a chilling fraud!

Although starfmonline claimed to have detailed the research in their reportage, nowhere has starfmonline produced evidence of such company's existence to their readers!

Personally, I realized the deception and falsehood of this unfortunate survey in the so-called details of that bogus research. And unless you are clouded by party colors and symbols or ethnicity, it's very clear to point out the thievery and forgery in that gibberish survey.

That is, the information and content of the research is highly questionable and grossly skewed that it should not take a kindergarten leaver to detect the fraud, subterfuges, and criminality embedded in it.

First of all, the sample size of 254,759 in all regions of the republic of Ghana exposes the dishonesty of that research if not an intellectual laziness on the part of those who carried out this fraud research.

If you divide this figure by 16 regions in Ghana the answer you would get would be a decimal number (15,922.4375). Which means, it was not based on equal sampling from the regions. This alone could skew their data.

This is despite that one cannot have human beings in decimal points if the data was gathered based on allocation of equal sample sizes to the various regions.

Remember, there are no half human beings.

Moving on, one does not need to X-ray the research to realize the bias and lack of impartiality in their submissions in the research. For example, percentage of respondents to polling question number 1 which is perked at 52.5, has been a complete fraud. Polling question 1 seeks to know whether Ghanaians believe Covid and Ukraine war have impacted the economy negatively. And we have all listened to casual interviews of many Ghanaians by both Citi TV and Joy TV on that issue and the response has always been negative. Many Ghanaians believe it's mismanagement of the economy and not Covid-19 or Ukraine war. For a staggering 52.5% of respondents to have accepted that deception of government is neither here nor there. Its inaccurate.

In fact, Covid-19 in Ghana was a blessing in disguise. The over 30 billion accrued from donations was marvelous. Again, the 2 billion dollars IMF dished out to Ghana was due to the pandemic in order to assist cushion the economic shock by the pandemic, was a blessing to the country.

Among other things, that money was to be used to subsidize fuel for Ghanaians and other consumer goods as well as for citizen-support funds where some stipend could have been allocated for Ghanaians. That never happened, yet government can't account for the money.

This braggadocious misappropriation of the Covid-19 funds has been the cause of the current mess. If government has been honest and prudent with the Covid-19 funds, Ghana would not have its currency being the worse performing currency in the world.

In Nigeria, for example, the Cable reported on August 18, that as part of measures to alleviate the suffering of the Nigerian masses, Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna released over 18.39 billion Naira to subsidize fuel in Nigeria EVERY DAY.

What has Ghana government done, apart from forging economic figures and data?

It is why in Nigeria a gallon of fuel is bought at less than two dollars, and in Ghana a gallon of fuel is around 6.8 dollars.

One other thing which has been polluted with
09.11.2022 LISTEN

Rev Obinna Akukwe is insisting that he Nigerian Church is powerless. I make no apologies to that, and I prophetically insist that any candidate they endorse in 2023 presidential polls will fail. Presidential candidates who want to win should seek their cooperation NOT endorsement.

A church whose Fire Prayers cannot deliver the majority of Chibok Christian Girls from captivity is powerless.

In one of the piece I wrote on the abducted Chibok school girls in 2014 titled ' Boko Haram, Chibok Girls and Jihad of the Penis' I warned that the nation that looked the other way as 276 Chibok Christian Girls are being raped to death by terrorists, will bring a curse on the nation.

Then some church leaders were more interested in debating whether Buhari and Shettima were involved in the abduction than on how to arrest the abominable development and rescue innocent school girls.

Few years later child rape, abduction of women and filmed harvesting of women private organs by terrorists, bandits, secessionists and ritualists, have become the order of the day.

The Church is blind. It dances when it should be praying, and prays when it's too late.

Leah Sharibu , a Christian Girl from Dapchi, Yobe State was kidnapped at school alongside other students . She is still in Boko Haram detention camp, five years after. Her crime was that she refused to convert to Islam when her fellow abductees rescinded their Christian Faith to escape captivity and forced marriage.

Leah was sentenced to sex slavery, from which a boy has been produced.

The compromised church leaders cannot devote a Sunday Morning, Suspend Tithe Collection till next Tuesday, Wednesday or next Sunday, and ask all worshippers to protest and pressurize the Muslim led government of Buhari to seek the release of the little girl by every means.

They cannot abandon doctrinal differences to seek and shut down the nation until the little girl punished for her faith is released,

I wrote an article recently titled Breast Sucking Ritualistic, Occult Church Leaders cannot Stop Boko Haram, Banditry, Terrorism and outlined all the spiritual compromises that made he Nigerian Church powerless with personal encounters.

The Church has authority over many things, including sicknesses, poverty, spirit husband, wife, deliverance and sundry matters, but on matters of national enthronement, the Nigerian churches have ceded it to Marine Spirits, Corrupt Ritualistic Politicians and Business Moguls who donate millions and billions for spiritual coverage.

Therefore, having partaken in corrupt national cake, have lost the Spiritual Authority to decide who governs Nigeria.

Rev Obinna Akukwe is boldly declaring that blood money on a holy pulpit have turned the holy pulpit to bloody pulpit and come February 2023, the results will show.

(Rev Obinna Akukwe, Cleric, Columnist, contact @obinnaakukwe )
There has been a fire outbreak at the Tamale Central Market in Tamale in the Northern region.

The incident happened on Wednesday 9, 2022.

Several stores and properties worth thousands of Ghana cedis have been destroyed.

The cause of the fire is yet to be known however personnel of the Ghana Fire Service, have arrived at the fire scene to help manage the situation.

More soon

-DGN online
Shea Network Ghana (SNG), a leading nongovernmental organisation in the promotion of the shea business in Ghana, has held a Gender Model Family (GMF) summit in the Mion District of the Northern Region to encourage men to be supportive of their spouses in domestic chores and other economic activities.

The one-day summit held on Monday, November 7, 2022, at the Mion District Assembly was organised by the Shea Network Ghana in partnership with OXFAM and SEND GHANA, funded by Global Affairs Canada.

It was attended by traditional and religious leaders, governmental agencies, Teachers, students, GMF ambassadors, and GMF families, among others.

GMF is part of a five-year Women's Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation(WEACT) project implemented by 7 consortiums of organisations: OXFAM, norsaac, SEND GHANA, Friends of Nation (FoN), Shea Network Ghana, Women in Law and Development in Africa(WiLDAF) and the Tung Teiya Women's Association.

The project seeks to improve the ability of women to individually and collectively overcome the legal and social barriers to their participation in agriculture and economic activities and improve the capability of household members to recognise, reduce and redistribute unpaid work freeing time for women to actively participate in economic activities among others.

A project Officer in charge of the GMF at the Shea Network Ghana, Saani Sharifdeen addressing the summit said the Gender Model Family was a transformative approach to community mobilisation that seeks to address the unequal power relations between women and men and also promote a longer-term transformation of harmful gender norms.

He also said the GMF was initiated to create an environment of fair division of labour, strong family bonds between a wife, husband and children, better access to family resources by women and children, and more consultative and joint decision-making for families.

Mr Sharifdeen indicated that the GMF has a target of seven hundred and twenty (720) beneficiaries out of which the SNG was working with 120 families.

He was optimistic that the GMF would enable husbands and wives to live in an equitable and just manner for enhanced economic growth and development for women, children and the youth in society.

The Chief of Salankpang, Naa Issah Alhassan, in his comments, expressed gratitude to the SNG and its partners for choosing the community to implement the project.

In her submissions, a representative of the Social Welfare and Community Development office at the Mion District Assembly, Madam Angelica Gyogluu, urged men to be supportive of their spouses, children and families

She also called on parents to live responsible lives worthy of emulation by children so that they can grow up and become better future leaders.

The Women In Agriculture Development Officer (WIAD) for the Mion District Madam Bashiru Halimatu Sadia, on her part, appealed to fathers not to leave the care of the girl child in the hands of only mothers.

On his part, the Head Teacher of the Salankpang Primary School, Mr Alidu Bukari Zakaria in remarks, lauded the GMF project and called for its expansion beyond the families to school to help change the perception of gender at the schools.

The 'Gender Model Family

GMF uses several strategies including drama, community sensitization, radio discussions stakeholders' engagement to change the thinking of society on the role of women in domestic chores and economic activities.

The program is implemented in 8 communities from 4 Districts in four regions: Northern, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West.

The 'Shea Network Ghana

Shea Network Ghana (SNG) is a multi-stakeholder non-profit organization with members at all levels of the shea value chain in Ghana.

SNG seeks to influence policy and provide solutions to industry-wide challenges for a growing and coordinated shea sector.
The Minister of Defence, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul has given the assurance that the country is safe from terrorists.

According to him, there is no need for Ghanaians to panic about the possibility of experiencing a coup detat in the country.

Speaking on the Ekosii sen programme on Asempa FM on Wednesday, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul said the country is safe due to the good work of the security services and the military.

He noted that power will be handed over peacefully after the 2024 general elections to whoever is elected.

Ghana is safe. There are challenges around the subregion but I can say we're safe as a country.

Dont bother yourself about coup. Nothing of that will happen. Thats why Im telling you that President Akufo-Addo will hand over power successfully to an elected president, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul shared.

The Defence Minister further assured that regardless of the hardships being experienced in the country, Ghana remains a very peaceful country.

He is confident that things will soon get better through the many interventions of the government including One District One Factory.

We have lived through hard times before. Where can you pinpoint that there are no hard times? Go to Nigeria, a country that has a lot of oil, go and see how they are suffering.

All these unexpected shocks, if we had a resilient economy the impact would have been lower. Thats why government is doing one district one factory, we are revamping through a private person in the salt industry. That is a 10-billion industry. All these will help our economy and the entire nation will benefit, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul noted.
Mr. Bernard Allotey Jacobs, a social commentator has described the ongoing industrial strike action by the three pre-tertiary teacher unions as a wrong move.

Currently, three teacher unionsthe Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G)are on industrial strike.

Since the appointment of the new GES Director General, they [the teacher unions] have been petitioning the government to remove him on the basis that, being a banker, he lacks the expertise needed to manage the education sector.

They have vowed never to call off the nationwide strike action they commenced on November 4 until the government revokes the appointment of Dr. Nkansah.

But according to Mr. Bernard Allotey Jacobs, the teachers cannot tell their employer, the government, who it should appoint to oversee their activities.

He has urged the teachers to immediately return to the classroom indicating that Dr. Nkansah's appointment will pose no threat to the educational sector.

They must resume work because it is the government that pays them and the government has the right to appoint anybody as Director-General unless maybe you want to play mischief or you have certain motives behind your strike action. This is a misdirected missile.

This is an old Soviet bomb that can never blast. This doesn't affect any teaching. Someone has been given an appointment as Director-General of Ghana Education Service and you say you're going to fight against that person. How can that be? You can't eat your cake and have it. They should be told. They should go back to school," he stated.
Member of the Constitutional, Legal and Subsidiary Legislation of Parliament, Mr Rockson Nelson Dafeamekor has described a directive by the Ghana Law School to all students to submit their social media accounts for monitoring, as unconstitutional and unacceptable which must not be countenanced in any manner or form in a 2022 Ghana.

In his view, the directive is tantamount to media censorship and gagging of the students.

The 1992 Constitution, he said, frowns on any such conduct or attempt to restrict and for that matter, gag Law School students from the free expression of their views.

The Director of the Ghana Law School, Yaw Oppong, has said the social media accounts of all students are going to be monitored.

To that end, he said, they are all required to submit their social media accounts for monitoring.

This move is to check their that they put up good conduct when they are called to the bar, he said.

Mr Oppong said these during the swearing-in ceremony of the School of Law Students' Representative Council (SRC) executives.

Everybody will have to provide their social media handles. We are going to look at it and you will be monitored in terms of conduct. We are required by law to make recommendations. We don't want to stampede you.

You are going to reapply beyond the pass and submit yourselves for all legitimate checks, he said.

He added Once we are doing our best to ensure that as many of you as possible who want to help yourselves go beyond the stage you are, and we are succeeding, it will not compromise your good character.

It's of no use if you are qualified to go to second year, and you are told that you cannot go because of bad character, he noted.

In a statement reacting to this development, Mr Dafeamekpor who is also lawmaker for South Dayi said social media has come to provide a legitimate platform for ordinary citizens to have access to media and a medium for the expression of their views emanating from their conscience and beliefs without any hindrance.

As a result, he said, any effort aimed at taking that freedom of expression and conscience for fear of being victimized is something the Constitution frowns upon and same must not be allowed to be perpetrated on would-be lawyers.

It must again be reiterated that these conducts and directives are emanating from the manner through which these students were admitted into the Law School. It can be recalled that these students were compelled in their recent entrance examination, to sign off their rights to challenge results even when they feel the need to challenge same.

Unfortunately, these incidents are gradually providing power to the administrators of legal education to keep chipping off the rights that are available to would-be officers and practitioners of the law.

We must therefore be worried at any efforts directed at taking further the rights of Law School students. Any such efforts must be resisted, condemned, and pointed out as such, he said in a statement.

He added The directive/demand/request to Law School students must therefore be withdrawn as same constitutes violation of the rights of these students as enshrined in the Constitution, 1992.

-3news.com
Pressure Group, OccupyGhana has petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to investigate allegations of a certain businessman for attempting to bribe some 90 NPP MPs who wanted Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta dismissed.

The group said they have followed media reports from interviews by the Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu which he alleged that an unnamed, wealthy businessman had attempted to bribe them.

That would be an attempt to influence the conduct of MPs in the course of their official duties, a potential corruption offence that falls within the remit of your office.

We wish to draw your attention to these allegations and to petition your good office to investigate these allegations, and if the allegations are established to be true, proceed to prosecute. We will be available to assist with this request should there be any assistance from our end, a statement by OccupyGhana said.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who is also lawmaker for Suame had said that a businessman attempted to influence the New Patriotic Party legislators who wanted Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta sacked.

Later, he told journalists that What I can say of it [the allegations] as of now is that, we don't know the motive. Not knowing what the motive is, sometimes these things come up, so we will have to establish that.

He cited the example of a minister nominee who was accused of offering bribes to the Appointments Committee to facilitate his approval as a reason for his reluctance to pronounce judgement.

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 don't want to make any pronouncements on it. Let's see if indeed it is true and that is not an insult to the intelligence of those people who spoke to it.

-3news.com
Various games for differently abled will be organized in sports complex Dharamshala 29 Nov 2022 | 8:03 PM Dharamshala, Nov 29 (UNI) District level sports competitions will be organized for differently-abled players on December 5 at Sports Complex Dharamshala. District Youth Service and Sports Officer, Kangra, NP Guleria informed UNI that 100, 200 and 400 meters race will be organized for the 18 to 35 year old female and male participants in the competition. see more..

Religion does not exist without spirituality: Bhagwat 29 Nov 2022 | 7:38 PM Prayagraj, Nov 29 (UNI) Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Dr Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday said that without spirituality religion does not exist and in every religion it has been told to follow this in behaviour. see more..

DC tests preparedness for better disaster management in winter season 29 Nov 2022 | 7:28 PM Dharamshala, Nov 29 ( UNI) District Collector, Kangra Dr. Nipun Jindal reviewed the preparedness of the concerned departments for better management of natural calamity and better handling of any emergency arising due to possible snowfall in high altitude areas in the district during winter. see more..

Woman arrested under NDPS Act at Kangra 29 Nov 2022 | 7:27 PM Dharamshala, Nov 29 (UNI) One woman, a resident of Chhanni from Kangra district was arrested today under Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances ( NDPS) Act at Chhanni falling under Damtal police station in Kangra district after heroin was seized from her possession, Police said here on Tuesday.

Kangra District Senior Superintendent of Police Khushal Chand Sharma told UNI today that under Police Station Damtal police recovered 6.05 grams of heroin from her possession at Chhani falling under Damtal police station in Kangra district on Monday late evening. see more..
As a young learner of Ghanas politics, I have witnessed both military regimes as well as democratically elected governments.

The fourth republic has successfully delivered four former Presidents. Two of these former presidents have departed. The remaining two have gone through the governance system with a lot of experience but has been abandoned due to the comical ineptitude of President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo and his bloated family.

I have not come across this growing level of hunger, suffering, pain and astronomical increase in goods and services in our markets.

All the economic indicators are pointing to negative directions as the cedis keep depreciating every single hour to major currencies.

The economic shocks and the agony we are going through is unprecedented and irretrievable under President Akufo-Addo.

Governance under President Akufo Addo has been reduced to discordance and the economic woes that we are going through in an irreconcilable manner.

President Akufo Addo and his appointees have taken the suffering masses for their personal advantage. They are profiteering in the current economic torture. While the masses are suffering, he and his family are smiling.

We voted for them based on their electioneering campaign promises with the hope that they will fulfill their promises to better our living conditions. This is a social contract between the voter and the politician.

Nana Akufo Addo was even begging Ghanaians to try him as if the presidency is a rehearsal ground.

Regrettably, after we gave him the power that he was so desperate and so much desired, he tends to forget us completely and is now enjoying the power with his family and friends, even those who fought for him with the hope that he will do more than his predecessors have been treated with disdain.

President Akufo Addo after gaining power has grown so pompous and now rules like a monarch. He arrests anyone who criticizes his government. He moves from one radio station to another with his so-called presidential chair to insult and vilify chiefs and prominent citizens.

This is the man who campaigned on freedom of speech and is a self-acclaimed human right advocate.

All president Akufo Addo cares about is how to enrich himself, his family, friends and his foreign surrogates at the expense of the ordinary Ghanaian.

In fact, He doesnt care about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian on the street in Kumasi, Takoradi, Accra, Tamale and other part of the country, He has abandoned the very people he swore an oath to protect and defend their livelihood in this country.

He acts and speaks as if his brain has been drained out at river Perlele in Kumasi, Aboabo.

He does not care about the predicament of the ordinary Ghanaian on the street as things continue to get worse, the current worsened situation has no end in sight as we live without any signs of hope for restoration of our current economic plight.

We cant longer afford three square mail a day.

We cant long pay transport fares as it increases every single hour.

We can't longer pay our rent

We can't can't pay our children school fees

We cant pay light and water bills.

We cant longer drive our personal cars/ Motorcycles to work as fuel prices keep increasing.

We cant longer join the trotro to market and workplaces.

We cant get jobs after completing school, yet President Akufo Addo has chosen to languish in the most expensive Jet in the world at this moment of excruciating economic hardship that he has intentionally brought on us.

President Akufo Addo in his 30th October, 2022 address failed to take responsibility for the high increase in goods and services, but blamed traders.

When calls from senior citizens and civil society groups advising him to sack his finance minister and reshuffle his ministers, he turned to tag them as political opportunists and people who don't want his government to succeed. Such an unresponsive leader.

With this attitude of president Akufo Addo , its clear that he doesnt care about the people, he is abusing the 1992 constitution which is a guiding tool of the governance system in Ghana.

We now see and feel corruption under President Akufo Addo.

We all see the total breakdown of our institutions and social welfare system.

We all see that our industries are collapsing.

We see the agricultural sector collapsing.

Our environment has been polluted by foreigners who came in to harvest our mineral resources.

We all see our young people dying and being arrested and prosecuted in the name of galamsey, while the foreigners dine with our politicians.

We all see our educational system collapsing.

Our health system is running out of essential logistics.

The country is burning, and President Akufo Addo doesn't care.

The constitution is only applicable on the vulnerable Ghanaian and those that hold different opinions from President Akufo Addo.

May the good Lord save us.

09/11/2022.

AKUGRI RASHID.

Youth Advocate and A Social Commentator.
The Minister of Defence, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul has allayed fears of a possible coup detat in the country amid the economic crisis facing the country.

While hardships in the country worsened with government struggling to turn things around, some people have argued that it is dragging the country towards a dangerous future.

There have been concerns that if the hardship persists, there could be a military takeover before the 2024 general elections.

Speaking to Asempa FM on the Ekosii sen programme on Wednesday, November 9, Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul assured that the Ghana Armed Forces are focused on defending the countrys democracy.

The Ghanaian military would defend democracy to the end, the Defence Minister stressed.

According to him, Ghanaians should be at peace and not worry because there will not be a coup in the country.

Ghana is safe. There are challenges around the subregion but I can say we're safe as a country.

Dont bother yourself about coup. Nothing of that will happen. Thats why Im telling you that President Akufo-Addo will hand over power successfully to an elected president, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul added.

Reacting to claims that the government is secretly training mercenaries, the Defence Minister stressed that it is false.

He urged the Minority in Parliament and members of the opposition to desist from falsehood peddling.

Government not training mercenaries anywhere. The story out there is false.

Accusing the Presidency of harbouring mercenaries is dangerous and wrong. I urge the Minority to desist from that, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul appealed.
09.11.2022 LISTEN

The attention of the Leadership of the Ghana Physician Assistants Association (GPAA) has been drawn to a very divisive and unfortunate statement by the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Frank Serebour at their just ended 64th Annual General Conference (AGC) held at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region on the theme Addressing the Doctor Distribution Dilemma: The Case of Ghana and its Underserved Areas.

It was thus very astonishing for a whole President of an Association such as GMA to descend so low to the gutters and described other healthcare cadres in the healthcare delivery machinery as disappointed chameleons. This goes to demonstrate that some actors and leaders in the healthcare delivery chain are full of egos. It must be put on record that health service delivery is a teamwork and a form of collaboration where actors are interdependent on each other in the quest to deliver the highest standard of care for the optimal health outcomes of their clients. It is not about only doctors.

Significantly also, the President of GMA must also note that no middle cadre in the health system has provoked medical doctors. These so-called middle level cadres referred to by the GMA President are just also health professionals fighting for their basic rights as key actors and partners in the health system. The monopoly enjoyed by doctors in the health system is history, and this is the stark reality they seem not to appreciate.

The GPAA will be stunned if the aforementioned declaration by President Serebour and few of his embittered cohorts, is the stance of GMA because some few months ago, the two Unions agreed in principle to collaborate on things of common interest to us all. This was buttressed by the two Unions sending representatives to the just ended AGCs held by the two Associations.

It is therefore very bad and dangerous to hear supposed leaders in the health profession speak like the way Dr Serebour did at their AGC. I call on other health cadres to marshal their strengths in condemning his statement in order to sustain the peace and harmony within the Ghanaian Health System and our labour front as well.

To ensure a sustained harmonious labour front and collaboration among health unions and their professionals culminating in enhanced conditions of service and good salaries for our members;

The superiority complex must stop while we embrace collaboration as the way forward: Some cadres must not be seen as lesser professionals in the health ecosystem and be described as disappointed chameleons and others as dragons in slumber. This act of feeling superior does not make one cadre a dragon in slumber but rather a blood and resource sucking vampire among other health professionals, thus destroying the friendly health ecosystem.

Vampires are never satisfied with all the respect borne out of humility give to them by other health professionals as leaders in the health system.

He (Dr Serebour) says doctors should breathe fire and breath out stones to ensure that nobody can withstand their might. Our harmless questions are;

Can he and his cohorts perform all the tasks in the health system? Does it imply that he is a chief disappointed chameleon as we are aware he lectures some those he described as disappointed chameleons at College of Health and Well-being, Kintampo (CoHK)? Does it also mean he is the team leader of disappointed chameleons as we are aware he works with some of the people he descried as disappointed chameleons in his health facility?

Doctors must not feel threatened, but must rather allow every health professional to grow along their ow career path to enhance the highest quality of healthcare delivery. The leader of the health team must not wake up one day and say the battle line has been drawn; a call for action against other health professionals as declared by Dr Yorke some few months back.

If there is any battle to be won, I believe health for all by 2030 is what we should be looking at. Getting healthcare services to the doorsteps of the citizenry, fighting communicable and non-communicable diseases, who should do what at which level and at what time, referral systems, provision of human, material and financial resources including logistic, should be of major concerns to healthcare leaders, but not drawing a battle line with other healthcare professions because you want to remain supreme and selfish at all times to the detriment of others.

This position of GMA, as spoken by two of its key leaders (Dr Serebour and Dr Yorke) is unfortunate and we strongly condemn it in no uncertain terms.

For these two major aforementioned reasons, if it is indeed not the position of GMA, but that of Dr Serebour and his few embittered cohorts, then I have these pieces of advice for them;

He and his cohorts should withdraw these statements and render an unqualified apology to the other healthcare cadres/professionals they described as disappointed chameleons and midgets. Dr Serebour should gracefully resign his position as the President of GMA since has soiled the of his Association with his unfortunate statement. His continuous existence as GMA President shall be dangerous to the countrys health professionals ecosystem The GMA should make sure the collaborative effort we all envisage and aspire to realize among the health professionals comes to light genuinely without any hidden or diabolic agenda. Dr Serebour should voluntarily withdraw his services from CoHK if this is his mindset

Henceforth, we shall be reading deeper meaning into every posture and actions of GMA and its officials.

Until the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act 857 (2013) is amended and states otherwise, we shall with the greatest force resist any attempt by anybody, entity (Regulator or Union) that seeks to denigrate and deprive the Physician Assistant fraternity the right to practice medicine and dentistry in this country.

Thank you

EMMANUEL YAW APPIAH

PRESIDENT
The National Labour Commission (NLC) on Wednesday, November 9, held a meeting with the leadership of the three teacher unions currently on strike.

The Teacher Unions including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G) on Friday, November 4, announced an indefinite strike action to protest President Akufo-Addos appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as the new Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The strike subsequently took effect on Monday, November 7, and has hampered academic activities in pre-tertiary schools across the country in the last few days.

Today, the National Labour Commission engaged the Teacher Unions in a meeting to discuss their grievances.

At the end of the meeting, the NLC directed the various teacher unions to immediately call off their strike and engage the government in negotiations to argue their case.

While the leadership of the three teacher unions left the meeting disappointed, the NLC insists it is confident the strike will be called off as directed.

Another meeting has been scheduled to be held between the three teacher unions, the NLC, and other key stakeholders a week from today November 16.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Wednesday he had urged eastern Libyan military chief Khalifa Haftar to "prevent" crimes by his troops, as investigations into their actions continue.

Karim Khan, the first ICC prosecutor to visit the war-torn country in a decade, arrived in Libya on Saturday.

The North African nation descended into chaos following the NATO-backed revolt that brought down dictator Moamer Kadhafi's regime in 2011 -- with rival administrations based in east and west and a myriad of militias scattered across the country.

Khan visited the town of Tarhuna, where mass graves were discovered in 2020 after Haftar's troops withdrew following an abortive attempt to seize the capital Tripoli, and met Haftar on Tuesday.

"I made it clear that we had received evidence and information regarding allegations that were crimes committed by LNA troops," he told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, referring to Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army.

"I said that those were and are being investigated, (and) that military commanders must prevent, must repress and must punish crimes when they emerge."

Map of Libya locating Tarhuna. By Aude GENET (AFP)

One such group was the Kaniyat, which seized Tarhuna in 2015 and instigated a rein of terror.

The Kaniyat allied with Haftar during his year-long offensive on Tripoli, but after he retreated in mid-2020, residents began discovering bodies.

More than 270 bodies have so far been found, and Khan said victims wanted the truth.

"They want their voices to be heard, and they want allegations to be judicially determined by independent and impartial judges," he said.

Before taking over as the ICC's lead prosecutor, Karim Khan defended Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, son of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, whose arrest the ICC is seeking for "crimes against humanity".
Fighting resumed Wednesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo between the military and armed group M23, residents told AFP, a day after many people fled rebel-held territory being bombarded by military jets.

Residents told AFP they had heard the sounds of more fighting by the evening, after a tense but quieter day.

"There are detonations of bombs. The army is pounding the positions of the M23," said one resident of a village outside the commercial hub of Rugari.

AFP correspondents in Goma saw two fighter planes and two combat helicopters fly overhead Wednesday.

Officials said Tuesday that the DRC's military used newly deployed jets to bombard M23 positions in the east of the country, as some residents fled across the border.

A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 first leapt to prominence in 2012 -- briefly capturing the main city in eastern DRC, Goma, before being driven out.

As fighting has escalated, the town of Rugari is thought to be near the current frontlines, 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Goma.

The UN said Wednesday that at least 188,000 people had fled their villages since October 20, the start of the new M23 offensive.

At least 16,500 have taken refuge in neighbouring Uganda.

After lying dormant for years, M23 took up arms again in late 2021 claiming the DRC had failed to honour a pledge to integrate them into the army, among other grievances.

The group has won a string of victories against the Congolese army in North Kivu province in recent weeks, dramatically increasing the territory under their control.

Fresh advances prompted the UN peacekeeping mission there to increase its alert level and boost support for the Congolese army.
Vice President Bawumia has announced that he's committed to embarking on a fundraising effort to support the party's agenda of registering all members to help with its data and membership analyses.

He noted that he shall raise funds for the party membership registration especially with the registration of Polling Station Executives, Electoral Area Coordinators, Constituency Executives, Regional Excutives and National Executive Committee.

Dr. Bawumia noted that ministers, Members of Parliament, appointees, patrons and other party supporters will be contacted to support the fundraising exercise.

The Vice President made this known on Wednesday, November 9, when he paid a working visit to the headquarters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Accra.

Dr. Bawumia also thanked the national officers of the Party for the cordial reception and congratulated them for their respective electoral victories during the National Delegates Conference.

He expressed his belief in the Executives and noted that they have the qualities to manage the affairs of NPP. He indicated that the Party-Government engagements will help close the gap.

Vice President Dr. Bawumia also indicated to the Party leadership about his cardinal of assisting his boss, President Akufo-Addo to execute his mandate as a President which he is committed to seeing done diligently.

He also outlined some of the major policies he spearheaded like the implementation of the government's digitalisation agenda, the Sino-hydro deal which has led to the actualization of facelifts of roads and interchanges, paperless ports, the enhanced mobile money interoperability, one constituency one ambulance, among others.

He again pledged government's commitment to addressing the prevailing economic conditions in the country and assured that mitigation measures are being put in place to relieve citizens of any plight regardless of the external shocks.

The National Chairman on his part praised the Vice President for his visit and urged him to continously support Party activities. He also assured him of the Party's unalloyed support to government and will continue to help the government succeed.

Dr. Bawumia was received by Mr. Stephen Ayesu Ntim, National Chairman of the Party; Lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong, General Secretary; Mr. Smith Buttey 1st Vice Chairman; Alhaji Masawudu Osman, 2nd Vice Chairman; Madam Rita Asobayire, 3rd Vice Chairperson, Dr. Charles Dwamena, National Treasurer; Mr. Salam Mustapha, National Youth Organiser, Aziz Futah, Nasara Coordinator; William Yamoah, Director for Finance and Administration and other national officers.
Cocoa farmers in the country are struggling to survive due to the economic hardships in the country.

The farmers who contribute significantly to the development of the country are arguing that things are worst for them due to their poor living income.

The government through the Ghana Cocoa Board in October announced that it has increased the farm gate price of a bag of cocoa to GHS800, amounting to an over 20% increase from the previous price.

The increase in the producer price of cocoa meant that a tonne moved from GH10,560 to GH12,800.00.

Despite the increment, farmers are not feeling any impact especially due to the current economic crisis that is subjecting Ghanaians to severe hardships.

Speaking at the opening day of SEND Ghanas two-day Conference on Living Income and Human Rights in Ghana's Cocoa Sector, Mr. Philip Bosomtwi Amoah who is President of the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Right of the Child (GNCRC) bemoaned the current living income of cocoa farmers in the country.

He charged the leadership of various cocoa farmer groups to mobilise their members and march to the presidency to demand better living income to ensure they can at least leave comfortable lives.

We need to have a massive demonstration to move to the presidency. They are far away from us.

The cooperative leadership should not just sit in their AC and enjoy. They should mobilise us and embark on a massive demonstration. That way the government will meet us and take action, Mr. Philip Bosomtwi Amoah shared.

On his part, Concerned Farmers Association of Ghana President, Farma General Nana Oboadie Botchway Bonsu admonished stakeholders in the cocoa-producing sector to join forces.

He said cocoa farmers can only earn deserving living income if they unite to demand what is due them.

According to him, dire times are ahead if nothing is done to put a stop to the bad treatment meted out to cocoa farmers when it comes to their living income.

The way things are going, gradually the truth is we are dying. We are dying slowly but we are not seeing. Some of us our whole life is cocoa.

We need to be very strong [together]. When we come together as one like the GPRTU and after this Programme, SEND Ghana I think you need to get to the various communities. We need to come together, this is the time. When we waste time to next year the hardship that we will experience will be unbearable.

SEND Ghanas two-day Conference on Living Income and Human Rights in Ghana's Cocoa Sector started on Wednesday, November 9, in Accra, at the AH Hotel.

The conference is being organised in partnership with SEND Ghanas German partners; INKOTA and SUDWIND.

The conference has assembled key stakeholders to discuss issues bothering on living income and human rights as a catalyst for ensuring improved welfare of cocoa farmers as well as increase government and private sector responsiveness for a sustained cocoa sector.

This overall outcome of the conference will contribute to strengthening multi-Actor partnerships to contribute to the development and implementation of new and innovative strategies to improve the living conditions of cocoa farming families and their communities.
Jammu, Nov 9 (UNI) Responding to a Jammu-based lawyer's request seeking defreezing of eight seats out of 24 earmarked for the Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir refugees as per the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution in 1956, the Election Commission has said that the issue is under the Union Government's jurisdiction.

Advocate Aditya Sharma of Jammu and Kashmir High Court at Jammu wing, in a letter dated September 21, to the Chief Election Commissioner, had stated that Jammu and Kashmir had witnessed a historic moment when the Article 370 was abrogated by the Union of India on August 5, 2019, whereby the doors of various opportunities have been opened for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and ended decades long the discrimination.

Prior to the abrogation of Article 370 no voting right was there for refugees from West Pakistan i.e. PoJK refugees of West Pakistan, people of Valmiki community and many and the State Constitution enacted in 1956 had also reserved 24 seats in Assembly for PoJK and left the same vacant, he said in a letter.

Sharma further stated that after the abrogation, a ray of hope had arisen for West Pakistan Refugees and other migrants from Pakistan to have right to vote and for the same purpose, if the eight seats out of 24 reserved seats, which belongs to west PoJK can be defreezed -- it will give long pending justice to the migrants.

Further more, a Parliamentary Committee report on PoJK refugees was submitted in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha that recognized that PoJK refugees were not given relief and compensation due to their non-registered status, he stated.

"The committee also recommended to defreeze 8 seats out of 24 vacant seats," Sharma added, saying further that in the 2022 Delimitation Commission Report, it was recommended that at least two members from the community of Kashmiri migrants be in the Legislative Assembly.

The Commission said that the Central Government may consider of giving representations to refugees in assembly as well and it is therefore submitted that kindly consider the committee report of 2014 and delimitation commission recommendation of 2022 for defreezing of eight seats out of 24 seats for Kashmiri migrants, refugees from PoJK which were left vacant in the year 1956 and for giving representation to them respectively, Sharma said in the plea.

However, the Election Commission in its reply stated, In reference to your letter, the Delimitation Commission constituted for the purpose of constituencies delimitation in UT of Jammu and Kashmir is already ceased to exist from May 5, 2022 after publication of its final Delimitation order in respect of UT of Jammu and Kashmir."

The Delimitation Commission in this regard had also prepared a report titled as Delimited Landscape of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which is available on Commission's website, the EC said.

It also said that the Delimitation Commission had recommended to the Union Government to consider the issue of representation by way of nomination of representatives to the Displaced Persons from PoJK in Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.

Therefore, the issue is now under the jurisdiction of the Union Government, the EC said in the reply.

So as of now, the EC has sent these recommendations to the GoI as it is and at present the recommendations are under consideration of the GoI and we hope that the Government will give its decision on these recommendations very soon, Sharma told UNI.

Aditya believes that in the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, not only the refugees, who have been deprived of voting till now, will vote, but if the central government conducts elections on these eight seats or nominate their representatives, justice will be delivered and they have a voice in the Assembly.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Indresh Kumar, during his recent Jammu visit had referred to his meeting with Lt Governor Manoj Sinha stating that they held a brief interaction over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and also on Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).

PoJK is part of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of the country. We request the countrymen to pray, every morning, for the return of Kailash Mansarovar and PoJK and they again become part of India, he had said.



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Asim Munir takes charge as army chief of Pakistan 29 Nov 2022 | 5:02 PM Islamabad, Nov 29 (UNI) General Asim Munir on Tuesday took charge as the 17th army chief of Pakistan in a ceremony held in the military's general headquarters in Rawalpindi in the country's eastern Punjab province. see more..

300 people killed in recent unrest in Iran 29 Nov 2022 | 4:37 PM Tehran, Nov 29 (UNI) At least 300 have been killed in recent unrest in Iran following mass protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who passed away while in police custody, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on Tuesday. see more..

Musk feuds with Apple over Twitter advertising 29 Nov 2022 | 2:49 PM Los Angeles, Nov 29 (UNI) Elon Musk has said Apple has halted most of its advertising on Twitter and accused the company of threatening to remove the platform from its app store. see more..

Giant Shark stalks prey on Dubai beach 29 Nov 2022 | 2:30 PM Dubai, Nov 29 (UNI) There were terrifying moments when a giant shark stalked a prey a few feet from horrified swimmers in the busy Dubai beach. see more..
Moscow, Nov 9 (UNI) Laying out India's position on the Ukraine conflict, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar strongly advocated a return to dialogue and diplomacy during bilateral talks with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying "the Global South is acutely feeling the pain of the conflict."

"We are seeing growing concerns on energy and food security from the conflict that are coming on top of severe stresses created by two years of Covid. The Global South, especially, is feeling this pain very acutely. India, therefore, strongly advocates a return to dialogue and diplomacy," said Jaishankar in a press briefing as the issue prominently figured in the talks.

"As Prime Minister Modi conveyed to President Putin in Samarkand in September, this is not an era of war. The global economy is simply too inter-dependent for a significant conflict anywhere, not to have major consequences elsewhere," the minister added.

Dr Jaishankar said that India is clearly on the side of peace, respect for international law and support for the UN Charter. He said that for any initiative that de-risks the global economy and stabilizes the global order at this stage, India will be supportive.

"Insofar as specific initiatives pertaining to issues like food grains and fertilizer shipments are concerned, or any other problem for that matter, India will be as helpful as we can be," he said.

The Minister said that India and Russia have, in the last few years, grappled with how to expand bilateral trade and introduce more factors of long-term stability and growth.

Some of these discussions are now yielding results, accelerated by the stresses that the global economy is currently experiencing, including as a result of the Ukraine conflict, he added.

"We are naturally concerned at the trade imbalance, and I have raised with the Russian side how to address impediments that stand in the way of greater Indian exports," the minister said.

The Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, in response, accused the West of attempting to strengthen its dominant role in world affairs under the pretext of the Ukrainian events.

"For our part, we reaffirmed our high assessment of the Indian friends' position on the situation in Ukraine and around it... We discussed the situation that has developed around the attempts of the Western colleagues, under the pretext of the Ukrainian events, to strengthen their dominant role in world affairs and prevent the democratization of international relations," Lavrov said.

Lavrov welcomed the "positive dynamics" of bilateral trade and said that the two countries would soon achieve the annual trade turnover to 30 billion USD.

"By September 2022, compared to the same period last year, the trade turnover added 133%, almost reaching the mark of 17 billion US dollars. We are sure that the goal set by the leaders of Russia and India to increase the annual trade turnover to 30 billion USD will be achieved soon," he said.

Talking about the factors of global instability, the EAM Jaishankar said, "Terrorism, including its cross-border manifestation, remains a major concern. Where the Indo-Pacific is concerned, both our nations have stakes in its progress and prosperity."

The two countries also examined in detail the state of and prospects for military-technical cooperation and the joint production of modern types of weapons.

"We attach great importance to space exploration in such areas as satellite navigation, space science, and manned programs," Lavrov said.

Dr Jaishankar termed the talks as "very open and productive exchanges", while the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov termed the talks as "meaningful and useful talks in a traditionally friendly and frank manner."

UNI ASU PRT
Keka raises Indias largest Series A funding of $57M

Hyderabad, Nov 9 (UNI) Keka, a leading HR tech platform in India for SMEs with 20-5000 employees, on Wednesday announced it has secured Indias largest Series A SaaS funding with a whopping $57 million from WestBridge Capital.

Launched in 2016, Hyderabad-based Keka entered the HR tech space as a bootstrapped company. Pitted against well-funded Goliaths, it not only emerged victorious but also established itself as a leader in the SME segment.

Championing the cause of HR practitioners at all levels, Keka has built a highly innovative product that was continually shaped and optimized to suit the practical requirements of the industry, all without securing any funding and staying bootstrapped.

By the end of 2021, Keka had crossed the 5500-customer landmark.

I believe we raised funding at the right time. We have been the fastest-growing HR tech leader in our space. Although we got several offers for funding in the past, we never felt the timing was right. Finding the right investment partner was also significant for us. We wanted to partner with someone with a long-term vision for the HR tech space, Keka CEO Vijay Yalamanchili, said in a press conference here.

I am happy that we found the right investing partner in WestBridge Capital. This is not just about securing funding; it is also a validation of our ideas and approach in a world where many funded businesses are struggling to survive, he said.

We want to build a world-class product here in India that will cater to the global market. As we advance, R&D will be our primary area of focus as we expand our engineering, product, and customer success teams, Vijay added..

Expressing his confidence in the company, Rishit Desai, Principal at WestBridge Capital, said, In a short period of time, Keka has emerged as Indias most trusted and innovative HR Tech platform. Keka is disrupting the industry through its world-class product and highly reliable customer support.

We are aligned with their vision to build the best mid-market focused global HR Tech Platform that will allow companies around the world to modernize their HR processes. We are very excited about Kekas potential and look forward to a long partnership with the company, Rishit said.

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Dhaka, Nov 9 (UNI) Bangladesh National Parliament Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Choudhury said that members of National Parliament can play an important role in making laws in the implementation of national action plan related to women, peace and security. Women are always more affected by war, natural disasters and climate change. She emphasized on increasing women's participation in the decision-making process to establish peace and security.

She spoke as the chief guest at the "Orientation on Localization of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security" organized by the Bangladesh National Women's Progress Organization in collaboration with UN Women at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in the capital Dhaka today.

Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director of BNPS gave a welcome speech on the occasion. Gender expert Shipa Hafiza presented the report. The Director General (UN Wing) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taufiq Islam Shatil, spoke about the progress of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Bradley Coates, Counselor (Political) of Canada High Commission in Bangladesh, Gitanjali Singh, Country Representative of UN Women and Jeremy Brewer, Australian High Commissioner in Bangladesh spoke as honored guests in the event.

The speaker said that the United Nations adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in 2000 in a world of conflict. In view of this, the Government of Bangladesh adopted a national action plan in 2019 to ensure women's involvement, women's participation in decision-making processes and overall safety of women. At the time, she said, Bangladesh has always been very vocal about human rights issues in the international arena.

Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Choudhury MP said that as a result of timely policy formulation under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, there is a visible presence of women in all fields. She noted that women's education and economic empowerment have been ensured, thereby increasing women's involvement in decision-making. Meanwhile, she called for coordinated initiatives to localize national action plans related to women, peace and security.

She said, the role of women in peace building is inherent. That is why they are able to play an effective role through local dialogue and negotiation. Meanwhile, the speaker emphasized on increasing the skills of women through training.

Parliamentarians including Mir Mostaq Ahmed Rabi MP, Shabnam Jahan MP, Syeda Rubina Akhtar MP, Kazi Kaniz Sultana MP, Monira Sultana Moni MP, Selima Ahmed MP, Arma Dutta MP, Adiba Anjum Mita MP at workshop on Localization of National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security Members provide valuable feedback.

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Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili addressed the participants of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference. The video recording was released by the Georgian government administration.According to Irakli Gharibashvili, Georgia is considering the issue of the gradual fulfillment of obligations under the Paris Agreement."There is no time left for talk, because now we need quick and result-oriented actions. We have developed a very comprehensive strategy in the field of climate change, and a corresponding action plan has been signed for the further promotion of the ambitious agenda of climate change by 2030 and mitigation of its consequences", Gharibashvili noted.According to Irakli Gharibashvili, Georgia has one of the cleanest energy systems and 85% of it comes from renewable sources."We continue to develop and support non-traditional, renewable energy projects such as solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and other sustainable energy sources.In conclusion, I would like to call and remind our colleague that success cannot be achieved alone. We will be able to achieve results only with joint efforts. Therefore, let's transform together the results of the 27th conference of interested circles and parties into quick actions to save the climate", said Irakli Gharibashvili.The Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria, assumes that the protection of the rights of media representatives will be taken into account during the assessment of Georgia for EU status, and Nika Gvaramia's case will be an obstacle among them."Protecting the rights of media representatives is one of the main issues that will be paid attention to in the process of granting the status, these records can be found in the documents. Of course, the case of Nika Gvaramia will probably be an obstacle on this path," he said.The public defender will soon publish the assessment of the judgment of the appeals court.The main opinion of the Ombudsman regarding the case of Gvaramia is that the commission of a crime cannot be proven."The imprisonment and the case of Nika Gvaramia are special and especially heavy for me. "At the moment, we are studying the decision made against Nika Gvaramia after the appeal, and in the next few days the public defender will have another assessment," he said.The Public Defender appealed to the President to pardon Gvaramia on June 8.
Interact clubs bring young people, age 12 to 18, together to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self. Interact clubs are sponsored by local Rotary clubs, and one of the most ambitious Rotary-Interact initiatives, the Zone 28 & 32 Interact Convention, is a new four-day conference which aims to bring together American, Bermudan, Canadian, and French Interact students to build a cross-border community of peers.

Berlin High School sophomore John Platt participated in the convention, and was the only student selected to participate from the local Rotary District.

Platt is the Sophomore Representative in the BHS Interact Club and is involved in a division of Boy Scouts called the Order of the Arrow, where he serves as a Camp Chief and Section Secretary.

Platts trip to the Zone 28 & 32 Interact Convention was sponsored by the New Britain-Berlin and Kensington-Berlin Rotary clubs.

Over the course of four days, passionate Interactors joined together in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and through interactive sessions and high-profile speakers, explored topics of resilience, the necessity of youth leadership in our ever-changing world, and the power of collaboration to tackle global issues.

I hope others within the district and community take advantage of leadership opportunities like this not just to benefit themselves, but rather the world, said Platt.

Using the new skills he learned, Platt is planning on developing new international and local projects for the communitys Rotary and Interact clubs.

Also, he is hoping to plan events and unify all Rotary and Interact clubs within the district.

Additionally, Platt is striving to be on the planning committee for the next Interact convention in 2024.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

European Turtle-Dove, Kelling Heath, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom.

* * *

Politics

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51

Heres food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels Herman Melville, Moby Dick

So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital. Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Biden Administration

Staff changes are coming to the White House. Will Klain be part of them? [Politico]. According to people familiar with the internal deliberations, Klain was the foremost advocate for Biden seizing on the July 4 holiday to hold an Independence from Covid-19 event on the South Lawn. He rejected input from other members of the Covid team who were anxious about declaring victory prematurely, although Biden did include a qualifier, that his words were not to say the battle against COVID-19 is over.'  Ron, good job. And electorally, it was a good job, as the midterms show. As I keep saying, the most important of the lesssons learned from Covid is that our ruling class can slaughter a million citizens without any riots. Thats an important lesson, and Ron was very much a part of that.

2022

* * * Democracy was on the ballot, and won. From the head of the Council on Foreign Relations: All in all appears to have been a good day for the USA. Decent voter turnout, peaceful polling places, many losers conceding with some grace, many deniers denied, no mandate for radicalism. American democracy lives to fight (or better yet not fight) for another day.  Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) November 9, 2022 Allow me to translate: Now the Democrats can return to fomenting war with nuclear powers, normalizing pandemics, and union-busting. Friends, theres good news tonight! Senator Big Sweaty Lunk [Atrios, Eschaton]. I realized I didnt even have any predictions for yesterday. I dont mean I failed to BLOG them, I mean I just didnt have any in my head at all.  So I wasnt the only one. For those who came in late, Atrios was my blogfather, and introduced me to blogging in 2003 or so (for which I will be forever grateful). The topic: Democratic politics! So its a curious data point for some future historian that, after so many years  2022  2003 = 19 (!!)  we both ended up in the same place, on the same election, and on the same day. * * * Here is the state of play from FiveThirtyEight: Battle for Senate control a toss-up with four seats left to be called [CBS]. CBS News characterizes the races in Georgia and Nevada as toss-ups, with Georgia likely headed for a run-off in December between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. CBS News characterizes Arizona as leaning Democrat. Alaska, where three candidates are on the ballot, had not yet been called early Wednesday. House Midterm Elections 2022 [NBC]. Though NBC News cannot project control of the House at this time, the Decision Desk has released its estimate for the U.S. House of Representatives as a whole, which reflects the most probable outcome for partisan control. To arrive at the House Estimate, the NBC News Decision Desk calculates the probability of a Democratic, Republican or third-party victory in each of the 435 individual House races based on pre-election research. On election night, election analysts examine all the available vote data in real time, adjusting the probabilities for each House race accordingly. Based on those probabilities, NBC News Decision Desk then calculates the most probable outcome for control of the chamber and provides a margin of error plus or minus the number of seats that could still be won by either party. The Decision Desk will project partisan control of the U.S. House based on this estimate when we are at a minimum of 99.5% confident in the outcome.  The projection is R: 222, D: 213, FWIW. (What I wanted was a simple list of undecided House races, but a quick search didnt bring it to light. Readers? * * * MAGA Candidates Flounder in Midterms [National Review]. President Trumps handpicked and endorsed candidates largely underperformed or outright lost their midterm contests on Tuesday, deflating the former presidents status as a party kingmaker and likely 2024 GOP presidential nominee. Trumps influence was felt across the board: his hand-picked Senate candidates, political novices who secured their respective nominations largely on the strength of his endorsement, drastically underperformed expectations. House Republican challengers and incumbents who embraced his election denialism  and gubernatorial candidates who did the same  faced similar struggles. [H]is poor showing in crucial battleground states has unsettled many Republicans. Florida governor Ron DeSantiss strong performance will position him well to challenge Trump if he decides to enter the race.  Sad to see the National Review clambering onto the bandwagon of a short-torso-ed vulgarian like DeSantis. Democrats Elevation Of Election Deniers Worked [HuffPo]. All six of the election-denying candidates on the ballot whom Democrats boosted  three gubernatorial candidates, two House candidates and a Senate candidate  lost, most of them resoundingly. The strategy was met with scorn and incredulity from never Trump Republicans. Other Democrats from across the partys ideological spectrum said the strategy was unwise, immoral or both. Thirty-five former Democratic elected officials signed a letter suggesting the party was playing with fire.  Well, it worked this time, so I assume well see more of it. * * * Key takeaways: Democrats avoid Biden backlash and hold their own in 2022 races [NBC]. With Trump out of office for two years, one of the big questions of the 2022 cycle is whether the well-educated suburbs that abandoned the GOP and voted for Democratic candidates in recent cycles would stick with Democrats or flip back. They appear to be staying put. Whether its the booming Atlanta metropolitan area, the Philadelphia suburbs, the D.C. suburbs or northern Virginia, the red-to-blue trends are persisting, with college-educated voters exhibiting little desire to return to the Republican tent. No Republican blowout: our panel reacts to the initial US midterm results [Guardian]. It is now overly clear to everyone that Trump is both a necessity in the primaries and a liability in the elections. Everyone but Donald Trump, that is. Biden Sidesteps Red Wave, Surpasses Obamas Midterm Performance [RealClearPolitics]. Barack Obama saw his party lose 63 House seats and six Senate seats in 2010. Former President Clinton in 1994 lost 54 in the House and eight in the Senate. Biden has avoided anything close to either fate. The president did it, in part, by staying out of the way. Measures to Protect Abortion Rights Triumph on Tuesday [Bolts]. Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont on Tuesday adopted constitutional amendments that enshrine abortion rights into their state constitutions. The referendums came in response to the U.S. Supreme Courts Dobbs ruling, which in June overturned federal protections for abortion.  Federalism! * * * GA: Abrams concedes to Kemp in Georgia governors race [Axios]. Abrams became a national political figure during the 2018 race and that attention helped accelerate her powerhouse fundraising capabilities.  Money thrown up in the air and set on fire. Because thats what rising stars do. ME: Janet Mills beats Paul LePage for 2nd term as Maines governor [Bangor Daily News]. Mills had 53.6 percent of votes to LePages 44.3 percent It was the first time LePage has ever lost an election going back to his days on the Waterville City Council. He issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying he accepted the results. At his election night party in Lewiston around 10:50 p.m., he said the election doesnt look very well and then gave a defiant speech hammering Mills. He addressed her by saying he hoped her second term was better than her first and called her an elitist and said America needs better than people who are not caring for the people they govern. We missed the message, LePage lamented. Its about abortion, not about heating oil.'  Hmmm. NY: House Democrats campaign chief concedes to Lawler in stunning loss [The Hill]. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.), the head of House Democrats campaign arm, conceded his race on Wednesday against state Assemblyman Mike Lawler (R), a major blow to the party and a stunning defeat for the man charged with propelling other House Democrats to victory.  Maloney is the dude who muscled another Democrat out of his own district after a reapportionment, so it would be hilarious if the Democrats lost the House by this one vote. PA: Im hoisting this comment from last nights open thread, frankly to preen a little: PA called for Fetterman: BREAKING: Democrat John Fetterman wins U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, NBC News projects. https://t.co/NqjTEpNhkv pic.twitter.com/34lAQYk4KR  NBC News (@NBCNews) November 9, 2022 I dont expect anything from Fetterman on policy, but I think his race was very interesting from a technical perspective for two reasons: 1) Use of social media. You cant call a social media campaign brilliant until the candidate wins, but Fetterman did, so now I will. (a) Fetterman used social media to introduce Oz to Pennsylvania, in essence arguing/showing/meming that Oz was really from New Jersey. This campaign was so infectious I had to stop myself from piling on. It also had the great merit of being true. Tweets and memes are something the national press can focus on, and that is what they did, with the effect that (b) when Fetterman had his stroke, his social media became a bright shiny bauble for the press to focus on, which is exactly what they did. Whoever ran Fettermans social media campaign will have many opportunities henceforth. More importantly, (2) Fettermans every county strategy was important and non-stupid/non-corrupt Democrats, if any, will emulate it. (a) Fettermans strategy was to pick up Republican voters at the margin in Red counties (of which there are many, many in Philadelphia). So he visited them. This strategy worked. When Fetterman had his stroke, he was, as it were, pre-insulated[1] from whatever the national press and the Oz campaign might say. People had seen him, and felt they knew him. There are plenty of people in Pennsylvania, still by custom and practice an industrial state, who have had medical issues and worked through them and come back from them. I believe that was in play here. (This theory also makes the late visits by parachuted in Democrat celebrities irrelevant, which recommends it in my eyes.) Fettermans every county strategy reminds me of Howard Deans 50 state strategy, also successful. (Its worth noting that as soon as Obama and Rahm Emmanuel took power, they abolished the strategy and defenestrated Dean (with the result, IMNSHO, that Dean threw in the towel, said [family blog] it, Im in it for the money and tragically became the corrupt hack he is today. This happens a lot with Democrats. It will therefore be interesting to see if the every county strategy is erased, or highlighted, in the coming days. Heres one metric of success for the every county strategy: Fetterman outrunning Biden just about everywhere in Pennsylvania. Our estimate now leans Democratic pic.twitter.com/KXfvvsug1e  Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 9, 2022 (Note also that Democrat facehuggers strategists and consultants get commissions from media buys. Both Fettermans use of social media and the every county strategy take money out of their pockets. It will be interesting to see which media figures operate on their behalf in the coverage.) In addition, Fettermans victory comes as the expense of the Pennsylvania Democrat establishment and the ghouls in the national press, an outcome that makes me very happy. If Fettermans every county strategy is adopted by more Democrats  heck, more Republicans  I think that would greatly improve politics in this country. Do as Chris Arnade would do; walk around. Get out of the bubble. (Here I am thinking of the World War I British staff officer who went to the front, and broke down in tears when he actually saw the mud that he and his fellow officers had sent the troops out into, back in the Chateau.) So Im happy. (Readers will recall that in this comment Im basically recapitulating everything Ive said about the technical characteristics of the Fetterman campaign for the last year. That makes me happy too.) Also, Dr. Oz is a puppy-killing charlatan. From New Jersey. NOTE I should also mention that Fetterman in essence embedded himself in Braddock. In not sure thats possible for most candidates (and here we mention Fettermans family money). I would also like to know more about the role of Fettermans wife, Gisele (with one l). She did a very creditable job as a campaign surrogate with no experience. (I also wonder, speculating wildly, if she had anything to do with the social media strategy, since nobody has come forward, as of this date, to take credit for it.) NOTES [1] Its also possible that our horrid debate format, which should be abolished and handed back to the League of Women, really tripped Fetterman up, and that his local appearances went better, and that the every county strategy primed voters to accept this: Around the time of the debate I pointed out that Fetterman had recently been to Bucks County, where he spoke well. The local politicians were happy to appear with him. If he's speaking in Bucks, I said, they are confident. He is currently at Biden's level in Bucks County.  Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) November 9, 2022

2024

When Trump Announces Candidacy, Watchdog Will File Insurrection Disqualification Challenge [HuffPo]. The evidence that Trump engaged in insurrection is overwhelming, Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement last week. We are ready, willing and able to take action to make sure the Constitution is upheld and Trump is prevented from holding office. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, bars any officials who have taken an oath of office to defend the government from reelection if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the government  or have given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. CREW sent a letter to Trump on Thursday alerting him to the planned challenge if he announces his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. CREW believes you are barred from holding office Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment because you engaged in insurrection against the government you swore to defend, states the letter. By summoning a violent mob to disrupt the transition of presidential power mandated by the Constitution after having sworn to defend the same, you made yourself ineligible to hold public office again.' Five early takeaways from the midterms [The Hill]. No other Republican had anywhere close to as good a night as the Florida governor. His reelection to a second term was expected. But the margin was resounding  around 20 points over his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Charlie Crist. To put that in context, DeSantis won the governorship four years ago by less than a single point, and former President Trump carried the Sunshine State two years ago by about 3 points. The result is exactly what DeSantiss boosters wanted in terms of proving his electability as the focus begins to shift to the 2024 presidential race. In that regard, he was also helped by the fact that Tuesdays results added up to a mediocre outcome, at best, for Trump. Some of the other contours of DeSantiss win were especially significant, not least that he carried the populous and heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade County. Thats one reason why DeSantiss boast, in his victory speech, that he and his backers had rewritten the political map wasnt just hyperbole. 

Democrats en Deshabille

Patient readers, it seems that people are actually reading the back-dated post! But I have not updated it, and there are many updates. So I will have to do that. lambert I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that cant bury itself) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a live Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before: The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as unreformable as the PMC is unreformable ; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, thats because the PMC lacks the capability to govern . (PMC modulo class expatriates, of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network  a Flex Net? An iron octagon?  of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community. Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see industrial model of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down. * * *

Republican Funhouse

Realignment and Legitimacy

I wanted to wear a purple ball gown with a crimson silk cape [Scalawag]. I love the pomp and circumstance of voting even if the chorus of horns that accompanies my balloting is only in my head, and my poll site is a dingy concrete-block community hall. As much as I know inherently that the electoral system leaves so many behindthe Black, the queer, the nontraditional family, the immigrant, the rural, those with records, the insurance-less, those of us in states that dont mattera lifetime of civic education indoctrinated me to believe the act of exercising this right is my highest function as a citizen. And I wanted to dress for it. Im sentimental like that. I love the Black Southern culture of voting, showing up and showing out in your Sunday best. I love the older men crushing their hats in their hands when they cross the poll threshold, the women with tweedy suits and feathers in their feminine fedoras, my father dressing to vote before work with his newsboy hat, Members Only jacket and wide-leg slacks. Survey finds increasing number of Protestants want their church to be politically homogenous [Christian Post]. According to a study released Tuesday by Lifeway Research, an organization that surveys ongoing trends in church ministries, 50% of non-Catholics surveyed in the U.S. prefer to attend a politically homogenous church, while 41% disagreed and 10% were uncertain. At least 55% of participants believe they are attending a church that shares their political views. Fewer than a quarter disagreed (23%) or arent sure (22%). Lifeway Research conducted the survey online from Sept. 19-29, using a national pre-recruited panel of over 1,000 Americans. The studys margin of error was +/- 3.3%, with a 95% confidence level. Studies have shown that voting patterns and political affiliation correlate with the type of church and amount of church involvement someone has, Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a statement. But when asked if churchgoers want political similarity to flow back into their church relationships, this is desirable for only half of churchgoers.'

#COVID19

Lambert here: I cant call a winter surge, though well really have to wait for Thanksgiving travel. However, high transmission (CDC), the elevation and continued increase in positivity (Walgreens), and the steady takeover of BQ.1* (CDC; Walgreens) are all a little unsettling (as is the apparent proliferation of variants). Stay safe out there!

 Covid and culthood:

I've just shared the data.

It breaks down to a million infections each week this year.

It breaks down to about a 1000 deaths a week.

It breaks down to covid disabling hundreds of thousands of people.  tern (@1goodtern) November 5, 2022

And:

I've got to be honest, almost all of those apply to the denialists and the minimisers, not the people concerned about Covid.  tern (@1goodtern) November 5, 2022

Not to mention funding and immediate access to media forums. A good long thread.

* * *

 Room-level ventilation in schools and universities [Atmospheric Environment]. The direct flow measurement techniques used by building managers and engineers to characterize ventilation rates in mechanically ventilated buildings cannot be applied to naturally ventilated spaces. Other approaches for characterizing ventilation may require technical expertise for execution or data interpretation, or specialized instrumentation, which reduces accessibility. As educators, administrators, and building managers plan for safe operations in the wake of COVID-19, there is a need for practical approaches for characterizing ventilation on the room level, as well as support for small-scale, short-term decision making, e.g., with respect to opening windows and doors and running fans, air conditioners, or supplemental air cleaning. Here, we describe efforts taken by this group of scientists and educators using different approaches to characterize ventilation in educational spaces in different U.S. locations in collaboration with facilities managers, administrators, and other decision makers. We discuss our findings, best practices, and lessons learned.  Well worth a read, especially if you in the field.

 Maskstravaganza: Readers may wish to look into ReadiMask, [T]he only full-face respirator that seals to your face using a hypoallergenic medical adhesive at the perimeter of the mask. Masks that apply with elastic straps or ties do not fit properly, allowing gaps around the edges of the mask where contaminants can enter, but ReadiMasks medical adhesive creates a tight seal that enables the filter and eyeshield to provide substantial protection. The ReadiMask is pocket-sized, virtually weightless, and available with or without the eyeshield.  Theres innovation in this field, and manufactured in America too.

 Maskstravaganza: When the American Public Health Association cant be bothered to enforce its own policies:

Hi Eiryn, thanks for your concern. While presenting, speakers are allowed to remove their masks. The sign below should be in all sessions pic.twitter.com/0rvoDSRDpK  APHA's Annual Meeting & Expo (@APHAAnnualMtg) November 6, 2022

No doubt masked speakers wouldnt look good on television.

 Maskstravaganza:

Every family I know with kids in school are like, Robert has been sick 5 times & he missed 3 weeks of school. Bess quit track, shes in a wheelchair with LongCovid. She missed 28 days. Pete had a 6-week flu & bleeding eyes, but I worry about learning loss. No, we dont mask.  Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) November 5, 2022

* * *

 The notion that COVID-19 has been vanquished is not supported by the facts [David Berger, Sydney Morning Herald]. The pleasing notion that COVID has now been vanquished, however, that it has been turned into just another seasonal upper-respiratory virus by vaccination, hybrid immunity from repeated infection and natural attenuation of the virus itself, is not supported by the facts. New variants continue to arrive, irrespective of season, and the world is now on its eighth. Actuarial analysis from around the world, including in Australia, shows an ongoing 10 to 15 per cent excess death rate, as compared with before the pandemic. But deaths are not the only metric. High rates of long COVID, consisting of a smorgasbord of chronic conditions, are already being felt in terms of labour shortages and seem set to be accumulating both human and economic effects over time.

 AHPRAs made a serious mistake in trying to silence Dr David Berger [AusDoc]. From July, still germane. Dr David Berger has been told to pull his head in by the Medical Board of Australia who wants him to undergo a re-education course in relation to behaving professionally and courteously to colleagues and other practitioners. His offence, according to the board, was his passionate Tweets, sometimes containing the odd expletive, critiquing public health measures, dopey commentators and the politics of the pandemic.  ZOMG mean tweets!

 Fallout continues from Ahpra over-reach [Insight]. What is at issue though is robust criticism of what Dr Berger and others might argue are fools making foolish policies. Is Ahpra saying there are no fools or foolish ideas in politics, big pharma or medicine, or just that if there are we must not say so? Why should doctors, and no-one else in the community, be forced to feign respect for mediocre or incompetent authorities or individuals? The law must to be applied equally to everyone; you should not single out one person who opposes government policy while apparently not acting on myriad others who are emotionally pejorative online, and who now threaten and follow through with anonymous reports to Ahpra when they do not like what a doctor says. Ahpra is, in my view, open to being used as a tool of anonymous bullies, while they say without irony they are trying to improve culture.  Ahpra = Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

 And from Berger:

Really profound reflection, from a thermodynamics perspective, sent to me by another emergency doctor as a result of reading this thread. You can try and cut this any way you like, but there is no path where this resolves itself by doing nothing. pic.twitter.com/RNph2HY3cf  Dr David Berger, aBsuRdiSTe cROnickLeR (@YouAreLobbyLud) March 3, 2022

* * *

Free sunscreen, ear plugs  and Covid shots? At the NASCAR race, vaccinations are still a tough sell [STAT]. Its a modest dent in stagnating vaccination rates as public health officials attempt to rally fatigued Americans before an expected winter surge, but among a key group of vaccine holdouts: rural, largely conservative Americans. The NASCAR tents are also a flagship test of federal health officials now yearslong strategy to build Covid-19 vaccine confidence by enlisting people, from religious leaders to local organizers, in their trusted communities, to take on the challenge that has eluded public health officials for nearly two years now. Really? Hows that been working out? Then again: I believe in vaccinations, the nurse, who also declined to give her name because of her occupation, insisted. Just not these ones. If you have to get vaccinated every four months, it doesnt fing work.' And: NASCAR itself has resisted vaccine requirements for its drivers and swerved questions about its stance, though vaccinated drivers who are Covid-19-exposed can return to racing sooner than unvaccinated peers. But if racing officials and drivers were to speak publicly about vaccine safety, they could reach what NASCAR claims are 75 million fans worldwide.  Or maybe  hear me out  if there were a whole of government response? On a layered strategy?

* * *

Transmission

Here is CDCs interactive map by county set to community transmission. (This is the map CDC wants only hospitals to look at, not you.)

Positivity

From the Walgreens test positivity tracker, November 7:

1.0%. Decrease.

Wastewater

Wastewater data (CDC), November 5:

November 4:

Variants

Lambert here: Its beyond frustrating how slow the variant data is. Does nobody in the public health establishment get a promotion for tracking variants? Are there no grants? Is there a single lab that does this work, and everybody gets the results from them? [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk]. UPDATE Yes. See NC here on Pango. Every Friday, a stately, academic pace utterly incompatible with protecting yourself against a variant exhibiting doubling behavior.

Variant data, national (Walgreens), October 24:

Lambert here: BQ.1* moving along quite briskly.

Variant data, national (CDC), October 15 (Nowcast off):

BQ.1* moving along quite briskly. New York/New Jersey numbers are higher:

UPDATED And as a check, since New York is a BQ.1* hotbed, New York hospitalization continues to increase, from November 9:

Lambert here: Ive added yellow lines to show the slopes of previous surges. This one seems pretty sedate, as surges go.

Deaths

Death rate (Our World in Data):

Total: 1,098,524  1,098,387 = 137 (137 * 365 = 50,005, which is todays LivingWith number (quite a bit higher than the minimizers would like, though they can talk themselves into anything. If the LivingWith metric keeps chugging along like this, I may just have to decide this is what the powers-that-be consider mission accomplished for this particular tranche of death and disease.

Its nice that for deaths I have a simple, daily chart that just keeps chugging along, unlike everything else CDC and the White House are screwing up or letting go dark, good job.

 Turns out the Times is run by sentimentalists:

Of course, this was under the former guy. And as it turns out, the losses are indeed calculable; indeed the Biden administration calculated them, and the midterms show that their calculations were right.

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of interest today.

* * *

The Bezzle: Facebook Parent Meta Announces Layoffs of 11,000 Staff [Wall Street Journal].  I should have sympathy for the workers, I suppose. But Meta is a literal force for evil. I wouldnt feel bad for sailors who lost their jobs on slave- or opium ships. Makes me a petty bourgeois idealist, I suppose!

The Bezzle: Crypto chief braces for biggest one-day loss for a billionaire EVER: FTX CEO will see $16B fortune slashed to $1B  as Bitcoin and Ethereum plunge 10% [Daily Mail]. Crypto giant FTXs CEO lost $16 billion of his personal fortune as his company faces a liquidity crunch and is bailed out by its rival. Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, who touted last year that his crypto company would be big enough to buy Goldman Sachs, will see his fortune drop to $1 billion after receiving a bailout from rival Changpeng Zhaos Binance, Bloomberg reports. The 94 percent loss is the biggest one-day collapse ever among billionaires.  Thats a damn shame.

* * *

Todays Fear & Greed Index: 57 Greed (previous close: 58 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 50 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 9 at 1:58 PM EST.

The Gallery

Cornell boxes are great!

And for the eclipse:

Class Warfare

Railroad unions push back threatened strike date [CNN]. The threat of a freight railroad strike has been pushed back to early December, as four major unions have agreed to coordinate the date on which they could potentially go on strike. The third-largest railroad union, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employe Division, had been prepared to strike as soon as November 20, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. But the group announced Wednesday that is has agreed to extend negotiations with the railroads until at least December 4, the deadline set by another union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. The rank and file members of both unions have rejected the tentative agreements reached with the railroads in September, mostly over the lack of sick pay in the contracts. A strike by any one rail union would lead to a shutdown of Americas major freight railroads, as all the other unions, even those that have ratified contracts, would honor the picket lines. That could cause severe economic problems, as 30% of Americas freight moves by rail, when measured by weight and distance traveled. The two largest rail unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation union, which represents conductors, are holding their own ratification votes, the results of which are due November 21. If one or both of those unions reject the deals, they would be prepared to strike December 9. If those contracts are voted down, the BMWED and Signalmen have agreed to further push back their strike deadline to that date. The BMWED and Signalmen are engaged in negotiations with railroad management seeking deals that union leaders believe their members would ratify. The unions hope the extension will prevent Congress from imposing a contract or order them to keep working into the new year, when Republicans might be in control of one or both houses of Congress.

News of the Wired

The text editor for poets [Versepad].  Or lyricists, of which we have several in the commentariat?

* * *

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From AM:

AM writes: Pointy and sharp plant seen near the beach just outside Quilty, County Clare, Ireland.

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:







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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Heres Taibbis drinking game. Here are live updates from the Times, Politico, and FOX.

The conventional wisdom seems to be  handicappers, please add your comments!  that this is not a wave year for Republicans. Democrats will lose the House, but not much, and retain the Senate. Normally, my heuristic would be that the conventional wisdom is wrong, but my current heuristic is that this is the stupidest timeline, and that would be the stupidest outcome, since the Democrat gerontocracys pasty white fundamentals would remain firmly planted in the seats of power (If only a few votes in a few states hadnt flipped by Putin!) Not that the color of the pasty fundamentals matters much, if the Congressional Black Caucus takes over. Amy Cook expresses the conventional wisdom well:

Ultimately, however, Im a big believer in the fundamentals. And right now, the mood of the electorate is dour. The president is unpopular. And inflation remains a persistent and unrelenting pressure point in the lives of average Americans. Those fundamentals alone give Republicans an outsized advantage. Keeping the bottom from dropping out on Democrats, however, are some structural fundamentals of their own: an optimal Senate map with weak/flawed GOP opponents in those key races; a House map that is also pretty well-sorted; a polarized electorate that rarely defects from its partisan leanings; and a Democratic base that is more engaged than wed expect to see in a tsunami year.

Dour? My shorter OED defines dour as gloomily taciturn; sullen. I dont know about that; but Im not sure theres a word for incandescent rage so deeply impacted that it turns to boredom; perhaps the Germans have one.

In any case, here are some bellwether races to watch in case you need to get to bed early: Cook Political Report suggests the PA Senate, since if Fetterman wins, that means Democrats can afford to lose another incumbent, and OH-13, a district Biden narrowly carried in 2020. Blake Hounshell suggests three House races in Virginia, ordering them from most to least vulnerable: Elaine Luria (VA-2), Abigail Spanberger (VA-7), and Jennifer Wexton (VA-10), as indicators that a Republican victory is a Red Ripple, a Red Wave, or a Red Tsunami respectively.

Readers, if you have races that you consider especially important or interesting, please add them in comments!

On the bright side, The 2024 Presidential campaign begins tomorrow. Bottoms up!
Yves here. Frankly, I dont keep as close tabs as I ought to because I have too many beats to cover and this one is particularly disheartening. On the one hand, this post argues Netanyahu will be hoist on his petard of moving further to the right and allying with hard-core nationalist groups. On the other, Israel is still hostage to an ever-more toxic level of domestic sentiment.

By Guy Ziv, Associate professor, American University School of International Service. Originally published at The Conversation

sraels political magician has done it again.

Having been turned out of office in 2021 as the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be indicted  and with his corruption trial still underway  Benjamin Netanyahu has made another stunning comeback. After four inconclusive elections in just four years, a fifth national vote on Nov. 1, 2022, saw Israelis hand Netanyahus right-wing bloc a decisive victory.

In some ways it shouldnt come as a big surprise. Netanyahu has been defying the political obituary writers for years. He did so after his reelection defeat in 1999, then again following a humiliating loss in the 2006 elections.

Now, the pundits who declared Netanyahus career over after he lost the premiership last year to political rivals Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have been proved wrong.

Netanyahus win means the deadlock that had paralyzed Israel for nearly four years may be finally over, given his now 64-seat majority. But that doesnt mean his troubles will be over  far from it. As a scholar of Israeli politics, I believe a governing nightmare awaits Israels longest-serving prime minister.

Liberal, Certainly by Comparison

Netanyahu is set to form the most right-wing and religious government in Israels history. His right-wing Likud Party will rule in a coalition with ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox partners.

The radical agenda of one of these parties, the far-right Religious Zionist Party, includes the unfettered expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which it seeks to annex; enabling soldiers to shoot at Palestinian assailants without prior authorization from their superiors, as is the rule now; expelling disloyal Arab citizens from their homes in Israel; and allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount  an act seen by Muslims as a provocation given the arrangement that for decades has permitted Jews to visit but not to pray at their al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The party is also deeply conservative on social issues, calling for a rollback of gay rights by banning, for example, the Jerusalem Pride parade.

Not only are such policies alarming to the international community and to many Israelis and Palestinians, they also promise to give Netanyahu endless headaches in his next term in office.

Although he has long been Israels leading right-wing politician, Netanyahu does not share the far-right, religious ideology of some of his new political allies. In my 2014 book, Why Hawks Become Doves, I quote an ex-top aide to former prime ministers and Netanyahu rivals Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert as saying that while Netanyahu surrounds himself with rightist kind of guys, he is the most liberal guy in this group.

Backed Into an Ideological Corner

To be sure, Netanyahu has a conservative worldview. Yet, he also is a secular, pragmatic and risk-averse politician.

His flexibility has been displayed on numerous occasions over the years. In his first term, he continued the Oslo peace process he had fiercely criticized as leader of the opposition, signing the Hebron Protocol and Wye River Memorandum that led to the Israeli withdrawal from territories in the West Bank.

He voted three times for the 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip  before then resigning in opposition to the withdrawal. And in June 2009, he abandoned his lifelong opposition to a Palestinian state by publicly endorsing the two-state solution. Again, he later reversed his position.

Netanyahu also acceded to President Barack Obamas demand in 2009 for a 10-month freeze in Jewish settlement construction to restart peace talks  negotiations that ultimately collapsed on his watch.

Likewise, in the past, Netanyahu attempted to piece together broad-based coalitions with centrist components to mitigate the influence of extremists.

But with pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs now firmly entrenched in Israeli politics, Netanyahu has no real choice but to form an ideologically narrow, far-right coalition.

A Monster of His Own Making

Indeed, the emergence of the extreme-right that he now courts is a monster largely of Netanyahus own creation.

As Israeli society has drifted to the right, becoming more religious and conservative, Netanyahu has increasingly stoked discord between the right and the left to expand his base.

Netanyahu himself has ridden the wave of populist nationalismin his country over the last decade. He and his loyalists portrayed critics  be they members of the media, former senior members of the security establishment, political centrists and even fellow conservative supporters-turned-rivals  as leftist, out-of-touch elitists.

On the world stage, he befriended populist nationalist leaders including Russias Vladimir Putin, Hungarys Viktor Orban, Brazils Jair Bolsonaro and former President Donald Trump.

He adopted much of Trumps rhetoric, too, blaming a leftist witch hunt for the investigation into his alleged corruption, bribery and fraud. Similarly, he labeled the government that replaced him a year ago as a dangerous left-wing coalition that came to power via the greatest election fraud in the countrys history.

Like these other populist leaders, Netanyahu has cultivated a political alliance with ultra-nationalist figures.

The most controversial figure in the emerging coalition is Itamar Ben-Gvir, a disciple of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, an ultra-nationalist politician whose racist Kach party was ultimately outlawed in Israel.

Ben-Gvir once proudly hung a picture in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish terrorist who in 1994 murdered 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque.

Until recently, Ben-Gvir was a fringe figure in Israeli politics. However, in 2019, Netanyahu, seeking to shore up his right-wing bloc, orchestrated a merger between two far-right parties: Ben-Gvirs Jewish Power and Yamina, led by Bezalel Smotrich. The new party, the Religious Zionists, which also included the ultra-conservative Noam faction, ensured that far-right representatives were able to cross the electoral threshold and make it into the Knesset  Israels parliament

The Religious Zionists received six seats in the Knesset in the 2021 election, then jumped to 14 seats in the recent elections. That makes it the third-largest party in the new Knesset and the second-largest party in the coalition Netanyahu is seeking to build.

Driven by his political survival instincts, in other words, Netanyahu ensured that right-wing votes would not be lost by failing to reach the threshold needed for representation. In so doing, he also legitimized Ben-Gvirs extremist party and helped make it mainstream practically overnight.

A Challenge Too Far?

As a harbinger of potential discord, Netanyahu has already indicated that his government will not alter the status quo regarding LGBTQ rights to accommodate the homophobic agenda of the Religious Zionists. Given past precedent, I believe its also likely that he upholds the status quo on the Temple Mount by preventing Jews from praying there  a position that he has abided by in the past. Still, he may find it difficult to control the ascent of Jewish worshippers on the Temple Mount, a growing phenomenon in recent years.

Topping the new coalitions priorities, however, is an issue from which Netanyahu stands to benefit personally: reforming the judiciary so that politicians  rather than unelected institutions  have greater control over key decisions.

The practical effects of such changes would be to weaken the authority of the courts and the attorney general. Passing legislation that would cancel Netanyahus trial may also be in the cards.

Last month, Netanyahu, interviewed by comedian Bill Maher, defended Israel as the one democracy in the Middle East. Preserving Israels fragile democracy while pursuing his own political and personal interests may prove to be a colossal challenge  one that even a political magician like Netanyahu may find insurmountable.
Yves here. True to form, the US is willing to engage only in virtue signaling and marginal at best private sector enriching climate/energy schemes. We need war level mobilization and we need it yesterday. But the US does not do dirigisme, and our current leaders cant manage their way out of a paper bag.

By Olivia Rosane, edited by Chris McDermot. Originally published at EcoWatch

The U.S. is set to unveil a plan at COP27 for private companies to fund the renewable energy transition in exchange for carbon credits.

U.S. president Joe Bidens climate envoy John Kerry has reportedly been speaking with private companies and national governments to build support for the idea. It is slated to be announced at the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

One of the things were looking at is the possibility of the private sector, in effect, being enticed to the table, Kerry said last month, as the Financial Times reported. He added that money would be siphoned directly into closing down some coal plants and acquiring renewables, which is direct emissions reduction.

The plan, first reported by the Financial Times on Sunday, would see either regional or national governments amass carbon credits by shutting down fossil fuel infrastructure like coal-fired plants and replacing it with renewable energy. Private companies could then purchase these credits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. The scheme would be voluntarily and would be certified by an independent entity still to be determined.

The purpose of the plan is to provide an incentive for private companies to help fund the renewable energy transition in poorer countries, The Washington Post reported. Fossil fuel companies would not be allowed to participate, according to Reuters.

The plan has many potential weaknesses. For one thing, carbon offsets are already controversial because they give companies a license to continue polluting without any real guarantee that an equal amount of carbon will be drawn down from the atmosphere to compensate. In this case, a company purchasing carbon credits from a coal plant turned into a wind farm, for example, would only truly offset its emissions if the transformation would not have happened without its assistance.

People familiar with the plan told the Financial Times that it currently lacked the details that would make its offsets mechanism robust.

[Carbon credits are not] the kind of thing you can have half-baked. The rules matter, the details matter, the anonymous person said. Theres no easier way to get people angry than to throw offsets into the mix.

Another problem with offsets is that they distract from the essential truth that every company and nation needs to get its real emissions as close to zero as soon as possible in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

However, there is a strong argument in favor of finding a way to get the private sector involved in the clean energy transition in the developing world. Developed nations have still not followed through on their pledge to send $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations both wean themselves off of fossil fuels and adapt to climate impacts. And actual needs are even greater than that  around $3.8 trillion in investments yearly over the next three years  Bidens senior advisor on climate change John D. Podesta told The Washington Post. So far, only 16 percent of that has materialized.

Private-sector capital flows thats where the real money is, Podesta said. Were talking billions when the need is trillions. Weve got to unlock that [private-sector] capacity for people to make investments in building a clean-energy future or else well miss both the development goals and the climate goals.

On the other hand, many leaders in the Global South are frustrated with the broken promises of their Global North counterparts and are mistrustful of corporate financing.

Are we really delivering on climate change, or are we delivering on guarantees to ensure profits for the private sector? Egypts lead climate negotiator Mohamed Nasr told the press ahead of COP27, as The Washington Post reported. The thinking has to change. Investors should be thinking of their climate-positive impacts as part of their assessment of projects and delivery for investors.
My job with the Post has evolved since October 2000, when I began work with The City Paper. In 2008, both publications became aligned via former owner SouthComm Inc. I have served as Post managing editor since 2011.

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The women behind the resurrected Seipp Brewing Company and Brewseum know their beer
(Natural News) A group of physicians in California have had enough of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrats who run the state legislature when it comes to their draconian, authoritarian approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still an issue now because his party keeps making it one.

Five doctors filed a lawsuit against Newsom and his administration over a law that empowers the Medical Board of California to discipline physicians who espouse opinions about COVID-19 that are not in line with the mainstream, Fox News Digital reported.

The physicians asked a federal district court in the state to block the law from taking affect, arguing that it violates their First Amendment right as well as their constitutional right to due process under the law. The physician group is represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, or the NCLA, a nonpartisan civil rights law firm.

Californias new misinformation law is the result of an increasingly censorious mentality that has gripped many lawmakers in this country, Jenin Younes, counsel for NCLA, noted in a statement to the media.

Fox News Digital noted further:

The law is set to take effect on January 1, 2023. It would allow the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to discipline physicians who disseminate information about COVID that departs from the contemporary scientific consensus.

The doctors, who treat patients on a regular basis, say the California law violates their First Amendment rights because it 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 noted.

Indeed, it is minority views that need protection from government censorship  as this law shows. Nor is there an exception to the prohibition on viewpoint-based discrimination simply because the law applies only to a regulated profession, it added.

It is plain to see that not only do Newsom and majority Democrats want to craft their own narratives about the virus and subsequent vaccinations, but they want to criminalize disagreement with their policies  literally extreme and authoritarian, which is what they have accused Republicans of being.

The doctors, in their complaint, point this out, noting that differing opinions on mask efficacy, and post-vaccination risks, like some young adult recipients developing myocarditis, could constitute minority views and thus be legally actionable under the law. They also argued 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 read. 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 very existence of these questions illustrates that any attempt at a legal definition of scientific consensus according to which doctors must operate in their day-to-day practice is impractical and borders on the absurd, the complaint went on to say.

Dr. Tracy Hoeg, one of the plaintiffs, noted in the lawsuit 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. Doctors must feel free to speak truthfully with their patients if they wish to gain and maintain their trust, she said, according to Fox News Digital.

The outlet reported that she has been either the first or the senior author of nine epidemiological analyses, six of which were published in peer-reviewed journals on a variety of COVID-related topics, such as mask effectiveness and a risk-benefit analysis on mRNA vaccines in kids.

She noted that the state law puts physicians who are simply trying to give appropriate and individualized recommendations in a difficult position, particularly considering they may not know what the California Medical Boards consensus is at the moment or if it also evolves as our understanding evolves.

Sources include:

FoxNews.com

Outbreak.news
(Natural News) The state government of California drew flaks from environmentalists over a proposal to release genetically modified mosquitoes on the population.

British biotechnology company Oxitec plans to make California the second state in the union  after Florida  to host an experimental release of its genetically modified mosquitoes. It is planning to release millions of these modified mosquitoes in Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley region. (Related: Biotech company to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in California.)

News of this planned release of genetically modified mosquitoes comes as more reports pop up all over the state that the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a dangerous and invasive mosquito species, has been spotted in different parts of the state.

Aedes aegypti, colloquially called the yellow fever mosquito, is known for carrying diseases like Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. It was first found in large numbers in Southern California around two decades ago, and since then has been slowly making its way up the state.

To solve this problem, Oxitec plans to introduce millions of modified yellow fever mosquitoes in 48 test sites in Tulare County, with potential expansion into Fresno, San Bernardino and Stanislaus. Oxitec claims that when these lab-built mosquitoes mate with their wild counterparts, their offspring die, leading to an eventual collapse of the population.

According to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), which can approve or deny the test, between 5,000 and 30,000 genetically modified mosquitoes would be released on a weekly basis at each of the 48 sites and the permit would last until April 30, 2024.

At least eight state legislators  all Democrats  oppose the release of GMO mosquitoes

In a letter addressed to the DPR, Democratic state legislators  six from the State Assembly and two from the State Senate  demanded that the agency disapprove the first-ever release of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitos in the state.

They demand a comprehensive review of the potential impact this planned release has on public health and the environment.

It is our understanding that while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did approve the GE mosquitoes to be released in California, the agency did not conduct a thorough scientific review of the impacts of this insect on public health or the environment. California must require more and better information prior to any approval, wrote the legislators.

We believe that the U.S. EPA review process was incomplete and that it is premature for the state of California to consider the Oxitec application without more diligent federal review, they continued. There are many issues not addressed by U.S. EPAs review and there is insufficient data for the public to comment on the proposal or know its consequences.

Even if the EPA conducts a thorough review of the modified mosquitoes impact, the legislators believe the application must also pass an analysis and a comprehensive review conducted under the standards set by the California Environmental Quality Act.

Following such a comprehensive review, the legislators believe the public should be presented with environmentally preferable alternatives and mitigation measures to control the population of Aedes aegypti and the public be allowed to decide if it prefers to let loose millions of genetically modified mosquitoes or other safer measures.

The release of GE mosquitoes in California could be an experiment that, due to genetic spread, never ends and creates many unintended consequences. There are other more proven and less risky methods to control mosquitoes, wrote the legislators. We urge DPR to address the concerns raised in this letter and to decline Oxitecs current Research Authorization application.

Before we permit the use of GE mosquitoes, the DPR should provide for clear rules and a review of public health and environmental risks of releasing the insects in a public process, said State Assemblymember Laura Friedman, a Democrat who represents Glendale, Burbank and other parts of Los Angeles County. There are too many unknown factors when it comes to how it could affect our biodiversity in the long run, including how this might influence populations of birds, bats, fish species and other insects.

Learn more about what is happening in California at CaliforniaCollapse.news.

Watch this video strongly suggesting that the mosquitoes California wants to release will be used to vaccinate people against their will.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

GMO mosquitoes now secretly VACCINATING people without their consent.

Bill Gates-funded Colombian mosquito factory breeds 30 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes weekly.

Genetically modified mosquitoes are being released in Florida Keys despite protests.

Halt this nightmare: Alarm as Florida set to begin release of genetically engineered mosquitoes.

Bill Gates wants to deploy genetically modified mosquitoes to inject vaccines.

Sources include:

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

MercuryNews.com

CommonDreams.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The ongoing and debilitating energy crisis affecting the European Union (EU) is causing many of the blocs largest industries to cut back production, increasing the chances of the continent deindustrializing itself.

The energy crisis is forcing many of the continents largest and most energy-intensive businesses to curb their energy usage. As a result of these energy caps, many corporations are shutting down factories, downsizing workplaces or relocating outside of the continent where energy is plentiful and EU regulations on energy usage cant reach them. One of the continents biggest losses is German conglomerate BASF, the largest manufacturer of chemicals in the world. In response to the energy crisis, rather than cut back on its production, the company said it would instead permanently downsize its workforce in its home country and expand in China.

The European chemical market has been growing only weakly for about a decade [and] the significant increase in natural gas and power prices over the course of this year is putting pressure on chemical value chains, said BASF Chief Executive Officer Martin Brudermueller.

Many other industries are either idling their production capacity or curbing quotas due to higher energy costs.

A tenth of Europes crude steel production capacity has already been idled, according to estimates from Jefferies. All zinc smelters have curbed production, and some have shut down. Half of the primary aluminum production has shut down as well, noted Irina Slav, writing for OilPrice.com. And in fertilizers, 70 percent of factories have been idled because of the energy shortage. Chemical plants are also curbing their activities, ferroalloy furnaces are going cold and plastics and ceramics manufacturing is shrinking as well.

The United States is also receiving more European companies relocating to countries with wider availability of energy. Energy issues, along with an unfriendly investment environment and the desire to increase production, are making many manufacturers choose America.

Europe needs more energy to bring back its industry

In 2021, Russian natural gas flows into the EU was responsible for meeting about a third of the blocs gas demand. By the end of 2022, Russian energy flows into the EU will fall by roughly 80 billion cubic meters of natural gas, or around 20 percent of overall demand.

More imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. and increased natural gas production from Norway will help offset the shortfall, but not enough. If Europe wants to stabilize its prices, it will have to reduce demand for natural gas by roughly 10 percent.

According to Anne-Sophie Corbeau, global deliveries scholar at Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy, Europe can make it through this winter if it is not too cold. But to deal with the next winter, it will have to ramp up its natural gas imports exponentially.

Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor has already ramped up the countrys gas production by 10 percent this year. But Eirik Waerness, Equinor senior vice president and chief economist, warned that the country does not have the capacity to raise output further.

Other major projects to help supply the EU with more gas arent scheduled to enter production until 2025 at the earliest. These include a major investment in Qatars North Field East project and the creation of U.S. liquefied natural gas export terminals. (Related: Qatar refuses to divert gas flows to Europe due to existing contracts with Asian customers.)

Furthermore, Europe may need to reduce energy demand more than currently anticipated as the continent is also bracing for sharp declines in energy generation from renewable energy sources like nuclear and hydropower.

One thing has become crystal clear: Reduced energy consumption in Europes industrial sectors is really no cause for celebration, wrote Slav. If anything, it is a cause for concern and urgent action on the part of decision-makers.

Learn more about the European energy crisis at NewEnergyReport.com.

The energy crisis in Europe is causing protests to erupt all over the continent demanding the reopening of energy links with Russia.

This is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related articles:

Energy crisis forces Austrias only domestic salt manufacturer to cut production by 20%.

Glass maker Duralex HALTS operations in France due to skyrocketing energy costs.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal forced to shut down two massive German steel facilities due to energy crisis.

BASF announces permanent downsizing and shuttering of its European chemical operations, affecting fertilizer, polymers and more.

European energy crisis making it impossible to produce renewable energy equipment like solar panels.

Sources include:

OilPrice.com

English.AlMayadeen.net

SPGlobal.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Tech entrepreneur, philanthropist and Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine expert and researcher Steve Kirsch has compiled all publicly available data on the vaccine to prove that it is the most dangerous vaccine in recorded history.

In Kirschs personal Substack blog, he laid out some of the most compelling pieces of evidence he could gather proving the dangers of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. While by no means an exhaustive list, it provides the key pieces of data that are impossible for scientists to properly explain if the COVID-19 vaccines actually are safe and effective. (Related: Panel of experts: More and more young people are dying because of COVID-19 vaccines.)

The most compelling piece of evidence by far is data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a United States government program for reporting vaccine safety issues co-managed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to VAERS, an estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans have been killed by the COVID-19 vaccines, with several million more injured.

Graphs showing the number of vaccine-related deaths submitted to VAERS show a massive jump in 2021 as soon as the COVID-19 vaccines start being distributed in the United States. The CDC is claiming that VAERS is overreported but cites no evidence. Kirschs own investigation suggests that VAERS could be underreported by a factor of 5.4 times.

This is a clear message that the CDC is not monitoring safety events. We were lied to. They said they were watching the safety signals like a hawk. They forgot to mention the hawk had a blindfold on, wrote Kirsch. If these [deaths and injuries] werent caused by the vaccine, what caused them? Why are there more adverse events reported for these vaccines than for all other vaccines in history combined? Nobody can answer that question.

Governments around the world trying to hide certain types of COVID-19 vaccine data

The convenient disappearance of certain types of data from all over the world further proves how dangerous the COVID-19 vaccine is.

In the United States, the FDA is withholding autopsy reports from people who died within hours or days after getting vaccinated.

If the COVID-19 vaccines were not the cause of these deaths, Kirsch noted that there would be no reason for the FDA to block autopsy reports from going public.

In Canada, the number one cause of death is listed as unexplained. This so-called unknown cause is one of the top causes of death in most Canadian provinces and territories, and it is the number one killer in the province of Alberta.

In Israel, a confidential meeting between officials from the Ministry of Health and top Israeli scientists claims that the main reason scientists and Big Pharma never notified Israeli officials about the safety issues from the vaccines is because of budget and staffing issues.

Apparently, they had millions of dollars to promote the vaccines as safe and effective, but they forgot to budget for the possibility they were wrong, wrote Kirsch.

In the conclusion of his article laying out all of the evidence, Kirsch asked: Are the vaccines safe and effective as claimed?

To answer this, science requires that we look at all the available data and see whether the data is more consistent with the hypothesis of safe and effective or not safe and effective,' he wrote. All the data that I and my colleagues have seen end up being placed in the not bucket. We are open to being shown we got it wrong on the hundreds of pieces of evidence we have examined, but nobody is willing to discuss the data with us to resolve the issue, not even for one million dollars.

Watch this short clip of Steve Kirsch explaining how Medicare data shows that the COVID-19 vaccine is killing massive numbers of people.

This video is from the Free4Eva Media channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Dr. Bryan Ardis: Engineered COVID virus contains DOZENS of synthetic animal venoms.

HOLOCAUST OF THE UNBORN: Babies are DYING because their mothers got vaccinated for COVID.

CNN scrambling to cover for COVID vaccine-induced deaths across America, now blaming alcohol abuse for 1 out of every 5 deaths in demographic age group of 20 to 49.

NOT the virus: Deaths among teens and 20-somethings soar following COVID vaccine release.

Study finds 84% increase in incidence of cardiac-related DEATH among men under 40 following mRNA vaccination.

Sources include:

GlobalResearch.ca

SteveKirsch.Substack.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Ex-naval officer Jack Maxey has talked about the connection between President Joe Bidens son Hunter and Metabiota, a San Francisco-based startup involved with Ukraine biolabs and the Chinese lab allegedly responsible for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Maxey based his findings on his personally conducted studies and the emails he found in Hunters laptop.

During an interview at Sovereign Soul Show back in September, Maxey elaborated on the younger Bidens association with Metabiota.

Metabiota was a privatized company that the U.S. intelligence used to run the biolabs in Ukraine which I have uncovered, [they are] also deeply involved inside the Wuhan lab. You can find papers written by Metabiota describing them as bat and corona experts, he said at the time, adding that Hunter had a key office manager in Beijing named Zeng Xiaoying, whose husband George Gao is the top guy in the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Interestingly, Gao participated in the October 2019 event hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to prepare for a pandemic.

Maxey: Fauci and cohorts are just as responsible for COVID-19 outbreak as the Chinese

According to Maxey, Hunter connected Gao with Metabiota and they essentially ran the gain-of-function experiments in the Wuhan lab. He added that White House Chief Medical Advisor Tony Fauci and his cohorts are just as responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak as the Chinese communists.

We off-shored their Frankenstein experiments to China because they werent under law allowed to engage in these experiments inside the U.S., and they went completely rogue. And now millions of people around the world lost their lives. The economy of the world lost trillions and trillions of lost opportunities, family businesses destroyed. These people need to be held to account, he said.

At a political rally in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania back in August, the former Maxey called Metabiota the prime contractor inside all these Ukrainian labs.

Maxey also cited a specific e-mail found in Hunters laptop between Hunter and his longtime business partner Eric Schwerin. Hunter, we gotta get a hold of Xiaoyings husband, because I think he and the CDC could be really helpful for Metabiota, Schwerin said in the email. (Related: Glenn Greenwald: Hunter Biden laptop coverup is the single biggest media fraud in the past decade.)

The political analyst also explained how Metabiota was created by U.S. intelligence. He said that in 2005, there was a presidential study done on weapons of mass destruction, be they lab-created or naturally occurring.

And after H1N1, we decided we needed an early warning system to be able to monitor these viruses and biological agents around the world. The recommendation was to create Special Forces fast teams, train them up in biological weapons and then attach to them scientists whom we support academically but its going to be an operation completely controlled under the umbrella of U.S. intelligence, he said. So they created Metabiota.

Visit BidenCrimeFamily.news for more news related to Hunter Bidens laptop.

Watch the below video where Maxey talks about Hunters laptop from hell.

This video is from the Galactic Storm channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

WAYNE ROOT: Is the Paul Pelosi story the new Jussie Smollett fraud, or the new Hunter Biden laptop scandal?

GOP senators demanding Facebook provide info on conversations with FBI over suppression of Hunter Biden laptop.

71% of Democrats likely would have voted differently if they knew Hunter Bidens laptop was real: poll.

CNN finally reporting about Hunter Bidens controversial laptop.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

Rumble.com

Gettr.com

WEForum.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Story at a glance:

As the COVID-19 lies are now being exposed at exponential speed, some of those proven wrong are getting nervous  so nervous, in fact, theyre now pleading for amnesty and to just let bygones be bygones.

While some now argue ignorance as their defense, there was no lack of data proving their positions were wrong, dangerous, destructive and deadly, right from the start.

Health and government officials werent just wrong once and then changed course. No, theyve doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on errors, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that theyre wrong. Granting amnesty to individuals who have been wrong from Day 1, without a single apology, is an untenable proposition. The price society has paid for their errors is far too great for that.

They were wrong about masks working and natural immunity not working, they were wrong about asymptomatic spread, lockdowns and the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 shots. They were also wrong about SARS-CoV-2 jumping naturally from bats to humans by way of a wet market in Wuhan, China, and they were wrong when they insisted that mandating an experimental gene therapy was within legal bounds. Demanding that officials be held accountable for these errors is not gloating. Its re-establishing a baseline of conduct and accountability to the public.

There can be no amnesty for COVID-19 narrative pushers as people proven right are still being persecuted as misinformation spreaders, and illegal government censorship continues without abatement. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security now views censorship and controlling the information space as one of its core duties.

(Article by Dr. Joseph Mercola republished from Mercola.com)

As the COVID-19 lies are now being exposed at exponential speed, some of those proven wrong are getting nervous  so nervous, in fact, theyre now pleading to just let bygones be bygones.

The Atlantic has come under fire for suggesting that all the terrible pandemic-era decisions over lockdowns, school closures, masking and punishing an entire class of people who questioned the efficacy and wisdom of taking a rushed, experimental vaccine  for a virus with a 99% survival rate in most  should all be water under the bridge.

Agreed @ceisenstein! The invisible workings of the COVID machine must be laid bare if we are to prevent something similar from happening again. People + institutions must become cognizant of the role they played in the social catastrophe that was COVID.https://t.co/4lM0G9YPxJ  Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 8, 2022

Brown University economist Emily Oster writes in The Atlantic, We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.

Brendon Marotta in his Substack Hegemon Media recounts:

I believe perpetrators call for forgiveness because they fear punitive justice. If the perpetrators were held accountable in our current justice system, the scale of the wrongdoing would result in punishments the perpetrators could not bear. These punishments would also not give those who lost their jobs, businesses, friends, family, health, or freedom anything back. What if there was another way that would be better for both victims and perpetrators? The wrongdoing of the pandemic has not been acknowledged. Those responsible have made no apologies. Calls for forgiveness appear dishonest when those responsible havent apologized, which is usually a prerequisite to asking for forgiveness. Creating equity would mean taking the ill-gotten gains of perpetrators and redistributing them to the people who lost their jobs and businesses during the pandemic. In short, it would mean reparations. Equity is not just about money. Losses during the pandemic were not just financial. People lose their friends, family, and freedoms. Much of the harm done was cultural, emotional, and social. No amount of money can replace the ability to grieve in person at your loved ones funeral.

Osters plea for the decency that she and the mainstream media and public health officials failed to offer Americans during the throes of the pandemic comes at a point when the COVID-19 narrative has been all but lost by the current administration and the mainstream media.

Their lies have been exposed

For nearly the last three years, I have been exposing and documenting all of the lies that the global cabal has been promoting in their mainstream media propaganda.

As expected they have now been exposed to be falsehoods, cluelessness and lies:

COVID-19 jabs were never tested for or proven to stop transmission.

The fatality rate of COVID-19 was around 0.005%.

Masks dont work.

This bioweapon came out of a lab and 

The jabs were not 95% effective but actually increased the risk of getting COVID-19.

Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine worked.

Lockdowns did more damage than good.

Safe and effective turned into sudden and unexpected death.

Their crimes must be reconciled

You werent allowed to say goodbye to your loved ones or attend their funerals, but the chosen ones dined at extravagant restaurants and allowed liquor stores and Walmart to stay open. Your small business was destroyed, while Amazon made billions.

These murderous hypocrites killed thousands of seniors by knowingly putting infected patients into old age homes.

They killed thousands more by putting treatable patients on ventilators and Dr. Anthony Faucis remdesivir, and additional thousands were killed by not allowing safe and effective treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to be prescribed by doctors.

They have killed and injured hundreds of thousands through coercion, threats, mandates and a never-ending stream of lies that forced people into taking a dangerous and untested, toxic concoction  a Big Pharma bioweapon.

These experts seeking forgiveness, ostensibly because they were just caught up in the hysteria of the moment, werent wrong. They were lying from the outset and need to pay dearly for their crimes against humanity.

We were scorned, ridiculed, ostracized, censored, fired, de-platformed and wished dead by the authoritarian-minded sheep who demanded compliance and treated like outcasts by family members who believed the narrative hook, line and sinker.

They pushed their agenda too far and too fast out of desperation, as the financial underpinnings of their fake world order began to strain and crumble. This desperation exposed their blatant lies to a vast array of critical thinkers across the world who have not been deterred in exposing the falsehoods on social media, blogs and free-speech websites.

Why we must reject amnesty plea

The reasons we must reject Osters amnesty plea are manifold. First and foremost, while some now want to argue ignorance as their defense, there was no lack of facts and data, right from the start, proving their positions were wrong, dangerous, destructive and deadly.

Since data were readily available, the real question they need to ask themselves is:

Why did I believe all the lies and propaganda? Self-reflection is needed here. Related to this is Osters ridiculous claim that getting something right had a hefty element of luck. Absolutely not. Give me one example where luck played a role.

People who got it right did so because they exercised their critical thinking skills and a) read the data, b) correctly analyzed that data and c) drew rational conclusions based on that analysis.

Analysis and reason are not reliant on luck.

No luck was needed to know that masks were useless. The published science told us as much. Ditto for the conclusion that natural immunity is superior to vaccine-induced immunity.

No luck was needed to know there was no such thing as asymptomatic spreaders because again, science. Not only can you not have a hot infection without symptoms, but research looking at millions of individuals confirmed what we already knew from basic virology.

No luck was needed to correctly predict that lockdowns would have a dramatically negative effect on health, education and the economy. That was just plain rational, but early cost-benefit analyses also confirmed it.

No luck was needed to know that the COVID-19 jab was useless because data from around the world rapidly grew to show that case rates rose in tandem with the shots.

Fauci, President Joe Biden and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky have also demonstrated this.

All were jabbed more than once, and all got COVID-19  more than once!

Seventy percent of jabbed CDC employees also got COVID-19, and on several occasions, ships where 100% of crew and passengers were jabbed reported outbreaks.

None of this would occur if the shots actually prevented infection and spread, and you need no special skills other than clear-headed reason to come to that conclusion.

You also dont need special skills to see that the COVID-19 shots are killing healthy people.

Just look at all the sudden deaths of professional athletes and children.

Its so common theyve even given it a new name: Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. Look at the excess mortality statistics and the skyrocketing life insurance claims.

Osters proposition that luck was behind correct analyses is a cop-out and a sign that shes not ready to accept that she was gullible and irrational  and possibly cruel toward others.

Recall, threatening the lives of the unvaccinated and mocking their deaths was basically part of the public policy.

Forgiving the ignorant because they dont know what theyre doing may be the spiritual imperative, but social etiquette demands that if you WANT someone to forgive you, you FIRST apologize and THEN ask for forgiveness.

Whats missing from Osters call to forgive her and everyone else whos been proven wrong is an apology.

Government officials must be held accountable

This is even more important when it comes to media and our health and government officials. Granting amnesty to individuals who have been wrong from Day 1, without a single apology, is an untenable proposition.

The price society has paid for their errors is far too great for that.

They may ask for forgiveness, and they may be forgiven by many, but they STILL must be held accountable for their errors.

Demanding that officials be held accountable for errors is not gloating. Its re-establishing a baseline of conduct and accountability to the public  something we seem to have lost.

Their reckless behavior has caused people to lose their businesses, their livelihoods; theyve lost family members to reckless medicine; theyve lost out on weddings and funerals; drug use and suicides have skyrocketed; children have fallen years behind on their schooling and the economy has been destroyed.

The list goes on. Being wrong has a price, and society will be paying it for quite some time.

Whats more, our health and government officials werent just wrong once and then changed course. No, theyve doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on errors, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that theyre wrong, and were just supposed to let bygones be bygones?

Not a chance.

First, we have to set the record straight, so everyone actually knows what the truth is, and then we have to make sure these kinds of errors cannot be committed again. A truce is a distant third on the list of how to move forward.

Those proven right are still persecuted

Setting the record straight starts with ending the persecution of those proven to be right. It also requires putting an end to censorship and the promulgation of propaganda.

With regard to the propaganda, this will require rewriting the law. The use of state propaganda against the American public was illegal until 2012 when then-president Obama legalized it through an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

That amendment must be repealed so that media can again be held accountable for the illegal dissemination of government propaganda.

Moving forward, we also likely need to either abolish or radically reassess the role of medical boards. As it stands, medical boards have been weaponized to silence doctors who go against the state propaganda and tell the truth about COVID-19.

The latest victim of this government-orchestrated persecution is Dr. Peter McCullough, one of the most well-credentialed and respected cardiologists in the world.

Hes now being stripped of his medical credentials for the crime of speaking truth to the public (and thereby contradicting the legalized propaganda).

Hes also been terminated from his position as editor-in-chief of Cardiorenal Medicine and Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine (RCM)  all without due process.

RCM was even so cowardly to publicly claim he stepped down as his term of office had ended. As noted by McCullough, there are powerful dark forces at work in academic medicine to expunge any resistance to the COVID-19 jab.

Editor forced to resign over McCulloughs COVID paper

Anyone who dares publish McCulloughs research also skates on thin ice. Dr. Jose Luis Domingo, editor-in-chief of the science journal Food and Chemical Toxicology for the past seven years, was recently forced to resign for that very reason.

As reported by the Epoch Times:

Though Domingo has himself received three vaccinations (two AstraZeneca and one Pfizer), he told The Epoch Times that he has been bombarded with insults, threats, and accusations of being anti-vaccine ever since he approved the publication of a scientific paper [by McCullough, Stephanie Seneff, Greg Nigh and Anthony Kyriakopoulos] that explores potential mechanisms of harm of injected synthetic mRNA  This research was co-authored by a team of preeminent scientists, including Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Peter McCullough, an internationally known cardiologist who has published over a hundred peer-reviewed articles during his 40-year career; and Dr. Anthony Kyriakopoulos, a Greek clinical microbiologist, medical doctor, and researcher who has a Ph.D. in medical and molecular microbiology. Their research proposed that alterations in the vaccine mRNA may hide the mRNA from cellular defenses and promote a longer biological half-life and high production of spike protein. In doing so, these scientists posited, mRNA vaccines may interfere with the bodys natural immune response. They described this interference as profound impairment, which, they believe, comes about specifically because the spike protein interferes with a critical early innate immune response mechanism, called the type I interferon response. If they are correct, injected synthetic mRNA will have a variety of negative consequences on human health, including making our bodies less able to control infections and suppress cancer  About a month after the paper was published, Domingo said, he began receiving angry emails and messages. These included insults, calls to resign, demands to retract the paper, and even threats  The angry messages, he said, were filled with ad hominem attacks against him and against the papers co-authors, but did not specify their scientific objections to the contents of the paper  Though he would have preferred to stay at the helm of the journal until the end of 2023  Domingo has issued his resignation from the journal to maintain his scientific independence. He told us he is first and foremost a scientist, and that he does not regret publishing the paper. Despite the attacks, he was not willing to give in to the pressure from the journals publisher  Jagna Mirska  Domingo said that the journal has already picked a successor for his position  someone with clear ties to the pharmaceutical industry: Bryan Delaney, Ph.D. According to his LinkedIn page, Delaney is a toxicologist who currently works for Haleon. Haleon is pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKleins new brand name for its consumer health unit.

What else have they been wrong about?

The list of so-called errors is a long one. They were wrong about masks working and natural immunity not working, they were wrong about asymptomatic spread, lockdowns and the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 shots.

They were also wrong about SARS-CoV-2 jumping naturally from bats to humans by way of a wet market in Wuhan, China.

Not even a month has passed since we witnessed the stunning revelation that Pfizer never tested its COVID-19 shots for transmissibility before proclaiming publicly that the vaccine protected against transmission.

Then they had the CDC put the bioweapon on the childhood vaccine schedule and the same day increased the price of their jab by 400%.

As reported by Rising host Robby Soave (video below) and Vanity Fair, a report by the Minority Oversight Staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, released in October, concluded that a research-related incident is the most likely explanation for COVID-19.

The COVID-19 jab tyrants were also wrong when they insisted that mandating an experimental gene therapy was within legal bounds. Such mandates have since been overturned in a number of districts.

Most recently, a New York judge ruled that New York Citys COVID-19 jab mandate for municipal workers was enacted illegally and any employee fired for noncompliance must be immediately reinstated  and receive back pay.

According to Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio, the Health Commissions jab mandate violates the separation of powers doctrine enshrined in the state constitution, as well as workers due process rights.

In his ruling, Porzio noted:

The vaccination mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance. If it was about safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued. If it was about safety and public health, the Health Commissioner would have issued city-wide mandates for all residents.

The New York City law department immediately filed an appeal, which blocked the reinstatement of the workers. Time will tell, but I suspect that in the end, the city will just end up having to pay out even more in back pay.

US Government still plans to police wrong-think

As mentioned earlier, amnesty for COVID-19 dictators is impossible in light of continued censorship, and theres no sign of that ending any time soon.

On the contrary, leaked documents show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has every intention of policing wrong-think.

Bidens Ministry of Truth may have been disbanded in the wake of public mockery, but the plan for such an entity was not shelved.

As reported by The Intercept:

Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents  obtained via leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public documents  illustrate an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms  Behind closed doors, and through pressure on private platforms, the U.S. government has used its power to try to shape online discourse. According to meeting minutes and other records appended to a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is also running for Senate, discussions have ranged from the scale and scope of government intervention in online discourse to the mechanics of streamlining takedown requests for false or intentionally misleading information  In a March meeting, Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the U.S. government  There is also a formalized process for government officials to directly flag content on Facebook or Instagram and request that it be throttled or suppressed through a special Facebook portal that requires a government or law enforcement email to use. At the time of writing, the content request system at facebook.com/xtakedowns/login is still live  According to a draft copy of DHSs Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, DHSs capstone report outlining the departments strategy and priorities in the coming years, the department plans to target inaccurate information on a wide 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.

As you can see, censorship is not restricted to COVID-19 issues alone. They include a variety of national politics and geopolitical issues as well.

In other words, Americans views of the world and our country are being shaped by a propaganda arm of the U.S. government itself  not another country  and the reason they have no qualms about doing this is because Obama legalized the use of government propaganda against Americans during his presidency.

Censorship is now a core duty of the DHS

In addition to abolishing or radically reforming medical boards, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and CDC, we probably need to do the same to the DHS.

As reported by The Intercept, documentation shows the DHS views the issue of tackling disinformation and misinformation as a growing portion of its core duties.

I dont know about you, but when I think about what Homeland Security should be doing, policing and punishing my personal views about health, medicine, climate change, political actors and geopolitical actions is not at the top of the list.

Yet thats precisely what theyre doing, and will be doing more of in the years to come.

To control the information space, the DHS intends to leverage advanced data analytics technology and work with nongovernmental agencies and other civil society organizations to build resilience to the impacts of false information.

Government censorship by surrogate is still illegal

For now, Schmitt is combating this tyrannical and unconstitutional overreach in court.

As reported by The Intercept:

In May, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt took the lead in filing a lawsuit to combat what he views as sweeping efforts by the Biden administration to pressure social media companies to moderate certain forms of content appearing on their platforms. The suit alleges governmentwide efforts to censor certain stories, especially ones related to the pandemic. It also names multiple agencies across the government that have participated in efforts to monitor speech and open collusion between the administration and social media companies  October 21, the judge presiding over the case granted the attorneys general permission to depose Fauci, CISA officials, and communication specialists from the White House. While the lawsuit has a definite partisan slant, pointing the finger at the Biden administration for allegedly seeking to control private speech, many of the subpoenas request information that spans into the Trump era and provides a window into the absurdity of the ongoing effort. There is growing evidence that the legislative and executive branch officials are using social media companies to engage in censorship by surrogate, said Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, who has written about the lawsuit. It is axiomatic that the government cannot do indirectly what it is prohibited from doing directly. If government officials are directing or facilitating such censorship, it raises serious First Amendment questions.

No chance of amnesty for US leadership

To bring us back to where we started, with Osters plea for amnesty for those who ignorantly chose to be on the wrong side of history, I am not alone in my view that her proposition is an unworkable one.

Sure, on a personal level, many are likely willing and able to bury the hatchet and join hands again with friends and family who shunned and berated them as conspiracy theorists and anti-science anti-vaxxers (although following the science and the data was precisely what we were all doing).

But on the leadership level, amnesty is out of the question.

Leaders must be held accountable for decisions based on lies. They must be held accountable for their fraud and deception.

Agency heads must be held accountable for their data manipulation and obfuscation, Big Tech leadership must be held accountable for their efforts to aid government in the circumvention of our Constitutional rights and mainstream media, including individual hosts and reporters, must be held to account for their propaganda role, which has injured and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans who trusted them.

A court recently ruled Alex Jones must pay nearly $1 billion in damages to families for falsely claiming that no children died in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, an event that many in alt media suspected was a false flag operation at the time. Now, that fine is quite a precedent.

What would be the appropriate fine for journalists who claim no one has died from the COVID-19 shot? Or that COVID-19 jab injuries are exceedingly rare?

What would be the appropriate fine for tech platforms that censor the personal testimonies of the injured and families of the dead, thereby perpetuating the lie that injuries and deaths dont occur?

What would be an appropriate payout by federal agencies that falsified data to hide adverse effects and deaths?

If you guessed in the trillions you would have profoundly underestimated the damage they have done.

No chance of amnesty for enforcers of false COVID narrative

The American Conservative had this to say about the Soviet blue-check media in the United States:

There can be no amnesty for the unthinking enforcers of the narrative of the regime. I dont know how to put this gently to my fellow members of the blue-check media class, so I will say it bluntly. You guys resemble nothing so much as the info apparatus of some failing ideological state  late-Soviet apparatchiks, only without the erudition that was demanded of regime intellectuals in Moscow back in the day  In February 2020, the Washington Post published a news story with the headline: Tom Cotton Keeps Repeating a Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory That Scientists Have Debunked. More than a year later  the paper rewrote the articles headline, softening conspiracy theory to fringe theory and noting that scientists have disputed it rather than debunked it. How generous. How scrupulous  If the lab-leak theory were a rare instance in which blue-check media abdicated basic journalistic responsibility in favor of elite narrative enforcement, one could forgive and forget, as the Atlantic now demands. But such lapses are utterly commonplace  systemic, you might say. Remember when Big Tech and Big Media and Big Intelligence teamed up to frame the New York Posts Hunter Biden reporting in October 2020 as misinformation  only to concede, once the election was safely over, that it was, in fact, entirely accurate? Remember the absolute unanimity with which blue-check media defended the efficacy of COVID vaccines in stopping transmission  before begrudgingly admitting that, erm, actually, they really dont work as advertised? Remember when blue-check media were dead-certain that Jussie Smollett was the victim of a racist attack? And on and on and on. Once the falsity of the old narrative is definitively established, most blue-checks shamelessly move on to the next elite narrative in need of media reinforcement  no apology, no introspection. The few willing to acknowledge their errors, meanwhile, insist they were merely following the expert consensus at the time. This is risible. The job of the reporter isnt to parrot what the experts say at any given moment: it is to question what anyone in power claims. If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out, used to be the journalistic motto. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Pfizer, WHO, and 50 former intelligence officials deserve far more exacting scrutiny than Mom.

Rhetorical constructs of manipulative language

Another rebuttal to Osters call for amnesty that I want to highlight is from the anonymous Substack writer known only as A Midwestern Doctor, who dissects the manipulative language used by Oster in her article.

The anonymous doctor writes:

When I read through this article, I realize the author highlighted a very common problem  The author is demanding to receive forgiveness for their conduct, but  is refusing to admit they did anything wrong. In order to accomplish this, they utilized a variety of manipulative rhetorical constructs that are relatively simple and frequently utilized. Because it is so common to encounter propaganda pieces like this, I thought there might be some value in illustrating my thought process as I read this article.

The doctor goes on to share screenshots of Osters article, with arrows to sentences and thoughts inserted in red. Below are a few of those screenshots.

For the rest, please see the original Substack article.

Take control of your wealth

Financial collapse is an inevitable outcome of the COVID-19 plandemic.

In the video below, finance guru Catherine Austin Fitts and attorney Carolyn Betts review the tools you need to take control of your finances at this critical time in history.

We must reclaim our independence from the central banks and denounce their planned digital currency, as both are part of a massive control and slave system.

We must reclaim our independence from the central banks and denounce their planned digital currency, as both are part of a massive control and slave system.

Read more at: Mercola.com
(Natural News) With many regions of the country reporting record turnouts for midterm elections on Tuesday, what weve also seen is an alarmingly large number of problems with voting machines, tabulators, and cyberattacks.

The problems began early in Maricopa County, Ariz., for instance, where reports claimed that one-in-five polling sites, or 20 percent, were experiencing issues with tabulation machines just hours after Election Day polls opened, reported Fox News Digital.

A Twitter thread posted by Rich Baris detailed the problem as it unfolded.

This started with a single location. Then a few. Now, its sounding as if this is widespread and very serious, he began in a post containing a video clip of what appears to be an election official explaining that voters who could not get a machine to accept their ballot could simply drop them off in a box to be counted later.

Long lines in Anthem, Arizona with Poll Workers explaining that the @maricopacounty machines are not working. Do not get out of line! pic.twitter.com/lInh8KnTz3  Tyler Bowyer ?? (@tylerbowyer) November 8, 2022

Turnout is very heavy, very early in Maricopa. This is a real serious problem. No voter should ever have to leave their ballot in a box in the corner of the room and expect it to be handled properly at some point later, Baris continued. Its a chain of custody nightmare and easily exploitable. And please, I dont need the usual Mr. Rogers-like suspects to pretend this is not a big deal. It is, and nobody is this naive, so drop the pretentious BS.

Maricopa was told along with other counties that turnout would be very heavy on #ElectionDay, he continued. It needs to be fixed. Due to the issues in Maricopa and Pinal during the primary, election officials were presented with a data-based argument making it very clear that they needed to be prepared for massive turnout on #ElectionDay.

They knew. This is totally unacceptable, Baris wrote, adding: Great job, Carter Center.

Meanwhile, in Champaign, Ill., officials there said that the clerks office claimed that there were connectivity issues with voting machines due to a cyber-attack.

The clerks office of Champaign County, Illinois, is experiencing connectivity issues for its voting machines in what it is calling a cyber-attack. The office stated it believed the issues are a result of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, Fox News Digital reported.

The Champaign County Clerks Office is aware of connectivity issues and computer server performance being impacted, the clerks office announced Tuesday per social media. The Clerks Office believes these are due to cyber-attacks on the network and servers.

The office went on to say that the attacks have been underway for weeks.

For the past month the Champaign County Clerks website has been the target of repeated D-DOS attacks, fortunately the reinforced security and response from the Clerks IT team has prevented these attacks from being successful and the Clerks website has remained secured, the post said.

A judge in Luzerne County, Pa., ordered polling stations to remain open until 10 p.m. EDT after voters in some locations reported they had run out of paper for the voting machines.

Voters in Luzerne County through no fault of their own, were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote, Judge Lesa S. Gelb said in an order Tuesday.

And in Detroit, several voters who showed up to the polls were told they had already voted by absentee ballot, even though they had not.

Some voters in Detroit who voted in person were told they had already voted absentee. The department of elections is aware of the problem- hard lists will be used not electronic ones- and everyone will be allowed to vote, Charlie Langton, a TV/Radio legal analyst for WJBK Fox 2 and WWJ News Radio 950, tweeted.

Some voters in Detroit who voted in person were told they had already voted absentee. The department of elections is aware of the problem- hard lists will be used not electronic ones- and everyone will be allowed to vote. @WWJ950 @FOX2News #Vote #Detroit #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/AIHzmKUTFH  Charlie Langton (@charlielangton) November 8, 2022

Sources include:

FoxNews.com

ThreadReaderApp.com
(Natural News) It is said that the powers that be love to disguise their true malignant plans for the world right in plain sight where everyone can see them but few can discern. This typically occurs in mass media programming, including in comedy routines like the one late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert performed back in 2007 to reveal the globalists future depopulation plans.

Colbert opened his bit talking about Benjamin Fulford, who at the time had quit writing for Forbes because the corporate-controlled media outlet refused to publish an article of his that contained criticisms against an advertiser. Fulford made the implication at the time that Forbes is controlled by dark, shadowy figures pushing a hidden Illuminati agenda.

Because mocking conspiracy theories was especially popular back at that time, Colbert seized the opportunity to blast Fulford and others like him for suggesting that a hidden cabal moves its invisible hand to pull the puppet strings of world events.

Normally I would ignore this kind of raving from an obscure hack, but theres one reason I want to talk about it: the possibility that the Illuminati might let me join, a wide-eyed Colbert maniacally said into the camera, prompting the audience to erupt with laughter  watch below:

Masters of the temple: please let me in! I tried every crazy handshake I can think of when I met President Bush, Colbert continued to mock. You would not believe what Im doing with my fingers here. And Ive got some great ideas about depopulating the earth. There has never been a better time to put me in charge of the destiny of mankind.

Colbert went on to mock the globalists constant use of Illuminati symbolism in public, using a popular piece of infrastructure in New York City to complete his hilarious bit.

I will await your answer every night for the next month in the exact center of the Brooklyn Bridge  whose cables, by the way, are in the same geometric ratio as the sides of the Pyramid of Giza, Colbert said to loud hyena-like guffaws from the audience.

What other kinds of truths are hiding in plain sight?

This is the same Stephen Colbert whose show co-writer, Ariel Dumas, celebrated the character assassination of then-Supreme Court hopeful Brett Kavanaugh, who as you may recall was accused by Christine Blasey-Ford of impropriety back in high school.

Dumas had tweeted, then deleted, that whatever happens, Im just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaughs life.

Colbert also praised Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines, despite having caught the alleged virus multiple times despite being fully jabbed.

On Twitter, Colbert told his fans earlier this year that he is grateful to be vaxxed and boosted, even though these injections apparently did nothing to stop him from testing positive for the Fauci Flu, not once but twice.

There was also that time when Colbert took aim at Big Pharma, exposing the statin drug racket as a money-making scam. The truth has come out multiple times in his comedy routines, in other words  and some would argue that it happens on Colberts show more than in the actual news because once again, they like to hide the truth in plain sight, but in unlikely places such as comedy.

Bill Gates went on Colberts show a couple years ago and told him that the covid vaccine would be the final solution,' added one of our readers to the conversation. Colbert was quick to suggest that Gates rephrase that or else the conspiracy theorists would have a field day with that comment.

More of the latest news about end times mockery can be found at Lunatics.news.

Sources for this article include:

Brighteon.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) It seems to have slipped through the news cycle with very little attention but in mid-2020, Elon Musks Tesla empire partnered with Germany pharmaceutical company CureVac to help develop Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines for Operation Warp Speed.

A July 2 article published in Reuters at the time highlighted that Tesla Inc. was busy building mobile molecule printers to create Fauci Flu shots on the fly. This supports speculation that covid injections were cooked up over a weekend as opposed to over multiple years like all other vaccines.

CureVac, which is not publicly traded in Germany, had said it was developing portable, automated mRNA production units that Musk himself described as RNA microfactories.

They are being designed to be shipped to remote locations, where they can churn out its vaccine candidate and other mRNA-based therapies depending on the recipe fed into the machine, Reuters revealed. (Related: Remember when Elon Musk announced that he was giving his newborn child a gender neutral space alien name?)

CureVac is backed by Bill Gates; Musk is just another globalist

CureVac was eagerly awaiting approval as a chosen jab candidate, which never happened  but it is not for lack of trying.

The company, with Musks help, was ready and waiting to start churning out hundreds of millions of printed covid shots at sites all across Germany.

In case you are unfamiliar with CureVac, the Tuebingen-based company is heavily backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company is referred to as the pioneer of the mRNA approach to vaccination, which we now know was also used by BioNTech, Pfizer, and Moderna.

RNA molecules are single-stranded, and thanks to their recurring molecular pattern, they can be produced in a relatively simple biochemical process that do not require genetically modified living cells, which are needed to produce most other biotech drugs, Reuters explained.

Had things gone as planned for CureVac, the company would have also developed a stationary site capable of outputting billions of doses of mRNA covid injections, all with the help of Tesla Grohmann Automation in Germany.

Musk tweeted about this at the time, indicating that his company would be helping to produce microfactories for CureVac to start churning out covid injections for Operation Warp Speed.

Musk did not say much beyond this as to the nature of what else Tesla was providing to CureVac to make jab production an instantaneous thing similar to 3D-printing an object on-demand.

A few months prior to all this, Musk had announced on Twitter that Tesla had extra FDA-approved ventilators that could be shipped for free to hospitals located within regions where the companys electric cars are delivered.

In a nutshell, Musk is hardly the freedom-loving system disruptor that he portrays himself as, and that too many conservatives have been fooled into believing he is. Musk is just another billionaire grifter who would not even be where he is if not for the massive taxpayer-funded subsidies that have been funneled into keeping his EV empire and other pie-in-the-sky endeavors afloat all this time.

O, God: Please let Musks companies and projects fail until he repents and acknowledges your authority, wrote a commenter at Natural News.

What if Musk actually is a space alien? asked another, half-joking and half-serious.

The insane monster got rich off government subsidies, added another about how Musk would not be a billionaire without taxpayer funding.

This fella is associated with our national security agencies, too, isnt he? asked another about who Musk really is behind the curtain.

More of the latest news about Elon Musk and other billionaire technocrats like him can be found at Technocrats.news.

Sources for this article include:

Reuters.com

NaturalNews.com

Science.org
(Natural News) Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently confirmed that some corrupt employees of the Big Tech company sold verified badges (the blue check mark beside usernames) for upwards of $15,000. He also confirmed that the social media firm had been unfair in issuing these badges.

The revelation first came to light after a tweet from the @WSBChairman account, who exposed the practice. The user wrote: Twitter employees were selling verification for upwards of $15,000. For certain accounts, mine included, they would refuse to verify you through the standard application.

Musk replied in the affirmative, tweeting a simple yup to the user. His reply also appeared to agree with @WSBChairmans calls to investigate the internal practice.

According to Twitters guidelines, users who wish to receive the verified badge must fulfill three categories  authentic, notable and active  before applying for it.

Twitter does not sell the blue verification badge. A Twitter employee will never request financial compensation in exchange for a badge, or as part of the application process. Twitter does not authorize any external agents or individuals to sell verification on the platform, the guidelines stated.

Individuals offering to buy or sell Verification are subject to loss of Verified status and permanent suspension from the platform.

Aside from @WSBChairman, who represents the WallStreetBets community on Reddit, Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano remains unverified. Mastriano, who is the Republican nominee for the Keystone States governor, does not have the blue check badge despite his account qualifying for the three categories.

Twitter refuses to verify official Pennsylvania candidate for governor Doug Mastriano just one week out from the election, tweeted conservative commentator Jack Posobiec. He pointed out that Mastrianos Democratic rival, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has had the verified badge for years.

This appears to be blatant electioneering and platform favoritism, Posobiec concluded.

Musk proposes verified badge for $7.99/monthly with extra perks

It is worth noting that the $15,000 charge for verified badges happened before Musk took over the company. Prior to his entry as Twitter CEO, the practice had occurred right under the nose of Musks predecessor Parag Agrawal. The Chief Twit terminated Agrawal and other Twitter bigwigs on Oct. 27. (Related: HIT THE ROAD: Musk fires top Twitter execs on his first day at the helm of tech giant.)

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX then put in place the Twitter Blue program, which allows users to keep or obtain a verification badge for a monthly fee of $7.99. Aside from this, Twitter Blue subscribers can also edit their tweets and see fewer ads while they use the platform. Musk reiterated that Twitter will still be free for all users.

The expose about Twitters biases toward verified badges came amid a heated exchange between Musk and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on the platform.

The progressive lawmaker tweeted in condemnation of Musks Twitter blue program. [Laughing my a** out] at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that free speech is actually [an] $8/month subscription plan, she wrote.

Musk retorted hours later, telling Ocasio-Cortez: Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8. He even posted the price of a simple purple sweatshirt sold at the Democrats online shop  that costs $58.

The New York congresswoman later tweeted: One guys 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.

Ocasio-Cortez subsequently accused Musk of shadow-banning her from the platform.

My twitter mentions/notifications conveniently arent working tonight, so I was informed via text that I seem to have gotten under a certain billionaires skin. Just a reminder that money will never buy your way out of insecurity, folks.

Head over to BigTech.news for more stories about Twitter.

Watch this G News report about Elon Musk planning to charge verified Twitter users on a monthly basis.

This video is from the Chinese taking down EVIL CCP channel on Brighteon.com.

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(Natural News) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently claimed that Russia already destroyed about 40 percent of Ukraines energy infrastructure in 16 regions. As a result, the country is now grappling with power interruptions as winter approaches.

A barrage of Russian cruise missiles and drone strikes hit Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities on October 31. The most recent assault knocked out water and power supplies in apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea fleet. (Related: Much of Kiev without power and water following latest round of missile strikes from Russia.)

In a meeting with European Union Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, Zelensky said that the damaged infrastructure includes thermal power plants, combined heat and power plants and hydroelectric power plants. He also said during his recent nightly address that Russias targeting of energy infrastructure was a sign of weakness as Russian forces fail to make much ground on the frontline.

The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy, he claimed. They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way.

Rolling blackouts started to increase as Kyiv scrambles to stabilize the power grid and repair the assaulted system before winter comes. The power rationing added anger and fear to the Ukrainians who have been suffering for nearly nine months of war.

When youre relying on electricity, the worst thing is that you cant plan. Psychologically its very uncomfortable, Yaroslav Vedmid, a 44-year-old business owner in Bilohorodka said, adding that blackouts are getting longer each day.

Energy companies have been publishing daily interruption schedules to at least allow the citizens to plan ahead.

Unfortunately, the destruction and damage are serious, Kyiv region Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said in a social media post. It is necessary to prepare for emergency power outages for an indefinite period.

In the nations capital city, residents are prepping for the cold weather  stocking up on heaters, blankets, warm clothing and power banks.

Energy security expert: Cities near the front lines will suffer the most

The Associated Press (AP) visited Vedmid in October in the middle of an unscheduled five-hour power outage. A scheduled blackout followed during dinner time.

Every time the power shuts off, the family loses internet service. Because the village also has a weak phone network, the household is often unable to communicate with others.

During the interview, Vedmid told the media outlet that what concerns him most are the months ahead when temperatures could drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four degrees Fahrenheit) because it influences our comfort.

The businessman already ordered a generator to be installed by December. But not all Ukrainians can afford to buy one or the fuel to run it as diesel has doubled in price since the start of the war, a local said.

The main danger is repeated missile attacks, said Gennadii Riabtsev, chief researcher on energy security at the National Institute for Strategic Studies. He added that residents of cities near the front lines, such as Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, will suffer the most from the outages.

Meanwhile, residents near the front lines are getting ready if ever things get worse or worst. Mariia Chupinina, who fosters orphaned children, lives on the fifth floor of an apartment building and takes care of four babies who are less than 12 months old.

When theres no electricity, its impossible to heat the apartment and every time they leave, they have to walk down five flights of stairs in the dark, she told AP during a phone call. If you have not prepared, you dont have time to fill the Thermos and theres no warm water or formula.

Moreover, the nations main energy company DTEK said it already ran out of equipment for repairs and the cost of the equipment runs into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Visit EnergySupply.news for more news related to the energy crisis in Ukraine brought about by the ongoing war.

Watch the below video that talks about the blackouts in regions where power stations were attacked by Moscow.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Ukrainian government tells citizens to conserve electricity after Russia strikes power infrastructure.

Russia, Ukraine accuse each other of plotting false flag events that will cause mass casualties.

Russian defense minister warns situation in Ukraine trending towards uncontrolled escalation.

Russia could target American commercial satellites if US continues to use them to aid Ukraine.

Sources include:

APNews.com

Axios.com

President.gov.ua

BBC.com

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(Natural News) Everyone who can think independently and look at evidence knows that the Dinesh DSouza-produced documentary 2,000 Mules proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Donald Trumps 2020 reelection was stolen from him.

As Revolver News reported on Nov. 4, 2020, in the early morning hours after Election Day, Trump was up by substantial numbers of votes in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all states he won four years earlier, only to lose them by the end of the week after Democrats flooded deep-blue districts (like Philadelphia and Detroit, where Democrats own the political machines) with phony ballots.

Pennsylvania, in particular, is a hot mess. There, Trump was up by a walloping 700,000 votes on the night of Nov. 3, but wound up losing to Joe Biden by thousands of votes four days later, because it took so long to count the ballots. In actuality, readers may recall that Democratic strongholds in battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, shut down counting in the early morning hours, pledging to resume operations the next morning. That was unprecedented.

Worse, the report noted, many of the changes in election procedures were implemented by judges and secretaries of state and were in direct violation of existing state laws regarding the governing and handling of elections passed by the legislatures. Only, none of that mattered because not a single federal court or the U.S. Supreme Court would hear lawsuits brought by Trumps campaign alleging that the changes made in the months and weeks before the election were illegal.

Now, it appears that 2022 may not be any different than 2020.

Two years have passed. The first major post-2020, post-Covid election is upon us. What happens on Tuesday will be the trial run for what happens in 2024, Revolver News noted in a separate report published on Monday. The watchword for Tuesday night isnt Stop the Steal. It is Expect the Steal And Be Ready.

The report continued:

Consider Pennsylvania, with its crucial Senate contest between Mehmet Oz and The Creature Who Answers to the Name John Fetterman. Two years ago, Pennsylvanias election process probably featured more red flags than any other closely contested state. The state took a whole week to count its votes, with Biden only overtaking Trumps large election-night lead on Friday morning.

Pennsylvania let votes count even if they arrived after Election Day, even if they had no postmark, and even if they didnt have a matching signature. Twenty Pennsylvania counties used millions of dollars donated by Mark Zuckerberg to finance their election activities, including the famous unsupervised Zuckerboxes, which made it virtually impossible to enforce the states relatively strict limits on ballot harvesting. When Trump supporters tried to independently monitor drop boxes, state attorney general Josh Shapiro (now running for governor) threatened them with prosecution.

So, what are things like two years later? Pennsylvanias Republican legislature passed bills to ensure signature verification and photo ID, and to ensure proper poll-watching but Democratic governor Tom Wolf vetoed those bills. So in Pennsylvania this cycle, things are substantially like they were two years ago. And, yep, the state is even warning that its going to take a long time to count ballots again. So, unless Mehmet Oz absolutely buries Fetterman, how much confidence should we have in a perfectly aboveboard election in the Keystone State?

Fortunately, Revolver News reported, not all states are in such bad shape. Others led by Republican legislatures and governors like Georgia and Arizona made substantial improvements to voter integrity, including passing legislation that preempted Democratic attempts to implement changes to existing law like adding scores of unmonitored drop boxes.

Arizona banned same-day voter registration (just a precaution, as it wasnt in use before), created a new tracking system for early ballots, and passed new requirements to present photo ID when dropping off an early ballot. Georgia passed a law sharply restricting the use of ballot drop-off boxes, to prevent the fiasco of entirely unmonitored 24/7 boxes used in 2020. Georgia also banned Brad Raffenspergers stunt of sending an absentee ballot to all voters in the mail, and finally required the use of ID for absentee voting as well as in-person, the report said.

Thats the good news. The bad news is that several other battleground states have GOP legislatures but Democratic governors who blocked voter integrity efforts.

And now we have the White House claiming itll take days to count ballots in some states as if thats perfectly normal. It isnt.

Sources include:

CharlieKirk.com

Revolver.news
(Natural News) Southern Californias Orange County Health Department this month declared a local health emergency over concerns around the rising number of pediatric cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

(Article by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

County officials also declared a Proclamation of Local Emergency, allowing them to access state and federal resources in response to the spread of RSV.

The news came amid media warnings of a looming tripledemic of RSV, influenza and COVID-19 and news that Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are close to securing regulatory approval for their RSV vaccine candidates  including Pfizers RSV vaccine for pregnant women.

RSV was first identified in 1956, and frequently affects children, with a majority of childhood cases occurring before age 2. For most children, symptoms are similar to those of the common cold, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It can, however, cause serious symptoms in the very young and the elderly, although childhood deaths are infrequent, according to CDC data.

According to California attorney Rita Barnett-Rose, theres no evidence to support claims that Orange County hospitals are overextended, or to justify a state of emergency.

In an interview with The Defender, Barnett-Rose drew parallels between Orange Countys emergency declaration for RSV and other state, local and federal emergency declarations for COVID-19:

One of the other alarming things that happened with COVID is when [Gov. Gavin] Newsom declared the state of emergency in COVID. He also waived the 30 and 60-day review periods for all local governing boards. So, yeah, so thats what everyone is concerned about, this perpetual state of emergency. And the other thing that it triggers is it asks, once they declare a state of emergency, aside from getting the funding, it also triggers a request to Governor Newsom to declare a statewide state of emergency and then also to have Newsom ask President Biden to declare a national state of emergency.

That could lead to Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of RSV vaccines, according to Barnett-Rose, who told The Defender there may be an avenue to challenge the legality of the latest Orange County emergency declaration.

While influenza, RSV and COVID-19 can be problematic and dangerous for certain high-risk individuals, the overall risks associated with them are negligible for most  but fear sells and for Big Pharma, it sells more vaccines.https://t.co/RHSLUSxbPt  Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 8, 2022

Is pharma using COVID playbook to push RSV vaccines?

Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange Countys health officer, said in a press release county officials issued the declaration due to rapidly spreading virus infections causing record numbers of pediatric hospitalizations and daily emergency room visits.

The declaration will allow the county to access state and federal resources and to allow non-pediatric hospitals to offer beds to sick children, Chinsio-Kwong said.

Childrens Health Defense (CHD) California Chapter notes that this declaration was unanimously ratified over the objections by members of the public who showed up to speak against the declarations.

Dr. Melaine Patterson, chief nursing officer for Childrens Health Orange County, said area hospitals are seeing an unprecedented volume of children visiting their emergency rooms  approximately 400 per day, with wait times of four to 12 hours.

She also said that, as of Nov. 1, there were 285 patients in her hospital, compared to 188 on that date last year, adding that 11 of those current patients were placed in ICU as a result of RSV infections. RSV cases also are on the rise nationally.

Chinsio-Kwong advised the public to remain up to date with other vaccinations such as flu and COVID-19 to reduce the burden on hospitals this fall and winter.

Our best shot at protecting ourselves and our children from respiratory illnesses continues to be the same things we practiced throughout the pandemic including the use of masks when indoors around others and staying home when you are sick, Chinsio-Kwong said.

However, Barnett-Rose said hospitals in Orange County may be overextended not due to an unusually high number of admissions, but due to unvaccinated staff having been let go.

She told The Defender:

I do think that has a big role in it, and a lot of people pointed that out during the hearings and public comments were made about that. They were trying to claim  there were not enough pediatric experts or pediatric-trained doctors and medical professionals, so they needed to go outside of the county. And I do think a big part of that is that they did let go of many pediatric nurses and pediatric physicians that refused to take the vaccines. So I do think that this is a crisis of their own making  if there is even a crisis.

San Diego County also issued a warning to its residents Nov. 4 over rising RSV cases but stopped short of declaring an emergency.

CHD California questioned why Orange County would declare a Local Health Emergency now  even though local COVID-19 states of emergency havent been lifted.

Despite claims that the purpose of these new declarations is exclusively meant to help county hospitals, CHD California said, the language of the emergency Resolutions says something else entirely:

Both the Resolution to ratify the Local Health Emergency under Health & Safety Code section 101080 and the Proclamation of a Local Emergency under Government Code section 8630 declare the need for these local emergencies not only based on the asserted need to handle allegedly rising cases of RSV  but also because of other unnamed other respiratory illnesses that were not discussed during the special meeting or otherwise disclosed to the public.

Barnett-Rose provided insights into the legal meaning underlying these declarations. She told The Defender:

Theres a local health emergency, which is declared by the public health officer as opposed to the [county] board  and that is when the health officer says  Ive been talking to the hospitals and weve done some assessments and theres an increasing rate of respiratory illnesses and the childrens hospitals, and so, because of this, I am asking to declare a local health emergency.  But her authority to declare a local health emergency only lasts for seven days unless its ratified by our board of supervisors. And so, on Nov. 2, our board ratified that, which means now its in place and it needs to be renewed or looked at every 30 days, unless Governor Newsom waives that condition.

CHD California argued that the overly broad language used in these emergency declarations should be deeply concerning to anyone wary of a repeat of the public health measures ordered under COVID-19, noting that adding the vague statement referring to other respiratory viruses creates plenty of room for further abuse.

Barnett-Rose told The Defender that, during the Nov. 2 meeting, Chinsio-Kwong said, No restrictions are currently [emphasis added] in place, a statement that caused  a little bit of an uproar during the hearing because of her wording, which suggests that indeed they may end up rolling out mask mandates or some other mandates.

Under this type of slippery language, argued CHD California, even the common cold could be used to issue an emergency declaration.

Barnett-Rose agreed:

How do you measure that? How do you dispute it? How do you examine it? How do you end it? If youre going by one infectious disease, at least you can try to find some data on hospitalizations or cases or deaths or ICU beds. But when its everything, it can still include COVID, flu, cold, COPD, a whole bunch of things that would qualify as respiratory illnesses.

Barnett-Rose said that attempts will be made to legally challenge these declarations as overbroad, noting, however, that while case law precedent exists to challenge overbroad legislation, there is no such precedent in place for states of emergency.

Barnett-Rose shes looking into whether theres some way to litigate against these broad states of emergency.

When statutes are overbroad, she said, sometimes you can challenge them for being overly broad or too vague, but shes not sure if theres a similar precedent for challenging an overly broad state of emergency.

Declaring a local state of emergency at the county level could trigger a chain of events leading all the way to a national declaration of emergency, according to CHD California:

By ratifying and/or declaring these local emergencies, the Board has now triggered an official request to Governor Newsom that he also declare a state-wide state of emergency on the same overly broad basis  and to ask the President of the United States to declare a national state of emergency.

A nationally declared state of emergency may trigger all of the same measures that have already deeply divided our country: masks on airplanes, business and school closures, and coercive school and employee mandates for experimental vaccines offered as the only solution back to Freedom, CHD California argued.

Barnett-Rose said the emergency declaration in Orange County may be tied to the fact that there are multiple RSV vaccines already in the pipeline:

The reason this is becoming really huge news is because this is what happened with the COVID state of emergency, too, it kind of went like that in dominoes. Once Biden declares a national state of emergency, then that triggers all of the emergency use authorizations that allowed the so-called vaccines for COVID. And Im sure you already know that theres vaccines in the works now for RSV that theyre floating out there in the news as well.

Recounting events that occurred in relation to COVID-19, Barnett-Rose told The Defender that Orange County and some other counties in California declared a state of emergency, then it went to the state, then it went national, and then, of course, once theres a national emergency, you can go into Iowa.

So I do think that this is very suspicious timing, the articles that we are seeing in the news about being close to this RSV vaccine, Barnett-Rose said. And so, I do think that theyre trying to repeat the same playbook.

Up to 30 RSV vaccine candidates already in pipeline

Pharmaceutical industry publication FiercePharma reported that Pfizer and GSK moved closer to regulatory approvals in the past week, and could each see the first-ever approvals for an RSV vaccine in 2023.

GSKs candidate will be reviewed May 3, 2023, while Pfizer is eyeing an approval filing by year-end.

In all, up to 30 RSV candidate vaccines have been identified by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

GSK has secured priority review status for its RSV vaccine following the submission of data from its AReSVi-006 phase 3 trial. The candidate vaccine exclusively targets adults 60 and older, and the data reportedly showed high overall vaccine efficacy against RSV lower respiratory disease at a rate of 82.6%, Fierce Biotech reported.

GSK initially intended to develop an RSV vaccine for older adults and for infants, but plans for the latter were shelved due to a safety concern. Nevertheless, GSK CEO Emma Walmsley in a call last week with investors described GSKs new vaccine as a very significant scientific achievement.

Previous efforts to develop an RSV vaccine have failed because they had a persistent tendency to cause worse disease, due to a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).

Dr. Ruth Karron, a pediatrician and professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, The difference this year is the general public for the first time is probably eagerly awaiting an RSV vaccine, because theyre seeing firsthand just how much of a problem RSV can be, in a statement drawing a clear connection with the reported increase in RSV cases this year.

Pfizer announced Nov. 1 that its own candidate RSV vaccine wrapped up its phase 3 trial for efficacy early. Unlike GSKs candidate vaccine, Pfizers vaccine targets pregnant women. The vaccine is designed to be administered early in the third trimester with the intent that the vaccine-induced antibodies be passed from the mother to her newborn.

Pfizer, in its Nov. 1 announcement, claimed that its bivalent RSV prefusion vaccine candidate RSVpreF, also known as PF-06928316, delivered broadly positive results  namely, a significant reduction in the rate of respiratory illness in newborns and their mothers.

Pfizer claimed 81.8% efficacy against severe cases of RSV for babies up to three months, and 69.4% efficacy after six months.

Pfizers MATISSE (MATernal Immunization Study for Safety and Efficacy) trial involved 7,400 pregnant women and their newborns, tracking the infants for one year following birth, and some for two years. It was conducted in 18 countries beginning in June 2020.

Pfizers vaccine trial did not deliver statistically significant results regarding the prevention of infant medical visits caused by RSV, including for non-severe cases.

Nevertheless, Pfizer said there are no major safety concerns with its product, adding:

At the recommendation of the DMC [Data Monitoring Committee], and in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer has stopped enrollment in the study. Based on these positive results Pfizer plans to submit a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the FDA by the end of 2022 for the vaccine candidate followed by other regulatory authorities in the coming months.

Pfizers phase 3 trial data has not yet been vetted by independent experts, and has not been peer-reviewed or published.

On March 2, 2022, Pfizers candidate vaccine received a Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA, while previously, in November 2018, the FDA granted it Fast-Track status, according to the Pfizer release.

Pfizers investigational RSV vaccine candidate builds on foundational basic science discoveries including those made at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the vaccine maker said in its press release.

The NIH research in question also was key to the hugely successful COVID-19 vaccines, according to ABC 7 Los Angeles.

Others looking to develop an RSV vaccine include Moderna and AstraZeneca and Sanofi, in a joint initiative. Moderna received fast-track designation from the FDA on Aug. 3, 2021, for its mRNA-1345 RSV vaccine for older adults, while AstraZeneca and Sanofi are developing a viral vector RSV vaccine by the name of nirsevimab.

An August 2021 article in The Defender predicted that RSV would represent the new frontier for vaccine development, as pharmaceutical companies would be lured by the prospect of a large untapped global RSV vaccine market, leading to a vaccine development gold rush.

Media tout benefits, ignore safety concerns

Online news portal Vox described the development of new RSV vaccines as very, very good news in a recent article.

Coupled with media coverage about rising RSV cases nationwide, it appears the stage is being set to create an emergency in the public consciousness, which could lead to EUAs being granted to the new vaccines and a rush to get the public vaccinated.

Blogger James Roguski, however, called into question the results of the Pfizer phase 3 trial, raising many safety concerns that are indicated in the companys own data but were downplayed by Pfizer in its public proclamations. In a recent post, he wrote:

In the Phase II study, researchers found that women who received RSVpreF vaccine containing aluminum hydroxide had a higher incidence of local reactions than those who received RSVpreF vaccine without aluminum hydroxide. It seems like 1 of the 117 infants in the placebo group suffered fetal death and 6 infants in the vaccinated group are unaccounted for.

Roguski also highlighted the many adverse events that were recorded for both infants and pregnant mothers who participated in the study, none of which were recorded for the placebo group.

For infants, some of these adverse events included acute respiratory failure, bronchiolitis, cardiac murmur, chordee (bent penis), conjunctival hemorrhage, hypoglycemia, jaundice, low birth weight, neonatal hypoxia, neonatal respiratory failure, seizure, sepsis, upper respiratory tract infection and vascular malformation.

Pregnant women, in turn, experienced adverse events including fetal growth restriction, fetal tachycardia, gestational diabetes, nonreassuring fetal heart rate pattern, premature labor, premature separation of placenta, vaginal hemorrhage and thrombocytopenia.

For some, these safety concerns are conjuring up memories of previously failed attempts to develop an RSV vaccine.

A vaccine tested in 1966 led to the deaths of two toddlers as a result of enhanced disease symptoms, while many infants suffered worse symptoms than usual, and needed to be hospitalized.

As previously reported by The Defender, RSV itself originated in monkeys housed in a Maryland facility where they were used to conduct polio vaccine research. Remarking on this and the connection to RSV vaccine development today, Brian Hooker, CHDs chief scientific officer, told The Defender, It is incredible that the vaccine industry can create a disease  RSV from the polio vaccine  and then create another vaccine to prevent that disease. Talk about a business proposition!

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
(Natural News) Journalist Alex Newman said the globalists responsible for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic should be held accountable.

During his appearance on the Nov. 2 episode of ReFounding America on Brighteon.TV, Newman told program host Dr. Peter Breggin that the globalists used the pandemic as a pretext to enslave humanity, enrich themselves and destroy countless lives. He named the globalists responsible for these crimes, calling for their prosecution and punishment.

Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, hes a key player  but there are people much higher up the food chain than him. Bill Gates, a non-doctor, hed be a very good person to look at.

Newman, host of The Sentinel Report also on Brighteon.TV, added that the World Economic Forum and its Executive Director Klaus Schwab ought to be investigated, alongside those involved in the Event 201 exercise held in 2019. He also included those with the Rockefeller Foundation that issued a 2010 report detailing the lockstep scenario. (Related: Audio obtained from Event 201 launch announcement in 2019 reveals covid to be a WEF-sponsored war games simulation.)

We need to find out, for sure, where this came from, he said. Now, the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works just came out recently with a preliminary report saying that [SARS-CoV-2] almost certainly came out of a laboratory.

The Sentinel Report host expressed hope that in case the Republican Party wins the midterm elections, a select Congressional committee consisting of credible people with significant credentials whove worked in the medical field and have some understanding of the law will look into the pandemics origins. He added that all angles ought to be probed by competent criminal investigators and people who do not have any conflicts of interests.

I think we need state-level prosecutions as the federal government has shown that it is way too corrupt to handle these types of tasks, Newman said, zeroing in on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Newman: Today is no time for pandemic amnesty

Breggin mentioned the Atlantic magazine article by lockdown proponent Emily Oster that suggested a pandemic amnesty. In the piece, she urged Americans to put away all the terrible pandemic-era decisions over lockdowns, school closures and masking as well as public humiliation for those who disagreed  given that the country was in the dark about COVID-19.

Lets acknowledge that we made complicated choices in the face of deep uncertainty and then try to work together to build back and move forward, Oster appealed.

According to Newman, there is a time and place for amnesties such as following a countrys civil war to unite the nation once more and end hostilities. The pandemic, he remarked, is not one of them.

What were facing today is a group of vicious criminals who deprived over 100 million Americans of some of their most fundamental rights. If you dont think deciding whats going to be injected into your body is one of your most fundamental rights, I dont know what to tell you.

He also said that during the peak of the pandemic, these totalitarians were publicly shrieking on television that people shouldnt be allowed to go out of houses, should be placed in concentration camps and injected against their will.

When you actually mandate those things as government policy, thats not a difference of opinion, thats a crime. Its a very serious crime thats been established as you can go back to the Nuremberg trials.

Newman commented that if the government is trying to avoid something like the massive destruction of humanity, very, very serious accountability is needed.

If you got deceived, thats one thing, he said. But if you were high up enough to understand what was going on and you were deliberately infringing on the God-given rights of Americans, you need to be punished, you need to be held accountable and that will send a message to future generations that this type of lawlessness and this type of criminal behavior will be punished, and it will not be tolerated.

Visit Globalism.news for more about the globalists responsible for COVID-19.

Watch the full Nov. 2 episode of ReFounding America with Dr. Peter Breggin and Alex Newman below. Catch new episodes of the program every Wednesday at 6-7 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Evil WEF leader caught planning mass extinction event with inner circle.

WEFs Yuval Noah Harari believes the world does not need so many people.

Globalist narrative: UN, WEF both admit to tampering with Google search results and colluding with Big Tech to impose mass censorship.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

TheAtlantic.com
(Natural News) Days before Tuesdays midterm elections, Democrats and the Biden regime were put on notice: If Republicans win control of the House, the Senate, or both, the investigations will begin immediately after they formally take control in January.

Not only will Biden be a lame-duck president for the next two years, but members of his highly politicized Justice Department and FBI are going to be in the political crosshairs of GOP committee chairmen and chairwomen who are dead set on cleaning out the deep-seated corruption.

Late last week, Republicans dropped a meticulously documented 1,000-page report that explains how the FBI is rotted at its core, pursuing politically motivated cases while ignoring serious crimes, and either downplayed or ignored serious allegations of wrongdoing by presidential son Hunter Biden.

The report, FBI Whistleblowers: What Their Disclosures Indicate About the Politicization of the FBI And Justice Department, details a rampant culture of unaccountability, manipulation, and abuse at the highest level, says a summary.

The thousand-page report builds on various whistleblower disclosures describing the FBIs Washington hierarchy as rotted at its core with a systemic culture of unaccountability. The report also highlights how the FBI has weaponized the federal government against its political opponents, illustrates how FBI leadership shows a political bias against conservatives, and enumerates instances where senior officials have pressured agents to reclassify cases as domestic violent extremism to fit a political narrative, the summary continued.

This report is the first comprehensive accounting of the FBIs problems to date, which undermine the FBIs fundamental law-enforcement mission. The report primarily concerns FBI abuses, due to the experiences and roles of whistleblowers, but also examines the actions of the Justice Department where appropriate for context and explanation, the summary notes further, pointing out:

The FBI leadership abusing its law-enforcement authority for political reasons. The FBI artificially inflating and manipulating domestic violent extremism statistics for political purposes. The FBI downplaying and reducing the spread of the serious allegations of wrongdoing leveled against Hunter Biden. The Justice Department and FBI using counterterrorism resources to target parents resisting a far-left educational curriculum. The FBI abusing its foreign surveillance authorities. The Justice Department and FBI conducting an unprecedented raid on a former presidents home. The FBI stalking a Republican Congressman on a family vacation to seize his personal cell phone. 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. The FBI conducting an intelligence assessment of a conservative charity under the guise of investigating unrelated alleged crimes. The FBI purging employees who refuse to align themselves with the leaderships political ideology. The FBI helping Big Tech to censor Americans political speech.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken, an executive summary of the report begins.

The problem lies not with the majority of front-line agents who serve our country, but with the FBIs politicized bureaucracy. The problem lies, for example, with the FBI hierarchy that spied on President Trumps campaign and ridiculed conservative Americans. The problem lies with FBI bureaucrats who altered and mischaracterized evidence to federal courts, circumvented safeguards, and exploited weaknesses in policies governing investigations and informants to target politically disfavored subjects and to protect favored ones, the executive summary adds.

The problem lies with the FBI structure that centralizes high-profile cases in D.C., in the hands of politicized actors with politicized incentives. Quite simply, the problemthe rot within the FBIfesters in and proceeds from Washington, it says.

Whistleblowers describe how the FBI has abused its law-enforcement authorities for political purposes, and how actions by FBI leadership show a political bias against conservatives, it explains.

Mind you, no Republican-led Congress will get a Democrat-led Justice Department and FBI to turn police itself. But what this report and subsequent oversight investigations will do is lay the groundwork for a GOP president to take definitive action in 2024, especially if that president is Donald Trump.

Sources include:

Republicans.Judiciary.House.gov

DailyMail.co.uk
(Natural News) At least two fuel-related emergency declarations have been issued, one in Nebraska and the other in South Dakota.

The latters Kristi Noem, South Dakotas governor, issued an executive order (EO) providing truckers who haul liquid fuel products with relief from Hours of Service rules due to extremely low inventories and outages of certain liquid products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, ethyl alcohol, natural gasoline, diesel exhaust fluid, and anhydrous ammonia.

In Nebraska, Gov. Pete Ricketts issued a similar emergency declaration not long after providing relief from Hours of Service requirements for all truckers moving gasoline or gasoline blends, diesel, fuel oil, ethanol, propane, and biodiesel.

That announcement came with an explanation that several multiple states including Nebraska are experiencing fuel shortages due to high demand for petroleum products. (Related: One of Germanys solutions to the ongoing energy crisis is to burn Wuhan coronavirus [Covid-19] face masks for warmth.)

Both EOs stipulate that logistics carriers can no longer require fatigued drivers to operate their trucks against their will. Any driver who notifies a motor carrier that he or she needs immediate rest is to be granted at least 10 consecutive hours off-duty before being required to return to work.

Will the United States make it through the coming dark winter?

In case you missed it, diesel supplies are especially tight, specifically on the East Coast and in some parts of the south. A day before Gov. Noem issued the EO for South Dakota, Mansfield Energy issued a supply alert for diesel fuel markets on the East Coast due to rapidly devolving energy market conditions.

The company noted that markets are now seeing extremely high prices in the Northeast along with supply outages along the Southeast.

About a week prior to that, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the United States diesel fuel reserve only had a 25-day supply of diesel  meaning if all diesel production were to stop, which it has not, just to be clear, then 25 days later the country would run completely dry of diesel.

Since that time, the 25-day reserve window appears to still be in place, meaning enough diesel is being produced and delivered to where it needs to be to prevent that window from shrinking further. However, demand for diesel fuel and associated diesel products is sky-high, making this a really bad combination of factors.

The Biden White House has promised to continue monitoring fuel supplies while working in some unknown way to increase fuel reserves.

The latest claim from the corporate-controlled media is that the U.S. is just fine and will not run out of diesel in a few weeks. An Associated Press (AP) fact check determined that there will be enough diesel for the U.S. to make it through the impending dark winter.

When the inventory was in 35 days last year we didnt run out of diesel, said University of Houston lecturer Ed Hirs, likening the 25-day supply rhetoric for diesel to a grocery store that has so many weeks worth of milk in stock. In 25 days, were not running out of diesel.

Its gotten to uncomfortable territory, but as recently as 2019, that number did drop to 26.0 days, so basically just fractions from where it is now, added Patrick De Haan, a fuel analyst for GasBuddy. But again, that does not mean were going to run out.

Though low by historical standards, diesel supplies in the U.S. typically only average around 30 days to begin with, meaning we are just five days worth of diesel short of that average figure at the current time.

More news coverage about the ongoing energy crisis can be found at EnergySupply.news.

Sources for this article include:

CDLLife.com

NaturalNews.com

APNews.com
(Natural News) In 2014, a patent was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that outlines the future  which is now the present  of chemical and biological warfare.

Entitled Toxic mosquito aerial release system, the patent, which was issued as US8967029B1, outlines a system of spraying for biological, chemical, or other materials using unmanned aerial vehicle[s] operable by remote control.

It carries a container holding a central processing unit and a mosquito breeding bin, which is a self-contained volume housing mosquitoes and a mosquito food having a toxin suitable to be transmitted by mosquito bite after the mosquito consumes the mosquito food, the abstract further states.

A release tube is connected to the mosquito breeding bin and sized to release mosquitoes from the mosquito breeding bin. A valve is connected to the release tube and is operable by remote control so that when opened, the mosquitoes have an open pathway out of the container through the release tube.

If you read our piece from last week about the UFO-like drones that the Russian military recently spotted over Kherson and other parts of Ukraine, then you are already familiar with the technology. It would appear as though it is already in use after having been patented about eight years ago.

Based on the rest of what is outlined in the patent, the goal of the technology is to use unmanned drones to spray enemy soldiers with chemical and biological weapons as a means of warfare attack. The United States and NATO are apparently in the process of doing just that in Ukraine.

Throughout military history, the health of ones troops has always been an important determining factor, the patent ominously reads. 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.

Seeing as how making enemy troops sick is an important military objective, the patent goes on to reveal, one must then look at what means are available to get the pathogens, germs, and viruses to the enemy.

Is the globalist deep state planning to mass-depopulate the world using GMO mosquitos?

You might recall that billionaire eugenicist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates concocted plans years ago for genetically modified (GMO) mosquitos that would fly around poisoning people with vaccines while sucking their blood  a concept similar to that of the patent.

Tiny robotic devices that look and behave like mosquitos, we are told, can be deployed in large numbers on the battlefield  this includes the general public since the globalists see as all as dispensable cattle and enemies of the state  to poison and kill various targets.

Even with all of the sophisticated computer chips and microprocessors, all of these high-tech devices cannot come close to the miraculous technology of nature, the patent explains about how chemical- and biological weapons-equipped mosquitos can help accomplish the deep states genocidal goals.

Nature has a very highly technical device that can not only carry a sickness agent to the area where the enemy may be located, but these devices can seek out and find the enemy even if they are behind fortifications and are in hiding.

The patent further explains that these mosquito-infested unmanned aerial drones can be specifically programmed to go seek out an enemy for contamination with absolutely no warning, referring to mosquitos as an ultra high-tech device of nature.

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, it adds.

After discussing their use on the battlefield to commit what amounts to mass genocide, the patent goes on to also suggest that these GMO mosquitos can also be used in medicine to mass-vaccinate the public  including, presumably, anti-vaxxers who would otherwise be unwilling to roll up their sleeves voluntarily.

Since mosquitos seek out their targets and attack without notice or consent, they are the perfect delivery vehicle, the patent explains, for pharmaceutical drugs and whatever else the powers that be want to inject into their human cattle herds.

According to documentation, the patent application for this technology was filed by TMARS Associates Trustee for Toxic mosquito aerial release system CRT Trust. Its inventor is listed as S. Mill Calvert.

In connecting the dots, we find that outlawing of germ warfare research in the USA only caused this to be outsourced to other nations, wrote a commenter at Natural News. Ukraine alone had over 30 biolabs funded by the USA before the Russian invasion.

More related news coverage about the deep states advanced weaponry can be found at WeaponsTechnology.news.

Sources for this article include:

Patents.Google.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) An advocacy group in the United Kingdom has warned that pedophiles can use a loophole involving gender identity to conceal their criminal history when applying for certain jobs.

The September 2022 report issued by the womens rights group Keep Prisons Single Sex (KPSS) found that men who identify as women and vice versa can withhold their real names and birth sexes if they plan to apply for positions in schools, nurseries and hospitals. This loophole arose from a system set up by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which is attached to the British Home Office, that prevents employers from finding out the previous identities of transgender individuals. DBS encompasses both England and Wales, while Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own counterpart agencies.

The DBS check process contains safeguarding loopholes, which may be exploited by those wishing to cause harm to other children or vulnerable adults, the report stated. Identity verification is compromised, meaning that there is no guarantee that the information returned during the check and displayed on the [DBS] certificate will be accurate or complete.

The KPSS report also pointed out that these exceptional privacy rights allow an applicant who has changed gender to request that all their previous names be withheld from the DBS certificate that is issued. This right to conceal previous identities is not given to anyone else. Disclosing previous identities is a key component of safeguarding, and DBS certificates issued to all other individuals display all other names the applicant has used.

In essence, the current DBS system would be very much favorable to transgender criminals  as they can just simply lie about their real names and sex to avoid detection.

The current operation of the DBS regime means that identity verification is compromised, remarked KPSS. Organizations requesting DBS checks cannot have confidence in the information that is disclosed.

KPSS puts forward three solutions for the problem

To resolve the issue and close the loophole, KPSS proposed three potential solutions.

First, it recommended that National Insurance (NI) numbers be utilized for DBS checks and identity changes. The NI number is the British equivalent of the Social Security number used in the United States. According to the organization, Britons are issued their respective NI numbers just before their 16th birthday and carry these numbers throughout their lifetime.

NI numbers are  unique to each individual. They do not change should an individual change identity. When an individual obtains legal recognition of acquired gender and is issued with a gender recognition certificate, the individuals new details are recorded against their existing number.

Second, the group recommended that DBS certificates display individuals sex registered at birth. It explained that where legal gender or self-declared gender identity is displayed instead of sex registered at birth, there is a particular safeguarding risk when the DBS check has been requested for the purposes of [providing] single-sex services. (Related: UK equality commission: Transgenders CAN BE DENIED access to single-sex spaces.)

As a general principle, when working with children or vulnerable adults, there will always be sex-based safeguarding considerations even if Schedule 9 [of the Equality Act 2010] is not formally invoked.

Lastly, KPSS recommended that the DBS certificates display other names used for all individuals because those who are responsible for safeguarding need to know these when applicants seek to work with children and vulnerable adults. In spite of possible privacy issues that may arise, the group defended this recommendation.

By enabling those who have changed their gender to keep their previous identities secret from those responsible for safeguarding, the DBS has created a loophole that is ripe for exploitation.

Watch InfoWars founder Alex Jones discuss the issue of British lawmakers kidnapping children for a pedophile network below.

This video is from the Citizens Dawn channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Transgender mob howls at men only campground for homosexuals.

UK cops arrest, raid home of DISABLED womens rights activist for being anti-transgender.

Insane wokeness: British hospital said female patient could not possibly have been raped because attacker was transgender.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

KPSSInfo.org [PDF]

Brighteon.com
Horse dwarfism results from a disturbance of the structural mechanisms in ligament and/or bone development.

Although it could happen in any horse breed, it is most common in miniature horses, Shetland ponies, and Friesians. Mustangs and donkeys have also been reported to have it.

Pumuckel the pony, the world's tiniest horse

According to owner Carola Weidemann, Pumuckel, a Shetland pony used for art therapy, is about to shatter the record for the tiniest pony in the world while visiting German kindergarteners and nursing homes, as per USA Today.

According to the outlet, Pumuckel is a cute three-year-old pony that resides in western Germany. He is quite adorable, according to Weidemann, and he stands on strong hooves that are about 20 inches tall.

Although Pumuckel is nearly 2 inches shorter than the current record-holder Bombel, a small Appaloosa horse born with dwarfism, Guinness World Records informed Weidemann in an email that horses younger than four are not eligible for the title. Weidemann claimed via the source that she will attempt again the following year.

Genetic Alterations Responsible for Horse Dwarfism

Genetic growth-related mutations cause dwarfism. On equine chromosome 6, the wither height geneHMGA2 has been related to proportionate dwarfism, as per The Horse.

Agroscope in Avenches and University of Bern geneticist Mirjam Frischknecht, Ph.D., made the finding of the gene's relationship to wither height in ponies in 2015.

According to John Eberth, MS, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center in Lexington, mutations or deletions in the Aggrecan (ACAN) gene on equine chromosome 1 appears to also be directly associated with disproportionate dwarfism in these animals.

His research has identified two deletions and two nucleotide alterations in the gene that, if both parents carried the mutation, would cause dwarfism.

According to him, each mutation causes a somewhat distinct type of dwarfism. However, some people end up with a combination of dwarfism traits because they have over one type of mutation.

Read More: Amazing Tiny Horse: Cute Steed Suffers From Dwarfism

Health Risk of Horses with Dwarfism

All recognized dwarf horse kinds are disproportional, which means that only specific aspects of their bodies, such as their heads and tails, are proportionate to the rest of their bodies. their limbs are shrunken.

Dwarfs can experience a variety of health issues, including metabolic, digestive, and respiratory ailments, as well as secondary conditions that are typically brought on by their structural deformities.

Based on their physical traits, four different kinds of horse dwarfism have been identified. However, there are many overlaps and some dwarf horses that are challenging to classify into any kind, as per The Horse Back.

The most typical type of dwarfism is achondroplasia. Horses with the condition have short limbs and a regular trunk, albeit they frequently have an extended back.

Brachycephalic dwarfs are characterized by a protruding forehead, a short, flat nasal bridge, excessively big eyes, and nostrils that are elevated above the average.

Diastrophic dwarfs can also have various limb abnormalities, twisted limbs, a domed head, a roached back, and a pot belly, among other traits.

The most severe form of dwarfism, hypochondrogenesis, is characterized by a complete lack of ossification of the bones. Normally, affected fetuses are terminated before birth.

Related Article: Horse Hair Reveals Hidden Clues of Behavior, Ecology
In India, several pubs were visited by a macaque rhesus monkey who was on a drinking spree. Scientists claim that this is not the first instance of monkeys being observed drinking.

The ape has been observed stealing and downing alcohol bottles in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, the monkey has stolen bottles from both locals and shops.

The Rhesus macaque monkey is indigenous to India and is found there in large numbers. The monkey-human conflict has gotten worse in recent years as populations have grown.

93% of the DNA between macaque monkeys and people.

Anurag Mishra shared a video of a monkey consuming beer from a can on Twitter.

Alcoholic Macaque Monkeys

Anindya Sinha, a primatologist as well as a professor from the National Institute of Advanced Studies in India, said that alcohol consumption by macaques has been documented previously.

Sinha said that it has also been shown in the lab that macaques can consume alcohol chronically over extended periods. Additionally, there are some credible, though unpublished, reports of rhesus and bonnet macaques from northern and southern India, respectively, consuming alcohol on occasion, if they had the opportunity to do so from sources that were unintentionally made available to them.

The actions of the monkey have had a particularly negative impact on a store owner who operates a liquor store in the neighborhood. The shopkeeper claimed that if people try to shoo the monkey away, it will bite.

The news outlet was informed by other store owners in the area that they had reported the issue to the authorities but that nothing had been done as of yet.

According to NDTV, district officers and the Forest Department are searching for the monkey.

Read also: Marvin Gaye's Classic Hits Serenade Barbary Macaque Monkeys Ahead of Valentine's Day

Monkeys Enjoy

However, Iqbal Malik, a primatologist, told Newsweek that typically, none of these circumstances arise on their own. Malik claimed that she was shocked to see monkeys seated outside a liquor store in the middle of the city. She learned that people are the ones who start giving monkeys their drinks. The monkeys soon begin to enjoy it. They experience a slightly high, but nothing harmful.

Malik claimed that she had previously investigated whether monkeys favor eating human food. The monkeys typically only consume plants and sporadically insects.

After a sniff, she discovered that the monkeys rejected non-vegetarian patties. They appear to be enjoying their drink, though.

According to Discover Wildlife, chimpanzees are reputed to raid villager-brewed palm wine inventories, and Caribbean vervet monkeys are notorious for robbing bars of their liquor.

Macaques

According to National Geographic, Rhesus macaque monkeys are familiar brown primates that have red faces and rears. Their faces are extremely expressive, which is emphasized by the close-cropped hair on their heads.

When resources are scarce, macaque monkeys can be problematic for people. Monkeys may stray into towns in search of water and food as their habitat gets smaller.

In the past, monkeys have also shown aggressive tendencies toward young people, but this typically only happens when they are provoked or under stress, Newsweek reports.

Related article: Macaques in Yamaguchi Form Aggressive Monkey Gang Responsible for Over 50 Attacks


Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to hit the Eastern United States by initially making landfall in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane in the early morning (local time) of Thursday, November 10.

Afterward, potential Hurricane Nicole will traverse the US East Coast and even reach the Northeast US, bringing possible heavy rain, flash flooding, and damaging winds.

US weather authorities have issued a hurricane warning, and the storm has already triggered evacuation orders in Florida since it has strengthened in the past several hours.

Same evacuation measures are possible in other eastern states.

Based on previous weather forecasts, Nicole could generate coastal flooding or erosion along Florida coasts, as well as damage power lines and cause massive flooding.

In addition, disruption of travel, including road public transport, train services, and flights are possible prior to Nicole's imminent landfall in the Sunshine State.

Infrastructural damage affecting roads, commercial buildings, and residential homes are also some of the potential impacts of the storm should it become a hurricane.

Regardless, it can still affect US communities still affected by recent storms.

The looming threat in Florida and its surrounding regions comes more than a month after Hurricane Ian made landfall in the state in late September, causing widespread disruption and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Multiple reports show at least 100 people died and a number of structures were destroyed when Ian wreaked havoc for several days, even reaching other states in the East Coast.

Hurricane Warning

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) states thousands of Floridians are under evacuation orders due to a strengthening Tropical Storm Nicole, which is currently northeast of the Bahamas and 420 miles east of Melbourne Beach, Florida.

With this, the NHC issued hurricane warnings from the Volusia-Flagler county line and south to Boca Raton, as cited by the Orlando Sentinel.

In the late weather developments, other reports suggested an earlier landfall for potential Hurricane Nicole.

According to ABC News, the storm is set to make landfall overnight from Wednesday, November 9, into Thursday in an area between Fort Pierce and Melbourne.

At least 14 Florida school districts, including Orange and Palm Beach counties, are closing its schools on Wednesday and Thursday.

During the hurricane alert, the lingering storm can also disrupt the election week in Florida where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is seeking another term against Democratic candidate Charlie Crist and Representative Val Demings.

Also Read: Hurricane Ian to Unleash Heavy Rains in Florida As It Quickly Intensifies

The Hurricane State

Florida is one of the states in the country that serves as a frontline for approaching storms or hurricanes from the central-northern Atlantic Ocean, as well as those passing through the north Caribbean Sea and eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Since the year 1850, all of Florida's coastal areas have been impacted by at least one hurricane, according to the Florida Climate Center.

With its wide-stretched coastline and location, the state frequently finds itself in the path of destructive storms.

In particular, Southeast Florida is extremely vulnerable to a land-falling hurricane, followed by the Florida panhandle, the center added.

Related Article: Hurricane Ian Aftermath: Floodwaters in Some Parts of Florida yet to Recede
Indigenous communities in the American Southwest have been importing colorful parrots from Mexico for centuries.

However, according to a recent study, some parrots may have been captured locally rather than transported from afar.

The study calls into question the widely held belief that all parrot remains discovered in American Southwest archaeological sites originated in Mexico.

It also serves as a timely reminder that the ecology of the past can be quite different from what we see today.

Old bone links lost American parrot to ancient Indigenous bird trade

When dealing with natural history, we can limit ourselves by relying too heavily on the present, according to the study's author, John Moretti, a doctoral candidate at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, as per ScienceDaily.

"These bones can give us kind of a baseline view of the animal life of the ecosystems that surrounded us before huge major changes that continue to this day," Moretti said.

The study was published in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology's September issue.

Parrot remains have been discovered in elaborate graves and buried in trash heaps in southwestern archaeological sites dating back to the 7th or 8th centuries.

However, no matter the condition, when archaeologists discovered parrot bones, they usually assumed the animals were imports, said Moretti.

There's a reason for this. Scarlet macaws, the most common parrot found in archaeological sites, live in rainforests and savannahs that do not exist in the local landscape.

In addition, researchers discovered the remains of ancient parrot breeding facilities in Mexico, indicating a thriving parrot trade.

However, parrots are more than just macaws. Moretti discovered a single ankle bone from a species known as the thick-billed parrot in 2018.

It was discovered as part of an unsorted bone collection during an archaeological dig in New Mexico in the 1950s.

Because of habitat loss and hunting, thick-billed parrots are an endangered species that no longer exists in the United States.

But this was not the case even a short time ago. Their range used to extend from Arizona and New Mexico to northern Mexico, where they now live.

The boisterous, lime-green birds are also picky about their surroundings. They only live in mountainous old-growth pine forests, where they nest in tree hollows and eat pine cones almost exclusively.

Moretti decided to look into the link between pine forests in New Mexico and Arizona and the remains of thick-billed parrots discovered at archaeological sites.

He discovered that all of the buildings at the ten archaeological sites with positively identified thick-billed parrot remains were made of pine timber, with one settlement requiring an estimated 50,000 trees. And suitable pine forests were within seven miles of the settlement for half of the sites.

Moretti identified the lone bone that sparked the research using thick-billed parrot bones from the United States and Mexico that had been permanently archived in compilations at The University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and the Smithsonian Institution.

According to Mark Robbins, an evolutionary biologist, and the collection manager of The University of Kansas' ornithological collections, this study demonstrates the importance of natural history collections and the numerous ways they aid in research.

Also Read: Wildlife Trafficking Plummeted Amidst the Pandemic, Giving Perfect Opportunity for Long-Term Solutions

Implications of wildlife trafficking

Wildlife trafficking can deplete species populations and lead to local or even global extinction, as per UNODC.

When endangered species are involved, any poaching or harvesting to supply the illegal trade risks causing the species to become extinct.

Furthermore, the demand for larger and more ornate specimens means that hunters and collectors frequently target the fittest individuals from the breeding population, with serious consequences for future generations.

Furthermore, many endangered species are delicate and necessitate expert and delicate handling.

However, the methods by which many animals and plants are caught, transported and kept frequently result in injury, death, or attrition, resulting in additional losses, particularly when living animals or plants are trafficked.

Aside from the direct negative biological impact on specific species, the illegal wildlife trade can have indirect conservation consequences.

The two most obvious examples are harmful non-target species bycatch and the introduction of harmful alien species into a habitat.

By-catch is especially common in the fishing industry: nets, lines, and other fishing gear used to catch the desired fish will also catch everything else in their path, including turtles, dolphins, and juvenile fish.

Terrestrial examples include the effects of logging and waterfowl hunting on non-target species.

Related article: Malaysian Officials Seize Animal Body Parts Worth $18 Million USD as International Wildlife Trafficking Continues
On 7 November 2022 the WCO conducted its third regional consultation on WCO modernization, this time with the Europe (EUR) region. Thirty-one Member administrations participated in this fully virtual consultation.

The EUR regional consultation was chaired jointly by the regional Vice-Chair, Mr. Konstantinos Mourtidis of Greece, and WCO Deputy Secretary General Mr. Ricardo Trevino Chapa. As was the case with the previous consultations, the discussions focused on the seven specific issues identified from an initial diagnostic prepared by the Secretariat concerning the current internal situation of the Organization and potential improvements for moving towards overall WCO modernization.

The participants from the EUR region expressed their satisfaction regarding the launch of this initiative and welcomed the emphasis placed on Members involvement. They contributed enthusiastically to the discussions, with open minds and a willingness to reflect on the best way forward for the Organization on the specific issues identified. While recognizing the importance of improving the Organizations processes and procedures, participants drew attention to the positive outcomes already achieved in the past and insisted on the need to use them as a basis for future development. They considered that each proposal put forward needed to be well thought through and documented, in order to come up with efficient solutions that will bring added value to the WCO. They committed fully to supporting the work of the Secretariat in this regard and remaining active in its progress.

In his concluding remarks, the Vice-Chair for the EUR region appreciated the fruitfulness of the consultation, during which participants had brainstormed together and generated relevant ideas on the way forward. He said that this work was a shared responsibility of the Members and the Secretariat, which needed to be taken to the next level. The Deputy Secretary General thanked the Members in the EUR region for their participation and support. He recalled that the WCO was celebrating its 70th Anniversary, making the work around its modernization and reform particularly timely.

The WCO Modernization Plan is one of the key deliverables specified in the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 for responding to the needs identified in the Focus Area Governance and accountability. These regional consultations will be pursued, with the objective of presenting a Modernization Plan to the Policy Commission and Council in June 2023 for endorsement.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Windy with light rain developing this afternoon. High 58F. Winds S at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Windy. Periods of rain this evening. Then some breaks in the clouds overnight. Low 22F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
The Secretariat of the World Customs Organization (WCO) participated in virtual mode in the 6th meeting of the Working Group on Sea Lanes of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), which was held on 3 November 2022. Seven (07) of the nine (09) Member Administrations took part in the meeting.

This meeting is part of the action plan approved at the 31st meeting of the Council of Customs DGs, which took place in November 2016, in Praia, Cape Verde. It was during this same meeting that the Working Group on Sea Lanes was approved.

The WG brings together experts from member countries in the maritime field, in order to define guidelines on maritime control as well as the sharing of best practices.

The meetings are organized on the Virtual learning Centers e-Learning platform (CAV), of the IT system of the Portuguese Tax Administration. During each meeting, relevant topics are presented by each administration.

Since 2020, the WCO has participated in the WG meetings. The theme of this year's meeting was: Non-Intrusive Instruments (NII) and Risk Management (SAFE Framework of Standards) in the customs clearance process, in view of its importance for member countries.

In view of the interest of this meeting, the participants developed recommendations, namely:

a) Continue with the CAV platform, in order to perpetuate the dialogue between technical experts, through the exchange of views and commitment of all, the sharing of knowledge and experiences, and the clarification of doubts on topics of interest;

b) The strengthening of cooperation between CPLP Customs, with a view to implementing best practices in this field in the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries, bearing in mind the ongoing tax reforms.

It is important to recall that in October 2021, the 35th meeting of the Council of Directors General of Customs, held by videoconference, approved the Integrated Programme of Cooperation and Technical Assistance and provided for two (02) more annual meetings of the WG, namely: the 7th meeting to be held in 2023 by videoconference, and the 8th meeting to be held in 2024 in person in Lisbon, Portugal.

For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.
The Barbados Customs and Excise Department (BCED) has been engaged in a vast technical reform and modernization programme aiming to improve operational efficiency and governance, revenue collection, trade facilitation and stakeholders engagement. To support BCED achieve these milestones through people, the WCO, with the financial support of the CCF China, under the flagship of its Executive and Professional Competency-Based HRM Programme (EPCB-HRMP), conducted an expert advisory mission on the competency-based HRM approach from October 31-November 4, 2022 in Bridgetown Barbados.

This follow-up mission focused on supporting the BCED HRM working group to finalize the development of competency-based HRM tools and to maximize positive outcomes by conducting internal and external change management activities to successfully implement a transparent and competency-based HRM System (CBHRMS).

BCED, with the support of the Barbados Ministry of Finance, is committed to developing the autonomy necessary for it to establish an HRM unit capable and enabled to manage staff according to the best practices in the field of HRM. In addition, it is committed to completely restructuring its organization and naming conventions in order to align itself according to international standards and best practices. BCED appreciates the importance of culture and fostering a sense of belonging and pride for its Customs employees. Through the CBHRM process, it is committed to developing a career path for a new generation with a focus on transparency and integrity embedded in all of its HR processes.

BCED achievements to date have demonstrated their continued desire to cultivate a modern customs organization. Their commitment to the CBHRM process is evidenced through their attention to change management activities, including promoting awareness and holding focus groups with employees to ensure they obtain the necessary support and buy-in from everyone along the way. Throughout the communication and change management sessions, BCEDs Staff exhibited high enthusiasm and commitment to the new HRM System because it will support their internal growth, specifically in the areas of recruitment, promotional and rotation processes, training and development and integrity.

At the end of the mission, the WCO experts met with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Civil Services to discuss the mutual expectations and way forward. During this meeting, the WCO experts stressed the importance of establishing an HRMD Directorate, implementing the proposed organizational structure and driving this reform through a project-based. Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance expressed her appreciation to the WCO for the critical support. He emphasized the timeliness of the support and how it will add value to the modernization programme. As a means to see the HRM Programme succeed, the Minister has committed to providing the necessary support to BCED to generalize this approach to the departments of the Ministry of Finance.

For more information on this activity and the WCO People Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.
Depression and anxiety in the parents of children with asthma have been associated with increased clinic visits and asthma-related hospitalizations. Curbing depression among these caregivers improves control of asthma and lung function, partially through effective treatment of the child's own depression, a new study by UT Southwestern O'Donnell Brain Institute researchers finds.

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease in the United States, affecting nearly 8% of American children. Symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing from inflammation of the lungs and airways due to exposure to allergens such as dust and pollen. Morbidity in asthma patients is high, and approximately 4,000 Americans die from the disease each year.

"Moreover, asthma is a medical illness that is sensitive to a patient's mood as well as medication adherence," said E. Sherwood Brown, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center and in the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, and corresponding author of the paper published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Stress and depression in asthmatic children can cause airway constriction and worsen symptoms through dysregulation of the nervous system. Poor asthma control may then exacerbate a child's depression. High rates of depression among caregivers may additionally stress the children, further worsening their depressive symptoms and asthma control.

Research by Dr. Brown and others has shown that alleviating depression in adults with asthma is associated with better asthma control and further suggests that treatment of depression in mothers improves the mood of their children. Given these findings, the researchers wanted to determine if improvement in caregiver depression might be associated with improvement in the child's asthma, explained Dr. Brown.

The research team followed caregivers with major depressive disorder and their children with persistent asthma for one year. The results demonstrated that improvement in caregiver depression was associated with fewer asthma attacks and better asthma control for children. Improvement in asthma control occurred, in part, through reduction in the youngsters' depressive symptom severity.

Overall, the findings suggest that a caregiver's mood can influence control of a medical illness in a patient.

Dr. Brown said health care providers may need to think more broadly when treating patients. "It might be useful to screen for depression both in children with asthma and their caregivers," he said. "Identifying depression in the caregiver and providing effective treatment might help improve asthma control in the child."

The findings are notable for lung disorder experts who often see depression in their higher-risk asthma patients, said Andrew Gelfand, M.D., a UT Southwestern pulmonologist not involved in the study. In cases involving depression, doctors commonly bring in psychiatrists or increase medications if the patient's asthma symptoms aren't improving.

However, this study defines another opportunity to screen for and improve patient care. It's not just the patient's mental health that can improve their outcomes; screening their parents for depression can also be a critical step in improving the outcomes of our poorly controlled asthmatics." Dr. Andrew Gelfand, Associate Professor and Division Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine at UT Southwestern

Other researchers who contributed to this study include Jayme Palka, Alexandra Kulikova, David Khan, Josseline Lopez, Anna Antony, Jasmin Tiro, Elena Ivleva, Alyson Nakamura, Zena Patel, and Traci Holmes, all of UTSW; Heather K. Lehman, Quratulain Humayun, Tressa Lloyd, Karen Allen, Savitoj Kaur, M. Seth Owitz, Ray J. Pak, Kevin G. Zablonski, Michael S. Adragna, Raymond Chankalal, Beatrice L. Wood, and Bruce D. Miller, all of the State University of New York at Buffalo; and Donna Persaud of Parkland Health. This research was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (R01HL123609).
The social environments we grow up in are critical when determining our wellbeing and health later in life. Most Americans (67%) report experiencing at least one traumatic event in childhood, and a new study shows that these experiences have significant impacts on our health risks as adults. Physical illnesses such as obesity and chronic pain are affected, but mental disorders show the most significant association, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and depression.

Scientists from DRI and the University of Nevada, Reno, led the study, published on Oct. 6 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. More than 16,000 people from the Reno area volunteered for the research as part of the Healthy Nevada Project, one of the most visible genomic studies in the United States powered by Renown Health. Participants answered questions about their social environments before age 18, including experiences with emotional, physical, or sexual mistreatment, neglect, and substance abuse in the household. The researchers combined this information with anonymized medical records to build on existing research about how childhood traumas affect health outcomes.

"The study provides insight as to how social determinants of health may influence adult health disorders," said Robert Read, M.S., a researcher at the Center for Genomic Medicine at DRI and one of the study's lead authors.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of participants recalled at least one type of trauma, and almost one-quarter (24%) reported experiencing more than four. Women and people of African American and Latinx descent reported a higher prevalence of traumatic experiences than men and those with European ancestry, but people in low-income households were the most impacted.

Thirteen mental illnesses showed the most statistically significant associations, including mood disorders, depression, PTSD, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. For every reported type of abuse experienced in childhood, a participant's risk for PTSD increased 47%. Each cumulative trauma also increased one's risk for making a suicide attempt by 33%.

The researchers note that although the study is rooted in Nevada -; which has high rates of adults with mental illness and poor access to care -; it provides a window into deeply rooted public health issues across the nation.

Combatting the prevalence of childhood traumas is a complex problem. Personal experiences with neglect and abuse are more challenging to address, but many of the underlying issues can be tackled at the community level, like food insecurity and poverty." Karen Schlauch, Ph.D., bioinformatics researcher at DRI and one of the study's lead authors

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Beyond improving our understanding of how early social environments influence our health, Schlauch says that the next target for research is understanding how childhood traumas may be linked with specific traits like impulsivity -; a prominent trait in Nevada's gambling communities.

"In order to address the devastating impacts of early-life adversity on local population health and inequities, we must focus on the dominant social and behavioral mechanisms affecting Nevadans," said Stephanie Koning, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Reno, and study co-author. "Beyond how population needs drive our research, we are partnering with community-based organizations to promote evidence-based interventions across individual, community, and state levels."

As the study team expands their analysis of the health impacts of early-life adversity, they are exploring how to use the Healthy Nevada Project database to inform community-based interventions. They've partnered with community institutional partners -; including the Stacie Mathewson Behavioral Health & Addiction Institute and Northern Nevada HOPES -; for research and advocacy focused on promoting healthy childhood social environments and well-being throughout an individual's life.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers in Australia characterized hospitalization volumes, patient epidemiological and clinical outcome data of patients admitted to virtual wards during the predominance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant of concern (VOC) BA.1 sub-VOC and the Omicron BA.2 sub-VOC.

The Metro North COVID-19 Virtual Ward was designed to provide care at home for people with COVID-19 in South-East Queensland, Central West, and Norfolk Island. This area covers an estimated 900,000 people and 4157 square kilometers. There are 22 public hospitals within these catchments, including one quaternary, one tertiary, and two secondary hospitals.

Study: COVID-19 (Omicron strain) hospital admissions from a virtual ward: who required further care? Image Credit: fizkes / Shutterstock

About the study

In the present retrospective study, researchers evaluated hospitalization requirements among virtual ward patients during Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2 predominance.

The study comprised care individuals admitted to virtual wards aged above 16 years and hospitalized between January 1, 2022, and March 25, 2022. Clinical, laboratory, and epidemiological data of patients requiring hospitalization were analyzed. The team excluded short-term admissions in emergency departments (ED) and individuals hospitalized to receive intravenously delivered anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.

Data were obtained from several online clinical note systems such as the Power BI (Ward dashboard), Virtual Care Stream, The Viewer, and iEMR. Virtual ward admissions of the individuals were based on opt-in modeling, and SARS-CoV-2-positive RAT (rapid antigen test) or PCR (polymerase chain reaction) reports.

In addition, other practitioners (such as ED or general practitioners) referred patients or the care individuals were admitted based on self-referrals from telephonic calls or electronic platforms. The ward comprised nursing, administration, pharmacy, social, and medical work staff. During initial consultations, patients were categorized based on their risks of potential COVID-19 progression into very-high, high, moderate, and low/very-low-risk groups.

Participants were contacted daily via telephone, and their symptoms were evaluated based on standardized criteria for patient escalation. In addition, a pulse oximeter was distributed to high-risk COVID-19 patients. The ward allowed patient escalation to MO (Medical Officers) for reviewing and ED transfers if needed, with informing the Senior MO (SMO) of the corresponding ED of the patients arrival.

Analgesics, antibiotics, antivirals, and antiemetics were prescribed based on the national guidelines of Australia and were available for home delivery when required. The individuals received ward discharge a week after meeting the national guidelines concerning symptom improvement. Immunocompromised individuals, such as those with liver or lung transplants, were followed up for two weeks in the virtual ward in case of ongoing COVID-19 symptoms.

Data were obtained on the total count of virtual ward patients, consultations, ED-attended patients, and hospitalized patients. Details of hospitalized patients, including demographics, comorbidities, the status of vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 testing reports, reasons for patient escalation, hospital assessments and treatments, pathology reports, virtual ward dispositions, and treatment outcomes, were obtained. In addition, data on in-hospital mortality or deaths within 30 days post-discharge and re-hospitalizations were also obtained.

Results

In total, 7,021 COVID-19 patients were looked after in the virtual ward, and 473 were referred to hospitals for assessment. Of the ward patients, 26 patients were hospitalized during their care period, of which 85% (n=22) were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections. Of the hospital-admitted patients, 53%, 31%, and 15% had received full vaccinations, partial vaccinations, and no vaccinations, respectively, and 11 patients had been treated by COVID-19 therapeutics.

The median age of the hospitalized patients was 62 years, and most (65%) of them were females. 50%, 42%, eight percent, and zero percent of hospitalized patients belonged to the very high, high, moderate, and low/very low-risk categories, respectively. One patient was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and one patient died in the hospital.

Breathlessness (50%) and pain in the chest of non-cardiac origin (39%) were the most commonly observed reasons for hospitalization. Among ward-treated patients, 27%, eight percent, four percent, four percent and 58% were treated with budesonide, increased inhalational corticosteroids, sotrovimab, molnupiravir, and none of the drugs, respectively. Within 30 days of discharge, one patient was re-hospitalized.

The median length of stay among hospitalized patients was three days. 23% of cases were mild, 39% moderate, 27% severe, and 8% critical COVID-19. Among the patients hospitalized, 19% were given budesonide or other inhaled corticosteroids, 42% used dexamethasone, 38% used oral steroids, 4% used remdesivir, 8% baricitinib, while 38% received oxygen therapy.

Overall, the study findings showed that only a few COVID-19 patients cared for in the virtual ward required hospitalizations during Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2 sub-VOC predominance as a direct effect of SARS-CoV-2 infections. The findings could aid hospital-need planning and optimizing care in virtual ward settings.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
A recent BMJ Open study reports that snoring, daytime sleepiness, insomnia, and sleep duration may increase the risk of glaucoma.

Study: Association of sleep behavior and pattern with the risk of glaucoma: a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank. Image Credit: SERGEI PRIMAKOV / Shutterstock.com

What is glaucoma?

Throughout the world glaucoma remains a primary cause of irreversible vision loss. With over 70 million people currently affected by glaucoma worldwide, researchers estimate that by 2040, this number will rise to over 111 million.

Glaucoma arises due to the progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), particularly intrinsically photosensitive RGCs (ipRGCs). Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a significant risk factor for glaucoma; therefore, most therapeutic interventions aim to reduce IOP.

When in the supine position, such as during sleep, IOP is often at its peak. Previous reports indicate that IOP levels may increase by as much as 4 mmHg when glaucoma patients transition from sitting to lying.

These observations have been corroborated by several reports assessing sleeping patterns in glaucoma patients. For example, one study found that the prevalence of glaucoma was lowest among people who slept seven hours each night and highest among those who slept for less than three or more than 10 hours each night.

In addition to the impact of sleep on glaucoma, research has also shown that this disease can also impact the quality and quantity of sleep in patients, particularly among those experiencing severe forms of the disease. To this end, a high prevalence of sleep disorders has been reported in glaucoma patients, the most common of which is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

About the study

To better understand the impact of different sleep behaviors on the risk of glaucoma, the researchers recruited over 500,000 individuals enrolled in the United Kingdom Biobank to complete questionnaires. In addition, baseline information on the participants sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related characteristics was collected at baseline.

Individuals who disengaged from the UK Biobank were previously diagnosed with glaucoma before the start of the study, previously underwent glaucoma surgery or laser treatment, or did not provide information on their sleep patterns were excluded from the study. From their initial recruitment date, all study participants were followed until a diagnosis of glaucoma, death, emigration, or March 31, 2021, whichever occurred first.

Study findings

After the exclusion criteria were applied, 409,053 individuals were included in the final analysis. The mean age at recruitment was 57 years, with 45% of the total study cohort male.

The mean follow-up duration for the study participants was 10.7 years, at which point 8,690 glaucoma cases were identified. Glaucoma patients were more likely to be older, male, previous smokers, and have a history of hypertension or diabetes at the start of the study.

For the purposes of the current study, short sleep duration was defined as less than seven hours per day, whereas long sleep duration exceeded nine hours each day. Both short and long sleep durations were associated with an increased risk of glaucoma.

Furthermore, those who reported usually, which was the highest severity level for insomnia symptoms in this study, were also more likely to have glaucoma.

Frequent daytime sleepiness was also associated with an excess risk of glaucoma. Interestingly, daytime sleepiness was associated with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) but not primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG). The impact of other sleep behaviors was similar between the different types of glaucoma.

Conclusions

The current study reports that individuals with poor sleep habits, including snoring, daytime sleepiness, insomnia, and short- and long-sleep durations, were more likely to develop glaucoma. These findings emphasize the importance of sleep intervention in high-risk glaucoma individuals and the benefits of routine ophthalmologic screening in those with chronic sleep disorders for glaucoma prevention.
Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have shown that a protein complex that governs gene expression (called CoREST) sometimes gets rewired during breast cancer to help estrogen receptor positive (ER+) tumors resist endocrine therapies and become more aggressive. These findings show that specific protein components in this complex may present strong therapeutic targets. The study was published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Around 80% of breast cancer patients have ER+ breast tumors and are treated with drugs that inhibit the estrogen pathway. However, around 30% of patients acquire resistance after several years. Once resistance develops, there's nothing we can do for them; there are no more treatments." Lluis Morey, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics and co-senior author on the paper

The team wanted to find therapeutic options for these patients and focused on the epigenome, the molecular software that helps modulate gene expression. They began with a relatively simple question: What are the epigenetic factors that contribute to resistance?

They discovered that one of them is CoREST. This protein complex contains several subunits that modulate how certain genes are expressed. However, CoREST is unique because it has two epigenetic jobs: removing both acetyl and methyl groups on histones, which are the core component of chromatin-;the DNA, RNA, and proteins that make up chromosomes. Cells require an exquisite balance of acetyl and methyl groups on histones to ensure proper gene regulation, and this mechanism is often disrupted in cancer.

The role of CoREST in resistance

In tumors that respond to endocrine therapies, CoREST modulates the estrogen pathway, making breast cancer cells sensitive to these therapies. However, as endocrine resistance evolves, cells reprogram their epigenome and CoREST is redeployed to new genomic locations to regulate metastatic genes, making tumors more aggressive and helping them to resist endocrine treatments.

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"The CoREST complex is heavily associated with maintaining gene repression," said Ramiro Verdun, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, and co-senior author. "In normal tissue, it shuts down gene expression, but we found the opposite in breast cancer: It activates genes, specifically oncogenes and genes associated with metastasis."

In addition to focusing on the protein complex as a group, the researchers dissected its component parts to determine their individual roles in cancer resistance. One particular protein, called LSD1, stood out for its ability to maintain endocrine resistance.

Targeting for chemical inhibition

The research team also found that this protein complex leaves a trace-;a CoREST signature of genes the complex directly regulates, which is found in patients who develop resistance to endocrine therapies. Preclinical work performed by Drs. Morey's and Verdun's laboratories suggests that patients expressing the CoREST gene signature would respond to chemical inhibition of the complex. These results indicate that CoREST is a novel therapeutic target for breast cancer.

Fortunately, there are already drugs being developed to inhibit CoREST, providing potential options for patients whose breast cancers no longer respond to treatment. In this study, the research team found that inhibiting CoREST components, such as LSD1 and HDCAs, dramatically reduced tumor burden in endocrine-resistant human tumors in animal models.

"We wanted to understand why patients develop resistance and how to overcome that resistance," said Liliana Garcia-Martinez, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Morey's lab and first author on the study. "By targeting this epigenetic machinery, specifically the CoREST complex, we could potentially offer new treatments for these challenging cancers. We hope these discoveries will pave the way for new therapeutic options for women with incurable breast cancers."
Studies have reported more than 60,000 human cases of monkeypox in non-endemic countries as of May 2022. The current outbreak has been observed to be different from the previous monkeypox infections in central and west Africa. This was due to the asynchronous evolution of lesions as well as more common perianal and genital localizations. This unusual outbreak of the monkeypox virus led the scientific community to discuss vaccination strategies for the high-risk groups, which mostly comprised men who have sex with men.

Background

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The smallpox vaccine has been reported to be 85% cross-protective against the monkeypox virus. However, its limitations include restriction to people aged 40 years and above and debatable background immunity. The unavailability of protective immunity among young people may lead to the circulation of the monkeypox virus among humans.

Previous experiments in animal models suggest that all the immune players help in viral clearance, with CD8+ T cells being the most important. Moreover, one study reported that all convalescent cases were positive for orthopoxvirus-specific IgG, IgM, B cell, and T cell responses. Also, an orthopoxvirus-specific immune response was observed in some people who did not develop monkeypox infection.

Smallpox vaccination was observed to be unable to provide complete protection against the monkeypox virus but could protect against severe disease. Furthermore, overproduction of cytokines has been observed in patients with severe monkeypox infection, suggesting a link between clinical severity and an unbalanced immune response. However, no information regarding the dynamics of immune response in humans in the current outbreak is available.

A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases aimed to analyze the kinetics of the pox-specific T-cell induction, the inflammatory profile, and the inflammatory profile in human cases of the current monkeypox outbreak.

About the study

The study involved 17 patients with a laboratory-confirmed monkeypox virus positivity tested 10 to 12 days post the onset of symptoms and ten healthy controls. Samples collected from all the patients were divided into four groups: T0T3, T4T7, T8T11, and T12T20 days from the onset of symptoms. Demographic, epidemiological, laboratory, and clinical data were collected from all the patients.

Flow cytometry was done to analyze the activation and differentiation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. Standard interferon- ELISpot was used to determine the frequency of T cell response to peptides from modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA). Assessment of spontaneous cytokine production was carried out through incubation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from all participants in DMSO. ELISA assay was carried out to evaluate the production of cytokines after specific stimulation. Finally, quantifying IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF in the plasma of patients was done using automated multiplex immunoassays.

Study findings

The results indicated the median age of the patients to be 39.5 years. 7 were reported to be HIV-positive with antiretroviral therapy but undetectable HIV-RNA and a CD4+ T-cell count greater than 350 cells/l. The 10 HIV-negative participants were reported to be on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The transmission route was reported to be sexual intercourse for 14 patients.

Systemic symptoms were observed in 14 patients, while those without systemic symptoms were considered paucisymptomatic. One patient had received a smallpox vaccination during childhood, while five were treated with antiviral drugs. The median recovery time was reported to be 15 days.

A lower percentage of CD4+ T-cells and a higher percentage of CD8+ T-cells were reported in patients early after infection compared to healthy controls. Six out of nine monkeypox cases were reported to have a lower naive CD4+ T cell frequency than healthy controls. A lower proportion of naive and higher terminally differentiated CD8+ T cells was observed in all patients. However, the proportion of CD4+ effector memory T cells frequency was observed to be similar in patients and healthy controls after 12 to 20 days.

A higher CD4+CD38+ and CD8+CD38+ T-cells frequency was observed in patients compared to healthy controls, which were also similar for PD-1 and CD57 markers. No immune cell profile differences were observed between HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients while a less altered immune profile was observed for paucisymptomatic patients. Higher inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF) were observed in patients with monkeypox virus as compared to controls which remained higher even after recovery.

Furthermore, higher expression of CCR7, CD69, CXCR5, CD95, CCR6, CXCR3, CD28, CD4RA, and CD27 was observed in patients as compared to healthy controls in the post-acute phase. Similar results were observed for CD8+ T cells along with the re-expression of CD45RA. Additionally, patients with monkeypox showed a higher percentage of effector memory T cells re-expressing CD45RA that expressed CD57, PD1, or both.

Therefore, the current study demonstrated an early expansion of activated effector CD4+ and CD8+ T cells as a result of monkeypox virus infection which persists over time. All participants also developed a strong cytokine response irrespective of HIV infection. Thus, the MVA vaccine can be used as an anti-monkeypox vaccine for the high-risk population. Further research on prolonged immunity is required to support the current hypothesis.

Limitations

The study has certain limitations. First, data on humoral response analysis was not available. Second, only three poxvirus proteins were used as antigens. Third, the study does not involve a randomized selection of participants. Fourth, the number of participants was limited.
When Josephine Cabrera Taveras was infected with covid-19 in spring 2020, she didn't anticipate that the virus would knock her out of work for two years and put her family at risk for eviction.

Taveras, a mother of two in Brooklyn, New York, said her bout with long covid has meant dealing with debilitating symptoms, ranging from breathing difficulties to arthritis, that have prevented her from returning to her job as a nanny. Unable to work  and without access to Social Security Disability Insurance or other government help  Taveras and her family face a looming pile of bills.

"We are in the midst of possibly losing our apartment because we're behind on rent," said Taveras, 32. Her application for Social Security disability assistance, submitted last fall, was rejected, but she is appealing.

Like many others with long covid, Taveras has fallen through the cracks of a system that was time-consuming and difficult to navigate even before the covid pandemic. People are facing years-long wait times, insufficient legal support, and a lack of clear guidance on how to prove they are disabled  compounded by the challenges of a medical system that does not have a uniform process for diagnosing long covid, according to health experts and disability attorneys.

The Biden administration promised support to people with long covid, but patient advocates say many are struggling to get government help.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines long covid broadly, as a "range of ongoing health problems" that can last "weeks, months, or longer." This description includes people, like Taveras, who cannot work, as well as people with less severe symptoms, such as a long-term loss of smell.

The Social Security Administration has identified about 40,000 disability claims that "include indication of a covid infection at some point," spokesperson Nicole Tiggemann said. How many people with long covid are among the more than 1 million disability claims awaiting processing by Social Security is unknown.

In recent months, about 5% of new disability claims filed by Allsup, an Illinois-based firm that helps people apply for Social Security, involved people dealing with covid, said T.J. Geist, a director at the firm. Other firms report similar figures.

The long waits for disability assistance often end in denial, in part because long covid patients don't have the substantial medical evidence that federal officials require, Geist said. There is no standard process for diagnosing long covid. Similarly, Social Security "has yet to give specific guidance on how to evaluate covid claims" for the government officials who review applications, he said.

A recent report from the Brookings Institution estimates that 2 million to 4 million people are out of work because of long covid. A study published in September by the National Bureau of Economic Research puts the number at 500,000.

Advocates suggest that many people with long covid have yet to recognize their need for government benefits and could start applying soon.

"I did not understand that I was disabled for four years because my ability would fluctuate so much," said Alison Sbrana, a patient-advocate with the long covid support group Body Politic. She has a chronic disease whose symptoms are similar to long covid's in many cases and has received Social Security disability payments for several years.

"If you apply my timeline to people with long covid, even people who got sick in early 2020, were not going to know the full extent of their ability to work or not until 2024," she said.

In July 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services formally recognized long covid as a disability. Expanding on the recognition, the department and the White House published a report in August 2022 that summarizes the "services and supports" available for people with long covid and others who have experienced long-term impacts from the pandemic.

But accessing support is not as simple as White House announcements may suggest. First, the July 2021 guidance recognized long covid under the Americans with Disabilities Act but didn't extend to the Social Security Administration, which runs benefit programs.

Under the ADA, long covid patients who can still work may ask their employers for accommodations, such as a space to rest or a more flexible schedule, said Juliana Reno, a New York lawyer who specializes in employee benefits. Social Security, however, has more stringent standards: To receive disability insurance, people must prove their long covid symptoms are so debilitating that they cannot work.

"The application process is very demanding, very confusing for patients," Sbrana said. "It also entirely depends on you having this substantial breadcrumb trail of medical evidence."

Most applications are denied in the first round, according to Sbrana and other advocates. Patients typically appeal the decision, often leading to a second denial. At that point, they can request a court hearing. The entire process can take a year or more and usually requires legal assistance.

The pandemic extended these wait times, as Social Security offices closed and did not quickly shift to remote operations. Moreover, common symptoms such as brain fog can make filling out online applications or spending hours on the phone with officials difficult.

Long covid patients who were hospitalized with severe symptoms can submit paperwork from those hospital stays and are more likely to receive benefits, Geist said. But for the people who had mild cases initially, or who have "invisible-type symptoms" like brain fog and fatigue, Geist said, documentation is more difficult. Finding a doctor who understands the condition and can sign off on symptoms may take months.

Amanda Martin, a long covid patient and advocate, is one of those lost workers. Martin got covid in April 2020 while working as a subcontractor for the U.S. Navy and lost that job when they were unable to recover quickly.

At first, unemployment benefits provided support, but Martin's symptoms  including intense fatigue and brain fog  continued. More than two years after the initial infection, Martin is still "on bed rest 90% of the time," they said. Martin receives food stamps and Medicaid but doesn't have help paying for other essentials, such as gas. Their application for federal disability benefits has been denied twice.

"I am currently a year into the [application] process; I have eight to 11 months remaining," Martin said. "I have $50 in my savings account."

Many people with long covid don't have the financial resources to hire a lawyer  or access to a doctor who can help with their documentation, which makes the situation even tougher.

Patient advocacy organizations are pushing for a more efficient application process, specific guidance for officials who evaluate long covid cases, and faster eligibility for Medicare coverage after a disability application is approved. (The typical wait is two years.)

The organizations also serve as support groups for people with long covid, sharing resources and providing reassurance that they aren't alone. Some organizations, such as the nonprofit Blooming Magnolia, even collect funds for direct distribution to people with long covid. But patients say these efforts don't come close to the scale of funding needed.

Taveras, the Brooklyn mom, said she knows many other people who are grappling with similar issues. "We're trying to get support from the government, and we're not getting it," she said. Taveras set up a GoFundMe page to request support for her family.
The WCO conducted a training workshop on Post Clearance Audit (PCA) for the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) in Blantyre, Malawi, from 24 to 28 October 2022. The workshop was supported by the Government of Sweden under the auspices of the Trade Facilitation and Customs Modernization Programme for Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Sida-WCO TFCM Programme).

The objective of this training workshop was to support MRA in the effective implementation of its PCA function in accordance with the WCO PCA Guidelines and provide capacity building support focusing on increasing the technical competencies of the post-clearance audit unit and aligning the units work with international standards (TFA article 7.5).

The five-day training attracted a total of 12 participants from various units of MRA, such as PCA, Risk Management, Quality Assurance and Business Analysis. The participants received intensive training on the audit cycle process, particularly in the areas of audit planning, execution, reporting and follow-up. The participants were also trained on transfer pricing, data analysis techniques, client segmentation and audit targeting, and other aspects of assurance and risk-based audits for revenue recovery. The training workshop also highlighted the importance of coordinating activities between PCA, Risk Management, Domestic Taxes, and other regulatory agencies at the borders to create an effective balance between trade facilitation and control.

In the opening remarks, the Deputy Commissioner, Customs and Excise, Ms. Abigail Kawamba, thanked the Swedish Government and the WCO for their continued support in all other areas of Customs. On the last day, the workshop was graced by the presence of the Commissioner of Customs MRA, Mr. Frederick Mpeusa, who also thanked Sida and the WCO for their invaluable support to MRA in its capacity building endeavours and modernization agenda.

He called on the MRA PCA team to use this training as a springboard to create the required balance between revenue recovery, trade facilitation and compliance and utilise PCA function to effectively manage and improve trader compliance.

For further inquiries on Sida-WCO TFCM Programme support, please contact capacity.building@wco.org
Transgender Madness is 'Dysconnected' from Reality

New documentary explores reasons behind massive transgender explosion



NEWS PROVIDED BY

Carmel Communications

Nov. 9, 2022



SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /Standard Newswire/ -- Daisy Strongin began identifying as a transgender male in her early teens and, like so many other young girls, was told that she needed to permanently alter her body. As such, she took testosterone for years, which permanently altered her voice, and had a double mastectomy, which she almost immediately regretted. Now detransitioned, Daisy is telling her heartbreaking yet hopeful story in the new film, Dysconnected: The Real Story Behind the Transgender Explosion.



Dysconnected filmmaker and director Don Johnson spent a year traveling the United States talking about transgenderism with people from all walks of life: parents, teachers, doctors, therapists, pastors, professors and transitioners of all kinds. What he uncovered will shock viewers. Medical professionals reveal that children are making life-altering decisions about hormones and surgery that they are vastly unqualified to make and that the drugs and surgeries are largely unproven. Former transgender individuals reveal the deep regret and depression they felt after taking steps to change genders. Teachers discuss how gender ideology has infiltrated schools.



Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/J2TmLklL19w.



"A transgender tsunami has swept this country over the past several years and, in many ways, has changed the medical, educational and counseling industries in ways no one would have ever expected while permanently altering the lives and bodies of hundreds of thousands of individuals, mostly young women," said Johnson. "I made Dysconnected to find out what caused this tsunami, who is behind it, and what is coming next."



Walt Heyer, a former transgender woman and author of A Transgender's Faith, who has been involved in dozens of film and documentary projects, says, "Dysconnected is a masterpiece. It is the film for which I've been waiting for 30 years."



Dysconnected ties together why there has been such an explosion in people identifying as transgender, the statistics that support the theory that these individuals are at higher risk of suicide and depression, and how the medical, counseling and educational fields have failed children who came to them for help. It also ties together the advent of the birth control pill to the transgender movement and perverse distortion of what it means to be male and female.



"Becoming a contraceptive society fundamentally changed the way we think about our identity and our bodies," said Dr. Abigail Favale, author of The Genesis of Gender and one of the commentators featured in Dysconnected.



Dysconnected features stories and insight from Daisy Strongin, Billboard Chris Elston, Ryan T. Anderson, Favale, Heyer, Maria Keffler, Erin Brewer, Christopher West, Patrick Lappert, Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, Carl Trueman, Carl Olson, Billy Burleigh, Gary Michuta, Margaret McCarthy, Branda Lebsack, Michael Hanby and Benjamin Wiker.



Dysconnected is distributed by Ignatius Press and available for streaming and on DVD. Resource packages are available on the website https://dysconnectedmovie.com/.



For more information or to schedule an interview with Don Johnson, please contact Kevin Wandra (866-777-2313, ext. 701 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com).



SOURCE Carmel Communications



CONTACT: Kevin Wandra, 866-777-2313, ext. 701, KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com


Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning followed by strong thunderstorms during the afternoon. Storms may produce large hail and strong winds. High 76F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 49F. SW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Majority of lawmakers did not establish a communication platform with their voters to address their grievances, an opinion poll in connection with the upcoming elections has revealed. The opinion poll was carried out by Derasat and the results of it were announced on Monday by the organisation.

According to the survey, 85pc of the participants believed that the Parliament has a substantial role to play in the nations progress.

While 58pc of participants said that their MPs did not care much about the voters, 42pc responded otherwise. The disapproval and approval percentages were 55pc and 45pc respectively for the municipal council members.

The survey also found that 62pc of the citizens expressed their satisfaction over the performance of the previous councils. The voters consider employment as the most serious topic during the upcoming elections, according to the opinion poll.

This was followed by infrastructure development. The opinion poll highlighted that the major qualities the voters would seek in their representatives were honesty, competence, education and decent background.

Most of the respondents were optimistic about the future parliament and municipal councils. Speaking about the opinion poll, Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Chairman of Board of Trustees of Derasat, said the national survey showed overwhelming acceptance and enthusiasm from the part of the citizens to participate in the democratic process.

The campaign has entered full swing with candidates and their campaign teams stepping up all their efforts to ensure their victories. It is learnt that many candidates are visiting the voters in person apart from actively campaigning across social media platforms. The electoral supervisory committee earlier warned candidates against mudslinging and tarnishing each others personal image for the sake of electoral victory.

Such activities will be seen as a grave violation and the candidates if proven guilty will face consequences, the warning said. Close to 450 election observers have begun their poll duties as the election campaign season gradually enters the final phase.

The observers are representatives of Bahrain Lawyers Association, Human Rights Association, Bahrain Transparency Society, Manama Centre for Human Rights, the National Institution for Human Rights and many other related organizations.

The observers are monitoring the entire electoral process to ensure that fairness is maintained at various stages under judicial supervision. The 2022 electoral odyssey has been full of shocks and surprises as many high-profile candidates lost their electoral appeals filed before the judiciary.

The High Civil Court of Appeal rejected the appeal filed by four-time lawmaker Adel Al Asoomi against the decision of the electoral supervisory committee, which had earlier dismissed his nomination.

Mr Al Asoomis candidature was rejected by the electoral committee after accepting the claims in the complaint filed by his opposing candidate Murad Ali Murad regarding discrepancies over residency. Many other appeals were as well rejected by the court.

The appellants were Dr Sharaf Al Mazal, former lawmaker Ali Shamout and lawyer Muhammad Al Othman. Earlier, Dr Sharaf had filed nominations for contesting from the Fourth Electoral Constituency in the Northern Governorate while Mr Muhammed filed his papers for the poll battle from Fourth Electoral Constituency in Muharraq Governorate.

Mr Ali was a potential candidate from the Sixth Electoral Constituency in the Capital Governorate. The Kingdom will head to the polls on November 12 with a run-off fixed on November 19.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The private sector in the tourism and hospitality industry are the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authoritys key partners.

This was emphasised by BTEA Chief Executive Officer Dr Nasser Qaedi who said that their collaboration is crucial to the success of the forthcoming tourism season.

He added that all organisations involved in the tourism sector or events industries must be very well prepared for Bahrain Festive Season as unprecedented numbers of visitors to the Kingdom are expected.

This initiative was highlighted over the course of several meetings held with the representatives of the tourism and hospitality sectors and the commercial malls who discussed ways of future collaboration between the BTEA and the private sector through presenting the Authoritys plans and initiatives to achieve a higher impact on the tourism economy.

Many suggestions were relayed by our partners, and we are here to cooperate constructively with them, Dr Qaedi said.

Working together facilitates idea generation and creativity resulting into highest returns from the upcoming Bahrain Festive Season. These meetings were held in preparation for Bahrain Festive Season, a calendar full of events and activities.

These include the celebrations of the national holidays, New Years Eve as well as several major exhibitions, including Jewellery Arabia, the Bahrain International Air Show and the annual Bahrain Grand Prix, with estimates of higher visitors than in the record year of 2022.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

On behalf of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, today launched the 2022 Bahrain International Airshow at Sakhir Air Base.

His Royal Highness highlighted the Kingdom of Bahrains commitment to further developing promising sectors that contribute to the Kingdom's national development, in line with the vision of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

His Royal Highness noted the Kingdom's attractive business and investment environment and commended Bahraini nationals for their creativity, innovation, and wide-ranging achievements.

His Royal Highness emphasised that the Kingdom of Bahrain has attracted major global events through its established presence in the exhibition and conference industry.

His Royal Highness affirmed that the Kingdom's hosting of specialised international exhibitions, conferences and broad international participation cements its position as a global destination for events.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Zahra Ayaz

German Ambassador Clemens Hach, who recently presented his credentials to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, addressed the diplomatic ties with the Kingdom in a press conference held yesterday at the Diplomatic Radisson Blu Hotel.

The Kingdom of Bahrain is his sixth posting in a foreign country following his services in Latin America, United States, and East Africa and at the headquarters of the German Federal Foreign Office as the head of the Stabilisation Division.

Speaking at the press conference, Clemens Hach said, Germany has consistently ranked among Bahrains top EU commercial partners, and the numbers have grown over time. The amount of trade between Bahrain and Germany has reached above EUR 620 million. We are clearly looking at Bahrains development goals in the financial, clean energy, and tourist industries.

Germany is well-known throughout the world for its premium automotive brands, which have risen to the top of the list of imported goods. While this is one of the main goods, there are a ton of other lesser-known ones, particularly in the industrial, chemical, steel, and logistical sectors.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Flour Mills Company (Al-Matahin) (BFM) yesterday reported a third-quarter 2022 net profit of BD 173,382 compared to a net profit of BD 1,002,938 in the year-ago quarter, which is a decrease of 82.7%.

The decrease in the net profit in comparison to the same period in 2021 is attributed to the decrease in the market valuation of equity investment.

Quarterly earnings per share were fils 7 versus fils 40 in the same quarter a year ago.

The results were announced during a board meeting yesterday chaired by Marwan Khaled Tabbara, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Operating profit was BD 124,749 versus BD 79,501 for the same period in 2021  an increase of 56.9%. With regards to sales, BFM generated BD 1,809,601 versus BD 1,704,585 in Q3 2021 - an increase of 6.2%.

Nine-month results

Nine-month net profit was BD 1,555,403 compared to BD 3,439,055 in the year-ago period -decreased by 54.8%.

Earnings per Share was fils 63 versus fils 139 for the same period in 2021.

Operating profit was BD 386,551 versus BD 243,184 for the same period in 2021  an increase of 59%, due to an increase in sales value and improved profitability from retail products and Commercial Sales.

BFM generated nine-month sales of BD 5,601,758 versus BD 5,161,201 for 2021 - an increase of 8.5%.

Total equity increased by 3.7% to BD 25,353,708 compared with BD 24,438,925 as recorded on 31 December 2021.

The total assets reached BHD 35,262,328 compared to BD 32,338,602 at the end of the same period in 2021, an increase of 9%.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Export Bahrains participation at GITEX Global 2022 in Dubai has concluded with great success by facilitating multiple deals, easing the access of Bahrain-based businesses to international markets.

The deals Export Bahrain has facilitated three business deals.

The areas of collaboration will include the following: The Bahraini startup 7amdaan.io and French-based company VIVOKA will combine their efforts to integrate high-performing, secure embedded/offline voice assistants into their robots.

This partnership will ease access to European markets. Bahrain-based VirtuThinko has signed an agreement with GTMHUB, the worlds leading strategy execution platform.

This partnership will enable VirtuThinko to provide enhanced and innovative services and solutions that will serve a clientele within and beyond the GCC region.

VirtuThinko has signed a second agreement with HYCU, an American-based company specialised in multi-cloud data protection as a service industry, to provide distribution services for HYCU in the GCC region to facilitate solutions that solve data protection challenges and provide a customer experience frictionless, cost-effective data protection, anywhere, everywhere.

Rabab Khalaf, from the Planning and Market Intelligence Department, said: We are pleased that, through GITEX Global 2022, Export Bahrain has successfully facilitated multiple partnerships and agreements for our customers, which will result in their easy access and reach of global markets.

Mahmood Aladraj, CEO, VirtuThinko, said: GITEX Global 2022 has proven to be the perfect platform for us to move closer towards achieving our vision, which is to be a leading transformative technology solutions provider.

Mohammed Ahmed, Founder, M9X Robotics Co. (7amdaan. io), said: At 7amdaan.io, we have combined our passion for technology and connectivity and translated it into innovative robotic solutions.

We are pleased to partner with VIVOKA and are so thankful for Export Bahrains efforts in expanding our business.

This new partnership marks our successful entry into the European market.
Zain Bahrain awarded as Organisation of the Year for "Youth Empowerment

Zain Bahrain awarded as Organisation of the Year for "Youth Empowerment

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Zain Bahrain has recently been recognised for its ongoing commitment to encouraging and empowering the youth, winning the organization of the year for "Youth Empowerment Award" at the GCC Gov HR Awards 2022.

The company has 172 under Zain Youth Employees and trained over 52 this year.

In addition, 68 Bahraini youth have been recruited to work in various departments at Zain Bahrain under the ZY Empowerment Program.

All these efforts collectively contributed to developing and empowering the youth and ultimately winning the "Youth Empowerment Award" at the GCC GOV HR Awards 2022.

"We are extremely proud to be recognized as the organization of the year for the Youth Empowerment Award at the GCC Gov HR Awards 2022.

The recognition of this award is a testament to the company's success and effort in empowering the youth, who play a pivotal role in building the Kingdom's future," Commented Mohammed Isa, Manager, Recruitment, Employee Relations & Youth Development, Human Resources, Zain Bahrain.
Agencies |Jerusalem

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Israel and Jordan yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to move ahead with a water-for-energy deal after an initial examination of the project found it to be feasible.

The idea, first announced a year ago, is for Jordan to build 600 megawatts of solar power capacity that would be exported to Israel.

In return, Israel would provide water-scarce Jordan with 200 million cubic metres (mcm) of desalinated water.

The MOU was signed at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt at an event hosted by the United Arab Emirates, which in 2020 became the first Gulf state to normalise relations with Israel and has been a partner in the project.

The agreement for what is dubbed Project Prosperity was signed in the presence of UAE climate envoy and industry minister Sultan al-Jaber and US special envoy for climate John Kerry, a statement on Emirati state news agency WAM said.

Israels Energy Ministry said teams from each country met regularly over the past year while examining the financial, planning and regulatory aspects of the project.

The signing on Tuesday, the ministry said, expresses the countries shared desire to deal with the climate crisis through cross-border cooperation.

The Middle East is highly vulnerable to climate change and this will be the first such cooperation between Israel and Jordan.

The UAE, Jordan, and Israel will continue engaging to develop the necessary implementation plans for the project in time for COP28, which is to be held in the UAE next November, the UAE statement said.
, Nov 09 ( NHK ) - A wild boar attacked several people in a city in Tokushima Prefecture, western Japan, leaving six slightly injured. The animal remains on the run.

The police received a report shortly past 7 a.m. on Wednesday that a woman was bitten by a wild boar in a residential area in the city of Komatsushima.

They say the animal later bit some people near a home improvement store in the city. They announced that six people were slightly injured, including two elementary school boys.

The police say the wild boar then ran to the rooftop of a nearby shopping center's parking lot, bumped into a police car that had rushed to the site, then fled.

They say three cases of a wild boar crashing into a vehicle have been confirmed in the neighborhood.

The wild boar on the run is 1 to 1.5 meters long. The police are looking for the animal and warning residents to stay away and avoid making noise if they spot it.
SUDBURY, ON , Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, alongside Marc Serre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Official Languages and Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt, Viviane Lapointe, Member of Parliament for Sudbury, and Al Sizer, Deputy Mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury announced a combined investment of nearly $3.4 million to support the creation of a community hub and 50 deeply affordable units,15 units destined for the Canadian Mental Health Association's Harm Reduction Home while 35 beds are for the Off the Street Shelter, in The City of Greater Sudbury.

The Government of Canada, through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, contributed close to $2.5 million to the project under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF), while the City of Sudbury and the Canadian Mental Health Association contributed approximately $35,000 and $765,000, respectively.

Located at 200 Larch St. and managed by the Canadian Mental Health Association, this project will provide 35 shelter beds, 15 studio units as well as resources and programs for individuals struggling with chronic homelessness, substance use disorders as well as mental illness.

Quotes:

"Every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, our government remains committed to working with our partners to help vulnerable Canadians by investing in affordable homes in communities across the country. Investing in the Home for Good project will bring 50 much-needed housing units and on-site support services for people at-risk right here in Sudbury. It is absolutely vital that we create housing options like this across the country to help break the cycle of homelessness for at-risk individuals. This is another example of how our government's National Housing Strategy continues to ensure no one is left behind."  The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion

"Through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, our government is investing in affordable housing here in Sudbury and across Canada to improve the quality of life for those who need it most. This investment will help people experiencing homelessness and mental illness get back on their feet and access critical support services. Canadian's mental health and well-being are our priority."  Viviane Lapointe, Member of Parliament for Sudbury

"The peace of mind that comes with having a secure and stable home is invaluable. Today's announcement of funding through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund will have a huge impact for the most vulnerable citizens who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of being homeless. This project will provide vulnerable residents from Nickel Belt and Greater Sudbury access the housing supports they need to thrive."  Marc Serre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Official Languages and Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt

We are deeply appreciative of the capital project funding loan from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for our 200 Larch Street, which includes the Healing with Hope Home (Managed Alcohol Program), Off The Street (low barrier) Shelter, and the Sudbury Nurse Practitioner Clinic. Evidence shows that supportive housing can help a persons journey to recovery from severe mental health issues and substance use disorders. This funding supported the integration of services through a harm reduction model and supportive housing model that was much needed in our community.  Patty MacDonald, CEO of Canadian Mental Health Association-Sudbury/Manitoulin.

Quick facts:

The National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF) is a program under the National Housing Strategy (NHS) that gives priority to projects that help people who need it most, including women and children fleeing family violence, seniors, Indigenous peoples, people living with disabilities, those with mental health or addiction issues, veterans, and young adults.

is a program under the National Housing Strategy (NHS) that gives priority to projects that help people who need it most, including women and children fleeing family violence, seniors, Indigenous peoples, people living with disabilities, those with mental health or addiction issues, veterans, and young adults. Budget 2022 proposes to advance $2.9 billion in funding under the NHCF to accelerate the creation of up to 4,300 new units and the repair of up to 17,800 units.

in funding under the NHCF to accelerate the creation of up to 4,300 new units and the repair of up to 17,800 units. The Government of Canada's National Housing Strategy (NHS) is an ambitious, 10-year plan that will invest over $72 billion to give more Canadians a place to call home.

Related links:

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing needs, and offers unbiased housing research and advice to all levels of the Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. CMHC's aim is that by 2030, everyone in Canada has a home they can afford and that meets their needs. For more information, please visit cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing needs, and offers unbiased housing research and advice to all levels of the Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. CMHC's aim is that by 2030, everyone in has a home they can afford and that meets their needs. For more information, please visit cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. To find out more about the National Housing Strategy, visit: www.placetocallhome.ca

Check out the National Housing Strategy Housing Funding Initiatives Map to see affordable housing projects that have been developed across Canada .

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

For further information: on this news release: Arevig Afarian, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, [email protected]; Media Relations: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, [email protected]
Credit score app attracts over 30,000 users in first few months

TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ -- ClearScore, one of the United Kingdom's leading credit marketplaces, today announces its launch in Canada, offering greater transparency in credit scores and reports to the market through its innovative, free-to-use app. With over 17 million users worldwide, ClearScore is already a market leader in the UK and South Africa, as well as gaining significant traction in Australia. Canada is ClearScore's fourth market, going live in September and already attracting over 30k users.

ClearScore gives people free access to their credit report to help them understand and improve their financial situation, as well as monitor for fraudulent activity through 'ClearScore Protect', a free ID monitoring report that allows people to check that their passwords are not compromised on the dark web. Over and above understanding their data, ClearScore helps people access, and save money on, credit cards, loans and mortgages by presenting them with a personalized recommendation on the best rates and rewards. Users can sign up and monitor their credit score directly on the website, clearscore.com/ca, and can also download the app on their phone for an easier way to track both their score and relevant offers.

Tassie Milne, General Manager of ClearScore Canada, said: "We're a business that is dedicated to helping our users improve their financial wellbeing, and we do that through transparency in credit reports and data-driven, personalized offers on credit cards, loans and mortgages to save people money. As a user-first organization, the financial products that people see on our site are not influenced by commission from our partners; the offers are presented in a clear, straightforward manner with the user's best interest in mind.

"We achieved phenomenal success in the UK and other markets, and now is a great time for us to help Canadians, with the cost of living posing a big issue for many Canadians, coast to coast."

ClearScore Canada is based in downtown Toronto with global headquarters in London, UK. The company has partnered to offer exclusive offers with many leading Canadian financial services providers. ClearScore also partners with TransUnion to provide credit scores and report data, adding its unique analysis of the factors which could boost or damage an individual's credit score. ClearScore educates users on how to understand and improve their credit score, which in turn can benefit people by allowing them to access more credit offers and improve their chances of approval.

Justin Basini, CEO and Co-founder of The ClearScore Group, said: "More and more people around the world are turning to ClearScore to help manage their finances. As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, ClearScore has a critical role to play in assisting people to make smarter financial decisions. We are very excited to come to Canada at this time and bring our data-driven marketplace to a very dynamic and fast-moving credit market. Having already established extensive partnerships with major banks and credit card providers, we anticipate a growth rate very similar to what we have seen in the UK, South Africa and Australia."

Toronto Mayor John Tory, said: "I am very pleased that ClearScore has chosen to locate its new office in our city, which will allow them to take advantage of our unmatched talent pipeline. A strong technology sector, resilient financial system and quality pool of talent puts the Toronto Region on the global fintech map and I'm thrilled to welcome ClearScore to be a part of this dynamic ecosystem."

One of the first companies to partner with ClearScore in Canada is Capital One Canada.

Kevin Chan, Acquisitions Marketing Lead for Capital One Canada, said: "Capital One Canada believes that with the right resources, tools and support, financial wellbeing is possible for everyone, regardless of where they are on their journey. Working with partners that have similar values, such as ClearScore, allows us to further extend that support and level the playing field when it comes to credit"

ClearScore is hiring for several open jobs in its Toronto office:

https://www.clearscore.com/ca/careers

About ClearScore

ClearScore launched in July 2015 to help everyone, no matter their circumstances, achieve greater financial wellbeing. This started with greater transparency in credit reports and scores and has since expanded to include increased visibility of affordability, using current account spending patterns via Open Banking. As a leading financial marketplace, ClearScore helps people access, and save money on, credit cards, loans and car finance. ClearScore has grown rapidly to serve 17 million users across the UK, South Africa, Australia and Canada. The Group now partners with over 150 financial institutions around the world to ensure that the right product, gets to the right user at the right time.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1821895/ClearScore_Logo.jpg

Media Enquiries

Joe Wiggins [email protected]

James Terry [email protected]

SOURCE ClearScore

For further information: Joe: +44(0)7767 362533
Projects will improve the capacity of communities to address challenges related to the pandemic faced by Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers.

MONTREAL, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - COVID-19 presented significant challenges to accessing resources for Autistic people and their families and caregivers. Disrupted routines and restricted or reduced access to programming, services, and activities had and continue to have a negative impact. In addition, due to the pandemic many people in Canada, including Autistic people, continue to experience increased stress, anxiety, and depression.

Today, Rachel Bendayan, Member of Parliament for Outremont, on behalf of the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, announced funding of over $1.8 million for four projects aimed at addressing the negative impacts of COVID-19 on Autistic individuals in Quebec.

Spectrum Productions will receive $464,945 to adapt its in-studio programs and services into a nationally scalable virtual hub where Autistic creatives of all levels can engage with an inclusive, diverse and supportive community and access various social and educational training and employment opportunities online. This program offers a unique and innovative way for Autistic individuals to break the isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.





to adapt its in-studio programs and services into a nationally scalable virtual hub where Autistic creatives of all levels can engage with an inclusive, diverse and supportive community and access various social and educational training and employment opportunities online. This program offers a unique and innovative way for Autistic individuals to break the isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. McGill University will receive $470,000 to create an online platform where caregivers of Autistic children can acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to empower children, improving their well-being and functioning. The project will reach low-income populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and seek to increase skills and support training to help improve the lives of Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers.





will receive to create an online platform where caregivers of Autistic children can acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to empower children, improving their well-being and functioning. The project will reach low-income populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and seek to increase skills and support training to help improve the lives of Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers. The Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ste-Justine will receive $469,485 to deliver the AUTISME 5SSE (Social Support, Stigma-Free Care, and Experiential Knowledge) project to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the determinants of health of Autistic individuals and their families through social support and reducing barriers to care. The project aims to reduce stigma and to develop social support for people living with autism.





to deliver the AUTISME 5SSE (Social Support, Stigma-Free Care, and Experiential Knowledge) project to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the determinants of health of Autistic individuals and their families through social support and reducing barriers to care. The project aims to reduce stigma and to develop social support for people living with autism. The "Centre d'innovation sociale en agriculture" will receive $442,020 to develop and test the "L'insertion socioprofessionnelle des jeunes adultes presentant un trouble du spectre de l'autisme par l'agroalimentaire" program. The program will support young, Autistic adults enter the workforce in the agrifood industry. This project aims to serve as a model that could help thousands of Autistic individuals enter the workforce and become financially independent.

Projects funded through the Autism Spectrum Disorder Strategic Fund will provide opportunities for Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers to access knowledge, resources and skills that are essential to helping Autistic individuals achieve and maintain optimal health and wellbeing.

Quotes

"Our government is working to improve the health and well-being of people on the autism spectrum and support their families and caregivers. To do so, we are committed to working with organizations like the ones announced in Quebec today to help provide community-based autism resources. By easing access to care and important services, we are working towards better support for Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers."

The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos

Minister of Health

"Our Government is committed to addressing barriers for Autistic individuals when it comes to their health and wellbeing. The pandemic has been a stressful and life-altering experience for many people, and many Autistic Canadians and their families have struggled to access critical services while dealing with social isolation. The projects announced today will make a real difference in the lives of those who need them."

Rachel Bendayan

Member of Parliament for Outremont

"Spectrum Productions is grateful for the support of the Government of Canada to develop our Spectrum Creative Network and provide opportunities for autistic Canadians in film, media production and the arts. The pandemic has significantly impacted Canada's creative and cultural economy, especially the lives, practice, sense of community, mental health and wellbeing of autistic artists. Through this initiative, we aim to increase accessibility in the creative space, promote wellness, encourage collaboration and community, support self-determination and offer a framework to follow personal creative or professional pathways. By working closely with government, community partners, autistic artists and their families, this project will enable us to meet the needs of autistic creatives with meaningful supports in the long term."

Dan Ten Veen, Director

Spectrum Productions



Quick Facts

Autism (also referred to as autism spectrum disorder or ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by communication difficulties as well as social and behavioral differences. Each person on the autism spectrum is unique, and the term "spectrum" refers to the wide variation in strengths and challenges.

According to the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (CHSCY), 1 in 50 (or 2.0%) Canadian children and youth aged 1 to 17 years were diagnosed with autism.

Budget 2018 allocated $20 million over five years to better support the needs of Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers. Of this overall investment, $9.1 million was allocated to establish the Autism Spectrum Disorder Strategic Fund to support community-based projects that pursue innovative program models, help reduce stigma, and integrate health, social and educational components to better serve the complex needs of Autistic Canadians and their families. These four projects are the last to be announced under the Autism Spectrum Disorder Strategic Fund.

over five years to better support the needs of Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers. Of this overall investment, was allocated to establish the Autism Spectrum Disorder Strategic Fund to support community-based projects that pursue innovative program models, help reduce stigma, and integrate health, social and educational components to better serve the complex needs of Autistic Canadians and their families. These four projects are the last to be announced under the Autism Spectrum Disorder Strategic Fund. The Government of Canada is working collaboratively with provinces, territories, families, Indigenous organizations and other stakeholders toward the creation of a national autism strategy to better support Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers.

is working collaboratively with provinces, territories, families, Indigenous organizations and other stakeholders toward the creation of a national autism strategy to better support Autistic individuals, their families and caregivers. On November 15-16, 2022 , the Public Health Agency of Canada is hosting a virtual national autism conference to bring together the views of Autistic Canadians, their families and caregivers, advocates, provinces, territories and Indigenous Peoples towards the development of a national autism strategy.

SOURCE Public Health Agency of Canada

For further information: Marie-France Proulx, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, 613-957-0200; Media Relations: Public Health Agency of Canada, 613-957-2983, [email protected]; Public Inquiries: 613-957-2991, 1-866-225-0709
OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - To help our smallest agricultural businesses further expand into grocery and food services, the Government of Canada is supporting the creation of a certification program that will allow businesses to meet specific trade requirements.

The $336,858 investment, announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, will support GS1 Canada, a not-for-profit association, to develop training tailored to small and micro food enterprises. The project includes learning modules and a virtual portal of resources specifically for them.

GS1 Canada plans to equip at least 200 businesses across Canada with the knowledge, tools and experience they need to prepare for trade with different sectors, including the grocery sector, distribution and food services.

Completion of the certification program will provide micro and small enterprises (MSE) with access to other services provided by GS1 Canada for one year. A key component of this subscription for MSEs is ensuring their products have licensed GS1 barcodes, which are required by many Canadian retailers and distributors, as well as access to online tools to share quality, bilingual product data with trading partners. GS1 barcodes are a global standard and play an important role in supply chains and traceability.

Small businesses are the heart of our local communities and engines of Canada's economy. Supporting the development of trade knowledge and breaking down barriers will help them grow and contribute even more to the economic development of their region and our country.

Quotes

"This new certification program will help small and micro businesses in the food sector meet key industry and regulatory requirements and learn essential information about trade and export. This will help these businesses to access new opportunities and strengthen our economy."

- The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

"We are proud to be partnering with government to launch the Trade Certification Program, providing much-needed support, knowledge and resources for small businesses getting ready for trade. As a neutral, not-for-profit organization, we are committed to helping small businesses successfully bring their products to market. Through our role as a trusted, strategic partner, this robust education program has been developed to help small businesses meet Canadian trading partner requirements, including understanding the importance of unique product identification, barcoding, data quality and GS1 supply chain standards."

- Kelly Asghar, Acting President, GS1 Canada

Quick Facts

In its Fall Economic Statement 2022, the Government of Canada released its plan to continue its sound stewardship of the economy, make life more affordable, and build an economy that works for everyone.

released its plan to continue its sound stewardship of the economy, make life more affordable, and build an economy that works for everyone. As of December 2020 , there were 1.22 million employer businesses in Canada . Of these, 1.2 million (97.9 percent) were small businesses. Micro-enterprises (14 employees) make up 55.3 percent of Canadian businesses.

, there were 1.22 million employer businesses in . Of these, 1.2 million (97.9 percent) were small businesses. Micro-enterprises (14 employees) make up 55.3 percent of Canadian businesses. GS1 Canada is a neutral, not-for-profit association that collaborates with industry to develop standards, education and non-proprietary, industry-directed solutions to benefit businesses of all size. GS1's scale and reachlocal member organizations in 116 countries, over two million user companies and six billion transactions every dayhelp ensure a common language of business around the world to support healthy global supply chains and improve efficiency, safety, sustainability and visibility.

is a neutral, not-for-profit association that collaborates with industry to develop standards, education and non-proprietary, industry-directed solutions to benefit businesses of all size. GS1's scale and reachlocal member organizations in 116 countries, over two million user companies and six billion transactions every dayhelp ensure a common language of business around the world to support healthy global supply chains and improve efficiency, safety, sustainability and visibility. The funding announced today is provided through the AgriAssurance Program: National Industry Association (NIA) Component, which funds projects at the national level to help industry develop and adopt systems, standards and tools to support health and safety claims about Canadian agricultural and agri-food products.

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a $3-billion , five-year (2018-2023) investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen and grow Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector.

Additional Links

AgriAssurance Program: National Industry Association Component

GS1 Canada

GS1 Canada Trade Certification Program

Fall Economic Statement 2022

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Web: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

SOURCE Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

For further information: For media: Marianne Dandurand, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, [email protected], 343-541-9229; Media Relations: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 1-866-345-7972, [email protected]
HAMILTON, ON, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to strengthening Canada's supply chains at Canadians ports. The 2022 Fall Economic Statement builds on investments to grow Canada's economy and create the good middle class jobs that Canadians will count on for generations to come.

Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced up to nearly $5 million in funding under the National Trade Corridors Fund for the Building Capacity in Canada's Steel Supply Chain project. The close to $10 million total project will be undertaken by the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority and will relieve supply chain congestion at the Port of Hamilton.

With today's investment, the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority will be able to enhance the transfer of steel products between various vehicles at the Port. By creating new interconnections between marine, rail and road, this project will increase the efficiency and the resiliency of the supply chain in the region.

The Government of Canada is investing in efficient trade corridors to help Canada compete in key global markets, trade more efficiently with international partners, and keep our supply chains competitive. It represents a long-term commitment to work with stakeholders on strategic infrastructure projects to address transportation bottlenecks, vulnerabilities, and congestion along Canada's trade corridors.

Quote

"Today's announcement at the Port of Hamilton will help maintain the competitiveness, resilience and fluidity of our supply chain. It will also help build an economy that works for everyone, while creating good jobs."

The Honourable Omar Alghabra

Minister of Transport

"The Port of Hamilton is Ontario's largest port and one of the busiest in Canada. Today's investment will relieve supply chain congestion and help Canada compete in key global markets. This will strengthen our economy and create good paying jobs."

The Honourable Filomena Tassi

Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and Member of Parliament for Hamilton WestAncasterDundas

"The Port of Hamilton plays an integral role in driving the economic growth of our city and of our entire region. This investment will help ensure efficient trade, long-term stability for our local businesses and help increase the efficiency of both our national and local supply chains."

Lisa Hepfner

Member of Parliament for Hamilton Mountain

"As the largest port in Ontario, the Port of Hamilton is the key supply chain gateway for steel and other essential goods that feed the region's economy. This investment will help to ensure a reliable supply of steel necessary for residential and civil construction projects and for Ontario manufacturers."

Ian Hamilton

President and CEO of the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority

Quick Facts

The Government of Canada announced the 2022 Fall Economic Statement last week.

announced the last week. Relieving Supply Chain Congestion at Canadian Ports was a targeted call for proposals under the National Trade Corridors Fund to implement measures to relieve immediate supply chain congestion and facilitate the movement of goods at Canadian ports.

was a targeted call for proposals under the National Trade Corridors Fund to implement measures to relieve immediate supply chain congestion and facilitate the movement of goods at Canadian ports. Eligible recipients targeted by the call for proposals included Canadian Port Authorities (subject to the Canada Marine Act ), organizations supporting supply chain projects, and Canadian Port Authorities partner organizations.

), organizations supporting supply chain projects, and Canadian Port Authorities partner organizations. An efficient and reliable transportation network is key to Canada's economic growth. The Government of Canada , through the National Trade Corridors Fund, is making investments that will support the flow of goods across Canada's supply chains.

economic growth. The Government of , through the National Trade Corridors Fund, is making investments that will support the flow of goods across supply chains. The National Trade Corridors Fund is a competitive, merit-based program designed to help infrastructure owners and users invest in the critical transportation assets that support economic activity in Canada . Under this program, a total of $4.6 billion over 11 years (2017-2028) has been allocated.

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SOURCE Transport Canada

For further information: Nadine Ramadan, Press Secretary and Communications Advisor, Office of the Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, [email protected]; Media Relations, Transport Canada, Ottawa, 613-993-0055, [email protected]
The Monteregie SME will receive $750,000 in financial assistance from CED to foster sustainable development in Quebec's regions.

SAINT-HYACINTHE, QC, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED)

SMEs have a key role to play in ensuring Quebec's economy makes the environmental transition. They seek to innovate and grow by becoming more competitive in a greener world. That is why Stephane Lauzon, Member of Parliament for ArgenteuilLa PetiteNation and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Rural Economic Development, today announced, on behalf of the Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for CED, the Honourable Pascale StOnge, a repayable contribution of $750,000 for TalThi Inc.'s project to enhance its production capacity.

This CED assistance will enable the SME to acquire and install automated production equipment, including a thermoformer, a granulator, and other devices needed to operate its new production line.

TalThi is a family-owned business that manufactures food packaging. Given forecasts pointing to accelerated growth, TalThi proceeded with expanding its production plant and implementing a third thermoforming line. This expansion will enable it to increase its productivity, optimize its production capacity, and foster solutions based on a clean, circular economy. TalThi is already known for adopting the best environmental practices possible and has a sustainable development policy enabling it to offer innovative products manufactured based on the best industry standards.

A sustainable, just, and more inclusive recovery will come, among other things, from businesses making the green transition. The Government of Canada supports SMEs by fostering sustainable development in all regions across Quebec. To achieve this, it leverages programs and services adapted to accelerate the launch of innovative projects, the adoption of clean technologies, and the development of greener products. In this way, CED is providing concrete assistance to Quebec's businesses, entrepreneurs, and workers so they can better position themselves and seize opportunities in an economy in transition.

Quotes

"Our government has made concrete commitments to demonstrate that a strong economy and a healthy environment go hand in hand. Among other things, we are investing strategically in clean technologies, a priority in our economic recovery plan. By helping SMEs such as TalThi become more innovative and by supporting innovation in the development of more ecofriendly technologies and products, we are setting the stage for a greener Quebec."

Stephane Lauzon, Member of Parliament for ArgenteuilLa PetiteNation and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Rural Economic Development

"The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time, and we must help businesses develop more environmentally friendly processes and products. That is why our government is supporting this project to reduce TalThi's environmental footprint while increasing its productivity. Congratulations to the entire team in Saint-Hyacinthe on your vision of eco-responsibility. You are setting an example for us all!"

The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Member of Parliament for BromeMissisquoi, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for CED

"TalThi is keen to support a circular economy, which means keeping our materials and our products in the economic circuit for as long as possible. That is why we are focusing on recyclable materials that contribute to a circular economy and, therefore, to a more sustainable world. CED understands these important issues well, and the financial assistance it is granting us enables TalThi to invest in sustainable technologies. For TalThi, the future is Recycled-Recyclable-Reusable!"

Steven Thibeault, President and CEO, TalThi

Quick facts

According to a survey conducted in 2022 by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, 90% of Canadian manufacturing SMEs have not yet begun their lowcarbon transition, and yet, SMEs generate approximately 30% of Canada's total GHG emissions.

total GHG emissions. The 2021 Speech from the Throne confirms that the fight against climate change and the green shift are priorities for the Government of Canada .

. CED is a key federal partner in Quebec's regional economic development. With its 12 regional business offices, CED accompanies businesses, supporting organizations and all regions across Quebec into tomorrow's economy.

regional economic development. With its 12 regional business offices, CED accompanies businesses, supporting organizations and all regions across into tomorrow's economy. The funding announced today has been granted under the Jobs and Growth Fund (JGF) program. This program targets businesses and economic organizations to help them prepare local economies for long-term growth. It involves strategic investments in projects aimed at reducing Canada's environmental impact and fostering a green, resilient economy.

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SOURCE Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

For further information: Media Relations: Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, [email protected]; Ariane Joazard-Belizaire, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, [email protected]
MONTREAL, Nov. 8, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - The executive delegation of the Ecole de technologie superieure has returned from the first diplomatic mission of its Director General, Francois Gagnon, to France. As a strategic and essential partner, France offers ETS multiple opportunities for growth and collaboration. Mr. Gagnon was accompanied by Christian Casanova, Executive Director of Research and Partnerships, Annie Bouthillette, Executive Director of Institutional Relations, and Tanguy Bantas, Director of International Relations.

Annie Bouthillette, Executive Director of Institutional Relations, Francois Gagnon, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of ETS, and Christian Casanova, Executive Director of Research and Partnerships. (CNW Group/Ecole de technologie superieure)

"This first international institutional mission allowed ETS to consolidate longstanding relationships with its international allies, in addition to stimulating new collaborations. We already welcome more than 1,600 French students each year and can count on bilateral partnerships in the development of innovation and technology. The warm welcome given to my team, the rich exchanges and the agreements signed guarantee a promising future for ETS in France," explained Francois Gagnon, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of ETS.

The delegation was received by the Honourable Stephane Dion, Canada's Ambassador in Paris and Special Envoy to the European Union and Europe, as well as Ms. Michele Boisvert, Delegate General of Quebec in Paris and Personal Representative of the Premier of Quebec for La Francophonie, with whom they exchanged views on ETS's unique educational model, but more importantly, on the school's active participation in various large-scale projects and partnerships.

"By increasing ETS's international presence, we hope to strengthen our research and innovation partnerships, while offering our students access to opportunities that will open up their horizons and favourably influence their professional careers and personal journeys. This is achieved through the strength of our relationships with our partners and our ability to seize opportunities for outreach," explained Annie Bouthillette, Executive Director of Institutional Relations.

As one of Canada's leading research universities and Quebec's leading engineering school, we met with institutions and potential partners with similar profiles, particularly in training and entrepreneurship. The ETS delegation met with strategic partners to develop and sign agreements, particularly with universities and engineering schools, and well-established French research centres.

ETS and the Assemblee des directeurs d'instituts universitaires de technologie (ADIUT) renewed their partnership at the national level to offer students from the IUT network the possibility of pursuing their studies in Canada, particularly in the context of the new French Bachelor Universitaire de Technologie (BUT) diploma, the only diploma outside of Quebec recognized for admission to engineering training. In addition, ETS has partnered with key allies by signing agreements with the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris), the CentraleSupelec of the Universite Paris-Saclay and the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Arts et Metiers (ENSAM) in order to promote international academic training and research. The delegation also met with the executive management of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), one of the world's leading research institutions and a strategic partner of the International Laboratory on Learning Systems (ILLS).

"This mission allowed me to present our five-year strategic research plan and to see with fellow researchers the interesting similarities between their work and our own priorities. It also showed that we share a common vision of the importance of interdisciplinarity in advancing innovation to meet the real needs of society," concludes Christian Casanova, Executive Director of Research and Partnerships.

ETS graduates in France also gathered at an event at the residence of the Delegate General of Quebec in Paris. This first event of its kind, organized in collaboration with the ETS Alumni Association, provided an opportunity for inspiring exchanges, as well as an opportunity to reconnect with numerous alumni from outside Quebec and overseas.

SOURCE Ecole de technologie superieure

For further information: Sophie Dubuc, [email protected], Public Affairs and Government Relations Department
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 26, 2022 /CNW/ -- The second day of the sixth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) saw the successful auction of the largest-ever carbon credit sale, major announcements, the signing of key deals, and stimulating discussions about a range of trending topics.

The Pulse on Global Macrofinance (PRNewsfoto/FII Institute)

The day opened with a conversation between CEO of the FII Institute, Richard Attias and Founding Partner of Trian Fund Management, Nelson Peltz, about how to ensure long-term success throughout the ongoing global changes. The conversation was followed by a plenary discussion titled "The Pulse on Global Macrofinance" where HE Mohammed Al Jadaan, Saudi Minister of Finance; HE Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Bahraini Minister of Finance and National Economy; and HE Steven Mnuchin, Managing Partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, shared their thoughts on how globalization is impacting global markets.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Tadawul Group announced the results of the VCM carbon marketplace to accelerate the transition to a carbon neutral future, which is integral to Saudi Arabia's efforts to achieve net-zero goals by 2060. Fifteen Saudi and regional entities took part in the largest-ever carbon credit sale, and credits were purchased by companies including Aramco, Olayan Financing Company and Saudi Arabian Mining Company. Moreover, PIF announced that it will establish five companies aimed at investing in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Republic of Iraq, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Sultanate of Oman, and the Republic of Sudan. The five companies aim to invest up to a total of USD 24 billion in opportunities across various key sectors in each market.

The FII Institute also announced investments in two innovative tech solutions designed to drive sustainability in agriculture and fishing. The first is a GBP 500,000 investment in Dogtooth Technologies, a UK-based tech start-up that develops and sells autonomous fruit picking robots, helping to reduce crop wastage and cut CO2 emissions arising from fruit production. The FII Institute is also investing USD 500,000 in Seafood Souq, featured in the United Nations Ocean Decade Special edition. Seafood Souq is a technology company offering a vertically integrated digital solution for global seafood trade, traceability and financing in support of the Blue transformation.

In addition, the Institute launched its new exclusive Membership Program, giving global investors and change makers a chance to join its growing community. The FII Institute Membership Program will provide members with exclusive access to its knowledge platform, which includes a wide range of reports and world-leading research from global universities and organizations. Moreover, it announced the launch of the 'Algoritmi Prize' with support from global research publisher Springer Nature. The annual science and technology prize will celebrate artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics research that has the potential to produce real-world solutions that address global challenges.

The sixth edition of FII will conclude on Thursday 27 October with wrap-up discussions on sports, fintech, sustainability and the future of Africa.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The event factsheet can be found here.

About FII Institute

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute is a new global nonprofit foundation with an investment arm and one agenda: Impact on Humanity. Global, inclusive and committed to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles, we foster great minds from around the world and turn ideas into real-world solutions in five critical areas: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, Education, Healthcare and Sustainability.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1930585/The_Pulse_on_Global_Macrofinance.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1811613/FII_Institute_Logo.jpg

SOURCE FII Institute

For further information: Media contact: FII Media Team, [email protected], +966 53 108 8333
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - Climate change is a global crisis that affects us all, but not all equally. Developing countries are issuing urgent calls for help in combating the worst impacts for which they are the least prepared. Helping the poorest and most vulnerable countries is a top priority for Canada and the Egyptian COP27 presidency.

Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on behalf of the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, announced a number of practical initiatives totaling $24 million that respond directly to the needs and priorities of developing countries. The projects, funded through Canada's $5.3 billion International Climate Finance Commitment, directly respond to the needs and priorities of developing countries in three critical areas: loss and damage, access to climate finance, and climate governance:

Loss and damage

$7 million to the Global Shield Financing Facility will help make climate-vulnerable countries more resilient and protect the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable, including women and girls. This investment supports the Global Shield against Climate Risk to strengthen the Global Climate Risk Finance and Insurance Architecture. An additional $1.25 million will provide early support to establish the Santiago Network, designed to help developing countries access technical assistance to avert, minimize and address loss and damage.

to the Global Shield Financing Facility will help make climate-vulnerable countries more resilient and protect the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable, including women and girls. This investment supports the Global Shield against Climate Risk to strengthen the Global Climate Risk Finance and Insurance Architecture. An additional will provide early support to establish the Santiago Network, designed to help developing countries access technical assistance to avert, minimize and address loss and damage. The Global Shield is an initiative guided by the G7 and the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group that aims to provide a coordinated approach to climate risk and prevention. This was identified as a priority for developing countries who are calling for the protection gap against climate-related losses and damages to be closed.

Access to climate finance

$5 million to the Climate Finance Access Network will expand its work with climate-vulnerable countries. The Climate Finance Access Network has made great strides in building developing countries' capacity to structure and securing public and private finance for priority climate mitigation and adaptation investments. This builds on Canada's previous contribution of $9.5 million to launch the Climate Finance Access Network in 2020.

to the Climate Finance Access Network will expand its work with climate-vulnerable countries. The Climate Finance Access Network has made great strides in building developing countries' capacity to structure and securing public and private finance for priority climate mitigation and adaptation investments. This builds on previous contribution of to launch the Climate Finance Access Network in 2020. The Climate Finance Delivery Plan Progress Report identified access to climate finance as a key area of focus. It found that while more needs to be done, most developed countries are committed to working further with multilateral development banks and climate funds to make progress on increasing harmonization and reducing barriers to access.

Climate governance

$5 million will support the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency by building real, institutional capacity for developing countries in advancing their Nationally Determined Contribution implementation and transparency. A renewed contribution of $6 million to the Climate Technology Centre and Network will promote the accelerated development and transfer of climate technologies for energy-efficient, low-carbon, and climate resilient development.

In 2021, Canada doubled its climate finance commitment to $5.3 billion over five years (20212026). This commitment more than doubles the provision of funding toward adaptation to a minimum of forty percent, which is in line with the objectives set by the Glasgow Pact.

Last month, at the behest of the international community, Canada and Germany released the Climate Finance Delivery Plan Progress Report, highlighting what developed countries have been doing this year to deliver on the collective US$100 billion goal. The report reaffirmed a commitment to transparency, and clearly detailed where more work is needed. Canada remains steadfast in its commitment to work with others to reach the US$100 billion goal as soon as possible and through 2025.

Across its climate finance contributions, Canada continues to help developing countries better address climate change and adapt to its impacts. Over the next five years, Canada will focus its international climate finance on four main thematic areas: clean energy transition and coal phase-out, climate-smart agriculture and food systems, nature-based solutions and biodiversity, and climate governance.

Quotes

"Climate change is a global crisis that requires a global response. Canada's climate investments are helping vulnerable countries adapt to harmful climate impacts already underway. We've supported hundreds of climate projects around the world, but recognize that more needs to be done, including ensuring access to climate finance for developing countries. Here at COP27, we're focused on delivering support to those who need it most."

 The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

"It is critically important for climate-vulnerable countries to be able to trust that the global community will make good on its commitment to fight climate change. Canada continues to work collaboratively with our allies for the achievement of the international US$100 billion climate financing goal, as demonstrated by Canada's co-leadership with Germany in developing the Climate Finance Delivery Plan Progress Report. Canada has doubled its climate finance commitment, and while more work needs to be done, today's announcement underlines that Canada will continue to be a constructive partner in the global fight against climate change and biodiversity loss."

 The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources

"Canada stands by developing countries, which are most affected by climate change, helping mitigate and adapt to its effects. By working hand-in-hand with our delivery partners, we can help developing countries transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient, nature-positive and inclusive sustainable development. Together, we can build a better planet and future for generations to come."

 The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada

Quick facts

Canada's $5.3 billion climate finance commitment increases the proportion of grants to forty percent, up from thirty percent previously, and increases its provision of funding toward adaptation to a minimum of forty percent. A minimum of twenty percent of the funding will be allocated to projects that leverage nature-based climate solutions and projects with biodiversity co-benefits. Canada will ensure that eighty percent of projects integrate gender equality consideration, in line with Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy.

climate finance commitment increases the proportion of grants to forty percent, up from thirty percent previously, and increases its provision of funding toward adaptation to a minimum of forty percent. A minimum of twenty percent of the funding will be allocated to projects that leverage nature-based climate solutions and projects with biodiversity co-benefits. will ensure that eighty percent of projects integrate gender equality consideration, in line with Feminist International Assistance Policy. Canada's previous $2.65 billion climate finance commitment (20152021) is expected to reduce or avoid over 228 megatonnes of greenhouse gases and increase the resilience of 6.6 million people to the effects of climate change, as of 2022.

Associated links

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Twitter page

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook page

SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada

For further information: Kaitlin Power, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-230-1557, [email protected]; Media Relations, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free), [email protected]
The deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, has described Yorubas in th...

The deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, has described Yorubas in the South West as very intelligent individuals who would not vote based on ethnic sentiments in 2023.

Akinlade said the people of the South West would rather reject the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that has put them under extreme hunger and poverty.

He made this statement at an extended meeting of the PDP in Yewa South Local Government, held at the Engr. Tetede Hall, Ilaro, Ogun State.

The 2019 governorship candidate said some individuals are already dreaming that the South West votes are already in the kitty for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu; saying, however, that this is not true.

According to Akinlade, the PDP is already in control of two out of the six states in the South West, expressing confidence that Ogun would join the list in 2023.

Atiku Abubakar will win in 2023. I am saying this based on available data. In 2019 when the APC had President Muhammadu Buhari as a returning candidate and with governors in all the six States of the South West, PDP won in two States. In the remaining four states, the margin of win was very slim. This was a time when there was no BVAS and other technologies introduced by INEC. That time, winners were decided at the collation centres. You all know what happened in 2019. That is no more possible.

The Osun election has shown us that rigging is no more possible. Your votes will count now. You just turn out en masse to vote for the PDP all through.

Today in the South West, PDP has two states, Oyo and Osun and I know Ogun will join the list.

When some people were talking to us in Abuja, we told them we are going to deliver the six states of the South West for Atiku. There are insinuations that people might consider ethnicity, but I told them that we Yorubas are very wise and we hardly forget things. Someone who treated us with injustice in 2019 cannot come now to preach ethnic sentiment. Did they forget then that we are brothers?

We are going to pay them back in their own coin. We will vote for the PDP and Atiku will win, Akinlade posited.

He maintained further that northerners would vote for Atiku, especially now that President Buhari is not on the ballot.

The PDP, according to Akinlade, is a party of hope, freedom and self determination; a party that allows and encourages you to attain your dreams unhindered.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been dragged to the Federal High Court in Abuja for N100 billion over the alleged unlawful removal of Senator...





President Muhammadu Buhari has been dragged to the Federal High Court in Abuja for N100 billion over the alleged unlawful removal of Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Ararume as a non-Executive Chairman of the newly Incorporated Nigeria National Petroleum Company, (NNPC).





Ararume is demanding the huge sum as damages caused him in the alleged unlawful manner he was removed as the NNPC Chief after using his name to incorporate the entity.





The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/691/2022 was instituted on his behalf by a group of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) comprising Chief Chris Uche, Ahmed Raji, Mahmud Magaji, Ogwu James Onoja, K.C Nwufor and Gordy Uche.





In the suit, Ararume formulated four issues for determination by the court among which was whether in view of the provisions of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the NNPC, Companies and Allied Matters Act 2010 and the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the office of the non-Executive Chairman is not governed and regulated by the stated provisions of the law.





He is also asking the court to determine whether by the interpretation of Section 63 (3) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the President can lawfully remove him as non Executive Chairman of the NNPC for any reason outside the provisions of the law.





The Imo politician also wants the court to determine whether Buhari can sack him without compliance with expressly stated provisions of the Articles of Memorandum of Association of the Company, section 63 (3) of the PIA Act 2021 and section 288 of the CAMA Act 2020.





Also listed for determination is whether his purported removal vide letter of January 17, 2022 without compliance with expressly stated provisions of the law is not wrongful, illegal, null and void and of no legal consequence whatsoever.





Upon the determination of the issues in his favour, the plaintiff wants the court to make declaration that his position as non Executive Chairman of the NNPC is exclusively governed and regulated by CAMA 2020, PIA Act 2021 and Memorandum of Association of the Company.





He also wants a declaration that by the provisions of section 63 (3) of the PIA Act, CAMA Act and Memorandum of Association of the NNPC, the President cannot by will remove him from office as non Executive Chairman without following due process of the law.





Ararume therefore prayed for an order of the Court setting aside his removal by Buhari vide letter of January 17, 2022 with reference number SGF.3V111/86.





He also sought order of the Court reinstating him forthwith and restoring him to office with all the appurtenant rights and privileges of the office of the NNPC non Executive Chairman.





Plaintiff further demands for nullification and setting aside of all decisions and resolutions of the NNPC Board made in his absence from January 17, 2022 till date and another order restraining the defendants from removing his name as Director of the Company.





He requested for N100B as damages for the wrongful removal, disruption and interruption of his term of office as non Executive Chairman of the NNPC.





In a 75 paragraph affidavit in support of the suit, Ararume averred that upon the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the former Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC and its subsidiaries were unbundled to become Nigeria National Petroleum Company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission with number 1843987.





That on October 20, 2021, President Buhari approved his appointment as a non Executive Chairman for a period of initial five years and subsequently, his name registered in the Memorandum of Articles of the Company and the appointment announced to the whole world.





Based on the appointment, Ararume averred claimed that he attended 23rd World Petroleum Congress in the United States of America but surprisingly on January 7th, 2022, Buhari inaugurated the NNPC Board without a recourse to him while another person was named in his place.





By a letter of January 17, 2022, he was informed of withdrawal of his appointment but without any reason whatsoever to justify the purpoted removal.





Plaintiff asserted that he was not guilty of any pre conditions for removal and was never declared bankruptcy or adjudged medically unfit for the job.





Based on the unlawful act of the defendant, plaintiff said that the action has fuelled public suspicion and rumours against his person.





Subsequently, Ararume asserted that he has suffered loss of credibility and goodwill, untold emotional, mental and psychological trauma and public humiliation, degradation and embarrassment by his purpoted removal by President Buhari.





He therefore prayed the court to award him N100Billion naira compensation and to order his return to office in line with the letter and conditions of his appointment.





At Wednesdays proceedings, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo ordered that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) be joined as a party following no objection from Chief Chris Uche SAN who stood for Ararume and Alhasan. Shuaib who represented President Buhari.





Justice Ekwo subsequently fixed December 15 for further mention into the suit and ordered that the amended originating summons be served on parties before the adjourned date.
A police witness has told a Lagos high court sitting that Chidinma Ojukwu, the prime suspect in the murder of Usifo Ataga, the CEO of Supe...

A police witness has told a Lagos high court sitting that Chidinma Ojukwu, the prime suspect in the murder of Usifo Ataga, the CEO of Super TV, had a sexual relationship with Onoh Ojukwu, her foster father.

This was just as a lawyer representing Chidinma argued that the embattled students confession was not voluntary.

Onwuka Egwu, Chidinmas counsel, spoke at the court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) on Tuesday.

Chidinma is facing trial alongside Chioma Egbuchu, her sister, and one Adedapo Quadri before the court.

They are charged with nine counts of murder, stealing, and forgery.

Chidinma and Quadri are alleged to have conspired and murdered Ataga on June 15, 2021.

She was said to have stabbed him several times in the neck and chest with a knife.

The alleged murder took place at no. 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos state.

On the last adjourned date, Olusegun Bamidele (DSP), the ninth prosecution witness, narrated how Chidinma transferred the sum of N5 million from Atagas account to another account.

The witness told Yetunde Adesanya, the judge, how a handwritten statement by Chidinma was taken and how the second and third defendants were arrested.

Bamidele said that after Chidinmas arrest on June 23, 2021, her written statement was recorded on June 24.

The witness said the defendants handwriting was not legible, so he advised her to write in block letters.

He said the defendant asked him to write for her and confessed to killing the deceased.

When the prosecution sought to admit the written statements of the defendant in evidence, Egwu objected to the admissibility of the document, saying Chidinma did not make the statements voluntarily.

The prosecution, in response, asked the court to conduct a trial within the trial.

Court probes claim Chidinma confessed under duress

The court, on Tuesday, commenced the trial within the trial to ascertain the voluntariness of the statement of Chidinma.

At the resumed hearing, Bamidele narrated how Chidinma was arrested and how she was interrogated.

During cross-examination by the first defendants counsel, the witness said he was in the second team that visited where Chidinma lived.

When asked about the day the first defendant was paraded, he said on June 24, 2021, at the state command in Ikeja.

Asked if he was aware that prior to the parade the first defendant and Onoh Ojukwu, her foster father, had an interaction at the commissioner of polices office, he said he was not aware.

Ojukwu was not kept in the cell, he was kept in a protective room and he received and escorted visitors at will, he said.

In the course of his staying with us, we stumbled on intelligence that there was an amorous relationship between the first defendant and her foster father.

We also found out that the mother of the first defendant never approved the custody of the first defendant to Ojukwu.

It was on this basis that we charged him to court alongside the three defendants at the Magistrates Court so that the court would decide if he can get bail, including one Babalola.

Following Bamideles testimony, the case was adjourned until November 10 for the continuation of the trial within the trial.

Chidinmas initial confession before retraction

Chidinma, who was a student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) before the case, was arraigned alongside two others on October 12, 2021.

In June last year, Chidinma confessed to stabbing Ataga twice on the neck side while the police were parading her.

The embattled student had alleged that the businessman forcefully had sex with her the first time but a dispute ensued after he attempted it again.

I threw the knife to the bed and he was going for it but I also went for it. He dragged the knife with me and it broke and he fell on the floor, she had said.

At some point, he was chasing me around the kitchen cabinet. I took a knife and stabbed his neck. I approached the door and he followed me. I stabbed him twice on the neck side.

In July 2021, Chidinma however denied killing the businessman in what became a retraction of her initial story.

Chidinma said she earlier admitted to killing Ataga because of pressure and the fact that nobody believed her.
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has tendered an apology to Nigerians over reports in the media that he will not support a Fulani mans Pre...





Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has tendered an apology to Nigerians over reports in the media that he will not support a Fulani mans Presidential aspiration while reacting to killings in his state by gunmen.

Ortom who stated this while fielding questions from journalists in Bauchi on Wednesday during a meeting of his G-5 Integrity Group with Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, said that those who are aggrieved by his statement should not feel offended.

Governor Ortom said that what he said was not what he meant, pointing out that he was after the peace of the country and not overheating the polity in the nation.

I want to apologize to Nigerians who might have felt offended by my recent statement where I was quoted that I will not support a Fulani man becoming Nigerias president, I never meant it that way. I want to say that, that was not what I meant when I was captured; but all the same, I know that it would amount to a logical fallacy if people have taken it the way I did, but I want to say to those who are so offended by my remarks, I am very sorry, I didnt mean that, he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has condemned in the strongest terms possible terms what it described as the cowardly violent attack ...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has condemned in the strongest terms possible terms what it described as the cowardly violent attack on its Presidential Campaign convoy in Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital on Wednesday,, by armed thugs believed to be sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC).





National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, said this in a statement in Abuja, on Wednesday.





According to him, the attack on the PDP Presidential campaign train as it made its way into Maiduguri city amidst thunderous cheers by the people further confirms APCs frustration, bitter envy and disconcertedness.





He said APCs anger was fueled by the overwhelming popularity of the PDP and its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar in Borno State, the North East Zone and across the nation; for which the APC has resorted to violence.





Ologunagba said, Our Party has information about how agents of certain APC leaders mobilized the thugs with the aim to escalate violence in Maiduguri and prevent the PDP from holding its Presidential Campaign Rally in the State.





Nigerians witnessed with horror how hundreds of APCs armed thugs stationed at major roundabouts and intersections in the city of Maiduguri unleashed violence on the PDP Presidential Campaign convoy and innocent citizens going about their lawful activities in a gruesome attack that left over 70 persons gravely injured and hospitalized.





This attack is consistent with APCs habitual resort to violence in the face of rejection by the people as also witnessed in the attack on the PDPs Presidential Campaign Rally in Kaduna State on October 17, 2022.





APCs barbaric and anti-social behaviour is contrary to the Peace Accord it signed on September 28, 2022 and constitutes a clear and present danger to democracy, our electoral process and the 2023 general elections.





It is clear that the APC has since become confused, frenetic and chaotic following the daily mass exodus of its key members into the PDP across the nooks and crannies of the State as witnessed at the PDP Presidential Campaign Rally today in Maiduguri in support of Atiku Abubakar and in clear rejection of the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.





He further said, The PDP commends the brave and courageous people of Borno State for coming out enmasse to resist the APC thugs and ensured the success of the PDPs Presidential Campaign Rally in support of Atiku Abubakar.





Our Party is not daunted and cannot be deterred by cowardly attacks by the APC as Nigerians are already connected with the PDPs issue-based campaign in the mission to rescue, rebuild and redirect our nation from the asphyxiating misrule of the APC.





The party appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police to take immediately action to arrest this constant incidence of violence being unleashed by the APC on PDP Campaign activities.





Adding that it should be noted that a continuing violence by the APC can result in a situation where other parties might be encouraged to resort to self-help.





The party further called on President Buhari, to as a matter of urgency and consistent with his Oath of Office, call the members of his party, the APC to order in the interest of the nation, our democracy and the electoral process. Enough is Enough, he added.
Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says he and his allies are still open to reconciliation with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Par...

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says he and his allies are still open to reconciliation with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Wike spoke after he met with Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi.

Three other governors  Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu  were also at the meeting.

The governors, including Seyi Makinde of Oyo, are calling for the resignation of Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  a demand that has polarised the party.

The five governors have also pulled out of the PDP presidential campaign.

I have stated severally that we are here for reconciliation. We have never closed the door for reconciliation. All we are calling for is equity, fairness, and justice, Wike said.

In fact, that is the hallmark that PDP stands for. We have never closed the door and we would not close the door.

All we are saying is, look, let the right thing be done. If the right thing is done, the whole country would know that the election is over.

This G5 you are seeing is the bedrock of the party, so we would not close the door for reconciliation; we are open for reconciliation any day, anytime.

Wikes visit to his Bauchi counterpart came hours after Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP, met with Mohammed in Abuja.

The Bauchi governor had threatened to leave the PDP presidential campaign council after accusing Bauchi politicians loyal to Abubakar of working against his re-election bid.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Wednesday dismissed claims that the partys presidential candidate...

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Wednesday dismissed claims that the partys presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was indicted and convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.

Fani-Kayode said those accusing Tinubu of being convicted of drug trafficking 30 years ago in the US are ignorant.

An old judgment document resurfaced on some media outlets on Tuesday, alleging that the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, indicted Tinubu of drug trafficking and money laundering.

Reacting, Fani-Kayode said the US Ambassador to Nigeria would not have visited Tinubu if he was wanted in America.

In a series of tweets, the former Aviation Minister said Tinubu wont have avoided extradition if he was convicted of drug trafficking in US.

The former Aviation minister maintained that Tinubu would become the next president of Nigeria.

He wrote: BAT was neither indicted nor convicted of drug trafficking or anything else in the USA. This is a FACT & its the BOTTOM LINE. Those that have labelled him a drug baron due to an out-of-court settlement & repatriation of funds in the U.S. 30 years ago are ignorant t& misinformed.

They have no idea of how the American justice system works, and I would urge them to go and find out.

If Asiwaju was a drug baron and if he was wanted in America, I doubt the U.S. Ambassador would have visited his campaign office a few weeks ago to wish him well.

If he was a drug baron that is wanted in America I doubt that he would have avoided extradition all these years, considering the power, hatred, fury and venom of his numerous enemies and many detractors.

If he was a drug baron, he would not be the leading contender for the presidential election & the man to beat next year. The opposition is desperate & are doing all they can to discredit him before February next year.

They started with the Muslim/Muslim ticket issue, it lost steam and failed and now they have resorted to this & revisited an issue that was rested, settled and clarified by the American Embassy in Nigeria itself in 2003.

Despite their desperation, these dirty tactics, mudslinging and campaign of calumny against a profoundly good man that has done so much for our county will not work.

The Jagaban is firmly on course, and he SHALL, by Gods grace and the will of the Nigerian people, be elected President of our beloved country next year.
The Senator representing Uyo Senatorial district and governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, in Akwa Ibom State, Senato...





The Senator representing Uyo Senatorial district and governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, in Akwa Ibom State, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan has expressed profound sadness over the recent murder of two of his aides.





It could be recalled that the deceased Imo Isang, and Inspector Linus Odey, respectively Chief of Protocol and escort commander to Senator Akpan were murdered in October in Imo State by unknown gunmen.





Akpan who visited the bereaved families alongside his wife, Imaobong and other party officials said the deceased were irreplaceable and prayed that God should give the families and party members the fortitude to bear the loss.





According to him: Not even the passage of time can heal the effect of the recent gruesome murder of my close aides, they are truly irreplaceable. I can remember the selflessness, patriotism and commitment to duty of the fallen heroes who were killed on October 7, 2022, in Imo State while on official assignment.





He described the late Isang as not just his closest staff but a brother and Odey as one of the most active and competent police officers he has ever worked with.





Family members who spoke on behalf of the bereaved families thanked the senator and the Akwa Ubok Abasi Campaign Organization for the visit.





Others in the entourage on the visit include YPP Deputy Governorship candidate, AIG Asuquo Amba, State Chairman of YPP, Apostle Nyeneime Andy, DG of the campaign, Pastor Sunny Ibuot and other directors.
Four of the five aggrieved governors elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP are currently in Bauchi State alleged...

Four of the five aggrieved governors elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP are currently in Bauchi State allegedly, to lure Governor Bala Mohammed to their camp.

The Nation reports that the G-5 comprising Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu States arrived at the Bauchi Government House around 12:30.

The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who is also part of the governors demanding the resignation of the partys National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, was, however, absent.

The development is coming amid a rift between Bala and the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Recall that Governor Bala who doubles as vice chairman of the Atiku Campaign Council in the Northeast, alleged that Atiku picked campaign coordinators from his State without consulting him.

In his letter to Ayu, Mohammed opened up on how he was hurt by Atiku and demanded an apology.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. High near 40F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy early then partly cloudy and windy after midnight. Low 33F. SE winds at 10 to 15 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
By Trend

The French news portal "La Gazette" published an article that during a November 7 meeting in Washington, held at the initiative of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov called on his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan to refrain from actions that could disrupt the peace process, Trend reports.

The article says that at the initiative of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, a meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia was held in Washington in the official guest house "Blair House".

"During the meeting, the Azerbaijani side reaffirmed its commitment and readiness to conclude a peace treaty with Armenia as soon as possible and called on the opposite side to refrain from actions that could disrupt this process," the article says.

It is also emphasized that the ministers exchanged views on the elements of a possible peace treaty, noting that there are still a number of issues that need to be resolved.

"Both sides reaffirmed the commitments made by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia at the meetings on October 6 in Prague and October 31 in Sochi," the article noted.

With reference to the press service of the US State Department, it was also noted that the United States strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial independence of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"Azerbaijan and Armenia are taking bold steps to achieve peace. Direct dialogue is the best way to a truly lasting peace, and we are very happy to support it. What we are seeing now are real and bold moves by both countries to put the past behind us and work towards a lasting peace," noted with reference to the statement by US Secretary of State Blinken on Monday before the meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Samsung has announced a new version of the Galaxy Z Flip4 . Teased approximately two weeks ago, the new version is a limited edition collaboration with Maison Margiela, a French fashion house. Predictably, Samsung has called the model the 'Galaxy Z Flip4 Maison Margiela Edition'.

Supposedly 'subversive', Samsung claims that the limited edition Galaxy Z Flip4 also combines 'cutting-edge technology with haute couture'. Specifically, the Maison Margiela Edition has a custom colourway, which Samsung describes as the fashion house's 'signature solid white colour with a matte finish... [and] a drop of grey to create the optimal shade of white'. Additionally, the limited edition smartphone features a matte silver white frame but the same black finish around its cover display.

Moreover, Samsung includes two phone cases, both with Maison Margiela's four stitches emblem. According to Samsung's press release, while the cases share this trait, one is leather, while the other appears to be painted plastic. Separately, Samsung states that the Maison Margiela Edition features a 'completely new UX design', although this seems to extend to custom icon and wallpaper packs. Currently, Samsung has not revealed pricing for the Galaxy Z Flip4 Maison Margiela Edition. However, the smartphone will be available from December 1 in France, Hong Kong and South Korea.
The memoirist Jimmy Nowoc will sign copies of his new book "No Strings Attached, My Life Growing Up With the Birth of Rock N Roll" at Miles Books in Highland.

Nowoc will appear at the bookstore at 2819 Jewett Ave. in downtown Highland from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

"The book is a bittersweet memoir that focuses on rock n roll and Jimmy's experiences in Vietnam," owner Jim Roumbos said. "Miles Books makes it a point of honoring our veterans and we are happy to promote Jimmy and his new book."

Nowoc, who served as a radio relay specialist with the Army's 25th Infantry Division, plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to the VFW Post in Highland.

"It's an autobiographic narrative about what it meant to grow up with the birth of rock n roll and serving in Vietnam," he said. "My motive for writing it may be as simple as understanding I had a story to tell. I wanted to get my story out for the generation following me so young people can get an idea of what it was like growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. It covers artists by the grace of the good Lord I got up close and personal with and how I evolved from the days of our youth music to Vietnam and having people fighting in an unpopular war. It covers a lot of ground."

Nowoc was a shy and reclusive youngster who couldn't bring himself to look people in the eye or carry on a conversation before books like Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" helped bring him out of his shell. He got into record collecting before it was in vogue.

He ended up with a collection of an estimated 700,000 songs. He also bought a guitar he's gotten signed by scores of rock musicians, removing the strings to make more room for signatures, which inspired the name of the book.

The book covers rock legends like Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Don McLean and Elton John. He writes about concerts he attended over the years, songs he enjoyed and rock trivia.

The memoir includes anecdotes about Paul Anka, Gary Busey, the Riverview Amusement Park, how the White Sox came back to win a pennant race and his observation about the differences between Sox and Cubs fans.

"If you like rock 'n roll or history, you'll find something interesting in it," he said.

For more information, call 219-838-8700 or find Miles Books on Facebook.
Lake Village Elementary School students returned to school Monday after a viral outbreak caused three days of cancelled classes last week.

The school in Newton County was closed Tuesday, Thursday and Friday because a high number of students and teachers called in sick with RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. With recommendation from the Indiana Department of Health, the school reopened; school officials said the return went smoothly.

"We're all back to normal now," North Newton School Corp. Superintendent Ryan Middleton said. "It was just enough of a break to get us back to some normalcy. I think that little window of time was exactly what we needed."

While the school was closed, district staff heavily sanitized the building. Middleton said. They used the same type of cleaning chemicals used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

When classes were cancelled, the school had 10 confirmed cases of RSV and about 70 students reporting symptoms consistent with RSV and influenza. On Monday, seven to nine students called in sick.

"That's probably a typical day for us," Middleton said.

Other schools in the district aren't seeing the same elevated levels of RSV. "We're sitting really well right now," he said.

Middleton is going to have a discussion with the Indiana Department of Education soon on whether the school must make up the missed days and when it should do so. But he suspects that because only one school in the district closed and not the entire district, that Lake Village Elementary will not need to make the days up.

Lake Village Elementary's outbreak is consistent with a surge of RSV being seen across the nation. The U.S. saw 7,119 confirmed RSV cases in the week ending Oct. 29, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RSV causes mild, cold-like symptoms. Most people recover in a week or two, but the virus can sometimes be serious, especially in infants and older adults. It's the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 1 in the U.S., according to the CDC.

This has caused issues at hospitals, particularly pediatric divisions, because RSV particularly affects younger children. In Chicago, RSV accounted for 10.1% of emergency room visits for children younger than 5, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Childrens Hospital had been full for 53 consecutive days.
PORTAGE  The 24-year-old woman who died in a six-vehicle crash Tuesday evening in Portage has been identified as Lauren Thompson, an eighth-grade English teacher at Chesterton Middle School, officials said.

"Lauren was a shining star on the CMS faculty and was loved by her students and fellow staff members," said Principal Mike Hamacher. "This is a great loss to our students, faculty and staff members."

Duneland School Corp. Superintendent Chip Pettit said, "We are devastated. Our prayers go out to her husband and family. It is with great sorrow that we provide support and comfort to our students and staff."

Thompson was reportedly in her second year of teaching eighth grade.

Portage police said they were called to the crash site around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and learned a 42-year-old Portage man driving a 2016 Cadillac SUV at a high rate of speed southbound on Willowcreek Road slammed into the rear of a GMC SUV stopped two vehicles back from the red light at Lute Road.

"The Cadillac struck the GMC with such force that the GMC was shoved into the rear of a third vehicle and all three vehicles continued completely through the intersection and came to rest on the south side of Lute Road," Portage police Lt. Rob Maynard said.

Thompson was driving the GMC, police said.

"In the aftermath of this initial collision three other vehicles that were traveling on Lute Road or northbound Willowcreek were struck in secondary collisions with the first three vehicles," Maynard said. "One of these involved vehicles flipped onto its roof and another vehicle came to rest on top of the Cadillac."

Thompson was found dead at the scene, police said.

"The driver of the Cadillac was successfully extricated and taken via medical helicopter for treatment of serious head and internal injuries at a regional trauma center," Maynard said.

A third person sustained minor head injuries, and others involved in the crash complained of pain but did not request medical treatment, he said.

"The cause or reason for the vehicle's excessive speed remains under investigation," Maynard said.

"This crash resulted in all lanes of travel being shut down for approximately five hours while the Portage Police Department Crash Reconstruction Team conducted their on-scene investigation," he said.
Northwest Indiana voters apparently are pleased with their representation in the Indiana House as every incumbent facing a challenger for reelection Tuesday appears to have won a new two-year term.

As a result, the Regions 13-member House delegation likely will continue to be comprised of seven Democratic representatives and six Republicans.

The most fiercely contested race leading up to Election Day was the third consecutive contest between state Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point, and former state Rep. Lisa Beck, D-Hebron, for House District 19.

Olthoff blanketed the district, which includes Crown Point, Winfield, Wheeler, and nearby unincorporated areas of Lake and Porter counties, with television ads and mailers thanks to more than $100,000 in donations from a House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) determined not to take a chance on Beck winning the seat from Olthoff in a midterm election as Beck did in 2018.

State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, also benefitted from HRCC largesse in his race against first-time Democratic candidate Chris Kukuch, of Schererville, for House District 15, which contains Dyer, St. John, Schererville and northern Hanover Township.

Records show the House Republican campaign organization poured more than $20,000 into Slagers reelection bid after he, like Olthoff, narrowly lost his seat in the 2018 midterms, only to regain it two years later.

The election wins means Olthoff will be serving her fourth term, and Slager his fifth, when the General Assembly convenes its Organization Day meeting Nov. 22, ahead of the early January start to the four-month regular legislative session.

The three Democratic incumbents facing GOP challengers seem to have cruised to victory without much of a fight.

In Lake County, state Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster, prevailed over Republican Charles Kallas, of Griffith, for a second term representing House District 12, including Munster, Highland and Griffith.

"It is the honor of my life to serve our community at the General Assembly, and Im grateful the people of District 12 have again chosen me to be their voice at the Statehouse," Andrade said.

"We are living through a deeply divided time in our countrys history, but I believe Ive proven throughout my first term that I will always put the interests of the people of District 12 foremost when making decisions at the Statehouse. I will continue to work across the aisle to bring home results for the issues we face as a community," he added.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, is headed to the Statehouse for an eighth term serving Portage and other communities in northwest Porter County in House District 10 after defeating first-time Republican candidate Manuel Maldonado of Portage Township.

Hell again serve alongside state Rep. Pat Boy, D-Michigan City, after voters living in northeast Porter County, including Chesterton, and the shoreline communities of LaPorte County, elected her to a third term over Republican Dion Bergeron, of Michigan City, in a rematch of their 2020 contest.

Several incumbent state representatives serving Northwest Indiana also were reelected without opposition. They are:

District 1: State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond, wins a third term representing Hammond and Whiting.

District 2: State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago, wins a fourth term representing East Chicago and Gary's west side.

District 3: State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary, wins a third term representing Gary, Hobart, Lake Station and New Chicago.

District 4: State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, wins a ninth term representing Valparaiso, Kouts and southeastern Porter County.

District 11: State Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron, wins a fifth term representing southern Lake County, including Cedar Lake and Lowell; southwest Porter County; Newton County; and northwest Jasper County.

District 14: State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, wins a 17th term representing Garys south side, most of Merrillville, and unincorporated Calumet Township.

District 16: Republican Kendell Culp, of Rensselaer, wins his first term representing portions of Jasper, Pulaski and Starke counties, and all of White County.

District 20: State Rep. Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie, wins a fourth term representing central and southern LaPorte County and northern Starke County.
LAKE COUNTY  A line stretched out the door of the Clark Elementary School gymnasium in St. John where residents of the booming Gates of St. John subdivision waited to vote.

Turnout was high Tuesday across Lake County.

"We had 26 people waiting at 6 a.m.," said Debra Link, inspector of Schererville Precinct 7 at Schererville Town Hall.

A steady stream of voters trickled in all morning.

"We get a lunch rush," she said. "I sincerely expect when people get out of work we're going to have another line."

But it was not quite as high as in 2020, she said: "Turnout during the last presidential election was insane."

Jeff Kuhn, inspector of Schererville Precinct 6 at Schererville Town Hall, said voting was going smoothly. He said there had been a question of whether poll workers might face harassment, but everyone was civil.

"There have been no disruptions," he said. "This turnout has been high for a midterm, but it hasn't been crazy."

Alex Gorman, inspector of Schererville Precinct 9, said poll workers had been bracing for high turnout.

"We had a lot of people early when we opened at 6 a.m., and it's been pretty steady since then," he said.

The only common issue faced at Schererville Town Hall is that people who voted early there in past years but didn't live in one of the precincts that vote there on Election Day came in and had to be directed to other polling sites.

"We've probably had 1 in 5 who are actually not here and at another polling place," Gorman said. "But we can tell them exactly where they need to go, which helps. They don't have to look it up on their own."

About 75 people lined up outside the Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point before polls opened, inspector Thomas Mariola said.

"Each district has been busy and constant," he said. "It's been pretty good. People have been in and out all day, which is a good thing."

Inspector Rick Gosser, who wore a homemade Inspector Gadget hat, said turnout at the fairgrounds was higher than a typical off-year election. He said it was one of the busier elections he'd seen in his 10 years volunteering at the polls.

"It's been steady all day," he said. "It's up from a normal election."

Judge Sue Morgan came prepared to the fairgrounds: She brought coffee, water and lunch.

"It's been way busy, way busy, way busy, the most I've ever seen," she said. "People were lined up at 5:45 a.m. There was a line from here to the trash can. It's just so busy. It's amazing. It's going to be nuts before 5 p.m."

Inspector Tracy Behrens for Precinct 12 in St. John said more machines were needed for her precinct, which has seen an influx of new voters as people have moved to the Gates of St. John.

"It's the fault of the Gates. They really opened the Gates," she said. "They've been building like crazy in that subdivision, and it's showing."

People were good-natured about the wait to cast ballots.

"There wasn't any commotion," she said. "There have been some grunts and groans, which is to be expected. We let them know there's a long line. Everybody's been calm. Everyone's been civil, friendly and just want to get their vote in."

About 35 people lined up in the morning and it hadn't relented since.

"I'd hate to see what it would look like without early voting," she said. "I don't know what they were expecting. I don't think they were expecting this. Anyone in line by 6 p.m. will be able to vote."

Dr. Terry McQuay, an inspector at Clark Elementary in St. John, said turnout seemed to be high everywhere in Lake County.

"The community is really involved," she said. "It's crowded everywhere, that's what I'm hearing. I'm happy to see that. I'm happy to see the community come together and make decisions for their future and put the right people in place."

It's her first time volunteering at the polls.

"Everybody wants to vote," she said. "We're all working together. It's a calm mood, but I really feel a sense of urgency in wanting to vote."
"Thanks, Frank!"

Northwest Indiana voters expressed their gratitude Tuesday to U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, for his accomplishments on their behalf in Congress over the past two years by rewarding him with a second term in the U.S. House.

Unofficial election results from Lake, Porter and northwest LaPorte counties show Mrvan prevailed over Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green, of Crown Point, in what likely was the most expensive campaign in the history of Indianas 1st Congressional District.

Mrvan told his supporters gathered at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 Hall in Merrillville that he likewise was grateful to them for giving him the chance to continue bringing new jobs and opportunities to the Region.

"I want to thank the volunteers who believed in us, who had great faith in us. And really, because of the connections of a lifetime, living in the Region and building a relationship one person at a time, I want to thank you all," Mrvan said.

"The other people I want to thank are working men and women, and union labor  the Steelworkers, the Laborers, the IBEW, all the building trades. I want to thank you for your commitment, the doors that you knocked, the phone calls you made, talking to members, talking to working men and women to understand what was at stake. I thank you," he added. "Thanks Northwest Indiana!"

Greens campaign barred The Times from attending her election night party at Villa Cesare in Schererville, once again favoring national conservative media outlets over publications based in the district she hoped to represent.

Indeed, much of Greens unsuccessful campaign  fueled by upward of $10 million in donations funneled through Republican elected officials and GOP-affiliated political action committees  focused on turning the California native, who identifies as both Black and Asian, into the national face of a diverse Republican Party.

Prior to Election Day, Mrvan said he wasnt surprised Green and Republican interest groups took a shot at winning Indianas 1st District this year  even though its been continuously represented by a Democratic congressman for nearly nine decades.

Through redistricting, and through the ability of independent entities to have unlimited spending, and to bring in money from outside the district into our district, its nothing that is surprising. Its gone on throughout the nation, Mrvan said.

Mrvan said voters know hes delivered for Northwest Indiana by bringing additional federal funding to the Region for the South Shore Line expansion, public safety, higher education, infrastructure and the American Rescue Plan, among other legislative accomplishments.

Looking ahead, Mrvan said hell be working to have Northwest Indiana designated as a technology hub and to take advantage of new opportunities in hydrogen  which could be billions of dollars in investment for us.

The value that I bring is that Im a district-centric member of Congress. What that means, very simply, is I have stayed focused on making sure that Ive answered the Regions concerns, and Im not worried about being on national news or how many likes I get on social media, Mrvan said.

To that end, Mrvan said he even stands ready to continue working with the Republican Indiana congressmen who maligned his character during the course of the campaign in a now-futile effort to boost Green, as well as to further their own GOP leadership ambitions.

It is important for me, for the unification of our country, to be able to solve all of our issues. So I will put our differences aside because politics is politics, but governing is different. And I have clearly been able to govern and been able to reach across the aisle to achieve goals. Weve done it a great deal in Indiana for different industries and for what is best for the Region, and for Indiana, Mrvan said.

Through it all, Mrvan said among the things hell remember most from the campaign are people showing their gratitude to us for working hard to make sure there are jobs for the future, such as when he visited the South Shore Line Double Track construction site in Michigan City alongside U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

When you see the union labor working on that, bringing it to fruition, Im very proud of that. Being able to talk to steelworkers who are looking forward to the infrastructure bill, which will keep them working, and the value that they have in us making those votes for having (employment) certainty for working men and women, Mrvan said.

It has been, obviously, a roller coaster ride. There have been happy moments and there have been not-so-happy moments, but we kept absolutely going through it and trying to be steady as we always have, he added.

District 2  Republican Rudy Yakym III, of Granger, who was chosen in August by Republican district leaders to take the ballot spot of the late U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Elkhart, prevailed over Democrat Paul Steury, of Goshen, and Libertarian William Henry, of Goshen, in both the special election to complete Walorskis current term, as well as the general election for a full, two-year term of his own representing portions of LaPorte County and other areas of north-central Indiana.

District 4  U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Greencastle, prevailed over Democrat Roger Day, of Avon, to win a third term representing Newton and Jasper counties, and west-central Indiana, in the U.S. House.
Two experienced politicians competing in a redrawn district generated some of the most excitement, and anguish, of any Indiana Senate contest anywhere in the state this year.

In the end, it appears that District 1 voters decided to award Lake County Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, a four-year term representing Highland, Griffith, Dyer, Schererville, St. John, unincorporated Calumet Township and southwestern Merrillville.

Im excited man, I really am. I worked very hard for this, Dernulc said.

Dernulc prevailed over state Sen. Michael Griffin, D-Highland, the longtime clerk-treasurer for the town of Highland, who was seeking a four-year term in his own right after being chosen in February by Democratic Party leaders to succeed former state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, following his retirement.

Dernulc said his interest in representing the district stemmed from his "servant's heart," along with his commitment to continue working in a bipartisan fashion, as he says he has on the county council, to advance policies in the best interest of Region citizens.

Specifically, Dernulc said his Statehouse priorities will be promoting government efficiency and keeping taxes low; improving Indiana schools and ensuring educational quality by listening to parents, teachers and administrative personnel; and making sure first responders are fully funded and equipped to provide assistance to Hoosiers in emergencies.

"I pride myself on being the voice for everyone  regardless of political affiliation. Voters will always have a voice with me," he said.

"I have years of experience at the municipal and county levels of government, as well as nearly 30 years of private-sector experience through my career with AT&T. I believe that combination, coupled with my emphasis on bipartisanship, make me the best candidate for state Senate in District 1."

Dernulc got an unexpected boost for his campaign when three of his Democratic colleagues on the Lake County Council issued a public letter praising his civic-mindedness.

That spurred some Lake County Democrats to brand those officeholders as turncoats to the party because they were indirectly supporting an election bid of the Lake County Republican Party chairman.

It remains to be seen whether or how theyll be sanctioned now that Dernulc has been elected.

Senate District 4: State Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, appears to have won a four-year term in the Indiana Senate after initially being chosen last year by Democratic leaders to succeed retired state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes.

Unofficial results show that Pol outpolled former Porter County Councilman Jeff Larson of Chesterton for the right to continue representing northern Porter County and northwest LaPorte County in the Senate.

Pol said he was grateful to his family, friends, campaign manager and everyone in the district who believed in him, supported his campaign and embraced his agenda of supporting working-class families, union members and teachers, among others.

They really got out there and worked incredibly hard and I was really impressed how everybody came together to help out, Pol said.

Pol also said he was grateful to Larson because both candidates focused on the issues in their campaigns and didnt resort to personal attacks or negative ads  a standard Pol that plans to continue at the Statehouse next year.

Im hoping to bring some reasonableness down to Indianapolis, Pol said.

Senate District 6: State Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, was reelected to a third term without Democratic opposition. His district contains the southern half of Lake County, including Crown Point, Winfield, Cedar Lake and Lowell; Newton County; Benton County; and western Jasper County, including DeMotte and Rensselaer.
MATTOON  Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Oakland claimed victory in the 15th Congressional District as she had nearly twice as many votes as her Democratic challenger, Paul Lange of Quincy, while votes were still being tabulated late Tuesday night.

A check of tallies at approximately 10:30 p.m. showed that Miller had won 166,174 votes to Lange's 64,000 in the 30 counties where totals were available in the 35-county district. Miller won her home county of Coles by 6,722-4,434 and Lange's home county of Adams by 19,329-5,583.

Miller posted on her campaign page on Facebook that she wanted to thank the voters in Illinois' 15th District for putting their faith in her with a "resounding victory" in the election.

"I will uphold my promise to defend family, faith and freedom by opposing the disastrous Biden agenda," Miller said. "I will fight to protect life, the Second Amendment, religious liberty, and parental rights. I will be an advocate for farmers, veterans, small businesses and seniors. Together, we will make America great again.

Miller's successful primary run against U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville received a boost from former President Donald Trump's endorsement and him headlining a rally for her in Quincy. Miller defeated Davis, a five-term incumbent, 57% to 43% in the primary.

"Mary kind of handily defeated Rep. Davis, so I knew it would be tough," Lange said late Tuesday evening, adding that the sheer size of the district also posed challenges as he visited each of the 35 counties. "Still, I didn't want to see a seat like that go uncontested."

The newly reconfigured district, which stretches west to east across Central Illinois from the Iowa and Missouri state lines to the Indiana state line, was drawn by Springfield Democrats last year to pack as many Republicans in as possible.

Miller has been a staunch supporter of Trump, including sporting a "Trump Won" sign on the back of her truck in Eastern Illinois University's homecoming parade on Oct. 15. Miller voted to object to the certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.

Lange said one of his motivations for running was his worries about voter rights following Jan. 6, 2021, when rioting Trump supporters tried to interfere with the certification of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential race and prevent Biden's election. Lange said his priorities also included protecting Social Security, developing infrastructure, and advocating for women's right to choose abortion.
MUNSTER  Every 34 seconds one person dies from cardiovascular disease in the U.S., making it the leading cause of death.

Dr. Navdeep Bhatti said this is a crucial issue across America because its a lifestyle disease.

A large portion of this problem is due to the way we live our lives, said Bhatti, Community Healthcare System cardiologist. In Northwest Indiana we have high rates of diabetes, smoking, and an aging population making people susceptible to cardiovascular disease.

Experts in cardiology and cardiovascular care will discuss new interventions and treatments for heart health during the Community Healthcare System Heart and Vascular Symposium scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster.

Six cardiologists from Community Healthcare will be speaking at the event. Bhatti, whos speaking on Women and Heart Disease, said on average, affected women begin showing symptoms of cardiovascular disease 10 years after menopause.

Women have a tendency to rationalize their symptoms, she said. We tend to put ourselves last and its important to know of symptoms or risk factors.

Women may be susceptible to the disease if they have diabetes or experienced hypertension while pregnant, Bhatti said. There are a variety of factors that can play a role in cardiovascular disease, including gestational diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and scleroderma.

All of these diseases are inflammatory disorders associated with a chronic inflammatory state in the body which is harmful to the cardiovascular system, Bhatti said. Unfortunately women are usually hit harder by autoimmune diseases.

Obesity, which is a huge problem within the population, can be a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease, she said.

Bhatti wants people to recognize hypertension as a form of cardiovascular disease because its so prevalent across NWI. Coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease are also common throughout the region due to high instances of smoking, she said.

A lot of it is genetic. We cant really beat our genes, Bhatti said. A large portion of it is the way we live our lives  not getting enough exercise or not eating healthy.

At the symposium, Bhatti said she will be discussing newer medications that have been developed to treat cholesterol, specifically IV infusions which can replace having to take daily pills. Although many screening tools arent necessarily new, theyve been developed over the past two decades  coronary artery calcium scoring and coronary CTA.

Dr. Pratik Patel will speak on behalf of Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation, at the upcoming symposium. Patel, who specializes in cardiology and electrophysiology, treats over 3,000 patients annually for heart disease, specifically atrial fibrillation (A-fib). A-fib is an irregular heart beat that may beat too slow or fast.

Though A-fib isnt hereditary, its not something that can be cured once someone is diagnosed, he said. At the symposium, Patel will be discussing the advancement of catheter ablation, and how it can treat irregular heartbeats.

The earlier you catch the disease, the better chances you have to keep it controlled and not cause long-term issues related to it, Patel said. This gives you the opportunity to intervene earlier which has been proven to definitely be better  were not able to reverse the years of damage that may be undiagnosed with A-fib.

Advancements in the pharmaceutical industry are being made for stroke prevention medication, Patel said. The Watchman implant is becoming a more common, minimally invasive procedure, designed to prevent blood clots from forming in the heart.

Patel said the symposium will be a good opportunity for the public to come out and become more familiar with potential diseases that may have a chance of affecting them. Attendees can get an idea of what treatment options are available and meet some of the providers that may help them, he said.

Its surprising how many people Ive met as patients or even in the hospital that have attended before and gotten something out of it, Patel said. It tells me that this has a lot of value and people enjoy it.
CROWN POINT  Republican candidates have commanding leads in two suburban races for seats on the Lake County Council.

Republican Pete Lindemulder of Schererville had received 60 percent of the vote in the 4th District and and Republican Randy Niemeyer of Cedar Lake had 70 percent of the vote, in the latest canvas of Tuesdays election results.

The Lake County election board had counted 339 of 349 precincts before suspending operations at 11:37 p.m. Tuesday night.

With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, Lindemulder was well ahead of Democrat Nick Petrovski of Crown Point in the contest to represent Schererville, northern St. John and northwest Crown Point in the councils 4th District.

Niemeyer had a 10,000 vote margin over Democrat Michael V. Jacobi of Winfield in the 7th District, which includes Cedar Lake, Winfield, Lowell and rural south Lake County.

Genevieve Gasparovic of the election board said technical difficulties with vote counting devices delayed a final count last night. She said the results wont be official until after provisional ballots are counted Nov. 18.

The 4th and 7th District council seats were the only contested races on Tuesdays ballot.

Democratic party candidates ran unopposed to victory Tuesday for the five other county council seats as well as the public offices of Lake Circuit Court judge, clerk, prosecutor, auditor, treasurer, sheriff, assessor and the 1st District seat on the Lake County Board of Commissioners.

That ensures the Democratic party will retain its decades-old lock on who runs county government services.

Niemeyer, who has 14 years of government experience and is president of the Cedar Lake Town Council, vowed to keep alive his familys reputation for public integrity.

He is a cousin to state Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell and his great uncle, the late Ernie Niemeyer, was a state senator and county commissioner in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Jacobi said he hasnt made a career in politics and is therefore in a better position to reform government.

The winners in those two contests will serve with five other Democrats on the seven-member county council, which sets the annual spending limits for county officials.

The winners in the uncontested races include 1st District Councilman Dave Hamm, on the council since 2012 and Clorius L. Lay, who defeated outgoing 2nd District Councilman Alfredo Menchaca in the spring primary.

Also: 3rd District Councilman Charlie Brown, on the fiscal body since 2019; 5th District Councilwoman Christine Cid since 2004 and 6th District Councilman Ted F. Bilski since 2007.

Voters also re-elected Lake Circuit Court Judge Marissa J. McDermott, who has presided over the court six years, County Prosecutor Bernard A. Carter, who has served 29 years in office and County Clerk Mike Brown.

Brown previously served eight years as county clerk, then resigned in 2018 because of state-imposed term limits.

A caucus of Democratic Party precinct committeemen returned Brown to the clerks office Aug. 8 to replace the ailing former clerk Lorenzo Arredondo who was injured in a Jan. 13 fall outside his home.

Voters elected Peggy Holinga Katona county auditor and John Petalas for county treasurer.

Katona, the outgoing treasurer and Petalas, the outgoing auditor have alternately held those two county offices several times in the last 17 years, switching every eight years to get around term limits.

Voters also re-elected County Assessor Latonya Spearman and First District Lake County Commissioner Kyle W. Allen Sr. to new terms.

Spearman has been assessor since 2019 when a Democratic Party caucus named her to replaced Jerome Prince, after Prince was elected Gary mayor.

Allen has been a county commissioner since 2016.
After a campaign charged with emotion over issues including crime and the states pandemic response, Democrat Kwame Raoul declared victory Tuesday in his bid for a second term as Illinois attorney general over a challenge from Republican Thomas DeVore.

With 59% of precincts reporting, Raoul had 56% of the vote and DeVore, a downstate attorney, had 41%, according to unofficial results. Raouls double-digit win tracked with other statewide Democratic candidates, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Raoul addressed supporters at Offshore Rooftop at Navy Pier at about 10:15 p.m.

DeVore called the incumbent to concede, according to Raouls campaign.

We had a good race, DeVore said in a speech to his supporters at The Drake Hotel Oak Brook. Illinois is an interesting state, and we spent I believe the least amount of money ever on a statewide race.

Raoul held a commanding cash advantage in the race. DeVore frequently joined forces on the campaign trail with the GOP gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Darren Bailey, who lost decisively on Tuesday.

In the final days of the election, Raoul joined Pritzker and other Democrats at the top of the ticket at rallies targeting Black voters and labor groups. Of his opponent, during an earlier online forum, Raoul said DeVore should not be let anywhere near the door of the attorney generals office.

The two differed starkly on most issues, chief among them Pritzkers pandemic-related executive orders. Raouls office repeatedly battled with DeVore in court to defend the state against lawsuits challenging Pritzkers mask mandate and other executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

While there hasnt been a final ruling in any of the more than 30 lawsuits DeVore filed against the state, he was successful in temporarily stopping some of Pritzkers rules. The litigation served as a springboard in DeVores campaign as the political unknown from downstate Sorento steadily gained notoriety.

At 53, the civil attorneys only experience in elected office was a two-year stint on the Bond County Board more than a decade ago. DeVore, who has the words freedom and liberty tattooed on his forearms, argued his willingness to take on the governor in court is proof he if elected would be a check on power and government overreach.

But DeVore didnt come close to Raoul in fundraising efforts. DeVore started July with less than $16,000 in his campaign fund after winning a GOP primary in which he was vastly outspent by the second-place finisher, who was on a slate backed by billionaire Ken Griffin. As of early Tuesday, DeVore reported raising more than $500,000 in additional contributions, about half of which came from a loan he made to his campaign that lifted contribution limits for both candidates.

With the limits off, Raoul received a $1 million contribution from Pritzkers campaign fund and, as of Monday, had reported raising more than $1.1 million in other contributions since July 1. Thats on top of the $1.1 million in cash he had on hand at the end of June.

DeVore attacked Raoul for being too closely aligned with Pritzker, repeatedly calling the incumbent attorney general the governors lap dog. Raoul dismissed such criticism, contending his independence is not for sale.

Raoul, 58, is a former Cook County prosecutor from Chicago who succeeded Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate, representing parts of the citys South Side, before being elected four years ago to replace former Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

In response to DeVores criticism, Raoul argued his office was on the right side of the law and public health in defending the states actions on the pandemic and, thus, helped save lives.

DeVore also has sued Pritzker for defamation after the governor called him a grifter during a news conference in response to a question about DeVores legal challenges to the pandemic mandates. Raouls office defended Pritzker against the defamation allegation, but DeVore later dropped the lawsuit.

The attorney general accused DeVore of wasting the courts time with what he deemed frivolous lawsuits. Besides Pritzker, DeVore in recent years has sued a special education teacher and two others for sharing a Facebook post in which DeVore referred to students working a school concession stand as window lickers and his girlfriends mother, whom he accuses of publishing a derogatory article under a pseudonym.

Raoul said DeVores largely unsuccessful lawsuits showed he was unqualified for the office. He also pointed to DeVores social media comments that indicated he might, if elected, investigate political adversaries, including Pritzker, and Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, whom DeVore has criticized as being too lenient on criminals.

DeVore accused the incumbent of not being aggressive enough in fighting crime in his role as attorney general. The GOP challengers primary criticism has been with the SAFE-T Act, the sweeping criminal justice legislation Pritzker has signed into law. Among other changes, it will end cash bail on Jan. 1.

The law allows judges to keep defendants behind bars while awaiting trial if they are deemed to be a flight risk or danger to the public, but Republicans argue it will empty out jails and lead to increased violence. The measure faces an onslaught of legal challenges from several county states attorneys.

DeVore alleged the law is unconstitutional, raising issues with the way it was passed as well as its content. He pledged to work to get the measure overturned if elected.

Raoul, who backed the SAFE-T Act, has acknowledged he has concerns about potential ambiguities in the sweeping law and spoke to the need for lawmakers and prosecutors to work together to clarify some provisions.

In his first term, the attorney general created an organized retail crime task force to stem smash-and-grab offenses. He also pushed for stronger federal ghost gun regulations to crack down on homemade weapons. Raoul pledged to try to expand the attorney generals jurisdiction over corruption cases if reelected.

Though crime dominated much of the race, Raoul also highlighted his support for abortion rights, including his offices defense against an ongoing lawsuit challenging a state law that enshrined access to the procedure as a fundamental right. The litigation objects to a provision of the law that requires health plans that offer pregnancy-related care to also provide coverage for abortion.

DeVore has described himself as a pro-life guy, but he said if elected he would continue to defend the state reproductive health law because he wasnt aware of any constitutional problems with it.

Under Raoul, the attorney generals office has played an active role in defending the rights of transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community. But DeVore said his approach to such social issues, which he said he would not actively litigate, marked a fundamental difference between him and Raoul.

Libertarian Party candidate Daniel K. Robin, a 45-year attorney from Schaumburg, was also on the ballot and wound up collecting just about 2% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

Get all the election results we know so far Energized Republicans hoped to break Democrats one-party hold in Washington as results emerged Tuesday night. Find all the latest local and n
But this show is about much more than Mr. Bushs art. Nearly every painting is flanked as closely as Secret Service agents by big color photographs of the former president greeting, meeting and hanging out with its subject and also barricaded behind big vitrines holding often lavish official gifts. Mr. Putin presented Mr. Bush with watercolors of all American presidents bound in bejeweled velvet that suggest bad Faberge. From the Dalai Lama, he received a traditional Tibetan white greeting scarf and from Ms. Merkel a multi-tiered Christmas creche. All this gives people uninterested in the paintings plenty else to look at, even if its standard presidential-library fare.

And of course, like everything else in the The Art of Leadership: A Presidents Personal Diplomacy, the paintings place the former president on the world stage, where everyone is acting. Mr. Bush has not painted the people closest to him, who were instrumental in bringing him to power and shaping his presidency, namely Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld. Instead, he has painted a world of smiles and friendship that can rarely be taken as the whole story. The show reflects an attempt both to burnish the Bush presidency and distract us from its failures, as his brother Jeb, a former governor of Florida, may be readying his own campaign for the presidency.

In the end, these works remain very much on the surface, in character perhaps with Mr. Bush and his presidency. That may paradoxically say more about art than about Mr. Bush. They remind us of arts insidious function as evidence and of its almost inevitable tendency to tell at least some of the truth, if not the whole truth. I suspect that critics, art historians and presidential historians will be working through them for some time.
As always, they have taken many cinematic liberties. Crown watchers in Britain are already debating what is accurate and what has been changed for dramatic purposes. In one episode, for instance, Diana gets a crash course in royal-family protocol  where to walk, where to stand, how to speak in public. In real life, Sulzberger said, the instruction came from two members of the palace staff. But The Crown gives the job to Dianas grandmother, the harsh Lady Fermoy, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother known for testifying in court against her own daughter, Dianas mother, during Dianas parents bitter divorce. We had some advice from one of our advisers that Lady Fermoy was more of the kind of taskmaster we were looking for, O Beirn said. The resulting scenes are painful: Diana really does come across as a lamb to the slaughter, a description she once used of herself.

Sulzberger said that with so many people alive to remember what happened, the show was particularly concerned with plumbing the nuances of the story. That meant acknowledging potential bias in even knowledgeable sources. For instance, accounts sympathetic to Diana at the time stressed her despair over Charless infidelity while conveniently eliding her own adulterous adventures. But The Crown makes it clear that there were two sides to the tale, showing Diana promising the Queen that she will give up her lover, James Hewitt, and then going back to him after Charles fails to end his own affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

Both Corrin and Josh OConnor, who returned this season as Charles (Dominic West is his rumored replacement next season, Elizabeth Debicki has been confirmed as the new Diana), said they tried to not take sides in the million-dollar question surrounding the couples operatically disastrous marriage: Whose fault was it? The Crown gives evidence for both positions, and neither position.
A 2003 retrospective of Ms. Bontecous work, organized by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York the next year, included sculptures and drawings from the 1980s and 90s that seemed to fuse her seemingly divergent inspirations  outer space, industrial mechanics, marine life and the natural world  into a coherent oeuvre, like a missing link: iridescent spheres resembling eyeballs or marbles or planets rendered in colored pencil; galactic constellations constructed from porcelain, silk and wire that could also pass as alien birds or insects.

She explained that her main reason for agreeing to the retrospective after all those decades was that she had developed aplastic anemia a few years before, and that it had nearly killed her. I suddenly feared that I was going to dump all this stuff on my children, she told The Times in 2003. What was I going to do with it?

Ms. Bontecou credited her husbands determination to find alternative treatments with saving her life. She also objected to the notion that her retreat from the New York art scene constituted a disappearance from the art world  as if the art scene and the art world were one and the same. Ive never left the art world, she told Ann Philbin, the director of the Hammer Museum. Im in the real art world.

Ms. Bontecou was less confounded than the critics by the trajectory of her work over the decades, seeing all her art as connected to and even seamless with her life.

I kept thinking how nice it was to be able to change, not to be stuck in a mold, she told Ms. Munro in the late 1970s. But the strange thing is that even after you have changed, as you believe you have, and then look back, you see there is one thread through it all.

Alex Traub contributed reporting.
Leslie Phillips, a British actor who in a career that began before World War II played numerous comic roles, then reached new generations of filmgoers when he provided the voice of the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films, died on Monday at his home in London. He was 98.

His agent, Jonathan Lloyd, confirmed the death.

Mr. Phillips began acting as a teenager, supporting his family after his father died in his 40s. His fledgling career was interrupted by military service at the end of World War II, but in the mid-1940s he resumed it, although at first mostly in the murkiest, rat-infested old playhouses and music halls in the North of England, as he put it in his autobiography, Hello (2006).

He eventually began to have success on radio, most notably on the long-running comedy show The Navy Lark, and he went from bit roles in films and on television to larger ones. He drew good notices for his performance in the Gene Kelly film Les Girls in 1957.
Entering the election, nine of the states 26 seats were viewed as being in play, with the most competitive races in Long Island, parts of Westchester County and exurban and rural areas in the Hudson Valley.

Seeking to seize on general discontent among the electorate and President Bidens relatively low approval numbers, Republicans in these districts focused heavily on fears over crime and the soaring cost of living as a way to energize their base and lure swing voters who spurned the party during the Trump presidency but were unhappy with Democratic leadership.

Their messages were compounded by similar efforts by the Republican candidate for governor, Representative Lee Zeldin, a congressman from Long Island who made public safety in New York City a central focus of television ads and campaign speeches that blanketed the state. Democrats argued that their opponents were fearmongering, stirring up concerns over crime in urban areas with voters who were distant from it.

Mike Vanasco, who lives in Hicksville, N.Y., but works as a firefighter in the Bayside section of Queens, said that crime was one of the major issues motivating him to vote for the Republican congressional candidate in his district.

I work in the city, and I just think weve got to crack down. The city is a mess, Mr. Vanasco, 39, said.

But, he added, the crime had not affected him personally. I mean, I work in a nicer area, he said. Bayside is not so bad. But I think everyone can pretty much see it.
WASHINGTON  An F.B.I. informant who was embedded for months in the inner circle of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, is likely to testify as a defense witness at the seditious conspiracy trial of Mr. Rhodes in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The informant, Greg McWhirter, served as the Oath Keepers vice president but was secretly reporting to the F.B.I. about the groups activities in the weeks and months leading up to the Capitol attack, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Despite their relationship with Mr. McWhirter, federal prosecutors decided not to call him as a government witness at the trial of Mr. Rhodes and his four co-defendants, which is now unfolding in Federal District Court in Washington. The prosecution rested its case last week without calling other key cooperating witnesses, including three members of the Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges.

Mr. McWhirter, 40 and a former sheriffs deputy in Montana, was expected to appear at the trial on Tuesday as a witness for Mr. Rhodes  an unusual move that suggests Mr. Rhodess lawyers believe he has information that could help their case.
Since its formation in 1831, the French Foreign Legion has had boots on the ground in five continents, on terrain ranging from sun-baked deserts, to snowy wastelands, to festering jungle swamps, to densely crowded metropolises.

This month, the military force famously made up of recruits from across the globe enters uncharted territory  the fashion world  with its first ever product collaboration: a mens boot inspired by footwear worn in combat zones by the forces legionnaires (who, with the exception of one Englishwoman, have all been men).

One of our mottos is a la maniere de nos anciens, which means like former legionnaires would do, Lt. Col. Jean-Philippe Bourban, a spokesman for the Foreign Legion, said in an email. We loved the idea that for our first fashion partnership, we could reflect an appreciation for our history and all our predecessors accomplished.

The original boot, called the Pallabrousse, was introduced by the French company Palladium in 1947. Now focused on footwear, Palladium at first produced tires for the fledgling European aviation industry in the 1920s. But after World War II, demand for its tires plummeted and the company pivoted to making shoes with rubber soles.
WASHINGTON  A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by Alexander S. Vindman, a chief witness in President Donald J. Trumps first impeachment trial, against Donald Trump Jr., Rudolph W. Giuliani and two other top Trump allies, saying that Mr. Vindman had failed to prove that they had conspired to intimidate and retaliate against him.

In the lawsuit, filed in February, Mr. Vindman said the defendants had spread false claims that he was a Ukrainian spy, had leaked classified information to undermine his credibility, falsely accused him of perjury and had him and his twin brother fired from their White House positions, leaving a stain on our democracy.

But in a 29-page ruling, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington said that while the attacks against Mr. Vindman may have been outside the bounds of appropriate political discourse, the political hackery alone did not violate the law.

Vindmans facts do not plausibly suggest that defendants agreed to intimidate him so as to prevent him from testifying or doing his job, or to unlawfully retaliate against him, Judge Boasberg said, let alone that they had engaged in illegal conduct to do so.
ATLANTA  Stacey Abrams has conceded to Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, Mr. Kemps campaign said late Tuesday, ending a bitter, high-profile rematch of their 2018 contest.

Early on Wednesday morning, The Associated Press called the race.

Mr. Kemp, who led the state while his party controlled both chambers of Georgias General Assembly, campaigned on the conservative policy wins of his last four years, including forgoing public health guidance to keep Georgia businesses open during the Covid-19 pandemic and passing legislation that would allow state residents to purchase a firearm without a permit. He also highlighted his suspension of the states gas tax and proposed using a budget surplus of more than $6 billion to fund further tax breaks for residents.

Residual effects of the 2020 presidential election loomed over the race from the start.

Former President Donald J. Trump recruited David Perdue, the former Republican senator, to challenge Mr. Kemp in the primary as retribution for Mr. Kemps certifying of Joseph R. Biden Jr.s crucial win in the state. But Mr. Kemp defeated Mr. Perdue by more than 50 points, and Georgia conservatives quickly coalesced around his general election campaign.

Mr. Kemp frequently stumped alongside several national party figures who have kept the former president at arms length  or alienated themselves from him altogether. Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia visited Georgia on Mr. Kemps behalf, as did Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona and former Vice President Mike Pence.
J.D. Vance, the Republican author of the book Hillbilly Elegy, won his Senate race in Ohio, according to The Associated Press, defeating Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat who ran an attention-grabbing campaign as he tried to win back some of the white working-class voters who had fled his party in the Trump era.

Mr. Vance was once a sharp critic of Donald J. Trump, but he refashioned himself as a hard-right acolyte of the former president. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Vance during the primary and campaigned for him in the general election. Mr. Vance has questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election and said last week that he wont run away from it.

He will replace Senator Rob Portman, a Republican who did not run for re-election.

Mr. Vance, who previously worked as a venture capitalist in San Francisco for Peter Thiel, a billionaire founder of PayPal, struggled to connect with voters in Ohio over the summer, maintaining a light campaign presence that worried some Republicans.

But he accelerated his pace this fall, aided by an onslaught of outside Republican spending. National Democrats did little to boost Mr. Ryan, whose candidacy was regarded as a long shot in a state that shifted to the right in the Trump era.
Representative Ted Budd, a North Carolina conservative endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, defeated his Democratic rival, Cheri Beasley, according to The Associated Press, ensuring that Republicans will hold the seat of retiring Senator Richard Burr.

North Carolinas Senate campaign had been tightly contested for much of the year, as neither Mr. Budd nor Ms. Beasley, a former State Supreme Court chief justice, could open a lead in the polls.

Mr. Budd ran a low-key race, hoping he could ride a national mood hostile to President Biden to victory without attracting attention to his staunch conservatism, which was out of step with the deal-making of Mr. Burr and the states other Republican senator, Thom Tillis.

Mr. Budd, a gun store owner and the son of a successful businessman, voted against certifying the 2020 election and had co-sponsored a national ban on abortion.
ROME  The high cost of living is provoking strikes, protests and widespread grumbling. Talk about nuclear weapons has heightened anxieties and encouraged some to demand rapid negotiations. And President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is wooing politicians, including many from populist parties on the right and the left who have flirted with him in the past.

But while Mr. Putin may have bet on European fatigue and intolerance for hardship to divide the alliance and buckle its weakest members, more than eight months into Russias war on Ukraine, the scale of the challenges has been leveraged effectively by leaders to stiffen the public spine and Europe is holding firm.

Despite some kicking and screaming, governments across the ideological spectrum and the continent  in Western and Eastern Europe, in the Baltics and along the Mediterranean  are maintaining support for Ukraine and tough sanctions on Russia.

While recent polls show a slight dip in popular support for Ukraine across Europe, backing still remains strong, and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy  the continents three largest countries  seem insulated against external and internal pressures to cave for the foreseeable future, as they have all recently had elections.
Yet they were removed by a European scientist during a period of colonial domination with which much of the Western cultural world is now trying to reckon. Historians say that Dubois used forced laborers for his digs and that some of them died while working for him; the museum accepts those accounts. The argument for restitution rests on the idea that Naturaliss ownership of the collection is based on colonial power.

Indonesia has requested the collections return before: The first time was immediately after it gained independence, in 1949. Museum administrators argued at the time that scientific finds were universal heritage, rather than national patrimony; they also argued that the fossils would not have been discovered without Duboiss initiative. For years, the institution has maintained a finders keepers attitude that is considered increasingly problematic.

In response to the claim, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is setting up a commission to weigh in on the matter, a process that could take months, said Jules van de Ven, a ministry spokesman. Whats important to the Dutch government is: How did it get into our state collection? he said. He added that if the committee determined that we took it without buying it, and it wasnt a gift, then we will return it. The scientific value of a certain artifact to a collection is not part of the restitution debate as far as the government is concerned.
It was a random morning in November, and Enheduanna was trending.

Suddenly, the ancient Mesopotamian priestess, who had been dead for more than 4,000 years, was a hot topic online as word spread that the first individually named author in human history was  a woman?

That may have been old news at the Morgan Library & Museum, where Sidney Babcock, the longtime curator of ancient Near Eastern antiquities, was about to offer a tour of its new exhibition She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400-2000 B.C. Babcock was thrilled by the attention, if not exactly surprised by the publics surprise.

Ask people who the first author was, and they might say Homer, or Herodotus. People have no idea, he said. They simply dont believe it could be a woman  and that she was writing more than a millennium before either of them, in a strikingly personal voice.

Enheduannas work celebrates the gods and the power of the Akkadian empire, which ruled present-day Iraq from about 2350 B.C. to 2150 B.C. But it also describes more sordid, earthly matters, including her abuse at the hands of a corrupt priest  the first reference to sexual harassment in world literature, the show argues.
Joe Tarsia, the recording engineer and studio operator who was among the architects of the lush, fervent blend of soul, disco and funk known as the Sound of Philadelphia, died on Nov. 1 in Lancaster, Pa. He was 88.

His death, at a retirement community, was confirmed by a friend, the video producer Steve Garrin, who did not cite a cause.

At Sigma Sound Studios, the recording hub he established in 1968, Mr. Tarsia worked with the producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell on blockbuster hits by Philadelphia soul luminaries like the OJays and the Delfonics. Known for his precision at the mixing board and his imaginative use of echo and other ambient effects, Mr. Tarsia was the engineer on scores of gold and platinum recordings.

We were lucky to be recording at Sigma Sound with Joe Tarsia, Mr. Gamble said in a 2008 interview with Crawdaddy magazine. He was a great engineer and got a clean, clear sound from every instrument.
Not only are we live, our audience tonight  this is exciting  our studio audience is made up entirely of Herschel Walkers children.  JIMMY KIMMEL

In the Florida governors race, Democrat Charlie Crist has been defeated by MAGA wannabe and 2024 hopeful Ron DeSantis. And now, in accordance with Florida law, Charlie Crist will be forced on a plane and flown to Marthas Vineyard.  STEPHEN COLBERT

You know, Matt Gaetz easily won his seat in Florida. He was re-elected. Floridas a state in which being an alleged sex offender makes you an experienced public servant. Its not necessarily frowned on. Matt is going to wait to celebrate until prom night, which is sweet.  JIMMY KIMMEL

New York, were just getting word that Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul has defeated MAGA candidate Lee Zeldin to remain governor of New York. This marks the historic first time New York has ever had a female governor on purpose.  STEPHEN COLBERT

Now, one of the biggest races that everyone has been watching is in Georgia, between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, and right now they are neck and almost entirely neck.  STEPHEN COLBERT

It is so tight, this race could be decided by a margin of error of plus or minus Herschel Walkers secret children.  STEPHEN COLBERT
Formal education in classical music has largely vanished from many American schools. Yet young people still develop a passion for it  at home, from films and television programs and, occasionally, from books such as these two. If these attractive stories do not provide any specific instruction about how music is made, they are likely nevertheless to kindle curiosity.

The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould has long been beloved among people who stand apart, and AS GLENN AS CAN BE (Groundwood, 40 pp., $19.99, Ages 3 to 6), with words by Sarah Ellis and illustrations by Nancy Vo, should provide solace and inspiration to those reserved, thoughtful children who, try as they might, cannot make any sense of what most of their contemporaries are up to.

Glenn is a boy who knows what he likes, reads the opening sentence, accompanied by a picture of a mid-20th-century Canadian youth, listening to an oversize radio in a comfortable room with his dog and his mother. We are then presented with a list of things that make Glenn happy: boats (but not fishing), pranks and silly jokes (but never bullying), fields and snowy forests (but only when bundled elaborately enough to stave off the cold). Glenn craves learning and intellectual play but dislikes school, which slows him down and interferes with the pursuit of his own interests.

Most of those involve the piano, which he began playing in earliest childhood, quite literally on his mothers lap. As Ellis puts it: He loves it more than anything. Its as exciting as fast boating. Its as fun as solving a really hard puzzle. Its a way of saying what he wants to say without using words. Playing the piano is when Glenn gets to be totally and completely Glenn.
Also, this is a big one: If you feel sick  as sad as it is  you should stay home, even if that means skipping out on family gatherings over the holidays. You might have Covid, you might have the flu, or you might have R.S.V. You might be able to rule out Covid with a test, but its harder with the other two. And an important thing to know about R.S.V. is that adults can get it, too. And while it might be mild for you, it can be very serious for older adults, younger children and people with weakened immune systems.

Long Covid: People who took the antiviral drug Paxlovid within a few days after being infected with the coronavirus were less likely to experience long Covid months later, People who took the antiviral drug Paxlovid within a few days after being infected with the coronavirus were less likely to experience long Covid months later, a study found

Updated Boosters: New findings show that New findings show that updated boosters by Pfizer and Moderna are better than their predecessors at increasing antibody levels against the most common version of the virus now circulating.

Calls for a New Strategy: Covid boosters can help vulnerable Americans dodge serious illness or death, but some experts believe the shots Covid boosters can help vulnerable Americans dodge serious illness or death, but some experts believe the shots must be improved to prevent new waves

Future Vaccines: Financial and bureaucratic barriers in the United States mean that the next generation of Covid vaccines may well be designed here, Financial and bureaucratic barriers in the United States mean that the next generation of Covid vaccines may well be designed here, but used elsewhere

What should I do if I get Covid?

The C.D.C.s current guidance is to stay at home at least five days and isolate from others as much as possible.

I should also say that new Omicron variants are steadily gaining ground in the U.S., and its not totally clear yet whats going to happen with them. Cases are currently ticking up, and there are other viruses circulating. We know that a lot of the precautions that we take for Covid will also help manage the flu and R.S.V., like washing our hands and masking. So, despite many places no longer requiring masks, and despite a lot of people  myself included  allowing more risk into our lives, there are still plenty of reasons to take Covid precautions around the holidays.

How are you personally approaching the holidays?

Im going home, and I have a relatively large family. Im doing a mini-quarantine one week before, and Ill be testing with both P.C.R. and rapid tests right up until the moment I see them. My life may look a little restrictive leading up to the holidays, but then during the holidays it will look like any other. Ill be able to act normally, share meals and hug my siblings. It should be really lovely  it just requires some advance planning.

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Your approach to the holidays

We asked readers how they are approaching the holiday season this year. Thanks to everyone who shared their plans.

This year, I am approaching the holidays as I did in prepandemic years. Looking forward to baking, gift shopping and hosting and attending parties with family and friends. We will have a large group for Thanksgiving, and I am choosing not to mask or worry about the guests vaccination status. I imagine one or two people I know will test positive sometime during the holidays, but it wont give me the same level of anxiety it did in years past. We suffered broken friendships, job changes, moved from our community and missed out on so much during the last two holiday seasons I am mentally not able to invest in so much stress and worry anymore.  Alison, Arizona
No sign of a red wave in the U.S.

In the critical midterm elections, Democrats defied the historical odds as well as an anticipated red wave that could have given the Republican Party a substantial majority in the House and a narrower one in the Senate.

With several key races still too close to call, Republicans have an advantage in the House, which could doom President Bidens legislative agenda and mean more grinding partisan conflict. But the margins are slim, and Democrats could still hold the Senate. Here are updates and five takeaways.

Donald Trumps position as kingmaker is on shaky ground: Many candidates whom the former president supported underperformed, and his looming presence may have undercut Republicans in some tight races. Right-wing media praised Ron DeSantis, who won re-election as Floridas governor and is emerging as a 2024 favorite.

Control of the Senate will take weeks to decide, although Republicans now have an easier path to the majority than the Democrats do. In Georgia, the race between Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democrat, and Herschel Walker, the Republican, will go to a runoff next month.
Follow our live coverage of the COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt  A frosty, monthslong pause in dialogue between China and the United States on climate issues appeared to thaw ever so slightly this week at the United Nations climate summit, known as COP27, in this Red Sea resort town.

John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy for climate change, confirmed that he had met with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua  the only breakthrough, albeit a small one, since China suspended climate talks with President Bidens administration in early August after Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan over Chinas objections.

Weve had some informal talks, but were not in any formal negotiations, Mr. Kerry said at an event on the sidelines of the summit. I stand ready to negotiate.

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Xie have met at least three times since Sunday, including on the sidelines of a main hall where world leaders have given speeches and in a V.I.P. room nearby, according to a person familiar with their discussions who was not authorized to speak about them.
The new analysis is part of an ongoing research project that aims to dig into the granular data for really specific measures of effectiveness  like treatment duration  that could set the stage for eventually closing the gaps, said Mohammad Jalali, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who co-wrote the paper with several colleagues.

Medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder has been a subject of debate in the United States because drugs like buprenorphine (also known by the brand name Suboxone) and methadone are also opioids. Some officials worry that the approach encourages drug use.

Researchers say the medications, which dont produce a high at prescribed doses, are vital to satisfying cravings and reducing withdrawal symptoms as patients seek to recover from addiction. The medicines have been shown to reduce the mortality rate among people addicted to opioids by at least half.

Fentanyl Overdoses: What to Know Card 1 of 5 Devastating losses. Drug overdose deaths, largely caused by the synthetic opioid drug fentanyl, reached record highs in the United States in 2021. Heres what you should know to keep your loved ones safe: Understand fentanyls effects. Fentanyl is a potent and fast-acting drug, two qualities that also make it highly addictive. A small quantity goes a long way, so its easy to suffer an overdose. With fentanyl, there is only a short window of time to intervene and save a persons life during an overdose. Stick to licensed pharmacies. Prescription drugs sold online or by unlicensed dealers marketed as OxyContin, Vicodin and Xanax are often laced with fentanyl. Only take pills that were prescribed by your doctor and came from a licensed pharmacy. Talk to your loved ones. The best way to prevent fentanyl use is to educate your loved ones, including teens, about it. Explain what fentanyl is and that it can be found in pills bought online or from friends. Aim to establish an ongoing dialogue in short spurts rather than one long, formal conversation. Learn how to spot an overdose. When someone overdoses from fentanyl, breathing slows and their skin often turns a bluish hue. If you think someone is overdosing, call 911 right away. If youre concerned that a loved one could be exposed to fentanyl, you may want to buy naloxone, a medicine that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose and is often available at local pharmacies without prescription.









The duration of treatment is a helpful measure of a patients quality of care, the studys authors said, because longer treatments  particularly those that last more than six months  are associated with better long-term clinical outcomes.

But many available research findings on addiction and treatment use data that combine racial and ethnic groups, a chronic problem in the literature, Dr. Jalali said.
Ms. Qureshi and Mr. Bashir were willing to take that risk, but the coronavirus pandemic got in the way, adding impossible complications with travel restrictions and quarantines.

It was a very hard decision. I was grieving, but I told the doctors, I dont think I can go to San Francisco, she said.

Her doctor, Dr. Karen Fung-Kee-Fung, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Ottawa Hospital, understood. In the end, the barriers were insurmountable, she said.

The only feasible option was to treat Ayla in Canada, but the clinical trial authorization was for Dr. MacKenzies group in San Francisco. The doctors in Ontario needed permission from their hospital to try the treatment as an off-label drug infusion that was not part of a clinical trial.

Then, they had to get the enzyme from the biotech company Sanofi Genzyme of Canada. It was approved for treating babies, but the doctors wanted to treat a fetus, and the company had to be persuaded that the drug could be used.

After that was granted, the Ottawa doctors infused the drug into the fetuss umbilical cord six times from weeks 24 to 36 of gestation. All indications were that Ayla was developing normally. Her heart muscle was not growing thick, as it had in her siblings who had died. She was moving normally and was practicing breathing, as is expected with a healthy fetus.

The doctors delivered Ayla on June 22, 2021, a sweet, juicy baby, Dr. Fung-Kee-Fung said.

At first, everything was a question mark for her parents  would she be able to hold up her head? Would she be able to crawl, to walk?
The first Black Panther movie opened in February 2018. A lot has changed since then, both in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in the one that most of us non-superheroes are compelled to inhabit.

The most tragic and consequential change was surely the death, in 2020, of Chadwick Boseman, whose performance as King TChalla had seemed to signal the arrival of a franchise-defining new star. Even before that, the Marvel/Disney corporate strategy was shifting into a post- Avengers phase, as the familiar heroes were dispersed into a multiplatform multiverse of stories, sometimes joined by alternative versions of themselves. And of course, here in the real world

Lets not even go there. The political situation in the fictional African nation of Wakanda is complicated enough. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the director Ryan Coogler feeds his own and the publics grief into the story, infusing the movie with somber notes of family loss and collective mourning. There is also a sense of the disorder that follows in the wake of a charismatic, unifying leader.

TChallas mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), has assumed the throne, at least for the moment. His younger sister, the scientific prodigy Shuri (Letitia Wright), scrambles to honor her brothers memory and fill his shoes. The center is holding, but the kingdom nonetheless seems vulnerable, as the outside world conspires to gain access to Wakandas reserves of vibranium, a rare mineral with daunting military and industrial uses. The benevolent global order that TChalla led his nation into has given way to one based on deceit, subversion and exploitation.
For Gov. Kathy Hochul, a second historical milestone was clearly in her grasp: Nearly 15 months after she unexpectedly became New Yorks first female governor, she was about to be the first woman in the state to be elected to the position.

But her victory on Tuesday proved harder to secure than most had expected.

Ms. Hochul led Representative Lee Zeldin, her Republican challenger, by roughly five percentage points with roughly 93 percent of the vote counted  a wider gap than some had braced for in the final weeks of the race, but still what would be the narrowest margin in a New York governors race in nearly three decades.

Mr. Zeldin managed to gain unforeseen traction in one of the most liberal states in the nation by mounting a campaign that was almost singularly focused on crime, allowing him to close in on Ms. Hochul and make significant inroads among suburban and independent voters, as well as some disaffected Democrats.

Governor Hochul ultimately managed to repel Mr. Zeldins late momentum, recalibrating her campaign in the final two weeks of the race. She increased her time in New York City as she sought to animate her base of Democratic voters; changed the focus of her political messaging and talked more often about public safety; and drew a star-studded lineup of Democrats to New York to rally around her as labor unions also flocked to her aid.
Marc Molinaro, a Republican county executive in New Yorks Hudson Valley, has won the race for New Yorks 19th Congressional District, flipping a Democratic seat, according to The Associated Press.

Republicans have had designs on the seat ever since Antonio Delgado resigned earlier this year to become New Yorks lieutenant governor.

But Mr. Molinaro lost a special election in August to fill the seat to Pat Ryan, a Democrat. Thanks to a complicated redistricting shuffle, Mr. Ryan sought re-election in the neighboring 18th district, rather than the 19th, creating another open seat  and another opening for Mr. Molinaro.
The grueling midterm battles that arose from New Yorks redistricting chaos continued on Wednesday, with tight races in a couple of consequential districts still up in the air  elections that could help decide the balance of power in Congress.

Republicans have flipped four seats, including that of Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose concession constituted a humiliating loss for Democrats.

With supermajorities in Albany, Democrats in New York had hoped to use redistricting to cement their grip on the state and perhaps even offset some of the influence of Republicans in other states. But the maps they drew were rejected by a court as gerrymandered, leaving the job to a special master, who drew a handful of competitive districts, some of which yielded tight races that have yet to be called.

Heres where things stand in New York:

On Long Island, Republicans won all four congressional seats  flipping two.

In New Yorks Third Congressional District, the Democratic activist and businessman Robert Zimmerman lost to George Santos, who attended the Jan. 6. rally in Washington, D.C. The contest appeared to be the first in New York history to pit two openly gay men against one another for a seat in Congress. The district was previously held by Representative Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who launched an unsuccessful run for governor earlier this year.
When Jasmine Taylor turned 30 a year and a half ago, her personal finances were a mess. I told myself, this is my last year of living like this, she said to me. She hunted for a system that would help her discipline her spending and came upon a budgeting strategy called cash-stuffing that shes been using ever since.

She takes her weekly income in cash and stuffs it into clear plastic envelopes in a colorful binder, one envelope for each category of spending. If her envelope for groceries is empty before the month is over, shell make do with the food she has at home. On the first of each month she deposits cash in the bank to cover that months recurring bills. She uses credit cards for online spending but pays them off in full with the cash from her binders.

Cash-stuffing hasnt just disciplined her spending; it has also given her a new career as a social media influencer. She has more than 600,000 followers on TikTok, more than 160,000 on Facebook, 118,000 on Instagram and more than 90,000 on YouTube. She regularly posts videos of her hands counting and distributing currency while tallying everything up on paper in one of her notebooks. Thanks to cash-stuffing, she said, Im making a very good living.

I confess that I knew nothing about cash-stuffing until a few weeks ago, when I got an email pitch about it from a personal finance company. When I write about personal finance its usually to share the ideas of academic economists who specialize in lofty concepts such as lifecycle consumption smoothing. When I write about cash its usually to muse on its gradual disappearance. Last year cash was used for just 20 percent of all payments, down from 31 percent in 2017, according to an annual survey by the Federal Reserve. I always thought, Why use cash when credit cards, debit cards and A.C.H. payments are faster and easier?
The obvious solution is ranked choice voting, a process already in place in several jurisdictions, which produces a winner without the need for a separate runoff election. It should be more universally adopted.

Richard M. Frauenglass

Huntington, N.Y.

To the Editor:

The only time I feel the power of my vote, as a Democrat living in the deeply red state of South Carolina, is when I cast it in the open Republican presidential primary here. I have voted for people, like John McCain and Mitt Romney, who have integrity and can work with others. Never would I vote for someone in whom I did not have confidence.

Shame on any Democrat (or Democratic PAC) who supported the extremist wing of the Republican Party in the recent primary season because they expected that the extremists would lose in the general election. They helped to create a very scary scenario in this election cycle. We seemed to have survived it with less MAGA damage than had been predicted, but this was a truly stupid idea.

Scott Harris

Columbia, S.C.

To the Editor:

Democratic Peers Abroad Ask: Why Cant America Fix Itself? (front page, Nov. 9) suggests that America might fix itself if its leaders start respecting the distinction between the letter of democracy and its spirit. For democracy to work, free, open and fair elections are not enough. There must also be norms of mutual toleration and respect for the essential dignity of ones political opponents.

The midterm elections showed that both of these norms have been worn thin. Political opponents were portrayed as enemies of the people. Differences of policy appeared to be not over opposing values but over good versus evil. Such talk is irresponsible and irrational and makes the compromise essential for democracy increasingly difficult.
The words seem to be a tweak of ones in a well-known speech, So God Made a Farmer, that the radio personality Paul Harvey delivered in 1978 to what was then known as the Future Farmers of America. But I dont care about the precedent for the ad. I care about its implications. Or perhaps I should say its revelations.

It makes clear, for starters, just how nuttily grand DeSantiss sense of himself and his destiny is, an evaluation that the size and nature of his victory in the midterms is sure to cement. He beat his Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist, by nearly 20 percentage points. He won Miami-Dade County, a supposed Democratic refuge in a state that has turned increasingly red over the past decades. We have rewritten the political map, he crowed to his supporters at a victory party on Tuesday night. Thank you for honoring us with a win for the ages.

Following that triumph, my colleague Ross Douthat raised the possibility that DeSantis is now the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner and cast him as an example of how potent a Trump heir with more emotional stability and administrative competence could be:

Crucially, the DeSantis theory emphasizes, normal doesnt have to mean squishy. Instead, his sweeping success in Florida proves that you can be an avatar of cultural conservatism, a warrior against the liberal media and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a politician ready to pick a fight with Disney if thats what the circumstances require. You just also have to be competent, calculating, aware of public opinion as you pick your fights and capable of bipartisanship and steady leadership in a crisis. The basic Trump combination  cultural pugilism and relative economic moderation  can work wonders politically; it just has to be reproduced in a politician who conspicuously knows what hes doing and who conspicuously isnt Donald Trump.

To me, DeSantis doesnt seem quite so levelheaded. He picks and hypes battles designed to cast him as some conservative superhero. In that regard hes histrionic and hyperbolic, and I could easily see him overplaying his hand, especially in regard to religion. The God ad signals that any presidential bid by DeSantis, who is clearly plotting one, will aggressively court Christian nationalists and, in the process, empower them. That was already becoming clear from his penchant for foregrounding biblical references in his oratory. During an appearance last February at Hillsdale College in Michigan  which is, of course, a pivotal presidential battleground state  he exhorted the audience: Put on the full armor of God. Stand firm against the lefts schemes. You will face flaming arrows, but if you have the shield of faith, you will overcome them.

DeSantis may need to use whatever shield he carries against Trump first. The former president and his minions are showing greater and greater annoyance with DeSantiss success and, in particular, the signs that DeSantis would seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination regardless of whether Trump announces his own bid. Early this week, Trump suggested to a group of reporters that he had dirt on DeSantis and was prepared to spill it. If he did run, Trump said, I will tell you things about him that wont be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife.

Thats highly unlikely to deter DeSantis, given how celestially high on himself he is. He brings to his political ambitions not just the customary cockiness but a more sinister zeal and grandiosity. No wonder he gets under Trumps skin. Theyre megalomaniacs of a feather.
If the rituals of public grief are well established, however, the rituals of the holiday that the Itaewon victims were celebrating are fairly new in South Korea  new enough that news anchors had to keep explaining, for the presumably older viewing demographic, what Halloween is. Its only been a decade or two since the American tradition, as part of the English learning boom, entered the cultural life of Seoul in full force. Along the way something was lost, or perhaps gained, in translation. The holiday was partly co-opted by Koreas selfie generation for what they call cospre  an abbreviation of costume play, after the similar tradition of Japanese youths in the Harajuku district  in which they dress up as characters from animations and computer games.

Halloween now exists in the shifting space  cultural and geographic  between the United States and South Korea. Those shifts are nowhere more visible than in the Itaewon neighborhood itself.

Situated in the heart of Seoul at the foot of Namsan, or South Mountain, hilly with narrow alleys, Itaewon is an attractive backdrop for fun as well as the setting of a blockbuster K-drama. Its a neighborhood known for exotic restaurants, counterfeit goods, gay bars and trendy clubs. In the past, I would often wander its winding roads in search of fake designer bags to bring back to the United States as gifts. Later, as the neighborhood gentrified, the seedy ambience gave way to nightlife with an international flair. Yet through most of South Korean history Itaewon was known as a playground for American G.I.s; within walking distance was Yongsan Garrison, a 617-acre compound made to look like an American suburb for over 20,000 military personnel until 2018, when the United States, after seven decades, moved its base out of Seoul.

I visited Yongsan Garrison in its final days and was shocked at the immensity of it, a massive foreign military headquarters in the center of the countrys capital. The place had been off limits to the South Korean public since 1910, when the Imperial Japanese Army built it during the occupation. In May, President Yoon began his term and moved the presidential office from the Blue House to the former Defense Ministry building adjacent to what used to be the garrison. The huge compound will be turned into a public park, peaceful and welcoming. Yet the Halloween deaths of so many young Koreans, who were following a Japanese twist on an American holiday in the most American part of Seoul, are an uncomfortable reminder of the tension between South Korea and foreign powers.

After the 2014 ferry sinking, President Park was eventually convicted of abuse of power, coercion and other criminal charges. One of the prosecutors was Yoon Suk-yeol, who rose to political stardom as a result and now leads the nation. In response to the Halloween tragedy, he declared a period of national mourning, during which flags were lowered and public altars were set up across the country to pay respect to the dead. Nationwide measures such as those had only been undertaken once before, when 46 navy sailors died in what was likely an attack by North Korea. Already the Yoon government is being accused of both ineptitude and playing politics. Call it belated crowd control or simple pandering, but Mr. Yoon surely has not forgotten the tragedy that led to Ms. Parks downfall, and neither has the generation of parents left once again with a wound that will never heal.

Suki Kim, a journalist, novelist and essayist, is the author of Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Koreas Elite.

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Fighting is fierce, especially in the Donetsk region, but even Russias most capable fighting units are failing to advance even as they continue to outnumber Ukrainian soldiers. To prevail, Kyiv has fought smart, causing the front line to crumble by attacking deep behind enemy lines. U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers have enabled this strategy. Sophisticated deception operations, such as in Kharkiv Oblast around Izium, have put Russians on the run and provided more supplies for the advancing Ukrainian troops. If the current dynamic continues, Ukraine looks certain to enter Kherson.

Damage to the Crimean bridge has already complicated supply to Russian positions in the south. Crimea is used as the main route for Russian reinforcement in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The disruption will slow down the arrival of newly mobilized soldiers to the front lines. If Crimea can still be supplied by sea, Russian positions on the Ukrainian coast, especially in Melitopol, are in danger. The tipping point may come within the next six months, when Ukraines upgraded stocks of artillery, air defense systems and armored vehicles allow for a new push. The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, suggests Ukraine will keep advancing throughout the winter, with the goal of reaching Crimea in the spring of 2023.

Whether militarily or as a result of a negotiated settlement, it is only a matter of time before control of Crimea is re-established. The annexation of the peninsula was the starting point of the war; Ukrainians consider the resolution of its status in line with international law as the mark of the conflicts end. Ukrainian victory without reclamation of Crimea is no Ukrainian victory.

This brings us to Vladimir Putin. For the war to end, a power transfer must happen in the Kremlin. Because Mr. Putin has made the subjugation of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea his personal missions, a defeat of Russian armed forces and a threat to the hold on Crimea will undermine both elite and popular support for his regime. Losing a war is lethal to any dictator.

A change of head of state will be driven by Russian elites, rather than popular protest. The time will come when the ruling class changes its calculus about where to invest its shrinking resources. Dissatisfaction with mobilization, poor army supply, heavy troop losses, especially among non-Russian ethnic minorities  all will undermine cohesion. Last month, a mass shooting incident between two Tajik conscripts and Russian soldiers was believed to have been sparked by a religious dispute. Groups like the Free Buryatia Foundation advocate an end to war and racism in Russia. But there are also more militant segments that could aim to commandeer resources and power as the Kremlin is bogged down in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man behind the notorious Wagner Group, a private military company playing a crucial role for Russia in the war, has come into the spotlight as a proponent of all-out war with Ukraine. He directs his anguish at Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu for battlefield failures. Internal dissension within Mr. Putins circle suggests some of these effects are already happening.
The quarter-acre property and neighborhood are lush with dragon trees, palm trees, wild olive, juniper, hollyhocks, heather and rockrose, Mr. Sorokko said, and within walking distance of shops, restaurants and markets in Icod de los Vinos, which has about 23,000 residents. Also nearby are San Marcos Beach and the Parque del Drago, home to Tenerifes famed Drago Milenario, the oldest and largest living specimen of dragon tree and one of the symbols of the island. Tenerife North-Ciudad de la Laguna Airport is 30 miles east of Icod de los Vinos, while Tenerife South Airport is 40 miles to the southeast.

Market Overview

The Canary Islands archipelago, an autonomous community of Spain with European Union status, comprises eight principal islands about 60 miles off the coast of southern Morocco. Most of the 2.2 million residents live on the two capital islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

Spains first reported case of Covid-19 was detected in January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive on La Gomera, in the Canary Islands. The government quickly imposed strict lockdowns, said Caroline Stokes, a director with Clear Blue Skies Group, based in the Costa Adeje area on Tenerife. The property market dropped immediately to nearly zero, she said, noting that her firm saw its transactions drop by 50 percent in 2020. But by the end of 2021, the market had bounced back as travel restrictions were lifted.

This year, 2022, has seen another surge in sales, she said, partly due to pent-up demand in the normal markets of the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Central Europe, and partly due to many people in the eastern part of the European Union investing in Canarian real estate for the first time, perhaps to try to protect their money from the risk of their banks being embargoed.

The Canary Island capitals of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife are seeing more demand than most of Spains other capitals, according to the Spanish real estate portal Idealista.com, with tourists lured by a year-round temperate climate, rugged volcanic landscapes, black-sand beaches, historic and cultural charms, and a diversity of animal and plant species.
Large cities make good homes for memorials, in part because all cities are themselves dynamic, teeming memorial sites  every sidewalk, every store, every high-rise is constructed atop a spectral earlier version of itself where generations before ours went about their days. Manhattanites live on a street grid that in some downtown areas has been in place for 200 years or more, and pretty much anyone in a metropolis crosses every street in the paved-over footsteps of the dead. But what we want from memorials has changed as cities themselves have changed. Increasingly, they ask us to consider not simply the past but our relationship to grief, community and endurance, our own mortality and even the fallacy of imagining that monuments themselves are always permanent.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., redefined everything about public monument art, starting with our physical relationship to it. Created by the Chinese American architect Maya Lin and completed in 1982, in the face of outraged opposition from those who flinched at her youth (Lin was 21 when her proposal was chosen) and, frankly, her ethnicity, and who wanted a more valorizing and heroic design, what Lin envisioned was unlike anything that had preceded it  a structure that asked people to descend rather than to gaze upward to the heavens, and a design that was both physically vast and intimately tactile. Lins work, in which more than 58,000 names of Americans who died in Vietnam are etched on a 493-foot-long V-shaped granite wall, was the first major American war memorial to understand that some tributes to the dead can and should be experiential metaphors; to approach the Vietnam Memorial (from one side, because head-on isnt possible) is to fall, step by step, into something darker, larger and ever more overwhelming until you reach a vertex of loss that is both its highest and deepest point  a convergence of names of the dead. The memorial was made to awe but also to be as private as the fingertips of a sole mourner caressing the etched letters of one name. Opponents of the design, unable to imagine the comfort it would bring to countless survivors and family members, disparaged the memorial as nihilistic and a black gash of shame, so alien to them was its combination of severity and modesty. They managed to get a traditional statue of three soldiers erected next to it two years later, but that seems to stand more as a tepid memorial to an earlier kind of memorializing than to those we lost; after Lins profound and inherently political work, there could be no going back to larger-than-life men on pedestals.
Replacing phones often is costly to our wallets but even more so to the environment. The manufacturing of a phone, which is composed of at least 70 materials, is energy intensive and often takes place in countries where electricity production results in high carbon emissions, according to industrial design experts.

We should pause and ask why we upgrade our phones before we need to.

It turns out theres a wealth of research in this area. Some elements  such as the high cost of doing some repairs  are out of our control. But a big reason is purely behavioral. Understanding the psychology of why we default to replacing phones can go a long way toward modifying our habits to save money and reduce our consumption, academics say.

A 2021 study by Delft University of Technology surveyed 617 people in Western Europe who had recently replaced their smartphones and other products. It asked how long they had held on to their last phone before replacing it and their reason for upgrading; people with broken or malfunctioning phones were asked whether they had considered repair.

The most common reason given for replacing a phone was a loss in performance, such as slower software or a degraded battery. Only 30 percent of those who said they had a partly malfunctioning phone (like a battery that depletes quickly) said they had considered repairing it.

The second most common reason given for replacing a phone was simply feeling that it was time to buy a new one.
Of the two, Nevada is the clearer case. Still, the race is too close to call. The Republican Adam Laxalt leads the Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto by 2.7 percentage points at this hour, but most of the remaining vote is expected to be Democratic-leaning mail ballots and provisional ballots, including from same-day registrants.

How we call winners. We rely on The Associated Press, which employs a team of analysts, researchers and race callers who have a deep understanding of the states where they declare winners. In some tightly contested races, we independently evaluate A.P. race calls before declaring a winner. Heres more about how it works.

The Needle suggests a close race, but much remains uncertain, as the exact number of outstanding ballots is unclear. The turnout in the state appears fairly low, suggesting that a large number of ballots might remain. It is also unclear how long it will take to count them. Last time around, Joe Biden was projected to win only on Saturday, even though he won by a fairly comfortable two points and seemed poised to gain in the late ballots. At this point, such a clear path to victory seems unlikely for either candidate.

The situation in Arizona is even less clear, but here there is at least a chance of a quick resolution. The Democrat Mark Kelly leads by six percentage points, 52 percent to 46 percent, with most of the Election Day and early votes counted. Most of the remaining vote is the mail ballots that were returned to the state near the election, including on Election Day, along with provisional ballots.

These days, mail and provisional ballots are typically good for Democrats. But this is not a normal case. A large majority of voters cast ballots by mail in Arizona, so the mail ballots are not nearly as favorable toward Democrats. Instead, a strange pattern has emerged in recent years: Democrats mail in their ballots well ahead of the election, leaving Republicans to turn in their ballots near the election or simply prefer to vote in person. In 2020, Donald J. Trump won the ballots counted after Election Day by a wide margin here, turning a four-point lead for Mr. Biden at this hour in 2020 into a race won by less than a point.

This time, the Republican Blake Masters will need to mount an even larger comeback  at least as measured in percentage point margin. It may seem daunting, but it may not be quite as challenging as it looks: There might be about twice as many outstanding mail ballots, as a share of all voters, as there were at this time in 2020.

Mr. Kelly seemingly has a healthy lead from the early vote, but there is no hard evidence that a Masters victory is impossible. Well probably begin to get a sense of whether these mail ballots look like mail votes from 2020 as soon as today.
Mr. Trump also capitalized on a minor problem in Detroit, where troubles with electronic poll books caused some people who showed up to vote in person to be told that they had already voted by absentee ballot.

The Detroit city clerks office put in place procedures to ensure that all voters could cast a ballot and that each voter could cast only one ballot, voting protection groups said. But Mr. Trump, posting on Truth Social, his social media platform, suggested that the issue was far worse than it was.

Notwithstanding such exceptions, though, the majority of the troubles that emerged at the polls on Tuesday were pedestrian and procedural in nature  a far cry from the anxieties that had swirled for weeks about armed activists intimidating voters at ballot drop boxes and poll monitors planning aggressive voters challenges.

David J. Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said Election Day had in fact gone remarkably well, with high turnout, manageable lines and few problems.
Paul Morantz, a lawyer and investigative journalist who in the 1970s was so successful at taking on cults, abusive psychotherapists and self-proclaimed gurus around California that one of his targets tried to assassinate him with a rattlesnake, died on Oct. 23 in Los Angeles. He was 77.

His son, Chaz, confirmed the death, at a hospital. He did not provide a cause but said his father had been in declining health for several years.

Cults proliferated in the post-hippie weirdness that was California in the 1970s, often establishing alternative communities in rural parts of the state where authoritarian leaders, typically men, dictated every aspect of their followers lives, down to their clothing and choice of sexual partners.

Mr. Morantz made his name taking down one such movement, Synanon. It had begun as a last-chance drug rehabilitation program in the late 1950s but had, by the early 70s, become an insular, oppressive organization under its founder, Charles Dederich.
As good as it gets, another said of the evening.

Okay, a woman exulted. Im going to go smoke a cigarette.

So much on Tuesday did not go as Republicans had hoped. The red wave sputtered. The mega-upsets in deep blue states never came.

But this room, at least, was the picture of a plan working, a gambit rewarded  a triumph of ambition and recalibration and a tidy encapsulation of the political incentives that power a certain kind of Republican lawmaker to Washington.

Mr. Vance, the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy memoirist and venture capitalist who once described Donald J. Trump as cultural heroin, wanted to be a senator and reconsidered his stance. Mr. Trump, who delights in little more than bringing onetime critics to heel, endorsed Mr. Vance in time to ensure the candidates Republican primary win in the spring. The rest was cold math in a state the former president twice carried by eight points, delivering Mr. Vance a comfortable victory over Representative Tim Ryan on Tuesday night.

As we were walking down here, my aunt said to my uncle, Arent you glad that he won? That would have been a terrible ride home, Mr. Vance joked to attendees. Thats what were thinking here in the Vance family.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who stood up to former President Donald J. Trump and was once considered one of the most endangered governors in this years elections, won a tough race for re-election in Michigan, according to The Associated Press.

Ms. Whitmer beat her Republican rival, Tudor Dixon, a former steel industry executive turned conservative news commentator, in a race that hinged on abortion, the economy and threats to democracy. For the first time in a Michigan governors race, both contenders were women.

In the hard-fought race, Ms. Whitmer pulled ahead in the polls, casting herself as an experienced leader who had navigated her state through a life-altering pandemic and believed in working with Republicans, who control both chambers of the Michigan Legislature. She often reminded voters of the violent threats of political violence she faced, saying her state needed a problem solver, not a culture warrior.

Ms. Dixon made light of the threats Ms. Whitmer faced. Before the 2020 election, federal prosecutors accused several men of plotting to kidnap Ms. Whitmer, partly over her handling of the pandemic. Two men pleaded guilty, two men were acquitted and, in August, two others were convicted by federal jurors. Three more men were convicted in state court for aiding the plot.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, was elected on Tuesday to a sixth term, according to The Associated Press, overcoming a surprisingly stiff challenge from Tiffany Smiley, a Republican and political newcomer.

Ms. Murray, 72, who proudly dubbed herself a mom in tennis shoes during her initial run for the Senate in 1992 and turned it into a lasting campaign brand, will become the fourth most senior senator next year. She centered her latest campaign on three decades of legislative experience; on her leadership of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee, and on a pledge to codify national access to an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Oh my God, thank you, she said on Tuesday evening at a party in her state, surrounded by young children and relatives. She elicited cheers and applause after describing her campaign across Washington State, including running into a student she had taught as a preschool teacher.

Voters in Washington showed up  thank you, she said. She vowed to push to codify Roe v. Wade, an animating issue in the blue state.
Voters in Maryland and Missouri approved ballot measures on Tuesday to legalize recreational marijuana, according to The Associated Press, adding those states to a list that has swelled in recent years. But similar efforts were also shot down in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota  a mixed result that underscored the varying public attitudes over marijuana use.

Those measures were among the many initiatives that appeared on ballots across the country on Tuesday  an exercise in direct democracy that has offered an unfiltered glimpse into voters stances on some of the most pressing and polarizing issues, including voting rights, gun restrictions and abortion access.

The results according to The Associated Press have, in many ways, reflected the deep fissures running through the country.

Measures related to voting were under consideration in several states, with some pursuing restrictions meant to bolster election security and others pushing to expand and protect access amid fears of a concerted campaign to weaken the countrys election systems. Many of these measures could be traced to former President Donald J. Trumps efforts to overturn his loss and mobilize his supporters by spreading baseless claims of a stolen election.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court heard more than three hours of arguments on Wednesday in a sprawling challenge to the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, which makes it hard to remove Native American children from their tribes and heritage.

The decision in the four consolidated cases could have profound implications for the status of Native Americans in areas far beyond family law. Judging by the justices questioning, there was a fair prospect that the court would strike down at least part of the law.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who has emerged as the courts leading proponent of tribal rights, indicated strong support for the law, as did the courts three liberal members. But it was not clear that those four justices would capture the fifth vote they would need to prevail.

In June, Justice Gorsuch dissented in a 5-to-4 decision that cut back on the sweep of an earlier ruling declaring that much of eastern Oklahoma falls within Indian reservations. He was joined at the time by the courts liberal wing, and it seemed possible that Wednesdays case would be decided along similar lines.
Mr. Warnock, who is also the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, campaigned largely on his work over the last two years in the Senate. He emphasized the legislation he passed alongside Republican senators, and his partys policy wins for low-income Georgians and those over age 65.

Both won their primaries easily.

Georgias new election law shortened the runoff period to four weeks, forcing campaigns to mobilize voters and coordinate events through Thanksgiving and the early weeks of the holiday season. That means Georgia voters will continue facing an onslaught of political ads over the next month of campaigning, which is likely to bring more visits from high-profile figures in both parties. The campaigns will go into overtime, working to turn out voters again after two long and contentious election cycles this year.

The contest will also keep the spotlight on two Black male candidates from different backgrounds and political sensibilities. Mr. Walker is a former athlete who has criticized Democrats, accusing them of using race to divide a great country full of generous people.

Mr. Warnock now preaches from a pulpit once helmed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where he delivers messages about systemic racism and has preached eulogies for Black victims of police violence.

Mr. Warnock and allied Democratic groups spent millions of dollars in advertising to elevate allegations of domestic violence against Mr. Walker. The Democrats ran several spots of Mr. Walkers ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, recounting instances in which she said Mr. Walker became physically violent with her and threatened to end her life.
WASHINGTON  A federal judge sentenced a Navy engineer to 19 years in prison on Wednesday and  in an unusual twist  handed his wife nearly 22 years for the couples botched attempt to sell sensitive nuclear propulsion secrets to a foreign country.

U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh gave a longer term to Diana Toebbe even though it was her husband, Jonathan, who held the security clearance and took the sensitive documents from the Navy. Judge Groh said the longer sentence for Ms. Toebbe was mainly because she found that Ms. Toebbe had tried to obstruct justice by attempting to send letters to her husband while in jail.

Judge Groh said that both had committed a serious crime that had caused grave harm to the nation. Prosecutors had asked for just three years for Ms. Toebbe, but Judge Groh said the offense was not your usual case. In delivering her sentence, the judge said that while Mr. Toebbe, 44, had access to the information, Ms. Toebbe, 46, was driving the bus and had a big role in crafting the plan and covering it up.

Judge Groh had thrown out the original pleas by the Toebbes in August, arguing they were too lenient and forcing them to cut new deals with prosecutors, which opened the prospect of much longer prison sentences.
Sea Turtle Sanctuary Has Survived 40 Years. Climate Change May Kill It.

Against long odds and initially strong opposition, a pristine marine preserve in the Philippines has thrived for decades under the care of local fishermen. Warming waters threaten the achievement.

Nov. 9, 2022

APO ISLAND, the Philippines  The large green sea turtles used to be terrified of humans, scuttling away as fast as they could.

When the turtles saw people, it was like they saw a ghost, said Mario Pascobello, a resident of Apo Island in the Philippines. In the old days, they were being slaughtered here, he added, with the islands fishermen feasting on their flesh and their eggs.

Now, the endangered green turtles, largely herbivorous, peacefully graze in the shallows off Apos coast, unbothered by the fishermen, who share the waters with them.
The government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz blocked the sale of a semiconductor company to a Chinese-owned firm on Wednesday, as Germany seeks to toughen protection of its domestic technology and ease its dependence on China.

Robert Habeck, Germanys economy minister, said the government had also blocked a separate investment in a German company producing critical infrastructure, which he said could not be identified because of secrecy agreements.

Last week, Mr. Scholz visited Beijing, where he met with President Xi Jinping for discussions that focused on Russias war in Ukraine, as well as economic ties between the two countries. China is Germanys largest trading partner, exchanging goods worth more than 245 billion euros (about $246 billion) last year.

But German officials have grown wary of being overdependent on China. More than a million German jobs are directly dependent on trade with China, and many more indirectly, while almost half of German manufacturing businesses relying on China for some part of their supply chain.
A charity-run rescue vessel carrying hundreds of migrants was heading to France on Wednesday after Italy declined to allow its passengers to disembark, prompting a claim of victory from the new right-wing, anti-migration government in Rome but sharp criticism from rights groups and from Paris.

Italy had initially refused entry to passengers from four migrant ships, but the standoff appeared to be nearing an end after three of the vessels were allowed to dock and the fourth departed toward Corsica, although its ultimate fate remained unclear.

The hard line taken by the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who came to power last month, suggested a revival of the anti-immigrant strategy pursued by Italy in 2018, spearheaded by the far-right interior minister at the time, Matteo Salvini.

Mr. Salvini was highly influential in setting migrant policy under the first term of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. He has a significant role in the current government, and has again sought ownership of the migrant issue, commenting profusely on the standoff.
The prolonged war has decimated Russias weapon stocks, forcing it to turn to its few remaining allies, such as Iran and North Korea, to try countering the flood of Western military hardware to Ukraine, these officials said. Last week, the Pentagon claimed that North Korea is covertly supplying a significant number of artillery shells to Russia. North Korea has denied the reports.

For its part, Iran has indicated that it planned to sell ballistic missiles to Russia. It has also denied selling attack drones since the start of the war, though the wreckage of them has now been found many times in Ukraine, and social media accounts associated with the Iranian security services have boasted of their use there.

Ukrainian officials claim that advanced Western air-defense systems have allowed them to partly neutralize Russian rockets and drones, but they warn that they have little defense against Iranian ballistic missiles.

Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraines defense intelligence directorate, has said delivery of Iranian missiles could happen by the end of November.

Its a serious threat because Iranian missiles, unlike Russian ones, are quite high-precision, very high-speed, and those features have been battle-proven, he said in a recent interview with the War Zone, an online publication focused on military matters.
Many of the Russian cheerleaders of the invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday cast the defense ministers order to withdraw from Kherson City as a monumental defeat  Moscows most devastating, according to one of them, since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The announced retreat crystallized the failures of President Vladimir V. Putins war effort. It would be a humiliating loss of the largest Ukrainian city that Russia had seized in its nine-month invasion, coming just weeks after Mr. Putin declared it to be an irrevocable part of Russia in a bombastic celebration on Red Square.

But analysts who follow Mr. Putin closely saw the order as a reminder of Mr. Putins willingness to make tactical concessions in what he sees as a large-scale conflict with the West that, according to people who know him, he believes he can still win.

This just confirms, in my view, how pragmatic Putin is, Tatiana Stanovaya, an analyst who studies Mr. Putin for her political analysis firm R.Politik, said in a phone interview. Hes not as crazy as we thought.
They feared it might come for weeks, but still, when a Russian commander announced on Wednesday that Russian troops would be pulled from the strategically important city of Kherson, Ukraine, Russian hawkish military bloggers and commentators responded with despair, anguish and denial.

I will never forget that murder of Russian hopes, Zastavny, a popular blogger, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. This betrayal is now carved up on my heart for centuries.

Boris Rozhin, a pro-Russian military analyst, called the retreat Russias most serious military defeat since 1991. In a Telegram post, he said, If there wont be any upcoming successes with major towns captured and no advancement during the winter offensive, the series of military setbacks would accumulate a much greater internal discontent than sanctions.

But Margarita Simonyan, the editor of RT, Russias global television network, said on Twitter that it was the right move to protect Russias Army from further losses. As long as the army is intact, there is hope to end the war with honor, she wrote, quoting a famed Russian military commander from the time of the Napoleonic wars. With the loss of the army, not only Moscow  all of Russia will be lost.
What strikes me now is how thoroughly they have been tricked themselves in the war in Ukraine, Mr. Bukkvoll said of the Russian army. I think they feel tricked, and that would be a motive as well for trying a trick of their own.

Interpreting Russian public commentary has become part of the art of war for Ukraine and its allies. An ulterior motive is always assumed.

Last month, the collaborationist governor of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, announced a plan to evacuate 70,000 civilians from the western bank of the Dnipro River, saying the Ukrainian military intended to blow up the nearby Kakhovka dam, and flood cities and towns. Russian television showed crowds of civilians packing onto ferries crossing the river.

Ukrainian officials quickly discounted Russian concern for residents safety, midway through a war of indiscriminate Russian bombardments that have killed civilians. And within days, the Russian military appeared to show its hand  and its own fears of subterfuge  saying they would consider residents who remained in the city possible collaborators.

The Ukrainians, meanwhile, saw just more mind games. They said Russian forces were ready themselves to blow up the dam to cover a retreat.

The Institute for the Study of War, an American analytical group, interpreted Mr. Saldos claim as laying the ground for a false flag operation, a trick in which Russian forces would destroy the dam yet make it appear that Ukrainian forces were to blame.
Mr. Ariev said he would propose a larger role for the U.S. Congress and government agencies in overseeing American military and financial aid inside Ukraine, to lift suspicions we heard during the campaign that it is not transparent.

He added: We should trust our partners as our partners trust us, it should be a mutual thing.

But they are not entirely sure who their partners will be.

In a White House news conference about the midterms on Wednesday, President Biden insisted that he believed foreign aid would continue uninterrupted to Ukraine.

A majority of Republicans have so far supported assistance for Ukraine over the nearly nine months since the invasion, voting for billions of dollars in military and financial aid.

But the more conservative, America First wing of the party has been more threatening. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told a rally of Trump supporters in Iowa last week that, under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine. J.D. Vance, who won his Senate race in Ohio, had said while campaigning that, Weve got to stop the money spigot to Ukraine eventually.

And in the event that the Republicans take the House, Representative Kevin McCarthy, who stands to become majority leader, has said that the party will review aid to Ukraine. I think people are going to be sitting in a recession, and theyre not going to write a blank check to Ukraine, he said last month.
Mossi Raz, a veteran Meretz lawmaker who lost his seat last week, also thinks that Labor and Meretz should merge. But Mr. Raz believes that any new alliance will need to center its messaging and policies around Israels relationship with the Palestinians.

For too long, the left has been too timid about promoting its vision for peace, Mr. Raz said. Now it needs to be bolder and clearer about the need for a resolution to the conflict, he added, and to repurpose the security-focused rhetoric voiced by the right to bolster left-wing arguments for peace.

The focus must be security, Mr. Raz said. Ending the occupation will bring security.

One risk, though, is that this approach might simply reconfirm the Israeli rights views that the left is incapable of ensuring Israels safety, accelerating its decline.

Mike Uhlmann, a former Meretz voter in Kibbutz Hulda, has supported Mr. Netanyahus party, Likud, since he lost faith in the left during a wave of Palestinian violence two decades ago. After Mr. Netanyahu retires, Mr. Uhlmann, 57, said he might consider a less right-wing party  but not if it supports creating a Palestinian state.

We will see who the leaders are  what do they say, what do they have to offer? said Mr. Uhlmann, 57, the owner of a freight company. If its again withdrawing from the West Bank, land for peace  then for me it wont work.
Percent of votes in % In
Percent of votes in Votes in
The minimum wage for tipped workers, currently set at $5.05, would incrementally increase until, beginning in 2027, it matches the minimum wage for non-tipped workers.
Technical glitches on Tuesday disrupted operations at about a quarter of the voting centers in Maricopa County, Ariz., the most populous county in a state with multiple competitive races.

While the problems were later solved, it set off a firestorm online, with right-wing influencers suggesting that the problems were a sign of election fraud, according to the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of online information researchers that tracked tweets and retweets from users who had more than 100,000 followers on Twitter.

The narrative continued to spread on Wednesday as several close races in Arizona were still not called. Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, said in a speech Tuesday night that the issues bolstered her doubts about election integrity.

Here is how that narrative took off.
The first election to put abortion rights to the test after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade appears unlikely to reshape the map of abortion access  at least not overnight. Though some races remain uncalled, voters in much of the country reinforced the status quo, choosing candidates who are likely to either maintain existing protections or restrictions in their states, or to deepen them.

Impact where abortion is legal Mixed New protections No change Impact where abortion is restricted New restrictions likely Mixed No change

Republican power did expand in some states, opening the door to further bans on abortion in the coming months. But elsewhere, Republicans fell short in key contests for control of state governments that would have allowed them to easily advance restrictions.

And voters in several states revealed broad support for abortion rights, with California, Michigan and Vermont enshrining lasting protections in their state constitutions and those in Kentucky and Montana rejecting anti-abortion measures.

In many places, the outcome of down-ballot races may prove as consequential for abortion access as those for governor or legislative seats. Shifts in power on state supreme courts are important to watch, as these courts can rule on challenges to new or existing abortion laws. Newly elected attorneys general will also have some say in their enforcement.

States that added abortion protections in the midterms New protections Tap a state for more details

Democrats had hoped that Roes overturn would drive voters who support abortion rights to the polls in November, and their hopes were buoyed after Kansans defeated a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict abortion in August.

New constitutional protections approved by voters in three states will not only bolster local and regional access to abortion, but also may encourage other states to follow suit.

The state already has strong protections in place, and voters approved an amendment to the State Constitution to protect reproductive rights, including the right to abortion and contraceptives. The new amendment offers a safeguard that can be undone only by another voter referendum.

A winning ballot measure will enshrine the right to abortion in Michigan and overturn an existing ban from 1931 that has already been blocked in court.

Michigan Democrats rode support for abortion rights to flip both chambers of the Legislature, giving them control of the state government for the first time in 40 years. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats who pledged to protect abortion rights, also won re-election.

A large majority of voters backed a proposal to amend the State Constitution to guarantee a right to personal reproductive autonomy. State lawmakers had first passed legislation that recognized abortion as a fundamental right in 2019 to begin the multiyear amendment process.

States that may add abortion restrictions after the midterms New restrictions likely Tap a state for more details

In some states that already limit abortion access, races up and down the ballot removed Democratic lawmakers who stood in the way of restrictions. With fewer obstacles, Republican majorities are expected to pass new or more restrictive bans in the months to come.

Were going to see states that have already banned abortion try to adopt other restrictions, too, said Elizabeth Nash, state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. She pointed to possibilities including harsher criminal penalties for providers and allowing attorneys general to prosecute local abortion cases.

Republicans secured supermajorities in both chambers of the Florida Legislature, putting them on a path to further restrict abortion. And they will likely have the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who won re-election in a landslide and said previously that he intends to expand pro-life protections. Florida already bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but legislators may push for a six-week or total ban.

The Florida Supreme Court recognized a right to abortion in the State Constitution three decades ago, but the court has become more conservative in recent years, and all judges up for election on Tuesday held their seats. They may reject a challenge to the states 15-week ban, or rule in favor of future abortion restrictions.

Republicans won all three seats up for election on the Ohio Supreme Court, and Gov. Mike DeWine will appoint a new judge to a vacant seat, securing a stronger conservative majority. A ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which Mr. DeWine signed in 2019, is currently blocked by a lower court in Ohio but is expected to reach the states Supreme Court next year.

The court has not previously ruled on abortion rights, but the new makeup could have a significant impact on cases related to abortion, said Douglas Keith, the counsel for democracy programs at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Where abortion policy remains uncertain after the midterms Mixed Tap a state for more details

Although voters in many states affirmed the status quo on abortion, in a few places the results of the midterms were more mixed. One unexpected outcome was voters rejection of an anti-abortion ballot measure in Kentucky, a state that bans nearly all abortions. And split partisan control of state governments in a few other states may mean gridlock on abortion legislation for the time being.

Democrats eked out a victory in a close race for governor, a critical position for abortion policy in Arizona. Republicans held their control of the State Senate and were on track to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives, but Governor-elect Katie Hobbs has said she will veto any new anti-abortion legislation.

An appeals court has temporarily blocked enforcement of an 1864 law that banned abortion, but a separate ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy is in effect. Ms. Hobbs is unlikely to tackle either law without the support of the State Legislature. That means the outcome of the attorney generals race, which is headed for a recount, could have a significant effect on abortion access in the state. The Democratic candidate, Kris Mayes, has said she will not enforce the 1864 ban. Her Republican opponent, Abraham Hamadeh, has said he will.

The Democratic incumbent, Laura Kelly, held onto the governors office, though Republicans retained a veto-proof majority in the Legislature and could try to enact restrictions on abortion in next years legislative session. The newly elected Republican attorney general, Kris Kobach, has said he wants to make Kansas the most anti-abortion state in the country.

In August, Kansans decisively rejected an amendment that would have removed protections for abortion rights from the State Constitution, which the states Supreme Court recognized in 2019. Six of seven judges on the court held their seats in the midterm elections, despite efforts by conservative groups to oust five of them.

Kentucky already bans nearly all abortions, but the midterms signaled some support for abortion rights: A majority of voters opposed a ballot measure to amend the State Constitution to say there is no right to abortion. That rejection will not overturn the existing ban, but the vote could affect the State Supreme Courts decision in a lawsuit challenging the ban that began on Nov. 15.

Republicans in the State Legislature maintained their veto-proof majority over the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, who has denounced the ban. But two candidates for the State Supreme Court who were backed by anti-abortion groups did not win their races.

Montana voters rejected a ballot measure that would have required medical interventions to save those it described as born-alive infants and which opponents said was designed to curtail abortion rights. But voters also supported the incumbent governor, Greg Gianforte, a Republican who is determined to ban abortion. Republicans also gained a supermajority in the state legislature, giving them broad power that neither party has garnered in the state in nearly a century.

The Republican-controlled legislature has long tried to ban abortion, but the Montana Supreme Court has stood in the way. The court recognized abortion as a constitutional right in 1999 and has blocked multiple restrictions since. A progressive judge held her seat on the court, despite efforts by conservative groups to replace her.

Republicans are likely to fall just short of a supermajority in the Nebraska Legislature, meaning that abortion may remain legal in the state. Republicans will still hold a majority of the officially nonpartisan Legislature, and the newly elected governor, Jim Pillen, is stringently anti-abortion. Officials may pursue a 12-week ban or other restrictions next year, but Democrats are likely to hold enough seats to filibuster any attempts, as they did in April, to ban abortion outright. It is possible, though, that anti-abortion Democrats could side instead with Republicans on proposed prohibitions.

Republicans won a new majority on the State Supreme Court, flipping two seats and shifting the balance of power in favor of conservatives. The court has not ruled on abortion restrictions in the past, but the new conservative majority may be more likely to reject any challenges to future bans.

Enacting an abortion ban in North Carolina is not likely until at least 2025, however, when Gov. Roy Coopers term expires. Mr. Cooper, a Democrat, opposes abortion restrictions, and Republicans narrowly failed to secure a supermajority in the Legislature that would have allowed them to override his veto.

Democrats held onto executive power in Wisconsin, allowing them to pursue a challenge to the states ban on most abortions, an 1849 law that took effect when Roe was overturned. Josh Kaul, the incumbent attorney general, has sued to block the ban. Republicans fell short of enough seats in the state legislature to secure a veto-proof majority over Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who supports abortion rights and has trumpeted his role as a block on legislative efforts to restrict the procedure.
Senate House Governor Attorney General Secretary of State The New York Times identified hundreds of Republican candidates who questioned the 2020 election who were running in major midterm races. Here are the winners and losers so far. At least 220 won. Most of this group made statements that cast doubt on the 2020 election, often repeatedly. About three dozen, or 16 percent, were more direct and denied the 2020 results outright. At least 120 lost. A larger proportion, about 40 percent, of the group that lost denied the 2020 results outright.

This article will be updated to include final results and other developments. This data is as of 6:30 p.m., Nov. 10, 2022.

The election results for the hundreds of Republicans who questioned the 2020 election painted a mixed picture.

A number of high-profile candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate in key states lost, including Lee Zeldin in New York, who, as a congressman, challenged Joe Bidens victory, and Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, who said this summer that it was still necessary to investigate the past election. Several secretary of state candidates in key contests who had spread doubts about the 2020 results also came up short.

At the same time, more than 220 Republicans who questioned the past election, many of them incumbents in safer, more conservative seats, prevailed at the polls.

The results have raised questions about whether election denialism and skepticism is undercutting Republican efforts to appeal to a broader array of voters. But it is clear that, especially in certain conservative areas of the country, hundreds of Republicans paid no price for casting doubt on the electoral process.

About the data The Republicans shown here were among the more than 370 election skeptics identified by The Times. Read the methodology.

The New York Times recently examined statements made by Republican candidates in all 50 states to track how skepticism of the 2020 election had permeated the Republican Party, despite the lack of evidence of any widespread voter fraud. The analysis identified more than 370 candidates who cast doubt in some way on the 2020 election, which Mr. Biden won, earning seven million more votes and 74 more electors than Donald J. Trump.

Of those skeptics in the Times analysis, more than half have won their races, according to results so far, and most of them were elected to House seats.

Most election skeptics sowed doubt, The Times found, by suggesting, sometimes again and again, that there were irregularities or unresolved questions about the way the election was conducted, or by saying that further investigation was needed. These people did not explicitly deny the results of the past election and sometimes even acknowledged that Mr. Biden won.

But by criticizing the election, often in ways that were seemingly more reasonable and harder to dismiss, they have continued to propagate public distrust in the integrity of the 2020 election.

The Times identified about 100 Republican candidates who took a more extreme approach to describing the 2020 election. These people said the contest was stolen or rigged  or that Mr. Trump was the rightful winner.

So far, about three dozen of these candidates were elected after Tuesdays election. Almost all were favored to win, according to the Cook Political Report, which analyzed each partys chances of winning in the races for Congress and governorships. A slightly larger portion of the candidates who denied the 2020 election outright lost their races, but most of these candidates were not favored to win.

More Than 180 Skeptics Elected in House

With results still pending, more than a third of the members of next years House have questioned or denied the 2020 election. About 30 of the winners explicitly said the last election was stolen or rigged, but most sowed doubt in less extreme ways.

House Republican winner had said the 2020 election was stolen House Republican winner had questioned the 2020 election in other ways Winner is a Democrat, or a Republican for which The Times found no evidence Results pending N.H. Maine Vt. Wash. Mass. Mont. N.D. N.Y. Mich. Minn. Wis. Idaho Wyo. S.D. Ore. Conn. R.I. Pa. Ohio Nev. Colo. Neb. Ill. Ind. Utah Iowa N.J. Kan. Mo. Md. W.Va. Ky. Del. Okla. Ariz. N.M. Va. Ga. Tenn. Ark. N.C. Calif. La. S.C. Miss. Alaska Hawaii Ala. Texas Fla. N.H. Maine Vt. Wash. Mass. Mont. N.D. Mich. N.Y. Minn. Wis. Idaho Wyo. S.D. Ore. Conn. R.I. Pa. Ohio Nev. Colo. Neb. Ill. Utah Ind. Iowa N.J. Kan. Mo. W.Va. Md. Ky. Del. Okla. N.M. Ariz. Va. Tenn. Ga. Ark. N.C. Calif. La. S.C. Miss. Alaska Hawaii Ala. Texas Fla. N.H. Maine Vt. Mass. Wash. N.Y. N.Y. Mich. Mont. N.D. Minn. Wis. Idaho Wyo. S.D. Conn. R.I. Pa. Ore. Ohio Neb. Colo. Nev. Ill. Ind. Utah Iowa N.J. Md. Kan. W.Va. Mo. Del. Ky. Okla. Va. Ariz. N.M. Ga. Tenn. Ark. N.C. Calif. S.C. Hawaii Alaska Miss. La. Ala. Texas Fla. N.H. Maine Vt. Mass. Wash. Mich. N.Y. Mont. N.D. Conn. Minn. Wis. Idaho Wyo. S.D. R.I. Pa. Ore. Ohio Colo. Neb. Ill. Ind. Utah Iowa N.J. Nev. Kan. Mo. W.V. Ky. Del. Okla. Va. Ariz. N.M. Ga. Tenn. Ark. N.C. Calif. S.C. Hawaii Miss. Alaska La. Ala. Fla. Texas

Most of the skeptics who won House seats are incumbents who either objected to the 2020 Electoral College results, supported a lawsuit to throw out results in four states or spread falsehoods in other public statements. All but about 20 of those incumbents were categorized as casting doubt about the 2020 election but not explicitly denying the results.

One-third of the newcomers elected to the House have explicitly denied the 2020 results. These include Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who said she believed Mr. Trump won the last election, and Russell Fry of South Carolina, who said it was clear that it was rigged.

House Republican newcomer who had said the 2020 election was stolen House Republican newcomer who had questioned the 2020 election in other ways W y o . M o . T e x as T enn. Ohio Ga. Fla. N. Y . V a. S.C. N.C. Miss. Ala. Ind. Wis. Mich.

At the same time, a majority of the newcomers who explicitly denied the outcome of the 2020 election lost, as expected. Karoline Leavitt, for example, a former Trump administration official who ran for a House seat in New Hampshire, lost to the Democratic incumbent, Chris Pappas, who had been favored. Ms. Leavitt had said she believed the Democrat machine took over our elections before 2020 in the guise of Covid.

Still, a vast majority of states will have one or more Republican representatives who cast doubt on the 2020 election.

House Republican winners who questioned the 2020 election State Number who questioned Share of total representatives in state Idaho 2 100% West Virginia 2 100% Wyoming 1 100% North Dakota 1 100% South Dakota 1 100% Tennessee 8 88% Alabama 6 85% South Carolina 6 85% Oklahoma 4 80% Wisconsin 6 75% Missouri 6 75% Iowa 3 75% Kansas 3 75% Mississippi 3 75% Utah 3 75% Kentucky 4 66% Louisiana 4 66% Nebraska 2 66% Florida 18 64% Georgia 9 64% Texas 22 57% Ohio 8 53% North Carolina 7 50% Arkansas 2 50% Michigan 6 46% Virginia 5 45% Pennsylvania 7 41% Minnesota 3 37% New Jersey 1 8% Connecticut 0 0% Delaware 0 0% Hawaii 0 0% Massachusetts 0 0% New Hampshire 0 0% Rhode Island 0 0% Vermont 0 0% Note: Only states where all seats have been called are shown.

More Than a Dozen Skeptics Elected in the Senate

The 17 Republican skeptics elected to the U.S. Senate so far include several who have outright denied the 2020 election, including J.D. Vance, who will replace retiring Senator Rob Portman of Ohio.

I think the election was stolen from Trump, Mr. Vance said during a Republican primary debate in March.

Republican winner had said the 2020 election was stolen Republican winner had questioned the 2020 election in other ways Winner is a Democrat, or a Republican for which The Times found no evidence Results pending No election held Alaska Wis. Idaho N.D. Nev. S.D. Iowa Ohio Utah Mo. Ky. Ariz. Ark. N.C. S.C. Okla. La. Ala. Ga. Fla.

More Than Two Dozen Skeptics Elected to State Offices

More than two dozen Republicans who won state races for governor, secretary of state and attorney general have questioned the 2020 election, including Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama, who was re-elected to another term.

In April 2022, she said the fake news, big tech and blue-state liberals stole the election from President Trump.

The Cook Political Report does not provide ratings for races for the state offices of attorney general and secretary of state, the role that is frequently responsible for overseeing elections. In some of those competitions, Trump-aligned Republicans did not do well. Democratic candidates beat far-right opponents in New Mexico and Minnesota, who had espoused more extreme views about the 2020 election.

Indiana voters, however, elected Diego Morales to be their next secretary of state. Earlier this year, Mr. Morales said the 2020 election was a scam and that its outcome is questionable. He has been lauded by Steve Bannon and is a member of the America First secretary of state coalition, a group formed by Jim Marchant, an election denier whose race for Nevada secretary of state had not been called as of Thursday afternoon.

Republican winner had said the 2020 election was stolenRepublican winner had questioned the 2020 election in other waysWinner is a Democrat, or a Republican for which The Times found no evidenceResults pendingNo election held
Dustin Siggins and Robert Kuykendall co-authored this article.

When you buy a car, you probably think of the makeToyota, General Motors, Volkswagon, etc. The leaders of these worldwide companiesAkio Toyoda, Mary Barra and Oliver Blume, respectivelymay not even cross your mind.

But when you think of Tesla, only one name comes to mind: Elon Musk. His company isnt in the top 15 by sales, but hes transformed how hundreds of millions of people think about whats otherwise a ubiquitous, everyday, mundane product. His Tweets, speeches, statements and opinions shape news cycles, move the stock market and even change the course of war.

None of this is by accident. Musk spent years communicating his vision, success and progress in the press. Hes a legend because he put better, more creative content in front of the right target audiences the right way.

Elon Musk, not cars, is the kind of client most PR practitioners envision when they get into the industry. But without cars, Musk is just a rich has-been who left PayPal years ago. For Musk, cars are the launching pad for space, social change and even changing the course of a war.

For the most boring of clients or accounts, the solution to making them exciting is simple: create messaging and content that stands out and put them in the media homes that capture target markets attention over and over again.

This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Nov. '22 Technology PR Magazine

(view PDF version)

Why does your company exist?

We know were not the most exciting company, Parabilis VP of Operations Ryan Huss once said. He wasnt complaining; he was just thinking about how the public perceives money and finance. The stodgy loan officer in the movies is boring and, in the worst case, the bad guy.

Parabilis provides loans to small business government contractors who need money fast, but dont qualify for a bank loan. Its not exactly the sexy business model most PR practitioners envision when considering their career, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Parabilis small business financing expertise was exactly what the press was looking for. And we helped them deliver, putting two op-eds out in less than a week urging Congress to protect contractors.

What hooked the editors and soon put Parabilis on a top industry podcast wasnt finance or loans. It was their real mission: helping small business contractors. Theyve run with that mission, hosting a growing podcast and even moderating a panel hosted by the U.S. Treasury Department as theyve grown their team, partners and client base.

Lines of credit arent exciting for everyone. But Parabilis has made this boring topic very exciting for its very specific audiences.

Provide unique solutions

At the end of the day, nothing is boring. Content can be mundane; stories can be ordinary. But with the right solution and the right promotion strategy, you can be the coolest kid in the sandbox.

Thats what Money.com does with its list of best colleges and universities. Millions of Americans gripe about the cost of college. But what Money provides is a well-researched solution: analyzing the quality of Americas top institutions based in part on the price of attendance and post-graduation job placements. And their decision to release the list in Maywhen students and parents begin college tourshelped put their list go viral in the press, on social media and on colleges websites.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels has likewise received tremendous media coverage for his disciplined and visionary leadership. Daniels has frozen tuition for 11 years, doubled donor revenue, increased the size of the student body and partnered with international firms. His leadership is his unique offering, and Purdue students and the surrounding communities are the beneficiaries.

Do something totally off the wall

Like watching paint dry isnt a compliment in American culture, but paint mixer Tony Piloseno saw something different. While the entire paint world was watching paint dry, Tony was mixing it on camera, creating a new story in one of the worlds oldest commodities. His creativity first got him fired, then earned him viral press, then became a social media empire that drew 100 million eyeballs in 2021.

Going totally off the wall is risky. But its also how you can cause an entire industry to think differently.

Focus on your niche target audience(s)

Americans love our pizza. We spend tens of billions of dollars a year on this great comfort food. But no matter how much you love your pie, youre not going across the country for the worlds best. After all, its just thin bread with cheese and some toppings. Thats why no media in Hawaii, New York or Texas covered Rikos Pizza moving locations in Stamford, Connecticut. Its a local pizza franchise in a nation with thousands of them.

But local media devoured the news, covering the closing and the reopening. Rikos clearly built a brand that locals cared about, kept its eyes and PR on the right audiences and let the media tell customers where to go.

Get others to brag for you

Last year, a law firm won a disability accommodation lawsuit against a school district. It won because the firm has good lawyers, but thats just a day at the office. And most of us dont want to read about people in boring dark suits talking legalese.

But what many people might do is watch a local news story if we have kids in the district and/or have a disabled child, read a disabled students story out of simple human interest and seek to understand how this decision impacts other school districts.

This story isnt about a lawyer winning a case; its about changing how schools treat disabled students. Thats a story of interest to disability rights activists, parents of disabled students, lawyers, teachers and even the general public.

Its a story that cant just be told by the lawyer. Thats just bragging and everyone would tune him out. It must be told by his happy client and the students parents. It has to be told by disability rights activists, politicians and school officials. It needs to be seen and heard in the press and on social media and turned from a stodgy courtroom case into a story of helping David beat Goliath.

What stands out to your audiences?

Youre not alone in feeling that your clients are too ordinary to stand out. But somewhere is your unique opportunity to help them rise above the norm, to become the Elon Musk of your industry or community. Maybe its their mission, or perhaps its just doing something totally different or simply narrowing their target market focus.

The opportunity to make your client the most exciting thing since Elon Musk is there. Go find it.

***

Dustin Siggins is Founder of the publicity firm Proven Media Solutions and a writer with bylines at Forbes, Insider, and elsewhere. Robert Kuykendall is a campaign veteran and former non-profit executive who is now a private-sector entrepreneur.
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.
Seventeen-year-old Anthony Gorman is currently up to his eyes in reindeer and with an order from Dunnes Stores for 10,000 of his bespoke wooden ornaments, it's all hands on deck at his headquarters in Killeigh, outside of Tullamore.

This wonderful success story which has seen the teenager catapulted into the world of successful entrepreneurship, began when he was in third year at Tullamore College.

''I had no idea about woodwork. My dad is into steel sheds. But I loved business studies in school. For a Junior Cert pretend project, everyone got different topics for business studies, I picked entrepreneurship and I fell in love with it. I had a super teacher, Miss Griffin, in Tullamore College, and she said 'Anthony, why don't you make a prototype.' I was plodding through Google and I saw a wooden thing like a horse.'' That was the spark that spurred Anthony into making his first reindeer.

''It was so different from what it is now. I called it Rudolph. I tweaked the idea, and my mother said why not add lights. I did my project for school and I said this is my business, selling reindeers.''

Miss Griffin brought the reindeer into the staff room and 20 of the teachers bought two each.

''I was dying for a new phone, but my parents said 'you will have to buy it yourself'. I thought I will be able to afford my phone now. Then my aunties and uncles bought them and in the first year, I sold 80, I was delighted,'' said Anthony.

However, tragedy struck the family into the second year of business when Anthony's dad was diagnosed with cancer. ''It was a horrible year and it was at the peak of Covid. Dad does sheds for a living and he couldn't go on-site. Me and Ma sat down and said if we can sell 80 surely we can sell 2,000. I wanted to buy a tractor and front loader for my dad for Christmas. We made up this plan and we had all the workers ready. My Ma is an accountant so she did all the figures. We worked like dogs all through Christmas and we made them. But it was in the middle of Covid and no one had money. So we couldn't advertise in newspapers.''

Anthony decided to advertise his product on 'Shop in Ireland' Facebook page. His post reached 100,000  the biggest ever for this page and got numerous likes, shares and comments.

''It was all over everyone's Facebook,'' said Anthony.

It was after this that RTE's Philip Bromwell contacted him to tell his story and it appeared on the 6pm and 9pm news. That year Anthony sold 2,180 reindeer.

''We broke even with a small bit of profit for myself. On Christmas Day when I drove the tractor up the drive it was all worthwhile,'' said Anthony.

Following his appearance on RTE, Dunnes Stores came knocking. ''When I got a DM (direct message) off Dunnes Stores, I thought it was as scam.''

However, even though he was reluctant at first in case he would damage his phone, he took the chance and opened the message which said, ''Hi Anthony we are very interested in your product and we would like to meet with you.''

That year 'Santa's Reindeers' as they were known, were sold in nine Dunnes Stores across the country. Anthony delivered 100 to each store and most of them were sold out within a day.

This year Dunnes Stores upped their game and ordered a massive 10,000 of Santa's Reindeers for Christmas. Luckily they gave Anthony plenty of time and a timetable so he has been busy planning and working since last January.

He did most of the work during the summer months and he employed four people every day until he got all of the work done. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his product and doing the final checks before they hit the shelves. The reindeer are already in some of the stores around the country and flying off the shelves.

For example Anthony's father was heading for Swords in Dublin this week with a large consignment full of reindeer.

Anthony sources the timber from a local farmer who is a tree surgeon. He provides the wood from trees which he has cut down whereby they may have been blocking a driveway, or are a danger to a school or road. It's a way to reuse the wood which otherwise would be sold for firewood.

Anthony has a new product this year which is a wooden reindeer head for hanging on the Christmas tree. They come in a pack of three.

Anthony is extremely grateful to his school Tullamore College who he says have been extremely supportive of him and of course to Miss Griffin who sparked what is a brilliant success story.

Anthony has since been interviewed by RTE again where he told the story of his father's illness and how he worked to buy him the tractor for Christmas. The reindeer was also featured on the Late Late Toy Show.

He was also a guest speaker at Kilkenny Student Enterprise Awards. His business was showcased as one of the top 5 success stories over the 20 years, at the National Student Enterprise Awards 20th anniversary.

In addition he has built up a relationship with Offaly Enterprise Board and is receiving continued support through mentoring sessions and advice on growing his business.

But he hasn't forgotten about giving back and to date he has donated Santa's Reindeers to Tullamore Hospital and local charities. In addition he donated 100 teddies to Crumlin Hospital.
Banagher College students and teachers joined a number of other LOETB schools recently to participate in the first ever Irish S.E.L.F.I.E. Hackathon at Laois Education Centre, as LOETB schools continue to develop the use of digital technologies in their schools.

The Hackathon event was designed to help schools use the results of a self-assessment tool called the S.E.L.F.I.E. (Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering the use of Innovative Educational technologies), created by the European Commission, to develop an action plan to further harness the power of digital technologies for their schools.

Each school was represented by a team of teachers and students, who had to work together on the day to brainstorm ideas for digital innovation in their schools. Although they could work together, the teams also had to work against the clock to develop their ideas into a clear action plan for their own school, which had to be showcased to the wider group via a digital presentation before the end of the day  keeping all groups under pressure as the clock ticked down!

Fortunately Banagher College were more than ably represented at the event by a student team of Sean Daly, Ethan Cusack, Rachel Cleary and Katie Flanagan, with teachers Ms Dennehy and Ms McDowall also working on the plan. Rachel and Katie did an exceptional job of presenting the plan that the team created on the day, a presentation that was very well received by the members of the European Commission Education Team, who joined the event online.

After the successful day of innovation in Laois Education Centre, the next stop is for the team to put the plan into action in the school. If the different actions targeted for improvement are successfully implemented by the end of the school year, Banagher College, and their LOETB colleagues, will become some of the few schools in Ireland to be awarded a European Digital Schools Award title.
An almost 55million package benefitting disadvantaged communities and vulnerable groups across Ireland has been published by the government.

The Dormant Accounts Action Plan 2023 - funded by unclaimed accounts in credit institutions such as banks, building societies and An Post, as well as unclaimed life assurance policies in insurance undertakings - sets out 44 initiatives designed to support communities at grassroots level.

This includes providing sporting and educational opportunities to young people, and delivering projects for the elderly, disabled, marginalised and disadvantaged.

The plan was launched today (November 9) by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, Minister of State at the Department of Rural Community Development, Joe OBrien TD, Minister for Sport, Jack Chambers TD and Minister for Disabilities, Anne Rabbitte TD.

Projects set to be supported under the plan include 3.8 million for Traveller initiatives and services, 1.8 million for awareness campaigns on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and victim rights, and 5 million to deliver employment and educational support programmes for people with disabilities and family carers.

Three million euro has also been ringfenced to tackle homelessness through the Housing First initiative.

Launching the Action Plan, Minister Humphreys said, "The Dormant Accounts Action Plan is a major initiative that aims to support communities at a grassroots level. The 54.5 million funding we are announcing today will benefit and support our young people, our elderly, people with disabilities, carers, as well as our marginalised and disadvantaged groups.

"The 44 projects that make up the plan have been put forward by 9 different Government Departments. These projects will help communities that suffer from disadvantage to overcome the challenges they face. And they will also provide great opportunities for people of all ages in terms of education, health and employment."

Minister OBrien stated, "Dormant Accounts funding makes a real difference to individuals and communities right across the country. The 2023 Action Plan being published today will help ensure that we can continue to support those who need it most during these challenging times."
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar will become Taoiseach on December 17, it has been confirmed.

The Fine Gael leader will take over from Micheal Martin on that date, a source told the PA news agency.

The rotation of the role of taoiseach was due to take place on December 15 under the Programme for Government but it is understood it has been delayed to allow Mr Martin to attend the final meeting of EU leaders in Brussels this year.

Mr Varadkar previously served as taoiseach from June 2017 to February 2020.

A special sitting of the Dail will take place on Saturday, December 17 to allow the handover to take place.

A Cabinet reshuffle will take place but the exact details are not yet known.

It is not known what ministerial portfolio Mr Martin will take over when he steps down as Taoiseach to become Tanaiste.

It has been confirmed that Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath will take over from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, despite Mr Donohoe being nominated for a second term as president of the Eurogroup on Monday.

Mr Donohoe will then become Public Expenditure Minister.

Mr Donohoe was nominated for a second term as president of the Eurogroup on Monday, and will retain the role when Mr McGrath takes the reins of the finance portfolio.

Both are expected to attend Eurogroup meetings if Mr Donohoe wins a second term as Eurogroup president.
By Trend

NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Javier Colomina welcomed direct talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington, NATO Special Representative wrote on his Twitter page, Trend reports.

"Good news. Its encouraging to see ministers Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov engaging again in direct talks. NATO supports the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, key for the stability and prosperity of the South Caucasus, and welcomes US efforts in this regard", he wrote.
Sir Gavin Williamson has resigned as a government minister after a series of bullying allegations were lodged against him. In his resignation letter this evening, Williamson said he wished to clear him name of any wrongdoing and refuted how his past conduct had been characterised. He said the claims against him were becoming a distraction [...]
Setting up a special international tribunal to try Russia's aggression against Ukraine would be an important signal, Claus Kress of the University of Cologne told DW  even if there were no convictions.
About 500 migrants stranded at the Italian coast on rescue ships were allowed to disembark. Another ship was sent to France, but the situation sparked tensions between the countries.
Rumble 15 Nov 2022

After more than eight months into the war, Ukrainian forces have entered the Kherson region, that was captured by Russia early into..
There were notable gasps from the crowd and a scramble to grab cameras when the first J-20 jets roared across the sky.
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Renters in Pakistan's capital are complaining of costlier housing due to Afghan arrivals. However, Afghans, who fled the Taliban to resettle in the West, insist they are stuck in the country due to visa delays.
Russia's defense minister and a top general told troops to fall back to the eastern bank of the River Dnipro. This seemingly means Russia is ceding control of the regional capital of Kherson.
James Moylan was elected as the first Republican U.S. Congressional delegate from Guam in nearly 30 years on Tuesday in the first midterm contest decided.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is having a harder time than expected in his re-election campaign against Joy Hofmeister. Hofmeister has been blasting Stitt for his education spending plan.
Former United States President sent a warning message to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if the latter chooses to run for president in the 2024 elections.
Among the ballot issues that voters decided: Michigan voters kept abortion legal. Nebraska approved voter ID. And, Missouri legalized recreational marijuana for those 21 and older.
Newsy 10 Nov 2022

Watch VideoIt was a night Republicans were hoping to see red  and lots of it. But as the ballots continue to be tallied, it's..
California Gov. Gavin Newsom swiped at Republicans in a victory speech on Election Day evening. The governor said migrant trips arranged by GOP leaders were cruel.
Uvalde County, the site of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting on May 24, has voted in favor of Greg Abbott in the Texas governor race over Beto O'Rourke.
Peace in the UK cannot be taken for granted while Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine, Rishi Sunak said as he prepared to welcome Natos chief to Downing Street.
The German government has blocked the sale of a microchip factory to a Swedish subsidiary of a Chinese company, a decision that comes as Berlin grapples with its future approach to Beijing.
Eurasia Review 10 Nov 2022

By C. Todd Lopez



Missiles for the HAWK air defense system, along with four Avenger air defense systems and Stinger..
Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, demonstrated his viability as a potential presidential contender by beating Charlie Crist, a Democrat with wide recognition in the state.
9to5Mac 16 Nov 2022

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apples Podcasts app,..
Russian shelling has destroyed five million acres of forest in Ukraine in less than six months, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a blistering attack on Vladimir Putin's war and its global ramifications.
Voter grumbling, rage and cynicism is rampant heading into the mid-term elections on November 8th. Add the flattering, flummoxing and fooling of voters by many corporatist politicians to the mix and we have the makings of an election-day disaster.



Set the above aside and reflect on the unused citizen power, given wholesale, to...
Democrat Gavin Newsom easily won a second term as Californias governor on Tuesday, beating a little-known Republican state senator by mostly ignoring him while campaigning against the policies of...



#florida #term #gavinnewsom #gregabbott #rondesantis #statesenator
The long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Karabakh region  a bloody 30-year occupation that has seen 30,000 Azerbaijanis killed and hundreds of thousands more expelled from their lands  is showing positive signs of approaching a lasting peace.



The calm follows an unprecedented storm of military...
Harrowing, previously unseen images from 1938's Kristallnacht pogrom against German and Austrian Jews have surfaced in a photograph collection donated to Israel's Yad Vashem memorial, the organization said Wednesday.
Watch VideoRussia's military announced Wednesday that it's withdrawing from the only Ukrainian regional capital it's captured, in what would be one of the most significant and humiliating setbacks for Moscow's forces in the 8-month-old war.



Ukrainian authorities, however, cautioned against considering the retreat from...


Kristina Plamenova has been officially announced as Miss Universe Bulgaria 2022 and will now represent her country at the 71st Miss Universe. Kristina Plamenova has been officially announced as Miss Universe Bulgaria 2022 and will now represent her country at the 71st Miss Universe.





The 26-year-old model and law graduate hails from the northwestern Bulgarian town of Byala Slatina and is currently living in Sofia. She is no stranger to pageantry, having won the title of Miss Sofia in 2019.





Bulgaria has yet to win the Miss Universe pageant since the Balkan country debuted at the prestigious international competition in 1991.





The new Miss Universe Bulgaria succeeded last year's titleholder Elena Danova and will now prepare to travel to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA for the upcoming Miss Universe edition this January.





Photos: Miss Universe Bulgaria / Instagram
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, has called for a meeting of all parties concerned with developments in the country under the auspices of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to achieve the goal of elections and national reconciliation
Photo: (Photo : ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Authorities have filed a murder charge against a Virginia mom in connection with the death of her young daughter who was found unresponsive in a motel they were staying in, according to cops.

According to a report by WTVR-TV, citing the medical examiner's office, two-year-old Lanoix Andrade died of acute diphenhydramine toxicity. Diphenhydramine is commonly known to people as Benadryl.

According to a news release, cops in Virginia Beach, Virginia, responded on August 1 to the Cutty Sark Motel where they discovered Leandra Andrade suffering from a medical emergency.

Lanoix pronounced dead on the scene in motel room

The 38-year-old's daughter, Lanoix, who was also in the motel room, was pronounced dead on the scene. The elder Andrade was transferred for treatment to a local hospital. According to The Virginian-Pilot, the mom was charged upon release with abuse and neglect of a child in relation to the death of her toddler, which authorities deemed at the time as suspicious.

The media outlet reported, citing court records, that Andrade fled the Washington D.C., area with Lanoix prior to the incident. Leandra decided to leave town after Lanoix's dad, Fabio Andrade Jr., was awarded full legal custody of the toddler, although both of them were granted joint physical custody of the child.

Fabio called his toddler daughter the love of his life following the announcement of the murder charge and autopsy results. He said in the statement that while the charges will never bring back his daughter, he is thankful to the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney for seeking justice for Lanoix's senseless murder.

Fabio added that he is looking forward to seeing justice served for Lanoix. He said that he continues to ask for privacy so that he may mourn his beloved angel. Leandra retained attorney James Broccoletti for the case. It was unclear if Leandra entered a plea to the murder charges.

Read Also: Officer Reunites With Baby He Helped Deliver And Rescue at US-Mexico Border

Leandra arraigned on felony child abuse charge after release from hospital

Jail records indicated that Leandra was denied bond, according to People Magazine. She was arraigned on a felony child abuse charge back in August following the child's death. Leandra arrived at the Virginia Beach city jail shortly after her release from the hospital.

Her arraignment took place in the Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. She told substitute Judge Anthony Nicolo at the time that she is a housewife and she was not sure if she would be able to afford an attorney. She told the judge she plans to ask family for help. The judge told Leandra that he would appoint a public defender if she is unable to get assistance.

Fabio released a statement at the time, saying that his daughter Lanoix loved life and that she loved to make her friends and family smile. He added that he is devastated that the opportunity for Lanoix to continue living a happy and loving life was taken from her.

Related Article: Arkansas Parents Sue Bentonville School After Their Son Was Left on the Bus
Photo: (Photo : NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Saylor Thomson was born weighing just 1.025 kilograms, with a tumor twice as heavy attached to the Brisbane baby's small spine.

Her fast-growing tumor was first spotted in utero at her 20-week scan, where mom Rachel Thomson was given the grim news that her baby daughter only had a 25- to 40 percent chance of survival.

Baby Saylor had to deal with a tumor called Sacrococcygeal teratoma. It grows from the tailbone of a baby, and the tumor happens in just one out of 40,000 live births. According to Mater Mothers' Hospital's Professor Sailesh Kumar, Saylor's tumor was the largest they had ever seen from a baby of her size at the hospital.

Saylor delivered 11 weeks early after developing heart failure

Saylor was delivered via emergency cesarean more than 11 weeks early after she developed heart failure inside the womb.

Kumar managed to navigate Saylor's tricky birth with the help of a team of 25 surgeons, anesthetists, neonatologists, theatre staff, midwives, and nurses. He said Saylor's tumor was massive and complex and extended into her pelvis and abdomen.

He added that many of these babies do not survive the pregnancy as these tumors essentially function like a sizeable vascular shunt that causes a lot of blood to return to the heart. Kumar said that the hearts of some babies couldn't cope with this extra volume, resulting in heart failure.

Moments after the birth of Saylor, doctors started a long six-hour operation on the tiny infant to remove her tumor, according to 9News. Dr. Peter Borzi, a neonatal and pediatric surgeon at Queensland Children's Hospital and Mater Mothers' Hospital, performed the painstaking operation to save baby Saylor.

According to Borzi, Saylor needed five blood transfusions during her surgery, but the infant was strong and resilient. Borzi added that Saylor had made a remarkable recovery with the help of the teams at Queensland Children's Hospital and Mater Mothers' Hospital.

Read Also: Texas Mom Gets Life Sentence for Murder After Leaving Bedridden Daughter Alone so She Can Party

Saylor now weighs 3 kilograms after the successful operation

Ten days after the birth of their baby, Saylor's parents were finally able to hold their daughter for the very first time. Saylor's mom said that when the social worker and surgeons first gathered to tell them she had little chance of making it due to prematurity and the tumor, she cried hysterically.

The sadness is all gone now, with the mother saying that holding Saylor in her arms and knowing she has come through the other side is something special.

Saylor's doctors said the baby has gone from strength to strength since the operation. She has gained weight since her birth, with Saylor now almost weighing three kilograms, according to ABC. The Thomson couple is sharing their story to highlight World Prematurity Day on November 17 and thank the hospital for the care they provided to their daughter.

Related Article: Long Waiting Lists and High Costs Hinder Many Children's Access to Mental Health Care
Photo: (Photo : Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash)

When you think about traveling to New York City with kids, you can feel apprehensive and even a little anxious. You may have heard horror stories that have made you think twice. However, you can have a lot of fun and enjoyment when traveling with your kids - if you put in the time to plan it. This article will help guide you in the right direction to finding success with your planning.

Create a Plan For What You Want to See

Once you know where you want to go, you then have to start creating a plan for what you want to see. So, for instance, children of all ages would love a trip to see the Statue of Liberty. Climbing the steps or even using the elevator to get to a lookout will be fun for them, and it will give them the chance to take in the views around them. After a visit to the famous statue, you may wish to plan to visit Times Square. This bustling location can be fun for kids, and the bright lights can leave them feeling excited and possibly even a little overwhelmed. Whatever you choose to do, having a plan will help you organize your time and get everyone where they need to be.

Get Your Kids Involved

There will be a certain amount of control you will want to retain when planning a New York City trip, but getting the kids involved can be fun too. Asking your kids where they want to visit and why allows them to have their say and input. When kids feel more involved in all aspects of the process, they can find more enjoyment too. If your kids are older, you can get them to research what attractions and sights there are in New York and what they think the family would enjoy seeing and doing.

Break Up the Sightseeing

There are a lot of sights and attractions to take in on your visit to the Big Apple. However, your vacation or trip has to be about more than this. It has to be about fun, enjoyment, and exploration. Heading off on sightseeing trips is fun, but give up some of your time to hit the stores and boutiques to buy souvenirs. Another idea is to allow the kids to have a day enjoying the central park - you do not have to be on the go all the time to enjoy New York.

Organize Transportation and Sort Out Your Accommodation

When you are traveling with kids, it is always beneficial to know where you will be sleeping and how you will be getting around. Reducing the amount of stress you put yourself under is crucial. Working out what methods of transportation you will use during your trip and also deciding where you will stay (and pre-booking) in advance will prove advantageous. After a long day traveling and exploring with kids, you need to know where you are going to rest and recuperate.
Photo: (Photo : Jacob Silberberg/Getty Images)

NBC News analysis of data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed that all pediatric hospital beds in Rhode Island were occupied on Sunday and Monday.

Rhode Island is among the states most severely affected by the country's aggressive surge of pediatric respiratory infections. As of Monday, November 7, 76 percent of pediatric hospital beds were occupied across the United States. Pediatric hospital beds in Washington, D.C., were at 98 percent capacity, while beds in Arizona were at 96 percent capacity.

Dr. Frank Overly, Hasbro Children's Hospital's medical director for pediatric emergency medicine, said that his hospital is beyond capacity now. He added that the hospital's 29 pediatric beds in the emergency room were occupied on Monday, and there were 29 additional patients in the waiting room.

RSV surge causing spike in pediatric cases at Hasbro

Like most states in the country, Rhode Island is seeing cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID, flu, and other respiratory viruses all at the same time. According to Overly, RSV accounts for a large share of pediatric cases at Hasbro Children's, but flu cases at his hospital are also rising.

He said it is getting up to over 40 families in the waiting room. He added that wait times had reached numbers they had never seen before. He noted that patients who don't have life-threatening conditions wait for as long as eight or nine hours at Hasbro, which is the only children's hospital in the state of Rhode Island.

Overly said that he took on work at the hospital over the weekend that would ordinarily be split among several staffers. He said that he cleaned beds, discharged patients, and fetched new children from the waiting room to oversee and treat.

Overly said that normally, nurses, medical assistants, secretaries, and technicians, would help with these processes, but everyone was busy caring last weekend for other patients.

Read Also: Baby Formula Shortage Still a Problem in the US As It Stretches Into Eighth Month

Strained hospital capacity affecting entire country

While some adult hospitals in Rhode Island treat pediatric patients with milder cases, kids requiring more intensive care are being directed to pediatric hospitals in other states, such as Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

Hasbro Children's does not turn away their patients once they arrive, so the hospital uses beds at Rhode Island Hospital's adult emergency department and other flex spaces to care for as many children as possible.

Teresa Paiva Weed, president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, said that strained hospital capacity is an issue in New England and the entire country.

Dr. Sarah Combs said that doctors at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. are seeing their patients in hallways and flex rooms formerly occupied by clinics. The attending physician added that the hospital is operating at or near capacity, and the waiting room is full.

Related Article: Texas Mom Opens Fire On Burglary Suspect After He Breaks Into Her Home
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Nvidias glorious GeForce RTX 4090 wowed reviewers and set a new bar for just how stupidly fast a graphics card could be. Unfortunately, the launch of the $1,600 GPU has been marred by multiple reports of melting 12VHPWR connectors used in the cards damaging both the connector and the GPUs at times.

The new 12VHPWR connector is a compact power connector that combines the capability of multiple older 6- and 8-pin connectors into one tiny plug. It was originally adopted with the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition and is now used in the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition as well as custom versions of the RTX 4090 built by the likes of Asus, MSI, et cetera. The 12VHPWR connector will also be used in the impending GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition, slated to release on November 16.

Update: The latest updates weve added to the saga of the melting 12VHWPR connectors is news of a class-action law suit filed against Nvidia, and a formal statement by Nvidia indicating improper insertion to largely be at fault.

GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Read our review

With this fast-moving, confusing, and also very serious situation, PCWorld has decided to round up the facts you need to know to help separate fact from fiction. Nvidia officials have declined to comment while it investigates, but the latest development seem to point to bad 12VHPWR adapter cables. Theres also the possibility that not fully inserting the cable may cause increased resistance and enough heat to melt the connectors. Well update this story as new information is released.

Sept. 10 Hassan Mujtaba of WCCFTech reports of an alert issued from PCI-SIG to members of a thermal variance, which could result in safety issues under certain safety conditions. The member alert advises vendors to work closely with their connector vendors and exercise due diligence in using high-power connections

Sept. 14 The full email and additional details from the PCI-SIG are reported by Stephen Burke of Gamers Nexus and notes that failures have been observed in certain cable routing conditions from PSUs and test boards that generate side load on the interface. Burke said the reportapparently created by Nvidiafrom PCI-SIG showed three different manufacturers have been tested with 10 sample assemblies with failures manifesting from 10 hours to 30 hours with melting. Its worth pointing out that the internal report seems to refer to the connection on the PSU sidenot the GPU side. In general, however, ATX 3.0 power supplies PCWorld have seen indicate the cables to be identical on both ends.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Sept. 22 VideoCardzs editor WhyCry reports that GPU maker Zotacs guidance on the new 12VHPWR connector is rated for 30-insertion cycles which raises alarms as to the lifespan and durability of the new connector. VideoCardz later amends its report to say that while 30 cycles appears very low, many Molex connectors introduced over the last 20 years have had similar mating cycles.

Oct. 24 The first report of a melted 12HPWR connector is posted on the Nvidia sub-reddit. The GPU appears to be a Gigabyte 4090 Gaming OC using an Nvidia-branded 12VHPWR adapter cable. Both Nvidia and Gigabyte reach out to the owner who reports a replacement card has been received. A second report of a melted dongle is received as well on that day with damage to the adapter cable and an Asus RTX 4090 TUF Gaming OC Edition occurring. The Reddit post immediately goes viral on the high-profile graphics card with many assuming the new connector to be at fault.

Oct. 24 A few hours after the initial melting report on Reddit, renowned power supply reviewer and the principle behind PSU certification company Cybenetics, Aristeidis Bitziopoulos, attempts to replicate the melting 12VHPWR connector by subjecting it to 600 watt loads for more than 90 minutes. He is unable to damage the cable while seeing only a small thermal variance. It should be noted that the test used a native 12VHPWR cable on an ATX 3.0 power supply rather than Nvidias adapter. Bitziopoulos concludes the 12VHPWR connector doesnt seem to be an issue in his testing.

Oct. 24 Overclocker Buildzoid of Actually Hardware Overclocking, posts a video criticizing the new 12VHPWR connector noting that the new connector drastically reduces the number of pins and wires carrying power.

Oct. 25. With failures now reported at three, Nvidia officials tell the Verges Tom Warren that we are investigating the reports and are in contact with the owners of the impacted cards.

Oct. 25 Former HardOCP editor Kyle Bennett reports AMDs upcoming RDNA3 GPUs will not use the 12VHWPR connector in its reference designs. Neither Bennett, nor his sources at AMD indicate when the design decision was made to skip 12VHPWR.

Oct. 25 Showing what a distraction the 12VHPWR has become, AMDs Scott Herkelman publicly confirms the new Radeon cards will skip 12VHPWR and receives responses such as That is a HUGE relief, happy with that news.

Oct. 26 The official Reddit megathread listing showing documented failures now numbers five damaged 12VHWPR connectors.

Oct. 26 Jason Langiven, aka JayzTwoCents, who has long been critical of the connector being dangerous, attempts to replicate the failure on a native 12VHWPR cable and is unable to induce a failure on the cable under heavy loads.

Nvidias 12VHPWR adapter needs to connect to three or four 8-pin power cables. Brad Chacos/IDG

Oct. 27 Igor Wallossek of IgorsLab.de conducts a tear down and failure test of a 12VHPWR power adapter and concludes that the issue doesnt appear to be the 12VHPWR design itself nor the much-touted insertion cycle concern raised previously. Instead, Wallossek concludes it is the design of Nvidias adapter itself, which he describes as inferior quality (and) can lead to failures and has already caused damage in single cases. Wallossek said he believes bending and kinking of the adapter can cause weak solder joints and bridges to break and increase the resistance causing the melting.

Oct. 28 Ronaldo Buassali of TecLab.net.br posts his own failure tests, including swinging a power supply using just the connector and subjecting to a stress test of 1,532well beyond its rated sustained wattage of 600 watts.

Oct. 29 The number of confirmed damaged connectors on Reddit now numbers 15.

Oct. 30 Stephen Burke of Gamers Nexus attempts to replicate the melting failure by intentionally damaging a 12VHPWR adapter similar to what IgorsLab.de had reported and subjected it to a 99 percent load for 8 hours with no melting observed. Burke also notes that his five adapters all appear to be constructed the sameand yet differently than the adapter IgorsLab had. Burke said his five 12VHWPR adapters use wires labeled for 300 volts versus the 150 volts the adapter Wallossek had. Burke concludes that we just dont know what the issue is, but it is a real problem on some adaptersbut not all of them. He also mentions a theory being floated that the smaller connector may not easily seat as well as the larger traditional power connectors. He also points out that contrary to what many consumers believe, a native connector that plugs directly into a power supply may also fail the same way if the native cable is constructed the same as the failed adapters. Burke also asks owners of RTX 4090 cards to report which cable adapters they have.

Just keeping everyone updated: Out of about 130 emails so far to the 4090cable inbox, we've received 7 that are 150V rated wires (and therefore potentially indicative of different supply), so 5%. That rating doesn't instantly mean it's bad. Replying to a few for info  GamersNexus (@GamersNexus) October 31, 2022

Oct. 30 With news that there appear to be different 12VHPWR adapters being provided, Stephen Burke of Gamers Nexus reports via Twitter that of the 130 emails he has received, 7 percent of owners report they have the 150V cabling that was used in IgorsLabs adapter cable. Burke notes that while the cable marking may say 150V, that only means it uses the same apparent spec cablesand does not indicate they are may have the low-quality solder joints that IgorsLab found. Burke also notes that of the 130, not many are burned.

Oct. 30 Andreas Schilling of Hardwareluxx.de conducts his own poll of forum members who have purchased RTX 4090 cards. He reports that 12 have a 4-pins-to-12VHPWR adapter marked 300V. One has a 3-pins-to-12VHPWR marked 150V, and two people have 4-pins-to-12VHPWR marked 150V.

Nov. 1 Ronaldo Buassali of TecLab.net.br posts a longer video of testing from the original live stream with additional explanations of how he tested the 12VHPWR. Unlike most of the testing so far, which used actual GeForce RTX 4090 cards, Buassali physically removes the 12VHPWR connector from the GPU and wires it up for stress testing. This lets Buassali push the connector assembly well past the 600 watts called for, including loads of 900 watts, 1,200 watts and 1,500 watts. Buassalis conclusion? The 12VHPWR connector itself is well sized, so much so that it supported much more than its specification. However, Buassali concludes that even though the connector can handle more than its rated for, a poorly inserted connector that creates resistance could indeed be behind the melting of the connector. Buassali also doesnt rule out a batch of bad cables, but that implies a manufacturing issue, not a design problem.

Nov. 2 Jon Gerow, director of R&D at Corsair and formerly of Jonnyguru.com, posts results from intentionally damaged 12VHPWR cable adapters under load and is unable to induce melting as well. Gerow was able to source multiple 12VHPWR adapter cables for destructive testing, and despite breaking off solder joints, he was unable to induce melting or a failure. He did note that some of the adapters werent constructed very well but even the worst of the batch passed stress testing without failing. Gerow concludes that some of the problems may have occurred when the owners didnt fully seat the 12VHPWR adapter cables and also posts images of installed PCs where even a small gap of 1 mm could result in increased resistance.

Nov. 3 AMD formally announces its RDNA3-based Radeon 7900XT and Radeon 7900XTX and proudly notes that it did not use 12VHPWR connections. However, the company points out that the general perception that it changed its designs only after the melting problems cropped up a few weeks ago is not correct. AMD made the decision to stay with conventional 8-pin power connectors more than a year ago.

Nov. 4 A new post in the Nvidia subreddit, taken from a Facebook post of a Hong Kong-based RTX 4090 owner, is the first reported damaged 12VHPWR cable from a native cable plugged directly into a power supply. Previous to this report, all of the reported issues had only occurred in 12VHPWR adapter cables, not native cables. The following day, another person reports a melted connector using a native 12VHPWR cable from an ATX 3.0 power supply. This appears to dash hopes that a native plug would solve the problem.

Nov 7 The number of confirmed failed connectors now numbers 23 on the Reddit megathread, with issues spread among many graphics card makers. Oddly, there are no Nvidia Founders Edition cards listed with failures. There are also five unconfirmed cases listed from other board makers as well.

Nov. 7 VideoCardz editor WhyCry reports that a person on Reddit has been told his or her Gainward GeForce RTX 4090 will be delayed until the middle of November as it waits for replacement 12VHPWR adapter cables. The email, sent from Australian PC company Techfast to a customer, said While investigations are still continuing and Nvidia has not released a public statement, Gainward has told us that cables shipped with their cards will (are) being replaced. As a result, they are holding shipping of all cards until this has taken place. We also understand this cable replacement will not be limited to Gainward alone. PCWorld reached out to Techfast who confirmed the authenticity of the email.

Nov. 8 Despite Australian PC builder Techfast confirming an email sent to customers saying some RTX 4090 cards would be delayed while Gainward ships replacement cables and implying other GPU makers would do the same, Gainwards EU Facebook page says that is not the case and has issued a clarification. There is incorrect information suggesting Gainward is delaying the RTX 4090 shipment to replace the cables lately. Here we would like to clarify thatGainward is not holding any RTX 40 shipment to replace the cables, and has no plan to do so. The cables Gainward currently used on the RTX 40 have been inspected by NVIDIA team and found no issues. All Gainward shipment is being made as usual. Please dont hesitate to grab the Gainward graphics cards if you plan to buy one!

Nov. 11 UK hardware site KitGuru receives an update from Nvidia that it is continuing to investigate the situation. We continue to investigate the reports, however we dont have further details to share yet. NVIDIA and our partners are committed to supporting our customers and ensuring an expedited RMA process for them, KitGuru says via Twitter.

Nov. 13 There are now 26 confirmed GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs with melted connectors documented in the Nvidia subreddit including for the first time, a report of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition with a melted connector.

Nov 14 Igor Wallossek of Igorslab.de confirms there are at least two manufacturers of the Nvidia supplied adapter plugs with one of the adapters seemingly using a rougher casting making insertions more difficult. Wallossek, who said he has spoken with Nvidias director of engineering Gabriele Gorla, doesnt blame end users, but does believe the rougher castings may possibly have lead some customers to to rock the 12VHWPR connector into the socket which may be why so many reports show melted connectors starting from one side of the connector with few to none melting from the center. The solution, Wallossek said, may indicate the PCI SIG needs to issue guidance on keep out zones to give consumers better access to the socket to directly inserting it rather than rocking the connectors in from one side. Wallossek also notes that of the two adapter cables used supplied by Nvidia, one design only grabs pins on two sides while the other design grabs pins on all four sides.

Nov. 16 In an exhaustive investigation relying on third-party failure analysis using X-ray examination as well as electron microscope exam, as well as reproducing the failures, Gamers Nexus EIC Stephen Burke concludes debris inside the connectors from manufacturing or from insertion as well as improperly seating the cables is largely behind most of the failures seen. Burke also cites numbers from a vendor that the risk of failure is from 0.05 to .1 percent at this point. Although improperly seating the cables while putting it under strain seems to get most of the blame, Burke also wonders if the design of the connector shouldnt have anticipated the issues.

Nov. 16 Toms Hardware reports that a GeForce RTX 4090 owner has filed a class-action in the US District Court for the Northern District Court of California over the melting connectors. Filed by Lucas Genova on Nov. 11, the suit alleges Nvidia marketed and sold the RTX 4090 with a defective and dangerous power cable plug and socket, which has rendered consumers cards inoperable and poses a serious electrical and fire hazard for each and every purchaser, according to the Toms Hardware report.

Nov. 17 Looking to pour a little salt into the wounds of its competitor, AMD officials have been touting their fortune of not implementing the new 12VHPWR connector its upcoming Radeon 7000-series of cards.
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.

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The Feminine Empowerment Foundation, a womens empowerment organization, has made an undisclosed donation to women with breast cancer at the 37 Military Hospital.



The donation drive is part of the organizations breast cancer public awareness, education, and sensitization efforts.



The organization has embarked on several activities to educate the public, especially women, about breast cancer.



Dr. Anne S. Daly, the organizations founder and President, stated that one of the organizations top priorities is educating women on what they can do to be proactive about their breast health.



She contended that learning enough about breast cancer and detecting it early can help save lives.



She explained that having breast cancer is not a death sentence because it can be treated if detected early.



She stated that one of our major goals is to reduce the number of women who present with the late-stage disease at diagnosis through community outreach and education.



Dr. Anne S. Daly commended Ghana Gas for supporting the initiative and donation drive.



She emphasized the importance of intensive breast cancer campaigns, education, and awareness, as well as self-examination and regular hospital check-ups.



On his part, Col. Seth Attoh at the 37 Military Hospital expressed gratitude to the organization for their kind gesture.



He said the donation would go a long way to help the patients on admission.



The patients also commended the organization for the donation.







Source: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Chief Executive Officer of the Asafo-Agyei Hospital in Daaban, Kumasi, Dr Asafo-Agyei Anane Frempong, has marked 50 years of medical practice, with a call on young doctors to stay back home to help the nation.

Speaking to journalists, Dr Asafo-Agyei said after becoming a certified doctor and through his exchange programmes oversees, he was tempted to stay abroad to work on a full time basis, but he opted to stay back in Ghana to help the country.



I always insist that as Africans we are faced with numerous challenges which we ourselves must address. My people are suffering, so why should I go to a different place to the detriment of my own people? Besides I think if you do things right here, there is money in the country, he said.





He urged young doctors weighing the option of going abroad to resist the temptation, explaining that in Europe and elsewhere they only practice to favour their economies.



Medical practice



Dr Asafo-Agyei described his 50 years journey in medical practice as an exciting and challenging one.



I started at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital before I was transferred to Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and after five years of serving from medical, surgical, obstetrics and gynaecology departments, I decided to go solo.



The piles treatment I learnt in India has relieved many people of the piles disease. I even treated people freely when I started, and to the glory of God, the Asafo-Agyei Hospital is now the international centre for treating piles, and many people across the globe have come here for treatment, he said.



Dr Asafo-Agyei has contributed to the national and global health sector after his housemanship at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi before veering into private practice in 1978.



In 1980, he established the Asafo-Agyei Hospital at Daaban, and became the first Ghanaian medical doctor to non-surgically treat piles using the hemorrhoidectomy method after his training at the Piles Specialist Training Centre in Gujarat, India.



Anniversary



The three-day celebration involved a free piles screening exercise, a general cleaning exercise at the Asafo-Agyei Hospital and the premises of the the Great Eternal Harvest International Ministry by members of the Great Eternal Harvest International Ministry and staff of the hospital, and a thanksgiving service.



It was attended by digitaries from politics, medical practice, business, traditional authority, religious sects, and state agencies.

President Ghana Medical Association, Dr Frank Serebour, congratulated Dr Asafo-Agyei for working continuing to show the energy to deliver more service to Ghana.



The flag bearer of the United Front Party, Nana Agyenim Boateng, praised Dr Asafo-Agyei for introducing the non-surgical treatment of piles in the country.



I was diagnosed with piles, and the treatment I had here at Asafo-Agyei Hospital was superb. In fact, the whole treatment process took less than five minutes, and I was able to go back to work straight from the hospital, he said.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Most Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, the 18th Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has tasked Ghanaians to tone down on criticism of the government amid economic hardship.



Speaking at an event to climax the Centenary celebration of the Asante presbytery in Kumasi over the weekend, he said the difficulties Ghanaians were experiencing were not unique to Ghana.



But that over-politicization has become the norm, hence opposition parties are always acting in ways that shame the government so that they can boost their chances of winning power.



Ghana has become very difficult. But I also know that the whole world has become very difficult. I know that things have become very difficult and in Ghana, many people are not educated to know that there is a serious world crisis.



If you say it, many dont believe because everything is politicized, so the opposition is interested in doing what will shame the ruling government so that he can be voted for. That kind of politics must be shunned, it is not nice. It doesnt convince those of us who are educated, he stressed.



He also tasked Ghanaians to critique the government using the proper channels stressing that doing otherwise ultimately hurts the economy as it has the tendency of chasing away investors.



There is a medium to raise concerns about issues not to dirty each other in the media. The more we say negative things about our country, the more prices will shoot up. Because there is no investor who will seriously take you seriously.



It is this that someone wanted to say when he said sika mp dede, he added in reference to controversial comments President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made in his October 30 economic address to the nation.



What Akufo-Addo said about Ghana being in a crisis



Amid an economic downturn, calls for Akufo-Addo to resign has heightened with a November 5, 2022 protest dubbed Kume Preko Reloaded making the loudest call as activists and politicians marched in Accra to press home that demand.



The government is meanwhile, grappling with an economic crisis, which along with the galamsey scourge and corruption are the major drivers for the call on Akufo-Addo to resign along with his Vice President, Mahamadu Bawumia.



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 bedevilled 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.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former Minister for the Central Region, Kwamena Duncan, has appealed to the striking teachers to resume work.



The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G) have embarked on strike to protest the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).



They declared a nationwide strike on November 4, 2022 over the failure of the government to meet the deadline to terminate the appointment of the new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Eric Nkansah.



The Unions say they will call off their strike action when the government addresses their grievances.



Speaking on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", Kwamena Duncan scolded the teachers as he stressed that, although they have the right to strike, they cannot abuse such right.



"The constitution is the supreme law of the land. Nobody can sit elsewhere and negotiate the power of the constitution away . . . So, anything that contravenes this constitution must be struck out," he said.



To him, the teachers are "toppling the provisions of this constitution" with their recent action.



Quoting some portions of the constitution to buttress his point which stipulated that the power to appoint lies in the hands of the President and that the public service which includes the Education Service only acts as an advisor to guide the President in his appointment, the former Minister believed there was nothing untoward with the appointment of the new GES Director-General.



He, however, called on the appropriate State institution and the Teacher Unions to ensure they reach an amicable resolution on the matter and prayed for a "closure to this so the students can return to school".

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.

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Despite sustained public outcry, the 19-kilometre Accra-Tema Motorway continues to deteriorate and pose grave danger to motorists.

Two years after the Daily Graphic began to highlight the deteriorating state of the 56-year-old motorway, potholes, bitumen patches, erosion and hardened lumps from spilled concrete are still posing a danger and discomfort to drivers and passengers who commute on it on a daily basis.



On both sides of the countrys only concrete motorway, potholes, some of which have been patched with bitumen, have left the road in a dangerous state, especially at night when visibility on the stretch is poor.



About half of the street lights that were mounted on the motorway about a year ago are not functioning.



Situation worsens



A month-long monitoring by the Daily Graphic, as a follow-up to similar exercises in the past, revealed that the situation had only become worse.



While the Tema-Accra stretch remains the more deplorable, the portion around the Ashaiman tollbooth, where transit trucks park on the shoulders, sometimes for hours, has been destroyed by potholes, while erosion has also eaten into the edges.



The stretch just before the Abattoir Bridge, which was recently fixed, has developed potholes that force drivers to slow down, creating traffic congestion all the way to the Ashaiman under-bridge area.



Accidents



On four occasions, while monitoring activities on the motorway for this story series, the Daily Graphic came across vehicular accidents, one of which resulted in injuries and the victims rushed to hospital.



On our recent tour of the motorway a week ago, a tanker truck driver, Raymond Nkrumah, who was seen stranded on the Tema-Accra side, with his vehicle in a ditch, said he had loaded the truck with diesel from the Bulk Oil and Storage Transportation Limited (BOST) in Tema and was headed for Kumasi when the truck hit a pothole, resulting in the removal of the tyre rod.



"I hit a pothole and my tyre rod was removed, tossed the vehicle from one side to the other before entering the ditch," he said.



The experience, he said, was scary.



Speed radar



Meanwhile, the team observed that the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) had installed a solar-powered electronic radar speed sign on the motorway.



The speed sign was installed to make drivers aware of the level of their speed as they drove to help them keep to the required speed on the motorway.



Public outcry



Two years ago, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, told the Daily Graphic that plans were far advanced for the reconstruction of the motorway to make it safer for users.



We are in the process of reconstructing the motorway soon to ensure the safety of road users, he said at the time.



Despite the assurance by the minister, the motorway has since not seen any major rehabilitation.



Rather, motorists are still confronted with the nightmare of a deteriorating motorway, prompting calls from the public for the government to fix and restore it to its original state.



When contacted, the Ministry of Roads and Highways declined to comment on the situation except to refer the Daily Graphic to the 2022 Mid-Year Budget review in June this year, in which the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, gave an assurance that work on the reconstruction of the motorway would start last two months.



Mr Speaker, under the Ministry of Roads and Highways (MoRH) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programme for road infrastructure, the Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Maintain (DBFOM) Accra  Tema Motorway and Extension PPP Project (27.7km) is at the procurement stage. Site works are expected to commence in September 2022, the minister said.



The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), Emmanuel Laryea Odai, told the Daily Graphic that as an interim measure, the Mobile Maintenance Unit of the GHA would be resourced to carry out periodic maintenance, while the government prepared to reconstruct the motorway.



The unit has been doing some work on the motorway, and that is supposed to be an interim measure to keep it running before the reconstruction work begins, as indicated by the sector minister, he said.



New contracts



A Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Stephen Pambiin Jalulah, also told the Daily Graphic, last year that the government was in the process of awarding the contract for the reconstruction of the motorway and the dualisation of some highways across the country.



I know that financing arrangements will soon be made for contractors to begin work on the motorway," he said.



Already, he said, the contract for the design and reconstruction of the motorway from the Tema Interchange through the Apenkwa Interchange to the Neoplan Junction at Achimota had been awarded.



Recap



Since December 2020, the Daily Graphic has focused on safety on the motorway and produced six stories to highlight some of the acts of indiscipline that portend danger for road users, as well as the bad state of the road.



The first story: "Motorway menace on increase", focused on some of the illegal activities perpetrated by both motorists and squatters along the motorway.



That was followed in January this year by another story titled: "Indiscipline unabated: Accra-Tema Motorway without rules", which also threw light on the indiscipline on the motorway that was threatening the safety of road users.



Another story: The lights go dim: Accra-Tema Motorway in focus, was published on April 15, 2021, to highlight the concerns of motorists over visibility on the motorway and how challenging it was to drive on it at night.



After the publication, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority, Professor Alex Dodoo, told the Daily Graphic that the streetlights did not conform to the countrys standard for street lighting.



That revelation was then captured in a follow-up story with the headline: Motorway lights substandard  GSA, which was published on April 16, 2021.



Our attention then shifted to the state of the motorway with a story that was published on June 1, 2022, with the headline: A year on: Accra-Tema Motorway still in bad shape.



Each of the stories was published with a number of photos to signal the urgency to restore the motorway to improve safety.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A farmer, Samuel Ampomah, who filed a suit seeking the Supreme Court to allow men to marry more than one wife under the marriage ordinance law, has discontinued the case.

Mr Ampomah filed the notice of discontinuance on October 22 this year.



The apex court is expected to sit soon and decide whether or not to allow the plaintiff to discontinue the suit.



Mr Ampomah went to the Supreme Court in November last year with a case that it was unconstitutional for the Marriages Act, 1884 (CAP 127), and the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) to forbid a man from marrying more than one wife under the ordinance and also make it a crime.



According to him, CAP 127 and Act 29 violated Articles 17 (2) and 21(1) of the 1992 Constitution, which respectively prohibits discrimination and guarantees the right to practice any religion without restriction.



Plaintiffs reliefs



Mr Ampomah was seeking a declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Articles 17(2) and 21(1) (c) of the 1992 Constitution and the spirit of the Constitution, Section 74 (1) of CAP 127 which forbids a man from marrying more than one wife under the ordinance was unconstitutional, and, therefore, null and void.



Again, he wanted the apex court to declare as unconstitutional Sections 262, 263, 264 and 265(2) of Act 29 which make it an offence for a man to marry again under the ordinance while he is already married.



Legal arguments



Under CAP 127, there are three types of marriages  customary, Islamic and ordinance.



The first two  customary and Islamic  allow a man to marry more than one wife, while the ordinance prohibits a man from marrying more than one wife.



Mr Ampomah argued that the marriage under the ordinance applied solely to Christian marriage, but that there was no evidence that monogamous marriage was part of Christianity.



Rather, he argued that monogamous marriage was a European culture which had been made to look like a religious or Christian culture.



It was, therefore, his case that making it compulsory for Christians to marry only one was an imposition which discriminates against people in Ghana who identified as Christians.



Plaintiff maintains that in the Christian manual of life known as the Bible, there is no prohibition against Christian men from marrying more than one wife anyway, making the prohibition in Sections 74(1) (b) of CAP 127, and Sections 262, 263 and 265 (2) an undue and improper imposition on the lives of Christians, he argued.



A-Gs defence



In its defence, the Attorney-General (A-G) argued that the plaintiff had not made any case to be granted the reliefs that he sought.



According to the A-G, the three different types of marriages captured under CAP 127 were based on the various religious practices in the country.



It is trite that customary and Mohammedan marriages are potentially polygamous, while the Bible which guides Christianity upholds monogamy. This principle is established throughout the Bible and is practiced by Christians the world over, the A-G argued.



The A-G further argued that the plaintiff had not properly invoked the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution.



It was the case of the A-G that the fact that the plaintiff sought interpretation did not mean the law he complained about met the interpretation criteria set out by case law.



The A-G contended that Section 74 (1) (b) of CAP 127 was clear, concise and admitted no ambiguity, and that there was no need for interpretation or enforcement by the court.











Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Lotto operators, agents and writers across the country have kicked against a decision by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to reduce commissions paid to lotto writers from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.

The lotto operators, writers and agents said the reduction in the commissions would make life difficult for them, especially in the face of the high cost of living and the general worsening economic condition.



They are therefore calling on the NLA to rather increase the commissions to 40 per cent or maintain the original 30 per cent commission



At a stakeholder meeting in Accra Tuesday (November 8, 2022), the lotto industry players said even the 30 per cent commission was not adequate and therefore a reduction to 20 per cent would collapse their businesses and make life unbearable for them and their families.



Stakeholders meeting



The stakeholders meeting was among the Lotto Operators Association (GLOA), Concerned Lotto Agents Association of Ghana (CLAAG) and Private Lotto Writers Association (PLAW).



It was meant to allow the various groups to discuss the decision by the NLA in October this year for the commission to be reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.



The hundreds of lotto writers and members of the associations who turned up for the meeting were clad in red and carried placards to drive home their displeasure about the reduction in their commissions.



Some of the placards read Think about the Poor before you act and NLA why 



Economic hardships



The Executive Secretary of CLAAG, Eric Kweku Duah- Tawiah said the reduction in the commission had been met with fierce resistance by the lotto writers and other industry players.



The situation has resulted in several incidence of near altercations between lotto writers and their respective agents , he said.



According to him, with the current economic crisis, a reduction in the commission of lotto writers could collapse the industry as it would no longer be attractive.



Already, he said the industry was under serious strain due the the introduction of lottery on phones , which has reduced the sales of the lotto writers.



He said if the NLA refuses to listen to them, the associations would be forced to hit the street in a demonstration highlight their plights, and also present their grievances to President Akufo-Addo.



The industry is already suffering. Reduction in commissions is therefore a double blow for the writers and all industry players, he said.



He announced that the associations would soon meet the NLA for the authority to address their concerns.







Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Amnesty International, a human rights advocacy body, has appealed to all stakeholders to join hands and submit a memorandum in support of the Private Members Bill before Parliament towards the abolition of the death penalty.

It said the memorandum would facilitate the passage of the bill which it said had been long overdue.

Amnesty International made the appeal when its executive members paid a courtesy call to the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation in his office in Accra yesterday



The Campaign and Communication Coordinator for Amnesty International Ghana, Belinda Asamanyuah, said over the years, in seeking the abolition of the penalty, it realised that constitutional reviews through a referendum would be expensive for the organisation and the country.



She further stated that through the advice of a legal team, the organisation decided to advocate for a life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty.



Strategy



"Our strategy has changed to an advocacy approach grounded on sound legal advice which now focuses on amending the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) to abolish 96 per cent of the provisions relating to the use of the death penalty and the Ghana Armed Forces Act, 1662 (Act 105)," she said.



That approach, Ms Asamanyuah said, sought to demonstrate that the organisation's quest in abolishing capital punishment could be largely achieved without necessarily amending the 1992 Constitution as that seemed to be a long-term goal.



Through many efforts, she stated that the Deputy Ranking Member of the Committee on Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs and Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, took up the issue and introduced a Private Members Bill, which had been read and referred to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee.



Now we have gotten to a stage where the committee is requesting a memorandum in support of the bill that is before them and as co-sponsors of the bill, we are paying courtesy calls on all organisations that share similar visions with us, especially in the fight for the right to life and the right for prisoners as well, Ms Asamanyuah added.



She, therefore, called on the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation to support their organisation by submitting a memorandum that would facilitate the passage of the bill.



Reality



The Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, said the move by Amnesty International Ghana was a worthy cause, adding that the abolition of the death penalty law was long overdue.



He, however, stated that apart from the abolition of the death penalty law, there was more that needed to be done with regard to the life of prisoners in the country.



Mr Kwarteng called on the organisation to turn their watch and focus on other fundamental human rights of prisoners in the country.



I am saying that because I have been to the prisons and I can state with authority that the situation over there is very terrible and they need help. We need to narrow into the reality on the ground, he said.



He pledged his support to the organisation and expressed the hope for more collaborations in making the life of prisoners in the country better.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Minority in Parliament have expressed their displeasure over what they claim "the politicisation of the security services".

They alleged further that some unqualified persons who were attached to the government had been recruited into the various security agencies.



They claimed the recruitment was no more based on meritocracy for one to be promoted in the Ghana Armed Forces (GFA).



Addressing Journalists in Parliament yesterday, the ranking member for Defence and Interior, James Agalga, said the "grand scheme" was to create a security apparatus loyal not to the state but to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).



"The promotion in the security sector, which was hitherto based on merit and performance, is now heavily politicised," he said.



But the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, rebutted the allegations by the Minority saying there was no way recruitment into the security agencies, including the GAF, could be influenced.



He outlined seven processes a prospective applicant to the GAF had to go through to qualify.



He mentioned them as body selection through to medicals and interviews.



He, therefore, allayed the fears of Ghanaians saying the military was credible and it was the reason the United Nations always relied on it.



On promotions within the GAF, Mr Nitiwul said it was based on merit and performance and not politics as being alleged by the Minority



Mr Agalga, a former Deputy Minister for the Interior under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration alleged that there was a deliberate disregard for the point system relied on for the promotion of officers within the Armed Forces.



According to him, the point system was based on meritocracy where serving officers built up points for promotion on assessment.



The Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa North Constituency said in place of the point system, promotions and appointments were now based on perceived party loyalty to the extent that officers with disciplinary problems had sometimes been promoted.



"We have also become aware of the preemptive appointment and deployment of officers in the various security services, including the Armed Forces with bad reputation in sensitive positions with Elections 2024 in mind," he said.



The Minority promised to continue to monitor the developments with an eagle eye.



Mercenaries



Responding to an earlier allegation of the government harbouring mercenaries at the Jubilee House and being trained at Asutsuare, Mr Nitiwul insisted recruitment of thugs was not in the veins of the NPP and that there was no way the current President would encourage it.



To him, the next President would be chosen by the people of Ghana and the President sworn in on January 7, 2025.



He said the alleged hiring of mercenaries to tilt the 2024 elections in favour of the NPP was false and should be disregarded.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former President, John Dramani Mahama, has asked the government to halt the proposed building of constituency offices for MPs until the economy is out of the woods.



In a Facebook post, Mahama mentioned that in the interim office spaces can be found within the District Assemblies or other government buildings for the purpose.



The proposed building of Constituency offices for MPs should be shelved until the economy is out of the woods. In the interim, office space can be found within the District Assemblies or other government buildings for the purpose.



In our current economic state, public funds must go into projects that are necessary and which meet the pressing needs of our people in the communities. Such projects must have tangible and measurable impact on job creation and national development, Mahama posted on Facebook.



Presenting the 2022 budget on the floor of Parliament in December 2021, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta revealed that the construction of constituency offices for all 275 Members of Parliament is expected to start in 2022 in phases.



The move, according to the Minister, is one of the many activities being undertaken under the Parliamentary Service Office Support Project (PSOSP) to strengthen Parliament and boost the work of the legislators.



The PSOSP will be fully completed in 2022. Phase I of the construction of constituency offices for Members of Parliament will commence in 2022.



In 2022, Parliament will upgrade ICT facilities in the Debating Chamber and Committee meeting rooms to improve the quality of video and replace consoles to improve feed for live broadcast of proceedings Other projects at various stages of completion are: the e-Parliament project; Phase II of the Table Office MIS; the Data Centre; and the operationalisation of the Budget and Fiscal Analysis Office, Ken Ofori Atta 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.

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An aide to the NPP Member of Parliament(MP) for Dome-Kwabenya, Nana Dubin Kwapong, has told NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie' that Sarah Adwoa Safo is still loved by the constituency.



According to him, despite her absence for a year, members of her constituency have welcomed her with much love.



People are really happy to see her back, he said



Sarah Adwoa Safo has been in the United States of America since 2021.



The MPs return comes after the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, on October 26, 2022, ruled that the report of the committee set up to look into her case and that of two other MPs who absented themselves for a number of sittings should be presented before the whole house for a debate.



Watch video below





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Chief Executive Officer of the Intercity State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea, has poked fun at the organizers of the 'Kume Preko' protest held on Saturday, November 5, 2022.



Throng of protesters went out on the streets of the capital city wielding placards with various inscriptions to register their displeasure with the Akufo-Addo administration.



The leader of the demonstration, Lawyer Martin Kpebu says President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia should resign.



Reacting during Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", Nana Akomea found the demonstration purposeless and a waste of one's time.



To him, the demonstration flopped because of what he would describe as ridiculous demands by the organizers that the First Gentleman and the Veep should step down.



Directing a message to the organizers, the STC Boss stated "forcing a President to resign isn't in the constitution".



"If they had gone on the demonstration because life has become hard, there wouldn't have been any problem. In fact, they would have had many people to join them. But a demonstration to force the President to resign is preposterous," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.



"Is this a demonstration to attend?", he asked in laughter.





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.

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Former Minister for Central Region, Kwamena Duncan, has waded into discussions on recent allegation of bribe at Parliament.



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.



Tackling the issue, Kwamena Duncan welcomed the investigations into the bribery allegation.



He called on the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, to take the matter up and bring a closure to it.



"I would want to have the office of the Special Prosecutor come in and do what he can do quickly on this matter so that we put this matter behind us because for as long as it lingers, it doesn't look good for the image of Parliament as a whole," he said on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo".

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.

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A bus driver steps off a GO Transit bus at the Union Station bus terminal in Toronto on Tuesday, November 2, 2021.Striking GO Transit workers are calling on Metrolinx to return to the negotiating table today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Buhler
Kulev Captures Career-Best Score in the GGPoker Super MILLION$

November 09, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Alex "FutureofMe" Kulev is living proof that hard work, dedication, and intense studying pays off for poker players. The Ireland-based Bulgarian's recent rise to stardom has been nothing short of meteoric. On November 8, 2022, Kulev thoroughly enjoyed the fruit of his labor; he took down the GGPoker Super MILLION$ for a career-best $538,138.

This massive prize is the latest in a long line of six-figure hauls for Kulev. In February 2022, Kulev won the $1,050 Sunday High Rollers Main Event for $116,779, and followed that up with a win in the $2,100 Mystery Bounty in April 2022 for $285,414. August saw Kulev bank $142,995 and $161,016 scores in the WSOP Online at GGPoker, before scooping $180,383 in the $10,300 Thursday Super HR in late September 2022.

Never mind the future being bright for Kulev; the present is pretty rosy.

GGPoker Super MILLON$ Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 Alex "FutureofMe" Kulev Ireland $538,138 2 Pedro Garagnani Brazil $414,961 3 Aram Oganyan Mexico $319,978 4 Pablo Silva Brazil $246,737 5 Ole Schemion Austria $190,260 6 Rodrigo Sirichuk Brazil $146,711 7 Niko Soininen Finland $113,129 8 crush t0ads Thailand $87,234 9 Kenneth "Forrest_Li " Edberg Andorra

Andorra-based Kenneth "Forrest_Li" Edberg was the first finalist to find himself with fresh air where his chips once stood. Edberg busted after min-raising to 140,000 with ace-queen from the button, and seeing Pedro Garagnani three-bet to 577,500 from the big blind with pocket tens. Edberg shoved for 2,577,943 in total, and Garagnani called. The flip went Garagnani's way, courtesy of a king-high board.

Thailand's "crush t0ads" busted in eighth and collected the tournament's last five-figure prize. Again, it was a coinflip that reduced the player count. Garagnani raised to 154,000 with ace-king from late positon, crush t0ads three-bet to 455,000 from the cutoff with pocket jacks, only for Garagnani to four-bet enough to set crush t0ads all-in. crush t0ads called all-in and lost to a king on the river despite flopping a club flush draw.

MASSIVE - GGPoker to Giveaway $10 Million in November

Seventh place went to Finland's Niko Soininen during the 50,000/100,000/12,500a level. Soininen open-shoved from the button for 911,456, and Garagnani looked him up with pocket nines in the small blind. The five community cards provided little in the way of drama, Soininen busted, and Garagnani saw his stack swell to more than 12.6 million, almost four-times as many chips as anyone else.

The next bust out did not involve Garagnani but was the end result of two other Brazilians clashing. From under the gun, Pablo Silva, a former Super MILLION$ champion, min-raised to 240,000 with ace-king before calling the 1,341,238 shove from Rodrigo Sirichuk, which was made with pocket jacks. An ace on the flop and another on the turn sent Sirichuk to the rail.

Ole Schemion came close to winning a third Super MILLION$ title

Ole Schemion's wait for a third Super MILLION$ victory continues because he busted from this final table in fifth. Schemion lost all but six big blinds when he attacked the blinds with ace-four, and Kulev woke up with pocket aces. The rest of Schemion's stack went into the middle of the virtual felt with king-four after Aram Oganyan set him all-in in a battle of the blinds with the lowly ten-seven. Oganyan spiked a seven on the flop, and Schemion was out of the door.

The Super MILLION$ was guaranteed to crown a new champion when Silva bowed out in fourth. Silva committed his last nine big blinds with queen-jack from the small blind, and Kulev called with ace-four. Neither player paired either of their hole cards, and Kulev's ace-high scooped the pot.

Heads-up was set when Oganyan was eliminated at the hands of Kulev, who was now by far the chip leader. Kulev raised enough to set both opponents all-in, doing so with the queen-ten of clubs from the button. Garagnani folded jack-ten, but Oganyan called with the dominating king-queen of diamonds. Oganyan's hand remained best on the eight-high flop, but a jack on the turn gave Kulev outs to a straight. The nine on the river was one of those outs, and Oganyan bowed out in third place.

"SonOfRichDad" Bags First Ever GGPoker $1M Bounty Jackpot!

Kulev held a monster lead over Garagnani going into heads-up, his 24,609,471 stack dwarfing the 2,990,529 of Garagnani. Unsurprisingly, the one-on-one battle was short-lived. Indeed, it lasted a single hand.

Garagnani moved all-in with eight-seven, Kulev called with suited ace-four, and caught an ace on the turn to leave his opponent drawing dead. Garagnani fell in second place and banked $414,961, leaving Kulev to collect a career-best $538,138, much to the delight of Marius Gierse, who bought 29% of his action via the in-built staking software, thus netting Gierse a cool $156,060.
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Democrats just gained full control of the Michigan state legislature for the first time in 40 years and enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.

The fight over abortion rights and Whitmers large margin over Republican Tudor Dixon at the top of the ticket helped power Democrats in down ballot races, the Detroit News reported. Their potential majorities in the Legislature could overhaul how Lansing operates. The GOP has held at least one of the two chambers since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

The Detroit News pointed out that while votes were still being tallied Wednesday morning and not all of the key races had been called by the Associated Press, House Democrats said they would hold 56 of the 110 seats in the chamber, a slim, one-vote majority.

Its not just Democrats saying that. The Detroit News confirmed that House Republicans conceded their 12-year-long hold on the majority and Michigan Senate Republicans acknowledged they had lost the majority Wednesday morning.

Michigan Democrats have not held the state Senate since 1984.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer also won reelection and wrote this morning on Twitter:

Damn it feels good to be a Michigander.  Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) November 9, 2022

In Michigan, abortion was on the ballot quite literally after a prolonged fight with Republicans over font size.

Proposition 3 was passed 56.2% to 43.8% as of the latest tabulation by the AP (votes are still being counted but it has been called). Michigan voted to enshrine the constitutional right to reproductive freedom including abortion and contraception.

Proposal 3s passage marks an historic victory for abortion access in our state and in our country  and Michigan has paved the way for future efforts to restore the rights and protections of Roe v. Wade nationwide, Bridge Michigan reports Reproductive Freedom campaign spokesperson Darci McConnell saying.

Republicans can thank a map drawn by an independent citizens commission (finally), Gov. Whitmers popularity and the conservatives who overturned Roe v Wade for their epic loss.

Roevember is real and it just undid some Reagan-era damage.
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Pennsylvania Democrats claim that first time since 2010 they have flipped the state House.

CBS 3 in Philadelphia reported:

Some votes are still being counted, but Pennsylvania Democrats claim they will have at least the 102 seats necessary to flip the state House, party leaders said during a press conference outside Independence Hall on Wednesday. It would be the first time the Democrats have controlled the House since 2010.

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If the results are confirmed, Pennsylvania is also poised to have its first-ever female speaker of the Pennsylvania House: Joanna McClinton, an African American woman who represents parts of Delaware and Philadelphia counties.

Pennsylvania voters rejected  overwhelmingly  fear, McClinton said. Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly rejected hatred. Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly rejected division.

The state senate has been under Republican control since 1993, but as the results are tallied, it is clear that there was a wave in the midterm election, but it was blue, not red.

In Michigan, Democrats control the state legislature for the first time in 40 years.

Nationally, Democrats look to be in a position to keep the Senate, and their House losses could be modest enough to leave Republicans with a paralyzed majority that would be the smallest gain against a first-term president in a midterm since the Great Depression.

The one issue that powered voters in both national and state-level contests is abortion.

In Pennsylvania, a Democratic House means that the Republican legislative assault on voting rights will end. House Republicans have regularly passed bills to end mail-in voting in the state. That behavior will stop with Democrats in charge of the House.

Democrat Josh Shapiro will be the new governor of the Keystone State, as the blue wave has reshaped state and local as well as national politics.
On November 2, the Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, accused the United States and Britain of aiding the Afghan terror group known as Islamic State  Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.

Kabulov said:

Americans, together with their British collaborators, are putting their frantic efforts into strengthening the positions and the destructive potential of the Afghan offshoot of Daesh (ISIS), and are seeking to avail themselves of the extremists to alienate Afghanistans neighboring states from Moscow.

Kabulov also said the U.S. and Britain were encouraging Taliban leaders to distance themselves from Russia and China.

Irans state-run Press TV uncritically reported on Kabulovs comments about ISIS-K in an article titled: US, Britain strengthening Daesh terrorists foothold, destructive potential in Afghanistan: Russian diplomat.

In fact, Kabulovs claims are contradicted by the actual history of combat between the United States and Islamic State, including longtime U.S. efforts to eradicate ISIS-K and its leadership in Afghanistan.

They are, however, consistent with an old and debunked line of disinformation spread by Iran and others that the United States created Islamic State.

(Asked about Kubalov's remarks, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said: "This is just another example of total nonsense from Russian media with the intent to distract and disinform." The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.)

ISIS-K, which operates in Central and South Asia, was set up in 2014 by Pakistani and Afghanistan militants defecting from other groups, including the Taliban, in eastern Afghanistan. The group is an affiliate of Islamic State, which gained global prominence in 2014 after declaring a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS-K has been described by the BBC as the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan. The group has attacked U.S. and NATO forces, Afghanistan politicians, security forces and civilians (particularly religious minorities), and it has hit targets in neighboring Pakistan.

ISIS-Ks most notorious strike was a suicide bombing at Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, which killed an estimated 13 U.S. service members 170 Afghan civilians who were trying to flee the country after the Talibans return to power.



That was the deadliest strike against U.S. military in Afghanistan in a decade and came just days before the U.S. completed its withdrawal on August 30, 2021.

Despite the pullout, on September 1, 2021, the U.S. military said it was considering working with the Taliban to combat ISIS-K. Moreover, the U.S. has targeted senior ISIS-K leaders, killing the groups leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan, in a 2016 drone strike and ISIS-K commander Mullah Abdul Rauf the previous year.

In 2017, the U.S. dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, also known as the Mother of All Bombs, on an ISIS-K cave complex, reportedly killing dozens of militants.

Since the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, Washington and London have expressed readiness to launch airstrikes against ISIS-K in Afghanistan.

The ruling Taliban and ISIS-K are far from friendly. Although both are Sunni Islamic groups, they are at loggerheads over sectarian and other issues, violently so.

In April, a British government assessment of the situation in Afghanistan the Talibans ability to contain ISIS-K was unclear. Still, it noted that the Taliban controls the whole country with far superior numbers of military forces, weapons, supplies and use of infrastructure, adding that ISIS-K attacks are isolated.

Although [ISIS-K has] mounted a number of high profile attacks against civilians, they generally concentrate [explosives] and small arms attacks against Taliban military forces, the assessment read.

Last month, the Taliban claimed to have killed nine ISIS-K fighters.

The Taliban promised to combat terrorism as part of the 2020 Doha agreement that resulted in the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

The United States has questioned whether the Taliban will adhere to its commitment to stop ISIS-K or other terror groups from using Afghanistan as a base to target the United States, its allies or Afghan civilians.

On July 31, the U.S. killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Sunni Islamic extremist network al-Qaida, in a drone strike on a residence in Kabul. The house was reportedly owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani.

Al-Qaida, while based in Afghanistan, infamously carried out the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on U.S. soil, prompting a U.S.-led coalition to invade.

Rights groups maintain the Taliban has done little to protect ethnic minorities, particularly those of the Hazara Shia Muslim ethnic group, from ISIS-K attacks. The United States has also condemned violence against the Hazaras.

Last month, Thomas West, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, told the Voice of America that he had met with the Taliban in Doha.

We discussed the Talibans efforts to fight Daesh (another name for ISIS-K). Daesh is a common enemy of the United States and all Afghans. The horrific attacks against Hazaras must stop, West told VOA.

The Taliban have made clear that this is their fight and effort, and they will fulfill their commitments outlined in the Doha agreement to ensure that terrorists do not threaten the United States or her allies, the U.S. envoy said.

Russia, which has established diplomatic ties with the Taliban, was the target of an ISIS-K suicide attack on its embassy in Afghanistan in September. That attack killed six, including two Russian embassy staff.

Iran, a Shia Muslim theocracy, has spread the conspiracy theory that the United States created Islamic State to destabilize the Middle East and serve the foreign policy goals of the U.S. and Israel.

Russia and Iran, both under Western economic sanctions, have inked deals to provide fuel and other goods to Afghanistan.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Sunny. High around 70F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 56F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
The experiences of voters in Aiken County varied Tuesday as they cast their ballots in the general election. For some, the process was trouble-free. For others, there were difficulties.

Steve Riley was frustrated after leaving the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center on Whiskey Road in Aiken.

He said had to wait in line for 50 minutes, after he and umpteen others arrived around 7 a.m., the time the polls opened.

Equipment failure caused the delay, according to Riley.

He reported that one of the two systems being used for voter registration verification in a Weeks Activities gym wasnt functioning properly.

It was very annoying and depressing, said Riley of the situation. Why wasnt this equipment working? They had 364 days to get ready for this, and if there were no plans for any backup, somebody dropped the ball.

It didnt look like anyone was concerned about this massive failure, he continued. When I left, finally, the line out in the hallway was longer than when I got there.

In contrast, Chris Derr told the Aiken Standard he had no problem voting at the Graniteville Community Church on Bettis Academy Road.

Ann Willbrand is the second vice chair of the Aiken County Democratic Party and also serves as the poll watcher coordinator.

This morning there were some equipment problems in several precincts when they were setting up, she said. They all got resolved fairly quickly. In some cases, the precincts had to use the emergency paper ballots for a little while. Other than those equipment issues and some poll managers that didnt show up, it appears things are going pretty smoothly.

There were some lines that got backed up around lunchtime in a couple of places because they were short-staffed and the check-ins were slow, she added.

Like Willbrand, Jane Page Thompson, the Aiken County Republican Partys state executive committee person, was keeping track of what was going on at the precincts in the county.

We have some places where people are reporting issues with the various machines, whether its the one that checks you in, the one that marks your ballot or the one that scans your ballot, she said early Tuesday afternoon. Theyre handling those issues the best that they can. But weve got a lot of places where they are doing really good things and everything is going along swimmingly.

According to Thompson, at North Augusta High School, the poll workers didnt have the keys to get in the building and the voting equipment was still in the back of a pickup truck when the polls opened.

But they (the poll workers) made sure that people could start voting right at 7 a.m. when they were supposed to, Thompson said. They actually deputized a poll watcher to help. I think that was a great example of how poll watchers and poll workers can come together to help the voters when there are issues.

Other problems that Thompson was aware of included precincts that were understaffed and long lines in such locations as Jackson and Warrenville.

She said there was a voter intimidation incident at Jerusalem Baptist Church, which is on Columbia Highway North between Aiken and Ridge Spring.

About 22 to 25 people left the polling place because they did not feel like their votes were going to be secured, Thompson said. The machines werent working, and they (the poll workers) were putting them (the ballots) in this bin that didnt look secure, so there was an issue. They (the voters) felt like the poll workers were overly hostile to them.

As a result, we have four affidavits in hand, and two more are coming in later this afternoon, said Thompson. They (the affidavits) will be sent to the South Carolina Election Commission.

Thompson also reported that voters at some other precincts said they felt intimidated when approached by people who were handing out cards with phone numbers for the Election Protection Hotline on them.

On a more positive note, Thompson said there were many precincts where poll workers were celebrating first-time voters by applauding them when they came in to vote. That was kind of fun.

S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, also told the Aiken Standard that he had heard about a variety of voting-related concerns Tuesday, but described them as primarily managerial issues and organizational problems.

They arent in the category of voter fraud, he added.

Elections are complex, and there will always be some individual issues and problems, Taylor continued. However, I dont believe those are systemic. They are individual problems that can be fixed quickly by election officials.

He said that, in general, this years Election Integrity Bill made it easier to vote and harder to cheat in South Carolina.

During early voting, Taylor said he received a complaint from an individual about a machine malfunction.

He pressed the straight party ticket, and when he printed out his ballot, it was a vote for the opposite party, Taylor said. I asked the state election commission to look into it, and they did. They reported to me that they spoke with Cynthia Holland (Aiken Countys registration and elections executive director) and she said that, to her knowledge, it had happened five times last week. In each case, she said they felt they had corrected the problem. I was satisfied that they were aware of it and had fixed it.

Aiken Standard Reporter Matthew Christian contributed to this story.
The Berkeley County Prevention Board and its member agencies are sponsoring the 33rd Annual Candlelight Memorial Services. The Prevention Board has hosted these Memorial Services each year since 1989. The purpose is to increase the awareness of driving while impaired, to remember loved ones  Read moreCandlelight ceremony commemorates DUI victims
Some flights between Charleston and Florida are being canceled as two Sunshine State airports close because of the expected overnight landfall of Hurricane Nicole.

West Palm Beach International Airport closed at 9 a.m. Nov. 9 and Orlando International Airport closed at 4 p.m. Nov. 9.

As a result, Breeze Airways has canceled two flights on the morning of Nov. 10 from Charleston to both airports, according to Charleston International's website. An arriving Breeze flight from Fort Myers was canceled for the evening of Nov. 9. The airline also has canceled a flight to Hartford, Conn., in the afternoon of Nov. 10.

Projected high winds could affect other Florida-bound flights as the storm crosses the peninsula and emerges in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico before making a second landfall and turning toward Georgia and up the East Coast on Thursday.

The storm is expected to bring heavy rain, coastal flooding and breezy conditions to the Lowcountry over the next two days.

Travelers should check with their airlines for the latest updates on flight information, according to Charleston International spokesman Spencer Pryor.
First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva on her official Instagram account shared footage from the concert organized in honor of Victory Day.

Will be updated

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COLUMBIA  Republican Don Weaver won the race for Richland County Council's District 6 seat Nov. 8, securing one of two seats previously held by Republicans on the 11-person council.

Weaver received just over 56 percent of the vote, with Democrat Bryan Boroughs following with 43 percent.

The only other Republican-held seat on the 11-member council, District 1, also was on the ballot Nov. 8.

Republican Jason Branham was leading that race early despite facing a write-in campaign from current Councilman Bill Malinowski. Branham had 90 percent of the vote, versus around 10 percent for write-ins.

Around 431,000 people voted early or absentee across South Carolina, according to the State Election Commission.

District 6, currently held by Councilman Joe Walker, represents the central part of the county, including much of Forest Acres.

Weaver, a 59-year-old businessman, said he wants to increase transparency, particularly when it comes to topics like Richland County's penny tax, a 1 percent sales tax dedicated to transportation projects.

Having owned a property management firm for more than 30 years, Weaver said he wants to use his business experience to cut wasteful spending while retaining funds for the Sheriff's Department and public schools.

Weaver said he thought his message of fiscal responsibility resonated with voters, with his campaign against the councils recent raise for itself being particularly impactful.

Weaver, Boroughs and Branham all said they planned to donate the increase in salaries if elected. Weaver included the raise in his messaging about cutting excess spending from the budget, sending a postcard to voters about it.

Ive heard from folks that they have a lot of questions at this point about how the moneys being spent, Weaver said. And I hope to offer some positive changes. I dont want to be divisive. I want to offer some positive changes to the other members of council.

While he commended Boroughs on running a campaign based in issues instead of personal attacks, he said it was important for the seat to be held by a Republican.

If we had lost this seat and my Republican friend from Irmo, (Branham), made a motion and no one seconded, the motion dies, Weaver said. This would have been like a dual party system going out if District 6 had gone Democrat.

Boroughs also favored transparency and public safety. He said he wanted to partner with Columbia to address homelessness, and he wanted to see more money go toward mental health services like the 988 crisis hotline.

The 42-year-old is vice president and general counsel at the Institute for Child Success, a nonprofit research group that proposes policy changes to help young children.

"Tonight's election results weren't what we were hoping for," Boroughs said. "I wish Don Weaver all the best on County Council, and I am grateful for the support I've received from so many voters across the district."

Malinowski has held the District 1 seat covering northwestern Richland County for four years. When filing opened in March, he decided not to run for another term, but when a group of constituents approached him asking if he'd serve again if elected through write-ins, he agreed.

Branham and Malinowski both wanted to focus on passing the county's Land Development Code rewrite. As chair of the county's Planning Commission, Branham said he wants to make sure the code passes with zoning that ensures development doesn't overwhelm residential areas.

"In the face of a late-breaking contest, I'm humbled by the overwhelming vote of confidence from our community," Branham said in a statement. "I'm looking forward to bringing a new energy to County Council and prioritizing transparency and accountability to the people."

Once the Land Development Code is finished, Branham said he wants to take a look at the county's short-term rental regulations, ensure penny tax projects are completed and connect people and businesses.

Incumbent council members Paul Livingston, Allison Terracio and Chakisse Newton ran unopposed.

Also unopposed were Richland County Auditor Paul Brawley, running for his seat again, and Deputy Treasurer Kendra Dove, running for treasurer after her predecessor, David Adams, did not run for reelection.

Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C.
COLUMBIA  Teresa Holmes, the only incumbent running in a 12-way race for four seats on the Richland County School District Two board, appeared headed for defeat on election night, though her close fifth-place finish will likely lead to a recount.

Winning the race were newcomers Tamika Shuler Washington, Angela Nash, Niki Porter and Joe Trapp. The results are likely to bring about a dynamic change in the makeup of the board serving Northeast Columbia, which was the subject of a scathing state investigative report released Nov. 4.

In Lexington-Richland School District Five, another district that's been fighting allegations of dysfunctional leadership from parents and teachers, incumbent school board Vice Chairman Ken Loveless appears to have narrowly been defeated.

In a five-way race for two seats, Loveless finished 6 votes behind challenger Mike Satterfield. Elizabeth Barnhardt led the field, but all three were close enough to trigger a recount.

On the Richland side of the district, also featuring a four-way race for two seats, challengers Kevin Scully and Kimberly Snipes each received close to 30 percent of the vote, unseating incumbents Nikki Gardner and Tifani Moore.

In Richland County School District One, where a state prosecutor accused the board leadership of stonewalling a criminal investigation into a former employee's embezzlement charges, retired teacher and community activist Barbara Weston jumped out to an early lead by 52 percent over Hamilton Jacobs and Richard Moore, easily winning the race for an open seat.

Elsewhere in the Columbia area, 11 candidates were vying for three seats in Lexington District One board. The winners were Beth Shealy with 19.22 percent, Chris Rice with 15.01 percent and Katie McCown with 10.84 percent. However, Harriet Poe Coker trailed McCown with 10.45, a difference of 397 votes, so this race appears headed for a recount.

Four people ran for three open school board seats in the neighboring Lexington County School District Two, serving West Columbia and Cayce. The two incumbent members who sought re-election combined for a lead with more 60 percent of the vote. Incumbent and Board Chairwoman Christina Rucker finished with 28.23 percent of the vote and incumbent Linda Alford-Wooten came away with 27.08 percent.

Challengers Kevin Key and Chuck Hightower kept their race tight enough for a potential recount, with Key finishing head by just 6 votes. It initially appeared that Hightower had won when all the precincts had been counting, but election officials completed the counting of absentee ballots overnight, which put Key ahead.

Richland 2

The State Inspector General's Nov. 4 report on Richland Two said rifts among board members have sometimes become personal and interviewed with the board's ability keep up with its responsibilities. The report said the conflict was often between two factions of the board, a four-member majority and a three-member minority.

Election results appear likely to shift control from one faction to the other.

Of the four incumbent majority-faction members just one, Holmes, sought reelection. She came in fifth out of the 12 candidates, a result which would not return her to the board if it held up.

Nash led with 14.06 percent of the vote, followed by Washington with 13.32 percent and Porter with 10.34 percent. Trapp appeared to have taken the fourth spot with 9.78 percent to Holmes' 9.39 percent, a difference of 506 votes.

Nash and Trapp have both voiced sympathy for issues championed by the minority faction, including parent autonomy and the idea that "parents are the primary stakeholders" of their students.

Washington and Porter have emphasized the need to address teacher staffing and support for current and potential teachers. Although neither has aligned themselves with any faction, their positions are closer to those of Holmes and the majority faction.

Since only the seats of the current four-member majority faction were up for a vote this cycle, Nash and Trapp joining the board would likely give the current three-member minority faction five members and a 5-2 majority.

Lexington-Richland 5

During Ken Loveless' tenure on the Lexington-Richland 5 board for the 17,000-student school district, he has traded lawsuits with critics. He now faces a hearing with the South Carolina Ethics Commission in response to a formal complaint.

Five candidates including Loveless competed for two seats in the Lexington County portion of the district, leading to a photo finish in which the top two candidates will prevail, but the margins are close enough to involve all three in a recount.

Elizabeth Barnhardt led with 23.64 percent of the vote, followed by Satterfield with 23.32 percent and Loveless with 23.27 percent. Only 113 votes separated the three contenders, with only 14 between Loveless and Satterfield, out of 31,635 votes cast in the race.

It initially appeared with all precincts reporting that Loveless had narrowly been reelected, but election officials completed counting of absentee ballots overnight, putting Satterfield ahead.

No recount will be needed on the Richland side of the district. In the four-way race for two seats, Snipes and Scully led the field with 29.5 percent and 28.82 percent respectively. Gardner and Moore trailed with 21.76 percent and 18.64 percent respectively.

In addition to the ethics accusations against Loveless, the district recently has seen controversy with its release of summaries of a still-ongoing procurement audit report, looking back at an earlier administration. Some parents have said the report raises more questions than it answers.

They have said they don't understand why the audit summary, released in September by the New Mexico-based accounting firm the school district is working with, outlines the complaints filed with the State Ethics Commission against Loveless, and why it includes copies of past board members' derogatory emails to or about the district vice chairman.

Over the summer, attorney Andrea White publicly released her letter of resignation from her job representing Lexington-Richland Five, which said the school board is "operating in a manner that is dysfunctional," but stopped short of specific details.

Richland 1

In addition to the controversy in Richland District One over whether the district cooperated with prosecutors investigating embezzlement, board members have also been under fire from parents.

Responding to parent complaints, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has called for the state to launch an investigation similar to the recent one in Richland Two.

Robert Lominack, the incumbent who has served the 22,000-student school district for one year, ran unopposed for a different seat, which board member Beatrice King vacated after serving for 10 years.

Voters had a choice between three candidates for Lominack's former seat. One of those candidates, Barbara Weston, helped lead the charge for a state investigation into the district's finances and management practices, and called for the board to fire Superintendent Craig Witherspoon.

With all of the Richland County precincts reporting, Weston held 52.54 percent of the vote, ahead of Jacobs with 24.83 percent and Richard E. Moore 21.77 percent.

Clarification: The final results for all Lexington County races have been updated after final results were reported earlier, due to absentee votes that Lexington County elections officials were unable to count until after they had reported all precincts as counted. This changed the order of finish for candidates in the Lexington Two district and the Lexington portion of the Lexington-Richland Five district.

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North America's smallest turtle has crawled into a bit of a bog, and the federal government is pondering whether protections for the species are warranted to get it out. Read moreSC was home to North America's smallest turtle, but habitat loss pushed most animals out
Randal Seyler is the editor of the Georgetown Times and the Myrtle Beach Post and Courier.
GEORGETOWN  Louis Morant won reelection to the Georgetown County Council's District 7 seat, and Kathy Ferdon-Anderson retained her at-large seat on the Georgetown County School Board, according to unofficial election results.

Some 57 percent of the county's approximately 48,000 registered voters took to the polls, a slight decline from the 61 percent turnout in the 2018 midterms. Robert Cox won an at-large school board seat by placing second in the three-candidate race. Scott Dubose's apparent victory in the school board's District 2 race, decided by less than 0.1 percent of the vote, will automatically be recounted.

Morant, a Democrat, captured his second consecutive term on County Council with 58 percent of the District 7 vote, defeating Republican challenger David Ballard.

"I appreciate the citizens of Georgetown County & especially the residents of District 7 for their continuous confidence in me in representing them," Morant told Georgetown Times. "They understand things are accomplished by working together & we will continue to do that."

Ferdon-Anderson led the three candidates for the school board's three at-large seats with 35 percent of the vote, closely followed by Cox with 33 percent.

"I am very excited and thankful to be re-elected," Ferdon-Anderson said. "I am excited to continue the work I started with our outstanding school board and I look forward to continuing to work with such dedicated people. I am also very thankful that the voters of Georgetown County have put their trust and faith in me to continue to be a voice for our children, teachers, parents, and community. I also want to thank the many people who voted for me and who helped me to get elected."

Cox thanked God and the 9,316 county voters who selected him after returns at the county elections office indicated that he had captured second place and a seat on the board.

"I would like to just send out a message to the parents: thank you for trusting in me, for those who voted for me, and I will have a phone number personally for school board," Cox said. "Feel free to call me. I'm committed, I'm ready to hit the floor running."

Incumbent Michael Cafaro came in third in the at-large race with 30 percent of the vote, nearly 1,000 votes behind Cox. Cafaro, a former Georgetown High School principal, was first elected to the board in 2018.

"I would like to thank the people of Georgetown County for allowing me to serve in a leadership capacity for 20+ years," Cafaro told Georgetown Times. "I wish (Superintendent Keith) Price and the entire educational community much success. We have wonderful people in Georgetown County who deserve a quality public school program. I hope the school board continues on that pathway."

With all district precincts reporting, Dubose leads Lynne Ford in the race for District 2's school board seat by four votes out of 4,342 cast. Dubose nearly won election to the board through March's special election, losing a close at-large race to Ferdon-Anderson.

"The margin is so razor thin that I consider the jury to still be out on this, pending the recount and review of provisional ballots on Friday," Dubose said. "Well have to wait and see."

Ford is the incumbent school board member for District 6, but was rezoned into District 2 in the county's latest round of redistricting. If Dubose's victory stands, she can remain on the board to finish her current term, which runs through November 2024.

"In terms of the recount, I like to see things through to the end, especially with the tiny margin of 4 votes," Ford told Georgetown Times. "At any rate, I am happy to serve with the new board members and now that campaign season is over, I look forward to getting back to the business of serving our young people."

The Georgetown County Board of Voter Registration and Elections will hold its canvass meeting at 10 a.m. Nov. 11.

Statewide races

The Associated Press called the South Carolina governor's race, the race for one of South Carolina's two U.S. Senate seats and the race for South Carolina's 7th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Republican candidates. All three Republican victors carried Georgetown County with majorities.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster defeated Democratic former congressman Joe Cunningham to retain control of the Governor's Mansion, which the GOP has held since 2003. McMaster carried Georgetown County with 59 percent of the vote.

Incumbent U.S. Sen. Tim Scott defeated Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews and will serve a second full term. Scott won 63 percent of the vote in Georgetown County.

In the race for South Carolina's 7th Congressional District seat, Republican state Rep. Russell Fry of Surfside Beach defeated Democrat Daryl W. Scott of Conway. Fry captured 61 percent of the vote in Georgetown County, one of eight counties represented in the 7th district.
GEORGETOWN  Georgetown County Council gave final approval Nov. 8 to a pair of ordinances allowing residences on a parcel in the Pawleys Island Business Commons Planned Development in Parkersville.

The project entails a mix of commercial and residential development including 90 housing units, with 30 percent rented below market rate. In addition to the mixed use, the council approved an amendment to the county's Future Land Use Map reclassifying the Petigru Drive parcel as high-density residential instead of commercial.

The county Planning Commission voted against both Business Commons ordinances 5-0 with one abstention on Sept. 15, citing noncompliance with the county's comprehensive plan.

Twenty-three people spoke in the Nov. 8 public hearing, each in opposition to the Business Commons ordinances. Some deemed the project another example of gentrification in the southern Waccamaw Neck, including the historically African American community of Parkersville, while others questioned the project's definition of affordable housing and the ethics of council members who voted in its favor.

"It's madness what you are trying to do to us in Pawleys Island," Parkersville resident Michael Green said.

Nicole Barksdale told the council that the development, through its effect on area property taxes, could make more people homeless than it could house.

"Please follow the recommendation of your planning commission and vote no on this rezoning," Barksdale said.

Several speakers took aim at Councilman Steve Goggans, who represents the district in which the Business Commons development is located. Goggans declined to run for reelection and will be replaced by fellow Republican Stella Mercado in January.

"Steve, you leave a legacy of overcrowding, irresponsible growth, poor planning, confusion, frustrati(on), half-truths, and, in my opinion, lies," Mary Black said.

Approval of the project comes just two weeks after seven Parkersville residents filed a lawsuit against the county seeking to nullify the council's Sept. 27 site plan approval of two townhome developments in the area.

The council approved both the Future Land Use Map amendment and the mixed-use amendment by votes of 4-1 with only Councilman Bob Anderson opposed. Councilman Everett Carolina recused himself from both votes, as he had when the ordinances came before the council for second reading on Oct. 25, citing a conflict of interest.

Anderson spoke near the end of the meeting about the gap between the amount of tax revenue generated by the Waccamaw Neck and that of the county's mainland districts. The Waccamaw Neck generated about 76 percent of county property tax revenue in 2019, according to a South Strand News report.

Anderson called for economic growth in the mainland county to adjust the imbalance in tax revenue, and also said Waccamaw Neck residents have frequently reached out to the council about fears of quality-of-life effects due to a lack of updates to county zoning ordinances.

"I call this taxation without representation," Anderson said.

Opponents of the project also called for the recusal of Chairman Louis Morant and Councilman Raymond Newton from voting on either Business Commons ordinance, arguing that their presence constituted a conflict of interest.

The parcel in question has been owned by the Alliance for Economic Development for Georgetown County since 2016. Morant and Newton serve on both the county council and the Alliance's board and each voted in favor of the Business Commons ordinances on second and third reading.

When asked by Councilwoman Lillie Johnson if they stood to benefit economically from their service on the Alliance, Morant and Newton both replied in the negative. An economic interest placing a public official afoul of South Carolina ethics law must be "distinct from that of the general public" in a transaction and be worth $50 or more.

The S.C. Ethics Commission could neither confirm nor deny the existence of any previous ethics complaints made against Newton. Morant received a written warning from the commission in February and agreed to a $400 fine for participating in a second reading vote in 2021 that involved a land transaction by Tidelands Health, whose board of directors includes his wife, Dr. Marthena Morant.
LAURENS COUNTY  A supplier of automotive and industrial racking products plans to expand its pre-existing South Carolina presence with a new facility in Laurens County.

Motor City Racks, which has another location in Gaffney and is headquartered in Warren, Mich., announced it will invest $26 million and create 88 new jobs at a plant at 366 Old Airport Road in Laurens.

The 20-year-old company manufactures and supplies custom automotive and agriculture packing solutions. The company has been in the Palmetto State for the last nine years.

"During our expansion initiatives, we plan to execute effectively while continuing to leverage our 20 years of experience in custom weld fabrication, our strong ties to the South Carolina automotive industry and our relationship with the South Carolina Department of Commerce," Motor City Racks Controller Daniel Zavaros said.

The location in Laurens will help with additional production due to increased demand, a release from Upstate SC Alliance said.

By January 2023, operations are expected to be online. The company will move into an existing building.

Job development credits related to this project have been approved by the Coordinating Council for Economic Development. Laurens County also received a $300,000 Rural Infrastructure Fund grant to help with the costs of building improvements.
Greenville, SC (29601)

Today

Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 64F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Rain likely with a few thunderstorms. Low 54F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
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Former Hampton County banker Russell Laffitte is on trial in Charlestons federal court, not Alex Murdaugh. But the presence of the criminally charged ex-lawyer loomed large in the courtroom as Laffittes case began Nov. 8.

Laffitte is accused of helping Murdaugh  whose downfall has drawn international headlines for more than a year  steal from personal-injury clients and using bank money to prop up Murdaughs shaky financial situation.

We are here today because you cannot steal other peoples money to pay off loans, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Limehouse, who is leading the prosecution, said in her opening statement.

Laffittes attorney Bart Daniel said he agreed with that comment. But he said his client had never stolen to cover his debts.

Instead, Daniel used his opening statement to highlight Murdaughs role in the case. He described the lawyer as a master manipulator and world-class con man who abused Laffittes trust.

He took advantage of Russell just as he did everyone else, Daniel said. He took advantage of peoples good faith. He took advantage of peoples trust.

The opening stages even saw prosecutors reveal a new detail related to the June 2021 deaths of Murdaughs wife and son, for which he faces murder charges in state court. Limehouse said that on the day they were gunned down at the family's Colleton County hunting estate, an employee at his former law firm  Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick  confronted Murdaugh about missing fees. (Authorities have been tight-lipped in disclosing any potential motive in the grisly killings.)

Laffitte faces six counts in federal court related to his dealings with Murdaugh, including bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and misappropriation of bank funds. In addition to working as the CEO of Palmetto State Bank, the community bank his family owns, Laffitte managed money for some of Murdaughs personal-injury clients as a court-appointed custodian.

To convict Laffitte on those charges, the jury will have to be convinced that he was a willing participant in the alleged schemes as intent is a component of those crimes.

Limehouse said the evidence will point to Laffittes personal involvement  handling the checks Murdaugh used to divert client money and transferring bank funds to cover Murdaughs negative balances.

Russell Laffitte and his co-conspirator had absolute power in Hampton County  and their absolute corruption is why we are here, Limehouse said.

Prosecutors say they will call as witnesses a wide range of characters from rural Hampton County, where the Laffitte and Murdaugh families have long held prominent positions. Laffittes family has owned the bank since the 1950s, and they comprise virtually all of its board members; Laffitte became its CEO in 2020. Murdaughs family, meanwhile, ran the prosecutors office in the region for eight decades along with a prosperous law firm that became one of the banks biggest customers.

Expected witnesses include Murdaughs former law partners, board members at Palmetto State Bank and the clients Murdaugh allegedly stole from.

Laffitte also is expected to testify. As part of that testimony, Daniel said the banker would own the mistakes that gave Murdaugh access to client funds.

One man who will not testify is Murdaugh. Defense attorneys had said they wanted to call him to the stand, even though one of Murdaughs attorneys said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel ruled that the law doesnt allow for witnesses to be called if they will only take the Fifth.

Gergel also cautioned Laffitte not to contact any witnesses during the trial, after Limehouse said she had learned the ex-banker contacted John Marvin Murdaugh, a close friend and potential witness in the case, to see if he would try to convince his older brother to testify on Laffittes behalf.

Attorneys moved quickly to choose a jury in spite of the firestorm of media attention on the Murdaugh saga. Alex Murdaugh stands accused of killing his wife and son, as well as stealing nearly $9 million from his former clients, law firm and associates.

The 12 jurors and four alternates  eight men and eight women  were sworn in two hours after the selection process began behind closed doors. The media was barred from observing that process.

Prosecutors began by calling one of Laffittes relatives, Norris Laffitte, to testify. The first cousin once removed sits on Palmetto State Banks board.

Norris Laffitte  who was on the stand for over two hours  said he grew increasingly concerned about the banks relationship with Murdaugh as the lawyers life unraveled in 2021. He said he heard from the lawyers cousins that Murdaugh had stopped working after the killings.

That posed a significant problem for Palmetto State Bank because, as Norris Laffitte later learned, Murdaugh owed more than $3.5 million across several loans.

In the midst of those concerns, Norris Laffitte said he sent Russell Laffitte an email asking about the banks financial exposure to Murdaugh. At the time, Murdaughs account was overdrawn by $367,000, according to a bank record submitted by prosecutors. Before he responded to the email, Russell Laffitte deposited $400,000 into Murdaughs account, Norris Laffitte said.

Norris Laffitte will retake the stand Nov. 9 for additional questions by prosecutors and cross-examination by the defense.
Russell Laffitte, a former top executive for Palmetto State Bank, faces trial this week in Charleston's U.S. District Court. He stands accused of helping Alex Murdaugh defraud his former law clients, while using money from his family's bank to prop up the disbarred attorney's shaky finances.

The trial began Nov. 8 and is expected to go to deliberations late next week.

The Post and Courier will be providing live coverage of the trial throughout the day. More information about the Murdaugh saga, including past trial coverage, can be found here.

5:11 p.m. update:

Gergel has dismissed the jury after Limehouse said she was at a "natural stopping point" with her questioning. Malinowski primarily testified about the bank's loan policies.

Day two of Russell Laffitte's trial has concluded.

4:36 p.m. update:

After a brief round of follow-up questions from prosecutors, Gergel dismissed Seckinger from the witness stand.

Limehouse has now called the government's third witness, Jan Malinowski. He is the current chief executive of Palmetto State Bank and has worked there for 31 years. Malinowski is also related to Russell Laffitte through marriage. Malinowski's wife is Elizabeth Laffitte.

Malinowski served as the bank's president prior to becoming its chief executive following Russell Laffitte's departure.

4:25 p.m. update:

Daniel's cross-examination consisted mostly of asking Seckinger questions about her working relationship with Murdaugh. A portrait emerged of the disbarred attorney, painting him as a "stream of chaos" who'd often show up late and stir up confusion. Murdaugh also had a "photographic memory," Seckinger testified.

"We wouldn't be here if Alex Murdaugh hadn't done anything wrong," Seckinger told the courtroom. Daniel responded "we can all agree on that" before ending his questions.

3:08 p.m. update:

Limehouse asked Seckinger about a series of meetings she had with Russell Laffitte throughout fall 2021 after the law firm fired Murdaugh and accused him of pilfering his clients' settlement funds.

Seckinger said the firm immediately alerted the bank to Murdaugh's dismissal. Russell Laffitte's response initially was "disbelief," she said. Then he said he worried the bank might lose a lot of money as a result, Seckinger testified.

Limehouse and Seckinger went over a series of disbursement checks, which Russell Laffitte provided her with at their meetings: "I could tell that these were things that were benefiting Alex Murdaugh," Seckinger said.

The woman said she didn't learn about Russell Laffitte's alleged involvement in Murdaugh's purported scheme until emails sent years ago between the banker and lawyer were uncovered in February.

Seckinger said she loves her brother-in-law "very much," and trusts him, but saw "some things" that caused her concern. As Murdaugh's banker, she said, Russell Laffitte would've likely been privy to the magnitude of his debt  an amount which has mounted since at least 2011. It seems like someone should've "known something," Seckinger said.

Daniel then began his cross-examination.

2:32 p.m. update:

Seckinger is asked about a moment in April 2021 when the law firm was supposed to receive attorney fees in a case settled by Murdaugh and his close friend, Chris Wilson, a Bamberg lawyer. The money was collected and disbursed through Wilson's office. Seckinger said her firm had received money for expenses but not for fees, which wasn't normal.

Seckinger was worried. She knew Murdaugh had been asked to produce personal financial statements as part of a pending lawsuit involving a boating accident. Seckinger testified she was concerned Murdaugh was trying to hide or reduce his income, and she didn't want the law firm implicated in a potential cover-up.

Seckinger ultimately confronted Murdaugh June 7, 2021, about the missing attorneys' fees. Murdaugh assured her Wilson had all the money in his firm's client trust account, she testified.

Minutes later, Murdaugh received a phone call alerting him his father had entered hospice care. Their conversation abruptly ended, Seckinger said.

Later that evening, Murdaugh's son Paul and wife Maggie were shot to death at the family's remote estate. Murdaugh has since been charged in the double-homicide.

1:40 p.m. update:

The jury has been seated after taking a lunch break. Limehouse is resuming her questioning of Seckinger.

12:41 p.m. update:

Limehouse is asking Seckinger to go over each of the disbursements in the case of sisters Alania Spohn and Hannah Plyler, who were in the backseat of their family's Ford Explorer when it crashed in 2005, killing their mother and brother. Russell Laffitte served as conservator for the girls' trust and Murdaugh negotiated the massive $6 million settlement.

Prosecutors alleged in the federal indictment that Russell Laffitte and Murdaugh issued substantial personal loans at favorable interest rates from the sisters' settlement account and then later stole from their other clients' accounts to pay back those loans.

Gergel called an hour-long lunch break before Limehouse could finish questioning Seckinger.

12:10 p.m. update:

Federal prosecutor Emily Limehouse has called the government's second witness. Jeanne Seckinger, the current chief financial officer of Parker Law Group, was sworn in. Parker Law Group was formerly known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick  the Hampton County-based firm where Murdaugh was a partner up until last year.

Russell Laffitte is also Seckinger's brother-in-law. He is married to the sister of Seckinger's husband. The law firm has always held its accounts with Palmetto State Bank, as well as many of the attorneys' personal accounts, Seckinger said.

The woman, who said she doesn't have much day-to-day interaction with the attorneys, oversees the firm's finances. She testified her job is to make sure the books are balanced, bills are paid and payroll is made.

She is answering questions about how a client's settlement money is divided and dispersed after it's awarded and paid to the law firm.

11:44 a.m. update:

Austin's cross-examination of Norris Laffitte has since resumed. His line of questioning is granular and confusing, with Austin often abruptly stopping before starting again in a different direction. It's been filled with objections from Holliday, many of which Gergel sustains.

Austin focused the end of his questions on the $750,000 loan the bank extended Murdaugh, which Norris Laffitte testified he didn't learn about until August 2021. News of the loan raised alarm bells for Norris Laffitte, who heard from Murdaugh's family members the lawyer wasn't working after the killings of his wife and son. Norris Laffitte said he was unsure how Murdaugh would be able to pay back the loan.

After a few brief questions from Holliday, the judge dismissed Norris Laffitte as the first witness.

"I don't have to come back," he confirmed with Gergel before exiting the courtroom.

10:36 a.m. update:

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel asked Norris Laffitte to step off the witness stand for a short break after Holliday issued a flurry of objections during Austin's cross-examination.

Gergel told Austin and fellow defense attorney Bart Daniel their questions were "too confusing" and the witness was having trouble understanding them.

10:11 a.m. update:

Defense attorney Matt Austin began his cross-examination of Norris Laffitte. Austin asked about his work history, which has been mostly in the railroad industry. Norris Laffitte worked as a bank teller when he was in college, but has since never held a full-time banking job, he testified. Norris Laffitte said he learned "on the job" after joining the bank's board.

9:56 a.m. update:

Holliday wrapped up questioning by asking Norris Laffitte about the board's decision in January to get rid of Russell Laffitte as the bank's chief executive. Each board member voted to dismiss him except his father, who voted no, and his sister, who abstained, Norris Laffitte testified.

The man grew emotional in the final moments of Holliday's questioning: "This is hard," Norris Laffitte said as he spoke about his cousin's alleged actions.

As chief executive, Russell Laffitte was responsible for looking after the bank, its reputation and its shareholders, Norris Laffitte testified. As a conservator, Russell Laffitte was also tasked with watching over the settlement accounts of some of Murdaugh's legal clients. But Holliday presented Norris Laffitte  and the jurors  with several checks meant for those clients that were converted to other places.

"I'm just baffled by all that," Norris Laffitte said. "We had to get rid of him. He lied to the board."

9:50 a.m. update:

Holliday continues to ask Norris Laffitte about his cousin's alleged "questionable activity" as chief executive at the family-run bank. He's focused this morning on an email Russell Laffitte sent bank employees in December 2021. He told employees "we found" two additional settlements that were "stolen" by Murdaugh.

Norris Laffitte testifies money taken from the settlements of Hakeem Pinckney and his cousin, Natarsha Thomas, was deposited various places, including as checks to Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, and father Randolph, as well as Russell Laffitte's father, Charlie Laffitte. Checks from the settlement accounts  signed by Russell Laffitte  also went to Murdaugh Charters to cover a loan for the ex-lawyer's boat, according to testimony.

Murdaugh represented Pinckney and Thomas in a personal-injury lawsuit. Russell Laffitte was paid a total of $75,000 to be conservator of both settlement accounts. The banker didn't provide Norris Laffitte or fellow board members with an explanation as to why money from the cousins' settlements was diverted elsewhere, Norris Laffitte testified.

9:14 a.m. update:

The jury has been seated and day two of Laffitte's federal trial is officially underway. Federal prosecutor Winston Holliday will resume questioning of the first witness, Norris Laffitte.

8:30 a.m. update:

The central question jurors will ponder as they hear testimony in the coming days is intent. Was Laffitte a co-conspirator in Murdaugh's alleged schemes to siphon millions of dollars from the bank accounts of his former clients? Or was he a pawn, duped by a "master manipulator and world-class conman," as defense attorney Bart Daniel argued in his opening statement.

Norris Laffitte, Russell's first cousin once removed and a board member at Palmetto State Bank, was the first witness called to testify Nov. 8. He told the jury he had raised concerns about the bank's financial relationship with Murdaugh in 2021, after the lawyer's life unraveled following the killings of his wife and son.

Norris Laffitte will take the stand again today for additional questions from prosecutors and cross-examination by the defense.
If it wasnt already, several developments in recent weeks should make it clear that critical race theory is in the eyes of the beholder. Read moreEditorial: 'Critical race theory' in SC classrooms? Depends on how you define it.
COLUMBIA  Legislation outlawing near all abortions in South Carolina is officially kaput after a stalemate between House and Senate lawmakers ended with Republican leaders in both chambers blaming each other.

The bill's defeat Nov. 9 leaves in place the law signed last year by Gov. Henry McMaster that bans abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions.

But since the state Supreme Court suspended that law pending its review, abortions remain legal in South Carolina through 5 months as per a 2016 law signed by then-Gov. Nikki Haley.

Both it and the law on hold allow abortions in cases of fetal anomalies so severe the child isn't expected to survive outside the womb.

A proposal to ban nearly all abortions failed partially because it did not provide that exception.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, has said publicly for weeks the Senate lacked the votes to ban abortions earlier than six weeks, as demonstrated in a two-day floor fight in September. That debate concluded with the Senate largely reinforcing the "fetal heartbeat" law that outlaws abortions once an ultrasound detects cardiac activity, roughly 1 months into a pregnancy.

Its version sought to address an inconsistency in the "heartbeat" law justices pointed to in suspending it. That hold, Massey noted, makes South Carolina  temporarily at least  the most lenient state in the Southeast on abortions, except for Virginia, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade.

But House Republicans insisted on their version of the bill, which banned abortions at conception, with exceptions for rape and incest victims and in cases needed to avert the death or lifelong health problems for the mother. It did not allow abortions for fatal fetal anomalies.

A joint House-Senate committee tasked with trying to work out a compromise ultimately got nowhere.

"Our goal was to pass a new law that recognizes that life begins at conception. The whole idea was to recognize that," Rep. John McCravy, who led the House effort, said of the extended legislative session created specifically to consider an abortion ban.

"We already have the heartbeat bill. Passing it again wont help," the Greenwood Republican told the committee Nov. 9.

Massey again warned McCravy the Senate would not pass a ban at conception. But with McCravy not budging, Massey agreed to let the Senate prove it.

"Hey, Ive been wrong before. Lets go try again," he said before voting to send the proposal back to the Senate floor.

As predicted, the Senate rejected it, with seven Republicans joining all Democrats in the 23-21 vote.

If the proposal had allowed for fatal fetal anomalies, it might have picked up enough support to pass by a simple majority, as indicated by a Senate vote on an amendment during the September debate.

But the chambers' versions were so different, that exception couldn't be tacked on without supermajority approval of the bill, or 31 "yes" votes.

Massey, who was among the seven despite his committee vote, said another problem with the House version is that its definition of rape doesn't align with other parts of state law. But that also couldn't be fixed without a supermajority vote.

"The rape exception is a fake," he said. "That's a deal killer for me."

Recognizing the bill was doomed, Sen. Richard Cash took the podium ahead of the vote to lambast his fellow Republicans as guilty of murder in God's eyes.

"The first principle of the pro-life movement is that life begins at conception," Cash said in a 50-minute speech that exasperated senators of both parties.

"We've taken it upon ourselves to give authority to someone to kill an innocent human being. I think it's blasphemous," said the Powdersville Republican. "We are guilty if we're voting to let people kill innocent people.  I'll have to answer to God for my vote one day."

After the vote, the three senators on the joint committee went into a Statehouse meeting room to potentially keep working with House conferees on a proposal more aligned with the Senate's version. The House members never showed.

McCravy had warned senators earlier that he needed to return to Greenwood for a "family issue" and couldn't hang around for another attempt. He apparently wasn't bluffing.

After waiting about 20 minutes, Massey returned to the Senate to tell his colleagues he was out of options.

"What the House is saying is 'it's our way or the highway.' They left. They won't even talk to us anymore," he said, recognizing that some senators changed their vacation plans to be in Columbia. "It's frustrating to do nothing. I apologize that you had to come back for this exercise in futility."

After the Senate adjourned, House Speaker Murrell Smith told reporters "the bill is dead," but he laid the blame with senators.

"I don't see a reason for the Senate version," said the Sumter Republican, agreeing with McCravy's stance. "The Senate version was a smokescreen to say we passed something."

While that measure no longer has any chance of passing, House Republicans will try again when the Legislature returns in January following an election that gave the GOP caucus seven additional members. The House will return with a supermajority 88-36 GOP advantage.

The process will have to start all over, and senators may be reluctant to rehash that debate. The election made no changes to that chamber, as they won't be on the ballot again until 2024.
For three years, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott has said his third term as a senator would be his last if he were reelected  which happened in resounding fashion Nov. 8.

The North Charleston Republican was declared the winner moments after polls closed, one of the earliest calls in the nation.

Now, after months of campaigning in battleground states such as Georgia and Iowa for the broader Republican aim of reclaiming Congress, attention turns to what heights South Carolinas junior senator might reach  perhaps as soon as 2024.

Speaking to supporters at his election night watch party in downtown Charleston, Scott teased the prospect of a presidential run, if ever so slightly.

The 57-year-old North Charleston native spoke of his life in poverty with a single mom and of his grandfather, who he said had gone from picking cotton to helping him pick his seat in Congress after his election to the House in 2010.

Two years later, Scott's grandfather voted to reelect former President Barack Obama.

My grandfather voted for the first man of color to be reelected as president of the United States," Scott told the crowd assembled in the ballroom of The Charleston Place hotel. "I wish he lived long enough, long enough to see perhaps another man of color  and this time, vote for a Republican and not a Democrat.

Scott easily turned back a long-shot challenge from two-term Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews of Ladson, solidifying his place as arguably the most-popular Republican in the state.

The race was called at 7 p.m., immediately after voting closed statewide.

Unofficial returns gave Scott a 62 percent to 38 percent advantage.

Matthews didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Her bid was hamstrung by racially tinged recordings of conversations referencing White people released by the right-wing activist group Project Veritas and collected without her knowledge. She said they had been edited.

If Scott has bigger ambitions, he hasn't explicitly disclosed them in the broader White House discussion in which former President Donald Trump remains the GOP favorite.

But virtually every poll gauging the temperature of Republican voters for the next presidential primary includes Scotts name  albeit in single digits and before he has expressed an intention to run for any office higher than, as he often quips, his neighborhoods homeowners association.

Over the past two years, Scott has been thrust into the national spotlight as a voice of the Republican Party, tapped to deliver the GOPs rebuttal to President Joe Bidens 2021 State of the Union address and serving as a fundraising dynamo known for his demeanor as a sober statesman who  when the mood and opportunity strikes as it did during his election night victory speech  riles himself into breathless charismatic pastor.

This year, Scott emerged as the Republican chambers top fundraiser for the cycle. Federal campaign disclosures show Scott raised more than $51 million for his own 2022 reelection bid, nearly $4.5 million more than U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who ranks No. 2.

That total does not include the more than $35 million raised this cycle by Opportunity Matters Fund, a Scott super PAC that has drawn support from major GOP mega-donors like tech billionaire Larry Ellison, finance industry billionaire Ken C. Griffin and Koch Industries.

The same PAC has also bankrolled TV ads to support candidates running for other federal offices, but those ads prominently featured Scott making a straight-to-camera pitch.

The spots put Scott, his message and his name in states that could be crucial for a GOP presidential primary victory like Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina.

The focus on national politics meant relatively little time for Scott to campaign in his home district. By his count, he's visited as many as 15 states to help the GOP reclaim both the Senate and House of Representatives.

This summer, Scott said he did not take his home state for granted but stressed the national importance of the midterms to his party.

Weve done the very best job that we can to make sure everybody has the resources necessary to finish strong, Scott said.

To be sure, Scott hasn't confined his out-of-state campaigning to simply those in close midterm races.

Scott has made multiple stops in Iowa, which through its caucus voting system is the first to weigh in on the presidential nominee. He also has visited New Hampshire, which conducts the first presidential primary before South Carolina's "First in the South" primary.

And as presidential hopefuls do in laying the groundwork for a run  or those hoping to be on the short list for a vice presidential bid  Scott published a new memoir, "America, A Redemption Story," this past summer.

The publisher, Thomas Nelson Christian Publishing, jumped the gun on the speculation, including a snippet in the fine print of the copyright language that Scott was laying out his core messages as he prepares for his presidential bid.

The publisher retracted the statement after Scott objected.

On election night, Scott did little to clear the fog in speaking about the significance of his victory.

"It's not about this election cycle," he told his supporters. "It's not even about 2024. It's more important. It's about our future as a country and therefore the future of the world."
I offer just a few comments  ranging from personal self-evaluation to national results to the local Minnesota scene  on the fiasco this time. Here are my thoughts more or less in the order they occur to me with the results of a few races still in doubt:

 I was pessimistic as usual, but I prefer to think of my pessimism as the higher realism.

 I expected the worst and hoped for the best, but I had no ken that the elections could have played out as poorly for Republicans as they have.

 I regret having served up optimistic tea leaves over the past week. I was deluded. I was misled most of all by the polls served up by Robert Cahalys Trafalgar Group. They were not reliable indicators of what was to come. I think Cahaly was in good company in his errors, but I thought his recent record distinguished him from the pack. He has reverted to the professional polling norm, if not worse. I would like to know why.

 What happened to the red wave? It was buried in an open grave. It began and ended in Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had a great night romping over Charlie Crist, an opponent who has distinguished himself by losing statewide races as a Republican, an independent, and a Democrat. Andrew Stiles gives him his due in the Free Beacon column Charlie Crist Defends Historic Triple Crown Title.

 I may be mistaken, but I dont think Donald Trump is the cure for what ails the Republican Party.

 By far the biggest disappointment last night was John Fettermans victory in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Ozs defeat was overdetermined. I thought he had an uphill battle from the outset selling himself as a Pennsylvanian. I commented at the time I do not love thee, Dr Oz. A friend of mine working on the Oz campaign went ballistic when I raised the point with him the week Oz won the primary, but I wasnt completely off. Ozs success in the Republican primary  a race he won by fewer than a thousand votes  can fairly be attributed to President Trumps endorsement. See point 4 above.

 Fetterman is a monumental fraud whose lying extended to his purported personal physician.

 Fetterman presents himself as someone who will fight for everyone whos been knocked down. Hes fighting for you and me. Woo hoo!

 Republicans didnt win a single sleeper Senate race. They werent even close. Don Bolduc, Joe ODea, and Tiffany Smiley went down to defeat by wide margins in New Hampshire, Colorado, and Washington, respectively.

 It took the intervention of big bucks supplied by Cocaine Mitch to raise up J.D. Vance after the Ohio Republican primary. Yet President Trump chooses to aim his rhetorical guns on Cocaine Mitch. I believe Trump himself kept his financial powder dry in Ohio.

 Assuming Adam Laxalt wins his race in Nevada, Ron Johnson his in Wisconsin, and Blake Masters loses in Arizona, I think Herschel Walker would need to win a runoff with Raphael Warnock in order for Republicans to take a 51-49 majority in the Senate. Keep hope alive! I wonder what the odds are.

 Republicans may come away with a slim majority in the House. Its not nothing, but it is far short of their own expectation and beyond the Democrats wildest dreams. Prospective Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave brief remarks claiming victory overnight. His remarks were most notable for their dispirited nature.

 Each of the four Republican candidates vying for constitutional offices on a statewide basis went down to defeat in Minnesota. Governor Tim Walz handily defeated Dr. Scott Jensen. Even Attorney General Keith Ellison  I rate him the man most unfit for his office in the USA  eked out a narrow win over a decent opponent in a race that has officially yet to be called. My guess is that Democrats will hold legislative majorities in both the senate (where they had a one-vote minority) and the house, although we await final results in too many races to be sure.

 Minnesota Democrats had a huge financial advantage in the election. Now they have a huge budget surplus to play with in the next legislative session. The Democrats have a functioning party and a strong metro area base. The Republicans have no party organization and a smaller rural base.

 Walz represented a slightly conservative, mostly rural area in Congress before running for governor. He has abandoned even the pretense of moderation to peddle every jot and tittle of the current left-wing manias.

 If youve been watching television or listening to the radio in Minnesota over the past few months, you will have heard that Republicans are too extreme for Minnesota. Minnesota Democrats convey an ardent belief in abortion that is a tad over the top given the fact that the right is not in issue here.

 A concluding personal note. I try to write on the elections at least as much as an analyst as a cheerleader. Despite my best efforts, I found that the easiest person to fool was me. I tried to resist wishful thinking and keep in mind Churchills admonition: Facts are better than dreams.

NOTE: I have slightly corrected this since I originally posted it with the intent of getting the arithmetic on the current balance in the Minnesota senate and the prospective balance in the United States Senate right. I got up overnight at 3:00 a.m. to write this. I was not operating on all cylinders.
As we wait for election results to begin coming in, this is a good time for a final set of predictions. Scott has said more than once that he is, by temperament, a pessimist. I balance that by being, for the most part, a hopeless optimist. You will see that reflected in my election forecast.

U.S. Senate: GOP finishes the night with 55 senators.

U.S. House: GOP picks up a net 30 seats.

I think it is a foregone conclusion that Republicans will control both the House and the Senate in January, the only question being their margin of victory.

In my home state of Minnesota, I expect Republicans to net two additional Senate seats to solidify their control of that body. The GOP will pick up between 15 and 18 House seats, easily taking control of that chamber.

The main Congressional race is in my own district, where Republican Tyler Kistner will oust incumbent Democrat Angie Craig.

In Minnesotas constitutional races, Jim Schultz will send Attorney General Keith Ellison into retirement. Ryan Wilson will beat the Democratic incumbent for state Auditor. The Secretary of State race will be close, but most observers think the Democratic incumbent has the edge.

The great unknown is the governor race. It, too, will be close, likely razor-thin, but I am picking Republican Scott Jensen to narrowly defeat incumbent Tim Walz, if only because Walzs record is so terrible, on so many fronts, that it is hard to imagine him being re-elected. Also, if Republicans do as well as I think they well in legislative races, it will take a remarkable amount of ticket-splitting for Walz to win.

I actually bet on Jensen a month or two ago on one of the election prediction sites, when the odds against him were 9 to 1. So if he wins, I get $1,000a very small return compared to the immense benefit that will accrue to Minnesota from a Jensen victory.

Now, a few specific races in other states:

* Never fear, poor John Fetterman will not be going to Washington.

* Tiffany Smiley will beat Patty Murray in Washington.

* Lee Zeldin will be elected Governor of New York.

* Tudor Dixon will come agonizingly close to being elected Governor of Michigan, but will fall short.

* Kari Lake will absolutely trash Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor race, and will bring Blake Masters across the finish line with her.

Finally, if you enjoy watching Kari Lake as much as I do, this is fun:

Kari Lake to reporter: "Im going to do two terms. Im going to be your worst frickin' nightmare for eight years, and we will reform the media as well. We are going to make you guys into journalists again. So, get ready. Its going to be a fun eight years." pic.twitter.com/ZgxVLchf7G  Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 8, 2022

UPDATE: Well, that didnt go the way I expected! What a horrible night. I will try to assess the carnage in the morning and will have more to say tomorrow. For now, just this: if there is a silver lining, it may be that we have seen the last of Donald J. Trump.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has faulted the conviction and jailing of its chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, on a contempt charge.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, Tuesday night, the commission said its chairman did not disobey any court order as ruled by the court.

The commission described Mr Bawa as an advocate of the rule of law and due process who would not disobey any legitimate court order.

It said the ruling created a wrong impression of the person of the EFCC chairman as encouraging impunity.

As far as the relationship between the EFCC and the judiciary is concerned, the Executive Chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa has been an apostle of rule of law, due process, and close collaboration between the two institutions in justice administration.

As an investigator, and the only Chief Executive of a law enforcement agency who regularly goes to court, the Executive Chairman will not tolerate impunity or disregard any lawful orders of the court.

Abdulrasheed Bawa, in his capacity as Executive Chairman of the EFCC since March 5, 2022, did not disregard any order of court. For the benefit of the public, the said order of the FCT High Court was given on November 21, 2018, three years before Abdulrasheed became EFCC Chairman. 

It said this in reaction to a ruling by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja which found Mr Bawa guilty of contempt by violating an earlier order of the court.

In the ruling, the judge, Chizoba Oji, convicted and jailed Mr Bawa on 28 October in a ruling on an application by a former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Rufus Ojuawo.

Mr Ojuawo had in his application called for the jailing of Mr Bawa for EFCCs continued disobedience of a court order directing the commission to release a Range Rover car and N40 million seized from him while he was facing trial.

The judge ordered the Inspector of General of Police to put the anti-graft agencys boss in Kuje prison in Abuja for disobeying the courts earlier order.

The EFCC had in an interview on Tuesday vowed to appeal the ruling.

Bawa not served with any notice of contempt before comviction

Faulting Mr Bawas conviction, the EFCC said contempt proceedings being quasi-criminal in nature, the alleged contemnor ought to be personally served with the charge against him.

But it said Mr Bawa was not served with Forms 48 and 49 as expected in contempt proceedings.

The statement also stated that the EFCC, after becoming aware of the aforementioned order dated 21 November 2018, released the aforementioned Range Rover to the applicant on 27 June 2022, and approved the process for releasing the remaining N40 million.

Taking into cognisance the procedural lapse in the proceedings the commission has initiated a process to set aside the entire contempt proceedings and committal of the Executive Chairman for contempt.

Despite the discomfort of this ruling which is seemingly promoted by misinformation, the commission remains committed to working closely with the judiciary in furtherance of the fight against economic and financial crimes in Nigeria.

Backstory

Mr Ojuawo, a retired air vice marshal (AVM), was previously prosecuted by the EFCC on corruption charges but was acquitted by another judge of the FCT High Court.

He was arraigned in 2016 on a two-count charge by the EFCC before another judge of the Nyanya, Abuja division of the FCT High Court, Muawiyah Idris.

The prosecution charged the former military commander with taking kickbacks of N40 million and a Range Rover Sport (Supercharged) valued at N29.250 million from Hima Aboubakar of Societe DEquipment Internationalnaux Nigeria Limited, a contractor for the Nigerian Air Force.

However, the judge acquitted Mr Ojuawo in a judgment delivered on 21 November 2018.

It rejected EFCCs case, saying the commission was unable to show that Mr Ojuawo accepted the gifts while carrying out his official duties as military chief and that the gifts were incentives or rewards.

The court ordered EFCC to release Mr Ojuawos assets.

But due to the failure of the EFCC and its leadership to comply with the order, Mr Ojuawo applied for the jailing of the commissions chairman for contempt.

The court upheld the application by convicting Mr Bawa of contempt and ordering that he be imprisoned at Kuje correctional centre in Abuja until he purges himself of contempt.

Mr Bawa as of the time of this report has, however, not been put in prison as the commission gets set to appeal the ruling.

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With less than 130 days to the 2023 general elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in President Muhammadu Buharis home state of Katsina, has suffered perhaps its biggest blow since its controversial primary elections, with the exit of the immediate past Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mustapha Inuwa.

Prominent members of the party, including president Buharis relatives and associates, have defected from the party with their supporters to either the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) after they lost out in the partys primaries in May. However, none of those defections has left leaders of the party scratching their heads like Mr Inuwas defection with 647 support groups to the PDP on 16 October.

Like many disgruntled former members of the APC who defected from the party earlier this year, Mr Inuwas grouse with the APC is linked to his failed bid to become the governorship candidate of the party. He was the first runner-up in the contest scoring 442 votes against the 506 votes of Dikko Radda, who has the backing of the incumbent governor, Aminu Masari.

The Grassroots Man

Mr Inuwas exit from the APC is causing jitters among the leadership of the party because he is generally regarded as the most influential grassroots mobiliser in the state. The former pioneer chairman of the party in the state has proved on several occasions that he could pull crowds and win local elections effortlessly.

But how did a former university lecturer become the most influential grassroots mobiliser in the state?

The answer could be traced to the return to democratic rule in 1999. That year, the late Nigerian president Umaru YarAdua, was the governor of the katsina State and appointed Mr Inuwa the Managing Director of the Katsina State Transport Authority. He was later made the sole administrator and then Chairman of Danmusa Local Government.

An astute politician, Mr Inuwa, used his time in the positions to endear himself to the grassroots and cultivated influence, which has now made him one of the most respected politicians in the state.

He was later plucked out of the grassroots when Mr YarAdua made him the commissioner of education and later the SSG.

But he soon found out that the quest for popularity is a double-edged sword. As his rank of loyalists soared, his nest of enemies widened.

Most of those who hate him are doing so because he didnt give them chance to do what they like while he was a Commissioner or as a three-time Secretary of Government of the State. Theyre mostly not sincere, Kabir Yandaki, a member of Mr Inuwas campaign team, said.

Even his fiercest detractors acknowledges his influence in the grassroots. Apart from his popularity with ordinary residents of the state, his loyalists include commissioners, permanent secretaries, and heads of agencies. How he lost in the APC primaries to Mr Radda remains a mystery but political analysts believed his detractors ganged up against him.

Mr Inuwa was so influential that he led the reelection campaign of Governor Masari in 2019. He was such an important member of the governors kitchen cabinet that even top members of the party believed he had already been anointed by the governor to be his successor.

Peoples opinion aside, he was a man abundantly aware of his importance.

We conducted 10 by Elections in this State and the last one was the one we conducted in Bakori local government area. I swear the governor (Aminu Masari) doesnt know how to win elections we would only bring the results to him. We did the 2019 general elections and we got the highest votes in the country and all of you know we got more votes in the second election (2019) than the first (2015), Mr Inuwa said in June during a local event with his support groups.

Having left the ruling party, next years elections offer Mr Inuwa the chance to really prove his mantle against Mr Masari, his former ally, whom Mr Inuwas supporters claim treated him unfairly and President Buhari, who will want to ensure that ruling APC performs exceeding well in the state in all elections.

Has Mr Inuwa taken on more than he can handle? Will the joy of members of the PDP when he joined their rank quickly turn to dust?

Politics is local

To attempt, what many think is impossible, Mr Inuwa will be relying partly on top officials of the state still loyal to him but his real ammunition is his enduring popularity with common residents of the state.

When the top national party delegation reached out to me, they said I should follow them to Abuja to play a role in the party (APC). But I told them my politics is local and Im strong because you (support groups) believe in and support me. If they take me away and give me an appointment, what will happen to you? My politics is all local, Mr Inuwa said at an event to announce he was quitting the ruling party.

In Katsina State today, there is no politician with grassroots appeal and structure like him. From 1999 to date, he has always been a Katsina man avoiding national appointments even when he had every connection to go, Saifullahi Kuraye, a Katsina-based political analyst, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Ill not say itll be an easy ride for the PDP just because Mustapha joined them but Im sure he will get enough votes for them because of his structure. These people that you see following him everywhere he goes will vote and theyll vote for the candidate he supports, Mr Kuraye said.

A betrayed soldier

Another factor that may work in favour of Mr Inuwa is the impression that he was treated unfairly by the incumbent governor.

This may swing public sympathy toward him and the opposition PDP. Having played a pivotal role in Mr Masaris emergence in 2014 and subsequent election as governor, many believe the least the governor should have done was to have ensured that he has a chance at succeeding him.

We were all there when it happened. In fact, Mustapha Inuwa didnt only discourage other contestants to withdraw for Masari, he even used his powers to subdue heavyweights like Sadik Yaradua and Kanti Bello all for His Excellency (Mr Masari), a top APC member, who asked not to be named for fear of the backlash, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Inuwa himself believes he has done enough for the administration of the outgoing governor and is deserving of better treatment.

I have paid my dues as a true servant of this administration and I challenge any person to mention just one instance when I failed to undertake my responsibility or cheated the administration. I have also been financially prudent. If there is anyone who can say Ive stolen one Naira in this administration, let him come forward and provide evidence. They made such allegations during Shema (former governor Ibrahim Shema) but they were proven wrong.

Therefore, I just want to thank God because in the past seven years that we were in government, we protected the administration and protected the image of the leaders of the administration. Even those that are insulting us, calling us all sort of names, theyre doing that because of our relationship with the government, Mr Inuwa said during a meeting with his support groups after the primaries.

Weakened by integrity

Ironically, Mr Inuwas strongest virtue may, in fact, be his weakness. Political pundits in the state say his aversion to money politics is the chink in his armour and his opponents may pierce his rib through it.

Mustapha doesnt respect other godfathers in the state, the anonymous APC top member said. Ask yourself why he failed to secure the ticket (gubernatorial primaries). He refused to give reasonable money to delegates. Also, the godfathers he looked down on teamed up to get at him. When I saw the gang up, I said the pressure would be too much on the governor and the delegates.

Even at this government, there are political appointees, Commissioners for instance and top politicians who believe the man (Mr Inuwa) shielded them from reaching that governor despite their roles during the campaign, the APC member said. They would not allow him. Some will continue the fight even now that he is in PDP.

Another problem analysts see in Mr Inuwas quest to upstage his former party is that some of his most dependable supporters did not defect to the PDP with him.

Many of those who stayed back at the APC hold important positions in the government. On the flipside, however, some people believe that Mr Inuwa deliberately left them in the party to act as moles.

Kabir Yandaki, head of political science department at the Umaru Musa Yaradua University Katsina said his failure to convince some of his top lieutenants to follow him to the PDP will dent his crusade to upstage the ruling party.

You see, no sensible politician in Katsina State can underate Dr. Mustapha Inuwa if you look at the kind of people behind him as at now you will agree with me that theyre not the people that can make any difference. For instance, were supposed to see the bunch of APC party stakeholders resigning their positions to join his political bandwagon. These are the kinds of people that are supposed to show absolute loyalty to him by dropping their positions in APC for his sake, he said.

Mr Yandaki further argued that Mr Inuwa would not be compensated with a political appointment if PDP wins in Katsina State, which is the reason some of his supporters are reluctant to join his crusade.

I am telling you they (Mir Inuwas supporters) wouldnt do to that (resign their positions) because politics is a game of interest. They know that if they support him to install PDP in Katsina State they will not get anything out of it. This is because, even he himself will not get any reasonable slots to pay his followers.

Again, they know that Dr Mustapha would not be given any chance to be more politically relevant for fear of hijacking PDP from the already existing two blocks in the patty  Ibrahim Shema loyalists and Yakubu Lado fans. In effect, therefore, there exist three factions now in PDP including the newly emerged SGS camp in the party, Mr Yandaki said.

Despite the opposition and views of some pundits, Mr Inuwa believes he has what it takes to sink APC in the state.

He had been there before in 2015 when he was hailed as one of the key factors that led to the defeat of PDP. If half of his foot soldiers and supporters join him and vote for the PDP, itll be a different story for APC in Katsina in 2023.

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TAIPEI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hosted by Web3 business consultancy C-Cubed, CCC-WEB3 Future Business Forum 2022, one of Asia's most influential Web3 business forums.

The event brought together a number of firms and organizations including Alpacadabraz, Amber Group, CoolBitX, Crypto.com, JS-Adways Media, Mafia Capital, Metap Inc, Metasens, OKX, Red Building Capital and RE:DREAMER Lab as well as the Taiwan Association for Blockchain Ecosystem Innovation.

NFTs become the best marketing channel amid the rising influencer economy

"Influencers/key opinion leaders (KOLs) have become the most important marketing channel for the Web3 ecosystem, followed by communities and creators, and, finally, traditional media," indicated C-Cubed CMO Gene Yen.

With the increasing desire among community members to increase and deepen their participation in co-branding, C-Cubed CEO William Tsai outlined the six major benefits of NFTs-based marketing - accelerated promotions, more feedback from customers, significant expansion of the fan economy, acquisition of new customers, borderless marketing with lower costs, and the creation of brands targeting younger consumers, all of which come together to greatly shorten the traditional marketing cycle.

Speakers also shared first-hand news from TOKEN2049, Asia's premier crypto conference held in Singapore. "The event venue was packed with visitors every day, and it didn't feel like a bear market at all," said blockchain gaming platform Metasens CDO Neil Lee.

"The Web3 landscape is on the verge of a reshuffle," said crypto asset platform Amber Group regional director John Lee. "The ecosystem is bound to take shape and digital assets will only increase. As a result, it is time to explore the ecosystem as several tech giants, including Meta and NVIDIA, have already built businesses in the metaverse."

Web3 is the key to enabling industrial transformation over the next five to ten years

The full article is available at

https://lihi2.cc/X7T2c

Full video of the CCC-WEB3 Future Business Forum on YouTube:

Part1 https://lihi2.cc/srInK

Part2 https://lihi2.cc/UsdxY

About C-Cubed

C-Cubed.co is a Web3 project incubator that has helped brands enter the Web3 space by providing them with services including consultancy on business models, technology development, distribution of NFTs, community operation, marketing expansion in addition to connecting projects to limited partners (LPs) for the purpose of fundraising, creating a new business model for exploring the promising Web3 market.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1942603/221013_CCC_580x300______1.jpg

SOURCE C-Cubed
LINKOPING, Sweden and SHELTON, Conn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a contract with Boston Medical Center (BMC) for enterprise imaging as a subscription (Sectra One). The solution has the capability of supporting all current and future imaging needs through a common platform with advanced diagnostic and clinical tools, integrated with Epic.

The contract, signed in September 2022, includes modules for radiology, breast imaging, and orthopaedics. Additionally, the Sectra VNA will archive all radiology images within the health system and enable future enterprise image storage across other specialties.

"We are excited to begin this new partnership between Sectra and Boston Medical Center," says Eric Podradchik, senior director, electronic health records at BMC. "Moving to Sectra will offer our radiologists immediate opportunities for efficiency and productivity improvements that only come with a first class PACS solution. Beyond that, Sectra PACS & VNA will provide the backbone of an enterprise imaging strategy at Boston Medical Center. This goal will improve our providers' ability to care for our underserved patient population by providing a consistent reading platform and access to all images across different physician specialties throughout BMC."

"Sectra will enhance BMC's physician workflow by providing its radiologists with a multi-modality enterprise overview and its orthopedic surgeons the ability to do 2D and 3D pre-operative planning," says Isaac Zaworski, president of Sectra, Inc.

Sectra's enterprise imaging solution provides a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to enterprise. Visit Sectra's website to read more about Sectra and why it's top-ranked in "Best in KLAS".

Epic is a registered trademark of Epic Systems Corporation.

About Boston Medical Center

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, not-for-profit, 514-bed, academic medical center that is the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. It is the largest and busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. BMC offers specialized care for complex health problems and is a leading research institution, receiving more than $110 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2021. It is the 13th largest funding recipient in the U.S. from the National Institutes of Health among independent hospitals. WellSense Health Plan was founded in 1997 as Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan, now one of the top ranked Medicaid MCOs in the country, as a non-profit managed care organization. Boston Medical Center and Chobanian & Avedisian SOM are partners in Boston HealthNet  12 community health centers focused on providing exceptional health care to residents of Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.bmc.org.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Torbjorn Kronander, CEO and President Sectra AB, 46 (0) 705 23 52 27

Marie Ekstrom Tragardh, Executive Vice President Sectra AB and President Sectra Imaging IT Solutions, 46 (0)708 23 56 10

The following files are available for download:

https://news.cision.com/sectra/i/sectra-s-enterprise-imaging-solution,c3111559 Sectra's enterprise imaging solution

SOURCE Sectra
LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MARS Academy, the education centre of excellence in Virtual Production, has today announced an agreement that will see it partner with Studio City Norway and offer its programme on a global scale. In what is a landmark moment for British film, the UK will partner with Norway to support the next generation of virtual production filmmakers and industry professionals.

Backed by the team of virtual production pioneers at Bild Studios and MARS Volume, MARS Academy Norway will offer a masterclass in In-Camera Visual Effects (ICVFX) filmmaking techniques to a new market of film and television professionals.

Joanna Alpe, Chief Commercial Officer at Bild said: "We're delighted to be able to support the development of skills in virtual production to markets outside of the UK and take our programme global. This partnership is a symbol of collaboration and is an exciting moment for the virtual production industries both here in the UK and in Norway. Education and knowledge transfer is at the heart of MARS Volume, and our Academy is the outworking of this core value."

Dag Hvaring, Chief Executive Officer at Studio City Norway said: "This partnership with Bild Studios ensures we are at the forefront of the most advanced production technology and expertise. The MARS Academy curriculum has been designed and supported by virtual production expert professionals with a wealth of experience who will continue to support the provision of the programme in Norway. Courses are specifically designed to arm participants with the knowledge, know-how and confidence to walk on set and add value to any virtual production."

Gareth Kirkman, Business and Industry Development UK at The British Film Commission said: "As demand for film and TV production in the UK continues to rise, it is essential that key industry areas, such as virtual production, can access the necessary skills and training to accelerate growth. It is fantastic to see opportunities like MARS Academy offering world-class, vocational virtual production training to sustain the UK's status as a leading production hub for film and TV.

"We're delighted to see the expansion extending to Norway. In light of the British Film Commission's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding this week with the Norwegian Film Commission, this is a great first example of the importance of the collaboration between our two nations."

Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15RLwBzHueWSiVH-s5BY6UwlYArONqpcq

SOURCE MARS Academy
Valmet Oyj's press release on November 9, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. EET

ESPOO, Finland, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Valmet will rebuild Koehler Paper's power boilers at its Oberkirch and Kehl paper mill sites in Germany to increase the production of sustainable energy from renewable sources.

The orders were included in Valmet's orders received of the third quarter 2022. The value of the orders will not be disclosed. The joint value of such rebuilds and supply scopes is typically around EUR 20 million.

In Oberkirch, Valmet will convert an existing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler from combusting coal to biomass. The delivery will be taken over by Koehler in October 2024. In Kehl, Valmet will supply a fuel upgrade on a CFB boiler, and this delivery will be taken over by the customer in September 2023. With the modification, new fuels  mainly sludges  will be added to the existing biomass fuel portfolio.

"By switching from bituminous coal to biomass as the primary fuel for our location in Oberkirch, we will be cutting more than 150,000 tonnes of CO 2 emissions a year. By converting away from fossil fuels, Koehler is proactively playing its part in reducing global warming," says Dr. Stefan Karrer, COO, Koehler Group.

"Valmet is serving customers with solutions for decarbonization and sustainable energy production, and we are happy to share the journey toward a carbon neutral future with Koehler Paper," says Aleksi Salmirinne, Vice President, Energy business unit, Pulp and Energy business line, Valmet.

The combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Oberkirch produces approximately 100,000 MWh of electric power and 330,000 metric tonnes of steam per year for paper production. The Kehl CFB boiler has a 44 MW thermal capacity, and the plant power generation capacity is 9 MW.

Information about Valmet's delivery

Valmet's delivery scope to the Oberkirch plant includes boiler modifications and external equipment for converting the coal-fired CFB boiler for biomass; a new biomass feeding system, new burners for renewable fuel, additional heating surfaces, ash removal improvement, a selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) system and additive feeding for the baghouse filter.

At the Kehl CHP plant, Valmet will modify the existing CFB boiler and deliver equipment to add paper sludge and sewage sludge to the fuel portfolio of the plant. Sludge feeding systems, bottom and fly ash system upgrades, and modifications to superheaters will be supplied for the Kehl boiler.

About Koehler Paper

The Koehler Group, Koehler Paper being part of it, was founded in 1807 and has been family-run to this day. The Group's core area of business is the development and production of high-quality specialty paper, including thermal paper, playing cardboard, drink coasters, fine paper, carbonless paper, recycled paper, decor paper, wood pulp board, sublimation paper, and, since 2019, innovative specialty paper for the packaging industry, too. In Germany the Koehler Group with its around 2,500 employees has five production sites, and three more in the USA. The Group operates at an international level, with an export ratio of 70 percent in 2021 and annual revenue of about one billion euros.

As an energy-intensive enterprise, Koehler's unit Koehler Renewable Energy invests in renewable energy projects such as wind energy, hydroelectric power, photovoltaics, and biomass. The Koehler Group has committed itself to producing more energy from renewable sources than is required for paper production by 2030.

VALMET

Corporate Communications

For further information, please contact:

Aleksi Salmirinne, Vice President, Energy business unit, Pulp and Energy business line, Valmet, tel. +358 40 715 5714

Valmet is a leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. With our automation systems and flow control solutions we serve an even wider base of process industries. Our 17,500 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward  every day.

The company has over 220 years of industrial history and a strong track record in continuous improvement and renewal. In 2022, a major milestone was achieved when the flow control company Neles was merged into Valmet. The combined company's net sales in 2021 were approximately EUR 4.5 billion based on the respective company figures.

Valmet's shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki and the head office is in Espoo, Finland.

Follow us on valmet.com | Twitter | Twitter (IR) | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram |

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SOURCE Valmet Oyj
BANGALORE, India, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a recent case, Mr. Samson Muanza from Malawi who had plasmacytoma and history of total and progressive paralysis for a year, underwent successful surgery under Dr. Vidhyadhara S, HOD & Consultant - Spine Surgery, Spine Care, Manipal Hospitals, India to decompress and fuse the upper thoracic spine.

Manipal Hospitals helps a Malawian to get back on his own feet

Dr. Vidhyadhara evaluated that due to the delay in receiving treatment, the pathological fracture at the T3 vertebra revealed a possibility of less than one percent recovery rate from paralysis. As Mr. Samson Muanza's spinal compression went untreated for more than three years, he was compelled to use a wheelchair for almost eight months and his daily activities were impacted.

Then, a co-worker who had successfully received treatment for a brain tumour at Manipal Hospitals in Bangalore recommended him to the facility. Post consultation and receiving assistance from the hospital and prompt medical care, Mr. Samson Muanza is doing well and engaging activities on his own.

Dr. VADHIRAJA B M , HOD & Consultant  Radiation Oncology , Manipal Hospitals, India who operated on the patient said, "The patient was advised to undergo a biopsy procedure, radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery to decompress and fuse the upper thoracic spine. He recovered gradually but progressively as a result, was able to walk with a stick, and showed mobility and urine control following the procedure. Following the necessary post-operative care at Manipal Hospitals in Bangalore, India, the patient is doing exceptionally well.

The hero from Malawi, Mr. Samson Muanza said, "After suffering from paralysis for a long time, I can finally walk after having the procedure done properly. Not only was the operation well done, but the pre- and post-operative treatment was also exceptionally good, which greatly reduced my discomfort. The hospital directed me to doctors from various departments who advised me on other co-existing health complications. Highly impressed by the hospital's level of service, I express my sincere gratitude to Manipal Hospitals, Bangalore for providing me with a memorable experience."

About Manipal Hospitals

As a pioneer in healthcare, Manipal Hospitals is India's second-largest multi-specialty healthcare provider treating over 4 million patients annually. With its recent acquisition of a 100% stake in Columbia Asia Hospitals in India, the integrated organization today has an enhanced pan-India footprint with 27 hospitals across 14 cities with 7,000+ beds with a talented pool of 4,000+ doctors and 10,000+ employees. Its focus is to develop an affordable, high-quality healthcare framework through its multi-specialty and tertiary care delivery spectrum and further extend it to out-of-hospital care. Manipal Hospitals provides comprehensive curative and preventive care for a multitude of patients from around the globe.

For more information, please contact Manipal Hospitals: Email: [email protected], Phone: +91-9606048970, or visit: www.manipalhospitalsglobal.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941221/Samson_Muanza.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941277/Manipal_Hospital_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Manipal Hospitals
12 Estonian companies extended collaboration opportunities.

Estonia's latest innovative technologies and products were highlighted.

A number of the companies are nominated for awards at the 2022 Go Global Awards.

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trade Estonia recently highlighted and showcased the latest future-oriented solutions from 12 Estonian companies during a networking event that took place on 13 October, where Trade Estonia representatives from 12 companies expanded their networks and formed collaborations with a number of stakeholders to further empower the UAE and the businesses operating within it.

Trade Estonia broadens horizons of AI and machine learning in UAE during networking event

Attending the event were Jaan Reinhold, Ambassador of Estonia to the UAE; Salem AlShamsi, co-chairman of UAE-Estonia Business Council; HE Michael Waechter, International Trade Council Chairperson for UAE; and Anett Numa, cybersecurity advisor  Estonian Ministry of Defence.

The companies opened doors of collaboration across multiple sectors, emphasising Internet of Things innovations, digital and security solutions, and explorations in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Many of those companies already have a presence or are operating in the UAE, empowering their regional presence, including:

1oT : the only telecom-independent global connectivity provider for IoT with its eSIM infrastructure, which highlighted to visitors and investors its comprehensive know-how on IoT connectivity.

: the only telecom-independent global connectivity provider for IoT with its eSIM infrastructure, which highlighted to visitors and investors its comprehensive know-how on IoT connectivity. CompuCash: boasts 30 years' experience in point-of-sale systems and showcased its intuitive and highly functional retail POS & ERP solutions that simplify customers' workflows and increase business revenue.

boasts 30 years' experience in point-of-sale systems and showcased its intuitive and highly functional retail POS & ERP solutions that simplify customers' workflows and increase business revenue. Rethink: Helps organisations achieve sustainable business growth and showcased its expertise in strategic design, change management, user-driven innovation, and digitalisation.

Helps organisations achieve sustainable business growth and showcased its expertise in strategic design, change management, user-driven innovation, and digitalisation. Nortal: has an office in Dubai and is a trusted strategic partner for healthcare institutions, governments, leading businesses, and Fortune 500 companies that helps shape a better future through digital transformation.

has an office in and is a trusted strategic partner for healthcare institutions, governments, leading businesses, and Fortune 500 companies that helps shape a better future through digital transformation. MindTitan: providing turnkey AI solutions to fully develop an ML project without the need to hire an in-house team.

A number of the 12 companies are also nominated for awards at the Go Global Awards, an International Trade Council event that celebrates the companies that are driving the economy forward through their innovations, technologies and strategies. The International Trade Council is an internationally-renowned, non-profit organisation that provides support for organisations across a range of sectors and sizes through market research, mediation, new market opening services, peer-to-peer mentoring programs, ongoing education programs, trade missions and the Council's trade and innovation forums.

Trade Estonia is a source of smart products and services that sets out to connect the world with leading Estonian companies. Estonia offers highly skilled professionals providing flexible and fast solutions at reasonable prices, employing innovative technologies and clean raw materials and investing in sustainability.

Estonia is hailed as the world's most advanced digital society, and the innovative mindset is also evident in the services and solutions that were presented at GITEX. It is the first country to offer e-Residency, a government-issued digital identity and status that provides access to Estonia's transparent business environment: a new digital nation for the world. E-resident entrepreneurs from all over the world can start an EU-based company and manage their businesses from anywhere, entirely online. In 2022, an Estonian e-resident broke the world record for the fastest company incorporation ever in a time of 15 minutes and 33 seconds.

Estonia is the world's first country to function as a digital service, outperforming all other countries and scoring highly on cloud usage, remote working, employment of ICT specialists, and more.

Contact:

Reem Masswadeh

M: +971 (05)0 583 9330

E: [email protected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1933444/Trade_Estonia_UAE_Event.jpg

SOURCE e-Estonia
The two tech companies join forces to equip life insurers with the tools needed to elevate the beneficiary experience.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Empathy , a platform helping families navigate the emotional and logistical challenges of loss, today announced a partnership with Benekiva , a SaaS company whose platform is delivering next-generation claims, exceptional servicing, and asset retention solutions to help claimants become clients. Together, the two companies will equip life insurance carriers with the technologies and services needed to ensure beneficiaries receive the comprehensive support they deserve.

Beneficiaries face logistical difficulties, bureaucratic nightmares, and emotional struggles after losing a loved one. On average, families spend 13 months after their loved one's death completing necessary tasks, or 20 months if the estate must go through the entire probate process. While payouts provided by life insurers are instrumental in softening the financial blow, families are in dire need of additional resources to navigate the administrative and psychological hurdles.

Empathy and Benekiva provide unique solutions for insurance companies seeking to better support their beneficiaries. Benekiva's claims platform smooths the traditionally slow claims process, providing consumers with user-friendly, modern interfaces to receive their benefit, anywhere, anytime, and from any device. Empathy extends that support for beneficiaries past the claims process, helping families wind down affairs with full administrative assistance, such as help with funeral planning, navigating probate, and closing accounts, as well as emotional support, like on-demand grief counseling and guidance for returning to work.

"The true financial and mental costs of loss have for too long been insufficiently addressed by existing systems, and we can do more as a society to change that," said Ron Gura, Co-Founder & CEO of Empathy. "Like Empathy, Benekiva is an innovative tech company striving to provide insurers with the services needed to smooth age-old processes and make them more consumer friendly. By working with both of us, insurance carriers will have all of the tools they need to elevate the beneficiary experience beyond a financial payout."

"We're proud to partner with a top-notch service provider like Empathy, a company that shares our commitment and goals," said Brent Williams, Founder, CEO & President of Benekiva. "Benekiva is on a mission to create the claims platform of choice for insurance companies with a beneficiary-first mindset, elevating the claims experience for all involved. Our technology and configurable platform enables claimants to regain a sense of control so simple claims are paid in days, not weeks. We share Empathy's goal of meeting people where they are so they can focus on what's really important."

About Empathy

Empathy's mission is to help families deal with loss, incorporating both emotional and logistical support for the families in their time of need. Powered by technology and driven by purpose, the award-winning Empathy platform simplifies and streamlines end-of-life bureaucracy with personalized plans and grief support. Headquartered in New York, Empathy partners with organizations across industries, including Fortune 100 companies, HR benefit providers, insurers, hospice care, and more, to reach as many bereaved families as possible in their time of need. To learn more visit us at empathy.com .

About Benekiva

Benekiva's SaaS platform was built with a beneficiary-first mindset. Today it facilitates anywhere, anytime, any device accessibility for EVERYONE involved in the claims and servicing process. Benekiva's configurable platform gives claimants, policyholders, associates, and agents access to all things "claims- or policy-related" through an "omni-channel" approach, while giving carriers the ability to process claims around the clock.

Benekiva is the only technology solution that delivers straight-through, next-generation claims and policy servicing transformations, with asset retention enablement. And because integrating with Benekiva doesn't require custom code, carriers can implement quickly and manage ongoing updates with minimal need for IT resources. With Benekiva technologies, insurers create operational efficiencies and reduce expenses, so funds and talent are allocated to growth projects. The company is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, with a satellite division in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. www.benekiva.com

Empathy Media Contact

Garrett Krivicich

[email protected]

+1 786 233 7684

Benekiva Media Contact

Maura Gilson O'Donnell

Director of Marketing

[email protected]

+1 203-887-1692

SOURCE Empathy
Researchers from Korea develop a new image retrieval system using deep learning algorithms

GWANGJU, South Korea, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With the amount of information on the internet increasing by the minute, retrieving data from it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems are capable of retrieving desired images based on the user's input from an extensive database. These systems are used in e-commerce, face recognition, medical applications, and computer vision. There are two ways in which CBIR systems worktext-based and image-based. One of the ways in which CBIR gets a boost is by using deep learning (DL) algorithms. DL algorithms enable the use of multi-modal feature extraction, meaning that both image and text features can be used to retrieve the desired image. Even though scientists have tried to develop multi-modal feature extraction, it remains an open problem.

Researchers from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea, have developed a new image retrieval system called DenseBert4Ret, which uses deep learning for image and text feature extraction from a dual-mode input query, with potential applications in e-commerce, computer vision, and medicine.

To this end, researchers from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology have developed DenseBert4Ret, an image retrieval system using DL algorithms. The study, led by Prof. Moongu Jeon and Ph.D. student Zafran Khan, was made available online on September 14, 2022 and published in Volume 612 of Information Sciences. "In our day-to-day lives, we often scour the internet to look for things such as clothes, research papers, news article, etc. When these queries come into our mind, they can be in the form of both images and textual descriptions. Moreover, at times we may wish to amend our visual perceptions through textual descriptions. Thus, retrieval systems should also accept queries as both texts and images," says Prof. Jeon, explaining the team's motivation behind the study.

The proposed model had both image and text as the input query. For extracting the image features from the input, the team used a deep neural network model known as DenseNet-121. This architecture allowed for the maximum flow of information from the input to the output layer and needed tuning of very few parameters during training. DenseNet-121 was combined with the bidirectional encoder representation from transformer (BERT) architecture for extracting semantic and contextual features from the text input. The combination of these two architectures reduced training time and computational requirements and formed the proposed model, DenseBert4Ret.

The team then used Fashion200k, MIT-states, and FashionIQ, three real-world datasets, to train and compare the proposed system's performance against the state-of-the-art systems. They found that DenseBert4Ret showed no loss during image feature extraction and outperformed the state-of-the-art models. The proposed model successfully catered for multi-modalities that were given as the input with the multi-layer perceptron and triple loss function helping to learn the joint features.

"Our model can be used anywhere where there is an online inventory and images need to be retrieved. Additionally, the user can make changes to the query image and retrieve the amended image from the inventory," concludes Prof. Jeon.

Here's hoping to see the DenseBert4Ret system in application in our everyday-use search engines soon!

Reference

Title of original paper: DenseBert4Ret: Deep bi-modal for image retrieval

Journal: Information Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2022.08.119

Affiliations:

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Pakistan Department of Computer Engineering, Dankook University

*Corresponding author's email: [email protected]

About the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Website: http://www.gist.ac.kr/

Contact:

Chang Sung Kang

82 62 715 6253

[email protected]

SOURCE Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)
LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finance and investment professionals have a critical role to play in helping organisations adapt as they adjust their activities and strategies to build a more sustainable future. ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, have worked together to respond to the demand for skills and training in this fast-developing area and help drive it forward.

As part of a partnership that combines their deep expertise across accountancy and investment, ACCA and CFA Institute have launched a new Climate Finance course designed by experts from both bodies.

The launch comes as this year's COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference highlights the urgency of the climate crisis.

ACCA chief executive, Helen Brand, said:

"This Climate Finance course is unique in its holistic approach, looking at the perspectives of both issuers and of investors. And so we're confident that learners will gain a strong practical understanding of climate implications to apply to their day-to-day work. Both accountancy and investment professionals have a vital role to play in the fight against climate change and creating a better world, so we're delighted to be working with CFA Institute on this."

CFA Institute and president and chief executive, Margaret Franklin, CFA, commented:

"Together with ACCA, we at CFA Institute are pleased to leverage our 75-year history of creating educational content to launch this unique and interactive learning experience for individuals wishing to develop their understanding of the climate aspects of ESG in an investment context. Concerns over greenwashing and a demand for products and skills to support sustainable investing have created a real need for finance professionals to develop a deeper understanding of how these factors are impacting the industry, clients, and the world at large."

About our Climate Finance course:

This course provides an introduction to climate change and its related economic and environmental impacts, as well as climate solutions.

It covers climate change, carbon pricing, sustainable business models, and climate risk and opportunities in the context of business as well as portfolio construction and investment analysis.

This course is unique in its holistic approach because it presents the topic from the perspectives of both issuers and investors, and hence is suitable for diverse audiences.

It is a practical and applied digital course to support business, finance and accounting professionals. It is also useful for individuals seeking practical guidance on climate change and related finance matters.

The course can be used as verifiable CPD and requires around 10 hours of self-paced study.

Find out more at www.accaglobal.com/climatefinance and https://store.cfainstitute.org/climate-finance/

ACCA and CFA Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2018 and work together on areas of common interest, such as research, thought leadership and learning opportunities, particularly on issues such as ESG, sustainability and ethics.

For media enquiries, contact:

ACCA News Room

E: [email protected]

Twitter: @ACCANews

accaglobal.com

CFA Institute Corporate Communications

E: [email protected]

About ACCA

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants.

We're a thriving global community of 241,000 members and 542,000 future members based in 178 countries and regions, who work across a wide range of sectors and industries. We uphold the highest professional and ethical values.

We offer everyone everywhere the opportunity to experience a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management. Our qualifications and learning opportunities develop strategic business leaders, forward-thinking professionals with the financial, business and digital expertise essential for the creation of sustainable organisations and flourishing societies.

Since 1904, being a force for public good has been embedded in our purpose. In December 2020, we made commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals which we are measuring and will report on in our annual integrated report.

We believe that accountancy is a cornerstone profession of society and is vital helping economies, organisations and individuals to grow and prosper. It does this by creating robust trusted financial and business management, combating corruption, ensuring organisations are managed ethically, driving sustainability, and providing rewarding career opportunities.

And through our cutting-edge research, we lead the profession by answering today's questions and preparing for the future. We're a not-for-profit organisation. Find out more at accaglobal.com and discover our full range of sustainability resources at our dedicated sustainability hub.

About CFA Institute

CFA Institute is the global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials. The organization is a champion of ethical behavior in investment markets and a respected source of knowledge in the global financial community. Our aim is to create an environment where investors' interests come first, markets function at their best, and economics grow. There are more than 190,000 CFA charterholders worldwide in more than 160 markets. CFA Institute has nine offices worldwide and 160 local societies. For more information, visit www.cfainstitute.org or follow us on Linkedin and Twitter at @CFAInstitute.

SOURCE CFA Institute
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Aircraft De-Icing Market share is set to increase by USD 1038.55 million from 2022 to 2027. However, the market's growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 5.55% as per the latest market forecast report by Technavio. The market will also record a 4.6% Y-O-Y growth Rate during the forecast period.

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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Aircraft De-Icing Market 2023-2027

Global Aircraft De-Icing Market - Parent Market Analysis

Technavio categorizes the global aircraft de-icing market as a part of the global aerospace and defense market, within the global capital goods market. The parent market, global aerospace, and defense market cover products and companies engaged in the production of aerial platforms used under commercial and general aviation, defense platforms used under naval, land, and air domains, arms, and ammunition, defense electronics, defense logistics equipment, and space platforms, equipment, and launch vehicles. The aerospace and defense market also encompasses maintenance, overhaul, and repair (MRO) activities related to commercial and general aviation, and defense sectors.

Technavio calculates the global capital goods market size based on the combined revenue generated by the manufacturers/providers for industries such as aerospace and defense, building, construction and engineering, electrical equipment, industrial conglomerates, machinery, trading companies, and distributors.

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Global Aircraft De-Icing Market Characteristics with Five Forces

The Global Aircraft De-Icing Market is fragmented and the five forces analysis by Technavio gives the accurate vision 

Bargaining Power of Buyers

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Global Aircraft De-Icing Market  Customer Landscape

The disruption threats are strategic, and operational risks for suppliers have been mapped based on their negative business impact and probability of occurrence.

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Global Aircraft De-Icing 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 Global Aircraft De-Icing Market as per geography is categorized into North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. The report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all regions to the growth of the Global Aircraft De-Icing Market size and actionable market understandings.

Regional Highlights:

North America is the fastest-growing region in the global Aircraft De-Icing Market compared to other regions. 55% growth will originate from North America . With the existence of top airline companies, aircraft manufacturers, and producers of aviation components, the market in North America is mature. In North America , there is a need for aircraft, aviation de-icing equipment, and fluid manufacturing activities, which is supported by the presence of numerous important firms from across the aircraft manufacturing supply chain.

Type Segment Overview

The Global Aircraft De-Icing Market as per End-User segmentation is categorized into Commercial and Others.

Revenue Generating Segment - De-icing is the crucial process of clearing snow, ice, or frost from airplanes using de-icing agents like acetate- and formate-based de-icers. The majority of commercial airplanes are built to fly with clean surfaces, therefore an accumulation of ice on the outside of the aircraft can disrupt airflow and prevent a safe takeoff. De-icing is therefore a crucial step for commercial aircraft before takeoff.

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Global Aircraft De-Icing Market  Market Dynamics

Major Driver Boosting the Market

A significant element fueling the expansion of the worldwide aircraft de-icing industry is the increasing purchase of new aircraft. Aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are investing in capacity expansion due to increased demand for aircraft, particularly in APAC. To enhance their local and regional client bases, Boeing and Airbus have both been growing their respective manufacturing and assembly facilities in China .

. With the anticipated rise in the purchase of new aircraft, there will be a similar rise in the need for aviation de-icing fluids and equipment. Therefore, de-icing and anti-icing fluids are sprayed on the aircraft to avoid the formation of ice and the resultant drag caused on the aircraft. So, throughout the forecast period, the rising demand for commercial aircraft is anticipated to drive the expansion of the global aircraft de-icing market.

Major trends influencing the growth of glamping

The expansion of the worldwide aircraft de-icing market will be fueled by the growing emphasis on developing centralized de-icing facilities (CDFs). The commercial airline and airport business models have seen a significant shift since 2000, which has contributed to the global aviation industry's explosive growth. Therefore, to manage the complex ecology of aviation operations, airline operators and airport authorities are utilizing new and enhanced methods.

A shared, agile infrastructure has been established by several commercial airline operators, enabling rapid information sharing among numerous parties. This very efficient airport infrastructure approach gives airport authorities and airline operators access to a converged network architecture, which speeds up turnaround for airlines and improves passenger satisfaction.

Major Challenges interrupting the market growth

The expansion of the worldwide airplane deicing market is significantly hampered by the operational difficulties associated with de-icing fluids. The airline sector, government-run aviation authorities, and vendors are working together to produce environmentally friendly aircraft de-icing fluids that will not jeopardize aircraft and passenger safety.

However, the deteriorating qualities of de-icing solutions due to improper storage have an impact on their use during severe snowfall. Larger airplanes may hold thousands of gallons of diluted de-icing fluid, but most of this fluid pours off the aircraft and onto the ground, necessitating effective de-icing fluid handling and storage.

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CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2023-2027

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The Amphibious Vehicle Market is projected to grow by USD 1.5 billion with a CAGR of 8.75% during the forecast period 2021 to 2026. The report extensively covers the amphibious vehicle market segmentation by end-user (defense and commercial) and geography ( North America , APAC, Europe , the Middle East and Africa , and South America ).

is projected to grow by with a during the forecast period 2021 to 2026. The report extensively covers the amphibious vehicle market segmentation by end-user (defense and commercial) and geography ( , APAC, , the and , and ). The Satellite Manufacturing and Launch Market are projected to grow by USD 3.91 billion with a CAGR of 3.4% during the forecast period 2021 to 2026. The report extensively covers the satellite manufacturing and launch market segmentation by application (communication satellite, military surveillance, earth observation satellite, navigation satellite, and others), product (satellite launch and launch services), and geography ( North America , Europe , APAC, South America , and the Middle East and Africa ).

Aircraft De-Icing Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2022 Historical year 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.55% Market growth 2023-2027 $1038.55 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.6 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution North America at 55% Key consumer countries US, Canada, UK, Germany, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive Strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Accessible Technologies Inc., Aero Sense, BASF SE, Clariant AG, Dow Inc., General Atomics, Global Ground Support LLC, Inland Technologies, John Bean Technologies Corp., Kilfrost Group Plc, LNT Solutions Ltd., Mallaghan GA Inc., Proviron Industries NV, Raytheon Technologies Corp., Shanghai Cartoo Machinery Co. Ltd., Textron Inc., Tronair Inc., Vestergaard Co., Vizag Chemical International, and Weihai Guangtai Airport Equipment Co. Ltd Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID -19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, 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 End-user



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 Historic Market Size

4.1 Global aircraft de-icing market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on Global aircraft de-icing market 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.2 Product Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Product Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.3 End-User Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  End-User Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.4 Geography Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 21: Historic Market Size  Geography Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.5 Country Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 22: Historic Market Size  Country Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

5 Five Forces Analysis

5.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 23: Five forces analysis - Comparison between2022 and 2027

5.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 24: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2022 and 2027

5.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 25: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 26: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 27: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 28: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.7 Market condition

Exhibit 29: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2022 and 2027

6 Market Segmentation by End-user

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on End-user - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by End-user

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by End-user



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by End-user

6.3 Commercial - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Commercial - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Commercial - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Commercial - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Commercial - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Market opportunity by End-user

Exhibit 42: Market opportunity by End-user ($ million)

7 Market Segmentation by Product

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 43: Chart on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 44: Data Table on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Product

Exhibit 45: Chart on Comparison by Product



Exhibit 46: Data Table on Comparison by Product

7.3 De-icing systems - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 47: Chart on De-icing systems - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 48: Data Table on De-icing systems - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 49: Chart on De-icing systems - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 50: Data Table on De-icing systems - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Deicer truck - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 51: Chart on Deicer truck - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 52: Data Table on Deicer truck - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 53: Chart on Deicer truck - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 54: Data Table on Deicer truck - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 De-icing chemicals and fluids - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 55: Chart on De-icing chemicals and fluids - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 56: Data Table on De-icing chemicals and fluids - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 57: Chart on De-icing chemicals and fluids - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 58: Data Table on De-icing chemicals and fluids - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.6 Market opportunity by Product

Exhibit 59: Market opportunity by Product ($ million)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 60: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 61: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 62: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 63: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 64: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 65: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 66: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 68: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 69: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 70: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 71: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 72: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 73: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 74: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 75: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 76: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 77: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 78: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 79: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 80: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 81: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 82: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 83: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 84: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 85: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 86: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 87: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 88: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 89: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 91: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 93: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 94: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 95: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 96: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.11 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 97: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 98: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 99: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 100: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 101: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 103: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 104: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 105: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

10.1 Market drivers

10.2 Market challenges

10.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 106: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Vendor Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 107: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 108: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 109: Impact of key risks on business

12 Vendor Analysis

12.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 110: Vendors covered

12.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 111: Matrix on vendor position and classification

12.3 Accessible Technologies Inc.

Exhibit 112: Accessible Technologies Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 113: Accessible Technologies Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 114: Accessible Technologies Inc. - Key offerings

12.4 Aero Sense

Exhibit 115: Aero Sense - Overview



Exhibit 116: Aero Sense - Product / Service



Exhibit 117: Aero Sense - Key offerings

12.5 BASF SE

Exhibit 118: BASF SE - Overview



Exhibit 119: BASF SE - Business segments



Exhibit 120: BASF SE - Key news



Exhibit 121: BASF SE - Key offerings



Exhibit 122: BASF SE - Segment focus

12.6 Clariant AG

Exhibit 123: Clariant AG - Overview



Exhibit 124: Clariant AG - Business segments



Exhibit 125: Clariant AG - Key news



Exhibit 126: Clariant AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 127: Clariant AG - Segment focus

12.7 Dow Inc.

Exhibit 128: Dow Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 129: Dow Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 130: Dow Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 131: Dow Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 132: Dow Inc. - Segment focus

12.8 General Atomics

Exhibit 133: General Atomics - Overview



Exhibit 134: General Atomics - Product / Service



Exhibit 135: General Atomics - Key offerings

12.9 Global Ground Support LLC

Exhibit 136: Global Ground Support LLC - Overview



Exhibit 137: Global Ground Support LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 138: Global Ground Support LLC - Key offerings

12.10 Inland Technologies

Exhibit 139: Inland Technologies - Overview



Exhibit 140: Inland Technologies - Product / Service



Exhibit 141: Inland Technologies - Key offerings

12.11 John Bean Technologies Corp.

Exhibit 142: John Bean Technologies Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 143: John Bean Technologies Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 144: John Bean Technologies Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 145: John Bean Technologies Corp. - Segment focus

12.12 Kilfrost Group Plc

Exhibit 146: Kilfrost Group Plc - Overview



Exhibit 147: Kilfrost Group Plc - Product / Service



Exhibit 148: Kilfrost Group Plc - Key offerings

12.13 LNT Solutions Ltd.

Exhibit 149: LNT Solutions Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 150: LNT Solutions Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 151: LNT Solutions Ltd. - Key offerings

12.14 Raytheon Technologies Corp.

Exhibit 152: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 153: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 154: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 155: Raytheon Technologies Corp. - Segment focus

12.15 Textron Inc.

Exhibit 156: Textron Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 157: Textron Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 158: Textron Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 159: Textron Inc. - Segment focus

12.16 Tronair Inc.

Exhibit 160: Tronair Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 161: Tronair Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 162: Tronair Inc. - Key offerings

12.17 Vestergaard Co.

Exhibit 163: Vestergaard Co. - Overview



Exhibit 164: Vestergaard Co. - Product / Service



Exhibit 165: Vestergaard Co. - Key news



Exhibit 166: Vestergaard Co. - Key offerings

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 167: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 168: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 169: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 170: Research methodology



Exhibit 171: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 172: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 173: 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.

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has sent its second annual delegation of architects to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt from Nov. 6-Nov. 18.

AIA will continue its work leading the building sector in the global effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Architects work at the leading edge of a $1.6 trillion U.S. construction industry. More importantly, however, AIA continues to prioritize and advocate for a global focus on the needs of our planet and our communities.

AIA's delegation to COP27 will work to emphasize the importance of the built environment in three critical areas: benefits and value of design to mitigate and respond to climate change; research and investment; and energy use and performance standards.

AIA's focus at COP27 will be establishing and bolstering partnerships with policymakers and industry partners in support of these three goals and to ensure progress is being made toward zero emissions targets (agreed upon by the U.S. and other governments) to lower global warming to below 2 Celsius. In 2021, AIA was granted nongovernmental organization (NGO) observer status by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and attended COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Official NGO observer status allows AIA delegates access to world leaders attending COP27 and to share their work in the areas of climate and equity to better illustrate how architects can help communities.

"AIA and the profession of architecture are key players in the global effort to reduce and mitigate the effects of climate change," said 2022 President of The American Institute of Architects Dan Hart, FAIA. "To make meaningful progress, we must promote a global exchange of expertise among all parties in the building sector, including national, state, and local governments."

Visit AIA's website to learn more about its efforts at COP27.

About AIA

Founded in 1857, AIA consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through more than 200 international, state, and local chapters, AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing.

AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and business as well as engaging civic and government leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards.

Contact

Matt Tinder

(202) 626 7462

[email protected]

The American Institute of Architects

1735 New York Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20006

(800) 242 3837

aia.org

SOURCE American Institute of Architects
According to CEO Erin Carachilo, "We are thrilled to complete the construction and commence operations of one of the best equipped and designed cannabis growing and extraction facilities across the United States. Our Missouri cultivation facility is well positioned to become a top-quality producer across the state, mirroring our past performances in California and other states we've operated in."

For instance, Calyx Peak, Inc., has leveraged this model in California. "Our Santa Barbara County, California, 235,000 square foot cultivation facility in California has produced the Emerald Cup first place winning cannabis flower every year since 2019, and we expect to bring this level of quality in operations to Missouri," said Carachilo.

"Calyx Peak's Local Cannabis Company award winning flower is positioned to become one of Missouri's most highly sought-after products in the Show Me State" said Co-Founder Howard Keum. Keum added, "The Missouri facility should be able to produce about over 12,500 pounds of high-quality dried flower per year alongside multitude of extracted and manufactured form factors. After delays attributable to construction supply issues, we look forward to becoming Missouri's top producer of fine cannabis."

On November 8, 2022, Missouri voted in favor for the legalization of recreational marijuana for those ages 21 and over. The "Legal Missouri 2022" initiative will allow people with certain categories of non-violent marijuana-related offenses to petition for their release from prison, parole, or probation.

Lee Hoffman, COO and partner of Calyx Peak's Missouri operations, said, "This approval of legalizing the status of recreational marijuana will have a transformative effect on the Missouri cannabis market and our ability to serve the greater population more efficiently. Similar states such as Missouri that have converted from a medical only program to recreational have seen a 3x-5x increase in their state sales."

More information can be found at https://localcannabiscompany.com/ .

ABOUT CALYX PEAK, INC.

Calyx Peak is a multi-state operator in California, Missouri, and Massachusetts. Calyx Peak operates multiple dispensaries and over 200,000 square feet of legally licensed cultivation, extraction, and distribution facilities in America. Calyx Peak continues to grow its brands and operations in its drive to achieve a dominant position in the rapidly evolving cannabis market. For more information, please visit http://calyxpeak.com and https://localcannabiscompany.com/.

SOURCE Calyx Peak, Inc.
Asia Cargo Network (ACN) becomes major investor in MAE Aircraft

with a 49% stake in the business

SINGAPORE, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southeast Asia's leading air cargo charter services provider, the Asia Cargo Network (ACN) group, and Bahrain's MENA Aerospace, announce the signing of a significant partnership and strategic alliance between the two aviation companies, extending ACN's reach into the Middle East, South Asia and Africa as part of its international expansion plans.

ASIA CARGO NETWORK GROUP & MAE AIRCRAFT MANAGEMENT PHOTO NAMES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Montague Choy, Asia Cargo Network, International Liaison & Legal Director; Iman Marco, MAE Aircraft Management, Managing Director Designate; Marco Isaak, Asia Cargo Network Singapore, Group CEO; Dr Mohammed Juman, MENA Aerospace Enterprises, Managing Director; Shaikh Ahmed bin Ali bin Abdalla Alkhalifa, MENA Aerospace Enterprises, Chairman; Tawfiq Alzamil, MENA Aerospace Enterprises, Deputy Chairman

The pivotal cargo partnership agreement was signed at the Bahrain International Airshow, by ACN Group CEO, Marco Isaak and Founder and Managing Director of MENA Aerospace, Dr Mohammed Juman. Under the agreement, ACN plans to base six of its cargo planes in Bahrain and the GCC where it will serve the market in the MENA region as well as cargo routes into and from it.

ACN will be a shareholder with a 49% stake in MAE Aircraft Management WLL with this significant FDI investment into Bahrain. The investment consists of capital, asset deployment, management services and expertise. The partnership facilitates expansion and growing global reach of cargo services beyond Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

ACN's Group CEO Marco Isaak remarked, "We're incredibly proud of this historic milestone for Asia Cargo Network as we expand our operations into the MENA region. Our partnership with MAE is a testament to our commitment to excellence, and we look forward to cementing our reputation as a strong global player in the industry."

The deployment shall be over the next 18 months with the first of its six aircraft to include a B737-800F and B767-300F due to arrive within the next two months, and to begin operations immediately. ACN's aircrafts and MEA's existing Boeing 737-300 converted freighter expand the operational fleet within the region.

Commenting on the strategic alliance, Dr Juman said, "As part of our growth plan, over the past couple of years we looked at and analysed the regional markets to see where the growth is and where the gates are to the global markets. The growth and potential we saw is mainly in the GCC area, Africa and Southeast Asia. Our thought process was to try to link and serve these markets. ACN as the leading freight cargo operator in Southeast Asia was identified as the perfect partner for MAE to expand our services in these markets. We are certain that this partnership will prove fruitful to both companies and the markets that we serve."

The partnership operations will be under the MENA Cargo brand, the freight cargo subsidiary of MAE. The operations will be fully managed by ACN moving forward as it holds an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) in Bahrain which allows for the expansion of routes to the MENA region. ACN shall provide all the necessary support for the operational and strategic growth of the airline in line with its SEA plans.

ACN is Southeast Asia's leading air cargo charter services provider with a growing regional and international presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and with this strategic alliance, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. As the parent company to three regional airlines including Asia Cargo Airlines, World Cargo Airlines and RGA Airlines, the Group has garnered multiple awards including Changi Airport's commendation as a 'Top Cargo Operator', and more recently Payload Asia's 'Rising Cargo Carrier of the Year'.

MENA Cargo was established in 2020 and was awarded an AOC by Bahrain's Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) department in 2021. Bahrain-based MENA Cargo provides scheduled as well as charter air cargo services across underserved markets in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

With Bahrain's tactical location at the crossroads of growing markets on three continents, the ACN-MEA strategic partnership positively contributes to strengthening the kingdom's positioning as a global logistics nexus.

SOURCE Asia Cargo Network
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Avion Solutions is the proud recipient of the 2022 Small Business Award for Government Contracting  Technology. The award was announced at a black-tie gala hosted by the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce at the Von Braun Center on Tuesday, November 1st. According to Chamber remarks, more than 400 companies applied to be considered for the Small Business of the Year Award, which is given to a single winner in each of eleven categories.

Avion Solutions leadership team was delighted to accept the Small Business of the Year Award for Government Contracting - Technology. From left to right: David French, Chad Donald, Evan Wagner, Brian Wylie, and Ginny Wagner.

"We are truly honored to be recognized with this award. The field of contenders tonight was full of excellent companies, all providing outstanding support to the Government, and inspiring each other to do more and be better each day," said Chad Donald, President and CEO of Avion Solutions.

As an industry leader in in aerospace engineering, airworthiness, logistics, integrated project support, and model-based systems engineering, Avion Solutions strives to combine knowledge, experience, and deep commitment to serve its most important customerthe Warfighter. Avion Solutions has been awarded the prestigious Small Business of the Year award from the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce three times  in 2011, 2016, and 2022.

SOURCE Avion Solutions Inc.
Supporting our commitment to environmental, social and governance leadership

MONTREAL, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Bell Canada (Bell) announced today that it has amended its existing $3.5 billion committed credit facilities to convert them to a sustainability-linked loan (SLL). The SLL underscores Bell's continued commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership and our purpose to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world. The SLL follows the announcement of BCE's Sustainable Financing Framework in April 2021 and Bell's inaugural $500 million Sustainability Bond offering in May 2021 with proceeds allocated to eligible green and social investments.

The amendment introduces an annual pricing adjustment that reduces or increases the borrowing cost based on Bell's performance of two key annual sustainability performance targets (SPTs) related to the following Bell science-based greenhouse gas (GHG) targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative1 (SBTi):

Reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 57% by 2030 from a 2020 base year; and

Reaching 64% of our suppliers by spend, covering purchased goods and services, having science-based targets by 2026.

Bell selected these two targets as they collectively cover the vast majority of Bell's total carbon footprint. The annual SPTs support our commitment to meeting our science-based targets for GHG emissions reduction and supplier engagement by tying performance with our cost of financing.

"We are pleased to announce the closing of this Sustainability-Linked Loan. The SLL aligns with our ESG strategy and performance to make a positive difference through our Bell for Better investments supporting a more sustainable and prosperous future."

- Glen LeBlanc, Chief Financial Officer and Vice Chair, Atlantic Canada

Bell's environmental leadership includes reducing environmental impacts with initiatives throughout our value chain. Our commitment to energy management and reducing our carbon footprint is in line with our strategic imperative to engage and invest in our people and create a sustainable future.

Bell's ESG strategy complements our financial performance by working at the intersection of environmental, economic and social systems, with the objective to create long-term value for the company and for society.

TD Securities (TD) acted as the Sustainability Structuring Agent for the SLL.

____________________________________ 1 Our science-based targets may need to be adjusted in the future because the SBTi requires that targets be recalculated (following the most recent applicable SBTi criteria and recommendations) at a minimum every five years, or more often if significant changes occur (e.g. business acquisitions/divestitures).

Environmental, social and governance performance

Bell's ESG objectives create social and environmental benefits by helping to build a better world, better communities and a better workplace. Our approach focuses on enhancing our environmental leadership, creating a workplace focused on diversity, equality and inclusion, and employee well-being, leading in mental health through Bell Let's Talk and demonstrating best-in-class governance.

In 2022, Bell maintained ISO 50001 certification of its energy management system for a third consecutive year, after becoming the first communications company in North America to achieve that designation for an Energy Management System and was named the inaugural Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reductions Champion by Clean50 , a national sustainability organization. We announced our goal to have carbon neutral operations starting in 2025 and have been recognized as one of Canada's Greenest Employers for the sixth consecutive year.

Information about Bell's environmental initiatives and the benefits we deliver to our customers, team and communities, including our Bell for Bette r investments in mental health, environmental and workplace leadership, is available in our Corporate Responsibility Report. Bell's ESG objectives are also featured in the BCE 2021 Annual Report to shareholders, available at BCE.ca.

A copy of BCE's Sustainable Financing Framework and further information on our sustainability strategy can be found at BCE.ca.

About Bell

Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing advanced broadband wireless, TV, Internet, media and business communication services throughout the country. Founded in Montreal in 1880, Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca or BCE.ca .

Through Bell for Better , we are investing to create a better today and a better tomorrow by supporting the social and economic prosperity of our communities with a commitment to the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. This includes the Bell Let's Talk initiative, which promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let's Talk Day and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research and workplace leadership initiatives throughout the country. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk .

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this news release are forward-looking statements, including statements relating to our ESG objectives and commitments including, without limitation, our goal to achieve carbon neutral operations in 2025 and to achieve our science-based targets and annual SPTs for GHG emissions reduction and supplier engagement, our business objectives, plans and strategic priorities, and other statements that are not historical facts. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of applicable Canadian securities laws and of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on several assumptions which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events, and we caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release describe our expectations at the date of this news release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Our ESG objectives and commitments, and the benefits expected to result therefrom, are subject to risks and, accordingly, there can be no assurance that our ESG objectives and commitments will be completed or that the benefits expected to result therefrom will be realized. In addition, forward-looking statements for periods beyond 2022 involve longer-term assumptions and estimates than forward-looking statements for 2022 and are consequently subject to greater uncertainty. In particular, our GHG emissions reduction targets are based on a number of assumptions including, without limitation, the following principal assumptions: implementation of various corporate and business initiatives to reduce our electricity and fuel consumption, as well as reduce other direct and indirect GHG emissions enablers; no new corporate initiatives, business acquisitions or technologies that would materially increase our anticipated levels of GHG emissions; our ability to purchase sufficient credible carbon credits and renewable energy certificates to offset or further reduce our GHG emissions, if and when required; no negative impact on the calculation of our GHG emissions from refinements in or modifications to international standards or the methodology we use for the calculation of such GHG emissions; no required changes to our science-based targets pursuant to the Science Based Targets initiative methodology that would make the achievement of our updated science-based targets more onerous; and sufficient supplier engagement and collaboration in setting their own science-based targets and sufficient collaboration with partners in reducing their own GHG emissions. For additional information on assumptions and risks underlying certain of our forward-looking statements made in this news release, please consult BCE Inc.'s (BCE) 2021 Annual MD&A dated March 3, 2022, BCE's 2022 First Quarter MD&A dated May 4, 2022, BCE's 2022 Second Quarter MD&A dated August 3, 2022, BCE's 2022 Third Quarter MD&A dated November 2, 2022, and BCE's news release dated November 3, 2022 announcing its financial results for the third quarter of 2022, filed by BCE with the Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities (available at Sedar.com) and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (available at SEC.gov). These documents are also available at BCE.ca.

SOURCE Bell Canada
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, the Bezos Earth Fund, and The Rockefeller Foundation announced a process to design an Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) with the potential to catalyze private capital for the clean energy transition in emerging and developing economies.

The three partners were joined at the announcement in the U.S. pavilion at COP27 by SEforALL, EDF, PepsiCo, Microsoft, and Nigeria. Others including RMI, C2ES, CPI, Global Optimism, and Chile offered support.

Photo provided by The Rockefeller Foundation

According to the IEA, the world needs $4.2 trillion dollars in clean energy investment, half of which is required in developing and emerging economies. The process aims to design a new type of high-quality carbon credit framed by robust guardrails to channel much needed private sector investment to phase out fossil fuels and accelerate renewable energy.

"If we're going to phase out fossil fuels in our energy systems, we believe voluntary carbon markets have a role to play," said Andrew Steer, President of the Bezos Earth Fund. "They must have high standards on both the supply side and demand side with appropriate environmental and social safeguards. The purpose of the proposed scheme is precisely to design and agree to such standards, then to move to implementation. The need is urgent, and we must bring people together to move the needle forward."

Burning fossil fuels for power generation in emerging and developing economies accounted for 9.8 billion tons of CO 2 emissions in 2020, double the annual emissions of the United States. Without sufficient investment to reduce these emissions, it will be impossible to prevent the worst of the climate crisis. A just energy transition offers the opportunity to connect billions of people to reliable, renewable electricity, many for the first time.

"Humanity is already being battered by climate changeat 3 degrees of warming, life for too many people will be not only hot but harsher, poorer and more fragile," said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. "To avoid that fate, the world must come together in new ways and behind new innovations like the ETA, which could, for the first time, unlock the true potential of carbon markets to scale resources needed for clean energy transitions. Our teams will work in the year ahead to answer the hard questions required to reimagine what's possible."

Over the next year, the Bezos Earth Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. State Department will engage with developing countries, political and thought leaders, climate champions, and the world's foremost experts to design the ETA. The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), the Voluntary Carbon Markets Initiative (VCMI), the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), and WRI for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol will be consulted to ensure broad alignment with best practice environmental and carbon market standards.

The intent is to gather input and expertise from the people and institutions with the know-how and networks to design an ETA that produces verified greenhouse gas emission reductions which participating jurisdictions will have the option of issuing as marketable carbon credits. The credits could then be purchased by companies, including through advanced purchase agreements, which would create a predictable finance stream to de-risk and leverage other forms of finance. The process will focus on a methodology designed to operate at a broad or jurisdictional scale while steering carbon finance to discrete projects. Five percent of the value of all credits generated through the ETA will be dedicated to international support for adaptation.

Over the next year, the Bezos Earth Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. State Department, and others will seek to address a number of tough issues, including:

A methodology which contains rigorous protocols for crediting and for monitoring, reporting, and verification so that any carbon credits generated are real, additional, and permanent.

Rules and safeguards, which ensure that the use of carbon credits by companies is consistent with a science-aligned net zero pathway. Participating companies will need to achieve deep reductions in their own value chain emissions, with emission reductions generated through the ETA supplementing their internal abatement.

Parameters that maintain integrity while ensuring sufficient supply (i.e. developing country participation) and demand (i.e. company participation).

Guidance for social safeguards, benefit-sharing arrangements and support for job creation and training in participating jurisdictions.

Stringent end-to-end transparency guidelines.

Any revenue eventually raised through the ETA would supplement other sources of finance being mobilized by governments, donors, and multilateral and private financial institutions in support of developing countries' energy transition.

The Bezos Earth Fund and The Rockefeller Foundation will support the necessary logistical and expert support for the design of the ETA. Additional details will be released over the coming months, as the partners seek to finalize the standards. Interested parties should sign up to learn more about the design of the accelerator in the months ahead by emailing [email protected] .

The following have endorsed the ETA:

Barbara Buchner, Global Managing Director of Climate Policy Initiative: "Carbon markets can play an important transition role in neutralizing emissions while helping developing economies fund their net zero goals. CPI supports exploring new types of high-integrity offsets that accelerate action. Amongst those, environmentally robust carbon credits from accelerated retirement of coal power plants could help finance their phase out in a just and equitable way while providing finance for sustainable, net zero alternatives."

Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary UNFCCC, Co-Founder, Global Optimism: "All that matters now is speed and scale. Corporations must urgently reduce emissions in line with a 1.5 degree pathway and they must also be part of providing much needed finance flows to support the energy transition around the world. I hope many take that opportunity."

Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO & Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All: "We can only ensure sustainable energy for all by vastly increasing the private capital necessary to scale promising new renewable technologies. We welcome new innovative approaches like the new Energy Transition Accelerator, which can help unlock the potential of carbon markets for the good of humanity. This work complements well our efforts with the recently launched African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI)."

Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund: "EDF welcomes this promising initiative which can make an important contribution to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy in a way that supports the people most affected by the transition. Using high-quality carbon credits from jurisdictional programs will allow the private sector to provide significant financing to developing countries  which will help them to meet their Paris targets, adapt to a changing climate, and help local communities and workers.

"The Energy Transition Accelerator must be inclusive from the beginning and complementary to other government and private sector support. When it's up and running, it must be governed in a way that respects local differences and development needs. In this way, the ETA will be set up to meet its aim, and to support developing countries' own implementation efforts."

Jon Creyts, CEO, RMI: "We cannot run most coal and gas power plants to the end of their economic life and achieve our climate goals. Status quo financing will not be sufficient. We need to focus on innovative financing that provides emerging economies a way to phase out fossil assets while delivering energy security and economic prosperity for their citizens. We look forward to the Energy Transition Accelerator helping to build momentum for and unlock new breakthrough solutions."

Nat Keohane, President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions: "Speeding the clean energy transition in developing countries, in a way that provides energy access and drives sustainable economic growth while cutting emissions and phasing out unabated fossil fuels, is a paramount priority for the planet. Alongside other vital tools, including scaled-up public finance, the Energy Transition Accelerator can be a powerful accelerant for that transition by catalyzing much-needed investment from the private sector to help countries meet their Paris targets. C2ES looks forward to working with all of the stakeholders involved in the ETA to design a framework that has high integrity: one that ensures that carbon credits are based on jurisdictional-scale emissions reductions that are real, additional, and rigorously measured and verified; that transition plans are inclusive and contribute to just outcomes in the participating jurisdictions; and that credits are used to go beyond ambitious action companies are already taking to reduce emissions in their own operations and supply chains."

His Excellency Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria Vice President: "Nigeria has been leading the effort to realize the potential impact of carbon credits. The government of Nigeria welcomes innovations like the Energy Transition Accelerator and the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) which can help us leverage carbon markets to support millions of jobs and cut billions of carbon emissions."

About the Bezos Earth Fund

The Bezos Earth Fund is Jeff Bezos' $10 billion personal commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs and others to help drive climate and nature solutions. By allocating funds creatively, wisely, and boldly, the Bezos Earth Fund has the potential for transformative influence in this decisive decade. Funds will be fully allocated by 2030  the date by which the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals must be achieved.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We work to promote the well-being of humanity and make opportunity universal and sustainable. For more than 50 years, The Rockefeller Foundation has supported initiatives to protect the planeta legacy that continues with a new commitment centering climate in all of our programmatic, operational, and investment strategies. Our focus is on scaling renewable energy for all, stimulating economic mobility, and ensuring equitable access to health care and nutritious food, through mitigation and adaptation.

SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Polaris Market Research recently published [115+ Pages] research report on "Biologics Contract Development Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Source (Mammalian, Microbial, Others); By Indication; By Product Service; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 - 2030" in its research database.

According to the research report, the global biologics contract development market size & share was valued at USD 5.48 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 13.22 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period.

What is Biologics Contract Development? How Big is Biologics Contract Development Market Size & Share?

Overview

The biologics contract development process provides clients seamless and efficient experience by lowering the cost of research and development. Biologics contract development organizations deliver biological, medical product development, and manufacturing services for pharma companies. Important services provided by these companies involve cell line development (MCB/WCB), upstream/down-stream process development, optimization and scale-up, stability studies and analytical characterization, regulatory guidance and support, structured project management, and process validation.

These services are majorly used by growing pharmaceutical and medical device industries offering services for biologics as well as small molecule drugs. Biologics contract development has become valuable resource for pharmaceutical firms, as they efficiently handle everything from pre-formulation to clinical trials and commercial production. Increasing outsourcing of R&D by pharma and biopharma businesses and growing adoption of new technologies for biological manufacturing are the key factors supporting the biologics contract development market size.

Request Sample Copy of "Biologics Contract Development Market" Research Report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/biologics-contract-development-market/request-for-sample

(The sample of this report is readily available on request. The report sample contains a brief introduction to the research report, Table of Contents, Graphical introduction of regional analysis, Top players in the market with their revenue analysis and our research methodology.)

Our Free Sample Report Includes

Report introduction, overview, and in-depth industry analysis

Breakdown data by regions, type, players, and applications

Competitive landscape and leading competitor market shares

110+ pages research report

Offers chapter-wise instruction on request

Includes market presence across different geographies with share, size, and trends

Updated list of tables and figures

The report covers top players with their business strategies

Factors and fact research methodology

Some of the Top Market Players Are:

Abzena Ltd

AGC Biologics

Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma

Almac

Avid Bioservices Inc

Bionova Scientific Inc

BioXcellence (Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals GmbH)

Curia Global Inc.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies

Genscript

KBI Biopharma

LakePharma

Lonza

STC Biologics

Samsung Biologics

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

WuXi Biologics

To Know More About Addition Information on Key Players, Download a Report PDF Brochure

Growth Driving Factors

Rising adoption of advanced technology, biological manufacturing flourishes, the market growth

Favorable regulatory environment for clinical trials in developing countries is one of the prominent factors driving the biologics contract development market demand. Governments in developing countries coordinate their policies with EMA and FDA standards to accelerate the authorization process and create reliability. This factor fuels the industry's growth. Growing adoption of advanced technology in biological manufacturing also propels industry development.

Furthermore, the escalating number of mergers and partnerships is expected to flourish the market growth. The industry is also booming owing to the growing prevalence of various disorders, including cancer, neurological disorders, and also cardiovascular diseases. In addition, recent research in new and combination therapies for developing biologics is further estimated to boost the biologics contract development market sales over the forecast period.

Directly Purchase a copy of report with TOC @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/checkouts/16581

Recent Developments

In Jan 2022 , Samsung Biologics announced the acquisition of Biogen's 50% stake as a joint venture to strengthen biosimilar development capabilities and future performance in novel drug development.

, Samsung Biologics announced the acquisition of Biogen's 50% stake as a joint venture to strengthen biosimilar development capabilities and future performance in novel drug development. In Oct 2021 , Avid Bioservices announced the expansion into the development and manufacturing of viral vectors for cell and gene therapy.

Segmental Analysis

The mammalian source held the largest market share

Based on source, mammalian source segment accounted for the largest biologics contract development market share and is expected to generate a significant CAGR over the forecast period. This is because using mammalian cells for protein expression provides a major advantage in developing mammalian proteins with accurate post-translational modifications. Most commonly used mammalian cell cultures to manufacture biopharmaceuticals includes Murine myeloma cells, baby hamster kidney (BHK21) cells, and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells.

The process development services segment held the biggest market share

On the basis of product service, the process development services segment led the market and is expected to dominate biologics contract development market forecasts. Biologics process development is defined by two techniques - upstream and downstream process development. Manufactures highly adopt the upstream process development to fulfill the client's requirements.

Request for Discount on this Report Before Purchase @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/biologics-contract-development-market/request-for-discount-pricing

Biologics contract development market: Report Scope

Report Attribute Details Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 13.22 billion Market size value in 2022 USD 5.97 billion Expected CAGR Growth 10.4% from 2022 - 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Year 2022 - 2030 Top Market Players Abzena Ltd, AGC Biologics, Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma, Avid Bioservices, Inc; Bionova Scientific Inc, BioXcellence (Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals GmbH), Curia Global, Inc., Fujiifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Genscript, KBI Biopharma, LakePharma, Lonza, STC Biologics, Samsung Biologics, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., and WuXi Biologics. Segments Covered By Source, By Product Service, By Indication, and By Region Customization Options Customized purchase options are available to meet any research needs. Explore customized purchase options

Geographic Overview

Biologics contract development market in North America is estimated to generate the fastest growth during the forthcoming period

On the basis of geography, North America dominated the market in 2021 owing to the rising strategic collaborations and acquisitions and a surged demand for specialized testing services. Also, increasing clinical trial activity and outsourcing activity are supporting the growth of contract development organizations (CDOs). Growing R&D investments and the local presence of leading players are further anticipated to fuel the regional industry growth.

The market in Asia Pacific is estimated to grow over the study period. This can be attributed to the rising investment by biotechnology companies in the Asia Pacific region due to various regulatory organization modifications to change clinical trial evaluation guidelines according to global requirements.

Browse the Detail Report "Biologics Contract Development Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Source (Mammalian, Microbial, Others); By Indication; By Product Service; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 - 2030" with in-depth TOC: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/biologics-contract-development-market

For Additional Information OR Media Enquiry, Please Mail At: [email protected]

Polaris Market Research has segmented the biologics contract development market report based on source, product service, indication, and region:

By Source Outlook

Microbial

Mammalian

Others

By Product Service Outlook

Cell Line Development

Microbial



Mammalian



Others

Process Development

Upstream



Microbial





Mammalian





Others

Downstream

Impurity, isolation & identification



Physicochemical Characterization



Pharmaceutical Analysis



Others

By Product

MABs



Recombinant Proteins



Others

Others

By Indication Outlook

Oncology

Immunological Disorders

Cardiovascular Disorders

Hematological Disorders

Others

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 )

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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.

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SOURCE Polaris Market Research
Newly launched Public Policy Advisory Board will help portfolio companies in accelerating federal business and forming public-private partnerships

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- C5 Capital, the specialist venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, space, and energy security, appointed Tom Sheehy as Operating Partner. Tom will lead C5's newly launched Public Policy Advisory Board, which will play a valuable role supporting C5 portfolio companies seeking to partner with the public sector.

The advisory board consists of other experts with public policy and government contracting experience, including former members of Congress and State Department officials. Its members' expertise intends to drive meaningful impact in public policy and to aid portfolio companies in their growth in the public sector.

Andre Pienaar, CEO and Founder of C5 Capital, said: "Tom's decades of experience in public policy in Congress is invaluable for the growth of our portfolio companies. Across our strategies in cybersecurity, space and nuclear energy, our portfolio companies are building strong public-private partnerships to bolster national and international security. Legislation and regulation continue to be principal drivers in the growth of the $200B cybersecurity market. Tom's leadership will contribute to our mission to secure the future."

Sheehy brings decades of public policy and communications success, particularly in the foreign policy, national security, and international economics fields. Currently Sheehy is the Co-Founder of Quinella Global, a strategic advisory firm that provides legislative, policy and business intelligence, and communications services. He previously served as Staff Director of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years. The committee has jurisdiction over all elements of U.S. foreign policy and during Sheehy's tenure, it was chaired by Representative Ed Royce. Previously, Sheehy directed the Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade Subcommittee and the Africa Subcommittee. Sheehy has been involved in shaping notable U.S. development initiatives, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act and its several updates, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and most recently, the BUILD Act.

Tom Sheehy, Operating Partner of C5 Capital, said: "C5 Capital has a strong heritage in national security technologies and private sector collaboration with the government has never been more important to secure our future. I'm thrilled to join the C5 Capital team and look forward to supporting founders in public policy engagement as we continue to expand."

Jim Keyes, Executive Chairman of C5 Capital, said: "In addition to his public policy experience, Tom brings a wealth of communications expertise to amplify the cybersecurity, space and energy innovations of our portfolio company founders. Tom's leadership will advance our ability to build strong public-private partnerships, while delivering meaningful success for C5 investors."

Before joining the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sheehy was the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. He was an original co-author of The Index of Economic Freedom, an internationally acclaimed annual survey of national economies, co-published by The Wall Street Journal, now in its 26th edition. He holds a B.A. from Trinity College (Hartford) and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Virginia.

About C5 Capital

C5 Capital (C5) is a specialist venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, space, and energy security. C5's investment strategy is focused on building long-term relationships with innovative and resilient founders that share in its mission to build a secure future. C5 Capital is headquartered in Washington, DC with locations in London, Luxembourg, and Vienna. For more information, visit: www.c5capital.com .

Media Contact:

Mary Magnani, CodePR

[email protected]

SOURCE C5 Capital
Josh Hoops named Vice President, Data Centers

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CAI, a global consulting company that provides technical, operational consulting, and project management services to the life sciences, data center, and process manufacturing industries, today announced the formation of a Data Centers division to be led by Josh Hoops.

"I am humbled to lead CAI's data center business into the future. We have an amazing team of experienced professionals who will continue to support our clients to drive Operational Readiness in data centers around the globe. Providing integrated solutions from project kickoff to operations and maintenance, our teams have successfully delivered 1,000's of MW of data center capacity. I look forward to leading our team, enabling growth, and maintaining excellence in project delivery as we continue to provide value to our clients," said Josh.

"Based on a history of successful facility inspection, testing, and startup across multiple industries, CAI is moving its data center services into a stand-alone business division. This move broadens our data center services to the entire facility lifecycle delivering value for our data center clients. We know our unique industry approach shortens the time to reach operational readiness and lowers the total cost of ownership for these mission critical facilities. I look forward to working with Josh to drive value for both our clients and our employee owners," says Mike Martin, CEO.

Josh Hoops, the new Vice President for CAI Data Centers; assumes responsibility for leading these teams to drive excellence in mission critical facility operational readiness worldwide. An expert in operations management, he has experience across multiple industries improving a variety of fundamental and complex aspects of organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Josh has over 30 years of management and operations experience in the United States Navy as a Submarine Officer and Asset Management, Building Commissioning and Management Consulting. He held several operational and executive management level positions, overseeing up to 1200 employees, including operations and maintenance, safety, personal qualification, and professional development. Josh holds a BS degree in Computer Science from University of North Florida and an MBA in Project Management from Columbia Southern University. While at CAI, as the Global Director, Program & Project Management, he has supervised major capital projects across multiple industries around the globe delivering value for CAI's clients and employee owners.

ABOUT CAI

CAI have delivered nearly a billion dollars in services for hundreds of clients across thousands of projects globally. With offices in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Ireland, Italy, China, and Singapore, we are an international team of over 850 professionals providing local support from a global company. Our integrated engineering, technical, and quality consulting services are designed to deliver mission critical facilities with a high level of performance and reliability. When operational readiness and startup are critical, CAI delivers to a higher standard. www.cagents.com

Contact:

David Shenberger

+13177219847

[email protected]

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SOURCE CAI
MIAMI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cano Health, Inc. ("Cano Health" or the "Company") (NYSE: CANO), a leading value-based primary care provider and population health company, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022.

Third Quarter Financial Results

Total membership of 294,596, including 168,346 Medicare capitated members, an increase of 40% year-over-year for both

Total revenue of $665.0 million , an increase of 33% year-over-year

, an increase of 33% year-over-year Net loss of $(112.0) million , unfavorably impacted by a $65.7 million fair value adjustment of warrant liabilities

, unfavorably impacted by a fair value adjustment of warrant liabilities Adjusted EBITDA1 of $42.5 million , compared to $13.6 million in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 211% year over year

The Company continues to demonstrate financial and operational improvement year-over-year, with higher revenue, an improved medical cost ratio2, or MCR, and a higher Adjusted EBITDA margin. Total third-party medical costs per member per month, or PMPM, were better than expected in the third quarter, however, capitated revenue PMPM was approximately (5%) lower than the prior year and approximately (9%) lower than the second quarter of 2022, primarily due to a lower-than-expected capitated rates from new patients. This resulted in a higher medical cost ratio in the quarter than expected. The MCR was 78.2% in the third quarter, compared to 80.5% in the prior year, primarily driven by lower third-party medical costs PMPM, which more than offset the decline in capitated revenue PMPM.

"Cano Health delivered improved profitability while achieving steady organic growth," said Dr. Marlow Hernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Cano Health. "While financial results were below our expectations due to lower revenue from new membership growth, existing membership performed in line with expectations. As these new members integrate into our care platform, we expect they will perform similarly to existing members in future periods. In response to our rapid growth and the higher cost of capital in the current economic environment, we are optimizing key areas of the business to leverage existing assets and prioritize cash flow. We are confident Cano Health's operating model will continue to deliver better health outcomes for our patients and sustainable long-term value creation for our shareholders."

______________________ (1) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure to its most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is provided in the Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA table included in this press release. An explanation of this measure and how it is calculated is also included under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Measures." (2) Medical Claims Expense Ratio (MCR) is calculated as third-party medical expense divided by capitated revenue

Guidance

The Company is updating its guidance for full year 2022 provided on August 9, 2022. The updated guidance for full year 2022 is as follows:

Membership in the range of 300,000 to 305,000, unchanged from the prior guidance range

Total revenue in the range of $2.70 billion to $2.75 billion , a decrease from the prior guidance range of $2.85 billion to $2.90 billion , primarily driven by lower-than-expected capitated revenue PMPM from new members

to , a decrease from the prior guidance range of to , primarily driven by lower-than-expected capitated revenue PMPM from new members Total medical cost ratio (MCR) in the range of 79.5% to 80.5%, an increase from the prior range of 78.0% to 79.0%, driven by the aforementioned lower-than-expected capitated revenue PMPM from new members The second half of 2022 is still expected to be lower than total MCR in the first half of 2022, primarily driven by normal seasonality in medical costs and cost recoveries

Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $150 million to $160 million , a decrease from the prior guidance of approximately $200 million

to , a decrease from the prior guidance of approximately The Company added eight medical centers in the quarter, bringing total medical centers to 151, as of September 30, 2022 , and 162 as of November 9, 2022 ; the Company expects to operate 170 by the end of 2022, a decrease from the prior guidance of 184 to 189, consistent with the focus on cash flow improvement

As of November 4, 2022, the Company had approximately 245 million shares of Class A common stock and 250 million shares of Class B common stock issued and outstanding. Total share count for the purposes of calculating market capitalization was approximately 494 million.

Conference Call Information

Cano Health will host a conference call today at 5:00 PM ET to review the Company's business and financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022.

To access the live call and webcast, please dial (888) 660-6359 for U.S. participants, or +1 (929) 203-0867 for international participants, and reference the Cano Health Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call and Conference ID 8371699. The conference call will also be webcast live in the "Events & Presentations" section of the Investor page of the Cano Health website.

A replay will be available in the "Events & Presentations" section of the Cano Health website for on-demand listening shortly after the completion of the call and will be available for 30 days.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press 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. Forward-looking statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and could materially affect actual results, performance or achievements. Such forward-looking statement include, without limitation, our anticipated results of operations, including our financial guidance for the 2022 fiscal year, our business strategies, our projected costs, prospects and plans, and other aspects of our operations or operating results. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "foresees," "forecasts," "estimates" or other words or phrases of similar import. It is uncertain whether any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do, what impact they will have on our results of operations and financial condition. Important risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in forward-looking statements include, among others, changes in market or industry conditions, regulatory environment, competitive conditions, and receptivity to our services; changes in our strategy, future operations, prospects and plans; developments and uncertainties related to the Direct Contracting Entity ("DCE") DCE program; adverse effects on the Company's business as a result of the restatement of our previously issued financial statements; our ability to realize expected financial results, including with respect to patient membership, total revenue and earnings; our ability to predict and control our medical cost ratio; our ability to grow market share in existing markets or enter into new markets and continue our growth; our ability to integrate our acquisitions and achieve desired synergies; our ability to maintain our relationships with health plans and other key payors; the impact of COVID-19 on our business and results of operations; our future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash, including funds to satisfy our liquidity needs; and our ability to recruit and retain qualified team members and independent physicians. For a detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof, and we undertake no duty to update or revise this information unless required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined by the SEC rules. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have not been prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA, adjusted to add back the effect of certain expenses, such as stock-based compensation expense, de novo losses (consisting of costs associated with the ramp up of new medical centers and losses incurred for the twelve months after the opening of a new facility), acquisition transaction costs (consisting of transaction costs and corporate development payroll costs), restructuring and other charges, fair value adjustments in contingent consideration, loss on extinguishment of debt, and changes in fair value of warrant liabilities. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing our financial measures with other similar companies. We do not consider these non-GAAP measures in isolation or as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP.

These non-GAAP financial measures are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgments by management about which expense, income and other items are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. In addition, other companies may calculate non-GAAP financial measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial measures as tools for comparison. A reconciliation of those measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures is available under the heading "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures."

The Company has not reconciled its expectations as to non-GAAP measures in future periods to their most directly comparable GAAP measure because certain costs and expenses are outside of its control or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, reconciliation is not available without unreasonable effort, although it is important to note that these factors could be material to the Company's results computed in accordance with GAAP.

About Cano Health

Cano Health (NYSE: CANO) is a high-touch, technology-powered healthcare company delivering personalized, value-based primary care to more than 290,000 members. With its headquarters in Miami, Florida, Cano Health is transforming healthcare by delivering primary care that measurably improves the health, wellness, and quality of life of its patients and the communities it serves. Founded in 2009, Cano Health has more than 4,500 employees, and operates primary care medical centers and supports affiliated providers in nine states and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit canohealth.com or investors.canohealth.com .

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS UNAUDITED Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, (in thousands, except share and per share data) 2022 2021 2022 2021 Revenue: Capitated revenue $ 625,895 $ 473,763 $ 1,955,739 $ 1,064,604 Fee-for-service and other revenue 39,133 25,168 102,804 52,510 Total revenue 665,028 498,931 2,058,543 1,117,114 Operating expenses: Third-party medical costs 489,565 381,316 1,566,661 868,177 Direct patient expense 63,867 50,368 177,190 120,212 Selling, general and administrative expenses 111,765 76,618 314,617 158,786 Depreciation and amortization expense 25,343 16,955 64,215 30,746 Transaction costs and other 5,033 11,206 19,616 36,274 Change in fair value of contingent

consideration 900 (3,940) (9,525) (4,152) Total operating expenses 696,473 532,523 2,132,774 1,210,043 Income (loss) from operations (31,445) (33,592) (74,231) (92,929) Other income and expense: Interest expense (16,451) (16,023) (42,868) (36,363) Interest income 4 1 7 4 Loss on extinguishment of debt   (1,428) (13,225) Change in fair value of warrant liabilities (65,721) (14,650) (8,383) 24,565 Other income (expense) 354 (29) 884 (54) Total other income (expense) (81,814) (30,701) (51,788) (25,073) Net income (loss) before income tax expense (113,259) (64,293) (126,019) (118,002) Income tax expense (benefit) (1,248) 547 641 (762) Net income (loss) $ (112,011) $ (64,840) $ (126,660) $ (117,240) Net income (loss) attributable to non-

controlling interests (57,783) (41,602) (67,759) (98,559) Net income (loss) attributable to Class A

common stockholders $ (54,228) $ (23,238) $ (58,901) $ (18,681) Net income (loss) per share attributable to Class

A common stockholders, basic $ (0.23) $ (0.14) $ (0.28) $ (0.11) Net income (loss) per share attributable to Class

A common stockholders, diluted $ (0.23) $ (0.14) $ (0.28) $ (0.16) Weighted-average shares used in computation

of earnings per share: Basic 232,314,170 170,871,429 211,408,974 168,100,210 Diluted 232,314,170 477,255,983 211,408,974 169,312,258

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS UNAUDITED As of, (in thousands) September 30,

2022 December 31,

2021 Assets Current assets: Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 24,097 $ 163,170 Accounts receivable, net of unpaid service provider costs 202,037 133,433 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 78,833 20,632 Total current assets 304,967 317,235 Property and equipment, net 125,513 85,261 Operating lease right of use assets 171,442 132,173 Goodwill 787,885 769,667 Payor relationships, net 565,213 576,648 Other intangibles, net 231,368 248,973 Other assets 9,751 13,582 Total assets $ 2,196,139 $ 2,143,539 Liabilities and stockholders' equity Current liabilities: Current portion of notes payable $ 6,444 $ 6,493 Current portion of finance lease liabilities 1,595 1,295 Current portion of contingent consideration 5,700 3,123 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 110,301 80,829 Current portions due to sellers 2,038 17,357 Current portion operating lease liabilities 24,946 15,275 Other current liabilities 34,537 36,664 Total current liabilities 185,561 161,036 Notes payable, net of current portion and debt issuance costs 914,394 915,266 Long term portion of operating lease liabilities 160,479 122,935 Warrants liabilities 88,528 80,144 Long term portion of finance lease liabilities 3,139 2,181 Contingent consideration 28,000 35,300 Other liabilities 33,004 28,109 Total liabilities 1,413,105 1,344,971 Stockholders' Equity Shares of Class A common stock 24 18 Shares of Class B common stock 25 30 Additional paid-in capital 544,106 397,443 Accumulated deficit (137,661) (78,760) Total Stockholders' Equity before non-controlling interests 406,494 318,731 Non-controlling interests 376,540 479,837 Total Stockholders' Equity 783,034 798,568 Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity $ 2,196,139 $ 2,143,539

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS UNAUDITED Nine Months Ended

September 30, (in thousands) 2022 2021 Cash Flows from Operating Activities: Net loss $ (126,660) $ (117,240) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: Depreciation and amortization expense 64,215 30,746 Change in fair value of contingent consideration (9,525) (4,152) Change in fair value of warrant liabilities 8,383 (24,565) Loss on extinguishment of debt 1,428 13,225 Amortization of debt issuance costs 2,743 4,162 Non-cash lease expense 8,367  Class A shares issued for bonus award 2,194  Stock-based compensation 42,641 13,131 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable, net (75,913) (25,494) Other assets 10,885 (9,874) Prepaid expenses and other current assets (47,492) (22,603) Interest accrued due to seller 100 1,208 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 30,955 40,620 Other liabilities 3,521 6,343 Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (84,158) (94,493) Cash Flows from Investing Activities: Purchase of property and equipment (39,061) (23,221) Acquisitions of subsidiaries including non-compete intangibles, net of cash acquired (4,995) (1,065,479) Payments to sellers (4,097) (24,148) Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities (48,153) (1,112,848) Cash Flows from Financing Activities: Business Combination and PIPE financing  935,362 Payments of long-term debt (4,833) (656,294) Debt issuance costs (88) (16,489) Proceeds from long-term debt  1,120,000 Proceeds from revolving line of credit 25,000  Repayments of revolving line of credit (25,000)  Proceeds from insurance financing arrangements 2,529 1,702 Payments of principal on insurance financing arrangements (2,070) (1,419) Principal payments under finance leases (1,037) (233) Repayment of equipment loans (385) (316) Employee stock purchase plan withholding tax payments (878)  Other  134 Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (6,762) 1,382,447 Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (139,073) 175,106 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of year 163,170 33,807 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 24,097 $ 208,913

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA UNAUDITED Three Months Ended

September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30, (in thousands) 2022 2021 2022 2021 Net loss $ (112,011) $ (64,840) $ (126,660) $ (117,240) Interest income (4) (1) (7) (4) Interest expense 16,451 16,023 42,868 36,363 Income tax expense (benefit) (1,248) 547 641 (762) Depreciation and amortization expense 25,343 16,955 64,215 30,746 EBITDA $ (71,469) $ (31,316) $ (18,943) $ (50,897) Stock-based compensation 11,041 9,451 42,641 13,130 De novo (1) 24,282 10,178 59,567 24,561 Transaction costs (2) 6,733 12,503 24,445 39,297 Restructuring and other (3) 5,245 2,123 8,846 5,513 Change in fair value of contingent consideration 900 (3,940) (9,525) (4,152) Loss on extinguishment of debt   1,428 13,225 Change in fair value of warrant liabilities 65,721 14,650 8,383 (24,565) Adjusted EBITDA $ 42,453 $ 13,649 $ 116,842 $ 16,112

______________________ (1) De novo losses include those costs associated with the ramp up of new medical centers and losses incurred after the opening of a new facility. These costs collectively are higher than comparable expenses incurred once such a facility has been opened and is generating revenue, and would not have been incurred unless a new facility was being opened. (2) Acquisition transaction costs included $1.7 million and $1.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and $4.3 million and $3.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively, of corporate development payroll costs. Corporate development payroll costs include those expenses directly related to the additional staff needed to support our acquisition activity. (3) Restructuring and other included $5.0 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 related to a one-time professional services fee.

Key Metrics Three Months Ended September 30, 2022 2021 % Change Members: Medicare Advantage 128,731 112,309 14.6 % Medicare DCE 39,615 7,777 409.4 % Total Medicare 168,346 120,086 40.2 % Medicaid 73,865 63,871 15.6 % ACA 52,385 26,706 96.2 % Total members 294,596 210,663 39.8 % Member months: Medicare Advantage 383,645 337,724 13.6 % Medicare DCE 119,936 22,715 428.0 % Total Medicare 503,581 360,439 39.7 % Medicaid 218,807 187,212 16.9 % ACA 149,872 81,437 84.0 % Total member months 872,260 629,088 38.7 % Per Member Per Month ("PMPM"): Medicare Advantage $ 1,127 $ 1,151 (2.1) % Medicare DCE $ 1,215 $ 1,349 (9.9) % Total Medicare $ 1,148 $ 1,163 (1.3) % Medicaid $ 191 $ 271 (29.5) % ACA $ 40 $ 47 (14.9) % Total PMPM $ 718 $ 753 (4.6) % Medical centers 151 113

Key Metrics Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 2021 % Change Members: Medicare Advantage 128,731 112,309 14.6 % Medicare DCE 39,615 7,777 409.4 % Total Medicare 168,346 120,086 40.2 % Medicaid 73,865 63,871 15.6 % ACA 52,385 26,706 96.2 % Total members 294,596 210,663 39.8 % Member months: Medicare Advantage 1,102,625 820,881 34.3 % Medicare DCE 367,326 46,639 687.6 % Total Medicare 1,469,951 867,520 69.4 % Medicaid 627,634 321,581 95.2 % ACA 411,138 195,290 110.5 % Total member months 2,508,723 1,384,391 81.2 % Per Member Per Month ("PMPM"): Medicare Advantage $ 1,189 $ 1,053 12.9 % Medicare DCE $ 1,320 $ 1,283 2.9 % Total Medicare $ 1,222 $ 1,066 14.6 % Medicaid $ 223 $ 414 (46.1) % ACA $ 48 $ 36 33.3 % Total PMPM $ 780 $ 769 1.4 % Medical centers 151 113

SOURCE Cano Health, Inc.
FRANKLIN, Tenn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") announced a franchise agreement with Spycher Burger Gang AG to develop Carl's Jr. restaurants in Switzerland. This partnership marks an extension of CKE Restaurants' acceleration of international growth and will bring guests throughout Switzerland our Made Fresh to Order Burgers, Hand-Breaded Chicken Sandwiches, and Hand-Scooped Milkshakes.

Patrick Spence, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Representative, Marc Mushkin, VP, CKE International Franchise Sales, Matt Spycher, Owner & CEO, Spycher Group AG, Ned Lyerly, CEO, CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc., Mike Woida, President, CKE International

Plans for the first Swiss Carl's Jr. restaurant are underway with a targeted opening mid-2023. With this agreement, Spycher will open restaurants across Switzerland in key cities including Zurich, Basel, Bern, and Lucerne. This exciting partnership with Spycher will add to Carl's Jr.'s growing European presence which includes restaurants in Spain, France, Denmark, and Turkey.

"We are thrilled to join forces with Spycher Burger Gang AG as we continue our expansion in Europe," said Mike Woida, President of CKE International. "It's always an exciting milestone when we're able to bring our bold, innovative menu from California to a new international destination and introduce our iconic brand to a new global audience. We look forward to Matt and his team bringing Carl's Jr. to life and introducing our delicious burgers to customers throughout Switzerland."

"Bringing Carl's Jr.'s great brand into the Swiss people's hearts and becoming a part of CKE's worldwide family makes me very proud," said Matt A. Spycher, Owner / CEO of Spycher Group AG, the holding company of Spycher Burger Gang AG. "Carl's Jr.'s entry into the Swiss market has great potential, and I am very excited and looking forward to our launch. Thank you to the CKE European and Global teams for their great support."

As we continue to bring quality you can taste to Switzerland and all corners of the globe, Carl's Jr. will continue to offer its impossible-to-ignore, California-inspired food offerings worldwide.

For more franchise information: https://carlsjrfranchising.com/international/

About CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc.

CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. is a privately held company based in Franklin, Tennessee, that operates Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, two beloved regional brands, known for one-of-a-kind premium and innovative menu items such as 100 percent Angus Burgers and Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders. With both a U.S. and International footprint, Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC and Hardee's Restaurants LLC have nearly 4,000 franchised or company-operated restaurants in 44 US states and more than 38 international markets and U.S. overseas territories. For more information about CKE, please visit https://ckefranchise.com/ or its brand sites at www.carlsjr.com and www.hardees.com.

About Spycher Group AG

Spycher Group AG is a privately owned company based in Ittigen, Switzerland. The Spycher Group finds innovative ways to exceed customer expectations offering clients an extensive, unique and broad experience: Holding subsidiaries and participations in the construction, food & beverage, real estate development & management, communication and as well as the tourism industry. For more information about Spycher Group AG, please visit www.spychergroup.ch.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1942131/Switzerland_Signing_Ceremony_11_08_2022.jpg

SOURCE CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc.
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), China's most prestigious and renowned art academy, has launched a brand new website, CAFA Global. The online portal will serve as an authoritative channel for art lovers, art institutions, art colleges, as well as other organizations and individuals from all over the world who can now get to learn about the CAFA through the world wide web.

China's Central Academy of Fine Arts Unveils Its Global Website  http://global.cafa.edu.cn/.

The institution will use the website to share content including international admissions information, school news, the latest research results, international cooperation projects, details of renowned faculty and alumni, and campus life updates. The move will raise the CAFA's exposure on a global scale while increasing visibility and attracting more international students to enroll. The website is live now at http://global.cafa.edu.cn/.

"The CAFA Global website, the window of the CAFA to the world, allows the world to learn about the history and contemporary development of this century-old highest art institution in China, especially its discipline construction, curriculum features, educational methods, as well as the works of teachers and students," said FAN Di'an, President of CAFA. "Additionally, the global Website provides an opportunity for us to communicate with art institutions and other institutions around the world on various common topics relevant to art and art education in the global context and establish future-oriented collaborations."

The CAFA is already home to a diverse and international atmosphere. Over 40% of CAFA faculty have experience working or studying overseas, instilling in them a global perspective. Indeed, many of them are world-renowned artists themselves.

For example, Liu Xiaodong, a professor in the oil painting department, is a much-celebrated Chinese contemporary artist. His large-scale works have been considered a kind of historical snapshot painting for the emerging world. He was also a leading figure during the emergence of Chinese Neo-Realist painters during the 1990s. Another example is Prof. Xu Bing, a heralded figure known for printmaking and installation art. He received a place in the MacArthur Fellows Program in 1999 and won the Fukuoka Prize in 2003.

Adding to the academy's international atmosphere, the CAFA organizes visits from many of the world's leading art masters who serve as visiting professors. One visiting professor was the Harvard University design educator Remment Koolhaas, a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, and urbanist, who has been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000.

SOURCE Central Academy of Fine Arts
BANGALORE, India , Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Migration Services Market is Segmented By Type (Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud), By Application (Large Enterprises, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises): Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222028.

The global Cloud Migration Services Market size is projected to reach USD 20540 million by 2028, from USD 5960.2 million in 2021, at a CAGR of 19.0% during 2022-2028.

Major Factors Driving The Growth Of The Cloud Migration Services Market

The need for Cloud Migration Services is anticipated to increase as a result of the advantages offered by the cloud, including scalability, security, and lower operating expenses.

For businesses aiming to achieve digital transformation and take advantage of growth prospects, cloud migration is essential. The transfer to the cloud is made easier by cloud mitigation services. This element is anticipated to accelerate the Cloud Migration Services market growth.

Any cloud migration strategy' main advantage or goal is to host applications and data in the most efficient IT environment possible, which is dependent on things like performance, cost, and security. This is a significant element that is anticipated to fuel the expansion of the global Cloud Migration Services market over the forecast period.

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TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE CLOUD MIGRATION SERVICES MARKET

In addition to the potential to optimize workloads such that they are less expensive to run, there are considerable reductions in resource, maintenance, and real estate expenditures. Organizations don't need to pay for and maintain IT assets that they may only use infrequently because they only pay for the cloud resources that they really utilize. To help ensure that an organization's resources are safeguarded, many public clouds come with built-in security features and specialized cloud security solutions. In many instances, security patches are applied automatically by the cloud provider. If the cloud provider provides a central management tool, organizations can manage and monitor both their on-premises data center and cloud resources from a single screen. These advantages of the cloud are fueling the migration of the cloud which in turn is expected to drive the growth of the Cloud Migration Services market.

Gaining access to what an experienced cloud migration services provider has already observed, discovered, and incorporated into their migration models is one of the biggest advantages of working with them. In contrast, companies might not have protocols in place for a clean move if companies attempted a migration on companies own. Another danger is that companies could not have the skilled personnel companies need to execute companies' plans. This in turn is expected to drive the growth of the Cloud Migration Services market.

Moving corporate processes to the cloud requires a lot of work, and if unforeseen issues aren't resolved immediately, migration may be hindered. Foreseeing the unforeseen requires working with a qualified cloud migration services provider. Providers of cloud migration services offer Domain expertise in the company sector and the business processes related to companies move. knowledge of moving a variety of platforms, apps, and systems. appointing personnel in the time zones that matter for business. Every employee has received training in receiving trouble tickets, responding to incidents, and identifying and fixing breaches in compliance with companies standards. These factors are expected to further boost the Cloud Migration Services market.

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CLOUD MIGRATION SERVICES MARKET SHARE

During the projection period, North America is anticipated to hold the largest market share and lead the Cloud Migration Services market. Because of its huge businesses, superior technological know-how, and use of the most recent technologies, North America has the largest usage of cloud migration services.

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Key Companies:

Amazon Web Services

Cisco Systems

Computer Sciences Corporation

Google

IBM Corporation

Microsoft Corporation

NTT Data Corporation

VMware

WSM International LLC

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NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The coding bootcamp market is fragmented, with many local and international players operating in the market. The vendors are deploying growth strategies such as M&A activities to compete in the market. Most vendors have a strong geographic presence. They compete on the basis of price, mode of delivery, and program format provided for training. Most of them provide full-time coding bootcamps, along with a few offering online and part-time training. Some vendors provide customized training services as well. The market has witnessed an increase in the number of strategic partnerships between vendors and institutions.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Coding Bootcamp Market 2022-2026

The coding bootcamp market size is expected to grow by USD 1.20 billion from 2021 to 2026. In addition, the growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a CAGR of 19.31% during the forecast period, according to Technavio. The report offers an up-to-date analysis of the market, and to know the exact growth variance and Y-O-Y growth rate, Request a FREE Sample Report.

Coding Bootcamp Market 2022-2026: Driver and Challenge

The low cost of bootcamps is driving market growth. The cost varies as per region and program. The short duration of training, along with low-cost options, ensure the cost-effectiveness of coding bootcamps. These bootcamps provide students with various options to finance their programs, such as self-financed or low-interest loans. Vendors also offer deferred payment options such as monthly installments, tuition deferral until employment, and free training through scholarships.

The increase in formal education is challenging the coding bootcamp market growth. The increase in the number of institutions and universities providing formal education has increased. The rising demand for software engineers is encouraging students to opt for degree programs from these institutions. Moreover, most employers do not prefer bootcamp students. The lack of awareness among students is also hindering the growth of the market. Thus, the rise in formal education is challenging the global coding bootcamp market.

Technavio has identified key trends, drivers, and challenges in the report, which will help vendors improve their strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. Buy Now for detailed information on market dynamics

Coding Bootcamp Market 2022-2026: Segmentation

End-user

Individual Learners: The individual learners segment will be a significant contributor to market growth during the forecast period. Many individuals enroll in coding bootcamps to improve their job prospects. With the increase in the number of online coding bootcamps, many employees are opting for online modes. Moreover, many employees are opting MOOCs to gain additional skills.



Institutional Learners

Geography

North America



APAC



Europe



South America



Middle East And Africa

Learn about the contribution of each segment summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View a FREE PDF Sample Report

Coding Bootcamp Market 2022-2026: Scope

The coding bootcamp market report covers the following areas:

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Coding Bootcamp Market 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the coding bootcamp market, including 4Geeks Academy LLC, Academia de Codigo, Adecco Group AG, Barcelona Code School, Chegg Inc., Dataquest Labs Inc., Epicodus Inc., Flatiron School LLC, Fullstack Academy LLC, Galvanize Inc., Hackwagon Academy Pte Ltd., Ironhack Inc., LA LOCO SAS, Launch School, Makers Academy, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Skillcrush Inc., Tech Talent South, Udacity Inc., and Zip Code Wilmington.

Coding Bootcamp Market 2022-2026: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026

Detailed information on factors that will assist coding bootcamp market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the coding bootcamp market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the coding bootcamp market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of coding bootcamp market vendors

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Personal Development Market by Distribution Channel, Type, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027: The rise in cost-effective content development is driving the personal development market growth. Vendors are investing heavily in content marketing strategies in the extremely competitive B2B marketing landscape. Content marketing has shown to be one of the most effective ways to increase audience involvement.

Coding Bootcamp Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 19.31% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 1.20 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 19.24 Regional analysis North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 39% Key consumer countries US, Canada, India, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 4Geeks Academy LLC, Academia de Codigo, Adecco Group AG, Barcelona Code School, Chegg Inc., Dataquest Labs Inc., Epicodus Inc., Flatiron School LLC, Fullstack Academy LLC, Galvanize Inc., Hackwagon Academy Pte Ltd., Ironhack Inc., LA LOCO SAS, Launch School, Makers Academy, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Skillcrush Inc., Tech Talent South, Udacity Inc., and Zip Code Wilmington 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 Discretionary 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 Language



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by End-user



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Delivery Mode



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 10: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 11: Parent market



Exhibit 12: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 13: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 14: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 15: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 17: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 18: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 19: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 20: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 21: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 22: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 23: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 24: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 25: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Language

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 26: Chart on Language - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Language - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Language

Exhibit 28: Chart on Comparison by Language



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Comparison by Language

5.3 Python - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 30: Chart on Python - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Python - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 32: Chart on Python - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Python - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Java - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 34: Chart on Java - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Java - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Java - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Java - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 .NET - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 38: Chart on .NET - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on .NET - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on .NET - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on .NET - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Ruby - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 42: Chart on Ruby - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Ruby - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Ruby - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Ruby - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 46: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 48: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.8 Market opportunity by Language

Exhibit 50: Market opportunity by Language ($ million)

6 Market Segmentation by End-user

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 51: Chart on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 52: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

6.2 Comparison by End-user

Exhibit 53: Chart on Comparison by End-user



Exhibit 54: Data Table on Comparison by End-user

6.3 Individual learners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 55: Chart on Individual learners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 56: Data Table on Individual learners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 57: Chart on Individual learners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 58: Data Table on Individual learners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.4 Institutional learners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 59: Chart on Institutional learners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 60: Data Table on Institutional learners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 61: Chart on Institutional learners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 62: Data Table on Institutional learners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.5 Market opportunity by End-user

Exhibit 63: Market opportunity by End-user ($ million)

7 Market Segmentation by Delivery Mode

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 64: Chart on Delivery Mode - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on Delivery Mode - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Delivery Mode

Exhibit 66: Chart on Comparison by Delivery Mode



Exhibit 67: Data Table on Comparison by Delivery Mode

7.3 Full-time bootcamps - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 68: Chart on Full-time bootcamps - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 69: Data Table on Full-time bootcamps - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 70: Chart on Full-time bootcamps - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 71: Data Table on Full-time bootcamps - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 Part-time bootcamps - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 72: Chart on Part-time bootcamps - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 73: Data Table on Part-time bootcamps - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 74: Chart on Part-time bootcamps - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 75: Data Table on Part-time bootcamps - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 Market opportunity by Delivery Mode

Exhibit 76: Market opportunity by Delivery Mode ($ million)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 77: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 78: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 79: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 80: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 81: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 84: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.4 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 86: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 87: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 88: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 89: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 90: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 91: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 92: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 93: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 94: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 95: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 96: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 97: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 98: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 99: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 100: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 101: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 102: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 103: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 104: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 105: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.9 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 106: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 107: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 108: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 109: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 110: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 111: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 112: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 113: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.11 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 114: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 115: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 116: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 117: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 118: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 119: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 120: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 121: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

9.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 122: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

10.1 Market drivers

10.2 Market challenges

10.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 123: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

10.4 Market trends

11 Vendor Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 124: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 125: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 126: Impact of key risks on business

12 Vendor Analysis

12.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 127: Vendors covered

12.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 128: Matrix on vendor position and classification

12.3 4Geeks Academy LLC

Exhibit 129: 4Geeks Academy LLC - Overview



Exhibit 130: 4Geeks Academy LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 131: 4Geeks Academy LLC - Key offerings

12.4 Adecco Group AG

Exhibit 132: Adecco Group AG - Overview



Exhibit 133: Adecco Group AG - Business segments



Exhibit 134: Adecco Group AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 135: Adecco Group AG - Segment focus

12.5 Barcelona Code School

Exhibit 136: Barcelona Code School - Overview



Exhibit 137: Barcelona Code School - Product / Service



Exhibit 138: Barcelona Code School - Key offerings

12.6 Chegg Inc.

Exhibit 139: Chegg Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 140: Chegg Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 141: Chegg Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 142: Chegg Inc. - Key offerings

12.7 Dataquest Labs Inc.

Exhibit 143: Dataquest Labs Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 144: Dataquest Labs Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 145: Dataquest Labs Inc. - Key offerings

12.8 Flatiron School LLC

Exhibit 146: Flatiron School LLC - Overview



Exhibit 147: Flatiron School LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 148: Flatiron School LLC - Key offerings

12.9 Fullstack Academy LLC

Exhibit 149: Fullstack Academy LLC - Overview



Exhibit 150: Fullstack Academy LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 151: Fullstack Academy LLC - Key offerings

12.10 Galvanize Inc.

Exhibit 152: Galvanize Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 153: Galvanize Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 154: Galvanize Inc. - Key offerings

12.11 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.

Exhibit 155: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 156: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 157: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 158: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. - Segment focus

12.12 Udacity Inc.

Exhibit 159: Udacity Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 160: Udacity Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 161: Udacity Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 162: Udacity Inc. - Key offerings

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 163: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 164: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 165: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 166: Research methodology



Exhibit 167: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 168: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 169: 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/

Newsroom: https://newsroom.technavio.org/news/coding-bootcampmarket-v2

SOURCE Technavio
VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Deep-South Resources Inc. ("Deep-South" or the Company) (TSX-V: DSM) announces that the Environmental Project Briefs ("EPB") submitted to the Zambia Environmental Management Agency ("ZEMA") have been approved. The team started mobilizing on Tuesday November 8 and will start the soil sampling program on the three licences.

The program:

DEEP-SOUTH STARTS SOIL SAMPLING ON THE ZAMBIAN PROJECTS (CNW Group/Deep-South Resources Inc.) No Mineral Resources have been estimated on these projects as they have not demonstrated economic viability at this stage. The historical geophysical survey and sampling results demonstrate potential to classify the Luanshya West project as one of merit but are considered too speculative geologically to complete a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimation at this time and it is uncertain that those historic results will be converted into minerals resources. (CNW Group/Deep-South Resources Inc.)

The program consists of geochemical soil sampling on each licence with the aim of identify anomalies and defining drilling targets.

Luanshya West Project (licence 23246):

The licence is situated in the center of the Zambian Copper belt and covers 5,423.26 hectares (54.24 Sq. Km). The project prospectivity is based on the location of the property over the unconformable contact between the basement granites and the Lower Roan Group sediments where most copper belt mines in both Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (the "DRC") are located.

Historically, some 850 soil samples and geophysical data were collected over the property by Teal (a subsidiary of African Rainbow Minerals Ltd) between 2007 and 2009. This data has enabled DSM to identify at least four large anomalies. The goal of the sampling program is to generate new geochemical data (verify the old data) and to delineate drilling targets over the anomalies identified.

The program consists of 820 soil samples collected in an identical manner to the original Teal sampling program. The sampling grid will be 500 x 100 metres, duplicating the old grid with the addition of some extra samples in areas not previously sampled (holes in the grid). The program will be completed in about 30 days.

The project area is close to established copper / cobalt mines with Chibuluma mine some 35Km to the north-east, Chambishi mine 41Km north-northeast, N'changa mine 53Km north-northwest and Luanshya mine some 40Km east-southeast from the centre of the project area.

A National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("43-101") compliant technical qualifying report is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under Deep-South's profile or on the Company's web site: www.deepsouthresources.com

Chililabombwe Project (licence 23247):

The licence is situated in the north of the Zambia Copper belt near the DRC border. The Large Exploration Licence covers 2,200 hectares (22.5 Sq, Km). The project prospectivity is based on the location of the property over the unconformable contact zone between the basement granites and the Lower Roan Group sediments where most copper belt mines in both Zambia and the DRC are located.

The program consists of 132 soil samples on a grid of 500m by 100m. The soil-geochemistry survey should locate any copper anomalies within the area. In this particular area, due to their abundance, termite mounds will be sampled rather than digging sample holes. This is because termites bring material to the surface from considerable depth and therefore generate a deeper sampling profile.

Mpongwe Project (licence 23248). This licence is situated in the center of the Zambian Copper belt. The Large Exploration Licence covers 67,500 hectares (675 Sq. Km). The project is considered prospective as it is again located over the unconformable contact zone between basement granites and the Lower Roan Group sediments where most copper belt mines in both Zambia and the DRC are located.

The program consists of 2,675 soil samples on a grid of 500m by 100m. It has been designed to search for copper anomalies using a soil-geochemistry survey.

Qualified Person

Vivian Suart-Willams MSc (Hons.) Pr.Sci.Nat., Vice-President Exploration of Deep-South Resources, has reviewed the technical content of this presentation, and is the designated Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Stuart-Williams is responsible for the technical part of this press release.

About Deep-South Resources Inc.

Deep-South Resources is a mineral exploration and development company. Deep-South's growth strategy is to focus on the exploration and development of quality assets in significant mineralized trends and in proximity to infrastructure in stable countries. In using and assessing environmentally friendly technologies in the development of its copper project, Deep-South embraces the green revolution.

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.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Information contained in this news release which are not statements of historical facts may be "forward-looking information" for the purposes of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information involves 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 information. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "contemplate", "plan", "intends", "continue", "budget", "estimate", "may", "will", "schedule", "understand" and similar expressions identify forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: the Minister's of Mines and Energy of Namibia refusal to renew the Company's Licence, the Company's intention to contest the Minister's decision before the Courts of Namibia and the outcome of such proceedings.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Deep-South, are inherently subject to significant technical, political, business, economic and competitive uncertainties, and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Factors and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: political risks associated with the Company's operations in Namibia; the failure of the Namibian Government to comply with its continuing obligations under the Act to allow for the renewal of the Licence; the impact of changes in, or to the more aggressive enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practices; the inability of the Company and its subsidiaries to enforce their legal rights in certain circumstances. For additional risk factors, please see the Company's most recently filed Management Discussions & Analysis available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

There can be no assurances that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as many factors and future events, both known and unknown could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to vary or differ materially from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained herein or incorporated by reference. Accordingly, all such factors should be considered carefully when making decisions with respect to Deep-South, and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release is made as at the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions, changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable legislation.

SOURCE Deep-South Resources Inc.
Guests with a valid military ID or DD 214 can enjoy complimentary Grand Slams from 5 a.m. to noon at participating locations

SPARTANBURG, S.C., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This November, Denny's will give back to our nation's heroes with the continuation of a long-standing tradition: free Grand Slams for all military personnel on Veterans Day.

On Nov. 11, Denny's is proud to once again honor those who served their country by offering a complimentary Grand Slam to all active, non-active and retired military personnel to thank America's veterans for their endless service and dedication. The offer is valid for dine-in only at participating locations from 5 a.m. to noon* with a valid military ID or DD 214.

Denny's Salutes Military Heroes with Free Grand Slams for Veterans on Nov. 11

"At Denny's, we're thankful each and every day for the courageous military personnel who have sacrificed so much for this country," said Denny's President John Dillon. "We're honored to continue shining a light on the veteran community and providing heroes with great food to thank them for protecting the nation we call home."

Denny's signature breakfast entree  the Grand Slam  is one of the brand's most popular offerings and includes two delicious and fluffy buttermilk pancakes, two bacon strips, two sausage links and two eggs cooked any way.

For more information about Denny's or to find a participating location near you, please visit www.dennys.com.

*Denny's Veterans Day offer is valid for dine-in only and will not be available for online ordering through Denny's on Demand. Some locations may open after 5 a.m.; check your local restaurant for its hours of operation.

About Denny's

Denny's is a Spartanburg, S.C.-based family dining restaurant that was founded nearly 70 years ago for one purpose: We love to feed people. That purpose has led us to become a restaurant brand that guests worldwide rely on for delicious value and craveable contemporary meals across breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night. Every day, we welcome guests to dine whenever and however they prefer, whether it's at our brick-and-mortar locations, via Denny's on Demand  the first delivery platform in the family dining segment, or at The Meltdown and The Burger Den , our two virtual restaurants. Our longstanding commitment to supporting our local communities is brought to life with our Mobile Relief Diner that delivers hot meals to our neighbors during times of disaster.

Denny's is one of the largest franchised full-service restaurant brands in the world, based on number of restaurants. As of Sept. 29, 2022, Denny's had 1,613 franchised, licensed and company restaurants, which includes 153 restaurants in Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

To learn more about Denny's, please visit our brand website at www.dennys.com or the brand's social channels via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn or YouTube

SOURCE Denny's
Customers should prepare now for possible power outages

Crews will begin repairs as soon as weather conditions allow

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on Tropical Storm Nicole's current forecasted track, Duke Energy Florida is strategically staging approximately 5,000 workers  power line technicians, damage assessors, vegetation workers and support personnel  across the state to respond to possible power outages.

Crews from Duke Energy's Ohio, Kentucky and Carolinas operations will assist  as will workers from other utility companies based in Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia, among other states. All crews are ready to begin power restoration as soon as weather conditions safely allow.

"We anticipate this storm will bring strong winds and heavy rain over many parts of our Florida service territory, including areas still recovering from Hurricane Ian," said Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director. "Crews and resources are being staged in safe locations throughout the state to respond to outages as soon as it's safe to do so. We will continue to adjust those resources as the storm approaches, and we urge customers to continue following the instructions and warnings of emergency management officials in your area."

Restoring power after a storm can be extremely challenging for repair crews, as travel and work conditions can be impacted by high winds and potential flooding  making repair work lengthy and difficult in some areas.

Power restoration crews will begin working immediately after the storm, but restoration efficiency improves as damage assessment information is available to ensure the right workers and materials are dispatched to each power outage location.

Duke Energy will provide estimated power restoration times to customers once damage assessments are completed. The company also will provide regular updates to customers and communities through emails, text messages, outbound phone calls, social media and its website, which includes an interactive outage map. The outage map allows customers to view up-to-date information on power outages, including the total number of outages systemwide and estimated times of restoration.

Important reminders

Ensure an adequate supply of flashlights, batteries, bottled water, nonperishable foods, medicines, etc., as well as the availability of a portable, battery-operated radio, TV or weather radio.

Customers should make alternate shelter arrangements as needed if you will be significantly impacted by a loss of power  especially families who have special medical needs or elderly members.

If a power line falls across a car that you're in, stay in the car. If you MUST get out of the car due to a fire or other immediate life-threatening situation, do your best to jump clear of the car and land on both feet. Be sure that no part of your body is touching the car when your feet touch the ground.

If you use a generator due to a power outage, follow the manufacturer's instructions to ensure safe and proper operation. Operate your generator outside; never operate it inside a building or garage.

Don't use grills or other outdoor appliances or equipment indoors for space heating or cooking, as these devices may emit carbon monoxide.

Stay away from power lines that have fallen or are sagging. Consider all lines energized as well as trees or limbs in contact with lines. Report all power line hazards to Duke Energy at 800.228.8485 or contact your local emergency services department or agency.

Outage reporting

Customers should make sure their contact information is up to date and their communication preferences are noted in their account so they can receive proactive updates from Duke Energy on the status of a power outage.

Customers who experience an outage during a storm can report it the following ways:

Visit duke-energy.com on a desktop computer or mobile device.

Use the Duke Energy mobile app  Download the Duke Energy App from a smartphone via Apple Store or Google Play.

Text OUT to 57801 (standard text and data charges may apply).

Call the automated outage reporting system at 800.POWERON (800.769.3766).

For more tips on what to do before, during and after a storm, please visit duke-energy.com/StormTips.

For storm or power restoration updates, follow Duke Energy on Twitter (@DukeEnergy) and Facebook (Duke Energy).

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,300 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

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: Ana Gibbs

Cell: 813.928.7263

Media line: 800.559.3853

SOURCE Duke Energy
EQT Ventures III holds final close at EUR 1 billion of fee-generating commitments, and EUR 1.1 billion of total commitments, to invest in European and North American early-stage tech startups

The Fund, which includes participation from a wide range of European, North American and Asian institutional investors, foundations, and endowments, will make investments of EUR 1 -50 million in founder-led startups using technology to try and solve some of the biggest challenges facing society

EQT Ventures III brings total commitments raised across the EQT Ventures Funds to EUR 2.3 billion since launching in 2016. The EQT Ventures Funds have completed over 100 investments, of which nine have reached a valuation above EUR 1 billion and 18 have been exited. EQT Ventures III has already led investments in 13 companies, including Juni, Nothing, Knoetic and Candela

EQT Ventures III and EQT Growth together bring EUR 3.5 billion of new commitments to invest in early- and growth-stage technology companies, cementing EQT's position as a leading tech investor

STOCKHOLM, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT has closed Europe's largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. EQT Ventures III (the "Fund" or "Ventures III") closed with total commitments of EUR 1.1 billion, of which EUR 1 billion is fee-generating, bringing the total commitments raised across the EQT Ventures' Funds to EUR 2.3 billion since launching in 2016.

Taking place during a time of market uncertainty, the successful fundraise is evidence that investors still have an appetite for early-stage technology focused funds despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, turning to proven and high-conviction teams with a hands-on approach.

The EQT Ventures Funds have made over 100 investments in six years, including nine companies that have reached a EUR 1bn+ valuation, including Wolt, Small Giant Games, Einride, Handshake, Netlify and Instabox (today Instabee). The Fund has already backed and supported 13 companies as the lead investor. EQT Ventures III will continue to support companies using technology to solve some of the biggest challenges facing society by investing in sectors such as climate tech, food tech, the creator economy, energy, fintech, software, data & IT infrastructure, deep tech and more.

The Fund's global investor base - with institutional investors, foundations and endowments across Europe, the Americas and APAC - reflects its international presence and outlook. From its offices in six countries, the EQT Ventures Advisory Team is focusing on helping founders expand their businesses globally - European startups into the US and vice versa. The EQT Ventures Funds currently have portfolio companies in 16 geographies.

Lars Jornow, Partner at EQT Ventures, said: "EQT Ventures was founded to give entrepreneurs the investor that we would have wanted on our company board. Now, with a freshly raised EUR 1.1 billion, an advisory team of founders and operators, and being backed by EQT, one of the world's biggest tech investors, EQT Ventures is here to continue the journey as half startup, half VC, investing holistically in early-stage tech startups, giving founders a fast track to scale."

The EUR 1.1 billion close of EQT Ventures III follows the recent close of the EQT Growth fund, at EUR 2.4 billion in total commitments, cementing EQT's position as a leading tech investor. EQT Ventures and EQT Growth are both committed to investing in high growth private tech companies; they are two separate business divisions, with separate funds and advisory teams. EQT Ventures makes initial investments between EUR 1-50 million, while EQT Growth makes initial investments between EUR 50-200 million at later stages of the company growth journey.

Per Franzen, Head of Private Capital and Deputy Managing Partner at EQT, said: "Coming shortly after the close of EQT Growth, EQT Ventures' successful fundraise is a real vote of confidence in EQT's active ownership approach to investing. The capital raised across both funds means EQT has now raised new commitments of EUR 3.5 billion to private market tech, consolidating our position as one of the world's largest tech investors. By driving collaboration across EQT Private Capital we will continue to be at the forefront of technology investing across strategies."

Alastair Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures, concluded: "Now is the time to back category leaders, those driving innovation to change the world for the better. EQT Ventures was set up to give founders the best chance of reaching scale, irrespective of the macroeconomic climate. We're an advisory team of founders and operators that have weathered cycles and have experience creating global businesses. The Fund will double down on EQT Ventures' proven European track record, while continuing to grow the impressive portfolio of US startups scaling internationally."

The EQT Ventures funds are advised by over 40 founders and operators across offices in Stockholm, London, San Francisco, Berlin and Paris with a 50/50 gender split. With the new fund, the advisory team will be able to grow further by hiring in Europe and the US, with the ultimate goal of making EQT Ventures the most supportive early-stage investor across both markets.

The team's guidance to the portfolio is assisted by its proprietary AI market intelligence tool, EQT Motherbrain. Motherbrain is used to source investment opportunities - having assisted EQT Ventures source 15 investments to date, representing EUR 200m of invested capital in total. It also provides market intelligence to founders within the EQT Ventures portfolio.



Contact

James Hartwell, Kekst CNC, [email protected], +44 7870 487 532

Sofie Grant, [email protected]

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/87/3663897/1658254.pdf Press release EQT Ventures III closing 221109 https://news.cision.com/eqt/i/eqt-ventures-team,c3112033 EQT Ventures team

SOURCE EQT
CAIRO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Green Investment Principles (GIP) for the Belt and Road officially announced its second regional office, Africa Chapter, during the COP27. Hendrik du Toit, Founder and CEO of Ninety One, will be the Chairman of the chapter, and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi, Group Director and General Manager at Bank of Africa BMCE Group will serve as the Co-Chair and Secretary General.

Hendrik du Toit and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi launched the GIP Africa Chapter

Hendrik du Toit and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi launched the GIP Africa Chapter

Four years after establishment, the GIP has expanded its membership that currently includes 44 signatories, most of which are large financial institutions, and over a dozen supporting organizations. Under the GIP, these member institutions, which manage over USD40tn in assets, have committed to grow their green and low-carbon investments in developing countries and emerging markets, to enhance ESG risk management, improve disclosure, and adopt innovative green finance products.

The GIP has also created three member-driven working groups that have developed a range of risk measurement and disclosure tools, showcased many innovative products, and contributed to green finance capacity building in less developed countries.

As part of the Vision 2023, the GIP intends to establish several regional offices in key emerging market regions, with an aim to engage with more financial institutions in developing countries and to catalyze green investment along Belt and Road. After the Central Asia office launched in 2021, the Africa chapter will seek to expand membership of the GIP, facilitate green investment opportunities, build capacity for local financial institutions, and convene resources to support development sustainable standards and principles for Africa.

Dr MA Jun, Co-chair of the GIP Steering Committee and Chairman of China Green Finance Committee pointed out that "after years of rapid development of the global green and sustainable finance market, the development is still very uneven across the world. The low-income regions, including those in Africa and Asia, account for large part of global population, nature resources and future growth, but have very limited access to the green and sustainable finance instruments". Ma highlighted that the international community should assist Africa to address three important challenges: enhancing access to low-cost funding through de-risking facilities and development finance, establishing a transition finance framework, and financing biodiversity and nature-positive activities.

Sir William Russell, Co-chair of the GIP Steering Committee and former Lord Mayor of City of London, commemorated the progress the GIP has made in the past years and reiterated the importance and commitments of international cooperation on green finance. He said that the GFANZ, which was launched in 2021 during COP26, has made significant progress in scaling up commitments from financial firms for net zero targets and is now working on implementation, which should complement the work of the GIP, including in Africa.

JIN Zhongxia, Director General of International Department at the People's Bank of China conveyed his expectation for GIP Africa office. He said "the office can provide opportunities to explore local innovative solutions in taxonomies, disclosure and transition finance. I believe the office can also help local financial institutions build in-house capacity, expand green businesses, and enhance climate resilience."

Yaseen Anwar, Chairman of the GIP Central Asia Office and former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, reflected on the progress made and lessons learnt by the Central Asia Office of the GIP. He said that "the GIP is providing an important opportunity for many countries along the Belt and Road to improve access to sustainable finance at affordable costs for local green and sustainable projects, which is important for these economies to realize their own climate goals."

Gim Huay Neo, Managing Director, Head of Centre for Nature and Climate, World Economic Forum, highlighted three imperatives that are important for the GIP Africa office to work on, including acceleration in developing green and social-inclusive infrastructure, proper green and sustainable standards and alignment of taxonomies, and conducive policy environment".

Deborah Lehr, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, Paulson Institute, addressed the growth potential of Africa in terms of climate action and green development. She said that the GIP presents opportunities for Africa to realize climate transition and avoid projected emissions in the business-as-usual scenario.

Hendrik du Toit and Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi welcomed the establishment of the GIP Africa Chapter and expressed strong confidence for its future operations. Through the launch of the Africa office, they said, the GIP can bring in "new finance", including transition finance, to support the sustainable development of Africa. The GIP Africa office, as the second regional chapter launched, will build on current experiences, collaborate with other international initiatives, and continue sharing leading practices from other GIP members.

The launch ceremony was followed by a panel discussion with a focus on risks and opportunities for green investment in Africa. Panelists stressed that Africa needs to massively scale up its sustainable finance market and develop transition finance to meet the climate goal, and international assistance and knowledge sharing will be critical. It was also stated that Africa has abundant experiences in nesting climate action with Sustainable Development Goals, while many of the innovative financing solutions originated here from this continent. Panelists raised expectations to the GIP Africa Office and highlighted the importance of engagement with key stakeholders, alignment with other initiatives, leveraging on public finance, as well as knowledge sharing and capacity building activities.

+++++

Media enquiries:

Secretariat of the GIP

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE The Green Investment Principles
DUBLIN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive Regenerative Braking System Market By Vehicle Type, By System, By Propulsion Type: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to this report the automotive regenerative braking system market was valued at $5.66 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $23.2 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 15.5% from 2021 to 2030.

Asia-Pacific dominates the market in terms of revenue, followed by Europe, North America, and LAMEA. China dominated the market 2020. However, Europe is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period, due to technological developments across the region.

The automotive regenerative braking system is a kinetic energy recovery system employed in energy-saving vehicles that recovers the energy lost during braking and then uses this energy to recharge the battery of vehicle. The amount of recoverable energy depends upon vehicle speed & stopping pattern. Furthermore, 5%-10% of transmitted energy can be saved by using a regenerative braking system. Presently, energy recovery systems in vehicles are used in passenger as well as commercial vehicles to improve fuel economy & reduce vehicular emissions. As a result, the need for regenerative braking system market has evolved to develop a better fuel economy, gaining significant growth in the global automotive industry.

In addition, the automotive regenerative braking system market has witnessed significant growth in recent years, owing to adoption of regenerative braking systems in every automobile, increase in sales of electric cars, and proliferation of component manufacturers in Asia-Pacific.

Asia-Pacific held over 75% of the market revenue share in 2020, which was driven by multiple electric vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota, SAIC, BAIC, and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation & Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Furthermore, industry participants expand their production facilities in India, Japan, and China to serve a more extensive consumer base. For instance, in 2021, the AISIN Corporation announced its business expansion plan by 2025 with the investment of 110 billion yen to ensure the target of reducing carbon emissions by developing the economy of EVs with the improvements in electric units, thermal management, cooperative regenerative braking system, and body products. Thus, increase in adoption and implementation of strategies to enhance vehicle efficiency significantly boost the growth of regenerative braking system during the forecast period.

Factors such as stringent vehicular emission norms & regulations and rise in the number of electric vehicles & EV infrastructure are expected to drive the growth of the automotive regenerative braking system market. However, factors such as increase in overall cost & weight of vehicles and high repair & maintenance costs hinder the market growth. Moreover, technological advancement in the two-wheeler-based regenerative braking system and the adoption of the regenerative braking system in heavy vehicles is expected to provide ample opportunities for the growth of the market across the globe.

Key Market Segments

By Vehicle Type

Two Wheeler

Passenger Car

Commercial Vehicle

By System

Electric

Hydraulics

Others

By Propulsion Type

BEV

HEV

PHEV

By Region

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

U.K.

Germany

France

Netherlands

Norway

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Rest Of Asia Pacific

LAMEA

Latin America

Middle East

Africa

Key Market Players

ADVICS CO. LTD

AISIN Corporation

Continental AG

DENSO CORPORATION

robert bosch gmbh

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Mazda Motor Corporation

faurecia

Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd

Maxwell Technologies

Key Topics Covered:

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CHAPTER 3: MARKET OVERVIEW

CHAPTER 4: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY SYSTEM

CHAPTER 5: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPE

CHAPTER 6: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY PROPULSION TYPE

CHAPTER 7: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY REGION

CHAPTER 8: COMPANY LANDSCAPE

CHAPTER 9: COMPANY PROFILES

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rnol3p

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Polaris Market Research recently published [115+ Pages] research report on "Long Read Sequencing Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Technology (Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequencing, Nanopore Sequencing); By Product; By Application; By Workflow; By End-Use; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 - 2030" in its research database.

According to the research report, the global long read sequencing market size & share was valued at USD 1.35 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 4.40 Billion By 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.4% during the forecast period.

What is Long Read Sequencing? What is the Expected Long Read Sequencing Market Size & Share?

Overview

Long-read sequencing, also called third-generation sequencing, is a technique for reading part or all of the DNA of an organism. This approach is capable of sequencing traditionally difficult long genomes of between 10,000 and 100,000 base pairs at a time. In other DNA sequencing techniques, DNA requires to be divided and then amplified. This method is being researched, and it is expected that there will be enhancements to the high error rates.

Long read sequencing technique has higher accuracy, and it can easily detect repeats or copy number variations. Other benefits include genome assembly, variant detection, haplotype phasing, and portability. Increasing awareness of long read sequencing in modified medicines is driving the demand of the long read sequencing market. Rising technological developments also fuel industry development.

Request Sample Copy of Research Report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/long-read-sequencing-market/request-for-sample

(The sample of this report is readily available on request. The report sample contains a brief introduction to the research report, Table of Contents, Graphical introduction of regional analysis, Top players in the market with their revenue analysis and our research methodology.)

Our Free Sample Report Includes

Report introduction, overview, and in-depth industry analysis

Breakdown data by regions, type, players, and applications

Competitive landscape and leading competitor market shares

110+ pages research report

Offers chapter-wise instruction on request

Includes market presence across different geographies with share, size, and trends

Updated list of tables and figures

The report covers top players with their business strategies

Factors and fact research methodology

Some of the Top Market Players Are:

BaseClear B.V.

Future Genomics Technologies B.V.

Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Genome Transcriptome Facility of Bordeaux

Institute of Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC)

MicrobesNG

NextOmics

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited

Pacific Biosciences of California Inc.

Quantapore Inc.

Stratos Genomics Inc.

Takara Bio Inc

To Know More About Addition Information on Key Players, Download a Report PDF Brochure

Growth Driving Factors

A rise in the use of long-read sequencing technologies in the clinical sector to push the market

Innovations and developments by major players for advanced equipment production are propelling the demand for market. Rising number of people facing genetic disorders, such as cancers as well as chromosomal disorders, has fueled the long read sequencing market size. The industry is enlarging due to the increased use of long-read sequencing technologies in the clinical sector. This is because the technique has high portability and real-time speed.

Moreover, rising popularity of personalized medicine coupled with various advantages offered by these technologies boosting the long read sequencing market sales. A surge in the application of sequence analysis methodologies in medical institutes for academic purposes owing to the increasing investments in R&D activities is estimated to propel the growth of the long read sequencing industry over the forecast period. For instance, in January 2022, Illumina Inc. made an agreement with Nashville Biosciences for the development of medicines based on large-scale genomic technologies.

Directly Purchase a copy of report with TOC @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/checkouts/15801

Recent Developments

In April 2019 , researchers from Oxford University announced a collaboration with Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to use nanopore sequencing to understand the mechanisms and patterns of DNA replication.

, researchers from announced a collaboration with Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to use nanopore sequencing to understand the mechanisms and patterns of DNA replication. In January 2022 , Google signed an agreement with Pacific Biosciences of California to optimize long read sequencing data analysis using machine learning tools.

Segmental Analysis

Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequencing is likely to show the fastest growth throughout the forecast period

Based on technology, the single-molecule real-time sequencing segment holds the largest long read sequencing market share and is estimated to continue to grow during the foreseen period. Many scientists use this technique to identify methylation and other base modification. It has the ability to achieve high consensus accuracy because of its long read length and low systematic bias, which is anticipated to boost the technique demand.

Consumables witnessed the largest market share

On the basis of product long read sequencing market segmentations, consumables segment held the biggest revenue share in 2021. Consumables are utilized for preparing a template which transforms samples like genomics DNA, cDNA, or amplicons, into the SMRTbell library. Samples can also be multiplexed to enhance efficiency using consumables. In addition, each sequencing utilizes SMRT cells and SMRT sequencing reagents. DNA or its categories are sequenced using appliances like PacBio RS System, PromethION, MinION, GridION, and Sequel Systems for different applications in cancer research, human genomics, epigenetics, and transcriptome analysis.

Cancer is anticipated to generate the significant revenue share

Based on the application, the cancer segment dominated the market and is supposed to be the fastest-developing segment long read sequencing market forecasts. One of the key applications of long-read sequencing is that it is adaptable for illuminating allele-resolution mutation statuses and the overall structures of complicated cancer genomes.

Request for Discount on this Report Before Purchase @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/long-read-sequencing-market/request-for-discount-pricing

Long Read Sequencing Market: Report Scope

Report Attribute Details Revenue forecast in 2030 USD 4.40 Billion Market size value in 2021 USD 1.35 Billion Expected CAGR Growth 14.4% from 2022 - 2030 Base Year 2021 Forecast Year 2022 - 2030 Top Market Players BaseClear B.V., Future Genomics Technologies B.V., Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Genome Transcriptome Facility of Bordeaux, Institute of Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), MicrobesNG, NextOmics, Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited, Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc., Quantapore, Inc., Stratos Genomics, Inc., Takara Bio, Inc. Segments Covered By Product, By Application, By Technology, By Workflow, By End-Use, By Region Customization Options Customized purchase options are available to meet any research needs. Explore customized purchase options

Geographic Overview

Long read sequencing market in North America generates the highest market revenue

Based on geography, North America witnesses the largest revenue share owing to the presence of leading players in North America, such as Pacific Bioscience. Further, the controllable framework that enables approval and usage of genomic tests in the area propels the market growth in the region. The market is also booming in North America due to the rising genomic procedures for clinical and academic use in the U.S.

Moreover, Asia Pacific experienced the fastest growth in the industry. This can be attributed to the growing penetration of key players in emerging Asian markets coupled with a surge in investments in advanced diagnostic methods.

Browse the Detail Report "Long Read Sequencing Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Technology (Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequencing, Nanopore Sequencing); By Product; By Application; By Workflow; By End-Use; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 - 2030" with in-depth TOC: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/long-read-sequencing-market

For Additional Information OR Media Enquiry, Please Mail At: [email protected]

Polaris Market Research has segmented the long read sequencing market report based on, technology, product, application, work-flow, end-uses, and regions:

By Technology Outlook

Single-Molecule Real-time sequencing

Nanopore sequencing

By Product Outlook

Instruments

Consumables

Services

By Application Outlook

Identification & fine mapping of structural variation

Tandem repeat sequencing

Pseudogene discrimination

Resolving allele phasing

Reproductive genomics

Cancer

Viral & microbial sequencing

Others

By Workflow Outlook

Pre-sequencing

Sequencing

Data analysis

By End-Use Outlook

Academic research

Clinical research

Hospitals and clinics

Pharma and biotech entities

Others

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 )

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.

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SOURCE Polaris Market Research
DUBLIN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Transdermal Drug Delivery System Market - Forecasts from 2022 to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) market was valued at US$5.668 billion in 2020and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.89% over the forecast period to reach a total market size of US$7.917 billion by 2027.

A transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) is a type of controlled drug delivery system in which medicines are administered via the skin at a predefined and regulated pace. These systems are used to treat a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular and central nervous system disorders. Scopolamine (for motion sickness), nicotine (for quitting smoking), nitro-glycerine (for angina), and lidocaine (for shingles pain) are drugs that can be administered through skin patches.

These devices provide a number of advantages, including a prolonged therapeutic effect, fewer side effects, greater bioavailability, enhanced patient compliance, and the capacity to easily discontinue medication therapy. The appendageal, transcellular, and intercellular pathways are the three major routes of drug entry. The growing geriatric population, as well as the increase in chronic conditions such as orthopaedic diseases and other disorders among the elderly, is driving up demand for transdermal drug delivery patches.

Furthermore, transdermal drug delivery systems have numerous advantages, such as improved safety, effectiveness, and reduced inter-patient variability of dosages. The increased demand for self-administration of medicines for diagnoses requiring long-term therapy, such as diabetes, is boosting this industry. In the event of diabetes, insulin must be continuously delivered into the patient's body via injections. The use of insulin injections on a regular basis causes discomfort and increases the chance of infection transmission.

The growing patient preference for pain-free medication administration has resulted in a considerable increase in the adoption rate of drug-administering adhesive skin patches, which is expected to offer the market strong growth potential. Furthermore, the inclusion of transdermal systems will improve patient self-reliance by significantly reducing the frequency of hospital visits and cumulative treatment expenses.

North America has the largest market share in the transdermal drug delivery market. The market is expecting favourable growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is mostly attributed to the development of unique treatments. For instance, the United States Food and Drug Administration authorised "T3X," an over-the-counter ointment formulated by Advanced Penetration Technology, in August 2020. It is authorised for use against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Withing 30 seconds, T3X was effectively able to eradicate the virus. According to GLOBOCAN statistics, about 105,000 new cases of melanoma skin cancer were recorded in the North American region in 2020, with a projected increase to 142,000 by 2040. The rising prevalence of skin-related diseases is projected to fuel market expansion. Furthermore, increased product releases are projected to drive market growth in this area.

Growth Factors:

Globally, the prevalence of chronic diseases is increasing, as is the demand for therapeutics.

The market for transdermal drug delivery systems is expanding due to increased chronic disease prevalence, rising healthcare costs, and a growing geriatric population. Furthermore, this market is being fueled by a high demand for self-administration of medications for diseases that require long-term therapy, such as diabetes. Insulin must be administered into the patient's body on a regular basis in order for diabetes to be controlled.

As a result, the need for automated medication delivery systems has increased in recent years. Several unique medications that can be administered by transdermal drug delivery have been introduced. This positive market activity is are likely to fuel the market expansion. Furthermore, the growing preference of patients and physicians for pain-free medicine administration, which is projected to drive market demand throughout the forecast period, is a significant contributor to market growth. These variables are anticipated to enhance growth prospects throughout the forecasted period.

Key Players

3M

ProSolus Inc.

Zosano Pharma Corporation

Medherant Ltd.

Tapemark

Toyochem Co. Ltd.

LivCorp Inc.

Epinamics GmbH

AdhexPharma

Sparsha Pharma International Pvt Ltd.

Market Segmentation:

By Type

Patches

Gels & Ointments

By Application

Neurologic Conditions

Pain Management

Nicotine Cessation

Cardiovascular

Others

By End-User

Hospitals & Clinics

Surgical Centers

Home Care Settings

By Geography

North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

South America

Brazil

Argentina

Others

Europe

UK

France

Germany

Italy

Others

Middle East and Africa

and Saudi Arabia

UAE

Others

Asia Pacific

Japan

China

India

Thailand

Taiwan

Indonesia

Others

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Market Dynamics



5. Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems Market Analysis, By Type



6. Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems Market Analysis, By Application



7. Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems Market Analysis, By End-User



8. Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems Market Analysis, By Geography



9. Competitive Environment and Analysis



10. Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2n5y3u

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
VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Hapbee Technologies, Inc. (TSXV: HAPB) (OTCQB: HAPBF) (FSE: HA1) ("Hapbee" or the "Company"), the digital wellness technology company is pleased to announce that it has completed a non-brokered private placement of units of the Company ("Units") for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of CAD$1,566,632 (the "Offering").

"This capital enables us to continue to evolve our products and to expand our market presence and manufacturing on the heels of the successful launch of our game-changing new device  The Smart Sleep Pad," said Yona Shtern, CEO and Executive Chairman of Hapbee.

The Company achieved a milestone in September when it pre-sold 992 devices units in the month  the most in a single month in the Company's short history - primarily driven by the popularity of The Smart Sleep Pad. It was designed especially for sleep with an easier-to-use, more comfortable form factor and a larger magnetic field diameter which early users report provides an even more effective improvement of their sleep patterns. First production shipments of the new device are expected to begin later this week and we anticipate that manufacturing will continue to ramp to meet actual and forecasted demand.

As part of the Offering, the Company issued 22,380,459 Units at a price of CAD$0.07 per Unit (the "Offering Price"), which consisted in the issuance of 22,380,459 subordinate voting shares of the Company ("Shares") and 22,380,459 Share purchase warrants ("Warrants") with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one Share at a price of CAD$0.15 per Share for a period of 2 years from the closing date of the Offering. The expiry date of the Warrants will be subject to prior acceleration, at the discretion of the Company, should the volume weighted average price of the Company's listed Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"), or any other stock exchange on which the Company's Shares are then listed, is greater than CAD$0.50 for a period of 10 consecutive trading days, the whole in accordance with the terms of the Warrants. Each Share and Warrant issued (including the Shares underlying the Warrants) will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day following the closing of the Offering (the "Hold Period") pursuant to Canadian securities laws.

Certain existing insiders of the Company including members of the Executive Team and Board of Directors participated in the Offering by purchasing an aggregate of 4,416,302 Units. The portion of such participation by the insiders constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of TSXV Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company intends to rely on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involves related parties, exceeded 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

Any net proceeds received by the Company from the Offering are intended to be used for product development, manufacturing, business development, working capital and general corporate purposes.

The Offering remains subject to the final approval of the TSXV.

The securities offered pursuant to the Offering have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any state of the United States (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) (the "United States"), and may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of a U.S. Person (as defined in Rule 902(k) of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) or a person in the United States, except in transactions exempt from registration under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities offered hereby within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons.

Option and RSU Grants

The Company is also announcing that it has issued an aggregate of 1,400,000 stock options ("Options") and an aggregate of 400,000 restricted stock units ("RSUs") to certain insiders of the Company. The Options have an exercise price of CAD$0.065 per share and are exercisable for a period of seven years from the date of issuance. The RSUs are based on a market price of CAD$0.065 and will vest in equal instalments over a period of three years.

About Hapbee

Hapbee is a digital wellness technology company that aims to help people take control of how they sleep, perform and feel. Hapbee's digital wellness library of Blends and Routines utilizes patented ultra-low radio frequency energy (ulRFE), designed to help optimize users' sleep, productivity, recovery, and downtime. Hapbee devices and subscriptions are available for purchase at Hapbee.com and through a growing network of select distributors.

You can learn more about how Hapbee works at www.hapbee.com/science.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This news release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Any statements about the intended use of proceeds from the Offering are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Company's ability to meet its planned product marketing and development initiatives and the Company's ability to achieve its e-commerce rollout and full-scale commercial launch as anticipated.

Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, delays in design, production, manufacturing, development or releases of signal blends, collection of data from customer use, or the Company may not be able to achieve its targets as anticipated or at all; changes in legislation and regulations; increase in operating costs; equipment failures; failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations; litigation; the loss of key directors, employees, advisors or consultants and fees charged by service providers. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those described in Hapbee's annual information form dated January 27, 2021, a copy of which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Neither 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.

SOURCE Hapbee Technologies Inc.
By Trend

The UN Office in Azerbaijan congratulated the Azerbaijani people on November 9 - the State Flag Day, Trend reports, referring to the office's tweet.

"UN in Azerbaijan extends its warm congratulations to the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of State Flag Day. We value our partnership with Azerbaijan and stand ready to work together to achieve peace, prosperity & sustainable development. Happy State Flag Day!" the tweet said.

The flag, which is one of the official symbols of the Republic of Azerbaijan (along with the anthem and coat of arms), was first approved on November 9, 1918 by the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic republic in the Muslim East.

On October 18, 1991 by constitutional act "On State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan", the Republic of Azerbaijan, as the legal successor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, restored its state symbols, including the state flag.

By the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dated November 18, 2009, November 9 is celebrated in Azerbaijan as the State Flag Day.

---
NEW YORK and TORONTO, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. ("iAnthus" or the "Company") (CSE: IAN) (OTCPK: ITHUF), which owns, operates, and partners with regulated cannabis operations across the United States, today reported its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022. The Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which includes its unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and the related management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations, can be accessed on the Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC's") website at www.sec.gov , the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and on the Company's website at www.iAnthus.com.

Third Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights

Revenue of $39.4 million , a sequential decrease of 10% from Q2 2022 and a decrease of 20% from the same period in the prior year.

, a sequential decrease of 10% from Q2 2022 and a decrease of 20% from the same period in the prior year. Gross profit of $16.2 million , a sequential decrease of 18% when compared to Q2 2022 and a decrease of 38% from the same period in the prior year.

, a sequential decrease of 18% when compared to Q2 2022 and a decrease of 38% from the same period in the prior year. Gross margin of 41.1%, reflecting a sequential decrease of 4.1% from Q2 2022 and a decrease of 11.8% from the same period in the prior year.

Net loss of $22.0 million , or a loss of $0.00 per share, compared to a loss of $373.6 million or a loss of $0.65 per share in Q2 2022, and a loss of $15.8 million , or a loss of $0.09 per share, in the same period in the prior year.

, or a loss of per share, compared to a loss of or a loss of per share in Q2 2022, and a loss of , or a loss of per share, in the same period in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA(6) loss of $0.3 million , a sequential decrease from $2.3 million in Q2 2022 and a decrease from $8.1 million from the same period in the prior year. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures. Reconciliation tables of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as used in this news release to GAAP are included below.

Table 1: Financial Results in thousands of US$, except share and per share amounts (unaudited) Revenue Q3 2022 $ 39,371 Q2 2022 $ 43,481 Q3 2021 $ 49,263 Gross profit 16,181 19,668 26,057 Gross margin 41.1 % 45.2 % 52.9 % Net loss (21,995) (373,562) (15,835) Net loss per share 0.00 (0.65) (0.09)

Table 2: Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA in thousands of US$ Q3 2022 Q2 2022 Q3 2021 Net loss (21,995) (373,562) (15,835) Depreciation and amortization 8,365 7,394 8,132 Interest expense, net 3,448 5,777 5,822 Income tax expense 4,325 5,391 4,090 EBITDA (Non-GAAP) (6) $ (5,857) $(355,000) $ 2,209 Adjustments Impairment loss   127 Write-downs and other charges (1,139) 154  Inventory reserve (19) 177  Accretion expense 1,020 775 767 Share-based compensation (1) 4,657 21,372 1,613 Non-monetary gain from MPX NJ acquisition    Loss/(Gain) from change in fair value of financial instruments 134 138 300 Debt obligation fees (2)  390 423 Non-recurring charges (3) 1,087 18,218 2,376 Loss on debt extinguishment (4)  316,577  Other income (5) (190) (527)  Total Adjustments $ 5,550 $ 357,274 $ 5,606 Adjusted EBITDA (Non-GAAP) (6) $ (307) $ 2,274 $ 7,815 Margin (1) % 5 % 16 %

(1) Q2 2022 reflects $21.0 million of share-based compensation expense related to the graded vesting from the restricted stock units ("RSUs") granted as a result of the consummation of the Company's previously announced recapitalization transaction (the "Recapitalization Transaction"). Q3 2022 is ordinary course quarterly share-based compensation expense from the ongoing vesting of RSUs. (2) Reflects accrued interest on the exit fee associated with the holders of the Company's 13.0% senior secured convertible debentures. As the Recapitalization Transaction closed on June 24, 2022, the Company will no longer incur debt obligation fees. (3) Includes one-time, non-recurring costs related to the Company's Recapitalization Transaction, strategic review process, ongoing legal disputes, severance, and other non-recurring costs associated with having become a U.S. reporting company. (4) One-time loss of $316.6 million on debt extinguishment related to closing of the Recapitalization Transaction. (5) Q3 2022 reflects $0.2 million Employee Retention Tax Credits ("ERTC"). Q2 2022 includes accounts payable write-offs of $0.3 million and ERTC Tax Credits of $0.2 million. (6) See "Non-GAAP Financial Information" below for more information regarding the Company's use of non-GAAP financial measures.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

This release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined by the SEC. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP are included in the tables above. This information should be considered as supplemental in nature and not as a substitute for, or superior to, any measure of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

In evaluating our business, we consider and use EBITDA as a supplemental measure of operating performance. We define EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. We present EBITDA because we believe it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties as a measure of financial performance. We define Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA before stock-based compensation, accretion expense, write-downs and impairments, gains and losses from changes in fair values of financial instruments, income or losses from equity-accounted investments, changes in accounting policy, non-recurring costs related to the Company's Recapitalization Transaction, and litigation costs related to ongoing legal proceedings.

The terms EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not defined under GAAP, and are not a measure of operating income, operating performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as an analytical tool, and when assessing the Company's operating performance, investors should not consider EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA in isolation, or as a substitute for net income (loss) or other consolidated income statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Among other things, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect the Company's actual cash expenditures. Other companies may calculate similar measures differently than us, limiting their usefulness as comparative tools. We compensate for these limitations by relying on GAAP results and using EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA only as supplemental information.

About iAnthus

iAnthus owns and operates licensed cannabis cultivation, processing and dispensary facilities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.iAnthus.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this news release contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of management, are not guarantees of performance and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. These forward-looking statements should, therefore, be considered in light of various important factors, including those set forth in Company's reports that it files from time to time with the SEC and the Canadian securities regulators which you should review 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, as amended by the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 filed with the SEC on August 15, 2022. When used in this news release, words such as "will," "could," "plan," "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "believe", "should" and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to the Company's financial performance, business development and results of operations.

These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as predictions of future events, and the Company cannot assure you that the events or circumstances discussed or reflected in these statements will be achieved or will occur. If such forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. You should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by the Company or any other person that it will achieve its objectives and plans in any specified timeframe, or at all. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or release any revisions to these forward- looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this news release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release.

SOURCE iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc.
Kreos Capital, a leading growth debt provider, invests $10 million to accelerate Ibex's AI deployments and new customers, paving way for further expansions

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex), the leader in AI-powered cancer diagnostics, today announced it had secured $10 million in funding from Kreos Capital.

The announcement follows a major expansion of Ibex's commercial footprint over the past few months. Ibex recently signed several major contracts, including an expansion of its AI deployment at Medipath, the largest network of private pathology labs in France, and another expansion at a major pan-European diagnostics provider. Ibex has also seen a series of new customer wins across multiple geographies, as well as the deployment of its Galen AI platform for routine use at a major US health system.

Ibex will use the new resources to strengthen and expand its US team and support new customer deployments, fueling further business growth. The company will also accelerate R&D initiatives, focusing on adding new applications to the Galen platform to enable new tissue diagnostics and automated biomarker quantification, and enhancing collaboration with leading digital pathology providers.

Galen, the first and most widely deployed AI technology in pathology, is used in routine clinical use at laboratories, hospitals and health systems worldwide and supports pathologists across numerous diagnostic tasks during the review of breast, prostate, and gastric biopsies. Galen demonstrated outstanding outcomes across clinical studies performed in multiple pathology labs and diagnostic workflows, improving the quality of cancer diagnosis, reducing turnaround time, boosting productivity, and improving user experience for pathologists1,2,3,4,5.

"The recent milestones we have accomplished demonstrate our continued commitment to providing every patient with an accurate, timely and personalized cancer diagnosis powered by our AI technology," said Joseph Mossel, CEO and Co-founder of Ibex Medical Analytics. "This latest funding from Kreos Capital validates our prominence in the market and will further fuel our growth in line with our commercial successes, strong product road-map and ability to execute across multiple markets."

The funding comes as an addition to Ibex's $52 million funding to date, with investors including Octopus Ventures, 83North, aMoon, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures and Dell Technologies Capital.

Aris Constantinides, General Partner of Kreos Capital commented, "We are proud to be able to support the Ibex team in their endeavors to transform cancer diagnosis with AI. Ibex's commercial success in the digital pathology and AI market, their growing installed base and ability to drive adoption with customers, together with significant strides the company has made in developing their product offering, position Ibex as leaders in one of the fastest growing segments of healthcare technology."

About Ibex Medical Analytics

Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex) is transforming cancer diagnostics with world-leading, clinical grade AI-powered solutions, empowering physicians to provide accurate, timely and personalized cancer diagnosis for every patient. Our Galen suite of solutions is the first and most widely deployed AI-technology in pathology and used as part of everyday routine, supporting pathologists and providers worldwide in improving the quality and accuracy of diagnosis, implementing comprehensive quality control, reducing turnaround times and boosting productivity with more efficient workflows. Ibex's Artificial Intelligence technology is built on Deep Learning algorithms trained by a team of pathologists, data scientists and software engineers. For additional company information, please visit https://ibex-ai.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Kreos Capital

Kreos Capital is the leading growth debt provider in Europe and Israel, backing high-growth companies through every stage of their life-cycle. Kreos targets investments in all areas of the Technology and Healthcare sectors and, to date, has committed 4.7 billion in more than 740 portfolio company transactions, across 18 countries. With over 2.0 billion in current funds under management Kreos can invest between 2 million and 100 million per transaction in both public and private companies across all stages. https://kreoscapital.com/

Media Contact

Nechama Feuerstein

FINN Partners

[email protected]

+1-551-444-0784

[1] Pantanowitz et al., An artificial intelligence algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis in whole slide images of core needle biopsies: a blinded clinical validation and deployment study, THE LANCET Digital Health Aug 2020

[2] Vincent-Salomon et al., A Multi-Feature AI-Based Solution for Cancer Diagnosis in Breast Biopsies: A Prospective Blinded Multi-Site Clinical Study, European Congress of Pathology 2021

[3] Comperat et al., Clinical Level AI-Based Solution for Primary Diagnosis and Reporting of Prostate Biopsies in Routine Use: A Prospective Reader Study, European Congress of Pathology 2021

[4] Raoux et al., Novel AI-Based Solution for Supporting Primary Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Increases the Accuracy and Efficiency of Reporting in Clinical Routine, USCAP 2021

[5] Sandbank et al., Validation and Clinical Deployment of an AI-Based Solution for Detection of Gastric Adenocarcinoma and Helicobacter pylori in Gastric Biopsies, USCAP 2022

Logo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1839936/Ibex_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Ibex Medical Analytics
Know what SOFi hates?

MIAMI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Toxic chemicals are commonplace in the world of food and beverage.

The widespread use of PFAS-based packaging, aka "forever chemicals," means people are unknowingly ingesting dangerous chemicals, harming the environment, and perpetuating the system that enables their use.

Save space with the SOFi Cup Carrier. Free your hands with the SOFi Cup Carrier.

PFAS are linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes, including reproductive harm, cancer, liver damage, and other ailments.

That's why SOFi is excited to introduce its latest product for food and beverage businesses: The SOFi Cup Carrier.

This 100% compostable cup carrier is made from spunlace cotton  the same material as flushable wipes  and biodegrades in less than 180 days in a landfill or marine environment.

When customers use the SOFi Cup Carrier, they simply place a beverage in its center and pull up its opposite edges, offering a hands-free carrying experience. Multiple drinks? Grab a few more carriers and tote them like shopping bags.

The SOFi Cup Carrier also offers business owners a space-economical alternative: They come in packs of 100 and sit on the counter like a pack of napkins. Bulky pulp or cardboard carriers take up significant space in small cafes or restaurants and often require customers to use two hands.

SOFi's lightweight, durable cup carriers can hold beverages large and small, and their eco-chic design will prompt Instagram posts and conversations wherever they're used.

The SOFi Cup Carrier is also customizable, allowing businesses to design cup carriers to create a seamless brand experience.

For a product that's used for such a short period, traditional cup carriers carry a significant environmental impact.

Those dull, brown cup carriers that are common in fast food are made from PFAS-based molded pulp, which takes years to biodegrade. When they eventually break down, PFAS chemicals seep into soil and waterways, contaminating water and wildlife.

And when consumed, PFAS can stay in fish, wildlife, and people's bodies for years. For example, one study found that fish in the Great Lakes region routinely contain PFAS chemicals in their tissue, which ultimately land on dinner tables. Another found that PFAS chemicals tend to concentrate in human lungs.

The SOFi Cup Carrier joins a lineup of other compostable products, including the SOFi Cold Cup and SOFi Straws.

SOFi is thrilled to release this product and to live its mission of creating a more environmentally-friendly world.

Join SOFi in building the future of drinking responsibly.

Check out our SOFi Cup Carriers here.

Media Contact:

SOFi Products

3[email protected]

305-572-0077

SOURCE SOFi Products
KANAZAWA, Japan, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a study recently published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, researchers from Kanazawa University use high-speed microscopy to capture the dynamics of nanosized sacs released from cells.

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are tiny sacs released by cells to deliver chemical messengers to other cells. Since sEVs are compatible with biological tissue they are being investigated as carriers for nanodrugs. However, the impact of physiological stresssuch as changes in temperatureon the structure of sEVs is obscure. A research team led by Richard Wong and Keesiang Lim at Kanazawa University has now used an advanced form of microscopy to elucidate these changes in real time.

The temperature, acid, and salt levels in our bodies can fluctuate with factors such as disease. Thus, research on sEVs for drug development requires a deeper understanding of how stressful environments affect the vesicles' structure. For their study, the team first isolated sEVs from cells. Next, using a technique known as high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) the structure of sEVs was revealed to be either spherical or ellipsoidal in shape. HS-AFM also enabled the researchers to accurately measure the sizes of sEVs without rupturing or damaging the vesicular membranes.

The effect of varying temperatures on sEVs was the first parameter assessed. At temperatures higher than normal (37C) body temperature the vesicles showed deformations in shape coupled with a loss of elasticity of their membranes. On the other hand, sEVs in cold conditions (4C) had a reduced ability to release any internal material effectively.

The researchers then studied the effects of pH (acid levels) on sEVs. The physiological pH of the bloodstream is 7.4. A pH less than 7 indicates acidic conditions and anything more than that is termed alkaline. The sEVs seemed to maintain their shape in acidic conditions (pH 4) but in alkaline conditions (pH 10) they were deformed. However, at a pH of 4 the sEVs were smaller in size suggesting their internal contents had been lost.

Now, salt levels (known as osmotic pressure) at a concentration of 0.15 M are healthy. However, changes in osmotic pressure can have detrimental effects on cells. As conditions were gradually changed it was found that the spherical nature of sEVs decreased at high salt concentrations (1.8 M) but seemed to remain intact at low concentrations (0 M). After a while, vesicles in high osmotic conditions showed ruptured membranes.

An understanding of these dynamics is imperative to formulating sEVs as pharmaceutical aids in different disease conditions. This study established HS-AFM as a useful tool to depict changes in sEVs under various physiological conditions in real time. "In summary, our study demonstrates the feasibility of HS-AFM for structural characterization and assessment of nanoparticles," concludes the team.

Background

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs): sEVs are sacs containing chemicals such as proteins, DNA, or metabolites released by cells. Usually playing the role of messengers, sEVs then deliver these chemicals to neighboring or distant cells. Hence, their shape, size, and elasticity are important for sEVs to function properly. For example, sEVs with reduced membrane elasticity might not be able to release their contents effectively.

sEVs are typically less than 200 nm in size and ferry around very small molecules. They are, therefore, under investigation for their potential role in delivering nanosized drugs/vaccines or chemicals used for diagnosis. The physical properties of sEVs in under varying physiological stress are, thus, important for understanding their behavior in different tissues and disease conditions.

High-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM): Traditional AFM is a form of microscopy that utilizes a pointed lever grazing on the surface of molecules to depict their topography. As the lever moves about, it transmits signals that help create an image of the molecule's structure. However, the rate at which signals are emitted in AFM are too low to capture any dynamic changes. HS-AFM, on the other hand, enables a faster scanning of molecules such that images can be acquired in real-time. Even minor changes to a molecule's structure can be accurately captured.

Reference

Elma Sakinatus Sajidah, Keesiang Lim, Tomoyoshi Yamano, Goro Nishide, Yujia Qiu, Takeshi Yoshida, Hanbo Wang, Akiko Kobayashi, Masaharu Hazawa, Firli Dewi, Rikinari Hanayama, Toshio Ando, Richard Wong. Spatiotemporal tracking of small extracellular vesicle nanotopology in response to physicochemical stresses revealed by HS-AFM. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 2022.

DOI: 10.1002/jev2.12275

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jev2.12275

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Figure-1.png

Figure 1. Structural changes of small extracellular vesicle (sEV) in response to physicochemical stresses. sEV secreted for cell-to-cell communication, for example sending biomolecules to nuclear pore complex (NPC). HS-AFM as a nanoimaging tool show changes in the structure of sEVs at varying temperatures, pH, and osmotic pressure.

Elma Sajidah

About Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/

Nano Life Science Institute (NanoLSI), Kanazawa University is a research center established in 2017 as part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The objective of this initiative is to form world-tier research centers. NanoLSI combines the foremost knowledge of bio-scanning probe microscopy to establish 'nano-endoscopic techniques' to directly image, analyze, and manipulate biomolecules for insights into mechanisms governing life phenomena such as diseases.

About Kanazawa University

http://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/e/

As the leading comprehensive university on the Sea of Japan coast, Kanazawa University has contributed greatly to higher education and academic research in Japan since it was founded in 1949. The University has three colleges and 17 schools offering courses in subjects that include medicine, computer engineering, and humanities.

The University is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in Kanazawa  a city rich in history and culture. The city of Kanazawa has a highly respected intellectual profile since the time of the fiefdom (1598-1867). Kanazawa University is divided into two main campuses: Kakuma and Takaramachi for its approximately 10,200 students including 600 from overseas.

Contact:

Hiroe Yoneda

Vice Director of Public Affairs

WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

Kanazawa University

Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +81 (76) 234-4550

SOURCE Kanazawa University
Trusted advisor in operations consulting adds world-class provider of AI capabilities

CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kearney, the leading global management consulting firm, today announced that it has acquired OPTANO, a top European provider of AI-powered operations optimization solutions. Now operating as "OPTANO, a Kearney company," OPTANO will support Kearney on operations engagements, chiefly in AI-powered end-to-end supply chain projects and large-scale operations transformations while continuing working with its existing clients.

"Kearney is the world leader in operations consulting, and adding OPTANO to the firm will enable us to maintain our position and do even more to help our clients optimize their supply chains in support of their growth, cost, resilience, and sustainability goals," said Suketu Gandhi, global co-lead of Kearney's operations and performance practice.

"Supporting our clients in making their operations future-proof requires AI-powered offerings. OPTANO adds just the right solutions to complement Kearney's preeminent data and analytics capabilities for tomorrow's operations challenges," added Stephan Krubasik, global co-lead of Kearney analytics.

"This acquisition builds upon a four-year history of mutual partnership and achievement that has seen our two firms successfully collaborate on more than 30 Kearney client projects," noted Dr. Marc Lakner, global co-lead of Kearney's operations and performance practice. "Our clients have been very impressed by the joint value we have delivered them, and we are confident we will continue to do so as we look to bring our new AI-powered operations capabilities to Kearney clients worldwide."

"Our OPTANO platform enables us to rapidly create enterprise-ready software for virtually every business and its planning puzzles," added OPTANO managing director Dr. Ingmar Steinzen.

Leadership at Kearney and OPTANO believe that their cultures and project approaches are highly complementary. Both firms pride themselves on their ability to build transparent, open, and constructively honest relationships. Likewise, both firms are known to be highly collaborative, with the ability to work alongside clients through implementation to help them succeed and deepen the benefits of their work long after a project ends.

"Among the many benefits OPTANO brings is our adaptability to many different operations challenges," said OPTANO managing director Dr. Jens Peter Kempkes. "From end-to-end network optimization to complex portfolio optimization to planning of transport solutions, our AI-powered solutions support clients in addressing the toughest operations challenges. All of us at OPTANO are very excited to become part of the Kearney family."

About Kearney

Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm. For nearly 100 years, we have been the trusted advisor to C-suites, government bodies, and nonprofit organizations. Our people make us who we are. Driven to be the difference between a big idea and making it happen, we help our clients break through. To learn more about Kearney, please visit www.kearney.com.

About OPTANO

Since 2009, OPTANO has provided innovative AI solutions, enabling businesses to plan faster, better, and more easily. Thanks to mathematical optimization, we find the optimal solution to any problem. Our solution is customized to suit your specific needs. Whether it's supply chain, production, or network optimization, OPTANO makes your planning process efficient, clear, and flexible. OPTANO also supports you in your strategic decisions using prescriptive analytics to provide sound recommendations for action and what-if scenarios. Visit us at www.optano.com and find out how we can take your planning to the next level together.

Media Contacts:

Ellie Johnson/Ryan Dicovitsky

Dukas Linden Public Relations

[email protected]

212-704-7385

SOURCE Kearney
RIMINI, Italy, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sungrow, the global leading inverter and energy storage solution supplier for renewables, showcased its industry-leading residential and commercial solutions for the Italian market with the Company's movable power truck exhibited at Key Energy during the 8th-11th November in Rimini. Its product portfolio ensures a more accessible, flexible, and reliable local renewable energy system.

Sungrow Exhibits at Key Energy 2022

Italy is one of the leading markets in Europe in terms of renewable energy production. The country registered a ten-fold increase in the number of PV systems commissioned during the last decade. Italy's National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) set a target of having 55% of its power generation come from renewables by 2030, including a 52 GW solar capacity target in which residential and commercial solar installations will have a large part.

Tailored to the Italian residential market, Sungrow offers both 1-phase and 3-phase PV and Storage Solutions that are user-friendly, versatile, and intelligent. For instance, the new Battery is designed in a modular concept, each battery module weighs only 33 kg and it's assembled by placing the modules on top of one another -- no wiring is required. Sungrow's new combination of a Hybrid Inverter plus Battery offers an optimized residential backup experience, with a seamless transition of only 10ms (1-phase Solution) or 20ms (3-phase Solution) in the event of a power outage. In addition, the new 1-phase inverters feature the built-in PID recovery function and AFCI technology, ensuring more plant safety and power generation.

The carbon neutrality global trend also triggers quickly evolving EVs, leading to an urgent demand for a growing number of EV chargers. Considering the surging demand, Sungrow also offers an all-in-one residential solar-storage-EV charging solution which adds its AC EV charger to the cutting-edge 3-phase Hybrid inverter and Battery solution.

Since the price of electricity fluctuates, the battery storage system can be instructed to absorb electricity when it is cheap and release electricity when it is expensive in order to generate revenue for the customer. The AC EV charger supports smart charging & scheduling function, which allows being preset to not charge at peak times in response to time-of-use (ToU) prices in the regulated market.

In addition, this all-in-one solution can be monitored and managed via Sungrow's iSolarCloud platform. The platform shows real-time and detailed plant updates, enables customers to flexibly check energy flow and self-consumption, and easily control their renewable energy assets.

Optimized for commercial and industrial (C&I) installations, Sungrow offers its Commercial Extreme Series with a capacity ranging from 33kW to 125kW. The SG125CX is a new addition to its Commercial Extreme Series, comes with 12 individual MPPTs, and is compatible with the latest high-power modules. As with all Sungrow inverters the design has been improved to make installation as easy as possible.

Noticeably, Sungrow was ranked first with global shipments hitting 47 GW in 2021, estimated by IHS Markit, now a part of S&P Global. The Company is poised to keep offering top-notch solutions to Italian and elsewhere markets worldwide as it heads to its 25th anniversary.

About Sungrow

Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over 269 GW installed worldwide as of June 2022. Founded in 1997 by Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial & industrial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions, NEV driving solutions, EV charging solutions and renewable hydrogen production systems. With a strong 25-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power over 150 countries worldwide. Learn more about Sungrow by visiting www.sungrowpower.com.

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Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1344575/Logo.jpg

SOURCE Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd
VALLETTA, Malta, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Annual General Meeting on 13 May 2022 it was decided that the dividend of GBP 0.337 per share/SDR would be paid out in two equal instalments. The first payment was distributed on 20 May 2022. The following dates apply to the second instalment:

Ex-dividend date is 14 November 2022

Record date is 15 November 2022

Distribution by Euroclear Sweden AB on 18 November 2022

For accounting purposes, the rate of exchange to be used shall be the SEK-GBP rate prevalent on 14 November 2022.

CONTACT:

For more information:

Patrick Kortman, Director - Corporate Development & Investor Relations, +46 723 877 438

Linda Lyth, Investor Relations Manager, +46 767 681 337

[email protected]

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/824/3664315/1659885.pdf Press release - Second instalment of dividend

SOURCE Kindred Group
Support to be recognized at national PQA Leadership Summit

CINCINNATI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co., has made a $100,000 donation to the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) to assist in the development of standard pharmacy performance measures.

"We are committed to empowering our healthcare professionals to work at the top of their licenses. As medication experts and some of the most accessible healthcare professionals, we know pharmacists improve health outcomes for our patient populations," said Jim Kirby, chief commercial officer, Kroger Health. "Kroger Health is proud to support the development of pharmacy-level quality measures, which are necessary to facilitate fair and equitable payment for value-based pharmacist care services."

PQA's highimpact measures demonstrate the importance of pharmacistprovided care in improving chronic disease outcomes and critical areas of public health. Kroger Health is working with PQA to implement pharmacist-led, value-based chronic condition management programs to test diabetes and blood pressure measure concepts. PQA has developed six pharmacy measures that are ready for current implementation at pharmacies across the nation now, and ten additional measure concepts that are more complex have been identified for development.

Kroger Health's support will assist in the facilitation of broad scale testing of developed concepts and expands information technology infrastructure, and disseminates findings to support scale, spread, and sustainability of innovative pharmacy services.

"We are grateful for Kroger Health's generous contribution and support for this important initiative," said Micah Cost, chief executive officer, PQA. "Kroger Health's investment will enable us to further advance our efforts to develop and pilot high-impact pharmacy performance measures in value-based care and other quality programs, with a shared goal of improving patient health outcomes."

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co. 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.

About Kroger Health

Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co., is one of America's leading retail healthcare organizations, with over 2,200 pharmacies and 220 clinics in 35 states serving more than 17 million customers annually. Our team of 24,000 healthcare practitioners - from pharmacists and nurse practitioners to dietitians and technicians  are committed to helping people live healthier lives. We believe in practicing at the top of our licenses and enabling "food as medicine" to help prevent or manage certain diseases.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.
Celebrity makeup artist and founder Laura Geller partners with fashion illustrator Holly Nichols to spotlight mature beauty

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Laura Geller Beauty, the industry leader in baked cosmetics, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in partnership with fashion illustrator Holly Nichols.

Laura Geller 25th Anniversary Limited-Edition Makeup Bag by Holly Nichols Laura Geller

Founded in 1997 by veteran makeup artist Laura Geller, the brand first launched with a highlight and contour kit on QVC that sold out within minutes. A quarter century later, Laura Geller has amassed an A-list celebrity fan base and remains a top 10 brand on QVC - a testament to the brand's cult-favorite status. Today, Laura Geller Beauty has over 70 product SKUs and sells one of their Baked Balance-n-Brighten Color Correcting Foundation every minute.

In their 25 years, the brand has been committed to its original mission of creating transformational products that put the joy in makeup, which includes its efforts to destigmatize aging in beauty. This includes their bold decision to exclusively feature women over 40 in all of its marketing and social media messaging, partnering with legendary celebrities like Fran Drescher, Kathy Najimy, Paulina Porizkova, Paula Abdul, and Patricia Heaton to spotlight mature beauty.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Laura Geller Beauty has partnered with Boston-based fashion illustrator Holly Nichols to launch a limited-edition makeup bag. Notably, the illustrative design by Nichols purposely showcases mature women, a group often overlooked in fashion illustrations.

"Looking back at these 25 years, I couldn't be more proud of what we've achieved as a brand," says Geller. "It has been an incredible journey doing what I love and I'm looking forward to the next phase as we continue to push the narrative on what we think is aspirational in beauty media and imagery."

"I'm very excited to be a part of this momentous occasion," says Holly Nichols. "Fashion illustration doesn't typically showcase mature women, and I'm honored to join forces with Laura Geller Beauty on their mission to celebrate beauty later in life."

Available on LauraGeller.com , the 25th Anniversary Limited-Edition Makeup Bag is available for purchase for $20, or as a gift with purchase with orders over $75, or when you purchase the Cult Classics Full Face Kit or Daily Routine Full Face Kit.

About Laura Geller: Veteran makeup artist Laura Geller founded her namesake beauty brand over 25 years ago with the mission of creating transformational products that put the joy in makeup. With her passion for beauty and natural teaching ability, the Broadway and TV makeup guru translates professional application into simple techniques for real women of all ages. Her easy-to-use artisanal formulas deliver exceptional coverage and color for every skin type and tone. Geller's best-selling Spackle Skin Perfecting Primer collection and other high-quality makeup products are available on QVC, LauraGeller.com, and select specialty beauty stores and websites.

About Holly Nichols: Holly Nichols is a fashion illustrator and has created fashionable illustrations and artful campaigns for TRESemme, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barney's New York, Neiman Marcus, Disney, Living Proof, and many more. She creates her work both in her studio, and straight from the seats of fashion week and more.

For more information, please contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Laura Geller Beauty
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Taking another step forward in a trend that has been transforming the shipping industry, Leschaco, a global logistics service provider with more than 140 years of experience, has decided to digitize its House Bill of Lading (HBL) transactions. To do so, it has partnered with WAVE BL, a leading provider of secure digital document solutions.

In a typical digital HBL transaction, Leschaco receives a Master Bill of Lading (MBL) on the WAVE BL platform and then issues multiple House Bills of Lading (HBLs) to each exporter in the transaction. These, in turn, receive their HBLs and transfer possession to the importers. Each importer surrenders its HBL to Leschaco, and Leschaco surrenders the MBL.

Because each eBL transfer is performed digitally within minutes on the WAVE BL platform, entire document transactions can be completed in hours rather than the multiple weeks that paper-based transactions can require. Part of the simplicity of these transactions' stems from the fact that WAVE BL allows all parties to connect on a single, unified network.

Leschaco's move to digital BLs was prompted by the unreliable nature of paper BLs, particularly during periods of instability. Courier delays had been holding up cargo releases and financing processes, and the tendency of paper BLs to be lost or misplaced had long been a pain point for customers. In adopting WAVE BL's electronic BLs, Leschaco was able to eliminate these inefficiencies as well as benefit from WAVE BL's anti-fraud safeguards and outstanding customer experience.

Digitization is rapidly transforming the global shipping industry. Leschaco's pioneering use of electronic House Bills of Lading  one of the first in the industry  is a further demonstration of how digitization can replace every type of paper-based communication.

WAVE BL's CEO, Noam Rosenfeld, adds: "Leschaco's use of electronic HBLs is an exciting milestone. Digital is the direction the industry is going in, and we're proud to offer a solution that's easy to use and tailored to the industry's needs. One of our top priorities is making the transition to eBLs as easy as possible, with full support along every step of the way." Constantin Conrad, CDO of the Leschaco Group added: "Fast and secure transport of commercial documents is an essential part of the supply chain. Digitalization is becoming more and more important. Leschaco was therefore looking for a digital solution and selected WAVE BL as our provider. The Leschaco eBL solution will increase our customer satisfaction and make our documentation more efficient and sustainable."

About Leschaco

The Leschaco Group is a traditional, owner-managed logistics service provider and offers intercontinental logistics solutions for sea and air freight as well as contract logistics and tank container operations. As a proven partner for leading companies in plant construction and mechanical engineering, automotive, chemical, and related industries, producers of consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals. Leschaco offers comprehensive logistics solutions from one single source. Our globally standardized IT environment guarantees the required high process transparency. The company was founded under the name of Lexzau, Scharbau by Wilhelm Lexzau and Julius Scharbau in Hamburg in 1879. Today the group comprises 73 own offices, employing around 2,600 people in more than 23 countries worldwide. This network is supported by a carefully selected network of agents. The companies' headquarters are in Bremen.

For more information, visit https://www.leschaco.com/

Media Contact:

Ms. Ulrike-M. von Bargen-Zirwen

Head of Corporate Communications

[email protected]

About WAVE BL

WAVE BL is a blockchain-based digital platform that facilitates the traditional process for transferring original paper documents electronically. The patented proprietary solution enables instant, encrypted, and authenticated transfer of Bills of Lading and other unique digital documents. WAVE BL's platform is designed to meet the needs of every member along the supply chain, from the smallest importer to the largest shipping carriers and banks.

For more information, visit www.wavebl.com

Media Contact:

Ms. Ilan Weiss

VP Marketing

[email protected]

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SOURCE WAVE BL; Leschaco
PLYMOUTH, Mich., Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Loc Performance (Loc) today named Jason Atkinson as the company's new president and CEO, effective immediately. Atkinson has served as a key member of Loc's leadership team since 2008, when he joined the company as chief operating officer. In his new role, Atkinson will continue to lead the technical efforts for all new business opportunities and launches.

Loc Performance, a leading agricultural and military provider, named Jason Atkinson as its new president and CEO. Tweet this Jason Atkinson, President and CEO of Loc Performance

"I have worked with Jason for more than 20 years, and he is more than ready to thrive in this new role," said Lou Burr, former Loc CEO. Burr will no longer be active in Loc's day-to-day operations but will continue to serve as a strategic consultant.

During his time as Loc's COO, Atkinson oversaw all aspects of the business operations, including production, quality, materials, engineering, IT and human resources. He spearheaded the development of tools that accelerated Loc's growth, including Loc's QMS supplier development system and the launch of Plex, Loc's fully automated ERP system. Under his direction and management, Loc launched and delivered flawlessly on significant programs such as ECP1 for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which increases ground clearance and survivability.

"I am excited to step into this expanded leadership role," said Atkinson. "Loc is uniquely positioned for growth in the military, agricultural and construction markets, and I look forward to continuing the company's positive momentum."

Atkinson also led several significant acquisitions for Loc, including Demmer's North Lansing plant in 2017, Lapeer Industries in 2019, and Continental's St Mary's location in 2020. Under Atkinson's leadership, Loc has deployed millions of dollars in capital equipment, facility expansions, and new product launches, such as the MLRS IAC program in the Lansing facility. As a certified six sigma black belt, Atkinson has built his career on continuous improvement efforts.

Prior to joining Loc, Atkinson developed strong leadership experience in the automotive industry. Starting his career at a Tier 1 automotive supplier while going to school at M-TEC, Atkinson had full P&L responsibility as a plant manager for a multi-site operation that produced underbody, suspension components and mechanical assemblies for Chrysler, GM, and Ford. Over this twelve-year period in the auto industry, he launched hundreds of millions of dollars in business, obtained Q1 with Ford, maintained QS9000, TS16949, and A2LA certifications, and developed a cost reduction and lean manufacturing program yielding significant savings. With five plants and over 800 employees, Jason received PMP certification to support multisite program launches and developed a program management process with multi-gate reviews to ensure on-time delivery and overall customer satisfaction.

About Loc Performance

Loc Performance, headquartered in Plymouth, MI, provides track systems, mechanical systems, armor products, fabricated structures, and rubberized products for both military and industrial applications. With proven capabilities in product design and development through production, Loc offers comprehensive solutions and exceptional customer service to produce the highest quality products at competitive pricing. Loc has over 1,750,000 square feet of manufacturing space with facilities in Plymouth, Lansing, and Lapeer, Michigan, and St. Marys, Ohio with more than 980 total employees. Learn more at www.locperformance.com.

SOURCE Loc Performance Products
Former Healthline Media CEO Brings Deep Expertise in Consumer Digital Health to MDVIP Board As Company Continues to Expand Its Primary Care Network

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MDVIP, the market leader in personalized healthcare with a network of 1,100 primary care physicians nationwide, today announced the appointment of David Kopp to its board of directors. Kopp, a veteran consumer health and digital media leader, most recently served as CEO of Healthline Media.

David Kopp, a seasoned chief executive in consumer health and digital media, joins MDVIP's board of directors.

"David has been a champion of consumer-driven healthcare in both his professional career and on a personal level," said MDVIP Chairman and CEO Bret Jorgensen. "He is highly regarded as a forward thinker with an impressive track record of driving growth and creating value for consumer healthcare brands. We are fortunate to have someone of David's caliber on our board and will benefit greatly from his insights as we continue to expand MDVIP's network and portfolio of services to meet the increasing demand for more personalized care."

"I have a passion for working with organizations that inspire and empower people to better achieve optimal health. MDVIP shares that vision and has built a preventive care model that is improving outcomes for patients, including more effective management of chronic conditions," said David Kopp. "I'm honored to join the MDVIP board and look forward to contributing to the company's next phase of growth."

Kopp is a seasoned chief executive in consumer health and digital media with expertise spanning strategy, product, marketing and technology. During his tenure as CEO of Healthline Media, he led a team of over 350 people and grew Healthline.com into the largest health information site in the U.S., surpassing WebMD.com in 2019. Prior to joining Healthline, Kopp led ad product marketing in North America for Yahoo! and held leadership roles for several Internet advertising and technology start-ups. Earlier in his career, he worked in brand and product marketing for a division of Disney.

Kopp holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University. In addition to MDVIP, Kopp serves as an advisor and director for a number of consumer healthcare organizations, including the non-profit Breastcancer.org.

About MDVIP

MDVIP leads the market in membership-based healthcare that goes far beyond concierge medicine services with a national network of more than 1,100 primary care physicians serving over 377,000 patients. Published research shows that the MDVIP model identifies more patients at risk for cardiovascular disease, delivers more preventive health services and saves the healthcare system hundreds of millions of dollars through reduced hospitalizations and readmissions. In response to growing consumer demand for a more personalized healthcare experience, hospital systems are incorporating the MDVIP model into their primary care offering. MDVIP also partners with employers to offer an executive health program as a benefit to their employees. The company has been certified by Great Place to Work since 2018 and is recognized by Fortune as one of the 2022 Best Workplaces in Healthcare. For more information, visit www.mdvip.com. Follow MDVIP on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Nancy Udell

561-310-5455

[email protected]

SOURCE MDVIP
Internationally recognized Pandemic Health Navigator Program secures PRSA Skyline Award for Community Relations Program of the Year

CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Morreale Communications and the Illinois Public Health Association emerged as winners of the Public Relations Society of America Chicago Chapter Skyline Award in the Community Relations Program of the Year category for their partnership to deliver Illinois' Pandemic Health Navigator Program. Considered the premier award competition in Chicago's public relations industry, the Skyline Awards celebrate creativity and innovation in public relations and showcase business impact and results.

Working with the Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA), Illinois Primary Healthcare Association (IPHCA) and more than 80 community organizations across Illinois, Morreale delivered a statewide communications strategy designed to mitigate the spread of misinformation related to COVID-19 and to connect the hardest hit, underserved populations of Illinois to vital resources.

"We were honored to have been tapped to develop and lead a statewide communications strategy for such meaningful and transformational work," said Kim Morreale McAuliffe, President/CEO of Morreale Communications. "This was mission driven work that our entire team was humbled to be part of. We're honored to be recognized with the Chicago Skyline Award and to deliver advocacy, public engagement and media strategies in our communities."

The Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA) launched the COVID-19 Pandemic Health Navigator (PHN) program to adequately address community needs during the pandemic crisis. For the PHN program to be successful, the IPHA needed to conduct a broad communications and marketing campaign targeting the various communities throughout the state, while also understanding that COVID perceptions differ in different regions.

"When building the Pandemic Health Navigator Program, we knew we needed a communications team that had the experience and relationships to strengthen our program in the state's COVID-19 effort and we turned right away to Morreale," said Tom Hughes, Executive Director of IPHA. "Because of Morreale's deep experience and media relationships, coupled with their data-driven, collaborative approach, our program was able to engage with some of the hardest to reach audiences and effectively address the critical public health issues during the pandemic."

The integrated, statewide community relations program included recruitment, stakeholder engagement, research, branding, and content media relations. Morreale worked with regional leaders and community-based organizations across Illinois to arm navigators with information through building an educational curriculum, designing branded marketing materials, and developing messages to resonate with local communities.

As a result of this integrated and multi-faceted strategy, the Pandemic Health Navigator Program hit a number of achievements in the battle against COVID-19: Over 85 community-based organizations and federally qualified health centers have partnered in the program, more than 500 Community Health Workers hired and trained and most importantly- 10,000 plus residents have been provided resources across the state of Illinois.

About Morreale Communications

Morreale is a leading certified woman-owned business that partners with businesses and organizations during times of change, crisis and opportunities. Driven by the desire to empower clients by activating their voices, clients seek the firm out to deliver fully integrated communications solutions that connect, engage and educate audiences to transform outcomes. With an 100% female and minority leadership team and 86% female and minority workforce, their strength lies in their ability to activate the power, perspective, relationships and experiences of their diverse team. Learn more about the award-winning firm at Morreale Communications.

SOURCE Morreale Communications
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP announced today that it has been included on the 2023 U.S. News  Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" list. The list is compiled annually by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers.

"We are honored to be acknowledged by Best Lawyers, particularly as this recognition is based on feedback from clients and peers," said Managing Partner R. Joseph De Briyn. "This honor is a testament to the diligence and hard work of all of the attorneys and the support team at the firm."

Law firms included in the 2023 "Best Law Firms" list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers, according to the publication. The 2023 Edition of "Best Law Firms" includes rankings in 75 national practice areas and 127 metropolitan-based practice areas.

Musick Peeler was recognized nationally for Trusts and Estates Law and regionally for Health Care Law, Trusts and Estates Law, Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law and Mortgage Banking Foreclosure Law.

With offices in five major commercial centers across the state, Musick Peeler attorneys know California. Founded in 1954, Musick Peeler has kept pace with California's growth and with more than 100 attorneys it has the resources and expertise to offer the highest quality representation in a wide variety of legal matters.

Best Lawyers and U.S. News and World Report have issued their "Best Law Firm" rankings for the past 13 years, and the 2023 results were released today.

About Musick Peeler Founded in 1954, MusickPeeler has offices in five major commercial centers across California with over 100 attorneys practicing in 16 disciplines. For more information, visit MusickPeeler.com.

SOURCE MusickPeeler
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MY Self Wellness, a cutting-edge ketamine clinic and pioneer in the psychedelics space, is launching its nonprofit organization Warriors of Consciousness, with the mission to help those who cannot afford psychedelic ketamine therapy treatments. The organization aims to assist those struggling with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and other mental health conditions.

MY Self Wellness Ketamine Clinic Launches Nonprofit Organization Warriors of Consciousness, Helping Those Who Cannot Afford Psychedelic Ketamine Therapy Treatments MY Self Wellness Ketamine Clinic Launches Nonprofit Organization Warriors of Consciousness, Helping Those Who Cannot Afford Psychedelic Ketamine Therapy Treatments

MY Self Wellness CEO Christina Thomas and Chief Education Officer and Chief Brand Officer Charles Patti founded Warriors of Consciousness, knowing the strong transformations their clients have experienced as a result of psychedelic ketamine therapy. Because the therapy is not covered by insurance, Thomas and Patti understand the importance of experiencing these transformations without financial restrictions. They strongly believe everyone who needs access to these treatments should be able to find hope and healing and not be held back by financial constraints.

"Warriors of Consciousness is our solution to a problem that affects so many people: they need help but aren't in a financial situation to experience ketamine treatments, which can offer effects including transcending their traumas and letting go of obstacles caused by physical, psychological and spiritual blockages," said Thomas. "We saw a need for help, and we took action."

"Having spent many years not receiving the right treatment to cultivate healing, I know first-hand how powerful and therapeutic ketamine can be, and how this medication can help people create a joyful, purposeful life," said Patti. "Christina and I pride ourselves in creating Warriors of Consciousness."

As a result of recent Hurricane Ian and its devastation in the region, MY Self Wellness will be donating 10 treatments to storm survivors who lost everything and urgently need help. Those interested in pursuing this opportunity can visit the Warriors of Consciousness website at wocfund.org/get-help-now/.

Donations to Warriors of Consciousness can be made via a credit card, debit card or crypto payment at wocfund.org/donate-now/. In addition, 100% of the proceeds from Warriors of Consciousness merchandise will go toward the charity. Items include hats, hoodies, unisex t-shirts, minimalist backpack, tote bag, slides, women's cropped windbreakers, women's lace-up and canvas shoes, mugs, and more.

Donations go toward treatment at any approved ketamine clinics throughout the U.S.

MY Self Wellness encompasses a multidisciplinary group of psychiatrists, registered nurses, infusion specialists, and integration specialists. Ketamine is administered in a number of ways, including intravenous infusion (IV), intramuscular injection (IM), intranasally, orally and sublingually (as a dissolving troche or lozenge). Each route varies per individual in the onset of action (time), bioavailability (absorption) and clearing time. Although a response is generally predictable based on past administration, it is possible that a patient may experience different physiological, psychological and emotional effects with the same dose. Treatments begin at $550 per session; most effective regimens include a total of six sessions.

The clinic provides compassionate care and features private treatment rooms, an integration lounge, reclining chairs, Bluetooth headphones, blankets and sleep masks.

In addition to MY Self Wellness and Warriors of Consciousness, Thomas and Patti are the hosts for Psychedelic Radio, a podcast where they interview a variety of industry thought leaders, including a recent conversation with Dr. Rick Strassman, known as the father of the American psychedelic research renaissance.

For more information about MY Self Wellness or to book a treatment, please visit www.myselfwellness.center.

About MY Self Wellness:

MY Self Wellness is a health and wellness center specializing in psychedelic Ketamine Therapy. The clinic is comprised of a multidisciplinary group of psychiatrists, registered nurses, infusion specialists, and integration specialists. The center offers an array of services, including Ketamine Therapy, IV Vitamin Infusions, Peptide Therapy, Medical Cannabis Recommendations, Integrative Nutrition Services and Counseling. It exists to assist clients suffering from depression, anxiety, drug addiction, PTSD and more by combining the healing benefits of Ketamine with new lifestyle practices for a full mental reset. MY Self Wellness is located at 3541 Bonita Bay Blvd, #200 Bonita Springs, FL 34134. For more information, please visit www.myselfwellness.center or contact [email protected] or call 239-908-9958. Follow along on Instagram at www.instagram.com/my.self.wellness/, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myselfwellnesscenter and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAcyck_PnLp9ypt6spmARA.

About Warriors of Consciousness:

Warriors of Consciousness is a nonprofit organization with the mission of transforming people's lives that are struggling with anxiety, PTSD, depression and more, who cannot afford psychedelic ketamine therapy treatments. It was founded in 2022 by MY Self Wellness CEO Christina Thomas and Chief Education Officer and Chief Brand Officer Charles Patti. Warriors of Consciousness is a Florida nonprofit corporation operating through a fiscal sponsorship with Players Philanthropy Fund, a 501(c)(3) Maryland charitable trust. For more information, visit wocfund.org.

Contact:

Duree & Company, PR Consultant

954-723-9350 / [email protected]

SOURCE MY Self Wellness
Results show FluGen's investigational intranasal M2SR vaccine addresses an important unmet need by generating serum and mucosal antibodies against highly drifted strains of the H3N2 influenza virus

MADISON, Wis., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FluGen, Inc., a clinical-stage vaccine company transforming vaccine efficacy in infectious respiratory diseases, today announced the publication of new data in the Journal of Infectious Diseases showing its investigational, high dose, intranasal H3N2 M2SR influenza vaccine candidate substantially enhanced mucosal and serum antibodies against drifted H3N2 influenza viruses. Results showed that M2SR was well-tolerated at all dose levels and may provide substantial protection against infection with highly drifted strains of H3N2 influenza.

"Antigenic drift, or circulating influenza virus strains that do not match the current influenza vaccines, are a serious public health problem, and the H3N2 strain has been particularly difficult to protect against in recent years," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, Head of the Influenza Research Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor of the Institute of Medical Science of the University of Tokyo, and an author of the study. "These data suggest that the intranasal M2SR vaccine evaluated in the study may provide significant advantages over existing injected influenza vaccines."

The publication, entitled "Intranasal M2SR ((M2-deficient Single Replication) H3N2 Influenza Vaccine Provides Enhanced Mucosal and Serum Antibodies in Adults", detailed results of a Phase 1B, observer-blinded, dose-escalation study of sero-susceptible subjects ages 18-49 years, randomized to receive two doses (108-109 TCID 50 ) of M2SR or placebo administered 28 days apart. The primary objective was to demonstrate safety of M2SR vaccines (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT03999554). Specific data demonstrated that, against the Belgium2015 challenge strain, a 2-fold increase in MN antibodies were noted among 40% (95% CI 24.9-56.7) of subjects following a single 108 TCID 50 M2SR dose and among 80.6% (95% CI 61.4-92.3) after 109 dose (P<0.001). A single 109 TCID 50 dose of M2SR generated 4-fold HAI seroconversion against the vaccine strain in 71% (95% CI 52.0-85.8) of recipients, a proportion substantially greater than reported for the only currently licensed intranasal flu vaccine. M2SR encoding antigen from 2018-19 influenza vaccine elicited mucosal antibodies that recognized future H3N2 strains that circulated in 2021 and 2022. Cellular immune responses were also induced. These results build on previous clinical evidence which showed that an intranasal dose of FluGen's M2SR vaccine candidate protected against infection and illness from seven years of highly drifted strains of H3N2 in subjects who demonstrated a 2-fold increase in microneutralization (MN) antibodies to the challenge strain after vaccination. Previous studies have also demonstrated that while currently licensed influenza vaccines administered by intramuscular injection generate tremendous antibody responses only intranasal M2SR stimulates mucosal, and cellular immunity as well as serum humoral immunity.

"For decades, science has struggled to address the burden of viral drift in combatting influenza, as, when the circulating strain drifts, a mismatch between the virus and current vaccine occurs, and efficacy worsens; this is particularly true with the H3N2 strain," said Paul Radspinner, President and Chief Executive Officer of FluGen. "Previous efforts to address this challenge, such as adding adjuvants or quadrupling doses, have failed to improve outcomes for either matched or drifted strains. Now, we see further clinical evidence that our intranasal M2SR influenza vaccine candidate generates strong immunological response against both matched and drifted strains and may potentially be the more effective vaccine option that can help improve how we manage influenza."

About FluGen:

FluGen, Inc. is a clinical-stage vaccine company transforming vaccine efficacy in respiratory diseases. The company's lead candidate is M2SR, a supra-seasonal, live, single-replication, intranasal flu vaccine. Unlike standard of care flu vaccines, M2SR stimulates mucosal, humoral, and cellular immunity. In an unprecedented challenge trial, M2SR demonstrated protection against infection and illness across seven years of virus drift; and M2SR induces a durable antibody response with potential to cover an entire flu season and beyond. M2SR also has shown activity as a vaccine vector for other respiratory vaccines and infectious diseases, including a COVID-19/flu combination. For more information about FluGen, Inc., please visit http://www.FluGen.com/ .

About M2SR:

The M2 Deleted S ingle R eplication Live Virus Vaccine (M2SR) offers a potentially differentiating clinical value proposition. FluGen's flu vaccine candidate is developed differently from inactivated or "killed" vaccines, which are comprised of flu viruses grown in eggs, chopped up, and purified for injection. It stimulates mucosal, humoral, and cellular immunity, and offers unprecedented efficacy against infection and illness across seven years of virus drift and documented immune response for at least six months.

SOURCE FluGen Inc
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

OLED Lighting Market Research Report by Technology, Type, End-user, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340216/?utm_source=PRN



The Global OLED Lighting Market size was estimated at USD 17.89 billion in 2021 and expected to reach USD 20.05 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 12.34% to reach USD 35.97 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 OLED Lighting to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Technology, the market was studied across AMOLED and PMOLED. The AMOLED is further studied across FMM RGB and WOLED.



Based on Type, the market was studied across Flexible OLED Lighting, Transparent OLED Lighting, and White OLED Lighting.



Based on End-user, the market was studied across Architectural, Automotive, Commercial, Hospitality, 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 OLED Lighting 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 OLED Lighting 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 OLED Lighting Market, including Beijing Green Guardee Technology Co.,Ltd, BMW AG, Corning Incorporated, General Electric Company, Heraeus Holding GmbH, Konica Minolta Inc, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Kriya Materials BV, LG Electronics, Inc., Lumiotec Inc., Merck KGaA, Nadarra Lighting, Panasonic Corporation, Sharp NEC Display Solutions, Ltd., and Toshiba 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 OLED Lighting Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global OLED Lighting Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global OLED Lighting Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global OLED Lighting Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global OLED Lighting Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global OLED Lighting Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global OLED Lighting Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340216/?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
Partnership with Uwill provides mental health support to adult learners

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Springboard, an industry-leading online learning platform preparing students for in-demand, high-growth careers, today, announced a partnership with Uwill, the leading teletherapy solution for colleges and students, to provide mental health support for online learners. As the need for mental health support increases nationwide, Uwill's solution utilizes need and preferences to immediately match students with a diverse team of licensed and available counselors. The services will be integrated into Springboard's existing platform, and will be available to learners in addition to existing human support such as one-to-one mentorship and career counseling.

"At Springboard, our ambitious vision centers around transforming lives through education and career advancement - and we know that this type of growth and transformation needs a strong foundation of mental health," said Gautam Tambay, Co-founder and CEO at Springboard. "In partnering with Uwill, we can meet students where they are by providing support through the same platform they're using for their education."

Springboard is launching this teletherapy option at a time of increasing mental health challenges reported by education providers nationwide, where, according to HigherEdToday, nontraditional learners scored significantly higher on a number of mental health ratings than their traditional learning counterparts, specifically on depression, anxiety, and overall life stress.

"Uwill is uniquely suited to support the needs of Springboard learners to ensure they do not face barriers to mental health support," said Michael London, Founder and CEO of Uwill.

Utilizing its proprietary technology and counselor team, Uwill pioneered the first Higher Ed therapist matching platform and wellness environment. The solution offers an immediate connection to an available licensed counselor based on student preferences, all modalities of teletherapy, a 24/7/365 crisis connection, wellness programming, detailed reporting and support. Uwill partners with more than 100 institutions worldwide including Berklee Online, Union College, Whitman College, and East Carolina University to ensure their mental health and wellness environment meets student needs.

About Uwill

Uwill has become the leading mental health and wellness solution for colleges and students. The most cost-effective way to complement a college's mental health offering, Uwill partners with more than 100 institutions including Boston College, University of Michigan, American Public University System, and University of Maryland, College Park. Uwill was named as one of Boston's hottest companies by BostInno, and now, more than 1 million students have access to the Uwill platform. Investors and supporters are a who's who including hip-hop legend Daryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. For more information, visit uwill.com.

About Springboard

Founded by Parul Gupta and Gautam Tambay in 2013, Springboard is on a mission to transform one million lives through education by 2030. More than 20,000 students across 100+ countries have used Springboard to advance their careers through the platform's comprehensive, mentor-led online learning programs. Graduates have landed jobs with employers like Microsoft, Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Deloitte, Intel, IBM, Salesforce and more. Springboard has also trained corporate teams at Visa, Gusto, and The North Face. Springboard was recently named one of the 2022 GSV EdTech 150  a list of the world's most transformative growth companies in digital learning. Springboard is a 2020 Inc. 5000 company based in San Francisco, recently named a Top Workplace for Women by Elpha, and is backed by leading venture capital firms including Telstra Ventures, Vulcan Capital, SJF Ventures, Reach Capital, Pearson Ventures, International Finance Corp., Costanoa Ventures, Learn Capital, and Blue Fog Capital.

Contact:

Brett Silk

[email protected]

SOURCE Uwill, Inc
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --



Oxygenator Market Research Report by Product Type, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340396/?utm_source=PRN







The Global Oxygenator Market size was estimated at USD 1,892.11 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 2,078.87 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 10.12% to reach USD 3,374.91 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 Oxygenator to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product Type, the market was studied across Bubble Oxygenator and Membrane Oxygenator.



Based on Application, the market was studied across Cardiac, Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, and Respiratory.



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 Oxygenator 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 Oxygenator 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 Oxygenator Market, including Aerotech, Inc., Armstrong Medical Limited, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Braile Biomedica, Chalice Medical Ltd, EUROSETS S.r.l., Gen World Medical Devices, Getinge AB, Heyer, Livanova PLC, MC3 Cardiopulmonary, Medtronic PLC, Microport Scientific Corporation, Neotech Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd.,, Nipro Medical Corporation, Ohio Medical, Owgels Group, Precision Medical, Inc., Sechrist Industries, Inc., Senko Medical Instrument Mfg Co. Ltd., Terumo Medical Corporation, and Xenios AG.



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 Oxygenator Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Oxygenator Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Oxygenator Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Oxygenator Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Oxygenator Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Oxygenator Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Oxygenator Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340396/?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. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Palladium Equity Partners, LLC (along with its affiliates, "Palladium"), a Certified B Corp and the oldest minority-owned private equity buyout firm with $3 billion in assets under management, today announced that affiliates of the firm closed on the sale of GoodWest Industries, Inc., a leading manufacturer and supplier of low-acid aseptic beverages solutions, primarily selling shelf-stable and bag-in-box coffee creamers, cold brews and iced coffees  to Sunny Sky Products, LLC, a portfolio company of The Jordan Company, L.P. Palladium made its original majority investment in GoodWest in 2015. Financial terms were not disclosed.

In conjunction with the sale of GoodWest, Palladium retains its investment in the company's Jordan's Skinny Mixes division, the number one brand for zero-calorie and zero-sugar syrups, cocktail mixes and beverage enhancement products under the Jordan's Skinny Mixes and related brands. Since being acquired by GoodWest in 2019, the Skinny Mixes business has recorded significant growth and today is led by a dedicated management team from Clearwater, FL. Palladium believes the business has excellent growth potential.

"We are very excited to continue our partnership with the Palladium team," stated Tim Snyder, CEO of Skinny Mixes. "We believe the collaboration with Palladium as well as our continued partnership with Skinny Mixes' founder, Jordan Engelhardt, will help continue to drive growth and innovation in both our core channels as well as accelerate our successful launch into new channels of distribution. Skinny Mixes remains focused on bringing low-calorie and zero-sugar products to our loyal customers."

"Skinny Mixes growth since its acquisition in 2019 has been impressive. We believe the recent addition of CEO Tim Snyder will only continue the Skinny Mixes' exciting growth trajectory," Caleb Clark, Partner at Palladium, added. "We would like to thank the GoodWest management team for their dedication to the business during our ownership, which has driven this great outcome for the Company's stakeholders. We are confident that Sunny Sky and The Jordan Company will be a great partner to the team and continue to grow the business."

Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor to Sunny Sky. Greenberg Traurig LLP acted as legal advisor to GoodWest. Lincoln International acted as the financial advisor to GoodWest.

About Palladium Equity Partners, LLC

Palladium is the oldest minority-owned private equity buyout firm in the industry with $3 billion of assets under management. The firm seeks to acquire and grow companies in partnership with founders and experienced management teams by providing capital, strategic guidance and operational oversight. Since its founding in 1997, Palladium has invested over $3 billion of capital in 38 platform investments and 159 add-on acquisitions, realizing 23 of these platform investments. The firm focuses primarily on buyout investments targeting $50 million to $150 million in equity. The principals of the firm have meaningful experience in consumer, services, industrials, and healthcare businesses, with a special focus on companies they believe will benefit from the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population. Palladium, which is a Certified B Corp, is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.palladiumequity.com.

About Jordan's Skinny Mixes

Skinny Mixes empowers people to make healthier choices full of flavor and fun, from coffee to cocktails and everything in between. Enhance your favorite foods and beverages with guilt-free sweetness and flavor. Skinny Mixes is the leading manufacturer of low-calorie cocktail mixes, zero sugar coffee syrups, sauce toppings, on-the-go flavor bursts and many other specialty beverage items and gift sets. Skinny Mixes features best-selling Skinny Syrup flavors like Salted Caramel and Vanilla as well as fruity flavors like its viral Mermaid flavor burst, plus their fall fan favorite, Pumpkin Spice. Skinny Mixes and Syrups are proudly produced in the USA and are Gluten Free & Kosher. Skinny Mixes can be found in over 13,000 specialty retail locations across the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. For more information, please visit www.SkinnyMixes.com and follow on social media at @SkinnyMixes.

Media Contacts

Todd Fogarty or Jeffrey Taufield of Kekst CNC

[email protected] or [email protected]

212-521-4800

SOURCE Palladium Equity Partners
By integrating with SAP SuccessFactors solutions, PayParity delivers a comprehensive workplace equity solution to customers

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trusaic, today announced that its PayParity workplace equity solution is now available on SAP Store, the online marketplace for SAP and partner offerings. PayParity integrates with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll and SAP SuccessFactors Compensation to deliver a workplace equity software solution that enables organizations to achieve pay equity and prevent pay inequity from being created, elevate their brand in the eyes of important stakeholders, and reduce litigation exposure.

"Employees, potential employees, and investors are increasingly evaluating companies based on their commitment to DEI initiatives like pay equity. Companies that lag behind their competitors in establishing fair pay may find it challenging to attract and keep top talent," says Robert Sheen, CEO, Trusaic. "Our partnership with SAP will enable more organizations to advance their workplace equity efforts, demonstrate their progress, and ensure their compensation offers are equitable, compliant and competitive."

PayParity helps organizations create a more equitable workforce through powerful data analytics and tracking for ongoing monitoring. PayParity analyzes total compensation, enabling organizations to address pay disparities at the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, age, disability, and more. The all-in-one solution reduces organizational risk and creates a proactive approach for achieving critical DEI goals.

With Trusaic's PayParity solution, organizations can:

Monitor pay equity continuously

Prevent pay inequities from occurring with Equal Pay Estimator

Pinpoint pay disparities at the intersection of gender and race

Comply with U.S. and international pay equity laws

Address compensation issues like pay compression

Maintain attorney-client privilege

Confidently communicate pay equity progress to stakeholders

SAP Store, found at store.sap.com, delivers a simplified and connected digital customer experience for finding, trying, buying and renewing more than 2,200 solutions from SAP and its partners. There, customers can find the SAP solutions and SAP-validated solutions they need to grow their business. And for each purchase made through SAP Store, SAP will plant a tree.

First Capitol Consulting, Inc., doing business as Trusaic, is a partner in the SAP PartnerEdge program. The SAP PartnerEdge program provides the enablement tools, benefits and support to facilitate building high-quality, disruptive applications focused on specific business needs  quickly and cost-effectively.

About Trusaic

Trusaic, is a leading workplace equity technology company that focuses on advancing social good in the workplace by solving HR's most complex challenges across people, data, and analytics. Our mission is to create a better working world by helping organizations achieve pay equity, foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, assist economically disadvantaged individuals with finding work, and ensure employee access to affordable healthcare.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

Media Contact:

Matt Gotchy

(213) 814-5760

[email protected]

SOURCE Trusaic
Award Honors Prezi's Excellence in Advancing On-screen Content for More Engaging Video Meetings

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prezi , the leading presentation and collaboration software for video meetings, was recognized today as a recipient of the 2022 Zoom Partner Awards from Zoom Video Communications, Inc., commending the company's impactful achievements in enabling 'on-screen' content for more engaging video meetings. The award was presented to Prezi for the Integrated Software Vendor (ISV) Integration Partner of the Year at Zoomtopia Partner Connect.

Partner Connect is a partner-focused event at Zoomtopia designed to inform and inspire partners on Zoom's vision, how they can better sell, learn about new program updates, and celebrate their successes.

This ISV Partner Award recognizes Prezi for extending the Zoom experience by creating greater personal connection between people and content. Prezi Video for Zoom gives users a simple, engaging way to create and share high-quality content, whether they are Fortune 1000 customers or educators around the world.

"Our partners continue to do incredible things, and Zoom's annual Partner Awards recognize their ongoing commitment to deliver happiness to our customers," said Todd Surdey, Head of Global Channel and Business Development at Zoom. "With hybrid work here to stay, our partners play an integral role in delivering Zoom's platform to our global customers. From Zoom's Team Chat, Phone, Meetings to Contact Center and much more, Prezi and our entire partner community have worked tirelessly to help customers reimagine work and stay connected. We recognize Prezi for their dedication, innovation, and impressive results."

Prezi Video delivers a more immersive virtual meeting experience by allowing users to bring layers of visual content into their video feeds during live meetings. Since its launch in 2019, it has been adopted by more than 200,000 organizations and the majority of the Fortune 1000. The company's strategic relationships with Zoom and other platforms allow Prezi to continue supporting the world's largest enterprises and individuals as they navigate hybrid work.

"Together with Zoom, we are helping people have better, more engaging video meetings as companies implement their new hybrid workplace strategies," said Jim Szafranski, Chief Executive Officer, Prezi. "Being recognized as Zoom's 2022 ISV Integration - Partner of the Year is an exciting achievement and we look forward to continuing our partnership to find more innovative ways to improve the hybrid work and meeting experience."

About Prezi

Prezi is the leading virtual presentation and collaboration solution for the digital workplace. Its signature offering, Prezi Video, is helping the majority of the Fortune 1000 to build more productive video meetings by letting participants bring their content with them onto any screen. Founded in 2009, Prezi has offices in San Francisco, Budapest, and Riga, with investors, including Accel, Spectrum Equity and TED conferences. For more information, please visit www.prezi.com .

###

SOURCE Prezi
NOIDA, India, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report published by UnivDatos Markets Insights, the Protective Cultures Market was valued at USD 250 million in 2020 and is expected to witness an exponential CAGR of around 22.5% during 2021-2027. The analysis has been segmented into Product Form (Freeze Dried, Frozen), MicroOrganisms (Yeasts & Molds, Bacteria), Composition (Multi Strain Mixed, Single Strain, Multi Strain), Application (Dairy and Dairy Products, Meat and Poultry Products, Seafood Products, Others); Region/Country.

Click here to view the Report Description & TOC

https://univdatos.com/report/protective-cultures-market/

The Protective Cultures market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data on various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the Protective Cultures market. The Protective Cultures market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the Protective Cultures market at the global and regional levels.

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Market Overview

Global Protective Cultures Market is expected to grow at a sustaining significant CAGR of 22.5% during the forecast period (2021-2027). Access to a sufficient amount of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining and promoting a healthy and good life. Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases ranging from diarrhea to cancers. It has been estimated that 600 million and almost 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die each year. It results in the loss of 33 million healthy life years. While US$ 110 billion is lost each year in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low and middle-income countries. Hence, not to impact the quality of food, the addition of cultures to food meals is one of the innovative and imperative steps in the fields of food microbiology.

Some of the major players operating in the market include Chr Hansen, Dupont, Sacco S.R.L, CSK Food Enrichment B.V., Kerry Group PLC, Royal DSM N.V., Meat Cracks Technology GmbH, and Dalton Biotechnologies and Biochem S.R.L.

COVID-19 Impact

The outbreak of Covid-19 positively impacted the market size of Protective Cultures in 2020. It escalated awareness among consumers regarding microbial infections. Therefore, people across the globe have started looking for clean-label products for consumption. After the advent of the Covid-19 Pandemic, people across the world have become more cautious regarding food consumption and clean-label product.

The global Protective Cultures market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on product form, the market is fragmented into freeze-dried and frozen. The freeze-dried segment dominated the market in 2019 accounting for 46.1% and is anticipated to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. The increasing demand for probiotic and fermented food and beverages products tend to catalyze the demand for freeze-dried protective cultures.

Based on target microorganisms, the market is bifurcated into yeasts & molds, and bacteria. market. As fermented products are susceptible to damage by micro-organisms, they majorly include yeasts, molds, and bacteria. The market share of yeasts and molds is the major contributor to the global protective cultures market.

Have a Look at the Chapters- https://univdatos.com/report/protective-cultures-market/

Protective Cultures Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America ( United States , Canada , and Rest of North America )

( , , and Rest of ) Europe ( Germany , United Kingdom , Spain , Italy , France , and the Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , and the Rest of ) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , India , Australia , South Korea , and the Rest of Asia-Pacific )

( , , , , , and the Rest of ) Rest of the World

Europe held a prominent share of the market and is further expected to grow at an influential growth rate. This is mainly attributed to surging exports of dairy products across regions and being one of the prominent regions with the 2nd largest dairy sector across the globe. However, the rest of the world is expected to witness the highest CAGR growth of 24% during the forecast period 2021-2027.

The major players targeting the market include

Chr Hansen

Dupont

Sacco S.R.L

CSK Food Enrichment B.V.

Bioprox

Kerry Group PLC

Royal DSM N.V.

Meat Cracks Technology GmbH

Dalton Biotechnologies

Biochem S.R.L

Competitive Landscape

The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the Protective Cultures Market. The major players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition.

Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include:

What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the Protective Cultures market?

Which factors are influencing the Protective Cultures market over the forecast period?

What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the Protective Cultures market?

Which factors are propelling and restraining the Protective Cultures market?

What are the demanding global regions of the Protective Cultures market?

What will be the global market size in the upcoming years?

What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies?

We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs.

About UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI)

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Protective Cultures Market Report Coverage

Report Attribute Details Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2027 Growth momentum Accelerate at a CAGR of 22.5% Market size 2020 USD 250 million Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Rest of World Major contributing region Europe to Dominate the Global Protective Cultures Market Key countries covered United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, China, Japan, India, Australia and South Korea Companies profiled Chr Hansen, Dupont, Sacco S.R.L, CSK Food Enrichment B.V., Kerry Group PLC, Royal DSM N.V., Meat Cracks Technology GmbH, and Dalton Biotechnologies and Biochem S.R.L Report Scope Market Trends, Drivers, and Restraints; Revenue Estimation and Forecast; Segmentation Analysis; Impact of COVID-19; Demand and Supply Side Analysis; Competitive Landscape; Company Profiling Segments Covered By Product Form; By Target Micro-Organisms; By Composition; By Application; By Region/Country

About UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI)

UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients.

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Ankita Gupta

Director Operations

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Website: https://univdatos.com/

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SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd.
SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With deepening reform and an improving business environment, Qianhai has once again attracted the attention of global businesses and investors. At the 2022 Qianhai Global Investment Promotion Conference held on the afternoon of November 8, a number of Fortune 500 companies, Hong Kong businesses, state-owned enterprises, and other industrial bellwethers signed agreements to set up offices in Qianhai. The expected total investment exceeded 120 billion yuan, according to the Authority of Qianhai. This has fully demonstrated the conference theme "Invest in Qianhai, Building a Winning Future", along with the economic vitality, policy appeal, and driving forces of innovation in Qianhai.

After continuous institutional innovations, the business environment in Qianhai has been acknowledged by business entities worldwide. "Qianhai not only possesses a superior talent pool, but also provides companies with comprehensive support," said Zhang Yangqing, General Manager of Merchants Union Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. "There's no better place than Qianhai with regards to Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation," stated Dr. Sunny Siu, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and founder of Jaguar Micro.

Alvin Zhong, Managing Director of Colliers Shenzhen, commented in an interview, "Qianhai has one of the top business environments around the globe. Qianhai's policies, services, market, and prospects are meaningful to companies' future business plans."

According to the Institutional Innovation Index for China Pilot Free Trade Zones released by Sun Yat-sen University, Qianhai ranks first in the country in terms of system innovation. Furthermore, a third-party assessment by Deloitte also shows that Qianhai is a global leader in such parameters as starting a business and access to electricity.

As a reform pioneer, Qianhai has never stopped making progress. At the conference, the Qianhai Global Service Providers (QGSP) Program was launched to actively attract and cultivate national top 20 or global top 50 businesses in eight fields, including modern finance, business & trade, logistics, information services, etc. The goal of the program is to build a cluster of global service providers with the world's top 500 headquarters companies as the pillars and SME industry leaders in specialized fields as the main body.

Qianhai vows to render these businesses an industrial support fund of no less than one billion yuan and an industrial space of over 200,000 square kilometers every year. Its goal is to introduce or foster more than 300 modern service providers from around the world and achieve an added value of over 100 billion yuan in the modern service sector by 2025. Qianhai will make every effort to build a core engine for the modern service industry in the Greater Bay Area and become an important producer service center in the Asia-Pacific region.

At the conference, Qianhai extended its invitation to global service providers in eight fields with business team incentives of tens of millions of yuan and an appealing 15% corporate income tax rate.

Companies in Qianhai have already felt the zone's passion for promoting investment. "This year, we officially moved our office back to Qianhai," said Zhou Xiangdong, Chief Financial Officer and Board Director of Shenzhen Hive Box Technology Co., Ltd. "On the basis of what Shenzhen provides, Qianhai offers more support for businesses in terms of finance, taxation, and administrative approval."

Wang Peiying, founder of DVF Private Equity Fund Management Co. Ltd., stated, "Seeing that a number of international financial companies are thriving in Qianhai, DVF also intends to settle here as soon as possible."

According to its plan, Qianhai will also create a series of clusters, featuring venture capital investment, natural gas trading, cross-border e-commerce, and tax services.

"Qianhai is wide open, equipped with a global platform that facilitates insight and information exchange. It will become a hub for specialized service industries in the future," Alvin Zhong added. "Qianhai is undoubtedly a desirable destination for doing business."

SOURCE Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone
This 120-pages report with TOC analyzes the retail market in Indonesia by product (food and beverages, electrical and electronics, apparel and footwear, home improvement and household products, and others) and distribution channel (offline and online)

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The retail market size in Indonesia is expected to increase by USD 44.13 billion from 2021 to 2026. In addition, the growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period, according to Technavio. The retail market in Indonesia is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as forming strategic partnerships to compete in the market.

Get a comprehensive report summary that describes the market size and forecast along with research methodology. The FREE sample report is available in PDF format

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Indonesia Retail Market 2022-2026

Retail Market In Indonesia: Major Growth Trend

The growing preference for local brands is a trend in the market. Indonesians have a strong preference for local brands owing to better value for money. Foreign companies seeking to invest in Indonesia are trying to capture the market with the help of localization or acquisition strategies. Moreover, the retail industry in the country is witnessing the emergence of retailers that operate according to Sharia law or Islamic precepts.

Retail Market In Indonesia: Vendor Landscape

The retail market in Indonesia is highly competitive and fragmented, with the presence of small as well as large vendors. With the rise in competition, the industry has been witnessing consolidation, wherein smaller players are acquired by or merged with large players. Vendors should distinguish their product and service offerings through clear and unique value propositions to survive and succeed in this competitive environment.

This report provides a full list of key vendors, their strategies, and the latest developments. Buy Now for detailed vendor information

Retail Market In Indonesia: Market Segmentation

By product, the food and beverages segment will offer significant growth opportunities for market players during the forecast period. Factors such as an upward trend in the prices of commodities will play a crucial role in driving the growth of the segment. The rise in prices has resulted in an increase in the purchasing power of people in regions that produce commodities, such as Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Retail Market In Indonesia: Major Growth Drivers

The retail market growth in Indonesia is expected to be driven by the following factors:

Expansion of retail landscape

Growing popularity of private-label brands

Rising prominence of in-store bakeries in supermarkets

Technavio has identified key trends, drivers, and challenges in the market, which will help vendors improve their strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. Download a FREE Sample Report Now!

Retail Market In Indonesia: Key Vendor Offerings

CT Corp. - The company operates retail stores under its brand PT Trans Retail Indonesia.

The company operates retail stores under its brand PT Trans Retail Indonesia. PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk - The company operates retail stores under its brand Erafone.

The company operates retail stores under its brand Erafone. PT Hero Supermarket Tbk - The company operates retail stores under its brands such as Hero Supermarket, Guardian, and Giant Extra.

The company operates retail stores under its brands such as Hero Supermarket, Guardian, and Giant Extra. PT Lion Super Indo - The company operates retail stores under its brand Super Indo and offers various products such as food and beverages, cosmetic items, grocery products, and other products.

The company operates retail stores under its brand Super Indo and offers various products such as food and beverages, cosmetic items, grocery products, and other products. PT Multipolar Technology Tbk - The company operates retail stores under its brands Matahari Putra Prima and Matahari Department Store.

Retail Market In Indonesia: Reasons to Buy Our Report

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026

Detailed information on factors that will assist retail market growth in Indonesia during the next five years

during the next five years Estimation of the retail market size in Indonesia and its contribution to the parent market

and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the retail market across Indonesia

Analysis of the competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of retail market vendors in Indonesia

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Related Reports

Retail Market in Mexico Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region, and Segment Forecast 2022-2026: The influx of numerous retail stores is driving market growth. Retailers operating in the country are focusing on expanding their outlets across the country. Vendors are also focusing on non-urban locales.

Online Retail Market in the US Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region, and Segment Forecast 2022-2026: The growing seasonal and holiday sales are driving the market growth. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are the days that see a high amount of online shopping. Apparel, footwear and accessories, consumer electronics, computer hardware, and toys are the largest gaining product categories during the holiday season.

Retail Market In Indonesia Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.6% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 44.13 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.0 Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled AEON CO. Ltd., CT Corp., Global Digital Niaga, Lazada Group, Lotte Corp., PT Bukalapak.com, PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk, PT Hero Supermarket Tbk, PT Lion Super Indo, PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk, PT Multipolar Technology Tbk, PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, PT Tokopedia, PT. Indomarco Prismatama, PT. Sinar Sakti Metalindo, PT. INTI CAKRAWALA CITRA, Sea Ltd., SPAR International, and TipTop Rawamangun 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 Discretionary 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 Country Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Product



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Distribution Channel



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 07: Parent market



Exhibit 08: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 09: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 10: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 11: Chart on Indonesia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 12: Data Table on Indonesia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 13: Chart on Indonesia : Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 14: Data Table on Indonesia : Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 15: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 16: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 17: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 18: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 19: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 20: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 21: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Product

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 22: Chart on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 23: Data Table on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Product

Exhibit 24: Chart on Comparison by Product



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Comparison by Product

5.3 Food and beverages - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 26: Chart on Food and beverages - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Food and beverages - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 28: Chart on Food and beverages - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Food and beverages - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Electrical and electronics - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 30: Chart on Electrical and electronics - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Electrical and electronics - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 32: Chart on Electrical and electronics - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Electrical and electronics - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Apparel and footwear - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 34: Chart on Apparel and footwear - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Apparel and footwear - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Apparel and footwear - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Apparel and footwear - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Home improvement and household products - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 38: Chart on Home improvement and household products - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Home improvement and household products - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Home improvement and household products - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Home improvement and household products - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 42: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.8 Market opportunity by Product

Exhibit 46: Market opportunity by Product ($ billion)

6 Market Segmentation by Distribution Channel

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 47: Chart on Distribution Channel - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 48: Data Table on Distribution Channel - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Distribution Channel

Exhibit 49: Chart on Comparison by Distribution Channel



Exhibit 50: Data Table on Comparison by Distribution Channel

6.3 Offline - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 51: Chart on Offline - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 52: Data Table on Offline - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 53: Chart on Offline - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 54: Data Table on Offline - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.4 Online - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 55: Chart on Online - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 56: Data Table on Online - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 57: Chart on Online - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 58: Data Table on Online - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.5 Market opportunity by Distribution Channel

Exhibit 59: Market opportunity by Distribution Channel ($ billion)

7 Customer Landscape

7.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 60: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 61: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 62: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 63: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 64: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 65: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 66: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 CT Corp.

Exhibit 67: CT Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 68: CT Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 69: CT Corp. - Key offerings

10.4 PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk

Exhibit 70: PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk - Overview



Exhibit 71: PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk - Business segments



Exhibit 72: PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk - Key offerings



Exhibit 73: PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk - Segment focus

10.5 PT Hero Supermarket Tbk

Exhibit 74: PT Hero Supermarket Tbk - Overview



Exhibit 75: PT Hero Supermarket Tbk - Business segments



Exhibit 76: PT Hero Supermarket Tbk - Key offerings



Exhibit 77: PT Hero Supermarket Tbk - Segment focus

10.6 PT Lion Super Indo

Exhibit 78: PT Lion Super Indo - Overview



Exhibit 79: PT Lion Super Indo - Product / Service



Exhibit 80: PT Lion Super Indo - Key offerings

10.7 PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk

Exhibit 81: PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk - Overview



Exhibit 82: PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk - Business segments



Exhibit 83: PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk - Key offerings



Exhibit 84: PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk - Segment focus

10.8 PT Multipolar Technology Tbk

Exhibit 85: PT Multipolar Technology Tbk - Overview



Exhibit 86: PT Multipolar Technology Tbk - Business segments



Exhibit 87: PT Multipolar Technology Tbk - Key offerings



Exhibit 88: PT Multipolar Technology Tbk - Segment focus

10.9 PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk

Exhibit 89: PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk - Overview



Exhibit 90: PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk - Business segments



Exhibit 91: PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk - Key offerings



Exhibit 92: PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa Tbk - Segment focus

10.10 PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk

Exhibit 93: PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk - Overview



Exhibit 94: PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk - Business segments



Exhibit 95: PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk - Key offerings



Exhibit 96: PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk - Segment focus

10.11 PT. Indomarco Prismatama

Exhibit 97: PT. Indomarco Prismatama - Overview



Exhibit 98: PT. Indomarco Prismatama - Product / Service



Exhibit 99: PT. Indomarco Prismatama - Key offerings

10.12 SPAR International

Exhibit 100: SPAR International - Overview



Exhibit 101: SPAR International - Product / Service



Exhibit 102: SPAR International - Key offerings

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 103: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 104: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 105: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 106: Research methodology



Exhibit 107: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 108: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 109: 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/

Newsroom: https://newsroom.technavio.org/news/retailmarket-v2

SOURCE Technavio
New facility expands capacity for engineering, research, testing and production

VALDOSTA, Ga., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Salvus, LLC, a CJB company, showcased its new facility, expanded capabilities and research developments during an open house and media day for more than 100 guests on Nov. 3 in Valdosta, Ga.

"We are proud to take the next step in our evolution as Salvus in opening our new facility that will enhance our research capabilities, power our testing capacity and deliver on our mission to detect our customers' concerns," said Clinton Beeland, president and CEO of Salvus.

The team at GTRI uses a UGV to demonstrate the speed, accuracy and specificity of Salvus Detection Technology for guests at the Salvus open house on Nov. 3 in Valdosta, Ga. The Salvus team shows how the target substance is detected using the flow cartridge and handheld device for guests during the Salvus open house on Nov. 3 in Valdosta, Ga.

"Salvus Detection Technology holds great promise as the world's first handheld chemical and biological interferometric detector," he elaborated. "This groundbreaking technology can rapidly identify chemical and biological substances in liquid, air or surface environments at detection levels consistent with the gold standards used today."

The first Salvus analyzer is a lightweight, easy-to-use handheld device that can be fit with one of two types of cartridges  a discreet sample cartridge or a flow monitoring cartridge for applications where ongoing monitoring is required. The cartridges contain a waveguide that can be imprinted with multiple receptors, which may include antibody, antigen, aptamer, RNA, DNA or molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). Salvus technology can be incorporated into a facility's processes and adapted to fit on multiple other form factors, such as monitoring stations or unmanned vehicles (UGVs, UAVs).

The technology's capabilities caught the interest of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which recently signed a Cooperative Research & Development Agreement with Salvus to explore agricultural and food safety applications. Salvus also continues sponsored research with Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the original developers of the interferometric detection technology, in the areas of health care, environmental sciences, food safety and agriculture. At the recent Poultry Tech Summit, Salvus shared results from cooperative research and development with GTRI that focused on monitoring and regulating levels of peracetic acid (PAA), which is highly effective as a sanitizer against bacteria like Campylobacter and Salmonella, during poultry processing.

"The successes we're seeing in our research and testing efforts combined with the advancements we're making in the design and scalability of the handheld device, discreet sample cartridge and flow monitoring cartridge are bringing us closer to commercial readiness," Beeland explained. "As a result, we now have agreements with multiple commercial partners for delivering the platform to select markets. Our new facility enables our launch into commercial application."

New facility designed for the future

Projections for the new facility include supporting an additional 50-75 employees in the fields of science, engineering, biology, technology and precision manufacturing over the next three years based on needs and ramp-up speed with partner companies. The new facility features multiple lab areas to develop, produce and run target-specific analysis, or assays, as well as manufacturing and packaging space to prepare, assemble and package the technology components to meet commercial demands.

To demonstrate the capabilities of the technology, the team from GTRI attached the sensor to an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), then they guided it to an open container holding a chemical target. The cartridge was configured to detect ammonia. Results were nearly instantaneous and displayed on a large screen, showing a spike representing the presence of the ammonia. Results were both qualitative (yes, the target is present) and quantitative (at this specific level).

With applicability across a multitude of applications in numerous industries, including human health, animal health, food, agriculture, water management and industrial, Salvus detection technology is a first-of-its-kind in its:

Flexibility to monitor and detect both chemicals and biologicals either discreetly or through monitoring applications.

Ability to deliver results within minutes or seconds instead of hours or days.

Adaptability to be deployed on multiple form factors (e.g., hand-held, monitoring stations, unmanned vehicles).

Capacity to do multiplexing, or detecting multiple targets within the same sample, which is particularly important to food safety, human health and animal health.

Salvus continues to pursue potential partners with detection needs across industry sectors, and their new facility provides expanded capacity for all aspects of development, testing and commercialization.

"Salvus is excited to engage with partner companies who align culturally and strategically with us, who have sizable market access with service and training support, and who are willing to work as partners to scale manufacturing and production," Beeland said. "We see a long future for our technology with ongoing assay development as targets evolve over time, and we look forward to supporting our customers through those evolutions."

Learn more about Salvus and its detection technology at the new website www.salvusdetect.com.

About Salvus

At Salvus, We Detect Your Concerns. Formed in 2018, Salvus, LLC, is a part of the CJB family of companies that serves the food, agriculture, life sciences and specialty chemical industries. CJB focuses on safety, quality, reliability, and ease of doing business as the cornerstones of its lasting relationships across these industries. Originally developed by researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Salvus Detection Technology is the world's first handheld chemical and biological interferometric detector. This groundbreaking technology can rapidly identify chemical and biological substances in liquid, air or surface environments at detection levels comparable to the gold standards used today. The Latin word for safe, Salvus aims to support and enhance the safety of people, animals and the environment through its innovative detection technology. For more information about Salvus, visit salvusdetect.com.

 2022 Salvus, LLC. All rights reserved. Salvus and We Detect Your Concerns are trademarks of Salvus, LLC

SOURCE Salvus LLC
Experienced enterprise software sales leader joins Seeq to accelerate global growth and customer success

SEATTLE, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Seeq Corporation, a leader in manufacturing and industrial internet of things advanced analytics software, announced today the appointment of George Skaryak as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), a new member of the Seeq executive leadership team. Skaryak will lead all aspects of the company's go-to-market, sales, and business development, focusing on new revenue opportunities.

George Skaryak joins Seeq as the company's first CRO

"This is an exciting time of growth for Seeq, and we're thrilled to add a sales leader with a proven track record of growing SaaS businesses to bring more value to our customers," says Dr. Lisa Graham, CEO at Seeq. "George's rich background in enterprise sales and passion for hiring and training sales teams will be an invaluable addition to the executive team."

Skaryak brings more than 30 years of experience leading large teams and driving growth across many industries. Previously, Skaryak served as EVP of Worldwide Sales for Cyara, a leading customer experience assurance platform, where he was responsible for sales growth and leadership. Additionally, he has held various sales leadership roles at large and high-growth software companies, including IBM, 41st Parameter, Monster, and MetricStream.

"Seeq has an undeniable product-market fit and an enthusiastic customer base, making this a pivotal time of growth for the company and the ideal time to join," says Skaryak. "I look forward to collaborating with my Seeq colleagues to align sales, partners, customer success, and marketing through a unified approach to further accelerate Seeq's global growth."

Seeq enables companies to address their key initiatives in workforce transition, digital transformation, and sustainability with self-serve advanced analytics that can access and leverage the vast amounts of historically unused data. Engineers and scientists in process manufacturing organizations can rapidly analyze, predict, collaborate, and share insights to accelerate better production outcomes.

Seeq customers include companies in the oil and gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, power and utility, mining, food and beverage, pulp and paper, and other process industries. Investors in Seeq include Insight Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Altira Group, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Cisco Investments.

Seeq is available worldwide through a global partner network of system integrators, which provides training and resale support for Seeq in over 40 countries, in addition to its direct sales organization in North America and Europe.

Drawing from his broad industry experience, Skaryak will help further Seeq's revenue growth as its first CRO, advancing the company's mission of empowering manufacturers to optimize business outcomes with advanced analytics. Skaryak holds a B.S. from California Polytechnic State University and is based in Pittsburgh, PA.

To learn more about Seeq, visit seeq.com.

Media Contact

Sydney DeLosh

[email protected]

206-801-9339

About Seeq

Founded in 2013, Seeq publishes software applications for manufacturing organizations to rapidly find and share insights. Oil & gas, pharmaceutical, specialty chemical, utility, renewable energy, and numerous other vertical industries rely on Seeq to improve production outcomes, including yield, margins, quality, and safety. Headquartered in Seattle, Seeq is a privately held virtual company with employees across the United States and sales representation in Asia, Canada, Europe, and South America. To learn more about Seeq visit www.seeq.com.

SOURCE Seeq Corporation
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --



Silica Gel Market Research Report by Product, Pore, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341331/?utm_source=PRN







The Global Silica Gel Market size was estimated at USD 8,321.22 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 9,159.42 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 10.32% to reach USD 15,007.24 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 Silica Gel to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product, the market was studied across Indicating Silica Gel and Non-indicating Silica Gel.



Based on Pore, the market was studied across Fine Pore (Type A), Medium Pore (Type B), and Wide Pore (Type C).



Based on Application, the market was studied across Catalyst Support, Chromatography, Desiccants, Paints & Coatings, Personal Care Products, and Plastic.



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 Silica Gel 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 Silica Gel 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 Silica Gel Market, including AGC Chemicals Americas, BASF SE, Capitol Scientific Inc., Chemnet global chemical network, Clariant, Desiccare, Inc., Fuji Silysia Chemical ltd., GeeJay Chemicals Ltd., Hengye, Inc., International Silica Gel Co. Ltd., Merck KGaA, Millennium Chemicals, Multisorb Technologies, Natland International Corp., Nissan Chemical Corporation, Osaka Soda Co., Ltd., PQ Corporation, Qingdao Makall Group Inc., Silicycle, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., and W.R. Grace & Co..



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 Silica Gel Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Silica Gel Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Silica Gel Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Silica Gel Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Silica Gel Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Silica Gel Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Silica Gel Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06341331/?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

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SOURCE Reportlinker
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Minimally invasive image-guided treatment solution and technology company, SpinaFX Medical Inc. (SpinaFX), today announced the quality management system underlying its Triojection system has been certified compliant with ISO 13485:2016/Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) for U.S. and Canada and EN ISO 13485:2016 for Europe. The audit was conducted by Intertek Group Plc and issued no findings.

"This is a foundational milestone for SpinaFX," said SpinaFX Chief Operating Officer John Soloninka, who led SpinaFX's ISO/MDSAP certification program. "The achievement is a testament to the high-quality, cross-functional and collaborative effort of our team and our contract manufacturer, Starfish Medical. I sincerely thank all staff and partners for their efforts."

An internationally recognized quality standard, ISO 13485:2016 is a set of requirements for quality management systems for medical devices. To achieve this independent, third-party certification, companies must demonstrate their ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements.

"ISO/MDSAP certification is a critical prerequisite enabling our pursuit of Health Canada, EU MDR and U.S. FDA medical device licensing and approvals," said SpinaFX CEO Jeff Cambra. "This outcome is evidence of the experience and deep capabilities of the SpinaFX team and our partners."

"International certification of our quality management system along with Health Canada Special Access Program approval for Triojection were critical milestones for our Series A investors," said SpinaFX Executive Chairman Igor Keselman. "Our message to current and future investors: SpinaFX is committed to quality and is prepared to deliver on its goals."

About SpinaFX

Headquartered in Ontario, Canada, SpinaFX is a treatment solution and technology company bringing innovative, minimally invasive image-guided treatments to patients with back pain due to contained herniated discs.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", which are made as of the date of this news release or as of the effective date of information described in this release, as applicable. The forward-looking statements address such anticipated events or occurrences which may include economic factors, industry trends, market demand, and corporate performance and profitability. Forward-looking statements are often identified through words or expressions including "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "envisages", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "can", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions.

All forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by, and information currently available to SpinaFX's management team. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections, and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. We caution any person reviewing this news release not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements.

Neither SpinaFX nor its representatives undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by SpinaFX or its representatives or on behalf of either of them, except as may be required by law.

SOURCE Spinafx medical inc
Order intake up by more than 25% year-on-year, marking a new 9M -high with 6.5 billion

-high with 6.5 billion Sales volume increased by almost 60% to 5.3 billion

Strong increase in sales in all three business segments

Adjusted EBIT increased by 73% to 308 million; adjusted EBITDA rose by 70% to 340 million

Acquisition of Airgard Inc., enhancing strategic product portfolio of Technology and Services business

New employer brand to attract new talents

STUTTGART, Germany, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Exyte GmbH (Exyte), a global leader in the design, engineering, and delivery of high-tech facilities, continues its strong performance during the first nine months of fiscal year 2022 successfully progressing on its accelerated growth path, its 'Pathway to Ten'.

In the first nine months of 2022, Exyte recorded an increase of almost 60% year-on-year in sales. Sales amounted to an all-time-high of 5.3 billion (9M/2021: 3.4 billion) thanks to major projects in all business segments especially in the APAC and EMEA regions. Both regions also contributed strongly to the order intake. From January to September order intake reached 6.5 billion (9M/2021: 5.1 billion), an increase of more than 25% compared to the previous year.

With an adjusted EBITDA of 340 million (9M/2021: 200 million) and adjusted EBIT of 308 million (9M/2021: 178 million) Exyte further improved its profitability. The adjusted EBITDA margin amounted to 6.4% (9M/2021: 5.9%), the adjusted EBIT margin reached 5.8% (9M/2021: 5.3%), both improving by 0.5% points year-on-year.

"Our sustained positive business development underlines our strong strategic position. The industries we serve continue to invest unchanged. Despite the current global economic development, we do not expect any major backlash for these industries or for our business. We serve global megatrends that will continue to unfold despite short-term economic turbulences," says Dr. Wolfgang Buchele, CEO of Exyte.

Positive outlook despite current economic developments

"Exyte succeeds on its 'Pathway to Ten'. Our targeted turnover of around 7 billion in 2022 brings us closer to our goal of reaching 10 billion in sales in 2027. With successfully running projects and an order backlog of 8.2 billion, we are well positioned for future profitable growth. Notwithstanding the continuing economic uncertainties, we see a sustainable positive development for Exyte," states Peter Schonhofer, CFO of Exyte. "However, we monitor developments and their potential impact on our business closely and take countermeasures where necessary."

Exyte confirms the positive year-end outlook. In accordance with an increase in sales, a respective rise in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBIT is expected. For 2022 the company forecasts an adjusted EBITDA of approximately 450 million, respectively an adjusted EBIT above 400 million.

Growth in all business segments, Biopharma & Life Sciences and Data Centers with impressive sales development

In the first nine months of 2022 all three business segments acquired substantial new projects across all regions. With a sales share of around 87% of the group's total sales, the business segment Advanced Technology Facilities recorded a sales increase of around 55% to 4.6 billion (9M/2021: 3.0 billion). Driven by the ongoing positive development of the semiconductor industry incoming orders increased by almost a quarter to 5.5 billion (9M/2021: 4.5 billion). Battery cell manufacturers also benefit from Exyte's expertise in clean and dry rooms. Exyte sees further sales opportunities in this business in the coming years, as so-called gigafabs for the production of battery cells and batteries are being planned worldwide.

Biopharma & Life Sciences almost doubled sales in the first nine months. The segment's sales reached 477 million (9M/2021: 247 million) due to major projects in Singapore and Malaysia. Biopharma & Life Sciences is accounting for 9.0% of total sales of the group (9M/2021: 7.3%). Order intake reached 477 million (9M/2021: 384 million). In Germany, Exyte is building a mRNA competence center in Halle. Further biopharma projects for global pharmaceutical companies are currently being prepared. Exyte recently opened a new Life Sciences Office in Cork, Ireland. The Irish pharmaceutical sector has grown rapidly in recent years. Exyte expects significant investments in Ireland in projects ranging from biotechnology to fill finish, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and cell and gene therapy.

Sales of the Data Centers segment rose by 74% reaching 181 million (9M/2021: 104 million). The order intake increased by more than 130% to 409 million (9M/2021: 175 million). The business segment currently implements data center projects in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, and Taiwan, amongst others.

Strategic growth of Technology and Services segment

Recently Exyte completed the acquisition of Airgard Inc., a US-based specialist in exhaust gas cleaning technology. Airgard's wet scrubbers are used globally by key players in the semiconductor industry. The acquisition of Airgard strengthens Exyte's position to support its customers with technical solutions for their exhaust management, also in light of the increasing standards that come up with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) regulations and requirements.

This is the next acquisition by which Exyte builds on its strategy of vertical integration by strengthening its business in the area of mission-critical technology and services. In 2021, Exyte acquired Critical Process Systems Group and made it part of the Technology & Services (T&S) Business Area. T&S consists of entities that provide cleanroom technology, installation services, and critical equipment for subsystems of its clients as well as off-site manufacturing (OSM). In the first nine months of 2022 Technology & Services almost doubled sales to 555 million (9M/2021: 280 million) contributing around 10% to the group's total sales (9M/2021: 8.0%). Incoming orders more than doubled to 788 million (9M/2021: 336 million).

Progress on the 'Pathway to Ten'  New Employer Branding

Targeted, strategic acquisitions are a cornerstone of Exyte's future Agenda 'Next Level'. In this agenda the company has defined several fields of actions to be successful on its 'Pathway to Ten'. Another field of action is to become the employer of choice for existing and future employees. To this end, Exyte recently presented a new employer brand which is the basis for global talent acquisition and recruiting. Around 15,000 employees are expected to work for Exyte in 2027, more than twice as many as in 2021. At the end of September 2022 Exyte employed almost 9,000 people worldwide.

Key Financial Figures at a glance

9M/2022 9M/2021 Change 2022 vs. 2021 Order Intake 6.5 bn 5.1 bn +26.1%* Sales 5.3 bn 3.4 bn +57.0%* Adjusted EBITDA 340 m 200 m +70.0 % Adjusted EBITDA Margin 6.4 % 5.9 % +0.5 PP Adjusted EBIT 308 m 178 m +73.0 % Adjusted EBIT Margin 5.8 % 5.3 % +0.5 PP *The percentage is calculated based on the values in million.

For more details about the 9M-results 2022 please visit the website exyte.net.

About Exyte

Exyte is a global leader in the design, engineering, and delivery of ultra-clean and sustainable facilities for high-tech industries. With cutting-edge expertise developed over more than a century, we serve clients in the sophisticated markets of semiconductors, battery cells, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and data centers. Exyte offers a full range of services from consulting to managing the implementation of turnkey solutions with the highest standards in safety and quality to our customers worldwide. We create a better future by enabling key industries to enhance the quality of modern life. In 2021, Exyte generated sales of EUR 4.9 billion with around 7,400 employees worldwide.

Contact:

Rene Ziegler

Vice President Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

+49 711 88044606

+49 172 5838786

[email protected]

www.exyte.net

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1487100/Exyte_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Exyte
The rigorous audit validates SuperMoney's commitment to data security in the delivery of real-time financial service comparisons, quotes, and advice.

SANTA ANA, Calif. , Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SuperMoney, a leading financial services comparison platform, has successfully completed the independent audit process required to earn its System and Organization Controls  SOC 2 Type II - Attestation from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The independent examination, conducted by leading cybersecurity assessment firm Prescient Assurance LLC, validates SuperMoney's security practices and controls and confirms they meet the Trust Services Principles and Criteria for security, availability, and privacy. SOC 2 Type II is considered the gold standard for data security and provides companies with assurance that SuperMoney complies with stringent industry security standards. This independent confirmation of security controls is crucial for customers in highly regulated industries.

SuperMoney Achieves SOC 2 Type II Compliance Tweet this

"SuperMoney's superior data security goes hand-in-hand with our ability to provide superior solutions to our financial institution and channel partners, as well as to our end users," said SuperMoney's founder and CEO, Miron Lulic. "With SOC 2 Type II certification, both our business clients and the consumers who engage with us can trust that their sensitive data is being secured according to industry-leading standards and practices. I'm proud of the entire SuperMoney team for achieving this important milestone."

Established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the SOC 2 Type II audit is recognized globally. Achieving SOC2 Type II certification offers assurance to SuperMoney's partners that the company meets this standard to securely manage and protect their data, the interests of the organization and the privacy of its customers.

About SuperMoney

Founded in 2013, SuperMoney is scaling the premier financial services marketplace to reach every American consumer in a way that gives them more choices, greater transparency, and the chance to build long-term financial health. Spanning more than 50 product verticals, SuperMoney's marketplace gives consumers access to personalized and pre-qualified offers from many of the leading financial service providers in America. SuperMoney provides a one-stop platform for consumers to discover, compare, and transact with industry leaders such as Chase, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, and Penfed Credit Union. Earlier this year, SuperMoney was named to the Inc 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America by Inc. Magazine - for the 2nd consecutive year. Learn more at https://www.supermoney.com .

Media Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE SuperMoney
LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest blog from data.ai, which was released today, reveals that Talking Tom & Friends is the most downloaded mobile game IP worldwide  a title it has retained for 10 consecutive years (2013-2022). Outfit7's brand also had seven of its games in the Top 100 Monthly Active Users chart in 2021, more than any other publisher globally.

Outfit 7s Talking Tom & Friends is the most downloaded mobile game IP worldwide

The first game in the Talking Tom & Friends universe was an instant hit, and the brand has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2010. Outfit7 strategically expanded the brand's gaming portfolio over the years, choosing to focus on developing the IP, introducing new mechanics, gaming experiences, and new characters to evolve the franchise.

Today there are 20+ Talking Tom & Friends games and the most recent release, My Talking Angela 2, was the hit mobile game of summer 2021, achieving 120 million downloads in its first month alone.

"We're incredibly proud of the work we've done over the past decade," said Xinyu Qian, CEO of Outfit7. "We started with one character in one game and we've developed that into an entire Talking Tom & Friends universe. As we continue taking the brand into its next decade, we will remain dedicated to innovation and revolutionizing our user experience, delivering the best possible products we can."

The data.ai blog on the success of Outfit7's Talking Tom & Friends games can be read here: (LINK)

ABOUT OUTFIT7: Outfit7 Limited is a dynamic force in mobile gaming, reaching a global audience of billions with its award-winning games. Powered by creativity and industry-leading expertise, the company's talented international team of over 400 people pushes the boundaries of the possible every day. Outfit7's 20+ games have now been downloaded worldwide over 19 billion times and up to 470 million fans play with them every month. Its portfolio also includes numerous chart-topping animated series, theme parks, and a licensing program. You can find more information at www.outfit7.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1943017/Outfit_7_TTF.jpg

SOURCE Outfit7
Four Winds Interactive, Poppulo, and SmartSpace combine under the Poppulo brand to deliver an all-embracing communications solution for today's radically changed workplace

DENVER and CORK, Ireland and LUTON, England, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the 2021 merger of the digital signage market leader Four Winds Interactive (FWI), the workplace management innovator SmartSpace, and the employee communications leader Poppulo, the three companies have combined under the Poppulo name, supported by a unified brand, vision, and product suite.

The new Poppulo organization will offer its customers a platform called Poppulo Harmony, which combines the best of FWI, SmartSpace, and Poppulo technology into a comprehensive communication and workplace experience solution. Poppulo Harmony enables powerful employee communications, customer communications, and workplace experiences, designed to help organizations more effectively engage key employee and customer audiences.

In a recent Poppulo survey of American and European C-suite and senior executives in enterprises with over 5,000 employees, executives recognized the connection between employee experience and customer experience as a majority (58%) agree that providing excellent employee experience translates to employees providing customers with an excellent experience. In addition to our omnichannel employee communications capability, Poppulo Harmony also enables targeted customer communications experiences.

"The name Poppulo comes from the Latin word for people'populus,'" said David Levin, CEO of the new Poppulo. "Connecting people is at the heart of everything we do as an organization. Today, we introduced customers to the Poppulo Harmony platform, which combines the greatest strengths of the products that made them communication leaders in their own spaces. Successful companies know the extent to which employee experience defines the customer experience and the financial bottom lineand that communication is key to both."

As a result of hybrid work, employees require an increased flow of information, with greater specificity to their role and location than ever before. Poppulo's survey found that 67% of executives believe that poor internal communication has affected the success of company initiatives, with 81% of those executives estimating that it costs their business between $5M to $50M annually. The Poppulo Harmony platform addresses organizations' need to build stronger connections with employee and customer audiences through engaging communications and optimized spaces.

One of the platform's early adopters, Jared Curtis, Director of Communications at Maximus, emphasizes, "With widely dispersed employees working remotely, onsite, and hybrid, we consulted with Poppulo to solve for these impacts and deliver communications experiences at scale. Their omnichannel approach has supported the evolution of how we communicate, engage, and connect with all employees across work environments and geographies. This technology has strengthened our communications and helped create stronger alignment between the business and our people."

About Poppulo:

Poppulo is the leading communications and workplace experience software company. The Poppulo Harmony platform helps enterprise organizations achieve more by effortlessly connecting their employees, customers, and workplaces through omnichannel employee communications, digital signage, and workplace management. Poppulo's 6,000+ customer base is representative of the world's most successful companies, including 47 of the Fortune 100. For more information, visit www.poppulo.com. Follow Poppulo on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

Research Methodology:

Research based on survey findings from the United States and Europe. On behalf of Poppulo, Censuswide surveyed 500 enterprise executives across a range of industries with 5,000 or more employees in September of this year.

Media Contact:

Brittany Frey

[email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1940772/Poppulo_Black___Color__1_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Poppulo
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TYSON 2.0 ("The Company"), legendary boxer, entrepreneur and cannabis advocate Mike Tyson's premium cannabis brand, announced today the continued expansion of its global footprint with its entry into Alaska.

In partnership with Cold Creek Extracts, premier Alaska-based CBD and THC manufacturer, TYSON 2.0 products will be available in seven boroughs across Alaska including Anchorage, Juneau, Matanuska Susitna, Kenai Peninsula, Northstar, Denali and the unorganized borough communities of Bethel, Nome, and Dillingham.

Starting in November, the first products to launch across Cold Creek retail partners will be vapes available in half gram and 1 gram sizes, and the famous Mike Bites edibles in Sour Apple, Watermelon and Blackberry flavors. More products from the TYSON 2.0 line will be launched in Q4 and over the course of 2023.

"It gives me great happiness and pride to announce the launch of TYSON 2.0 products in the state of Alaska," said Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer and Co-Founder of TYSON 2.0 "I fully stand behind the relaxation and wellness benefits of our products which have quickly gained mass appeal. I look forward to sharing my favorite vapes and edibles with Alaskans who are looking for high times and smooth hits."



"We are thrilled to partner with Cold Creek Extracts to launch TYSON 2.0 products across Alaska," said Adam Wilks, CEO of TYSON 2.0. "With product quality and customer satisfaction at the core of what we do, we partnered with Cold Creek Extracts for their clean production methods without the use of butane, fake colorings, additives or harsh solvents, and their proprietary blends of naturally-derived terpenes."

Launched in October 2021, TYSON 2.0 brings innovative, high-quality, cannabis products known for purity, consistency, and wide accessibility to consumers. Co-founded by Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer, and Chad Bronstein, Chairman and President, and led by Adam Wilks, Chief Executive Officer - the Company partners with world-class cannabis operators to provide a suite of products designed to appeal to and reach consumers in legal markets. TYSON 2.0 THC products are available across dispensaries and retail locations in 24 states and select provinces across Canada. Earlier this month, the Company answered the growing market demand for their fan-favored products with the launch of an online global marketplace for hemp-based products: Delta 8, Delta 9 and CBD.

"Cold Creek Extracts is beyond excited to be working with TYSON 2.0, to bring Iron Mike's favorite products to Alaskans!" Cade Inscho, Founder, Cold Creek Extracts

For more information on TYSON 2.0, visit Tyson20.com . TYSON 2.0 branded merchandise is available for purchase at shoptyson20.com . TYSON 2.0 branded hemp-based products will be available for purchase at tyson20global.com .

About TYSON 2.0

TYSON 2.0 is a premier cannabis company formed with legendary boxer, entrepreneur and icon Mike Tyson. The company's mission is to produce innovative, high-quality cannabis products known for purity, precision, and wide accessibility. Providing consumers an outstanding selection of products, TYSON 2.0 is an extraordinary balance of premium and affordable, full-spectrum cannabis flower, concentrates and consumables available at retailers nationwide. Learn more at Tyson20.com .

SOURCE TYSON 2.0
Valmet Oyj's press release on November 9, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. EET

ESPOO, Finland, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Valmet entered into an agreement on November 9th to acquire the U.S. based NovaTech Automation's Process Solutions business. The value of the acquisition will not be disclosed. The acquisition is estimated to be completed on January 1st, 2023 at the earliest.

NovaTech Automation's Process Solutions business specializes in process control and optimization solutions for batch, continuous and hybrid processes. The Process Solutions business has a turnover of approximately USD 18 million and employs more than 90 people in the United States and the Benelux countries.

The acquisition is in line with Valmet's strategy and will further strengthen Valmet's recurring stable Automation business with a reliable batch distributed control system (DCS). It also expands Valmet's automation systems business footprint in the U.S., particularly in new industries, including food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and chemical products.

The NovaTech Automation Process Solutions business will transition to Valmet, including employees, technologies and customer agreements. The two organizations will work together over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition. The acquired business will be integrated to Valmet's Automation Systems business line.

"NovaTech Automation's process solutions offering complements Valmet's existing automation offering and industry reach. It brings synergy and opens the opportunity to serve both companies' current and future process automation customers with a wider offering. Together, we continue to strive to fulfill our vision of becoming the global champion in serving our customers. We look forward to welcoming the new colleagues from NovaTech Automation to Valmet," says Toni Saarnio, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Valmet's Automation Systems business line.

"Valmet is an industry leader in automation systems and process control. Their investment in research and development, direct-to-customer service model, and their global footprint make them an ideal steward of the NovaTech Automation Process offering. I know our customers and employees will benefit from their expertise and technologies," says Conrad Oakey, CEO, NovaTech Automation.

VALMET

Corporate Communications

For further information, please contact:

Toni Saarnio, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, tel. +358 40 588 4122, [email protected]

Valmet is a leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. With our automation systems and flow control solutions we serve an even wider base of process industries. Our 17,500 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward  every day.

The company has over 220 years of industrial history and a strong track record in continuous improvement and renewal. In 2022, a major milestone was achieved when the flow control company Neles was merged into Valmet. The combined company's net sales in 2021 were approximately EUR 4.5 billion based on the respective company figures.

Valmet's shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki and the head office is in Espoo, Finland.

Follow us on valmet.com | Twitter | Twitter (IR) | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram |

Processing of personal data

SOURCE Valmet Oyj
CALGARY, AB, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Vermilion Energy Inc. ("Vermilion") (TSX: VET) (NYSE: VET) is pleased to announce a cash dividend of $0.08 CDN per share, payable on January 16, 2023 to all shareholders of record on December 30, 2022. The ex-dividend date for this payment is December 29, 2022. This dividend is an eligible dividend for the purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada).

About Vermilion

Vermilion is an international energy producer that seeks to create value through the acquisition, exploration, development and optimization of producing assets in North America, Europe and Australia. Our business model emphasizes free cash flow generation and returning capital to investors when economically warranted, augmented by value-adding acquisitions. Vermilion's operations are focused on the exploitation of light oil and liquids-rich natural gas conventional resource plays in North America and the exploration and development of conventional natural gas and oil opportunities in Europe and Australia.

Vermilion's priorities are health and safety, the environment, and profitability, in that order. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the public and those who work with us, and the protection of our natural surroundings. We have been recognized by leading ESG rating agencies for our transparency on and management of key environmental, social and governance issues. In addition, we emphasize strategic community investment in each of our operating areas.

Vermilion trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VET.

SOURCE Vermilion Energy Inc.
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The following article was published today by China Daily.

Wide-ranging benefits are awaiting both China and the world as the country is marching on the Chinese path to modernization  a holistic vision set out at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, officials and experts said.

They made the observation on Wednesday during the latest session of Vision China, which discussed how the Chinese path to modernization will advance prosperity domestically and globally in economic, social and cultural contexts.

At the congress last month, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a report outlining the key features of the Chinese path to modernization.

Such a modernization is intended for a huge population, for common prosperity for all, for material and cultural-ethical advancement, for harmony between humanity and nature, and for peaceful development, said Xi.

To make the target, approach and implications of this vision better understood at home and abroad, China Daily hosted the online event, themed "Path to Progress: Chinese Modernization", which gathered leading officials and scholars from around the world.

The Chinese path to modernization includes Beijing's clear commitment to realizing all-around progress of the largest population on the planet in a fair and sustainable way, benefiting both the people and the environment, they said.

It is also good news for other nations clouded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic downturn, as China will ensure its path to prosperity is accompanied by win-win collaboration with the world, and the existing cooperative blueprints such as the Belt and Road Initiative will further prosper, they added.

Liu Jianchao, minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, said that China's modernization goes beyond the notion of putting one's own country first as it is a path to development that pursues common prosperity for all.

China's modernization "does not seek outward expansion, nor attempt to confine other countries to the lower end of industrial chains", he said.

"Instead, our modernization is underpinned by openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation geared toward creating more opportunities with our own development for the whole world," he said.

Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said, "The Chinese path to modernization is essentially the modernization of the people, and its goal is to benefit the people."

Qu noted that when meeting the press last month, General Secretary Xi underscored that, "We shall always act for the people and rely on them in everything we do."

China will dedicate itself to peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, and with an open mind, "China will draw inspiration from all of human civilization's outstanding achievements and work to build an even better world", he said.

Ella Rule, chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), stated her admiration for the CPC's lifting of 100 million poor rural residents out of poverty, and China's success in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and in unprecedented infrastructure projects such as railways, roads and water conservancy.

She hailed the role of the CPC in balancing economic growth, public welfare and ecological sustainability.

"China is able to moderate the lust for profit of entrepreneurs to ensure that the interests of the masses are not neglected, or those of future generations of people who are threatened by global warming brought about by the blind pursuit of profit", she said.

Ian Goodrum, an editor and writer at China Daily, noted that the 20th CPC National Congress offered "a list of priorities the country will be focusing on between now and 2035", such as the per capita GDP of a mid-level developed country and better and more equitably distributed public services.

These goals will "serve as the rubric for government performance" in the coming years, and define the country's progress in a tangible way, he said.

"China can and should remain concentrated on its own affairs and let its own development do the talking," he added.

Hu Yinglian, a professor at the National Academy of Governance, noted that modernization is now not just about installing lamps or telephones in poor areas, or building high-speed railway lines, but also about building a modern governance system.

The Party encourages all stakeholders to work together in addressing pressing problems such as improving healthcare, public safety and community development at a time when the country's rapid development "also faces some risks and challenges", he said.

"A more harmonious society will definitely help develop China into a modern socialist country by 2050, which is the second centenary goal," he added.

Ong Tee Keat, former minister of transport of Malaysia and chairman of the country's Center for New Inclusive Asia, noted that over the past 10 years, China has evolved into "a staunch defender of multilateral international cooperation based on the UN Charter".

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will continue to benefit from the inclusive and symbiotic Belt and Road Initiative through connectivity-based collaboration, because "it has presented to the region and the world a stable, resilient and egalitarian model of international cooperation", he said.

New drivers for economic cooperation are earmarked to be brought to the table to help boost the post-pandemic economic recovery in the region, he added.

Sourabh Gupta, senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies, highlighted the importance of China's move from high-speed growth to high-quality development.

The timeline of this move has been very well stated and is well thought out, he said, adding that he hoped that the goals will be implemented rigorously over the next 30 years.

"The world, the region and China has an interest in seeing China succeed, and I hope that will be the case," he added.

By ZHANG YUNBI

SOURCE China Daily
Learn about crucial advisory and intelligence that can assist buyers in identifying and shortlisting the most suitable suppliers for their dairy product requirements. Some of the leading VoIP suppliers profiled extensively in this report are 8x8 Inc., AT&T, and Cisco Systems Inc.

https://procurement.spendedge.com/report/voip-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report

VoIP Procurement: Pricing Insights

It is crucial to keep track of current and future VoIP price trends to completely optimize the value of the purchase, both from the current cash outflow as well as the overall cost and benefit perspective. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by constant monitoring of price influencing factors described in the report.

Pricing insights presented in this report cover pricing benchmarks and the trends and strategies that can help optimize cost savings.

Request for a FREE sample to access the definite purchasing guide on VoIP that answers all your key questions on price trends and analysis:

Am I paying/getting the right prices? Is my VoIP TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable?

How is the price forecast expected to change? What is driving the current and future price changes?

Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities?

VoIP Sourcing and Procurement Market Report Key Details:

Report Specs Details Spend growth (CAGR) 12.12 % Incremental spend USD 64.55 Billion Pricing models Pay-per-use pricing model, Tiered pricing model, and Fixed fee pricing model Supplier selection scope Skills and expertise, Geographical presence, technical capabilities, and Compliance with regulations and standards Market dynamics Regional categories spend in terms of percentage with respect to North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa and APAC and global category spend and CAGR in terms of percentage over 5 years.

https://procurement.spendedge.com/sample-report/voip-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-reportt

What are the Key Data Covered in this VoIP Sourcing and Procurement Market Report?

Detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, and innovations of the VoIP procurement and sourcing market.

Precise estimation of procurement strategies deployed by major category end-users across several industries while sourcing for VoIP requirements.

Accurate predictions on upcoming trends and changes in vendor behavior.

Analysis of various supplier selection criteria, RFX questions, supplier evaluation metrics, and service level agreements.

Insight into the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries and an analysis of these strategies with respect to innovation, regulatory compliance, quality, supply, and cost.

Comprehensive details about each pricing model and the pros and cons attached to every pricing model prevalent in the market.

Best Selling Report:

Printing Ink Sourcing and Procurement Report : This report offers detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, and innovations of the printing ink procurement and sourcing market, which the global suppliers have been leveraging to gain a competitive edge across regions. Read More

This report offers detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, and innovations of the printing ink procurement and sourcing market, which the global suppliers have been leveraging to gain a competitive edge across regions. Read More Industrial Gases Market Top Spending Regions and Market Price Trends: Only a few regions will drive the majority of this growth. Moreover, on the supply side, North America , Europe , and APAC will have the maximum influence owing to the supplier base. Know More

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.

Contact

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge
POMONA, Calif., Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Western University of Health Sciences has selected Jonathan Labovitz, DPM, FACFAS, CHCQM, as Dean of the College of Podiatric Medicine (CPM), effective November 1, 2022.

Dr. Labovitz joined CPM in 2009, the same year the College welcomed its inaugural class. He has served the College and WesternU admirably in a multitude of capacities, including Department Chair, Assistant Dean of Clinical Education, and Medical Director of the WesternU Foot & Ankle Center. He most recently served as Associate Dean of Clinical Education and Graduate Placement.

WesternU College of Podiatric Medicine Dean Jonathan Labovitz, DPM, FACFAS, CHCQM

"Dean Labovitz has invested his career at WesternU and was pivotal to the global growth of CPM and ultimate success of the College," said WesternU President Robin Farias-Eisner, MD, PhD, MBA. "He takes the reigns at a transformational time in health care, for the University, and for the Podiatric Medicine profession. I have every confidence that he will lead CPM to achieve even higher levels of prominence."

Labovitz earned his Bachelor of Arts in Biology with a concentration in Nutritional Biochemistry from Cornell University and his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree from the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine. He completed his Podiatric Medicine and Surgery residency at Botsford General Hospital in Farmington Hills, Michigan, then traveled to Graz, Austria for the AO International Orthopedic Trauma Surgery Fellowship at LKH University Clinic for Traumatology. He also served as a Visiting Scholar in Health Policy and Management at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health.

Labovitz is an American Board of Foot & Ankle Surgery Diplomate Certified in Foot Surgery and Reconstructive Rearfoot & Ankle Surgery and an American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians Diplomate Certified in Healthcare Quality & Management. He has published and produced numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, abstracts and posters, and he has given invited presentations nationally and internationally. He mentors podiatric medical students, residents and faculty members in health management, clinical and administrative research, career development, and leadership principles and strategies to enhance their communication, efficiency and overall success as leaders.

"Throughout his time at WesternU, Dr. Labovitz has touched every facet of CPM, from assessing and modifying the case-based learning curriculum, to developing clinical partnerships and redesigning clinical curriculum, to assisting with the leadership of accreditation responsibilities. He created and implemented the DPM Advanced Standing degree program for foreign medical graduates," said WesternU Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer Paula M. Crone, DO '92. "With his clinical, academic and collaborative background, Dr. Labovitz is poised to lead CPM as a global leader of innovative and integrated podiatric medical education."

Labovitz succeeds Dr. V. Kathleen Satterfield, who served as CPM dean from May 1, 2019 to Oct. 31, 2022. She retired as dean but will continue to serve CPM and WesternU in a consultative capacity.

"I am fortunate to have been a part of CPM since its humble beginnings and to work alongside my colleagues to help it grow to become a leading institution in podiatric medical education," Labovitz said. "I look forward to working with students, faculty, staff, alumni, WesternU administration, and external stakeholders as we strive to achieve our vision to be the global leader of innovative and integrated podiatric medical education."

About Western University of Health Sciences

Western University of Health Sciences (www.westernu.edu), located in Pomona, Calif. and Lebanon, Ore., is an independent nonprofit health professions university, conferring degrees in dental medicine, health sciences, medical sciences, nursing, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, podiatric medicine and veterinary medicine. WesternU is home to WesternU Health, where the best in collaborative health care services is offered.

SOURCE Western University of Health Sciences
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WHP Global ("WHP"), one of the largest and fastest-growing global brand management firms in the world, announced today that it has signed a long-term license with leading Chinese luxury fashion retail group YouXiang ("YX") to market and distribute the Joseph Abboud brand in China across all channels of distribution including e-commerce, freestanding retail stores, shop-in-shops, and wholesale/franchise. The brand launch in Greater China, slated to begin in Spring 2023, will include a full collection of men's apparel, footwear, bags and luggage, and accessories.

WHP Global Signs Deal to Bring Joseph Abboud Brand to China.

"We are looking forward to partnering with YouXiang as we focus on the expansion of Joseph Abboud's reach through both international and digital channels," said Stanley Silverstein, Chief Commercial Officer of WHP Global, which owns the Joseph Abboud brand. "YouXiang has successfully brought some of the best-known high-end fashion brands to China, making them the perfect partner to help us reach millions of consumers in one of the world's fastest growing fashion markets."

"We are excited about this partnership as Joseph Abboud is a globally celebrated men's fashion brand with tremendous opportunity in China," said YouXiang founder Jack Lee. "We intend on fully leveraging our authority in bringing premium fashion brands into the Greater China market as well as our growing retail footprint to build a strong business together with WHP Global."

An iconic American men's fashion brand founded in 1987, Joseph Abboud delivers a modern take on heritage and customized menswear with timeless designs to fit every man. Joseph Abboud is a top selling brand at Men's Wearhouse with a robust Made in America custom tailored business operated out of the longstanding Joseph Abboud Factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The brand has experienced strong growth within its core collections, including tailored clothing, special occasion, and return to the office, and has a loyal and growing customer base in the U.S. and abroad.

Founded in 2008, YouXiang is an exclusive distributor of premium European brands providing complete supply chain, marketing, customer service, and logistics in the China market. The company reaches millions of consumers through its own retail channels with high end stores including VIA DANTE, U D X and Aquascutum, and as an authorized distributor for brands including Armani, Michael Kors, Moncler, Theory, TOD's, Versace, and YSL, which combined generate over $750 million in annual sales.

About WHP Global

WHP Global is a leading New York based firm that acquires global consumer brands and invests in high-growth distribution channels including digital commerce platforms and global expansion. WHP owns JOSEPH ABBOUD, ANNE KLEIN, JOE'S JEANS, WILLIAM RAST, LOTTO, TOYS"R"US and BABIES"R"US, as well as a controlling interest in the ISAAC MIZRAHI brand. Collectively the brands generate approximately USD$4.5 billion in global retail sales. The company also owns WHP+, a turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform for brands, with full in-house operations including technology, data analytics, logistics, creative and digital marketing and WHP SOLUTIONS, a sourcing agency based in Asia. For more information, please visit www.whp-global.com.

Media Contact:

WHP Global

Jaime Cassavechia

EJ Media Group

(212) 518-4771 x108

[email protected]

SOURCE WHP Global
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh recognized Assertive Professionals, a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned and Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business, as one of the recipients of the 2022 HIRE Vets Medallion Award during a virtual award ceremony presented by U.S. Department of Labor. Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act (HIRE Vets Act) Medallion Program is the only federal award program that recognizes employers who successfully recruit, hire, and retain veterans.

"I'm incredibly proud of our team for receiving this award for the third consecutive year. As a Veteran myself with two combat deployments, I know firsthand, returning to civilian life poses many challenges for the men and women who have served in the armed forces. As a Veteran employer, we prioritize creating opportunities, resources, mentorship, and benefits that ease the difficulty of building a career outside of the service."

- Tiffany Shaffery

Founder and CEO

Recipients of the 2022 HIRE Vets Medallion Award meet rigorous employment and veteran integration assistance criteria, including veteran hiring and retention percentages; availability of veteran-specific resources; leadership programming for veterans; dedicated human resource efforts; pay compensation and tuition assistance programs for veterans.

About Assertive Professionals :

Assertive Professionals is an SDVOSB/EDWOSB that provides cleared professionals who assist the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and Department of Homeland Security in accomplishing their missions worldwide, through an employee centric culture of development, communication, and transparency.

We are a proud partner of the DoD SkillBridge Program, connecting Service members to the Federal Consulting Industry by providing valuable civilian work experience, development, and training during their last 180 days of service. Furthermore, we provide resources and mentorship to ALL Veterans and transitioning Service Members to help prepare them for an extended career supporting the U.S. Government whether in a Civilian or Consultant capacity.

If you are looking for a career with us or want to learn more about us, check out our website at www.AssertiveProfessionals.com.

Like and share our Facebook Page, Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, Connect with us on LinkedIn

SOURCE Assertive Professionals
MILAN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yadea, the world's leading electric two-wheeler brand, is again out in full force at Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori (EICMA), the world's premier event for the motorcycle industry, taking place this year in Milan from November 8 to 13. The company is showcasing an extended range of innovative products at the event that can help bring consumers a low-carbon lifestyle. In particular, the launch of two brand-new two-wheeler vehicles is catching the attention of many attendees in need of short-distance, green mobility solutions.

Yadea to Electrify the Show with the Unveiling of Two New Models at EICMA 2022

"It is an absolute honor for Yadea to launch our two new models in Milan while showcasing our extensive range of outstanding products," said Zhou Chao, Senior Vice President at Yadea. "Innovation is the true driver behind Yadea's resilience in this market. Our investments in R&D consistently bear fruit, as exemplified by our technical prowess in batteries, power, range, and safety, which benefit our users. We'd like to invite all the attendees to try out our products at the show."

Top of the bill for Yadea this year is the debut of the YADEA Keeness VFD, the perfect entry-level electric motorcycle for consumers new to the sector. Packed with a dual 72V32Ah lithium battery, the Keeness VFD packs a real punch.

Riders can easily keep up with how much power they have left by using the Yadea mobile app. The Keeness VFD has been designed with speed in mind at every step, with the basic inspiration for its contoured aesthetic coming from the silhouette of an aircraft. The model comes equipped with Yadea's robust VFD-10KW mid-mounted motor, topping out at 100km/h[1].

Another star of the show is the brand-new high-performance scooter, the Yadea VoltGuard VFV. At the heart of the VoltGuard VFV is an ATL lithium battery pack (72V27Ah*2) capable of outputting higher power at the same weight compared to normal power cells, dispelling any worries over range anxiety.

The two new electric motorcycle models that are beyond users' expectations not only highlight the brand's mission to help people "Electrify Your Life", but also reshape global users' perceptions of two-wheeled electric vehicles.

Yadea is also showcasing its extensive range of products covering electric motorcycles, bicycles, kick scooters, as well as its advanced technology at Hall 11. M06.

Since Yadea's first appearance at EICMA in 2009, Yadea has been accelerating its globalization strategy and seeking to bring sustainable travel solutions to more people worldwide. After many years of efforts behind the scenes, Yadea is gaining a key foothold in overseas markets, with its international brand voice expanding dramatically. The company is now a regular attendee at EICMA and other headline international platforms as it looks to lead at the forefront of the low-carbon trend, promoting global green mobility.

About Yadea

Yadea is a global leader in developing and manufacturing electric two-wheel vehicles including electric motorcycles, electric mopeds, electric bicycles and electric kick scooters. To date, Yadea has sold products to 60 million users in over 100 countries and regions and has a network of 40,000+ retailers worldwide. With a mission to help people "Electrify Your Life", Yadea continues to invest in R&D, production and global expansion to build a shared and sustainable future for mankind.

For more information, visit our:

Official Website: https://www.yadea.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Yadea.Official

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/YADEA.GLOBAL/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/YadeaGlobal

Reference

[1] tested in a laboratory environment.

Yadea reserves the final right to explain all the figures and change or modify without prior notice.

SOURCE Yadea
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 9, China-Central and North America and Caribbean International Trade Digital Expo, hosted by the CCPIT-China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and jointly hosted by China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) and ZhongZhan Information Cooperation Data Service Company, opened online on the " CCPIT cloud exhibition platform ".

2022 China-Central and North America and Caribbean International Trade Digital Expo

This exhibition takes Chinese enterprises as the main body, takes the needs of buyers in Central and North America and Caribbean region as the core, and uses the digital exhibition platform to provide enterprises with online negotiation opportunities and accurate matching services. It is expected that more than 10,000 buyers will visit and connect online. The exhibits cover Textile, Clothing and Xinjiang cotton products, Medical devices, Building materials and Hardware, Gifts and office supplies, Home appliances and Furniture, Consumer electronics and other fields. The exhibition also set up 14 exhibition areas, among which the "Chinese Brand" exhibition area highlights Chinese brand enterprises, products and services, and establishes a good image of Chinese Brands; In the "Service Trade" exhibition area, service trade enterprises are preferred, and efforts are made to promote "Chinese services" to go global and deeply integrate into the global industrial chain, value chain and logistics chain.

At present, the digital mode combining online and offline is becoming the new normal of the exhibition industry. The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) actively plans to continue to help Chinese enterprises "maintain orders" and "stabilize foreign trade" by relying on the accumulated experience in organizing digital exhibitions, and make full use of the platform advantages of the "CCPIT cloud Exhibition" to display China's development achievements, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and North America and Caribbean region, while introducing the business environment in Central and North America and Caribbean, interpreting the relevant free trade agreements and the global economic and trade friction index and other important information. During the exhibition, six industry matchmaking meetings will be held, with the theme of textile clothing and Xinjiang cotton products, auto parts, hardware and building materials, consumer goods, household appliances and household appliances, and consumer electronics, to help Chinese enterprises further communicate online with politicians and businessmen in Central and North America and the Caribbean region. The exhibition period of this expo is 10 days and will end on November 18, 2022.

SOURCE ZhongZhan Information Cooperation Data Service Company
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- On November 9, China-Central and North America and Caribbean International Trade Digital Expo, hosted by the CCPIT-China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and jointly hosted by China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) and ZhongZhan Information Cooperation Data Service Company, opened online on the " CCPIT cloud exhibition platform ".

2022 China-Central and North America and Caribbean International Trade Digital Expo

This exhibition takes Chinese enterprises as the main body, takes the needs of buyers in Central and North America and Caribbean region as the core, and uses the digital exhibition platform to provide enterprises with online negotiation opportunities and accurate matching services. It is expected that more than 10,000 buyers will visit and connect online. The exhibits cover Textile, Clothing and Xinjiang cotton products, Medical devices, Building materials and Hardware, Gifts and office supplies, Home appliances and Furniture, Consumer electronics and other fields. The exhibition also set up 14 exhibition areas, among which the "Chinese Brand" exhibition area highlights Chinese brand enterprises, products and services, and establishes a good image of Chinese Brands; In the "Service Trade" exhibition area, service trade enterprises are preferred, and efforts are made to promote "Chinese services" to go global and deeply integrate into the global industrial chain, value chain and logistics chain.

At present, the digital mode combining online and offline is becoming the new normal of the exhibition industry. The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) actively plans to continue to help Chinese enterprises "maintain orders" and "stabilize foreign trade" by relying on the accumulated experience in organizing digital exhibitions, and make full use of the platform advantages of the "CCPIT cloud Exhibition" to display China's development achievements, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and North America and Caribbean region, while introducing the business environment in Central and North America and Caribbean, interpreting the relevant free trade agreements and the global economic and trade friction index and other important information. During the exhibition, six industry matchmaking meetings will be held, with the theme of textile clothing and Xinjiang cotton products, auto parts, hardware and building materials, consumer goods, household appliances and household appliances, and consumer electronics, to help Chinese enterprises further communicate online with politicians and businessmen in Central and North America and the Caribbean region. The exhibition period of this expo is 10 days and will end on November 18, 2022.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1934954/WechatIMG38.jpg

SOURCE ZhongZhan Information Cooperation Data Service Company
Inaugurating the debut of Yayoi Kusama's retrospective show, signifying his unfading support for Asia's arts and culture scene

HONG KONG, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To support the long-term development of M+, Asia's first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, Adrian Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of New World Development Company Limited and the Founder and Chairman of K11 Group, chairs the first Asia museum gala, the M+ Gala presented by Tatler. Adrian brings in strong and sustainable support to the Hong Kong's arts and culture scene including M+ through his role as the Chair of the gala, and together with his existing work via K11 and other channels.

Adrian Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of New World Development Company Limited and the Founder and Chairman of K11 Group, chairs the first Asia museum gala, the M+ Gala presented by Tatler. Adrian Cheng, CEO of New World Development and Founder of K11 Group. Adrian Cheng, CEO of New World Development and Founder of K11 Group.

The M+ Gala presented by Tatler on 7 November 2022 celebrated the museum's first anniversary, paid tribute to business and community leaders who exemplify the commitment and generosity to M+, and supported M+ t0 fulfil its vision in developing and sustaining Hong Kong as an East-Meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.

"I feel honoured to chair the M+ Gala to connect M+ with arts and culture supporters to empower the museum to bring world-class exhibitions and learning programmes to audiences from Hong Kong, Asia and beyond," said Cheng.

"With the unique identity of being 'Asia's World City', Hong Kong has an excellent role as a cultural centre to exhibit the best of both worlds, the East and the West. I shared the same vision with M+ to be firmly committed to bridging the East and the West through arts, culture and social impact," he added.

Guests of the M+ Gala enjoyed the exclusive preview of M+'s first Special Exhibition, "Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now", which will open to the public on 12 November 2022. The exhibition is the largest retrospective of renowned artist Yayoi Kusama in Asia outside Japan, featuring more than 200 works from major collections from museums and private collections in Asia, Europe, and the United States, the M+ Collection, as well as from the artist's own collection.

M+, a major global museum in the world under the self-financing Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) opened since November 2021, has been building cultural capital for Hong Kong to make contemporary visual culture more accessible to the city and beyond. M+ Gala presented by Tatler is important to the future development of the museum, and Adrian is delighted to chair the gala in addition to his role of a WKCDA Board Member from 2014 to 2018 and a M+ Board member from 2016 to 2020.

With his dedication and genuine enthusiasm for art, Adrian Cheng has been a champion of art and believes it plays an integral part in shaping culture. He focuses on democratising art and is certain it should not be merely selected for a few. With his pioneering insight, Cheng founded the K11 Art Foundation in 2010 and the K11 Craft & Guild Foundation in 2018 to incubate Chinese artists and promote the Contemporary Chinese art to the world.

Please download high-res images here:

https://bit.ly/MPlusGala

Media Enquiry:

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Maxson Tsang

Tel: +852 6017 4887 / 3103 0111

Email: [email protected]

About Adrian Cheng

Adrian Cheng is the CEO of New World Development. In 2008, Adrian founded K11 Group, a unique concept brand that encompasses a portfolio of innovative companies including retail, luxury residences and working spaces. Adrian Cheng is a renowned entrepreneur and change-maker who believes in the power of creativity, culture and innovation to enrich daily life across businesses and local communities.

His unique understanding of the new global consumer enables him to build communities responsibly around this philosophy and his ventures and businesses have a transformative, educational and lasting impact on the consumer experience.

About K11 Group

K11 Group is a unique concept brand that combines culture and commerce, sustaining an ecosystem that caters to all walks of life. Founded in 2008 by renowned entrepreneur Adrian Cheng, the Group encourages a deeper look at the interconnectivity between creativity, culture and innovation. Through K11 Group, Cheng's aim is to enrich the daily lives of next-generation consumers and create a new global identity for Chinese millennials, as well as cultivate opportunities for communities to thrive, connect, work and shop.

K11 Group is based in Hong Kong SAR with operations in Greater China and investments in Europe and the US. By 2026, K11 Group will have gained a footprint of 38 projects (GFA 2.80 million sq m) in 10 cities across Greater China. In addition to its flagship K11 MUSEA, 11 SKIES and K11 Art Malls, the Group operates K11 ATELIER, K11 ARTUS and K11 Select. In addition, it cultivates cultural richness through the Hong Kong non-profit K11 Art Foundation and the K11 Craft & Guild Foundation, alongside educational platforms like K11 KULTURE ACADEMY & K11 Future Taskforce.

SOURCE K11 Group
RiverTech will support the development of a solution to help the DIA gain insights from critical business data

HERNDON, Va., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Akima today announced that its subsidiary, RiverTech, has been awarded a contract to provide knowledge management (KM) support services to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Directorate of Operations. The award has a 5-year period of performance and a total contract value of approximately $13 million, if all options are exercised.

"The Akima portfolio of companies provides our customers with expertise to navigate the challenges and opportunities associated with increased access to large data sets," said Duncan Greene, Group President of Mission Systems Engineering & Technology. "We are honored to partner with the DIA to provide a strategic vision and execution support for their knowledge management evolution."

We are honored to partner with the DIA to provide a strategic vision and execution support for their KM evolution. Tweet this

The DIA provides military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers and force planners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community, in support of U.S. military planning and operations and weapon systems acquisition. In support of this mission, the DIA creates and manages disparate and critical initiatives to manage data elements that are essential to specific authorized missions.

RiverTech will develop technology-based automation, products, and impactful organization aids to transform critical business data into consumable insights that can be leveraged by components the DIA. Specifically, RiverTech will provide KM support services to ingest, transform, load, maintain and establish data sets.

The contract was awarded under the OASIS Small Business Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Pool 1 contract.

About RiverTech, An Akima Company

RiverTech is an SBA certified 8(a) Alaska Native Corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Akima. At RiverTech, we are dedicated to bringing innovative solutions to our customers' complex operational and mission challenges. Our teams deliver wide-ranging services from mission support to enterprise IT services, enabling information and communications dominance and superior command and control of forces across the globe. To learn more visit https://www.rivertechllc.com/ www.rivertechllc.com.

About Akima

Akima is a global enterprise with more than 8,000 employees, delivering agile solutions to the federal government in the core areas of facilities, maintenance, and repair; information technology; logistics; protective services; systems engineering; mission support; furniture, fixtures & equipment (FF&E); and construction. As a subsidiary of NANA, an Alaska Native Corporation owned by more than 15,000 Inupiat shareholders, Akima's core mission is to enable superior outcomes for our customers' missions while simultaneously creating a long-lived asset for NANA consistent with our Inupiat values. In 2022, Akima ranked #28 on Washington Technology's Top 100 List and #56 on Bloomberg Government's BGOV200 List of top federal contractors. To learn more about Akima, visit www.akima.com.

SOURCE Akima
New products announced in luxury brand's annual sustainability report

Alcantara certified 13 years in a row as Carbon Neutral by TUV SUD

MILAN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcantara plans to increase the use of recycled post-consumer polymers in its luxury "Made in Italy" material for the fashion, consumer-electronics and automotive industries, according to the company's annual sustainability report.

Alcantara Chairman and CEO Andrea Boragno said the company is introducing new material with greater proportions of recycled polymers that could lead to products that rely solely on recycled material within the next three to five years.

The new material is certified to be from 68 percent post-consumer recycled polyester produced in Europe and covered by the RCS (Recycled Claim Standard). The recycled polymers are obtained from waste material to prevent plastic from being sent to landfills, incinerated or discharged into the ocean.

A corporate leader in the implementation of environmental initiatives, Alcantara was certified as Carbon Neutral in 2009. It is the first Italian industrial company and one of the world's first companies to achieve Carbon Neutrality status.

Alcantara's recently issued sustainability report ( https://sustainabilityreport.alcantara.com/ ) notes that its offset emissions amounted to 42,461 tons of CO emissions during the last fiscal year.

Over the past 13 years Alcantara has supported 50 offset projects, including programs involving wind power, solar and hydroelectric in countries such as India, Turkey and Uganda.

The company also was able to avoid 15,272 tons in CO emissions thanks to trigeneration and cogeneration systems in place at its facilities in Italy.

"Sustainability is the most critical issue of our times," Boragno says. "That's why it is a core value deeply rooted in our corporate culture and an important growth driver of our business strategy development."

He adds that Alcantara is a member of the United Nations Global Compact and is committed to advancing the United Nations sustainable development goals.

Alcantara's cradle to grave approach involves the measurement of all CO emissions at every stage of its product life cycle from raw materials and production processes up to the product's use and end-of-life.

Today the company also provides its automotive customers with specially customized products developed by its Complex Manufacturing Department at Alcantara's production plant in Nera Montoro, Italy. The department provides uniquely branded and customized seating, headliners, floor mats and other products for companies such as Lamborghini, Ford, Maserati, McLaren, Jaguar and Alfa Romeo.

Alcantara, a "Made in Italy" lifestyle brand, was founded in 1972. Today Alcantara can be found on leading brands in a variety of fields, including the auto industry, the world of fashion and accessories, interior design, home decor and consumer- electronics.

Note to Editors: High-resolution photos are available on request.

For further information:

www.alcantara.com

twitter.com/alcantaraspa

facebook.com/alcantara.company

youtube.com/alcantaracompany

instagram.com/alcantara_company

SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A.
ATLANTA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Collideoscope is pleased to announce the launch of Free to Flourish, the personal brand of healthcare innovator, Amy O'Dell.

Amy O'Dell is a once-in-a-generation leader and healthcare innovator on a quest to change the way the world addresses neurobiological delays and disorders. Her refusal to accept conventional medical wisdom regarding the limitations of her beloved son's future drove her to build upon her therapy and counseling background to extensively study neurobiological and relational interventions. She then went on to found Jacob's Ladder, a non-profit, accredited school and research center, and AHAVA, the forthcoming digital platform for human flourishing. Her work has led to countless stories of transformation in the lives of the most vulnerable.

Amy is a fierce proponent of the methodology she pioneered, the Interpersonal Whole-Brain Model of Care (IWBMC), which harnesses the extraordinary ability of the brain to heal and develop new capacity at any age. This healing and development can occur despite challenges from a multitude of causes - autism, traumatic brain injury, stroke, developmental disabilities, genetic syndromes, or mental health issues.

"There is perhaps no one more vulnerable among us than those with neurological challenges. Amy's framework is a gift to those who are holding out hope that a better life and future are possible. Amy beautifully acknowledges that those with neurodiversity can offer much to those of us who are neurotypical and we feel honored to help her share that message with the world," said Jayson Teagle, Founder and CEO of Collideoscope.

The launch of the Free to Flourish brand signifies an important step in spreading the message that human flourishing is possible for those with neurobiological delays or disorders. Amy is now available to book as a keynote speaker and will exclusively be managed by Collideoscope. To learn more about Amy's mission and how you can join the Free to Flourish ambassador program or to book Amy, please visit freetoflourish.com.

About Collideoscope: Collideoscope is a boutique talent management agency that exists to architect iconic brands and build meaningful businesses for an elite collection of the world's most admired leaders. For additional information, visit www.collideoscope.com.

CONTACT:

Natasha Davis

Collideoscope, LLC

(678) 814-5560

[email protected]

SOURCE Collideoscope
The deep tech company's Machine Learning driven platform is the fastest way to create limitless AI-driven experiences

Investors in the round include Acrew Capital, Alumni Ventures, Warner Music Group and NGC Ventures

LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Anything World , the platform for developing interactive 3D experiences through the power of Machine Learning announces today that $7.5 million has been raised in their Series Seed Plus funding round with investors including Acrew Capital, Alumni Ventures and Warner Music Group. The influx of capital comes as the company reveals the launch of their high-fidelity animation system enabling rigging and animations for any 3D model at any time. The system is being launched in stages with its first iteration available now.

Anything World also announced today that their innovative service is coming to Unreal Engine in December. These developments are firmly in line with their mission to lower the barriers to creativity in 3D, making everyone a content creator. It means ever more people will have access to their tools of increasing fidelity - in industry standard formats.

As 3D and virtual experiences become effective strategies for increasing engagement and user interest, Anything World's platform serves as a vital tool in creating 3D assets at a massive scale which are open-sourced, readily available and remixable. Anything World's custom implementations algorithmically assign animations and behaviors, and alongside custom designs of 3D content, creators can access hundreds of thousands of 3D models.

This access and their creative tools represent a market-differentiator for Anything World who offer a service that has the premise, functionality and unique layers of behavioral intelligence incorporated that no other competitor offers.

"The capacity for anyone to create immersive and accessible experiences in virtual and 3D worlds has been expanded substantially by this funding round," says Gordon Midwood, CEO of Anything World. "We're thrilled to expand further the tools and opportunities we can provide to developers, creatives and the general public. Because of the interest and need from developers who want to create 3D worlds, populate those worlds with assets, and immerse users in incredible experiences, Anything World will continue to be the go-to platform."

This Series Seed Plus round represents the continued support of Anything World's status at the forefront of artificial intelligence and 3D worlds and validation of their goal to democratize 3D content creation. The development of the high-fidelity animation system, announced simultaneously, will be integrated directly into the company's platform. Features of this advancement include voice control and low- and no-code options for 3D content creation, the lowering of barriers to entry into this market and an increasing amount of creativity for users and engagement in gaming, virtual and Web3 worlds.

Ron Levin, Partner at Alumni Ventures comments, "What we see in Anything World is the most cutting edge machine learning platform to empower developers of the metaverse. Backed up by a terrific team, we are confident that the company will set the standard in the years ahead for 3D creators of games, the future of work, and more."

Vishal Lugani, Founding Partner, Acrew Capital adds, "We strongly believe that Anything World can be a key enabler of helping digital experiences become richer and more immersive. At Acrew, we were impressed by the team and the vision. To start, Anything World is leveraging machine learning to tackle the problem of animation and rigging. Developers and designers of games, virtual worlds, and immersive experiences shouldn't have to toil for hours and hours to bring their characters to life. Anything World speeds time to production for people building for the future of consumer digital experiences."

This Series Seed Plus funding round included investments from Alumni Ventures, Acrew Capital, Warner Music Group, NGC Ventures, Supernode Ventures, GameTech Ventures and GFR Fund. The funding will be used for two years of runway, expansion of the team, and the launch of Anything World's new high-fidelity animation system, which will allow anyone to become a 3D content creator. Anything World had already raised $1.8 million in funding prior to this round, bringing their total to $9.3M.

For more information, visit: anything.world

About Anything World:

Anything World is the leading 3D-object automation technology that empowers users to build limitless experiences. The platform allows one to request, see, manipulate and experience anything you can think of in 3D, with behaviors applied; a key component is the combination of voice computing with behavioral intelligence. Games created with Anything Word include Avatar Runner, Coheed and Cambria, Ubisoft Rabbids and the Pink Planet Experience.

CONTACT: Teddy Burnette, [email protected]

SOURCE Anything World
MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arlington Asset Investment Corp. (NYSE: AAIC) (the "Company") announced today that the Company will release results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022, after the market closes on Monday, November 14, 2022 and will hold a conference call for investors at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 to discuss the results.

Investors wishing to listen to the earnings call at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, may do so via the Internet at: http://www.arlingtonasset.com/index.php?s=19

Replays of the earnings call will be available for 60 days via webcast at the Internet address provided above, beginning two hours after the call ends.

About the Company

The Company currently invests primarily in mortgage-related and other assets and has elected to be taxed as a REIT. The Company is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. For more information, please visit www.arlingtonasset.com .

SOURCE Arlington Asset Investment Corp.
Texas-based SaaS company opens new positions in services, sales, and marketing to meet national public sector demand.

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurigo Software , the leading provider of capital planning and construction management software for infrastructure and private owners, announced it is expanding operations in key positions at its Austin headquarters. The increase in headcount has been fueled by the company's growth in 2022 and predicted demand for its cloud-based solutions from capital owners into 2023. Aurigo has secured new customers in transportation, transit, local government, and other parts of the public sector landscape since the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in November 2021.

"Funding from the IIJA is starting to flow, and public agencies are looking for the right long-term partner to support their business process and field technology needs," said Balaji Sreenivasan, CEO and founder of Aurigo Software. "For this historic bill to be a success, owners need modern tools to plan, get feedback on, and deliver their capital programs, safely and effectively. We're building the right team of experts here at Aurigo to help our customers make the most of these capital investments."

The company has already opened more than a dozen positions on its professional services team, who are responsible for implementing and training customers on the software. Aurigo is also planning to open additional positions in customer success and technical support as more customers come on board. The firm is also expanding its sales and marketing team in response to increased interest from capital program executives.

In the past year, Aurigo has signed the largest deal in the company's history and is currently in discussion with several state-level departments of transportation and other major players in North America's public sector. The firm's flagship software platform, Masterworks, is used by large capital owners to digitize their program's lifecycle, including planning, funding, bidding out the work, and managing all aspects of construction. Aurigo also offers best-in-class solutions for right of way, permitting, field inspections, and materials management, all critical parts of any capital program's delivery. The company offers a streamlined version, Aurigo Essentials, for agencies with small- to mid-sized programs.

In 2022, Aurigo has also seen an increase in demand for its public feedback solution, Engage. Public participation during the planning process is required whenever federal funds are used on a capital project. The firm has been working with public agencies to help streamline public engagement, allowing for richer and more equitable feedback early in the lifecycle.

With a substantial client base across the United States and Canada, Aurigo employs more than 400 professionals worldwide and has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine over the last two years. Aurigo has also been recognized as a Great Place to Work certified company in 2021, 2022, and counting.

About Aurigo Software

Aurigo builds software that helps build the world. Aurigo provides modern, cloud-based solutions for capital infrastructure and private owners to help them plan with confidence and build with quality. With more than $300 billion of capital programs under management, Aurigo's solutions are trusted by over 300 customers in transportation, water and utilities, healthcare, higher education, and the government with over 40,000 projects across North America. Aurigo helps capital program executives make better decisions based on proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. Aurigo is a privately held U.S. corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas, with global offices in Canada and India. Learn more at www.aurigo.com .

SOURCE Aurigo Software Technologies
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurora Capital Partners ("Aurora" or the "Firm") is pleased to announce that Bianca Sganga has been promoted to Vice President. Prior to joining Aurora in 2019 as an Associate, Bianca worked in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs in both New York and Sydney.

At Aurora, Bianca has worked closely with Aurora portfolio companies Premier Roofing, where she is a member of the Board of Directors, and Randall Reilly. She has also played an active role in the Firm's recruiting and training efforts for new Associates. Bianca earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University.

"Bianca has been an outstanding contributor since joining Aurora, both internally as a key member of the investment team and externally to our portfolio companies," said Matt Laycock, a Partner at Aurora. "Our team and culture are our most important assets at Aurora, and we look forward to Bianca's continued growth in her new role."

Aurora recently completed the sale of VLS Environmental Solutions to I Squared Capital in August as well as the sale of National Technical Systems to Element Materials Technology Group in September, the latter of which marked the final exit from Aurora's Fund IV. The Firm also recently completed the take-private acquisition of Sharps Compliance in August and acquired Universal Pure in November.

About Aurora Capital Partners

Aurora Capital Partners is a leading Los Angeles-based private equity firm with over $4.5 billion in assets under management. Founded in 1991, the firm focuses principally on control investments in middle-market companies with leading market positions, stable industry dynamics, attractive business model characteristics and actionable opportunities for growth in partnership with management. Aurora provides unique resources to its portfolio companies through its Strategy & Operations Program and its team of experienced operating advisors. Aurora's investors include leading public and corporate pension funds, endowments and foundations active in private equity investing. For more information about Aurora Capital Partners, visit: www.auroracap.com.

Media Contacts:

Aurora Capital Partners

ASC Advisors

Taylor Ingraham / Harriet Hartman

+1 (203) 992-1230

[email protected] / [email protected]

SOURCE Aurora Capital Partners
JFK in TexasA Triumphant Two Day Journey Until . . .

BOSTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Author Paul LeBon has recently published his latest book titled JFK in TexasA Triumphant Two Day Journey Until . . .

For fifty-nine years, most Americans' only impression of President Kennedy's time in Texas has been a six second video clip of the presidential limousine being fired upon and speeding off. Most people think that the President flew from Washington to Dallas, rode downtown in his motorcade and was shot.

The truth is NOW REVEALED in JFK in TexasA Triumphant Two Day Journey Until . . .

The President and Mrs. Kennedy spent 24 hours in Texas, spending Thursday visiting San Antonio and Houston where they were greeted by throngs lined five deep on sidewalks, crammed on balconies and rooftops, reminiscent of New York ticker tape parades. People came out to see the bright smiling faces of President and Mrs. Kennedy rolling along in open limousines at a mere 11 MPH. It was an unprecedented showing of affection for the handsome young president. Something never seen since.

An estimated crowd of 3,000 waited until almost Midnight to welcome them to Fort Worth. And though he wasn't set to address a Chamber of Commerce Breakfast until 9:00 am, by 7:00 am crowds had jammed parking lots around the hotel. In response, a podium was set up outdoors and President Kennedy gave his last extemporaneous remarks. The streets of Dallas were jammed with citizens, and the President twice stopped his limousine to shake hands.

In this well-researched book, Paul LeBon, a 32-year resident of Dallas shares anecdotes and photos never publicized. This is not a rehash or 'theory' about the assassination, but an accurate Love Story about the people of Texas and President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON OR THOUGH ANY BOOKSTORE BY ORDER

Media Contact:

Paul LeBon

[email protected]

401-541-8033

Available for Virtual Interviews

SOURCE Paul LeBon
Record Quarterly Production Generates $9.1 Million in Revenues;

Company Continues to Control Cash Costs

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: ASM) (NYSE American: ASM) (FSE: GV6) ("Avino" or "the Company") released today its consolidated financial results for the Company's third quarter 2022. The Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) can be viewed on the Company's website at www.avino.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

"We delivered our strongest quarterly production in recent history and increased our mill throughput by 37% from the previous quarter to over 160,000 tonnes. This reflects our steady ramp up at the Avino mine," said David Wolfin, President and CEO. "We have demonstrated resilient operational achievements at Avino that have generated $9.1 million in quarterly revenues, $2.1 million in quarterly mine operating income, and another consecutive quarter of positive operational cash flows with $1.6 million generated from operations, even while metal prices declined in third quarter. Thanks to our resilience and strong cost management, and the recent trend upward in metal prices, we remain well-positioned to manage through any near-term pressures arising from an overall economic slowdown, while remaining focused on our clear path to transformational growth and becoming Mexico's next intermediate producer."

3rd Quarter 2022 Highlights

Record Quarterly Production at Avino

A record 778,008 silver equivalent ounces were produced in Q3 2022, marking a 20% increase over Q2 2022. Q3 2022 marks the fourth full quarter following the restart of operations in August 2021 .

Avino ET Area Drills High Grade Silver and Copper in Multiple Holes

On October 11, 2022 , Avino announced further drill results from the Avino Elena Tolosa ("ET") area below the current Level 17 mining area. These drill results continue to confirm the downdip continuity of widths and grades of the Avino vein extending significant potential to a depth of at least 290 metres down dip below the deepest levels of development. The results confirm the mineralization continues and also contains significantly higher copper mineralization in the ET area.

Commissioning of Dry-Stack Tailings Facility

During Q3 2022, the Company completed construction of the dry-stack tailings facility and is currently processing 100% of its tailings through the facility.

Working Capital & Liquidity at September 30, 2022

The Company's cash balance at September 30, 2022 , totaled $10.9 million compared to $24.8 million at December 31, 2021 and $22.3 million at September 30, 2021 . Working capital totaled $12.3 million at September 30, 2022 , compared to $31.6 million at December 31, 2021 and $28.9 million at September 30, 2021 .

Third Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights

Revenues of $9.1 million

Mine operating income of $2.1 million , $2.6 million net of non-cash depreciation and depletion

, net of non-cash depreciation and depletion Net loss of $1.1 million , or $0.01 per share

, or per share Cash costs per silver equivalent payable ounce sold 1,2 - $10.29 per ounce

- per ounce All in sustaining cash cost per silver equivalent payable ounce sold 1,2 - $17.32 per ounce

- per ounce Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") 3 of $0.2 million

of Adjusted earnings 3 of $0.4 million , or $0.003 per share

of , or per share Operating cash flows (before working capital changes) of $1.6 million , or $0.01 per share3

HIGHLIGHTS (Expressed in 000's of US$) Third

Quarter 2022 Third

Quarter 2021 Change YTD 2022 YTD 2021 Change Financial Operating Performance





Revenues $ 9,118 $ 1,881 385 % $ 29,538 $ 1,910 1446 % Mine operating income (loss) $ 2,060 $ 838 143 % $ 10,706 $ (859) 1344 % Net income (loss) $ (1,129) $ (214) -428 % $ 1,800 $ (4,686) 138 % Earnings (loss) before interest, taxes and amortization ("EBITDA")3 $ 170 $ (227) 175 % $ 7,056 $ (4,378) 261 % Adjusted earnings (losses)3 $ 389 $ (728) 153 % $ 6,213 $ (2,449) 354 % Cash flow from operations before working capital changes $ 1,588 $ 102 1457 % $ 7,744 $ (2,364) 417 % Per Share Amounts





Earnings (loss) per share $ (0.01) $ (0.00) -100 % $ 0.02 $ (0.05) 140 % Adjusted earnings (loss) per share3 $ 0.00 $ (0.01) 100 % $ 0.05 $ (0.02) 350 % Cash flow per share3 $ 0.01 $ 0.00 100 % $ 0.07 $ (0.02) 450 % HIGHLIGHTS (Expressed in 000's of US$) September 30,

2022 September 30,

2021 Change September 30,

2022 December 31,

2021 Change Liquidity & Working Capital



















Cash $ 10,920 $ 22,341 -51 % $ 10,920 $ 24,765 -56 % Working capital3 $ 12,273 $ 28,903 --58% $ 12,273 $ 31,635 -61 %

Operating Highlights and Overview

HIGHLIGHTS (Expressed in US$) Third

Quarter 2022 Third

Quarter 2021 Change1 YTD 2022 YTD 2021 Change1 Operating





Tonnes Milled 162,169 58,258 178 % 391,531 61,791 534 % Silver Ounces Produced 285,444 77,935 266 % 675,339 81,439 729 % Gold Ounces Produced 1,201 1,183 1 % 3,352 1,228 173 % Copper Pounds Produced 2,101,635 685,535 207 % 4,963,327 740,578 570 % Silver Equivalent Ounces1 Produced 778,008 285,464 173 % 1,885,375 300,941 526 % Concentrate Sales and Cash Costs





Silver Equivalent Payable Ounces Sold2 603,360 107,112 463 % 1,693,168 107,112 1481 % Cash Cost per Silver Equivalent Payable Ounce1,2,3 $ 10.29 $ 3.87 166 % $ 9.71 $ 3.87 151 % All-in Sustaining Cash Cost per Silver Equivalent Payable Ounce1,2,3 $ 17.32 $ 25.60 -32 % $ 17.59 $ 51.85 -66 %

During Q3 2022, underground mining operations continued to ramp up with consolidated production for the quarter of 778,008 silver equivalent ounces consisting of 285,444 ounces of silver, 1,201 ounces of gold, and 2,101,635 pounds of copper.

Capital Expenditure Update

Third quarter cash capital expenditures company-wide were $2.7 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $6.1 million, compared to $2.1 million during the nine month period in 2021. Expenditures for Q3 2022 primarily relate to dry-stack tailings plant commissioning, as well as the conveyor projects and underground works performed in the production area of the Avino Mine.

The Company expects to be within its range of $7.0 to $9.0 million in capital expenditures for the year, which was previously disclosed in the Avino 2022 Outlook press release which can be found here on the Company's website.

Exploration Update  2022 Drill Program

On October 11, 2022, Avino announced further drill results from the Avino Elena Tolosa ("ET") area below the current Level 17 mining area. These drill results continue to confirm the downdip continuity of widths and grades of the Avino vein extending significant potential to a depth of at least 290 metres down dip below the deepest levels of development.. Avino is advancing geological modelling to determine the potential geometry and controls of the mineralization. Currently, three drills are turning to include a further 14 drill holes for 7,000 metres. For full news release, visit our website here.

At the end of Q3 2022, the Company has completed 11,253 metres of drilling in 2022. The Company has budgeted 15,000 metres of drilling in 2022, with a focus on the area at depth below the current Elena Tolosa production area.

ESG Initiatives

Avino continues to create value for all stakeholders and supports the communities that host the Avino mine, with the new dry-stack tailings project, the acquisition of La Preciosa, the continued replacement of mineral resources, and the strengthening of local partnerships as part of our long-term commitment to the country. In line with Avino's policy of local employment, Mexican nationals account for 100% of the mine work force. In addition, Avino is actively increasing its workforce diversification by hiring more women for historically male-dominated roles through targeted recruitment and development programs. Currently at site, 10  15% of our labor force is female.

We continue to invest in sustainable economic community projects such as water irrigation work, a reforestation campaign of native species, by providing school supplies and by hosting its first event for employees to bring their children to work to learn about the mine operations and jobs, to name only a few of the initiatives currently ongoing.

Qualified Person(s)

Peter Latta, P.Eng, MBA, VP Technical Services, Avino who is a qualified person within the context of National Instrument 43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical data in this news release.

Non-IFRS Measures

The financial results in this news release include references to cash flow per share, cash cost per silver equivalent ounce, all-in sustaining cash cost per silver equivalent ounce, EBITDA, and adjusted earnings/losses, all of which are non-IFRS measures. These measures are used by the Company to manage and evaluate operating performance of the Company's mining operations, and are widely reported in the silver and gold mining industry as benchmarks for performance, but do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS, and are disclosed in addition to the prescribed IFRS measures provided in the Company's MD&A.

Conference Call and Webcast

In addition, the Company will be holding a conference call and webcast on Thursday, November 10, 2022, at 9:30 am PST (12:30 pm EST). Shareholders, analysts, investors, and media are invited to join the webcast and conference call by logging in here Avino Third Quarter 2022 Webcast and Conference Call or by dialing the following numbers five to ten minutes prior to the start time.

Toll Free Canada & USA: 1-800-319-4610

Outside of Canada & USA: 1-604-638-5340

About Avino

Avino is primarily a silver producer from its wholly owned Avino Mine near Durango, Mexico. The Company's silver, gold and copper production remains unhedged. The Company's mission and strategy is to create shareholder value through its focus on profitable organic growth at the historic Avino Property and the strategic acquisition of the La Preciosa property. Avino currently controls mineral resources, as per NI 43-101, that total 290 million silver equivalent ounces, within our district scaled land package. We are committed to managing all business activities in a safe, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective manner, while contributing to the well-being of the communities in which we operate. We encourage you to connect with us on Twitter at @Avino_ASM and on LinkedIn at Avino Silver & Gold Mines. To view the Avino Mine VRIFY tour, please click here.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"David Wolfin"

________________________________

David Wolfin

President & CEO

Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (together, the "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the amended mineral resource estimate for the Company's Avino Property located near Durango in west-central Mexico (the "Avino Property") with an effective date of January 13, 2021, and as amended on December 21, 2021, and the Company's updated mineral resource estimate for La Preciosa with an effective date of October 27, 2021, prepared for the Company, and references to Measured, Indicated, Inferred Resources referred to in this press release.. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the dates of technical reports, as applicable. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and assumptions include, among others, the effects of general economic conditions, the price of gold, silver and copper, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government authorities, uncertainties associated with legal proceedings and negotiations and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking information. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; the COVID-19 pandemic; volatility in the global financial markets; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; uncertainties and risks related to carrying on business in foreign countries; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain of our officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; currency fluctuations; competition; dilution; the volatility of the our common share price and volume; tax consequences to U.S. investors; and other risks and uncertainties. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. For more detailed information regarding the Company including its risk factors, investors are directed to the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F and other periodic reports that its files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Neither the TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Non-GAAP Measures

This news release includes certain terms or performance measures commonly used in the mining industry that are not defined under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Non-GAAP measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS and, therefore, they may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other companies. We believe that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain investors use this information to evaluate our performance. The data presented is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Readers should also refer to our management's discussion and analysis available under our corporate profile at www.sedar.com or on our website at www.avino.com.

Footnotes:

1. In Q3 2022, AgEq was calculated using metals prices of $19.32 oz Ag, $1,734 oz Au and $3.51 lb Cu. In Q3 2021, AgEq was calculated using metals prices of $24.36 oz Ag, $1,789 oz Au and $4.25 lb Cu. For YTD 2022, AgEq was calculated using metal prices of $22.05 oz Ag, $1,856 oz Au, and $4.10 lb Cu. For YTD 2021, AgEq was calculated using metals prices of $24.36 oz Ag, $1,789 oz Au and $4.25 lb Cu.

2. "Silver equivalent payable ounces sold" for the purposes of cash costs and all-in sustaining costs consists of the sum of payable silver ounces, gold ounces and copper tonnes sold, before penalties, treatment charges, and refining charges, multiplied by the ratio of the average spot gold and copper prices to the average spot silver price for the corresponding period.

3. The Company reports non-IFRS measures which include EBITDA, adjusted earnings, adjusted earnings per share, cash flow per share and working capital . These measures are widely used in the mining industry as a benchmark for performance, but do not have a standardized meaning and the calculation methods may differ from methods used by other companies with similar reported measures. See Non-IFRS Measures section for further information.

SOURCE Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.
Belvedere Vodka brings together a stellar community of outstanding creatives who have created an unforgettable campaign inspired by the pure emotion captured in a glorious moment of feeling free

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Belvedere, the world's first super-premium vodka, today reveals a monumental campaign featuring critically acclaimed actor Daniel Craig as he has never been seen before. Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi, the unexpected, fun and inspired collaboration showcases Craig's talent to surprise and innovate.

Daniel Craig for Belvedere Vodka Daniel Craig for Belvedere Vodka

Courageous in spirit with a warmly rebellious energy, the campaign unites an exceptional community of collaborators. Craig has been skillfully and humorously choreographed by celebrated choreographer JaQuel Knight, to an original track written and performed by global superstars Rita Ora and Giggs and produced by hitmakers Invisible Men, Bandits and Hungry Man. The accompanying campaign stills were photographed by the iconic Juergen Teller, in the same suite that sets the scene of the movie's grand finale whilst Christine Centenera has styled the shoot with a clean, modern edge.

Taika's unique vision imagines how life might look when the cameras are not rolling. Craig moves out of a gathered crowd and passes across Paris's iconic Pont Neuf bridge. He playfully sashays his way through the lobby, hallways, and rooftop of the luxurious Cheval Blanc Paris never missing a beat. Finally, and seemingly without a care in world, the actor side-steps into the spectacular suite, and dances towards the Belvedere bar. Then just as he is about to take an ice-cold sip, the Director yells cut, and Waititi makes a cameo as he asks Craig to take it from the top once more.

All in all, a group of inventive and gifted provocateurs, who each have a taste for the unconventional, have creatively captured an incredibly unique snapshot as a nod to their and Belvedere's shared values of self-expressions, authenticity and style.

The campaign will come to life in Times Square on November 9th at 6PM EST to then explode onto preeminent billboards and a prominent succession of key events and reveals designed to make a sensational impact and become a global talking point.

Special Thanks to

Baccarat

About Belvedere

Made from Polish rye, purified water and a distillation process by fire, Belvedere is produced in one of the world's longest operating polish distilleries that has been making vodka since 1910. Belvedere's master rye distillers draw from a 600-year polish vodka-making history to artfully craft rye into an extraordinary vodka of distinct taste and character. Its taste profile is structured and elegant with hints of almond, vanilla and white pepper, a subtle sweet velvety mouthfeel and a smooth, clean finish.

DRINK RESPONSIBLY

For more information, please contact [email protected]

SOURCE Belvedere Vodka
Biohaven Ltd. launched post-closing of the Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. sale to Pfizer on October 4, 2022 , and completed a public offering of 28,750,000 Biohaven Ltd. common shares at a price of $10.50 per share on October 25, 2022 , with a total initial capitalization and net cash proceeds from offering of approximately $541 million , and no debt.

, and completed a public offering of 28,750,000 Biohaven Ltd. common shares at a price of per share on , with a total initial capitalization and net cash proceeds from offering of approximately , and no debt. Advancing multiple late-stage clinical programs including innovative drug candidates targeting Kv7 modulation for epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders, glutamate modulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), and myostatin in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Key industry executives added to leadership team, including:

Bruce Car , Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer;

, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer;

Irfan Qureshi , M.D. as Chief Medical Officer, and

, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer, and

Tanya Fischer , M.D., Ph.D. as Chief Development Officer and Head of Translational Medicine.

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Biohaven Ltd. (NYSE: BHVN) ("Biohaven" or the "Company"), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of life-changing therapies for people with debilitating neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including rare disorders, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022, and provided a review of recent accomplishments and anticipated upcoming milestones. The reported financial results present, on a historical basis, the combined assets, liabilities, expenses and cash flows directly attributable to the Company, which have been prepared from Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., the former parent, consolidated financial statements and accounting records, and are presented on a stand-alone basis as if the operations had been conducted independently from the former parent.

Vlad Coric, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Biohaven, commented, "Just weeks after launching in October as a new publicly traded company and separate independent entity as part of the merger agreement with Pfizer, we continued to advance our late stage clinical development programs and substantially enhanced our resources by raising gross proceeds of approximately $301.9 million in a public financing that drew support from a breadth of longstanding and new Biohaven investors. We are well positioned with an outstanding drug development team, a deep late-stage pipeline and a strong capital position to favorably position us to accelerate development across our portfolio."

Dr. Coric continued, "Our Kv7 platform, with its vast potential to address epilepsy and neuropsychiatric indications, is being prioritized by the team with the goal of at least one Phase 2/3 study start in 2023. We also continue to make progress with our Phase 3 study evaluating taldefgrobep alfa in patients with spinal muscular atrophy, as well as with our Phase 3 study evaluating troriluzole in patients with OCD. Finally, our discovery efforts remain a key pillar of our pipeline formation strategy; with IND-enabling studies underway across several programs, we expect to provide updates on programs like TRPM3, a potential breakthrough, non-opioid treatment option for pain, and other earlier stage protein degrader programs in the coming months and years. Our unwavering commitment to patients continues propelling us forward and we cannot wait to deliver additional therapeutic breakthrough medicines to drive outcomes for patients, shareholders and employees."

Third Quarter and Recent Business Highlights:

Company launch - On October 3, 2022 , Biohaven Ltd. began operating as a separate independent entity in connection with the merger agreement entered into with Pfizer Inc. in May 2022 . As of October 4, 2022 , Biohaven Ltd. commenced regular way trading under the symbol "BHVN" on the New York Stock Exchange as an independent, publicly traded company focused on delivering innovative life-changing treatments for neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including rare disorders, and leveraging its proven drug development capabilities and proprietary technology platforms to advance a pipeline of best-in-class therapies. The Company, led by Vlad Coric , M.D. as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, launched with approximately $257.8 million in cash and no debt.

- On , Biohaven Ltd. began operating as a separate independent entity in connection with the merger agreement entered into with Pfizer Inc. in . As of , Biohaven Ltd. commenced regular way trading under the symbol "BHVN" on the New York Stock Exchange as an independent, publicly traded company focused on delivering innovative life-changing treatments for neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including rare disorders, and leveraging its proven drug development capabilities and proprietary technology platforms to advance a pipeline of best-in-class therapies. The Company, led by , M.D. as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, launched with approximately in cash and no debt. Public offering - On October 25, 2022 , the Company closed its previously announced underwritten public offering of 28,750,000 of its common shares, which includes the full exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase 3,750,000 additional shares, at the public offering price of $10.50 per share. The gross proceeds raised in the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and estimated expenses of the offering payable by the Company, were approximately $301.9 million . As of November 7, 2022 , we had 68,160,979 common shares, without par value per share, outstanding.

- On , the Company closed its previously announced underwritten public offering of 28,750,000 of its common shares, which includes the full exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase 3,750,000 additional shares, at the public offering price of per share. The gross proceeds raised in the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and estimated expenses of the offering payable by the Company, were approximately . As of , we had 68,160,979 common shares, without par value per share, outstanding. Advanced Phase 1 studies for BHV-7000 - As previously reported, in the second quarter of 2022, the Company's Clinical Trial Application for BHV-7000 was approved by Health Canada, and the Company subsequently began clinical development. BHV-7000, the lead asset from the Kv7 platform, is an activator of Kv7.2/Kv7.3, a key ion channel involved in neuronal signaling and in regulating the hyperexcitable state in epilepsy.

- As previously reported, in the second quarter of 2022, the Company's Clinical Trial Application for BHV-7000 was approved by Health Canada, and the Company subsequently began clinical development. BHV-7000, the lead asset from the Kv7 platform, is an activator of Kv7.2/Kv7.3, a key ion channel involved in neuronal signaling and in regulating the hyperexcitable state in epilepsy. Advanced development of extracellular target degrader platform technology (MoDEs) for therapies across a variety of diseases including neuroscience, immunology and oncology - In October, Biohaven announced advancements in the development of its MoDE extracellular target degrader platform technology licensed from Yale University for various disease indications, including, but not limited to, neurological disorders, cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases. Biohaven made further innovations in this ground-breaking technology with new patent applications covering additional targets and functionality.

- In October, Biohaven announced advancements in the development of its MoDE extracellular target degrader platform technology licensed from for various disease indications, including, but not limited to, neurological disorders, cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases. Biohaven made further innovations in this ground-breaking technology with new patent applications covering additional targets and functionality. Operationalized fully-equipped Biohaven Cambridge laboratory - In October, the Company expanded its footprint to include new laboratory space in Cambridge, Massachusetts .

- In October, the Company expanded its footprint to include new laboratory space in . Commenced enrollment in Phase 3 SMA study - In July, the Company commenced enrollment in a Phase 3 clinical trial assessing the efficacy and safety of taldefgrobep alfa in SMA. Taldefgrobep targets myostatin, a natural protein that limits skeletal muscle growth, through two mechanisms: lowering myostatin directly and blocking key downstream signaling mechanisms. The Company expects to enroll approximately 180 patients in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled global trial.

- In July, the Company commenced enrollment in a Phase 3 clinical trial assessing the efficacy and safety of taldefgrobep alfa in SMA. Taldefgrobep targets myostatin, a natural protein that limits skeletal muscle growth, through two mechanisms: lowering myostatin directly and blocking key downstream signaling mechanisms. The Company expects to enroll approximately 180 patients in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled global trial. Global Coalition for Adaptive Research (GCAR) commenced enrollment in Glioblastoma Adaptive Global Innovative Learning Environment (GBM Agile) Phase 2-3 adaptive platform trial for patients with glioblastoma - In July, GCAR announced the activation of Biohaven's troriluzole in GBM AGILE, a patient-centered, adaptive platform trial for registration that tests multiple therapies for patients with newly-diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma (GBM). GBM AGILE is an international, innovative platform trial designed to more rapidly identify and confirm effective therapies for patients with glioblastoma through response adaptive randomization. The new interventions are opening first at Henry Ford Health Cancer in Detroit under Henry Ford site Principal Investigator Dr. Tom Mikkelsen and will subsequently open at more than 40 trial sites across the United States with additional global sites to follow.

Upcoming Milestones:

Biohaven is progressing its product candidates through clinical programs in a number of common and rare disorders. The Company expects to reach significant pipeline milestones in the coming periods. Biohaven expects to:

Complete Phase 1 studies of BHV-7000 in the first half of 2023: If the Phase 1 studies are successfully completed, Biohaven expects to initiate at least one pivotal trial in patients with epilepsy in the second half of 2023.

If the Phase 1 studies are successfully completed, Biohaven expects to initiate at least one pivotal trial in patients with epilepsy in the second half of 2023. Complete enrollment in Phase 3 study of troriluzole in OCD in 2023: Two Phase 3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies are expected to enroll approximately 1,300 patients across nearly 200 global study sites. The Company anticipates completing enrollment in 2023.

Two Phase 3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies are expected to enroll approximately 1,300 patients across nearly 200 global study sites. The Company anticipates completing enrollment in 2023. Provide an update on troriluzole in SCA: The Company had previously reported top-line results from a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of its investigational therapy, troriluzole, in patients with SCA in May of 2022. While the primary endpoint, change from baseline to Week 48 on the modified functional Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia did not reach statistical significance in the overall SCA population, as there was less than expected disease progression over the course of the study, post hoc analysis of efficacy measures by genotype suggested a treatment effect in patients with the SCA Type 3 (SCA3) genotype, which represents the most common form of SCA and accounted for 41 percent of the study population. The Company intends to interact with the FDA and/or EMA in the first half of 2023. We have not yet decided on the format of such a regulatory interaction but we could seek advice through various formal or informal interactions with regulatory agencies or we could choose to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) if we believe that is warranted from the results of our ongoing post-hoc analyses.

The Company had previously reported top-line results from a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of its investigational therapy, troriluzole, in patients with SCA in May of 2022. While the primary endpoint, change from baseline to Week 48 on the modified functional Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia did not reach statistical significance in the overall SCA population, as there was less than expected disease progression over the course of the study, post hoc analysis of efficacy measures by genotype suggested a treatment effect in patients with the SCA Type 3 (SCA3) genotype, which represents the most common form of SCA and accounted for 41 percent of the study population. The Company intends to interact with the FDA and/or EMA in the first half of 2023. We have not yet decided on the format of such a regulatory interaction but we could seek advice through various formal or informal interactions with regulatory agencies or we could choose to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) if we believe that is warranted from the results of our ongoing post-hoc analyses. Continue advancing Phase 3 clinical studies of taldefgrobep alfa in SMA: The Company expects to enroll approximately 180 patients in the study.

The Company expects to enroll approximately 180 patients in the study. Continue advancing early discovery portfolio across multiple neuroscience and immunoscience indications: The Company's preclinical pipeline includes molecular degraders of extracellular proteins, CD38 targeting antibody recruiting molecules (ARMs), TRP channels, TDP-43 targeting small molecules, and other undisclosed targets, including those with disease-modifying potential.

The Company's preclinical pipeline includes molecular degraders of extracellular proteins, CD38 targeting antibody recruiting molecules (ARMs), TRP channels, TDP-43 targeting small molecules, and other undisclosed targets, including those with disease-modifying potential. Continue pursuing formulation development work with BHVN-5500 for use in combination studies with Kv7 platform: The Company is developing BHV-5500 (lanicemine), a low-trapping NMDA receptor antagonist. One potential target indication includes Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Other disorders of interest include post-herpetic neuralgia and diabetic peripheral neuralgia. Current work is focused on formulation development.

Capital Position:

Cash as of September 30, 2022 was $50.7 million, excluding $0.8 million of restricted cash, compared to $76.1 million as of December 31, 2021. On October 3, 2022, in connection with the closing of the acquisition of Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. by Pfizer, Biohaven Ltd. launched with a cash balance of approximately $257.8 million. On October 25, 2022, the Company closed its previously announced public offering, which resulted in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $282.8 million.

Third Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights:

Research and Development ("R&D") Expenses: R&D expenses, including non-cash share-based compensation costs, were $52.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, compared to $47.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2021. The increase of $5.9 million was primarily due to increased expenses relating to our clinical programs partially offset by decreases in our program expenses for verdiperstat. Non-cash share-based compensation expense was $9.7 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, a decrease of $0.5 million as compared to the same period in 2021.

General and Administrative ("G&A") Expenses: G&A expenses, including non-cash share-based compensation costs, were $14.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, compared to $8.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2021. The increase of $6.3 million was primarily due to increased expenses related to accounting, legal and other professional fees associated with the Pfizer acquisition and spin-off of Biohaven Ltd. as an independent, publicly traded company. Non-cash share-based compensation expense was $7.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, an increase of $2.1 million as compared to the same period in 2021.

Net Loss: Biohaven reported a net loss for the three months ended September 30, 2022, of $68.9 million, or $1.75 per share, compared to $54.4 million, or $1.38 per share, for the same period in 2021. Non-GAAP adjusted net loss for the three months ended September 30, 2022 was $49.2 million, or $1.25 per share, compared to $39.0 million, or $0.99 per share for the same period in 2021. These non-GAAP adjusted net loss and non-GAAP adjusted net loss per share measures, more fully described below under "Non-GAAP Financial Measures," exclude non-cash share-based compensation charges and gains or losses from equity method investment. A reconciliation of the GAAP financial results to non-GAAP financial results is included in the tables below. Net loss per share and Non-GAAP adjusted net loss per share were calculated based on the 39,368,042 shares of Biohaven Ltd. common stock distributed to Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. shareholders at the time of the Distribution, including common shares issued in connection with Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. stock options that were exercised on October 3, 2022 and common shares issued in connection with Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. restricted stock units that vested on October 3, 2022. The same number of shares is being utilized for the calculation of basic and diluted earnings per share for all periods presented prior to the Spin-Off.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release includes financial results prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP), and also certain non-GAAP financial measures. In particular, Biohaven has provided non-GAAP adjusted net loss and adjusted net loss per share, adjusted to exclude the items below. Non-GAAP financial measures are not an alternative for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. However, Biohaven believes the presentation of non-GAAP adjusted net loss, when viewed in conjunction with GAAP results, provides investors with a more meaningful understanding of ongoing operating performance. These measures exclude (i) non-cash share-based compensation, which is substantially dependent on changes in the market price of common shares, (ii) gains or losses from equity method investment, which are non-cash and based on the financial results and valuation of another company that we did not manage or control, and (iii) transaction-related costs incurred relating to the Company's spin-off from Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., which are limited to a specific period of time and related to Biohaven Ltd. being established as a standalone public company.

Biohaven believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures provides useful information to management and investors regarding Biohaven's results of operations. When GAAP financial measures are viewed in conjunction with these non-GAAP financial measures, investors are provided with a more meaningful understanding of Biohaven's ongoing operating performance and are better able to compare Biohaven's performance between periods. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures are among those indicators Biohaven uses as a basis for evaluating performance, and planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation between these non-GAAP measures and the most directly comparable GAAP measures is provided later in this press release.

About Biohaven

Biohaven is a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of life-changing therapies for people with debilitating neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including rare disorders. The company is advancing a pipeline of best-in-class therapies for diseases with little or no treatment options, leveraging its proven drug development capabilities and proprietary platforms, including Kv7 ion channel modulation for epilepsy and neuronal hyperexcitability; glutamate modulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder and spinocerebellar ataxia and myostatin inhibition for neuromuscular diseases. Biohaven's portfolio of early- and late-stage product candidates also includes discovery research programs focused on TRPM3 channel activation for neuropathic pain and CD-38 antibody recruiting, bispecific molecules for multiple myeloma.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The use of certain words, including "continue", "plan", "will", "believe", "may", "expect", "anticipate" and similar expressions, is intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the future development, timing and potential marketing approval and commercialization of development candidates are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results, developments and events may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including: the expected timing, commencement and outcomes of Biohaven's planned and ongoing clinical trials; the timing of planned interactions and filings with the Food and Drug Administration; the timing and outcome of expected regulatory filings; complying with applicable U.S. regulatory requirements; the potential commercialization of Biohaven's product candidates; the potential for Biohaven's product candidates to be first in class or best in class therapies; and the effectiveness and safety of Biohaven's product candidates. Additional important factors to be considered in connection with forward-looking statements are described in Biohaven's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including within the sections titled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this new release, and Biohaven does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

BIOHAVEN LTD.

CONDENSED COMBINED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(Unaudited)





Three Months Ended September 30,

Nine Months Ended September 30,



2022

2021

2022

2021 Operating expenses:















Research and development

$ 52,845

$ 46,973

$ 300,028

$ 139,668 General and administrative

14,792

8,519

54,492

28,349 Total operating expenses

67,637

55,492

354,520

168,017 Loss from operations

(67,637)

(55,492)

(354,520)

(168,017) Other income (expense):















Gain from equity method investment







5,261 Other expense, net



(5)

(71)

(245) Total other (expense) income, net



(5)

(71)

5,016 Loss before provision (benefit) for income taxes

(67,637)

(55,497)

(354,591)

(163,001) Provision (benefit) for income taxes

1,216

(1,132)

14,581

(1,091) Net loss and comprehensive loss attributable to

common shareholders of Biohaven Ltd.

$ (68,853)

$ (54,365)

$ (369,172)

$ (161,910) Net loss per share attributable to common

shareholders of Biohaven Ltd.  basic and diluted

$ (1.75)

$ (1.38)

$ (9.38)

$ (4.11) Common shares outstandingbasic and diluted

39,368,042

39,368,042

39,368,042

39,368,042

BIOHAVEN LTD.

CONDENSED COMBINED BALANCE SHEETS

(Amounts in thousands)





September 30, 2022

December 31, 2021



(Unaudited)



Assets







Current assets:







Cash

$ 50,668

$ 76,057 Prepaid expenses

17,910

6,734 Other current assets

11,972

12,032 Total current assets

80,550

94,823 Property and equipment, net

17,423

13,010 Intangible assets

18,400

18,400 Goodwill

1,390

1,390 Other non-current assets

17,883

14,438 Total assets

$ 135,646

$ 142,061 Liabilities and Equity







Current liabilities:







Accounts payable

$ 4,731

$ 4,775 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities

23,704

37,160 Total current liabilities

28,435

41,935 Other non-current liabilities

6,995

5,435 Total liabilities

35,430

47,370 Contingently redeemable non-controlling interests



60,000 Equity:







Net investment from Former Parent

100,216

34,691 Total equity

100,216

34,691 Total liabilities and equity

$ 135,646

$ 142,061

BIOHAVEN LTD.

RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(Unaudited)





Three Months Ended September 30,

Nine Months Ended September 30,



2022

2021

2022

2021 Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP adjusted net loss:















GAAP net loss

$ (68,853)

$ (54,365)

$ (369,172)

$ (161,910) Add: non-cash share-based compensation expense

16,997

15,393

77,927

52,671 Less: Gain from equity method investment







(5,261) Add: Transaction-related costs

2,641



5,863

 Non-GAAP adjusted net loss

$ (49,215)

$ (38,972)

$ (285,382)

$ (114,500)

















Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP adjusted net loss per share  basic and diluted: GAAP net loss per share attributable to Biohaven Ltd. 

basic and diluted

$ (1.75)

$ (1.38)

$ (9.38)

$ (4.11) Add: non-cash share-based compensation expense

0.43

0.39

1.98

1.34 Less: Gain from equity method investment







(0.13) Add: Transaction-related costs

0.07



0.15

 Non-GAAP adjusted net loss per share attributable to

Biohaven Ltd.  basic and diluted

$ (1.25)

$ (0.99)

$ (7.25)

$ (2.91)

MoDEs is a trademark of Biohaven Therapeutics Ltd.

Investor Contact:

Jennifer Porcelli

Vice President, Investor Relations

[email protected]

+1 (201) 248-0741

Media Contact:

Mike Beyer, Media Relations Counselor

Sam Brown Inc.

[email protected]

+1 (312) 961-2502

SOURCE BIOHAVEN LTD
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Black Swan Graphene Inc. ("Black Swan" or the "Company") (TSXV: SWAN) (OTCQB: BSWGF) is pleased to announce that it has decided to increase the size of the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") and to support the election of Mr. Brad Humphrey as an additional independent director of the Company, who will be nominated at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to be held virtually on November 25, 2022 (the "Meeting").

Simon Marcotte, President and Chief Executive Officer of Black Swan commented: "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like thank Brad for his interest in the Company and we are looking forward to welcoming him to the team upon his election at the upcoming Annual General Meeting of Shareholders."

Brad Humphrey

Mr. Humphrey has over 25 years of international mining experience and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of NiCAN Limited (TSX-V: NICN), a Canadian explorer advancing nickel projects in the province of Manitoba. Prior to joining NiCAN, Mr. Humphrey was CEO of QMX Gold, a Canadian resource company which had a strong shareholder base, including Eldorado Gold Corp., Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd., O3 Mining Inc., and Probe Metals Inc. QMX was ultimately acquired by Eldorado Gold in a $132 million transaction. Prior to QMX Gold, Mr. Humphrey worked for Morgan Stanley as an Executive Director and North American Precious Metals Analyst, where he was responsible for growing Morgan Stanley's North American Gold research coverage. Mr. Humphrey was also a Managing Director and Head of Mining Research at Raymond James and covered precious metal equities at CIBC World Markets and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Humphrey has held a variety of mining industry roles from contract underground miner to CEO. Mr. Humphrey was also on the board of Royal Fox Gold Inc., until its recent acquisition by Northern Superior Resources Inc.

Mr. Simon Marcotte, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company or, failing him, Mr. Greg Duras, the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of the Company, being the persons designated in the form of proxy and voting instruction form sent in connection with the Meeting, will use their discretionary authority to cast the votes represented by proxy appointing them at the Meeting for the increase in the size of the Board and for the election of Mr. Humphrey to the Board.

The increase in the size of the Board and the election of Mr. Humphrey were not included in the management information circular dated September 28, 2022 (the "Circular") nor the form of proxy or in the voting instruction form sent by the Company in connection with the Meeting given that he was identified as a nominee subsequent to the sending of these materials. Shareholders wishing to vote with respect to the increase in the size of the Board and the election of Mr. Humphrey should carefully review the procedures described in the Circular available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com so that they are able to virtually attend and vote at the Meeting.

Corporate Matters

The Company has granted, pursuant to its stock option plan, an aggregate of 700,000 stock options to members of management and consultants who had not received any options or other equity incentives thus far. Each option will entitle its holder to purchase one common share of Black Swan Graphene at a price of $0.15 until November 7, 2027. One third of the options will vest upon their grant, one third will vest on the first anniversary of their grant and the remainder will vest on the second anniversary of their grant. The option grant is subject to regulatory approval, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Company has engaged Pinnacle Capital Markets Ltd. ("Pinnacle"), the parent company of theinvestorscoliseum.com, to assist in enhancing its digital awareness presence with the global investment community for an initial period of twelve months (the "Initial Term"), subject to the terms of the service agreement executed between the Company and Pinnacle. The Investors Coliseum is a dynamic new way for investors to acquire accurate and timely information on our featured public and private companies and their related industries and sectors. By bringing exciting new equity opportunities and companies into the Coliseum, Pinnacle aims to provide a top level of communication with the investing public. Pinnacle, which operates under the direction of Mr. Spyros P. Karellas, will receive a total compensation of $45,000 for the Initial Term services.

About Black Swan Graphene Inc.

Black Swan Graphene Inc. is focused on the large-scale production and commercialization of patented high-performance and low-cost graphene products aimed at several industrial sectors, including concrete, polymers, Li-ion batteries, and others, which are expected to require large volumes of graphene. Black Swan aims to leverage the low cost and green hydroelectricity of the province of Quebec as well as the proximity of the eventual graphite production sites of the province in order to establish a fully integrated supply chain, reduce overall costs, and accelerate the deployment of graphene usage. Black Swan's graphene processing technology was developed by Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd ("Thomas Swan") over the last decade. Thomas Swan is a United Kingdom-based global chemicals manufacturer, with a century-long track record and has been at the forefront of graphene innovation.

For more information, please visit: www.blackswangraphene.com

Black Swan Graphene Inc. on behalf of the Board of Directors

Simon Marcotte, CFA, President & Chief Executive Office

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.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to, the Company's business objectives and operations. Such 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 risks related to factors beyond the control of the Company. The novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, and the ongoing military conflict between the sovereign state of Ukraine and Russia also pose new risks that are currently indescribable and immeasurable. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Black Swan Graphene Inc
Blickfeld announces the delivery of its Qb2 LiDAR sensor, the industry's first Smart LiDAR sensor, providing the software stack and WiFi connectivity in one device

Qb2 provides a turn-key experience for fast and simple deployment with minimal investment.

The integrated compute module allows Blickfeld Percept software stack to run on the device providing data for volume monitoring purposes, crowd analytics and smart infrastructure.

WiFi on the device removes the need for additional network cabling and drastically simplifies installation and operation.

Compared to Blickfeld's model Cube 1, Qb2 offers performance gains in field-of-view, detection range, resolution and accuracy.

MUNICH, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blickfeld, the Munich-based manufacturer of break-through LiDAR sensor solutions creating innovative hardware and software, is launching the delivery of its Qb2 device to customers and partners, following its concept announcement at CES 2022.

WiFi on the device removes the need for additional network cabling and enables device connectivity (PRNewsfoto/Blickfeld) Integrated compute module allows Blickfeld Percept software stack to run on the device. (PRNewsfoto/Blickfeld)

Qb2 is based on Blickfeld's proprietary solid-state software-defined LiDAR technology, and, as an industry first, enables the capturing and processing of data on a single device, removing the need for additional computers and bringing faster insights, improved response times and better bandwidth availability via edge computing. Companies benefit from high efficiency gains through enriched, actionable real-time 3D data for example in the areas of volume monitoring of bulk materials, crowd analytics, and smart infrastructure, automatically fed into their IT systems like the ERP or the cloud. Furthermore, installation and maintenance costs and effort are kept low due to the on-device WiFi connectivity. Qb2 offers improved functionalities and performance parameters like enhanced adaptable field of view (FoV), detection range and scan pattern, plus higher resolution, accuracy and an IP67 rating.

Using Blickfeld's Percept software, the Smart LiDAR solves complex challenges in a variety of applications. For those looking to source volume monitoring data, for example, the mining, agricultural, or construction industries, Qb2 empowers on-demand, remote and precise monitoring and management of inventory across multiple locations as well as the optimization and digitalization of the value chain. Where Blickfeld's LiDAR Cube 1 has already revolutionised stockpile monitoring processes for leading companies, Qb2 with its proprietary solid-state software-defined LiDAR technology, will provide companies with an even more powerful, versatile and cost-efficient solution.

Download the full press release and images here

Press contact:

R. Agency for Blickfeld

Megan Robinson

[email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941938/Blickfeld_Logo.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941936/Blickfeld_WiFi_Device_Connectivity.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941937/Blickfeld_Compute_Module.jpg

SOURCE Blickfeld
Braskem America signs renewable and emissions-free energy contracts for its production facilities reducing annualized CO2e output beginning in 2022

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Braskem (B3: BRKM3, BRKM5, and BRKM6; NYSE: BAK; LATIBEX: XBRK) the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas, as well as a market leader and pioneer producer of biopolymers on an industrial scale, today announced significant progress towards securing renewable and emissions-free power for its North American production facilities. The Company's current energy sourcing roadmap calls for more than a 15% reduction in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 2030 with a path to carbon neutrality by 2050.

Braskem America Announces Renewable and Emissions-Free Power Purchases

Mark Nikolich, CEO of Braskem America, stated "Braskem has a clear commitment to helping create a Carbon-Neutral Circular Economy and everything is transformed. Our initial North American renewable, as well as emissions-free power purchase agreements, are aligned with Braskem's macro goals of reducing CO2 scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and expanding the circular economy concept in the plastic chain with the end goal of becoming a carbon-neutral company by 2050. Looking ahead, we will further scale our North American renewable and emissions-free power purchases and we look forward to reporting on our progress along the way to creating a more sustainable future for everyone."

Today's announcement reflects Braskem America's success in signing a renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) for Neal, West Virginia, securing emissions-free power contracts for Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania through 2027, and purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the USGC resulting in an annualized reduction of CO2 scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. These initial agreements source energy from wind, solar, and nuclear as the first phase in Braskem America's carbon reduction goals. Braskem publishes its GHG Emissions Inventory every year, with the GHG Protocol guidelines.

Richard Huh, Renewable Energy & Decarbonization Manager, Braskem America, "Braskem has a long-standing commitment to sustainability and carbon reduction initiatives, and our renewable and emissions-free power purchases reflect another major advance in our carbon neutrality framework in North America all helping advance our long-term carbon neutrality objective. These important reductions in CO2 emissions would not be possible without the close coordination of our energy production, regulatory and governmental partners in each of our key operating regions and we are grateful for their support."

To learn more visit https://www.braskem.com/usa/combatingclimatechange.

ABOUT BRASKEM

With a global vision of the oriented future-oriented toward people and sustainability, Braskem is committed to contributing to the value chain for strengthening the Circular Economy. The petrochemical company's almost 8,000 team members dedicate themselves every day to improve people's lives through sustainable chemicals and plastics solutions. Braskem has an innovative DNA and a comprehensive portfolio of plastic resins and chemical products for diverse segments, such as food packaging, construction, manufacturing, automotive, agribusiness, healthcare, and hygiene, among others. With 40 industrial units in Brazil, the United States, Mexico, and Germany, and exports its products to clients in more than 70 countries.

Braskem America is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Braskem S.A. headquartered in Philadelphia. The company is the leading producer of polypropylene in the United States, with five production plants located in Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, an Innovation and Technology Center in Pittsburgh, and operations in Boston focused on leveraging groundbreaking developments in biotechnology and advanced materials. For more information, visit www.braskem.com/usa .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains projections and other forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) regarding future events. These statements reflect Braskem's current beliefs and expectations with respect to Braskem's business, the economy, and other future conditions and are based on assumptions, are subject to risk and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein include, without limitation: (i) the continuation of restrictions related to the COVID -19 Pandemic or the continuing effects of the Pandemic; (ii) the contraction or lack of growth in the market segments in which Braskem competes and in which its products are sold (iii) unexpected delays in commissioning, (iv) increased competition from imports or in the export markets, (v) inability to anticipate future market trends and the future needs of Braskem's customers, (vi) the impact of natural disasters on Braskem's facility and its suppliers and (vii) other factors detailed in documents Braskem files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

SOURCE Braskem
Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- California voters have delivered a resounding victory for kids over the tobacco industry by voting overwhelmingly to uphold the state's landmark law ending the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. Proposition 31, the ballot referendum to uphold the law, is currently ahead by a margin of 65% to 35%. The California vote shows that voters strongly support eliminating flavored tobacco products and provides powerful momentum for similar action by other states and cities, as well as by the FDA, which has proposed rules prohibiting menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

Tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds spent over $20 million on the referendum to overturn the 2020 law, once again putting profits over lives and making about $800 million in revenue from menthol cigarette sales alone by delaying implementation of the law for two years. But they were defeated by an even more powerful force supporting the law, including a diverse and determined coalition of over 200 public health, medical, parent, civil rights, education, business, faith, community and other organizations, as well as elected officials from throughout California. The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund was proud to be part of this coalition.

We are also grateful to Michael R. Bloomberg for the exceptional leadership he provided in this campaign. No single individual has done more to fight tobacco use and save lives around the world.

The message from this vote is unmistakable: It's time for policymakers at every level to stop the tobacco industry from using flavored, nicotine-loaded products to addict another generation of kids. It's also time to end the industry's predatory targeting of Black and other communities with menthol cigarettes, which has had a devastating toll on Black lives and is a major contributor to health disparities. Researchers estimate that ending the sale of menthol cigarettes in California will lead over 25,000 smokers to quit and save over $400 million in health care costs.

California joins Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in ending the sale of flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. Three other states  New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island  prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. With local laws included, 25% of the U.S. population will now be covered by laws ending the sale of flavored e-cigarettes.

Background on the California law and flavored tobacco products

In 2020, California lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan law to end the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. The law was passed in response to the clear evidence that flavored products have fueled the youth e-cigarette epidemic and the tobacco industry's continued targeting of Black and other communities, especially kids, with flavored products like menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

E-cigarettes: Flavored e-cigarettes have fueled an epidemic of youth e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction. The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey showed that over 2.5 million U.S. kids currently use e-cigarettes, and 85% of them use flavored products.

Menthol cigarettes: Scientific evidence shows that menthol cigarettes are more addictive, easier for kids to start smoking and harder for smokers to quit. Menthol numbs the throat and masks the harshness of cigarette smoke, making it easier for kids to start smoking and eventually become addicted. Because of decades of predatory marketing by the tobacco industry, 85% of Black smokers now smoke menthol cigarettes, compared to less than 10% in the 1950s. Menthol cigarettes are a major reason why tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death among Black Americans  claiming 45,000 Black lives every year  and why Black Americans die at high rates from tobacco-related diseases like cancer, heart disease and stroke. Use of menthol cigarettes is also disproportionately high among other communities of color, the LGBTQ+ community, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and people with mental health conditions.

Flavored cigars: Cheap, flavored cigars  sold in hundreds of flavors like cherry dynamite, tropical twist and chocolate  have flooded the market in recent years and fueled the popularity of these products with kids. A 2021 survey found that cigars are the second most popular tobacco product (after e-cigarettes) among high school students and are especially popular among Black high school students.

SOURCE Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Four Million College Women+ Across New York, California, Ohio and North Carolina Now Have Access to Mental, Physical and Reproductive Care Services

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Caraway , a digital healthcare company for college women+, ages 18-27, announces the roll out of its virtual healthcare services on campuses across the nation starting in four states: New York, California, Ohio and North Carolina, representing 25% of college women+ in the U.S. Caraway provides on-demand access to mental, physical and reproductive healthcare services, all in one place, so college women+ can get the care they need, when they need it. Built with and for college students and their peers, Caraway's healthcare services are available via its mobile app in the Apple App Store and on Google Play . In 2023-2024, Caraway plans to expand throughout the United States.

"Caraway is taking action to address the needs of college women+, said Caraway CEO and Co-founder Lori Evans Bernstein." Tweet this Caraways healthcare services are available via its mobile app in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.

"Caraway is taking action to address the needs of college women+," said Caraway CEO and Co-founder Lori Evans Bernstein. "Our trusted and experienced care team provides 24/7 access to care that is tailored to and prioritizes the needs and concerns of Gen Z women. At a time when colleges are acutely aware of the need to improve student life because of the growing mental health epidemic and increasing barriers to reproductive care, Caraway offers a solution which provides personalized healthcare services, support and guidance for women+ to gain independence and agency in their healthcare decisions."

With the intensifying demand for healthcare services from the U.S.'s population of approximately 15 million college women, Caraway began offering its services in New York in early September 2022 with a fast-follow in California. This November, the company is opening in Ohio and North Carolina. Caraway currently has members on 34 college campuses and universities and has recruited an initial cohort of Caraway Campus Advisors, student interns representing a diverse and entrepreneurial group of women+ spreading awareness among their peers.

Gen Z, constituting nearly a quarter of the population , is the most diverse and socially-minded generation in U.S. history, and expects accessible, flexible and convenient healthcare. Caraway embraces and provides care for people of all gender identities and expressions and its services are designed for and centered around all women and individuals assigned female at birth.

"Women have consistently been left behind in the health space, especially women of color, women with low incomes, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We cannot be active in building a better world if we do not first have access to what keeps our minds and bodies healthy," said Camden Robertson, 19, Caraway Campus Advisor, Pace University.

Caraway's Care Team

Caraway's clinicians work together as one care team. The company approaches care with the understanding that the mind and body are connected and therefore physical and mental care should go hand in hand. The care team is composed of trusted and experienced nurse practitioners, physicians, therapists, and health advisors with expertise spanning primary care, urgent care, adolescent health, gynecology, psychiatry and psychotherapy.

"We learned almost immediately that our clinical model is spot on and members love it. Our first appointment was a distillation of the care, support and education that is fundamental to the needs of college women+  a prescription for affordable contraception, help with navigating insurance roadblocks, and care for mental health," said Chief Health Officer Dr. Cheryl Baggeroer. "For many of our members this is their first time accessing healthcare independently which creates a great deal of anxiety. We are hearing responses like, 'I wish I had this the second I turned 18!,' 'You actually explained to me WHY this is happening," and 'I have never experienced a more thorough doctor encounter before."

How it Works:

Via its mobile application, Caraway is delivering 24/7 access to full service virtual care. At launch, Caraway's offering includes:

Ask us Anything 24/7 - Unlimited live chat with the Caraway Care Team for medical care and expert responses to health questions

- Unlimited live chat with the Caraway Care Team for medical care and expert responses to health questions Virtual Visits - On-demand and scheduled visits with Caraway doctors, nurses and therapists

On-demand and scheduled visits with Caraway doctors, nurses and therapists In-Person Care - Referrals for in-person care and follow up coordination

Referrals for in-person care and follow up coordination Medication - Refills and new prescriptions

Refills and new prescriptions At-Home Testing - Lab test kits for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) delivered to your campus address

- Lab test kits for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) delivered to your campus address Health as a Life Skill - Support in healthcare decision making and insurance navigation

- Support in healthcare decision making and insurance navigation Digital Tools - Skills development for stress tolerance, mental health wellness and resilience

Skills development for stress tolerance, mental health wellness and resilience Health Tips - Articles and videos authored by our Care Team in collaboration with our Campus Advisors

For individuals, Caraway will charge a promotional monthly membership of $20 or annual membership fee of $180 (25% discount).

"The mission and vision of Caraway are especially important in these turbulent times when a woman's right to make their own healthcare decisions is being challenged," said Evans Bernstein. "We are dedicated to working alongside college communities so that every young woman feels safer, healthier and has the care, information and support they need and deserve."

About Caraway

Caraway is a digital healthcare company for college women+, ages 18-27, that provides mental, physical and reproductive healthcare services all in one place. Built with students for students, Caraway offers personalized, evidence-based care 24/7 by an experienced care team. With an unprecedented need for mental health resources and new barriers and persistent inequities in women's health, Caraway provides access to trusted, holistic, and compassionate healthcare so women+ can get the care they need when they need it. For more information, visit us at Caraway.health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter and on Instagram and TikTok .

Media Contact

Audrey Mann Cronin

[email protected]

SOURCE Caraway
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fuzhou, a city in Jiangxi Province and hometown of Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), a celebrated playwright of the Ming Dynasty, has traditionally been known for its gifted scholars and profound culture. Leveraging its unique drama culture and resources, over recent years, the city has organized a range of cultural exchanges on drama to promote the Tang Xianzu brand, spread the cream of traditional Chinese culture, and better tell China's stories to the rest of the world, showcasing the contemporary charm of "China's City of Plays".

"Love once begun will never end. The lovers may die for love, the dead in love may revive." This beautiful line from The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu has been sung for more than 400 years. This play, regarded as a gem of the world's theatrical art, is still popular on stages at home and abroad to date. "Culture is in the blood of a nation and is the soul of a city. Fuzhou has held fast to the cultural brand of Tang Xianzu's plays to drive progress in the drama culture." Over recent years, the city has hosted various cultural events, including Tang Xianzu Theater Festival & International Theater Exchange Month, the National Excellent High-Pitched Opera Repertoire Exhibition, the "Scent of Chinese Tea" National Tea-Picking Opera Extravaganza, Jiangxi Camellia Theatre Festival, and Jiangxi Cultural Tour Exhibition. Fuzhou has also created cultural exchange platforms to domestic and foreign drama cultures and boosting the influences of Fuzhou's cultural brands. Since 2016, the International Conference on Tang Xianzu has been an annual gathering of experts studying Tang Xianzu and has published such books as A History of Research on Tang Xianzu in the 20th Century and Selected Papers on Tang Xianzu in the 20th Century, and produced a wide range of research achievements, such as the Textual Research of the Original Record of Tang Xianzu's Family Tree, Tang Xianzu in 1592 and A Textual Study of Tang Xianzu's Ancestral Home.

After years of efforts and explorations, Tang Xianzu Theater Festival & International Theater Exchange Month has become a signature event of traditional Chinese culture and an attractive brand of international cultural exchange for Fuzhou and China. Fuzhou is making big strides toward building China's City of Plays for learning, watching, performing, evaluating, and writing theatre plays.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1942258/Dreams_Dramas_Tang_Xianzu_s_Hometown.jpg

SOURCE CCTV+
From 28 November to 3 December, join Asia's premier annual event on design, innovation and brands for illuminating conversations with global creative leaders.

Headlining BODW 2022 are Chi Wing Lo, Richard Hutten, Ross Lovegrove, Nikki Gonnissen, Rossana Hu, Bill Bensley, Sylvain Roca; more to be announced.

Speakers to fly in from the Netherlands, UK, France, Thailand and around the world for the first time since 2018.

HONG KONG, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Business of Design Week (BODW) 2022, Asia's premier annual event on design, innovation and brands, will make a grand return from 28 November until 3 December. Since 2002, BODW has gathered the most sought-after creative leaders in the world, with a host of concurrent design-related initiatives that have made BODW one of Hong Kong's most anticipated events. BODW has also strengthened collaborations across borders, joining forces with 13 partner countries and cities in the last 20 years.

This year's BODW Summit will welcome international speakers from UK, France, Thailand, Japan, Korea, as well as from the Netherlands, BODW's Strategic Partner for 2022.

Creative Solutions for Addressing the World's Most Pressing Challenges

The theme 'Design for Change' highlights the vision and leadership needed for design to become a force for good as well as the key movements and trends defining the future. Now on its 20th year of gathering some of the world's most compelling and insightful leaders, creatives, and pioneers, the BODW 2022 Summit focuses on five main pillars, namely Brand Transformation, Culture and the City, Metaverse and Metaliving, New Urban Models, and Social Design Innovation. Global business and design leaders representing some of the world's most innovative brands will share their insights on upcoming trends to help businesses brave new changes with a design mindset.

As the 2022 summit's Strategic Partner, the Netherlands, celebrated for its iconic design movements and circular innovation, and CreativeNL, the country's platform for creative pioneers, brings some of its most celebrated design talents such as Nikki Gonnissen (Co-founder, Thonik) and Dr Koen Olthuis (CEO, Waterstudio.NL) among others to Hong Kong, participating in key conversations on designing climate-resilient communities, milestones in modern design, and more.

Featuring global speakers both in-person and virtually, BODW 2022 Summit includes physical events at M+ Grand Stair, with highly-anticipated panels broadcast on ViuTVsix at 8:00pm10:00pm from 30 November to 2 December, with the full programme livestreamed on bodw+ and on social media platforms to provide full access to an international audience.

Among the BODW 2022 Summit's speakers are:

Joining live in-person to interact with BODW participants:

Bill Bensley , Founder & Creative Director, BENSLEY ( Thailand )

, Founder & Creative Director, BENSLEY ( ) Tina Chao , Chief Marketing & Digital Customer Experience Officer, Marketing, McDonald's Hong Kong ( Hong Kong )

Chief Marketing & Digital Customer Experience Officer, Marketing, McDonald's ( ) Nikki Gonnissen , Co-founder & Director, Thonik ( The Netherlands )

, Co-founder & Director, Thonik ( ) Aaron Lau, Founder & CEO, Gusto Collective ( Hong Kong )

Founder & CEO, Gusto Collective ( ) Chi Wing Lo , Founder, DIMENSIONE CHI WING LO ( Italy )

, Founder, DIMENSIONE CHI WING LO ( ) Dr Koen Olthuis , CEO Architect, Waterstudio.NL ( The Netherlands )

, CEO Architect, Waterstudio.NL ( ) Adeline Ooi , Director Asia, Art Basel ( Hong Kong )

, Director Asia, ( ) Paul Priestman , Chairman & Creative Director, Puli Innovations Shanghai (UK)

, Chairman & Creative Director, Puli Innovations Shanghai (UK) Sylvain Roca , Founder & Director, Atelier Sylvain Roca ( France )

, Founder & Director, Atelier Sylvain Roca ( ) Guy Salter OBE MVO, Chairman, London Craft Week (UK)

Chairman, London Craft Week (UK) Dr Paul Thompson , Vice-chancellor, the Royal College of Art (UK)

, Vice-chancellor, the Royal College of Art (UK) Yves Ubelmann , Co-founder & President, Iconem ( France )

, Co-founder & President, Iconem ( ) Thomas Widdershoven , Co-founder & Director, Thonik ( The Netherlands )

, Co-founder & Director, Thonik ( ) Michael Young, Founder, Michael Young Studio ( Hong Kong )

Joining virtually from around the world:

Emma Chiu , Global Director, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence (UK)

, Global Director, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence (UK) Deng Chao , Head of Product & Design, Xiaohongshu (Mainland China)

, Head of Product & Design, Xiaohongshu (Mainland China) Rossana Hu , Founding Partner, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office (Mainland China)

, Founding Partner, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office (Mainland China) Richard Hutten , Designer & Founder, Richard Hutten Studio BV ( The Netherlands )

, Designer & Founder, Richard Hutten Studio BV ( ) Chul Bae Lee , Head of Design, LG Electronics (Korea)

, Head of Design, LG Electronics (Korea) Ross Lovegrove , Founder, Lovegrove Studio (UK)

, Founder, Lovegrove Studio (UK) Marthijn Pool , Co-founder, Space&Matter ( The Netherlands )

, Co-founder, Space&Matter ( ) Tong Huiming, Professor, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (Mainland China)

Cited in Chief Executive John Lee's 2022 Policy Address as one of the globally acclaimed platforms fostering the development of the arts, cultural and creative industries, BODW is a major annual event organised by Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC), supported by Strategic Partner, the Netherlands, and its platform for creative pioneers, CreativeNL; together with Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) as the Lead Sponsor.

An accredited event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR, BODW 2022 is co-organised by Hong Kong Trade Development Council, with support from Strategic Regional Partner, Guangzhou Design Week; Strategic Cultural Partner, M+; Strategic Business Partners, Brand Hong Kong, Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK); and Strategic Programme Partners, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), PMQ and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design (PolyU Design).

As well as having some of its selected highlight sessions broadcast on ViuTV, the BODW Summit will be livestreamed for free on bodw+, the digital design knowledge platform envisioned to become Asia's leading online design portal, featuring evergreen year-round content on seminal design trends. To join the BODW Summit, register for free to become a bodw+ Basic member, or upgrade to Plus or Corporate Membership for exclusive ticket discounts for physical events, as well as access to on-demand content and other exclusive offers.

Stay tuned for more information on the BODW 2022 Summit as more speakers and exciting additions to the programme will be announced at 2022.bodw.com, and register to become a bodw+ member now.

-End-

Press materials

Images including speakers' portraits are available at:

https://finnpartners.box.com/s/jrj5x1hma4f4p0xr7x0ew10jloblsp8x

About Hong Kong Design Centre (www.hkdesigncentre.org)

A non-governmental organisation registered in 2001 and established in 2002, Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) is a strategic partner of the HKSAR Government in establishing Hong Kong as an international centre of design excellence in Asia. Our public mission is to promote wider and strategic use of design and design thinking to create business value and improve societal well-being.

The year 2022 marks our 20th Anniversary, where we will celebrate with a series of activities under the theme 'Design for Sustainable Community'.

About Business of Design Week (2022.bodw.com)

Asia's premier annual event on design, innovation and brands since 2002, Business of Design Week (BODW) organised by Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) gathers some of the world's foremost design masters, brand leaders and entrepreneurs from Hong Kong as well as overseas, driving discourse on the value of design and innovation to inspire global audiences and explore new business opportunities.

About Create Hong Kong (www.createhk.gov.hk )

Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) is a dedicated office set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in June 2009 to spearhead the development of creative industries in Hong Kong. From 1 July 2022 onwards, it is under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. Its strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, and promoting Hong Kong as Asia's creative capital and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community. CreateHK sponsors HKDC to organise Business of Design Week (BODW), BODW City Programme, DFA Awards, Knowledge of Design Week, Fashion Asia Hong Kong, Design Incubation Programme and Fashion Incubation Programme, among other projects, to promote Hong Kong design.

SOURCE Hong Kong Design Centre
NEW YORK and MUNICH, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CELOSPHERE 2022 - Celonis , the global leader in execution management, and Emporix, the leader in composable business commerce, today unveiled the Emporix Commerce Execution Platform (CXP). This breakthrough new offer will enable businesses to automatically optimize all facets of commerce orchestration on a minute-by-minute basis without having to touch the underlying ERP or supply chain systems.

One of the greatest unsolved problems in B2B commerce is the lack of flexibility to adjust to the real-time changes in customer demand, inventory, and supplier and fulfillment status. Legacy commerce approaches established static portals and models that forced the sellers and buyers into a predetermined set of gates, decisions and approvals - with no context to ever-changing business objectives and economic factors. This created an ineffective "hope for the best" scenario for buyers and sellers - and ultimately orphaned the business commerce domain to operate on pre-internet era technology and methodologies.

The pandemic exposed the world to the mismatch between legacy commerce systems and the reality of modern customer and supplier requirements. Manufacturing has become stop-and-go and everything from couches to cars to medical supplies are delayed by months - sometimes even years due to commerce process problems. This, compounded with heightened demand, factory closures, rising costs, trade restrictions and reliance on "just-in-time" systems, continues to amplify the need for a modern enterprise commerce system.

Celonis Labs and Emporix took an inside-out perspective when determining how to best solve this problem. Instead of creating a rigid assumption about how all business to business transactions should operate, the new platform is built to adjust to the daily variances and changes of buyers and sellers. Emporix CXP adjusts constantly, with no assumption that tomorrow's process will be the same as today.

Today, no B2B commerce system on the market combines process context with the ability to dynamically adjust the UI end customers engage with. Existing B2B commerce systems are not built to identify, on-the-fly, hidden inefficiencies like outdated prices or unavailable stock, or to analyze customers' behavior patterns at the process level. This results in suboptimal customer experience, lost revenue, and increased costs.

With the Emporix Commerce Execution Platform, Celonis provides the process transparency and context that triggers and informs how Emporix orchestrates B2B commerce interactions. This means that companies can monitor and adjust their end customers' interactions on their commerce platform in real-time, using process intelligence signals. Companies can do this by modeling, activating, and running "execution scenarios" about how customers might behave depending on changing factors (such as adjustment of price, promotion, product, etc.) within Emporix CXP.

Emporix CXP tackles common supply chain problems, such as product substitutions and switching at their roots. By leveraging real-time data from the supply chain in Celonis, Emporix CXP can offer intelligent substitutions. For instance, if the platform determines that a product is likely to be late, it recommends better-performing products based on real-time data on date changes, cancellation rates, on-time rates, days of coverage, and more. The system continually interacts with the business customer while he or she is making the purchase.

As a result, orders are delivered on time, at no extra cost, to customers. This improves the on-time delivery rate and leads to higher overall customer satisfaction as well as increased revenues. CXP continues to create new insights from the actual changed experience and constantly adjusts to dynamic realities. By leveraging Emporix CXP and its Intelligent Substitution capabilities, sellers can meet customer demand and reduce order cancellations, thereby increasing revenue.

The new partner platform will ship with a set of intelligent commerce modules for payment assistance, stock optimization, order adjustments, and sales guidance. Customers will also be granted the freedom to define and model their own commerce models to match what their business needs today, tomorrow, and for every single buying and selling priority in the future.

AmerCareRoyal Modernizes Customer Return Processes

AmerCareRoyal , a leading importing manufacturer of thousands of disposable products used in the Food Service, Janitorial/Sanitation and Hospitality industries, understood the tediousness of manually entering customer mail returns into its systems. Without its staff proactively providing status updates to the customer, there would be no automatic, simplified visibility into the return process.

Emporix CXP helped AmerCareRoyal remove the manual and time-consuming activities by creating an end-to-end approach to the return process, from the first creation step until the actual physical receipt. Insights from the Celonis EMS were leveraged to enrich and orchestrate the process with context driven and case-specific intelligence (such as return rate of the customer, number of open returns, and return value vs. the overall ordering value). New insights were created from feedback by the executions themselves to increase the underlying intelligence and to continuously improve the process execution. For AmerCareRoyal, this resulted in increased customer satisfaction, as customers had full transparency and direct involvement in the process and also improved automation rate and working capital.

"From the beginning, I was very excited about Emporix CXP because I immediately recognized how it would allow us to differentiate ourselves in the market and significantly improve customer satisfaction," said Jeff DeSandre, Chief Information Officer at AmerCareRoyal. "Since working with it, alongside Celonis Labs, my team no longer needs to spend time on point-to-point interfaces between our B2B layer and our backend systems. With our data already in Celonis, we now focus our energy on driving value for customers, personalizing solutions for them. With Emporix CXP, we get to benefit from a custom tool that offers a vast array of microservices, without having to build it from the ground up."

Emporix Powers Modern Business Commerce

Emporix has transformed the way modern businesses execute their B2B and B2C commerce initiatives with a state-of-the-art composable commerce architecture. By reimagining a new and different approach to commerce, Emporix provides customers with a commerce platform that adapts to the ever-changing nature of business commerce. Retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and brands can innovate their business models and stand out from the competition by modernizing their commerce platform with Emporix.

"Commerce leaders seeking to deliver mass personalization at scale and respond to dynamic signals from process intelligence can now orchestrate the customer journey. These advancements can be used by any organization that has built a composable process," said R "Ray" Wang, CEO of Constellation Research. "That's a dynamic, valuable feedback loop."

Celonis Powers Modern Business Execution

Celonis has spent more than a decade perfecting the science, methodologies, and technologies that identify and fix process inefficiencies hidden inside of ERP, SCM, and CRM systems. Powered by its leading process mining technology, the Celonis Execution Management System (EMS) operates at a level above the underlying systems. The Celonis EMS uses real-time data from enterprise systems, desktops, devices, and third-party sources to "X-ray" processes. Celonis then applies intelligence to this data to identify the root cause of process problems, calculate the business impact, and confirm the fastest path to resolution. Then the Celonis EMS triggers real time automated actions to fix inefficiencies and optimize process performance. This provides companies a new and modern approach to running their businesses on intelligent processes.

About Celonis

Celonis reveals and fixes inefficiencies businesses can't see, enabling them to perform at levels they never thought possible. Powered by its market-leading process mining core, the Celonis Execution Management System provides a full set of platform capabilities for business executives and users to eliminate billions in corporate inefficiencies, provide better customer experience and reduce carbon emissions. Celonis has thousands of implementations with global customers and is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA with more than 20 offices worldwide.

 2022 Celonis SE. All rights reserved. Celonis, Execution Management System, EMS and the Celonis "droplet" logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Celonis SE in Germany and other jurisdictions. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Celonis
Celonis Expands its Process Excellence Lineage With Celonis Process Sphere and Celonis Business Miner

NEW YORK and MUNICH, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CELOSPHERE 2022 - Today debuts the launch of Celonis Process Sphere and Celonis Business Miner - a generational set of new capabilities that completely reinvent the process mining industry and set a new standard for simplicity and power in business execution. The launch is anchored around two interlinked strategies for business execution. The first is to open up new and unprecedented levels of business process depth and perspectives to all business users. The second strategy is to embed execution management into every business conversation.

Celonis Process Sphere opens up a new world of business perspective with the industry's first Process-MRI. This breakthrough new offering provides a multi-dimensional understanding of processes and all related business factors and dependencies. Process Sphere expands the level of understanding for process problems and opportunities to unlimited dimensions. Process Sphere also introduces a fun and easy-to-use consumer interface that allows any business professional to navigate processes as easily as a Google Map.

Celonis Expands its Process Excellence Lineage With Celonis Process Sphere and Celonis Business Miner Tweet this

Celonis Business Miner arms every business user with a breakthrough new way to easily, and independently investigate, communicate, and team up around process problems and opportunities. This new business process investigation and collaboration workspace creates unlimited access to all business users to dig under the covers and find billions of dollars of process problems and opportunities inside of ERP, SCM, and CRM systems.

"For years, Celonis has been working on our secret obsession - to launch our next game-changer - multi-dimensional process mining and a never before seen consumer experience that opens execution management to every single business user in the enterprise," said Alex Rinke, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Celonis. "Celonis Process Sphere and Celonis Business Miner represent the start of a new era of enterprise systems that completely change the way our customers look at their own businesses and across their entire supply chain."

Celonis Process Sphere

The new Celonis Process Sphere introduces powerful new capabilities that incorporate the full scope of all business factors into process analysis, diagnosis, and remediation. Now customers can see both the process-bones of the famous Celonis X-ray and all of the interrelated process-MRI elements that give the full business perspective for problems and opportunities.

Celonis Process Sphere is a breakthrough that connects the previously "unconnected" and understands the real-world relationships between business objects. For example Celonis customers can now connect their end-to-end supply chains and understand the complex relationships between objects such as orders, requisitions, invoices, and shipments. This view enables them to not only identify that they have been paying suppliers late, but to also see for the first time how this inefficiency has metastasized to other parts of the business, even impacting customers.

Celonis Process Sphere will ship with a new object-centric model that allows users to more easily navigate through processes based on real-life objects and events in the way that a business owner would naturally describe them. Process Sphere also provides new filtering and parallel behavior detection capabilities that help unveil hidden inefficiencies that live at the intersection points between processes.

"Celonis Process Sphere represents the biggest step-change in the field for 10 years and establishes new table stakes for process mining and how companies operate," said Professor Wil van der Aalst, known widely as the "Godfather of Process Mining" and Chief Scientist at Celonis. "We can now reliably capture all the complex relationships and interdependencies that exist in modern business and provide a full picture of how processes are connected."

"Process Sphere is the beginning of a new journey for Celonis," says Celonis Co-founder and CTO Martin Klenk. "We are moving to a universe where process data is not interpreted as lines in a table, but as the real-world objects that people work with, and how they relate. This opens up massive opportunities for our customers to interact and build with their data in their own language, in a way they are already intimately familiar with."

"Functional silos are a big cause of inefficiencies that disrupt operations and lead to suboptimal customer experiences", said Adeel Fudda, VP of Intelligence, Automation & Emerging Tech at Mars. "Process mining has proven itself as a scalable, data-driven method to derive actionable insights to improve profitability and customer experience. Process Sphere gives us an intuitive and powerful way to easily analyze cross-functional processes to unlock significant efficiencies and value across the organization."

"Celonis Process Sphere has proven valuable to our organization as it shows an entire process at a glance, while also presenting the handshakes that go between different processes," said Andras Katko, Head of Group IT Back Office at MOL Group. "This is very important to us as we need to see where certain interactions occur, because usually a problem occurs at a point where two systems or processes meet. A major differentiator is that it is easy to use, even for those without a technical background. Celonis Process Sphere opens up a new horizon in terms of managing complex systems and we look forward to more people at MOL Group - at any level or department - leveraging it as a prerequisite for improved process-driven decision-making."

Celonis Business Miner

The new Celonis Business Miner is the industry's first intelligent process investigation technology and collaboration workspace. Celonis Business Miner enables any business user to investigate enterprise ERP, SCM, and CRM systems for hidden process opportunities, and then mobilize the right team, resources, and actions around the initiative. Prior to Business Miner, process exploration required deep technical expertise, and now any business user can engage in the hunt for process optimization opportunities

Celonis Business Miner ships immediately with a new guided onboarding capability, which enables any new user to get started quickly. Business Miner provides intuitive question-and-answer-based exploration that provides quick and consumable insights. For example, a finance user is able to get an answer to a simple question such as, "What is my early payment rate?" or "Where is the best place to unlock $500M in free-cash-flow" and then be presented with the right answers to investigate this process area.

And once insights and opportunities are identified, Celonis Business Miner acts as a powerful communication and collaboration workspace - so the right team can be mobilized and work together in a fully transparent communications platform. Celonis customers can also contribute to the question and answer knowledge base to create a flywheel of additional business perspectives.

"The ultimate goal for Celonis is to unite the best technology with the best human know-how and ingenuity to find, fix and optimize business processes," said Rinke. "We are all equipped with the ultimate business execution system - our eyes, ears, and brains - we just need a way to blend our human intuition and curiosity into the business execution game. That's what Celonis Business Miner is all about - we make process optimization a team sport - and we put the entire company on the hunt for the next billion dollar process opportunity."

"We see Celonis as a critical platform to drive business performance at HSBC," said Alex Moro, Head of Process Re-engineering and Advanced Design at HSBC. "Removing the barrier to entry for non-technical users with Business Miner will help us better realize the value of Celonis EMS."

"Customers will be excited about the exponential growth in process mining solutions to meet a wide range of use cases for execution management," said R "Ray" Wang, CEO of Constellation Research. "Prospects and customers will have an opportunity to both balance the needs of operations efficiency and investing for growth."

Celonis is also announcing significant updates to Task Mining. The enhanced Celonis Task Mining product provides the capability to capture and understand desktop data in total respect of user privacy. It also ships with a new solution for workforce productivity that gives customers full context and clarity on how work gets done and the overall employee experience across the business. The core Celonis Task Mining technology has been rearchitected to capture employee experience in real-time and at scale.

Celonis has also made improvements to its revolutionary Process Data Engine. These enhancements allow Celonis customers to handle even more data at speed and scale. For example, new capabilities in delta transformations and data pipeline parallelization will radically improve data processing performance and capacity. Also, data in Celonis EMS is protected with the highest security and data protection standards, including SOC1 and SOC2 type-2 compliance, and HIPAA.

Celosphere 2022

Celonis Process Sphere and Celonis Business Miner are being launched at Celosphere 2022 , the world's largest gathering of process experts and fanatics. Celosphere 2022 is hosted live on November 9- 10 in Munich, Germany and broadcast online to an audience of more than 20,000 people.

Demo of Process Sphere (YouTube)

Demo of Business Miner (YouTube)

About Celonis

Celonis reveals and fixes inefficiencies businesses can't see, enabling them to perform at levels they never thought possible. Powered by its market-leading process mining core, the Celonis Execution Management System provides a full set of platform capabilities for business executives and users to eliminate billions in corporate inefficiencies, provide better customer experience and reduce carbon emissions. Celonis has thousands of implementations with global customers and is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA with more than 20 offices worldwide.

 2022 Celonis SE. All rights reserved. Celonis, Execution Management System, EMS and the Celonis "droplet" logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Celonis SE in Germany and other jurisdictions. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Celonis
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from chinadaily.com.cn:

The Yellow River Wetland Park area in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, was once a place local residents avoided, as raw sewage from nearby drains caused foul odors.

Visitors walk through the East Lake National Wetland Park in Wuhan, Hubei province, in February. ZHANG LIEWEN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Now, the park is not only a hot destination for locals looking to take a stroll, but it also attracts many migratory birds.

The Yinchuan wetland park is just a microcosm of the achievements China has made in wetland conservation, thanks to the importance that central authorities have attached to the issue.

During a 2020 inspection tour in Zhejiang province, President Xi Jinping visited the Xixi National Wetland Park  the country's first such facility  in Hangzhou, the provincial capital. In addition to ordering measures to make the park a green space for the public, Xi said tourism development should not take place at the expense of the environment.

In his report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi stressed, "We must remember to maintain harmony between humanity and nature when planning our development."

Wu Zhimin, an official with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, said the conditions in China's wetland areas have consistently improved over the past three decades.

Since the introduction of its national wetland protection plan (2002-30), the central government has allocated 19.8 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) for wetland conservation via three five-year plans, and more than 4,100 projects have been launched, he said.

Wu said comprehensive protection measures were rolled out from 2016 to last year after the government assessed conditions in the country's wetland areas and acted quickly to remediate those that were seriously damaged.

According to the administration, there are now 1,600 wetland parks and 600 wetland nature reserves nationwide, while 64 wetland areas have been designated as being of international importance.

"China has established a system for wetland protection and management," said Wu, adding that the proportion of protected wetland nationwide now is 52.7 percent.

With the Wetland Protection Law coming into effect on June 1, the country's wetland conservation efforts have entered a new era, Wu said. The administration will introduce new regulations, mechanisms and policies, and guide regions nationwide to draft or revise rules as part of its efforts to raise the protection rate to 55 percent by 2025.

Click the link to find out more:

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202211/07/WS636855e8a3105ca1f22745a3.html

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn
--Study also suggests vaccine timing is important in maximizing concentration of antibodies transferred to the baby--

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Pregnant people who received one of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines had 10-fold higher antibody concentrations than those who were naturally infected with SARS-CoV-2, a finding that was also observed in their babies, according to a new study by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania. The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, also found that vaccine timing played an important role in maximizing the transfer of antibodies, with antibodies detected as early as 15 days after the first vaccine dose and increasing for several weeks after.

"These findings suggest that COVID-19 vaccination not only provides robust protection for mothers during pregnancy  it also provides higher concentrations of antibodies to babies than COVID-19 infection," said first author Dustin D. Flannery, DO, MSCE, an attending neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. "Given that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe COVID-19, this study suggests pregnant people should prioritize getting vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies."

To compare antibody responses in pregnant people who had been vaccinated versus naturally infected, the researchers analyzed a unique timeframe: patients who gave birth at Pennsylvania Hospital between August 9, 2020 and April 25, 2021. COVID-19 vaccines were not widely available until December 2020, and booster shots were not available until September 2021, so by focusing on a period within the pandemic that shouldered the introduction of the first vaccines, the researchers could more easily tease out the origin of the patients' antibodies.

Dr. Scott Hensley's laboratory in the Penn Department of Microbiology has taken a leading role in evaluating antibody responses to COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic. In collaboration with CHOP researchers, his laboratory evaluated cord blood serum from 585 pregnant people who had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Of the 585 pregnancies, they identified 169 patients who had been vaccinated but never infected and 408 who had been infected but not vaccinated. They found that antibody levels among vaccine recipients were approximately 10-times higher than in people who had been naturally infected.

The researchers detected IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in the cord blood from more than 95% of newborns (557 of 585) in the study. Of those newborns with detectable antibodies, the researchers found that levels were 10-times higher in the vaccinated group than in the naturally infected group. However, they also observed that transfer ratios  that is, the extent to which the antibody levels in the cord blood match the antibody levels in the mother  were slightly lower in the vaccinated group compared with the naturally infected group. The researchers analyzed a variety of factors that might influence the transfer ratio, including gestational age at birth and maternal medical issues such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity.

"Our study suggests that time from infection or vaccination to delivery was the most important factor in transfer efficiency, and these findings can inform optimal COVID-19 vaccination strategy during pregnancy," said senior author Karen M. Puopolo MD, PhD, an attending neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Chief of the Section on Newborn Medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital. "Patients should plan to get vaccinated with ample time before their due date, so that they  and their babies  can benefit from a robust immune response."

Flannery et al. "Comparison of Maternal and Neonatal Antibody Levels After COVID-19 Vaccination vs SARS-CoV-2 Infection," JAMA Network Open, November 9, 2022, DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40993

About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: A non-profit, charitable organization, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, the 595-bed hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. The institution has a well-established history of providing advanced pediatric care close to home through its CHOP Care Network, which includes more than 50 primary care practices, specialty care and surgical centers, urgent care centers, and community hospital alliances throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as a new inpatient hospital with a dedicated pediatric emergency department in King of Prussia. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

Contact: Kaila Revello

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

(610) 457-5916

[email protected]

SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Applying for permits and submitting building plans for home improvement or construction projects just got easier in the City of Delray Beach. Spearheaded by the City's Development Services and Information Technology Departments, the new ePlans web-based system provides a more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly review process.

"Our goal is to streamline the plan review process and make it as easy as possible," said Development Services Director Anthea Gianniotes. "ePlans is now available for several permit types and we expect more to be added in the coming months as we continue to roll out the system."

Permit applications for air conditioner replacements, electrical service changes (residential only), roofing or re-roofing of existing structures, water heater replacements, and window or door replacements are now being accepted via ePlans. Customers may now apply for these permits, upload documents, track their applications, view comments, submit payment, download, and print their permit- all from their computer without ever visiting City Hall.

The ePlans integrated software system is hosted through ProjectDox, a trusted vendor used by many neighboring cities that works across all city departments. Offering a full, parallel review process, multiple reviewers from various departments may access files simultaneously. Submissions, reviewer comments, and illustrations are also available online, significantly improving review times, process transparency, and accountability.

For more information about ePlans, the City of Delray Beach's new, digital plan review system, visit https://bit.ly/delraybeacheplans or call (561) 243-7200.

About The City of Delray Beach

The City of Delray Beach is a charming, vibrant city of dynamic and diverse communities. Fostering an authentic and inspiring community that celebrates its history while building toward the future, the City was an All-America City Winner in 1993, 2001, and 2017, the first city in Florida to do so. The City was named the 5th best city for small businesses in the U.S. by Verizon Business and Coastal Living Magazine named the City America's Happiest Seaside Town and one of the 10 Best Little Beach Towns in Florida. USA TODAY also named Atlantic Avenue one of America's 10 Great Shopping Streets. For more information, please visit https://www.delraybeachfl.gov/.

CONTACT: Aimee Adler (561) 302-6902 (or) [email protected]

SOURCE City of Delray Beach
Credit score app attracts over 30,000 users in first few months

TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ClearScore, one of the United Kingdom's leading credit marketplaces, today announces its launch in Canada, offering greater transparency in credit scores and reports to the market through its innovative, free-to-use app. With over 17 million users worldwide, ClearScore is already a market leader in the UK and South Africa, as well as gaining significant traction in Australia. Canada is ClearScore's fourth market, going live in September and already attracting over 30k users.

ClearScore gives people free access to their credit report to help them understand and improve their financial situation, as well as monitor for fraudulent activity through 'ClearScore Protect', a free ID monitoring report that allows people to check that their passwords are not compromised on the dark web. Over and above understanding their data, ClearScore helps people access, and save money on, credit cards, loans and mortgages by presenting them with a personalized recommendation on the best rates and rewards. Users can sign up and monitor their credit score directly on the website, clearscore.com/ca, and can also download the app on their phone for an easier way to track both their score and relevant offers.

Tassie Milne, General Manager of ClearScore Canada, said: "We're a business that is dedicated to helping our users improve their financial wellbeing, and we do that through transparency in credit reports and data-driven, personalized offers on credit cards, loans and mortgages to save people money. As a user-first organization, the financial products that people see on our site are not influenced by commission from our partners; the offers are presented in a clear, straightforward manner with the user's best interest in mind.

"We achieved phenomenal success in the UK and other markets, and now is a great time for us to help Canadians, with the cost of living posing a big issue for many Canadians, coast to coast."

ClearScore Canada is based in downtown Toronto with global headquarters in London, UK. The company has partnered to offer exclusive offers with many leading Canadian financial services providers. ClearScore also partners with TransUnion to provide credit scores and report data, adding its unique analysis of the factors which could boost or damage an individual's credit score. ClearScore educates users on how to understand and improve their credit score, which in turn can benefit people by allowing them to access more credit offers and improve their chances of approval.

Justin Basini, CEO and Co-founder of The ClearScore Group, said: "More and more people around the world are turning to ClearScore to help manage their finances. As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, ClearScore has a critical role to play in assisting people to make smarter financial decisions. We are very excited to come to Canada at this time and bring our data-driven marketplace to a very dynamic and fast-moving credit market. Having already established extensive partnerships with major banks and credit card providers, we anticipate a growth rate very similar to what we have seen in the UK, South Africa and Australia."

Toronto Mayor John Tory, said: "I am very pleased that ClearScore has chosen to locate its new office in our city, which will allow them to take advantage of our unmatched talent pipeline. A strong technology sector, resilient financial system and quality pool of talent puts the Toronto Region on the global fintech map and I'm thrilled to welcome ClearScore to be a part of this dynamic ecosystem."

One of the first companies to partner with ClearScore in Canada is Capital One Canada.

Kevin Chan, Acquisitions Marketing Lead for Capital One Canada, said: "Capital One Canada believes that with the right resources, tools and support, financial wellbeing is possible for everyone, regardless of where they are on their journey. Working with partners that have similar values, such as ClearScore, allows us to further extend that support and level the playing field when it comes to credit"

ClearScore is hiring for several open jobs in its Toronto office:

https://www.clearscore.com/ca/careers

About ClearScore

ClearScore launched in July 2015 to help everyone, no matter their circumstances, achieve greater financial wellbeing. This started with greater transparency in credit reports and scores and has since expanded to include increased visibility of affordability, using current account spending patterns via Open Banking. As a leading financial marketplace, ClearScore helps people access, and save money on, credit cards, loans and car finance. ClearScore has grown rapidly to serve 17 million users across the UK, South Africa, Australia and Canada. The Group now partners with over 150 financial institutions around the world to ensure that the right product, gets to the right user at the right time.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1821895/ClearScore_Logo.jpg

Media Enquiries

Joe Wiggins [email protected]

James Terry [email protected]

SOURCE ClearScore
Fortune 100 clients will now have access to six unique technology companies in a single global digital transformation platform

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital transformation company Compass UOL announced today the acquisition of Avenue Code, a North American software consulting agency with over 1,000 technology professionals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Brazil. It is the sixth acquisition in a strategy that brings the skills and competitive advantage of specialized digital platforms engineering thought leader companies, and the entrepreneurs behind them, to help global customers with their digital transformation projects from ideation to business success in the retail, automotive, insurance, agricultural, petrochemical, and big tech markets.

"Avenue Code joins forces with Compass UOL to deliver digital transformation solutions in a market that is rapidly evolving with the advent of new trends such as the metaverse, blockchain, and tech-augmented reality," said Alexis Rockenbach, CEO of Compass UOL. "Together, we are positioned to uplevel the global services industry and we are committed to accelerating the growth and the expansion of Avenue Code's business vision and to further invest in their great digital talent and leadership, which are the most relevant assets in this deal."

Fortune 100 clients will now have access to six unique tech companies in a single global digital transformation platform Tweet this

Founded in 2008 by Zeo Solomon in San Francisco, California, with a vision of delivering technology management consulting services to Fortune 100 companies in North America, Avenue Code opened their offices in Brazil to reach one of the most promising talent pools in Latin America. In 2010, Amir Razmara joined the company to boost its technology delivery services. Years of growth, geo expansions, service diversification, and new verticals continued with new offices in Canada in 2018 and in Europe in 2020. By joining the Compass UOL group, Avenue Code team members can now become global executives.

"Compass UOL's culture and vision is in complete harmony with our aspiration for the Avenue Code's journey," said Zeo Solomon, CSO of Avenue Code. "Furthermore, Compass UOL professes an ambitious global growth plan, which we now are extremely happy to be a part of the alignment of values and the vision for building the next generation of global technology services were pivotal in closing the deal with Compass UOL."

"This acquisition is an important milestone that puts us in a strategic position in the digital transformation market, playing head-to-head with global competitors. We are genuinely excited and confident about an ever more promising future for our business," says Gil Torquato, CEO of Digital Services, holding company that coordinates Compass UOL.

About Compass UOL

Compass UOL is a company that cultivates talent and uses cutting-edge technologies to build digital transformation solutions, helping clients to thrive and disrupt their industries. With this acquisition, the company now comprises nearly 6,000 software engineers worldwide working at Avenue Code, Edgy, Invillia, Everymind, Content Thread, Webjump, and global headquarters. Learn more at https://compass.uol.

SOURCE Compass UOL
Company to operate crisis receiving center to address behavioral health needs

PHOENIX, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Connections Health Solutions, the leading innovator of immediate access behavioral health crisis care, today announced Prince William County has awarded Connections Health Solutions a contract to provide crisis receiving and stabilization services for the county. The Company will support the crisis receiving center's design and buildout and will operate the center located in Woodbridge, Virginia.

"Prince William County knows that mental health care is health care, and the community has rallied around a solution to get individuals in crisis the care they need, right when they need it," said Chair At-Large Ann Wheeler. "Throughout the procurement process, Connections Health Solutions demonstrated their expertise in providing high-quality, community-based behavioral health crisis care and an understanding of how to meet the unique needs of the community. We look forward to partnering with them to open the crisis receiving center and seeing the impact their model will have on those in need of this life-saving treatment and care."

Founded and developed by emergency department psychiatrists more than 15 years ago, Connections Health Solutions has been widely recognized as the national leader in crisis care; pioneering the 23-hour observation model and welcoming any, and all, members of the community experiencing a behavioral health crisis to receive care and treatment. The Company currently operates two of the largest and most studied behavioral health crisis receiving centers in the country and has expanded operations to include both rural and urban communities.

"Prince William County has shown their commitment to making mental health care accessible to all," said Colin LeClair, chief executive officer for Connections Health Solutions. "We are thrilled to have been selected as the partner to help bring the county's vision to life and are excited to work alongside county officials, members of the community, law enforcement, and local providers to make the crisis receiving center a place where treatment occurs and hope is restored."

Connections Health Solutions was awarded the contract after responding to the county's request for proposal. The crisis receiving center will offer individuals a safe, structured environment where they can receive treatment, recover, and connect to community-based support.

ABOUT CONNECTIONS HEALTH SOLUTIONS

Connections Health Solutions, LLC is the leading innovator of behavioral health crisis care. The Company operates the two largest behavioral health crisis facilities in the nation and provides a range of services to help stabilize and treat people with mental health and substance use diagnoses. Connections' model emphasizes providing treatment in the least restrictive setting and has demonstrated improved quality and cost savings, including significantly reducing hospital admissions in Medicaid and behavioral health populations. For more information and crisis resources, please visit: www.connectionshs.com

ABOUT PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY

Prince William County is the second-largest county in the Commonwealth of Virginia with a population of nearly 467,000. A highly educated, racially and ethnically diverse population makes the county one of the most globally represented communities in the region. AAA Bond Ratings, awarded annually from all three ratings agencies, confirms a commitment to a thriving and robust economy. Prince William County encompasses a total area of 348 square miles and includes independent cities and towns, state and federal park properties, and Quantico Marine Corps Base. Steeped in rich history, surrounded by beautiful parks and open space, Prince William County is a community of choice where individuals, families and businesses choose to live, work and play.

MEDIA CONTACT

Marissa Lawson

[email protected]

SOURCE Connections Health Solutions
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, North America's largest provider of home building software solutions, is excited to announce a strategic partnership with one of the Canada's largest real estate websites, Kijiji. This alliance gives new home builders another way to advertise their new homes to hundreds of communities, coast to coast across Canada, directly to millions of unique monthly visitors on Kijiji.ca.

Today's business-minded home builders want to sell homes as quickly and easily as possible, and this partnership makes it super easy. Powered by Constellation's new home marketing software platform, NHLS Distribution Engine, it has never been easier for new home builders to create an unlimited number of new home listings to advertise with great convenience and no extra charge to your NHLS account. This comprehensive value offering is exactly what the Canadian new home building industry has been waiting for, a national site for all new homes.

The NHLS platform is built to seamlessly integrate with popular construction ERP systems including NEWSTAR, BuildTopia, FAST, and other systems as requested but can also be used as a standalone solution to accurately distribute listings, with the click of a single button.

"We're thrilled to be able to share this important strategic partnership with homebuilders," said Jeremy Halbert, Vice President  Customer Experience and Initiatives Group of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.

"It has been challenging times for new homebuilders," Halbert added, "Builders will need to get more innovative to promote their homes as broadly as possible. Builders should advertise listings to as many potential home buyers as they can, prioritizing sites that consumers visit frequently. We are committed to empowering builders with digital tools to simplify this process and help builders sell as many homes as possible."

"It is extremely time consuming for builders to accurately list their new homes online and managing different channels is difficult. We help builders not only push new listings directly to their own website, but we can also automate the process to push that same information to as many 3rd party online Real Estate listing channels as possible such as Kijiji.ca, realtor.com and our very own NewHomeListingService.com. All of this ensures that builders are getting as much exposure as possible. "Halbert continued, "This entire solution is a great example of Constellation's long-term dedication to homebuilding innovation to deal with the complex process of selling homes."

Lionel Romain, Kijiji's Commercial Operations Manager, says "We're excited to welcome home builders to Kijiji.ca through Constellation and the NHLS platform! Members can easily post high-quality, fully branded listings on Kijiji through an industry tailored syndication service. Members will gain access to millions of monthly visitors with just a few clicks."

"Kijiji Real Estate helps owners, builders, and agents advertise their properties on Canada's first marketplace," Romain continued, "In addition to syndicated listings from NHLS, fully targeted media campaigns are available to amplify the builder's exposure on Kijiji."

Building on the joint enthusiasm, Milo Anderson, Director & Founder of NHLS Distribution Engine at Constellation HomeBuilder Systems says, "We are beyond excited to introduce the new strategic partnership between the NHLS Distribution Engine and Kijiji. The NHLS Distribution Engine (NHLS.info) is directly integrated with Kijiji  literally clicking one button sends new communities and homes directly on their site. Thanks to this new collaboration we have effectively changed the landscape of how builders connect with homebuyers on a national level. We look forward to supporting buyers on this journey."

Continuing our commitment to increasing awareness, simplifying processes, and leveraging our relationships for new home builders, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems looks forward to opportunities, growth, and the increased exposure for new home listings with Kijiji.

For more information on the collaboration, click here.

About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the largest provider of software and services in the building industry. Their innovative software solutions, available as standalone or integrated systems, empower builders with information to drive business objectives and simplify the process of building homes and condos. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the home building software division of Constellation Software Inc., an international provider of market-leading software and services for specialized industries, which is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

About Kijiji

Kijiji, which means "village" in Swahili, is the number one classifieds website in Canada, connecting over 16.8 million buyers and sellers each month. Kijiji offers Canadians an easy way to buy and sell and find homes, jobs, and services on a local level. At any given time, there are more than 6 million listings on the network and two new ads are posted on Kijiji every second of every day. Kijiji makes it easy for Canadians to find exactly what they're looking for in their own community. Visit business.kijiji.ca to connect with a Kijiji digital media expert.

For more information, please contact:

Milo Anderson

Director & Founder: NHLS Distribution Engine at Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

403-616-6074

[email protected]

SOURCE Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson // Becker, PLLC is a nationwide products liability law firm with experience representing victims of pressure cooker explosions. The firm has represented over 500 clients who have been severely burned by exploding pressure cookers designed and sold by numerous manufacturers.

Johnson//Becker filed Complaints on behalf of clients in Utah and California against Sunbeam Products, Inc., alleging the plaintiffs were burned by defective Crock-Pot Express Crock Multicookers.

Desiree Conder (link to complaint), Salt Lake City, Utah, and Valerie Alegre (link to complaint) of Los Angeles, California, were both the victims of pressure cooker explosions that occurred in November 2020, when the lid to their Crock-Pot pressure cookers opened with their contents still under pressure. That same month, Crock-Pot issued a recall of more than 900,000 pressure cookers, citing 119 reports of lids detaching improperly, causing 99 burn injuries. When the clients purchased their pressure cookers, however, the company marketed them as having "safety sensors" which meant that "once the pressure increases, the lid cannot be opened."

The lawsuits are filed by Lisa A. Gorshe of Johnson//Becker, PLLC. Lisa exclusively handles injury cases, with an emphasis on national products liability litigation related to consumer goods, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Questions about a Crock-Pot pressure cooker Lawsuit? Contact a Johnson//Becker lawyer today for a free case review.

If you or a loved one has been injured by a defective Crock-Pot pressure cooker, you may want to speak with the lawyers at Johnson//Becker. We are actively filing new Crock-Pot pressure cooker lawsuits across the country, and you may be entitled to financial compensation for your defective pressure cooker injuries.

We offer a free case evaluation. To learn more about Johnson // Becker's product liability cases, or to arrange a free, no obligation case review, please visit Johnson // Becker at https://www.johnsonbecker.com/product-liability/pressure-cooker-lawsuit/, https://www.johnsonbecker.com/product-liability/crock-pot-pressure-cooker-lawsuit/ or contact Johnson // Becker directly at (800) 279-6386.

SOURCE Johnson // Becker, PLLC
Real estate investment veteran will build sales efforts within the broader wealth channel

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CrowdStreet Advisors, LLC ("CrowdStreet Advisors"), a boutique alternative investment manager focused on providing advisors and their clients with access to exclusive private commercial real estate opportunities, today announced it has hired John Norris as Director of Private Wealth, responsible for sales and distribution of the firm's funds.

In his new role, Norris will focus on expanding relationships with wealth managers, including RIAs, family offices, broker-dealers, and fintech platforms, leading day-to-day sales and capital-raising activities.

John Norris, Director of Private Wealth

"Beyond his deep knowledge of real estate investment, John brings long-standing connections within the wealth channel, which will be key as we look to expand into this segment of the market," said CrowdStreet Advisors President Sheldon Chang. "We're excited to welcome John to the CrowdStreet Advisors team and to begin growing both our flagship C-REIT, as well as our thematic funds and other offerings."

Prior to joining CrowdStreet Advisors, Norris spent 17 years at Black Creek Group, a private real estate manager, where he played a key role in the firm's growth and success, from its initial capital-raising endeavors to its eventual sale to Ares Management. Previously, he worked as a national sales executive at DWS Group (formerly Zurich Scudder Kemper Investments).

In his outreach to the wealth channel, Norris said he will emphasize CrowdStreet Advisors' unique approach in providing growth-oriented real estate investment opportunities that serve as a complement to traditional core and core-plus portfolios.

"The market of raising capital and deploying capital within real estate has evolved so much over these past 15+ years, but what hasn't changed is the value and performance that private real estate can provide in a client's portfolio," Norris said. "What appealed to me most about CrowdStreet was its investment thesis and their successful track record in deploying capital and realizing returns through full-cycle liquidity events and investments. I'm looking forward to joining CrowdStreet Advisors and helping to build on their already noteworthy successes."

About CrowdStreet Advisors

CrowdStreet Advisors is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CrowdStreet, Inc. ("CrowdStreet") that provides advisors and their clients with access to curated private commercial real estate opportunities selected from CrowdStreet's proprietary deal flow, sourced from a deep network of 300+ real estate sponsors, developers, and operators. Through its private-market products and servicesREITs, thematic funds, separately managed accounts, and custom fund solutionsCrowdStreet Advisors provides unique exposure to middle-market commercial real estate (projects with gross asset values typically ranging from $40 million to $100 million), offering investments that are historically less correlated to public-market assets1. For more information on CrowdStreet Advisors, visit www.crowdstreetadvisors.com .

CrowdStreet, Inc. ("CrowdStreet") offers investment opportunities and financial services on its website. Advisory services are offered through CrowdStreet Advisors, LLC ("CrowdStreet Advisors"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CrowdStreet and a federally registered investment adviser. CrowdStreet Advisors provides investment advisory services exclusively to privately managed accounts and private funds and does not otherwise provide investment advisory services to the CrowdStreet Marketplace or its users.

This communication is for informational purposes only and should not be regarded as a recommendation, an offer to sell securities, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any investment products, financial products, or services. Investment opportunities available through CrowdStreet are speculative and involve substantial risk. You should not invest unless you can sustain the risk of loss of capital, including the risk of total loss of capital. All investors should consider their individual factors in consultation with a professional advisor of their choosing when deciding if an investment is appropriate. Private placements are illiquid investments, in that they cannot be easily sold or exchanged for cash, and are intended for investors who do not need a liquid investment.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Siobhan Nolan

[email protected]

862-217-9585

1 Private real estate is, by nature, generally less volatile than the stock market. This lack of volatility does not necessarily translate to private real estate not fluctuating in or losing value. Further, the value of private real estate investments will fluctuate, and the value of real estate often lags behind general market conditions.

SOURCE CrowdStreet Advisors, LLC
SHANGHAI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors (the "Board") of Noah Holdings Private Wealth and Asset Management Limited (the "Company") will hold a Board meeting on Monday, November 21, 2022 (Hong Kong time) for the purpose of, among others, approving the unaudited financial results of the Company for the three months ended September 30, 2022 (the "Q3 Results") and announcement for the Q3 Results (the "Q3 Earnings Announcement"). The Company will announce its Q3 Results at or around 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 (Hong Kong time) on the website of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited at www.hkexnews.hk.

Following the Q3 Earnings Announcement, the Company's senior management will host an earnings conference call via Zoom webinar to discuss its Q3 Results and recent business activities. Details of the conference call are as follows:

Zoom webinar details Conference title Noah Holdings 3Q22 Earnings Conference Call Date/Time Monday, November 21, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., U.S. Eastern time

Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 8:00 a.m., Hong Kong time Meeting ID: 929 2532 0489 Meeting Passcode: 599978 Dial in

- New York: +1 929 205 6099 - Hong Kong: +852 5808 6088 - London: +44 330 088 5830 - Singapore: +65 3165 1065

A replay will be available on the same day of the conference call until November 29, 2022 at the Company's investor relations website under the "Announcements & Events" section at http://ir.noahgroup.com.

A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available at the Company's investor relations website under the "Financial Reports" section at http://ir.noahgroup.com.



By Order of the Board

Noah Holdings Private Wealth and Asset Management Limited Jingbo Wang

Chairwoman of the Board

Hong Kong, November 9, 2022

As of the date of this announcement, the Board comprises Ms. Jingbo Wang, the chairwoman of the Board, Mr. Zhe Yin and Ms. Chia-Yue Chang as directors; Mr. Neil Nanpeng Shen and Mr. Boquan He as non-executive directors; and Dr. Zhiwu Chen, Ms. May Yihong Wu, Mr. Tze-Kaing Yang and Mr. Jinbo Yao as independent directors.

SOURCE Noah Holdings Limited
SWEDESBORO, N.J., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 28 at 2:00 PM EST, Dr. Schar USA, Inc. hosted a ribbon cutting event to celebrate the expansion on its manufacturing facility located at 305 Heron Drive in Logan Township, New Jersey. Notable speakers included Dr. Schar AG / SPA's CEO Philip Schoeller, Dr. Schar North America CEO and President Hannes Berger, Dr. Schar North America Executive Vice President Robert Ehret, and Dr. Schar North America Plant Manager Simon Steckholzer.

The Dr. Schar business has grown +70% since 2019, prompting an $18M investment to expand the US facility. Tweet this

The Dr. Schar business has grown +70% since 2019. An $18M investment was made to expand the US facility, doubling the capacity to produce. The expanded facility features highly sophisticated, state of the art baking and packaging equipmenta necessary investment to handle current and future growth, as well as to alleviate stress for our employees on the line.

"The plant expansion is a bold step for the companya huge investment and commitment for the US consumer," said Dr. Schar North America CEO and President Hannes Berger. "Our proximity to the customer is now even closer, allowing us to provide the freshest product to them. This is a purpose driven company, and we need to be as close to the consumer as we can."

New Jersey-based Dr. Schar USA, Inc., one of the nation's largest gluten free companies, expanded their facility to 100,000 square feet to keep up with increasing demand. Over the coming months, renovations will continue, adding more production equipment & office space for our employees.

"Of our three company values: responsibility, progress, and proximityall of which are very important to meProgress resonates with me most," Robert Ehret said. "It's always about moving forward, trying to achieve goals and pushing the business farther than anyone thought we could."

"We don't just make bread like other facilities. We give people a home here at Dr. Schar and we're one big family. Proximity goes both ways, to the people who consume our product and to our employees," said Simon Steckholzer.

About Dr. Schar

For more than 100 years, the Dr. Schar mission has been to improve the lives of people with special nutritional needs. Dr. Schar USA, Inc. is committed to providing great tasting gluten-free food to the celiac, gluten sensitive and IBS communitiesoffering a safe, flavorful, and high-quality line of gluten free products. The full portfolio of products spans from bread, cookies, candy, and crackers to frozen items, including puff pastry dough and croissants! The facility expansion further solidifies the Dr. Schar roots in North America.

SOURCE Dr. Schar USA, Inc.
REDDING, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report titled, 'Environmental Sensor Market by Type (Particulate & Gas Sensors, Chemical Sensors, Temperature Sensors, Noise Sensors), Application, and End User (Residential, Government & Public Utilities, Commercial, and Industrial) - Global Forecast to 2029,' the global environmental sensors market is projected to reach $13.53 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 8% from 2022 to 2029. By volume, the global environmental sensor market is projected to reach 122,800,587 units by 2029, at a CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period.

Download Free Report Sample Now @ https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5348

Environment sensors play a critical role as they help analyze environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, detect landslides, track climate change, check agricultural usage patterns, and heat loss. It is widely adopted in several applications such as smart home automation, factory automation, smart cities, automotive, and powertrain system. Besides, advancements in sensor technology, such as sensors integrated with IoT and Big Data technology, are helping in the analysis of large volumes of environmental data. This factor is expected to increase the adoption of environmental sensors.

The growth of the environment sensors market is attributed to the rising installation of environmental monitoring stations, increasing use of environmental sensors in the industrial sector, and stringent environmental regulations to reduce environmental pollution. However, the lack of awareness and high costs associated with environmental sensors challenge the market's growth. In addition, the ongoing technological advancement in IoT and cloud-based services and the growing adoption of nanotechnology-based environmental monitoring products are expected to offer significant growth opportunities for this market.

Rising government funding toward environmental sustainability is driving the growth of the environmental sensors market

In the past few years, the importance of decisive actions towards achieving environmental sustainability has become of vital essence around the globe. A few environmental sustainability factors that can be put into practice include protecting renewable resources by supporting and advancing sustainable farming, purchasing carbon offsets to support reforestation and other regenerative projects; avoiding the consumption of fossil fuels by using renewable energy alternatives; and limiting pollution by composting and supporting clean air and water initiatives.

Governments and regional associations across the globe are accelerating their investments toward reducing carbon footprint and building an environmentally sustainable economy. Various green investment banks (GIBs) like the UK Green Investment Bank, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation (GreenTech Malaysia), Connecticut Green Bank, Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), and California CLEEN Center are focusing on investing and funding projects with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some of the developments in this space are as follows:

In 2022, the German government announced plans to invest $4.4 billion (4 billion) in "natural climate protection" to complement steps to wean Germany off fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions.

(4 billion) in "natural climate protection" to complement steps to wean off fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. In 2021, the government of Canada invested $150 million in better ventilation for schools, hospitals, and other public buildings. This investment helps to assess, monitor, and improve indoor air quality and ventilation, including upgrades or conversions of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, as well as community-based solutions in Indigenous communities.

invested in better ventilation for schools, hospitals, and other public buildings. This investment helps to assess, monitor, and improve indoor air quality and ventilation, including upgrades or conversions of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, as well as community-based solutions in Indigenous communities. In 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of $20 million in competitive grants through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to enhance ambient air quality monitoring in communities across the U.S.

Thus, government initiatives encouraging the adoption of environmental monitoring products are driving the growth of the environmental sensors market.

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The global environmental sensors market is segmented by type (particulate & gas sensors, chemical sensors, pressure sensors, humidity & moisture sensors, temperature sensors, noise sensors, and other environmental sensors), application (smart home automation, factory automation, smart cities, automotive powertrain system, energy harvesting, other applications), end user (residential, government & public utilities, commercial, and industrial), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa). The study also evaluates industry competitors and analyzes the market at regional and country levels.

Based on type, in 2022, by value, the particulate & gas sensors segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the increasing integration of gas sensors in HVAC systems and air quality monitors, increasing demand for miniaturized wireless gas sensors, growing air pollution levels, and the need for air quality monitoring in smart cities. Additionally, this segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

However, by volume, in 2022, the chemical sensors segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market.

Based on application, in 2022, the factory automation segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market. However, the smart cities segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The rising environmental pollution levels, increasingly degrading indoor air quality, and growing demand for real-time air quality monitoring sensors to monitor urban air pollution are expected to support the growth of this segment.

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Based on end user, in 2022, the industrial segment is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensor market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the growing trends in industrial automation, stringent government regulations regarding pollution monitoring technologies, and rapid industrialization. Furthermore, the use of smart sensors for predictive maintenance and their increasing utilization in the automotive industry are expected to drive this segment's growth over the coming years. Also, this segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on geography, in 2022, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the environmental sensors market. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period. The increasing implementation of environmental monitoring and protection policies by governments and increasing compliance from industrial facilities towards environmental monitoring regulations are supporting the region's growth.

Some of the key players operating in the environmental sensor market are Siemens AG (Germany), Infineon Technologies AG (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Bosch Sensortec GmbH (Germany), Raritan Inc. (U.S.), TE Connectivity Ltd. (Switzerland), Texas Instruments Incorporated (U.S.), Amphenol Corporation (U.S.), Breeze Technologies (Germany), NuWave Sensor Technology Limited (Ireland), Renesas Electronics Corporation (Japan), Aeroqual (New Zealand), ams-OSRAM AG (Austria), AVTECH Software, Inc. (U.S.), eLichens (France), and Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.).

To gain more insights into the market with a detailed table of content and figures, click here: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/environmental-sensor-market-5348

Scope of the Report

Environmental Sensor Market, by Type

Particulate & Gas Sensors

Chemical Sensors

Pressure Sensors

Humidity & Moisture Sensors

Temperature Sensors

Noise Sensors

Other Environmental Sensors

Environmental Sensor Market, by Application

Smart Home Automation

Factory Automation

Smart Cities

Automotive Powertrain System

Energy Harvesting

Other Applications

Environmental Sensor Market, by End User

Residential

Government & Public Utilities

Commercial

Transportation & Logistics



Education



Healthcare



Other Commercial Sectors

Industrial

Automotive



Pharmaceutical



Oil & Gas



Consumer Electronics



Chemicals



Other Industries

Environmental Sensor Market, by Geography

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

U.K.



Germany



France



Italy



Spain



Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China



Japan



India



South Korea



Australia and New Zealand

and

Rest of Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

& UAE



Israel



Rest of Middle East & Africa

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https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/environmental-monitoring-market-5024

Environmental Testing Market by Product (Mass Spectrometers, Chromatography Products, Molecular Spectroscopy Products, Toc Analyzers, PH Meters, Dissolved Oxygen Analyzers, Conductivity Sensors, Turbidity Meters), Sample (Wastewater/Effluent, Soil, Water, Air), Technology (Conventional, Rapid), Contaminant (Microbes, Organic Compounds, Heavy Metals, Residues, Solids), End Users (Agriculture and Irrigation Sector, Government Institutes and R and D Laboratories, Industrial Product Manufacturers, Forestry and Geology, Others), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025.

https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/environmental-testing-market-5002

About Meticulous Research

Meticulous Research was founded in 2010 and incorporated as Meticulous Market Research Pvt. Ltd. in 2013 as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. Since its incorporation, the company has become the leading provider of premium market intelligence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

The name of our company defines our services, strengths, and values. Since the inception, we have only thrived to research, analyze, and present the critical market data with great attention to details. With the meticulous primary and secondary research techniques, we have built strong capabilities in data collection, interpretation, and analysis of data including qualitative and quantitative research with the finest team of analysts. We design our meticulously analyzed intelligent and value-driven syndicate market research reports, custom studies, quick turnaround research, and consulting solutions to address business challenges of sustainable growth.

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SOURCE Meticulous Market Research Pvt Ltd.
The upcoming luxury hotel, serviced apartments and branded residences will have exceptional views of the Red Sea and easy access to Jeddah's dynamic commerce hubs

TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the world's leading luxury hospitality company, announces plans to expand its presence in the Middle East alongside Saudi-based investment firm Midad Real Estate. Together, they will introduce Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Jeddah at the Corniche, a new-build coastal retreat scheduled to open in 2024.

Four Seasons and Midad Real Estate Announce Plans for Hotel and Private Residences in Jeddahs Corniche District

The project will be located within the Corniche District, where both guests and homeowners will be enchanted by views of the Red Sea and Jeddah's classic architecture, reflecting the city's 2000 years of history. Key business hubs, the historic area of Al-Balad, the Tahlia Street shopping district and the Formula 1 Jeddah street circuit will be in close proximity to the upcoming Four Seasons, giving future travellers and residents alike reason to visit and live in the increasingly popular metropolitan destination, also known as New Jeddah Corniche.

"Four Seasons is experiencing incredible growth and momentum in Saudi Arabia and our new project in Jeddah at the Corniche will be a perfect complement to our existing and future properties in this important destination," says Bart Carnahan, President, Global Business Development and Portfolio Management, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. "Whether you are visiting for a long or short stay, or in search of a new home, Four Seasons is dedicated to bringing dynamic projects to market that offer something for everyone. We look forward to partnering with Midad Real Estate to establish Four Seasons Jeddah at the Corniche as a primary gateway to all New Jeddah Corniche has to offer."

Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Jeddah at the Corniche will include 269 luxuriously appointed guest rooms and suites, 21 serviced apartments for short and long-term stays and 64 Private Residences including two penthouses. With Skidmore, Owings & Merrill leading the architecture and Richmond International the interior design, each space will be thoughtfully created to incorporate opulent, tasteful design elements. Accommodations will include expansive living spaces for families, tranquil spa-inspired bathrooms and marble-clad interiors throughout. The serviced apartments will be available in two and three-bedroom configurations starting at 116 square metres (1,250 square feet).

"As Jeddah emerges as a global destination for both business and leisure tourism, the arrival of Four Seasons to the Corniche ushers in a new level of luxury and prestige, signalling the bright future that lies ahead for this dynamic destination," says Ms. Razan Sebai, Midad Real Estate. "Our shared values and commitment to innovation across design, hospitality and real estate speak to our strong partnership and collective desire to bring this landmark Four Seasons project to life, and in doing so, propell Jeddah into a distinguished regional and global travel destination."

Fusing community, convenience and comfort, guests and residents can enjoy Four Seasons renowned service and unrivalled luxury lifestyle experience through the Hotel's amenity and dining options, including multiple restaurants with terraces for open-air dining, an outdoor shisha lounge, a cigar lounge and more. Meeting and event space will total 4,000 square metres (43,055 square feet); men and women can unwind in their own pools, fitness centres and spas; while children can safely play, create and explore in the complimentary Kids For All Seasons program.

In addition to amenities available from the adjoining Hotel, homeowners at Four Seasons Private Residences Jeddah at the Corniche will have exclusive access to a private resident's lounge, outdoor terrace, fitness centres and valet service, all of which will be led by a Director of Residences and dedicated Four Seasons residential team. Private Residences will range from one to five bedrooms and 300 to 1,065 square metres (3,230 to 11,500 feet). To ensure an effortless lifestyle experience that is complemented by a highly personalized and service-rich environment, homeowners can trust that their assets are in capable hands whether at home or abroad, as Four Seasons acts as the property managers for each Private Residence to ensure standards of quality and service remain consistent throughout.

Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Jeddah at the Corniche will join Four Seasons growing collection of properties in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre, the upcoming Four Seasons Hotel Diriyah, and a collection of projects soon to be announced.

For more images, please see here.

About Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts opened its first hotel in 1961, and since that time has been dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through continual innovation and the highest standards of hospitality. Currently operating 126 hotels and resorts, and 51 residential properties in major city centres and resort destinations in 47 countries, and with more than 50 projects under planning or development, Four Seasons consistently ranks among the world's best hotels and most prestigious brands in reader polls, traveller reviews and industry awards. For more information and reservations, visit fourseasons.com. For the latest news, visit press.fourseasons.com and follow @FourSeasonsPR on Twitter.

Media Contact

Emily Borgeest

[email protected]

SOURCE Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Blues Wireless nominated as only IoT solution on list of innovators who are transforming Risk Management and Disaster Prevention & Recovery at 2022 California Heat & Fire Expo

BEVERLY, Mass., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blues Wireless is among the finalists for the Natural Disaster Innovation Awards, Cost-Effective Mitigation Product of The Year, as part of the California Heat and Fire Expo. This award is especially pertinent for Blues Wireless CEO, Ray Ozzie, as he developed the concept for the company's flagship product in response to his volunteer work in Japan during the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The vision of Blues Wireless is now being realized as their product is increasingly being recognized as an accessible technology for anyone who wants to build a cellular IoT solution  especially to mitigate the physical and economic impacts of natural disasters.

Blues Wireless is a finalist in the Natural Disaster Innovation Awards. The awards recognize proven innovators that are transforming different areas of the Risk Management and Disaster Prevention & Recovery industry.

The Blues Wireless Notecard and Notehub provide everything needed for commercial-grade connected devices out-of-the-box. Solving the complex connectivity challenges Ray and his fellow Safecast volunteers ran into in Japan in 2011, Blues Wireless enables developers to build an IoT device prototype in weeks. The technology was thoughtfully designed as an adaptive component that can power any number of use cases.

The Natural Disaster Innovation Awards recognizes proven innovators who are transforming Risk Management and Disaster Prevention & Recovery. Nominees are chosen because their product, service, or strategy is recognized as having a massive impact and influence on the emergency service and natural disaster response and recovery marketplace.

Blues Wireless is one of three finalists, and the only IoT solution, in the Cost-Effective Mitigation Product of The Year category. The award is given to the organization that provides an accessible product or solution that transforms the way communities protect their homes and businesses against the destructive power of nature.

"The disruptive technology of Blues Wireless was born out of a humanitarian response to the Fukushima disaster, thanks to Ray, the Safecast organization, and all the citizen scientists," said Jim Hassman, President and CRO of Blues Wireless. "Eleven years on, we're thrilled to be recognized as a company that provides individuals, communities, government and enterprises with the technology to quickly deploy solutions that mitigate the devastating effects of natural disasters."

Jim Hassman financed his undergraduate degree working as a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. He will be leading a session at the California Heat & Fire Expo, discussing how the Blues Wireless Notecard and Notehub can track and monitor assets on the ground and changing environmental conditions that result from natural disasters.

Hear Jim Hassman speak at the California Heat & Fire Expo, presenting "The untold story behind Fukushima" on Thursday, November 10th, 1:15-1:45 pm in Theater 3.

About Blues Wireless

Founded in 2019, Blues Wireless is accelerating the path to IoT by providing simple, secure, and affordable full-stack solutions for connecting devices to the cloud. Notecard, their flagship product, is a highly secure system on a module (SoM) with embedded global cellular connectivity. Pre-paid connectivity and consumption-based pricing enables businesses to break free from the complexity of per-month, per-device subscription management. Enterprise use cases range from asset tracking and condition monitoring to AI at the edge and remote control. Blues is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Create a connected world with Blues Wireless. Email [email protected] or visit blues.io for more information.

SOURCE Blues Wireless
CALGARY, AB, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian Pacific (TSX: CP) (NYSE: CP) is proud to announce its winners for Elevator of the Year for the 2021-2022 crop year: Paterson Flagstaff (Outbound Grain - Canada), G3 Carmangay (Inbound Grain - Canada), and Elbow Lake Co-op Grain (U.S.). CP presents this award annually to grain elevators that achieve high volumes from a single loading point while consistently demonstrating efficient railcar loading and a strong commitment to safety. CP issued a special recognition to G3 Carmangay this year for handling significant amounts of inbound corn to feed livestock. CP also recognizes Parrish & Heimbecker Weyburn (Canada) and Wheaton Dumont Co-op Elevator Tenney (U.S.) as the runners-up for Elevator of the Year 2021-2022.

"These elevators are leaders in their field and are helping farmers in Canada and the U.S. supply the world with high-quality products," said Joan Hardy, CP Vice-President Sales and Marketing Grain and Fertilizers. "CP is proud to recognize the people that operate these elevators for their dedication and perseverance during challenging conditions. They helped to find innovative solutions when the Western Canadian grain crop was the smallest in over a decade due to severe drought throughout the prairies."

Paterson Flagstaff in Daysland, Alta., is a valued customer and first-time winner of the CP Elevator of the Year award. Paterson Flagstaff is a leading 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product (HEP) train-capable facility that has shown efficient and safe practices with each unit-train loaded at the site. The Flagstaff elevator moved an impressive amount of grain during the 2021-2022 crop year.

"We are very honoured to be recognized by CP with their Elevator of the Year award," said Shane Paterson, Paterson GlobalFoods Inc. Director of Trading and Transportation. "Paterson and CP have a relationship dating back over a century. Our collective success has been built on a foundation of strong communication and the shared objectives of growth and efficiency. This achievement would not have been possible without the strong service that CP provided throughout the crop year, our dedicated staff and the excellent producers in the region whom we would like to recognize and thank for their business."

G3 Carmangay in Carmangay, Alta., features an 8,500-foot HEP-train-capable loop track that opened in 2020, and in the last crop year was able to become an important source of meeting surging demand for cattle feed in Western Canada.

"We are proud that our G3 Carmangay, Alta., grain elevator is the recipient of this year's CP Elevator of the Year (Inbound Grain - Canada) award," said Don Chapman, G3 CEO. "G3's high-efficiency loop track facilities have set new standards for fast and safe train loading to keep grain moving to market. Together with our partner, CP, we also set a high bar this year for efficient unloading of grain shipped by rail into our facility. Livestock producers counted on us to supply animal feed during a difficult year, and we delivered."

Elbow Lake Co-op Grain, located in Elbow Lake, Minn., also helped sustain Western Canadian cattle during the 2021-2022 drought by shipping almost 200,000 metric tonnes of corn to Canada as a portion of their strong shipping program. Elbow Lake Co-op Grain is a first-time winner of CP's Elevator of the year award.

"A lot of things need to come together to achieve these high levels of grain volumes," said Kevin Stein, Elbow Lake Co-Op Grain General Manager. "Our amazing staff puts all this grain through our elevators. We're in an excellent corn and soybean production area with farmers who support our business very well and CP has done a good job moving railcars to keep the grain moving."

Grain elevators interested in this award should contact their CP account manager for information on the eligibility criteria.

About Canadian Pacific

Canadian Pacific is a transcontinental railway in Canada and the United States with direct links to major ports on the west and east coasts. CP provides North American customers a competitive rail service with access to key markets in every corner of the globe. CP is growing with its customers, offering a suite of freight transportation services, logistics solutions and supply chain expertise. Visit cpr.ca to see the rail advantages of CP. CP-IR

SOURCE Canadian Pacific
SAO PAULO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

3Q22 Highlights

Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) reaches R$ 5.4 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.4%.

Adjusted EBITDA from the North America Business Operation reaches R$2.6 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 32.9%, both historical records for a quarter.

Indebtedness level reaches its lowest historical level, with the ratio between net debt and adjusted EBITDA decreasing from 0.41x to 0.16x compared to the third quarter of 2021.

The Company obtained certification from Gerdau Summit as a B Company. The organization is a joint venture with the Japanese Sumitomo Corporation and Japan Steel Works for the supply of rolling cylinders and parts for wind power generation. As a result, Gerdau Summit is now the first steel industry in the world to become a B Company.

Additional Information

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE: GGB, BM&Fbovespa: GGBR3, GGBR4) informs that it is filling today its 3Q22 results at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and at the Comissao de Valores Mobiliarios (CVM), which are available at Gerdau's website. To access this document, please click on https://ri.gerdau.com/en/notices-and-results/results-center/.

The 3Q22 Valuation Guide is also available at Gerdau's website.

https://ri.gerdau.com/en/financial-information/valuation-guide/

SOURCE Gerdau S.A.
DUBLIN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market Report 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report provides strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global fetal and neonatal monitoring devices market as it emerges from the COVID-19 shut down.

The global fetal and neonatal monitoring devices market is expected to grow from $7.1 billion in 2021 to $7.65 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7%. The market is expected to grow to $9.74 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2%.

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Major players in the fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment market are GE Healthcare, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited, Philips Healthcare, Atom Medical Corporation, Natus Medical Incorporated, Analogic Corporation, Phoenix Medical Systems (P) Ltd, Becton Dickinson, Masimo Corporation, and Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGAA

The fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment market consist of sales of fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment and related services. Fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment are used to assess fetal heart rate and contractions of the uterus during pregnancy and childbirth. Ultrasound Dopplers and internal fetal monitors are widely-used fetal and neonatal monitors.

The main equipment of fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment are fetal and neonatal. Neonatal monitoring devices and equipment are used for the monitoring of various body parameters of the newborn. The fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment are portable or non-portable. Fetal care equipment types are ultrasound devices, fetal dopplers, fetal MRI systems, fetal monitors, and fetal pulse oximeters. Neonatal care equipment types are infant warmers, incubators, convertible warmers and incubators, phototherapy equipment, respiratory devices, neonatal monitoring devices, and diagnostic imaging devices. The various end-users are hospitals, diagnostic centers, pediatric clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers.

Asia Pacific was the largest region in the fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment market in 2021. North America was the second-largest region in the fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment market. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.

The increasing prevalence of preterm births and the low body weight of infants act as a factor driving the fetal and neonatal monitoring devices market growth. Preterm birth refers to the premature birth of a child before 37 weeks gestation period, which leads to poor health and growth, mental retardation, visual and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, and others. According to World Health Organization (WHO), around 1 million babies die each year and preterm birth was found to be one of the top reasons for the deaths. According to the report by WHO, nearly 15 million babies are born preterm every year and this number is expected to have a continuous rise shortly. The increasing prevalence and need to reduce the infant mortality rates with improving healthcare conditions drives the fetal and neonatal monitoring devices market. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2019 the preterm birth rate in Africa.n-American women was 14.4%.

The fetal and neonatal monitoring device market is restricted by stringent regulatory policies governing this market. The fetal and neonatal device manufacturers need to pass through several tests and requirements laid down by different regulatory bodies. Regulations like FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), NMPA regulations, EU directives lay down some stringent regulations for this equipment.

The changes related to customer data protection such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), changes to equipment approval procedures, and other regulatory changes lead to increased healthcare costs. For instance, according to a report by Ernst and Young, Fortune 500 companies are spending $7.8 billion to comply with GDPR.

The GDPR is an EU law on the data protection and privacy of individuals residing in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA). Furthermore, the FDA is requesting more clinical data to support claims resulting in increased processing times of 510(k)s by over 55% over the last decade, thus delaying the operating cycle of manufacturers in this market.

Fetal and neonatal monitoring device manufacturers are increasingly innovating and integrating technologies such as wireless technology with patient monitoring devices to efficiently diagnose and monitor fetuses and newborns. Wireless sensor technology such as biosensor monitoring devices, wireless fetal heart rate monitoring devices is multi-sensor systems implanted or embedded into the skin, consisting of a sensor that transmits data for real-time monitoring of a patient's medical condition.

For instance, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke developed SARA, a scanning device that can detect fetal brain activity with the help of flashes of light transmitted through the mother's abdomen. Philips developed a new cordless fetal monitoring device that helps in ensuring the safety of the mother as well as the child without any inconvenience and risk. These technological innovations eliminate poor reception of observation and help caregivers in monitoring more efficiently.

Hong Kong's Department of Health, a regulatory body for fetal and neonatal monitoring devices of Hong Kong, sent a medical device safety alert to Guangzhou Sunray Medical Apparatus Co., Ltd, a medical device manufacturer, concerning its maternal and fetal monitor. The safety alert was sent as the Guangzhou Sunray maternal and fetal monitor was delivering inaccurate ultrasound-derived fetal heart rate recordings due to software-related issues. These devices impacted patients' health with delayed intervention resulting in severe injury or death to the fetus. To reduce incidences associated with these devices MRHA sent a medical device safety alert to correct the device.

Similarly, in March 2019, Philips Medical Systems, a medical device manufacturer, was sent a medical device safety alert on Philips Fetal Spiral Electrode (FSE) to define its usage instructions due to increased cases of tip breakage of the spiral electrode. The safety alert was sent as the metal electrode tip can break off and remain in the scalp of the newborn following labor and delivery.

The countries covered in the fetal and neonatal monitoring devices and equipment market are Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Russia, UK, USA, and Australia.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market Characteristics

3. Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market Trends And Strategies

4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices

5. Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market Size And Growth

5.1. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Historic Market, 2016-2021, $ Billion

5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market

5.1.2. Restraints On The Market

5.2. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Forecast Market, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market

5.2.2. Restraints On the Market

6. Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market Segmentation

6.1. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Segmentation By Equipment, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Fetal

Neonatal

6.2. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Segmentation By End User, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Hospitals

Diagnostic centers

Pediatric Clinics

Ambulatory Surgical Centers

6.3. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Segmentation By Portability, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Portable

Non Portable

6.4. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Segmentation By Fetal Care Equipment Type, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Ultrasound Devices

Fetal Dopplers

Fetal MRI Systems

Fetal Monitors

Fetal Pulse Oximeters

6.5. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Segmentation By Neonatal Care Equipment Type, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Infant Warmers

Incubators

Convertible Warmers & Incubators

Phototherapy Equipment

Respiratory Devices

Neonatal Monitoring Devices

Diagnostic Imaging Devices

7. Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market Regional And Country Analysis

7.1. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

7.2. Global Fetal And Neonatal Monitoring Devices Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/l2w65c

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This Lung Cancer Awareness Month, the global LCAM Coalition has launched a six-country digital and social media campaign to raise awareness about the impact of lung cancer. The disease strikes people of all ages, ethnicities and income levels. And, worldwide, lung cancer kills more men than any other cancer.

"Confronting lung cancer is critical to survivorshipand a cure," said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, president of GO2 for Lung Cancer. "We need to come together in the U.S. and globally to end stigma, increase public and private research funding and ensure everyone has access to care."

"Global advocacy is essential to ensuring that everyone living with lung cancer has a voiceand access to optimal care," said Anne-Marie Baird, president of Lung Cancer Europe. "We look forward to working within the LCAM Coalition to build awareness in order to destigmatize lung cancer and bring the attention that is needed to a disease that impacts over 2.2 million people annually."

The campaign, which will run throughout November, is designed to raise public awareness about the importance of early detection to finding treatable and even curable disease. A combination of digital ads will target audiences in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom featuring a clear messagewe need more research, more screening and better treatment options for people with lung cancer.

Fall Campaign Builds on Momentum of Summer Campaigns in Brazil , South Africa

The global LCAM Coalition's fall campaign builds on the momentum of summer campaigns in Brazil and South Africa. More than 30,000 Brazilians are diagnosed with lung cancer each year, many in the late stages of the disease. South Africa has few people with lung cancerbut has rates that are 2x that of the rest of the continent.

The two campaigns demonstrated significant receptivity among the public for lung cancer awareness messaging. The Brazilian campaign led to over 11,000,000 engagements, primarily from individuals seeking to learn more. The South African campaign, which generated over 5,000 engagements, was targeted exclusively to raising awareness among healthcare professionalsparticularly about the role that lung cancer screening can have in early detection.

The LCAM Coalition gratefully recognizes the following sponsors for their generous support: AstraZeneca, Novocure, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Merck, Daiichi Sankyo, Novartis, and Sanofi.

About the LCAM Coalition

The Lung Cancer Awareness Month Coalition is a global coalition of cancer and related organizations bringing their collective voices together to amplify the conversation around lung cancer. By drawing attention through coordinated media and social media campaigns, the Coalition and its members hope to expand awareness about why it is so important to talk about lung cancer, fund research, and push for new treatment options around the world. For more information, visit https://lcam.org/.

About GO2 for Lung Cancer

GO2 for Lung Cancer relentlessly confronts lung cancer on every front, every day. Founded by patients and survivors, we are dedicated to increasing survival for those at risk, diagnosed and living with lung cancer. For more information, visit https//go2.org.

About Lung Cancer Europe

Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE) is the voice of people living with lung cancer and their families with lung cancer at the European level. The organization provides a European platform for lung cancer patient advocacy associations and networks and supports the establishment of national lung cancer patient groups in those European countries where such groups do not yet exist. For more information, visit https://www.lungcancereurope.eu/.

SOURCE Lung Cancer Awareness Month Coalition
BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Walking through the city's flagship East Lake National Wetland Park in Central China's Wuhan, water and sky merge in muted colors, punctuated by fir trees on which hundreds of rare species of pelican crowd "painting" the tree branch snowy white with their droppings.

This would have been an unimaginable scene just a decade ago due to rampant industrial pollution and environmental overexploitation.

But now, migratory birds have made a comeback, bringing with them a resurgence of tourists as a result of Wuhan's decade-long efforts to restore the city's wetlands.

The achievements of Wuhan's urban wetland ecological protection are the epitome of China's overall wisdom in wetland conservation.

Wetlands are commonly referred to as the "kidneys of the city" and a reservoir of biodiversity. China recently unveiled new plans for wetlands conservation during the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) which commenced in Wuhan on November 5 and is expected to conclude on November 13.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China has recently drawn up a layout plan of national parks. Under the plan, China will designate a number of national parks, accounting for about 10 percent of the country's land area. About 11 million hectares of wetlands will be incorporated in the national park system, with a focus on a series of developing wetland national parks

About 11 million hectares of wetlands will be incorporated in the national park system, with a focus on a series of developing wetland national parks, Xi said in an address delivered at the opening ceremony of COP14 via video on Saturday.

President Xi noted that historic achievements have been made in wetlands conservation in China, and China has put in place a protection system, and enacted a Wetlands Conservation Law. China's long-term commitment to wetland conservation as well as tackling climate change and protecting biodiversity has won wide recognitions from attending international representatives.

China, once just a mere participant, has since grown to become not only a contributor but a world leader in global wetland conservation, presenting a feasible model and providing effective solutions to be emulated by many states worldwide, observers said.

They noted that China, guided by President Xi's Thought on Ecological Civilization, has provided the world with wise solutions to many challenges faced by other developing countries in balancing economic development and urbanization with rapid economic expansion and wetland conservation. Such lessons have been key to China's success in its transition to a greener economy.

China's firm commitment

China joined the Ramsar Convention - an intergovernmental agreement dedicated to the conservation and rational use of wetland ecosystems - in 1992.

Since then, China has launched a legal framework and series of policies for wetlands conservation. In the last decade alone, China has cultivated or restored more than 800,000 hectares of wetlands, the Global Times learned from the COP14. Currently, China has 64 sites designated as "Wetlands of International Importance" (Ramsar Sites) and its wetland area ranks the first in Asia and fourth in the world covering an area of 56.35 million hectares.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of China's accession to the Ramsar Convention. China leads the world in having the most international wetland cities, being home to 13 among all 43 such cities globally.

With four percent of the world's wetlands, China has the herculean task of meeting the ecological, productional, living, and cultural needs of one-fifth of the world's population.

Financial investment and the employment of tougher legal measures have helped bolster such efforts. According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the central government allocated 16.9 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) to wetland conservation and undertook over 3,400 protection projects in the last decade, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The country's first dedicated law on wetland protection took effect in June.

Wuhan, a pioneer in smart protection

Wuhan, home to 165 rivers and 166 lakes, and with about 162,000 hectares of wetlands, ranks among the top three inland cities worldwide in wetland resources.

The 3,367-hectare East Lake National Wetland Park is the city's calling card, showcasing local efforts and achievements in wetland protection in Wuhan - turning sewage, weeds, and heavily polluted water bodies into clear fish ponds.

To treasure this city's "kidneys," local authorities in Wuhan once halted all potential lake-contaminating sewage intake and planted contamination-absorbing aquatic plants which helped create a 220-hectare "underwater forest," leaving a paradise behind for aquatic birds and a scenic spot for local residents.

Wuhan has also built a 101.98-kilometer-long greenway around the East Lake, which aims to improve the urban public space, and is open to visitors day and night. It helps safeguard against lake encroachment by securing the shorelines.

The Chenhu Lake Wetland Nature Reserve, the first "wetland of international importance" in Wuhan, is another example of local innovation in using smart facilities to upgrade wetland management.

Over 20,000 migratory birds, which were conspicuously absent in previous decades due to ecological destruction, made a majestic return to the 116-square-km wetlands this summer.

The reserve's management team told the Global Times that the Wuhan local government passed a slew of legislative policies forbidding ecologically destructive acts in the 2000s, directly helping reverse the trend.

Since 2003, the local government has allocated 15 million yuan annually to compensate individuals and institutions impacted by wetland reserve expansion and protection efforts. Rewards and penalties also incentivize wetland protection awareness.

In order to protect more than 20 wetlands and lakes, a 6km detour was created during the construction of one of Wuhan's main traffic beltways.

During a visit to the Chenhu Lake reserve, the Global Times reporter was impressed by the intelligent digital platforms monitoring species and climate indicators employed by the reserve which rapidly and accurately record changes in the ecological environment such as in wetland resources, biodiversity, wetland carbon sinks, and zoonotic epidemics.

The smart system uses high-definition cameras to periodically monitor key areas, capturing changes in ecosystems and identifying new species with 95 percent accuracy. The system is also a pioneering technology in China, which represents technological innovation in Wuhan, Feng Jiang, a senior engineer with the reserve administration, told the Global Times.

"We have also set up three conservation stations in the reserve with 33 conservation staff members wearing smart mobile devices while carrying out dynamic monitoring and transmitting of data back to help identify and study new species, and assess the range of visitor flows these species can withstand," said Feng.

Additionally, a 24-hour patrol system has been implemented in the entire reserve to rapidly detect and stop the destruction of wetland resources. A wildlife rescue center has also been established to help provide support for wild animals, Feng said.



Recovering biodiversity under way



Wuhan now has implemented a series of wetland conservation and ecological restoration projects with more than 30 NGOs and 200,000 volunteers. Both humans and nature are equally represented therein.

Experts attending sub-forums at the COP14 revealed that thanks to China's effective measures, some endangered species have returned and are even more frequently seen along China's longest river, the Yangtze River, which flows through Central China's Hubei Province. Other endangered species in the Yangtze River basin, such as the milu deer, otherwise known as the Pere David's deer, are also returning to nature under ecological conservation.

"I'm glad that hopefully we can have our kids live in an era of biodiversity, instead of the industrialized pollution that we grew up with. Now the concept of protecting wetlands is more commonly heard of as the country and city are advancing ecological civilization. More Chinese people are beginning to realize that strengthening environmental protection is beneficial to long-term economic growth," a Wuhan resident surnamed Tong who regularly visits the Chenhu Lake reserve told the Global Times.

On November 5, the Supreme People's Court published the first batch of typical cases of wetland damage lawsuits, such as illegal hunting and farming, and attached thorough guidelines on dealing with such breaches. This further clarifies the detailed rules for the legal protection of wetlands, reflecting China's emphasis on high-quality protection of wetlands, said the experts.

China is among a few countries in the world with wetland protection laws, and this shows the world that China is a responsible major country, Zhang Mingxiang, a professor at the Beijing Forestry University, told the Global Times at the opening ceremony of COP14.

In the last three decades, China's wetland protection has gone through three stages: problem identification, rescue protection, and comprehensive conservation, said Zhang.

The COP14 will showcase China's wisdom and wetland protection plan, which is expected to elevate China's efforts in this cause in the future, Zhang noted.

SOURCE Global Times
~The company aims to double its growth by FY25 in the Middle East region

MUMBAI, India, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Godrej & Boyce, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, announced that its business Godrej Process Equipment is targeting to double its growth by 2025 from its business in the Middle East region. The region has been one of the core markets for the business and the investments in the Energy sector will witness a substantial increase with the UAE investing approximately $150 billion towards the same.

Recently, Godrej Process Equipment exhibited its competencies at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC), an event hosted by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in Abu Dhabi.

Godrej Process Equipment is a leading manufacturer of custom-built process equipment for various critical applications in the Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Hydrogen, Fertilizer and Power sector across the globe, with majority of its products being exported. With an aim to double their revenue by 2025, the business has already invested Rs. 300 Cr towards the expansion of their manufacturing facility at Dahej, Gujarat, India. The business has been enhancing its capacity and capability to focus and expand its global footprint.

Hussain Shariyarr, Senior Vice President & Business Head, Godrej Process Equipment, said, "The global energy scenario is undergoing a sweeping transformation to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce the environmental footprint. We have seen tremendous growth in the Middle East and have embarked on our journey to enhance the productivity and quality of products delivered to our clients globally. We are proud to represent India's manufacturing capabilities by delivering equipment of high quality and standards on an international platform. Also, the reception we received at the ADIPEC exhibition has been phenomenal and we take this opportunity to thank our clients and partners who visited our stall."

About Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

Godrej & Boyce ('G&B'), a Godrej Group Company, was founded in 1897 and has contributed to India's journey of self-reliance through manufacturing. G&B patented the world's first springless lock and since then, has diversified into 14 businesses across various sectors from Security, Furniture, and Aerospace to Infrastructure and Defence. Godrej is one of India's most trusted brands serving over 1.1bn customers worldwide daily.

To learn more visit: www.godrej.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1876608/Godrej_and_Boyce_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Unbaked Yeast Dough Can Be Deadly to Dogs and Cats

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pippa, a playful pup from Knoxville, Tenn., has a history of retrieving things from her family's counter tops and trash. Last Thanksgiving, that hunger and curiosity almost ruined the family's celebration when the then two-year-old Golden Retriever had a severe reaction after consuming bread dough that was rising in the kitchen.

"It was a very expensive Thanksgiving Day at the dog ER, but she's back to full health now," said Pippa's owner. Tweet this Pippa, a Golden Retriever from Knoxville, Tenn., had a lot to be thankful for after surviving a potentially deadly reaction to eating bread dough.

"I had left a dozen unbaked bread rolls on the kitchen counter to rise, covering them with a towel," said Rebecca Collins, Pippa's pet parent. "When I went to put them in the oven, I found that half of them were gone. I knew I didn't eat them, but it took me awhile to figure out what happened. It didn't occur to me Pippa would be interested in bread dough."

"I noticed that Pippa was acting sleepy," Collins continued, "which is very unusual for her. Normally she's running around when company is over. Once I figured out that she must have eaten the rolls, I called Pet Poison Helpline. We discussed what and how much Pippa had eaten, and they instructed me to take her to the veterinary hospital."

"Unbaked bread dough that contains yeast can be dangerous when ingested by dogs and cats," said Dr. Renee Schmid, a senior veterinary toxicologist at Pet Poison Helpline. "When ingested, the unbaked bread dough expands in the warm, moist environment of the stomach and releases carbon dioxide gas, which can result in a bloated or distended stomach. The carbon dioxide gas is what makes bread rise. Although it is less common, this can progress to twisting of the stomach, also known as gastric-dilatation volvulus (GDV) or bloat. Signs of bloat or GDV include vomiting, non-productive retching, a distended stomach, an elevated heart rate, weakness, collapse and death."

"Potentially even more concerning, when the yeast use sugars in the unbaked dough (a process called fermentation), they produce ethanol," added Dr. Schmid. "Ethanol from the fermenting yeast is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and results in alcohol poisoning. Ingestion of alcohol can cause dangerous drops in blood sugar, blood pressure and body temperature. Severely intoxicated animals can potentially experience seizures and respiratory failure."

When Pippa arrived at Animal Emergency and Specialty Center of Knoxville, the hospital's medical team was already in communication with the toxicology experts at Pet Poison Helpline. Since it had been more than five hours since Pippa had eaten the rolls, they recommended against inducing vomiting, as it could cause more damage. Her heartrate was elevated, her abdomen was distended on deep palpitation and imaging showed her stomach was distended and 90% of the lumen was filled with potential dough material. She was placed on IV fluids and was given ice and cold water to help counteract the rising process. Rather than inducing emesis, the medical team decided to wait for her to pass the dough naturally. If Pippa had not been able to pass the blockage on her own, she may have required surgery. She was monitored closely overnight with aggressive supportive care and was released the next day.

"Luckily, it didn't come to surgery," added Collins. "It was a very expensive Thanksgiving Day at the dog ER, but she's back to full health now."

Pet Poison Helpline created Toxin Tails to educate the veterinary community and pet lovers on the many types of poisoning dangers facing pets, both in and out of the home. All the pets highlighted in Toxin Tails have been successfully treated for the poisoning and fully recovered.

About Pet Poison Helpline

Pet Poison Helpline, your trusted source for toxicology and pet health advice in times of potential emergency, is available 24 hours, seven days a week for pet owners and veterinary professionals who require assistance treating a potentially poisoned pet. We are an independent, nationally recognized animal poison control center triple licensed by the Boards of Veterinary Medicine, Medicine and Pharmacy providing unmatched professional leadership and expertise. Our veterinarians and board-certified toxicologists provide treatment advice for poisoning cases of all species, including dogs, cats, birds, small mammals, large animals and exotic species. As the most cost-effective option for animal poison control care, Pet Poison Helpline's fee of $75 per incident includes follow-up consultations for the duration of the case. Based in Minneapolis, Pet Poison Helpline is available in North America by calling 800-213-6680. Additional information can be found online at www.petpoisonhelpline.com.

Contact: Dr. Renee Schmid

Pet Poison Helpline

(952) 806-3803

[email protected]

SOURCE Pet Poison Helpline
FN Media Group Presents GlobalInvestmentDaily.com Market Commentary

LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rare earth metals have been one of the best hiding places for investors amid a steep market sell-off prompted by fears of global recession, a raging Russian war in Ukraine, a complex regime of sanctions and sky-high energy prices. Mentioned in today's commentary includes: Lithium Americas Corp (NYSE: LAC), Teck Resources Ltd (NYSE: TECK), Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd (NYSE: TRQ), Sociedad Quimica Y Minera S.A. ADR (NYSE: SQM), Albemarle Corp (NYSE: ALB).



New clean energy technologies are going to divert trillions of dollars into exploration, producing and processing a list of critical minerals that are now paramount to national security.

It's been a great year for metals such as lithium and tantalum, and it's now shaping up to be an exciting year for the rarest of them allCesium, a mineral critical to advanced research and development and used in applications across multiple industries and manufacturing chains.

The past five years has seen lithium giant Albemarle (ALB) jump over 102%, and 50% in the last six months alone. Another giant, SQM (SQM), is up over 90% YTD, and over 35% in the past six months. Lithium Americas Corp (LAC) stock has surged over 221% in the past five years.

Lithium prices have broken all kinds of records this year, driven by soaring global demand. In China, a tonne of lithium carbonate is trading for $75,000 right nowa 13X increase in only two years.

Rare Earth stocks are hotter than ever and have the potential to get even hotter following the White House's recent announcement of $3 billion in federal funds to boost domestic EV battery output and the minerals that make it happen.



Tantalum, too, is soaring, riding the lithium wave as another important component of the lithium-ion battery. Where lithium goes, tantalum follows. This is why the United States Department of the Interior included Cesium, Lithium and Tantalum on its list of Critical Metals.

Then we have Cesium, one of the rarest metals on Earth, and one of only two metals in the world that are liquid at room temperature (the other is mercury).

A variety of forms of Cesium are used in everything from oil and gas drilling, photoelectric cells, advanced optics and fuel cells to polymer solar cells, analytical chemistry and nuclear medicine. In the entire world, there are only three pegmatite mines that produce Cesium, advancing this rarity beyond the "critical".

What we have here now is another rare occurrence: A small, undervalued company with all three of these critical minerals and a recent intercept of high-grade Cesium that significantly sweetens the lithium deal and advances de-risking of an exciting Canadian mining play.



Power Metals Corp (PWM, PWRMF) is sitting on prime exploration territory for lithium and tantalum on its Case Lake property in NE Ontario, one of Canada's largest mineral-producing provinces by value.

Proving Up Lithium With a Second Act in Cesium

Power Metals managed to attract top lithium institutional investors when they started out in 2018. That $5.45 million in initial raises helped fund some serious drilling to impressive results.

As far as lithium venues go, Case Lake has some significant advantages overall. It's in the Abitibi Greenstone Beltthe gold-mine superstar. And it's got the infrastructure to access it all with ease, including roads and rail, which translates into major cost savings and a huge logistics advantage.

In 2018 alone, Power Metals drilled over 13,000 meters, making significant high-grade lithium discoveries at Case Lake. But that wasn't all it discovered It also made tantalum discoveries and  unexpectedly, rare cesium.

The Key Differential

There are several things that differentiate Power Metals from any other hard-rock lithium company in a very crowded playing field right now. The biggest differential is that it is sitting not only on lithium and tantalum, but on exceedingly rare cesium.

Last week, on November 3rd, Power Metals was advised that the Canadian Federal Government has ordered that Sinomine divest itself of its past and ongoing investments in the Company. The order was made on national security grounds by virtue of the strategic importance of Power Metals' Case Lake lithium, cesium and tantalum deposits and Sinomine's alleged relationship with the Government of the People's Republic of China. The Company is reviewing the matter with legal counsel, Sinomine and the federal authorities with a view to advancing development of the Case Lake Project by whatever means necessary.

Johnathan More, Chairman & CEO of Power Metals stated in the November 3rd, 2022 press release, "While we are surprised by Canada's stance towards Chinese investment into Canada's critical minerals industry, it clearly shows that they see the opportunity and assets of Power Metals as too valuable for such foreign investment. Power Metals has made a substantial discovery of cesium, lithium and tantalum and this political gamesmanship demonstrates the extreme value of Power Metals assets. Sinomine will respond to the Canadian government shortly as they look at the appeal process."

Why did the cesium intersection bring an instant $1.5 million to Power Metals coffers?

Cesium is one of only two metals in the world that are liquid at room temperature. The other is mercury. Because Cesium is easily oxidized, it is not found in nature in its elemental state, rather as Cesium oxide.

Cesium formate brines are used in oil and gas drilling, acting as a heavy mud for high pressure, high temperature offshore oil drilling operations to lubricate drill bits and prevent blowouts.



The U.S. government's 2022 list of critical minerals includes Cesium, which it describes as a key to advanced research and development.



While the 2018 cesium intersection put Power Metals (PWM, PWRMF) on the radar and won it $1.5 million in investment, it's most recent intersection in October is even more significant due to the high-grade results that go a long way to proving up the deposit and de-risking the play.

Lithium Majors Are Picking Up Steam

Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) has been one of North America's most important and successful pure-play lithium companies since they first began operations in Argentina over thirty years ago, with two world class projects that are well positioned to ride the wave of growing demand for this valuable metal hitched onto today's modern technologies like electric cars.

It's not ignoring the growing demand from investors for responsible and sustainable mining, either. In fact, one of its primary goals is to create a positive impact on society and the environment through its projects. This includes cleaner mining tech, strong workplace safety practices, a range of opportunities for employees, and strong relationships with local governments to ensure that not only are its employees being taken care of, but locals as well.

Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (TRQ) is a key player in Canada's resource and mineral industry. It is a major producer of coal and zinc, two resources with distinctly different futures. While headlines are already touting the end of coal, zinc is a mineral that will play a key role in the future of energy for years and years to come.

In addition to its zinc operations, Turquoise Hill is also increasing its copper footprint. In fact, it recently announced that it will be expanding one of the world's largest copper mines.

Teck Resources (TECK) could be one of the best-diversified miners on the market, with a broad portfolio of Copper, Zinc, Energy, Gold, Silver and Molybdenum assets. It's even involved in the oil scene! With its free cash flow and a lower volatility outlook for base metals in combination with a growing push for copper and zinc to create batteries, Teck could emerge as one of the year's most exciting miners.

Recently, Teck Resources received regulatory approval for a share buyback scheme, suggesting that the company sees its stock price as undervalued. The program says that the company will be able to purchase up to 40 million Class B shares over the next year.

The two biggest lithium producers, Albemarle Corporation (ALB) and SQM, have recently announced expansion projects and long-term supply deals as they believe the EV revolution and the energy transition are just beginning.

The biggest lithium producers are preparing for the growing EV demand, which is now coming not only from Tesla and Chinese start-ups, but also from established carmakers such as the highest-selling U.S. automaker GM and Jaguar.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM) signed in December a long-term supply deal with LG Energy Solution, which in turn supplies batteries to carmakers such as Tesla and GM. Under the deal, SQM will supply battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide to LG Energy Solution between 2021 and 2029.

The Chilean firm also announced a capital increase of up to US$1.1 billion, most of which will be used for lithium carbonate expansion in Chile, where SQM plans to more than double its production. Sociedad Quimica y Minera sees the lithium industry growing at around 20 percent per year in the long term, supported by rising EV sales and emission reduction goals from China to the United States.

Global Investment Daily and its owners, managers, employees, and assigns (collectively "the Publisher") is often paid by one or more of the profiled companies or a third party to disseminate these types of communications. In this case, the Publisher has been compensated by Power Metals Corp (PWM) (PWRMF) to conduct investor awareness advertising and marketing. Power Metals paid the Publisher to produce and disseminate this article and related banner ads for one hundred five thousand dollars. This compensation should be viewed as a major conflict with our ability to be unbiased.

Readers should beware that third parties, profiled companies, and/or their affiliates may liquidate shares of the profiled companies at any time, including at or near the time you receive this communication, which has the potential to hurt share prices. Frequently companies profiled in our articles experience a large increase in volume and share price during the course of investor awareness marketing, which often ends as soon as the investor awareness marketing ceases. The investor awareness marketing may be as brief as one day, after which a large decrease in volume and share price may likely occur.

This communication is not, and should not be construed to be, an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Neither this communication nor the Publisher purport to provide a complete analysis of any company or its financial position. The Publisher is not, and does not purport to be, a broker-dealer or registered investment adviser. This communication is not, and should not be construed to be, personalized investment advice directed to or appropriate for any particular investor. Any investment should be made only after consulting a professional investment advisor and only after reviewing the financial statements and other pertinent corporate information about the company. Further, readers are advised to read and carefully consider the Risk Factors identified and discussed in the advertised company's SEC, SEDAR and/or other government filings. Investing in securities, particularly microcap securities, is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This communication is based on information generally available to the public and on interviews with company management, and does not (to the Publisher's knowledge, as confirmed by Power Metals) contain any material, non-public information. The information on which it is based is believed to be reliable. Nevertheless, the Publisher cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information.

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LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) will be presenting on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, at the 2022 Stephens Investment Conference to be held in Nashville, Tennessee.

The presentation will be webcast live, beginning at 8:00 am CT, on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. Listeners can access the audio webcast on the Greenbrier website at www.gbrx.com. To register for or listen to the webcast, access the investors tab shown on the home page of the Greenbrier website and click on the events page. The webcast will be archived for 90 days.

About Greenbrier

Greenbrier, headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is a leading international supplier of equipment and services to global freight transportation markets. Through its wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures, Greenbrier designs, builds and markets freight railcars and marine barges in North America, Europe and Brazil. We are a leading provider of freight railcar wheel services, parts, maintenance and retrofitting services in North America through our maintenance services business unit. Greenbrier manages 408,000 railcars and offers railcar management, regulatory compliance services and leasing services to railroads and other railcars owners in North America. GBX Leasing (GBXL) is a special purpose subsidiary that owns and manages a portfolio of leased railcars that originate primarily from Greenbrier's manufacturing operations. GBXL and Greenbrier own a lease fleet of approximately 12,200 railcars. Learn more about Greenbrier at www.gbrx.com.

SOURCE The Greenbrier Companies, Inc.
NOIDA, India, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report published by UnivDatos Markets Insights, the HoReCa Market was valued at USD 3 trillion in 2020 and is expected to witness a significant CAGR of around 3% during 2021-2027. The analysis has been segmented into Service (Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes & Pubs); Category Type (Single Outlet, HoReCa Chain); Region/Country.

Click here to view the Report Description & TOC

https://univdatos.com/horeca-market/

The HoReCa market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data on various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the HoReCa market. The HoReCa market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the HoReCa market at the global and regional levels.

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Market Overview

The HoReCa channel is the set of commercial catering food establishments whose main activity is the production and sale of direct out-of-home consumption of food. Saving possible types of specific establishments, it fundamentally encompasses the subsectors that make up the acronym: hotels, restaurants, and catering.

A rise in tourism across the globe is one of the prominent factors, which is driving the market for HoReCa. As per the World Bank, the number of international tourists reached 2.28 billion in 2019, up from 1.96 billion in 2015. Moreover, the expenditure by international tourism reached 6.1% of total imports, up from 5.6% of the total; imports. According to the World Bank, the number of international departures more than doubled between 1997 and 2017, from 687 million to 1.57 billion per annum. Moreover, the number of hotel rooms globally had risen by 17.7% since 2008 to 17 million in 2018. These rooms were in more than 184,000 hotels, a rise of 8.4% from 2008 levels. The fact that the rate of expansion in the number of rooms is more than double the rate of expansion of hotels indicates that the average hotel size has been growing.

Some of the major players operating in the market include Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Amazon.com Inc., SAP SE, PTC Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Google LLC, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Robert Bosch GmbH, and Oracle Corporation.

COVID-19 Impact

The outbreak of Covid-19 significantly impacted the market size of HoReCa in 2020. It intensified the need to invest in IoT infrastructure and solutions to boost the productivity and efficiency of various industries. The demand for improving processes, enhancing production efficiency and quality, and helping to introduce greater flexibility into the business are further impacting the HoReCa market.

The global HoReCa market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on service type, the hotel segment gathered a major market share of the HoReCa in 2020. The market of this segment is expected to witness robust growth due to the growing number of commercial spaces including hotels and restaurants. However, cafes and pubs are expected to witness exponential growth during the forecast period owing to their growing popularity in the millenniums.

On the basis of category Type, the HoReCa chain segment grabbed a considerable market in 2020. The key factors attributed to the growing share of this segment are the growing partying culture among young consumers. This immense growth is led by the top 10 largest fast-food chains in the world consistently increasing revenues and market performance with stellar sales of their products. Starbucks, McDonald's, Subway, Yum China , etc. are the leading fast-food chains, in terms of revenue globally.

Have a Look at the Chapters- https://univdatos.com/horeca-market/

HoReCa Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America ( United States , Canada , and the Rest of North America )

( , , and the Rest of ) Europe ( Germany , United Kingdom , Spain , Italy , France , and the Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , and the Rest of ) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan , India , and the Rest of Asia-Pacific )

(China, , , and the Rest of ) Rest of the World

North America held a prominent share of the market and is further expected to grow at an influential growth rate. This is mainly due to the rise on account of growth in the commercial and hospitality sector. As per a renowned management consulting firm, from 2009 to 2017, US hotel gross bookings grew from US$116 billion to US$185 billion. Moreover, the restaurant industry grew by 4.4% whereas the hotels' industry grew by 6% during 2009-17.

The major players targeting the market include

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Marriott International, Inc.

InterContinental Hotels Group plc

Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC

McDonald's Corporation

Yum! Brands, Inc.

Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Inspire Brands, Inc

The Coca-Cola Company (Costa Coffee)

Competitive Landscape

The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the HoReCa Market. The major players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition.

Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include:

What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the HoReCa market?

Which factors are influencing the HoReCa market over the forecast period?

What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the HoReCa market?

Which factors are propelling and restraining the HoReCa market?

What are the demanding global regions of the HoReCa market?

What will be the global market size in the upcoming years?

What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies?

We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs.

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HoReCa Market Report Coverage

Report Attribute Details Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2028 Growth momentum Accelerate at a CAGR of 3% Market size 2020 USD 3 trillion Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Rest of World Major contributing region North America to Dominate the Global HoReCa Market Key countries covered United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Singapore Companies profiled Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Marriott International, Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group plc, Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC, McDonald's Corporation, Yum! Brands, Inc., Restaurant Brands International Inc., Inspire Brands, Inc, The Coca-Cola Company (Costa Coffee) Report Scope Market Trends, Drivers, and Restraints; Revenue Estimation and Forecast; Segmentation Analysis; Impact of COVID-19; Demand and Supply Side Analysis; Competitive Landscape; Company Profiling Segments Covered By Service Type; By Category Type; By Region/Country

About UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI)

UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients.

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SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd.
REXBURG, Idaho, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HCP, the leading provider of experience management, training, and reputation management, launched its Customer Advisory Board, bringing together over 20 of the top leaders and partners in the care industry to receive strategic insights from customers regarding the status of HCP's product, emerging industry trends, and direction of the company.

The Customer Advisory Board will be a voice for the industry, comprised of agencies and professionals who have achieved outstanding results with HCP's Experience Management, Training, and Reputation Management solutions. Through its Board, HCP will continue to enable providers to become the best employer and provider in their area.

HCP launched its Customer Advisory Board to receive strategic insights from leaders and partners in the care industry. Tweet this

New Board members include: Laura Shaw de-Bruin, Norwood Seniors Network; Samantha Franklin, Hospice of Arkansas; Katy Sperl, Androscoggin; Laura Quinn, Right at Home; Wyatt Godfrey, Right at Home; Shannon Mitchell, Right at Home; Emily Undajon, Right at Home; Zack Woods, Brightstar Care; Brett Ringold, A Long Term Companion; Nora Triola, BAYADA; Brittney Schauss, Heritage Hospice; Jake Rankin, Talem Home Care; Karen Schacht, Jaybird Senior Living; Kaylee Neegaard, Jaybird Senior Living; Sara Kelinek, Jaybird Senior Living; Ethan Guerrieri, Preferred Care at Home; Cyril Vergis, Arosa; Jenelle Schneider, Home Helpers; Nicole Wilson, Synergy; Ally Waters, FirstLight; Aaron Sinykin, Devoted Guardians; John Ball, Outreach Health.

"To continue offering cutting-edge solutions to the industry, we need strategic focus from customers to dig deeper into industry's biggest challenges," said Brian Zeichick, Chief Product Officer at HCP. "Post-acute care is a dynamic industry, and the more we learn from our customers, the more we can adapt our solutions to meet their needs."

"It's an honor to be a member of Home Care Pulse's Customer Advisory Board," said Brett Ringold, Vice President of A Long Term Companion. "Home Care Pulse has been so vital to our agency's success, and we could not imagine operating A Long Term Companion without the insights and feedback that we receive from them. From surveys to benchmarking, training and beyond, I truly believe that Home Care Pulse is raising the standard of care in our industry, and I'm excited to contribute as a member of the Customer Advisory Board."

The Customer Advisory Board will meet quarterly to discuss current industry findings and opportunities.

"The initiation of our Customer Advisory Board is a significant milestone toward industry unity," said Todd Austin, President of HCP. "In making any business decision, the first and most important step is listening to our customers: their needs, wants, expectations, and more. HCP's Customer Advisory Board will transform the way we approach new products, features, and messaging, and will substantially improve the business operations of those we serve."

About HCP

HCP leads the home-based care industry in experience management, training, and reputation management. Through its Care Intelligence Platform HCP empowers providers in home care, home health, and hospice to attract and retain employees during workforce shortages. HCP also conducts the annual Benchmarking Report, the most comprehensive survey of providers in North America, and administers Best of Home Care awards to agencies that achieve best-in-class satisfaction scores. For more information, visit https://www.homecarepulse.com/

Media Contact

Megan Kujawa  [email protected]

SOURCE Home Care Pulse
Hertz pilot Ravin's AI visual inspection technology to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction

TEL AVIV, Israel and STOCKHOLM, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ravin AI, a leader in AI-powered visual inspection across the fleet, rental, used car and insurance industries, announced today that its artificial intelligence technology is being piloted by Hertz (HTZ), one of the world's largest car rental brands, in Sweden and Norway. This partnership will improve inspection efficiency, objectivity and standardization across Hertz's operations, as well as improving customer experience.



Manual vehicle inspections have, until now, been a slow and painful process for the customer. Ravin AI's technology produces a condition report, more reliable than the human eye, that can be generated in seconds, saving customers this hassle. Ravin's AI vehicle inspection tool leverages mobile phone cameras, as well as CCTV footage, to create a highly accurate 360 scan of a vehicle, using deep learning algorithms and car model data to assess its condition.

"We've tested different technologies that focus on automation and vehicle inspection, and Ravin AI has proven to be a very competent system in the inspection scope. We are very excited and hope to be able to roll out this new technology for our customers in the future," said Daniel Edman, Project Lead at Hertz Sweden.

"We're delighted to be partnering with a leading, forward-thinking brand like Hertz. Vehicle inspections are a critical part of the car rental operational life-cycle, and Ravin's tools will bring cutting edge technology to support multiple inspection points through that journey," said Neil Alliston, EVP Commercial at Ravin AI.

About Ravin AI

Ravin AI is an international provider of automated artificial intelligence solutions for vehicle inspections serving diverse fleet, insurance, and remarketing customers around the world. Unlike other marketplace solutions, Ravin does not require its customers to purchase or install dedicated hardware but rather uses mobile and CCTV cameras. Ravin AI was founded in 2018 by Eliron Ekstein and Roman Sandler, and has raised $30M to date from investors including KAR Global (owner of ADESA auctions, AutoVIN inspection and more), PICO Venture Partners, FM Capital, and Shell Ventures. Strategic partners include Toyota Financial. For more information, visit Ravin.ai.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1761865/Ravin_AI_Logo.jpg

Media Contact

Eli Cohen-Gold

GK for Ravin AI

[email protected]

SOURCE Ravin AI
PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hourly.io , a fast-growing workers' comp and payroll startup, announced today that it is expanding its reach through its collaboration with Cincinnati-based Great American Insurance Group.

In this expanded collaboration, Hourly will serve as a Managing General Agent (MGA), leveraging its underwriting expertise and unique workers' compensation and payroll technology with Great American's well-established reputation. Established in 2018, Hourly offers a full-service platform that connects workers' comp, time tracking, and payroll in real-time for small and medium-sized business owners with hourly workers, an innovation that ensures premiums are calculated accurately using real-time data analytics. Hourly is the only company in the industry to bridge the gap between workers' comp, payroll, and time and attendance.

"Collaborating with Great American Insurance Group was the clear choice when deciding how we will expand and develop new business in our next phase of growth," said Hourly Co-founder and CEO Tom Sagi. "Great American is the perfect match for Hourly's next stage of evolution. We're excited to align with them and help small businesses gain better insights into their exact labor costs and provide them with better tools to manage those costs, including workers' comp premiums."

As a longstanding player in the insurance industry, Great American Insurance Group's roots go back to 1872 with the founding of its flagship company, Great American Insurance Company. The company provides insurance products and services aimed primarily at the property and casualty insurance markets and focuses on specialty commercial products for businesses. The relationship will bring together Hourly's leading-edge technology and Great American's established credibility to better meet the needs of more clients.

"We're excited to build on our collaboration with Hourly," said Richard Suter, Divisional President, Great American Alternative Markets. "Both Hourly and Great American Insurance Group share the same commitment to helping these businesses protect their employees. We are impressed with the cutting-edge technology Hourly will bring to Great American and the team's first-rate underwriting abilities."

In October 2022, Hourly announced that it expanded its $27M Series A to $32M . The Series A was led by Glilot Capital Partners with participation from S Capital , Vintage Investment Partners , J-Ventures , Upshot Ventures , MS&AD , and Sienna VC .

Teh Chen, Hourly's Chief Revenue Officer said, "The workers' comp industry is ripe for innovation and disruptionand I'm excited to leverage technology to simplify workers' comp for employers, help prevent injuries for employees, and outperform the market. Our expanded collaboration with Great American are big steps in making insurance more accessible and affordable for businesses across the country."

About Hourly.io

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Hourly.io is an insurtech startup offering workers' comp insurance and full-service payroll for small and medium businesses with hourly workers. Powered by real-time data, Hourly's platform ensures running payroll is as quick as pressing a button and that you get accurate workers' comp premiums down to the penny. For more information, visit www.hourly.io .

Great American Insurance Group's roots go back to 1872 with the founding of its flagship company, Great American Insurance Company. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the operations of Great American Insurance Group are engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance, focusing on specialized commercial products for businesses. Great American Insurance Company has received an "A" (Excellent) or higher rating from the A.M. Best Company for more than 110 years (most recent rating evaluation of "A+" (Superior) affirmed December 3, 2021). The members of Great American Insurance Group are subsidiaries of American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG), also based in Cincinnati, Ohio. AFG's common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFG. Policies are underwritten by Great American Insurance Company, Great American Alliance Insurance Company, Great American Assurance Company and Great American Insurance Company of New York, authorized insurers in all 50 states and the DC., 301 E. Fourth St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

Media Contacts

Hourly.io

Courtney Brach

Sr. PR Manager

[email protected]

(650) 297-4910

Great American Insurance Group

Jennifer Guidry

Divisional Vice President  Business Development and Marketing

[email protected]

(860) 683-4802

SOURCE Hourly, Inc.
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is proud to announce its 25th Annual Cheers Awards winners. The awards ceremony for this landmark anniversary year will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at Stoney's Rockin' Country in Las Vegas, NV. The ISMP Cheers Awards honor individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events; for more information, visit: https://www.ismp.org/cheers-awards.

The winners of this year's awards are:

Demonstrating a standard of excellence in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events Tweet this

Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, CA

Sharp HealthCare's Performance Improvement team is receiving a Cheers Award for developing innovative solutions to reduce the risk of patient harm when infusing non-cytotoxic vesicant/irritant medications via peripheral intravenous (IV) lines. The multidisciplinary team identified areas for improvement and developed guidelines to standardize processes and support safe administration. They also capitalized on the use of technology by building rules, enhancing IV site change documentation, and providing tools at the point of care to ensure staff awareness of appropriate interventions during administration. The team, which consists of pharmacists, physicians, nurses, information specialists, and vascular access specialists, was able to significantly reduce the number of extravasation events after just one year.





Sharp HealthCare's Performance Improvement team is receiving a Cheers Award for developing innovative solutions to reduce the risk of patient harm when infusing non-cytotoxic vesicant/irritant medications via peripheral intravenous (IV) lines. The multidisciplinary team identified areas for improvement and developed guidelines to standardize processes and support safe administration. They also capitalized on the use of technology by building rules, enhancing IV site change documentation, and providing tools at the point of care to ensure staff awareness of appropriate interventions during administration. The team, which consists of pharmacists, physicians, nurses, information specialists, and vascular access specialists, was able to significantly reduce the number of extravasation events after just one year. Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan

Shifa International Hospital is being honored for implementing camera assisted verification for chemotherapy admixture services with limited resources. In order to follow ISMP's Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals, the pharmacy services team wanted to ensure that the proper ingredients and amount of each were confirmed prior to being added to the final chemotherapy IV bag. The team put into place an affordable, workable solution that did not put additional financial strain on the hospital. With support from leadership, the project was funded for a total of approximately $915 US dollars. Shifa International Hospital's successful initiative serves as an example of what healthcare organizations that cannot afford advanced technology such as gravimetric analysis equipment, barcode and robotic applications, and IV workflow software can accomplish to prevent errors.

The George DiDomizio Award was established in 2012 in memory of a late ISMP Board member who advocated for greater cooperation between the medical industry and the broader healthcare community to promote safer drug products. The award is being given this year to Vitalis, a pharmaceutical company based in Colombia, for its dedication to designing safer labels and packages for their medications, despite the fact that it is not mandatory at the regulatory level in Latin America. After recognizing potential safety issues with their injectable medications, Vitalis reached out to several organizations, including ISMP, for guidance. As a result, new labels were designed that include several strategies: color differentiation between products and strengths, white background to improve contrast, and more legible text with vertical orientation that can easily be read without having to turn the ampule. Dangerous abbreviations have been removed and tall man lettering is utilized where appropriate. These changes were also incorporated into labeling on the medication packaging and vials, and today these products are being distributed in several countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Panama, and Costa Rica.

The ISMP Lifetime Achievement Award is being presented to Michael R. Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD (hon.), DPS (hon.), FASHP, for his invaluable leadership and advocacy in the field of medication safety. Mike is the President Emeritus and co-founder of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and has dedicated his long career to advocating for medication error prevention. Mike's passion for medication safety began in 1974 when he was alerted to a serious adverse event with insulin at a local hospital and immediately saw the value in sharing the story to prevent the same error from occurring again. He founded ISMP in 1994 and launched the first of the ISMP Medication Safety Alert! publications in 1996. Those newsletters now reach over a million health professionals in the US and over 30 foreign countries. Mike and his colleagues at ISMP have been instrumental in bringing about countless changes in clinical practice, public policy, and drug labeling and packaging that have impacted millions of patients and healthcare professionals. Mike is the co-founder and longtime Chairperson of the International Medication Safety Network (IMSN), and a former member of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee. He currently serves as co-chair of the Nomenclature and Labeling Expert Committee of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). His many awards and honors include receiving the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award from the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission and being recognized as a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Mike will also be the keynote speaker for the 25th annual Cheers Awards.

Journalists who wish to attend the awards ceremony should contact Renee Brehio at [email protected].

About the Institute for Safe Medication Practices

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is the nation's first 501c (3) nonprofit organization devoted entirely to preventing medication errors. ISMP is known and respected for its medication safety information. For more than 25 years, it also has served as a vital force for progress. ISMP's advocacy work alone has resulted in numerous necessary changes in clinical practice, public policy, and drug labeling and packaging. Among its many initiatives, ISMP runs the only national voluntary practitioner medication error reporting program, publishes newsletters with real-time error information read and trusted throughout the global healthcare community, and offers a wide range of unique educational programs, tools, and guidelines. In 2020, ISMP formally affiliated with ECRI to create one of the largest healthcare quality and safety entities in the world, and ECRI and the ISMP PSO is a federally certified patient safety organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As an independent watchdog organization, ISMP receives no advertising revenue and depends entirely on charitable donations, educational grants, newsletter subscriptions, and volunteer efforts to pursue its life-saving work. Visit www.ismp.org and follow @ismp_org to learn more.

SOURCE Institute for Safe Medication Practices
FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Patriot Growth Insurance Services, LLC (Patriot) announces Jorge Martinez has recently joined the firm as the Vice President of Carrier and Wholesale Relationships. Martinez will work closely with Patriot's Carrier Administration team and partner agencies.

In this newly created role, Martinez is responsible for developing and maintaining key insurance company and wholesale relationships. This includes maximizing current relationships and exploring new opportunities, representing the best interests of Patriot's partner agencies and clients. He will also conduct in-depth business reviews utilizing Patriot's data optimization strategy to gather business insights to identify new opportunities for clients with key carrier partners. Martinez has 15 years of insurance industry experience.

"I'm excited to be part of the Patriot team, and I look forward to making a positive impact," said Jorge Martinez, Vice President of Carrier Relations at Patriot. "I have experience working on the carrier and agency sides of the business, so I feel uniquely qualified and prepared for this role. Patriot has a very collaborative model, and I look forward to working with the team."

Prior to joining Patriot, Martinez was the Senior Vice President of Carrier Relations at ISU Insurance Agency Network. He was responsible for reporting, managing, and optimizing a $1.7 Billion portfolio of written premiums.

"I am thrilled Jorge joined Patriot because I'm confident he will make a meaningful contribution in this important role," said Patrick Savage, Senior Vice President of Operations at Patriot. "As Patriot continues to grow at an accelerated pace, Jorge's background is ideal to build upon the strong carrier relationships we have already established and to help our agency partners maximize those relationships."

About Patriot Growth Insurance Services

Founded in 2019, Patriot is a growth-focused national insurance services firm that partners with employee benefits and property & casualty agencies across the United States. Patriot is ranked as the 35th largest broker in the U.S. by Business Insurance. With over 1,600 employees operating in 125 locations across 24 states, Patriot's collaborative model delivers resources and strategic support to its agencies, whose leaders continue to operate with a high degree of autonomy in their local markets. Patriot creates true alignment with its partner agencies, and its operating philosophy fosters enhanced career opportunities for its dedicated and professional team. Patriot is backed by GI Partners and Summit Partners. For more information, please visit www.patriotgis.com.

Media Contact :

Tammy Cameron

[email protected]

SOURCE Patriot Growth Insurance Services
CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Journera, recognized as one of the World's 10 Most Innovative Travel Companies by Fast Company and a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, today announced that travel industry veteran Tim Knowling is joining the company as Senior Vice President, Business Development.

Tim Knowling, SVP Business Development at Journera

Tim joins Journera with two decades of experience in the travel industry, starting with American Airlines. He later spent more than a decade with Kayak, where he rose to SVP, Global Business Development and SVP, Strategic Partnerships. Tim most recently served as EVP, Commercial for Futurestay, an award-winning operating system for short-term rentals.

This is a newly created position for Journera in response to the growth of the company's real-time, first-party data platform. In the new role, Tim will work with major enterprise customers to both securely publish their data to the Journera platform as well as to realize the benefits as a 'subscriber' to better target their marketing spend, engage with their high-value customers, and create better travel experiences that grow loyalty and revenue. Tim will report to Scott Garner, Chief Revenue Officer.

"Tim is an expert at managing complex customer relationships with leading travel brands," said Scott Garner, Chief Revenue Officer, Journera. "We work in an industry that not only has a strong appetite for innovation, but also has multi-layered stakeholders who need to be involved to move that innovation forward. With his two decades of experience from across travel verticals, he will be able to help our customers drive more innovation and growth."

Journera brings together data from throughout the travel journey to open up new possibilities for travelers and travel companies  from identifying potential customers who are planning journeys, better anticipating their needs throughout the whole journey, and offering new services and experiences based on travelers' real-time needs.

Journera's commercial partners include United Airlines, American Airlines, Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation and many others. Together, these travel companies account for nearly 50 percent of all travel in the U.S. For more information about Journera, visit www.journera.com.

About Journera

Journera is a technology company that provides a secure, real-time data exchange for creating more seamless travel journeys. Through its platform, Journera creates a complete view of the traveler's journey in real-time, enabling travel-related companies to create better travel experiences that drive increased loyalty and direct engagement with customers. Journera was recognized as a 2021 'World's Most Innovative Company' by Fast Company. For more information, visit www.journera.com.

Media Contact:

Journera Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Journera
Former Obama Administration EPA and DoD aide joins climate risk intelligence software company with a first-of-its-kind built-environment value proposition.

BOSTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ClimaTwin welcomes Kevin as Senior Advisor  Public Policy, Partnerships, and Communications. Mr. Samy joins ClimaTwin after having served in the Obama Administration as a Senior Climate Policy and Communications Advisor in multiple posts including: on the White House climate team, at the Pentagon as speechwriter and advisor to the Secretary of Defense, at the US Department of Energy as Special Assistant to the Energy Secretary, and at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Chief Speechwriter and advisor to then-Administrator Gina McCarthy. Mr. Samy also brings extensive experience in the private sector, including in electric mobility and early/growth stage climate tech.

"Kevin is a generational leader in climate tech and policy," said Adam Omansky, Co-founder & CEO of ClimaTwin. "Understanding climate risk for infrastructure assets is an immediate and critical must-have for engineers, owner-operators, and governments alike  the built environment lacks hyper-local insights to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle, from planning and design through to operations and maintenance. We are excited that Kevin is joining our leadership team, bringing his decade-plus expertise to support our public and private partnerships, policy, and communications."

Mr. Samy is a Climate and Energy fellow at the Truman National Security Project.

ClimaTwin's rapid development required a senior leader to guide its communications team. Mr. Samy will lead these efforts and shepherd key partners through identifying infrastructure hazards, vulnerabilities, risks, and respective mitigation programs.

Mr. Samy received his graduate degree from Yale's School for the Environment and his undergraduate degree from Miami University.

About ClimaTwin

ClimaTwin is a leading climate risk intelligence solution for infrastructure assets and the built environment.

We empower infrastructure stakeholders to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle. By connecting complex climate models and infrastructure digital twins, our solution enables engineers, owner-operators, and governments to aggregate, visualize, and analyze disparate datasets, revealing site-specific insights at the hyper-local scale of assets. Benefits include 5-10x near-term returns and lifetime cost-avoidance by mitigating risks to systems, services, and societies.

To learn more about climate risk intelligence for your infrastructure assets, please visit https://climatwin.com today.

SOURCE ClimaTwin Corp.
The growing Southeast home services company expands into the Kentucky market

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leap Partners, a home services company with HVAC and plumbing businesses across the Southeast, recently expanded into the Kentucky market through its acquisition of Hornback Plumbing. In addition to Hornback Plumbing, based in Elizabethtown, Ky., Leap Partners' growing business portfolio currently includes companies located in Alabama and Tennessee.

"Over the course of nearly 20 years, Hornback Plumbing has built its brand on quality, reliable service," Leap Partners CEO John Cerasuolo said. "Leap Partners is thrilled to have the opportunity to help Hornback take its services to a new level, and we are actively looking for more companies to join our expanding network."

Under its new ownership, the Elizabethtown plumbing company will still operate as Hornback Plumbing, and former owners Donnie and Kim Hornback will continue to lead their team.

"Leap Partners was a great company for us to join because they know the importance of helping local businesses like ours grow while continuing to maintain strong ties to the community," Donnie Hornback said. "They will offer us operational support that will help us better serve our customers, employees and community."

Established in 2005, Hornback Plumbing serves Elizabethtown and surrounding communities, including Brandenburg. They offer services in the areas of plumbing and drain cleaning and are available 24/7 for emergency services. They also sell and install water heaters, softeners and filters.

About Leap Partners

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Leap Partners is working to connect the best small and medium-sized HVAC, plumbing and electrical service businesses in the Southeast to build a world-class service provider. The company's family of service businesses currently includes Conditioned Air Solutions (Huntsville, Ala.), Drain Werks (Birmingham, Ala.), George Plumbing (Hartselle, Ala.), Hornback Plumbing (Elizabethtown, Ky.), and Scenic City Heating & AC (Chattanooga, Tenn.). Under Leap Partners' ownership, these businesses are committed to providing industry-leading customer satisfaction and employee engagement. For more information and to read partner testimonials, visit theleappartners.com and theleappartners.com/testimonials.

SOURCE Leap Partners
The acquisition further strengthens LexisNexis intellectual property data and analytics capabilities

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis Legal & Professional, part of RELX, today announced that it has acquired IPlytics, a leading IP intelligence company that enables the analysis of technology landscapes and competition for industries where standards and patents matter by providing access to multiple databases connecting patents, Standard Essential Patents (SEPs), standards, and technical standards contributions. The acquisition extends the vision of LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions to bring clarity to innovation and help companies worldwide to be more effective at bringing meaningful innovations into the world.

IPlytics has developed software providing analysis into the past, present, and future of standards-essential technology with fast, intuitive access to SEPs, standards contributions, and standards documents. The IPlytics Platform enables users to align SEP patent portfolio strategy and continuous portfolio development as it relates to SEP assets, to understand the SEP competitive landscape, and to support initiatives such as licensing, acquisitions, due diligence, and analysis of whether to join patent pools. The Berlin-founded company has also developed algorithms to predict the essentiality of patent claims and standards sections and a patent portfolio's value for standardized technologies.

"We are delighted to welcome the IPlytics team to LexisNexis," said LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions President Andrew Matuch. "IPlytics is seen as the gold standard for Standard Essential Patents and standard contributions in the IP community. The combination of LexisNexis and IPlytics will bring high quality, business-critical standards-related insights to our customers worldwide that support better decision-making."

After the acquisition, IPlytics platform will become part of the LexisNexis Intellectual Property workflow and analytics solutions portfolio. Selected IPlytics data will also become available within LexisNexis PatentSight, the LexisNexis flagship IP Analytics Solution, enabling companies to answer critical questions related to essential assets, patent pool initiatives, standards development, or simply tracking their competition.

"It is with great enthusiasm that we join forces with LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions," said Tim Pohlmann, Founder and CEO of IPlytics. "When we began discussions with LexisNexis, we immediately saw the huge potential to jointly drive innovation. At our core, we want to transform the future of market intelligence through better data and analytics and radically change how companies interact with business-critical information. This collaboration allows us to realize this vision."

To learn more about LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions, please visit lexisnexisip.com.

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional:

LexisNexis Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of legal, regulatory and business information and analytics that helps customers increase productivity, improve decision-making and outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis and Nexis services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 10,500 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions

LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions brings clarity to innovation for businesses worldwide. We enable innovators to accomplish more by helping them make informed decisions, be more productive, comply with regulations and ultimately achieve a competitive advantage for their business. Our suite of workflow and analytics solutions (LexisNexis IP DataDirect, LexisNexis PatentAdvisor, LexisNexis PatentOptimizer, LexisNexis PatentSight and LexisNexis TotalPatent One) enables companies to be more efficient and effective at bringing meaningful innovations to our world. We are proud to directly support and serve these innovators in their endeavors to better humankind.

About RELX

RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs over 30,000 people, of whom almost half are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. The market capitalisation is approximately 38.2bn, 42.3bn, $47.5bn.

About IPlytics

IPlytics was founded in 2014 by Tim Pohlmann and a team of economists, data scientists and data engineers. Born out of Pohlmann's PhD theses about the statistical analysis of standard essential patents (SEPs), the IPlytics team combined its knowledge about patent valuation methods, Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence to develop the intellectual property intelligence solution IPlytics Platform. IPlytics is Berlin headquartered and has a presence in the US, Japan, South Korea and China.

Media Contact

Jessica Morel

CMO, Intellectual Property Solutions

LexisNexis

[email protected]

+1 267-965-1334

SOURCE LexisNexis
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Victorious Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their son Heydar Aliyev have attended an event organized on the occasion of the Victory Day in Shusha.

The head of state made a speech in front of the servicemen.

Speech by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear servicemen.

I congratulate you and all the people of Azerbaijan on Victory Day.

First of all, may I ask that we remember the dear memory of our martyrs who died for the Motherland with a minute of silence.

x x x

A minute of silence was observed in memory of the martyrs.

x x x

President Ilham Aliyev: May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs in peace.

By liberating the impregnable fortress of Shusha from Armenian occupation two years ago, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan wrote a glorious page in our history. This glorious history will stay with us forever. The people of Azerbaijan and future generations will be rightly proud of this glorious Victory.

Shusha is really considered an impregnable fortress. When Shusha was liberated by our heroic soldiers armed only with light weapons, they were prepared to die. They were prepared to die for the Motherland, for our lands. We all understood perfectly well that our complete victory would not be possible without Shusha.

In my numerous interviews during the war, I disclosed some aspects regarding the progress of war. Of course, I could not say everything. I couldn't reveal too many things, especially about future plans. In response to a question, I only said once that our victory would be incomplete without Shusha. I am sure that the people of Azerbaijan understood perfectly well that our ultimate goal, the ultimate goal of the war, was to liberate Shusha from occupation. Not only because Shusha is the crown jewel of Karabakh. Not because the strategic location of Shusha actually determined the outcome of the war after its liberation. I said that because Shusha is the heart and soul of the Azerbaijani people, it is a sacred place for every Azerbaijani. Every time I am in Shusha  I have been to Shusha more than 10 times in the last two years  every time I approach Shusha along Victory Road, I am sure that everyone can see the heroism, dedication and professionalism of our soldiers. Because the road we call Victory Road was built only two years ago. Our heroic children have covered this long distance through mountains, forests, valleys and paths, defeated the enemy in bloody battles and approached Shusha. After that, they climbed steep rocks, defeated the enemy in street battles, city battles, in hand-to-hand battles armed only with light weapons, expelled them from our land, and hoisted our tricolor flag in Shusha. Only two years have passed since that historic day, and many events have happened in those two years. Over the years, the heroism of our servicemen will become increasingly obvious to everyone.

The road to Shusha began on 27 September. From the first day to the last day of the war, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan only marched forward. They did not take a single step back for 44 consecutive days. However, we know from the military history of the world that in such difficult wars, especially in wars fought in unfavorable natural terrain conditions, there are maneuvers, steps back and unexpected events. However, it was the strong resolve, the love of the Motherland and the professionalism of our soldiers that led us to Victory. When six villages were liberated on 27 September, on the first day of the war, the people of Azerbaijan became even more convinced that we would achieve what we wanted and complete our historic mission.

We only moved forward for 44 days. Prior to Shusha, many of our towns and villages, including Jabrayil, Hadrut, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, Sugovushan, about 300 villages, a part of Lachin and Kalbajar, were liberated on the battlefield. The liberation of Shusha broke the back of the Armenian army. As a matter of fact, Armenia was in panic from the first days of the war. In some cases, it was gripped by panic and hysteria. This is exactly why there were more than 10,000 deserters in the Armenian army, according to their own admission. There was not a single deserter in the Azerbaijan Army. This indicates the high moral qualities of our people. Our soldiers were prepared to die. They fought under the slogan we would rather die than retreat. There wasnt a single deserter. This is true heroism of our people. It goes to show that such a wonderful young generation has grown up, many of whom had never even seen Karabakh and Zangazur. They were approaching this sacred land they had only seen on television and photographs and heard about from their parents and elders. However, they came here and fulfilled the historic mission of our people with dignity.

The road to victory was turbulent and difficult. Defeat in the first Karabakh war had dealt a severe moral blow to our nation. The reasons for that defeat are clear. At that time, anti-national elements seized power, were fighting for power. They practically surrendered the impregnable fortress of Shusha to Armenia, to the Armenians in order to come to power, and this is exactly what happened. The Popular Front-Musavat tandem did come to power one month after Shusha and Lachin were occupied. They came to power on the heels of this tragedy, on the heels bloodshed, national disgrace, and in the one year they stayed in power, they devastated the whole country, instigated a civil war and took their own soldiers prisoner. The lands were being lost, but they engaged in looting and robbery. They mobilized all their efforts to reinforce their power.

In other words, defeat in the first Karabakh war was inevitable. Because an anti-national government cant win the war. Throughout the years of occupation, Armenias official propaganda and the media resources of their patrons attempted to circulate an idea in the world and, at the same time, with the people of Azerbaijan that Azerbaijan could never restore its territorial integrity through war. It would be enough to look at the speeches of representatives of international organizations and officials of countries dealing with this issue. They have said so many times that there is no military solution to this war, to this conflict. First of all, they tried to convince us of that. Secondly, they tried to prevent us from resolving the issue by military means. Of course, we also tried to resolve this issue peacefully, but resolve it. But we saw that the tactic of negotiations was leading to the issue being frozen, and, of course, we could never agree to that.

Finally, the people of Azerbaijan united as a fist and fulfilled their historic mission. The road to war has taken many directions. First of all, we had to equip our army with the necessary weapons and hardware ourselves. A strong economy was also necessary for this. When Azerbaijan regained independence, our financial and economic situation was extremely difficult. Therefore, building a strong economy was considered an important factor in winning the war, and we did that. Our economy has strengthened, we are living at our own expense, we don't need anyone's help, we don't depend on anyone, we are building our own life to the best of our abilities, and we are doing well.

The economic processes, difficulties and crises taking place in different parts of the world show that the economy of Azerbaijan is stable. A country that has come out of such a difficult war has been carrying out large-scale construction work in liberated territories for two years. The financial source of all this work is our state budget. Over the course of the past two years, we have not received a single manat of aid from any country, organization or donor. Of course, if anyone wants to help us, we wouldnt mind. But no-one is helping us, and no-one will. A strong economy is one of the key factors in building an army. We did it, we created it and we completely eliminated economic dependence. If we were economically dependent on anyone, we could not successfully end the war.

At the same time, we had to expose Armenia's policy of aggression. Unfortunately, international media controlled by Armenia, bent politicians, their patrons abroad, the Armenian lobby  they had created an opinion that Azerbaijan is an aggressor. When Azerbaijani lands were occupied, some countries imposed sanctions against us. In other words, we did not actually use our diplomatic opportunities. Therefore, we had to prove to the whole world that we are right, that justice is on our side, that international law is on our side. This is why we were very active at the international level. Leading international organizations such as the UN, the OSCE, the European Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Council of Europe have adopted decisions and resolutions in support of our position, i.e. decisions supporting justice. That created a very important international legal framework.

In parallel with that, we established the relations of close cooperation with many countries in a bilateral format both in our region and on other continents. Nine member states of the EU alone have signed strategic partnership declarations with Azerbaijan. This is a third of the European Union member countries. There are also other countries. So these international relations and the international reputation of Azerbaijan allowed us the opportunity to gain more friends. At the same time, we were able to convey and conveyed the truth of Karabakh and the Armenian occupation to the world community. On the whole, the international attitude towards the 44-day war was positive. It is true that some pro-Armenian countries and countries with close relations with Armenia tried to take some political steps against us. But they failed to produce any result. Because we have secured strong international support over the years. We were elected as chair of the Non-Aligned Movement. Our chairmanship was approved by a unanimous decision. Our chairmanship was extended for another year by a unanimous decision as well. We are talking of an international institution that brings together the greater part of the world community. A total of 120 countries are members of this institution. We have established close relations with Muslim countries and managed to explain to them that Armenia pursues an aggressive policy not only against us, but also against the entire Muslim world. A country destroying mosques cannot be friends with Muslim countries. Can leaders of Muslim countries open their arms to embrace those destroying mosques? Can they hug and kiss them? This is nothing but hypocrisy. This is betrayal. It has no other name. This is why we have isolated Armenia from the key pillars of the Muslim world. It is true that we could not isolate them completely, and there are other reasons for this  hypocrisy, as I said. By and large, however, Armenia has become known in the Muslim world as a country destroying and desecrating mosques, and this was done by us.

We have conducted a very active policy on patriotic issues. Educating the younger generation in the spirit of patriotism was one of the main directions of my policy as President, and we have achieved it. Our young people are patriotic and attached to the Motherland, and the second Karabakh war has demonstrated this. I want to say again that our young people who had never seen Karabakh were prepared to die for Karabakh. They were actually facing death. The ideas of national unity and national solidarity prevailed in our society. At the same time, all the peoples living in Azerbaijan became even more united as a result of the policy I conducted. I have said this many times but I say it again today that we are a big family. All peoples living in Azerbaijan are members of one big family. We are together in good times and in bad times, and this unity is a rare asset worldwide. Take a look at other countries: we see dissatisfaction, conflicts, mistrust on national, religious and ethnic grounds. What do we see in Azerbaijan  unity, brotherhood and friendship! All peoples living in Azerbaijan were prepared to die for Karabakh. This is a tremendous asset. We must always protect and strengthen this asset. The second Karabakh war further reinforced our national solidarity and national unity. It further strengthened our country. We have shaken this heavy burden off our shoulders, we have got rid of this stigma. We can now hold our head high and speak with dignity at any event and in any format. We are living as a proud, dignified and victorious people. We owe it to you and tens of thousands of servicemen like you. The people of Azerbaijan know and appreciate this.

Of course, in order to succeed in the war, we had to implement very important projects, and we did. Today, it would be enough to look at the energy and transport maps of the world and our region to see how much benefit the projects implemented on our initiative have brought to our country and to our partners. There are dozens of countries participating in transport and energy projects we have initiated. These projects will gain even more momentum at the current stage, and all these countries are our natural friends and allies. At the same time, these projects have generated additional financial opportunities for us. First of all, we channeled these financial opportunities into strengthening our military potential. If we look at state budget expenditure during my presidency, we will see that military spending has been in the first place. It is in the first place. However, the country has other needs as well. We had also resolved the problems of nearly one million internally displaced persons, providing them with new houses. Social matters, salaries, pensions  we had to increase them and we did increase them. We wanted and still want to increase them even more. But first of all, we gave greater financial support to the army, to the road leading us to Victory. It is still the case today. Azerbaijans state budget for the next year has reached a record high, including the funds allocated for military purposes. One may wonder why. After all, the war is over and two years have passed. The answer is very simple. Revanchist forces are rising in Armenia. Forces and circles reluctant to come to terms with the results of the war are emerging in Armenia. Armenia does not fully comply with the 10 November 2020 Statement. It has yet to fully withdraw its armed forces from Karabakh, it has yet to make the Zangazur corridor available to us. It occasionally commits military provocations against us. Of course, we have to be prepared and we are.

I can say that our Armed Forces have grown even stronger in the last two years. Structural reforms have been conducted, new units have been established, the number of existing formations has been increased, they have been supplied with weaponry, ammunition and new equipment at the highest possible level. The current Azerbaijan Army is stronger than the Azerbaijan Army two years ago, and everyone should know this. Armenia and everyone else should know this!

This is why the road to Victory passed through different directions. Of course, the creation of strong Armed Forces was the top priority, and we did that. In parallel with this, many years of domestic stability, peace and security in the country certainly strengthened us even more. Because let me say this again. I never want to draw any comparisons but it is impossible to hide anything in today's world. Everything is in plain sight  many countries are struggling with domestic problems, many countries are facing internal crises, mutual distrust, disruption of public order, a gap between the people and the government. What do we see here in Azerbaijan  domestic stability, national unity, national solidarity, unity between the people and the government. This is a great result of our policy. All our steps, including all my steps as President from 2003 to this day have been aimed at strengthening Azerbaijan. Before the Patriotic War, all my steps served the sole purpose of liberating our lands, expelling the enemy from our lands, and we succeeded in doing that. I said during the occupation, in fact, I said several times that each of us should bring the day of liberation, this holy day closer with our work, and we brought it closer and closer. We dealt such a crushing blow to the enemy that they are still unable to recover from it. Look at the processes going on in Armenia. They are now spewing their anger and poison at each other. Notice the processes taking place in the past two years.

Armenia should not forget the lessons of the second Karabakh war. They should remember that playing with fire will cost them dearly. If anyone there, be it the government, the opposition or some element sent or trained from abroad, wants to have some bad intentions against us again, they will see our fist again. The history of the last two years has shown this clearly. Even this year, the Farrukh operation, the Revenge operation, the 13-14 September events on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border  all these should serve as another lesson for Armenia. We have taught them this lesson, and we hope that they finally understand it, bend their necks and deal with their internal affairs, not set their sights on our lands, not set their sights on Karabakh. Karabakh is our land. Russian peacekeepers are stationed there temporarily, the 10 November 2020 Statement specifies their term, and if they rely on anyone, they will face another tragedy.

We always respect all international agreements. We are a fair people and a fair country. If we have made a commitment, we will fulfill it. We are fulfilling all the obligations we undertook in the 10 November 2020 Statement. We have been fulfilling them for two years, but is Armenia doing the same? No! Immediately after the second Karabakh war, they were simply so afraid that they fulfilled those provisions without a single shot being fired, and the occupied territories of Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin districts were returned to us. If he hadnt returned them, we would have smashed their heads again. But what next? Then they started biding the time again. I want to say again that this commitment has not yet been fully fulfilled. What are the Armenian armed forces doing in Karabakh? Our patience is not inexhaustible, and I want to warn them again that if this obligation is not fulfilled, Azerbaijan will take necessary steps.

The Zangazur corridor is the responsibility of Armenia. It has taken this commitment upon itself. For two years, we have not been touching the cars moving from Armenia to Karabakh and in the opposite direction along the Lachin road. We have taken on this committed, we are delivering on it, and there is free movement. Armenia has also undertaken to have a road connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Two years have passed, but there is no feasibility study, no movement, no railway, no road. How much longer are we supposed to wait?

The events of 13-14 September did not happen just like that. Of course, Armenia has committed another military provocation against us. But our response was also very effective. Our response could have been a little less harsh if they had followed through on their commitments. Our response could have been even harsher if we wanted a new war. We don't want that, we don't want bloodshed. We simply want respect for our rights.

After the 13-14 September operation, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan were stationed at key strategic heights in the direction of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border. Armenia should understand what this means. We can see the cities of Garakilsa, Gafan, Gorus and Istisu from those strategic heights now. We are on the shores of Lake Small Goycha. Lake Big Goycha is also within our sight. All these are realities. We created these realities after the Patriotic War. Why? First of all, in response to the military provocations of Armenia and, on the other hand, to insure ourselves against military provocations in the future. Because most of the Armenian posts are visible from the heights I mentioned, and if there is a concentration of forces there, we will see it and take immediate action. At the same time, Armenia does not fulfill its international obligations. Armenia was defeated in the second Karabakh war and its army was crushed. A defeated country cannot act like this. Therefore, all our steps are justified. It is true that some of Armenias foreign patrons want to accuse us of something. I have given their answer. If they crow again, I will answer them yet again. It won't stop me. But the fact is that we demand our rights, and the fact that Azerbaijan is right is not questioned by major international actors.

In short, for the two years since the war, we have continued our policy. We have undertaken extensive construction work in two years. We are actually rebuilding Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur, and we will rebuild it. At the same time, we are strengthening and will continue to strengthen our Army. Armenia should understand that it is not the statements by some Armenian patron that keep us within the current frames, but our own policy. We are not afraid of anyone. We are not scared of anyone. If we were afraid of someone, we would never have started the second Karabakh war. Every single one of us was prepared to die. We would rather die than retreat. Freedom or death! Now we are prepared to die for our rights. Because even though the war ended two years ago, there are disturbing moments. I want to appeal to the Armenian people and say my word. They are now reaping the fruits of the 30 years of occupation. They are now experiencing what occupation and losses are. We simply responded to them. We fought on our own lands. We have ousted the aggressor from our lands. They need to understand this so that they do not become a victim of the circles who sit abroad and want to treat this region as a playground for the second time. We have the main say here. We have the main power here. Our Army has shown heroism, professionalism and dedication. If necessary, we will show it again, we will achieve what we want, everyone knows this, and those who conduct military exercises in support of Armenia on our border should also know this. Nobody can scare us. If Armenia wants to conduct a good neighborhood policy, it should first fulfill all the provisions of the 10 November 2020 Statement. It should be sincere in peace negotiations with Azerbaijan. It should not artificially delay time, it should not wait for some miracle that someone will come and fight instead of them. No-one will come and fight instead of them, but even if someone does come and fight, they will be confronted by the Azerbaijan Army.

We want peace, we don't want war, peace, but a fair peace. The terms we are putting forward are fair, are based on international law, and the peace treaty should be signed on the basis of these terms. If Armenia shows goodwill, it will be signed, if not, it will not be signed. Time will tell what happens next.

All these words I said have one source  our strong will and Victory in the Patriotic War! This Victory allows us the opportunity to say these words to everyone, to those who despise us. This Victory gave us this opportunity, gave confidence and spirit to all our people. We have restored not only our territorial integrity but also our national dignity. Therefore, dear soldiers, we are indebted to you, we are indebted to tens of thousands of soldiers and officers like you, and the people of Azerbaijan know this very well. I am proud of you as Commander-in-Chief.

Servicemen: Long live the Commander-in-Chief!

President Ilham Aliyev: Long live Karabakh! Long live Azerbaijan!

X X X

Then they posed together for a group photo.

The event then featured a solemn march of the servicemen.

---




NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The logistics market in Thailand is expected to grow by USD 8.89 billion, accelerating at a CAGR of 4.95% between 2021 and 2026, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. The logistics market in Thailand is in its growth stage and is expected to grow at a moderate pace during the forecast period. The market has established vendors such as CMA CGM Group, Deutsche Post AG, Schenker AG, and they are trying to gain market share by expanding their business to new regions and launching products. This tends to increase competition among vendors. However, the cost of switching products and product differentiation is low, which tends to reduce the competition among vendors. Therefore, the threat of rivalry was moderate in 2021 and is expected to remain the same during the forecast period. Get detailed insights into the vendor landscape and make informed decisions. Buy Full Report Now!

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Logistics Market in Thailand

Logistics Market in Thailand 2022-2026: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our logistics market in Thailand report covers the following areas:

Technavio's library includes over 17,000+ reports covering more than 2,000 emerging technologies. Subscribe to our "Basic Plan" at just USD 5,000 and get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights

Logistics Market in Thailand 2022-2026: Segmentation

The logistics market in Thailand is segmented as below:

End-user

Manufacturing



Automotive



Retail



Healthcare



Others

The manufacturing segment will witness significant growth in the market. The growing manufacturers' need to increase productivity is the major factor driving the adoption of industrial robots into their business process to manage logistics on the work floor. Combining AI with robotics is helping manufacturers leverage benefits such as increased uptime, higher productivity through predictive maintenance, and reduced programming time.

Function

Transportation



Inventory Holding



Administration

The transportation segment will account for the maximum revenue generation in the market during the forecast period. The growing demand for last-mile delivery solutions in Thailand, backed by the growth in the global e-commerce industry, is driving the growth of the segment. Identify potential segments to invest in over the forecast period. Download Free Sample Report Now

Logistics Market in Thailand 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the logistics market in Thailand. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research report on the logistics market in Thailand is designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

CMA CGM Group, Deutsche Post AG, Kerry Logistics Network Ltd., MON Logistics Group Co. Ltd., SCG Logistics Management Co. Ltd., Schenker AG, Unithai Group, WICE Logistics Public Company Ltd., Yamato Unyu, and YUSEN LOGISTICS CO. LTD. are some of the major market participants.

Although the growing e-commerce will offer immense growth opportunities, increased lead time and supply-demand imbalance will challenge the growth of the market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Learn more about the additional trends impacting the future of the market and the positive and negative consequences on the businesses. Download Free Sample Report

Logistics Market in Thailand 2022-2026: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026

Detailed information on factors that will assist logistics market growth in Thailand during the next five years

during the next five years Estimation of the logistics market size in Thailand and its contribution to the parent market

and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the logistics market in Thailand

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of logistics market vendors in Thailand

Related Reports:

The e-commerce logistics market share in Southeast Asia is expected to increase by USD 58.93 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 20.16%. The rise in social commerce is notably driving the e-commerce logistics market growth in Southeast Asia , although factors such as the high logistics costs may impede the market growth.

share in is expected to increase by from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 20.16%. The rise in social commerce is notably driving the e-commerce logistics market growth in , although factors such as the high logistics costs may impede the market growth. The cross-border e-commerce logistics market share is projected to surge by USD 55.47 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of 11.71%. The increasing penetration of mobile computing devices is notably driving the market growth, although factors such as the high cost of air freight and logistics may impede the market growth.

Logistics Market In Thailand Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.95% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 8.89 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.90 Regional analysis Thailand Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled CMA CGM Group, Deutsche Post AG, Kerry Logistics Network Ltd., MON Logistics Group Co. Ltd., SCG Logistics Management Co. Ltd., Schenker AG, Unithai Group, WICE Logistics Public Company Ltd., Yamato Unyu, and YUSEN LOGISTICS CO. LTD. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table Of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2021

Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by End-user

Market segments

Comparison by End-user

Manufacturing - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Automotive - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Retail - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Healthcare - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by End-user

Market Segmentation by Function

Market segments

Comparison by Function

Transportation - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Inventory holding - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Administration - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Market opportunity by Function

Customer landscape

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

CMA CGM Group

Deutsche Post AG

Kerry Logistics Network Ltd.

MON Logistics Group Co. Ltd.

SCG Logistics Management Co. Ltd.

Schenker AG

Unithai Group

WICE Logistics Public Company Ltd.

Yamato Unyu

YUSEN LOGISTICS CO. LTD.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and 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

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Media & Marketing Executive

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
MOORESVILLE, N.C., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) announced today that it will hold its Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Nov. 16. A webcast will be available by visiting the Quarterly Earnings section of the Lowe's Investor Relations website, ir.lowes.com. Supplemental materials will be available 15 minutes before the start of the conference call.

What: Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call



When: 9 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Nov. 16



Where: Visit the Quarterly Earnings section of the Lowe's Investor Relations website, ir.lowes.com.



How: Listen live online and view the supplemental materials by following the directions above

A webcast replay of the call can be accessed from noon EST on Nov. 16, 2022 through Nov. 15, 2023 by visiting Events & Presentations on our Investor Relations website and clicking on Q3 2022 Lowe's Companies, Inc. Earnings Conference Call.

Lowe's Companies, Inc.

Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE 50 home improvement company serving approximately 19 million customer transactions a week in the United States and Canada. With fiscal year 2021 sales of over $96 billion, Lowe's and its related businesses operate or service nearly 2,200 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 300,000 associates. Based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe's supports the communities it serves through programs focused on creating safe, affordable housing and helping to develop the next generation of skilled trade experts. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

LOW-IR

Contacts: Shareholder / Analyst Inquiries: Media Inquiries:

Kate Pearlman Steve Salazar

704-775-3856 [email protected]

[email protected]



SOURCE Lowe's Companies, Inc.
JINHUA, China, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "Liquid cooling has bright prospects!" -- The discussion and sharing meeting of Luyuan liquid cooling core technology was held in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province on November 1st, which has attracted the attention of the two-wheeled electric vehicle industry and related industries. Ni Jie, the president of Luyuan, delivered an open speech on the theme of "Luyuan Liquid Cooling Technology Leads the High-quality Development of the New Generation of Electric Two-wheelers."

Frost & Sullivan awarded Luyuan the double certification

Presently, Luyuan has taken the lead in overcoming the technical problem of high temperature resistance of motors globally. Founded in 1997, Luyuan is one of the earliest electric vehicle manufacturers. Over the years, it has insisted on leading the development of the industry with technological innovation. Luyuan launched the "liquid cooling power revolution" in an all-round way, and a series of industry-first core technologies produced by Luyuan shocked the market in 2020, such as liquid-cooled motor, air-cooled controller, and SOC intelligent endurance system. Nowadays, the new iteration results of liquid cooling technology covering all categories are available, which is an important milestone for Luyuan to achieve technological upgrading in the development of liquid cooling.

As a technology leader in the electric vehicle industry, Luyuan is the father of the liquid-cooled motor. In addition, the cumulative sales volume of liquid-cooled electric vehicles has exceeded 6 million units through successful marketization. In September this year, Luyuan liquid-cooled motor won the Guinness World Record of "Riding for 10 Years with Zero Loss". At the event site, Luyuan once again received the endorsement of two top authorities. Frost & Sullivan ("Sullivan" for short), a world-renowned growth consulting company, awarded Luyuan the double certification of "global pioneer of liquid-cooled electric motor" and "the cumulative sales volume of Luyuan liquid-cooled electric vehicle reaches 6 million units" based on the research of the global two-wheeled electric vehicle market.

Meanwhile, in order to affirm the core value of Luyuan's liquid cooling technology and its technical contribution to China's electric two-wheelers, the China National Light Industry Council issued a certificate of "First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress" to its self-developed dual-chamber liquid cooling technology.

Previously, Luyuan won the "Second Prize of Scientific and Technological Progress" for its liquid-cooled motor technology developed in 2019. The new dual-chamber liquid-cooling technology announced that won the higher honor and made Luyuan "the only brand in the industry" that has won first prize for scientific and technological progress, which indicates that Luyuan's scientific and technological development has been recognized at the national level.

What is the magic behind the liquid-cooled motor that won 12 national patents in one go?

The liquid motor contains insulating coolant, and its working temperature will be 30 lower than that of an ordinary motor, which can always be kept within 70. It is equipped with a gas exchange system, so that the motor can withstand high-temperature demagnetization, rust demagnetization and other problems caused by high temperature and humidity. The working efficiency is over 90%, and peak performance can still be maintained after years of use.

Luyuan took the lead in applying liquid cooling technology to two-wheeled electric vehicles, which solved the problem of motor heat dissipation. By its own efforts, Luyuan has brought the technological level of China's two-wheeler new energy industry to the global level, which has truly opened the door to the durability of electric vehicles.

To date, relying on excellent quality, Luyuan's products have been exported to more than 80 countries and regions, and the cumulative sales volume of liquid-cooled electric vehicles globally has exceeded 6 million units, realizing a virtuous circle of research and development, production and sales, and truly opening the international road of electric two-wheeled vehicles.

In his speech, Ni Jie announced for the first time the next stage of Luyuan's cutting-edge technical route of "one car, one heat source", namely liquid cooling integrated system, and three independently developed iterative results of liquid cooling technology, including liquid-cooled high-speed motor, liquid-cooled dual-chamber motor and liquid-cooled dual-chamber mid-mounted motor.

Besides, Luyuan also revealed for the first time the research and development process of many core technologies of solid cooling temperature control, including "application of graphene fast cooling technology for core components" and "upgrading battery temperature control system".

SOURCE Luyuan
The collaboration between the two companies aims to innovate teaching in preschools. Children will be able to use the educational app on large screens.

BARI, Italy, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Marshmallow Games, a globally established edtech company with over 2 million downloads of its children's apps, recently began a partnership with Wacebo Europe to innovate teaching in kindergartens.

Smart Tales installed on Wacebo's interactive table

If hundreds of teachers already offer the stories and games of Smart Tales - Marshmallow Games' flagship app - in the classroom, thanks to the collaboration with Wacebo they will now be able to do it in an even more engaging way, using interactive whiteboards and tables. The partner company is in fact specialized in offering advanced technological solutions in schools.

With the ability to interact with large screens, it will be even more exciting for children to follow the adventures of the hilarious characters and practice STEM games.

Marshmallow Games, which recently secured an investment round of 2 million euros to affirm the presence of the Smart Tales app in the world of edutainment, thus continues its mission: to make digital technology a useful tool for learning.

Soon in thousands of Italian schools, teachers will be able to use Smart Tales on interactive whiteboards to propose an animated story or math and science activities. And not only this. Young learners will be able to use these interactive tables to experience creativity with games in music and art apps.

"We are constantly working to make Smart Tales a versatile product and adapt it to different formats," says Cristina Angelillo, CEO and founder of Marshmallow Games. "The collaboration with Wacebo Europe allows us to realize our ambition to make it more usable in schools."

"Our education technology company offers digital solutions for innovative learning. Enriching our products with educational content - such as Smart Tales stories and games - adds value to our vision. That is to offer not only hardware supports but a complete teaching experience," comments Christian Fanizzi, CEO and founder of Wacebo Europe.

The next goal, in agreement with Wacebo Europe srl, is to enter the foreign market, thanks also to the availability of Smart Tales contents in 5 languages.

Media Contact:

Roberto Attolico

[email protected]

+393921725521

SOURCE Marshmallow Games
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chief Executive Officer of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), David Long, issued the following statement congratulating the newly elected members of the 118th Congress:

"For more than a century, the National Electrical Contractors Association has worked in unison with elected officials in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives to increase awareness and knowledge about the electrical construction industry.

Following these most recent mid-terms, I congratulate all the candidates on a hard-fought election. I am encouraged by the many years of successful partnerships we have built on Capitol Hill and I look forward to our organization working with the members of the 118th Congress."

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) is a National Trade Association and the leading voice of the $202 billion electrical contracting industry that brings power, light, and communication technology to buildings and communities across the U.S. NECA collectively represents over 4,000 electrical contractor members served by 118 local Chapters across the country.

SOURCE National Electrical Contractors Association
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- National PTA announced today the recipients of over $650K in funding to help host PTA programs this school year in the areas of mental health, STEM, digital safety, literacy, tobacco use prevention and the arts. Nearly 500 PTAs from across the country have been selected to receive funding as part of the association's PTA Connected, STEM + Families, Family Reading Experience, Healthy Lifestyles and arts education initiatives. The funding is made possible by PTA Proud National Sponsors The Allstate Foundation, the New York Life Foundation, Bayer Fund, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Discord, Google and YouTube, Norton, TikTok, Office Depot and The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as well as the family of Mary Lou Anderson, who founded National PTA's Reflections program.

"Each school year, National PTA offers funding to support PTAs in conducting PTA programs for their school communities to increase access to educational opportunities and enhance family engagement," said Anna King, president of National PTA. "We are thrilled to provide over $650K in funding this year to nearly 500 PTAsand we are grateful to our sponsors for supporting our mission and making this funding possible, which is so needed right now."

Following are the funding recipients:

National PTA's programs are designed to provide access to engaging, educational and fun opportunities that inspire; recognize; and support the physical, social-emotional and learning needs of all students and their families. National PTA offers in-person and at-home programs to meet students and families where they are. While funding is being provided to support PTAs' program events in their school communities, National PTA's programs are available to all PTAs and schools.

"National PTA's programs bring knowledge, tools and resources into the lives of families to support their health, safety, well-being and successas well as help connect families to their children's school," said Nathan R. Monell, CAE, National PTA Executive Director. "Our association remains committed to increasing family engagement in education and ensuring that families and schools have tools and information to best support students' learning, development and success, and also improve the health and safety of our communities."

Funding is not needed to run National PTA programs, and PTAs are encouraged to visit PTA.org/Programs to learn how they can implement the programs in their school communities.

About National PTA

National PTA comprises millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. PTA is a registered 501(c) (3) nonprofit association that prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who wants to be involved and make a difference for the education, health and welfare of children and youth. For more information, visit PTA.org.

SOURCE National PTA
Certificates to be Presented on Veterans Day

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) is hosting 18 active-duty military members at The Culinary Institute of America New York for five days of instruction through its Advanced Culinary Training Program (ACTP). ACTP plays an important role in helping the nation's service members and veterans transition into the restaurant, foodservice, and hospitality industry.

The NRAEF hosts 18 active-duty military members at The Culinary Institute of America New York for culinary training. Tweet this The Advanced Culinary Training Program is held three times each year at The Culinary Institute of America to bolster service members culinary performance, understanding, and competencies, as well as maintain a mission-ready workforce.

ACTP is held three times each year at The Culinary Institute of America to bolster service members' culinary performance, understanding, and competencies, as well as maintain a mission-ready workforce. This week's ACTP event helped mark 71 years of the restaurant industry's support for the U.S. armed forces. Learn more about the NRAEF's military programs here.

"It's fortuitous that in the run up to Veterans Day we have this chance to host these amazing service members and reiterate our commitment to building meaningful initiatives that support workforce readiness and their transition to civilian culinary careers," said Rob Gifford, president of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. "We are grateful for the sacrifices of our nation's veterans and their family members, and salute all that they do to serve our country."

The NRAEF's military programs focus on training service members in culinary arts and restaurant management; providing training to support military force readiness; career pathways as service members and their families transition to civilian life; and recognizing best-in-foodservice operations each year during the annual Military Foodservice Awards. Current initiatives include:

Training Programs: Military training programs are designed to help members of the military enter the restaurant and foodservice workforce and reduce veteran unemployment. They include ACTP training with The Culinary Institute of America, and the annual Advanced Military Management Training Program, held during the National Restaurant Show.

SkillBridge: In partnership with the Department of Defense, the SkillBridge program connects service members with industry training, apprenticeships, or internships during their last 180 days of service.

Apprenticeship: The NRAEF's Restaurant Management Apprenticeship Program provides on-the-job training through the Veteran Apprenticeship and Labor Opportunity Reform (VALOR) Act. Veterans who participate in the NRAEF's Restaurant Management Apprenticeship Program can utilize their Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits while enrolled.

Scholarships and Grants: In partnership with Hormel Foods, the NRAEF awards a set of annual scholarships to individuals with military backgrounds who are pursuing careers in culinary arts or foodservice management programs. Learn more about this year's Hormel Heroes scholars here.

Learn more about the NRAEF's military programs through this video or visit ChooseRestaurants.org/Military.

About the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF): As the philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation's (NRAEF) mission of service to the public is dedicated to enhancing the industry's training and education, career development and community engagement efforts. The NRAEF and its programs work to Attract, Empower and Advance today's and tomorrow's restaurant and foodservice workforce. NRAEF programs include: ProStart  a high-school career and technical education program; Restaurant Ready  partnering with community based organizations to provide "opportunity youth" with skills training and job opportunities; Military  helping military servicemen and women transition their skills to restaurant and foodservice careers; Scholarships  financial assistance for students pursuing restaurant, foodservice and hospitality degrees; and the Restaurant & Hospitality Leadership Center (RHLC)  accredited apprenticeship programs designed to build the careers of service professionals. For more information on the NRAEF, visit ChooseRestaurants.org.

Click here for the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation's 2021 Annual Impact Report.

SOURCE National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation
BRASILIA, Brazil, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CAIXA ECONOMICA FEDERAL ("CAIXA"), the largest Brazilian bank in number of clients, credit, digital accounts and savings deposits, announces its consolidated result for the third quarter result (3Q22).

HIGHLIGHTS:

I. Accounting Net Income of R$ 3.2 billion in 3Q22.

II. Highest quarterly volume in mortgage loan origination with R$ 48.2 billion, up by 25.6% YoY.

III. R$ 28.9 billion in mortgage loans with savings funds (SBPE), up by 19.3% YoY.

IV. R$ 19.3 billion in mortgage loans with worker's severance fund (FGTS), up by 36.5% YoY.

V. Balance of R$ 618.6 billion in the mortgage loan portfolio, up by 12.8% YoY.

VI. Balance of R$ 977.0 billion in the total loan portfolio, up by 16.0% YoY.

VII. Record in total loan origination with R$ 146.6 billion, up by 23.4% YoY.

VIII. R$ 94.0 billion in the balance of payroll-deductible loans, up by 19.4% YoY.

IX. R$ 12.9 billion in agro loans, up by 204.4% YoY.

X. Balance of R$ 40.3 billion in the agro loans portfolio, up by 227.4% YoY.

XI. CAIXA's assets totaled R$ 1.6 trillion, up by 5.1% compared to 3Q21.

XII. Net Equity of R$ 122.8 billion, up by 10.1% YoY.

XIII. Delinquency rate of 1.94%, down by 0.22 p.p. over 3Q21.

XIV. 92.5% of CAIXA's loans rated between AA-C, the best number ever achieved, demonstrating the portfolio quality.

XV. R$ 5.6 billion collected by CAIXA Lotteries in 3Q22, the highest collection in a quarter of the historical series, up by 20.9% over 3Q21.

XVI. Basel ratio of 18.4%, 6.9 p.p. higher than the regulatory minimum, and Tier 1 Capital of 15.2% in 3Q22.

XVII. R$ 74.5 billion in Social Benefits paid in 3Q22.

XVIII. 26.6 million accesses to the CAIXA pra elas space through the CAIXA Tem App and 7.9 million accesses on the official CAIXA pra elas website.

XIX. More than 100 thousand individual accounts were opened for the female public and 19.9 thousand accounts for Corporate Female Entrepreneurs in 3Q22.

WEBCAST FOR THE 3Q22 RESULTS: November 09, 2022, 8:00 a.m. (US EDT)

https://webcastlite.mziq.com/cover.html?webcastId=293031ca-5e66-4d37-8350-1e871cc41912

3Q22 EARNINGS DOCUMENTS: earnings release, presentation and financial statements available at: https://ri.caixa.gov.br/en/

SOURCE Caixa Economica Federal
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --



Network Devices Market Research Report by Component, Connectivity, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340113/?utm_source=PRN







The Global Network Devices Market size was estimated at USD 37.99 billion in 2021 and expected to reach USD 41.05 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 8.32% to reach USD 61.39 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 Network Devices to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Component, the market was studied across Access Point, Bridge, Gateway, Hub, Modem, Repeater, Router, and Switch.



Based on Connectivity, the market was studied across Cellular, LoRa, WiFi, and WiFi + Others.



Based on Application, the market was studied across Commercial Networking, Enterprise Networking, Industrial Networking, Residential Networking, and Transportation Networking.



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 Network 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 Network 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 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 Network Devices Market, including Actiontec Electronics Inc., Amazon.Com, Inc., AsusTek Computer Inc., Buffalo, Inc., Crestron Electronics, Inc., Devolo AG, Google LLC, HP Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand PLC, Legrand North and Central America, LLC, Legrand SA, Lutron Electronic Ltd., Mechoshade Systems, Inc., Nokia Corporation, PLANET Technology Corporation, Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, Tenda Technology Co., Ltd, TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd, and Vantage Controls, 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 Network Devices Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Network Devices Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Network Devices Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Network Devices Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Network Devices Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Network Devices Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Network Devices Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340113/?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
North America and Europe see sharp declines, while the UHNW population grew in China and the Middle East

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Altrata, the global leader in data intelligence on the wealthy and influential, released the World Ultra Wealth Report 2022. The tenth edition of this report, produced leveraging Wealth-X data, reveals that the global ultra high net worth (UHNW) population  those with a net worth of $30m and above  declined for the first time since 2018.

The ultra wealthy account for just 1.2% of the global HNW population, yet hold over 31% of this group's total wealth. Tweet this The top 10 cities are home to around one-fifth of the worlds UHNW population. The distribution of ultra wealth across regions has evolved steadily over the past decade. Despite a steadily weakening macroeconomic backdrop in the UK, London was the only top city to record an increase in its UHNW population.

The 6% decrease in the global UHNW population to 392,410 individuals represents a sharp reversal from 2021 record highs, as wealth portfolios were hit by shockwaves across the global economy, triggered by the war in Ukraine. Following historic highs in recent years, combined net worth among this population also fell by 11% to $41.8trn.

Among numerous findings, the World Ultra Wealth Report 2022 reveals:

In North America , the world's largest ultra wealth region, the UHNW population declined by almost 10% in the first half of 2022

, the world's largest ultra wealth region, the UHNW population declined by almost 10% in the first half of 2022 The number of ultra wealthy individuals in the world's second-largest UHNW country, China , expanded by 2.3% over the first half of 2022

, expanded by 2.3% over the first half of 2022 Europe recorded a 6.9% decline in its ultra wealthy population, this was the second-largest fall after North America

recorded a 6.9% decline in its ultra wealthy population, this was the second-largest fall after The ultra wealthy population in the Middle East grew by 7.4% and now accounts for a 5.5% share of the global ultra wealthy class

grew by 7.4% and now accounts for a 5.5% share of the global ultra wealthy class Latin America and the Caribbean also saw an increase in their ultra wealthy population by 5.1%

and the also saw an increase in their ultra wealthy population by 5.1% Hong Kong slightly extended its lead over second place New York as the city with the highest UHNW population, although both recorded declines

The World Ultra Wealth Report 2022 examines ultra wealthy women who globally account for a rising share of wealth, exploring characteristics such as their average age, wealth source, primary industry, asset allocation, luxury-asset ownership and top interests compared to ultra wealthy men.

The report also leverages data from RelSci, another Altrata company to examine US political donations made by the ultra wealthy. The data shows that as individual donors, ultra wealthy US women make slightly larger political donations than do ultra wealthy US men.

Wealth-X's comprehensive database and newly updated Wealth and Investable Assets Model provide unrivaled insight into the world's wealthiest individuals, their characteristics and the constantly changing landscape of wealth creation, making it an essential read for any provider looking to prospect for and engage with individuals in this unique and exclusive demographic.

Access the complete findings here.

About Altrata

Altrata is a global leader in people intelligence. It includes more than 100 million profiles on wealthy individuals around the world and more than 12 million profiles on senior decision makers, board members and c-suite leaders. Altrata provides intelligence on the people who are most impactful to our clients' success.

Advanced integration solutions allow deeper insights and access to billions of connections helping clients close more deals, manage risk, and identify up and coming talent quickly. Our data is actionable, accurate, and comprehensive. Powered by a global team of more than 400 researchers who are committed to maintaining millions of profiles and changing data points, so you can effectively engage and make meaningful, lasting connections.

Altrata is comprised of five distinct offerings: BoardEx, Boardroom Insiders, RelSci, WealthEngine, and Wealth-X.

SOURCE Altrata
Educators Brandi Webb and Melody Michaux develop a history program for middle and high school students, free of distortions and omitted truths, with a goal to build a new legacy free of racism.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Film director and educator Brandi Webb collaborated with veteran educator Melody Michaux, to develop the 3E Program for Social Justice and Change. The 3E Program is a U.S History curriculum resource that provides middle and high school educators with lesson plans, resources, assessments, and video segments and uses New York state standards as a basis. These standards fall in line with social studies requirements in many other states. Video segments used to accompany 3E Program lessons are from Webb's award winning documentary, Betrayal of a Nation. Film topics addressed include the American Dream, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the Tulsa Race Massacre, and Reparations, along with five other topics. With a focus on Ethics, Empathy, and Empowerment, the program offers instructors an opportunity to provide their students an in-depth examination of historical events that have impacted African Americans and People of Color. These events have been lightly touched on, distorted, or omitted altogether in conventional U.S History syllabi. The goal of the 3E Program is to build a new legacy free of racism.

Educator Melody Michaux, Co-creator of the 3E Program for Social Justice and Change Filmmaker and Educator Brandi Webb, Co-creator of the 3E Program for Social Justice and Change

Betrayal of a Nation is an experimental documentary that chronicles U.S History in the format of a trial and indicts U.S agencies on charges related to the oppression of Black and Brown citizens. The film received awards from the People's Film Festival, IndieFilm Fest, and has screened at several festivals during 2021. After viewing the documentary, Michaux and other participants expressed a need for the film to be shown in schools as a learning resource for students. In response to the overwhelming demand to have the film's topics integrated into school curricula, Webb and Michaux created the 3E Program.

Administrators from schools and organizations, teachers, and parents that are homeschooling, can access the subscription based program online at www.3eprogram.com. Professional development is offered to schools who wish to implement the program in their classrooms. The 3E Program for Social Justice and Change also provides virtual classes of the history curriculum for homeschooled students, taught by 3E Program educators. Virtual classes begin November 28th.

"Ms. Webb's research and vision brilliantly takes students on a journey that fills many gaps in African American history," stated Michael Oby, Professor at Clark Atlanta University.

About

Brandi Webb has been producing and directing film and theater for 17 years. She worked as a teacher for the NYC Department of Education, taught film and theater for various organizations, and committed her time and talent to activism, filming protests and events for social justice organizations. Melody Michaux served as an educator, curriculum writer, and educational consultant, spanning 35 years of service with the NYC Department of Education and the Atlanta Public Schools. She founded The Coretta Scott King Young Women's Academy in Atlanta, a single gender school.

To learn more about the 3E Program for Social Justice and Change, visit www.3eprogram.com .

Media Contact:

Brandi Webb

347-829-9262

[email protected]

SOURCE 3E Program for Social Justice and Change
Shannon Goggin to Showcase Importance of a Unifying Benefits Data Platform to Drive Benefits Design and Delivery Innovations

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Noyo, the leading benefits data platform that handles, standardizes, and transmits data quickly and accurately, announced today that it is participating in the 11th William Blair Annual Benefit Technology Conference. CEO Shannon Goggin will be one of four experts addressing the topic of Benefits Technology Software, delivering an insider perspective on what's needed in the industry today and in the future.

Who: Shannon Goggin, CEO & Co-Founder of Noyo

What: The William Blair 11th Annual Benefit Technology Conference, Benefits Technology Software Panel, where Noyo's Goggin will share the benefits innovation possibilities enabled by a unifying benefits data platform and how API-powered technology can serve as the bridge between legacy infrastructure and modern software to drive benefits innovation. When benefits data is continuously synchronized, scrubbed, unified, and instantly available anywhere it's needed, new possibilities are unlocked to enhance the benefits journey for all: employees, employers, carriers, brokers, and modern benefits administration companies.

When: The virtual event will take place, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, 10 a.m.  5 p.m. EST. The Benefits Software Technology Panel is from 12:40-1:20 p.m. EST.

Where: For more information, click here.

Joining a panel discussion, Goggin will draw on her extensive experience in benefit technology software and examine the topics directly impacting this space, specifically innovation and a drive toward modern benefits design and delivery.

About Noyo

Noyo is the modern data infrastructure making frictionless employee benefits possible. Founded by leaders in benefits, insurance, and API technology, Noyo is the first company transforming the underlying infrastructure of the benefits industry through seamless digital connectivity. With Noyo, crucial benefits data is synchronized and made instantly available anywhere it's needed, unlocking new possibilities for how benefits are designed and delivered and enhancing them for all. To learn more about how Noyo's industry-leading technology is powering the next generation of employee benefits, visit www.noyo.com.

Media: Mardi Larson, Amendola for Noyo, [email protected]

SOURCE Noyo
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oblique Therapeutics AB (publ.), a biotechnology company focused on new antibody medicines for severe diseases with large unmet medical needs, is pleased to announce the confirmation of Christer Nordstedt MD.PhD. as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Christer Nordstedt will assume the position on 1st December 2022.

Christer Nordstedt has abroad and extensive international experience within the pharmaceutical industry from operational and strategic positions at management level in companies like Vivesto, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Orion Corporation, Eli Lilly, Roche, AstraZeneca among others. During his career, Christer has been responsible for large global research projects and leadership in both management, executive, and board roles.

Christer's latest position was interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Vivesto, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, Uppsala, Sweden. Christer holds a MD and PhD degrees in Pharmacology and Biochemistry from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. His insights include discovery and clinical development work in neurodegeneration, pain, oncology, and psychiatry.

The Board conducted a rigorous selection process from a group of highly qualified, diverse, and exceptional candidates. This has resulted in the selection of an external candidate, Christer Nordstedt, with a detailed understanding of the biotechnology market and Oblique Therapeutics AB's strategic issues. We welcome Christer Nordstedt to us, and we look forward to running our programs together all the way to the clinic. With Christer's solid experience, we create good conditions and a continuity in the business that makes it easier for us to reach the next level. Christer will be able to provide continuity of purpose of Oblique Therapeutics AB (publ.) with a strong leadership to support the company in its ambitions. We look forward with confidence to working with Christer as the new CEO.

Commenting on his appointment, Christer said:

"I am very excited about the opportunity to join Oblique therapeutics. During my 25+ years of experience in various executive positions in the international pharma industry I have often encountered highly validated potential drug targets that-if addressed properly-could offer great advantage to underserved patient groups. These include ion channels, cancer gene products and numerous other proteins. But unfortunately, with existing technology, many of these targets could not be addressed. I was therefore genuinely surprised to see how much Oblique Therapeutics already has achieved with several of these "difficult targets". I believe that with access to Oblique Therapeutics novel proprietary technologies and know-how this frustrating situation is changing. Previously "non-druggable targets are rapidly becoming druggable".

Together with the highly talented people in the various functions of the company I truly believe that Oblique Therapeutics -within a relatively short period of time- will build a strong pipeline of projects in various stages of development. The company will be able to "punch well above its weight" and deliver safe and effective treatment alternatives that will benefit many patients suffering from cancer, serious pain conditions and other diseases. I also believe that Oblique Therapeutics will become a partner of choice for many pharma companies that currently are struggling with challenging drug targets.

I look forward to the journey we have ahead of us!"

This new CEO nomination adds to a strong management team. The Management Team at Oblique Therapeutics AB (publ.): Carolina Trkulja, PhD Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Kjell Andersson, PhD, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Sreesha P Srinivasa PH.D., Chief Development Officer (CDO), Mats Jonasson, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Marie Scherlund, PH.D., Chief Program Officer (CPO), Mats Lindskog Ph.D., Chief Business Officer (CBO), Cecilia Larsson is Investor Relations Manager (IRM), Prof. Owe Orwar, Chief Scientist Officer (CSO), and Hans-Peter Ostler serving as interim CEO.

The whole Oblique Therapeutics team wishes Dr. Christer Nordstedt a warm welcome and the best of luck and success in his professional endeavor.

About AbiProt

AbiProt, is a proprietary methodology to identify epitopes on protein targets that have previously proven difficult to address with antibodies. AbiProt can identify high-affinity antibody binding sites in a given protein with single amino acid resolution while the protein resides in its native environment. It is based on using a tailored molecular reporter system and proteomics. The platform yields detailed sequence and structure information for epitope identification and development. Oblique Therapeutics is applying this technology for discovery of a new generation of selective antibody therapeutics targeting cancer and pain.

Science Advances Publication about AbiProt:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe6397

About Oblique Therapeutics AB (publ.)

Oblique Therapeutics AB (publ.) is a privately held Swedish biotech company developing innovative new medicines for severe diseases with a large unmet medical need focusing on pain and advanced cancer. The company uses AbiProt, an in-house-invented, next-generation antibody platform that can generate antibodies with programmed function against the full human proteome. The portfolio comprises several antibody candidates. Besides, two antibody programs are run in R&D collaborations with pharma companies. Oblique Therapeutics AB (publ.) makes medicines that matter to patients. https://obliquet.com/

CONTACT:

For more information, please contact:

Hans-Peter Ostler

Interim CEO - [email protected]

Mats Lindskog

CBO - Chief Business Officer - [email protected]

Cecilia Larsson

IRM - Investor Relations Manager - [email protected]

SOURCE Oblique Therapeutics AB
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --



Optometry Equipment Market Research Report by Product, End-User, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340325/?utm_source=PRN







The Global Optometry Equipment Market size was estimated at USD 4,291.23 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 4,629.00 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 8.12% to reach USD 6,857.44 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 Optometry Equipment to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product, the market was studied across Ophthalmology Surgical Devices and Vision Care Products. The Ophthalmology Surgical Devices is further studied across Cataract Surgical Devices, Chart Projectors, Corneal Topography Systems, Diagnostic & Monitoring Devices, Glaucoma Surgical Devices, Lensmeters, Ophthalmic Microscopes, Ophthalmic Surgical Accessories, Ophthalmoscopes, Optical Biometry Systems, Phoropters, Refractive Surgical Devices, Retinoscopes, Slit Lamps, Specular Microscopes, Tonometers, Vitreoretinal Surgical Devices, and Wavefront Aberrometers. The Vision Care Products is further studied across Contact Lenses and Spectacles.



Based on End-User, the market was studied across Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Consumers, Hospitals, and Specialty Clinic.



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 Optometry Equipment 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 Optometry Equipment 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 Optometry Equipment Market, including Alcon, Canon Inc., Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, CLEARLAB SG PTE, LTD., CooperVision, Inc., EssilorLuxottica SA, Glaukos Corporation, Haag-Streit Group, Heidelberg Engineering, Inc., HEINE Optotechnik, Hoya Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Lumenis Be Ltd., Luneau Technology Group, NIDEK CO. LTD., Oculentis, Ophtec B.V., STAAR Surgical Company, Topcon Corporation, and Ziemer Ophthalmic Systems AG.



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 Optometry Equipment Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Optometry Equipment Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Optometry Equipment Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Optometry Equipment Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Optometry Equipment Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Optometry Equipment Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Optometry Equipment Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340325/?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
NORMAN, Okla., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A research study led by the University of Oklahoma will measure the impact of Medicaid expansion on mortality rates across rural and urban communities as well as across ethnic or racial groups nationwide.

A research study led by the University of Oklahoma will measure the impact of Medicaid expansion on mortality rates across rural and urban communities across the United States.

An estimated 82.8 million Americans currently receive health coverage through Medicaid. The passage of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, called for the expansion of Medicaid benefits nationwide. After a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 determined that the decision to expand Medicaid benefits would be left to the states, participation in the expanded Medicaid program has grown slowly from 26 states participating in 2014 to 38 states and the District of Columbia participating by 2022.

Research has shown that from 2014-2018, mortality rates were reduced 3.6% more in states that expanded Medicaid than in states that did not. However, the impact of Medicaid expansion on health disparities remained underexamined.

J. Tom Mueller, Ph.D., a research assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma and the lead for the study said, "This project is looking at the impact of Medicaid expansion on disparities in mortality between rural and urban areas, and also then between different ethnic and racial populations within those areas, with the idea being that Medicaid expansion should have reduced mortality disparities. Since poverty is such a dramatic social determinant of health, poverty reduction should be working as a mechanism for disparity reduction."

The researchers will use data sets for the entire United States dating from before the ACA Medicaid expansion, 2008 through 2019, to reduce variables influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. They plan to report their findings at the county level.

Mueller said in addition to insights on how Medicaid expansion may have impacted health disparities, "(the data) could also tell us information about the possible impacts of more broad scale universal health care options in the United States."

The five-year project, "The Effect of Medicaid Expansion on Mortality Disparities and Poverty," is funded by an estimated $1.5 million grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health.

SOURCE University of Oklahoma
Through the Secretariat of Economic Development, the Office of the Mayor of Bogota is launching the Payment by Results program, an initiative that will put 22,000 people in the labor market; Of which between 12,000 and 18,000 will be women.

Invest in Bogota , the city's investment promotion agency also joins the efforts of the Secretariat of Economic Development by creating a strategy that allows generating employment and closing the gaps of bilingual human talent and for IT companies.

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Although the unemployment rate has been recovering in Bogota after the drop-in economic activity caused by the pandemic, it is still above double digits (11.2%) and several vulnerable populations find it even more difficult to access the labor market, as is the case of women.

Therefore, with a budget of COP 30,000 million the Secretariat of Economic Development launched a financing strategy called Payment by Results. This program was designed as a competitive process with providers authorized by the National Employment Service, alone or in alliance with entities with experience in a vulnerable population to place 22,000 people in the labor market, of which at least 12,000 will be women.

The model used in this strategy contemplates the payment of an incentive to these employment operators, for each person they place in the labor market, and not only for the management, as is usually the case.

Invest in Bogota, the city's investment promotion agency also joins the efforts of the Secretariat of Economic Development. Isabella Munoz, executive director of the agency, comments that "in June a multi-sector macro employment roundtable was held in Corferias. As a result, 82 companies participated, and 24,126 vacancies were offered for more than 9 thousand attendees. With these job fairs, we connect supply and demand in the city's labor market, with special emphasis on closing gaps for women, young people, people with disabilities, and sexually diverse populations."

Upon learning of these results, Bogota developed a results-based contracting approach with greater impact on resources allocated to employment policy, intending to achieve job placement with the implementation of scaled mechanisms that fit the city's needs.

The Payment by Results program was developed with Fundacion Corona and resources from the Inter-American Development Bank Innovation Lab (IDB) were channeled to design a results-based financing (RBF) strategy to meet the job placement goal.

Considering the experience of Fundacion Corona, IDB Lab, and the Swiss Embassy, an advisory committee was formed that generated feedback with recommendations for the District Secretariat of Economic Development of Bogota for the 2021-2024 strategy.

This committee has compiled learnings that strengthen the operational and legal capacity to achieve the 2022 job placement goal and to implement learning tools that will increase the operator's management in 2023.

This program has become one of the most ambitious projects in terms of employment that the Secretariat of Economic Development has had, highlighting the goal set, the population approach, and the joint work with the private actors of the ecosystem, and it is also innovative in Latin America and the Caribbean for focusing on job placement.

SOURCE INVEST IN BOGOTA
The local HVAC leader will sponsor Santa's Study at the Indianapolis Zoo's 54th annual family winter

holiday celebration

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Peterman Brothers, a leading HVAC and plumbing company serving the Greater Indianapolis area, will help visitors to the Indiana Zoo's 54th annual Christmas at the Zoo stay warm this holiday season.

Peterman Brothers will warm Christmas at the Zoo's popular Santa's Study, part of Santa's Village under the zoo's Bicentennial Pavilion, where guests can meet the real Kris Kringle in a cozy North Pole setting.

Peterman Brothers, a leading HVAC and plumbing company serving the Greater Indianapolis area, will sponsor Santas Study at the Indiana Zoos 54th annual Christmas at the Zoo.

"Christmas at the Zoo has been an important part of the city's holiday celebrations since it was first held in 1967, and it's played a significant role in our family's holidays every year, too," said Chad Peterman, president of Peterman Brothers. "It's a privilege for us to be able to support the event by helping families keep warm and comfortable while they visit with Santa this year."

Christmas at the Zoo, one of Central Indiana's most beloved holiday traditions, opens Nov. 19 and runs through Dec. 30. Hours are 5-9 p.m. Santa's Study is open through Dec. 23.

In addition to Santa's Study and Santa's Village, Christmas at the Zoo also includes familiar features such as Mrs. Claus' Kitchen, Santa's Barn, the Polar Pathway, Tinsel Tavern, caroling, warm beverages and treats, light-filled journeys on the White River Junction Train, campfires, and engaging animal encounters.

"Christmas at the Zoo is a great way for families to celebrate this holiday season," Peterman said. "We're looking forward to participating in this unique experience and doing our part so our neighbors can immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of the Indiana Zoo's winter wonderland."

The Indianapolis Zoo was the first zoo in the United States to host holiday lights event. Christmas at the Zoo is consistently named one of USA Today's 10 Best Zoo Lights, and more than 100,000 guests experience the beauty and wonder of the zoo during the holiday season every year.

Peterman Brothers offers a variety of HVAC, indoor air quality, plumbing and electrical services across Indianapolis and the surrounding areas. They have received several accolades in the past year after being named to the Inc. 5000 list for a third year in a row in 2021 in addition to being named the Bryant Heating and Cooling Dealer of the Year.

Peterman Brothers' services include furnace maintenance and repairs, heat pump installation, smart thermostat services, A/C installation and repairs, IAQ assessments, plumbing maintenance, gas line installation, water heater maintenance, electrical repair and much more.

For more information about the Indianapolis Zoo and Christmas at the Zoo, visit

https://www.indianapoliszoo.com/events/christmas-at-the-zoo/.

Peterman Brothers is available to help with any plumbing or cooling needs. For more information, call

(260) 201-3070 or visit https://www.petermanhvac.com/.

About Peterman Brothers

Founded in 1986, Peterman Brothers provides residential heating, cooling, and plumbing services in the Greater Indianapolis area. A second-generation family business, the company offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee with any new installation of HVAC equipment. All technicians are certified through the North American Technical Excellence (NATE) program and fully bonded and insured. Peterman Brothers provides 24/7 emergency service to its customers and offers several financing options with approved credit. To find out more, call (260) 201-3070 or visit https://www.petermanhvac.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

865-977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE Peterman Brothers
Pixalate's Trust & Safety Advisory Board will provide transparency into its manual review methodology and further educate the ad tech community and app developers to enhance their COPPA compliance practices.

LONDON and PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixalate , the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today announced the Children's Online Privacy Compliance Teacher Reviews series of blogs from its Trust & Safety Advisory Board , featuring manually reviewed mobile and CTV apps.

Today, for the first time, Pixalate is making public the analysis behind the Trust & Safety Advisory Board's manual review process which identifies the likely target audience (child-directed or general audience) for apps under the COPPA Rule. The Board, composed of qualified educators, has reviewed tens of thousands of mobile & CTV apps to date. Achieving this scale for manually reviewed COPPA compliance data is unprecedented, and it is open to the public through Pixalate's website.

Pixalate's Trust & Safety Advisory Board was founded by Pixalate's Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Ads Privacy and COPPA Compliance, Allison Lefrak, a former Federal Trade Commissioner enforcer.

"We are excited to be able to make our teachers' analysis public to provide guidance that will help the ad tech community, app developers, and others comply with COPPA by better understanding the applications of the subjective child-directed factors set forth in the COPPA Rule," said Lefrak.

The first in the Children's Online Privacy Compliance Reviews is a review of two popular child-directed apps from the Google Play Store: "Surprise Eggs" and "My Bakery Empire: Cake & Bake ." The methodology behind the Children's Online Privacy Compliance Reviews for apps can be found here .

About Pixalate

Pixalate is the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising. Pixalate is MRC-accredited for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The Children's Online Privacy Compliance blog series published by Pixalate is available for informational purposes only and is not considered legal advice. By viewing these blog posts, the reader understands and agrees that there is no attorney-client relationship between the reader and the blog publisher. The blogs should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in the applicable jurisdiction(s), and readers are urged to consult their own legal counsel on any specific legal questions concerning any specific situation. The content of the blog posts reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees; and these blog posts are not intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings pertaining to mobile and Connected TV (CTV) apps.

SOURCE Pixalate
VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Planet Based Foods Global Inc. (CSE: PBF) (OTCQB: PBFFF) (FRA: AZ0) ("PBFG", "Planet Based Foods" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the company has entered into distribution agreements with KeHE Distributors ("KeHE"), United Natural Foods, Inc. ("United Natural Foods, or UNFI") and DPI Specialty Foods ("DPI") (collectively known as the "Distributors") effective immediately.

The Distributors have already committed to various purchase orders in November, adding to the incredibly eventful year for the Company. KeHE and United Natural Foods are known as premiere food distributors that focus on both the Natural & Specialty Distribution Channel as well as Conventional Distribution Channels in the United States. DPI has established an efficient network of wholesale specialty food distribution centers in key geographic locations across the Western United States.

Prospective distribution locations are expected to distribute the following Planet Based Foods products:

KeHE Romeoville, IL : Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito

: Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito DPI Aurora, Colorado : Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito

: Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito DPI Ontario, California : Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito

: Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito UNFI Riverside, California : Southwest Burger, Original Burger, Mild Sausage Patty, Hot Sausage Patty, Original Crumble, Italian Crumble, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito

: Southwest Burger, Original Burger, Mild Sausage Patty, Hot Sausage Patty, Original Crumble, Italian Crumble, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito UNFI Ridgefield, Washington : Mild Sausage Patty, Original Crumble, Southwest Burger, Original Taquito and Southwest Taquito

"Partnering with these world-renowned distributors is exactly what the company needs for us to hit our aggressive growth milestones", Planet Based Foods President and Co-Founder Braelyn Davis quotes. "KeHE, United Natural Foods and DPI service the largest grocery chains in the country. We're confident that our consumers will see our products in more stores than ever in these coming weeks."

For further details about the Company, please refer to the Company's listing statement at www.thecse.com as well as the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. To view information about the Company and subscribe to automated email alerts for future news and public filings, visit the Planet Based Foods website at www.planetbasedfoods.com .

About KeHE Food Distributors

Kehe Food Distributors is a leading U.S. distributor of natural and specialty food products that fit the lifestyle of today's consumer. They distribute more than 40,000 products - including natural and organic, international, specialty, perishable, Kosher, and Latin American food items - to more than 15,000 retail outlets in 49 states, Mexico and the Caribbean.

About United Natural Foods, Inc.

United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) is a Providence, Rhode Islandbased natural and organic food company. They are the largest publicly traded wholesale distributor of health and specialty food in the United States and Canada. It is Whole Foods Market's main supplier, with their traffic making up over a third of its revenue in 2018. UNFI was founded in 1996 by the merger of two regional distributors, Mountain People's Warehouse (founded in 1976, serving the Western U.S.) and Cornucopia Natural Foods (founded in 1977, serving the Eastern U.S.), forming the first natural products distributorship with national scope. Since 1996, other regional distributors have merged with UNFI, filling in the distribution footprint and making UNFI the largest distributor of natural products. In 2007 UNFI acquired Millbrook Distribution Services. In 2011, UNFI signed a distribution agreement with Safeway Inc. for the distribution of non-proprietary natural, organic and specialty products. In 2012 UNFI partnered with Buyer's Best Friend to create a unified reordering system. In 2016, the company announced the acquisition of Nor-Cal produce, Inc. It also completed the acquisition of Haddon House Food Products, Inc. in 2016. That same year, it announced the acquisition of Gourmet Guru, Inc.On October 22, 2018, UNFI completed the acquisition of SuperValu, Inc.

About DPI Specialty Foods

DPI has established an efficient network of wholesale specialty food distribution centers in key geographic locations across the Western U.S. They're people with a passion for fine specialty foods. DPI staff works directly with customers to bring the very best in specialty food goods to their retail locations. Their strength in grocery distribution, independent retail sales and foodservice, incorporates a product mix that includes gourmet, specialty, natural, organic, gluten free, local and ethnic foods. DPI warehouses and delivers frozen, refrigerated and dry goods. Their unique combination of product knowledge and options for in-store, cross-dock and direct delivery services ensure that we will deliver sales growth for our retailer and vendor partners. Today DPI supplies over 40,000 SKUs comprised of perishable and non-perishable food items from five continents. The team at DPI brings unique market niche and retail experience to create exciting programs, tailored for each retailer's individual needs. These programs have a proven track record of delivering sales growth.

About Planet Based Foods:

PBFG, through its wholly-owned subsidiary in San Diego, California, Planet Based Foods, is a producer of sustainable plant-based meat substitutes. Planet Based Foods was founded in 2018 in San Diego, California. With a mission to build a better food system by providing hemp-formulated superfood products to people today that support our planet tomorrow, all Planet Based Foods products are 100% vegan.



ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Braelyn Davis"

Braelyn Davis

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

For more information, please visit: www.planetbasedfoods.com or contact: [email protected]

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "assume" "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This news release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Such statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. For more information, please visit: www.planetbasedfoods.com or contact: [email protected].

SOURCE Planet Based Foods
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --



Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market Research Report by Product, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340685/?utm_source=PRN







The Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market size was estimated at USD 32.91 billion in 2021 and expected to reach USD 34.44 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 4.92% to reach USD 43.91 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 Plastic Contract Manufacturing to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product, the market was studied across ABS, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, and Polystyrene.



Based on Application, the market was studied across Aerospace & defense, Automotive, Consumer Goods & appliances, and Medical.



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 Plastic Contract Manufacturing 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 Plastic Contract Manufacturing 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 Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market, including Baytech Plastics Inc., C&J Industries, EVCO Plastics, Genesis Plastics Welding, Gregstrom Corporation, inziGn Pte Ltd., Mack Molding Company, McClarin Composites, Natech Plastics, Inc., Nolato AB, Plastion Industries, Inc., PTI Engineered Plastics, Inc., Rosti Group AB, RSP Inc., and Tessy Plastics 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 Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Plastic Contract Manufacturing Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06340685/?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
GARDNER, Mass., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Precision Optics Corporation, Inc. (OTCQB: PEYE; PEYED) (the "Company") today announced that it has scheduled a conference call to discuss first quarter of fiscal year 2023 financial results on Monday, November 14, 2022, at 5:00pm ET.

The Company intends to release its financial results and to file its 10-Q after the close of the market on Monday, November 14, 2022, followed by the conference call.

Conference Call Details

Date and Time: Monday, November 14, 2022, at 5:00pm ET

Call-in Information: Interested parties can access the conference call by dialing (844) 735-3662 or

(412) 317-5705.

Live Webcast Information: Interested parties can access the conference call via a live webcast, which is available at https://app.webinar.net/O8Vb6b5oMqA.

Replay: A teleconference replay of the call will be available until November 21, 2022 at (877) 344-7529 or (412) 317-0088, replay access code 9521239. A webcast replay will be available at https://app.webinar.net/O8Vb6b5oMqA.

About Precision Optics Corporation

Founded in 1982, Precision Optics is a vertically integrated optics company primarily focused on leveraging its proprietary micro-optics and 3D imaging technologies to the healthcare and defense/aerospace industries by providing services ranging from new product concept through mass manufacture. Utilizing its leading-edge in-house design, prototype, regulatory and fabrication capabilities as well as its Lighthouse Imaging division's electronic imaging expertise and its Ross Optical division's high volume world-wide sourcing, inspecting and production resources, the Company is able to design and manufacture next-generation product solutions to the most challenging customer requirements. Within healthcare, Precision Optics enables next generation medical device companies around the world to meet the increasing demands of the surgical community who require more enhanced and smaller imaging systems for minimally invasive surgery as well as 3D endoscopy systems to support the rapid proliferation of surgical robotic systems. In addition to these next generation applications, Precision Optics has supplied top tier medical device companies a wide variety of optical products for decades, including complex endocouplers and specialized endoscopes. The Company is also leveraging its technical proficiency in micro-optics to enable leading edge defense/aerospace applications which require the highest quality standards and the optimization of size, weight and power. For more information, please visit www.poci.com.

About Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that express the Company's intentions, beliefs, expectations, strategies, predictions or any other statements related to the Company's future activities or future events or conditions. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the Company's business based, in part, on assumptions made by the Company's management. These statements are not guarantees of future performances and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including those risks discussed in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and in other documents that we file from time to time with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report, except as required by law.

Company Contact:

PRECISION OPTICS CORPORATION

22 East Broadway

Gardner, Massachusetts 01440-3338

Telephone: 978-630-1800

Investor Contact:

LYTHAM PARTNERS, LLC

Robert Blum

Phoenix | New York

Telephone: 602-889-9700

[email protected]

SOURCE Precision Optics Corporation
Acquisition adds both high-frequency RF and fine-pitch technology to PTSL, enabling automotive radar and high-performance test applications.

GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Probe Test Solutions Ltd (PTSL), headquartered in Glasgow Scotland, an established high-growth company and a world leader in delivering advanced ATE test hardware solutions, announces today that it has completed a transaction to acquire Dallas, Texas-based ThinkMEMS. ThinkMEMS is a provider of high-performance contactors and antennas for RF test applications, enabling direct signal path mmWave testing at frequencies up to and beyond 120Ghz.

ThinkMEMS offers unique process IP, combining the fabrication of microdevices and assembly of complex structures to generate functional devices with unmatched repeatability and signal isolation at these frequencies. ThinkMEMS solutions are already shipping in automotive radar test fixtures and other RF test applications of leading global test equipment OEMs. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"This acquisition follows quickly on our recently announced funding and supports our ambitious strategic growth plans. We see the acquisition as highly complementary to our existing Probe Card business and it will allow PTSL to address the adjacent high-frequency RF and fine pitch Probe-Card markets in a compelling way," said Jordan Mackellar CEO of PTSL. "PTSL will now offer an extremely differentiated competitive platform to our customers. By leveraging PTSL's market position, I am confident we can drive adoption of ThinkMEMS technology further into emerging markets," continued Mackellar.

"The ThinkMEMS technology is based on a highly innovative proprietary manufacturing process. Perfected over the years, it has allowed ThinkMEMS to demonstrate the highest performance signal integrity in the market today at frequencies over 100 GHz," stated Zine Boutaghou, CEO and founder of ThinkMEMS. "I am extremely proud of the ground-breaking performance we have achieved with this technology and look forward to becoming part of the PTSL team," added Boutaghou.

The recently established semiconductor team at Alexa-Capital of Mark Tyndall and Alex McCann, acted as financial advisors to PTSL.

About PTSL

Probe Test Solutions Limited (PTSL, founded in 2009, headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland) designs and manufactures probe cards and is one of the fastest growing Automated Test Equipment (ATE) suppliers in the semiconductor industry with an innovative product offering, experienced technical team, and a diverse customer base across the globe. https://probetestsolutions.com/

PTSL press contact:

Mark Tyndall

Phone: +49 (0)172 7226409

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE PROBE TEST SOLUTIONS LIMITED
The truth is even more inspirational than fiction.

GENEVA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In January 2023, high in the scenic Swiss Alps, a group of young African visionaries, led by Kojo Annan, the son of the late Former-U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, will gather to pave the way for the continent's continued growth. At the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, over 2,500 participants, including numerous world leaders, will convene to tackle pressing global issues. This time, Africa will be taking a front seat at the talks.

As Kojo Annan, Co-founder of Africa House passionately explains, "For too long, the narrative about Africa has been overshadowed by war, famine, natural disasters, and instability. Africa House is committed to changing that story by showcasing our continent's wealth of opportunities, talent, innovation, and vibrancy."

Africa 4.0

In 2016, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairperson of the World Economic Forum (WEF), coined the term "the Fourth Industrial Revolution" (4IR). Whereas the first industrial revolution focused on water and steam power, the second on electric power, and the third brought about the digital revolution, the fourth is a fusion of what has gone before, "blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres."

The continent of Africa is known for its wealth of resources and with the explosion of startups on the continent, over 650 in total in 2022 alone, these resources clearly include the ingenuity of its people. Africans are entrepreneurs and major contenders in the technology ecosystem with digital automation facilitating the flow of free trade across the continent. According to a recent report published by WEF and Deloitte, the reduction of non-tariff barriers could lead to trade gains in Africa of $20 billion a year.

In a 2019 article entitled "From Wakanda to Reality," Thunderbird School of Global Management in Washington DC Executive Director and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution Professor Landry Signe and US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shared a way forward transforming African countries into the fictional powerhouse nation of Wakanda.

According to Professor Signe, who is also Co-founder and Executive Chairperson at Africa House, "A resource-rich continent, brimming with enterprising innovators leapfrogging their way towards a new era is exactly where we're at today. People of African descent and those of us living on the continent need to harness our collective energy and enthusiasm in order to reach new heights the world hasn't seen before."

Africa House aims to be more than just a meeting place; the vision of the organization is to become a global movement that celebrates the multifaceted brilliance the 54 countries of Africa have to offer.

The glorious depiction of Wakanda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is breathtaking. In 2016, the first installment of the franchise provided the world with a fresh and inspiring image of the African continent in the form of an Afro-futuristic fantasy. Today, the team at Africa House is determined to move closer to making that fantasy a reality.

About Africa House

Africa House is a platform to spearhead Africa's rising by bringing the best and brightest entrepreneurs, initiatives, and opportunities to leaders across industry and government attending Davos. Africa House is powered by The Giving Back Fund as a non-profit project and supported by a team of experts that bring together a combined 30+ years of experience on the continent and leading African initiatives.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1942030/AH_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Project Africa House
ATLANTA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pye-Barker Fire & Safety is excited to announce its acquisition of ComTronix, a commercial and residential security and fire alarm monitoring company in Wyoming. With this addition, Pye-Barker expands its footprint in the state of Wyoming, strengthens its burgeoning alarm division and enhances its communication and mass notification service offerings. Pye-Barker continues its aggressive acquisition strategy and has become a dominant provider in the fire, safety and security services industry in the United States.

"We know that Pye-Barker holds the same values as ComTronix  commitment to customer care, hard work and community." Tweet this Rob Dobler and Bruce Kopperud of ComTronix pictured with Eric Garner, who leads Pye-Barkers alarm division.

ComTronix provides integrated security and life safety systems including fire and intrusion alarms, 24/7 fire and security alarm monitoring, access control, intrusion detection, CCTV, business telephone systems, overhead paging and structured cabling. Founded in 1989 by Richard Fisher, Bruce Kopperud and Rob Dobler, ComTronix now operates two locations in Casper and Sheridan, Wyoming. Kopperud, who took the helm as company President in 2011, is a proud U.S. military veteran and is honored to work with active and veteran military families.

"We are proud every day to serve the communities we live in and provide life-saving security solutions for our neighbors and friends," said Kopperud. "We know that Pye-Barker holds the same values as the ComTronix team  commitment to customer care, hard work and community. This partnership will enable us to do more for our customers and our employees."

"ComTronix is a great fit for the Pye-Barker family as we continue to expand our security offerings," said Bart Proctor, CEO of Pye-Barker. "We're honored to work with the ComTronix team and learn from their 30+ years of industry experience."

Scott Taylor, ComTronix General Manager, will oversee the business post acquisition and the company's experienced alarm professionals will continue to service customers.

About Pye-Barker Fire & Safety

Pye-Barker Fire & Safety, founded in 1946, is a leader in fire protection and life safety, with over 140 locations and 4,100 team members. It is a full-service company offering all the necessary specialties including portable extinguishers, restaurant fire suppression, special hazard systems, fire sprinklers, fire alarms, intrusion detection, security and monitoring. Pye-Barker invests heavily in providing the best-in-class training for its team while offering industry competitive benefits and is rapidly expanding its national footprint.

Contact:

Eric Garner

President, Pye-Barker Alarm Division

(801) 395-8738

[email protected]

SOURCE Pye-Barker Fire & Safety
Experienced founder and executive Lex Bayer joins to continue driving growth and global expansion

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global study platform Quizlet today announced Lex Bayer has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Bayer succeeds Matthew Glotzbach, who will stay on until December to support the transition before assuming a role as an advisor.

"Quizlet is entering a pivotal era of growth," said Glotzbach. "Lex brings the right mix of experience, advocacy and entrepreneurial spirit to further our work to empower students around the globe in every stage of their learning journey."

A seasoned founder and CEO with a proven track record of building products and scaling global organizations, Bayer brings a unique perspective that will be key in leading the team and accelerating future global growth. Bayer was most recently CEO of Starship Technologies and before that served as Group Head at Airbnb, where he had oversight of business development, payments and Airbnb for Work.

"I had the privilege of leading the search for Quizlet's new CEO after Matt decided to step down," said Shannon Brayton, Quizlet board member. "It was difficult to find someone to replace Matt and all the positives he brought to the role, but after a robust search, we're confident that Lex is that person. He impressed the board with his entrepreneurialism, his understanding of the Quizlet business, and his deep analytical skills, and we're excited to see what he can bring to students in this next chapter of the company's history."

"Under Matt's leadership Quizlet has grown into a global business and brand that is both recognized and beloved by Gen Z," said Bayer. "I look forward to waking up every day focused on helping millions more students learn and achieve better educational outcomes with the support of personalized and adaptive learning technologies."

Bayer is a resident of the Bay Area and will be based out of Quizlet's headquarters in San Francisco.

About Quizlet

Quizlet is a global learning platform that provides engaging study tools to help people practice and master whatever they are learning. Every month, over 60 million students, teachers and everyday people use Quizlet to study any subject imaginable for school, work or as part of their personal interests -- including 2 in 3 high school students and 1 in 2 college students in the US. Combining cognitive science and machine learning, Quizlet guides students through adaptive study activities to confidently reach their learning goals. The company offers a combination of free and paid subscriptions for both students and teachers that enable further customization. Quizlet is headquartered in San Francisco, California and is backed by Icon Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Altos Ventures. For more information, please visit www.quizlet.com .

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Quizlet
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Unimark Construction in Washington, ACCEND Construction in Illinois, and Skyline Capital Builders in California changed their branded name to Skyline Construction. All three companies are owned by Skyline Enterprises and have operated as sister companies to Skyline Construction for years. The rebrand unifies the companies under the name Skyline Construction, making it easier for clients to identify Skyline teams in all of the locations they serve, including Northern and Southern California, Washington and Illinois.

"This rebrand is really about marrying up our internal and external strategies," said Andy MacGregor, President of Skyline's Chicago office. "Internally, we have always been one company, sharing resources and clients across all geographies. Changing our name and logo to be consistent makes it easier for the commercial real estate community to understand how we operate."

All day-to-day business operations, registered entity names, local teams, and office locations remain the same. Each region will continue to be led by local construction experts who are deeply knowledgeable in their respective market. All Skyline offices will continue to leverage the collective support of Skyline's Corporate Services team, a group of subject matter experts in the fields of construction technology, human resources, legal, finance, safety, branding, sales, IT & data security.

"In Seattle, changing our name to Skyline Construction is the final step in solidifying our acquisition," said Chris Henderson, President of Skyline's Seattle office. "Skyline acquired Unimark back in early 2020 amid the pandemic. Since then, we have been fortunate to share clients and partners between locations, and have benefitted from the organizational infrastructure and financial strength provided by Skyline. This name change comes down to recognizing and valuing that our business and brand are stronger as a unified front than as separate, local brands."

Skyline Construction's roots date back 26 years. The company specializes in building commercial offices, structures, healthcare, hospitality and life science projects across its nine offices. Skyline creates a bespoke project delivery experience due to its focus on people and local market expertise. The company is 100% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan and is poised for further expansion into additional locations nationwide.

About Skyline Construction

Skyline Construction is a people-first organization that specializes in commercial interior construction projects. The company operates nine offices nationally. Skyline is 100% employee-owned and believes in building better outcomes every day. As a $600M company, Skyline is rapidly expanding with the vision that transparency, predictability, and consistency can lead to a better end product. Skyline is proud to be named one of Inc. Magazine and Crain's Chicago Business Best Workplaces in 2022.

SOURCE Skyline Construction
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - As the holiday shopping season rapidly approaches, global IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group has published its newest blueprint, The Retail Store of the Future. The data-backed research is designed to help business and IT leaders identify and capitalize on the customer shopping journey across the Internet of Things (IoT), store technology, infrastructure, and environments; monetize key customer insights; and transform into a "Smart Store Hub."

Understanding the four phases of real-time business intelligence will help retailers respond to rapidly changing consumer in-store and hybrid demands. (CNW Group/Info-Tech Research Group)

"In the last couple of years, retailers have taken extensive steps in setting their stores up to execute e-commerce orders seamlessly," says Rahul Jaiswal, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group. "The main reason for this transformation is the growing demand for easier shopping and quicker delivery. Retailers are working to meet these evolving needs by re-configuring the online-to-offline technology, training staff on new responsibilities, and perfecting curbside pick-up services to be competitive."

With shoppers using technology across several channels to make their purchases, it is crucial for retailers to execute a unified in-store and hybrid customer experience to drive value in today's highly competitive market. This is referred to as "omnichannel," which means increasing the adoption of technology tools and processes within all aspects of an organization. It brings businesses closer to customers by understanding their needs.

"The function of the store is no longer just a channel to display and sell products," adds Jaiswal. "Retail environments now present an opportunity to play a far greater role in promoting the brand, driving innovation, fulfilling orders, and much more. The retail store of the future provides an all-in-one connected experience to transform into a 'Smart Store Hub.'"

Info-Tech suggests organizations follow three steps to capitalize on infrastructure technology and prepare for the future:

Assess infrastructure integration.



Retailers need to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place to support the technologies. Too many retailers struggle to integrate new and emerging technologies into legacy infrastructure, making the customer experience worse. Often, the best decision is to upgrade the entire system to pave the way for the future.



Review service-led support models.



Software and infrastructure technology must be continually adapted to keep up with new technology developments. Associations between retailers and technology partners must shift from transactional installments to service-led support.



Develop a holistic strategy.



Retailers should reconsider all technologies while planning advantage creators. For example, many enterprises do not recognize augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) as vital to their business. However, interest in these areas is accelerating quickly as web 3.0, digital currencies, non- fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse create new prospects for value creation.

Info-Tech also recommends keeping eight best practices in mind as retailers streamline infrastructure and capture the benefits of real-time insights:

One size does not always fit all. Too much complexity leads to waste. Deployment takes a significant investment of time and capital. Costs are difficult to predict. Security must be strong  be prepared for ransomware. Back-up frequently. Manage and support monitoring services. Invest in IT capability at remote sites.

For more detailed information on the three key steps and eight recommended best practices, download the Retail Store of the Future blueprint.

To learn more about Info-Tech Research Group and to download the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading information technology research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals. The company produces unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For 25 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with IT teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and over 200 IT and Industry analysts through the ITRG Media Insiders Program. To gain access, contact [email protected].

SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - RIV Capital Inc. ("RIV Capital" or the "Company") (CSE: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF), an acquisition and investment firm with a focus on building a leading multistate platform with one of the strongest portfolios of brands in key strategic U.S. markets, issued the following statement on New York's gubernatorial election.

Commenting on the recent election results, RIV Capital President and CEO Mark Sims said:

We congratulate Kathy Hochul on her reelection as the governor of New York. With the Empire State set to become one of the most robust cannabis markets in the country, we are confident that Governor Hochul is committed to implementing clear policies and regulations that will create one of the best markets in the country for consumers to access safe, legal cannabis products.

As New York transitions to an adult-use cannabis market, we look forward to working with Governor Hochul to find meaningful solutions that address challenges caused by the state's unlicensed and unregulated market. We believe that addressing enforcement issues in a sensible way will help ensure the health and welfare of consumers and the success of social equity and small business owners.



As one of the fastest-growing job sectors in the U.S., the state's adult-use cannabis market is set to create equitable opportunities for those who have been negatively impacted by failed policies of the past. The market's expansion will also create millions in state tax dollars to fund important state programs and create thousands of livable-wage jobs for New Yorkers.

We look forward to continuing to support Governor Hochul, Office of Cannabis Management and Cannabis Control Board as New York scales its adult-use cannabis market.

About RIV Capital

RIV Capital is building a leading cannabis packaged goods company, with a focus on establishing one of the strongest portfolios of brands in key strategic U.S. markets. Backed by in-house expertise and cannabis domain knowledge, RIV Capital aims to grow its own brands and partner with established U.S. cannabis operators and brands to bring them to new markets and build market share. RIV Capital established the foundational building blocks of its active U.S. strategy with the previously announced acquisition of Etain. Through its strategic relationship with The Hawthorne Collective, Inc. ("The Hawthorne Collective"), a subsidiary of ScottsMiracle-Gro, RIV Capital is The Hawthorne Collective's preferred vehicle for cannabis-related investments not under the purview of other ScottsMiracle-Gro subsidiaries.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of RIV Capital and its portfolio companies 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 the Company's expectations regarding legal cannabis market opportunities in New York, including the possibility of broader reform of state regulations of cannabis in New York and the impacts and anticipated benefits thereof, the Company's strategies, objectives, goals, opportunities and plans; and expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors.

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 RIV Capital 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 RIV Capital or its portfolio companies.

Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: the Company's ability to execute its go-forward strategy; stock market volatility; changes in the business activities, focus and plans of the Company, Etain and the Company's investees and the timing associated therewith; the timing of any changes to federal laws in the U.S. to allow for the general cultivation, distribution, and possession of cannabis; regulatory and licensing risks; changes in cannabis industry growth and trends; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; litigation risks; the global regulatory landscape and enforcement related to cannabis, including political risks and risks relating to regulatory change; risks relating to anti-money laundering laws; compliance with extensive government regulation, including RIV Capital's interpretation of such regulation; public opinion and perception of the cannabis industry; divestiture risks; and the risk factors set out in RIV Capital's management's discussion and analysis dated August 29, 2022 and annual information form dated June 10, 2022 filed with the Canadian securities regulators and available on RIV Capital's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

The Company has invested in and acquired, and intends to in the future invest in and/or acquire, companies that are 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 such operations occur 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 U.S. 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 U.S. federal money laundering legislation.

While the approach to enforcement of such laws by the federal government in the United States has trended toward non-enforcement 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 U.S. 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 RIV Capital 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. RIV Capital does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

SOURCE RIV Capital Inc.
LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has partnered with Content With Purpose (CWP) to produce a digital series exploring the intrinsic role of planning in tackling climate change and paving the way to a sustainable future.

Representatives from across the planning ecosystem came together on 8 November, World Town Planning Day, to celebrate the launch of ' Planning for Tomorrow's Environment' at the Barbican.

The series features comments from experts including Timothy Crawshaw MA MRTPI FRSA, President of the RTPI, Karime Hassan, Chief Executive Officer at Exeter City Futures, and Emily Braham, Director at Energiesprong UK, as well as stories from organisations who are prioritising net zero and climate resilience in planning for a sustainable future.

Organisations featured include; Atkins, the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, Chapman Taylor Architects, the Landscape Decisions Programme, Ramboll, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments at UWE Bristol, and Wates Developments (part of the Wates Group).

Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of the RTPI, said: "Planners are crucial in embedding solutions to climate change - from net zero transport to urban greening. We are delighted to partner with CWP to celebrate collaboration, research, skills and innovation in tackling this existential threat, and we hope the series inspires all planners and adjacent professions to embed climate action across their work."

Max Smith, Managing Director, CWP, said: "In tackling the climate and ecological emergency, planning is one of the most potent tools at our disposal. Planners are a connecting force, and when properly leveraged can be a superb enabler. It's been a pleasure to tell their stories and raise awareness of their vital contribution to a positive future."

Find out more:

planningfortomorrow.rtpi.org.uk

#planning4tomorrow

About RTPI

The RTPI is the largest professional body for town planners in the UK and Europe and represents around 27,000 members in over 80 countries worldwide. The Institute has been shaping planning policy and raising professional standards for over 100 years and is the only body in the UK to confer Chartered status to planners, the highest professional qualification. www.rtpi.org.uk

About CWP

Content With Purpose (CWP) is a strategic content creator that works in partnership with leading member bodies and associations; engaging professionals on their industries' contribution to solving the climate and ecological crisis.

www.contentwithpurpose.co.uk

Contact

Ashley Lampard, Communications Officer, RTPI

020 7929 8330

[email protected]

SOURCE Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
Demand for Farm Produce free of Contamination and Abreast with Hygiene to drive the Agricultural Testing Market, reaching US$ 8 Bn by the year 2032. North America is expected to hold the highest share in the Global Agriculture Testing Services Market

NEWARK, Del., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global agricultural testing services market stands at US$ 5 Bn in the present scenario and is expected to reach US$ 8 Bn by the year 2032 at a CAGR of 6-7% between 2022 and 2032.



Agricultural testing services, apart from determination of contamination level of soil, help in gauging composition and various other characteristics like pH level or acidity. Soil test could help in defining level of fertility and requirement of trace elements of soil of given type.

With countries like the US, Australia, Canada, and the EU coming up with mechanisms strongly emphasizing on monitoring policies with stern enforcement for attaining higher transparency in supply chain and ascertaining traceability, the agricultural testing services market is bound to grow unabated in the years to come.

At the same time, the fact that many regions are lacking in co-ordination between stakeholders and supporting infrastructure could restrain the agricultural testing services market. Future Market Insights has entailed these facts with future perspectives in its latest market study entitled 'Agricultural Testing Services Market'. IT has its analysts and consultants to execute.

Request a Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-9757

Key Takeaways from Agricultural Testing Services Market

North America holds the largest market share with agencies like the US FDA and USDA focusing on making study as well as assessment of the crops mandatory, especially the ones yielded using genetic engineering process at the commercial level. Of late, the FDA has proposed revising Subpart E of FSMA (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act) Produce Safety Rule for changing pre-harvest farming water requirements for the covered yield (apart from sprouts). As per the proposed requirements, the covered farms are needed to undertake pre-harvest farming water assessments once in a year, and on occurrence of change, the anticipated hazard would be informed of. ISTA (International Seed Testing Association) comes across as one of the international organizations aiming to develop, and later on, publish the standard procedures in seed testing.

holds the largest market share with agencies like the US FDA and USDA focusing on making study as well as assessment of the crops mandatory, especially the ones yielded using genetic engineering process at the commercial level. Of late, the FDA has proposed revising Subpart E of FSMA (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act) Produce Safety Rule for changing pre-harvest farming water requirements for the covered yield (apart from sprouts). As per the proposed requirements, the covered farms are needed to undertake pre-harvest farming water assessments once in a year, and on occurrence of change, the anticipated hazard would be informed of. ISTA (International Seed Testing Association) comes across as one of the international organizations aiming to develop, and later on, publish the standard procedures in seed testing. Coming to the Asia-Pacific , India rules the roost due to it being an agrarian economy. Also, companies like Intertek India launched a novel AgriTech laboratory in Hyderabad ( India ) to assess agri-biotech, plant seeds, and likewise.

Competitive Landscape

Agilent Technologies Inc., in November 2020 , did announce that it had collaborated with SGS for releasing a new-fangled GC/TQ method, called SGS AXYS Method 16130. The US EPA approved it as an alternative method for detection and regulation of toxins in future. The dioxins come across as a constellation of the chemical compounds looked upon as persistent environmental pollutants, thereby making a beeline to food chain.

, did announce that it had collaborated with SGS for releasing a new-fangled GC/TQ method, called SGS AXYS Method 16130. The US EPA approved it as an alternative method for detection and regulation of toxins in future. The dioxins come across as a constellation of the chemical compounds looked upon as persistent environmental pollutants, thereby making a beeline to food chain. SGS, in October 2018 , did announce expanding global capabilities through introducing the methods of plant tissue, irrigation water, and soil testing along with fertilizer recommendation services for the market of China .

, did announce expanding global capabilities through introducing the methods of plant tissue, irrigation water, and soil testing along with fertilizer recommendation services for the market of . Eurofins, in October 2018 , completed acquisition of EnvironeX ( Canada ). The company thus strengthened the foothold in agrifood testing market.

, completed acquisition of EnvironeX ( ). The company thus strengthened the foothold in agrifood testing market. Eurofins, in January 2018 , completed acquisition of Tsing Hua Testing & Analysis Co., Ltd. The latter was known for agricultural and environmental testing for soil and water. Eurofins thus started making its presence felt in Vietnam through this acquisition.

Browse Full Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/agricultural-testing-services-market

"With growing adoption of advanced technologies to assess fertilizers and soil, the global agricultural testing services market is bound to witness grandeur in the upcoming period", says an analyst from Future Market Insights.

Key Segments Profiled in the Agricultural Testing Services Market Survey

By Service Type:

Soil Testing Service

Seed Testing Service

Water Testing Service

Fertilizer Testing Service

By Analysis Type:

Physical Analysis

Chemical Analysis

By End User:

Farmers

Agriculture Consultant

Fertilizers Manufacturers

Research Bodies

Others

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)

excluding (APEJ) Japan

Middle East and Africa

Ask an Analyst @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-9757

Table of Content

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Global Market Outlook

1.2. Demand-side Trends

1.3. Supply-side Trends

1.4. Technology Roadmap Analysis

1.5. Analysis and Recommendations

2. Market Overview

2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy

2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations

3. Market Background

4. Global Agricultural Testing Services Market Analysis 2017-2021 and Forecast, 2022-2032

Report [email protected] https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/agricultural-testing-services-market

What does the Report test?

Future Market Insights offers an exclusive perspective and various real-time insights on the agricultural testing services market in its latest study, presenting historical demand assessment of 2016  2021 and projections for 2022  2032.

The research study is based on service type (soil testing service, seed testing service, water testing service, and fertilizer testing service), by analysis type (physical analysis and chemical analysis), by end-user (farmers, agriculture consultant, fertilizers' manufacturers, research bodies, and likewise).

Agricultural testing does help in the analysis of proper input requirements as well as resources needed for supplementing plant growth. This realization is bound to catalyze the agricultural testing services market going forward.

Have a Look at Related Reports of Testing Equipment Domain

Optical Comparator Market Share: The demand for optical comparator is increasing in the manufacturing industry as they eliminate the errors during manufacturing processes and increase the products lifecycle.

Microplate Readers Market Size: Microplate readers are economic and hence, an attractive choice for customers. Also, their attractive features make them ideal for absorbance readers and microplate washers.

Flow Cytometer Market Trends: The demand for flow cytometer is increasing from research and clinical laboratories due to its unique functionalities such as tracking particle or cell properties.

Specific Gravity Bench Apparatus Market Outlook: Increase in the number of smart city projects which requires the building of transportation infrastructure and other such sites include the use of specific gravity testing of aggregates with the help of specific gravity bench apparatus.

Laboratory Ovens Market Demand: The provision of enhanced healthcare capabilities by the U.S. government is expected to propel the laboratory ovens market in North America.

Gas Chromatography Systems Market Growth: Increasing investments by governments related to chromatography technologies, coupled with increasing collaborations between chromatography manufacturers and research laboratories, is a major factor driving the growth of the gas chromatography systems market.

Floor Scales Market Type: The increasing integration of software and accessories with floor scales has been witnessed to be the recent trend, which is also contributing to the growth of the global floor scales market in terms of value.

Creep and Stress Rupture Testers Market Analysis Forecast: The increasing usage of creep and stress rupture testers for modelling long-term applications that are strain limited is the primary factor driving the growth of the creep and stress rupture testers market.

Bench Scale Market Sale: The bench scale market is expected to witness substantial growth during the forecast period due to an increase in the usage of bench scales in the food, shipping, chemical, retail, medical and pharmaceutical industries.

Nutating Mixers Market Value: Nutating mixers are ubiquitously used in pharmaceutical and biotechnology facilities, industrial shops, medical testing labs, and private & university research labs, and therefore, the nutating mixers market is projected to witness robust growth during the forecast period.

About Future Market Insights, Inc.

Future Market Insights, Inc. is an ESOMAR-certified business consulting & market research firm, a member of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and is headquartered in Delaware, USA. A recipient of Clutch Leaders Award 2022 on account of high client score (4.9/5), we have been collaborating with global enterprises in their business transformation journey and helping them deliver on their business ambitions. 80% of the largest Forbes 1000 enterprises are our clients. We serve global clients across all leading & niche market segments across all major industries.

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Browse latest Market Reports: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1197648/FMI_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Future Market Insights
Tribe Doubles Annual Donation to Organizations Serving Veterans

JAMUL, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Chair Nathan Fletcher and Supervisor Joel Anderson of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors will join Jamul Casino and the Jamul Indian Village of California Tribe to commemorate Veterans Day with an exclusive event at Jamul Casino. This sixth annual luncheon pays tribute to the 53 members of the Tribe and Jamul Casino team who have served in the military. The event will also feature check presentations to veterans' organizations: Saddles in Service and Zero8hundred. The annual Veterans Day luncheon is part of the Tribe and Jamul Casino's commitment to recognize the courageous work of individuals and organizations making a difference in the San Diego community.

Today, San Diego County Supervisors Joel Anderson and Chair Nathan Fletcher will join Jamul Casino and the Jamul Indian Village Tribe in honoring veterans.

Erica M. Pinto, Chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village, states, "Native Americans have a long history of military service, and at a higher rate than any other demographic. This event offers the Tribe an opportunity to honor this legacy, and to thank our Jamul Casino veterans. For the first time this year, the Tribe is doubling its annual Veterans Day donation by offering two checks for $10,000 each to local organizations serving veterans. Both recipients this yearSaddles in Service and Zero8hundredare doing heroic work for our veterans, changing one life at a time. We're truly honored to be able to recognize their service and those who have fought so bravely."

According to Jon Simkins and Claire Barrett of the Military Times, Native Americans have served in the US armed forces at a higher rate than any other group. Since 9/11, nearly 19 percent of all Native Americans have served in the military, in comparison to an average of 14 percent of all other ethnicities.

Saddles in Service

Founded in 2017 in Alpine, CA, Saddles in Service promotes mental health wellness and healing of veterans, active-duty military, and first responders through equine-assisted activities. Heroes and their families who have been diagnosed with or are experiencing symptoms related to post-traumatic stress (PTSD), anxiety, depression, job-related stress, and/or traumatic brain injuries are partnered with a rescue horse to help them rediscover their joy, hope, confidence, and purpose. The highly successful program has served nearly 700 heroes and adopted 27 healing horses.

Zero8hundred

The goal of Zero8hundred is to ease the transition from military to civilian life. Formed in January 2014 by a collaborative of more than 100 San Diego County public, private and military leaders and organizations, Zero8hundred matches transitioning personnel one-on-one with a Resource & Outreach Specialist. This individual helps identify each veterans' unique needs and connect them to organizations and resources to meet those needs in the areas of employment, education, basic needs, health and well-being, and social/community connections. Since becoming an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization in January 2019, Zero8hundred has linked over 4,500 transitioning servicemembers and their spouses to community resources and opportunities in San Diego, Riverside, Imperial and Orange Counties.

President and General Manager of Jamul Casino, Mary Cheeks, states, "We're so proud of our service members and veterans, and thankful for the sacrifices they have made in defending our freedoms and way of life. Our annual Veterans Day luncheon offers a special recognition to the heroes who live and work among us, and a way to thank the organizations who are supporting those heroes."

About Jamul Casino

Opened in 2016, the Jamul Casino is located in Jamul, California, San Diego County, and is owned and operated by Jamul Indian Village Development Corporation (JIVDC), a wholly owned enterprise of the Tribe. The $430 million, award-winning casino features nearly 1,700 slot machines, 46 live table games, a dedicated poker room, and various restaurants, bars and lounges. Jamul Casino supports 1,200 permanent jobs in the region and is the closest casino to downtown San Diego, which is the eighth-largest city in the United States by population. For more information about Jamul Casino, please visit www.jamulcasinosd.com.

Media Contact: Beth Binger

BCIpr

619-987-6658

[email protected]

* Images from today available per request

SOURCE The Jamul Indian Village of California; Jamul Casino
The report includes an EP&L assessment, an analysis of Scotch & Soda's progress in generating positive change for the planet and its people based on the values of the free spirit of Amsterdam

Through its material sourcing strategy, Scotch & Soda has been able to implement more organic, recycled and regenerative materials in the reporting year, resulting in a reduced water footprint whilst aiming to decouple impact from business growth

AMSTERDAM, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fashion brand Scotch & Soda shares its Impact Report for the financial year 2021/2022, revealing the company's progress in generating positive change for the planet and its people based on the values of the free spirit of Amsterdam, the company's home city. The report includes the company's Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) assessment1 calculated over the last 2 years, carried out in partnership with Sustainalize, a new generation of sustainability specialists based in the Netherlands.

Related Documents View PDF Scotch & Soda Impact Report

Scotch & Soda's revenue rose to 342,5 million in the reporting year, a 23% year-to-year increase, accompanied by a 34% increase in produced material volumes. With its EP&L assessment at the core of its sustainability strategy, Scotch & Soda considers the environmental impact it causes through its direct and indirect company activities, from raw material production until the end-of-life of a product, translated into a monetary value. Based on this, the company takes accountability over a total EP&L impact of 47,1 million, a 36% increase against last year's impact, which is substantiated by the overall growth of sales, the expansion of the assessment scope to include licensee products, the replacement of average market data with enriched actual data, and the daily company operations that support the sales growth.

The EP&L assessment reveals that most of the environmental impact of Scotch & Soda is caused by the selection of materials it uses in the collections and occurs in the stage of raw material production, mainly caused by greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and water use. Looking at the EP&L's Material Intensity metric it shows an increase of only +1% of the impact per kilogram of produced material against an absolute total EP&L increase of +36%. In regards to reducing water consumption  a key element of the company's strategy  the Water Intensity metric reveals that on an average 1,4 cubic metres is needed to produce 1 kilogram of material, a -5% decrease in comparison to last year's water footprint. These steps positively demonstrate that through Scotch & Soda's current material sourcing strategy, which further extends and scales up its uptake of organic, recycled or regenerative materials, the company sets measurable objectives to ultimately decouple the growth of business from the corresponding environmental degradation.

Frederick Lukoff, CEO of Scotch & Soda, comments: "Sustainability has become an essential part of Scotch & Soda's strategy in the last couple of years, inspired by the values of the free spirit of Amsterdam. One of our top priorities as a team is to run our business with greater sensitivity to people and the planet, by making more responsible choices that reduce our environmental footprint. I am thrilled that this year we start seeing the positive results of the strategy that we have been implementing. Even if we have a long way to go, we can now measure our impact and follow a clear roadmap for the upcoming years. We are looking forward to sustaining this positive trend, and further decouple impact from sales in the future."

Scotch & Soda acknowledges the fact that it operates in an industry driven by consumption and the extraction of natural resources. At the same time, through innovations and cross-industry collaborations, the company continues to take steps to a turning point of making a positive impact. The introduction of the EP&L and the brand's second Impact Report marks an important milestone in Scotch & Soda's sustainability journey to generate positive change for the planet and its people, and sets the foundation for the enrolment of its long-term strategy, set to launch in the beginning of 2023. The long-term strategy will represent a roadmap reflecting the company's biggest ambitions, as well as a range of comprehensive targets across multiple areas Scotch & Soda aims to achieve by 2030.

Jelle de Jong, Sustainability Director at Scotch & Soda, comments: "We have implemented the EP&L at the core of our sustainability strategy to generate a 360-degree understanding of our environmental footprint across the entire value chain, from cradle to grave. These insights support us in having maximum impact in those areas that need it the most, and allow us to establish measurable and time-bound objectives. This approach goes hand-in-hand with our work of obtaining full product traceability down to the stage of raw material production, giving us the opportunity to deal with social and environmental challenges that fit the needs of a specific location."

Misha Elkerbout, Senior Consultant of Corporate Sustainability at Sustainalize, adds: "Sustainalize is thrilled to have partnered with Scotch & Soda and to have created an environmental profit & loss together. EP&L information is essential in understanding the total impact an organization has on the environment. When an organization understands its overall environmental impact, it is better equipped to manage it and become a sustainable company. When using Sustainalize's EP&L methods, Scotch & Soda's relies on the most up-to-date science, data and methodologies to steer the company to become even more sustainable."

Fact Sheet

342,5 million in sales revenue

47.1 million in environmental damage

3.9 million kilograms of textile materials used

5.6 million cubic metres of water consumed

81.8 million kilograms of Co2-eq emitted in operations

274 branded retail stores

1,687 global employees (63% female, 37% male)

57 different nationalities within the global workforce

292 Tier 1 and Tier 2 factories

73,254 Tier 1 and Tier 2 supply chain workers

127,614 trees planted to restore forests and native biodiversity

1.01 million in donations

Full Report

Please click here to access and download the full Scotch & Soda's Impact Report for the reporting year 2021/2022.

Visual Assets

Please click here to download a selection of Scotch & Soda visual assets.

(Photo credit: "Courtesy of Scotch & Soda")

About Sustainalize

Sustainalize is new generation of sustainability specialists that supports organisations by engineering solutions to various sustainability issues and connecting these to the business strategy, enabling the development of suitable and tailor-made sustainability strategies.

As part of the ERM group, Sustainalize also helps organisations identify and understand their impact, by making it measurable, comprehensible and transparent. Lastly, Sustainalize helps organisations engage with their key stakeholders by optimally utilising knowledge of regulations, integrated reporting and communication.

For more information, please visit: www.sustainalize.com

About Scotch & Soda

Born in Amsterdam, Scotch & Soda celebrates the free spirit of its birth city. Endlessly optimistic, the brand champions individuality, authenticity and the power of self-expression to create the unique  an attitude reflected in its designs. The Scotch & Soda collections include menswear, womenswear, kidswear, denim, eyewear, fragrances and accessories, occupying a unique space in today's global fashion landscape.

Collections can currently be found in 274 freestanding stores across Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, as well as in 7,000 doors in some of the world's biggest cities, including New York, London and Paris. The brand's online operations also ship to over 70 countries.

For more information, please visit: www.scotch-soda.com

1 EP&L (Environmental Profit and Loss) is a natural capital measurement model designed to give valuable and precise insight into the impact a company has across the full life cycle of its products and its entire value chain looking at the emission of greenhouse gasses and the use and pollution of land, water and air.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941607/Scotch_Soda_Logo.jpg

PDF - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941588/Scotch_Soda_Impact_Report.pdf

Media enquiries

Daniel Urrutia | Communications Director | [email protected]

SOURCE Scotch & Soda
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sense executives will be speaking at two panels during BECC 2022, the annual Behavior Energy and Climate Change conference, where social scientists, practitioners, utilities, academics, governments, businesses, and non-profits come together to share and disseminate best practices and research to encourage behavior change for energy and carbon reduction.

This year's conference has adopted the theme "Engaging All Voices," and asks the question: "How do we motivate people to act sustainably?" During the conference, Sense experts will share insights from real-world projects that demonstrate how utility customers and homeowners can be engaged to adopt more sustainable practices at home, both in response to demand flexibility programs and in their daily lives.

Since residential energy use accounts for about 21% of U.S. energy consumption , consumer actions have a big impact on managing the resilience of the grid and achieving net zero. Sense research has demonstrated that real-time insights that give people immediate feedback on their actions can prompt impactful levels of behavior change and drive time and location specific demand flexibility. Delivering those insights in a free mobile app makes energy insightsand savingsavailable to everyone equitably.

Colin Gibbs, VP Energy Services at Sense, and George Zavaliagkos, VP Technology at Sense, will share insights from a joint study with OhmConnect aimed at eliciting higher demand response savings by users of the Sense smart home app. In demand flexibility tests in California, average home energy usage decreased by 18% and average home energy savings increased by 160% over a typical customer.

Lea Lupkin, Senior Solutions Lead at Sense, will discuss what utilities can learn from the loyalty industry about cultivating trust in the grid of the future. She will share how some utilities are proactively exploring loyalty programs as grid modernization takes place.

Panel topic: "Customers as the Gateway to Decarbonization"

When: Tuesday, November 15th at 10:30 am

Speakers: Lea Lupkin, Senior Solution Lead

Panel topic: "Achieving Higher Demand Response Savings"

When: Wednesday, November 16 at 8:30 am

Speakers: Colin Gibbs, Vice President, Energy Services; George Zavaliagkos, Vice President, Technology; Emilie Tullis, Vice President, Partnerships at OhmConnect

About Sense

Sense's mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by making homes smarter and more efficient. We empower people to care for their homes and families while contributing to a cleaner, more resilient future. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs.

A decarbonized, digitized grid and the electrification of homes and vehicles is the most viable path to reducing the carbon impact of homes and transportation. Consumers will play a crucial role in this energy transition. Sense has partnered with next generation meter manufacturers such as Landis+Gyr to give people real-time insights that drive engagement and prompt actions that lower costs and energy usage. By bringing Sense intelligence to millions of homes, in partnership with energy providers, we are helping people and the grid evolve to address climate change. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit sense.com.

SOURCE Sense
RESTON, Va., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SOSi, a leader in delivering transformational, mission-critical technology solutions to the U.S. government, has named Kyle Fox as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

SOSi Chief Technology Officer Kyle Fox

Fox will be responsible for developing and implementing SOSi's internal and external corporate technology strategy to support a diverse business portfolio in the Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and Federal Civilian agencies. His focus will be on strengthening SOSi's own cybersecurity posture and ensuring SOSi's competitive differentiation in the government technology market.

SOSi specializes in digital transformation, cyber, and C4ISR. It is widely recognized for its support to the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and U.S. Air Force Mission Partner Capability Office (MPCO). The company implements local, cloud-based and hybrid Zero Trust communication networks and recently established a modern DevSecOps capability for the development of secure multi-cloud data fabric solutions in support of global DoD network architecture requirements.

Prior to joining SOSi, Kyle was the Chief Software Officer (CSO) for the U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapon Center ICBM modernization program where he led the hardware/software technology development for the latest hypersonics, supply chain security, secure computing, power grid resiliency, quantum resistant encryption, Cloud, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Kyle also served as the Chief Software Engineer for the $96B U.S. Air Force Sentinel (GBSD) ICBM modernization program, where he was responsible for more than 1000 software engineers and spearheaded the development of the first cloud native nuclear weapon system program and the first major weapon system in the DoD to leverage a complete DevSecOps delivery methodology.

"Kyle's experience leading many of DoD's largest and most critical technology R&D and modernization programs, together with his cyber expertise, are going to help us deliver cutting edge products and solutions that make us more competitive," said SOSi CEO, Julian Setian. "I look forward to pushing the boundaries of technology to drive dynamic growth for the company."

ABOUT SOSi

SOSi is a leading, privately owned technology and services integrator. Founded in 1989, SOSi provides mission-critical engineering, intelligence and logistics solutions to the U.S. government and commercial customers. We rise to every challenge, managing many of our nation's most critical programs around the globe. Visit sosi.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for news and updates.

SOURCE SOS International LLC (SOSi)
The Roanoke HVAC company will donate and install a new heating system to a deserving military member or veteran as part of the yearly program

ROANOKE, Va., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Trust Home Services, a leading electrical, HVAC and plumbing company serving southwest Virginia, is currently accepting nominations through Nov. 30 for its annual Heat for a Hero program, a campaign created to provide an adequate heating system to a deserving active military member or veteran in the Roanoke area each winter.

Southern Trust Home Services will donate and install a new heating system to a deserving military member or veteran as part of its annual Heat for a Hero program.

"Those actively serving in the armed forces and veterans of our military are heroes who have protected our freedoms and preserved our way of life," said Ted Puzio, owner of Southern Trust Home Services. "Heat for a Hero is our way of giving back to these deserving servicemen and women who may need a little help in the winter. They've sacrificed so much so that we may have the opportunity to live safe, comfortable lives, and the least we can do is help them live comfortably during the holidays."

The Heat for a Hero campaign asks that Roanoke area residents submit confidential nominations for either a deserving active-duty military member or veteran who could benefit from a new heating system. Southern Trust will not only donate the system, it will also install the unit for free.

Each nomination is carefully considered by Southern Trust's leadership team, and one recipient is chosen. Southern Trust's expert technicians will determine the best system for the winner's home and needs. The company plans to install the system prior to this Christmas holiday.

"This time of year can be challenging for many people, including our servicemen and women," Puzio said. "While many of us are enjoying family and festivities during this season, too many are struggling with how they will stay warm this winter. We want to make a difference in the life of a deserving military member or veteran so they won't have to face that challenge."

To nominate a candidate, southern Virginians are asked to fill out the form located at https://www.southerntrusthomeservices.com/heat-for-a-hero/. Nominations will be accepted through Nov. 30.

For more information on winter prep or to inquire about services, please contact Southern Trust Home Services at (540) 343-4348 or visit www.southerntrusthomeservices.com.

About Southern Trust Home Services

Founded in 1995 as Southern State Electric, Southern Trust Home Services provides residential plumbing, electrical HVAC services, drain cleaning and one day bath remodel services, including 24/7 emergency repairs, to homeowners in more than 60 cities throughout southwest Virginia. Roanoke's first to offer a lifetime guarantee on all recommended repairs, Southern Trust Home Services staffs dedicated, certified, licensed and insured, drug and criminal background checked technicians who provide timely, same-day services for a variety of home repairs, installations, and maintenance. An A Better Business Bureau accredited company since 2006, Southern Trust Home Services has financing available including 0 percent for 18 months, and Lifetime Repair Guarantee on stated repairs. To find out more, call 540-343-4348 or visit www.southerntrusthomeservices.com .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

865-977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE Southern Trust Home Services
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The specialty coffee shops market size is expected to grow by USD 68.59 billion. In addition, the growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a CAGR of 13.02% during the forecast period, according to Technavio. This growth will be driven by factors such as the increasing consumption of coffee. In addition, the growing demand for premium and specialty coffee is anticipated to boost the growth of the specialty coffee shops market. Make confident decisions using our insights and analysis. Download FREE Sample Report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Specialty Coffee Shops Market 2023-2027

Major Specialty Coffee Shops Companies and their Offerings

Brew Berrys Hospitality Pvt Ltd. - The company offers specialty coffee shops to gain a big share of the ever-growing coffee consumption market.

Caffe Nero Group Ltd. - The company offers specialty coffee shops to offer coffee, roastery, and food.

Coffee Beanery - The company offers specialty coffee shops for flavored coffee.

Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. - The company offers specialty coffee shops such as e-shops, local retailers, and mobile shops.

Doutor Coffee Co. Ltd. - The company offers specialty coffee shops to serve freshly ground and freshly brewed coffee using fresh roasted beans.

Caribou Coffee Operating Co. Inc.

Costa Ltd.

Ediya Co. Ltd.

Gloria Jeans Coffees International Pty Ltd.

Grupo Herdez SAB de CV

Inspire Brands Inc.

Keurig Green Mountain Inc.

La Colombe Torrefaction Inc.

Luckin Coffee Inc.

McDonald Corp.

MTY Food Group Inc

Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Barista Coffee Co. Ltd.

BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE Inc.

Starbucks Co.

Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights! Subscribe to our Basic Plan billed annually at USD 5000

Specialty Coffee Shops Market Type Outlook (Revenue, USD billion, 2022-2027)

Independent coffee shops - size and forecast 2022-2027

Chain coffee shops - size and forecast 2022-2027

Specialty Coffee Shops Market Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD billion, 2022-2027)

Offline - size and forecast 2022-2027

Online - size and forecast 2022-2027

Specialty Coffee Shops Market Geography Outlook (Revenue, USD billion, 2022-2027)

North America - size and forecast 2022-2027

- size and forecast 2022-2027 Europe - size and forecast 2022-2027

- size and forecast 2022-2027 APAC - size and forecast 2022-2027

South America - size and forecast 2022-2027

- size and forecast 2022-2027 Middle East and Africa - size and forecast 2022-2027

Learn about the contribution of each segment summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View a FREE PDF Sample Report

Revenue-generating Type Segments

The independent coffee shops segment will be a significant contributor to market growth during the forecast period. The rising popularity of gourmet coffee shops among the urban population is encouraging vendors to expand their businesses. The growth momentum of the independent coffee shops segment is expected to accelerate during the forecast period.

Market Drivers

The increasing consumption of coffee is driving the specialty coffee shops market growth. The rising demand for coffee has increased growth opportunities for vendors. The vendors are focusing on the introduction of new flavors, product diversification, and brand extensions. Every year, an average consumer in the US consumes an estimated 363 cups of coffee, while an average consumer in the UK consumes approximately 250 cups. The consumption of coffee in developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil has also increased significantly. Hence, the increasing consumption of coffee across the world is expected to fuel the demand for specialty coffee shops during the forecast period.

Technavio has identified key trends, drivers, and challenges in the report, which will help vendors improve their strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. Buy Now for detailed information about market dynamics

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Specialty Coffee Shops Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 13.02% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 68.59 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 12.33 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 42% Key consumer countries US, Canada, China, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Barista Coffee Co. Ltd., Global Orange Development LLC, BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE Inc., Brew Berrys Hospitality Pvt Ltd., Caffe Nero Group Ltd., Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd., Costa Ltd., Doutor Coffee Co. Ltd., Dutch Mafia LLC, Ediya Co. Ltd., Gloria Jeans Coffees International Pty Ltd., Grupo Herdez SAB de CV, Inspire Brands Inc., JAB Holding Co. Sarl, McDonald Corp., MTY Food Group Inc., Redroaster Coffee Co., Starbucks Coffee Co., International Coffee & Tea LLC, and Restaurant Brands International Inc. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, 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 Discretionary 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 ($ million)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 18: Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors in 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 Independent coffee shops - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Independent coffee shops - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Independent coffee shops - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Independent coffee shops - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Independent coffee shops - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Chain coffee shops - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Chain coffee shops - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Chain coffee shops - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Chain coffee shops - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Chain coffee shops - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by Type ($ million)

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 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 42: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 43: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 44: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 45: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

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 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 50: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 52: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 56: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 60: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 62: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 64: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.9 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 66: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 68: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 69: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.10 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 72: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 73: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 82: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 83: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 84: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 85: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 86: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 87: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 88: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 Barista Coffee Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 89: Barista Coffee Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 90: Barista Coffee Co. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 91: Barista Coffee Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.4 Brew Berrys Hospitality Pvt Ltd.

Exhibit 92: Brew Berrys Hospitality Pvt Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 93: Brew Berrys Hospitality Pvt Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 94: Brew Berrys Hospitality Pvt Ltd. - Key offerings

10.5 Caffe Nero Group Ltd.

Exhibit 95: Caffe Nero Group Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 96: Caffe Nero Group Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 97: Caffe Nero Group Ltd. - Key offerings

10.6 Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd.

Exhibit 98: Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 99: Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 100: Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. - Segment focus

10.7 Costa Ltd.

Exhibit 102: Costa Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 103: Costa Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 104: Costa Ltd. - Key offerings

10.8 Inspire Brands Inc.

Exhibit 105: Inspire Brands Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 106: Inspire Brands Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 107: Inspire Brands Inc. - Key offerings

10.9 McDonald Corp.

Exhibit 108: McDonald Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 109: McDonald Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 110: McDonald Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 111: McDonald Corp. - Key offerings

10.10 MTY Food Group Inc.

Exhibit 112: MTY Food Group Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 113: MTY Food Group Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 114: MTY Food Group Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 115: MTY Food Group Inc. - Segment focus

10.11 Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Exhibit 116: Restaurant Brands International Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 117: Restaurant Brands International Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 118: Restaurant Brands International Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 119: Restaurant Brands International Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 120: Restaurant Brands International Inc. - Segment focus

10.12 Starbucks Coffee Co.

Exhibit 121: Starbucks Coffee Co. - Overview



Exhibit 122: Starbucks Coffee Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 123: Starbucks Coffee Co. - Key news



Exhibit 124: Starbucks Coffee Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 125: Starbucks Coffee Co. - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 126: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 127: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 128: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 129: Research methodology



Exhibit 130: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 131: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 132: List of abbreviations

About Technavio

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.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/



SOURCE Technavio
NOVI, Mich., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stoneridge, Inc. (NYSE: SRI) today announced that Jon DeGaynor, president and chief executive officer, and Matt Horvath, chief financial officer, will participate in the Stephens Annual Investment Conference with a fire-side chat at 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. Details on how to join the presentation via webcast will be posted to the "Investors/Webcasts & Presentations" section of the Company's website (www.stoneridge.com) prior to the presentation. In addition to the presentation, Stoneridge will host on-site demonstrations in a MirrorEye-equipped truck to showcase the system's safety benefits and capabilities.

About Stoneridge, Inc.

Stoneridge, Inc., headquartered in Novi, Michigan, is a global designer and manufacturer of highly engineered electrical and electronic components, modules and systems for the automotive, commercial, off-highway and agricultural vehicle markets. Additional information about Stoneridge can be found at Stoneridge.com.

SOURCE Stoneridge, Inc.
77% of brands are missing their greatest opportunity to meet subscription service revenue targets: AI and ML

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Intellimize, the first and only programmatic conversion rate optimization platform (CRO), today released a co-branded eTail study, 'How Brands Can Succeed In The Subscription Economy.'

As many as 75% of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are predicted to have a subscription based offering by 20231. The study found that scaling personalization for every visitor, using AI and machine learning, will provide these brands the greatest opportunity to stand out and efficiently achieve their revenue targets.

Intellimize partnered with WBR Insights and eTail to release a study on 'How Brands Can Succeed In The Subscription Economy.'

The study indicated that subscription services are growing in popularity as consumers seek simplified ways to streamline their shopping and repurchasing process. As DTC brands seek better ways to support their customer's subscription needs and remain competitive in the highly saturated marketplace, more than three-quarters are missing a critical piece to enable them to scale the exceptional customer experiences that will be required.

"Subscription models provide higher customer lifetime value (LTV), but all too often, as marketers we put these programs on auto-pilot. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, like Intellimize, deliver a competitive advantage to brands which enables them to personalize customer engagement and overall experience, resulting in a higher lifetime value, " said Tracy Sestili, VP of Marketing at Intellimize.

Despite 90% of respondents having existing website conversion rate optimization (CRO) programs and 70% of respondents reporting success through personalization, only 23% of them are using AI or ML to help scale their CRO and personalization efforts for every visitor.

The study's respondents stated AI will likely deliver "essential competitiveness" for brands in the future, as well as "a higher engagement rate and better subscription turnover". Other respondents believe AI will be central for supporting "gamification models" as well as more "sophisticated" customer experiences.

Several of the respondents agree that AI offers the most promising future for their subscription sites, especially in terms of personalization. As one marketing department head from a toys and hobbies brand put it, "Artificial Intelligence-supported customer engagement features will provide wider opportunities for new customer acquisitions, journey analysis, and customized experiences every time."

Download the full report: How Brands Can Succeed In The Subscription Economy

CONTACT:

Tracy Sestili, 650-504-2164, [email protected]

About Intellimize

Intellimize enables companies to get the most out of their website by converting more of their traffic into results they care about like more revenue, more customers, and more leads to sales. The first and only programmatic CRO platform, Intellimize powers high converting websites by combining advanced machine learning and marketers' creative ideas to optimize website experiences for each unique visitor every time, even on first page view for anonymized visitors. Conversion-obsessed marketers at Okta, Sumo Logic, Gong, Tableau, Dermalogica, Drift, and more use Intellimize to ensure no ad dollar is wasted. Intellimize is backed by Cobalt Capital, Addition, Amplify Partners, Homebrew, and Precursor Ventures. Learn more on the Intellimize website or follow them on LinkedIn , Twitter , or Facebook .

1 Moore, Kaleigh. "Retail Subscriptions Thrive During COVID-19." July 15th, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/

SOURCE Intellimize
Collaborative effort highlights integration of AI into radiology workflow

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Subtle Medical, Inc. announced today that it will take part in the Imaging Artificial Intelligence in Practice (IAIP) demonstration to be held November 27  30 at the 108th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA 2022), the world's leading annual imaging forum, at McCormick Place in Chicago.

The IAIP demo is a showcase of new AI technologies and integration standards needed to embed AI into the diagnostic radiology workflow. The interactive exhibit will enable attendees to learn what is possible, identify the right questions to ask, and learn how to introduce and scale AI into their radiology practices.

Using real-world clinical scenarios involving both emergent and long-term care, 19 vendors with 30 products will walk RSNA 2022 meeting attendees through the exhibit to see AI tools and health information technology standards in action.

The demonstration highlights steps in the radiology workflow where AI can assist the radiologist and improve the efficiency and quality of care: from radiologist scheduling and imaging examination ordering to acquisition protocoling, image interpretation with AI clinical decision support at the point of care, reporting, and electronic health record integration.

Subtle Medical has an extensive AI based product pipeline for optimized MRI and PET acquisition with additional modalities in progress, several being showcased at RSNA this year. SubtleMR is an AI-powered software that gives institutions the flexibility to run faster imaging protocols. The software has been clinically validated in multiple peer-reviewed journals showing clinical quality and integrity across diverse sites, scanners, and patients. SubtleMR gives centers the ability to optimize workflow efficiency while improving the patient's imaging journey due to less time spent in the scanner. For more information, attend the RSNA IAIP demo or Subtle Medical's Lunch and Learn . See Subtle's full list of events at RSNA .

"Subtle Medical is dedicated to investing in healthcare innovation for the benefit of all of our customers and their patients," said Ajit Shankaranarayanan, Chief Product Officer at Subtle Medical. "SubtleMR, in combination with Equium's AI-driven demand and capacity forecasting, will enable optimum resource utilization and efficiency for radiologists and administrators. We're looking forward to showcasing our partnership at this year's RSNA IAIP demo."

IAIP is a collaborative effort between industry partners, radiologists and imaging informaticists. Integration is made possible through standards including DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine), HL7 FHIR (Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource), the IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) framework, CDE (Common Data Element) reporting, and others.

The IAIP demonstration is located in the AI Showcase ( South Hall A, Level 3 ).

For more information on RSNA 2022 or to register, visit RSNA.org/annual-meeting .

About Subtle Medical

Subtle Medical, Inc. is an innovative healthcare technology company with a suite of software solutions that use deep learning to increase the quality and efficiency of medical imaging. Subtle's software solutions are integrated at hospitals and imaging institutions worldwide. It is a CB Insights Top AI 100 and Digital Health 150 company and is an Nvidia Inception Award Winner. For more information, please visit subtlemedical.com or email [email protected].

Contact:

Anna Menyhart-Borroni

Head of Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE Subtle Medical, Inc.
Earnings Call Scheduled for 6:30 a.m. ET on November 23, 2022

BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that it will report its third quarter 2022 unaudited financial results on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, before the open of U.S. markets.

Sunlands' management team will host a conference call at 6:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, (7:30 p.m. Beijing/Hong Kong time) on November 23, 2022, following the quarterly results announcement.

Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:

International: +1-412-902-4272 US toll free: +1-888-346-8982 Mainland China toll free: 400-120-1203 Hong Kong local-toll: +852-3018-4992 Hong Kong toll free: 800-905-945

Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin. When prompted, ask to be connected to the call for "Sunlands Technology Group". Participants will be required to state their name and company upon entering the call.

A live webcast and archive of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Sunlands' website at http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/.

A replay of the conference call will be accessible approximately one hour after the conclusion of the live call until November 30, 2022, by dialing the following telephone numbers:

International: +1-412-317-0088 US Toll Free: +1-877-344-7529 Replay Access Code: 3978249

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Sunlands Technology Group

Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Brandi Piacente

Phone: +1 (212) 481-2050

Email: [email protected]

Yang Song

Phone: +86-10-6508-0677

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group
OTTAWA, ON and WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - To continue improving water quality in the Red River basin, including downstream in Lake Winnipeg, the governments of Canada and the United States approved four additional water quality objectives to be monitored by the International Red River Watershed Board (IRRWB) following a recommendation by the International Joint Commission (IJC). These additional, non-regulatory water quality objectives are for the key nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen.

Sunset by the Red River Floodway (Manitoba). Credit: Shutterstock (CNW Group/International Joint Commission)

Excessive nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen increase the frequency and severity of algal blooms, one of the biggest water quality challenges facing the Red River watershed and Lake Winnipeg.

The Red River travels north from its headwaters in Minnesota and South Dakota, across the international boundary and flows downstream into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.

Establishing objectives and targets for phosphorus and nitrogen levels and loads in the Red River, along with the other water quality objectives, allows the IRRWB to identify changes in water quality trends over time; essential information to improve water quality and reduce the occurrence of harmful algal blooms in the basin.

Following work by federal, state and provincial agencies, significant collaboration through the IRRWB and a number of IJC-funded studies which suggested a significant portion of those nutrients entering Lake Winnipeg come from the Red River, the IJC made (in May 2020) the recommendation to governments that they approve these additional nutrients objectives and targets.

Individuals interested in the IRRWB's work should visit their website for more information: ijc.org/en/rrb

Quotes

"I want to thank both governments for approving the IJC-recommended objectives for the Red River basin. The monitoring of phosphorus and nitrogen is key to limiting excess nutrients in the basin."

Pierre Beland, Commissioner and Canadian Chair

"This is excellent news that will enable the International Red River Watershed Board to work with all our partners to improve water quality in the Red River basin. I welcome this decision and thank the Board for their continued commitment to ecosystem health in the basin."

Rob Sisson, Commissioner and Acting United States Chair

Quick Facts

The Red River basin occupies substantial portions of North Dakota , northwestern Minnesota , southern Manitoba and a very small portion of northeastern South Dakota . It covers 116,500 square kilometers or 45,000 square miles, excluding the Assiniboine River basin, which joins the Red River at Winnipeg .

, northwestern , southern and a very small portion of northeastern . It covers 116,500 square kilometers or 45,000 square miles, excluding the Assiniboine River basin, which joins the Red River at . The concentrations, or specific levels of total phosphorus and nitrogen in the water, would best be limited to 0.15 milligrams per liter (0.15 parts per million) and 1.15 mg/l (1.15 ppm), respectively. The loading targets (i.e. amount of nutrients in the river passing by the international boundary) are 1,400 tons/year for phosphorus and 9,525 tons/year for nitrogen.

In addition to monitoring phosphorus and nitrogen levels, five other water quality objectives were previously established for the Red River and are monitored by the IRRWB. They are: Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Chloride (Cl), Sulphate (SO 4 ), and E. coli.

), and E. coli. The IRRWB's responsibilities are outlined in the Directive to the International Red River Watershed Board.

The IJC is an independent body established by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to help the governments of Canada and the United States prevent and resolve disputes over use of the waters shared by the two countries. It officially designated the IRRWB as an international watershed board in August 2021 .

Associated Links

SOURCE International Joint Commission
E-Space Authorized to Offer Space-Based Services Throughout the Kingdom

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- (Connecting the World from the Skies Conference) -- E-Space, a global space company focused on bridging Earth and space with the world's most sustainable low Earth orbit (LEO) network, today announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) has now listed E-Space in their new Satellite Registry to land communications traffic in the Kingdom. This is a critical step that will allow E-Space to deliver its innovative, space-based, smart internet of things (Smart-IoT) solutions in a key economy in the Middle East.

The Kingdom recently revamped its regulatory framework for non-terrestrial networks (NTN), which includes the promotion and entry of global satellite operators. In line with its new national spectrum strategy and Saudi Vision 2030, the CST will grant landing/operating rights to satellite operators that meet certain requirements, from delivering innovative satellite-based solutions to utilizing spectrum efficiently to offer unique services in the Kingdom.

Greg Wyler, E-Space founder, chairman and CEO commented, "E-Space is proud to be one of the first companies listed on the Kingdom's Satellite Registry and to be authorized to offer our services throughout the Kingdom. We believe space innovation should unlock efficiency and productivity gains, in alignment with the Kingdom's interest to advance its space ecosystem, bring innovative and disruptive space capabilities to its market and meet goals outlined in Saudi Vision 2030."

E-Space is developing a global satellite service that will deliver revolutionary services in the new Smart-IoT sector based on bringing the latest innovations in Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) satellites and sustainable spacecraft design. E-Space is committed to working with key stakeholders throughout the Kingdom to enable new opportunities for the Kingdom's citizens, enhance business efficiencies across its priority industries and ensure the safety and security of its critical infrastructure.

This news was announced at the Connecting the World From the Skies conference, where several E-Space executives will be sharing perspectives on significant space topics, including:

Keynote Fireside Chat: The Networks of 2030

E-Space speaker: Greg Wyler

Date/time: Thursday, November 10 , from 12:00 p.m.  12:20 p.m.





E-Space speaker: Date/time: , from  Roundtable: Maximizing the Potential of Connectivity from the Skies across the Arab Region

E-Space speaker: Tamer Azab, director of Regulatory & Market Access, Middle East and Africa

Date/time: Thursday, November 10 , from 11:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m.

Moderator role





E-Space speaker: Tamer Azab, director of Regulatory & Market Access, and Date/time: , from  Moderator role Panel: Sustainable and Green NTN Towers in the Sky

E-Space speaker: Amy Mehlman , vice president of Government Affairs and Stakeholder Relations

Date/time: Thursday, November 10 , from 12:55 p.m.  1:55 p.m.

For more information about E-Space, please visit: www.e-space.com.

About E-Space

E-Space is a global space company focused on bridging Earth and space with the world's most sustainable low Earth orbit (LEO) network that is expected to reach over one hundred thousand multi-application communication satellites to help businesses and governments securely and affordably access the power of space to solve problems on Earth. Founded by industry pioneer Greg Wyler, E-Space is focused on democratizing space and transforming industries by bringing down the cost of space-based communications, raising the level of satellite system resiliency and setting a new standard in sustainable space infrastructure that will effectively minimize and reduce space debris and destruction while preserving access to space for future generations. Learn more about the Company at e-space.com, or follow E-Space on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Copyright  2022 E-Space. All rights reserved. E-Space and the E-Space logo are trademarks of ESpace, Inc. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

E-Space Media Contact:

Chris Phillips, vice president, PR & Communications: [email protected]; +1 (917) 974-1667

SOURCE E-Space, Inc
HONG KONG, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 8 November 2022, we received good news from the 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE): the 1st In Shanghai, For the World has announced the recipients of the IP SHANGHAI Global Communications Corporate Case Best Practice Award. The organizing committee awarded Fosun International the IP SHANGHAI Global Communications Corporate Case Best Practice Award, in recognition of Fosun International's outstanding practices in global public health, including anti-malaria and anti-epidemic efforts.

This is China's first large-scale global communications corporate case event themed on urban IP. The event was organized by IP SHANGHAI and the Global Communications Case Management Platform of Shanghai International Studies University and was supported by the Shanghai Daily Multinational Companies Club.

As an enterprise rooted in Shanghai, China, Fosun has always been devoting itself to public health with its innovative products and global resources. Over the years, it has participated in anti-malarial campaigns in China and around the world, and has organized a series of public welfare activities with its global member companies to raise awareness and importance of malaria prevention and control around the world.

Self-developed and Manufactured Artesuante for Injection to Build a Malaria-free World

According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2020, there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria worldwide and 627,000 malaria-related deaths in the world. Among which, 95% of the cases and 96% of malaria-related deaths occurred in Africa, with about 80% being children under the age of five.

In the 1970s, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou first developed a new technology to extract artemisinin from ether. Based on this technology, a series of new antimalarial drugs, including China No. X-01 artesunate, was developed, which innovatively advanced the fight against malaria.

On 21 December 2005, artesunate tablet innovated by Fosun Pharma became the first pharmaceutical product prequalified by WHO (WHO-PQ), representing a breakthrough for the Chinese pharmaceutical industry. In 2011, Artesun, artesunate for injection, which was self-developed and manufactured by Fosun Pharma, was recommended by the WHO as a first-line treatment of severe malaria. By the end of 2021, it has been used to treat over 48 million severe malaria patients worldwide.

Fosun has been working unremittingly to support the global fight against malaria. In April 2021, Fosun Foundation responded actively to the "Zero Malaria Starts with Me" campaign initiated by the WHO and the "Roll Back Malaria Partnership". Slogans, "Zero Malaria Starts with Me" and "Together We Build a Malaria-free World", were displayed on the advertising screens of Fosun's landmark buildings, including the Bund Finance Center in Shanghai, 28 Liberty in New York, EN Hotel Kyoto and EN Hotel Hiroshima in Japan, Atlantis Sanya, the Bund Fosun Center in Wuhan.

The English Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers FC players made a video to call on everyone to take malaria prevention and control measures seriously and emphasize that malaria prevention and control is as important as taking good precautionary measures against COVID-19. Fosun Foundation and Fosun Pharma organized the "Draw a Malaria-free World" drawing competition at the Beacon International School in Ghana to educate children about malaria prevention and environmental protection. Fosun carried out a series of public welfare activities to call on the public to work together to fight against malaria.

Using Chinese Antimalarial Drugs in Africa to Help More People

In order to achieve the ultimate goal of building a malaria-free world, Fosuner, Cyrus Baidoo, has gone to the front line in Africa, where malaria is the most serious, and helped and cured many malaria patients with Chinese antimalarial drugs.

Cyrus Baidoo is the Marketing Manager of Fosun Pharma Sub-Saharan Africa. He visits many local hospitals every day to promote Chinese antimalarial drugs to doctors and patients. Many years ago, Cyrus worked in a world-renowned pharmaceutical company before joining Fosun. "A lot of my friends did not understand why I left an American company for a Chinese company. They said the company is too new and barely has any products," recalls Cyrus.

From being unfamiliar with and distrusting Chinese companies to now, where Fosun Pharma has become a global leader in malaria drugs and one of the most influential Chinese pharmaceutical brands in Africa, Cyrus witnessed the rapid development of Fosun Pharma in the field of antimalarial drugs. As of January 2022, Guilin Pharma, a subsidiary of Fosun Pharma, has a total of 30 antimalarial products prequalified by WHO (WHO-PQ), including 26 finished dosage forms and four APIs, making Fosun Pharma the leading antimalarial drug manufacturer with the most certifications.

In August 2018, Fosun Pharma's SPAQ-CO Disp (co-packed sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine dispersible tablets and amodiaquine dispersible tablets), which indicated for the prevention of malaria in children, was pre-qualified by WHO (WHO-PQ). By the end of 2021, around 175 million children in high malaria transmission African countries had benefited from the "Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Program", for which SPAQ-CO Disp is used as the core drug to effectively reduce the morbidity of malaria in children under five years old in Africa.

Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International, said, "As a partner in the fight against malaria for China and the world, Fosun consistently commits to providing more cutting-edge solutions such as innovative medicinal products and global resources for malaria management and control. We will join forces and resources, and work together with malaria scientists as well as healthcare professionals to continue to carry out malaria education projects for the public, so as to leverage people's awareness of malaria prevention. We will actively participate in public health improvement and make steady efforts to build a malaria-free world."

In Shanghai, For the World. Thirty years after its establishment, Fosun will continue to uphold the original aspiration of "Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance, and Contribution to Society", devote itself to global public health and public welfare undertakings, and provide innovative products and services to create happier lives for families worldwide.

SOURCE Fosun
The Company will open a trade corridor from Mexico to other left-hand drive markets to facilitate global pre-owned automotive trading

TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TRADE X, a B2B cross-border automotive trading platform with its headquarters based in Ontario, Canada, today announced that it will open a new trade route and physical location in Mexico, one of the world's most important automotive hubs, which will enable the country's dealers and fleet owners to buy and sell pre-owned vehicles via TRADE X's global platform.

Both an export and import market, Mexico is a major manufacturing hub and boasts one of the highest percentages of dealerships per square mile in the world. The company is celebrating the opening of the new corridor with an event for registered dealers in early November.

"We're excited to connect automotive buyers and sellers in this highly important market," said Ricardo Ampudia, Director of Sales, Mexico for TRADE X. "Over the past few years, we've seen a dramatic rise in interest in used vehicles, as buyers who have been unable to purchase a new car look to purchase a used vehicle from their local dealer instead. We look forward to working with Mexico's dealers, fleet companies, and mobility providers to meet their needs and facilitate trusted and seamless trade for them between Mexico, Canada, and Nigeria to start, with further corridors opening to Mexico in the future."

"Mexico is a critical trade market in the global used automotive industry," said Eric Gosselin, SVP of Global Business Development for TRADE X. "Our goal is that Mexico will serve as our focal point for our Latin America growth and expansion. Launching our TRADE X platform for Mexican dealers will allow them to showcase local inventory to dealers around the world. We also believe this trade corridor will open new and untapped revenue streams for all dealers, countries, and trade partners."

Automotive dealers, fleet owners, rental companies, mobility solution providers, along with importers and exporters, can utilize the TRADE X platform on their desktop, or via the TRADE X Global mobile app, to trade vehicles quickly and easily with other automotive professionals around the world. Dealers can use the marketplace to request specific makes or models using the platform's "Instant Request" feature, review specific search results to assess real-time pricing, and make vehicle purchases safely, transparently, and compliantly. TRADE X offers access to a simplified trade process by handling common complexities, including logistics, quality checks, currency exchange, engaging registered importers, shipping, real-time pricing analytics, homologation, retitling, and customs clearance.

"The opening of our new facility in Mexico and the launch of our newest trading corridor represents a major milestone for TRADE X," said President and Chief Operating Officer Luciano Butera. "We're looking forward to connecting dealers in Mexico to the broadest network of authorized automotive buyers and sellers globally, improving how used vehicles are bought and sold across international borders."

Last year, automotive companies in Mexico manufactured almost 3 million new automobiles for export outside of the country. With Mexico and other markets struggling to meet increased demand, many Mexican dealers have started importing vehicles, a relatively new process for dealers in the country.

In Mexico, popular automotive brands include Nissan, General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Kia, among others.

Automotive dealers, fleet companies, and mobility providers in Mexico who are interested in trading via the TRADE X platform can sign up at tradexport.com to begin the process of buying and selling vehicles.

About TRADE X

With headquarters in Ontario, Canada, TRADE X is the first global vehicle marketplace to aggregate cross-border supply and demand for car dealers, fleet owners, rental companies, mobility solution providers, importers, and exporters, opening new trading corridors to buy and sell vehicles. The TRADE X 'Brain' platform is a machine-learning, AI-driven technology that connects buyers and sellers through a transparent marketplace that aids sellers in finding the world's highest bidders and gives buyers access to the best vehicle source markets and price arbitrage opportunities. Users can quickly and seamlessly transact online in a secure environment with all the complexities of international trade  compliance, anti-money laundering regulations, vehicle inspection, currency exchange, digital trade documentation, payments, and financing  all managed by TRADE X. The company serves authorized buyers and sellers everywhere with a user-friendly app available 24/7 via mobile, tablet, or desktop. TRADE X's largest investors include Aimia Inc., a publicly traded holding company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: AIM). To learn more, please visit www.tradexport.com.



Media Contact: TRADE X Contact:

Siobhan Nolan Shelley Keller

JConnelly Director, Corporate Communications + Brand

(862) 217 9585 [email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE TRADE X; Aimia Inc.
Treasure Valley's 1st AWARE Conference, organized by Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel, aims to unite Idaho constituents on topics of morality; igniting Godly action within Idaho, while declaring, guarding, and advancing political and religious freedoms founded in Biblical truth.

MERIDIAN, Id. , Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AWARE Conference is a free community event to be held on Saturday, November 12, 2022 from 1-4pm at Wahooz Galaxy Event Center located at 1385 S. Blue Marlin Lane, Meridian, ID. The organizers have launched this event to educate, connect, and provide resources to encourage Treasure Valley residents to get involved in their local communities by standing firm on issues of morality.

Conference speakers include former Idaho Legislative Candidate, historian and current Idaho Republican Party County Youth Chair, Rachel Hazelip and former US Congressional Candidate, historian, best-selling author, and president of "Amerisearch, Inc.", William J. Federer.

Additionally, Pastor Marty Yost of Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel and Founder of AWARE Ministry, will be joined by area Pastors who will take part in the very first "Pastors United" forum showcasing to the community that they will stand arm-in-arm, answering the call by uniting the church body to act when issues of morality are brought to their attention. Pastors who have already answered the call include Pastor David Ax of Calvary Chapel Star, Pastor Jim Domen of Church United and Pastor Dan Davis of Calvary Chapel Mountain Home. All Treasure Valley Pastors are invited to reach out to Pastor Marty Yost to join in this portion of the event.

Pastor Marty shared, "We want to lovingly charge into our community and take an active role in our local community because we want to do the right thing. God's word shares, "for those who know the right thing and do not do it, to him it is sin" [James 4:17]. We want to do the right thing. We want to stand for morality."

About Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel

Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel is a non-denominational Christian church committed to serving the Treasure Valley. They meet at Sawtooth Middle School located at 3730 N. Linder Rd. in Meridian, ID on Sundays at 10am for church service. For additional information on MHCC and AWARE Ministry, visit mountainheights.church

CONTACT: Emily Yost

Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel PO Box 543

Phone: (986) 895-2222 Meridian, ID 83680

Email: [email protected] Mountainheights.church

SOURCE Mountain Heights Calvary Chapel
HOUSTON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Roe v. Wade's reversal, by way of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, inadvertently drew attention to the work of consumer health technology researcher Leah Fowler, Research Assistant Professor at the University of Houston Law Center's Health Law & Policy Institute.

"I'm really interested about where consumer health technologies we use every day intersect with the law," said Fowler. "There's a breakdown in how people understand their rights and what their rights actually are."

Specifically, Fowler's research examines the accuracy, efficacy, and privacy of healthcare technology  including femtech tools such as period and fertility tracking apps. Femtech products are defined as a category of consumer technologies that address an array of "female" health needs.

Fowler's expertise on this front has been much sought after following the June 2022 Supreme Court decision that prompted widespread concerns about the security and privacy of femtech. For instance, following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, calls for users to delete their femtech apps started popping up across the internet.

Period and fertility tracking apps hold some of the most "wildly intimate" information about the human body, according to Fowler, from the date of a user's last menstrual cycle to an ovulation window, even including further details that could point to a potential or past pregnancy. In the wrong hands, some advocates say this information could be used against consumers, especially in regions where individuals aiding or performing abortions have the potential to be sued by private citizens.

Fowler's forthcoming work Femtechnodystopia, in partnership with Michael R. Ulrich of Boston University School of Public Health, concentrates precisely on this intersection, imagining a multifaceted approach to safeguarding the benefits of femtech from the potential harms in a post-Roe world.

While Fowler's scope of research extends beyond the femtech realm, she said that this subset of healthcare technologies may be garnering more attention because they "[make] concrete a lot of the issues that are common across health technology."

So, is it time to delete femtech apps? Not necessarily. It depends on the product, Fowler said, adding that she hesitates to advise people to delete an app they find useful, "especially in the absence of evidence these are being currently used to prosecute people."

Generally, it can be more helpful to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of "how much utility does this product give you versus what are you willing to give up in exchange for it." Additionally, Fowler recommends checking privacy policies for phrases like "does not engage in third-party sharing" or "data stored on device" instead of in a cloud.

"Whatever calculus you're making for a period and fertility tracking app, take that same type analysis to other apps you download to your phone and every other type of technology you use," Fowler said.

University of Houston Law Center media contacts: Carrie Anna Criado, UH Law Center Assistant Dean of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-2184, [email protected]; Bonnie Buffaloe, Communications Manager, 713-743-9137, [email protected].

About the University of Houston Law Center

The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) is a dynamic, top tier law school located in the nation's 4th largest city. UHLC's Health Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Part-time programs rank in the U.S. News Top 10. It awards Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees, through its academic branch, the College of Law. The Law Center is more than just a law school. It is a powerful hub of intellectual activity with more than 15 centers and institutes which fuel its educational mission and national reputation. UHLC is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city and one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the country, UH is a federally designated Hispanic- and Asian-American-Serving institution with enrollment of more than 47,000 students.

SOURCE University of Houston Law Center
SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With WEMIX3.0, Wemade plans to move into its next stage of development, leveraging the utility of the WEMIX token to support and grow the open blockchain ecosystem. The growth of this ecosystem requires the participation of expert infrastructure providers to support the network through this next stage, in order to maintain a solid foundation for the success of various DApps and platforms that will be built on WEMIX Mainnet.

Figment, the leading blockchain infrastructure company, is joining the WEMIX3.0 40 WONDERS, as 'WONDER 14,' a WEMIX3.0 Mainnet Node Council Partner (NCP). As the validators and governing body of the ecosystem, Figment and other NCPs will secure the stability of WEMIX3.0 Mainnet and contribute to the growth of the ecosystem.

About WEMIX3.0

WEMIX3.0 is an experience-based, platform-driven, and service-oriented blockchain mega-ecosystem developed by Wemade and WEMIX PTE, providing services including cryptocurrency wallet (WEMIX Wallet), decentralized financial service (WEMIX.Fi), NFT platform (NILE), and the gaming platform (WEMIX PLAY).

More information on WEMIX3.0 can be found on the official website.

About Wemade

Wemade is a pioneer in game development from Korea. The company's focus is ever-shifting towards blockchain technology with an emphasis on personalizing the gaming experience. Wemade strives to transform everyday games with blockchain technology and establish its WEMIX Coin as a key currency in the blockchain industry.

About Figment

Figment is the world's leading provider of blockchain infrastructure. Figment has a client base of over 200 institutions including direct token holders at venture capital firms, hedge funds, family offices and founding teams as well crypto service providers such as wallets, exchanges, custodians, and asset managers. Our clients rely on Figment to provide best in class staking service including rewards optimization, rewards reporting, governance, and slashing insurance on an industry leading 60+ protocols. Being at the forefront of Web3 development, Figment also enables companies to build applications seamlessly on an extensive network of blockchain protocols. Figment is backed by industry experts, financial institutions, and most recently valued at $1.4bn from leading private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Figment's 200+ team across 23 countries are focused on supporting our mission to support the adoption, growth and long term success of the Web3 ecosystem. To learn more about Figment please visit our website at www.figment.io.

SOURCE Wemade Co., Ltd
HAMBURG, Germany, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The first batch of XCharge's energy storage charger Net Zero Series (NZS) is scheduled to arrive in Hamburg before Christmas, and will be shipped later to final customers in Europe, only 6 months after its official launch. The new production line integrates EV chargers with energy storage solutions, which aims to save the construction costs, enhance grid stabilities, and provide continuous power supply during a temporary black out.

With 233kWh battery capacity (extendable to 466 kWh), featuring up to 210kW of power for parallel charging of up to two vehicles in less than 30 mins, NZS offers an innovative retractable cable system, 4G communications, new modular upgrade and smart energy management system to push forward energy reliability and resiliency in Europe.

Facilitating energy storage alternative

The new charger stood out by its battery capacity, since energy storage is the forefront at this critical moment in Europe. Under the circumstance of raising energy prices, European Commission calls for a series of actions to stabilize energy supply and focus on digitalizing energy system including smart energy management system.[1]

In order to meet growing demand of electricity without overloading the network, XCharge is ready to provide solutions to address the particular issue by deploying NZS across Europe. The charger allows charge point operators (CPOs) to feed themselves during off-peak hours, and be prepared from high consumption and grid saturation. And during peak hours, cars can be charged from battery storage instead from the grid or can be charged from a combination of both the battery and the grid.

Similarly, Britain also faces energy challenges this winter. The National Grid warned that the unstable electricity system may impose blackouts in January and February, due to the shortage of wind power and the restricted imports of energy from France, Belgium, and Netherlands etc.[2] NZS' Power Reserve mode easily mitigates the risks by restoring certain amount of energy in battery packs to prevent emergencies.

Fast charging as always

Though balancing the power with energy storage system is the focus for NZS, as XCharge's other DC chargers, charging speed and end-user experience is still the core of the design.

Electric vehicles are now increasingly able to charge at high power levels and require higher output power, resulting in longer charging time as the pain point. To highlight, NZS is capable to charge a single connected vehicles at 210kw in about 20 minutes from 10% to 80% of the SOC. Plus, it allows simultaneous charging with two vehicles connected.

Enabling easy installation for CPOs

One of the biggest concerns of CPOs is the huge amount of time that takes from submitting the request for a grid connection and extension to the moment when the charging station is running and operative. The duration could vary from 6 months to 3 years depending on different countries, but by using NZS, with the standard 30/60kW industrial plug for easier grid connection and no civil engineering requires, most CPOs won't be bothered anymore by this time-consuming and costly process.

As an innovative start-up company, XCharge NZS' deployment in Europe brings powerful solutions to the EV industry and reveals its mission to achieve emission goals. The NZS will help reshape the future of EV charging by offering a way to sustainably and reliably charge EVs with ever increasing grid demand.

Notes to editors:

1. https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/markets-and-consumers/action-and-measures-energy-prices_en

2. https://www.ft.com/content/d31fbbd6-8325-43b7-94e4-29101cfe6045

About Net Zero Series

Net Zero Series offers the synergy of energy storage and fast charging experience to shape the future of carbon neutral transition. Designed with the essence of XCHARGE, this disruptive technology applies a completely new modular upgrade and intelligent software system for the whole E-mobility market. It is a single unit High Power charger with a disruptive design, featuring 19-inch touchscreen, equipped with a liquid cooled Lithium-ion battery that can store up to 233kWh/466kWh of electricity. Enabling 210kW output power, supporting up to 2 vehicles at a time, and a perfect fit for most parking lots.

About XCharge

XCharge is a leading High Power Intelligent Charging solutions provider. From design to R&D, from manufacturing to sales, from solutions to maintenance, XCharge thrives to enable charging capacity to energy companies, fleet operators, and parking lot operators worldwide. We apply "Hardware + Software" system to make a real difference to EV charging experience. XCharge's evolved from the idea to help our client maximize charging revenue, while minimizing maintenance costs. We prepare our clients for a low carbon transformation and inspire business growth. Together with our partner relationships, we are present in more than 25 countries. For more information, please visit :

https://www.xcharge.com/global/en/

XCharge Press Contact:

[email protected]

Emma Qiao

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1940096/image_844207_35648921.jpg

SOURCE XCharge
Islamabad, Nov 9 : Pakistani President Arif Alvi has said that the adverse impacts of climate change are not limited at national borders and will affect the whole world, urging the international community to work together for the common interest.

"The world has become a small place and any negative development like natural or man-made disasters taking place in one part of the world would affect countries all around the globe," the President added on Tuesday while addressing a conference in state capital Islamabad.

Pakistan contributes less than 1 per cent to global warming, but it is among the top 10 most affected countries by climate change and global warming, he said, adding that Pakistan would become one of the most vulnerable countries to bear the brunt of climate change by 2050, Xinhua news agency reported.

To counter the negative fallouts of climate change, Alvi said that the entire nation and relevant organisations must work with the help of the international community to minimise the negative impacts, highlighting that the incumbent government has been taking special measures in this regard.

He added that the recent climate-induced floods in Pakistan had affected more than 33 million people, adding that concerted efforts by all the local and international stakeholders are needed to employ all available resources for rehabilitating the floods-affected population.
Varanasi, Nov 9 : A Police Sub-Inspector was critically injured when three miscreants opened indiscriminate fire on him in Jagatpur area under the Rohania police circle in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district, police said.

The 2015 batch Police Sub-Inspector Ajay Yadav suffered bullet injuries on chest and had been admitted to a hospital.

The assailants fled after looting service pistol and wallet of Yadav.

A massive checking drive was launched in the district after sealing its border while police officers in adjoining districts were also alerted.

Commissioner of Police Satish Ganesh said, "Yadav, is currently posted at Luxa police station, was standing at the plot, where his house is being constructed when the three miscreants opened fire at him. Later, they fled the scene." Yadav was immediately rushed to hospital and the Police Commissioner added that his condition was 'critical but stable'.

All senior officials of Commissionerate and Varanasi Rural district reached the spot and a manhunt was launched for arrest of the assailants.

The police were trying to identify the assailants and also ascertain the motive behind the attack.
Kiev, Nov 9 : Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kiev could resume dialogue with Moscow only after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the presidential press service reported.

In an interview with an Italian daily, Podolyak on Tuesday added that a potential ceasefire deal at the current stage of the conflict would provide Russia with time to strengthen its positions.

"The ceasefire for Russia is a tactical pause for reinforcement," he said.

While commenting on the reports that the representatives of the US Pentagon and the Russian Defence Ministry are involved in talks, Podolyak added that "there are no negotiations between Russia and Western countries regarding Ukraine".

"Our partners adhere to the principle of 'nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine'. Neither side will be able to ensure the implementation of agreements without the support of the Ukrainian people," he said.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict started on February 24, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators held the latest round of face-to-face peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New Delhi, Nov 9 : During a night patrol with the cops in Nagpur, he was told about a person they recently arrested. Someone who had bought a new knife. To 'test' that it worked fine, he stabbed a stranger. Not really satisfied with its performance, he stabbed another one.

National Award-winning filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni, whose docu-series 'Murder in a Courtroom', being streamed on Netflix as part of 'Indian Predator' recalls the incident and admits that scary is the violence a man on the street is capable of.

"The fact that one does not know what the seemingly harmless stranger walking towards you in a crowd is capable of can be really disturbing," this writer and director of the docu-series tells IANS.

Kulkarni, who attended the recently concluded Dharamshala International Film Festival, back in its physical avatar after two years, says that for a long time he had been wanting to work on the Akku Yadav case. In 2004, a group of around 200 women hailing from Nagpur's Kasturba Nagar, the place which Yadav had terrorised for many years, stormed into the public courtroom and lynched him to death.

The director, who researched for six months before starting the project recalls that for many years he had wanted to explore this incident.

"Finally, I decided to take the plunge and went to Nagpur. We met a lot of women from Kasturba Nagar. Of course, it was difficult to approach them, but the real challenge was in making them trust us. We were accompanied by an excellent research team from 'Vice' and shot multiple interviews. There were so many layers to what had happened on that day in 2004." There is violence in the house, and on the streets -- the director says he wanted to unearth what is life like in a fringed society.

"So many people exist in one person. Who are we really? When it comes to the system, there are so many loopholes -- we are still following so many laws and regulations drafted by the British for us. Is it not absurd?" Talking about his first outing with OTT, this alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, who has made critically acclaimed films in Marathi like 'Valu' ('The Bull'), 'Vihir' ('The Well'), 'Deool' ('The Temple') and 'Highway' admits that he is essentially a film person.

"This was a short so it was like a feature-length -- and just three episodes. Docuseries can be very challenging, and I wanted the experience of dealing with them. Also, Netflix and Vice were very supportive -- no interference of any sort." He feels this medium (OTT) has its own strength and one can explore much in it.

"But yes, we need to understand the format better. Everything should not look like a series. The challenge is to create something which has its own power, and I want to explore that." Stressing that he would call it a 'film', Kulkarni adds, "Let us stop putting things in binaries and look at the possibilities of intermingling. We are living in times when different art forms are collaborating. Frankly, we have shot the interviews like fiction, and fiction like a documentary. Everything has come together to create a new form," concludes the director, who is currently finishing writing a new Marathi film.

(Sukant Deepak can be reached at sukant.d@ians.in)
Washington, Nov 9 : Former US President Donald Trump has warned Ron DeSantis, the incumbent Florida Governor who is projected to retain his seat following the midterm polls, against running for the White House in 2024, saying "he could hurt himself very badly".

As the US went to the polls on Tuesday, Trump in an interview with Fox News said: "I think he would be making a mistake. I think the base would not like it... I don't know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly.

"I don't think it would be good for the (Republican) party." Without providing details, the former President also threatened to release "things about him (DeSantis) that won't be very flattering... I know more about him than anybody, other than, perhaps, his wife", the BBC reported.

Trump, however denied that he had any dispute with the 44-year-old Governor and said: "There's not a tiff with me, and I'm way up in the polls." He also took credit for DeSantis's projected victory, saying that his endorsement is what got him elected in 2019, reports the BBC.

"I thought that he could have been more gracious. But that's up to him," Trump said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that he had voted for DeSantis after emerging from a polling station in Palm Beach, Florida.

Meanwhile, the Governor in his victory speech on Tuesday evening credited his victory to turning the state into "a refuge of sanity when the world went mad".

He also put his victory down to turning the state into "a citadel of freedom" that ignored "the woke agenda" of left-wingers, the BBC reported.

DeSantis called his victory by the largest margin for any Florida Governor in four decades "a win for the ages", adding that he is "not done fighting".
London, Nov 9 : Gavin Williamson has resigned as a government minister after mounting allegations that he had bullied colleagues.

Recently, the Sunday Times and other local media outlets reported that Williamson sent expletive-laden messages to a colleague, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Monday, the Guardian reported that he told a senior civil servant to "slit your throat" while he was Defence Secretary in Theresa May's government.

In his resignation letter posted on Twitter on Tuesday, Williamson said he had apologized to the recipient for the messages and was cooperating with an investigation of that conduct.

However, he rejected claims of bullying in the second incident.

"I refute the characterisation of these claims, but I recognize these are becoming a distraction for the good work this government is doing for the British people," he wrote.

"I have therefore decided to step back from government so that I can comply fully with the complaints process that is underway and clear my name of any wrongdoing." He later tweeted he would not be taking any severance pay, adding that the money should go towards the government's priorities such as "reducing the NHS's waiting lists".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he had accepted Williamson's resignation "with great sadness" and thanked him for his "personal support and loyalty".

"Your commitment to successive Conservative governments and the party over the years has been unwavering," Sunak added.

Williamson's resignation comes at a time when Sunak's choice of some of his ministers has come under intense scrutiny.

Leaders of opposition parties have demanded the resignation of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, whom Sunak reappointed days after she resigned from Liz Truss's cabinet for breaching the rules on ministerial conduct.

This is the third time that Williamson has left government. In 2019 he was sacked as Defence Secretary after details of Huawei's potential involvement in the UK's 5G network were leaked, the BBC reported.

He was brought back to the cabinet, as Education Secretary by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in 2019, but lost the job in 2021 following turmoil over A-Level exam results.

Earlier this year, Williamson had helped run Sunak's first campaign to become Prime Minister.

Following Sunak's second, and this time successful, bid, Williamson was given a job as a Cabinet Office minister.
Prayagraj, Nov 9 : It seems like a perfect screenplay from a Hindi blockbuster film.

A 45-year-old murder accused killed a man having a physique similar to his, disfigured the body and left his identity card to make it look like his own death.

The plan, however, went awry, when the police arrested the accused Firoz Ahmad of Kareha village after an encounter.

He sustained injuries in the shootout.

SP (trans Yamuna) Saurabh Dixit told reporters: "After being fed up frequent police raids and actions, Firoz got clues from popular crime and thriller TV serials during his stay in Naini central jail and hatched a conspiracy to get rid of people who had given him loans of Rs 4 lakh to pursue his legal battle." After being bailed out about two months back in connection with a case, Firoz started looking for a man of same physique and came in contact with a youth from Buxar in Bihar.

Firoz managed to win the trust of Suraj Gupta, an electrician by profession, and assured him of help in securing a job. He advised him to stay in the city.

Firoz then invited Gupta for drinks and dinner at a local eatery on October 17 near Mardapur village.

Along with his two aides, they strangled Gupta to death and also beheaded him. They chopped off deceased's private parts and set the body afire to conceal the identity. Firoz also left his driving licence near the half-burnt body to make it look like his own death.

He thought that with Gupta's death, the police would close all cases against him.

The SP said that during investigations, the police found some contact numbers from the pocket of the body. When police contacted these numbers, they came to know that the deceased was Suraj Gupta of Bihar.

Thereafter, Firoz was tracked down and arrested.
Varanasi, Nov 9 : The Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh (VVSS) chief Jitendra Singh Bisen who has filed legal suits, including the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case, has said that the compilation of power of attorneys (PoA) of the cases related to Gyanvapi issue had been completed and was likely to be handed over to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on November 11.

"We are ready with the power of attorneys of all the cases related to Gyanvapi mosque and its complex. We are likely to hand it over to the chief minister on November 11," said Bisen.

Meanwhile, Kaushal Raj Sharma, divisional commissioner, Varanasi, has termed it a publicity stunt and said there was no consent of the chief minister on this and if any registry was done in this regard, an FIR would be lodged against the erring persons.

On October 31, VVSS chief Jitendra Singh Bisen had cited threat to his and his family members' lives behind the decision of handing over the power of attorney to the chief minister, stating that he did not want the ongoing cases to be left abruptly if anything untoward happened to him or his family.

A government spokesman had said in a statement earlier that "The chief minister's office has nothing to do with the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh's announcement about handing over power of attorney to chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the cases filed by the organisation with regard to Shringar Gauri issue." Bisen's move came days after the Police Commissionerate, Varanasi, while calling his statements 'baseless' and 'irrelevant', served him a legal notice directing him to submit his explanation within three days.

Satish Ganesh, Police Commissioner, Varanasi, said, "This is absurd. The VVSS chief's move is irrelevant as you cannot drag a person holding a constitutional post." The VVSS is either a plaintiff or represents the plaintiff in around five cases related to Gyanvapi mosque. Of these, three cases are in the civil court, one in the fast-track court and another in the district court.

These cases include the ongoing Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case and Adi Visheshwar Virajman case.

The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC), the custodian of the Gyanvapi mosque, also called it a non-feasible move and a publicity stunt.

"It is not feasible for Yogi Adityanath to complete the legal formalities, once the power of attorney is handed over. This is just a publicity stunt," said Mirazuddin Siddiqui, a senior counsel, who represents the AIMC.
Oslo, Nov 9 : Norway's Princess Martha Louise has relinquished her royal duties for her alternative medicine business with her African-American fiance who is a self-styled shaman, the media reported.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Royal House of Norway said: "The Princess is relinquishing the role as royal patron that has set the framework of her official duties for the Royal House, and will not be representing the Royal House at the present time.

"The organisations previously under her patronage will be offered the patronage of other members of the Royal Family." The statement added that in accordance with the wishes of her father, King Harald V, the Princess will keep her title and will also continue to serve as chair of the board of Princess Martha Louise's Fund.

The only daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, the 51-year old is also a self-described clairvoyant.

He fiance, Durek Verrett, who describes himself as a "6th Generation Shaman", has claimed to have risen from the dead and to have predicted the 9/11 attacks in the US two years before they took place, the BBC reported.

Verrett has also compared himself to the likes of Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, claiming they were "geniuses" and "misunderstood".

On his website, he describes himself as a "visionary for the 'Now Age'" who "demystifies spirituality", adding that his work has influenced Hollywood actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Nina Dobrev.

The Princess became engaged to Verrett and announced the relationship in a 2019 Instagram post.

Speaking to local reporters following the announcement, King Harald described Verrett as a "a great guy and very funny to be with".

"He has a lot of humour, and we laugh a lot, even in this difficult time. I think both we and he have gained a greater understanding of what this is about, and we've agreed to disagree," the BBC quoted the King as saying.
Prayagraj, Nov 9 : For the first time, nearly 58 lakh students registered to appear in the Uttar Pradesh Board high school and intermediate examinations 2023 across the state will get stitched answer sheets.

The move of the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP), is aimed at preventing the copy mafia from deliberately changing answer sheets of meritorious students at different exam centres as witnessed in the previous years, said state secondary education department officials.

According to the official spokesman, the decision has been taken after the board's experiment to provide stitched answer sheets to 10 sensitive districts, where such practices were feared in 2020, yielded desired results.

A total of 58,67,329 students, including 31,16,458 of high school and 27,50,871 of intermediate, will be appearing for the 2023 exams.

The step is also aimed at further making examinations free of unfair means.

In the earlier examinations, the copying mafia used to take out the cover page of the usual stapled answer sheets of meritorious students at the centres and put it on the copies of the weaker students in lieu of cash, after the examination was over.

In many such cases, the Board has acted against centre managers and teachers besides debarring the guilty schools from the examination over such incidents.

To prevent this, it had started providing stitched answer sheets to select districts where such practices were reported in 2020.

These districts include Mathura, Prayagraj, Muzaffarnagar, Hardoi, Ballia, Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Aligarh, Ghazipur and Kaushambhi.

The spokesman said that this year, the Board has requested officers of the Government Press that only sewed copies be supplied to all 75 districts.
Chennai, Nov 9 : The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast moderate rain in many districts of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. Thunderstorms and lightning are also predicted across many districts of the state.

Rain was expected in Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Thiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Nagapattinam, Myladuthurai and Ramanathapuram districts on Wednesday.

The statement was issued at 7 a.m. on Wednesday by the IMD.

After the northeast monsoon hit Tamil Nadu on October 29, rain has lashed the state.

Four people have already lost their lives in the rain fury but the inundation in Chennai and adjacent cities is less compared to 2021.

The Chennai Corporation credits this to the efficient management of stormwater drains. However, in North Chennai, there was inundation and people had to be shifted to relief camps.
Ankara, Nov 9 : Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Ankara's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO.

"We will fully implement the trilateral memorandum," Kristersson said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan here on Tuesday.

"Sweden will take important steps with regards to the fight against terror," he added.

The Prime Minister further said that his country plans to introduce new legislation by 2023 to fight terror groups, whether they pose risk to Sweden or Turkey.

Kristersson said Sweden has designated the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization and his government was willing to support Turkey in its fight against the group.

"Joining this alliance is a vital security issue for us. Being a NATO member means taking (security) responsibility for other allies," he added.

Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO.

"Sweden wants NATO membership for its own security, and we want to see a Sweden that supports our own security concerns," Erdogan said.

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

On June 28, Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO Madrid summit.

Sweden and Finland pledged to support Turkey's fight against terrorism and agreed to address Ankara's pending deportation or extradition requests for terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly.

Turkey remains one of the two NATO members yet to ratify their accession, as Ankara has been complaining that the two countries have moved too slowly in fulfilling their commitments over the Turkish security concerns.

The PKK, listed as a terror organization by Turkey, the US and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

The Gulen movement, led by the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, has been accused by the government of masterminding the 2016 failed coup to topple Erdogan's rule.
San Francisco, Nov 9 : Elon Musk has sold additional Tesla stock worth $3.4 billion towards financing the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal, revealed the latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

With this, he has offloaded almost $20 billion in Tesla shares this year. The world's richest man sold $8.4 billion in Tesla shares in April and another $6.9 billion in August.

The tech billionaire earlier said on social media that he had "no further Tesla sales planned" after April 28.

For the Twitter deal, Musk pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing, which covered the $44 billion deal and closing costs.

Banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, provided $13 billion in debt financing while Musk's $33.5 billion equity commitment included his 9.6 per cent Twitter stake worth $4 billion.

He secured $7.1 billion from equity investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

However, he still needed to raise an additional $2-$3 billion to complete the financing and the latest share sell-off may be in that direction.

Twitter is struggling as several major advertisers like Volkswagen Group and Danish brewing company Carlsberg Group have paused spending on the platform siren Musk took over.

The company has told advertisers that its daily user growth has hit an "all-time high" after Musk's takeover.

Twitter last reported 237.8 million mDAUs and a 16.6 per cent annual growth for its second quarter.

Musk said last week that Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue as activist groups were putting undue pressure on its advertisers.

"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.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Despite an increase in energy efficiency investment and lower energy intensity, the building and construction sector's energy consumption and CO2 emissions have rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic to an all-time high, a new report finds.

Released at the latest round of the UN COP27 climate summit in Egypt, the 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction finds that the sector accounted for over 34 per cent of energy demand and around 37 per cent of energy and process-related CO2 emissions in 2021.

The sector's operational energy-related CO2 emissions reached 10 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent -- 5 per cent over 2020 levels and 2 per cent over the pre-pandemic peak in 2019.

In 2021, operational energy demand for heating, cooling, lighting and equipment in buildings increased by around four per cent from 2020 and three per cent from 2019.

This, according to the report from the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), means the gap between the climate performance of the sector and the 2050 decarbonization pathway is widening.

"Years of warnings about the impacts of climate change have become a reality,a said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "If we do not rapidly cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, we will be in deeper trouble." "The buildings sector represents 40 per cent of Europe's energy demand, 80 per cent of it from fossil fuels. This makes the sector an area for immediate action, investment, and policies to promote short and long-term energy security." Decarbonizing the buildings sector by 2050 is critical to delivering these cuts. To reduce overall emissions, the sector must improve building energy performance, decrease building materials' carbon footprint, multiply policy commitments alongside action and increase investment in energy efficiency.

The sector's emissions intensity in kilogrammes of CO2 per square metre dropped from 43 in 2015 to 40 in 2021.

Energy intensity in kilowatts per hour per square metre slightly decreased, from 153 in 2015 to 152 in 2021.

Investments in building energy efficiency have gone up by unprecedented levels, rising by 16 per cent in 2021 over 2020 levels to $237 billion.

However, growth is outpacing efforts on energy efficiency and reducing energy intensity.

The increase in global gross floor area between 2015 and 2021 is the equivalent to the total land area covered in buildings in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands; if it were built on one level, at around 24,000 sq.km.

The report says that investments in energy efficiency must be sustained in the face of growing crises -- such as the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis, and the cost-of-living crisis -- to reduce energy demand, avoiding CO2 emissions and dampen energy cost volatility.

The buildings sector represents 40 per cent of Europe's energy demand, 80 per cent of it from fossil fuels. This makes the sector an area for immediate action, investment and policies to promote short and long-term energy security.

The report shows that the sector can still change. For example, rising fossil fuel costs due to the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis are providing incentives to invest in energy efficiency -- although the erosion of purchasing power and the impact of labour and materials may slow investment.

"The solution may lie in governments directing relief towards low and zero-carbon building investment activities through financial and non-financial incentives," Andersen added.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New York, Nov 9 : After becoming the first immigrant to hold the office of Lieutenant Governor in Maryland, Indian-American Democrat Aruna Miller said that ever since she came to the US in 1972, she has "never stopped being excited for the promise of America".

The 58-year-old, who is said to have her roots in Hyderabad, immigrated to the US from India when she was seven.

In a series of tweets after winning Tuesday's midterm elections, Miller wrote: "Ever since I came to this country in 1972, I've never stopped being excited for the promise of America. I will never stop fighting to make sure that promise is available to everyone. And this promise begins with a commitment to deliver a Maryland where we Leave No One Behind." Miller was the running mate of Wes Moore, who has been elected as Maryland's first African-American Governor, defeating Republican Dan Cox in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1.

Thanking her voters, Miller said she wants to build a Maryland where people feel safe in their communities and in their skin.

"Before I ask you for anything, I want to thank you for everything. Thank you for being here today and for being a part of this moment. We need you. We need your hope, we need your stories, we need your partnership, and I can promise you this, we're only just getting started," Miller tweeted.

"Maryland, tonight you showed the nation what a small but mighty state can do when democracy is on the ballot. You chose unity over division, expanding rights over restricting rights, hope over fear. You chose Wes Moore and me to be your next Governor and Lieutenant Governor," she added.

From 2010 to 2018, Miller represented District 15 in the Maryland House of Delegates.

She ran for Congress in 2018 in Maryland's 6th Congressional District, finishing second in a crowded field of eight candidates.

Miller is married to Dave Miller, with whom she has three daughters. She currently resides in Montgomery County.

The Washington Post said that Indian-Americans can play an important role in some of the tightly contested races.

The Democrats and Republicans intensified their efforts to reach out to the Indian-Americans, ahead of the midterm elections.

With the majority of polls closed in half of the 50 states, the elections, according to political experts, could potentially reshape the landscape of national politics, especially if they result in control of the House of Representatives shifting from Democrats to Republicans.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : As Elon Musk enters top gear in making Twitter profitable, the company on Wednesday said it will roll out another verification badge to help users understand which account is real and which one is fake, as most of them will soon have a blue verification tick after paying $8.

Esther Crawford, head of the new Twitter Blue service, said that select accounts related to governments, companies or public figures will get a gray "Official" check mark to separate them from other users.

"A lot of folks have asked about how you'll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue check marks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why we're introducing the "Official" label to select accounts when we launch," she said in a tweet.

Not all previously verified accounts will get the "Official" label and the label is not available for purchase.

"Accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures," Crawford explained.

She also said that the new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification.

"It is an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features. We'll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types," Crawford said.

Twitter's revamped Blue subscription service for $8 will not affect the existing verified accounts as of now, and is applicable to those who seek Blue Badge as well as new users who wish to be verified.

The original plan for the new Blue plan was that users who are already verified should also pay or lose their Blue Badges after 90 days.

The new Twitter Blue service comes with fewer ads, search priority, an ability to post longer videos, and a blue badge.

Musk has confirmed that the new Twitter Blue subscription service for $8 will be available in India in less than a month.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Enterprise software company Salesforce has now laid off hundreds of employees, as Big Tech firms navigate through an economic slowdown.

Protocol first reported that Salesforce was preparing for a major round of layoffs that could affect as many as 2,500 employees.

The company, however, told media publications that the job cuts affected "less than a thousand" employees.

The enterprise software maker confirmed it sacked employees earlier this week.

"Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition," the company said in a statement.

The company had 73,541 people on its payroll earlier this year.

In August, Salesforce said in a filing that headcount rose 36 per cent in the past year "to meet the higher demand for services from our customers".

According to Protocol, Salesforce previously laid off roughly 90 contract workers and implemented a hiring freeze through January 2023.

"Investors are increasingly demanding a greater return from Salesforce, which has always funneled its profits toward growth, including spending billions to acquire companies like Slack and Tableau," the report mentioned.

Salesforce is also reportedly facing pressure from activist investor Starboard.

Microsoft, one of Salesforce's top competitors in business software, announced a round of job cuts in October this year.
New York, Nov 9 : India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra and US Defence Under Secretary Colin Kahl have explored boosting India's defence industry, according to Pentagon spokesperson David Hendon.

At their meeting in Washington on Tuesday, they discussed "accelerating India's indigenous defence production through bilateral defence industrial cooperation and partnership in emerging defence domains", Hendon said in a readout of the talks.

"Kahl reaffirmed the importance of the US-India Major Defence Partnership to shaping the future of the Indo-Pacific," he said.

Kahl tweeted" "We discussed a range of bilateral initiatives to advance the US-India defence partnership and promote a Free and Open Indo Pacific." Kwatra's visit to Washington comes ahead of the 2+2 Ministerial meeting of Union Ministers S. Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh with US Secretaries Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin in New Delhi next month.

Kwatra met Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday.

Hendon said Kwatra and Kahl "discussed initiatives to advance bilateral defence cooperation" ahead of the next 2+2 meeting.

They also exchanged views on developments related to mutual security interests, including in the Indian Ocean Region and Europe, he said.

The range of topics they discussed included "deepening Navy-to-Navy cooperation, particularly in the undersea domain, (and) expanding information sharing and logistics cooperation to facilitate operational coordination between the US and Indian militaries", Hendon added.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
Seoul, Nov 9 : The North Korean missile that flew across its de facto maritime border with South Korea last week has been found to be an "SA-5" type similar to that used by Russia in the Ukraine war, the Defence Ministry in Seoul said on Wednesday.

The Ministry announced the results of an inter-agency analysis of the debris of a missile that North Korea fired southward on November 2 past the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the East Sea, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The debris is around 3 metres long and 2 metres wide, assessed to be that of an "SA-5" surface-to-air missile, given its appearance and feature, it said.

It can be used for a ground-to-ground strike purpose and Russia recently used a similar missile in its war in Ukraine, the Ministry added.

It "strongly" condemned the North's SA-5 missile firing as a violation of the inter-Korean military agreement signed on September 19, 2018, to reduce border tensions.

"Our military will not tolerate any North Korean provocation that poses a threat to our nationals' lives and safety. We will sternly deal with it with overwhelming capabilities based on the Seoul-Washington alliance," the Ministry said.
Beirut, Nov 9 : Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said on Tuesday that the country will launch a first-phase vaccination campaign against cholera on Saturday as the outbreak is now under control.

"There was a rapid alert to the epidemic, whether by equipping hospital centres, boosting prevention, or securing vaccines," Abiad said during a press conference held here on Tuesday.

The first-phase vaccination campaign will see 600,000 doses administered in three weeks, aiming to cover 70 per cent of target groups in the areas most vulnerable to the outbreak, Xinhua news agency quoted the Minister as saying.

Lebanon will soon receive 1.5 million more doses of vaccine that will be administered in more areas in the second-phase vaccination campaign.

Lebanon has so far reported 2,722 cholera cases, including 448 lab-confirmed cases and 18 deaths, since the first cases were detected in early October, according to the latest figures by the Health Ministry.

This is Lebanon's first cholera outbreak since 1993.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has clarified that it only has $15 million worth of deposits on FTX to facilitate business operations and client trades, as it faced a partial outage.

In its bid to provide clarity, the company said regardless of whether the Binance and FTX transaction completes, "we have very little exposure to FTX and we have no exposure to its token, FTT".

"We have no exposure to Alameda Research, and we have no loans to FTX," Coinbase said in a blog post late on Tuesday.

The clarification came as Binance on Tuesday announced a non-binding, letter of intent to acquire FTX for an undisclosed sum. Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said in a tweet thread that FTX asked for their help.

Binance and FTX teams were working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog.

Coinbase further said that as a publicly traded company in the US, "we've also built our business in a way that allows us to be transparent about our track record, balance sheet strength, and effectively and prudently manage risk for our customers and ourselves".

"We are in a strong capital position. We ended Q3 with $5.6 billion in total available $USD resources, including $5 billion in cash and cash equivalents," the company informed.

"Fragmented, opaque regulatory frameworks in the US are driving crypto to offshore unregulated exchanges, where looser regulations can put customers at risk," it said.

Meanwhile, Coinbase said it was monitoring a fix for a partial outage that affected its website and app for around two hours.
Los Angeles, Nov 9 : The cast and crew of 'The Crown' were joined by Netflix head Ted Sarandos in London for the show's Season 5 premiere.

Before the screening started, Sarandos took to the stage at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in central London on Tuesday evening to introduce the new season. During his speech, Sarandos called the series the "crown jewel" in Netflix's original series catalogue, reports 'Variety'.

"This really has been and continues to be the highlight of my personal and professional life," Sarandos said of the show. "And I'm incredibly in awe with (Peter Morgan's) vision and with his writing. And I am incredibly, incredibly grateful for your friendship. Peter, thank you so much." Sarandos also took the opportunity to remind the audience the show is a "dramatisation" of the Royal Family's life. There has been much debate in the UK about how much of the show is fictionalised and whether it should carry a disclaimer so as not to confuse audiences, with actor Judi Dench even accusing the series of "crude sensationalism" in an open letter to the Times.

Jonny Lee Miller, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Jonathan Pryce and Lesley Manville were also in attendance, joining Morgan on stage despite being right in the middle of filming the sixth (and supposedly final) season.

"I'm leaving in five," admitted Staunton, who plays Queen Elizabeth II. "I'm back to work tomorrow." Morgan added: "We're filming in the morning. We've been filming for 10 weeks I think. Another 30 to go." For Pryce, who takes over the role of the Queen's husband Prince Philip, the theater brought back memories of the West End premiere of 'Miss Saigon', which had opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1989, with Pryce playing the Engineer.

"It's great being back in Drury Lane where I was 32 years ago for the opening of 'Miss Saigon'," he said, revealing that at the same time he had been performing on stage Miller had been working as a clerk in the same building.

"In the auditorium, selling programs and ice cream, was Jonny Lee Miller," Pryce said to cheers from the audience.

Miller plays former British Prime Minister John Major in the latest season of the Netflix show, which launches on November 9, while West plays Prince Charles, Debicki is Princess Diana and Manville plays the Queen's sister Princess Margaret.

They replace the previous cast, which included Olivia Colman as the Queen, Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, who played the characters for the previous two seasons. The current cast will remain with the show for its sixth season.

Along with Sarandos, another red carpet surprise arrived in the form of Gillian Anderson, despite the fact she doesn't appear in the current season.

Anderson played former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Season 4 and was previously reported to be in a relationship with "The Crown" showrunner Morgan.

Also in attendance were Claudia Harrison, who plays Princess Anne; West's son Senan, who plays Prince William; Salim Daw, who plays Mohamed Al-Fayed; Jude Akuwudike, who plays the Duke of Windsor's valet Sydney Johnson; Olivia Williams, who plays Camilla Parker Bowles; James Murray, who plays Prince Andrew; Marcia Warren, who plays the Queen Mother; Prasanna Puwanarajah, who plays Martin Bashir; and Khalid Abdalla, who plays Dodi Al-Fayed.

Abdalla used his red carpet moment to highlight the case of British Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been imprisoned in Egypt for almost a decade, by writing "Free Alaa" on his hand, which he held up to photographers.

Once inside the theater (which makes a cameo in the new season of the show in a scene where a lonely Diana watches the ballet), the cast, crew, family, friends and journalists assembled to watch two episodes from the new season, reports 'Variety'.

"It is such a thrill for us to get to work with the greatest talent here, to explore British storytelling around the world to an audience that is hungry for it and that loves it," Sarandos said before the top-billed cast walked on stage.

"And there's no better example of that than 'The Crown.' I remember almost 10 years ago, the first meeting, when Peter Morgan and (producer and director) Stephen Daldry had this incredible meeting, when they came and pitched the idea for 'The Crown.' Now, it was ambitious for sure, but it was perfectly clear.

"Peter pitched 10-episode seasons that would be a cinematic drama -- the production design, casting, writing, more fitting of feature film -- obviously where they were quite accomplished already. And the idea that we would re-cast every two seasons, these were all at the table 10 years ago, the ideas for the show, and it came in pretty much exactly as they hoped to do it." Sarandos continued: "In the end, this is the story of Queen Elizabeth, this is the story of the Royal Family -- told in dramatised stories. Some are very memorable, some forgotten, judging by the Google activity that happens every time we drop a new season." "But these are the stories that shaped this country during Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign. There was so much talk about our giving a two-season order for aHouse of Cards' back then. But it really set the stage beautifully for this six-season commitment to excellence that became 'The Crown.' "So since 'The Crown' premiered back in 2016, it is -- pun intended -- the crown jewel at Netflix, and we're incredibly, incredibly proud. I know that the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of talk about 'The Crown.' Tomorrow, when people get to see it, the talk is going to be about how magnificent this new season is."
Kolkata, Nov 9 : A top official of Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been arrested in Kolkata on the alleged charges of departmental fund defalcation, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police informed on Wednesday.

Sabyasachi Saha (51) was arrested from his residence at Rabindra Pally in Kestopur area in the northern outskirts of the city, though the state police did not specify the date and time of his arrest.

According to CID sources, their officials had been investigating complaints against Saha of syphoning departmental funds to the tune of around Rs 1 crore. Investigations revealed that the syphoned funds were diverted by the accused to accounts opened in the names of his spouse and other family members.

It is learnt that the allegations of departmental fund allocation were raised against Saha a couple of years back, following which he was kept under suspension for some time.

Meanwhile, the CID started investigating the matter following an FIR filed against him by GSI authorities at a police station.

State police sources said that he was also questioned by the probe agency a number of times in connection with the matter. However, finally he was arrested as he was unable to give satisfactory answers about the sources of the funds transferred to the bank accounts of his spouse and other family members in different phases.

CID sources said that Saha was probably not the only one in GSI who was involved in the scam, their sleuths are now trying to track his associates as well.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The air quality in the national capital continued to remain in the 'very poor' category on Wednesday morning according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

As per the SAFAR system, the overall Air quality Index of the capital city was reported 329 in the very poor category. The concentration of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 in the environment was recorded at 329 under very poor category and 216 under very poor and poor category respectively this morning.

The AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good'; 51 and 100 'satisfactory'; 101 and 200 'moderate'; 201 and 300 'poor'; 301 and 400 'very poor'; and 401 and 500 'severe'.

Meanwhile, following the improvement in Air Quality Index in relative terms, the Delhi government on Monday lifted various bans, including the reopening of the primary schools. The primary schools reopened from Wednesday, which were shut down as the Air Quality in the national capital went from bad to worse. The curbs on outdoor activities for secondary school students have also been lifted.

However, the Air Quality Index of Delhi's neighbouring cities of NOIDA and Gurugram continued to be grim.

Noida's AQI stood at 380 under the very poor category with the PM 2.5 concentration at 380 and the PM 10 concentration at 193 under the very poor and moderate category respectively. Gurugram's AQI was reported at 336 under the very poor category with PM 2.5 concentration at 336 and the PM 10 concentration at 187 under the very poor and moderate category this morning.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 9 : The Kerala cabinet, on Wednesday, decided to bring in an Ordinance to remove Governor Arif Mohammed Khan as the chancellor of Universities in the state.

For long, the two leaders have been engaged in a tussle that started with Khan objecting to the appointment of Vijayan's private secretary K.K.Ragesh's wife Priya Varghese at the Kannur University.

The Kerala High Court also stayed the appointment till the case gets finally disposed of.

Since then, the tiff between the two stalwarts have intensified. The cabinet's decision to float the Ordinance has stemmed from it.

But, with Khan being in no mood to relent, it remains to be seen how he handles the situation. The two Bills sent to him after a hurriedly called special session in September, along with a few others, continue to lie on his table.

According to sources in the know of things, one of the reasons why the Vijayan government decided to bring out an Ordinance is, not long ago, when the tiff started, an angry Khan had mentioned that he is least particular that he should be the chancellor and said if an Ordinance/Bill is brought out, he will happily sign it.

Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan, on hearing about the Ordinance, said under no circumstances will the Congress-led Opposition be a party to it.

"This cannot happen in Kerala because if this becomes law, then all the appointments including that of vice-chancellor, staff will be made from the CPI-M state party headquarters," he added.

Incidentally, this is the first time that such a law is being moved after Kerala was formed in 1956, when the Assembly through a Bill appointed the governor as the chancellor of Universities in the state.

There are 14 Universities where the governor is the chancellor.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Westland Books has acquired eminent journalist Manoj Mitta's forthcoming book "Caste Pride", the first of his two books on the legal history of 'varna' that is on various levels chilling, moving, and enlightening. The book will be published under Westland's Context imprint.

In this book, Manoj Mitta scours through legislative and judicial records to tell a powerful and riveting account of how caste has operated in India over two centuries of reform and modernisation. The author's years of immersion in the archives unearths little-known and startling facts as well as forgotten protagonists who have shaped the India of today, in ways good and bad.

A few glimpses: 1795: In a bid to win over upper castes, the East India Company exempts Banaras Brahmins from the death penalty.

1858: The Dewan of Travancore, T. Madava Row, forbids low-caste women to cover their breasts in public.

1898: As a judge of the Bombay High Court, M.G. Ranade rejects the Brahmin claim that Vaishyas are extinct.

1928: The Bombay High Court rules that Marathas are either Kshatriyas, if they belong to certain elite families, or Shudras.

The long, scarring battle against caste was fought by people across the spectrum of the peculiarly Hindu institution of caste, and the story of it opens up a new understanding of this country and its peoples.

Commenting on the acquisition, Manoj Mitta said: "I had set out to write another book entirely when my research drew me deeper and deeper into a vital gap in the literature on caste, particularly the battles for equality fought in legislatures and courts. The project took over the next seven years and more of my life." "What sustained me was the excitement of tracing the evolution of ideas, marked by the clashes between liberal and conservative Hindus, and bringing to light an array of social reformers who never got their due. The recording of this legal history is also key to understanding the insidious ways in which caste undermines this republic's avowed notions of liberty, equality and fraternity. Given the scale of its ambition, I am deeply reassured that the book is in the very capable hands of Karthika and Ajitha," Mitta added.

Ajitha G.S., Publisher, Context, said, "When I first read Manoj's book, I couldn't believe it -- someone had written the book I was waiting for! Clear-sighted, meticulously researched, measured and nuanced, this is a masterful history of caste. And told as it is through the lens of law, the large events of history and society are clarified, they make sense. This is the way history looks when you turn away from the big, charismatic men that dominate its telling to see what the facts say." Manoj Mitta is a New Delhi-based journalist focusing on law and human rights. He is an editorial board member of Article-14.com, and has served as a senior editor at the Times of India and the Indian Express. Mitta is the author of "The Fiction of Fact-Finding: Modi and Godhra" (2014). Along with H.S. Phoolka, he wrote "When a Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 Carnage and Its Aftermath" (2007).
Chennai, Nov 9 : Actor Ali Fazal, who has been constantly making a splash with his international projects, is to now work in two-time Oscar winner Bill Guttentag's 'Afghan Dreamers'.

Bill won the prestigious Academy title for his two short films, 'You Don't Have to Die' and 'Twin Towers'.

Shoot for 'Afghan Dreamers' began recently in Morocco and will be a 50-day schedule, with a majority of the film being shot across Morocco and Budapest.

The film is the true story about the programme that was started by Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob in 2017 as a way to help young women develop their skills in the field of science and technology, despite the patriarchal society in the country they hail from.

The film throws light on the chaotic, sometimes dangerous backdrop of the country's politics.

The story tells the tale of the team of the Afghan girls who travelled across the world and participated in competitions, garnered global media attention and even met leading politicians from across the globe.

The role of Roya will be essayed by The Bold Type famed Nikohl Boosheri.

Speaking about it, Ali said, "Excited and humbled to be sharing notes and being directed by Bill who has an impeccable body of work. Afghan Dreamers is a very important story to be told and I'm happy to be part of its cinematic retelling".

The film is being produced by Laura Overdeck, Samudrika Arora and Bill Guttentag.

Apart from 'Afghan Dreamers', the actor is also playing one of the leads alongside Gerard Butler in the action packed film 'Kandahar', which is set to release in 2023.
Patna, Nov 9 : A 16-year-old teenager was brutally killed in Bihar's Nalanda district, police said on Wednesday.

The deceased was identified as Sonu Kumar, a resident of Mahanandpur village under Deep Nagar police station in the district.

His uncle, Ranjit Kumar said: "A person named Arjun Mahto came to our residence and took Sonu to his home on Tuesday. When he did not return till the evening, we started the search. When we reached the house of Arjun Mahto, the dead body of Sonu was found on the door with a strangulation mark on the neck and stab wounds." "The dead body bore multiple wounds. He was brutally assaulted by the accused, strangled and stabbed several times leading to his death. We immediately informed the local police about the incident," Ranjit Kumar said.

"When we reached the house of Arjun Mahto, the blood was all over the place," Ranjit Kumar said.

"We recovered the dead body and sent it for the post-mortem. The family members of the deceased have given written complaints, but they have not mentioned any personal enmity. It looks to be a case of love affair in the preliminary investigation. The accused fled from the crime scene," said S.K. Jaiswal, SHO of Deep Nagar police station.
Islamaabd, Nov 9 : While Pakistan Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has clearly stated that he is retiring by the end of this month and is not seeking an extension, certain elements are suggesting to the top PML-N leadership to let the incumbent COAS continue as is the desire of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Strangely, these elements hope the government will convince Gen Bajwa to continue, The News reported.

Last month, while addressing a security workshop in Islamabad, the army chief unambiguously said that he would not be seeking another extension and would be retiring by the end of November this year.

Informed sources said that the army chief, during the corps commanders meeting a few weeks ago, also took the top military commanders into confidence about his retirement plan.

Later, he spoke to the Prime Minister and informed him that he was not interested in an extension and would be retiring at the end of November.

Khan has been asking for the continuation of incumbent army chief until the new elections and coming into power of the newly-elected government.

He believes that the next elected government should appoint the new army chief and that the present government and the incumbent Prime Minister have no right to make the topmost military appointments, The News reported.

Even on Tuesday, when Khan was asked by reporters whether Gen Bajwa would get an extension, he said that it was a million-dollar question.

The elements influencing the prime minister and PML-N's top leadership are thought to be among the well-connected acquaintances.

According to sources, the suggestion given to the premier and his party leadership is to convince the incumbent army chief to get an extension, dissolve the government and dissolve the National Assembly to pave the way for an interim government, which should continue for six to seven months for stabilisation of economy and politics.

Later, elections would be held and the PMLN would have a fair playing field for the next elections, The News reported.

The PML-N, however, said "no" to these options.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Amazon India and TVS Motor Company on Wednesday announced a collaboration on electric two and three-wheeler deployment, helping to further drive electric mobility in India.

As part of this collaboration, a fleet of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers from TVS Motor will be deployed for Amazon's last-mile deliveries.

The two companies will also pilot TVS Motor's electric vehicle solutions through partner bases and delivery associates across the country.

"This will support our supply chain in minimising the environmental impact of our operations and contribute to Amazon India's goal of inducting 10,000 EVs into our fleet by 2025," said Abhinav Singh, Director, Customer Fulfilment, Supply Chain and Global Specialty Fulfilment, Amazon India.

In 2020, the e-commerce major said its fleet of delivery vehicles in the country will include 10,000 EVs by 2025. The induction of these EVs is in addition to Amazon's global commitment of 100,000 EVs by 2030.

"With the great success of TVS 'iQube Electric', we now intend to expand our electric offering across multiple segments and commercial mobility stands at the opportune inflection point," said Manu Saxena, Senior Vice President, Future Mobility, TVS Motor Company.

TVS Motor is ready with electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler product options for business-to-business (B2B) segment, along with an ecosystem of connected service and alternate ownership.

In addition, the two companies will work in tandem to examine EV use cases for various Amazon business groups for its network and logistical requirements.
Azerbaijan's First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva made a post on Instagram on November 8 Victory Day, Azernews reports.

"08.11.2022. Happy Victory Day! May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs who died in the name of the Motherland. May the Almighty always protect our native Azerbaijan!

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Mumbai, Nov 9 : The makers of 'Bhediya' have just released an exclusive behind the scenes video featuring leads Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon disclosing some interesting tid-bits about each other.

Kriti remarks how Varun has become a better listener. The two stars also reveal their favourite song from 'Bhediya', which turns out to be the recently released 'Apna Bana Le'.

Talking about their unique rapport, Varun says, "Kriti and I are working together after six years. While not much has changed in that time, we now communicate even more effortlessly with each other, and this shows in our chemistry." "Funnily enough, this is one of the reasons our director was worried that we might exude too much chemistry in the film." Kriti adds: "Varun and I have genuinely been very good friends since Dilwale. We are extremely comfortable with each other, and that comfort translates beautifully on screen. We play off each other amazingly." "We worked together after 6 years, and in these 6 years we've grown as people, and as actors, and our bond has only strengthened! I had a blast working with him!"

AJio Studios & Dinesh Vijan present, 'Bhediya'.

A Maddock Films production, directed by Amar Kaushik, produced by Dinesh Vijan and starring Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Deepak Dobriyal and Abhishek Banerjee among others, is releasing in cinemas pan-India in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil in 2D and 3D on November 25.
Lucknow, Nov 9 : The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced that it will continue its alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal in the upcoming by-elections to three constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

The SP said that while it will contest from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Assembly seats, the RLD will contest from the Khatauli seat.

The Mainpuri seat fell vacant following the demise of Mulayam Singh Yadav, while the Rampur seat was declared vacant after Azam Khan's disqualification from the state Assembly following his conviction in a hate speech case.

The Khatauli seat was also declared vacant after BJP MLA Vikram Saini was convicted by a court in the Muzaffarnagar riots case.

Meanwhile, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) , the breakaway faction of Apna Dal, has said that it will continue its alliance with Samajwadi Party.

Apna Dal (K) president Krishna Patel has said the alliance of her party with the Samajwadi Party (SP) will continue for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

However, the Apna Dal (K) will contest the urban local bodies election on its own.

"A meeting of the party leaders and office-bearers was held to discuss the strategy for the urban local bodies election and membership drive," she said.

Replying to Apna Dal (S) national president and her estranged daughter Anupriya Patel's allegation that some family members were trying to weaken her party and hatching a conspiracy, Krishna Patel termed Anupriya's statement a "political" gimmick.

Apna Dal (K) leader, Pallavi Patel, won the Sirathu seat in the recent Assembly polls, defeating Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya.

However, Pallavi contested the seat on Samajwadi Party symbol. The Apna Dal (K) could not win any seat on its own.
Surat, Nov 9 : Over 1,000 kg duplicate ghee (clarified butter) was seized from Kim taluka in Surat, police said on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip-off, Surat police seized 1,072 kg duplicate ghee on Tuesday evening.

As per information, one Mehul Patel was running a duplicate ghee business from Kudsad village, Kim Police Inspector J S Rajput told mediapersons.

Posing himself as a dairy farm and a cow stable owner, Patel ran a factory in the backyard of stable where he used to mix palm oil, colour, essence and even little pure ghee into vegetable ghee.

He used to repack it in the name of Kamdhenu Dairy product and sell as pure ghee on e-commerce platforms Jio mart, Amazon and Flipkart.

The accused was buying vegetable ghee in large quantities, and it was also seized by the police.

Samples of both ghees are sent to FSL, and if the samples are found adulterated, a criminal complaint will be lodged against Patel and he will be arrested.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Delhi unit of BJP on Wednesday came down heavily on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for ordering reopening of schools amid worsening air quality.

Taking to Twitter, it said, "Mat karo bachon ki zindagi ke sath khilwad, Delhi puche kahan ho Kejriwal (Please do not play with children's lives.. Delhi is asking where is Kejriwal missing)".

Speaking to IANS, National spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said, "Kejriwalji, we earnestly request that pollution is not an issue of politics, please do not risk our children's lives. Today Delhi is nothing less than a virtual gas chamber with the AQI continuing in the 'extremely severe' category. At places, it is above 350 and 400 in certain areas. Stubble burning is not the only reason for Delhi's pollution, but road dust, construction dust, industrial pollution, vehicle pollution also contribute to it. No action has been taken to tackle the internal causes of pollution".

"You had not even bothered to close the schools till the Delhi BJP experts and parents put pressure on you. Now, before the air pollution is controlled, you are once again risking the children's lives by reopening the schools. Please take long term measures to tackle pollution. Please shift your focus from advertisement to management", he added.
Chambi : , Nov 9 (IANS) Batting for women empowerment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his second political campaign in a week in the poll-bound state, on Wednesday said the BJP's double engine governments could provide stability and good governance to the people of Himachal Pradesh.

He linked the Congress with "instability, corruption and scam".

"The women, sisters and daughters of the country were the most neglected in the Congress government for decades, you have seen the days before 2014. Considering me as your son, you blessed me and I also decided that I will fulfill your problems that you were facing for generations," Modi, who donned a Himachali cap, said while addressing a public rally in Chambi near Dharamsala in Kangra district.

Last week, the Prime Minister addressed two public meetings -- in Sundernagar and Solan. In the rally, he pleaded electorates with a promise to set a 'naya rivaj' (new tradition) to re-elect the BJP government in the state.

Stressing to further strengthen the women-led development, Modi, who tries to build by bond with the locals by saying that he considers Himachal Pradesh his second home, said: "We are trying to overcome every challenge of the women till the last stage of their life. This era is of 5G. The youth of Himachal and the life of Himachal will be transformed with 5G. With this, education in remote schools will also become like cities." Slamming the Congress, the Prime Minister, who ahead of the public meeting announced to gift unique art and handicraft items from Himachal Pradesh to world leaders during the upcoming G20 summit, said the Congress government had raised the age of pension to 80 years and also kept the condition of family income.

"The BJP government reduced the pension age to 60 years and removed the income condition. This benefited lakhs of senior citizens." Explaining the rationale for choosing the double engine government, Modi said the Central government started the Ujjwala scheme and the BJP government of Himachal added more people to it by starting the Himachal Grihini Suvidha Yojna.

"The Central government started the Ayushman scheme, the BJP government of Himachal added more people to the Himcare scheme. This is how the double engine government is working." Explaining further, Modi said: "The Congress means guarantee of instability, the Congress means guarantee of corruption and scam. And the Congress means that there is a guarantee of blocking the development works." Saying that the Congress is left with power in only two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Modi asked the people if they have ever heard of them making news for development. "It is the reports of internal feuds of the Congress which come out from there." Amidst chants of 'Modi-Modi', the Prime Minister was extended rousing welcome on his arrival by party activists, some donning traditional dresses, who were awaiting his arrival for several hours.

Many women were present en route, waving their hands at the Prime Minister's arrival.

Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls for the BJP-ruled 68-member Legislative Assembly on Saturday.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : After visiting Ghazipur landfill site on Wednesday, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed that BJP was suppressing the size of the garbage and filling vacant spaces at the landfill with waste to show that the size of the mountain has reduced.

While speaking on the occasion, Sisodia said that if his party (Aam Aadmi Party) comes into the power, all the three garbage mountain will be cleared.

"People of Delhi will vote for the AAP in the upcoming municipal polls to clear the 'garbage of the BJP' and if the party comes to power in the MCD, it will clear the garbage mountains from the city in five years," Sisodia said.

"In the MCD election, people will vote for Jhadu to clear the garbage of the BJP for a clean Delhi," Sisodia said while visiting the garbage site.

As the party has centred its MCD poll campaign on the garbage mountains, the AAP is planning to conduct more than 500 mass public dialogues every day across Delhi. The party has started 'Kude Par Jansamvad' at 13,682 booths to reach out to Delhiites before MCD elections.

By November 20, a public dialogue will be held at each of Delhi's 13,682 booths. It has been decided to hold approximately 500 public meetings per day led by AAP MLAs. All AAP office bearers have been instructed to connect with each and every resident of Delhi at the grassroot level and listen to their problems.

The MCD poll is scheduled to be held on December 4 and the results will be declared on December 7. The nomination process for the elections started from November 7.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : After spending nearly 101 days in jail, a Mumbai Special Court granted bail to Shiv Sena (UT) MP Sanjay Raut, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on August 1, here on Wednesday.

The ED had raided Raut on July 31 and arrested him the following day (August 1) in connection with an alleged money laundering scam arising out of the Patra Chawl redevelopment case of Goregaon.

A Special PMLA Court granted bail to the firebrand leader though there was speculation that the ED may challenge the ruling in a higher court.
Chennai, Nov 9 : The opposition AIADMK is on a sticky wicket in Tamil Nadu after the silence of the party interim general secretary and former Chief Minister, K. Palaniswami on the Supreme Court upholding the reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) which is a major political and social issue in the state.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has called a meeting of legislative party leaders on November 12 to discuss the future course of action to be adopted by the state in connection with the Supreme Court upholding the validity of the constitutional amendment providing 10 per cent reservation for EWS among the forward castes.

The meeting is to be held at the secretariat at 10. 30 a.m. on Saturday.

The AIADMK had walked out from both Houses of Parliament when the Bill was introduced in 2019. The then AIADMK member of the Rajya Sabha, Navaneethakrishnan had said that the 10 per cent EWS quota did not have proper quantifiable data and had walked out of the house.

In a similar vein, the AIADMK leader in the Lok Sabha, M. Thambidurai had said that the EWS quota for general category would create confusion and that it may not be implemented properly. He also said that EWS would lead to corruption also.

A senior leader of the AIADMK while speaking to IANS on conditions of anonymity said that the party will have to strongly oppose the EWS as this had been its political line. He said, "EPS is keeping a studied silence and it will not do good for the party. We hope that the party would bring out a statement clearing the misconceptions as the Dravidian base of the party would be lost if it is not acting proactively." However deposed leader of the AIADMK and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam told mediapersons that the state government must go for an appeal.

It has to be seen how the politics of AIADMK will evolve in the days to come and whether the present division in the party could move further or whether both factions would align together.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned until November 24 the scrutiny of the decision-making process behind the 2016 demonetisation policy as Centre failed to affidavit, saying "it is very embarrassing".

On October 11, the Supreme Court asked the Centre and RBI to file comprehensive affidavits on the 2016 demonetisation decision and also keep the files ready in connection with Centre's letter to the RBI, the decision of the RBI Board, and the demonetisation announcement.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice S.A. Nazeer and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna, V. Ramasubramanian, and B.V. Nagarathna adjourned the matter after Attorney General R. Venkataramani sought time to file a comprehensive affidavit.

The AG apologised to the bench for not being able to prepare the comprehensive affidavit and sought a week's time. The bench remarked: "Normally a constitution bench never adjourns like this. We never rise like this. It is very embarrassing for the court also." On the aspect of adjournment, Venkataramani said that it was embarrassing for him also.

Lawyers representing the petitioners argued against the submissions for adjourning of proceedings, saying it has never been an accepted practice before a constitution bench.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing one of the petitioners, said this was highly unusual to ask a constitution bench for adjournment. The counsel, for the petitioners, said they should be allowed to argue and the RBI and the central government could take their time to file the affidavits. Another senior advocate, representing another petitioner, said the situation was "embarrassing".

Deferring the proceedings, the apex court made it clear the government and RBI must submit their affidavits within a week.

The top court is hearing over 50 petitions challenging the Centre's 2016 demonetisation decision to take currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations out of circulation. In the previous hearing, the apex court said it was completely mindful of the "lakshman rekha" in connection with the matters of economic policies as it set about to examine the decision making process.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : Actress Mrunal Thakur made her Telugu debut with 'Sita Ramam' and received unanimous praise for her work in the film. But, not everything on the film set was a smooth sail for the actress.

She had to learn a new language and emote in a completely alien territory. But, what kept her going was the reward of playing a "beautifully written character" of Sita Mahalakshmi, who is revealed to be princess Noor Jahan in the movie.

Elaborating on the same, the actress said: "Being part of an enigmatic story was the biggest lucrative reason for me to be part of Sita Ramam. Despite whatever small hurdles that I had to adapt to and learn from, I was so elated to be part of this film. Learning a new language seemed like a small hike in exchange for this beautifully written character by Hanu sir." The other reward for her was to share the screen with an actor like Dulquer Salman: "To be with such an incredible team and working alongside Dulquer was rewarding, to see what an impeccable performer he is. I knew we were making something special, and that elevated with the warm and tremendous welcome you got for my Telugu debut." After its successful theatrical run and dropping on Prime Video, 'Sita Ramam' will release in Hindi on OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar on November 18, 2022.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Delhi Police have busted a fake call centre in Delhi's Uttam Nagar which scammed more than 1700 people on the pretext of providing them loans and arrested 12 people in this connection, an official said on Wednesday.

Police said that the fake call centre was disguised as a medicine supply store.

According to M Harsha Vardhan, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka), specific inputs were received regarding an illegal call centre being run at Uttam Nagar and that it is cheating people on the pretext of providing a loan.

"The call centre was being run by Faisal, a resident of Sanjay Nagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and his team. On inquiry, Faisal misled the police team by saying that he is running the call centre for selling and advertising the medicines," said the DCP.

"He had even kept some medicines on the counter to mislead police. However, on sustained interrogation, it was revealed that all the employees were working as customer support agents and they used to call the customers for offering loans," said the official.

"They then used to provide the bank account details and ask the customers to deposit a processing fee amount in that bank account," said the official.

"One Paras, a resident of Sanjay Nagar in Ghaziabad had taken the place on which call centre was operating on lease. He is absconding in this case. Efforts are being made to nab him," said the DCP.

"Apart from Paras, three other persons are also involved in this fraud syndicate who used to provide backend services like bank accounts for collecting the money and fraud SIM cards, advertising or sending bulk SMS regarding loan on mobile numbers. Their details are being ascertained in this case and efforts are being made to nab these accused persons," said the DCP.

"The call centre has been running since February 2022. As per the scrutiny of the registers and further interrogation, it has come to light that the accused had cheated more than 1700 innocent people," said the DCP.

"Total 29 registers containing a list of contacted persons depicting money and amount transactions were recovered. The amount cheated from these persons is likely to exceed Rs 1 crore," said the official.

"A total of 12 persons, including six women, were working in the call centre and were nabbed by a police team on the spot," said the official.
Bhopal, Nov 9 : A day after a man whipped out a gun during a sub-rally of 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior-Chambal area, the state Congress unit on Wednesday alleged that the miscreant was associated with the saffron party.

A group of Congress leaders, including the leader of opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly Dr Govind Singh and MLA Jayvardhan Singh -- son of Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh --, blamed the ruling BJP for the incident.

Such an incident may reoccur when the foot march led by Rahul Gandhi enters in the state on November 20, they stated.

The Congress also demanded that the government ensure full security arrangement when the rally enters the state and passes through seven districts including Indore, Ujjain, Khargone and Agar-Malwa.

On Tuesday, when a sub-yatra was proceeding from Bhind to Gwalior district, a youth armed with a loaded country-made revolver tried to open fire on one of the people present. He was, however, overpowered by the people and handed over to the police.

Dr Govind Singh, who is MLA from Lahar Assembly seat in Bhind district, was leading the march from Bhind to Gwalior.

According to the Congress leaders, the incident occurred around 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday, when Bharat Jodo tertiary march entered Gwalior district. "All of sudden a youth came and pointed the gun at a person, who was part of the march. He was about to shoot him when people present there overpowered him and handed him over to the police. It is a matter of concern and we suspect that such an incident may occur in future as well," the LoP told IANS.

However, Gwalior police claimed that the accused -- identified as Jitu Gurjar -- had accompanied victim Chhotu Tomar to the rally. "The incident was a fallout of a personal rivalry between the two men. The accused has been arrested," said Amit Sanghi, Gwalior SP.

Notably, former Chief Minister and Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath had visited Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on November 6 and apprised him about the Yatra's arrival in the state.

Sources said that Chouhan has appointed senior bureaucrats to ensure the security and other arrangements for the same.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : After completing the Jodhpur schedule of his courtroom drama film, National Film Award-winning actor, Manoj Bajpayee is currently shooting in Mumbai for the yet-to-be-titled film. The pictures from the sets were released by the makers to treat the fans of the actors, on Wednesday.

The film is being directed by Apoorv Singh Karki who has helmed popular OTT shows like Aspirants, Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt Ltd, Flames, etc. The film brings back Suparn S Varma and Manoj Bajpayee together after their much revered OTT series 'The Family Man'.

In the pictures that have emerged from the sets, Manoj, dressed in a plain white shirt, tie, blacks pants and spectacles, can be seen in the company of the film's director Apoorv and producer Vinod Bhanushali and they share light-hearted fun moments.

The Mumbai leg of the film's schedule will involve some intense courtroom scenes, and from start to finish the film will be shot at various locations in Mumbai.

A Zee Studios and Bhanushali Studios Limited presentation, the movie is produced by Vinod Bhanushali, Kamlesh Bhanushali, Asif Sheikh and Vishal Gurnani. The makers are looking at a 2023 release of the film.
New Delhi, Nov 9: Kashmir has remained in the global spotlight for seven decades. Most of that narrative has been bloody, controversial and run by Pakistan. With the guns doing most of the talking, Kashmiris themselves had little to say all this while.

Rahul Kumar New Delhi, Nov 9: Kashmir has remained in the global spotlight for seven decades. Most of that narrative has been bloody, controversial and run by Pakistan. With the guns doing most of the talking, Kashmiris themselves had little to say all this while.

Local Kashmiri politicians, despite being intertwined with mainstream Indian politics, have only contributed to the marginalisation of Kashmir through their shady brand of politics - pretending to be loyal to India while parroting the Pakistani line. A book, 'The Two Kashmirs', released recently says that despite the shadow of terrorism, Indian Kashmir is way ahead in progress and Indian Kashmiris much better as compared to people in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

India Narrative catches up with author Sheikh Khalid Jehangir to discuss Kashmiri politics, Kashmiri people and the state of Kashmir over the years. Jehangir is also the secretary general of the Delhi-based think tank - International Centre for Peace Studies (ICPS) and has been an international journalist.

Excerpts from the interview: IN: What motivated you to write this book comparing Indian Kashmir with PoK?

SKJ: I wrote the book because I want to share Pakistan's debilitating role in Indian Kashmir and what Islamabad did to us-the Kashmiri Muslims. Pakistan has tried to end our prosperity, our education and what we are.

But I have to first tell you about my life in Kashmir.

I was born in Srinagar and saw a complete circle take place in the lives of Kashmiris in the Valley. The cycle of living a normal life, followed by strife and now a changing Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.

Born in 1976, I had my schooling at Burn Hall School in a very normal J&K where Hindus, Kashmiri Pandits and the wives of army officers were our teachers. Our classmates were Hindus, Sikhs, Punjabis and we used to celebrate Diwali, Eid and Christmas. Our morning prayer was the national anthem and the principal of our school was a Roman Catholic. This was that peaceful Kashmir when I had my schooling.

In 1991, our school principal Father Dominic announced in the assembly that three blasts had taken place. I remember him announcing that this would be the last Jana Gana Mana.

Kashmir was in the throes of a massive change.

Students were beginning to carry guns and grenades. By the time I joined college, full-fledged militancy had taken root.

I was the vice president of the SP College students' union. One day I organised a seminar on Gandhi and politics in 1994. Militants, probably from Hizbul Mujahideen, fired shots outside the college. We were not scared as other groups of militants were supporting us. Srinagar was overflowing with guns. A totally different kind of atmosphere began to develop in Kashmir.

Foreign militants started coming in. Besides terrorism, they were also interested in local girls, and that is how information about them leaked out.

While in college I also began to visit Geneva to attend the UN human rights conferences as the student ambassador for India. Once Sartaz Aziz, the Pakistani minister offered me money to speak against India at the UN but I refused.

IN: Tell us more about what Pakistan has done to Kashmir? SKJ: Pakistan sees Kashmir's integration with India as a threat to PoK. The Pakistani army and ISI are not interested in the welfare of the Kashmiri people. They are interested only in our lands.

Pakistan's involvement in Kashmir is to keep the two-nation theory alive among their people in PoK. All that Pakistan has been telling people in PoK is that Muslims cannot live in India and they are third-grade citizens in India.

Kashmiri Muslims are different from Muslims in the rest of India and Pakistan. We are far ahead of other Muslim communities in the continent as we are more liberal and practice Sufi Islam.

IN: Has life improved in Kashmir after the removal of Article 370? SKJ: Our Prime Minister says the abrogation was a historic process. But Pakistani politicians and the mainstream Kashmiri politicians say it is a failure.

The leaders of the mainstream political parties in Kashmir are trying to undermine the government of India's development plans. They do not want benefits to come to the Kashmiri people. They are not supporting the development plans in Kashmir.

Our own Kashmiri leaders from 1947 till now have opposed India. All mainstream Kashmiri politicians want to defeat India in Kashmir. The dynastic politicians take favours from India but parrot Pakistani propaganda. However, these issues are not understood by the powers in Delhi.

People do not realise that Kashmiri Muslims are deeply integrated with India. This is perceived as a threat by Pakistan. We are in fact more integrated with India than are other Muslims.

There are families like ours which are stoutly nationalist. My grandfather was the zaildar to the maharaja of Kashmir while my father was in his army. He later joined the defence ministry.

IN: One can understand that you got information about development in Indian Kashmir, but how did you obtain information on PoK's development indices? SKJ: My team at ICPS was able to procure good research papers on PoK from across the border. People in PoK gave us credible information and then we cross-checked the data provided to us.

IN: While writing the book and comparing development in Indian Kashmir with PoK, did you come across any surprising revelations? SKJ: There is a big difference in the quality of life in the two Kashmirs in terms of health, education, travel and housing.

Muzaffarabad, which is the capital of PoK does not have an airport. To be able to travel out of PoK, Pakistanis have to travel to Islamabad by road from where they take a flight to other cities in Pakistan. Here, the Srinagar airport is an international airport with nearly 100 flights every day to various Indian cities.

There is no central university in Muzaffarabad. Even their health facilities are poor. All of Muzaffarabad has less hospitals as compared to one district on our side of Kashmir.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Chennai, Nov 9 : Seven senior MBBS students of the prestigious Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore were suspended by the college management after they subjected juniors to ragging.

A first-year MBBS student had shared the video in which he and other batch mates were subjected to ragging by seniors. The video, which went viral, depicted the juniors being made to kneel in the mud outside the college hostel and water sprayed from a hose on them.

The junior students were made to do some physical activity in the mud even as water was being sprayed on them.

A junior student, who was subjected to the ragging, told the media persons at Vellore in Tamil Nadu that they were subjected to physical and sexual abuse.

The post of the first-year MBBS student was tweeted by a doctor and this went viral leading to the management taking action against the senior students.

Seven senior students were suspended from the college and the management has initiated a further probe into their activities.
Chennai, Nov 9 : In space, things move slowly. But at IN-SPACe, things seem to be moving at rocket speed. So much so, even before the Space Policy and the Space Activities Bill were finalised, permission for the launch of India's first rocket built by a private company has been accorded.

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) is the regulator for the private sector space players.

On Tuesday, rocket making startup Skyroot Aerospace said it will launch its Vikram-S rocket between November 12-16 from the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket port in Sriharikota.

The company said necessary permissions have been obtained for the rocket launch with three satellites.

This pops up the questions like when was `The Draft National Spa e Transportation Policy-2020' approved and what about the financial guarantee or the insurance cover to be provided by the rocket launching company to the sectoral regulator.

As per the original draft policy, IN-SPACe authorisation requires the financial guarantee or insurance cover by the proposer/rocket launch company as part of its ownership towards fulfilment of nation's liability as per international agreements.

Questions sent to INSPACe's top officials by IANS on the insurance aspect remained unanswered.

"As per the regulations up to certain value of damage, companies are liable and beyond that the state will foot the bill. The liability determination process is finalised and managed by INSPACe," S. Somanath, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, ISRO told IANS.

He said for the rockets, the liability is determined by the type of the rocket mission, range and others. The ISRO will do this exercise. For the satellites, the issue of liability cannot be estimated and has to be determined case to case basis.

Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO and Co-Founder, Skyroot Aerospace had told IANS that the insurance aspect has been taken care off but declined to mention the insurer's name citing a non-disclosure agreement.

Industry officials told IANS that revised draft regulations governing the sector were shared with the companies and industry associations to get their feedback.

While the original draft regulations were put out to the public for comments, why the same was not done with the second draft is not known.

"As per the revised thinking, the regulations will be part of the N ew Space Policy 2022. The conditions like insurance, financial guarantee will be part of the Space Activities Bill," retired Lt. General A.K. Bhatt, Director General, Indian Space Association, told IANS.

Both-the Space Activities Bill and the New Space Policy- in work in progress stage, industry officials said.

Space sector start-ups said that the sectoral regulator is lending them a helping hand on various aspects.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)
Phnom Penh, Nov 9 : Cambodia on Wednesday celebrated its 69th Independence Day, with the King and government officials attending a ceremony at the Independence Monument here to mark the occassion.

King Norodom Sihamoni, accompanied by Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government officials, laid a wreath and lit the ceremonial victory fire inside the Independence Monument, reports Xinhua news agency.

The ceremony was also attended by foreign diplomats, armed forces, civil servants, citizens and students.

Hun Sen said November 9 reminded the people of a noble mission launched by the late King Norodom Sihanouk to demand independence from France.

"King Norodom Sihanouk, the Father of Independence, had sacrificed both physical and mental energies in his royal crusade to gain full independence for Cambodia," the Prime Minister said.

At the end of the celebration, doves and balloons were released as a sign of independence and freedom.

The Southeast Asian nation gained its independence on November 9, 1953, after 90 years under French colonial rule.
Seoul, Nov 9 : North Korea launched one short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch from an area in or around Sukchon, South Pyongan Province, at 3.31 p.m. (local time), reports Yonhap News Agency.

Defence authorities are analyzing related details including the missile's speed, altitude and flight distance.

The North's latest provocation came as ballots are being counted in the US midterm elections.

The South's military has been staging computer-simulated Taegeuk drills since Monday.

Pyongyang launched 35 missiles into the East and Yellow Seas between on November 2 and 5 in protest against a combined air exercise of the US and South Korea, called Vigilant Storm.
Bengaluru, Nov 9 : In a major development, a Karnataka court on Wednesday quashed the petition submitted by the Malali Mosque management to dismiss the application demanding survey of the mosque.

The Third Additional Civil Court hearing the case in its verdict also stated that the case could be tried in the civil court. The Malali mosque management committee had challenged a petition filed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and sought to quash it.

The mosque management also claimed that the Malali Masjid stands on the property belonging to the Waqf Board and any dispute in this regard must be heard in Waqf-related court. However, the court dismissed these arguments.

The hearing of the VHP's petition demanding the appointment of a court commissioner on lines of Gyanvapi Masjid will be taken up on January 8, 2023.

The VHP welcomed the verdict. Its leader Sharan Pumpwell stated that the issue could be resolved amicably if the management of the mosque agreed. "The matter would be pursued legally to build a temple on the site of the disputed masjid," he stated.

Hindu organisations had earlier submitted a petition demanding the survey of the mosque on the lines of Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh. This came after the surfacing of a Hindu temple structure at the time of renovation of the mosque.

Challenging this, the management of the mosque and Muslim organisations argued that the court did not have the jurisdiction to look into the matter. The court was supposed to deliver the judgment in this regard on Monday.

Earlier, the Karnataka local court had reserved for November 9 in Dakshina Kannada district of the state. The Third Additional Civil Court in Mangaluru, after reserving the orders had then directed that status quo to be maintained in the premises of the masjid.

The state police department had beefed up the security in the region in the communally sensitive coastal region.
Kabul, Nov 9 : Afghanistan's universities have become a hotbed of resistance to the Taliban, with female students staging protests against the militant group's sweeping restrictions on women.

In response, the Taliban has cracked down on several university campuses across the country, violently breaking up demonstrations and expelling students accused of political activism, RFE/RL reported.

In the latest incident, the Taliban beat dozens of female students who staged a rally on October 30 outside their university in the northeastern province of Badakhshan.

The incident came after a group of women were barred from entering the campus because of their appearance, RFE/RL reported.

Weeks after seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban had imposed a new dress code and gender segregation for women at universities and colleges across the country.

The Taliban's Education Ministry ordered that all female students, teachers, and staff must wear an all-encompassing burqa or an Islamic abaya robe and niqab that covers the hair, body, and most of the face.

Classes must also be segregated by gender -- or at least divided by a curtain. Female students must be taught only by other women.

The order was condemned by activists, who said it would create fear and a culture of discrimination against women and girls.
New Delhi, Nov 9: In the bitter power struggle in Pakistan between Imran Khan and the "establishment", the former Prime Minister appears to have seized the initiative, pushing the Shehbaz Sharif government and the military into a reactive mode.

Atul Aneja New Delhi, Nov 9: In the bitter power struggle in Pakistan between Imran Khan and the "establishment", the former Prime Minister appears to have seized the initiative, pushing the Shehbaz Sharif government and the military into a reactive mode.

By Monday evening, Khan managed to grab a larger global space to push home his narrative that the attempt on his life last week was the handiwork of three powerful individuals - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, interior minister Rana Sanaullah and most importantly, Major General Faisal Naseer, who belongs to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

By taking on the military head-on, the former Prime Minister appears to have rattled the "fauj", which realises that if Khan succeeds, it will mean a fundamental power shift. For the first time in Pakistan's history, the military would be de facto subordinated to civilian control. Naturally, the military is bound to fight back at Khan's endeavour to knock out the army from the pinnacle of power.

Firing a fresh salvo in the information war, Khan, on Monday went on air on CNN, parading his point of view about the assassination plot. In an interview with the well-known anchor Becky Anderson, the former Prime Minister asserted that he had been informed "from within intelligence agencies that the shooting which injured him would take place".

The benumbed response from the police, which refused to lodge an FIR for 96 hours after the Wazirabad shooting further added credence to Khan's accusations. Finally, when the FIR, on the insistence of Pakistan's Supreme Court, was confusingly self-lodged by the police it excluded the three individuals that Khan had named. In the meantime, the hashtag #FIRRejected pushed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Khan's party, went viral on Twitter.

The FIR fiasco has energised the PTI which now will, after a gap on account of the shooting incident, continue with its Long March to Islamabad. By continuing with its protest, PTI hopes to force the government to announce an early date for the national polls, and hope to come back to power once fresh elections are held.

On Monday, PTI leader Asad Umar, detailing the resumption of the party's long march said he will lead marchers in the Faisalabad division on Friday.

PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur will lead protesters from the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Murad Saeed will lead from the Malakand region.

"Pervez Khattak will lead the march from Peshawar and Hazara region," he added.

In the power struggle which has spilled into the streets, Khan has taken the military head-on. On Thursday, his supporters had encircled the residence of the Peshawar corps commander after the former Prime Minister named Major General Naseer as a co-conspirator.

While he is recovering from his injuries in the Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore his supporters from the PTI are blocking roads in Rawalpindi, the seat of Pakistan's military headquarters.

The former Prime Minister also hopes to draw more supporters cutting across party lines. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Khan said that his party's doors were open to "all democratic loving forces" "For the future of Pakistan the doors of PTI are open to all democratic loving forces to join our struggle for Justice, rule of law and freedom from foreign subservience - our goal of Haqeeqi Azadi." In the wake of Khan's challenge, the Pakistani government has few options. Pushed on the backfoot, Pakistani interior minister Sanaullah has tried to justify the decision of not lodging the three names in the FIR.

"There must be some sort of evidence for the first information report (FIR) to be registered," Sanaullah said while addressing a Tuesday press conference. The embattled interior minister continued to insist that there was only one "lone wolf" assassin who had been arrested, closing the door on Khan's contention that two or more individuals were involved in the attack. He also asserted that instead of a mass upsurge the Long March had mobilised only a few thousand people, whose goal was to push the country towards chaos.

There is another view that the government is likely to arrest top PTI functionaries to stall the Long March heading towards Islamabad, and even go for a media blackout-both moves difficult to implement given the current momentum shift.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Most executives in India say their organisations are continuing to increase their cyber budgets in 2023 as data breaches increase, a report showed on Wednesday.

While 77 per cent said cybercriminal activity is the biggest organisational threat, 62 per cent highlighted insider threat as a challenge.

According to a PwC report, 43 per cent of Indian business executives said their firms were yet to fully mitigate the risks associated with remote and hybrid work, 61 per cent said the same around risks associated with accelerated cloud adoption and 55 per cent around increased data volumes.

"Our survey clearly reveals that organisations that have made cybersecurity a strategic priority have witnessed less disruption to business," said Sivarama Krishnan, Partner and APAC Cybersecurity Leader, PwC.

In the previous three years, one in four companies worldwide experienced a data breach that cost $1-$20 million or more, according to the report.

In India, the top areas of concern are cloud-based pathways (59 per cent) and the internet of things (58 per cent), followed by mobile devices and software supply chains (54 per cent).

According to the PwC survey, 89 per cent of Indian business executives say their organisation's cybersecurity team detected a significant cyber threat to business and prevented it from affecting their operations, as against 70 per cent globally.

About 50 per cent of respondents believe that they have fully mitigated the risks their bold moves incurred since 2020, said the report.

This includes enabling remote and hybrid work (57 per cent say the cyber risk is fully mitigated); accelerating cloud adoption (61 per cent); increasing use of the internet of things (67 per cent); increasing digitisation of supply chains (52 per cent), and increasing back-office operations (56 per cent).

"Among all the risks affecting organisations, Indian respondents consider a catastrophic cyberattack, the resurgence of Covid-19 or a new health crisis, and a new geopolitical conflict as the top three," the findings showed.
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 9 : Demand for the resignation of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor Arya Rajendran intensified on Wednesday, with angry supporters of the women's wing of BJP and Congress laying siege to the Corporation office.

Swinging into action, the police erected barricades to prevent the protesters from entering the compound of the prestigious local body in the heart of the state capital city.

Despite strong security, a few of the Mahila Morcha activists managed to sneak into the Corporation's main office, but were prevented from entering by the police.

After the women's wings of the two parties withdrew, the BJP workers in good numbers.

The protesters have been demanding the resignation of Rajendran after she reportedly wrote a letter to the party's district secretary stating that there are 295 temporary vacancies in the corporation.

However, after Rajendran flatly denied having written such a letter, the Crime Branch police decided to conduct a probe into this matter.

On Tuesday, she was waylaid by the Congress workers. After the police intervened, she was able to drive to her office.

Meanwhile, it has now come to light that the probe team is cautiously going forward as doubts have been raised that the whole letter controversy is a result of the factionalism in the CPI-M in the state capital district and any in-depth detailed probe means, a few top district level leaders of the party might land in a tight spot.

What's most intriguing is the Mayor who has gone on record to say that she has not written such a letter, never complained to the police, instead met Vijayan and briefed him. Later, Vijayan asked the state police chief for a probe.

Surprisingly, even after four days, the police probe team is yet to register an FIR and this according to the protesting opposition leaders, clearly indicates that everyone in the CPI-M knows who has done it, but are unable to go forward, as it could lead to explosive situations in the ruling party.

A source in the know of things said if the police registers an FIR, then as a follow up, the mobile phones of Rajendran, Thankappan and a few others in the party, who would have allegedly put the controversial letter in the social media, will all have to be placed before the police probe team and also appear before it as part of the probe.

Moreover, now with cyber probes being on fast-track mode, the CPI-M fears that it could create more harm than good and hence there is dilly dallying and no FIR has been registered, he added.

Rajendran wrote herself into record books in 2020, when she was elected as the youngest Mayor in the country.

The BJP and the Congress now describe her as the youngest 'corrupt' Mayor in the country.
Chandigarh, Nov 9: In a scathing indictment of Islamabad, the Canadian and Australian governments have warned their citizens to be alert in Pakistan as the country is marred by "terrorism, civil unrest, sectarian violence, and kidnappings".

Rajinder S Taggar Chandigarh, Nov 9: In a scathing indictment of Islamabad, the Canadian and Australian governments have warned their citizens to be alert in Pakistan as the country is marred by "terrorism, civil unrest, sectarian violence, and kidnappings".

"Several terrorist groups operate across the country (Pakistan)... incidents attributed to extremism, ethnic divisions, sectarian strife, political disputes, bombings, shootings, kidnappings, suicide bombings...directed at a wide range of targets... have caused many deaths," says the Canadian document available with indianarrative.com.

The government of Australia has asked its citizens to reconsider their plans to travel to Pakistan as the security situation there is volatile and a high threat of terrorist attacks, kidnappings and violence exists.

The Canadian government's lengthy warning-cum-advisory issued to its citizens on November 7 states: "The terrorists could target public places frequented by foreign tourists, minority groups, airports, western-style shopping arcades, hotels, and restaurants. The riskiest days in Pakistan are Eid, Muharram, Independence day, August 14 and the national day, March 23." The attack on former Prime Minister Imran Khan and others on November 3 has created a volatile situation in Pakistan. Demonstrations, roadblocks, use of teargas by police, and frequent firing of gunshots have been reported from major cities. The Army deployed troops and tanks to assist the local security forces, it explains.

On Women's safety, the Canadian document says, "travelling alone you may be subjected to verbal abuse, harassment, gender-based violence or even molestation," warning White women. Further, the document says, "Forced marriage affecting foreigners occurs. It sometimes occurs without the affected person's prior knowledge or consent." Hence keep your passports safely in your possession and immediately report the matter to the Consulate.

The capital city of Islamabad and the port city of Karachi in Sindh province are also not free from violence and crime. Visiting Lal Masjid is avoidable, in case you must, maintain a low profile, Canada's advisory states.

Karachi is a city of gang wars, extortions, explosions, kidnappings, and political demonstrations. Moving near military areas is risky and should be avoided at all costs. The Pakistani Military arrests civilians and can keep them in custody indefinitely, the advisory further explains.

States of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh are dangerous to move around. The former has a fervent insurgency going on as natives are demanding a separate country. The Army is carrying out counter-insurgency operations leading to the violation of the human rights of the Baloch people. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project is under Baloch fire leading to the killings of Chinese engineers and technicians, it adds.

Conservative people inhabit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beside the majority of poor tribals who often come into conflict with Westerners. Again, kidnappings, extortion, honour killings, and drug smuggling is the order of the day here, observes Canada.

In Sindh, a large number of Hindu families lived who did not move to India after the partition in 1947. In this state, many women are kidnapped and forcibly married off to Muslim men. Incidents of honour killings are common in this state.

Indianarrative.com has been regularly highlighting the issue of women's safety and rights in Pakistan, especially that of minority Hindus who are often abducted, converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Small island nations during the ongoing UN COP27 summit, have said that highly polluting nations like India and China should contribute to a climate compensation fund to help countries rebuild after climate change-driven disasters, according to reports.

Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Gaston Browne made these comments on Tuesday during the summit in Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh.

As per media reports, Browne's comments are the first time that both India and China have together been clubbed as major emitters by small island nations.

Browne, speaking on behalf of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS) negotiating bloc, told mediapersons on the sidelines of the summit that though both India and China are emerging economies, they have a responsibility towards paying into a climate compensation fund.

Delegates at the conference agreed to put the topic of loss and damage onto the formal agenda for the first time in the history of international climate negotiations, reports said further.

"We all know that the People's Republic of China, India they're major polluters, and the polluter must pay," Browne was quoted as saying by reports.

"I don't think that there's any free pass for any country and I don't say this with any acrimony." In climate talks parlance, the phrase "loss and damage" refers to costs already being incurred from climate-fuelled weather extremes or impacts, like rising sea levels.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Eight former Indian Navy men has continued to languish in a Qatar jail for the past 72 days despite New Delhi sending a senior official to help secure their release.

Charges against the eight men, who were picked up on August 30 by Qatar's intelligence agency, remain unknown.

They were working at the Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a company which trains the Qatari Emiri Navy and provides logistics services and equipment maintenance.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said last week that the Indian Embassy in Doha is making all possible efforts for the early release and repatriation of the eight men.

"We are aware of the detention of eight Indian nationals who we understand were working for a private company in Qatar," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

"Our Embassy and Ministry are in touch with the families. Our embassy there is making all possible efforts for the early release and repatriation of the detained Indian nationals." Among the eight Indians in custody is Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd), the managing director of the Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services.

The company's website does not show any details now. It says 'under maintenance' and 'coming soon'.

Notably, the CEO of the company, Khamis Al Ajmi, is himself a retired Squadron Leader from the Royal Oman Air Force.

Tiwari received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2019.

Seeking help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Mitu Bhargava, Tiwari's sister, tweeted: "Please help our eight Navy veterans (officers), their family members & our countrymen as these officers had served our motherland. Need immediate help of our Indian government." Expressing concern about her brother's health, she said he is a senior citizen suffering from diabetes and other ailments.

Apart from Tiwari, the other detained officers are Cdr Navtej Singh Gill, director (naval training); Cdr Birendra Kumar Verma, director of the Naval Academy; Cdr Sugunakar Pakala, director, FCN; Cdr Sanjeev Gupta; Cdr Amit Nagpal; Capt Saurab Vasisht; and Ragesh Gopakumar.

The arrested men were allowed to speak to their families over the phone in September and were granted consular access, first on October 3 and then again in the first week of November, as confirmed by Bagchi.

"The detained persons have also spoken to their family members on a few occasions. We have requested another round of consular access and we are following up with Qatari authorities on this," he said.

The Indian embassy in Doha became aware of the arrest in mid-September.

They men are kept in solitary confinement, according to local media reports.

Qatar enjoys substantive and strong relations with India, and the two countries continue to hold joint maritime exercises.

The last bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and Qatar Emiri Naval Force, was conducted between August 9-14, 2021 in the Persian Gulf.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : A 24-year-old man, who supplied weapons and stolen vehicles to criminals in the national capital, was arrested from Rohini area, an official said on Wednesday.

With the arrest of Kamal, a resident of Rama Vihar, police claimed to have solved two recent cases and recovered one country made pistol, one bullet and a stolen bike from his possession.

According to Dr G.S. Sidhu, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini), in order to prevent and put a curb on street crimes, the team of Aman Vihar police station was on patrol duty when they received specific input about the movement of a desperate criminal.

"Acting on the inputs, a police team was formed and a trap was laid near the Kirari area to nab the suspect. On seeing the police team, the suspect tried to escape but he was overpowered by the police team," said the DCP.

"During sustained questioning, the accused revealed that he used to supply the illegal weapon (desi katta) and stolen vehicles to the local criminals on demand," said the DCP.

"Further investigation is in progress in the case and sincere efforts are on to identify the source of illegal weapons," the official added.
San Francisco, Nov 9 : After Twitter, Meta was set to lay off thousands of employees and the company's Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told the workforce to be ready for what was coming their way.

According to Wall Street Journal, in his latest meeting with senior executives, Zuckerberg is said to have confirmed "broad cuts" across the company, starting from Wednesday.

Employees who lose their jobs would be provided at least four months of salary as a severance, according to the report.

The mass layoff is the first broad head-count reduction to occur in Meta's (earlier Facebook) 18-year history.

The Facebook and Instagram parent company reported over 87,000 employees (as of September).

The company declined to comment, referring to Zuckerberg's recent statement that the company would "focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas".

In June, Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox warned employees of "serious times", saying that the workers must "execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth".

During the company's earnings call last month, Zuckerberg said: "In 2023, we're going to focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas." "So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organisation than we are today," he had mentioned.

Meta posted another quarterly revenue decline in Q3 as investors began to lose faith in its loss-making, billion-dollars metaverse dream.

In the third quarter (Q3), Meta's revenue declined 4 per cent year over year to hit $27.7 billion. This decline was owing to Meta's huge losses in Reality Labs, Meta's virtual reality division, which lost $3.672 billion in Q3.
Kolkata, Nov 9 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday, flayed the Centre and BJP on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) issue, and termed it a "ploy" to mislead the Matua community in West Bengal who are already Indian citizens.

Matuas are a Scheduled Caste designated refugee community from Bangladesh currently concentrated mainly in Bangaon sub-division of North 24 Parganas district and partially in certain pockets of Nadia district.

"Before the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP has started the drama of granting citizenship to refugees of certain communities in two districts there. Here in West Bengal, their leaders are trying to exploit the sentiments of the Matuas, who are already Indian citizens. So is it a ploy to first take away their citizenship only to grant them again. Under no circumstance will I allow them to take away the citizenship of the Matuas," the chief minister said while addressing a public rally at Krishnanagar in Nadia district.

She said that BJP always resurrects the NRC and CAA issues before any election. "Matuas become a tool of their politics. Actually, they are trying to divide Bengal. They are trying to play the same dirty politics with the people here.

Referring to landslide victory of BJP in 2019 from Ranaghat Lok Sabha constituency, where Matua voters play a key role, the chief minister said that if Matuas were not Indians, then how did they vote in the subsequent polls. "The majority of the voters from Ranaghat Lok Sabha constituency voted in favour of BJP. The people there voted and contributed for BJP to come in power. Without the votes of the Matuas could Narendra Modi become the Prime Minister?" the chief minister questioned.

The chief minister also launched a scathing attack on the Union government over the recent aggression of the central probe agencies in West Bengal.

"Our party leaders, workers and even state government officials are being harassed by central agencies, so that they are unable to pursue development activities in the state before the forthcoming panchayat polls. Some have committed mistakes out of greed, for which they are punished. But that does not mean that everyone in Trinamool Congress is involved in unfair practices," the chief minister said.
New York, Nov 9 : Waseem Maknojiya, a 38 year-old Indian national, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a Texas court for committing mail fraud and duping customers via Indian call centres.

Maknojiya, who was illegally residing in Houston, had pleaded guilty on September 13, 2021, a press statement by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas said.

On Tuesday, US District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered Maknojiya to serve 60 months in federal prison.

Not an American citizen, he is expected to face removal proceedings following his imprisonment.

Between April and October 2019, Maknojiya was involved in a telemarketing scheme via Indian call centres to extort money from victims in the US.

He acted as a runner in these schemes, using aliases and fake identification documents to pick up more than 70 parcels containing cash the scheme's victims had mailed, the press release stated.

One common script used in the scheme involved coercing victims into believing federal agents were investigating them.

The "agent" on the phone would convince the victim the only way to clear his or her name from investigation was to send cash in a parcel shipped through FedEx to a name and address they provided.

Runners in the US like Maknojiya would then pick up the parcels.

At the time of his plea, he agreed to pay restitution to the scheme's identified victims.

He will remain in custody pending transfer to a US Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
Sharm El-sheikh : , Nov 9 (IANS) With the adoption of the loss and damage funding formally in the COP27 agenda in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, a platform has been created to explore the financing options to find possible ways to address climate change risks.

A slew of financial pledges were announced by the developed nations in the backdrop of a year when extreme climate events demonstrated again the urgency to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Also climate envoy calling on rich countries to support poor nations at most risk from the environmental damage.

At the opening of the two-day Climate Implementation Summit at COP27, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a historic pact between the developed and developing countries to combine capacities, and pivot the world towards reducing carbon emissions, transforming energy systems and avoiding a climate catastrophe.

Joining the issue, Britain Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, "Instead of developing countries being unfairly burdened with the carbon debt of richer nations and somehow expected to forgo that same path to growth, we are helping those countries deliver their own fast track to clean growth.

"The UK is making further commitments to support this today by investing 65 million pounds in a range of green investment projects in Kenya and in Egypt." With delegates discussing finance issues on Wednesday at COP27, the first African COP for six years, the new report lays out the grim economic future some of the poorest countries in the world will face.

The analysis in the report, titled 'The cost to Africa: drastic economic damage from climate change', was led by Marina Andrijevic, an economist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna.

By 2050 and 2100 the economies of these countries are still expected to be higher than they are today. This study highlights the amount of damage caused to their GDP by climate change, compared to a scenario where climate change didn't take place.

Estimates based on peer-reviewed methodology by Burke et al show that based on current climate policies, where global temperature rise reaches 2.7C by the end of the century, African countries can expect to suffer an average GDP hit of minus 20 per cent by 2050 and of minus 64 per cent Aby 2100.

Even if countries keep global temperature rise to 1.5C as set out in the Paris Agreement, African countries face an average GDP reduction of minus 14 per cent by 2050 and minus 34 per cent by 2100. This underlines the fact that a robust loss and damage mechanism will be needed, even if countries succeed in keeping global heating to under 1.5C.

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said, "In virtually everything we do on loss and damage, Scotland is trying to ensure that we listen to international perspectives, especially the perspectives of the Global South.

"After all, for more than 30 years now, since the views of island states were first ignored, decisions at COP have been dominated by the voices of the Global North.

"With loss and damage now on the formal agenda for the first time, this COP can mark a turning point in ensuring the views, experiences and perspectives of the Global South assume a far more central role. If that does happen it will lead to greater progress on loss and damage and will also. I hope lead to quicker action on other aspects of climate change. I encourage all parties to make space for serious, open and honest discussion over the next two weeks.a "The funding Scotland has announced is a small sum in terms of the overall scale of the loss and damage that developing countries face, but I hope that it sends an important message," Sturgeon said.

Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Political Strategy, Climate Action Network International, said: "The new financial pledges from some rich countries to address loss and damage are welcome. It shows that they are finally acknowledging the lack of finance to meet the needs of people affected by climate disasters.

"But this drip-feed of assorted pledges cannot detract from the demand of setting up a Loss and Damage Finance Facility at COP27 to fill the gap in the financial architecture under the UN system. What we need is institutionalised support that can be scaled up drastically to respond to multiplying economic impacts due to extreme weather events, and deal with the new challenges, such as sea level rise and melting of glaciers." The fact that developed countries did not block the agenda item on finance for Loss and Damage in COP27 is welcome, said Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Bangladesh.

"As well as promises of funds by countries like Denmark. But we need them to agree to establish the Sharm El-Sheikh Finance Facility for Loss and Damage at the end of COP27." Ulka Kelkar, Director, Climate Change programme, World Resources Institute (India) said the loss and damage finance pledges at COP27 are an outcome of the persistence of climate vulnerable countries and civil society voices.

"An idea that was seen as marginal and radical just a year ago now has political will. Scotland's announcement is particularly laudable because it aims to help communities deal with climate impacts that cannot be simply measured in money terms, such as gender inequity and cultural heritage loss." COP27 Presidency on Monday launched the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda in partnership with the High-Level Champions.

The agenda outlines "30 Adaptation Outcomes to enhance resilience for 4 billion people living in the most climate-vulnerable communities by 2030. Each outcome presents global solutions that can be adopted at a local level to respond to local climate contexts, needs and risks and deliver the systems transformation required to protect vulnerable communities to the rising climate hazards, such as extreme heat, drought, flooding, or extreme weather." The 30 Adaptation Outcomes include urgent global 2030 targets related to: Transitioning to climate resilient, sustainable agriculture that can increase yields by 17 per cent and reduce farm level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 21 per cent, without expanding agricultural frontiers, and while improving livelihoods including of smallholder farmers.

Also protecting and restoring an estimated 400 million hectares in critical areas (land and freshwater ecosystems) supporting indigenous and local communities with use of nature-based solutions to improve water security and livelihoods and to transform 2 billion hectares of land into sustainable management.

Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27, said: "The outcomes were identified jointly with a broad range of active stakeholders, reflecting existing and new global targets based on science along with local knowledge and initiatives. The outcome targets will continue to be refined and expanded by the High-Level Champions with inputs from state and non-state actors to support their operationalization." This agenda will accelerate the Race to Resilience's global goal of making 4 billion vulnerable people more resilient by 2030. Of particular importance is the role of key enablers like finance and planning to accelerate adaptation in the near-term. A sum of $140 to $300 billion needs to be mobilised across both public and private sources annually with a minimum target of 50 per cent for adaptation, as called by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Of particular concern and focus is Africa, where the private finance share in the total financing of climate adaptation efforts is not more than 3 per cent ($11.4 billion). "Seven times that amount will be needed annually until 2030," added Mohieldin.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, on Wednesday, launched nationwide Special Summary Revision (SSR) 2023 from Pune through various voter awareness building activities.

Noticing high urban apathy and low young voters participation in Pune, the Election Commission participated in the voter awareness cycle rally in the city to motivate and mobilise the youth and society at large for proactive participation in the election process.

Officials said that in all states across the country, such awareness activities are being organised at a massive scale by concerned Chief Electoral Officers to create awareness and mobilise all stakeholders' participation during the Special Summary Revision exercise.

CEC Rajiv Kumar requested voters in the urban areas to participate in the election process, get registered and vote. He said that there is a scope for increasing the voter participation from the urban areas. This, he said, is a reason for the national launch of SSR 2023 from the city of Pune.

Although Summary Revision takes place every year, Election Commission is taking up a much focussed activity this year to increase voter-turnout and starting it all over the country from Pune, the CEC added. He further said, "Some of the cities do not really do that kind of voting and there is a whole lot of ground which we have to cover in urban areas and that is why this cycle rally was organised to create awareness".

The CEC explained, "Everywhere in the country, every furthest possible states, be it hills, coastal lines, inaccessible terrains, deserts, everywhere, every single citizen gets enlisted as a voter and strengthens the democracy by not only getting registered, but also casting his or her vote".

He also informed that India has more than 2.49 lakhs voters who are of the 100+A age group. "What a relief and ecstasy it gives when you interact with them and find out that they have been voting in all through their lives", he exclaimed.

Paying tribute to the country's first voter Late Shri Shyam Saran Negi, who was 106 years and recently passed away, the CEC stated, "He did cast his vote through a postal ballot three days before his death. This is the spirit".

Activities in Pune started with the CEC and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra participating in a bicycle rally, the theme of which was 'Pedal For Participative Elections'.

The rally was flagged off by voters from different sections of society, including transgenders, persons with disability, women, youth and others.
San Francisco, Nov 9 : Tech giant Samsung is likely to launch its upcoming smartphone, Galaxy A54 5G, earlier than expected.

The Galaxy A54 5G might launch officially in January 2023, two months earlier than its predecessors, as it has received 3C certification in China, reports SamMobile.

It will be one of the extremely few Galaxy A-series phones to be marketed in China.

The certification database revealed that the device's Chinese version has the model number 'SM-A5460'.

According to the listing, A54 5G might offer 25W fast charging, just like its predecessors. The smartphone might support up to four Android OS updates and run Android 13.

Previous reports indicated that the Galaxy A54 5G might offer a lower camera resolution than the Galaxy A53 5G.

Notably, it might lack the depth sensor and is likely to feature a 50MP primary camera instead.

The A54 is expected to feature a 5,100 mAh battery, which is 100mAh more than the A53 5G.

The company's devices usually receive the required certification two months before their release.

Some examples include the Galaxy A52 5G, which received 3C certification in January 2021 and debuted in March 2021.

The Galaxy A53 5G received 3C certification in January 2022 and was released in March similarly, the report said.
New York, Nov 9 : The "Samosa Caucus" in the US Congress has added another member with the election of Shri Thanedar, and three of its members have won reelection, while another is leading in his constituency.

Democrats Pramila Jayapal in Washington State, Raja Krishnamoorthi in Illinois and Ro Khanna in California have been reelected in the midterm elections, while Ami Bera was leading in California on Wednesday morning.

The Indian American members of Congress have nicknamed themselves the "Samosa Caucus".

Republican Ritesh Tandon, who ran against Khanna, and Democrat Sandeep Srivastava in Texas have lost, while Rishi Kuma, who is running against a fellow Democrat under California's system was trailing.

India's "son-in-law" J.D. Vance, who is married to Usha Chilukuri, has won the Senate seat from Ohio.

He is a Republican allied with former President Donald Trump.

An entrepreneur and self-made millionaire, Democrat Thanedar, 67, who was born in Belgaum in India, beat a Republican rival in Detroit in Michigan state.

Thanedar, who is now a Michigan state legislator, ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic party nomination for Governor in 2018.

He came to the US in 1979 and got his PhD in chemistry and an MBA.

He took out loans to buy a company he worked for, Chemir, and built it from a $150,000 company to one with a revenue of $14 million before selling it for $26 million, according to his LinkedIn page.

He next started Avomeen Analytical Services, a chemical testing laboratory.

He sold the majority stakes in it in 2016 and, according to his campaign bio, retired to get involved in public service to answer "the call to fight for social, racial and economic justice".

Running in a constituency that covers a chunk of a city that is overwhelmingly African-American, Thanedar stressed in his campaign that he grew up in poverty in a family of ten in India and worked in odd jobs to support his family after his father retired.

"I'll never forget what it's like to live in poverty, and I'll never stop working to lift Detroit families out of it," he wrote on his campaign site.

Thanedar will be the seventh Indian-American to be elected to the House.

Chennai-born Jayapal, 57, who was first elected in 2016 from Washington State, is the senior whip of the Democratic Party in the House and the chair of the influential leftist Congressional Progressive Caucus.

She has been a strong critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Khanna, 46, is also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Fox News reported that he is exploring a presidential run in 2024.

He is close to Bernie Sanders, the leftist Senator who has unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Politico reported that top leaders from Sander's camp have urged him to seek the Democratic Party nomination if President Joe Biden does not run again.

A second-generation Indian American, he was born in Philadelphia and has a law degree from Yale University.

Krishnamoorthi, 49, who was born in New Delhi is politically a centrist and was a technology entrepreneur.

He has worked with former President Barack Obama's campaigns for Senator and President.

A second-generation Indian American born in Elks Groce, California, Bera, 57, is a doctor.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
Davangere : , Nov 9 (IANS) Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, on Wednesday, ordered a probe into the suspicious death of Karnataka BJP MLA's nephew.

He was addressing reporters after visiting the MLA's house to offer his condolences over the tragic death of Chandrashekar last week.

Chief Minister Bommai stated that instructions have been issued to Davangere Superintendent of Police to probe the mysterious death of Chandrashekar, nephew of Chief Minister's Political Secretary and Honnali MLA Renukacharya.

He said the incident is being investigated from all angles. There are two types of possibilities. Firstly, considering the background of Chandru, it appears to be a murder case. Secondly, the condition of the car makes it look like an accident. Ist too early to comment.

Police have been asked to probe from these two angles also. Evidence is very crucial. The question here is how did Chandru get to the back seat? Why was the hair on his head missing? While the front glass of the car was found broken, glass on the rear was intact arising doubts, he stated.

The investigative officers are awaiting the post-mortem report and even the FSL report is also equally important. The select items will be examined, he said.

He further stated that the water inside the body and the canal water are important. The experts will recreate the series of events to study the crime indepth. After these three investigations, the next course of probe will be decided.

A need for a separate investigative team will be decided after the receipt of the post-mortem report.

He said the untimely death of Chandrashekar is not only haunting his family members but also of theirs. He has come here not as the chief minister but as brother of Renukacharya.

Twenty-four-year-old Chandrashekar had gone missing and it was suspected that he was kidnapped.

His car was found inside the canal on October 3.

After lifting the car with the crane, the decomposed body of the young man was found.
Islamabad, Nov 9 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in London on Wednesday to meet Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif for 'consultations' ahead of a critical period for Pakistan, the media reported.

The Pakistan premier's plane headed to London after he completed his two-day visit to Egypt where he attended the COP27 Summit on climate change, Samaa TV reported.

He is due to meet with PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PML-N's vice-president Maryam Nawaz during his visit.

The news was confirmed by Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb through a tweet she made during the early hours of Wednesday.

Sources have reported that PM Shehbaz was flying to London on the instructions of party supremo.

They also reported that the ruling party is expected to take important decisions including the appointment of the new army chief and tackling of the scheduled long march on Islamabad by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Samaa TV reported.

With PML-N supremo and elder brother Nawaz Sharif residing in London since November 2019 and the party's vice-president, Maryam Nawaz joining her father in October, the premier's trip to the metropolis has given rise to speculation that important decisions would be made during the visit.

This is PM Shehbaz's third trip to London since he assumed the country's top office in April and comes ahead of the appointment of the new army chief, with Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa's tenure set to end on November 29, Dawn reported.

Earlier, it was reported that PM Shehbaz would consult Nawaz on the appointment and Power Minister Khurram Dastgir had, in fact, substantiated the reports.

Taking exception to the reports, PTI chief Imran Khan had castigated the PM for discussing the appointment of the next army chief with his elder brother, terming it a violation of the Official Secrets Act and a breach of the PM's oath of office, Dawn reported.
Seoul, Nov 9 : The top South Korean, US and Japanese nuclear envoys condemned North Korea's firing of a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea Wednesday during their phone talks, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, had phone calls with his American counterpart, Sung Kim, and his Japanese counterpart, Takehiro Funakoshi, to discuss responses to the North's latest missile launch, Yonhap news agency reported.

The envoys agreed North Korea's provocations violate United Nations Security Council Resolutions and cannot be justified. They promised to strengthen cooperation to respond to possible additional threats.

The North's latest provocation came as ballots are being counted in the US mid-term elections and the South's military has been staging computer-simulated Taegeuk drills since Monday.

Pyongyang launched 35 missiles into the East and Yellow Seas between last Wednesday and Saturday in protest against a massive combined air exercise of the US and South Korea, called Vigilant Storm.
Manila, Nov 9 : Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos said on Wednesday that regional cooperation on climate change, food security, health cooperation and economic recovery will be highlighted at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings in Cambodia.

He made the remarks at an airport in Manila before flying to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, for the meetings to be kicked off on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related summits will be convened in Phnom Penh on November 10-13.

Marcos said he will have bilateral meetings with some ASEAN counterparts and dialogue partners on the sidelines to promote the Philippines "not only as an investment centre, not only as a tourism centre but as a partner, a global partner." "We will also hold summits with ASEAN's dialogue partners ... to review existing and new areas of cooperation and exchange views on the regional and international issues," he added.

It will be the first time for Marcos, who assumed the presidency on June 30, to join other leaders from ASEAN and its partners to discuss regional security, economic and socio-cultural development, and global issues affecting the Southeast Asian region and beyond.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said it has arrested two individuals -- Anil Kumar and Praveen Kumar, both then directors of Bharat Papers Ltd based in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua in connection with an on-going investigation into a loan fraud case of Rs 87.88 crore.

An official said a case was registered in 2020 against Bharat Papers Ltd and others including its MD, Directors on the complaint from SBI, SAM Branch, Ludhiana.

It was alleged that the accused in conspiracy with unknown officials of SBI, had cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 87.88 Crore (total amount with interest of around Rs 121.13 crore) during the period between 2006 and 2019 by illegally removing machinery and other parts without getting prior permission or without informing the lender banks.

The proceeds of such machines, motors etc., had not been deposited in the account.

The accused also illegally sold machinery parts as scrap and arranged fake invoices to cover up the sale.
Lucknow, Nov 9 : The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a criminal appeal filed against the order of the Special CBI Court at Lucknow acquitting all 32 persons, including prominent BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, etc accused of hatching the criminal conspiracy behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

The bench of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Saroj Yadav dismissed the appeal after reserving the judgment on October 31.

The appeal had been filed by two Ayodhya residents, Haji Mehmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, who claimed to have witnessed the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992.

They had also claimed in the plea that they are the victims of the incident since their houses had been burnt.

The plea was originally filed in 2021 as a criminal revision plea, however, on July 18, 2022, when it came for hearing before a single judge, senior counsel Syed Farman Ali Naqvi, appearing for the revisionist/appellant, submitted before the court that due to an inadvertent mistake, the plea had been moved as a revision plea and they ought to have preferred a criminal appeal.

It was his further submission that in the exercise of the powers under section 401(5) CrPC, this court may treat the revision plea as the appeal of the revisionists.

Considering this submission and after hearing Shiv P. Shukla, the counsel for the CBI, and Vimal Kumar Srivastava, counsel for the respondent-state, the Court had directed that the revision plea be treated as an appeal under section 372 CrPC.

It was also argued by the victims that the CBI had investigated the case as it is a premier investigating agency, however, after the acquittal of the accused persons in the case, it was opposing the instant appeal as if the agency is representing the accused.

"The agency has adorned the role of defence on behalf of accused persons and the victims were left to accomplish the job of prosecution despite being victims having no means and help from any one neither the state nor the police nor the CBI," the alleged victims had submitted.
Ahmedabad, Nov 9 : BJP's Ahmedabad unit on Wednesday stirred up a controversy after it allegedly sought a list of bootleggers not supporting the party in the run-up to the Gujarat election.

In a leaflet, along with instructions on election preparations, it asked party workers and leaders to prepare an anti-BJP bootleggers list.

Sharing the leaflet, Congress Spokesman Manish Doshi alleged that the ruling party intends to win the Assembly polls with the help of bootleggers and anti-social elements.

Gujarat is a dry state, by seeking a list of bootleggers indicates that the ruling party is accepting that there is a free flow of liquor in the state, he alleged.

Since the saffron party is not confident of winning the polls on its merits and Gujarat Development model, it is taking the help of bootleggers and anti-social elements to win elections.

Meanwhile, calling it the handiwork of Congress, BJP spokesman Bharat Dangar said that no such leaflets have been printed by the party.

Congress does not have faith in itself and fearing loss in the polls, must have got it printed to malign the image of the ruling party, he added.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : Hip-Hop artiste Divine, who is known for belting out chartbusters like 'Jungli Sher', 'Mere Gully Mein', 'Kohinoor' and many others, is all set to release his third album titled 'Gunehgar'. The rapper calls the album the stepping stone to a revolution in the sphere of Indian Hip-Hop.

The new 12-track full length studio album features guest spots from global music artistes such as Jadakiss, Russ, Armani White, Noizy and Hit-Boy as well as Indian talents like Jonita Gandhi and Wazir Patar.

Talking about the album Divine said, "'Gunehgar' is the start to a revolution. I'm going to take that appetite and passion of mine for desi hip hop to unimaginable heights. Also there's so much I'm grateful and happy for and I just wanted to express that. As the year draws to a close, this is my humble gift to my community and my fans who've waited so long for a music release".

The album centres conflicting themes of sin and virtue much like his second album 'Punya Paap' and of angels and demons. The album showcases intensely personal and lyrical themes which lay bare the introspection, fears, frailties, healing, happiness, ambition and triumph.

Returning to music after a nearly two-year hiatus, the rapper also unveiled the album's stellar artwork with its old school vintage vibe; a striking photo shot by Colstan Julian of Divine in a shiny black ensemble standing in front of a neon pop classic car.

'Gunehgar' will be released across audio streaming platforms under the label of Mass Appeal India and Gully Gang on November 10, 2022.
Chennai, Nov 9 : Director Atlee, who celebrates his eighth wedding anniversary on Wednesday, has said that the journey has made him a man from being a boy.

Taking to Twitter to shower praises on his wife Priya, Atlee wrote, "It is our eighth wedding anniversary. This journey has made me from boy to a man.

"Priya, we started our life from scratch and what all we have today is all your patience ethics I learned from you (sic). Long way to go and conquer. Thanks for being a beautiful friend and everything." His wife Priya too took to Instagram to pen her thoughts on their journey together as husband and wife.

She wrote, "Eight years down, forever to go. Happy happy anniversary my dear husband. Thanks for being that one person whom I can look upon for anything in life. You are my weakness as well as my strength. You are my everything. Love you forever and ever Atlee." On the professional front, Atlee is now directing 'Jawaan', which features Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and actress Nayanthara in the lead.
London, Nov 9 : Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank (PNB) of over Rs 11,000 crore, is likely to be extradited soon to India from the UK as he lost his appeal in the High Court on Wednesday, reports said.

Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who heard the appeal earlier this year, delivered the verdict that allowed the fugitive businessman's extradition to India, according to reports.

Nirav Modi had appealed against his extradition where he would face trial in the fraud case linked to the PNB.

"...We are far from satisfied that Mr Modi's mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him", the HC said, as per reports.

However the process of bringing him from London back to India may take some time.

His uncle, Mehul Choksi, who has taken up citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda, is also accused of cheating the PNB and wanted by Indian agencies.

Nirav Modi has the option of approaching the Supreme Court against the High Court's order within 14 days.

However, the condition is that he can appeal in the Supreme Court only if the high court agrees that his case involves a point of law of general public importance, reports said.

If this option is spent, Modi is free to approach the European Court of Human Rights.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) Unit of Delhi Police's Special Cell has arrested two persons including a Chinese national for extorting money from people through instant loan applications, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused have been identified as Chinese national Yu Zhang, the mastermind behind the extortion racket and Vineet Jhaver, a resident of Haryana.

The police said that so far more than Rs 150 crore have been siphoned off through accounts provided by Vineet and Zhang.

In August this year, the IFSO unit had busted various modules of instant loan applications having a Chinese connection, and arrested 22 people for allegedly siphoning off Rs 500 crore to China by the hawala route or by investing in crypto-currency.

The police said that multiple complaints were being received at the NCRP portal that instant loan applications are disbursing loans at higher rates and even after repayment of the loan, they are extorting money using morphed nude pictures.

"IFSO took cognizance of the same and started analyzing the complaints at NCRP. During the analysis of the complaints, it was found that more than 100 such apps are involved in the loan and extortion racket," said Prashant Gautam, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO).

"It was also found that all the apps were seeking access to personal data from the user. After obtaining access to personal data like contacts, chats, messages and images of the user, the same were being uploaded to the servers in India and abroad," said the DCP.

"Applications were developed in the garb of loan providing apps. These applications were malicious in nature and sought all permissions from the user. Applications were hosted on Google Play and websites. Users in need of a loan downloaded the applications by granting all the permissions. Soon after this, the application started uploading the contact lists, chats, images of the user to the servers hosted in China and other areas," said the DCP.

"This data was also sold to different private firms. The customers were receiving calls from different numbers (procured on fake IDs) forcing them to pay more and more by threatening them using the morphed pictures. Due to fear and stigma, the users began paying them money in different bank accounts opened against fake IDs," said the official.

"The money collected was diverted to specific bank accounts and then sent out of the country through Hawala or after purchasing cryptocurrencies. People who were in dire need of a small loan ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 were being forced to pay even in lakhs," said the official.

"Many incidents of citizens committing suicide were reported from various parts of country. The financial trail revealed that multiple mule accounts were being used for getting the amount. In each of the accounts, huge transactions were found to be credited everyday," said the DCP.

"It was found that the network is spread across Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and other parts of the country. Earlier, in similar cases, 22 persons have been arrested and with further investigation the mastermind in the present case, a Chinese national, along with an Indian accomplice has been arrested," said the DCP.

"On interrogation, it has been revealed that they were operating at the behest of other Chinese nationals. The application analysis has also revealed that some of the applications were uploaded from China. Identities of other Chinese nationals in these cases are being established and efforts are being made to trace and arrest them," he said.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission to defer issuing a gazette notification for Rampur Assembly by-election till November 11, which would allow Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan to seek a stay on his conviction in the 2019 hate speech case before the appellate court on Thursday.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed the Additional Sessions Judge, Rampur, to advance hearing on Khan's application, seeking stay on conviction, on Thursdat and also decide it on the same day.

The bench, also comprising Justices Hima Kohli and J.B. Pardiwala, asked the EC to issue the gazette notification on or after November 11, depending upon the outcome of the application of stay on conviction.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Chandrachud asked senior advocate Arvind Datar, representing the EC, "Can you stay the issuance of gazette notification set for tomorrow for 72 hours? So that he can move to a higher court and get the sentence stayed?" He added that even otherwise look at the alacrity -- the very next day of the conviction. the seat is declared vacant.

Chief Justice Chandrachud told the EC, "You cannot pick and choose... will you do it in case of all convicts? The bench added that an MLA from another district was also convicted on October 11 and sentenced to two years but no decision has been taken on his disqualification the next day.

Senior advocate P. Chidambaram, representing Khan, contended that the UP Assembly declared the Rampur seat vacant, the next day after his client's conviction in a hate speech case on October 27.

He emphasized that such a swift action was "unprecedented" and added that it was politically motivated. Chidambaram said although BJP MLA from Khatauli constituency was convicted for two years by an order passed on October 11, no such action was taken.

The top court was informed that EC issued a press release notifying the schedule for by-election for the Rampur seat and that the official gazette notification is slated for publication on Thursday.

Datar submitted that disqualification under the Representation of Peoples Act, is automatic upon conviction and the provision of the Act which permits freezing of disqualification during the pendency of appeal filed challenging the conviction was struck down in the Lily Thomas case.

The bench told Datar to allow Khan some reasonable time, otherwise it would appear as a selective exercise, depending on what political affiliation the convict has.

Khan was disqualified after his conviction in the criminal case on October 27, under the Representation of Peoples Act,1951 and the Rampur Assembly Constituency, which he was representing, was declared vacant.

Disposing off Khan's plea, the top court directed the Additional Sessions Judge, Rampur to decide his application for stay of conviction on Thursday and the EC can issue the notification regarding bye-polls on or after November 11.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : MT Autocraft, a leading supplier of machined components and assemblies, on Wednesday announced the launch of electric mobility company MTA E-Mobility Pvt Ltd (MTA EV) with a seed funding of Rs 100 crore.

The electric mobility startup, which plans to hire 200 more people, has built a dedicated plant spread over three acres at Palwal in the national capital region.

The company said that it aims to become a complete electric mobility solutions provider.

"We have planned an initial investment of Rs 100 crore which will be funded by MT Autocraft, Sehgal family and a few high net worth individuals (HNIs)," said Karan Sehgal, Co-founder of MTA EV.

Vivek Jakhmola, an industry veteran and former president at JBM Group has joined as co-founder of the newly-formed MTA EV.

Jakhmola was also director at multiple companies in Lumax Group and brings along over 25 years of experience.

The company plans to hire another 200 people in the next 12 months.

"We aim to create a sustainable organisation with a sharp focus on technology through self-reliance and intra-dependence on our foreign collaboration partners. We are already a 50-plus strong team in R&D and market research. The team size will increase to 200 plus in the next 12 months," said Jakhmola..

The company is set to showcase its products and technology at the upcoming 'Auto Expo 2023'.

MTA EV plant has in-house facilities for assembly, end-of-line vehicle inspection, production monitoring, paint shop, chassis fabrication and surface coating among others, it said.
Aizawl, Nov 9 : Security personnel in Mizoram have seized heroin and highly addictive methamphetamine tablets valued at over Rs 25 crore and arrested two persons in this connection, officials said on Wednesday.

Assam Rifles officials said that the para-military troopers and special narcotics police station, acting on a tip off, recovered 342 gm heroin valued at Rs 1.71 crore and 70,000 methamphetamine tablets, valued at over Rs 23.33 crore from Sialsuk areas in Aizawl district on Tuesday night.

The Assam Rifles personnel and the special narcotics wing officials intercepted a vehicle at a check post and recovered the drugs from the car.

Two drug peddlers were also arrested as they were illegally carrying the drugs after being smuggled from Myanmar.

Assam Rifles officials admitted that ongoing smuggling of drugs is a major cause of concern for the state of Mizoram, which shares a 510 km unfenced border with Myanmar.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : Hostel life is full of challenges and oddballs. The recently released trailer of the third season of streaming show, 'Girls Hostel' exemplifies the same, showing the struggle of a group of hostellers to put together a talent show and the politics and resistance that come with it.

The show stars Ahsaas Channa, Srishti Shrivastava, Parul Gulati, Simran Natekar, Trupti Khamkar, Jayati Bhatia, Kareema Barry, Tanvi Lehr Sonigra and Akash Thapa, and is set to drop on OTT platform SonyLIV on November 25.

Talking about the show, Srishti Srivastava said: "'Girls Hostel' has been well received since its inception. The characters and instances shown resonate with every student who moves away from their hometown in search of independence. The show opens a window to the varied experiences hostellers have as they try to build a life of their own while leaning on each other." She further spoke about what the upcoming season has in store for the audience: "In season 3, the audience will witness more drama, challenges and interesting twists and turns as the girls come together with a deepened bond, and ready to take on anything that comes their way." The show has been created by Shreyasi Sharma and written by Anuya Jakatdar, Alka Shukla, Shreyasi Sharma, and produced by Arunabh Kumar of TVF. Hanish D. Kalia is the director.
Chennai, Nov 9 : The Madras High Court has summoned the Puducherry PWD secretary to appear before it on Thursday to explain the process adopted with respect to public employment in the Union Territory.

The court also asked the PWD Secretary to explain the number of illegal and irregular appointments that were effected in the department.

A bench of Justice S.M. Subramanian passed the orders while hearing a writ petition on a service matter. The petitioner also mentioned that several illegal and irregular appointments were taking place in the Union territory and that this was against the Supreme Court verdict in the Umadevi case.

Justice Subramanian, in his interim order, stated that several appointments in the Union Territory appeared to have been made on the basis of favoritism, nepotism as also the whims and fancies of the authorities.

He also said that the court was concerned in not providing equal opportunity to all eligible candidates. Justice Subramanian also said that the modus operandi appeared to be getting people appointments on a temporary basis to start with and then absorb them permanently, adding that this was denying equal opportunity to eligible candidates.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : Actor-writer Sukhmani Sadana, who is all set for the release of 'Tanaav', an Indian adaptation of the popular Israeli show 'Fauda', said that her father helped her record the audition for the upcoming Sudhir Mishra directorial amidst the lockdown.

Like 'Fauda' deals with counter-terrorism units of Israel Defence Forces, similarly 'Tanaav' is set on the backdrop of Kashmir and revolves around a special unit and how they fight with terrorists. The international series premiered on 2015.

It tells the story of Doron, a commander in the Mista'arvim unit and his team; in the first season, they pursue a Hamas arch-terrorist known as 'The Panther'. The first season was filmed in Kafr Qasim during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. The second season premiered on 2017. The third season takes place in the Gaza Strip and was aired in 2019 and 2020.

Sukhmani, who will be playing the role of Nusrat in the web series, said: "I had a Zoom meeting with Sudhir (Mishra) sir when I was in Amritsar. We had many rounds of readings and auditions till finally I was locked. I still remember the audition that I gave during Covid. My father helped me tape it." "It was a tough one as I had to be a very somber, 'grey' shade woman. But eventually when I got to the show, me and my dad both celebrated." The actress, who acted in series such as 'The Broken News, 'Apaharan', 'Dil Bekaraar' and 'Udan Patolas' said that she had fun shooting with the cast of 'Tanaav' including Arbaaz Khan, Danish Hussain, Ekta Kaul, Manav Vij, M.K. Raina, Rajat Kapoor, Waluscha De Sousa, Zarine Wahab, Satyadeep Mishra, Shashank Arora and Sumit Kaul.

She added: "When I got to know the cast of 'Tanaav' I was beyond impressed because every actor was so talented in their own way. It was a privilege for me to work with them. When we shot in Kashmir, it was a great vibe. We became friendly, like one big family.

"I learnt so much from all my co-actors like Manav, Arbaaz, Amit. They taught me teamwork, the art and craft of acting. It's been a beautiful journey and now I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone enjoys the show as much as we enjoyed making it".

'Tanaav' will premiere on SonyLIV on November 11.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has taken suo moto cognizance towards ensuring welfare and security of the family members of a 19-year-old gang-rape victim whose body was found in a mutilated condition in Haryana, three days after she was abducted, said an official on Wednesday.

The DCW has asked Delhi Police to provide high level security to the family members of the girl after the three accused were acquitted by the Apex Court. The incident had taken place in 2012.

The girl was a resident of Chhawla, Delhi. She was abducted from Qutub Vihar in 2012. As per reports, the girl was subjected to utmost horrors before being murdered brutally.

In 2014, the trial court convicted the accused persons and accorded death penalty to them. The Delhi High Court also upheld the judgement considering the matter to be a rarest of rare case.

On November 7, the Supreme Court had acquitted all three accused persons pointing out inadequate evidence and improper investigation along with certain other lapses.

In the notice issued to police, the DCW has stated that the matter is extremely sensitive and considering the fact that the perpetrators are roaming free, high-level security must be immediately provided to the family members of the deceased girl.

"The commission has sought an action taken report in the matter from the police and has asked the police to indicate the level of security provided to the immediate family members of the victim. Delhi Police has also been asked to inform the commission about other steps taken to ensure their safety and security in 48 hours," said an official.

"I am deeply anguished by the heinous crime that was perpetrated and the trajectory of the case, which ultimately led to denial of justice to the deceased and her family. It is deeply upsetting on many levels and raises several questions on our system," DCW chief Swati Maliwal said .

"The commission is seeking a legal opinion in the matter. However, in the meanwhile, the security of the family is an issue of concern and that is why we have issued a notice to Delhi Police to ensure the same," she added.
Kochi, Nov 9 : The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued notice to actor Dileep, an accused in the 2017 actress abduction case, after a plea moved by the prosecution to cancel the bail granted to him in the case.

The prosecution challenged the order of the Additional Special Session Judge, Ernakulam which dismissed their plea to cancel the bail granted to Dileep by the high court in 2017, for his failing to follow the bail conditions and that he and his associates indulging in all sorts of activities, including destroying evidence and influencing prosecution witnesses.

Dileep was arrested on July 10, 2017, but he was granted bail on October 3, 2017 by the High Court.

Incidentally the actor also has secured bail in another crime based on the allegations by his former friend and film director Balachandra Kumar who alleged that Dileep had been conspiring to murder the police officers investigating the actress assault case.

This development comes at a time when the trial in the case is all set to resume after a long gap.
Hubballi, Nov 9 : The Idgah Maidan in Hubballi, which has been seen as a mini Ayodhya and played a crucial role in the rise of the BJP in Karnataka, is yet again threatening to become a communal flash point in the coming days.

Following the celebration of the Ganesh festival at Idgah Maidan, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) sought permission for the celebration of Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary.

The BJP had stopped the celebration of Tipu Jayanthi after it came to power in 2019. There were then a flood of requests by Hindu organizations to celebrate Holi, Rati-Manmatha festivals, Onake Obavva Jayanthi and Kanaka Jayanthi at Idgah Maidan.

The authorities are also concerned over edited videos of Idgah Maidan being circulated on social media which show the Bhagwa flag hoisted there. It is shown as being renamed after freedom fighter Kittur Rani Chennamma.

This has come after a request by the AIMIM to celebrate Tipu Jayanthi. The Hubballi-Dharwad civic agency and the police are in a fix over the development as confrontations are feared, said sources.

The movement for hoisting the national flag at the Idgah Maidan gathered speed when the Anjuman-e-Islam (AeI), a local Muslim body, refused permission to hoist the Tricolour in 1992.

The then Congress government backed the AeI and maintained that the national flag could not be hoisted on disputed land. BJP leader Uma Bharti was arrested on her way to Idgah Maidan, following which thousands of people gathered and the protest turned violent. Four persons were killed in police firing and over a hundred injured.

The issue was resolved after the JD (S) came to power in the state under the leadership of H.D. Deve Gowda. The government convinced the Anjuman-e-Islam management to hoist the Tricolour at the controversial site in 1995.

As per a Supreme Court ruling, the ground is now the property of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation and the Anjuman-e-Islam has been given the right to conduct prayers there twice a year.
Bhubaneswar, Nov 9 : The police in Odisha have made tight security arrangements in capital city Bhubaneswar and Puri for President Droupadi Murmu's two-day visit to Odisha.

After assuming the office of President of India, Murmu will be visiting Odisha on November 10 and 11.

Security arrangements have been organised for the visit of the President as per the blue book. A mock drill of the movement of the security carcade was conducted in Puri and Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

More than 25 platoons of police force will be deployed for security arrangements of the President in the pilgrim town. About 100 police officers will be deployed at different locations for the visit of the President, said Puri SP, K.V. Singh.

"We have made traffic arrangements in such a way that the traffic movement will be diverted for a very minimal time," Singh said.

Jagannath temple administrator (development) Ajay Jena said the President will first pay floral tribute on the statue of Utkalmani Gopabandhu in Puri and then visit the temple.

After visiting the main temple, she will also visit Maa Bimala and Mahalaxmi temples, he said.

About 34 platoons of police force along with 300 police officers will be in-charge of the safety and security of the President, said Bhubaneswar DCP, Prateek Singh.

After arriving here at Biju Patnaik International Airport, Murmu will receive guard of honour at the airport and then directly fly to Puri, where she will visit the Jagannath temple.

At around 12 p.m., the President is expected to arrive at the helipad and be escorted to Sri Jagannath temple. After having the darshan of Lord Jagannath and other deities in the temple, she will visit Puri Raj Bhawan, where Mahaprasad will be served to her.

The devotees will be prohibited from entering the temple during the visit of the President to the temple, officials said.

She will return to Bhubaneswar in the afternoon and garland the statues of eminent persons here. She will then attend a civic reception at Raj Bhavan in the evening.

On the second day (November 11), she will visit Tapoban High School at Khandagiri, Unit-2 Government Girls High School and Kuntala Kumari Sabat Tribal Hostel, where she stayed.

The President is also scheduled to inaugurate an Odia textbook for engineering and a portal (e-Kumbh) at Jaydev Bhawan before flying back to Delhi on November 11.
Bidar : , Nov 9 (IANS) Karnataka police cane-charged a group of Sikh youths on Wednesday when they got into an argument with them over wielding swords while moving on bikes in Bidar city.

According to police, the youths who had come to Bidar to celebrate the Guru Nanak Jayanthi were moving on bikes wielding swords dangerously. They moved bikes rashly endangering public safety.

They continued their act even after being warned by the police. They showed swords to DSP and Police Inspector who tried to intervene and convince them to not do so.

The police, at this point, lathi-charged and dispersed them. The videos of sword wielding Sikh youth, despite being opposed by the police, have gone viral on social media.

Two police constables have suffered minor injuries in the incident. Bidar city houses Guru Nanak Jhira Sahib, a Sikh historical shrine. It was built in 1948 and is dedicated to the first Sikh Guru, Nanak.

Bidar is the home town of Bhai Sahib Singh, one of the Panj Pyare (five beloved ones), who offered to sacrifice their heads and were later baptised as the first members of the Khalsa. Sikhs from all over the country arrive here to celebrate festivals.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday, while considering activist Gautam Navlakha's request for house arrest, orally observed that corrupt people are destroying the country and they get away with corruption with the help of money.

Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), submitted before a bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy that people such as Navlakha, arrested in Bhima Koregaon case, want to destroy the country and alleged that he is pro-Maoist and has links with Pakistan's ISI.

Raju alleged that they are not innocent people and involved in actual warfare, and "they want to destroy the country".

At this, Justice Joseph remarked: "Who is destroying the country, you want me to tell... the corrupt", adding "Every office you go into, what happens?" "Who takes action against the corrupt?... We saw a video of people where people talk of crores of rupees to buy elected representatives." "Are you saying they are not doing anything against our country? The point is that you don't defend them but they go on. They go on merrily. There are money bags which can help...," Justice Joseph told counsel.

Raju replied that he is not defending the corrupt and contended that action should be taken against people who are corrupt.

The bench asked Raju to seek instructions and inform it about restrictions that can be placed on Navlakha while keeping him under house arrest for a few days. It further added that the court will pass the order on Thursday after hearing him.

"If he does anything, he will lose his freedom," it said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Navlakha, submitted that medical reports show that his treatment inside the jail is not possible and his client had alarming weight loss.

During the hearing, the bench asked Raju to consider his advanced age and added that it is not releasing him on bail, and also, he is not going to enjoy the default bail which Sudha Bharadwaj got.

Raju said that there is nothing wrong with Navlakha and the authorities concerned will provide a mattress, cot, and also allow home food.

On September 29, the Supreme Court directed the Taloja Jail Superintendent to immediately shift Navlakha to Mumbai's Jaslok hospital for treatment.

Navlakha moved the apex court challenging Bombay High Court judgment passed in April, dismissing his plea to be transferred from Taloja Prison and placed under house arrest instead. In August 2018, he was arrested and initially placed under house arrest. In April 2020, after an apex court order he was moved to Taloja Central Prison in Maharashtra.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri launched the Transport 4 All Challenge Stage-2 and Citizen Perception Survey 2022 on Wednesday.

The Transport 4 All Challenge is an initiative by the Central government that aims to enhance the mobility experience of citizens. The Challenge focuses on digital innovation and invites cities, citizens, and innovators to join hands to develop contextual digital solutions to improve formal and informal public transport to better serve the mobility needs of all citizens.

Solutions developed as part of the Challenge aim to integrate formal and informal modes of public transport wherever possible and desirable. Solutions that demonstrate the ability to meet the needs of citizens - those living in cities with different contexts - would be piloted in selected cities across the country.

More than 130 cities signed up for Stage 1 of the Challenge, launched on April 15, 2021. 100 cities formed a Transport 4 All Task Force (TTF) with key government stakeholders and governments working in the transport sector, along with academic institutes and non-profit organisations.

These cities successfully conducted surveys with more than 2 lakh citizens, 15,000 bus drivers and conductors and 22,000 informal public transport (such as autos, etc.) drivers, making it the biggest public transport data exercise in the country. The 46 cities that qualify for Stage 2 of the Challenge used the survey's findings to develop more than 165 problem statements, that is now curated into a final list of 8 problem statements by the Challenge team.

Stage-2 of the Challenge is open for startups to develop solutions for the issues identified by the cities. Interested startups can register with their idea pitches on the Startup India portal. The Transport 4 All Challenge is organised in partnership with The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) as co-host and challenge coordinator, Startup India and City Innovation Exchange as technology partners, and Association of State Road Transport Undertaking (ASRTU) as city-engagement partner.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday chaired a meeting with the senior party leaders to review the preparations for the December 4 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.

After the meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the party will launch 'Kejriwal Ki 10 Guarantee' campaign for MCD elections on Thursday.

"Arvind Kejriwal will launch AAP's highly successful 'Kejriwal Ki 10 Guarantee' campaign for MCD elections tomorrow. The people of Delhi are actively seeking such a government in MCD that can rid them of BJP's maladministration, corruption, garbage mountains and mismanagement," Sisodia said after the meeting.

Talking to the mediapersons, Sisodia said: "A meeting of the AAP senior leadership was held to discuss the 'disastrous' 15 year long rule of BJP in the MCD. We discussed how the BJP has completely wrecked the MCD from inside, putting Delhi at risk. Today, there's garbage piled up on every nook and corner of Delhi." "We discussed in detail what the party plans to do for the common man of Delhi through the MCD. How we can help the traders, the youth and the elderly of Delhi," the Deputy CM said.

On the question of tickets being given to candidates, he said that there is an internal survey is being conducted to finalise the candidature.

"We are getting lots of applications seeking candidature in MCD elections. We're conducting surveys to assess every application. All the applications are being dealt with in a very professional manner after which the list of candidates will be announced," he said.
Patna, Nov 9 : The MP-MLA court in Gopalganj on Wednesday imposed a fine on BJP MLA Ram Pravesh Rai for violation of the model code of conduct.

Rai was convicted in a special court of Justice Manvendra Mishra. The court has imposed a Rs 1000 fine. In case the fine is not paid, Rai will have to serve 6 months in jail.

Earlier the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him. Following that, Rai surrendered before the court. The court granted him conditional bail on that occasion.

Rai, the MLA from Barauli in Gopalganj district, confirmed the development.

"It was a violation of the model code of conduct during the 2010 Vidhan Sabha election. An FIR was lodged against me. I deposited the fine," Rai told IANS.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Union Health Ministry has decided to depute a high-level multi-disciplinary team to Mumbai to take stock of the upsurge in cases of measles in the city.

The team will assist the state health authorities in instituting public health measures and facilitate operationalisation of requisite control and containment measures.

The three-member Central team comprises experts drawn from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), New Delhi and Regional Office for Health and Family Welfare, Pune.

The team is headed by Dr. Anubhav Srivastava, Deputy Director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), NCDC.

The team will also undertake field visits to investigate the outbreak and assist the state Health Department in terms of public health measures, management guidelines and protocols to manage the increasing cases of measles being reported in Mumbai.
Kolkata, Nov 9 : A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed at the Calcutta High Court demanding an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the accounts of West Bengal's iconic Dakshineswar Kali Temple.

The PIL has been filed by a section of temple sevayats (priests) and disciples, alleging gross irregularities in maintenance of the accounts and assets of the temple trust.

In the petition, they have alleged that the temple authorities have not maintained any records of the huge number of ornaments and sarees donated to the temple by the disciples during the occasion of Kali Puja this year.

It has also been alleged that the temple authorities have also not maintained proper accounts of Rs 130 crore received from the West Bengal government and Rs 20 crore from the Union government under various heads for the last few years.

The petitions also alleged irregularities on part of the temple trust authorities in allotment of spaces to shop-owners within the temple complex as well as election for the office bearers of the trustee board which happened after 20 years after a court directive.

The petitioners have appealed for an independent probe in the matter either by a central agency such as ED or by a judicial committee headed by any retired justice.

The petition has been admitted and will come up for hearing soon.

Famed philanthropist, Rani Rashmoni had initiated the construction of the temple in 1848, which was completed in 1856. Gadadhar Chattopadhyay, who later became globally acclaimed as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was appointed as the priest of the temple.

Initially, Ramakrishna used to assist his elder brother Ramkumar Chattopadhyay, who was head priest of the temple then. But later, after his elder brother's death, Ramakrishna took over as the head priest.

It is said that Rani Rashmoni started the construction of the temple following a divine vision of Goddess Kali in her dreams.
New Delhi, Nov 9: Vladimir Makei, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Belarus, arrived in New Delhi early Wednesday on a two-day visit which takes place at a crucial time as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to escalate.

Makei will call on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar later today who also returned from a significant trip to Moscow early morning.

Belarus recognises India as an emerging global power and seeks to develop a "strategic relationship" with New Delhi.

Belarusian news agency BelTA reported last month that both countries are also mulling over setting up a joint company to make drones.

"There are a lot of orders coming from abroad. The director of the center [of unmanned aerial vehicles based on the Academy of Sciences] is currently in India holding talks to launch a joint venture with India. Indian specialists have studied the drones of a number of foreign manufacturers and give preference mainly to Belarusian developments," it quoted Vladimir Gusakov, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, telling Belarus 1 TV channel.

As the West imposed sweeping financial sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime for backing Russia's 'Special Military Operation' in Ukraine, the Belarusian President urged Asia to "seize the moment" and take the lead.

"The time for Asia is coming. People in Asia, in the East are very prudent, cautious, shrewd. With such an attitude Asia will not miss on emerging opportunities. Everyone is now looking for someone to rely on," Lukashenko said recently highlighting the role played by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures (CICA).

Makei, during his trip to Iran late last month, also spoke about the need for a "new world order" which should be based on the generally accepted principles of the UN Charter.

In Moscow on Tuesday, Jaishankar too spoke on the "era of change" now being experienced by the international community and on the partners India and Russia continuing to engage each other in an increasingly multi-polar and re-balanced world.

Both ministers are expected to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations in New Delhi today, including political, economic, cultural, tourism, education matters (there are 941 Indian students estimated to be studying in Belarus) besides exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.

While Minsk has been supportive of India's candidature for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, India has supported Belarus for its membership in the NAM and also other international and multilateral fora like IPU.

India's supportive stand on various resolutions in Geneva and New York (especially during India's non-permanent membership of UNSC during 2021-22) targeting Belarus for violation of human rights and restrictions on freedom of expression have also been appreciated by Belarus.

In 2015, India also extended help through Line of Credit (LoC) of US$100 million to the export-oriented country with well-developed manufacturing industry, services sector and agriculture.

Both countries are also batting for an increase in bilateral trade which remains in favour of Belarus primarily on account of imports of Potash which too has been affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sanctions and ban on export from the port of Klaipeda.

They also continue to explore ways to enhance cooperation in tourism as Indian art and culture, dance, yoga, ayurveda and films remain quite popular among Belarusian nationals.

"I will try to convince the producers to shoot a film here. Now it's a bit difficult, but as soon as the situation normalizes, I will convince you to come here, see the locations and shoot a movie," Indian Ambassador to Belarus Alok Ranjan Jha said recently.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

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Chennai, Nov 9 : The integrated draft electoral rolls published by the Election Commission on Wednesday showed Tamil Nadu has a total electorate of 6.18 crore.

The draft voters' list comprises 3.14 crore women and 3.03 crore men and 7,700 third-gender people.

Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu, Satyabrata Basu in a statement on Wednesday said that the integrated draft electoral rolls have been published in all the districts in their designated locations.

The statement also said two copies of the electoral rolls would be handed over to recognised political parties by the District Election Officers.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that special campaigns would be held on November 12, 13, 26, and 27 at the designated locations for the benefit of the voters who may require updates.

The highest voters in the state as usual is the Sholinganallur assembly constituency in Chengalpattu district with a total electorate of 6,64,464 which include 3,32,132 women,3,34,219 men, and 113 third-genders.

Harbour constituency in Chennai assembly constituency has the record of the lowest number of electorate in the state.

The constituency has 1,72,211 which include 89,588 men and 82,563 men. There are 60 third-genders in the constituency.
Hyderabad, Nov 9 : Amid widening rift with the Telangana government, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday said that she suspect her phone is being tapped and alleged that there is an undemocratic situation in the state "I'm afraid my phone is tapped. My privacy is being infringed," she told reporters at Raj Bhavan.

The Governor slammed the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for dragging Raj Bhavan into MLAs' poaching episode.

She said the official TRS handle claimed that Raj Bhavan is involved in the case.

"This is a false allegation. My office is transparent and all my works are in the open," she said.

"They mentioned Tushar. He was my ADC. Tushar was calling me for two days to wish me Deepavali. Only after that, they mentioned Tushar's name," she said.

She was apparently referring to Tushar Vellapally, who contested Lok Sabha elections against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad on BJP ticket in 2019.

At a news conference on November 3, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had stated that one of the three accused arrested while trying to lure four MLAs of TRS spoke to Tushar over phone.

KCR also released a photograph of Tushar with union home minister Amit Shah.

She denied that she is sitting on bills sent by the state government to Raj Bhavan including Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022.

She said she wanted some clarifications from the state government on the new procedure to be adopted for appointment of vice-chancellors of universities.

The Governor said her action was projected as if she was stalling the process of recruitment.

She claimed that ever since she took oath as Governor, she had been suggesting the government fill vacant posts, teaching and non-teaching, as early as possible.

She clarified that she wants to know from the government why a new recruitment board be formed when a procedure is already there and what is the new procedure going to be followed, how the board is to be formed and whether this will be in accordance with the UGC rules.

Soundararajan also claimed that only after she called the press conference that the education minister stated that she would go to Raj Bhavan to give the clarifications.

On a students' body threatening to lay siege to Raj Bhavan if the approval to the bill was delayed, the governor said students' fraternity was welcomed to come to Raj Bhavan and submit their memorandum.

"Raj Bhavan's doors are open. It is not like Pragati Bhavan (official residence of the chief minister). I have democratised Raj Bhavan," she remarked.

Reiterating the allegation that the Governor's protocol was not being followed during her visit to districts, she wanted to know from the government what action it had taken against collectors and superintendents of police who were not following the protocol.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has been summoned again by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 17 in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case pertaining to illegal mining and extortion in Jharkhand and Bihar.

Soren had earlier skipped the questioning and sought three weeks time from the ED.

Agency sources claimed that they have sent him a fresh summons to join the probe.

Soren had written a letter to the probe agency seeking three weeks time. He said that he had programmes to attend and hence he needed three weeks time.

The ED had also written to the Jharkhand Police Commissioner to make appropriate security arrangements ahead of his questioning.

"There was a cheque signed by Mr Soren which was found by us during the recent raid. He also allegedly misused his position and granted a lease," the sources said.

The ED had recently filed a Prosecution Complaint (chargesheet) before a Special Ranchi court against Pankaj Mishra, a close aide of Soren, and Bachhu Yadav and Prem Prakash who are also said to be close to the Jharkhand CM.

The court has already taken cognizance of the chargesheet.

The ED said that during the investigation, 47 searches were conducted throughout India on several dates resulting in the seizure of cash amounting to Rs 5.34 crore, freezing of bank balances amounting to Rs 13.32 crore, seizure of an inland vessel MV Infralink -III, reg. No- WB 1809, 5 stone crushers, two Hyva trucks besides incriminating documents along with two AK 47 assault rifles.

Earlier the ED had arrested Pankaj Mishra, Bachhu Yadav and Prem Prakash. The accused are presently in judicial custody.

The ED initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of the FIR registered at the Barharwa police station, Sahebganj district in Jharkhand under various sections of the IPC, against Mishra and others.

Later, several FIRs regarding illegal mining lodged under the IPC, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act were also taken into the ambit of the scheduled offence.

Till date, the ED has identified POC relating to illegal mining to the tune of more than Rs. 1000 crore in this case.

The PMLA investigation revealed that Mishra, who enjoys political clout being the representative of the Chief Minister, controls the illegal mining business as well as inland ferry services in Sahebganj and its adjoining areas through his accomplices.

"He exercises considerable control over the mining of stone chips and boulders as well as installation and operation of several crushers, set up across various mining sites in Sahebganj. Proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 42 crore acquired by Mishra have been identified till date," said the ED official.

Further investigation in the matter is on.
Mumbai, Nov 9 : After spending 101 days in jail, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 1, walked out of the Arthur Road Central Jail to a hero's welcome late on Wednesday after being granted bail by a special court here.

Soon after the special court verdict, the ED challenged the bail order in the Bombay High Court, which declined to grant a stay on the bail order and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.

On July 31, the ED team had swooped on Raut's home and arrested him the following day (August 1) in connection with an alleged money-laundering scam arising out of the Patra Chawl redevelopment case of Goregaon, even as Raut claimed innocence.

In the bail order, Special Judge M.S. Deshpande ripped into the ED for the "illegal" arrest of Raut with "no reason", saying "this truth is glaring", though another co-accused in the same case was arrested for a civil dispute, and how "pure civil disputes were labelled as money-laundering or economic offences".

Deshpande also questioned the ED's failure to arrest the two prime accused -- HDIL builders Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhawan -- besides government officials of MHADA who could be possibly involved in the alleged scam.

"I hold that both the accused were basically arrested illegally. Both of them are entitled to parity in view of the disparity made by the ED in not arresting the main accused persons, Rakesh and Sarang, HDIL, MHADA and government officials responsible for misdeeds of the Wadhawans at the relevant time," Deshpande said without mincing words.

The Special Judge also noted the changing stance of the ED - initially claiming that the Wadhawans and Pravin Raut were the prime accused, and later attributing that role to Sanjay Raut.

With no relief from the high court to the ED, the scene shifted to Arthur Road Central Jail where the release formalities of Raut were carried out before he walked out of the high-security prison at around 6.45 pm.

For the second time in 12 months, a massive media brigade laid siege outside the ARCJ - the previous occasion being the release of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, who was nabbed in a drug case in October 2021.

Hundreds of mediapersons, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders and workers waited several hours in anticipation of Raut's imminent release from judicial custody.

Huge preparations for his welcome were underway at his home in Chembur and at the Shiv Sena Bhavan, plus other strongholds, with fire-crackers, distribution of sweetmeats and raising slogans in Raut's favour.

Finally, as he walked out of the prison doors, he was mobbed by the paparazzi with scores of cameras and microphones thrust into his face, but the Mumbai Police escorted him safely to his waiting SUV with his MLA brother Sunil Raut waiting for him eagerly.

A visibly overwhelmed Raut raised and waved his arms, showed the 'V' (victory) sign, accepted bouquets and garlands though appearing weary after his long jail ordeal of over three months.

"I am happy to be free. The court has said whatever we have been saying since the beginning. My faith in the judiciary, the courts and the Constitution has increased. However, I am feeling a bit unwell now... I shall definitely speak to the media when I am fine," he said.

Raut also said that he will "never quit the Shiv Sena" and his struggle against injustice would continue, but admitted that "it was very tough to spend over three months in prison", being separated from his mother, wife and daughter.

"I will not be cowed down or leave the Shiv Sena. Despite so many attacks on the party, it remains firm. It's a single party, there are no factions. I am a Shiv Sainik and a fighter, and I will continue to be so till the end," he vowed.

Raut said he spoke with party chief and ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who was waiting to hear his (Raut's) voice, but he was choked with joy and emotion. He also called his mother at home.

Later, as his SUV marooned in the crowd managed to crawl out, Raut said he would go to pay obeisance at the memorial of Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, pray at the Siddhivinayak Temple, and go to the residence of Uddhav Thackeray before reaching home.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at:Aq.najmi@ians.in)
Ahmedabad, Nov 9 : The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday rejected the state government's plea to permit withdrawal of a criminal case against the ruling BJP MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja.

A single-judge bench of Justice Niral R. Mehta said: "Learned Assistant Public Prosecutor appears to have exercised discretionary power improperly and would be nothing but an attempt to interfere with normal course of justice for illegitimate reasons. Thus, this Court cannot be a mute spectator and should not grant permission merely upon asking. This petition is rejected." On December 21, 2007, a mob of 200-300 persons gathered outside the gate of Essar company at Khambhalia Taluka to agitate for resolution of issues affecting public at large as well as local agriculturists. However, during the said agitation, the mob had started stone pelting on the buses of the company and as a result thereof, employees travelling in these had received injuries while the vehicles suffered damage. Police officers, deployed there to maintain public peace and safety, also received stone injuries.

A case was registered against Jadeja and others for unlawful assembly, rioting with deadly weapons, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation and other sections.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Delhi BJP is taking up issues like pollution and corruption against opponent Aam Aadmi Party and will highlight the Economically Weaker Section flats scheme in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday handed over the keys to eligible beneficiaries at the Bhoomiheen Camp after inaugurating 3,024 newly constructed flats at Kalkaji in New Delhi under the "In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation Project".

According to a source in the city BJP, "Delhi BJP will highlight the EWS flat scheme as work done by the BJP and promise to continue giving flats under the "jahan jhuggi wahan makaan" scheme.

"We are taking many jhuggi people on site visits to show them their future homes. In a day or two we will come up with a form of commitment which will be filled with their details. That will be our commitment to them to handover flats in the near future", the source told IANS.

"Pollution and corruption especially this Sukesh Chandrasekhar case will be raised during the campaigning to tell people who made them suffer and who are with them", the source added.
Congress MLA Bhagabhai Barad resigned from the party and has joined BJP. Image Source: IANS News

Congress MLA Bhagabhai Barad resigned from the party and has joined BJP. Image Source: IANS News

Gandhinagar, Nov 9 : Congress legislator from Talala in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district Bhagabhai Barad on Wednesday resigned as MLA as well as from the party's primary membership, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Barad, who belongs to the Aahir community, is a three-time MLA from Talala constituency.

The seat is considered a Congress stronghold. In the last 10 assembly elections, BJP could register victory here only twice -- in 1995 and 2002.

After joining BJP, Barad told mediapersons: "... we are not 'real Congress', other than this, I would not like to make any comments on the Congress party. I am influenced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development model... so joined the party and will work for the party as its soldier."
Bhubaneswar, Nov 9 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said his government is constructing 30 instream storage structures and 16 more are in the pipeline located across different rivers of the state with a budget outlay of about Rs 12,000 crore.

These structures will provide double benefit with conservation of surface water and increase in the ground water table, Patnaik said while addressing an orientation programme of newly recruited 257 junior engineers in the water resources department.

He asked the engineers to work with passion towards the job, with honesty and sensitivity towards the people of the state. He wished them a bright future.

Apart from providing irrigation facilities to the farmers, the water resources department is also responsible for flood management to protect the life and property of the people, he said.

Stating that the state has more than 2,500 dams, he said work for some major dams like Lower Suktel, Kanpur and Ghatkeswar are in progress.

The JEs have a greater role for on-site supervision of new projects as well as operation and maintenance of completed projects and ensuring designed irrigation to agricultural land, he added.

On this occasion, the Chief Minister has launched a procurement management information system PROMISe, which will be used in managing different steps of procurement with up-to-date information, records and status of different work.

Patnaik announced that a comprehensive computer application, water ERP will be launched soon which has been taken up under the 5T Initiative.

This will be highly useful in the overall planning and management of irrigation and flood in an efficient manner on a real time basis, he added.
Hyderabad, Nov 9 : For the fourth time in a row, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is not likely to receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the latter arrives here on November 12 to dedicate Ramagundam fertilizer plant to the nation.

With the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) slamming the Prime Minister's Office for not sending an official invitation to the Chief Minister for the event, KCR, as Rao is popularly called, is likely to skip both the reception at the airport and the event.

KCR is likely to depute a state minister to welcome the Prime Minister on behalf of the state government.

This will be the fourth time in 10 months that KCR will not be receiving Modi on his arrival in Hyderabad.

The ruling party has taken exception to the PMO not extending proper invitation to the Chief Minister for the opening of fertiliser plant at Ramagundam.

The TRS leaders alleged that it is disrespectful on part of the PMO for not sending an official invite to the Chief Minister, ignoring the fact that Telangana holds 11 per cent share in the plant.

It accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of insulting Telangana people by sending a communication to the Chief Minister to participate in the inaugural event rather than inviting him.

TRS leader Krishank Manne criticized the Prime Minister for what he called doing a 'tamasha' when the plant was functioning for more than a year.

The TRS also claimed that the BJP was attempting to use the event to deflect attention away from the defeat in Munugode bypoll as well as from the 'poachgate' scandal in which four agents of BJP were caught while attempting to buy four TRS MLAs.

During his visit to Ramagundam, Modi is also scheduled to address a public meeting. The BJP is making arrangements to mobilise a large number of people for the meeting.

The last time KCR had skipped welcoming Modi at the airport was on July 2 when the latter had arrived for BJP's national executive meet. State's Animal Husbandry Minister T. Srinivas Yadav had welcomed him.

Earlier in May, KCR had avoided welcoming Modi when the latter was in Hyderabad to attend 20th annual celebrations of the Indian School of Business (ISB).

Just before the Prime Minister's arrival, the Chief Minister flew to Bengaluru to call on former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

In February, KCR had stayed away from receiving Modi on his visit to the city to unveil the statue of equality.

This had evoked strong reaction from BJP leaders, who alleged that the Chief Minister is insulting the office of the Prime Minister.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said if a candidate fails to disclose conviction for holding a dharna, a non-substantive offence, then it would not amount to corrupt practices under the Representation of People Act.

A bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and V. Ramasubramanian allowed an appeal by Ravi Namboothiri, whose election as councillor in Kerala's Annamanada Gram Panchayat was declared null and void as he did not disclose his conviction for an offence under the Kerala Police Act for holding a dharna in front of the Panchayat office.

The bench noted that the conviction of the appellant was actually for the disobedience of the directions issued by a police officer.

"This was admittedly in connection with a dharna which the appellant staged in front of the Panchayat office, along with a group of his supporters. Therefore, the question that we are obliged to consider is as to whether the non-disclosure of the conviction for such offences would also come within the purview of Section 102(1)(ca) of the Act", it noted.

The bench said while offences under the Indian Penal Code or under special enactments such as Prevention of Corruption Act, Arms Act and so on and so forth are substantive offences, the commission of which may make a person a criminal, an offence under certain enactments such as Kerala Police Act are not substantive offences.

It said just as strike is a weapon in the hands of the workmen and lock-out is a weapon in the hands of the employer under labour welfare legislations, protest is a tool in the hands of the civil society and police action is a tool in the hands of the establishment.

The top court said the provisions of the law can't be stretched to such an extent to declare the election of a candidate as void for such non-disclosure.

"The Kerala Police Act, 1960 is actually the successor legislation of certain police enactments of the colonial era, whose object was to scuttle the democratic aspirations of the indigenous population. This aspect should be kept in mind before applying blindfold, the principle 'what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander'." The top court said all state enactments such as Kerala Police Act, Madras Police Act etc are aimed at better regulation of the police force and they do not create substantive offences. "This is why these Acts themselves empower the police to issue necessary directions for the maintenance of law and order and the violation of any of those directions is made a punishable offence under these Acts," it added.

"We are of the considered view that the District Court and the High Court were wrong in declaring the election of the appellant to be void on the ground that the failure of the appellant to disclose in Form 2A, his conviction under the Kerala Police Act amounted to 'undue influence on the free exercise of the electoral right' and also a violation of Section 52(1A) read with Section 102(1) (ca) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act. Hence, the appeals are allowed, the impugned orders are set aside."
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday hailed the verdict of UK High Court that allowed extradition of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi to India, terming it "a significant achievement" in its efforts to curb corruption.

Nirav Modi, who allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank (PNB) of over Rs 11,000 crore, is likely to be extradited soon to India from the UK as he lost his appeal in the High Court.

Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who heard the appeal earlier this year, delivered the verdict that allowed the fugitive businessman's extradition to India, according to reports.

Nirav Modi had appealed against his extradition where he would face trial in the fraud case linked to the PNB.

"Today's judgement of UK High Court is a significant achievement in the context of CBI's efforts to curb corruption and is a reminder that fugitives, who have eluded the process of law after commission of large value frauds, cannot consider themselves above the process merely because they have changed jurisdictions.

"The CBI took painstaking efforts in effectively presenting the facts before the Court, especially since Modi had raised various issues with regard to prison conditions, availability of health facilities in India etc.," the CBI said in a statement.

On April 15, 2021, the Secretary of State ordered the businessman's extradition to India.

He had filed application before the High Court of Justice, London seeking permission to appeal on multiple grounds.

On August 9, 2021, the High Court of Justice, London gave Modi the permission to appeal on the following two grounds: 1. His extradition would be incompatible with his convention rights under Article 3 of European Convention on Human Rights, and 2. It would be unjust or oppressive within the meaning of Section 91 of UK Extradition Act 2003 to extradite him by virtue of his physical and mental condition.

Now, all other grounds of appeal have been rejected.

During the final hearing, two psychiatric experts -- Andrew Forrester of Cardiff University, on behalf of the appellant, and Seena Fazel of University of Oxford, on behalf of the Government of India also gave evidence before the High Court.

Nirav Modi was arrested on March 19, 2019 in the UK on the basis of extradition request of the Indian government to face trial in the multi-crore bank fraud case.

After his arrest, he filed several bail petitions which were strongly opposed and all the bail petitions were rejected by the courts in the UK.

The CBI had registered the case on January 31, 2018 against the partner of three private firms and others including then officials of PNB on a complaint from the lender on the allegations that the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy among themselves to defraud the Bank to the tune of Rs 6,498 crore by fraudulently issuing Letters of Undertaking.

During investigation, the CBI conducted searches at 42 premises and arrested 15 people. A large number of witnesses were examined and voluminous documents were collected.

Investigation revealed that the accused officials of the PNB, in conspiracy with said owners of the firms and others, had fraudulently issued a large number of LoUs to overseas banks for obtaining buyer's credit in favour of said three firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the CBS system of the bank.

Besides, the probe had also revealed that the fraud was allegedly perpetrated despite the circulars issued by RBI.

The first chargesheet was filed on May 14, 2018 against 25 accused including Nirav Modi.

The second chargesheet was filed on December 20, 2019 against 30 accused including 25 chargesheeted earlier.

"Nirav Modi in conspiracy with other accused had siphoned off the funds obtained as buyer's credit through dummy companies established by him in Dubai and Hong Kong which were shown as exporter of Pearls to three Modi firms and importer of Pearl studded jewellery from the said firms of Modi. He escaped from India on January 1, 2018 before registration of case," the CBI said.

Non bailable arrest warrant was issued by the trial court against Nirav Modi on May 23, 2018 and red notice was also issued against him on June 29, 2918 by Interpol.

The first extradition request was sent by CBI to United Kingdom for extradition of Modi in August 2018 for defrauding the PNB.

In extradition requests, the CBI had submitted voluminous oral and documentary evidence to substantiate the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misconduct by public servants, destruction of evidence and criminal intimidation of evidence.

"The CBI gracefully acknowledges the painstaking and continuous efforts made by the counsels of Crown Prosecution service in forcefully presenting the government of India's case and also the efforts of various government agencies, especially officers of High Commission of India, London, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, in coordinating the extradition trial, timely submission of evidences and assurances, and prompt follow up of the case at all stages," the CBI said.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : A meeting of the Central Election Committee of the BJP is underway at the party headquarters here for the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat scheduled to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5.

Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the meeting is being attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat BJP chief C.R. Patil, BJP national President J.P. Nadda, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister Bhupendra Yadav, and former Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa, among others.

The CEC is expected to discuss and decide the names of 182 party candidates for the Gujarat polls, and the list is expected to be out in a day or two.
Hyderabad, Nov 9 : The Telangana government on Wednesday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe MLA's poaching case in which three alleged agents of BJP were arrested last month.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government's move came a day after the Telangana High Court lifted the stay on the investigation in the case.

The SIT will be headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand. Six other police officers - Nalgonda SP Rema Rajeshwari, Cyberabad DCP Kalmeshwar Shingenavar, DCP R. Jagadishwar Reddy, Narayanpet SP N. Venkateshwarlu, ACP B. Gangadhar and SHO Laxmi Reddy - will be the members of the team.

The state government issued a Government Order (GO) after Director General of Police made a request to constitute the SIT in public interest to carry out proper investigation in an expeditious manner.

According to the GO, the DGP informed the government that since the case is sensitive, high profile and sensational in nature as it involves investigation in multiple dimensions, which requires thorough scientific and evidence-based investigation in an elaborate manner, it requires officers with experience and requisite expertise with specific skill sets to carry out investigation.

The three accused said to be BJP agents were arrested 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.

Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, a priest from Faridabad in Haryana, Simhayaji, pontiff of Srimanatha Raja Peetham in Tirupati, and Nandakumar, owner of a restaurant in Hyderabad were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act.

Addressing a news conference on November 3, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had released evidence in the case including video recordings of the conversation between the accused and the MLAs.

The accused had mentioned names of some top BJP leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Islamabad, Nov 9 : Pakistans clerics on Wednesday welcomed the governments decision to withdraw its appeals, filed in the Supreme Court, against the Federal Shariat Courts (FSC) direction to the government to switch to Islamic banking system in a phased manner by December 2027, media reports said.

Prime Minister's Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for taking such a "bold step" towards abrogating the interest-based banking system in the country, Geo News reported.

Earlier, in a press conference, Dar - with the permission of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and in consultation with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmed - announced that the government will withdraw the SBP and National Bank of Pakistan's pleas against the FSC verdict.

Ashrafi, who is also the Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, said withdrawal of the petitions from the apex court would pave the way for the establishment of an Islamic society in the light of the Quran and Sunnah.

He said the elimination of Riba (interest) would give an unprecedented boost to Pakistan's economy and take the country to new heights of economic development and prosperity, Geo News reported.

Meanwhile, Sajid Mir, chief of Jamiat Ahle Hadith, said this step is highly praise-worthy.

"The government has finally realised its mistake, which is heartening to note, and has been received positively," the Islamic scholar said, adding that the government should establish a model Islamic bank under a public-private partnership arrangement.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : Customs officials have arrested three persons for smuggling gold in two seperate cases that were reported from Chennai and Delhi international airports.

In the first case, Customs officials in Chennai said on Wednesday that they have arrested two persons for smuggling gold worth Rs 1.33 crore.

Both the passengers, who came to Chennai from Muscat, were held on Tuesday.

"On search of their baggage, gold strips weighing 3 kg valued at Rs 1.33 crore concealed in the outer lining of their trolley suitcases were seized under the Customs Act," said a Customs official.

In a separate case, a man was held at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi with 355 gm smuggled gold worth over Rs 18 lakh.

"This man also arrived from Muscat. Chemical gold paste weighing 355 gm concealed inside 18 Eclairs toffees was seized under the Customs Act," the official said.

All the three accused were produced before a special court which remanded them to 14-day judicial custody.
Patna, Nov 9 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday quipped that he wanted special status for the state as a gift from the BJP on his birthday.

Addressing a gathering in Gyan Bhawan here for distribution of joining letters to Panchayat Secretaries he said: "On my birthday, a person said that if BJP want to give a birthday gift to you, what would you expect from it... I told him I would highly appreciate if BJP gives special status to Bihar." Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who was also present, distributed 11,000 recruitment letters to Panchayat Secretaries.

After Tejashwi Yadav's speech, Nitish Kumar hugged him and Tejashwi Yadav touched his feet.

Tejashwi Yadav also said that the biggest enemy of youths is unemployment. "Our government is working on it and we will give lakhs of jobs in the next few months. We are distributing joining letters and the Central government is adopting our model," he said.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha, meanwhile, alleged that Tejashwi Yadav is the 'Super Chief Minister' and Nitish Kumar has surrendered before him.

He also said that the people of Gopalganj have given good lessons to grand alliance.

"If they have guts, dissolve Vidhan Sabha and go for the fresh election, the people of Bihar will teach them a lesson like the people of Gopalganj did," Sinha said.
Guwahati, Nov 9 : Assam government has asked all the madrasas in the state to provide information about the teachers employed by them latest by December 1, an official said on Wednesday.

The madrasas came under government scanner after a few teachers were arrested for alleged terror links. The state administration even demolished three madrasas, while another such institution was razed by the general public.

While the move drew criticism, the state government had defended its action.

The latest deadline was set during a meeting attended by Director General of Police (DGP), Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta, on Wednesday.

A senior government official said that the madrasas have been directed to furnish the details to the Directorate for Secondary Education.

Notably, 47 people, including some madrasa teachers, have been arrested for suspected terror links with Al-Qaeda in India Subcontinent (AQIS) and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) modules in the last six months.
Guwahati, Nov 9 : Two Bangladeshi nationals, suspected to be illegal cattle traders, were shot dead by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in Assam's Kaimari area bordering Bangladesh, officials said on on Wednesday.

A force spokesman said that BSF personnel deployed on the India-Bangladesh border observed suspicious movement of 15-20 Bangladeshis along the border fencing, who were trying to smuggle cattle heads by erecting cantilever ('jhula') with the help of their Indian associates.

The spokesman said when the BSF personnel challenged them, the miscreants pointed high-beam torch light on them and started pelting stones.

The BSF personnel initially lobbed two non-lethal stun grenades to deter and disperse the miscreants, but they started encircling the BSF troops with the intention of inflicting grave injuries to the Indian border guards.

The spokesman said that on sensing threat to life, a BSF personnel fired at the miscreants from his service weapon, forcing them to flee from the spot.

As per reports from across the border, two Bangladeshi miscreants succumbed to bullet injuries sustained in the firing.
Ahmedabad, Nov 9 : Gujarat's former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, and five other senior leaders on Wednesday aannounced that they will not contest the December Assembly election.

Their announcement came before the BJP's Central Election Committee meeting began in New Delhi.

Rupani was first to inform media that he is not going to contest and has informed party's state and national leadership that he is not interested in contesting elections.

Soon after Nitin Patel shared a letter with media saying that he too will not contest elections. In fact, when the party had sent an observer to listen aspiring candidates of Mehsana district, Patel had been present, showing interest in contesting. But, what made him review his stand, he has not revealed.

The other five were ministers in the Rupani goverment.

Former Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama also said not interested in contesting election, saying: "Enough is enough". He later clarified that the party has given him a lot and now he needs to serve it.

Former Agriculture Minister R.C. Faldu, former Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel, former Energy Minister Saurabh Patel and former Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja has informed local media that they are not interested in contesting elections.
Patna, Nov 9 : Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and Bihar Rural Development Minister Shrawan Kumar on Wednesday criticised Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan, saying the Lok Sabha MP from Jamui constituency does not know the ground reality of the state.

"He roams like an actor... he cannot be a leader all while roaming in a filmy style in Bihar. It's up to him to decide whether the 'chirag' (lamp) would lighten up or eventually go off," Kumar said.

The remarks have come after Chirag Paswan announced supporting the BJP in the Kurhni by-election.

"During the by-poll campaign in Mokama, he claimed that the entire constituency has a strong wave of BJP. After the result, BJP lost the by-poll... I firmly believe that his feet are not on the ground," Kumar said.

After the by-poll in Gopalganj and Mokama, the Grand Alliance began its preparation to contest the Kurhni by-poll.

"His party was not in alliance with NDA in the 2020 Assembly election. Still, he bats for the BJP. He played the role of 'vote cutter' for JD-U," Kumar said.
New Delhi, Nov 9 : The Indian Medical Council (IMC) has extended its support to the MBBS students at PGIMS Rohtak who are protesting against the bond policy for MBBS admission in Haryana.

As per the bond policy, an amount of Rs 40 lakh has to be deposited by an MBBS student which will be refunded only after seven years of service and if the student fails to serve for this period, he or she will have to forfeit the bond amount.

"IMA stands with the protesting doctors of Haryana and denounces the state's harshness and oppressive actions," IMA said in a statement on Wednesday.

The medical body has also requested Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar that a constructive discourse must be established to consider the legitimate demand, and that the bond system be scraped/modified to suit the government and the students alike.

The MBBS students of PGIMS Rohtak are protesting against the state government's bond policy for taking admission in government medical colleges.

"The nation is in shock to note that while exercising the democratic rights to oppose such moves, students became a victim of barbaric police action, where female doctors were manhandled and detained by the state police and the gathering was showered with water cannons on a cold night," the IMA satement read.

Such treatment by the state government is deeply discouraging, reprehensible and reflects an insensitive and callous attitude and is disrespect to democratic, peaceful protest, the statement added.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) has also written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, drawing his attention towards the bond policy of Haryana government.

"The bond policy introduced by Govt Of Haryana not only questions the merit, but also takes away the dream of becoming a doctor from poor economically backward aspirants. There is no doubt in the fact that such policy will not only dilute the quality of medical education but will also hamper the health services in the state", the DMA said in the letter.

The DMA has requested Mandaviya to address the issue of agitating students and making necessary changes in the policy which suits the interest of both the future doctors and patient care.
Islamabad, Nov 10 : In the intervening night of November 7 and November 8, TTP terrorists and their Islamist facilitators burnt Girls Middle School at Samigal, Darel in Diamer District of Gilgit Baltistan.

The population of Samigal Pain is around 7,000 and it was the only girls school for this population. About 68 girls were studying in this school. So far no group has claimed responsibility.

Islamists no matter which sect they belong to, are extremely opposed to allow girls access to education in Gilgit Baltistan which is basic fundamental right enshrined in Article 25A of the constitution of Pakistan.

Girls' education in most parts of Gilgit Baltistan, particularly in Diamer is considered a taboo by Muslim extremists having leaning towards Afghan Taliban and TTP and girls education comes under attacks time and again in this area.

The November 7-8 incident is not first incident of burning of schools. In 2018, 12 schools had been burnt to ashes in a single night. Similar incidents had occurred in 2005 also.

Ill treatment was meted out to Chowkidars/ watchmen.

They were tied, taken away and thrown in deserted areas.

The Diamer Youth Movement (DYM) held a protest rally at Siddique Akbar Chowk, Chilas today.

Participants strongly condemned terrorist act of burning of Samigal girls school and chanted slogans against the Gilgit Baltistan government.

Speakers urged the people to cut off all kinds of ties with terrorists and Islamists. They said that they are not optimistic in connection with government's action against terrorists.

DYM President Shabbir Ahmed Qureshi and other leaders demanded immediate action against terrorists involved in the incident.

They demanded an end to discrimination, patronisation of extremists and weaponisation of the masses.

Notables of Darel during a meeting strongly condemned the incident and urged the government to expose terrorists involved.

Human rights activist and journalist Roshan Din Diameri strongly deploring the incident said that there have always been serious issues regarding girls' education in this area.

Fundamentalists do not want girls to have access to education. Following this cowardly incident, doors of education perhaps have been closed on them forever.

There is an organised campaign against girls education as extremists want that Diamer always remains backward.

Presently the population of Diamer district is comprised of 51 per cent females and all young girls want to equip themselves with education.

Local people of the area had faced great difficulties to begin girls classes in the Samigal school.

People of Diamer said that Islamists' desire of establishing complete control is one of the main reasons behind burning of the school.

Gilgit Baltistan is reeling under colonial system wherein people have been kept deprived of their fundamental rights and basic facilities including local governments. The so-called assembly is compromised.

People belonging to a vast majority of Gilgit Baltistan indirectly accuse PTI governments of Gilgit Baltistan and KPK of hatching conspiracies for fomenting terrorist activities through TTP in GB.

They added that their plan is to make GB a frontline territory for promoting terrorist activities in Central Asia and Xinjiang province of China. However, GB people have rejected such conspiracies. They will never allow Afghanistan returned Taliban to do recruitment of new Taliban from their region.

Some sections of GB society claim that Pakistani security forces are behind increasing terrorism in GB.

They are providing protection to terrorists and promoting gun culture. They questioned as to why the state is helpless before the people, brandishing weapons openly in Chilas.

They warned that if immediate action isn't taken against such elements, they will also be forced to take up arms.

"Burning of girls schools is a clear indication of presence of terrorists in GB and there can be more such incidents in coming days," they added.

These sections, which firmly believe in girls education are not ready to buy announcement of Chief Secretary who termed burning of girls school by few criminals as sad incident and pledged not to surrender to these miscreants.

They urged GB government either to protect the right to education or go home.

They said that the script is straight forward. Complete takeover of GB through their assets "Taliban supporters and certain NGOs".

It serves imperialist design of containing and making China bleed besides making the ruling elite further rich.

In general, the people of GB allege that Khalid Khurshid's government is totally absent from the provincial scene because it is performing duty of watchman at Banigala.

All resources of GB are being spent on Banigala and Imran Khan who is bent upon destroying the country and doing politics of mischief.

PTI government of GB has fully failed to resolve problems of the people and protecting their rights.

GB CM Khalid Khurshid spent his last two years only for pleasing Imran Khan and safeguarding Banigala. They questioned as to how miscreants escaped after burning the school.

They termed burning of school as horrible and dangerous and said that elements committing such heinous acts time and again are tarnishing image of Diamer.
New Delhi, Nov 10 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary charge sheet in a case pertaining to the activities of The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a proscribed terrorist organisation, before Delhi's Patiala House Court.

The charge sheet was filed on Wednesday against Muzamil Mushtaq Bhat alias Hamza alias Daniyal, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, under sections 120B of the IPC, Section 25 (1AA) of the Arms Act, Section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, and Sections 17, 18, 18B, 20, 38 and 39 of the UA(P) Act.

The case was registered suo moto by the NIA on November 18, 2021.

"During investigations, it emerged that the accused person Daniyal, who is associated with Pakistan-based handlers of LeT, TRF, had radicalised, motivated and instigated vulnerable youth to join terrorist groups such as TRF in Kashmir," the NIA said.

The NIA has mentioned in the charge sheet that Daniyal entered into a conspiracy with active terrorist commanders in the Valley to train youth of Kashmir to fabricate IEDs and explosives using locally available chemicals.

The NIA has alleged that Daniyal along with other co-accused and Pakistan-based handlers/operatives of LeT/TRF actively participated in acts in support of LeT and received funds from Pakistan-based operatives of LeT.

"He also facilitated the transfer of weapons in Kashmir for furtherance of terrorist activities in India," the NIA said.

Further investigation in the matter is underway.
Dhaka, Nov 10 : Reacting angrily when confronted with uncomfortable questions over his reported tax evasion, Bangladesh Opposition leader Kamal Hossain avoided journalists and told them not to ask him "questions".

Bangladesh netizens questioned "Are Kamal and his daughter above the law"? as Hossain avoided questions on his alleged concealment of income with a harsh tone...

The Bangladesh Opposition leader, his daughter Sara Hossain and his son-in-law and Pakistan paid war criminal's shed David Bergman are embroiled in a wave of fresh controversy as the 80-year-old politician apparently failed to hold back his anger in the face of questions from local journalists over his reported concealment of substantial income from legal services.

He also sidestepped questions about his son-in-law, a known controversial activist Bergman's consistent role in support of self-confessed and convicted war criminals and ceaseless smears against current Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her family members through offshore outlets.

Hossain was asked questions when he was participating in a Jahangirnagar University programme on the 50th anniversary of the country's first constitution organised by its politics and government Department.

He was then asked about Bergman's consistent support to anti-liberation elements beginning with his opposition to the war crimes' trials.

"Your son-in-law claims to be an independent journalist but don't you see any conflict of interest over Bergman's writings in favour of war criminals as those elements belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami and leaders from that very party took part in last national election under your leadership," asked journalists.

Hossain avoided giving any answer but left the view exchange fuming and without answering.

However, Kamal's response to other questions like the state of country's democracy drew widespread condemnation from netizens also, with some commenting "he (Kamal) conveniently refrained from answering such question".

Since its initiation Netra News, an offshore outlet where Bergman works as an Editor-in-Chief, reportedly endured a litany of condemnations by local and regional outlets with the biggest blow the outlet suffered for its refusal to offer corrections as it predicted "millions" of death in the wake of Covid-19 in Bangladesh. Among other such outright lies, that very outlet also professed a "vaccines will never arrive and Sheikh Hasina will be responsible for it".

In a stark contrast to such grim projections, the youngest nation in Southward Asia, ranked one of the top 10 performers in the globe in Covid-19 management, as vindicated in Bloomberg index, and also achieved the ambitious target set by WHO vaccinating 70 per cent of the entire population despite not being a vaccine producing nation.

The fresh round of controversy surrounding Kamal and his daughter Sara surfaced in last few days following media expose about Kamal securing more than $2,00,000 from overseas arbitration, but such hefty incomes have not been shown in his income tax returns for the relevant assessment year.

This expose has given rise to fresh questions over a High Court order for maintenance of status quo on the pending case against the Hossains' for allegedly concealing their law firm's income.

Arshad Hossain, an expert did not also rule out the possibilities of a "biased" ruling on part of the High court, since the Hossains' practised there and were known to wield much influence in the court.

In response to recent expose a tax lawyer from Bangladesh, said: "Hossain's most recent tax evasion transgressions appears to be his misleading the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, where he practices as a senior advocate. The case concerns allegation of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) that Kamal Hossain and his daughter, Sara Hossain, through their law firm, surreptitiously evaded more than 6.85 crore Taka in tax payment in the 2018-2019 tax year." Under section 17 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, the total income of any assessment year of any person includes all income, from whatever source derived, which is received or deemed to be received in Bangladesh by or on behalf of such person in such year or accrues or arises to him outside Bangladesh during that year, cited another lawyer

"There are very few instances where the High Court has interfered with the working of a tax tribunal. Kamal and Sara Hossain are rare beneficiaries of the exercise of such powers by the High Court. In the case of ordinary citizens such powers are almost never exercised by the courts to protect tax dodgers," the advocate added.

So the crux of the case is that, for the assessment year 2018/2019, the NBR found irregularities in two Standard Chartered Bank accounts, being account No. 01-1825445-03 and account No. 01-1825445-04 owned and operated by the father and daughter, reports another daily.
AltamarCAM Partners and Terralpa Investments have reached a partnership agreement and will be launching a new vehicle to invest in high-end residential projects in Madrid and other Spanish cities.

This new vehicle -which will be approximately 200 million in size- aims to take advantage of the favo...

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Guardian Booth team and community members with ribbon cutting

Guardian Booth, a leading manufacturer of prefabricated booths and customized workspaces, has finalized its acquisition of Homes by Keystone manufacturer of modular homes. The company has fully acquired the former Homes by Keystone location and will begin operations at 13338 Midvale Road, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.

Guardian Booth is building its team by creating new jobs in the Franklin County area. Along with the help of former Homes by Keystone employees, Tim and Jason Miller joining forces with the founder and Chief Operating Officer Abraham Taub (abraham@guardianbooth.com) as the company works to expand with plans to ramp up infrastructure, increase production capabilities and streamline processes, Guardian Booths growth potential is limitless.

I couldnt be more proud of the Guardian Booth executive leadership and their execution of acquiring Homes by Keystone and relocating our headquarters to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania," stated Abraham Taub, Chief Executive Officer and Owner of Guardian Booth. Abraham continued to say, "I am so grateful for all the support the Wolf Administration has provided and I look forward to the positive impact Guardian Booth will have on the local community.

The company held an event on Thursday, November 3rd, 2022, to celebrate the merger with their fellow employees, community leadership, and Deputy Secretary Hanna from the Wolf administration. The event honored the Homes by Keystone team members and their years of service to the organization, along with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the Waynesboro, Pennsylvania location.

For more information about Guardian Booth and the services they offer, you can visit their website http://www.guardianbooth.com, email info@guardianbooth.com, or by phone at 844-99-BOOTH.
Intuition Robotics, the developer of the award-winning care companion robot ElliQ, announced today it has been named to Red Herrings Top 100 Global Companies of 2022. The Red Herring Top 100 recognizes the leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia, celebrating these startups innovations and technologies across their respective industries.

We are honored to be named to Red Herrings list amongst other innovative leaders across industries, said Dor Skuler, CEO & Co-founder of Intuition Robotics. Our team has worked incredibly hard to bring ElliQ to market this year and expand access to our ground-breaking technology, which helps older adults live happier and healthier lives at home. We will continue to push the agetech space forward and bring accessible, advanced technology to seniors aging in place.

Red Herrings 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.

Developed with more than five years of cutting-edge research and beta testing with older adults, ElliQ is the first-ever proactive and empathetic care companion. Combining psychology, behavioral sciences, and advanced cognitive AI capabilities, ElliQ is designed to proactively empower older adults to live active, engaged, and connected lives at home, while alleviating the effects of loneliness and social isolation to support their social determinants of health. ElliQ connects older adults to their families, caregivers, and the outside world. Intuition Robotics recently partnered with the New York State for the Aging to bring over 800 ElliQ units to older adults across New York as well.

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 Intuition Robotics embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. Intuition Robotics should be proud of its accomplishment as the competition was very strong.

Red Herrings editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This 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. Red Herring is dedicated to following Intuition Robotics path to further success and innovation.

About Intuition Robotics

Intuition Robotics, a startup company based in Israel, is on a mission to empower older adults to live happier, healthier, and more independent lives at home. The companys award-winning product, ElliQ, is a proactive care companion for older adults. ElliQ, helps keep users healthy, engaged, and informed, while alleviating the effects of loneliness and social isolation. Intuition Robotics has won several awards for its work with ElliQ including Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies and the CES Best of Innovation award. To learn more, please visit http://www.elliq.com and follow us on Facebook.

Media Contact

Jennifer Laski

Si14 Global Communications

irpr@si14global.com
Carries unrelenting innovation, exemplary leadership, patient-outcomefocused research, interdisciplinary collaboration, mentorship, and dedication to advancing the AP role exemplifies excellence.

The Advanced Practitioner Society for Hematology and Oncology (APSHO) presented the fifth annual Mary Pazdur Award for Excellence in Advanced Practice in Oncology to Carrie Tompkins Stricker, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, CRNP, an associate professor at Thomas Jefferson University College of Nursing. Created in honor of the late Mary Pazdur, RN, MSN, the award is presented to an advanced practitioner and member of APSHO who consistently demonstrates exemplary leadership and outstanding contributions to clinical practice, research, and education in the oncology/hematology field.

A charter member of APSHO, Dr. Stricker is the founding director of Thomas Jefferson University College of Nursings graduate program in Transformative Systems Leadership and an entrepreneur, health services researcher, and clinician. In 2013, she co-founded Carevive Systems, Inc., whose EMR-integrated cancer care digital platform enables evidence-based cancer care management and patient engagement to improve clinical outcomes. As chief clinical officer, Dr. Stricker saw Carevives oncology solutions widely adopted and integrated for clinical and research use, and then expanded to include computerized algorithms for symptom management decision support.

Despite her many pursuits outside of the clinic, Carrie has unerringly demonstrated her deep commitment to patient care by retaining an active practice as an oncology nurse practitioner, said Deborah Mayer, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN, of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In her recommendation letter, Dr. Mayer cited the 2010 memoir of U.S. Senator (PA) Arlen Specter, Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate, wherein he mentioned Dr. Strickers keen awareness of the psychological dimension of the cancer experience.

The award ceremony took place during JADPRO Live, an annual educational event during which the APSHO annual meeting takes place. The conference welcomes more than 1,000 attendees annually, including oncology/hematology nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other advanced degree nurses and health-care professionals. Past recipients of the award include Jody Pelusi, PhD, FNP, AOCNP, of HonorHealth Research Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona; Jeannine Brant, PhD, APRN, AOCN, FAAN, of City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California; Christina Cone, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, AOCNP, of Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, North Carolina; and Allyson Price, PA-C, Thought Leader Liaison for AbbVie.

To learn more about the Mary Pazdur Award, please visit marypazduraward.com.

About JADPRO Live

JADPRO Live is a medical conference inspired by the Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology. This years meeting took place from October 20 through October 23 in Aurora, Colorado.

About APSHO

The Advanced Practitioner Society for Hematology and Oncology (APSHO) is a society of nearly 4,000 oncology advanced practitioners, including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, clinical nurse specialists, and other health-care professionals. The mission of APSHO is to promote oncology patient care that is high quality, cost effective, and delivered through collaborative practice models by optimizing the role of the advanced practitioner as an integral member of the care team.

Dr. Stricker is also the executive director of Canopy Cancer Collective, a learning health network of 14 NCI-designated cancer centers, dedicated to improving care and patient-defined quality survival for pancreatic cancer. In addition to her other roles, she is the president and founder of Accelerate Outcomes, LLC, a consulting company that provides expertise in all areas of health care and health technology for health system and corporate clients who want to improve their capacity and funding support to drive high quality outcomes.

Known for her oncology supportive care expertise as an oncology nurse practitioner, Dr. Stricker is respected for her leadership in using digital health and care delivery innovation to transform cancer care. Carrie Stricker embodies the focus of the Mary Pazdur Award for Excellence in Advanced Practice in Oncology in so many ways, said APSHO Board of Directors President Sandra Kurtin, PhD, ANP-C, AOCN, FAPO, from the Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona. Carries unrelenting innovation, exemplary leadership, patient-outcomefocused research, interdisciplinary collaboration, mentorship, and dedication to advancing the AP role exemplifies excellence.

Former colleagues describe a supportive and driven partner when talking about Dr. Stricker. After joining the CT Challenge Survivorship Networks Medical Advisory Board, where she advised on state-wide development of cancer survivorship programs and services, she enhanced both the visibility and impact of oncology nurses and advanced practitioners in our statein both community-based and academic settings, said Andrew Salner, MD, FACR, of the Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.
Over 800 students attend the 2022 Aviation Education & Career Expo at ProJet Aviation "We work with our sponsors to inspire students to discover and pursue their passion for the skies." - Julie O'Brien, ProJet Aviation GM, and Cofounder of the Expo

ProJet Aviation hosted the 16th annual Aviation Education & Career Expo at the Leesburg Executive Airport. More than 800 students, educators, and parents attended the Expo, designed to educate young adults (ages 16-22) about exciting careers in aviation. The event featured keynote speakers, live demonstrations, and representatives from over 70 aviation organizations, including the US military, emergency medical airlift, law enforcement, maintenance/avionics repair, government agencies, private aviation, and more. "The theme for this year's event was  The sky is NOT the limit," said ProJet Aviation's Julie O'Brien, Co-founder of the Expo. "We work with our sponsors to provide experiences, mentoring, and scholarships that inspire students to discover and pursue their passion for the skies."

The Aviation Education and Career Expo is a unique opportunity for students interested in the aviation/aerospace industry to explore numerous career paths and talk one-on-one with industry experts. Students get an "up close and personal" look at occupations in high demand in the United States and worldwide.

Guest speakers and demonstrators included:



Shye Gilad, Cofounder and CEO, ProJet Aviation

Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burk

Frank Culbertson, Retired NASA Astronaut and Commander of the International Space Station

Heidi Kemner, NTSB Accident Investigator

Emily Daniel, Agricultural Pilot and Demonstrator

The US Army Golden Knights Parachute Jump Team

The US Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team

Garda World Federal Services  K-9 Unit

PHI Medevac Air Care 3

Legacy Awards honored the contributions of four inspiring aviation and aerospace industry professionals:

Sarah Thompson - Original Co-Founder of the Aviation Education Expo. Sarah Thompson's family was awarded the honorary Jump Baton, by the US Army Knights, for her pivotal role in founding the event.

Joe Goodin  A Naval Aviator local to Leesburg and a mentor to students through the Young Eagles program

Paul Davy  USAF officer and later the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Port City Air in NH

Elaine D. Harmon  WWII WASP, received the Congressional Gold Medal and was afforded full military honors at Arlington National Cemetary

2022 scholarship winners and sponsors:

Mackenzie Taylor - Aviation Adventures

Rahul Kagalwala - Aero Elite Flight Training

Logan Reuter - Open Air Flight Training, The Aviation Foundation, and Cirrus Aircraft Sales

Navid Farzanpay - Bravo Flight Training

Brennay Nicola - Women in Aviation

Stephen Wilson - Goose Creek Aviation

Nicholas Baker - Air Line Pilot's Association

Navid Farzanpay - JetLinx and Direct Tailwinds

Aesha Kapoor - Paragon Aviation Detailing

Akul Singhal - Paragon Aviation Group and Port City Air

Myles Olsen - Smokehouse Pilot's Club

Christopher Alexander - Greater Washington Business Aviation Association

Jaye Datan - ProJet Aviation, The Hoxton Agency, AOPA, and Avemco Insurance

Lawson Hambrick - Paramount Business Jets

Ashley Nguyen - Pelican Aircraft Consulting

Connor Sloan - Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics

Francis Gordon - The Unmanned Safety Institute

Luke Manson - 1st Chime Prive In-Flight Catering, and the Community College of Baltimore County

Austin Rhodes - Saint Francis University

Nathanial Denault - Saint Francis University

Bea Isabelle Kee - Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

Ian Powell - Marywood University

Kartikeya Vinaykumar - Averett Univeristy

Samantha Smith - Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

In addition to scholarships, numerous paid internships were also awarded. Toth Financial, Weird Bros. Coffee, 1st Chime in-flight catering, Little Caesars, Passion Fin, COSTCO, and Wegman's sponsored breakfast and lunch for the students and vendors.

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About The Aviation Education & Career Expo The Aviation Education & Career Expo is one of the largest and most successful aviation education events in the United States, awarding, to date, over $1.3 million in scholarships to high school and college students pursuing careers in the aviation and aerospace industry since its inception in 2005. Cofounded by aviation professionals Julie O'Brien and Sarah Thompson, the Expo is committed to helping students explore the many career opportunities available through the world of flight. ProJet Aviation hosts the Aviation Education & Career Expo at Leesburg Executive Airport (KJYO) in Leesburg, VA.

About ProJet Aviation

ProJet Aviation is the DC metro region's premier aviation hospitality company, dedicated to helping people accomplish extraordinary things through the wonder of flight. The company operates ProJet Center, a Fixed Base Operation (FBO), at Leesburg Executive Airport (KJYO), general aviation's gateway to Washington DC, Dulles, and Virginia's Horse & Wine Country. Established in 2007 as a partnership between former airline pilot, educator, and entrepreneur Shye Gilad and noted entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson, Founder & CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts, ProJet Aviation combines the operational integrity of the world's best airlines with the refined service of a world-class resort. ProJet's numerous accolades include recognition as a Washington Business Journal Best Place to Work, Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce Service Business of the Year, and an Inc. 500/5000 Fastest Growing Company.
The Archer School for Girls is excited to announce that it is an official sponsor of the 2022 Teen Vogue Summit and Block Party, hosted by Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Versha Sharma on November 12 at Goya Studios in Los Angeles.

During the Summit on November 12, Elizabeth English, Head of School at The Archer School for Girls, will open a Career Spotlight panel discussion on the main stage with Founder & President of AM PR Group Vanessa Anderson 03 and Chairman & CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group Jody Gerson.

Archer will also be the official sponsor of the summits Networking Lounge where attendees can meet and greet with experts, as well as talk about their experiences, career paths, and helpful tips and tricks for navigating the workforce. Members of the Archer community, including alumni, will be offering mentorship in the lounge.

Source: The Archer School for Girls

Related Links

http://summit.teenvogue.com

http://www.archer.org

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About The Archer School for Girls

The Archer School for Girls is for the ambitious and joyful. At the forefront of all-girls education, Archer is dedicated to empowering the next generation of female leaders. A contemporary girls school in Los Angeles, Archer sustains a collaborative, student-centered teaching and learning community that explores and contributes to the research on how young women learn and thrive. Since 1995, Archer has been inspiring young women to become confident, ethical changemakers by strengthening their voices and capacity to contribute positively to society and the world.

For more information, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter, or visit our website http://www.archer.org.
In The Desert of Eternity Film Poster This film is about celebration of cinematic arts as well as poetry. Thank you LAIFF for recognizing the importance of these inter-disciplines in today's film-making. Thank you Natasha, Thank you for everything.

The Los Angeles International Film Festival (LAIFF) discovers, supports and develops new talent in film-making, providing a platform for emerging and established filmmakers from around the world. Recognizing the important role independent films have in the history of film-making, storytelling, and culture, LAIFF helps to empower the next generation of artists. The Los Angeles International Film Festival is an annual event showcasing independent films with an edge.

Ann Huang, the writer/poet, director and producer for the film IN THE DESERT OF ETERNITY, received the Best Experimental Award on Sunday at 2:45 PM PST. Ann was emotional at receiving the award, "This film is about celebration of cinematic arts as well as poetry. Thank you LAIFF for recognizing the importance of these inter-disciplines in today's film-making. Thank you Natasha (Festival Director), thank you for everything." Ann also commented that it was made right before her mother's passing in 2019, and then ensued by the pandemic. This award is the highlight of her career after a dark hiatus.

IN THE DESERT OF ETERNITY is the fifth episode of the short film limited series ANN HUANG PRESENTS. The juxtaposition of visuals alongside the voice-over narrations takes the audience on an exciting exploration of the relationships of two women (one alive and one dead) who have fallen in love with the same man. Throughout the film, the women confront their love and share experiences with him.

Anastasia Lincoln, the female lead for the film attended the festival's opening night party and was welcomed by the festival organizers.

IN THE DESERT OF ETERNITY has screened the first time in the Laemmle Monica Film Center @ Shorts block 9 from 4pm - 5:05pm, among other five officially-selected shorts.

Address is 1332 2nd St, Santa Monica, California (310) 478-3836 .

Huang disclosed that her sixth film project, DIAMOND DUST, is in its final-cut phase. And this winning has ignited the magic in the air.
Aimsir bottles A Festive Holiday Gin and Stout Barrel Bourbon this Holiday Season Weve bottled a little holiday magic in both of these spirits. By relying on classic holiday flavors and adding our own unique twist, we hope to inspire people to craft their own exceptional cocktails for exceptional moments this holiday season.

The Aimsir Distilling Co., (pronounced aim-sure), a Portland-based maker of award-winning whiskey and gin, today announced the release of two holiday spirits: A Festive Holiday Gin and Stout Barrel Bourbon, available on November 19.

The second of Aimsirs seasonal gins (and third gin overall), A Festive Holiday Gin, evokes the warmth of a holiday market and features Italian juniper, allspice, cinnamon, clove, along with other spices and botanicals featured around the holidays. Aged in French Oak Pinot Noir barrels, A Festive Holiday Gin has strong spice notes on the nose, followed by a hint of stone fruit sweetness, and a light vanilla finish.

Weve bottled a little holiday magic in both of these spirits, said Aimsir distiller Andy Robinson. By relying on classic holiday flavors and adding our own unique twist, we hope to inspire people to craft their own exceptional cocktails for exceptional moments this holiday season.

Stout Barrel Bourbon begins with Aimsirs award-winning Straight Bourbon Whiskeyaged four years in new American Oak barrelsbefore aging an additional 10 months in freshly emptied stout casks from Culmination Brewing. The resulting spirit is a roasty, chocolatey, malty and rich bourbon best sipped neat with good company on a dark and rainy winter evening.

To celebrate the launch of these new holiday spirits, Aimsir is featuring a special holiday-themed cocktail menu, inspired by the warmth and delight of European Christmas markets. Featuring drinks like the Cardamom Pod (Holiday Gin, cardamom syrup, lemon, and egg white), the Doom & Gloom (Holiday Gin, Nocino, Amaro Nonino), the Winter Warmer (Stout Bourbon, apple brandy, vermouth, black walnut bitters), and more, these festive cocktails will be available at the Emerald Room in NE Portland throughout the holiday season.

Founded in 2020, Aimsir has won many awards for its world-class spirits and packaging, most recently winning three awards by the American Distilling Institute in its 2022 International Spirits Competition (Best of Category  Bottled & Blended Spirit  Flavored Whiskey, Silver Medal: Cold Brew Bourbon, Silver Medal  Bottled & Blended Spirit: Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Bronze Medal Excellence in Packaging: Cold Brew Bourbon).

Find more photos here. For more information, photos, or samples, contact Rachel Morrison.

About The Aimsir Distilling Co.

The Aimsir Distilling Co. was created to bring people together. In 2020, Christine and Stephen Hopkins founded The Aimsir Distilling Co. and opened The Emerald Room, a family-friendly full bar and restaurant for all. Part of Portlands famous Distillery Row, Aimsirs award-winning spirits are batch-distilled. Its list of award-winning spirits include Bourbon Whiskey, Cold Brew Bourbon, Aitil House Gin, Rose Gin, and Vttir Aquavit. Aimsir spirits can be found in liquor stores in Oregon and at the Emerald Room at Aimsir Distilling in Northeast Portland.

Aimsirs spirits have won the following awards:



Aitil House Gin: 2021 Double Gold, Best of Class, and Best of Category by American Distilling Institute (ADI), 91 point score and an inclusion in the 100 Best Spirits (2021) by Wine Enthusiast.

Cold Brew Bourbon: 2022 Best Flavored Whiskey (ADI), Bronze Medal Excellence in Packaging (ADI),

Straight Bourbon Whiskey: 2022 Silver Medal, bottled and blended spirit category (ADI), 2022 Double Gold (San Francisco Spirits Competition)

The Emerald Room at Aimsir Distilling is all-ages and welcomes families and dogs Wednesday - Saturday, 4-10 p.m. at 2117 NE Oregon St. Suite 202 Portland, Oregon, 97232. For more information on Aimsir and its events at the Emerald Room, visit aimsirdistilling.com, or find Aimsir on Facebook or Instagram.
This change opens a new chapter of IZNESs story. It sets another milestone for IZNES to pursue its growth and develop new services. It serves its ambition as the leading blockchain-based marketplace for funds. - Bruno Prigent, Board Chairman.

IZNES, the leading blockchain-based marketplace for funds, has chosen Hyperledger Fabric as its new Blockchain to power all its distributed ledger technologies (DLT) solutions.

Created in 2017 by a group of renowned asset management companies in Europe and up and running since March 2019, IZNES has been the first marketplace for transacting fund units on blockchain.

With over 7 billion in assets under registry, and growing by the day, IZNES made a seminal commitment to asset management companies and institutional investors to bring to them a unified solution to optimize their operations while reducing costs. With that goal in mind, we decided that we needed a more robust, private and permissioned blockchain to support the growing activity on the marketplace as we enter our scale-up phase says Christophe Lepitre, IZNES CEO.

Hyperledger Fabric guarantees the highest level of security, confidentiality, and resilience needed for regulated investment company such as IZNES. Fabric networks are permissioned, meaning all participating members identities are known and authenticated. This benefit is particularly useful in industries including finance, banking, and insurance where data cannot be exposed to unknown entities.

IZNES was previously running on a private licensed version of a closed source blockchain. Jean-Robert Hervy, managing director and Chief Product Officer at IZNES, states that Migrating to Hyperledger Fabric, which is open-source software, gives IZNES greater flexibility to create our own smart contracts for current and future financial products of the platform; all the while allowing IZNES to retain full control and ownership over the blockchain and software architecture.

IZNES has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) and TechMahindra for this transition. The Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) service was retained by IZNES to host and maintain its DLT, while TechMahindra assisted the IZNES Tech team with the migration of legacy middleware and historical data.

Bhavesh Senedhun, Chief Technology Officer and overseer of the blockchain migration, indicated that the transition, performed a couple of weeks ago, went through smoothly and seamlessly.

Bruno Prigent, chairman of the board, comments: This change opens a new chapter of IZNESs story. It sets another milestone for IZNES to pursue its growth and develop new services. It serves its ambition as the leading blockchain-based marketplace for funds.

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About IZNES:

IZNES is the first European blockchain-based fund marketplace. IZNES offers a disruptive alternative to traditional channels and allows asset owners to subscribe directly to all types of French, Luxembourg, and Irish funds from asset managers. The use of IZNES's blockchain technology, improves operational efficiency, reduces costs, and offers institutional investors and asset managers an optimal level of security and IT resilience. IZNES is a regulated investment company supervised by the ACPR and the AMF; IZNESs license has been extended to Luxembourg and Ireland. Website: http://www.iznes.com
Qualitatively speaking, this is one of the best vintages of the last five years...2022 is a rich vintage that already shows good aging and cellaring potential, summarizes Philippe Pellaton, President of Inter Rhone.

Inter Rhone, the organization that represents the Rhone Valley Vineyards AOCs, has announced that the 2022 vintage is proving to be an excellent one, and a source of enthusiasm for Rhone professionals. While the climatic conditions were extremely worrying at times, especially in spring and summer, the final quality of the wines promises to be very satisfactory in all categories. With beautiful grape material to work with from all varieties, both in the North and the South, wines are already showing lovely colors, pleasant aromatics and good balance.

Many regions saw the vines maturing faster than in the 2021 vintage, generally by about twenty days. Winter and spring were particularly mild and very dry, as evidenced by the exceptional rainfall deficits recorded. The abundant sunshine and elevated temperatures over summer gave rise to fears of a potential increase in alcohol levels, but that was tempered by the mid-August and September rains. Despite their variable intensity, they overall had a beneficial effect, allowing the vineyard to recharge its batteries and the grapes to continue their very encouraging curve toward maturity.

Qualitatively speaking, this is one of the best vintages of the last five years, producing particularly excellent red wines with magnificent color and structure thanks to good maturity levels. Moreover, the overlapping of ripeness between varieties allowed some to start blending right at the stage of fermentation, which led to interesting opportunities for the winemakers. 2022 is a rich vintage that already shows good aging and cellaring potential. summarizes Philippe Pellaton, President of Inter Rhone.

In the South, a promising vintage, even excellent for the reds

In the southern part of the Rhone Valley Vineyards, the 2022 harvest was spread over several weeks, showing how the confidence of winegrowers has been greatly tested, first by drought during most of the vegetative cycle, then by intense rainfall in certain sectors.

According to Denis Guthmuller, President of the Syndicat des Cotes du Rhone, It was necessary to identify the optimal maturity levels plot by plot, and, despite an early start, the harvest did not end until early October. The vintage looks promising thanks to the efforts put into the careful selection of the grapes. The winegrowers knew how to make the right choices in order to guarantee excellent quality of their fruit.

Reaching maturity took a long time, with sometimes atypical progress, but the vines were healthy with no trace of disease in the vineyards. In Ventoux AOC, maturity came later, certainly due to the influence of the mountain, Mont Ventoux. The last rainfall in September gave the vines the boost they needed to bring the grapes to optimal phenolic maturity. underlines Samuel Montgermont, Co-President of the AOC Ventoux.

Frederic Lavau, Co-President of AOC Rasteau testifies: 2022 is a promising vintage in the making. The Syrah fermentations were gentle, as were the tannin extractions carried out at the start of the harvest; the tannins will have to mature and mellow with time and aging. The Cinsault will bring out an explosion of fruit thanks to the fine tannins, especially within the blends that Rhone wines are famous for.

In Gigondas, where everyone is impatiently waiting for the next vintage when the white wines of the cru can be produced and shared per the legislation passed this year, the 2022 harvest exceeded volume expectations. Louis Barruol, Co-President of the appellation, adds: When tasting the first wines, we noticed a good tannic structure and a good juice-to-skin ratio which gives deep concentration to the wine. It is a beautiful vintage.

This vintage seems to shine a special light on the work and knowledge of winegrowers.

Thus, in the Gard: We must praise the resilience of the men and women of Tavel who once again knew how to adapt. They offered us a vintage of great aromatic quality and beautiful balance, marked by a surprising freshness and showing our Crus typical color intensity. The finesse and lush texture of the 2022 vintage are evocative of wonderful gastronomic pairing experiences in the future. says Thomas Giubbi, Co-President of AOC Tavel.

Etienne Maffre, Co-President of AOC Costieres de Nimes, also recognizes how complex the 2022 vintage has been for winemakers and specifies: "The volumes are within the five-year average and the vintage will be one of quality. For the reds, the beautiful small Syrah berries allow for a good balance in the wines; wines made from Grenache will be lighter. Fruity and low in alcohol, the roses are very elegant. The whites, harvested before the August rainfall, have a nice fleshy character and charming citrus notes.

To conclude on the Southern part of the region, Joel Bouscarle, Co-President of AOC Luberon, declares: Our fears related to the extreme drought were dissipated when we saw the quality of the grapes. Our white wines offer very intense aromas, and the roses benefit from a favorable acidic structure. With their good balance, the reds will keep well. 2022 is unquestionably a very fine vintage, even an excellent one.

In the North, beautiful maturity levels: fine tannins for the reds and beautiful aromas for the whites

In the northern part of the Rhone Valley Vineyards, the growth cycle was accelerated but remained moderate, with minimal threat of disease. The quantity and the shape of the bunches foreshadowed a good harvest. However, as in the south, the ultra-dry and hot summer was hard on the vines. The August rains brought a welcome respite and allowed vine metabolism to continue in good conditions as the fruit matured.

For AOC Condrieu, Co-President Pierre-Jean Villa specifies: 2022 is a precocious vintage with a fairly low, but balanced, acidity and the alcohol has remained typical. Floral and fruity, the wines are now completing fermentation and are expected to be lush and accessible.

It is a vintage with great balance, with moderately low alcohol levels and surprisingly soft tannins. The white wines are very dense, with a beautiful aromatic complexity and an acidity allowing for aging. 2022 is in line with the great vintages to cellar, comments Jacques Desvernois, Co-President of AOC Hermitage.

On the other side of the Rhone river, Joel Durand, Co-President of AOC Saint-Joseph, adds: The 2022 vintage demonstrates the phenomenal ability of our vines to adapt, in particular Syrah. Good phenolic ripeness indicates delicate tannins that will elevate the reds, while the whites benefit from a beautiful ripeness/texture/richness dynamic and are quite heavy. This vintage will be very high quality."

With surprisingly fine tannins, despite a significant drought, this vintage is extremely promising. The acidity levels are exquisite, and the ripeness has a seemingly perfect balance to it, says Pierre Louis Clape for AOC Cornas.

Sparkling wines are also doing well this year. Fabien Lombard, President of AOC Clairette de Die and wines of the Diois, stated: "The rainfall in August and September proved really beneficial, especially on Clairette, a major grape variety for our wine production. 2022 will be a fine vintage!

About Inter Rhone - https://www.vins-rhone.com/en

Inter Rhone is a dynamic, deeply committed professional association representing all members of the Cotes du Rhone and Rhone Valley AOC wine industry. Founded in 1955, it coordinates the marketing and communications, business and technical activities of the following AOCs: Cotes du Rhone (Regional, Villages and Crus), Clairette de Bellegarde, Clairette de Die, Chatillon en Diois, Costieres de Nimes, Cotes du Vivarais, Coteaux de Die, Cremant de Die, Duche d'Uzes, Grignan les Adhemar, Luberon, Ventoux, Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and Rasteau sweet fortified wines, Eaux de Vie de Vin des Cotes du Rhone (or Fine des Cotes du Rhone) and Eaux de Vie de Marc des Cotes du Rhone (or Marc des Cotes du Rhone). Its activity is based on three key principles: fair representation for all professional groupings; parity between producers and negociants; and unanimity for all major decisions. Inter Rhone is both creative and accountable, standing alongside its members, supporting them and helping them in their quest to win greater recognition for Rhone Valley Vineyards wines in France and abroad.
Were quite proud that ActiveNavs exceptional technologies have earned a place in five of Gartners 2022 Hype Cycles.

ActiveNav, a leading data privacy and governance software provider, has been recognized in three more of Gartners prestigious 2022 Hype Cycles: Hype Cycle for Storage and Data Protection Technologies, Hype Cycle for Data Security, and Hype Cycle for Data Management. ActiveNav previously announced it was named to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Security Operations and the Gartner Hype Cycle for Privacy.

This marks the second year ActiveNav has achieved the significant milestone of recognition in multiple Garner Hype Cycles  a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with each new technology innovation across its lifecycle that provides end users insights about which technologies to invest in.

ActiveNav is identified by Gartner as a sample vendor to evaluate an organizations Data Discovery and Management (DDM) needs, which Gartner previously referred to as File Analysis. According to the Gartner reports, DDM solutions (like ActiveNav) allow organizations to reduce their risk, categorize important data, optimize storage efficiency, improve the ways they manage their data, and lower costs.

Were quite proud that ActiveNavs exceptional technologies have earned a place in five of Gartners 2022 Hype Cycles, said ActiveNav CEO and Founder Peter Baumann. Recognition by an industry leader as esteemed as Gartner is important to us because Gartner is so important to the marketplace. Our distinct history of innovation and technological leadership continues to bear fruit that benefits our growing roster of customers and the market itself.

Unstructured data, which makes up 80% of an organizations data, presents a significant and rising challenge for legal, IT, security, risk and data management professionals. The situation is further complicated by the increasing patchwork of regulations and laws in the U.S. and internationally.

Organizations of all types face enormous pressures in managing and securing their data, Baumann added. Unfortunately, these challenges will likely only continue to grow in significance  which will increase the need for ActiveNavs robust solutions that protect sensitive data at scale and ensure compliance with government laws and regulations.

New Augmentation & Automation Technologies Changing Data Management

Gartners report on Data Management, authored by analysts Donald Feinberg, Philip Russom and Nina Showel, observes that [d]ata management is rapidly changing due to new technologies that focus on augmentation and automation. The report also states that enterprises need a holistic view of critical technological capabilities if theyre to succeed with [data & analytics] initiatives.

ActiveNavs software platform can greatly assist. The file analysis tool is specifically designed to analyze, clean, classify, migrate, and govern unstructured digital information. Its a singular, all-encompassing platform with a user-friendly interface designed to facilitate non-technical users in using the tool to achieve scalable information governance.

New Products and Security Policies Needed to Reduce Data & Privacy Risks

Gartners report on Data Security, authored by analyst Brian Lowans, notes that because security and risk management leaders are challenged, in support of business objectives, to achieve consistent data security across the accelerating evolution of multicloud and hybrid IT architecturenew and emerging product combinations and security policies are needed to mitigate data security and privacy risks.

Regarding security, DDM tools allow organizations to discover, analyze, index, search, track, and report on sources of both unstructured and structured data. This increases regulatory compliance, risk management, storage management and data analytics capabilities within organizations. ActiveNavs quickly deployable cloud solution can achieve these goals by creating data visualization maps that help to identify the value and risk of the unstructured data, including the owners of the data.

Storage & Data Protection Market Evolving to Confront New Challenges

Gartners report on Storage and Data Protection Technologies, authored by analyst Julia Palmer, warns: Organizations are reaching a tipping point in the uncontrolled storage and licensing costs associated with unmanaged data, across the utilization of on-premises, hybrid and cloud infrastructures and applications.

ActiveNav offers several ways to tackle these challenges, including reducing risk from locating, protecting, eliminating, and quarantining sensitive data, as well as identifying access permission issues. This highly scalable tool also allows organizations to optimize storage efficiency, leading to actionable insights and better data management. Organizations also save money through improving storage and decreasing business risk.

Also recently launched is ActiveNav Teams Collector, the marketplaces first cloud-based tool that automatically searches Microsoft Teams channel conversations and identifies unstructured data in both conversations and files (Word, Excel, PDFs) stored in those channels  a serious compliance risk. Companies using the tool can significantly enhance their ability to monitor compliance with fast-evolving privacy regulations.

Since 2008, enterprises, governments, and SLEDs (state, local and education government agencies) have harnessed ActiveNavs solutions to identify sensitive data, optimize storage, and comply with privacy regulations. Ruvilyn Gatchalian, Electronic Records Advisor at Black Gold Canada, identified ActiveNav as A vital tool to help us in our organizations journey of determining the risk scores of accumulated unstructured data. It also helps us be in compliance with record and information regulations.

Click here for more information on ActiveNavs solutions for your dark data needs.

Gartner Disclaimer:

GARTNER and HYPE CYCLE are registered trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About ActiveNav

ActiveNav is a leading data privacy and governance software provider. With ActiveNav, enterprises, legal compliance teams, federal agencies and public sector entities lower their data risk profile. ActiveNav users map, clean, classify, quarantine and delete sensitive, redundant, obsolete and trivial (ROT) data in an easy to use, low footprint solution. Hundreds of leading companies and government agencies rely on ActiveNav to control sensitive data and support compliance with various data privacy regulations such as the CCPA and GDPR. ActiveNav Inc. is headquartered in the DC metro area and has offices in Europe and Australia. For more information, please visit ActiveNav.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.


Hong Kong: HK goes dotty for art

The Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now exhibition opens on November 12 to celebrate the first anniversary of M+ and will feature more than 200 works by the visionary Japanese artist hailed as the "Queen of polka dots".

Ms Kusama emerged as a global cultural icon for the 21st Century by pursuing her uncompromising avant-garde vision.

In addition to tracing the origins of the 93-year-old artist's practice, the exhibition presents three brand-new works to bring audiences together.

Life's interconnectedness

Death of Nerves (2022) is a colourful large-scale installation commissioned by M+ that provides a mesmerising extension of Ms Kusamas Infinity Nets motifs into three-dimensional space and can be viewed from multiple vantage points throughout the M+ building.

It is an updated version of the sculpture Death of a Nerve (1976) and references the interconnectedness of life's synapses, which connects to the theme of infinity but also to death as a necessary process for regeneration.

If the earlier work was made during one of the darkest times in the artist's life for her to cope with the deep depression she was in, this latest version explodes in scale and in colour, M+ Deputy Curatorial Director and Chief Curator Doryun Chong said.

The Studio on B2 level has been filled with Ms Kusama's signature polka dots and reflective mirrors.

Dots ObsessionAspiring to Heavens Love (2022) is an ambitious immersive environment that includes the artists signature mirrored spaces and polka dots as well as suspended balloons providing a kaleidoscopic perceptual experience for visitors to understand the artist's core concept of infinity and accumulation.

While two large sculptures titled Pumpkin (2022) at the Main Hall employ one of Ms Kusama's most well-known motifs - two large yellow pumpkins with black dots.

Art reinvention

Trained in traditional Japanese painting, Ms Kusama moved to the US in 1957 and soon established herself in the American and European avant-grade for her unique and radical artistic language. She returned to Japan in 1973 and has rentlessly reinvented and created art that resonates with the time in which she lives.

Ms Kusama has pursued art for over 70 years despite living with a mental disorder that made her feel disconnected from her body and thoughts.

The exhibition has six major themes: Infinity, Accumulation, Radical Connectivity, Biocosmic, Death, and Force of Life, showcasing the artist's earliest drawings during World War II to her most recent immersive art pieces.

It features more than 200 paintings, installations, sculptures, drawings, collages, moving images, and archival materials to showcase the power of art, which Ms Kusama sees as a meditative and therapeutic practice to transform her struggles.

In the words of the artist herself: I create art for the healing of all mankind.

Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now will run from November 12, 2022 to May 14, 2023.

Standard tickets are priced at $240, while concession tickets are $150.

This story has been published on: 2022-11-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Trend

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country would fulfill all pledges made to Turkiye regarding Ankara's security concerns on terrorist groups, which has been an obstacle on the way to the approval of its NATO membership, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

"I want to reassure all Turks, Sweden will live up to all the obligations made Turkey in countering the terrorist threat," Kristersson told a joint news conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after bilateral talks in the capital Ankara.

The Swedish prime minister acknowledged Turkiye's security concerns and also said Stockholm understands that Ankara is waging a fight against PKK terrorist group and wants to help with that fight.

For his part, Erdogan highlighted Ankara's concerns on terrorist groups, as he welcomed Swedish PM's remarks on complying with Madrid memorandum.

"Sweden wants NATO membership for its own security and Turkiye wants to see Sweden cooperating with Ankara to eliminate its security concerns," he said. He also said Ankara is pleased that the new Swedish government said it will comply with the tripartite memorandum signed in Madrid.

In response to a question about what part of the agreement Sweden has not fulfilled, Erdogan referred to extraditions of terrorists wanted by Turkiye, as well as terrorist propaganda in the country.

"PKK/PYD/YPG, FETO, and DHKP-C terrorist organizations must be prevented from exploiting Sweden's democratic environment," Erdogan said.

"It is crucial that Sweden extradites terrorists sought by Turkiye, including senior FETO figure Bulent Kenes," he added.

Meanwhile, the Swedish parliament is expected to hold vote next week to allow new counterterrorism laws amid Turkiye's concerns on NATO bid.

Erdo?an also said recent resumption of arms exports to Turkiye was a positive step

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Grandchildren Are A Special Blessing: a vibrant and uplifting message of hope and Gods love. Grandchildren Are A Special Blessing is the creation of published author Alberta Taylor, a loving mother and grandmother who retired from the Department of Social Services in the city of New York in 2007.

Taylor shares, God gave me a vision to have this book relate to all childrenblack, white, yellow, red, tall, short, fat, skinny, with hair, bald, all different colors of hair, handicapped, those using wheelchairs, crutches, etc.

We are to teach our children in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it (paraphrase of Proverbs 22:6). It is important for us believers in Christ Jesus to include Gods Word and attitude in our daily life. I pray that this reading experience will enlighten our children that they can be born-again believers in Christ Jesus and still have fun, enjoy themselves, and laugh.

Remember that the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) loves you.

God loves us so much that He came to earth from heaven in the body of Jesusso that whosoever believes in and receives Jesus as Savior will live forever in heaven with Almighty God Himself.

As Jesus, God was able to revile to those whom He created in His image (mankind) His love and power, and how to apply them to their lives so that His love and power may be passed on to others.

After Jesus fulfilled His purpose to reconcile mankind to God through His virgin birth, miraculous life, willing crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and before He was taken back up into heaven, He said, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person. He/she that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he/she that do not believe will not be saved (paraphrase of Mark 16:1516 NKJV).

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NKJV)

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Alberta Taylors new book will engage the imagination as young readers explore the important messages within.

Taylor shares in hopes of expressing the importance of helping children learn and develop a strong sense of faith in God.

Consumers can purchase Grandchildren Are A Special Blessing at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Grandchildren Are A Special Blessing, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Cat enjoying the outdoors within enclosure We agree that outdoor cat populations need to be controlled. Nonlethal humane methods exist and we have over 30 years of proof that they work effectively.

In reaction to the Polish Academy of Sciences recent classification of domestic cats (Felis catus) as an invasive alien species, Alley Cat Rescue (ACR) has penned an open letter to environmental leaders of multiple Island and other nations, urging them to reject any policies that promote cat culling and to manage feral cat populations through the nonlethal practice of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).

Over 160 veterinarians, animal welfare groups, and other cat professionals signed in support of the letter, which has been sent to the heads of the economic departments of Australia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Galapagos Islands, Haiti, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Mauritius, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA. These countries were selected due to their unique wildlife, which some conservationists believe are threatened by feral cat predation.

Alley Cat Rescue President and Founder, Louise Holton, explains the groups motivation behind the letter, saying We agree that outdoor cat populations need to be controlled. Nonlethal humane methods exist and we have over 30 years of proof that they work effectively, And what other methods are offered? Snaring, poisoning, shooting, bludgeoning them to death. Is this the way to treat any animal, let alone the cat, beloved by many all across the world?

ACR argues, through historical examples and scientific studies, that eradication is less effective and more costly than TNR. The cat advocacy organization also uses historical evidence to reveal common unintended consequences of eradicating cats from an enclosed ecosystem. ACR points to Marion Island as one example, where cats were culled in order to protect sea birds. Cats were killed off over a 19-year-long campaign, resulting in an explosion in the mice population. The mice turned to preying on sea bird chicks, proving the campaign to be an expensive failure.

The full letter and list of signers is available on Alley Cat Rescues website at http://www.saveacat.org/tnr-support-letter.html.

Alley Cat Rescue is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of all cats: domestic, stray, abandoned, and feral. ACR advocates for humane nonlethal control of feral cats. For more information, visit their website http://www.saveacat.org.


Having a Medicare-certified home care agency allows us the opportunity to care for even more people needing home care services, stated Greg Jamian, AmeriCare Medical President and CEO.

AmeriCare acquired QCN Home Health Care to expand its line of home healthcare businesses by now being able to offer in-home services to Medicare recipients. Having a Medicare-certified home care agency allows us the opportunity to care for even more people needing home care services, stated Greg Jamian, AmeriCare Medical President and CEO. Studies have shown that individuals who are ill or injured prefer to recover in the privacy and comfort of their home, and QCN joins our network of companies that provide fully integrated home care services to the aging population. Jamian also noted and further commented that, the hospital to home industry expects a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8% from 2022 to 2030, further fueling the demand for our services.

AmeriCare Medicals collection of companies includes AmeriStaff Nursing Services, a private-duty home care agency that offers nursing services in the home and to facilities, Sun Medical Equipment and Supply, serving the Metro Detroit area with three retail locations, which also delivers physician-prescribed products right to the home, and Rx iV Specialty Pharmacy, which provides home infusion and intravenous therapy services.

Maggie Jess, AmeriCares Director of Nursing added, QCN has stood for Quality Compassionate Nursing for over 20 years and our highly trained staff will provide a seamless transition to post-acute recovery from skilled nursing to physical therapy. We are the best choice for managing all your home care needs.

AmeriCare Medical, Inc. is a locally owned and operated company that provides integrated healthcare solutions to hospitals, assisted care facilities, and private homes throughout Michigan. AmeriCare Medical, Inc. now has six divisions that include: QCN, AmeriStaff Nursing Services, Sun Medical Equipment, Private Reserve Home Care, Rx iV Infusion Pharmacy, and Oak Bridge Case Management. AmeriCare Medical provides dignity and serenity for the family and patient by offering the convenience of an all-inclusive experience for a patients home healthcare needs.

For more information visit: http://www.americaremedical.com

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New Designs Visitors to our showrooms can experience our new finishes in an elevated way to envision how these colors might enrich their own space, explains Amanda Welch, California Closets Design Manager.

California Closets Raleigh, the local industry leader in custom-designed organizational solutions for the whole home, introduces a new finish palette and product enhancements available through California Closets professional design consultants and newly refreshed showrooms in North Carolina and Virginia.

Curated and thoughtfully sourced, the newly composed palette of fine finishes and saturated colors expresses the Brands design sensibility and deep commitment to exceptional quality. For this considered selection, developed to work in every part of the home, each element was chosen to stand on its own or layer harmoniously. New finishes offered by California Closets Raleigh include CC Luxe Matte Morning Light, CC Wood Grain Misty Orchard, CC Wood Grain Quiet Grove, CC Luxe Matte Cinder, Wood Grain Cool Avenue, and, soon, CC Luxe Matte Deep Pond.

Recent product enhancements also include new drawers with seamlessly-integrated outlets and USB ports for convenient power charging and concealed cord management. Available in a black, white, or stainless finish, the drawers join a new, slim-style Shaker door that offers a more modern profile.

Recently updated and refreshed, California Closets five design centers located in North Carolina and Virginia incorporate the latest design upgrades and display custom built-in systems that showcase the Companys expertise in designing and installing highly-personalized closets, wall beds, pantries, offices, home bars, and garages.

Visitors to our showrooms can experience our new finishes in an elevated way to envision how these colors might enrich their own space, explains Amanda Welch, California Closets Design Manager.

Local customers can request a complimentary design consultation by visiting a design center in their area or going online to californiaclosets.com.

North Carolina

Raleigh  8411 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27612

Greensboro  3316 W Friendly Avenue, Suite #103, Greensboro, NC 27410

Wilmington  1113-B Military Cutoff Road, Wilmington, NC 28405

Virginia

Richmond  2014 Old Brick Rd., Glen Allen, VA 23060

Virginia Beach  1610 Hilltop West Shopping Center, Virginia Beach, VA 23451

About California Closets

For more than four decades, California Closets has been making space for what belongs. Founded in 1978, California Closets has built a reputation as the leader and design authority in premium space management, delivering custom-designed organizational solutions and exceptional service. To learn more, visit californiaclosets.com.

Franchise owners Joe and Graziella Marengi offer California Closets custom storage solutions throughout North Carolina and Virginia. They understand the fast pace of peoples lives today and love the way custom storage can transform the most chaotic home into an organized sanctuary. With Design Centers in Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, Virginia Beach and Richmond, they and their expert teams strive to provide every customer with unrivaled personalized service tailored to their organizational needs.
CICB is proud to display their gold medallion, honoring their commitment to hiring veterans. CICB prides itself in hiring veterans of all capacities and is very proud of its motto of Elevating Your Expertise in the crane and lifting industry while giving back to those who served our country.

On November 9, U.S. Secretary of Labor, Martin J. Walsh, recognized CICB as one of the 835 recipients of the 2022 HIRE Vets Medallion Award during a virtual award ceremony presented by U.S. Department of Labor. CICB earned the gold award after applying earlier this year. The Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act (HIRE Vets Act) Medallion Program is the only federal award program that recognizes employers who successfully recruit, hire, and retain veterans.

More than half of CICBs instructional staff are veterans. Additionally, CICB supports multiple organizations and charities to assist veterans and active military.

Craig Epperson, CICBs Owner and Chairman of the Board, is a veteran of the United States Navy and takes pride in his continuance of hiring veterans.

Christina Epperson, CEO, Owner, and President of CICB, states, CICB is immensely honored to have been chosen to receive the 2022 HIRE Vets Medallion Award. CICB prides itself in hiring veterans of all capacities and is very proud of its motto of Elevating Your Expertise in the crane and lifting industry while giving back to those who served our country. This great honor recognizes our commitment to recruiting, employing, and retaining our nations vets while recognizing their patriotism and values they bring to the workplace.

CICB joins 834 other companies from 49 states, plus the District of Columbia, who have shown a commitment to hiring veterans, but also ensuring that they have a long-term career and growth plan that uses the diverse skills they acquired through their military service. Recipients of the 2022 HIRE Vets Medallion Award meet rigorous employment and veteran integration assistance criteria. More than 1,400 employers have earned a HIRE Vets Medallion Award since 2018.

About CICB

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CICB is a veteran-owned company that provides customized solutions for lifting operations across the world through training, inspections, and support services. CICB is known as the Subject Matter Expert Team that the crane and lifting industry engages as an essential partner for safe and effective practices in planning, supervising, executing, and evaluating crane and lifting operations.

CICB has built lifelong partnerships with thousands of companies for over half a century wherever people interact with lifting equipment, continuously reducing accidents, injuries, deaths, equipment failures, and lost production globally. Their obsessive pursuit to Elevate Your Expertise is what has made CICB the oldest, most experienced, and most trusted company in the industry. For additional information, please visit https://www.cicb.com.

About the HIRE Vets Medallion Program

The HIRE Vets Medallion Award is earned by businesses that demonstrate unparalleled commitment to attracting, hiring, and retaining veterans. The 2023 HIRE Vets Medallion Award application period will open to employers on Jan. 31, 2023. For more information about the program and the application process, visit HIREVets.gov. There are different awards for large employers (500-plus employees), medium employers (51-499 employees), and small employers (50 or fewer employees). Additionally, there are two award tiers: platinum and gold.

Media Contact

Alexa.Bomersbach@cicb.com


EMA has been delivering world class EDA support for over 30 years, said Manny Marcano, President & CEO EMA Design Automation. We are very excited to be able to offer this benefit as another example of the unique value EMA brings to the engineering community worldwide.

EMA Design Automation (http://www.ema-eda.com), a full-service provider and innovator of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) systems solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of the EMA Support+ program. This new benefit is available to all EMA customers on active maintenance and includes unique offers and tools to help engineers get the most from their Cadence design software. The program includes:



Access to EMA's new Knowledgebase with solutions, tips, and guides

Discounted access to EMA E-learning with over 100 hours of training

The EMA Toolkit featuring integrated apps to improve efficiency

EMA has been delivering world class EDA support for over 30 years, said Manny Marcano, President & CEO EMA Design Automation. We are very excited to be able to offer this benefit as another example of the unique value EMA brings to the engineering community worldwide.

Featured within the EMA Support+ program is the EMA Toolkit; a collection of apps designed to improve user productivity and help designers get their boards done right the first time. Version 1.0 of EMA Toolkit consists of 5 apps:



Find in Design  Quickly scan multiple designs to find where specific components are used

CircuitFit  Calculate and analyze board space occupied by components before committing to layout

PCB Clustering  Advanced PCB placement and clustering for faster more efficient layout

Highlight Part by Property  Automatically color-code parts by properties for easy identification

CIS BOM Template  Easily generate a fully formatted and branded BOM from CaptureCIS

We are just getting started, said Manny Marcano. The team has great plans ahead for this program to keep adding value for our customers.

The EMA Support+ program is available now to all active maintenance customers at no charge. Learn more and request your EMA Support+ benefits at go.ema-eda.com/support-plus.

About EMA Design Automation, Inc.

EMA Design Automation is a trailblazer in product development solutions offering a complete range of EDA tools, PLM integrations, services, training, and technical support. EMA is a Global Cadence Channel Partner serving the America, UK India, and Europe. EMA develops Ultra Librarian, TimingDesigner, CircuitSpace, CIP, EDABuilder, and a host of custom solutions to enhance the OrCAD products, and all are distributed through a worldwide network of value-added resellers. EMA is a privately held corporation headquartered in Rochester, New York. Visit EMA at http://www.ema-eda.com for more information.

# # #

EMA Design Automation, TimingDesigner, CircuitSpace, EDABuilder, Ultra Librarian, and the EMA and Ultra Librarian logos

are registered trademarks, and Component Information Portal is a trademark of EMA Design Automation, Inc.

Cadence, Allegro, and OrCAD are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

All other trademarks in this release are the property of their respective owners.


Users of these technologies, whether in the public or private sector, will find what they need for current projects and their ever-changing needs.

Organizers of Geo Week, the premier event that champions the coming together of geospatial technologies and the built world, have announced an impressive list of top geospatial and built world solutions providers from around the globe that have signed on to exhibit at the 2023 event. More than 175 organizations are projected and 145 have officially confirmed. The event will take place February 13-15, 2023, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The show floor is expected to be completely sold out.

The nearly sold-out exhibit floor will be comprised of companies representing the best in lidar, reality capture, 3D modeling, point cloud processing, and more, said Lee Corkhill, Group Director at Diversified Communications, organizer of the event. Users of these technologies, whether in the public or private sector, will find what they need for current projects and their ever-changing needs.

The list of exhibitors showcasing best-in-class AEC, 3D and geospatial/lidar technologies is growing daily and currently includes these organizations:



3DEO, Inc.

3Dsurvey

Advanced Navigation

Advanced Scientific Concepts LLC

Aerial Response Solutions

Aero - Graphics Inc.

Aerometrex

Air Bear Tactical Aircraft

AIRtec, Inc.

AirWise Solutions

AirWorks

Allvision

Alynix - BAAM Tech

AmericaView

Applanix

Applied Imagery

ArenaCAD USA

ASPRS

ASTRA Lite, Inc.

ATIS.cloud

Aurivus

AVEVA

Axis GeoSpatial, LLC

Bad Elf

Balko Tech

Basis Software, Inc.

BayesMap Solutions, LLC

Blue Marble Geographics

Bluesky Geospatial

Carahsoft

Cardinal Systems LLC

Cesium

CHC Navigation

Cintoo US Inc.

ClearEdge3D

Clirio, Inc.

Cloudfactory

CompassData Inc.

Cyvl

DAT/EM Systems International

Datum Tech Solutions

DEVECENT Information Technology Co.

Dewberry

DIELMO 3D S.L.

Doosan Mobility Innovation

Drones Plus Inc

Dynamic Aviation

EcoPoint, Inc.

Elysium Inc.

Emesent

EPS Group, Inc.

ESRI

e-Survey

Exyn Technologies Inc.

FARO Technologies, Inc.

Frontier Precision

GEO Business

GeoCue Group

Geodetics, Inc.

Geo-Plus

GeoShack

GeoSLAM Ltd

Geospatial World

GEOTECH Bratislava s.r.o.

GEXCEL

GIS Surveyors, Inc.

GPI Geospatial, Inc.

Harris Aerial

Helipoland Sp. z o.o.

Hesai Technology

Hexagon

HTS Advanced Solutions LLC

Impulseradar

Inertial Labs, Inc.

Informed Infrastructure

ISPRS 2023

ITRES Research Limited

iXBlue

Jacobs

Jakarto

JP Global Digital

Kaarta

KELYN Technologies

Keystone Aerial Surveys

L3Harris

Laserscanning Europe

LIDARUSA

Leica Geosystems

Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS)

Matterport Inc.

Merrick & Company

Microdrones

Mosaic

Multicopter Warehouse

NavVis US, Inc.

Nearmap

NV5 Geospatial

Outsight

Oxford Technical Solutions (OxTS)

Pavemetrics Systems Inc.

Phase One

Phoenix LiDAR Systems

Pioneer Exploration Consultants Ltd

Pix4D SA

PointCab GmbH

Pointerra

PointFuse

Power Technology

Prevu3D

RDO Equipment Company

Revolution Flight

RIEGL USA Inc.

RPMC Lasers

Sanborn Map Company

SBG SYSTEMS

Screening Eagle Technologies

Seiler Instrument Geospatial

Shanghai PYTES Energy Co., LTD

SIMACTIVE INC.

Skydio

Skyfront Corp.

Skyline Software Systems, Inc.

Smart Delta Systems & Solutions

Smart Drone

Solv3D Inc.

SOMAG AG JENA

Stonex USA

Surphaser

Tech Maven Geospatial

Teledyne Geospatial

TerraGo Technologies

Terrasolid Ltd

TOKSURVEY Information Technology Co.

TopoDOT

Trimble

Tuck Mapping Solutions, Inc.

Universal Engineering Sciences

US Geological Survey

USIBD

Vectornav Technologies

VeriDaaS

Vexcel Imaging

VIAMETRIS

VirtualGrid

Voxelmaps

WGIC

Wingtra

Wispr Systems

Woolpert

xyHt Magazine

YellowScan

Z+F USA, Inc.

View the complete exhibitor list and floor plan online.

Additional features of the exhibit hall show floor include an Academic Showcase, as well as a Welcome Happy Hour, Networking Reception, Pitch the Press competition and educational programming in the Exhibit Hall Theater. The exhibit hall complements a robust conference program of practical, actionable education developed in conjunction with influential leaders within the geospatial and built world industries. The conference program will feature more than 200 speakers across 50 sessions with content that explores geospatial technologies, digital workflows, cutting-edge reality capture tools, advanced lidar, and much more.

Geo Week represents the evolution of previously stand-alone events International Lidar Mapping Forum (ILMF), SPAR 3D Expo & Conference, and AEC Next  once independent entities that have come together to form a single, encompassing event. The unification of these events was created as a response to the changing needs of built world and geospatial professionals, and to acknowledge the convergence of technology that is currently happening. New technological innovations, the need for remote workflows, and hardware breakthroughs are redefining expectations across teams, organizations, and entire industries.

Visit http://www.geo-week.com for more information on attending or exhibiting and register now for early bird rates.

About Geo Week

Geo Week is part of a network of events and media for the global geospatial and built markets organized by Diversified Communications, a leading organizer of conferences, trade shows, and online media with 16 years in the technology arena. Geo Week, taking place February 13-15, 2023, reflects the increased integration between the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies. Powerful partnership events will also take place at Geo Week, including ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) Annual Conference, MAPPS, USIBD (U.S. Institute of Building Documentation), and WGIC (World Geospatial Industry Council).

Diversified Communications also produces Lidar & Geospatial Newsletter, 3D Technology Newsletter, AEC Innovations Newsletter, Geo Business Show (UK), Digital Construction Week (UK), Commercial UAV Expo and Commercial UAV News. For more information, visit http://www.geo-week.com.

Contact:

Lora Burns

Geo Week Marketing Manager

LBurns@divcom.com
Indian River State College bid opportunities on the Florida Purchasing Group Indian River State College invites all potential vendors to register online.

Indian River State College announced it has joined the Florida Purchasing Group and will be utilizing the system to publish and track their bid opportunities. Bidnet Directs Florida Purchasing Group provides a centralized location for bidding and connects over 50 participating agencies from across Florida to a large vendor pool and helps to streamline the bid process, vendors can receive notifications of any new opportunities, as well as any addenda and award information available. Indian River State College invites all potential vendors to register online at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/florida/indianriverstatecollege.

Before joining the system, Indian River State College was distributing bids and managing the procurement process manually by handing out paper copies and requiring vendors to submit their proposals the same way. By distributing bids manually, local government agencies are not always able to reach as many vendors as they would like, which doesnt allow for a high level of vendor competition. This competition is something Indian River State College aims for and requires in order to award a contract. By joining the Florida Purchasing Group, it expands an agencys vendor pool and enhances vendor competition without increasing distribution costs.

This system allows our department to not only save on time, money, and effort, but it allows us to reach more qualified vendors across the state and gives them an opportunity to find more bids and decrease their costs by allowing them to submit their bid proposals online directly through the system, says Daniel Vest, Director of Procurement of Indian River State College.

Indian River State College encourages all vendors looking to do business with them to register online at: http://www.bidnetdirect.com/florida/indianriverstatecollege. Registered vendors can receive access to all open bids, related documents and addendums, and award information. In addition, vendors can upgrade their service to receive notifications of new bids targeted to their industry, which includes advance notification of expiring term contracts. Registered vendors will also have access to not only Indian River State College bid opportunities, but all bids posted by participating agency within the Florida Purchasing Group.

Vendors who require help registering on the Florida Purchasing Group: http://www.bidnetdirect.com/florida/indianriverstatecollege, may contact Bidnet Directs vendor support team, who is available to answer any questions regarding the registration process or the bid system at 800-835-4603 option 2.

Other local Florida government agencies looking to switch from a manual bid process, please contact the Florida Purchasing Group for a demonstration of the no-cost sourcing solution.

About Indian River State College:

Indian River State College (IRSC) is a public college with a main campus in Fort Pierce, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and serves the counties of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie on the Treasure Coast region of Florida.

About Bidnet Direct:

Bidnet Direct, powered by mdf commerce, is a sourcing solution of regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. Bidnet Direct runs regional purchasing groups, including the Florida Purchasing Group, across all 50 states that are used by over 1,600 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit https://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers
This service will not only capture the information carriers want to see included in the claim, but it will give the homeowners the peace of mind that we have it on file for any potential issues in the future.

Iscential Inc., an industry-leading risk management, insurance, financial services, and business consulting firm, announces the launch of its comprehensive Home Inventory Program to better prepare clients in the event of a claim.

Iscential's Home Inventory Program prepares clients for the potential of future fire, water, and theft insurance claims through the documentation of major household items, risk management assessment of the home, detailed diagrams, and measurements of the structure with HOVERs proprietary technology. With three My Inventory packages to choose from, there are a variety of options to meet the needs of all clients.

In the event of a claim, carriers want as much documentation as possible on the property and its contents before the event occurred. The first request made by the adjuster is Tell me whats missing and prove to me that you owned it, said Warren Barhorst, Iscentials Chief Executive Officer. While most homeowners say that they are going to take photos and make a list of their property and belongings, very few actually do it.

This service will not only capture the information carriers want to see included in the claim, but it will give the homeowners the peace of mind that we have it on file for any potential issues in the future.

"When the right preparation work is done, homeowners can mitigate an enormous amount of stress when hit with a catastrophic event to their home," said Ali Azhar, Chief Revenue Officer at HOVER. "As a partner of Iscential's Home Inventory Program, HOVER will give homeowners peace of mind by equipping them with precise measurements and an associated digital twin of their home, all with just a few smartphone photos and an easy-to-use app."

The program development has been led by Iscentials Director of Claims, Mark Michels. Throughout the development process, Michels focus has been on making the program easy to use and a valuable return on investment. Packages offer a Do-it-Yourself option, a Plus option (which includes an Iscential agent assisting with some portion of the program), and a PRO option (which includes an Iscential agent trained in Loss Control managing it all).

Depending on budget and the level of documentation they would like to see, clients have the option to take their own photos and upload them through the HOVER app on their mobile device. They can also call on us to do all the work on their behalf, said Michels.

Our hope is that with this program, the documentation of important belongings shouldnt come down to not having enough time to do it yourself.

About Iscential Inc.

Iscential was founded in Houston in 1993 with a goal of providing trusted advice and peace of mind to clients through risk management, insurance, financial services, and business consultancy. Over the course of nearly three decades, the organization has grown to include more than 150 associates and counting in offices across the U.S. Iscential is licensed to practice in over 40 states while representing 140+ insurance carriers. For more info about Iscential Inc, visit: http://www.iscential.com.


While its uncommon to see banks grow this quickly, its not unprecedented when you have the right combination of a great team and market opportunities."

Keystone Bank raised $18 million in its latest round of funding  with an industry expert noting its growth makes it one of the fastest growing banks in the country.

The fresh funds will be used to expand its team, enhance its banking technology and put the four-year-old community bank on track to handle over $1 billion in assets in the coming two years. It also plans to keep an open eye for additional acquisition targets.

With the latest round, Keystone Bank has raised a total of $78 million in four rounds of funding since its launch in the fall of 2018. The most recent round attracted 113 investors, about 60% of which were new to the bank.

It has also amassed $745 million in total assets in just four years - and is projected to reach $1 billion in total assets within the next 24 months. The company credits its success to a grassroots movement of support from the local community, while an industry expert notes the banks leadership plays a critical role.

Were growing by getting our name out there, one customer and meeting at a time, and by allowing people to have direct access to us, said Jeff Wilkinson, Keystone Banks chairman and CEO. People in Austin and Central Texas love the community bank model. Word has been getting out about what were doing  and people want to be a part of it.

The funding will go towards hiring more bankers, focusing on skilled loan officers and people with proven relationship-building experience, to help the company continue to expand. Keystone will also enhance technology for customers and increase its digital presence.

Our employees are at the root of our business, so we want to continue hiring talented individuals who are as passionate about our clients and the finance world as we are, said Bryan St. George, president of Keystone Bank. We also want to make it easier for our customers to bank with us by investing in new technology that meets their existing and future needs.

Keystone Bank now employs just over 60 people and recently broke ground on a new corporate headquarters site at the southeast corner of RR 620 and Ladera Blvd. in Bee Cave, Texas, a suburb located west of Austin. The bank anticipates moving into its new space in the third quarter of 2023. Clients include a variety of local businesses, including: LALO Tequila, Atreyu Running Co., FitJoy Foods, LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, Bare Performance Nutrition and Frontyard Brewing.

Another client, Qualtik, is a Keystone Bank vendor, too - one thats keeping the bank on the forefront of industry technology. More specifically, Qualtik developed a software program that helps community banks and investment funds stress test and analyze commercial real estate loans in real time.

The head of Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT), the nations largest state association dedicated exclusively to community bank advocacy, indicates how and why the growth has been impressive.

Keystone Bank is one of the fastest growing banks in the country, said Chris Williston, president and CEO of IBAT, adding its been expanding in a thoughtful, responsible manner. The Austin Business Journal also recently named it one of the publications Fast 50 Awards.

While its uncommon to see banks grow this quickly, its not unprecedented when you have the right combination of a great team and market opportunities, Williston continued.

He explains that Austin has historically been underserved by homegrown, community banks. Keystone Banks founding team has the experience and relationships to understand where the Austin market has been, and where its heading.

Theyve been through cycles of growth and pull back. Especially with the national headwinds going on right now, those kinds of insights are crucial for a community, Williston says. Success breeds success. Keystones ability to keep raising capital from new and returning investors is a testament to what the team has accomplished thus far  and the confidence shareholders have in them to grow with the Central Texas market.

Keystone Bank is a subsidiary of Keystone Bancshares, Inc., which was founded in October 2018 when Wilkinson recruited a board full of well-seasoned executives and a few core employees. It formed when it acquired Ballinger National Bank, a community bank about three hours northwest of Austin, and simultaneously rebranded it under the Keystone name. New headquarters were established in the Austin area and a commitment on behalf of all was made to bring community banking into the modern era. It acquired the Austin branch of Green Bank in May of 2019.

About Keystone Bank

Keystone Bank launched in 2018 with a maverick and entrepreneurial approach to community banking that truly puts the client first. Keystone Bank operates from its headquarters in Bee Cave, Texas, a branch office in downtown Austin, Texas and a branch office at the Banks original location in Ballinger, Texas. Its services include private banking, commercial real estate, residential real estate and small business loans. Keystone aims to be the financial keystone for our customers by being great listeners and even better problem solvers. For more information, visit: http://www.keystone.bank.
Walk, run, or jog in the GOLO Virtual 5K "We're so proud of this event because it brings people of all ages, lifestyles, and backgrounds together for a fun and healthy activity," says Jennifer Brooks, President and Co-founder of GOLO.

GOLO, the pioneering wellness solutions company, is bringing back its popular semi-annual GOLO Virtual 5K event. Scheduled for November 12  13, 2022, the GOLO Virtual 5K is free and open to the public.

GOLO Virtual 5K participants can compete at their own pace by either running, walking, or jogging. After completing the 5K, competitors can submit their results, route, and pictures to enter a special drawing to win GOLO prizes. Registration for the event closes on November 11, 2022. Click here to learn more and to sign up.

"We're so proud of this event because it brings people of all ages, lifestyles, and backgrounds together for a fun and healthy activity," says Jennifer Brooks, President and Co-founder of GOLO.

Headquartered in Newark, Delaware, GOLO empowers individuals and communities by helping them take control of their wellness goals. The semi-annual GOLO Virtual 5K reinforces the companys ongoing commitment to supporting community-based health and wellness initiatives throughout the U.S.

About GOLO

GOLO products provide safe solutions to weight-loss and wellness while helping individuals transition to a healthier and sustainable lifestyle. GOLO has reached over two million people worldwide who now have a chance at healthy, sustainable, and affordable weight loss. For more information about the GOLO for Life plan, visit golo.com or call 800-730-4656.

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Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys host a FREE Tucson Thanksgiving meal giveaway For 2022, were kicking off the holiday season by giving away 4,250 Thanksgiving meals to families across five cities, including Tucson.

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is hosting a FREE Tucson Thanksgiving drive-thru event on Saturday, November 19, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. at Manheim Tucson (7090 S. Craycroft Rd., Tucson, AZ 85756). The law firm will be giving away 1,000 meal packages that local underserved families can use to create a delicious traditional holiday meal. As the event is non-contact, families are asked to remain in their vehicles and just open their trunk or a side door to allow volunteers to easily place items inside. Please note that only one Thanksgiving meal package will be handed out per vehicle, on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last. No exceptions will be made.

For 2022, were kicking off the holiday season by giving away 4,250 Thanksgiving meals to families across five cities, including Tucson. These Thanksgiving Meal Giveaways are just one example of how we reach out to offer a helping hand to local community members that may be struggling to make ends meet. Attorney Kevin Rowe continues, next up is our annual 25 Days of Giving contest that begins the day after Thanksgiving.

For more information about Lerner and Rowes Tucson Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway visit LernerAndRowe.com/thanksgiving-giveaways, follow the law firms Facebook page, call 520-977-1990, or email Cindy Ernst at cernst@lernerandrowe.com.

More About Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is a powerhouse law firm in representing personal injury clients. Attorneys Glen Lerner and Kevin Rowe have grown their law firm into one of the largest personal injury firms in the country, with over 20 attorneys and nearly 500 support employees located in Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, California, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, and Tennessee. The law firms continuous exalted levels of success can be attributed to the high levels of respect and dignity shown to victims and family members hurt in an accident.

For those injured outside one of the previously listed states, Lerner and Rowe has an established network of attorneys across the country, ready to help. The firm takes pride in nourishing these relationships as they know a personal injury attorney can make all the difference in obtaining fair compensation for the pain and suffering inflicted upon the victims of tortious conduct.

For more information about Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys in Tucson, please call 520-977-1990. To connect with the law firm socially, follow Lerner and Rowe on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, or like their Facebook page. Also, be sure to visit lernerandrowegivesback.com to learn more about the many other community services that the lawyers and legal support team of Lerner and Rowe actively support.

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Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys hosts FREE Las Vegas Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway Our team is thankful to once again partner with the Clark County School District Police Department to give back to local families who may be struggling to make ends meet.

In partnership with the Clark County School District Police Department, Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys will be giving away 750 Thanksgiving packages to include goodies to make a traditional holiday meal on Monday, November 21, from 3:30 p.m.  6:00 p.m. (while supplies last) at Sunrise Acres Elementary School (211 N. 28th St, Las Vegas, NV 89101). As the event is non-contact, families are asked to remain in their vehicles and just open their trunk or a side door to allow volunteers to easily place items inside. Only one Thanksgiving meal package will be handed out per vehicle, on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.

With food supply shortages and rising costs on essential food items, families may find it harder to prepare and share a bountiful meal with loved ones. As such, during this season of gratitude and thanksgiving, our team is thankful to once again partner with the Clark County School District Police Department to give back to local families who may be struggling to make ends meet, said attorney Glen Lerner. Las Vegas also marks the fifth and final city of our 2022 Thanksgiving Giveaways. We are thrilled to have shared meals with 4,250 families and look forward to the kick-off of our annual 25 Days of Giving contest that starts the day after Thanksgiving.

For more information about Lerner and Rowes FREE Las Vegas Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway, visit LernerAndRowe.com/Thanksgiving-Giveaways our Facebook page, call 702-877-1500, or email Guy Williams at gwilliams@lernerandrowe.com.

More About Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is a powerhouse law firm in representing personal injury clients. Attorneys Glen Lerner and Kevin Rowe have grown their law firm into one of the largest personal injury firms in the country, with over 40 attorneys and nearly 500 support employees located in Nevada, Indiana, Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico, and Tennessee. The law firms continuous exalted levels of success can be attributed to the high levels of respect and dignity shown to victims and family members hurt in an accident.

For those injured outside one of the previously listed states, Lerner and Rowe has an established network of attorneys across the country, ready to help. The firm takes pride in nourishing these relationships as they know a personal injury attorney can make all the difference in obtaining fair compensation for the pain and suffering inflicted upon the victims of tortious conduct.

For more information about Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys in Las Vegas, please call 702-877-1500. To connect with the law firm socially, follow Lerner and Rowe on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, or become a fan of its Facebook page. Also, visit lernerandrowegivesback.com to learn more about the many other community services that the lawyers and legal support team of Lerner and Rowe actively support.

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Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys hosts FREE Phoenix Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway Our team is full of gratitude to once again be able to give back and host our annual free Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway in Phoenix.

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is hosting a FREE Phoenix Thanksgiving drive-thru event on Sunday, November 20, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at the Phoenix Metro Auto Auction (2475 S 59th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85043). The law firm will be giving away 750 meal packages to include goodies to make a traditional holiday dinner. As the event is non-contact, families are asked to remain in their vehicles and just open their trunk or a side door to allow volunteers to easily place items inside. Please note that only one Thanksgiving meal package will be handed out per vehicle, on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last. No exceptions will be made.

We know some families may struggle this year to buy and prepare a Thanksgiving meal with rising costs and food shortages. That is why our team is full of gratitude to once again be able to give back and host our annual free Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway in Phoenix. Kevin Rowe, Esq. shared further, Furthermore, we hope to spread even more cheer among Phoenix families this holiday season with the kick-off of our annual 25 Days of Giving contest that starts the day after Thanksgiving.

For more information about Lerner and Rowes Phoenix Thanksgiving Giveaway visit LernerAndRowe.com/thanksgiving-giveaways, follow the law firms Facebook page, call 602-977-1900, or email Cindy Ernst at cernst@lernerandrowe.com.

More about Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is a powerhouse law firm in representing personal injury clients. Attorneys Glen Lerner and Kevin Rowe have grown their law firm into one of the largest personal injury firms in the country, with over 40 attorneys and nearly 500 support employees located in Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, California, Washington, Oregon, Indiana, and New Mexico. The law firms continuous exalted levels of success can be attributed to the high levels of respect and dignity shown to victims and family members hurt in an accident.

For those injured outside one of the previously listed states, Lerner and Rowe has an established network of attorneys across the country, ready to help. The firm takes pride in nourishing these relationships as they know a personal injury attorney can make all the difference in obtaining fair compensation for the pain and suffering inflicted upon the victims of tortious conduct.

For more information about Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys in Phoenix, please call 602- 977-1900. To connect with the law firm socially, follow Lerner and Rowe on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, or become a fan of its Facebook page. Also, visit lernerandrowegivesback.com to learn more about the many other community services that the lawyers and legal support team of Lerner and Rowe actively support.
Words of Peace and Love: Assurance: Book 1: an empowering opportunity for daily reflection. Words of Peace and Love: Assurance: Book 1 is the creation of published author Margarite Evans-Brooks, a native of Ohio, a loving mother of three, and a dedicated grandmother to six. Evans-Brooks moved to Austin, Texas, and obtained an associate degree in social work at Austin Community College District. At the age of fifty-nine, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in applied learning development. In January 2001, she started her new job as a career guidance instructor for the State of Texas. In 2006, Evans-Brooks was sixty-five years old and retired. She moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and in September 2006, she started classes at Rhema Bible College. During her first year at Rhema, she completed her fourth semester at ORU. She graduated from Rhema in May 2008 and moved to Normal, Illinois.

Evans-Brooks shares, This book has a unique anointing of God and is delivered in a most unique way by Margarite Evans-Brooks. Her messages are centered on the Word of God and formulated in poetry in a manner which makes receiving the message simple yet most instructional. The style and content will result in growth in what is referred to as, In Christ Truth. This is the foundation of who believers in Christ are, what they have, and what they can do because they are born again and are continually filled with His Word and His Holy Spirit. You will be blessed as you read, meditate on, and apply the truth contained in this book. Rev. Brian K. McCallum, author of Breaking the Bread of Revelation (three-book series)

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Margarite Evans-Brookss new book brings a thoughtful collection of poetic works that will resonate with many as they sit with the encouraging messages found within.

Evans-Brooks shares in hopes of aiding others on their spiritual journey by offering opportunity for prayer and reflection.

Consumers can purchase Words of Peace and Love: Assurance: Book 1 at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Words of Peace and Love: Assurance: Book 1, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Scott A. Bundy, MD, FACR Strategic Radiology is privileged to fund this R&E Foundation named grant through the contributions of our member groups. We wish Dr. Lang the best of luck in his quest to develop an ultrafast MRI/MRA protocol for acute ischemic strokemany patients will benefit.

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Research & Education (R&E) Foundation awarded its 2022 Strategic Radiology Arl Van Moore Jr., MD/RSNA Research Resident Grant to Min Lang, M.D. M.Sc. This grant is made possible by Strategic Radiologys support of the RSNA R&E Foundation.

The Strategic Radiology Arl Van Moore Jr., MD/RSNA Research Resident Grant provides $30,000 for one year to a top resident to devote 50% of their time for a research project under the guidance of a scientific advisor. Through this project, residents can learn about scientific investigation and develop competence in research techniques.

Min Lang, M.D., M.Sc., Massachusetts General Hospital, will work to develop an ultrafast 3-minute MRI/MRA protocol for acute ischemic stroke evaluation using new rapid MR imaging techniques; and a novel AI-assisted reconstruction technique that enhances image quality will occur in tandem. Successful application of this protocol could potentially improve timely diagnosis and initiation of appropriate clinical management leading to improved outcomes, while the novel reconstruction technique has the potential to be implemented for other neuroimaging indications.

In 2022, the R&E Foundation Board of Trustees approved over $4 million in grant funding. Investing in careers and driving scientific innovation are the cornerstones of our Foundation and the Board of Trustees is grateful for Strategic Radiologys partnership in supporting the efforts of these inspiring investigators and educators. This investment makes the entire specialty stronger and ensures better outcomes for the patients we serve, said Vijay M. Rao, M.D., Chair of the RSNA R&E Foundation Board of Trustees.

"Strategic Radiology is privileged to fund this R&E Foundation named grant through the contributions of our member groups," said Scott A. Bundy, MD, FACR, Chair and CEO, Strategic Radiology,. "We wish Dr. Lang the best of luck in his quest to develop an ultrafast MRI/MRA protocol for acute ischemic strokemany patients will benefit."

The 2022 SR-RSNA R&E Resident Research Grant is named in honor of former CEO Arl Van Moore Jr., MD, FACR, for his many years of service on behalf of radiology.

About the RSNA R&E Foundation

RSNA is an association of radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and healthcare delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

The mission of the R&E Foundation is to invest in the future of radiology by developing investigators and supporting lifelong innovative research and education. (RSNA.org/Foundation)

About Strategic Radiology

Strategic Radiology (SR) is a coalition of privately owned, independent, radiology practices with a national footprint, representing 1500+ radiologists that have come together to improve quality, gain operational efficiencies, and innovate the future of radiology's private practice model. To learn more, visit http://www.StrategicRadiology.org and follow SR on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

SR Members:


Its time to take action, and were thrilled with the companies that are walking the walk with WiCyS, said Lynn Dohm, WiCyS executive director. Were tired of talking about diversifying the cybersecurity workforce, the time is now to do it, and were here to facilitate these opportunities.

Several sponsorship opportunities are available at the Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) conference March 16 to 18 for businesses and companies looking to recruit top talent, gain recognition as leaders in workforce diversity, and build relationships with industry professionals, academia and government.

For the past 10 years, the WiCyS nonprofit membership organization has brought together students and professionals from academia, research and industry to share expertise and experience, network, learn and mentor at its annual event and throughout the year.

Its time to take action, and were thrilled with the companies that are walking the walk with WiCyS, said Lynn Dohm, WiCyS executive director. Were tired of talking about diversifying the cybersecurity workforce, the time is now to do it, and were here to facilitate these opportunities. Sponsorship also comes with full conference passes so companies can ensure they are supporting their female talent with inclusive professional development opportunities. Its a win-win for all.

At the 2022 event, 1,700 participants attended, half of whom were students from all levels of higher education, who earned scholarships. The global cyber sisterhood was supported virtually with the #WiCyS2022 hashtag reaching over 16 million. Sponsorships help these talented cybersecurity students but also assist businesses and organizations. Future employees will view these sponsors as inclusive employers for cybersecurity careers.

Sponsors above a certain level will receive a booth, branding, recognition and access to the resume database of attendees. Organizations will be recognized on the conference website, the mobile app and onsite at the conference. A sponsorship also will grant advance notice of open registration and allow participation in the in-person career fair, where interviews can occur. Sponsors also can engage at the career village for one-on-one time in mock interviews as well as LinkedIn profile and resume reviews. Higher-level sponsors will receive more visibility at the conference with keynotes, featured speakers and media announcements.

For more information on becoming a sponsor, visit http://www.wicys.org/support/wicys-2023-sponsorship/.

About WiCyS:

Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) is a nonprofit organization with international reach dedicated to the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in cybersecurity. WiCyS was founded by Dr. Ambareen Siraj in 2013 through a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Tennessee Tech University. In less than 10 years, it has grown into an organization (est. in 2017) representing a leading alliance between trailblazers from academia, government, and industry. WiCyS offers opportunities, trainings, events, and resources for its members. Strategic partners include Tier 1: Amazon Web Services, Battelle, Bloomberg, Carnegie Mellon University  Software Engineering Institute, Cisco, Fortinet, Google, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Meta, Microsoft, Optum, Sandia National Laboratories, SentinelOne. Tier 2: AbbVie, Aristocrat, Dell Technologies, JPMorgan Chase & Co., LinkedIn, McKesson, NCC Group, Nike, Workday. To partner, visit http://www.wicys.org/support/strategic-partnerships/.
StateFoodSafety is thrilled to partner with ACF to offer our critical courses to their members. When food establishments improve safety practices, everyone wins, and we believe that these courses are the best way for ACF members to make big improvements in how they protect employees and guests.

AboveTraining Inc / StateFoodSafety (SFS), an American Safety Council company, has partnered with the American Culinary Federation (ACF) to provide special rates on food safety training to ACF members.

Credit hours earned through this partnership partially fulfill the 30-hour training requirement to attain ACF Certification and can be counted towards the 8 hours of continuing education that ACF requires every five years.

As part of this partnership, ACF members will receive discounted rates on the following SFS offerings:



Food Handler

Food Manager

Food Allergens

Alcohol Server

StateFoodSafety is thrilled to be partnered with the ACF to offer these critical courses to its members. When food service establishments improve their safety practices, everyone wins, and we believe that these courses are the best way for ACF members to make big improvements in how they protect both employees and guests, said Nick DeAngelo, Director of Sales at StateFoodSafety.

To gain access, ACF members should log into the ACF learning center or use this link.

About American Safety Council

Based in Orlando, Florida, American Safety Council provides critical training and education to more than 2 million customers each year. ASC collaborates with federal and state agencies, higher learning institutions, trade associations and iconic industry brands to ensure the content of the Companys online courses is best-in-class and compliant with applicable laws, regulations or industry standards. American Safety Council is committed to helping people live safer, more productive lives with current training offerings focused on workplace safety, driver safety, and other vocational certifications.

About StateFoodSafety

StateFoodSafety develops and publishes technology-enhanced food safety training and certification programs that provide superior value to regulatory, restaurant, and hospitality communities. We offer the following training and certification programs to educate foodservice employees about food safety:

Food Handlers Card Training, Food Manager Certification & Training, Food Allergens Awareness Training,

Alcohol Server Certification.

About the American Culinary Federation

The American Culinary Federation, Inc. (ACF), established in 1929, is the standard of excellence for chefs in North America. With more than 12,000 members spanning more than 170 chapters nationwide, ACF is the leading culinary association offering educational resources, training, apprenticeship and programmatic accreditation. In addition, ACF operates the most comprehensive certification program for chefs in the United States, with the Certified Executive Chef, Certified Sous Chef, Certified Executive Pastry Chef and Certified Culinary Educator designations accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. The American Culinary Federation Education Foundation is home to ACF Culinary Team USA, the official representative for the United States in major international culinary competitions, and to Chef & Child, founded in 1989 to promote proper nutrition in children and to combat childhood obesity. For more information, visit http://www.acfchefs.org. Find ACF on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and digital publications hub WeAreChefs.com.
The Consorzio di Tutela Vini dAbruzzo in collaboration with the San Francisco Wine School is pleased to announce two upcoming events to promote and discover the wines of Abruzzo. The San Francisco Wine School, founded in 2011, provides wine education and experiences for both professionals and enthusiasts.

The first event, Discover the Charming Taste of Europe: A Journey through Abruzzo's White Wines, will take place on November 18th at the San Francisco Wine School from 6:00pm - 7:30pm led by Master Sommelier David Glancy. Throughout the session participants will be guided through a tasting of two native white varietals, Pecorino and Trebbiano dAbruzzo. The event can be attended both in person and remotely. To sign up for the event please click the following link: RSVP.

The second masterclass also held at the San Francisco Wine School and led by Master Sommelier David Glancy, Discover the Charming Taste of Europe: A Journey through Abruzzo's Rose & Red Wines, will take place on December 2nd from 6:00pm - 7:30pm. Throughout this session participants will get a chance to taste six expressions of the Montepulciano grape used in both Cerasuolo dAbruzzo and Montepulciano dAbruzzo. The event can be attended both in person and remotely. To sign up for the tasting please click the following link: RSVP.

Both sessions will feature special guest panelists from the region who will guide the participants through the tasting in conjunction with David Glancy.

In addition to both masterclasses presented by The San Francisco Wine School, The Consorzio di Tutela Vini dAbruzzo has been participating in ongoing in-store promotions throughout the US to build awareness and increase distribution of the wines native to Abruzzo. Throughout the entire year in store tastings at large retail chains in the United States as well as prestigious wine stores will partake in the initiative. By the end of 2022, 70 Abruzzo in-store tastings will have taken place in over 40 different stores reaching more than 30,000 American consumers.

The Consorzio di Tutela Vini dAbruzzo partakes in these events as apart of The Charming Taste of Europe a three-year campaign started in 2021 promoted by the Vini d Abruzzo consortium and the Union of Sweet Bordeaux Wines, along with fruit producers in Greeces Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Kavala (Kavala COOP) and Agricultural Cooperative of Rachi Pieria (Agios Loukas), co-financed by the European Union.

To learn more about The Charming Taste of Europe Campaign, visit charmingtasteofeurope.eu, Pages dedicated to The Charming Taste of Europe'' can be found on all main social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The participating Consortia invites everyone to join the social media campaign using the hashtag #charmeu.

About the Charming Taste of Europe:

Europe, a place with timeless charm, is the birthplace of some of the highest-quality products in the world. The Charming Taste of Europe is a special project that introduces exquisite specialties to the United States and Canada, such as Italian and French wines, and fresh fruits from Greece, that showcase Europes charm, beauty, culture, history, art, heritage and unmistakable tastes.

The mission of the Charming Taste of Europe, co-funded by the European Union, is to increase awareness of the merits and quality standards of select European wines and fresh fruits with promotional activities in the competitive markets of the U.S. and Canada. The Charming Taste of Europe is promoted by the Consortium for the Protection of Wines of Abruzzo, the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Kavala (Kavala COOP), the Agricultural Cooperative of Rachi Pieria Agios Loukas and the Union of Sweet Bordeaux Wines. These European agricultural products, famous around the world for their outstanding qualities, will continue to be promoted with initiatives and events for consumers, journalists and trade professionals. For more information visit charmingtasteofeurope.eu

To Follow The Charming Taste of Europe Campaign:

Website: charmingtasteofeurope.eu

Facebook: @CharmingTasteofEU

Instagram: @charmeu_usa

YouTube: The Charming Taste of Europe

Hashtags: #thecharmingtasteofeu and #charmeu

The content of this promotion campaign represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission and the European Research Executive Agency (REA) do not accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of the information it contains
The initiative aims to provide identity education and protection programs and culturally competent identity services in Black communities. We believe there is a lack of actionable data and specialized programs around identity services and protection in Black communities," said Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Today, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a nationally recognized nonprofit organization established to support victims of identity crime, announces a new initiative in partnership with NortonLifeLock, Synchrony, Wells Fargo Foundation and the Black Researchers Collective (BRC). The three-year initiative looks to develop culturally competent identity services in Black communities, including specific identity education and protection programs.

The ITRC and its partners believe there is a lack of data and protection programs designed to address unique identity protection issues in Black communities. The initiative is similar to a program previously funded by the U.S. Department of Justice  Office of Victims of Crime that focused on developing identity protection programs for the blind/low vision and deaf/hard of hearing communities.

This initiative will help address a need that is little understood, said Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. We believe there is a lack of actionable data and specialized programs around identity services and protection in Black communities. Thanks to our partners at NortonLifeLock, Synchrony, Wells Fargo, and the Black Researchers Collective for helping contribute to us better understanding identity issues and developing specific programs.

Anyone who believes they are the victim of an identity crime can contact the ITRC toll-free by phone (888.400.5530) or live-chat on the company website idtheftcenter.org.

About the Identity Theft Resource Center

Founded in 1999, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) is a national nonprofit organization established to empower and guide consumers, victims, businesses, and government to minimize risk and mitigate the impact of identity compromise and crime. Through public and private support, the ITRC provides no-cost victim assistance and consumer education through its website live-chat idtheftcenter.org and toll-free phone number 888.400.5530. The ITRC also equips consumers and businesses with information about recent data breaches through its data breach tracking tool, notified. The ITRC offers help to specific populations, including the deaf/hard of hearing and blind/low vision communities.

Media Contact

Identity Theft Resource Center

Alex Achten

Head of Earned & Owned Media Relations

888.400.5530 Ext. 3611

media@idtheftcenter.org
Sandra Debuire, Founder of Debuire International Realty Our extraordinary personal service is unanimously recognized by our clientele, earning us the moniker La Difference

Sandra Debuire today announced Debuire International Realty and its partnership with Side, the only real estate technology company that exclusively partners with high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into market-leading businesses. The alliance will ensure that Debuire International Realty, a firm composed of local experts with international backgrounds known for treating their broad demographic with concierge care, is powered by the industrys most advanced platform.

A French native with extensive real estate experience in Paris, Monaco, and the French Riviera, Sandra Debuire started her Miami real estate career with no network but a heavy will to achieve her American dream, accompanied by her two fantastic children. Since late 2014, she has worked harder and smarter than many in the industry, always with a strong ethic and respect for her customers and peers, to break multiple records and get the best deals for the lucky ones she represents. She has become a fixture in the South and Central Florida luxury real estate market.

Sandra Debuire and her multilingual, multinational team hit the $150 million-plus total sales mark in 2022. Theyve also been consistently recognized for their customer service excellence and are part of the very selective Florida 100, which highlights Floridas best real estate professionals. Expertise in the local market, meeting international expectations, finance, investments, off-market properties, flips, staging, social media, marketing, events, and negotiations round out the companys strengths.

Overall, Sandra Debuire and her team are attentive listeners that get the perfect home for each of their customers. Its a quest clients definitely enjoy, citing the firms joie de vivre and great sense of humor as reasons they wont consider working with anyone else.

Our extraordinary personal service is unanimously recognized by our clientele, earning us the moniker La Difference, Sandra Debuire said. Were now further elevating our service with Debuire International Realty.

After eight years affiliated with a traditional brokerage, Sandra Debuire confessed that it was time for her to move on to another challenge. When Side contacted her over a year ago, she automatically clicked on partnering with a technology company based in San Francisco. She said: This is the best of both worlds! Side has put in place a priceless team composed of excellent professionals. Working together is a pleasure, especially when I see the quality of what I can now offer to my team and my customers.

Partnering with Side will ensure Debuire International Realty remains on the cutting edge of the evolving real estate market while continuing to deliver premium services to its clients. Side works behind the scenes, supporting Debuire International Realty with a one-of-a-kind brokerage platform that includes proprietary technology, transaction management, branding and marketing services, public relations, legal support, lead generation, vendor management, infrastructure solutions, and more. Additionally, Debuire International Realty will join an exclusive group of Side partners, tapping into an expansive network from coast to coast.

"Like Debuire International Realty, Side is unique," Sandra Debuire said. "When I met Guy Gal, on top of liking the man, I really liked his vision of providing top agents with state-of-the-art tech and support to allow us to do what we do best: sell and deliver the best service to our customers."

About Debuire International Realty

Debuire International Realty blends its French touch, Latin flavor, and American professionalism so that clients may experience the joie de vivre. Richly textured in its service, approach, and diversity, the team considers every property it buys and sells as a chance to further transform Florida into a highly cultured echelon  and an increasingly desirable place to call home for Americans and non-natives alike. Headquartered in Miami, the company serves South and Central Florida. To experience La Difference, visit http://www.debuirerealty.com.

About Side

Side is a behind-the-scenes brokerage platform that exclusively partners with top-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to create and grow their own boutique brands without the cost, time, or risk of operating a brokerage. Sides proprietary technology platform and premier support solutions empower its agent partners to be more productive, grow their businesses, and focus on serving their clients. Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.side.com.
When God Isnt in It: The Fourth of A Beautiful Sequel (My Life in Christ): a thought-provoking study of one womans path to God. When God Isnt in It: The Fourth of A Beautiful Sequel (My Life in Christ) is the creation of published author Venus Michelle Pilipovic.

Pilipovic shares, When God Isnt in It is the fourth of a series. My books are to glorify the Holy Trinity. My books are for atheists to Christians, black to white, rich to poor, and everyone in between. I cannot say young to old because they get a bit rated R the deeper you journey with me. We discuss everything from sin to salvation; well, God does. In my series, you will encounter addicts, the throne of God, revivals, fighting giants, battlefields, blessings, demons, politics, visions, hallucinations, dreams, zombies, yoga, meditations, chants, time traveling, voodoo, portrayals, prostitutes, night terrors, chains being broken off, black magic, sorcery, witches, warlocks, Wiccans, pagans, Satanists, possessions, sex, LGBTQ, evil deeds, satanic attacks, Juggalos, prophecies, poetry, arguments, debates, enchantments, Illuminati, Freemasonry, biker gangs, adulterers, human trafficking, a King, and so much more. You will always encounter Gods good grace, mercy, love, compassion, and limitless wonders in every story. SoDare to Walk With Me into my series A Beautiful Sequel (My Life in Christ), if you are feeling brave.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Venus Michelle Pilipovics new book will encourage and challenge ones beliefs as readers witness a thankful testament to Gods grace.

Pilipovic brings an impactful message to life within the pages of her fourth spiritually stirring work.

Consumers can purchase When God Isnt in It: The Fourth of A Beautiful Sequel (My Life in Christ) at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about When God Isnt in It: The Fourth of A Beautiful Sequel (My Life in Christ), contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Veterans Advantage hosts "Heroes Meet Heroes" for 2022 Were thrilled to host this exclusive event again to recognize the unique service and sacrifice of those chosen to represent our country, said Scott Higgins, Co-CEO of Veterans Advantage, a U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran and host of Heroes Meet Heroes.

Veterans Advantage, PBC announced it will again host its tenth annual Heroes Meet Heroes event, presented by Avis Budget Group, an exclusive event for military veterans and Olympians, world-class athletes, and their families, on Thursday, November 10, 2022.

Were thrilled to host this exclusive event again to recognize the unique service and sacrifice of those chosen to represent our country, said Scott Higgins, Co-CEO of Veterans Advantage, a U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran and host of Heroes Meet Heroes. They represent an enduring and important tradition of service to America. Their stories are fascinating to people from all walks of life, and we salute them all.

We also offer special thanks to event & patriotic sponsors for Veterans Week 2022. They are also longtime Veterans Advantage benefit partners: Avis Budget Group, Dell, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, 1-800-Flowers.com, Give Legacy, American Airlines, and FourBlock, Higgins added.

Veterans Advantage will be hosting two virtual events this year. Veterans can register here for this nationwide streaming event: http://www.veteransadvantage.com/heroes2022

Special guest honorees include:



Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Paul W. Bud Bucha

Two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist and Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Donna de Varona

Panelists include:

Sally Roberts, Three-time national champion wrestler and U.S. Army Veteran

David Seymour, U.S. Army veteran, West Point graduate, Chief Operating Officer of American Airlines

Kim Vandenberg, U.S. Olympic bronze medalist swimmer

Jordan Burroughs, U.S. gold medalist wrestler

David Caruth, U.S. Army Veteran and Head of Those Who Serve & Students Marketing Segment Strategy & Planning - Verizon Consumer Group

Priscilla Loomis, Olympian in the high jump

Syed Faraz, U.S. Air Force combat navigator, Harvard/Stanford graduate student, and Tillman Scholar

Moderated by:

Scott Higgins, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Veterans Advantage

U.S. Army Veteran, Vietnam

Attendees can enter a raffle to win prizes, including ticket giveaways from IMAX, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Dell computers, American Airlines, and free one-year VetRewards subscriptions from Veterans Advantage for attendees who served or are currently serving.

Heroes Meet Heroes is a premier event that Veterans Advantage will be sponsoring this Veterans Week. For more information on events to honor military, veterans, and their families this Veterans Day, visit http://www.VeteransWeekNYC.org.

Subscribers to VetRewards can also redeem Veterans Day discounts and other special offers from leading retailers and travel providers at http://www.veteransadvantage.com/marketplace.

About Veterans Advantage

Veterans Advantage, PBC, a registered public benefit corporation, is a military marketing, media and technology company with a socially responsible mission of delivering greater respect, recognition, and rewards to its members and their families for service to our country. Co-founded in 1999 by Scott Higgins, a Vietnam War Veteran, and Lin Higgins, the proud daughter of a U.S. Marine, Veterans Advantage provides a platform for companies to create and promote exclusive offers for their customers who are active-duty military, veterans, and their families enrolled in Veterans Advantage. Our Veterans Advantage team is passionate about advocating for the creation of new, lifestyle-enhancing benefits for our members with VetRewards, our premium subscription plan, and redeemed with the secure VetRewards Card ID. We work with our Fortune 500 partner coalition of travel industry leaders, top brand-name retailers, and major service providers offering technology to seamlessly verify their customers military status and protect their offers from fraud and dilution, while delivering A Real Thank You to the men and women who have given so much to protect our freedoms. Visit http://www.VeteransAdvantage.com.
Along with a minimum 42-day peer-to-peer residential treatment program, Warriors Heart offers a Full Continuum of Care exclusively for warriors (military, veterans and first responders). To be rated that high among many thousands of clinicians IS AN AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENT. I am pleased for and proud of you, and look forward to seeing others from Warriors Heart at the top of that prestigious Trac9 list. Well done, indeed! - Warriors Heart Clinical Director Dr. Rick Boone

Warriors Heart is proud to announce that the top three therapists being honored nationally by Trac9 for Q3 2022 were all employed at their addiction treatment facility, including two current members of their clinical team: Ivory Mallory LCDC (ranked #2) and Megan Pena LCDC (ranked #3). Warriors Heart uses Trac9 as a clinical assessment tool to track an individual's progress in treatment for mental health and substance use disorders through evidence-based science and questioning.

These National Winners were selected based on the average patient improvement by a therapist using the Trac9 platform. Jared P. Dempsey, Ph.D., Executive Director, Trac9.com emphasized, We have nearly 200 facilities and thousands of therapists, so this is quite an accomplishment.

Warriors Heart Clinical Director Dr. Rick Boone congratulated the winners, To be rated that high among many thousands of clinicians IS AN AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENT. I am pleased for and proud of you and look forward to seeing others from Warriors Heart at the top of that prestigious list. Well done, indeed!

The Warriors Heart clinical team uses Trac9 as a clinical assessment tool to track an individual's progress in treatment for mental health and substance use disorders through evidence-based science and questioning. Trac9 is also a beneficial tool when assessing a warrior's progress through MeRT (Magnetic EEG/EKG Guided Resonance Therapy) brain care technology.

Warriors Heart is the first and ONLY private and accredited treatment center in the United States that exclusively serves warriors (military, veterans and first responders) struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, PTSD, depression, anxiety, mild TBI and co-occurring issues, and their clinicians use Trac9 to measure the individual's anxiety, depression, quality of life, and cravings, just to name a few.

Using evidence-based approaches, along with new tools like Trac9, Warriors Heart helps frontline protectors rebuild their lives and prepare for success after completing treatment. Their holistic healing program works on the mind, body and spirit to heal our warriors. And as an innovative tool, Trac9 Informatics incorporates sophisticated symptom tracking, program optimization tools, and predictive analytics to improve facility specific client outcomes and clinician efficacy.

Mallory explains, We are grateful to be able to use a tool like Trac9 for our warrior clients. Our before and after charts have shown a significant reduction in depression, anxiety, cravings, and overall stress for many clients.

About the Trac9 Q3 2022 National Winning Therapists:

Ivory Mallory LCDC - Mallory says she is blessed to be one of the clinicians/LCDC at Warriors Heart. She made the life changing decision to return to school in 2014, and completed her Associate of Applied Science degree in Human Services: Addiction Counseling in 2016. Considering, she was a late bloomer, she says it continues to be one of the best decisions of her life. https://www.warriorsheart.com/about-us/staff/#ivory-mallory

Megan Pena LCDC - Pena was born and raised in central Florida, joined the U.S. Army as a Flight Operations Specialist, served on active duty and then transferred to the Texas Army National Guard. She is a combat Veteran who has a passion for fellow Warriors and their healing from PTSD and Addiction. Megan is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor as well as Licensed Professional Counselor Associate.

https://www.warriorsheart.com/about-us/staff/#megan-pena

Media Contact for Warriors Heart:

Liz Kelly, 310-987-7207

ABOUT: Warriors Heart (Bandera, Texas near San Antonio) is the first and only private and accredited treatment program in the U.S. exclusively for warriors (active duty military, veterans, first responders and EMTs/paramedics) faced with the self-medicating struggles of alcohol addiction, prescription and drug addiction, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), mild TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and other co-occurring issues in a private, 60-bed facility on a 543-acre ranch. Along with a minimum 42-day peer-to-peer residential treatment program, Warriors Heart offers a full continuum of care. Warriors are given the option of Detox, Day Treatment, Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), Sober Living (60-day minimum) and Aftercare. Warriors Hearts work has been featured on the TODAY Show, CBS Health Watch, A&E Intervention, KENS 5 CBS San Antonio, National Defense Radio Show and in TIME, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, Addiction Pro magazine, Stars and Stripes, and many more. There is a 24-hour Warriors Heart hotline (844-448-2567) answered by warriors. https://warriorsheart.com


The current facility does not adequately support new aircraft or economic development plans for American Samoa, which is actively expanding infrastructure, industrial, commercial and business opportunities.

Woolpert has been contracted by the American Samoa Government, Department of Port Administration, to evaluate, plan and design a new airport terminal at Pago Pago International Airport (PPG). Woolpert will provide engineering, planning, survey and consulting services for PPG, which serves the seven South Pacific islands of this U.S. territory.

Senior Project Manager and Senior Associate Curtis Brown said the evaluation phase launched this week. Woolpert is employing the VLX mobile mapping building scanner as part of its reality capture for the existing structure and utilities to produce precise as-built drawings, which will be used to assess what can be retained and rebuilt. The existing PPG terminal has limits due to regional geography. It was built more than 50 years ago and has been expanded multiple times to address the evolving needs of the region and the industry.

The current facility does not adequately support new aircraft or economic development plans for American Samoa, which is actively expanding infrastructure, industrial, commercial and business opportunities, Brown said. We have been working with the American Samoa government over the last few years, reconstructing and extending runways, and we truly appreciate their culture and values, as well as their needs and vast potential.

This project will be completed with local, federal and FAA funding sources. The build will be environmentally and economically conscious, incorporating sustainable materials and climate resilience practices, while improving services that support disenfranchised communities.

Woolpert also has partnered with Corgan, a premier airport terminal architecture firm, and local engineering consultancy firm PPG Consultants. Additionally, other key Woolpert staff such as Director of Strategic Consulting David Tomber and Geospatial/Mobile Mapping Leader John Arnold are scheduled to support important elements of the PPG terminal planning and design efforts.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is a top 100 ENR Global Design firm, earned six straight Great Place to Work certifications and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been Americas fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has 1,900 employees and more than 60 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.
Maggie Stiefvater set out on a six-city tour last month in celebration of the release of Greywaren, the third and final installment of The Dreamer Trilogy, a spinoff of her bestselling series The Raven Cycle. In addition to concluding the Lynch family saga, Greywaren is the last book Stiefvater plans to set in this world. Weve gathered a selection of photos from the events, which included school visits, signings, and meet-and-greets with fans.

Stiefvater kicked off her tour for Greywaren at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fla. You could say she was floored by the turnout.

The author spoke with students at Horizonte High School in Salt Lake City. The school visit was arranged with Brain Food Books and The Kings English Bookshop, where copies of Call Down the Hawk, the first book in The Dreamer Trilogy, were purchased and donated to students.

Stiefvater FaceTimed with a fan during her signing at The Kings English.

Next up, Stiefvater appeared at an event with Red Balloon Bookshop at the John B. Davis Lecture Hall at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Here, she checks out the signage featuring illustrations from Greywaren.

Signing books ahead of her St. Paul event.

A full auditorium at Macalester College.

Stiefvater with the staff from One More Page Books, her local indie, in Arlington, Va.

After her presentation at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Mass., Stiefvater signed copies of Greywaren at Brookline Booksmith.

Stiefvater and Nick Estley, events coordinator at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, during her virtual event that closed out the tour.
When W. Mark Lanier was in the third grade, he asked his mother: "If everything came from something, where did God come from? How can God have always been there and not come from something? Is that what eternal means?" In high school, an aptitude test suggested the inquisitive teen might become a pastor, a trial lawyer, or a politician. He went with two out of three and subbed in "author" for "politician."

Now, Lanier, the author of Religions on Trial: A Lawyer Examines Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and More (IVP, Jan. 2023) is still asking questions, seeking truth. He leads a national powerhouse litigation firm that won billions of dollars for victims of dangerous products, drugs and flawed medical devices and currently represents 13 states in an antitrust case against Google. He is a pastor, too, and teaches hundreds of people in a weekly biblical literacy class at a Southern Baptist Church.

The new book completes a trilogy for IVP. The initial titles were Atheism on Trial and Christianity on Trial. In Religions on Trial, Lanier uses six essential criteria to assess Hinduism; Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, secular spiritualism, and what he calls "secular Christianity" (people who don't walk the talk). Like a litigator demolishing a witness, Lanier writes that it only takes "a couple of well-placed holes to sink the boat." Spoiler alert: Only "authentic" Christians (who live by Jesus' teachings) and Messianic Jews (who accept Christ as their savior) remain afloat.

PW talks with Lanier about why his role model is the apostle Paul preaching on Mars Hill. (Acts 17:22-31)

You begin each chapter with mentioning the folks you know who follow the particular religion or philosophy you are about to dismantle. You usually add some kind words about it at the end, too. Why?

I'm not looking for a fight. God has sown truth into the world, and everyone has access to it. Paul doesn't attack unbelievers, he says to them, "You have some truth but let me tell you what you are missing." That's what I am doing. I want to have a dialog with people, put my arm around someone and ask, "What are your thoughts about this or that?"

An evangelist seeks to convince people of their sin or their spiritual emptiness and bring them to Christ. Is that your goal here?

C.S. Lewis, when he was trying to avoid becoming a theist, told J.R.R. Tolkien, "The problem with Christians is that you are arrogant." And Tolkien replied, "The premise of Christianity is that all ears are ripe for hearing the Gospel." In a courtroom, I would show it this way. I'd take a big glass bowl and fill it with rice and beans and BBs and then take the biggest magnet I can find and hold it over the bowl. People will stick to the truth the way metal does to a magnet."

Some scientists talk about the multiverse  the idea that many universes exist simultaneously. Could there be a religion multiverse where every viewpoint on heaven or the afterlife is valid somewhere?

I think the afterlife is cloaked in the mystery of death. It is something God was gradually revealing through the Scriptures. What we do know is that no one will have eternal life but for the death of Christ for their sins. God is in the saving business. He is looking for every way possible to spend eternity with everyone he can. The Bible says there will be "a new heaven and a new earth."

Let's talk about what you call "historic faiths"Islam, Mormonism, Judaism  which tie their theology to particular places, people, and times. The Quran asserts Jesus was a prophet but not crucified, not fully divine, and not risen. And while Mormons claim the Book of Mormon is a new testament that "completes" the Bible, you write that it conflicts with Christian Scripture in myriad ways.

I can't abdicate common sense on historical issues. If a religion is wrong on history, then the balloon is popped. It can't hold up on other points.

"Christianity is a Jewish faith," you write, adding that "Jewish believers in Jesus as Messiah become what some term 'completed' Jews." Is this why Judaism gets limited approval in your "trial?"

This is Paul, absolutely. Christianity was originally seen as a sect or a school of Judaism. Jesus did not seek to destroy Judaism, he sought to fulfill it.

On Hinduism, you write, "Christians have a different understanding of salvation as eternal life, rather than absolute nothingness." Addressing Buddhism, you write that trusting karma is "almost cruel" because "one must fight suffering and evil in this world, not passively disassociate from it." But your biggest blast goes to secular spirituality, writing that it leads to a "harsh, bitter, angry, and unloving society." Why so harsh?

I lapse into trial lawyer mode there. I do say (in the book) I know good people who believe these all viewpoints then I show why they are not for me. For example, I have a lot of friends who are "nones" (claiming no religious identity) and secular spiritualists. They are wonderful people and I love them to death. I have a brilliant friend who believes in horoscopes and that we are friends because we are both Libras. How is that? We start as atoms and molecules, material substances on a dirt clump circling a fireball, and we were both born under the same night sky. Okay, why does that really have anything to do with us?
Tool from high-tech company Brightlamp is being used in clinical studies funded by the NIH and DOD

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Third-party research groups and organizations have validated a smartphone app called Reflex as a tool to help diagnose medical conditions like concussions and opiate withdrawal.

Brightlamp CEO Kurtis Sluss said Reflex has been used at over 200 clinics, with more than 90,000 tests administered to date. More than 30,000 patients have benefited from Reflexs rapid neurological assessment. Brightlamp has commercialized the app.

Reflex is an autonomic vitals assessment tool rooted in pupillometry, the measurement of how much and how fast the eyes pupil size changes in response to a stimulus. The tool takes a digital video recording of the eye to measure a response called the pupillary light reflex. The user holds the camera up to the eye and taps the smartphone screen, and a light flashes to initiate a response from the pupil. Reflex is a Class I 510(k) exempt regulated medical device, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sluss said OpiAID, a data science company, independently determined that Reflex is a predictor of opiate withdrawal, which could be used to combat the opioid epidemic in the U.S.

As part of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, clinical researchers rigorously evaluated Reflex to determine its efficacy as a stand-alone and a combination assessment addressing opiate addiction, Sluss said. Reflex will help interventionists in the opioid epidemic retrieve fast, reliable and accurate information. Now, addiction recovery specialists can access this cognitive biomarker to better understand and optimize addiction recovery.

Christopher Evonko, the OpiAID research study coordinator and a doctoral candidate in the University of North Carolina Wilmingtons Department of Psychology, said pupillometry measures obtained from Reflex outperformed standard self-report and observational measures during a study to evaluate the assessment of opioid withdrawal. Evonko said the metric was significantly associated with the time elapsed since a patients last opioid dose.

Accurate and reliable quantification of opioid withdrawal is of critical importance to guiding dosing decisions in the provision of medically assisted treatments of opioid use disorder, Evonko said. The Reflex app addresses the accessibility concern of traditional pupillometry equipment and has the potential to positively impact the opioid pandemic by providing clinicians with actionable data to improve patient retention and, ultimately, treatment outcomes.

Sluss said clinical findings have also shown that Reflex was useful in diagnosing concussions as part of a 2021 published study, with independent, validating research being presented in 2022.

This has driven medical researchers at the University of Maryland, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, to use Reflex in a two-year clinical trial to evaluate 1,200 soldiers experiencing brain injury, Sluss said.

Reflex was called out by University of Maryland researchers as the highest-scoring concussion clinical decision-support tool among many other prominent concussion tools on the market. This preliminary evaluation indicates how powerful Reflex can be in a military setting.

Sluss said other third-party studies are ongoing, opening an array of opportunities for Reflex users.

Our goal is to become the standard tool in screening cognitive health, regardless of ailment, Sluss said. These parallel studies are showing positive results and proving what we already knew: The eyes are a critical access point to managing brain-related injury and disease.

Brightlamp has opened up investment in its company through StartEngine, a regulated crowdfunding organization, to support Reflexs next wave of developments and market advancements. The campaign can be found online at http://www.startengine.com/reflex.

Brightlamps plan for Reflex is to continue elevating data interpretation for clinical decision support based on independent data published by Reflex users.

We have built an excellent Reflex community, and were collectively excited about how useful this easy-to-use medical app is shaping up to be, Sluss said.

Sluss has received commercialization guidance from the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub housed in the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration in Discovery Park District at Purdue, located adjacent to the Purdue University campus. His company is now part of the Purdue Foundry's Double Down Experiment, which includes high-growth businesses.

About Brightlamp

Brightlamp is an Indiana-based health care technology company that specializes in frontier computer vision methods. As recognized by experts, such as Donald Kuratko of Indiana University, the company develops innovative neurological breakthrough methods and applies them to mobile solutions to assist in the advancement of cognitive health care.

Brightlamp's premier patented technology monitors the eye's reaction to light so medical professionals can obtain more accurate and consistent neurological information in seconds through a mobile device. The name iPhone and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. For more information, visit https://reflexapp.io/.

About Purdue Foundry

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. The Purdue Foundry is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

Writer/Media contact: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org

Sources: Kurtis Sluss, ksluss@brightlamp.org

Christopher Evonko, cje9786@uncw.edu
The annual marquee event of the Asian video industry, the summit opened with clear views from industry stalwarts, Henry Tan, Group CEO, Astro, Clement Schwebig, chairman, Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), and Vivek Couto, executive director, Media Partners Asia. The latter also noted that despite having to address such diversity and difficulties in the huge market, there was no doubt certain markets will continue to grow. However, Tan warned that disruption was going to continue for the next few years, added, and all players had to be prepared for a rollercoaster ride.Noting the massive changes that the industry had gone through over the last decade, James Gibbons, president & managing director, Western Pacific, Warner Bros. Discovery said that while there used to be a real emphasis on subscriber growth, and the belief that the market for subscription video-on-demand was infinite, a business without an advertising component was no longer meaningful. A wholesale reassessment of how to assess the growth and value of a company was now needed, he added. Content, it was stressed, was no longer an individual line of business, but represented an entire franchise opportunity that enabled businesses to build a special relationship with their consumers across all touchpoints.For Donovan Chan, founding partner, Beach House Pictures, sticking to premium programming that was efficiently produced at a high quality to deliver on what audiences wanted and needed was a key part of his strategy to move more content from East to West. Kirana Cheewachuen, deputy director, planning & business development, strategic content group, True Corporation, also added that with Korea leading in script development, there was also a need to attract and develop the right talent in order to discover the secret sauce behind the success of Korean content, and hopefully replicate it in other parts of Asia.Yet while there was consensus that content was king, it was not an 'either or' situation, it needed to be across content, activation, distribution, and pricing, cautioned Manish Kalra, chief business officer, ZEE5 India.Ricky Ow, partner, Quest Ventures, argues that as for bundling it was not 'one size fits all' and that there was a need to meet personal consumer demand and at a price point that made sense. There was also the need to solve this problem as a benefit to consumers as well as content providers, for less churn and more sustainability.The summit also stressed that there was enormous opportunity for growth in the OTT advertising space, which was currently under-indexed in Asia. While OTT was the natural evolution of TV, Elaine Tan, head of sales, Southeast Asia, International Business Department - Advertising, iQIYI International, felt that OTT was not quite mainstream as yet and there was still a lot of room to grow in the premium space especially with premium Asian content. "If we bring the content that users want, the growth will follow," Tan said, with the advertising dollars following suit as well after.
>The Group of 20 (G-20) was established in 1999 to allow the world's most developed nations to discuss policies and to minimize any risk to international financial stability. The world had recognized even before World War One that each national economy has an impact on other countries. It took another ninety years to bring the most powerful industrial governments together in one forum.

This years upcoming G-20 Summit will probably be the most challenging ever. The COVID epidemic hit every nation in the world; Russias invasion of Ukraine has resulted in nations of Asia, Europe, and North America taking sides; and East Asian military concerns are creating tensions extending far beyond the region. Saudi Arabia led OPEC in limiting petroleum exports to the United States. Although loose-knit, the BRICS (first initials of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) has been formed to challenge Western Europe and North American economies.

With all these international factors at play, it is the government of Indonesias turn to bring together the twenty most developed countries in the world, all of which are part of the aforementioned problems. Although not a member of the G-20, Ukraine has been invited to participate.

The intent and goals of these summits are to identify ways of mutual development and sustainability while allowing for adaptability to changing environments. Although not stated, it is very much an intent of the summits to once a year bring together the twenty most powerful heads of state face-to-face where they can directly communicate with each other. The Government of Indonesia has its work cut out for this summit.

As host nation, Indonesia has selected three subjects for review: energy transition, global health architecture, and digital economy transformation. The success of every G-20 annual summit is dependent upon the work completed by the task forces assigned to do the preparatory work. The Government of Indonesia has appointed seven action councils composed of representatives of every G-20 nation that meet prior to the summits to develop proposals and non-binding recommendations to the respective governments.

Among these, is the Business of 20 (B-20) that was first initiated in 2010 and has served every summit since to channel the voice and aspirations of the global business community to G-20 leaders. Organized this year by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN Indonesia), at the behest of the Government of Indonesia, the B-20 brings together global business and industrial leaders to address pressing economic issues from each of their perspectives. The voices of global businesses are called upon to facilitate the pathway to sustainable growth for the future.

The Government of Indonesia selected the right person to serve as the B-20 Chair. Educated at Barnard College of Columbia University and Harvard Business School, Shinta Kamdani is the CEO of the Indonesian-based consumer products and energy company Sinesa Group. Several generations of successful business leaders run through her blood-line, and she took leadership of a well-established family business and made it stronger.

Formally, the B-20 will meet in Bali on November 13th and 14th. The team members are not waiting until they meet to figure out what they wish to accomplish. Coordination has already started on finding consensus and commonality on priority causes to afford the G-20 the option of moving forward on a united front. They are focused on actionable policy recommendations to G20 leaders on economic policies, investment, trade and more.

Last week, in an interview with Frontier Markets Shinta Kamdani identified three themes as the B-20 moves forward: prioritizing innovation to unlock post-crisis growth; empower subject matter experts and vulnerable groups; and supporting increasing collaboration within developing countries businesses.

The B-20 recognizes that the post-, but not completely eradicated, COVID world has developed a new normal. By developing and presenting well-thought out and reasonable economic, investment, and trade recommendations to G-20 leaders, the B-20 can help the world successfully transition into that new normal.

Upon receiving the results of the B-20 teamwork, it would serve the heads of state within the G-20 to apply the same open-mindedness and become part of the solutions and not continue to be primary sources of the problem.
South Korean girl group Itzy is teasing its new EP.

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The K-pop stars released a concept film for their forthcoming EP, Cheshire, on Tuesday.

The teaser shows the members of Itzy posing for the camera while in a dance studio.

Itzy will release Cheshire and a new music video Nov. 30.

Leading up to the release, the group will share teaser photos, a second concept film, a track list and track spoiler video. Itzy will release music video teasers Nov. 27 and 28.

Itzy announced Cheshire on Monday. The EP will be the group's first since Checkmate, released in July.

Itzy is in the midst of its Checkmate world tour, which kicked off in Seoul in August. The group will conclude the North American leg of the tour Nov. 13 in New York.

Itzy consists of Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryeong and Yuna. The group made its debut in 2019.
As Georgia has become a battleground state in recent years, more eyes are on the state as voters aim to make their voices heard at the polls. The Latinx vote in particular is coveted by both Democrats and Republicans, as Hispanics and Latinos are among one of the fastest-growing populations in Georgia and nationwide.
Senator Raphael Warnock waves to the crowd at the Warnock for Georgia Election Night Watch Party held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia, around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. "Whether it's later tonight or tomorrow or four weeks from now, we will hear from the people of Georgia," Warnock said. (Photo/Jessica Gratigny; @jgratphoto)
A pink seat on a vibrant piano reads play me, waiting patiently for the people of Athens to sit down and play a tune. The dark blue piano is covered in bright sunflowers and captures the essence of joy that music brings to the Athens community.

In 2019, four pianos were placed around Athens in areas that especially highlight a sense of community. The Athens-Clarke County Library was one of the places chosen for a vibrant, artsy piano to be displayed.
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
Nikolai Epstein, who came to vote with his grandpa, Shane Shores, receives a "Future Voter" sticker from Astri Kilburn in Manchester on Election Day.
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.
By Trend

Issues concerning fundamental rights should not be taken to referendum, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, stressing they are right to adopt the constitutional amendments on the use of headscarf and family through the votes of the lawmakers at the Parliament, Trend reports citing Hurriyet Daily News.

In principle, we dont find holding a referendum on fundamental rights to be the correct way. Our wish is to find majority at the Parliament to approve these amendments, Erdogan stated following the cabinet meeting late Nov. 7.

Erdogan had earlier stressed that his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was determined to take all necessary actions, including going to referendum for the adoption of the constitutional amendments.

At least 400 votes out of 600 lawmakers are needed to amend the constitution. Votes between 360 and 400 will take the amendments to referendum. The AKP and its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) need 26 votes to take the amendments to referendum.

Erdogan said the AKP started to discuss the amendments with other political parties. If we could come to an agreement with other parties we will submit our constitutional amendments accordingly, if we cannot then we will submit our own proposals, he stated.

The Republican Peoples Party (CHP) said it wont support the amendments while other parties said they will respond after internal consultations.

The amendments are expected to concern articles 24 and 41, on freedom of religion and conscience and protection of the family and the childrens rights, respectively. A change in Article 24 will provide new guarantees to female public servants and private sector workers that they cant be restricted by any sort of dress code. AKP officials say this amendment will guarantee female workers the freedom to dress, that is leaving it up to them whether they want to cover themselves.
President Joe Biden, speaking at an election rally in Maryland on Nov. 7, 2022, will be attending the COP27 climate meeting and the ASEAN and G-20 summits in the next week.

A seven-day overseas trip looks likely to prove the biggest test of U.S. President Joe Bidens foreign policy chops since he entered office last year, with four back-to-back summits culminating in what could be his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as president.

Biden departs Thursday for Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP27 meeting. He then attends the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and East Asia summits, which are this year in Phnom Penh, and the G-20 leaders meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

While the COP27 meeting will provide the president with a platform to promote his vision of fighting climate change, his administrations capacity to make substantive pledges is expected to be restrained by the reality of shared power in Congress in the wake of Tuesdays midterms.

More significant will be the summits in Southeast Asia starting Saturday.

Bidens first task will be convincing ASEAN leaders in Phnom Penh that Washington remains a helpful counterbalance as Beijing seeks to assume the role of regional hegemon. (Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, and leaves the same day as Biden.)

Biden is going to Phnom Penh to demonstrate U.S. respect for and engagement with ASEAN, ASEAN-centrality and the role of ASEAN multilateral institutions in the security of the Indo-Pacific Region, Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, told Radio Free Asia, adding that China would be in focus.

He will also try to assuage those ASEAN leaders who are swayed by Chinas rhetoric that the U.S. is the root cause of regional instability, he said. Biden will repeat longstanding U.S. policy that the United States will cooperate with China where it can, but resist China where it must.

During the summit in Phnom Penh, U.S.-ASEAN relations are expected to be upgraded to the status of a comprehensive strategic partnership  as China-ASEAN relations were during last years summit in Brunei  before Cambodia hands over the groups rotating chairmanship to Indonesia.

The future of non-invited ASEAN member Myanmar is also expected to feature heavily during the summits, with human rights groups calling for the summit to enact embargoes on arms and jet fuel to Naypyidaw.

Face-to-face with Xi?

After a second day in Phnom Penh, Biden heads off to Bali late on Sunday for the all-important 17th G-20 leaders conference.

After months of speculation about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday that it was likely  though not certain  his Russian counterpart would not be at the event in person but may instead attend some sessions virtually.

That has meant the biggest question is whether Biden and Xi will meet privately at the G-20, with the pair having not met since Biden took office.

A face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping could take place at the G-20 meeting in Indonesia. (AFP file)

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Voice of America on Friday that there were not yet any plans for Biden to meet with Xi, who was just re-elected to a third five-year term as Chinas leader.

There are working-level discussions right now about the potential for a bilateral meeting, but I don't have anything to report at this time, Kirby said, adding only that Biden looked forward to an opportunity to engage with foreign leaders about so many shared challenges at the G-20.

Any meeting between Biden and Xi would be expected to focus on Beijings support for Moscow amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, new U.S. export controls on the sale of microchip technology to China and American concerns about Beijings alleged plans to invade Taiwan.

Each has caused growing tensions between the United States and China over a period in which international diplomacy has been increasingly relegated to virtual meetings  first by the pandemic and then by Beijings extensive preparations for last months Communist Party congress.

There is value to in-person meetings that no number of virtual meetings or phone calls can replace, said Peter K. Lee, a security expert and research fellow in the foreign policy and defense program at the United States Studies Centre in Sydney. The pandemic has limited the kind of leader-led diplomacy that is an important element of statecraft.

Lee said a face-to-face meeting between Biden and Xi would be an important opportunity to take stock of the current trajectory of U.S.-China relations since the pair last met virtually for two hours on July 28.

There are so many disputes at the moment such as over Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and technology decoupling where the two leaders are at an impasse but nonetheless need to be talking, he said.

Breathing room

In contrast to the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, where Biden will be looking to offset growing Chinese influence in the region, a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 may provide a chance to put a floor on increasingly tense relations between the worlds two major powers.

Any such meeting would importantly take place with major domestic political events in the rear-view mirror in both countries, giving both sides some breathing room to broach compromise and cooperation.

After the midterms and the 20th Party Congress, neither leader will be under pressure from domestic politics to appear hawkish toward the other, said Nathaniel Sher, a senior research analyst and expert on China-U.S. ties at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

There are too many troubling issues both domestically in China and the U.S. as well as internationally  economic headwinds, climate change, the threat of nuclear war  for either leader to welcome a further deterioration in the bilateral relationship, he said.

The very fact of any one-on-one meeting could be positive, Sher added, for the broader perception it could create about U.S.-China cooperation.

Diplomatic engagement at the top sends a message to the bureaucracies in both countries that they can re-engage at the working level, he said. Reopening dialogue channels is particularly important after the flare-up in tensions over Taiwan last summer.

That result of a possible Biden-Xi meeting might be more important than the specific outcome of anything they discuss, according to Thomas Fingar, a fellow at Stanford Universitys Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the former chief U.S. intelligence analyst.

The meeting would not solve specific problems, but the fact of the meeting would demonstrate that Biden (and the U.S.) is willing to work with Xi/China when and where it is possible to do so (e.g., on Ukraine, nuclear security, climate issues), Fingar said in an email.

It would also make it possible for lower-level Chinese officials to re-engage with their American counterparts, he said. That might not happen, but it cant happen unless sanctioned by Xi.

Detente unlikely

But even then, the prospects for a detente seem dim.

Ja Ian Chong, a professor of international relations and expert in Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, said while Biden and Xi might have an interest in their countries easing ties, the room for maneuver would be limited by the widening chasm in their interests.

Both sides have incentives to prevent some uncontrolled and uncontrollable downward spiral in relations, Chong said, but both sides are likely to signal resolve to each other on any disagreement.

Beijings insistence on a more forceful style for pursuing its interests, Washingtons determination to resist such moves, as well as deepening mutual suspicions developing back in Washington and Beijing, he added, likely make anything more than very small steps very difficult.
Under the pretext of boosting traffic safety, officers will ticket every little violation  or demand bribes

North Korean police officers, shown in this file photo, use their positions to extract fines or bribe money when they catch motorists and bicyclists lacking licenses and plates.

November is Accident Prevention Measures Month in North Korea  which means that police are shaking down citizens for fines and bribes more than usual, sources in the isolated country told Radio Free Asia.

Paying off the cops is a way of life in North Korea.

Since most North Koreans can barely survive on the salaries of their government-assigned jobs  which in 2018 averaged about U.S.$4 per month  many families have side jobs, buying and selling goods as merchants or providing services.

Police officers and other authority figures, however, use their positions to extract bribes or fine people and pocket the money when they are in violation of minor safety codes.

November and May are government-sponsored accident prevention months, so people need to be especially careful because raids and crackdowns are more frequent, a resident in the city of Tanchon in the eastern province of South Hamgyong told RFAs Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The official line is that the extra attention is to boost traffic safety. But in reality, police officers tyrannically exploit people under the pretext of preventing accidents, the source said. People complain that this is going too far.

People go so far as to liken police officers to thieves or Oppashi, a villainous Japanese police officer from a popular North Korean film set during the time Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula.

Police will vigorously ticket every little violation they can find, scanning car and motorcycle license plates to make sure they are up to date, the source said.

Even bicycle license plates are scrutinized. Bicycle license plates used to be issued after the owner registered the bicycle at the local police office, but nobody has been doing that since the early 2000s, she said. So you either make your own or buy it from the market and attach it to the front of the bike.

If found without a plate, bike owners can expect to pay 1,000 won (12 cents) for regular bicycles and 10,000 won ($1.21) for electric ones, according to the source.

At the end of the month, the local security department with the fewest accidents during the month is considered to have done a good job, sources said.

Authorities also check for workplace violations, a resident of Chongjin in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. If the police spot a violation, businesses can be forced to temporarily close.

Security guards have been inspecting commercial service facilities such as restaurants and public baths, the second source said.

To avoid the penalty, business owners can offer the police a bribe.

A restaurant owner in the Kyo-dong neighborhood got out of having to shut down due to a potential fire hazard by serving the inspecting security agent a bowl of dangogi-jang, an expensive stew made with dog meat, and 100,000 won ($12) in cash, she said.

The public is on the verge of explosion due to their extreme dissatisfaction with the security agents who viciously extort residents to fill their pockets, she said.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
The civilians were trapped in the village when the army raided it.

At least 14 people have been killed in a junta raid on Monywa township in Myanmars Sagaing region, according to residents.

The bodies were discovered on Monday evening as locals returned to Htan Lay Pin village. It had been occupied by junta troops since a battle between one of the local Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs) and troops, aided by the pro-junta Pya Saw Htee militia, near the village on Sunday.

Six PDF members were killed. Of the six, one body could not be recovered. Four of the remaining five were beheaded and their hands were cut off, said the information officer for Monywa district PDF Battalion Number 5, who did not want to be named for security reasons.

Eight civilians were found dead. We have some photographs. Women and the elderly are among them.

An information officer for the anti-junta Monywa-Amyint Road group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFA the names of only three of the eight dead civilians could be confirmed because junta troops are still near the village.

Htwe Zaw Oo, 37, had a gunshot wound below the jaw. Kyaw Myo Win, 40, had a gunshot wound on his forearm. He was beaten and died. Sein Hlaing, 45, was beheaded, the information officer said.

The eight victims were unable to escape from Htan Lay Pin village before Sundays raid.

The State Administration Council has not released any statement on the incident, and RFAs calls to its Sagaing

region spokesman, Aye Hlaing, went unanswered on Wednesday.

Some pro-military Telegram channels said the eight villagers were PDF soldiers although locals deny this.

More than 3,000 residents from 10 villages, including Htan Lay Pin, in the south of Monywa township, have been forced to flee junta raids that started a week ago. Troops set fire to houses in the villages as they left.

Fighting in Sagaing region has been among the fiercest in Myanmar, leading to the deaths of more than 1,500 civilians since the Feb., 2021 coup, according to independent research group the Institute for Strategy and Policy - Myanmar.
Death was due to the torture he suffered in prison and lack of medical care after his release, source says.

A Tibetan monk jailed for six years for opposing Chinese rule in Tibet has died after suffering failing health following his release from prison in 2018, RFA has learned.

Geshe Tenzin Palsang, a resident of Draggo (in Chinese, Luhuo) county in Sichuans Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, died in September after his condition suddenly worsened, according to a source inside Tibet.

This was due to the torture he suffered in prison and lack of medical care after his release, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Palsang, a monk at Draggo monastery, was detained on April 2, 2012, on charges of organizing a demonstration challenging Beijings rule, the source said. After that, he briefly disappeared until he was sentenced to six years in prison for his alleged involvement in the protest.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity.

Palsang was released in April 2018, but Chinese authorities constantly harassed and surveilled him, the source added.

Also speaking to RFA, a Tibetan living in exile said that Palsang had openly called on Chinese authorities in 2012 to end their repressive policies in Tibet and their genocide and persecution of the Tibetan people.

He also demanded that Tibetans in Draggo be given the right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, the source said, also speaking anonymously to protect his contacts in Tibet.

Later, when he was released from prison, his health condition was so severe that he was not even able to stand up on his own without someones support, he added.

Speaking to RFA, Pema Gyal  a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch  said that Chinas government routinely tortures Tibetans, and especially influential and intellectual Tibetans, inside Chinese prisons.

And later when they are released they are denied proper medical treatment, Gyal said. So the Chinese government has tried in this way to eradicate many of these influential Tibetans who openly criticize Chinas repressive policies.

Geshe Tenzin Palsang, also known as Tengha, was born in 1965 and was proficient in both the Tibetan and Chinese languages, sources told RFA.

In 1986 Palsang left Tibet and studied at Drepung monastery in South India where he obtained a Geshe degree, demonstrating mastery of advanced philosophical studies. He returned to Tibet in 2009 to take a senior role at Draggo monastery.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Uyghur community leaders in Canada asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau why his administration has not followed Canadas parliament in recognizing the situation in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as genocide.

Trudeau met with about 10 community leaders on Monday in Montreal to discuss a wide range of topics related to Xinjiang, including the possibility of banning imports of products produced by forced labor.

He said he was aware of it and looking into it. He said Canada was considering banning forced labor products coming into Canada, Keyum Masimov, project leader of the Ottawa-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, or URAP, told Radio Free Asias Uyghur Service on Tuesday.

The meetings organizer was lawmaker Sameer Zuberi, who in June introduced a motion in parliament to help Uyghurs fleeing ongoing genocide in China by expediting entry for 10,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in need of protection starting in 2024.

Parliament voted 258-0 in support of the measure last month, echoing the February 2021 motion to recognize the situation in Xinjiang as genocide, which passed 266-0.

We were able to convey our concerns to him that we were puzzled by his administrations reluctance to recognize the Uyghur genocide as every Uyghur Canadian has at least one family member, neighbor, or friend locked up in the concentration camps, Masimov said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Keyum Masimov, project manager of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, at a meeting of Laurier Club members in Montreal, Nov. 7, 2022. Credit: Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project

Mondays meeting between the community leaders and Trudeau was a message to Uyghurs everywhere that Canadas government is paying close attention to their plight, Mehmet Tohti, the executive director of URAP, told RFA while on the sidelines of a conference at the European Parliament.

Its a strong signal to China, Tohti said. This was a great opportunity to convey to the prime minister, who is running Canada, about the concrete concerns of Uyghurs.

Those concerns included the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Uyghur Canadian serving a life sentence in China on terrorism charges, Tohti said. Authorities in Uzbekistan arrested Celil during a visit there in 2006 and extradited him to China, where he was tried as a Chinese national despite having acquired Canadian citizenship, an act that by Chinese law revokes his Chinese citizenship.

Tohti acknowledged that Canadas Parliament has four pieces of legislation pending that are either directly or indirectly related to Uyghur forced labor, and that the Canadian governments China policy framework, which will be announced later this month, includes banning forced labor products.

Most importantly, Canada is fully aware of the Uyghur situation by taking certain steps to resettle 10,000 Uyghur refugees and assist victims of genocide, Tohti said. Our hope is that Canada takes bigger and faster steps.

Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Bui Van Thuan says he only posted about his activities and sold honey.

The wife of Vietnamese Facebook user Bui Van Thuan says he has never admitted to breaking the law in the 15 months since his arrest. Trinh Thi Nhung also said Thuan had met two lawyers to prepare his defense.

The People's Procuracy of Thanh Hoa province prosecuted Thuan for "making, storing and spreading information with items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," on Sept. 26, this year

"Bui Van Thuan's activities are of a very serious nature and have infringed on security in the field of thought and culture of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; infringed upon the stability of spiritual life and the unification of the political and ideological foundation and the people's confidence in the political system, weakening the strength of the people's government, the socialist regime and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," the 15-page indictment signed by Deputy Director Nguyen Duc Thanh concluded.

Nhung told RFA last Friday she had read the entire document and it was completely untrue.

All charges against Bui Van Thuan are based on accusations and evidence that does not belong to Thuan, she said.

I do not see Thuan confessing to any crime at any point in this indictment."

The indictment said that some people became Facebook friends with Thuan to buy honey from him but then discovered controversial posts, which they reported to the authorities. The indictment mentions three people who made accusations: Che Ngoc Trung, Nguyen Van Thanh and Ha Thi Duyen.

They reportedly denounced the Facebook account, opened in the name "Thuan Van Bui (Cha gia Dan toc)" the part in brackets translating as Old Father of the Nation, saying Thuan posted many articles "with false information, content, misrepresenting the Party and State, and smearing and insulting Party and State leaders."

Nhung told RFA she tried to contact the three to find out if they really existed, who they were and where they lived. Two of the three blocked her Facebook account immediately, the other did not respond.

In the indictment, there are three people who filed accusations against my husband. I have no idea who they are, nor have they ever come to my house. Whether Mr. Thuan knows them or not, I don't know," she said.

Since it is absurd to make accusations against others without being present in court, I hope the lawyers will ask all those accusers to be present in court to testify.

RFA Vietnamese contacted the three through their Facebook accounts as listed in the indictment. Che Ngoc Trung did not answer messages. The other two refused either to confirm or deny denouncing Thuan to the authorities. Ha Thi Duyen also told RFA she is under police surveillance.

Thuan, 41, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2021. He is said to be the author of a series of Facebook posts about the struggle for power of officials in many localities, which he nicknamed "the dog fighting ring."

Police investigated the case and recommended prosecuting Thuan for "making, storing, distributing or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In September this year the Peoples Procuracy of Than Hoa province wrote the indictment, which said that between 2016 and 2021 Bui Van Thuan used two Facebook accounts "Thuan Van Bui (Cha gia Dan toc)" and Thuan Van Bui (Cha da Dan toc)" to slander the Party and State, insult the leadership and misrepresent Party guidelines and the policies and laws of the State.

The indictment said Thanh Hoa's Department of Information and Communications found 105 articles posted on the two Facebook accounts, of which 27 had content that went "against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam." Among them were articles with up to 394 comments and 595 shares.

The indictment also said that during the investigation Thuan admitted creating and using many Facebook accounts. He said some had been suspended and others were no longer under his control, so at the time of his arrest he only used his personal account, Bui Thuan, to share his activities and sell honey. Thuan denied creating, using or managing the two Facebook accounts containing defamatory articles.

Based on the accusations of the three people mentioned in the indictment and the fact that the two accounts fell silent after Thuans arrest, the police said the authorities had enough grounds to conclude that the accounts and "malicious" articles were posted by Thuan.

The charges, contained in Article 117 of the Criminal Code, carry a sentence of between five and 12 years in prison.
Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter. To subscribe, click here.

I'm RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here's what I've been following during the past week and what I'm watching for in the days ahead.

The Big Issue

Iran has for the first time admitted that it sent "a small number" of drones to Russia, but it said they were supplied months before Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February. Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of using Iranian-made combat drones to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in recent weeks.

Following Iran's admission, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Tehran was lying about the number of drones it had supplied Russia. He said Ukrainian air defenses shoot down at least 10 Iranian-made drones every day. The U.S. envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, said Iran had transferred dozens of drones to Russia in recent months and deployed military personnel to help Russia use the drones.

Why It Matters: Iran's decision to supply combat drones -- and potentially ballistic missiles -- to Russia is a sign of the deepening ties between Tehran and Moscow. Both countries, which have pledged to work together against the West, have been hit by international sanctions and isolation.

The move also reflects Tehran's policy of looking to the East -- turning to allies Russia and China -- after then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed sanctions in 2018.

Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, told me Tehran has concluded that Russia's potential defeat in Ukraine would "weaken Iran." Raz Zimmt, a research associate at Tel Aviv University, said Tehran is looking to exploit Russia's "weakness in Ukraine in order to make their relations with Moscow more equal and beneficial toward Iran."

He added that Tehran can also "now show that it has the ability of using its military asymmetric capabilities even outside the Middle East."

What's Next: Britain and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Iran for supplying Iranian-made drones to Russia that are being used in attacks on Ukraine. Tehran could face further punitive measures from the West, but it is unlikely to change course.

Henry Rome, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told me that "Iran probably calculates that the strategic and security benefits outweigh greater opprobrium from the West." Rome also said Iran's decision to send drones to Russia allows Tehran to deepen its relationship with Moscow, "a country that the leadership likely considers essential to Iran's geopolitical and security interests, especially in a world in which the [nuclear deal] is not revived."

Stories You Might Have Missed

A new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, found that the Iranian combat drones Russia is deploying in its war against Ukraine use Western components, raising questions about how Tehran obtains this technology despite sanctions. Iran's Mohajer-6 drones contain components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export of such technology to Iran.

A resident of Iran's Kurdistan region, Yahya Rahimi, was allegedly shot dead by security forces for honking his car horn in support of the ongoing anti-government protests. His father, Ahmad Rahimi, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the authorities had pressured him to declare his son was a member of the Basij paramilitary forces, a branch of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), in an apparent attempt to blame his death on protesters.

What We're Watching

Iranian lawmakers urged the judiciary on November 6 to "deal decisively" with anti-government protesters as the authorities struggle to suppress the biggest show of dissent in years. A majority of 227 lawmakers from Iran's 290-seat, hard-line parliament made the request. The lawmakers called for the judiciary to enforce the Islamic "eye for an eye" retribution law. Separately, a judicial spokesman said sentences against "rioters" should create "regrets" and teach them a lesson.

Why It Matters: At least 300 people have been killed and several thousand arrested in the state's violent crackdown on nationwide protests since mid-September. Yet, the protests have continued. The call by lawmakers for harsher sentences appears to be an attempt by the establishment to stoke fear and pressure protesters to end the rallies.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,



Golnaz Esfandiari



If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Wednesday.
An Iranian dissident journalist who disappeared in Turkey in May is now in the custody of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), sources with knowledge of the case told RFE/RL.

Mohammad Bagher Moradi was deported to Iran in early November after being kept in "illegal" detention in Turkey for five months, the Turkish lawyer representing his family, Salih Efe, told RFE/RL.

Moradi's family said he left his home in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on May 30 to buy bread and never returned. The next day, his car was found abandoned near his residence, Turkish media reported.

Turkish media reported that Moradi's family, who were visiting from Tehran, had filed a criminal complaint over their son's disappearance and told the local prosecutor's office that they suspected he had been abducted. Despite the launch of a formal investigation, Moradi was not found.

In June, Turkish media quoted the journalist's father, Mohsen Moradi, as saying that his son had been "kidnapped" by "Iranian intelligence."

Following months of silence, Moradi on November 4 made a brief telephone call to his family and informed them that he was in Iran in the custody of the "intelligence bodies," sources with knowledge of the case told RFE/RL. Moradi told his family that he was moved to Iran just days prior to his call, the sources said, adding that the journalist has since made two other calls to his family.

The sources said that Moradi was being held by the feared intelligence branch of the IRGC, which has been behind the arrests of scores of journalists, activists, environmentalists, and dual nationals in recent years.

Last week, Moradi's father was questioned by the IRGC about his son's activities in Turkey, the sources said. They added that the IRGC told him to advise his son to make a live television confession.

Iran has a record of forcing political detainees to confess to crimes that are often dictated to them by their interrogators. Many former detainees have denounced the practice following their release and said they had confessed under duress.

'Secret Deportation'

The 34-year-old Moradi fled to Turkey in 2014 after he was sentenced to five years in prison in Iran for collusion against the state.

Efe, the Turkish lawyer representing his family, told RFE/RL that Moradi had been granted asylum in Turkey. He said Moradi's secret deportation to Iran was a blatant violation of Turkish and international law, including the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

Efe said Moradi had told his family that he had been kidnapped by Turkish intelligence officers and kept in an unknown location until his deportation. The lawyer said Moradi had been interrogated and tortured during his detention in Turkey.

"This may be the fourth or fifth such illegal and secret deportation of an Iranian political refugee from Turkey by our government," Efe said. "I think Turkey cannot be considered a secure country for Iranian refugees."

Turkey, which lies on Iran's western border, is one of the main destinations for Iranian dissidents and activists fleeing the country. But it has also become a prime hunting ground for dissidents by Iranian intelligence, or those who work for Tehran's security agencies, leading to concerns about the safety of Iranian nationals. Moradi's fate is likely to heighten those fears.

London-based Iranian activist Peyman Aref, a former refugee in Turkey, told RFE/RL that Moradi said a year before his kidnapping that he felt threatened by Turkish intelligence agents.

"He spoke on Clubhouse last year and revealed that an individual...who works for Turkish intelligence is trying to recruit Iranians," Aref said, referring to the audio-based, social-media application that has become a major platform for dialogue among Iranians. "He ended his remarks by saying that 'from now on Turkish intelligence will be directly responsible if anything happens to me.'"

In 2017, Aref was deported from Turkey to Lebanon after being detained by Turkish security forces, his lawyer told RFE/RL's Radio Farda. Aref claimed he was deported after refusing to cooperate with Turkish intelligence.

Iran is known to have assassinated or abducted multiple exiled opposition figures in recent years, including journalist Ruhollah Zam.

Zam, the manager of the popular opposition Telegram channel Amad news, was executed by Iran in 2020 after being convicted of "corruption on Earth," a charge often leveled in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran's government.

Zam had been living and working in exile in France before being arrested in 2019 under still unclear circumstances. According to media reports, the dissident was allegedly lured to neighboring Iraq by Iranian agents.

Habib Chaab, a founder and former leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA) separatist group, went missing during a trip to Istanbul in 2020.

A month later, Chaab appeared in a video on Iranian state television in which he claimed responsibility for launching an attack and working with Saudi intelligence services. Chaab, who had lived in Sweden for 14 years, was later put on trial.
Russian tech giant Yandex has said it is reorganizing its operations, moving to cut its ties with Russia in a restructuring that solidifies government control over a company once seen as a bellwether for the country's digital economy.

The announcement comes after months of internal turmoil, with executives departing, the sale of the two of the company's best-known products, and company shares hitting basement prices prior to being frozen on international stock exchanges.

"These are exceptionally challenging times," John Boynton, chairman of Yandex's board of directors, said in a statement released late on November 25.

According to the online news site The Bell, which was first to report on the reorganization, Yandex's parent company, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, will lose ownership and control of all businesses of the Yandex Group.

A new, Russian-incorporated company will take over those operations, with a new board headed by Aleksei Kudrin, a longtime confidant of President Vladimir Putin, who announced on November 29 that he was stepping down as the head of the Audit Chamber, a government fiscal watchdog.

The Bell said Kudrin met with Putin November 25, and that Kudrin would receive 5 percent of shares in the newly reorganized entity. On November 25, hours before the company statement, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Kudrin intended to leave the Audit Chamber before year's end, and join Yandex.

The deal also called for Vladimir Potanin, a billionaire oligarch whose fortune comes from ownership of metals giant Norilsk Nickel, to take a minority position, The Bell said.

In its statement, Yandex said it had "commenced a strategic process to review options to restructure the group's ownership and governance in light of the current geopolitical environment."

"The board anticipates that Yandex N.V. will in due course be renamed, with the business to be divested retaining exclusive rights for the use of the Yandex brand," it said, adding that shareholders must approve any corporate changes.

Under the reorganization, founder Arkady Volozh, who left Russia after the invasion and now lives in Israel, will retain some licensing rights to develop Yandex-originated ventures outside of Russia.

Combining the kinds of services provided by Google, Uber, PayPal, Bolt, Amazon, and other online businesses, Yandex was the dominant tech company in Russia, employing thousands of engineers, programmers, and designers across its sprawling divisions.

The company, whose U.S.-traded shares were held by major U.S. mutual funds and investment companies, had been under pressure since at least 2019, when it was forced to give state bank Sberbank a veto over major management decisions. The voting power was later transferred to a Russian foundation.

But it was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its 10th month, and the Kremlin's censorship of news and debate about the war-- and the rampant problems that Russians forces have faced on the battlefield -- that forced the final, sweeping decision.

Shortly after the February 24 invasion, the Kremlin pushed through legislation that criminalized "discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation" -- a catch-all measure that has allowed the authorities to go after Russians who protest the war, question its motivations, or even criticize the civilian or military leadership. Russian media are barred from calling the conflict a "war," instead using the phrase "special military operation."

Parliament has since tightened those restrictions further.

Yandex's search engine, and its main news page, Yandex News, were the dominant portals used by Russians to search for news, including about the war. But according to company critics, including the former head of Yandex News who resigned in protest, the company began tweaking its algorithms to direct searches toward state-run media around the time of the invasion.

On March 7, two board members quit in protest. A week later, the deputy executive director resigned, after he was hit with European Union sanctions. Volozh resigned in June after he was hit with EU sanctions.

In August, the company announced the sale of Yandex News and another entertainment portal called Yandex Zen to VK, Russia's dominant social-media company, whose control was sold to a Putin ally in late 2021.

In a statement e-mailed to RFE/RL after this article was originally published, Polina Pestova, a Yandex spokeswoman, denied that the company had manipulated its algorithms.

We categorically deny this claim. Yandex doesnt tweak its algorithms toward any political side, she said.

Asked about the reports of Kudrin joining a reorganized Yandex, Pestova declined to comment.

Kudrin wrote on his Telegram channel on November 29 that he indeed would step down as head of the Audit Chamber "to focus on large projects that are related to the development of broadly private initiatives, but at the same time have a significant effect on people."

He did not mention Yandex in his message.
Ethnic Kazakhs who have returned to their ancestral homeland from abroad in recent months say officials have ordered them to resettle in the country's northern regions near the Russian border.

The government insists the settlement program is aimed at tackling a dire shortage of workers in sparsely populated provinces. But many believe Astana is trying to balance the ethnic makeup of its regions with significant Russian-speaking populations.

The government has introduced quotas to resettle the returnees -- or "qandas" -- in seven provinces spanning from the northeast to the northwest of the sprawling country: East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Aqmola, North Kazakhstan, Qostanai, West Kazakhstan, and Atyrau.



The qandas who move to the north get additional financial incentives not available to those who choose to live in other regions. The benefits include a single payment of about $450 per family member and a subsidy for rent and utility bills.



The government's program to resettle more people to the north is not new. Apart from the resettlement of the qandas, the government also encourages internal migration to the north.



But it has become more prevalent in recent months, with some returnees claiming they are being ordered to move to the government-selected provinces against their wishes.



For example, only 44 people out of some 800 ethnic Kazakhs who relocated from Turkmenistan this summer were allowed to settle in Mangystau, the province of their choice.



Others were told by Kazakh authorities to move to areas designated by the government or face deportation, several of the returnees claimed.



Quralai Esenmuratova moved from Turkmenistan's Balkan Province to her titular homeland in July, hoping to live near her elderly mother and son who resettled in Mangystau several years ago.



But when she and fellow returnees crossed the border into Kazakhstan, authorities told the group their new home regions had already been determined for them.



Esenmuratova, 57, got a visa stamped on her passport stating she must move to the northern Pavlodar region, where she has no family or friends.



"When we arrived in Mangystau, the authorities demanded that we immediately go to the provinces indicated in our visas," Esenmuratova told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service.



"They threatened, 'You'll be deported if you don't go to Pavlodar,'" she said.

Another qandas from Turkmenistan, 29-year-old Saghyndyq Nazaraliev, confirmed that new returnees are under pressure to move to northern regions.



Nazaraliev, who arrived in Mangystau on August 15, said his family of three was ordered to move to the Pavlodar region without delay. He now lives in Pavlodar's Ekibastuz city.



Some 1.1 million ethnic Kazakhs have resettled in Kazakhstan since 1991 under a special government program that encourages Kazakhs abroad -- mainly from Uzbekistan (70 percent), China (10 percent), and Turkmenistan (7 percent) -- to return to the land of their ancestors.



Most of them settled in the mainly Kazakh-speaking provinces of Turkistan, Jambyl, and Almaty in the county's densely populated south and southeast.



Serik Beisembaev, the director of the Astana-based research center PaperLab,

says the government should "invest in the economic development of the north to make it attractive for migration" instead of ordering people to settle there against their wishes.



Interest In Identity Issues?



Astana's apparent renewed interest in the ethnic balance -- or what some describe as the Kazakhification -- of the north is seen by some as an effort to reduce Moscow's influence on the population along the country's 7,600-kilometer border with Russia in the aftermath of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine.



Kazakh authorities have long been wary of pro-Moscow sentiments expressed by some ethnic Russians in recent years.

They had become particularly vocal since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Moscow-backed separatists illegally declared independence in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine, where they have been fighting Ukrainian troops ever since.



In the same year, Russian President Vladimir Putin angered Kazakhs when he said they "never had statehood." Similar comments questioning Kazakhstan's statehood and territorial integrity have since been made multiple times by Putin and other ultranationalist Russian leaders.



The number of ethnic Kazakhs in their homeland began to sharply decline in the 1930s, when a Soviet collectivization campaign led to a famine that killed at least 1.3 million Kazakhs and forced millions of others to flee abroad.



Moscow, meanwhile, either encouraged or forced Russians and other ethnic groups to migrate to Kazakhstan.



When Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991, ethnic Kazakhs made up less than 40 percent of the population. That number has now risen to about 70 percent.



Former authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev has been credited with transforming the demographic balance of the country and seeking to restore Kazakhstan's national identity through the development of the Kazakh language, culture, and traditions.



Ethnic Russians make up about 15 percent of Kazakhstan's 19.4 million population, compared to 37 percent before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian, however, is still widely spoken in most Kazakh cities.

RFE/RL's Kazakh Service contributed to this report.
BUDAPEST -- Recent allegations of China operating 54 overseas "police stations" to pressure its citizens -- including dissidents -- to return home have sparked controversy and led to a number of investigations into their activities across Europe and North America.

But in Hungary and Serbia -- two countries where Beijing is said to operate such facilities and whose governments prize their warming political and economic ties with China -- the new findings are being met with swift denials by authorities despite a growing array of evidence and calls for probes.

"[These] Chinese overseas police [stations] usually just offer their help [to citizens], but they're also signaling that Chinese surveillance is present even here," Marton Tompos, a Hungarian lawmaker from the opposition Momentum party, told RFE/RL.



Tompos made headlines in October when he investigated the locations of two alleged Chinese police stations in Budapest following a September report by the Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders that detailed 21 overseas Chinese stations -- most of them in Europe.

According to the report, the stations are overseas operations of the public security bureaus from two Chinese provinces and are used to persuade citizens to return to China, including through pressure on family members at home. While most of those involved appear to be suspected of crimes such as telecommunications fraud or corruption, dissidents have also reported that the stations have been used to monitor and threaten them.



Fourteen governments have already launched investigations into the overseas police stations, and the Dutch and Irish governments have ordered China to shut down the facilities in their countries.



In Budapest, Tompos visited two stations in the Hungarian capital operating in areas home to the city's sizable Chinese diaspora.



In a video, he documented one building that had three large billboards that had the name and logo of the Qingtian Overseas Police Station, one of the Chinese regions mentioned in the Safeguard Defenders report. Tompos says he was unable to contact personnel at either station and when he visited again several days later that the sign had been removed.



"The fact that they have put three large billboards on one of their offices shows they were not afraid of being exposed," Tompos said.



Sweep It Under The Rug'



Hungary and Serbia have become China's closest partners in Europe in recent years, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic building stronger political relationships with Beijing and courting Chinese investment and business ties under the umbrella of its expansive infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.



In response to Tompos's findings and the Safeguard Defenders report, the Hungarian Interior Ministry told RFE/RL in an e-mail that "there is no Chinese police station operating in Hungary."



Serbian officials have also been silent on the allegations.

The Serbian Interior Ministry did not respond to RFE/RL's request for comment, and Serbian and Chinese officials refused to take questions from the media at a recent event in Belgrade.



"I believe that [the Serbian government] will look to sweep it under the rug," Vuk Vuksanovic, a researcher at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, told RFE/RL, adding that Belgrade is careful not to jeopardize its relationship with Beijing.



In the Safeguard Defenders report, the Chinese station in Belgrade is also mentioned as the site of a documented case of forced return. Citing Chinese government documents, the NGO says that in 2018 a Chinese national who lived in Belgrade and is identified only as Xia was accused of theft in China and "persuaded to return."



According to the report, he was identified by the Belgrade station and contacted over the Chinese messaging platform WeChat, where he was eventually "convinced" to return to China after initially being reluctant to leave Serbia.



The case was not previously known in Serbia and authorities there have not published any details or answered questions about it since the report's release.



Pavle Grbovic, an opposition Serbian lawmaker who sits on parliament's Security Services Control Committee, told RFE/RL that he believes there are grounds to launch an investigation into the activities of Chinese police stations in Serbia and says he will raise the issue during the committee's next session.

Serbia and China signed a 2019 agreement that allowed for joint police patrols between the two countries, permitting Chinese officers to work alongside their Serbian counterparts to deal with an influx of tourists and workers from China in recent years. Grbovic says the recent allegations now warrant more scrutiny of this arrangement.



"Regardless of the fact that there is a position officially issued by the Serbian Interior Ministry that [Chinese officers] don't have full police powers [in Serbia], the question still remains as to what they're doing on the streets of Belgrade," he said.



Tompos said the Hungarian Interior Ministry's denials are dishonest, pointing to a wealth of articles in Chinese media -- and even statements from Chinese authorities -- describing the station's existence in Budapest and its engagement in various policing issues in Hungary. It even mentions some officers by name for solving robberies and resolving document issues.



In another instance, Chinese media referred to an officer named Wang Deging, who is mentioned as executive vice president of the Hungary-China Police Exchange Association and as the Hungarian-Chinese police liaison officer with Hungary's Interior Ministry.



Hiding In Plain Sight



Chinese officials have not denied the existence of such facilities, although Beijing says they were set up to provide essential services to Chinese citizens overseas.



Services such as passport renewals or visa requests are typically handled by an embassy or consulate, and diplomatic rules apply in these locations. Policing outposts like the ones China is accused of running could violate the territorial integrity of a host country by crossing national jurisdictions and the protections afforded under domestic law.

"The Chinese Communist Party wants to exert a comparable level of control over the Chinese people abroad as they do domestically," Martin Hala, a China expert at Charles University in Prague and the director of Sinopsis, a project that tracks Chinese influence across Europe, told RFE/RL. "Attempts to police and punish people of Chinese descent overseas are not new [and Beijing] has no qualms about extending their institutions to other, typically unsuspecting, jurisdictions."



Multiple governments and human rights groups have documented instances of China's transnational repression in recent years. Examples include campaigns to extradite Uyghurs back to China's western Xinjiang Province, where they have been interned in a vast camp system, efforts to repatriate citizens accused of crimes back home, and a campaign against pro-democracy activists from the mainland and Hong Kong.



Exact figures are unknown, but thousands of Chinese dissidents or those fleeing repression have been coerced into returning to China, while hundreds of thousands more are believed to have been pressured to go back in part due to the efforts of overseas police stations.



Du Hangwei, China's deputy public security minister, said in June that the government had "persuaded" 210,000 people to return in the past year alone to face charges for telecommunications fraud.



"For a lot of people, it stretches the imagination that a country -- any country -- might possibly attempt to run their own police stations in other states without the knowledge of local authorities," said Hala. "I think the biggest lesson from this whole affair is [that] the entire concept of [what is taking place] is so brazen and, frankly, incredible, that people [and governments] struggle to make total sense out of it."

Written and reported by Reid Standish in Prague based on reporting by Akos Keller-Alant in Budapest and Mila Durdevic in Belgrade
Anatoly, a 37-year-old soldier from the central Russian region of Bashkortostan, signed up for the war against Ukraine in June and was sent into combat three months later.

His unit spent 2 1/2 weeks on the front lines, he says. It didn't go well.

"All that time, we had no regular rations," he told RFE/RL. "There was no ammunition, and we had to search for cartridges in the surrounding forest. We were promised new equipment and weaponry, but we were issued automatic rifles that had already been serviced three times. Some had crooked muzzles; others jammed at the second shot. We didn't have any heavy weaponry at all."

A couple weeks after being thrown into battle, Anatoly and dozens of other contract soldiers from a regional unit called the Shaimuratov Battalion renounced their contracts and requested to be sent home.

Anatoly's story is emblematic of the logistics and morale problems that Russia has faced as it grapples with major losses in the Ukraine war, a conflict that has lasted far longer than Moscow anticipated.

Exact figures are unknown, but some Western intelligence put the number of Russians killed and wounded as high as 80,000.

To replace the losses, Russia has turned to measures such as recruiting new volunteers with cash incentives, enlisting prisoners, or offering citizenship incentives to foreign mercenaries. On September 21, President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization of military reserves aimed at bringing in at least 300,000 additional fighters.

The manpower problems have been exacerbated by the significant number of volunteer "contract" soldiers who have broken their contracts and refused further service. At the time he ordered mobilization, Putin also announced a provision automatically extending the contracts of volunteer soldiers and making it more difficult for them to refuse to fight.

The exact number of volunteers who've broken their contracts is unknown, but hundreds of cases have been documented. Ruslan Leviyev, the founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian NGO that monitors open-source information about the military, told Current Time that "the phenomenon of refusal is becoming systemic."

"According to our estimates, from 20 to 40 percent of the contract servicemen who returned from Ukraine and who are being readied to be sent back are refusing to return to combat," he said in April.

Media reports, open-source intelligence, and Ukrainian officials suggest the problem has only gotten worse.

'I Didn't Think I'd Survive'

Bashkortostan's Shaimuratov Battalion was one of many regional volunteer units created during the summer as a way for Russia to cope with a shortage of troops. It was created in late May with the goal of signing up 800 soldiers.

Volunteers were promised an initial payment of 200,000 rubles ($3,300) for signing up and 2,000 rubles ($33) per day of service -- wages that are above national averages and well above the average for Bashkortostan, which is a relatively impoverished region despite having substantial oil reserves.

Anatoly -- who spoke to RFE/RL on condition that his identity be withheld -- said he signed up to fight in Ukraine because he thought: "I could be useful there." "And the money issue played a role. I thought I would pay off my debts and make a little something for my family," he said.

Anatoly, who spoke by phone and social-media messages after his return to Bashkortostan, said 42 of his fellow soldiers submitted their written refusals on September 17 after weeks of being pounded by Ukrainian artillery and drones.

"Their artillery was so accurate that they would shell our trenches meter by meter," Anatoly said, although he added that he didn't experience any direct fighting with Ukrainian infantry. "We had 10 rows of trenches, and they would hit each one in order."

"And what was the response from our side?" he said. "We called in for counterstrikes, but there was no answer.... And it was like that from the first day we arrived at our position."

The day after the soldiers submitted their written refusals to continue fighting, a political officer -- a Soviet-era practice involving an officer charged with monitoring troops' political leanings -- came to talk to the group, Anatoly says. Then they were loaded into two trucks and driven to a nearby city. "They were looking for a children's camp...but couldn't find it in the dark," he said. "We had to spend the night in the forest."

The next day they found the camp, and the men were held there for two days, Anatoly says. On September 20, they were transported to the Kherson region and put into an animal stable.

The following day -- September 21, the day that Putin signed the mobilization decree -- they were told they would be taken to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula region that Moscow annexed in 2014, in small groups since "they won't let 40 men across the border at once."

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.

But after the first group had travelled just a few kilometers, the truck suddenly turned around and returned to the stable. Anatoly says there appeared to be bureaucratic confusion over how they submitted their refusals.

More officers arrived on September 23, Anatoly says, and tried to compel the soldiers to file new paperwork with that date; apparently to match the new regulations.

After a heated confrontation during which the officers purportedly "started calling us names and yelling," the men were loaded into a truck and taken to another location, where the regional military command was located.

The men, he said, were locked in a 25-square-meter garage with "detained drunken servicemen and curfew violators." Anatoly says he was put in solitary confinement in a shipping container for 2 1/2 days in a T-shirt and slippers.

The soldiers managed to shoot a video appeal and send it to the head of Bashkortostan and his aide in charge of mobilization, Alik Kamaletdinov. They later posted a second video to social media.

Kamaletdinov declined to comment when contacted by RFE/RL.

500 Kilograms Of Honey

Officers punished the soldiers by restricting access to toilets and cutting back food and water, Anatoly says.

On October 1, he said, a man claiming to be from Kamaletdinov's staff appeared and presented the unit with 500 kilograms of honey as "humanitarian aid," which the soldiers scoffed at.

A day later, Kamaletdinov himself came, apparently traveling all the way from Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan. By then, Anatoly says, 30 soldiers had agreed to return to the front; 13 were left in the garage. "He offered to send us to different units [in Ukraine], but we all refused," Anatoly said.

Two weeks later, he returned. "He called us dogs and said that we would be considered traitors at home. He said we'd 'be abandoned' and that our relatives would have 'no life'," Anatoly told RFE/RL. "Then he left and we didn't see him again."

Free To Leave

Anatoly says he was held in the garage until October 9, when he and the others were then sent to a nearby smelter and held for another nine days. On October 18, an officer gave them their documents, and said they were free to leave.

The men then made their way to Crimea, some by bus and some by hitchhiking. Anatoly says he and four others arrived back in Ufa on October 22. He says he doesn't know what happened to the other soldiers who stayed to fight.

On October 28, Anatoly's enlistment contract officially expired. He says he is afraid to go to his recruitment office to finalize the agreement, for fear they will detain him and send him to prison or worse -- back to Ukraine.

In the end, he says, he was never given the 200,000-ruble signing bonus or most of the daily payments he was entitled to. Instead, he was paid just 34,000 rubles in total.

"It turns out I spent all those days in Ukraine for free," he said.

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities
Russia has launched multiple suicide drones on Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding people and damaging civilian facilities, the head of the regional military administration said, as fierce battles are under way in the eastern Donetsk region and in the south.

"The occupiers attacked the area massively with kamikaze drones, said Governor Valentyn Reznichenko. Ukrainian air defense destroyed some of the drones, but others hit targets. The Russian forces also used drones in an attack on the city of Dnipro, targeting a logistics enterprise. Reznichenko said four employees were wounded, and three of them are in serious condition in hospital.

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.

Russian forces also bombarded the Nikopol district in the region with Grad missiles and heavy artillery. Reznichenko said the shelling damaged private houses, a factory, and a power line, but no one was injured.



A fire spread over more than 3,000 square meters but was extinguished, Reznichenko said.



Russian troops regularly shell the Dnipropetrovsk region with various types of weapons, in particular the Nikopol, Kryvorizky, and Synelnyk districts.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed Ukraine will not "surrender a single centimeter of our land" in Donetsk, and he thanked Ukrainian troops who are holding positions in the Donbas region.



The epicenter of the battle for the industrial region of Donetsk is around the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar, and Avdiyivka.



"The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level -- dozens of attacks every day," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address late on November 8.



"They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same: to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimeter of our land," he said.



Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions Russia said it annexed in September following referendums considered a sham by Kyiv and its Western allies.



Fighting has taken place there between Ukrainian military and Kremlin-backed separatist forces since 2014, the same year Russia illegally annexed Crimea in the south.

Zelenskiy said the goal of the Russian troops is to push to the administrative border of the Donetsk region.



"We clearly understand the enemy's plans, so we act accordingly: carefully, thoughtfully, and in the interests of the liberation of our entire territory. We are strengthening our positions, breaking Russian logistics, and consistently destroying the potential of the occupiers to keep the south of our country under occupation," Zelenskiy added.



Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said the most intense battles were taking place in Bakhmut and Soledar where the Ukrainian military repels dozens of Russian attacks per day.



Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the region's military administration, said the city of Bakhmut was badly damaged, and there is not a single surviving house in Avdiyivka, Maryinka, or Krasnohorivka. Russian troops are trying to wipe the cities "off the face of the Earth," he said.



Fierce fighting was also going on on the edge of the town of Snihurivka, in the southern Mykolayiv region, according to Yury Barabashov, the town's Russian-appointed mayor, as cited by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.



Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in the southern Kherson region, said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had tried to advance on three fronts, including Snihurivka.



Vitaly Kim, the Ukrainian governor of the Mykolayiv region, apparently quoting an intercepted dialogue between Russian troops, suggested Ukrainian forces had already pushed the Russians out of the area.



"Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there," Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel.



The information could not be independently verified.



The Ukrainian military said it destroyed two Russian ammunition depots in southern Ukraine on November 8, one in Snihurivka, and one in Kostromka, in the neighboring Kherson region.

WATCH: Paratroopers with Ukraine's 79th Air Assault Brigade say they're holding positions around the small city of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine despite daily Russian attacks.

Russia has mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists in recent months seeking to stave off an offensive launched by Ukraine to regain Russian-occupied territories.



Kyiv-based military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said on November 8 that 21 Russian conscripts had surrendered to Ukrainian forces around Svatove in the eastern Luhansk region.



"These poor mobilized men -- really poor, they had had nothing to eat or drink in three days -- of course they decided to surrender," Zhdanov said on his YouTube channel.



In the southern Kherson region, a battle between advancing Ukrainian forces and the Russian occupiers has been looming for weeks in the city by the same name, the only regional capital Russia has captured intact since its unprovoked invasion in February.



Kherson is arguably the most important of the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that Russia says it annexed. It controls both the only land route to the Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the Dnieper River that bisects Ukraine.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also commented on the fighting in eastern Ukraine on November 8. He was quoted by TASS as saying that information released about casualties among Chechen fighters near Lysychansk, a city in the eastern Luhansk region, was false.



"Not a single fighter of ours was killed in the aforementioned area," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that he didn't want to comment on "such falsehoods" but found it necessary "to reassure all sane and concerned people."



Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, released video footage that it said showed a drone strike obliterating a Ukrainian tank that was hiding in an urban area and shelling Russian troops.



"A Russian squad of unmanned aerial vehicles spotted the Ukrainian tank and destroyed it using a precision strike," the ministry said on November 8, according to TASS.



The Ukrainian military's General Staff said Russian troops used drones and artillery on November 8 to shell communities along the Sumy region's border with Russia in northeastern Ukraine. The only damage reported was to utility poles.



Sumy borders three regions of Russia: Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod. The border regions of Ukraine are regularly shelled by Russia.



Neither side's battlefield claims could be independently verified.



The Ukrainian military has accused Russian troops of more looting and destroying infrastructure in Kherson.



"A convoy of trucks passed over the dam of the Kakhova hydroelectric station loaded with home appliances and building materials," the military said.



Russians were dismantling mobile phone towers and taking equipment, it said, adding that near the city of Beryslav, Russian forces "blew up a power line and took equipment from a solar power station."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and CNN
Olena Strukalyova says she was forced to remove her clothes and saw a man being brutally beaten at a Russian filtration camp, which civilians from occupied areas of Ukraine had to pass through before being taken to Russia. Ukraine estimates that 1.6 million of its citizens have been through these camps, while Russia puts the number even higher. Strukalyova, from Mariupol, says she was vetted several times before crossing into Russia -- she then immediately traveled to Georgia.
Iryna Rybakova's photographs have been published throughout the world's media, yet using her camera is only one part of her job as a junior lieutenant and press officer with the Ukrainian military.

While explaining the circumstances of her most famous photo, Iryna Rybakova interjects a detail that highlights her personal proximity to the Ukrainian war effort. The above image of a skull-like turret from a destroyed Russian tank, the 38-year-old explains, was made with a drone in March after Ukrainian troops had recaptured the village of Husarivka, in the Kharkiv region, after a bitter fight. "I just ask you to remember," Rybakova says, "many of my comrades died in that battle." The photographer then names the soldiers, Yulian Stupak and Oleksandr Garbuz, who were posthumously awarded Ukraine's highest honor for their actions during the recapture.

Rybakova is one of several press officers in the Ukrainian military whose job is to facilitate visits by journalists to frontline positions. The junior lieutenant in the 93rd Mechanized Brigade stands out for repeatedly capturing her own imagery that has become iconic of the war and earned her brigade a massive social media following.

After the tank turret "skull" photo appeared on the cover of The Economist, Rybakova says the image "began to gain wild popularity. It was made into a tattoo, placed on album covers, and made into T-shirts."

More recently, an image Rybakova published in October of an explosion's crater inside a cemetery in Bakhmut was widely shared across social media as an example of the unbounded physical destruction wrought by the Russian invasion. Such frontline aerial images are now rare due to a ban on the civilian use of drones and the high chance that an unidentified quadcopter could be shot out of the sky.

Even with her position in the military, she says she has to take multiple steps before she can fly her DJI Mavic Air 2. "I inform the battalion leadership that I am going to raise a drone in a certain area, and they warn the positions: At a certain time, in a certain place, our 'bird' is flying," she says.

Rybakova told RFE/RL she began taking pictures in high school when she used her bathroom as a makeshift darkroom. During the 10 years she spent working as a journalist in Ukraine, she maintained photography as a hobby, using a range of devices, including medium-format film cameras that shoot crisp, cracker-sized negatives.

In 2015, when the journalist joined Carpathian Sich, which at the time was a volunteer paramilitary group with links to an ultranationalist political party, Rybakova says her photography skills immediately became useful. She now serves in Ukraines 93rd Mechanized Brigade as a press officer and junior lieutenant.

Rybakova says after eight years of low-level conflict in eastern Ukraine, Moscow's full-throated invasion in February came as a shock. "To be honest, we in the army thought that we would simply go to the borders in place of the border guards, prepare a defensive line, and hold our position for several months," she says. "[We thought] perhaps there would be provocations with shooting from automatic weapons, but nothing more."

The photographer and soldier has felt the full fury of war. On February 26, within minutes of arriving in the newly recaptured town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region, Rybakova says she dove onto the asphalt as a Russian aircraft dropped what she says was an FAB-3000 bomb on a nearby Ukrainian military position, killing many people. The 3-ton unguided bomb exploded with such force, she says, it was "as if it was an earthquake or some pit in hell" had opened up. A photo of the aftermath of that explosion shows a water-filled crater the size of a large swimming pool.

When asked about her most vivid experience documenting the war, the photographers answer illustrates the pitiless new outlook of many Ukrainians who have watched their country ravaged by the invasion. "In Okhtyrka on the 24th, the boys met an enemy column and completely destroyed it," Rybakova recalls. "They took me to see dead Russians. One of them was officer Ilyasov, a Buryat by nationality. He was killed by a 19-year-old [Ukrainian] soldier. The corpse was thrown off the road and covered with grass."
In capitala Romaniei a inceput ministeriala NATO

Romania poate conta pe faptul ca Statele Unite ii vor fi alaturi si acum, cand apara democratia de pretutindeni, a declarat azi secretarul de stat american Antony Blinken, la Bucuresti, in cadrul unei conferinte de presa comune cu ministrul...
(watchpro.com) - It was a joy to be back in New York last week for WatchTime and the Wind-Up Watch Fair. Getting out of Manhattan to affluent commuter towns in Connecticut and Long Island was even more restorative as the leaves were turning to gold beneath bright blue autumn skies. But conversations with a number of brands and retailers left me in little doubt: winter is coming for the watch industry and, as tends to be the case in Game of Thrones, it could be a blood bath.
"Somos un Gobierno de puertas abiertas, en donde los ministerios estan dispuestos a atender las necesidades de las autoridades, dar solucion a sus demandas y cerrar las brechas historicas", manifesto el presidente @PedroCastilloTe durante la inauguracion de la XV #CAMUR2022. pic.twitter.com/T0L95q2BqN
Grant-funded program designed to get students thinking about politics, civics

By Vince Lovato, Pathfinder Editor

SEELEY LAKE  Though Republicans control Montana politics today, that wasn't always the case, retired journalist Mike Dennison told Seeley Swan High School students Nov. 1.

Up to about 30 years ago, Montana was a so-called Blue State, he said.

Dennison, who covered Montana politics as a print and TV journalist for the last 40 years, is a guest lecturer for the Humanities Montana Democracy Project.

According to the website, the privately funded Democracy Project is, "...a teen-led initiative supported by local libraries, community partners, and Humanities Montana. This program gives teens the resources to effect change and know their role in an evolving democracy through direct civic participation. Students work for six months on projects they feel are vital to their community, ending with a public showcase."

Campus Librarian Carrie Benton, who coordinates the program for SSHS, said AP History Teacher Trace Stone's students will divide into groups of three or four to work on the long-term project based on the Democracy Project's program.

It was the first time the Democracy Project presented a speaker at SSHS.

Benton said the AP students begin a journey where they will discuss issues confronting the state, decide which ones to research and provide some possible solutions.

Those solutions will be presented during a showcase for the entire county in the spring, Benton said.

"The students get to decide what topics to pursue and be the energy behind this project," Benton said. "They get to use their creative juices, it's very hands on and proactive."

The impetus for bringing the project to Seeley Lake comes from the state.

"Our state is trying to get more civics involved in the schools," said SSHS principal Shawn Holmes. "They want to get more kids involved in government and civics. Not enough kids are interested in politics and we hope to get them more involved."

As for Dennison's lecture, he said Republicans control statewide politics today but, "...forty years ago, Democrats dominated politics in Montana."

The party's strength came through the high number of organized labor groups who thrived in labor-intensive industries like logging and energy.

"In the 70s and 80s, there was an erosion of those jobs, largely through environmental interests," he said.

In fact, the Democrats only controlled the state legislature once since 1992, he said.

He believes former president Donald Trump's two campaigns drew a larger number of conservatives to the polls, especially with the widening divide between urban and rural politics.

He also said Montanans are pro-business.

"They believe the free market will solve economic problems," Dennison said. "But Democrats use government to fix problems of abuse in business."

That belief often pits liberals against strong coalitions such as oil, gas and real estate," Dennison said.

"If they go up against you, you can be in big trouble," he said.

He used the crisis of a lack of affordable housing as being a good example of the rift between the parties.

Gov. Greg Gianforte's Affordable Housing Task Force recently reported on its findings and presented a list of ways Montana might solve the problem.

The more conservative recommendations usually called for fewer regulations on developers and homebuilders while liberal recommendations leaned toward government subsidies.

Another issue is the budget surplus, he said.

Again, Republicans mostly favor returning money to taxpayers while Democrats favor using the extra funds for mental health and subsidized housing.

"We will see how those differences play out," Dennison said.

After he spoke for about 30 minutes, he asked students questions.

They answered one question that they get most of their news from social media and the radio.

The students generally thought news outlets are biased.

"Cable news today is really more about opinions than facts," Dennison said. "But a reporter in the field is not as biased."

Students are also happy with the news they receive probably because Internet site algorithms are effective at serving users with news about topics they want to know about.
News

Brooke Jenkins leading in S.F. district attorney race

Craig Lee/The Examiner San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins attends Willie Browns Free Election Day luncheon at Johns Grill on Tuesday. Kevin Hume/The Examiner Tuesdays election results showed former Police Commissioner John Hamasaki firmly cemented in second place in the district attorney race.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins held a solid lead over three challengers at press time early Wednesday morning.

Jenkins led with 48% of first-choice votes, while former Police Commissioner John Hamasaki was in second place with 34%. Civil rights attorney Joe Alioto Veronese won 13% of first-choice votes, while Maurice Chenier registered just under 5%.

The race remains too close to call, but Jenkins was confident as initial results rolled in.

We have built what is an amazing team in the DAs office, we have started the rebuilding process in that office, and I tell you, we are going to make sure that we serve the City and County of San Francisco at the highest level that youve ever seen, Jenkins told supporters on Tuesday night.

Hamasaki did not concede on Tuesday.

Grateful to have such a strong showing in the first batch of ballots, traditionally more conservative voters. As ballots continue to come in we expect to close the gap, Hamasaki wrote in a statement to The Examiner.

The Citys ranked-choice voting system kicks in if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. The last place candidate is eliminated, and their supporters next choice receives a vote. This continues until a candidate has more than 50% of the vote.

If she holds on, the victory would punctuate a remarkable political rise for Jenkins, who until last year was a relatively unknown assistant district attorney. She quit that job in October to help lead the recall campaign against her former boss, District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

The winner will serve the remainder of what would have been Boudins first term. Since her appointment in July, Jenkins has mirrored the rhetoric used during the recall, arguing that the former district attorney was too lenient and pledging to bring accountability to the criminal justice system in San Francisco.

Jenkins has undone or tweaked several of Boudins policies. Shes willing to charge juveniles as adults in some circumstances, pledged to more readily ask judges to hold accused fentanyl dealers in jail before they face trial, and bring charges against people repeatedly accused of low-level drug crimes like possession of drug paraphernalia. She also said she would consider charging a dealer with homicide if their drug results in an overdose death.

Those policies opened Jenkins up to criticism from her challengers.

Hamasaki, a firebrand progressive who jumped into the race when it became clear Boudin wouldnt, sought to distance himself from Boudin and stressed that he was his own candidate. He focused his efforts on decrying Jenkins alleged return to the failed policies of the war on drugs.

Alioto Veronese positioned himself as somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between Jenkins and Boudin and criticized both.

Jenkins portrayed her challengers as novices.

I am the only veteran prosecutor on the ballot, Jenkins wrote in a Tweet this week. My opponents & their lack of prosecutorial experience are dangerous for San Francisco.

Aside from Jenkins herself, the politician with perhaps the most at stake in the race was Mayor London Breed.

A Jenkins victory would serve as validation for Breed, whose choice of Jenkins to replace Boudin raised some eyebrows. The mayor could have appointed someone with no higher political aspirations who could serve as a placeholder until the next election. Instead, she chose to appoint a leader of the recall movement, attaching her own political reputation to that of a political newcomer.

The early results were evidence that Jenkins popularity remains strong despite several ethics questions raised in recent weeks.

First, it was revealed in August that Jenkins was paid more than $100,000 for consulting work by an organization with close ties to the recall effort. The revelation called into question whether Jenkins was truly a volunteer for the recall campaign, as she claimed then and now, or if she was effectively a paid political operative.

Last week, Mission Local reported that Jenkins emailed confidential information related to a controversial legal case to her colleague Don du Bain, who was also quitting the office to join the recall movement. Neither du Bain nor Jenkins were professionally attached to the case of Troy McAlister  a repeat offender who allegedly struck and killed two pedestrians while driving under the influence on Dec. 31, 2020  which was one of several cited by people advocating for Boudins ouster.

Jenkins supporters defended the email as routine within the District Attorneys Office and denied that it was illegal, as legal experts quoted by Mission Local suggested.
Buenos dias! Bienvenido a un nuevo capitulo en nuestras relaciones bilaterales. Desde esta manana los peruanos ???? que quisieran visitar el ???? por periodos a menores de 6 meses podran hacerlo sin tramitar una visa. Mejor acceso. Mas intercambio. Lazos cada vez mas estrechos. ????
PM Pham Minh Chinh and his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the signing ceremony of documents between the two countries in Phnom Penh on November 8 (Photo: VNA)

At their talks held in Phnom Penh, PM Chinh, now on an official visit to Cambodia, highly valued the contributions and encouraging outcomes by Cambodia as the Chair of ASEAN in 2022, saying he believes the country will successfully organize the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related summits in the next few days.



Welcoming his guest, PM Hun Sen said the visit holds great significance in 2022 as the countries are celebrating the 55th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.



Both sides expressed their delight at the development of bilateral relations and noted that despite pandemic-caused difficulties, political and diplomatic ties have still been reinforced unceasingly through frequent high-level meetings and bilateral cooperation mechanisms.



They affirmed their determination to advance the Vietnam - Cambodia relations in an increasingly substantive and effective manner, considering this as an objective and inevitable requirement for both countries.



Agreeing to keep enhancing defense and security ties, the two leaders stressed the principle of not allowing any hostile forces to use the territory of a country to harm the security and interests of the other. They also emphasized their coordination to effectively carry out existing agreements and mechanisms to sustain political stability, security, and social order and safety in each country; prevent cross-border crimes like human and drug trafficking; and guarantee cyber security and protect citizens.



The talks between Vietnamese PM Pham Minh Chinh and his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen in Phnom Penh on November 8 (Photo: VNA)



The two leaders concurred in the continuation of joint efforts to search for and repatriate remains of Vietnams volunteer soldiers and experts who laid down in Cambodia, and to step up the repatriation of remains of soldiers of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation from Vietnam.



Regarding economic partnerships, the PMs noted with satisfaction that trade and investment have become a bright spot in bilateral ties.



Trade between the countries topped US$9.5 billion in 2021 and reached $8.45 billion in the first nine months of this year, respectively rising nearly 80 percent and 16.7 percent year on year. Bilateral trade is relatively balanced. Meanwhile, Vietnam has 198 valid investment projects worth $2.92 billion in Cambodia at present, ranking first among the ASEAN investors and fifth among all foreign investors here. PM Chinh thanked Cambodian authorities for working closely with Vietnam to successfully rescue many Vietnamese citizens lured to Cambodia for illegal work. He asked the two sides to maintain close coordination to thoroughly deal with this issue.The two leaders concurred in the continuation of joint efforts to search for and repatriate remains of Vietnams volunteer soldiers and experts who laid down in Cambodia, and to step up the repatriation of remains of soldiers of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation from Vietnam.Regarding economic partnerships, the PMs noted with satisfaction that trade and investment have become a bright spot in bilateral ties.Trade between the countries topped US$9.5 billion in 2021 and reached $8.45 billion in the first nine months of this year, respectively rising nearly 80 percent and 16.7 percent year on year. Bilateral trade is relatively balanced. Meanwhile, Vietnam has 198 valid investment projects worth $2.92 billion in Cambodia at present, ranking first among the ASEAN investors and fifth among all foreign investors here.



PM Pham Minh Chinh (R) at the talks with his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen in Phnom Penh on November 8 (Photo: VNA)



The PMs also underlined the importance of cross-border trade and cooperation in economic development in border areas and border gate zones. They applauded both sides efforts to finalize the Vietnam - Cambodia border trade agreement to be signed during the visit.



PM Chinh asked the Cambodian Government to create more favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to carry out stable and long-term investment and business operation in Cambodia on the mutually beneficial basis.



In terms of border affairs, they agreed to respect and fully implement the border-related agreements signed between the two countries, continue to step up negotiations, make joint efforts to seek proper solutions to the remaining 16 percent of land border on which demarcation and marker planting havent finished, and resolve issues emerging in the spirit of solidarity and friendship, thereby helping build a Vietnam - Cambodia border of peace, stability, and cooperation.



The two were unanimous in continuing to promote partnerships in education - training, transport, agriculture - forestry - fisheries, information and communications, finance - banking, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchange, and sports. They agreed to boost connecting the two economies in terms of infrastructure as well as regulations and policies, while assisting each other to build an independent and self-reliant economy in each country and to ensure extensive, intensive, and effective integration into the world.The PMs also underlined the importance of cross-border trade and cooperation in economic development in border areas and border gate zones. They applauded both sides efforts to finalize the Vietnam - Cambodia border trade agreement to be signed during the visit.PM Chinh asked the Cambodian Government to create more favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to carry out stable and long-term investment and business operation in Cambodia on the mutually beneficial basis.In terms of border affairs, they agreed to respect and fully implement the border-related agreements signed between the two countries, continue to step up negotiations, make joint efforts to seek proper solutions to the remaining 16 percent of land border on which demarcation and marker planting havent finished, and resolve issues emerging in the spirit of solidarity and friendship, thereby helping build a Vietnam - Cambodia border of peace, stability, and cooperation.The two were unanimous in continuing to promote partnerships in education - training, transport, agriculture - forestry - fisheries, information and communications, finance - banking, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchange, and sports.



The two PMs witness the signing of documents between the two countries after their talks on November 8. (Photo: VNA)



PM Chinh affirmed Vietnams readiness to further share experience with and assist Cambodia to successfully organize the 32nd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in 2023.



He also appreciated and called for Cambodias continued attention to and favorable conditions for the Vietnamese-origin community to live and work stably and legally in the country, integrate into the local society, and actively contribute to local socio-economic development.



At the talks, the two Government leaders also discussed some regional and international issues of shared concern. They stressed that amid the complex and unpredictable global and regional situation, Vietnam and Cambodia should enhance coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially within the framework of ASEAN and the Mekong sub-regional cooperation mechanisms; actively help cement ASEANs solidarity and unanimity and promote the blocs centrality; and together actively contribute to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.



They emphasized the importance of ensuring security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight; increasing trust building; not threatening to use or using force; complying with international law; resolving disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and supporting the parties concerned to seriously and fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and promote the finalization of an effective and substantive code of conduct (COC) in the East Sea that matches international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.



On this occasion, PM Chinh invited his counterpart to pay an official visit to Vietnam at an early date, and PM Hun Sen accepted the invitation with pleasure.



Following the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of 11 documents between the two countries. PM Hun Sen thanked Vietnam for its continuation of scholarships granted for Cambodian students and also spoke highly of the fast growing numbers of Vietnamese and Cambodian tourists to each others countries since border reopening.PM Chinh affirmed Vietnams readiness to further share experience with and assist Cambodia to successfully organize the 32nd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in 2023.He also appreciated and called for Cambodias continued attention to and favorable conditions for the Vietnamese-origin community to live and work stably and legally in the country, integrate into the local society, and actively contribute to local socio-economic development.At the talks, the two Government leaders also discussed some regional and international issues of shared concern. They stressed that amid the complex and unpredictable global and regional situation, Vietnam and Cambodia should enhance coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially within the framework of ASEAN and the Mekong sub-regional cooperation mechanisms; actively help cement ASEANs solidarity and unanimity and promote the blocs centrality; and together actively contribute to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.They emphasized the importance of ensuring security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight; increasing trust building; not threatening to use or using force; complying with international law; resolving disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and supporting the parties concerned to seriously and fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and promote the finalization of an effective and substantive code of conduct (COC) in the East Sea that matches international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.On this occasion, PM Chinh invited his counterpart to pay an official visit to Vietnam at an early date, and PM Hun Sen accepted the invitation with pleasure.Following the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of 11 documents between the two countries.

VNA
By Trend

The Embassy of Israel in Azerbaijan congratulated the Azerbaijani people on November 9 - the State Flag Day, Trend reports, referring to the embassy's tweet.

The flag, which is one of the official symbols of the Republic of Azerbaijan (along with the anthem and coat of arms), was first approved on November 9, 1918 by the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic republic in the Muslim East.

On October 18, 1991 by constitutional act "On State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan", the Republic of Azerbaijan, as the legal successor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, restored its state symbols, including the state flag.

By the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dated November 18, 2009, November 9 is celebrated in Azerbaijan as the State Flag Day.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. During a press briefing on November 8 US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price commented on the latest meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, hosted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington D.C..

Ned Price said that the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs issued a joint statement following the meeting, which, he called, a very positive sign.

In the meeting, the foreign ministers agreed to expediate their negotiations and to organize another meeting in the coming weeks. They expressed their appreciation to Secretary Blinken, to the U.S. side for organizing the discussions yesterday. I should note that Secretary Blinken was involved in the discussions yesterday, but there were opportunities throughout the course of the day for the two sides to meet and to attempt to bridge their differences, in some cases without the United States as an active participant. We remain committed to promoting a peaceful future for the South Caucasus region. We believe that continued direct dialogue is key to resolving issues and to reaching a lasting peace, Mr. Price said.

He stated that the US role in this has been one of facilitator. We provided, over the course of the day yesterday, a space  Blair House, in this case  for the two countries to come together, just as we did in New York a few weeks ago in late September. But this is not an agreement that the United States is attempting to or seeking to  or even can  impose on the two sides. What we are doing is trying to create a space and an opportunity for the two sides to come together, to identify their differences  of which there are many  and to attempt to bridge them, he said.

Ned Price said it is not for Washington to prescribe what the lasting comprehensive peace between the two countries might look like. We are not presenting them with a document that is ready to sign. We are doing everything we can to help enable the diplomacy that they themselves will need to undertake  and this is not unlike our approach to a number of challenges around the world, where weve demonstrated the viability and the effectiveness of this model, he added, calling the results of the meeting quite positive.
Kolkata has the hub of literacy and the cultural elite even during colonial times. It is home to many prestigious universities and other educational institutions. When it comes to management programs, the most renowned management institute- the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC)- is stationed here. MBA is one of the most sought-after courses by students in India. Distance MBA programs have started gaining momentum in the past few years, such that many universities are offering the program in the correspondence mode or online mode. Kolkata gives ample opportunities to learners seeking a degree in management through distance or online mode. Here are the top 5 institutes that offer the distance and executive MBA programs in Kolkata.

1. Distance/ Online MBA from IGNOU, Delhi

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is unequivocally the best university to pursue a distance MBA. It is dubbed as the worlds largest university, offering almost 200 programs in various academic levels. IGNOU has an immensely vast network enabling students all over India to pursue higher education from a convenient location. The university has 67 regional centres, one of them situated in Kolkata. The regional centre at Kolkata is situated at Bikash Bhavan and offers distance MBA. 9 study centres in Kolkata offer the program. For a list of study centres, visit IGNOU website. The same program is offered in a more convenient format in the online mode. All programs offered by IGNOU are UGC approved.

Fee structure:

INR 15,500 per semester

Eligibility:

The candidate should hold a bachelors degree in any discipline with an aggregate of 50% marks.

Application Procedure:

The admission procedure for this program is online. The candidate must visit https://ignouadmission.samarth.edu.in/ and fill in the application form. All eligible candidates will be offered admission.

2. Executive MBA from IIM Calcutta

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) in one of the best institutes in the state that offers an executive MBA alongside the regular MBA program. This business school features among the top 3 management institutes in the country ranked by NIRF. IIMCs executive MBA is sculpted for working professionals seeking career growth. Being a renowned business school, IIMC gathers brilliant minds from across the country, forming an excellent network that enhances career prospects.

Fee structure:

1st installment- INR 2,00,000

2nd installment- INR 10,00,000

3rd installment- INR 10,00,000

4th installment- INR 9,00,000

Eligibility:

The candidate must be a graduate with at least 5 years of professional work experience as of March 31, 2023. They should also possess a valid GMAT score.

Application procedure:

The candidate should visit https://www.iimcal.ac.in/pgpex-application-form-register and fill in the application form. Admissions will be offered based on the candidates performance in the personal interview, academics and based on past work experience. For details regarding the admission schedule, visit institute website.

3. Online MBA from Amity University, Noida

This private university, situated in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, was ranked as Indias top non-profit private university by India Today in 2019. It is one of the leading distance universities in the Delhi NCR region. Amity University runs online in the name of Amity University Online (AMU). AMU has been offering convenient online degrees in the disciplines of Management, Humanities, Journalism and media, Commerce and Information Technology. AMUs online MBA program has been listed in QS rankings and it is the only online MBA in India to achieve this recognition.

Fee structure:

Semester-wise: INR 63,250

Annual payment: INR 1,21,500

One time payment: INR 2,38,000

Eligibility:

The candidate must possess a bachelor's degree in any discipline.

Application procedure:

The candidate must visit https://amityonline.com/amity/Home/Basic?p=440 and fill in the online application form. Eligible candidates will be considered for admission.

4. Executive MBA from BIBS, Kolkata

The Bengal Institute of Business Studies situated in Kolkata has been listed among the top three business schools in Kolkata by the Times of India. The business school is celebrated for its placement opportunities since more than 10% of its MBA students got placed internationally. Prominent companies like Google, Nestle, Ernst and Young and Pepsico have recruited from BIBS. The executive MBA is affiliated to the regular MBA program by Vidyasagar University.

Fee structure:

INR 2,98,000

Eligibility:

The candidate should hold a bachelor's degree and must possess a valid CAT/XAT/MAT score. Those candidates who do not possess a valid test score must appear for the entrance examination conducted by BIBS called BIBSAT.

Application procedure:

The admission procedure for this program is completely offline. Application form can be downloaded from this link-

Two extra passport size photographs

Photocopies of mark sheets of SSLC, HSLC and Graduation

Photocopy of test score

Work experience certificate in case the candidate has any prior experience

After attaching the above-mentioned documents, the application form must be sent to "Bengal Institute of Business Studies" in the following address along with a demand draft of 700.

Address:

Bengal Institute of Business Studies,

18D, Lake View Road,

Kolkata  700029.

5. Online MBA from NMIMS

The Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) is one of the most recommended institutes when it comes to distance MBA. NMIMS Global Access School for Continuing Education is its distance learning establishment offering executive and distance MBA programs. Their programs are delivered online through live lectures which are accessible through their desktop and mobile application. The NMIMS online MBA program has 10 specialisations to choose from, which can be viewed here - https://online.nmims.edu/program-search/?program_type=487&specialization=.

Fee structure:

Semester-wise- INR 41,000

Annual payment- INR 77,500

One time payment- INR 1,44,000

Eligibility:

The candidate must have a bachelor's degree in any discipline with at least 50% aggregate. In case the candidate does not have 50% aggregate, they should possess a work experience of at least 2 years.

Application procedure:

Candidates can visit this link - https://ngasce.secure.force.com/nmLogin_New?type=registration and submit the application form. The following documents must be submitted during the application process.

Mark sheets of SSLC, HSLC and graduation

Work experience certificate if applicable

Identity proof

Passport size photograph

Admission will be confirmed once the application forms are verified and approved.
Do you want to visit the former German camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, and are you starting your journey in Krakow? Then find out our guide on the subject. Getting there is an experience that everyone should have the chance to experience. Get some tips about the trip before you go there.

The best ways to get from Krakow to Auschwitz

Find out now what are the best ways to get there from Krakow to Auschwitz. You can take a day trip from Krakow to visit the former German camp Auschwitz. Many companies offer tours, but it is definitely more expensive than getting there on your own. The best way would be to use public transport or a car.

Getting there by car

To get there from Krakow, you can take one of three roads by car. The A4 road with an exit in Chrzanow and continuing through Libiaz or Alwernia will take about an hour and is 60 kilometres long. If you instead continue along the Spytkowice-Zator road, it will be about 70 kilometres and take 1 hour and 20 minutes, but the advantage is that the route is more scenic.

Getting to Auschwitz by bus

To get from Krakow to Auschwitz, you can take the bus. If you're already in the city centre, just go to 18 Bosacka Street and buy a ticket for the next departure, which goes down near the National Castle Museum in Auschwitz - it will be quite easy to find as they have signs everywhere advertising their services. Buses also run very frequently on weekdays. The price of a bus or minibus ticket from Krakow to Oswiecim can be as low as 13 PLN depending on which carrier you choose. The journey takes about 1h 25-30 minutes.

Getting to Auschwitz by train

A good way to get from Krakow to the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum is by train. You can go on your own or opt for one of the popular excursions offered by travel agencies.

Trains are a convenient way to get to Auschwitz station, but if you are short of time, it is better to opt for the bus due to the shorter journey time. The train journey takes around 2 hours with a choice of using public transport or walking 20 minutes outside the town before reaching your destination. Trains cost approx. PLN 3 each way.

Getting between Auschwitz and Birkenau

If you have an extra hour to spend at the museum, I recommend taking a drive or walk between Auschwitz and Birkenau. The two camps are only 3 kilometres apart, but it's about a 40-minute walk, so if possible, take public transport or check out their free bus service, which usually runs every 10 minutes in high season (April to September) and every 30 minutes in low season.

Which commuting option is most worthwhile?

The journey from Oswiecim to Krakow is best made by car, but buses should also help. These inexpensive vehicles run frequently throughout each day and offer an easy way to get around the city. This will make the trip a little cheaper.
Creaegis backed soonicorn Medikabazaar, has announced two top level appointments - Sandeep Gandhi as chief human resource officer and Manish Gahlaut as the company's chief operations officer.

The move will aim to strengthen its leadership in the healthcare supply chain, grow in the emerging market segment, aid in institutional linkage, and create new strategic partnerships globally, said a statement.

Gandhi, has over two decades of experience in companies including PepsiCo, Aircel Maxis, Vodafone, and Telenor, and will support the company's people-first culture and human resources strategy. Gahlaut will spearhead supply chain management and has experience in the healthcare sector in multinationals such as Novartis, Abbott, and Bausch & Lomb.

"To accelerate the business momentum and reach ambitious growth targets, we have been building up the workforce strength, market presence, and technological capabilities. We are working to assemble a potent multinational leadership team to help us achieve our global ambitions," Medikabazaar CEO Vivek Tiwari said.

Medikabazaar is the largest B2B health technology marketplace for medical supplies in India and was founded in 2015 by Tiwari and Ketan Malkan. The company has been on an unprecedented fast development path in the last few years, having reported over 11 times growth in the last three years, it said.
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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Overnight November 8-9, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire from different caliber firearms in the direction of Armenias combat positions located in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia said in a statement.

The Ministry added that as of 10:00, the situation on the border is relatively stable.
The suspected hackers behind the theft of Medibank data linked to 9.7 million customers have claimed they demanded a $US10 million ($15 million) ransom from the health insurer.

In a message posted on the dark web on Thursday morning, the ransomware group said they have released sensitive details of Medibank customers medical procedures.

Medibank warned on Wednesday that more customer data would be uploaded to the dark web. Credit:AP

Society ask us about ransom, its a 10 millions usd. We can make discount 9.7m 1$=1 customer. said the post

Medibanks CEO stated, that ransom amount is irrelevant. We want to inform the customers, that He refuses to pay for yours data more, like 1 USD per person. So, probably customers data and extra efforts dont cost that.
During the pandemic most of the worlds major art events were put on ice, but this was not the case for the youthful Bangkok Art Biennale. Unwilling to lose momentum after a successful debut in 2018, the organisers hosted a huge international exhibition in 2020 that was seen only by local audiences. This year, the BAB is back for a third installment, and open to all comers. As the show coincides with the Singapore Biennale, it creates the opportunity for some serious South-East Asian art tourism over summer.

While Singapore has tried to mix it up from one Biennale to the next, using different curators and approaches, in Bangkok there is a strong sense of continuity. The show was founded by experienced curator Apinan Poshyananda who has acted as director on all three occasions. This may sound despotic, but Poshyananda is the most gracious of hosts, in some ways reminiscent of Nick Waterlow, who directed three of the best Sydney Biennales.

The theme of the show is Chaos:Calm, which is broad enough to incorporate anything, but an accurate reflection of most peoples experience of Thailand. One thinks of Bangkok with its crazy traffic and the calm of the tourist resorts or the Buddhist temples.

Alicia Framis interactive sculpture Leave Here Your Fears (2019).

This year Poshyananda shared the curatorial duties with two Thai curators, Chomwan Weeraworawit and Jirat Ratthawongjirakul, and two internationals, Nigel Hurst and Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani. Each brought their own ideas to the mix, but the directors hand was obvious in certain choices. Why not include Marina Abramovic for the third time in a row? No one could say she isnt important. The make-up of the exhibition was also familiar: a group of international stars and a broad range of Thai artists, young, old, and  in the case of Montien Boonma - deceased for the past 20 years. The show featured a major work by Boonma that has never been previously shown.
John le Carre was at the very least a great trashmeister and there are those who would say the man born David Cornwell was a lot more. Graham Greene said that The Spy Who Came in From the Cold was the best spy novel ever written, and Philip Roth said A Perfect Spy, the le Carre novel about his conman father and his untrustworthy self, was the best English novel since the war.

His father, Ronnie Cornwell, was the kind of man who paid school fees with dud cheques while inviting Bradmans Australian cricket team to dinner. Le Carre wrote to his brother: Our father in my memory is disgusting  I never mourned him, never missed him  I rejoiced at his death. Is that so awful? And he was almost as boggled by his mother: How you walk out on two sons in the middle of the night, then take the high moral ground was beyond him.

The book of John le Carres letters builds up a picture of a master spirit. Inset: le Carre writing at his desk in 2019. Credit:Charlotte Hadden/The New York Times

He said, again to his brother: We were frozen children and well always remain so. He said the chip of ice Graham Greene thought was necessary for creation was frosted all over the Cornwell boys as if they were doomed to be poor players full of histrionic self-fabrication. He writes to Nicholas Shakespeare of Greene: The General is dead and he won his war if not all his battles  A very large man with all sorts of fascinating smallnesses  A lot of them were diligently tended  to keep the child alive in him.

He also told the young Shakespeare he was more important than Greene, however, because he was talented and young and alive and he made him a proposition: Heres the deal: Lets never have a professional relationship again. Youll never interview me or write about me while Im alive. Ill keep some sort of safehouse for you if you need one. This man who shunned the world as a kind of humiliating mirror would let a young writer live on his property.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The international community must take a stronger line with Baku. Azerbaijan must return prisoners of war, Member of European Parliament Lars Patrick Berg said in an interview to ARMENPRESS.

ARMENPRESS: On September 13, 2022, Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on the sovereign territory of Armenia from different directions of the border, targeting also the civilian settlements. As a result of the attack Azerbaijan has occupied some parts of the sovereign territory of Armenia. At the same time, threats to use force against Armenia are not stopping from Baku. In your opinion, what steps are necessary so that Azerbaijan withdraws its troops from Armenias territory and returns to constructive negotiations?

Lars Patrick Berg: Azerbaijan must respect the internationally negotiated agreements, cease hostilities, and return prisoners of war. The international community must take a stronger line with Baku, although I fear with attention focusing on Ukraine and Asia at the moment, the Azeri leadership will feel emboldened to keep escalating.

ARMENPRESS: How do you assess the work of the European Parliament with regard to the Azerbaijani aggression? Does the European Parliament take all the necessary steps to return Azerbaijan to a constructive path and stop the occupation of Armenias territory?

Lars Patrick Berg: I think the truth is that the European Parliament has limited influence in this conflict. We can try and influence, but the truth is that until Turkey decides to act responsibly the Azeri authorities will believe they can act with relative impunity.

ARMENPRESS: Do you consider it possible for the EU to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan, taking into account the fact that most of the EU member states have stated that Azerbaijan has initiated the attack as a result of which some parts of the Armenian territory remain occupied? So far, calls for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops to their initial positions have been made, but, it seems, no practical steps are being taken on this direction.

Lars Patrick Berg: I am not a great supporter of sanctions, especially sanctions imposed by the EU alone. I believe that the member states should be more vociferous in their condemnation of aggression, and diplomatically explore ways of isolating Baku?

ARMENPRESS: Recently it was announced that a fact-finding mission of MEPs will arrive in Armenia. You were also included in the delegation. Can you please present the goal of the mission? What works have you done in Armenia and what is going to be the result of that work?

Lars Patrick Berg: The goal is exactly as you describe - fact-finding. If we are to report to our colleagues in Brussels it is important to have discussions with those directly affected by the Azeri aggression. We are therefore in talks with Armenian stakeholders, and in Brussels we can agree on how to proceed.
The Velvet Queen 

(M) 92 minutes

There is a distinct difference between nature documentaries made in France and those from the rest of the world. The BBC template usually takes man out of the frame, pretending that the animals and places being photographed exist in some perfect Eden where man has not arrived to commit original sin. That has been the model for a very long time because the BBC is selling what the viewer wants  an exotic form of silence that comes from being out there where men do not go.

A scene from documentary The Velvet Queen. Credit:Vincent Munier courtesy of Madman Entertainment

A French nature documentary would typically commit the opposite sin: they always have man in the frame or in the ears, usually in the form of a soppy narration that bangs on with typically French existential gravity. The Velvet Queen is right on point in that style, but the images save it. The camerawork is truly epic.

Vincent Munier cut his teeth on wildlife still photography. He grew up in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France, exploring nature with his father. He has made films all over the world: Ellesmere Island to film a pack of Arctic wolves; Antarctica to film the sequel to The Emperors March.
Bluesfest is coming to Melbourne in a two-day, indoor format aimed at combating the extreme weather thats forcing other festivals to be cancelled or postponed.

The inaugural Bluesfest Melbourne will be held on April 8 and 9 next year at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, making it the citys first two-day indoor festival.

The Soul Rebels will perform at Bluesfest Melbourne with guests Talib Kweli and GZA. Credit:

Coinciding with the 34th annual Bluesfest in Byron Bay, Bluesfest Melbourne will take place on Easter Saturday and Sunday, hosting up to 9,000 people each day, and feature Lucinda Williams, the Doobie Brothers, Buddy Guy and Paolo Nutini.

Melbourne music industry veteran Neil Croker, who ran St Kildas Palais Theatre before it was taken over by Live Nation, is co-promoting the festival with Bluesfest director Peter Noble.
The death of a toddler in a dog attack has left a town in the states Central West heartbroken and experts divided over the need for tighter restrictions to prevent future attacks.

Two-year-old Jyedon Pollard was attacked on Tuesday morning by a Rottweiler and a cattle dog outside the Country Gardens Motel in Cowra where he was living with his mother and sisters. He was treated in Cowra before being flown to the Childrens Hospital at Westmead where he died.

Jyedon Pollard was killed in a dog attack in Cowra on Tuesday. Credit:Instagram

Jyedon was the second child killed in a dog attack in the past 18 months, after the death of a five-week-old boy in July 2021. More than 2600 people have been attacked  two fatally  by dogs across NSW in the year to July.

On Instagram, his mother Takisha described Jyedon as the most sweet little boy.
Former Test cricketer Michael Slater has pleaded guilty to domestic violence-related charges after a magistrate refused to dismiss them on mental health grounds because of their seriousness and his failure to recognise the harm he had done to his victims.

Slater faced seven charges relating to assault and domestic violence after incidents with two women and a male patient at Sydneys Northern Beaches Hospital between April and September.

Former Test cricketer Michael Slater at Waverley Court House in April. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Slater had tried to have all the charges dismissed under the Mental Health Act, as others had been earlier this year. His barrister, John Agius, SC, told the court Slaters untreated bipolar meant he wasnt in control of his behaviour and deserved one more chance.

However, prosecutor Craig Pullen said Slaters behaviour had escalated by way of violence and threats of violence.
Clubs and pubs make billions of dollars each year from gambling and alcohol, two of the states biggest contributors to harm, including mental ill-health, suicide and family violence. The lobby group ClubsNSW, in its endeavour to maximise profits, seeks to prevent commonsense measures that would protect community health and safety.

The political poker game rolls on. Last year Australian gamblers lost more than $11.4 billion on poker machines. Credit:Josh Robenstone

In the lead-up to elections over the past decade, the NSW Coalition has sat down with these lobbyists, and signed agreements promising to avoid regulation, while NSW Labor has issued similar pre-election policies. Before each of these elections, Clubs NSW has secured written agreements from the Coalition to shield clubs from health reforms that would have reduced their profits.

The latest agreement, dated October 13, 2018, carries the misleading title Building Strong Communities and bears the signatures of the former premier, deputy premier and minister for gaming and racing. It makes promises that include not changing gaming taxes or regulations.

On Monday, however, Premier Dominic Perrottet threatened not to sign a memorandum of understanding with ClubsNSW until it agrees to reforms. That may sound like progress, but ClubsNSW reportedly told its members only last month that they can expect both the Coalition and Labor to sign an MOU before the next state election in March.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has been a busy boy lately, with ministerial resignations, the fallout from the John Barilaro affair, and an uphill political battle to get a stamp duty overhaul passed by Christmas, and thats before we start on the election due next March.

But as premier, Perrottet always has time for some constituents, as disclosures made in the latest ministerial diary release show. In September, he met with outspoken anti-pornography campaigner Melinda Tankard Reist and her Collective Shout lobby group, with e-safety the topic of discussion.

While the premiers office wouldnt comment on specifics, perhaps the duo bonded over their pro-life views  Tankard Reist is that rarest of self-described feminists who opposes abortion, once working as a media advisor for socially conservative Senator Brian Harradine.

Much to discuss no doubt.

Crown duel
Labor ministers are being urged to act on migration reforms to protect a growing underclass of migrant workers more than three years after the previous government endorsed the proposal but never changed the law.

Former competition boss Allan Fels called for criminal sanctions on employers who exploit migrant workers under looming changes to the migration system long after he completed his review of the system for the previous government in early 2019.

Labor ministers are being urged to act on migration reforms to protect a growing underclass of migrant workers. Credit:Sanghee Liu

The call comes as union leaders warn of widespread problems with illegal labour after this masthead revealed thousands of workers had come to Australia under false claims.

Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles have asked for a snap review of the visa system by former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson and others, with a separate investigation looming over visa scams revealed by this masthead in the Trafficked series.
NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns would support an expanded trial of cashless gaming cards in the states pubs and clubs but has stopped short of backing a mandatory pilot, saying he was concerned about an economic hit to the industry.

As Premier Dominic Perrottet prepares to meet industry stakeholders on Thursday to discuss his push for a compulsory gambling card, the opposition leader said he would offer bipartisan support if the government pursued a trial before the March election.

Minns said he would support the government if it launched a cashless card trial before the state election. Credit:Nick Moir

But Minns indicated the pilot would need to be an opt-in scheme, even though he conceded it meant money launderers or problem gamblers could seek out other venues. Thats part of the complexity of the response, Minns said.

If you ... made it mandatory, then youd need to make sure that the club or the pub that opted into that trial wasnt materially affected. Otherwise, we wouldnt get the recruits  the pubs and clubs  that we need to be part of the ultimate regime.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has one message for his team - supreme discipline is the partys only path to electoral success, whether that be a blanket ban on drinking in Parliament House or sticking to a handful of policy areas and not deviating from those. He does not want to offend or be involved in public feuds.

Minns does not want his MPs to expend one ounce of extra energy beyond their policy platform. That means the premier-in-waiting will not be weighing into any policy debate that does not fit neatly into his plan. Most notably that includes the escalating debate over whether the state should heed the recommendations of the hugely damning NSW Crime Commission report and implement a cashless gaming card.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns and pokies. Credit:Peter Braig and Dominic Lorrimer

It is hard to see who Minns would offend by acting on the long-overdue gaming reform measure other than the states powerful clubs and pubs lobby. Indeed, Labors memory is long and many MPs and staffers are still recovering from the ferocious campaign unleashed against Julia Gillard more than 10 years ago when she attempted to overhaul pokies.

One NSW frontbencher described it as collective post-traumatic stress disorder, still haunted by visions of cardboard cut-outs of MPs in marginal Labor seats greeting patrons at their local leagues club or RSL. That ClubsNSW Save our Clubs campaign was brutally effective.
More than 40 churches across the UAE reflect many visible and invisible elements of diverse Christian communities in the UAE.

Major Christian communities with hundreds of worshippers that own these churches have been known and visible with their large gatherings of regular masses and other religious activities. However, these churches also host scores of small invisible Christian communities from across the globe. Although small in numbers, some even a few dozens, these small communities conduct their prayers in their own languages.

We are just 20 worshippers, still we have the privilege to conduct regular worship service in our mother tongue, Tigrinya [the language spoken in Eritrea and in the northern part of Ethiopia], Pastor Mihreteab Habtemariam of Selihom Church that conducts weekly worship service at The Evangelical Church - Abu Dhabi (TEC), tells the Emirates News Agency (WAM).

Two churches for 10,000-strong Armenian community

Although most of the small Christian communities conduct their services at the church buildings of other prominent communities, Armenians are an exception. Comparatively a small Christian community of an estimated ten thousand members across the UAE, Armenian expatriates have established two independent churches - one in Abu Dhabi and other in Sharjah.

The first Armenian Church was opened in Sharjah in 1998 and the second one was opened in Abu Dhabi in 2014. Belonging to the Orthodox family, the churchs supreme head is the Catholicos Aram I Keshishian, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, based in Antelias, Lebanon.

Our churches reflect the UAEs highly appreciated values of tolerance and religious coexistence. Our supreme head calls it the UAEs unity in diversity, Bishop Mesrob Sarkissian, Prelate of the UAE at Armenian Church, tells WAM.

Armenians started coming to the UAE since 1960s and they used to conduct mass at Catholic Church or in the Anglican church until the Armenians churches were built, says the bishop who had reached the UAE in 2013.

Now some other small Christian communities that do not have own church buildings are conducting their service at the Armenian church, he says.

We are happy that all Christian communities, whether big or small, have the privilege to have prayers in a peaceful environment in the UAE, the bishop emphasises.

20 years of prayers in Tigrinya

The Selihom Church of an Eritrean community started conducting the worship service at St. Andrews Church in Abu Dhabi two decades ago, and later moved to TEC around seven years ago, adds Habtemariam. He reached the UAE ten years ago as a full-time pastor to serve the community along with a senior pastor in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai.

For a small community like us, it is a great blessing given by this country to have prayers in our own language. There is a saying that God speaks clearly in mother tongue. This means it is important for a worshipper to have prayers in mother tongue to understand Gods voice well. We are blessed in this Arab-Muslim country.

Most of the worshippers are Eritrean students at universities in Abu Dhabi and other community members who work and do business in various sectors, the pastor says.

Of an estimated few thousand Eritrean expatriates in the UAE, around 50 percent are Christians of various denominations and most of them attend several churches across the Emirates in small groups, Habtemariam says.



15,000 worshippers in 16 languages

The Evangelical Church Abu Dhabi (TEC) hosts Christian gatherings in 16 languages such as Arabic, English, Tagalog, Korean, Portuguese, Urdu, Telugu, Tigrinya, Malayalam, Burmese, Indonesian, Tamil, Nepalese, Spanish, Amharic, and Hindi, Dr. Aubrey Sequeira, Senior Pastor of The Evangelical Church  Abu Dhabi, tells WAM.

We want to see people from all parts of the world, all ethnicities, hear and understand bible in their own languages. We find it a great privilege and blessing to be able to experience this diversity of worship here in the UAE, he says.

Cass O Rear, Director of Operations, and a pastor at the church, adds, We estimate that about 15,000 Christians walk through the doors of the church building every week, he says. They include some of the smallest communities that speak Tigrinya, Korean, Portuguese, Urdu, Burmese, and Nepalese etc.

We currently have groups in the application process that, if approved, would begin meeting in Chinese and Sinhala as well, the pastor adds.

Many of the churches under TEC are multi-ethnic. We estimate that there are nearly 80 different ethnicities represented at TEC. The largest English congregation, Evangelical Community Church (ECC), is one of the most diverse churches in the world, O Rear explains.

43 congregations at Sharjah church

St. Martin's Anglican Church in Sharjah is hosting around 43 Christian congregations from across the globe that conducts weekly mass at the church, Father Drew Wayne Schmotzer, Parish Priest, tells WAM.

One of the smallest congregations with around 100 worshippers is Chaldean church [also called Church of the East] that had a pre-Islamic monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, he says.

Believed to have been built around 600 AD, the remains of the monastery is the only known Christian archaeological site in the UAE. The site was initially discovered on the 87 square kilometre island during excavations in 1992 and opened to the public in 2010.

All the 43 congregations at St. Martin's Church, Schmotzer says, conduct their services in their own languages. I think it is a right for any person to worship God in ones own language. More than 40 churches gathering in different languages is a beautiful image of what, as Christians we believe, heaven will be like where people are worshipping God in every language. They are all worshipping God at the same time in different languages, but God understands it.

He finds it beautiful to be in a church where I can walk from Chapel to Chapel, I am hearing different languages and it shows the diversity of who God is and what God has created, the Parish Priest explains.

Language preserves heritage, unifies diverse communities

Schmotzer points out that this opportunity for the worshippers to have prayers in their own language at the churches in the UAE helps expatriate communities preserve their mother tongue and cultural heritage.

When you move from another country to the UAE, you tend to lose a bit of your national heritage and your language. So, the younger generation is likely to speak English [being a common language in the UAE]. But, when they attend church in their own language, they can learn more about their own history, culture, and heritage. Therefore, it is very important to worship in ones own language, Father Schmotzer says.

Moreover, he adds, some common languages such as Arabic act as a unifying factor as it brings communities from different countries together.

Recently, a small group of Chinese people has requested the permission to use the church building for worship, and we are trying to help them, reveals the Parish Priest.
More than 100 manufacturing companies have already answered the Queensland governments callout to firms keen to contribute to its ambitious energy network overhaul.

The state asked businesses to register their interest last month after the release of its $62 billion energy and jobs plan to transition from coal to renewable power by 2035.

A wind farm in the South Burnett region. More than 2000 towers and 7000 blades are expected to be needed for the states energy transformation. Credit:AAP/Russell Freeman

Since then, 230 companies seeking supply-chain opportunities have responded, Deputy Premier Steven Miles will tell parliament on Thursday. Of those, more than 100 were manufacturers.

These are the companies who will potentially build our new wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen systems, pumped hydro facilities, and energy transmission networks right here in Queensland, Miles said.
Copenhagen: Princess Martha Louise, the daughter of Norways King Harald, says she will no longer officially represent the Norwegian royal house following many questions relating to me and my fiances role.

The 51-year-old princess, who is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne, got engaged in June to Durek Verrett, an American who describes himself as a shaman and a healer on his website.

Norways Princess Martha Louise, right, and her fiance Durek Verrett arrive at a government event in Oslo in June. Credit:NTB/AP

At least one foundation for which Martha Louise served as a patron subsequently ended its connection with the princess.

I have decided that at the present time I will no longer carry out official duties for the royal household, she said in a statement issued by the palace, adding that the decision was made in coordination with her parents to create peace around the royal household.
Druzhkivka, Donetsk: The Kremlin has ordered its troops to withdraw from the occupied city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, in a significant setback for Russian President Vladimir Putins nearly nine-month war on the country.

Ukrainian troops had been steadily advancing towards the city  the only regional capital captured by Moscow since the invasion  as part of a counter-offensive started on August 29.

A Ukrainian artillery unit fires an M777 howitzer at Russian armoured vehicles near the town of Snihurivka, on the road to the city of Kherson on Wednesday. Credit:Heidi Levine/The Washington Post

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on state television on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) it was no longer possible to supply Kherson, and the withdrawal would happen at the earliest possible juncture.

In a broadcast conversation with General Sergei Surovikin, who commands the war effort, Shoigu said the withdrawing troops would regroup and take up defensive lines on the eastern bank of the river, across from the city.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused China of playing aggressive games with democracies following reports that Beijing attempted to interfere in the countrys elections.

Trudeau said significant measures had been taken to strengthen the integrity of the system after Canadian intelligence identified a clandestine network of Beijing-backed candidates at the 2019 elections.

He was also told that China had planted spies in MPs offices to influence policy in its favour.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his way to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario. Credit:The Canadian Press/AP

At least 11 candidates were supported by China in the last federal elections, according to the intelligence.
POINTE BLANCHE:--- The Council of Ministers (COM) recently approved the vision plan known as the Quarter Development that would entail the construction of the largest waterpark in the northeastern Caribbean and a boutique hotel on the adjacent property to the Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise & Cargo Facility.

The anticipated US$100 million development will take approximately 18 months to construct and will complement other destination enhancements such as the marketplace in Philipsburg.

Acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Hon. Omar Ottley said on Tuesday: It is truly a pleasure to see the Council of Ministers unanimously approve the Quarter Development master plan. This has been in the works for many years, and I am extremely honored that I am a part of this as Acting Minister of TEATT.

My mission is to maximize our economy as much as possible and strive to make St. Maarten the number one tourist destination, not only in our region but in the world. The Quarter Development will take us to the next level while revitalizing Philipsburg and increasing touristic activities on the Dutch side of the island.

The project will enhance the local labor market with up to 500 new job opportunities upon completion and around 600 construction jobs during the construction period.

The Acting Minister of TEATT went on to say, We recently developed the SOS (Scope of Services) policy with the intention to boost the Investment economy, while using as much of our local resources as possible. I look forward to making this vision not only a reality but a success.

These developments add to the experiential value of the destination for visiting guests and the local community while sustaining St. Maartens forefront tourist destination position.

Using renewable energy, the water park with its thrill rides, lazy river and boutique-type hotel will contribute to destination appeal and will include conference facilities catering to the niche market of the tourism industry, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences & exhibitions).

Port St. Maarten Group (PSG) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alexander Gumbs said on Tuesday that he was elated with the approval of the vision by COM. There has been much discussion for more than 12-years with respect to the property adjacent to the port.

The Government of St. Maarten, locally based Platinum Harbor Holdings, Royal Caribbean Group and the Port over the past months have been working diligently to align our ideas and concepts for the property, and this has culminated into a renewed vision for the area. This will be a considerable spin-off for our national economy.

Josh Carroll, vice president, Destination Development, Royal Caribbean Group said, We are delighted to continue to collaborate on this initiative with the Council of Ministers, Port St. Maarten and our local partners that boosts the local economy and diversifies and enhances guest offerings for not only cruise guests but for everyone that enjoys the destination.

Carroll, went on to say, As we progress, local community engagement will be key to ensure we are identifying opportunities for local entrepreneurs to bring the spirit of St. Maarten to our guests.

Gumbs also shared, Our repeat guest visitation rates are 2.5 times, with a mixed demographics that come to the island, and we must be able to cater to them by reinventing and reinvesting into the destination to remain the port of choice in the region.

Our collaboration with the cruise industry will continue. There are plans to extend the second cruise pier for us to keep pace with new trends and developments within the cruise industry and as we see an increase in volume to the island.

As we prepare for the next generation of ships, we have reached a critical juncture in our development. The new project will also benefit the local community when it comes to events by schools, cultural and artisanal events, as well as other organizations. We are all excited that we reached the point with the approval of the vision plan, Gumbs concluded on Tuesday.
Kralendijk, Bonaire:--- The Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) will host its biannual board meeting from 16 November to 19 November on Bonaire. DCNAs Board meetings provide an important platform for discussing and strategizing the most effective ways to support protected area management organizations (parks) to safeguard nature in Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten. Besides, a presentation will be open to the public about research and monitoring in the Dutch Caribbean on Thursday 17th of November at 7 pm at Captain Dons Habitat, Bonaire.

The DCNA conservation network provides support to the parks of all six islands of the Dutch Caribbean. Critical components which will be discussed during the Board Meeting are the DCNA 2030 strategy, disbursement of the Conservation Trust Fund, and fundraising strategy. Besides, updates will be given by the secretariat and DCNA working groups to improve research and monitoring efforts and youth participation. The DCNA board meeting is also an important opportunity for each of the parks to collaborate, share resources, and exchange information and ideas. Working together, each island can learn from the others, maximizing their successes and learning from the more challenging experiences.

The DCNA has had some exciting changes since its last board meeting. It was a heartfelt goodbye for their previous Director Tadzio Bervoets and a warm welcome for their new team members: Arno Verhoeven as the new Director and Frederique van Randwijck as a relationship manager. Aside from conservation managers and the various experts of the Board of DCNA, observers from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN-NL), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWFNL), BirdLife Netherlands, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) also participate in DCNA Board Meetings.

Public Presentation

In addition, there will be a public presentation entitled I see you: Research and Monitoring in the Dutch Caribbean given by Diego Marquez who supports DCNAs Research & Monitoring Working Group. Research and Monitoring in the Dutch Caribbean have many challenges associated with it. In his presentation, Mr. Marquez will elaborate on these challenges and by using bird research and monitoring as an example, introduce pragmatic solutions on how to better understand these natural systems. This presentation is open to the public and will be held on 17 November at 7 PM in the meeting room at Captain Dons Habitat.
~The communities in Saba and Sint Eustatius now have the opportunity to further develop in the hospitality sector~

PHILIPSBURG:--- On Friday, November 4, 2022, the National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA) and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in Caribbean Netherlands (OCW-CG), signed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for a Hospitality Initiative program, offering persons already working in the hospitality sector, the opportunity to receive their certification in the hospitality sector on the islands of Saba and Sint Eustatius. Hospitality Skills Certification, Guest Service Gold, and Certified Hospitality Instructor all form part of the program offered effective November 7, 2022.

The SLA that was signed is based on the premise that all parties will work together in a spirit of partnership and will seek to maximize the benefits of the offered program for the population of Saba and Sint Eustatius.

Chairlady and representative of NIPAs Supervisory Board of Directors, Drs. Peggy-Ann Dros-Richardson and OCW-CG department head, Mr. Reynolds (Nolly) Oleana, both signed the agreement, making this learning opportunity a reality for students interested in the field. Also present at the signing ceremony was Ms. Mirella Thijm of OCW-CG, ing. Sergio D. Blomont of NIPA and members of NIPAs Supervisory Board of Directors.

The goal of this initiative coincides with the vision of both islands to strengthen their hospitality industry. For this reason, the availability of qualified personnel on both islands is very important. In this first phase citizens already working in the hospitality sector can receive an internationally accepted certification in this sector. This initiative also offers current and former teachers with a hospitality background the opportunity to become certified instructors not only for this phase but also for future initiatives. The ministry contributes by providing funds for this initiative. Because of this, there are no costs involved for the participants.

For this Hospitality program NIPA works together with the American Hotel and Lodging Education Institute (AHLEI). AHLEI is a worldwide recognized organization that offers training and education in hospitality. Their certificates and diplomas are internationally recognized.

NIPA is elated to offer this Hospitality Initiative program to (potential) students in Saba and Sint Eustatius as we continue to strive to broaden and strengthen connections with learning institutions worldwide. People working in the hospitality industry are encouraged to make use of this opportunity to further their studies.

The National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA) is well aware that it is the key institution for creating professionals in Sint Maarten. NIPAs goal is to increase the number of local skilled professionals on the island and in the region. NIPA is confident that it has the human resources necessary to facilitate this need to increase the skilled populace. NIPA hopes that the Saba and Sint Eustatius communities will make use of this opportunity and in turn, use their knowledge and skills to further contribute to nation-building.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply through the NIPA website at www.nipa.sx.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the URSM Party, Dr. Luc Mercelina, was a Guest on the Haitian Radio program on PJD2 Sunday night November 6th, 2022, with Host Mr. Pierre Dallise.

During an hour-long interview, Dr. Mercelina revealed that: We from the URSM appreciate, and enormously endorse and respect the HASM, that is the Haitian Association of St. Maarten and we especially have a good relationship with the President, also of the Haitian Association of St. Maarten, being Mr. Jimmy Jean-Louis, so we want to send special regards in the name of the URSM for the HASM Members.

Dr. Mercelina further stated, his party realizes that the objectives of the HASM Association of Haitians living in St. Marten, are the same as the URSM Political Movement. He noted that the Haitian association has as its objectives, to support and defend the social, cultural, professional, and educational interests of the people of St.Maarten, which are the same as the URSMs plans for St. Maarten.

The URSM political leader pointed out that the Haitian community is a significant part of our community, which plays an important role and contributes significantly, towards the development of St. Maarten, to the development of this country, and also to the economy of St. Maarten. Thats why he cannot think about a St. Maarten without Haitian participation in our community, and he is thankful, considering the contribution that the Haitian community, has contributed to the history and development of the country that we are today.

Meanwhile,  The Doc, as he is affectionately known, took the opportunity to introduce one of the candidates who will be contesting on the list of the URSM in the next election, Mr. Julian Rollocks Jr. In his first speech to the country during the interview program, Mr. Rollocks emphasized that he stands for, and represents the support of Small Businesses on St. Maarten, and recognizes the fact there are a lot of small businesses on St. Maarten that are operated by the Haitian community, which is something that we have to look up to, as they too are paying their fair share of taxes o the country of St. Maarten.

Finally, Dr. Mercelina said that the URSM party is very sensitive and concerned about the level of Poverty in St. Maarten, and realizes its a big challenge not only for the Haitian community but for other nationalities as well. The poverty rate is too high, so this has become a very high priority for the URSM, and once in Government, will implement and contribute to helping our vision in Government to try and combat poverty, by increasing the minimum wage in this country, with more social and welfare benefits, and also to increase the pension wage for our elderly.
16th Edition BFSI IT Summit South Africa

Physical Conference on 17th November 2022

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, Nov 8, 2022  (ACN Newswire)  After successful 15 editions of BFSI IT Summit, Exito is all set to host another milestone event  which serves as an ideal platform to enhance the experience to latest insights in \Future Proofing BFSI In Africa\. The South African banking industry has widely been regarded as one of the best banking systems in the world. South Africa also boasts of a FinTech sector that plays an integral role, not only for the country, but for the African continent as a whole. The country has historically been a major trade and investment commercial hub for the African continent to do business globally. Digital has been on the executive agenda of South Africa\-s financial services industry for the past decade. It has been the major driving force behind tremendous changes across the industry, allowing innovation and healthy competition to flourish. As the sector continues to drive innovation, BFSI technology leaders find themselves looking for new ways to redefine their strategy comprehensively, outgrow competition and remain resilient. Customer-centric approaches, digitization, automation of processes and data security continue to be priority for IT leaders from the BFSI sector.

The 16th Edition BFSI IT Summit, is an in-person conference bringing together the top technology leaders from the fraternity. The Summit aims to be a learning and networking platform curated to deep dive into the imminent challenges faced by the BFSI sector and indentify best practices to overcome the same.

The summit is an ideal platform for Technology and Innovation leaders to Meet, Interact and Gain new insights on the digital transformation and innovations from the Banking and Financial Services Industry. At BFSI IT Summit South Africa, you will hear from top IT experts on strategy, action plans and best practices towards building an agile digital organization.

The summit will bring together 150+ IT Leaders, CIO, CTO, VP/ AVP-IT, Director IT, CDO, General Manager IT to discuss the best practices in Cyber Security and engaging in panel discussions, industry keynotes and solution showcases that will enable IT leaders to chart out the optimal strategic path.

Speakers like John Bosco Arends- Chairperson Chartered CIO council, Group Head Information and Network Technology Operations City of Johannesburg, South Africa, Kumaran Selvarajalu-Senior General Manager: Payments, Payments Division, The Banking Association South Africa, Shergeran Naidoo- Head: Stakeholder Engagement BankservAfrica, Thembelani Mkhize CA(SA)- Head: Finance, Hollard Investments, Shoaib Nathie- Chief Information Officer, CIB, Dr. Sizwe Gwala- Head of Data Governance: Group Compliance, Absa Group, Sanele Samuel Mtshotana- Associate Financial Markets Specialist South African Reserve Bank, Paul Morley- Executive: Group Data Services, Nedbank Group Technology, Megaree Naraidoo- Enterprise Architect, AVBOB will be sharing their experiences and expertise at the Summit.

Event registration has commenced for Delegates and Sponsors.

 The delegates will be exposed to in-depth, trend-forward sessions & workshops-practical takeways and ideas to keep you ahead in the digital economy.

 The sponsors will be able to create an overwhelming branding in the event along with meeting their prospects and displaying the products.

 Hundreds of seasoned marketers, strategists, designers, and more to network and connect with. Meet your customers, vendors, experts resources, friends and colleagues on the 17th of November 2022.

Register Today to engage at this grand event as the slots are filling up fast.

To know more about the event, https://bfsiitsummit.com/africa/

About Exito

We are a global B2B business events company focused on crafting bespoke solutions and contexts by designing platforms that create new business opportunities for our clients across concepts and industries. We cherish the trust over the last 12 years garnered from our partnering organizations globally, and with a growing team of young, vibrant, and creative individuals, Exito aims at success and perfection!
Skeena Intersects High-Grade In-Pit Mineralization in 21A West Zone Averaging 22.38 g/t AuEq over 24.00 metres

Skeena Resources Limited (TSX: SKE, NYSE: SKE) (aSkeenaa or the aCompanya  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/skeena-resources-ltd/ ) is pleased to announce additional drilling results from the 21A West Zone delineation program as part of the recently completed 2022 regional and near mine exploration campaigns at the Eskay Creek gold-silver Project (aEskay Creeka or the aProjecta) in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. Analytical results and reference images from the recently completed drill holes are detailed in this release as well as on the Companya?s website

21A West Zone Continues to Demonstrate High Grades and Continuity

Exploratory drill hole SK-22-1122 intersected high tenor gold and silver mineralization in Rhyolite facies rocks below the Contact Mudstone, averaging 20.43 g/t Au, 175.2 g/t Ag (22.38 g/t AuEq) over 24.00 m with many notable high-grade subintervals including 80.20 g/t Au, 2,790.0 g/t Ag (111.20 g/t AuEq) over 0.50 m and 65.80 g/t Au, 1.1 g/t Ag (65.81 g/t AuEq) over 0.93 m.

This drill hole has expanded and predictably validated the geometry of the evolving 21A West Zone discovered in late 2021 and is situated 15 metres vertically below previously reported 2022 drill hole SK-22-1093, which intersected 47.50 g/t Au, 73.4 g/t Ag (48.48 g/t AuEq) over 12.12 m. The 21A West Zone remains open for expansion both down-dip and along strike. Occurring within the intended open-pit at a vertical depth of only 60 metres below surface, this area of the resource was never populated by previous drilling and as such was previously modelled as barren waste rock.

New Mineralization Discovered Below Pit

New Rhyolite-hosted mineralization has also been intersected by exploratory drill hole

SK-22-1095 grading 5.39 g/t Au, 10.9 g/t Ag (5.51 g/t AuEq) over 20.60 m including 26.80 g/t Au, 12.6 g/t Ag (26.94 g/t AuEq) over 0.74 m and 22.20 g/t Au, 8.1 g/t Ag (22.29 g/t AuEq) over 1.10 m. This new occurrence is situated 25 metres below the currently planned open-pit and remains open for expansion. A total of 55,652 metres were drilled over 215 holes during the 2022 drilling program and will be incorporated into the H2 2023 Resource update.

About Skeena

Skeena Resources Limited is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on revitalizing the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine located in Tahltan Territory in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company released a Feasibility Study for Eskay Creek in September 2022 which highlights an open-pit average grade of 4.00 g/t AuEq, an after-tax NPV5% of C$1.4B, 50% IRR, and a 1-year payback at US$1,700/oz Au and US$19/oz Ag. Skeena is currently continuing exploration drilling at Eskay Creek.

Gold Equivalent (AuEq) calculated via the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 90]. True widths and zone geometries cannot be definitively determined at this time. Grade-capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length-weighted AuEq composites. Metallurgical processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are taken at 100%. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero.

Qualified Persons

Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek Project are administered on site by the Companya?s Exploration Managers, Raegan Markel, P.Geo. and Director of Exploration, Adrian Newton P.Geo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Senior Vice President Exploration and Resource Development, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting the exploration activities on its projects.

Quality Assurance a Quality Control

Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently securely stored on site. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Companya?s Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Resource Development.

Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistrya?s analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 1 kg is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50 g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100 ppm are re-analyzed using a 50 g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50 g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish with a lower limit of 5ppm and upper limit of 10,000 ppm. Samples with silver assays greater than 10,000 ppm are re-analyzed using a gravimetric silver concentrate method. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-element geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and also for mercury using an aqua regia digest with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish. Samples with sulfur reporting greater than 10% from the multi-element analysis are re-analyzed for total sulfur by Leco furnace and infrared spectroscopy.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

Certain statements and information contained or incorporated by reference in this news release constitute aforward-looking informationa and aforward-looking statementsa within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, aforward-looking statementsa). These statements relate to future events or our future performance. The use of words such as aanticipatesa, abelievesa, aproposesa, acontemplatesa, ageneratesa, atargetsa, ais projecteda, ais planneda, aconsidersa, aestimatesa, aexpectsa, ais expecteda, apotentiala and similar expressions, or statements that certain actions, events or results amaya, amighta, awilla, acoulda, or awoulda be taken, achieved, or occur, may identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Specific forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the results of the Feasibility Study, processing capacity of the mine, anticipated mine life, probable reserves, estimated project capital and operating costs, sustaining costs, results of test work and studies, planned environmental assessments, the future price of metals, metal concentrate, and future exploration and development. Such forward-looking statements are based on material factors and/or assumptions which include, but are not limited to, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and the assumptions set forth herein and in the Companya?s MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2021, its most recently filed interim MD&A, and the Companya?s Annual Information Form (aAIFa) dated March 31, 2022. Such forward-looking statements represent the Companya?s management expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances on the date the statements are made, and are necessarily based on several estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date hereof, are not guarantees of future performance. Actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein, and are subject to significant operational, business, economic, and regulatory risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others: the inherent risks involved in exploration and development of mineral properties, including permitting and other government approvals; changes in economic conditions, including changes in the price of gold and other key variables; changes in mine plans and other factors, including accidents, equipment breakdown, bad weather and other project execution delays, many of which are beyond the control of the Company; environmental risks and unanticipated reclamation expenses; and other risk factors identified in the Companya?s MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2021, its most recently filed interim MD&A, the AIF dated March 31, 2022, the base shelf prospectus dated November 11, 2020, the prospectus supplement to the Companya?s base shelf prospectus dated September 20, 2022 and in the Companya?s other periodic filings with securities and regulatory authorities in Canada and the United States that are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and Company does not undertake any obligations to update and/or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws.

Cautionary note to U.S. Investors concerning estimates of mineral reserves and mineral resources

Skeenaa?s mineral reserves and mineral resources included or incorporated by reference herein have been estimated in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 a Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (aNI 43-101a) as required by Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. The terms amineral reservea, aproven mineral reservea, aprobable mineral reservea, amineral resourcea, ameasured mineral resourcea, aindicated mineral resourcea and ainferred mineral resourcea are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with NI 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (aCIMa) aCIM Definition Standards a For Mineral Resources and Mineral Reservesa adopted by the CIM Council (as amended, the aCIM Definition Standardsa). These standards differ significantly from the mineral property disclosure requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Regulation S-K Subpart 1300 (the aSEC Modernization Rulesa). Skeena is not currently subject to the SEC Modernization Rules. Accordingly, Skeenaa?s disclosure of mineralization and other technical information may differ significantly from the information that would be disclosed had Skeena prepared the information under the standards adopted under the SEC Modernization Rules.A

In addition, investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of Skeenaa?s mineral resources constitute or will be converted into reserves. These terms have a great amount of uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to assume that any ameasureda, aindicateda, or ainferreda mineral resources that Skeena reports are or will be economically or legally mineable. Further, ainferred mineral resourcesa have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an ainferred mineral resourcea will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian securities laws, estimates of ainferred mineral resourcesa may not form the basis of feasibility or prefeasibility studies, except in rare cases where permitted under NI 43-101.

For these reasons, the mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates and related information presented herein may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

A
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan received today Chairman of the Polish Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and European Union, Bogdan Klich, the Parliaments press service said.

In his remarks Speaker Alen Simonyan said that this year marks the 655th anniversary of the official formation of the Armenian community of Poland. He added that Armenia highly appreciates and is grateful for the warm attitude and care that the Armenian people have felt in Poland.

At the meeting the sides highlighted the importance of intensifying the inter-parliamentary cooperation, agreeing on the necessity to enrich the agenda issues.

The Speaker of Parliament also touched upon the latest large-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against Armenias sovereign territory and the consequences of that aggression. In this context the EUs decision to send 40 civilian monitors to Armenias borders was emphasized.

The transit visa requirement for the citizens of Armenia in the airports of Poland, which took effect on August 1, 2022, was also touched upon. Alen Simonyan called it concerning, adding that it contradicts to the visa liberalization idea, by creating additional obstacles for the free movement of the citizens of Armenia. He expressed hope that the decision will be revised.
ETSI Secures Critical Infrastructures against Cyber Quantum Attacks with new TETRA Algorithms

Sophia Antipolis, 8 November 2022: With the world facing growing challenges including the war in Europe and a global energy crisis, it is essential that the mission- and business-critical communications networks used by the public safety, critical infrastructure and utilities sectors (including transportation, electricity, natural gas and water plants) are secured against third-party attacks, to protect communications and sensitive data. With more than 120 countries using dedicated TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) networks for these critical services, work has been undertaken to ensure the ETSI TETRA technology standard remains robust in the face of evolving threats.

To adapt to technology innovations and potential cybersecurity attacks, including from quantum computers, the ETSI technical committee TCCE has completed work on new algorithms designed to secure TETRA networks for at least the next 20 years. These new specifications, ETSI TS 100 392-7 and ETSI TS 100 396-6 have been developed in close collaboration with experts from the ETSI quantum safe cryptography group.

This work was carried out with the support of TCCA, the global representative organization responsible for the enhancement of the TETRA standard. Demand for TETRA technology will continue to increase at a CAGR of 4.7% in the 2021-2026 forecast period, according to Omdia.

TETRA is widely used by public safety agencies around the world as, in addition to secure and resilient network communications it also offers direct peer-to-peer critical communications without the need for a supporting network in situations such as natural disasters and emergencies. Nations want to deploy networks shared by all public safety organizations and first responders to fully interoperate with other services during emergency situations and disasters. The transportation market is also a large market for TETRA, especially for Mass Rapid Transport systems, such as the London Underground network, and the Parisian metro network managed by RATP, and many major airports.

Technical details

TETRA is a digital Private Mobile Radio (PMR) and Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) technology for critical communications with a specific set of communication requirements. These include high reliability, single and group calling capabilities, PTT (Push-To-Talk), and the possibility for direct peer-to-peer communications. TETRA is optimised for medium to high capacity applications by utilising Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology.

Some unique PMR services of TETRA include:

a Wide area fast call set-up \all informed net\ group calls

a Direct Mode Operation (DMO) allowing \back to back\ communications between radio terminals independent of the network

a High level voice encryption to meet the security needs of public safety organizations

a An Emergency Call facility that gets through even if the system is busy

a Full duplex voice for PABX and PSTN telephony communications

Supporting quotes

aIt is vital to keep the TETRA cryptography updated with the latest cybersecurity algorithms when you realise the variety of sensitive organizations and applications TETRA systems serve. The EU Parliament and Commission for instance use a secure TETRA system to protect their building and communication networks, a scenario where failure or security compromise is unthinkable,a said Brian Murgatroyd, Chair of ETSI TCCE committee.

aThis upgrade of the TETRA standard confirms and reinforces the efforts of the TETRA industry community to support TETRA as the optimal mission critical communication technology for the long-term future,a said Francesco Pasquali, Chair of TCCAa?s TETRA Industry Group (TIG) and TCCA Board Member. aOur commitment to maintaining TETRAa?s outstanding and unrivalled level of security is essential, especially in a continuously evolving and challenging context where new cyber threats are coming not only from isolated cybercrime actors, but from organised hostile countries.a

aThese new air interface encryption algorithms will support TETRA into the foreseeable future. They are designed to withstand brute force attack beyond the year 2040 even if quantum computers become a viable means of attack, with new over-the-air key management algorithms and authentication keys to further strengthen the security of the standard,a said Dave Chater-Lea, Vice Chair of the ETSI TCCE committee.

aIt is also important to note that TETRA meets the requirements of the military, and now more than ever, as there is both an increase in modern warfare technologies and a growing need for real-time information in operations. At the same time, TETRA is key for peace keeping for the United Nations to improve the security of strategic and tactical communications,a said Jukka Vialen, Vice Chair of the ETSI TCCE committee
BBT.live and Rohde&Schwarz partner to provide telco-grade SDx

ipoqueA GmbH, a RohdeA &A Schwarz company, today announced that its cutting-edge deep packet inspection (DPI) engine, R&SAPACEA 2 , has been selected by BBT.live, an Israel-based provider of enterprise-grade software-defined connectivity solutions. The collaboration between both companies will enable real-time, advanced traffic insights for BBT.livea?s suite of cloud-based solutions powering service providersa? SDx services such as SD-WAN.

ipoquea?s R&SAPACEA 2 will be deployed in BBT.livea?s BeBroadbanda Edge software, the first-of-its-kind software-defined, cloud-based solution for secure network connectivity. BeBroadbanda offers service providers a highly flexible, hardware-agnostic platform that connects customersa? branch offices, data centers, campuses and headquarters. Its single orchestration platform enables service providers to commission, control and monitor connectivity across any number of customers and end devices across any network including IoT, GW, LAN, WAN and cloud. As an off-the-shelf solution, BeBroadbanda features zero-touch provisioning and can be integrated seamlessly into any cloud and edge infrastructure.

The deployment of R&SAPACEA 2 introduces cutting-edge traffic filtering capabilities for BeBroadbanda. Leveraging metadata extraction and advanced traffic classification methodologies that include behavioral, heuristic and statistical analytics, R&SAPACEA 2 equips BeBroadbanda with granular traffic visibility up to layer 7 and beyond, allowing real-time identification of applications and service types. R&SAPACEA 2 also comes with encrypted traffic intelligence (ETI), which uses machine learning, deep learning and high-dimensional data analysis to detect traffic flows and applications that are encrypted, obfuscated and anonymized.

Leveraging ipoquea?s traffic classification, which boasts the highest accuracy rates in the industry, service providers deploying BeBroadbanda will have access to detailed information into traffic traversing their networks, across any number of links and connectivity type such as 5G, 4G, xDSL, broadband and MPLS. At the same time, real-time threat identification by R&SAPACEA 2 equips BeBroadbanda nodes with information on suspicious or anomalous traffic flows, allowing service providers to pin down and remediate threats before they become endemic.

aInsights from DPI will greatly enhance application-aware networking capabilities for BeBroadbandaa?s customers,a said Dr. Martin Mieth, VP Engineering at ipoque. aThis includes application-based routing, steering and prioritization policies as well as dynamic security rules implemented based on application risk profiles.a Leveraging the insights from R&SAPACEA 2, service providers can greatly optimize their network capacity, reduce complexities and enable higher efficiencies, leading to an improved network performance and a lower TCO. Fine-grained analytics can further assist service providers in improving application performance specifically for mission-critical applications.

The demand for next-generation, highly agile and flexible connectivity solutions increases constantly. The unlimited processing capacity of R&SAPACEA 2 supports service providers deploying BeBroadbanda in tackling this demand, as it scales across any number of end devices and traffic flows. Its efficient memory and CPU utilization and a light form-factor supports leaner SDx implementations across both traditional and virtualized architectures. Real-time information from R&SAPACEA 2 seamlessly integrates into BeBroadbanda, supporting single orchestration for the entire network with end-to-end traffic visibility.

The collaboration between ipoque and BBT.live is expected to deliver major synergies that arise from combining the worlda?s first software-defined connectivity solution designed for service providers with a renowned DPI engine that boasts more than 10 years of deployments. aOur collaboration with RohdeA &A Schwarz and implementation of R&SAPACEA 2 will give service providers an opportunity to enhance their traffic management and security in a way that only a leader in deep packet inspection can enable on our platform,a said Moshe Levinson, CEO at BBT.live.

With fast evolving connectivity needs across enterprises, insights powered by R&SAPACEA 2 will enable BBT.live to support highly intelligent and responsive networks that can effectively address todaya?s application usage and traffic behavior trends, threat landscapes and industry-specific needs. aWith service provider network complexities growing day by day, BBT.live can count on deep traffic intelligence provided by R&SAPACEA 2 to deliver a highly scalable and customizable connectivity solution that is a cut above the rest,a added Mieth.

ipoque, a Rohde & Schwarz company, is a global leader in network analytics and deep packet inspection software for the communications industry. We leverage our deep domain expertise to create software solutions that empower customers to transform network data into intelligence. Find out more www.ipoque.com.

Rohde & Schwarz

The Rohde & Schwarz technology group is among the trailblazers when it comes to paving the way for a safer and connected world with its leading solutions in test & measurement, technology systems, and networks & cybersecurity. Founded nearly 90 years ago, the group is a reliable partner for industry and government customers around the globe. On June 30, 2022, Rohde & Schwarz had around 13,000 employees worldwide. The independent group achieved a net revenue of EUR 2.53 billion in the 2021/2022 fiscal year (July to June). The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany.

R&S is a registered trademark of Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Mogo Armenia, member of Eleving Group  an international fintech company  celebrates 5 years of its activity.

Entering the Armenian market in 2017, Mogo offered its customers a car loan service from the secondary market, different from all other offers existing in the market at that time, thus bringing a new service to the Armenian financial market.

Thanks to its professional and knowledgeable team, during these years Mogo Armenia managed to take a leading position in the car loan market, offering simple, fast and convenient solutions. For Mogo, every customer is an important asset, and the company does its best to identify customers requirements and offer appropriate financial solutions. In this regard, Mogo stands out by its flexibility and experience to quickly respond to existing requirements.

During these 5 years, Eleving Group has invested more than AMD 3.5 billion in Mogo Armenia. Continuously improving the quality of its services, Mogo offers the top products of Eleving Group. From 2022 it has also introduced the new Primero loan (a new product launched for car lovers with a stable income, who cannot use car loan services offered by banks due to lack of down payment or other reasons).

Eleving Group was founded in Latvia in 2012. Today it is a powerful international fintech organization operating in 13 countries on three continents, offering innovative and ambitious projects for these markets.

Hakob Manukyan, General Director of Mogo Armenia, noted that as a member of Eleving Group, Mogo introduces innovations, principles and methods of fintech sector in Armenia.

The innovative technological solutions offered by the Eleving Group, enable Mogo to provide the fastest car loan options, with the use of the leading automated system of evaluation of creditworthiness. The latter significantly optimizes the decision-making process, giving customers an opportunity to receive the necessary funds in a short period of time, Hakob Manukyan said.

Edgars Kokins, member of Mogo Armenia Board, noted that Armenia has always been and remains a very important and promising market for the Group.

We think that it has great potential for development as a company. The Group strongly believes in the dynamic development of Mogo Armenia, based on principles of responsible financing and contributing to the financial well-being and success of customers, Edgars Kokins emphasized.

***

In 2020 and 2021 the Financial Times recognized Eleving Group as one of the fastest growing companies and included it in the list of Europes Top 1 000 Fastest Growing Companies.

The group has a leading team of more than 2,600 professionals. According to 9M2022 report, Eleving Groups revenue reached EUR 136 million, EBITDA  EUR 53.5 million, assets amounted to EUR 382 million and capital  EUR 76.2 million.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament of Armenia Ishkhan Saghatelyan from the opposition Hayastan faction said there is no final decision yet on the oppositions return to parliament.

He told reporters that if they return back to parliament, they will return with their agenda.

As of this moment nothing has changed in our previous statement according to which the opposition must be with its own agenda in the parliament. There are different types of discussions, if there is a decision, the faction will make a statement, Saghatelyan said, adding that today the key issue is the security of Armenia and Artsakh.
The Lyrid meteor shower occurs between April 16-25 every year and will peak on the night of April 22, 2023. Viewing opportunities are favorable for the 2023 Lyrids for the waxing crescent moon will be just 6% illuminated on the night of the peak.

Lyrid meteor shower When: 16 to 25 April Peak: April 22 Comet of origin: C/1861 G1 Thatcher (Comet Thatcher) Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR): 18 (The number of meteors a single observer would see in an hour of peak activity with a clear, dark sky and the radiant at the zenith).

NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke told Space.com. As with most meteor showers, the peak viewing time will be before dawn, but the Lyrids will become visible beginning at about 10:30 p.m. local time.

The shower is known for its luminous dust trains which can be observed for several seconds according to NASA (opens in new tab). The Lyrids are associated with Comet Thatcher, a long-period comet that orbits the sun every 415.5 years (opens in new tab), it last reached its closest approach to the sun in 1861.

Related: The most amazing Lyrid meteor shower photos of all time

The average Lyrid shower produces 15 to 20 meteors per hour.

Some years, the Lyrid meteor shower intensifies and can produce up to 100 meteors per hour in what's called an "outburst," but it is difficult to predict exactly when that will happen.

"People say there is some periodicity there," Cooke said, "but the data doesn't support that." Although there is an average of 30 years between these outbursts, that's only an average; the actual number of years between the events varies, Cooke said.

Where to see the Lyrids meteor shower

The radiant of the Lyrid meteor shower is located near the Hercules-Lyra border. (Image credit: Future)

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The radiant  the point from which the meteors appear to originate  will be high in the evening sky in the constellation Lyra to the northeast of Vega, one of the brightest stars visible in the night sky this time of year. Don't look directly toward the radiant, though, because you might miss the meteors with the longest tails.

The Lyrid meteor shower is of medium brightness, but not as luminous as the famous Perseid meteor shower in August, which tends to produce more prominent trails, Cooke said.

What causes the Lyrid meteor shower?

Lyrid meteors are little pieces of Comet Thatcher, a long-period comet that was discovered by amateur astronomer A.E. Thatcher.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth crosses the path of a comet, colliding with a trail of comet crumbs. That's why they happen around the same time every year and appear to originate from specific points in the sky. As they burn up in Earth's atmosphere, the meteors leave bright streaks in the sky commonly referred to as "shooting stars."

Lyrid meteors come in fast  though not as fast as the Leonids, which peak in November, Cooke said. "The Leonids hit us head-on," he said. "The Lyrids are more like hitting the left front fender."

How to see the Lyrid meteor shower

The Lyrids are one of the oldest recorded showers, Cooke said, with observations going back to 687 B.C. You don't need any kind of special equipment to see the meteors; just look up at the dark sky, be patient and enjoy the show.

To best see the Lyrid meteor shower , go to the darkest possible location, lean back and relax. You don't need any equipment like telescopes or binoculars as the secret is to take in as much sky as possible and allow about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark.

If you want more advice on how to photograph the Lyrids, check out our how to photograph meteors and meteor showers guide and if you need imaging gear, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

To best see the Lyrids, go to the darkest possible location, lean back and relax. (Image credit: Future)

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Historical Lyrid meteor shower sightings

A Lyrid meteor crosses the Milky Way galaxy in this photo taken by Tina Pappas Lee on Fripp Island, South Carolina. The photo was taken at approximately 4:45 a.m. local time on April 22, 2020. (Image credit: Courtesy of Tina Pappas Lee)

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The Lyrids have been chronicled in many cultures over the past 2,700 years. Chinese astronomers noted prominent displays in 687 B.C. and 15 B.C. Also, in 1136, a report from Korea chronicled the shower with the words "many stars flew from the northeast," according to Space.com's skywatching columnist Joe Rao.

In 1803, residents of Richmond, Virginia, went outside late at night after a fire alarm. A report from that time noted that the meteors resembled rockets in the sky.

"Shooting stars. This electrical [sic] phenomenon was observed on Wednesday morning last at Richmond and its vicinity, in a manner that alarmed many, and astonished every person that beheld it. From 1 until 3 in the morning, those starry meteors seemed to fall from every point in the heavens, in such numbers as to resemble a shower of sky rockets," wrote a journalist at the time, in an account republished on Space Weather (opens in new tab).

NASA stated that similarly, impressive shower sightings took place in 1922 in Greece, 1945 in Japan, and 1982 in the United States.

Editor's note: If you snap a great photo Lyrid meteor shower that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and observing location to spacephotos@space.com (opens in new tab).

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Additional information

Explore the Lyrids in more detail with NASA Science (opens in new tab). Read more about the Lyra constellation with this article from In-The-Sky.org (opens in new tab). Learn about Comet Thatcher  the source of the Lyrids  with this NASA Science article.

Bibliography

NASA. C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). NASA. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/c-1861-g1-thatcher/in-depth/ (opens in new tab)

NASA. Lyrids: In depth. NASA. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/lyrids/in-depth/ (opens in new tab)
Sophie Turner takes the role of Joan Hannington in ITVX drama, Joan, inspired by the life of the UKs most notorious jewel thief, written by screenwriter Anna Symon, produced by Snowed-in Productions and directed by Richard LaxtonITVs Head of Drama, Polly Hill has commissioned Joan, a six-part drama inspired by the true story of notorious jewel thief, Joan Hannington, with Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The Staircase) in the leading role.Set in the fun, brash, aspirational world of 1980s London, the drama is a powerful female story that will premiere on the channels new, free streaming service ITVX.Commented Sophie Turner:Im so excited to be bringing Joan Hanningtons fascinating life story to screen in Joan. She is one of the most notorious figures in the criminal underworld of London, earning her the nickname The Godmother. A woman who goes between her thriving and daring career as a jewel thief, all whilst trying to get her daughter back from social services, we see a mother in despair swept up in the exhilarating world of crime.Created for television by acclaimed screenwriter Anna Symon (Mrs Wilson, The Essex Serpent, Deep Water) from Joans memoirs, Joan is the true story of her meteoric rise from petty offender to highly talented diamond thief and criminal mastermind. Anna met with Joan Hannington whilst writing the series, and the drama will be filmed in London in the spring of 2023.Joan will be executive produced by Ruth Kenley-Letts (Stonehouse, The Midwich Cuckoos, Strike), CEO of Snowed-In Productions, Jenny Van Der Lande (Strike, You Dont Know Me, Too Close) Creative Director of Snowed-In and Neil Blair (The Midwich Cuckoos, Strike, Fantastic Beast: The Secrets of Dumbledore) Chairman of Snowed-In and directed by BAFTA award winning Director, Richard Laxton (The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, Honour, Mrs Wilson). Paul Frift (Anansi Boys, Deep State, Good Omens) will produce the drama.Commented Polly Hill:Joans story is incredible, making a success of life when the stakes seem stacked against her, by not playing by the rules. Annas scripts are brilliant and a perfect fit for ITVX and I cant wait to see Sophie Turner step into Joans shoes. Set in the 80s with Richard Laxton directing and Ruth Kenley-Letts and Snowed-In producing, this is a great story with a great team bringing it to screen.Were first introduced to Joan in her twenties, a fiery, uncompromising, and intoxicating character, who is not without her own deep scars and vulnerability, as a doting and loving young mother to 4-year-old Debbie. Shes in a disastrous marriage to a violent thug, and when he goes on the run, Joan seizes the moment to leave her old life.Inspired by her desire to care for Debbie and create a secure home for her daughter, Joan makes some heart-breaking decisions as she sets her sights on a better life.Making full use of her sharp intelligence, charm, and her talent for impersonation and performance, we follow the twists and turns in Joans life, the ups and downs, the heartache and the joy, which makes her story a compelling television drama.Commented Ruth Kenley-Letts, Jenny Van Der Lande and Neil Blair:Were thrilled to be bringing Joan Hanningtons extraordinary and compelling life to the screen. Annas brilliant scripts are both heart-breaking and complex capturing Joans vivid and colourful life so perfectly. We couldnt be more excited to have the wonderful Sophie Turner playing the title role. And in Richard Laxton we have the perfect director to tell Joans story.Commented Richard Laxton:I am so excited to bring this story and Annas astounding script to life. With Sophie Turner in the title role and the 1980s as a rich and vibrant backdrop Joan is sure to be an exhilarating and compelling ride.Commented Anna Symon:From penniless single parent to accomplished diamond thief, Joan Hanningtons life story is a thrilling, rags-to-riches rollercoaster. I couldnt be more excited to watch the stellar talent Sophie Turner step into Joan's shoes. Ever since I first read Joans explosive memoir, I have been desperate to bring her story to screen and I am thrilled to be collaborating once again with the incredibly talented teams at Snowed-In Productions and ITV. With the brilliant Richard Laxton at the helm, I cannot wait to get started.All3Media International will be responsible for the international distribution of the drama. The series is produced in association with All3Media International.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. State Minister of Artsakh Ruben Vardanyan visited today the Military Pantheon of Stepanakert to pay tribute to the memory of heroes fallen at the 2020 Artsakh War, his Office said.

Ruben Vardanyan was accompanied by his advisors.

The State Minister expressed his solidarity to the relatives of fallen heroes who visited the memorial.
Minister of European Investment and Projects Marcel Bolos said on Wednesday in Prahova that there are 1,188,000 Romanians who are on the verge of extreme poverty, who get food packages purchased on European funds, told Agerpres.

"In Romania, there are 1,188,000 cases of people who are on the verge of extreme poverty and whom the crisis have affected more than others in terms of utility bills and consumer good prices, and they welcome such package, as it offsets part of their daily expenses," said Bolos.

On Wednesday, the minister went to a warehouse in the town or Urlati, where the food packages are packed.

"Today we start distributing 1,188,000 food packages that we have prepared for people and families in need. We are talking about those people and families whose minimum income per family member is below the minimum social income, about those who take in allowances for family support, people who are in crisis situations, are alone, are considered vulnerable as defined by the European Commission regulation, being the fifth installment that has this food package ... the impact of the six installments we provide, of food packages - 32,000 tonnes of flour, 28,000 tonnes of corn flour, 28 million jars of compote, so all in all, for the industry food of Romania it is a special help. The value of one batches approximately RON 220 million and we have the funds secured under Operational Programme Support for Disadvantaged Persons," said Bolos.

About the instances of products offered in previous installments that were sold by the beneficiaries, the minister said that in such cases the authorities must be notified for prosecution.
Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) senator, Sorin Lavric, criticized the textbook "Gender Equality", on Wednesday, whose doctrine is "globalist evil, which wants to destroy the person, the family, the nation, the church", noting that the manual appeared under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and is addressed "for now" only to personnel from pre-university education, told Agerpres.

"Last night I had the bad inspiration to flip through a textbook called 'Gender Equality' and I want to share with you some of the impressions I was left with. What is gender equality? It is the main vector through which today's political scourge spreads throughout the world. When I say politically correct scourge or globalist scourge it is the same thing, it is the same evil globalist doctrine that wants to destroy the person, the family, the nation, the church and this relationship between man and woman in marriage. So far, this politically correct scourge was mainly transmitted through governments, corporations and universities, only now a step forward has been taken and under the supervision of the Ministry of Education it has been passed to the pre-university level (...). We have a gross sample of ideological aggression, the fact that what normal life means for us, for healthy Romanians, is actually the expression of an oppressive coercive pattern, because of which the minorities cannot achieve that peace and happiness they want. (...). We must draw the attention of the Romanians that, if they do not wake up and replace this political class, this manual, which for the time being will only circulate for teaching staff, will end up being a mandatory norm and then the Romanians will wake up to the fact that some children appear in their families in whose minds certain fixed ideas have occurred, which change the horizon of life and of course aspirations and ideals," Lavric specified, at a press conference.

He claimed that several NGOs appealed to the Ministry of Education to withdraw this manual, but, adds Lavric, "the Minister of Education today is a puppet, a docile puppet in the hands of Iohannis and we know very well that for Iohannis, an educated Romania actually means a Romania on its knees in front of gender ideology and the politically correct scourge," the AUR senator concluded.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Members of Parliament of Greece visited today the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.

The guests were welcomed and introduced on the history of the creation of the Memorial by Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Edita Gzoyan, the Museum said.

The Greek lawmakers laid flowers at the Eternal Flame and paid tribute to the memory of the Genocide victims with a moment of silence.

The guests also toured the Museum, got acquainted with permanent and temporary exhibitions. At the end of the visit the Greek MPs left notes in the Honorary Guest Book.
The National Public Health Institute has informed that in the October 31 - November 6 week, 47.2% of the COVID-19 cases in Romania were reported by Bucharest City and the counties of Cluj, Timis, Arad and Ilfov combined, told Agerpres.

According to the Weekly Supervision Report, 38.1% of the confirmed cases were in persons not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Among the vaccinated who got sick, 41.4% were either immediately after vaccination or more than six months after the last dose.

INSP says that 63.2% of the total deaths were reported by the counties of Mures, Timis, Braila, Cluj and Ilfov combined.

Also, 57.9% of the deaths were in unvaccinated people.

As of today, 86.5% of all COVID-19 deaths were in people over 60 years old, and 54.7% - in men, with 93.7% of the deaths having occurred in patients with at least one related comorbidity.
Korea is a partner of Romania and one of the most important regional partners of NATO in the Asia-Pacific area, with a similar vision regarding security threats, the chairman of the Committee for Defense, Public Order and National Security of the Chamber of Deputies, Laurentiu Leoreanu said at a meeting with a delegation from the Republic of Korea, consisting of representatives of the National Assembly and the Administration of the Defense Acquisition Programme.

According to a statement by the select committee's chair sent on Wednesday, the discussions with the Korean partners focused on the importance of practical cooperation between the two states, especially in the complex and unpredictable geopolitical and economic context.

"We thus agreed on the need to combine efforts to ensure a stable security environment, considering that both the Black Sea region and the Asia-Pacific face multiple interconnected threats," Leoreanu assessed.

The chair of the Defense Committee reiterated Romania's interest in long-term economic cooperation and the possibility of participating in the competitions launched to equip the Romanian Army, considering the partnership in the field of the defense industry, as a result of the use of NATO standards by the industry of South Korean defense and experience in running similar endowment programmes.

"The meeting revealed the importance of the complementarity between the executive vector and the projection of parliamentary diplomacy instruments, the parties agreeing on the continuation of the dialogue between the two legislatures in the near future," Leoreanu added.

He mentioned that "the meeting was part of the excellent dynamic of bilateral relations, governed by a Strategic Partnership concluded in 2008, the Republic of Korea being one of the 11 partners and the only Asian country with this status for the Romanian state.

The recent high-level visits, carried out both in Romania and in Seoul, represent the assumption of certain efforts to achieve the common objectives defined by the Partnership and mark the consolidation of the strategic relationship, the source also said.AGERPRES
The President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Marcel Ciolacu, told a press conference that he will take over the position of Prime Minister in May 2023, if the PSD considers him to be the right person.

Asked how he comments on the statements of the Save Romania Union (USR) president, Catalin Drula, according to which he will avoid taking over the position of prime minister in the spring of next year, Ciolacu denied this.

Catalin Drula declared on Tuesday that, in his opinion, at the rotation in May next year, PSD and Marcel Ciolacu will not take over the helm of the Executive, in order not to pay for "bad governance".

"The economy is in an abrupt slowdown, jobs are being lost, consumption is falling. (...) We are entering an economic crisis. My shock is that at PSD and PNL [National Liberal Party], those at the top know this. Let's say that their irresponsibility would somehow has excused them, but they plunged the country into this economic crisis, which will come, with the greatest strength, next year. It is irresponsible, they are not taking any measures for this and the only concern is a political one, who will take the expense account, who will not take the expense account of the crisis. That's why I think that at the May rotation, the PSD and Mr. Ciolacu will not take over the government because it is in the PSD's DNA to run away from the consequences of their own actions," Catalin Drula said in an interview with RFI.AGERPRES
Romania has been an extraordinary partner and continues to work with the European Commission, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to further reduce the waiting time at the border, European Transport Commissioner Adina Valean said on Wednesday.

"Our special project coordinated by DG MOVE, Solidarity Lanes, is related to exports and imports of products, including agricultural ones, of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. From the very beginning, we considered the Republic of Moldova as an integral part of this project, because it is closed at the border by the conflict in Ukraine, and the only way to carry out its exports and imports is through the European Economic Area. Until the end of September, 30 million tons of goods, including agricultural ones, were transported on these corridors,'' Valean said in a meeting with a group of Romanian journalists.

According to Adina Valean, the Danube route, which involves Romania and the Republic of Moldova, contributed 50% in terms of grain transport, being the preferred route for Ukraine regarding grain transport.

The European Commissioner announced, on the same occasion, that two new border points will be opened for the railway, at Valea Viseului and Tereseva, near Sighetu Marmatiei.

"At the same time, the route organized by the United Nations on the Black Sea operated exclusively for grain and is currently in some uncertainty. But the two routes were always complementary, and what Solidarity Lanes was able to offer Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova was basically a way to carry out their exports and imports that would otherwise have been impossible," emphasized Adina Valean.

"Also, we worked on a common set of standards for transport infrastructure that would respond to dual use, civil and military. It covers absolutely all modes of transport, from standards regarding airport runways for take-off and landing, which may also meet military needs, to infrastructure in ports, railways, bridges, roads and so on. In this new context, we need to establish a set of investment priorities and this is the reason why we launched this action plan, through which we hope to identify what the priorities of the moment would be. The plan is more extensive, it also covers the cyber security part, which is handled by the European Commissioner Thierry Breton, and which represents, in the context of the military mobility action, a very important element related to the critical infrastructure," said Adina Valean.

A current priority at the European level is the identification of the priority corridors for military action, for the transport of equipment and troops, and also the identification on the map of the so-called supply hubs.

Next year, DG MOVE, together with the European External Action Service (EEAS), will do a study to identify all the priorities related to military mobility in the current context.

"We worked in cooperation with the EEAS and NATO, at the moment the European Commission has at its disposal a budget of 1.6 billion euros for transport infrastructure projects with use for military mobility. We allocated, in a call for projects, 339 million euros already to 20 or so projects. In these funds, Romania had several projects related to the renovation or improvement of the condition of five bridges, projects that were approved in full and which, taking into account the part of co-financing from Romania, have a value of 28 million euros," Valean added.

The next call for projects will take place in December, with 63 projects submitted for financing, with a total budget of 1 billion euros.AGERPRES
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Moldova will organize a meeting with potential partners in agriculture, in the area of steel work constructions, in IT or tourism, Oana Dulf, the person in charge with communication at the Maramures Chamber of Commerce and Industry, informed on Wednesday, told Agerpres.

"Next week, the Chamber shall initiate Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings in order to promote on the Maramures county market several companies from Ungheni from various economic branches, namely to identify potential business partners for them. (...) This economic mission addresses to the representatives of the business environment of Maramures county who carry out their activity in agriculture (e.g. companies from Ungheni are interested in exporting to Romania food and fodder wheat, corn export, vegetable export - onions, carrots, beetroot, Chinese cabbage; animal and poultry farms, grain importers, producers and traders of mineral fertilizers; vegetables importers and traders); steal work (manufacturers of construction materials, gates, fences, polystyrene foam boards); IT (SOFT development services, logistics and transport, telecommunications, geoinformatics and maps, assisting businesses in the digitization process); tourism. Moreover, another company present at next week's economic mission will present the investment opportunities in the Ungheni-Business free economic area to the interested companies of Maramures," Oana Dulf said.

The B2B meetings shall be carried out on 18 November, between 10:00hrs and 12:00hrs, at the "George Marcas" Training and Marketing Center of the Maramures Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Among the objectives of the Maramures Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the expansion of existing business partnerships, which is why, along with this economic mission, the Chamber will sign a cooperation agreement with the Ungheni Branch of Moldova's Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The Constitutional Court of Romania rejected, on Wednesday, the referrals submitted by the Save Romania Union (USR), the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and the Ombudsman regarding the three Justice laws adopted in the Parliament, CCR officials stated for AGERPRES.

It is about the Law on the status of judges and prosecutors, the Law on judicial organization and the Law on the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM).

"It is very important to challenge these laws at the CCR, we see that the current government forced the procedure to the maximum and did not wait for the opinion of the Venice Commission," recently stated USR deputy Stelian Ion, adding that the Justice laws "turn into oligarchy the entire judicial system, putting control on what it means to carry out the act of justice" and do much more harm to the whole society.

The Alliance for the Union of Romanians also notified the Constitutional Court of Romania regarding the three pieces of legislation.

"The Law on the status of judges and prosecutors (PLx 440/ 2022), the Law on judicial organization (PLx 441/ 2022) and the Law on the Superior Council of Magistracy (PLx 442/ 2022) are unconstitutional due to the abusive and contemptuous manner in which they were voted, but also through the devastating effects they will produce after coming into force," the AUR stated in a press release.

According to the AUR, non-sanctioning of judges who do not respect the decisions of the Constitutional Court "empties of their effectiveness" their mandatory nature.

At the same time, the Ombudsman announced that it notified the CCR in connection with several articles of the Law on the status of judges and prosecutors.

The legal texts criticized by the People's Advocate refer to article 206 and article 234 paragraph (2).

"Judges, prosecutors, assistant magistrates and legal specialist personnel assimilated to judges and prosecutors are free to organize or join local, national and international professional organizations, in order to defend their professional rights and interests and may be members of scientific or academic societies, as well as of any private legal entity without patrimonial purpose, being able to be part of their management bodies," Article 206 provides.

Article 234 paragraph (2) of the law establishes that "judges, prosecutors, assistant magistrates and legal specialist personnel assimilated to them can be members of committees for examining or drafting draft pieces of legislation, internal or international documents and can have the capacity of an expert in projects with external financing in the field of justice".

The Ombudsman points out that, in addition to the forms of manifestation of the right of association, the law foresees an expansion of the area of functions that can be occupied by judges and prosecutors that exceed the activities of administering justice.
Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, and Prince Consort Radu met on Tuesday evening in Rome members of the Romanian community in Italy, told Agerpres.

The event was hosted by the Romanian Embassy in Rome for the release of an Italian edition of the Queen Marie's diaries edited and printed by the Rediviva Milano Publishing House.

"Today's ceremony is occasioned by the presentation of the anniversary Italian edition of Queen Marie's diaries published by the Rediviva Publishing House in Milan, the only Romanian publishing house in Italy, founded by Violeta Popescu, a historian, whom I sincerely congratulate on her dedication and passion, on the way she makes Romanian history be known here in Italy. We are talking about an exceptional book, about a great personality of Romanian history," Romanian ambassador in Rome Gabriela Dancau told the opening of the release ceremony.

"I'm glad to be here, in Italy, where there are so many Romanians and I'm glad every time I meet you. (...) Thank you for this evening and I hope to have the opportunity to talk with many of you and to enjoy this book, which came out exactly after 100 years [from the coronation in Alba Iulia]. And we have actually been to Alba Iulia now and it was a very profound experience for us," Margareta said in her turn.

Prince Radu mentioned the significance of the meeting with the members of the Romanian community in Italy.

"The meeting with you is the most important moment of this visit. For 156 years since the Royal House existed, there has been no other more important mission for us than to inspire the Romanians, to give them pride, to give them confidence and to tell them how much they can do when they are respected and looked upon with confidence," said Radu.

The importance of the moment was also emphasised by the editor of the book.

"Welcome to this celebration, because this book is a celebration for us. We are talking about Queen Marie because Queen Marie gave us a great country. Tonight we have a little Romania in this small hall: Romanians from all corners of Romania, Romanians from the historical Romanian provinces, and I can only congratulate the Embassy of Romania, which had this inspired initiative to bring us together in the year of the Coronation Centennial, a moment as important as the Greater Union of 1918," said Violeta Popescu.

After the presentation of the book, there was a reception extended by the Romanian Embassy in Italy, during which those in attendance could interact with the members of the Romanian Royal House.

Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, and His Royal Highness Prince Consort Radu are visiting Rome and the Vatican.

The schedule of the visit to Rome also includes visits to the Italian Paralympic Committee and the Italian Olympic Committee, as well as touring an exhibition about the Royal Family of Romania at the Pietro Canonica Museum.

An important item on the schedule is a private audience with the Pope, followed by visits to the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital of the Holy See, a centre receiving female refugees from Ukraine and to the headquarters of the Sant'Egidio Community.
Several dozen people answered the call of the Declic Community and gathered on Wednesday in front of the Victoria Palace of Government in an anti-poverty protest, demanding the rise of the national minimum wage, told Agerpres.

The protesters carried placards calling for salaries that would not push employees to the edge of poverty and chanted slogans such as "Social justice", "Decent living", "No to poverty" or "We want a decent minimum wage".

"We are asking the government to comply with the European directive on decent minimum wages. If the European directive were applied immediately, the minimum wage should rise to 3,275 RON net, the updated value of the minimum expenditure basket for a decent living," it is stated on the Declic page, where a petition addressed to President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, Labor Minister Marius Budai and Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu is posted.

The petition aims to collect 100,000 signatures and by Wednesday, approximately 64,000 people had joined the initiative.

"We, the signatories of this petition, are calling on you to side with us and support the European law for decent minimum wages. This directive is necessary to spur the governments of the member states into identifying solutions and national policies for wages that don't push employees to the edge of poverty," reads the petition.
An exhibition dedicated to the "French Military Missions to Romania", which presents the more than 160-year-long history of Romania - France diplomatic, military and medical relations by means of national heritage items opened on Wednesday at the National Museum of Romanian History (MNIR) in the presence of French ambassador Laurence Auer.

"France and Romania share many pages of history, including the military campaigns of the 19th and 20th centuries during which the French soldiers fought and died on Romanian soil. According to research so far, we estimate that the number of French soldiers who died in Romania is between 698 and 893. And we continue researching," said Auer.

The French diplomat went on to say that the study of the history of French military missions to Romania "allows us to better understand all the dimensions of the long-standing Franco-Romanian friendship, but also the symbolism of the arrival of French troops to Romania at the end of February."

"France acted as part of NATO's Response Force, thus contributing to maintaining European security. Of course, this decision also comes down to a bilateral commitment and confirms our long and strategic relationship of friendship and trust," the ambassador pointed out.

Laurence Auer mentioned that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the awarding of the French Cross of War to the cities of Galati, Giurgiu and Iasi, and announced that the exhibition will tour the country, starting with Iasi city's Braunstein Palace, next month.

Minister of National Defence Angel Tilvar reviewed the history of the French missions to Romania, "the landmark moments when the solidity of military relations between Romania and France left its definitive imprint on our shared present and which we are grateful for."

Tilvar pointed out that France remains for Romania "a key European and Euro-Atlantic actor (...) we constantly rely on."

Alto attending the event, presidential advisor with the Department for Culture, Denominations and National Minorities Sergiu Nistor, and MNIR general director Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu evoked the history of Romanian-French relations and their deep significance.

Produced by the National History Museum of Romania in partnership with the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French Embassy and the French Institute, the exhibition is organized to mark the commemoration of the signing on November 11, 1918 of the Armistice of Compicgne which put an end to WWI hostilities on the Western Front, as well as Veterans Day, which is also celebrated on November 11.

The exhibition curated by Dr. Cristina Paiusan-Nuica and Dr. Cornel-Constantin Ilie of the MNIR, includes items such as: the set of dueling pistols received by Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza from Emperor Napoleon III of France, the bicorn hat, epaulettes and handgun of General Henri Berthelot, French orders and medals preserved by the museum.

The exhibition will be open until December 4.

The United Principalities and then the modern state of Romania were created with French diplomatic and military support, the first step being the liberation of the Romanian Principalities by the French army during the Crimean War (1853-1856), followed by the support offered by Emperor Napoleon III for the Union of the Principalities under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859-1866).

The first French military mission arrived in the Principalities in 1860, and between 1860 and 1869, French officers served as technical advisors and participated in the organization and unification of the Romanian Army according to the French model.

The second French military mission, led by General Henri Mathias Berthelot, arrived in Romania in the fall of 1916 and was responsible for helping reorganize the Romanian Army and for organizing field and civilian hospitals in efforts to stop the typhoid fever epidemic that killed tens of thousands. The rigor and competence of General Berthelot and the entire French military mission contributed to the great victories in the summer of 1917 and to lifting the morale of the entire Romanian nation in a tragic moment.

AIGLE, the third French military mission, came to Romania on February 28, 2022 as part of NATO's Rapid Reaction Force, amid the tense situation caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, continuing the tradition begun by the French state more than a century and a half ago.
The General Inspectorate of the Border Police (IGPF) informs that on Tuesday, a number of 63,392 people entered Romania through border points throughout the country, of whom 7,586 were Ukrainian citizens, told Agerpres.

According to a release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday, approximately 131,000 people, Romanian and foreign citizens, with more than 41,000 means of transportation, completed the control formalities at the border crossing points nationwide, both on the way in and on the way out.

As of 10 February 2022 (the pre-conflict period), a number of 2,784,898 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania.

In the relevant areas - the border crossing points and the "green border," the border policemen discovered 67 illegalities (33 offenses and 34 contraventions) committed by both Romanian and foreign citizens, with the amount of fines enforced exceeding 13,000 RON.

Assets of an estimated value of approximately 180,000 RON were impounded.

On Tuesday, a number of 22 foreign citizens were not allowed to enter the country because they didn't meet the requirements stipulated by the law, while a number of 18 Romanian citizens were not allowed to leave the country for various legal reasons.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Russia will continue to provide Yerevan and Baku with the necessary support to achieve peace, stability and prosperity in the South Caucasus, ARMENPRESS reports official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said during the weekly briefing.

"Today, November 9, marks the 2nd anniversary of the declaration on a complete ceasefire and cessation of all military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone signed by the President of Russia, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia. This step made it possible to put an end to the bloodshed and start the process of establishing a peaceful life in the region," said Zakharova.

She also referred to the activities of the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh.

"The Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in line with the November 9, 2020 declaration, effectively carry out the tasks put before them, has made a significant contribution to the stabilization of the situation and ensuring security in the region. This is appreciated also by our Azerbaijani and Armenian friends. The trilateral statements of the leaders of November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2022, and October 31, 2022, put the basis for the start of the process of comprehensive settlement of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia", the diplomat noted.

Zakharova also stressed that within the framework of the working group co-chaired by the deputy prime ministers of the three countries, a lot of work has been done in the direction of unblocking transport communications in the South Caucasus.

"According to the decision of the leaders of the countries of November 26, 2021, the bilateral commission for the delimitation and further demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has started its work with the advisory support of Russia. The work of this mechanism is of the utmost importance for the stabilization of the situation on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan," said the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Zakharova added that close coordination is taking place with the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides regarding the preparation of the peace treaty.

The spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Russia will continue to provide Yerevan and Baku with the necessary support for the sake of peace, stability and prosperity in the South Caucasus.
Preserving the linguistic treasure is an "imperative of our times," National Liberal Party (PNL) MP Ioan Balan, chairman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Ukraine, has voiced his hope that the Romanian language will be respected and defended in the ethnic communities of Ukraine just as the Ukrainian language is respected in Romania, told Agerpres.

In a speech to a plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies on the Day of the Ukrainian Language, Balan said that "the language of a people is its foundation and backbone."

"A day, a landmark, an important holiday in the life of the Ukrainian community is November 9, when Ukrainians all over the world celebrate the day of Ukrainian language and literature. In Romania, Law 213/2018 has enshrined this older desire of ethnic Ukrainians. The language of a nation, the language of a people is its foundation and backbone. The culture of a nation is the heart and spirit of the nation. The language is an imprint of its national identity, its resistance and its evolution in the storms of history. The language of a nation is the sanctuary and the hearth, at the same time. Built around it is the structure of resistance, the strength and the personality of the state. It is the fundamental guarantee of its evolution in modernity. (...) The Ukrainian language has evolved, strengthened and resisted," said Balan.

He added that in Romania, Ukrainians are the third largest ethnic group.

"We speak of this as an autochthonous one, with many of the settlements where they live compactly being documented for over seven centuries. But an important celebration in the life of the community is related to the celebration of their mother tongue. This is the sacred heritage of some people that has been handed down for centuries through written documents or orally. (...) It is an imperative of our times, of these times that we make permanent and consistent massive efforts to preserve and pass on the linguistic treasure of our languages to our descendants, continuing the fundamental axiom of the specific national identity in the great richness of the languages of other peoples. As an MP of Romania, I want the Romanian language to be respected and defended in the Romanian ethnic communities in Ukraine, just as the Ukrainian language is respected and defended by law in Romania," said Balan.
The meeting of NATO foreign ministers to be hosted by Romania on November 29 and 30 confirms Romania's role amid the current security context while reflecting the interest of NATO and its allies in our region and showing Romania's constant support for Ukraine, told Agerpres.

The idea was highlighted by Romania's Permanent Representative to NATO Dan Neculaescu in a statement to AGERPRES.

"I would like to emphasise three main aspects. First of all, the fact that Romania hosting a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the end of November confirms our role in the region and the importance that Romania has, especially amid the current security context at the Euro-Atlantic level. That's for sure. Secondly, Romania's hosting the ministerial meeting shows the interest that NATO and its allies have in our region. You know very well that Romania has been constantly interested in promoting security in the Black Sea region, and the fact that this ministerial meeting is held here shows the interest of NATO and its allies in this region. It is extremely important in today's very fragile security context generated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The third thing that I want to mention is that from the beginning Romania has been a supporter of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, something recognised by all the NATO countries, and the fact that this meeting will take place in Romania also highlights the support that Romania has been granting to Ukraine," Neculaescu told AGERPRES.

Equally, the Bucharest meeting of NATO foreign ministers - the first of its kind organised in Romania - has a particular importance as a milestone between the Madrid Summit and the upcoming Vilnius Summit.

"Consequently, the decisions that we expect at this ministerial meeting that are currently being discussed at the NATO level are very important along this path of transforming NATO, increasing the security of the eastern flank and adapting to the new security realities, where Russia is the most important security risk to NATO and Euro-Atlantic security."

In the diplomat's opinion, the November 29-30 meeting in Bucharest will contribute to increasing Romania's profile inside NATO. Romania, which has proved to be an extremely responsible and capable ally, hosted a summit in 2008, a meeting of defence ministers and a meeting of the heads of the NATO Military Committee, the alliance's highest military decision-making body.

The meeting of November 29/30 will include four sessions related to the implementation of the decisions taken at the NATO summit in Madrid, the war in Ukraine, energy security and partners.

Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Finland, Sweden and Bosnia are also invited to the meeting.
The decision regarding the opening of the border crossing point and the border customs office Vicovu de Sus (Romania) - Krasnoilsk (Ukraine) was approved on Wednesday by the Government, told Agerpres.

"It is about the first border crossing point opened after the Russian military aggression in Ukraine, between Ukraine and a member state of the European Union," the spokesman of the Executive, Dan Carbunaru, said.

He recalled that prime minister Nicolae Ciuca and his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal, will participate in the opening event of this border crossing on Thursday.

"This border crossing point will target both the international traffic of people in the pedestrian and road traffic regime, but also with goods, with a permanent operating schedule, thus allowing the acceleration and facilitation of the crossing of the border by people and means of transportation," Carbunaru added.
A new humanitarian convoy with goods for the population affected by the war in Ukraine was organized by the Romanian Red Cross, the Alba branch, which, for the first time, was directly involved in the organization of the transport, a team from the branch accompanying the two first-aid kits needed up to Kyiv, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

"The Romanian Red Cross, the Alba branch, ensured the development of a new humanitarian transport to Ukraine, with goods for the population affected by the war. This time, our organization was directly involved in the organization of the transport, a team from the Alba branch accompanied the two first necessity aid trips, up to Kyiv, in the heart of Ukraine. Thus, over 26 tons of products, with a total value of over 1,500,000 RON, were donated for the population of Ukraine, as follows: medical supplies (first aid kits, folding stretchers, compresses, buttocks bandages, burn kits, etc.); hygiene products for adults and children; household products (sleeping bags, blankets, hundreds of bed sheets); bottled water and a significant amount of powdered milk for children," the press release mentions.

Both individuals and companies donated in the "Humanity has no borders" campaign.

"The experience lived by the Alba-based Red Cross team, made up of Adrian Ionel Dusa, director, and Muresan Calin, paramedic, during the four days of travel, was overwhelming, the traces left by the bombings on the streets, buildings and in people's lives being far beyond our imagination. (...) The Red Cross branch of Alba County will continue to be with the population affected by the war in Ukraine, through the campaign 'Humanity has no borders',", the press release states.

The first humanitarian transport took place on February 27 and consisted of 600 sleeping bags from the warehouse of the Romanian Red Cross Alba branch to the refugee camp in Siret, Suceava county, in order to cover the needs of the affected area. On March 2, there was another humanitarian transport, with 300 sleeping bags from the warehouse of the Romanian Red Cross, Alba branch, to the refugee camp in Milisauti, Suceava county.

On March 30, two shipments containing 23 tons of food, hygiene products and bedding were sent to Ukraine, Odessa area. On April 13, there was another humanitarian transport in Ukraine, namely a truck containing 16 tons of dairy products and food supplements, arranged in 33 pallets and donated to the Red Cross, were sent to the Red Cross in Uzhhorod, Ukraine.

At the same time, since the beginning of the war, constant aid was provided to refugee families settled in Alba county, with goods consisting of hygiene products and basic food.AGERPRES
Research, innovation and digitalization are the main tools of Romania's economic growth model adopted by the Government, said Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, told Agerpres.

The head of Executive on Wednesday participated, at the Victoria Palace, in the launch event of the Conference "Smart diaspora - in higher education, science, innovation and entrepreneurship," organized by the Timisoara University Alliance.

"I understood how important this event and the approach itself is, and its resumption falls, basically, in everything that means the set of government measures regarding the relaunch of research, innovation in Romania. (...) Through our government actions, we initiated a series of projects that lay the foundations for the transformation of Romania, the increase of the quality of life and the development of the economy. A firm path, assumed at the governmental level through the reforms and investments that we started, which will bring many changes for the better and transform our country into a place where the Romanians who are now studying or working abroad will want to return," said Nicolae Ciuca.

He stated that there are more than 4 million Romanians in the Diaspora, good professionals in the fields in which they work, who support important economies of European countries, either employed or running their own businesses.

"They are part of the Romanian nation and we expect them to return home whenever they see fit," said Ciuca.

The PM highlighted the fact that the dynamics of investments in our country show that the Romanian economy is looking to the future.

He pointed out that the digital transformation process and the adoption of new technologies offer Romania the chance to recover the gaps compared to the EU countries that understood earlier the role of innovation in the modernization of public services.

He also recalled the fact that at the level of the Ministry of Research, a series of projects aimed at intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth and the consolidation of the internal market with stronger enterprises have been launched or are being prepared.

"The support of competence centres, the support given to Romanian researchers is addressed both to those in the country and to those from the diaspora communities. We launched a project call worth 168 million lei to attract the specialized elite from abroad, in research and development activities and innovation. It is an initiative with a double benefit. Around Romanian researchers from the diaspora, groups of excellence in cutting-edge scientific research will be developed, to which is added the achievement of the objectives of the National Strategy for Research, Innovation and Intelligent Specialization," said Ciuca.

He also emphasized the fact that Romanians abroad need real opportunities and programmes to start a business and to capitalize on their expertise in Romania, and the inclusion of a distinct component for the diaspora in this year's edition of the Start-up Nation programme, with a budget of 40 million euros, represents such an opportunity.

Last but not least, he highlighted the need for better collaboration between state institutions in supporting Romanians outside the borders, but also for a coherent and long-term vision.
National Liberal Party (PNL) spokesperson Ionut Stroe says, in response to the social-democratic campaign, that the liberals understand "the Social Democratic Party (PSD)'s desire to distance itself from the effects of the global energy crisis", but that it does not enter into any image game.

"'Whoever forgets the past is condemned to repeat it'. This is a quote that fits very well in the context of the campaign carried out by the governing partners against the PNL on the subject of energy. Let's remember where we have been and where we no longer want to go. (...) We understand PSD's desire to distance itself from the effects of the global energy crisis, but we do not engage in any image game on such an important subject. In these times of international crisis, we must ensure Romania's stability and a responsible government," Stroe wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

He presents a brief chronology of measures in the field of energy.

"In 2018, under the leadership of Mr. Dragnea, the PSD adopted the famous Emergency Ordinance 114, which completely unbalanced the market. It blocked energy investments and all it 'succeeded' in was making us more dependent on Russian gas. Today we see how dangerous it was in fact, such a dependency. As soon as the PNL came to power, it repealed Emergency 114, an ordinance that brought us an infringement procedure from the European Commission. And today we are witnessing disinformation intended to cover a particularly important achievement for the country in the field of energy. Romania will receive a loan of 3 billion dollars from the US for reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda. And this is an indisputable success of President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu", the liberal wrote.

He states that "this is a short story for those who know that graphics do not hide the absolute truth and sometimes you need context".

On Wednesday, PSD published on Facebook a comparative graph regarding the monthly evolution of the average price and the volume traded on following day market between the regulated market and the liberalization of the energy market.

"Well done to the rightist government, you have succeeded in an exceptional liberalization of energy! All those who should have won did so for ten lives. You have defeated Romania!", the post of the social democrats shows. AGERPRES
Professor Michael Shafir, a member of the Scientific Council of the "Elie Wiesel" Institute, died on Wednesday, at the age of 78, told Agerpres.

"This morning, emeritus university professor Michael Shafir left us! A man of immeasurable culture and with a vast academic activity, always involved in high-quality projects, Michael Shafir always knew how to create new visions through his work," announces the "Elie Wiesel" National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, in a post on Facebook.

He was a genuine democrat, campaigned to combat Holocaust denial and to promote the memory of the victims, and in his capacity as a member of the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust he was one of those who fought for the values of democracy and thus the Holocaust was officially recognized by "Final Report" in 2005, the same post says.

"Active, with many good and up-to-date ideas, in his capacity as a member of the Scientific Council of the "Elie Wiesel" Institute, he often proposed academic themes, which took shape and had a great impact on the interested public," says the same source.

Born on January 4, 1944, in Bucharest, in a family of Jewish origin, Michael Shafir emigrated to Israel, after finishing high school, in 1961.

He studied English literature and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then followed a Master's Degree programme and a PhD programme in political science, as well as at the London School of Economics.

He was the director of the foreign news department at Kol Israel and a lecturer in political science at the Tel Aviv University.

He was also deputy director of the Department for Public Opinion Research at Radio Free Europe, Munich, later on taking over as head of the Romanian section of the Analysis and Research Department of the same radio station.

Back in Romania, Michael Shafir was a professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca.
The Government approved on Wednesday the Emergency Ordinance that covers some measures for Romania's participation in the North Atlantic Alliance Innovation Fund.

"From the perspective of Romania's participation in the North Atlantic Alliance Innovation Fund, the Emergency Ordinance the Government approved today aims to implement the commitment that Romania has assumed, under the signature of the president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis. It is a commitment assumed and signed as such at the NATO Summit in Madrid, in the summer of this year, in June, and aims at measures to stimulate the growth of Romania's economy, with a major contribution to the development of the national research-development system and the implementation of technological projects, with benefits for the Romanian research and development institutes, but also for companies in the private sector, which have a strong impact on society and the economy. At the same time, participation in this fund will encourage the development of new companies and economic sectors related to emerging technologies," the gov't's spokesperson Dan Carbunaru said.

He specified that the value of Romania's participation for the establishment of this investment fund is 3.4 million euros, an amount that will be provided for in the annual budget of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization.AGERPRES
The Minister of National Defense, Angel Tilvar, received, on Wednesday, a delegation of the Parliament and the Administration of the Defense Procurement Program from the Republic of Korea, led by Lee Hun-Seung, member of the National Assembly and chairman of the National Defense Committee.

The main topics on the agenda included the stage of the development of military cooperation relations between Romania and the Republic of Korea, in the context of the signing of a new Letter of Intent, a document through which the milestones of concluding a cooperation framework agreement were established, according to a press release from MApN.

"The Strategic Partnership between the two states provides the foundation for building a strong cooperation in all fields. We are optimistic about the potential offered by the recent signing of the Letter of Intent for the purpose of strengthening bilateral cooperation, a document that confirms the mutual commitment to conclude an agreement on cooperation in the field of defense. The conclusion of this agreement will allow the identification of areas of common interest and, subsequently, the development of bilateral military relations along these lines," Minister Tilvar said.

Furthermore, the two high officials analyzed the international security situation and the perspectives of strengthening cooperation within the North Atlantic Alliance, from the outlook of the status of the Republic of Korea as a global partner, as well as within the United Nations Organization.AGERPRES
As many as 534 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, down 54 from the previous day, with over 14,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Wednesday, told Agerpres.

Of the new cases, 147 were in re-infected patients, who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.

Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 179, and Cluj County - 64.

The highest 14-day notification rate is in Bucharest City - 0.74, followed by Cluj County - 0.49.

As of Wednesday, 3,290,564 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 615 people with COVID-19, down six from the previous reporting, including 52 minors, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 98 are in intensive care, up five.

Of the 98 patients admitted to ICU, 81 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the ministry, three Romanians, one man and two women, are reported dead in the last 24 hours.

Out of the three deaths, one was in the age group 60-69 years, and two in the age group over 80 years.

All deaths were in unvaccinated patients with commorbidities.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 67,220 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.
By Trend

Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Cahit Bagci congratulated the Azerbaijani people on November 9 - the State Flag Day, Trend reports, referring to the diplomat's tweet.

"Glorious tricolor flag is flying at the top of the Caucasus. Happy Flag Day!" the tweet said.

The flag, which is one of the official symbols of the Republic of Azerbaijan (along with the anthem and coat of arms), was first approved on November 9, 1918 by the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic republic in the Muslim East.

On October 18, 1991 by constitutional act "On State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan", the Republic of Azerbaijan, as the legal successor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, restored its state symbols, including the state flag.

By the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dated November 18, 2009, November 9 is celebrated in Azerbaijan as the State Flag Day.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultation in the administrative complex of the Ministry of Defense, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The draft development plan of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia for the period of 2023-2027 was discussed.
Romania's FOB/CIF trade deficit in the first nine months of 2022 widened by EUR 8.313 billion to EUR 25.063 billion as exports rose by 26.2%, and imports increased by 31.7%, according to data with the National Statistics Institute published on Wednesday, told Agerpres.

Romania's FOB exports totalled EUR 68.804 billion, January 1 - September 30, 2022, and CIF imports exceeded EUR 93.867 billion.

In the first nine months, important shares in the composition of Romania's foreign trade were held by machinery and transport equipment (41.3% of export and 32.3% of import) and other manufactured goods (30.2% of export and 28.8% of import).

The value of intra-EU27 trade in goods during the same period was EUR 49.839 billion worth of exports and EUR 66.084 billion worth of imports, making up 72.4% of total exports and 70.4% of total imports.

The value of extra-EU27 trade in goods in the first nine months of 2022 was EUR 18.964 billion euros worth of exports and EUR 27.783 billion worth of imports, making up 27.6% of total exports and 29.6% of total imports.

According to INS, Romania's September 2022 FOB exports totalled EUR 8.518 billion, and CIF imports increased to EUR 11.553 billion, which gives a deficit of EUR 3.035 billion. Compared with September 2021, exports in September 2022 increased by 34.1%, and imports by 36.2%.

FOB (Free On Board) price is the price of goods at the frontier of the exporting country or price of a service provided to a non-resident. It includes the values of the goods or services at the basic price, the transport and distribution services up to the frontier, the taxes minus the subsidies.

The cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price is the price of a good delivered at the frontier of the importing country, or the price of a service delivered to a resident, before the payment of any import duties or other taxes on imports or trade and transport margins within the country.
The president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, declared on Wednesday that he supports a postponement of the increase in local taxes until 2025, when digitization would become functional.

"It is an outstanding debt of the Romanian state and it seems right to me that until the Romanian state finally comes with the digitization of ANAF (Tax authority), these taxes should remain (unchanged, ed. n.). It should be a derogation from the law, until the year 2025, when the digitization will be functional and interconnected with the local authorities, because even if we apply the law, the local authorities cannot apply it and we are creating a problem for them," Ciolacu told a news conference.

"Also, I maintain my opinion that from a certain value upwards, over 500,000 euros, over 2 million RON, or over a million euros, there must be a differentiated taxation, as it is everywhere in the world. I don't want to begin to detail what taxes are paid locally in Paris and what the differences are, depending on income. This is the society we live in and we must adapt, however, to the rules of the European Union and stop being afraid of having such approaches," Ciolacu also specified.AGERPRES
"Ukraine. Life in front of the tanks" photo exhibition signed by AGERPRES journalist Cristian Lupascu was opened on Wednesday in northeastern City of Iasi.

"These are very harsh images, captured in several large towns of Ukraine, where the Russian army's attacks and bombings were very intense and serious, resulting in many deaths. They are images of heritage buildings that are no longer there today. We also have images of the city of Vinnytsia a few minutes after it was attacked with two Russian missiles, where more than 30 people died and more than 200 were injured. These are shocking images. People must not forget that there is still a war in Ukraine and that the scenes captured by me at that time are repeated daily, if not many times a day," journalist Cristian Lupascu said at the opening.

The event held at the La Gard Art Gallery in Copou Park was attended on Wednesday by the managing director of the AGERPRES National News Agency, Claudia Nicolae, the mayor of Iasi, Mihai Chirica, the director of the Mihai Ursachi Culture House, Adi Cristi, as well as by the director of the public television's TVR Iasi Territorial Studio, Catalin Sava.

"It is an exhibition through which our colleague Cristian Lupascu wishes to bring into discussion first of all the reality on the ground. For us, journalists, it is the most important weapon when we have our own colleagues on the ground. (...) We, as journalists, are used to seeing and hearing a lot. However, even for us these images seem to exceed the limit of sensitivity and empathy," Claudia Nicolae, the managing director of the AGERPRES National News Agency said.

Mayor Mihai Chirica emphasized that AGERPRES is "a news agency that offers trust and credibility at the same time".

"The exhibition is welcome because, first of all, it is made by AGERPRES, a news agency that offers trust and credibility at the same time. It is not a joke. We are not talking about manipulation, which would divide the waters from the waters. We simply want to see and at the same time present to the whole world what the truth is. What happened in a war, who really are the victims of a war? Who are soldiers and who are civilians? Here the journalist wanted to show that the drama does not belong to the soldiers, but it is of those who suffer the consequences of these battles: parents, old people, children, people of all professions who no longer have homes, no longer have relatives, whose legs are torn and scattered on the streets. These are the realities of the war," Chirica said.

Among the images exhibited are: the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier killed in the war started by the Russian Federation in Storozhynets, the center of the city of Vinnytsia - attacked with missiles, food queues in Borodyanka, houses, blocks and institutional objectives in Kharkiv destroyed by the Russian army, Russian tanks destroyed in Bucha following an offensive of the Ukrainian army, the bombing of the bridge in Borodyanka, which connects Kyiv with Poland, a search mission for survivors in Borodyanka, after the bombing of the city, abandoned or stored munitions of war.

Present at the opening of the exhibition, Ala Butuc, a refugee from Odessa, declared herself impressed, confessing that "her soul aches" for all these people who are suffering.

"I am very glad that this journalist went and showed through the photos he has taken what happened in a country like Ukraine, where it is bad and very bad. Through his images, the journalist captured the situation and understood how our life was affected. I've just looked at the photos and my heart broke. My heart aches for all the children, for all the people who are suffering. It's not normal, it's not good. We thank the Romanians for helping us, support us, offered us work," Ala said.

The exhibition can be visited in Iasi between November 6 and 27.

Cristian Lupascu is an AGERPRES journalist since 2006. From the beginning of the war, he has made six trips to Ukraine, between March and July 2022.
President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday participated in an event where US Exim Bank handed two letters of intent regarding the provision of loans for units 3 and 4 of Romania's Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant that took place in on the sidelines of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, informeaza Agerpres.

The two letters of intent mention a first loan of approximately USD 50 million for preliminary works on units 3 and 4, and a subsequent loan of USD 3 billion for the actual construction of the units.

"We need energy security, but energy security is only possible through energy availability and we, in Romania, have an ambition that is important to Romanians, to the business community and the region because it is a new approach that will make sure that we have enough energy and proves that we are energy independent and will show how to achieve the green transition because innovation and nuclear energy will make it possible to replace fossil fuels," said Iohannis.

The United States special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry was also present at the ceremony and said that we cannot achieve net zero emissions before 2050 without nuclear energy being part of the energy mix.

He added that the Romanian project will double the energy production capacity at Cernavoda while helping reduce emissions.

The documents were handed over by President and Chair of the Board of Directors US Exim Bank Reta Jo Lewis to the Romanian Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu.

"This is a big step in terms of Romania's energy independence, and I am sure that the new steps we will take together will boost the speed and we will complete our nuclear programmes. We are committed to carry through with our reactor programme," said Popescu.
Chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR) Catalin Drula announced that he had a meeting, on Wednesday, with President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and the discussions targeted the support for Romania's accession to Schengen and for the Republic of Moldova , told Agerpres.

"I had an excellent meeting with the President of the European Parliament, Mrs. Roberta Metsola. We discussed the accession to Schengen, thanking her for the support given to Romania," Catalin Drula wrote on his Facebook page.

The USR leader also mentioned that another topic of the discussions with the European Parliament official was the support of the Republic of Moldova.

"Moreover, an important topic on the bilateral agenda was the Republic of Moldova and how we can better help our brothers across the Prut River," Catalin Drula mentioned.
USR (Save Romania Union) Deputy Emanuel Ungureanu on Wednesday morning filed a complaint with the DNA against the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, reports the Save Romania Union, told Agerpres.

Ungureanu, who is also vice-president of the health committee of the Chamber of Deputies, informs in a post on Facebook that he filed a criminal complaint against Alexandru Rafila, as well as some officials from the Ministry of Health, because "despite official warnings, he refuses to respect the laws" issued by Parliament.

"If they had made rules for Law no. 3/2021 initiated by Tudor Pop, Adrian Wiener and the undersigned, which refer to combating nosocomial infections, Rafila and other officials from the ministries, they would have prevented dozens of avoidable deaths! I will also invoke in the complaint the violation of article 297 of the Criminal Code. Rafila not only has to leave as head of the Ministry of Health, but also has to answer for criminal laziness, for the 21 million euro consulting agreement with the WHO and for luxury trips to Cuba or Israel," wrote Emanuel Ungureanu.
CHESTERFIELD  Schnuck Markets is going smaller and healthier for a new grocery store to open in Chesterfield Commons.

The Eatwell Market is scheduled to open at 220 THF Boulevard in spring 2023.

At 30,000 square feet, the new store is about half the size of a typical Schnucks. The company said it will prominently feature natural and organic foods, and will promote community events that, according to a statement, will "support customers no matter where they are along their wellness journey."

This will be the second store opened under the Eatwell Market banner; another has been operating in Columbia since 2020. It will have about 105 employees.
On the night of November 8-9, the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened fire, from rifle weapons of various calibers, in the direction of the Armenian positions located in the eastern part of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

November 9, 2022, 10:26 Azerbaijan army units open fire in direction of Armenia positions

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: As of 10 am Wednesday, the situation on the frontline is relatively stable.
A variation of the old adage break a leg once proved too true for St. Louis comedian Bobby Jaycox.

Jaycox broke his arm just a couple of hours before a set at Flyover Comedy Festival a year ago, but he went on with his gig anyway, showing up at the Improv Shop in a sling.

It wasnt my best set, says Jaycox. But he gets another shot in whats certain to be a smoother return to Flyover Comedy Festival this weekend. He opens for national comedian Ron Funches (Loot, Curb Your Enthusiasm) at Hot Java Bar in the Grove on Nov. 12.

Ron is such a silly, fun guy. It means a lot to open for him, says Jaycox, a firefighter-turned-comedian.

Jaycox is a regular Flyover Comedy Festival performer, having been on the bill every year. He loves how the festival is not only putting St. Louis comedy on the map and adding to comedy opportunities in the city, but also how it brings other big comics from other cities to see what our scene is like.

The festival comes at a prime time for Jaycox, who just dropped his debut comedy special, Fast Food Fireworks.

The 30-minute special was filmed in April by Helium Comedy Studios at the Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia and is available on Helium Comedy Clubs YouTube page.

Jimmy Chairman directed, and the material was culled from a single show.

This feels good, Jaycox says of his first special. I feel like Im in the next chapter. Before, you might go to a club and even if its sold out all weekend, its still only a small population of that area (that sees you). Now its easier for everyone to see me.

Jaycox says viewers get me, and just all the stuff Ive been working on that encompasses me, my firefighting, my old jobs, how I see the world. Im just telling the truth about everything that has happened to me the last couple of years, coming out of a breakup and coming out of the pandemic.

His comedy style that unfolds on Fast Food Fireworks is best described in one word  silly.

Im silly. I like being silly. I dont like to be serious on stage. I want everyone to have as much fun as Im having, which is a lot. I like silly storytelling, telling exactly what happened from my point of view, and flipping all the bad into good, says Jaycox, inspired by names such as Nikki Glaser, Bill Burr and Rory Scovel.

He says Helium Comedy Club, whose stage he has graced many times, reached out with the inquiry about doing a special.

I was like absolutely, says Jaycox, who compares Helium Comedy Studios specials to Comedy Central Presents specials.

Hes the first St. Louis comic filmed for a Helium Comedy Studios special.

They reached out six or seven months ago, we booked it, did it and flipped it. It was pretty quick. There were a lot of fast-moving parts.

He had already seen Helium Comedy Studios specials from names like Alonzo Budden and John Dore and was impressed with the outcome.

Those are two comics I look up to, and I wanted to get on board. And I know Helium and I trust Helium, so I said lets do it and make something cool.

He technically didnt have to prepare for the special because he says as a comedian hes always preparing, always trying to make jokes better, always enhancing.

The special marks his first time performing in Philadelphia. He loved the crowd at the filming of the special and was pleasantly surprised.

Being a Midwest guy, you never know how stuff will relate wherever you go. The audience members were some of my favorites. The people were real and attentive. They care about what you have to say. I cant wait to go back, he says.

Jaycox started doing comedy with a gig in 2010 at the Funny Bone in Westport Plaza. Two things he remembered about that night  his then-girlfriend being tasked with recording the set and only getting half of it, and his being super nervous.

It was my first time on stage, and it was very nerve-wracking, very frightening. My best friend (Chris Briggs) helped me prepare that day. I feel like I did OK. I definitely didnt bomb.

After it was over, his girlfriend asked if hed gotten the comedy thing out of his system. But it was the opposite. Hed caught the comedy bug.

From there, all he wanted to do was keep working on comedy. He headed straight back to the open mic event at the Funny Bone before branching out to other stages.

It wasnt too long before Nikki Glaser snatched him up to open for a weekends worth of shows in Kansas City. Glasers mother, Julie Glaser, along with Glaser herself, were early fans. In 2015, he quit working as a firefighter.

Nikki helped me understand how the world of comedy works, he says. He notes she saw he was in it for real, not just for a moment.

I loved being a firefighter, but nothing at all is like being a comedian.

What Ron Funches with Bobby Jaycox  When 7 p.m. Nov. 12  Where Hot Java Bar, 4193 Manchester Avenue  How much $22.50  More info flyovercomedyfest.com
Area manufacturers, schools, financial institutions and health care providers riddled lawyers with inquiries last week, in the wake of the passage of Amendment 3. Employers were left to ponder: What do they need  or want  to know about their employees' after-hours cannabis use?
Polands government says an anti-missile system which Germany offered to send to Poland should instead go to Ukraine. It's a proposal that is a non-starter for Berlin because it would significantly ratchet up NATO involvement in Ukraine. Polands surprising response to Berlins offer was welcomed by Ukraine, which is desperate to protect its airspace as barrage upon barrage of Russian missiles have knocked out power across the country. But in Poland, critics of the populist ruling party accused it of sacrificing the countrys security with a war next door in Ukraine for the sake of a domestic political struggle which exploits anti-German sentiment for short-term gain.
JEFFERSON CITY  Bobby Bostic, who spent 27 years incarcerated for crimes he committed as a teenager, celebrated his freedom on Wednesday on the steps of the state Capitol.

Bostic, now 43, was granted parole in December after Missouri legislators changed state law. He was released Wednesday morning.

Bostic was sentenced to 241 years in prison for his role in a 1995 crime spree in St. Louis Botanical Heights neighborhood. He and an accomplice robbed a group of people delivering Christmas presents to the needy.

He and the accomplice both shot a victim, and they then carjacked a woman at gunpoint.

The accomplice accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but Bostic rejected the offer and lost his case at trial.

Im a free man all because of you, all who supported me, my family and my friends, and everybody else who cared, Bostic told a crowd gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday.

I take responsibility for the crimes that I committed 27 years ago when I was just a kid, Bostic said. It is a weight that I will carry for the rest of my life.

I will mentor and teach young people to take a different path than I did, Bostic said.

Judge Evelyn Baker, who sentenced Bostic and is now retired, advocated for his release. She was on hand Wednesday for the press conference.

When she sentenced Bostic, we were dealing with the concept of juvenile predators, and we were to treat them as if they were adults, Baker said. Later, because I believe in science, science said the 16-year-old brain is not a 30-year-old brain.

Bobby shouldve had a chance, she said. I became involved in his case because there was an injustice done.

She said Bostic surprised her and others, deciding to grow up in prison, to make himself a better person.

Bobby will make this world a much better place, Baker said. He has insight, he has wisdom and he has compassion. And I think that Bobby is one of those people who can sit down with some of these youngsters who are on the precipice.

Bostic, asked what was next for him, said he planned to get a job and enjoy the simple things in life  learning to drive again  just everyday things that people take for granted.
JENNINGS  St. Louis County prosecutors dropped all charges Monday against a man accused in a 2018 Jennings killing after a key witness went missing before trial.

Dexter Jordan, 30, had been charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and robbery in the fatal shooting of JaZhon Scruggs, 21, of Jennings. The case was set to go to trial this week, but all charges were dropped Monday when a witness failed to appear, said Chris King, a spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.

Jordans defense attorney Patrick Conroy said Tuesday the evidence in the case never supported first-degree murder.

It took a long time, but justice was served, Conroy said. I believe prosecutors played the cards they were dealt, but the evidence was thin.

Scruggs, who went by Jo Jo, was found dead on the afternoon of Dec. 17, 2018, in the 8800 block of Clifton Avenue, a residential street near Jennings High School.

He was shot in front of several people while attempting to buy a gun from Jordan, according to those familiar with the case.

Prosecutors before the trial successfully applied for a body attachment order, which allows law enforcement to arrest the missing witness to bring them to court, but the person still was not found in time for the trial.

JaZhon Scruggs mother, Atiya Scruggs, said shes been fighting for the memory of her son since he was killed, even taking out three billboards displaying his photo around Jennings after the death, including one off Interstate 70 near Goodfellow Boulevard.

One read: We miss you Jo Jo. Forever 21.

Another said: Jo Jo will always be around. Say his name Jo Jo.

I was pleading and praying for my son to get some type of justice, Atiya Scruggs said after charges were dropped Monday. My son was not an outside thug kid. He was buying a gun for a friend, but he didnt deserve this.

The family also placed a plaque where JaZhon was killed and adopted a St. Louis County highway in his name, Atiya Scruggs said.

The mother described her son as a loving, laid-back young man who was working jobs at Fed Ex and for an in-home health care company before he was killed.

She added a message for those who witnessed the killing.

I hope they remember my son has so many people who love him, she said. This has been a nightmare for the last four years.

Jordan was released from custody Monday. He had been incarcerated since he was first charged in January 2019.
HAZELWOOD  An effort to offer reassurance about the safety of Jana Elementary School in Florissant backfired Wednesday as Hazelwood school officials and community members questioned preliminary findings from federal tests for radioactive materials.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found no evidence of harmful radiation at Jana Elementary School in Florissant, which was shuttered last month after an independent report showed excessive levels of radioactive materials in dust and dirt samples taken in August from the campus.

From a radiological standpoint, the school is safe, said Col. Kevin Golinghorst, St. Louis District commander, on Wednesday at a special board meeting of the Hazelwood School District.

The agencys analysis of soil samples from the campus is ongoing with a full report including data released by January.

Several Hazelwood board members and community leaders questioned the findings Wednesday because there were no numbers or ranges provided from the tests.

You couldnt even do a fifth-grade science project without producing numbers, said Dawn Chapman of environmental advocacy group Just Moms STL. Its either there or its not. Thats what parents want to know.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started testing inside the Jana school building, including scanning surfaces for radiation, last month. They also sampled soil from at least 45 spots around the campus.

Preliminary results show no presence of radioactive material above the expected range of background levels (the level of radioactivity Mother Nature already provides), according to an Army Corps slide show from Wednesdays board meeting.

The findings were mainly from surface areas at the school and places that collect dust like underneath furniture.

Phillip Moser, St. Louis program manager of the Corps Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP, told the board that what is lagging behind is some of the soil samples. Officials said at the meeting that samples were taken from 16 feet to 30 feet underground in some spots on the campus. They said the exact test results for the soil samples, as well as the surface samples, will be provided as soon as possible.

This is unprecedented, the amount of time it took to get you these results. We went above and beyond, Moser said. The Corps had drawn fire from the public and elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

The schools 375 students in kindergarten through fifth grade now attend class virtually and are scheduled to be reassigned to Barrington, Brown, Coldwater, McCurdy or Walker elementary schools after Thanksgiving break. Hazelwood school board president Betsy Rachel said Wednesday that the Corps report was not enough to change any decisions about Janas future.

The school, which opened in 1970 at 405 Jana Drive, sits in the flood plain of Coldwater Creek. The creek was contaminated with radioactive waste starting in the 1940s from the storage of residue from atomic weapons production.

The independent report from Boston Chemical Data Corp. was produced as part of a lawsuit over Coldwater Creek. An official with the Army Corps said Wednesday that the report was not consistent with the way we do our evaluations.

The Army Corps previously found radioactive hot spots on the creek bank at the Jana property, but nothing inside the school requires remediation, Moser said.

Marco Kaltofen, who wrote the Boston Chemical report, came to the Hazelwood board meeting Wednesday. When asked about the discrepancy in the findings, Kaltofen said he doesnt distrust the Army Corps testing but that his team used microscopic methods to look for contamination.

Hazelwood School Board treasurer Sylvester Taylor said the conflicting information has been confusing for district leaders trying to make decisions.
JEFFERSON CITY  Deep red Missouri is joining 20 other states that have legalized marijuana sales for adult use after Tuesdays election.

Like the approval of Medicaid expansion in 2020 and the rejection of an anti-union right-to-work initiative in 2018, the win serves as another example of the states voters backing progressive issues, while putting conservative Republicans in office.

I think what a lot of people fail to appreciate is that voters fundamentally view candidate races different than they do ballot initiatives, said Jack Cardetti, a former aide to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon who helped run the pro-pot campaign.

He said voters put aside the tribal view of political parties when faced with questions on the ballot that could affect them personally.

In effect, ballot initiatives are the most direct form of democracy and thats a good thing, Cardetti added.

In all, there were five states Tuesday that asked voters whether they desire legalization.

Along with Missouri, Maryland voters said yes, but similar measures were defeated in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Adult-use legalization laws have now been adopted in 21 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories, while an additional 16 states and two territories have legalized cannabis for medical use.

In Missouri, passage of the initiative crossed party lines.

Overall, the question in Missouri received 53% of the vote, according to unofficial tallies.

For some supporters in the St. Louis area, the question came down to the simple equation that if Illinois is selling legal weed, why not Missouri?

Why should we have to go to the other side of the river? Its time, said Donna Sailor, 75, who attended an election night watch party at Ballpark Village on Tuesday.

In GOP-dominant St. Charles County, 55% of the voters favored legalization. Voters in Jefferson County, which has trended strongly red, voted yes 55% of the time.

Smaller counties chipped in to the winning tally. New Madrid County, in the states Bootheel region, saw 54% of its voters backing the measure. It won 51% of the vote in rural St. Francois County.

The victory came after the measure squeaked through the qualification process.

Supporters had trouble collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot. But Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, gave it the green light after initial counts from local officials showed canvassers had failed to collect enough signatures to qualify.

A lawsuit arguing Ashcrofts decision was flawed failed to stop it.

In much of the state, rural Republican voters sided with opponents, who included the Missouri Republican Party, as well as local GOP state lawmakers.

While the medical pot industry shoveled more than $7 million into their campaign, opponents stitched together an unfunded, grassroots campaign to kill the amendment.

When the results became clear, Eapen Thampy, a pro-pot lobbyist who opposed the amendment, blamed the outcome on those dollars.

Well it looks like the out-of-state marijuana companies bought an election and passed the corrupt Amendment 3 proposal that institutionalizes marijuana crimes and monopolies in the Missouri Constitution, he tweeted Tuesday night.

Although pot will be legal, there will be limitations on possession. For nonmedical marijuana patients, the limit would be 3 ounces, while medical patients would be able to possess up to 6.

Additionally, fines could still be issued for smoking in public.

The amendment also includes a process for people to cleanse their court records for past cannabis-related convictions.

Someone currently on probation or parole for certain marijuana law violations, for example, would see their sentence automatically vacated and later expunged from their record.

And anyone incarcerated for certain marijuana offenses would be able to petition the court to vacate the sentence, as well as be immediately released from incarceration with their records expunged.

The states judicial branch has requested $4.5 million to help fund the expungement process at the local level.

Cardetti said the expungement model outlined in the amendment was a key reason it received support across party lines. In addition, he said it could become a model for other states seeking to legalize marijuana use.
The international community must take a stronger line with Baku. Azerbaijan must return prisoners of war, Member of European Parliament Lars Patrick Berg said in an interview to ARMENPRESS.

November 9, 2022, 11:07 International community must take a stronger line with Baku. European Parliament Member

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: The interview is presented below:

On September 13, 2022, Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on the sovereign territory of Armenia from different directions of the border, targeting also the civilian settlements. As a result of the attack Azerbaijan has occupied some parts of the sovereign territory of Armenia. At the same time, threats to use force against Armenia are not stopping from Baku. In your opinion, what steps are necessary so that Azerbaijan withdraws its troops from Armenias territory and returns to constructive negotiations?

Azerbaijan must respect the internationally negotiated agreements, cease hostilities, and return prisoners of war. The international community must take a stronger line with Baku, although I fear with attention focusing on Ukraine and Asia at the moment, the Azeri leadership will feel emboldened to keep escalating.

How do you assess the work of the European Parliament with regard to the Azerbaijani aggression? Does the European Parliament take all the necessary steps to return Azerbaijan to a constructive path and stop the occupation of Armenias territory?

I think the truth is that the European Parliament has limited influence in this conflict. We can try and influence, but the truth is that until Turkey decides to act responsibly the Azeri authorities will believe they can act with relative impunity.

Do you consider it possible for the EU to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan, taking into account the fact that most of the EU member states have stated that Azerbaijan has initiated the attack as a result of which some parts of the Armenian territory remain occupied? So far, calls for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops to their initial positions have been made, but, it seems, no practical steps are being taken on this direction.

I am not a great supporter of sanctions, especially sanctions imposed by the EU alone. I believe that the member states should be more vociferous in their condemnation of aggression, and diplomatically explore ways of isolating Baku?

Recently it was announced that a fact-finding mission of MEPs will arrive in Armenia. You were also included in the delegation. Can you please present the goal of the mission? What works have you done in Armenia and what is going to be the result of that work?

The goal is exactly as you describe - fact-finding. If we are to report to our colleagues in Brussels it is important to have discussions with those directly affected by the Azeri aggression. We are therefore in talks with Armenian stakeholders, and in Brussels we can agree on how to proceed.
JEFFERSON CITY  Democratic state Rep. Tracy McCreery won a promotion to the Missouri Senate on Tuesday, defeating Republican George Hruza in the 24th District by a significant margin.

The race for the 24th was considered the most competitive contest for the Missouri Senate this year.

But in the end, McCreery ran up a nearly 7,000-vote lead over Hruza  besting him by a 53%-to-45% margin in the district, which stretches from Maryland Heights to Sunset Hills, according to unofficial results.

With McCreery winning, Democrats were poised to keep 10 seats in the Missouri Senate. McCreery will replace term-limited state Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur.

Republicans were positioned to maintain a strong advantage in the Missouri House, but with fewer seats: two years ago, voters elected Republicans in 114 districts.

On Tuesday, the GOP won 111 seats. Democrats won 52.

Former state Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, is headed back to the state House after defeating Republican Ryan Higgins 51%-49% in the west St. Louis County 98th District.

Republican Philip Oehlerking defeated Democrat Colin Lovett by less than 200 votes out of more than 16,000 cast in the Ballwin-based 100th District, according to unofficial results.

Democratic incumbent state Rep. Michael Burton, D-Lakeshire, fended off Republican challenger Bob Mahecek in the 92nd District.

And incumbent state Rep. Bridget Walsh Moore defeated Republican Kenneth Abram in the 93rd.

Incumbent Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, led Democrat Cindy Berne in St. Charles 105th District.

Voters in Greene County were on the verge of sending three Democrats to Jefferson City, from two currently, with Democrat Stephanie Hein holding a slim lead over Republican incumbent Craig Fishel in the 136th District.

Voters in Boone County, meanwhile, were poised to send four Democrats to the state House  up from two currently  picking up the 47th and 50th districts.

Democrat Adrian Plank, running for the third time, defeated Republican John Martin in the redrawn 47th District.
JEFFERSON CITY  Voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults.

Despite a slew of groups and elected officials calling for its defeat, yes votes for Amendment 3 outpaced no votes by a 53-47 margin with all precincts counted, according to unofficial results reported by the Secretary of State.

An hour after the polls closed, vote tallies had not come in from many of the states rural Republican strongholds. Early returns, for example, in Cole County, home to the state Capitol, showed the initiative losing 56-44.

St. Louis County residents clearly favored legal weed, voting 59% to 41% for the measure. Support was even more pronounced in the city of St. Louis, where it passed 73% to 27%.

Amendment 3 would alter the state constitution by making it legal for those 21 and older to buy and use marijuana. Before Tuesday, 19 states had legalized recreational marijuana for adults in the past decade.

In addition to Missouri, four other states had recreational marijuana on the ballot Tuesday. Maryland voters approved legalization; Arkansas and North Dakota voters did not. Legalization also appeared to be losing in South Dakota.

Its spread in other states was enough to win the support of south St. Louis resident Petrit Beka, 53.

Why not us? Beka said.

Aubrey Evans, 39, said Amendment 3 was one of the main draws for her on Election Day. She said it was stupid that marijuana was still illegal, and that there were too many people sitting in prison because of it. Concerns about how licenses would be handed out and enshrining the law in the constitution wasnt enough to dissuade her.

Theres always going to be some sort of red tape or things to work out, Evans said Tuesday outside the Julia Goldstein Early Childhood Center in University City.

The push to legalize pot via a ballot initiative comes after Missouri lawmakers have been unable to agree on legislation that would have launched something similar.

Existing medical marijuana companies have largely financed the yes campaign with more than $7 million in contributions.

The lengthy amendment outlines a blueprint to create a state program regulating who can get licenses to grow and sell recreational marijuana. The amendment also would automatically expunge the records of people with past nonviolent marijuana-related charges, and would allow those currently incarcerated for marijuana charges to petition for their release.

The state tax rate on cannabis products would be 6%. There also would be state and local sales taxes tacked on to the price.

Money raised through the state tax would go to programs for military veterans.

Sales could begin as early as February.

The amendment has been endorsed by groups such as the Missouri ACLU and Empower Missouri, as well as Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

It also has bipartisan support among lawmakers, including Rep. Nick Schroer, R-St. Charles County, and House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield.

Chris Chesley put up pro Amendment 3 signs across St. Louis County Monday night, took a nap and went out to hand out information at polls all day Tuesday.

As polls closed, he grabbed a beer and joined about a couple dozen others at a bar in Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis to reflect on the legalization journey and the final day. He and others got high fives by most voters but say they also battled against signs and flyers with misinformation on the amendment.

Chesley owns a dispensary and teaches about cannabis at St. Louis University. Hes also worked on other states legalization campaigns.

What other state is going as far as we are? said Chesley. This is what the movement is about. Once this passes in Missouri, I hope the next state goes further.

But some opponents raised objections over a provision that gives existing medical marijuana facilities first dibs on converting their licenses for recreational business.

The Missouri Hospital Association, which represents and advocates for more than 140 hospitals across the state, warned that the public health costs, including emergency room visits and treatment for psychological and addictive disorders, likely would outweigh any increase in state revenues from taxes on cannabis products.

And other groups, such as the Missouri NAACP, have said it doesnt adequately address decades of marijuana criminalization on minority groups.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones was among those urging voters to reject the amendment, saying it falls short on promises of decriminalization.

We deserve better, she said via Twitter.

Some voters put those concerns aside, saying this was the states best chance for legalization.

Id rather see it legalized sooner rather than later. I dont think itll get done otherwise, said Roger Roe, 40, after voting in the Tower Grove South neighborhood.

At the Ballpark Village event, James Coleman believes critics of the amendment should have spoken up sooner. Coleman, who recently quit his job working for the city to work in the cannabis industry full time with a cannabis marketing company. Coleman believes the amendment could have gone further to address equality for minorities. However, he believes the overall benefit of the amendment is the revenue minorities can now take advantage of.

Lee Riley, who works with Good Day Farm dispensaries, one of the largest pot operations in the state, agreed with those sentiments.

Something more progressive may not have passed in Missouri, said Riley.

Im not willing to stop progress at the expense of perfection.

Jacob Barker and Taylor Tiamoyo Harris of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Updated at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday.
BRENTWOOD  Republican Mark Mantovani, a late entry in the race for St. Louis County executive, gained ground on Tuesday night against Democrat Sam Page, but couldnt overcome the incumbents early, wide lead.

By evenings end, with all polling places reporting, the tally stood at Page, 52%; Mantovani, 46%. Green Party Candidate Randall Holmes had about 2% of the vote.

In a concession speech shortly after 10 p.m., Mantovani thanked voters for their support and said he felt it was a worthy effort despite the challenges of running a two-month campaign.

To the people of St. Louis, I would continue to implore you to challenge yourself and the community to address our long term and historic challenges: economic stagnation, racial and social equity, and the fragmentation of our local governance structures, Mantovani said.

Page thanked county voters and promised to deliver on a balanced budget, equity and jobs.

I can say that all campaign battles are finished and the punches thrown, forgiven and forgotten, he said, repeating a refrain from the primary.

It was an unusual election season for St. Louis Countys top job. Page banked on his roughly three-year record as County Executive to get reelected, while Mantovani, a former Democrat, attempted to woo voters with bipartisan appeal.

Page, a 57-year-old anesthesiologist from Creve Coeur, was appointed in 2019 to replace former County Executive Steve Stenger, who was later indicted in a pay-to-play scheme. Page then won an election in November 2020 to finish Stengers unexpired term.

Mantovani, 68, is a retired Ladue businessman who ran and lost twice for county executive, first to Stenger and then to Page. But he was a last-minute pick for county Republicans: Katherine Pinner, an anti-vaccine and anti-mask candidate from unincorporated St. Louis County, won a surprise victory in the August primary, then dropped out a month later.

Shortly before the polls closed on Tuesday, supporters filed in to Mantovanis election results watch party at the Drury Inn and Suites hotel in Brentwood.

There, Dave Clark, 68, a longtime family friend, said he and Mantovani share values and concerns about crime and the economy. Clark typically votes Republican, but supported Mantovani when he ran as a Democrat.

The county executive is a CEO role more than a political role, said Clark, a Kirkwood resident. We need someone who can keep the county in check.

About a hundred people turned up at Pages watch party at the Machinists Hall in Bridgeton, including Theda Person. Person, 50, works in Pages administration on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The Affton resident believes Page advocates for positive change in the community.

To be part of a team that wants everyone to feel welcome in St. Louis County, as a Black, African-American woman, I really love that, Person said.

Both Mantovani and Page visited polls Tuesday to talk with voters.

Parthia Long, 73, voted in a bright pink hat and matching lipstick Tuesday afternoon at Pagedale City Hall. The retired special education teacher said she went into the polls worrying about gun violence and the economy. She didnt want to vote for either Page or Mantovani, but she chose the lesser of two evils. She declined to say who her choice was, but said it was time for a change.

Maurice Jones, 62, of University City, was more explicit as he went in to vote at city hall. Mantovani lost Jones vote when he switched to the Republican party.

Now I dont know who he is or what he stands for, Jones said. Hes sort of wishy-washy.

It didnt bother David Oswald, 80, who voted for Mantovani at the Zion United Methodist Church in south St. Louis County. Oswald, who backed other Republican candidates Tuesday said it didnt bother him that Mantovani had run as a Democrat twice before. He remembers being surprised that the office was partisan when he moved to St. Louis years ago.

What difference does it make what party he is? said Oswald, of Shrewsbury.

Alex Kanter, a 69-year-old retired attorney from Webster Groves, said party makes all the difference, even at the local level. He believes local Republican candidates are aligned with the national GOP, and said he is alarmed by trends in the party toward what he described as anti-LGBTQ and anti-government tendencies. While Kanter wasnt enthusiastic about voting for Page  he thinks Pages administration should have been more transparent about jail deaths  he couldnt vote for Mantovani.

Im not saying all Republicans are bad, Kanter said. I just got a little concerned when (Mantovani) switched to Republican because Im not sure what his views are.

Still, Mantovani did manage to gain at least one crossover vote from a Democrat. Maplewood resident Emily Pelcak voted a straight Democratic ticket  except for Mantovani, for whom she had voted when he ran as a Democrat.

I thought he was the better candidate before and I stuck with him, she said.
OLIVETTE  The Olivette City Council has approved restrictions on facilities growing or processing marijuana, following a monthslong effort by residents to block pot farm odors.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a 750-foot residential buffer between homes and pot farms, processing or testing facilities, making it at least the third city in the St. Louis region with a residential buffer.

The ordinance also requires the facilities to keep odors minimally detectable outside their buildings and get a special permit to operate, during which the city can set additional regulations.

The ordinance comes months after Proper Cannabis, which operates a pot farm in Rock Hill, withdrew plans to open a second farm in Olivette in an old warehouse that backed up to homes. Residents raised concerns that mitigation technologies wouldnt prevent the facility from leaking odor into the surrounding neighborhood.

State law bars cities from banning medical marijuana businesses. But it requires businesses use filtration tools to keep odors limited and makes it a violation if the odors cause a public nuisance.

Some Olivette residents wanted the city to go further by requiring that no odor at all be detectable just outside the pot farms doors.

Olivette City Attorney Paul Martin said this week that could open the city to lawsuits because state law doesnt allow cities to set unreasonable restrictions on marijuana businesses.

The city could only address odors that rise to the level of a public harm, he said.

The public harm is where that odor migrates to the boundary line and then beyond ... thats what the city can regulate, Martin said.

Missouri voters on Tuesday legalized recreational marijuana under a similar set of regulations as the current medical marijuana law, including a maximum 1,000 foot buffer between pot business and day cares, schools and places of worship.

Cities, however, can hold a public vote on whether to ban marijuana businesses serving recreational users.
The recruitment team of "Teach for Armenia" will visit Artsakh on November 11-13.

November 9, 2022, 11:47 "Teach for Armenia" recruitment team will visit Artsakh

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Artsakh Republic said, noting that "Teach for Armenia" is an educational foundation, aimed at having such an Armenia and Artsakh where children, regardless of the socio-economic status, will have an opportunity to discover their full potential through excellent education. "The mission of the foundation is to promote the nationwide movement of young people for the sake of expanding the educational opportunities of all children in Armenia and Artsakh.

The recruitment team of "Teacher for Armenia" will be in Stepanakert on November 11-13.

The team is planning various games and gifts.
ST. LOUIS  Crews will close New Florissant Road between Dunn and Pershall roads at the end of next week in order to remove the remainder of the Interstate 270 bridge, the Missouri Department of Transportation said in a news release Wednesday.

The closure is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, and end 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 21.

Additionally, traffic on I-270 will be each reduced to one eastbound and one westbound lane over New Florissant during the period.

Drivers are encouraged to choose alternate routes.

The work is part of the I-270 North Project project. For more information, go to www.i270north.org.

Editors note: Start time of closing has been corrected.
DENVER (AP)  Colorado's Democratic secretary of state Jena Griswold has won a second term, defeating Republican Pam Anderson, a former county clerk, to remain the states top elections official.

Griswold, who Anderson accused of being too partisan for someone who administers elections, is a vocal advocate for voting access and a frequent guest on cable news shows. She has defended her outspoken positions on issues including voting and abortion as a way of standing up for fundamental rights.

While Griswold said Colorado's election system is a national model, she said after winning Tuesday that the state should continue to innovate and increase access and security.

Now, we must continue to stand together, not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Coloradans and Americans, to reject extremism and ensure our government is working for every person," she said in a statement.

Anderson, the former head of the states clerks association, stood apart from some Republicans seeking top elections offices in other states who baselessly claimed the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. But despite largely agreeing with Griswold on how elections should be conducted, Anderson accused her opponent of potentially alienating voters at a time when how U.S. elections are conducted are subject to skepticism. Anderson also suggested Griswolds focus on politics distracted her from overseeing the office. In 2019, after Alabama passed a restrictive abortion law, Griswold said she would not pay to send employees for training at a national election center there and called on others to boycott the state.

Last year, Griswold worked to block Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk charged with allegedly allowing outsiders to break into her election system, from overseeing elections there. She also went to court to get another clerk, Dallas Schroeder, in Elbert County, to turn over copies of election system hard drives.

Anderson defeated Peters in the Republican primary to challenge Griswold. She supported Griswolds response to Peters but faulted Griswold for using the case in fundraising pitches to her supporters while it was still being investigated.

Griswold criticized Anderson, a nonpartisan municipal clerk in the Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge before being elected Jefferson County clerk, for not denouncing fellow Republicans on the Colorado ballot who have cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results.

Anderson insisted she has and would continue to speak out against any candidate who spreads election misinformation. She dismissed Griswolds call as too political.

As secretary, Griswold backed legislation to make tampering with election equipment a felony and to increase the number of ballot drop-off boxes and in-person voting centers. She also implemented a program where voters can track their ballots, getting notifications of their status by phone, email or text.

This fall, Griswolds office mistakenly sent postcards to about 30,000 noncitizens encouraging them to register to vote, blaming the error on a database glitch related to the states list of residents with drivers licenses. Colorado is one of over a dozen states in which noncitizens are able to get drivers licenses. The notices did say people must be U.S. citizens to register to vote.

Anderson was recently featured on the front of Time magazine in a story about elections officials working to protect democracy. As county clerk, she helped pass legislation that required clerks to perform audits of election results.

In her concession speech, Anderson told supporters that she believes her campaign sent a strong message that elections should be overseen in a non-partisan way to build voters' confidence in the system.
CHICAGO (AP)  Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth won reelection Tuesday in Illinois, defeating political newcomer and lawyer Kathy Salvi.

Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, has served in Congress for nearly a decade. Between 2013 and 2017, she represented Illinois 8th Congressional District, northwest of Chicago.

The 54-year-old was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2017, beating out incumbent Republican Mark Kirk, and in April 2018 became the first senator to give birth while in office.

Salvi, a Chicago-area personal injury lawyer, edged out six competitors to win the Republican primary in June. The 63-year-old campaigned as an alternative for voters looking for a change from soaring prices and high crime rates.

Just one hour after polls closed in Illinois, Salvi's campaign said she called to congratulate Duckworth on the win.

While she and I differ on many issues, we share the view that we need to strengthen our economy, make communities safe and restore civility to our political system, the statement said.

It is my sincere hope that she will be a strong voice on behalf of all Illinoisans in the United States Senate over the next six years and I wish her well.

After Duckworth won, the senator vowed to protect the U.S. Constitution and the rights enshrined in its pages.

We havent done justice to the justice promised in its sentences and sentiments, she said. "So you better believe that in my next term, Im going to keep doing everything in my power to change that.

Salvi and Duckworth have opposite views on abortion, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June is not a right under the Constitution.

In a joint interview sponsored by the Illinois AP Media Editors Oct. 3, Duckworth and Salvi sparred over the issue.

She wants to rip freedom away from women, Duckworth said of her opponent.

Salvi cast Duckworths position as extreme, saying there isnt an abortion she doesnt support.

Duckworth said Salvi misstated her stance, and that she supports Illinois' restrictions on abortions after viability  about 24 weeks of pregnancy  as well as codifying Roe v. Wade.

Salvi said in an Oct. 27 debate that she opposes abortion but supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or threat to a patient's life.

Savage 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.

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.
A St. Louis court has once again rebuked Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardners office for managerial incompetence. She seems not to have gotten the message after an embarrassing incident last year, when a court dismissed a murder case because Gardner couldnt be bothered to send a prosecutor. Judges keep identifying the central problem  mismanagement and inattention to detail  but Gardner seems uninspired to put her house in order.

In the latest case, as the Post-Dispatchs Katie Kull reports, the city police department has been complaining for the past 20 months about overflowing drug evidence vaults, requesting again and again that the circuit attorneys office identify which pieces of evidence might be purged. In many instances, the statute of limitations had already expired for the crimes linked to the evidence, meaning the evidence was worthless. Besides, some of it was growing mold and posing health hazards.

The police departments emails and phone calls received non-responsive answers or, in latter instances, no response at all. Gardners office had the gall to assert that it had only been notified on Oct. 24 of the request to destroy nearly 6,900 pieces of evidence collected from 2015 to 2019. The police department easily belied that assertion by producing copies of emails the city crime lab had sent.

Normally, a hearing like this isnt even necessary, Circuit Judge Jason M. Sengheiser wrote. However, there has been nothing but silence and delay from the [circuit attorneys office]. The court is simply not willing to risk the health and safety of people working in the crime laboratory because Gardners office wants to look into old cases it likely cannot prosecute anyway due to the statute of limitations.

If Gardners office regarded the evidence as crucial to ongoing investigations, why didnt her personnel bother to respond to the police departments emails?

These problems are of Gardners own making. Her disorganized management style so alienated staff attorneys that a mass exodus followed her early months in office. Unable to fill the staffing deficit, she wound up hiring lesser-qualified junior attorneys for many vacancies.

The most egregious example of Gardners incompetence occurred in July 2021, when a senior attorney assigned to handle a murder trial went out on maternity leave, but Gardners office failed to appoint a replacement. Emails and phone calls from the defense attorney went unanswered. When no prosecutor showed up at trial, the judge ordered the case dismissed, saying the prosecution had abandoned its duty.

Gardner promised to take corrective measures. Those apparently didnt include the fundamentals of telling staffers to stop ignoring important email and phone-call queries.

Gardner long ago demonstrated her unfitness for this job. When drug evidence stands a good chance of degrading or growing toxic mold sitting on a storeroom shelf, no wonder St. Louis criminals have such a strong sense of impunity.
St. Louis, MO November 08, 2022 - Saint Louis Priory School has become the 110th St. Louis Mosaic Ambassador School, with a long list of ways to engage and highlight their diverse community. Saint Louis Priory School is dedicated to catering to the needs of its foreign-born students and families by offering multiple family engagement opportunities. Aligned with the St. Louis Mosaic Projects mission, Saint Louis Priory School partners with International Institute and other community international groups agencies connected to international students. Moreover, the school also make sure that it profiles foreign born students, families, and staff in its media publications. To make sure that students feel welcome in the classroom, the school has staff with 2nd language skills.

Were pleased to be part of the St. Louis Mosaic Projects Ambassador School program and look forward to their perspective on how we can continue to broaden our cultural competency to best serve our foreign-born students and parents, said Jon-Pierre Mitchom, Director of Equity, and Inclusion at Saint Louis Priory School.

About Saint Louis Priory School

Founded in 1956 Saint. Louis Priory School is a catholic secondary school for young men. The school is in Creve Coeur, suburban St. Louis, Missouri. The school offers an outstanding preparatory experience guided by deeply rooted Catholic, Benedictine values that cultivate faith-centered, virtuous, educated young men. The Mission of Saint Louis Priory School is to provide a Benedictine, Catholic, college preparatory education of the highest excellence so as to help talented and motivated young men develop their full potential as children of God."

For more information visit https://www.priory.org

About the St. Louis Mosaic Project

The St. Louis Mosaic Project goals are to make St. Louis the fastest growing US major metropolitan area for immigration and to increase the foreign-born regional population. St. Louis Mosaic Project aims to be a cultural mosaic because this community believes that immigrants invigorate our region, drive innovation, and take us back to our roots. The St. Louis Mosaic Project was launched in 2012 in response to an economic impact report, outlining St. Louis to be lagging in immigrant growth as well as highlighting the economic benefits of increasing its foreign-born population. The Mosaic Project is a regional initiative that is professionally managed by St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, World Trade Center St. Louis and a 22-member committee.

For more information visit www.stlmosaicproject.org or contact ecohen@worldtradecenter-stl.com.
by Austin Bay November 9, 2022

The people of Guam say "America's day begins" when the sun shines on their island.

That Chamber of Commerce claim is geographically and politically accurate. Guam, in the western Pacific east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, is sovereign U.S. territory on the bright side of the International Date Line.

In 2022, sunrise on U.S. citizens in Polynesia isn't the only reason Guam is unique and very valuable American terrain.

The politics: Observe the aggressive and imperialist behavior of communist China in Asia and in the western Pacific.

Go to the world map: Guam is indeed America. Since the island is America, it ought to be covered by NATO's Article 5. That means: Attack Guam and the attacker is at war with 30 of the world's most powerful and wealthy nations. In a few months, even Sweden!

NATO Article 5, however, doesn't cover Guam nor Hawaii.

In July 2022 I wrote a column about this grievous strategic error that said NATO must include Hawaii and Guam under its powerful shield. Why? To deter Xi Jinping's China from attacking Taiwan and South Korea.

2022 is a late date to address the Chinese and North Korean threat to Guam.

In 1993 I wrote a guest column for a Texas newspaper that analyzed the post-Cold War "peace dividend."

If you don't recall the peace dividend, that's understandable. There was no peace to enjoy. But in 1993 the Clinton administration thought Russia was kaput, so it sought cutbacks in U.S. defense expenditures.

My 1993 essay asked a specific question: What bases should the US continue to man?

From that column: "Pearl Harbor commands the Pacific. Guam is the near-perfect place to put a strategic airbase for operations against the Asian coast."

Geography has not changed. Like, rock and coral are real.

From the 1993 essay: "Does reducing U.S. foreign bases run the risk of 'putting the eggs in one basket' and creating an easy target for a regional thug with a handful of ballistic missiles and nukes? A recent North Korean defector pegged U.S. bases in Japan and Guam as prime targets for a North Korean ICBM."

Credit then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin with recommending an anti-missile missile shield to protect "these valuable point targets."

Well, give geography and SecDef Aspin an A-plus. The latest U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS) called Guam "a crucial operational base" to "uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific region." Indo-Pacific means everything on Earth from California to Mumbai (Bombay) and the Arabian Sea.

The NDS added that Guam is a vital power projection and logistical base and if an enemy attacks Guam "it will be seen as a direct attack on the U.S."

Yours truly translating for Xi: Washington is signaling Guam is not just America, it is de facto NATO.

The NDS directs the U.S. military budget. Right now, $1 billion is devoted to defending Guam against air and missile attack. Additional Pentagon funds will improve Guam's naval base and Andersen Air Force Base.

The Navy wants to expand its ability to support American nuclear submarines and allied conventional subs and ensure its ability to support Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Singapore.

The Army has money to "tailor" anti-missile missile units -- initially Patriot and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Air Defense) missile units.

The goal: Build by 2026 what a former U.S. Indo-Pacific Command commander called a "360-degree defense of Guam" that protects the island "against advanced Chinese cruise, ballistic and maneuvering hypersonic weapons."

We're not going to take it. Guam has a key role in an American offense. From Guam USAF heavy bombers can lay sea mines that pin Chinese ships in coastal harbors and deny them shore facilities. They can do so in time to save Taiwan.

Guam supports submarine operations that help air power pin Chinese ships. Guam is a forward supply point for U.S. and Australian subs -- and Japanese as well. Mines along China's coast don't just hinder China's navy. They strangle the maritime leg of China's Africa and Southwest Asia resource-driven economy.
New prime minister Sudanis anti-corruption campaign was not a surprise to those who remembered the August resignation letter of finance minister Ali Allawi detailing the massive corruption that crippled government efforts to deal with the corruption and made it impossible for him to do his job. Ali Allawi was a well-educated and respected former banker. He was allowed to read aloud his resignation letter at the weekly cabinet meeting and his fellow cabinet members were astounded at such a frank and detailed 30-minute description of the widespread corruption. It was difficult to find Iraqis of Allawis stature and competence to serve as cabinet ministers and the Allawi resignation letter made it clear why. Many other honest and capable cabinet ministers simply quietly quit out of frustration over not being able to do their jobs. New prime minister Sudani is rediscovering this as he seeks competent and honest officials for his new cabinet. Many, if not most, of the cabinet appointments are made to satisfy parliamentary coalitions that supported Sudani becoming prime minister. This makes it impossible to eliminate all corrupt or potentially corrupt ministers. The Allawi resignation letter made that clear. For anti-corruption efforts to work there must be support from senior government officials. Corrupt officials and business managers can often evade punishment if they have paid-for friends in high places. Iraq has long been known as the most corrupt Arab state in the region and Allawi explained why,

Prime minister faces a culture of corruption that involves numerous organized groups, especially in the oil industry, that plunder much of the national oil income. Sudani acted quickly and forcefully and ordered an audit of oil revenue and how much of it doesnt reach government programs to provide basic services like water, sanitation, education and medical care. Many of these programs were crippled because the money appropriated for their operation often did not reach the intended destination. It was relatively easy to find the more blatant efforts to divert funds and the audit continues even as the resistance from the corruption mafia increases. In Iraq, finding sources of corruption is one thing, being able to do anything about it is the hard, and often impossible, part.

The new prime minister took office on October 27th. This came after a year of political deadlock, when the Iraqi parliament finally voted to appoint Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as the new prime minister. Sudani began selecting 21 ministers for government departments. Sudani pledged to reduce corruption, reform the economy and improve public services. Corruption and lack of public services were the main reason for years of protests and demands for a new government that would effectively deal with these problems. Sudani is a well-educated Shia who entered politics after Saddams Sunni government was deposed in 2003. Sudani led the largest Shia parliamentary coalition after Shia cleric and political leader Muqtada al Sadr gave up on his eight-month long effort to form a new government in July and ordered the 73 members of his parliamentary coalition to resign, which they did.

The 2021 national election was a defeat for pro-Iran parties and an unexpected victory for the Sadr coalition, which won 73 of 329 seats in parliament. He had momentum and the best chance of forming a majority coalition and forming a government that would make good on his promise to do something about government corruption. Sadr was unable to get enough ethnic or religious coalitions to join him and form a government. Even then, Sadr would have to achieve a two-thirds vote in parliament to elect a new president. This is seen as a win for Iran and corrupt Iraqi politicians. With the Sadr coalition gone, Sudani was able to get himself elected as prime minister. Sadr and his followers claim that Sudani will be ineffective in dealing with the corruption and continuing influence of Iran in Iraqi politics. Its up to Sudani to prove Sadr wrong. Mindful of Sadrs criticism, Sudani began arresting and prosecuting corrupt Iraqis and dealing with the lack of public services, especially in the Shia majority south (Basra province). Sadrs followers are holding protests against Sudani and that wont stop until Sudani proves he can do something effective about the corruption and poor government performance. .

Sudani also has to deal with accusations that he will not act against Iranian efforts to operate in Iraq and influence government decisions. Sudani can deal with a lot of those criticisms by effectively reducing corruption and improving government services. That means dealing with the pro-Iran members of parliament who backed him becoming prime minister. Sudani has to move carefully here because as much as he wants Iraq free of Iranian influence, many of his supporters in parliament were more cooperative with Iran. That cooperation includes leaving alone Iraqi oil smugglers who do business with Iran. Iran also wants the small American military contingent in Iraq to leave. Most Iraqis want the Americans to stay in order to keep Iran out.

Violent Deaths Decline

Deaths from terrorism violence continue to decline throughout Iraq, to the dismay of Iran and diehard Saddam supporters who founded and run ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). The sharp fall in violent deaths began in 2017. That was when ISIL power in Iraq was broken. Ever since then small groups of ISIL fighters survive in the north and west, mainly by avoiding the security forces and concentrating on raising money via extortion and kidnapping so they can rebuild and recruit. The fundraising has been more successful than the recruiting and ISIL in Iraq is evolving into another organized crime network. Gangsters tend to prefer a lower body count than terrorists. This year, some months see only a few terrorism-related deaths, often the result of police activity where Islamic terrorists would not surrender.

Saudi Cooperation Increases

While Iraq resists Iranian offers for economic and military cooperation, Saudi Arabia is welcomed. The Saudis have the cash to invest in rebuilding war torn Iraq and, along with Iraqis, have to deal with Iranian opposition to any Saudi presence. This conflict gets little media attention because the Saudis have no military forces in Iraq, just investors and Saudi personnel managing the new investments. These are often attacked by Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militias. The government is trying to disband these militias but that has proved difficult because of continued Iranian support for these groups.

Israel Strikes Back

A convoy of fifteen Iranian operated fuel trucks was hit by a UAV air strike shortly after crossing the Iraqi border into Syria. At least ten people were killed, all of them Iranian. No one took credit for the attacks and that leaves Israel, which has been using such UAV attacks in Syria against Iranian forces.

November 7, 2022: A pro-Iran Shia militia took credit for the murder of an American foreign aid worker in Baghdad. The militia said this was revenge for the death of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.

November 3, 2022: In the north (Nineveh province) a Turkish UAV near Sinjar used a guided missile to kill at least three PKK men traveling in a vehicle.

November 2, 2022: Police in Basra province arrested members of an oil-theft group that had been stealing up to 19 million gallons (75 million liters) of oil a month by punching holes in oil pipelines and exporting them on tankers. Thats about three percent of total oil production, which generates about $9 billion a month. The stolen oil amounts to as much as $90 million a month although in some months the losses were only $60 million. The corruption investigation is also going after officials working for the banks where the checks were cashed as well as those who founded the fake companies. The government is also looking into other government officials involved in this massive theft. Many of those arrested had funds in their bank accounts frozen. This is the largest known theft of government oil revenues. There have been many other organized thefts of oil revenue and those missing billions are the reason why promised government services never seem to exist. All this means nothing if the accused are not prosecuted and convicted and some of the stolen money recovered. The judicial process is often derailed by the liberal use of bribes or other forms of influence. Previous anti-corruption operations were also found to be sidetracked by bribes. Sudani has a massive task ahead of him to see that his anti-corruption effort actually works.

October 25, 2022: Police arrested five men suspected as being involved in a corruption scheme that involved five fake companies stealing $2.5 billion (3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars) from the government bank accounts. The thieves received 247 checks from government bank accounts between September 2021 and August 2022. Prime minister Sudani ordered the removal of a senior police official believed responsible for blocking investigations of the companies that were stealing the oil revenue.

October 20, 2022: In the Kurdish north, Turkey reported that since April 17, Turkish forces have seized 1,043 weapons from the PKK. This Turkish operation has seriously damaged the PKK in northern Iraq. The weapons recovered include 22 grenade launchers, 50 DShK machine guns (Dushkas), 31 Zagros sniper rifles, 85 PKC machine guns, 519 Kalashnikov rifles, 79 M16 rifles, 73 Dragunov SVD sniper rifles and two SA-18 Igla shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles.

October 11, 2022: In the northeast (autonomous Kurd territory), Iranian IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) forces in Kurdistan province have been making attacks on the Iraqi side of the border for the last 17 days. To distract attention from their own responsibility, Iran falsely blames Iraqi and Iranian Kurds for the anti-hijab protests that have taken place since mid-September. Most of the ten million Iranian Kurds live in the northwest, on the Iraqi border with Iraqi Kurdistan. Most of the five million Iraqi Kurds live across the border in autonomous Kurdish Iraq. Iraq has continuing problems with Iranian (IRGC) interference. Most of the Iraqi problems are caused by Iraqis, in particular the many interrelated corrupt Iraqi politicians and businessmen. Such corrupt families are a minority in Iraq but all that stolen cash is used as a defensive weapon and that is what has been happening for the last year. Iran takes advantage of this to obtain economic, military and political goals in Iraq.

October 6, 2022: In the Kurdish north two Turkish soldiers were killed by a PKK roadside bomb.

October 5, 2022: In the north (Nineveh province) security forces raided an underground ISIL hideout in a remote area. Troops killed an ISIL emir (leader) and two of his associates.
Armenias Finance Minister Tigran Khachatryan and his deputy Avag Avanesyan have arrived in Iran on a working visit, the ministry said.

November 9, 2022, 12:16 Armenia, Iran highlight carrying out 3 billion USD trade annually

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: During the visit the Armenian officials met with Irans Vice President Masoud Mirkazemi, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ehsan Khandouzi and a number of other top officials.

During their meeting the Armenian and Iranian finance ministers highlighted several economic priorities between the neighbor countries, particularly the implementation of 3 billion USD trade annually, reaching the goods exchange volume to 5 million tones, as well as the facilitation and development of financial, banking, commercial and customs relations.

In his remarks the Armenian Minister said that productive and constructive discussions were held during the visit in Iran. He also highlighted constantly developing and strengthening the cooperation between Iran and Armenia.

The economic and political relations of Iran and Armenia have a history of decades. The basis of all ongoing talks is this long-lasting cooperation between the two countries, and the goal to reach the level of commercial relations between Armenia and Iran to three billion dollars is an evidence of these main bases.

Touching upon the 25% growth registered in the volume of economic exchanges between the two countries, the minister said that this year this growth will comprise over 40%.
PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / abrdn Income Credit Strategies Fund (NYSE: ACP) and abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund (NYSE: AGD) (each an "Acquiring Fund") announced that they each held a special meeting of shareholders on November 9, 2022 (each, a "Meeting") at which shareholders of the respective Acquiring Fund voted to approve the issuance of additional shares of such Fund in connection with the proposed reorganization of the applicable Delaware Management Company-advised closed-end fund, as noted below, with and into the Acquiring Fund.

abrdn Income Credit Strategies Fund ("ACP")

As of the record date, August 11, 2022, ACP had outstanding 24,509,752 shares of common stock and 1,600,000 shares of outstanding preferred stock. 57.22% of outstanding common stock were voted, representing a quorum.

Proposal: To approve the issuance of additional shares of beneficial interest of ACP in connection with the reorganization of Delaware Ivy High Income Opportunities Fund ("IVH"), another closed-end fund, with and into ACP.

Votes For Votes Against Votes Abstained 11,420,419 1,829,195 775,377

The shareholders of IVH approved the reorganization at a special shareholder meeting also held on November 9, 2022. It is currently expected that the reorganization will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund ("AGD")

As of the record date, August 11, 2022, AGD had outstanding 12,549,582 shares of common stock. 58.50% of outstanding common stock were voted, representing a quorum.

Proposal: To approve the issuance of additional common shares of beneficial interest of AGD in connection with the reorganization of Delaware Enhanced Global Dividend and Income Fund ("DEX") and Delaware Investments Dividend and Income Fund ("DDF"), each another closed-end fund, with and into AGD.

Votes For Votes Against Votes Abstained 6,515,118 594,880 231,261

It is currently expected that the reorganizations will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 subject to approval of the reorganization by the shareholders of each of DEX and DDF and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Important Information

In the United States, abrdn is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., abrdn Australia Limited, abrdn Asia Limited, Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, abrdn ETFs Advisors LLC and Aberdeen Standard Alternative Funds Limited.

The information in this press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to or in connection with the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. Each Acquiring Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that each Acquiring Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

For More Information Contact:

abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds

Investor Relations

1-800-522-5465

[email protected]

If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact [email protected]

https://www.abrdn.com/en-us/cefinvestorcenter/fund-centre/closed-end-funds

###

SOURCE: abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 8, 2022 / New Destiny Mining Corp. (TSXV:NED), (the "Company" or "NED") would like to update, that its previously announced financing of September 30, 2022 is expected to close shortly. The non-brokered private placement of three million units at a price of $0.03 per unit for gross proceeds of $90,000. The units of the financing will comprise of one common share and a full share purchase warrant, which may be exercised for a period of five years at a price of $0.05 per share. The term of the warrants may be accelerated in the event that the issuer's shares trade at or above a price of $0.10 per share for a period of 10 consecutive days. In such case of accelerated warrants, the issuer may give notice, in writing or by way of news release, to the subscribers that the warrants will expire 30 days from the date of providing such notice.

Directors, officers or other insiders of the Company may participate in the foregoing offerings, and such parties may sell securities of the Company owned or controlled by them personally through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange to finance participation in such offerings. The proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for general working capital purposes.

The proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for general working capital and other general corporate purposes including transfer agent fees, accounting fees and Exchange fees.

A finder's fee may be paid to eligible finders in accordance to the TSX-V policies. All securities issued pursuant to the offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. The offerings and payment of finders' fees are both subject to approval by the TSX-V.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Barry Brown"

Director

604-488-3900

[email protected]

Forward Looking Information

This news release includes certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, the Company's information and statements regarding or inferring the future business, operations, financial performance, prospects, and other plans, intentions, expectations, estimates, and beliefs of the Company. Such statements include statements regarding the completion of the proposed transactions. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved), and variations of such words, and similar expressions are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statement are necessarily based upon several factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements express or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of gold and other metals, anticipated costs and the ability to achieve goals, and the Company will be able to obtain required licenses and permits. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks including that resource exploration and development is a speculative business; that environmental laws and regulations may become more onerous; that the Company may not be able to raise additional funds when necessary; fluctuating prices of metals; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; operating hazards and risks; and competition. There can be no assurance that economic resources will be discovered or developed. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, the loss of key directors, employees, advisors or consultants, equipment failures, litigation, competition, fees charged by service providers and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

SOURCE: New Destiny Mining Corp.

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As investors are still digesting the consequences of yesterdays events in the cryptocurrency market, some analysts are warning that the drama likely wont end anytime soon. Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said investors should watch the situation closely as the U.S. government may intervene to block the deal.

We already are hearing concerns in Washington that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States [CFIUS] could seek to review it on national security grounds with a focus on what it means for FTX's separate U.S. unit, Seiberg said in a client note.

The analyst believes the ongoing drama is hurting the entire cryptocurrency market from the U.S. regulation point of view. The Congress may host more hearings next year with the focus on whether global crypto exchanges are threatening financial stability in the U.S.

It does not matter that these are global exchanges. It feeds the narrative that crypto companies are taking excessive risks with no oversight, Seiberg stated.

The biggest winner could be the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) given its Chair Gary Gensler has been pushing to increase the crypto regulation. It also makes it hard for the SEC to approve the spot Bitcoin ETF.

We expect he will now point to the troubles at FTX to further prove his point. That means treating most tokens like securities and requiring trading platforms to register as exchanges.

We already had doubts if Congress next year could pass comprehensive crypto legislation. This controversy changes our view. We believe it is now even more challenging to pass bills like Lummis/Gillibrand. Yet it could open the door for bills that take a more onerous approach to regulation, the Cowen analyst concluded.

At 04:15 EST (09:15 GMT), Bitcoin (BTC) price is down just over 2%.

By Senad Karaahmetovic
Valaris Limited (NYSE: VAL) today announced that Catherine J. Hughes has been appointed to the Valaris Board of Directors. Ms. Hughes will also serve on the Boards Environmental, Social and Governance Committee.

Ms. Hughes has served as a non-executive director of Shell plc since 2017, including as Chair of the Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee. She was previously Executive Vice President International at Nexen Inc. from January 2012 until her retirement in April 2013, where she was responsible for all oil and gas activities including exploration, production, development and project activities outside Canada. Ms. Hughes joined Nexen in 2009 as Vice President Operational Services, Technology and Human Resources. Prior to joining Nexen, she was Vice President Oil Sands at Husky Oil from 2007 to 2009 and Vice President Exploration & Production Services, from 2005 to 2007. Ms. Hughes started her career with Schlumberger in 1986 and held key positions in various countries, including France, Italy, Nigeria, the UK and the USA, and was President of Schlumberger Canada Ltd for five years. Ms. Hughes has previously held non-executive director positions at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc, Statoil ASA and Precision Drilling Inc.

Chair of the Board Elizabeth D. Leykum said, We are pleased to welcome Catherine to the Valaris Board of Directors. Her extensive industry experience gained from executive management positions held at both leading operators and oilfield service companies will further strengthen our Board. The diversity of skills, knowledge and backgrounds of our Board members will continue to help the Company execute on its strategy of being value driven, focused and responsible to drive shareholder value.
OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of a+ (Excellent) of Standard Insurance Company (Portland, OR) and its affiliate, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York (White Plains, NY), together referred to as Standard Insurance Group (The Standard). Additionally, AM Best has affirmed the Long-Term ICR of bbb+ (Good) of StanCorp Financial Group, Inc. (StanCorp Financial) (Portland, OR), the intermediate holding company of The Standard. The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of a (Excellent) of Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Company, Limited (Pacific Guardian) (Honolulu, HI). The outlook of these ratings is stable.

The ratings of The Standard reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong as well as its strong operating performance, favorable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

AM Best assesses The Standards risk-adjusted capital as strong, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The capital level has been on a growth trend through 2020; however, dipped in 2021, but is projected to improve for 2022. Annual dividends have been paid to support debt coverage at StanCorp Financial and to upstream to its ultimate parent, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company (Meiji Yasuda), over four of the past five years. Approximately two-fifths of The Standards invested assets are held in commercial mortgage loans with a concentration of loans on the West Coast. The Standard is the direct underwriter of the mortgage loans and has historical strong underwriting capabilities based on its long history as a loan originator. The mortgage portfolio is currently performing well.

The Standard continues to report favorable operating results with recent double-digit premium growth and recorded a trend of profitability with some fluctuation. The Standard maintains good business diversification between mortality and morbidity products, in addition to asset management. AM Best notes that The Standard maintains top 10 market positions in group long-term disability, individual disability insurance, group short-term disability and group life products. The Standard has a comprehensive and well-developed ERM program. The organization maintains good governance structure, appropriate risk management and controls.

The ratings of Pacific Guardian reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate ERM.

Pacific Guardian continues to maintain a high level of risk-adjusted capital. Historically, dividends have been paid consistently to the parent and has been tied closely to net income from the prior year, although AM Best notes that no dividend was paid in 2021 nor in the first six months of 2022. Pacific Guardian also has a high allocation of nearly two-fifths of invested assets to commercial mortgage loans, which are underwritten mostly by its affiliate, The Standard. The company currently has no outstanding debt; however, has access to a line of credit for short term liquidity needs. After several years of fluctuating premiums, Pacific Guardian experienced sizeable growth in 2022 driven by sales of its multi-year guaranteed annuity (MYGA) product. Net losses were reported in 2020 and 2021 after years of profitable operations. The recent net loss was due to a federal tax expense driven by the add back of the policy administration system depreciation to taxable income. AM Best notes that the company is one of Hawaii's largest and highly regarded group life insurance and group disability carriers and maintains a market leading position in the temporary disability income (TDI) market. Pacific Guardian launched a MYGA product in 40 states at the end of 2021. The company also has expanded its licensing to 46 states and the District of Columbia.

The ratings of The Standard and Pacific Guardian take into consideration the financial strength of their parent company, Meiji Yasuda, and the strategic role The Standard and Pacific Guardian play in the Meiji Yasuda organization.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109006034/en/

Jeffrey Lane

Senior Financial Analyst

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5567

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

[email protected]

Sally Rosen

Senior Director

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5280

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Communications Specialist

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5098

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News:

ESI Group (FR0004110310  ESI), leader and pioneer in Virtual Prototyping solutions, hereby releases the total number of shares making up the companys capital and the total number of voting rights in October 31, 2022, in accordance with articles 223-16 and 221-3 of the General Regulations of the Autorite des Marches Financiers.

Number of shares Number of theoretical voting

rights * Number of voting rights ** 6,068,054 8,053,011 7,714,384

* The number of theoretical voting rights is calculated based on all shares eligible for voting right (single or double), including shares temporarily deprived of voting rights (treasury shares).

** All Group shares have equal right to vote, except treasury shares, which are deprived of the right to vote, and registered shares held for more than four years that are eligible for double voting rights.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005211/en/

ESI Group

Source: ESI Group
New Collaboration with T-Mobile Enables Channel Partners to Market, Sell and Support Next Generation Wireless Networking Solutions and Capitalize on the Benefits of 5G

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- INGRAM MICRO ONE  Ingram Micro Inc. today announced a new B2B, go-to-market relationship with T-Mobile designed to increase adoption of SIM to Cloud Solutions with the IT channel and across the nations fast-growing and future-focused small to mid-size businesses and enterprises.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005814/en/

Executing against Ingram Micros stated SIM to Cloud strategy, we are excited to welcome T-Mobile and further enable our channel partners to capitalize on their existing datacenter and cloud expertise and create, market, sell and support new 5G business and service opportunities that businesses of all sizes are hungry for and need." - Jeff Yelton, vice president and general manager, Infrastructure and Specialty Technologies, Ingram Micro (Photo: Business Wire)

Todays businesses require modern networking solutions that are agile, flexible and reliable  allowing their teams and their customers to connect and engage securely almost anywhere at any time, says George Fischer, senior vice president of Sales, T-Mobile for Business. By aligning with Ingram Micro, T-Mobile brings fast, reliable connectivity on a proven 5G network to tens of thousands of Ingram Micro channel partners and their customers in the U.S. who are striving to make IT work virtually anywhere for businesses.

Ingram Micro notes the IT channel, which includes many IT business experts including agents, sub-agents, MSPs and VARs, represents many of the industrys most valued ecosystem players and top influencers creating awareness and driving adoption of 5G. Simultaneously these same channel partners are challenged with successfully securing and optimizing todays workforce and workflows using public, private and hybrid cloud networks. To assist in their efforts, Ingram Micro and T-Mobile are working closely to:

- Further educate the market on the benefits of 5G and secure connectivity

- Speed the adoption of industry-aligned 5G solutions at scale by simplifying the sales cycle for the IT channel and their customers

Executing against Ingram Micros stated SIM to Cloud strategy, we are excited to welcome T-Mobile and further enable our channel partners to capitalize on their existing datacenter and cloud expertise and create, market, sell and support new 5G business and service opportunities that businesses of all sizes are hungry for and need, says Jeff Yelton, vice president and general manager, Infrastructure and Specialty Technologies, Ingram Micro.

News of the collaboration between Ingram Micro and T-Mobile was announced at the Ingram Micro ONE event taking place this week (Nov. 7-10) in Orlando, Florida. For more information, channel partners are encouraged to engage their Ingram Micro sales representatives.

About Ingram Micro

Ingram Micro helps businesses realize the promise of technology. It delivers a full spectrum of global technology and supply chain services to businesses around the world. Deep expertise in technology solutions, mobility, cloud, and supply chain solutions enables business partners to operate efficiently and successfully in the markets they serve. Unrivaled agility, deep market insights and the trust and dependability that come from decades of proven relationships set Ingram Micro apart and ahead. Discover how Ingram Micro can help you realize the promise of technology. More at www.ingrammicro.com.

See 5G device, coverage, & access details at T-Mobile.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005814/en/

Marie Meoli Rourke

WhiteFox Marketing Inc. (for Ingram Micro)

[email protected]

Source: Ingram Micro Inc.
Cleantech high on the agenda, as the UKs HiiROC, takes home the global prize as the KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator 2022.

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On November 2nd, KPMG Private Enterprise announced that HiiROC, the developer of a system to produce low-cost, zero-emission hydrogen, has been named the KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator winner at the final event in Lisbon, Portugal, overcoming fierce competition from over 1,100 applicants across 22 countries and jurisdictions during the national stages.

It is such an honor and a testament to our amazing team for HiiROC to be selected as this years KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator winner, says Tim Davies, HiiROCs Founder and CEO. The competition in the global finals was really impressive, and were thrilled to be recognized amidst such an amazing group of brilliant innovations and entrepreneurs. We sincerely thank KPMG Private Enterprise and our KPMG Private Enterprise UK team for their support at every step in the process. Were ready and eager to take the next step forward for our company.

Conor Moore, Partner and Global Leader, KPMG Private Enterprise Emerging Giants said, Last year was the competitions inaugural year in which the bar was set incredibly high! With even more companies competing this year, I think the standard has risen to yet another level. We were so excited to be able to bring 22 future tech titans to the finalist stage and capture the worlds attention. These tech entrepreneurs are the builders of the future, and they are really stepping up to develop practical technology solutions that can improve our businesses, our planet and the lives of people across the world. These are all admirable goals that should applauded and supported.

Warren Middleton, KPMG Private Enterprise, Emerging Giants Leader in the UK said, Hydrogen is the new green fuel of the future. We saw the potential in HiiROC immediately. We couldnt be more excited about the recognition they have received today, and the opportunity to help them showcase their brilliant innovation, to continue to grow their business and transform the global energy system. As with all of the finalists in todays competition, HiiROC is a modern success story of entrepreneurialism, innovation and ambition. Were seeing more and more of this kind of drive across the world and thats a very positive sign for the future. Congratulations to HiiROC for bringing the global crown home to the UK. The entire KPMG Private Enterprise team in the UK is looking forward to watching your company grow and prosper.

The panel of international judges for the competition included:

Anie Akpe  Founder, IBOM LLC, Innov8tiv & African Women In Tech (AWIT)

Anthony Lacavera  Founder and Chairman  Globalive

Conor Moore  Head of KPMG Private Enterprise in the Americas, Global Leader, Emerging Giants,KPMG Private Enterprise, KPMG in the US

Shivani Sopory, Partner in Charge, Emerging Giants, Silicon Valley, KPMG in the US

Diego Stone  CEO and Founder Krilltech

Conor Moore added, Our congratulations to HiiROC. Were delighted to have been able to play a role in supporting your growth through this part of your journey. Congratulations as well to all 22 of the country winners that competed in this global final.

The global finalists included:

GOTERRA  Australia

Developer of a waste management infrastructure designed to solve the food waste crisis

Techtrials International  Brazil

A cloud-based analytics platform designed to deliver clinical and strategic insights to the healthcare industry

smartONE Solutions Inc.  Canada

A smart community planning platform for multi-dwelling real estate developments

Vision Medical  China

Flexible visualization medical devices to alleviate patient pain

SiembraCo  Colombia

Provider of virtual cultivation services to eliminate production barriers for smallholder farmers

cphnano  Denmark

Developer of laboratory analysis and diagnostics technology to expand the functionality of simple laboratory equipment

Reactive Robotics  Germany

A robotic assistance system for the mobilization of critically ill patients

Maithri Aquatech  India

Developer of water systems to ease the dependence on scarce water resources

Provizio  Ireland

A software-defined active safety platform, using AI on-the-edge to perceive, predict and prevent auto accidents

Connected Insurance  Israel

And AI-based connected insurance platform to transform the way people consume insurance

FIMECS Inc.  Japan

Developer of protein degradation therapeutics to treat previously undruggable cancers

Bounce  Kuwait

Developer of a digital education platform to connect educators and learners

Minu  Mexico

Provider of unsecured micro-loan services to employees in Mexico

Whoppah  Netherlands

A safe digital marketplace for second-hand designer furniture and art

Musiversal  Portugal

Developer of a music recording and collaboration platform turn artists' ideas into reality

Avey  Qatar

Empowering health through AI self-diagnostics and tailored health journeys

OTO  Saudi Arabia

Developer of a SaaS-based multi-carrier shipping management software dedicated to retailers and e-commerce

iiDENTIFii  South Africa

Remote biometric digital authentication and automated on-boarding technology

Cureety  Spain

A digital solution that improves the care pathway of cancer patients

Ganzin Technology Inc.  Taiwan

Creator of the next generation eye tracking modules that can be easily integrated into AR/VR modules

HiiROC  United Kingdom

Developer of a low-cost zero-emission hydrogen production system

Alkymi  United States

Developer of enterprise software for freeing data automatically from emails and documents to drive real-time decisions and action

Notes to Editors:

About the competition

The inaugural KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator Competition was introduced in 2021, to build upon KPMG in the UK's Best British Tech Pioneer competition. In the first year of the global competition, 17 countries in major regions of the world participated in the competition. In 2022, the competition grew to include 22 countries and jurisdictions from both mature and emerging markets.

Companies from the startup to growth stages were invited to pitch their innovations and present their growth ambitions to panels of local and global industry experts for the opportunity to be recognized as a leading technology innovator in their country and ultimately on the global stage.

About KPMG Private Enterprise

You know KPMG, you might not know KPMG Private Enterprise. The KPMG Private Enterprise global network for Emerging Giants has extensive knowledge and experience working with the startup ecosystem. From seed to speed, we're here throughout your journey. You gain access to KPMG's global resources through a single point of contact  a trusted advisor to your company.

It's a local touch with a global reach.

About KPMG International

KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (KPMG International) operate and provide professional services. KPMG is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organization or to one or more member firms collectively.

KPMG firms operate in 144 countries and territories with more than 236,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities.

KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.

For more detail about our structure, please visit home.kpmg/governance.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108005864/en/

For media queries, please contact:

Daniel Caines, Senior Manager, External Communications, KPMG International

T: +447732 400262

E: [email protected]

Lindsay Hull, Senior Director, KPMG Private Enterprise Emerging Giants Network, KPMG International

T: +1 408 367 4102

E: [email protected]

Source: KPMG International
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc. (the Acquired Fund), a New York Stock Exchange-listed closed-end fund trading under the symbol MGU, announced that it held its Special Meeting of Stockholders (the Meeting) on November 9, 2022. At the Meeting, stockholders of the Acquired Fund voted to approve the reorganization of the Acquired Fund into abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund (the Acquiring Fund), a New York Stock Exchange-listed closed-end fund trading under the symbol ASGI (the Reorganization).

As of the record date, August 11, 2022, the Acquired Fund had outstanding 12,303,293 shares of common stock. 60.79% of outstanding common stock were voted representing quorum.

Proposal:

Votes For Votes Against Votes Abstained 6,768,448 559,278 151,378

It is currently expected that the Reorganization will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 subject to (i) approval by Acquiring Fund shareholders of the issuance of shares of the Acquiring Fund and (ii) the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Delaware Management Company, a series of Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, is the investment manager of the Acquired Fund. abrdn Inc. is the investment adviser of the Acquiring Fund and Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited is the investment sub-adviser of the Acquiring Fund.

The information in this press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to or in connection with the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

About the Acquired Fund

Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc., a diversified closed-end fund, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Funds investment adviser is Delaware Management Company (Investment Adviser), a series of Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, which is a subsidiary of Macquarie Management Holdings, Inc. (MMHI). MMHI is a subsidiary, and subject to the ultimate control, of Macquarie Group Limited. Macquarie Asset Management is a global asset manager that aims to deliver positive impact for everyone. Trusted by institutions, pension funds, governments, and individuals to manage more than $US508 billion in assets globally,1 we provide access to specialist investment expertise across a range of capabilities including infrastructure, green investments & renewables, real estate, agriculture & natural assets, asset finance, private credit, equities, fixed income and multi asset solutions.

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its total assets (which includes the aggregate of the Funds average daily net assets plus proceeds from any outstanding borrowings used for leverage) in equity and equity-like securities and instruments, such as common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible securities and hybrid securities issued by US and non-US issuers (Infrastructure Issuers) that primarily own or operate Infrastructure Assets. Infrastructure Assets are an underlying foundation of basic services, facilities and institutions upon which the growth and development of a community depends and may provide the necessities of everyday life, such as fresh water, roads, airports, utilities, power, steam heating systems, hospitals, schools and other social services.

Past performance is no assurance of future results. Investment return and market value of an investment in the Fund will fluctuate. Shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost. An investor should consider the Fund's investment objective, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. Forward-looking statements are based on information that is available on the date hereof, and neither the Investment Adviser nor any other person affiliated with the Investment Adviser has any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could affect actual results to differ from these statements include, among other factors, material, negative changes to the asset class and the actual composition of the portfolio.

1 As of September 30, 2022

 2022 Macquarie Management Holdings, Inc.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109006092/en/

Investor/Broker Inquiries

Tel: 866 567-4771

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.macquarieim.com/mgu

Media Inquiries

Lee Lubarsky

347 302-3000

[email protected]

Source: Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc.
***10:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 9, 601 E. Pine Street, Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39401***

HATTIESBURG, Miss.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Representatives from Cadence Bank, Citizens National Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) will award $18,000 in Partnership Grant Program (PGP) funds to Twin Forks Rising Community Development Corp. (Twin Forks Rising CDC). The media is encouraged to attend.

Twin Forks Rising CDC repairs homes in Ward 2 of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and provides a variety of community programming. It will also embark on a plan to build six new homes in the ward. PGP proceeds will be used toward legal and accounting expenses.

Through the PGP, FHLB Dallas member institutions contribute $500 to $4,000 to a nonprofit, which FHLB Dallas matches at a 3:1 ratio. Grant proceeds help qualified nonprofit organizations fund a variety of operational and administrative activities that are critical to serving their communities.

WHAT: Check presentation to Twin Forks Rising CDC WHEN: 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 9, 2022 WHO: John Griffith, Hattiesburg Market President, Cadence Bank Ted Webb, Division President, Cadence Bank Heather Steele, Community Development Mortgage Officer, Cadence Bank; Twin Forks Rising CDC Board Member Tra Alford, Vice President and Community Development Director, Citizens National Bank Ariel Russell, Mortgage Lender, Citizens National Bank Lori Siccone, Bank Manager, Citizens National Bank Tyeisha Smith, Community Development Officer, Citizens National Bank Deborah Delgado, City Councilwoman, Ward 2; Founder and Advisor, Twin Forks Rising CDC Melanie Dill, Community and Economic Development Product Manager, FHLB Dallas WHERE: Twin Forks Rising CDC offices 601 E. Pine Street, Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39401

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006266/en/

Corporate Communications

Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas

fhlb.com, (214) 441-8445

Source: Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas
After November 9, 2020, the situation in the region has completely changed, Artsakh Foreign Minister David Babayan told NEWS.am.

November 9, 2022, 12:40 Artsakh FM: Azerbaijan has become more aggressive, brazen with Turkeys support

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: "November 9 was written in blood in the history of the Armenian people. On the one hand, the bloody war ended that day, but on the other hand, the results of that war are heavy and crueland we are still feeling the consequences. Moreover, after the 44-day war, Azerbaijan became more aggressive and brazen, with the support of Turkey.

After November 9, the situation is different, [there is] another South Caucasus, another Azerbaijan, another Artsakh, another Armenia.

But even in this difficult moment, we have no right to be broken. Regardless of everything, we must fight to the end, conduct the right policy, try to get out of the difficult situation. And if we do everything right, it is possible to turn the wheel of history," Babayan added.
Israels most active venture investment firm to host biggest investor event in the Middle East; over 23,000 registered to attend previous Summit

OurCrowd passes landmark $2 billion of investment commitments with 60 exits since inception

Expecting largest ever delegation to Summit of investors, corporate executives, government representatives, and journalists from around the world, including for the first time significant representation from the Gulf region

Summit Week packed with partner events, corporate meetups, insider access to accelerators, and cultural opportunities

JERUSALEM, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- OurCrowd, the leading global venture investing platform and Israels most active venture investor, will host its 10th anniversary celebration at the OurCrowd Global Investor Summit on February 15, 2023, in Jerusalem, Israel. The Summit will be held as OurCrowds total amount of investment commitments crosses the $2 billion mark. The 2020 Summit, OurCrowds last mega conference, was the largest investor event in the Middle East, and one of the biggest business events in Israels history.

OurCrowd has been acclaimed by Pitchbook as Israels most active investor each year since it was founded in 2013. It has recorded 60 exits to date from 370 portfolio companies and an additional 410 companies held via partner funds. The OurCrowd platform has almost 220,000 registered investors from 195 countries.

OurCrowd Founder & CEO Jon Medved said: We are delighted to announce that OurCrowd has passed the landmark figure of $2 billion in commitments. The platform continues to grow, both in terms of new users and portfolio companies. Our investors play a vital role in providing the funds that enable smart entrepreneurs to address some of the worlds most urgent problems. As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, our focus is firmly on the future and bringing the latest technology to bear on the challenges we face in sustainability, healthcare, food security, alternative energy, alternative proteins and cybersecurity.

Medved said: As Israels most active venture investor, with corporate partners around the world and strong connections to the Gulf, OurCrowd is uniquely positioned to bring the global startup ecosystem together in Jerusalem. Im proud that the Summit provides a gathering place to set the themes and tech trends for the coming year and to get business done.

So far in 2022, more than $250 million dollars has been raised through OurCrowd, and over 116 investment rounds in startups and funds closed. The largest target for investment this year was in Healthcare with 22%, followed by Enterprise Software with 18%, then Agriculture and FoodTech with 13%. 47% of OurCrowds investments came from the US, 17% from the EU and 11% from Asia.

At the Summit, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives, investors and others will come to the Innovation Nation to meet, learn, and get business done. Over 23,000 people from 183 countries registered to attend the previous Summit in 2020. Early registrations are running at twice the rate of previous years. Innovation executives from multinational corporations already registered include Ford, Google, Intel, McKinsey, PepsiCo, IBM, Bosch, Huawei, Boeing, Sony, Siemens, KPMG, and Porsche.

OurCrowd expects hundreds of visitors from the Gulf and North Africa, representing the largest ever delegation to Israel of investors, corporate executives, government representatives, and journalists from the broader Middle East, reflecting OurCrowds leadership in regional cooperation. OurCrowd was the first Israeli venture firm to open offices in the UAE, and the first licensed by the Abu Dhabi regulatory authorities.

At the last Summit, OurCrowd enabled over 1,400 connections between multinational corporations, startup companies, and investors, highlighting its value to global innovation ecosystem players. In 2023, there will be even more attendee lounges, dedicated meeting spaces, and facilitated networking.

Valerio Nannini, who attended the Summit as Head of Strategies & Performance at Nestle, said: Theres no better place than the OurCrowd Summit to start thinking about the big themes.

The Summit provides exclusive exposure to cutting-edge technologies, the entrepreneurs behind them, and the corporate leaders deploying them. Top participating startups already confirmed include:

JumpCloud, enterprise software redefining the way companies securely connect users and resources, already deployed in over 150,000 organizations worldwide

SaNOtize, virus-killing nasal spray, clinically proven as 99.9% effective against Covid-19, available in 10 countries, registered as a class I medical device in the EU

Ripple, plant-based dairy alternative with more protein, less fat and sugar, and 1/55 of the greenhouse gas emissions, carried by Target, Walmart, Amazon, Costco, and others

MPrest, real-time orchestration and optimization of power grids and distributed energy markets, serving 17 major utilities in 20 countries including NY Power Authority

Plenary sessions will feature TED-like keynotes and often dramatic moments, including segments such as the one in 2020 featuring three patients whose lives were saved by three different MedTech startup technologies. Breakout sessions will break the mold with such programming as Top 10 Tech Trends, Eat the Sharks: The Entrepreneurs Grill the VCs, and Demo Theater: No Pitches, Just Wow. Unlike most major business events, none of the speakers are paid or pay for onstage appearance  passion and expertise are the only criteria.

Previous OurCrowd Summit speakers include business and government leaders such as the current President and the former Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Laureates, Fortune 500 CEOs, startup unicorn founders, and billionaire investors.

Exhibitions featuring interactive tech demos will include:

Gulf States Pavilion hosted by organizations from the region

FoodTech Lab & Banquet, offering samples from pioneering startups developing healthy and cost-effective food and drink alternatives

Metaverse exhibition including a 21st Century Photo Booth, providing 15-second video files to attendees placed into a virtual world

Impact Alley, an OurCrowd tradition hosting some of the most forward-thinking, hands-on, and effective NGOs and nonprofits

The Summit also provides an extraordinary preview of future startup success. Seventeen startups that appeared onstage at the past five Summits had a notable acquisition or IPO within a year; ten startups within three months.

Summit Week will be as packed as ever, with corporate meetups, VC forums, insider access to accelerators and labs, embassy receptions and other side events. Curated Tech Tours will bring investors and journalists up-close with local startups and innovation experts. Summit Day will be Wednesday, February 15. Invite-only events will take place on February 13 and 14, including the OurCrowd Leaders Forum, an all-business event for the elite of the ecosystem.

Visitors will also enjoy a deep dive into the history, culture and vibe of Israel, including the nightlife of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with food, drink and networking with the global crowd. Summit Week in Israel was the place to be, said Forbes.

Responding to unprecedented demand, there will be a charge for tickets to the Summit this year. General admission is $199, with an early bird price of $149. OurCrowd investors receive a complimentary ticket.

For more information and to register, go to summit.ourcrowd.com.

About OurCrowd

OurCrowd is the online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage. Acclaimed by PitchBook as the most active venture investor in Israel every year since 2013, OurCrowd vets and selects companies across all sectors and stages, invests its own capital, and provides its global platform of over 218,000 registered members from 195 countries with unparalleled access and freedom to co-invest from as little as $10,000 in the companies of their choice.

Founded by CEO Jon Medved in 2013 with the vision of democratizing world-class venture capital investing, OurCrowd has grown rapidly into the worlds leading online venture investing platform and as of 2022 has over $2 billion in commitments, and deployed capital into 370 portfolio companies and 40 funds across five continents. To date, OurCrowds startups have recorded 60 exits including several stock market listings: Beyond Meat, Lemonade, Innoviz, Hub Security; and numerous high-profile acquisitions: JUMP by Uber, BriefCam by Canon, Argus by Continental, Crosswise by Oracle, Replay by Intel, Corephotonics by Samsung, CyberX by Microsoft, and Kenna Security by Cisco.

OurCrowd builds value for its portfolio companies throughout their lifecycles, providing mentorship, recruiting industry advisors, navigating follow-on rounds and creating growth opportunities through its network of multinational partnerships.

About OurCrowd Global Investor Summit: Where the Startup World Gathers

The OurCrowd Global Investor Summit will take place in Jerusalem on February 15, 2023. The Summit, which provides unique access to private companies you can invest in, is one of the premier events in the startup world and the biggest investor event in the Middle East, with 23,259 people registering from 183 countries in 2020. The Summit provides exclusive exposure to cutting-edge technologies, the entrepreneurs behind them, and the corporate leaders deploying them. Onstage, in interactive demos, and one-to-one with startup founders, attendees get unparalleled access and intel. Top investors, venture capitalists, innovation executives, entrepreneurs and journalists come to the heart of Startup Nation to get business done. A week of surrounding events includes corporate meetups, VC forums, insider access to accelerators and labs, and opportunities for great food, drink, and networking with the global crowd. As Forbes reported, Summit Week in Israel was the place to be. Learn more at summit.ourcrowd.com.

For Press Materials:

Media toolkit: https://summit.ourcrowd.com/media-toolkit/

Summit website: https://summit.ourcrowd.com/

2020 highlights: https://summit.ourcrowd.com/2020-highlights/

2020 videos: https://youtu.be/uOv6-lLsXCk

2020 photos: https://www.facebook.com/Ourcrowdfund/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2609984562460554&ref=page_internal

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108005575/en/

Press contact:

Leah Stern, Partner, Global Communications, OurCrowd

UK: +44 747 0196826

[email protected]

Source: OurCrowd
Provider of Augmented Analytics Platform for Decision Intelligence Appoints VP of Global Partner Sales, Expands Senior Leadership Team in London Office

LONDON & NEW YORK & TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pyramid Analytics (Pyramid), a pioneering Decision Intelligence platform provider and CRN Channel Awards 2022 Finalist, has appointed Bill Clayton Vice President of Global Partner Sales. He has more than 20 years of enterprise software experience. Clayton has held positions with global technology leaders including IBM and Oracle. He most recently was Director of Global Systems Integrators, EMEA and APAC, at enterprise data specialist, Stibo Systems.

Clayton will expand Pyramid Analytics worldwide network of system integrators (SI), value-added resellers (VAR), distributors, global information services and consulting firms, and complementary technology companies from the companys London office. The partner program is an important part of Pyramids growth strategy to bring its pioneering and transformative technology to customers worldwide.

Key Points:

Pyramid is actively recruiting partners, investing in partner training and development, and launching joint go-to-market programs with its partners.

Pyramid has tripled the number of partners across all geographies in which it operates over the past year: North America; the UK & Ireland; Europe; the Nordic region; the Middle East; and South Africa.

The new VP of Global Partner Sales brings 12 years of experience building partner ecosystems from the ground up to the newly created role.

Pyramid is a CRN Channel Awards 2022 Finalist in the Emerging Vendor of the Year category. The award recognises companies which have supported the growth of channel partners.

Clayton joins Pyramid following two decades of leading successful and innovative teams throughout the world in the enterprise software industry, including 12 years in data and analytics. Prior to Pyramid, he was Director of Global Systems Integrators, EMEA and APAC at Stibo Systems. Clayton served as Director EMEA Strategic Alliances at Tealeaf Technology, an IBM company.

Claytons personal perseverance and determination was demonstrated when he walked 100 km from London to Brighton in 24 hours, in support of the UK Blind Veterans trust. He will bring these qualities to expanding and developing the global reach of Pyramids partner network.

Decision Intelligence is the Next Big Data Analytics Innovation

The next major innovation in analytics is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Applying AI across Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science is what separates Decision Intelligence from traditional business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, and Tableau. AI lowers the skills barrier by automating the highly technical work needed to prepare and analyze data and create and share reports and dashboards.

The Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform delivers data-driven insights for anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. The Pyramid Platform provides instant access to any data, enables automated governed self-service for any person, and serves any analytics need, from the simple to the sophisticated. By uniquely combining Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science with AI guidance in a single environment, the Pyramid Platform reduces cost and complexity while accelerating growth and innovation. This enables a strategic, organization-wide approach to Business Intelligence and Analytics.

Quotes:

Omri Kohl, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Pyramid Analytics: Bill has a strong track record of delivering excellence with high-performing partners. We are delighted to welcome such an experienced, talented, and insightful person into the Pyramid family. His arrival is another example of our commitment to significantly investing in our partnerships to make the Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform available to a wider market more efficiently.

Bill Clayton, Vice President of Global Partner Sales, Pyramid Analytics: The Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform is the next big thing in augmented analytics, a category in which the company enjoys the top position in Gartners Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms1, among other awards and distinctions. Its gratifying to represent the only complete, unified Decision Intelligence platform and bring it to the worlds best analytics professionals to give the power of data to all enterprise decision makers.

About Pyramid Analytics

Pyramid is whats next in analytics. The award-winning Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform delivers insights for making faster, optimized decisions by providing direct access to any data, enabling governed self-service for any person, and meeting any analytics need in a no-code environment. The Pyramid Platform uniquely combines Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science in a single environment with AI guidance, reducing cost and complexity while accelerating growth and innovation. This enables a strategic, enterprise-wide approach to Business Intelligence and Analytics, from the simple to the sophisticated. Schedule a demo.

Pyramid Analytics is incorporated in Amsterdam and has regional headquarters in global innovation and business centers, including London, New York City, and Tel-Aviv. Our team lives worldwide because geography should not be a barrier to talent and opportunity. Investors include H.I.G. Growth Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Sequoia Capital, and Viola Growth. Learn more at Pyramid Analytics.

1 Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, Gartner, May 3, 2022

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005271/en/

Media Contacts

UK

Alex Izza

Resonance

+44 7591899654

[email protected]



US

Heather Racicot

Resonance

+13606325616

[email protected]



Chas Kielt

Vice President of Corporate Communications, Pyramid Analytics

617.687.3371

[email protected]

Source: Pyramid Analytics
Shaping change in the automotive industry

BERLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The automotive industry is facing enormous challenges. digital.auto, the global initiative launched today as an open ecosystem, aims to drive the transformation of the industry. The initiative is bringing together manufacturers (OEMs), partners and suppliers to enable the automotive industry to establish a new, digital-first approach for the creation of next generation customer experiences and data-driven mobility services. Co-initiators of digital.auto include Robert Bosch GmbH as well as software companies Dassault Systemes and LeanIX. The industry-wide initiative is hosted by Ferdinand-Steinbeis-Institut (FSTI) from Heilbronn as a neutral, non-profit facilitator. digital.auto is launched today at Bosch ConnectedWorld 2022 in Berlin.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005118/en/

Connecting approach of the digital.auto initiative (Graphic: Business Wire)

digital.auto aims to improve the adoption of digital best practices in the automotive world. Taking a very use case-centric approach, the initiative is enabling the industry to introduce and apply explorative, digital-first methods. digital.auto is not designed as a consortium of its own, but is building on the structures and processes of existing consortia, alliances and technology providers. digital.auto builds on two key pillars of automotive technology development: Software-defined Vehicle (SdV) and standardized vehicle APIs. To help ensure that these technologies can realize their full potential, digital.auto is combining existing standards with appropriate methods and processes to translate technology into business value.

Thomas Irawan, CEO, ETAS GmbH, part of co-initiator Robert Bosch GmbH: It`s high time that we adopt a digital-first approach to the development of vehicle features. This means that vehicle architectures must be defined software- and API-first, with requirements being driven by concrete use cases. For these reasons, we are proud to help co-initiate and support the digital.auto initiative.

digital.auto is currently focusing on the following deliverables:

SdV 101 Course: Open online course with an introduction to Software-defined Vehicle

SdV Use Cases: Public repository of digital.auto use cases to ensure early validation of SdV-related technologies based on end-user scenarios

SdV Exploration: Open collaboration platform for early-stage SdV prototyping, customer experience simulation and testing*

Value Streams: Best practice library to help OEMs to better manage the digital and physical value streams of modern automotive development*

SdV Interoperabillity: An SdV inter::op program designed to help create an open market of interoperable SdV tools, making it easier for OEMs to create best-of-breed SdV toolchains*

*integrated with use case repository

More information: http://press.digital.auto

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005118/en/

Ines Weybrecht

Communications Manager

[email protected]

Source: digital.auto
BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) ("Terran Orbital" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer of small satellites primarily serving the United States aerospace and defense industry, today announced financial results and operational highlights for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022.

Post 3rd Quarter Closing Highlights

Announced a $100 million investment from strategic partner Lockheed Martin

Signed a new Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) with Lockheed Martin extended into 2035

On track to deliver Space Development Agencys (SDA) Transport Layer Tranche 0 satellites by end of Q4

Third Quarter 2022 Highlights

Generated record revenue of $27.8 million, a 171% increase compared to the third quarter of 2021

Backlog of $198.0 million as of September 30, 2022, up 168% since December 31, 2021

Increased headcount to greater than 440, up approximately 78% since the beginning of the year

Net loss of $27.4 million improved from the net loss of $32.3 million for the second quarter of 2022

Marc Bell, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, said, We are thrilled with the performance of our team this quarter as our strong execution drove another quarterly revenue record. We are especially gratified by the vote of confidence from our strategic partner Lockheed Martin as demonstrated by their $100 million investment and new thirteen-year Strategic Cooperation Agreement. This investment from the nations largest defense contractor validates that Terran Orbital is today focused on the right markets. Furthermore, it satisfies the Companys near-term capital requirements to deliver on our business plan.

Results for the Third Quarter of 2022

Total revenue for the third quarter of 2022 was $27.8 million, up 171% compared to $10.3 million in the same period in the prior year. The increase in revenue was primarily due to the continued and increased level of progress made in satisfying our customer contracts.

Cost of sales for the quarter was $27.8 million compared to $8.8 million in the same period in the prior year. The increase in cost of sales was primarily due to an increase of $15 million in direct costs incurred in satisfying customer contracts, an increase in share-based compensation expense following the Tailwind Two merger, and an increase of $584 thousand related to reserves for anticipated losses on contracts. Cost of sales included an estimated $1.9 million negative impact due to EAC adjustments.

Gross profit was $37 thousand, compared to $1.5 million in the same period in the prior year. Excluding share-based compensation and depreciation and amortization included in cost of sales, Adjusted Gross Profit(1) was $3.2 million, compared to $2.1 million in the same period in the prior year. EAC adjustments negatively impacted gross profit and Adjusted Gross Profit by an estimated $2 million, including approximately $100 thousand from revenue and $1.9 million from cost of sales.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $24.7 million in the third quarter of 2022, compared to $11.4 million in the same period in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to an increase in share-based compensation expense as a result of the Tailwind Two merger, an increase in research and development expense, increases in salaries and wages, facility costs related to capacity expansions, and other operating costs, partially offset by a decrease in accounting and legal fees.

Our net loss for the quarter was $27.4 million compared to a net loss of $12.4 million for the same period in the prior year. In addition to the items discussed above, net loss increased as a result of higher interest expense and financing costs related to financing transactions, offset by a decrease in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities following the Tailwind Two Merger.

Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $(13.9) million compared to $(8.7) million in the same period in the prior year. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to an increase in selling, general, and administrative expenses related to salaries and wages, research and development, facility expenses, and other operating costs as a result of our growth initiatives, partially offset by an increase in Adjusted Gross Profit.

Backlog

Backlog represents the estimated dollar value of executed contracts, including both funded (firm orders for which funding is authorized and appropriated) and unfunded portions of such contracts, for which work has not been performed.

As of September 30, 2022, the Companys backlog totaled approximately $198 million, a 168% increase since December 31, 2021, driven primarily by the Companys major contract awards during the year including an award to build 42 satellites for the SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

As of September 30, 2022, Terran Orbital had $35.8 million of cash on hand and approximately $202 million in gross debt obligations. The Companys debt includes $24.4 million in connection with an obligation under one of the PIPE investment subscription agreements, of which $1.9 million is payable in cash with the remaining $22.5 million payable in cash or equity at the Companys option, subject to certain requirements.

In July 2022, the Company entered into a common stock purchase agreement with an affiliate of B. Riley Securities, Inc., pursuant to which the Company has the right, but not the obligation, subject to certain conditions, to sell to B. Riley over a 24-month period up to the lesser of (i) $100 million of newly issued shares of the Companys common stock and (ii) 27,500,000 shares of the Companys common stock. During the quarter, the Company sold approximately 423 thousand shares for proceeds of $1.8 million under the B. Riley committed equity facility.

Subsequent Events

On October 31, 2022, the Company received a $100 million investment from Lockheed Martin in exchange for convertible notes and warrants issued by Terran Orbital. In connection with the investment, Terran Orbital and Lockheed Martin also entered into a new Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA). The new SCA runs through 2035 and allows Terran Orbital to pursue a wider variety of opportunities with Lockheed Martin. Terran Orbital intends to use the funds to acquire additional satellite assembly space, increase module production, and satisfy working capital needs while expanding advanced manufacturing capabilities. The investment and expanded partnership underpin plans to accelerate the expansion of both capacity and breadth of the Companys satellite solutions.

Following the Lockheed Martin investment and the allocation of production capacity to fulfill existing customer programs, the Company no longer plans to pursue investment in its own synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation. The Company is currently evaluating options to offer SAR satellites and payloads as a product to its customers. This plan for PredaSAR is expected to require a much smaller investment than previously planned.

Terran Orbitals disruptive technologies provide customers with innovative and cost-effective solutions. The SCA with Lockheed Martin creates further opportunities for both organizations to share their expertise and relationships to advance emerging technology across military, commercial, and civil customers. This will be achieved by focusing on:

Mission assurance at both the satellite and constellation architecture level;

Speed and schedule to deliver timely solutions for the most demanding and mission-critical customers; and

Affordability through innovation with an industrial approach, combined with capacity and facility enhancement to deliver and share an unprecedented value proposition.

Terran Orbital believes there are growing unmet needs in adjacent markets to the companys core satellite offerings. To address these needs, Terran Orbital plans to expand product and service offerings to include:

Payloads including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), electro-optical, hyperspectral, infrared, and secure communication;

High-reliability satellite subassemblies and component offerings, including, but not limited to, star trackers, flight computers, reaction wheels, battery solutions, and guidance, navigation and control solutions;

Mission operations for satellites using Terran Orbital and partner ground networks; and

Other defense-related products.

The terms and conditions of the Lockheed Martin investment transaction, including the note and warrant purchase agreement and the new SCA, are more fully described in the Companys Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 31, 2022.

Outlook

The Company continues to focus on the successful execution of its existing contracts and delivery of satellites on schedule while also winning new contracts to expand its backlog. Accordingly, the Company reiterates its expectation to deliver all ten buses in 2022 to Lockheed Martin in support of the SDA Transport Layer Tranche 0 and has commenced work on the next forty-two satellites for Tranche 1, which we expect to begin delivering in 2023.

To support the continuing expansion of manufacturing capacity, the Company expects to open its new Irvine, California manufacturing facility in the first quarter of 2023.

(1) This is a non-GAAP financial measure. Definitions of the non-GAAP financial measures used in this press release and reconciliations of such measures to their nearest GAAP equivalents are included below.

Conference Call Information

As previously announced, Terran Orbitals third quarter 2022 conference call is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. ET today. The live webcast will be accessible on the Terran Orbital Investor Relations website at investors.terranorbital.com. The event can also be accessed by dialing 844-200-6205 within the U.S. and by dialing 929-526-1599 outside of the U.S. The passcode for both is 962878. A replay will be available by accessing the same link as listed above.

About Terran Orbital

Terran Orbital Corporation is a leading manufacturer of small satellites primarily serving the United States aerospace and defense industry. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and in-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains, and the Companys officers and representatives may from time to time make other public written and verbal announcements that contain, forward-looking statements for purposes of the federal securities laws. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of present or historical facts, contained in this press release, regarding our future financial performance as well as statements regarding our business strategy, future operations, future financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, earnings outlooks, prospects, expectations, plans and objectives of management, including without limitation our 2022 outlook, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by such words as plan, believe, expect, anticipate, intend, outlook, estimate, forecast, project, continue, could, may, might, possible, potential, predict, will, should, would and could and other similar words and expressions, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (many of which are beyond our control), or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, but not limited to: expectations regarding our strategies and future financial performance, including our future business plans or objectives, anticipated cost, timing and level of deployment of satellites, prospective performance and commercial opportunities and competitors, the timing of obtaining regulatory approvals, the ability to finance our operations, research and development activities and capital expenditures, reliance on government contracts and a strategic cooperation agreement with a significant customer, retention and expansion of our customer base, product and service offerings, pricing, marketing plans, operating expenses, market trends, revenues, margins, liquidity, cash flows and uses of cash, capital expenditures, and our ability to invest in growth initiatives; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional opportunities; anticipated timing, cost, financing and development of our satellite manufacturing capabilities; prospective performance and commercial opportunities and competitors; our ability to finance our operations, research and development activities and capital expenditures; our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors; our expansion plans and opportunities; our ability to comply with domestic and foreign regulatory regimes and the timing of obtaining regulatory approvals; our ability to finance and invest in growth initiatives; our ability to deal appropriately with conflicts of interest in the ordinary course of our business; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against us; the ability to maintain the listing of our common stock and the public warrants on the NYSE and the possibility of limited liquidity and trading of such securities; geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations; the possibility that we may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; that we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting which, if not corrected, could affect the reliability of our consolidated financial statements; the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic, or another major disease, disrupts our business; supply chain disruptions, including delays, increased costs and supplier quality control challenges; the ability to attract and retain qualified labor and professionals and our reliance on a highly skilled workforce, including technicians, engineers and other professionals; we do not expect to become profitable in the near future and may never achieve our profitability expectations, plus we expect to generate negative cash flow from operations and investments for the foreseeable future; our leverage and our ability to service cash debt payments and comply with debt maintenance covenants, including meeting minimum liquidity and operating profit covenants; limited access to equity and debt capital markets and other funding sources that will be needed to fund operations and make investments; litigation and regulatory enforcement risks, including the diversion of management time and attention and the additional costs and demands on our resources; and the other risk factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) from time to time, including our Registration Statement on Form S-1, as amended (File No. 333-264447), which was declared effective by the SEC on June 23, 2022, and our Forms 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2022, June 30, 2022, and September 30, 2022.

These forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations, plans, forecasts, assumptions and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects. There can be no assurance that the future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated and we may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time and it is not possible to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. You should read this press release with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from the expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements we make. All forward-looking statements we make are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

TERRAN ORBITAL CORPORATION Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (In thousands) September 30,

2022 December 31,

2021 Assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 35,823 $ 27,325 Accounts receivable, net 5,039 3,723 Contract assets, net 15,013 2,757 Inventory 16,958 7,783 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 8,675 57,639 Total current assets 81,508 99,227 Property, plant, and equipment, net 48,864 35,530 Other assets 20,149 639 Total assets $ 150,521 $ 135,396 Liabilities, mezzanine equity and shareholders' deficit: Current portion of long-term debt $ 7,735 $ 14 Accounts payable 19,970 9,366 Contract liabilities 34,460 17,558 Reserve for anticipated losses on contracts 1,456 886 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 14,053 76,136 Total current liabilities 77,674 103,960 Long-term debt 99,337 115,134 Warrant liabilities 21,438 5,631 Other liabilities 19,676 2,028 Total liabilities 218,125 226,753 Mezzanine equity: Redeemable convertible preferred stock - 8,000 Shareholders' deficit: Preferred stock - - Common stock 14 8 Additional paid-in capital 260,280 97,737 Accumulated deficit (328,189 ) (197,066 ) Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 291 (36 ) Total shareholders' deficit (67,604 ) (99,357 ) Total liabilities, mezzanine equity and shareholders' deficit $ 150,521 $ 135,396

TERRAN ORBITAL CORPORATION Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss (Unaudited) (In thousands, except share and per share amounts) Three Months Ended

September 30, Nine Months Ended

September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 Revenue $ 27,830 $ 10,255 $ 62,314 $ 30,158 Cost of sales 27,793 8,768 68,784 23,905 Gross profit (loss) 37 1,487 (6,470 ) 6,253 Selling, general, and administrative expenses 24,696 11,432 84,283 30,580 Loss from operations (24,659 ) (9,945 ) (90,753 ) (24,327 ) Interest expense, net 7,147 2,630 17,007 6,174 Loss on extinguishment of debt - - 23,141 68,102 Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities (6,001 ) (205 ) (2,325 ) 76 Other expense (income) 1,496 (5 ) 2,367 28 Loss before income taxes (27,301 ) (12,365 ) (130,943 ) (98,707 ) Provision for income taxes 54 - 58 22 Net loss (27,355 ) (12,365 ) (131,001 ) (98,729 ) Other comprehensive income, net of tax: Foreign currency translation adjustments 138 76 327 162 Total comprehensive loss $ (27,217 ) $ (12,289 ) $ (130,674 ) $ (98,567 ) Weighted-average shares outstanding - basic and diluted 143,276,708 78,420,818 123,317,997 76,099,905 Net loss per share - basic and diluted $ (0.19 ) $ (0.16 ) $ (1.06 ) $ (1.30 )

TERRAN ORBITAL CORPORATION Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (In thousands) Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 2021 Cash flows from operating activities: Net loss (131,001 ) (98,729 ) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 2,612 2,217 Non-cash interest expense 8,581 6,149 Share-based compensation expense 40,354 531 Provision for losses on receivables and inventory 295 570 Loss on extinguishment of debt 23,141 67,954 Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities (2,325 ) 76 Amortization of operating right-of-use assets 1,003 - Other non-cash, net 1,000 - Changes in operating assets and liabilities: - Accounts receivable, net (1,565 ) (3,471 ) Contract assets (12,370 ) (1,740 ) Inventory (9,338 ) (4,117 ) Prepaid expenses and other current assets 707 (363 ) Accounts payable 11,532 2,595 Contract liabilities 17,156 (133 ) Reserve for anticipated losses on contracts 572 (1,337 ) Accrued expenses and other current liabilities (690 ) 2,060 Accrued interest (2,289 ) - Other, net (1,508 ) (148 ) Net cash used in operating activities (54,133 ) (27,886 ) Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property, plant, and equipment (15,013 ) (10,523 ) Net cash used in investing activities (15,013 ) (10,523 ) Cash flows from financing activities: Proceeds from long-term debt 36,856 47,481 Proceeds from warrants and derivatives 42,247 2,519 Proceeds from Tailwind Two Merger and PIPE Investment 58,424 - Proceeds from issuance of common stock 14,791 - Proceeds from issuance of common stock under the Committed Equity Facility 1,795 - Repayment of long-term debt (30,958 ) (13 ) Payment of issuance costs (45,746 ) (6,356 ) Proceeds from exercise of stock options 269 98 Net cash provided by financing activities 77,678 43,729 Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash and cash equivalents (34 ) (126 ) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 8,498 5,194 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 27,325 12,336 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 35,823 $ 17,530

TERRAN ORBITAL CORPORATION Non-GAAP Measures

To provide investors with additional information in connection with our results as determined in accordance with GAAP, we disclose the non-GAAP financial measures Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted EBITDA. These non-GAAP measures may be different from non-GAAP measures made by other companies. These measures may exclude items that are significant in understanding and assessing our financial results. Therefore, these measures should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income or other measures of financial performance or liquidity under GAAP.

TERRAN ORBITAL CORPORATION Reconciliations of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited) (In thousands)

Adjusted Gross Profit

We define Adjusted Gross Profit as gross profit or loss adjusted for (i) share-based compensation expense included in cost of sales and (ii) depreciation and amortization included in cost of sales.

We believe that the presentation of Adjusted Gross Profit is appropriate to provide additional information to investors about our gross profit adjusted for certain non-cash items. Further, we believe Adjusted Gross Profit provides a meaningful measure of operating profitability because we use it for evaluating our business performance, making budgeting decisions, and comparing our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures.

There are material limitations to using Adjusted Gross Profit. Adjusted Gross Profit does not take into account all items which directly affect our gross profit or loss. These limitations are best addressed by considering the economic effects of the excluded items independently and by considering Adjusted Gross Profit in conjunction with gross profit or loss as calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Three Months Ended

September 30, Nine Months Ended

September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 Gross profit (loss) $ 37 $ 1,487 $ (6,470 ) $ 6,253 Share-based compensation expense 2,715 68 10,057 102 Depreciation and amortization 486 518 1,529 1,415 Adjusted gross profit $ 3,238 $ 2,073 $ 5,116 $ 7,770

TERRAN ORBITAL CORPORATION Reconciliations of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited) (In thousands)

Adjusted EBITDA

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income or loss adjusted for (i) interest, (ii) taxes, (iii) depreciation and amortization, (iv) share-based compensation expense, (v) loss on extinguishment of debt, (vi) change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities, and (vii) other non-recurring and/or non-cash items.

We believe that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA is appropriate to provide additional information to investors about our operating profitability adjusted for certain non-cash items, non-routine items that we do not expect to continue at the same level in the future, as well as other items that are not core to our operations. Further, we believe Adjusted EBITDA provides a meaningful measure of operating profitability because we use it for evaluating our business performance, making budgeting decisions, and comparing our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures.

There are material limitations to using Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA does not take into account certain significant items, including depreciation and amortization, interest, taxes, and other adjustments which directly affect our net income or loss. These limitations are best addressed by considering the economic effects of the excluded items independently and by considering Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with net income or loss as calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Three Months Ended

September 30, Nine Months Ended

September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 Net loss $ (27,355 ) $ (12,365 ) $ (131,001 ) $ (98,729 ) Interest expense, net 7,147 2,630 17,007 6,174 Provision for income taxes 54 - 58 22 Depreciation and amortization 911 885 2,612 2,217 Share-based compensation expense 9,204 177 40,354 531 Loss on extinguishment of debt - - 23,141 68,102 Change in fair value of warrant and derivative liabilities (6,001 ) (205 ) (2,325 ) 76 Other, net(a) 2,134 200 6,755 6,754 Adjusted EBITDA $ (13,906 ) $ (8,678 ) $ (43,399 ) $ (14,853 ) (a) - Represents other expense and other charges and items. Non-recurring legal and accounting fees related to our transition to a public company and financing transactions are included herein.

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[email protected]

949-202-8476

Source: Terran Orbital Corporation
HELSINKI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- TILT Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapies, announces that the company has opened an office in Boston, to support its increasing US clinical development, partnering and fund-raising activities. The current US clinical trials are run in collaboration with MSD, a tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA and the Merck-Pfizer-Alliance.

TILT Biotherapeutics CEO, Akseli Hemminki, a cancer clinician who has personally treated hundreds of cancer patients with earlier versions of oncolytic viruses, said, Boston is at the heart of one of the worlds biggest biotech clusters, and were delighted to become part of that vibrant community as we invest in this infrastructure and accelerate towards Phase 2 trials of our innovative armed oncolytic viruses.

TILT Biotherapeutics COO, and President of US operations, Aino Kalervo, who is responsible for initiating the US office operations, said Our newly established US operations will help to drive our US clinical development in this leading global pharmaceutical market, including lining up several new clinical trial centers, building on our work with the Mayo Clinic, and supporting forthcoming IND filings.

John Goldfinch, TILT Biotherapeutics newly appointed US Clinical Lead, with over a decades phase I to IV clinical operations and program management experience at US life sciences companies including Athenex, said, Im delighted to join TILT to help advance our US program of phase I and II clinical trials. We believe our approach will deliver better outcomes for cancer patients.

TILT Biotherapeutics LLCs new office is at the CIC in Boston, Massachusetts which has been a home for great entrepreneurs leading fast-growing companies since 1999. This follows its collaborations with US pharma partners and leading cancer centers.

The heart of TILTs innovative approach revolves around the use of cancer cell specific oncolytic adenoviruses, armed with cytokines and other molecules to boost the patients T-cell immune response to better enable it to find and destroy cancer cells.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

About TILT Biotherapeutics

TILT Biotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer therapeutics based on its proprietary oncolytic adenoviruses armed with molecules including cytokines that can stimulate, or suppress, T cells. The companys patented TILT technology, which can be delivered locally and systemically, modifies the tumor microenvironment, and eliminates its ability to suppress immune responses to cancer, thereby enhancing T-cell therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, and CAR T therapies.

TILTs lead asset, TILT-123, is a 5/3 chimeric serotype adenovirus armed with two human cytokines: TNF alpha and IL-2. TILT-123 has demonstrated a 100% response rate in pre-clinical cancer models in vivo, and it is currently in Phase I clinical trials.

The companys pioneering approach has been recognized by industry leaders including with the Merck KGaA and Pfizer Alliance, who are collaborating to investigate TILT-123s therapeutic effect in combination with the PD-L1 inhibitor, Avelumab (Bavencio), in head and neck cancer (NCT05222932). The company has two collaborations with MSD, a tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, investigating TILT-123 in combination with pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA) in ovarian cancer (NCT05271318) and in refractory non-small cell lung cancer. In 2019, TILT established an additional partnership with Biotheus, a privately held Chinese company based in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China, for the development and commercialization of TILTs proprietary oncolytic virus TILT-123 in Greater China.

Based in Helsinki, Finland, and with an office in Boston, the company was established in 2013 as a spin-out from the University of Helsinki. It has funding from Lifeline Ventures, Finnish Industry Investment (TESI), angel investors, Business Finland, and the European Innovation Council.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005036/en/

Media contacts

TILT Biotherapeutics

COO Aino Kalervo

[email protected]

Scius Communications

Katja Stout

+447789435990

[email protected]

Daniel Gooch

+44774787 479

[email protected]

Source: TILT Biotherapeutics
BANGALORE, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, announced the appointment of Simmi Dhamija as the Chief Operating Officer of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) strategic market unit.

Dhamija will lead delivery and operations of the strategic market unit across its different regions and effectively support its profitable growth ambitions. She is a seasoned leader with over two decades of experience in the technology industry. She joins Wipro from Tech Mahindra, where she was the Chief Transformation Officer leading strategic initiatives across digital transformation, M&A synergy, profit improvement, delivery modernization, key customer engagements, and managing 360-degree relationships with partners and ecosystem stakeholders. Prior to that, she has held various global leadership roles in strategy, delivery, operations, and talent development.

I am glad to have Simmi on board to drive our ambitious agenda across APMEA. She has a critical mission  to lead the evolution of our operating model towards maximizing client centricity and employee empowerment, while continuously improving our financial performance and bringing simplicity, agility and efficiency to the way we work. She has all the professional skills and personal traits to succeed in this mission brilliantly, said Anis Chenchah, member of the Wipro Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer, APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa), Wipro Limited.

I deeply admire Wipros long-standing commitment to its values and purpose, and am honoured to be a part of this organization, especially the dynamic and innovative leadership team of APMEA. I am energized to help our clients in accelerate their digital transformation journeys, and lead APMEA to its next phase of innovation and operational excellence, said Simmi Dhamija.

Dhamija is an industry thought leader, sought-after speaker, and the recipient of many awards and accolades. She also serves on the advisory board of the Pinkishe foundation, a non-government organization focused on the development, well-being, pride, and happiness of girls and women. She is a part of the FICCI  WISE Council. Dhamija holds a management degree from IMT Ghaziabad, India.

About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading technology services and consulting company focused on building innovative solutions that address clients most complex digital transformation needs. Leveraging our holistic portfolio of capabilities in consulting, design, engineering, and operations, we help clients realize their boldest ambitions and build future-ready, sustainable businesses. With over 250,000 employees and business partners across 66 countries, we deliver on the promise of helping our customers, colleagues, and communities thrive in an ever-changing world. For additional information, visit us at www.wipro.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements contained herein represent Wipros beliefs regarding future events, many of which are by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside Wipros control. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Wipros growth prospects, its future financial operating results, and its plans, expectations and intentions. Wipro cautions readers that the forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, complete proposed corporate actions, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry.

Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Annual Reports on Form 20-F. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006339/en/

Purnima Burman

Wipro Limited

[email protected]

Source: Wipro Limited
FILE PHOTO: Pumpjacks are seen during sunset at the Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang province, China August 22, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices sank by roughly $3 a barrel on Wednesday after industry data showed that U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected and on concerns that a rebound in COVID-19 cases in top importer China would hurt fuel demand.

Brent crude futures settled at $92.65 a barrel, shedding $2.71, or 2.8%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $85.83 a barrel, dropping $3.08, 3.5%. The benchmarks fell around 3% on Tuesday.

U.S. crude in storage jumped by 3.9 million barrels last week to 440.8 million barrels as oil production increased to about 12.1 million barrels a day, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected a stockpile rise of 1.4 million barrels.

"The report was once again mixed but tilted towards bearish, with the crude oil build and the jump in domestic production," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

U.S. gasoline stocks were down by 900,000 barrels in the week to 205.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a drop of 1.1 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by about 500,000 barrels, a smaller-than-expected decline.

"Adding to downside pressure is the continued concerns over the future Chinese economic growth path that could prompt adjustment of global oil demand views," Jim Ritterbusch, of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.

Last week, the market had latched onto hopes that China might be moving toward relaxing COVID-19 restrictions, but over the weekend health officials said they would stick to their "dynamic-clearing" approach to new infections.

COVID-19 cases in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities have surged, with millions of residents of the global manufacturing hub being required to have COVID-19 tests on Wednesday.

"With that (China reopening) narrative getting pushed back, coupled with a considerable build on U.S. inventory data, implying dimming U.S. demand, the recessionary crews are back out in full force this morning in Asia," Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a note.

A stronger U.S. dollar, which makes oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies, also weighed on crude prices. The dollar advanced against several major currencies as results so far for the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday dispelled notions of a resounding Republican victory.

Meanwhile, supply concerns remain.

The European Union will ban Russian crude imports by Dec. 5 and Russian oil products by Feb. 5, in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in London, Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Isabel Kua in Singapore; Editing by Paul Simao, Bernadette Baum and Josie Kao)
Excelerate Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EE) (Excelerate or Company) announced today that Calvin (Cal) Bancroft will resign from his position as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer on December 31, 2022. Mr. Bancroft will continue his employment with the Company as a Senior Advisor reporting to Steven Kobos, President and Chief Executive Officer, through September 30, 2023, at which point he is expected to retire. Consistent with the Companys succession plan, David Liner, who currently serves as Vice President of Operations, will succeed Mr. Bancroft in the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer as of January 1, 2023.

I want to thank Cal for his leadership and dedication. He has been a key member of our executive team and an integral part of Excelerates transformation into the premier provider of flexible LNG solutions that it is today, said Kobos. I am grateful for all the contributions he has made to the Company and for being a true partner in enabling our strong operational performance. On behalf of all of us at Excelerate, we wish him joy in having the time to do anything and everything he has always desired to do.

During his 40+ years of experience in the shipping industry, Mr. Bancroft has received recognition from the maritime industry as well as two Homeland Security Public Commendations. Prior to joining Excelerate, he served as Global Marine Operations Manager for Phillips 66, Commercial Logistics Manager-Americas for Shell Chemical L.P., and Vice President of Fleet Operations and Facility Security Officer for Ocean Shipholdings, Inc.

It has been a tremendous honor and privilege to be part of the Excelerate team, said Mr. Bancroft. Excelerate is positioned extremely well for the next phase of its growth and success, guided by a clear strategy, outstanding leadership, and a superior workforce. I can retire with confidence knowing that David Liner has the knowledge, skills, and experience to be an exceptional Operations leader.

Mr. Liner joined Excelerate in August of 2021 with over 25 years of maritime experience in the oil and gas industry. As Vice President of Operations, he has led the Operations and Maintenance team responsible for the Companys fleet of vessels and terminals. Prior to joining Excelerate, he held a variety of roles with SeaRiver Maritime and ExxonMobil Development Company and served as the Chief Officer of Commercial & Planning at Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat). Mr. Liner holds a bachelors degree in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Today, a consortium of funds led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and KKR (together the Consortium) entered into a strategic co-control partnership with Vodafone GmbH (Vodafone) for Vodafones c. 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers AG (Vantage Towers or the company), a leading telecoms tower company in Europe. Vodafone will transfer its stake in Vantage Towers to a holding company (Oak BidCo), which will be indirectly co-controlled by Vodafone and the Consortium. The Consortium will obtain a shareholding of up to 50%. Oak BidCo will launch a voluntary public takeover offer for all outstanding free float shares of Vantage Towers AG comprising c. 18.3% of the share capital.

GIP and KKR will be investing through their core infrastructure strategies. Tower Bridge Infrastructure Partners1 will be part of the Consortium as a co-investor, with additional funding for the transaction provided by the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Together, GIP, KKR and Vodafone will provide deep infrastructure expertise to help advance the companys strategic plans. The Consortium and Vodafone share a joint ambition to accelerate the companys growth trajectory through additional investments by Vantage Towers in its network and expansion into fast-growing adjacent markets. The Consortium and Vodafone aim to expand Vantage Towers business to create a leading pan-European telecoms tower business.

Already a leader in its core markets today, Vantage Towers has a large footprint of approximately 83,000 sites in ten countries, long-term agreements with high-quality tenants and a deep and dense network in the markets in which it operates. The company benefits from consistent organic growth, stable margin development and strong cash generation driven by significant revenue visibility and enhanced commercialization of its tower footprint. In 2021, Vantage Towers signed a landmark agreement with 1&1 Mobilfunk GmbH to support the company in the rapid roll-out of its 5G network, covering potentially up to 5,000 existing sites throughout Germany for the next 20 years.

Were delighted to join forces with Vodafone and KKR to invest in Vantage Towers, a high-quality European tower portfolio with strong upside potential. We are looking forward to capturing the exciting value-creating opportunities in the European telecoms infrastructure sector by advancing Vantage Towers strategy and supporting its capacity to build new sites. As strategic partners with Vodafone and KKR, we will bring our deep infrastructure expertise and resources to help the company deliver the best data connectivity for individuals and businesses and contribute to enabling Europes digital future in the interest of all stakeholders, said Will Brilliant, Partner and Head of Digital Infrastructure at GIP.

Together with our strategic partners Vodafone and GIP, we believe Vantage Towers high-quality footprint and network across the region ideally position it to meet the ever-growing demand for mobile connectivity in Europe. We have a shared goal of creating a pan-European telecoms champion by continuing to grow and develop the business, leveraging the Consortiums significant telecoms infrastructure investment experience and global resources. At KKR we are long-term conviction investors in Europes digital infrastructure and at Vantage Towers we intend to pursue value-creating investments to capitalise on the growth in this sector and to help drive consolidation in a fragmented market, said Vincent Policard, Partner and Co-Head of European Infrastructure at KKR.

This is a landmark moment for both Vodafone and Vantage Towers. This transaction successfully delivers on Vodafones stated aims of retaining co-control over a strategically important asset, deconsolidating Vantage Towers from our balance sheet to ensure we can optimise its capital structure and generate substantial upfront cash proceeds for the Group to support our priority of deleveraging. We are excited to partner with GIP and KKR, both world-class investors who bring significant expertise in digital infrastructure and share our long-term vision for Vantage Towers as we collectively take the business to the next stage of its growth, said Nick Read, Vodafone Group Chief Executive.

Investing in the modernization of Europes mobile infrastructure

Together, the strategic partners plan to support Vantage Towers multibillion investment program over the next 5 years in order to improve existing infrastructure and to expand as well as upgrade the network. Through their strategic co-control partnership, the Consortium and Vodafone intend to support Vantage Towers to:

Accelerate the companys ambitious program to build new sites for existing clients (Build-to-suit, BTS) that helps them to meet their coverage obligations and densification requirements.

Enhance Vantage Towers commercial capabilities and drive the utilization of existing assets by capturing additional co-location opportunities from new and existing third-party customers.

Expand the companys activities beyond its core business into fast-growing adjacent markets such as 5G private networks, data centers, edge computing, small cells and the internet-of-things (IoT), and deploying fiber to the tower ecosystem.

Further drive consolidation in the European tower sector.

This European growth strategy is expected to allow Vantage Towers to further diversify its tenant base, increase the size and depth of its tower portfolio, while also creating further cost efficiencies and improving its profitability.

With further investments into Vantage Towers network, the Consortium and Vodafone are supporting Europes digitalization efforts and ensuring that mobile telecommunications infrastructure can keep up with the rapidly rising demand for data traffic and connectivity. Emerging trends such as autonomous driving, telemedicine, virtual/augmented reality, smart farming and IoT depend on the data services and infrastructure that enable them. Vantage Towers has the DNA of a carrier-neutral infrastructure provider, which will play a key role in empowering a sustainably connected Europe. The Consortium is aware of its responsibility to provide access to communications services for the community. It also recognizes the importance of sustainably stewarding these critical assets and is committed to ensuring that Vantage Towers remains a highly attractive employer in the industry.

GIP and KKR have a long track record of collaboration in the infrastructure sector

Both GIP and KKR are leading global infrastructure investors. Together, they form a Consortium with unique experience and expertise in global infrastructure investing, particularly in the digital and communications sector. Both companies share a longstanding institutional relationship and have a proven track record of acting together within one consortium. The Consortium is a strong financial partner for Vantage Towers with access to ample liquidity and long-term value creation objectives to support the business and the necessary investments at this pivotal moment for the industry.

Voluntary takeover offer

As part of their strategic co-control partnership, the Consortium and Vodafone will launch a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of Vantage Towers through Oak BidCo. Vantage Towers shareholders will be offered EUR 32.0 per share in cash. Vantage Towers shareholders will benefit from a 19% premium to the 3-month volume-weighted average share price.

The voluntary takeover offer will be subject to various customary offer conditions, including the receipt of regulatory antitrust and FDI approvals, with closing expected in the first half of 2023.

As part of the transaction, Oak BidCo and Vantage Towers have entered into a Business Combination Agreement in which Vantage Towers undertook to support the takeover offer. Subject to their review of the offer document, the management board and supervisory board of Vantage Towers welcome and support the offer and intend to recommend that Vantage Towers' shareholders accept the offer. The current management board members of Vantage Towers will continue to lead the company.

Further, the Consortium and Vodafone intend to implement a domination profit and loss transfer agreement (DPLTA) if the final shareholding of Oak BidCo in Vantage Towers is below 95%, or a squeeze-out of non-Oak-BidCo minority shareholders if the aggregate shareholding of Oak BidCo in the company is 95% or higher. Post-closing, Vodafone and the Consortium will consider removing Vantage Towers public listing from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Offer document and further information

The voluntary public takeover offer will be made pursuant to an offer document to be approved by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This offer document will be published following receipt of permission from BaFin, at which point the initial acceptance period of the takeover offer will commence. The offer document (in German and a non-binding English translation) and other information pertaining to the public takeover offer will be published on the following website: https://angebot.wpueg.de/oak/.

GIP and KKR are advised by Morgan Stanley as exclusive financial advisor and Latham & Watkins as legal advisor.

###

About Vantage Towers

Vantage Towers is a leading tower company in Europe with around 83,000 sites in ten countries, connecting people, businesses and devices in cities and rural areas.

The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Dusseldorf. Vantage Towers has been listed on the Deutsche Borses Prime Standard in Frankfurt since 18 March 2021. The shares are included in the MDAX, TecDAX, STOXX Europe 600 and FTSE Global Midcap Indices.

Vantage Towers portfolio includes towers, masts, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. By building, operating and leasing this infrastructure to MNOs or other network providers such as IoT companies or utilities, Vantage Towers is making a significant contribution to a better-connected Europe.

While already 100% of the electricity that Vantage Towers uses to operate its infrastructure is obtained from renewable energy sources, green energy is increasingly being generated directly on site with the help of solar panels, micro wind turbines and in future also hydrogen solutions. This fits well into the overall strategy of the company to drive a sustainable digitalisation in Europe and to support partners through technological innovation in decarbonisation and achieving their climate goals.

For more information, please visit our website at www.vantagetowers.com, follow us on Twitter at @VantageTowers or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vantagetowers.
Sonoco Products Company (NYSE: SON) today announced it has entered a definitive agreement to purchase the remaining equity interest in RTS Packaging, LLC (RTS) from joint venture partner WestRock Company (WestRock) and one WestRock paper mill in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for $330 million in cash, subject to customary price adjustments. The valuation is approximately 6.6x adjusted EBITDA without synergies and 5x adjusted EBITDA pro forma for synergies. Sonoco also anticipates that it will be able to achieve $40 million of tax benefits from the transaction. Upon completion of the transaction, Sonoco will own 100% of RTS, formerly operated as a joint venture between Sonoco (35% ownership interest) and WestRock (65% ownership interest). The transaction which has been unanimously approved by the Sonoco Board of Directors is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

RTS Packaging was formed in 1997 as a joint venture that combined the former protective packaging operations of WestRock (formerly known as Rock-Tenn Company) and Sonoco to market solid fiber partitions from 100% recycled paperboard to glass container manufacturers and producers of wine, liquor, food, and pharmaceuticals. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2022, the acquired assets are expected to generate sales of approximately $270 million and EBITDA of $50 million. In addition, the Company expects to drive total synergies of $16 million over the next 24 months following closing.

The transaction will give Sonoco full ownership of fourteen converting operations, including ten in the United States, two in Mexico, and two in South America and one paper mill in the United States. Upon completion of the transaction, approximately 1,100 individuals will become employees of Sonoco. The Company expects to fund the cash acquisition with new borrowings from lenders and cash on hand. Sonocos net debt to base EBITDA ratio is expected to remain below 3.0x after the transaction.

"RTS Packaging has been a tremendous success for both WestRock and Sonoco. Over the last 25 years, we have worked in true partnership to build a great company, said Howard Coker, CEO and President of Sonoco. We are excited to acquire the remaining stake in RTS Packaging and look forward to working with Al Bosma, who will remain as the RTS leader, and the entire management team to continue to strengthen and grow the business. The acquisition is well-aligned with Sonocos long-term strategy to focus on our core integrated businesses and expand our sustainable consumer packaging portfolio. RTS has exposure to growing beverage markets, as well as unique capabilities to support marquee customers in these markets. We look forward to welcoming our RTS colleagues to the Sonoco family and building on these successful customer partnerships in the future.

About Sonoco Founded in 1899, Sonoco (NYSE: SON) is a global provider of packaging and products. With net sales of approximately $5.6 billion in 2021, the Company has approximately 22,000 employees working in more than 300 operations in 32 countries serving some of the worlds best-known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is committed to creating sustainable products, services and programs for our customers, employees and communities that support our corporate purpose of Better Packaging. Better Life. The Company ranked first in the Packaging sector on Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies for 2022 as well as being included in Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies for the fourth-consecutive year. For more information on the Company, visit our website at www.sonoco.com.

Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the Company, RTS, and the acquired paper mill in Chattanooga, Tennessee (the Chattanooga Mill), the industry and certain assumptions made by management. Such information includes, without limitation, discussions as to guidance and other estimates, perceived opportunities, expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, goals and objectives concerning the Companys, RTSs and the Chattanooga Mills future financial and operating performance. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including the ability of the parties to complete the transaction on the anticipated timetable, the parties ability to satisfy the closing conditions to the transaction and the ability of the Company to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies from the transaction. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements.

Additional information concerning some of the factors that could cause materially different results is included in the Companys reports on forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such reports are available from the Securities and Exchange Commissions public reference facilities and its website, sec.gov, and from the Companys investor relations department and the Companys website, www.sonoco.com.

Contact:Lisa Weeks+843-383 7524[email protected]

Source: Sonoco Products Company
NATO will review a significant increase in defense spending and steps to continue its support for Ukraine at the next meeting to be held in Vilnius on July 11-12, 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, Tass informs.

November 9, 2022, 16:01 NATO to discuss increasing defense spending, supporting Ukraine in Vilnius in July

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: "I am pleased to announce that the next meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government will take place in Vilnius on 11-12 July 2023," he said.

According to Stoltenberg, the leaders of NATO member countries will consider steps to increase defense spending and to continue their support for Ukraine. "We face the most complex and unpredictable security environment since the Cold War. The meeting in Vilnius will be an opportunity for Allied Heads of State and Government to agree further steps to strengthen our deterrence and defense and review significant increases in defense spending, as well as to continue our support for Ukraine," he said in a statement.

"In an era of increasing strategic competition, the transatlantic bond between Europe and North America in NATO continues to be essential to the security of" the alliances "one billion citizens," Stoltenberg emphasized.

NATO last convened a summit in late June. It was held in Madrid.
MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HIIs (NYSE: HII) Mission Technologies division was awarded a $70 million task order contract by the U.S. Air Force to perform technical analysis and recommend enhancements for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). HIIs research and analysis will be leveraged by the Air Force to support the Department of Defenses artificial intelligence/machine learning and cyber modernization priorities.

We look forward to continuing to support AFRLs IT systems, enterprise modernization and digital transformation efforts, said Grant Hagen, president of Mission Technologies Cyber, Electronic Warfare & Space business. The HII team understands the challenges facing the Air Force and has the proven technical expertise and vision to help facilitate alignment across its IT enterprise.

HII will provide strategic planning; capabilities definition; system engineering; data analytics and visualization; modeling, simulation and analysis; and cloud technologies and cross domain solutions.

Since 2017, HII has been supporting the program and is teamed with Fairhaven Solutions LLC, Georo Consulting, srcLogic LLC, TACG LLC, University of Dayton Research Institute and Vana Solutions LLC.

The research collaboration and computing analysis task order was awarded under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Centers (DOD IAC) multiple-award contract (MAC) vehicle. These DOD IAC MAC task orders are awarded by the U.S. Air Force's 774th Enterprise Sourcing Squadron to develop and create new knowledge for the enhancement of the Defense Technical Information Center repository and the research and development and science and technology communities.

The DOD IAC, sponsored by the Defense Technical Information Center, provides technical data management and research support for DOD and federal government users. Established in 1946, the IAC program serves the DOD science and technology and acquisition communities to drive innovation and technological developments by enhancing collaboration through integrated scientific and technical information development and dissemination for the DOD and broader science and technology community.

About HII

HII is a global, all-domain defense partner, building and delivering the worlds most powerful, survivable naval ships and technologies that safeguard our seas, sky, land, space and cyber.

As Americas largest shipbuilder and with a more than 135-year history of advancing U.S. national defense, we are united by our mission in service of the heroes who protect our freedom. HIIs diverse workforce includes skilled tradespeople; artificial intelligence, machine learning (AI/ML) experts; engineers; technologists; scientists; logistics experts; and business professionals. Headquartered in Virginia, HIIs workforce is 43,000 strong. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: https://www.hii.com/

HII on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamHII

HII on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wearehii

HII on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearehii

Contact: Greg McCarthy(202) 264-7126 [email protected]

Source: Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.
Concord, NC, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Hydromer, Inc. (the Company) (HYDI:OTC), a world-wide supplier of specialty coatings for medical devices and industrial applications, is excited to announce that Ms. Cortney Wells has joined the Hydromer Management team in the capacity of Director of Finance, reporting directly to Mr. Peter M. von Dyck, Chief Executive Officer.

Ms. Wells is a finance professional with extensive experience in various types of financial structures in a variety of industries, cultures, and exposures. Her skillset over the past twelve years includes an in-depth proficiency in SEC regulations, US/UK GAAP compliance, a vast knowledge in OTC reporting, and an expertise in general accounting principles.Cortneys academic background includes a Master of Forensic Accounting, a Master of Accounting, and a bachelors degree in Finance.

Her employment background includes her most current position of Global Controller (Safeguard Medical), Director of Accounting and Finance/Operational Install Manager (Iverify US Incorporated), Corporate Finance Manager/Supply Chain Director with Synder Lance, as well as other finance positions over her career.

With her extensive knowledge in key financial areas and broad-based accounting, we feel that Cortney is the ideal candidate to help Hydromer expand its presence in the marketplace while helping drive corporate investments along with ensuring strong financial controls.

With our proud 40-year track record of proven innovation and remarkable customer service in the complex world of surface modification, we are very selective in our teambuilding, particularly at the executive level. It was with this in mind that we recognized Cortneys acumen and talent and we know that Cortney will make a wonderful addition to our team and to our culture, said Peter M. von Dyck, Hydromer CEO.

About HydromerHydromer, Inc & Subsidiary (the Company) is an ISO 9001:2015 leading global business-to-business (B2B) surface modification and coating solutions provider offering polymer research & development, and manufacturing services capabilities for a wide variety of applications. We are a U.S. public corporation domiciled in Concord, NC. Our customers are located across the United States of America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The Company was established in 1980, originally incorporated in the State of New Jersey. We are a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 13485, and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 production facility. For over four decades, the Company has developed value-added solutions to serve businesses in domestic and international markets, in a wide range of industries. We manage numerous global B2B services such as, coating services, research and development, analytical testing, technology transfer, and dedicated machinery building, installation, and support We have successfully developed numerous proprietary formulations and secured many patents worldwide at separate times throughout our history including, anti-microbial, anti-fog, anti-frost, condensation-controlling, hydrophilic and thromboresistant coatings. The Companys track record of innovation plays an integral part in over four decades of sustainable revenues from product sales and services, royalties, and support agreements.

https://hydromer.com/[email protected]

Attachment

HYDI Cortney Wells

Source: Hydromer, Inc.
Q3 2022  Business review

Paris, November 9th, 2022  JCDecaux SE (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, published today this report for the nine months ended September 30th, 2022.

THIRD QUARTER 20 22 : BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

Key contracts wins

France

In July, JCDecaux SE announced that its subsidiary, JCDecaux France, has won a 16-year exclusive advertising street furniture contract with the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolitan area. Installation will start on 1 January 2023 to service the needs of this dynamic metropolitan area of 1.9 million people. The contract covers the provision, maintenance and advertising operation of 1,331 bus shelters, 579 2m2 and 8m2 city information panels, as well as the supply of 100 tram shelters and other street furniture that will further extend the network. The contract also includes the refurbishment, maintenance and operation of 226 tram shelters and street furniture that is owned by the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolitan area.

In July, JCDecaux SE announced that its subsidiary JCDecaux France has been selected by the City of Paris, to supply and operate its new automatic public toilet service, replacing the current facilities that are also operated by JCDecaux. The new contract was awarded following a competitive tender process that began in August 2020. 435 new-generation automatic toilets will be rolled out between 2024 and the beginning of 2025, replacing the existing facilities installed in 2009. Designed by JCDecaux design studio, the new toilets will be assembled in Les Yvelines (France) at our manufacturing centre in Maurepas by the companys in-house teams.

In July, JCDecaux SE announced that it has been selected by Groupe ADP, following a consultation, to become a co-shareholder of Extime Media. This 50/50 joint venture, which will be held by Groupe ADP and JCDecaux, will operate advertising activities at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly and Paris-Le Bourget airports from January 1st, 2023. From January 1st, 2024, it is also planned to roll out its activities at Antalya and Milas-Bodrum airports in Turkey. This joint venture will particularly benefit from JCDecauxs relationships with the largest advertisers worldwide. Its advertising activities will be carried out under the business name Extime X JCDecaux, as part of the rollout of Extime, Groupe ADPs hospitality brand.

Rest of Europe

In September, JCDecaux SE announced that its subsidiary JCDecaux Portugal has renewed its contract with Sonae Sierra, the leading company in the management and operation of shopping malls in Portugal and in the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and Azores, for ten years.

Asia-Pacific

In July, JCDecaux SE announced that it has signed a 15-year contract to extend the advertising operations of lines 1 to 13 of the Shanghai Metro as well as 5 new lines (lines 14 to 18). This contract, awarded following a tender, will be managed by a joint venture, STDecaux, 60% held by JCDecaux and 40% by Shanghai Shentong Assets Management Co., Ltd. Shanghai Metro currently has 503 stations with an average of 11 million passengers commuting every day in 2021. The metro is currently recovering from the lockdown and has already reached 8.6 million passengers per day as of July 22nd, 2022.This contract covers all of Shanghai Metros lines, with more than 12,000 backlit advertising panels on platforms and in corridors, as well as around 500 digital screens, creative solutions, advertising in trains (excluding TV advertising in trains and on platforms and 200 LCD screens).

Rest of the World

In September, JCDecaux SE announced that it has been awarded a 10-year contract with ViaQuatro, which is responsible for the operation and maintenance concession of Line 4-Yellow of the Sao Paulo metro, to take over the advertising concession of this Line. The commercial offering will start on October 1st, 2022. JCDecaux already operates advertising on the Green-L1, Red-L2 and Blue-L3 lines, reaching more than 4.5 million people daily. With the

addition of the Yellow Line-L4, which spans 12 km and includes 11 stations, JCDecaux will become the leading metro advertising company in Brazil  reaching 5.2 million passengers daily.

Other events

Group

In July, JCDecaux SE announced that it has signed a strategic alliance, including the acquisition of a majority stake, with Displayce, the DSP (Demand Side Platform) leader specialised in the purchasing and optimisation of digital outdoor advertising (DOOH). Displayce, a French start-up created in 2014 and exclusively dedicated to the purchasing and optimisation of DOOH campaigns, is the leading French programmatic platform in terms of the technology, expertise and number of digital displays proposed throughout the world, with more than 600,000 screens in over 50 countries. Displayce is connected to the main market DOOH SSPs (Supply Side Platforms) such as VIOOH, BROADSIGN and VISTAR MEDIA and offers media buying with advanced targeting and efficient bespoke solutions thanks to its Data Management Platform (DMP) designed specifically for DOOH advertising.

In September, JCDecaux SE announced that Pernod Ricard and JCDecaux, two major French-based global companies, have launched an innovative digital partnership in data management through the roll-out of a solution called Data Portal. This solution enables a company to centralise, in a single point, all the data from its different entities around the world, facilitating their use and sharing. The Data Portal is aligned with the transformation objectives of both Groups, who have placed data at the heart of their business and growth strategy.

In October, JCDecaux SE announced that the registration of JCDecaux SA as a European Company, which was approved by the Combined General Meeting of Shareholders on May 14th 2020, became effective in the Trade and Companies Register on September 27th 2022.

North America

In September, JCDecaux SE announced that it has increased its stake in Interstate JCDecaux, LLC from 50% to 100%. JCDecaux North America is now the sole owner of the company which operates the 52-face Chicago Expressway Digital Billboard Network under a long-term agreement with the City of Chicago. All 52 digital billboard faces, most of which are 20 feet by 60 feet, are in the City of Chicago, which is the third largest media market in North America.

THIRD QUARTER 20 2 2 REVENUE AND OUTLOOK

Commenting on the 2022 third quarter revenue, Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said:

Our Q3 2022 group revenue grew by +14.4% with +9.0% on an organic basis to reach 808.4 million, above our expectations, due to a strong trading momentum throughout the quarter. Our organic revenue growth outside China for Q3 2022 was +15.5%.

Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) grew significantly at +25.5% in Q3 2022, +18.5% on an organic basis, to reach 241.9 million, i.e. 29.9% of Group revenue vs 27.3% in Q3 2021. The DOOH programmatic ecosystem continued to gain traction as our programmatic advertising revenue through the VIOOH SSP (supply-side platform) more than doubled vs the same period last year, with the dynamism of the 37 DSPs (demand-side platforms) connected to VIOOH (the most connected SSP of the OOH media industry), including Displayce following our strategic alliance announced in July.

By activity, Street Furniture grew by +8.3% organically in Q3 2022 and was above Q3 2019 levels globally, driven by Europe (including France and United Kingdom) and by a strong rebound in Asia-Pacific; Billboard revenue increased significantly as well at +9.0% organically in Q3 2022 driven by Asia-Pacific and especially Australia which was already above 2019 like North America; Transport grew strongly at +10.2% reflecting the continued recovery of air travel in most regions of the world, including Rest of the World which was already above 2019 revenue levels, but remained meaningfully impacted by ongoing mobility restrictions in China.

All geographies grew positively organically in Q3 2022 except Asia-Pacific which was flat compared to Q3 2021. Asia-Pacific excluding China grew strongly by +52.3%. The rebound was especially strong in North America and in Rest of the World in line with the strong recovery of air traffic in these geographies.

As far as Q4 is concerned, we continue to have a solid trading momentum and despite ongoing mobility restrictions in China, we expect an organic revenue growth at around +3.0% vs Q4 2021.

As the most digitised global OOH media company, with our new data-led audience targeting and programmatic solutions, our well diversified portfolio, our ability to win new contracts, the strength of our balance sheet, the high quality of our teams across the world and our recognized ESG excellence, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from the rebound. We are more than ever confident in the power of our media in an advertising landscape increasingly fragmented and more and more digital and in the role it will play to drive economic growth as well as positive changes.

Following the adoption of IFRS 11 from January 1st, 2014, the operating data presented below are adjusted to include our prorata share in companies under joint control.

Please refer to the paragraph Adjusted data for the definition of adjusted data and reconciliation with IFRS.

The values shown in the tables are generally expressed in millions of euros. The sum of the rounded amounts or variations calculations may differ, albeit to an insignificant extent, from the reported values.

Adjusted revenue for the third quarter ending September 30th, 2022 increased by +14.4% to 808.4 million from 706.5 million in the same period last year. On an organic basis (i.e. excluding the positive impact from foreign exchange variations, and the limited impact from changes in perimeter this quarter), adjusted revenue increased by +9.0%. Adjusted advertising revenue, excluding revenue related to sale, rental and maintenance of street furniture and advertising displays, increased by +10.2% on an organic basis in the third quarter of 2022.

Q3 adjusted revenue 2022 (m) 2021 (m) Reported growth Organic growth(a) Street Furniture 412.5 369.2 +11.7% +8.3% Transport 277.7 231.8 +19.8% +10.2% Billboard 118.1 105.5 +12.0% +9.0% Total 808.4 706.5 +14.4% +9.0%

(a) Excluding acquisitions/divestitures and the impact of foreign exchange

9-month adjusted revenue 2022 (m) 2021 (m) Reported growth Organic growth(a) Street Furniture 1,201.9 930.8 +29.1% +26.0% Transport 736.8 570.2 +29.2% +20.3% Billboard 344.5 287.9 +19.7% +17.2% Total 2,283.2 1,788.8 +27.6% +22.8%

(a) Excluding acquisitions/divestitures and the impact of foreign exchange

Please note that the geographic comments hereafter refer to organic revenue growth.

STREET FURNITURE

Third quarter adjusted revenue increased by +11.7% to 412.5 million (+8.3% on an organic basis), France, UK and Rest of Europe were above 2019 revenue levels with a strong trading momentum over the whole period. Asia-Pacific, North America and Rest of the World recorded double-digit organic growth rates vs Q3 2021.

Third quarter adjusted advertising revenue, excluding revenue related to sale, rental and maintenance of street furniture were up +9.5% on an organic basis compared to the third quarter of 2021.

TRANSPORT

Third quarter adjusted revenue increased by +19.8% to 277.7 million, +10.2% on an organic basis reflecting the strong return of air travel, notably in the US and in the Middle-East, and the rebound of commuter traffic in public transport. While some countries were already above Q3 2019 revenue levels, Transport remained meaningfully impacted by ongoing mobility restrictions in China.

BILLBOARD

Third quarter adjusted revenue increased by +12.0% to 118.1 million, +9.0% on an organic basis. Asia-Pacific grew the most followed by Rest of the World.

ADJUSTED DATA

Under IFRS 11, applicable from January 1st, 2014, companies under joint control are accounted for using the equity method. However, in order to reflect the business reality of the Group, operating data of the companies under joint control will continue to be proportionately integrated in the operating management reports used by directors to monitor the activity, allocate resources and measure performance.

Consequently, pursuant to IFRS 8, Segment Reporting presented in the financial statements complies with the Groups internal information, and the Groups external financial communication therefore relies on this operating financial information. Financial information and comments are therefore based on adjusted data, consistent with historical data, which is reconciled with IFRS financial statements.

In Q3 2022, the impact of IFRS 11 on adjusted revenue was -60.9 million (-59.4 million in Q3 2021), leaving IFRS revenue at 747.5 million (647.1 million in Q3 2021).

For the first nine months of 2022, the impact of IFRS 11 on adjusted revenue was -167.8 million

(-147.4 million for the first nine months of 2021), leaving IFRS revenue at 2,115.4 million (1,641.5 million for the first nine months of 2021).

ORGANIC GROWTH DEFINITION

The Groups organic growth corresponds to the adjusted revenue growth excluding foreign exchange impact and perimeter effect. The reference fiscal year remains unchanged regarding the reported figures, and the organic growth is calculated by converting the revenue of the current fiscal year at the average exchange rates of the previous year and taking into account the perimeter variations prorata temporis, but including revenue variations from the gains of new contracts and the losses of contracts previously held in our portfolio.

m Q1 Q2 H1 Q3 9M 2021 adjusted revenue (a) 454.3 628.1 1,082.3 706.5 1,788.8 2022 IFRS revenue (b) 628.5 739.3 1,367.8 747.5 2,115.4 IFRS 11 impacts (c) 54.4 52.5 106.9 60.9 167.8 2022 adjusted revenue (d) = (b) + (c) 683.0 791.8 1,474.8 808.4 2,283.2 Currency impacts (e) -20.9 -28.3 -49.2 -37.8 -87.0 2022 adjusted revenue at 2021 exchange rates (f) = (d) + (e) 662.1 763.5 1,425.6 770.6 2,196.2 Change in scope (g) 0.0 0.0 0.0 -0.4 -0.4 2022 adjusted organic revenue (h) = (f) + (g) 662.1 763.5 1,425.6 770.2 2,195.8 Organic growth (i) = (h)/(a)-1 +45.7% +21.6% +31.7% +9.0% +22.8%





m Impact of currency

as of September 30th, 2022 USD -19.4 CNY -17.5 HKD -8.6 BRL -7.8 Others -33.7 Total -87.0





Average exchange rate 9M 2022 9M 2021 USD 0.9400 0.8360 CNY 0.1425 0.1292 HKD 0.1200 0.1076 BRL 0.1830 0.1568

Forward looking statements

This news release may contain some forward-looking statements. These statements are not undertakings as to the future performance of the Company. Although the Company considers that such statements are based on reasonable expectations and assumptions on the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual performance to differ from those indicated or implied in such statements.

These risks and uncertainties include without limitation the risk factors that are described in the annual report registered in France with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers.

Investors and holders of shares of the Company may obtain copy of such annual report by contacting the Autorite des Marches Financiers on its website www.amf-france.org or directly on the Company website www.jcdecaux.com.

The Company does not have the obligation and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements.

FINANCIAL SITUATION

The evolution of revenue is the major factor which to impact the operating margin, free cash flow or net debt during Q3 2022.

Attachment
BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jushi Holdings Inc. (Jushi or the Company) (CSE: JUSH) (OTCMKTS: JUSHF), a vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator, issued a statement on the gubernatorial race in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Commenting on the recent election, Jim Cacioppo, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Founder of Jushi said:On behalf of Jushi, I would like to extend our congratulations to Josh Shapiro on his election victory.

As the Commonwealths next executive, we look forward to working with Governor-elect Shapiro as he pursues his vision for cannabis-related policy reform. Like Mr. Shapiro and the vast majority of Pennsylvanians, we believe addressing harms and inequities associated with prohibition is long overdue. This effort necessarily includes expunging records for Pennsylvanians with non-violent, low-level cannabis possession convictions as well as looking forward to a diverse, equitable, legal cannabis industry in the Commonwealth.

In this respect, we are pleased that Governor-elect Shapiro stands with the nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvanians who support cannabis legalization and the significantly larger portion of his constituents who prefer a legal, regulated, and taxed cannabis market over the status quo. A legal, regulated market for adult-use cannabis in Pennsylvania will open the doors to economic growth, create thousands of mortgage-paying jobs, drive hundreds of millions in taxable infrastructure development and generate tens of millions in new tax dollars.

So often when we discuss cannabis policy, we hear the phrase its when, not if we will see a broader legal cannabis market. The Commonwealths citizens have spoken on the issue: every day of delay in adopting common sense cannabis reform is another day of lost tax revenue, illicit sales and potential danger to public health and safety. This is why the team at Jushi is committed to advocating for sound policy to make safe, regulated and taxed cannabis available to Pennsylvanians and we look forward to seeing sound policy implemented under Governor-elect Shapiros Administration.

About Jushi Holdings Inc.We are a vertically integrated cannabis company led by an industry-leading management team. In the United States, Jushi is focused on building a multi-state portfolio of branded cannabis assets through opportunistic acquisitions, distressed workouts, and competitive applications. Jushi strives to maximize shareholder value while delivering high-quality products across all levels of the cannabis ecosystem. For more information, visit jushico.com or our social media channels, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation as well as statements that may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995 Section 27 A of the Securities Act, and Section 21 E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, intended expansion of our retail operations and production capacity, intended expansion of our cultivation facilities, future financial position, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, including without limitation Q4 2022 annualized guidance, as well as expected filings, materiality or significance and effects of errors on current or prior period financial statements, and any anticipated conclusions of the Company, the Audit Committee or the Companys management related thereto, are forward-looking statements. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, will continue, will occur or will be achieved.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein may include but are not limited to, information concerning the expectations regarding Jushi, or the ability of Jushi to successfully achieve business objectives, and expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including risks related to the ability of Jushi to successfully and/or timely achieve business objectives, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated, or expected. The foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of Jushi Holding Inc.s prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on August 12, 2022, its Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on September 26, 2022, its Management Discussion & Analysis filed on SEDAR on September 26, 2022, and other documents filed or to be filed with the SEC (www.sec.gov) and/or on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

There may be additional risks that Jushi Holdings Inc. does not presently know or that Jushi Holdings Inc. currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Jushi Holdings Inc. assumes no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Jushi Holdings Inc. does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations. All written forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Contact:Michael PerlmanExecutive Vice President of Investor Relations561-281-0247[email protected]

Media Contact:Ellen Mellody570-209-2947[email protected]

Source: Jushi Holdings Inc.
CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LithiumBank Resources Corp. (TSX-V: LBNK) (OTCQX: LBNKF) (FSE: HT9) (LithiumBank or the Company) is pleased to announce the completion of the hydrogeological study from its 100% owned Kindersley Lithium-brine project (the Kindersley Project) located in southwest Saskatchewan, 160 km west of Saskatoon. The hydrogeological study was carried out by Matrix Solutions Inc. (Matrix).

Encouraged by two anomalous lithium brine samples collected from the Duperow Formation in 2017 by the Saskatchewan Geological Survey, LithiumBank established a strategic core position in December 2021. LithiumBank intends to collect samples from the Duperow Formation within the Kindersley Project area and use knowledge and experience derived from its Boardwalk Project in Alberta to fast track a National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) technical report and future Preliminary Economic Assessment.

Highlights:

Matrix assessed reservoir properties and aquifer deliverability within LithiumBank mineral leases and identified multiple zones of potential lithium brine production within the Duperow Formation add up to ~ 90 m in net pay at a 6% porosity cut off

The Duperow Formation is an unconfined aquifer that measures up to 300 m within the area of the Companys mineral leases comprising the Kindersley Project

The Duperow Formation within LithiumBank's Kindersley Project area hosts a brine volume of 3.89 km3 at a 6% porosity cut off

Expected brine production from the Duperow Formation is up to 1,600 m3 per day

Two brine samples from an area of the Duperow Formation adjacent to the Kindersley Project collected in 2017 by the Saskatchewan Geological Survey, returned 78 mg/L and 70 mg/L lithium

LithiumBank engaged Matrix to conduct an in-depth geological and hydrogeological study of the Companys 41,014 ha (101,347 ac) of mineral leases located 5 km north and east of the town of Kindersley, Saskatchewan (see Figure 1 below). The study is a compilation of all available data in the area from historic and ongoing hydrocarbon activities. The purpose of the study is to provide the level of detail required in preparing a NI 43-101 compliant technical report and ultimately, to evaluate the Kindersley Projects potential for future lithium-brine production.

The Duperow Formation which is stratigraphically similar to the Leduc Formation in Alberta was the focus of Matrixs study as it is actively used as a water source and has shown enriched concentrations of lithium as compared to other basinal aquifer concentrations in the area. The Matrix study indicates hydrogeological characteristics including porosity and permeability at the Kindersley Project are positive and consistent with historical long term production rates in proximal wells and a cumulative historical brine production of 3.3 million m3. In addition to active water wells, there are several injection wells in the Duperow Formation with injection rates over 2,000 m3/day. Based on the available data, Matrix expects a single well in the Duperow Formation may be capable of producing brine at a daily rate of up to 1,600 m3.

Within the area of the Companys mineral leases comprising the Kindersley Project, Matrix utilized all available drill stem tests (DSTs), historical production rates, fluid chemistry analysis, formation top picks and logs and core for petrophysical analysis. Incorporation of core, log, DST and production data allowed for an understanding of reservoir quality and deliverability. Utilizing a petrophysical analysis, a number of porosity cut offs were defined from 1-30%. Mapping the porosity cut offs allowed for calculation of brine volume across the Companys mineral leases. Although a 3% porosity is a common cut off used, the data suggests a 6% porosity cut off is more appropriate when considering long-term brine production (see Table 1 below).

Table 1. Kindersley Project, volumes based on different porosity cut-offs assuming 100% water saturation

Kindersley Lithium Project Area (ha) Porosity Cut-off Brine Volume (m3) LBNK Mineral Leases 41,014 1 % 5,040,328,641 LBNK Mineral Leases 41,014 3 % 4,788,004,868 LBNK Mineral Leases 41,014 6 % 3,891,597,972 LBNK Mineral Leases 41,014 11 % 2,008,596,074 LBNK Mineral Leases 41,014 15 % 1,034,854,407

*Lithium in-place volume =A*T**(1-Sw)*C or Brine volume (m3)*C. A= area of aquifer, T= thickness of aquifer interval being measured, = porosity of the aquifer, Sw= water saturation (irreducible), C= lithium concentration in the brine

Figure 1. LithiumBank Mineral Leases with historic Duprow brine assays

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical disclosure in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Kevin Piepgrass (Chief Operations Officer, LithiumBank Resources Corp.), who is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the province of BC (APEGBC) and is a Qualified Person (QP) for the purposes of NI 43-101. Mr. Piepgrass consents to the inclusion of the data in the form and context in which it appears.

About LithiumBank Resources Corp.

LithiumBank Resources Corp. is an exploration and development company focused on lithium-enriched brine projects in Western Canada where low-carbon-impact, rapid DLE technology can be deployed. LithiumBank currently holds over 4.07 million acres of mineral titles, 3.68M acres in Alberta and 326K acres in Saskatchewan. LithiumBanks mineral titles are strategically positioned over known reservoirs that provide a unique combination of scale, grade and exceptional flow rates that are necessary for a large-scale direct brine lithium production. LithiumBank is advancing and de-risking several projects in parallel of the Boardwalk Lithium Brine Project.

Contact:

Rob ShewchukChairman & CEO[email protected](778) 987-9767

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, timing, assumptions or expectations of future performance, including without limitation, the statement that the Company intends to collect samples from the Duperow Formation within the Kindersley Project in order to prepare a NI 43-101 technical report and future Preliminary Economic Assessment and anticipated brine production from the Duperow Formation within the Kindersley Project are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as intends or anticipates, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, should, would or occur. Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this press release, including that the Company intends to collect samples from the Duperow Formation within the Kindersley Project in order to prepare a NI 43-101 technical report and future Preliminary Economic Assessment and anticipated brine production from the Duperow Formation within the Kindersley Project. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Important factors that may cause actual results to vary, include, without limitation, that the Company will not be in a position to collect samples from the Duperow Formation within the Kindersley Project in order to prepare a NI 43-101 technical report and future Preliminary Economic Assessment or will not be able to do so on the anticipated timelines or that the anticipated brine production is less than may expected by management. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c9ab1821-1a2a-45e9-b7d7-bf6d301437d0

Figure 1 LithiumBank Mineral Leases with historic Duprow brine assays

Source: Lithiumbank Resources Corp.
Over 50 leaders from Africa's private sector came together at COP27 and with a unified voice, called for accelerated action to build resilience against climate change across the continent.

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, over 50 leading CEOs from across the African continent who are part of the Africa Business Leaders Coalition (ABLC) presented the Africa Business Leaders Climate Statement outlining credible corporate commitments and actions anchored in the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Global Compact Ten Principles.

Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General; Executive Director & CEO of the UN Global Compact speaking during the event Climate Action Now: A Critical Priority for Business Leaders said:

The African business community is already changing Africa and impacting the world for the better. African companies are strengthening partnerships with critical stakeholders, especially governments, to jumpstart climate action across the continent. The Africa Business Leaders Climate Statement, which today has 55 signatories, brings a much-needed perspective and set of commitments to the global climate table. It reflects the strong commitment the ABLC member companies have made to driving sustainability efforts in their businesses and across their value chains and ecosystems.

The Africa Business Leaders Climate Statement outlines key commitments companies can make to galvanize climate action through:

Developing robust company resilience plans to improve our adaptive capacity and build systemic resilience

Upholding the guiding principles of a just transition as central to all our climate actions and advocacy

Setting targets to drastically increase the use of renewables to contribute to the continental goal of 27%

Contributing to a global dialogue to advance the understanding of the 'fair share' principle.

The Africa Business Leaders Climate Statement also calls for action from the global community to:

Fulfill and enhance the 100-billion-dollar goal by 2023 at the latest and ensure that at least 50% is invested in adaptation and resilience.

Create an enabling environment that facilitates increased access to finance and ensures that African business can leverage global markets.

Translate climate plans, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), into pipelines of bankable climate projects.

Promote technology and knowledge exchange to make decarbonization and adaptation technologies and knowledge more accessible

The ABLC is a CEO-led initiative arising from the UN Global Compact Africa Strategy 20212023. It aims to create a stronger partnership between Africas private sector and the UN, in order to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063. The Ten Principles of the Global Compact are central tenets of the ABLC. The companies that make up the ABLC constitute a genuine pan-African voice with a clear potential to galvanize resources and action by the continents private sector. These companies currently represent a total of over one million employees; a combined revenue in excess of US$200 Billion; and a geographical coverage amounting to 93% of the continent.

Notes to Editors

About the Africa Business Leaders Coalition

The Africa Business Leaders Coalition (ABLC) is a CEO-led initiative emanating from the UN Global Compact Africa Strategy 20212023 committed to advancing sustainable growth, prosperity, and development in Africa by bringing measurable impact to its most pressing issues. The ABLC works closely with the UN Global Compact Hub in Abuja and 10 African Local Networks operating across Africa.

About the United Nations Global Compact

As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 15,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and 69 Local Networks, the UN Global Compact is the worlds largest corporate sustainability initiative  one Global Compact uniting business for a better world.

For more information, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at unglobalcompact.org

Media Contact

Alex Gee

[email protected]
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shipping action plan launched at COP27 in response to new research cautioning as many as 800,000 seafarers due for carbon upskilling by the mid-2030s.

Maritime Just Transition Task Force 'Mapping a Maritime Just Transition for Seafarers' paper puts forward a 10-point action plan in response to new research.

Modelling of three emission reduction scenarios estimates hundreds of thousands seafarers requiring additional training to handle alternative fuels up to 2050.

Action Plan makes practical recommendations for industry, governments and workers and academia (including training providers).

A new Action Plan, launched at COP 27 by UN organizations, shipowners and unions, sets out recommendations to upskill seafarers to meet shippings decarbonisation goals. The plan is in response to findings from new research, the modelling of which cautions that as many as 800,000 seafarers will require additional training by the mid-2030s.

Currently accounting for 3% of global emissions, shipping needs to transition away from conventional fuels towards alternative low- and zero-carbon fuels and technologies to meet the worlds target of keeping global warming to 1.5C or less by 2050.

The three emission reduction scenarios assessed in the research highlight an immediate need to start putting the training infrastructure in place, to ensure hundreds of thousands of the worlds nearly two million seafarers are upskilled and empowered through the transition.

Findings also suggest that a lack of certainty on alternative fuel options is having knock-on effects for seafarer training, as the global maritime community works towards a clearer decarbonization pathway in a post-fossil fuel era.

The research was conducted by leading maritime consultancy DNV and commissioned by the Maritime Just Transition Task Force Secretariat. The Maritime Just Transition Task Force was formed to ensure that shippings response to the climate emergency puts seafarers and communities at the heart of the solution

In response to the training challenge that the modelling lays bare, the Action Plan makes recommendations for industry, governments, seafarer unions and academia (including training providers). These recommendations include:

Strengthening global training standards

Ensuring a health-and-safety-first approach

Establishing advisory national maritime skills councils

Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) said, All three scenarios DNV identified require some form of retraining the workforce. The good news is that seafarers are prepared and willing to be part of this transition. But crew want to know that the fuels theyre handling are indeed safe, and that we as an industry have the training pathways established to upgrade their skills. Seafarers and other maritime workers are already feeling the effects of an unstable climate  dry unnavigable rivers, soaring ocean surface temperatures, shutdown ports with heatwaves and flash floods.

Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General and CEO of the UN Global Compact, said: Climate action focused on people and job creation must be at the core of a Just Transition to Net Zero. This new paper highlights that aligning with a 1.5 C trajectory requires action now to support the upskilling of the maritime workforce as the shipping industry moves to rapidly cut its greenhouse gas emissions. The action-plan represents a global first  it marks the first business sector uniting in a tripartite framework  shipowners, seafarers unions and UN organisations  to discuss how to secure a Just Transition together.

Guy Platten, Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping, said: There is an urgent need to establish the infrastructure and training required to prepare our seafaring workforce, both in developed and developing countries, to help meet our decarbonisation objectives. This should be done as of today, so they are ready and able to meet the challenges that new green fuels and propulsion technologies will pose and mitigate any potential health and safety risks for ships, communities, the environment and seafarers themselves. This is an opportunity for all so that no-one is left behind. Shipping cannot decarbonise without its workers and the 10-point action plan developed by the Task Force maps out a pathway for how this can be achieved, as our industry continues to navigate towards a decarbonised future.

CEO of leading maritime consultancy DNV Maritime, Knut rbeck-Nilssen, said: Decarbonization is bringing new opportunities, new technologies but also new risks. Our first priority must be to achieve safe decarbonisation. We must take a collaborative approach to safeguard our people, our ships and our environment. This report points to the challenges and the tangible actions the industry can take to support and protect its workforce. DNV is pleased to see the action plan led by the Task Force and recognize the challenge moving forward to train seafarers on alternative fuel technologies.

Kitack Lim, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization, said: Climate change is a global issue that requires a global response. We must use every tool available to decarbonize the maritime sector. Alternative fuels and green technologies can help meet emission reduction targets. This cannot happen without the people who will be at the heart of implementing shippings decarbonization journey. It is clear that seafarers must have the appropriate training for a smooth transition to a greener future. This is something that will be in sharp focus as IMO works on its comprehensive review of the STCW Training Convention.

Gilbert F. Houngbo, Director-General, International Labour Organization:  A Just Transition to addressing the climate crisis must be human-centred. Greening the economy in a way that is as fair and inclusive as possible to everyone concerned, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind, is essential. Efforts to decarbonize shipping should be undertaken in accordance with the ILO Guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all. Doing so will achieve a transition for seafarers and other maritime workers based upon the importance of labour standards, productivity, skills development, lifelong learning, social justice and equality, and which is therefore truly sustainable.

Quotes from shipowner, seafarer:

Karin Orsel, CEO, MF Shipping, said: As shipowners and operators we must recognise that we cannot achieve a green transition without our seafarers. Shipping has an opportunity to be a leader in the creation of a just green transition, in which we invest in the training and upskilling of our workforce, create decent job opportunities for all, not just for the few, raise work standards, tackle safety concerns, and ensure diversity issues are addressed from the outset. This is good business sense, this is ethically and morally the right thing to do, and importantly, if we embed just transition practices into our operations from the outset, we will as an industry have a stronger chance of meeting our global carbon reduction targets.

Cleo Bierneza, a seafarer (Third Officer) from the Philippines working aboard cargo ships, said As seafarers, we see climate change happening. Some voyages get very hot nowadays for crew onboard, and in some places of the world the weather will change extremely, without warning. It didnt used to be like that. I would like maritime to reduce our own carbon if we can, so crew can have a more stable climate to work with. I am excited for a Just Transition, because we can make seafaring an even better job and hopefully bring in more women to become seafarers.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Photos of those quoted available for press:

Photos of Cleo working, and a headshot, are available here.

Headshot of Stephen available here.

Background information

Shipping supplies the world with food, fuel, medicines and goods, accounting for 90% of world trade and 3% of global GHG emissions. A fourth propulsion revolution is now underway for shipping to transition towards alternative low- and zero-carbon fuels and technologies.

The Mapping a Maritime Just Transition for Seafarers paper which contains the Action Plan was jointly prepared by members of the Maritime Just Transition Task Force Secretariat  the International Chamber of Shipping, the International Transport Workers Federation, and the United Nations Global Compact.

The Paper was contributed to by Task Force members, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labour Organization.

The full DNV report  Insights into training and skills needed to support a decarbonized shipping industry  can be found here

The launch event will be livestreamed here on November 9, at 10:00 EET https://live.ilo.org/events/cop27-events-just-transition-pavilion-2022-11

In person media access: The event can be attended in person at the COP27 Just Transition Pavilion, located in the Blue Zone of the Sharm El Sheikh International Convention Centre (SHICC). P09, specifically Area B - Hall 4 (delegation pavilions 2).

MEDIA CONTACT

For press queries please contact:Namrata Nadkarni at Intent Communications[email protected]+44(0)7598025513

ABOUT THE TASK FORCE

The Maritime Just Transition Task Force was established during COP26 in November 2021, by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the United Nations Global Compact, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The Task Force aims to support a just and human-centred decarbonization of the shipping industry. The Task Force is grateful to its primary funder, Lloyds Register Foundation, and to its programme partner, the Singapore Maritime Foundation. More information on the Maritime Just Transition Task Force can be found on the UN Global Compact website, the International Chamber of shipping website and the International Transport Workers Federation website.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS

About the UN Global Compact: As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals. With more than 15,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and 69 Local Networks, it is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world.

About the ITF: The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) is a democratic, affiliate-led federation of transport workers unions recognised as the worlds leading transport authority. We fight passionately to improve working lives; connecting trade unions and workers networks from 147 countries to secure rights, equality and justice for their members. We are the voice of the almost 20 million women and men who move the world, including over a million seafarers working in domestic trade and international shipping.

About ICS: The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is the principal international trade association for merchant shipowners and operators, representing all sectors and trades and over 80% of the world merchant fleet.

United Nations Global Compact (212) 907-1301 [email protected]

Source: United Nations Global Compact
STMicroelectronics, in collaboration with Thales, powers secure, contactless convenience in Google Pixel 7

ST54K single-chip NFC controller and secure element combines with Thales secure OS for superior performance in embedded SIM, transit ticketing, and digital car-key applications

Geneva, November 9, 2022  STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has revealed that its ST54K IC is handling control and security for contactless NFC communication in the newly launched Google Pixel 7 smartphone.

Chosen by Googles designers, STs device combines NFC control and a certified Secure Element in a single chip that saves space and simplifies handset design. Containing proprietary technologies that enhance NFC contactless sensitivity, the ST54K was selected to ensure the most reliable connectivity, deliver excellent contactless user experiences, and ensure the highest contactless transaction security.

For Googles Pixel 7, ST has combined the ST54K with the mobile secure operating system (OS) by Thales. The OS meets the highest security industry standards and supports convergence of the embedded SIM (eSIM) with other secure NFC applications into the same ST54K secure element.

Marie-France Li-Sai Florentin, Microcontrollers & Digital ICs Group Vice President, Secure Microcontroller Division General Manager, STMicroelectronics, commented, Google chose the ST54K for its excellent performance, low power, and robust security that meets the highest CC EAL5+ assurance. As a result, it ensures the best possible user experience and protection for contactless transactions.

Emmanuel Unguran, SVP Mobile Connectivity Solutions, Thales, added, The combination of STs ST54K with our secure OS and personalization capabilities provides a certified and evolutive solution for smartphones to support diverse digital services. These include embedded SIM for instant connectivity, and digital wallet services, such as transit ticketing and digital car keys. It is also the first in the Android ecosystem to support the eSIM Multiple Enabled Profiles.

Google Pixel 7 arrived in the marketplace on October 7. STs ST54K single-chip NFC controller and secure element, combined with Thales secure OS, now represents a proven solution for reliable and high-performing contactless functionality in Android handsets and is available to all OEMs without restriction.

Technical Notes to Editors:

The solution jointly developed by ST and Thales lets the Google Pixel 7 support the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) Digital Car Key Phase 3 specification. The handset thus provides the functionality needed for users to safely digitalize their car key into the phone, protected by the ST54K Secure Element. In addition, ticketing standards such as FeliCa allow Pixel 7 users to access public transport with their phone.

Support for the eSIM Multiple Enabled Profiles allows convenient dual-network connectivity, relieving reliance on cumbersome physical SIMs. With this, users can simplify managing two mobile network operator subscriptions to separate billing for personal and work calls on the same handset, for example, or ease access to services while traveling.

Meeting the Android Ready SE (secure element) requirements, the combination of ST54K and Thales secure OS will also provide to Android phone designers a StrongBox-ready solution available from early 2023.

The ST54K meets all NFC standards, including ISO/IEC 18092 active and passive peer-to-peer mode, Reader/Writer mode in accordance with NFC Forum tag specifications and ISO/IEC 15693, and ISO/IEC 14443 Type A & Type B card emulation mode. For more information, please contact your local ST sales office.

For more information on thalesgroup.com, please go to:

eSE secure end-to-end solutions

SIM, eSIM and Secure Elements 2022 Portfolio

About STMicroelectronics

At ST, we are 48,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An integrated device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of the Internet of Things and connectivity. ST is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2027. Further information can be found at www.st.com.

For Press Information Contact:STMicroelectronicsMichael MarkowitzDirector Technical Media RelationsTel: +1 781 591 0354Email: [email protected]

Attachments

T4492S -- Nov 9 2022 -- ST54 in Google Pixel 7_IMAGE ST24 NFC secure element in Google Pixel 7

Source: STMicroelectronics N.V.
Omaha, Nebraska, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The nation wasnt left waiting for initial election results thanks to the speed and accuracy of Election Systems & Software (ES&S) voting systems and the dedication of Americas election officials. Voters and election officials across the U.S. celebrated the paper-based system and its ease of use.

In Shelby County, Tennessee, voters had their first experience with the countys new paper-based voting technology. Voters had the option to mark their ballot with a pen or use the countys brand new ExpressVote Universal Voting System to make their selections. The voters preference quickly became clear  during Early Voting, approximately 3% of voters (a little more than 3,000) chose to mark their ballot with a pen. The overwhelming majority  97% of voters  chose the ExpressVote.

The voters really like it. The vast majority are choosing the ExpressVote, said Linda Phillips, Shelby County Administrator of Elections. Two voters who were blind voted during Early Voting, and both said they thought it was the most amazing technology. One young lady burst into tears, as did her mother and the poll worker who was helping her.

In Mississippi, 22 counties had their first use with new ES&S voting equipment  including the ExpressVote and DS200 poll place scanner and tabulator. The counties purchased the new technology to allow for voter-verifiable paper ballots, allowing for fully auditable election results across the state.

Some voters worried we were regressing backwards by using paper  but now we have a paper trail and can make sure everyones ballot is counted and voice is heard, said Arnell Harried, Jefferson County Circuit Clerk. I also found this new system to be a lot quicker and easier to use and set up than our old system.

In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, paper ballots were tabulated faster than ever before. Using DS850 central count tabulators, election officials scanned more than 156,000 ballots in five and-a-half hours, finishing before 4 p.m., and allowing the county to close the day with final unofficial results.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, voters love the ease and accessibility of their voting technology, coupled with the extra assurance of a voter-verifiable paper ballot. On Election Day, more than 3,400 ExpressVote XL universal voting machines were deployed across the city. A seamless experience meant voters were in and out of their polling places in no time.

Using the ExpressVote XL means all Philadelphia voters have equal access to the ballot, regardless of ability or disability, said Nick Custodio, Philadelphia Deputy Commissioner. Its quick, its easy to use, and voters know their paper ballots will be counted as cast.

Election officials across our nation put in countless hours to ensure the accuracy of the elections they run, said Tom Burt, President and CEO of ES&S. Were proud to play a small role in supporting them, and equally proud of the performance of the technology in meeting the expectations of voters and election officials.

ABOUT ES&S: Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is the nations leading voting systems manufacturer. For more than 40 years, ES&S has been supporting elections by creating and providing secure, accurate and accessible voting equipment to jurisdictions across the country. Learn more about ES&S at www.essvote.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/essvote.

Katina Granger Election Systems & Software (ES&S) 402-938-1300 [email protected]

Source: Election Systems & Software (ES&S)
TORONTO, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This winter, Sault Ste. Marie residents can once again experience the destination that inspired the works of Ernest Hemingway with a weekly flight to Cayo Coco, Cuba on board Sunwing Airlines, starting this December. Offering quintessential beach vacations in the Jardines del Rey island chain with a host of all inclusive resorts to call home, customers can recharge on Cayo Cocos white-sand shores, explore colourful coral reefs or spot exotic species in the surrounding everglades and mangroves, including one of the worlds largest native pink flamingo colonies.

As a popular vacation destination in Cuba for Sunwing travellers, our return to Sault Ste. Marie International Airport with Tuesday flights to Cayo Coco is something to celebrate, said Andrew Dawson, President of Tour Operations for Sunwing. With so much to offer in destination, our customers in Sault Ste. Marie can do more, explore more and celebrate more in a paradise that they love with easy flight access from their local airport.

The Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corporation (SSMADC) is very excited to see Sunwing flight service resume as it is a very promising sign of a return to normal following almost three years of the pandemic, said Terry Bos, President and CEO at SSMADC. Cuba has always been a destination that the residents of Sault Ste. Marie have enjoyed travelling to, and were looking forward to heading back with Sunwing.

Sunwing will be offering weekly flights from Sault Ste. Marie to Cayo Coco on Tuesdays starting on December 13, 2022 until April 11, 2023.

Sault Ste. Marie residents looking to jet off for a spontaneous last-minute getaway to Cuba can take their pick of affordable vacation packages to the charming Starfish Cayo Guillermo for family-friendly adventures on land or at sea, or the award-winning Memories Caribe Beach Resort offering romantic adults only escapes and epic getaways with friends.

Customers can get more peace of mind on their getaways to Cayo Coco when they add one of Sunwings comprehensive travel insurance options to their vacation bookings this winter.

*Terms and conditions apply.

About Sunwing

The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing has more flights to the south than any other leisure carrier with convenient direct service from airports across Canada to popular sun destinations across the U.S.A., Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. This scale enables Sunwing to offer customers exclusive deals at top-rated resorts in the most popular vacation destinations as well as cruise packages and seasonal domestic flight service. Sunwing customers benefit from the assistance of the companys own knowledgeable destination representatives, who greet them upon arrival and support them throughout their vacation journey. The company supports the communities where it operates through the Sunwing Foundation, a charitable initiative focused on the support and development of youth and humanitarian aid.

For more information: Melanie Anne FilippSenior Director, Corporate Communications & Media RelationsSunwing Travel Group1-800-387-5602 | [email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0d77daeb-da97-4033-9716-ee73e70add7f

Sault Ste. Marie residents can head to Cayo Coco with Sunwing Sunwing returns with weekly flights to this Cuban paradise starting this December

Source: Sunwing Vacations Inc.
The international community must take a stronger line with Baku. Azerbaijan must return prisoners of war, Member of European Parliament Lars Patrick Berg said in an interview to ARMENPRESS.

November 9, 2022, 15:03 International community must take a stronger line with Baku. European Parliament Member

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: The interview is presented below:

On September 13, 2022, Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on the sovereign territory of Armenia from different directions of the border, targeting also the civilian settlements. As a result of the attack Azerbaijan has occupied some parts of the sovereign territory of Armenia. At the same time, threats to use force against Armenia are not stopping from Baku. In your opinion, what steps are necessary so that Azerbaijan withdraws its troops from Armenias territory and returns to constructive negotiations?

Azerbaijan must respect the internationally negotiated agreements, cease hostilities, and return prisoners of war. The international community must take a stronger line with Baku, although I fear with attention focusing on Ukraine and Asia at the moment, the Azeri leadership will feel emboldened to keep escalating.

How do you assess the work of the European Parliament with regard to the Azerbaijani aggression? Does the European Parliament take all the necessary steps to return Azerbaijan to a constructive path and stop the occupation of Armenias territory?

I think the truth is that the European Parliament has limited influence in this conflict. We can try and influence, but the truth is that until Turkey decides to act responsibly the Azeri authorities will believe they can act with relative impunity.

Do you consider it possible for the EU to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan, taking into account the fact that most of the EU member states have stated that Azerbaijan has initiated the attack as a result of which some parts of the Armenian territory remain occupied? So far, calls for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops to their initial positions have been made, but, it seems, no practical steps are being taken on this direction.

I am not a great supporter of sanctions, especially sanctions imposed by the EU alone. I believe that the member states should be more vociferous in their condemnation of aggression, and diplomatically explore ways of isolating Baku?

Recently it was announced that a fact-finding mission of MEPs will arrive in Armenia. You were also included in the delegation. Can you please present the goal of the mission? What works have you done in Armenia and what is going to be the result of that work?

The goal is exactly as you describe - fact-finding. If we are to report to our colleagues in Brussels it is important to have discussions with those directly affected by the Azeri aggression. We are therefore in talks with Armenian stakeholders, and in Brussels we can agree on how to proceed.
Top global women leaders gather virtually to advance female leadership and social impact

Milan, Italy--(Newsfile Corp. - November 8, 2022) - The 3rdGeneration Female Global Summit is returning on November 15th and 16th, 2022 to champion the role and impact of women leaders in creating a better future. Launched in 2020, the Summit was the first such conference of its kind, gathering current and future women leaders from various industries, with an aim to support leadership development and encourage new generations of women leaders. Now in its third year, the event has cemented its reputation as a "must-attend" opportunity to advance and empower female leadership.





(Top Row Left-Right: Natalya Leahy, COO, Holland America Group, Serving Princess Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Seabourn, and P&O Australia; Janice Tam, Co-Founder & CEO, TruetoForm, Phaedra Chrousos, Chief Strategy Officer, Libra Group; Anna Shpak, President, Generation Female;Middle Row Left-Right: Jaisheila Rajput, CEO, Tomorrow Matters Now (TOMA-Now), Maria KrawczyDska, CSR & Sustainable Finance Department Director, Member of the Management Board of the BNP Paribas Foundation in Poland; Alessandra Montrasio, Chief Marketing Officer, Exki; Nikolina Markota Vuki, President, Croatian Institute for CSR; Nadiya Bilous, Senior Legal and Public Policy Executive;Bottom Row Left-Right: Shirin Ong, Vice-President, Generation Female;Tarja Stephens and Janna Salokangas, Co-Founders, Mission Impact; Andrea Pradilla, Director Latin America, Global Reporting Initiative; Ana Mirianashvili, Commercial Director, Chelti Winery)

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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This year's Summit takes place virtually over two days, assembling a diverse, global, and top-notch line-up of more than 20 accomplished women leaders to share their professional insights and personal advice. Premised on the overarching theme of "From Vision to Impact", the event will feature a range of speakers who are trailblazers and visionaries in their fields, as well as those who are going beyond gender issues to drive meaningful change in the ESG (environmental, social, governance) space.

Click here for full media kit & images:https://bit.ly/GFGS22mediakit

Attendees can look forward to leadership lessons and insider insights from senior women leaders of prominent multinational corporations, as well as those making a difference in their industries, communities, and environment. The list of accomplished speakers include: Natalya Leahy, COO, Holland America Group, Serving Princess Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Seabourn, and P&O Australia; Phaedra Chrousos, Chief Strategy Officer, Libra Group; Maria KrawczyDska, CSR & Sustainable Finance Department Director, Member of the Management Board of the BNP Paribas Foundation in Poland; Andrea Pradilla, Director Latin America, Global Reporting Initiative; Nadiya Bilous, Senior Legal and Public Policy Executive; Tarja Stephens and Janna Salokangas, Co-Founders, Mission Impact; and Jaisheila Rajput, CEO, Tomorrow Matters Now (TOMA-Now).

"I am very honored that the Summit continues to be a major highlight for our community, as it provides convenient, unfiltered access to perspectives and advice from an unparalleled line-up top global women leaders and mentors", said Anna Shpak, President of Generation Female. "This year, we are also taking our efforts to promote positive social change to the next level, by lending a greater voice to issues that go beyond gender. Many of our speakers are leading the way in the ESG space, and we are proud to champion the impact women can make in creating a better future."

Tickets to the Summit are complimentary, in line with Generation Female's mission to build an inclusive community and conversation by enabling worldwide access to a platform for participants to learn together and from each other. All session recordings will also be available to registrants, to facilitate convenient viewing across time zones and amidst hectic schedules. Register now for the Generation Female Global Summit 2022 here: http://bit.ly/3Tj3Z9A.

The Generation Female Global Summit is the flagship event of Generation Female, a non-profit association set up to empower and support women leaders in their personal and professional capacities. The event is designed to potentially benefit current and potential women leaders and their allies, from experienced leaders to those just starting out, for anyone seeking ideas, insights, and inspiration. More than just a summit, Generation Female strives to be a movement - enabling its community to connect with like-minded peers and leaders, expand horizons and opportunities, and conquer fears and challenges.









Key Partners and Supporters for Generation Female Global Summit 2022

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Media Contact: Shirin Ong | email: [email protected]

For more information, please visit:

Summit Registration Website: http://bit.ly/3Tj3Z9A

Summit Website: https://www.generationfemale.net/summit2022

Media Pack (Logos, Press Releases, Videos): https://bit.ly/GFGS22mediakit

Generation Female Website: www.generationfemale.net

Facebook: @GenerationFemaleGlobal

Instagram: @generationfemaleglobal

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/generation-female/

Hashtags: #generationfemale #generationfemaleglobalsummit #generationfemaleglobal

About Generation Female Non-Profit Association:

Established in 2020, Generation Female is a non-profit association set up to empower and support women leaders in their personal and professional capacities through flagship events and conferences such as the Generation Female Global Summit, as well as educational content and the establishment of a global membership network. Through our projects and platforms, Generation Female strives to create awareness of the gender burden shouldered by women, promote gender inclusiveness and equity, as well as combat gender-based discrimination in civil society and across different professions.

In 2022, Generation Female also launched Generation Impact 2030 - a global ESG (environmental, social, government) assessment methodology and business certification standard - to further promote positive social change and responsible business practices beyond just gender. Generation Impact 2030 provides a comprehensive standard for companies to demonstrate a clear commitment to the key tenets of positive and sustainable change. Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and leading ESG standard-setters, Generation Impact 2030 offers independent and verified certification of commitment to and application of responsible business practices and standards.

###

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143471
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - November 8, 2022) - UNice is a brand with a history spanning nearly a decade and available in many countries and regions, known for its high quality and authentic designs. In addition to geographic expansion, UNice has also been expanding its wig product categories. Recently, it launched "UNice Air Wigs."





UNice Air Wigs

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Riker, the Product Manager of UNice Hair, said the attraction of this product innovation is that UNice pushes the envelope on top of the open cap wig, making up for the shortcomings of many other similar products. "Our new collection promotes a more natural and a healthier installation approach. This allows the scalp to breathe through the wigs and helps natural hair growth. For us, we care about the needs that our users focus on."

UNice Air Wigs aim to make more mature women have a better experience and feeling when wearing wigs, so that users who are concerned about scalp health can wear wigs without worrying about scalp sensitivity and itchiness, making wearing wigs an enjoyment and pleasure.

The design details of UNice Air Wigs.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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1. Breathable: Breathable dome wig cap which allows scalp to breathe freely. It's good for natural hair growth, and it promotes healthy scalp.

2. Reachable: Scalp won't be suffocated and can be easily reached by fingers.

3. Adjustable: Adjustable strap and silicone non-slip band that help the wig to stay still on head.

4. Healthy: No glue is needed, keeping skin free from chemical damages.

5. Beginner-friendly, Easy: Wig is pre-plucked with a pre-cut lace. Fast installation and removal. Braids are not needed.

6. Comfort & Secure: Cap with specially measured arch snugs perfectly on the head.

UNice surveyed different wig problems and needs of women around the world and summarized the most typical ones.

In order to let consumers better understand the advantageous features of UNICE Air Wigs, they shot a brand TVC based on their survey results.





Cannot view this video? Visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeXP3qyXILw

The line of wigs will be sold in the Europe and America, and UNice hopes to continue to grow in that market.

"The Europe and America market is a very important market for us because we see that local consumers are open to new brands," Riker said. "European and American users are more enthusiastic and open to wig products, we know that the market here needs more products and designs, we see an opportunity and I think the European and American markets have a lot of potential for us."

"UNice has served millions of people worldwide for nearly a decade. We have been thriving to make improvement on the quality of hair, in order to provide a more natural and a healthier look for our users," shares Riker, adding, "We dream of giving people around the world the confidence they need to feel beautiful inside and out. It's confidence that allows people to achieve anything and make their dreams a reality. Believing in yourself is transformative, and we want to give people access to that transformation."





UNice

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For more details: https://www.UNice.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNiceMall

Ins:https://www.instagram.com/unicehair

Tiktok:https://www.tiktok.com/@unicehairofficial

Media Contact:

Company Name: UNice

Contact Person: Autumn Smith

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.unice.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143454
U.S. President Joe Biden answers a question during a news conference held after the 2022 U.S. midterm elections in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he thinks Twitter boss Elon Musk's relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at.

Biden was asked at a news conference whether he thought Musk was a threat to national security and if his acquisition of Twitter with help from a Saudi Arabian conglomerate should be investigated by the U.S. government.

"I think that Elon Musk's cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at," Biden said.

"Whether he is doing anything inappropriate, I'm not suggesting that. I'm suggesting they're worth being looked at."

The White House said last month that reports the United States was discussing launching a national security review of some of Musk's ventures including Twitter were "not true."

Musk's purchase of Twitter sparked concerns that he could face pressure from countries trying to control online speech.

The world's richest man, Musk is CEO of electric carmaker Tesla which counts China as a key market and production base. Tesla operates a factory in Shanghai, China, which accounted for about half of Tesla's global deliveries last year.

Musk is also CEO of rocket and satellite internet company SpaceX, among others.

Musk previously suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to Beijing. Musk also said China has sought assurances that he would not offer SpaceX's Starlink internet service there.

He also proposed Ukraine permanently cede Crimea to Russia, while saying SpaceX could not indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine.

Ian Bremmer, head of political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, tweeted that Musk told him that he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine. Musk denied his claims.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Nandita Bose in Washington and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Howard Goller)
ATLANTA, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Artivion, Inc. (NYSE: AORT), a leading cardiac and vascular surgery company focused on aortic disease, today announced that it will participate in two upcoming investor conferences.

Artivion's management team will present at the upcoming Stifel 2022 Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at the Lotte New York Palace. The Company's presentation is scheduled to begin at 9:10a.m. ET. A live webcast can be accessed through Artivion's website, www.artivion.com, on the Investors page. An archived copy of the webcast will be available for 90 days on the same website.

Members of the management team will also host one-on-one meetings at the upcoming Canaccord Genuity MedTech, Diagnostics and Digital Health & Services Forum on Thursday, November 17, 2022. Due to the format of this event no webcast will be available.

About Artivion, Inc.

Headquartered in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, Artivion, Inc. is a medical device company focused on developing simple, elegant solutions that address cardiac and vascular surgeons' most difficult challenges in treating patients with aortic diseases. Artivion's four major groups of products include: aortic stent grafts, surgical sealants, On-X mechanical heart valves, and implantable cardiac and vascular human tissues. Artivion markets and sells products in more than 100 countries worldwide. For additional information about Artivion, visit our website, www.artivion.com.

Contacts: Artivion D. Ashley Lee Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Phone: 770-419-3355 Gilmartin Group LLC Brian Johnston / Lynn Lewis Phone: 332-895-3222 [email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/artivion-to-participate-in-upcoming-investor-conferences-301672095.html

SOURCE Artivion, Inc.
TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark C. Christie, Chief Executive Officer of The Bostwick-Braun Company, today announced the acquisition of Mill Supplies, Inc. (MSI) by the company's Industrial Business Division.

Operating out of Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, MSI is a contractor and industrial supply company that has supported the OEM, construction, and metalworking industries in Indiana and Ohio for over 60 years.

MSI is a leading regional distributor of power tools, abrasives, cleanroom, MRO, and safety products and has earned a loyal following among OEMs and contractors. MSI also has developed an excellent reputation with the industry's leading suppliers and has been an active member of Affiliated Distributors (AD) for over 25 years.

"We are executing our strategy to be the premier full-line industrial distributor in the Midwest," said Christie. "We seek to partner with excellent companies such as Mill Supplies. MSI is passionate about exceeding the expectations of its customers and values the employees and culture that have been the company's foundation." Christie added, "Bostwick-Braun is proud to be a 100% employee-owned company, and we believe MSI shares many of the same values that we hold important as an ESOP."

Andy and Karen Beckstein, who owned and operated MSI for the past 28 years, will continue with the company in key management roles. Andy will serve as MSI's General Manager, leading the Fort Wayne and Indianapolis locations, and Karen will focus on supply chain and supplier development.

Former owner Andy Beckstein said, "Karen and I are excited to announce the acquisition of our company, Mill Supplies, Inc., by the Bostwick-Braun company. We feel it is the best possible succession plan for our employees and business. Our employees are our success story; offering them employee ownership with Bostwick- Braun is exciting and fulfilling. The partnership with Bostwick-Braun makes us both stronger, better, and poised for future success."

Christie added, "MSI has built a successful business over the past 63 years that values building meaningful relationships with their suppliers and customers and providing exceptional service and value to be an indispensable partner. We look forward to bringing together the resources and expertise of both companies. The addition of MSI to our industrial group of companies will enable us to continue to grow our footprint, deliver technical solutions to solve customers' challenges, and offer tailored, value-added solutions to help our customer's businesses grow profitably."

About The Bostwick-Braun Company

The Bostwick-Braun Company is an independent wholesale and industrial distributor serving the Midwest for 167 years. The Industrial Division of Bostwick-Braun is a leading supplier in the OEM, Construction, and Metalworking industries. We supply companies with power tools, fastening systems, abrasives, cutting tools, fluids, MRO, and an extensive offering of safety products. Our companies carry an extensive inventory and believe in having the right products available for our customers. Our focus is to tailor value-added programs and solutions specific to the needs of our customers to reduce costs while improving productivity and quality,

The Bostwick-Braun Industrial Division's family of companies includes Columbus Fasteners, Complete Fastening Systems, EBN Industrial Supply, Hi-Tech Tools, JMC Sales & Engineering, Wayne Fasteners, and Mill Supplies, Inc.

The Bostwick-Braun Company is a wholesale distributor of hardware and industrial supplies and one of the Midwest's largest and oldest. For more than 160 years, we have assisted stores with their supply needs and provided them with business services and guidance to ensure their longevity. We also supply companies with MRO products, fasteners, cutting tools, and value-add solutions that help them reduce costs and improve productivity.

Our Industrial Business Division's roster includes Columbus Fasteners, Complete Fastening Systems, EBN Industrial Supply, Hi-Tech Tools, JMC Sales & Engineering, Mill Supplies, Inc., and Wayne Fasteners. With 14 locations, the division serves the manufacturing, construction, and metalworking industries in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

Contact:The Bostwick-Braun CompanyBrad RosenthalVP Marketing and eCommerce[email protected]

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SOURCE BOSTWICK-BRAUN
Chief legal officer recognized for expertise and contributions to a year of record growth

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cetera Financial Group, one of the industry's largest networks of financial professionals, announced that Chief Legal Officer Lisa Gok has won the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2022 Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for a large private company. Each year, the publication recognizes standout in-house business attorneys for the significant role they play in the success of their enterprise and their demonstration of exceptional legal skill.

"It's an honor to be recognized as an expert in the field among the remarkable Los Angeles in-house legal community," Gok said. "Serving the individuals at Cetera, our financial advisors and the greater Los Angeles community is an incredible privilege. I am deeply thankful for Cetera's support and for the recognition by the Los Angeles Business Journal."

Gok's strategic leadership and deep knowledge of the regulatory space have been instrumental in maintaining the firm's rapid growth trajectory. Her work leading diligence and drafting acquisition and recruitment deals has been a critical factor in helping grow Cetera's business. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gok immediately took to providing legal advice for financial professionals administering PPP loans  a practice that very few legal departments in the financial industry were undertaking. She also spearheaded the introduction of a COVID-19 resiliency program that enabled Cetera's advisors to utilize electronic signatures and in turn serve clients more effectively.

"We are exceptionally proud of Lisa for earning this well-deserved honor," said Adam Antoniades, CEO of Cetera. "As a veteran in the LA business and legal community, Lisa's vast experience and dedication to the field have been integral to our success serving our advisor communities and delivering a best-in-class experience. We would not be where we are today without Lisa's contributions, and I thank her for her unwavering dedication and commitment to Cetera."

Gok joined Cetera as deputy general counsel in 2012 to manage and oversee litigation, as well as act as a liaison with regulators. Prior to joining Cetera, Gok spent 15 years with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, both at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in the Los Angeles Regional Office. In addition to her work at Cetera, Gok is a dedicated volunteer with Kidsave, a nonprofit helping older foster care children find permanent home placements. Gok is a graduate of Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs and earned her J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

Click here to learn more about Gok's recognition and visit www.cetera.com for more information about Cetera.

About Cetera Financial Group

Cetera Financial Group (Cetera) is a leading financial services firm whose purpose is to enable the delivery of best-in-class financial advice to as many Americans as possible. Cetera empowers its financial professional communities to help clients achieve their version of financial wellbeing through the Advice-Centric Experience. Cetera proudly serves independent financial professionals, tax professionals, banks and credit unions in providing wide-ranging financial planning and wealth management services.

Cetera oversees approximately $353 billion in assets under administration and $122 billion in assets under management, as of December 31, 2021.

Visit www.cetera.com, and follow Cetera on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

"Cetera Financial Group" refers to the network of independent retail firms encompassing, among others, Cetera Advisors LLC, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Cetera Investment Services LLC (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions or Cetera Investors), and Cetera Financial Specialists LLC. All firms are members FINRA/SIPC members. Located at: 655 W. Broadway, 11th Floor, San Diego, CA 92101

Individuals affiliated with Cetera firms are either Registered Representatives who offer only brokerage services and receive transaction-based compensation (commissions), Investment Adviser Representatives who offer only investment advisory services and receive fees based on assets, or both Registered Representatives and Investment Adviser Representatives, who can offer both types of services.

Media Contacts:Sean MogleFinn Partners[email protected]

Ryan HoffmanCetera PR Directorceterapr@cetera.com

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SOURCE Cetera Financial Group
CAXIAS DO SUL, Brazil, 9 November 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fras-le S.A. (B3  "FRAS3"), an auto-parts powerhouse whose portfolio includes iconic products and brands, as well as the largest manufacturer of friction materials in Latin America and an international leader in the field, has announced its results for the third quarter and nine months of 2022. The Company's financial information is consolidated in accordance with the IFRS  International Financial Reporting Standards.

MAIN RESULTS  3Q | 9M22 (Percentages show variations from the respective periods from 3Q21 and 9M21  amounts in MM)

Consolidated net revenue: 3Q22: R$ 823.9 (+25.4%) | 9M22: R$ 2311.3 (+21.8%) Net revenue in the domestic market: 3Q22: R$ 493.6 (+24.8%) | 9M22: R$ 1385.2 (+18.6%) Net revenue in the foreign market: 3Q22: R$ 330.3 (+26.2%) | 9M22: R$ 926.1 (+27.0%) Foreign Market Revenue ( Exports + overseas operations ): 3Q22: US$ 63.0 (+25.9%) | 9M22: US$ 180.2 (+31.8%) Consolidated gross profit: 3Q22: R$ 259.4 (+27.3%) | 9M22: R$ 684.3 (+20.7%) Operating Profit: 3Q22: R$ 108.5 (+48.1%) | 9M22: R$ 283.2 (+15.5%) EBITDA: 3Q22: R$ 137.9 (+35.8%) | 9M22: R$ 369.0 (+12.4%) Consolidated net income: 3Q22: R$ 73.3 (-13.3%) | 9M22: R$ 168.0 (-10.9%)

RESULTS VIDEOCONFERENCE (In Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation into English) 11/10  11 am Brazil | 9 am New York | 2 pm London

Register / Access Video-Conference: Click here

Contact RI E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://ri.fras-le.com.br

Hemerson Fernando de Souza Telephone: +55 54 3239.1519

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SOURCE Fras-le S.A.
PLYMOUTH, Mich., Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Loc Performance (Loc) today named Jason Atkinson as the company's new president and CEO, effective immediately. Atkinson has served as a key member of Loc's leadership team since 2008, when he joined the company as chief operating officer. In his new role, Atkinson will continue to lead the technical efforts for all new business opportunities and launches.

Loc Performance, a leading agricultural and military provider, named Jason Atkinson as its new president and CEO.

"I have worked with Jason for more than 20 years, and he is more than ready to thrive in this new role," said Lou Burr, former Loc CEO. Burr will no longer be active in Loc's day-to-day operations but will continue to serve as a strategic consultant.

During his time as Loc's COO, Atkinson oversaw all aspects of the business operations, including production, quality, materials, engineering, IT and human resources. He spearheaded the development of tools that accelerated Loc's growth, including Loc's QMS supplier development system and the launch of Plex, Loc's fully automated ERP system. Under his direction and management, Loc launched and delivered flawlessly on significant programs such as ECP1 for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which increases ground clearance and survivability.

"I am excited to step into this expanded leadership role," said Atkinson. "Loc is uniquely positioned for growth in the military, agricultural and construction markets, and I look forward to continuing the company's positive momentum."

Atkinson also led several significant acquisitions for Loc, including Demmer's North Lansing plant in 2017, Lapeer Industries in 2019, and Continental's St Mary's location in 2020. Under Atkinson's leadership, Loc has deployed millions of dollars in capital equipment, facility expansions, and new product launches, such as the MLRS IAC program in the Lansing facility. As a certified six sigma black belt, Atkinson has built his career on continuous improvement efforts.

Prior to joining Loc, Atkinson developed strong leadership experience in the automotive industry. Starting his career at a Tier 1 automotive supplier while going to school at M-TEC, Atkinson had full P&L responsibility as a plant manager for a multi-site operation that produced underbody, suspension components and mechanical assemblies for Chrysler, GM, and Ford. Over this twelve-year period in the auto industry, he launched hundreds of millions of dollars in business, obtained Q1 with Ford, maintained QS9000, TS16949, and A2LA certifications, and developed a cost reduction and lean manufacturing program yielding significant savings. With five plants and over 800 employees, Jason received PMP certification to support multisite program launches and developed a program management process with multi-gate reviews to ensure on-time delivery and overall customer satisfaction.

About Loc Performance

Loc Performance, headquartered in Plymouth, MI, provides track systems, mechanical systems, armor products, fabricated structures, and rubberized products for both military and industrial applications. With proven capabilities in product design and development through production, Loc offers comprehensive solutions and exceptional customer service to produce the highest quality products at competitive pricing. Loc has over 1,750,000 square feet of manufacturing space with facilities in Plymouth, Lansing, and Lapeer, Michigan, and St. Marys, Ohio with more than 980 total employees. Learn more at www.locperformance.com.

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SOURCE Loc Performance Products
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TYSON 2.0 ("The Company"), legendary boxer, entrepreneur and cannabis advocate Mike Tyson's premium cannabis brand, announced today the continued expansion of its global footprint with its entry into Alaska.

In partnership with Cold Creek Extracts, premier Alaska-based CBD and THC manufacturer, TYSON 2.0 products will be available in seven boroughs across Alaska including Anchorage, Juneau, Matanuska Susitna, Kenai Peninsula, Northstar, Denali and the unorganized borough communities of Bethel, Nome, and Dillingham.

Starting in November, the first products to launch across Cold Creek retail partners will be vapes available in half gram and 1 gram sizes, and the famous Mike Bites edibles in Sour Apple, Watermelon and Blackberry flavors. More products from the TYSON 2.0 line will be launched in Q4 and over the course of 2023.

"It gives me great happiness and pride to announce the launch of TYSON 2.0 products in the state of Alaska," said Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer and Co-Founder of TYSON 2.0 "I fully stand behind the relaxation and wellness benefits of our products which have quickly gained mass appeal. I look forward to sharing my favorite vapes and edibles with Alaskans who are looking for high times and smooth hits.""We are thrilled to partner with Cold Creek Extracts to launch TYSON 2.0 products across Alaska," said Adam Wilks, CEO of TYSON 2.0. "With product quality and customer satisfaction at the core of what we do, we partnered with Cold Creek Extracts for their clean production methods without the use of butane, fake colorings, additives or harsh solvents, and their proprietary blends of naturally-derived terpenes."

Launched in October 2021, TYSON 2.0 brings innovative, high-quality, cannabis products known for purity, consistency, and wide accessibility to consumers. Co-founded by Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer, and Chad Bronstein, Chairman and President, and led by Adam Wilks, Chief Executive Officer - the Company partners with world-class cannabis operators to provide a suite of products designed to appeal to and reach consumers in legal markets. TYSON 2.0 THC products are available across dispensaries and retail locations in 24 states and select provinces across Canada. Earlier this month, the Company answered the growing market demand for their fan-favored products with the launch of an online global marketplace for hemp-based products: Delta 8, Delta 9 and CBD.

"Cold Creek Extracts is beyond excited to be working with TYSON 2.0, to bring Iron Mike's favorite products to Alaskans!" Cade Inscho, Founder, Cold Creek Extracts

For more information on TYSON 2.0, visit Tyson20.com. TYSON 2.0 branded merchandise is available for purchase at shoptyson20.com. TYSON 2.0 branded hemp-based products will be available for purchase at tyson20global.com.

About TYSON 2.0TYSON 2.0 is a premier cannabis company formed with legendary boxer, entrepreneur and icon Mike Tyson. The company's mission is to produce innovative, high-quality cannabis products known for purity, precision, and wide accessibility. Providing consumers an outstanding selection of products, TYSON 2.0 is an extraordinary balance of premium and affordable, full-spectrum cannabis flower, concentrates and consumables available at retailers nationwide. Learn more at Tyson20.com.

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SOURCE TYSON 2.0
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), leading a diverse coalition of Armenian, Greek, Jewish, Kurdish, and other allied Americans, tipped the scales against the election of Dr. Mehmet Oz  an ally of Turkish dictator Recep Erdogan who denies the Armenian Genocide  to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, the ANCA reported on Wednesday.

November 9, 2022, 15:09 ANCA-led coalition tips the scales against Dr. Ozs election to U.S. Senate

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: With this historic win, the ANCA protected the U.S. Senate, the people of Pennsylvania, and our American democracy from an Armenian Genocide denier with deep ties to Turkeys hostile Erdogan regime, said ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian. This landmark victory was the result of more than a year of strategic planning and relentless community and coalition efforts  ranging from opposition research, voter-education, media outreach, get-out-the-vote, and other targeted electoral initiatives. We are gratified by Dr. Ozs defeat and look forward to working with ANCA-endorsed candidate, Lt. Governor John Fetterman, for many years to come.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) national office, along with its Eastern Region and Pennsylvania local affiliates, teamed up with the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) to run a grassroots campaign calling attention to Dr. Ozs genocide denial and close ties with Turkeys Erdogan regime.

In the weeks leading up to November 8th vote, the ANCAs anti-Oz coalition led a series of protests in Pennsylvania and California, sounding alarm bells about Dr. Ozs ties to the Turkish Government and his persistent refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Following a protest in front of Dr. Ozs abandoned campaign headquarters, ANC of Pennsylvania Co-Chair Lorig Baronian told the Philadelphia Inquirer, Genocide denial has no place in the U.S. This should be against our morality and ethics as a nation. Finally, after 100-plus years, we had both chambers of U.S. Congress and President Biden affirm the reality of this atrocity. And now we have a candidate running for U.S. Senate who cant even utter the words.

In an op/ed in the Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach  Americas Rabbi,  who leads the World Values Network  and ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian jointly asked, Will Dr. Mehmet Oz, a citizen of Turkey with reported ties to Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan, clearly state that the Armenian Genocide occurred? The question is more than reasonable. It is essential in understanding the values he would bring to Congress.

These concerns were spotlighted in news coverage by NBC News, the New York Post, Forbes, Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Breitbart, Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, among others. A video spotlighting Dr. Ozs Armenian Genocide denial  posted by the ANCA and HALC and produced by the Really American PAC  went viral with over 1.8 million views on Twitter. The ANCA has also called for a US Department of Justice investigation into whether Oz may be in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) of 1938 for his endorsement agreement with Istanbul-based Turkish Airlines, through which Oz provides consulting services, certain media, and in-flight film appearances.
SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, today has kicked off the 5G Summit and User Congress 2022 at Lake Maggiore in Stresa, Italy.

ZTE holds this 5G Summit and User Congress with the theme of "Inspire the Digital Transformation" from 8-9 November, 2022. Various thought leaders, industry partners, leading analysts from GSMA, Intel, CCS, IGF, 3GPP and Global Data, top-tier operators and many others join the event, and will share their key insights. The 2-day event has invited over 300 attendees from more than 70 companies, while over 50 guests will speak on 5G cases, successful ecosystem, digital transformation, B5G, and green sustainable topics.

"In the future, digital world and real world will interact with each other on a larger scale, breaking the dimensional space, and gradually evolving into a new era of deep and seamless connection," highlighted Mr. Xiao Ming, Senior Vice President of ZTE. "Every step we take today is to faithfully and firmly measure the real world, and to open up and reconstruct new boundaries of the virtual world."

Digital Transformation is no longer just a simple innovation, and it has become an intelligent connection of different services and industry verticals.

"One of the key missions of 5G in the coming years is to empower digital transformation across all sectors. Last year saw 5G expand commercially into vertical, already exploring economies of scale," said John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA Ltd. "However, to achieve these economies, industries need to explore many different application scenarios to move 5G from an optional to a must-have technology."

"If we want to build stronger businesses and communities, and achieve the sustainable development goals, we simply cannot afford to leave anyone behind. Mobile operators play a key role in the tech innovation ecosystem. Operators can mitigate the route-to-market challenges by providing the platform, customer relationship, and resources to drive their mobile innovation to scale," noted Lara Dewar, CMO of GSMA Ltd.

With all-scenarios, applications, and innovative connection technologies as the foundation, ZTE has integrated smart digitalization into all aspects of life, such as smart manufacturing, port, medicine, home, etc., and is also effectively providing underlying technologies to support the digital transformation of industries and society. Business models, technologies, and customer needs are changing at a break-neck pace. Therefore, a collaborative ecosystem helps telco industries not only survive but also thrive in such a demanding era. During the event, ZTE will be further showcasing its cutting-edge technologies and solutions, and launch the B5G Technology Whitepaper in partnership with GSMA.

The successful vertical case demonstration not only hammers on the reality in the 5G era but also demonstrates how the industry can monetize these applications and mass scale. Also, ZTE experts and leaders showcase the network's success in different regions across the globe. The launch of Mini 5GC depicts that ZTE products are the first in the market that have already been adopted by operators.

Moving forward, ZTE, with the commitment to its vision and mission, that is, "to enable connectivity and trust everywhere" and "to connect the world with continuous innovation for a better future", will further boost digital transformation.

Media Contacts:Margaret MaZTE CorporationTel: +86 755 26775189Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE ZTE Corporation
STUTTGART, Germany  U.S. special operations forces flying over the Arctic on Wednesday rolled a long-range missile out the back of a C-130 aircraft, dropping it by parachute before it blasted toward its target in the distance.

The operation marked the first-ever demonstration in Europe of Rapid Dragon, an experimental program that uses standard air drop procedures to launch air-to-surface cruise missiles.

It puts this thing within range of Russia. We are intentionally trying to be provocative without being escalatory, Special Operations Command Europes Lt. Col. Lawrence Melnicoff told Stars and Stripes ahead of Wednesdays launch. Were trying to deter Russian aggression, expansionist behavior, by showing enhanced capabilities of the allies.

The missile launch, carried out inside the Arctic Circle at Norways Andoya Space Range, also showcases how allies can muscle up by mixing and matching weapons systems in new ways, Melnicoff said.

It was the culmination of the Stuttgart-based SOCEURs demonstration of American and allied units ability to rapidly mobilize and deliver long-range precision fire over great distances.

The Norway exercise coincided with drills in Poland and Romania. Theyre all part of U.S. European Commands Atreus program, which aims to expand military options for allies.

Similar missions have been held in the Baltics and Romania involving aircraft loaded with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which are flown to landing zones and offloaded for quick-strike targeting.

Such operations are connected to planning for the worst-case scenario in the event Russia were to take aim at allied military hubs in Europe, said Melnicoff, who oversees Atreus for SOCEUR.

It complicates Russian decision-making because we know that theyre targeting very, very large specific aggregations of allied power, ... Ramstein Air Base, RAF Lakenheath, things like that, Melnicoff said. Were survivable. If worse comes to worst and somebody takes out these power hubs, we can forward-project precision artillery fire across the alliance with our partners.

#BREAKING video from 352nd Special Operations Wing successful test fire of a palletized Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). Successful extraction of deployment box, release of JASSM with wing extension, and motor engagement during exercise #ATREUS22 #SOFinEurope pic.twitter.com/3hLcXDJ3bl  US Spec Ops Europe (@US_SOCEUR) November 9, 2022

The Rapid Dragon concept has the attention of several allies, including Poland. While other allies dont have long-range bomber strike capabilities like the U.S., they can mimic some of those effects by loading long-range missiles onto cargo aircraft.

The Red Dragon system uses a steel cage and can be loaded with Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles, which have a range of up to 1,200 miles depending on the variant.

The way it works is it drops out of cargo aircraft like a heavy equipment air drop, so its completely a roll-on, roll-off package, Melnicoff said.

After rolling out, the cage stabilizes under parachutes. Then a sling gate opens and the missiles drop out.

The system also has the potential to be paired with other types of materiel, including hypersonic weapons and swarm drones, Melnicoff said.

The concept was developed by the Air Force, which has been experimenting with the idea for the past couple of years.

Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, head of U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, said experimenting with new ways to strike targets is key to preparing for an unpredictable future.

AFSOCs greatest value to the joint force, as well as allies and partners, is when we find unconventional ways to deliver airpower, Slife said Wednesday in a statement. The future is going to be different than what we have experienced for the last 20 years.
Soldiers from the Armys 1st Cavalry Division and its 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions will deploy to Europe later this year to replace other U.S.-based units deployed to the Continent amid the monthslong Russian invasion of Ukraine, service officials announced Wednesday.

The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters and Sustainment Brigade from Fort Carson, Colo., and the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division from Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., will all deploy in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the service said in a series of statements. The new deployments expected in the coming months will maintain the Pentagons increased troop presence in Europe, where U.S. troops have been training with NATO partners  especially along the alliances eastern flank  sine Russias late February attack of Ukraine.

The deployments will keep American troops levels at about 100,000  up about 20,000 American service members since Russian began amassing forces along Ukraines borders. It will also maintain two armored brigade combat teams of some 4,200 soldiers each on the Continent  firepower that Europe had not seen in decades before the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga., deployed on almost no notice in early March, just days after the invasion.

The 2nd Armored Brigade of 1st Cavalry Division will replace the divisions 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, which deployed in the summer to replace the Fort Stewart brigade. In its announcement, the Army described the upcoming deploy as a regular rotation of forces, indicating the service intends to maintain two tank brigades in Europe for the foreseeable future. The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley, Kan., will be the other U.S-based tank brigade in Europe when the upcoming troop rotations happen.

The Army described the other deployments as regular troop rotations, as well.

The 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade will replace the 1st Armored Divisions Combat Aviation Brigade, which will return to Fort Bliss, Texas, after completing its tour, according to Army officials.

The Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Infantry Division Headquarters will replace the roughly 300 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division Headquarters, which will return to Fort Riley, the Army said. The 4th Infantry Divisions Sustainment Brigade will replace the 1st Infantry Divisions Sustainment Brigade, which will also return to Fort Riley.

In separate statements, leaders of each of the units set to deploy said their soldiers were properly trained and prepared to bolster NATOs efforts to deter Russian aggression.

They deploy as the war in Ukraine has lasted more than eight months, but as Russian troops have struggled to maintain their hold on areas in the countrys south and east. Russia on Wednesday announced its troops would retreat from the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson, which it captured in early March. Its the latest win for Ukrainian forces, which have recaptured much of the nations south and west since launching a counteroffensive in September.

Maj. Gen. David Hodne, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said many of the deploying troops have experience operating in Europe, where the United States has maintained the Atlantic Resolve mission since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

In addition to deploying expert soldiers, leaders and formations, the divisions previous experience in Europe will enable rapid partnering with allies in this dynamic security environment, Hodne said in a statement.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  Government officials on Okinawa complained this week to the Marine Corps about its plans to fly tilt-rotor aircraft from Naha Military Port to an air base in Ginowan city.

Three MV-22B Ospreys, bound for Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, were offloaded at the port on Monday, according to a tweet that day by the Military Base Affairs Division of Okinawa prefecture.

Naha Mayor Mikiko Shiroma, along with the base affairs division, complained that they were not told beforehand of the plan and asked the U.S. military not to fly the tilt-rotors the eight miles from the port to MCAS Futenma, Shiromas spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday. Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki added his voice Tuesday.

It will worry the local community; we dont want them to use the port in that way, Tamaki told reporters, according to the Okinawa Times on Wednesday.

Two of the three Ospreys left the port at 1 p.m. Wednesday, departing over the East China Sea, the base affairs spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone that day. Japanese government spokespeople customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity as a requirement of their jobs.

Landing or launching aircraft is not an approved use of the port, the base affairs spokesman said Tuesday. He said the division in its complaint to the Ministry of Defense cited a 1972 memo that states Naha Port is a port facility and depot for petroleum, oil and lubricants, not an air station.

The Osprey flights would alarm local citizens due to the ports proximity to a sprawling urban area and to Naha Airport, the spokesman said.

However, offloading the aircraft and flying them from the port when necessary is part of importing and exporting and the ports determined purpose, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Tuesday in a statement on the ministry website.

We asked to the U.S. side to be careful when flying the MV-22s to Futenma and fly them over the sea as much as possible, he said.

The Marines said moving the aircraft from the port was standard procedure and consistent with its primary purpose, according to a spokeswoman for the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.

All operations, to include those at Naha Military Port, are conducted in accordance with bilateral agreements to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region while meeting our treaty obligations with the nation of Japan, Capt. Tess LaBossiere said by email to Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.

The port was first used to land or launch aircraft in November 2021, the base affairs spokesman said. The prefecture protested in June when three Osprey landed there for transport off island.

Stars and Stripes reporter Frank Andrews contributed to this report.
Andorra la Vella, Andorra, September 1962: A driver maneuvers through the narrow streets in Andorra la Vella, careful not to hit the people to the right of him or the goods to the left. Nestled in the Pyrenees mountains and close to the Spanish border, the city is the capital of the small Principality of Andorra. The tax-free principality is a shopping haven for many tourists flocking from neighboring Spain and France.

Check out Stars and Stripes Europe Community site for travel articles on Andorra, https://europe.stripes.com/search/node?search-results=andorra
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile Wednesday into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to the Souths military.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff in its message to reporters said one missile was fired from South Pyongan province at 3:31 p.m. Wednesday. The Joint Chiefs estimated the missile flew 180 miles at an altitude of 19 miles.

South Koreas military maintains full preparedness as it cooperates with the United States in analyzing the missile launch, the Joint Chiefs said.

Wednesdays launch is North Koreas 31st round of missile testing so far this year. North Korea last tested four short-range missiles on Saturday, adding to the already unprecedented rate of over 65 missiles launched this year.

North Koreas missile tests are a response to the intolerable and unpardonable joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Monday. The U.S. and South Korea resumed a series of military exercises this year after a five-year pause during the tenure of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Seoul and Washington on Saturday wrapped up their six-day Vigilant Storm aerial exercise in which 240 aircraft flew about 1,600 sorties.

The latest North Korean launch comes hours after South Koreas Ministry of National Defense said it found debris from one of the 23 missiles fired by the communist regime on Nov. 2. That missile flew south of the Northern Limit Line, a de facto maritime border between North and South Korea, and landed in the Souths waters for the first time, the ministry said in a news release.

Evidence from the missile debris found in the East Sea indicates it could be a Soviet-era SA-5 missile, like the one fired in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Nov. 2 missile launch was a deliberate provocation, the Defense Ministry said in its release.

On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two men in China, Ri Sok and Yan Zhiyong, after determining they had ties to Air Koryo, North Koreas state-run airline. The sanctions freeze their assets in the U.S. and prohibit U.S. citizens from future business dealings with them.

Todays sanctions action targets two key nodes of [North Koreas] weapons programs: its increasing reliance on illicit activities, including cybercrime, to generate revenue, and its ability to procure and transport goods in support of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a news release on Tuesday.
A salute South Korean sailors rendered to the rising sun flag of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force at a fleet review touched off an exchange Monday in Seoul between the nations defense minister and an opposition lawmaker.

South Koreas navy attended the Japan International Fleet Review on Sunday in Sagami Bay near Tokyo for the first time since 2015. Eleven other countries, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and India, also sent warships to the ceremony.

Saluting the rising sun flag is equivalent to paying respects to a war criminal, said Jeon Yonngi, a Democratic Party member, during a National Assembly hearing.

The flag for some recalls Japans colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945 and its military aggression during World War II, when the Japanese Imperial Navy flew the flag. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has flown the same banner for more than 50 years, according to Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

South Korea in 2019 asked the International Olympic Committee to ban the flag at the Tokyo Olympics, suggesting that it recalls for Asians the scars and pain of World War II as the swastika does for Europeans, according to a July 23, 2021, report in the Mainchi newspaper.

Jeon at the hearing broadcast by the assembly asked National Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup whether South Korean sailors should have saluted the flag as it passed on a Japanese vessel during the fleet review.

The sailors were saluting the host country warship, in accordance with international practices, Lee replied. Thus, I would like to say it is not that the [South Korean navy] made a salute toward the rising sun flag.

Jeon pushed back.

Should we recognize something if something is internationally accepted, he asked Lee. We were humiliated under Japanese imperialism for 36 years, when Tokyo was saying it will conquer the world while hoisting this flag.

The rising sun flag dates to 1870, according to a 2019 newsletter from Japans National Institute for Defense Studies.

Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on a website dedicated to the flag as a symbol of Japanese culture, states that the flag is not an expression of political or discriminatory assertions.

Japan will continue to explain at every opportunity its view that the display of the Rising Sun Flag is not political promotion to the international community, including [South Korea], the website states.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged to work closer with Japan in light of North Koreas continued threats toward the region. Since Yoons inauguration in May, South Korean forces have conducted several joint military exercises with their Japanese counterparts, including an anti-submarine warfare drill in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in September.
In the district consisting of 15 apartment buildings under construction in the Ivanyan community of Artsakh's Askeran region, the construction of 5 more buildings has started.

November 9, 2022, 16:20 With the funding support of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, new apartment buildings being built in Ivanyan

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Ministry of Urban Development of the Republic of Artsakh informed, noting that according to the project, like the previous 15 apartment buildings, the newly built buildings will also be three-storey, each with 6 three- and four-room apartments.

The construction is carried out by "Caravan", "Eurostroy", "Grand Alliance" LLCs and "Elitstroy" CJSC with the funding support of the"Hayastan" All-Armenian Fund.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev met with top Iranian leaders in Tehran on Wednesday as the two nations pledged to deepen relations to counter pressure from the US and its allies.

Russia regards strategic cooperation with Iran as an important element of its national security, Patrushev said at talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, state-run Tass news service reported. While the Kremlin denies using Iranian equipment, it has relied increasingly on drones from Tehran as it burns through its own stockpiles of missiles in attacks on Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine and development of deeper economic ties under sanctions pressure were discussed at talks with his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani, the Interfax news service reported, citing a Security Council statement. Iran is interested to boost ties including in energy, transportation, agriculture, trade and banking, Shamkhani said, according to the state-run Nour news service.

The U.S. on Nov. 1 said it is concerned about Russia potentially acquiring surface-to-surface missiles from Iran, in addition to hundreds of Iranian drones that have been used in mass attacks targeting Ukraines cities and energy infrastructure.

Iran initially denied it sent drones to Russia, then claimed it had only supplied a limited number in the months before the war began, an assertion dismissed this week as false by Robert Malley, the US special envoy for Iran.

White House National Security Council John Kirby said last month that evidence of Iranian military assistance to Russia is clear and it is public.
The DeSantis administration is attempting to block Department of Justice election monitors from gaining access to polling places in South Florida, saying in a letter that the federal governments involvement would be counterproductive and in violation of state law.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced that it would send federal monitors to 64 jurisdictions nationwide to monitor how elections are being conducted. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties were all slated to receive federal monitors from the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division.

But Brad McVay, the chief counsel for the Florida Department of State, said in a letter issued late Monday that those monitors would not be allowed inside polling places under Florida law.

McVay said the Florida secretary of states office - which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversees - would instead send its own monitors to those three counties, which are among the most Democratic-leaning counties in Florida.

Florida statutes list the people who may enter any polling room or polling place, McVay wrote. Department of Justice personnel are not included on the list.

The Justice Department said Tuesday that it had received the DeSantis administrations letter and still has election monitors stationed outside polling locations in Florida.

Although Florida law has an exception allowing law enforcement to enter polling sites, McVay said Justice Department monitors do not qualify.

Absent some evidence concerning the need for federal intrusion, or some federal statute that preempts Florida law, the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election, McVay wrote.

None of the counties are currently subject to any election-related federal consent decrees, McVay added. None of the counties have been accused of violating the rights of language or racial minorities or of the elderly or disabled.

The Justice Department said in a news release announcing the monitoring locations that it has observed local election procedures nationwide since 1965.

Republicans have waged a sustained campaign against alleged voter fraud over the past two years, despite scant evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, and as threats against politicians, their families and election workers have spiked around the country.

Election officials in battleground states are anticipating delayed results and protracted fights once the polls close Tuesday night.

Separately, Missouri officials on Friday denied the Justice Departments request to conduct routine inspections under the Americans With Disabilities Act and Voting Rights Act at polling places on Election Day. Secretary of State John Ashcroft (R) reiterated that stance in a meeting Monday.

He told The Washington Post that the Justice Departments presence amounted to a bid to bully a local election authority and could intimidate and suppress the vote.

Ashcroft and Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer (R) told federal officials that they would not be permitted to observe polling places Tuesday. On Tuesday, Justice Department observers were stationed outside polling places in Cole County, home to the state capital, Jefferson City.

This is not the Voting Rights Act. This is the Americans With Disabilities Act. Whats next? Theyre going to want to be at elections because they want to check that insulation in the building was purchased from China in the 1970s? Give me a break, Ashcroft said in a phone interview.

He compared Justice Department officials from the U.S. attorneys office of the Western District of Missouri to jackbooted thugs and to armed individuals in Arizona who have been seen patrolling ballot drop boxes.

I think weve already had lawsuits around the country about individuals around polling places, Ashcroft said. And they were told that they had to stay away from them because they could intimidate voters. Justice Department officials last observed Missouri elections in 2016 at polling places in St. Louis.

FBI special agents serving as election crime coordinators will also be on duty in the bureaus 56 field offices to receive voting-related complaints from the public, according to the Justice Department. Employees in the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division will also operate a hotline all day on Election Day, answering calls from people who spot possible violations of federal voting rights laws.
His first request for U.S. government records was drafted on a portable typewriter in the 1970s. Then over more than four decades  and 9,000-plus letters  the archive built by a reclusive former California civil servant, 1970s disco maven and tireless document sleuth named Ernie Lazar grew to over 600,000 pages from the FBI and other agencies.

The world of Lazar's trove is full of suspicions, double-dealings and opportunists. There are references to informants and surveillance, groups on watch lists and Americans viewed as "un-American," far-right propagandists and suspected leftist "rabble rousers" in an FBI dossier.

Bit by bit, Lazar also helped shed light on some fundamental questions  essentially who was doing what to whom  including much of the 37 years of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI spanning the 1950s Cold War paranoia, the civil rights showdowns and the rise of nativist groups such as the John Birch Society.

Lazar, who died Nov. 1 at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., at 77, was not booked on shows as a historical pundit. He did not write his own manuscripts or articles. His name, if noticed at all, was tucked into acknowledgments in books such as Christopher Elias's "Gossip Men" (2021) on the "Red Scare" era and Thomas Konda's "Conspiracies of Conspiracies: How Delusions Have Overrun America" (2019).

But to a generation of authors, researchers, academics and others, Lazar was a figure of heroic proportions. Through sheer perseverance and patience, Lazar became a kind of Zen master of the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, a provision enacted in 1967 that allowed the public a centralized way to request unclassified government material.

Lazar estimated that more than 3 million people had accessed his digital archive, helping inform hundreds of works from books to doctoral theses.

He also kept journalists, scholars and others abreast of his FOIA requests and acquisitions on his simple and old-school webpages and an email distribution list, still using his AOL account from the 1990s. He occasionally wrote letters to the editor asking readers for possible leads on research, giving only a post office box address.

In recent years, he rarely ventured out into public forums, fearing he could be targeted by far-right thugs upset by his work.

"He was not at all known to the broader world," said Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, a group pressing for greater public openness by officials on military and intelligence decisions. "Within his world, though, he was a giant."

McClanahan said he liked to imagine "there's a dart board in government offices" with images of Lazar and other FOIA aficionados he inspired, such as animal rights activist and FBI researcher Ryan Shapiro.

"[Lazar] made enemies of everyone in power who is opposed to more transparency," McClanahan said. "That should be on his tombstone."

In an autobiographical sketch, Lazar said his interests in original source material began as a teenager in Hayward, Calif., after reading a comment by Hoover in a monthly FBI publication that went to his uncle, a policeman. The FBI director was quoted as rejecting a conspiracy theory by the John Birch Society, a right-wing and pro-white political group, about a supposed communist and Black alliance in the South.

The John Birch-stoked claim had been published in the local newspaper in a letter to the editor. The young Lazar wrote his own letter to the paper citing Hoover and other sources rebutting the Birchers.

After Lazar's letter was published, he said he received hostile phone calls. A John Birch supporter wrote a screed against Lazar in verse: "Is it just coincidence that Ernie's words so arty/sound just like the Communist Party?"

"And thus began my lifelong interest in right-wing conspiracy theories and their adherents," he wrote.

A large portion of Lazar's archive delves into the far right, including compiling lists of arrests and prosecutions of Proud Boys followers and other supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Lazar's documents were cited by an emeritus professor of history at the City University of New York, Ronald Radosh, for a 2020 story in the Daily Beast linking anti-feminist firebrand Phyllis Schlafly to the John Birch Society. Schlafly, who died in 2016, had denied she was a member.

In a 2009 segment of the "Rachel Maddow Show" on the John Birch Society connections to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Maddow cited a "freelance researcher named Ernie Lazar" for digging up the minutes from the first John Birch Society meeting in 1960.

"He's put together a pretty amazing archive of the group's history," she said.

Lazar released a raft of documents on FBI tracking of one of its own former special agents, Willard Cleon Skousen, a late far-right Mormon leader and conspiracy monger.

Lazar dug into Hoover FBI's obsessions with the left, too. Among the revelations was a 1967 document noting the creation of a "rabble rouser index" (later changed to an "agitator index") that included Yippies founder Jerry Rubin and Harlem-area Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D).

Lazar built a full dossier on FBI reports and surveillance of Whittaker Chambers, a disaffected communist whose testimony helped convict U.S. official Alger Hiss of perjury after he denied being a Soviet spy in the 1930s. The documents include agents describing what Chambers bought at newsstands  as it turned out, he was mostly getting copies of Time magazine, where he worked as a correspondent.

Disco years

Lazar was born Ernest Clayton Jammes on April 16, 1945, in Minneapolis. He said his biological mother gave him for adoption in Chicago when he was 3 to the Lazar family, whose daughter had been his babysitter.

Lazar studied at the California State College at Hayward (now California State University at East Bay) and received top grades but did not graduate.

During the 1970s, he drifted into the music business  as a record promoter and owner of a San Francisco store specializing in disco. He told an interviewer in 1979 that dance clubs were a "relief from the repression of the world outside."

That same year, he scored his biggest business music success by helping promote Patrick Hernandez's "Born to Be Alive," which reach the Billboard No. 1 on the disco chart. As disco faded, Lazar made a change onto the public payroll in California with jobs over 22 years that included those with the Board of Registered Nursing and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Lazar posted no photos of himself on the internet beyond thumbnail-size images that mostly hid his identity. Still, he was not shy about being in the public debate with letters to the editor.

In 1986, he railed against California's new seat belt law. He later floated the concept of "exile" for habitual criminals and favored "three-strikes" laws for harsh sentences. In a 1995 letter to the Los Angeles Times, he complained about bloated budgets and bureaucracy at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He apparently had no immediate family, and full details about survivors were not immediately available. His death was confirmed by the Coroner's Bureau of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

In September, Lazar posted an 11-point message that began with him saying he was facing "end-stage renal disease." He then went through a random run of thoughts.

He mentioned a bit about his childhood, appealed for donations to help digitize some of his archives, and made a reference to the gold record he received helping with the disco hit.

He urged everyone to vote in the midterms: "The stakes for our democracy are very high."

Point 11 ends, "Most of all, please keep up the fight to make our country live up to its ideals!"
(Tribune News Service)  At his inauguration speech as head of the Venezuelan navy, now-retired Admiral Carlos Aniasi Turchio boasted that Venezuelas armed forces were revolutionary at their core, having been born out of the will of the people to break free from the chains of The Empire  an obvious reference to the United States.

But his sworn antagonism toward the United States did not keep him from retiring in Florida. The admiral, a trusted ally who played different roles in the government of Hugo Chavez, Venezuelas late president, settled down in a spacious $620,000 Kissimmee home, and opened a couple of Florida companies, one of them holding $1.5 million in commercial property.

Aniasi is among a large number of Venezuelan government officials and members of the military who after helping build the so-called Bolivarian Revolution ended up moving, investing or opening businesses in Florida, a stronghold of Venezuelan exiles forced to leave the South American country to escape the persecution and dire economic conditions brought about by the regime.

Data obtained by the Venezuelan investigative site Armando.info and the Miami Herald show there are at least 232 members of the Venezuelan military or members of the countrys Defense Ministry who have opened companies in Florida. There are also more than 700 companies whose owners or directors are  or were at some point  mid-level or high ranking officials in the Caracas socialist regime.

Armando.info and the Miami Herald went through more than 128,000 records of public office appointments and removals made in Venezuela dating back to 2007 and cross-checked them with the names appearing as officers or directors in companies registered with the Florida Division of Corporations.

The examination of the data, which covers about half of the Hugo Chavez period and most of the years of his successor, current strongman Nicolas Maduro, revealed the names of 724 regime officials that also appear in the Florida company registry. The examination of a small sample of the names showed matching dates of births between Venezuelan government officials and Florida company directors in about two-thirds of the cases, with the rest deemed inconclusive for lack of information.

More than 480,000 Venezuelans are believed to be living in the United States (about 200,000 of them in Florida), the vast majority of them leaving the South American country after Chavez came to power in 1998 and sought to install a Cuban-styled socialist revolution in the formerly oil-rich country. Those displaying sympathy toward the United States were forced to leave public office and the military during the early years of the Chavez government. By 2007, the first year included in the examination, officials were often required to publicly express loyalty toward the Bolivarian Revolution or hostility towards the United States.

Yet, the animosity towards the United States was superficial for hundreds of regime officials, even among those rewarded with high-ranking positions.

That appears to be the case of Maj. Gen. Jimmy Lenin Guzman Pinto. After administering a number of state-run companies for the regime, including the insurance company Seguros Horizonte, he landed in Florida and in 2019 registered a Fort Myers firm called Latam Risk Consulting 2107 LLC.

As with most of the former regime officials consulted for this article, Guzman Pinto does not deny that anti-American sentiment runs deep within the regime, with both Chavez and Maduro frequently describing the United States as a natural enemy to Venezuela. He said he did not share those views, claiming that he tried to stay away from that type of politics.

If I were anti-American, I would not be here, he said. Guzman Pinto added he already had ties with the United States, adding that one of his sons is an American citizen. Yet, he acknowledged that migrating to the United States was never in his plans.

I had no plans of leaving the country, but suddenly I found my self in a situation were I had to leave intermediately, and I did so without thinking twice, he said.

The situation was that he was informed he was about to be arrested. Guzman Pinto says he does not know exactly why the regime turned against him.

Dozens of military officers and hundreds of political dissidents have been arrested and many of them tortured in Venezuela under the regime, with Maduro himself facing charges of human rights violations at the International Criminal Court.

Among the records gathered during the investigation by the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and Armando.info were those of a company belonging to architect Lucas Pou, who headed the Presidential Office of Plans and Special Projects between 2010 and 2012. He was hired by his friend and partner, former Culture Minister Francisco Sesto, to design a number of public buildings in Venezuela, which included the Liberators Mausoleum.

In 2015, Pou opened Miami-based IMA Fleet LLC, which was dissolved three years later, around the time he was being investigated by the opposition-controlled National Assembly over the alleged misappropriation of $1.5 billion destined for the construction of six hospitals that were never built.

According to the investigation by the Venezuelan National Assembly, the architect profited from the contracts awarded by the Ministry of Health for the construction of hospitals, which would have represented an excessively large benefits for Lucas Pou, taking into account that he had never been hired before by any state institution.

In a telephone interview, Pou said that he was cleared in Venezuela of any wrongdoing and that his innocence was also confirmed in an investigation made on the case by Transparencia Venezuela, the local unit of the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. He said that while he was initially hired to develop some of the projects, he played no role in the allocations of funds. We did the work and that was it, he said.

The Transparencia Venezuela report does in fact omit Pous name in its lists of potential culprits.

The former government official said he also did not feel any animosity toward the United States.

I often visited the United States without problems. My great grandfather, my grandfather and my father were all Americans, from Puerto Rico, from Ponce, and for me the United States is not a country that I feel to be an enemy, nor do I feel any hostility towards me, Pou said.

In some instances, the road traveled by Venezuelans went the other way. Such was the case of Samir Adel Al Attrach, who in 2017 closed his Orlando-based company Mr Caucho Corp., before he was appointed chief of Venezuelas diplomatic mission to the United Arab Emirates. The corporate records do not identify what the company does, but its name suggests it might have had something to do with automotive parts. In Venezuela, caucho is the term normally used for car tires.

The company was created online in 2015 and later, one or two years later, was closed, Al Attrach said in an email, although he did not disclose the purpose of the firm.

In other cases, the links to Florida involve former officials who started new companies in the Venezuelan private sector that have had business dealings in Florida after becoming regular suppliers to the Venezuelan government.

Among these officials is Carlos Luis Michel Fumero, the former customs administrator at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, outside Caracas, who now runs a custom brokerage firm Aducarga, which has offices in Miami and the Venezuelan city of Valencia.

Michel was originally appointed to public office by the superintendent of the National Integrated Customs and Tax Administration Service (Seniat), Jose David Cabello, and had previously benefited from his ties with Cabellos brother, Diosdado Cabello, who is often referred to as the second most powerful man in Venezuela.

While serving as governor of Miranda state, Diosdado Cabello awarded contracts to one of Michels construction companies, Camik. Efforts to reach Michel were not successful and he didnt respond to messages left for him at Aducarga.

The presence of hated Venezuelan officials in Florida is a source of bewilderment for some members of the exile community, who wonder how they were allowed to come into the United States.

A State Department official consulted for this article said that all visa applications are evaluated on a case-by-case basis but warned that some Venezuelans may be subject to restrictions on entry based on their role in undermining democracy in Venezuela and supporting the Maduro government.

It is currently difficult for high-ranking Venezuelan officials to reach the United States, in light of Presidential Proclamation 9931, which suspends entry as immigrants and non-immigrants to senior members of the Maduro regime and other persons that formulate, implement, or benefit from policies or actions that undermine Venezuelas democratic institutions or impede the restoration of constitutional government to Venezuela, as well as the immediate family members of such persons.

But a large number of former regime members managed to reach the United States before Donald Trump, while president, issued the proclamation on Sept. 25, 2019.

Tobias Roche, a former federal agent with a long history of combating Latin American corruption practices, believes that the influx of Venezuelan regime officials into the United States poses special challenges given the ill-gotten fortunes that at times they bring with them.

Money laundering is not a new phenomenon in South Florida. It dates back to the 70s and 80s, said Roche, who for 30 years worked with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service.

But now the risk is intertwined among the many Venezuelans arriving, the vast majority of whom are good and hard-working people, but among whom are a hidden few that come from the Chavista regime and who are establishing themselves here as respectable people.  There are people under the radar that have come here and are actually working for the government of Venezuela, he said.

While most former officials planting new roots in Florida have been able to remain under the radar, there are a few that have been discovered by members of the exile community, exposed through social media and subjected to public scorn.

Exiles protested in front of houses or businesses of former Public Banking Minister Eugenio Vasquez Orellana, a close ally to former Apure state Gov. Ramon Carrizalez; of former Congresswoman Iroshima Bravo, who is linked to powerful regime member Diosdado Cabello, and of Admiral Aniasi Turchio.

The reaction against Iroshima Bravo proved devastating for a new business that was opening its doors in Doral. While her name was never linked to Pure Med Spa de Doral, her presence at the grand opening party prompted a public uproar in the Venezuelan community that forced the company to close before it could actually open.

Bravo is believed to be in Venezuela and could not be reached to comment.

U.S. officials have been keeping a close eye on rich Venezuelan businessmen in recent years and have opened cases against some of them after finding out they have used the American banking system to launder ill-gotten funds. These include Venezuelan billionaires such as former national Treasurer Alejandro Andrade and close Maduro ally Raul Gorrin, who is charged in the United States with paying Andrade $1 billion in exchange for access to the highly profitable, government-controlled foreign exchange scheme.

Before he fled back to Venezuela, Gorrin lived at a mansion in Coral Gables and had more than a dozen properties in South Florida registered under different company names.

The presence of Admiral Aniasi Turchio near Orlando is another case that continues to surprise some, given the prominent role he played in Venezuela and accusations of corruption and alleged narco-trafficking associated with him.

In a highly publicized statement, Venezuelan drug trafficker Wallid Makled said in an interview that he paid millions to the admiral in exchange for being allowed to operate freely out of the Puerto Cabello port.

In 2005, 2006, he served as head of Puerto Cabello, president of the port. He granted me a five-year concession, for which I had to pay five and a half million dollars for that concession, Makled said in a 2010 Univision interview from Colombian jail while he was waiting extradition to Venezuela.

Reached by phone, Aniasi Turchio, who has not been criminally charged, categorically denied that he took any money from Makled and said that the drug kingpin comments have been taken out of content from the beginning. What he [Makled] said was that getting the license to operate in the port cost him that amount of dollars. He never said: I gave that money to that person. 

The fact that he was granted permission to come into the United States is proof of his innocence, he said. I would hardly been accepted in the process had I been involved in drug trafficking, he added.

The admiral noted that despite his long involvement with the Venezuelan regime, he felt no animosity toward the United States. His reason for migrating to Florida was that his family was already here and he wanted to be close to his children.

Records show that Aniasi Turchio owns a 3,500-square-foot house near Orlando that real estate company Zillow values at more than $620,000. In addition, he has two other companies under his name: Solcar Investors LLC and Carsol Investments Corp., while his son owns a company called Robcar LLC.

The firm Carsol Investments Corp. appears as the owner of a commercial warehouse whose infrastructure is valued at $1.5 million in Kissimmee, according to the Osceola County Property Registry.

His self-portrayal as a regular business owner in Central Florida clashes with his past as a guardian of the Chavista movement, and even more so with his own words.

The response that the noble Venezuelan people have given to this [the Empires colonialist ambitions] is the socialist revolution, Aniasi Turchio, wearing a white uniform, said in 2009 during his inauguration ceremony as head of the navy.

McClatchy reporter Michael Wilner and Miami Herald investigative reporter Nick Nehamas contributed to this story.

2022 Miami Herald.

Visit miamiherald.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
KYIV, Ukraine  On the last day of February, four days after the start of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, former U.S. Army Ranger Patrick Creed walked up to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and knocked on the door.

He said he felt nervous and stupid and didnt quite know what to say, but when a woman behind bulletproof glass asked what he wanted, Creed responded, Im here to volunteer for the army.

A Ukrainian colonel at the time warned the five other Americans filling out paperwork at the embassy with Creed enlisting them in a new international legion for foreign fighters that they were signing up for something they had never experienced in the U.S. military, the former major remembered.

Youre not going to fight in an American war, the colonel told them. The Russians have control of the air, we dont. The Russians have 10 times as much artillery.

You will get hit with Russian rocket artillery, the colonel emphasized.

Creed, 54, was unfazed.

I didnt join the Army for the dental benefits, he said. I like the zing.

For two months in the spring, Creed found that rush on battlefields around the Black Sea, where he mainly fought in a "static trench warfare kind of situation."

Today, Creed said he finds it in the remains of a half-constructed, Soviet-era sanatorium in a village outside Ukraines capital city Kyiv, where he trains Ukrainian soldiers for urban combat.

Nine members of the Territorial Defense Forces, Ukraines equivalent of a local militia, milled around the abandoned property on a recent November afternoon. They ran up and down cement stairs with no railings, broken glass crunching under their feet, as they practiced clearing rooms, securing areas and throwing grenades.

On breaks, trainees share the outdoors with a flock of geese and a tabby nicknamed Combat Cat. Sometimes the neighbors goats get to their lunch before they do.

Creed and Fred, a former Marine Corps sergeant who declined to provide his last name, have been teaching this group  almost all of them related through blood or marriage  for a couple weeks.

Their efforts are part of a broader crash-course training program created by the Mozart Group, a U.S. veteran-led private security company founded in March by retired Marine Col. Andrew Milburn. Named as a dig at the Russian mercenary organization the Wagner Group, the Mozart Group also performs evacuations at the front lines and has grown its staff to nearly 30 personnel of highly experienced trainers made up of mostly former American service members.

We give them what we can as fast as we can, but they really need six months, Fred, 44, said of the training. Theres only so much you can do, and thats the real struggle.

The last four units that he taught went to the front lines just three days later. The Territorial Defense Forces are meant to guard checkpoints and provide other local security, but a June law made it possible for them to be sent into battle, said Erik, director of training for the Mozart Group and a 54-year-old retired Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel.

These [Ukrainian trainees] are the guys who were pharmacists yesterday, he said, also declining to provide his last name for security reasons. This is the most underfunded, under-resourced and undertrained organization.

This particular group of trainees might have had a more close-up view of the war than many in Ukraine. They reside about 5 miles from Irpin and Bucha, towns that have become synonymous with Russian atrocities committed in the early days of the invasion.

Andrey Kashlakov, 25, said he evacuated more than 1,000 people, including about 20 Ukraine National Guard soldiers and hundreds who were injured, from neighboring towns as Russian forces advanced on Kyiv in March. Blood pooled in the bus that he once used to transport construction supplies, he said.

Later, Kashlakov drove out to villages up to 90 miles away and delivered bread and other food to grateful grandmothers. He said he was running on adrenaline and never scared, finding some security from the gun he carried and a stint five years ago in the Ukrainian army.

He had kept all his military-issued clothes and equipment knowing that a larger war was coming. Today, he patrols his home village Horenka for marauders but waits for something worse.

Maybe the Belarusians will attack so its best to be prepared, Kashlakov said, pointing to a renewed military buildup in Ukraines northern neighbor. He happily volunteered to throw a blue training grenade when Fred offered the opportunity.

The Ukrainian trainees reveled in the loud bang of the dummy weapons.

They went boom! they said, laughing.

Creed said instructors try to keep the mood light and do their best to instill confidence. Some of the soldiers trained by the Mozart Group have been killed fighting the Russians, and the burden is heavy, he said.

We want to leave them feeling not like Superman but maybe like Batman or Robin, said Erik, who teaches military decision-making procedures.

At a National Guard military base 15 miles away, two American veterans instructed soldiers on how to move as a team and react to gunfire as they inched toward a low-slung building painted in camouflage. The sound of soldiers shooting rocket-propelled grenades echoed in the background.

Every morning at the training site begins with basic weapons handling and medical drills so the act of reloading a gun or using a tourniquet becomes muscle memory, said Chris, a 27-year-old former Army specialist from Ohio who served as a medic and arrived in Ukraine a month ago.

I feel like its making a difference, he said, declining to provide his last name. Every day these guys show up theyre motivated to learn, and every day you see some semblance of improvement from previous days.

Ukraines National Guard is operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the Ministry of Defense, and as a result receives a fraction of the Western support that flows to the regular army, Erik said.

The Mozart Group has trained every branch of Ukraines armed forces, but its strongest relationship is with the guard members, especially the National Guards 1st Presidential Brigade, he said. A Russian missile hit the units headquarters within the first 24 hours of the February invasion, killing a staff duty officer, Erik said.

A crew continued working on repairs to the buildings damaged cafeteria in early November.

Soldiers here are taught by U.S. veterans and Ukrainian instructors who interpret and adjust American tactics to fit a Ukrainian fighting force that is still shedding its Soviet past.

A 27-year-old Ukrainian soldier and instructor who goes by the call sign Legion said his country is waging war on the battlefield and within its own ranks, constantly hunting for saboteurs and informants for Russia. The communication methods championed by the American veterans are not very employable when there are enemies within the ranks, he said.

You cut off one head and two more grow in its place, Legion said.

Other incongruities also crop up, including some techniques that seem geared for younger and more experienced soldiers, and most guard members and Territorial Defense soldiers are neither, he said. Americans are also offering input on a type of war that they have not fought in many years, he said.

Fighting against terrorists is easier than fighting against those lobbing artillery, Legion said. Americans have never encountered an enemy willing to level towns and forests. This opponent is different  he will use civilians and civilian infrastructure to fight.

The nature of this conflict, one that is reminiscent of World War II, has been one of the main draws for American veterans working in Ukraine.

I think for a lot of us, its kind of like the good war weve been waiting for, said Roman, a 46-year-old former Army infantry captain who declined to provide his last name. Afghanistan and Iraq were a lot more ambiguous  whether we shouldve been there, or as long as we were, and we were always living among people we were not sure wanted us there. This is very morally unambiguous. I wouldnt say its good versus evil, but its normal people with all their problems and complexities against evil.

Roman deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division before moving 10 years ago from his native New York to Ukraine, the birthplace of his parents. He was in the process of returning to the U.S. when war broke out and briefly thought of staying to fight.

A desire to stay out of danger for the sake of his wife and two young children ultimately kept Roman out of the fight. After settling them in the U.S., Roman joined the Mozart Group last month and is now teaching planning, patrolling and command and control.

This training opportunity was about the right size for me, he said, looking around at the dozens of guard members performing exercises in front of him. Even though you dont get the immediate satisfaction that you might from doing an operation on the front, you are influencing a lot of people.

Creed also wrestled with the pull of the battlefield. He left Ukraine in late May and spent the summer at his home just outside Philadelphia fighting the urge to go back. A fellow American volunteer he knew  Marine Corps veteran Willy Joseph Cancel  was killed in southern Ukraine, and another  retired Marine and Iraq War veteran Grady Kurpasi  went missing. His survivors guilt was strong.

You want to go back and keep fighting, Creed said. After three weeks in Ukraine, I have and will probably always have such a deep and visceral hate for the Russians.

In a compromise with his family, Creed agreed to return to Ukraine as a trainer in September.

It doesnt have the thrill of combat, but he finds fulfillment in it for other reasons: the fun of swapping dark military jokes with Fred and other vets as they ride in a van, and the novelty of teaching in a strange, graffitied building with unfinished windows and Ukrainian school books strewn on the floor.

I like working with soldiers who are enthusiastic like this, even though I dont speak the language, Creed said.

Alla Golumbiivska, 28, followed Creed as he showed Territorial Defense members how to carefully move up a stairwell and cover each other as they cleared floors of the building.

Nyet, Creed told her in Russian when she forgot to conceal herself at the cutout of a window.

Golumbiivska worked as a dog groomer before dressing in fatigues and carrying an Airsoft rifle. She fled to Poland with her 8-year-old daughter in early March, leaving behind her husband, the commander of a local defense unit, to patrol their village.

Ten homes were destroyed on their street, Golumbiivska said, but the town of Horenka was spared the worst of Russias spring offensive in the north as invading forces sought to capture Kyiv.

She returned to Ukraine after six months, fearless and with a hunger to learn how to protect her loved ones.

I dont want war, I dont want to fight but I want to defend my home, my land, my child and my husband, she said. I want to be ready.

Training with the Mozart Group has become a family affair, and Golumbiivska was joined on recent sessions by extended relatives, including Kashlakovs father and mother.

Whenever there are tough moments in life, we come together, Golumbiivska said.

Kashlakov said it can be difficult, and weird, to learn alongside his elderly parents but they have the will, and thats important.

Fred, one of the U.S. trainers, peered out at the odd group as another day of training got underway recently and asked what they wanted to learn.

Do you have specific things that you want to be trained on today, related to any topics? he asked. Shooting and fighting around vehicles? Procedures for using grenades? How to secure a building? Anything at all?

All of them, the trainees replied. All the topics you mentioned are interesting for us.
By Trend

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu congratulated the Azerbaijani people on November 9 - the State Flag Day, Trend reports, referring to the minister's tweet.

"Once raised, the flag will never fall again! May the glorious flag of Azerbaijan fly forever! Happy State Flag Day, Azerbaijan!" the tweet said.
Russia promotes comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing, news.am informs.

November 9, 2022, 17:45 MFA says Russia promotes comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: "Today it is two years since the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia adopted a statement on the complete cessation of fire and all military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. This step put an end to the bloodshed and launched the process of establishing a peaceful life in the region," she said.

Zakharova noted that Russian peacekeepers deployed in accordance with the statement of November 9, 2020 are effectively carrying out their tasks, making a significant contribution to stabilizing the situation and ensuring security in the region.

"The leaders' bilateral agreements fixed in their statements dated November 9, 2020, on January 11 and November 26, 2021 as well as on October 31, 2022 have laid the basis for the launch of the process of comprehensive normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia."

According to her, the trilateral working group, co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Ministers has done a lot of work on the track of unblocking of transport communications in the South Caucasus.

"Russia promotes a comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. We are leading the way towards the speedy implementation of concrete projects to unlock the economic and transport potential of the South Caucasus. In accordance with the leaders' statement dated November 26, 2021, a bilateral commission on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border with its subsequent demarcation with advisory assistance from Russia was established and started its work," the diplomat noted, adding that the activity of this mechanism is critical in terms of stabilizing the situation in the region.
Judge Comerford said that Mr Cheung was cowardly for lying, saying that he was going to Dublin instead of Singapore

A judge has described a father who abandoned his two school-going children to travel to Singapore to a woman he met online as callous and cowardly.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford said that Cho Simon Cheung (51) abandoning his children in October 2016 was a calculated criminal act.

Mr Cheung abandoned his daughter, Ciara then aged 11, and his 15-year-old son nine years after the childrens mother had left the family home in Shannon to go back to Hong Kong.

Judge Comerford said Mr Cheungs offence is an egregious example of callousness and cowardice on behalf of the accused.

Judge Comerford said that Mr Cheung was cowardly for lying, saying that he was going to Dublin instead of Singapore and callous because he knew that the children's mother hadn't been in their lives since daughter, Ciara, was two.

Judge Comerford said: Mr Cheung knows his children are about to lose the presence of granny who has been there for years. He picks that time to head off without explanation. It was a calculated act of abandonment and calculated to cause harm.

Judge Comerford said that Mr Cheung deserved to go to jail for 22 months but said that he would suspend the prison term in full.

Mr Cheung has two children with his new wife and Judge Comerford said that he wasn't sure if it is right to impose the same harm that was brought on the victims in this case to impose that on two more children.

Judge Comerford said that to send first time offender, Mr Cheung to prison now would do more harm than good in terms of the impact it would have on Mr Cheungs two younger children and the interests of society would not be best served by an immediate custodial sentence.

Cho Cheung at Ennis Court.

Judge Comerford also fined Mr Cheung 1,000 which he acknowledged was a tiny amount in comparison to the harm Mr Cheung did but the judge said that he had to take into account Mr Cheungs financial circumstances.

Judge Comerford said that his heart went out to the two children in the case.

Mr Cheung formerly of Lios Rua, Ballycasey, Shannon but now living in Longford had pleaded guilty to two counts of wilfully abandoning his two children in a manner to cause un-necessary suffering under Section 246 of the Childrens Act.

The family lived at Lios Rua, Ballycasey in Shannon and Ciara is now aged 17 and is going to college.

In her victim impact statement, Ciara told the court her heart shattered in October 2016 when she learned that her father lied when he said he was going to Dublin when he instead left the country for a woman you only met months ago.

She said: I am 17 now and you have been gone for six years. Living without two parents has been beyond difficult.

Ciara said that after her father left, I would come into school with red eyes crying so much.

She said that her two biological parents leaving the family home made her feel worthless.

She said: If it wasn't bad that one parent left, two gone made my life fall apart into millions of pieces that I was thought was impossible to fix.

Ciara said that slowly her mental health has gotten better.

Addressing her father, Ciara said: I blamed myself for six years for your doing. I was never worthless. It was never my fault. It was your fault for thinking only of yourself and nobody else - not even your family that I thought you cared about.

Det Sgt Kevin OHagan of Shannon Garda Station said that Cho Cheung worked as a chef at different Chinese restaurants around Ireland after arriving here in 1994.

Det OHagan said that after Mr Cheungs now former wife and the childrens mother left the home in 2007 to return to Hong Kong, Mr Cheungs mother arrived in Ireland to help raise the children.

Det OHagan said that by Autumn 2016, Mr Cheungs mother had decided to return home to Hong Kong as she was in her mid-70s and returned in November 2016 shortly after Mr Cheung had gone to Singapore.

Ciara and her brother were brought into family foster care of Mr Cheungs sister who also lives in Shannon.

The woman Mr Cheung met online had come to Ireland earlier in 2016 to further the relationship with him but there had been conflict between her and Mr Cheungs mother in the home in Shannon and she returned to Singapore.

Mr Cheung left for Singapore in October 2016 as his new partner was having their first child.

Det OHagan said: Mr Cheung did have responsibility for the child in Singapore. That is accepted, but I don't think you can flick a coin, Judge."

Counsel for Mr Cheung, Rebecca Treacy BL said that she is instructed to apologise to his two children.

She said: He is extremely ashamed and embarrassed by his actions and hopes that someday it might be possible to mend the relationship he had with his family. He accepts full responsibility for his actions.

Ms Treacy added that there is absolutely no excuse for shirking responsibility in relation to his children.

Ms Treacy said that it was not a case that Mr Cheung left in the middle of the night and left children unsupervised.

She said that he was under the mistaken belief that there were structures in place.

Det OHagan said that Mr Cheung was arrested at Dublin airport after he returned to Ireland in November 2020 for work when he was subsequently charged and remanded on bail.

Judge Comerford lifted all previous reporting restrictions in the case and counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly BL said that Ciara Cheung was fine with being named.
Zachary McLoughlin (22) pleaded guilty to one count of assault at the Cookstown LUAS stop

A judge has suggested a young man take out a loan in order to offer a appropriate financial token of remorse to a LUAS ticket inspector he assaulted.

Judge Elma Sheahan made the comment at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday while adjourning the case of Zachary McLoughlin (22), who had pleaded guilty to one count of assault at the Cookstown LUAS stop on June 26, 2021.

As McLoughlin of Carrigmore Close, Citywest, Saggart made repayments to the loan, Judge Sheahan said this would serve to remind him of the harm caused to the victim.

She said the facts of the case were troubling as the victim had been going about his business earning a wage when he had to deal with criminal behaviour.

Judge Sheahan adjourned the sentencing hearing to May 10, 2023 when the case will be finalised.

Garda Derek Carmeady told David Staunton BL, prosecuting, that on the day in question, the victim, who works as a LUAS ticket inspector, was on a service running near the Kingswood LUAS stop with two colleagues.

Four men got on the tram and one of them, McLoughlin, was not wearing a mask. He became abusive towards the ticket inspector when he told him that he did not have a valid ticket.

McLoughlin continued to use foul language when the ticket inspector told him he would receive a fine.

The accused was told that he would have to get off the tram at the next stop, but said he was getting off anyway.

At the Cookstown stop, the victim moved towards the doors of the tram to tell the accused to get off the vehicle.

McLoughlin said, You can't do f***ing anything aynway. He then attempted to headbutt the victim.

The accused left the tram and the victim followed as McLoughlin continued to shout abuse.

The victim then felt a blow to the left side of his face, and noticed blood on his cheek. He was taken to hospital and required nine stitches to his face. Photos and a medical report were handed into the court, which showed the victim has been left with scarring on his face.

LUAS staff flagged down a garda patrol in the area. McLoughlin was in the vicinity of the LUAS stop and was initially arrested on a public order charge as he appeared to be intoxicated.

McLoughlin later attended voluntarily for interview with gardai and made admissions.

A victim impact statement was handed into the court, but not read aloud. Mr Staunton said the victim had lost 1,800 due to being out of work for a period of time.

Gda Carmeady agreed with Donal James Pattison BL, defending, that his client had showed remorse and been courteous in his dealings with gardai.

Mr Pattison said his client had been the victim of a nasty prank at a party he was attending the night before the incident. He continued drinking the next morning and was travelling home on the LUAS.

McLoughlin has no previous convictions and has not come to garda attention since this incident.

Mr Pattison said the red mist descended on his client on the day in question and he had shown nothing but regret and remorse throughout the court process.

His client had been very young at the time of the incident and his parents were in court to support him, Mr Pattison added.

McLoughlin is working and in education. Several references were handed into the court on behalf of McLoughlin, including that he had won a young person of the year award.

Mr Pattison said his client had also brought 3,200 to court as a token of his remorse.

The court heard the victim was willing to accept this token of remorse.

Judge Sheahan noted that McLoughlin had attempted to headbutt the victim prior to the assault. She said the victim suffered from headaches and mental health issues since the incident.

She noted mitigating factors include McLoughlin's age, his early guilty plea and the level of co-operation.

Adjourning the case for six months, Judge Sheahan said the court considered the amount of 10,000 to be a more appropriate token of remorse. She said 3,200 should be paid over immediately with the balance to be paid within the next six months.

Judge Sheahan also ordered McLoughlin to participate in a restorative justice programme and the completion of a probation report.
This man is a huge bully but like all bullies at the end of the day hes a coward.

An environmental campaigner left with life-long injuries following a premeditated assault by his neighbour in Monaghan 10 years ago, has spoken out after his attacker was jailed for three years.

Millionaire businessman Eugene Hanratty Snr (63) of Castleblayney Road, Crossmaglen, Armagh was convicted by a jury of assault causing harm of Martin McAllister at Castleblayney, Co Monaghan on November 24, 2012 following a trial last month.

As a result of the attack during which he was punched and kicked repeatedly, the victim suffered multiple broken bones in his face. Both his eye sockets were broken and he has been left with a permanent loss of his peripheral vision.

He has been treated numerous times but without success and the loss of his peripheral vision impinges on my everyday life, the court heard.

Hanratty (63), from Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh, was once accused of cross-border fuel smuggling and had 2m in 12 bank accounts frozen by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

He always denied the claims made by CAB. However, when the case came to court in 2007 the judge was told a settlement had been reached between the Bureau and Mr Hanratty  a settlement that it was agreed would remain confidential.

Eugene Hanratty Snr was convicted of assault 10 years after the incident took place

Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin after the sentence Mr McAllister said he is relieved its all over

He said he believed the attack happened because he had stood against the dumping of diesel sludge.

South Armagh in particular and the Monaghan Louth border, its been a scourge there. This runs into the rivers, runs into the lake at home, and I was not happy about so I spoke out about it. Be in no doubt about it, thats the reason.

I would also be a very overt supporter of the guards and the PSNI.

Mr McAllister also spoke about his attacker, calling him a huge bully and a coward.

"I may have suffered physical injuries, my wife suffered terribly from watching it. My wife has worked in the casualty for 35 years and theres nothing she hasnt seen.

Theres a fear factor, theres an omerta where I live and you will not get people to comment openly. People are still afraid, he said.

The significance is that you can no longer get away with intimidating people, with bullying people. This man is a huge bully but like all bullies at the end of the day hes a coward.

What he done on me was very easily done. He blocked me on my own lane, I dont know what I was hit with on the side of my head.

I still have a difficulty in my left eye, that type of freezing feeling when you come out of the dentist. I have a titanium implant which helps it a bit. Ill move on. I have never rolled over for somebody in my life, he added.

In court, Detective Garda Paul Everard told Garrett McCormack BL, prosecuting, that on the Saturday afternoon of the attack, Martin McAllister and his wife were driving at 4.20pm in Castleblayney on their way to Crossmaglen when a vehicle approached with its full headlights on.

Mr McAllister told the trial that he felt his path was blocked by the other vehicle and he couldnt drive past it. He then recognised the occupants of the car as being father and son, Eugene Hanratty Snr and his son Eugene Jnr.

The defendant got out of his car and began an assault on Mr McAllister in his vehicle, the trial heard.

The victim said that Hanratty punched him a number of times in the head, pulled him down by the hair and kicked him before the defendant dragged him out of the vehicle.

Mr McAlister told the trial that the assault continued outside the car, with Hanratty continually kicking him while he was on the ground. His right arm was stamped on and he went in and out of consciousness.

He testified that Hanratty Snr was aware he was a musician so he felt the stamping on his arm was significant in this regard.

Martin McAllister

Det Gda Everard said that the victim's wife Mary McAllister told the jury that it was a sustained attack while her husband was both inside the car and out of the car.

She described asking Hanratty Snr to stop because she was concerned if the assault continued the injuries would be fatal for her husband. The trial heard that Hanratty Jnr also asked his father to stop attacking the man.

Sentencing today, Judge Melanie Greally said that the jury rejected Hanratty's defence of justified use of force which maintained that the violence arose as a result of a physical altercation following a dispute in relation to duck shooting rights on local lands.

She said the court was sentencing Hanratty on the basis of no information of any long standing history between the parties and treating the assault as unprovoked and pre-meditated.

She said the aggravating factors included this clear pre-meditation, the severity and brutality of the violence, the fact that most of the blows, including kicks, were directed at the victim's head and face and the fact that Hanratty stamped on the victim's arm knowing the victim is a musician.

She said she also took into consideration the adverse effects of the assault on the quality of life of the victim and his family and the fact that the assault was carried out in front of the man's wife.

She set a headline sentence of five years, which is the maximum penalty for the offence.

Judge Greally then noted as mitigating factors Hanratty's lack of any recent convictions and the fact that this type of extreme violence was entirely out of character. She noted his otherwise good character and his positive contributions to his family and his community and said he was a hard working hands on farmer.

Fuel waste from containers in Armagh

Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, had earlier submitted that his client was a pillar of the community who contributed to local community activities including the church and the GAA. He said while his client does not accept fully the jury verdict, he does accept he did act and used excessive violence on the day.

Judge Greally said there was no tangible expressions of remorse from the defendant, not even a suggestion of an apology for the injuries he has caused. But she said she accepted that his imprisonment would have a severe impact on his family and would be a source of shame and humiliation for him and his family.

She also noted that a prison sentence for someone of his age and standing is particularly difficult and noted his mental health difficulties as set out in a psychological report.

Taking all these mitigating factors into consideration, she set a sentence of four years and suspended the final year on condition that he have no contact with Mr McAllister or his family for the next decade.

The conviction last month came after the third trial in the case. The first trial resulted in a disagreement and the jury couldnt reach a verdict, the second trial collapsed after the jury was discharged. Last October the jury unanimously convicted Hanratty Snr following one-hour deliberations.

Hanratty Snr has two previous convictions; one for assault of a garda in 1989 and one for criminal damage in 1997, the court heard. He has not come to garda attention since the 2012 assault.

In October 2016 another jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court acquitted Eugene Hanratty Junior (41), Dundalk Road, Crossmaglen, Armagh of assaulting Mr McAllister causing him harm. It was the States case that he had not taken part in the physical beating but he was charged on the basis of joint enterprise.
Jason Paget (35) went on the crime spree to pay for his drug addiction and told the injured garda: I hope it's mangled

A sex offender who burgled Conor McGregor's pub and months later broke a garda's arm after a high-speed chase has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Jason Paget (35) went on the crime spree last year to pay for his drug addiction and told the injured garda in hospital: "I hope it's mangled".

The garda still doesn't have the full use of his arm which has had "very significant knock-on effect" on his personal and professional life.

Paget, from John Field Road in Dublin 8, appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today for sentencing.

Evidence was previously heard that on August 12, 2021, gardai were on patrol in Drimnagh when they saw a car parked outside the Marble Arch pub with its lights on and ignition running.

The pub was bought by UFC fighter Conor McGregor last year as part of his expanding business portfolio.

Gda Brendan D'Arcy said that the pub's alarm was ringing and that the shutter had been forced open while gardai also heard noises coming from inside the premises.

Two men were then spotted trying to push a cash register underneath the pub door but retreated when they saw gardai.

Gda Sean McGee said that Jason Paget was arrested near the scene 30 minutes later and had 225 in his pocket which he was unable to account for.

He was highly intoxicated, unsteady on his feet and had a cut to his head.

DNA evidence from a beany hat recovered near the scene also matched the accused.

Paget was charged with burglary and the unauthorised use of a car without the owner's permission, and later pleaded guilty.

While on bail for the pub raid, he was involved in the theft of a delivery driver's car on the South Circular Road on December 18 with two others.

Gda Eoin Hickey said the car was later observed travelling erratically in the south-inner city which included being driven on the wrong side of the road, around roundabouts the wrong way, and at times on two tyres while taking corners at speed.

The car later crashed and when gardai attempted to arrest Jason Paget he resisted and, during a struggle, a garda suffered a fractured arm and was hospitalised.

Paget, who was wearing a facemask and latex gloves upon arrest, was taken to a garda station before being brought to St James' Hospital.

The court heard that he and the injured garda were in the same hospital and when Paget saw the garda in a sling he shouted at him: "I hope it's f*****g broke, I hope it's sore, I hope it's mangled".

He also roared at a nurse "get this c*** away from my bed" and was screaming "f*** off".

Paget admitted to dangerous driving, unauthorised taking of a vehicle, and assaulting the garda.

In mitigation defence counsel Karl Monaghan BL said at the time Jason Paget was addicted to crack cocaine and heroin.

He said his client became involved in the offending to pay for his drug use and that he was now focused on returning to his family in the UK.

The court heard Paget has 15 previous convictions including aggravated burglary and aggravated sexual assault.

In sentencing today Judge Orla Crowe said the aggravating factors were his previous convictions and the fact that he was on bail at the time of the dangerous driving incident.

She also noted that a probation report said Paget was at a high-risk of reoffending in the next 12 months, and took into account his guilty pleas in mitigation,

Judge Crowe also acknowledged that Paget's barrister said his client wished to apologise for the "unfortunate remarks" made to the injured garda and for all of his behaviour.

He was jailed for three years for the pub burglary and two years for the dangerous driving incident and assaulting the garda.

The sentences are to run consecutively from today, with the final six months suspended, meaning Jason Paget was sentenced to a total of four-and-a-half years imprisonment,

He was also disqualified from driving for two years with judge Crowe ordering that he is given credit for any time served while in custody on these charges.

Paget is currently serving the suspended portion of his sentence for the aggravated sexual assault of which 18 months was re-activated earlier this year.

A co-accused, Charles Darcy (34) of John's Road West in Dublin 8, is due to be sentenced next month.
Investigations are ongoing.

The seizure had an estimated street value of 110,000

Gardai have arrested a teenager after seizing more than 100,000 worth of cannabis in north Dublin today.

Earlier today, Wednesday 9 November, personnel attached to the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), the Ballymun and Coolock District Drug Units, and the Revenue Customs Service searched a premises in the Santry area of Dublin as part of a joint operation.

Revenue officers discovered and seized approximately 5.5kg of cannabis herb with an estimated street value of 110,000 while inside.

Gardai then arrested a male in his teens in connection with the seizure.

He is currently detained at Ballymun Garda Station under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996.

Investigations are ongoing.

This operation was carried out as part of ongoing investigations targeting individuals suspected of involvement in an organised crime group in the Santry area.
Spiking is currently dealt with under poisoning legislation, something the TD slammed as an archaic way of dealing with very new situations

TD Aodhan O Riordain has called on the government to make drink spiking a criminal offence.

The Labour politician said spiking should come with a ten-year sentence and not be treated like poisoning  which it currently is.

He slammed current legislation as an archaic way of dealing with very new situations.

"The offence of spiking isnt a standalone offence currently, he told Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

Mr O Riordain said that when he raised the issue with Justice Minister Helen McEntee, she informed him that, to date, drink spiking is dealt with under poisoning legislation.

This makes it a crime with a three years penalty  as opposed to the 10 years that were suggesting.

The Labour politician stated that poisoning and drink spiking are very different offences.

When someones drink is spiked, it is often with the intention to disable the person in order to commit a sexual offence, he told Newstalk.

"I think there's a different dynamic when somebody deliberately goes into a nightclub or a social setting, identifies somebody, interferes with their drink, uses a substance in order to effectively disable them... and then to exact an assault on them.

"That is a very different, premeditated type of offence that we think needs to be stamped out."

The Labour TD conceded that Minister McEntee did accept that the penalties for poisoning doesn't really equate with what we're talking about in terms of spiking.

"We're going to pursue it and hopefully the Minister will have some reflection with her officials and come back, and we can work together on it".

In late October, it was warned that reports of 40 people who were victims of spiking this year were just the tip of the iceberg.

Aodhan O Riordain

Official figures show a surge in drink spiking as 22 people reported having been spiked last year which included several months of lockdown.

A spokeswoman for Corks Sexual Violence Centre said that victims rarely report their ordeal to gardai.

We are hearing every day, I was spiked, My friend was spiked, My friends friends were spiked, Dola Twomey told The Hard Shoulder.

Its something that has been happening all through the years.

The centre created an online portal where people can report drink spiking.

Ms Twomey said that from January to April this year, more than 100 people actually submitted their experiences to our hub.

Were looking at a phenomenon that has changed quite a bit, she said.

In the past it wasnt unusual for somebody to be spiked as a prelude to sexual assault.

Whats happening now is that somehow, in some peoples brains, this is considered to be funny and thats why there is so much of it happening.
The suspect, aged in his 20s, was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of murdering the 65-year-old last month.

A man who was arrested earlier this week over the murder of Westmeath psychic Stefan Nivelles Posschier has been released without charge.

The suspect, aged in his 20s, was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of murdering the 65-year-old, who was found dead by gardai on land near his home at Rattin, near Milltownpass, at 6pm, on October 25.

Gardai are continuing to investigate the case.

A garda spokesperson said: The man arrested in connection with the murder of Stefan Nivelles Posschier, 25th October 2022, has been released from detention under Section 4 Criminal Justice Act 1984, without charge.

The garda investigation is ongoing at this time.

Sources said Mr Posschier may have been in fear of his killer due to his erratic behaviour in the days before his murder.

Detectives are following a definite line of inquiry as part of the investigation and believe Mr Posschier died violently.

The victim is believed to have been stabbed a number of times.

Mr Posschier was originally from Belgium but had been living in the Rattin area for around 20 years. He had previously had an address in south Dublin.

He was well-known for his work as a psychic, clairvoyant and shamanic healer.

He also used the stage name Stefan De Guylian when working, and gave tarot card readings in a number of towns across Ireland.

Those who knew him through his work described him as a lovely man and a talented tarot card reader.
Sleazes are paying $30 to deepfake websites to strip women of clothes... and victims naked pics are being shared on porn sites

'I saw my face plastered on all these porn images... can kind of laugh about it but at the same time I hope they come down at some stage  I dont want my kids to see them'  VOGUE WILLIAMS

Arms folded and eyes smiling, I look completely at ease commanding a boardroom, but theres one major issue with the photo thats flashing up on the computer screen before me  I am completely naked.

In less than 15 seconds I have been digitally undressed by an easily accessible AI tool and I am horrified at the computer-generated clone staring back at me.

Welcome to the seedy underworld of deepfake porn  technology that uses ever-improving artificial intelligence that automates entirely realistic nude images of women and inserts their likeness into hardcore pornographic videos.

Today, doctored nudes and sexually explicit videos of ordinary Irish women are infiltrating the internet at an alarming rate and can be created for as little as 30 thanks to ground-breaking software.

Once solely targeted at A-listers including Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson, Irish presenter Vogue Williams recently spoke of her disgust at being digitally inserted into disturbing pornographic content.

And now the deepfake web is targeting ordinary women and it could be you, or me.

Our reporter Denise uploaded this image

Swiping pictures from Irish womens Instagram accounts and uploading them through advanced apps online, twisted perverts intent on getting their sick kicks use lifelike pictures and videos for sexual gratification or to manipulate, control and destroy their victims.

Horrifyingly, many women are completely oblivious that their computer-generated nudes are now being traded in underground forums and appearing on porn sites.

A quick Google search leads me to dozens of sleazy websites that boast the software that can digitally undress women in an instant.

One depraved site that profits on the degradation of women even offers customised fakes made by top-rated artists.

Charging upwards of 40 for a picture, the website says: Have your photos made fake nude, covered in fake c*m, or edited in any other erotic way you desire.

Screenshot from the 'Fake Nude' website

Repulsed, I keep scrolling until I find a website that offers a "nudifier app.

Detailing its updated service, the website details: See any girl nude with the click of a button. The most powerful image deepfake AI created.

There are three payment rates: the basic package starts at $29.95 all the way up to the deluxe package at $99 and the website promises real results including: Better breast size prediction based on shadows and curve of clothing.

I opt for the basic tier and grimace as I upload a professional photo of myself standing in a boardroom wearing a simple blazer dress.

Punching in the last number of my credit card and pressing process, I fork out over 30 and watch in horror as flesh-coloured skin bleeds through my blue dress.

Within seconds, the soft curve of breasts appear, followed by smooth, dimple-free limbs until I am completely naked. It is me, but it is not me.

Hauntingly life-like, my body has been super-enhanced  preened, pumped and processed to satiate the male gaze. To the untrained eye, save for glitches around my folded arms, nothing would be amiss.

A dodgy website and 30 later, I am now enmeshed in the non-consenual deepfake machine.Technology that is now being weaponised against women and is ruining lives.

In the 15 seconds it took to strip my body bare, I calculate how quickly one image could be shared across the internet  a simple action that has the potential to eviscerate someones entire life.

And for that reason alone, I refuse to disclose the names of these platforms.

Deep fake site produced this image of our reporter Denise Smith

But that will not deter perpetrators from targeting real women.

Speaking last year, Dublin celebrity Vogue Williams opened up about her face being used in deep fake pornography.

I saw my face plastered on all these porn images and I was like: Jesus, I dont remember that, she joked.

About three weeks ago, it came up again and theyve updated the picture and I mean, if I thought I was having a good time before, Im having a really good time in these ones.

Im adventurous but not that adventurous, she added.

Despite trying to laugh at the situation, Vogue explained how she struggled to get the images taken down and said she didnt want her children to see them.

You know what the weirdest thing is? You cant get them down, like theyre just up, anyone is allowed to put them up, and they are starting to look more realistic.

The most recent ones look so realistic and I can kind of laugh about it but at the same time I hope they come down at some stage.

I dont want my kids to see them, she said.

A 2019 study by Deeptrace Labs found that 96 per cent of all deepfake videos were pornographic and non-consensual. Alarmingly, the top four deepfake websites clocked 134 million views on such videos.

Tech expert Dan Purcell, who has become an ally to women everywhere after shutting down an online server containing hundreds of thousands of revenge porn pictures of Irish women last year, said the technology behind deepfake porn is only in its infancy.

The CEO of the anti-piracy and privacy protection service Ceartas is warning that the depraved act of deep faking could now be a gateway to real-life crime against women:

It is so realistic looking that it may as well be real, he said.

Offering a free service for victims that desperately want their images scrubbed from the internet, the tech genius said: We dont sugar coat anything, its 99.9 pc men, men are the perpetrators and it is at scale.

They are turning these girls into currency. You have these people that are good at Photoshop and they will go to these deepnude, deepfake websites and put a girl in at the request of someone from Reddit or Telegram and clean it up and make it look very real.

The men are anywhere from 16 to 30 and some of conversations make me think what kind of breed they are.

They are asking, Are there any girls from Donegal or Derry or my town? I think it is voyeurism and kink for them because they could walk by this girl and think Ive seen you naked.

'I saw my face plastered on all these porn images... can kind of laugh about it but at the same time I hope they come down at some stage  I dont want my kids to see them'  VOGUE WILLIAMS

These guys are in these groups and they do tributes. They will message different lads and say do you want to have a w**k and they will simultaneously masturbate.

What frightens me is that these guys are really starting to blur the lines. They are masturbating collectively and printing the pictures off and masturbating on them. Its not outside the realm of possibility that a sexual assault will happen.

These guys also have no accountability and there is so much anonymity online and the mindset is what else can I get away with?

Lobbying social media giants to create a framework of accountability, he urged: What I would suggest for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook is that when you report an image their systems should automatically remove access instantaneously until a decision is made; guilty until proven innocent. That would eliminate so many problems.
As Russia's invasion with Ukraine drags on, world leaders are nervously keeping an eye on China  and the country's leader seems intent on keeping it that way.

Xi Jinping has done little to quell suspicions that China's military could strike out, again fuelling fears of increased aggression from the People's Liberation Army.

According to China's state media Xinhau, Xi met with military officials at an operation command centre on Tuesday (local time), urging them to prepare for combat and take China into a "new era".

"The entire military should devote all its energy to and carry out all its work for combat readiness, enhance its capability to fight and win, and effectively fulfill its missions and tasks in the new era," he reportedly told them.

Xi reportedly met with military officials this week. Source: Xinhau News Agency

In the wake of the 20th CPC National Congress where the Chinese dictator tightened his grip on power, Xi is said to have instructed the country's armed forces to "take concrete actions to further modernise national defence and the military".

According to the Xinhau report, Xi noted that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and stressed that "Chinas national security is facing increased instability and uncertainty, and its military tasks remain arduous." He reportedly demanded the entire military implement the CCP's thinking on strengthening the military for the supposedly new era.

Fears that China could make a move to take control or invade Taiwan have been steadily growing over recent years, with some predictions Xi could make a move in the next 18 months now that he has secured a third term as leader of the country.

In response to the growing threat, Taiwan is working to increase energy inventories to boost the island's resilience in the event of a crisis, the country's deputy economy minister said last month. The move follows China's blockade drills around Taiwan in August.

Despite the warnings of potential invasion, former CIA analyst John Culver believes China has plenty of other options to strangle Taiwan.

Story continues

"China has many options to increase pressure on Taiwan, including military options short of invasionlimited campaigns to seize Taiwan-held islands just off Chinas coast, blockades of Taiwans ports, and economic quarantines to choke off the islands trade," he wrote in October.

Former Australian military personnel 'approached to provide military training in China'

Defence Minister Richard Marles has ordered the Australian Defence Force to review its policies amid concerns ex-personnel have been approached to provide military training in China.

Mr Marles said he had asked the ADF to "urgently investigate" the claims, saying a deep evaluation of defence policies and procedures was warranted.

"The information provided to me so far presents enough evidence to warrant the need for a detailed examination into the adequacy of current defence policies and procedures addressing this matter," he said on Wednesday.

"I have therefore instructed the department to commence that process."

It comes after former Australian Air Force pilots were offered lucrative contracts to work with the Chinese military, the ABC reports.

A number of cases of foreign interference are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation along with the ADF.

Visitors stand in front of a giant screen displaying Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing. Source: Getty

"It's no secret that defence activities, people and assets are targets for Foreign Intelligence Services," Mr Marles said during a press conference at Parliament House.

"But let me be clear, Australians who work or have worked for the government in any capacity, particularly our ADF, who come into possession of the nation's secrets, have an obligation to maintain those secrets beyond their employment with, or their engagement with, the Commonwealth."

Mr Marles wouldn't confirm if a specific incident had kicked off the investigations into the alleged foreign interference cases.

But policies and procedures relating to former defence force personnel should be reviewed to ensure they are adequate, he added.

with AAP

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Mark Chapman, now 67, has been denied release for the 12th time.

John Lennon's last known picture before he was assassinated. / Undated handout photo issued by Tracks Ltd.   PA

Police handout picture dated 09/12/80 of John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, who has been denied parole for a 12th time.   PA

This photo provided by the New York State Department of Corrections shows Mark David Chapman, the man who shot and killed John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment building in 1980, Jan. 31, 2018. (New York State Department of Corrections via AP, File)   AP/PA Images

John Lennons killer has revealed in a newly released transcript that murdering The Beatles star was his big answer to everything.

Mark Chapman, now 67, recently told a parole board that he knew it was evil to shoot Lennon but he wanted to be famous.

It is the 12th time he has been denied release.

The man is serving a sentence of 20 years to life for killing John Lennon  who had earlier that day given Chapman his autograph  on the night of 8 December 1980.

In a transcript released by New York officials on Monday, Chapman said assassinating one of the most famous musicians in the world meant he wasnt going to be a nobody anymore.

John Lennon's last known picture before he was assassinated. / Undated handout photo issued by Tracks Ltd.   PA

Chapman said he had a "selfish disregard for human life of global consequence, Sky News reports.

"I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there.

"I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life."

"This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that."

He was denied release for the 12th time, the parole board saying his killing of John Lennon left the world recovering from the void of which you created.

Police handout picture dated 09/12/80 of John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, who has been denied parole for a 12th time.   PA

His next parole hearing is scheduled for February 2024.

Chapman shot and killed The Beatles icon as he and Yoko Ono returned to their New York apartment in early December 1980.

He waited at the scene until police arrived, later pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

In previous hearings, Chapman has admitted his actions were despicable and he would have no complaint whatsoever if he remained in prison for the rest of his life.

In August 2020, the man said: I hurt a lot of people all over the place and if somebody wants to hate me, thats OK, I get it.
Ben deals with epilepsy, autism, sleep, sensory and autonomic disorders and is unable feed himself, speak or walk, needing 24/7 care.

Shane McHugh from Maynooth with his son Ben (4) who receives in-home nursing care from Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation. The charity hopes to raise 1 million through its Home for Christmas Appeal to meet the demands for its services. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland   Photocall Ireland

Clare McHugh from Maynooth with daughter Ellie (6) and son Tom (1) preparing for Christmas at home with brother Ben (4) who receives in-home nursing care from Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation.   Photocall Ireland

Shane and Clare McHugh from Maynooth with their children Ellie (6), Ben (4) and Tom (1). Ben receives in-home nursing care from Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

Childrens charity Jack and Jill are hoping to raise 1 million to give sick kids and their families a meaningful Christmas together.

The foundation, who provides at-home nursing, respite or end-of-life care for children, hopes to give them the gift of time this festive season.

Shane and Clare McHugh, who live in Maynooth in Kildare with their three children, say Christmas is even more special when you have a young child with a life-limiting condition.

Their son Ben (4) has a condition that remains undiagnosed, despite extensive tests.

He deals with epilepsy, autism, sleep, sensory and autonomic disorders and is unable feed himself, speak or walk, needing 24/7 care.

Clare McHugh from Maynooth with daughter Ellie (6) and son Tom (1) preparing for Christmas at home with brother Ben (4) who receives in-home nursing care from Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation.   Photocall Ireland

"Jack and Jill provide us with a blanket of care and security around Ben, Shan explained.

"Christmas can be even more poignant for families with children with life-limiting conditions and we are forever mindful of not taking any milestone for granted.

"Knowing that he is in the best hands, enables us as parents to prioritise other things, whether that be quality time with our other children or to get a night's sleep to function through the week.

"It can be a very difficult transition to open your home up to others, but when you have a child that has complex medical needs and requires 24/7 care; it is the Jack and Jill service that enables you to have a life as a family, creating memories for all your children that they will hopefully cherish and carry into adulthood.

"This is especially true at milestones throughout the year and none more so than at Christmas - the importance of being together at home as a family, the arrival of Santa, the tree, the presents, the smiles, the laughter, and the creation of new memories together."

The Jack and Jill Foundation supports children with severe to profound neurodevelopmental delay with in-home nursing care and respite up to the age of 6.

It also provides end-of-life care to all children, doing so for over 2,800 families over the last 25 years.

The charitys Christmas appeal aims to hit the 1 million mark through donations and special gifts.

With more children under our care than ever before, public support is vital in helping us raise 1 million by Christmas to keep our service going  a service that is a lifeline to many of our families, says CEO Carmel Doyle.

Shane McHugh from Maynooth with his son Ben (4) who receives in-home nursing care from Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation. The charity hopes to raise 1 million through its Home for Christmas Appeal to meet the demands for its services. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland   Photocall Ireland

In order to keep the service going, the charity must raise 4 million per year to meet the needs of the 400 families who are supported by Jack and Jill.

"We have a big fundraising mountain to climb to keep us going to Christmas, and beyond, and we need the public to support local Jack and Jill families in their community by signing up as a monthly donor, or by buying something from our Christmas Gift Collection, Ms Doyle said.

"Theres lots to choose from including stunning candles from Paul and William Costelloe, our Odlums Big Book of Baking, Incognito Art Prints, signed by our wonderful Incognito artists, Gift of Time cards and exclusively designed Christmas cards from Kildare artist Laura Dempsey aka Pickled Pom Pom.

"By making a donation or purchase people are supporting local families through home nursing care hours that translate into a real gift of time this Christmas, she added.

The charity was set up by parents Jonathan Irwin and Mary Ann OBrien in memory of their son Jack.

Their toddler passed away at home at the age of 22 months in December 1996.

Jack and Jill depends heavily on public donations to fund their service that has no means test, no waiting lists and no unnecessary paperwork and red tape.

To buy festive gifts or make once-off or a monthly donation, visit jackandjill.ie.
She explained that etizolam and alcohol both give similar side effects as they impact the part of the brain which controls breathing

An inquest into the death of a young mother from Co Derry has ruled she died of a lethal combination of an illicit drug and alcohol.

Lindsey Boyd (21) from Coleraine was found in the hallway of a home in the Bushmills Road area of the town on September 2, 2020.

Her death sparked a campaign group calling for answers, with nearly 2,000 Facebook followers.

The inquest at Antrim Courthouse on Tuesday heard how Miss Boyds blood had shown she had 0.06% of the illegal drug etizolam in her system, in contrast to the drugs therapeutic level of 0.02%. Etizolam is similar to prescription drug diazepam, but much more potent.

It was noted that many individuals who obtain the drug may be told its diazepam and its primarily used via prescription in China and India.

The court heard how Miss Boyd visited the home of her boyfriend Russell Cummins with her friend Megan Barr, where she proceeded to drink multiple bottles of Buckfast.

Miss Barr said the three of them allegedly smoked cannabis, despite no other drugs being detected in Miss Boyds toxicology report. She added that she, Miss Boyd and Mr Cummins snorted lines of white powder, which they believed to be cocaine.

Shortly after Miss Barr left the property on Bushmills Road, Miss Boyd attempted to leave in a taxi, which drove off after claiming she was too intoxicated to travel.

Miss Boyd then fell asleep in the hallway of the property after saying she couldnt walk up the stairs. Mr Cummins mother found her dead in the hallway the next morning.

Pathologist Dr Majorie Turner told the court it was her analysis that the drug, combined with Miss Boyds high alcohol blood level, which was recorded as just below twice the legal driving limit in Northern Ireland, led to her death.

Dr Turner said: The only drug detected by the forensic laboratory was etizolam. Its a drug used illicitly and is often sold as a Valium or diazepam drug. Its users may not be aware its not diazepam, its an illicit type of drug.

She explained that etizolam and alcohol both give similar side effects as they impact the part of the brain which controls breathing.

The combination of both can be very serious and can cause individuals breathing to stop, she said. Senior coroner Joe McCrisken said Ms Cummins described hearing Miss Boyd snoring like a champion, which Dr Turner said those around her may have mistaken for sleeping but that she was actually becoming progressively unconscious.

Dr Turner, who previously worked at the University of Glasgow, said the use of etizolam was uncommon in Northern Ireland, but she had experienced the damage it can cause due to high usage in Scotland, particularly when combined with alcohol.

Five people have since been reported to the Public Prosecution Service for suspected drugs-related offences as part of the police investigation

Presenting his findings, the coroner told the court: Miss Boyd was just aged 21 when she died on September 2, she worked in a care home and had a young daughter who is now aged four.

I am satisfied that on September 1, Miss Boyd travelled to Coleraine with her friend Miss Megan Barr and spoke to her boyfriend Russell Cummins.

Mr McCrisken said he was satisfied the white powder which Miss Boyd and Miss Barr believed to be cocaine was in fact etizolam, which resulted in her death due to mixed intoxication.

The white powder was etizolam, not cocaine, and I am satisfied this was in powder form, not tablet form, he said.

Miss Boyd did not know the white powder was etizolam and she thought it was cocaine, which sadly in Northern Ireland today is widely used, but if you ask me what is the biggest drug problem, its benzodiazepines like these. They are killing people more than any other drugs.

In my view, if Miss Boyd had just taken alcohol she would not have died, but if she had just taken etizolam she may have died.

This demonstrates the lack of awareness of these drugs most of these drugs are manufactured illicitly and moved around the streets. Deaths involving more than one drug is at a rate not seen before.

These drugs are strong and last a long time. Etizolam has never been tested alongside alcohol, so anyone who mixes these drugs risks death.

I hope this inquest puts to rest any rumours about Miss Boyds death.

There will be questions that we do not have the answers to, but I hope this inquest has answered some of these questions and provided those who have attended with some answers.

Mr McCrisken closed the inquest by turning to Miss Boyds mother to give his condolences on the death of her daughter.
The letter Z has been daubed on walls and buildings near where Ukrainians are living

Some of the graffiti that has appeared in Letterkenny

A local councillor in Letterkenny has said that anti-Ukrainian graffiti that has been appearing more frequently in the town is causing grief and upset for refugees who are living there.

The letter Z, which has become a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and is often seen painted on their military vehicles, has been daubed on walls and buildings near where Ukrainians are living.

The repeated appearance of the symbol in the town prompted Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh to table a motion for Tuesday's meeting of the local municipal district where he asked the council to put a policy in place for dealing with the graffiti.

He said he was contacted by a lady working with Ukrainian families who told him how upset they were by the appearance of such graffiti in Letterkenny.

It has been happening in other parts of the county but its getting more frequent in Letterkenny, he said. Its causing upset and worry to the people from Ukraine that are living in town. Its also a problem for the Tidy Town volunteers who have to go out and clean it up.

One of the things that is happening is that some of the Ukrainian people in Letterkenny are volunteers for Tidy Towns and they are going out and seeing this and its obviously upsetting for them.

And some of these people have lost family members in Ukraine.

The graffiti has caused upset in the town

Im not sure if its young fellahs messing, who dont realise the gravity of what they are doing, or if its a deliberate act to cause tension and division.

According to Cllr Kavanagh, there is one hotel and seven houses accommodating Ukrainian refuges who number around 1,700 throughout Donegal.

The ordinary residents of the town have be veenry good, he stressed. Some graffiti had appeared on Saturday night and by Sunday it had been painted over by local people.

People may have their opinions about refugees, he added, but these are people who dont necessarily want to be here. They are here because they fled a war situation.

"They very much appreciate being here in Donegal, and are happy to be living in the town. But ultimately they want to be in their own homes in Ukraine.

And Id make the point as well, that as Irish people weve had to leave our homes, during the famine for example, and we werent always welcome where we went.

"Weve all heard of the signs saying no Irish and so, considering our history, we should have a greater understanding

Cllr Kavanagh asked the council to work with the Tidy Towns committee on this issue adding they needed to send out a strong message that graffiti like this was totally inappropriate.

His motion was seconded by Cllr Donal Coyle who said this pro-Russian graffiti in Letterkenny had also appeared in other parts of the municipal district. he urged the council to liaise with the gardai on this matter.

Mayor Cllr Donal Mandy Kelly said he too had seen the symbols around Letterkenny adding it was time to deal with such matters.

Donegal Live has reported that Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District is to use CCTV in an attempt to track down those responsible for the graffiti that has appeared in several locations around the town.

In its official response to the motion, Donegal County Council said it would consider this matter as part of the work of the Climate Action and Environmental Strategic Policy Committee in 2023.
"The number of redundancies at Meta Ireland will be similar to the global figure although we wont be in a position to confirm the final number of redundancies until the collective consultation process is completed

A view of Facebook parent company Meta's headquarters in Dublin as company layoffs are expected to be announced today. Picture date: Wednesday November 9, 2022.   PA

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaving The Merrion Hotel in Dublin in 2019 with its head of global policy and communications Nick Clegg. Photo: Niall Carson/PA   PA

Meta has confirmed it is cutting 11,000 jobs across its 87,000-person strong global operation, but has not provided a figure for the number of Irish roles affected.

The company  formerly Facebook Inc  announced it would cut 13pc of its worldwide staff, but has not yet specified how many jobs will go in Ireland.

However, a spokesperson told sundayworld.com that the figure will "track with the percentage globally.

It employs 3,000 staff in Ireland, which would equate to 390 jobs cut.

"The number of redundancies at Meta Ireland will be similar to the global figure although we wont be in a position to confirm the final number of redundancies until the collective consultation process is completed. This announcement impacts Meta employees (3,000 in Ireland). It doesnt affect contractors, the spokesperson said.

Meta employees in Dublin were anxiously waiting for news about their jobs on Wednesday morning.

A view of Facebook parent company Meta's headquarters in Dublin as company layoffs are expected to be announced today. Picture date: Wednesday November 9, 2022.   PA

Some of the 3,000 Irish staff will be affected but not those employed by contractors.

Meta has informed the Department of the Taoiseach, the IDA and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

It said the move will not affect contract workers employed by third-parties, numbered up to 6,000.

As the location of our international HQ, Ireland is an integral part of our company and our operations, a spokesperson said.

Todays announcement and the process does not have any impact on Irelands status, or on our long-term investment plans in Ireland.

Meta employees 3,000 full-time employees in Ireland and a further 6,000 contractors work directly with the company in various capacities across the country.

The company said the timeline and process in Ireland will be defined by Irish Government guidelines which will see impacted employees entering collective consultation.

The IDA has told the Government that the extent and number of job losses in the Irish office wont be clear for a number of weeks.

Today Im sharing some of the most difficult changes weve made in Metas history, said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Ive decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13pc and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go.

"We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.

Metas boss called the layoffs necessary.

At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth, he said.

Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than Id expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.

Mr Zuckerberg said the company was also currently "shrinking" its real estate footprint, as it finalises moves to relocate its staff into its new Ballsbridge headquarters.

He also gave further guidance on which parts of the business would be hit hardest.

While were making reductions in every organisation across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, some teams will be affected more than others, he said. Recruiting will be disproportionately affected since were planning to hire fewer people next year. Were also restructuring our business teams more substantially.

Mr Zuckerberg told executives on Tuesday layoffs would begin at the company this morning.

Any employees affected by the mass layoffs would receive four months pay as part of their severance package, Meta's head of human resources, Lori Goler, said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mr Zuckerberg was apparently downcast in Tuesdays meeting and said he was accountable for the company's missteps and his over-optimism about growth had led to overstaffing, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.

He described broad cuts and specifically mentioned the recruiting and business teams as among those facing layoffs.

The specific employees losing their jobs will be informed over the course of the morning, the report said.

The companys Irish operations include its international headquarters, its Clonee data centre, both in Dublin, and its Reality Lab in Cork.

It has already moved hundreds of staff into its new larger headquarters in Ballsbridge, in south Dublin. Independent.ie understands all employees following the layoffs will move to the Ballsbridge office in the next six months.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is considered to be one of the four most important, large-scale tech multinationals in Ireland, alongside Google, Apple and Intel.

Mr Zuckerberg had previously warned that the company might downsize, telling staff during the summer: Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldnt be here.

If I had to bet, Id say that this might be one of the worst downturns weve seen in recent history.

The latest worrying job news follows Twitters decision last Friday to axe half its global workforce. Meanwhile payments firm Stripe  considered Irelands most important ever tech export to Silicon Valley  is letting go 14pc, or 1,000 workers, across its company.

However, it is feared that the move by Meta could be the largest in the recent spate of tech job cuts.

Irish Meta workers were said in recent days to have been braced for an announcement.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Meta is planning large-scale layoffs, expected to affect many thousands of the companys 87,000-strong global workforce.

Sources said company officials had already told employees to cancel non-essential travel beginning this week.

The companys Irish operations include its international headquarters, its Clonee data centre, both in Dublin, and its Reality Lab in Cork.

It has already moved hundreds of staff into its new larger headquarters in Ballsbridge in Dublin 4.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is considered to be one of the four most important, large-scale tech multinationals in Ireland, alongside Google, Apple and Intel.

Mr Zuckerberg had previously warned that the company might downsize, telling staff during the summer: Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldnt be here.

If I had to bet, Id say that this might be one of the worst downturns weve seen in recent history.

Having lost significant market share to TikTok, the company is currently trying to build products and services for the Metaverse, a virtual reality platform that Mr Zuckerberg claims will have over one billion people visiting regularly within a few years.

The jobs news comes exactly one year since Facebook changed its name to Meta. In that time, the companys market value has declined by 624bn, or three quarters.
The 21-year-old was last heard from on this day exactly 27 years ago, when she contacted a friend from a phone box in Moone, Co Kildare

Social media users have said that missing Kilkenny woman Jo Jo Dullard will never be forgotten on the 27th anniversary of her disappearance.

The 21-year-old was last heard from on this day exactly 27 years ago, when she contacted a friend from a phone box in Moone, Co Kildare at about 11.30pm on November 9, 1995.

She was hitching a lift to travel home to Callan, Co Kilkenny after missing the direct bus from Busaras.

She was never seen again and her body was never found. Her disappearance was upgraded to a murder investigation in 2020.

People across the country are remembering the trainee beauty therapist online today, with many calling for justice for Jo Jo and her family.

One person said: 27 years ago tonight Jo Jo Dullard was taken, murdered and her body hidden. Thinking of her family today. 

@gardainfo cold case murder enquiry continues -give info to 1800666111 -this lovely photo shows Jo Jo with 80s pop stars on her bedroom wall #missing #jojo #unsolved, they added.

In the photo, Jo Jo can be seen holding a stack of books by her bed while posters of George Michael and A-ha's Morten Harket adorn her walls.

Another person wrote: Another heartbreaking anniversary for her family who have never give up the fight to bring JoJo home.

Someone else said: Jo jo Dullard you [will] never be forgotten went missing on the 9th November 1995 i have you in my thoughts and prayers and i pray for family at this sad time.

I hope your family get closure one day god keep you all safe please if there anyone out there that know something come forward and help family they have suffered enough god take care of all on this sad day.

Another said: 27 years ago tonight that a young woman by the name of Jo Jo Dullard was trying to return home from Dublin. Someone out there prevented her from arriving home. Her family never seen her again.

Someone out there must have some information so the family can finally have closure.

This day last year, Superintendent Martin Walker of Kildare Garda Station assured the public that the case is still being investigated.

Speaking on Kfm Radio on Tuesday, he urged anyone who knows anything about JoJos disappearance to come forward so that the Dullard family can finally have closure.

This case was upgraded to a murder investigation last year and will never close, Mr Walker said.

The answers are out there. Somebody out there knows what happened and I would appeal to their sense of humanity to come forward and give us the small details that will bring this matter to conclusion.

Please God, we will get some closure for the family, but we need people to come forward, stand up to the plate, and be good, civic-minded people.

An annual gathering to remember Jo Jo will take place in Kilkenny this Sunday, November 13.

It will begin at 12.15pm in the Kilkenny Castle courtyard and participants will then walk together to the missing persons monument in the Castle Park.
Despite rising Omicron case numbers, hospitalisations and reinfections, the government has no plans yet to launch an annual Covid-19 vaccination booster for the majority of people.

But the minister in charge has revealed it is eyeing up a multi variant vaccination that could be made available to our most vulnerable by next year if needed.

Dr Ayesha Verrall says the government is still getting expert advice on a whether a wider reaching ongoing Covid-19 immunisation programme is needed.

"At the moment it is uncertain, at the moment what experts are saying is it's more likely to be reoffers of boosters to people at high risk but of course we continue to watch whether there is true waning immunity, as opposed to just decreasing antibodies in people who are at lower risk as well, we haven't seen a sign of that.

"People who have had three doses and are healthy young adults are protected very well by that regime."

The issue is still under review and the risks of vaccination needs to be balanced with its benefits, Verrall says.

That's currently being considered, she says.

"Meanwhile we continue to do all of the planning we need to do to make sure that we have an ongoing vaccination programme including making arrangements for the purchase of bivalent vaccine for Omicron specific strains."

Medsafe is currently reviewing evidence for bivalent vaccines and the government was getting expert advice on whether these should be used and if so what regime should be used, says Verrall.

Arrangements are being made with Pharmac and Te Whatu Ora for the operational deployment of the vaccine should it be needed, she says.

Verrall says expert advice that she has received to date indicated that the bivalent vaccines would be targeted at high risk groups, although that's not definite.

Approaches are still being made to people who are eligible for a vaccine or booster through text messages or through telehealth services and iwi providers, she says.

But they have cut back on advertising due to expense and the fact most people would have already seen them, she says.

Government has not received any advice at this stage that healthy people would need an annual Covid-19 booster, she says.

"We're making arrangements to make sure that we've got the operational plans and purchasing arrangements there should we make a decision to use one of these bivalent vaccines."

There's no evidence that people who had three doses of vaccine some time ago and who are healthy have waning resistance, she says.

"They do have reducing antibodies but that shouldn't be confused with waning immunity that protects you from severe disease."

The percentage of new Covid-19 cases which are reinfections is at its highest ever level with 19 per cent of the 3912 new community cases announced on Tuesday reinfections.

The vaccination programme will not successfully block infection, Verrall says, when asked about the high rates of Covid-19 reinfection.

"It is not designed to prevent infection, it is intended to prevent severe disease, hospitalisations and deaths."

-RNZ.
The Government has asked the Productivity Commission to hold an inquiry into the resilience of the New Zealand economy to supply chain disruptions.

The shock to the global economy over the last three years from the Covid pandemic has been considerable. While New Zealands supply chains have shown resilience, there are still challenges, says Grant Robertson.

This inquiry will identify ways to enhance the resilience of New Zealands economy to persistent medium-term supply chain disruptions.

The Commission will engage with stakeholders to select a definition of resilience appropriate to the inquiry, identify industry level supply chain vulnerabilities, and recommend policy responses that assist in anticipating, preparing for, responding to, recovering, and learning from these supply chain disruptions.

The commission will work closely with other agencies that have existing work programmes underway in this area including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Ministry of Transport.

Drawing on the findings of the investigation the Commission will develop evidence-based recommendations which should:

Identify possible policy responses and interventions to support resilience, productivity and wellbeing

Identify a framework for targeting support for firm, sector, and community resilience in response to particular vulnerabilities to supply chain disruptions

Assess whether and how current policies address vulnerabilities and dependencies in global and domestic parts of export and import supply chains

Assess whether and how resilience objectives are integrated into existing policies and, if necessary, recommend the development of additional initiatives

More details about this inquiry, including Terms of Reference and key inquiry dates, are available at the Commissions website.
The High Court has ordered an immediate halt to the burning and destruction of the hut network throughout Te Urewera.

In an interim ruling released by the High Court in Rotorua today, Justice Mark Woolford said the Te Urewera Board and the Trustees of Tuhoe  Te Uru Taumatua, their employees and contractors, must immediately cease their programme to demolish or remove the huts.

Justice Woolford also said the Trustees of Tuhoe  Te Uru Taumatua must file and serve a complete list of the huts that have been demolished or removed by 5pm on Wednesday November 9.

The ruling comes after applicant Wharenui Clyde Tuna sought to halt what he described as the hasty destruction by fire of the hut network throughout Te Urewera.

The interim judgement notes the special relationship Tuna has with Te Urewera that transcends the physical contemporary world, a relationship that is founded in past, present and future generational connection with Te Urewera.

[Tuna] has used the huts, which are the subject of this proceeding, for recreation and the gathering of food since he was a child.

Tuna also told the High Court that the destruction of the huts, which he said commenced in or about early October this year, has caused great distress and loss of wairua for the applicant and affects his Tuhoetana.

Between the burning down of the Kanohirua hut at the end of October 2022, the applicant believes between 15 and 20 huts have been burnt down by employees or contractors of the second respondent [Trustees of Tuhoe  Te Uru Taumatua], the judgement said.

It is apparent that the second respondent intends to continue with its project to destroy the huts. Its publicly stated objective is to have destroyed them all before Christmas 2022.

Justice Woolford also noted concerns about the hut destruction programme had also been raised, via affidavits in support, from conservationist and former manager of the Te Urewera Mainland Island project Peter Geoffrey Shaw and Nga Tapuwae O Taneatua Tramping Club president Peter Donald Askey.

[Askey] says the hut network provides an essential contingency for travel if things go wrong due to weather, illness or injury.

Woolford said that while the interim order may cause some frustration to the respondents' plans, any opposition to interim relief lacks weight.

A spokesperson for Trustees of Tuhoe  Te Uru Taumatua said they would be complying with the interim injunction.

He said the interim injunction had been sought without notice to the organisation.

The arguments about the case had yet to be heard, he said, and a fuller statement from the organisation was due to be issued.

-Benn Bathgate/Stuff.
Flooding, droughts, and other climate disasters have dominated the agenda at the Insurance Council of New Zealand 2022 Conference.

Keynote speaker Dr Lucy Hone, an expert on resilience, says change is overdue for the insurance industry.

"Please understand that just operating under the old school model of 'this is how we run an insurance company' isn't fit for purpose to prevent the risks that you're now looking at."

Suncorp chief executive Jimmy Higgins says he has watched climate change grow as a threat.

"We can see more recently that the frequency and severity of weather events is worsening," he says.

"Severity in particular is increasing."

Higgins says the impact of climate change isn't always direct.

He worries that the added pressure on New Zealand's infrastructure will continue to present issues.

"It's not necessarily the rain that has fallen, but how that rain and how that water has washed silt and debris into homes.

"The infrastructure that's designed to support water flow, the capacity of stormwater drains for example, how is that maintained?"

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub says climate change has big implications for insurance companies and their customers.

He says fewer people are paying for insurance, due to a combination of expensive premiums and a high cost of living.

"Insurance coverage is falling.

"Yes you might spend 5 percent of your income on insurance, but if the cost has gone up by 15 percent in the last 12 months, what do you cut?"

As sea levels rise, coastal homes could become uninsurable.

Climate change researcher at Victoria University, Judy Lawrence, says the future of seaside villas is grim.

"It's not a great idea to be building on the coast at the moment.

"Or ever again.

"The risks will be borne by somebody at some point, the more vulnerable who can't afford insurance will suffer the most."

Eaqub agrees.

He says the country's approach to housing is short sighted, and that Kiwis should be careful where they build.

"We have to stop building on vulnerable places right now. We're still doing that, it's really quite scary.

"Even with the knowledge that is available to us, we're still building on coasts, we're still building on flood-prone zones, we're still building in storm surge zones. It's extraordinarily irresponsible of us to do this."

It's a game of musical chairs, and Dr Lawrence says the losers will be our most vulnerable.

"People with more money have more choices, and people with fewer means have less ability to move out," she says.

"We saw that in New Orleans, with the big floods: the poor people stayed, and the rich people left."

She says insurers have an opportunity to work with the government to identify the risks of climate change and find ways to prevent them.

-Felix Walton/RNZ.
In her new book, "In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press," Katherine Corcoran digs deep into the killing of Mexican reporter Regina Martinez in April 2012 in the state of Veracruz.

Corcoran investigates whos behind the death of Martinez and whats behind the cover-up. At the time of the murder, Corcoran was the Associated Press bureau chief in Mexico City. Martinez was working on a story about political corruption as a reporter for Proceso, Mexicos top national magazine.

This Q&A has edited and condensed for brevity.

Q: You have been following the case of Regina Martinez literally since the day her body was found. You made countless trips to Xalapa, Veracruz, where Martinez worked and lived. What drove you to write this book?

A: I wanted to bring a wider audience to this issue. Its all these journalists who are being assassinated and nothing happens. If anything, its just getting worse. [At least a dozen have been killed in 2022.] And I thought the thing that I can do as a foreign journalist is to bring this to a wider audience in the hopes that something could change.

Q: Give us a profile of a journalist in Mexico. How does Regina fit that profile?

A: Today the profile is a little different from when Regina was killed 10 years ago, Theyre younger. Theyre better trained. They really want to dig and be independent. And they work for small digital media. So they make nothing. A good salary for journalists outside of Mexico City is still probably $500 a month. Historically, if they wanted to do independent journalism, they didnt have the support of their media organizations. That has changed because more media organizations want that kind of investigative journalism, but they also dont know how to protect their own people. Its not part of what they consider to be their job. There arent security protocols. So these reporters are out there pretty much by themselves doing very dangerous work.

Q: Tell us about Regina.

A: She was a reporter ahead of her time in Mexico. The Mexican press under the PRI (Party of the Institutional Revolution), which ruled Mexico for 71 years, was pretty much controlled by that party. It wasnt state-owned media. It was always private. But the PRI had pretty good control over the major and local media outlets to just print the official stories. There have always been independent journalism ventures over the years trying to fight that trend. Some were more successful than others, but they were very few. When the Mexican systems there started to open up and move toward democracy, the press started to become more independent and more critical as well, mostly in Mexico City. So for Martinez to be that kind of journalist in a state that was still heavily controlled by the party  that was really unusual and really ahead of her time.

Q: So that got her killed?

A: The kind of reporting she did was basic, good journalism, and she loved to dig. She went out of the office to ask people. She went to see what things were like on the ground. She asked for documents. She verified her reporting. All of that was very unusual for her time, and it made her very unpopular. And I think the thing that struck me the most was that, had she been in the U.S., she would have uncovered some big scandals. But because she was in a heavily controlled state, her method of journalism basically put a target on her back and ultimately was a death sentence.

Q: Too often in Mexico, organized crime and the government are one and the same.

A: Yes, thats correct. My reporting uncovered that she had some very sensitive information that would have been very damaging to a powerful person, or persons. There were conflicting reports about whether she was even planning to write anything because at the time, she had told people she was so scared and was done doing that kind of public corruption reporting. Yet she gave hints to other people that she was. But regardless, she had this sensitive information. The criminals  found out she had this information and they just wanted to make sure it never got out.

Q: The impunity rate in Mexico is more than 95%. So you essentially did what no Mexican authority has done, solve the murder, or got closer to the truth. You believe that?

A: Im not a professional investigator. Im not a police officer. So I dont really have the tools, but I do think my reporting opened up a clear line of investigation that was never followed.

Q: Did you feel like your life was at risk?

A: I never felt that I personally was at risk. I worried the most about the people I was talking to, because they took great risk to talk to me and I think the hardest work and the most complicated part of the story was not blowing the cover or outing the people who were talking to me in any way that could be harmful to them.

Q: What do you want U.S. journalists, an American audience, to learn from the experience of Regina Martinez?

A: I want Americans to think about what happens to a society where the press is silenced. Because its a very clear method of control thats used all around the world and its now being used in our own country.  I dont think that people see the underlying danger. I want people to see that in the U.S., thats the path were on if were going to do this fake news, the press is the enemy of the people  the misinformation we are witnessing.
Kathy Hochul, who became New York's governor when her predecessor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid scandal, was poised to make history Tuesday by becoming the first woman to win election to the job.

But Hochuls ability to break that barrier became shaky in the final stretch of the election as her opponent, Republican congressman Lee Zeldin, tapped into voter fears about violent crime and made the race competitive.

Hochul was leading Zeldin by about a half-million votes late Tuesday night, but about 5,000 election districts had not yet reported their vote tallies as of 11:20 p.m.

Zeldin, an ally of former President Donald Trump who objected to the 2020 election results, has made appeals to scared suburbanites and rattled urbanites amid a string of high-profile violent incidents.

The issue of crime is one that Republicans have been running on across the country and nowhere is its saliency more on display than in the campaign of Zeldin, who has harnessed it to carve a potential path to win in the blue state and become the first Republican elected New York governor in two decades.

Though Hochul has been governor for a year, she is not as well known as her predecessor. Cuomo was known for his aggressive style and became a national media fixture for his pandemic briefings before his tenure was overshadowed by scandal.

Hochul, a former congresswoman, was serving as Cuomos low-profile lieutenant governor before taking over in August 2021 when he resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, which he denies. She has tried to cast herself as a fresh change from Cuomo, promising more collaboration and transparency while trying to steer the state through the pandemic aftereffects.

PROPOSITION PASSES

A statewide ballot proposition concerning spending for projects aimed at the environment and public health received strong support from voters.

The Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act will allow the state to borrow $4.2 billion to finance capital projects addressing flooding, climate change mitigation, drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, open spaces and recreation and projects aimed at creating a more healthy environment.

SCHUMER WINS 5th TERM

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer was elected to a fifth term Tuesday, easily defeating a Republican political commentator, but will have to wait to learn whether hell be able to keep his title as Senate majority leader.

The 71-year-old Brooklyn native defeated Joe Pinion, who hosted a program on the conservative TV channel Newsmax and faced long odds in a state where Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans.

At an election night gathering for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, awaiting news on her own campaign results, Schumer promised the crowd, I will keep this fight up for as long as it takes to win."

On social media, he said, Representing New York in the U.S. Senate is the honor of a lifetime. Thank you, New York, for putting your faith in me and giving me the opportunity to continue to serve and deliver for you!"

While Schumers race lacked suspense, hell likely be on the edge of his seat throughout the night, closely monitoring race returns elsewhere that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate in 2023.

If Republicans win, Schumers tenure as majority leader will come to an end. Schumer first won election to the Senate in 1998 after nine terms in the House of Representatives.

JAMES REMAINS AG

New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of former President Donald Trumps chief legal nemeses, was trying to win a second term Tuesday in a race that pits her against a lesser-known Republican lawyer.

James, a Democrat, is being challenged by Republican Michael Henry, a commercial litigation attorney who has been endorsed by various police unions but faces long odds against one of the states most powerful Democrats.

While the Associated Press hadnt yet called the race Tuesday evening, James declared victory, telling supporters that there was still work to be done.

COMPTROLLER REELECTED

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli fended off a challenge from Republican Paul Rodriguez to continue overseeing the state pension fund for public employees, auditing of local governments and reviewing state contracts.

DiNapoli, a Democrat, has held the job since 2007.
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Brandon Williams won't represent Cayuga County in Congress, but he made local history with his win in the neighboring 22nd Congressional District race.

Williams, a Republican who lives in Sennett, is the first Cayuga County resident elected to Congress in 61 years. The last was John Taber, an Auburn Republican who served for 40 years, from 1923 to 1963, in the House of Representatives. He rose to become chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

Taber and Williams have different histories in Cayuga County. Taber was born in Auburn and after graduating from Yale and New York Law School, returned home to practice law. He served on the Cayuga County Board of Supervisors, the predecessor to the county Legislature, and chaired the local Republican Party.

Williams is a Texas native and U.S. Navy veteran who bought a 67-acre property in the town of Sennett in 2008. He told The Citizen shortly after declaring his candidacy for Congress that he and his wife, Stephanie, decided to move to central New York after his sister-in-law and her husband settled here.

While the Williamses started a farm, they split time between Sennett and California. Brandon Williams started a software company in Silicon Valley.

When Williams launched his congressional campaign, the 22nd district drawn by the Democratic-led state Legislature included most of Cayuga County. The lawmakers' maps were tossed by the state Court of Appeals and a court-appointed special master redrew new congressional lines.

The final version of the 22nd district is comprised of Onondaga, Madison and Oneida counties, along with a portion of the town of Constantia in Oswego County.

Williams could have decided to run in the 24th Congressional District, which includes all of Cayuga County. But after Republican U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney chose to run for reelection in the new 24th, Williams opted to seek the GOP nomination in the 22nd district. He upset Steve Wells in the Republican primary, then defeated Democratic candidate Francis Conole in the general election on Tuesday.

Members of Congress do not have to live in the districts they represent. Williams has pledged to move into the 22nd district, even though his current residence is less than two miles away from Cayuga-Onondaga county line.
Nov. 9, 1992

Cato-Meridian Central School students voted independently of their parents this year for president, handing the White House to Ross Perot in mock elections.

High schoolers gave the Texas billionaire 174 votes compared to 119 for Bill Clinton and 105 for President George Bush. Middle school students endorsed Perot with 140 votes versus 72 for Bush and a mere 55 for Clinton.

The results surprised middle school Principal Tom Manko, who said the students, like the adults, favored the winning Republican candidates in the last two elections.
Something to look forward to: Ubisoft has been one of the biggest PC game companies to withhold titles from Steam over the last few years. If the studio reverses the policy, it would continue an industry-wide swing back toward Steam among publishers after Epic Games and others challenged its dominance.

Recently leaked code indicates Ubisoft may be preparing Steam versions of games it has neglected to release on the service. It wouldn't be the first hint that the company is considering ending its three-year spat with the largest PC gaming storefront.

The leak comes from YoobieRE, a GitHub project aiming to reverse engineer the Ubisoft Connect launcher. This week it scraped code referencing Steam versions of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Roller Champions.

Since 2019, Ubisoft has only released PC games on Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store. The company told The New York Times it considered Steam's 30 percent revenue cut "unrealistic." Valve has since rewarded successful Steam releases by lowering its commission to 20 percent, but Epic only takes 12 percent.

Ubisoft's last major title on Steam was 2019's Far Cry: New Dawn. Since then, the company has released games like Valhalla, Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Extraction, Watch Dogs: Legion, Anno 1800, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and The Division 2 on the other storefronts.

There were a couple of signs last year suggesting Ubisoft was open to returning to Steam. That July, Ubisoft's CEO said they might resume releasing games on Valve's client if the Steam Deck became successful. Valve's handheld is doing well, but it isn't clear how big Ubisoft expects it to get. The following November, code referencing Ubisoft Connect appeared on SteamDB, suggesting Ubisoft might release games on Steam that connect to its launcher.

The company's games on the Epic Games Store require Ubisoft Connect integration, so any Steam releases probably would as well. EA is another big publisher that left Steam for its own launcher, only to return and release Steam games that incorporate its client.

Microsoft is another big company to start supporting Steam (thankfully without forcing its Windows Store app on Steam users). While Bethesda never totally left Steam, it tried to promote its Bethesda.net launcher before eventually closing it and providing Steam keys for its purchased games. Call of Duty's return to Steam after a five-year absence contributed to the franchise's biggest-ever launch this year.

If Ubisoft ends its Steam hiatus, it could also bring its Ubisoft+ subscription service to the platform like EA did with EA Play. Valve wants Microsoft to bring Game Pass to Steam, too.
The largest aircraft in the world is currently being rebuilt after suffering damages from Russian forces during the early stages of their invasion of Ukraine. However, the manufacturer says that reconstruction might take longer than expected.

As reported first by Bloomberg, state-owned Antonov Co. announced on Facebook on Monday that design work on a second Antonov An-225 cargo plane, also known as the Mriya ("dream" in Ukrainian) has started. The company stated specifics will only be revealed when Russia's war in Ukraine is over.

(Photo : Alexey Furman/Getty Images)

HOSTOMEL, UKRAINE - APRIL 08: The destroyed Ukrainian Antonov An-225 "Mriya" cargo aircraft, which was the largest plane in the world, among the wreckage of Russian military vehicles at the Hostomel airfield on April 8, 2022 in Hostomel, Ukraine. After more than five weeks of war, Russia appears to have abandoned its goal of encircling the Ukrainian capital. However, Ukraine expects a renewed fight in the east and south.

How Much Will the Rebuilding Cost?

There are still a lot of obstacles to overcome before the massive aircraft can be rebuilt after it was destroyed in February while being repaired at an airfield close to Kyiv. It will cost "at least" 500 million ($500 million) to rebuild the enormous aircraft, which had an 88-meter (290-foot) wingspan.

However, Antonov recognized that this figure could rise further because it was "too early" to discuss precise costs.

Given that Russia's attack on Ukraine has put its economy under a lot of strain and that there are already power supply restrictions because of damages to energy infrastructure, it is unclear how funding for such an operation will be secured.

State-run Ukroboronprom, the parent company of Antonov, initially estimated that repairing the aircraft would take more than five years and cost around $3 billion.

After expert evaluation, Antonov claimed that around 30% of the original plane's parts may be utilized to construct a new aircraft.

Bild had earlier released an interview with Antonov General Director Eugene Gavrilov, who stated that the company plans to sell merchandise like miniatures of the aircraft and photos in Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport to make more money and entice sponsors.

(Photo : SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

A woman takes a picture of destroyed Ukrainian Antonov An-225 "Mriya" cargo aircraft amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at airport of town of Hostomel, in Kyiv region, on May 5, 2022. - The Antonov An-225 Mriya -- a cargo-lift plane with an 88 metre (290 feet) wingspan that is the largest of any aircraft in operational service -- has been mauled by blasts.

Read Also: Military Activities Amid Russia-Ukraine War May Be Killing Dolphins in the Black Sea

Symbol of Resistance

December 1988 saw the first flight of the six-engine jet. It was used to ship Covid-19 vaccines throughout the globe amid the pandemic, and when it was destroyed, it became a representation of Ukraine's resistance to Russia's invasion.

It has been used as a rallying cry by politicians such as Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and it has also been printed on national stamps.

The AN-225 had its maiden flight from the Svyatoshyn production airfield on December 21, 1988. Oleksandr Galunenko was in charge of the crew that flew the plane. The Buran shuttle orbiter and the Energiya carrier rocket were transported through the massive aircraft, according to Interesting Engineering.

Related Article: NATO Jumpstarts Nuclear Exercises Amid Ongoing Russian Missile Attacks on Ukraine

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jace Dela Cruz

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Based on the second iOS 16.2 developer beta, Apple is working on a new 'Custom Accessibility Mode' for iPhone users. A 'streamlined' experience will be provided to users for their Apple devices through this enhanced mode.

(Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 02: Attendees gather at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone West center on June 2, 2014 in San Francisco, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC which is typically a showcase for upcoming updates to Apple hardware and software. The conference runs through June 6.

New "Custom Accessibility Mode"

Apple released to developers the second beta for iOS 16.2, which will be released to the public this upcoming December. Alongside the new updates, the company works on a new "Custom Accessibility Mode." The Verge reported that through this updated mode, it will be providing iPhone (and even iPad) users a more 'streamlined' experience.

As per the report, users will now be able to customize the settings such as personalized UI and text size, chosen applications on the home screen, preferred contacts, and access to hardware buttons when the mode is enabled. There will also be larger app icons, a big back button, and a much more simple system in the Messages.

Despite this mode being released in the beta for the upcoming iOS in December, 9To5Mac clarified that the release of the Custom Accessibility Mode feature remains whether it will be available to iOS 16.2 or future versions. Apple also did not confirm and respond to the publication's request to comment regarding the release.

iOS 16.2 Beta

Registered developers already have access to the iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 beta. Aside from the new Custom Accessibility Mode, the Freeform application will also be included. This app helps users to jot down notes, sketch, draw, brainstorm ideas, mood boards creation, and more productive things that a user can think. Freeform will also let users work together as multiple people can work on the same board within the application that syncs changes in real-time to all of the participants.

A new Home app architecture is included in the beta, which MacRumors reported will bring faster and more reliable performance for the users' smart home accessories. The new system will be requiring developers to the HomePod 16.2 beta for this to be enabled.

Also Read: Apple to Launch New 'Emergency SOS Via Satellite' Feature on iPhone 14 this Month: Will it Be Free or Not?

After releasing iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, macOS Ventura, and other system updates on October 24, several reports have laid out possible dates for the next upgrades from the company. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg stated that the upgrades for iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 will be released in December. But this was not confirmed if the news was supplied to Gurman by Apple or was just an estimate based on past releases of Apple.

iOS 15 and iPad OS 15.2 were both released in December last year. Meanwhile, iOS 16.3 will be possibly released in February 2023, as Apple Insider reported.

Related Article: Expect iOS 16.2 around mid-December, iOS 16.3 in February or March 2023

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At least 1,300 of Ukraine's military satellite units dependent on Elon Musk's Starlink internet went offline, cutting off a crucial source of the country's communications infrastructure amid its ongoing war with Russia, according to a report by CNN.

The small, user-friendly satellite dishes produced by Elon Musk's SpaceX have been praised as an innovative means of communication for the Ukrainian military, enabling it to fight and maintain connectivity even as cellular and internet networks have been severely damaged because of the war.

But recently, worries about SpaceX's dependability have grown when funding-related negotiations were made public and disruptions were observed close to the front lines.

(Photo : Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)

BOCA CHICA BEACH, TX - AUGUST 25: SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks during a T-Mobile and SpaceX joint event on August 25, 2022 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. The two companies announced plans to work together to provide T-Mobile cellular service using Starlink satellites.

Huge Challenge for Ukraine

According to CNN's report, an anonymous source familiar with the situation said that the latest outage occurred on October 24. The person that this is a huge challenge for Ukraine's military since the terminals are now offline due to a funding shortfall.

A British company sold the 1,300 terminals to Ukraine in March. According to CNN, which also cited the aforementioned unnamed source, SpaceX was billing the Ukrainian government $2,500 per terminal per month.

This is significantly more than the $110 per month that SpaceX charges regular Starlink users, but less than the $5,000 per month that is charged by Starlink Maritime, another specialized service, to cover ships at sea, according to Space.com.

The Ukrainian defense department anticipated the outage and made an effort to stop it by requesting British military officials' permission to begin paying the debt in early October. However, the British finally chose to refocus their assistance for Ukraine on different means, according to CNN.

Read Also: NASA Commercial Crew: Boeing to Launch this April for its Starliner Test Flight, 2023 Manifest Updated

SpaceX and Defense Department Talks

Despite Musk's earlier statement that SpaceX withdrew its proposal, a senior defense official says that talks between SpaceX and the Defense Department are still ongoing.

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, recently stated that Ukraine is home to roughly 25,000 Starlink terminals.

However, it is still unknown how many of them are controlled by the Ukrainian government, but it may be a small number given that, according to CNN, the country's commander-in-chief told Musk in a letter in July that only 4,000 terminals had been installed by the military.

According to Musk, SpaceX has long provided financial support for Ukraine's Starlink service. The billionaire said in a tweet from last month, for instance, that SpaceX is losing $20 million a month on Starlink in Ukraine "due to unpaid service & costs related to enhanced security measures for cyberwar defense."

Related Article: Elon Musk Has Withdrawn Request to the Pentagon to Fund Starlink Internet Terminals in Ukraine

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News regarding Elon Musk purchasing another social media company, in the name of the Tribel Social Network, was clarified by the company, saying that there are no offers from Chief Twit in this purchase. Additionally, the company gave insights regarding massive rumors about its ownership, especially as rumors are saying that it is China-owned.

The company regarded those who spread the online rumors as "Trumpers" or "Muskers," labeling them as the fans or supporters of two famous personalities, namely Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Tribel Clarifies Company Ownership Online

(Photo : JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The Tribel Social Network spoke up and clarified via its Twitter account that it is not under a deal with Elon Musk, nor it is selling its company in the present. And it seems like reports and misleading information were circulating online regarding this, as Tribel also clarified that its company is not from China, nor Chinese-owned.

Tribel said that the "Twitter alternative" social networking platform is purely American-owned, centering on political activist leaders who created an app that is pro-democracy on its platform.

The company's bio and profile said that it centers on a platform that does not welcome hatred and fake news, focusing on an honest platform, an alternative to Twitter.

Read Also: How to Move on From Twitter: Four Social Media Platforms That Users May Migrate To

Elon Musk to Buy Tribel Social Network?

Twitter Error



Elon Musk replied to Tribel's tweet, saying that it is a great platform for what it offers the world. In Musk's tweet, it seems like the CEO made a typographical error as it said "Tribal" instead of "Tribel."

Additionally, the top billionaire said that he does "not own it (yet)," with a teaser for the public regarding another possible acquisition or deal in the future.

It is unknown if Chief Twit has plans regarding a Tribel acquisition in the future, especially as it is a known Twitter alternative in the present.

Elon Musk and Twitter

Elon Musk's focus to own a social media platform after his initial announcement before, is now a reality, as he is the owner and CEO of the short word social media, Twitter. The tech CEO centers on the company for his future goals of re-establishing X.com, Musk's brainchild regarding a decentralized social media focusing on free speech.

However, alongside this, his goals of "free speech" and power to the people are something that he wishes to impose upon Twitter now, with mixed perceptions regarding his ownership.

The massive controversy on Twitter now has many using the platform to complain about Musk's leadership and many policies regarding its operations and services to the public. Nevertheless, the company achieved a record-breaking all-time high with its mDAUs, or daily active user growth, since Musk's arrival.

Still, despite Musk being less than two weeks as Twitter's leader, there are rumors and news regarding his goals to buy another company resembling the short word social media, and it is with Tribel. This rumor is now shut down by Tribel themselves, clarifying that there is no deal between them and Musk.

However, Chief Twit's reply teases another acquisition for the future.

Related Article: Elon Musk: Twitter Free Speech to the 'Extreme'? Says He Will NOT Ban Account Tracking his Plane

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Written by Isaiah Richard

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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- At the 2022 China International Import Expo (CIIE), the largest import trade show in the world, global automakers showed off its growing allure to Chinese consumers through an exhibition of its compelling vehicles and technologies.

Gasgoo will take you around the automobile exhibition area by this report.

Tesla

Tesla once again owns a booth at the CIIE, for the 5th year in a row taking part in this splendid exhibition.

Tesla's all-new Model S Plaid, Model X Plaid, together with the company's humanoid robot (Tesla Bot prototype) were featured at the splendid Expo.

Moreover, the U.S.-based EV manufacturer also showcased the localized advances of its charging network in China.

Toyota Motor

At the 5th CIIE, Toyota orchestrated an exhibition in three sections, which are themed "environment", "smart transportation" and "Mobility for All", respectively.

Nissan Motor

The biggest move for Nissan Motor's CIIE journey is that the Japanese automaker announced the establishment of Nissan Mobility Service Co., Ltd., a dedicated mobility service company, as part of its efforts to continue transforming its business in China.

The new company, headquartered in Suzhou, will be committed to investing in mobility services and deploying robotaxi services. By working with the Suzhou High-Speed Rail New Town, it will support intelligent transport initiatives in the country.

WeRide, the Level 4 autonomous driving technology developer who has a successful mobility service history in Guangzhou, will provide technology support to Nissan's Suzhou project.

Honda Motor

Among the products showcased at Honda Motor's booth, the e:N2 Concept must assume the biggest significance.

Honda Motor premiered the e:N2 Concept, which is said to be the concept model for the second set of e:N Series models that will be exclusively sold in China through Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda joint ventures.

Meanwhile, the Japanese automaker announced the launch of Honda SENSING 360, the companys latest advanced driving assistance systems.

Hyundai Motor Group

Hyundai Motor Group, who just celebrated its 20th anniversary for entering the Chinese market, showcased its cutting-edge technologies and innovative products at the 5th CIIE, which cover a slew of domains including hydrogen, electrification, imported vehicles, and future mobility.

Ford Motor

The exhibits Ford Motor prepared for the 5th CIIE include the F-150 Lighting all-electric pickup, the Ford Bronco SUV, the Mustang Mach-E all-electric crossover SUV, the all-new Ford F-150 Raptor, the all-new Ford Explorer, and the Lincoln Navigator One.

Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars

At the CIIE 2022, Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars displayed seven models across all of its four brands, including three new energy vehicle models.

BMW Group

The models displayed by BMW Group at the 5th CIIE are all full-electric vehicles, including the iX, the i4, and the i7.

Volkswagen Group

Volkswagen Group spotlighted five BEV models, including three production models and two full-electric concepts, across Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche brands.

Jaguar Land Rover

The two luxury car brandsJaguar and Land Rovertogether displayed eight imported vehicles models at this years CIIE.

Genesis

Genesis, the luxury vehicle division of Hyundai Motor, owns an independent booth at the CIIE, where the Genesis GV80, the G80, and the G70 are showcased.

Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars showcased several classis models and its latest NEV products at the CIIE 2022, including the Volvo V90 Cross Country, the Volvo XC 40 Recharge, the Volvo C 40 Recharge, the Volvo V60, and the Volvo XC90.
After Elon Musk's announcement of charging $8 for the Twitter Blue Subscription that will have other perks, Esther Crawford, the VP of Twitter, announced the details of the upcoming Twitter labels.

A lot of folks have asked about how you'll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why were introducing the Official" label to select accounts when we launch. pic.twitter.com/0p2Ae5nWpO  Esther Crawford  (@esthercrawford) November 8, 2022

According to Crawford, there will be separate official label for certain "government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and public figures," as reported by Hypebeast.

(Photo : by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

This photograph taken on November 7, 2022 shows the logos of social networks Twitter and Mastodon reflected in smartphone screens, in Paris.

Official Label Not for Sale

The official label will only be given at Twitter's discretion. Therefore, there could be a more selective process compared to simply getting verified on the platform. This also means that not all previously verified accounts will get an "Official" label, plus, the label will not be available for purchase.

However, not everyone in the company agrees with the latest changes. Some have already criticized the nature of the Official label due to the lack of objectivity in discerning the importance of an organization or a person.

Also read: Twitter New Feature Tells Users When Accounts Aren't Phone-Number Verified

Lack of Transparency

Twitter has also received flak after their launch of the "official" label. This is due to the lack of transparency regarding the labels. The criteria in which the label is given has not been disclosed, nor have the standards been shared with the public.

Users have also expressed their concern about being bombarded with advertisements and promotional tweets that may not be related to their interests. This was addressed by Twitter's VP, saying that such advertisements would only be visible to specific users.

Nevertheless, Twitter has also acknowledged that there are still issues to be addressed, but they are currently working on it.

Twitter's Official Label

This is not the first time that Twitter is adding labels to its platform. In the past, there have been labels such as "verified," which is for accounts of public figures, media companies, and celebrities. There are also labels for "protected" or "sensitive" accounts of celebrities or users who have reported threats directed at them.

With the "official" label, Twitter hopes to establish a line between transparency and credibility in its network. They have also made clear that the label is not intended to be a marketing tool.

Rather, it is an aid for those users who seek a more dependable and credible news source in the form of an official or famous account on the platform.

A Credible Platform

For months now, Twitter has been struggling with issues regarding fake news and bots on its platform. They have also received backlash for not being a credible social media platform for news and information. They have received issues regarding the algorithms that are in place, as well as the lack of transparency regarding the platform.

This is why Twitter has been working on resolving the issues. They are also taking steps to be a reliable and credible platform for news and information. The recent updates on the official label could be the first step towards achieving such.

Related article: Russia Blocks Facebook, Twitter, App Store Access: Report

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Solar panel-powered parking lots will soon be required by France as it joins other EU nations' renewable energy efforts.

(Photo : Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Night settles over solar panals at Solarmine, the first solar photovoltaic facility in California to help power oil field operations, on July 8, 2003 near Taft, California, 40 miles west of Bakersfield. Solarmine is a new six-acre demonstration project installed by the ChevronTexaco subsidiary.

Back in 2020, the French government was the only one relying heavily on nuclear power to generate needed energy supplies.

Meanwhile, Germany, Spain, and other EU countries are trying to enhance their renewable energy sources. Now, France decided to join them.

The French Senate announced that it approved a new bill requiring parking lots to install solar panels.

Solar Panel-Powered Parking Lots to be Required in France!

Public Senate reported that French senators adopted Article 11 of the bill on the acceleration of renewable energies last Friday, Nov. 4.

(Photo : Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

Stockman Gordon Litchfield from Wilpoorinna sheep and cattle station wipes dust from solar cells which power water pumps on his property June 7, 2005 in Leigh Creek, Australia. Australia is enduring it's worst drought in decades, with the risk of the El Nino weather phenomenon increasing and warmer weather becoming more frequent.

Also Read: 'Solar Facade': These Embedded Solar Panels Produce 50 Times More Power Than Standard Panels!

This bill specifically states that the largest outdoor car parks should install photovoltaic panels or other renewable energy power generators.

Before the bill was approved, it stated that solar panels should be applied to car parks larger than 2,500 square meters.

But, involved senators decided to change the square-meter requirement.

Instead, the committee preferred to define a threshold in some places instead of surface area, as reported by Engadget.

Because of this, the bill now states that solar panels will be required for parking lots with 80 to 400 spaces.

Start Date and Other Details

The French government said that parking lots are required to install solar panels starting as early as July 2023.

Parking locations with over 80 spaces need to complete their photovoltaic systems five years after the start date.

When it comes to larger parking lots, officials will give them less time, only three years, from July 2023.

But, there are some parking lots excepted from this new requirement.

For example, the new bill will not affect outdoor parking areas with technical, architectural, heritage, safety, and environmental constraints.

To learn more about France's new renewable energy effort, you can visit this link.

The use of solar panels is clearly expanding in various industries.

Previously, solar panels allowing underwater wireless communications are expected to arrive.

We also reported that new floating solar panels in the North Sea are being developed.

For more news updates about solar panels and other renewable energy sources, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Written by Griffin Davis

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Vodafone Group Plc's share in its towers subsidiary will be sold to KKR & Co. and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in a transaction estimated to be worth 16.3 billion ($16.2 billion).

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the British telecom company verified a Bloomberg News story by issuing a statement confirming the 32-per-share (about $32.15) offer for Vantage Towers AG, which is traded on the Frankfurt stock exchange. When compared to Vantage's closing price on Monday, the price reflects a premium of 12%.

Both UBS Group AG and Robey Warshaw LLP provided advice to Vodafone about the transaction.

See Also: Vodafone's Unbeatable Trade-In Offer Makes It Easier to Swap Your Old Phone With a New One

Terms of the Deal

Under the terms of the agreement, Vodafone would merge its 81.7% stake in Vantage into a joint venture (JV) with KKR and GIP. According to statistics collated by Bloomberg, the JV will then launch a buyout bid for outstanding shares in Vantage, which might be the largest taking private of a German firm to date. This offer has the backing of RRJ Capital, Vantage's second-largest minority investor.

At some point in the future, the KKR and GIP consortium will hold up to 50% of the JV.

As of Wednesday, Vantage stock had gained as much as 11%. At 11:40 AM, the stock price had risen 9.9% in Frankfurt, where it reached a value of 16.3 billion. In London, Vodafone shares dropped 1.9%.

Sources familiar with the case have said that the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is contributing to the deal's funding.

"This transaction successfully delivers on Vodafone's stated aims of retaining co-control over a strategically important asset, deconsolidating Vantage Towers from our balance sheet to ensure we can optimise its capital structure and generate substantial upfront cash proceeds," said Vodafone CEO Nick Read, via Bloomberg.

The Strategic Bidders

For Vantage, KKR and GIP were up against a number of other financial and strategic bidders, such as a partnership led by the Spanish telecoms firm Cellnex Telecom SA and the Singaporean government investment firm GIC Pte.

Despite a near-30% decline in global mergers and acquisitions this year, dealmakers are using network towers to stay productive.

Investment firms looking for stable returns in uncertain markets are eager purchasers of the assets being sold by telecom companies to earn capital for fiber-optic rollouts and cellular improvements.

This week, Bloomberg News reported that PIF is among the bidders considering a final offer for network towers being auctioned by Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo QPSC, which may be worth as much as $5 billion. French tower owner TDF has been the subject of takeover speculation in Europe, with EQT AB private equity company viewed as the favorite to purchase a share.

Earlier this year, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and DigitalBridge Group Inc. outbid KKR and GIP for a stake in Deutsche Telekom AG's tower business.

Also Read: Elon Musk to Sell $3.95 Billion Worth of Tesla Shares After Closing the Twitter Acquisition Deal

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The new TikTok reverse AI filter trend is now concerning many users. But should they really worry about this popular challenge?

(Photo : Photo by DENIS CHARLET/AFP via Getty Images)

This illustration picture taken on May 5, 2020 in Lille shows the logo of the networking application Tik ToK on the screen of a tablet. (Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP)

In just a short period, TikTok was able to get into the levels of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

But, unlike these giant websites, TikTok is less strict when it comes to content. Because of this, users tend to become more creative with their videos.

One of their popular content is NSFW images that were altered by AI filters, allowing them to have different artistic outputs.

However, they are now afraid that reverse AI filters can change their images to their original forms, allowing other individuals to see their naked photos.

Is TikTok Reverse AI Filter Trend Real? Here's What Experts Say

According to Dexerto's latest report, reverse AI filters might not really work.

However, some experts warned users that running their NSFW images through AI art tools is still unsafe.

(Photo : Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

In this photo illustration, the social media application logo, TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on April 13, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia - TikTok has pledged $250 million to local organizations around the world supporting healthcare, education, and struggling communities impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Also Read: TikTok Says Chinese Employees Can Access Data From European Users

They explained that these AI filter tools have servers that store the uploaded images.



So, if you use it to edit your naked photos, then you will be in trouble if cybercriminals hack these servers.



Aside from this, if hackers can find the original versions of your AI-edited images, then there's a chance that they can reverse the effects.

With these details, the best thing you can do is avoid using AI art editing apps on your NSFW photos.

Other AI Tools on TikTok

Aside from the AI art editing apps, some AI software models were also used on TikTok to predict what Kardashians would look like without plastic surgeries.

"We used three different AI software and two different standard graphics software and a full week to pull it off," said Keith from "Vandahood Live," one of the individuals behind the reverse AI makeover, via PetaPixel.

He added that they had to take a different approach for each of the Kardashian family members because they had different plastic surgeries.

You can click here to check the actual images of the celebrities after the AI software models were used in their photos.



In other news, the new TikTok Profile Kit was launched, allowing users to highlight their videos through Linktree.

Recently, health experts warned about the TikTok self-diagnosing habit.

For more news updates about TikTok and other social media apps, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: TikTok Removes 113 Million Videos for Violating Policies as per the Company's Quarterly Report

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The epidemic situation in Chongqing is in a period of high volatility and rising, and the prevention and control are in a state of stalemate
Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC), one of Kuwaits biggest private petrochemical investors, has seen its first-half (H1) net profit shoot up 472% to KD15.81 million ($51.14 million) from KD3.35 million last year. Earnings per share (EPS) for the first half stood at 14.72 fils compared to 3.27 fils during the same period last year.

Total consolidated assets increased to KD827.05 million as of September 30, 2022, compared to KD784.99 million reported at the end of the previous financial year (March 31, 2022) due to acquisition of additional 9% stake in Advanced Technology Company (ATC).

Recovery momentum

QPICs Chairman, Sadoun A Ali, said: The achieved results confirm the recovery momentum of QPIC Group companies from the global health crisis and weaker business environment witnessed over the previous two years. Petrochemical markets in particular have seen the biggest recovery since the beginning of last year and continue to deliver excellent results. We constantly seek opportunities that enhance the balance of our portfolio and optimise our shareholders interests.

QPICs Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sheikh Sabah M A Al-Sabah, said: Despite the groups overall improvement in performance and results, the announced results mainly attribute to Equate Groups interim dividends that were distributed for the second quarter in a row. QPIC share of Equate interim dividends amounted to approximately KD8 million since the beginning of the financial year. Were looking forward to maintaining and delivering healthy performance across all of our group companies and the different sectors they operate within.-- TradeArabia News Service
In the tenth month of 2022, among the three major Japanese automakers in China, both Honda Motor and Nissan Motor were confronted with a worsening year-over-year downturn in monthly sales in the country, while Toyota Motor maintained its prominent sales performance as usual.

In October, the month that was usually considered a sales peak season in the worlds largest auto market, Toyota Motor sustained its turnaround in year-to-date sales in China, with a 4.8% year-on-year increase, while both Honda Motor and Nissan Motor failed to reverse the downward movement in their year-to-date sales volume.

In October, Toyota Motor sold roughly 170,500 vehicles in China, representing a 20.1% jump year-over-year. By the end of last month, the auto giant has been recording a positive year-on-year growth in China sales for five consecutive months.

Aside from the continuous stimulus contributed by Chinas governmental tax cut policy, Toyota Motors sales growth was also driven by the popularity of its Levin sedan and several SUV models in the local market. Its imported luxury car brand, Lexus, which had seen better times in the local auto market, posted a 31.5% year-on-year jump in its October sales.

In the past month, Honda Motor faced a widened year-on-year decline of 28.5% in its monthly sales with 106,101 vehicles sold in China, versus the 16.8% year-on-year decline in September. However, the sales volume in October actually climbed up 4.98% from the previous month.

As for the sales of the two joint ventures, GAC Honda saw its Oct. sales slide 28.2% over a year ago to 55,804 units, while Dongfeng Honda also posted a two-digit year-on-year drop of 28.8% by selling 50,297 vehicles last month. According to the Japanese media outlet Kyodo, the companys dealerships and logistics network all took a hit in October, as part of the reasons for Honda Motors sales decline in China.

Notably, in an effort to strengthen its competitiveness in the country, Honda brand orchestrated the world premiere of the e:N2 Concept, the concept model of the second mass-production vehicle in the e:N lineup, at the 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE).

Same as Honda Motor, Nissan Motor also encountered a year-on-year drop in its China monthly sales in October.

In the tenth month of 2022, Nissan Motor sold 88,868 vehicles in China, indicating a 11.5% decrease year over year. For the first ten months of the year, the automakers cumulative sales volume amounted to 926,732 vehicles in the country, slipping down 17.3% from a year ago.

However, the overall decline does not apply to the companys passenger vehicle sector. To be specific, the Nissan brand sold 75,226 vehicles last month, which rose 7% from a year ago. In the meantime, with 10,418 vehicles sold, the Venucia brand as well saw a 4% increase from the previous year.
Team Australia is off to a fast start at this years Billie Jean King Cup finals thanks to victories from Storm Sanders and Ajla Tomljanovic on Tuesday in Glasgow.

The green and gold, semi-finalists at last years BJK Cup, defeated Slovakia 2-1 behind stellar opening day performances form Sanders (6-4, 6-3 over Viktoria Kuzmova) and Tomljanovic (6-1, 6-2 over Anna Karolina Schmeidlova).

Slovakia took the doubles tilt, as Kuzmova and Tereza Mihalikova defeated Ellen Perez and Sanders 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.

What makes Australia a lethal force at BJK Cup? Team spirit, says Tomjlanovic.

I think because we have such a good team spirit. In our country, you know, we love sport, the world No 33 said. We love camaraderie, team events. I think a lot of our players thrive in this environment.

That kind of makes you want it even more when youre part of a squad like that.

Sanders, who won two matches in singles at last years BJK Cup finals, including her biggest career win by ranking over Elise Mertens, feels similarly.

I think these team environments, I love them, she said. They are honestly my favorite weeks of the year. We have such a great team. We have such great team chemistry. Not just the players but the staff as well. We have a lot of fun. Thats the most important thing.

Australia can seal semi-final qualification in Group B at the BJK Cup finals if they defeat Belgium on Thursday.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chinas autonomous driving startup JueFX announced on November 9 the completion of its latest financing round, which raised the company nearly one hundred million yuan.

Photo credit: JueFX

The fresh round was led by Min Yin International Investment, and also attracted JueFXs existing shareholder Hygoal Capital, and several other organizations. According to the startup, the proceeds raised will be put towards the R&D and iteration of JueFXs new-generation autonomous driving integrated computing technology, as well as the fulfilment of the companys mass production procurement orders.

JueFX is a leading service provider focusing on autonomous driving perception algorithms and C-V2X cloud solutions. Using multi-sensor fusion computing as the core technology approach, the company offers cross-scenario, cross-platform, and cross-terminal intelligent driving solutions under passenger vehicle mobility, trunkline logistics, and urban terminal application scenarios.

The companys integrated perception system has covered both the vehicle end and the road end, forming a full-stack production-ready autonomous driving scheme with closed-loop capability of perception, decision, and data. Its solutions have attracted several big-name entities, including Huawei, China Mobile, and Yutong Bus. Meanwhile, JueFX is also a member of ARM AI Ecosystem Consortium, Microsoft Accelerator, and NVIDIA Inception Program.
Control of Congress hung in the balance early Wednesday, with both parties notching victories in some of the most competitive races in a midterm election that centered on voter frustration over high inflation and the sudden rollback of abortion rights.
During Disneys Q4 earnings call on Tuesday, the company announced that ESPN+ subscriptions had risen to 24.3 million.

Three months ago, subscriptions were announced at 22.8 million. A year ago, ESPN+ had 17.1 million subscribers.

The average revenue per subscriber also increased to $4.84 for ESPN+. Last quarter, it was at $4.55, and last year, it was at $4.74.

In addition to subscriptions steadily increasing, the price of ESPN+ has been increasing. In August, the monthly subscription fee rose by $3 to $9.99/month, which followed $1/month hikes in both 2020 and 2021.

The report noted a lower mix of annual subscribers as a reason for the increase in average revenue per subscriber.

The average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for ESPN+ increased from $4.74 to $4.84 driven by a lower mix of annual subscribers, an increase in retail pricing and, to a lesser extent, higher per subscriber advertising revenue, partially offset by a higher mix of subscribers to multi-product offerings.

At the current average revenue and amount of subscribers, ESPN+ is bringing over $110 million per month in subscription fees to Disney. Thats still nowhere near as much as Disney is bringing in from carriage fees for ESPN, but its definitely nothing to sneeze at.

[Disney]
It is time to dismiss the corporate speak of Medibank and Optus which casts them both as simple victims. Their deficiencies as custodians of customer data have allowed criminals to infiltrate their digital systems. And for that, they must take appropriate responsibility.

Just how the issue of accountability plays out will be a highlight of Medibanks annual general meeting next week. Shareholders will vote on executive pay and the election of four directors, and will get a chance to put their concerns to Medibanks management.

Medibank and Optus are by no means alone in failing on cyber defence - their situation could be easily replicated across the majority of Australian businesses. And the recent glut of cyber incidents suggests that Australia is firmly on the radar of global hacking collectives.

Medibank Private CEO David Koczkar apologised for the breach. Credit:

That said, neither Medibank nor Optus are casualties of bad luck. They were victims of opportunity, as is often the case with cybercrime, and neither attack was particularly sophisticated, according to the experts.
Fossil fuel companies should be hit with windfall profits taxes to help rich nations pay developing nations compensation for climate disasters, global climate talks in Egypt have been told.

The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost $US3 billion [$4.6 billion] daily in profits, Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said.

Barbados PM Mia Mottley fires up her fellow developing country leaders at COP27. Credit:Getty

It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding for loss and damage.

Profligate producers of fossil fuels have benefited from extortionate profits at the expense of human civilisation. While they are profiting, the planet is burning.
Nina Springle, who was among the crop of Greens upper house MPs so cruelly cut down in the 2018 Victorian election, is back.

After the 2018 disaster, which unfolded amid brutal Labor attacks alleging misogyny and bad behaviour in the Greens ranks, Springle predicted her party would struggle until it took responsibility for our shortcomings and address the deep-seated structural and cultural problems within our party.

Nina Springle. Credit:Wayne Hawkins

Looks like that hasnt been done to Ninas satisfaction. She is now running for Fiona Pattens Reason Party in North Eastern Metro, announcing her candidacy on Tuesday with a bit of a feminist manifesto, calling for more progressive women in parliament to promote gender equity and protect reproductive rights.

And among Reasons financial backers are some people who are also interested in womens issues, but maybe not the same ones that concern Springle.
Captain Pickles arrives in Broken Hill

The first aviator to reach Broken Hill by machine, Captain Sydney Pickles, accompanied by a NSW Railways surveyor, reached Broken Hill by aeroplane from Sydney at about 7.10am on Sunday. He was expected the previous day, but on landing at Menindee he damaged one of the wings of his machine on some bushes, which needed repairs, then a thunderstorm arose during the afternoon, so the aviator thought it wise to put off the final stage of his journey.

Light and the laws of gravity

A remarkable discussion took place at the Royal Society in London on the results of observation of the total solar eclipse on May 29 at Principe and Brazil. The astronomer Sir F. W. Dyson convinced the meeting that photographs of stars demonstrated the accuracy of the physicist Einsteins theory that light, like matter, was subject to the laws of gravity, being perhaps the greatest discovery connected with gravitation since the days of Sir Isaac Newton.

Doomed to starvation in Vienna
Two musicians accused of sexually assaulting singer Jaguar Jonze in a Brisbane club have been committed to stand trial.

Brisbane singer Deena Lynch, who performs as Jaguar Jonze. Credit:Instagram

Deena Lynch, better known under her stage name Jaguar Jonze, alleged Matthew Khabbaz, 32, and Jesse Sewell, 34, sexually assaulted her at the club in the early hours of March 24, 2019.

Khabbaz, from Adelaide, and Sewell, from Sydney, perform as electronic duo Super Cruel.

They were charged by Queensland detectives in June last year with sexual assault and common assault.
A major Queensland theatre company with shows previously booked across the nation is imploding after two people connected to the group were charged last week with the sexual assault of men and boys over a 20-year period beginning in 2001.

AVT Live Entertainment Group, a registered charity, announced on Wednesday it had cancelled the capital city tour of We Will Rock You: The Arena Experience, which was to be headlined by entertainer Courtney Act.

The capital city tour of We Will Rock You - The Arena Experience has been cancelled.

The group is a reincarnation of Brisbanes Harvest Rain Theatre Company and has toured shows including Cats, Hairspray - the Big Fat Arena Spectacular and The Wizard of Oz - Arena Spectacular with some of Australias most well-known theatre identities.

The two men connected to the group were charged on Friday with a combined 75 offences against eight alleged victims aged from 12 to 29.
Transmission of a flesh-eating ulcer is projected to surge this summer in metropolitan Melbourne and coastal Victoria, as the states health department warns cases are being detected throughout Geelong.

The Buruli ulcer was already spreading further across the state, with cases emerging in new locations where it has never been detected before, Associate Professor Deborah Friedman, Victorias deputy chief health officer (communicable disease), confirmed in a public health warning on Wednesday.

Possums and mosquitoes carry the bacterium that causes the Buruli ulcer. Credit:Andrew De La Rue

At least 266 cases of Buruli ulcer (also known as Bairnsdale ulcer) have been reported across Victoria this year.

Cases have been detected for the first time in Aireys Inlet and Geelong suburbs including Belmont, Highton, Wandana Heights, Newtown, Grovedale and Marshall.
Len McLeod was 15 years old when he was accepted to serve in World War II. Its a scenario thats hard to fathom today, when most Australian teenagers are at school.

It was 1942, and the baby-faced but tall lad from Footscray succeeded on his fourth attempt in six months to join up by lying about his age.

Baby-faced digger: Len McLeod in his uniform.

McLeod was determined to do my bit, as he puts it, for the war effort, but in the three years he served in the Pacific he was often scared.

Many, many times I thought, This is it, he says.
The year 2022 has been one of changes for Coconino Community College, with a new president and tax reset as the school continues to adjust to pandemic-related learning changes.

Were all taking a breath, said Nat White, a board chair. COVID adjustments, retirement of a very popular president, search for a new president, passage of a property tax reset, it is both a banner and a major step in the future of CCC.

The college's next president will begin his term in January, through which time CCC's leaders say the plan is to keep moving forward.

Selecting the college's new president has been one of the board's top priorities in recent months, White said.

All jobs at the college are important, but the presidents job is one to bring it all together and to lead, he said. Thats one of the functions of the governing board; thats the only person we can hire, so that became a high priority.

President Colleen Smith announced her retirement in March, citing family health issues. The move began a search for her replacement that ended Oct. 19 when the board selected Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) provost Eric Heiser from three finalists.

Before Heiser begins his term in the new year, he will spend the next two months finding housing, and meeting with CCC staff and the larger community. During this time, Christal Albrecht, the interim president, will continue to lead the college.

Her whole philosophy is wonderful and I knew that she is just going to really work with people in the community, Smith said of Albrecht.

In a call from her new home in Texas, Smith said her retirement is going well, though she misses CCC and northern Arizona.

I miss all things CCC, and thats good because I love the college, she said. It just meant so much to me -- students, all the people there -- but I am also learning and growing in this new phase of my life.

Smith came to CCC in 2016, saying she was drawn by northern Arizona's mountains, service-oriented community and smaller setting compared to the large urban community college in Texas where she had worked previously.

Colleen was unique in the sense that she had a tremendous background, White said. She had previously worked full time with three community colleges -- in Texas and Wyoming -- and consulted with several others.

He said Smith brought two strengths from her previous roles: tremendous experience and love for small community colleges.

With that background, she helped CCC become part of the community by being herself part of the community and starting many programs, but also working through the financial challenges and still providing educational opportunities for anybody in the county that desired it, White said. She set this platform, she raised us to a certain level. ... Were really poised in a great position to move ahead.

Some things Smith thinks of as highlights from her time at CCC include the shared governance model, the tax reset and work with communities throughout Coconino County.

She credited the colleges success with managing both the pandemic and limited funding to its staff.

Even with the pandemic being so hard on people, what I saw at the college was resilience and faculty working quickly to change everything so they could teach in a whole different way to reach students, she said.  ... Our facultys just amazing; they did it and they helped each other.

Staff stepped up and they learned how to do everything from advising to working with students for financial aid from a distance. ... When you have a team and they are putting students first, then they figure out ways to do things.

Among those she listed were Executive Vice President Jami Van Ess, provost Nate Southerland, Vice President of Student Services Tony Williams, executive director of facilities Kurt Stull, public relations director Larry Hendricks, chief development officer Dianna Sanchez, assistant to the president Kirsten Mead and former assistant to the president April Sandoval.

Smith also emphasized the importance of a good governing board, saying CCCs was the best shed worked with.

That board is so concerned about trying to do the best possible for the students and for the community, she said. They have lots of different perspectives and varying backgrounds, so they can really talk to each other and figure out how to solve problems and how to help the college move forward.

New president

Heiser has nearly two decades worth of experience working in higher education, including developing a competency-based education (CBE) program, advising the U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearing House, and writing several articles on CBE and academic innovation.

While he was chosen based on several factors, and all three finalists were "highly qualified," White said the deciding element was Heiser's enthusiasm for the role.

He seemed so excited about the potential, and so excited about how his expertise and experience fitted with the needs of CCC, White said.

During the community forums hosted before the selection, both White and Smith pointed out that Heiser mentioned several connections he had already developed in the community. Something both Smith and White mentioned about Heiser was his experience with career and technical education (CTE) programs at COTC -- which will be an increased focus for CCC moving forward.

He has distinguished himself in developing these critical CTE programs for training in a timely way, White said, but at the same time he has been able to ... increase enrollment from the underserved area of folks. So he brings a number of skills that fit areas where we need those skills.

Smith said what was most exciting about Heiser from watching the community forums was his experience in working in rural colleges and with Indigenous communities.

I think hes well-prepared to jump in and do great things for CCC, she said. To me, its just very exciting, because I feel like they got someone who will be exactly right for what the college needs at this point.

Moving forward

CCC's goals for the school year include four sets of goals for the president and administration, focusing on enrollment, diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), use of the new funding and continuing accreditation.

White said the colleges direction moving forward will include a continued focus on students first, as well as innovation and collaboration to provide in a financially responsible way the various needs of our county citizens.

Part of the financing efforts is in the form of the tax reset approved by voters in May that raised the colleges primary property tax. The additional funds will be phased in over the next three years, increasing by about $2 million each time.

It was not the first time CCC had asked for additional funding, which for a tax reset required approval from the Arizona Legislature. It had proposed overrides, including in 2013, 2016 and 2018, that were also unsuccessful.

This time we took a permanent reset to the voters and we got a very positive outcome. Thats going to make a difference in the college for years, Smith said. Being successful in getting that tax reset will make such a difference for faculty, for staff."

Smith added: Its been very hard. The college has not only been very lean, but its been very difficult to be able to pay ... what they need to be able to live in Flagstaff. Its difficult to recruit new employees because of the cost of living. Well still be the most underfunded college, but us being successful in the tax reset, that will help so much.

She said working at an underfunded college encourages creativity and collaborative problem-solving, and that CCC responded to its limited funding by making decisions that put students first.

Students First is the title of the school's strategic plan.

There were times," she said, "when we knew there wasnt going to be any money at all, so how did we re-allocate and use that money in a way that best serves students, or that started student programs the community asked us to start. I think it's working together, problem-solving to try to figure out how to do the best you can for students.

This is similar to how White described the colleges plans for the additional funding from the tax reset.

The first reset funding increase began in July with the start of fiscal year 2023. White said CCC is already beginning to add and expand programs, including bringing back its automotive technician program in October.

It goes with the planned increase in CTE programs.

Its not just to provide the opportunity for education, but provide the opportunities for education that has a direct relationship to the job they could get after they get that education, White said.  ... Its a holistic approach that says, 'You want to be a plumber? Well train you to be a plumber, and at the same time, well try to figure how when you get that degree, you can go right into a job.' [Heiser] has been very successful with that.

White also mentioned expanded lifelong learning opportunities as a potential use for the tax reset funding.

I feel thats an area where we could serve the community, broaden knowledge of CCC by offering more of these lifelong learning courses and a larger range of fields, he said.  ... Its an investment in the community. Community colleges are noted for lifelong learning; its one of the places theyve served so well, and it will be wonderful if we can begin to reinstitute some of those programs in a careful, logical way.

Partnering with NAU

Another focus both Smith and White mentioned for CCC's future is increased partnerships with Northern Arizona University (NAU).

The two schools have partnered in many ways over the past two decades, according to Anika Olsen, NAUs vice president of enrollment management, who said additional options have been a focus in the past six months.

She described these efforts as both amplifying successful initiatives and finding ways to improve based on student perspectives.

A lot of work in the past six months has been really focused on putting student needs at the center, she said. How can we, as two strong institutions, work together to ensure students succeed to meet their academic goals, whatever those may be?

Some examples she mentioned are making an easier application process for the CCC2NAU transfer program (which currently has more than 750 students), with both colleges collaborating to communicate with and find additional ways to provide affordable housing for those transfer students.

They are also working to share data to make it easier for students to take classes at both institutions.

When some of those partnerships were first formed, we didnt have the technological infrastructures that we have today, Olsen said.  ... We didnt have ways to even electronically share information 20 years ago, so a lot of it is re-examining. Are there barriers for a student, [and] if there are, do all of those make sense?"

A recent partnership she mentioned focuses on stopout students (the number of which increased during the pandemic), finding ways to help them reach degrees that were close to completion when they had to leave school. She said they had found that several stopout students at NAU had enough CCC credits to reverse transfer, earning an associates degree at CCC before re-enrolling at NAU to finish their bachelor's.

Many of these efforts can be described as a preview of what NAU hopes to do with the recently launched Arizona Attainment Alliance (A++). Launched in late September, A++ is a partnership with the Arizona Commerce Authority and community colleges across the state to increase post-secondary attainment in the state.

In higher education, we need to think differently looking ahead, Olsen said. Coming post-COVID, the question is, is it of value for me to go to college, whether that be a community college, a trade school, a university?

" ... Weve seen the transformative power of education for our students, whether its to level up at their job or to really change the trajectory of their whole families. Its just really exciting to sit in the same room with colleagues [at CCC] -- we all have the same goal and it can look very different than it has in the past."
Australian Federal Police and the nations top spy agency are investigating allegations several former Australian Defence Force members have been approached to train the Chinese military.

Defence Minister Richard Marles announced on Wednesday he had commissioned a review into his departments policies and procedures, vowing to act if systemic weaknesses were putting Australian military secrets at risk.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government would strengthen any weaknesses in systems used to protect Australian military secrets. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Marles declined to say whether the government had identified any former military personnel who had provided training to China.

But he said a joint taskforce on countering foreign interference, run by the AFP and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, was currently investigating a number of cases involving former Defence staff.
Read more on integrity in government. See all 27 stories .

The diaries of ministers and their staff would be made public to shine a light on any vested interests gaining access to the states lawmakers under a proposal to overhaul Victorias integrity regime.

The Centre for Public Integritys pre-election road map, to be released on Thursday, details a long list of holes in the states anti-corruption and political transparency provisions.

IBAC would get greater powers under the proposed changes.

Among other things, it warns that parliament must be restored to its rightful place as Victorias supreme integrity institution  and be funded by an independent tribunal

In Victoria, the executive funds the parliament, the report says. This is in conflict with the principles of responsible government, upon which our democracy depends.
Twitter has announced a new verification program that will be used to mark official accounts of companies, media outlets, brands, public figures and government agencies. The move comes after owner Elon Musk previously said the existing blue tick would become a paid-for feature costing $US8 ($12.40) per month.

The new official label, detailed on Twitter by employee Esther Crawford, was immediately panned by users as the exact same thing as the original blue tick, which Musk has complained is a lords and peasants system.

When Musks new system rolls out in the coming days, any user will be able to pay for the blue tick as part of the Twitter Blue subscription service. It will not require ID verification, but will be disabled if the user changes their Twitter name.

The official label, meanwhile, will not be available for purchase and will be assigned by Twitter.
The killings, which Myanmar Witness describes as the tip of the iceberg, were reported by local media but only the most high-profile of them  a Christmas Eve massacre in Hpruso, Kayah state  made international headlines. Thirty-five people were pulled from their vehicles, shot and set on fire that day. Thirty-five people were killed when they were pulled from their vehicles, shot and set on fire in Hpruso, Kayah state in the most high profile of the massacres last Christmas Eve. Credit:Karenni Nationalities Defense Force In another atrocity, 37 villagers were detained in a monastery in Mon Taing Pin, a small settlement in Myanmars north-west Sagaing region, and beaten and murdered, before their bodies were placed in houses that were set ablaze in May. In December last year, 11 villagers were reported to have been burnt alive in Don Taw, also in the Sagaing region, during a junta raid. In a further killing in January in Loikaw, a city in eastern Kayah state, six internally displaced people, four of them under 18, were beaten, shot and their bodies dumped into an outdoor toilet pit, according to the report.

A bloodstain is seen on the ground near charred corpses in Don Taw village in Sagaing, Myanmar, in December 2021. Credit:AP And in yet another massacre investigated by the group, in Sagaings Myinmu township, six displaced people were slaughtered in June when members of the military made them and two dozen others run from a pagoda compound where they had been sheltering towards a local monastery, picking them off by shooting them in the head and back. The report doesnt include indiscriminate killings from military airstrikes, such as the horrific attack from above on a music festival in northern Kachin state last month that left as many as 80 concert-goers dead or the bombing by army helicopters of a school in the Sagaing region in September in which at least 11 children lost their lives. Buildings destroyed by fire fill the town of Thantlang in Chin state, Myanmar, last December. Credit:Chin Human Rights/AP More than 2400 people have been killed since the military seized power in a coup in February last year and imprisoned the countrys political leaders, according to human rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. It reports a further 16,000 people have been arrested and 13,000 are still detained.

The brutality is certainly getting worse, said Chris Sidoti, a former United Nations investigator into crimes against humanity in Myanmar. Weve seen that in the bombings of schools, in the attack on that concert which resulted in possibly 80 people being killed. Theres been some horrendous violence and it is worsening. There is growing impatience from ASEAN member states at the juntas failure to adhere to its peace plan. Credit:AP The United States, European Union and the United Kingdom have imposed sanctions against the military regime since it seized power but it has been left to ASEAN, the group of 10 south-east Asian nations, to try to broker a solution to the crisis. As leaders head to Phnom Penh, there is increasing frustration at the lack of progress.

Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkoks Chulalongkorn University, said divisions between ASEAN nations over Myanmar, Russias war in Ukraine and the US-China rivalry were undermining the role of the regional bloc. Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing meets with Russias Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in September. Credit:Pool Sputnik Kremlin I see ASEAN as a bridge, a buffer and a broker but that role is being eroded by these larger forces in play, he said at an event at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Growing more impatient at the Myanmar militarys failure to adhere to the terms of its five-point peace plan, ASEANs other nine member states will consider their options on Cambodia. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, however, wont be present, having been suspended from meetings along with his foreign minister. Malaysia, which has taken the toughest line on Myanmar of any country in the region, is pushing for that ban to be extended to all ministerial meetings.

Loading As the bloodshed persists, Aaron Connelly, senior fellow for South-East Asian politics and foreign policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, believes ASEAN still has an important part to play. The most useful role that ASEAN can play in resolving the crisis is de-legitimising the junta by not seating it at ASEAN meetings. That has consequences for the broader international community, which looks to ASEAN for cues on how to deal with the conflict in Myanmar. But it also has consequences inside the country, he said. Min Aung Hlaing used the juntas earlier participation in ASEAN meetings to try to demonstrate to his own people, through state-run media, that he had international legitimacy. The message was, the rest of the world has already accepted me, so you should too. ASEANs rejection of the junta bolsters the position of the resistanceand to those inside the regime who might argue for a less brutal approach to opposition, or even for a change in leadership.
Kyiv: Hollywood actor and director Sean Penn, sanctioned by Russia for criticising its war in Ukraine, has loaned his Oscar statuette to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv.

Its just a symbolic, silly thing, he said, seated beside the Ukrainian leader at a ceremonial table on Tuesday and pressing his hand on his arm to emphasise his words as aides smiled and laughed. When you win, bring it back to Malibu.

Actor Sean Penn and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky presented Penn, who is making a documentary in Ukraine and marking his third wartime visit, with the Order of Merit for strengthening relations, backing Ukraines territorial integrity and helping to popularise the country, the presidents office said.

A video showed the two men on their way to view a plaque bearing Penns signature, dated February 24, the date of the Russian invasion, and set in the paving stones of an Alley of Courage Zelensky inaugurated in August to honour friends of Ukraine.
During the 2022 general election, Flagstaff is voting for their mayor and to fill four city council seats. The Arizona Daily Sun will update results as they become available.

Flagstaff mayor

9 a.m. update: While results are not yet final, Becky Daggett's margin is still pretty big this morning: 9,470 votes (60.74%) to Paul Deasy's 6,122 (39.26%), with 99% of precincts reporting.

Midnight update: We're up to 78% of precincts reporting, and Becky Daggett has maintained most of her lead: 8,485 votes (61.69%) to Paul Deasy's 5,270 (38.31%).

10:30 p.m. update: A few more votes finally came in, but the results are still similar: Becky Daggett has 8,217 votes (61.94%) while Paul Deasy has 5,049 (38.06%).

8 p.m. update: The first look at the Flagstaff mayoral race showed Becky Daggett ahead of incumbent Paul Deasy. Daggett leads the race with 7,637 votes (62.6%) to Deasy's 4,563 votes (37.4%).

Becky Daggett is a nonprofit consultant with a long history of public service in Flagstaff. Most recently, she served as vice-mayor on the Flagstaff City Council, a position from which she stepped down in order to campaign for mayor.

Incumbent Paul Deasy was elected as mayor of Flagstaff in 2020. He holds multiple masters degrees in economics and political science, and has a professional history as a educational research analyst.

Flagstaff City Council

9 a.m. update: At this point the outcome seems all but certain: Austin Aslan (10.895, 40.44%) and Lori Matthews (7,560, 28.06%), who were listed on the ballot, have both secured city council seats. Among the write-ins, Khara House (3,443, 12.78%) appears set to earn the other four-year term, while Deb Harris (2,986, 11.08%) has a significant lead over Regina Salas (1,427, 5.30%) for the two-year seat vacated when Becky Daggett decided to run for mayor.

Midnight update: A few hundred more votes have been added, but the results are largely the same as the previous check-in.

10:30 update: After a slight increase in precincts reported, Austin Aslan is still in front (9,616, 39.70%) with Lori Matthews solidly in second (6,115, 25.25%). They are followed by the write-in candidates, with Khara House (3,443, 14.22%) currently in line for the four-year term, and Deborah Harris (2,986, 12.33%) slotted for the two-year term if the results stay the same. Behind them are Regina Salas (1,427, 5.89%), Kevin Dobbe (521, 2.15%) and Sean Golliher (112, 0.46%).

8 p.m. update: The race for Flagstaff City Council shows Austin Aslan leading with 9,040 votes (62.12%) followed by Lori Matthews with 5,512 votes (37.88%). These are the only two official candidates on the ballot. Two write-in candidates will also be elected, but these results will take longer to yield due to the necessity of counting write-in ballots through a separate process.

In the early results, Khara House had 3,443 votes (14.9%) and Deborah Harris was at 2,986 (13%). Those two would claim seats if the results hold. A decent distance behind those two were Regina Salas (1,427, 6.2%), Kevin Dobbe (521, 2.3%) and Sean Golliher (112, 0.5%).

Austin Aslan is running for reelection to city council after initially winning a seat in 2018. An author with a strong education in conservation biology, he has stated that he is running for reelection to preserve Flagstaffs character, as well as to continue support for healthy forest management and flood mitigation such as the Rio De Flag project.

Lori Matthews was one of the two city council candidates who qualified for the official ballot. She comes from a long banking career in California, but has focused primarily on supporting unsheltered populations through her nonprofit Anew Living.

Sedona mayor



9 a.m. update: The numbers for this race are still the same as last night.

Midnight update: Scott Jablow's lead has shrunk a bit, but he still has the advantage over Samaire Armstrong by about 15%, 763 votes to 555.

10:30 p.m. update: There have been no changes in the results since the initial release.

8 p.m. update: Scott Jablow leads Samaire Armstrong with 692 votes (65.34%) to 367 votes (34.66%).

Coming from a career in law enforcement, Scott Jablow moved to Sedona in 2010, where he quickly became involved in local politics via the governing board of the Sedona Fire District and the city planning and zoning commission.

Recently returned from Hollywood, actor Samaire Armstrong lived in Sedona during her high school years and has run a campaign for mayor on the promise of offering new perspective to the citys government.
Panama City, Fla.  The advisories for the Laguna Beach (SP 2) location at 19440 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach, and the Carl Gray Park (SP 9) location on Collegiate Drive in Panama City have been rescinded.

There are no advisories in effect for any Bay County Healthy Beaches sampling locations.

Sampling has ended for this year. Sampling will resume on March 6, 2023.

The Florida Department of Health in Bay County, DOH-Bay, conducts saltwater beach water quality monitoring in accordance with the Healthy Beaches Monitoring Program. Water samples are collected twice a month between March and October. The samples are checked for enteric bacteria that normally inhabit the intestinal tract of humans and animals. The presence of enteric bacteria can be an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from storm water runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage. Poor results are posted as an Advisory at the affected beaches.

Healthy Beaches advisories are issued to protect swimmers from increased risk of gastrointestinal illnesses. At a lower occurring level, there may also be increased risks of upper respiratory infections, skin rashes, and ear infections. Healthy Beach advisories are not related to Necrotizing fasciitis, a rare complication.

Sampling is usually done on Mondays with results on Tuesday, with exception of holidays. Results are shared at Bay.FloridaHealth.gov, through media releases, and real-time on the Florida Healthy Beaches page at FloridaHealth.gov and search for Healthy Beaches.

Florida Healthy Beaches Program Categories are; Good = 0-35 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water, Moderate = 36-70 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water, and Poor = 71 or greater Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water. If levels are above 70, Bay CHD notifies the local Florida Department of Environmental Protection for further investigation.



If you have any questions, please contact the Bay County Health Department at 850-481-4806 or visit the Department of Healths Internet Beach Water Quality website at http://www.floridahealth.gov/healthy-environments/beach-water-quality/index.html.

####

About the Florida Department of Health

The Florida Department of Health, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts.

Follow us on Twitter at @HealthyFla and on Facebook. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov.
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Considerable cloudiness. High near 45F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Becoming windy and cloudy with periods of rain developing overnight. Low 39F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Higher wind gusts possible.
1 in 6 Hiring Managers Told to Deprioritize White Men, Study Finds

A growing number of hiring managers are being told to deprioritize hiring white men as part of many companies efforts to boost diversity in the office, according to a new survey.

Resume Builder published the results of a study that evaluated businesses diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The report reveals that reverse discriminationa strategy that avoids applicants who belong to a particular race or gender in order to meet DEI benchmarksis becoming more common in the hiring process.

Researchers discovered that 16 percent of hiring managers surveyed had been directed to deprioritize white men when evaluating candidates. Moreover, 14 percent have been encouraged to deprioritize hiring white women.

When asked how often they passed on qualified candidates because they werent diverse enough, nearly half (48 percent) said very or somewhat often.

Fifty-three percent reported being concerned that they would be terminated if they didnt hire enough diverse employees. In addition, 47 percent of hiring managers noted that they felt pressure from company higher-ups to bring diverse individuals to the workplace, while more than one-third (35 percent) believed they were pushed by customers. Thirty-one percent even felt pressure from colleagues.

A Now Hiring sign outside of a business in Miami, on Oct. 8, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

More than half of hiring managers (52 percent) think firms that maintain DEI targets are engaging in reverse discrimination when hiring.

In this evolving and competitive workplace, companies are having to respond to the demands of workers, which includes modifying their hiring practices, career expert Stacie Haller said in the report. With all of the rapid changes organizations need to meet, its mostly middle management that implements the policies, and with many organizations, the support and tools provided to them are not there yet, especially when it comes to DEI.

Overall, 70 percent of survey participants say that organizations that possess DEI goals are doing so for appearances sake. Still, nearly all hiring managers state that their companies have good intentions and have improved with DEI objectives.

While the efforts to overcome inequality in hiring diverse populations continue to evolve, companies need to consider all aspects and the effects of these practices on their entire population and move carefully and thoughtfully, Haller said.

Open Discrimination?

In November 2021, it was reported that State Street Global Advisors, one of the worlds largest investment firms, had to seek permission to hire white men. The financial institution plans to triple the number of black, Asian, and other minority staff in senior positions by next year. If executives fall short of their targets, their bonuses will be lowered.

As part of the new mandate, recruiters will create panels of four or five employees, including a woman and a minority, when hiring middle management staff. While the company will still hire white men, hiring managers are required to prove that the panels interviewed female and minority candidates.

This is now front and central for State Streetits on every senior executives scorecard, Jess McNicholas, the firms head of inclusion, diversity, and corporate citizenship, told The Sunday Times. All of our leaders have to demonstrate at their annual appraisals what they have done to improve female representation and the number of colleagues from ethnic-minority backgrounds.

State Street maintains a workforce of nearly 40,000 employees in more than 30 offices across the globe.

Meanwhile, 90 percent of U.S. companies are sharing worker race data with the federal government by submitting EEO-1 forms, which are documents that offer details about the number of white, black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American men and women employed at the company.

According to overall 201820 data gathered by Bloomberg, the share of white employees in management positions declined by 2.2 percentage points during that period. Netflix led the way, as the number of white people in management tumbled by more than 7 percent. Asian representation in management rose by 1.2 percentage points, while black and Hispanic workers saw their share in management jobs increase by 0.4 points.

But several major corporations have resisted filing these forms, arguing that its an imperfect tool. Tesla contends that the limited data it provides is sufficient, while Berkshire Hathaway argues that the document is too simplistic in showcasing the racial makeup of a firm thats involved in multiple industries.

A May University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll (pdf) found that 30 percent of white Americans think white people have experienced a lot more discrimination in the past five years. Nearly 29 percent of white respondents said Asian Americans have endured a lot more discrimination during this time.
Voters drop off ballots at the Orange County Registrar of Voters offices in Santa Ana, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Preliminary Results for Key Races in Orange County

In the Nov. 8 General Election, out of about 22 million registered California voters, nearly 4.2 millionor 19 percentcast ballots, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of States office.

Orange County voter turnout was 36.9 percent in the 2022 General Election per the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Here is the updated report, as of 5:00 p.m. Nov. 10.

California Executive Branch

Governor

Incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom will likely be reelected as he currently wins with 57.7 percent of the vote over Republican challenger Brain Dahles 42.5 percent.

Lieutenant Governor

Incumbent Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, continues to lead Republican Angela E. Underwood Jacobs, with 57.9 percent of the vote to Jacobss 42.1 percent.

Secretary of State

Democrat Shirley Weber is expected to retain her seat with 58.2 percent of the vote over Republican Rob Bernosky, with 41.8 percent.

State Controller

Democrat Malia Cohen currently prevails with 53.7 percent of the vote over 46.3 percent received by Republican challenger Lanhee Chen in the race to replace incumbent Betty Yee, a Democrat who reached her term limit for the position.

State Treasurer

With 57.2 percent of the vote, Democrat Fiona Ma, the incumbent, is expected to be reelected as Jack Guerrero, a Republican, received 42.8 percent of the vote.

Attorney General

Democrat incumbent Rob Bonta is winning the reelection with 57.3 percent of the vote as challenger Nathan Hochman, a Republican, received 42.7 percent.

Insurance Commissioner

Ricardo Lara, Democrat and incumbent, has a comfortable lead over Republican Robert Howell, with 58 percent of the vote compared to Howells 42 percent.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

In this race to be the head of Californias Department of Education, incumbent Tony Thurmond continues to lead challenger Lance Christensen, with 62.9 percent of the vote to Christensens 37.1 percent.

Proposition 1: Abortion

The proposition would change the California Constitution to say the state cannot deny or interfere with a persons decision whether to have an abortion and whether to use contraceptives.

The measure was winning 65.1 percent to 34.9 percent.

Proposition 26: In-Person Sports Betting

The proposition would allow adults to participate in in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and racetracks under state regulations. It would require such businesses to pay the state a share of bets made and shoulder the cost of regulating betting activities.

The measure was losing 30.1 percent to 69.9 percent.

Proposition 27: Online Sports Betting

The proposition would allow licensed tribes and gambling companies to offer online sports betting. Revenues would go to state regulatory costs for betting activities, homelessness prevention, and tribal economic development.

The measure was losing 16.7 percent to 83.3 percent.

Proposition 28: K12 Arts, Music Education

The proposition would require the state to provide additional funding for arts and music programs in all K12 public schools, including charter schools. Funds equal to one percent of the state and local funding that public schools received the year before would be directed toward classes including dance, media arts, music, theater, and photography.

The measure was winning 61.8 percent to 38.2 percent.

Proposition 29: Dialysis Clinics

The proposition would enact requirements for chronic dialysis clinics, including requiring a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant on-site during all treatment hours. It would also require clinics to report dialysis-related infections to the California Department of Public Health and mandate clinics inform both patients and the states health department of the clinics owners, and more.

The measure was losing 30.2 percent to 69.8 percent.

Proposition 30: Tax to Fund Electric Vehicles, Wildfire Response

The proposition will require individuals with an annual income above $2 million to pay an extra 1.75 percent tax on the share of their income above the threshold, starting January 2023. The revenue will be used to fund zero-emission vehicle programs and wildfire response and prevention.

The measure was losing 40.8 percent to 59.2 percent.

Proposition 31: Flavored Tobacco Products

Proposition 31 is a referendum on a 2020 state law that would ban in-person retail and vending machines from selling most flavored tobacco products or tobacco product flavor enhancers. If passed, sellers would be fined $250 for each violation.

The measure was winning 62.4 percent to 37.6 percent.

State Senate

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla is likely to retain his seat with 59 percent of the vote over Republican Mark Meuser, with 41 percent for the partial term vacated by then-Sen. Kamala Harris, which expires Jan. 3, 2023.

For the full term, Padilla leads Meusers 40.8 percent with 59.2 percent.

U.S. Representatives

38th District: Democrat Linda T. Sanchez has a lead of 54.1 percent of the vote, compared to Republican Eric J. Ching with 45.9 percent.

40th District: Republican Young Kim leads with 59 percent of the vote over Democrat Asif Mahmood, with 41 percent.

45th District: Republican Michelle Steel has 54.8 percent of the vote against Democrat Jay Chen, who has 45.2 percent of the vote.

46th District: Democrat Lou Correa leads with 58.4 percent of the vote against Republican Christopher Gonzales with 41.6 percent.

47th District: In a close race, Democrat Katie Porter had 50.5 percent of the vote against Republican Scott Baugh, who received 49.5 percent.

49th District: In another close race, Democrat Mike Levin holds 51.1 percent of the vote over Republican Bryan Maryott, who has 48.9 percent.

California Senate

30th District: Republican Mitch Clemmons trails with 42.7 percent of the vote against Democrat Bob Archuleta, who has 57.3 percent.

32nd District: Republican Kelly Seyarto is the likely winner with 62.2 percent of the vote compared to Democrat Brian Nash, who has 37.8 percent.

34th District: Democrat Tom Umberg is ahead with 55.2 percent of the vote against Republican Rhonda Shader, who has 44.8 percent.

36th District: Republican Janet Nguyen has 58.2 percent of the vote against Democrat Kim Carr, who has 41.8 percent.

38th District: In a close race, Democrat Catherine Blakespear has 50.3 percent of the vote against Republican Matt Gunderson who has 49.7 percent.

California Assembly

59th District: Republican Phillip Chen has a commanding lead with 71.9 percent of the votes against Leon Sit, who has 28.1 percent.

64th District: Democrat Blanca Pacheco is ahead with 56 percent of the vote, while Republican Raul Ortiz Jr. has 43.2 percent.

67th District: Republican Soo Yoo leads in a tight race with 50.2 percent of the vote against Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva, who has 49.8 percent.

68th District: Democrat Avelino Valencia has 58.3 percent of the vote against Republican Mike Tardif, who has 41.7 percent.

70th District: Republican Tri Ta has 55.3 percent of the vote against Democrat Diedre Thu-Ha Nguyen, who has 44.7 percent.

71st District: Republican Matt Rahn has 49.5 percent of the vote in a close race against Republican Kate Sanchez, who has 50.5 percent.

72nd District: Republican Diane Dixon is ahead with 56.9 percent of the vote against Democrat Judie Mancuso, who has 43.1 percent.

73rd District: Democrat Cottie Petrie-Norris has 54 percent of the vote against Republican Steven Choi, who received 46 percent.

74th District: Republican Laurie Davis has 54.1 percent over Democrat Chris Duncan, with 45.9 percent.

Orange County Supervisors

2nd District: In a neck-and-neck race, Vicente Sarmiento has 50.04 percent of the vote against Kim Nguyen, who has 49.96 percent.

4th District: Incumbent Doug Chaffee leads with 56.59 percent of the vote, compared with Sunny Park, who has 43.41 percent.

5th District: Katrina Foley had a slight lead with 51.13 percent of the vote against Patricia Bates, who has 48.87 percent.

Ballot Measures

G  Capistrano Unified School District SFID No. 3 Bond Measure: NO votes at 53.87 percent and YES votes at 46.13 percent.

H  Santa Ana Unified School District Term Limits: YES votes at 86.53 percent and NO votes at 13.47 percent.

I  City of Aliso Viejo, Councilor Term Limits: YES votes at 84.08 percent and NO votes at 15.92 percent.

J  City of Anaheim, Anaheim Hotel Tax (TOT Measure): YES votes at 58.74 percent and NO votes at 41.26 percent.

K  City of Costa Mesa, Ordinance to Revitalize Commercial and Industrial Areas and Protect Residential Neighborhoods: NO votes at 50.13 percent and YES votes at 49.87 percent.

L  City of Huntington Beach, Charter Amendment Measure 1: NO votes at 58.6 percent and YES votes at 41.4 percent.

M  City of Huntington Beach, Charter Amendment Measure 2: NO votes at 60.6 percent and YES votes at 39.4 percent.

N  City of Huntington Beach, Charter Amendment Measure 3: NO votes at 56.16 percent and YES votes at 43.84 percent.

O  City of Huntington Beach, Taxation on Cannabis Businesses: YES votes at 54.56 percent and NO votes at 45.44 percent.

P  City of La Palma, La Palma City Services Measure: YES votes at 71.58 percent and NO votes at 28.42 percent.

Q  City of Laguna Beach, Municipal Code Amendment to Create an Overlay Zoning District and Require Voter Approval of Major Development Projects: NO votes at 63.89 percent and YES votes at 36.11 percent.

R  City of Laguna Beach, Municipal Code Amendment to Create a Hotel Development Overlay Zoning District and Require Voter Approval of Hotel Development Projects: NO votes at 70.49 percent and YES votes at 29.51 percent.

S  City of Laguna Beach, Municipal Code Amendment to Create a Minimum Wage and Workplace Standards and Protections for Hotel Employees: NO votes at 68.85 percent and YES votes at 31.15 percent.

T  City of Laguna Woods, Cannabis Business Tax Ordinance: YES votes at 62.35 percent and NO votes at 37.65 percent.

U  City of San Clemente, Appointive City Clerk: YES votes at 53.41 percent and NO votes at 46.59 percent.

V  City of San Clemente, Appointive City Treasurer: YES votes at 51.34 percent and NO votes at 48.66 percent.

W  City of Santa Ana, Santa Ana Business License Tax Equity and Flexible Tax Holiday: YES votes at 63.45 percent and NO votes at 36.55 percent.

X  City of Santa Ana, Charter Amendments: YES votes at 74.71 percent and NO votes at 25.29 percent.

Y  City of Westminster, No-Tax Increase Local Services Measure: YES votes at 70.89 percent and NO votes at 29.11 percent.

Z  City of Yorba Linda, Housing Element Implementation General Plan Amendments and Rezoning: NO votes at 75.07 percent and YES votes at 24.93 percent.
Two incumbents on the Gage County Board of Supervisors will retain their seats following Tuesdays election.

Based on unofficial results, district 1 representative Eddie Dorn and district 3 representative Erich Tiemann each beat their challengers, Mark Burrows and George Pinkerton, respectively.

Dorn walked away with 963 votes to Burrows 452, while Tiemann claimed 786 votes to Pinkerton's 380.

Im very excited and very thankful, Tiemann said. Im ready to keep working for the county for another four years, he said.

District 3 is located in Riverside Township, just southeast of the city of Beatrice.

Tiemann thought he stood out as the candidate to vote for in large part because of his record of fiscal responsibility.

"I believe Ive been fiscally responsible during my time on the County Board," he said, "getting us through the Beatrice 6, road improvements and general infrastructure, along with being involved around the state with NIRMA, Southeast Nebraska Development District and those organizations, and our own local NGage.

Tiemann added he appreciates the support of those who voted for him, and he felt it was a clean race.

Pinkerton was disappointed with the results, but said it was a good experience for his first time seeking public office.

I think everything went pretty well for the first time in, he said. I want to congratulate Erich and hope the County Board continues to do a good job.

Pinkerton, a native of Gage County who grew up working on a family farm, retired last year after 15 years working for the Downtown Lincoln Association.

Tiemann has served two prior terms on the County Board and been the chairman for three years.

Dorn said he was eager to serve another four years on the board, and thanked the voters.

I want to thank everybody in district 1 who voted for me, he said. I listen to everybody I talk to in district 1, and will work hard again for four more years.

District 1 includes the general northeastern part of the county of Highland, Nemaha, Adams, Hanover, Hooker, Filley and half of Logan townships.

Dorn said zoning regulations have been a key topic hes enjoyed being involved in.

Burrows, a Democrat, is a retired postal worker who recently retired after 26 years.

I guess Im a little bit disappointed of course, but I'd like to thank the people who helped me and supported me, he said.
Handcuffs secure the back door of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection border patrol vehicle. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Latin American Countries Release Thousands of Criminals from Prison

Security analysts worry they will end up at the US border

Overcrowding in Latin Americas prisons has been part of the regions background noise for decades.

The area has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with detention numbers averaging 163 percent of prison capacity as of 2020.

However, the leaders of five nations within striking distance of the U.S. border are taking a new approach to the problem.

Lawmakers in Mexico, Ecuador, and Nicaragua are offering early release to thousands of criminals with minor offenses or who are awaiting trial.

In Cuba and Venezuela, lawbreakers and regime offenders are not only being released, many are exiled.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches over a group of illegal immigrants after tracking them through rugged terrain at the Organ Pipe National Monument, Ariz., on Sept. 28, 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Consequently, U.S. security analysts and legislators are voicing concerns. With security forces overwhelmed at Americas besieged southern border, some say the door is wide open to those with a criminal past and no incentive to stay home.

Illegal immigrant arrests at the U.S. southern frontier surpassed 2 million for the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. This shattered the previous years tally of 1.7 million arrests.

We have already seen the effects of similar policy in large urban areas in the United States, security lawyer Irina Tsukerman told The Epoch Times.

Tsukerman is a strategic adviser, geopolitical analyst, and president of Scarab Rising. She explained that public policy and a lack of law enforcement in some U.S. cities have created similar effects to what will likely happen in Latin America.

In both scenarios, more criminals end up on the streets.

Excess lawbreakers on the loose in the United States have generated upticks in both minor and violent crimes, according to Tsukerman. She says the same formula will produce comparable results in countries throughout the Americas, but with a key difference.

The likely consequence will be an increased flow in the number of criminals to the [U.S.] borders, she said, adding, Including successful border crossings.

Protecting The Innocent

In Mexico, the bottlenecked legal system was enough to free 2,685 residents in September. The order came into force after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors 2021 order, which granted amnesty to those waiting for their trials or whose legal rights had been violated.

Within that pool of criminals, 2,032 prisoners werent categorized in designations such as women, elderly, afflicted with chronic disease, foreigners, or indigenous. They were solely identified as having met the legal requirements for early release.

It is  an act of justice for those who have not committed serious crimes or crimes related to violence. Humble people who have not been able to pay for a lawyer, have a translator, or have faced all kinds of adversity, secretary of security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said during a press conference.

In February, Ecuadors President Guillermo Lasso announced the pardon of 5,000 prisoners to ease the dangerous overcrowding in the countrys penitentiaries. Tensions between rival gangs in packed jail cells exploded in 2021, culminating in riots that claimed the lives of 350 detainees.

Tight proximity between rival gang members sparked another prison riot in April this year at the El Turi prison, killing 20 more inmates.

Soldiers stand guard outside Turi prison after a deadly prison riot in Cuenca, Ecuador, on April 3, 2022. (Marcelo Suquilanda/AP Photo)

The Ecuadorian penal code dictates that prison inmates who have served 60 percent of their sentence are eligible for consideration of early release.

Lasso claimed that by pardoning minor offenders, population pressure would be reduced within the hotbed of violence simmering behind prison bars.

In a press statement, Lasso said he wanted to protect many innocent citizens who committed minor crimes, mistakes in their lives.

Nicaraguas government followed suit in April 2022. Vice President Rosario Murillo ordered the release of 1,000 petty criminals from the countrys jails.

Murillo said the offenders would be sent home to serve their sentences under the family cohabitation regime.

The Central American nation has a history of releasing criminals early to serve the remainder of their sentences under house arrest. Between 2014 and 2021, the Sandinista regime granted early release to 33,690 prisoners.

Prison Or Exile

For some Latin American governments, pardoning criminals kills two birds with one stone.

This is particularly true in Cuba and Venezuela, where entrenched dictators continue to silence opposition voices and protesters.

The communist regime in Cuba has long used the prison-or-exile method to rid itself of dissidents and also to facilitate the exodus to the United States of convicted criminals, analyst and author Orlando Guiterrez-Boronat told The Epoch Times.

Boronat noted the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela are masters of weaponizing immigration in order to have leverage on U.S. policy.

They have done it over and over again and are doing it now, he said.

Boronat believes a mass exodus of Cubans sent via Nicaragua to the U.S. southern border is the communist regimes ultimate goal.

In recent months, Venezuelans and Cubans have been heading for the United States in droves.

Border officials reported encounters with 220,908 Cubans and 187,716 Venezuelans in the fiscal year 2022.

U.S. legislators have also expressed alarm at the potential for criminal castaways to join migrant caravans.

In September, an alleged Department of Homeland Security report surfaced, stating Venezuelan convictssome of whom committed violent crimeswere identified in migrant caravans heading toward the United States border from Tapachula, Mexico.

The report expressed concerns the administration of President Nicolas Maduro may have been directly involved in the effort.

Congressman Troy Nehls (R-Texas) responded to the report with demands for transparency and accountability from the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in a letter endorsed by 13 other GOP legislators.

These concerns are real because even before the release of petty criminals, there has been a wave of undocumented migrants with criminal records or who have committed crimes upon arrival, Tsukerman said.
Members of the Nepalese army work during a rescue operation at the ruins of a collapsed house, damaged after an earthquake struck early Wednesday, in the western district of Doti, Nepal on Nov. 9, 2022. (Nepal Army/Handout via Reuters)

6 People Killed in House Collapse After Earthquake Hits Western Nepal

At least six people were killed and several others injured after an earthquake struck western Nepal on Wednesday, according to the police.

The quake occurred at about 2:12 a.m. Nepal time (8:27 p.m. UTC) on Wednesday, with its epicenter located close to a national park in the sparsely populated Doti district, 430 kilometers (267 miles) west of Nepals capital, Kathmandu.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake as having a magnitude of 5.6 at a depth of about 15.7 kilometers (9.8 miles), while Nepals National Seismological Centre recorded a magnitude of 6.6, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Bhola Bhatta, deputy superintendent of police in Doti, said that four childrenan 8-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl, and two 14-year-old girlswere among those killed when several houses collapsed in Purichauki rural municipality.

The fatalities also include a 40-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man. Bhatta said that five other people were injured due to the incident and were taken to the hospital, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Tremors were felt in the Indian capital of New Delhi, but no casualties were reported on the Indian side.

Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed his condolences to the victims families in a tweet and said that he had instructed the relevant agencies to provide immediate aid to those in the affected areas.

Nepalese army spokesperson Narayan Silwal said that an army ground rescue team had been dispatched to the site, and that two helicopters were on standby in the nearby towns of Surkhet and Nepalgunj.

Nepal is still rebuilding after two major earthquakes in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people and destroyed whole towns and centuries-old temples. The damage to the economy amounted to $6 billion.

Reuters contributed to this report.
A Global Digital ID Can Surely Protect Us From Cyberattacks, Right?

Commentary

The Russian hackers alleged to be at the centre of a major hack of Australias largest health insurer Medibank have followed through with threats to leak private health data belonging to Australian customers on the dark web.

Medibank refused to pay a ransom demanded by the hackers, fearful that doing so would encourage further hacks. It would also have run contrary to the Australian governments policy relating to online criminal threats, something that Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil confirmed.

In response, the hackers began by posting a Super Mario meme to taunt Medibank swiftly followed by the posting of names, addresses, birth dates, and other Medicare data such as gender and internal codes that list a persons diagnosis and treatment (although crucially not banking information) on a naughty and nice list.

Medibank signage sits on top of the Medibank building in Docklands, Melbourne of Australia on Oct. 1, 2014. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Medibank has confirmed that its entire database with 9.7 million customers was impacted by the hack. Of those, 5.1 million are Medibank customers, 2.8 million belong to AHM (health insurance branch), and the final 1.8 million are international customers.

The hackers have said that there will be more information releasedpossibly with a preference for Australian celebritiesbut they need more time due to the awkward formatting of the data in its original table-based format.

Originally, it was also reported that some health information had been removed although it is not clear yet to what, if any, extent that has occurred.

Proving themselves to be eloquent, the hackers said: Well continue posting data partially, need some time do it pretty.

The hack is a serious criminal matter and no doubt the ransomware group will continue to leak information online in the hope of a payoutif not from Medicare, then maybe from the celebrities they target.

Revealing addresses and phone numbers is not only a violation of privacy, but it is also extremely dangerous for vulnerable people who have moved away from abusive partners and presents a safety risk for celebrities.

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The only thing that Medibank could do was apologise. Even if they paid the ransom, it comes with no guarantee in the Wild West of online hacking that the data would be secured.

We knew the publication of data online by the criminal could be a possibility but the criminals threat is still a distressing development for our customers, added Medibank CEO David Koczkar, who has a nightmare scenario on his hands including the leaking of his personal phone number from screen-shotted text messages with the hackers.

Later, speaking to The Australian newspaper, Koczkar added: This is a significant decision for the business and weve had extensive expert advice. And the reality of that advice is that there was a small chance that paying a ransomyou can call it extortionthat it was very unlikely that they may return customer data. In fact, you cant trust a criminal.

A woman walks past a medibank shopfront in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 20, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

The home affairs minister has stood behind Medibank and its decision.

The fact that personal health information is being held over their head is just disgusting to me. It just shows us that these cyber criminals who we are joined in a fight against between the Five Eyes and other friends of partners around the world, they are just disgraceful human beings and we need to step up and do everything we can do fight against them, Minister Clare ONeil said.

Theyre scumbags, theyre crooks, theyre criminals, and we shouldnt be paying ransom, added Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones. We shouldnt be giving in to these fraudsters. The moment we fold it sends a green light to scumbags like them throughout the world that Australia is a soft target. We cannot give in and we wont give in.

Moves to Speed Up State-Backed Digital ID Rollout

Cyber hacking of this sort is nothing new. In the last few years, medical information has become the leading target for attacks, no doubt due to the increased weight that governments and businesses are attaching to public health.

There are genuine concerns that hacking incidents, such as what happened to Medibank and telecommunications giant Optus, are going to be used by governments as an excuse to race through global Digital Identity policies.

A camera being used during facial recognition trials at New Scotland Yard in London in January 2020. (PA)

Domestically, Australias version is called the Trusted Digital Identity Bill which encourages the mass collation and sharing of datacombining, for the first time, social, health, banking, business, and telecommunications data under one government roof.

Evidence that this is occurring continues to mount, first after the Optus attack (still under criminal investigation with the Australian Federal Police and Americas FBI) with the Australian Financial Review writing Optus fiasco must kickstart the federal Digital ID scheme which puts the responsibility on the government to create a unified digital profile for all Australians.

If it were to go ahead, the next time the government is hacked, thieves wont only walk away with names and addresses, theyll have an entire human profile and security pass.

Would a Digital ID solve the hacking problem for businesses?

That is also unlikely, given that businesses will almost certainly need to continue storing localised data in their systems to operate. Even sending out payment bills requires the retention of names, addresses, and phone numbers.

The Australian government, after a wasted decade for digital reform, is stepping up on cyber security and ransomware  we see and recognise the urgent need to address the conditions that have allowed the two largest cyber attacks in our history to occur within the space of two months, said the Home Affairs Minister ONeil.

One of the only things protecting the government from similarly severe cyber hacks is its archaic, disassociated, and anonymised data which is so old and clunky that hackers often walk away with meaningless dust rather than data.

A brand new, easy-to-read, collated digital gold mine in the Digital ID program would change that. Its a whistle to every hacker in the world.

In the wake of the hack, Medibanks share price took a dive while class action suits assemble against the company.

There is increasing evidence that the hackers are Russian, possibly related to a group that had previously disbanded due to Russian authorities cracking down on them.

Given the state of geopolitics with many Western nations involved in a proxy war with Russia via Ukraine, bringing hackers to justice this time appears to be a distant hope if they are based overseas.

As for customers, they are left with some difficult decisions to make in order to protect their safety.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
During a cruise to the North Pole on a nuclear-powered icebreaker, a Russian wildlife photographer snapped a stunning series of photos of a mother polar bear and her three cubs. The rare sighting was instantly a cause for celebration.

An IT entrepreneur by day, Dmitry Kokh, 42, lives in Moscow and travels widely. He described his spring trip to the North Pole as very exciting as the birth of three cubs is a rare occurrence in nature.

Our expedition leader had not had such an encounter in all his 26 trips, he told The Epoch Times.

Kokh used a drone with low-noise propellers to avoid disturbing the bears.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

While passing Franz Josef Land, a large northern archipelago, the crew spotted an ivory gull. These are a rather rare bird in these parts that very often accompanies polar bears, Kokh wrote on his Notion page. His expedition leader said that one should be on the lookout for bears after spotting the gull.

We kept our eyes out, and soon, a bright dot appeared on the horizon, he wrote.

The bright dot, a mother bear, was soon accompanied by three smaller dots: her cubs. Kokh leapt at the chance to record the rare sighting, first visualizing the shots he wanted before launching his drone from a safe distance.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

[The mother] came close to the ship, peered into the thawed patch in the ice, as if waiting for a seal. The cubs curled up in a ball behind her and slept peacefully. At some point, she tilted her head, closed her eyes and froze. I snapped the shot, he wrote.

Besides the joy of the sighting, Kokhs lucky shots lent him a platform for his message. He calls his favorite image in the series, A Home Divided.

He told The Epoch Times: Polar bears and man exist in two different worlds. We wake up to our smartphone alarms, go to the office so that we can buy lunch, force ourselves to the gym to work off said lunch, and then go to the bar looking to forget the day at the bottom of a glass. The bear just lives, and in order to live it does not need a Gucci bag or a TikTok feed.

Our progress is relentless, says Kokh; as our technologies advance we destroy forests and devastate the oceans. The irony of making this observation from a nuclear-powered iron ship with 75k horsepower, shattering 3-meter-thick ice to pave the way for ocean transit, was not lost on Kokh. He believes the human-animal world is increasingly divided.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

Past photos of Kokhs, showing polar bears on Kolyuchin Island, in the Arctics Chukchi Sea, using an abandoned cabin for shelter were recognized at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards in both the Urban Wildlife and Highly Commended categories. Kokh is grateful that his work is sparking conversations and contemplations among people with the power to make a difference.

He first fell in love with taking photos as a child. Scuba diving opened up a world of possibilities. He claims its an unglamorous life, but is addicted to the thrill-seeking. Its a gamble, easy to get hooked, he wrote. The more you photograph, the higher the stakes.

Kokh has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Ocean Geographic, and The Guardian. He has traveled to remotest Russia, Antarctica, Norway, the Red Sea, Cuba, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and has South America on his radar for a future expedition.

I would love to photograph an anaconda under water! he told The Epoch Times.

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

(Courtesy of Dmitry Kokh)

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
Analysts Explain Why GOP Underperformed in Virginia

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.Instead of a red wave, the midterm election results look more like a red ripple scenario, with Republicans appearing to be headed to a narrow majority in the House.

And for the three Virginia competitive races generally perceived as national bellwethers for GOP performance, Republicans won one out of the three.

In the military-heavy 2nd Congressional District in the Virginia Beach area, Republican challenger state Sen. Jen Kiggans unseated incumbent Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.).

In both the 7th and 10th Congressional Districts in exurban areas outside Washington and a few solid red rural counties, Republican challengers fell short of flipping the seats. Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega lost to Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) by a narrow margin in the 7th District. And in the 10th District, retired Navy captain Hung Cao trailed Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) by more than five percent of the vote.

Analysts summarized that the reasons for the Republican underperformance as a combination of inflated expectations, underestimation of the strength of the abortion issue, performance in diverse communities, and the Youngkin and Trump factors.

Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) (4th R) with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Virginia 512 president David Broder (R), Loudoun County Chair Junius Reynolds (5th R), and other members at Wextons reelection campaign kickoff event in Ashburn, Va., on June 20, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Inflated Expectations Met Reality in Northern Virginia

Republicans had tremendously inflated expectations about the Wexton race, Richmond-based veteran political analyst Bob Holsworth told The Epoch Times. Republicans have not been running well in Northern Virginia. And that district, even though it includes some Republican areas, is centered in Loudoun, where the Democrats have been running very well.

They [Republicans] watched Fox News that Loudoun is becoming a Republican county. Its going the other way. Its a Democratic county.

For the SpanbergerVega race, Holsworth said the quality of the candidate was a significant factor.

[Spanberger] had been rated to be one of the more bipartisan members of Congress, he said.

And the endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) mattered, according to Holsworth.

He summarized Spanbergers election results as a solid performance in Democrat-leaning areas, noting that the congresswoman was able to reduce Vegas margin in more Republican-leaning areas, such as Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Orange counties, compared to Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkins gubernatorial race last year.

You had a situation where this was a district [the 7th Congressional District] that Biden won by seven, Youngkin won by five, and now Spanberger won it by four to five, Holsworth said, noting that Spanberger was an extraordinarily energetic candidate who raised a lot of money.

Abortion Issue and Getting Votes from Diverse Communities

Ron Wright, cofounder of the Suburban Virginia Republican Coalition, told The Epoch Times that Republicans underestimated the strength of the abortion issue and didnt do well in diverse communities, such as black, Hispanic, and Asian communities.

In Florida, I think theyve done a great job in reaching out to the Hispanic community and building a strong base there. I think the Republican Party of Virginia needs work, he said.

Wright said the growth in northern Virginia is in Loudoun and Prince William counties, the exurban areas outside Washington. And those communities are diverse.

The Republican Party is not reaching the diverse communities, he said.

Holsworth agreed that Republicans underestimated the abortion issue.

Theres no doubt about that nationally, he said. And here, its a 6040 issue in Virginia in the Democrats favor.

As for the SpanbergerVega race, Wright thought Spanberger won by doing well in diverse communities and having raised much more money to pay for door-knocking to drive the turnout.

According to the Federal Election Commission, Spanberger outraised Vega by three times as of Oct. 19. With the disbursements by Oct. 19 and their final vote counts, Spanbergers cost per vote is about three times as much as Vegass: $60 per vote for Spanberger compared to about $20 per vote for Vega.

Both ran an equal amount of negative ads on each other, as shown by data collected by the Virginia Public Access Project.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (L) at a campaign event for Republican Congressional candidate Yesli Vega (R) in Fredericksburg, Va., on Nov. 5, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Each Election Is Its Own

Wright didnt think there was complacency on Vegas part due to having Youngkins support but acknowledged that big rallies dont always turn into large votes.

While stumping for Republican candidates in and outside Virginia, Youngkin repeatedly told the crowd that the red movement that propelled his gubernatorial win was happening again and attributed Virginia as the headwaters. On Election Day, Youngkin released a video called This is the moment, anticipating a red wave across the nation.

Holsworths view is that its always difficult to transfer your popularity.

My thinking is that it was very difficult for him [Youngkin] that he found out that each election is its own election, he said.

In addition to Youngkins considerable support in funding and rally appearances, Vega also received former President Donald Trumps endorsement in late October.

The emergence of Trump in the last couple of months of the election more visibly on the public stage again reminded Virginians, particularly in northern Virginia, that they dont like him, Holsworth said, noting that Trump wanted to drain the swamp and many in northern Virginia work in the swamp.

Therefore, many independents in northern Virginia see Trumps anti-government message as a threat, according to Holsworth.

The analyst said Vega didnt play up Trumps endorsement because she knew Trump wasnt popular in northern Virginia.
Falun Gong practitioners march down Pennsylvania Avenue to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of the spiritual practice in China, in Washington on July 21, 2022. (Larry Dye/ The Epoch Times)

Another 28 Reports in October From China of People Imprisoned for Their Spiritual Belief: Report

The Chinese communist regime has been persecuting a group of spiritual believers across China since 1999, and the massive suppression is still going on.

As of Oct. 31, 28 Falun Gong practitioners in nine provinces in China were reported to have been sentenced to imprisonment from 1.5 to 10 years, adding up to 554 people imprisoned in total in ten months this year.

Due to the difficulty in getting information out of China, these reports include sentences that happened in the past but were unknown. One report was of an individual imprisoned in 2014, another one occurred in 2021, and the remaining happened in 2022, as reported by Minghui.org, a U.S.-based organization that reports on the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong.

The numbers of victims are incomplete, according to Minghui, due to the strict censorship of the Chinese communist regime.

Chinas northeastern Liaoning Province imprisoned eight Falun Gong adherents, the highest number among the nine provinces, the report said.

Zhou Shuzhen, an 86-year-old retired textile factory worker in Chinas southwestern Sichuan Province, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment with a five-year probation. She was sentenced for studying Zhuan Falun, the main book of teachings for the spiritual practice of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice consisting of five gentle exercises and moral teachings promoting the values of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Its popularity surged in the 1990s after due to significant physical and spiritual benefits, spreading nationwide.

The number of Falun Gong adherents in China was estimated to be from 70 million to 100 million by the end of the decade, which outnumbered the 63 million members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as of 1999.

The CCP has been persecuting Falun Gong for its popularity in various ways, including defaming Falun Gong on Chinese media platforms and foreign media, depriving Falun Gong adherents of job opportunities, depriving them of their wages or retirement pensions, stalking and threatening them, arresting and torturing them, and most evil of all, live organ harvesting of Falun Gong believers.

Torture illustration: Shocked with multiple electrical batons. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

65-Year-Old Woman Imprisoned Four Times in Two Decades, Tortured

Liu Suzhi, a 65-year-old resident of Anshan City, Chinas northeastern Liaoning Province, was arrested on Jan. 4, 2022, when she and another Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Yunkun were talking with people about Falun Gong at a local farmers market. Both womens homes were ransacked after they were arrested.

Liu and Zhang stood trial at the Lishan District Court on August 10. Lius family learned on Sept. 29 that she was sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment. Minghui says in its report that its not clear whether Zhang has been sentenced.

This is the fourth time Liu has been imprisoned for her faith. She has appealed to the higher court, according to Minghui.

Liu began to practice Falun Gong in 1999, and she credits the practice for curing many of her illnesses.

On Oct. 1, 2001, Liu was sentenced to five years in Liaoning Province Womens Prison for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong.

Located in the northwestern suburb of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province Womens Prison is one of the most notorious in China for abusing incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners, even resulting in the deaths of some practitioners, according to Minghui.

The prison police tortured Liu brutally.

According to Minghui, the prison police ordered the inmates to beat her and deprived her of sleep for two weeks. When she was too sleepy to keep her eyes open, they stabbed her with needles and an awl and hit her head with a broom. The police shocked her with electric batons to force her to renounce Falun Gong. They forced her to sit on a small stool of 1.9 inches by 5.2 inches from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

In 2007, only one year after she was released, she was again arrested. This time she was sentenced to six years imprisonment at the Liaoning Province Womens Prison. Before she was imprisoned, she had been detained for 15 months at the Anshan Detention Center.

In 2018, Liu was imprisoned for the third time, this time for two years.

Liu has been sentenced to 16.5 years imprisonment in total since 2001.

Minghui Book on Persecution

Minghui has taken great efforts to contact Falun Gong adherents and speaks out for those practitioners silenced in China. Victims like Liu have been recorded in Minghuis book, Minghui Report: The 20-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Published in 2021, the 437-page book is the most exhaustive documentation of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and should be in every library and parliamentary office in Australia, comments Peter Westmore, former president of the National Civic Council in Australia.

The book was the 2021 silver winner of The Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book, Nonfiction, of the Benjamin Franklin Award. It is available on Minghuis publishing website in five languages: English, German, Japanese, Russian, and Persian.
Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security Clare O'Neil speaks to media in Melbourne, Australia, on Oct. 20, 2022. (AAP Image/James Ross)

Australias Immigration Visa System Broken: Minister

Australias Home Affairs Minister has said the countrys immigration system is broken and potentially subject to criminal exploitation.

Speaking to ABC Radio on Nov. 7, Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare ONeil, when asked if she thought the current visa immigration system was broken and being used to commit crimes like sex slavery and human trafficking, agreed.

It is. There are very significant problems with the immigration system today, ONeil said.

The comments come after a joint investigation by the Nine Network, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, titled Trafficked alleged that the immigration system was being rorted by criminal syndicates involved in human trafficking and organised crime.

Then-Australian Federal Police detective superintendent Paula Hudson at the Australian Centre for Child Exploitation offices in Brisbane, Australia on Sep. 2, 2020. (PATRICK HAMILTON/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)

According to the report, the Australian immigration system has a serious problem with visa agents running what the investigation called visa farms, which engage in the rorting of migration visas to Australia, including using protection visas reserved for humanitarian reasons for criminal purposes.

I would just say that its absolutely clear to me that there are systemic abuses of the system occurring at the moment, the minister said.

So, weve got obviously the exploitation of human beings occurring in our country, we are going to get on top of that, and that work is already underway with the AFP and Australian Border Force.

Albanese Government Migration Review Gets Underway

The comments from the minister come as she announced on Nov. 7 that Dr. Martin Parkinson AC PSM, Dr. Joanna Howe and John Azarias would head up a comprehensive review of Australias migration system.

The review will engage with migrants, unions, businesses, State and Territories governments and key stakeholder groups. It will also focus on specific concerns like the conduct of people and migration agents in the system, with action already being taken on those individuals.

A Migration System for Australias Future: The Albanese Government has today announced the appointment of Dr Martin Parkinson AC PSM, Dr Joanna Howe and Mr John Azarias to guide a comprehensive review of Australias migration system.https://t.co/h5IYr4QXOU#auspol  Clare ONeil MP (@ClareONeilMP) November 7, 2022

This review and a new national strategy, A Migration System for Australias Future, will ensure the migration system serves Australias national interests and complements the skills and capabilities of Australian workers, ONeil said.

The Strategy will outline the objectives of our migration system and guide future reform. It will focus on enhancing Australias productivity and providing businesses with the skilled workers they need while assisting migrants to build new and prosperous lives in Australia.
Australian Government Eyes Wealthy Retirees as It Considers Super Tax Concession Cuts

The Australian centre-left Labor government is considering cutting superannuation tax concessions for Australians with high retirement savings as it looks for avenues to improve the budgets bottom line.

Speaking at The Australian Financial Review Super & Wealth Summit on Nov. 8, Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said the federal government would bring up a debate about tax concessions after it legislated an objective for the superannuation system.

Were starting from the proposition about what is right, not what is a fight, he said, as reported by the Australian Financial Review.

While noting that tax concessions on super funds reduced federal tax revenue and were used to amass wealth, the minister said the government had not determined how much superannuation was too much.

Id start from the proposition that youre really going to struggle to convince the government that a retirement savings balance of $100 million (US$65 million) is all about retirement savings, he said.

Jones also mentioned that there were 32 self-managed super funds in Australia with more than $100 million in assets and that the largest one was worth over $400 million.

I celebrate success, but the concessional taxation of funds like these has a real cost to the budget, which needs to be considered, he said.

Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones at a press conference in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 31, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

In Australia, concessional taxation of super exists to encourage people to save for their retirement rather than rely on the age pension, which is a burden to government finances.

Under current laws, Australians who retire with over $1.7 million in super can put the excess funds in their accumulation account.

These funds will attract a concessional tax rate of 15 percent on earnings and contributions, which is much lower than the top marginal income tax rate of 45 percent.

Industrys Response to Super Tax Concession Cuts

Some groups in the super industry have supported the idea of imposing a limit, such as $5 million, on peoples super balances.

AustralianSuper CEO Paul Schroder said a person having $5 million in their super account could make $325,000 a year if the annual return on the investment were 6.5 percent.

Weve got plenty of multimillion-dollar members in the fund, so to each of them, I apologise for what Im about to say, but readjusting the tax mix would be beneficial for society, Schroder said, reported the Australian Financial Review.

Some super experts even went further and suggested the Labor government cap super balances at $2 million.

Meanwhile, H&R Block tax expert Mark Chapman said it was unfair for the government to continue to tinker with superannuation.

People have been paying into their super for decades under one set of rules, and its reasonable to assume those rules will still apply when you get to super age, he said in comments obtained by AAP.

Nevertheless, Chapman said a $5 million super limit was reasonable to help repair the federal budget, given the rising government debt.

Opposition financial services spokesman Stuart Robert has not replied to a request for comments from The Epoch Times.
People line up for nucleic acid testing at a residential block during a citywide COVID-19 nucleic acid testing campaign in Shanghai, China on April 1, 2022. (Zhang Suoqing/VCG via Getty Images)

Beijing Insists on Zero-COVID Policy but Blames Local Governments for Excessive Measures

In a press conference on Friday, the Chinese Health Commission insisted the countrys zero-COVID policy is an effective and economic measure for pandemic containment. The officials also blamed local governments such as Zhengzhou for unscientific measures that hurt the economy and frustrated the public.

On Nov. 5, the Health Commission emphasized sticking with the policy to prevent imported cases and recurrence of the domestic cases, and claimed the policy is the accurate way to deal with the pandemic.

Blaming Local Governments

In answering press questions on complaints posed by the populace during the implementation of the zero-COVID policy, the officials named Zhengzhou, in central China Henan Province, as the city that received the most criticism for its arbitrary travel restrictions and lockdowns.

Consequently, Zhengzhou officials held a press conference on Nov. 6, apologizing to the public and promising to rectify its measures in containing the virus.

The manufacturing sector in China has seen the disastrous impact of the arbitrary lockdown imposed by the authorities.

A resident undergoes a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 in Anyang in central Chinas Henan Province on Jan. 26, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

On Nov. 2, Zhengzhou imposed a seven-day lockdown for the industrial park where the manufacturer Foxconn is housed.

Since September, Zhengzhou has been one of the epicenters of viral infection. Positive cases were also reported in the Foxconn factory starting in October.

Recently, a large number of Foxconn employees fled the factory for fear of infection and a shortage of food and medicine on the factory premises due to the lockdown.

The Zhengzhou Foxconn location is Apples largest iPhone assembly factory in the world.

According to the 2020 China Top 500 Foreign Trade Research Report by the Statistical Society for Foreign Economic Relations & Trade of China, Zhengzhou Foxconn contributed to 82 percent of Zhengzhous total export value in 2019; Zhengzhou Foxconns total export volume reached $31.6 billion, the largest contributor to Chinese foreign trade export in 2019; and the import and export volume was second only to two state-owned enterprises, China Petrochemical Corporation and China National Petroleum Corporation.

On Nov. 6, Apple released a statement saying that the primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly facility located in Zhengzhou is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity.
President Joe Biden speaks during a rally for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore and the Democratic Party on the eve of the midterm elections, at Bowie State University in Bowie, Md., on Nov. 7, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Extends Trump-Era National Emergency Investment Bans on Chinese Military-Linked Companies

U.S. President Joe Biden is extending this week a Trump-era national emergency that prohibits U.S. companies or individuals from investing in companies linked to Chinas military.

Then-President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13959 in November 2020, citing threats to national security. The order declared a national emergency to halt investments in companies with ties to Chinas military.

Biden later expanded on the order in June 2021 with Executive Order 14032, which prohibited U.S. investments in companies affiliated with Chinas military or surveillance industries.

His latest order will extend the national emergency regarding investment in Chinas military and surveillance companies by one year beyond its previously scheduled end date of Nov. 12.

The PRC is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, which continues to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas, Biden said in a statement, using the acronym for the Peoples Republic of China, communist Chinas official name.

The PRC military-industrial complex  continues to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.

In his statement, Biden said the Chinese Communist Partys national strategy of military-civil fusion was to blame, as it requires civilian companies in China to directly contribute to the regimes military and intelligence activities.

Because of this, those companies must be treated as though theyre part of Chinas military and intelligence apparatus, and their ability to interact with U.S. markets must be limited, he said.

Those companies, though remaining ostensibly private and civilian, directly support the PRCs military, intelligence, and security apparatuses, Biden said.

At the same time, those companies raise capital by selling securities to United States investors that trade on public exchanges both here and abroad, lobbying United States index providers and funds to include these securities in market offerings, and engaging in other acts to ensure access to United States capital.
The chairman of the Gage County Board of Supervisors will retain his seat on the board for another four years.

Based on unofficial results in Tuesdays election, Erich Tiemann will beat challenger George Pinkerton for the District 3 seat on the board.

From unofficial results, Tiemann claimed 786 votes to Pinkerton's 380.

Im very excited and very thankful, Tiemann said. Im ready to keep working for the county for another four years, he said.

Tiemann thought he stood out as the candidate to vote for in large part because of his record of fiscal responsibility.

"I believe Ive been fiscally responsible during my time on the County Board," he said, "getting us through the Beatrice 6, road improvements and general infrastructure, along with being involved around the state with NIRMA, Southeast Nebraska Development District and those organizations, and our own local NGage.

Tiemann added he appreciates the support of those who voted for him, and he felt it was a clean race.

District 3 is located in Riverside Township, just southeast of the city of Beatrice.

Tiemann has served two prior terms on the County Board and been the chairman for three years.

He represents the county as a board member of the NGage economic development group, as well as as board member of NIRMA and the board chair of Southeast Nebraska Development District. Hes previously served two terms as board member of the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce and is a past member of the Beatrice City Council.

Tiemann previously said a key accomplishment during his time on the board is working toward paying the $28.1 million Beatrice 6 judgment, which is expected to be completely paid in the spring.

Pinkerton couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

Pinkerton, a native of Gage County who grew up working on a family farm, retired last year after 15 years working for the Downtown Lincoln Association.

He said there was not one reason he ran for County Board or anything particular he hoped to change if elected.
A lawn sign supporting Karl Branenec for New York State Assembly in Port Jervis, N.Y. on Oct. 21, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Brabenec Cruises to Reelection in New Yorks 98th Assembly District

Four-term New York Republican State Assemblyman Karl Brabenec won his reelection bid in the 98th district by a 30 percent margin.

The newly drawn district encompasses portions of both Rockland and Orange County, including Deerpark, Mount Hope, Minisink, Warwick, and Goshen.

Brabenec got 65 percent, or 20,279 votes, compared to 11,092 votes secured by his Democrat challenger Bruce Levine, according to the unofficial results published by the Orange County Board of Elections.

I am extremely grateful to all the voters that helped me to achieve such a huge victory, Brabenec told The Epoch Times. I will continue to fight for all the residents of my district to make New York a better place to live for all.

Voters reelected Assemblyman Karl Brabenec on Nov. 8. (Courtesy of Karl Brabenec)

Levine told The Epoch Times that he had run not to win but to add new ideas to the public policy debate.

Even when you cannot win, you are still a voice for your party, he said. It is just important for Democracy to have choices and to have different views. The public deserves [it.]

In a previous interview with The Epoch Times, Brabenec said he would do his best as deputy minority whip to lobby Democrats to do away with harmful laws such as the bail reform.

We warned the majority party of the natural consequences of adopting the legislation, and you can see that a lot of them are happening now, he said. The entire reform needs to be repealed.

Brabenec said in the previous interview that it had been hard for Republicans to push for legislative agendas since the Democrat Party had full control of the state legislature and governorship in 2019.

He had hoped for Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York Governor, to win against incumbent Kathy Hochulwhich he said was the best chance for Republicans to restore some balance in the state government, according to the previous interview.

As of late afternoon on Nov. 9, Gov. Hochul had a lead of 5 percent against Zeldin, with 94 percent of districts reported, according to the unofficial results by the New York State Board of Elections.

Aileen Gunther, a Democrat, was returned with a 20 percent margin in New Yorks 100th assembly district. (Courtesy of Aileen Gunther)

In the nearby 100th assembly district, nine-term Democrat Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther won reelection by a 20 percent margin against Republican challenger Lisa LaBue.

The district encompasses most of Sullivan County as well as portions of Orange County, including Middletown and the Wallkill.

Gunther got 8,009 votes, compared to 5,248 votes by LaBue, according to the unofficial results published by the Orange County Board of Elections.

I want to thank the constituents of Orange and Sullivan Counties for giving me another opportunity to serve them, Gunther told The Epoch Times.

I look forward to continuing to bring back our taxpayer money for important projects here at home and passing legislation to help improve the lives of the people of the state of New York.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger appeared headed for reelection Tuesday night. Here is the Republican, in his official state portrait.

Brad Raffensperger Wins Re-Election as Georgia Secretary of State

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was projected as the winner of the race over Democratic challenger Bee Nguyen, according to The Associated Press.

Bee Nguyen, Democratic nominee for Georgia Secretary of State, speaking at the Atlanta Press Club debate Oct. 18, 2022. (Reuters/Dustin Chambers/POOL.)

Primaried in May by the Trump-supported Jody Hice, Raffensperger won by 200,000 votes with a 52 to 34 margin of victory. He would have won without Democratic support, but the 75,000 votes from Democrats who crossed party lines in Georgias open primary to vote for him allowed him to avoid a runoff.

In a controversial move this primary cycle, Democratic-aligned PACs backed Trump-supported candidates under the theory that they would prove easier for a Democrat to beat in November.

That wasnt the case with Raffensperger. Democrats voted partly to protect themselves from a Trump-backed Republican they deemed more extreme but also to reward Raffensperger for his performance at a critical time.

That complicated matters for Nguyen. The child of immigrants who escaped Vietnam on a boat, Nguyen, a state representative, had to nuance her attacks on her opponent.

Some folks believe my opponent is a hero, she told Forsyth County Democrats in September. And I admit I breathed a sigh of relief when he did not find an extra 11,780 votes. But should the bar for an elected official be that low?

In the words of Stacey Abrams, Not committing treason does not make you a hero.'

But Raffensperger was able to win both a primary against a Trump-supported candidate and a general election against Nguyen.

Elected to the post in 2018, he had faced enormous pressure before, during, and after the 2020 election. President Donald Trump lost Georgia and its critical electoral votesand in an hourlong recorded telephone call on Jan. 2, 2021, he asked Raffensperger to find 11,780 votesthe margin he lost bywhich he implied should be easy to find amid numerous irregularities and claims of voter fraud in the state. That call would become part of the evidence for Trumps second impeachment and eventual exoneration.

After 2020, Raffensperger spoke in public often to civic groups telling disgruntled Republicans that the election wasnt rigged and that his office had followed the law. In June, he testified in Washington before the Houses committee exploring the Jan. 6, 2021, disturbance at the Capitol.

Nguyen was often the most prominent speaker at Democratic rallies after Abrams, who rose to prominence with her narrow defeat to Brian Kemp in 2018 and her protests of his aggressive purging of the states voter rolls while Secretary of State.

Nguyen and Abrams said the subsequent passage of Georgias Election Integrity Act on Raffenspergers watch constituted Jim Crow 2.0. The law tightened up on absentee ballots, and the widespread usage of untended dropboxes that critics charged encouraged election fraud.

The Republicans and Mr. Raffensperger have made it harder for Georgians to vote, Nguyen said at her only debate with him on Oct. 18 in Atlanta.

Abrams and most Democratic candidates in Georgia ran hard on the voter suppression plank. But even as Nguyen spoke at the debate, Georgians were setting records in early voting, which began the previous day. Raffensperger, Kemp, and other Republicans could cite that as proof that the reforms made it easy to vote and hard to cheat.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly speaks at the House of Commons in Ottawa in a file photo. (The Canadian Press)

Canada Must Do More to Counter Chinese Election Interference, Says Joly

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada must do more to prevent Chinese interference when asked by reporters what should be done about recent allegations that China meddled in the 2019 federal election.

For the past two elections, we had a committee that was working on these very issues and also we strengthened our processes, but I think we need to do more, Joly said after making an announcement on Canadas upcoming new Indo-Pacific Strategy at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in Toronto, Ont., on Nov. 9.

Joly also said the federal government wont let any foreign actor meddle in our democracy.

We need to make sure that we tackle foreign interference at home, but I would say also, particularly in the digital sphere.

Jolys comments come amid a Global News report published this week alleging that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was briefed by intelligence officials in January, who said the Chinese Communist Party had funded 11 unnamed federal candidates in the 2019 election.

State actors from around the world, whether its China or others, are continuing to play aggressive games with our institutions, with our democracies, Trudeau told reporters in Laval, Que., on Nov. 7 in response to the allegations.

He added that the federal government has implemented significant measures to strengthen the integrity of our elections processes and our systems and added that CSIS will be receiving new tools to monitor election interference.

Failed to Protect Our Democracy

Joly also said on Nov. 9 that the federal government will challenge China when we ought to, but will cooperate with China when we must.

Its sheer size and influence makes cooperation necessary to address the worlds existential pressures, she said.

Conservative MPs yesterday called upon the federal government to be more proactive in defending Canadas democracy against Chinese interference.

Its long past time for the Trudeau government to come forward with a robust plan to counter Beijings foreign interference operations here on Canadian soil, wrote Conservative MPs Michael Chong and Pierre Paul-Hus in a statement on Nov. 8.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a press conference today that Trudeau has failed to protect our democracy.

I think its very troubling that the prime minister has known about allegations of foreign interference in Canadian elections since last January and he hasnt taken any action, Poilievre told reporters in Vancouver, B.C., on Nov. 9.

The House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee will hold an emergency meeting to investigate the allegations of Chinese election interference and Trudeaus knowledge of it after six MPs signed and submitted a meeting request on Nov. 9.

The committee will meet sometime within the next five days, as per House rules.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles (R) inspects an honor guard ceremony prior to a Japan-Australia bilateral defense meeting at the Japanese Ministry of Defense in Tokyo, Japan on June 15, 2022. (Shuji Kajiyama / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese Spy Threat Forces Australia Into Review of Former Soldiers

Defence Minister Richard Marles has announced a review into ex-members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) after reports retired personnel may have been approached to provide military-related training in China.

In a statement on Nov. 9, Marles, also the deputy prime minister, said that a preliminary investigation had found enough evidence to warrant a detailed examination of current policies and procedures.

Its no secret that Defence activities, people, and assets are targets for Foreign Intelligence Services, Marles said.

But let me be clear: Australians who work or have worked for the government in any capacity, particularly our ADF, who come into possession of the nations secrets, have an obligation to maintain those secrets beyond their employment with, or their engagement with, the Commonwealth.

This is an enduring obligation, and to reveal any of those secrets is a crime.

Marles noted that although the ADF already had a range of policies in place to protect Defence staff, information, and assets, the review would look for any weaknesses in the system.

Taskforce Investigating Potential Espionage Threat

Speaking at a press conference after releasing the statement, Marles announced the government had set up a joint Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce including members of the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

The task force that Ive described is investigating a number of cases, Marles said. What we are focused on right now is making sure that we do examine the policies and the procedures that are currently in place in respect of our former Defence personnel to make sure they are adequate.

The latest move comes after a former U.S. Marine fighter pilot and flight instructorwho had been working in Chinawas arrested in Australia following a report from the BBC alleging that Beijing had been headhunting military personnel for training.

This photo taken on Jan. 2, 2017, shows Chinese J-15 fighter jets on the deck of the aircraft carrier Liaoning during military drills in the South China Sea. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Australian Federal Police arrested Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, on Oct. 21 in the rural town of Orange in New South Wales.

Duggan, who is listed by his company, Top Gun Australia, as the chief pilot and managing director, is a former major in the U.S. Marine Corps who served in the Persian Gulf during operations in Kuwait and spent time in the Spanish Navy.

He is also alleged to have had experience flying a range of military aircraft, including the AV-8B Harrier Jump Jet, T2C Buckeye, A4J Skyhawk, Hawks, and Mig29, and was a senior tactical instructor trained in weapons and tactics, air combat, and low-altitude flying and has been contracted as a military tactical instructor and consultant.

The BBC reported that the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) had issued an intelligence alert after up to 30 former military pilots were believed to have been recruited by the Chinese regime to train members of the Peoples Liberation Army.

The BBC alleges that the UK government became aware of the recruitment drive targeting pilots with experience on fast jetslike the Typhoon, Jaguar, Harrier, and Tornadoand helicopters in 2019, and that efforts were ramped up with current personnel being targeted.

The training is alleged to have been completed in South Africa, with the UK MOD noting to the press that other allied nations have also been targeted.
Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway to the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., on Jan. 31, 2022. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Coutts Villagers Still Divided on Protest Blockade Months After, Says Mayor

The community in the small border village of Coutts, Alberta, is still divided over the protest blockade that occurred last winter, its mayor told the Public Order Emergency Commission on Wednesday.

We still have neighbours that wont talk to each other, Mayor Jim Willett testified.

He assessed the community was split 70-30 regarding the blockade, with the majority being supportive.

We had a lot of  sympathetic people in the village who figured it was our duty to feed everybody, Willett said.

Protesters started impeding traffic at the Canada-U.S. border crossing in Coutts on Jan. 29.

Their grievances against COVID-19 restrictions were similar to the trucker-led Freedom Convoy protesters who started arriving in Ottawa around the same time.

Willett said he understood the original cause of the protesters at Coutts was the vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border enacted by Canada and the U.S. in mid-January.

Then it mutated into my body my right [and] all of the different conspiracy things that have gone on, Willett said.

People havent let that go, and so it still exists to this day.

Willet said residents were still able to move around, in and out of the village, but it depended on how comfortable they were with driving past monster pieces of equipment.

As an example of the split in the community, Willett said one resident asked him to relay to the inquiry that residents were never prevented from moving around.

Willett also spoke of a resident who is a military veteran from Afghanistan who had to leave town during the events due to having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

They had to leave town because it triggered her PTSD and she just couldnt take it, Willett said.

No Enforcement

Willett told the commission he stopped supporting the protests after it became a border blockade.

I was never against the protest, you have that freedom, that right to protest anytime you want as long as you dont break the law and interfere with my right to travel and so on, he said.

In a way I participated in their protest because along with the other border mayors, we communicated with the federal government saying this is not right to treat these guys after the two years as if they suddenly become pariahs or something, he added, referring to truckers who suddenly needed to be vaccinated to cross the border after previously crossing freely during the pandemic.

The blockade dispersed voluntarily on Feb. 15, a day after the RCMP made a number of arrests and seized firearms said to be linked to a group of blockade supporters.

The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade, the RCMP said at the time.

I got that feeling  that because of what had happened, that the mood in the crowd had changed, and they were going to depart, Willett said.

One blockade organizer, Marco Von Huigenbos, said at the time the protest dispersed to wrap this up in a peaceful way. Von Huigenbos testified before the inquiry on Nov. 8.

Mayor Willett said no enforcement was required by the RCMP to make the protesters leave, and that no power from the Emergencies Act invoked by the Liberal government on Feb. 14 was used.
Whether its pesticides, genetically modified foods, AIDs, or COVID-19, the silencing of debate occurs regularly in scientific circles, particularly with big contentious issues, says Prof. Brian Martin of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong.

Martin recently co-authored a study into COVID-19 censorship revealing the extreme and unprecedented measures used by governments, medical boards, media outlets, and Big Tech to silence opposing views on pandemic science.

The professor, who has authored several studies into censorship, says the difference with COVID-19 was the involvement of Big Tech and the scale of censorship.

With nuclear power, pesticides, or GMOs, there are people affected by those, but not to the scale of COVID-19, he told The Epoch Times.

Labels on bags of snack foods indicate they are non-GMO food products, in Los Angeles on Oct. 19, 2012. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Ive been studying suppression for decades and every time theres a highly controversial public issue there will be dominant experts on one side, and just a few dissidents on the other that come under attack because they change the nature of the debate, he said.

Martin said a few disagreeable voices could shift the dynamic from one between experts versus the uninformed publicto one with experts versus experts.

Thats quite a difference, he said. Ive seen that in debates on nuclear power, fluoridation, nuclear winter, pesticides, you name it.

The professor said the dominant side of a debate typically aligned with powerful organisations like corporations and governments, while dissidents faced a tougher time and risked being discredited altogether by stakeholders keen to prove there is no disagreement on contentious issues.

The only outlier to this trend was the tobacco and climate change debate, where organisations and scientists were largely in opposing camps rather than working together.

There have been some notable cases of environmental scientists facing censorship for disagreeing with the climate change consensus. Notably, former Australian professor, Peter Ridd, has faced pressure over his views on the environment, saying the situation is not as dire as suggested by climate change activists.

Unprecedented Levels of Suppression During Pandemic

Martins recent study, Censorship and Suppression of COVID-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics, co-authored with four other experts, found well-known scientists and doctors were forced to find ways to circumvent a broad array of censorship tactics used against them.

Some experts said media outlets stopped interviewing them for comment shortly after they were reported being defamed and slapped with labels such as anti-vaxxer, COVID denier, misinformation spreaders, or conspiracy theorist.

Further, some reported having their social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Google, and LinkedIn, taken down.

One expert says they even experienced censorship on Google Docs.

Google Docs started restricting and censoring my ability to share documents  This is an organisation telling me that I cannot send a private communication to a colleague or to a friend, or to a family member, the expert told researchers.

Medical experts also reported being suppressed by the academic and medical communities.

One doctors name appeared on the website of his countrys Ministry of Healthout of 55,000 physicianssaying he was distributing disinformation.

There was a concerted effort to  ruin my reputation even though, this is unbelievable, they [the hospital where I work] had the lowest death rate basically in the world, he told researchers.

Science: Ideal vs. Reality

Martin said the storybook ideal of science was that experts should be open to different kinds of evidence, yet it was often the case researchers get locked into particular ways of thinking.

Thats often very productive because you dont want to be distracted by a bunch of weird side ideas; just focus on the standard assumptions within the field and solve the puzzles, he said, but it was detrimental for dealing with contentious public issues.

So scientists can get locked in, and most commonly on the side of powerful groups because theyre the ones providing funding, legitimacy, and possible advancement of careers.

A scientist examines rapeseed plants in a hall that allows researchers to grow new plant variants for testing under precise environmental conditions in Gatersleben, Germany, on April 22, 2021. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

He prefaced that by saying scientists and institutions genuinely believed they were being objective and doing the right thing. Yet he did point to the influence of funding bias.

If a scientist receives funding from a corporation, lets say a pharmaceutical company, then their findings are much more likely to be supportive of the company.

Martins comments come after Stanford economist John Cochrane authored an open letter calling for free speech to be respected in academic circles.

Researchers whose findings challenge dominant narratives find it increasingly hard to get published, funded, hired, or promoted, he wrote.

They, and teachers who question current orthodoxies, are harassed in person and online, ostracized, subjected to opaque university disciplinary procedures, fired, or cancelled by other means.
DCCC Chairman Rep. Maloney Concedes NYs 17th District Race to Lawler

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), has conceded in New Yorks 17th Congressional District race to Republican state Assemblyman Mike Lawler, in one of the biggest upsets of the 2022 midterm elections.

As chairman of the DCCC, Maloney is responsible for most Democratic Party fundraising and strategizing efforts.

With more than 95 percent of the votes counted, Lawler led Maloney 51 percent to 49 percent.

Maloney conceded early on Nov. 9, according to a tweet by William F.B. OReilly, a spokesman for Maloneys campaign.

N.Y.-17 Update: Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney just called to graciously concede to @lawler4ny, OReilly wrote.

The outcome is one of the biggest surprises in a night that disappointed Republicans hopes for a red wave in Congress. The defeat came after Maloney decided to switch districts, a move that shocked observers and left many skeptical about the wisdom of the move.

In Virginias 2nd District, Democrat Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), a prominent member of the Houses Jan. 6 committee, was defeated by GOP state Sen. Jen Kiggans. The race for months has been considered a toss-up between the two Navy veterans.

In New Jerseys 7th District, Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, who was seeking his third term, conceded on Nov. 9 to Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr., a former state Senate GOP leader and the son of popular former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean Sr. The race was considered the most competitive in the state.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Kean had a lead of 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent, or 13,678 more votes than Malinowski.

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Lauren Boeberts (R-Colo.) race remains too close to call, with Boebert trailing Democrat Adam Frisch at press time. Frisch was leading Colorados 3rd District race by less than 3,500 votes with 90 percent of the results in on Nov. 9, according to The Associated Press.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who could soon become speaker of the House if Republicans pull out a victory, has already declared victory in the lower chamber.

I want to thank the millions of supporters across this country, McCarthy said on Nov. 9. It is clear we are going to take the House back.

However, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose political future is uncertain even if her party does hold onto the House, has at the same time refused to concede.

While many races remain too close to call, it is clear that House Democratic members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country, Pelosi said.

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Lauren Boeberts (R-Colo.) race remains too close to call, with Boebert trailing Democrat Adam Frisch at press time. Frisch was leading Colorados 3rd District race by less than 3,500 votes with 90 percent of the results in on Nov. 9, according to The Associated Press.

Whatever the outcome of the final numbers, the loss of Boeberts seat would be a blow for Republicans, who didnt expect such a tight race for the district.

Boebert and her House ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have faced sharp criticism from Democrats for their position that the 2020 election was marked by widespread voter fraud.

The race for control of the Senate also remains too close to call.

AP currently puts the Democrats caucus at 48 seats in the Senate and the Republicans at 47. That includes Democrat John Fettermans projected victory over Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Republican J.D. Vances victory over incumbent Tim Ryan in Ohio.

Crucial races in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Alaska remain uncalled.
Election workers sort submitted ballots at the Multnomah County Elections Office on November 2, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Decisions on Oregon Races That Could Impact Partisan Balance May Be Delayed

Changes to reporting frequency in one Portland county and the states new postmark rule could delay Oregons tally in key races, including the razor-thin three-way race for governor and the nationally watched Congressional District 5 race between Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner and Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

Clackamas County election Clerk Sherry Halls decision to update tallies less frequently than other counties could delay the results for several days.

The county will release preliminary election results around 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, but wont update tallies again after that until Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The schedule departs from that of other counties, which release updated results multiple times on election night and early Wednesday morning.

Nearby Multnomah County will post results on its elections website at 8 p.m. on election night and update its tallies every two hours through 2 a.m. Wednesday before posting additional updates at 6 p.m. each night.

Lane County will follow suit.

Clackamas County Public Information Officer Kimberly Webb explained that the decision is based on the massive volumes of late voters.

Oregon voters have been marking their ballots since Oct. 19. But as of Nov. 7, just 36 percent of Clackamas county voters had turned in their ballots in the Democrat-leaning county.

We have a bit of a traffic jam here, Webb told The Epoch Times.

As ballots continue to come in on Election Day, they still have to be processed, signatures have to be checked, all of the security protocols have to be followed, Webb explained.

According to the Oregon Secretary of States office, counties can make their own reporting schedules, as long as they comply. Clackamas County does.

Meanwhile, Oregons new postmark rule could also mean it takes longer statewide to share results, especially in close races.

The new Oregon law allows mail-in ballots that arrive up to a week after the election to be counted, so long as they are postmarked by Election Day, Lane County Election Clerk Dena Dawson told The Epoch Times.

That means final results could be delayed by days, especially in close races such as those in Clackamas County as well as that of Republican Mike Erickson and Democrat Andrea Salinas in Oregons 6th Congressional District,

The new postmark rule probably wont make much difference in races with wider margins, but every ballot must be tallied before results can be known, Dawson explained.

As ballots postmarked on Election Day continue to arrive, all of the security protocols have to be followed, said Dawson.

The new extended postmark deadline for ballots was used for the first time in the May primary this year. Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagen reports that 5 percent of ballots were cast on Election Day.

Oregons Secretary of State will release results tonight at 8 p.m. local time (11 p.m. ET), but will not certify official election results until Dec. 15 after receiving post-election audits from all 36 Oregon counties.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) tours Podmore Manufacturing Inc. on October 11, 2022 in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. Hassan is campaigning for re-election against Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Democrat Hassan Wins Highly-Watched US Senate Race in New Hampshire

New Hampshire Democrat U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan has won one of the most heavily watched races in the nation, clinching a comfortable victory over Republican challenger Don Bolduc.

According to the Associated Press, Hassan secured 55.1 percent of the vote, comfortably beating Bolduc who scored 42.9 percent.

Earlier in the day, those who believed in her chances of beating Bolduc stood for hours holding campaign signs. One of them was Donna McCay, Chairman of the North Hampton Democratic Party. She began at 7:30 a.m. and was still out greeting voters well after dusk just outside North Hamptons K-8 school, not far from Hassans Exeter hometown.

Shes done a good job representing Democratic values, said McCay, especially the Democratic values of New Hampshire,

McCay said Hassan does an especially good job protecting the picturesque New Englands states environment while promoting economic growth through sponsored legislation. She also pointed to Hassans willingness to advocate for LGBTQ+ youth and womens productive rights.

Bolduc, a retired Army Brigadier General, held dozens of town halls as part of his bid for U.S. Senate, while Hassan did very little campaigning.

Various polls showed the race as neck-and-neck in its final weeks. Republicans watched the race intently with high hopes that the political newcomer would add strength to the anticipated red wave to replace veteran Washington Democrats with Republicans.

Hassans narrow win harkens back to 2016 when she was elected by a 0.14 percent margin or what represented only 1,014 more votes than her opponent, then-Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte, also a former state prosecutor.

Hassan is one of several influential female U.S. senators and congresswomen from New England. They include Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.). They are all Democrats like the group of Washington female lawmakers known as The Squad made up of Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

In her campaign against Bolduc, Hassan deemed him an extremist for saying the 2016 presidential election was stolen. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Hassan also labeled Bolduc as a dictator who would use his authority to tell women what they should do with their bodies, based on his staunch anti-abortion views.

Despite Bolducs standing as a decorated war veteran, Hassan remained popular among veterans, having sponsored numerous bills aimed at improving health care and benefits for them.

Her ability to pull off a win with relatively little campaigning could at least in part be due to her willingness to step outside party lines. Recently, in a debate with Bolduc, she said that President Joe Biden should answer for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. New Hampshire has for a long time had a sizable bloc of registered voters that dont align with either party. In this election, it was said to be around 41 percent.

A third candidate in the race, libertarian Jeremy Kauffman garnered 2 percent of the votes, which some Republicans feared would tilt the close race in favor of Hassan.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro greets his family after giving a victory speech to supporters at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Democrat Josh Shapiro Wins Pennsylvania Governor Race

Democrat Josh Shapiro has been elected Pennsylvanias next Governor with Austin Davis as lieutenant governor, although Republican Doug Mastriano did not concede Tuesday night.

Shapiro had 54.42 percent of the vote, or 2,571,668 votes, at the time his victory was called. Mastriano 43.74 percent, or 2,067,092 votes.

In what felt like a concession speech, Mastriano told supporters 30 percent of votes were not yet counted, and he was going to wait it out.

Shapiros four-year term will lengthen Democrat rule in the executive office to 12 years. Current Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf is completing his second term. Eight years is the limit in Pennsylvania.

With a Republican-led state House and Senate, Shapiro will surely continue Wolfs trend of vetoing much of the legislation that comes out of the Republican General Assembly.

Shapiro, who is currently state Attorney General, will likely keep many of the policies Wolf has championed such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program that consumers are starting to notice through their higher energy bills.

Shapiro promised on the campaign trail to give teachers good wages, better fund schools, and not censor books in school libraries. He was well-funded by teachers unions.

He is pro-abortion and might advocate for less restrictive abortion laws, although the General Assembly is not likely to put such bills on the floor.

Shapiro may end up using the executive order to advance his causes.

Shapiro became a household name in 2018 after releasing a nearly 900-page grand jury report investigating child sex abuse within the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. It profiled more than 300 clergy members who allegedly sexually abused children. Many had died or retired, but the report brought the problem into focus. During the investigation, Shapiro communicated regularly with victims and invited them to his office for updates. The victims became a sort of support group of shared experiences and were devoted to Shapiro, who had brought their story to light.

The Race

The matchup between Mastriano, 58, and Shapiro, 49, was one of sharp contrasts in values and funding.

Shapiro had no challenger during the primary and had millions more in campaign money to spend. He received donations from New York, California, and other states. His donors included three members of the Soros family.

Mastriano faced a crowded primary and raised far less money, but his donors were mostly private Pennsylvania individuals giving in small amounts.

Rebbie and Doug Mastriano Republican candidate for governor, at a campaign rally in Manheim, Pa. on Oct. 29, 2022. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times)

Shapiro hit television advertisements hard. Mastriano was hardly seen on television, and his supporters became frustrated when he didnt refute Shapiros negative spin. While Mastriano tried to keep the conversation on issues, Shapiro spent a lot of time tearing Mastriano down.

The Next Governor

Pennsylvanias next governor will inherit the Department of State, which has had numerous directors in recent years. The governor appoints a secretary of state who will oversee elections.

All cabinet positions could see new leadership in the new administration, including the secretary of education, secretary of environmental protection, and State Police commissioner.

The new governors secretary of transportation will have to navigate Pennsylvanias pledge to move toward electric cars and funding of new bridges and roads and repairs. Will they lower one of the nations highest gas taxes? How many more traffic circles will they put in around the state?

The governor-elect must hire a secretary of health; and secretaries for labor and industry; conservation and natural resources; corrections; drug and alcohol programs; human services; aging; banking and securities; revenue; community and economic development; and agriculture.

The governor must also appoint an adjutant general of Military and Veterans Affairs, director of Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, inspector general, insurance commissioner, state fire commissioner, and physician general.
A skilled nursing home in Columbus is the latest to announce a voluntary closure, making 10 nursing home closures across the state this year.

Beartooth Manor, a Lantis Enterprises property with 37 residents, will cease operations on Jan. 7, according to Wendy Soulek, COO of Lantis Enterprises. Residents and staff were notified on Monday.

This closure notice was sudden and unexpected, having mostly to do with unaffordable agency staff, said Soulek.

To bring on a licensed practical nurse through an agency the wages alone were more than $80 an hour. Then, the workers travel expenses and housing costs would also have to be carved from the nursing homes budget that is already bare bones.

Not to mention, housing prices in the rural community have surpassed the working persons wage, Soulek said. Even if she could find permanent health care workers, there would be nowhere for them to live.

We cant afford agency staff. There is no Medicaid reimbursement for agency workers, Soulek said, adding that after talking with nurses, she knew the facility wouldnt make it through another holiday season.

Historical discrepancies in Medicaid reimbursement has lead nearly 15% of Montana's nursing homes to close. The facilities that are struggling most serve rural Montanans.

Leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services have refused pleas from administrators for short-term financial support that would see them through, at least until the 2023 Legislature can address Medicaid reimbursement.

Im so floored that Montana has chosen this path. The governor...(expects people) will move to more populated areas, but their families cant. Thats the most heart-wrenching and cruel part of this whole thing, Soulek said. They cant just let rural communities go down like this.

This is the fifth Lantis Enterprises property to close in Montana this year, and Soulek has helped facilitate each one.

It is killing me, Soulek said through suppressed tears.

With the holidays coming, Soulek expects families will move quickly to transfer their loved ones. But not all residents know where theyll end up yet or when theyll be moved.

Ive been told not to worry about it, said Gary Morton, a resident at Beartooth Manor.

Morton has lived at Beartooth Manor for three years after being moved from a Billings facility that couldnt accommodate his particular needs. He is bedridden, invalid and has cancer.

In Billings, Morton had a handful of friends who would visit, but when he was transferred to Columbus, an 80-mile trek round-trip, his visitors came much less often.

I dont get to see anybody, Morton said.

Hes nervous about moving to a new facility after finally finding his routine in Columbus.

I dont want to get moved into a bad situation, he said. Its kind of like a kid who gets sent to a new school. You make it or you dont make it depending on how they treat you.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills attends the Climate Action Summit 2019 in the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York on Sept. 23, 2019. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

Democrat Mills Wins Another Term as Maine Governor

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who has presided over some of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, was reelected to a second term as governor in the rural New England state.

The 74-year-old Democrat beat out Republican challenger Paul LePage, himself a two-term Maine governor from 2011 to 2019.

According to the Associated Press, Mills won with 54.4 percent of the vote to LePages 43.7 percent.

In a politically colorful state like Maine where pro-Second Amendment and pro-abortion politicians can often be found, the liberal Mills has wide appeal.

While she is a northern Mainer, her biggest support comes from the southern coastal regions where progressive Massachusetts transplants co-mingle with local bluebloods who inherited their standing as a result of their ancestors good fortune of buying cheap real estate that is now worth millions.

Maine also has the oldest population in the country, making the governors strict COVID-19 vaccine mandates appealing to an age group that proved most vulnerable to the pandemic. The states ranking as having the highest vaccine rate and the lowest COVID-related deaths were invaluable statistics in Mills campaign to remain in office.

Prior to becoming governor, Mills served as the first female district attorney in the state and then as its first female attorney general.

As Maines top prosecutor, she founded the Maine Womens Lobby, an advocacy organization for victims of domestic violence. She also created the Land for Maines Future Program, for the conservation of the states forests, farms and waterfronts.

Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine) speaks in Washington on Sept. 12, 2017. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Make Room USA)

No stranger to politics, LePage, 74, served two terms as Maines governor between 2011 and 2019 and is a former mayor and city councilor. He embraced his Trump before there was Trump reputation he had earned in part for his openly abrasive jabs at anyone who opposed him.

Because Maine does not allow a governor to serve three consecutive terms, the Waterville businessman didnt seek re-election at the end of his second term in 2019. He left office with a 54 percent disapproval rating.

He and his wife moved to Florida, but moved back to Maine in 2020 oddly enough at the height of the states COVID shutdowns when freedom seekers were heading in the opposite direction.

It was around that time when Mills would make Maine known for having some of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, while doing away with religious exemption for government and healthcare workers. The restrictions remain in place and are the subject of multiple pending lawsuits. A group of healthcare workers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the constitutionality of Mills no-religious-exemption policy, but the high court refused to hear it as it did with a similar complaint out of New York.

Maine also is one of only six states that have no religious or philosophical exemptions from any of the required school immunizations. A non-profit called Health Choice Maine, which supports freedom of medical choice and fully informed consent, has the support of a large group of parents. The group was one of LePages biggest campaign supporters.
Then-President Donald Trump introduces Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a homecoming campaign rally at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., on Nov. 26, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

DeSantis Overtakes Trump in 2024 Betting Markets After Midterms

After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won overwhelmingly in Florida, it sparked betting markets to tip the 2024 race in his favor past former President Donald Trump.

Incredible shift in the odds for President in 2024! @RonDeSantisFL overtook Trump for the first time, Maxim Lott, co-founder of the website Election Betting Odds, wrote on Twitter.

Two of the sites Election Betting Odds uses, Betfair and Smarkets, showed DeSantis with a substantial lead over Trump. The Florida governor was 27.3 percent as compared with Trump at 18.4 percent.

The Florida governor overtook Trump because DeSantis just won a swing state with a crazy 20 percent margin. For comparison, he won his race in 2018 by just 0.4 percent, Lott added on Twitter.

President Joe Biden remains below both Republicans in the 2024 presidential odds at 16.5 percent, according to Election Betting Odds. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, stood at 5.9 percent, and Vice President Kamala Harris was at 5.4 percent.

Another betting website, PredictIt, showed DeSantis had a slimmer lead at around 31 percent and Trump at around 28 percent.

Before the Tuesday midterm elections, Trump issued warnings to DeSantis about possibly running in 2024. On Monday, the former president said he would make an announcement next week, sparking speculation he may launch his presidential campaign.

If he did run, I will tell you things about him that wont be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign, Trump told Fox News in an interview on Monday.

DeSantis, meanwhile, has not issued any public responses to Trump. He also has not confirmed whether he will run for president in 2024.

As for Biden, the president told reporters that he will make a decision by early 2023.

Our intention is to run again, thats been our intention, regardless of what the outcome of this election was, Biden said Wednesday at the White House.

Trump, who took an active role in recruiting Republican candidates, had mixed results. He notched a victory in Ohio, where Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance won a Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. But Doug Mastriano, another Trump ally, was defeated in the Pennsylvania governors race.

While in certain ways yesterdays election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory  219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General  Who has ever done better than that? he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

The party that occupies the White House almost always loses seats in elections midway through a presidents first four-year term, and Biden has struggled with low public approval.

In this climate we should have done better, said Rob Jesmer, a former head of the Republicans Senate campaign arm.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey DeSantis and children Madison, Mason and Mamie, waves to the crowd during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 8, 2022. (GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images)

DeSantis Decisive Midterm Winner; Heralds GOP Supermajority in Florida

Several significant races are still undecided in Arizona; Georgia Senate race heads for a December runoff

The decisive reelection success of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, where he won by more than 19 percentage points, topped a red wave that didnt extend much beyond the states borders.

DeSantiss success was underscored by strong results for his GOP colleagues across the state, particularly Sen. Marco Rubio, who won by more than 16 pointsdouble his 2016 margin. In the House of Representatives, the GOP flipped three Florida seats and also picked up the additional one that was apportioned to the state based on the 2020 census.

The success was particularly striking in the 27th Congressional District, which was almost perfectly split after the 2020 redistricting between those who voted for future President Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump in 2020. This time, Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar carried it by more than 14 points.

Salazars victory underscores the success of Florida Republicans to attract Latino voters. The district, covering a part of Miami-Dade County, including Little Havana, is more than two-thirds Hispanic.

In addition, the Florida GOP flipped four state Senate seats and eight state House seats, giving them supermajorities in both chambers.

Winning Recipe

DeSantis focused his campaign on issues of public safety, freedom, and opposition to the quasi-Marxist woke ideologies.

States and cities governed by leftist politicians have seen crime skyrocket, theyve seen their taxpayers abused, theyve seen medical authoritarianism imposed, and theyve seen American principles discarded, DeSantis said during his victory speech.

We have embraced freedom, we have maintained law and order, we have protected the rights of parents, we have respected our taxpayers, and we reject woke ideology. We fight the woke in the Legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.

The contrast between the woke movement and more traditional values has emerged as one of the most salient points with voters.

DeSantis has proven that culture war is good policy and good politics, anti-woke activist Christopher Rufo stated in a Nov. 8 tweet.

Its time for Republicans to lean in and abolish critical race and gender theory from American life.

DeSantis Phenomenon

DeSantis is a rare character in American politics, combining impeccable establishment credentials with palpable disdain for the establishment.

He graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School before joining the U.S. Navy, where he reached the rank of lieutenant and spent one year deployed to Iraq. He then served as a federal prosecutor.

In 2012, he ran for Congress in Floridas reliably Republican-leaning 6th District and won. In 2015, he co-founded the Republican Freedom Caucus.

In 2017, DeSantis was one of the few Republican lawmakers who opposed the special counsel investigation into alleged TrumpRussia collusion to sway the 2016 election. The investigation ultimately didnt substantiate the allegations.

In 2018, DeSantis ran for governor of Florida with Trumps endorsement. He ran a pro-Trump campaign that profoundly irritated the beltway establishment, including an ad in which he taught his son to build the wall and say Make America Great AgainTrumps signature policy and slogan, respectively.

As governor, hes stood out for quickly reversing government restrictions on people and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing criticism from national and local media.

Hes also aggressively opposed influences of the woke ideology in education, particularly the theories that tend to divide people based on race or introduce children to sexual concepts at a young age.

Over the past year, there has been growing speculation that DeSantis may run for president in 2024, though some analysts argued he may sit out the race if Trump runs. The midterm results may mix up those calculations.

Nationwide, Republican candidates J.D. Vance and Ted Budd won Senate seats in Ohio and North Carolina, although only by single-digit margins. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) barely defended his seat while Dr. Mehmet Oz lost in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Blake Masters in Arizona trailed incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly as of press time by 5 points. Adam Laxalt in Nevada maintains a small lead over Democrat incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, although 20 percent of the vote is still to be counted. In Georgia, Herschel Walker will go to a runoff against Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Trump took a jab at DeSantis shortly before the midterms, nicknaming him Ron DeSanctimonious during a rally speech. DeSantis, on the other hand, has refrained from criticizing the former president.

The only time Trump and DeSantis clashed, at least indirectly, was last month, when DeSantis threw support behind Republican John ODea, a Senate contender in Colorado. ODea said he would actively campaign against Trump in the 2024 race and Trump, in response, disavowed him. DeSantiss endorsement of ODea was a big mistake, Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

ODea lost to incumbent Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet by more than 12 points.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis hold a COVID-19 and storm preparedness roundtable in Belleair, Fla., on July 31, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

DeSantis Would Be Making a Mistake If He Runs in 2024, Says Trump

Former President Donald Trump has said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could hurt himself badly if he makes a bid for a White House run in 2024.

The comment was made in an interview with Fox News on Trump Force One, on Monday after his last rally in Dayton, Ohio stumping for Republican candidate for Senate, JD Vance.

I dont know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly, Trump said, I think he would be making a mistake. I think the base would not like it. I dont think it would be good for the party.

He added: Any of that stuff is not good. You have other people that possibly will run, I guess. I dont know if he runs. If he runs, he runs.

In answering the question of whether the two are in some kind of tiff, Trump affirmed, Theres not a tiff with me, and Im way up in the polls, Trump said. No, theres not.

Trump drew headlines when he made the quip about DeSantis at a rally for Dr. Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania.

The former president called DeSantis Ron DeSanctimonious when walking through polling for possible 2024 GOP candidates, which have shown Trump with a significant lead.

Were winning big in the Republican Party for the nomination like nobodys ever seen before. There it is, Trump at 71 percent, Ron DeSanctimonious at 10 percent, Trump said in Pennsylvania. Mike Pence at seven, oh, Mike is doing better than I thought. Liz Cheney theres no way shes at 4 percent. Theres no way. Theres no way. But were at 71 to 10 to 7 to 4.

He Could Have Been More Gracious

In another interview with News Nation that premiered on election day, Trump said he expected that DeSantis would have been more grateful to him as his endorsement led to his victory in the Florida governor race in 2018.

Trump pointed to the GOP gubernatorial primary in Florida back in 2017 where DeSantis beat the right wing of GOP front-runner Adam Putnam, then Floridas agriculture commissioner with 56 percent of the vote.

I got him the nomination. He didnt get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it, Trump said.

He further made note of the fact that during the Florida governors race against Democrat Andrew Gillum, he continued to throw support behind DeSantis. The former lawmaker ended up with a thin lead by roughly 1 percentage point.

I did two rallies, we had 52,000 people each and he won. I thought that he could have been more gracious. But thats up to him.

The former president affirmed that DeSantis is a person he has always had a decent relationship with.

Ron is a person Ive always had a decent relationship with, but when I endorsed him, he was gone.

The Florida governor has secured his second term with a landslide victory over former Congressman Charlie Christ.

According to Decision Desk HQ, DeSantis drew 59.1 percent of the vote compared to his Democratic challengers 40.3 percent, with more than 94 percent of the vote counted as of 11:15 p.m. ET on Nov 8.

While there have been rumors about DeSantiss presidential run, the reelected governor has not mentioned one.

Meanwhile, the former president teased confirmation of his anticipated 2024 presidential bid to supporters when giving speech at the rally on Monday, revealing he will make a big announcement on Nov. 15.

Frank Fang and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
(L) Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate John Fetterman addresses supporters during a rally at Norris Park in Philadelphia on Oct. 15, 2022. (R) Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz hosts a safer streets community discussion in Philadelphia on Oct. 13, 2022. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Dr. Oz Concedes Pennsylvania Senate Race to John Fetterman

Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz has called Democrat John Fetterman to concede Pennsylvanias U.S. Senate race on Wednesday morning.

It comes after most mainstream forecasters called the race in favor of Fetterman by early Wednesday morning. Data showed that by Wednesday, Fetterman had 50.3 percent of the vote to Ozs 47.3 percent.

This morning I called John Fetterman and congratulated him. I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States Senator. Campaigning throughout our great Commonwealth was the honor of a lifetime, and I will cherish the memories and the people I met, said Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, in a statement. Pennsylvanians showed up with passion and a vision for a bright future that I found inspiring every day. I want to thank my supporters, so many of whom worked tirelessly to spread our message and support me and my family.

Oz added that after the election, we are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done.

With bold leadership that brings people together, we can create real change, said Oz, who spent years as a daytime television show host. As a Doctor, I always do my best to help others heal. Thats why I ran for Senate. I hope we begin the healing process as a nation soon.

Republicans performed more poorly than anticipated across the United States as some toss-up races broke in favor of Democrats. The GOP was widely forecast to retake the House of Representatives but its now unclear whether they will, although House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declared victory. The Senate is still a toss-up, while the race in Georgia is likely heading to a runoff next month between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Republican candidate Herschel Walker.

A recent stroke victim who had to use closed-captioning technology in a debate against Oz, Fetterman is currently Pennsylvanias lieutenant governor. Before that, he served as the mayor of Braddock, a city located near Pittsburgh, for more than a decade.

Its official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, said Fetterman after midnight on Wednesday. We bet on the people of Pennsylvania  and you didnt let us down. And I wont let you down. Thank you.

Also in Pennsylvania, Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro declared victory in the race for governor. He was running against Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano.
Voters drop off ballots at the Orange County Registrar of Voters offices in Santa Ana, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Election Aftermath: Analysis of California Races and Initiatives

Commentary

On the day after the Nov. 8 election in California, many races can only be studied with a preliminary analysis. For example, the race for Los Angeles mayor is too close to call, with Rick Caruso currently leading Karen Bass 252,476 to 240,194, out of 2.1 million eligible voters. Election results will continue to be updated daily for about a month and will be certified by Dec. 16.

Statewide, at least, the winners are clear, although the exact results are not. Links are included to the California Secretary of States tallies for updates.

U.S. Senator. Incumbent Democrat Alex Padilla beat Republican Mark Meuser, 59 percent to 41 percent. As seen in what follows, those partisan percentages held for most statewide seats. Padilla has been unexceptional, following the party line on most issues. Which voters didnt seem to mind.

Governor. Democrat Gavin Newsom won re-election, 58 percent to 42 percent over Republican Brian Dahle. If those numbers hold up, that will be a dip of 4 percentage points from his 2018 election. Despite his being an incumbent who just doled out billions in surplus money. And Dahles campaign garnered little coverage. A speed bump in Newsoms presidential ambitions, but its there nevertheless.

Lt. Gov. Incumbent Democrat Eleni Kounalakis got 58 percent to 42 precent to Republican challenger Angela Underwood Jacobs. Important because Kounalakis would become governor should Newsom become president or vice president.

Controller. For this open seat, Republican Lanhee Chen garnered 46 percent to Democrat Malia Cohens 54 percent. This was the main hope for Republicans to gain a statewide post. He still came up short. But it does show voters trust Republicans with money issues more than Democrats. Term-limited incumbent Democrat Betty Yee botched the timely reporting of state financial reports, while Cohen showed little competency for the job. A little hope for Republicans.

Superintendent of Public Instruction. Although officially nonpartisan, incumbent Tony Thurmond got 63 percent to Republican Lance Christensens 37 percent. A big disappointment. Surveys show parents are upset with California schools, which commonly dwell near the bottom of national test scores. Yet they stood with Thurmond, whom even liberals said has done nothing in his job. Christensen is a friend of mine from when we worked with state Sen. John Moorlach and would have shaken up the states failing schools system. But the teachers unions backed Thurmond, solidifying their power and preventing reform.

Attorney General. Appointed Democratic incumbent Ron Bonta won, 57 percent to 43 percent, over Republican challenger Nathan Hochman, who ran on a strong anti-crime platform. Despite rising crime, its still hard to beat an incumbent Democrat in this state.

Insurance Commissioner. Despite scandals, incumbent Democrat Ricardo Lara beat Republican challenger Robert Howell, 58 percent to 42 percent. One scandal from the San Diego Union-Tribune reads, Facing public records suit, CA insurance chief drops plans to auto delete emails. Voters apparently werent paying attention.

Secretary of State. Incumbent Democrat Shirley Weber beat Republican Rob Bernosky, 58 percent to 42 percent. There havent been many election complaints against Weber, so there was little reason to replace her.

Treasurer. Incumbent Democrat Fiona Ma beat Republican Jack Guerrero, 57 percent to 43 percent. Again, no reason to replace her.

Initiatives

Proposition 1, abortion rights, won 65 percent to 35 percent. This was less than the 70 percent-plus proponents were expecting. Abortion already was legal. Prop. 1 made it legal, opponents charged, up to right before birth. Proponents spent $12 million on the measure, opponents just $128,782.

Propositions 26 and 27, the gambling initiatives. Both were wiped out. Prop. 26 lost 70 percent No to 30 percent Yes. Prop. 27 lost even bigger, 83 percent No to 17 percent Yes. Each side spent massive amounts to defeat the other. Voters bet against both.

Proposition 28, public school arts funding. It won easily, 62 percent to 38 percent. Its hard to oppose teaching kids how to draw or play the trombone. Although the up to $1 billion in extra spending will have to come from somewhere.

Proposition 29, kidney dialysis clinic regulation. This was the third time voters rejected regulations of these clinics as advanced by health-care unions, this time by 70 percent to 30 percent.

Proposition 30, tax on millionaires to fund electric car infrastructure and fight wildfires. It lost 59 percent to 41 percent. Californians still dont want higher taxes.

Proposition 31, ban on menthol-flavored tobacco. It won 62 percent to 38 percent. More moral posturing in a state where marijuana now is legal, but cigarettes close to being entirely banned  the opposite of 30 years ago.

Conclusion

Basically, for California this was a status-quo election. The drama in other states, such as the Pennsylvania race for U.S. Senator or the Arizona governors race, was lacking here. Its a heavily Democratic state, and theres little indication the GOP will be able to break through to victory, even in the vulnerable controllers position.

Eyes now turn to what Gov. Gavin Newsoms ambitions bring him. The PredictIt betting site pegs his chances of getting the Democratic Partys 2024 presidential nod at 15 cents, down 3 cents just the past day since the election; to 40 cents for President Joe Biden, up 6 cents; and 11 cents for Vice President Kamala Harris, also a Californian.

Perhaps Newsoms slight underperformance Tuesday did hurt him. But its a long way to the summer of 2024 and the Democratic National Convention.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Empire Co Tight-Lipped as IT Problems Affect Pharmacies at Sobeys and Other Stores

Empire Co. Ltd. remained tight-lipped Tuesday about computer system issues that are still impeding customers seeking prescriptions at some pharmacies it operates.

The Nova Scotia-based company issued a brief statement Monday confirming that an IT systems issue affecting certain pharmacies has caused technical difficulties in filling prescriptions.

Issues at Empire-operated pharmacies, including Sobeyspharmacies and Lawtons Drugs, were first reported over the weekend, and some locations in Halifax Tuesday had signs posted warning customers of the ongoing technical problem. Unfortunately, at this time we are unable to access your records to fill a prescription, a sign at one pharmacy counter said.

Empire did not respond to questions Tuesday about the cause of the IT problem and has not said when it expects it to be resolved. In its Monday statement, the company said it remains committed to the continuity of care for all its pharmacy patients.

Anne Genge, the CEO of Alexio, an Ontario-based cybersecurity company that specializes in health care, said the situation is reminiscent of the cyberattack that targeted Newfoundland and Labradors health system last year.

The issue here is probably the same as what we saw last year in Newfoundland: a ransomware attack, she said in an interview Tuesday. A ransomware attack is when hackers steal or encrypt sensitive information and demand a payment to release it.

Genge said the scale of Empires system outage and the lack of public communication from the company lead her to believe that this type of cyberattack may be behind the technical problems.

She said it would not be surprising for Empire to keep relatively quiet about the IT problems if the company were working on a plan to restore the system or negotiate with a possible cyber attacker. They tend to not talk about things until theyve got it sorted out, she said of organizations facing ransomware attacks.

With about $30.5 billion in annual sales and 130,000 employees, Empires stable of retail outlets include 1,598 stores under a number of different banners, including IGA, Safeway, Foodland, FreshCo, Needs, Thrifty Foods, Rachelle-Bery and Bonichoix.

Our sole focus right now is on getting this problem rectified and we will provide further updates as relevant information becomes available, Pierre St-Laurent, Empires chief operating officer, said in the Monday statement.

By Lyndsay Armstrong
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, arrives for an event in Washington, in a file image. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian Envoy Reiterates Dirty Bomb Claim as Security Chief Visits Iran

Moscows ambassador to the United States repeated claims on Nov. 9 that Ukraine intends to stage a nuclear provocation involving a dirty bomb with the aim of blaming the fallout on Russia.

Anatoly Antonov was cited by Russias TASS news as claiming that Kyiv would make the provocation look like the use of a tactical nuclear weapon by Russia in order to drag the United States and NATO directly into the conflict.

Since March, Russian officials have repeated the same allegation on several occasions. At an Oct. 25 meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Russian diplomats reportedly shared evidence of their claims with top Western officials.

The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seen at the agencys headquarters in Vienna on May 24, 2021. (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Nevertheless, U.S., British, and French officials have described the Russian allegation as transparently false.

Their Ukrainian counterparts also have denied the claims, saying that its Moscownot Kyivthat plans to detonate a dirty bomb in Ukrainian territory.

So-called dirty bombs typically feature conventional explosives combined with radioactive material.

Earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.s nuclear watchdog, sent a team of inspectorsat Kyivs requestto three sites inside Ukraine with the ostensible aim of looking into the claims.

On Nov. 3, the IAEA declared that it had found no evidence of clandestine nuclear activity at any of the three sites it had visited.

Based on the evaluation of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the agency did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the locations, the Vienna-based agency said in a statement.

Reckless and Provocative

Antonov also criticized what he described as reckless and provocative statements by Kyivs Western allies, citing recent assertions by the U.S. Armys 101st Airborne Division that it was ready to enter the conflict on the Ukrainian side.

On Oct. 21, CBS News reported that thousands of troops from the 101st Airborne Division, along with heavy equipment, had been deployed to Romania. According to the report, the deployed troops are carrying out live-fire exercises with their Romanian counterparts at a number of sites near the Ukrainian border.

A NATO member since 2004, Romania shares a roughly 373-mile (600-kilometer) border with southwestern Ukraine.

The report also quoted U.S. military officials as saying that U.S. forces deployed in Romania are prepared to cross the border into Ukraine in the event of a Russian attack on NATO territory.

An elite light-infantry army division, the 101st Airborne is specialized in rapid assault operations and seizing hostile terrain.

Assertions made by U.S. officials cited in the report conflict with earlier statements by U.S. President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly said there were no plans to send American troops into Ukraine.

Drones during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in Iran in an undated photo. (Iranian Army/West Asia News Agency via REUTERS)

Security Chief in Tehran

Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian Security Council, traveled to Tehran on Nov. 9 for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Shamkhani.

According to a Russian Security Council statement cited by TASS, they discussed issues related to information security, along with means of combating attempts by Western intelligence agencies to interfere in the domestic affairs of the two countries.

They also reportedly exchanged views on a range of international issues, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and recent developments in the Middle East region.

In recent weeks, Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian-made Shahed 136 combat drones to strike Ukrainian targets, including the countrys critical energy infrastructure.

Although Moscow and Tehran both initially denied the claims, Iran acknowledged on Nov. 5 that it had supplied Russia with a small number of unmanned aerial vehicles.

However, Iranian officials insist that the drones were delivered to Russia before Moscow began its special military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Kyiv, for its part, has challenged the claim, saying that Ukrainian forces were successfully downing at least 10 Iranian drones per day.

For the past several weeks, Iran has been rocked by sporadic violence in different parts of the country, along with a wave of anti-government protests that have continued intermittently since mid-September.

The protests were initially sparked by the death of a young woman who died in police custody in Tehran after being detained by police for wearing inappropriate attire.

Iranian officials blame the ongoing unrest on foreign enemies, including the United States and Israel, providing little evidence to support their claims.

The protests first erupted in Tehran on Sept. 16, the same day that Iran officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a bloc of Eurasian states in which Russia plays a leading role.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, left, talks to reporters with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Washington in an April 26, 2022, file image. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Eric Schmitt Wins Race for US Senate Seat Representing Missouri

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Nov. 8 won the race for a U.S. Senate seat representing Missouri, according to a race call.

The Associated Press was among the outlets calling the race for Schmitt as he opened up a large lead over Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine.

We did it. Thank you Missouri! Schmitt said in a statement.

Congratulations to Senator-elect Eric Schmitt on his victory in Missouri tonight. Missourians are rejecting Bidens and the radical Lefts reckless agenda and that showed tonight by keeping the Show Me State red. I look forward to serving alongside Eric in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement.

Schmitt, 47, had nearly 60 percent of the vote to Valentines 37 percent as of 10:31 p.m., according to unofficial results from the Missouri Secretary of States Office.

That was with 1,752 of the states 3,266 precincts reporting.

Libertarian Jonathan Dine had 1.7 percent of the vote and Paul Venable of the Constitution Party had 0.7 percent.

Tonight did not go the way so many of us had hoped. While I am incredibly proud of the campaign we built together and the tireless work we did to get our message out across the state, a majority of voters have spoken and I am committed to respecting their will and these results, Valentine, a nurse, said in a statement.

Schmitt has been Missouris attorney general since 2019. Before that, he was Missouris treasurer.

Schmitt emerged from a contested Republican primary race after defeating former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.).

Schmitt and Valentine were vying to replace Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is retiring in January 2023 when his current term ends.

Blunt is one of five Republican senators who are leaving office voluntarily, compared with just one Democrat senator.

Keeping the Missouri seat with the Republicans will help in the partys bid to flip control of the upper chamber, which is currently split 5050.

Democrats have a majority because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes.

Schmitt is among the Senate candidates who have said they will not support Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as the top Republican in the body. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has also said he will not back McConnell, who has been the top GOP senator since 2007.

He has vowed to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable if he was elected to the Senate, in addition to taking on Big Tech, protecting elections, fighting to keep major projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline alive, and working to strengthen border security.

Schmitt has repeatedly taken on the federal government as attorney general. He is behind one of the most high-profile lawsuits in the nation, which alleges that government officials and Big Tech executives and workers colluded to censor Americans.

The suit has already produced hundreds of pages of documents bolstering the allegations, including emails showing top Biden administration officials pressuring Facebook and Twitter to take action against users.

Several top government officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, are set to be deposed in the case by the end of the year.
Members of the Royal Canadian Navy salute during a naming ceremony for Arctic and offshore patrol ships, at Halifax Shipyards in Halifax on May 29, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan)

EXCLUSIVE: Canadian Navy to Mandate COVID-19 Boosters for Sailors, Leaked Memo Shows

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has mandated that all sailors stationed at sea must receive up-to-date COVID-19 vaccinations, which includes at least one booster shot within the last six months.

My direction remains that only sailors with up to date vaccinations, defined as the primary vaccination series plus either a booster within the last 6 months or a confirmed recovery from a COVID-19 infection within the last 6 months, be employed or undergo training as a member of crew aboard HMC ships and submarines, wrote RCN Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee in a Nov. 4 unclassified memo obtained by The Epoch Times.

Topshee said all Navy members who choose not to receive vaccine boosters will be posted ashore immediately and can not draw sea duty allowance.

Ships at sea have very limited access to medical care, and therefore, all those embarked should have vaccinations that are up to date, he wrote.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) dropped its vaccine mandate for some members in early October, but kept it for those supporting core operational functions, which include positions requiring high-readiness or possible deployment on short notice.

The CAFs new regulations dictate that members stationed abroad will be required to follow the vaccine requirements of their host nation.

Shipboard Spread of the Virus

Topshee further said in the leaked memo that unvaccinated Navy members pose a risk on ships given the close living quarters.

The RCN cannot accept the risk to ships program that unvaccinated personnel present in an enclosed living environment where we have seen the virus can spread quickly, he wrote.

Topshee also said the Navy has so far avoided any serious shipboard spread of the virus.

This management and avoidance of poor outcomes was enabled through 100 percent vaccination, he said. My intent is to maintain this approach.

We must remain ready to fight while remaining flexible and prepared to best support our members while also continuing to protect our force from the threat and risks that COVID-19 continues to pose.

Personnel Crisis

Topshee said in late September that the RCN is currently severely understaffed, a situation he labelled as a personnel crisis.

We need more people. We need them as quickly as we can get them, he told The Canadian Press in an interview on Sept. 21.

The Navy commander said he needs about 1,400 new recruits to reach full strength, which represents about 17 percent of the RCNs total ranks.

Describing the current crewing and staffing shortages with crisis is probably the right word across the Navy, he said.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) is celebrating a year of unprecedented success for its derivatives trading market.

In just 12 months since its launch in November 2021, the ADX derivatives market has grown to become the most liquid derivatives market in the Arab region, while being the youngest. In its first year, it has achieved AED1 billion ($271 million) in traded value, over 1 million contracts traded  over 100% more than peers in the region, said a statement.

The exchange launched with an initial five single stock futures: Etisalat, First Abu Dhabi Bank, International Holding Company, Adnoc Distribution and Aldar Properties. This was followed in June 2022 by the launch of futures contracts on the FTSE ADX 15 (FADX 15) Index, which is one of the best performing indices in the MENA region. In October of this year, ADX added another 5 single stock futures bringing the total number of traded derivatives to 11.

The derivatives market was introduced to provide investors and traders with access to two-way market exposure, while providing for hedging and leveraging capabilities. It has rapidly become one of the most active in the region due to a blend of strong partnerships and world class infrastructure. It uses central counterparty clearing (CCP) to promote clearing efficiency, stability, and confidence in the market. In addition, market makers continue to provide liquidity, facilitating an efficient and orderly derivatives market, it said.

Saeed Hamad Al Dhaheri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ADX, said: I am immensely proud of what the ADX derivatives market has achieved in only its first year of trading. Launching the market was a significant milestone for our young and fast-growing exchange. We are continually working on introducing new products on our derivatives platform and expect trading to expand further in the coming months, as ADX continues to be a vibrant trading hub for both investors and issuers.

The launch of the derivatives market is part of the exchanges strategy to develop Abu Dhabis capital markets and bring its products and services in line with global peers. The strategy aims at encouraging the listings pipeline, enhancing corporate governance and introducing new products and services that meet the requirements of issuers and global investors, said the statement. -TradeArabia News Service
County officials identified the man killed over the weekend in a South Side shooting.

Walker Takeshorse, 31, died of a gunshot wound to the neck, Yellowstone County Deputy Coroner Rich Hoffman told the Gazette Tuesday. Prior to Saturdays shooting, he was living in a Great Falls prison transitional center, but had family in Hardin. The county coroner has ruled his death a homicide.

Billings police have arrested one person in connection to Takeshorses death, and are still searching for a second suspect.

Officers with the Billings Police Department responded to a sedan crashing into another car parked on the 200 block of South 29th Street just before midnight November 5. In the drivers seat of the sedan, they found Takeshorse, who was wounded. Crews transported him to a local emergency room, where he was pronounced dead.

Takeshorse was an inmate at the Great Falls Pre-Release Center as of September 28, according to information from the Montana Sexual or Violent Offender Registry. He was sentenced for one count of aggravated assault by accountability over a decade ago.

Following the shooting, the Gazette previously reported, BPD officers arrested one man who escaped custody from a Billings pre-release program. BPD Lt. Matt Lennick said in an email the department is not releasing the name of the suspect at this time.

Investigators are asking the public for assistance in finding a second suspect, 22-year-old Branden Rock Above. Rock Above is also an escaped inmate from the Great Falls Pre-Release Center. In 2019, a Yellowstone County court sentenced Rock Above to 15 years in custody for assault with a weapon. He stands 6 foot 3 inches tall, and weighs about 195 pounds.

At least 15 people in Yellowstone County have died due to gun violence so far this year. Along with the shooting deaths, two other have been stabbed to death.

At a city council meeting Monday, the Gazette reported, Billings Police Chief Rich St. John linked the proliferation of firearms to the violence the city has been experiencing. Police alone will not be able to reduce the violent crime rate, he said, which peaked in 2020 but still remains higher than past years. St. John said addressing violent crime will take community partnerships strengthened by the $7.1 million public safety mill levy passed by Billings voters last year.

Of the 15 people shot dead in 2022, BPD officers killed three. Those police shootings are currently under investigation by the state Department of Justice.

People of color, particularly Native Americans, make up more than half of the fatal shooting victims in the county so far this year despite making up less than 14% of the city's population.

For over a decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Indian Health Service and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, homicide has remained a leading cause of death for Indigenous people. American Indians and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely to experience violence during their lifetimes than any other race in the United States.
A piper prepares for an internment ceremony at the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Family Says Saskatchewan Farmer Killed Fighting in Ukraine

The family of a Saskatchewan farmer who served with the Canadian military in Afghanistan says he has been killed fighting in Ukraine.

Joseph Hildebrand, 33, died recently in Ukraine, said his brother Jake. The family was notified by some other people in his unit.

He was a good man with strong values who stood up for what he believed, Clayton Hildebrand, his third cousin, said Tuesday.

Clayton Hildebrand said family and friends were told Joseph Hildebrand was out on a mission around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has become a key target of Russias offensive in the eastern Donetsk region.

The city has been under attack for months, but bombardments have recently picked up.

Ukraines deputy defence minister said last week that the Bakhmut area is the epicentre of fighting in eastern Ukraine. Local media has said the 15,000 remaining residents are living under daily shelling and without water or power.

Clayton Hildebrand said his cousin was with 12 other soldiers and only three of them made it back alive.

Marilyne Guevremont, a spokesperson with Global Affairs Canada, said the department is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Ukraine but did not provide further information. Guevremont said in an emailed statement that they are in contact with local authorities and the family.

Joseph Hildebrand grew up working on his familys farm near the village of Herbert, west of Regina, his cousin said. After high school, Joseph Hildebrand served two tours in Afghanistan with the Canadian Armed Forces.

Clayton Hildebrand remembers the local school students writing letters of support to his cousin while he was deployed.

When Joseph Hildebrand returned, he worked for the family on their farm properties. He also worked at the local salt mine. The cousins often worked together and would carpool.

Clayton Hildebrand opened his phone and the first contact that came up was his cousin. He became emotional talking about how Joseph Hildebrand was loved and respected throughout their small community.

Every Christmas he and his brother Jake would drive around to all of the neighbours here handing out boxes of chocolates and Christmas cards, Clayton Hildebrand said.

Joseph Hildebrand was also loved by his longtime partner and her daughter, the cousin said.

The family doesnt have any ties to Ukraine that Clayton Hildebrand is aware of, but he said Joseph Hildebrand always wanted to do what was right. He did not say when Joseph Hildebrand went to Ukraine.

He felt compelled to go over there and help the Ukrainian people.
Florida Ranked Number 1 in Attracting Skilled Workforce

A national labor market analytics company has ranked Florida as number one in attracting a skilled workforce, which it attributed to the states focus on training workers with technical skills and credentials.

For the past seven years, Lightcasts 2022 Talent Attraction Scorecard has announced county rankings based on trends in education, overall job change, migration, skilled job change, competitive effect (jobs created above or below what is expected), and skilled job openings.

An engaged workforce will increasingly be a prerequisite for a healthy talent pipeline, the company said.

This years rankings capture the tumultuous COVID years, with education and jobs data from 20172021, Lightcast added. Rankings also capture the first wave of pandemic migration, with IRS migration data from 20162020.

A carpenter works on building new townhomes that are still under construction while building material supplies are in high demand in Tampa, Florida, on May 5, 2021. (Octavio Jones/Reuters)

Gov. Ron DeSantis has touted keeping Florida open during the pandemic, which caused a massive influx of people from locked-down states, and investing in workforce education as the drivers of the favorable ranking from Lightcast.

By keeping Florida free and open, we have created a positive economic environment and invested in our states workforce and communities, said DeSantis in a statement. As a result, Florida is leading the nation in net migration and talent attraction. As other states continue to struggle at the hands of poor leadership, people and businesses are flocking to Florida.

Lightcast estimated that Florida added more than 388,000 residents between 2016 and 2020.

Florida has 15 large counties in the top 50, with Hillsborough ranked eighth, up from 20th in 2019 nationally for attracting and retaining skilled workers. Lee, Pasco, and Polk were among the top 10 large counties in net migration.

Meanwhile, Nassau County led the nation in net migration among small counties, with Walton County ranked fourth.

However, not included in Lightcasts study criteria, was labor force participation rate, which the company highlighted as something to watch out for. Currently, Hillsborough County looks strong, with its participation rate at 70 percent, which is above the national average of 62.5 percent. Polk County has struggled with a rate of around 55 percent, which may explain why DeSantis has assigned millions of dollars in workforce education to it.

Dane Eagle, secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said strong leadership and policies helped drive businesses and families to move to Florida.

Businesses and families move to Florida because they know our state is the best place to grow, Eagle said in a statement. The states unemployment rate remains low, while private sector employment and job growth continue to soar.

Education continues to be a vital part of the criteria Lightcast used to determine its ratings. Between 2017 and 2021, Floridians attained at least an associates degree, which has increased by around 14.5 percent, Lighthouse estimated.

Also during the same period, skilled jobs grew by more than 12 percent as Florida struggled to attract such positions, and total jobs grew by 4.3 percent, Lightcast said.

Lightcast warned of a housing shortage and called on economic developers to be creative to solve the problem. They gave examples such as pattern zoning in Bryan, Texas, Baltimores live-near-your-work program, and a Michigan countys land bank.

Remember, its both the short and long game, the study said. Housing is needed now, but also pay attention to long-term trends like birth rates and immigration, and what they mean for housing stock.

Lightcast was formerly known as Emsi Burning Glass, an Idaho-based labor data company active in more than 30 countries.
U.S. Rep. for Florida's 1st Congressional District Matt Gaetz speaks during a "Save America" rally in support of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ahead of the midterm elections at Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition in Miami, Fla., on Nov. 6, 2022. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Wins Reelection to 4th Term

Incumbent Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has won reelection to the U.S. House in the race for Floridas 1st Congressional District, defeating Democrat opponent Rebekah Jones.

The Associated Press called the race in favor of the Republican congressman at 8:45 p.m. It marked an easy win over Jones, with a lead of over 33 percentage points.

Gaetzs victory opens the path to a fourth term on Capitol Hill.

The 40-year-old is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and a high-profile ally of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed him on Aug. 20 ahead of the August primaries.

Gaetzs work in Congress focuses on national security, veterans affairs, and adherence to constitutional principles, according to his profile on the House of Representatives website. Gaetz has also been a prominent voice for uncovering corruption within the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation during his tenure in the US House, as well as fighting to advance former President Trumps America First agenda.

Gaetz was the subject of a sex-trafficking investigation by the Department of Justice, where he was accused of inducing someone under the age of 18 to cross state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value. Gaetz had refuted the allegations. He previously told The Epoch Times in a statement that he believes the allegations are rooted in an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name. A report by The Washington Post in September 2022 stated that prosecutors recommended not to charge Gaetz in the DOJ probe in part due to credibility concerns over two central witnesses.

Jones, a former data manager for the Florida Department of Health, was fired from the department in May 2020 for alleged insubordination. She claimed she was let go for having refused to manipulate COVID-19 pandemic figures for Florida officials. In May, Florida Inspector General Michael Bennett found insufficient evidence to support Joness claims.

Separately, Jones was charged with a third-degree felony of illegally accessing the state health departments computer network. She turned herself in in January 2021, and her trial is scheduled for Jan. 23.

Heading into this election year, Republicans held 16 seats and Democrats held 11 from Florida in the House. But the state has since gained a 28th seat due to population growthFlorida has gained more than 2.7 million residents since the 2010 census, boosting its population to 21.54 million, which marks a 14.6 percent increase.

Republicans have won all five competitive House races in Florida on Election Day. The state is sending a 208 Republican-dominated delegation to Congress in 2023.

Incumbent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has also easily defeated his Democrat opponent, former Congressman Charlie Crist.

John Haughey contributed to this report.
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) attends a round table discussion with Venezuelan immigrants about renewing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans in Miami, Fla., on July 6, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Florida Voters Respond to CBS Host Not Being Able to Find a Single Crist Supporter

'We like freedom not recycled career politicians who stand for nothing other than personal gain'

CBS hosts were shocked that they couldnt find a single supporter of Floridas Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist in areas President Joe Biden reportedly won in 2020.

Crist is running against popular Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Sunshine State, a previously purple state that many predict is about to turn deep red.

CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil said he shared meals with voters up and down Floridas coast in areas he said voted for Biden in 2020. To his shock, Floridians in those areas praised DeSantis as a beast who doesnt BS around. Dokoupil was eventually forced to admit he couldnt find any Crist supporters during this trip.

Aly Legge, a parent in Tampa, said thats great news!

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit held at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, on July 22, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

That means nobody wants someone in office who flip flops all the time, Legge told The Epoch Times. Parents have spoken with this election. They know Governor DeSantis has their back. The people of Florida are very smart and they know they need to keep DeSantis.

We like freedom not recycled career politicians who stand for nothing other than personal gain, Tim Sharp told The Epoch Times. Charlie Crist stands for nothing. Charlie Crist just flip-flops. He doesnt stand for anything but himself.

Crist was elected as Floridas forty-fourth governor on Nov. 7, 2006. After one term, Crist challenged Marco Rubio for a seat in the Florida State Senate. When his campaign floundered, he switched to independent. Rubio still defeated him. In 2014, Crist attempted an unsuccessful effort to regain the governors mansion as a Democrat against Republican candidate Rick Scott. In 2016, Crist won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Floridas 13th Congressional District covering the St. PetersburgClearwater area. However, due to redistricting, Crist decided to resign his Floridas Congress to make another run for governor.

They may have to dig a bit deeper to find a Crist or Biden supporter in Florida, St. Johns resident Charles Bowman told The Epoch Times. Try the local cemeteries, perhaps?

Hernando County mom Krysia Bailey had only one question. When gas prices are so high, why is Crist focusing on abortion?

Quisha King of Duval County has traveled all over Florida. She has seen no support for Crist. I saw one billboard, one time.

Sabrina Artiles, a mom from Broward County, Florida, finds the news to be funny.

I think it speaks for itself, Artiles told The Epoch Times. I think Floridians clearly want freedom and he obviously doesnt represent that. His policies are very socialist and his running mate is a socialist. People are awake now. They see through the nonsense. Its funny. Its reassuring.
Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at the America First Policy Institute Agenda Summit in Washington, on July 26, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Elected Governor of Arkansas

First female governor in the state

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former White House press secretary under President Donald Trump, has been elected the governor of her home state of Arkansas.

Sanders, who had been heavily favored to win the race, defeated her Democrat opponent, Chris Jones, with over 62.9 percent of the vote.

The victory makes Sanders the first female governor of Arkansas. She joins other female Republican governors including Gov. Kate Ivey of Alabama, Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

It is also the first time a father and daughter have served as governor for the solid Republican state. Sanders is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 through 2007 and ran as a Republican presidential nominee in 2008 and 2016. Sanders had previously appeared in ads for her father and worked on his campaigns.

Sanders shattered state fundraising records with her campaign, which focused primarily on national issues. She regularly promised to use the office to fight the policies of President Joe Biden and the radical left.

In her acceptance speech on Tuesday night, Sanders shared stories about supporters she met during her campaign.

This election is about taking Arkansas to the top, she said. I know that Arkansas can be first, and Im committed to being the leader who takes us there.

Sanders is due to be inaugurated in January. She succeeds incumbent Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, who is leaving office as he cannot seek re-election to a third term because he is term-limited. Hutchinson endorsed Sanderss bid.

The governor-elects last major role in politics was as White House press secretary under Trump from 2017 through 2019. She later secured an endorsement from the former president for her gubernatorial run. Trump had also previously publicly encouraged Sanders to run for governor when she left the White House in 2019 to return to her home state.

Prior to working in the White House, Sanders managed Sen. John Boozmans (R-Ark.) 2010 election and was an adviser to Sen. Tom Cottons (R-Ark.) in 2014.

In September, she briefly paused her campaign to undergo surgery for thyroid cancer, which her doctors deemed successful.

Jones did not concede the race on Tuesday night. Were going to count every last vote in this race, he told supporters. Why? Because Arkansas deserves it and Arkansas is worth it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Republican gubernatorial candidate for Florida Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey DeSantis speaks during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

Freedom Is Here to Stay, Says DeSantis in Victory Speech After Securing 2nd Term

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the success of his state, one that he described as embodying true American principles, as he thanked voters for handing him a historic landslide victory.

We made promises to the people of Florida and we have delivered on those promises. And so today, after four years, the people have delivered their verdict. Freedom is here to stay, DeSantis said in his victory speech to a roaring crowd of supporters at the Tampa Convention Center on Nov. 8.

Thank you for honoring us with a win for the ages, DeSantis added.

According to Decision Desk HQ, DeSantis drew 59.1 percent of the vote compared to his Democratic challenger former Congressman Charlie Christs 40.3 percent, with more than 94 percent of the vote counted as of 11:15 p.m. ET.

The governor contrasted conditions in the Sunshine State with that of the other parts of the country under Democratic rule.

We set out a vision we executed on that vision. And we produced historic results and the people of this state have responded in record fashion, he said. Now well our country flounders due to failed leadership in Washington, Florida is on the right track.

I believe the survival of the American experiment requires a revival of true American principles. Florida has proved that it can be done. We offer a ray of hope that better days still lie ahead.

DeSantis said while leftist politicians have discarded American principles, his administration has rejected the woke agenda, maintained law and order, and protected the rights of parents.

We fight the woke in the legislature, we fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the corporations, we will never ever surrender to the woke mob, he said. Florida is where woke goes to die.

We chose facts over fear. We chose education over indoctrination. We chose law and order over rioting and disorder.

The governor said he is proud of what his government has accomplished and Americans have been coming to Florida because the states policies work.

It was more than an election victory, DeSantis added, saying that we have rewritten the political map. He thanked voters in two historically Democrat strongholdsMiami-Dade County and Palm Beach Countyfor their support in his landslide victory.

DeSantis flipped Miami-Dade County, the first Republican to do so since Florida Gov. Jeb Bush won the area in South Florida in 2002. As of press time, the countys voters cast more than 390,000 votes for DeSantis, 55.3 percent, compared to roughly 309,000 votes for Crist with 43.9 percent, according to local election officials.

In Palm Beach County, DeSantis secured more than 276,000 votes, or 51.4 percent, compared to Crists about 258,000 votes with 48.1 percent, according to local election officials.

Its clearly apparent that this election we will have garnered a significant number of votes from people who may not have voted for me four years ago, he said. I am honored to have earned your trust and your support over these four years.

Thank you for a historic landslide victory, he said. Weve accomplished more than anybody thought possible four years ago, but weve got so much more to do and I have only begun to fight.

I look forward to the road ahead.
A sign with a U.S. flag is seen at a polling station during early voting ahead of the midterm elections in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2022. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Full List: Results of US Senate Races

Democrats and Republicans battled for control of Congress in the midterm elections.

The Senate is currently split, with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris can break tie votes, giving Democrats an effective majority.

A total of 35 Senate seats were up for election, including a special election in Oklahoma. Of those 35 seats, 12 are currently held by Democrats, and 23 are held by Republicans.

Alabama Results

Republican Katie Britt won the U.S. Senate race in Alabama after beating Democrat Will Boyd and Libertarian John Sophocleus, making her the first woman elected to the role from the state. She won with 66.8 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press.

Alaska Results

Results for the Alaska Senate race have not yet been called, but the top two vote-getters are both Republicans.

Arizona Results

Results for the Arizona Senate race have not yet been called.

Arkansas Results

Two-term Republican incumbent Sen. John Boozman comfortably defeated challenger, Democrat Natalie James.

California Results

Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla defeated Republican Mark Meuser.

Colorado Results

Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet retained his Senate seat in Colorado, beating Republican Joe ODea.

Connecticut Results

Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal defeated Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Leora Levy to secure a third term in office.

Florida Results

Floridas Republican incumbent Marco Rubio has been reelected to the U.S. Senate after beating his Democrat opponent, Rep. Val Demings, in the key battleground state.

Georgia Results

The Georgia race is headed to a runoff in December after neither candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.

Hawaii Results

Democrat incumbent Sen. Brian Schatz defeated Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott in Hawaiis U.S. Senate election.

Idaho Results

Idaho Republican Senator Mike Crapo won a fifth term in the Senate after comfortably beating Democrat David Roth.

Illinois Results

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, won another term. She beat Kathy Salvi.

Indiana Results

Sen. Todd Young beat Democrat Tom McDermott to represent Indiana in the U.S. Senate.

Iowa Results

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley won another six-year term in the Senate, beating Democrat Michael Franken.

Kansas Results

Incumbent Sen. Jerry Moran beat Democrat Mark Holland and will continue to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate.

Kentucky Results

Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a former presidential candidate, has won a third term after defeating progressive Democrat Charles Booker.

Louisiana Results

Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy won a second term after fending off challenges from Democrats Luke Mixon and Gary Chambers.

Maryland Results

Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen trumped Republican candidate Chris Chaffee to secure a second term.

Missouri Results

Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the states Senate seat after defeating Democrat challenger Trudy Busch Valentine in Tuesdays race to replace Sen. Roy Blunt, who is retiring.

Nevada Results

Results for the Nevada Senate race have not yet been called.

New Hampshire Results

Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, has won her reelection in the New Hampshire Senate race against Republican Don Bolduc, a retired Army general.

New York Results

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cruised to reelection, becoming New Yorks longest-serving senator, after defeating Republican Joe Pinion.

North Carolina Results

Republican Rep. Ted Budd won the North Carolina Senate race against Democrat Cheri Beasley.

North Dakota Results

North Dakota Republican John Hoeven has won reelection to a third term in the U.S. Senate after defeating Democrat Katrina Christiansen.

Ohio Results

Trump-backed Republican J.D. Vance won the Senate race in Ohio, defeating Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan.

Oklahoma Results

Republicans Sen. James Lankford and U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin both cruised to victory on Tuesday after beating Democrats Madison Horn and former U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn, respectively. Mullin, who won the special election to replace retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe, is set to become the first Native American in the U.S. Senate in nearly 20 years.

Oregon Results

Democrat Ron Wyden has won reelection to U.S. Senate from Oregon, beating Republican hopeful Jo Rae Perkins.

Pennsylvania Results

Democrat John Fetterman triumphed over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.

South Carolina Results

Republican Tim Scott has beaten Democrat state Rep. Krystle Matthews for a second full term.

South Dakota Results

Republican John Thune defeated Democrat challenger Brian Bengs.

Utah Results

Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee won reelection to a third term after beating independent challenger Evan McMullin.

Vermont Results

Democrat Rep. Peter Welch has beaten Republican Gerald Malloy in Vermonts U.S. Senate race.

Washington Results

Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, has won against Republican Tiffany Smiley and will now serve a sixth term.

Wisconsin Results

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, beat Wisconsin Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes, a Democrat.
L: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in Columbus, Ga., on Oct. 8, 2022. (Megan Varner/Getty Images); R: Georgia Republican Senatorial candidate Herschel Walker in Carrollton, Ga., on Oct. 11, 2022. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Georgia Senate Election Between Warnock, Walker Officially Headed to Runoff: Secretary of State

The Georgia Senate election between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker is officially heading to a runoff for Dec. 6, said the Georgia Secretary of States office on Wednesday.

Neither Warnock, a Democrat, nor Walker, a Republican, gained more than 50 percent of the vote. Election data showed that Warnock had a slight lead over Walker.

Warnock had 49.4 percent of the vote as compared to Walkers 48.5 percent, while Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver got 2.1 percent. Some 35,000 votes separated the Republican and Democrat candidates.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news conference Wednesday said that his office started the behind-the-scenes ballots and counties are making preparations for the runoff.

He said that voters can request absentee ballots from Wednesday, Nov. 9, until Nov. 28, adding that about 150,00 voters will automatically receive an absentee ballot because they are on a rollover list. Most of these individuals are disabled or over the age of 65, Raffensperger said.

The Georgia race, which is one of the most competitive in the country, will help determine who will take control of the Senate. The remaining races in Nevada and Arizona could also factor into what party takes the majority.

Georgia Democratic Candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock meets with supporters in Marietta, Georgia, on Jan. 5, 2021. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Im telling you right nowI didnt come to lose, Walker said during remarks on Tuesday night.

Control of the Senate is currently unclear after Democrats picked up a seat in Pennsylvania. Another competitive race broke in Republicans favor, as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) won reelection in Wisconsin.

Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance won Ohios Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. He defeated Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) by 7 percentage points as of Wednesday.

Republican Ted Budd also prevailed over Democrat Cheri Beasley for North Carolinas Senate seat.

For this race, Republicans were defending 21 Senate seats as compared with Democrats 14 seats.

Runoff

It will be the second runoff for Warnock, who first won his seat in a Jan. 5, 2021, special election runoff alongside Democrat Jon Ossoffs victory in a concurrent Senate runoff. Together, the Georgia seats gave Democrats the narrow majority they are now defending.

Whether Georgia becomes a winner-take-all for Senate control a second time will depend on the outcomes of other contests that are still pending, with Arizona and Nevada the two most closely watched because Republicans are trying to oust Democratic incumbents.

Walker immediately played up the possibility that Georgia will tilt the chamber one way or the other.

Republican Senate Candidate for Georgia Herschel Walker speaks at a campaign event with Nikki Haley in Gwinnett, Ga., on Sept. 9, 2022. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Control of the Senate is likely at stake, Walkers campaign wrote in a fundraising push Wednesday afternoon. We dont have a moment to waste.

Warnock acknowledged the likelihood of a runoff in the early hours of Wednesday morning as he urged the supporters who remained at his election night party to gird themselves for more.

I understand that at this late hour you may be a little tired, but whether its later tonight or tomorrow or four weeks from now, we will hear from the people of Georgia, the senator said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
House Republican Israel Caucus member Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) joins a news conference about the military conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 19, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

GOP Rep. Bacon Wins Reelection in Tight Nebraska Race

Incumbent Republican Rep. Don Bacon has secured reelection, beating Democratic challenger Tony Vargas in a tight race for Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race for Bacon, who won 51.9 percent of the vote to Vargass 48.1 percent with 97 percent of the votes reported as of 2:42 a.m. ET on Nov. 9.

It shaped up as a close race. Of the two most recent polls listed on the politics website FiveThirtyEight, one favored Vargas, and one favored Bacon, each by a single point and within the margin of error.

Politico analyst Steve Shepard classified the race as leans Republican in April but changed it to Toss-up this month because GOP Rep. Don Bacon is facing a stronger opponent in Tony Vargas than Democrats have fielded in recent elections.

Shepard said that Bacon was reelected in 2020 despite Joe Biden taking the area by 7 points, and redistricting didnt change it that much.

It may have made it more challenging for a Democrat, removing some parts of metro Omaha and replacing them with rural areas.

Tony Vargas, a Nebraska state legislator, is the Democratic nominee challenging Republican incumbent Don Bacon in Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District. (Courtesy of Tony Vargas for Congress.)

Several forecasters rated the race a toss-up.

FiveThirtyEight, though, by Nov. 7 was giving Bacon, a former Air Force general first elected in 2016, a 92 percent chance of winning.

What politicos call Nebraskas blue dotthe area around Omahais the only place in the Republican state where a Democrat might get elected to Congress.

At an October debate, each sought to portray himself as more moderateand his opponent as more extreme. Each could point to a record of bipartisanship.

The Lugar Centers Bipartisan Index rated Bacon as the 12th most bipartisan member of Congress for 2021. It noted he was one of 13 Republicans who crossed party lines to vote to pass the Democrats infrastructure bill, which passed in November 2021.

Vargas, in the debate, said among his bipartisan accomplishments was working with Republicans to make sure we can actually provide historic property tax relief, tax relief for seniors and for working families.

Each has roots elsewhere: Bacon in Illinois, and Vargas, a teacher who became a state legislator, in New York City.
In June 2022, the prestigious science journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) published a paper by Seneff et. al. The paper, Innate immune suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosomes, and MicroRNAs, submitted that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines impair a critical part of the immune system and in doing so may have diverse adverse consequences to human health.

Editor-in-Chief Ousted

About a month after the paper was published, the journals editor-in-chief (EiC), Dr. Jose Luis Domingo, began receiving angry emails demanding the retraction of the paper. These included messages that insisted he retracts the paper, asserting that publishing the paper would lead to the death of millions of people, and asking him how he could sleep at night.

Domingo then invited some of the papers most vehement detractors to write a letter to the editor (LTE) as a scientific rebuttal to the published paper. However, the LTE they submitted was reviewed by independent experts and found not to meet the journals high standard of excellence. So the journal was forced to reject it, according to Domingo.

For his decision to publish the Seneff et al. paper, not to retract the paper under pressure, and the refusal to publish the rebuttal LTE in spite of kind suggestions from his publisher, Domingo became a target of a debate on COVID-19 vaccine safety and scientific integrity. An overwhelming number of responses poured in from his colleagues, publishing supervisors, fellow editors of journals owned by the same publishing company (Elsevier), as well as the general public.

In October, 2022, Domingo resigned from his position as editor-in-chief in order to maintain his scientific independence and integrity.

Jagna Mirska-Gent, a senior publisher at Elsevier, wrote to The Epoch Times that Dr. Domingos resignation, which was his own, independent decision, came to me as a complete surprise.

She continued, Dr. Domingos resignation and departure from the journal is entirely unrelated to the paper by Seneff et. al. he accepted, as one of the most important principles we go by as scientific publishers are that our editors enjoy full editorial independence, and editorial decision making [sic] freedom.

Domingos Resignation Related to the Seneff et. al. Paper

Contrary to Jagnas confirmation that Domingos resignation was entirely unrelated to the paper by Seneff et. al., however, three top-level editors-in-chief from other Elsevier journals sent an email obtained by The Epoch Times to a large number of scientists asserting that the Seneff paper: while seemingly having a more mechanistic approach, is, unfortunately, replete with falsehoods and misleading statements about COVID mRNA vaccines.

Their email continued: As could be expected, the publication of this review in FCT has generated an important number of adverse comments from readers in the scientific community. However, as Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Domingo, unfortunately, refused to acknowledge or consider publishing commentaries or letters to the editor about this publication in FCT, which in essence runs counter to the broader scientific debate we as EiCs of toxicology journals embrace. With this refusal, Dr. Domingo in fact impeded an open scientific discussion about strongly debated therapies and possible side effects of vaccines against COVID-19 

In other words, according to these Elsevier editors-in-chief, Domingo allowed the publication of falsehoods and misleading statements about COVID mRNA vaccines and refused to acknowledge or consider publishing commentaries or letters to the editor about this publication in FCT. Their email made it sound like he, therefore, had to resign because he was not allowing open and honest scientific debate.

It seems that the publisher lied when she told us that his resignation was entirely unrelated to a highly technical scientific paper explaining how mRNA vaccines may impair immune function.

But what about the statements by the three editors-in-chief? Were they lying too?

Misleading Statements By Editors-in-Chief

As we later found out, the EiCs description of what happened after the publication of the Seneff paper was not accurate either. Domingo did not refuse to acknowledge or consider publishing commentaries or letters to the editor about this publication in FCT.

Instead, he engaged with his detractors and invited them to write LTEs to scientifically rebut the Seneff paper. The problem was that the letter they submitted was so scientifically poor, that it was rejected twice, the last time by three reviewers.

Thats how peer review works. Outside experts evaluate any given submission based on its scientific merits. If the independent peer-reviewers recommend against publication, the paper is usually rejected.

On Oct. 26, nine authors of the FCT-rejected LTE published an article in Stem Cell Reviews and Reports (SCRR), a journal owned by the German-British Springer Nature Group. The paper, Scientific Integrity Requires Publishing Rebuttals and Retracting Problematic Papers, referenced the letter to the editor that was rejected by FCT, and we were able to read exactly what was rejected.

I (Joe Wang) have a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics. I worked at Sanofi Pasteur for more than 10 years on vaccine research, including developing a vaccine for SARS-CoV-1 in 2003.

After reading the Seneff paper and the rejected rebuttal, I have to agree with the reviewers and with Domingo that the rebuttal was, indeed, scientifically poor, and the rejection was the right decision. In fact, it would have been an embarrassment to the journal to have published it.

It is hard to evaluate the credentials of all the nine authors of the SCRR article, as not all of them revealed their professional affiliations. It is, however, without a doubt that the three EiCs who wrote the email criticizing Domingo and deriding his decision to publish the Seneff paper are top scientists with the highest reputations in their own fields of toxicology.

So why did they throw their colleague under the bus and criticize the paper he published without citing their scientific reasons for finding it lacking? Were they under any pressure? Or, as smart as they are, are they themselves confused?

Accepted Narratives vs. Facts

By now, we all know what the accepted narratives about COVID-19 are by the health authorities. This COVID-19 playbook reads as follows:

1) Vaccines (including the mRNA jabs) are safe and effective against COVID-19;

2) Claims that drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are effective against COVID-19 are false and harmful;

3) Anyone who expresses any concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety is anti-vaccine as well as anti-science, so much so that the words I believe science is basically synonymous with I believe that the vaccines recommended by the government are necessary, safe, and effective.

There was a fourth talking point circulated by health authorities, about SARS-CoV-2s origin, that it certainly was from wildlife and could not be from a lab. This narrative, which was not to be challenged in 2020 and 2021, has now quietly disappeared, in part thanks to an outstanding investigative report by Katherine Eban published in Vanity Fair on March 2022. Even the WHO had stated that all of the hypotheses (including the lab leak) are still in [WHOs investigation].

The disappearance of this fourth narrative is very telling. As any scientist will tell you, facts and truth are stubborn. They are sometimes slow in coming, but they do emerge eventually.

It has been almost three years since SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China. The natural origin of the virus is yet to be discovered. Meanwhile, substantial evidence has pointed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the source of the virus. The official accepted narrative had to shift in light of all the facts, many of which are just now coming to light.

But what about the safety and effectiveness of the mRNA jabs? This, after all, was the center of debate in the ousting of Domingo.

Well, the Seneff paper, which was very well written and recommended as scientifically sound by five independent experts, may just serve as one of the forces to challenge the officially accepted safe and effective narrative.

Another force, a newly released documentary titled Safe and Effective: A Second Opinion provided real-life stories about injuries caused by the jabs.

Many other scientists have also started to challenge the official narratives.

The CCP Connection

I grew up in communist China and had real-life experience with scientific research under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In communist China, scientists may enjoy scientific independence and freedom, when and only when the CCP does not have an official narrative on the subject in question.

As I have written in several opinion pieces, however, when the CCP realizes that certain scientific studies can be used to serve political purposes, all scientific research and publications then have to follow the official CCP narrative to advance CCPs political agenda.

For example, Dr. Wenhong Zhang, the head of Shanghais COVID Control Experts Committee said publicly on March 24, We cannot have the mindset of killing the virus at all costs. We must secure a normal life for our citizens, while at the same time controlling the spread of the virus. But then when the CCP leader Xi Jinping declared his Zero COVID policy. So Zhang wrote an article published in The Lancet on May 6 titled Shanghais life-saving efforts against the current omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, praising Xis draconian lockdown in Shanghai, a complete reverse of his own scientific understanding of the Omicron wave.

No scientist in China stands a chance against the CCP narrative. When there is a conflict between ones profession as a medical scientist and his or her political affiliation with the CCP, the CCP wins every time. In China, every citizen is affiliated with the CCP, with no exception.

The Official Journal of the Chinese Society of Toxicology?

It was with this understanding, that we found it very interesting that the journal FCT now declares on its official website, right under About the journal, that it is The Official Journal of the Chinese Society of Toxicology. It is worth mentioning that no other country is named, not Holland where the publishing company is located, nor Spainwhere the journals editor-in-chief resides.

One may argue that there is nothing wrong with China, and the Chinese Society of Toxicology (CST) is not the CCP. Well, my personal experience is that CST may not be officially under CCP control, but the CCP definitely has the power to direct the CST in every aspect of its business.

It is also interesting that while FCT, an Elsevier publication, when Domingo was still at its helm, rejected the rebuttal LTE, the nine authors were able to publish their opinion on SCRR, a journal owned by Elseviers competitor, The Springer Nature Group. The Springer Nature Group also owns other top medical journals, such as The Lancet and Nature Medicine.

It was The Lancet that published the letter by EcoHealths Peter Daszak and friends on February 18, 2020, when most of us were still puzzled by the new SARS-CoV-2, declaring that they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, setting the official narrative about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in stone, and labeling anyone challenging the narrative as racist.

It was also The Lancet that published Zhangs ridiculous article in May about the life-saving nature of the Shanghai lockdowns.

It was Nature Medicine that published The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 which reinforced the official narrative laid out in Daszaks Lancet letter on the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Based on these examples, it seems that Zhang is not the only one under CCP control, as Zhang would not have been able to publish that ridiculous article without help from The Lancet. The publication of all these narrative-driven scientific articles, along with the ousting of FCTs Domingo, and the publishing of a scientifically shoddy and overtly political rebuttal in Springers SCRR, make us wonder if CCPs influence is at work.

As Ive written before, the CCP is a master of Subjective Science, and it seems that Subjective Science is what we have been experiencing in the free world during COVID-19.

Subjective Science caused the loss of millions of lives in China, including my sister, Zhens. Behind-the-scenes shenanigans have no place in science. Political agendas dont either. Insisting on safe vaccines is not being anti anything. We must stop all this nonsense in the free world and return to objective, fact-based science.

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.

Joe Wang Follow Joe Wang, Ph.D., was a molecular biologist with more than 10 years of experience in the vaccine industry. He is now the president of New Tang Dynasty TV (Canada), and a columnist for the Epoch Times.
Montana and country music has lost a legend.

Longtime Billings disc jockey and radio icon Lonnie Bell has died at the age of 98, a social media post announced. The DJ Hall of Fame inductee passed away Tuesday evening after suffering a fall in the days prior.

So much can be said about Lonnie, and will be shared in the coming days and weeks, Lonnie Bells Classic Country Facebook page wrote. For now, please share in our prayers of comfort for Marty and all the family.

Born in Enterprise, West Virginia Jul. 31, 1924, Bells roots with country music are closer and deeper than just about anyones. Not far away from the coal mining town in Bristol, Tennessee, the Victor Talking Machine Company would record some of the earliest sessions of country music that included Ernest Stoneman, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family in the late 1920s.

When the economy began to recover in the 1930s following the Great Depression, Bells family would purchase a radio and they would listen to these early recordings as he learned to sing and play along with them on guitar in addition to the old folk songs passed down from his mother.

To earn some money, he would go to local taverns and sing to the miners with a local band. Following a successful trip that earned him $4, his career with country music would begin shortly after.

He did something that nobody else has done, KGHL owner Taylor Brown said. He was born three years before country music was born, almost in the same spot.

Bell joined the U.S. Navy in 1940 and found himself heading to war overseas following the completion of his training and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. His naval career would continue for 20 years and see him take part in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Following the end of the war, he would return to the United States and form a country band, The Melodiers, with fellow naval officers playing local clubs and radio stations where they were stationed.

Nothing else but a country and western disc jockey

While he was stationed in Honolulu in 1953, he was invited to be a disc jockey for the local live radio station, KAHU. After playing the early records of artists like Elvis Presley, Jimmy Dean and Jim Reeves, he would quickly become one of the earliest country music DJs in the country and the first on the Hawaiian Islands.

The DJ in front of me was not a country disc jockey Bell wrote in his autobiography. I was then, when I started, and have always been, nothing else but a country and western disc jockey.

Within nine months his radio show was number one during its time slot, according to the Hooper ratings used at the time. Bell would later get stationed in Whidbey Island north of Seattle in Washington and take a position at KAGT in Anacortes in 1960. During this time, he would start a Saturday night dance hall and book up-and-coming artists to perform with him and his band.

When short a singer ahead of one show, he was told about one in Bellingham he should drive out to and see named Loretta Lynn. Upon hearing her sing Ive Got Nothing But Sorrow, Since You Went Away in an American Legion basement to a crowd of two, he offered her $25 a night to sing with his band.

Lynne agreed and Bell would record their performances to play on his radio show. She would quickly develop a following and go on to sign a national record deal.

This girl proved on every song that she was the best singer I had ever heard in my life and now its over 50 years later, and I still havent changed my mind, Bell wrote.

Bell would maintain a close relationship with Lynne over the years as he continued to discover and promote new artists during his broadcasts and concerts. Upon retiring from the Navy in 1960, he moved to Spokane to sell advertising for station KPEG and move to nightly and weekend radio broadcasts.

In addition to promoting records, concerts, and upcoming artists he would go on to attend various conventions in Nashville, Tennessee where he would meet and maintain friendships with countless country legends.

This was a country music mecca

Through an associate he worked with in Washington, Bell became aware of a job at a new radio station in Billings called KOYN which would be the first country station in the state. He moved to Montana in 1964 to take the job and would quickly become a country music fixture in the region. In 1985, he began hosting the Sunday morning program Lonnie Bells Classic Country on KGHL in Billings until his retirement in 2018.

Through record companies mailing lists, Bell would open and listen to the newest records live on the air. Like his beginnings in Honolulu, if he or the audience liked the songs, they would keep getting played. Radio trade publications like the Gavin Report at the time often reflected Bells heavy rotations as the songs that would go on to become hits nationwide.

People got to know that if Lonnie thought a song was popular or an artist was popular, it was going to be a hit, said former KGHL soundboard operator Brian Bennett. He just knew it.

Through the publicity generated from his show and past friendships, the country acts of the day would often stop by Bells studio during a broadcast either to see him and catch up or to promote their latest record.

As much as Bell promoted what was pushed by labels at the time, he also became enamored with the local talent in the region. Over the years he would discover acts through local venues like the Beacon Club, the 17 Club, Horseshoe Club, Skyline Club and Elmo Club and play their records on the air. Montana artists played over the years included everyone from Charley Pride from Great Falls to the High Country Cowboys out of Red Lodge.

He played local artists and he wanted to help these local guys get started, Brown said And when Lonnie came herehe said this was a country music mecca. There was country music coming out of here that you couldnt find anywhere else in the world. Maybe Nashville.

Since his retirement, "Lonnie Bell's Classic Country" has carried on with longtime co-host and Billings-based meteorologist Ed McIntosh.

Bell was inducted into the Country Radio DJ Hall of Fame in 2005 and joined the Montana Broadcasters Hall of Fame the same year. He is also a member of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

In addition to his work on radio, Bell has also written and released a number of singles dating as far back as 1958 and an autobiography entitled Slidin Along with Lonnie Bell in 2012.

Bell would remain involved with the music of his life until the very end. Most recently, he introduced the Sons of The Pioneers in concert at Lockwood High School in 2021 and reflected on his friendship with Loretta Lynne following her passing last October to television station KTVQ.

He kept in touch with them all, Bennett said. When the word gets out now, theres gonna be quite a few people that are gonna want to come up here and pay respects.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 3,400 babies in the United States die suddenly and unexpectedly each year, with 32 percent being due to unknown causes.

New research from Rutgers University says sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) are rare during the first month of life, but the causes and risk factors for these deaths vary even in that short time.

However, they found that the cause of death for infants later in the first month of life is more likely to be classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

What is SUID?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define SUID or sudden unexplained infant death, as the sudden and unexpected death of a baby less than one year old in which the cause was not obvious before investigation.

However, experts say that SUID is not the same as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and that SIDS is instead a potential cause of SUID.

SIDS stands for sudden infant death syndrome and is a possible cause of sudden unexpected infant death, Jennifer Kurtz, DO, chief of neonatal medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, part of Northwell Health in New York, told The Epoch Times.

In addition to SIDS, possible causes of SUID are suffocation/strangulation, and unexplained causes, she added.

According to a CDC breakdown of Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths by Cause for 2020

Sudden infant death syndrome accounted for 41 percent

32 percent were attributed to an unknown cause

27 percent were due to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed

First Month of Life Is Crucial

SUID in the first month of life is rare, study co-author and medical director of the SIDS Center of New Jersey, Thomas Hegyi, said in a statement. However, data suggest that within that first month, there are differences in risk patterns for SUID based on age at death.

He emphasized that the first month of life is especially crucial to study, as it is a time when mothers are in postpartum recovery, experiencing fatigue, establishing breastfeeding practices, and developing new household routines, which can influence SUID risk factors.

Researchers Analyzed 15 Years of Data

This retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted from 2000 to 2015 and used de-identified public access data from the New Jersey State Health Assessment Data System for demographic information, and the SIDS Center of New Jerseys de-identified SUID case database for cases with reported behavioral information.

Scientists then compared risk factors for SUID in the first week to those in the remainder of the first month in infants at or above 34 weeks of gestational age (time between conception and birth).

Youngest Infant Deaths Most Likely Classified as Ill-Defined, Unknown Cause

They discovered that out of 889 deaths of infants born at or above 34 weeks of gestation that were classified as SUID, 123 happened during the first 27 days of life and 24 occurred in the first week.

According to researchers, of the three commonly reported types of SUID:

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed

Ill-defined and unknown causes

It was the deaths of babies in the first six days that were most likely to be classified as an ill-defined and unknown cause when compared to infant deaths that happened from seven to 27 days, which were most often classified as SIDS.

Those That Died in First Week More Likely to Be Cesarean Births

Hegyi explained that mothers of infants dying in the first week were more likely to have been delivered by primary cesarean section.

Which carries potential distraction risks such as postpartum fatigue, postpartum depression, or pain-relieving medication, he said in a statement.

Hegyi noted that these challenges could result in poor positioning of the infant during breastfeeding or skin-to-skin contact.

Especially with first-time mothers unfamiliar with signs of infant distress or who may be recovering from a Cesarean section, there can be an increased risk, he continued.

Kurtz observed that in this study, researchers found that babies with SUID in the first week of life did not necessarily have the typical risk factors for SIDS.

My possible theory for this could be that mothers recovering from cesareans are less mobile, and potentially less alert due to receiving anesthesia and pain medications, she said. This would lead to less ability to bond with their newborn. Additionally, these mothers might not notice if something were amiss if they are groggy.

Mothers of Younger SUID Babies Had Fewer Risk Factors

The study also found that mothers of infants that died in the first week showed less evidence of common risk factors.

A greater proportion of women whose babies died during their first week of life were educated beyond high school and experienced adequate prenatal care.

This contrasts with the typical pattern of negative social and health risk factors typically associated with SUID.

There were also trends toward less smoking during pregnancy, which is a significant risk factor for SUID, and greater odds that this was the mothers first birth.

The Cause of SIDS Remains Unknown

Kurtz said the causes of SIDS are still unknown.

But we do know that risk factors for SIDS include being male, being premature (born at less than 37 weeks gestation), being exposed to secondhand smoke, and being a nonwhite baby, she said.

She pointed out that SIDS occurs more often between one and six months of age, but can occur anytime during the first year of life.

Kecia Gaither, MD, MPH, FACOG, the director of Perinatal Services at NYC Health and Hospitals/Lincoln in New York City, noted that the specific underlying pathophysiology of both of these clinical entities (SIDS, SUIDS) is unknown.

However, she mentioned that there are causal relationships that exist for both.

Two factors that distinguish the two are the time of occurrence, and cesarean delivery, said Gaither. The research is novel; however more is needed to solve the mystery of why both entities occur.

Preventing SIDS/SUID

According to Kurtz, SUID can be prevented by adhering to safe sleep guidelines.

Infants should be placed on their backs to sleep, in a crib, on a firm mattress, without any fluffy blankets, pillows, or crib bumpers, said Kurtz. Families should not smoke in the home where an infant resides.

For more information on preventing SIDS/SUIDS, you can also follow safety recommendations from Safe to Sleep, which include:
Many doctors now blame the myriad of debilitating conditions reported after COVID-19 infections and vaccinations on the spike proteins present both in the virus and after vaccination. Emerging research has found spike proteins present in various organs, and theyre often implicated in inflammation and damage of surrounding tissues.

Although theres research on the mechanisms of the spike proteins and hypotheses on how the proteins may interact with various aspects of the body, spike protein presence is difficult to test for.

This article aims to review the current limited research on spike protein accumulation through both infection and vaccine exposure, the places it can contact, and the pathologies it may lead to.

Immune Cells

Spike proteins have often been detected in immune cells taken from people who have been infected with COVID-19. A number of immune cells will periodically sample the environment around them, and it would therefore not be unusual to find spike proteins present in immune cells during infection or after vaccination.

However, in a study led by Dr. Bruce Patterson, CEO and founder of IncellDx, a company that diagnoses long COVID using blood tests, of patients who suffered from long COVID for more than 15 months, 73 percent of them still had spike proteins present in their immune cells. Meanwhile, 91 percent of patients with severe and acute COVID-19 had spike proteins in their immune cells.

Another study evaluating organ tissues obtained through autopsy found spike proteins present in the immune cells of individuals who died from COVID-19. Some of these immune cells died and had signs that they were trying to remove or recycle cellular materials; these all suggest a general toxicity from the spike proteins.

Lungs

The lungs are a major site of injury following COVID-19 infection and are believed to be a highly susceptible organ.

A study on autopsy samples from people who died several days or months following COVID-19 vaccination found a strong spike protein presence in the lung cells of these individuals. The team, led by German pathologist Dr. Arne Burkhardt, found spike proteins in the lung cells of a living person nine months after vaccination, with immune cells nearby, suggestive of possible immune action.

Studies on autopsy samples from people who have been infected found severe inflammation in the lungs; spike protein presence in cells; great immune presence, often accompanied by smaller areas for gas exchange; scarring; and thickening of the lung tissues.

Oral and Nasal Cavity

Studies have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus likely infects through the nasal and oral cavities.

Positive COVID-19 tests often swab the nasal or oral cavities for viral RNA or viral particles. SARS-CoV-2 viruses have been detected in samples of nasal cells by swabbing the area.

An autopsy study on 18 patients who died after COVID-19 infection found spike proteins in their salivary glands. The authors found spike proteins from the virus in both the cells of the glands and the saliva. They also found spike protein presence with inflammation and immune cell presence, swelling in the salivary glands, and scarring, all indicative of possible spike-protein-induced damage.

Connective Tissue

Connective tissue includes blood, bone, and fat. Spike proteins have been found across all three areas. A 2021 study found that spike proteins could remain in the blood for up to 30 days after vaccination. These spike proteins, therefore, pose risks for endothelial cells that line the blood vessels and also present a risk of blood clots because of the spike proteins capability to bind to blood clotting proteins.

Staining in people who died from COVID-19 also detected a SARS-CoV-2 viral protein presence in bone marrow.

A study on autopsy samples taken from the chest region of 47 people who died following COVID-19 infection found spike proteins distributed within fat cells; fat cells also regulate the bodys metabolism, and dysfunction of fat cells can lead to metabolic diseases, including inflammation and diabetes.

Endothelial Cells

Endothelial cells are abundant in the body, most particularly in the inner linings of blood vessels. Theyre also very vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 viral infection and spike protein interaction, since endothelial cells have many receptors that the spike proteins can bind to, triggering immune attacks against the cells that line our blood vessels.

Studies on human blood vessel endothelial cells show that exposure to spike proteins caused inflammatory cells to stick to endothelial cells, indicative of an immune attack, which may also lead to cell damage or even death from inflammation.

Burkhardts team on vaccinated individuals found a strong spike protein presence in the endothelial cells that line the inner layers of blood vessels in the brain, heart, lungs, and spleen.

This would also be accompanied by an immune attack in the surrounding environment. The team found damaged blood vessels, especially in small capillaries surrounded by inflammatory immune cells, suggestive of spike-protein-induced injury. This puts all of the internal organs at risk, as all internal organs are supplied with blood vessels.

Brain

Although the SARS-CoV-2 virus isnt able to cross into the brain through the blood-brain barrier, studies in mice show that the spike protein by itself is able to cross it.

Studies on human neural cell cultures also found that the spike proteins could enter the cells and cause dysfunction to protein clearance of the neurons and result in the neurons wasting away.

Burkhardts autopsy study on vaccinated individuals found that spike proteins were found in the biopsies of many brain blood vessels. Spike proteins were also detected in the neurons, although at a lower rate.

Heart

The heart is prone to spike-protein-induced injuries. Myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscles, is a major adverse event following COVID-19 vaccination.

Burkhardts team found spike proteins in the heart muscles of deceased vaccinated individuals, with signs of inflammation and immune cell activity, possibly indicative of myocarditis.

However, spike proteins were also found in the coronary arteries and in the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body. These findings were all accompanied by immune cell presence and severe signs of inflammation and tissue damage, implying possible heart injury.

Another laboratory study shows that the spike proteins by themselves could cause heart damage. The human tissue cells were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the study found that the spike proteins from the virus could bind to cardiac pericytes. These are cells that support blood vessel cells and control the constriction and dilation of blood vessels. When spike proteins attached to pericytes, pericytes became more motile and less supportive of the blood vessel cells. They also secreted pro-inflammatory molecules and chemicals that triggered blood vessel cells to die. These findings all suggest that cardiac damage can occur with spike protein presence alone.

Thyroid

An autopsy study on a man who passed away following COVID-19 infection found spike proteins present in his thyroid biopsies. The thyroid is responsible for the secretion of hormones. SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid proteins were also detected but were more sparse in their distribution. The presence of spike proteins also came with inflammation and cell damage, looking similar to thyroiditis, according to the study. Inflammation of the thyroid may affect thyroid function leading to dysfunction of the organ.

Thyroiditis has also been reported in people three to four days after COVID-19 vaccinations, with some researchers declaring the thyroiditis to be vaccine-induced.

Pancreas

A Chinese study found spike proteins in autopsy pancreas samples from people who died from COVID-19.

Spike proteins were found in two common pancreas cells: One produces and secretes enzymes that break down food, while the other one produces and releases insulin to lower our blood sugar levels. The second type includes pancreatic beta cells, which are often implicated in metabolic diseases such as diabetes; the loss of beta cells leads to type 1 diabetes, while a failure to respond to insulin is a characteristic of type 2 diabetes.

In infected individuals, where spike proteins were present, their pancreatic tissues had signs of cellular damage. The membranes that contain pancreatic cells were damaged and the content inside of the cells was swollen and disintegrated. These cells also had fewer enzymes and insulin packaged for release, suggestive of a possible decline in digestion and blood sugar regulation.

The authors found that the pancreatic beta cells especially had markers present that would normally be found in diabetes or other metabolic diseases, which may indicate that the SARS-CoV-2 virus or its spike proteins can contribute to metabolic dysfunctions.

Metabolic diseases have been associated with COVID-19 infections and vaccinations; the change in the markers of the pancreatic beta cells may be why many COVID-19 patients have abnormal sugar levels, even if they have no underlying metabolic disease.

Liver

Spike proteins were detected in the liver in five recovered COVID-19 patients. The patients had reported negative SARS-CoV-2 results for nine to 180 days, suggesting a recovery. There were also spike proteins present in the gallbladder.

Another autopsy study on 11 individuals who died after COVID-19 infection found two who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; however, all had signs of fatty liver, and some also presented with scarring and inflammation, possibly suggesting liver damage from spike proteins.

Kidney

The kidney is responsible for filtering out the urine from the blood for excretion, and therefore, there are excessive filter and circulatory activities.

An autopsy study on 21 COVID-19 patients detected one deceased person who was positive for SARS-CoV-2 proteins in their kidney. Although the other patients didnt test positive for the virus, all shared similar pathologies with dysfunction in circulation, with congestion in the vessels being responsible for filtration and signs of injury and widening of kidney compartments.

Another study detected spike proteins in urine in about 25 percent of urinary samples from hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Since proteins are larger than other commonly excreted chemicalssuch as urea and sodium ionthere are generally low amounts of proteins in the urine, with higher levels (proteinuria) being seen as a sign of kidney dysfunction. Proteinuria and nephrotic syndrome, both identified with excessive protein excretion in the urine and associated with dysfunctional kidney performance, have been documented during COVID-19 infection and after vaccination.

Gut

In a study of five recovered COVID-19 patients ranging from nine to 180 days after testing negative for the virus, the authors found spike proteins and nucleocapsid proteins in the ileum (the end of the small intestines), appendix, colon, and hemorrhoids which are swollen veins in the anus and the lower rectum. Nearly three out of four adults will have hemorrhoids from time to time.

Another autopsy evaluation on 11 people who died after contracting COVID-19 found that two individuals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 found spike proteins in gut tracts.

Adrenal Glands

The adrenal glands are often targeted in bacterial and viral infections.

Two studies on autopsies from COVID-19 patients found spike proteins localized in the adrenocortical areas of the patient. The presence of spike proteins was also accompanied by inflammation of the adrenal glands, tissue death, blood clotting, and many other dysfunctions. Since adrenocortical cells are responsible for secreting hormones, damage to these regions is speculated to elevate the risk of adrenal insufficiency in the future.

A paper on COVID-19 vaccines also found that the vaccines favored the adrenal glands for spike protein production, with spike protein RNA and spike proteins found in adrenal tissues.

Spleen

Burkhardts team found spike proteins in biopsies of the spleen from deceased vaccinated individuals; these spike proteins were present in the blood vessels of the spleen.

Another study evaluating spleen tissue obtained through autopsies from COVID-19 patients found spike proteins in spleen cells and immune cells present in the spleen. The authors found that infected individuals had greater signs of damage and tissue death in their spleen samples, suggestive of spike-protein-induced spleen injury.

Eyes

Spike proteins were found during the autopsies of three individuals who passed away from COVID-19 in the inner layer of the retina, inside retinal cells, and the blood vessels that supply the retina. COVID-19 infections have been found to be associated with increased widening of blood vessels in the retina, leading to possible impairment in eyesight.

Skin and Eccrine Cells

At least two case studies have detected SARS-CoV-2 viruses in skin and sweat gland tissues after COVID-19 infection. These people often have skin discoloration at the site of infection; laboratory examination of the skin tissue showed inflammation and reddening of the tissues infected.

Muscles

Burkhardts team found spike proteins in deltoid muscles in deceased vaccinated individuals from an autopsy study; there were also immune cells at the site, suggestive of possible infection. They also found spike proteins in the lower leg muscle cells.

Ovaries

Reproduction abnormalities have been rarely reported following COVID-19 vaccinations, although changes in menstruation have been readily recorded in women who are vaccinated or even in women who came into contact with vaccinated individuals.

An Italian in vitro study exposed cultured human granulosa and cumulus cells to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at 24-, 48-, and 72-hour intervals. The authors found viral infection in all of the cultures. The virus infected the ovarian cells. However, studies on COVID-19 infections have shown that women are generally less affected by COVID-19 infections compared to men.

Testes

Testes seem to be especially targeted by SARS-CoV-2. A preprint study found that the testes, the place of sperm production, is a reservoir for viral replication. This may pose a risk to sperm production for the individual.

A Chinese study found spike proteins in the testes of five people who died after contracting COVID-19. The tissues affected are responsible for spermatogenesis and had signs of inflammation, damage, and degeneration. These findings correlate to testes damage and potential impairment of spermatogenesis with spike protein presence.

Studies have detected the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its viral RNA in sperm following infections. These are often associated with reduced sperm count and motility, suggesting that the infection impairs spermatogenesis. Studies on vaccinated individuals also had similar findings, all of which suggest that the spike proteins by themselves may be able to impair sperm production.
The remarkable impact of the structure of food beyond nutritional content or composition.

Food structure, not just nutrient composition, may be critical for optimal health. It should come as no surprise that cornflakes and Rice Krispies cause a much greater spike in blood sugars than rice or corn-on-the-cob; but its not just the added sugar. Even with identical [ingredients], food structure can make a major difference For example, if you compare the absorption of fat from peanuts, compared to the exact same number of peanuts ground into peanut butter, you flush more than twice the amount of fat down the toilet when you eat the peanuts themselves, since no matter how well you chew, small bits of peanuts trap some of that oil makes it down to your colon. And, the physical form of food not only alters fat absorption, but carbohydrate absorption as well. For example, rolled oats have a significantly lower glycemic index than instant oatmeal, which is just oats, but in thinner flakes. And, oat flakes cause lower blood sugar and insulin spikes than powdered oats. Same single ingredient: oats, but in different forms can have different effects.

Why do we care? Well, the overly rapid absorption of carbohydrates after eating a high-glycemic index meal can trigger a sequence of hormonal and metabolic changes that may promote excessive eating. They took a dozen obese teen boys and fed them different meals, each with the same number of calories, and just followed them for the next five hours to measure their subsequent food intake. And, those that got the instant oatmeal went on to eat 53 percent more than after eating the same number of calories of steel-cut oatmeal. The instant oatmeal group was snacking within an hour after the meal, and goes on to accumulate significantly more calories throughout the rest of the day. Same food, but different form; different effects.

Instant oatmeal isnt as bad as some breakfast cereals, though, which can get up into the 80s or 90seven a cereal with zero sugar like shredded wheat. The new [industrial] methods used to create breakfast cereals, such as extrusion cooking and explosive puffing, accelerate starch digestion and absorption, causing an exaggerated blood sugar response, added sugar or not. Shredded wheat has the same ingredients as spaghettijust wheatbut has twice the glycemic index.

When you eat spaghetti, you get a gentle rise in blood sugars. If you eat the exact same ingredients made into bread form, though, all the little bubbles in bread allow your body to break it down quicker; so, you get a big spike in blood sugars, which causes our body to overreact with an exaggerated insulin spike. And, that actually ends up driving our blood sugars below fasting levels, and that can trigger hunger. Experimentally, if you infuse someone with insulin so their blood sugars dip, you can cause their hunger to spike, and, in particular, hunger cravings for high-calorie foods. In short, lower-glycemic index foods may help one to feel fuller longer than equivalent [higher-glycemic index] foods.

Researchers randomized individuals into one of three breakfast conditions: oatmeal made from quick oats, the same number of calories of Frosted Flakes, or just plain water, and then measured how much people ate for lunch three hours later. Not only did those who ate the oatmeal feel significantly fuller and less hungrythey indeed then went on to eat significantly less lunch. Overweight participants ate less than half as many calories at lunch after eating the oatmeal for breakfasthundreds and hundreds of calories less. In fact, if you notice, the breakfast cereal was so unsatiating that the Corn Flakes group ate as much as the breakfast-skipping, water-only group. Its as if the cereal group hadnt eaten breakfast at all!

Feed people Honey Nut Cheerios, and hours later they feel significantly less full, less satisfied, and more hungry than those fed the same number of calories of oatmeal. Though both breakfasts were oat-based, the higher glycemic index, reduced intact starch, and reduced intact fiber in the Cheerios seemed to have all conspired to diminish appetite control. The trial was funded by the Pepsi Corporation, makers of the Quaker oatmeal, pitted against the Cheerios from rival General Mills. And an expose on industry-funded study manipulation later revealed that the study originally included another arm, Quaker Oatmeal Squares. I am sorry that the oat squares did not perform as well as hoped, the researcher told Pepsi, which decided to publish only the results about its oatmeal.

Republished from NutritionFacts.org
No vaccine for RSV has ever been successfully developed before, because the vaccines had a persistent tendency to cause worse disease, a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE)

The first-ever RSV vaccines are now in the pipeline, directed at pregnant women, newborns and seniors. Some of them are based on mRNA technology

Health experts are now calling for voluntary indoor masking again, even though all the evidence garnered over the past three years confirms that face masks cannot prevent viral infection and spread

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a 1% increase in new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19. Maine  which has one of the nations highest COVID jab rates  has the most COVID hospitalizations. RSV cases are also unseasonably high

According to mainstream media, hospitalizations for respiratory infections are on the rise and experts warn of a potential tripledemic this winter, as COVID, seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus ( RSV ) are all in circulation

According to mainstream media, a winter triple-blizzard of disease is headed our way and hospitalizations are already on the rise. But this time, although they wont admit it, its not the unvaccinated most at risk. Are we on track for insane COVID measures to resume?

According to mainstream media, hospitalizations for respiratory infections are on the rise and experts warn of a potential tripledemic this winter, as people contract COVID,1 seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).2

The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] reports a 1% increase in new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 in the U.S., Yahoo! News reported at the end of October 2022.3

Far from being a pandemic of the unvaccinated, however, most COVID patients are now, in fact, fully jabbed. As noted by Yahoo! News (before urging everyone to stay up to date on their boosters):

The state with the most COVID hospitalizations is Maine even though it has one of the countrys highest full vaccination rates, which means a person has received their primary series of vaccinations (whether thats one or two doses) and two weeks have passed since their last dose.

RSV cases are also unseasonably high.4 According to Dr. Margaret R. Moon, co-director of Johns Hopkins Childrens Center in Baltimore, the hospital is experiencing a surge of patients due to an increase in cases of RSV, as well as other reasons, and many surrounding hospitals are facing the same.5

Scare Tactics to Sell You on RSV Vaccine

Fear sells, they say, and thats certainly the adage used by Big Pharma when it comes to vaccines. A perfect example of this was recently published by Vox.6 New RSV Vaccines Are Coming. This Is Very, Very Good News, the headline states. Why good news? Because RSV is a baddie responsible for much of the mayhem now seen in hospitals. Vox publishes classic fear porn:

RSV generally causes cold symptoms but can also lead to severe lung inflammation or infection in very young and very old people. And its started off cold season with a bang:

As of October 22, babies under a year old were being hospitalized at rates six times higher than they were at the same point in 2019, and the overall hospitalization rate was seven times higher for people of all ages.

Every year, hundreds of children die of RSV, and tens of thousands more are hospitalized  RSV disease is one of the first pediatric illnesses that young pediatricians learn to fear, said [Amy] Edwards [a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Cleveland].

Babies with the infection have terrible coughs and make wheezing noises as they struggle to move air through their swollen airways. Once youve seen it, its like you never forget it, she said 

In the US, the infection leads to about 58,000 hospitalizations and 100 to 300 deaths among young children each year, making it the countrys top cause of hospitalization in infants.

Although its a particularly risky infection for babies born prematurely and for those with lung problems or heart abnormalities, about 40 percent of American infants who died of RSV over the past few decades were otherwise healthy.

However bad RSV is in the United States, its worse globally. Every year, it causes an estimated 120,000 infant deaths worldwide  There is currently no approved antiviral treatment for RSV in either adults or children, and the one preventive option that currently exists is far from perfect 

Babies need something better  something affordable that can protect all infants, not just the highest-risk ones, from this seasonal scourge. Adults, too, need something to protect them from a virus that reliably causes an immense amount of disease  ideally, something thats as good as a flu shot, or better.

Something as good as a flu shot. Really? The 2017/2018 seasonal influenza vaccines adjusted overall effectiveness for the U.S. was just 36% against influenza A and influenza B virus infection,7,8 and between 2005 and 2015, the flu vaccines adjusted overall effectiveness was less than 50% more than half the time  with a low of only 10% in the 2004-05 season.9,10

Other than the COVID jab, its difficult to find another example of where a commercial product can fail to work more than half the time and still be recommended and even mandated. Not to worry, though, because according to Vox, RSV vaccines are super effective. Where have we heard that before?

Expect Insane COVID Measures to Resume

As predicted, health experts are starting to call for voluntary indoor masking again,11 even though all the evidence garnered over the past three years confirms what we already knew in 2020, which is that face masks do nothing to stop viral infections.

And, as before, in the absence of actual scientific evidence the narrative focuses instead on virtue. Masking up is said to be a way to protect everyone,12 so just do your part and wear it, even though, in reality, it protects no one.

The same goes for vaccination. Both the flu vaccine and the COVID shots are proven ineffective, yet the recommendation13 to get them continues. And this season, youre expected to get both!

First-Ever RSV Vaccines Expected in 2023

The fact that RSV is now being highlighted as a severe risk is understandable in light of the fact that the first-ever RSV vaccines are now in the pipeline. According to CNN,14 four different RSV shots are nearing review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and more than a dozen others are in trials.

This includes a long-acting injection specifically for babies, to be given right after birth to protect them from RSV for as long as six months. If thats not a perfect example of how media tries to change the perception of the basic meaning of a term, I dont know what is. Six months is hardly long-acting!

Historically, most vaccines have at least offered antibody-only protection for years, not months. Please recognize all vaccines fail to use cellular immunity to protect you, which is far more important than humoral antibody protection. This extremely short duration of antibody-only protection appears to be a hallmark of mRNA technology however, and indeed, at least some of these new RSV shots are mRNA based.

Moderna has announced it is working on an mRNA jab for RSV, which is scheduled for release in 2023.15 Theyre also working on a combination mRNA jab for COVID, RSV and the flu. (Ultimately, Moderna wants to create an annual mRNA shot that covers all of the top 10 viruses that result in hospitalizations each year.16)

Janssen is also working on an RSV shot using an adenovirus vector, the same technology used in its COVID shot, while Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are testing protein subunit RSV vaccines for pregnant women and seniors.17

According to Forbes,18 Pfizer announced November 1, 2022, that it is ready to seek FDA authorization for its RSV vaccine. In clinical trials this shot was given to pregnant mothers and the efficacy was measured not by whether it prevented RSV, but by severity of the infection in hospitalized babies during their first months of life.19

Why No RSV Vaccine Ever Made It to Market

No vaccine for RSV has ever been successfully developed before. Why? Because the vaccines had a persistent tendency to cause worse disease, a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). As explained by CNN:20

The hunt for an effective way to protect against RSV stalled for decades after two children died in a disastrous vaccine trial in the 1960s.

That study tested a vaccine made with an RSV virus that had been chemically treated to render it inert and mixed with an ingredient called alum, to wake up the immune system and help it respond. It was tested at clinical trial sites in the US between 1966 and 1968.

At first, everything looked good. The vaccine was tested in animals, who tolerated it well, and then given to children, who also appeared to respond well.

Unfortunately, that fall, when RSV season started, many of the children that were vaccinated required hospitalization and got more severe RSV disease than what would have normally occurred, said Steven Varga, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, who has been studying RSV for more than 20 years and is developing a nanoparticle vaccine against the virus.

A study21 published on the trial found that 80% of the vaccinated children who caught RSV later required hospitalization, compared with only 5% of the children who got a placebo. Two of the babies who had participated in the trial died.

The outcomes of the trial were a seismic shock to vaccine science. Efforts to develop new vaccines and treatments against RSV halted as researchers tried to untangle what went so wrong  It is in fact, in many ways, why we have some of the things that we have in place today to monitor vaccine safety, Varga said.

Is Anyone Monitoring Vaccine Safety?

The sad irony here is that while we do have vaccine safety monitoring tools in place, the data are not being properly evaluated and used in the decision-making process. So, no, we do NOT have a functioning vaccine safety monitoring in the U.S. If the FDA and CDC were actually monitoring safety, using the tools at their disposal as intended, the COVID shots would have been withdrawn within months of their release.

If theres no safety monitoring for the COVID jab, theres no reason to expect safety monitoring for any other new vaccine or mRNA shot.

They are, by any measure, the most dangerous and lethal injections ever released in history. Yet the FDA and CDC have ignored all safety signals and recently added the COVID jab to the childhood vaccination schedule. If theres no safety monitoring for the COVID jab, theres no reason to expect safety monitoring for any other new vaccine or mRNA shot.

Whats more, theres no reason to assume researchers have actually figured out how to make an RSV shot that doesnt cause ADE or immune imprinting, both of which pervert your immune response to subsequent exposures of the pathogen immunized against so you actually get sicker than if you had never been jabbed.

Public health technocrats foolishly believe mRNA technology will circumvent the problem encountered previously, but considering were now seeing signs of ADE and immune imprinting  or original antigenic sin  in those who got the COVID jab, theres no precedent to assume such a thing.

Its important to realize that the COVID pandemic has radically altered the authorization and approval processes for medical interventions. Everything is now on the fast track, which opens the floodgates for quick profits.

Instead of requiring trials that span a decade or more, mRNA shots are being rolled out after mere months of testing, and much of the safety is assumed based on the alleged safety of the COVID shots.

Alleged safety are the key words here, as more than 1.4 million adverse event reports following the COVID jab have been logged in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), including well over 31,600 deaths.22 According to the FDA and CDC, NONE of these deaths are attributable to the shots, which is a statistical impossibility.

Fearmongering Is a Tool to Foster Obedience

The biosecurity crisis needs to continue indefinitely because its the primary justification behind The Great Reset. Thats why, over the past three years, the goal post for public safety has been moved further and further away as weve gone along. At regular intervals, theres been another Chicken Little warning that the sky is still falling and that we must not let down our guard.

As fall and winter set in, well see another wave of doom and gloom being predicted for anyone refusing to wear a mask and get all the shots. At some stage, you must realize that the more you give in and obey, the more you have to give in and obey. There really is no end to what they can and will take from you, and holding on to the belief that your government would never [fill in the blank] is becoming more dangerous by the day.

Its also important to realize that your government isnt the ultimate power. Our government officials take orders too, from what is often referred to as the deep state. Its not a government at all, but a global, hidden power structure that is accountable to no one, while influencing and manipulating everyone to bring about a new world order.

In years past, this shadowy cabal of power brokers were referred to under the term the New World Order. In 2020, the World Economic Forum came out on the public stage and announced The Great Reset, which is nothing but the NWO rebranded.

In the video above, investigative journalist Harry Vox talks about disease outbreaks, quarantines and curfews being essential tools in the ruling class toolkit, and how these tools were planned to be used to usher in the next phase of control.

The interview, which took place in 2014, sounds more than a little prophetic today, as these three indispensable tools for totalitarian control have been part of our reality for three years. In it, Vox also refers to Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development,23 a document by the Rockefeller Foundation, in which they laid out a Lockstep scenario, which details the global response to a fictional pandemic.

Theyve Already Told You What the End Game Is

While the name and origin of the virus differ, the scenario laid out in Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development24 closely matches what weve gone through in the era of COVID, especially its deadly effect on economies.

The scenario predicted international mobility coming to a screeching halt, debilitating industries, tourism and global supply chains. Even locally, normally bustling shops and office buildings sat empty for months, devoid of both employees and customers, the document reads.

In the Rockefeller narrative, China is hailed for its rapid imposition of universal quarantines of all citizens which proved effective for curbing the spread of the virus. Its important to note that universal quarantining  lockdowns of healthy people  has never ever been used in infectious disease control before, and theres a reason for that. We already knew it doesnt work.

Many other nations where leaders flexed their authority and imposed severe restrictions on their citizens  from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries of communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets  also fared well, in this Rockefeller scenario.

Listen to the disbelief in the interviewers voice when he asks if Vox actually believes that such a thing could happen, that we would have to stand in line to get our temperature checked before entering a building.

Well, every single one of us has now had to do this, so we know its possible. And if thats possible, why not the rest of the Lockstep plan, which tells us that: Even after the pandemic faded, this more authoritarian control and oversight of citizens and their activities stuck, and even intensified.

Fool Me Once, Shame on You, Fool Me Twice 

We can no longer afford to disbelieve the lengths to which the globalist elites, the unelected deep state, can and will go to seize total control. Theyve already told us what the ultimate plan is  to use bioterrorism to take control of the worlds resources, wealth and people.

All we need to do is to believe it, and realize that the only thing giving them the power to impose their will is our fear. As long as we choose fear and demand our government keep us safe, they have every chance of winning. Hopefully, a clear majority of people will have learned this lesson by now, and wont fall for the same tricks a second time.

Will they be using the same playbook this winter? You bet. Already, were seeing the call to virtue. Theyre telling us mask wearing and vaccination are voluntary but recommended, to protect others. Thats how it all started in 2020, and look where we ended up.

Do you really want to go through all of that again? If not, just say no from the start. Say no to masks. Say no to social distancing. Say no to canceling the holidays. Say no to lockdowns. Say no to flu vaccines and COVID shots. Just say NO to their fearmongering and live your life. Fear is a tool used to control you, but that only works if you buy into it.

Ditch the Fear and Just Take Control of Your Health

While influenza, RSV and COVID can be problematic and dangerous for certain high-risk individuals, the overall risks associated with them are negligible for most. Just think back on your life  how many times have you had a cold or flu? Are you still here? How many people do you know who died from a cold or flu?

At this point, the vast majority of people have also had COVID, and are here to attest to its nonlethality. Unfortunately, those who have gotten several COVID shots are now in the high-risk category and may in fact experience more severe infection. For the unjabbed, the latest variants pose exceptionally low risk.

Keeping your immune system strong is the best way to protect yourself against all infections, and there are many effective ways to do that, including the following. For more details, follow the hyperlinks provided.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado celebrate their win during an election night party during on November 8, 2022 in New York City. Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican challenger Lee Zeldin to become the state's first woman to be elected governor. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)

Hochul Defeats Republican Zeldin in New York Governors Race

NEW YORK CITYNew York Gov. Kathy Hochul has defeated her Republican challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) in a tighter-than-expected race in the Democrat stronghold.

According to a projection by Decision Desk HQ at 11:31 p.m. ET, Hochul has won the race with 54.2 percent, to Zeldins 45.8 percent, with 79 percent reporting as of midnight ET.

Im not here to make history. Im here to make a difference, Hochul said shortly after Fox called her the winner. She recalled how her parents started out married life in a trailer park but rose up through hard work.

Ive had the honor of a lifetime becoming the first woman to lead this state, she said.

During her victory speech, she said, I have felt a weight on my shoulders to make sure that every little girl and all the women of the state whove had to bang up against glass ceilings everywhere they turn, to know that a woman could be elected in her own right and successfully govern a state as rough and tumble as New York.

Kathy Hochul wins the election for New York Governor in New York, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)

The race has proved to be the most competitive statewide contest that the Empire State has seen for nearly three decades since Republican George Pataki pulled off an upset victory in 1994.

Speaking just before midnight, Zeldin did not concede the race. He wished his mother a happy birthday and reminded supporters there were still 1.4 million votes waiting to be counted, which ignited chanting and applause from the crowd.

We have been crushing the election day overall across the entire state, he told supporters at a watch party in midtown Manhattan, noting that his margins had been going up as the hours went on.

New Yorkers are hitting their breaking point, he said, adding that hes been bringing out this message without apology or regret. We came to this with a passion to have a debate of ideas for a better direction for New York, he said.

Supporters of Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Republican candidate for governor of New York, gather at an election watch party in New York City on Nov. 8, 2022. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

Hochul secured her win despite being hit hard by her opponent during the final weeks of campaigning on allegedly being soft on crime, an issue of concern for many New York voters.

A native of Buffalo, Hochul stepped in as governor last August after Cuomo resigned amid sexual assault allegations. She had placed a major focus on abortion access and attacked Zeldins ties with Trump, but Zeldins gains in the polls brought a shift in her messaging.

In recent weeks, she has promised to hire 1,200 transit officers to prevent transit crimes, install cameras on train cars, and keep illegal guns off the streets.

But Janice Lynch, a 63-year-old attorney living in the upper east side and Zeldin supporter, is not convinced that Hochul can deliver.

Guns off the street is not the answer, she said. Criminals are always going to be able to get guns no matter what, so thats not going to make a difference. She cant do anything. She can pass all the anti-gun laws she wants.

She said that she has been taking Uber because shes really afraid to get on the subway.

Its really not right. This is not the way the city is supposed to operate, she told The Epoch Times at Zeldins watch night event in midtown Manhattan.

Zeldin, 42, who grew up in Suffolk county and served in the United States Army Reserve, hit the campaign trail about one year and a half ago.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Republican candidate for governor of New York, speaks onstage during his election watch party in New York City on Nov. 8, 2022. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

His bid was seen as a longshot. But with a pitch centered on crime, public safety, and rising prices, issues being near the top of issues for voters, Zeldin had steadily closed in on Hochul, narrowing her lead from 24 percent in June to single digits in recent weeks.

In the liberal New York where Democrat enrollment outnumbers Republicans two to one, and where Hochuls predecessor Andrew Cuomo won the office by 24 points, Zeldins momentum had kept the Democrats on edge. On Nov. 4, the Democratic Governors Association created a new super PAC to boost Hochuls standing.

As the gubernatorial candidates headed into the final sprint, a rotating cast of political heavyweights came to Hochuls aid. Former President Barack Obama cut a radio ad for her; Vice President Kamala Harris and former secretary of state Hilary Clinton took the stage with Hochul in uptown Manhattan, days before former President Bill Clinton and President Joe Biden gave 11th-hour support over the weekend.

For his part, Zeldin shared the stage with Tulsi Gabbard, former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman who left the party last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Pataki himself, whose win Zeldin hoped to emulate.

While significantly outraised by his rival, Zeldin has galvanized support from outside groups who together injected around $20 million into two super PACs backing him. Data from AdImpact show that Zeldin and his allies pumped $8.3 million on ads over the past week compared to about $5.2 million from Hochuls side.

New Yorks crime issue twice hit home for Zeldin during the race. His 16-year-old twin daughters had to hide in the upstairs bathroom and call the police after a drive-by shooting near his front porch in October. In July, Zeldin was attacked on stage in western New York by a man brandishing a keychain with two sharp points. The accused attacker, David Jakubonis, was initially held for hours before being released on his own recognizance under a 2019 state law reform that waives bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies.
Incumbents Lead Mission Viejo City Councils First District Election

In Mission Viejos City Council general election, voters must decide whether to re-elect candidates who have been in office for years or to opt for new faces.

Early voting results show incumbents leading in nearly every race as of early morning Nov. 9.

In District 1the only race without an incumbent runningBob Ruesch leads with 53.4 percent of the vote. His two opponents Deborah Cunningham-Skurnik and Linda Shepard follow with 25.4 percent and 21.2 percent, respectively.

For District 2, incumbent Brian Goodell comes out ahead with 59.4 percent, while challenger Stacy Holmes has 40.6 percent of the vote.

Due to Mission Viejos new by-district voting system, two current councilors are vying for the District 3 seatincumbent Greg Raths and mayor pro-tem Ed Sachsalong with newcomer Cynthia Vasquez. Raths has a narrow lead with 38.1 percent, while Vasquez is close behind at 37.3 percent and Sachs has 24.5 percent.

District 4s incumbent Trish Kelley stands at 65.3 percent, while Terri Aprati has 34.7 percent.

Incumbent and Mayor Wendy Bucknam gathered 64.3 percent of the vote for District 5, while Jon Miller gained 35.7 percent.

This year marks the first time the citys elections are held through a district voting systemwhere voters choose their representatives in the district they liveinstead of an at-large voting system, which means each voter can decide on all seats up for election.

In 2018, the council was sued by a resident who claimed it violated Californias voting law after failing to change its election system.

For three years, the council attempted to implement a cumulative voting system in which voters receive as many votes as open seats and may cast multiple votes for the same candidate. But it was ultimately blocked by the California Secretary of State, who said the council needed approval from the state Legislature first.

The council switched to a district-based voting system in July 2021.

Earlier this year, a series of lawsuits challenged the terms of councilors who were elected in 2018 and 2020, when the city was attempting to switch to cumulative voting.

In both elections, candidates were elected for two-year terms, but after those plans were delayed and discarded, the councilors stayed in office for four-year terms.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled in August that Bucknam, Raths, and Sachs overstayed their terms and ordered their removal from the dais. However, an appellate court halted their removal after the councilors appealed.

All five councilors who are elected in this race will serve for four years.
Indiana Tells Supreme Court That Nursing Home Patient on Medicaid Had No Right to Sue Over Mistreatment

The Supreme Court seemed skeptical on Nov. 8 of an Indiana-based government health care providers argument that the family of a Medicaid-eligible nursing home patient was barred by federal law from suing to enforce the mans legal rights.

Some legal commentators say if the provider wins, Medicaid patients will lose the ability to enforce Medicaid treatment standards, thus endangering the program.

The highly technical case, Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County (HHC) v. Talevski, court file 21-806, pits the family of a nursing home resident claiming the man was treated poorly against the state of Indiana, which argues that the lawsuit by the mans estate is baseless because Congress never expressly authorized private enforcement of the relevant federal law.

The spending clause in the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to impose taxes and spend money for the general welfare of the United States. Medicare and Medicaid are funded under this power.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that serves low-income people of all ages and varies from state to state. Its run by state and local governments within federal guidelines. Each state sets its own rules about eligibility and services. Although patients usually dont have to pay for covered medical expenses, a small co-payment is sometimes required. Medicare, by contrast, is a federal government health insurance program that covers people aged 65 and older, as well as younger patients with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease.

The Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (FNHRA) of 1987 mandates that nursing facilities accepting federal funding must protect and promote the rights of each resident. Such facilities may not use physical or chemical restraints and may not transfer or discharge a resident except for specified reasons, according to a SCOTUSblog summary of the case.

Gorgi Talevski was moved in 2016 to Valparaiso Care and Rehabilitation (VCR), a nursing home owned by the petitioner, HHC, a governmental entity, when his dementia made it difficult for his family to take care of him. The nursing home complained that he was violent and aggressive, medicating him and moving him to different facilities several times. The family claimed that Talevski, who has since died, was abused. A state administrative law judge determined that one 2016 transfer violated the FNHRA and ordered the man returned to VCR but the family moved him to another facility.

Talevskis wife and legal guardian filed whats known as a Section 1983 civil rights action on his behalf against VCR and the corporation, claiming that his FNHRA rights were violated. A federal district court tossed the suit, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed.

HHC wants the Supreme Court to overrule precedents and find that congressional actions under the spending clause cant be enforced through Section 1983, which is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871. HHC argues that courts must read Section 1983 against the background of 1871 common law  [which at that time] did not allow third-party beneficiaries to enforce contracts, particularly government contracts. It follows that a third-party beneficiary of a spending clause contractsuch as the residents of a facility receiving federal funds and charged with protecting those residentscannot enforce that contract through a Section 1983 action, according to the summary.

Talevski attorney Andrew Tutt told the justices that FNHRAs text and context show that when Congress enacted the statute in 1987, it wanted to preserve access to all available remedies for FNHRA violations to the greatest extent possible.

Congress expressly preserved the ability of nursing home residents to sue to enforce their FNHRA rights in private lawsuits under state tort law, Tutt said.

Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that current caselaw supported Tutts position.

If the state is receiving money from the federal government, it can require them to do certain things.

Then the next step would be: Does it also give a right to a third-party beneficiary to vindicate some of those rights? Thats the way we have done it, Thomas said.

HHC attorney Lawrence S. Robbins told the justices that Talevskis family shouldnt be allowed to sue because when Section 1983 was adopted, it was understood under the common law that third parties generally could not sue to enforce government contract rights unless the contract clearly specified that the breaching party would be liable to injured third parties.

Because the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act contains no such clear statement, it should not give rise to Section 1983 liability. But even if a clear notice rule is not required, the two purported rights that respondent [Talevski] invokes under FNHRA do not give rise to Section 1983 claims, he said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested to Robbins that the justices lack the authority to do what his client wants.

Wouldnt that just be us rewriting the statute? Jackson said. Usually we only get to step in and look at common law or whatnot to assist in the interpretation of a statute.

Justice Elena Kagan told Robbins that the law states every nursing facility has to ensure that individual rights are respected and lays out in considerable detail what those rights are and say its your job to see that those rights are fulfilled.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett shrugged, saying I just dont see the connecting of the dots in your situation.

Indiana Solicitor General Thomas M. Fisher said HHCs position was correct.

Section 1983 Spending Clause cases are unpredictable and cause problems for states by, among other things, [disrupting] state efforts to administer complex spending programs using scarce resources.

Allowing private individuals to enforce federal spending conditions hurts political accountability by taking officials off the political hook for policy decisions and leaves voters without any elected officials to blame, Fisher said. The court should hold that federal spending conditions are not privately enforceable unless Congress expressly so provides.
The crest of the Department of Justice at its headquarters in Washington on May 10, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Industrial Sabotage: Former Army Pilot Sentenced for Spying for China

A former U.S. Army helicopter pilot was sentenced to 20 months in prison this week for spying on behalf of Chinas communist regime.

Shapour Moinian was sentenced on Nov. 7 for his part in accepting thousands of dollars from representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in exchange for providing the regime with classified aviation-related information taken from his defense contractors who employed him.

This was industrial espionage, bordering on military espionage.  These were extremely serious offenses against the United States, said Judge Jeffrey Miller at the sentencing.

Moinian served in the U.S. Army from 1977 to 2000, according to a Justice Department statement on the sentencing. After his service, he worked for various cleared defense contractors in the United States as well as the Department of Defense itself. Cleared means that the contractors were permitted to work on projects involving classified information.

A man in China who claimed to be a technical recruiter reached out to Moinian in 2017. The man offered Moinian a job consulting for Chinas aviation industry and expressed interest in Moinians work on classified aviation projects for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

Moinian traveled to Hong Kong to meet with the man, where he agreed to provide information and materials related to multiple aircraft types, either designed or manufactured in the United States. He received between $7,000 and $10,000 in exchange for the information, as well as a cell phone and instructions on how to communicate with his new contacts in China.

A Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force WZ-7 high-altitude reconnaissance drone is seen a day before the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, southern Chinas Guangdong Province, on Sept. 27, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

According to his plea agreement, Moinian knew that the individuals at that meeting and all subsequent meetings were, in fact, directly employed by the CCP or otherwise directed by CCP authorities.

Moinian traveled overseas to meet with the CCPs agents on several more occasions from 2017 through 2019, including in Shanghai, Bali, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He delivered proprietary information about aviation-related materials he had stolen from at least two employers and was paid several thousand dollars on each occasion. He would variously launder the money through a South Korean bank established in his stepdaughters name or smuggle cash back to the United States on a plane.

He also admitted to lying on government background questionnaires in July 2017 and March 2020, when he falsely stated that he did not have any close or continuing contacts with foreign nationals and that no foreign national had offered him a job.

He was arrested on Oct. 1, 2021, while attempting to move to South Korea, where he had been offered a job working on a new military aircraft. He pleaded guilty in June of this year to acting as a paid agent of China.

Today, this defendant is being held to account for selling American technology and intellectual property to the Chinese, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.

This crime was committed by a former member of the U.S. military who chose cash over his company and country. The United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute anyone who works at the direction of foreign governments to steal from Americans.
Event organizers Andisheh Tadayyon (L), Shoja Adel (2nd L), Sudi Farokhnia (3rd L), art director Hanieh Bagher (2nd R), and artist Shirin Daggooghi (R) at the "Woman, Life, Freedom" art exhibit at the Holiday Faire at Great Park in Irvine, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2022. (Rudy Blalock/The Epoch Times)

Irvine Art Exhibit Latest in Iranian Protests

IRVINE, Calif.An art exhibit was held at the citys Great Park on Nov. 5, where original works of art including oil paintings and images relating to the uprising in Iran were displayed for public viewing. The exhibit is just one of many organized events in the nation to seek support for the people of Iran in their fight against the countrys regime.

Event organizer and Acting President of the Iranian American Democrat Party of California Sudi Farokhnia told The Epoch Times the exhibit was to gain awareness of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, who died after three days in Iranian police custody. She was allegedly detained for a dress code violation in Tehran, by the so-called Islamic morality police.

Falsely labeling the protests as foreign-backed riots, 227 of 290 lawmakers in the hardline-dominated Iranian Parliament, or Majles, called on the courts to deal decisively with the perpetrators of these crimes and with all those who assisted in the crimes and provoked rioters, the parliament said in a statement, according to state media.

After using deadly force and mass arrests to squash the just protests of the Iranian peopleled by Iranian women and youthIranian authorities have doubled down on violence by using the death penalty and other harsh sentences to silence anti-state demonstrations.

Human rights organizations have indicated that more than 300 Iranians have been killed in the governments brutal crackdownthough that number is likely higheralong with more than 14,000 arrests.

Some of those arrested have already been charged with crimes that carry the risk of capital punishment, including waging war against God, according to the Iranian Parliament. Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, Irans Judiciary Chief, indicated that he agreed with the statement from parliamentarians and that protesters could be executed. In so doing, the Iranian establishment appears to be priming itself for greater brutality under the guise of legality.

Farokhnia said the current uprising isnt a first for Iran, but it is different than others in the past. She said today, Iranians are coming together, differences aside, asking for one thing.

[Dont] ignore the voices of the people of Iran. Dont make any deals with the Iranian regime, and let the Iranian people chart their own course, Farokhnia said.

Images displayed at the Woman, Life, Freedom art exhibit at the Holiday Faire at Great Park in Irvine, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2022. (Rudy Blalock/The Epoch Times)

A design for a mural was displayed for the first time at the exhibit, created by Shirin Daggooghi, an independent painter and graphic designer in Southern California, depicting the chronology of the so-called anti-compulsory movement against the hijab.

On the far left of the design is a woman standing on a metal utility box, waving a stick with a white scarf symbolizing peace. She is known as the girl from Revolution Street so named after she was jailed in December 2017 during protests in Tehran, the capital of Iran.

In the middle of the murals design is Mahsa Amini holding an olive branch, again symbolizing peace. Behind her are 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh and 17-year-old Nika Shakarami, who were the first two women under 18 to allegedly die at the hands of the regime, for protesting and not wearing their headscarves, following Mahsa Aminis death.

Organizers said they hope to find a wall or the side of a building in Orange County to paint the mural.

Another piece shown at the exhibit, painted by art curator Hanieh Bagher, depicted a nude woman with a real rope tied around her torso and arms.

I was inspired 10 years ago for this one, when I noticed in the world sex trafficking is prevalent, Bagher told The Epoch Times.

Images displayed at the Woman, Life, Freedom art exhibit at the Holiday Faire at Great Park in Irvine, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2022. (Rudy Blalock/The Epoch Times)

A large piece composed of 2,500 silk roses was also on display, also depicting Shakarami. The work was created by Hiwa Pashaei, an LA-based Kurdish Iranian-American Artist.

Farokhnia said she has helped organize and combine several other events in Orange County. Previously, she said, there wasnt a lot of unity as protests were simultaneously in various locations, which she said divided the effort.

To help consolidate the efforts, she found other organizers and used social media to connect the various parties organizing protests in Southern California. SoCal.

In the beginning, you would see, especially in LA, three events called in three different corners of the city almost at the same time, Farokhnia said. If we are trying to get traction, we need to bring large crowds together.

The largest of the combined protests was in Los Angeles, with around 30,000 people in attendance from San Diego, Orange, and LA counties.

Theres a lot of team building, a lot of sisterhood and brotherhood that is being built. We are all just focused that our number one job is to amplify the voices of the people in Iran, Farokhnia said.

She also said a lot of social media Telegram groups have been formed, that share information and offer support and unity worldwide. SoCal_OC_Iranians on Instagram she said is the best place to find out about upcoming protests and events in Orange County.

Were trying to do more global actions now. Its more impactful, she said.

Farokhnia said she and others have also tried to bring their concerns to light including holding a welcome rally during President Joe Bidens speech on Oct. 4 at MiraCosta College in Oceanside.

While he kept going around, he kept seeing that we were trying hard to get his attention, she said.

According to Farokhnia, the president responded and said, Dont worry, were going to free Iran. They [Iranian people] are going to free themselves pretty soon.

White House officials later clarified Bidens statement did not represent a change in the administrations position.

He was expressing, again, our solidarity with them, said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, according to media reports.

The presidents been pretty clear about this.  Were going to continue to look for ways to hold the regime accountable for the way that theyre treating their own people, Kirby said.

Despite Bidens remarks, Kirby said that the US is not aware of any signs of a regime change in Iran.

Protests will continue and events, exhibits, or any means of raising awareness will appear soon, according to the protest organizers in Southern California.

Members of the community including Orange County organizers have been actively engaging with candidates and elected officials, especially in the recent weeks leading up to the elections, according to Farokhnia. There are various lists of demands that have been issued and are being pursued as Iranians across the globe demand meaningful action and for global leaders to go beyond verbal support, she said.
A Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) Type-74 tank fires ammunition during a live fire exercise at the JSDF's training grounds in the East Fuji Manuever area in Gotemba, Japan, on May 22, 2021. (Akio Kon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Japans Defense Goes JointKind Of

Commentary

When considering Japans defense policy, particularly the speed at which it changes, its good to keep your wits about you.

The following apocryphal exchange between a skeptical U.S. observer and a Japanese government official following some newly announced defense initiative is instructive:

U.S. observer: I suppose youre going to get it done, manana?

Japanese official: Oh no  not THAT fast.

Asia Nikkei reported on Oct. 29 that Japan will establish a joint command for the Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) by 2024.

This is a good thing. It potentially improves JSDF capabilities and represents progress of a sort.

What Is Joint?

Joint or jointness refers to the three JSDF services (Air, Sea, and Ground Self Defense Forces) operating as a unified whole and under the command of a single joint commander. They currently lack such capability, except at the most rudimentary leveldespite the existence of a Joint Staff Office (JSO).

Think of your arms and legs operating under orders from the brainand each appendage doing what the brain directs.

Thats the JSDF with jointness.

Now imagine the brain is absent, and each appendage does whatever it imagines the body ought to be doing.

Thats the JSDF without jointness. And it is no way to conduct military operations.

Absent a joint capability; the Japan Self-Defense Force isnt even the sum of its partsno matter how impressive each service looks individually or on paper.

However, with jointness, the JSDF becomes far more capable of defending Japan and conducting operations with its allythe United Statesand other partners in the Indo-Pacific.

Japans adversariesChina, Russia, and North Koreawill also take notice of a JSDF that can fight better, by itself or alongside friends.

But they also may not wait around for the JSDF to get its act together, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in particular, seems like a man in a hurry.

Thus, the announced 2024 start date for the JSDF joint capability suggests no real urgency on the part of Japans civilian leadership. Also, its unclear how the transformation will actually occur.

Changing a militarys ethos and customary ways of operating is often difficult. It could easily take another three to five years for real improvements to manifest themselves.

One hopes things might come about quickerand maybe forward-thinking JSDF officers have quietly developed a plan to implement now that theyve received the go-order.

The requirement for a JSDF with joint capability has been obvious for yearsand many Japanese military officers and civilian officials recognized the shortcoming.

This was, in fact, a principal reason behind the development of Japans amphibious capability starting around 2011. The idea is that amphibious operations require sea, ground, and air cooperationand JSDF services would be forced to cooperate.

This effort has had some success, manifested in the formation of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, which operates well with the Japanese navy and U.S. forces. It shows whats doable, but the concept has not taken root in the broader JSDF.

Naval vessels from the United States, Japan, India, and the Philippines conduct formation exercises and communication drills in the South China Sea on May 2019. (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force/U.S. Navy)

There are reasons Japan has taken so long to develop this commonsensical capability for its military. The big one was the World War Two experience when the Japanese military dragged Japan into a catastrophe that killed millions of citizens (military and civilians) and nearly destroyed the nation. Fair enough, and one suspects most nations would be similarly leery of their military for many years afterward.

But that was a long time ago. It has been 20 years since Japan needed to move and make the JSDF an effective force while getting over its pathologic and too comfortable dependence on the U.S. military to defend Japan.

This requires the efficient direction, command, control, and synergies that come with joint capabilities.

Importantly, jointness is not just a matter for the JSDF. The Americans need a more capable and potent Japanese military to augment overstretched U.S. forces.

And American forces and the Japan Self-Defense Force need to operate together far more effectively than is currently the case, except for the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The U.S. and Japanese militariesnotably the U.S. Navy and Marines and the Japanese army and navyare trying to move things forward by conducting more complex and more realistic training together. But this only goes so far and is not the same as a JSDF that is joint from the ground up.

The U.S. side can help the JSDF acquire a joint capabilitybut it needs to be a priority for USINDOPACOM and the Pentagon. To date, it never has been.

One Easy Move

The Japanese say they will establish a joint operational headquarters for the JSDF. So will the Americans finally push for a joint U.S.-Japan operational headquarters in Japan? That would be a start. It also isnt hard.

Time will tell.

Unfortunately, optimism does not come easy if youve been around Japan for a while.

An American observer of Japans defense policies for the last four decades noted:

Now, lets see if the joint command really comes to fruitionI envision lots of opposition and obstruction from Asahi (newspaper), the pacifists, and PRC [Peoples Republic of China] trolls. Efforts to water down the terms use vague and almost meaningless language. Threats from Beijing which will energize the aforenamed entities.

So while its always good to hear talk of a JSDF that can operate togetherjointlyone wonders if Japan moves faster with its plan than Xi Jinping moves with his.

These days he does not appear familiar with the word manana.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
MALTA  Chronic wasting disease has been detected in a cow elk killed by a hunter in Hunting District 622, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks reported on Wednesday.

This marks the first CWD detection in an elk in northeast Montana and only the second detection in an elk in the state.

However, the cow elk is the second CWD-positive animal detected in HD 622, the first being a mule deer buck that was harvested by a hunter in 2020. FWP has conducted rotating surveillance for CWD throughout the state for several years, and HD 622 is within this years priority surveillance area.

CWD is a contagious neurological disease that infects deer, elk and moose. It is always fatal, and there is no known cure. It was first detected in Montanas wild herds in 2017. The disease is known to exist in other parts of north-central and northeast Montana, especially north of Highway 2, as well as in other areas of the state.

Hunters play a significant role in CWD management by providing test samples from harvested animals. FWP has provided resources to help hunters collect and submit samples for testing on their own. In addition, FWP offers several locations around the state where FWP staff will take samples for hunters. These resources and others can be found at fwp.mt.gov/cwd.

CWD is not known to infect humans. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people not eat meat from infected animals and have their harvested animals tested before eating them if they were taken from an area where CWD is known to exist. For more information on CDC recommendations, please visit go.usa.gov/xAcnc.
A member of the Canadian Forces salutes as he passes in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Oct. 22, 2015. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

John Robson: On Nov. 11 We Shall Remember All Who Gave Their Tomorrows for Our Today, in Wars Big and Small

Commentary

From Vimy Ridge to Mons Badonis, Kandahar to Juno Beach, we shall remember them. Even if we have no idea who they were.

We often do not. Even in the two world wars a staggering number of the dead have no known grave, though we usually know who they are, just not where, especially if they fought for the Western Allies. But the long struggle for freedom and decency is marked not only by unknown graves, or none, but also by unknown battles, unmarked causes, and desecrated bodies left for the wolves and crows.

Years ago in Britain, filming my Constitutional trilogy, I encountered several hills whose natural defensive features made them strongpoints from the Bronze Age and earlier. And I saw dim visions of generations fighting and dying in small battles, not just long forgotten but never known except by them. And such places exist around the world because petty tribal quarrels as well as clashes of massive armies have plagued mankind from the start.

Schools may not teach that slavery existed everywhere from time immemorial before being stamped out in recent centuries years by the West. But while thousands who died to end it are buried honourably in places like Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, and Fredericksburg, how many perished nameless before some vanished village trying to save wives, sisters, and children from abuse, torture, and murder, often unsuccessfully? Shall we not remember them?

J.R.R. Tolkien captured the feel of those British sites in the backstory to the Lord of the Rings, particularly regarding Arthedain, that remnant of the once-mighty Numenorian northern kingdom of Arnor ultimately destroyed by the Witch-King of Angmar whose defenders were among those entombed in the haunted Barrow Downs. And while some may consider fantasy inappropriate to remembrance, such writing varies widely in quality as well as genre.

At its pinnacle, where Tolkien stands, it is profoundly morally serious. Including the vital point that nameless men, and the families behind them, who rallied at Weathertop and other local strongpoints yet lost both war and kingdom, gave rise to the Rangers from whose obscure lineage legitimate authority was restored.

Now consider King Arthur. Not the figure in convoluted medieval legends lampooned in The Once and Future King, but the obscurely historical Romanized British chieftain who won an important battle at Mons Badonis in a losing war against Germanic invaders. I say losing because the Angles, Saxons and dont-get-no-respect Jutes ultimately drove their Celtic foes into Wales. But some survived there, which matters.

It also matters, and more, that by slowing the advancing tide, Arthurs victory bought time for the alchemy that converted these bloodthirsty pagan nihilists into Christian defenders of liberty under law who, three centuries later, rallied to the Saxon Alfred the Great at Egberts Stone and defeated the bloodthirsty pagan Danish nihilists in a story at once fantastical and true.

On our British trips we found the supposed Egberts Stone, and a small uncelebrated rock it was too, no Stone of Erech. But we certainly did not find the graves of any who fought with Alfred in his crucial battles against fearful odds. Nor are their names inscribed on walls like those at Vimy, the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux or the Indian Memorial at Neuve-Chapelle. Shall we not remember them?

Or consider Jack Nichols haunting World War II painting Drowning Sailor. Most killed in the Battle of the Atlantic went to Davey Jones, not some quiet, honoured resting place. But while it matters to name Jack Smith who did not return and left a widow so Hitler could not starve Britain, it matters more to say that, every time duty called, someone gave all their tomorrows for our today, and even their names.

We commemorate on Nov. 11, rightly, because we need a focus. And we who never served bow our heads beside our veterans and naturally imagine a World War I death, being suddenly blown shrieking into unrecognizable fragments amid the stinking mud of the trenches. But please think also of those who last saw dawn while banners snapped in the wind at Mons Badonis, then were disemboweled by a sword-thrust and perished from the Earth and any form of memory because they loved freedom more than life.

Remember also those who deserved a better cause than that in which they died. We may split the difference over Bosworth Field, where there were arguments on both sides, or even Culloden Moor. But Nichols sailor was German; as the artist said in 1998, When you are drowning, you lose your nationality, dont you?

To fight in an evil cause is a perilous thing, in the next world as in this. But may God have mercy on all who stood, even mistakenly, upon all the ramparts this troubled world has seen. We shall remember them.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Joly Warns of Risks of Doing Business With China in Lead-Up to New Indo-Pacific Strategy

With Canadas new Indo-Pacific strategy set to be released next month, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is warning businesses against deepening ties with China, saying there are geopolitical risks involved.

What I would like to say to Canadians doing business in and with Chinayou need to be clear-eyed, Joly said during a speech at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in Toronto, on Nov. 9.

The decisions you take as business people are your own, she said. As Canadas top diplomat, my job is to tell you that there are geopolitical risks linked to doing business with the country.

She said China is increasingly diverging from Canadian values, and so businesses operating in that country face risks of political interference and the violation of trade rules.

China is an increasingly disruptive global power, she said, adding Canada seeks deeper ties with more democratic, reliable countries such as India.

Joly is expected to introduce Canadas new Indo-Pacific Strategy by early December, which will outline key policies regarding the countrys relationship with China. The minister today detailed some points that will be addressed in the forthcoming plan, including Canadas ongoing trade partnership with China.

Joly acknowledged China has human rights abuses, but said Canada also has trade ties with the country, saying she believes in diplomacy.

Five Objectives

Canadas upcoming Indo-Pacific Strategy will consist of five main points, Joly said: promoting peace and security, addressing trade and investment issues, advocating for human rights, climate change, and furthering Canadas international presence in the region.

We will challenge China when we ought to, and we will cooperate with China when we must, she said. Its sheer size and influence makes cooperation necessary to address the worlds existential pressures.

The federal government recently announced that it will be taking steps to protect Canadas critical minerals supply chains against foreign government investment. China is by far the dominant player in the global critical minerals supply chain, with an 80 percent market share in some cases.

We will act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains, both at home and abroad, said Economic Development Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne in a statement on Nov. 2.

Last month, Ottawa ordered three Chinese companies to withdraw their investments in Canadian lithium companies.

The actions came shortly after a government statement said that significant transactions by foreign state-owned enterprises in Canadas critical minerals sectors will only be approved as of likely net benefit on an exceptional basis.

Joly commented on the issue today, saying the government will address Chinese investment in other sectors in the future.

Canada is open to investment, but at the same time, we cant be naive.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs (L) speaks to supporters at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel in Phoenix on Nov. 8, 2022. Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake greets supporters at a campaign rally at the Dream City Church in Phoenix on Nov. 7, 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Arizona Governor Race Too Close to Call; Lake Closes Gap

PHOENIXArizonas Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has significantly narrowed the gap between herself and Democrat Katie Hobbs as vote counting continued on Nov. 9.

At 10:45 p.m. local time on election night, Hobbs led Lake by about 170,000 votes, and within about an hour, the lead had narrowed slightly to 163,000. As of the afternoon of Nov. 9, only about 11,000 votes separated Lake, the former television news anchor, and Hobbs, who is Arizonas secretary of state, with as many thousands of votes yet to be counted.

Vote tabulation machine malfunctions at about 20 percent of polling places in Maricopa County, the states most populous, sparked criticism early on Election Day on social media, although officials assured that every vote would be counted.

On Election Day, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors gave multiple press briefings to address what it called false narratives. They stated that per Arizona law, anyone with a mail-in ballot had until 7 p.m. on election night to turn in their vote.

Bill Gates (R), chairman of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, speaks at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix on Nov. 8, 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)

The election supervisors emphasized that the ballot had to be in hand and not just postmarked for it to count. But, if they received the vote by the cutoff, it would be calculated. They added that voting results wouldnt be available on election night due to the law and that the ballots have to be signature matched to their database. They then said they expect to know the election results on Nov. 11.

Notably, early in the evening, election supervisors stated via Twitter that most early ballot reports involved ballots received by last week. They added that the first drop reported at 8 p.m. included only votes received by mail by Nov. 4. Subsequent drops further preferred mail-in ballots, which tend to favor Democrats.

At Lakes watch party in Scottsdale on election night, one of her campaign managers briefed the crowd of party attendees and stated that in-person vote drops were breaking for Lake by 71 percent. That proved true as voting results as of Nov. 9 show a significantly smaller gap.

Because she wouldnt know the results on election night, Lake took the stage at her watch party at about 10 p.m. She started her speech by noting the tabulator issue in Maricopa; the crowd responded by booing.

Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake speaks to supporters during her election night event at The Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

She followed that by stating, Guess what? We are going to win this! and asked attendees if they remembered Arizonas Aug. 2 primary election, when Lake was down in the polls by double digits but ended up pulling out a five-point victory.

Lake stated a similar situation was taking place on election night.

I just want you to know its early. Its very early. And if we have to take this fight through, we will. If it takes hours or days, we will. She added that she wouldnt stop fighting until every legal vote was counted.

Across town at her own election party, Hobbs also spoke.

I know that were all eager to find out who won all of these incredibly important races, but we need to be patient and wait for every vote to be counted. Because every single vote matters and every single vote counts equally. Hobbs then criticized Lake for attacking Maricopa County over the tabulation voting issues.

Hobbss criticism of Lake echoed her campaign rhetoric. They blasted each other on the campaign trail and fiercely courted Arizona voters until Election Day. They also ran on wholly opposite views on how best to govern.

Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs speaks at a press conference calling for abortion rights outside the Evo A. DeConcini Courthouse in Tucson, Arizona, on Oct. 7, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

For Hobbs, threats to democracy and body autonomy took center stage at her rallies. If elected, she promised to fight to bring real solutions to Arizona and protect access to abortion. Hobbss rally attendees told The Epoch Times they are concerned about democracy if Lake won and that women would die in back-alley abortions.

For Lake, election integrity and border security took precedence, although transgender issues in schools and the economy also played a prominent role. Lake promised that if elected, shed finish the border wall that former President Donald Trump started. She also stated that shed deport illegal immigrants back to where they came [from] instead of allowing them further into the interior of the United States.

Lake rally attendees told The Epoch Times that rising crime and drugs flooding their streets because of the unsecured southern border drew them to support Lake.

The winner will succeed Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who served the maximum two terms and wasnt eligible to seek a third consecutive term. Thus, there wasnt an incumbent advantage going into the election.

Going into Election Day, FiveThirtyEight reported that Lake was favored to win. Emerson College had Lake up by 4 percentage points, while Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research had Lake up 1 point. One poll by Marist College had Hobbs beating Lake by 1 point.
Leading Electricity Operator to Speed up Renewables Rollout

Transgrid, a power grid owner responsible for lighting up Australias three largest states along the east coast, has promised to beat an official timeline for delivering $10 billion (US$6.5 billion) worth of projects to embed renewable energy into Australias electricity market.

Australias energy market manager AEMO expected these three transmission projects EnergyConnect, HumeLink, and VNI West, to be completed in 2024-25, 2026, and 2031 respectively.

However, the Chief Executive Officer of Transgrid, Brett Redman, said the company could beat those targets.

We believe we can beat the times. EnergyConnect will be in 2024, HumeLink by the middle of 2026 rather than late 2026 and the big one is VNI West, which is 2028 rather than 2031, Redman, whos navigating Transgrid along a journey towards decarbonisation, told The Australian.

He is expecting financing from the government to fast-track the process.

Were in deep discussion with the federal government, supported by the NSW government, on Rewiring The Nation funding  Im hopeful that that will unlock the financing challenge so that we can get on and build what the community needs.

Prior to working at Transgrid, Redman spent 11 years holding senior leadership roles across AGL Energy Limited (AGL), Australias largest energy generator and energy retailer.

During this period, he founded the Powering Australian Renewables Fund to kick-start large-scale wind and solar development opportunities.

We are close to placing large orders for equipment and the next big thing is to start to put in orders for critical and long-lead items to meet this big challenge of having transmission ready, so that we get renewables connected and beat coal closure, Redman added.

Australias Aggressive Climate Action

The current ruling Labor Party has embarked on a more aggressive climate change agenda by legislating net-zero targets and expanding investment in renewable energy generators.

According to the latest budget update, released on Oct. 25, the Australian government will spend $20 billion to help finance the construction of new transmission links for renewable energy, $1.9 billion to support jobs and emission reductions in the regions, and also allocate $800 million towards supporting solar battery storage to 100,000 homes.

Energy prices are rising steeply across the country and are expected to remain high for at least a few years. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Rocco Loiacono, a senior lecturer at Curtin University Law School in Perth, Australia, says that the current trajectory of what energy policies will push up prices for the average Australian.

Just ask anyone in the United Kingdom and Europe how renewable energy has worked out for them. Power prices have increased at least five times over the last year. Energy rations loom across the continent just in time for winter, Loiacono said.

Germany, which once held itself out as the leader in renewable energy, is scrambling to reopen coal-fired and nuclear power plants just to limit the damage.
People line up to vote at Plummer Park in West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2022. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Los Angeles Elections: Caruso Leads in Race for Mayor, Sheriff Villanueva Trails in Reelection Bid

In the hours after the polls closed Nov. 8, the Los Angeles races unfolded in unexpected ways, with businessman Rick Caruso taking a slight lead over his opponent U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) in the mayoral race and county Sheriff Alex Villanueva trailing far behind his opponent.

Angelenos voted for a new mayor to replace termed-out Eric Garcetti, as well as a new city attorney, controller, and new city councilors for the 5th, 11th, 13th, and 15th districts.

Hundreds of thousands of voters in Los Angeles County went to the polls despite a rainy forecast. As reported by the Los Angeles County Registrars office, over 1.1 million ballots were cast, accounting for 19 percent of the countys 5.6 million registered voters, as of 12 a.m., Nov. 9.

Final results were not expected on election night, since officials expect mail-in ballots to arrive in the days to come.

Here are the preliminary results of some key races in the City and County of Los Angeles as of 9:30 a.m., Nov. 9. The next update will be on Friday, according to the county registrar.

Los Angeles Mayor

In the nonpartisan race to replace incumbent Eric Garcetti, Bass currently has 48.8 percent of the vote, behind Carusos 51.3 percent. Both are Democrats.

Bass is running on a platform to keep Los Angeless values progressive and has received endorsements from former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and dozens of other state and federal Democrats.

Caruso, a billionaire builder known for constructing some of Los Angeles most beloved malls and plazas, registered as a Democrat before entering the race in February, was previously an Independent and before that, a Republican. He is endorsed by the Los Angeles Protective League and several celebrities such as music manager Scooter Braun, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Chris Pratt, and Snoop Dogg.

City Attorney

The City Attorney racewhich will decide who will hold the position to defend the city against legal claims, write legislation, pursue legal claims, and prosecute some misdemeanor crimesis between civil rights attorney Faisal M. Gill and finance attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto.

Soto earned 57.8 percent of the vote, beating Gills 42.2 percent.

Soto is endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

Endorsements for Gill include those from the California Nurses Association, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Feel The Bern Democratic Club.

City Controller

The controller is the citys chief accounting officer responsible for auditing the citys spending while overseeing about 160 city employees. The controller is also responsible for advising the city on how to spend its funds.

With nearly 61 percent of the vote, accountant Kenneth Meija is expected to replace incumbent Ron Galperin, who was elected in 2013 and termed out, as City Councilman Paul Koretz received 39 percent.

Meija is endorsed by San Fernando Valley Young Democrats, Streets for All, Jane Fonda Climate PAC, and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

Koretz is endorsed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA City Attorney Mike Feuer, and Galperin, among others.

City Council District 5

Katy Young Yaroslavskyformer senior environment and arts policy deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehlhad 55.5 percent of the vote, a comfortable lead over attorney and small business owner Sam Yebris 44.5 percent.

The districtcurrently represented by Koretz, who is running for the citys controllerencompasses Los Angeles communities in the Westside, central-eastern Santa Monica Mountains, and central-southern San Fernando Valley.

Yebri is endorsed by Los Angeles County of Supervisors President Holly Mitchell, Galperin, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, among others.

Yaroslavsky is endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, Planned Parenthood, and Streets for All, among others.

City Council District 11

In the race to replace Councilman Mike Bonin, who is not running for re-election, municipal law attorney Traci Park prevails over civil rights attorney Erin Darling with 55.5 percent of the vote compared to Darlings 44.5 percent.

District 11 covers Brentwood, Del Rey, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Sawtelle, Venice, West Los Angeles, Westchester, and the Los Angeles International Airport.

Park is endorsed by the state Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, as well as organizations such as the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

Darlings endorsements include those from the Los Angeles Democratic Party, the Los Angeles Times, the Westchester-Playa Democratic Club, the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Union, a handful of progressive activists, and former U.S. presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.

City Council District 13

In a tight race, labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez, with 52.3 percent of the vote, is currently ahead of incumbent Mitch OFarrells 47.7 percent.

District 13 covers Silver Lake, Echo Park, Westlake, Echo Park and western Elysian Park in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains, Atwater Village, Elysian Valley, and parts of the Los Angeles River within its northeastern borders.

Hugo is endorsed by Councilwoman Nithya Raman and the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, while OFarrell is endorsed by most of his colleagues on the city council and the Los Angeles Democratic Party.

City Council District 15

Attorney Tim McOsker, with almost 65 percent of the vote, is on track to replace incumbent Joe Buscaino, who decided to run for mayor instead of reelection to the city council. Danielle Sandoval, a former restaurant owner, trails behind at 35 percent.

District 15 spans across all the citys southern area and the Port of Los Angeles, including the neighborhoods of San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, and the Harbor Gateway. Watts also borders the district.

McOsker is backed by the California Democratic Party and several labor union groups. Meanwhile, Sandoval is endorsed by former City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and two other candidates who ran for the seat in June.

Los Angeles Board of Supervisors District 3

Vying to replace termed-out Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, California Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) leads with 51.2 percent of the votes in a close race against West Hollywood City Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath, who garnered 48.8 percent.

The district encompasses the San Fernando Valley and the Westsideincluding the cities of West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monicaas well as Canoga Park, Chatsworth, North Hollywood, and Pacoima.

The next supervisor will become one of five board members who oversee the countys $39 billion budget.

County Sheriff

With nearly 57 percent of the vote, retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna is on track to replace incumbent Alex Villanueva, who was trailing at 43 percent.

The sheriff oversees the countys law enforcement and operates the county jails and courts.

Luna is endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and other Democratic officials and organizations.

Villanueva is backed by former LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley, the Santa Clarita Valley Signal, and Ironworkers Local 433, among other officials and organizations.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva speaks at a press conference to address vaccine mandateswhich he calls an "imminent threat to public safety" if terminations occur in his department as a result of the mandates at a press conference in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 2, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Sheriff Villanueva Falls Behind in Reelection Bid

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who fought back against pandemic mandates and controversies during his first term, was in danger of losing his bid for reelection as early results favored his opponent Nov. 9.

Former Long Beach Chief of Police and Democrat Robert Luna maintained a lead in the race with 56.8 percent of the vote by midday Nov. 9 as Villanueva trailed by about 200,000 votes, earning 43 percent support as of 1 p.m., Nov. 9.

The race tightened slightly overnight as Lunas initial 60 percent share began to shrink.

Overnight the polling is trending upward with [election day] ballots in our favor. Like four years ago, we remain optimistic that when all votes are counted, we will be victorious, Villanueva told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Villanueva won the June primary, but about 68 percent of the vote went to other opponents. Results appeared to show similar percentages in the general election.

The outspoken sheriff was first elected in 2018 with nearly 53 percent of the vote, unseating Jim McDonnell in his first term.

Villanueva was a little-known lieutenant before taking office at the largest sheriffs department in the nation in the historic upset. Since taking the helm, he has engaged in public battles with the countys board of supervisors against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the boards efforts to defund the department.

Verbal sparring with the countys top officials has also escalated in recent months as corruption allegations were raised by both sides.

Los Angeles County saw a large voter turnout of about 1.3 million ballots despite a rainy forecast, according to the Los Angeles County Registrars office. That represented about 23 percent of the countys 5.6 million registered voters, as of 12 p.m., Nov. 9.

Election officials dont expect to release the final results until all mail-in ballots arrive and are counted, which could take several more days.

This is the first political campaign for Villanuevas opponent Luna, a former Long Beach Chief of Police and Democrat.

The first numbers that came out and they look good, Luna told supporters at a campaign watch party Nov. 8. Please know that as I stand before you this is my first campaign. And I remember when I first started to tell people, they said  What are you doing? And, I said we got to do this. We got to move forward with this. Change needs to occur, and thats exactly what we did.

Luna spent 36 years at the Long Beach Police Department, Los Angeles countys second-largest department, where he was appointed chief of police in 2014. He grew up in East Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was home to low-income Latino immigrants, according to his biography. He lives in Long Beach with his wife and has two adult children.

Luna said he was in favor of addressing crime at the root of the problem and collaborating with community leaders, according to his website. He did not immediately return a request for comment after the election.

Voters Supporting Measure for Supervisors to Remove Sheriff

Once elected, Luna or Villanueva could face additional pressure as the majority of voters appeared to support a measure allowing elected county supervisors the ability to remove an elected sheriff for cause, such as violating laws or neglecting duty. Measure A was headed for passage by 68 percent of voters as of noon Nov. 9.

The measure was proposed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in August after engaging in several battles with Villanueva.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger voted against putting the measure on the ballot, saying in August the move has the potential to disenfranchise voters.

Giving the Board of Supervisors the authority to remove an elected Sheriff unequivocally takes away power from the public, Barger said in a statement.

The sheriff said the county would likely be sued if the measure passed.

When you apply an unconstitutional measure, youre doubling down on bad policy making, Sheriff Villanueva told ABC7 on election night. And thats actually going to put the county in a huge liability. I dont think theyre even going to use it. It wasnt their goal.

The California State Sheriffs Association and others would take Measure A to court if it passed, he said.
Louisiana Democrat Running for Reelection Dies in Crash

Melvilles Democrat Mayor Velma D. Hendrix, who was running for reelection in the Nov. 8 midterms, died in a car crash just a few hours before the polls were to close.

The 84-year-old Democrat was involved in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 190 near LA Highway 741 on Tuesday, according to a Nov. 8 press release by the Louisiana State Police. Hendrix was traveling in a 2008 Acura RDX along with three other passengers and a driver.

When they approached an intersection, an incoming 2015 Ram 2500 pickup, driven by Michael Cook of Columbia, Louisiana, failed to yield and ended up striking the passenger side of the Acura.

Hendrix was the rear left seat passenger in the Acura. She was unrestrained at the time of the crash and was transported to a local hospital in critical condition where she ultimately succumbed to her injuries, according to the release.

The driver of the Acura, who was restrained, and three additional passengers (seat belt usage unknown) all suffered moderate to critical injuries and were transported to local hospitals for treatment.

Though Cook was also unrestrained, he suffered no injuries. A breath sample test indicated no alcohol in his system and he showed no signs of impairment. The police cited him for failure to yield from a stop sign and no seat belt. The Acura drivers routine toxicology sample has been submitted for analysis.

The police are investigating the crash.

Tragic Accident

In the mid-1990s to early 2000s, Hendrix served on the Melville towns board of Aldermen. In 2018, she was elected as the towns mayor after garnering 70 percent of the vote.

In an interview with The Acadiana Advocate, St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard said that Hendrix was a nice lady who was well-loved among the community members. Her sudden passing has apparently stunned the people of the town.

Speaking to the people in that area theyre just shocked, he said. Its tragic. The community is a small community and theyre mourning the loss of their mayor.

In the Tuesday election, Hendrix was running against challengers Sheila Londerno and Caretta Robertson, both Democrats. At 100 percent reporting, Londerno was projected to win the race with over 43 percent votes, with Hendrix securing only around 17 percent of the votes.
President Joe Biden spearheaded an Aug. 25 rally in Rockville, Md., on behalf of Democratic candidates including Wesley Moore (R), who as expected won his Nov. 8 Maryland gubernatorial race against Trump-endorsed Republican state Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick) in November. (Courtesy of Wes Moore for Maryland)

Marylands Moore Gives Democrats a Gubernatorial Win

First-time Democratic candidate Wesley Moore, an author and former CEO of an anti-poverty nonprofit, has been elected Marylands first black governor, according to projections.

Moore, 43, a U.S. Army Ranger war veteran and investment banker who had the vocal backing of TV maven Oprah Winfrey, was projected to beat Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick) in their Nov. 8 gubernatorial race to succeed the term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

Moore had 60.5 percent of the votes with about half of precincts reporting, according to the Maryland Secretary of State Office. Cox had 36 percent.

The Associated Press called the race for Moore, who is poised to become the third African-American governor in the nations history.

I am grateful because you believed. You believed that in this moment our state could be bolder. And you believed in the son of an immigrant, a graduate of a two-year college, a US Army combat veteran, and a non-profit leader who had never run for office before, Moore said in a statement.

Cox, 47, has not yet conceded.

Cox, 47, a conservative attorney endorsed by former President Donald Trump, vowed to file bills restricting abortions, banning mask and vaccine mandates, eliminating transgender rights, and authorizing a federal audit of the 2020 elections if elected.

The Moore-Cox race was one of 36 governor elections on ballots across the country and one of a few where Democrats were expected to prevail in a race to succeed a sitting Republican.

Democrats have a 2-to-1 voting advantage in Maryland and Moore raised 10 times the money Cox did. In fact, Coxs largest donation came during the GOP primary$1 million from the Democratic Governors Association to elevate a controversial MAGA candidate believed to be too right-wing for deep-blue Maryland.

In Maryland, that gambit appears to work as Moore was never challenged by Cox in cruising into the Governors mansion in Annapolis.

Moore emerged the winner of a nine-candidate Democratic primary in July that included six campaigns that raised more than $1 million each.

The field included U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, State Comptroller Peter Franchot, former Maryland attorney general Douglas Gansler, former U.S. education secretary John King, Jr., and Clinton White House official Jon Baron.

Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox meets with former President Donald Trump in May 2022. (Courtesy of Cox for Freedom)

Moore came to prominence a decade ago when Winfrey identified him as having the it factor after writing a best-selling book, The Other Wes Moore.

Winfrey also narrated ads on Moores behalf, saying in one, This moment that were in demands a different type of leader. For governor in Maryland, you have one in my friend Wes Moore.

Raised by a widowed Jamaican-immigrant mother, Moore is the first black Rhodes Scholar from Johns Hopkins University who, as chief executive of the Robin Hood Foundation, raised hundreds of millions of dollars to fight poverty.

Moore, in campaign addresses, insists everyone deserves an equal opportunity to succeed, saying that as a former Wall Street investment banker, he knows Maryland can become more competitive and more equitable so no one is left behind.

His platform includes a plan to combat climate change in his first 100 days in office. He vows to protect abortion rights, close the racial wealth gap, and help older residents and retirees to stay in Maryland.

Moore tells voters he and lieutenant governor running mate Aruna Miller, both children of immigrants, are the only ticket in either partys primaries with legislative, executive, military, and nonprofit experience.

Cox worked as a Christian school teacher and real estate agent before earning a law degree from Regent University. His law firm sued Hogan over COVID-19 restrictions and represented a man who sued local officials for arresting him for not wearing a mask at a polling site.

He ran for the U.S. House in 2016, losing the Maryland Congressional District 8 (CD 8) election to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who was the lead manager for Trumps second impeachment in 2021 and now sits on the House Select Committee on the Jan.6 breach.

Cox was elected as a delegate to a four-year term in the Maryland General Assembly in 2018, where he is regarded as one of its most conservative lawmakers, sponsoring stymied bills seeking to restrict abortions, limit the governors emergency powers, protect gunners rights, and require schools to provide parents information about the health and well-being of their children.

Cox vigorously opposed Marylands COVID-19 mitigation measures and challenged the certification of President Joe Bidens 2020 victory after observing mail-in ballot counts in Philadelphia.

He chartered buses for the Jan. 6 rally and, during the Capitol protest, called Vice President Mike Pence a traitor in a Twitter post he later deleted.

Coxs platform was similar to Trump-endorsed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastrianos campaign.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Medibank signage sits on top of the Medibank building in Docklands, Melbourne of Australia on Oct. 1, 2014. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Medibank Hackers Begin Releasing Customer Data After Ransom Deadline Passed

The hacking syndicate behind the Medibank cyberattack has followed through on its threat to release the personal details of nearly 10 million Medibank customers after the company refused to pay the ransom.

Personal data, including names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, Medicare numbers for ahm health insurance customers, some passport numbers for international students, and some health claim data has been put onto the dark web. But credit card or banking details were not breached, Medibank said.

The hacker group started releasing the files from midnight on Nov. 9 after the deadline for paying the ransom passed.

Medibank said they appeared to be a sample of the data that we earlier determined was accessed by the criminals and expected the hackers to continue releasing files onto the dark web.

The criminals allegedly announced that, in hindsight, the data was stored in a format that was not very understandable.

Well continue posting data partially, need some time to do it pretty, they said.

The Australian government, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the federal police, are working with Medibank.

We unreservedly apologise to our customers, Medibank CEO David Koczkar said. This is a criminal act designed to harm our customers and cause distress.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) logo at the Brindabella Business Park in Canberra, Australia on Aug. 16, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

All Advice Points to Not Paying Ransom

Medibank told customers on Monday that they had decided against paying the ransom because it could encourage the criminal to carry out further crimes.

Based on the extensive advice we have received from cybercrime experts, we believe there is only a limited chance paying a ransom would ensure the return of our customers data and prevent it from being published, Koczkar said.

In fact, paying could have the opposite effect and encourage the criminal to directly extort our customers, and there is a strong chance that paying puts more people in harms way by making Australia a bigger target.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones backed the decision and condemned the hackers.

Theyre scumbags, theyre crooks, theyre criminals and we shouldnt be paying ransom, he told Sky News Australia.

We shouldnt be giving in to these fraudsters. The moment we fold, it sends a green light to scumbags like them throughout the world that Australia is a soft target. We cannot give in, and we wont give in.

Cyber Security Minister Clare ONeil also backed the decision and said Medibanks actions were consistent with government advice.

Cyber criminals cheat, lie and steal. Paying them only fuels the ransomware business model, she said on Twitter. They commit to undertaking actions in return for payment, but so often re-victimise companies and individuals.

The company confirmed that the cyberattack had affected 9.7 million current and former customers, including around 5.1 million Medibank customers, 2.8 million ahm health insurance customers, and 1.8 million international customers.

The Australian government has activated the countrys emergency mechanism, the National Coordination Mechanism, to help deal with the hack.

Originally designed to deal with the pandemic, the mechanism allows the government to bring together agencies across the Australian government, states and territories, and the private sector to help coordinate responses to crises.

Victoria Kelly-Clark contributed to this report.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at Steelcase in Grand Rapids, Mich., on May 24, 2021. (Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)

Michigan Democrats Give GOP a Rough Election Night

DETROIT, Mich.Republican expectations for wholesale change at the highest level of Michigans state government did not materialize on Nov. 8, as three top Democrat incumbents won reelection.

Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer turned back a strong challenge from GOP challenger Tudor Dixon.

Whitmer defeated Dixon by a margin of eight percent (53 to 45 percent).

Dana Nessel, the state attorney general, won reelection to a second term defeating Republican Matt Deperno, garnering 52 percent of the vote to Depernos 46 percent.

Completing the sweep of the top three state offices, incumbent Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson handily defeated Republican Kristina Karamo 55 to 43 percent.

An election inspector raises a red flag over an absentee ballot at the Huntington Place Central Counting Center in Detroit, Mich. on Nov. 8, 2022. (Steven Kovac/The Epoch Times)

The three Democrats each enjoyed a huge advantage in campaign fundraising and may have benefitted from the presence on the ballot of a hotly contested pro-abortion initiative that each of the three candidates vigorously supported.

The proposition, known as Proposal 3, passed 55 to 45 percenta margin of victory that mirrors the percentage spread won by the three Democrats.

Proposal 3 is credited with drawing many college students out to votea demographic that tends to favor the Democrats.

It is estimated that the combined advertising expenditures of the proponents and opponents of the proposition exceeded $60 million.

Democrats also flipped a congressional seat in what was once the Republican stronghold of Kent County (Grand Rapids) in western Michigan.

The Eighth District seat was formerly held by a first-term Republican, Peter Meijer, who was defeated in the primary.

The GOP nominee, John Gibbs, lost the seat to Democrat Hillary Scholten.

In the newly drawn Tenth Congressional District, encompassing nearly all of Macomb and a small portion of Oakland County, Republican John James is expected to be declared the winner of the race for the open seat.

As of 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 9, with 99 percent of the precincts reporting, James appears to be maintaining a tiny lead over Democrat Carl Marlinga.

Following the redistricting after the 2020 Census, many seats in the Republican-dominated state house and senate became competitive.

As of press time, control of the state senate is still undecided.

The Republicans have held the majority in the state senate since 1984. The latest results indicate the GOP will retain its majority in the state house.

Though the final figures are not yet in, election officials are reporting that statewide voter turnout was higher than in most midterm elections; and that few problems were reported compared to the 2020 presidential election.

The epicenter of controversy in that election was Detroits central counting center, where Republican poll challengers claimed they were shut out from overseeing the count.

This year, though the address of the downtown counting center remained the same, city election officials moved the counting room to a portion of the complex which is devoid of walls, doors, and physical barriers, making the process more visible to observers from the public and the media.

Also, many of the counting centers hundreds of poll workers, called election inspectors, were recruited, not just from the city of Detroit, but from all over the state.

One first-time inspector from the outstate county of Lapeer told The Epoch Times that he saw working at the Detroit vote-counting center as an opportunity to get off the sidelines and become part of the process.

The Detroit Elections Department trains the workers and pays us between $300 and $500 for our labor, he said.

One inspector of long and varied experience working elections in Detroit said, Based on all the checks and cross-checks and safeguards built into the system, I think it would be impossible for anything illegal to go on in here.

I really dont understand what the challengers are looking for.

Both parties provided more poll challengers this year than in 2020 and they appeared to have unfettered access to the tables at which the election results from Detroits 503 precincts were being processed.

One group of challengers from outstate told The Epoch Times that they were experiencing a pretty quiet night.

Early on election day, there were reports of some Detroit voters who turned up at their polling place to vote in person and were told they had already voted by absentee ballot.

In an election night meeting with reporters, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson acknowledged the problem, calling it a glitch.

Benson explained that the precinct election workers discovered that somehow there was more than one ballot with the same number.

She said the affected voters were allowed to vote with ballots that the poll workers issued to them after making a small addition to the identification number.
Pro-abortion activists outside the Michigan State Capitol during a "Restore Roe" rally in Lansing, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

States Vote to Expand, Limit Access to Abortion

Michigan voters have adopted a ballot measure that maintains access to abortion as a state constitutional right, while Kentucky voters rejected a proposed amendment that would have declared theres no state constitutional right to abortion.

The Michigan and Kentucky measures were two of five related to abortion that went before voters during the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

California and Vermont voters joined those in Michigan in approving a ballot measure that maintains or expands access to abortion.

In Montana, a born-alive infants regulation was rejected by voters, joining Michigan in failed attempts to adopt restrictive measures.

The Nov. 8 results appear to affirm the then-surprising rejection of the Kansas Value Them Both Amendment in an Aug. 2 special election. Kansas voters were presented with a constitutional proposal on their primary ballots that declared that theres no constitutional right to abortion.

The proposal was the first abortion-related vote after the June 24 release of the U.S. Supreme Courts 63 verdict that overturned 1973s Roe v. Wade decision and returned regulation of the procedure to states.

Nearly 60 percent of Kansas voted against the amendment, a resounding victory by more than 18 percentage points that buoyed Democrats midterm election campaign platforms and appeared to set a trend in reluctance by voterseven a significant number who consider themselves to be conservative and Pro-Lifeto impose restrictions on adult women.

The Michigan Right to Reproductive Freedom measure earned its place on the ballot by securing at least 735,000 registered voter signatures.

The measure repeals a 91-year-old state law and creates a state constitutional right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to  contraception, sterilization, abortion care.

The measure, known as Proposal 3, was approved with nearly 2.48 million votes, or 56.7 percent, with 90 percent of ballots counted, the Michigan Secretary of States Office said.

As in Kansas, Kentucky lawmakers placed their proposed no right to abortion constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Amendment 2, dubbed the Yes for Life Amendment, asked voters to answer yes or no to a proposed amendment that states: To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.

The measure failed, as 52.4 percent, or nearly 740,000 voters, said no to the proposal, with 90 percent of ballots tallied

In Montana, voters also rejected the proposed LR-131, the Medical Care Requirements for Born-Alive Infants Measure, which sought to dramatically scale back access to the procedure.

Montanas LR 131 states that infants born alive at any stage of development are legal persons and would have required medical care to be provided to infants born alive after an induced labor, cesarean section, attempted abortion, or another method.

With more than 82 percent of ballots tallied, 52.4 percent, or 213,895 Montanans, said no to the proposal.

As expected, voters in Vermont and California overwhelmingly adopted measures that expand abortion rights.

Vermonts Proposal 5, the Right to Personal Reproductive Autonomy Amendment, adds an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy to the states constitution after it was approved by 77.2 percent of voters on Nov. 8.

Californias Proposition 1, the Constitutional Right to Reproductive Freedom measure that amends the state constitution to protect a persons reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, including the right to abortion and contraceptives, was adopted by 65 percent of the Nov. 8 vote.
Boxes of signatures are displayed after a news conference hosted by Citizens for Voter ID at the Nebraska Capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 7, 2022. (Noah Riffe/Lincoln Journal Star via AP)

Nebraskans Approve Voter ID Measure In Win for Election Integrity Advocates

Nebraskans have approved a new voter photo identification requirement for future elections, handing a win to Republicans who for years have tried to get the election integrity measure passed in the states legislature but met with opposition.

Called Nebraska Initiative 432, the measure was on the ballot in the midterm election as a proposal to amend the states constitution to require valid photo identification to cast a legal vote.

Just over 65 percent of Nebraska voters backed the initiative, which also authorizes the state legislature to pass laws specifying the voter id requirements.

Going into Tuesdays election, around two-thirds of states already required some form of identification to vote, though not all mandated a photo ID.

Nebraska was one of the states without a voter ID requirement, though Republicans had tried for years to get one passed. A voter ID law was first proposed in the Nebraska legislature in 2011 but, since then, was repeatedly blocked by opponents.

But this year, the group Citizens for Voter ID managed to get the measure on the ballot and put it directly to voters, collecting over 172,000 signatures from Nebraskans in all 93 counties.

Whats clear to me, after working on this issue as a state lawmaker, is that Nebraskans want Voter ID, and special interests do not, Nebraska state Sen. Julie Slama, a Republican, said in a statement on the webpage of Citizens for Voter ID.

Backers of Nebraskas voter ID requirement see it as a security measure that reduces the likelihood of voter impersonation and boosts confidence in elections.

Slama told Nebraska Public Media at an election watch party on Tuesday that she was thrilled Nebraskans voted yes on the initiative.

This is a common sense election security measure that Im glad we passed, she told the outlet.

Opponents see the voter ID measure as being expensive and having little substantive value since, they argue, theres very little voter fraud and that the burdens such requirements place on voters undermine the right to vote.

Voter ID is a costly solution in search of a problem that doesnt exist, Civic Nebraska, a group that opposed the measure, said in a statement.

They argued that the voter ID requirement would put up barriers to voting and disproportionately disenfranchise certain groups of voters.

We oppose measures to add additional barriers to the ballot for thousands of Nebraskans, including those who would be disproportionately affectedrural voters, low-income voters, senior citizens, and minority voters, the group said.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican who backed the measure, said on the eve of Election Day that requiring ID is common sense and does not impose onerous barriers to voting.

Voter ID is something that will help people know that elections are secure, Ricketts told the Nebraska Examiner. An ID is not something thats too high a bar for people to have.

By contrast, ACLU Nebraskas Jane Seu argued in an interview with the Nebraska Examiner that voter ID adds undue complications to voting.

Seu cited studies showing a 23 percentage point drop in turnout in states that started requiring a form of ID to vote.

Nebraskans for Free and Fair Elections, a group that opposed the measure, said in a release on Tuesday that its preparing to begin the next phase of opposition to this new burden on voters as lawmakers must now decide what forms of photo ID will constitute valid identification in order to cast a vote.

Nebraskas voting-related measure was among more than 130 state proposals appearing on ballots, dealing with a range of contentious issues including taxes, drug policy, and abortion.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo tells supporters at The Red Rock Casino near Las Vegas on Nov. 8 that results in his tossup gubernatorial race against incumbent Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto may not be available for several days. (John Haughey/The Epoch Times)

Nevada Midterm Election Results Still Mired in Mail-In Ballot Backlog

LAS VEGASBy late morning the day after Election Day, about a quarter of ballots cast in Nevadas midterm elections remained untallied, leaving results in five key races undetermined.

Toss-up races for the U.S. Senate, three House seats, and the governors office are still too close to call, with elections officials warning that it could take several more days to produce definitive results.

Nevadas two largest counties stopped counting ballots a half-hour after polls closed on Nov. 8 because understaffed elections workers were overwhelmed by late Election Day lines and an avalanche of vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots.

In Clark County, where 70 percent of Nevadans live in and around Las Vegas, and in Washoe County, which includes Reno, counting of VBM ballots that were dropped off or delivered on Election Day stopped after about 7:30 p.m. on election night.

Washoe County Registrar of Voters Jamie Rodriguez told reporters in Reno that Washoe County had received more than 6,000 ballots in the mail that day, and another 10,000 were turned in at ballot drop boxes.

Rodriguez said the next big data dump isnt expected until the night of Nov. 9 or Nov. 10.

On Nov. 9, Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said officials still need to count nearly 28,000 VBM ballots, including 15,000 received on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 and another 12,700 received on Nov. 9 but postmarked Nov. 8 or earlier.

Gloria said all in-person votes cast on Election Day have been counted, with 5,000 flagged as provisional votes that officials must confirm the validity of.

More than 840,000 votes have been tallied in Nevada as of early Nov. 9, according to the states Secretary of States Office, which would be about 45.2 percent of all registered voters in the state.

Gloria said that about 596,000 ballots had been counted in Clark County.

Elections officials say it takes more time to process VBM ballots. VBM ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within the next four days are counted in the official results.

Still undecided is the U.S. Senate race between first-term incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), regarded as the most vulnerable of midterm Democrats, and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in one of the nations most-watched Senate races.

With 77 percent percent of the vote tallied, Laxalt was leading by more than 22,000 votes, garnering 418,461, or 49.9 percent, compared to Cortez Mastos 395,866 votes, or 47.2 percent of ballots counted.

In the governors race, Republican Joe Lombardo, who is Clark County Sheriff, was leading first-term incumbent Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak by nearly 5 percentage points with 77 percent of the vote tallied.

Lombardo had 423,547 votes, or 50.6 percent, compared to Sisolaks 383,835 votes, or 45.8 percent, of the 810,823 ballots counted.

Also left undetermined are the results of three of the states congressional races, all projected toss-up contests for three Las Vegas-area districts that are currently occupied by Democrats.

In the states Congressional District 1, which has only elected one Democrat in the past 40 years, six-term incumbent Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) was leading Republican challenger Mark Robertson 50.3 to 47.4 percent with 80 percent of the vote tabulated.

In Congressional District 3, two-term incumbent Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada) was leading Republican April Becker by less than 1,200 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, with 80 percent of the ballots counted.

In Congressional District 4, two-term Rep. Steven Hartford (D-Nevada) was up by 3 percentage points over challenger Sam Peters with 80 percent of votes counted.
Nevada Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and his wife, Jamie, thank supporters at the Red Rocks Casino in Summerlin, Nevada, on Nov. 8, 2022. (John Haughey/The Epoch Times)

Nevada Races Too Close to Call After Biggest Counties Quit Counting Votes

LAS VEGASTossup races for the U.S. Senate, three House seats, and the governors office are too close to call in Nevada, especially after the states two largest counties stopped counting ballots a half-hour after polls closed on Nov. 8.

In Clark County, where 70 percent of Nevadans live in and around Las Vegas, and in Washoe County, which includes Reno, vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots dropped off or delivered on Election Day will not be counted until Nov. 9, the Nevada secretary of state announced at 7:30 p.m. local time on election night.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said delays in counting the ballots in his county are because of a manpower shortage and what appears to be a high turnout, especially just before polls closed at 7 p.m.

Washoe County Registrar Jamie Rodriguez said a high volume of mail ballots, especially in the campaigns closing days, will take his staff at least another day to count.

Rodriguez told reporters in Reno that Washoe County had received more than 6,000 ballots in the mail that day, and another 10,000 were turned in at ballot drop boxes.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, a GOP gubernatorial candidate seeking to unseat Nevada incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, speaks with supporters while leaving the Red Rock Casino after learning there wont be final results in the election for several days, in Summerlin, Nevada, on Nov. 8, 2022. (John Haughey/The Epoch Times)

The elections officials said it takes more time to process mail ballots. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 8, and received within the next four days are counted in results. The last day for mail ballots to be counted is Nov. 12.

Left undecided is the U.S. Senate race between first-term incumbent Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in one of the nations most-watched Senate races. Cortez Masro is regarded as the most vulnerable of midterm Democrats.

When Laxalt took the stage at the Red Rocks Casino in Summerlin, he trailed Cortez Masto by about 23,000 votes with 60 percent of the estimated tally counted.

By 11:58 a.m. ET on Wednesday, with more than 86 percent of the vote tallied, Laxalt was leading by more than 22,595 votes, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Unfortunately, we are in for a long night and a long couple of days, Laxalt told Republicans gathered in a ballroom for a victory party. We are confident that the votes are there and that we are going to win this race and take back Nevada.

In the governors race, Republican Joe Lombardo, who is Clark County sheriff, was leading first-term incumbent Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak by 39,712 votess as of 12:03 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with 87 percent of the vote tallied.

The reason why we are here is we dont know anything, Lombardo said when he came out onto the ballroom stage about 11 p.m. when he was trailing by 10 percentage points. I anticipate you will be calling me Gov. Lombardo in a few days.

Also left undetermined are results in three of the states congressional races, all projected tossup contests for three Las Vegas-area districts that are currently occupied by Democrats.

A Lot Going on That Doesnt Make Sense

In the states Congressional District 1 (CD 1), which has only elected one Democrat in the last 40 years, six-term incumbent Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) was leading GOP challenger Mark Robertson by 5,693 votes with 90 percent of the tally tabulated.

In CD 3, two-term incumbent Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) was leading Republican April Becker by 1,702 votes, or by less than 1 percentage point, with 94 percent of the 219,046 ballots counted.

In CD 4, two-term Rep. Steven Hartford (D-Nev.) was up 5,961 votes, or 3 percent, over Republican challenger Sam Peters, with 88 percent of 192,449 votes counted.

There is a lot going on that doesnt make sense, Peters told The Epoch Times when he was trailing by 10 percentage points, but theres still a lot of votes to count.

The only Nevada congressional race resolved on Election Day was six-term Republican incumbent Rep. Mark Amodeis (R-Nev.) who cruised to an easy victory over educator and indigenous issues advocate Elizabeth Mercedes Krause in the states CD 2.

Just after the polls closed at 7 p.m., a Clark County judge denied a lawsuit filed by Cortez Mastos campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to keep some polling stations in the Las Vegas area open until 9 p.m.

The lawsuit cited delays caused by long lines. Most polling places during a rainy, blustery day of swirling grist-fine dust in Clark County were quiet for most of the day but drew lines in the late afternoon and evening. Printing issues that occurred in at at least eight voting sites on Election Day, causing voters to wait more than an hour.

The suit sought an extension to provide the 12-hour voting window required under state law.

Every vote must count, and delays caused by long lines and paper delays should not prevent Nevadans from casting their ballots, Cortez Masto campaign spokesperson Josh Marcus-Blank said.

In an emergency hearing, District Court Judge Gloria Sturman ruled the complaints did not deny any voter the right to vote. She noted any voters in line at 7 p.m. were still allowed to cast a ballot.

Im not hearing that we know of, just even anecdotally, that we know of any person or persons who were denied the right to vote, Sturman said.

Reopening those eight polling locations would be appropriate relief for the issues cited in the case, she said, before adding, We cant reopen polling places once theyre closed, logistically or even legally, I think.

Nevada Republican Party Committee Chair Michael J. McDonald said the party sent four attorneys to the hearing to oppose the motion and urge Sturman to uphold the letter of the law.

McDonald criticized the Sisolak administration and Joe Gloria for their handling of the election.

There is no reason we shouldnt be counting votes right now, he said. After 2020 its 2022 and here we go again.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (R) shakes hands with State Emergency Service workers on a tour of flood-affected areas with New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet in the suburb of Richmond in Sydney, Australia, on July 6, 2022. (Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

NSW Disaster Agency Introduced Amid Floods

The New South Wales (NSW) government will introduce legislation to create a recommended Reconstruction Authority as the state suffers through ongoing floods.

Premier Dominic Perrottet says the permanent agency will be dedicated to preparing NSW for disaster, as well as recovery and reconstruction efforts.

We need to make sure communities across NSW are equipped to respond to natural disasters, Perrottet said.

This is also about ensuring our communities have the support they need to bounce back after a disaster hits.

The Reconstruction Authority will be the lead agency for disaster prevention in NSW.

Deputy Premier Paul Toole said it would improve natural disaster management.

This will fast-track critical support for disaster-struck communities by acting as the lead authority in times of crisis, helping get money out the door fast, cutting red tape for planning approvals and providing on-the-ground access to information in communities toughest times, Toole said.

The government response to an upper house inquiry into major flooding is also due on Wednesday.

A separate review was conducted for the government by former chief scientist Mary OKane and former police commissioner Mick Fuller, who recommended establishing the Reconstruction Authority with legislation to be introduced this year.

The review and the inquiry both criticised Resilience NSW, created following the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.

Also on the governments parliamentary agenda are a suite of housing policies it will attempt to pass before parliament ends for the year and politicians enter campaign mode for the March state election.

NSW Government to Help Teachers, Nurses, Police Own Their Own Homes

The government had some success on Tuesday, passing a shared equity scheme aimed at helping teachers, nurses, police, single parents, and older singles own their own homes valued at up to $950,000.

The government will contribute an equity share of up to 40 percent for new homes and 30 percent for existing ones for eligible buyers.

It will allow those buyers to take smaller loans with a lower deposit, costing them less in repayments.

Up to 6000 buyers will only need a two per cent deposit under the scheme, set to be trialled over two years.

However, the Premiers push for a trial to begin in January, which would allow first-home buyers to avoid stamp duty and instead opt for an ongoing land tax, faced further delays from both the Greens and Labor.

The Greens moved an amendment that would halt the schemes commencement until after the election.

Labor has already pledged to repeal the scheme if it commences before then and it subsequently wins government.

Finance Minister Damien Tudehope presented the bill to the upper house on Tuesday, tabling a related statement of public interest.

Although totally unrequired because the public importance of the bill is entirely self-evident, Tudehope said.

Labors John Graham was unimpressed with the length of the statement.

One page  it was single-sided, he said.

Sometimes being concise is a good thing, Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said.

The upper house was set to debate the bill late into Tuesday night.
Andy Ogles prevailed in a 10-candidate field in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District's GOP primary on August 4. "Courtesy of Mayor Andy Ogles for Congress)

Ogles Wins Tennessees 5th Congressional District, Flipping Seat Red

Republican Andy Ogles, who campaigned as a pro-Donald Trump America First conservative, has defeated Democratic state Sen. Heidi Campbell in Tennessees 5th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race in favor of Ogles at 12:08 a.m. ET on Nov. 9. According to the states election officials, Ogles captured over 123,000 votes, or 55.9 percent, to Campells about 93,000 votes, or 42.3 percent.

There is a wave sweeping this country. And like we all said, we want our country back. And tonight, we took it, Ogles said in his victory speech.

This should be a wake up to the Biden administration, that youre not listening to the people of this country, he continued. Were sick and tired of your agenda, fix the economy, make us energy independent, and shut down the  border.

We are a nation of Christians and believers, and we have a right to worship, he added. We are going to fix this economy, we are going to close this border, and we are going to fire Nancy Pelosi.

Ogles, the former Maury County Mayor, defeated former state House Speaker Beth Harwell and former Tennessee National Guard joint staff director Brig. Gen. Kurt Winstead during the states Republican primary in August. Meanwhile, Campbell was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

This wasnt the result we worked for, but we cant grow cynical, Campbell wrote on Twitter after conceding defeat. There are people who still believe in democracy and working together to solve big problems.

Following his victory, several Republicans took to Twitter to welcome Ogles to Congress.

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote that she looks forward to working with him.

Thrilled to welcome @AndyOgles to Washington! He will fight hard to defend Tennesseans conservative values and help keep our state and nation on the right track, wrote Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Big win tonight for @AndyOgles! Congratulations on FLIPPING #TN05 RED, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote. Looking forward to the hard work ahead, fighting for our shared conservative values and putting America First!

Rep. Jim Cooper, the Democratic incumbent, has represented the district since 2003 but announced in February that he wouldnt seek reelection.

Throughout her campaign, Harwell frequently labeled Ogles as a lobbyist tied to a Washington special interest group that smeared Trump, and linked to another group that supports amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

Jeff Louderback contributed to this report.
Pumpjacks are seen during sunset at the Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang Province, China, on Aug. 22, 2019. (Stringer/Reuters)

Oil Prices Dip on China COVID-19 Worries

LONDONOil prices slipped on Wednesday after industry data showed that U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected and on concerns that a rebound in COVID-19 cases in top importer China would hurt fuel demand.

Brent crude futures fell 74 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $94.62 a barrel by 1201 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 76 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $88.15 a barrel. The benchmarks fell around 3 percent on Tuesday.

Last week, the market had latched onto hopes that China might be moving toward relaxing COVID-19 restrictions but over the weekend health officials said they would stick to their dynamic-clearing approach to new infections.

COVID-19 cases in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities have surged, with millions of residents of the global manufacturing hub being required to have COVID-19 tests on Wednesday.

With that (China reopening) narrative getting pushed back, coupled with a considerable build on U.S. inventory data, implying dimming U.S. demand, the recessionary crews are back out in full force this morning in Asia, Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a note.

In another bearish sign, API data showed gasoline inventories rose by about 2.6 million barrels, against analysts forecasts for a 1.1 million drawdown.

The market will be looking out for official U.S. inventory data from the Energy Information Administration due at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) for a further view on demand in the worlds biggest economy.

Meanwhile, supply concerns remain.

In addition to ongoing OPEC+ supply cuts, Russian oil supply should fall as the EU ban on Russian crude and refined products comes into effect, ING commodities strategists said in a note.

The EU will ban Russian crude imports by Dec. 5 and Russian oil products by Feb. 5, in retaliation to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

By Noah Browning
Former President Donald Trump greets supporters before a rally at the Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, on Nov. 7, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Orange Wave Incoming

Commentary

Trying to get a jump on the cataract of commentary, second-guessing, and post-mortem lamentation/celebration that will greet the results of todays midterm elections, I thought I would mention a couple of points that are both obvious and yet undigested.

First, the red wave that everyone expects will also be an orange wave. That is, almost all of the most prominent GOP candidates are also Trump-endorsed candidates.

J. D. Vance, who is about to crush Tim Ryan in the Ohio senatorial race, was endorsed by the former president last spring to great fanfare, by some, and ridicule by others.

The same is true of Blake Masters, who I believe is just about to defeat Mark Kelly in Arizona.

Ditto Herschel Walker in Georgia, and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

Will Tiffany Smiley win in Washington against Patty Murray?

Im not sure, but chances are good, itself an amazing turn of events.

The same is true of Leora Levy in deep blue Connecticut: The Trump-endorsed, Cuban-born candidate might just prevail over Biden rubber stamp Richard Blumenthal who, no matter what he says, did not serve in Vietnam.

Its even more likely that Don Bolduc will beat Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.

A similar story can be told in the important gubernatorial races.

Trump endorsed Kari Lake in Arizona, and not only is she just about to grind Katie Hobbs into dust, she has also emerged as a major Trump-infused spokesperson in her own right, parrying and then skewering a hapless media.

Trump-endorsed Lee Zeldin is likely to win in New York over Kathy Hochul.

New York. Trump-endorsed.

I know, it doesnt compute.

But it isnt only possible, its likely.

Where is the British band playing The World Turned Upside Down as at Yorktown?

Will the Trump-endorsed Doug Mastriano beat Josh Shapiro in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race? Maybe not.

But maybe. Yes, its a long shot, but I wouldnt be surprised.

In Michigan, Tudor Dixon is poised to win over Gretchen Whitmer.

And in Wisconsin, Trump-endorsed businessman Tim Michels has a very good shot at the governors mansion.

I could provide a similar inventory for the House races.

What are we to make of this wall of orange-blessed candidates taking the election by storm?

I think there are three take-aways.

First, its a measure of Donald Trumps political virility.

All of these candidates would have climbed naked over broken bottles for the endorsement and, we now know, for good reason: Trumps blessing was the key to exposure, money, and political viability.

Second, its a preview of the 2024 presidential race.

We dont yet know who the GOP candidate will be, but the chessboard has been configured by Donald Trump.

The issues will be his issues and, even more, the rhetorical weather of the campaign will have been largely determined by Trump.

The third point is perhaps the most under-appreciated.

Many, maybe most, of these Trump-certified candidates were early on supported by clever, clever Dems who thought that supporting Trumpist candidates was a prescription for Democratic victory.

It wont turn out that way.

How they salivated over Dr. Oz as the GOP candidate.

Surely he would lose.

But he will not lose, not if the election is fair.

True, no one could have predicted that his opponent, John Fetterman, would suffer a stroke and be rendered Bidenesque in his cognitive abilities.

But it was the same with Herschel Walker and many other candidates.

They thought that the name of Trump would be the kiss of death.

Instead, in most cases, it turned out to be the elixir of life.

Blunders were made.

Someone miscalculated Trumps appeal with that most-pesky of interest groups, the voters.

Its a bit like the story of Brer Rabbit.

The mean fox pushed him into the briar patch.

But wouldnt you know it: Thats exactly where he wanted to be.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Padilla Wins 2 Races on Same Ballot to Retain U.S. Senate Seat

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) will retain his seat for the remainder of his current term and was elected to serve another six-year term, according to preliminary Nov. 8 midterm election results.

Padilla ran against Republican opponent Mark Meuser in two races on the same ballot. The first was to complete his partial term until January 2023, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to the Senate to fill the vacancy left by Kamala Harris when she was elected vice president.

For the full term, which ends January 2029, Padilla is currently leading with 59.3 percent of the vote over Meusers 40.7 percent. Padilla has received 3,786,331 votes, compared to Meusers 2,594,450 as of the evening of Nov. 11, according to unofficial results posted by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who has until Dec. 16 to certify official results.

The partial term results show Padilla is leading with 59.2 percent of the vote over Meusers 40.8 percent.

Padilla raised $11.6 million for his campaign as of Oct. 9, while Meuser received about $950,000 in donations, according to the latest available data from the Federal Election Commission.
Paul Arteta Wins Orange County, New York, Sheriff Race With Wide Margin

Montgomery Deputy Police Chief Paul Arteta won the sheriff race in Orange County, New York, on Nov. 8.

He got 60 percent, or 69,807 votes, as a candidate for both the Republican and Conservative parties, according to unofficial results published by the Orange County Board of Elections.

Bernie Rivers, the Democratic Party candidate, got 40 percent votes.

Thank you, Orange County. Together, we delivered an overwhelming victory, and Im honored to be your new Sheriff-elect, Arteta wrote on his public Facebook page. Now, lets roll up our sleeves to make Orange County safer and even better!

Rivers told The Epoch Times: [I] just want to thank family, friends, and supporters. It was an exciting run, especially being that this was the first time in 20 years that there was an actual two-party election for the Office of Sheriff.

I would also like to congratulate Sheriff-elect Arteta on his victory, he added.

Paul Arteta in his office at Montogometry Police Department in N.Y. on Sept. 27, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

In a previous interview, Arteta told The Epoch Times that he plans to add correctional officers through job reassignments and reduce mandatory overtime at the county jail.

He also plans to boost patrol in communities without local police forces, on county properties such as parks and heritage trails, and along the Hudson River.

A lot of our job is not chasing after bad guys and arresting them; it is about deterrence and being out there for the community to see us and talk to us, Arteta said in the previous interview.

His other plans include having more veteran sheriff deputies assist in police academy training and strengthening the county drug task force to curb illicit trafficking.

I think the drug epidemic is probably the biggest problem in this county right now. Overdoses are rising, and a lot of property crimes are driven by drug addiction, Arteta said in the previous interview.

Arteta spent most of his law enforcement career in the county sheriffs office, climbing through the ranks from a deputy to investigator, to sergeant-in-charge of daytime patrols, to sergeant-in-charge of investigations, to lieutenant, and to captain, gathering a dozen of awards along the way.

The awards include Deputy of the Year, Federal Drug Agents True American Hero, and Lifesaving Award.

A lawn sign supporting Paul Arteta sits in downtown Montgomery, N.Y., on Sept. 27, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

He is also on a list of law enforcement officers with credibility issues in use by the county district attorneys office, according to a document obtained by The Epoch Times on Oct. 12 through a FOIL request.

Shortly before he retired from the sheriffs office, Arteta was internally investigated for an alleged cover-up of a use-of-force report involving a deputy dragging an uncooperative inmate inside a courthouse.

Arteta told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that he did not direct the deputy not to file a use-of-force report, adding that the inmate was not injured in the incident.

He said the investigation was politically motivated to mar his sheriff campaign.

At the time, Arteta was competing with Undersheriff Kenneth Jones in the Republican primary.

Jones told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that the investigation, having been initiated by a complaint from the inmate, was not politically motivated.

The incumbent Republican county sheriff, Carl Dubois, is retiring after 20 years in office.

Rivers, the sole Democratic contender in the race, spent most of his law enforcement career in environmental conservation.
By 7 a.m. Wednesday, just over 66% of the votes cast statewide were counted due to delays in several county election offices across the state. At the same time, Yellowstone County's vote totals were complete.

In Eastern Montana races, the count so far shows a comfortable leads for most candidates in those state senate and house races that were contested. Here are Wednesday morning's initial results:

Senate District 22

Daniel Zolnikov (R) 4,225 votes

Terry Dennis (D) 2,337 votes

SD22 encompasses most of the Billings Heights. Zolnikov is a former four-term member of the state House who termed out in 2019. Dennis is a retired physician who was previously a candidate in House District 44.

Senate District 24

Elijah Tidswell (R) 3,003 votes

Kathy Kelker (D) 3,804 votes

This north Billings district has favored Democrats since its creation in 2014. For the previous eight years, Kelker has represented House District 47, which is half the SD 24. Incumbent Senators Mary McNally is termed out. Tidswell, 18, is a newcomer to politics.

House District 30

James Bergstrom (R) 3,803 votes

Wendy Palmer (D) 907 votes

This central Montana district includes Buffalo and Raynesford.

House District 31

Arlie Gordon (R) 1,089 votes

Frank Smith (D) 1,279 votes

This district includes Fort Peck, Frazer, Wolf Point and Poplar. Anchoring the region is the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Reservation.

House District 33

Casey Knudsen (R) 2,906 votes

Jordan Ophus (D) 874 votes

This district covers the areas around Malta and Havre.

House District 38

Greg Kmetz (R) 2,298 votes

Steve Muggli (D) 1,249 votes

The district, which includes Miles City, is currently represented by Ken Holmlund, who is termed out.

House District 41

Paul Green (R) 1,229 votes

Rynalea Whiteman Pena (D) 930 votes

This district stretches from Lame Deer to Busby and the outskirts of Hardin, and includes the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations.

House District 42

Virginia McDonald (R) 1,214 votes

Sharon Stewart Peregoy (D) 1,368votes

This district includes Hardin, Crow Agency, Lodge Grass and Pryor. Anchoring the region is the Crow Reservation.

House District 44

Larry Brewster (R) 2,116 votes

Melissa Smith (D) 1,222 votes

Brewster was first elected to the west Billings Heights district in 2020. A first-time candidate, Smith is a self-employed website developer and marketing professional.

House District 46

Bill Mercer (R) 3,133 votes

Tim Warburton (D) 1,782 votes

Mercier, a former U.S. attorney for Montana, is the districts twice-elected incumbent. A social worker at Riverstone Hospice, Warburton is a first-time legislative candidate who ran for Billings City Council Ward 4 in 2021.

House District 47

Thomas J. Madigan (R) 1,295 votes

Denise Baum (D) 1,817 votes

Both candidates in this race, which covers areas of north Billings, have law enforcement experience. Baum is a veteran Billings Police detective and Madigan is a former member of the Wheatland County sheriffs posse.

House District 48

Jodee Etchart (R) 1,849 votes

Jennifer Merecki (D) 1,816 votes

Merecki and Etchart are both newcomers running to replace Jessica Karjala, who termed out, in this north Billings district. Merecki a healthcare professional, was previously a legislative candidate in Billings Heights. Etchart, a physician assistant, is a first-time legislative candidate.

House District 49

Jeff Wylie (R) 950 votes

Emma Kerr-Carpenter (D) 1,333 votes

This is a third run for Kerr-Carpenter, a retail sales associate who was first elected to this central Billings district in in 2018. Wylie is a newcomer.

House District 50

Mallerie C. Stromswold (R) 1,373 votes

James Reavis (D) 1,300 votes

Stromswold, made a name for herself in 2020 by winning the south central Billings district as an 18-year-old recent high school graduate. Reavis is a public defender for the State of Montana. This is his first legislative candidacy.

House District 51

Mike Yakawich (R) 1,773 votes

Carole Boerner (D) 1,382 votes

Since its creation in 2014, this Southside Billings district has been twice decided by fewer than 20 votes. Yellowstone County commissioners appointed Yakawich to serve out Frank Flemings term after Fleming died earlier this year. Boerner is a retired captain of the U.S. Public Health Service. This is Boerners first candidacy for public office.

House District 52

Sherry Essmann (R) 1,652 votes

Jenna Martin (D) 1,138 votes

The seat in this south central Billings district was left vacant when the 2020 winner Jimmy Patelis stepped down in June 2021 to accept the position on the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole. Yellowstone County Commissioners appointed Essmann, a retired credit union executive, to fill the seat. Martin, a writer and photographer, is making her first run at public office. Essmann is the spouse of former Republican legislator and the long-time party leader Jeff Essmann.

House District 57

Fiona B. Nave (R) 3,424

Thomas E. Flanagan (D) 1,258

This district covers Stillwater County.

House District 58

Brad Barker (R) 3,821 votes

Judith Gregory (D) 1,939 votes

This district includes Red Lodge and is currently represented by Republican Seth Berglee, who has termed out
Premiers Say No Progress Made on Federal Funding for Health Care

The countrys premiers say they have made no progress with the federal government to ensure a sustainable health care funding plan. They are seeking slightly more than a one-third contribution to health investment through federal transfer payments.

The Council of the Federation, which includes all of Canadas 13 provincial and territorial premiers, said in a Nov. 8 news release that the group is disappointed with the lack of a federal response on the critical issue of sustainable health funding.

The premiers are asking the federal government to increase the CHT [Canada Health Transfer] so that its share of provincial and territorial health care costs rises from 22 percent to 35 percent, and to maintain this level over time.

The premiers say that health services have been under heavy strain throughout COVID-19. Substantive resources are required to support and accelerate this essential work, and provinces and territories need a predictable federal funding partner. 

Broken System

Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal health minister, was in Vancouver for two days of meetings with provincial health ministers. At a news conference, he said the federal government was ready to increase health care investment through the Canada Health Transfer, but there are conditions.

We would do this if provinces and territories are prepared to commit to a meaningful expansion of the sharing and use of common key health indicators and to therefore build a world class health data system, said Duclos.

This expectation was repeated in a Nov. 7 statement issued by Duclos.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at a news conference on Nov. 7 in Montreal, said, As the president of the Canadian Medical Association said this summer, theres no point just putting more money into a broken system. We need to improve the results delivered for Canadians.

The prime minister added, We need to make sure that people can have access to a family doctor, that they have access to mental health services as were all dealing with challenges left over by the pandemic that go beyond physical health.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, chair of the Council of the Federation, said Trudeau must meet with the premiers to ensure provinces and territories have the resources and flexibility they need to make significant improvements in health care services and to deliver the care that Canadians deserve.

For over two years Premiers have been asking the Prime Minister to discuss their number one priority and the number one priority of Canadians in all provinces and territorieshealth care. Despite repeated invitations and efforts by Premiers to engage with the Prime Minister, he has not engaged in a meaningful dialogue with Premiers on a renewed health care funding partnership, said the Councils news release.

Canadians should be able to receive high quality, health services now and for the future. It is time for the Prime Minister to honour his commitment and come to the table, Stefanson said.
After the November 8, 2022, midterm elections, we do a recap of what took place, who won and who lost, and what anomalies are still being sorted.

Republicans took much narrower gains than initially predicted, yet still are projected to take the House of Representatives. The Senate, meanwhile, could go either way.

And in other news, lawsuits around the elections are already gearing up, and challenges in several states are looking inevitable.

In this live Q&A with Crossroads host Joshua Philip, well discuss these stories and others, and answer questions from the audience.

Subscribe to the new Crossroads newsletter and stay up-to-date!

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The Real Story of Jan. 6, a documentary by The Epoch Times, reveals the truth that has been hidden from the American people. While a narrative has been set that what took place that day was an insurrection, key events and witnesses have been ignored, until now.

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The Kurdish-run al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of suspected ISIS terrorists in the northeastern Hasakeh governorate, during a security operation by the Kurdish Asayish security forces and the special forces of the Syrian Democratic Forces, on Aug. 26, 2022. (Delil Soulieman/AFP via Getty Images)

Record Number of Foreigners Repatriated From ISIS Camps in Syria This Year

QAMISHLI, SyriaRepatriations of foreign women and children affiliated to the ISIS terrorist group from detention camps in northeast Syria hit a record high in 2022, Kurdish authorities said on Tuesday.

Thousands of foreigners including women and children had gone to Syria to live in ISISs so-called caliphate until 2019, when U.S.-backed Kurdish forces snatched the last pocket of Syrian territory from the terrorists.

Fleeing women and children were housed in overcrowded detention camps run by Kurdish authorities and international NGOs, who had pushed for repatriations due to rising violence and dire conditions in the camps.

Governments responded slowly, fearing security threats and a public backlash over the return of individuals radicalized by ISIS.

But the pace picked up his year, with 517 women and children repatriated so far, according to Kurdish authorities statistics.

They included more than 100 from France and over 50 from Germany. More than 150 were returned to Tajikistan, the first for that country.

Returns numbered 324 in 2021, 281 in 2020, and 342 in 2019.

More than 10,000 foreign women and children remain in the Al-Hol and Roj camps, Badran Jia Kurd, a senior official in the autonomous administration, told Reuters.

Letta Tayler, Human Rights Watchs counterterrorism lead, said the rise could be due in part to criticism by the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights of European countries failure to repatriate their nationals.

Also, states had found they had the legal framework to prosecute and jail those who had traveled to ISIS-held territory, making those governments more willing to bring them home, Tayler added.

But she said 2022s figures are still drops in the bucket.

This humanitarian and security crisis will only get worse if countries keep outsourcing management of their detained nationals to a non-state force inside one of the worlds most complex war zones, Tayler said.
Rep. Chris Pappas Defeats 25-Year-Old Republican in New Hampshires 1st District US House Election

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) has triumphed over Karoline Leavitt, the Republican who was seeking to become the youngest American to be elected to U.S. Congress since 1797, in the race to represent New Hampshires 1st Congressional District.

Pappas, 52, will serve another term representing the district after receiving 54 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press, which called the race along with DecisionDeskHQ. With about 80 percent of precincts reporting, Leavitt had 46 percent.

Thank you, New Hampshire! You sent a clear and powerful message: Granite Staters want leaders in Congress who work together to find common purpose and use common sense, Pappas said in a statement. Im honored to have earned your trust for another two years. Now, back to work.

Leavitt, a former White House aide to ex-President Donald Trump, has not yet responded to the race calls.

The St. Anselms College grad who was barely voting aging when Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, is a pro-Trump GOPer who wanted to help flip the House of Representatives but fell short.

Karoline Leavitt at Saddle Up Saloon, Kingston, New Hampshire on Nov. 3, 2022. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times)

Pappas will retain the seat representing the district that covers Manchester, the states most populous city, and its affluent seacoast.

Leavitt had called out Pappas for voting in favor of $5.5 trillion worth of government spending over the next two years and had taken a strong position against Bidens open borders, calling for zero tolerance for illegal immigration and resuming the construction of Trumps wall.

Pappas in his campaign pointed to supporting the government stimulus packages, including the American Rescue Plan, and how hes tried to expand access to universal preschool and lower the cost of prescription drugs.

Pappas won election in 2020 with 51 percent of the vote, narrowly beating Republican Matt Mowers, who also worked in the Trump administration.

Leavitt defeated Mowers in the Republican primary earlier this year.

In 2018, Pappas trumped Republican Eddie Edwards, receiving 53.6 percent of the vote. Pappas won the race for the open seat after former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) decided not to run for another term. Shea-Porter had taken down incumbent Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) in 2016.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
DALLAS, TXTexas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole August 5, 2022. (Bobby Sanchez for The Epoch Times)

Republican Greg Abbott Defeats Beto ORourke in Texas Governors Race

Republican Governor Greg Abbott has beaten Democratic challenger Beto ORourke in the race for Texas governor and is set to serve a third term in office.

Decision Desk HQ called the election for Abbott at 9:23 p.m. Central time. The Associated Press also called the race for Abbott.

Abbott wrote on Twitter late on Tuesday that Texans have sent a message that they want to keep the Lone Star State the beacon of opportunity that we provided over the past eight years.

The Republican Governors Association released the following statement on Governor Greg Abbotts victory in Texas:

Governor Greg Abbott has fought tirelessly to grow Texas economy, give parents more say in their childs education, support law enforcement, and defend the Lone Star State with incredible adversity in the face of the Biden Border Crisis, said RGA Co-Chairs Governors Doug Ducey and Pete Ricketts. Texas and the entire nation owe a great debt to Governor Abbotts leadership, and we couldnt be more grateful to see him re-elected for four more years tonight.

Abbott, 64, has held the governors office since 2015, and multiple polls in recent months had shown him consistently leading against ORourke in a state that has not elected a Democratic governor in more than three decades.

Abbotts election campaign focused on key issues including abortions, school safety, and defending the right to keep and bear arms.

The former state attorney general and Texas Supreme Court justice had also focused his campaign heavily on securing the border amid a mass immigration crisis in the state that he has widely blamed on the Biden administrations failed border policies.

Abbott has come under fire from Democrats for busing thousands of illegal immigrants to Democrat-controlled sanctuary cities, which limit cooperation with the federal efforts to enforce immigration law, such as New York, Washington, and Chicago.

However, the governor has defended his decision to do so, stating that the move ensures the illegal aliens dont end up homeless or hungry while also preventing them from overwhelming Texas communities.

Former Texas congressman Beto ORourke speaks to local residents during a stop at the Central Park Coffee Company, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Beto Unsuccessful Again

El Paso native ORourke, 49, born Robert Francis ORourke, previously served as a small business owner, a City council representative, and a member of Congress before running against Abbott in the race for governor.

This was his second attempt at the statewide office following his bid for Senate in 2018. Ultimately, that bid proved unsuccessful and the Democrat lost by just 3 percent to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), although it marked a surprisingly narrow defeat.

ORourke also entered the 2020 presidential race, but he withdrew the bid before the primaries began.

His campaign has focused largely on gun control, universal background checks, and red flag laws as well as LGBTQ issues, abortion, marijuana legalization, and securing the border in a safe, legal, and orderly way via drones and other technology.

He drew confusion when he appeared to backtrack earlier this year on comments he made in 2019 when he asserted that he would confiscate AR-15-style rifles from Americans. Yet in February, the Democrat said that he had no interest in taking anything from anyone and instead just wanted to make sure that we protect our fellow Texans far better than were doing right now.

The former congressman also made headlines when he responded to a heckler with an expletive while on stage at a campaign stop in Mineral Wells, Texas, earlier in August.

ORourke has not yet commented on his election loss.
House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) questions former Special Counsel Robert Mueller as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, on July 24, 2019. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Republican Rep. Steve Chabot Loses House Reelection Bid

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) lost his bid for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 9.

Chabot, who has represented Ohios 1st Congressional District since 1994, lost to Democrat Greg Landsman, a former public school teacher and non-profit leader

The differences between Chabot and Landsman are vast.

Seeking a 14th term, Chabot was one of 13 House Republicans tasked to serve in the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton. He lost his seat to state Rep. Steve Driehaus in 2008 but won it back in 2010 after he beat Driehaus in a rematch.

Chabot is an outspoken Trump supporter who has criticized the FBI raid on Trumps Mar-a-Lago home and opposed Trumps impeachment.

Landsman is a former public school teacher and is currently in his 5th year as a Cincinnati city councilman. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) speaks at a rally to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the launch of the Chinese regimes persecution of spiritual group Falun Gong, held on the National Mall in Washington on July 21, 2022. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

Redistricting made the 1st Congressional District friendlier to Democrats. The new district includes Cincinnati and parts of its western suburbs.

I thought we could overcome that, and we almost did, Chabot said after conceding the race.

Under the districts former boundaries, Trump had a 3 percentage point margin of victory over President Joe Biden in 2020. A redrawn map after the 2020 Census moved the entire city of Cincinnati into the district, giving Democrats an advantage.

The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the new congressional map for violating the anti-gerrymandering rules in the state Constitution. The map is still being used in the current election since candidates were selected in the primaries with the new version.

Chabots was one of 14 U.S. House seats nationwide held by Republicans but that President Joe Biden would have won under new congressional maps. Democrats were looking to take at least a handful of those Republican-held seats that voted for Biden to negate losses elsewhere around the country.

Trumps influence was front and center in a handful of Ohios congressional elections.

Former Trump administration official Max Miller won a U.S. House seat in Ohio, a victory bolstered by the ex-presidents endorsement and the exits of two Republican congressmen.

Miller, who defeated Democrat Matthew Diemer, was a clear favorite after his victory in the GOP primary, a win that was set up after U.S. Reps. Bob Gibbs and Anthony Gonzalez abruptly retired.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a fiery conservative whos one of Trumps closest allies in Congress, won a ninth term.

Other incumbents reelected were Republicans Mike Carey, Warren Davidson, Mike Turner, Brad Wenstrup, Bob Latta, Bill Johnson, Troy Balderson and David Joyce. Democrats Joyce Beatty and Shontel Brown also won.

Republicans previously held a 12-4 majority of Ohios congressional seats, but after Ohio lost one seat in Congress this year that margin will be cut to 10-5 for the GOP.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Voters drop their ballot in a dropbox in the U.S. midterm election at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, in Phoenix, Arizona on Nov. 8, 2022. (Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images)

Arizona Judge Rejects Republicans Request to Extend Voting Hours in County After Issues With Voting Machines

An Arizona judge has rejected a lawsuit filed by a Republican coalition to extend voting hours in Maricopa County after issues occurred earlier in the day with tabulation equipment at dozens of polling sites.

The court does not have evidence there was a voter who was precluded the right to vote from what was presented, the judge, Timothy Ryan, said minutes before polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, reported multiple outlets.

The emergency motion (pdf) was filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee, former state lawmaker Jill Norgaard, as well as the campaigns of the Arizona Republican Senate and governor nomineesBlake Masters and Kari Lake, respectively.

The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

The widespread issuesin an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbsare completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day, she added. We have dozens of attorneys and thousands of volunteers on the ground working to solve this issue and ensure that Arizona voters have the chance to make their voices heard.

The Republican coalition requested to have all voting centers in Maricopa County remain open until 10 p.m. local time on Election Day, Nov. 8. This would be an extension of 3 hours.

They also requested that any public release of early ballot results in the county be suspended until 11:00 p.m. local time.

According to the filing, some voters were denied an opportunity to vote, and not advised of their right to vote a provisional ballot, in direct contravention of controlling law.

Attorneys for Maricopa County were reviewing the emergency motion, a spokesperson for the county told 12News.

The filing came after election officials said that tabulators in about 20 percent of polling sites in Maricopa County were malfunctioning, but that voters were still able to vote, although the ballots would be placed in a secured box.

Later, at around 2 p.m. local time, the Maricopa County Elections Command Center said in a statement that officials identified a solution to the problem and said printer settings were the cause.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer released an apology over the problem around the same time, and said that every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Rich McCormick, Republican candidate to represent Georgia's 6th Congressional District, at the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young General Election Debate Series held at the studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta, Ga., on Oct. 16, 2022. ( Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press Wire)

Republicans Take Back Metro Atlanta Seat From Democrats

Rich McCormick is headed for victory on election night in the race for Georgias 6th Congressional District.

McCormick, a Republican, had 155,889 votes to Democrat Bob Christians 93,843 votes with 16.6 percent of precincts reporting, according to unofficial results from the Georgia Secretary of State office.

The Associated Press called the race for McCormick.

The win will bring back to the Republicans a once-safe seat held by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Senator Johnny Isakson, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

The sea on the north side of Atlanta includes north Fulton County and rapidly growing Forsyth County.

It flipped to the Democrats in 2018, as suburban voters disenchanted with the Trump administration defected from Republicans at the polls.

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) left the 6th District to run in the neighboring 7th after this elections redistricting process. File photo from June 17, 2020. (Greg Nash/Pool via Reuters)

That propelled to Congress gun-control advocate Lucy McBath, who lost a son when he was shot in a gas station by a white motorist who thought his music was too loud.

The Republicans in redistricting made the seat safer for the GOP, moving it further north and adding exurban and rural areas.

McBath chose to run instead in the neighboring 7th Congressional District covering suburban Gwinnett County, one of the most diverse districts in the country with larger Asian and Hispanic populations.

McCormick ran and narrowly lost in the old 7th District in 2020 to Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, whom McBath defeated in this years Democratic primary.

Bob Christian, Democratic candidate for Georgias 6th Congressional District, campaigned with Stacey Abrams in Cumming, Ga., on Sept. 18, 2022. (Courtesy of Bob Christian campaign)

At a campaign debate on Oct. 16, the two presented contrasting visions of government, Christian arguing for a more activist government working to solve problems and McCormick maintaining that government can mess up anything it touches.

Christian accused the Republican state government of having presided over numerous hospital closures, including this falls shutdown of the Atlanta Medical Center, a large hospital downtown.

McCormick said the hospital had to shut down because it depended too much on Medicaid reimbursement, which wasnt enough to pay the bills.

McCormick, a former Marine, did several tours overseas as a pilot and then combat surgeon after attending med school. He now works as an emergency room doctor.

That experience, he said, brings him face-to-face with the nations economic and health realities.

He holds the unusual distinction of having been elected class president at the historically black Morehouse School of Medicine, which was 60 percent female and 80 percent minority.

Christian, a veteran who served in Iraq and later managed restaurants and dining facilities, addressed in his campaign the growth problems of the area, which has proved attractive to migrants leaving other cities and states during the COVID pandemic.

Its population grew by 75,000 during the pandemic, choking the highways. Forsyth is an attractive place to live for its proximity both to scenic North Georgia and to thousands of tech-related jobs just south of it in northern Fulton County.

Christian told The Epoch Times that the newcomers might make the area friendlier to Democrats if those who left blue states brought their voting patterns with them.

McCormick, for his part, said he looked to appeal more to minority voters, such as the tens of thousands of Indians and Koreans who live in the district, an opportunity Republicans had missed in the past.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Derrick Van Orden, congressional candidate for Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, speaks to guests during a rally hosted by former President Donald Trump in Waukesha, Wis., on Aug. 5, 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden Wins Wisconsin US House Race

Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, former Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden defeated Democrat Brad Pfaff in Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District.

With 93 percent of the votes counted, Van Orden received 52 percent of the votes while Pfaff recorded 48 percent, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Van Orden and Pfaff sought a seat held by longtime Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who narrowly defeated Van Orden in 2020.

Kind was first elected in 1997 and announced in 2021 that he would not seek another term.

Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) (C) speaks during a news conference with a bipartisan group of House members outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 20, 2014. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The truth is Ive run out of gas, Kind said during a news conference after announcing his retirement.

Politics, he added, should not be a constant combat sport with the goal of destroying the other side.

Kind defeated Van Orden by less than 3 percentage points in 2020 in a district that Trump won by 5 percentage points the same year.

Van Orden wrote the 2015 book, A Book of Man: A Navy SEALs Guide to the Lost Art of Manhood. He enlisted in the Navy when he was 18, and served for 26 years, including multiple combat tours to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump endorsed Van Orden in August after backing him in 2020.

Van Orden ran unopposed in the Republican primary earlier this year.

He was in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, but denied taking part in breaching the U.S. Capitol.

Van Orden said he was in Washington for political meetings and attended Trumps rally before the events at the U.S. Capitol.

A state senator and former cabinet secretary for Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Pfaff claimed that his opponents presence near the Capitol that day demonstrates that he lacks the character and judgment to effectively serve in Congress.

Pfaff was also critical of Van Orden for saying in October that leftists cannot be Christians.

There are many God-fearing Christians who are Democrats, theres not a single God-fearing Christian that is a leftist, because those two things are incompatible, Van Orden said at a prayer breakfast.

Wisconsin 3rd Congressional District candidate and state Sen. Brad Pfaff won the GOP primary on Aug. 9, 2022. (Courtesy of Brad Pfaff for Congress)

He called for a return to the Judeo-Christian values he believes this country was based on.

At the breakfast, Van Orden said that he is a member of the Bible Baptist Church, which includes homosexuality, bestiality, and incest as sinful perversions.

Van Orden followed up with a statement that said his comments referenced communism, which abolishes all religion, and all morality.

As a God-fearing, practicing Lutheran, I am really really disappointed. Im outraged by comments like that, Pfaff told reporters.

The 3rd District stretches from Menomonie south along the Mississippi River to Platteville in western Wisconsin. The mostly rural district also includes the Democratic-leaning cities of Eau Claire and La Crosse.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) speaks to his supporters during an election night party at the Best Western Premier Bridgewood Resort in Neenah, Wisconsin, on Nov. 08, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Sen. Ron Johnson Says This Race is Over, But Holds off on Official Declaration

NEENAH, Wis.Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was almost ready to declare victory over Democrat Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes just before 1 a.m. CST on Nov. 9, but he told supporters he will wait for the full vote count to declare final victory.

With slightly more than 93 percent of the votes counted, Johnson maintained a nearly 39,000-vote lead over Barnes.

Johnson amassed 1,322,922 votes (50.7 percent) to 1,284,189 (49.3 percent) for Barnes, a former state legislator from Milwaukee who won the race for lieutenant governor in 2018.

Weve looked very closely at the numbers, Johnson said. We feel very confident that theres no way that they can really make up that gap.

But Im not going to declare victory until all the numbers are in, but I just want to give you guys a sense that this race is over.

A packed ballroom at the Best Western Premier Bridgewood Resort Hotel watched the vote gap wax and wane during the evening. Staff from the campaign war room made repeated announcements that, while the vote was tight, Johnson should prevail when the dust settles.

Supporters of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) watch election returns during an election night party at the Best Western Premier Bridgewood Resort in Neenah, Wisconsin, on Nov. 08, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Well wait till all the numbers come in before I declare final victory, Johnson said. But I do believe that this time, truth has prevailed over the lies and the character assassination.

Johnson was a top target of Democrats, who poured millions of dollars from third-party groups to finance waves of attack advertisements against the two-term incumbent.

They dropped $100 million into this state, the liberal third-party groups from around the state, they dropped $100 million in, starting in January, Brian Schimming, former vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and a Johnson campaign adviser, told The Epoch Times. So Ron Johnson was the biggest target in the country.

Schimming said Johnson overcame the negative attack ads once he hit the campaign trail.

They spent $50 million in outside negative money against Ron Johnson before we bought our first yard sign, Schimming said. But we caught up. What was interesting about it is they said, Ron Johnson will never catch up. His negatives are too high. And in six weeks, [Barnes] went from being seven up to six down. So the state, the voters of this state, saw through what was going on.
Republican Congressman Kelly Armstrong retained his position Tuesday as North Dakota voters reelected him to the states sole seat in the U.S. House.

With all precincts reporting, Armstrong had 62% of the vote. Former Miss America 2018 and independent challenger Cara Mund had 38%. The Associated Press declared Armstrong the winner.

Armstrong, an attorney, former state senator and former state party chairman, was first elected to Congress in 2018. He cruised to reelection two years ago with 69% of the vote and sought a third term this year.

Mund, a newly minted attorney who won the Miss America title in 2017, announced her independent campaign in August, and secured enough signatures in September to make the ballot. She cited her interests to preserve abortion rights and to see more women in elected offices as reasons for her campaign.

Armstrong said he's proud of his campaign and happy with the result, noting that each election is "unique."

He said Mund is "incredibly talented and obviously North Dakota is very proud of her, and it's just a race, but you don't twist yourself in knots worrying about what your opponents do. You just go out and run on your record, and I was proud to do that."

Mund said she's proud "of what I accomplished, the fact that I did this as an independent, as a one-woman show." She said she's seen social media posts of voters who "felt seen, felt heard, felt validated," and has heard from "numerous women who now want to throw their hat in the ring" for elected office.

Bismarck Event Center voter Angela Dagman said she voted for Mund because of her stance on women's rights. She said she also dislikes Armstrong.

"Cara Mund is wonderful," Dagman said.

Sally Jorgenson said she voted for Mund, having a preference for "the independent over the incumbent," citing her Democratic leanings.

Matt Romuld said he voted for Armstrong as well as for Republicans up and down the ballot "because I'm a patriot."

Mariela Garcia said she voted only for Republicans "because I love Donald Trump" and desires to see the former president return to office and Republicans control Congress.

Yasini Ngabu said he voted for Republicans, seeing them as "doing a really good job in our country."

The race was roiled by Democrat Mark Haugens exit in September. He cited pressure from party leaders related to Munds campaign. Armstrong and Haugen oppose abortion.

Republicans painted Mund as the de facto Democrat in the race, citing Haugens withdrawal. Mund maintained she is an independent and bristled at any other label, referring to it as "name-calling."

Mund and Armstrong debated three times, disagreeing on the U.S. Supreme Courts Dobbs decision in June that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, but finding agreement in their opposition to President Joe Bidens student loan forgiveness plan.

Armstrong raised millions for his reelection campaign, with Mund raising only a fraction of that.
An elections worker scans mail in ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 7, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Senate Hangs on Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona Races

Democrats braced for it; Republicans expected it, but a red wave did not materialize on election night 2022.

In the first election after a new president comes to office, it is common for the party opposite of the president to pick up congressional seats. With President Joe Bidens approval rating at 39 percent on the eve of the election, a power shift seemed imminent. That has not happened yet.

Voters are still waiting to learn which party will control the Senate. The Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona Senate races are still undecided.

With 97 Senate seats decided, Democrats have 48 seats and Republicans have 49.

Democrats picked up a seat when Pennsylvania voters flipped exiting Republican Sen. Pat Toomeys seat blue with the election of John Fetterman, who ran a close race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.

In Georgia, Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker face a runoff election on Dec. 6. Neither candidate met the general election majority required under state law. With 98 percent of votes counted, Warnock had 49.4 percent, or 1,941,499 votes just leading Walker, who earned 48.5 percent or 1,906,246 votes. This will be Warnocks second runoff election. He faced a special election runoff in January 2021.

In Arizona, where counting has been delayed, just 66 percent of the results are in as of 4 p.m. Wednesday. Democrat Mark Kelly has 51.4 percent, or 927,423 of the votes, leading Republican Blake Masters at 46.4 percent with 837,261 votes.

In Nevada, with 77 percent of the results counted as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Republican Paul Laxalt leads with 49.9 percent or 418,461 votes over Catherine Marie Cortez Masto at 47.2 percent or 395,866 votes. Nevada results are delayed due to a shortage of election workers and the acceptance of mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day.

Once these three states are counted, if the current leaders prevail, it will add two Democrats and one Republican the to Senate making the balance even: 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. In that case, Democrats hold the majority due to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.

In the current Congress, the Senate is essentially the same, with 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats.

If all the races went to one party or another, it would not be a large enough majority to be comfortable for either party. The opposing party would only have to sway a few senators on any given bill.

If Democrats win all three undecided votes, the balance would be 5149. If Republicans take control of all three seats, the power would be shifted to 5248.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in Dallas, Texas, on Aug. 6, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Special Master in Trump Records Case Says He Will Contact National Archives

The judge acting as a special master in the case involving records seized from former President Donald Trumps home says he will be contacting the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, the Reagan appointee acting as a special master, said on Nov. 7 that he intends to contact NARA regarding its practices and guidance documents concerning the categorization of materials under the Presidential Records Act.

Parties to the caseTrump and the governmenthave until Nov. 10 to submit a letter if they want to present arguments regarding the planned contact.

NARA declined to comment when asked if Dearie had been in touch and, if so, what he had inquired about.

We cannot comment, a spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.

The order appointing Dearie as special master said that he may consult with NARA when he was considering whether certain records were personal and/or presidential.

The Presidential Records Act governs records created by a president. It states in part that presidential records are public but that presidents may shield them from the public for five to 12 years. It also says that all presidential records automatically transfer to the archivist, the head of NARA, as soon as a presidents time in office ends.

FBI agents seized thousands of records from Trumps home in Florida in August after NARA earlier in the year made a referral to the Department of Justice, the FBIs parent agency.

The referral stemmed from finding records with classified markings among the boxes that Trump transferred to NARA about a year after he left office.

U.S. investigators are now probing Trump for possible violations of several laws, including the Espionage Act.

Acting Archivist Debra Wall, who heads NARA, made the decision to let FBI agents access the records. She was backed by President Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump has said that he is being politically targeted and that he had declassified the records.

Dearie also set a Dec. 1 status conference to go over his contact with NARA, saying that he anticipates that this conference will be an opportunity for the parties to elaborate upon their respective positions ahead of the report he is due to file by Dec. 16.

Dearie was charged with adjudicating disputes over certain records regarding confidentiality claims including attorney-client and executive privileges. He has been receiving information about the disputes from lawyers representing Trump and lawyers for the government. The report will feature Dearies recommendations on the disputes.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, appointed Dearie. Cannon will make the ultimate decision on the records after reviewing Dearies report.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak greets NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at 10 Downing Street, London, ahead of their meeting on Nov. 9, 2022. (PA)

Sunak Promises Further Support for Ukraine During First Meeting With NATO Chief

Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg has become the first international leader to visit Number 10 since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.

Ahead of the meeting on Wednesday, Sunak said, NATO is the cornerstone of our security and the security of our allies.

Stoltenberg also met with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in London, with talks expected to focus on the RussiaUkraine conflict and the continued adaptation of the alliance.

As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, we must not take peace at home for granted, said Sunak.

I am determined the UK will be the bedrock of NATO for generations to come. But in order to face the challenging future we must evolve as an alliance to meet, and remain ahead of, the threat from our adversaries. We must also continue backing the Ukrainian people in their resistance to [Russian President Vladimir] Putins brutality, he added.

Sunak became UK prime minister in October, the countrys third prime minister in just over three months.

Stoltenberg visited Ukrainian troops at Lydd army camp in southeastern town of Lydd, Kent, as the troops receive training from UK counterparts as part of Operation Interflex. NATO reported that Canadian and Lithuanian forces are also training troops there.

Operation Interflex is the operational code name for the British-led multinational military operation to train and support the armed forces of Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said the United Kingdom is a lead nation when it comes to supporting Ukraine.

Im very grateful to the UK because this is really important, it makes a difference every day on the battlefield, he added.

Also visiting the Lydd army camp, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that Russia has been an active adversary of the United Kingdom for years.

Many will remember the Salisbury poisoning, where they deployed nerve agents, he said, speaking directly to Ukrainian troops.

Russia has been regularly behind cyber attacks in this country. Of course, Russia doesnt like the fact the United Kingdom is standing up against itwere standing up for the values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, but that isnt going to put us off, added Wallace.

Were going to continue to support Ukraine, to defend its sovereign territory against an illegal invasion, and well just carry on doing it. Britain stands for more than a small moment in time, Britain stands for those enduring human rights, he added.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Texas Republican Mayra Flores Fails to Hold Congressional Seat

Texas District 34 flips back to blue

WESLACO, TexasRepublican Rep. Mayra Flores has been defeated by Democratic challenger Vicente Gonzalez in Texas 34th Congressional District.

The Associated Press reported her Gonzalez had a total of 52.7 percent of the vote with 88 percent of the vote reported as of 2 a.m. ET. Flores held 44.3 percent of the vote.

Its been an amazing journey, Flores said to a sedate crowd at her watch party in Weslaco, but added the votes werent adding up to her advantage.

I cant thank you enough. This has always been about God, family and hard work, she said, though she did not formally concede the race.

Her challenger Gonzalez was confident he would beat Flores, telling The Epoch Times he didnt think the polls reflected the support he was seeing in the district.

Gonzalezs victory means the Rio Grande Valley will flip back to blue, but Flores made a strong showing in a district that was redrawn to favor a Democratic candidate.

U.S. Rep.Mayra Flores (R-Texas) stands with her family and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for a portrait after being sworn in in Washington on June 21, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

According to the University of Virginia Center for Politics, the new district lines for District 34 would have had Biden winning by more than 16 percentage points.

Republicans contend that Gonzalez fled the 15th District to the 34th, thinking it would be an easier race for a Democrat.

Democratic candidate Vicente Gonzalez for the 34th District stops by Burns elementary school in the final hours of the election Nov. 8. (Darlene McCormick Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Meanwhile, voting was expected to be strong in District 34.

Remi Garza, election administrator for Cameron County, the districts most populous county, told The Epoch Times the hotly contested congressional race had an excellent early voter turnout with more than 51,000 votes cast.

Garza expected between 27,000 and 30,000 to cast votes on election day, which would put the county of 219,000 registered voters in line with 2018 results.

District 34 currently includes Cameron, Willacy, Kenedy, Kleberg, Jim Wells, De Witt, and Bee and Goliad counties. It contains parts of Hidalgo, Gonzales, and San Patricio counties.

At Burns Elementary in Brownsville, Gonzalez showed up to encourage voters.

Were going to win, Gonzalez said, adding he didnt put a lot of faith in last-minute polling showing the district was leaning Republican.

Border Crisis

Voters who spoke with The Epoch Times said the border crisis was one of the most significant issues in the race.

Hilda Gomez said she was concerned about the border but voted Democratic anyway.

Alejandro Ramirez also said the border crisis was his No. 1 issue and hoped his vote for Flores would institute change. The other big motivator for him is the social justice agenda thats showing up in education.

He said schools need to focus on math, reading, and writing instead of transgenderism, Critical Race Theory, and drag queen story hour.

We are going to go with Mayra Flores, Ramirez said.

Ricardo Gonzalez, an oil and gas industry retiree, said he came out to support Flores. He is concerned that good-paying jobs would dry up if the Democrats win and continue pushing green energy.

We came because we dont like the way things are going, Gonzalez said. Everything has gone up.

Flores becomes the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress after winning a special election for the seat this summer.

She is a legal immigrant from Mexico who married a Border Patrol officer and campaigned to close the open border. Flores has accused Democrats of taking Latinos for granted and blames them for soaring food and gas prices.

She ran as a pro-life and pro-Second Amendment candidate who stands for God, family, and country, which she feels are values many Latinos share.

Her opponent, Gonzalez, switched congressional districts because the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature redrew the South Texas voter map, moving his McAllen home into District 34 from District 15.

Gonzalez ran on popular Democrat Party themes, such as free college and more accessible childcare through its pre-K initiative.

Hes more moderate on border issues. Gonzalez supports compassionate immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. As a Catholic, Gonzalez said hes pro-life but believes in the separation of church and state.

A steady stream of voters showed up at Burns elementary school in Brownsville on Nov. 8, 2022. (Darlene McCormick Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Republicans began focusing on South Texas after several traditionally Democratic counties voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.

Zapata County, which borders Mexico, flipped red with 52.5 percent of the vote going to Trump in 2020. The same county overwhelmingly elected Democrat Hillary Clinton with 65.6 percent of the vote in 2016.

District 34 saw a shift but was still considered a blue district. In 2018, with a total of 143,068 votes cast in District 34, Democrat Filemon Vela walked away with 60 percent of the vote compared to 40 percent for Republican candidate Rey Gonzalez.

Republicans have poured time and money into the Flores campaign, hoping to capitalize on the shifting political landscape.

According to Open Secrets, Floress campaign has raised $3.8 million to Gonzalezs $2.67 million.

Outside groups spent $1.8 million in support of Flores and $5.3 million in opposition, according to Open Secrets. Meanwhile, outside groups spent $363,000 in support of Gonzalez, compared to $6.2 million in opposition.
Foreign tourists walk along the popular Khaosan Road in Bangkok on May 17, 2022. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images)

Thailand Scraps Foreign Land Ownership Proposal, Cites Sensitive Issue

Thailand has withdrawn a proposal allowing foreigners to buy up to one raithe Thai equivalent of 0.4 acresof land in Thailand, a government official said Tuesday, despite the cabinets previous approval of the plan.

Thailands Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said the proposal had been removed from the cabinet agenda because it is a sensitive matter that requires additional review, Bangkok Post reported.

We must take the matter back for review because it is sensitive. It must be reviewed to gauge the positive and negative effects on the economy and society, Anupong told reporters.

The draft bill, previously approved in principle by the cabinet on Oct. 26, would allow foreigners to buy land in Thailand if they invest 40 million baht ($1.1 million) in securities or bonds over three years.

Thailands Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said that the Interior Ministry withdrew the proposed bill to solicit public opinion and decide whether to resubmit it to the cabinet over the next 15 days.

Public Concern

The draft regulation was aimed at wealthy expats, retirees, and digital nomads who want to reside in Thailand, as well as highly skilled professionals.

To qualify for the program, applicants must make investments in Thailand in the form of bonds issued by the Thai government, real estate or infrastructure funds, real estate investment trusts, legal entities, or enterprises promoted by the Board of Investment.

The scheme is expected to boost Thailands economy by 1 trillion baht ($26.5 billion) and investment by 800 billion baht ($21.2 billion), with an estimated revenue of 270 billion baht ($7.2 billion), according to local reports.

However, locals worry that it could trigger a surge in land prices and make it difficult for locals to buy land.

Tanit Sorat, vice chairman of the Employers Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry, welcomed the ministrys move to withdraw the proposal and said that the required sum of investment was too small for wealthy foreigners.

Tanit said that locals are also concerned that the scheme would result in Chinese investors taking up more land in Thailand.

They are also concerned about future land speculation and its possibility of opening doors to foreignersespecially Chinese businessmen who run gray businesses in Thailand such as bars, massage parlors, and gambling densto buy vast land plots, Tanit told Bangkok Post.
The Arctic: A New Military Domain?

Commentary

The strategic environment of the Arctic has traditionally been dictated by its isolation and its extremely difficult climate: it was, quite simply, an extremely cold, distant, and generally desolate place for humans to operate in.

Global climate change, however, has begun to alter this general point of view. In particular, the extent and thickness of sea ice have declined significantly; in recent years, the extent of summer sea ice has been some 50 percent smaller than the preceding 30 years, a loss of ice-pack roughly equal to one-third of the landmass of the United States.

While still no tropical paradise, the Arctic has become much more accessible. Consequently, the reduction of Arctic ice has increased economic interests in the region. The first of these is the regions reportedly abundant reserves of oil and natural gas. The Arctic is believed to contain up to 25 percent of the worlds remaining oil and gas reserves; a conservative estimate puts this at over 100 billion barrels of oil, estimated to be worth perhaps $20 trillion.

Just as important, the Arctic is being viewed as a possible alternate sea route for commercial shipping, potentially competing with the traditional trans-Suez/trans-Malacca Strait route used by most shipping when it comes to trade between Europe and the Asia-Pacific. The reduction in sea ice has meant that sea routes through the Arctic region are at least a commercial possibility.

Moscow is particularly interested in developing the so-called Northern Sea Route (NSR) along the northern coast of Russia. The passage is particularly attractive for shipping via Europe and Asia. The distance from Shanghai to Hamburg is 3,231 miles shorter, going by way of the Arctic route than via the Suez Canal and Straits of Malacca. With the Arctic both shrinking in extent and thickness, the National Intelligence Council believes continued global warming could permit the NSR to remain open for 110 days each year by 2030, transforming global shipping patterns.

Already, the number of ships using the NSR rose from 41 ships in 2011 to 92 in 2021; between 2010 and 2012, there was a tenfold increase in the number of vessels taking this route, and Russia expects a thirtyfold increase in the number of transits over the next few years.

Russia is not alone in wanting to further develop the NSR. China, which has dubbed itself a near-Arctic state, in 2018 released its official report outlining its Arctic policy. In it, Beijing laid out its plans to conduct research, develop infrastructure, and excavate resources within the Arctic Circle. China particularly sees the Arctic as a critical element of a Polar Silk Road to complement its Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinas Icebreaker Xuelong, which voyaged to the Arctic, in Xiamen in Fujian Province, China, on June 27, 2010. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

These economic and trade developments have significantly raised the strategic value of the Arctic, which is experiencing a bit of a comeback in terms of its salience as a military domain. Russia zealously guards the Arctic as its zone, and it possesses the largest military footprint in the region of all the Arctic states, with nearly a dozen ports and military bases located along its northern coast, from Murmansk to Petropavlovsk.

Moreover, no other country has invested more resources into its Arctic forces than Russia. After decades of neglect, Moscow is reconstituting and strengthening its military presence in the Arctic, particularly in the High North around the Kola Peninsula, home of the Russian Northern Fleet.

Since 2008, for example, Russia has established two Arctic-warfare brigades (consisting of approximately 9,000 troops), and reopened naval facilities, airbases, and radar sites in the Kola and along the Russian Arctic coast. Russia now operates around 100 long-range aircraft in the Kola, including Tu-22 long-range bombers and Tu-142 and Il-38 maritime reconnaissance aircraft. These assets run regular reconnaissance and bomb-test flights over the Arctic. Russia is also upgrading its airfield on Novaya Zemlya to accommodate modern fighter aircraft as well as deploy modern S400 air defense systems.

Russia has particularly invested heavily in upgrading its Northern Fleet, headquartered at Severomorsk, on the Kola Peninsula. The Northern Fleet is most critically the home for Russias ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) fleet, which is heavily dependent on the Arctic for its patrols. This flotilla includes several new Borei-class SSBNs, as well as the Belgorod submarine, which recently made headlines when it briefly disappeared, raising fears that it had gone on some kind of a doomsday mission.

China is not yet a military power in the region, but Beijings no limits partnership with Moscow makes the idea of Sino-Russian cooperation in the Arctic very conceivable. In particular, China has long-term military plans for the Arctic. In particular, the region is regarded as a future possible operating area for Chinese nuclear-powered missile-carrying submarines (SSBNs). For all these reasons, Beijing is currently planning to build a third icebreaker for the Chinese military.

This, in turn, would set up a NATO-Russia/China competition in the Arctic. With Sweden and Finland set to join the Atlantic Alliance, all members of the Arctic Council (the United States, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland) save Russia will be NATO members. The Arctic Ocean, together with the Nordic regions Far North, will likely become a key military domain for a new Cold War. The need for expanded NATO cooperation in the Arctic is more necessary than ever.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Lesson: Sticking to Principle and Truth Works

Commentary

Early into the evening of Nov. 8, when the results started coming in, there were moments of elation among Republicans. It was a red wave and more. It appeared even to be a flood and a tsunami. The verdict was absolutely overwhelming. Voters were embracing the Republican message and rejecting the command-and-control wokeness of the Democratic left.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ended up with a 20-point victory that swept in many races with him, allowing for a near-complete sweep in a state that only a few years ago was a toss-up. Now its solidly redat least solidly DeSantis, backed by his brilliant surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, who has faced massive slings and arrows with zen-like bravery.

There was just one problem with that early impression: It all came from Florida. As the evening wore on, things looked ever less rosy for the Republican party. If were going to figure out what went wrong, we should start by looking at what went right.

So what was the DeSantis message? What he said in his victory speech was the same thing he has said for two years: freedom. Above all else, that means standing against lockdowns and cruel vaccine mandates that shattered so many millions of lives all over the country and drove massive immigration to Florida. It became the leading sanctuary for two years. And DeSantis talks about it at every opportunity.

A second message is related to the first: Florida is the state where woke goes to die. Woke is a non-Western ideology of control that imposes ideological fanaticism in place of clarity and rationality. It obsesses on division, rules out the possibility of a functioning and cooperative social order, and puts the state in charge of the management of our minds via censorship and Maoist-style frenzy.

DeSantis has been ferocious in keeping that nonsense out of Floridas educational and commercial life. All the while, he faced the most remarkable barrage of hate that Ive ever witnessed. When he permitted spring break parties in the spring of 2020, The New York Times devoted thousands of words, even tens of thousands, to the denunciation of the governor. The media was completely dedicated to demonizing him as DeathSantis and making Florida an example to the world of what not to do.

Those of us writing about this at the time lost massive time and sleep just countering the propaganda. I probably wrote 50 to 100 articles and published many more on the topic simply because the whole thing was based on lies. And it was extremely important that we get this one correct. If Florida is the poster child of bad pandemic response, were all toast: lockdowns forever. Fortunately, we did prevail in this case. People have stopped denouncing the state and its COVID-19 policies for now.

Crucially, however, we wouldnt have prevailed if the governor hadnt mastered the science himself. At every press conference and speech, he would march through the science and studies and explain his policies. He invited the best scientists in the world to join him in events that were designed to cut through the media malarkey and show people the truth. These events were blocked and taken down by YouTube, but he persisted.

His hiring of Joseph Ladapo was a stroke of genius. Ladapo has this way about him: Hes calm and relaxed, as a scientist must be, but hes also fearless. He was on the frontlines the entire time arguing against vaccine mandates, telling parents of healthy kids to not get the vaccine, and later warning healthy adults, too. He stuck to his guns that letting life go on normally for healthy people while protecting the old and vulnerable was the only workable and civilized policy.

Crucially, these efforts paid off because they educated Floridians about the truth and cut through the medias lies. DeSantiss every speech was designed to get around the censorship of Big Tech, because he knew full well that he couldnt trust the media to get his message out. He had to do it himself. And he never stopped. For two years, he has been relentless.

Moreover, he did all of this without much if any support on these topics from the Republican National Committee, which is deeply shy of talking about lockdowns and mandates. And why might this be? Because they all began under Republican rule! Politicians are deeply afraid of admitting error. Trump has constantly refused, and this has intimidated Republicans into silence on the most important issues of our time.

DeSantis would have none of it. He apologized for his early confusion on the topic, and when he fully opened the state, he stuck by his position. He completely ignored the polls, on the conviction that the whole point of a leader isnt to follow but to lead. He trusted the truth, and the truth led him to victory.

Consider some other cases of the same. Kristi Noem of South Dakota is the only governor in the country who completely refused to lock down from the outset. She proved herself to be a servant of the Constitution, a champion of freedom, and a brave fighter not only against the mass media but against her own party as well! God bless her. She won with an incredible 27-point split! See how it works?

Or look at the remarkable case of Brian Kemp of Georgia. He was the first to open up his state, already in April. For sticking his neck out, he was blasted by Trump himself and relentlessly attacked by him ever since. But, like Noem and DeSantis, he stuck to the truth and made it an issue. He was massively rewarded in an election he was expected to lose. He won against an opponent with presidential aspirations with an 8-point split.

Or look at Greg Abbott of Texas. A few days after DeSantis opened Florida, he followed in a sweeping action; on his own and with the fury of someone who had been lied to by Deborah Birx of the Trump administration, he immediately repealed all COVID-19 restrictions in his state. It was a one-page PDF: All of the restrictions were gone! He was mercilessly attacked by the press and the whole state was demonized as the land of disease. But he stuck to his guns. He crushed another Democratic National Committee favorite by 9 points.

These people are champions. We might also mention Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, who also made lockdowns and mandates an issue and crushed his opponent by 14 points. This experience was repeated in Senate races as well. Rand Paul, who has been standing bravely against Anthony Fauci, swept to an easy victory. Ron Johnson was in a tough race in Wisconsin but ran on his record and focused against vaccine mandates and pulled off another victory.

Compare this to the deeply embarrassing case of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Mehmet Oz lost to someone who couldnt even complete a full sentence in a debate. Oz was pro-lockdown: The Chinese numbers have dropped dramatically, which is fantastic news.  We just have to copy what they did, take their blueprint, and repeat it here in this country.

He never should have been in the race, but the Republican Party trusted that Trump was right to endorse him. The state now pays a heavy price for that decision. If you cant beat John Fetterman, youre certainly in the wrong business.

The point is that truth and courage won on Nov. 8, while feckless politicking and poll-chasing proved a very bad strategy for Republicans. This country cant move forward and return to constitutional principles and a freedom-first agenda without coming to terms with the egregious reality that American lockdowns followed the Chinese Communist Party model of social, political, and medical control.

That shouldve been the issue in every race in this country. And it isnt enough to make it an issue, as DeSantis, Noem, and Kemp have demonstrated, the candidate must educate and rally the voters to stand up for the truth, too. It must be this way because the mainstream media sure isnt going to tell people the truth.

What this shows me is that were nowhere near achieving victory on these crucial issues. Fortunately, we do have models for what it means to lead and win. Sadly for many existing politicians in this country, doing so requires having a backbone and standing up to both Big Media and Big Tech. Do that and you have a chance to win. Dont do that and you risk everything, including the future of this great country.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her family leave the federal courthouse after attending her fraud trial in San Jose, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2022. (Brittany Hosea-Small/Reuters)

Theranos Founder Holmes Denied Request for New Trial, Court Filings Show

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes request for a new trial was denied by a federal judge in California late on Monday, court documents showed.

In January, Holmes, 37, was found guilty of defrauding investors in the blood testing startup, convicting her on four of 11 counts. She was convicted of investor fraud and conspiracy, but acquitted on three counts of defrauding patients who paid for tests from Theranos, and a related conspiracy charge.

In July, former Theranos President Ramesh Sunny Balwani was also convicted of defrauding investors and patients about Theranos that was once valued at $9 billion.

Holmes lawyers filed for a new trial in September citing newly discovered evidence from the governments statements made at the closing arguments of Balwanis trial, as well as alleged government misconduct.

In Mondays ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila said that the arguments brought forward by Holmes lawyers for a new trial did not produce enough material evidence to prove alleged government misconduct, adding that the statements made by the government at Balwanis trial were not material to result in Holmes acquittal.

Holmes is currently scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 18.

Holmes rose to Silicon Valley fame after founding Theranos in 2003 at age 19 and became known for her penchant for wearing Steve Jobs-like black turtlenecks. She faces up to 80 years in prison, but will likely get a much lower sentence.

Attorneys for Holmes did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Top Republican Senators on Midterms: Definitely Not a Republican Wave

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday lamented Republicans inability to pick up early wins during the midterm elections on Nov. 8.

Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure, Graham told NBC, adding, I think were going to be at 51, 52 when its all said and done in the Senate.

Referring to Republican Don Bolduc, a New Hampshire Senate candidate who lost to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Graham said that when you run that far behind your governor candidate [Chris Sununu], you probably made a mistake.

Graham noted that if the GOP takes the House, there is good that comes from a divided government because lawmakers will have to work together.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also noted there wasnt a red wave, as some GOP officials have predicted, during a YouTube livestream.

It hasnt been as big of a wave as Id hoped it would be. Weve had some close races go the other way so far, the Texas senator said.

Some key races in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada are still too close to call. In Georgia, its likely Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) will face GOP candidate Herschel Walker during a runoff next month, according to state officials.

Election data as of Wednesday show GOP challenger Adam Laxalt ahead of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) for Nevadas Senate seat. Sen. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) was up against GOP challenger Blake Masters, data shows.

In Pennsylvania, Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz conceded the race to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, on Wednesday morning.

Election forecasters largely predicted the House of Representatives would go to Republicans, but its still too close to call. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declared victory on Tuesday night.

Data showed incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is poised to defeat Democrat Mandela Barnes, while Republican J.D. Vance likely defeated Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) for Ohios Senate seat.

Should Masters lose and Laxalt win, it means that control of the Senate would hinge on Georgias race between Warnock and Walker. Although Warnock is ahead of Walker by a slim margin, he failed to get more than 50 percent of the vote, meaning a runoff is now likely.

One of Georgias top election officials, Gabriel Sterling, wrote on Twitter while county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the U.S. Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6.

Libertarian Senate candidate Chase Oliver garnered about 2.1 percent of the vote. Oliver will be removed from the ballot if the race heads to runoff territory.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accompanied by his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau as he places a wreath at the National War Memorial during the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa, on Nov. 11, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Trudeau to Miss National Remembrance Day Ceremony Due to Summit in Cambodia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to miss Fridays national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa.

He will instead fly to Cambodia late Thursday to attend the ASEAN summit, which involves countries from across Southeast Asia.

The summit, which is scheduled to start on Saturday, is the first of four international meetings that Trudeau will attend over a 10-day period.

Senior government officials confirmed his expected absence during a briefing about the coming trip, which was provided to media on the condition they not be named.

The prime minister met with serving military personnel and veterans in New Brunswick earlier this week, where he also paid his respects to those who died in service to Canada.

Trudeau was also absent from the national Remembrance Day ceremony in 2018 because he was attending an international gathering of world leaders in France marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
Republican Sean Cleary prevailed Tuesday night to flip Bismarcks only Democratic-held seat in the Legislature.

With all precincts reporting, Cleary had 60% of the vote to incumbent Democratic Sen. Tracy Potters 40% for the District 35 Senate seat.

Cleary said he is really grateful for all my supporters and everyone who voted this fall and look forward to working on behalf of the district in the state Capitol this coming session.

He said he expects issues of workforce and use of the states Legacy Fund oil tax savings to be priorities of the 2023 Legislature, and (I) look forward to diving in once I get in to the Senate.

Potter said he was disappointed and felt like he let some people down. He called Tuesday a tough night all over North Dakota for Democrats, who appeared to lose seats from an already tiny minority in the Legislature.

District 35 Democrats in March appointed Potter to the seat following Sen. Erin Obans resignation to take on a state director role for U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. Potter is an author and historian and is retired from a career in heritage tourism. He previously held the Senate seat from 2006-10.

Cleary in June defeated district-endorsed Republican Ryan Eckroth, whose past financial troubles resurfaced in the primary race. Cleary is a former staffer for Gov. Doug Burgum and U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and now works in project management and grant writing for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.

Cleary during the campaign said his priorities would be "a growing economy, good schools, safe communities and low taxes." Potter touted his experience and said his priorities were concerns for state government employees and retirees, and property tax relief.

The race was the most expensive among legislative candidates this year, with Cleary and Potter raising more than $120,000 combined.

District 35 encompasses an area of Bismarck south of Interstate 94, east of the Missouri River and as far south as East Broadway Avenue. The state Capitol is in the district.

District 35 House

Longtime incumbent Republicans held onto their seats Tuesday in Bismarcks District 35 House race.

With all precincts reporting, Reps. Bob Martinson and Karen Karls had 31% and 30% of the vote, respectively, to Democratic-NPL challengers Don Morrisons and Kris Mounts 19% and 19%, respectively.

Martinson is one of the longest-serving lawmakers, from 1972-97 and since 2000. Karls was first elected in 2006.

District 31

Voters of District 31 reelected Rep. Karen Rohr, R-Mandan, and elected 18-year-old dairy farmer Dawson Holle, a Republican from St. Anthony. He will be the youngest state lawmaker. The two defeated former Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Mike Faith, a Democrat.

With all precincts reporting, Rohr had 42%, Holle had 41% and Faith had 17%.

District 31 is a vast swath of southwestern North Dakota that includes southern Morton County and shares geography with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
Police officers detain a Just Stop Oil protester outside New Scotland Yard in London on Oct. 14, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Media)

UK Police Vow to Bring to Justice Climate Protesters Causing Motorway Disruption

Londons Metropolitan Police is determined to bring to justice climate protesters who cause disruption on the UKs busiest motorway, a senior police officer has said.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said on Nov. 8 that the force had responded swiftly and robustly to attempts by the Just Stop Oil group to disrupt the M25, a busy motorway that encircles Greater London.

We are all absolutely committed to providing a quick and effective response to those activists who continue to significantly disrupt peoples daily lives, he said.

Police officers detain a Just Stop Oil protester who had climbed a gantry on the M25 in Surrey, England, on Nov. 7, 2022. (PA Media/Surrey Police)

He added that operations launched in response to the activists come at a cost.

Since the start of October we have used more than 11,000 officer shifts to police Just Stop Oil protests. These are officers who would otherwise be dealing with issues that matter to local communities such as knife crime, safeguarding, and responding to burglaries, he said.

Twist said the force is determined to bring to justice all those who conspire to cause significant and unreasonable disruption to London and the motorway network, and will work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts to make sure this happens.

Officer Injured

On Nov. 9, a police officer was injured during the third consecutive day of Just Stop Oil protests on the M25.

Essex Police said there was a collision involving the police motorcyclist and two lorries during a rolling roadblock introduced while an activist was on the motorway.

The climate group said around 10 of its supporters climbed on to overhead gantries in multiple locations on the M25 from 6.30 a.m.

B.J. Harrington, chief constable of Essex Police, warned it is only a matter of time before someone is killed during a Just Stop Oil protest.

He told the Daily Telegraph: The only way this is going to stop is if Just Stop Oil frankly grow up and realise they are putting peoples lives at risk.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said her thoughts and best wishes go to the injured officer, accusing Just Stop Oil of guerrilla tactics and later referring to protesters as extremists.

An Awful Situation

In a statement, Just Stop Oil described the injury to the police officer as an awful situation and acknowledged the disruption should not be happening.

It added: The failure of our politics has left us with no other option as we seek to protect our rights and freedoms from a collapse in law and order due to a heating world. The government can end this immediately by ending dirty new oil and gas.

Just Stop Oil, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, has been staging disruptive protests in an attempt to highlight its call for the UK government to begin the process of winding down fossil fuel production in the country.

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 additional shifts.

According to Just Stop Oil, its supporters have been arrested more than 2,000 times since its campaign began on April 1, and 15 are currently in prison.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London, on Nov. 9, 2022. (House of Commons via PA Media)

UKs Sunak Under Pressure as Minister Quits Following Bullying Allegation

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced pressure in Parliament on Wednesday after Cabinet minister Sir Gavin Williamson was forced to quit over allegations of abusive behaviour towards colleagues.

Sunak defended giving Williamson a seat at the Cabinet table, saying he was not aware of any of the specific concerns about Williamsons past conduct.

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Sunak of hiding behind bullies because hes too weak to take them on, saying Sunak gave Williamson a job precisely because hes a bully.

Williamson, who was appointed the Minister without Portfolio two weeks ago, resigned on Tuesday saying the allegations had become a distraction from the governments good work.

He also said he refutes the characterisation of these claims and that he will comply with the parliamentary investigation process and clear his name.

In a separate Twitter post, Williamson said he will not take severance payment.

Britains Education Secretary Gavin Williamson speaks during a virtual press conference inside 10 Downing Street in central London on Feb. 24, 2021. (John Sibley/ Pool/via Getty Images)

Allegations against the former minister first emerged on Saturday when The Sunday Times reported that he had sent expletive-laden messages to former Conservative Party Chief Whip Wendy Morton.

Williamson, who spearheaded Rishi Sunaks failed bid to become the prime minister during the summer, accused Morton of punishing rivals by excluding them from Queen Elizabeth IIs funeral, according to The Times.

The report also said former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry said he had told Sunak that Morton was submitting a complaint against Williamson on Oct. 24, the day before Sunak became the prime minister and gave Williamson a seat at the Cabinet table.

The Independent reported on Tuesday that Morton also submitted a complaint to Parliaments Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.

The Guardian on Monday said Williamson was abusive to civil servants when he was the Defence Secretary, telling them to slit your throat and jump out of the window on separate occasions, citing an unnamed former senior official from the Ministry of Defence.

Williamson told the publication that he strongly rejects the allegation and had enjoyed good working relationships with officials during his previous cabinet jobs, adding, No specific allegations have ever been brought to my attention.

Anne Milton, who was the deputy chief whip when Williamson was the chief whip, on Tuesday told Channel 4 News that he would use salacious gossip as leverage against MPs if the need arose.

Williamson announced his resignation on Twitter on Tuesday night, posting his resignation letter that said he refutes the characterisation of these claims but recognises they are becoming a distraction from the governments good work.

I have therefore decided to step back from government so that I can comply fully with the complaints process that is underway and clear my name of any wrongdoing, he wrote.

Williamson also said hes complying with the bullying watchdogs complaint process.

Facing Starmer at Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Sunak told MPs that Williamsons alleged behaviour was unacceptable and that his resignation was absolutely right.

Sunak said he didnt know about any of the specific concerns relating to his conduct as Secretary of State or chief whip, which date back some years.

I believe that people in public life should treat others with consideration and respect. And those are the principles that this government will stand by, he said.

Asked if he regrets appointing Williamson, Sunak said he regrets appointing someone who has had to resign in these circumstances and that its absolutely right that there is an investigation to look into these matters properly.

I said my government will be characterized by integrity, professionalism, and accountability, and it will, the prime minister added, referring to his first speech on the job.

Sunak resigned as the chancellor of Boris Johnsons government in July after the former prime minister admitted it was a mistake to keep Chris Pincher in government despite sexual misconduct allegations against him, having previously denied knowledge of specific allegations.
A worker arranges apples for sale at a market in Melbourne, Australia, on July 27, 2022. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett)

US Apple Growers Gain Access to Australia, Local Farmers Sound Biosecurity Alarm

After over 20 years of lobbying, the United States has been granted permission to export apples to Australia, but local farmers have raised concerns over the biosecurity risks.

The decision was made after the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry published its final report for the risk analysis of commercially importing apples from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho on Oct. 31.

It found 20 pests were associated with apples grown in these areas and therefore required relevant risk management measures.

These pests include apple maggots, flat scarlet mites, codling moths, and speck rot, as well as three pests that Australia is currently free ofapple leaf curling midge, fire blight, and European canker.

Apple and Pear Australia (APAL), the national peak industry body for apple and pear growers, said the final report addressed some of the industry concerns that emerged in response to the draft report.

Despite this improvement, APAL still does not support the importation of U.S. apples due to substantial biosecurity risks.

Given the recent biosecurity incursions, including Varroa mite and Brown marmorated stink bug, plus the increased threat of foot-and-mouth disease and Lumpy Skin Disease, any further work to allow the importation of U.S. apples should be halted, APAL CEO Phil Turnbull told The Epoch Times in a statement.

Until the government can guarantee that the right measures are in place to protect Australias biosecurity, the government should stop the process to allow the import of U.S. apples to Australia.

Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples sit on a stall at a fruit store in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 11, 2013. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)

Wont Make Much Difference: Minister

Tim Ayres, the assistant minister for trade, said it would be illogical as a trading nation to fight for agricultural exports in other countries while not following the rules on Australias own apple imports.

I can just tell you that there is a very small amount of apple imports that make their way into Australia, he told ABC radio. The industrys worth about half a billion dollars (US$325 million). Theres about $5 million worth of apples that come in from around the world.

He added that the country would apply its extremely strict biosecurity rules on apple imports from the three American states.

The Australian apple industry is very strong. One of its key strengths is its disease-free status, Ayres said. It is protected by strong biosecurity rules and the preferences of Australian consumers.

Theres a tiny percentage of overseas apples in the market. This wont make much of a difference.

Nicole Giblett, a major apple producer from Western Australia, said she hoped Australians would continue to support their local farmers.

Were already in an industry thats in a state of massive oversupply domestically, with huge volumes yet to come, she told the ABC. Theres an apple to suit every taste, every paletteI dont think we need any more.

Ayres believes more attention should be given to the opportunities around exporting Australian apples. The industry currently exports around one to two percent of total market production.

Weve got to get better as a country at value adding to our fruit and vegetables, and weve got to get better at marketing our fruit and vegetables to the world, he said.
Wheel loaders fill trucks with ore at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., on Jan. 30, 2020. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

US Builds New Critical Minerals Supply Chain to Counter Chinese Rare Earth Monopoly

Chinese rare earth dominance increasingly becoming less of a concern as nations decouple, expert says

News Analysis

Washingtons recent move to limit semiconductor exports to China has raised concerns that Beijing might retaliate by cutting off rare earth supplies, similar to what it did to Japan in 2010. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (pdf), China has the worlds largest rare earth reserves, accounting for 78 percent of the U.S.s rare earth imports from 2017 to 2020.

However, in response to such concerns, experts suggest that Beijings rare earth card likely wont pose any real threat as nations, especially the United States, have started mining on their own for rare earth elements.

Rare earth metals are essential to the defense and clean energy industries. They are found in defense products such as lasers, radar, night vision systems, missile guidance, jet engines, and alloys for armored vehicles, as well as critical raw material for permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Since the 1980s, Chinas rare earth production has increased substantially. Under its low-price strategy, in 2009, the country produced about 97 percent of the worlds rare-earth-metal supply. However, that number has declined over the years as other players have entered the market.

In 2018, China produced about 70 percent of the worlds rare earth supply while controlling about 85 percent of the worlds rare earth processing capacity, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Frank Tian Xie, a John M. Olin Palmetto Chair Professor in Business and Professor of Marketing at the University of South Carolina Aiken, told The Epoch Times that China traded massive environmental costs for the market.

He said although the critical minerals are called rare earth metals, the resources are not scarce. Its the great environmental cost of mining the metals that makes it rare, as the mining process can cause tremendous pollution.

However, Chinas approach is to completely ignore pollution and exploit the environment indiscriminately regardless of the cost, thus gaining a significant market advantage, Xie added.

A loader shifts soil containing rare earth minerals to be loaded at a port in Lianyungang, in Chinas Jiangsu Province, for export to Japan. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Weaponized Rare Earth Dominance

According to a 2018 report by the U.S. Department of Defense (pdf), China has strategically flooded global markets with rare earths at subsidized prices, driven out competitors, and deterred new market entrants.

The report added, when [Beijing] needs to flex its soft power muscles by embargoing rare earths, it does not hesitate, as Japan learned in a 2010 maritime dispute.

In many instances, Beijing has weaponized its dominance in the minerals market by threatening to cut off supplies to other nations. A notable example was the Japan-China maritime dispute in 2010.

In 2010, Beijing blocked all 17 rare earth product exports to Japan over a long-standing dispute about the control of unpopulated islands in the East China Sea after ships from Japans naval self-defense force and Chinese fishing vessels clashed. At the time, Beijing also restricted some rare earth exports to other countries, causing global rare earth prices to skyrocket.

In addition, China had long adopted a two-tiered pricing structure for its rare earth sales, making foreign companies pay twice the rate compared to domestic firms. Foreign companies must move their factories and jobs to China if they want better pricing and a more secure supply.

The move not only promoted the Chinese economy but also made it easier for China to steal foreign intellectual property, according to Wired Magazine.

Since the 2010 maritime dispute, Japan has not relinquished its claims to the islands but actively warns other nations of Chinas unreliable trading practices, including recent warnings from Japans ambassador to Australia, Yamagami Shingo, as Beijing employed similar tactics by imposing quotas and large tariffs on Australian goods coming into China. Beijings move came after Australias call for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

Decoupling From Chinese Rare Earth Supply Chains

Beijings frequent disreputable trade practices have shown Western nations the danger of relying on China. And diversifying the sources of rare earth supply has become necessary for countries seeking to decouple from Chinese supply chains.

Xie said Chinese-produced rare earth metals are generally not used for high-end applications as they require more refinement and further processing. They are mostly exported as raw materials to other nations.

He added that many countries, including the United States, have already started mining rare earth metals of their own, and if Beijing were to restrict its supplies, the impact would be minimal and short-term.

Restricting rare earth supplies will be an empty threat, Xie said, suggesting that the United States likely wont see any meaningful retaliation and that any U.S.-issued semiconductor sanctions against China will remain firmly in place.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) database, significant rare earth resources have been discovered in Greenland, Brazil, Canada, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Norway, and several African countries since 2009. From 2010 to 2020, 261 companies in 37 countries outside of China initiated a total of 429 rare earth projects, adding between 80,000 and 100,000 tonnes of rare earth production capacity.

Meanwhile, from 2013 to 2020, Chinas rare earth reserves fell by 20 percent from 55 million tonnes to 44 million tonnes due to decades of destructive mining. The countrys rare earth production has also dropped from nearly 100 percent of the global share in 2010 to 60 percent in 2021.

Samples of rare earth minerals from left: Cerium oxide, Bastnaesite, Neodymium oxide, and Lanthanum carbonate at Molycorps Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in Mountain Pass, Calif., on June 29, 2015. (David Becker/Reuters)

Reducing Dependence

In a bid to challenge Chinas chokehold over critical minerals, the United States has established a rare earth mining and processing industry chain that includes Californias Mountain Pass Mine, Australias Mount Weld mining and concentration plant, and Malaysias Kuantan refining facility.

In June, the Pentagon agreed to fund the entire $120 million cost of a heavy rare earth metal separation facility to be built in Texas by Australias Lynas Rare Earths, advancing a program launched in 2020, the company announced on June 14.

Located on the Gulf Coast, the new facility will give the United States access to domestically produced heavy rare earth metals.

The Texas facility that landed Pentagon funding will process heavy rare earth carbonate mined in Australia, forming a production cycle that bypasses China entirely. Lynas Rare Earths plans to combine the upcoming plant with a proposed light rare earth material separation facility that is being co-funded by the company and the Defense Department.

Lynas produces nearly 20,000 metric tons of rare earth oxides yearly from its Mount Weld mine in Australia and processing plant in Kuantan, on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The Australian mining companys rare earth production alone is more than enough to meet all of Americas demand, let alone the 500 tons or so needed for defense-critical applications, according to a 2021 Bloomberg editorial.

The project was first announced in July 2020 as part of the U.S. governments strategyunder a 2017 executive order signed by former President Donald Trumpto reduce dependence on foreign imports of critical minerals. The Pentagon is also funding a heavy rare earth material processing and separation facility in Mountain Pass, Southern California.

Mountain Pass is home to the worlds eighth-largest reserves of rare earth materials.

In February, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $35 million contract to MP Materials, the owner of Mountain Pass mine, to design and build a facility to process heavy rare earth elements (HREE) at the companys Mountain Pass production site.

Matt Green, mining/crushing supervisor at MP Materials, displays crushed ore before it is sent to the mill at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., on Jan. 30, 2020. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

This project will establish the first processing and separation facility of its kind for HREEs in support of both defense and commercial applications in the United States, according to the DoD statement.

US Lawmakers Respond

The United States, in recent years, has passed laws addressing national security concerns involving rare earth materials.

For example, U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) introduced a bill this past January to ban the use of Chinese rare earth metals in sensitive military systems by 2026 and create a one-year strategic reserve of rare earth elements and products by 2025.

Legislation put forward by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) in April would create a Department of Energy investment program to spur the development of rare earth production facilities in the United States, with the aim of reducing Americas dependence on China.

Ellen Wan contributed to this report.

Anne Zhang Follow Anne Zhang is a writer for The Epoch Times with a focus on China-related topics. She began writing for the Chinese-language edition in 2014.
Conference participants walk through an illuminated tunnel at the UNFCCC COP27 climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

US, Canada, Australia and UK Accused of Falling Short on UN Climate Funding

The U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK have been accused of failing to meet their United Nations pledge for climate change funding.

According to a report by Carbon Brief, a UK-based think tank, the United States fell short of providing its fair share of the funding by $49 billion (US $32 billion), while other countries like Australia did not pay $2.6 billion (US $1.7 billion) of the UNs $155 billion (US $100 billion) finance target.

The Carbon Brief , released on the opening day of the COP27 conference, the UNs annual climate summit in Egypt, compares national shares of historical emissions with proportionate contributions to the US $100 billion climate finance target.

In 2009, Annex II countries, including western European nations, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, agreed to deliver US$100 billion in climate funding by 2020.

Since inclusion in Annex II was based on membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at the time, large economies such as China, which is the worlds second biggest historical emitter of carbon, are not included.

Other laggards include the UK, Canada, and Australia, which all made smaller financial contributions to the internationally agreed target than their shares of historical emissions, reads the report.

Canada gave 37 percent of its fair share and was [US] $3.3 billion short, while Australia gave 38 percent of its fair share and fell short by [US] $1.7 billion. The UK gave 76 percent of its fair share, falling short by [US] $1.4 billion.

On the contrary, Germany, France, and Japan each gave billions of dollars more than their fair shares, although much of their finance is in the form of loans rather than grants.

Ecomodernist Says the Environmental Situation Improving

The report comes after California-based ecomodernist Michael Shellenberger commented that the environmental situation was actually improving in developed countries.

Shellenberger, founder and president of Environmental Progress, told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Sydney on Oct. 1 that emissions had slightly declined globally over the last decade with the transition from coal to natural gas, going down 22 percent in the United States between 2005 and 2020.

Michael Shellenberger at CPAC in Sydney on Oct. 1, 2022. (Epoch Times staff)

Not even the United Nations says that, Shellenberger said. Its true that the planet is getting warmer, but weve been doing a really good job of adapting to it.

The psychologically damaging effect of social media, the rise of drug overdose deaths in the United States, the crisis facing Europe because of lack of energy, these are all much more important problems to worry about than climate change problems.

Nina Nguyen contributed to the report.
Near the village of Shiyan Beicun in Zhejiang province, China, lies the Longyou cavesan extensive, magnificent, and rare underground realm, considered in China to be the ninth wonder of the ancient world. The Longyou grottoes, which are thought to date back at least 2,000 years, represent one of the largest underground excavations of ancient times and are an enduring mystery that has perplexed experts from every discipline that has examined them. Scientists from around the world in the fields of archaeology, architecture, engineering, and geology have absolutely no idea how they were built, by whom, or why.

First discovered in 1992 by a local villager, 36 grottoes have now been discovered, covering a massive 36,000 square yards (30,000 square meters). Carved into solid siltstone, each grotto descends around 40 yards (30 meters) underground and contains stone rooms, bridges, gutters, and pools. There are pillars evenly distributed throughout the caves which support the ceiling and walls. The surface of the ceiling and columns are uniformly decorated with chisel marks in a series of parallel lines. Only one of the caves has been opened for tourism, chosen because of the stone carvings found inside which depict a horse, fish, and bird. The Longyou caves truly are an enigma and here we will explore ten mysteries that are still unexplained despite more than two decades of research.

Carvings discovered within the Longyou Caves. (Zhangzhugang/CC BY-SA 4.0)

1. How Were They Constructed?

A rough estimation of the workload involved in building these five caves is awe-inspiring. The quantity of rock that would have been removed in the overall excavation of the grottoes is estimated to be around 1,308,000 cubic yards (1 million cubic meters). Taking into account the average digging rate per day per person, scientists have calculated that it would take 1,000 people working day and night six years to complete. These calculations are based purely on hard labor, but what they havent taken into account is the incredible care and precision of the sculptors, meaning that the actual workload would far surpass the theoretical estimation. As for how they were constructed and what tools were used, it is still unknown. No tools have been found in the area, and, as we will explore later, scientists still dont know how they achieved such symmetry, precision, and similarity between the different caves.

2. No Traces of Construction

Despite their size and the effort involved in creating them, so far no trace of their construction, or even their existence, has been located in the historic record. Although the overall excavation involved almost a million cubic meters of stone, there is no archaeological evidence revealing where that quantity of stone went, and no evidence of the work. Moreover, there is not a single historic document that refers to them, which is highly unusual considering the sheer scale of the project. Their origin is a complete and utter mystery.

Experts wonder why the walls at the Longyou Caves in China are covered in chiseled parallel lines. (Zhangzhugang/CC BY-SA 4.0)

3. Why Were the Walls Chiseled?

Every single one of the caves is covered, from floor to ceiling, in parallel lines that have been chiseled into virtually every surface. The effect is a uniform pattern throughout the caves, which would have required immense manpower and endless hours to create. The question is why? Was such labor-intensive work purely for decoration? Are the lines or patterns symbolic in some way? All that is currently known is that the markings are similar to those found on pottery housed in a nearby museum, which is dated between 500 and 800 BC.

4. Lack of Fish

When the caves were first discovered, they were filled with water, which presumably had been there for a long period of time. They had to be pumped out in order to realize that these were not just like the other bottomless ponds found within the area, but man-made structures. Most villages in southern China contain very deep ponds, which have been called bottomless ponds by generations of villagers. These ponds teem with fish, which are easily caught. However, after the first cave was pumped dry, not a single fish was to be seen, or any other sign of life.

5. How Did the Caves Remain So Well Preserved?

One of the most interesting and challenging questions is how the caves have been able to keep their structural integrity for more than 2000 years. There are no signs of collapse, no piles of rubble, and no damage despite the fact that in some areas the walls are only 20 inches (50 centimeters) thick. Over the centuries, the area has gone through numerous floods, calamities, and wars, the mountains have changed their appearance and exposed stones have been weathered, but inside the caves, the form, patterns, and markings are still clear and preciseit is as though they were built yesterday.

6. How Did the Builders Work in the Dark?

Due to the great depths of the caves, some areas at the bottom, which are not exposed to the opening above, are pitch-black. Yet even those dark areas are decorated with thousands of parallel lines on the walls, columns, and ceiling. So how did the ancient people work in the dark? According to Jia Gang, a Tongji University professor specializing in civil engineering: There should be lamps, because the caves mouth is very small, and the sunbeam could only shine in the cave at a certain angle during a certain period of time. As one goes deeper into the cave, the light becomes dimmer. At the caves bottom, which is usually dozens of meters from the mouth, one could hardly see anything. However, this was at least two millennia ago and nothing that could have been used for lighting has been found.

7. Were the Caves Meant to be Connected?

All of the 36 grottoes are distributed across an area of only just over half a square mile (1 square kilometer). Considering such a high density, one cannot help asking whether some grottoes were meant to be connected. What would be the purpose of making so many separate caves in such a tight area without connecting them? In many areas, the walls between the caves are very thin, only 20 inches, but they were never linked so it appears they were intentionally kept apart. Whats more, many of the caves are almost identical to each other.

8. Who Built Them?

Nobody has any idea who built the caves. Some scientists have claimed that it was not possible or logical for such as mammoth job to have been undertaken by regular village people. Only the emperor and the leaders could have organized such a huge project, like the construction of the Great Wall, which was built to defend against invasion from the outside. But if it was commissioned by an Emperor, why are there no historical records of its construction?

Chiseled pillars within the sprawling 30,000 square meter cave complex. (Zhangzhugang/CC BY-SA 4.0)

9. How Did They Achieve Such Precision?

The scale of the Longyou Grottoes is magnificent and momentous, the design was delicate and scientific, the construction was sophisticated, and the precision is indicative of superior craftsmanship. The model, pattern, and style of each cave is extremely similar. Every grotto is like a grand hall. One side is steep and another side is 45% inclined. The four walls are straight; the edges and corners are clearly demarcated. The chiseling marks are uniform and precise.

According to Yang Hongxun, an expert at the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, At the bottom of each cave, the ancient [builders] wouldnt be able to see what the others were doing in the next grotto. But the inside of each cave had to be parallel with that of the other, or else the wall would be holed through. Thus the measure apparatus should have been very advanced. There must have been some layout about the sizes, locations, and the distances between the caves beforehand.

With the help of modern equipment and methods, the investigators measured the sizes of the walls and surprisingly found that the overall construction is extremely accurate. The walls between the caves are of the same thickness in different sections. So how did they achieve this precision? What were their methods?

Stairs lead down into one of the once-submerged Longyou Caves. (Zhangzhugang/CC BY-SA 4.0)

10. What Were They Used For?

Following extensive investigations and study, scientists and scholars have attempted to put forward explanations for the grottoes, but none so far provide a convincing explanation for why they were built and what they were used for.

Some archaeologists have suggested that the grottoes were the tombs of old emperors, emperor halls, or places for storage. But this interpretation is far-fetched. No funeral objects or tombs have been found and no artifacts left behind. If it were used like an emperors palace, the grottoes would have been designed differently with separate rooms for different purposes like entertaining, meeting, and sleeping, but no evidence can be found of this and no traces of habitation have been found.

Another hypothesis is that it was used for mining and extracting some type of mineral resource. However, mining operations would have required equipment and apparatus to extract the rocks and transport them. Again, no traces of this have been found, nor any evidence of where the rocks were taken. And of course, if the caves were just for mining, why create such intricate decorations on the walls, columns, and ceilings?

Finally, some have suggested that the grottoes were the places for troops to be stationed and that an emperor of the past wanted to keep his soldiers out of view in order to keep his war preparations secret. However, these caves could not have been built in a short period of time. They would have taken many, many years to build so it is unlikely to have been done in preparation for war, which tends to come about much more quickly. Furthermore, there are no signs of people having stayed in the caves.

Despite decades of research, very few answers have emerged to explain the enigma of the Longyou caves. Our ancient ancestors have achieved many wondrous things, but this truly is an unexplained mystery.

Republished with permission from Ancient-Origins.net. Read the original.
Virginia Schools Struggling to Retain Qualified Workforce, More Teachers Leaving Than Joining

Public schools in the state of Virginia are struggling to retain teachers according to a new report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

An analysis of statewide teacher workforce data showed that more teachers were leaving their jobs while fewer teachers are becoming licensed for the first time, the Nov. 7 report states (pdf). In 202122, the number of teachers leaving the profession was 12 percent higher than the pre-pandemic yearly average, while the number of newly licensed teachers was lower by 15 percent.

There were 800 vacant teaching posts across the state before the COVID-19 pandemic, a figure that increased substantially to 2,800 posts in October 2021, the report said, representing 3 percent of all teaching positions. As of August 2022, there were 3,300 vacant teaching posts in 111 school divisions.

Division leadership in nearly all divisions surveyed (94 percent) indicated it has become more difficult to recruit classroom teachers than it was before the pandemic. Nearly as many divisions (90 percent) also indicated it has become more difficult to retain classroom teachers, the report said.

Divisions were also concerned about the falling quality of applications during the pandemic, with 98 percent citing an inadequate applicant pool for open positions as one of their toughest challenges to meeting staffing needs.

Rather than fully licensed teachers, school divisions were relying more on provisionally licensed teachers. The number of provisionally licensed teachers rose by 24 percent during 202122 when compared to the pre-pandemic average.

Among school divisions, 52 percent reported not being optimistic about employing a suitable classroom teacher workforce for the 2022-23 school year. To complicate matters, 15 percent of teachers in the state admitted that they are likely to leave or definitely leaving their jobs by the end of this period.

Falling Student Performance

The report comes following a National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report published in October which showed that nationwide math and reading scores among students had hit historic lows.

Virginia recorded the sharpest fall in the country when it came to fourth-grade reading scores, which declined by 13.6 points since 2017. This is three times the nationwide average.

During a press event on Oct. 24, Virginias Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin admitted that the states students were the hardest hit in terms of learning loss.

We also must clearly recognize that the underpinnings to this catastrophic performance were decisions that were made long before we had ever heard of COVID-19, he said.

Youngkin blamed the fall in student performance on lowered standards. In 2019, standards for math were lowered in the Commonwealths Standard of Learning Tests. A year later in 2020, reading standards were lowered.

In May, a 33-page report from Virginias Board of Education found that only 33 percent of eighth grade students and 38 percent of fourth graders were proficient in reading. The report blamed the closure of classrooms as a major factor for learning loss.
Voters in Three States Approve Radical Abortion Initiatives; Kentucky Voters Reject Pro-Life Amendment

Voters in four states voiced support for abortion by approving radical initiatives or rejecting a proposed pro-life amendment.

Voters in California, Vermont, and Michigan approved initiatives that make clear abortions must be available to many pregnant women while Kentuckians rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have led to less funding for abortions.

In California, Proposition 1 was approved by a strong margin. About 65 percent of the votes were yes with approximately 95 percent of precincts reporting as of early Nov. 9, according to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

The proposition alters the state constitution to expressly include existing rights to reproductive freedomsuch as the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion and use contraceptives, voters were told.

Yes on Prop. 1, Protect Abortion Rights, which campaigned for the proposition, said that it would codify existing law into the state constitution and that it would safeguard abortion access from future attacks, like those being made right now in other states across the country.

Opponents of the initiative said it was extreme and enabled abortions up until birth even if there was no medical danger for the mother or baby, funded by taxpayers.

In Vermont, voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 5, which will add to the state Constitution That an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine ones own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.

Nearly three-quarters of voters approved the proposition, according to Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos.

Vermonters support reproductive freedom in all four corners of the state, and they believe that our reproductive decisions are ours to make without interference from politicians, the Vermont for Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee, which backed the measure, said in a statement.

Vermonters for Good Government, which opposed the proposition, described it as intentionally vague, which would lead to unintended consequences.

Michigan voters approved Proposal 3, which states in part that every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom and that the right shall not be denied, burdened, nor infringed upon unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means.

About 52 percent of voters approved the constitutional amendment, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

The vote means the state cannot restrict abortions if they are deemed necessary for a womans life or physical or mental health.

A proposed constitutional amendment in Kentucky was rejected by voters.

Constitutional Amendment 2 would have added to the state Constitution the words, To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion?

If voters adopted the amendment, they would make clear there is no constitutional right to abortion or taxpayer funding for abortions, and that the General Assembly may decide, based on public input, when abortion is legal, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in an advisory.

Approximately 52.5 percent of voters voted no, with 89 percent of votes counted as of Wednesday morning. The Associated Press called the vote overnight.

This is a historic win for the people of Kentucky, Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Protect Kentucky Access, said in a statement.

Not only does it represent a win against government overreach and government interference in the people of Kentuckys personal medical decisions, it represents the first time so many different organizations have come together with such an intense single-minded purpose to defeat a threat of this magnitude, she added.

Yes for Life, a group advocating for the measure, said it was devastated that radical, out-of-state activists spent millions of dollars to confuse Kentuckians about the Yes for Life Amendment but that the count will not stall the prolife movement.

Montana voters also voted on a measure that would provide that infants born alive, including after an abortion, are legal persons and that healthcare workers were required to take necessary actions to preserve the life of a born-alive infant.

As of Wednesday morning, the majority of the votes counted52 percent of the 80 percent countedwere against the measure.
L: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in Columbus, Ga., on Oct. 8, 2022. (Megan Varner/Getty Images); R: Georgia Republican Senatorial candidate Herschel Walker in Carrollton, Ga., on Oct. 11, 2022. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Warnock, Walker Projected to Advance to Georgia Senate Runoff Election Next Month

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and GOP challenger Herschel Walker will head to a runoff next month for the Senate seat in Georgia, according to forecaster Decision Desk on Wednesday.

State election officials already predicted the race would advance to a Dec. 6 runoff earlier on Wednesday. While Warnock was ahead of Walker by a slim margin, he failed to breach the 50 percent threshold that prevents a runoff election from occurring.

As of Wednesday, with some 96 percent of the expected vote reported, Warnock and Walker are tied at around 49 percent each. Warnock is leading by about 17,000 votes.

Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, got 2.1 percent of the vote. His presence helped deny Warnock and Walker the majority either needed to win outright.

In the runoff, Oliver will not be on the ballot. Only Warnock and Walker will be.

Right now we have less than 20,000 total votes still out to be counted. Thats not enough to change the race. So this is headed for a runoff, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday morning told The Brian Kilmeade Show.

The Georgia race, which is one of the most competitive in the country, will help determine who will take control of the Senate. The remaining races in Nevada and Arizona could also factor into what party takes the majority.

Im telling you right nowI didnt come to lose, Walker said during remarks on Tuesday night.

Control of the Senate is currently unclear after Democrats picked up a seat in Pennsylvania. Another competitive race broke in Republicans favor, as Edison Research and other forecasters projected that incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) would win reelection in Wisconsin.

Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance won Ohios Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. He defeated Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) by 7 percentage points as of Wednesday.

Republican Ted Budd also prevailed over Democrat Cheri Beasley for North Carolinas Senate seat.

For this race, Republicans were defending 21 Senate seats as compared with Democrats 14 seats.

By early Wednesday, Republicans had flipped a net six Democratic House seats, Edison Research projected, one more than the minimum they need to take over the chamber. That number could go up or down as more final results roll in.

In another unusual development, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY.), the chairman of the committee charged with reelecting House Democrats, conceded he had lost his own race to Republican Mike Lawler in a New York congressional district that lies north of New York City.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks to supporters during an election night event at The Orpheum Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Defeats Republican Challenger Tim Michels for Second Term

Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers has secured a second term in office, defeating former President Donald Trump-endorsed businessman Tim Michels.

Early Wednesday morning, Michels told supporters at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee that he had conceded to the current governor.

Unfortunately, the math doesnt add up, Michels said. I just called Governor Evers and conceded. I wish the Evers family well.

In hindsight, looking back, I dont know what we wouldve done differently. It was a very spirited effort, he added. But it wasnt our night tonight, and I thank everybody for all of your support.

I hope that some of the problems that were identified will be taken very seriously by the Evers administration, Michels continued. We need to back law enforcement.

Before the election, Michels had said that he would end soft-on-crime policies and had accused Evers of coddling criminals and abandoning law enforcement. Meanwhile, Evers said he had a strong record of investing in public safety.

As of press time, Evers captured over 1.33 million votes, or 51.2 percent, compared to Michelss about 1.24 million votes, or 47.8 percent, according to Decision Desk HQ, which called the race in favor of Evers at 1:42 a.m. ET on Nov. 9.

Less than an hour after Michels delivered his concession speech, Evers gave his victory speech to supporters at Madisons Orpheum Theater, telling them that his opponent had conceded to him.

I want to thank him and his family for a hard-fought campaign, Evers said. So thank you, Tim Michels.

I stood here on this very same stage four years ago to the day, and I made a promise to the people in Wisconsin that I would never make promises I couldnt keep and that I always work for you, Evers said.

Over the past four years, Ive worked hard to keep those promises and tried to do the right thing, the governor added. Thats who I am, folks, and thats what Ive always been. Some people call it boring, but you know what, Wisconsin? As it turns out, boring wins.

In 2018, Evers narrowly defeated then-incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker by 1.1 percentage points.

Weve proved that there is so much we can do when we work together, when we do the right thing, and when were willing to fight for the future that we want for our kids and our state. And were just getting started, folks, Evers added. Were going to polka tonight and get back to work tomorrow.

Michels won the GOP nomination in August, defeating former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who was endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence.
North Dakota voters Tuesday set term limits for state lawmakers and the governor, a move supporters tout for bringing in new blood and opponents have decried as a blow to institutional knowledge and to voters.

With all precincts reporting, 63% of votes were in favor and 37% were against Measure 1. The Associated Press declared it passed.

Measure 1 will add a new article to the state constitution, effective Jan. 1, 2023, imposing term limits of eight cumulative years each in the House and Senate. The governor can not be elected more than twice. Term limits will not be retroactive -- meaning the service of current officeholders will not count against them.

The measure's language also will bar the Legislature from proposing amendments to alter or repeal the term limits; only citizens will be able to do so. The measure does not affect Congress.

Measure Chairman Jared Hendrix said North Dakotans will "reap the rewards of this important reform."

He highlighted the "significant" victory amid opposition "from essentially every corner of the political establishment, every special interest lobbyist and influential, long-serving politician and almost every statewide elected official."

"Voters are smart. Voters understand that the system needs reform, and that they need something that is more responsive to them, and they understand innately that term limits are a step in that direction," Hendrix said.

Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, who was involved in opposing the measure, said he's proud of the efforts against Measure 1, though the group had little time and little money to oppose the measure.

"Had we had another month, I really, truly believe we could have had a great chance to defeat this, but we just ran out of time," Nathe said.

Bismarck Event Center voter Marijo DeMott said she voted against the measure "because I want experience in (government), and sometimes they need years to gain that experience and understanding."

Another voter, Chelsea Gagner, said she voted for Measure 1, citing the "spirit of rotation."

"We have the same person for so long and it doesn't give anybody else the opportunity, and I think that with term limits, it would give other people the opportunity to step up and do the job as well," she said.

The measure campaign was embroiled in fraud allegations that reached the state Supreme Court. Justices mandated a public vote on the measure, despite Secretary of State Al Jaeger initially rejecting it, citing irregularities such as petition handwriting discrepancies, noncitizens circulating petitions, and pay-per-signature bonuses prohibited by state law.

Authorities are investigating the alleged irregularities. Jaeger and Attorney General Drew Wrigley maintain fraud occurred. Measure Chairman Jared Hendrix disputes that.

A Tribune analysis counted 66 of 141 lawmakers who have served more than eight years; 28 have served 20 years or more. Notably, about 30 lawmakers won't be back next year due to retirements, reelection losses and redistricting.
UCP Leader and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith celebrates her win in a byelection in Medicine Hat, Alta., on Nov. 8, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

With Decisive Byelection Win, Danielle Smith Now Has a Seat in Alberta Legislature

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was handed a decisive victory in the Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection on Nov. 8.

Smith won the seat with 54.5 percent of the vote, followed by NDP candidate Gwendoline Dirk who garnered 26.7 percent. Alberta Party Leader and byelection candidate Barry Morishita came in third with 16.5 percent.

In a speech following the announcement of the results, Smith said the people of Brooks-Medicine Hat made their choice, and promoted her party for the upcoming provincial election next year.

She said voters can choose the Alberta NDP that increasingly takes their orders from Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau at the federal level, or can choose a united, confident, and energized UCPa UCP that will keep Alberta strong and free.

We are going to deliver more and better jobs, accessible health care, and a lower cost-of-living for you and your family, she said.

Voicing support for her partys candidate and taking aim at Smiths UCP, Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said on Twitter Gwendoline [Dirk] never anticipated running for office but couldnt stand by and watch as the current Government failed to address the affordability crisis, to protect public healthcare and public education, and to create good-paying jobs so Albertans can make ends meet.

The Brooks-Medicine Hat riding was formerly held by UCP MLA Michaela Fry. She announced her resignation the day after Smith, who was the only leadership candidate without a seat in the Alberta Legislature, won the UCP leadership contest on Oct. 8, and encouraged the new premier to run for her rural seat.

Sovereignty Act

In her victory speech, Smith promised to take action to respond to the cost of living crisis facing Albertans. She also said her proposed Alberta Sovereignty Act legislation will be constitutional.

It will provide our province the tools to push back against a federal government that continues to encroach upon provincial rights, she said.

The Sovereignty Act works to restore the ultimate purpose of Confederation and it will renew Albertas place as an equal partner in Confederation, not a child of the federal government.

Smith has said she can take her seat in the Alberta Legislative Assembly once the results are verified, which will be Nov. 29 at the earliest. After that, she plans to quickly table her Sovereignty Act legislation.

During the UCP leadership contest, Smith pitched the Sovereignty Act as a means to oppose federal legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interests. She told her supporters the proposal would be her first piece of legislation as premier.

In her speech at the UCPs annual general meeting on Oct. 22, Smith confirmed that work has begun on the legislation, and that shes asked for it to be ready when she takes her seat in the legislature.

All of Smiths leadership opponents except Todd Loewen opposed the Sovereignty Act during the leadership race, saying it would create economic uncertainty, chase away investment, and create a constitutional crisis. All those leadership opponents are now in Smiths cabinet, except Leela Aheer, whos since announced she will not seek re-election in the spring 2023 general election.

Smith has said her cabinet, unlike her caucus, will not have a free vote on the Sovereignty Act legislation.

Livingstone-Macleod Riding

During the leadership race, Smith had said she would run in Livingstone-Macleod, an electoral district currently represented by UCP MLA Roger Reid, who won his seat with over 70 percent of voters support in 2019.

But Reid showed no indications of stepping aside for the new premieruntil he suddenly dropped out on Nov. 1, the morning after the Oct. 31 candidate entry deadline.

Former Peoples Party of Canada candidate Nadine Wellwood is now seeking the UCP nomination in Livingstone-Macleod. The UCP Party Candidate Selection Committee rejected Wellwood on Nov. 7, a decision she said she will appeal.

In fact, because of the tremendous support I have received from thousands of UCP members and residents alike over these last few weeks, I will be ramping up my efforts to meet with as many residents in the riding as possible in preparation for the 2023 General Election to represent Livingston-Macleod, Wellwood said in a statement.
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No fewer than five villagers in the Munya Local Government Area of Niger State have been killed after a group of gunmen unleashed attack on Chibane village.

Reports emerging from the area have it that the bandits numbering over 100 rode on motorcycles into the community through Zagzaga in Kaduna state at about 2.00pm and started to shoot sporadically.

The villagers were said to have scampered for safety though many sustaining gunshot injuries.

The gunmen reportedly sacked a Fulani settlement in the area and rustled several herds of cattle.

It was learnt that before soldiers drafted to the area could arrive the scene the bandits had escaped into Kaduna state with the rustled cattle and other agricultural produce.

An unofficial source told This Day that some of those injured were brought into the Minna General Hospital for treatment yesterday evening.

When contacted, the State Commissioner for Internal Security, Mr. Emmanuel Umar, confirmed the incident saying: Yes there was an attack there today (yesterday) we sent our security forces there we are still expecting a report from them. 
Foreign land ownership proposal withdrawn from cabinet

BANGKOK: Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said his draft proposal to allow foreigners to own a small block of residential land was withdrawn from the Cabinet agenda yesterday (Nov 8).

land

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 9 November 2022, 01:00PM

A man looks at a sales-promotion model of a low-rise condominium development at a housing fair in Bangkok. Photo: Bangkok Post / File

It was a sensitive issue and he was not sure it would return, reports the Bangkok Post.

We must take the matter back for review because it is sensitive. It must be reviewed to gauge the positive and negative effects on economy and society, Gen Anupong said before the Cabinet meeting.

He did not know if the issue would be again placed before the Cabinet after being reviewed.

Gen Anupong declined to say if its withdrawal was a result of opposition from society. He reiterated only that the matter was sensitive.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the Interior Ministry wanted to reconsider the issue and gather public opinion over the next 15 days.

After 15 days the draft rule can return to the Cabinet, or not, he said.

The Interior Ministrys proposal would have allowed four categories of foreigners to buy up to one rai of land for residential purposes on condition that they invest at least B40 million in the country, he said.

The four categories were wealthy foreigners, foreign retirees, highly skilled foreigners and foreign investors, Mr Wissanu said.

He did not think it would have sold off the country as opponents claimed.

In practice, foreigners were already able to acquire land through long-term leases and could purchase up to 49% of all the units in a condominium building or through purchases by nominee companies, Mr Wissanu said.

Through such technicalities, foreigners land acquisitions were already virtually unlimited, the deputy prime minister said.
Phuket celebrates Loy Krathong

PHUKET: A true sense of pre-COVID normality washed across Phuket last night as thousands of people joined Loy Krathong festivities across the island.

culturetourismenvironment

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 9 November 2022, 12:14PM

A passing storm prevented many people from seeing the lunar eclipse and brought heavy downpours, but did little to dampen spirits as people made their way to bodies of water to set afloat their krathong laden with wishes for the future.

In Phuket Town, Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew joined the festivities at Suan Luang (King Rama IX Park), joined by a host of important guests, including Phuket City Mayor Saroj Angkanapilas.

As with all officially organised celebrations, the festivities included performances of traditional dance, Nong Noppamas beauty pageants for children, live music and a plethora of stalls serving local dishes and delicacies.

Taking a welcome break from attending to emergencies and ongoing critical issues brought on by the flooding across the island last month, Governor Narong said, Our country of Thailand is a country full of traditions and beautiful arts and culture, highlighting the prosperity and uniqueness of the nation.

He welcomed the Loy Krathong festivities continuing to uphold traditional events.

I believe that if Thai people do not realise the importance of preserving traditions and arts and culture, day by day these good things will gradually fade, eventually fading from the memory of Thai people. When that day comes, Thai children will know of Loy Krathong tradition only in pictures, he said.

Governor Narong called on all people to honour, respect and enjoy the festivities.

We also call on people to use krathong made from natural materials so as not to harm the environment and does not cause pollution in rivers and canals as well, he said.

To the end, Phuket City Municipality earlier this week asked all people to abstain from exercising in the park while cleanup crews made sure the festivities did not leave behind any litter throughout the park.

In Patong, teams of officials along with local resident volunteers took to the sands to cleanup Patong Beach this morning.

Within hours, the main part of Patong Beach was cleared of all krathong and other debris that had washed ashore during the night.
Burleigh County voters on Tuesday elected a new auditor and three commissioners.

In the auditor race, Mark Splonskowski garnered 51% of the vote to beat Kirsten Dvorak, who had 49% with all precincts reporting.

The five-member county commission will have three new members.

Steve Schwab, Wayne Munson and Jerry Woodcox won seats with 22%, 22% and 21% of the vote, respectively, with all precincts reporting. Amelia Doll (20%) and Dustin Gawrylow (14%) were defeated.

The auditor is the county's chief financial officer and also handles the administration of elections. The position is a four-year term and has a salary between $87,500 and $97,100. Current Auditor Leo Vetter did not seek reelection. His successor will take office May 1, 2023.

Splonskowski serves as a Bismarck city commissioner and has worked for the county tax equalization department since 2014. Dvorak is executive director of The Arc of Bismarck and The Arc of North Dakota.

I hope that I can prove myself worthy of the voters trust and lean on my lord and savior Jesus Christ to lead me in the right direction and give me the fortitude to do what needs to be done, Splonskowski told the Tribune. We definitely ran a hard campaign. I have some really good people helping me, really got to shout out a thanks to the North Dakota Young Republicans and thank them for all their help, all their support. The voters have spoken and like I said, I hope I can prove myself worthy of their trust.

Dvorak during the campaign said she believed her opponent would have a conflict of interest if elected because of his position on the city board. Splonskowski said he would avoid conflicts of interest by abstaining from any commission votes where he wouldnt feel comfortable voting.

The election shows what it shows. We ran an ethical and honest campaign, Dvorak said. ... It was a close race. Part of me says, Im not sure if everyone voted and just assumed. And it just shows how much your vote counts.

There is no state law that addresses a person holding two elected offices, according to North Dakota Association of Counties attorney Aaron Birst. State Supreme Court cases and attorney general opinions have fleshed out the issue, and the principle is that someone cannot hold two positions in government if the offices are "incompatible," he said.

County Commission

Schwab is a small business owner and former Bismarck city commissioner. Munson is a Bismarck Parks and Recreation board commissioner. Woodcox is a previous county commissioner and small business owner.

Doll is a system specialist for Doosan/Bobcat. Gawrylow is managing director for the North Dakota Watchdog Network and former executive director of the North Dakota Taxpayers' Association.

County commissioners serve four-year terms and receive an annual salary of about $23,000. The three new commissioners will take office Dec. 5.
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GFH Financial Groups nine-month (9M) net profit attributable to shareholders rose 9.8% to $66.24 million compared with $60.34 million in 9M 2021 backed by increased deals in investment banking and Infracorps Harbour Row unit sales.

Total 9M income for 2022 was $293.88 million versus $270.61 million for the 2021 period, an increase of 8.6%. Consolidated net profit for the nine-month period increased by 4.7% to $71.48 million compared with $68.28 million in the first nine months of 2021.

Total expenses for the period were $222.40 million up 9.9% from $202.33 million for the first nine months of 2021.

Equity remains stable

Total equity attributable to shareholders remained stable at $0.96 billion at September 30, 2022 compared to $0.96 billion at year-end 2021. Total assets of the group increased by 11.4% to $9.00 billion on September 30, 2022 compared with $8.08 billion on December 31, 2021.

Earnings per share for the period was US cents 1.91 compared to US cents 1.76 for the first nine months of 2021.

Q3 performance

The group reported net profit attributable to shareholders of $24.06 million for the third quarter of the year compared with $23.30 million for the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 3.3%.

Contributing to growth was income generated from the placement of the groups global investments and funds, ongoing improvements in its commercial banking business, as well as contributions from treasury activities, its sustainable infrastructure platform and proprietary investment portfolio. Earnings per share for the third quarter was US cents 0.73 compared to US cents 0.68 for the comparative quarter of 2021.

Total income for the third quarter of 2022 was $111.12 million compared to $89.60 million for the third quarter of 2021, a rise of 24.0%. Consolidated net profit for the third quarter was $26.10 million compared with $24.13 million in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 8.2%, despite the negative impact on its treasury portfolio from adverse market conditions. Total expenses for the third quarter were $85.02 million compared to $65.47 million in the comparative period of 2021, an increase of 29.9%.

Solid performance

Ghazi Al Hajeri, Chairman of GFH, said: We posted steady growth in income and profitability for the first nine months of the year. Supporting ongoing progress during the quarter was solid performance by each of the groups core business lines. Further diversification also continues to play an important role in enabling GFH to deliver sound results despite global market volatility.

We have continued to expand the groups portfolio in well-performing markets and sectors in the US, UK and Europe. We also continue to benefit from the previous acquisitions of a number of specialist international asset managers that have not only enabled us to bring better opportunities to our discerning base of GCC investors but also generate demand from Western investors for opportunities we identify in the Gulf region.

Attractive investments

We will continue to build on this momentum to deliver attractive investments in real estate and private equity globally as well as in the GCC supported by a strong and growing presence in Saudi Arabia, where we now have a fully operational subsidiary and team on the ground.

Hisham Alrayes, CEO of GFH, added: During the quarter, we placed $290 million worth of funds with our investors across yielding real estate and private equity deals. We also realised solid gains from our commercial banking subsidiary, KHCB, which recorded a net profit of $10 million following a successful restructuring.

Good performance was also delivered by the groups Treasury business despite strong pressure from markets reflecting the increase in the profit ratio which generated income of $37 million. Currently, we are focused on investing in the Gulf markets, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, due to their steady growth and in light of greater government spending on projects as a result of increased income and foreign investments.

Currently, GFH manages over $16.35 billion in assets and funds including a global portfolio of investments in logistics, healthcare, education and technology in the Mena region, Europe and North America. -- TradeArabia News Service
Voter turnout in North Dakota on Tuesday appeared to be near historic lows -- nearly 43% for the midterm election.

That was the lowest turnout for a North Dakota general election in more than 40 years, though other midterms have been close to that percentage.

Turnout in the Bismarck-Mandan area was a bit better -- nearly 50% of eligible Burleigh County voters and nearly 48% of Morton County voters turned out.

Nearly 80% of eligible Billings County voters cast ballots, the highest turnout of any county, unofficially.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum highlighted several "possible examples" of reasons for the low statewide turnout, such as "what's on the ballot."

"Were the measures on the ballot (recreational marijuana and term limits) enough to drive turnout? Were the contests of Hoeven, Christiansen and Becker (for U.S. Senate) enough to drive turnout? Was Cara Mund entering into the (congressional) race against Armstrong enough to make people turn out? I guess not," Silrum said.

Perhaps some people didn't vote because of disillusionment with polarized politics, he said.

Nearly 44% of ballots statewide were cast before Election Day by absentee, mail-in or early in-person voting, according to the secretary of state's website.

County canvassing boards will meet Nov. 21. The State Canvassing Board meets Nov. 23. Canvassing boards certify the vote.

Silrum said election officials haven't heard of "anything significant" as far as mischief at polling locations related to 2020 election deniers.

There were "spotty instances" of people arriving to vote without any identification, he said.

Polling sites in Cass County, home to Fargo, did have long lines at the end of the day, with waits as long as 90 minutes, said Silrum, who pondered what the situation there would have been with higher turnout.

Computer issues caused a 20-minute delay in voting at eight of the 18 polling sites in Burleigh County when they opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, but County Election Manager Erika White said "voters were patient and willing to wait."

Statewide races

Republicans won all of North Dakota's statewide and congressional races by comfortable margins Tuesday, with all precincts reporting.

Rep. Michael Howe, R-Casselton, on Wednesday resigned his House seat after being elected secretary of state with 63% of the vote. District 22 Republicans will appoint a new representative. Howe defeated Democratic-NPL candidate Jeffrey Powell and independent Charles Tuttle. Incumbent Republican Al Jaeger did not seek reelection after a three-decade career.

Incumbent Republicans who won reelection Tuesday were Attorney General Drew Wrigley (71%), Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring (76%), and Public Service Commissioners Julie Fedorchak (71%) and Sheri Haugen-Hoffart (70%).

Congressional races turned out not to be close. U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., got 56% of the vote over Democrat Katrina Christiansen (25%) and independent Rick Becker (19%). Hoeven in a social media post said, "We look forward to serving the people of North Dakota for 6 more years."

Becker, a Bismarck plastic surgeon, has served as a Republican for a decade in the state House, where he founded the ultraconservative Bastiat Caucus. He didn't seek reelection to the Legislature.

Becker spoke to supporters Tuesday night, saying he chose to run after "understanding that many people in North Dakota did not have someone they could stand behind," and that he had hoped to clinch 20% of the vote.

"This was not a loss. Think about what has happened in the state. Think about where we are," Becker said. "There is another election in two years. Everyone who has been activated all across the state; they are not going away."

The NDGOP's State Committee last year approved new rules that ban candidates who have sought the endorsement of other parties or who have run as an independent in the last six years from competing for Republican endorsements. That means Becker can't seek the dominant party's endorsement.

The party welcomes "any of the Becker voters back into the Republican fold, but Rick Becker himself has made a decision himself to not be a Republican, and that's Rick Becker's choice," Chairman Perrie Schafer said. "He can run as an independent all he wants, but he will not be running as a Republican."

U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., defeated Bismarck native and 2018 Miss America Cara Mund, who entered the race late as an independent candidate. Armstrong got 62% of the vote.

Public Service Commission nominee Trygve Hammer, who ran against Haugen-Hoffart, had the best showing of Democrats, clinching just under 30% of the vote in unofficial results.

A Democrat hasn't won a statewide election in North Dakota since Heidi Heitkamp won a U.S. Senate seat in 2012.

Marijuana loses

North Dakota voters for the second time in four years rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed people 21 and older to grow and possess certain amounts of marijuana for recreational use.

Tuesdays vote was 45% in favor and 55% opposed, with all precincts reporting.

Burleigh County Sheriff Kelly Leben said he was very happy to see those results.

In politics, 10% is a good separation, Leben said. The people of North Dakota have spoken again on where they stand.

The sheriff said he understood but didnt always agree with the arguments that marijuana creates fewer problems than alcohol or other substances. Voters on Tuesday had a choice about whether to add to the issues caused by alcohol, Leben said, noting it was the second time a push for recreational marijuana had been defeated.

People are set on where they want to be, he said.

This year's vote was closer than the one in 2018, when the measure failed with 41% in favor and 59% against. Supporters of this year's proposal promoted it as a more responsible and conservative approach to legalizing marijuana.

The effort put forth in support of this year's measure pleased Fargo attorney Mark Friese, treasurer of New Approach North Dakota, the main backer of the proposal. He said another push for legalization seems likely, but when, I dont know, and by whom, I dont know.

Friese said he respects the decision of the voters but added he hopes those who opposed the measure wont stop by voting it down and will instead put energy toward revising the states marijuana policies. Friese has said criminalized marijuana possession can create lifelong problems.

The cost of prosecution will continue to haunt us until we take a smarter approach to this, Friese said.

North Dakota voters in 2016 passed a measure allowing medical marijuana use in the state.
Have an interesting bit of news youd like to see mentioned in the Along the Way column? Email it to Natasha Connolly at news@thesunchronicle.com.
Republican incumbent North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley has been elected to the post for the next four years.

Wrigley, who has held the office since February, had 71% of the vote in Tuesday's election with all precincts reporting. Democratic-NPL challenger Tim Lamb had 29%.

Gov. Doug Burgum appointed Wrigley to the post in February, after the death of longtime attorney general Wayne Stenehjem. Wrigley ran on a platform of getting tougher on violent crime and beefing up the State Crime Lab.

Wrigley, 57, was lieutenant governor from 2010-16 during Gov. Jack Dalrymples tenure. He served as U.S. attorney for North Dakota from 2001-09 and again from 2019-21. He also spent five years as a prosecutor in Philadelphia, and during his campaign said his experience in state and federal courtrooms would be critically important to the way hed oversee the attorney generals office.

Some of Wrigleys time in office has been consumed by matters surrounding a building cost overrun during his predecessor's tenure, and deleted email accounts. Montana investigators are probing the cost overrun.

The deletion of two email accounts -- Stenehjems just days after his death, and deputy Troy Seibels following his resignation shortly after Wrigley took office -- were ordered by then-executive assistant Liz Brocker, who ultimately resigned. The deletions were in accordance with law and procedure but created suspicion, Wrigley said ahead of the election.

Lamb, 67, of Grand Forks, holds a masters degree in business from Central Michigan University and a law degree from the University of North Dakota. He pushed an agenda of increased public input and public trust of the office. He touted his management and motivation skills gained during a 20-year stint in the military, saying they are more important than experience as a prosecutor.


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Job Title: ICASS Quality Control/Make-Ready Coordinator (Fresher Admin Jobs)

Organisation: United States US Embassy, US Mission in Uganda

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Salary: USD $38,894

Announcement Number: Kampala-2022-053

About US Embassy:

The United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Peace Corps

Job Summary: The ICASS Quality Control/Make-Ready Coordinator reports directly to the General Services Officer in charge of Housing. The position supports the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) operations, ensuring that ICASS sections meet standards in the delivery of ICASS services to customers, and advises the Management Officer on special projects and areas of focus needed to improve service delivery. As the ICASS Residential Make-Ready Coordinator, s/he ensures a coordinated approach among ICASS sections that prepare residences for occupancy of incoming staff.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

NOTE: All applicants must address each selection criterion detailed below with specific and comprehensive information supporting each item.

The applicants for the United States US Embassy ICASS Quality Control/Make-Ready Coordinator job opportunity should have two years of University Studies. Required.

At least two years of general office experience in customer-focused work environment is required.

General administrative and office procedures.

Ability to obtain knowledge regarding various Uganda Government Departments and their locations (maps); and to become familiar with the local labor laws such as the Workers Compensation Act and the Employment Act.

Excellent drafting skills (English), strong interpersonal, presentation, and organizational skills required.

Must demonstrate expertise in customer-focused management, including sound judgment and creative problem-solving in addressing issues varying in volume, scope, and complexity.

Ability to remain tactful and professional at all times.

Ability to adapt to changing circumstances and be able to juggle dozens of different, often time-sensitive tasks in a variety of specialized areas. Level 1 Typing is required.

Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Access, PowerPoint), ILMS, and myServices is required.

Must possess a valid drivers license.

Must be able to obtain a Secret security clearance.

Language: Level IV (Fluent) speaking/reading/writing of English is required.

How to Apply:

All those interested in working with the United States Embassy, US Mission in Kampala should send their applications online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 18th November 2022

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey has been elected governor of Massachusetts, making history as the nations first openly lesbian governor and the states first woman and openly gay candidate elected to the office
Tuesday's general election ballot was marked by few competitive local races, but the Burleigh County auditor's race went down to the wire, and the Morton County state's attorney's race drew widespread interest.

Longtime incumbent State's Attorney Allen Koppy defeated former assistant prosecutor Gabrielle Goter in a race in which issues were sometimes blurred by Koppy's firing of Goter partway through the campaign after an investigation into allegations that she created a hostile work environment. Koppy got 54% of the 9,857 votes cast.

Koppy, 66, will serve another four-year term in the position hes held since 1987. He said in a statement to the Tribune that he is "grateful for the trust and confidence the community has placed in me. It is a great responsibility but also an honor to hold the states attorney position."

Koppy also said he wanted to "extend my appreciation to my opponent, Gabrielle Goter. Gabrielle was a long-time employee of Morton County and a worthy running mate. I wish Gabrielle Goter the absolute best in her upcoming endeavors."

He told the Tribune during the campaign that he wasn't running on any sort of agenda, Just taking care of business as it comes along."

Goter, 39, in a written statement to the Tribune on Wednesday said she was disappointed in the election results but at the same time grateful to the voters, family, friends and colleagues who have supported me through this process.

I am not sure what my professional future holds, she said.

Goter gave a nod to law enforcement officers, social workers and other colleagues she said have supported and collaborated with me in accomplishing some truly remarkable things in my career as a prosecutor.

The Missouri Valley Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Goter during the campaign.

Burleigh County

Burleigh County's auditor race wasn't decided until the end -- county tax official and Bismarck City Commissioner Mark Splonskowski garnered 51% of the vote to beat Kirsten Dvorak, executive director of The Arc of Bismarck and The Arc of North Dakota.

The county commission will have three new members -- Steve Schwab, Wayne Munson and Jerry Woodcox won seats with 22%, 22% and 21% of the vote, respectively, with all precincts reporting. Amelia Doll (20%) and Dustin Gawrylow (14%) were defeated.

Schwab, a small business owner and former Bismarck city commissioner, said: "I just hope I can work well together with the new commissioners and seated commissioners and make the county a better place to live.

Munson, a Bismarck Parks and Recreation board commissioner, said: "It means a lot that the folks have recognized that Im dedicated to doing what I want -- I want to help the citizens.

Woodcox, a small business owner and previous county commissioner, said: Im happy that Ill be back in there for another four years. The experience is going to be needed because there is a lot of problems to be fixed at the county level.

Burleigh residents also narrowly approved a new draft of the countys home rule charter. The measure will allow the county commission and county residents to adopt ordinances. Tuesday's vote was 51% in favor and 49% against, with all precincts reporting.
Shares in Hilton Food Group endured one of their worst days on the stock market after the company warned unprecedented cost increases had hit profits.

The FTSE 250 meat and fish packer, which operates across Europe, Australia and New Zealand, said it struggled to curb the rising costs hurting its UK seafood business.

As a result, its profit for the year would be below expectations.

Shares crash: Hilton Food Group, which operates across Europe, New Zealand and Australia, said it struggled to curb the rising costs impacting its UK seafood business

But Hilton Foods added it was well-placed for 2023 given its strong financial position.

But analysts seemed less than impressed, with RBC cutting the target price to 600p from 700p.

Hiltons biggest fall came in September when shares tumbled 28 per cent after a profit warning for the year.

Shares plunged another 15.1 per cent, or 96p, to 538p yesterday.

The FTSE 100 rose 0.08 per cent, or 6.15 points, to 7306.14 and the FTSE 250 was up 0.75 per cent, or 138.32, points to 18,697.89.

At advertising giant WPP, chief financial officer John Rogers is stepping down after three years to be replaced by Britvic finance boss Joanne Wilson.

She will receive the same package as Rogers, 54, who earned 4.7million in pay including bonuses and share awards last year.

Stock Watch - Seraphine Shares in Seraphine hit a new low after the maternity clothing brand warned that trading remained tough. The group, whose clothes have been worn by the Princess of Wales, said it faced a challenging summer. Revenue inched down to about 19million in the 26 weeks to October against 20.8million a year earlier. The group made a loss of 1.5million but expects to return to profit in the second half. Shares, which floated last year at 295p, slid 29.3 per cent or 5.2p to 12.5p.

Rogers is believed to be in line for a new top job.

WPPs shares rose 2.4 per cent, or 19p, to 824.8p.

DCC swung into reverse after its profit fell short of market expectations.

The Irish conglomerate saw its profit rise 13 per cent to 221.2million in the six months to September.

But Jefferies said this was 2 per cent below the consensus among analysts amid a decline in DCCs healthcare business.

JP Morgan lowered its target price to 7000p from 7500p. DCCs shares fell 8.2 per cent, or 407p, to 4537p.

Despite Morgan Stanley raising their target prices, BP sank 3.2 per cent, or 16.1p, to 485.7p while Shell slid 2.5 per cent, or 63p, to 2438p.

Defence firm Babcock was up 4 per cent, or 11p, to 285p after Berenberg issued a buy rating and a target price of 425p.

FTSE 250 insurer Direct Line revealed plans for a more affordable, basic car insurance policy after seeing sales slump following price hikes.

The policy, to be launched under the Churchill brand, will offer cover for the policyholders vehicle and third-party damage, but strip out many extras.

Details of the new basic cover came as Direct Line said total motor premiums tumbled 8.9 per cent to 1.1billion in the first nine months of 2022 after it raised prices following a surge in claim costs.

Shares fell as much as 8 per cent in early trading, before closing 3.1 per cent lower, or 6.2p, to 193.2p.

Also in the second tier, Hammerson was handed a much-needed boost in its post-pandemic recovery as shoppers returned to stores.

The owner of shopping centres such as the Bullring in Birmingham said footfall across the UK, Ireland and France was now between 90 per cent and 95 per cent of the level seen before the pandemic struck.

Following the upbeat results, the group expects profit for the year to be at least 100million  above the 86.5million consensus. Shares gained 4.8 per cent, or 1.02p, to 22.5p.

Engineering group IMI rose 5.1 per cent, or 67p, to 1387p after it agreed to snap up the smart temperature controls manufacturer Heatmiser in a deal that could reach 118million.

Kingspan rose 1.4 per cent, or 0.7p, to 54p despite five brokers cutting the building insulation specialists target price.

An Esports firm backed by David Beckham is to offer courses to help young people break into the industry. Guild Esports revealed a tie-up with post-16 education provider SCL for BTEC diplomas.

Its shares rose 8.3 per cent, or 0.13p, to 1.63p.
Retail giant Next has bought collapsed Made.com out of administration for around 3.5million.

The high street stalwart, led by Lord Simon Wolfson, will pick up Mades website, branding, customer database and other intellectual property.

Next was one of a number of parties interested in rescuing the online furniture retailer alongside Mike Ashleys Frasers Group and Mades co-founder Ning Li.

Rescue deal: Retail giant Next will pick up Made's website, branding, customer database and other intellectual property

And after the Daily Mail revealed on Saturday it was a front-runner in the process, Next has emerged victorious, with an announcement expected today.

The deal saves a much-loved British brand set up in 2010 by Li, Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh, and Julien Callede. It will now be run by Wolfson, one of the UKs most successful retailers.

But the collapsed firms 500 staff are set to lose their jobs. And customers with outstanding orders will be left in the lurch, though those who paid using credit cards will be able to claim refunds from their provider.

Administrators will be left trying to flog the remainder of Mades huge pile of unsold stock, much of which is set to be snapped up by high street retailer TK Maxx, sources said.

Made confirmed it was going bust last week after teetering on the brink for months.

The company was a major retail player with annual sales of 315million in 2020, earning a 775million valuation when it joined the London Stock Exchange last summer.
Leading institutional shareholders are urging fat cat bosses to keep their pay in check during the cost-of-living crisis.

The Investment Association (IA), which represents fund managers and other City investors with 10trillion of savings on their books, told London-listed companies to show additional restraint when increasing the salaries of well-paid executives.

The warning shot comes just days after figures from PwC showed that FTSE 100 bosses have seen their average pay swell to 3.9million, while data from the Money and Pensions Service revealed one in four adults have less than 100 in savings.

Executive pay: The Investment Association told London-listed companies to show additional restraint when increasing the salaries of well-paid executives

Andrew Ninian, director for stewardship and corporate governance at the IA, said: With the cost-of-living crisis hitting UK households, investors want to see companies show restraint on executive pay and bonuses, ensuring that executive pay packets are balanced against the experiences of their wider workforce, customers, and other stakeholders.

While we know from our discussions with companies that many are targeting salary increases to lower-paid employees, it is imperative that all companies carefully consider how they award pay.

The unusually blunt letter sets the scene for a bloody season of annual general meetings next year.

Shareholder rebellions were already picking up pace this year, as investors objected to remuneration packages at Marks & Spencer, Premier Inn owner Whitbread, and data and events business Informa.

Retaining and motivating all employees, not just executives, will be key for many businesses survival, the IA said.

The IA has also asked companies to scrutinise any windfall gains top brass may pocket. Many bosses were granted long-term share awards in 2020  when stock prices were low due to the pandemic.

With many share prices bouncing back, the awards could be worth huge amounts when bosses are able to access them in 2023, presenting them with windfall gains.

If a remuneration committee has decided not to adjust for windfall gains, it should explain and disclose its rationale, the IA said.

But some in the City are worried that the focus on executive remuneration  combined with the burden of regulatory compliance  is putting off the best candidates from running listed companies.

Instead they are going to run private equity-backed companies away from public markets, according to Mark Freebairn, head of the board practice at recruiter Odgers Berndtson.

If youre a chief executive and a private equity firm comes along and gives you the chance to run a company and do the job you love for the same money but without any of the scrutiny, without the box-ticking, without your neighbours knowing everything about your pay  why wouldnt you take it? he said.
Vodafone has agreed to sell off a chunk of its phone masts division in a deal that could earn it up to 6.2billion and help reduce its 36billion debt pile.

The telecoms giant last year floated Vantage Towers, which has 83,000 sites in ten countries across Europe including the UK and is now valued at nearly 13billion, on the Frankfurt stock market.

Vodafone still owns 82 per cent of the company but will now split that controlling stake in a joint venture with New York-based investors Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and KKR.

Vodafone floated Vantage Towers, which has 83,000 sites in ten countries across Europe including the UK and is now valued at nearly 13billion, on the Frankfurt stock market.

The deal  which The Mail on Sunday revealed in September was in the pipeline  is partly bankrolled by Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The Gulf kingdoms state entity also controls Newcastle United and has a major stake in luxury car maker Aston Martin.

It could mean Vantages time as a publicly-listed company proves short-lived, as the consortium will offer to buy the 18 per cent not owned by Vodafone from minority investors.

The deal values Vantage at just over 28 per share, a third higher than its price going public last year, and at the top end of the price analysts had expected.

Vantage shares rose 12 per cent on the announcement. Vodafone was down 2 per cent or 2.1p at 104.1p.

The new corporate structure is expected to make it easier for Vantage to finance expansion by building more towers to extend coverage and take over other European operators, possibly including a buyout of the joint venture it operates in the UK.

Vodafone chief executive Nick Read described the deal as a landmark moment.

He added: This significantly increases Vantage Towers financial flexibility to capture future growth opportunities both organic and inorganic.

Read said the deal enabled Vodafone both to cash in on the businesss value and retain control of key infrastructure needed to roll out 5G networks.

The deal is also likely to be seen as a powerful riposte to activist investors who have been critical of his performance since his appointment in 2018 and want to see sweeping change at the FTSE 100 giant.

The amount of money Vodafone receives from the deal depends on how much of its stake GIP and KKR agree to buy  up to 50 per cent  and how many minority investors agree to sell out to the new ownership consortium.

That could leave Vodafone with proceeds of between 2.8billion and 6.2billion.

The deal is expected to complete in the first half of next year.

Read said that it was the latest key milestone in the development of more infrastructure to power 5G networks over the coming decade.

Asked about the involvement of Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund, he said that while the investment was led by GIP and KKR clearly they access capital from around the world from different source and PIF is just one of those many sources of capital.

Read added: Clearly theyre a large investor worldwide and involved in many investments in high quality assets of which I think Vantage Towers is one.

Asked about other potential takeover deals, Read said that there were a lot of operators looking at potentially selling their assets and pointed to reports that Telefonica and Liberty Global were considering offloading their stakes in Cornerstone, a UK towers venture that is 50 per cent owned by Vantage.

If they were exiting that maybe presents an opportunity for Vantage, he said.

Theres many other countries I could go round. Now we have these partners with depth of funding as well the combination could be very powerful.
Banknote printer De La Rue is locked in a battle with investment firm Crystal Amber

Banknote printer De La Rue has become embroiled in a spat with its second-largest shareholder over its lacklustre performance.

The business, which has been struggling since 2018 when it lost the lucrative contract to print Britains post-Brexit passports, is locked in a battle with investment firm Crystal Amber.

Crystal Amber  run by activist investor Richard Bernstein  accused De La Rue of defamation, after revealing that the chairman Kevin Loosemore had suggested Bernstein was plotting market manipulation.

Crystal Amber chairman Christopher Waldron said the comments were inconsistent with how a chairman of a listed plc should engage with a long-term and significant part-owner.
The head of the UKs Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will step down next summer following a controversial tenure.

Lisa Osofsky, a former FBI lawyer and dual British-American national, will leave the agency next August, concluding a five-year period marked by a mixture of successes and high-profile scandals.

Under her direction, the SFO last week notched up a major win against commodities giant Glencore when the firm was ordered by a judge to pay 281million after pleading guilty to a string of bribery offences across several African states, the largest penalty ever imposed on a company in a UK court.

Stepping down: Serious Fraud Office boss Lisa Osofsky, a former FBI lawyer and dual British-American national, will leave the agency next August

Last year, the agency also secured a record 874million settlement with French aircraft maker Airbus following a long-running probe into bribery and corruption.

But the agencys integrity came into question this year when convictions of three oil and gas executives at energy group Unaoil were overturned as they had not received a fair trial.

An inquiry pointed out serious failings at the top of the SFO, holding Osofsky (pictured) partly responsible. A fraud case against two former executives from outsourcing giant Serco collapsed last April.

Osofsky was also criticised in 2019 for dropping investigations into engine maker Rolls-Royce and drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline because of insufficient evidence.
Much of central North Dakota including Bismarck-Mandan is under a blizzard warning as a Colorado low prepares to blast out of the Rockies and into the Northern Plains.

The coming storm is prompting numerous cancellations, including at area schools.

A Colorado low is a system that develops in southeastern Colorado or northeastern New Mexico and tracks northeast across the Plains, producing big storms. The one forecast to sweep into the Upper Midwest could bring up to 1  feet of snow to the Bismarck, Linton, Elgin, Washburn, Harvey, Carrington and Jamestown areas, with winds gusting 35-45 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Blizzard conditions also are expected in northeastern North Dakota.

"Should the storm develop to its full potential, gusts may frequent 50 mph with near-zero visibility in some cases over parts of the northern Rockies and Plains," AccuWeather Meteorologist Nicole LoBiondo reported.

Travel is likely to be nearly impossible along stretches of Interstates 94 and 29 in North Dakota due to whiteout conditions.

"Travelers should also prepare for widespread flight delays and cancellations at airports across the region," LoBiondo said.

AAA urged motorists to allow extra time if they need to travel, and to monitor weather conditions.

"If it is not safe and you dont have to travel, dont drive," the auto club advised in a statement.

The storm is expected to impact all parts of the state, to varying degrees. The weather service has issued winter storm warnings, advisories or watches for areas outside of the blizzard warning zone.

"The greatest snow amounts are expected over south central North Dakota into much of the James River Valley," the agency said, adding that the southern James River Valley also could see freezing rain.

The Dickinson region could see 8-12 inches of snow, and the Minot and Williston regions 6-8 inches. The state Department of Transportation said a shortage of snowplow operators could impact snow removal in the Williston region.

Staffing there is at 75% capacity, and DOT plans to reallocate resources from other areas of the state as needed. However, If there is a statewide winter storm event, motorists in northwest North Dakota should expect longer wait times for the snow to be cleared, DOT Director Ron Henke said, adding We thank the public in advance for their patience.

The department is seeking people who hold a commercial driver's license. Open jobs are listed at www.dot.nd.gov/careers.

Bismarck preparations

Bismarck Roads and Streets Department crews were set to begin working around the clock at midnight Wednesday, according to Doug Wiles, acting director of Service Operations.

"The first priority during the storm is to ensure emergency routes remain passable," he said. "Blowing and drifting snow may be an issue with this storm. City crews will work with emergency managers as a resource in emergency situations."

Residents are asked to move vehicles off the streets to aid in snow removal.

The Bismarck Fire Department is asking residents and business owners to help keep the city's 4,500-plus fire hydrants clear of snow. Snow should be cleared to ground level for 3-4 feet around a hydrant, with a clear path to the street.

"This helps to significantly reduce the time it takes for the fire department to get water on a fire by ensuring that fire crews can find and access the hydrant when its needed most," Fire Marshal Own Fitzsimmons said. "By helping us you could save your neighbors house or your own in an emergency."

The city's "Adopt a Hydrant map" is at: bit.ly/3zXO3Tu.

Cancellations

The impending blizzard has prompted numerous cancellations in the area.

The Veterans Day program planned at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum on the Capitol grounds Friday has been called off.

The University of Mary in Bismarck has canceled in-person classes and closed offices Thursday, with a decision pending for Friday. Bismarck State College was closing its campus Wednesday evening. Dickinson State University moved to virtual classes for Thursday. United Tribes Technical College and Theodore Jamerson Elementary School on the Bismarck campus will be closed Thursday. Neither BSC, DSU nor UTTC have classes scheduled Friday due to Veterans Day.

Thursday and Friday already were scheduled off days for Bismarck Public Schools. Mandan Public Schools canceled in-person Thursday classes, with virtual instruction planned; Friday is already a scheduled off day for MPS due to the holiday.

Light of Christ Catholic Schools in Bismarck called off Thursday classes, with a decision pending for Friday.

Bis-Man Transit is delaying the start of operations for CAT buses and paratransit service to 10 a.m. Thursday. The CAT bus Blue Route will be out of service all day.
Elon Musk has been accused of letting down Tesla investors after selling nearly 3.5billion of the companys shares following his disaster-strewn takeover of Twitter.

Musks will-he-wont-he pursuit of the social media site has helped drag down the value of the electric vehicle maker while it is facing serious challenges of its own.

Teslas slide has also seen his personal fortune nearly halve from a peak of 298billion last year to 157billion according to Bloombergs Billionaires Index  though he remains the worlds richest person.

Car trouble: Elon Musks will he-wont he pursuit of Twitter has helped drag down the value of electric vehicle maker Tesla

Back in August, Musk sold 6billion worth of Tesla stock to finance the 38billion Twitter deal even as he was entangled in a legal fight to try to get out of it.

Yet at the time he pledged that he had finished selling shares and that even if Twitter forced through the sale it was important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock. But Musk was forced into the deal which completed on October 27.

Now, regulatory filings show that he sold 19.5m Tesla shares from November 4 to 8.

It means that in all, Musk has sold about 17billion worth of the stock since April, when he first filed a bid for Twitter.

The transactions have left industry analysts exasperated. Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities in New York said: Our fear heading into the final days of the deal was that Musk was going to be forced to sell more Tesla stock to fund the disaster Twitter deal and ultimately those fears came true.

Musk, who now styles himself Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator, tweeted yesterday: Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesnt.

Tesla fell 7 per cent yesterday and are down by 55 per cent so far this year.
BT customers calling its helpline are routinely being forced to wait on hold for three quarters of an hour  or longer.

Dozens have taken to social media to voice their frustration, and readers have contacted Money Mail to complain.

When we tried to get through to BT's customer service line just after 4pm on Monday, an automated message said wait times were in excess of 45 minutes. It took 50 minutes before our call was finally answered.

On hold: Readers have been struggling to contact BT over faults with broadband and landlines, as well as to cancel or renew contracts

Yesterday morning, the automated message said: 'We're very busy at the moment. If your call is not urgent, please call back later.'

It took 55 minutes to get through.

BT appears to have had issues with overwhelmed call centres for a number of days now.

The call agent we spoke to said the company had experienced high call volumes for the past week or so due to broadband outages caused by the wet weather.

BT's sluggish response times come amid fears that its customer service could take a hit in a major cost-cutting drive.

Chief executive Philip Jansen last week announced plans to save 3 billion by the end of 2025, warning of job losses and increased efforts to 'automate and use technology to reduce costs'.

Readers have been struggling to contact BT over faults with broadband, as well as to cancel or renew contracts.

Sophie Jefferson, 49, spent 57 minutes on hold to BT on Monday evening after an engineer didn't show up to fix her broken broadband connection.

The operations manager from London had been waiting since October 28 for a repairman to visit. She had been sent a mini hub  a temporary Wi-Fi connection device  in the meantime to ensure she had the internet.

However, after receiving an email saying her case was closed and the hub would be switched off, she was clueless as to what was going on.

After waiting nearly an hour to speak to someone at the BT customer services centre, they confirmed that the engineer had been cancelled without her being notified.

Sophie says: 'The call handler gave me a rearranged date, but couldn't confirm that the engineer would definitely turn up then. She told me that if they didn't, I should just call BT back.

'I said, 'You've got to be joking. I'm not going to spend another hour trying to get through.' '

Cuts: BT chief exec Philip Jansen has announced plans to save 3bn by the end of 2025, warning of job losses and increased efforts to 'automate and use technology... to reduce costs'

Debbie Johnston, 51, was left on hold for more than 50 minutes on Monday night while trying to get her broadband fixed, too. The wedding dress saleswoman, from Northern Ireland, has found it near-impossible to work from home.

She had also previously rang on November 3 and waited 45 minutes to report the same problem. 'A company like BT should at least have a queuing system,' she says.

'It should let you hang up and keep your place in the queue while you wait for a callback when someone is available.

'I understand that the firm is extremely busy, but then it should get more staff. We're all extremely busy  who has got time to sit and wait that long?'

Rick Harris, from Peterborough, couldn't get through to BT when he needed to renew his broadband contract.

The 57-year-old was quoted a wait time of half an hour on the phone. He resorted to using BT's online chat service  only to find it was unavailable at 3pm on Saturday, October 29.

The healthcare researcher says: 'I genuinely do not feel that BT is acting in customers' best interests. The company is overwhelmed and understaffed.'

Money Mail is calling for big businesses to be penalised if they do not answer the phone within ten minutes as part of our Pick Up Or Pay Up campaign.

Currently, there are no consequences for companies who fail to do this. We are demanding consumer protection laws be updated.

Similar legislation was approved in Spain earlier this year. Firms there now face fines of up to 85,000 if they do not answer their phones within three minutes.

Last month, our campaign took a major step forward after the case for a new law was presented for debate in Parliament by Conservative MP Robert Halfon.

A BT spokesman says: 'We handle 100 per cent of customer calls in the UK and Ireland and we aim to answer calls within 60 seconds, but we're very sorry that our customers are having to wait longer than usual to speak to a UK-based adviser.

'We've hired more than 3,000 advisers across the UK this year so we can continue to provide the most personal and local service to our customers.'

BT says there are plans afoot to launch a virtual queue service.

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk
Republicans on Tuesday tightened their supermajority hold in North Dakota's Legislature, which will see a raft of newcomers take office and a clock begin to tick on term limits.

Unofficially, the GOP grew its Senate majority to 43-4 in the general election, with Democrats losing a net three seats from an already tiny minority of seven.

The four Senate Democrats all will be from Fargo-area districts. It's unclear how they will handle committee assignments with so small a minority.

Republicans appeared to pick up a net of two seats in the House for an 82-12 majority.

The chamber divides would be the greatest since the 1960s.

State GOP Chairman Perrie Schafer said Tuesday's results indicate "There's a red wave in North Dakota," with Republicans winning handily, grabbing 83 of 98 seats on the ballot.

With new legislative leaders to be chosen amid significant turnover and years of factions within the Republican statehouse supermajority, the party will have to be "communicating and making sure that we're sitting at the table with each other and listening," Schafer said.

"Sitting down with (newcomers) in their caucuses, having conversations, listening to what their concerns are, and then moving forward together as a party -- that's the key," he said.

Recounts could slightly change the House divide.

The Grand Forks-area District 43 House race will have an automatic recount of the whole contest. Republican Eric Murphy and Democratic Reps. Zac Ista and Mary Adams each clinched 25%-26%.

The Richland County-area District 25 House race could see a demand recount. About 0.8% of the vote separated Reps. Alisa Mitskog, D-Wahpeton, and Kathy Skroch, R-Lidgerwood. Skroch could request a recount, but she would have to post a bond for it that would go to the state if the results don't change.

The House races included four seats for new subdistricts, including ones encompassing the Fort Berthold and Turtle Mountain Indian reservations. They were created due to redistricting following the 2020 census.

Top redistricting lawmakers said the subdistricts meet population criteria of the federal Voting Rights Act. Proponents said the subdistricts will give Native American communities better chances to elect their own members to the Legislature. But the subdistricts have sparked two lawsuits over the new lines. The legal battles won't be resolved soon.

The Democratic-NPL Party was defending all but one of its seats in the Legislature.

Party Chairman Patrick Hart lamented the defeats of Democratic-NPL incumbents, such as Sens. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, and JoNell Bakke, D-Grand Forks.

"These aren't extremists, these are people that are well-grounded and it hurts to lose their presence," Hart said.

Senate Democrats have been discussing how to handle committee assignments with so few members. Hart said the senators will stay up to date on committees' work with the help of staff and be "scheduled to be in the right place at the right time to make sure that we are representing when those crucial votes do happen."

Incumbents out

Eight incumbents appeared to lose their reelection bids for the Legislature.

That means a total of nearly 40 of 141 lawmakers won't be back in Bismarck for the 2023 Legislature, which convenes in January.

A number of outgoing lawmakers are high-profile members who retired, lost reelection or lost their seat to redistricting. Five lawmakers lost their seats in races against fellow incumbents due to redistricting.

Among the departures are three of four legislature leaders and the House and Senate appropriations committee chairmen -- top positions that guide the Legislature. Most of those top lawmakers did not seek reelection.

Senate Majority Caucus Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said Republicans will have to "double-down in terms of educating ourselves about the issues because when you have a significant amount of turnover, there is a loss of knowledge, but it's something we'll be able to overcome. I'm confident of that."

He credited retiring Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, for organizing and leading 11 videoconferences over the summer to educate new members on policy issues. Twelve Senate Republicans will be new.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Jerry Klein, R-Fessenden, said, "We're going to do the best we can with the new people.

"We've got these people that have run, are strong leaders from their areas, and they're going to contribute to our Legislature and we're going to get them up to speed on how we operate, how it works, what needs to be done, so I'm guessing they're going to hit the ground running and will help with some of the heavy lifting, and we're going to get our work done," Klein said.

Republican and Democratic-NPL lawmakers will determine their new legislative leaders in coming weeks; Republicans will do so on Monday night. State lawmakers take office Dec. 1. The Legislature's organizational session is Dec. 5-7.

Term limits

Voters approved a ballot measure for term limits on the governor and state lawmakers, which will take effect Jan. 1. Measure 1 passed with 63% of the vote.

The constitutional initiative imposes term limits of eight cumulative years each in the House and Senate. The governor can not be elected more than twice. Term limits will not be retroactive -- meaning the service of current officeholders will not count against them.

The measure's language also will bar the Legislature from proposing amendments to alter or repeal the term limits; only citizens will be able to do so. Measure Chairman Jared Hendrix said North Dakotans will "reap the rewards of this important reform." He highlighted the "significant" victory amid opposition "from essentially every corner of the political establishment, every special interest lobbyist and influential, long-serving politician and almost every statewide elected official." "Voters are smart. Voters understand that the system needs reform, and that they need something that is more responsive to them, and they understand innately that term limits are a step in that direction," Hendrix said. Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, who was involved in opposing the measure, said he's proud of the efforts against Measure 1, though the group had little time and little money to oppose the measure. "Had we had another month, I really, truly believe we could have had a great chance to defeat this, but we just ran out of time," Nathe said.
Eastern European countries are preparing for a possible wave of Ukrainian refugees as Russia targets power and heating plants ahead of winter, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying about 4 million people are already without power.

Zelenskiy said 14 regions plus the capital Kyiv were without power and Ukraines electrical grid operator Ukrenergo said scheduled hourly power outages would affect the whole of the country on Wednesday.

Russian forces have targeted Ukraines energy infrastructure with missiles and drone strikes in the run up to winter, when mean temperatures typically drop to several degrees below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), with lows of minus 20C.

Some 6.9 million people are believed displaced internally within Ukraine and east European countries such as Slovakia and Hungary are preparing for an influx in coming months.

An increase in numbers is being felt, and is expected. It is currently up 15%, said Roman Dohovic, an aid coordinator for the eastern Slovak city of Kosice.

Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive in recent months while Russia is regrouping to defend areas of Ukraine it still occupies, having called up hundreds of thousands of reservists over the past month.

Zelenskiy said his forces would not yield a single centimetre in battles for the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk while Russian-installed officials said Ukrainian forces were moving into a southern town with tanks. The focal points of the conflict in the industrial region of Donetsk are around the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar and Avdiivka, which have seen the heaviest fighting since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February.

The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level  dozens of attacks every day, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address late on Tuesday.

They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same  to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimetre of our land, he said.

The region is one of four Russia said it annexed in September. Fighting had been going on there between Ukrainian military and Russian proxy forces since 2014, the same year Russia annexed Crimea in the south.

Kyiv-based military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said on Tuesday that 21 Russian conscripts had surrendered to Ukrainian forces around Svatove in Luhansk region.

These poor mobilised men  really poor, they had had nothing to eat or drink in three days  of course they decided to surrender, Zhdanov said on his YouTube channel.

FIERCE FIGHTING IN SOUTHERN TOWN

A Russian-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russias RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.

They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town, the mayor, Yuri Barabashov, said, referring to the residents.

People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town centre, he said.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said on the Telegram messaging service that Ukrainian forces had tried to advance on three fronts, including Snihurivka.

Vitaly Kim, the Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, apparently quoting an intercepted conversation between Russian servicemen, suggested that Ukrainian forces had already pushed the Russians out of the area.

Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there, Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

There was no official word on the situation in the town from military officials in either Ukraine or Russia.

Giving an update on the situation in the neighbouring southern region of Kherson, the Ukrainian military on Tuesday evening accused Russian troops of more looting and destruction of infrastructure. A showdown has been looming for weeks in Kherson city, the only regional capital Russia has captured intact since its invasion.

A convoy of trucks passed over the dam of the Kakhova hydroelectric station loaded with home appliances and building materials, the military said.

Russian forces were dismantling mobile phone towers and taking equipment, it said, adding that near the city of Beryslav, Russian forces blew up a power line and took equipment from a solar power station.

In Kherson city, it said Russian troops removed exhibits, furniture and equipment from a museum devoted to the painter Oleksiy Shovkunenko.

Kherson is one of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces that Russia says it annexed. It controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula and the mouth of the Dnipro, the river that bisects Ukraine.

The U.N. General Assembly is due to vote next week on a draft resolution recognising that Russia must be responsible for reparation in Ukraine for the injury, including any damage, caused by internationally wrongful acts. The text has been put forward by Ukraine, Canada, Guatemala and the Netherlands.

Three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly denounced Russias invasion in a vote in March, and in October condemned its self-proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine.

SOURCE: REUTERS
North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday, as South Korea said it had identified debris from an earlier launch as part of a Soviet-era SA-5 surface-to-air missile.

Japans Coast Guard said the ballistic missile appeared to have fallen into the sea minutes after the launch was reported.

The missile flew to an altitude of up to 50 km, and covered a range of 250 km, Japans Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.

He said the government lodged a strong protest with North Korea via diplomatic channels through Beijing, and that Tokyo had strongly condemned the launch.

Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) also said it had detected the launch of an unspecified ballistic missile from North Korea.

The launch came after South Korea concluded an analysis of what it had initially said was part of a North Korean short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) that landed near South Korean waters last week.

The analysis, however, showed the piece, about 3 metres (3.3 yards) long and 2 metres wide, was part of an SA-5 anti-aircraft missile, the defence ministry said, citing its appearance and features.

The ministry strongly condemned the missile launch at the time, calling it a breach of a 2018 inter-Korean military pact banning any activities stoking border tensions.

This SA-5 missile launch was a clearly deliberate, intentional provocation, it said in a statement. The SA-5 also has characteristics of a surface-to-surface missile, and Russia has used similar missiles in Ukraine for surface-to-surface attacks.

A South Korean Navy ship used an underwater probe to recover the missile, which came as the North test-fired multiple missiles last week, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), protesting against joint air drills by South Korea and the United States.

It was the first time a North Korean ballistic missile had landed near South Korean waters.

North Koreas military said the launches were simulated strikes on South Korea and the United States, criticising their exercises as an dangerous, aggressive war drill.

South Korean and U.S. officials have also said that Pyongyang has made technical preparations to test a nuclear device, the first time it will have done so since 2017.

The SA-5 is an air defence missile originally designed by the Soviet Union, where it was designated the S-200, to shoot down strategic bombers and other high-altitude targets.

The missile was exported around the world, and is still in service in at least a dozen countries, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies Missile Defense Project.

North Korea took delivery of SA-5 systems in the mid-1980s, according to The Armed Forces of North Korea: On the Path of Songun, a 2020 survey by Dutch researchers.

Two sites equipped with these very long-ranged systems cover the entirety of North Korean airspace as well as a sizeable chunk of that of the South, the researchers wrote.

However, having been designed to counter strategic aircraft, their use against modern fast jets such as the F-15 and F-16 is questionable to say the least.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Police are trying to find the person who threw a paper airplane into the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan. The cenotaph contains the names of all the people known to be killed by the atomic bomb the United States dropped on August 6, 1945 (estimated to be between 70,000 to 135,00 people).

From SoraNews24:

According to surveillance camera footage, at about 3 a.m. [on October 28] a man walked up to the cenotaph and threw a paper airplane at it so that is landed in front of the monument underneath the arch. He then casually walked away.

The epitaph on the cenotaph reads, "please rest in peace, the mistakes will not be repeated."

Wikipedia says that "the ambiguity of the phrase has the potential to offend; some right-wing circles in Japan have interpreted the words as an admission of guilt  implicitly reading it as 'we (the Japanese people) shall not repeat the error'  and they criticize the epitaph as a self-accusation by the Japanese empire. In July 2005, the cenotaph was vandalized by a Japanese man affiliated with the Japanese right."

The paper airplane, which was taped shut carried a message on the outside that read, "Great Hiroshima Earthquake 10.28 5:18." As SoraNews24 points out, "This is especially cryptic since there is no record of a 'Great Hiroshima Earthquake' and if that was meant to be a prediction, one did not occur at 5:18 a.m. or p.m. on that day either."

From SoraNews24:
The Taoiseach has defended the governments housing plan, saying it has built the highest number of homes in the last year since 2008.

Micheal Martin told the Dail that the government will hit its housing target for this year, saying it has taken a razor-like approach to the housing crisis.

He made the comments after Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald branded claims by Minister for Housing Darragh OBrien that Ireland does not have a housing emergency as incredible.

She recounted stories from families and individuals who struggle to pay rent or are unable to afford to buy their own home.

WATCH THIS  The Housing Minister says there is no Housing Emergency. These stories from those living through this catastrophe show how incredibly wrong he is.@MaryLouMcDonald #Dail #LeadersQuestions #HousingCrisis pic.twitter.com/L4jhKpJXQo  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) November 9, 2022

A father close to tears every day, a mother on medication to cope with the stress, young people feeling depressed, looking to emigrate, children wracked with anxiety and fear, families living in a state of panic, Ms McDonald told the Dail on Wednesday.

The claim made (that) this isnt a housing emergency is so painfully out of touch with reality because if this isnt a disaster, then what is it? If this isnt a social catastrophe than what is it? If this isnt a housing emergency, as you claim, well, that what is it?

Mr Martin said that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing society at this moment in time.

Since this government has come into office, we have focused razorlike on the housing issue and the evidence is there in terms of the new schemes that have been brought in, in terms of construction and so on, Mr Martin said.

Be in no doubt this government sees housing as a key priority, and its a pillar of the Programme for Government and a lot has been done over the past two years.

We are increasing the supply of housing and the plan is working. We all accept the challenges for people out there but the answer is to build more houses, to get supply up along with a range of other policies.

Ive said this repeatedly, I have seen no alternative to Housing for All from anybody, from your party or from anybody.

I just havent seen it in substance, in detail, in additional recommendations that will go over and above what Minister (Darragh) OBrien has introduced.

He said the latest home completion data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows the country is well on track in exceeding the Housing for All plan for 2022.

So we will go over 24,600 (homes) towards the end of this year. There were 28,000 homes built in the 12 months to September 2022, he added.

Some 21,000 house completions alone in the first nine months of this year and as I said, we hopefully will go over the target that we set ourselves.

The plan is working. But we need to build more houses, we need to build them more quickly.

There were more than 16,000 first time buyers in the past 12 months, thats the highest since 2007 and represents 33% of all house purchases.

House completions, commencements, permissions, home purchases, first time buyers, mortgage draw-downs are all up to record levels. So weve had the highest housing delivery since 2008.

Ms McDonald hit back saying the governments record is a history of having the highest rents, house prices and levels of homelessness.

Thats the reality of your record, she added.

Do you accept that we are living through a housing emergency? Because if, like your minister, you do not that goes a very long way to explain your abject failure in meeting the housing needs of people.
Police in Mexico City say they believe three U.S. citizens found dead at a rented apartment were victims of gas inhalation
[November 09, 2022] Delta Dental of Virginia Earns HRSI Diversity & Inclusion Certification from Human Resource Standards Institute? ALEXANDRIA, Va. and ROANOKE, Va., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delta Dental of Virginia is the first insurance company in the United States to meet the highest standards of diversity and inclusion (D&I) by earning organizational certification from the Human Resource Standards InstituteSM (HRSISM), a subsidiary of HRCI. This achievement demonstrates Delta Dental of Virginias commitment as a D&I leader in the insurance sector and celebrates the companys efforts to continually improve its hiring processes and workforce management. The HRSI achievement certifies Delta Dental of Virginias HR processes are aligned with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 30415:2021: Human Resource Management (HRM) D&I standards.

We strive to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all team members are treated with respect and provided every opportunity to thrive, said Katharine Claytor, vice president and chief human resources officer for Delta Dental of Virginia and HRCI board member. A diverse and inclusive workforce is one of our greatest assets, and earning this certification highlights the value of the unique perspectives that every Delta Dental of Virginia employee brings to our team. Modern-day job seekers, team members, customers, investors and government agencies expect business relationships and workforce practices to conform to the principles of a diverse, inclusive and equitable workforce. The HRSI D&I Certification leverages ISO guidance on D&I for organizations and allows companies to compare their practices on an objective basis with other organizations across national boundaries and industry sectors. The D&I Certification is a game-changer for forward-thinking organizations that want to show they are committed to the highest levels of D&I, according to Dr. Amy Dufrane, SPHR, CAE, CEO of HRCI, the parent company of HRSI. We celebrate Delta Dental of Virginia as the first insurance company in the United States to earn HRSI D&I Certification. They recognze the importance of D&I to their employees, future employees, customers, vendors and external stakeholders and were willing to commit to the rigor needed to earn this certification, said Dr. Dufrane. Earning an HRSI organizational certification allows companies to ensure that their HR activities are aligned with business goals using consensus-based, international HR standards. Now Delta Dental of Virginia can proudly display the HRSI D&I 30415:2021 badge and seal of excellence to show their stakeholders that they are committed to excellence and continuous improvement in D&I.





Dr. Denise Caleb, PHR, president of HRSI, shared that global standards are a collection of guidelines, customs, experiences and practical solutions that are collaboratively and voluntarily developed through consensus and regularly revisited and revised. The inherent work in certifying D&I initiatives creates an improved workplace, workforce, work climate, work culture and, most importantly, a sense of belonging where employees can be their authentic selves at work, Dr. Caleb commented. We are excited that Delta Dental of Virginia had the policies, procedures and commitment in place to earn the HRSI D&I Certification. HRSI is a subsidiary of HRCI, the premier HR credentialing and learning organization with more than 45 years of leadership in HR. The organization has set the global standard for HR expertise and excellence through its commitment to the development and advancement of businesspeople in the people business. As a subsidiary of HRCI, HRSI provides organizational certifications built on ISO standards. To learn more about HRSI and the path to certification, visit https://www.hrsi.org. About HRSISM

HRSISM headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is the worlds premier standards and credentialing institute for private, publicly traded, not-for-profit and small, medium and enterprise (SME) organizations. A subsidiary of HRCI, HRSI creates and offers organizational certifications based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) human resources management (HRM) standards. Through HRSI certifications, organizations align with globally accepted HRM practices and utilize that knowledge in the development of HR processes that adhere to those standards. Learn more at www.hrsi.org . About HRCI

HRCI, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is the premier credentialing and learning organization for the human resources profession. For over 45 years, we have set the global standard for HR expertise and excellence through our commitment to the development and advancement of businesspeople in the people business. HRCI develops and offers world-class learning, as well as the administration of eight global certifications, and is dedicated to helping professionals achieve new competencies that drive business results. Learn more at www.hrci.org. About Delta Dental of Virginia

Established in 1964, Delta Dental of Virginia is the largest dental benefits provider in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Delta Dental of Virginia provides high-quality, cost-effective dental plans to more than two million members. Through its foundation, Delta Dental of Virginia has donated millions of dollars to improve the oral health of Virginians. Delta Dental of Virginia is a member of the national Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA). Since 1954, the DDPA has worked to improve oral health nationally. Delta Dental member companies serve more than 83 million people in more than 152,000 groups across the nation.

Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners. Media Contact: Kate Achille The Devon Group for HRCI [email protected]

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November 09, 2022





You became a property investor to make money, and part of running a financially successful business requires investing in technology that will increase your revenue and tenant satisfaction.

Naturally, youll attract more tenants when you offer appliances like a dishwasher and washer and dryer. You wont find many people opposed to having these appliances in their homes. When it comes to smart technology, its not so simple.







While its true that many tenants want smart technology in their homes and are willing to pay more to get it, that eagerness often depends on the type of smart technology. Some types of technology are not desirable to tenants, and according to data sourced by Rent.com, 17% of tenants dont want smart tech at all.

Heres a list of technology to carefully consider before equipping your rental properties with smart tech from top to bottom.

1. Smart doorbells

Smart doorbells are a particularly useful piece of smart home tech that many people have come to rely on when they go on vacation. A smart doorbell lets the occupants of a home screen visitors without having to open the door.

Most of these devices work with a two-way speaker, allowing them to hear the visitor and speak to them. This is excellent for safety when theyre home and security when theyre away. Some people say theyve been able to deter crime just by speaking to a suspicious person standing on their doorstep.

Although its hard to argue with the benefits of having a smart doorbell, there are some potential issues. Some tenants might not know how to operate one even after being shown. Other tenants might not want the complication, and some might even find it annoying to interact with visitors through a screen.

To figure out if you should install a smart doorbell, take your rental demographic into account. If your neighborhood primarily attracts an older crowd, they might not care about having a smart doorbell.

On the other hand, if your rental units are in a college town or anywhere that gets younger renters, it could be something that gets your properties rented fast.

2. Facial recognition security cameras

If youre considering installing facial recognition security cameras in a multi-family complex, you may want to reconsider. At first glance, it might seem like this would be a smart move, at least in common areas like the lobby, laundry room, mail room, or clubhouse. However, facial recognition is the most challenging form of smart technology you could possibly introduce into your rental properties.

In 2019, 130 tenants living at the Atlantic Plaza Towers apartments in Brooklyn, New York, won the fight against their landlords plan to use facial recognition cameras in order to grant tenants access to certain areas, including the main entrance to the building. Had the landlords plan gone through, tenants would have had no other way to enter their home.

The courts ruled in favor of the tenants, who were concerned about their privacy and didnt want to be tracked. This technology is so controversial, local police and government agencies have been banned from using it in San Francisco.

Facial recognition technology seems great, but its not that accurate, especially when a person has dark skin. Cameras struggle to capture distinct facial features the darker a persons skin is, which has led to many false identifications using this technology.

Before installing any kind of facial recognition software, weigh the pros and cons. Chances are, youll have more than a few tenants who will be upset and it may not be worth following through.

3. Smart locks

Smart door locks are fairly popular, especially for homeowners who rent their properties through Airbnb and need a way to bypass the possibility of people making copies of keys. With a smart lock, they can give guests a special code to use throughout their stay and then reset that code with a smartphone app from a distance.

While smart locks have many benefits, they may not be that beneficial for landlords and their tenants. For instance, when a smart lock relies on Wi-Fi and a smartphone app to function, which means a lost phone, power outage, or lack of internet will cut off access to a persons home. Even if this possibility is rare or unlikely, many tenants just arent willing to take the risk. Theyd rather stick with traditional, metal keys that get inserted into physical locks.

4. Electronic keys without the option of using a physical key

Electronic key fobs are everywhere, and most new cars dont even come with physical keys. While people have gotten used to electronic keys, many are still not sold on the idea of using electronic keys to enter their homes. Still, some landlords have switched over to keyless entry systems for front lobbies and elevator access without giving residents the option of using a physical key if they prefer.

If youre thinking about installing any kind of electronic key system to enter a multi-family complex or even a single-family home, you might want to talk to your tenant(s) to get their input first. Sure, its your property, but you dont want to make your tenants so uncomfortable that they file a lawsuit against you.

Consider your tenants

Upgrading your rental properties with smart technology is a big decision and a significant financial investment. It makes sense to carefully consider your plans before taking action. Will your tenants be upset?

On one hand, its your property and your tenants shouldnt have a say in how you run your business. However, the issues surrounding smart tech center on privacy and a persons right not to be tracked, so its about more than just making tenants happy.

Ideally, you should only implement smart tech that wont cause a disruption to your tenants lives, including the perception that their privacy is being violated. This might conflict with your desires as a property owner, but your tenants are your source of income, and its worth taking their concerns seriously.
November 09, 2022





Do you want to make sure that your real estate company is staffed with the best and brightest? If so, you need to put some thought into how you go about finding new talent.

There are a lot of things to consider when recruiting for a luxury real estate company, from the skills required for the job to the company culture.

In this article, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about finding the right talent for your business. We'll also give you some tips on how to avoid bad employees.

Set Hiring Standards Immediately

The first step in finding the right talent is to set hiring standards immediately. This means that you need to know exactly what you're looking for in an employee. What skills are required for the job? What qualities would make someone a good fit for your company culture?







If you don't have a clear idea of what you're looking for, you'll likely end up hiring someone who isn't a good fit for the job or the company. So take some time to sit down and really think about the type of person you want to hire.

Use Social Media To Your Advantage

When it comes to finding talent, social media can be your best friend. Platforms like LinkedIn (News - Alert) are great for finding qualified candidates. You can also use social media to post job ads and reach a wider audience.

Another great way to use social media is to connect with industry professionals. You can follow real estate companies, agents, and other businesses in your field. This will help you stay up-to-date on the latest news and trends. It's also a great way to network and build relationships with people in your industry.

Create a Referral Program

A referral program is a great way to find new talent. Employees are more likely to refer to someone they know and trust. And since referrals usually come with a recommendation, you can be sure that the candidate is qualified for the job.

To create a referral program, start by offering incentives for employees who refer someone who gets hired. You can offer cash bonuses, gift cards, or even paid time off. Just be sure to set clear guidelines so that employees know what they need to do to qualify for the referral bonus.

Always Check and Verify References

When you're talking to a potential candidate, always check and verify their references. This is one of the most important steps in the hiring process. A reference can tell you a lot about a person's work ethic, skills, and character.

If a candidate doesn't have any references, that's usually a red flag. You should also be wary of candidates who only provide positive references. These references may not be honest or objective.

Remember That Personality and Character Matters the Most

At the end of the day, personality and character matter the most. You can train someone to do a specific skill, but you can't change their personality or character. So when you're interviewing candidates, pay attention to how they interact with you and others.

Do they seem like someone who would be a good fit for your company culture? Are they friendly and personable? These are the types of qualities that you should be looking for in a candidate.

Follow Your Instincts

When it comes to hiring, it's important to follow your instincts. If you have a gut feeling about a candidate, trust it. Oftentimes, your intuition can tell you more than a resume or reference ever could.

Hiring new employees is a big decision. But if you take the time to find the right talent, it will be worth it in the end. Your business will be better for it. So use these tips to find the best candidates for your real estate company.

Understand Your Company's Values

The first step in finding the right talent is to understand your company's values. What are you looking for in an employee? What qualities would make someone a good fit for your company culture?

If you don't have a clear idea of what you're looking for, you'll likely end up hiring someone who isn't a good fit. So take some time to sit down and really think about the type of person you want to hire.

Prioritize Communication Skills

When you're interviewing candidates, pay close attention to their communication skills. In the real estate industry, communication is key. You need to be able to work with clients, agents, and other professionals.

If a candidate doesn't have strong communication skills, they may not be the best fit for the job. So make sure to ask them questions about how they would handle various situations. This will help you gauge their communication skills.

Look for Passionate People

Another important quality to look for in a candidate is passion. Are they passionate about real estate? Do they have a strong interest in helping people buy or sell homes?

If a candidate doesn't seem passionate about what they do, it's likely that they won't stick around for long. So make sure to ask them questions about their interests and goals. This will help you gauge their level of interest in the job.

Write a Thorough Job Description

The next step is to write a thorough job description. This will help you attract the right candidates. Include information about the duties and responsibilities of the position, as well as the qualifications and skills that you're looking for.

Be sure to include information about your company culture and values. This will help attract candidates who are a good fit for your business.

Treat Candidates Like Customers

Throughout the hiring process, it's important to treat candidates like customers. This means being courteous, professional, and responsive.

If a candidate has a bad experience during the hiring process, they're likely to tell others about it. So make sure that you're providing a positive experience for all candidates.

The Bottom Line

Hiring new talent is a big decision. But if you take the time to find the right candidates, it will be worth it in the end. Your business will be better for it. So use these tips to find the best employees for your real estate company.
November 09, 2022





Are you running pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google (News - Alert)? If not, youre missing out on a massive potential for revenue and leads. Google ads reach billions of users every day, and if youre not running PPC ads on Google youre letting your target market slip out of your reach. Sure, you can run ads on Facebook (News - Alert) and Instagram, but its not the same. Google has a larger reach and if you want to reach the majority of your market, you need to advertise on Google.







Why Googles PPC ads are better

PPC ads are just ads. However, unlike other ads where you pay for impressions or views, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Regardless of the ad platform, a good ad will generate clicks from relevant traffic and a great landing page on the other end will generate conversions.

You can run paid ads on plenty of platforms like Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert), Instagram, Bing, and more. However, there are several reasons Google is the leader in PPC ads.

First of all, as a search engine, Google dominates the market over other search engines. More people see Googles ads than ads on other networks. Since PPC ads are displayed above Google search results, this means you can get plenty of traffic to your website without getting your website to rank in the first page of search results. Even if your website never shows up on the first page of Google, youll still get traffic from searches when your PPC ads are running.

In addition to displaying ads across search results pages, Googles ads are displayed across the web on publisher websites. This is why PPC ads on Googles network reach more people than other ad platforms.

A word of caution: dont break the rules

Although Google has a larger reach than other ad platforms, you need to be careful not to break the rules. If you violate Googles ad policies, your account might get suspended. A suspended account means lost clicks, sales, leads, and conversions. You can restore a suspended Google Ads account, but its not easy. This is why you need to be extra cautious and learn the rules inside and out before launching any Google PPC campaign.

If you do happen to experience a suspended Google Ads account, dont create another account, even if a support rep tells you to make one. This is a direct violation of Googles terms. If you create another account, it will likely get suspended when Google finds out, and it will be even harder (or impossible) to restore your original account.

If your account does get suspended, your best course of action will be to first correct the problem and then submit a professional, rational appeal. Not everyone can get their account restored, so its best to avoid breaking the rules in the first place.

What Googles PPC ads can do for your business

The whole point of running Google PPC ads is to generate targeted traffic to your website. You can get 3 main benefits from generating targeted traffic:

 Sales

 Leads

 Regular visitors

What you get will depend on your ads and the landing pages that follow. You can craft ads to achieve any one of the above or all three. Its really up to you.

PPC ads will bring you traffic faster than SEO

When your goal is to generate sales from your website, you need to generate traffic first. You can do this in part with SEO by optimizing your website to come up in search results, but it will take a long time to start ranking your pages at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs).

For instance, to get traffic through SEO you need to spend hours optimizing content made for visitors and your technical content, and then you need to run a content marketing campaign to start building your backlinks. You wont see results from your efforts for a while. SEO is important to pursue, but its a long-term strategy and should be done alongside PPC ads.

On the other hand, running pay-per click ads on Googles network will generate targeted traffic to your website immediately. You wont need to wait for Googles search algorithm to determine your site is worthy of being on the first page of results for certain search terms. Youll still be competing with other businesses for keywords and phrases, but this is controlled by your budget. If youre willing to pay more, youll show up more often because youll win the bids.

If youre targeting a local audience with your PPC ads, youll have less competition than you would in a global market. Youll generate immediate traffic to your landing pages and targeting local keywords means the traffic you get will be more targeted.

Sometimes its hard to know the true ROI of traditional advertising when you cant track exactly how many people saw your ad. For instance, if you run an ad on a billboard, youll never know your true conversion rate because you wont know how many people consciously saw your ad. Keep in mind that with paid ads, you only pay for measurable results, which makes the ROI on a successful campaign fantastic.

How to get started with Google ads

If youre just getting started with Googles PPC ads, youll find this guide from Hubspot to be especially helpful. This guide will teach you all the important terms you need to know when running PPC ads, how the ads work, how to create ads, a rundown of the different ad campaign types, and how to bid strategically on your keywords.

The only way to learn your way around the Google Ads platform is to dive in and start running ads. However, be careful with your budget and make sure you start slow until you get the hang of things. You dont want to accidentally spend more money on ads than you planned because of a technical error. If youd rather not run your own campaign, you can always hire a PPC pro to do it for you
November 09, 2022





South Africa is a country that is quickly developing, with new technology investments cropping up all over the place. This has led to great advances in the fields of communication, business, and more. However, this also brings about certain challenges that must be faced in order to ensure that these advances are put to good use. According to a recent report on the IT industry, more South Africans are now working remotely or experiencing at least some type of hybrid working. The pandemic has given a huge boost to digital transformation in the country and along with that, further investment in technology solutions.







The growth of technology investments in South Africa

Over the past few years, there has been a growing trend of technology investments in South Africa. This is largely due to the country's favorable investment climate, which includes a skilled workforce, good infrastructure, and ample natural resources. South Africa is also home to a number of world-class universities, which have produced a number of talented engineers and entrepreneurs. As a result, many global tech firms have chosen to invest in South Africa, and the country has become a hub for innovation and entrepreneurialism. Technology is widely known to provide some of the best investments returns in South Africa. While there are still many challenges to overcome, the future of technology in South Africa looks very bright.

Why this growth is happening

Increasingly, South Africa is being seen as a hub for technology and innovation. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the country has a large pool of talent, thanks to its highly educated workforce. Secondly, South Africa is home to a number of world-class universities, which are producing graduates with the skills that businesses need. Finally, the government is supportive of the tech sector, and is investing in infrastructure and initiatives that will help it to grow. As a result of all these factors, South Africa is an attractive destination for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to set up in the tech sector. And with continued investment and support, it is likely that the country will continue to see strong growth in this area.

Some of the biggest players in the industry

South Africa is home to some of the world's leading technology companies. From global giants like Google (News - Alert) and Microsoft to innovative start-ups, the country has a thriving tech scene. One of the most exciting things about the South African tech industry is its diversity. Companies here are working on a wide range of innovative products and services, from mobile apps to artificial intelligence. This diversity is one of the key factors driving the sector's growth. With a growing number of tech companies and entrepreneurs, South Africa is well on its way to becoming a major player in the global technology market.

What this means for the future of South Africa

The growth of the tech sector in South Africa is having a positive impact on the country as a whole. By attracting investment and talent, the sector is driving economic growth and creating jobs. In addition, the sector is helping to build South Africa's reputation as a destination for innovation and entrepreneurship. And with continued support from the government, it is likely that the tech industry will continue to thrive in South Africa. This will have a positive impact not only on the economy, but also on society as a whole.

The growth of technology investments in South Africa is having a positive impact on the country as a whole. The sector is creating jobs and attracting investment and talent. In addition, the sector is helping to build South Africa's reputation as a destination for innovation and entrepreneurship. And with continued support from the government, it is likely that the tech industry will continue to thrive in South Africa. This will have a positive impact not only on the economy, but also on society as a whole.
[November 08, 2022] CDB Aviation Leases Six A320neos to Air India

CDB Aviation, a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited ("CDB Leasing"), announced on the sidelines of Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Asia Pacific 2022 conference the signing of lease agreements for a fleet of six Airbus A320neo aircraft with India's leading airline, Air India. CDB Aviation is among the first aircraft leasing companies to secure the placement of Air India's additional A320neo aircraft under the recently announced multi-stage transformation plan since the purchase of the airline by Tata group, which aims to increase the carrier's fleet and help it boost both domestic and international operations. The aircraft will be delivered in the second half of 2023. "Our commercial team is delighted to have worked closely with Air India to help solve their fleet requirements with these new Airbus narrowbody aircraft from our orderbook," commented Ryan Barrett, CDB Aviation's Head of Asia Pacific. "These fuel-efficient, new generation aircraft are well suited to support Air India's fleet revitalization initiatives, positioning the airline for sustained growth and profitability.'' Commenting on the agreement, Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer of Air India, said: "This is an important agreement, which will help us to strengthen our fleet with state-of-the-art aircraft. This will boost our connectivity, especially on the short and medium-haul routes, and is an important step ahead in our transformation journey." "India is an increasingly important region for CDB Aviation, being the second largest Asia Pacific market for new aircraft deliveries, with nearly 1,000 Boeing and Airbus jets in its orderbook," explained Peter Goodman, CDB Aviation's Chief Commercial Officer. "Our commercial team remains steadfast in its outreach efforts across Asia Pacific, leveraging our platform's resources and scale to support the region's airlines in restoring their networks and growing their fleets." Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, beliefs r opinions, including with respect to CDB Aviation's business, financial condition, results of operations or plans. CDB Aviation cautions readers that no forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future performance and that actual results or other financial condition or performance measures could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate only to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as "may", "will", "seek", "continue", "aim", "anticipate", "target", "projected", "expect", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "goal", "believe", "achieve" or other terminology or words of similar or analogous meaning. These statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of CDB Aviation's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results and we do not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not undertake any obligation to, and will not, update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.



About Air India Founded by the legendary JRD Tata, Air India pioneered India's aviation sector. Since its first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has an extensive domestic network and has spread its wings beyond to become a major international airline with a network across USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Far-East, South- East Asia, Australia and the Gulf. Air India is a member of Star Alliance, the largest global airline consortium. After 69 years as a government-owned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were welcomed back into the Tata group in January 2022. The present management at Air India is driving the five-year transformation roadmap under the aegis of Vihaan.AI to establish itself as a world-class global airline with an Indian heart. www.airindia.in

About CDB Aviation CDB Aviation is a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited ("CDB Leasing"), a 36-year-old Chinese leasing company that is backed mainly by the China Development Bank. CDB Aviation is rated Investment Grade by Moody's (A2), S&P Global (A), and Fitch (A+). China Development Bank is under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council of China and is the world's largest development finance institution. It is also the largest Chinese bank for foreign investment and financing cooperation, long-term lending and bond issuance, enjoying Chinese sovereign credit rating. CDB Leasing is the only leasing arm of the China Development Bank and a leading company in China's leasing industry that has been engaged in aircraft, infrastructure, ship, commercial vehicle and construction machinery leasing and enjoys a Chinese sovereign credit rating. It took an important step in July 2016 to globalize and marketize its business - listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX STOCK CODE: 1606). www.CDBAviation.aero View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221104005410/en/

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The red wave was nowhere to be seen last night in Michigan, where Democrats won control of both the state House and Senate, according to Detroit Free Press. This is a legislative sweep not seen in the Great Lakes State since 1983. Governor Gretchen Whitmer also beat Trump-endorsed Tudor Dixon by a hefty margin (54.5%  43.9% at last glance). Both the overturning of Roe v. Wade and recent redistricting have been credited, in part, to the Democratic victory.

From Detroit Free Press:

The shift is perhaps the starkest sign Michigan voters rejected the "red wave" predicted by Republicans, instead opting for Democrats in more competitive races shaped largely by redistricting.

The Associated Press had not confirmed the results of each race, but current Republican leaders in both the House and Senate acknowledged they lost power and their Democratic counterparts have claimed victory. 

"The overturn of Roe v. Wade reminded the nation that some of the most important, impactful policies come from right here in state legislatures. And when Michiganders turned to take a look at what was going on in their Capitol under longstanding Republican control, they knew it was time for a change," said outgoing Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint.

"We now have a new majority  a majority for the people. You can trust that the new Democratic leadership will support women's reproductive health, better pathways to good-paying jobs, clean drinking water, and safe roads."

While Democrats were confident they could win a majority of positions in the 38-seat state Senate, a clean legislative sweep was a far tougher prospect. Yet they appear poised to secure 20 seats in the upper chamber and 56 of the 110 seats in the lower chamber, per unofficial results.
[November 08, 2022] Albertsons Cos. Issues Statement Regarding U.S. District Court for District of Columbia's Ruling to Deny Request by California, Illinois and District of Columbia Attorneys General for Temporary Restraining Order Against its Special Dividend Payment

Albertsons Companies (NYSE: ACI) ("Albertsons Cos." or "the Company") today announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has denied the request by the California, Illinois and District of Columbia Attorneys General for a temporary restraining order ("TRO") against the Company's previously announced $6.85 per common share Special Dividend (the "Special Dividend"), originally scheduled to be paid on November 7, 2022. Albertsons Cos. continues to seek to overturn the existing temporary restraining order granted by the Washington State Court on November 3, which was based on the incorrect assertion that payment of the Special Dividend would impair the Company's ability to compete while its proposed merger (the "Merger") with The Kroger Co. ("Kroger") is under antitrust review. This order, which restrains the Company from paying the Special Dividend, remains in effect until November 10, 2022, unless within that time, an order is entered extending or dismissing the temporary restraining order. Albertsons Cos. continues to maintain that the lawsuit brought by the State of Washington is meritless and provides no legal basis for canceling or postponing a dividend that has been duly and unanimously approved by Albertsons Cos.' fully informed Board of Directors. After payment of the Special Dividend, Albertsons Cos. will have approximately $3.0 bilion 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, further increasing liquidity. 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.



The Company remains fully committed to investing in the associates, stores, and digital capabilities that have made its recent growth and strong performance possible. 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/20221108006301/en/

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[November 08, 2022] ViewSonic Showcases a 3D Virtual Learning Solution at EDUtech Asia 2022

SINGAPORE, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ViewSonic Corp. , a leading global provider of visual solutions, presents its latest education technology solutions at EDUtech Asia 2022 from November 9th  10th (booth no. F11) to demonstrate an advanced 3D virtual learning platform. The company offers myViewBoard Suite with rich online teaching tools and UNIVERSE by ViewSonic, a metaverse built for education, for more immersive online learning experiences. In addition to the platforms, the new 24-inch touch monitor ID2456 and the 65-inch ViewBoard 52 series interactive display are showcased to demonstrate various teaching environments  from small physical spaces to widely accessible 3D virtual worlds. "Educational institutions are deploying virtual lassrooms at a growing pace, but facilitating a collaborative online learning environment and encouraging meaningful interactions is still a challenge with technologies currently available," said Kevin Chu, Director of UNIVERSE Business Unit at ViewSonic. "To support educators and students to teach and learn as if they were in a real classroom, ViewSonic created UNIVERSE to break barriers and fuel better engagement and collaboration, while fostering a sense of belonging in an online setting."



UNIVERSE by ViewSonic moves online learning from 2D, unidirectional flow to a 3D immersive environment, leveraging successful in-person teaching methods in a virtual space. In the virtual classroom, students can interact and navigate around the digital campus through personalized avatars. Communication through true-to-life sound, chat messages, and emojis, paired with intuitive controls create a unique setting that empowers students to drive the learning journey. For enhanced collaboration, teachers can send students out into breakout rooms for more focused group work. On the UNIVERSE platform, teachers can also utilize myViewBoard tools through the built-in browser. Teaching is intuitive such as presenting content from your device, casting from your camera, and creating pop quizzes. Detailed learning reports reveal students' engagement levels, supporting teachers with data-driven insights for improved learning outcomes.

ViewSonic visualized a modernized virtual classroom setup. For educators teaching from small spaces, the ID2456 touch monitor with a pen offers an intuitive writing experience to annotate and collaborate digitally. It also works as a digital podium in seconds for presentations. With ViewBoard 52 series and myViewBoard Suite, educators can teach freely with creative and interactive content, enhancing engagement in both digital and physical classrooms. To find out more about UNIVERSE by ViewSonic, visit ViewSonic at EDUtech Asia 2022 (booth no. F11, Sands Expo). Kevin Chu will present 'Building Stronger Social Connections and Enhancing Collaboration Through a Metaverse Learning Environment' at the TECH Showcase Stage 3 at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9th, and 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 10th. ViewSonic at EDUtech Asia 2022

When: 9:30 a.m. 6 p.m., November 9th -10th

Where: Booth no. F11, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Sands Expo, Singapore. About ViewSonic

Founded in California, ViewSonic is a leading global provider of visual solutions and conducts business in over 100 countries worldwide. As an innovator and visionary, ViewSonic is committed to providing comprehensive hardware and software solutions that include monitors, projectors, pen displays, commercial displays, All-in-One LED displays, ViewBoard interactive displays, and myViewBoard software ecosystem. With over 35 years of expertise in visual displays, ViewSonic has established a strong position for delivering innovative and reliable solutions for education, enterprise, consumer, and professional markets and helping customers "See the Difference." To find out more about ViewSonic, please visit www.viewsonic.com. SOURCE ViewSonic Corp.

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[November 08, 2022] CCTV+: Dreams and Dramas in Tang Xianzu's Hometown

BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fuzhou, a city in Jiangxi Province and hometown of Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), a celebrated playwright of the Ming Dynasty, has traditionally been known for its gifted scholars and profound culture. Leveraging its unique drama culture and resources, over recent years, the city has organized a range of cultural exchanges on drama to promote the Tang Xianzu brand, spread the cream of traditional Chinese culture, and better tell China's stories to the rest of the world, showcasing the contemporary charm of "China's City of Plays". "Love once begun will never end. The lovers may die for love, the dead in love may revive." This beautiful line from The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu has been sung for more than 400 years. This play, regarded as a gem of the world's theatrical art, is still popular on stages at home and aroad to date. "Culture is in the blood of a nation and is the soul of a city. Fuzhou has held fast to the cultural brand of Tang Xianzu's plays to drive progress in the drama culture." Over recent years, the city has hosted various cultural events, including Tang Xianzu Theater Festival & International Theater Exchange Month, the National Excellent High-Pitched Opera Repertoire Exhibition, the "Scent of Chinese Tea" National Tea-Picking Opera Extravaganza, Jiangxi Camellia Theatre Festival, and Jiangxi Cultural Tour Exhibition. Fuzhou has also created cultural exchange platforms to domestic and foreign drama cultures and boosting the influences of Fuzhou's cultural brands. Since 2016, the International Conference on Tang Xianzu has been an annual gathering of experts studying Tang Xianzu and has published such books as A History of Research on Tang Xianzu in the 20th Century and Selected Papers on Tang Xianzu in the 20th Century, and produced a wide range of research achievements, such as the Textual Research of the Original Record of Tang Xianzu's Family Tree, Tang Xianzu in 1592 and A Textual Study of Tang Xianzu's Ancestral Home.



After years of efforts and explorations, Tang Xianzu Theater Festival & International Theater Exchange Month has become a signature event of traditional Chinese culture and an attractive brand of international cultural exchange for Fuzhou and China. Fuzhou is making big strides toward building China's City of Plays for learning, watching, performing, evaluating, and writing theatre plays. SOURCE CCTV+



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[November 08, 2022]

Launch of India's first Health Maintenance Organization, Athina Healthcare

NEW DELHI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Athina Healthcare has rolled out its first version of the health application for corporate employees and insurance policyholders. The SAAS platform is a single health & wellness hub to get proper care for individuals and their families with a handful of medical care services backed by a strong on-ground team and health assist managers, available 24X7.

With the proliferation in need for trusting healthcare platforms among a rising number of e-pharmacies and e-consultation platforms, the launch of a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) like Athina Healthcare is a must for the healthcare industry.

The platform brings its users easy access to 24x7 helth concierge, unlimited teleconsultation for 20+ specialties, lab & radiology testing at leading diagnostic centers, surgery by top surgeons, healthcare at home services, complete assistance for hospital admissions & insurance claims, chronic disease management, discounts up to 55% on all health checkups, same day medicine deliveries and road & air ambulance, PAN India.







Athina Healthcare also provides second opinions and hospital assistance at top global hospitals including UCLA Health in the US, Sunway Medical Centre in Malaysia, Hirslanden Hospitals in Switzerland, Wooridul Spine Hospital in Korea, and others.

Mr. Hanish Bansal, Founder & CEO - Athina Healthcare in a statement said, "Athina Health App is your one-stop solution to all healthcare needs. Users get suggestions and recommendations for the right treatment and surgeons. Moreover, medical expenses for all users and their dependants is supported with zero cost treatment finance. Our vision is to provide the best medical care under one roof and reducing annual medical expenses by upto 40%, that also enables a huge reduction in annual health insurance premiums."

Corporates even get to conduct regular vaccination drives, health camps & webinars with annual health packages and health talk by leading physicians.

To reach Athina Healthcare, you can mail us at [email protected].

Contact: Hanish Bansal, +91-9910955443, [email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1941553/Athina_Healthcare_Logo.jpg
[November 08, 2022] U.S. BANCORP SHAREHOLDER ALERT: CLAIMSFILER REMINDS INVESTORS WITH LOSSES IN EXCESS OF $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against U.S. Bancorp - USB

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until December 27, 2022 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), if they purchased the Companys securities between August 1, 2019 and July 28, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Get Help U.S. Bancorp investors should visit us at https://claimsfiler.com/cases/nyse-usb/ or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options. About the Lawsuit U.S. Bancorp and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.



On July 28, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined the Company $37.5 million for a range of unlawful acts and practices including opening unauthorized accounts and unlawfully accessing customers' credit reports and personal data in violation of the Truth in Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Truth in Savings Act, and the Consumer Financial Protection Act. On this news, shares of U.S. Bancorp stock fell approximately 4% to a closing price of $46.12 per share.

The case is The Buhrke Family Revocable Trust v. U.S. Bancorp, et al., 22-cv-09174. About ClaimsFiler ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations. To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.



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[November 09, 2022] CLAIMS CONFERENCE RELAUNCHES THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR-LED CAMPAIGN: #ITSTARTEDWITHWORDS IN COMMEMORATION OF KRISTALLNACHT

Relaunched By The Claims Conference In Response To The Rise In Holocaust Denial, Distortion And Antisemitism, This Survivor-Led Campaign Shows The World The Results Of Hate Speech NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), in commemoration of Kristallnacht, announces the relaunch of their Holocaust survivor-led, digital campaign, #ItStartedWithWords. #ItStartedWithWords is a Holocaust education campaign featuring survivors from around the globe reflecting on the moments that led up to the Holocaust  a period when they could not have predicted the ease with which their neighbors, teachers, classmates and colleagues would turn on them, transitioning from words of hate to acts of violence. Greg Schneider, Executive Vice President of the Claims Conference said, "Relaunching this campaign goes beyond commemorating Kristallnacht. With the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial, distortion and hate speech on social platforms and in communities across the country, the core message behind the #ItStartedWithWords campaign becomes even more important: the Holocaust did not start with camps, ghettos and deportations; it started with words of hate. The results from our 2020 U.S. Millennial Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey, which ound that 63 percent of Millennials and Gen Z did not know six million Jews were murdered, combined with the rise in antisemitism, underscores the need for Holocaust education."



Kristallnacht exemplifies the evolution of words of hate to actions. In November 1938, a series of attacks against Jews living in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland were coordinated and carried out by the SA paramilitary forces supported by local citizens, all while German officials turned a blind eye. In total, more than 260 synagogues were destroyed, 7,000 Jewish businesses were demolished or looted, and more than 30,000 Jews were rounded up, humiliated in the streets of their own towns, and arrested, ultimately ending up in concentration camps. Kristallnacht  literally the night of broken glass  was an action of unchecked hatred that evolved from the words and policies of hate that spread across the German Reich and became the preamble to the Holocaust. Several notable Holocaust survivors recorded videos for the #ItStartedWithWords campaign, including Abe Foxman, born in Poland in 1940, now living in the U.S.; Yisrael Meir Lau, born in Poland in 1937, now living in Israel; Eva Schloss, born in Austria in 1929, now living in the United Kingdom; Colette Avital, born in 1940 in Bucharest, Romania, now living in Israel; Sidney Zoltak, born in Poland in 1931, now living in Canada; and Charlotte Knobloch, born in 1932 in Munich, Germany, where she still lives.

#ItStartedWithWords illustrates how racist and antisemitic speech led to actions that nearly saw the mass extermination of an entire people. To provide educational resources from partner museums and institutions, as well as the collection of the survivor videos from the campaign, the Claims Conference also maintains ItStartedWithWords.org, a website that serves as a resource for educators around the world. About the Claims Conference: The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), a nonprofit organization with offices in New York, Israel and Germany, secures material compensation for Holocaust survivors around the world. Founded in 1951 by representatives of 23 major international Jewish organizations, the Claims Conference negotiates for and disburses funds to individuals and organizations and seeks the return of Jewish property stolen during the Holocaust. As a result of negotiations with the Claims Conference since 1952, the German government has paid more than $90 billion in indemnification to individuals for suffering and losses resulting from persecution by the Nazis. In 2022, the Claims Conference will distribute over $700 million in compensation to over 210,000 survivors in 83 countries and allocated over $720 million in grants to over 300 social service agencies worldwide that provide vital services for Holocaust survivors, such as homecare, food and medicine. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/claims-conference-relaunches-the-holocaust-survivor-led-campaign-itstartedwithwords-in-commemoration-of-kristallnacht-301672403.html SOURCE Claims Conference

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[November 09, 2022] 5-D Building Information Modeling Market to grow by USD 840.99 Million by 2026, Segmentation by Type and Geography - Technavio

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Technavio has been monitoring the 5-D building information modeling market, operating under the Application Software industry. The report shows the market to register an incremental growth of USD 840.99 million, at a CAGR of 15.68% during the forecast period. 37% of the growth will originate from North America. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. Request the Latest Free sample report. Parent Market Analysis Technavio categorizes the global fifth-dimensional (5-D) building information modeling (BIM) software market as a part of the global application software market within the global IT software market. The parent global IT software market covers companies that are engaged in developing and producing application and system software. It also includes companies offering database management software. The global application software market covers companies that are engaged in developing and producing software designed for specialized applications for the business or consumer market. It includes enterprise and technical software, as well as cloud-based software. It excludes companies classified in the interactive home entertainment sub-industry and companies producing systems or database management software classified in the systems software sub-industry. Growth in the global application software market will be driven by the following factors: Increasing adoption of analytics in enterprises

Increasing software investments by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Growing adoption of cloud- and subscription-based software

Availability of open-source applications

Data security concerns To unlock information about vendor drive costs and customer service, download a free sample report. 5-D Building Information Modeling Market Value Chain Analysis The end-to-end understanding of the value chain is essential in profit margin optimization and evaluation of business strategies. The data available in our value chain analysis segment can help vendors drive costs and enhance customer services during the forecast period. The value chain of the 5-D building information modeling market includes the following core components: Inputs

Inbound logistics

Operations

Outbound logistics

Marketing and sales

Service

Support activities

Innovation 5-D Building Information Modeling Market 2022-2026: Segmentation Based on geographic segmentation, 37% of the growth will originate from North America during the forecast period. In addition, the 5-D building information modeling market share growth by the software segment will be significant during the forecast period. This report provides an accurate prediction of the contribution of all the segments to the growth of the superfood powders market size. Type

Software



Service

Geography

North America



Europe



APAC



Middle East And Africa



South America To know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years, Buy Sample Report. 5-D Building Information Modeling Market 2022-2026: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The 5-D building information modeling market report covers the following areas: 5-D Building Information Modeling Market Size

5-D Building Information Modeling Market Trends

5-D Building Information Modeling Market Industry Analysis This study identifies Increasing investment in intelligent processing as one of the prime reasons driving the 5-D Building Information Modeling Market growth during the next few years. 5-D Building Information Modeling Market 2022-2026: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026

Detailed information on factors that will assist 5-D building information modeling market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the 5-D building information modeling market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the 5-D building information modeling market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of the 5-D building information modeling market, vendors Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights! Subscribe to our "Basic Plan" billed annually at USD 5000. Related Reports Global Social Media Management Software Market by Deployment and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The report extensively covers the social media management software market segmentation by deployment (cloud-based and on-premises) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa). Third-Party Logistics Software Market by Deployment and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The report extensively covers the Third-Party logistics software market segmentations by deployment (cloud and on-premise) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa).







5-D Building Information Modeling Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 15.68% Market growth 2022-2026 $840.99 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 15.2 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 37% Key consumer countries US, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 4M SA Advanced Software Engineering Systems, ABB Ltd., ACCA software Spa, Accencies Technologies, AECOM, Asite Solutions Ltd., Autodesk Inc., AVEVA Group Plc, Beck Technology Ltd., Bentley Systems Inc., Cadsoft Corp., Dassault Systemes SE, Hexagon AB, Monarch Innovation Pvt. Ltd., Nemetschek SE, PENTAGON SOLUTION LTD., RIB Software GmbH, STRABAG SE, TeamSystem Spa, and Trimble 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 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 ($ million)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by 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 Software - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Software - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Software - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Software - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Software - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Service - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Service - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Service - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by Type ($ million) 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 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 42: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 43: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 44: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 45: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

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 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 50: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 52: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 56: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 59: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 60: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 62: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 64: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 72: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 73: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Chart on Italy - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on Italy - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 81: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.13 France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 84: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.14 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 86: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 87: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 88: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 89: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 90: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 91: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 92: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 Asite Solutions Ltd.

Exhibit 93: Asite Solutions Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 94: Asite Solutions Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 95: Asite Solutions Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 96: Asite Solutions Ltd. - Key offerings 10.4 Autodesk Inc.

Exhibit 97: Autodesk Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 98: Autodesk Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 99: Autodesk Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 100: Autodesk Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: Autodesk Inc. - Segment focus 10.5 AVEVA Group Plc

Exhibit 102: AVEVA Group Plc - Overview



Exhibit 103: AVEVA Group Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 104: AVEVA Group Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 105: AVEVA Group Plc - Segment focus 10.6 Bentley Systems Inc.

Exhibit 106: Bentley Systems Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 107: Bentley Systems Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 108: Bentley Systems Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 109: Bentley Systems Inc. - Key offerings 10.7 Dassault Systemes SE

Exhibit 110: Dassault Systemes SE - Overview



Exhibit 111: Dassault Systemes SE - Product / Service



Exhibit 112: Dassault Systemes SE - Key news



Exhibit 113: Dassault Systemes SE - Key offerings 10.8 Hexagon AB

Exhibit 114: Hexagon AB - Overview



Exhibit 115: Hexagon AB - Business segments



Exhibit 116: Hexagon AB - Key offerings



Exhibit 117: Hexagon AB - Segment focus 10.9 Nemetschek SE

Exhibit 118: Nemetschek SE - Overview



Exhibit 119: Nemetschek SE - Business segments



Exhibit 120: Nemetschek SE - Key offerings



Exhibit 121: Nemetschek SE - Segment focus 10.10 RIB Software GmbH

Exhibit 122: RIB Software GmbH - Overview



Exhibit 123: RIB Software GmbH - Product / Service



Exhibit 124: RIB Software GmbH - Key offerings 10.11 STRABAG SE

Exhibit 125: STRABAG SE - Overview



Exhibit 126: STRABAG SE - Business segments



Exhibit 127: STRABAG SE - Key news



Exhibit 128: STRABAG SE - Key offerings



Exhibit 129: STRABAG SE - Segment focus 10.12 Trimble Inc.

Exhibit 130: Trimble Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 131: Trimble Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 132: Trimble Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 133: Trimble Inc. - Segment focus 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 134: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 135: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 136: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 137: Research methodology



Exhibit 138: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 139: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 140: 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/ View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/5-d-building-information-modeling-market-to-grow-by-usd-840-99-million-by-2026--segmentation-by-type-and-geography---technavio-301671166.html SOURCE Technavio

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[November 09, 2022] Procore Launches in Germany to Expand Growth Across Europe

Procore Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: PCOR), a leading global provider of construction management software, today announced its launch in Germany as it expands its international footprint. The launch signifies Procore's continued investment and commitment in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, following its successful expansion into MENA in 2021 and France in 2022. With this latest launch, Procore advances the opportunity for its unified, connected platform to support construction professionals in Germany and neighbouring countries by empowering them to operate more efficiently. The Procore platform accelerates collaboration, streamlines communication and improves decision-making and visibility of performance based on accurate, accessible data, which is updated in real-time. Procore's regional operations will be led by Snior Director for Germany and Central Europe, Wolfgang Soelch. Bringing considerable expertise, Soelch will build operations with customer touchpoints across sales, marketing, IT, finance, implementation, customer success and more.



"Data-driven technology in the region is accelerating rapidly as the industry seeks new ways to optimise performance and improve productivity, whilst also navigating skilled labor shortages, supply-chain disruptions and price hikes," comments Wolfgang Soelch, senior director for Germany and Central Europe at Procore. "What's unique about Procore is that we live and breathe construction: our software is developed by construction experts, for construction experts. Our approach has always been to partner with the industry to understand their challenges and, in return, provide solutions that can improve the everyday working lives of everyone in construction. We are very pleased to now be able to support the construction industry in Germany and Central Europe as they leverage the full potential of construction technology."

Today, Procore is the world's most widely used construction management software with over 13,000 customers running over 1 million projects around the world. Procore connects information and teams on a single, powerful and easy-to-use platform that is purpose-built for construction; enabling owners, general contractors and specialty contractors to enhance collaboration, communication and visibility of project performance. Moreover, it also empowers construction firms to transform their approach to management and decision making by unlocking the power of their data to optimise growth and business outcomes. "For the past 20 years, our mission has been to connect everyone in construction on a global platform," explained Tooey Courtemanche, founder and CEO of Procore. "Today's launch is an important milestone in helping us realise our long-term goal to be the single platform which supports construction professionals across the world. Procore is currently used in over 150 countries, including customers in German-speaking countries . By officially entering this market, we can now be the best partner for local construction companies and their clients." Procore's first major public appearance in Germany will be as an Executive Partner at the BIM World trade fair in Munich from 22-23rd November. In his keynote speech, Product Marketing Manager for Germany and Central Europe at Procore, Andreas Steyer will address the importance of working together on a common platform for future technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM). Visitors to BIM World will be able to try Procore for themselves at the exhibition stand (Booth #47). About Procore Procore is a leading global provider of construction management software. Over 1 million projects and more than $1 trillion USD in construction volume have run on Procore's platform. Our platform connects every project stakeholder to solutions we've built specifically for the construction industry-for the owner, the general contractor, and the specialty contractor. Procore's App Marketplace has a multitude of partner solutions that integrate seamlessly with our platform, giving construction professionals the freedom to connect with what works best for them. Headquartered in Carpinteria, California, Procore has offices in the United States, Canada, and around the globe. Learn more at Procore.com/de. www.procore.com PROCORE-IR View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006348/en/

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[November 09, 2022] SES Selects Arianespace to Launch EAGLE-1 Satellite for Europe's Quantum Cryptography

The EAGLE-1 satellite, which will support the end-to-end secure Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system for Europe, will be launched for SES by Arianespace on a Vega C rocket from French Guiana as early as Q4 2024. The satellite will be placed into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The EAGLE-1 project comprising satellite and ground infrastructure, is developed by SES and its consortium of 20 European partners, with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission support. Under the recently-signed agreement with ESA, SES and its partners will design, develop, launch and operate a satellite-based end-to-end QKD system for the purpose of testing and validating space-based secure transmission of cryptographic keys. The first European sovereign space-based QKD system will include the dedicated low earth orbit (LEO) EAGLE-1 satellite and state-of-the-art QKD operations centre in Luxembourg. In the scope of EuroQCI, the EAGLE-1 satellite will enable early access, validation, and integration of space-based QKD for EU Member States. "Building the EAGLE-1 end-to-end system for secure data transmission and validating the long-distance Quantum Key Distribution technology is an innovative project that will benefit the EU Member States," said Ruy Pinto, Chief Technology Officer at SES. "We have been working with Arianespace for decades to deliver our satellites into space and are delighted for them to be onboard to launch the EAGLE-1 satellite into orbit." "We are delighted and honored by this renewed mark of confidence from the leading global content connectivity service provider SES," noted Marino Fragnito, Director of Arianespace's Vega business unit. "Over the last 38 years, Arianespace has carried out 42 launches for its longstanding partner, and Vega C will now continue this successful track record. It is a great honor for us to support our customer's ambitions and to be part of this mission that aims at implementing Europe's satellite-enabled cybersecurity technology." Following the launch, the EAGLE-1 satellite will complete three years of in-orbit mission supported by the European Commission. During this operational phase, the satellite will allow European Union governments and institutions, as well as critical business sectors, early access to long-distance QKD that would path the way towards an EU constellation enabling ultra-secure data transmissions. The EAGLE-1 project is co-funded by the ESA contribution of Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Czech Republic under ARTES, as well as the European Commission through Horizon Europe. Vega C, the new European light launcher successfully passed its inaugural flight on July 13 and now enters its operational phase under the responsibility of Arianespace. With this contract, Vega C backlog includes over 40 satellites contracts. Vega C development program has been managed by ESA with 12 Member States of the Agency. Avio Spa (Colleferro, Italy) is the industrial prime of the Vega launch system. Vega C has been upgraded with more powerful first and second stage Solid Rocket Motors and with a larger fairing, which significantly increases payload mass and double allowable volume as compared to Vega. The launcher also better meets the specific needs of small spacecrafts, thanks to its improved SSMS dispenser and to its AVUM+ that allows seven re-ignitions instead of five. Vega C can thus deliver to three different separation orbits for its multiple payloads within the same mission, instead of the two previously possible with Vega. For more information, visit the EAGLE-1 Newsroom



Follow SES on: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram

Read our Blogs > Visit the Media Gallery > Follow Arianespace on: Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram About ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. For more information see www.esa.int The Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Directorate (TIA) supports innovation to boost the competitiveness of European industry in the global space market. This involves a wide range of activities, from space-based technology, systems, products for telecommunications development to the down-to-Earth application of space-based services. It also calls for engagement with a wide range of industrial, academic, and institutional partners. For more information, please visit our website: https://artes.esa.int/ About SES SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world's only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world's leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES's video network carries ~8,000 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 366 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com. About Arianespace Arianespace uses Space to make life better on Earth by providing launch services for all types of satellites into all orbits. It has orbited over 1,100 satellites since 1980. Arianespace is responsible for operating the new-generation Ariane 6 and Vega C launchers, developed by ESA, with respectively ArianeGroup and Avio as industrial primes. Arianespace is headquartered in Evry, near Paris, and has a technical facility at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, plus local offices in Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Singapore. Arianespace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, which holds 74% of its share capital, with the balance held by 15 other shareholders from the Ariane and Vega European launcher industry, and ESA and Cnes as censors. www.arianespace.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006349/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Sosei Heptares' President & CEO and Head of UK R&D to Participate in a 'Fireside Chat' at the Jefferies London Healthcare Conference 2022

TOKYO and CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sosei Group Corporation (the Company; TSE: 4565) announces its President & CEO Chris Cargill and Matt Barnes, Head of UK R&D, will participate in a Fireside Chat at the Jefferies London Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, 15 November at 11:30 a.m. GMT / 6:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. JST.

The live webcast of the Fireside Chat will be available here. The replay will also be available at the same link for 90 days post the event. About Sosei Heptares

We are an international biopharmaceutical group focused on the discovery and early development of new medicines originating from our proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. We are advancing a broad and deep pipeline of novel medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including neurology, immunology, gastroenterology, and inflammatory diseases. We have established partnerships with some of the worlds leading pharmaceutical companies and multiple emerging technology companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Genentech (Roche), GSK, Kallyope, Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda and Verily. Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with corporate and R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK. Sosei Heptares is the corporate brand and trademark of Sosei Group Corporation,which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565). Sosei, Heptares, the logo and StaR are trademarks of Sosei Group companies.



For more information, please visit soseiheptares.com

LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco Enquiries:

Sosei Heptares  Media and Investor Relations

Hironoshin Nomura, Chief Financial Officer

Shinichiro Nishishita, VP Investor Relations, Head of Regulatory Disclosures

Candelle Chong, SVP Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy

Japan: +81 (0)3 5210 3399 | United Kingdom: +44 (0)1223 949390 | [email protected] MEDiSTRAVA Consulting (for International Media)

Mark Swallow, Frazer Hall, Eleanor Perkin

+44 (0)203 928 6900 | [email protected] Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development, and commercialization of products. Various risks may cause Sosei Group Corporations actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.





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American Godzilla films are weird. Although Godzilla movies financed by American studios have stellar special effects, there's just something that always seems a little off about the flicks to the die-hard tokusatsu fans in attendance. The knee-jerk reaction is to say something to the effect of "oh, well, I guess if it isn't just guys in rubber costumes duking it out, then it doesn't work for you, huh?"

It's a fair question, as nostalgia plays a significant part in the fandom of most tokusatsu enthusiasts. However, rubber suits, or the lack of them, are an entirely different matter than what makes American Godzilla movies feel a little strange. Just compare 2014's Godzilla movie from Legendary Pictures to 2016's masterful Shin Godzilla from Toho Pictures. It's hard to describe, but Shin Godzilla just feels right, whereas the Legendary Picture's variant is lacking something. Well, according to Digital Spy, fans of Shin Godzilla are in for a treat as Toho pictures are gearing up for a new film next year.
[November 09, 2022] 2022 CAMTECH SUMMIT POWERED BY PRUDENTIAL AT SINGAPORE FINTECH FESTIVAL

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time ever Cambodia was represented at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2022 last November 2-4, 2022. The event bought together 850 expert speakers and 250 hours of content. Cambodia was represented through CamTech Summit Powered by Prudential as one of the Country Pavilions with its Title Sponsor Prudential Cambodia and the National Bank of Cambodia as their co-exhibitors at the festival. Cambodia Highlights from SFF: CAFT signs MoU with 5 ASEAN nations (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) for the One SEAN FinTech Movement. The MoU seeks to formalize each national FinTech association's involvement in the formation of the ASEAN FinTech Movement, with the goal of raising the region's profile as a FinTech powerhouse, as well as providing a common networking platform for the region's FinTech players to tap onto. The MOU also outlines four key areas where the associations can collaborate on: education, updates on regulatory developments, networking, and promote Southeast Asia as a regional FinTech powerhouse.



Cambodia also showcased in the SFF Ecosystem Stage: Bakong project-The Next-Generation Mobile Payments and Banking. The presentation was well received by the audience and solidified the fact that Cambodia has a vast offering of fintech capabilities that can compete with its ASEAN neighbors. H.E. Dr. CHEA SEREY, Assistant Governor and Director General of National Bank of Cambodia was in several thought leadership forums and speaking engagements to represent Cambodia as well as the National Bank of Cambodia.

CamTech Powered by Prudential is proud to be part of this historic moment that shows how Cambodia's tech and fintech talent readiness in competing globally. CamTech Summit powered by Prudential is the flagship fintech event in Cambodia co-organized by the Cambodian Fintech Association (CAFT), National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), Cambodia Microfinance Association and Association of Banks Cambodia with Prudential as its title sponsor. Cambodia is also one of the partner countries for the Singapore Fintech Festival which is organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Elevandi. This event would not be possible with the generosity of our Title sponsor Prudential Cambodia, Gold Sponsor Krama, Bronze Sponsor Acleda Bank, AMK Microfinance, Phillip Bank and TrueMoney; Content Sponsor DQD Consulting and Ipay88 and our Media Partners Cambodia Investment Review, FreshNews, KhmerTimes, Sabay and PRNewswire. SOURCE Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology

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[November 09, 2022] MALAYSIAN COMPANIES TO SHOWCASE AT ACETECH MUMBAI 2022, THE LEADING BUILDING MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION SHOW IN INDIA

MUMBAI, India, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) through its Mumbai office will be coordinating the participation of eight (8) Malaysian companies in ACETECH Mumbai from 10-13 November, 2022. ACETECH is the largest annual exhibition in India on architecture, construction, engineering, building materials and related sectors. Besides Mumbai, the exhibition also runs in Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. This year marks MATRADE's first presence in ACETECH Mumbai after its participation in ACETECH Delhi in 2018. The objective of the participation of Malaysian companies is to build a business relationship between Malaysian and India businesses. The ACETECH series of events annually attracts over 2,800 exhibitors (combined) and showcase the latest products, technologies and services available in the market. According to Mr. Norman Dzulkarnain Nasri, MATRADE's Trade Consul in Mumbai, during the event the Malaysian companies will be showcasing construction and building materials including resin flooring, panel tanks, plastic pellets and sanitary ware. In addition, services related to accredited certification, testing laboratory and green building consultancy will also be promoted at the exhibition. He also added that among the South Asian countries, India is Malaysia's largest trading partner, export destination and source of import. Malaysia's total trade with India grew by 26% to USD16.82 billion in 2021. "Hence, the participation in ACETECH will help promote Malaysian products and services as well as brands in India. Malasia and India can complement each other in terms of its trade engagements through trade agreement," said Mr Norman Dzulkarnain Nasri.



The construction sector in India boasts vast potential as the government plans for supporting infrastructure development in the country as a driver for economic growth. The government of India has estimated a GDP growth rate of around 9% in 2022, and more than 7% in 2023, making India one of the fastest growing developing economies in the world. MATRADE has been playing a strategic role in developing and promoting Malaysia's exports to the world, including India. It aims to promote, assist and develop Malaysia's external trade with particular emphasis on the export of manufactured and semi-manufactured products as well as services sector.

In this regard, Consulate General of Malaysia in Mumbai encourages India and Malaysian companies to leverage on MATRADE's office here. Malaysian exporters and India business community kindly contact MATRADE Mumbai at [email protected] to get more info about the programme or any other enquiries pertaining to Malaysian products and services. Issued by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) on Tuesday, 8 November 2022 Follow us on Twitter @matrade, Facebook  Matrade HQ

Instagram @matrade_hq, LinkedIn  MATRADE About Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) MATRADE's mission to promote Malaysian export has enabled many local companies to carve new frontiers in global markets. Today as we continue to put the spotlight on capable Malaysian companies on the international stage, we are helping make the phrase 'Made-In-Malaysia' synonymous with excellence, reliability, and trustworthiness. MATRADE has 46 overseas network that supports its HQ, located at Menara MATRADE, Jalan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its functions are: To promote, assist and develop Malaysia's external trade with particular emphasis on the export of manufactured and semi-manufactured products and services

external trade with particular emphasis on the export of manufactured and semi-manufactured products and services To formulate and implement export marketing strategies and trade promotion activities to promote Malaysia's export

export To undertake commercial intelligence and market research and create a comprehensive database of information for the improvement and development of Malaysia's trade

trade To organise training programmes to improve the international marketing skills of Malaysian exporters

To enhance and protect Malaysia's international trade investment abroad; and

international trade investment abroad; and To promote, facilitate and assist in the services areas related to trade For more information, please contact: MATRADE MUMBAI

Consulate General of Malaysia - Trade Section

Suite 301, 3rd Floor, Naman Centre, Block G,

Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai, Maharashtra - 400051, India.

Tel: +91 22 2659 7272 / 73 | Email: [email protected]

Media Contact: Ms. Risha Rajput Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1942367/MATRADE_Trade_Consul.jpg

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[November 09, 2022] Greater Manchester Police Completes Digital Investigations 9.5 Hours Faster With Magnet Forensics' Magnet AUTOMATE

Magnet Forensics (TSX: MAGT), a developer of digital investigation software for more than 4,000 enterprises and public safety organizations in over 100 countries, today announced that the Greater Manchester Police, in conjunction with the U.K.'s Forensic Capability Network, has successfully accelerated its digital investigations into child sexual exploitation by deploying Magnet AUTOMATE. With Magnet AUTOMATE, a solution that uses automation and orchestration to keep police investigations running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year without human intervention, the Greater Manchester Police completed cases an average of 9.5 hours faster during a yearlong pilot. "The Greater Manchester Police has seen an incredible increase in the volume of digital evidence, year-over-year, for the better part of a decade," said Dave Smith, head of digital forensics, Greater Manchester Police. "In the next year, the Greater Manchester Police is going to build on our early success and roll out Magnet AUTOMATE as an essential function to all our digital investigations. Magnet AUTOMATE will fundamentally improve how we address critical digital evidence and allow us to complete our digital investigations faster than we ever could by using what was once hours of downtime in evenings and weekends to continue to advance our work." The influx of digital evidence being handled by the Greater Manchester Police is directly linked to Britons becoming more connected and welcoming more devices into their households. As of 2020, the average U.K. household contained more than 10 Internet-enabled devices, up 26 per cent from 2017. Each one of those devices contains droves of data that have proven essential to helping police fight crimes. Now, over 90 per cent of investigations have a digital element. The problem is that there is often too much digital evidence for police agencies to handle, which results in delays to investigations. Police agencies in the U.K. reportedly have a cumulative backlog of 20,000 devices that require examination, according to a recent Freedom of Information response.



"Police agencies worldwide are seeing major evidence bottlenecks form between the time that devices are collected in the field from witnesses, victims and suspects and the time that the digital evidence found on them is processed," said Jad Saliba, founder and chief technology officer of Magnet Forensics. "The Greater Manchester Police's success demonstrates the transformational impact that Magnet AUTOMATE is having on digital investigations. Magnet AUTOMATE relieves evidence bottlenecks to ensure that digital evidence is an asset that helps investigators get to the truth and does not instead become a liability that threatens to delay the pursuit of justice." Magnet AUTOMATE is helping agencies like the Greater Manchester Police run more efficient digital investigations. The solution keeps investigations running and ensures they no longer grind to a halt by automating routine and repetitive tasks. It enables agencies to maximize their existing hardware and software investments by simultaneously processing evidence for multiple cases. When a task is complete, Magnet AUTOMATE will automatically move on to the next one and synchronize other interoperable digital investigation solutions. When a case is completed, it begins the processing for a new case. This frees digital investigators to focus on analysis during office hours and allows investigations to continue to advance during traditional downtime hours.

During the pilot, the Greater Manchester Police successfully: Completed digital investigations an average of 9.5 hours faster

Processed digital evidence 55 per cent faster

Improved officer wellbeing by reducing exposure to sensitive content, such as child sexual abuse material

Built the foundation to further expand the use of Magnet AUTOMATE into all criminal investigations over the next 12 months. For more information, please visit magnetforensics.com About Magnet Forensics Founded in 2010, Magnet Forensics is a developer of digital investigation software that acquires, analyzes, reports on, and manages evidence from digital sources, including computers, mobile devices, IoT devices and cloud services. Magnet Forensics' software is used by more than 4,000 public and private sector customers in over 100 countries and helps investigators fight crime, protect assets and guard national security. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005176/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Argo Group Mails Letter to Shareholders Highlighting the Strength of its Refreshed, Highly Qualified Board

Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE: ARGO) ("Argo" or "the Company"), an underwriter of specialty insurance products, today announced that it is mailing a letter to shareholders in connection with its 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders ("Annual Meeting") urging them to vote the BLUE proxy card "FOR" ALL seven of Argo's highly qualified director nominees. The Annual Meeting will be held on December 15, 2022, and shareholders of record as of October 26, 2022 are entitled to vote at the meeting. In the letter, Argo highlights its refreshed Board, which includes executives with relevant expertise, including experience across risk management, technology and cybersecurity, investment management and M&A and proven track records leading successful financial operations. The directors targeted by Capital Returns - Bernard Bailey and Al-Noor Ramji - bring expertise and experience important to the Company's business and have been instrumental in overseeing the execution of the Company's transformation, recruiting new management and refreshing the Board. In contrast, the Argo Board formally interviewed Capital Returns' candidates - Ronald Bobman and David Michelson - and unanimously concluded that appointing Messrs. Bobman and Michelson would diminish the Board's capabilities and expertise. To this point, Mr. Bobman has no public company Board experience, and the Board believes that any insurance background he may possess is already well represented in its composition. Mr. Michelson currently serves as an advisor or director of at least six other companies, one of which has suffered a ~98% stock price decline during his tenure as a director. Further, as reported in its own SEC filings, since April 2022, Capital Returns has been regularly selling blocks of Argo shares. This leads the Board to seriously question whether Capital Returns is a long-term investor in Argo, and if its nominees truly have the best interests of Argo's shareholders in mind. The full text of the letter follows and can be found at the investor relations section of the Company's website. November 9, 2022 Dear Fellow Shareholders, Your highly qualified, engaged and refreshed Board continues to move with speed to best position Argo for long-term success. Since publicly announcing the Company's strategic review process in April of this year, our current directors have met more than 30 times to discuss Argo's future, evaluate available alternatives and ensure the Company is on the right path to maximizing value. As a result, the Board has taken decisive action. During the past quarter, we have been able to successfully execute on two major strategic transactions, continuing our efforts to transform Argo into a pure-play U.S. specialty insurer. The strategic review process remains ongoing, and our current directors will leave no stone unturned. We value the views of our shareholders, and, in June 2022, we appointed J. Daniel Plants, Chief Investment Officer of Voce Capital Management LLC, Argo's largest active shareholder, as an independent member of the Board and Chairperson of the Strategic Review Committee. With a current director tenure of three years, Argo's Board has undergone significant refreshment while maintaining complementary and necessary skills to facilitate growth. As a result of your Board's decisive actions, we are now best positioned to drive our business strategies and evaluate further strategic opportunities to create shareholder value as a streamlined company - and your Board's nominees are all essential in continuing our progress. The Board believes that appointing nominees from Capital Returns Master, Ltd. will derail the Company's momentum at a critical time for Argo. It is also the Board's unanimous view that Capital Returns' nominees are not additive to your Board's collective skillset and would diminish the level of expertise and diversity on your Board. We urge you to protect the value of your investment in Argo by voting "FOR" Argo's nominees on the BLUE proxy card today. YOUR BOARD IS OVERSEEING A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC REVIEW PROCESS THAT IS YIELDING RESULTS We believe Argo's share price does not reflect the true value of our business. As such, your Board has proactively overseen the successful strategy currently being executed by a new leadership team, which focuses on transforming many aspects of the franchise, positioning Argo to deliver growth and increased profitability for the benefit of all shareholders. This effort has been further advanced by the Board's ongoing strategic review process, which is actively exploring a range of options to maximize value for Argo shareholders, including a potential sale of the Company, with the assistance of leading independent financial and legal advisors. The transformational steps taken to benefit Argo shareholders include: Streamlining Argo's portfolio to focus on its most profitable business lines;

Executing two strategic transactions, including Argo's entry into a Loss Portfolio Transfer with Enstar Group Limited for approximately $746 million, and its entry into an agreement to sell Argo Underwriting Agency Limited and its Lloyd's Syndicate 1200 to Westfield Ltd. for total cash proceeds of approximately $125 million or 1.16x price to tangible book value, subject to closing-related adjustments;

Re-underwriting core U.S. specialty business; and

Reducing costs. The Board has also strengthened the management team, including adding five best-in-class C-suite executives to oversee its transformation and manage the Company in its next phase of growth as a U.S. specialty insurer. The management team is led by CEO Thomas Bradley, a seasoned executive with extensive experience in the insurance industry. Previously, Mr. Bradley served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, including at the time of its sale to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. He was also formerly Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Fair Isaac Corporation and at the St. Paul Companies. Mr. Bradley's deep financial acumen and understanding of the insurance industry, as well as his highly relevant operational experience having held executive positions at a number of public companies, have provided him with keen strategic insight as a leading specialty underwriter. His knowledge and leadership have been critical in steadying the organization and executing its transformation. YOUR SIGNIFICANTLY REFRESHED AND HIGHLY QUALIFIED BOARD IS ESSENTIAL TO DRIVING THE COMPANY'S CONTINUED TRANSFORMATION & ONGOING STRATEGIC REVIEW PROCESS As of the 2022 annual general meeting, the Argo Board will be made up of seven experienced directors, six of whom are independent. The Board's current composition reflects its proactive refreshment program and its commitment to selecting diverse directors with relevant expertise. Six of our current nine directors joined the Board since the Company undertook its repositioning, and ten directors have rotated off the Board in the last three years, including two at this year's upcoming annual general meeting. Our average director tenure is now only three years. Pro-forma for our 2022 annual general meeting, three of our seven directors will have joined the Board in the past three years, and five of our seven directors will have joined the Board in the past four years. As a result of this significant level of change, the Board's deliberations and actions reflect independent and fresh perspectives. The refreshed Board has also demonstrated its commitment to a high level of engagement, meeting more than 60 times in 2022, including 17 times this past quarter. The Strategic Review Committee, which is tasked with overseeing the ongoing strategic review process, has met 10 times. Your Board includes not only outstanding expertise and experience in the industry, but skillsets that are complementary and relevant to driving value at Argo. Your Board includes executives with relevant expertise, including experience across risk management, technology and cybersecurity, investment management and M&A and proven track records leading successful financial operations. In addition, Argo recently appointed J. Daniel Plants, Chief Investment Officer of Voce Capital Management LLC, Argo's largest active shareholder, to your Board. In 2020, Argo also appointed Bernard Bailey, the Board's Lead Independent Director, and Carol McFate to its Board pursuant to a cooperation agreement with Voce Capital. Select Strengths of Argo Board Nominees







6 of 7 Independent directors 7 of 7 Have insurance or risk management experience as executives or directors 7 of 7 Have executive leadership experience 7 of 7 Have business transformation & operations experience 5 of 7 Have public company board experience 4 of 7 Have M&A experience, including value-maximizing company sale transactions

BERNARD BAILEY AND AL-NOOR RAMJI'S EXPERTISE AND SKILLSETS ARE SUPERIOR - CAPITAL RETURNS' NOMINEES BRING NO ADDITIVE SKILLS AND WOULD REDUCE THE BOARD'S DIVERSITY The directors targeted by Capital Returns - Bernard Bailey and Al-Noor Ramji - bring expertise and experience important to the Company's business and have been instrumental in overseeing the execution of the Company's transformation, recruiting new management and refreshing the Board. Bernard Bailey Mr. Bailey's career spans over three decades of business and management experience, including his role as a public company CEO, along with his extensive board experience.

Former President and CEO of Viisage Technology, Inc.; during his four years of leadership, Viisage's market capitalization grew from $60 million to $1 billion.

He has led numerous transactions in his previous roles, including leading Viisage through nine acquisitions, bringing significant M&A experience to the Board.

Mr. Bailey has served on the boards of nine publicly traded companies, including as Chairman of Analogic Corporation, where he led its successful sale to a private equity firm. Of those nine public companies, four of them were ultimately acquired while Mr. Bailey was a serving director.

Mr. Bailey has also served on the management teams and boards of private equity-backed investments.

From 2012 to 2018, Mr. Bailey served as CEO of Authentix. Under his leadership, Authentix was acquired in 2017 by Blue Water Energy.

Mr. Bailey's vast leadership and corporate governance experience allows him to be an active member of the Board, as a member of the Audit, Human Resources, Nominating and Corporate Governance and Strategic Review committees. These qualifications led the Board to appoint him Lead Independent Director upon Mr. Bradley's permanent appointment as CEO. Al-Noor Ramji Mr. Ramji's extensive information technology background and digital strategy knowledge serve as unique skills on your Board.

As Group Chief Digital Officer at Prudential plc, Mr. Ramji led the company's transformation into the leading digital ecosystem platform across its Asian and African markets; his risk management expertise is a critical oversight component of Argo's operations.

His track record of successfully leveraging IT to achieve business objectives has won him numerous industry awards, including the CIO 100 Award, CIO Insight IT Leader of the Year 2009 and the British Computer Society CIO of the Year.

Earlier in his career, he served as Group CIO for BT Group for over six years and in technology leadership roles at Qwest Communications, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Swiss Bank Corporation.

He has also served on the management teams and boards of private equity-backed investments.

Mr. Ramji's background in applying technology to solve risk and management challenges is additive to the Board's Risk & Capital Committee, where he serves as Chair. APPOINTING CAPITAL RETURNS' NOMINEES WOULD DIMINSH THE BOARD'S CAPABILTIES AND EXPERTISE - CAPITAL RETURNS' RECENT STOCK SALES BELIE ITS CLAIM AS A LONG-TERM SHAREHOLDER Argo's Board and management team have engaged with Capital Returns multiple times, including in meetings with the Board Chairman. In addition, the Board's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee has formally interviewed both of Capital Returns' candidates. The Committee unanimously determined that neither Bobman nor Michelson will be additive to your Board's collective skillset and would diminish the level of expertise and diversity on your Board.  Mr. Bobman has no public company board experience, and any insurance background he may possess is already well represented on the Board. In addition, Argo's recent appointment of Mr. Plants, Chief Investment Officer of Voce Capital, Argo's largest active shareholder, ensures shareholder views are well represented in the boardroom.  Mr. Michelson serves as an advisor or director of at least six other companies. One of these companies, FedNat Insurance, has suffered a ~98% stock price decline during Mr. Michelson's tenure as a director. Given Mr. Michelson's demanding ongoing commitments and his dismal track record at FedNat, the Board is rightfully skeptical of Mr. Michelson's ability to dedicate the necessary time to the Argo Board. If Capital Returns has its way, Argo's Board would lose Mr. Bailey, one of its most experienced directors in the execution of M&A right at a time when those skills are most critical to the Company in its strategic review. In addition, the Board would lose Mr. Ramji, its most experienced technologist - a critical skill in the management of risk and capital across the Company. In exchange, the Board would get what it believes are two directors with largely duplicative and inferior experience to Argo's existing directors with similar skillsets. Furthermore, as reported in its own filings, Capital Returns has been regularly selling blocks of Argo stock since April 2022. In fact, during the period from Argo's strategic process update on September 8 to October 31, 2022, Capital Returns reduced its position in Argo by almost 95,000 shares, which equated to a 24% reduction in its Argo holdings during such period. This is in direct contrast to Argo's largest active shareholder, Voce Capital, which has never sold any of its Argo shares. Capital Returns' ongoing sales of Argo shares lead the Board to seriously question whether Capital Returns is a long-term investor, and if its nominees have the best interests of Argo's shareholders in mind. Capital Returns recently falsely asserted that Mr. Bailey has never purchased Argo shares on the open market. The fact is Mr. Bailey purchased more than $90,000 of Argo shares in open market purchases in April 2020 when he joined the Argo Board. This was six months prior to Capital Returns' initial purchase of Argo shares, and, unlike Capital Returns, Mr. Bailey has never sold a single Argo share, showing his interests fully align with all Argo shareholders. PROTECT THE VALUE OF YOUR INVESTMENT IN ARGO AND VOTE "FOR" ALL OF ARGO'S NOMINEES The seven directors up for re-election at the annual general meeting - Bernard Bailey, Thomas Bradley, Dymphna Lehane, Samuel Liss, Carol McFate, J. Daniel Plants and Al-Noor Ramji - are integral to continuing Argo's momentum, advancing our strategy and driving enhanced shareholder value. We urge you to vote "FOR" all seven of Argo's highly qualified nominees on the BLUE proxy card. Simply follow the easy instructions on the enclosed proxy card to vote by telephone, by internet or by signing, dating and returning the BLUE proxy card in the postage-paid envelope provided. Please disregard any white proxy card you receive from Capital Returns. We look forward to continuing to engage with you and appreciate your support. Sincerely, The Board of Directors of Argo Group YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT! If you have any questions, or need assistance in voting your shares on the BLUE proxy card, please call our proxy solicitor: INNISFREE M&A INCORPORATED Shareholders in the U.S. and Canada Call Toll-Free at +1 (877) 750-9496 Banks and Brokers Call Collect at +1 (212) 750-5833 ABOUT ARGO GROUP INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS, LTD. Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE: ARGO) is an underwriter of specialty insurance products in the property and casualty market. Argo offers a full line of products and services designed to meet the unique coverage and claims-handling needs of businesses in two primary segments: U.S. Operations and International Operations. Argo Group and its insurance subsidiaries are rated ?A-' by Standard & Poor's. Argo's insurance subsidiaries are rated ?A-' by A.M. Best. More information on Argo and its subsidiaries is available at argogroup.com. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release and any related oral statements may include forward-looking statements that reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial and operational performance. Forward-looking statements include all statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts, and can be identified by the use of words such as "positioning," "expect," "intend," "plan," "believe," "do not believe," "aim," "project," "anticipate," "confident," "seek," "will," "likely," "assume," "estimate," "may," "continue," "create," "maximize," "guidance," "objective," "outcome," remain optimistic," "outlook," "trends," "future," "could," "would," "should," "target," "on track," "simplifies" and similar expressions of a future or forward-looking nature. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in Argo's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, as supplemented in Argo's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and in other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The inclusion of a forward-looking statement herein should not be regarded as a representation by Argo that Argo's objectives will be achieved. Argo undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on any such statements. Each of the transactions referenced in this press release is subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, that the transactions may be unable to be completed because of the failure to obtain required regulatory approvals or satisfy (or obtain waivers of) the closing conditions and uncertainty as to the timing of completion of the transactions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108006333/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Debt Recovery Fintech to Drop Fees to Help Businesses Recover Cash Amidst Recession

LONDON, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A debt recovery Fintech is offering businesses free access to its collections platform till the end of the year to help them recover unpaid debts as recession looms. The Debt Register platform, which helps businesses collect unpaid debts within seven days, on average, will be free for businesses of any size from small independent traders to FTSE 100 companies to extend a lifeline. Debt Register hopes the move will enable businesses to stabilise cashflow, which according to research by SME Loans was the principal cause of insolvency for 80% of UK businesses in 2020. In addition, the data showed 78% of businesses owed money are forced to wait over a month for payment, whilst 34% of SMEs are relying on overdrafts to pay bills. The sector as a result spent 4.4 billion in administrative costs chasing payments. Gary Brown, CEO of Debt Register, hopes the move will give businesses a way out of what could become a devasting time for the economy: "During COVID the UK saw a 14% increase in insolvencies, many due to a lack of cash flow thanks to COVID restrictions," he explains. "Whilst a recesson won't halt business to such a degree, cashflow challenges will cripple thousands of businesses due to unpaid invoices. By removing fees from our platform, we hope, in some way, we can give businesses a tool to help mitigate the challenges and support their recession proofing strategies."



Thanks to automation, Debt Register helps business owners cut down on the level of admin needed to chase debts, whilst also giving credit teams an effective consequence for non-payment. Firms that don't pay their suppliers when the invoice is not in dispute are automatically reported to the credit reference agencies, impacting their credit file or report. Business Advisor and former interim Small Business Commissioner, Philip King, added: "Credit teams are under more pressure than ever before as businesses look to recover cash from wherever possible. The Deb Register platform gives teams a way to succeed at chasing debts rather than chasing tails and its helping to improve morale, which as recession looms is going to be a critical part success."

The platform will be free to use until 31st of December 2022 and will allow users to load an unlimited number of debts. For more information, please visit: https://debtregister.com/enterprise/ View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/debt-recovery-fintech-to-drop-fees-to-help-businesses-recover-cash-amidst-recession-301672936.html

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[November 09, 2022] Aptean Adds Apparel ERP to its Industry-Specific Software Offerings in the DACH Region with Acquisition of ImPuls AG

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Aptean , a global provider of mission-critical enterprise software solutions, announced the acquisition of ImPuls AG, a provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to apparel, footwear, accessories and textile brands and manufacturers.

Founded in 1975 and based in Krefeld, Germany, ImPuls ERP is used by over 150 fashion and apparel companies to better connect business critical activities such as production planning, scheduling, the flow of goods, order management, accounting and retail support. ImPuls modular platform was designed especially for the fashion and apparel industry and helps customers simplify inventory management and streamline mission-critical workflows. The solution also improves access to real-time data customers need to better manage business critical operations. This transaction strategically builds on Apteans commitment to serving the fashion and apparel industries with an established and successful provider in the DACH region. Together, ImPuls and Aptean offer decades of industry knowledge, technical expertise, local focus and highly tailored solutions, creating a strong combination that will be well positioned to serve fashion and apparel customers. Aptean is pleased to expand our ERP presence in the DACH region with offerings for apparel companies, said Bo Kocis, President, Americas and DACH, at Aptean. ImPuls AGs expert team of fashion and apparel software professionals have built creative solutions to address the unique requirements of the industry and we are excited to welcome them to Aptean.



Aptean shares the same values ??and long-term goals as ImPuls AG and I am confident that the future of ImPuls AG is in good hands, said Herbert Hoffmann, founder and former main shareholder. ImPuls AG and Aptean share a focus on delivering industry-specific solutions to support the fashion and apparel industry, said Axel Domschke, Managing Director at ImPuls. As part of Aptean we will bring the benefit of digital workflows and business processes to help our customers improve efficiencies and better navigate fashions rapidly changing landscape, Constantin Schroeder, Managing Director at ImPuls added.

About ImPuls AG

ImPuls AG provides ERP and merchandise management solutions tailored to support the fashion and lifestyle industry. Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Krefeld, Germany, ImPuls delivers creative solutions from Sheep to Shop backed by decades of industry know-how, to help its customers attain a rapid return on investment. To learn more visit http://www.impuls.de. About Aptean

Aptean is one of the worlds leading providers of purpose-built, industry-specific software that helps manufacturers and distributors effectively run and grow their businesses. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Apteans products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes to be Ready for Whats Next, Now. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. To learn more about Aptean and the markets we serve, visit www.aptean.com. Aptean and Ready for Whats Next, Now are Registered Trademarks of Aptean, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. For Media Inquiries Please Contact

Nicole ORourke

Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer

[email protected]

(770) 715-0362



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[November 09, 2022] GIP and KKR-led Consortium Enters Into Strategic Co-control Partnership With Vodafone to Invest in Vantage Towers AG

Today, a consortium of funds led by Global Infrastructure Partners ("GIP") and KKR (together "the Consortium") entered into a strategic co-control partnership with Vodafone GmbH ("Vodafone") for Vodafone's c. 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers AG ("Vantage Towers" or "the company"), a leading telecoms tower company in Europe. Vodafone will transfer its stake in Vantage Towers to a holding company ("Oak BidCo"), which will be indirectly co-controlled by Vodafone and the Consortium. The Consortium will obtain a shareholding of up to 50%. Oak BidCo will launch a voluntary public takeover offer for all outstanding free float shares of Vantage Towers AG comprising c. 18.3% of the share capital. GIP and KKR will be investing through their core infrastructure strategies. Tower Bridge Infrastructure Partners1 will be part of the Consortium as a co-investor, with additional funding for the transaction provided by the Public Investment Fund ("PIF"). Together, GIP, KKR and Vodafone will provide deep infrastructure expertise to help advance the company's strategic plans. The Consortium and Vodafone share a joint ambition to accelerate the company's growth trajectory through additional investments by Vantage Towers in its network and expansion into fast-growing adjacent markets. The Consortium and Vodafone aim to expand Vantage Towers' business to create a leading pan-European telecoms tower business. Already a leader in its core markets today, Vantage Towers has a large footprint of approximately 83,000 sites in ten countries, long-term agreements with high-quality tenants and a deep and dense network in the markets in which it operates. The company benefits from consistent organic growth, stable margin development and strong cash generation driven by significant revenue visibility and enhanced commercialization of its tower footprint. In 2021, Vantage Towers signed a landmark agreement with 1&1 Mobilfunk GmbH to support the company in the rapid roll-out of its 5G network, covering potentially up to 5,000 existing sites throughout Germany for the next 20 years. "We're delighted to join forces with Vodafone and KKR to invest in Vantage Towers, a high-quality European tower portfolio with strong upside potential. We are looking forward to capturing the exciting value-creating opportunities in the European telecoms infrastructure sector by advancing Vantage Towers' strategy and supporting its capacity to build new sites. As strategic partners with Vodafone and KKR, we will bring our deep infrastructure expertise and resources to help the company deliver the best data connectivity for individuals and businesses and contribute to enabling Europe's digital future in the interest of all stakeholders," said Will Brilliant, Partner and Head of Digital Infrastructure at GIP. "Together with our strategic partners Vodafone and GIP, we believe Vantage Towers' high-quality footprint and network across the region ideally position it to meet the ever-growing demand for mobile connectivity in Europe. We have a shared goal of creating a pan-European telecoms champion by continuing to grow and develop the business, leveraging the Consortium's significant telecoms infrastructure investment experience and global resources. At KKR we are long-term conviction investors in Europe's digital infrastructure and at Vantage Towers we intend to pursue value-creating investments to capitalise on the growth in this sector and to help drive consolidation in a fragmented market," said Vincent Policard, Partner and Co-Head of European Infrastructure at KKR. "This is a landmark moment for both Vodafone and Vantage Towers. This transaction successfully delivers on Vodafone's stated aims of retaining co-control over a strategically important asset, deconsolidating Vantage Towers from our balance sheet to ensure we can optimise its capital structure and generate substantial upfront cash proceeds for the Group to support our priority of deleveraging. We are excited to partner with GIP and KKR, both world-class investors who bring significant expertise in digital infrastructure and share our long-term vision for Vantage Towers as we collectively take the business to the next stage of its growth," said Nick Read, Vodafone Group Chief Executive. Investing in the modernization of Europe's mobile infrastructure

Together, the strategic partners plan to support Vantage Towers' multibillion investment program over the next 5 years in order to improve existing infrastructure and to expand as well as upgrade the network. Through their strategic co-control partnership, the Consortium and Vodafone intend to support Vantage Towers to: Accelerate the company's ambitious program to build new sites for existing clients ("Build-to-suit", "BTS") that helps them to meet their coverage obligations and densification requirements.

Enhance Vantage Towers' commercial capabilities and drive the utilization of existing assets by capturing additional co-location opportunities from new and existing third-party customers.

Expand the company's activities beyond its core business into fast-growing adjacent markets such as 5G private networks, data centers, edge computing, small cells and the internet-of-things ("IoT"), and deploying fiber to the tower ecosystem.

Further drive consolidation in the European tower sector. This European growth strategy is expected to allow Vantage Towers to further diversify its tenant base, increase the size and depth of its tower portfolio, while also creating further cost efficiencies and improving its profitability. With further investments into Vantage Towers' network, the Consortium and Vodafone are supporting Europe's digitalization efforts and ensuring that mobile telecommunications infrastructure can keep up with the rapidly rising demand for data traffic and connectivity. Emerging trends such as autonomous driving, telemedicine, virtual/augmented reality, smart farming and IoT depend on the data services and infrastructure that enable them. Vantage Towers has the DNA of a carrier-neutral infrastructure provider, which will play a key role in empowering a sustainably connected Europe. The Consortium is aware of its responsibility to provideaccess to communications services for the community. It also recognizes the importance of sustainably stewarding these critical assets and is committed to ensuring that Vantage Towers remains a highly attractive employer in the industry.



GIP and KKR have a long track record of collaboration in the infrastructure sector

Both GIP and KKR are leading global infrastructure investors. Together, they form a Consortium with unique experience and expertise in global infrastructure investing, particularly in the digital and communications sector. Both companies share a longstanding institutional relationship and have a proven track record of acting together within one consortium. The Consortium is a strong financial partner for Vantage Towers with access to ample liquidity and long-term value creation objectives to support the business and the necessary investments at this pivotal moment for the industry. Voluntary takeover offer

As part of their strategic co-control partnership, the Consortium and Vodafone will launch a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of Vantage Towers through Oak BidCo. Vantage Towers' shareholders will be offered EUR 32.0 per share in cash. Vantage Towers' shareholders will benefit from a 19% premium to the 3-month volume-weighted average share price.

The voluntary takeover offer will be subject to various customary offer conditions, including the receipt of regulatory antitrust and FDI approvals, with closing expected in the first half of 2023. As part of the transaction, Oak BidCo and Vantage Towers have entered into a Business Combination Agreement in which Vantage Towers undertook to support the takeover offer. Subject to their review of the offer document, the management board and supervisory board of Vantage Towers welcome and support the offer and intend to recommend that Vantage Towers' shareholders accept the offer. The current management board members of Vantage Towers will continue to lead the company. Further, the Consortium and Vodafone intend to implement a domination profit and loss transfer agreement ("DPLTA") if the final shareholding of Oak BidCo in Vantage Towers is below 95%, or a squeeze-out of non-Oak-BidCo minority shareholders if the aggregate shareholding of Oak BidCo in the company is 95% or higher. Post-closing, Vodafone and the Consortium will consider removing Vantage Towers' public listing from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Offer document and further information

The voluntary public takeover offer will be made pursuant to an offer document to be approved by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This offer document will be published following receipt of permission from BaFin, at which point the initial acceptance period of the takeover offer will commence. The offer document (in German and a non-binding English translation) and other information pertaining to the public takeover offer will be published on the following website: https://angebot.wpueg.de/oak/. GIP and KKR are advised by Morgan Stanley as exclusive financial advisor and Latham & Watkins as legal advisor. ### About Vantage Towers

Vantage Towers is a leading tower company in Europe with around 83,000 sites in ten countries, connecting people, businesses and devices in cities and rural areas. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Dusseldorf. Vantage Towers has been listed on the Deutsche Borse's Prime Standard in Frankfurt since 18 March 2021. The shares are included in the MDAX, TecDAX, STOXX Europe 600 and FTSE Global Midcap Indices. Vantage Towers' portfolio includes towers, masts, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. By building, operating and leasing this infrastructure to MNOs or other network providers such as IoT companies or utilities, Vantage Towers is making a significant contribution to a better-connected Europe. While already 100% of the electricity that Vantage Towers uses to operate its infrastructure is obtained from renewable energy sources, green energy is increasingly being generated directly on site with the help of solar panels, micro wind turbines and in future also hydrogen solutions. This fits well into the overall strategy of the company to drive a sustainable digitalisation in Europe and to support partners through technological innovation in decarbonisation and achieving their climate goals. For more information, please visit our website at www.vantagetowers.com, follow us on Twitter at @VantageTowers or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vantagetowers. About Vodafone

Unique in its scale as the largest pan-European and African technology communications company, Vodafone transforms the way we live and work through its innovation, technology, connectivity, platforms, products and services. Vodafone operates mobile and fixed networks in 22 countries, and partners with mobile networks in 47 more. As of 30 June 2022, we had over 300 million mobile customers, more than 28 million fixed broadband customers and 22 million TV customers. Vodafone is a world leader in the Internet of Things ("IoT"), connecting around 160 million devices and platforms. We have revolutionised fintech in Africa through M-Pesa, which celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2022. It is the region's largest fintech platform, providing access to financial services for more than 50 million people in a secure, affordable and convenient way. Our purpose is to connect for a better future by using technology to improve lives, digitalise critical sectors and enable inclusive and sustainable digital societies. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact to reach net zero emissions across our full value chain by 2040, while helping our customers reduce their own carbon emissions by 350 million tonnes by 2030. We are driving action to reduce device waste and achieve our target to reuse, resell or recycle 100% of our network waste. We believe in the power of connectivity and digital services to improve society and economies, partnering with governments to digitalise healthcare, education and agriculture and create cleaner, safer cities. Our products and services support the digitalisation of businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Our inclusion for all strategy seeks to ensure no-one is left behind through access to connectivity, digital skills and creating relevant products and services such as access to education, healthcare and finance. We are also committed to developing a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the customers and societies we serve. For more information, please visit http://www.vodafone.com, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone. About Global Infrastructure Partners

GIP is a leading independent infrastructure fund manager that makes equity and debt investments in infrastructure assets and businesses. GIP targets investments in the energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and water/waste sectors in both OECD and select emerging market countries. Headquartered in New York, GIP operates out of 10 offices: New York, London, Stamford (Connecticut), Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore and Hong Kong. GIP manages c. US $84 billion for its investors. GIP's portfolio companies have combined annual revenues of c. US $68 billion and employ over 100,000 people. For more information, visit www.global-infra.com. About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. KKR established its Global Infrastructure business in 2008 and has since grown to one of the largest infrastructure investors globally with a team of more than 75 dedicated investment professionals. The firm currently oversees approximately US$50 billion in infrastructure assets globally as of 30 September, 2022, and has made over 65 infrastructure investments across a range of sub-sectors and geographies. KKR's infrastructure platform is devised specifically for long term, capital intensive structural investments. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co. 1 Separately Managed Account managed by GIP View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005530/en/

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[November 09, 2022] XTM Inc. Sees Immediate 300% Spike in Inbound Sales Leads Following Record-Attended Gratuity Tax Compliance Webinar

XTM Inc. ("XTM" or the "Company") (QB: XTMIF / CSE:PAID / FSE:7XT), a Miami and Toronto-based Fintech creator of disruptive payment innovations specifically for service industries including hospitality, personal care and service staff, saw a 300% surge of inbound new business leads within a few hours following the record-attended webinar hosted with Restaurants Canada, an industry-leading non-profit association representing over 30,000 foodservice providers and James Rhodes, leading hospitality tax lawyer. The webinar was curated to provide strategic solutions for hospitality professionals to ensure restaurants are tax compliant on gratuity payouts. The webinar imparted important distinctions between direct versus controlled tips, with actionable solutions that restaurant owners can implement to ensure tip compliance. James Rhodes referenced XTM as the solution to support compliant payout best practices. For a copy of the recorded webinar please contact [email protected]. With XTM firmly established as the ontender in Canadian restaurant technology payments, it is focused on rolling out its Earned and Early Wage Access solution to hospitality businesses in the United States.



"A bigger market calls for a bigger commitment, investment and more time to market," said Marilyn Schaffer, CEO, XTM. "The United States represents ten times our market, ten times the opportunities and huge multiples. We've been developing the hospitality and staffing market with an innovative, one-of-a-kind payment model that is seeing tremendous traction. With our banking and compliance approvals near-complete we have a robust pipeline, signed clients and some in early stages of onboarding." About XTM

XTM, www.xtminc.com, is a Miami and Toronto-based fintech innovator helping businesses disseminate and their workers access earned wages and gratuities instantly. XTM's Today Solution, comprised of a free mobile app and a Visa or Mastercard debit card with free banking features, is used by thousands of employees in restaurants, salons and service positions across Canada and the United States. XTM is a global card issuer and real-time payment specialist and our payment platform is used at no charge by businesses to automate and expedite worker payouts and eliminate cash from their ecosystems. XTM's Today solution drives enterprise value with efficiency, helps attract and retain a workforce with a bespoke user experience designed specifically for employees, contract staff and workers in restaurants and personal care services. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005631/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Ceapro Inc. Reports 2022 Third Quarter and Nine-Month Financial Results and Operational Highlights

 R&D activities focused on the production of Avenanthramides pills for clinical trials and for scale-up of the PGX Technology

 Q3 2022 sales of $3,845,000 vs $4,523,000 in Q3 2021; YTD sales increase 14% vs 2021 - $15,517,000 vs $13,633,000  Income before tax of $1,128,000 in Q3 2022 vs $875,000 in Q3 2021; YTD Income before tax increased 186% vs 2021 - $5,919,000 vs $2,067,000 EDMONTON, Alberta, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceapro Inc. (TSX-V: CZO; OTCQX: CRPOF) (Ceapro or the Company), a growth-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of active ingredients for healthcare and cosmetic industries, today announced financial results and operational highlights for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2022. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of our employees, we stand on a very solid foundation. With our year-to-date financial results, ongoing scientific advancement, expected investment and strategic plan, Ceapro is well positioned for a bright future as a high-value life sciences company, stated Gilles Gagnon, M.Sc., MBA, President and CEO. Corporate and Operational Highlights Pipeline Development: The Companys focus is on avenanthramides, alginate, yeast beta glucan and new chemical complexes/delivery systems. Avenanthramides Clinical Trial: Subsequent to quarter, the Company received an Acknowledgement Letter from Health Canada confirming complete information and material to support a Clinical Trial Application (CTA) for Phase 1/2a study entitled Ceapro Inc Avenanthramide (AVA): A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomized, Adaptive, First-in-Human Study to Assess Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics of Single and Multiple Ascending Oral Doses of Avenanthramide (AvenActive). A response from Health Canada for clearance to proceed with this study is expected to be received within 90 days. Formulation: In planning for an extension into a Phase 2a (subject to Phase 1 outcomes in terms of safety and selected dose), the Ceapro R&D group manufactured sufficient additional GMP batches of avenanthramides active ingredient powder for a second formulation of avenanthramides pills. The second GMP clinical batches will also be manufactured, packaged and labeled in 2023 by Corealis Inc. GMP Manufacturing Services. Malted Technology: The Indian Government Patent Office has issued the Company Patent No. 408344 entitled, Method For Increasing Concentration of Avenanthramides in Oats, related to the production of its core value-driver product, avenanthramides, utilizing a malting technology in-licensed from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Alginate Pursued and fine-tuned the development of new PGX-dried chemical complexes with sodium alginate (SA) as a carrier. Emphasis put on thin strips of alginate/yeast beta glucan as a potential nutraceutical product with immune boosting properties.

Announced publication of positive results for PGX-processed alginates impregnated with CoQ10 in The Journal of Supercritical Fluids. This publication confirms alginate as a carrier for other bioactives.

Continued ongoing assessment of immunomodulating activity of additional complexes using alginate combined with three different sources of yeast beta glucan.

Yeast Beta Glucan (YBG) Pursued the pre-processing of YBG to ensure homogeneous dispersion and deagglomeration of polymers and batch-to-batch consistency. Several commercially available formulations of spray-dried YBG were further PGX- processed and tested following the installation of a new piece of equipment. Promising results were obtained demonstrating that this new unit can enable the production of uniform particle sizes independent of YBG supplier. Three YBG suppliers were ultimately retained, as their PGX-processed YBG not only met particle size and morphology requirements, but also met the targeted microbial load, composition, and immunological functions. Retained material from these suppliers are being further developed in combination with alginate, in the development of new delivery systems.





Announced expansion of collaborative research program with McMaster University to develop an Inhalable Immuno-therapeutic/-prophylactic for COVID-19-Induced Lung Fibrosis. Dr. Martin Kolb was confirmed as co-lead of this project along with Dr. Ketil Ask and Dr. Todd Hoare. Dr. Kolb is a Professor within the Division of Respirology in the Department of Medicine and Pathology & Molecular Medicine and the Research Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hospital. This project is supported by Mitacs.

Technology:

Pursued technical upgrades of Ceapros PGX demo plant in Edmonton focused on the commercial scale up of an impregnation unit to produce chemical complexes with alginate/YBG. Stability studies are currently being initiated for these new chemical entities.

Pursued engineering design for PGX processing commercial scale unit. A decision was made to use a stepwise approach to ensure standardization of product specifications at each scale level from current 10 Liters to 50-100 Liters vessels. Subsequent to quarter, the Company announced the signing of an agreement with the University of Alberta to implement this mid-scale level PGX unit at Agri-food-Discovery Place. Alginate and YBG will be the first bioactives to be processed at this facility. This work will be conducted with two specialized engineering firms, one from Europe with expertise in pharmaceutical plants and high-pressure equipment and a local engineering firm from Alberta who will facilitate installation and work with local regulatory agencies to comply with Canadian regulations and codes. Corporate: Appointed Ms. Sigrun Watson as Chief Revenue Officer. Ms. Watson is a recognized commercial leader with over 20 years of experience across diverse healthcare industries.



Pursued out-licensing discussions for PGX-processed new chemical complexes.

Subsequent to Quarter: Announced highly positive results for bioavailability studies using alginate and YBG as carriers for Coenzyme Q10. More specifically, results showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.02) between the amount of CoQ10 absorbed from impregnated YBG compared to commercial standard formulations: two times higher absorption than Cyclodextrin/CoQ10 and four times higher absorption than triolein/CoQ10.



Successfully completed audit conducted by one major customer at the Edmonton facility.

Financial Highlights for the Third Quarter and Nine-Month Period Ended September 30, 2022 Total sales of $3,845,000 for the third quarter of 2022 and $15,517,000 for the first nine months of 2022 compared to $4,523,000 and $13,633,000 for the comparative periods in 2021. The 14% increase in sales for the first nine months is mainly due to a significant increase in sales of beta glucan compared to the same period in 2021.

Income before tax of $1,128,000 in Q3, 2022 compared to $875,000 in Q3, 2021 and $5,919,000 for the first nine months of 2022 compared to $2,067,000 for the comparative period of 2021.

Net profit after taxes of $862,000 for the third quarter of 2022 and $4,520,000 for the first nine months of 2022 compared to a net profit of $875,000 and $2,067,000 for the comparative periods in 2021. Increased net profit for the first nine months of 2022 come from improved margin of 62.3% as compared to 57.5% in 2021. Improved margins in 2022 result from the buying of excellent source material and from the diligent work of highly skilled personnel.

R&D investments were $314,000 for Q3 2022 compared to $1,403,000 for the same period in 2021. The significant decrease in 2022 was due to large non-recurring payments made to Montreal Heart Institute during Q3, 2021 for a clinical trial for the assessment of oat beta glucan as a potential cholesterol reducer.

Cash flows generated from operations of $5,644,000 for the first nine months in 2022 vs $2,837,000 in 2021.

Positive working capital balance of $17,672,000 as of September 30, 2022. Looking ahead, we believe Ceapro is well-positioned to once again deliver significant growth in sales, well in line with the positive trend achieved in recent years. With record year-to-date financial performance yielding a strong balance sheet, a solid foundation with Ceapros cosmeceuticals base business, positive results obtained from early research programs with new chemical complexes, and the scale-up and development of our unique enabling technologies and portfolio, Ceapro is now at an inflection point to accelerate its expansion into a new business model from a contract manufacturer/commodity company to a high value life science/biopharmaceutical company involved in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals markets, concluded Mr. Gagnon. CEAPRO INC. Condensed Interim Consolidated Balance Sheets Unaudited September 30, December 31, 2022 2021 $ $ ASSETS Current Assets Cash and cash equivalents 12,910,069 7,780,989 Trade receivables 2,910,672 2,092,842 Other receivables 79,856 45,850 Inventories (note 3) 2,459,554 1,644,893 Prepaid expenses and deposits 153,873 162,919 Total Current Assets 18,514,024 11,727,493 Non-Current Assets Investment tax credits receivable 766,629 766,629 Deposits 79,539 79,539 Licences (note 4) 13,329 15,551 Property and equipment (note 5) 16,413,179 17,499,774 Deferred tax assets - 439,063 Total Non-Current Assets 17,272,676 18,800,556 TOTAL ASSETS 35,786,700 30,528,049 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current Liabilities Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 528,746 682,057 Current portion of lease liabilities (note 6) 313,290 290,055 Total Current Liabilities 842,036 972,112 Non-Current Liabilities Long-term lease liabilities (note 6) 2,119,391 2,358,862 Deferred tax liabilities 959,425 - Total Non-Current Liabilities 3,078,816 2,358,862 TOTAL LIABILITIES 3,920,852 3,330,974 Equity Share capital (note 7 (b)) 16,685,419 16,557,401 Contributed surplus (note 7 (e)) 4,701,238 4,680,690 Retained earnings 10,479,191 5,958,984 Total Equity 31,865,848 27,197,075 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY 35,786,700 30,528,049





CEAPRO INC. Condensed Interim Consolidated Statements of Net Income and Comprehensive Income Unaudited Quarters Nine Months Ended September 30, Ended September 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 $ $ $ $ Revenue (note 13) 3,845,370 4,522,980 15,517,393 13,633,354 Cost of goods sold 1,767,400 1,573,655 5,845,479 5,787,608 Gross margin 2,077,970 2,949,325 9,671,914 7,845,746 Research and product development 314,250 1,403,186 1,213,455 3,050,544 General and administration 869,110 766,605 2,707,430 2,431,659 Sales and marketing 6,160 4,957 20,707 34,557 Finance costs (note 9) 31,382 37,684 151,592 169,938 Income from operations 857,068 736,893 5,578,730 2,159,048 Other (income) expense (note 10) (271,162 ) (138,381 ) (339,965 ) 92,426 Income before tax 1,128,230 875,274 5,918,695 2,066,622 Deferred income tax expense 266,582 - 1,398,488 - Total net income and comprehensive income for the period 861,648 875,274 4,520,207 2,066,622 Net income per common share (note 16): Basic 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.03 Diluted 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.03 Weighted average number of common shares outstanding (note 16): Basic 78,192,923 77,684,017 77,873,310 77,669,747 Diluted 78,817,665 78,740,532 78,519,944 78,694,469



CEAPRO INC. Condensed Interim Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows Unaudited 2022 2021 Nine Months Ended September 30, $ $ OPERATING ACTIVITIES Net income for the period 4,520,207 2,066,622 Adjustments for items not involving cash Finance costs 96,592 106,390 Depreciation and amortization 1,415,361 1,408,392 Gain on disposal of equipment - (5,000 ) Accretion - 8,548 Deferred income tax expense 1,398,488 - Share-based payments 72,926 13,672 7,503,574 3,598,624 CHANGES IN NON-CASH WORKING CAPITAL ITEMS Trade receivables (817,830 ) (696,335 ) Other receivables (34,006 ) 62,702 Inventories (814,661 ) (322,192 ) Prepaid expenses and deposits 9,046 137,618 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities relating to operating activities (105,557 ) 163,017 (1,763,008 ) (655,190 ) Net income for the period adjusted for non-cash and working capital items 5,740,566 2,943,434 Interest paid (96,592 ) (106,390 ) CASH GENERATED FROM OPERATIONS 5,643,974 2,837,044 INVESTING ACTIVITIES Purchase of property and equipment (326,544 ) (514,305 ) Proceeds from sale of equipment - 5,000 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities relating to investing activities (47,754 ) (132,994 ) CASH USED IN INVESTING ACTIVITIES (374,298 ) (642,299 ) FINANCING ACTIVITIES Stock options exercised 75,640 26,725 Repayment of lease liabilities (216,236 ) (180,285 ) CASH USED IN FINANCING ACTIVITIES (140,596 ) (153,560 ) Increase in cash and cash equivalents 5,129,080 2,041,185 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the period 7,780,989 5,369,029 Cash and cash equivalents at end of the period 12,910,069 7,410,214 The complete financial statements are available for review on SEDAR at https://sedar.com/Ceapro and on the Companys website at www.ceapro.com. About Ceapro Inc. Ceapro Inc. is a Canadian biotechnology company involved in the development of proprietary extraction technology and the application of this technology to the production of extracts and active ingredients from oats and other renewable plant resources. Ceapro adds further value to its extracts by supporting their use in cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, and therapeutics products for humans and animals. The Company has a broad range of expertise in natural product chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, immunology and process engineering. These skills merge in the fields of active ingredients, biopharmaceuticals and drug-delivery solutions. For more information on Ceapro, please visit the Companys website at www.ceapro.com. Forward-looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements based on our assessment of Ceapros future plans and operations as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe, continue, plans or similar terminology. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of forward-looking information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance, or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements in this press release. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits Ceapro will derive from them. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise unless required by law. For more information contact: Jenene Thomas

JTC Team, LLC

Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Advisor

T (US): +1 (833) 475-8247

E: [email protected]

This press release does not express or imply that the Company claims its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the SARS-2-CoV-2 (COVID-19) at this time. 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





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What is the function of the myth of separation of church and state? What is the relationship between capitalism and Christianity? What is the relationship between the Puritan view of the chosen, "elected" few that could be saved and the prosperity gospel or entrepreneurial Protestantism? What is a Christian nation? How can religious doctrine be democratic law?

Until the 1960s, some Christian sects were pro-choice and supported birth control for Malthusian reasons of population control and maintaining a healthy Christian marriage. In "Below-the-belt-politics," Scott Flipse writes, "As new attitudes about sex crept into the cultural mainstream, evangelical marriage manuals began to describe explicitly the joys of recreative sex. The manuals continued to view sex as proper only within the bonds of marriage, but they were effusively and enthusiastically excited about marital sex."

"Evangelical leaders gave their consent to couples using artificial forms of family planning. They backed this claim with an appeal to act in the 'liberty of good conscience before god.' The vision of 'the good Christian life' expected married couples to have a healthy and robust sex life, but did not require them to have large families."

When does a fetus have rights? What is a fetus?

According to Flipse's research, the fetus " as a developing lifedid not necessarily have a soul at conception." Paul Hewitt, a Harvard-trained theologian, concluded that in a fetus, there was "potential life, but not fully human." Bruce Waltke, also trained at Harvard as a biblical scholar, noted that the status of the mother and the unborn child were not the same and that "the Old Testament 'did not equate the fetus with living persons,'" and therefore, the fetus does not yet have a soul.

When does the soul enter a fetus, and when can a viable claim be made for legal protection? This all presupposes that souls exist.

As ethical and political discussions on human reproduction and the momentum of civil rights movements increased, these "below-the-belt" politics revealed their entire body of issues. As editor of Christianity Today, Harold Lindsell organized a broad-based political force bringing together conservative Catholics, Protestant Evangelicals, and Protestant Fundamentalists. This configuration brought together sects that had previously disagreed on spiritual and social issuesengaging in sexual politics impacted how that engagement shaped political action.

But all this was subterfuge. "The Religious Right and the Abortion Myth," by Randall Balmer at Politico, explains,"The history of that movement, however, is more complicated. White evangelicals in the 1970s did not mobilize against Roe v. Wade, which they considered a Catholic issue. They organized instead to defend racial segregation in evangelical institutions, including Bob Jones University. To suggest otherwise is to perpetrate what I call the abortion myth, the fiction that the genesis of the Religious Right  the powerful evangelical political movement that has reshaped American politics over the past four decades  lay in opposition to abortion."

The relationship between defending racial segregation and shifting to anti-abortion politics is not such a stark binary. Instead, population control and the inculcation of conservative Christian values (we cannot forget the historical and ongoing use of the Bible to justify slavery, discrimination, and the targeting of specific groups) within policy and law has a long history.

The anti-abortion coalition that emerged in the 1970s wove together a politics of racial segregation and anti-choice positions, clearly in line with gendered ideas of social roles and the power of the patriarch  father on earth as in heaven.

The Politico article further explains the relationship between the IRS and the tax-exempt status of churches, racial segregation, and voting during the 1970s. "Abortion did not take hold among evangelicals until the eve of the 1980 presidential election, the result of assiduous promotion by Weyrich, Falwell and other leaders of the Religious Right following the 1978 midterms.Opposition to abortion, therefore, was a godsend for leaders of the Religious Right because it allowed them to distract attention from the real genesis of their movement: defense of racial segregation in evangelical institutions. With a cunning diversion, they were able to conjure righteous fury against legalized abortion and thereby lend a veneer of respectability to their political activism."

As Flipse concludes, "It was this new anti-abortion coalition that became the intellectual foundation and activist base of the New Religious right, which would emerge full-force in the late 1970s and would find its greatest political influence when linked to the resurgent conservatism of Ronald Reagan."

The genesis of the religious right has many origin stories. Understanding the relationship between the different threads reveals the ideological links between racial segregation, population control, and sexual and reproductive politics. Check out this interview with Frank Schaeffer, a former propagandist for the Christian right, about his regrets about participating in the movement.
[November 09, 2022] HAProxy Introduces General Availability of HAProxy Fusion Control Plane

WALTHAM, Mass. and PARIS, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HAProxyConf -- HAProxy Technologies, the company behind the worlds fastest and most widely used software load balancer, today announced the general availability of HAProxy Fusion Control Plane, which gives development and operations teams the power to simplify, scale, and secure their HAProxy application delivery infrastructure. With HAProxy Fusion, businesses can manage and monitor all their HAProxy Enterprise instances from a single UI or API, whether on-premises or in the cloud. The new centralized control plane makes it easier to extend HAProxy Enterprises security and performance advantage across large and diverse organizations. HAProxy Enterprise provides load balancing, acceleration, and web application firewalling that helps businesses to deliver modern apps that are highly available, fast, and secure. With the addition of HAProxy Fusion, HAProxy Enterprise customers can more easily build resilient geographically distributed infrastructure, highly secure APIs and applications, and efficient zero-touch workflows reducing the costs, risks, and complexity of scale. Businesses face the competitive challenges of scaling up, launching new products faster, and improving security and resilience, said Dujko Radovnikovic, CEO, HAProxy Technologies. HAProxy Fusion makes large scale and velocity easy to manage. With central control across diverse and distributed environments, businesses can smooth digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies. Managing complex security and multi-location infrastructure becomes much simpler. We love seeing our customers benefit from Fusions efficiency and high performance at scale. HAProxy Fusion is the first native centralized control plane for HAProy Enterprise. The experts behind the HAProxy load balancer provide authoritative and end-to-end support for HAProxy Fusion and HAProxy Enterprise. The API at the heart of HAProxy Fusion simplifies the integration of application delivery infrastructure with CI/CD tooling and processes. In contrast with third-party tools for centralized management and orchestration (MANO), HAProxy Fusion reduces complexity and provides easier access to HAProxy Enterprises powerful features.



HAProxy Fusion provides unparalleled resilience and security for modern distributed applications, including the following features: Full observability via unified application delivery logs, metrics, and reports in a single pane of glass;

Strengthened security and compliance with centralized policy, configuration validation, and powerful bot management;

Protection against human error and systems failure from role-based access control (RBAC), self-healing clusters, and robust recovery processes.

HAProxy also reduces costs caused by friction and bottlenecks. Operations teams can provide Load Balancing as a Service, helping businesses deliver faster, reducing time-to-market and the risks of shadow IT. Development teams can automate the load balancing and security infrastructure they need programmatically.

Businesses that deliver applications using HAProxy Fusion and HAProxy Enterprise will provide end users with a fast and reliable experience and the highest standards in security to protect their transactions, personal data, and privacy. The release of HAProxy Fusion cements HAProxy Technologies as the creator of the worlds top secure application delivery platform, enabling robust application security and high performance with a simple architecture, said Andjelko Iharos, Director of Engineering, HAProxy Technologies. HAProxy Fusion Control Plane is the foundation for what will become a single pane of glass to manage the entire suite of HAProxy products. For the many businesses overwhelmed by the complexity and inefficiency of modern application delivery, HAProxy Fusion will cut through the noise to provide simplicity, scale, and security from edge to origin and the whole application lifecycle. HAProxy Technologies announced the launch of HAProxy Fusion at HAProxyConf 2022 in Paris. The annual conference for the highly-active HAProxy community features expert speakers from across the open-source landscape presenting best practices and real-world use cases. Attendees at HAProxyConf 2022 can see a demonstration of HAProxy Fusion in the Seine Room at the New Cap Event Center. Customers who want to evaluate HAProxy Fusion can request a free trial. Learn more about the HAProxy Fusion Control Plane . HAProxy Technologies

HAProxy Technologies is the company behind HAProxy, the worlds fastest and most widely-used software load balancer. Organizations rapidly deploy HAProxy products to deliver websites and applications with the utmost performance, observability, and security at any scale and in any environment. ?HAProxy Technologies is headquartered in Waltham, MA, with multiple offices across the US and Europe. Learn more at HAProxy.com. Media Contact:

Deb Randel

HAProxy Technologies, LLC

[email protected]



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[November 09, 2022] Sorenson Announces Rebrand of Leading BSL Provider SLi, SignVideo

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Sign Language Interactions (SLi), a United Kingdom-based, Sorenson company, announced its transition to a new brand, one that is reflective of the companys mission, the universal need for human connection, and the network of inclusive communication services offered by Sorenson, the worlds leading provider of language services for Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and diverse people. Uniting Sorenson services and products under one brand provides identity recognition and symbolizes Sorensons unwavering commitment to, across all its services, leveraging the power of language to connect and enrich lives. Sorenson Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Camila Casale, a marketing veteran who is overseeing the expansive brand transition, said, For the rebrand, we engaged Sorensons diverse employees and customers  Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing people from all over the world who use different languages. We combined that research with Sorensons history and culture of innovation and current plans by Sorensons new leadership and ownership for global expansion. And we enlisted the expertise of Indian/Australian-born brand designer Ravi Vasavan, who is Deaf, to create the theory behind the new brand identity as ell as the dazzling design. The brand that emerged was an authentic and wonderful representation of what Sorenson is becoming.



Sorensons evolution builds on ground-breaking work over many years by SLi and SignVideo, key contributors to the development and delivery of online video and face-to-face British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreting across the U.K. SLis and SignVideos advocacy advanced BSL/English interpreting and led to even greater standards of service delivery and access to communication between Deaf and hearing people. This same dedication remains intact while SLi and SignVideo transition to endorsed brands. SLi is now SLi by Sorenson and SignVideo is now SignVideo by Sorenson. Brand changes will not impact Contact Scotland BSL and 999 BSL, the U.K.s Emergency Video Relay Service provided by SLi by Sorenson.

SLis and SignVideos previous brands will be retired, and the new Sorenson endorsed brand will begin to appear on SLis and SignVideos websites and social media. To watch the new Sorenson brand take flight, visit www.sorenson.com. Watch this announcement in BSL. View this announcement in ASL. Read this announcement in Spanish. About Sorenson

At Sorenson, we believe communication is fundamental to the human experience, which is why our innovative technology and services are accessible, inclusive, and functionally equivalent for Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and diverse communities across the globe. As one of the worlds leading language service providers and the worlds leading provider of communication services for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, Sorenson combines patented technology with human-centric services to connect signed and spoken languages. Sorenson offers caption and video relay services, and over-video and in-person sign language and spoken language interpreting, real-time event captioning services, and post-production language services. Supporting people is what drives Sorenson to, every day, Connect Beyond Words. For more information on how we advance human connection, visit www.sorenson.com or es.sorenson.com.

Press Contact Ann Bardsley Director of Public Relations Sorenson 801-287-9400 [email protected]

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[November 09, 2022] OURA Introduces Three New C-Suite Leaders

OURA, the company behind the smart ring that delivers personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance, announced the addition of several new members to its executive leadership team: Doug Sweeny has joined as Chief Marketing Officer, Lina Alcala has joined as the company's first-ever Chief People Officer, and Holly Shelton was promoted internally to Chief Product Officer. These leadership changes come during a period of continued growth for OURA, following key partnerships with Gucci, Strava, Natural Cycles, and Therabody, as well as a new product launch, Oura Gen3 Horizon. Earlier this year, the company also announced it raised capital at a $2.55 billion valuation less than a month after reaching the milestone of 1,000,000 Oura Ring sales. Additionally, OURA increased the size of the Series C-1 round, previously announced in April, as a result of being oversubscribed.



"People leaders are critical to the success of every business, and securing the right team has been a big focus of mine since I joined the organization earlier this year," said Tom Hale, Chief Executive Officer OURA. "We are excited to welcome Doug, Lina, and Holly to our executive team and are confident that their combined talent, experience, and leadership will help us reach our ambitious goals in 2023 and beyond." Doug Sweeny joined the team in October 2022 as Chief Marketing Officer to lead the company's Marketing organization across Product Marketing, Creative, Social, Brand & Content, Growth, and PR as part of its expansion from sleep to holistic health. He has more than 25 years of experience driving marketing, growth, product, and business development for iconic brands like One Medical, Nest, Levi's, Adidas, and General Motors EV1.

"OURA's commitment to innovation in health and consumer technology is incredibly inspiring," said Doug Sweeny, Chief Marketing Officer OURA. "I could not be more excited to join this team and build on the foundation that's in place to continue to create products and services that have a positive impact on individuals and the world." With this change, OURA's first and most recent CMO, Karina Kogan, has transitioned to an advisor role supporting the organization with strategic partnerships. During Karina's tenure, the company experienced over 110% year-over-year growth and a boost in brand awareness and recognition. Lina Alcala joined the organization in July 2022 as its first-ever Chief People Officer. She heads up the company's People organization, inclusive of recruiting, talent acquisition and management, DE&I, and internal culture efforts. Most recently, Lina was the SVP of People at Tinder, where she led the organization through hypergrowth from 100 to 600+ employees, expanded the company's global footprint across 15+ new markets, and led the organization through the merger and acquisition by Match Group, an S&P 500 company. Before that, she spent two years at Hulu and also worked at BlackLine Systems. "With OURA's strong vision and mission to improve people's sleep, longevity, and overall health, it is more important than ever to attract and retain top talent," said Lina Alcala, Chief People Officer OURA. "I am excited to help build and foster a culture that plays such a critical role in creating healthier futures for all." Holly Shelton has been promoted to Chief Product Officer. Since April of this year, Holly has served as SVP of Product, where she made an incredible impact bringing together OURA's design, software, and hardware product organizations. Holly's immediate focus will be continuing to unite the product organization and driving a clear and focused product strategy for 2023. Before OURA, Holly was the global product lead for MacBook Pro at Apple, where she led all aspects of product and product marketing from concept to end of life. Prior to Apple, Holly served as the CEO & Co-Founder of MoveWith, a fitness and wellness platform created by world-class instructors to connect people to guided fitness and meditation classes, that ultimately sold to Under Armour Connected Fitness. Before that, she served as the Head of Product at Dreem, a sleep company specializing in sleep lab-accurate measurement and a sleep improvement program for insomniacs. "I am honored to be assuming this new role at such an exciting time in OURA's evolution," said Holly Shelton, Chief Product Officer OURA. "In my time here, I have been impressed by the value of the product, the endless opportunities this technology has to better people's lives, and the talent of the team. I look forward to continuing to work with this dedicated team to take OURA's business to the next level." About OURA OURA is the company behind the Oura Ring - the smart ring that delivers personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance. OURA believes health is a daily practice and, with personalized insights and guidance, you can control the course of your health to live a more balanced life. The Oura Ring tracks all stages of sleep and recovery and accounts for daily activity to provide practical steps for long-term improvement. Founded in 2013, Oura Health is headquartered in Oulu, Finland, with offices in Helsinki, San Francisco, and San Diego. OURA has raised capital in the past from Lifeline Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Temasek, The Chernin Group, JAZZ Venture Partners, and MSD Capital, among others. For more information, please visit http://ouraring.com/. The Oura Ring is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, monitor, or prevent medical conditions/illnesses. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005324/en/

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[November 09, 2022] REESE'S PUFFS Brings Fans the Future of Breakfast with Out-Of-This-World Fashion Collaboration and Sneak Peek Event in NYC

REESE'S PUFFS is taking fans beyond the cereal bowl and reimagining the future of breakfast - in the metaverse, and in real life - in collaboration with contemporary designer, Yoon Ahn and her brand, AMBUSH. The partnership, which first debuted last month with a designed REESE'S PUFFS cereal box, is now expanding into an immersive breakfast experience created exclusively for REESE'S PUFFS fans. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005343/en/ REESE'S PUFFS is reimagining the future of breakfast in collaboration with contemporary designer, Yoon Ahn and her brand, AMBUSH. (Photo: Business Wire) Starting today, reservations are available to The Next Breakfast Dimension - a futuristic diner destination where food and fashion collide, open only on Wednesday, Nov. 16 in New York City. Guests will have the chance to taste, touch and see the future of breakfast in a chrome-filled REESE'S PUFFS experience where they can preview the entire REESE'S PUFFS x AMBUSH collaboration before it's available to the public. "From where you eat your bowl of cereal to what you eat it out of - the future of breakfast has no limits," said Mindy Murray, Senior Marketing Communication Manager at General Mills. "There is no one better to bring this futuristic look to life than Yoon Ahn." On Thursday, Nov. 17, fans everywhere in the United States can purchase the exclusively designed CHROME PUFF, gain access to the first interactive Breakfastverse experience, and score a Collectible REESE'S PUFFS Cereal Box, all within the REESE'S PUFFS x AMBUSH collaboration: The Next Breakfast Dimension: Be the first to preview the CHROME PUFF and gain early access to the Breakfastverse at this futuristic diner experience in New York City on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Reservations are first-come, first-serve at OpenTable.com and include plenty of REESE'S PUFFS.

Be the first to preview the CHROME PUFF and gain early access to the Breakfastverse at this futuristic diner experience in New York City on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Reservations are first-come, first-serve at OpenTable.com and include plenty of REESE'S PUFFS. The CHROME PUFF : Intrepid cereal lovers can get their hands on the expertly crafted, cereal-bowl-turned-fashion accessory inspired by AMBUSH  's metallic and modern aesthetic. The CHROME PUFF is the only accessory fit for the future of breakfast with a foldable chrome spoon, allowing you to bring your most fashionable self to the breakfast table, or wherever your morning takes you. This chic bag is available in a limited quantity at shop.reesespuffs.com for $149.99.

Intrepid cereal lovers can get their hands on the expertly crafted, cereal-bowl-turned-fashion accessory inspired by AMBUSH 's metallic and modern aesthetic. The CHROME PUFF is the only accessory fit for the future of breakfast with a foldable chrome spoon, allowing you to bring your most fashionable self to the breakfast table, or wherever your morning takes you. This chic bag is available in a limited quantity at shop.reesespuffs.com for $149.99. The Breakfastverse : Navigate a REESE'S PUFFS-inspired metaverse that captures the cutting-edge style of Yoon Ahn in an interactive online experience created to explore while you eat breakfast. Participants who navigate their way through the Breakfastverse and make it to the 'Chrome Throne' will be entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to win their own CHROME PUFF or the Collectible REESE'S PUFFS Cereal Box.

Navigate a REESE'S PUFFS-inspired metaverse that captures the cutting-edge style of Yoon Ahn in an interactive online experience created to explore while you eat breakfast. Participants who navigate their way through the Breakfastverse and make it to the 'Chrome Throne' will be entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to win their own CHROME PUFF or the Collectible REESE'S PUFFS Cereal Box. Collectible REESE'S PUFFS Cereal Boxes: The original REESE'S PUFFS x AMBUSH designed cereal box is available at retailers nationwide right now for $5.24 and starting November 17 a collector's chrome-inspired REESE'S PUFFS x AMBUSH box will be available at shop.reesespuffs.com. From embossed elements to reflective text, the limited-edition box ($49.99) pays homage to the futuristic vibes of the CHROME PUFF.



 collection builds on the inventive partnerships REESE'S PUFFS has become known for cultivating - from music to art and now fashion - tapping into new experiences and creating covetable accessories, sure to please its biggest fans. "I've always been a huge REESE'S PUFFS fan so getting the chance to think about what the future of breakfast could look like alongside an iconic brand was a dream come true," Ahn said. "The CHROME PUFF is our take on breakfast on-the-go in the most fashionable way. The metaverse called 'Breakfastverse' we built together is playtime for the inner children in all of us. You can enjoy it by yourself as well as with family and friends. It's going to be a surreal experience that I think everyone will love."

For more information about the REESE'S PUFFS x AMBUSH collaboration, visit www.reesespuffs.world or follow @reesespuffs on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. About General Mills General Mills makes food the world loves. The company is guided by its Accelerate strategy to drive shareholder value by boldly building its brands, relentlessly innovating, unleashing its scale and standing for good. Its portfolio of beloved brands includes household names such as Cheerios, Nature Valley, Blue Buffalo, Haagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Annie's, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, General Mills generated fiscal 2022 net sales of U.S. $19.0 billion. In addition, the company's share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1.1 billion. About AMBUSH? AMBUSH began as an experimental jewelry line - innovative pop art-inspired designs capturing a distinct Tokyo aesthetic. With apparel created as a canvas to complete the story, AMBUSH evolved into designing unisex collections. The brand made its Paris debut in 2015 and in 2022, AMBUSH presented the brand's first runway at Milan Fashion Week. AMBUSH is pushing boundaries as a fashion brand in web3 with the introduction of its POW! REBOOT NFT collection in February 2022 and the launch of its proprietary metaverse SILVER FCTRY. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005343/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Structure.fi Continues Growth in Latin America, Expanding Access to Financial Services in Argentina

Structure.fi, a mobile-first financial platform that offers investors seamless access to both traditional and crypto markets, has officially launched in Argentina, further solidifying the company's commitment to expanding access to financial services in Latin America. The launch in Argentina follows Structure.fi's genesis launch in El Salvador in August, which garnered support from high-ranking officials within the El Salvadoran government and has been embraced by El Salvadoran investors. Latin America is well-positioned to become a global leader in blockchain adoption, with companies like Structure.fi investing in the burgeoning market. Argentina has taken significant strides to educate its people on the power and promise of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies . These efforts include grass-roots campaigns from non-governmental organizations, like Bitcoin Argentina, to educate Argentinian students on Bitcoin and showcase the true value of a digital economy. Argentina ranks second in the region and tenth globally in adoption of cryptocurrencies due to the volatile nature of local markets, significant government intervention in the economy, and distrust of the country's traditional financial institutions.



"What we are seeing in Argentina, is a rebuke of traditional financial institutions, combined with a tangible effort to pursue progressive, technologically driven economic solutions to lift people up," said Bryan Hernandez, co-founder and President of Structure.fi. "Crypto, and platforms like Structure.fi, present an opportunity for people to participate in global financial markets without barriers." Structure.fi's intuitive, user-friendly, platform gives investors of all experience levels the ability to invest, earn interest, borrow, lend, and complete peer-to-peer transactions in both traditional and digital financial assets. Structure.fi simplifies the friction-heavy crypto market by allowing users to execute trades in one place that in the past would have required a series of complex executions across multiple platforms.

On Structure.fi, traditional assets are tokenized in order that they can be accessed on a blockchain. Each traditional asset token is backed 1-to-1, meaning that users in Latin America are able to purchase tokenized versions of blue chip stocks like Tesla, Apple, and Amazon that maintain a value pegged to their traditional counterpart. Users in Argentina will see tremendously improved access to financial services, allowing them to experience the true power and promise of blockchain technology. "Argentina presents a tremendous opportunity for the crypto industry to grow and live to its potential," said Wes Cecil, Chief Strategy Officer of Structure.fi. "Nearly 2.5 million people in the country already own crypto, and its use is currently thriving in places like the Patagonia Crypto Valley. It won't be long until Argentines across the country see the power of companies, institutions, and solutions based on blockchain technology." About Structure.fi

Structure.fi is a global financial platform that opens the door for mainstream investors to seamlessly participate in the DeFi and Crypto markets without the traditional educational and financial barriers. Guided by the principles of DeFi, Structure.fi will allow investors of all experience levels to quickly and simply trade assets on an easy-to-use, secure platform and eventually to earn, borrow and lend. Offering 24/7 access, hands-on support and seamless transaction Structure.fi's consumer-first approach brings accessibility and simplicity to the complex financial worlds of DeFi and Crypto. To learn more about Structure.fi's innovative and inclusive approach to DeFi investment, please visit www.structure.fi. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005282/en/

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[November 09, 2022] MeridianLink Chief Product Officer to Present at The Financial Brand Forum

MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE: MLNK), a leading provider of modern software platforms for financial institutions and consumer reporting agencies, today announces that Chief Product Officer Devesh Khare will lead a discussion session at The Financial Brand Forum on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 from 3:00 to 3:45 p.m. PST. The Financial Brand Forum is the premier trade conference on marketing, customer experience, and digital transformation in banking. This year's forum will bring together more than 2,750 senior executives from over 900 financial institutions for three days to tackle the industry's biggest challenges, discuss the latest innovations, and recommend best practices that support transformational growth. Khare's session, "Engineering the Optimal Digital Lending Experience: Fast, Frictionless & Fully-Automated," will focus on the future of lending, providing actionable insights to help banks and credit unions leverage data and technology to fuel growth, increase productpersonalization, and provide a world-class digital lending experience to its consumers. The session is open to all conference attendees.



Speaking opportunities at The Financial Brand Forum are limited to the industry's top thought leaders. Prior speakers have included C-suite executives from the world's largest and most respected companies, academics from the nation's most prestigious universities, and the hosts of Shark Tank. "I'm honored to present at The Financial Brand Forum alongside so many leaders and executives in the banking world," Khare said. "With new technologies constantly expanding the capabilities of financial services, it's an exciting time to be discussing this topic. I'm looking forward to sharing my perspective on how banks and credit unions can leverage digital technologies to deliver seamless experiences, such as fully-contactless digital lending processes and automated loan decisions."

Khare is a technology and financial services expert who joined MeridianLink as the Vice President of Product in 2020 and was promoted to Chief Product Officer earlier this year. In both roles, he led portfolio and market expansions through acquisitions and organic growth and had a significant role in the launch of the MeridianLink One platform. His roles at MeridianLink, and prior industry experience, have given Khare a uniquely authoritative perspective to discuss the importance of banks and credit unions investing in their digital lending experience and provide insight into what makes those experiences beneficial for the customer and the institution. ABOUT MERIDIANLINK MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE: MLNK) is a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, specialty lending providers, and consumer reporting agencies. Headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, MeridianLink provides services to more than 1,900 customers, including a majority of the financial institutions on Forbes' 2021 lists of America's Best Credit Unions and Banks. Further information can be found at www.meridianlink.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005298/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Kelly-Ann McHugh, MCO, Takes SFF Top 10 FinTech Leader Award

MyComplianceOffice (MCO) APAC Director Kelly-Ann McHugh Recognised in Prestigious Singapore Fintech Association Awards, Named Top 10 FinTech Leader. SINGAPORE, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A true thought leader and advocate of the global RegTech community, Kelly-Ann McHugh, APAC Director at MCO, is at the forefront of risk management and regulatory compliance technology development and implementation for the Asia-Pacific region. McHugh has been recognised for her impressive contributions to the RegTech industry at the 2022 Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) - the most highly anticipated event of its kind in Singapore. "I'm incredibly grateful to be recognised amongst such respected industry peers uring a truly outstanding event and exhibition at SFF. For me, these awards acknowledge the crucial role of FinTech and RegTech solutions in helping organisations navigate with resilience through complex and volatile market conditions," comments McHugh.



This year's SFF, which ran from 2 - 4 Nov 2022 in Singapore, gathered the most prominent financial institutions in the world, government leaders, regulators, financial services leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and technology leaders. In addition, hundreds of renowned speakers shared their insights about ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), blockchain, cloud, cybersecurity, and more. In late 2019, McHugh launched MyComplianceOffice Pte Ltd., setting up the first Global Conduct Risk & Conflict of Interest RegTech office in Singapore that services the Asia-Pacific Financial Services industry. McHugh has since led the remarkable 61% growth of MCO in Asia-Pacific, which now services over 35 firms in the region.

"I'm proud to be supported by the incredible team of dedicated professionals at MCO. Together, we're on an enriching journey to help firms reduce risk and uphold regulatory compliance obligations, faster and easier than ever before, through our innovative suite of RegTech solutions." Continues McHugh. MCO worldwide enables more than 1300+ firms in 105 countries with risk management and compliance solutions. The company's largest global client sees its 105,000 employees using the MCO platform. About MCO (MyComplianceOffice) MCO provides compliance management software that enables companies around the world to reduce their risk of misconduct. The company's powerful platform lets compliance professionals demonstrate they are proactively managing the regulated activities of employees, third-party vendors and other agents of the firm. Available as a unified suite or a la carte, MCO's easy-to-use and extensible SaaS-based solutions see clients up and running quickly to more effectively boost user adoption. SOURCE MCO (MyComplianceOffice)

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[November 09, 2022] Frontline Success Leader Beekeeper Lands $50 Million Series C

Beekeeper, the leading frontline success system, today announced it has raised $50 million in Series C funding after more than doubling revenues since the start of the pandemic. New investors like EGS Beteiligungen and Kreos Capital joined the round alongside existing investors Energize, Thayer, SwissCanto, Keen Ventures, Alpana Ventures, Edenred Capital and Verve Capital. Beekeeper plans to use this round of funding to grow, continue to invest in product development and establish its leadership in the frontline success category. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005241/en/ Beekeeper's new Frontline Workspace (Graphic: Business Wire) "The disconnect between employers and their frontline employees is at an all time high, causing staff shortages and burnout that comes at a hefty economic price," said Dr. Cristian Grossmann, co-founder and CEO, Beekeeper. "This round of investment validates Beekeeper's mission to tackle this disconnect and overcome the crippling status-quo it creates. Our mobile-first, frontline success system connects workers to the people, processes and information they need to be productive, engaged, and safe at work. This new way of working gives our customers an unmatched competitive advantage during challenging times." "Our investment in Beekeeper comes at a critical time for the frontline workforce. As more industries from manufacturing through to hospitality continue to grow in a challenging global economy, businesses have to keep innovating. Beekeeper is the best in class, mobile-first platform, designed to address frontline business challenges," said Sean Dunne, General Partner at Kreos Capital. "More than 80 percent of the global workforce are deskless workers, and as digitization scales and transforms nearly every sector of the economy, there is increasing demand to connect and enable frontline workers with new technologies," said Juan Muldoon, partner at Energize Ventures. "We believe Beekeeper has set the benchmark for frontline success in industries that are instrumental to the buildout of a sustainable economy - from manufacturing and construction to transportation and logistics. We are excited to continue partnering with Beekeeper as they unlock greater efficiency and connectivity among frontline businesses." Since 2020, Beekeeper has seen exceptional growth with thousands of frontline business locations now using the Beekeeper platform in more than 150 countries, which continues to drive investor excitement. From hospitality and retail to manufacturing and construction, Beekeeper is helping customers in key frontline industries thrive during the pre and post-pandemic eras. "When we opened in the middle of the pandemic, we needed a modern, innovative way for team members to collaborate and work together to provide our guests a world-class experience. And we wanted to weave it into our resort's operations from their first day on the job. Working with Beekeeper helped us scale quickly and offered a level of security that we needed with so many workers sharing information on their personal devices. When the resort opened its doors, more than 5,000 team members were already up and running on the app and ready to welcome guests. In a fast-paced industry where every second counts, giving staff an easy to use, mobile-first solution that facilitates real-time, enterprise-wide collaboration is a game changer," said Bob Napierala, VP of Human Resources, Resort World Las Vegas. Beekeeper's $50 million Series C round brings the company's total funding to date to more than $100 million, further demonstrating the industry need for comprehensive frontline success technology. In turn, Beekeeper's staff has grown to more than 200 team members across the United States and Europe and the company is continuing to hire.



Recent executive hires continue to build out a highly-experienced commercial team, including: Kevin McKeown, Chief Revenue Officer, who leads the worldwide go to market teams with a focus on customer growth.

Sarah Moore, Chief Marketing Officer, who oversees the company's global marketing strategy.

Shawn Lim, Vice President of Customer Success, who is focused on growing the company's customer base and maintaining customer satisfaction. Beekeeper also added Craig Bumpus to the Board of Directors. Craig brings a wealth of knowledge about accelerating growth from his experience at market-leaders like UiPath and Nutanix.

Rapidly Adding Value with a New Product Suite In addition to an increase in funding, Beekeeper continues to innovate quickly to address the great frontline disconnect, and has added several new capabilities to its mobile-first platform, Beekeeper's Frontline Success System. The new product suite includes: 1. Frontline Workspace: At the core of Beekeeper's Frontline Success System is the Frontline Workspace, which aims to improve three main areas for its users: Employee Services: easy access to workers' shifts, payslips, training and onboarding information

easy access to workers' shifts, payslips, training and onboarding information Comms & Collaboration: allows two-way communication, connecting the frontline worker to their teams, their colleagues, managers on the floor and those in HQ

allows two-way communication, connecting the frontline worker to their teams, their colleagues, managers on the floor and those in HQ Productivity: providing frontline workers with intuitive tools to accomplish their work quicker and more efficiently 2. Employee Referrals: As frontline businesses struggle to fill open roles, Beekeeper's Employee Referrals solution helps companies fill positions faster, retain more employees and lower recruitment costs. In just four steps, the mobile-first platform can inform, collect, track and reward employees for their referrals. Beekeeper customers are already reporting initial benefits, stating that 30% of those referred are hired and stay at their jobs twice as long. View Beekeeper's Employee Referral product video.

View Beekeeper's Wanzek Construction case study, showcasing how the customer successfully generated 500+ employee referrals in three months. 3. Employee Onboarding: Given that the first 90 days of employment are crucial for an employee's success, Beekeeper's new Employee Onboarding program for frontline employees is a scalable solution to onboarding new hires faster and at less cost. The frontline-focused onboarding engages new hires from day one and optimizes the employee lifecycle with a communication plan that reinforces critical touchpoints of the new hire journey. It provides the automation organizations need to deliver personalized training new hires want. View Beekeeper's Employee Onboarding product video.

View Beekeeper's Concord Hospital case study, showcasing how the customer used the solution to improve onboarding and communications. 4. Safety Management: Beekeeper provides a mobile-first Safety Management Solution designed for frontline teams to optimize their safety culture in four ways: training, accident prevention, accident reporting and safety metrics. View Beekeeper's Health and Safety product video.

View Beekeeper's Amsted Rail case study, showcasing how the customer greatly improved its health and safety guidelines with Beekeeper and got employees back to work quickly following the pandemic. Grossmann concludes, "I've never been more excited about Beekeeper's work and the future we are building for frontline success. The disconnect between employers and the frontline is too great to ignore, and the level of support we've received from investors, customers and partners to revolutionize the employee experience for deskless workers underscores how critical our mission has become and highlights that the demand for frontline-focused technology is higher than it's ever been." About Beekeeper Beekeeper empowers frontline businesses and their workers with the digital solutions they need to do their best possible work. Founded in 2012, Beekeeper's mobile-first platform was designed and built for deskless employees who - despite representing 80% of the global workforce - have been chronically underserved when it comes to workplace technology. With Beekeeper's Frontline Success System, companies can automate paper-based processes, communicate with employees in real-time from anywhere, and improve the engagement, productivity, and safety of frontline teams. Website: https://www.beekeeper.io

Blog: https://www.beekeeper.io/blog/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beekeeper/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005241/en/

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[November 09, 2022] BAE Systems to Develop Autonomy-Based Video Game Experience for Mission Planners

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded BAE Systems a $17 million contract to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) into an interactive game environment to revolutionize air operations planning for contested environments. As part of the Fight Tonight program, the company will provide air operations planners with the tools they need to dramatically accelerate the process of planning complex air attack operations. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005117/en/ The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded BAE Systems a $17 million contract to develop autonomy-based video game experience for mission planners. (Credit: BAE Systems) Under the terms of the Technical Area 2, Plan Gaming ad Outcome Analysis contract, BAE Systems' FAST Labs research and development organization, along with subcontractors Uncharted Software and Kestrel Institute, will develop a solution to rapidly generate and review multiple plans and select the most robust.



"This technology is about using AI to provide commanders with more options faster and with more details to ensure the most robust plan is selected," said Mike Miller, technical director for BAE Systems' FAST Labs. "The drag-and-drop video game-like interactions would reduce the time it takes to make a series of incremental adjustments to a plan from hours to minutes." Long manual planning cycles often result in the consideration of fewer potential plan options. To address this challenge, the proposed offering will provide an interactive user interface that enables planners to rapidly explore and access plausible futures and select the best plans in a dynamic environment. These processes will be enhanced by tools that can generate and assess the feasibility of more plans than is currently possible without the aid of technology.

The software enhances BAE Systems' extensive autonomy portfolio and 20-year history pioneering autonomy technology. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005117/en/

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[November 09, 2022] HCP Launches Customer Advisory Board to Relieve the Post-Acute Care Industry's Biggest Challenges

REXBURG, Idaho, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HCP, the leading provider of experience management, training, and reputation management, launched its Customer Advisory Board, bringing together over 20 of the top leaders and partners in the care industry to receive strategic insights from customers regarding the status of HCP's product, emerging industry trends, and direction of the company. HCP launched its Customer Advisory Board to receive strategic insights from leaders and partners in the care industry. The Customer Advisory Board will be a voice for the industry, comprised of agencies and professionals who have achieved outstanding results with HCP's Experience Management, Training, and Reputation Management solutions. Through its Board, HCP will continue to enable providers to become the best employer and provider in their area. New Board members include: Laura Shaw de-Bruin, Norwood Seniors Network; Samantha Franklin, Hospice of Arkansas; Katy Sperl, Androscoggin; Laura Quinn, Right at Home; Wyatt Godfrey, Right at Home; Shannon Mitchell, Right at Home; Emily Undajon, Right at Home; Zack Woods, Brightstar Care; Brett Ringold, A Long Term Companion; Nora Triola, BAYADA; Brittney Schauss, Heritage Hospice; Jake Rankin, Talem Home Care; Karen Schacht, Jaybird Senior Living; Kaylee Neegaard, Jaybird Senior Living; Sara Kelinek, Jaybird Senior Living; Ethan Guerrieri, Preferred Care at Home; Cyril Vergis, Arosa; Jenelle Schneider, Home Helpers; Nicole Wilson, Synergy; Ally Waters, FirstLight; Aaron Sinykin, Devoted Guardians; John Ball, Outreach Health.



"To continue offering cutting-edge solutions to the industry, we need strategic focus from customers to dig deeper into industry's biggest challenges," said Brian Zeichick, Chief Product Officer at HCP. "Post-acute care is a dynamic industry, and the more we learn from our customers, the more we can adapt our solutions to meet their needs." "It's an honor to be a member of Home Care Pulse's Customer Advisory Board," said Brett Ringold, Vice President of A Long Term Companion. "Home Care Pulse has been so vital to our agency's success, and we could not imagine operating A Long Term Companion without the insights and feedback that we receive from them. From surveys to benchmarking, training and beyond, I truly believe that Home Care Pulse is raising the standard of care in our industry, and I'm excited to contribute as a member of the Customer Advisory Board."

The Customer Advisory Board will meet quarterly to discuss current industry findings and opportunities. "The initiation of our Customer Advisory Board is a significant milestone toward industry unity," said Todd Austin, President of HCP. "In making any business decision, the first and most important step is listening to our customers: their needs, wants, expectations, and more. HCP's Customer Advisory Board will transform the way we approach new products, features, and messaging, and will substantially improve the business operations of those we serve." About HCP HCP leads the home-based care industry in experience management, training, and reputation management. Through its Care Intelligence Platform HCP empowers providers in home care, home health, and hospice to attract and retain employees during workforce shortages. HCP also conducts the annual Benchmarking Report, the most comprehensive survey of providers in North America, and administers Best of Home Care awards to agencies that achieve best-in-class satisfaction scores. For more information, visit https://www.homecarepulse.com/ Media Contact Megan Kujawa  [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hcp-launches-customer-advisory-board-to-relieve-the-post-acute-care-industrys-biggest-challenges-301672760.html SOURCE Home Care Pulse

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An agreement to develop a 10-gigawatt (GW) onshore wind project in Egypt  one of the largest wind farms in the world  was signed on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi witnessed the signing of the agreement between Masdar, one of the worlds fastest-growing renewable energy companies, along with its Infinity Power joint venture with Infinity, Egypts main renewable energy developer, and Hassan Allam Utilities.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, UAE Special Envoy for Climate, and Chairman of Masdar, and Sabah Meshaly, Chairwoman of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

Dr Al Jaber said: The scale of this mega 10 GW onshore wind project is a testament to the renewable energy ambitions of the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Egypt, and demonstrates Masdars status as a global leader in clean energy. Under the guidance of our leadership, the UAE has been at the forefront of positive climate action in the region  and globally, as reflected in the recent US-UAE Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE).

The UAE and Masdar will continue to support Egypts net-zero goals, and we will endeavor to take forward the gains made here at COP27, as the UAE prepares to host COP28 next year, he said.

When completed, the 10 GW wind farm will produce 47,790 GWh of clean energy annually and offset 23.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions  equivalent to around 9 percent of Egypts current CO2 emissions. The project will be part of Egypts Green Corridor initiative  a grid dedicated to renewable energy projects  and will contribute to Egypts goal of ensuring renewable energy makes up 42 percent of its energy mix by 2035.

The wind farm will also save Egypt an estimated $5 billion in annual natural gas costs, and help create as many as 100,000 jobs. Direct employment in the construction phase is estimated at around 30,000, with as many as 70,000 people being employed indirectly. After construction, around 3,200 jobs will be added for operation and maintenance.

Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, said: With this agreement to develop our largest ever project, Masdar is proud to bolster our contribution to Egypts renewable energy goals, while strengthening our partnerships with Infinity Power and Hassan Allam Utilities, and building on our relationship with the Egyptian Government. We are confident this project will help provide clean and sustainable energy to Egypts people while ensuring the country meets its decarbonization commitments.

Mohamed Ismail Mansour, Chairman - Infinity Power, said: We are proud to be working on this project in association with our partners, enabling the Egyptian government to build upon their efforts to deploy effective solutions that confront the global issue of climate change. The project will enable the country to save vast amounts of natural gas; thereby attaining economic growth, reduce carbon emissions and provide greater access to sustainable energy sources, enabling Egypt to move forward in its journey towards becoming a green economy.

In April, Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities signed two MoUs with Egyptian state-backed organisations to cooperate on the development of 4 GW green hydrogen production plants in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and on the Mediterranean coast.

In the first phase of the project, a green hydrogen manufacturing facility will be developed and operational by 2026, able to produce 100,000 tonnes of e-methanol annually for bunkering in the Suez Canal. The electrolyzer facilities could be extended to up to 4 GW by 2030 to produce 2.3 million tonnes of green ammonia for export as well as supply green hydrogen for local industries.

Egypt enjoys abundant solar and wind resources that allow for renewable-power generation at a highly competitive cost  a key enabler for green hydrogen production. It is also located near markets where the demand for green hydrogen is expected to grow the most, providing robust opportunities for export.

Active in more than 40 countries across the world, Masdar is invested in a portfolio of renewable energy assets with a combined value of more than US$20 billion and a total capacity of more than 15 GW.

COP28 will be held in the UAE, from November 6-17, 2023. The UAE conference will include the first Global Stocktake since the 2015 Paris Agreement, a comprehensive report card assessing progress against key global climate goals.  TradeArabia News Service
BY JONATHAN D. EPSTEIN

Nov. 8, 2022

Buffalo proud

Buffalo is once again getting national attention as a comeback story that everyone should pay attention to.

And this time it's from a source that's making local economic development organizations ready to do cartwheels: Site Selection Magazine  the periodical for the international corporate real estate folks who help companies large and small figure out where to locate their newest offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouses or stores.

The magazine just published a 2,076-word story by a senior editor about Buffalo's resurgence, and the excitement that has come with it, complete with photos of M&T Bank Corp.'s tech hub at Seneca One tower, Buffalo Riverworks and the Labatt Blue six-pack of silos along the riverfront, Tesla's gigafactory in South Buffalo, and students at the Northland Workforce Training Center.

"With the surging Bills the talk of their plain-spoken village on the eastern shores of Lake Erie, Buffalo itself sparked some buzz at the recent annual conference of the International Economic Development Council in Oklahoma City," the Atlanta-based author, Gary Daughters, wrote.

The article highlights the city's "holy grail of population growth" that bucks the trend in the Rust Belt; the rise of venture capital and technology innovation as seen through the tech hub, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and 43North.

The article also cites the region's reuse and adaptation of aging, historic buildings and the revitalization of the waterfront; the largesse of state leaders and uniting of local municipalities; and the renewed focus on raising up the East Side.

Sure, the article acknowledges the Bills, chicken wings, snow, and falling-down buildings, and even makes mention of the failed effort to lure Bass Pro to the waterfront more than a decade ago as something that Buffalonians now shake their heads at. But it cites all of those in passing, amidst its interviews with developer Douglas Jemal, Invest Buffalo Niagara CEO Thomas Kucharski, Northland CEO Stephen Tucker, and other local leaders.

In classic Jemal fashion, the no-nonsense developer is quoted as saying that Buffalo just needed a little kick in the butt.

 Jonathan D. Epstein

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.

Picking up some pizza

Pizza Hut is returning to Buffalo, in force. The national pizza chain is planning its first four carry-out-only locations at 3669 Delaware Ave. in Kenmore, 4770 Transit Road in Depew, 4005 Sheridan Drive in Amherst and 4243 Genesee St. in Cheektowaga.

All will feature digital menu and point-of-sale systems for customer ordering, but will not include a dine-in option, and delivery service is uncertain at this time, according to Annmarie Dirlam, a spokeswoman for Picone Construction Corp., the contractor on the project.

Designed by Silvestri Architects, all four new restaurants will be built by Picone, which has already started work. Completion is expected by the first quarter of 2023.

Pizza Hut announced earlier this year that 10 area restaurants would open under a new franchisee in 2022. During the pandemic, Pizza Hut closed the remainder of its 17 full-service Buffalo-area locations. There are still Pizza Hut express locations at Target stores in Depew and Orchard Park.

Follow the Red Door

Red Door Real Estate, a boutique woman-owned real estate brokerage that opened in the Elmwood Village a decade ago, has opened a Niagara Falls office.

The office is located at 931 Michigan Ave., in a formerly vacant and deteriorating building that Red Door founder and owner Renee Moran purchased and renovated over the past 10 months.

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH...

Town of Cheektowaga

There are a bunch of projects in the works in Cheektowaga.

Calspan Corp. wants to construct a 3,630-square-foot addition to its existing storage facility, located onsite at 4455 Genesee St.

The Citgo auto service station and Sunny Mart convenience store at 580 Dick Road are in line to be demolished and replaced with a 5,905-square-foot service station and a 2,000-square-foot convenience store. The project will require variances for setback and parking.

The Dairy Queen restaurant at 465 French Road is in line for a renovation both inside and out, adding a drive-thru bump-out service window and a walk-in cooler in the rear, while reconfiguring the parking and driving lanes. Variances and a special-use permit will also be required.

LIGHT IT UP

What: The National Flag Foundation and the Military Order of the Purple Heart are teaming up with two commercial real estate and developer organizations  the Building Owners and Managers Association and the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors  to mark the 240th anniversary of the Purple Heart award by lighting up major U.S. cities in either purple or patriotic red, white and blue for Veterans Day.

Who: The Light to Unite initiative Friday night already includes the owners of 60 major buildings in more than 40 U.S. cities, including the Koppers Towers in Pittsburgh - home to the flag organization  and One World Trade Center in Manhattan. Also lighting up will be Willis Tower in Chicago, the Philadelphia International Airport, U.S. Steel Tower in Pittsburgh and the Bank of America Plaza in Dallas.

Other participating cities include Boston, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Lexington, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix and Portland, Ore.

In upstate New York, building owners in Buffalo, Rochester, Corning and Albany are also participating in the national effort, which is being co-chaired within the commercial Realtors group by David Schiller of Pyramid Brokerage Co. of Buffalo. Locally, Douglas Development Corp., Uniland Development Co. and Iskalo Development Corp. will light up Seneca One tower, the Avant Building at 200 Delaware Ave., and the Electric Tower, respectively.

Even more: Besides lighting up the buildings, sponsors are also asking Americans to fly their U.S. flags on Veterans Day. Besides the Flag Foundation, the Purple Heart organization and the two real estate groups, the United Steelworkers and the Marine Corps League are also supporting the nationwide program.

THE LATEST

Catch up on the latest news from the Buffalo Niagara economy:

East Aurora aerospace firm Astronics Corp. said supply chain issues and rising labor costs are causing its losses to swell.

After scrapping plans for a boutique hotel at the former Desiderio's restaurant site in Lancaster, the developer now plans apartments and commercial space there.

A former Super Duper location on Broadway could become a retail plaza under an expansion plan from the property's owner.

Moog Inc.'s CEO says the company planning to 'invest significantly' over the next three to five years in its local operation.

The contractors for the new Buffalo Bills stadium have been selected.

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.

ICYMI

Five reads from Buffalo Next:

1. Big Wheelbarrow is growing in Western New York following 43North win: One of the main goals of Big Wheelbarrow, according to CEO and co-founder Sam Eder: To let farmers focus on farming by automating some of the administrative tasks that come with selling their products.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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 region's economic revitalization. Buying a building? Redeveloping a property? got a tip? Reach Real Estate & Development reporter Jonathan D. Epstein at 716-849-4478 or email him at jepstein@buffnews.com.
[November 09, 2022] Nabsys closes expanded $38M equity round

Additional investment triggered by throughput-related milestone PROVIDENCE, R.I. , Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nabsys, the pioneer in electronic whole-genome mapping, announced today that it has received an additional $13 million from Hitachi High-Tech as part of an expanded equity round now totaling $38 million. The expanded equity investment was triggered as a result of a technical milestone achieved in relation to its High-Definition Genome Mapping Platform. The milestone increases throughput by more than 10x. "This milestone is a significant advancement to throughput for the High-Definition Mapping Platform and enables complete mapping of whole human genomes at a commercially attractive price and turnaround time and superior resolution compared to current technologies", said Barrett Bready, M.D., Nabsys founder and CEO. Nabsys will offer this next generation High-Definition Genome Mapping Platform through an early access program in the first half of 2023. "Hitachi High-Tech's expanded investment into Nabsys further demonstrates our long-standing interest in providing a solution for the analysis of human genomic structural variation. We are excited to see this advancement in throughput and progress towards the commercialization of this valuable platform" said Tsuyoshi Ogino general manager, Molecular Research & Diagnostic Division at Hitachi High-Tech America.



"Structural variants (SVs) account for the majority of genomic variation in the human genome and despite implications in disease research and diagnosis, SVs are largely ignored due to relatively high cost, high computational burden, and inadequate performance of current tools," said Bready, "once commercial, users will be able to increase the frequency with which they analyze structural variation." Nabsys featured the newly updated whole genome mapping instrument last week at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting in Los Angeles, California.

About Nabsys: The Nabsys mission is to advance the understanding of disease, increase diagnostic yield, and improve patient outcomes by enabling routine, accurate, cost-effective analysis of genomic structural variation. Located in Providence, RI, Nabsys employs a growing interdisciplinary group of dedicated scientists, engineers, and other professionals committed to the advancement of genomic analysis. About Hitachi High-Tech: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is engaged in activities in a broad range of business fields, including manufacture and sales of analytical systems, electron microscopes, in vitro diagnostic systems, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and providing high value-added solutions in fields of social & industrial infrastructures and mobility, etc. Contact: Nabsys 2.0

[email protected]

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nabsys-closes-expanded-38m-equity-round-301672398.html SOURCE Nabsys 2.0 LLC

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[November 09, 2022] Cologix Adds Fourth Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Onramp in Canada

DENVER, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cologix , North Americas leading network-neutral interconnection and hyperscale edge data center company, today announced the addition of a fourth Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute onramp in Canada and additional capacity at an existing ExpressRoute onramp at its TOR1 digital edge data center with speeds up to 100 Gbps.

We are happy to expand our collaboration with Microsoft in major markets across Canada, said Cologixs Chief Revenue Officer Chris Heinrich. This continued growth gives our customers greater access to the private connections, optimized speed and reliability of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, one of the largest cloud service providers in the world. The latest expansion adds an Azure ExpressRoute onramp at Cologixs MTL7 digital edge data center located in downtown Montreal. This facility is connected to Montreals primary carrier hotel in Cologixs MTL3 digital edge data center via high-count dark fiber and to 10 additional Cologix Montreal data centers across the metro area. Additionally, capacity has been increased at the current Azure ExpressRoute onramp at Cologixs TOR1 digital edge data center at 151 Front Street in Toronto, Canadas largest carrier hotel. Cologix now has ExpressRoute onramps, which support private connections to Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365, at four data centers located in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. In addition to the new and expanded onramps in Montreal and Toronto, Cologix has existing ExpressRoute onramps at a second Montreal site, its MTL3 digital edge data center , and at its VAN1 digital edge data center located in Vancouvers primary carrier hotel.



Sudha Mahajan, Partner, Product Management at Microsoft said the company is pleased to partner with Cologix to deliver services to end users at the digital edge. In todays world of multicloud strategies, we understand the importance of empowering businesses with rapid data access and portability. Were glad to be continuing that momentum with quality interconnectivity providers like Cologix. Customers can access Azure ExpressRoute through Cologix Access Marketplace for fast, secure, on-demand and software-enabled interconnection. The easy-to-use interconnection product enables customers to automatically connect with cloud, carrier and other providers in the companys vast ecosystem. Cologix Access Marketplace is growing rapidly to showcase the company's portfolio of interconnection partners, including more than 700 networks, 350 cloud providers and 30 North American onramps that make up Cologixs robust ecosystem.

Azure ExpressRoute provides key benefits to enterprises looking to build hybrid cloud environments, including: Private connections that bypass the public internet

Lower latency by traversing the shortest path to Azure

Predictability and optimized speed when leveraging Azure ExpressRoute

Scalable, densely connected and customizable colocation opportunities By expanding the Cologix interconnection ecosystem with high-speed, private hyperscale providers like Microsoft, were giving our customers a strategic advantage as they continue to build and scale their cloud infrastructures at the digital edge, said Heinrich. Its another example of how Cologix continues to enhance interconnection options for our customers around the world. About Cologix Inc.

Cologix provides carrier- and cloud-neutral hyperscale edge data centers and services across North America. Cologix is the interconnection hub for cloud service providers, carriers and a rich ecosystem of partners who want to deploy applications at the very edge across Canada and the U.S. With a growing portfolio of next generation facilities that meet the unique requirements for hyperscale growth with deep connectivity, Cologix offers massive scale and tailor-made data center solutions to accelerate customers digital transformation. For on-demand connectivity for scale and control, Cologix Access Marketplace provides fast, reliable, self-service provisioning. For a tour of one of our data centers in Ashburn, Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Silicon Valley, Toronto or Vancouver visit Cologix or email . Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter . Media Contact for Cologix:

Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)

[email protected] et A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8651f947-8cdc-43f7-a3df-c071f1402732





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[November 09, 2022] Utah Business Insurance Company Wins Award for "Data and Analytics Innovator of the Year" at Excellence in Insurance Innovation, Sponsored by Insurity

Insurity, a leading provider of cloud-based software for insurance carriers, brokers, and MGAs, today announced that Utah Business Insurance Company (UBIC) is the recipient of the "Data and Analytics Innovator of the Year" award at Excellence in Insurance Innovation. The Excellence in Insurance Innovation awards ceremony took place in Las Vegas. It recognized the outstanding performances of P&C organizations in categories including exceptional policyholder service, digital transformation, and excellence in data and analytics. UBIC is a monoline workers' compensation carrier that serves roofers, framers, and excavators, and it needed to be strategic in how it deployed resources in a traditionally high-risk sector. They effectively navigated these complexities using Insurity Predict's real-time predictive insights and data consortium to process a significantly higher volume of submissions. "UBIC is a data-driven company, and we have fostered a culture around predictive modeling thanks to the ease of using Insurity Predict," said Tyler Nielsen, Chief Operating Officer at UBIC. "We brought the Insuity Predict model into play just a few years ago, transforming how we do business. We went from running loss control on every risk to deploying our resources across submissions more intelligently. Instead of spending time servicing every account the same way, we now tailor these experiences for our policyholders based on the predictive risk scores."



One of the ways UBIC innovated with this model was by extracting the data from the Insurity Predict system and integrating it with their business intelligence platforms. This way, everyone from the underwriters to loss control to customer service has access to this data in their reports. "The sheer volume of data that insurance organizations have can overwhelm and make it difficult to write new business and quickly make the right underwriting decisions," said Sylvester Mathis, Chief Insurance Officer at Insurity. "Using the Insurity Predict Model, UBIC has made strides in leveraging predictive data and analytics to manage their risk portfolio better, giving them the ability to assess risk much more quickly and accurately over the long term."

To learn more about the Excellence in Insurance Innovation Awards, please reach out to [email protected]. About Insurity Insurity is a leading provider of cloud-based software for insurance carriers, brokers, and MGAs. Insurity is trusted by 15 of the top 25 P&C carriers and 7 of the top 10 MGAs in the US and has over 400 cloud-based deployments. Through its best-in-class digital platform and with unrivaled industry experience and the industry's most robust analytics offerings, Insurity is uniquely positioned to deliver exceptional value, empowering customers to focus on their core businesses, optimize their operations, and provide superior policyholder experiences. Insurity is a portfolio company of GI Partners and TA Associates. For more information, visit www.insurity.com. About Utah Business Insurance Company Based in South Jordan, Utah, UBIC has become an insurance industry leader in workers' compensation. UBIC is dedicated to meeting the needs of its agents and policyholders with a strong emphasis on providing outstanding customer service and results-oriented risk management programs. For more information, visit www.utahbic.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005730/en/

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[November 09, 2022] INVESTIGATION NOTICE: The Schall Law Firm Announces it is Investigating Claims Against Unisys Corporation and Encourages Investors with Losses to Contact the Firm

The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Unisys Corporation ("Unisys" or "the Company") (NYSE: UIS) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Unisys reported its third quarter financials on November 7, 2022, disclosing a widened quarterly loss while also admitting an internal investigation that is preventing the Company from filing its earnings with regulators. The Company said that the internal investigation is focused on "the issemination and communication of information within certain parts of the organization." The Company warned that the investigation "may determine that there are one or more material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting, which may result in a conclusion that the company's disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are not effective." Based on this news, shares of Unisys fell by more than 48% in intraday trading on November 8, 2022.



If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 424-303-1964, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at [email protected].

The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005713/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Alcantara Is Increasing its Use of Recycled Materials

New products announced in luxury brand's annual sustainability report

Alcantara certified 13 years in a row as Carbon Neutral by TUV SUD MILAN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcantara plans to increase the use of recycled post-consumer polymers in its luxury "Made in Italy" material for the fashion, consumer-electronics and automotive industries, according to the company's annual sustainability report. Alcantara Chairman and CEO Andrea Boragno said the company is introducing new material with greater proportions of recycled polymers that could lead to products that rely solely on recycled material within the next three to five years. The new material is certified to be from 68 percent post-consumer recycled polyester produced in Europe and covered by the RCS (Recycled Claim Standard). The recycled polymers are obtained from waste material to prevent plastic from being sent to landfills, incinerated or discharged into the ocean. A corporate leader in the implementation of environmental initiatives, Alcantara was certified as Carbon Neutral in 2009. It is the first Italian industrial company and one of the world's first ompanies to achieve Carbon Neutrality status.



Alcantara's recently issued sustainability report ( https://sustainabilityreport.alcantara.com/ ) notes that its offset emissions amounted to 42,461 tons of CO2 emissions during the last fiscal year. Over the past 13 years Alcantara has supported 50 offset projects, including programs involving wind power, solar and hydroelectric in countries such as India, Turkey and Uganda.

The company also was able to avoid 15,272 tons in CO2 emissions thanks to trigeneration and cogeneration systems in place at its facilities in Italy. "Sustainability is the most critical issue of our times," Boragno says. "That's why it is a core value deeply rooted in our corporate culture and an important growth driver of our business strategy development." He adds that Alcantara is a member of the United Nations Global Compact and is committed to advancing the United Nations sustainable development goals. Alcantara's cradle to grave approach involves the measurement of all CO2 emissions at every stage of its product life cycle from raw materials and production processes up to the product's use and end-of-life. Today the company also provides its automotive customers with specially customized products developed by its Complex Manufacturing Department at Alcantara's production plant in Nera Montoro, Italy. The department provides uniquely branded and customized seating, headliners, floor mats and other products for companies such as Lamborghini, Ford, Maserati, McLaren, Jaguar and Alfa Romeo. Alcantara, a "Made in Italy" lifestyle brand, was founded in 1972. Today Alcantara can be found on leading brands in a variety of fields, including the auto industry, the world of fashion and accessories, interior design, home decor and consumer- electronics. Note to Editors: High-resolution photos are available on request. For further information: www.alcantara.com twitter.com/alcantaraspa facebook.com/alcantara.company youtube.com/alcantaracompany instagram.com/alcantara_company View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alcantara-is-increasing-its-use-of-recycled-materials-301673166.html SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A.

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[November 09, 2022] NEARLY 70% OF ATLANTA JOB SEEKERS PASSED ON APPLYING TO THEIR DREAM JOB, ACCORDING TO NEW SURVEY

With a mission to "Be The Light" to others, staffing company pledges to expand access to job readiness resources by arming job seekers with confidence to pursue what is possible ATLANTA, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta-based Insight Global , a leading national staffing company dedicated to empowering people through opportunity, announced today the official launch of the Be The Light tour via its first-ever mobile career center. With a new local survey revealing that nearly 70% of Atlanta job seekers don't apply to their dream job, the tour seeks to illuminate meaningful career opportunities for those who need and want it most. This unique experience, which will take place on Saturday, November 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the former Turner Field Gray lot in Atlanta, will offer attendees free access to Insight Global's staffing experts and local partners, as well as personalized, one-on-one career counseling and readiness to bolster job opportunities and improve the economic landscape. All Atlanta-metro area job seekers who often find themselves up against job search barriers  whether it be a lack of confidence, resources, technology, or child care  are encouraged to register and attend to pursue what is possible. Atlanta Job Seekers Need Support The survey, conducted in October 2022 among 1,006 Atlanta jobseekers, revealed several reasons why these individuals might not pursue new opportunities, which include being intimidated by the job search (27%), not having a college degree (20%), not knowing how to get started with a job search (21%), and an overall lack of confidence (26%). Additional survey results also revealed the motivation behind people looking for new jobs. Those that rose to the top include better pay (53%), creating a better life for themselves (51%), and creating a better life for their family or those who depend on them (41%). "What we have often seen through personal experiences in staffing that has been reaffirmed through our survey is that many times, people just don't feel like they are enough. Whether it's due to their background or circumstances, they don't see their own potential and who is right in front of them  a hard-working and skilled person who just needs access to pursue what's possible. That's exactly what we're here to do  show them what their career future can e if they harness the power of their full, limitless potential," said Bert Bean, CEO of Insight Global.



Mobile Career Center: Hitting the Road From Atlanta to Boston and Denver to Oakland, the Be The Light tour will travel to a dozen cities throughout the next year and will feature the following:

One-on-one consultations with Insight Global experts who will provide a personalized experience based on attendees' career goals.

with Insight Global experts who will provide a personalized experience based on attendees' career goals. Career Readiness Workshops on resume writing, interview skills and job hunting.

on resume writing, interview skills and job hunting. Headshot Studio complete with a stylist and a professional photographer who will take photos and upload photos to LinkedIn profiles (and create a profile).

complete with a stylist and a professional photographer who will take photos and upload photos to LinkedIn profiles (and create a profile). Career Networking with recruiters from Insight Global and client partners who will be on hand to offer tips, tricks and best practices for job seekers and share opportunities that may be available.

with recruiters from Insight Global and client partners who will be on hand to offer tips, tricks and best practices for job seekers and share opportunities that may be available. Child Care Services staffed by qualified childcare professionals.

staffed by qualified childcare professionals. Additional supportive services, including assistance for Spanish speakers and the hearing and physically impaired.

including assistance for Spanish speakers and the hearing and physically impaired. Food for fuel with locally-sourced, free culinary options.

with locally-sourced, free culinary options. Merchandise Checkout where attendees who complete the day will earn free swag. "We fundamentally believe in our purpose to Be The Light to those around us," said Bree Davis, Social Impact Program Manager for Insight Global. "Our recent survey shows that people want to explore new opportunities, whether it be to create a better life or simply keep up with increases in the cost of living. That's why we're hosting this tour - to empower and equip job seekers with the confidence and skills they need to create a brighter future." Everyone Is Welcome The Be The Light tour is open to anyone looking to better their job or career. In particular, AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander), BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), first generation college grads, unhoused individuals, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQIA, justice impacted, single-income families, veterans, women and young adults. Throughout the country, many communities face challenges when it comes to entering the workforce or career bettermentfrom social and economic inequality to disenfranchisement. Insight Global is on a mission to change that, and in turn, change lives. Insight Global is setting a goal to positively impact 5,000 job seekers in the first year of the tour, and 15,000 job seekers by 2025, creating economic sustainability, bridging the gap by breaking generational poverty and providing equal access and opportunity for all. Contributors that Make These Dreams a Reality A number of local and national corporate and charitable organizations are working in partnership with Insight Global to make the Be The Light tour possible, including: Big Brothers Big Sisters Metro Atlanta, Floor & Decor, Georgia Power, LinkedIn and Microsoft. For a full list of partners, visit www.insightglobal.com/careerstart. The tour will kick off in Atlanta on November 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the former Turner Field Gray Lot located at 655 Central Ave, SW (Rideshare address is 710 Central Avenue, SW, Atlanta, 30315). Additional stops are slated for Houston, Bentonville, Nashville, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle and Oakland. While there is no charge for the event or services, all interested individuals are asked to register in advance. Tour dates, a full list of partners, and additional information on registering to attend the Be The Light tour can be found at www.insightglobal.com/careerstart. Survey Methodology Insight Global commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 1,006 adults throughout the Atlanta area. Survey participants consist of full-time employees, part-time employees, retired workers, self-employed workers, students, and unemployed individuals who are in search of a new job. The margin of error fell within +/- 3 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95 percent. The fieldwork for the online survey took place between October 13 and October 17 of 2022. Atomik Research is an independent, creative market research agency. About Insight Global: Insight Global is a national staffing and services company dedicated to empowering people. We relentlessly pursue opportunities for others, because when we all work together, anything is possible. We specialize in sourcing information technology, accounting, finance, and engineering professionals, and delivering service-based solutions to Fortune 1000 clients. Our team spans across more than 67 offices throughout the world and has pledged to place more than 80,000 people in jobs in 2022. Insight Global's services extend far beyond just filling roles. In addition to staffing services, we provide culture consulting, diversity, equity and inclusion guidance, specialized health care staffing and resources, and an array of managed services through our managed services division called Evergreen. To learn more about Insight Global, visit insightglobal.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nearly-70-of-atlanta-job-seekers-passed-on-applying-to-their-dream-job-according-to-new-survey-301673297.html SOURCE Insight Global

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[November 09, 2022] 5G is Innovating Towards Next Generation Wireless Networks

As 5G becomes 5G-Advanced, research for future sixth generation "6G" wireless cellular networks are underway that may open new opportunities to extend wireless solutions into nearly every facet of human and machine interaction. Today, 5G Americas, the voice of 5G and 4G LTE for the Americas, announced the release of its latest white paper covering communications in networks of the future entitled, "Mobile Communications Towards 2030." Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas said, "5G has a long roadmap of innovation ahead of it and is laying the foundation for the success of the next generation of wireless technologies. As we move towards the future of the connected world, our industry must first understand areas that 5G is not addressing to create a 6G vision and establish future standards. Companies, governments, standards organizations, and academia are just now beginning to consider the possibilities of the next wave of wireless technology for 2030 and beyond." The latest white paper will review activities shaping wireless networks beyond 5G throughout North America and around the world, including initiatives in Germany and India. It looks at early specifications and requirements for emerging mobile communications applications, including holographic communications, imaging and sensing, evolutions of massive IoT (mIoT), smart agriculture, and first responder services among others. The white paper focuses particularly on North American technical leadership, examining new applications, services and emerging technologies under discussion and planing stages. It reviews activities by the US Department of Defense, recent US CHIPS Act, standards activities, and North American leadership in the ITU significant to research and future development of 6G.



"Mobile Communications Towards 2030" explores the following key topics: Introduction with activities focused on North America & NSF programs

Review of global activities

Standards initiatives

Use cases

Technology requirements and network evolution

Technology enablers and trends

North American leadership - technology and regulatory Brian Daly, AVP Standards & Industry Alliance at AT&T and leader of the 5G Americas working group for this paper said, "5G continues to evolve with tremendous advances across multiple areas. However, organizations have begun to study the next generation of wireless technology. As we look to the future, 6G is expected to have steep requirements for extremely performant, trustworthy, intelligent, cognitive, flexible, and sustainable wireless communication networks."

Ali Khayrallah, Senior Scientist Advanced Technology Group at Ericsson and co-leader of this 5G Americas working group said, "Many projects identified as 'Next G' and '6G' are already underway in many parts of the world. Although 6G networks are not expected until at least 2030, the right strategies and policies can promote investment, research, development, innovation, and deployment of the next generation of mobile communication technologies." About 5G Americas: The Voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas 5G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization's mission is to facilitate and advocate for the advancement and transformation of LTE, 5G and beyond throughout the Americas. 5G Americas is invested in developing a connected wireless community while leading 5G development for all the Americas. 5G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. More information is available at 5G Americas' website and Twitter. 5G Americas' Board of Governors Members include Airspan Networks Inc., Antel, AT&T, Ciena, Cisco, Crown Castle, Ericsson, Intel, Liberty Latin America, Mavenir, Nokia, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung, Shaw Communications Inc., T-Mobile US, Inc., Telefonica, VMware, and WOM. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005128/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Home Bank and FHLB Dallas Award $16K to Mississippi and Louisiana Nonprofits

Home Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) awarded $16,000 in Partnership Grant Program (PGP) funding to two community organizations in Natchez, Mississippi, during a ceremonial check presentation Tuesday. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005888/en/ Home Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas awarded $8,000 each to Home with Heroes Foundation and Natchez-Adams County Habitat for Humanity. (Photo: Business Wire) Natchez-Adams County Habitat for Humanity (Habitat): $8,000

Home with Heroes Foundation Inc. (Home with Heroes): $8,000 Habitat makes available low-cost, no-interest mortgages to qualifying applicants while helping new homeowners build their homes with the help of volunteers. The nonprofit plans to use the proceeds toward operational, administrative and program operating expenses. Home with Heroes supports military veterans in Adams County, Mississippi, and Concordia Parish, Louisiana, with free services. The organization plans to use proceeds for emergency financial aid, sponsorship of a veterans parade and other assistance for veterans, such as helping them locate military records. Kelvin Luster, senior vice president and community development director at Home Bank, said the PGP funds greatly impact small organiztions.



"These investments can make a meaningful difference to smaller community-service providers - allowing them to hire staff or otherwise increase their organizational capacity to make an even larger impact," he said. "It's an honor for Home Bank to be able to contribute in this way." Habitat and Home with Heroes are two of seven local nonprofit organizations that Home Bank is supporting with PGP funding this year. Together, Home Bank and FHLB Dallas contributed more than $67,000 to seven community-based organizations across in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

In 2022, FHLB Dallas and its members provided nearly $559,000 in PGP funds to 38 community organizations in its five-state District of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. See the complete list of the grant recipients and visit fhlb.com/pgp to learn more. "FHLB Dallas members understand what it means to be a community advocate," said Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas. "We appreciate the partnership with Home Bank and how they help to address community needs." About Home Bank, N.A.

Home Bank, N.A., founded in 1908 as Home Building & Loan, is the oldest financial institution founded in Lafayette Parish. Home Bank now serves markets in South Louisiana and Mississippi in 40 locations. Home Bank is committed to serving the needs of our communities. Personal banking has always been Home Bank's trademark and that tradition continues as we grow, invest and serve our clients and community. We live our values each day, focusing on integrity, innovation and a commitment to serving others. For more information about Home Bank, visit www.home24bank.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 $89.6 billion as of September 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/20221109005888/en/

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[November 09, 2022]

Government of Canada and Cement Association of Canada launch Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050

Roadmap will establish Canada as a front-runner in low-carbon cement and concrete

SASKATOON, SK, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - Innovation is essential to achieving Canada's vision of a resilient, sustainable and strong economy, meeting the country's climate goals and protecting the planet for future generations. The Government of Canada is committed to green economic growth that enhances the competitiveness of Canadian industry in the net-zero carbon economy, reduces environmental impacts and builds a clean future for all Canadians.

Today, the Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, along with Marie Glenn, Chair of the Board of the Cement Association of Canada (CAC) and VP Enterprise Strategy at Ash Grove Cement Inc., and Adam Auer, President and CEO of the CAC, released the Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050.

Concrete is the most used building material on the planet, and the cement needed to make that concrete accounts for 7% of global CO 2 emissions and about 1.5% of Canada's. With support and collaboration from the Government of Canada and partners across the construction value chain, Canada's cement and concrete industry is poised to achieve, through this partnership, the elimination of more than 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions cumulatively by 2030, followed by ongoing reductions of over 4 million tonnes annually from the production of cement and concrete in Canada.

As a first step, the roadmap includes the Action Plan to 2030, which is centred on three priority areas: driving Canadian market development; advancing innovation and transition in the industry; and positioning Canada as a world leader in the production, adoption and export of low-carbon cement and concrete products and technologies.

Government and industry collaboration, through major transitional industrial decarbonization projects, research and development, and standards and skills development, will further support the cement and concrete industry's push toward net zero by 2050. This collaboration will also strengthen Canada's leadership in clean technologies, paving the way to a clean-growth future.

Canada is also doubling down on this initiative by committing to co-lead the Glasgow Breakthrough on Cement and Concrete, which will allow like-minded countries to share best practices on the range of policies, regulations, programs and other measures for decarbonizing the concrete and cement sector.

Together, these initiatives aim to strengthen domestic efforts and international cooperation in industrial decarbonization. These efforts will make clean solutions affordable and accessible in every sector while positioning Canada's cement and concrete industry as a leader in the production of low-carbon concrete thanks to clean technologies, innovative tools and forward-looking policy.

Quotes

"With this partnership, Canada will become a world-leading producer and exporter of low-carbon cement and concrete. This will increase the adoption of low-carbon cement and concrete, leading to more jobs, more growth, and a healthier environment for all Canadians. Together, we are working toward a more sustainable world that achieves net zero by 2050 and advances Canada's commitment to clean growth."

 The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"Decarbonizing concrete is a necessity, and Canada's cement and concrete industry has demonstrated that it is up to the task. This roadmap demonstrates our industry's leadership in CO 2 emissions reduction and positions us to achieve our goal of net-zero cement by 2050. But it's just a start. We look forward to continuing our work with the Government of Canada to implement the priorities identified in the roadmap and to ensure that the right combination of incentives and regulatory policies continues to be put in place for our industry to thrive and succeed in a competitie net-zero global economy."









Marie Glenn

Canada

"Canada's cement and concrete industry is a leader in the fight to stop climate change. While we are steadfast in our commitment to reduce our emissions by 15 million tonnes cumulatively by 2030 and reach true net zero by 2050, we know we can't do it alone. Together with government, we will continue to support the innovation and investment needed on our path to delivering net-zero concrete, while at the same time preserving its properties as a durable, resilient, versatile and cost-effective material. By working together, Canada's cement and concrete industry will remain competitive throughout the low-carbon transition, delivering emissions reductions while supporting jobs in communities across the country."

 Adam Auer, President and CEO, Cement Association of Canada

"As a family-owned Canadian-based construction materials producer, BURNCO is focused on ongoing innovations related to environmental preservation, community engagement and multi-generational sustainability. As a company, we are committed to assuring a safe, healthy and sustainable future for our customers, employees and communities. At BURNCO, we look forward to aggressively pursuing future opportunities that improve the environment and create better communities for future generations. All of us at BURNCO are proud to be an integral contributor to the critical construction materials ecosystem, and we are 100% invested in supporting the achievement of this critical and ambitious goal."

 Tom Zais, CEO, BURNCO Rock Products Ltd.

Quick facts

The Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete was spearheaded by a joint government-industry working group, co-led by the Cement Association of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. The working group included key players from the federal government, the Canadian cement and concrete industry, and relevant environmental experts.

and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. The working group included key players from the federal government, the Canadian cement and concrete industry, and relevant environmental experts. The roadmap aligns with Canada's Emissions Reductions Planan ambitious plan to fight climate change while bringing sustainable, lasting economic prosperity to Canada , which charts a credible path to emissions that are 40% lower than 2005 levels by 2030.

Emissions Reductions Planan ambitious plan to fight climate change while bringing sustainable, lasting economic prosperity to , which charts a credible path to emissions that are 40% lower than 2005 levels by 2030. Budget 2022 introduced new measures to help increase the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon technologies and resources and to support the continued growth of clean technology businesses across Canada , including $15 billion for the Canada Growth Fund to accelerate the investment of private capital into decarbonization and clean tech projects, help promote the diversification of Canada's economy, help meet Canada's climate targets, and strengthen Canada's economic resilience and capacity.

, including for the Canada Growth Fund to accelerate the investment of private capital into decarbonization and clean tech projects, help promote the diversification of economy, help meet climate targets, and strengthen economic resilience and capacity. Cement production in Canada was valued at more than $1.3 billion in 2019.

was valued at more than in 2019. Cement is a significant source of industrial CO 2 emissions around the world, representing 26% of global industrial sector CO 2 emissions in 2019.

emissions around the world, representing 26% of global industrial sector CO emissions in 2019. The Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda provides a framework for countries and businesses to join up and strengthen their actions every year, in every sector, through a coalition of leading public, private and public-private global initiatives, and highlights the leading global initiatives that will help ensure success.

Canada's commitment to co-lead the new Glasgow Breakthrough on Cement and Concrete will provide a significant opportunity to demonstrate its global leadership in driving the adoption of low-carbon cement products and solutions. It will also bring global visibility to the measures and actions developed with the Cement Association of Canada and presented in the Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050.

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Find more services and information at Canada.ca/ISED .

Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on social media.

Twitter: @ISED_CA, Facebook: Canadian Innovation , Instagram: @cdninnovation and LinkedIn

SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
[November 09, 2022]

Canada Invests $18.5 Million in Cowessess First Nation Awasis Solar Project

REGINA, SK, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is working with Indigenous partners to create the good jobs and enduring prosperity that will come with the unprecedented economic opportunities of building a net-zero world. A clean, affordable, reliable power grid will be a key enabler of that net-zero world, and the Government of Canada is investing to decarbonize and expand Canada's grid accordingly.

Today, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, joined Awasis Solar Limited Partnership and its partners to celebrate the commissioning of the Awasis Solar Project, a 10-megawatt solar power generation project on Cowessess land at the site of the existing Cowessess Renewable Energy Storage Facility.

As part of the celebration, the Minister announced Canada's investment of $18.5 million that helped build the project. This investment includes over $13.7 million from Natural Resources Canada's Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways program, $3.5 million from Infrastructure Canada's Investing in Canada Plan, Green infrastructure stream and $1.25 million from PrairiesCan.

The Awasis Solar Project will reduce GHG emissions by approximately 14,000 tonnes of CO 2 e in the first year of operations and by approximately 350,000 tonnes of CO 2 e over the 35-year expected life of the project  in total, equivalent to the emissions of over 70,000 gas-powered cars driven for one year.

Awasis Solar has created training and skills opportunities for the Indigenous community and will generate sustainable income for Awasis Solar Limited Partnership that can be invested in future clean energy initiatives and other community priorities.

Awasis Solar Limited Partnership is 95-percent owned by Cowessess First Nation , through Awasis Nehiyawewin Energy Development Limited Partnership (ANEDLP), and five-percent owned by Elemental Energy , with Awasis Nehiyawewini Energy Development Corp (ANEDC) having the opportunity to become 100-percent owners after year five of commercial operations.

This investment demonsrates the Government of Canada's commitment to Indigenous-led energy initiatives that support energy independence and climate leadership.







Quotes

"The federal government is delivering investments that will support Indigenous communities in developing a cleaner electricity grid while creating sustainable jobs. Today's announcement is an important step toward our goal of achieving a net-zero-emitting electricity system by 2035."

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson

Minister of Natural Resources

"To reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, SaskPower is transforming the way it powers the province. Clean, renewable power from projects like Awasis are key to achieving that goal, and we are pleased to welcome the facility to the provincial grid."

The Honourable Don Morgan

Minister of Crown Investments Corporation

"Elemental Energy is honoured and humbled to be partnered with the Cowessess First Nation on the successful delivery of the Awasis Solar project, which will bring clean, renewable energy to the Saskatchewan grid for many decades."

Jamie Houssian,

Principal of Elemental Energy

"Cowessess First Nation is pleased to have the Government of Canada and Elemental Energy alongside us as we announce the completion of this historic project on Cowessess First Nation Land. The Government of Canada's investment demonstrates its confidence in our ability to deliver renewable energy projects. This milestone reached today fills our entire community with pride, and we look forward to continuing along this path to ensure a brighter, more sustainable tomorrow."

Chief Cadmus Delorme

Cowessess First Nation

Quick Facts

The Government of Canada recently proposed 30-percent tax credits for the deployment of clean technology in the 2022 Fall Economic Statement .

recently proposed 30-percent tax credits for the deployment of clean technology in the . Natural Resources Canada's funding for this project is provided by the $1.56-billion Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways (SREPs) program. This program will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enabling increased renewable energy capacity that will provide essential grid services while contributing to Canada's net-zero targets by 2030, which will improve public health by creating cleaner, more breathable air.

(SREPs) program. This program will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enabling increased renewable energy capacity that will provide essential grid services while contributing to net-zero targets by 2030, which will improve public health by creating cleaner, more breathable air. Infrastructure Canada's funding for this project is provided by the $180-billion Investing in Canada Plan, Green infrastructure stream . This program is designed to create long-term economic growth to build a stronger middle class; support the resilience of communities and transition to a clean growth economy; and build stronger social inclusion and socio-economic outcomes for all Canadians.

funding for this project is provided by the . This program is designed to create long-term economic growth to build a stronger middle class; support the resilience of communities and transition to a clean growth economy; and build stronger social inclusion and socio-economic outcomes for all Canadians. Canada's 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Clean Air, Strong Economy ensures Canada will remain a world leader in clean power. The Government of Canada is committed to supporting local solutions and community-driven projects that will build a clean energy future for all. Together, we are building healthier, greener and more energy-resilient communities for future generations.

ensures will remain a world leader in clean power. The Government of is committed to supporting local solutions and community-driven projects that will build a clean energy future for all. Together, we are building healthier, greener and more energy-resilient communities for future generations. This investment is yet another step in reaching Canada's target of a net-zero grid by 2035. And just like investments in everything from clean energy to nature protection, today's announcement is part of achieving Canada's ambitious climate change goals to build a cleaner, healthier and affordable future for all Canadians.

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Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan)

SOURCE Natural Resources Canada
Don't be surprised at the sight of a low-flying helicopter over downtown Buffalo on Election Day.

The black Eurocopter AS355 Twin Star with blue striping is here today with the crew of a Mark Wahlberg feature film to shoot overhead scenes of downtown Buffalo, the waterfront and Skyway.

"Repetitive flyover patterns at low altitude are expected," according to an email that went to law enforcement and other pertinent officials. The aircraft will be flying between 500 and 7,000 feet high and may have a large camera mount attached to it. Filming was set to start around 8 a.m. and will take place only during daylight hours.

Filming under the working title of "Holiday Road," the action-comedy stars the actor and namesake of the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch as a father who takes his family on the run over the holidays when bad people from his past catch up to him. Michelle Monaghan co-stars in the feature made for Apple Original Films and Skydance Media. This is the only day of filming planned so far for Buffalo; casting calls for extras have gone out recently in Atlanta.

Buffalo is becoming a growing presence in the film industry thanks to its unique architecture and locations, a growing base of acting and behind-the-scenes talent, and the New York State film tax credit.

In 2021, a full backlot was created in South Buffalo for the "Untitled Cabrini Film." Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro shot some scenes for "Nightmare Alley" here in 2020. The blockbuster "A Quiet Place Part II" was filmed in its entirety in Western New York during the summer of 2019.

Director Fred Olen Ray has made multiple Christmas TV movies here including "A Royal Christmas on Ice," currently part of the new holiday programming on Great American Family. Other locally made films are "Marshall," "The First Purge," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Cold Brook" from actor and former Cheektowaga resident William Fichtner.

There's also been growth with local film studios and sound stages. Buffalo FilmWorks recently completed a fourth sound stage at its Babcock Street complex which, at 828 feet long, is reported to be one of the longest in North America. London-based Great Point Media has started work on a Niagara Street film production facility with a projected opening of 2023.
[November 09, 2022] Citizens Energy Group Selects KloudGin for Cutting-Edge Mobile Field Work Management for Enhanced Customer Engagement

KloudGin, Inc., the leading provider of AI cloud-based field service, work and asset management solutions, has contracted with Citizens Energy Group to provide next generation mobile field service and work management solutions for their natural gas, thermal energy, water, and wastewater services. KloudGin's Field Service Management platform will provide Citizens Energy Group with enterprise-wide integration of work orders, inventory and CIS functions across their entire range of services. "KloudGin's SaaS Field Service Management solution is easy for our employees to use and provides strong functionality. The modern, cloud-native and mobile-first platform running on AWS creates a digital foundation for the utility of the future. KloudGin's architecture allows us to integrate with our on-premise systems and with our cloud applications, providing the foundation for a great customer experience," said Curtis Popp, VP Customer Operations of Citizens Energy Group. "Infosys issued a strong RFP response on the implementation, coupled with their existing implementation knowledge of our Customer Care & Billing solution. We are pleased to work with the Infosys and KloudGin team to improve our customer & employee experience." "KloudGin is honored to be part of Citizens Energy Group's digital transformation program. As utilities transform to more efficiently manage their resources, leveraging modern cloud technology and AI models are key to success. The ability to access these systems anytime, anywhere, is a key benefit to improving productivity and the retention of their field workers and providing a modern customer experience," said Vikram Takru, KloudGin Co-founder & CEO. Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, will team up with KloudGin to deploy the mobile field service solution at Citizens Energy Group.



"With the increased demand for digital transformation by utilities, we're proud to team globally with KloudGin to bring modern systems to market quickly, efficiently and to deliver customer, worker and utility-wide value," said Ashiss Kumar Dash, Infosys EVP and Segment Head of Services, Utilities, Resources, Energy. "Providing a single, cohesive platform for all key field service and asset management operations is a proven formula for increasing operational efficiency and better connecting with customers in the highly competitive utility services arena." About Citizens Energy Group

In 1887, Indianapolis civic leaders came up with the idea of operating a natural gas company as a Public Charitable Trust, solely for the benefit of customers and the community. Today, this Trust lives on as Citizens Energy Group, a broad-based utility service company, providing natural gas, thermal energy, water, and wastewater services to about 800,000 people and thousands of businesses in the Indianapolis area. At Citizens, our vision is to fulfill the promise of the Trust to serve our customers and communities with unparalleled excellence and integrity. Visit www.citizensenergygroup.com About KloudGin KloudGin is the only SaaS single-platform, cloud-based field service, work and asset management solution that eliminates silos, automates work management processes, enables customer self-service, and increases worker productivity. KloudGin applications help operations develop new revenue streams and business models. Serving companies with complex asset management and field service requirements, KloudGin connects customers, employees, sub-contractors and assets with AI-powered access to information on any device, anywhere. Visit www.kloudgin.com. About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 300,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses, and communities. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, in more than 50 countries, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by the cloud. We enable them with an AI-powered core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005761/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Two New Countries Top Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection's Safest Places to Travel in 2023 List

Travel insurance provider Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) has announced the findings of its eighth annual State of Travel Insurance Safest Destinations report, the longest-running and most trusted research project tracking U.S. travelers' attitudes toward travel safety and travel insurance. Vacationers looking to plan their 2023 trips should keep destinations like the Netherlands, Denmark, and Iceland in mind as they topped the list of safest countries. The report also ranks the safest cities in the world, with Reykjavik, Copenhagen and Montreal taking the top three spots. To determine these rankings, BHTP analyzes a combination of State of Travel Insurance survey responses compiled in September from travelers who have been to the destinations along with several third-party data sources. These additional sources evaluate safety concerns such as terrorism, weather emergencies, health measures and the safety of underrepresented groups. This year's list saw a few changes from past years, with both the Netherlands and Denmark breaking into the Top 15 and securing the two top spots, while Ireland and the United Kingdom fell below the Top 10. Scandinavian countries are still perceived as safer destinations, rounding out 4 out of the top 10 spots with Norway and Sweden also ranked high on the list. Top 15 Safest Countries Netherlands Denmark Iceland Australia Norway Canada Germany Sweden Switzerland New Zealand Spain Ireland United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Belgium Top 15 Safest Cities Reykjavik Copenhagen Montreal Amsterdam Seoul Singapore Tokyo Berlin London Sydney Barcelona Honolulu Rome Dubai Paris



BHTP's State of Travel Insurance research has been conducted each fall since 2016 by Polymath Research + Marketing, using independent national panels surveying thousands of consumers on future expectations in travel insurance and travel habits. The lists of the world's safest countries and cities were created using an index that synthesizes results from multiple sources, including the U.S. State Department, the British financial magazine The Economist, safety-app creator GeoSure Global, Vision of Humanity, Numbeo, and Global Finance magazine. Past rankings also are factored in.

Click here to read more on the safest cities ranking and here to read more on safest countries. To request a full report, members of the media can email the contact below. About the State of Travel Insurance State of Travel Insurance (SOTI), a joint project of Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) and Polymath Research + Marketing (PRM), is the longest-running and most trusted research project tracking U.S. travelers' attitudes toward travel safety and travel insurance. SOTI has been conducted since 2016, and continues to provide category-leading research on key travel issues. This year's survey involved a total of 1,886 travelers who were surveyed by PRM from Aug. 24 through Sept. 13, 2022. About Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) is a registered trademark and a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company, a leader in specialized casualty and liability insurance. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company provides underwriting and claims administration services for some of the largest distributors of travel insurance in the United States. Created under the Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection trade name is the ExactCare line of travel insurance, AirCare flight, WaveCare, AdrenalineCare, LuxuryCare and other travel-related protections. The AirCare and ExactCare products are provided by Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company. Visit bhtp.com for more information. About Polymath Research + Marketing Polymath Research + Marketing is a full-service market-research and marketing agency that specializes in crafting custom research and content to help organizations reach their business and marketing goals. PRM currently services firms in the insurance, travel, sports, and manufacturing industries, and provides research and content support to several top agencies. To learn more visit www.polymathpower.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005915/en/

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[November 09, 2022] Lost Money in Unisys Corporation?

Shares of Unisys plummeted 49% on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, after the company admitted that it would not be able to file its third quarter 2022 financial results due to an internal investigation regarding "certain disclosure controls and procedures matters," which may uncover material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting. Gibbs Law Group is looking into a potential Unisys Securities Class Action Lawsuit on behalf of investors who lost money in Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS). To speak with an attorney regarding this class action lawsuit investigation, click here or call (888) 410-2925. On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, information technology services and consulting company Unisys Corporation released its Q3 results for 2022, revealing that it had missed revenue and earnings estimates and lowered its full year guidance for 2023. Unisys also admitted that it will be unable to file its third quarter financial results on time due to an ongoing internal investigation regarding "certain disclosure controls an procedures matters, including, but not limited to, the dissemination and communication of information within certain parts of the organization." Unisys added that it expects that the investigation may determine that there were "material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting, which may result in a conclusion that the Company's disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are not effective."



Following this news, Unisys stock plummeted 49%, closing at $4.63 on November 8, 2022, causing significant harm to investors. What Should Unisys Investors Do?

If you invested in Unisys, visit our website or contact our securities team directly at (888) 410-2925 to discuss how you may be able to recover your losses. Our investigation concerns whether Unisys Corporation has violated federal securities laws. About Gibbs Law Group Gibbs Law Group represents individual and institutional investors throughout the country in securities litigation to correct abusive corporate governance practices, breaches of fiduciary duty, and proxy violations. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients against some of the world's largest corporations, and our attorneys have received numerous honors for their work, including "Best Lawyers in America," "Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California," "California Lawyer Attorney of the Year," "Top Class Action Attorneys Under 40," "Consumer Protection MVP," and "Top Cybersecurity/ Privacy Attorneys Under 40." This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005956/en/

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[November 09, 2022] From Nuclear Disasters to Wildfires, How the Tech Industry's Response to Fukushima Defined the Next Gen of Natural Disaster Mitigation Technology

Blues Wireless nominated as only IoT solution on list of innovators who are transforming Risk Management and Disaster Prevention & Recovery at 2022 California Heat & Fire Expo BEVERLY, Mass., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blues Wireless is among the finalists for the Natural Disaster Innovation Awards, Cost-Effective Mitigation Product of The Year, as part of the California Heat and Fire Expo. This award is especially pertinent for Blues Wireless CEO, Ray Ozzie, as he developed the concept for the company's flagship product in response to his volunteer work in Japan during the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The vision of Blues Wireless is now being realized as their product is increasingly being recognized as an accessible technology for anyone who wants to build a cellular IoT solution  especially to mitigate the physical and economic impacts of natural disasters. The Blues Wireless Notecard and Notehub provide everything needed for commercial-grade connected devices out-of-the-box. Solving the complex connectivity challenges Ray and his fellow Safecast volunteers ran into n Japan in 2011, Blues Wireless enables developers to build an IoT device prototype in weeks. The technology was thoughtfully designed as an adaptive component that can power any number of use cases.



The Natural Disaster Innovation Awards recognizes proven innovators who are transforming Risk Management and Disaster Prevention & Recovery. Nominees are chosen because their product, service, or strategy is recognized as having a massive impact and influence on the emergency service and natural disaster response and recovery marketplace. Blues Wireless is one of three finalists, and the only IoT solution, in the Cost-Effective Mitigation Product of The Year category. The award is given to the organization that provides an accessible product or solution that transforms the way communities protect their homes and businesses against the destructive power of nature.

"The disruptive technology of Blues Wireless was born out of a humanitarian response to the Fukushima disaster, thanks to Ray, the Safecast organization, and all the citizen scientists," said Jim Hassman, President and CRO of Blues Wireless. "Eleven years on, we're thrilled to be recognized as a company that provides individuals, communities, government and enterprises with the technology to quickly deploy solutions that mitigate the devastating effects of natural disasters." Jim Hassman financed his undergraduate degree working as a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. He will be leading a session at the California Heat & Fire Expo, discussing how the Blues Wireless Notecard and Notehub can track and monitor assets on the ground and changing environmental conditions that result from natural disasters. Hear Jim Hassman speak at the California Heat & Fire Expo, presenting "The untold story behind Fukushima" on Thursday, November 10th, 1:15-1:45 pm in Theater 3. About Blues Wireless Founded in 2019, Blues Wireless is accelerating the path to IoT by providing simple, secure, and affordable full-stack solutions for connecting devices to the cloud. Notecard, their flagship product, is a highly secure system on a module (SoM) with embedded global cellular connectivity. Pre-paid connectivity and consumption-based pricing enables businesses to break free from the complexity of per-month, per-device subscription management. Enterprise use cases range from asset tracking and condition monitoring to AI at the edge and remote control. Blues is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Create a connected world with Blues Wireless. Email [email protected] or visit blues.io for more information. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/from-nuclear-disasters-to-wildfires-how-the-tech-industrys-response-to-fukushima-defined-the-next-gen-of-natural-disaster-mitigation-technology-301673571.html SOURCE Blues Wireless

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[November 09, 2022] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company's U.S. Subsidiaries: Standard Insurance Group and Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Company, Limited

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of "a+" (Excellent) of Standard Insurance Company (Portland, OR) and its affiliate, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York (White Plains, NY), together referred to as Standard Insurance Group (The Standard). Additionally, AM Best has affirmed the Long-Term ICR of "bbb+" (Good) of StanCorp Financial Group, Inc. (StanCorp Financial) (Portland, OR), the intermediate holding company of The Standard. The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of "a" (Excellent) of Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Company, Limited (Pacific Guardian) (Honolulu, HI). The outlook of these ratings is stable. The ratings of The Standard reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong as well as its strong operating performance, favorable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). AM Best assesses The Standard's risk-adjusted capital as strong, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The capital level has been on a growth trend through 2020; however, dipped in 2021, but is projected to improve for 2022. Annual dividends have been paid to support debt coverage at StanCorp Financial and to upstream to its ultimate parent, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company (Meiji Yasuda), over four of the past five years. Approximately two-fifths of The Standard's invested assets are held in commercial mortgage loans with a concentration of loans on the West Coast. The Standard is the direct underwriter of the mortgage loans and has historical strong underwriting capabilities based on its long history as a loan originator. The mortgage portfolio is currently performing well. The Standard continues to report favorable operating results with recent double-digit premium growth and recorded a trend of profitability with some fluctuation. The Standard maintains good business diversification between mortality and morbidity products, in addition to asset management. AM Best notes that The Standard maintains top 10 market positions in group long-term disability, individual disability insurance, group short-term disability and group life products. The Standard has a comprehensive and well-developed ERM program. The organization maintains good overnance structure, appropriate risk management and controls.



The ratings of Pacific Guardian reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate ERM. Pacific Guardian continues to maintain a high level of risk-adjusted capital. Historically, dividends have been paid consistently to the parent and has been tied closely to net income from the prior year, although AM Best notes that no dividend was paid in 2021 nor in the first six months of 2022. Pacific Guardian also has a high allocation of nearly two-fifths of invested assets to commercial mortgage loans, which are underwritten mostly by its affiliate, The Standard. The company currently has no outstanding debt; however, has access to a line of credit for short term liquidity needs. After several years of fluctuating premiums, Pacific Guardian experienced sizeable growth in 2022 driven by sales of its multi-year guaranteed annuity (MYGA) product. Net losses were reported in 2020 and 2021 after years of profitable operations. The recent net loss was due to a federal tax expense driven by the add back of the policy administration system depreciation to taxable income. AM Best notes that the company is one of Hawaii's largest and highly regarded group life insurance and group disability carriers and maintains a market leading position in the temporary disability income (TDI) market. Pacific Guardian launched a MYGA product in 40 states at the end of 2021. The company also has expanded its licensing to 46 states and the District of Columbia.

The ratings of The Standard and Pacific Guardian take into consideration the financial strength of their parent company, Meiji Yasuda, and the strategic role The Standard and Pacific Guardian play in the Meiji Yasuda organization. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright  2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109006034/en/

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[November 09, 2022] 'Impact X Summit Sydney 2022' confirms 1.1K+ participants and 60+ major partners rallying behind Australia's bid for COP31

SYDNEY, Nov. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Australia's largest climate-focussed summit, the Impact X Summit Sydney 2022 , has confirmed over 1,100 participants, including 150+ speakers, 200+ climate tech founders, and 60+ major partners, as momentum builds for more urgent, concrete, and measurable action on climate change in Australia. The three-day global conference follows an announcement by Chris Bowen MP on Australia's intention to bid to co-host COP31 in 2026, with many Summit speakers planning to use their Summit platform to advocate for accelerated action towards net zero using an Australian COP as the catalyst to drive significantly more collaboration, action, and investment. Corporate partners signed up to the Impact X mission firmly believe businesses deserve a platform to both accelerate and demonstrate meaningful action on climate change. These include Principal Partners (Citi and Arup), Lead Partners (Microsoft, ANZ, Amazon Web Services, Bain & Company, Accenture, WSP, Sydney Water, South Pole, International Universities Climate Alliance, Investible, and Tusstar) and Supporting Partners, including among others Third Hemisphere, Investment NSW, CEFC, Arena, DocuSign, and Australian Ethical. The sheer size and influence of these partners, united towards a common goal of accelerating Australia's achievement of net zero, is testament to a strong and growing shift within the business community towards both advocacy and action on achieving net zero. Jennifer Westacott, Chief Executive, Business Council Australia said: ""COP31 will be an opportunity for Australian businesses that are leading on climate action to showcase their innovation, ingenuity, and investment.Businesses look forward to working with government to secure hosting rights to COP31, and I'm looking forward to participating in the ImpactX summit to keep our momentum going." Nicky Sparshott, CEO Unilever Australia said: "We welcome the announcement and encourage all Australians to get behind the bid. If Australia is serious about hosting COP31, then we need all groups - across government, businesses and the community - to step up ambition as well as take real action to revive our global reputation in this space while supporting our neighbours in the Pacific. We have an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Australia has the natural resources, capability, and technological expertise to take the lead on the transition towards net zero." Tony Gourlay, Impact X co-founder and CEO, said: "It's been incredibly promising to see the rapid growth in support for climate action by Australian big business over the past few years. Hosting COP31 in Australia will create more momentum for Australian business and industry to accelerate energy transition and net zero transformation, and demonstrate action and leadership between now and 2026. Bidding, and potentially even winning, would significantly catalyse all our major stakeholders in their own climate actiongoals, many of whom will be at the Impact X Summit."



Keith Tuffley, Citi Vice Chairman, Global Co-Head, Sustainability & Corporate Transitions, said: "Australia's bid to host COP 31 demonstrates a shift in tone from the government, and provides a catalyst for the local private sector to step-up the transition to a net zero economy. While I believe the business world has the resources, innovative spirit and drive to tackle climate problems head-on, success will only be possible through innovative collaboration across the political, business, and community spheres" Tristram Carfrae RDI, Arup Deputy Chair, said: "I welcome the Australian Government's announcement to bid for COP31 in 2026, along with its Pacific Nations partners. COP meetings provide an opportunity for all parties to agree on the decisive actions required to mitigate global warming, adapt to climate change, and create a regenerative future where all species can thrive.An Australian COP reinforces the Government's commitment to renewable energy and to accelerate decarbonisation.

"Engineers have a critical role to play in developing new technologies and empowering future focused industries that enable an equitable energy transition, but also in creating greater resilience and developing the nature-based solutions and nature positive outcomes required to reverse biodiversity loss and restore our natural environment." Event Details The Impact X Summit Sydney 2022 is running from 9th to 11th November 2022 at the International Convention & Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. It is hosting industry workshops to solve specific problem statements in the sectors of Energy, Transport & Infrastructure, Industry & Manufacturing, Built Environment, and Agriculture & Land use, as well as offer live streams from COP27 in Egypt. You can download the draft agenda here , and notable speakers and moderators include: Ticky Fullerton , Editor-at-Large at The Australian Business Review

, Editor-at-Large at The Australian Business Review Paul Smith , Technology Editor at the Australian Financial Review

, Technology Editor at the Australian Financial Review Sarah O'Carroll , Editor-in-Chief at Forbes Australia

, Editor-in-Chief at Forbes Australia Jennifer Westacott AO , CEO of Business Council of Australia

, CEO of Nicky Sparshott , CEO of Unilever Australia & New Zealand

, CEO of Australia & New Zealand Keith Tuffley , Vice Chairman, Global Co-Head, Sustainability & Corporate Transitions at Citi

, Vice Chairman, Global Co-Head, Sustainability & Corporate Transitions at Citi Tristram Carfrae RDI , Arup Deputy Chair

, Arup Deputy Chair Dermot O'Gorman , CEO of WWF-Australia

, CEO of Simon O'Connor , CEO at Responsible Investment Association Australasia

, CEO at Dr Paul Hawken , founder of Project Drawdown & Project Regeneration SOURCE Impact X

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[November 09, 2022] Stoneridge to Present at the Stephens Annual Investment Conference

NOVI, Mich., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stoneridge, Inc. (NYSE: SRI) today announced that Jon DeGaynor, president and chief executive officer, and Matt Horvath, chief financial officer, will participate in the Stephens Annual Investment Conference with a fire-side chat at 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. Details on how to join the presentation via webcast will be posted to the "Investors/Webcasts & Presentations" section of the Company's website (ww.stoneridge.com) prior to the presentation. In addition to the presentation, Stoneridge will host on-site demonstrations in a MirrorEye-equipped truck to showcase the system's safety benefits and capabilities.





About Stoneridge, Inc.

Stoneridge, Inc., headquartered in Novi, Michigan, is a global designer and manufacturer of highly engineered electrical and electronic components, modules and systems for the automotive, commercial, off-highway and agricultural vehicle markets. Additional information about Stoneridge can be found at Stoneridge.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stoneridge-to-present-at-the-stephens-annual-investment-conference-301673642.html SOURCE Stoneridge, Inc.

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[November 09, 2022] Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc. announces results of the special stockholder meeting relating to the proposed reorganization with abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund

Today, Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc. (the "Acquired Fund"), a New York Stock Exchange-listed closed-end fund trading under the symbol "MGU", announced that it held its Special Meeting of Stockholders (the "Meeting") on November 9, 2022. At the Meeting, stockholders of the Acquired Fund voted to approve the reorganization of the Acquired Fund into abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund (the "Acquiring Fund"), a New York Stock Exchange-listed closed-end fund trading under the symbol "ASGI" (the "Reorganization"). As of the record date, August 11, 2022, the Acquired Fund had outstanding 12,303,293 shares of common stock. 60.79% of outstanding common stock were voted representing quorum. Proposal:







Votes For Votes Against Votes Abstained 6,768,448 559,278 151,378

It is currently expected that the Reorganization will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 subject to (i) approval by Acquiring Fund shareholders of the issuance of shares of the Acquiring Fund and (ii) the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Delaware Management Company, a series of Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, is the investment manager of the Acquired Fund. abrdn Inc. is the investment adviser of the Acquiring Fund and Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited is the investment sub-adviser of the Acquiring Fund. The information in this press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to or in connection with the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. About the Acquired Fund Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc., a diversified closed-end fund, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Fund's investment adviser is Delaware Management Company ("Investment Adviser"), a series of Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, which is a subsidiary of Macquarie Management Holdings, Inc. ("MMHI"). MMHI is a subsidiary, and subject to the ultimate control, of Macquarie Group Limited. Macquarie Asset Management is a global asset manager that aims to deliver positive impact for everyone. Trusted by institutions, pension funds, governments, and individuals to manage more than $US508 billion in assets globally,1 we provide access to specialist investment expertise across a range of capabilities including infrastructure, green investments & renewables, real estate, agriculture & natural assets, asset finance, private credit, equities, fixed income and multi asset solutions. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its total assets (which includes the aggregate of the Fund's average daily net assets plus proceeds from any outstanding borrowings used for leverage) in equity and equity-like securities and instruments, such as common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible securities and hybrid securities issued by US and non-US issuers (Infrastructure Issuers) that primarily own or operate Infrastructure Assets. "Infrastructure Assets" are an underlying foundation of basic services, facilities and institutions upon which the growth and development of a community depends and may provide the necessities of everyday life, such as fresh water, roads, airports, utilities, power, steam heating systems, hospitals, schools and other social services. Past performance is no assurance of future results. Investment return and market value of an investment in the Fund will fluctuate. Shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost. An investor should consider the Fund's investment objective, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. Forward-looking statements are based on information that is available on the date hereof, and neither the Investment Adviser nor any other person affiliated with the Investment Adviser has any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could affect actual results to differ from these statements include, among other factors, material, negative changes to the asset class and the actual composition of the portfolio. 1 As of September 30, 2022  2022 Macquarie Management Holdings, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109006092/en/

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Aftermath of a scary early morning disturbance . . .



At the scene, police found a suspicious vehicle with an unresponsive man inside with drug paraphernalia and a hand gun.



Police used shields to approach the vehicle and knocked on the window. The man then grabbed the weapon and open fire on police officers.



KCKPD officers retreated and returned fire, eventually striking the man. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Man shot, killed by KCKPD after shooting at officers KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A man was shot and killed by a Kansas City, Kansas Police Department officer after opening fire at police early Wednesday morning. According to police, the department was investigating a stolen vehicle near 27th Street and Wood Avenue after midnight.

1 killed by Kansas City, Kansas, police after opening fire at officers KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An officer with the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department shot and killed an individual who opened fire on police early Wednesday morning. Shortly after midnight, KCK police were investigating a stolen vehicle in the 2700 block of Wood Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas.

Developing . . .


The Mayor promised to take this to court.

We think (given the current circumstances of local governance) his case is weak.

Every year KCMO sends lobbyists to Jeff City to ask for cash . . . Missouri taxpayers do, in fact, contribute to KCMO and so might deserve a say on how our police are funded . . .

The only real solution is a vote for so-called "local control" that might, in fact, win . . . And thereby turn this town into a(n even worse) high-crime free-for-all just like our STL friends.



Nevertheless, here's quick round-up . . .



Kansas City is the only city in Missouri  and one of the largest cities in the U.S. - that does not have local control of its police department. Instead, a state board oversees the departments operations, including its budget.



State lawmakers passed a law this year to require the budget increase but feared it would violate the constitutions unfunded mandate provision. The proposed amendment is meant to resolve any potential conflict.

The amendment was in response to an unsuccessful attempt in 2021 by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and other city leaders to divert a portion of the police departments budget to social service and crime prevention programs.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Missouri voters force Kansas City to raise police spending KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri voters have passed a constitutional amendment that will require Kansas City to spend a larger percentage of its general revenue on the police department. The amendment requires the city to spend 25% of general revenue on police, up from the current 20% requirement.

Missouri voters approve Amendment 4 to increase Kansas City Police funding The constitutional amendment requires Kansas City to spend at least 25% of its budget on the police department, up from its current 20%. The KCPD is governed by the state of Missouri through a Board of Police Commissioners, unlike any other major U.S. city or police department in Missouri.

Amendment 4: Missouri votes to increase Kansas City police funding KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City will be required to increase its minimum police funding after voters statewide approved Amendment 4 on Tuesday. The Associated Press called the race just before 11 p.m. with the constitutional amendment showing 62% of the vote at the time.

Missouri voters force Kansas City to raise police spending Missouri voters have passed a constitutional amendment that will require Kansas City to spend a larger percentage of its general revenue on the police department.The amendment requires the city to spend 25% of general revenue on police, up from the current 20% requirement.

Developing . . .
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.
Polls close at 7PM Central Standard time in Missouri & Kansas . . .

Today was mostly uneventful but still deserves a quick round-up and yet another salute to our favorite faux Latina Lana . . . Along with, of course, snark from our blog community.



Check www.TonysKansasCity.com news gathering . . .

Nothing Can Convince Ur Drunk Uncle

Kansas City-area election workers hope to convince voters of safe, secure system CLAY COUNTY, Mo. - On Monday, Larry Carnes was shaking his head in disappointment as concern and confusion filled his eyes. Less than 24 hours before today's midterm, the veteran Clay County deputy election judge talked to the KSHB I-Team about the worrisome changes he's seen among voters and why some believe the system is rigged.

Welcomed Anti-Climax At Voting Booth

Midterm voting mostly problem-free in battleground states, voting advocates report * Missouri Independent As of midday Tuesday, voting across the country has largely gone smoothly without any major issues or incidents of voter intimidation, voting rights advocates said. In counties that did experience problems, which were typical of any Election Day, the incidents were largely attributed to faulty technology and human error.

Barrio Comeback Por Favor?!?

Going 360 on Latino representation and politics: Does population growth translate into power at the polls? KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Ask any Latino what they think about the future of their people and you might hear the same thing: It's growing. And it's true. The Latino population in the United States has grown more than sixfold since 1970 and is more than 62 million strong today.

EPIC NORTHLAND TURNOUT!!!

Clay and Platte counties see big voter turnout on Election Day Voter turnout on the Missouri side of the metro area has been steady as several races and issues are at stake.Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty serves as the polling place for six area precincts. Poll workers said voters started lining up before they opened the doors at 6 a.m.

Progressive Election Hopes & Dreams

Control of Kansas' four congressional seats, U.S. Sen. Moran's reelection hanging in balance - Kansas Reflector TOPEKA - Kansas voters in the 3rd District have good reason to sense deja vu Tuesday when making a decision between support of Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids or Republican nominee Amanda Adkins. In 2020, Davids defeated Adkins by 39,000 votes with 53.5% of those voting and Adkins slumping to 43.8%.

Show-Me Red State Fed Fight

Missouri clerk, secretary of state refuse to let federal officials monitor election The Department of Justice announced Monday that it would be in Cole County and 63 other jurisdictions around the country to monitor compliance with federal voting laws. The U.S. Attorney's office previously notified election officials that was opening an investigation over voter accessibility issues in the county.

Democracy Whines In The Dark

Power outage briefly affects Kansas City polling place KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As voters head to the polls for the 2022 midterm elections, some small issues have been reported across the Kansas City area. A power outage at a Kansas City, Missouri polling place caused some temporary voting issues Tuesday afternoon. The power outage was reported around 2:30 p.m.

The Dotte Stuffs It In . . .

Paper ballots in Wyandotte County are so big, it's causing scanning problems Several voters and poll watchers have reported that paper ballots are causing issues with vote counting machines in Wyandotte County. According to Wyandotte County election officials, the issue stems from the increased size of paper ballots in this election. "There was not an issue with the machines," said Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Michael Abbott.

Kansas Dude Learns That Panty Raids Insurrections Have Consequences

Wichita man admits to assaulting officer, forcing them to stumble down steps during Jan. 6 riot KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Wichita, Kansas, man admitted to assaulting an officer , and causing them to stumble down a set of steps during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. On Tuesday, Michael Eckerman, 38, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers.

Robots Reveal: It's All Good!!!

US cyber officials: 'No evidence' of interference behind isolated Election Day equipment malfunctions Federal cyber officials confirmed to Hearst Television's National Investigative Unit they see "no evidence" of any interference behind isolated election equipment malfunctions in a few states, including in Arizona and New Jersey. Election officials in those states have attributed the outages to technical issues that they said they were working to resolve, pledging all cast ballots will be counted.At the same time, U.S.

How do you know Democrats are losing midterms? They're trotting out Nazi analogies OPINION AND COMMENTARY Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters. It's no fun to look ahead and realize that your party will lose a race, an entire election - maybe even via a massive wave.

Time NEVER On Your Side . . .

Official election results could take several days While we're likely to see many preliminary results that will most likely be the outcomes, the official results won't be finalized until more than a week after election night.Vote tallies will begin rolling in around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. However, mailed ballots only have to be postmarked on Election Day in order to count in Kansas.

And this is the OPEN THREAD . . . And now we wait . . .

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOUR PREDICTIONS THAT MIGHT BE CONFIRMED OR DENIED IN A FEW MOMENTS?!?!

You decide . . .


Right now diva RiRi and her lingerie branding hotness inspires this peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines that aren't completely focused on the election.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Spotlight Redux For Kansas City

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Chargers matchup flexed into Sunday prime time okay. Um, we really, I don't have *** lot of injuries to talk about Deon Bush tweaked his left knee *** little bit, but not, not too bad. And then Jalen Watson really just got face planted in uh, in the dirt and got dirt in his eye and our eyes and, but everything worked out okay.

Rock Chalk Crisis Cont'd

Homeless camp forces closure of North Lawrence Johnny's Tavern LAWRENCE, Kan. - A local North Lawrence bar and restaurant his closing its doors until the city responds to concerns about a nearby homeless support center. According to the Lawrence Journal World, the owner of Johnny's Tavern will close on Tuesday, indefinitely, until changes are made.

Nicer Tech For Foodies



No ratings, no negative reviews: Restaurant app guides diners through crowd-sourced trust Popular restaurant review sites - clouded by negative reviews and manipulated ratings - have often led Leo Esposito astray, he shared. To revolutionize the way people discover their next favorite place to eat, Esposito launched the social app Bozt. "Our vision is to be the most trusted platform for sourcing restaurant recommendations," said Esposito, who founded (pronounced like "boast") in 2019.

Lighting Up Local Biz

PHOTOS: Empire Candle Co., one of the biggest U.S. candle manufacturers, resides in KCK - Kansas City Business Journal The Fairfax Industrial District in Kansas City, Kansas, is home to numerous massive and unassuming brick buildings, but probably none smell as good as Empire Candle Co. LLC. The locally based candle manufacturer at 2925 Fairfax Trafficway was founded in 1951 and celebrated its 70th anniversary last year.

White Woman Shopping Spree Redux

Finish Your Holiday Shopping List at the 12th Annual Holiday Boutique from November 17-20 - In Kansas City Sponsored Content From skating the ice terrace at Crown Center to driving through Christmas in the Park to enjoy dazzling light displays, Kansas Citians will soon be enjoying their favorite holiday traditions. As you plan your holiday calendar and edit that end-of-the-year to-do list, don't forget to make plans for this Kansas City tradition: The...

Double Team Goes Depp

Johnny Depp does Outkast strut in Rihanna's Savage x Fenty fashion show It took Rihanna to lift Johnny Depp up. After all the dirty details of that sordid defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard, it was always going to take a whole lot for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star to clean up his much-tarnished image.

MAGA CANCELS GUV!!!

Donald Trump warns Ron DeSantis against 2024 presidential bid If Mr DeSantis were to announce a presidential bid, Mr Trump said he would reveal "things about him that won't be very flattering - I know more about him than anybody - other than, perhaps, his wife".

Plague Double Down Debated

China sees violent protests of COVID restrictions, and U.S. cases have been rising Protests in northeastern China of the government's zero-COVID policy became violent, as seven people were arrested after a clash between residents and police enforcing quarantine restrictions, the Associated Press reported. The violence comes after China reported 2,230 new cases in the southern manufacturing and technology hub of Guangzhou, and at a time when an increasing number of reports say the government is considering steps to ease the zero-COVID policy.

Facebook Stays Losing

Meta will begin laying off employees on Wednesday morning - WSJ Nov 8 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) will begin laying off employees on Wednesday morning, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told hundreds of executives on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zuckerberg appeared downcast in Tuesday's meeting and said he was accountable for the company's missteps and his overoptimism about growth had led to overstaffing, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.

Name Game Amid Losing Streak

AOC apologizes for not listing her pronouns on Instagram: 'They fell off' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., apologized to her followers on Instagram for now listing her pronouns in her biography on the platform Tuesday. Ocasio-Cortez made the apology in response to a comment on her Instagram profile. She posted a brief video saying she had once had her pronouns available but said they somehow "fell off."

Please Leave Amphibians Alone

Toad licking: just say no, National Parks Service tells Americans seeking a high The US National Park Service is warning people to stop licking one of the largest toads in America, due to a toxin it secretes from its glands that can create a hallucinogenic experience. The Sonoran desert toad, which emits a quick, "weak low-pitched toot", can make someone sick if they touch it or lick it, NPS said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

GOING OUT WITH BANG!!!

Ukrainians plan 15,000-strong hillside ORGY outside Kyiv if Putin fires nuke RAUNCHY Ukrainians have organised a mass orgy to take place on a hill outside Kyiv in the event of Vladimir Putin launching a nuclear bomb. More than 15,000 have subscribed to the sex party on Telegram in the event that Vlad reaches for the red button.

Shop Early Turkey

3 grocers with stores in KC metro say they'll be open for half of Thanksgiving Day KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Three grocers with locations in the Kansas City metro say their stores will be open for half of Thanksgiving Day. A press release says that all Price Chopper, Hen House Market, and Sun Fresh grocery stores will be open on Nov. 24 from 6 a.m.

Falling Back Into Chill

Joe's Blog: Big cold front due Thursday (TUE-11/8) KANSAS CITY, Mo, - We're starting the day with lots of clouds in the region and those clouds may tend to hang on for awhile today with perhaps some occasional breaks. A very weak disturbance may trigger a few very fleeting showers somewhere in the region this afternoon, but they should only produce a few [...]

And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
And so, even after a gerrymandering effort and quite a bit of white dude complaining . . .

THE WHITE LADIES OF JOCO PROVE THEY STILL RUN THE WORLD BY SENDING REP. SHARICE DAVIDS BACK TO D.C. YET AGAIN!!!



Actually, this isn't surprising and proves the years of trolling isn't really effective at swaying the real world political discourse.

Just a quick TKC thought . . . As the world gets smaller every day, the red state rural vs. urban strategy is starting to fade . . . Given that the course of human history reminds us that POPULATION CENTERS ALWAYS DOMINATE RURAL AREAS.

Translation . . .

The course of Western Civilization tells us: Cities always win.



Take a peek . . .



"The Associated Press called the race just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, but Adkins conceded the race minutes before that. Preliminary results show Davids secured about 55% of the vote Tuesday over Adkins, a former corporate executive and Kansas GOP chair, and Libertarian Steven Hohe."



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Sharice Davids reelected, defeats Amanda Adkins in Kansas 3rd District OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids secured her third term in Congress on Tuesday night after defeating Republican challenger Amanda Adkins for the second time. The Associated Press called the race just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, but Adkins conceded the race minutes before that.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids cruises to reelection with big Johnson County margins Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids was reelected to a third term in Congress on Tuesday, carried to victory by overwhelming margins in Johnson County. She'll return for another two years representing most of the Kansas side of the Kansas City area on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Sharice Davids Beats Back Challenge in Redrawn Kansas District Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) at a campaign rally Sunday in Shawnee on Nov. 6. Her congressional district was redrawn in May in an effort to turn it more red. (Photo: Michael B. Thomas via Getty Images) U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.)

Davids to keep U.S. House District 3 seat TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - In the state's Third District, voters kept Democratic incumbent Sharice Davids in her U.S. House of Representatives seat. Davids received 55% of the votes. Meanwhile, Republican challenger Amanda Adkins gathered 43% and Libertarian challenger Steven Hohe had 2%. This will be Davids's second term in the seat.

Developing . . .
We link, like and type a lot of stuff but not all of it . . .

Accordingly, we wanted to share more than a few news links that are relevant locally but might not need a great deal of commentary.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Cleaver defeats Turk, will serve 10th term as US Representative KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Democrat Emanuel Cleaver won his reelection bid for U.S. House in Missouri's 5th Congressional District. The incumbent defeated Republican Jacob Turk and Libertarian Robin Dominick, and he will return to Washington, D.C. as a Congressman. Cleaver has represented the 5th Congressional District since 2005.

The vote is tight on whether to shift power from the Kansas governor to the Legislature The fate of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would shift regulatory clout from the governor to the Legislature remained in limbo early Wednesday because the statewide vote remained too close to call. The proposed amendment would give the Legislature, long dominated by Republicans, more power over defining how state laws should be carried out by agencies.

Rep. Sam Graves reelected, wins Missouri's 6th Congressional District KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - U.S. Representative Sam Graves will hold office for a 12th consecutive term. The veteran Republican defeated Democrat Henry Martin and Libertarian Edward Mainment Tuesday evening. Follow election results here.

Kansans pass constitutional amendment on election, removal of sheriffs - Kansas Reflector TOPEKA - The state's voters embraced an amendment to the Kansas Constitution on Tuesday requiring election of county sheriffs and narrowing options for ousting a wayward chief law enforcement officer, while an amendment granting the Legislature more authority to reject state administrative regulations could be headed to defeat.

Kansas City voters approve bonds for parks, facility upgrades, housing KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City voters went to the polls on Tuesday, approving all three ballot questions regarding parks and facility upgrades, affordable housing, and tracts of land. Here's a breakdown of the three questions Kansas City residents supported: Voters approved issuing $125 million in general obligation (GO) bonds with a 71% to 29% vote, according to unofficial election results.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas defeats Mark Holland, wins third term in Washington U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran won a third term Tuesday, coasting to victory amid a nationwide push by the Republican Party to win control of Congress. Moran, who ran a campaign that attempted to place him above partisan politics, defeated former Kansas City, Kansas, mayor Mark Holland.

Election Results Kansas City: Mayor Lucas comments on police funding, marijuana legalization 6 a.m. | Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas says "the battle for local control of KCPD begins today" after Missourians signed off on Amendment 4, increasing the minimum percentage of KCMO's revenue the city must allocate to the police department. Lucas says courts, including the Missouri Supreme Court, will be the battlefield.

Developing . . .
In Missouri that's pronounced . . . "Wa-rsh-out"

At least amongst all my proud Polish friends in STL. The only good white people who didn't leave the city limits of STL for Chesterfield.



But I digress.

Here's the damage . . .



Schmitt, 47, will replace U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, who announced his retirement last year and set off a scramble among Republicans to replace him. He emerged from a bruising primary campaign with the aid of millions of dollars in outside spending by political action committees created to bolster his candidacy and tear down his rivals, most notably former Gov. Eric Greitens.



In the general election, Schmitt has focused on a vow to oppose Democratic President Joe Biden and characterizing Valentine as an out-of-touch heiress who will work with the president.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Eric Schmitt defeats Trudy Busch Valentine in Missouri U.S. Senate race * Missouri Independent Republican Eric Schmitt will be Missouri's next U.S. Senator, cruising to an easy victory Tuesday over Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine. With roughly 70% of precincts reporting, Schmitt led Valentine 56% to 41%. "Missourians have always been suspicious of a federal government 1,000 miles away telling us how to run our lives," Schmitt told supporters Tuesday night.

Of note . . . Missouri Repbulicans also took back the Auditor job in a resounding landslide.

Developing . . .


As we noted this morning . . .



Most of the Kansas City council candidates were at the polls looking for voters to sign up.

In KCMO council elections, every candidate is required to obtain support from a certain number of verified voters in order to earn a place on the ballot.

The in-district races are the most accessible.



And so here's some of what we learned from visiting our polling place today . . .



Surprisingly, Incumbent Councilman Eric Bunch is still sending out campaign workers to do his job. That's surprising because he only needs a bit more than 650 signatures and most incumbent people should have an built an e-mail list that would EASILY accomplish as much.



Meanwhile . . .

Longtime Kansas City leader Henry Rizzo led his team in the early morning and garnered DOUBLE their goal.

Insiders with the Rizzo camp report an outpouring of support in North of the river, Northeast, Westside and the Westport area.



"People have known Henry Rizzo for years," one worker from his camp noted. "It wasn't a tough sell at all. His friends and neighbors were eager to lend a hand . . . What was more interesting was how many opposition signatures we obtained . . . People found out that he's running against Bunch and wanted to sign up and make a change on the council."



Again, as we've reported . . .

The contest in the 4th is starting to take shape and will only intensify after the midterms are complete.

Developing . . .


The city is also offering to reinstate hundreds of workers fired for breaching the mandate  but one a paramedic says theres a lot of healing to be done.
Jennifer Mecozzi was elected to her third three-year term as West District representative on the Buffalo Board of Education, defeating challengers Mustafa Abdo and Le'Candice Durham by a comfortable margin.

Surrounded by family, friends and volunteers at a campaign party at her Amherst Street headquarters, Mecozzi could finally exhale when she called the race shortly after 10 p.m.

"I am 150% relieved," she said. "I was the incumbent  I had to prove myself, and I proved that experience wins.

"And I didn't want to cry in my pizza," she added, laughing.

Voting in the race was open only to residents in the West District, which includes the upper and lower West Side, Black Rock and Riverside, a tall and narrow stretch of the city along the Niagara River.

New York State's 2019 shift of school elections to November from their typical May election was intended to increase voter turnout, and it likely succeeded in that aim. But all three school board candidates noted that holding school board elections in tandem with November general political elections still caught voters off-guard, as did the school board race's physical spot on the ballot  at the bottom-middle, next to a proposition about clean air.

Ralph M. Mohr, the Erie County Board of Elections Republican commissioner, explained the nonpartisan nature of the school board race was the reason for it could not be listed on the same line as partisan political races. The final decision proved better than the alternative, he thought.

"We had that plus the (state) proposition, and we thought it would be better to put it on the face of the ballot, as opposed to flipping the ballot over and putting it on the back where people may only vote one side and never turn the ballot over, said Mohr, who added there were no complaints about the school board race placement on the ballot from early and absentee voters.

In West District, Buffalo School Board incumbent Mecozzi faces showdown with Abdo, Durham The district includes neighborhoods like Riverside, Black Rock, Grant and Niagara streets in the upper and lower sections of the West Side.

The West District was the only contested race, but two new candidates were on the ballot to fill spots of school board members who vacated their seats. Theresa Drilling-Schuta, the former South Park High School principal, ran unopposed in the Park District to replace Louis Petrucci, the school board president who will step down in January.

Cindi McEachon, CEO of reentry services nonprofit Peaceprints of WNY, was without an opponent in the North District. She'll replace Hope Jay. New school board members take their seats Jan. 1.

Incumbents Sharon Belton-Cottman, Paulette Woods and Kathy Evans-Brown all ran unopposed.

There are nine school board members at a given time, with six geographical districts and three at-large members.

News reporter Barbara O'Brien contributed to this story.
In the redrawn 61st Senate District, in which two incumbents did battle, Democratic State Sen. Sean M. Ryan was able to win by carrying the dense core of the region.

In battle of incumbents, Sean Ryan declares victory over Edward Rath III in 61st Senate District A successful legal challenge to the New York redistricting process set up the rare election fight between two incumbent state senators.

A quick glance at the detailed results from the Erie County Board of Elections shows Ryan dominated in the parts of Buffalo included in the district (North Buffalo and the West Side) and performed well in a sizable chunk of the Town of Tonawanda and Amherst.

Republican Edward A. Rath III, meanwhile, took Grand Island, the western part of the Town of Tonawanda, the city of Tonawanda and the eastern border of the district in that part of Amherst.

But at the end of the night, with 99.2% of Election Day results in, Ryan emerged as the victor with 56.5% of the vote to Rath's 43.5%.

The next question is: What's next for Rath, a well-known figure in Western New York who was elected to the State Senate in 2020 after serving as an Erie County legislator for 13 years?

He wasn't able for further comment Tuesday night, but in his statement conceding the race to Ryan, Rath said: "I look forward to continuing to give back to our Western New York community."
NEW YORK  Lee Zeldin early Wednesday declined to concede defeat to Gov. Kathy Hochul and instead expressed his hope that he would emerge triumphant as more Election Day votes are counted.

The Republican congressman from Long Island spoke for the first time just after midnight, about half an hour after the Democratic incumbent from Buffalo declared victory in the governor's race.

He pointed to 1.4 million outstanding votes that haven't been added up yet.

"We hope that as these results come in that we will be able to prevail," Zeldin said at his election night gathering in Manhattan as a crowd, diminished since earlier in the evening, roared.

Zeldin's attempt to ride voters' concerns about crime and the economy to become the first Republican elected governor of New York in 20 years concluded late Tuesday with Gov. Kathy Hochul declaring victory.

The Republican congressman from Long Island ran an unexpectedly close race against the Democratic incumbent in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2 to 1.

Zeldin gained ground on the governor from Buffalo after he hammered the Democrats who dominate state government for their policies on public safety, economic issues and gun control.

Zeldin did not concede during his seven-minute speech and instead urged his supporters to settle in for a late night of watching results come in.

"There's a piece of this story that's still to be told," he said.

Shortly before 9 p.m., an enthusiastic crowd of hundreds had filed into Cipriani 42nd Street, a grand, Neoclassical event space near Grand Central Terminal.

Rock hits such as "Tiny Dancer," "Jump" and "Carry on Wayward Son" played through the loudspeakers throughout the night but there was little attempt by campaign surrogates to fire up the crowd.

The only speaker was Inna Vernikov, a Republican on the New York City Council, who offered a brief greeting just after 9 p.m.

As servers passed out appetizers and alcohol flowed from the bars lining the imposing main hall, attendees kept coming over to members of the news media to get updates on the election results.

Hochul raced out to an early lead that shrank slightly as the night went on but never closed.

At 11:12 p.m., NBC News called the race for Hochul and, soon after, she declared victory on Twitter and in person.

When the broadcast airing on large TV screens at Cipriani showed the race called for Hochul, there was little visible reaction from the crowd, whose members didn't appear to notice.

Zeldin, a 42-year-old Long Island native, earned his undergraduate degree from the University at Albany and his law degree from Albany Law School.

He began his career in the U.S. Army, where he served as an intelligence officer, prosecutor and military magistrate.

After leaving the military, Zeldin opened a law practice on Long Island before winning election to the State Senate in 2010.

He won a second Senate term before running for, and winning, a seat in Congress, representing Suffolk County, in 2014.

He won re-election to the House of Representatives three times before turning his sights to the governors job this year.

Zeldin was the endorsed GOP candidate and won 48% of the vote to best three fellow Republicans and win that partys primary in June.

Hochul vastly outraised Zeldin, but the Republican was boosted by millions of dollars in independent expenditures on ads attacking Hochul and boosting Zeldin.

New York has not elected a Republican governor since 2002, when George Pataki won his final term.

And Hochul in TV ads repeatedly highlighted Zeldin's ties to former President Donald Trump, who remains unpopular in New York.

But Republican candidates across the country were predicted to perform well in what was touted as a possible red-wave 2022 election and Zeldin has benefited from the general political climate.

Zeldin, for his part, relentlessly pressed the message that crime and the economy have worsened under Democratic rule and he  not Hochul  is the one able to do something to fix the problems.

He also blasted the incumbent for her position on gun control and insisted he could have obtained a better deal for taxpayers in negotiations for a new, publicly supported Buffalo Bills stadium. And he attempted to play down his opposition to abortion, while Hochul trumpeted her support of abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision.

To win, Zeldin needed to outperform previous Republican gubernatorial candidates in deep-blue New York City and run up solid margins in less-populated upstate New York.

After winning the Republican primary, Zeldin vowed he would win Erie County, often a bellwether for statewide campaigns, but that didn't appear to be the case Tuesday night.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated where Lee Zeldin earned his law degree.
The Tv6 Fan Zone touched down at the All Out Sports bar again on Monday at the Queens park O
Over the past day, Ukrainian air forces have launched 16 strikes on enemy targets, hitting four Russian command posts and four air defense system positions.

The relevant statement was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the General Staff, Russian troops are trying to hold the temporarily occupied areas and focusing efforts on restraining the actions of Ukraines Defense Forces in certain directions. The enemy is conducting offensive actions in the Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka directions.

Russian invaders are opening fire on the positions of Ukraines Defense Forces along the contact line, setting up fortification structures in certain directions and conducting air reconnaissance.

Russian troops continue to strike critical infrastructure and civilian houses in violation of international humanitarian law, and the laws and customs of war.

Over the past day, the enemy has launched three missile strikes and 10 air strikes. Settlements in such regions as Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson came under enemy fire.

In the Volyn and Polissia directions, the situation remained rather unchanged. Belarus continues to support Russias armed aggression against Ukraine, providing Russian troops with infrastructure, territory and airspace. The formation of Russian-Belarusian grouping of troops on the territory of Belarus continues. The threat of enemy air strikes, using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) from the territory and airspace of Belarus, is persisting.

In other directions, Russian troops opened fire as follows:

in the Siverskyi direction  near the Sumy regions Obody, Pavlivka and Pokrovka, with mortars, rocket and cannon artillery;

in the Slobozhanskyi direction  near the Kharkiv regions Ambarne, Budarka, Vilkhuvatka, Dvorichna, Kozacha Lopan, Krasne, Ohirtseve, Sosnivka, Starytsia, with tanks, mortars, rocket and cannon artillery;

in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions  near the Kharkiv regions Vyshneve, Kupiansk, Krokhmalne and Kyslivka, the Luhansk regions Hrekivka, Miasozharivka, Makiivka and Nevske, and the Donetsk regions Lyman, Terny, Torske and Yampolivka, with different artillery systems;

in the Bakhmut direction  near the Donetsk regions Andriivka, Bakhmut, Bakhmutske, Bilohorivka, Zalizne, Klishchiivka, Maiorsk, Opytne, Pivnichne, Rozdolivka, Soledar and Yakovlivka, with tanks, mortars, cannon artillery and multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS);

in the Avdiivka direction  near the Donetsk regions Avdiivka, Vodiane, Krasnohorivka, Marinka, Nevelske, Novomykhailivka, Opytne and Pervomaiske, with tanks, mortars, cannon and rocket artillery;

in the Novopavlivka direction  near the Donetsk regions Velyka Novosilka, Volodymyrivka, Vremivka, Vuhledar, Mykilske, Neskuchne, Novopil, Pavlivka and Prechystivka, with tanks, mortars, cannon and rocket artillery;

in the Zaporizhzhia direction  near the Zaporizhzhia regions Varvarivka, Huliaipole, Zaliznychne, Mali Shcherbaky, Novodanylivka, Olhivske, Stepove, Temyrivka, Uspenivka and Charivne, with different artillery systems.

In the Southern Bug direction, over 30 settlements, bordering with the contact line, were shelled with Russian tanks, mortars, barrel and rocket artillery, namely the Kherson regions Blahodatne, Nova Kamianka and Sukhyi Stavok, and the Mykolaiv regions Vasylivka, Kobzartsi and Shyroke.

Russian invaders continue to loot and destroy civil infrastructure in the Kherson regions temporarily occupied areas. On November 7, 2022, the convoys of trucks with household appliances and construction materials moved across the Kakhovska HPP dam. The enemy continues to dismantle and remove equipment from mobile communication towers of the Ukrainian mobile network operators.

Near the city of Beryslav, Russian occupiers blew up power transmission lines and the equipment of a solar power plant. The enemy took away all artistic values, furniture and equipment from Kherson Regional Art Museum named after Oleksii Shovkunenko.

In order to investigate significant personnel losses in the 155th Separate Marine Brigade of Russias Armed Forces, a group of representatives of Russias Investigative Committee was sent to the city of Donetsk.

In the Zaporizhzhia regions Melitopol district and Mykhailivka district, Russian invaders are forcing local residents to obtain Russian passports. Additionally, they are taking away the passports of Ukrainian citizens and threatening people with relocation.

Over the past day, Ukrainian air forces have launched 16 strikes on enemy targets, hitting four Russian command posts, eight personnel, ammunition and military equipment clusters, and four air defense system positions.

In addition, the missile and artillery units of Ukraines Defense Forces struck four enemy personnel and military equipment clusters.

mk
Ukrainian servicemen retain control of the operational situation in the South Buh direction. On November 8, the Armed Forces eliminated dozens of Russian invaders.

This was reported by Operational Command South, according to Ukrinform.

Ukrainian Air Force carried out 11 strikes on enemy air defense systems and manpower and equipment clusters. At the same time, missile and artillery units performed 290 fire missions.

As a result, Russia lost:

55 soldiers;

four tanks;

a Tor-M2 anti-aircraft missile complex;

an Akatsia self-propelled howitzer;

two mortars; and

nine armored combat vehicles.

"Two enemy ammunition depots near Snihurivka and Kostromka were destroyed. Other losses are being verified," the statement reads.

The occupiers shelled the settlements adjacent to the line of contact, in particular in the liberated areas, employing artillery, mortars, MLR systems, and other weapons.

From the Black Sea, a Russian Su-30 warplane launched a Kh-31 missile off the coast of Odesa. The incoming missile was shot down.

In the Nikopol region, the invaders fired multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery. Chervonohryhorivka and Marhanets communities were shelled. Several outbuildings were damaged, but no casualties were reported.

In addition, the enemy aircraft engaged Ukrainian positions four times. In response, the Russians sustained 11 hits on their air defense systems and manpower and equipment clusters.

Meanwhile, eight Russian warships keep maneuvering in the waters of the Black Sea along the southern coast of Crimea. However, no cruise missile carriers on combat duty were spotted among them.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York's first woman governor and the first Buffalonian to lead the state in more than a century, appeared headed toward victory Tuesday in her race against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of Suffolk County.

Hochul, who held a statewide lead of about 8.4 points as of 11:55 p.m., declared victory on Twitter shortly after NBC News became the first news outlet to say she won the race.

And about 11:35 p.m., she took the stage at her victory celebration in Manhattan.

"Tonight I want to speak directly to New Yorkers," she said. "Tonight, you made your voices heard loud and clear. And you made me the first woman ever elected to be the governor of the state of New York."

Zeldin took the stage at his headquarters at midnight, and he stopped short of conceding.

Noting that the race had tightened and that most of Long Island had not yet reported its votes, he said: "There's a piece of this story that's still to be told."

Hochul held a double-digit lead throughout the night, although Zeldin tightened the race as a number of rural upstate counties reported their vote totals.

Totals available as of 11:55 p.m. include only about 5% of the precincts from Nassau County and none from Suffolk County  and those Long Island counties are expected to go to Zeldin. A technical issue in Suffolk County, Zeldin's home, prevented votes from being counted there through much of the evening.

That being the case, it's clear that Zeldin ran the strongest race for governor of any Republican since then-Gov. George Pataki won his third term 20 years ago.

Many of the ballots tallied early in the evening reflected early votes, and Democrats traditionally are more likely to go to the polls early than Republicans are.

Early returns from Erie County showed Hochul  of Buffalo  with about 65% of the early vote. But once votes cast Tuesday began to be added to the totals, the race for governor in Erie County became surprisingly close. Hochul had about a 6 percentage point lead in her home county with most of the vote counted.

Nearly complete returns from New York City showed Hochul with huge leads in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens, while Zeldin pulled ahead in traditionally conservative Staten Island. Hochul had a lead of about 30 points in New York City, short of what Zeldin had hoped for in his bid to pull an upset.

The vote count was the culmination of one of the most surprising New York gubernatorial races in decades.

All summer and into September, the contest looked like a sleeper. Hochul won her June primary over two rivals by nearly 50 points, and led Zeldin, who won the GOP primary, by double digits in poll after poll for month after month.

But Zeldin pursued an aggressive and unusual strategy for a New York Republican. Instead of just targeting the rural swaths of upstate and the vote-rich New York suburbs north of the city and on Long Island, he made targeted appeals within the city, as well  not just on red-leaning Staten Island, but also in middle-class neighborhoods in Queens and in the city's Hasidic Jewish community.

And, with the help of at least $11 million that cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder gave to two super-PACs backing Zeldin and echoing his message, the Republican this fall turned the focus of the race to an issue that he saw as a Hochul weakness: crime.

Several high-profile subway crimes and a spike in the rate of major crimes in New York City gave Zeldin ammunition, and he used it. Both his campaign and the super-PACs flooded the airwaves with ads on the crime issue, and by early October, the Republican pulled within single digits of Hochul in the polls.

Then, in the high-profile moment in the campaign, Zeldin and Hochul faced off in their only debate, in New York City on Oct. 25. There, Zeldin turned the discussion back to the crime issue again and again.

"I am running to take back our streets and to support unapologetically our men and women in law enforcement," said Zeldin, who vowed to declare a crime emergency and to suspend a reform law that repealed cash bail for most criminal suspects starting in 2020, before Hochul became governor.

Hochul, who previously announced an effort to crack down on subway crime but who has resisted repealing bail reform, made her case by stressing that Zeldin opposes the gun control measures that she got passed.

She said Zeldin was long on fearful rhetoric and short of real solutions  but she also tacitly acknowledged that crime had become a central issue in the race.
Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk says Ukraine was able to return from Russia only 69 children earlier deported by the invasion forces.

The minister stated this at the meeting of the Coordinating Council for the Protection and Safety of Children, Ukrinform reports with reference to the President's Office.

According to Vereshchuk, another 27 children were returned from the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Daria Herasymchuk, authorized adviser to the President of Ukraine on child rights and rehabilitation, reported with reference to data from the National Information Bureau that more than 10,500 children are on the list of deported and forcibly displaced persons.

Read also: Child injured in Russian shelling of Kramatorsk

The Presidents Office states that the number of children forcibly deported by Russia from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is currently unknown.

"The Russian Federation continues to commit its crimes related to Ukrainian children. Children are being transported (out of Ukraine  ed.). Unfortunately, due to the quite passive position of international organizations, in particular the ICRC, today we are not able to record the exact number of how many our children are there and where," said Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak.
Units of attack drone operators as part of the border troops are being formed in the Republic of Belarus.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in its operational update as of 06:00, on November 9, Ukrinform reports.

According to the General Staff, the enemy is trying to hold the temporarily captured territories, focusing its efforts on attempts to disrupt the actions of the Defense Forces in certain directions, and is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka directions.

In the past 24 hours, units of the Defense Forces have repelled attacks by the occupiers in the areas of the settlements of Bilohorivka and Novoselivske in Luhansk region and Bakhmutske, Bakhmut, Bilohorivka, Vesele, Klishchiivka, Mayorsk, Novomykhailivka, Opytne, Pavlivka, Pervomaiske, Soledar and Yakovlivka in Donetsk region.

The Russian forces continue to shell the positions of Ukrainian troops along the contact line, fortify defensive positions and conduct aerial reconnaissance.

The enemy continues to violate the norms of International Humanitarian Law, the laws and customs of war, attacking the civilian infrastructure and civilian residential areas.

In the past 24 hours, the invaders launched 7 missile attacks and 32 airstrikes, more than 70 MLRS attacks.

Areas of more than 35 settlements in Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions were affected.

In the past 24 hours, the aviation of the Defense Forces of Ukraine struck the enemy positions 18 times. Four platoon strongholds, 10 areas of personnel, weapons and military equipment clusters, as well as 4 positions of the enemy's air defense were struck.

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Russian efforts to repair the Crimean Bridge continue but it is unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.

According to Ukrinform, the UK Ministry of Defense said this in its latest intelligence update published on Twitter.

Thus, on 8 November the road bridge was due to be closed to allow the movement and installation of a replacement 64-metre span. Three more spans will be required to replace the damaged road sections.

Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023. Replacement of the damaged rail bridge has been contracted for completion by September 2023, although Russias Deputy Prime Minister stated the repair timeline would be expedited, the ministry said.

It is stressed that one track is open, but rail transport remains restricted. Repair activity will be heavily dependent on weather conditions through the winter months.

In addition, the Crimean bridge attack has disrupted Russian logistics supplies for Crimea and southern Ukraine, reducing Russias ability to move military equipment and troops into the area by rail or road.

The damage to the bridge, the recent attack on the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and the probable withdrawal from Kherson all complicate the Russian governments ability to paint a picture of military success, the ministry said.

The Crimean Bridge is an illegally built road bridge connecting the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula with Russia through the Kerch Strait. Since February 24, 2022, the occupiers have been transporting military echelons, equipment and ammunition through it. On October 8, an explosion hit the Crimean Bridge, which partially limited the supplies of equipment and ammunition to Russian forces.

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Nine civilians were killed and 24 others injured in Ukraine on November 8 as a result of Russia's armed aggression, according to figures from regional military administrations.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko said this in a Telegram post, Ukrinform reports.

According to him, on November 8, 2022 (as of 09:00 on November 9, 2022), four people were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, six civilians killed and 11 wounded in the Donetsk region (including three civilians killed earlier), two wounded in the Zaporizhzhia region, two killed (in a mine explosion) and four injured (including two injured in a mine explosion) in the Kharkiv region, and one killed and three injured in the Kherson region.

On November 8, Russian forces shelled the Vasylivka, Zaporizhzhia and Polohy districts of the Zaporizhzhia region, hitting civilian infrastructure.
Last night the missile and artillery units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine completed about 130 fire missions, having struck enemy personnel and military equipment clusters.

The relevant statement was made by the South Operational Command on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the South Operational Command, Russian troops opened fire on two communities in the Nikopol district, namely Myrove and Marhanets, with heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). Detached houses and a private enterprise were damaged. No casualties were reported.

The enemys losses suffered last night are yet to be checked.

A reminder that, between February 24, 2022 and November 9, 2022, Russias total combat losses in Ukraine reached about 77,950 troops.

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Ukraine has received another batch of military equipment and ammunition from Germany.

The updated list of Germanys military support delivered to Ukraine was published on the website of the Federal Government, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In particular, the following units were delivered to Ukraine: 30 MRAP vehicles DINGO, Iris-T SLM missiles (unspecified amount), four anti-drone sensors and jammers (14 delivered before), 18 reconnaissance drones, five tank transporter tractor M1070 Oshkosh, one more lift truck (two delivered before).

The planned military support now also includes Iris-T SLM missiles, 42 mine clearing tanks, four mobile and protected mine clearing systems, three mobile, remote controlled and protected mine clearing systems, five mobile reconnaissance systems.

The total value of individual licenses issued by the Federal Government for the export of military goods in the period from January 1, 2022 to November 7, 2022 amounts to more than EUR 1.5 billion.

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Finland has sent an additional batch of civilian material assistance to Ukraine.

That's according to the news site Yle, which refers to the Finnish Interior Ministry, Ukrinform reports.

On October 18, Finland sent one truckload of back-up generators badly needed by Ukraine and two truckloads of personal protective equipment were sent in early November.

"As winter approaches, Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The situation is grave for the civilian population. Ukraine is now in very serious need of supplies for the energy sector, among other things. It is our duty to help," said Finland's Interior Minister Krista Mikkonen.

Read also: Finland to help transport Ukrainian grain

According to her, Finland will continue to deliver the assistance that Ukraine has requested.

According to the ministry, the aid operation is exceptional and the need for assistance is expected to continue for a long time.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace in the south-eastern town of Lydd where Ukrainian troops are being trained by British, Canadian and Lithuanian forces.

NATO's press service said this in a press release, Ukrinform reports.

"I am confident that this [training] will make a difference on the battleground," Stoltenberg said.

At Lydd, the Secretary General also met Ukrainian troops and praised them for their commitment and bravery as they continue to push back against Russia's brutal and unprovoked war of aggression.

While in the United Kingdom, Stoltenberg is also meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in London, with talks expected to focus on Russia's war against Ukraine and the continued adaptation of the Alliance.

Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are undergoing training in the UK as part of Operation Interflex. About 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen are to be trained.

Photo: nato.int
The Netherlands plans to send 50 to 100 military personnel as part of the EU mission to train the Ukrainian military.

This was stated by the Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Kajsa Ollongren, Ukrinform reports with reference to RTL Nieuws.

"The Netherlands plans to send 50 to 100 military personnel to participate in the EU mission to train the Ukrainian military. This number is an addition to the 90 servicemen who are currently training the Ukrainian military in Great Britain," Ollongren said.

Read also: The Netherlands to provide another 120M assistance package to Ukraine

Active cooperation with the German military will be carried out during the training program. The mission will also operate mainly in Germany and Poland. It is not yet known when these training sessions will launch.

It is known that, in particular, Dutch servicemen will teach Ukrainians tactical medicine, explosives disposal, tactical and technical training in weapons systems, and training of staff officers of battalions and brigades.

As reported, the Netherlands will provide Ukraine with EUR 15 million worth of anti-aircraft missiles for air and missile defense.

Photo: RTL Nieuws/ANP
Luxembourg has frozen EUR 5.5 billion belonging to Russian individuals and legal entities, which is about a third of all Russian assets blocked on the territory of the European Union.

As reported by Ukrinform with reference to APA, this was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn during his address to parliament on Tuesday.

"Of the total amount of assets of Russian individuals and legal entities frozen in the EU, about a third is blocked in Luxembourg. 5.5 out of 17 billion euros of Russian assets were frozen in Luxembourg as a result of EU sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine," the report says.

Asselborn also stated that if Russias behavior doesnt change, further sanctions are inevitable. He stressed the importance of the EU not jeopardizing its current unity. According to the minister, there can be "no neutrality" regarding Russia's war against Ukraine.

Luxembourg has supplied Ukraine with weapons, material and technical means in the amount of more than EUR 72 million, which corresponds to 16% of the country's total defense budget.

As reported earlier, EU member states have already frozen about EUR 17.5 billion belonging to Russian individuals and legal entities that have come under sanctions.

Also, the European Union, the United States, and other allies have frozen $300 billion worth of reserves of Russias central bank.
James, who will serve a second term, rejected her opponent's claims that bail reform lies at the heart of the state's crime problems. James supports many of the bail reform initiatives stemming from full Democratic control of Albany. She also denied allegations by Henry, a Manhattan-based commercial litigator, that politics led to her investigation of former President Donald Trump.
Ukraine wants the Black Sea grain export deal expanded to include more ports and goods, and hopes a decision to extend the agreement for at least a year will be taken next week.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Infrastructure Deputy Minister Yurii Vaskov in an interview with Reuters, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

We hope that no later than next week from our partners Turkey and the UN we will have an understanding and the whole market will also have a clear signal about the further functioning and continuation of the initiative, Vaskov said.

The deal, which eased a global food crisis by unblocking three major Ukrainian ports during Russias invasion, expires on November 19.

According to Vaskov, the Ukrainian side offered an extension of at least one year to Turkey and UN, as well as a broadening of the deal to include the ports of the southern Mykolaiv region, which provided 35% of Ukrainian food exports before Russias invasion.

Additionally, Ukraine demanded that mandatory inspections of ships that are involved in food transportation be streamlined, as Kyiv believes Russia is deliberately slowing down inspections to reduce the speed of exports.

We are already ... demanding inspections be streamlined or inspections of departed (ships) be cancelled, because it makes no sense. Or else increase the number of inspection teams, Vaskov noted.

In his words, inspectors of the Joint Coordination Center that oversees the deal conducted only 12 inspections per day, but that it was necessary to make 25-30 inspections.

When Turkey and the UN did their own inspections, they proved it was possible to carry out more than 40 inspections a day. Now that Russia has returned ... we again have a total of 12 inspections per day. They do not explain (the reason for the delays), but they also do not hide that they are doing this in order to complicate the work of the corridor, Vaskov told.

Vaskov said neither the UN nor Turkey had informed Kyiv about the conditions for extending the agreement put forward by Russia.

Moscow has said it has received guarantees the grain corridor will not be used for military purposes. The UN has said that it would continue working on easier conditions for the export of the Russian fertilizers.

According to Vaskov, Kyiv advocated the exclusively peaceful use of the grain corridor, and that the current agreement involved the export of fertilizers. However, so far there had not been a single application from ships wishing to transport ammonia from Ukrainian ports.

Ukraine has confirmed and confirms now that the grain corridor is only for ships that take part in the initiative  both in the past and in the future, Vaskov stressed.

A reminder that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed by Ukraine, Turkey, the United Nations and Russia for a period of 180 days on July 22, 2022.

On October 29, 2022, Russia announced its withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative. allegedly due to drone attacks on Russian warships at the Bay of Sevastopol. Despite Russias statement, the movement of vessels via the grain corridor continued.

On November 2, 2022, it was announced that Russia had resumed participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is preparing a second tour of African countries, as part of which minister Dmytro Kuleba plans to visit Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya in the first quarter of 2023.

"During the second African tour, which we are preparing for the first quarter of 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs plans to visit Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya. We are currently focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, which no one in Ukraine has dealt with and in which Russia now has a strong position," Maksym Subkh, Ukraines Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa, told ZN.UA in an interview.

According to the Special Representative, Ukraines cooperation with this region earlier was limited to sporadic contacts, one-time visits or telephone conversations, as a result of which Ukraine has ten embassies across Africa  five in North Africa and five in Sub-Saharan Africa  while Russia has more than 40 embassies on the continent.

As reported, on October 3, Dmytro Kuleba began the first ministerial tour of African countries in the history of Ukrainian diplomacy which was supposed to last until October 12. However, the minister had to suspend the tour on October 10 due to Russia's massive missile attack on Ukrainian cities.

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The Russian government has barred its defense firms from concluding agreements in the field of military-technical cooperation with 74 organizations from 11 "unfriendly" countries, all members of NATO.

This is reported by Ukrinform with reference to the Russian government press service.

The Russian government has approved a list of foreign entities that are subject to restrictions in the field of military-technical cooperation. The list includes 74 organizations from Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Estonia, and the USA.

Read also: North Korea denies arms supplies to Russia

It is forbidden to enter into agreements in the field of military-technical cooperation with companies put on the list, which includes 21 organizations from Germany, 15 from Bulgaria, 12 from Poland, six from Slovakia, five from Lithuania, four from the Czech Republic, three each from Great Britain and Montenegro, two each from the USA and Canada, as well as an entity from Estonia.

The list of "unfriendly countries and territories" was approved by the government order of March 5, 2022.

On February 24, Russia unleashed a new stage of its war on Ukraine  a full-scale invasion. The invaders have been shelling and bombing peaceful cities and villages, killing civilians. Democratic nations have introduced sanctions targeting the aggressor.
Minister of Justice of Moldova, Sergui Litvinenco, has filed for the government's approval an appeal to the Constitutional Court to recognize the pro-Russian party "Shor" as unconstitutional.

This is reported by NewsMaker, according to Ukrinform.

In his appeal, Litvinenko refers to Article 41 of the Constitution of Moldova, according to which parties and other socio-political organizations are deemed unconstitutional if their goals or activities are directed against political pluralism, principles of the rule of law, sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Moldova.

"All the activities of the Shor party have always been directed against the rule of law. Courts have proven the fact of illegal financing of this party in the presidential elections of 2016, in the local elections in Chisinau in 2018, and in the mayoral elections of Balti in 2021," Litvinenco said.

In addition, he emphasized, the conclusions of the U.S. government and the reports that have become the public testify that this party "advances the interests of a foreign government, and therefore acts against the sovereignty and independence of our country."

"This is really an extreme measure, since they still continue to violate the law, and there are no signs that they will intend to return to its framework," Litvinenco stated.

As reported by Ukrinform, in recent months the Shor party organized a large number of anti-government protest actions in Moldova. The country's authorities said that it was Russia who stood behind these protests.
Ireland supports Ukraine's rapid accession to the European Union, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said.

The German business news outlet Handelsblatt quoted the politician as saying, Ukrinform reports.

Coveney said in Dublin that a country that is now literally fighting for its survival against a military superpower should be able to hope for full EU membership, rather than some partial membership or a neighborhood agreement.

He noted that many Ukrainians are motivated by the dream of a different future, the future that people have today in the EU, from the point of view of peace, stability, prosperity, democracy and everything that follows from this.

Coveney added that in addition to Ukraine, other states, such as the Balkan countries or the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia, should also benefit from EU enlargement.

He also said that Ireland is one of the EU countries calling for stronger sanctions against Russia. Russia's war of aggression is a gross violation of international law. This aggression in Europe is so extreme that Ireland wants to see as strong a response to sanctions as possible, even at great cost to a country that imposes those sanctions, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have discussed defense cooperation, including the protection of the sky over Ukraine and the restoration of the country's energy infrastructure.

The head of state said this in a post on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"I spoke with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. We discussed further cooperation as for defense of our territory, especially from the sky. We discussed the recovery of Ukraine's energy infrastructure and supported the continuation of the grain deal," Zelensky said.

He also expressed hope the Netherlands would support Ukrainian initiatives at the UN.

Earlier reports said that the Netherlands would send 15 million euros worth of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.
| By Jena Frick

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kids to Farmers Market program is back! This October, the weekly farmers market at University Park Plaza played host to third-grade students from three West Baltimore elementary schools as part of the program. A partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimores (UMB) Office of Community Engagement and the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), the Kids to Farmers Market program aims to teach children about nutrition and how to make healthy choices through hands-on learning.

The Kids to Farmers Market program is a hands-on learning experience for West Baltimore third-graders. The program brings the children to a local farmers market to buy local produce and learn about nutrition and healthy eating habits.

We are thrilled to have the kids back here on campus and trying new, healthy foods, said Brian Sturdivant, MSW, UMBs director for strategic initiatives and community partnerships. Were not just educating the students about eating healthy, were also educating them about farmers markets because they are local. Local produce is healthy, nutritious and you don't have to travel to get it."

Students from James McHenry Elementary/Middle School, Robert W. Coleman Elementary School, and George Washington Elementary School came to the market on three Tuesday mornings in October. Each student was given $10 in farmers market bucks so they could purchase fresh produce to take home. Organizers of the program challenged the kids to buy something that they have never tasted before.

"I got cabbage, and I got some jalapeno peppers, said Zya Hooker, a student from George Washington Elementary School. I also got some fruit I never tried before. Its yellow and its sour. Im going to have my mom try it when I get home!"

The students also learned about how to create a healthy, balanced meal and got to watch a cooking demonstration by volunteer chefs from UMMC. The volunteers showed the students how to prepare healthy desserts using apples, peaches, and blueberries.

At the end of the visit, each student was given a UMB backpack to carry their produce and a recipe book with instructions on how to cook healthy meals at home.

(Watch the program in action on WBAL.)
A UNHCR official speaks with an asylum seeker at a shelter in Mexico supported by UNHCR.  UNHCR/Nicolo Filippo Rosso

Shifting trends in displacement are posing increasing challenges in the Americas that require coordinated regional responses, UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Raouf Mazou said after concluding a two-week trip to the region.

In Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala and Canada, Mazou witnessed the plight of people forced to flee in the region and heard from them directly about the perilous risks they face on their journeys to find protection and met refugees rebuilding their lives.

I was heartened to see how the countries in the Americas strive to work together to help people on the move, and find solutions, Mazou said. But the patterns of displacement in the region are dynamic and continually pose new challenges for States effectively address the root causes that compel people to leave their homes, as well as meet their humanitarian needs and help them restart their lives in safety and security.

Throughout the trip, Mazou met with refugees, asylum seekers and senior government officials, civil society partners and business leaders, with whom UNHCR, has joined forces to find impactful ways to help people on the move in the spirit of the Global Compact on Refugees.

What I heard from people who have been uprooted  refugees, internally displaced and migrants  is that they seek safety, stability, and a place to call home, Mazou said, noting that the countries of Latin America have welcomed the vast majority of refugees and others forced to flee their homes in the region.

Costa Rica saw a five-fold increase in asylum claims in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year, while Mexico received 14 per cent more claims. Mexico and Costa Rica ranked third and fourth in terms of new asylum claims worldwide in 2021. In the last two years, the number of people seeking international protection in Guatemala increased by nearly 160 per cent.

Mazou underscored the need to further support countries to strengthen their asylum systems while at the same time implementing complementary pathways for protection, and helping people start anew in the communities that host them. Opportunities for socio-economic inclusion were visible in all countries, for example, in Monterrey, Mexico, where UNHCR has established key alliances that promote employment, education, community, health, and legal inclusion of displaced populations.

To address the challenges of these movements, more international support is needed, in order to strengthen the humanitarian response and support the efforts of development actors, the private sector and international financial institutions, Mazou said.

"Canada has played an important role in strengthening asylum and providing solutions for refugees in the Americas, and we need this support to continue at such a critical time for the region, he said.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
South Sudanese refugee and climate activist Opira Bosco Okot teaches a class on climate change at Paluda Secondary School in Uganda's Palabek Refugee Settlement.  UNHCR/Francis Mukasa

Opira Bosco Okot, 26, is a South Sudanese refugee in his final year at university in Kampala. He and his family have felt the impacts of the climate crisis in Uganda and at home. Now, he is working with other young people to take action.

In 2017, I ran and walked barefoot for days to flee the conflict in South Sudan. When I arrived at the Ugandan border, I was registered at Palabek Refugee Settlement and allocated a 30-square-metre plot of land on which to build a temporary structure and have some space to farm and rebuild my life.

I started collecting firewood for cooking and cutting trees to build a shelter. The land allotted to me was fertile, forested and bushy; the natural resources were plentiful, and I was easily able to grow sufficient crops, and collect enough firewood for cooking.

But three years later, the rains had become unreliable, crop yields had reduced, and building materials were scarce. The beauty of the area had disappeared, and productive land was increasingly scarce. As drought took hold, competition between refugees and the local host community over increasingly scarce natural resources grew, as well as the perception that refugees were favoured for assistance. The relationship between the two communities began to break down.

One day, while I was in the bush collecting building materials, I was chased by four men and I had to run, leaving behind everything I had collected.

Fellow refugees told me they were being charged higher prices in the local market and that firewood and building materials now had to be acquired at a cost, either monetary or in exchange for labour.

The refugee community has had to devise ways of adapting to this new reality. I asked Amito Rose, my neighbour in the settlement, how she copes. She said: "I have made a mud stove that uses less charcoal. Although charcoal is expensive, I find it easier compared to having to move long distances for firewood.

Climate change is disrupting weather patterns in Uganda, causing temperature rises and erratic rainfall that is resulting in the loss of crops and livestock, and rising poverty among refugees and their host communities. This is aggravating various other challenges such as crime, children dropping out of school, and rising rates of gender-based violence.

South Sudanese refugee fights deforestation in Uganda by planting trees

Back in South Sudan, those of my relatives who have returned home are also seeing their living standards deteriorate. Although this is driven by multiple factors, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic challenges, and widespread localized violence, extreme weather is also playing a role. In 2021, floods displaced hundreds of thousands of cattle herders from the north-eastern region of the country. They went on to forcefully evict locals in Eastern Equatoria state where my family members were living and growing crops. This resulted in intense conflict and the death of three of my relatives.

Many people are now fleeing due to droughts and floods in different parts of the country. Some of my relatives who had repatriated to South Sudan are now returning to Uganda because they could no longer cultivate their crops.

"I know my intervention will count."

I am strongly motivated by the climate reality in South Sudan and Uganda. This is why I find it so vital to engage in climate activism to reverse the catastrophe in both places. I know my intervention will count.

In 2021, I founded an organization, The Leads, to respond to the pressing needs of our community. As well as supporting refugee children and youth to stay in school, we are teaching them how they can play a role in protecting the environment, training the community on how to make improved mud stoves that use less charcoal, and promoting tree planting. Now, everyone is aware of the benefits of trees.

To advocate for peaceful coexistence between the refugee and host communities, I produced a video that involved characters from both groups. The screening of the video in both communities incited discussions around interventions for greater cooperation and sharing of resources.

Environmentalists have long taught us how to sustainably coexist with nature without disrupting our food chains. Climate change is caused by human activity, but it should not be a political issue: human lives are at stake. We refugees are struggling to survive every day.

As the international community, governments, NGOs, donors, and humanitarian actors come together at COP27, I call on them to support climate adaptation and mitigation measures and to empower forcibly displaced people and their host communities to combat the climate crisis and restore the environment.

Stepping up to reverse the climate crisis must begin now!


State Sen. George Borrello, a Republican, won re-election Tuesday night in the 57th Senate District, beating back a challenge from Democrat Dan Brown.

The district includes all of Genesee, Wyoming, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and part of Allegany counties.

As of 11:40 p.m., with 260 of 268 election districts reporting, Borrello had tallied about 73% of the vote, according to the state Board of Elections.

Borrello reportedly declared victory Tuesday night during an election party in Mayville.

Of the districts active voters, 41% are registered Republicans, while 26% are Democrats.

Borrello is a former Chautauqua County executive who won a 2019 special election for his Senate seat, getting reelected in November 2020.

Brown has been town supervisor in Great Valley for the last 17 years.

 Jon Harris

Buffalo elects first openly LGBTQ City Court judge

Gary A. Wilson Jr. will become the first openly LGBTQ-person elected to the Buffalo City Court.

Wilson was appointed earlier this year to serve on the court by Mayor Byron Brown. In a speech he gave Tuesday night at the Buffalo Irish Club, Wilson said he was "honored" to be the first LGBTQ person elected to the Buffalo City Court.

Wilson said he hopes his victory shows kids who feel alone, bullied and like they don't fit in to never give up on their dreams.

"I stand on the shoulders of the LGBTQ community," Wilson said. "I stand on the shoulders of the African American community and I'm going to continue to serve this community with integrity, honesty and fairness."

Wilson and Samuel Davis won seats on the City Court bench.

 Natalie Brophy

10:35 p.m.: State Sen. Tim Kennedy wins in 63rd District

Longtime State Sen. Tim Kennedy, a Democrat, coasted to a win Tuesday night in the 63rd Senate District.

He defeated challenger Faye Pietrak, a nurse at Amherst High School who has the Conservative line, in a district that includes all of Buffalo, except for North Buffalo, Riverside and Elmwood Village, as well as Lackawanna and Cheektowaga.

As of 10:30 p.m., with 95% of Election Day results in, Kennedy had 82% of the vote, to Pietrak's 18%.

Of the districts active voters, 62% are registered Democrats, while just 13% are Republicans.

Kennedy, a licensed occupational therapist, served in the Erie County Legislature before winning election to the State Senate in 2010.

 Jon Harris

10 p.m.: Did the ballot for State Supreme Court candidates confuse voters?

Six candidates ran for State Supreme Court in Western New York, but voters some had trouble finding all the names on the ballot.

Four candidates were endorsed by both Republican, Democratic and Conservative committees, leaving two whose names were on two lines apiece: 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.

Every candidate but Lorigo had their names on the top line on the ballot, but Erie County Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr said the Board of Elections had not heard from voters that it was confusing.

He said the normal habit would be to vote for one candidate in each column going across. That could affect Lorigo, unless voters were looking for his name.

"People do recognize they can vote in any combination there," Mohr said.

 Barbara O'Brien

Why 4 of 5 State Supreme Court judgeships are all but decided

If you've already cast your vote, you may have noticed that you effectively had no choice in four of the five open State Supreme Court judgeships in Western New York.

That's because Democratic and Republican party bosses "cross-endorsed" candidates Kelly A. Vacco and Gerald J. Greenan III, as well as incumbent Justices Tracy A. Bannister and Craig D. Hannah.

The strategy, which virtually guarantees election for those candidates, has been controversial since it was highlighted by a 2002 Buffalo News series titled "Courting Big Money."

There's a new twist this year involving GOP congressional nominee Nicholas Langworthy, who accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions while he served as state GOP chairman. Read our story from August on the new wrinkle and the effect it had on today's election of judges in New York.

 Charlie Specht

9:38 p.m.: Dems gather at Buffalo Irish Center to await results

Local Democrats began to file into the Buffalo Irish Center around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday night to gather together while awaiting election results.

Folks were mingling at high-top tables, enjoying drinks and posing for photos at the election night party hosted by the Erie County Democratic Committee, as they lent their support to local, state and federal Democratic candidates.

Several key races for local representatives in U.S. Congress and State Senate and Assembly will be decided tonight. New Yorkers will also learn if Western New York native and Democrat candidate Kathy Hochul will become the first woman elected governor in New York. Hochul became governor last year after Andrew Cuomo resigned.

The Erie County Board of Elections website was projected onto a screen in the corner of the room to watch local results trickle in, while several large-screen TVs played ABC News, updating attendees on other key races happening across the country.

A stage at the front of the room was backdropped by a huge American flag. Candidates will take to that stage throughout the night to give victory or concession speeches. Bunches of patriotic red, white and blue balloons flanked the podium, where a campaign sign for Gov. Kathy Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgato hung.

John Reichart, sporting a Brian Higgins campaign T-shirt, said he came to lend his support to the incumbent U.S. representative.

Reichart said he hopes to see whichever candidate is best for their positions come out on top tonight.

 Natalie Brophy

9:24 p.m.: The Erie County Clerk's race is not boring

A teenager in my household said earlier today that I'm covering a "boring" race tonight because I'm writing about the Erie County clerk's race.

But while it may not not be as heart pounding as the New York governor's race, it has its own funky political twists.

For one thing, you have two Democrats running against each other.

Eden Town Supervisor Melissa Hartman was a lifelong Republican until this year when she ran for clerk. But she still clobbered incumbent Erie County Clerk Michael "Mickey" Kearns, a lifelong, registered Dem, in the Democratic primary.

Kearns, meanwhile, has proclaimed himself an independent Democrat, with some conservative leanings. His name appears on the Republican and Conservative ballot lines and has been endorsed by both parties.

Both will have spent a few hundred thousand dollars each campaigning for a seat that will pay less than $90,000 next year.

 Sandra Tan

9:10 p.m.: Minutes after polls close, AP projects Schumer won

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, the current majority leader, won re-election Tuesday, easily beating Republican Joe Pinion and third-party candidate Diane Sare, the Associated Press projected.

Schumer received 2,664,019 votes, while Pinion garnered 1,852,946 and Sare 21,841, with 10,902 of 14,296 precincts statewide reporting, according to the state Board of Elections.

 Mike McAndrew

9 p.m.: Polls are closed in New York State. Did you vote?

The polls across New York State are now closed.

Well post results on buffalonews.com as soon as they start rolling in. Please check back.

 Mike McAndrew

9 p.m.: A map to show you where those congressional districts are

Every 10 years, New York State changes the boundaries of its congressional, State Senate and State Assembly districts.

In this years redistricting, the states highest court had to decide where the boundaries should be.

If youre like me, and still having trouble keeping straight whats in the new 23rd Congressional District, where the 24th District is, or whether you reside in the 26th District, this map is just what you need.

Today, voters will pick Democrat Max Della Pia or Republican Nicholas A. Langworthy in the 23rd District; Democrat Steven Holden or Republican Claudia Tenney in the 24th District; and Democrat Brian Higgins and Republican Steven Sams II in the 26th District.

 Mike McAndrew

8:45 p.m.: A nervous Hochul headquarters awaits New York's decision

NEW YORK  At a vast former bank in downtown Manhattan now turned into a party venue  boasting the swanky title of Capitale  supporters and staff of Gov. Kathy Hochul are waiting for the polls to close and the first results of the 2022 election for governor.

An air of unease hangs over the cavernous lobby, as turnout reports dribble in from around the state and anxious staffers try to make sense of them.

But everyone connected with the contest between incumbent Democrat Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin seems nervous about what will come. Polls show the race is close, and it is possible the final outcome will not be known until well into the night.

Still, the crowd at Capitale appears ready. Dozens of TV cameras are already aimed at a stage that will feature either a victorious or defeated Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado later in the evening. Their supporters are slated to begin drifting in after the polls close.

Campaign officials say the scheduled speakers at the party will start off with state Democratic Chairman Jay S. Jacobs revving up the crowd, followed by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. All other statewide Democrats are expected to prevail, though nobody is even near declaring victory.

The Hochul campaign is attempting to put the best face on the returns from New York City, an overwhelming repository of Democratic votes they expect to be cast for the governor. One campaign spokesman noted the city returns at 6 p.m. totaled about 1.5 million, nowhere near the record 2.1 million cast in the five boroughs in 2018  but above totals from the two previous elections for governor.

And it should be noted that the early totals are based on 6 p.m. reports, with three more hours of voting scheduled throughout the state.

"They are very positive trends from New York City," a campaign spokesman said.

But others say an even higher city turnout may be needed to offset the Zeldin votes expected from upstate and the metropolitan suburbs, especially from his home turf of Long Island.

 Robert J. McCarthy

8:45 p.m.: The scene at Zeldins Election Night gathering in NYC

Jump, Tiny Dancer and Carry on Wayward Son played as dozens of national, state and local reporters waited for Lee Zeldin, and his supporters, to enter an event space in Manhattan where the Republican candidate will watch the returns on election night.

Zeldin, a congressman from Long Island, and his lieutenant governor candidate, Alison Esposito, will be at Cipriani 42nd Street, a Neoclassical venue reminiscent of the Market Arcade in downtown Buffalo.

A giant Zeldin/Esposito banner hung at one end of the ornate main room, which is lined with soaring marble columns. The sign is inscribed twice with the message, Save Our State.

Bars sit at either side of the spacious hall, with rows of cocktail, wine and Champagne glasses standing like soldiers waiting to go into battle.

Campaign staffers planned to let the public into the venue shortly before 9 p.m.

 Stephen T. Watson

8:29 p.m.: Will voter turnout surpass prior New York governor elections?

With 10,007 of 14,296 districts across the state reporting, 4,069,572 voters cast ballots in the governor's race, well short of the more than 6 million state residents who voted in the 2018 race that saw Democrat Andrew Cuomo defeat Republican Marc Molinaro.

Voter turnout was heavy in Erie County, according to Erie County Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr.

"It's been a very steady turnout," he said Tuesday evening, adding, "a lot of infrequent and first-time voters, as well."

Tuesday's vote totals were more than the 3.8 million voters who showed up at the polls in the 2014 election, when Cuomo defeated Rob Astorino and

Cuomo versus Buffalo developer Carl Paladino drew 4.6 million voters in 2010, while Democrat Eliot Spitzers win in 2006 over Republican John Faso had 4.4 million ballots cast.

In Erie County, 333,515 residents voted in the gubernatorial election, with 52.73% favoring Hochul versus 47.07% for Zeldin. The county turnout was down from 345,000 voters in the 2018 governor's race.

Election Day is later in November this year, coming after daylight saving time ended. Mohr wasn't sure whether sundown coming an hour earlier would affect turnout. Voting usually drops off in inclement weather and when it gets dark, he said.

 Jay Tokasz and Barbara OBrien

8:15 p.m.: There is a rare incumbent vs incumbent State Senate race in Erie County

Here in Western New York, we have one of the two State Senate races that pit incumbents against each other.

That race features Democrat Sean M. Ryan against Republican Edward A. Rath III, two well-known politicians doing battle in the redrawn 61st Senate District.

The district, which stretches from Grand Island to Amherst, is solidly Democratic: Of the 201,231 active voters in the district as of Nov. 1, 47% are registered as Democrats, while just 25% are Republicans, state enrollment data show.

If Rath were to win, could it show that some state Democrats are vulnerable to an Election Night upset? Or will Ryan prevail?

"I've been out at polling places throughout the day," Ryan said at 7:45 p.m. "The turnout numbers are good, and I have received a tremendous response from the voters."

Rath is hoping that positioning himself as a needed, alternative voice in a Democrat-controlled Albany will prevail as results trickle in.

"I am looking forward to continuing to represent the 61st Senate District and fighting for a safer, stronger, more affordable WNY. I have been humbled by the amount of support we have seen from across the new district," Rath said at 9 p.m.

In addition to Ryan v. Rath, the other State Senate incumbent showdown is in the 41st District, a redrawn Hudson Valley district that includes Greene, Columbia and Dutchess counties and pits Republican Sen. Sue Serino against Democratic Sen. Michelle Hinchey.

 Jon Harris

7:59 p.m.: Buffalo school board candidates say voters confused by election ballot

Buffalo Board of Education incumbent Jennifer Mecozzi had roved between West District poll sites since 5 a.m. on Election Day.

But she spent much of the morning helping confused voters instead of vouching for her candidacy.

Several voters she encountered did not realize the school board race would be on the ballot, she said. Tuesday was the first time Buffalo school board elections were held alongside general elections. Historically, school races have had dedicated elections in May.

New York State decided in 2019 to move school elections to November to boost voter participation.

The location of school board races on the ballot for city residents  at the bottom middle, next to a proposition about clean air  did not help a largely unaware voting bloc, Mecozzi added.

"Voters said, 'Oh, we didn't see it,' " Mecozzi relayed.

West District challenger Le'Candice Durham shared a similar reaction amid her morning tour of six polling sites in Riverside, her home base in the district.

"It's very difficult," Durham said. "I feel like we're forgotten about."

Durham was prepared for the race's spot on the physical form to pose a problem; she said she told voters before entering to "make sure they fill out the whole ballot."

Many of them thanked her for the tip on their way out, she said.

Mustafa Abdo, the third candidate in the district, said Tuesday afternoon that many voters he encountered had "done their homework" ahead of the election and thanked him for running. But he echoed that some were "not expecting" the school board race.

 Ben Tsujimoto

Polls show New York governor race could be closest in years

NEW YORK  Former Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds can recall back in 1994 when he called George E. Pataki on election night to tell him that based on Erie County results, he could pronounce the little known state senator from Peekskill the next governor of New York.

Early this afternoon Reynolds was not making predictions about today's contest between Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin.

But he did venture that according to most polls, and even the gut feeling of a host of political observers, that the election to be determined after the polls close at 9 p.m. is likely to be the closest in years.

"Absolutely," the former Erie County Republican chairman said. "I've always felt that we might elect a Republican governor again."

On Election Day, Hochul was ahead by 7.8 percentage points in the average of recent polls, according to fivethirtyeight.com.

The 2014 New York governors race was the closest of the previous four, and even that one was not that close. Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo won his second term that year, beating Republican Rob Astorino by 532,403 votes.

Reynolds noted that in 1994, Pataki triumphed over Democratic incumbent Mario M. Cuomo through a combination of factors including a well-organized campaign, enough money, strong support in the metropolitan suburbs and "upstate coming through with a roar."

Today, Reynolds thinks Zeldin is proving competitive because of many of the same factors, but the Long Island congressman's home turf is expected to perform with a similar "roar."

"You feel it in the candidate," he said.

If the polls are right, it could all add up to the closest gubernatorial election in a generation.

 Robert J. McCarthy

7:30 p.m.: What are the big races in Western New York?

Western New Yorkers hit the polls today, an Election Day featuring races for state, federal and local offices.

The biggest race is the governor's race, between Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin.

Western New Yorkers also will pick three House members in races between Republican Nick Langworthy and Democrat Max Della Pia, Democrat Brian Higgins and Republican Steven Sams II, as well as Republican Claudia Tenney and Democrat Steven Holden.

The Buffalo News will have a team of more than two dozen journalists tonight working in our newsroom and in the field  around Western New York and in New York City  covering the drama and bringing you results.

Beginning at 7:30 p.m., we'll bring you reports here from the reporters and photographers covering the candidates.

Erie County voters will select a clerk, in a race between incumbent Michael "Mickey" Kearns and Melissa Hartman.

There's also a statewide bond act that, if approved, would see the state borrow $4.2 billion for environmental protections and climate change mitigation.

Stay tuned to this post all night for continuing coverage of races and results.
The opportunity to play Division I collegiate football is not something Texas State redshirt Read moreA second chance: Spears' life changed by near death experience
Soudah Development (SD), a Saudi real estate development company owned by PIF (Public Investment Fund) will be highlighting its contribution to supporting the kingdom's efforts to confront climate change at the upcoming event being held on the sidelines of United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The 2nd Saudi Green Initiative Forum will run from November 11 to 12 at the UN event accompanied by a gallery that runs from November 7 to 18 under the theme 'From Ambition to Action', bringing together government and corporate leaders, heads of international organizations, as well as sustainability, environment and energy experts, to build on the progress made towards its climate action targets.

SD initiatives include a plan to plant more than one million trees by 2030, reintroduce endangered wildlife - such as ibex- back into their natural habitat and conserve the extraordinary biodiversity to accelerate a greener future through three flagship sustainability initiatives demonstrating its commitment to protect, restore and rewild the kingdom's highest peak.

This year, SD continues its reforestation efforts to increase vegetation cover and help to restore the natural mountain ecosystems by reintroducing 23 ibex individuals to their natural mountain habitat, and rewilding natural areas vital to the biodiversity of Soudah and Rijal Almaa, in efforts to contribute to the Saudi Green Initiative targets, which include reducing emissions by more than 278 million tonnes per annum by 2030, planting 10 billion trees, and raising protected areas to more than 30% of total marine and terrestrial areas.

"We are delighted to return to the Saudi Green Initiative Forum and look forward to demonstrating our commitment to sustainability, responsible tourism and the Kingdom's comprehensive environment goals," said Saleh Aloraini, CEO of Soudah Development.

"Our initiatives aim to restore the natural ecosystem on the Kingdom's highest peak allowing nature to take care of itself. With unique natural resources and dense vegetation cover, the project area has an extraordinary biodiversity that we are determined to conserve," noted Aloraini.

"As the world's top sustainability leaders gather in Egypt, we look forward to using this landmark conference to promote a new era of sustainable mountain tourism in Saudi Arabia and develop Soudah as one of the leading global sustainable destinations," he added.

Soudah Development's sustainability efforts have received a strong recognition from the United Nations.

During the UN's 77th General Assembly, a global report by the UN Secretary General highlighted SD as the Gulf's only developer to join the UN Mountain Partnership - a voluntary organization of more than 400 global members, including governments, public entities, private companies and civil society groups committed to improving the lives of local communities and protecting mountain ecosystems.-TradeArabia News Service
Republican-endorsed Joseph C. Lorigo, minority leader of the Erie County Legislature, appeared to have a clear upper hand late Tuesday in his bid to win a seat on the Western New York bench of the State Supreme Court. He declared victory shortly before midnight.

"It's my honor to be elected, and I look forward to serving on the bench," he told The Buffalo News.

Four other State Supreme Court candidates for the Eighth Judicial District, who were cross endorsed, won election to their seats.

The race for the final Supreme Court slot came down to two candidates who were not cross-endorsed by both major political parties: Buffalo City Court Judge Shannon M. Heneghan, a Democrat who also had the Working Families Party backing, and Lorigo, a Conservative with Republican backing.

Heneghan had the fewest votes late Tuesday, consistently trailing Lorigo by a few percentage points with most election districts reporting.

She did not concede, saying there were still absentee ballots to be counted and that she remained hopeful.

The four other candidates who won Supreme Court seats  two Republicans and two Democrats cross-endorsed by the Republican and Democratic parties  were Republicans Kelly A. Vacco and Gerald J. Greenan III and Democrats Tracey A. Bannister and Craig D. Hannah.

Vacco is a Town of Boston justice. Greenan, an administrative judge for the state Parole Commission, was making his third bid for Supreme Court.
Mayor Jane Hughson sits at a table during the election watch party she hosted, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in San Marcos. Hughson is the incumbent mayor running for reelection against four other candidates.
November 9 2022

A Kirkcaldy hotel has filed updated plans to build a spa and wellness facility in an amendment to a previous planning consent.

Dean Park Hotel in the Chapel area of the town will be augmented by a new bedroom wing, designed by Davidson Baxter Partnership. The modified design increases the number of rooms available from 12 to 15 by introducing an additional floor within a double-height upper level.

In a design statement, the architects wrote: "The proposals have been revised to articulate the vertical window composition of the fenestration. The serrated bay window elements previously proposed now continue to the ground. The serration minimises the impact of overlooking neighbouring properties."

A reduction in the overall footprint is also proposed to better facilitate drainage and underground services.

Initially approved in September the hotel expansion seeks to improve facilities and introduce new revenue streams from events and membership.
Beijing, Nov 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :Factory gate prices in China fell for the first time in nearly two years, official data showed Wednesday.

The producer price index fell by 1.3 percent on-year in October, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), pushing it into negative territory for the first time since December 2020.

The figure represented a reduction from September's 0.9 percent rise.

Consumer prices rose by 2.1 percent on-year in October, the NBS said, moderating slightly from September's 2.8 percent.

China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, stamping out emerging outbreaks as they occur through snap lockdowns, mass testing and strict quarantines.

Authorities in areas where cases arise frequently invoke the policy to shut down businesses and confine people to their homes at short notice.
(@FahadShabbir)

Frankfurt, Nov 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :Wirecard's former CEO Markus Braun, charged with fraud in Germany's biggest-ever accounting scandal, will go on trial from December 8, a court said Wednesday.

Braun stands accused of "commercial gang fraud", embezzlement and market manipulation for his role in Wirecard's spectacular collapse in 2020.

The higher regional court in Munich said it had scheduled 100 court dates for the mammoth trial.

Once the standard-bearer for the German tech industry, Wirecard plunged into chaos in June 2020 after admitting that 1.9 billion Euros ($1.9 billion) missing from its balance sheets likely didn't exist.

The scandal was "unparalleled" in Germany's post-war history, according to then finance minister Olaf Scholz, who is now chancellor.

Braun, who has been in custody for over two years, denies the allegations.

Two other Wirecard managers, accounting boss Stephan von Erffa and Oliver Bellenhaus, the former head of a Wirecard's Dubai subsidiary, were also charged with fraud last March.

The trio had worked "in an industrial fashion" to commit the fraud, German prosecutors said at the time. The accused face "several years" in prison if found guilty, they added.

Wirecard's chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, who has been on the run since the firm's collapse, is still wanted by German prosecutors.

He was reported earlier this year to be hiding out in Moscow.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Catania, Italy, Nov 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :More than 200 migrants who have been waiting aboard a rescue ship after Italy refused them entry were allowed to come ashore Tuesday, as another vessel gave up hope and appealed to France for safe harbour.

Nearly 500 migrants have been in limbo after being rescued by three different charity ships last month during their perilous crossing from North Africa to Italy's shores.

But on Tuesday night, one of the ships, the Geo Barents, finally disembarked the more than 200 migrants on board after Italian health authorities gave them the green light.

"My life is back!" shouted one of the migrants in Sicily's eastern port of Catania, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which operates the vessel.

Both the Geo Barents and Humanity 1, run by non-governmental group SOS Humanity, docked at the weekend in Catania, disembarking about 500 of the most vulnerable migrants.

But Italian authorities denied entry to approximately 250 others and told the ships to return to sea with them on board, a directive both groups rejected.

Thirty-three migrants remained on Humanity 1 where a medical screening was underway Tuesday night.

A third ship, the Ocean Viking, said Tuesday it was leaving Sicilian waters and sailing towards France with 234 migrants on board after its appeals to Italy since October 27 to dock had gone unanswered.

"Facing the silence of Italy and the exceptionality of the situation, the Ocean Viking has now escalated her request for a place of safety in France," said the group, run by European charity SOS Mediterranee under a Norwegian flag.

It said the vessel would near Corsica by Thursday.
ANKARA , Nov 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday as market players focused on the economic downturn from lockdowns in China, the world's largest oil-consuming country.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $95.34 per barrel at 09.58 a.m. local time (0658 GMT), a 0.02% decrease from the closing price of $95.36 a barrel in the previous trading session.

The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $88.87 per barrel at the same time, a 0.04% loss after the previous session closed at $88.91 a barrel.

Price declines in China have been primarily driven by concerns about demand as the country continues to impose lockdowns and other measures in accordance with its "zero-covid" policy.

In contrast to the market consensus of a 1.1-million-barrel increase, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported its estimate of a surge of over 5.6 million barrels in US crude oil stocks late Tuesday.

A more-than-expected stockpile increase signals a drop in crude demand, weighing prices down.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release official oil stock data later Wednesday, and if a build in stock levels is confirmed, prices will fall.

However, investor concerns about a lack of supply limited further losses as EU countries prepare sanctions on Russian oil exports, which are set to take effect on Dec. 5 in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine.
Jamait Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman on Wednesday said interest-free economic system was a blessing for the people

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :Jamait Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman on Wednesday said interest-free economic system was a blessing for the people.

Fazal, in a meeting with Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, who called on him, here, at his residence, said it would help in building an Islamic financial system and boost economic activities in the light of Quran and Sunnah.

He also paid tribute to the finance minister and appreciated his bold decision for withdrawing the appeal of state and national banks from the apex court against the Federal Shariat Court's (FSC)verdict which directed the government to devise a mechanism where Pakistan can become an interest-free economy.

In the meeting, both dignitaries discussed future strategies and measures to expand the radius of Islamic banking across the country.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday thanking the Norwegian government for providing critical support for Pakistan's flood relief efforts, emphasized the need for the two countries to work together to address the adverse effects of Climate Change

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Nov, 2022 ) :Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday thanking the Norwegian government for providing critical support for Pakistan's flood relief efforts, emphasized the need for the two countries to work together to address the adverse effects of Climate Change.

He expressed these views during the meeting with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre of Norway held here on the sidelines of the COP 27 Climate Implementation Summit.

The two leaders discussed bilateral relations and exchanged views on international and regional issues of common interest.

The prime minister briefed the Norwegian Prime Minister on the unprecedented destruction caused by the climate-induced floods that submerged vast swathes of Pakistan earlier this year.

He reiterated that Pakistan attached importance to its longstanding ties with Norway while underlining the need for enhanced bilateral cooperation in trade, clean energy, education and technology, a press release issued by the PM Media Wing said.

The prime minister noted the positive contributions made by Norwegian tech and telecom companies to Pakistan's service sector, and hoped that more Norwegian companies and businesses would take advantage of the government's investor-friendly policies in future.

Discussing the regional situation, he highlighted the continuing human rights violations being perpetrated by India in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The prime minister stressed that lasting peace and stability in South Asia would remain elusive without the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

He reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan, adding, that sustained and practical engagement with Afghanistan was critical to helping the Afghan people deal with the humanitarian and economic crises afflicting their country.

The prime minister reiterated his invitation to Prime Minister Stre to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :Pakistan, like other parts of the world, will celebrate World Science Day for Peace Development on November 10 (Thursday) through a number of activities highlighting the important contemporary issues related to science.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in collaboration with the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH), the Economic Cooperation Organization Science Foundation (ECOSF), the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) and the Pakistan academy of Sciences (PAS), is organizing an event in celebration of World Science Day for Peace and Development on Wednesday, 16 November 2022, in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The World Science Day for Peace and Development, celebrated every year on 10 November, was established by UNESCO in 2001 to highlight the important role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging and important contemporary issues relevant to science.

The theme of World Science Day for Peace and Development on 10 November 2022 is Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.

It is being celebrated within the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, which kicked off on 8 July 2022.

'The applications of basic sciences are vital for advances in medicine, industry, agriculture, water resources, energy planning, environment, communications and culture', affirmed the United Nations General Assembly on 2 December 2021, when it endorsed the proposal for an International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development. World Science Day is contributing to the Year in 2022 by celebrating this theme.

"We need more basic science to achieve The 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals", the United Nations General Assembly noted in December 2021. It is true that the share of domestic research expenditure devoted to basic sciences varies widely from one country to another.

According to data from the UNESCO Science Report 2021 for 86 countries, some devote less than 10% of their research expenditure to basic sciences and others more than 30%.

Having a capacity in basic sciences is in the interests of both developed and developing countries, given the potential for applications to foster sustainable development and raise standards of living.
Less than 20 minutes after the polls closed Tuesday, Republican Nicholas A. Langworthy claimed victory in his race for Congress in a heavily Republican Southern Tier district.

It looks like were heading to a massive victory, said Langworthy," a former congressional aide who eventually became chairman of the state Republican Party.

He acknowledged it was unusual for a congressional candidate to declare victory at 9:15 p.m. when only a small portion of the election totals had been reported. But he added: "Our nation has been on a dangerously wrong track, and tonight is the night people said, enough is enough.

As he claimed victory, Langworthy was building a lead over Democrat Max Della Pia, an Air Force veteran and the Tioga County Democratic chairman.

They were running in New York's newly drawn 23rd district, which takes in Erie County's eastern towns and then dives south. It most closely resembles the Southern Tier territory that had been represented since 2011 by Republican Tom Reed of Corning. Reed resigned in May, months after a woman revealed he had tried to unclasp her bra without her consent at a social gathering hosted by lobbyists.

Langworthy, who currently resides in Niagara County, has said he will move into the district. He is a former chairman of the Erie County Republican Party, and with that name recognition he was taking more than 50% of the Erie County vote in early results.

That was far better than Langworthy did in the Republican primary, when Buffalo businessman Carl P. Paladino beat him in the Erie County towns by a 2-1 margin. The Southern Tier counties, however, delivered the nomination to Langworthy.

Langworthy, who was endorsed by Donald J. Trump after his primary victory, has said he wants a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He could find himself in a newly constituted Republican majority if the predictions hold true and the party wins a majority of seats.
The European Commission Wednesday waded into a dispute over 234 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and stuck aboard a ship after Italy refused to accept them, urging their "immediate disembarkation".

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :The European Commission Wednesday waded into a dispute over 234 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and stuck aboard a ship after Italy refused to accept them, urging their "immediate disembarkation".

The Ocean Viking, a vessel operated by the European charity SOS Mediterranee under a Norwegian flag, has been forced to sail away from Sicilian waters towards France after Italy refused to let her dock.

Italian leaders have claimed that France is ready to accept the migrants, but Paris has warned that the ship is in Italian waters and branded the refusal to let her dock "unacceptable".

Immigration decisions are ultimately a matter for each EU member state, but the European Union tries to coordinate policy in the bloc.

"The legal obligation to rescue and to ensure the safety of life at sea is clear and unequivocal, irrespective of the circumstances that lead people to be in a situation of distress," the European Commission, the EU's executive, said in a statement.

The statement did not call out France, Italy or Rome's new far-right premier Georgia Meloni by name, but made it clear that governments have a legal obligation to help sea travellers in distress.

"The European Commission calls for the immediate disembarkation, at the nearest place of safety, of all persons rescued and who are on board the Ocean Viking," the statement said.

"The situation onboard the vessel has reached a critical level and needs to be urgently addressed to avoid a humanitarian tragedy," it warned.
(@FahadShabbir)

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) Beijing Skyrizon, a Chinese investor company of the Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Motor Sich, said on Wednesday that it opposed the forced nationalization of the company's assets in Ukraine.

On Monday, Ukrainian newspaper Ekonomicheskaya Pravda reported that the Ukrainian authorities had decided to nationalize a number of enterprises owned by Ukrainian "oligarchs," including Ukrnafta, Ukrtatnafta and Motor Sich. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that nationalized assets of enterprises, including Ukrnafta and Motor Sich, received the status of military property and were transferred to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

"We strongly oppose the shameless behavior of the Ukrainian authorities concerning the politicization of normal business conduct, the forcible nationalization of the Motor Sich company, and the unjustified violations of the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese investors," Beijing Skyrizon said on WeChat.

The company also said that the Chinese investors have legally invested in Motor Sich since 2014 and own its controlling block of shares via normal commercial channels.

"We exercise our legal rights and are strictly protected by law. We are the main stakeholder in the Motor Sich company," the statement added.

In November 2021, Beijing Skyrizon filed a suit with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague demanding $4.5 billion in damages for Ukraine's violation of an investment agreement with China. According to the claim, the company has suffered damages both in Ukraine and China "as a result of the Ukrainian government's unfair attitude toward Chinese investors over the past five years and unceasing application of unlawful measures."
Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani called for dialogue to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting Wednesday in Tehran with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev

Tehran, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Nov, 2022 ) :Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani called for dialogue to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting Wednesday in Tehran with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev.

Patrushev later met with President Ebrahim Raisi, who said that "broadening the scope of the war and its escalation are a source of concern for all countries," according to official news agency IRNA.

The meetings come after Kiev and its Western allies accused Russia in recent weeks of using Iranian-made drones to carry out attacks in Ukraine. Tehran denies the allegations.

"Iran supports any initiative leading to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialogue," Shamkhani said, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

The Islamic republic was "ready to play a role in ending the war", he added, IRNA reported.

Russia's Security Council said the two senior officials "discussed in detail bilateral cooperation in the field of law enforcement, including public security and the fight against terrorism and extremism".

"In addition, they discussed measures to counter the interference of Western special services in the internal affairs of the two countries," it said in a statement.

Iran has been rocked by nearly two months of protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by the morality police for allegedly breaking the nation's strict dress code for women.

An adviser to Ukraine's president said Patrushev's visit to Iran showed the Kremlin was "exhausted".

In a Twitter post, the adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said Russia's "resources are close to the limit", and that Patrushev was "looking for a way to continue the war" by getting more drones and missiles.

"Now is the perfect time to double aid to Ukraine," he wrote.

Kiev dramatically curtailed diplomatic relations with Tehran in September due to alleged arms shipments to Moscow.

In late October the European Union and Britain announced new sanctions against Iran. Shamkhani, during the meeting with Patrushev, underlined the "creation of joint institutions to deal with the sanctions" imposed on Russia and Iran, IRNA said.

The Russian statement said both parties "stressed the importance of developing Russia's and Iran's economic potential and expand trade relations" to counter Western sanctions.
TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) The ballistic missile, which was launched by North Korea earlier in the day, presumably fell outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone, the Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday, citing government sources.

The Japanese maritime security service earlier reported a possible launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea and called on aircraft and sea vessels to monitor the information, not approach any fragments that could fall from the missile, and report to the service.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) Local authorities in Luzerne County in the US state of Pennsylvania ordered polls to stay open for two additional hours.

"All Luzerne County polling locations will have extended hours. Polls will now be closing at 10:00 p.m.," the authorities said in a special alert on Tuesday.

US media reported that Judge Lesa Gelb decided to extend the voting period by two hours amid reports that some of the voting machines are running out of paper.

"Voters in Luzerne County through no fault of their own, were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote," Gelb said in an order.

All other voting locations in Pennsylvania are closing at 8:00 p.m. ET (2:00 GMT).
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi held a meeting in Tehran with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, during which cooperation in the security sphere was discussed, the Russian Security Council said on Wednesday.

"Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi received Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Tehran.

Various issues of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the security sphere, as well as a number of international issues were discussed at the meeting," the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Patrushev held talks with Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) of Iran Ali Shamkhani, during which the counterparts discussed a number on international issues, including the situation in Ukraine and in the middle East.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) Russia sticks to its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, but sanctions are holding Moscow back from faster implementation and more ambitious goals, Ruslan Edelgeriyev, Russian special presidential envoy for climate, said on Wednesday.

"At present, we stand by the commitment to carbon neutrality by 2060. However, Russia could achieve carbon neutrality at a faster pace if there were no double standards and discrimination," Edelgeriyev said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 broadcaster on the sidelines of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).

Countries around the world began committing to carbon neutrality under the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015, following the 21st COP in Paris.

With 194 signatories to date, it marks the first global effort in history to coordinate the fight against climate change.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to contribute to keeping average global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level by the end of the century. In addition, the European Union, the United States and Japan pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Russia and China by 2060 and India by 2070.

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh from November 6-18. Over 44,000 people are attending the conference.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) The Syrian military, at a checkpoint in the Hasakah province, did not let a US military convoy pass, SANA reported, citing local sources.

According to sources, the Syrian military forced the US 8-vehicle convoy to leave the area.

The US Armed Forces illegally control territories in the north and northeast of Syria - in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Hasakah and Raqqa, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located. Damascus has repeatedly called the presence of the US military on its territory occupation and state piracy with the aim of outright theft of oil.
The Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorism) have banned women from public parks in Afghanistan, representatives of one of the largest parks in the Afghan capital city, Kabul, Habib Zazai, said, citing the Afghan Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice

KABUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2022) The Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorism) have banned women from public parks in Afghanistan, representatives of one of the largest parks in the Afghan capital city, Kabul, Habib Zazai, said, citing the Afghan Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

The ministry issued the directive to all parks, the park administration said, apologizing to visitors.

Later in the day, Afghan women's rights activists criticized the measures taken by the Taliban.

"The Taliban don't want women to be independent, they lock them in their homes so they stop participating in social activities and women gradually disappear from society," one of the activists, Hila Mujtaba, told Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, Akif Muhajir, spokesman for the Virtue Ministry, said the government had decided to ban women's public bathhouses as they were contrary to the sharia, islam's legal system.

The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, resulting in deepening economic, humanitarian and security crises in the country. Although authorities promised not to discriminate against females, the Taliban has banned Afghan women from working outside their homes, and has introduced gender-based segregation in schools. Girls are now not allowed to receive an education beyond the sixth grade.
Zimbabwe is working with Russia to facilitate the countries' visa regime and deepen economic cooperation, Zimbabwean Defense Minister Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2022) Zimbabwe is working with Russia to facilitate the countries' visa regime and deepen economic cooperation, Zimbabwean Defense Minister Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the international inter-party conference in Moscow, the minister emphasized the importance of Russian-Zimbabwean bilateral relations, including in the field of tourism.

Muchinguri also said that Harare was considering the possibility of further expanding agreements and memorandums to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and deepen economic, agricultural and educational ties.

Zimbabwe has strong political and economic relations with Russia, according to Muchinguri. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has repeatedly visited Moscow, the minister added.

On October 9, the speaker of the Zimbabwean National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, told Sputnik that Zimbabwe was planning to launch direct flights with Russia after a thorough bilateral review by the tourism and transport ministries.
Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney won her last race for Congress by 109 votes. With this year's returns rolling in late Tuesday, Tenney was looking at a much more comfortable margin of victory.

Unofficial returns posted by the state Board of Elections showed the congresswoman, an enthusiastic supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, taking over 60% of the vote in a district that is one of the most Republican-leaning in New York.

The newly drawn 24th District spreads from eastern Niagara County toward Oswego and then north to Watertown.

The results showed Tenney with a 40,000-vote cushion over Steven W. Holden Sr., a 20-year Army veteran and a former Army finance officer who graduated from Syracuse University and lives in a Syracuse suburb.

Tenney was first elected to Congress in 2016, lost her seat in 2018 and was re-elected in 2020 by 109 votes. That outcome wasn't certain until February of 2021.

She voted with the former president 97% of the time and supports the impeachment of President Biden over issues related to the Mexican border and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Africas new Blessed was beatified in Meru, Kenya, over the weekend by Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, the Archbishop of Kigali, Rwanda.

Vatican News

Sister Maria Carola Cecchin represents the holiness of many missionaries who accepted to endure all sorts of sacrifices and risks to bring Gods salvation to us. This was said by Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, archbishop of Kigali, Rwanda, during the beatification of the religious born in 1877 in Cittadella (Padua) who died in 1925 aboard a ship on the Red Sea while returning to Italy from Kenya.

The beatification rite was presided over by Cardinal Kambanda, who represented Pope Francis at Kinoru Stadium in Kenyas Diocese of Meru on Saturday, 5 November morning.

Absolute trust in God

Cardinal Kambanda noted that Sr Cecchin, a member of the congregation founded by St. Joseph Cottolengo, had given her life in Kenya for her service to Gods people in the Diocese of Meru for two decades. She performed the best act of charity that can be done to make the love of Christ known to others, the Archbishop of Kigali pointed out.

In fact, she spent her missionary life so that the kingdom of God would spread in Kenya and the name of God would be praised in this land.

Cardinal Kambanda recalled that the religious sister had absolute trust in Gods loving care and came to this land to be a witness of that, so that we too may acquire the same faith and trust that frees us from all fear and calls us to faithfulness to God, he said.

Cardinal Kambanda invited the faithful to see in Blessed Cecchin an example of missionary zeal worthy of emulation. Sister Mary Carola, he said, gave us an example to follow during our lives. It is up to us to carry on this missionary life in todays world, which needs it the most.

Entirely dedicated to the poor

The Archbishop of Kigali then remarked that Sister Cecchin spent her life in this land giving great honour to God and the Church. She loved so much the Lord that she desired to become his hands, to reach out to the poor. She trusted him so much that she accepted all the hardships and trials life had in store for her. And she made her own that evangelical love that urges one not to seek ones own gain, but to give oneself completely, forgetting oneself in order to embrace the good of others. Sister Cecchin lived just like that: all for God, entirely dedicated to the poor.

Selfless love in families

The family is one of the institutions where the example of Blessed Maria Carola can be applied, the Cardinal noted. He warned of the need to rid families of what he called false love and called, on the contrary, for true and selfless love in families.

Among those present at the celebration were the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya, Archbishop Hubertus Matheus Maria van Megen, Bishop of Meru, Salesius Mugambi, Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, Cottolengo religious Antonio Crameri, the Superior General of the Little House of Divine Providence, Father Carmine Arice, the Superior General of the Cottolengo religious women, Sister Elda Pezzuto. Also present was the Italian ambassador to Kenya, Roberto Natali.

Sister Maria Carolas great-grandnephew, Alessandro Cecchin, and a delegation from Cittadella, the newly beatifieds home town, also attended the beatification ceremony.


NEW YORK  Amid the din of her delirious campaign headquarters, Kathy Hochul of Buffalo found herself accepting not only the cheers of victorious Democrats late Tuesday but also stepping into history as the first woman ever elected governor of New York.

Hochul headquarters erupted at 11:11 p.m. when the giant screen at Capitale, a bank-turned-party venue in downtown Manhattan, declared victory over Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. Answering chants of Kathy, Kathy, Kathy, she and newly elected Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado took to the microphone to declare their own victory.

Thank you, New York, she declared to more Kathy chants. Thank you to everyone in this room and across this state who made this moment possible.

She especially thanked organized labor, the new first gentleman, her husband, Bill, and mentioned her late mother who inspired me to public service.

Tonight, you made your voices heard loud and clear, and you made me the first woman ever elected as governor of the State of New York, she said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul declares victory, but Zeldin stops short of conceding "Tonight I want to speak directly to New Yorkers," she said. "Tonight, you made your voices heard loud and clear. And you made me the first woman ever elected to be the governor of the state of New York."  Related: Live coverage of the latest news from the races affecting Western New York.  See live results from the governor's race.

She noted the road here from Buffalo was not easy, recalled her parents rise from humble beginnings and their instilling in her a sense of public service that led to her historic victory.

Pointing to the ornate glasswork crafted during an earlier age high above the stage, she declared her own moment of history.

The glass ceiling, the one that is above us here today, has been finally been shattered, she declared, promising to break more barriers out of strength and passion, not fear and anger.

Though wild cheers echoed through the cavernous hall, so did a quiet sense of relief. Not until around 10 p.m., when results from New York City began pointing to the less than robust numbers Zeldin needed, did nervous staffers begin to see the possibility of victory.

One leg of the stool gone, observed one, referring to Zeldins need for more than 30% in New York City and exceptionally strong results from upstate and the metropolitan suburbs.

And as other statewide Democrats like Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli took the stage to declare victory, the usual confidence of New York Democrats  who now dominate all levels of government in Albany  began to seep through the rally hall.

But Hochul had to work for her victory. Enjoying all the advantages of party organization and incumbency, she started at a major disadvantage of competing in what was viewed from the beginning as a Republican year. Indeed, the GOP was also vying to score gains in the State Senate in an attempt to break the Democrats' veto-proof majority.

And though she and Delgado now head to a full, four-year term via the approval of New York voters, questions of about the uncertainty will arise. In a state with 3.5 million more Democrats than Republicans, some top Democrats earlier in the day were shaking their heads over even the notion that Zeldin posed a major challenge. Nevertheless, state Chairman Jay S. Jacobs, who revved up county organizations across the state, pulled off the victory with the significant backing of unions that also aided the Hochul effort.

Part of the governors slog toward victory may have shown itself in her home county of Erie, which appeared ready to hand her a win in her own turf  but by a less than impressive tally. The Erie results, while not overwhelming, nevertheless negated Zeldins summertime boast that he would win Hochuls home county  which many political observers believed would have signaled a statewide tsunami that never materialized.

Hochul began her historic journey in 2014 as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's running mate, winning two terms with him but occupying a relatively low key position in his administration. All that changed in August of 2021 after Cuomo resigned in the face of sexual harassment allegations. At that point Hochul succeeded him as the state's first woman governor, the first upstater in a century, and the first Buffalonian since Grover Cleveland in the 1880s.

Winning election to the state's highest office in her own right at first seemed assured. Attorney General Letitia James, who had been viewed as a top contender for the 2022 gubernatorial election, quickly exited the contest after her campaign failed to gain traction. The state Democratic Party coalesced around its new governor and endorsed her at its February convention in New York City.

But two other Democrats  Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi of Nassau County and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams  then challenged her for the party nomination in the June primary. Buoyed by a substantial campaign treasury and organization support, she easily dispatched both.

Hochul began her general election campaign in a commanding position  eventually raising a record $50 million to face Zeldin. The congressman began his campaign back in April of 2021, and he also easily beat three other contenders  Harry Wilson, Rob Astorino and Andrew Giuliani. And as Hochul presided over adopting a budget, consoling a grieving community following the deaths of 10 Buffalonians in May at the hands of an alleged racist shooter, and then sponsoring tough new gun laws in the aftermath, she continued to seemingly cruise toward re-election.

Indeed, a Siena College poll as recently as August pegged her at leading Zeldin by 17 points.

But the Republican began to gain traction as he relentlessly hammered away at Hochul on rising crime rates in cities like New York and Rochester. Slowly he began to gain in the polls until some had him within striking distance. Even national observers focused attention in recent days on the Hochul-Zeldin contest as it became increasingly clear that Zeldin was mounting a serious Republican challenge for the first time since 2002, and in the face of an overwhelming Democratic registration advantage.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna requests prayers for the safe return of Fr. Abraham Kunat who was kidnapped on Tuesday.

By Benedict Mayaki

A Nigerian priest, Rev. Fr. Abraham Kunat, was kidnapped on Tuesday in the Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, northern Nigeria.

A statement signed by the chancellor for the Archdiocese of Kaduna, Father Christian Okewu Emmanuel, said Fr. Kunat was abducted at 12:30 am from St. Mulumba, Kurmin Sara, where he had been residing due to the insecurity situation in the area.

Fr. Kunat has been serving as the parish priest of St. Bernard parish, Idon Gida.

The chancellor solicits the prayers and support of the Christian faithful as well as all men and women of goodwill that God almighty will take control of the situation, preserve our priest and bring him back to us in one piece.

Read also 18/10/2022 Nigeria: Catholic priest abducted in Anambra Fr. Joseph Igweagu, the Parish Priest at St. Josephs Parish Abata Nsugbe, was abducted on Wednesday. The Archdiocese of Onitsha asks for prayers for his safe return.

Abductions

Nigeria has been facing the challenge of dealing with bandits and armed persons who kidnap citizens, mostly for ransom, but sometimes kill their abductees.

This latest abduction of Fr. Kunat in one in a series of kidnappings of members of the clergy or religious in Africas most populous country.

The last such reported abduction of a priest was on 16 October, when the Archdiocese of Onitsha requested prayers for the safe and unconditional release of Fr. Joseph Igweagu who was kidnapped on 12 October as he was returning to his parish residence after celebrating a Funeral Vigil Mass in Umunachi, Anambra State.
At his weekly Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis dedicates his catechesis to his recent Apostolic Journey to Bahrain, calling it a visit of dialogue and fraternity in a world afflicted by division and conflict.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Pope Francis dedicated his weekly General Audience in the Vatican to his recently-concluded Apostolic Journey to the Middle Eastern Gulf nation of Bahrain, marking his 39th Apostolic Visit abroad, second to the region, and 58th country visited since the start of his pontificate.

To the crowds in St. Peter's Square and those following from afar, the Pope expressed gratitude for the visit's peace-producing fruits, especially in this world torn apart by conflict and war, especially the war in Ukraine.

Listen to our report:

The Pope remembered that his travel there was for The Bahrain Forum for Dialogue, "which brought together religious leaders in the service of peace."

"It comes spontaneous to ask why the Pope wanted to visit this small country with such a large Islamic majority?" the Pope asked, responding, "I would like to respond through three words: dialogue, encounter and journey."

Dialogue, 'the oxygen of peace'

Dialogue is in fact the oxygen of peace, opening minds and hearts to encounter and breaking down the walls of violence and division.

The Pope said to not forget this, and the dialogue "is the oxygen of peace," even in domestic life, especially within families.

He went on to underscore how these times of war, necessitate even greater efforts to promote peace.

In our world rocked by war, the Pope said religious and civil leaders, and all people of goodwill, are challenged to look beyond narrow interests and to pursue unity and peace.

"How much we need this!" he said, noting, "I have in mind the insanity of war of which battered Ukraine is a victim, and of many other conflicts, that will never be resolved through the infantile logic of artillery, but only with the gentle power of dialogue."

War destroys humanity

Remembering various wars across the globe, including Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria, and Yemen, the Pope decried, "War destroys humanity. It destroys everything."

Read also 04/11/2022 Pope at Bahrain Dialogue Forum: Religious leaders have duty to help humanity At the closing ceremony of the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue, Pope Francis speaks out against war and on behalf of true religious freedom, recognition of women, protection of ...

The Holy Father suggested that his visit to the predominantly Muslim nation was another step in the journey of dialogue, encounter and fraternal cooperation between Christians and Muslims, following several other Journeys on similar themes, such as the United Arab Emirates in 2019 and Kazakhstan in September.

Encounter, otherwise dialogue remains empty

The Pope said there cannot be dialogue, without the second word of "encounter."

He warned that without it, "dialogue remains empty," and "remains on the level of an idea rather than reality."

He recalled his encounters with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and with the young people at Sacred Heart School. He praised the young people who, he said, "gave us a huge example, Christians and Muslims studying together."

"Young people, boys and girls, children," he underscored, "need to get to know each other so that fraternal encounter might prevent ideological divisions."

Journey

Lastly, the Pope focused on the third word of "Journey."

The first visit of a Pope to Bahrain, the Pope reflected, represents a new step on the journey between Christian and Muslim believers.

He said it was "not to confuse things or water down the faith, but to create fraternal alliances in the name of our Father Abraham, who was a pilgrim on earth under the merciful gaze of the one God of Heaven, the God of peace."

This, he said, is why the motto of the journey was: Peace on earth to people of goodwill

Encouraging the Catholic flock

The Pope also expressed his delight to celebrate Mass for the Catholic community of Bahrain and the greater Gulf region, which saw the participation of some 30,000 people, registered from more than 100 countries, and remembered with joy joining Christian leaders in a choral prayer for peace.

Pope Francis encouraged all faithful to expand their horizons by getting more acquainted with one another.
The U.S. show of force over the Korean peninsula Saturday, when two B-1B stealth bomber aircraft flew over the peninsula for the first time since 2017, was just part of a major joint exercise meant to ensure the United States has a "ready force" in the region, according to the U.S. Air Force chief of staff.

"It was all part of the Vigilant Storm exercise, an exercise that we've operated under over time," General C.Q. Brown Jr. told VOA in an exclusive interview Monday.

"This is another one of the exercises that we've done, and we'll continue to do, to ensure that readiness. We have an ironclad alliance with the Republic of Korea, and it's all just part of an exercise and our continued training," he added.

Prior to the flight of the B-1B bombers, which U.S. officials told VOA came from Guam, North Korea fired four short-range ballistic missiles off its west coast on Saturday morning.

North Korea said Monday that its recent missile launches over the past few days were simulated strikes on South Korea and the United States as the two countries held what it called a "dangerous war drill."

Some 240 aircraft participated in last week's joint U.S.-South Korea exercise on the peninsula, Vigilant Storm, along with thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops.

North Korea fired a daily record of 23 missiles on Wednesday, with one landing the closest to South Korea's territorial waters since the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945, according to South Korea. Air raid alarms in certain parts of South Korea and Japan sent citizens rushing to take cover after the North Korean missiles launches.

On Thursday, Pyongyang's missile launches included an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a weapon designed to carry a nuclear warhead as far as North America.

Brown called Pyongyang's recent aggressive behavior part of the "ups and downs" of missile activity from North Korea, adding that his "real focus" is on the readiness of the U.S. and South Korean forces.

Brown served two tours on the Korean peninsula and was the commander of Pacific Air Forces before assuming his role as Air Force Chief of Staff in August 2020.

After North Korea's ICBM launch on Thursday, the U.S. and South Korea extended Vigilant Storm, which was set to end Friday, for an additional day.

David Maxwell, an Army veteran who was stationed in Japan and South Korea and an analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA the allied response to North Korea's recent aggression was "better than it has been certainly in the last five years."

"I think both the Yoon and Biden administrations are recovering from decisions made in the last administration to reduce training, as well as the effects of COVID," Maxwell said.

But the U.S.-ROK military actions did not stop South Korean press from questioning U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and South Korean Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup on the "effectiveness" of U.S. and South Korean deterrence measures last week, to which Austin replied that he believed North Korea was deterred from attacking South Korea and also from deploying a nuclear device.

According to Maxwell, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent missile launches are an effort to "drive a wedge in the ROK-U.S. alliance" to create dissension among politicians.

"He (Kim) is trying to weaken military readiness. He is appealing to those naive pundits who think that if we just cancel exercises that he will come to the negotiating table and act like a responsible member of the international community. Nothing could be more wrong," Maxwell said.
Republican officials in a rural Arizona county refused Monday to certify the 2022 election despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count, a decision that was quickly challenged in court by the state's top election official.

The refusal to certify by Cochise County in southeastern Arizona comes amid pressure from prominent Republicans to reject results showing Democrats winning top races.
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.
North Korea has denied American claims that it's shipping artillery shells and ammunition to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, and on Tuesday accused the United States of lying.

The denial follows dozens of weapons tests by North Korea, including short-range missiles that are likely nuclear-capable and an intercontinental ballistic missile that could target the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang said it was testing the missiles and artillery so it could "mercilessly" strike key South Korean and U.S. targets if it chose to.

North Korea has been cozying up to traditional ally Russia in recent years and even hinted at sending workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. The United States has accused North Korea, one of the most weaponized countries in the world, of supplying Soviet-era ammunition such as artillery shells, to replenish Russian stockpiles that have been depleted in Ukraine.

Last week, Russia sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a trainload of 30 thoroughbred horses, opening the border with its neighbor for the first time in 2 1/2 years. Kim is an avid horseman and state media have often pictured him galloping on snowy mountain trails astride a white charger. The horses, Orlov trotters, are prized in Russia.

Spokespeople of Russia's Far Eastern Railway told the state-run news agency November 2 that the first train headed to North Korea with the 30 horses and said the next train was to carry medicine.

Experts say North Korea may be seeking Russian fuel and also technology transfers and supplies needed to advance its military capabilities as it pursues more sophisticated weapons systems.

In September, North Korea restarted its freight train service with China, its biggest trading partner, ending a five-month hiatus.

Last week, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby accused North Korea of covertly supplying a "significant number" of ammunition shipments to Russia. He said the United States believes North Korea was trying to obscure the transfer route by making it appear the weapons were being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa.

"We regard such moves of the U.S. as part of its hostile attempt to tarnish the image of (North Korea) in the international arena," an unidentified vice director at the North Korean ministry's military foreign affairs office said in a statement carried by state media.

"We once again make clear that we have never had 'arms dealings' with Russia and that we have no plan to do so in the future," the vice director said.

In September, U.S. officials confirmed a newly declassified U.S. intelligence finding that Russia was in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea. North Korea later dismissed that report, calling on Washington to stop making "reckless remarks" and to "keep its mouth shut."

On Nov. 2, Kirby said the U.S. has "an idea" of which country or countries the North may funnel the weapons through but wouldn't specify. He said the North Korean shipments are "not going to change the course of the war," citing Western efforts to resupply the Ukrainian military.

Slapped by international sanctions and export controls, Russia in August bought Iranian-made drones that U.S. officials said had technical problems. For Russia, experts say North Korea is likely another good option for its ammunitions supply, because the North keeps a significant stockpile of shells, many of them copies of Soviet-era ones.

Even as most of Europe and the West has pulled away, North Korea has pushed to boost relations with Russia, blaming the U.S. for the crisis and decrying the West's "hegemonic policy" as justifying military action by Russia in Ukraine to protect itself. In July, North Korea became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk territories as independent.

North Korea's possible arms supply to Russia would be a violation of U.N. resolutions that ban the North from trading weapons with other countries. But it's unlikely for North Korea to receive fresh sanctions for that because of a division at the U.N. Security Council over America's confrontations with Russia regarding its war in Ukraine and its separate strategic competitions with China.

Earlier this year, Russia and China already vetoed a U.S.-led attempt to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its series of ballistic missile tests that are banned by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Some observers say North Korea has also been using the Russian aggression in Ukraine as a window to ramp up weapons testing activity and dial up pressure on the United States and South Korea. Last week, the North test-fired dozens of missiles in response to large-scale U.S.-South Korea aerial drills that Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for a potential invasion.

In a separate statement published Tuesday by state media, a senior North Korean diplomat criticized U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' recent condemnation of North Korea's missile launch barrage, calling him a "mouthpiece" of the U.S. government.

"The U.N. secretary general is echoing what the White House and the State Department say as if he were their mouthpiece, which is deplorable," said Kim Son Gyong, vice minister for international organizations at the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

Kim said that Guterres' "unfair and prejudiced behavior" has contributed to the worsening tensions in the region.
South Korea scrambled fighter jets Friday after detecting 180 North Korean military flights near the border, South Koreas military said, as tensions on the Korean Peninsula continued to escalate.

The North Korean aircraft were detected in multiple inland areas and both of North Koreas coasts for about four hours starting about 11:00 a.m. local time, said South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In response, South Koreas military says it urgently deployed 80 fighter jets, including the F-35A stealth fighter. About 240 U.S. and South Korean aircraft continued large-scale aerial drills, South Koreas military added.

Earlier Friday, South Korea announced the so-called Vigilant Storm aerial exercise would run through Saturday, a day later than initially planned, in response to 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.

North Korea is upset at the U.S.-South Korea exercises, which have been expanded in response to recent North Korean weapons tests and other threats.

Pyongyang views the drills as preparations to invade and often uses them as an occasion to ramp up tensions, creating a sense of crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

Air exercises

That dynamic could help explain North Koreas decision to deploy so many aircraft Friday  a move that could reveal sensitive information about how North Koreas air force functions under extraordinary conditions, says Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based international relations professor at Troy University.

But the air power balance is so unfavorable to them, that maybe they don't care about revealing info about this type of activity, said Pinkston, who has written about North Koreas air force.

By some estimates, North Koreas military has between 600-700 aircraft, but most are very old and not thought to be well-maintained, due to cost factors.

The pilots get so little flight training that this exercise accomplishes some flight training objectives, Pinkston told VOA.

Last month, North Korea also sent about 10 warplanes so close to the border that it triggered an automatic operational response by South Koreas air force.

Its not clear how close the North Korean planes got to the inter-Korean border Friday. But Seoul officials said the aircraft did not cross the Tactical Action Line, or TAL.

The TAL is a boundary north of the border that was set by the South Korean military to give sufficient time to respond to North Korean provocations.

North Korea has not commented on any of its military moves over the past several days but has warned of powerful follow-up measures in response to the U.S.-South Korea exercises.

US response

The United Nations Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the North Korean launches, at the request of countries including the United States, multiple diplomats told VOA.

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.

On Thursday, 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  the countries Yellow Sea demarcation line  since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War; on Wednesday they both did within hours of each other.

VOA United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this story.
That was the question at the center of an ambitious agenda at the Mekong-US Partnerships meeting over the summer in Phnom Penh, which was synthesized in a report recently released by the Stimson Center.

The report  and a virtual panel discussion on Oct. 27  covered three thematic areas of the regions workforce: education, underrepresented groups and health care.

Today more than ever it's essential that we continue working across boundaries to institute policies and processes that enable workers to adapt to and embrace new technologies, Daniel J. Kritenbrink, assistant U.S. secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said at the start of the discussion.

Kritenbrink said the ideas and recommendations coming out of the Mekong-U.S. Partnership Track 1.5 Policy Dialogue series would help guide U.S. policy in the region, and identify emerging solutions to problems.

Brian Eyler, who directs the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center, hosted the virtual discussion along with experts in each of the three areas.

Education

The report that came out of Julys in-person discussions in Phnom Penh highlighted the mismatch of soft skills and hard skills among regional workers.

Soft skills are often overshadowed by hard skill training programs, leading to a mismatch between job market needs and student skill sets, said a summary of the report. Soft skills like communication, persistence, flexible problem-solving, listening, and stress management are underemphasized but are a vital complement to technical skills and expertise.

To address these issues, participants recommended that ministries of education include soft skills testing in their internal assessments of success, teachers include soft skills in their training and curriculum, and the U.S. emphasized soft skills in its programming.

Porntip Kanjananiyot, a special advisor on higher education to the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, said teachers and administrators must be a focus of this soft skills training as well.

We tend to overlook the importance of the quality of faculty and senior leaders in supporting and becoming the role model for soft skills, she said in last weeks virtual discussion.

And she said that efforts should focus on platforms and resources that bring best practices and key lessons together in one place, for educators in all of the Mekong region countries to deploy in their schools and classrooms.

One of the things that we don't really see isa synthesis of all the common areas that we touch on. That will be very useful, Porntip Kanjananiyot said.

Underrepresented groups

Participants in the human resource policy dialogue  one of seven such events in the Mekong-US Partnership series  focused mostly on women and migrant workers in their discussion of underrepresented groups.

The resulting report recommended that public and private actors focus their digital training and upskilled efforts on these groups as a way to level the playing field.

Porhour Ly, a senior product manager at Cambodian fintech startup Boost Capital, said there were no blanket solutions to these challenges.

It's very tempting for us to say upskilling, right; providing digital training to our labor, Porhour Ly said in the virtual discussion. But actually, first we should look at what digitalization means for each of the different sectors because it could look very differently.

So then upskilling means looking at the right type of training based on the existing skill set that the labor has and also, how can we leverage their existing skill set so then they could, you know, be prepared for this digital transformation.

Porhour Ly noted three main recommendations for putting this into practice.

Private sector companies and government agencies should look to subsidize access to technology and digital devices  as well as electricity and internet  for underrepresented groups so they can become familiar with the tools from a young age.

Donors and governments should require entities they work with to collect data through a gender lens, and enforce standard methods of data collection so it can be shared between entities and used to improve outcomes.

Public and private sector actors should also work together to raise awareness and educate workers at the village and commune level, so they understand the risks of migrating to other countries and have passports and other necessities to migrate safely.

Health care

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a bright light on areas that need improvement in the health systems of Mekong region countries  especially around access to vaccines and a lack of equity.

Those were the main upshots shared by Bradley J. Murg, a senior research fellow and senior advisor at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace.

And this question of inequitable access really also comes out of the gap that we continue to see in the development of healthcare systems as well as fiscal systems in the Greater Mekong sub region compared to many of our other ASEAN partners, he said in the virtual conversion.

And that development gap, unfortunately, does continue to widen at the same time as we look forward to next steps in vaccination.

Among the recommendations highlighted by Murg were looking at how countries with stronger healthcare systems have cooperated with poorer countries on COVID vaccines, and finding ways to continue those relationships on an ongoing basis.

Participants also saw an important role for the private sector, and how pharmaceutical and logistics companies can form public-private partnerships to improve vaccine access.

Another key theme in health care was making sure that health care workers can keep up with changes in technology. The report noted that this is a hurdle to lifting up healthcare sectors in the region.

Data sharing processes and data protection policies can be improved through the use of modern software, but the software is often difficult to use, it said.

It recommended that international donors provide technical assistance and training for new electronic health systems, and that government agencies develop technical requirements and shared standards to ensure interoperability of the systems.
Election officials across the United States found themselves in a pitched battle Tuesday, trying to quash domestic and largely partisan efforts to take scattered voting malfunctions and cast them as evidence of a larger conspiracy targeting the 2022 midterm elections.

Warnings about the potential for a rigged election have been circulating for weeks on websites and social media platforms favored by conservatives and supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump, many of whom continue to believe the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen despite a lack of evidence.

Those claims gained new life early Tuesday after officials in New Jersey and in Arizona reported problems with some of their ballot scanners.

"We're trying to fix this problem," Maricopa County, Arizona, Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said in a video posted on social media, adding that even though the issue was affecting about 20% of the county's polling places, back-up measures would ensure all votes would be counted.

Despite efforts by Gates and other Maricopa County officials to communicate with voters, allegations of wrongdoing spread quickly.

"People need to be arrested for what is happening in Maricopa County. It's criminal," tweeted Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA.

The Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of researchers focused on election security, said it observed more than 40,000 tweets about the problems in Arizona within two hours of the first reported malfunction.

Videos of long lines in Maricopa County and of election officials also popped up online, some showing voters voicing disgust with election workers as they tried to explain the delays.

Within hours, Trump himself was adding to the growing chorus.

"There's a lot of bad things going on," the former president said of Maricopa County in a video posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. "They want to delay you out of voting.  It's very, very unfair what's going on."

In another post, Trump urged supporters to "Protest, Protest, Protest!" after claiming there were widespread problems in Detroit, Michigan.

Election officials in Maricopa County and elsewhere were quick to hit back.

"This isn't true," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, posted on her Twitter account. "Please don't spread lies to foment or encourage political violence in our state. Or anywhere else."

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), charged with helping to oversee election security, also pushed back hard against the accusations, calling them "just flat out incorrect."

"To be very clear we have no indication of malfeasance or malicious activity," a senior CISA official told reporters late Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules established by the agency.

"It is a technical issue [in Maricopa County]," the official said. "And they have resolved it."

CISA also said as of late Tuesday that there were no indications of any significant or credible cyberattacks by foreign adversaries on systems that could have altered vote tallies.

But the senior official lamented the ire directed at some of the election officials in Arizona and elsewhere, calling it, "really not acceptable."

"One of my concerns is, that's going to incite violence" the official said. "We all need to work together to make sure that these election officials, these public servants are able to do their jobs without being harassed or being threatened with violence."

Officials and observers said, fortunately, there were few reports of violence Tuesday.

Some watchdog groups said they had seen only isolated instances of voter intimidation by partisan actors or poll watchers, in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Officials also determined that the motive behind a bomb threat in Louisiana that shut down one polling center was not election-related.

But in the weeks and months preceding Tuesday's vote, U.S. Homeland Security officials warned domestic tensions and political grievances could make election infrastructure and election officials a target.

And officials with multiple U.S. security and law enforcement agencies cautioned that the threat of violence might grow after the election, as disinformation campaigns take aim at the results and political grievances grow.

Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog and advocacy organization, said it flagged about a dozen of what it described as high-profile tweets pushing disinformation, but that Twitter did little to curb their spread.

"After a delay of some hours, we've received notice that each of the tweets  was independently reviewed and most of them were found to not be violative," said Common Cause disinformation analyst Emma Steiner.

Regardless of the platform, the allegations and disinformation have continued to spread.

According to the Election Integrity Partnership, Trump's posts about Arizona and Michigan migrated quickly to other platforms, translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese and Mandarin.

The cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, which predicted a likely wave of disinformation surrounding voting technology starting with Election Day, said it is significant that much of the mis- and dis-information is coming from domestic actors.

"High-profile individuals and companies can add a sense of legitimacy to the claims, which enables false information to more quickly spread, increasing the likelihood that individuals from the general public will accept such claims as true," the company's Insikt Group told VOA in an email.

"It's very likely that we'll observe increases in false claims of election fraud on November 8 and in the days and weeks that follow the election," the Insikt Group added. "And it's very likely that the narrative will continue in the lead up to and during the 2024 U.S. election."

Already, the claims of fraud are playing into fears held by a substantial number of voters.

"I would say I have concerns about the system," an Arizona voter named Fred, who declined to share his last name, told VOA last week. "Who's to say that they count all the votes properly?"

Dwight Wingo told VOA at a Sunday rally in Georgia for Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker that he was still concerned about the results of the 2020 election.

"How did five key states all at the same time, almost stop, stop vote counting and where Trump was ahead, and then suddenly, he's behind? You know five of them did that," he said. "I just think it needs to be looked at more closely."

Others, though, have brushed aside such concerns.

"I've voted in Georgia since 2006. I've never had a problem," said Emmett Shead, a former Democrat who told VOA he now votes Republican. "I think it's a lot of hype, a lot of fear mongering, especially in the black community to make it seem as if there's some voter suppression going on."

However, if Tuesday is any indication, the doubts about the reliability of U.S. elections, prevalent among nearly one-third (32%) of Americans according to a YouGov poll from July, are not going to be easily swept away, and are likely to create an opening for U.S. adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran.

"Just given what we know about these foreign actors, it would not be surprising if many of them were taking advantage of uncertainty or these very normal issues that go on in every single election and trying to amplify them as something nefarious," the senior CISA official said.

VOA's Anita Powell, Kathryn Gypson, Masood Farivar and Chris Simkins contributed to this report.
Australia is investigating reports that former defense force personnel have been approached to provide military training to China. Defense Minister Richard Marles said Wednesday that retired former soldiers had an "enduring obligation" to protect state secrets and "to reveal any of those secrets is a crime."

Marles said there would be a "detailed examination" into claims that China had approached Australian military veterans for training. The probe will also involve other security agencies.

The defense minister would not confirm if any Australians had provided training to Beijing, but he did say that "a number of cases" were currently being investigated. He told reporters in Canberra Wednesday that the government would change the law if there were any "weaknesses" in rules that apply to former defense personnel.

Australian officials have said they had concerns before allegations of Chinese recruitment of former soldiers became the subject of media reporting last month.

Marles said veterans have a responsibility to protect sensitive military or other information from foreign powers, and that "For those who do come into possession of our nations secrets there is an enduring obligation to maintain those secrets for as long as they are secrets and to breach that obligation is a very serious crime."

Australia's center-right opposition leader Peter Dutton said previously that the reports of Chinas attempts to recruit former soldiers were "alarming" and he challenged the Labor government in Canberra to bring in new laws to prevent the activity.

The formal review into alleged Chinese recruitment is due to report back to the defense minister by December 14.

Last month, Britain's Ministry of Defense said it was taking immediate steps to "deter and penalize" dozens of former Royal Air Force pilots who were being paid as instructors in China.

In a statement issued in October, British defense officials warned that the practice "erodes the UK's defense advantage."

New Zealand's defense minister has also requested advice on whether new laws were needed to stop former military pilots training pilots of foreign militaries, according to a spokeswoman from the prime minister's office.
U.S. voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide control of the U.S. Congress. But with vote counting still ongoing, many races are still too close to call and it is still not clear if Democrats will retain their narrow majorities in the House and Senate  or if Republicans will take control. VOAs Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Georgia. Videographer: Adam Greenbaum
Eastern European countries like Slovakia and Hungary are preparing for an increase in the number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine in the coming months as winter approaches.

Russia has targeted power and heating plants in Ukraine in the past few months. Temperatures drop below zero Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), with lows of minus 20 degrees Celsius in the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said about 4 million people are out of power.

Roman Dohovic, an aid coordinator for the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, said the increase in the number of refugees is currently up 15%, with about 6.9 million people believed to be displaced internally within different parts of Ukraine.

Russia continues to deploy its troops, however, and call on reservists in continuation of its invasion. Ukraines forces have been fending off attacks, according to reports, and are also on the offensive.

As part of its broader war efforts, Russia has been working on repairing the Crimean Bridge damaged in October, but the British defense ministry said Wednesday the bridge is unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.

The road bridge was scheduled to close Tuesday in order to install a 64-meter span, the ministry said in a Twitter post. Three additional spans are needed to rebuild the damaged bridge.

Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President [Vladmir] Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023, the post said.

The bridge is used to transfer Russian logistics supplies for Crimea and southern Ukraine. Russia used the route to move military equipment and troops in the area by rail or road since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the defense ministrys update added.

Fierce fighting

Elsewhere in Russian-occupied areas, the Kremlin-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russia's RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.

"They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town," Reuters quoted Mayor Yuri Barabashov as saying, sharing accounts of residents.

"People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town center," Barabashov said.

The Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, said Ukraines offenses have pushed Russian troops out of the region. "Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there," Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

The Reuters news agency reported that it was not able to independently verify the accounts coming from the warring sides. No official confirmation from Ukraine and Russia were issued on the battleground reports, the report added.

NATO summit

NATO leaders announced Wednesday they are planning to meet for another summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, from July 11 to 12, 2023. They met in Madrid, Spain, in June.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance plans to take "further steps to strengthen our deterrence and defense and review significant increases in defense spending, as well as to continue our support for Ukraine."

Meanwhile, the chief of staff to Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Wednesday the country's parliament is scheduled to discuss the ratification of Swedens and Finland's accession to NATO during its autumn session after a series of EU-related bills have been passed.

"Finland and Sweden are our allies and they can count on us," Gergely Gulyas told a briefing. Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance that have not cleared the accession process.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
China may be reviving key elements of its 20th-century planned economy to ensure domestic stability as a way to reduce dependence on the West for consumer commodities, particularly foodstuffs affected by the war in Ukraine, experts say.

Beijing is promoting the development of supply and marketing cooperatives for agricultural products and state-run canteens to help the government control the supply of key foodstuffs as relations between China and Western democracies deteriorate. The canteens are similar to college cafeterias with limited offerings and prices deemed affordable by officials in Beijing.

Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview on November 4, "The emergence of supply and marketing cooperatives is often the product of economic scarcity. Today, China is obviously facing a large number of economic crises. If these crises lead to economic scarcity, the country must control the situation, especially these basic supplies, for stability."

Wen Guanzhong, an emeritus professor of economics at Trinity College, told VOA Mandarin by phone on November 4 that "In general, because (China's president) Xi Jinping knows that he is actually taking a route that is the opposite of the route of deepening comprehensive marketization, he also knows that China's relations with countries around the world, especially Western countries, will become increasingly tense. He hopes to reestablish the CCP's (Chinese Communist Party's) overall control of society including control over supply and sales."

Xie Tian, a business professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken, said in an interview with VOA Mandarin on November 4 that, "I think the CCP's ambition and desire to use force against Taiwan may be implemented very soon. Canteens and supply and marketing cooperatives can control social materials and food supply during war times, which is the best way for China."

In Hubei province alone, local officials have restored and rebuilt 1,373 grassroots supply and marketing cooperatives with 452,000 members, according to a report last month in the official Hubei Daily. Officials told the news outlet that by 2025, the cooperatives will have 1.5 million members.

In 2014, there were 696 co-ops in the province, a decrease of 61% from the peak of 1,800 in 1984, according to a report in the November 2 state-affiliated Beijing Business Daily (BBD). Nationwide, the BBD reported, there are currently 31,000 supply and marketing cooperatives in China, with nearly 400,000 outlets.

At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which closed on October 22, Liang Huiling, who led the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, was promoted to membership in the CCP's Central Committee. After the congress, the agency immediately issued a recruitment bulletin, which the experts saw as a sign that China's future economic development will be led by a government bent on improving self-sufficiency and economic security.

Global food crisis

China is one of the world's leading food importers. According to a 2018 report by CSIS, a Washington-based think tank, China's food imports exceed its exports, resulting in a food trade deficit.

Xia said China is looking for alternative grain sources because of tense relations with Western exporters such as the United States, Canada and Australia. Beijing's fear is that if these exporting countries reduce sales to China for geopolitical reasons or to meet their own domestic demands, prices could rise throughout China and cause domestic dissatisfaction.

According to Reuters, the IMF said in September that disruptions to global grain flows caused by the war in Ukraine have prompted the worst food security crisis since the one following the 2007-2008 global financial meltdown.

Xia said China's refusal to publicly condemn Russia for invading Ukraine in February has exacerbated Western democracies' dissatisfaction with China.

"When China wants to team up with Russia and fight against the West, I think it will set itself up for a lot of crises of food and energy security," he told VOA Mandarin. "So, if it wants to be hostile to Western countries or use wolf warrior diplomacy, I think it has to deal with (the consequences)."

Supply and marketing cooperatives for agricultural products first appeared in China in the 1950s when Beijing planned and controlled the economy. When Deng Xiaoping proposed reform and opening of the economy in 1978, the supply and marketing cooperatives began weakening, but they never disappeared.

Under President Xi Jinping's leadership, the Chinese government has called for the reform of supply and marketing cooperatives as part of his gradual tightening of economic control.

In 2021, Beijing proposed a pilot project of "three-in-one" comprehensive cooperation in production, supply and marketing of foodstuffs that included loans to farmers and distributors. Some 49,000 state employees oversee the entire system of supply and marketing cooperatives starting at the county level, according to the official website.

According to data for the first half of 2022 from the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, the sales of the supply and marketing cooperatives in the whole system exceeded $435 billion (2.9 trillion yuan)  a year-on-year increase of 19.1%. In 2021, sales totaled about $926.9 billion (6.26 trillion yuan), according to official figures.

Concerned consumers

Consumers are worried that Beijing's new focus on supply and marketing cooperatives and canteens may sound a death knell for current market-oriented shops and restaurants, both contributors to growth of the private economy.

According to Chinese media reports, Chinese officials last week attempted to assuage those concerns, saying that restarting the supply and marketing cooperatives will allow them "to take advantage of their many outlets, enhance the function of the county's circulation service network, and promote rural revitalization."

The officials added that community pilot projects, including the construction of canteens, "are not mandatory, not everything on the file must be tried."

Wen said that difference between the cooperatives of old and today "depends on how private enterprises are treated in the future, whether they are restricted or whether state-run supply and marketing cooperatives are given privileges such as the power of monopoly."

Xie believes that the state-led economy lacks the vitality of the market economy, which will ultimately affect the living standards of Chinese residents.

He said, "Just like the canteens and supply and marketing cooperatives in the old days, it is impossible to have the vitality of the market economy after returning to the planned economy.  Only the most basic meals, or the most basic food and services can be provided, which will definitely affect the living standards of the Chinese people."

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
India will expand economic ties with Russia and continue to buy oil from Moscow, India's foreign minister said, pointing out that imports of discounted crude from Moscow have worked to its advantage.

Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said during a visit to Moscow that as the world's third-largest consumer of oil, it is "our fundamental obligation" to ensure that Indian consumers have the "best possible access on the most advantageous terms to international markets."

He made his comments after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday.

In his first visit to Russia since the Ukrainian conflict erupted, the Indian minister reaffirmed New Delhi's longstanding ties with Moscow calling it an "exceptionally steady" and "time-tested relationship."

"Any objective evaluation of our relationship over many decades would confirm that it has actually served both our countries very, very well," Jaishankar told reporters in response to a question about pressure from Western countries to reduce oil imports and join a plan by the Group of Seven countries to impose a price cap on Russian oil.

The Indian foreign minister visited Moscow days before a scheduled visit by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to India for talks that are likely to include the price cap proposal.

In an interview with the Press Trust of India in Washington, Yellen said India could benefit from a Western price cap.

"We want Russian oil to continue to supply global markets, stay on the market. But we want to make sure that Russia doesn't profit unduly from the war by enjoying prices that are essentially very high due to the war," Yellen told PTI on Monday.

Under the price cap plan that is expected to be in place in early December, European companies will be allowed to transport and insure shipments of Russian crude as long as it is sold below a fixed price that has yet to be determined by the G-7 nations. The plan aims at further deflating prices of Russian oil.

"Our objective is to hold down the price that Russia receives for its oil and keep that oil trading. The gainers from this will be particularly those countries that do buy cheap Russian oil, and our hope would be that India would take advantage of this price cap, though its firms are bargaining with Russia," Yellen said.

Yellen will be in India on Friday to co-chair a dialogue (U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership) along with her Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman.

India has not directly commented on the price cap plan  Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri said last month that "we will have a look at it."

India and China have become the biggest buyers of Russian oil since the Ukraine conflict. In October, Moscow was the largest supplier to India, surpassing traditional suppliers Iraq and Saudi Arabia as oil imports from Russia increased exponentially from about 1% before the Ukraine invasion to about 20%.

The surging oil imports have led to a huge jump in bilateral trade between the two countries.

During his Moscow visit, Jaishankar also said that India "strongly advocates" a return to dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict and said that New Delhi was ready to support any initiative to, as he termed it, "de-risk" the global economy.

Jaishankar's trip came amid speculation that India could be a potential negotiator in efforts to end the conflict.

New Delhi has not explicitly condemned Russia for the Ukraine invasion and abstained from United Nations resolutions critical of Moscow's aggression, but it has repeatedly said that it opposes the conflict.
Its unclear how the suspension of David Balkin is related to discussions he had about moving the library of Erie Community Colleges city campus into available space in the nearby public library, though that seems to be the case. But whatever related issues those discussions may have provoked, the much is true: The conversation is absolutely worthwhile.

Not everyone thinks so, of course, and fair enough. But what appears to have been a knee-jerk response by faculty and students is puzzling, even given the insular nature of the academic world.

Balkin has been president of SUNY Erie Community College for less than a year, and he has quickly confronted urgent matters that threaten the institutions ability to meet its mandate. His responses, including job cuts, are sometimes painful, though few with an understanding of the colleges challenges would doubt their necessity.

Indeed, a recent draft report by education consultant RPK Group, laid bare a number of problems, including a bloated administrative structure and an unwillingness to drop programs that drew little student interest. Those issues and others, including declining enrollments, have strangled revenues.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz put it this way in June as he submitted the colleges proposed 2023 budget to county legislators: After the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the college will be left with no options and be forced to make increasingly significant cuts to operations, programs and staff, he wrote in a message to legislators. The actions taken during the next two academic years will dictate whether SUNY Erie is a strong, vibrant part of our community or not.

It is within that context Balkin was exploring moving the City Campus into the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Under the proposal, the college library would co-locate within the Central Library, filling space on the second floor of the main branch of the library system.

The possibility of moving the library at SUNY Eries City Campus into the Central Library would have included its staff as well, said John Spears, director of the public library. The library would maintain an identity as the SUNY Erie library within the Central Library.

The problem  part of it, anyway  is that many students and faculty objected. They wanted to keep their own library, and not have to walk the three blocks to the Central Library. Like many of us, they dont want things to change. But thats the thing about life  especially life under financial stress: Things do change. They have to.

Theres a lot that remains uncertain about this plan, beginning with the reason for it. Will it save the ECC money or resources that can be used to improve the experience of the colleges of students? Will it benefit the county taxpayers whose educational dollars have been poorly managed by the college? What would be the real-world implications of a library three blocks from the city campus. (You could walk a good distance to reach the library on some large college campuses.)

Its obviously important to know whether  and, if so, how  a particular conversation about this issue led ECC trustees to suspend Balkin while an independent investigation proceeds. What we know is that he has been an asset to a college that was in desperate need of direction.

He has moved in a thoughtful way to eliminate poorly attended programs while forging connections with businesses that are desperate for trained employees. Among them is Erie County Medical Center. His focus has been to provide students with an education that will lead to well paying jobs. Thats a different, more practical approach than one whose main goal has been to maintain the poorly managed, three-campus college as is. That ship has sailed.

Thats why the issues behind Balkins suspension need to be considered separately from an out-of-the-box response to the financial threat continuing to hang over ECC. This creative proposal would be worthy of continued consideration regardless of who occupied the presidents office. Whatever link exists between this proposal and Balkins suspension, the idea must be evaluated on its own terms, without baggage of a mysterious personnel matter.

  

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.
The unelected community leaders of the thriving port of Alexandria by the mid-1760s joined other cities in the colony of Virginia to oppose taxation by the British parliament. And a few years after the Americans declared independence in 1776, local landowners ousted Alexandria's trustees from power and elected men (but no women) to a representative council.

It was the dawn of democracy in the city and the end of more than a century-and-a-half of British and undemocratic rule.

On Tuesday, as citizens of Alexandria went to the polls, the British were back  but just to watch. The former colonialists were represented by two polite gentlemen from the nonpartisan, London-based Democracy Volunteers organization, whose stated mission is to "improve the quality of democratic elections, by advising those who legislate for, administer and oversee elections, to enhance them for the benefit of voters."

The group recently observed elections in two other democracies closer to home Sweden and Denmark.

Democracy Volunteers Director John Ault said, diplomatically, he was aware of the long history of links between Alexandria and his country, but that he and his colleague were visiting as political scientists, not historians.

"What's important is that we share best practice and democracy, and it's something that in the West, particularly, has come under threat recently," said Ault. "It's something that we all need to be concerned about and that needs to refresh itself every now and again."

As a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United States, under a 1990 agreement known as the Copenhagen Document, is obligated to invite international election observers. But not all U.S. states welcome such observers, some viewing them as potential meddlers. Virginia, however, permits monitoring, so Democracy Volunteers visited a polling station Tuesday in Alexandria with a letter of invitation from city leaders.

The monitoring will help improve "accessibility and security of elections and also spread best practices across the other countries that we observe to try and improve the quality of democracy in the OSCE region," said Harry Busz, head of operations for Democracy Volunteers.

After Ault and Busz entered the polling place in Alexandria, they sought out a precinct volunteer.

"We're observers, and this chap is from the Voice of America. Are we OK just to look around for half an hour?" asked Ault.

"We always introduce ourselves because people are quite surprised when two British people turn up at their polling station," he explained.

The observers were quickly granted permission to take seats along the wall, and they quietly watched voters trickle inside, have their residencies verified by volunteers, and cast their secret ballots.

Ault and Busz also took note of whether those with mobility challenges could vote unhindered. They expressed delight that this polling station uniquely was offering assisted curbside balloting for those who might roll up in a car but be unable to make it inside.

The OSCE, based in Austria and which has been monitoring U.S. elections since 2002, sent nearly 200 observers to eight states and the District of Columbia for the midterm elections. Unlike Democracy Volunteers, it declined a request from VOA to observe its observers on Tuesday, explaining it wants to avoid "muddying the waters about what we are actually doing."

OSCE has "avoided coverage of observation on election day in this and other limited election observation missions, as we are not carrying out comprehensive observation in polling stations, and don't want to give the impression that we are," Thomas Rymer, a spokesman for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said in an e-mail.

Several voters interviewed outside the Durant Arts Center polling station in Alexandria expressed mixed feelings about international observers showing up in their neighborhood.

"I suppose it's a little disconcerting that Americans, who are supposed to be the bastion of democracy, need election observers. But I'd rather have them than not," said Ed Schatz, an environmental lawyer.

Elrashaid Ibrahim, a taxi driver originally from Sudan, agreed with much of that sentiment but lamented that the United States, which he termed the world's leading democracy, was the subject of monitoring.

"It kind of bolsters our democratic heritage and maybe will encourage us to step up and take pride in democracy," remarked retired teacher Lori Farnsworth.

"I think it's great. I think they should. Come and learn from the best, is my opinion," said Ed Meyers, a recently retired Army officer.

"We also think citizens should be doing this, because at the end of the day, your local polling station is your organization. You should go in there to make sure it's running properly," Ault told VOA. "In this case, it's your democracy. You should be in there checking that everything's running fine."

International observers from the OSCE are scheduled to hold a news conference in Washington on Wednesday to present their preliminary conclusions about the U.S. midterm election process.
Cities in western Iran went on strike Wednesday in solidarity with mourners marking 40 days since security forces killed dozens in a crackdown on protests in the country's strife-torn southeast, rights groups said.

Security forces opened fire on protests that erupted on September 30 after weekly prayers in Zahedan, capital of the restive province of Sistan-Baluchistan on Iran's border with Pakistan.

It came two weeks after demonstrations broke out across Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country's strict hijab dress rules for women.

The crackdown on nationwide protests since her death has killed at least 304 people, including 41 children and 24 women, says the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Activists were seen distributing fliers calling for protests in all cities Wednesday for the 40-day mourning ceremony of Zahedan's "Bloody Friday," in a video shared by the 1500tasvir social media channel.

One of Iran's most prominent actors, Taraneh Alidoosti, also posted a photo of herself on Instagram without a headscarf and holding a slogan that has become the rallying cry of the protests: "Woman. Life. Freedom."

Widespread strikes were held "in solidarity" with Zahedan in the Kurdish cities of Baneh, Bukan, Kermanshah, Marivan, Sanandaj and Amini's hometown of Saqez, in the country's west, said the Norway-based Hengaw rights group.

'Angry and frustrated'

The trigger for the violence that IHR said left at least 92 dead in Zahedan on September 30 was the alleged rape in custody of a 15-year-old girl by a police commander in the province's port city of Chabahar.

But analysts say the Baluchi were inspired by the protests that flared over Amini's death, which were initially driven by women's rights but expanded over time to include other grievances.

"The 2022 protests are a convergence of angry and frustrated Iranians with the same goal, overthrowing the Islamic republic and a theocratic regime," said Saeid Golkar, from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan province is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs, as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni extremist groups.

Activists have long complained the region has been the victim of discrimination by Iran's Shiite clerical leadership, with disproportionate numbers of Baluchi killed in clashes every year and also hanged in executions.

Protests over Amini's death have shown no signs of abating despite the brutal crackdown and a campaign of mass arrests.

Young women have led the way, removing and burning their head coverings, chanting anti-regime slogans and confronting security forces on the street.

On Wednesday, reformist parties called for "courageous and innovative changes" including a referendum in a bid to end the crisis, according to a statement from the Iranian Reform Front, founded last year by officials close to former president Mohammad Khatami.

But Henry Rome, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute, suggested the "call will almost certainly wither."

"The regime is unable to coalesce around even modest reforms to defuse the protests; in a moment of turbulence, there's little prospect it would go so far as to put itself on the ballot," he said.

'Systematically silencing women'

Iran has struggled to suppress the demonstrations, which have evolved into its biggest challenge since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Security forces have fired directly at protesters using live ammunition, bird shot, tear gas and even paintballs.

Iran has sought to portray the protest movement as a plot hatched by its archenemies in the West, with Britain, Canada, the European Union and the United States imposing sanctions over rights violations.

The EU will seek to adopt further restrictions next week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Wednesday.

"We won't let up," Baerbock said. "We stand with the men and women of Iran, not only today, but as long as it is necessary."

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was accused this week of issuing death threats against two journalists working for the London-based Persian-language Iran International television channel.

The Saudi-linked channel's owner, Volant Media, said London police had warned them of "credible threats to their lives."

In response, Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib warned Britain it would "pay" for what it labeled actions to destabilize the Islamic republic.

Khatib also accused Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia of financing media outlets behind the wave of unrest, state news agency IRNA reported Wednesday.

An unprecedented number of female journalists have been detained, which Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said "symbolically reveals the Iranian regime's intention to systematically silence women's voices."
North Korea fired a ballistic missile Wednesday, South Korea's military reported, adding to Pyongyang's unprecedented barrage that has heightened military tensions in Northeast Asia.

The short-range missile was launched from the Sukchon area, just north of the capital Pyongyang, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Japan's coast guard noted the missile appears to have been in the air for less than five minutes before landing in the sea off Korea's east coast.

Last week, North Korea fired 34 ballistic missiles, including some that prompted air raid alerts and shelter warnings in South Korea and Japan.

Debris from one of the missiles, which landed near South Korean waters, was later recovered by the South Korean Navy using a remotely operated underwater vehicle.

South Korea's defense ministry on Wednesday released pictures of the recovered missile parts, some of which contained Russian writing.

South Korean officials say the debris appears to share features with an SA-5 surface-to-air missile designed by the Soviet Union. Russia has recently used a similar missile during its war in Ukraine, noted South Korean officials.

North Korea has close diplomatic and military links with Russia. Those ties have improved in recent years, as each country's relationship with the United States has soured.

Last week, the United States accused North Korea of supplying Russia with thousands of artillery shells for its Ukraine war. On Tuesday, North Korea denied the accusation, saying the United States was trying to "tarnish" its reputation.

Over the past year, North Korea has taken a more adversarial approach toward the United States and its allies. It has also launched over 70 missiles.

North Korea said its launches last week were a response to U.S.-South Korea joint military drills. The drills have been ramped up this year in response to increased North Korean tests.

Though the U.S.-South Korea joint aerial drills ended Saturday, North Korea's military on Monday said it would continue to respond with "resolute and overwhelming" measures.

Many analysts say North Korea is reverting to a well-worn strategy  creating a sense of crisis to help improve its bargaining position before possibly engaging in talks with the United States.

Under the administration of President Joe Biden, U.S. officials have said they are open to talks without preconditions, but that the goal must be the eventual denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

However, North Korea has ignored all such calls. Instead, it passed a new law in September further enshrining its nuclear weapons status, with leader Kim Jong Un vowing to never give up his nukes or use them as a bargaining chip in negotiations.

U.S. and South Korean officials for months have warned that North Korea appears to have finished preparations for a nuclear test  a move that would further ramp up regional military tensions.
Even with the political control of Congress uncertain Wednesday after nationwide elections, key U.S. lawmakers are vowing continued arms and financial support for Ukraine as it fends off Russias invasion, now in its ninth month.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told VOA he is confident there will be continued Democratic and Republican support for the Kyiv government in the new U.S. Congress that takes office in January  regardless of how the final vote-counting turns out. Republicans were edging closer to winning the House of Representatives, but the outcome in the Senate was even more uncertain.

Warner offered his assessment at an event in the Virginia capital of Richmond, where the city took part in an initiative called Ambulances for Ukraine, sending an ambulance filled with medical supplies to the war-torn country.

Two other senators, Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, made a recent trip to Ukraine where they reassured government officials of the U.S. Congress bipartisan support.

Four House members  Republicans Adam Kinzinger and Victoria Spartz, and Democrats Andy Levin and David Price  told VOA in separate interviews they also foresee continued support for Ukraine.

Democratic President Joe Biden, with little congressional review, has sent nearly $20 billion in arms and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the war started in late February.

But if Republicans take control of the House, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, most likely the new House speaker, told CNN the partys lawmakers would not routinely rubber stamp new requests for Ukraine aid. Some of the partys most conservative lawmakers have been calling for an aid cutoff, which could lead to contentious debates over new Biden requests for more Ukraine spending.

Im very supportive of Ukraine, McCarthy said. I think there has to be accountability going forward.  You always need, not a blank check, but make sure the resources are going to where it is needed. And make sure Congress, and the Senate, have the ability to debate it openly.

Mykola Davydiuk, a political analyst based in Kyiv, told VOA it matters little to Ukrainians which political party controls Congress, just that the flow of assistance continues.

We dont have favorites or the party that we would like it to win, Davykiuk said. I am more than convinced the support will remain. We are not only good friends, but we are also partners with common values. We are both on the side of Western democracy and fight against autocracy and dictatorship.

But another Ukrainian political analyst, Volodymyr Fesenko, said Republican control of either or both houses of Congress could prove problematic.

We can face a problem if a Republican majority emphasizes their opposition and takes a more critical look at the budget proposals of the Biden administration, Fesenko said. As they have already said, 'No more blank checks.' They will try to have more control over the budget process and control the spending.

Officials in Moscow, Reuters reported, do not expect U.S. aid to Ukraine to be cut if Republicans take control of either chamber of Congress.

"A Republican victory in the U.S. congressional elections will not lead to a revolution in U.S. foreign policy and an end to Washington's support for Ukraine," Alexei Pushkov, a hawkish Russian senator and foreign policy specialist, wrote on the Telegram messaging service.

"However, the Biden administration will find it more difficult to push financial aid programs to Kyiv through Congress, and the position of U.S. critics of unlimited aid to Ukraine will markedly strengthen, he said.

VOA Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report from Kyiv.. Some material came from VOAs Eurasia Division and Reuters.
A leading ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday on a trip to deepen trade and security cooperation, as Moscow looks to shore up its economy and bolster its war effort in Ukraine.

Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev's visit was a sign of Iran's growing importance as a supportive partner and weapons supplier at a time when Moscow is isolated by Western sanctions and faces intense Ukrainian military pressure.

With Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine in its ninth month, Raisi and Patrushev discussed "various issues of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the field of security, as well as a number of international problems," Interfax news agency said.

Russian state media said Patrushev discussed the situation in Ukraine and measures to combat "Western interference" in both countries' internal affairs with his Iranian security counterpart Ali Shamkhani.

NourNews, affiliated with Iran's top security body, said Shamkhani called for deeper ties across a range of sectors from energy to banking.

"Iran welcomes and supports any initiative that leads to a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine based on dialog and is ready to play a role in ending the war," Shamkhani was quoted as saying.

Kyiv and the West say Russia has used Iranian Shahed-136 drones to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, forcing Ukraine to introduce rolling blackouts in major cities, including the capital, to preserve power.

Iran acknowledged for the first time at the weekend it supplied Moscow with drones, but said it sent only a small number and they were shipped before the war began. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called that a lie.

Last month, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, in addition to more drones.

Russia has accelerated efforts to build economic, trade and political relations with Iran and other non-Western countries since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, in a drive to destroy what it calls U.S. "hegemony" and build a new international order.
Russia's defense minister said Wednesday that Moscow's troops were retreating from the key southern Ukraine city of Kherson, although Ukrainian officials expressed skepticism that a full withdrawal was underway from the lone regional capital Russia had captured since its invasion last February.

Although such a withdrawal would be a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden would not say Wednesday whether this would prompt Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow.

"It remains to be seen whether or not there'll be a judgment made as to whether or not Ukraine is prepared to compromise with Russia," he said. "I'm going to be going to the G-20. I'm told that President Putin is not likely to be there but other world leaders are going to be there in Indonesia, and we're going to have an opportunity to see what the next steps may be."

Russian defense chief Sergei Shoigu made the announcement in a televised meeting with Russia's top military leaders as General Sergei Surovikin, the commander for Russia's forces in Ukraine, told Shoigu the withdrawal decision was difficult but would "preserve lives of servicemen and combat readiness of forces."

Ukrainian advances had put Kyiv's forces within striking distance of Kherson.

"Under these conditions," Surovikin said, "the city of Kherson and nearby settlements cannot be supplied in a fully fledged manner. After a thorough assessment of the current situation, I offer to take up defense along the left bank of the Dnipro River."

Shoigu responded, "Go ahead with the pullout of troops, and take all measures to ensure safe transfer of troops, weapons and equipment to the other bank of the Dnipro River."

But Ukraine was initially skeptical of the Russian retreat, suggesting it might be a Russian ruse for an ambush of Ukrainian troops.

"The enemy does not give us gifts, does not make 'goodwill gestures', we win it all," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address to the nation, adding any gains by Ukraine come at the expense of "lives lost by our heroes."

Ukraines army was, he said, "moving very carefully, without emotions, without unnecessary risk, in the interests of liberating all our land and so that the losses are as small as possible."

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter that he expected some Russian forces to remain in Kherson. He said Ukraine would declare the city freed from Russian control based on its own intelligence, not televised Russian statements.

Winter as weapon

Meanwhile, the Eastern European countries of Slovakia and Hungary said they were preparing for an increase in refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine in the coming months as winter approaches.

Russia has targeted power and heating plants in Ukraine in the past few months. Temperatures have been dropping below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), with lows of minus 20 degrees Celsius in the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said about 4 million people are out of power.

Roman Dohovic, an aid coordinator for the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, said the number of refugees is "currently up 15%," with about 6.9 million people believed to be internally displaced within Ukraine.

Biden said on Wednesday that he expected U.S. aid to Ukraine to continue despite a warning last month from Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy that a Republican-controlled House of Representatives would not would not write a "blank check" to the besieged nation.

"There's so much at stake," Biden said. "So I would be surprised if Leader McCarthy even has a majority of his Republican colleagues who say they're not going to fund the legitimate defensive needs of Ukraine."

Russia continues to deploy its troops and call on reservists in a continuation of its invasion. Ukraine's forces have been fending off attacks, according to reports, and are also on the offensive.

As part of its broader war efforts, Russia has been working on repairing the Crimean Bridge that was damaged in October, but the British Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the bridge is "unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023."

The road bridge was scheduled to close Tuesday in order to install a 64-meter span, the ministry said in an intelligence update it posted on Twitter. Three additional spans are needed to rebuild the bridge, it added.

"Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023," the intelligence update said.

The bridge had been used to transfer Russian logistics supplies for Crimea and southern Ukraine, as well as military equipment and troops. The bridge damage, along with other setbacks, significantly hinders Russia's ability to "paint a picture of military success," the Defense Ministry said.

Fierce fighting

Elsewhere in Russian-occupied areas, the Kremlin-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russia's RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.

"They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town," Reuters quoted Mayor Yuri Barabashov as saying, sharing accounts of residents.

"People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town center," Barabashov said.

The Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, said Ukraine's offenses have pushed Russian troops out of the region.

"Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there," Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

The Reuters news agency reported that it was not able to independently verify the accounts coming from the warring sides. No official confirmation from Ukraine and Russia was issued on the battleground reports, the report added.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
At least eight Somali American women won races in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, results show.

Ilhan Omar, the most prominent Somali American politician, held on to her U.S. House of Representatives seat in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. This will be the third term for Omar, who was first elected in 2018.

In Minnesota state races, Zaynab Mohamed was elected to the Senate, becoming the first woman of Somali descent elected to the chamber, according to MPR News. Meanwhile, Hodan Hassan defended her seat in the state House of Representatives.

Other Somali American women running for offices in Minnesota were victorious, including Fathia Feerayarre, who won a seat on the Minneapolis Public Schools board.

In neighboring North Dakota, Hamida Dakane also made history, becoming the first woman of Somali descent elected to the state House. Born in northeastern Kenya's Somali region, Dakane, who won Fargo's District 10, came to the U.S. in 2011.



In Maine, Deqa Dhalac, who made history last year as the first Somali American mayor for a U.S. city, South Portland, has now been elected to the state House after handily defeating Republican opponent Michael Dougherty. Mana Abdi, who was running unopposed for a seat representing Lewiston, Maine, joins her in the House.

In Ohio, Munira Abdullahi and Ismail Mohamed, a man, won seats in the state House. Minnesota and Ohio have among the largest Somali American populations in the U.S.

Speaking to her supporters Tuesday night, Omar highlighted the significance of victories achieved by Somali American women.

"There was a time when we believed that women with a hijab could not get elected," she said. "Tonight, Minnesota is electing three new women who are wearing hijab. That shows if you trust in yourself, if your people trust you, stand with you, everything is possible."

Mohamed, one of the hijab-wearing Minnesota winners, expressed hope that more Somali Americans will run for office.

"I'm very happy with this victory tonight, thank God," she told VOA Somali. "This is a victory for me, for my family and for the Somali people. God willing, a lot of men and women will follow me and will come through."

Shukri Olow, who lost a state House seat outside Seattle, Washington, told VOA Somali that she was inspired to run by the women before her, including Omar, Hassan and Dhalac.

In an interview with VOA Somali, Dhalac confirmed that when she visited Washington in 2018, Olow asked her questions about running for office.

"She said she wanted to run for the open seats in her area or seats that will be open in the future in Washington state," Dhalac recounted. "I encouraged her to do it. Many women say we will do this, we will do this tomorrow, we will do this next year. I said to her, if you want to compete, just do it."

The success of Somali American female candidates in the U.S. eclipses that of female aspirants for elected office in Somalia.

Female politicians in Somalia are so disenfranchised that in 2016, Somalia's federal and regional leaders had to start allocating a specific quota of seats in parliament. But women still were never given the opportunity to get the 30% quota promised.

In 2016, Somali women occupied 24% of the 329 seats in the two houses of parliament. In 2022, female candidates secured only 20%, well short of the 30% quota.

Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam, the only female presidential candidate in the May 15 presidential election, got just a single vote  her own.

"I did not get the support I'm sure [Somali American women] are getting when they stand [for office], because here the culture and other factors are causing a lack of encouragement [for women]," she said.

Adam welcomed the success of Somali American women.

"This is a victory for Somali women in the diaspora," she said. "I congratulate them, I encourage them, and we are proud of them."

She said women in the diaspora, including those in the United States, Europe, and Canada, have opportunities that women in Somalia do not have.

"What made it possible is, first, the places they live in, where men and women are viewed equally, where they get encouragement from the schools, from the university, and from the parents, and they can see achievements by other women," she said.

"Over there, the neighborhood they live in is going to elect them when they see the person is trustworthy, honest, working and clean. White and Black would vote for that."

Harun Maruf contributed reporting from Washington.
Somalia's military says it has liberated more territory from al-Shabab, including a strategic town that had been under the groups control for 15 years.

The Somali military said Wednesday that its forces have conducted a fresh offensive against al-Shabab fighters and recaptured the small, but strategic town Wabho and key villages in the countrys central province of Galgadud.

The army, backed by local clan militia, engaged in heavy fighting with the militant group beginning in the early hours of Tuesday, according to Mahas District Commissioner Mumin Mohamed Halane, who spoke to VOA by phone Wednesday.

Defense ministry spokesman Abdullahi Ali Anod held a news conference Wednesday and said the latest offensive against the group has been successful.

He says, The forces took over Wabho, which is a big town, adding, Last night the forces captured the village of Warhole, and yesterday Elbore and Elgorof.

The spokesman said the liberated territories are a well populated area that has water wells, posture and agricultural lands.

Al-Shabab did not comment on the armys claim but said it had killed 15 soldiers, including officials, in bomb blasts and fighting on the outskirts of the town of Mahas.

The militants have increased their attacks since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took office in May and vowed an "all-out war" against al-Shabab.

Earlier this week, the Somali government said its forces killed 200 al-Shabab militants over a four-day period.
U.N. experts say the Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab has widened its revenue stream beyond its traditional activities, like charging tolls at checkpoints, to illegally taxing properties and construction.

In a new report, made public this month, U.N. experts say the terrorist group is seeking more funds to pay about $1 million per month in salaries to its fighters. The report says despite Somalia's crackdown on al-Shabab, the militants are also able to move funds through local and Islamic banks.

A Somali woman who declined to be named for security reasons told VOA that al-Shabab militants demanded she pay $425 this year in so-called taxes for a house she bought almost three years ago in Mogadishu.

She said a man called her on the phone and summoned her to an al-Shabab court outside Elasha-boyaha, in Lower Shabelle region. She traveled there, and met a crowd of people from Mogadishu who were also summoned by the court. She said nobody dares to defy the group's orders because people get killed.

The U.N. experts' report says al-Shabab in May issued a notice to households of annual charges between $100 and $300 for iron sheet, stone, and multi-story houses. The report says the group also extorts owners of buildings and homes being constructed around Mogadishu at about 25 percent of the value of the development.

VOA spoke to four Mogadishu residents who paid al-Shabab the illegal property tax between May and July this year, including one who paid an additional $120 fine because of delayed payment.

None of them would give their names out of fear of the militants.

Funding key

Abdisalam Guled, a former Somali deputy intelligence chief and co-founder of Mogadishu-based security firm Eagle Ranges Services, said cutting off al-Shabab's funding is key to winning the war against the militants.

He said there is no doubt that the group gets taxes from the capital and the port, and the government should come up with plans to deal with the issues. People do not pay money to al-Shabab because they love it, he added, they pay because of fear.

The government needs the confidence of the Somali people because the people know where al-Shabab gets its income and the companies that are supporting the group, Guled said.

Somalia's government has warned against paying illegal taxes and fees to al-Shabab, but Somalis say authorities cannot guarantee their security if they do not pay.

Guled said al-Shabab has embedded itself within the business sector, making it difficult to isolate it from other traders. Even traders may not know that they trade with al-Shabab, he added, while others do know it.

Closing accounts

Despite government efforts to cut off al-Shabab's financing, the U.N. report says the militants can freely move funds through commercial and Islamic banks and payment firms. The report says the Islamist group moves money in amounts slightly less than $10,000 to avoid being flagged by anti-money laundering and terror financing monitors.

The Somali government this week announced it had closed several accounts thought to be operated by al-Shabab.

Somalia's Deputy Information Minister Abdirahman al-Adalla spoke Monday at a press conference, saying the government had received more than 10,000 messages from Somalis sharing bank accounts that the militants were using to get money. Al-Adalla said the government directed the banks and remittance firms to block the funded accounts.

Abdullahi Godah Barre, Somalia's former minister for planning and international cooperation, told VOA the move to shut bank accounts affiliated with al-Shabab was a step in the right direction. But, he added, those who enable al-Shabab to use the banks must be prosecuted.

"The employees of the banks must be held accountable. And also, those who are proxies, whose names are used to open accounts, should be prosecuted and face justice. That should be the next step, in my opinion," Barre said. "But overall, the government's direction is right, and I think that's a very important step that they did. But I don't think it's enough to achieve significant, tangible results."

Somalia should also invest more to build the capacity of its investigating agencies to better track the flow of money to the terrorist group, Barre said.
Ahead of his address to world leaders at a global climate summit on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country was willing to consider "genuine" negotiations with Russia.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine would be open to talks with Moscow if Ukraine's borders are restored, victims of Russia's invasion and attacks are compensated, and efforts are made to hold perpetrators accountable.

The president's comments follow a Washington Post report that said the United States wanted Ukraine to show it is willing to engage in peace talks. That willingness, according to the report, would strengthen international support for Kyiv.

"Our position has not been to push the Ukrainians into talks before they are ready, but rather to put themselves in a position such that when and if they are ready, they're doing so from a position of strength. And I think, frankly, you know, things on the ground are trending in their direction," Colin Kahl, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters via a virtual conversation on Tuesday.

The "main condition" for such consideration would be the "restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity," according to the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield reiterated "steadfast" U.S. support for Ukraine Tuesday during talks with the Ukrainian president and other senior officials in Kyiv, Nate Evans, spokesperson of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said in a statement. The officials were discussing international efforts to minimize the impact of Russia's aggression on global food security and to ensure accountability for war crimes and atrocities perpetrated on the Ukrainian people.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Tuesday applauded the arrival of a new air defense system in Ukraine to protect the country against attacks from cruise missiles, drones and manned aircraft.

Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, confirmed that Ukrainians had recently completed training to use the first tranche of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missiles Systems somewhere in Europe, while declining to elaborate further.

"It does add an extra arrow to the quiver, so to speak, for Ukrainian air defense," Ryder told reporters.

When asked about other potential weapons for Ukraine, Ryder stressed that "air defense continues to be a priority" for Ukraine's minister of defense. He added that the U.S. was looking at ways to bolster Ukraine's energy and hydroelectric capabilities, infrastructure that has been targeted by the Russian military.

"I can say that this is under discussion in terms of how the U.S. and allies and partners can assist  looking at things like generators, water purification, heaters, things like that," Ryder said.

North Korea and Iran

North Korea denied U.S. claims Tuesday that it is assisting Russia with artillery shells and ammunition in furthering the war on Ukraine.

U.S. officials, including Ryder, say North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a significant number of artillery shells, and U.S. intelligence recently confirmed that Russia had reached out to Pyongyang for rockets as well.

Iran has also supplied Russia with suicide drones as well as personnel to help the Russians operate them, according to the U.S. and other Western nations. Iran has denied these allegations despite Ukraine providing evidence of Iranian-made drones that had been shot down over its territory.

"I think the big story here is how desperate the Russians have become," Kahl told reporters on Tuesday.

He said that a year or two ago, the world worried Russia would supply weapons to Iran, but now Russia has become "so attrited in terms of its conventional power" that it's going to Tehran and Pyongyang for help.

Britain's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Russia has started constructing defensive structures around the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, including "concrete pyramidal anti-tank structures, known as dragon's teeth."

"It could be that they are looking to defend that territory for the long term, or it could be part of a rearguard action as they look to retrograde out of that area," Ryder told reporters when asked about the defensive structures.

Also Tuesday, a Russian newspaper claimed that a discussion between the U.S. and Russia on strategic nuclear weapons is in the works. The Kommersant newspaper quoted four sources familiar with the discussions and said the talks may take place in the Middle East.

New START treaty talks between the U.S. and Russia aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals have been stalled since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching contributed to this report.
Molycorp Mountain Pass Rare Earths Mining Facility

Toronto-based Neo Performance Materials Inc., which develops rare earth materials needed for electric vehicles (EV), has received a $25-million grant from Europes Just Transition fund to help construct a permanent magnet plant in Estonia.

The grant will cover 15 to 20 per cent of the expected construction costs of $135 million. This is the first such award under the Just Transition fund given to any critical materials company in the European Union, the company said.

This is the biggest grant we have ever received, chief executive Constantine Karayannopoulos said. It helps with the financial risk of the project. While we are managing the market and technology risks ourselves, the grant makes the internal rate of return acceptable for our board to invest our capital in this project.

Neo Performance is one of the few companies outside China that has an established infrastructure to develop rare earth products.

Rare earths are a group of 17 naturally occurring metallic elements often found together in the Earths crust. The demand for them, specifically neodymium, praseodymium and smaller levels of dysprosium and terbium, has increased in recent years as they are needed to manufacture EVs and wind turbines.

Researcher Adamas Intelligence expects a major neodymium-praseodymium oxide shortage by 2035 and estimates the commodity will triple in value by then.

Ryan Castilloux, the research groups founder, in June said China, the worlds biggest producer of rare earth magnets, could stop exporting the minerals within the next decade to meet its own demand.

With four production facilities in China and one each in Thailand and Estonia, analysts describe Neo Performances supply chain as unique.

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The companys existing plant in Estonia separates and purifies rare earths from feedstock material to make the materials that go into permanent rare earth magnets.

This new plant will turn these rare earths into magnets that are used in EV and hybrid-vehicle traction motors, the company said. The plant will also recycle end-of-life magnets and process scrap.

The rising demand for rare earth magnets and the fluctuating prices of raw materials recently compelled Neo Performance to enter the mining sector by acquiring a licence from Hudson Resources Inc. to explore a rare earth deposit in Greenland.

More than half the companys revenue depends on the automotive sector. Karayannopoulos said the pressure from Europes auto sector to make magnets for EVs made the company decide to build a new magnet plant in Estonia, which could supply magnets for about five million EVs a year once complete.

 Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield
U.N. Human rights officials condemn a series of deadly attacks by pro-Syrian government forces Sunday against camps housing thousands of internally displaced people in northwestern Syrias Idlib province.

The U.N. Human Rights Office reports ground-based strikes and airstrikes hit nine camps housing thousands of internally displaced people. The agency has verified the killing of at least seven civilians and wounding of some 27 others.

However, the opposition Syrian Civil Defense Force comes up with higher figures. It reports nine civilians were killed by cluster bombs, which are banned under international law, and more than 75 other displaced people wounded.

After a long period of relative calm, fighting broke out in northern Syria two weeks ago between the militant Islamist group, Hay-at Tahrir al-Sham and some Turkish-affiliated armed groups. Human rights spokesman, Jeremy Laurence says his office warned then that fighting was likely to escalate and spread to other areas.

Sadly, that has eventuated. We had confirmation through the Syrian national state media that pro-government forces, including Russian forces, were involved in the ground-based strikes on Sunday, he said.

About three million people, half of them displaced, live in Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports at least 400 families have been newly displaced because of this upsurge in violence.

Laurence says the fact that several IDP camps in densely populated areas were struck during attacks raises serious concerns. He says it is likely many more people will become displaced as they flee in search of safety.

We emphasize to all parties in the conflict that indiscriminate attacks are prohibited by international humanitarian law and, depending on the circumstances, may further amount to war crimes, he said.

Since Syrias civil war broke out in 2011, the United Nations estimates more than 300,000 civilians have been killed. It reports more than 13 million people have been displaced either inside Syria or as refugees in neighboring countries, making Syria the scene of the worlds largest displacement crisis.
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged leaders at the UN's climate summit on Tuesday to lift what he called "the albatross of illegal economic sanctions" to help his country achieve "greater progress" on climate goals.

Sanctions by the US, the European Union, the United Kingdom and others have targeted top Zimbabwean officials and have prevented the country from getting support from the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

The sanctions have called for the government to respect human rights, democratic rights and have accountable government financial management.

World leaders continued delivering speeches on Tuesday, after which the conference delegates will delve into negotiations on a range of issues, including compensation, known as loss and damage.

In his speech, Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi sought a better adaptation funding system to help implement adaptation actions.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa urged developed economies to honour their commitments "because failing to honour these commitments breaks trust and confidence in the process."

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Botswana has been selected as the host of the Kimberley Process Permanent Secretariat.

The announcement follows the end of the meeting of the global diamond industry watchdog in Gaborone last Saturday.

Austria and China, two countries that do not mine the precious stones, were also bidding to house the secretariat.

After four years of canvassing, Botswana has been chosen as the host for the permanent secretariat of the Kimberley Process - which is an international initiative by government, civil society groups and industry to discourage the flow of conflict diamonds used to rebel groups and civil wars, especially in Africa.

According to a final communique issued at the end of the meeting, the decision to establish the secretariat in Gaborone was taken following recommendations from technical experts.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says this was the only logical decision given the southern African countrys diamond mining history.

Diamonds are the mainstay of Botswanas economy whose annual production today is by value, the highest in the world. The importance of diamonds to Botswanas development agenda is therefore unquestionable, hence my countrys unwavering support to the Kimberley Process. Besides, I know of no country, other than Botswana that depends on diamonds as much as Botswana.

Masisi says Botswana will push for the sustainable use of diamond resources across all 85 Kimberley Process member states.

I firmly believe that having an established permanent secretariat will help us in this ambition. I can assure you that we are committed to work with all in the KP fraternity to ensure that the diamond industry is protected from infirmity.

World Diamond Council president, Edward Asscher tells VOA, Botswana is a deserving host of the permanent secretariat.

The country is a shining example that diamonds can contribute to the wellbeing of everybody involved and that financial results are contributing to the whole country and not just a few. This is very positive; it took four years to finalize the choice and, in the end, only Botswana got the full support of the KP during the Plenary in Botswana.

Meanwhile, after lengthy deliberations during the Kimberley Process Plenary in Gaborone, participants agreed to form an ad hoc committee to push for reforms within the organization.

Among others, the committee will look into redefining conflict diamonds as Russia's invasion of the Ukraine has seen calls for reform within the Kimberley Process grow louder.
The Election Resources Center Africa has given the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission a seven-ultimatum to furnish it with an electronic copy of the countrys national voters roll, which the elections management body will be using in the 2023 general polls.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, ERC said it will take the matter to court if ZEC does not give it the voters roll.

ERC was left peeved after ZEC refused to give it an electronic copy of national voters roll & demanded that the elections watchdog pay US$187 238 as the cost of providing the electoral register, citing provisions of Statutory Instrument 145 of 2022 Electoral (Voter Registration) (Amendment) Regulations, 2022 (No.1), which imposes US$1 per page of the roll as the unit price.

The ERC wrote to ZEC soon after the closure of the inspection of the voters roll for the delimitation process in July, requesting to be furnished with an electronic copy of national voters roll.

Some of the tweets read in part, But in response to the ERCs request, ZEC on 20 October 2022 acceded to the elections watchdogs request but only undertook to provide it with the national voters roll in hard copy format & provided a quotation of US$187 238 for its acquisition. This compelled ERC to engage Dr. Tarisai Mutangi of @ZHRLawyers who on 7 November 2022 wrote a letter to ZEC protesting that such a cost is shockingly high & more than the reasonable costs of providing the national voters roll & is contrary to provisions of section 21 of the Electoral Act.

Dr Mutangi further argued that the exorbitant cost of the national voters roll, borders on unconstitutionality as it has a chilling effect on curtailing enjoyment of political rights provided in section 67 of the Constitution & makes these fundamental rights illusory as they are now dependent on material comfort. On the contrary, Dr Mutangi noted that an electronic copy of the national voters roll only costs US$200.

According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, ZEC also declined to provide ERC with an electronic copy of the national voters roll on the basis that the elections management body is in the process of enhancing the security of the electronic voters roll & did not provide an indication as to when its process will be finalised.

The human rights lawyer insisted that once the national voters roll is available in hard copy so should be the electronic one as both are provided for in a unitary provision, namely, section 21(4) of the Electoral Act. Dr Mutangi protested against ZECs justification for withholding the electronic voters roll saying it borders on irrationality & thus is potentially unconstitutional in view of the provisions of section 68 of the Constitution. The ZLHR said, Mutangi stated that ERC is highly concerned about the escalating cost of political participation in Zimbabwe as the process of accessing information held by an elections management body should be simple, quick and affordable.

Efforts to contact the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were fruitless as ZEC officials were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)  Visitors to Argentina are still not receiving a more favorable exchange rate when paying with credit and debit cards days after the new measure was announced last week, although officials insist it is only a matter of time until it is implemented.

Joel Roossin found out the hard way.

Roossin, 68, arrived in Buenos Aires last week from Seattle with two friends to spend a month in Argentinas capital learning Spanish and sightseeing.

On Friday, he went out to lunch and put it on his credit card after reading about the new regulation announced a day earlier that would allow visitors using credit and debit cards to get more pesos than the usual official rate gives.

The measure was a recognition that most tourists have stopped using electronic payments so they can exchange their dollars at a more favorable rate on the black market  known here as the blue dollar.

When Roossin saw his credit card statement, he quickly realized his 4,400-peso lunch was converted at the official rate of 157 pesos per dollar, rather than around 290.

Roossin got on the phone with his bank and talked to numerous people and also called Mastercard but had no luck.

No one knew anything about it, he said.

Fernando Bernini, 34, had a similar experience when he traveled over the weekend with some friends from Uruguay. Whenever Bernini paid with his Visa debit card issued in Uruguay, he quickly realized the conversions were being done at the usual official rate.

Bernini, a project manager, also called his bank and said the people there were unaware of any new regulation.

On Friday I called Itau Uruguay and at first they just told me nonsense," Benini said, adding that the bank directed his inquiry to Visa.

A high-ranking Central Bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak on the record, said such problems were due to companies adjusting to the change.

The norm allows credit card operators from abroad the possibility to (offer a better rate), not the obligation, the official said. They have to adapt their systems to be able to do that and I imagine it will take a few days.

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He predicted the new rate was likely to be applied by the end of this week because "if they dont do it, theyll lose business.

On Wednesday, the official exchange rate was at 159 pesos per dollar while the rate that foreign credit card companies can use for their foreign clients was 293.

Credit card and payment processing companies directed all inquiries to the chamber of credit card companies, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

My gut feeling is the US banking system either isnt aware of it or doesnt know what to do with it, said Roossin, who is retired from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a Treasury Department agency.

Roossin said the bad experience with his payment won't ruin his trip because he brought enough cash to last the month and had used the card just as an experiment.

Its a beautiful, beautiful city, Roossin said. Its one of the few cities that Ive been to in the world where you dont feel like it has been overrun by tourists."

For now though, Roossin has a clear piece of advice for anyone thinking about visiting Argentina: Leave your credit card at home and bring cash.

Daniel Politi, The Associated Press
Ali Al-Aazawi, left, abducted his daughter Zahraa in the summer of 2018, leaving her with his family in Iraq. (Meghan Grant/CBC, Calgary Police Service - image credit)

A Calgary father who abducted his daughter and hid her with family in Iraq in order to alienate the girl from her mother must surrender to police after the Alberta Court of Appeal increased his sentence from just over two years to eight years in prison.

Ali Al Aazawi was convicted in May 2021 of abduction in contravention of a court order.

In June 2018, Zainab Mahdi initially consented to her then-10-year-old daughter Zahraa travelling to Egypt, but Al Aazawi was to return the girl in September.

Instead, he breached their court-ordered parenting agreement and left the child in Iraq so that he could have complete control over her education.

'Ongoing and life-altering situation'

On Tuesday, Alberta's top court agreed with prosecutor Tom Spark and described Al Aazawi's actions as "cruel and reprehensible" and found the trial judge did not consider all aggravating factors when imposing the two-year sentence.

"Not many circumstances are worse than the ongoing and life-altering situation Mr. Al Aazawi imposed upon [Zahraa] and her mother," reads part of the court's 50-page decision.

"[Al Aazawi] did not just ignore court orders; from the outset, he sought by his own means to reverse a parenting order, including by alienating [Zahraa] from her mother and coercing Ms. Mahdi to give up her parental rights."

Al Aazawi's lawyer, Balfour Der, argued for a sentence less than two years, but his appeal was dismissed.

Mahdi has not seen her daughter in more than four years, and the child has since been persuaded to believe she is better off in Iraq and does not want to see her mother.

Brainwashing

When Zahraa first arrived in Iraq in 2018, she sent text messages to her mother that showed she was scared and wanted to come home.

In Iraq, Al Aazawi has two wives and other family members.

By 2021, the girl did not want to return, appearing to have been brainwashed, expressing what the judge described as "anger and bitterness" toward her mother.

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In their 2018 communications, Zahraa told her mother that her father had made plans for her to remain in Iraq for five years so she could attend school and learn the local culture and religion.

Mother hospitalized for depression

While Al Aazawi was still in Iraq with Zahraa, police recorded a conversation between him and his ex-wife. During that conversation, he said he would allow his daughter to return on the condition that he have sole custody of Zahraa.

The day after police recorded that conversation, Al Aazawi flew back to Canada without his daughter. Police learned of his travel plans and arrested him at the Toronto airport.

The mother has suffered from depression since her daughter's abduction to the point that she has been hospitalized.

Mahdi has not seen her daughter in more than four years and has said that if she'd known that June 2018 was the last time she would see Zahraa, she'd prefer to die.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of Federal Medical-Biological Agency in Moscow

(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit the small ex-Soviet state of Armenia on Nov. 22 for talks, RIA news agency said on Wednesday, indicating that clashes with neighbouring Azerbaijan would be on the agenda.

RIA, citing the Armenian government's news service, said Putin spoke to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and discussed events since the two leaders held trilateral talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Oct. 31.

At that meeting, Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed not to use force and stick to earlier agreements that sought to end recent fighting between the two nations.

RIA said Putin would stay on in Yerevan for a Nov. 23 meeting of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) military alliance, which includes Armenia but not Azerbaijan.

In September, a senior Armenian official expressed unhappiness with the CSTO's response to a request from Yerevan for help. Yerevan wanted the grouping to intervene, but so far it has just sent a fact-finding team to the region.

The clashes are linked to decades-old hostilities over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but until 2020 largely controlled by the majority ethnic Armenian population.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday praised Armenia and Azerbaijan for taking "courageous steps" towards a durable peace. He spoke as foreign ministers from the two countries met in Washington.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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My favorite part of election night was the concession speeches  particularly in races that may have been close enough to justify a recount. Seriously. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight In a nation as fractured as this one, there may be no electoral skill as important as losing with grace. Yet when the electoral margin is small, weve been conditioned to expect candidates to drag us through second, third, even fourth counts of the votes, weeks of litigation, and a grim refusal to give ground. The refusal to admit defeat has plagued the nation since the Founding, but in recent years its grown worse. In our highly polarized era, resentment over a candidates defeat in a close election can feed a cynical resentment that, as weve seen, flares easily into violence.

Thats a key reason concessions matter. They help democracy move forward. A study of the 2020 electorate found that a strong majority of voters who cast ballots for Donald Trump would have accepted the result as legitimate had Trump conceded. And although I havent the data to prove the point, Ive long believed that the fury over the 2000 election result would have been smaller had the parties not resorted to litigation.

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This advice applies even to the candidate who genuinely thinks the tally is wrong. Because consider the alternative. On Election Day, X loses to Y by a razor-thin margin. A recount a week later has Y winning ... also by a razor-thin margin. Why should the counting now end? Why shouldnt X be entitled to an additional recount just to make sure, and so on, ad infinitum? Theres no logical stopping point. (Most of us probably trust the count that puts our candidate on top.)

Besides, recounts provide a lot less information than we imagine. In fact, theres often reason to doubt that theyre more accurate than the election night tally.

Consider: Recounts are usually conducted by hand, by reviewing either the original ballots or paper records produced by voting machines. And though machine errors arent unknown, hand counting can be worse.

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For instance, an examination of the 2008 election in Connecticut found large discrepancies between the counts produced by optical scanning of ballots on Election Day and those produced by a subsequent hand-counted audit. (An audit involves a statistical sampling of the ballots. Many states conduct them routinely.) The literature on vote-counting methods suggests its the humans, not the machines, that are getting it wrong. It turns out that counting ballots by hand is  well  hard.

How hard? Different studies reach different results. Among the most troubling is a 2012 paper which reported on an experiment in which subjects were given generic ballots to count. The researchers found that although some methods of tabulating ballots by hand were better than others, errors were ever-present, averaging 1-2%. If the authors are right, these results suggest that in a state where 1 million people vote, a hand recount  and almost all recounts are conducted by hand  could produce as many as 20,000 errors. Unless by fortunate coincidence the errors happen to cancel each other out, thats more than enough mistakes to swing a close election.

Moreover, even if the original tally gets the winner right, a second count, by introducing new errors and biases, can give the candidate who actually lost an unearned chance to prevail. In the words of one financial analyst, the recount confers a free call on the underdog, at the winners expense.

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In this respect, my hero is Kelly Ayotte. The admiration has nothing to do with party or politics; it sems from the events of 2016, when the New Hampshire Republican, then considered a rising GOP star, lost to her Senate seat to Democrat Maggie Hassan by 1,017 votes out of 739,140 cast  a bit over one-tenth of a percentage point. Given the margin, New Hampshire law entitled Ayotte to request a recount.

As political calculations go, asking for a hand tally made sense. The margin was well below what weve already seen is the average error in counting ballots. Moreover, there was little risk. Even if the recount confirmed her defeat, as long as the margin remained less than 1%  as it surely would have  the state would bear the cost. Small wonder that Ayotte was widely expected to make the request.

But she didnt.

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Instead, Ayotte conceded gracefully, razor-thin margin and all. The voters have spoken, she said. [N]ow more than ever we have to work together to address our challenges. This was a significant improvement on William Jennings Bryans oft-cited but oddly chilly note of concession to William McKinley in 1896: We have submitted the issue to the American people and their will is law. And Ayottes concession came the day after losing by a much smaller margin.

Thats a model worth emulating.

Voter suspicion of election results was already growing well before the Trump experience, but the former presidents intransigence has driven skepticism to new heights.

Im not saying fraud or voter suppression never happen; if youve got evidence, hand it to a prosecutor. But when candidates drag things out by refusing to concede, doubt and cynicism can only intensify. If we want to restore the shattered faith in our fragile democracy, well need fewer cynics and more heroes. Heroism inspires precisely because it involves sacrifice.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Only Republicans Can Save American Democracy: Jonathan Bernstein

 The Best Word for This Election Is  Normal: Matthew Yglesias

 Democrats Have Alienated the Voters They Need Most: Clive Crook

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Yale University, he is author, most recently, of Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down Americas Most Powerful Mobster.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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The strategy known as ESG investing has grown by leaps and bounds  and landed in hot water. Its focus on environmental factors, social issues and questions of corporate governance had always attracted people drawn to progressive causes, as well as fund managers drawn to the above-average returns its generated. But in the US, that association with liberalism has triggered a backlash from Republican Party politicians, with efforts underway in about 20 states to rein in ESG. At the same time, states led by Democratic Party officials have been pushing the other way, joined by activists who are quick to call out anything they see as ESG backsliding.

1. Whats ESG?

Its a particular thread in the broader field known as sustainable investing. The original concept was that using ESG criteria would help protect investments by avoiding material financial risks from things such as climate change, worker disputes, human rights issues in supply chains and poor corporate governance and resulting litigation. But as time passed and the field has grown  according to Bloomberg Intelligence, global ESG assets stand at about $35 trillion  the label has come to be slapped not only on funds that invest in things like renewable-energy stocks but onto funds that track benchmark indexes containing oil companies or assets in autocratic nations such as Russia.

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2. Whats the backlash against ESG?

Many Republican officials deride Wall Streets ESG policies as woke, turning a term progressives coined to convey awareness of racisms role in society into an insult akin to politically correct. When Donald Trump was president, the Department of Labor issued a rule saying managers with fiduciary responsibility for retirement funds should not base their decisions on anything other monetary considerations, a step thats being rolled back under President Joe Biden. But most of the action has come at the state level, where Republican-controlled governments have banned state pension funds from using ESG criteria or investing or doing business with entities they see as boycotting fossil fuel or gun-making companies.

 In announcing investment restrictions, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that Wall Street firms were trying to implement policies through the boardroom that Floridians reject at the ballot box.

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 In October, 19 state attorneys general announced an investigation into the six largest US banks for joining a United Nations coalition whose members pledge to align their financing with net-zero emission goals, saying they may be violating consumer-protection laws.

 Republican-led Missouri and Louisiana pulled more than $1.3 billion in state funds from BlackRock Inc., the worlds largest asset manager and Wall Streets biggest ESG champion.

 There are also likely to be hearings on ESG on Capitol Hill. Representative Patrick McHenry, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, said the panel plans to probe the issue in 2023 if his party wins control of the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections.

3. What have ESG funds said in response?

Some have criticized the Republican measures as anti-free market, saying they amount to barring funds from pursuing investors economic preferences because of conservative political support for oil and gas. Using ESG factors, they say, actually helps them meet their fiduciary duties. A study co-written by a Federal Reserve economist concluded that a 2021 Texas law barring the state from doing business with banks it sees as boycotting oil and gas companies will raise its borrowing costs by hundreds of millions of dollars. BlackRock has defended its policies, arguing that that taking a forward-looking position generates better long-term returns. At the same time, it has played up the fact that its one of the worlds biggest energy investors, with more than $100 billion in Texas companies and is Exxon Mobil Corp.s second-largest shareholder with a stake of more than 6%.

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4. What pressures is ESG facing from progressives?

In a sign of how politically fraught the subject has become, BlackRocks attempt to blunt Republican attacks led New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat, to say he was re-assessing the citys business with the company. Some progressives think the term ESG has become so broad as to lose much of its meaning. Many point to the prevalence of greenwashing, which is when companies exaggerate the environmental benefits of their actions. Even the man who coined the acronym, Paul Clements-Hunt, who now runs an advisory firm called Blended Capital Group, says the finance industry has sprinkled ESG fairy dust on products that dont merit the label. Greenwashing charges have led to tougher stances by regulators in the US, UK and in the EU, where funds will now have to label themselves as dark green, if ESG is the funds objective, or light green, if ESG is merely promoted. Amid all these crosscurrents, investors may be voting with their feet, if a sharp drop in the number of new ESG funds being rolled out is an indication.

5. What are ESG returns like?

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Global ESG exchange-traded funds are slightly outperforming benchmark indexes this year, according to Bloomberg data. About 56% of US sustainable funds beat rival category groups in the three years ending September, according to Morningstar Inc.

 Bloomberg QuickTakes on sustainable investing, ethical debt, ESG ratings, the S in ESG, biodiversity and ESG stewardship.

 A Bloomberg story about how ESG is everywhere in capital markets.

 A Businessweek story about ESG ETF investing.

 The Freshfields report that started the ESG strategy

 A Bloomberg investigation into the ESG ratings industry.

 A history of ESG investing by Morningstar.

--With assistance from Ari Natter.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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Israels election last week brought former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into power yet again, but its hardly a case of the same old thing. First, it will usher in the most chauvinistic and religious government in the countrys history. Second, it occurs just as violence has been spiking in the occupied West Bank in ways not seen in decades.

Worst case scenario: a spiraling cycle of Palestinian insurgency and Israeli suppression not just in the occupied territories, but spilling into Israel itself. If that happens, Israeli annexation of the West Bank becomes not just a possibility but perhaps inevitable.

A low-level insurgency, although not quite a third intifada (uprising), has been brewing this year among Palestinians. Its being driven by gangs of armed youths not affiliated with Fatah, Hamas or other established Palestinian movements. Its a deadly mix, combining the spontaneous, leaderless quality of the first intifada, which began in 1987, with the armed nature of the second in 2000.

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Israels response has been sustained, violent repression. The United Nations reported last month that 2022 has been the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since it started tracking in 2005. More than 30 people, including six children, have been killed by Israeli occupation forces, and 311 were injured. The Israeli government claims there have been 4,000 attacks aimed at Israelis, with two soldiers killed and 25 Jewish civilians injured.

Among the victims of the violence was the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The Israelis initially denied responsibility for the killing, which set off global outrage. They now say she was shot by accident, although Palestinians skepticism is amply justified.

Now into the caldron come some of the most extreme Jewish nationalists ever to hold office.

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Itamar Ben-Gvir, who hopes to oversee the police and security forces, leads a party whose platform vows to annex all parts of Eretz Israel  meaning Greater Israel  liberated in the Six-Day War in 1967. It would also expel all enemies of Israel, a euphemism for Palestinians suffering under occupation, to neighboring Arab countries. Ben-Gvir has hung a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli American doctor who massacred 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, in his living room.

His far-right compatriot Bezalel Smotrich, who seeks a role overseeing the occupation of the West Bank, has called for the segregation of Jewish and Arab maternity wards. Significantly, he wants governance of West Bank settlement areas taken away from the Israel Defense Forces and given to government ministries, a major step toward annexation.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir arent outliers  they are simply the most extreme additions to an already radicalized Israeli politics that has long given up on a two-state solution and is drifting toward permanent occupation of much or all of the West Bank.

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A major explosion of violence would provide the opportunity for an extreme Israeli government to say that annexation is a painful necessity needed to protect Jewish communities  i.e., illegal Israeli settlements  from dire threats. Large numbers of Palestinians may again be expelled, as they were in 1947-48 and 1967. The logical consequence is the unilateral imposition of a new border, with Israel consolidating control over land it conquered in the 1967 war.

It may not happen anytime soon, but the new cabinet will certainly drive dynamics in that direction. And just as they will push Jewish power deeper into the West Bank centrifugally, Israeli extremists are likely to pull aspects of the occupation back into Israel itself in a centripetal manner.

Ben-Gvir and his colleagues view Israeli Arabs with the same degree of suspicion they apply to Palestinians living under occupation. His vow to expel everyone not loyal to the Israeli state, as he would define it, may well apply to a significant percentage of Arab citizens.

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Moreover, these parties want to use the power of the Israeli government to bring the religious sensibility of the most radical settlements into the largely secular towns and cities where most Israelis live, far from the West Bank. They want Israel to become in effect a theocracy, governed by Jewish religious law, or Halakha.

The one thing that might convince Netanyahu to dump Ben Gvir and the other extremists, and replace them with people like Defense Minister Benny Gantz  a hardliner on security but not a religious extremist  would be for the state to drop his ongoing corruption trial.

Yes, that would be a perversion of justice, but as long as he faces the prospect of conviction, Netanyahu will use the anti-establishment religious radicals as a shield against prosecution. If the charges were dropped, Israel, and the world, might get a less radical Netanyahu-led cabinet.

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Even in that optimistic scenario, nothing can cancel out the alarmingly strong performance of the religious ultra-right and diehard annexationist parties. Most worrisome, their support is strongest among Jewish youth, suggesting a generational shift in their direction.

A massive crackdown in the West Bank could transform the simmering low-level insurgency into another major Palestinian uprising. If that happens, all bets are off about what this new, more extreme and religious Israel might be willing to do.

More from Bloomberg Opinion:



As Israel Votes, Its Arab Citizens Hold the Key: Bobby Ghosh

 Look Past Israels Bonker Politics. Its Economy Is Thriving: Matthew Winkler

 New Israeli-Palestinian Clash Shows Worse to Come: Hussein Ibish

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

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With the Ukrainian and Russian armies stuck in November mud without significant advances, retreats or mutually acceptable grounds for a negotiated resolution, Western hunger for some kind of a workable scenario is becoming palpable. Costly, destructive and fraught with political dangers far beyond Ukraines borders, the conflict cannot go on forever. Hence the recent reports that the US wants Ukraine to show at least an outward willingness to negotiate and that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has conducted private talks with Kremlin insiders.

Officially, however, a Russian defeat remains the only way to end the war thats acceptable both to Ukraine and the West. Whats left of the Russian political opposition is busy developing a vision for Russia following that defeat, in large part because it perceives a Western demand for such a vision.

As Gennady Gudkov, a former counterintelligence colonel and legislator who now lives in Bulgaria, put it, What Western governments and diplomats primarily require of us is a general picture of Russia as it should be after Putin. Because everyone understands that the regime doesnt have much time left. Or as another prominent emigre, London-based former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, explained in an interview, western allies and partners will have a significant, though not decisive, say in what outcome awaits our country, since regime change will most likely take place as a result of a military defeat.

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Surprisingly for the eternally splintered anti-Putin opposition, its prominent figures appear to agree on some fundamentals for a post-Putin Russia  notably, on recasting it as a European-style parliamentary democracy without a strong president.

Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned corruption fighter, argued in a Washington Post op-ed in September that the West shouldnt be tempted to find a good guy to deal with once Putin falls and that it should push Russia toward a non-authoritarian future  one which Navalny believes that Russians will embrace once they can freely vote, if only with some pointed prompting in the form of economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure.

Khodorkovsky has just published an entire book, in Russian and in English, titled How Do You Slay a Dragon? A Manual for Start-Up Revolutionaries. There, he, too, advocates for a genuine federal parliamentary republic that would end Russias eternal tendency of investing too much power in the man or woman at the top  even though he appears to count on some kind of prominent personal role in the revolution that is supposed to reshape Russia along those lines.

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Gudkov, for his part, joined a group that recently held a Congress of Peoples Deputies in a Warsaw suburb. While others only talk about turning Russia into a parliamentary democracy, the congress goes them one better by making a rather creative claim for legitimacy. The group, led by former legislator Ilya Ponomarev who now lives in Ukraine, unites about 60 people who have at one time or another won elections at different levels of Russias legislative system as well asnd a few who never got elected but still came along for the chance to reconstitute Russia, creating an alternative legal framework for a post-Putin democratic, peace-seeking state. The congress has called for the return of all territories seized from Ukraine, including Crimea, the denial of support to Russia-backed unrecognized states throughout the former Soviet Union, and a constitutional ban on pre-emptive nuclear strikes, among other proposals that many in the West would support.

In other words, a broad consensus about the governance model for post-Putin Russia has emerged among the liberal opposition, even though on a personal level some of its members still cant stand others. Leonid Volkov, the Lithuania-based chief of staff to Navalny, said in a recent YouTube broadcast that he had been invited to Ponomaryovs congress but chose not to go because its delegates dont represent anyone; he accused Ponomaryov of being a provocateur.

While I, too, believe in parliamentary democracy for Russia  it has, after all, helped Germany, with a similar history of militant tyranny, from relapsing the way Russia has done  I have a feeling that Putins prominent opponents are, singly and collectively, working on the wrong deliverable. While how they see Russias future is moderately interesting, what the world  not just the West but India, China and the Middle Eastern monarchies  wants to see is a realistic scenario for ending the war, first in the short and only then in the long term. A Russian battlefield defeat is still far from assured, and, unless its a complete debacle, even such a defeat will not necessarily mean regime change. So, if all agree that Putins fall is necessary to end the hostilities, how does one actually bring that about?

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As Prague-based political scientist Alexander Morozov wrote in a Facebook post, one thing is expected of us: that well point a finger at some group  a stratum, a community, a social group  in which hopes can be invested. If such a group doesnt exist, Morozov goes on cynically, the Russian opposition is supposed merely to construct the discourse of such a group. All that matters is that the construct show potential.

So far, however, all attempts to pin hopes on any force in Russia have amounted to unconvincing flailing. Before setting up his quasi-parliament, Ponomarev flirted with the idea of a terrorist underground, which only scared away potential supporters inside Russia and among emigres hoping to return. Attempts to find enough separatist activists to decolonize Russia by having its ethnic territories break away have fizzled after a couple of desultory meetings in Eastern European capitals.

Khodorkovsky is betting on Russias managerial class finally seeing the disadvantages of continuing to acquiesce to Putins rule. Hed like to co-opt them to the liberal cause by promising that they wont be punished for collaborating with the Putin regime, but, on the other hand, threatening them with dire consequences if they refuse to join the cause and resist it. So far, however, there have been few prominent defectors from the Russian managerial class  the mid-level government officials and corporate executives Khodorkovsky sees as his audience. These inherently pragmatic people are not as convinced of Russias imminent defeat as the politicized part of the emigre community, which has bet heavily on this outcome. As things stand, the advantages a defeated Russia would offer them do not outweigh the ones they see in a defiant one.

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Volkov, for his part, appears to believe the Putin regime will collapse under its own weight, just as the Stalinist tyranny did once the tyrant died. He drew the parallel in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, predicting a period of chaotic liberalization not unlike the Soviet Unions short-lived post-Stalin thaw. But trying to wait out Putin doesnt necessarily play out according to this optimistic scenario. Under a less rosy one, the ultranationalists who have been the emotional driving force of the war may well make a grab for power and sell Russians a backstab story, like the Nazis did after Germanys World War I defeat.

Its a major problem for everyone who wants an end to the war that the Russian opposition cannot really offer any real hope from Kyiv, Warsaw, Vilnius, Prague, London or a Russian maximum security colony. It is so scattered and defeated that even its ability to capitalize on a Russian military defeat is hardly assured. The biggest challenge for assuring lasting peace lies in finding a Russian party that both represents enough Russians and is capable of keeping its end of any kind of bargain, including a negotiated peace deal.

That difficulty is Putins strongest trump card as he hangs on to the territory he has conquered. Facing months of more grueling, resource-draining trench warfare in which no side has a full victory in sight, he hopes the West will choose to deal with him, after all, in effect allowing both Russia and Ukraine a pause to regroup for another bout. As Putin tries to fight his way out of the bloody mess he has created, the Russian oppositions failure to offer a credible alternative instead of theoretical visions of a better future just plays into his hands.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Putins Ukraine War Is Entering a Terrifying New Phase: Tobin Harshaw

 Ukraine Has Become Putins Cuban Missile Crisis: Max Hastings

 Vladimir Putins Guide to Alienating Allies: Clara Ferreira Marques

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinions Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwells 1984 and Franz Kafkas The Trial.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Donald Trump has used the midterm elections to spin the media (will he or wont he announce a presidential bid?) and to position himself as a power broker  the ultimate arbiter of Trumpism and its proper standard-bearers.Trump being Trump, he feared supporting losing candidates, and he spun accordingly. I think if they win, I should get all the credit, he told one interviewer recently. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all. He grinned as he said that, noted that he had backed very good candidates and then qualified his comments: When they do well, I wont be given any credit, and if they do badly, they will blame everything on me.Lo and behold, Trumps candidates  especially the most cartoonish ones  didnt do well on Election Day. An early lesson is that Trump hung like an albatross from the necks of super-MAGA contestants, and that may have also suppressed electoral momentum the Republican Party as a whole might have enjoyed otherwise. Even stalwarts blamed Trump for that. Fox News ran a headline noting that some considered him the biggest loser in the race.One Fox commentator, Marc Thiessen, called the radical GOP candidates who bungled the midterms a searing indictment of the Republican Party. Instead, he advised, the party should turn to other Republicans who performed well, like Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. This is the path to the future, he pointed out. And therein lies a tale.DeSantis may indeed be the best bet now for Republicans who want to take back the White House in 2024. He has thoroughly dismantled the Obama coalition that once helped turn Florida into a swing state, and he is a far less shambolic and unhinged actor than Trump. Hes a formidable politician, and if his myriad quirks dont undermine him on the campaign trail, he will be a formidable national candidate as well. But he is hardly less radical than the candidates Thiessen fretted over. DeSantis is a vessel for Trumpism detached from the absurdist performance art of Trump himself.This played out in state races a year ago, too. Glenn Youngkin, a Trumpista in sheeps clothing, took the statehouse in Virginia, and Jack Ciattarelli, a Trumpista in wolfs clothing, made a surprisingly strong though unsuccessful run for governor in New Jersey. Many voters still appreciate Trumpism even if its fully divorced from its author.I define Trumpism the same way the former president himself did when he burst onto the national political stage more than seven years ago: a backlash against institutions and elites wedded to coldblooded, us-versus-them identity politics (and often peddled through bigotry and racism). Trump was an outcome of the American political process and identity, of course, and not an aberration. He and his presidency shredded several myths that Americans had embraced about the countrys core values and institutions and unspooled the notion that US democracy was both sacrosanct and inevitable.

Trump was also tragicomically inept, attracted to multiple versions of corruption and so enamored of vaudevillian buffoonery that he undermined portions of his partys agenda and failed to secure a second tour in the White House. The Covid-19 pandemic also left Trump off balance, and had the virus not ravaged the US in 2020, he might have been able to eke out an electoral victory that year. Still, he offered his party lessons about effectively securing a path to power that was free from a deeply articulated political platform or sophisticated public policies. He grabbed power by simply playing upon many of his supporters fears and worst instincts while offering elites and others in the GOP who knew better a hefty share of the political and financial pie for going along with him. And when he lost the 2020 election, he gave his party another masterclass: Refuse to concede, foment a coup and undermine public trust in the electoral process  all in the service of preserving a stranglehold on power.None of this is going away even if Trump himself does. The GOP is scrambling to undermine electoral outcomes at the state level because Trump showed them that it was not only possible to win that way but that a big chunk of Republican voters was also fine with that. While the GOP didnt enjoy the landslide victory in the midterms that they had hoped for, scores of Republicans who openly denied the results of the 2020 race won their elections.Trump is also not one to go gently into that good night. A presidential run will feed his need to stay in the media spotlight and allow him to raise money off his candidacy. He also believes that the presidency might insulate him from the swarm of state and federal investigations he is mired in. Those are all ample reasons for him to stick around.He also will never take responsibility for the midterm debacle. He is reportedly trashing one MAGA-teer, Mehmet Oz, for losing the Senate race in Pennsylvania. He is also said to be livid and screaming at everyone because his handpicked candidates mostly belly-flopped. Someone made of different stuff would take responsibility for these outcomes, do a little round of introspection and move on. That isnt Trump, though.A different kind of a person would also feel reassured that even if he cant continue to carry the torch, his legacy  and authoritarian leanings  are alive and well in politicians such as DeSantis. But even if Trump cant bring himself to recognize that, the nations voters can. And they should bear that in mind because a fuller reckoning around the future of democracy and Trumpism still awaits.
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The use of nuclear arms had been considered practically unthinkable for the 77 years since the US proved their destructive power. But a distinctive feature of Russian military policy is an express willingness to introduce nuclear weapons into an otherwise conventional war. That helps explain why President Vladimir Putins saber-rattling about his nuclear arsenal since launching war on Ukraine in February has been so worrisome. Whats of particular concern with Russia is its posture on so-called tactical, or nonstrategic, nuclear weapons.

1. What has Russia done to raise concern?

In a speech laying out Russias reasons for invading Ukraine, Putin warned that any nation that interfered would suffer consequences that you have never experienced in your history. That was widely seen as threatening a nuclear strike. On Sept. 21, in the wake of a Ukrainian counteroffensive helped by US intelligence and weapons donated by the West, Putin portrayed the war as a fight to the death with the US and its allies and vowed to use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff. Rhetoric aside, Russia regularly holds drills to test its strategic weapon delivery systems, including practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and shorter-range cruise missiles; one was held just days before the invasion. Military experts have considered how Russia might use a tactical weapon in a conventional conflict, like the one in Ukraine.

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2. Whats a tactical nuclear weapon?

Tactical is an inexact term for a nuclear weapon that could be used within a theater of war. Generally speaking, that means it has a less powerful warhead (the explosive head of a missile, rocket or torpedo) and is delivered at a shorter range -- by mines, artillery, cruise missiles or bombs dropped by aircraft -- than the strategic nuclear weapons the US and Russia could launch at each others homeland using ICBMs. Arms control accords between the US and the Soviet Union (and, later, between the US and Russia) starting in the 1970s generally focused on reducing the number of strategic nuclear weapons, not tactical ones.

3. How powerful can a tactical nuclear weapon be?

Where todays most powerful strategic warheads are measured in the many hundreds of kilotons, tactical nuclear weapons can have explosive yields of less than 1 kiloton; many are in the tens of kilotons. For some perspective, the atomic bombs dropped by the US on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 had explosive yields of about 15 kilotons and 20 kilotons, respectively.

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4. How does a nuclear strike fit into Russias military doctrine?

Since 2000, Russias publicly shared military doctrine has allowed for nuclear weapons use in response to large-scale aggression utilizing conventional weapons in situations critical to the national security of the Russian Federation. The Russian strategy known as escalate to de-escalate contemplates using a tactical nuclear weapon on the battlefield to change the course of a conventional conflict that Russian forces are at risk of losing. John Hyten, who served as the top US nuclear weapons military official, says a more accurate translation of the Russian strategy is escalate to win. Russian diplomats, in a bid to dial back fears about what might happen in Ukraine, have said nuclear weapons would be used against conventional forces only if Russias very existence were in jeopardy.

5. Whats in Russias arsenal?

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The US Department of Defense reported in 2018 that Russia had significant advantages over the US and its allies in tactical nuclear forces and was improving delivery capabilities. Researchers at the Federation of American Scientists estimated that entering 2022, Russia had 4,477 nuclear warheads, of which 1,525 -- roughly one-third -- could be considered tactical.

6. What would a tactical nuclear strike look like?

Nina Tannenwald, author of The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945, paints a scenario of even a small nuclear weapon, one with an explosive yield of 0.3 kiloton, producing damage far beyond that of a conventional explosive. It could, she wrote in Scientific American in March, cause all the horrors of Hiroshima, albeit on a smaller scale. Its possible, however, that if detonated at the right altitude, a small-yield warhead might wipe out opposing forces beneath without leaving behind long-term radiation damage that leaves the battlefield off-limits to all.

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7. How would the world respond?

Because Ukraine isnt a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- Putin has demanded that it never be allowed to join -- the US and its allies are not obliged to come to its defense. But the West would be under great pressure to respond to a nuclear attack, perhaps even with a tactical weapon of its own. From there, it would be anyones guess. I dont think theres any such thing as the ability to easily use tactical nuclear weapons and not end up with Armageddon, Biden warned. The US is thought to have about 150 B-61 nuclear gravity bombs -- ones dropped from aircraft, with variable yields that can be as low as 0.3 kiloton -- stationed in five NATO countries: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. Two other NATO members, the UK and France, are known to have nuclear weapons of their own. And Poland recently expressed interest in sharing US nuclear weapons, which could mean anything from offering escort or reconnaissance jets for a nuclear mission to actually hosting the weapons.

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Fiction 1 THE PASSENGER (Knopf, $30). By Cormac McCarthy. A mysterious plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico is the catalyst for a salvage diver to contemplate his legacy. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight 2 DEMON COPPERHEAD (Harper, $32.50). By Barbara Kingsolver. A boy born in a trailer in Appalachia faces the challenges of childhood poverty with resilience. 3 OUR MISSING HEARTS (Penguin Press, $29). By Celeste Ng. A boy searches for his missing mother, a Chinese American poet who left the family years earlier.

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Ever since the Fed started aggressively hiking interest rates in March, crucial pillars of the economy have stayed remarkably strong. For many businesses and households planning for the future, a slowdown just doesnt seem imminent.
Hong Kong: Online dispute resolution ready

Secretary for Justice Paul Lam

Building on the success of Phase 1 of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Workshop on online dispute resolution (ODR) last year, we are organising Phase 2 of the workshop this year with the theme ODR in Facilitating Cross-border Trade & Investment for ASEAN & Hong Kong Businesses. With the relaxation of travel restrictions in Hong Kong, we are glad that we have representatives from ASEAN member states, ASEAN Secretariat Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi and guests joining us physically in Hong Kong today.

Growth of trade between ASEAN and Hong Kong

ASEAN has been one of the major trading partners of Hong Kong. Since the ASEAN-Hong Kong, China Free Trade Agreement and related investment agreement have fully entered into force in February last year, the already very close economic co-operation between us has been further strengthened. In 2021, ASEAN was Hong Kongs second largest trading partner. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, merchandise trade between Hong Kong and ASEAN last year increased by 21%, reaching a total value of $1,247 billion. Besides, ASEAN was Hong Kongs second largest supplier of goods last year. About 17% of Hong Kongs total imports, more than $900 billion, were sourced from ASEAN. In investment, ASEAN ranked fourth among Hong Kong destinations for outward direct investment, and sixth in inward direct investment at the end of 2020. In particular, over the past few years, e-commerce has expanded remarkably, both within and across the border. The rapid growth of e-commerce has given micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) plenty of opportunities to expand their business. It is foreseeable that e-commerce and the digital economy will continue to grow and play an important role in the post-pandemic recovery and regional integration.

Importance of ODR for businesses

With the increase in cross-border trade and investment, it is inevitable that disputes may arise from time to time. In particular, the disruption of the global supply chain caused by the pandemic has given rise to quite a number of cross-border disputes in the past couple of years. An effective means of dispute resolution has become more crucial than ever for cross-border trade and investment. When we are on a steady track to recovery from the pandemic, disputes arising from supply chain disruption continue to linger and daunt businesses, especially the MSMEs. In ASEAN, there are about 70 million MSMEs, accounting for over 97% of total establishments in ASEAN member states. In order to maintain good cash flow, MSMEs are in desperate need of speedy and cost-efficient means to resolve their disputes. Meanwhile, there has also been an increasing demand for effective mechanisms to resolve disputes involving online cross-border transactions. Owing to the unique nature of these cross-border disputes, it is not geographically or financially feasible or practicable for MSMEs to have these disputes resolved through traditional court litigations or in-person alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.

With the help of information and communications technology (ICT), ODR provides a cost-effective and efficient solution to cross-border disputes. As noted in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Technical Notes on ODR, ODR can assist the parties in resolving the dispute in a simple, fast, flexible and secure manner, without the need for physical presence at a meeting or hearing. Through ODR, individuals and MSMEs can utilise technologies in a full spectrum of dispute resolution services conveniently and expeditiously, enhancing their accessibility to justice. With the quick electronic resolution and enforcement of disputes across borders, bridging barriers of different languages and legal jurisdictions, ODR can also provide more confidence for MSMEs to engage in cross-border transactions. Furthermore, by saving MSMEs time and resources in resolving disputes, they can focus on exploring new business opportunities and expanding their markets. And therefore, ODR is conducive to regional economic growth and development in general.

Recent developments of ODR in Asia Pacific

In recent times, ODR has been widely used in various contexts and promoted regionally and internationally. We can see businesses using ODR as part of their customer services to handle complaints. Courts from different jurisdictions are also exploring how to implement ODR as part of the judicial process to further enhance access to justice. This year, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) launched the APEC Collaborative Framework for ODR of Cross-Border Business-to-Business Disputes (APEC ODR Framework) and a number of ODR service providers have already been listed under this framework.

In addition to the development under APEC, the ASEAN Committee on Consumer Protection launched the ASEAN Guidelines on ODR in April this year as one of the deliverables of the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan on Consumer Protection 2025. The ASEAN guidelines aim to assist ASEAN member states in setting up or improving their national ODR systems to help resolve e-commerce transactions, as well as suggest proper design and management of an ODR system. With regional and international collaborations, as well as the joint efforts across the governmental sector, the business sector, the dispute resolution sector and ICT sector, ODR is developing rapidly.

Hong Kong and ODR

In light of all these developments, Hong Kong has been taking active steps to promote and contribute to the development of ODR in this region and beyond. Hong Kong, China, has opted into the APEC ODR Framework since 2020. The Electronic Business Related Arbitration & Mediation (eBRAM) Centre in Hong Kong is one of the listed ODR service providers under the APEC ODR Framework, providing comprehensive ODR services equipped with advanced technologies. The Department of Justice has also launched the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform on ODR in collaboration with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to keep track of international developments of ODR and study various issues on the same. Besides, under the auspices of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) and with the support from the Central Peoples Government, the AALCO Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre was officially opened in May this year. A specific mandate for this AALCO Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre is to promote the growth and effective functioning of arbitration and other dispute resolution services, including, of course, ODR.

All these developments have highlighted the role of Hong Kong in the international development of ODR and the readiness of Hong Kong and our professionals in offering ODR services for ASEAN and Hong Kong businesses which require an efficient and inexpensive means to resolve their disputes by ODR as well as for those in need of capacity building for ODR.

We look forward to collaborating further with ASEAN on our economic and technical co-operation, particularly in strengthening the ODR capabilities in this region and beyond.

Secretary for Justice Paul Lam gave these remarks at the Workshop on ASEAN Online Dispute Resolution: ODR in Facilitating Cross-border Trade & Investment for ASEAN & Hong Kong Businesses under Hong Kong Legal Week 2022 on November 9.

This story has been published on: 2022-11-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Binghatti, a leading real estate development company in the UAE, has joined hands with top watchmaking and jewellery brand Jacob & Company to build its ultra-luxury skyscraper in Dubai - Burj Binghatti Jacob & Co Residences.

Uniting their rich heritage and iconic architectural and horological codes, the two power brands are eyeing the record for the worlds tallest residential structure with this new venture, said a statement from Binghatti.

The proposed design comprises over 100 storeys that are made of lavish two- and three-bedroom residences.

In a symbolic reunion of words and facts, the top of Burj Binghatti Jacob & Co Residences harbours five of the most luxurious and exclusive penthouses in Dubai. Floating on top of the world, they offer boundless views of the city's skyline, including Down-town and the Dubai Water Canal, it stated.

Announcing the project, Muhammad Binghatti, CEO & Head of Architecture of Binghatti, said: "Today marks the significant partnership of two like-minded brands, both on an ever-striving pursuit of absolute elegance. Both our brands are born from the sheer desire to achieve what breaks boundaries."

"Burj Binghatti Jacob & Co Residences coins a new term in upper-crust real estate: hypertower. Opening a new era in uber-luxury living, this unparalleled skyscraper aims to set a record as one of the tallest residential constructions in the world. In a great leap upwards, it stands opulently in the heart of Dubais most eminent financial district, Business Bay," he stated.

"What Binghatti has done in real estate, by creating a brand through a distinct design philosophy and architectural identity is very similar to what Jacob & Co has done in the world of jewelry and horology", said Binghatti on its partner.

"Multiple levels have been dedicated to such amenities as an infinity pool overlooking the entire Dubai skyline, a luxury spa and a gymnasium. This hypertower also houses a dedicated concierge team, offering a la carte services such as daycare, bodyguard, chauffeur and private chef," he added.

Drawing inspiration from horological and high jewelry aesthetics, Burj Binghatti Jacob & Co Residences' design is reminiscent of the baguette-cut gems Jacob & Co is renowned for. Entry-level residences will consist of two collections: The Sapphire Suite Collection consisting of two-bedroom residential units, and The Emerald Suite Collection comprised of three-bedroom units.

The project explores the combined ingenious design languages of Binghatti and Jacob & Co. Speaking with one voice, they unfold distinct exterior silhouettes that speak to the design ethos of both internationally recognized brands, stated the developer.

The further details of the project will be unveiled at a special event on November 16 at the largest multipurpose indoor stadium in the Middle East, Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai.

"We took inspiration from the complex horological movements that beat in Jacob & Co timepieces and we integrated them into the key elements of the tower," remarked Binghatti.

"The diamond-shaped spires sitting at the peak of the tower are reminiscent of an actual crown, an ornament of unique finesse inspired by the design of Jacob & Cos finely cut gems. This is the apex of the luxury narrative in this evocative construction, a signature feature that add further grandeur to the city's skyline," he added.

"Inspired from our high watchmaking collections, these penthouses will consist of three types, each named after our flagship Jacob & Co timepieces Fleurs De Jardin, Astronomia and Billionaire," said Jacob Arabo, the Chairman and Creative Director of Jacob & Co.

"The interior design of the penthouse collection will be directly inspired by their unique aesthetics. As suggested by the name, the Billionaire Penthouse is the hyper tower's jewel in the crown," noted Arabo.

According to him, the hypertower is also home to an exclusive private club, featuring an extensive infinity pool.

"Its luxury amenities include a vast lounge as well as a private event area reserved for Jacob & Co. Materials, details and finishings are conceptualized and designed in collaboration with our designers whose attention to detail is being applied on a new, unprecedented scale and height," he stated.

"This collaboration is a new way for us to apply our motto: Inspired by the impossible. It's a commitment to break boundaries and push past limits. Our driving force is ingenuity and originality. It leads us to design jewels, watches, and now a hypertower, unlike anything the world has seen before," observed Arabo.

"Burj Binghatti Jacob & Co Residences is an unheard-of achievement in the world of real estate and luxury, let alone watchmaking and jewellery," he said.

"Apart from being involved in the entire design process of the hypertower, Jacob & Co will also be offering exclusively curated timepieces and jewelry, most of which are limited edition or unique pieces, that clients can purchase along with their residence," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Adopted by Kazakhstan National Computer Emergency Response Team

KZ-CERT

KZ-CERT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention (STC), in partnership with the National Computer Emergency Response Team of Kazakhstan (KZ-CERT), announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deploy the international online safety campaign, STOP. THINK. CONNECT. in Kazakhstan.

Originally launched in the United States in 2010, STOP. THINK. CONNECT. was founded by the APWG and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) along with a consortium of industry and government partners to educate people about how to protect themselves against all manner of cybersecurity and digital safety concerns. Since the initial launch of the campaign, 26 nations have officially engaged the campaign, deploying it through cabinet-level government ministries, national CERTs and national-scope NGOs. STC counts Japan, Spain, France, Poland, Nigeria, Nepal, Bangladesh, Panama, Romania and Tonga among those partnerships.

At its launch, the KZ-CERT STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign will be the 25th national deployment of STOP. THINK. CONNECT. since the inaugural launch of the U.S. government's campaign in October 2010. Messaging Convention principals are in development discussions with national curators for deployments in the Americas, South Asia, Europe and Africa.

State Technical Service JSC is a quasi-public organization that ultimately aims to form, develop and ensure the security of the information and communication infrastructure and cyberspace of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Having over 14 years of experience in performing its activities, STS JSC also serves as the head organization for KZ-CERT.

The National Computer Emergency Response Team (KZ-CERT), in its turn, functions as the single center for national information systems users and Kazakhstani Internet segment, which provides collection and analysis of security incidents reports, as well as consultative and technical assistance to users in preventing cyberthreats.

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"Through establishing and developing international communication, KZ-CERT cooperates now with more than 80 countries around the world. As practice shows, engaging with foreign partners brings a positive effect in the field of ensuring information security. KZ-CERT has been an official APWG Member since June 27, 2012, and it has progressed with stable cooperation through the years. Now, together with STC, it became possible to strengthen our ties," said the Head of KZ-CERT.

"Online safety and security is a growing global concern. As our lives become ever more connected, it becomes more important than ever that all people know how to protect themselves, how to identify and avoid malicious actors, and what steps they can take to defend their data," said Aimee Larsen Kirkpatrick, President of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention.

"As a society, we can begin by teaching the building blocks of what it takes to navigate the digital world safely and securely, and what to do if there is a breach. We're thrilled to have Kazakhstan become the latest country joining us in our mission to deliver basic digital safety awareness and education," Larsen Kirkpatrick said.

The STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign's foundation is a series of actionable instructions that people can apply to their daily digital interaction. STC seeks to empower individuals to take control of their digital presence and learn how to navigate cyberspace using a framework of judgment based on the types of interactions and places one might experience online.

"As an organization responsible for the safe cyberspace within Kazakhstan's territory, we recognize that improving our citizens' awareness on digital hygiene is one of the key tasks in performing our activities. We are pleased to have such an opportunity to establish cooperation with STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention, which will gradually help us reach the goal," said the Head of KZ-CERT.

The agreement between the two organizations is an MoU to promote the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Campaign to the people of Kazakhstan. Campaign materials and messaging will be made available to KZ-CERT for building a localized campaign that will meet the needs of Kazakhstan.

The Messaging Convention and KZ-CERT agree to co-develop materials to support the Kazakh national cybersecurity awareness campaign, including logos and messaging in Kazakh and Russian.

Additionally, the organizations agree, when possible, to exchange cyber threat data, exchange experience on handling information security incidents, and seek to exchange information and ideas that will further understanding and cooperation in cybersecurity.

"We are honored to bring KZ-CERT into the Messaging Convention as a national curator and as a development partner. KZ-CERT extends the global footprint of the campaign and comes with the special expertise and purview of a national computer emergency response team," said APWG Secretary General and Messaging Convention CEO Peter Cassidy.

"Concluding this Memorandum of Understanding, KZ-CERT has high hopes for our future fruitful joint work that will come of great experience and value for both sides," said the Head of KZ-CERT.

Contact Information:

Peter Cassidy

Secretary General

pcassidy@apwg.org

6176691123



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This data includes personal data such as names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, Medicare numbers for ahm customers [not expiry dates], in some cases passport numbers for our international students [not expiry dates], and some health claims data. Medibank also expects the group to continue releasing files on the dark web. We will continue to work around the clock to inform customers of what data we believe has been stolen and any of their data included in the files on the dark web and provide advice on what customers should do, the insurer said. Medibank chief executive David Koczkar apologised for the latest developments. This is a criminal act designed to harm our customers and cause distress, he said.

We take seriously our responsibility to safeguard our customers, and we stand ready to support them. One of those customers is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. His information was not included in the data made public by the hackers. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised Medibank for not giving in to ransom demands. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen This is really tough for people. I am a Medibank Private customer as well, and it will be of concern that some of this information has been put out there, Albanese said at a press conference on Wednesday morning. Can I say this, though? The company has followed the guidelines effectively. The advice is to not engage in a ransom payment. If you go down this road, then you end up with more difficulties potentially across a wider range.

Loading The details of Medibank customers were posted on a blog that has been linked to REvil, a ransomware gang with strong Russian links. UNSW Institute for Cyber Security Enterprise director Nigel Phair said the goal of these criminals was ultimately to make money from the data. This means the public dumping of all their information is unlikely. To me, theyre [acting like] the crack cocaine salesman by giving a little taste of what theyve got for free, he said. Phair said this leak might just be a final extortion attempt by the hackers before moving to the next step  cashing in on using the data for identity fraud.

[This] might also be a signal to other criminal groups that they actually do have the right data. And so, if they want to wholesale it with another criminal group, theyre actually proving their bona fides that they have actually got it. Theyre not just making it up. ONeil urged social media users not to republish anybodys leaked health information. I know you will not do that because that would be enabling and supporting the scumbags who are at the heart of these crimes, she said on Tuesday. The hackers warned early on Tuesday morning that they would release the data in 24 hours. It came one day after Medibank said it would not pay a ransom because that would encourage further crime.

The group posted the first lists in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Looking back that data is stored not very understandable (sic) format (table dumps) well take some time to sort it out, they said. Well continue posting data partially, need some time to do it pretty. The hackers also appeared to have revealed screenshots of private messages recently exchanged between themselves and Medibank representatives.

The first purported message is from October 19 when the original ransom note was sent. The final message is from November 7 when Medibank said it would not pay the ransom. Medibank has been contacted for confirmation that these messages are real. Loading Well continue posting data partially, including confluence [sic], source codes, list of stuff and some files obtained from medi filesystem [sic] from different hosts. Medibank revealed on Monday that the data of 9.7 million current and former customers was stolen by the hackers last month. The most serious breach was for about 500,000 customers who have had private health information stolen, including health claims and personal information.

No credit card or banking details were accessed. On Tuesday, the ransomware group posted to its blog that data will be publish [sic] in 24 hours. P.S. I recommend to sell [sic] medibank stocks. Medibank has lost more than $1 billion in market value since the hacking incident, and its shares closed just short of two-year lows on Tuesday at $2.78. Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed at a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday that the FBI is assisting the AFP in tracking down those behind the Medibank and Optus data breaches, saying the investigations would be long and complex.
Mortgage broker Yellow Brick Road  fronted by former Celebrity Apprentice host Mark Bouris  said it could save a few bucks with a proposal it floated last month to change its constitution to allow annual general meetings to be held online only.

Perhaps the idea was part of the cost-cutting drive the company has been on for the past couple of years, but having run it up the flagpole, it looks like nobody saluted, and company secretary Andrew Symes told the market on Tuesday morning that after shareholder feedback the notion would not be discussed at its AGM in Sydney later that day.

Yellow Brick Road boss Mark Bouris. Credit:Louie Douvis

Were not surprised. Yellow Brick Road shares  which were trading at more than 70 eight years ago  were worth less than 10 cents on Tuesday, having lost more than 27 per cent of their value in the past year.

No wonder shareholders dont want to be fobbed off with a Zoom meeting with directors and management. And thats not all investors are unhappy about, with more than 25 per cent voting against the remuneration report, triggering a motion to spill all the companys board positions.
Direct. Unvarnished. Unapologetic. And with conviction. It is why she was both beloved and at times reviled. The thing about Alannah was her substance, and her passion. But by the end, always respected, even by her opponents. On Monday, Alannah announced her retirement from politics at years end.

Yes, really this time. No third (or is it fourth? Fifth?) act. It has been a remarkable career, beginning at the old Perth city council in 1988, before the Richard Court government carved off Vincent, Cambridge and Victoria Park. In 1993 it was on to the Legislative Council in the state parliament, and then in 1996 the Assembly. She was the Minister for Transport, Planning and Infrastructure in the Gallop Government, the peak of her political powers and place of her signature achievement, the Perth-Mandurah rail line. After the Carpenter governments ouster in 2008, she briefly threw her hat in the ring to lead the Opposition but withdrew when it became apparent she did not have factional support. Caucus preferred Eric Ripper.

In 2009 and in opposition she stepped away from state politics to have a crack at Canberra. Her 2010 political dogfight with wily Liberal marginal seat warhorse Don Randall for the south-eastern suburbs seat of Canning, which took in her state patch of Armadale, was one of the most fun campaigns I have ever covered. Mactiernan during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra in 2014. Credit:Photo: Alex Ellinghausen In the end, Randall withstood a 2.2 point swing to prevail, regarding it as the proudest victory of his political career. Why? Because he had never faced an opponent as tough as Alannah. But that was hardly the end of her. The following year she got herself elected as mayor of inner city Vincent.

The Canberra itch was not yet scratched and after publicly flirting with the notion for months, ended up replacing the retiring Stephen Smith in the federal seat of Perth at the 2013 federal poll which saw Kevin Rudd dispatched by Tony Abbott. The Opposition backbench was a lonely and at times frustrating place to be after so long wielding executive power and she retired after a single term. Then came the second chapter in state politics, deployed as Mark McGowans secret campaign weapon in Perths northern suburbs in the 2017 state election campaign that made him Premier. The thing about Alannah was her substance, and her passion. Its easy to regard cynically a three-decade political career, but Alannah was no time server.

She was there to get things done, and she cared about policy. Even if that conviction put her at odds with her stakeholders  or herself in hot water. At the time of that F-bomb conversation in 2004, MacTiernan was up to her neck in the Mandurah rail project. Alannah MacTiernan with Mark McGowan and Amber-Jade Sanderson. It was the states most expensive infrastructure project ever and she was squaring off against the hard nosed boss of Leighton Contractors Wal King over the troubled city tunnel section of the project

King insisted the job was hit with technical problems and wanted the government to pay more.

Alannah was telling him publicly and privately to get stuffed and the whole thing ended up in court, but it was great fodder. After she acknowledged once losing her licence for drink-driving, Geoff Gallop stripped her of her road safety responsibilities in her transport portfolio, and The Wests legendary cartoonist Dean Alston  who already poked fun at her distinctive hairstyle of the time  began drawing her with a wine glass. Once, she complained: big mistake. Alston never drew her without the wine glass for two decades hence. As a local government and urban affairs reporter in that period, all of the issues I covered ran through her portfolio, whether it was the contentious Perry Lakes redevelopment, oceanfront highrise battles, or anything to do with housing or planning or transport. She could bite your head off if she thought you were wrong or unfair  and at times perhaps we were.

At one point I unearthed a story about how the pilings used in construction of the rail tunnel were going to be reused as a towering public art project adorning the tunnels dive structure on the foreshore. Loading The newspaper ran the story under the headline, ALANNAHS PILES. The sculpture never eventuated. But she also invested time in you if she thought you were serious about policy and curious to learn. She invited me for coffee at a cafe in Claisebrook to explain the origins of the original East Perth Redevelopment Authority while sketching her vision for the future of a denser, more connected Perth.

She was a champion for alternative construction materials in new homes, believing Perths love affair with double brick was costing first home owners too much. She was unapologetic about advocating for public and affordable housing in apartment developments in ritzy suburbs and the waterfront. And she championed density, which made her public enemy no.1 in the leafy western suburbs  and at times butted heads over sprawl with the likes of powerful housing interests like Nigel Satterley. The history is why I found Satterleys comments the other week to WAtodays Hamish Hastie  who reported on the fact Alannah had accepted $10,000 worth of footy tickets in Satterleys corporate box  so amusing. These events are purely social occasions, a Satterley flack-catcher said. Alannah is a long-term friend of Nigel.

Not always. She was a bete noire for another tycoon, Len Buckeridge, when she cancelled his Kwinana port contract and tussled over his brickworks. MacTiernan announcing the government had terminated a funding agreement with Carnegie Clean Energy. Credit:Fairfax Media As Planning and Infrastructure Minister under Gallop in the 2000s she kickstarted a process to shift WAs main container port from Fremantle to Cockburn Sound. Nearly 20 years later it remains Labor policy but has not yet progressed beyond the planning stage.

As Agriculture Minister under McGowan, she was greeted by farmers first with suspicion and then hostility. She never wavered from her view that the live export industry was animal cruelty, then declared an outbreak of foot and mouth would not be a catastrophe, instead arguing the decimation of export markets might result in cheaper meat and dairy for local consumers. That, it is believed, cost her some skin with McGowan, but on Monday he paid tribute to an extraordinary political career. Through it all, she worked hard  including through chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2019  and played hard along the way too. She says shes not cut out for retirement, and will no doubt find something meaningful to do because there are so many issues that Im interested in.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size With the recent upheaval at Twitter since entrepreneur Elon Musk took over, some users have been leaving the platform, and one name keeps coming up as their new social media stomping ground  Mastodon. Its not an extinct animal, nor a heavy metal band, but rather software that pulls together different servers operated by thousands of people and organisations. It also has a language of its own  including toots rather than tweets. As Mastodon snatches 230,000 more users in the week following Musks Twitter takeover  to bring its total number of active users to 655,000  the influx in traffic is causing growing pains for the platform and confusion for some new users. But it has also thrown a different model of social media into the spotlight. How does Mastodon work  and where did it come from? Credit:Artwork: Stephen Kiprillis What is Mastodon? European software developer Eugen Rochko created Mastodon in 2016 as an alternative to Twitter. As well as being the founder, Rochko is the chief executive and operates the software not-for-profit. The platform says its social networking thats not for sale.

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Mastodon also describes itself as decentralised social media. Rather than a central corporation offering and managing the platform, Mastodon is made up of thousands of independently run servers, also known as instances, which each have their own rules and moderation policies. A big fleet of spaceships floating around in space with some way to communicate with each other, is how digital media professor Jean Burgess, from Queensland University of Technology, describes Mastodon. There is a person who has been the main driver of Mastodons software project, Burgess says. But that person doesnt control what happens on any instance on Mastodon. Thats up to the users of that instance and the admin of that server. What are the main differences between Mastodon and Twitter? For users, Mastodon is similar to Twitter at a basic level  they are both microblogging platforms with a feed of posts, users follow each other and there are hashtags. Posts on Mastodon can be 500 characters, labelled toots rather than tweets, which Twitter caps at 280 characters. The main difference for users of the newer platform, though, is no algorithm dictates what they see or when they see it. When users like a post, this does not appear to other users, reducing the pile-on that can occur with popular posts on Twitter. Mastodon also does not have the capacity for users to quote other peoples posts. Burgess, who joined Mastodon earlier this year, says its so far very friendly and a lot less shouty than Twitter.

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Newcomers must join a server to participate rather than sign up through a centralised interface as Twitter users do. The servers that users can join range from general use such as mastodon.social, which currently has about 145,000 users, to regional servers such as aus.social. There are also interest groups, including those for heavy-metal music lovers and gaming communities. Many Twitter users making the switch report trouble making sense of how Mastodon works. Well Ive already had to google how to join Mastodon so this is off to a good start, one Brisbane social media user tweeted. Loading What are the pros and cons of Mastodon? Users who have embraced Mastodon say they are excited the platform offers a way of connecting with communities without the polarisation that has come to haunt Twitter. This shows that the design of a social media platform can influence user behaviour, says Australian National Universitys Professor Seth Lazar, who leads research projects through the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory Lab. Twitter kind of nudges you towards a certain type of kind of performative outrage, Lazar says. Mastodon tries to encourage people not to do that. And the main way it does that is it encourages people to make liberal use of content warnings. The decentralised model comes with challenges too, such as servers that each have different rules and content moderation policies to limit and filter harmful content. The popular mastodon.social server lists six rules for users, including warnings for sexually explicit and violent content; bans on racism, sexism and homophobia; and bans on incitement of violence, harassment and sharing intentionally false information.

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Lazar says the decentralised model does not necessarily mean content moderation should be more difficult than on Twitter. If you find that there are other online communities that are not meeting the standards of toleration that you have in your community, well, then, you as a community can look at that whole instance [server]. So far, mastodon.social has either limited or suspended its users from interacting with more than 150 other servers deemed inappropriate. But Lazar has not abandoned Twitter, and finds value in both platforms. I like Twitter because ... [as an academic] people feel it is sort of bypassing publication time  people will post about new papers and new models, he says. But you have to wade through so much drama in order to get to the stuff you actually want. And the idea is, with Mastodon, it should make that a lot easier to avoid ... [I]f you want, you can just opt out of virality entirely. How fast can Mastodon grow? As a non-profit run by volunteers, Mastodon has very different goals to Twitter, and is not built to grow as fast as a Silicon Valley start-up, whereas Twitter reported 238 million daily active users in the second quarter of this year. Mastodon is free to use but donation service Patreon has membership options for it and states that the platform is raising more than $23,000 a month. The Mastodon website also lists more than two dozen supporters of the platform, including several online casinos. The influx of users has caused growing pains for the platform. Rochko posted on the platform last week, While its nice to see your work finally taken seriously in the mainstream, the 12-14 hour workdays Ive had to pull to handle everything is anything but. He said in another post, I rarely talk about how tough this job can be, since I feel responsibility to only associate positive things with the project. But it is a lot of responsibilities, and a lot of stress, for what can sometimes feel like inadequate pay. The platform does not have paid advertising, but there is nothing stopping a user from writing a post that advertises a product.

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It was a good night for both the incumbents in the 103rd and 89th State House Districts.

In the 103, State Representative Liz Linehan (D), a Cheshire resident who previously served on the local Town Council before first being elected to state office in 2016, defeated her Republican challenger, Randy Raines, by a 6,640 to 4,524 vote count, according to unofficial numbers provided Wednesday morning by the Connecticut Secretary of States office. Raines, 73, a retired businessman, joined the campaign late in the summer after the original Republican candidate, Chris Bahadosingh, dropped out for undisclosed reasons.

Linehan was happy with her more comfortable projected margin of victory this time around, having won by only 120 votes in her 2020 campaign. She credited this win to listening to my constituents needs.

This is really a bipartisan victory and its something Im really proud of. Im here to represent everyone in my district, she stated.

During the race, both Linehan and Raines focused heavily on the economy, with Linehan telling The Herald last month that affordability for residents was the single biggest issue of her campaign. Linehan also spoke about the hot-button items of the moment, insisting that she would protect our democracy, ensure reproductive rights, and guarantee residents the right to marry whomever they choose.

Looking forward to a new term in Hartford, Linehan mentioned several initiatives she plans to champion.

My priorities will be my constituents priorities, she said. I want to continue to help make Connecticut more affordable. One thing is going to be bringing down the cost of energy for homes. I also want to cut retirement taxes by raising the income ceiling and getting rid of the cliff.

For his part, Raines, also a Cheshire resident who currently serves as one of its Constables, presented himself as a little more liberal than some of his Republican colleagues. Raines, who was president of the Connecticut Microwave Company, located in Cheshire, stated that his campaign centered around fiscal discipline and personal integrity.

On Wednesday morning, Raines posted on Facebook commending Linehan for her win.

I would like to congratulate Liz (on) her victory in the 103rd, Raines wrote, on the Cheshire Community Forum. She worked very hard for her victory.

In the 89th State House of Representatives District, Republican incumbent Lezlye Zupkus won another term in office, defeating her Democratic challenger, Kevin OLeary, 7,221 to 4,232 (unofficial results). This will be the sixth term for the Prospect resident, who was first elected to the 89th District seat in 2012.

Im grateful for the constituents I had, and Im grateful for my new constituents in Cheshire, Zupkus said. The job (of a Representative) is to be there for the citizens of Connecticut, to make the state stronger and more sustainable.

In an interview with The Herald last month, Zupkus spoke about her commitment to issues that directly impact the family, touching on everything from violent crime to mental health. Now back for another term, Zupkus is hoping to continue her work in these areas while bringing down costs for households.

Mentioning the so-called Truck Tax among other state burdens, Zupkus said, We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

She said tthat she wants to focus on eliminating some of the 350 fees and taxes in the state, and stop nickel and diming citizens to death.

Im ready to give our citizens a break, she added.

OLeary, a Prospect resident, was running for state office for the first time. The current chair of the Prospect Democratic Town Committee, he previously served on the Prospect Town Council and also waged a campaign for mayor in 2021. He was ultimately unsuccessful in that bid.

OLeary focused his campaign on a variety of issues, including the environment and increasing resources for local police and fire departments.
DUNN COUNTY  In July, the legislative committee of Dunn County approved a referendum question that is unprecedented in rural America. The question asked Congress and the U.S. president to nationalize health care.

Generally, attempts such as these come from large, urban areas. They might come with a left-leaning agenda. But the Dunn County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to add this question to the November ballot despite the fact that many of them are conservative.

The referendum passed on Tuesday with 9,049 voting yes  51% of county voters; 8,564 people, or 49%, voted against it.

My first reaction when they came in at 51% to 49% was initially, a little bit disappointed that it wasnt more (favorable) but when I started digging into the numbers more specifically, I understood how big of a win this actually is, said Monica Berrier, a Dunn County supervisor.

This was the most important issue on the ballot, she said.

John Calabrese, whos spent months working to support the effort in the hopes that the referendum would pass, said he finds the numbers from yesterdays race fascinating.

When you consider that the referendum got 51.4% approval, and Governor Evers got 45% in Dunn County, and Mandela Barnes got 43%  it just says to me that this is not a partisan issue, which is the main point of why we were pushing it. Because we dont think its a partisan issue, Calabrese said.

The results were encouraging, Berrier said. They demonstrate that the issue of national health insurance is not a single-party issue.

It wasnt the case that the left-leaning city of Menomonie carried this. There was significant support in the rural areas as well, Berrier said.

When you compare the number of votes that we got for the referendum compared to the votes that we got for Tony Evers, the referendum had more yes votes than Evers by 6% points. So that suggests that there are quite a few conservatives who voted for (Tim) Michels who also voted for this referendum. That was really encouraging.

Results of this referendum could make waves in Wisconsin. Other counties are considering putting the same question to voters in the spring.

What I hope is that this discussion in Dunn County will inspire other counties to do the same. And I think that if other counties across Wisconsin, and even into other states start doing that, I think that the federal legislators are really going to have to start to pay attention, Berrier said.

There also are people in Minnesota, California, Texas, Massachusetts and Kentucky that are paying close attention to this referendum. They hope to be able to replicate whats happening in Dunn County in their states.

For now, Berrier and Calabrese want to make sure this referendum has meaning, that it can be replicated across the state.

I think we need to continue to take it to other counties and try to replicate the formula and remember what works, Calabrese said. Theres a tendency among people who are involved to want to, you know, reach out to county board supervisors and other counties and I think thats important, but a key part of why this was put on the ballot was the input from actual citizens of Dunn County, imploring their county board to put it on the ballot. So there needs to be a groundswell localized in each county.

Passing the referendum wont immediately affect national policy. However, it does tell the state and federal governments that residents of Dunn County want new national health care options.

I think its really exciting that Dunn County is breaking ground here and being the first county in the state to do this, said Berrier. And I think its really important for us, and the local government, to give the people a voice on national issues as much as we can.
Wisconsin's 2022 midterm election is finally arriving on Tuesday.

While nearly 813,000 absentee ballots have been requested in the state, of which more than 715,000 had been returned as of Monday, many more voters will cast ballots on Tuesday.

Here's what you need to know heading into Tuesday's midterm election.

How do I vote?

First, you need to be registered. You can check the status of your voter registration and register to vote at myvote.wi.gov/RegisterToVote.

Wisconsin residents looking to vote must first register, which can be done online and requires a valid state drivers license or ID card that matches a name, date of birth and address on file with the Division of Motor Vehicles. Registering in person or by mail requires an acceptable ID or the last four digits of your Social Security number.

Those without a photo ID can still vote by casting a provisional ballot. Such voters will need to provide a photo ID to their municipal clerk by 4 p.m. the Friday after the election in order to have their ballot counted.

Where do I vote?

You can find your polling location on MyVote Wisconsin. Just enter your address at: myvote.wi.gov/FindMyPollingPlace.

What time are polls open?

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. If you're in line by 8 p.m. Tuesday, you'll still be able to vote.

What do I need to vote?

An acceptable photo ID such as a Wisconsin Department of Transportation-issued driver license or identification card, a U.S. military ID card, a U.S. passport, an identification card issued by a federally recognized Indian tribe in the state, or a photo identification card issued by a Wisconsin accredited university or college that includes the date of issuance, signature of student and expiration date no later than two years after the date of issuance. Those with an expired university or college ID must also provide a separate document proving current enrollment.

Find more information at bringit.wi.gov.

What if I already voted?

You can track the status of your absentee ballot at myvote.wi.gov/TrackMyBallot.

Can I vote in person if I mailed my absentee ballot too late?

No. You cannot vote at the polls on Election Day if you have already mailed or returned your absentee ballot. To count, your ballot must be received by your local clerk by the close of polls Tuesday.

What are the rules around polling places?

Electioneering is not allowed within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place. That includes political signs, clothing, stickers or buttons  all of which are prohibited at the polling place.

Officials ask anyone who witnesses something suspicious at a polling location to speak to the chief election inspector. If anyone is prohibiting you from entering a polling location, call local law enforcement.

When can we expect election results?

By law, local clerks in Wisconsin cannot begin processing absentee ballots until Election Day. That means election officials in about three dozen Wisconsin cities, including Milwaukee, will not begin counting absentee ballots until polls close. So expect the vote totals to change throughout the night and even into the next day.

Election night declarations are based on predictions and incomplete results, with winners not official until the results are certified.
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.
11 Coins to Buy Ahead of the Next Altcoin Season

Disclaimer: The Industry Talk section features insights from crypto industry players and is not a part of the editorial content of Cryptonews.com.

Altcoin season is a blanket term used to describe a period of time when investors flock to buy cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Timing is everything, so this guide sheds some light on the top cryptocurrencies to buy ahead of the next altcoin season.

We analyze a range of different altcoin projects for ultimate diversification - which includes presales, those that are new on the scene, and long-existing crypto assets.

11 Coins to Add to Buy Before the Next Altcoin Season

Below is a quick-view list of the top 11 tokens to consider investing in before the next altcoin season begins.

Dash 2 Trade (D2T) - Best Presale Crypto Investment for the Next Alt Season RobotEra (TARO) - Newly Launched Metaverse Presale with Numerous Revenue Streams IMPT (IMPT) - Trade Carbon Credits on the Blockchain Calvaria (RIA) - NFT Card Game With Monthly Tournaments Lucky Block (LBLOCK) - Crypto and NFT Gaming Project With Giveaways Ethereum (ETH) - Largest Altcoin by Market Cap With Smart Contracts Binance Coin (BNB) - Digitial Currency Fuelling the World's Biggest Crypto Exchange Dogecoin (DOGE) - Original Meme Token With Strong Online Community Polkadot (DOT) - Innovative Web3 Software Project on the Blockchain Cardano (ADA) - Third-Generation Proof of Stake Blockchain Platform XRP (XRP) - Underlying Currency of Payment Processing Network Ripple

Buy D2T on Presale Now

A Closer Look at the Best Coins for the Next Alt Season

Investors should do their homework, rather than just allocating funds to the first new crypto project they come across. This is especially the case in such a saturated and volatile market.

To shorten this process and enable investors to make informed decisions, we've analyzed the top 11 best altcoins to buy ahead of the next altcoin season.

1. Dash 2 Trade - Best Presale Crypto Investment for the Next Alt Season

D2T is an altcoin that is in the midst of one of the biggest presale campaigns of the year. The token was created by the developers behind the intelligence and analytics terminal Dash 2 Trade and the terminal is being thoughtfully built to provide intelligent insight to a traders and investors with varying levels of expertise.

Essentially, the terminal will be a one-stop shop for crypto investors looking for pointers on the best assets to buy and sell, for the next altcoin season, and beyond. As such, this could be described as the Bloomberg terminal of crypto - the platform will offer numerous services and tools to help investors make wise choices and maximize their profit-making potential.

Some basic features are available for free, but to really make the most out of this platform, investors will need to subscribe using D2T tokens.

By subscribing, they will be able to access a plethora of information to assist them in placing the right orders and potentially making money with crypto.

Presales can offer heaps of upside potential. As such, Dash 2 Trade will alert all D2T holders to new profitable ICOs (initial coin offerings) and presales.

The experienced team will combine advanced crypto trading bots with human expertise to provide a plethora of high-upside opportunities.

Bots scan social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit around the clock. The goal is to find information surrounding sentiment on specific crypto assets and find currencies that might create gains for investors.

Dash 2 Trade will also supply data on any noteworthy whale wallet movements and for any investors who are unfamiliar with the term 'whales', this refers to those that buy, sell, and own crypto in large quantities.

This is often several million dollars worth of crypto at any given time. Investors who utilize cryptocurrency whale tracker data, such as that offered by Dash 2 Trade, can better anticipate significant market swings.

Meanwhile, the crypto signals included in Dash 2 Trade subscriptions indicate the point at which an investor might enter the market and which asset to buy or sell.

Price Stage Amount Raised In Stage Token Allocation $0.0476 $1,666,000 35,000,000 $0.0500 $3,500,000 70,000,000 $0.0513 $3,591,000 70,000,000 $0.0533 $4,663,750 87,500,000 TOTAL $13,420,000 262,500,000

The platform also includes risk/reward parameters, which means each signal features a tip on where to place a take-profit and stop-loss order. These orders prevent losses from getting out of control or lock in gains before the opportunity slips away - whichever comes first.

There will also be alerts on new coin listings to prepare investors ahead of IEOs, while a bespoke scoring system will help investors spend on new crypto presale projects with confidence having given them a score out of 100 on a range of criteria.

The Dash 2 Trade presale was originally going to run for nine phases but has since been cut to four with the developers keen to bring the protocol to market ahead of schedule.

In the wake of the FTX collapse and wider chaos in the crypto market, investors and traders want tools that can provide their peace of mind and the tools to maximize their holdings and earning potential.

Dash 2 Trade offers such tools and the presale will now run for only four stages, with around 100 million tokens remaining on sale after 150 million have already been sold.

The project has raised almost $7.5 million in around six weeks making it one of the best crypto presales of 2022 - tokens are currently on sale for $0.0513 and will increase to $0.0533 in the final stage.

Buy D2T on Presale

2. RobotEra - Newly Launched Metaverse Presale with Numerous Revenue Streams

RobotEra is a new play-to-earn (P2E) and metaverse project that allows players to generate active and passive income from its ecosystem in a variety of ways.

The presale for its native coin, TARO, was only launched in mid-November and has already passed $200,000 of investment, with tokens on sale in stage 1 for $0.02 each.

RobotEra, which is an LBank Labs project that we've named the best crypto game of 2022, will allow players to earn rewards in a number of ways.

Players purchase Robot NFTs to gain access to the game and rebuild the planet Taro, which was destroyed by a cataclysmic event.

Players then buy metaverse plots of land and can monetize them in a variety of ways - from mining resources to building infrastructure and event spaces and charging admission prices, or selling billboard space to advertisers.

Robot companions can also be upgraded and customized and sold on the open market as NFTs.

In fact, RobotEra developers - who are doxxed and KYC-verified - believe new utility and revenue streams will emerge over time with no prior coding knowledge needed and few limitations on what can be built.

The project is in stage 1 of its 3-stage presale, with tokens to rise from the current price of $0.02 to $0.025 and then $0.032.

A total of 270 million tokens (15%) will be sold during the presale, with no vesting period and a hard cap of around $7 million.

Interested investors should read the RobotEra whitepaper and join the Telegram group for more information.

Presale Started November 2022 Purchase Methods ETH, USDT Chain Ethereum Min Investment 1,000 TARO Max Investment N/A

Buy TARO on Presale Now

3. IMPT - Trade Carbon Credits on the Blockchain

Environmentally friendly blockchain project IMPT will mint carbon credits as NFTs to enable businesses and investors alike to reduce their emissions. This could be described as a hybrid of regenerative and decentralized finance.

IMPT is the most energy-efficient crypto that powers the ecosystem. Investors can purchase IMPT tokens and use them to buy carbon credits. Because they are NFTs, the investor retains full ownership of the carbon credits and can therefore buy, sell, or burn them within the IMPT ecosystem.

Retired carbon credits allow investors to compensate for their footprint. All burned carbon credits are sent to a null wallet and the investors who choose to take this route will be rewarded with a collectible NFT each time.

Investors can also earn IMPT tokens by shopping with the many socially responsible brands that have partnered with the platform.

We studied the roadmap and whitepaper and discovered the platform is going to incorporate a social platform.

This will include a system that allows investors and corporations to collect points and track their scores based on their activities.

There is a range of impactful projects to pick from. This includes the preservation of forests, sustainable agriculture, the production of renewable energy in developing nations, and others. By 2035, it is predicted that the amount of credit needed worldwide will have multiplied at least 20-fold.

As such, IMPT is a worthy addition to any portfolio when looking ahead to the altcoin season in 2023. Before choosing a project, IMPT allows investors to assess the CO2 compensation quality of each one. The IMPT project is still in its infancy. In fact, the native token is in phase two of its presale at the time of writing and has already raised over $13 million.

Right now, IMPT tokens can be purchased for $0.023 each. However, the price of IMPT will increase in increments as the presale campaign progresses toward its listing on an exchange.

Buy IMPT on Presale Now

4. Calvaria - NFT Card Game With Monthly Tournaments

Calvaria is another project to consider in the run-up to the next alt season. This is a new platform that has created a play-to-earn (P2E) game on the blockchain called Duels of Eternity. Here's how it works; players create unique card decks and compete with one another in a fully immersive fantasy world.

Each individual card depicts a distinct character and has its own abilities within the Calvaria realm. In Calvaria, every in-game card is an NFT, therefore players are able to take ownership of their entire deck. Furthermore, the peer-to-peer marketplace within the Calvaria ecosystem provides a mechanism for users to monetize their decks.

Alternatively, they can put together a special deck, and freely trade their NFT cards. The native currency of Calvaria is an ERC-20 token called RIA. Meanwhile, battle victories in Calvaria reward players with eRIA tokens

RIA can be used to buy NFT cards and increase players' chances of winning battles. The platform will also host monthly tournaments and offer prizes to those that do well. Although not active at the time of writing, the platform will also introduce staking.

This will enable RIA investors to earn rewards. In other words, by purchasing RIA and then locking tokens up for a specific period of time, investors can earn a passive income from idle cryptocurrencies.

At the time of writing, RIA tokens have just entered into the fifth and final stage of the presale, with tokens on sale for $0.0325 each.

Less than 30 million tokens are now on sale before RIA reaches exchanges, with the project already having a partnership with centralized exchange LBank and making only a limited amount of tokens available for liquidity.

That limited supply of available tokens is expected to mean the price of RIA increases when they reach exchanges in the coming weeks.

Beginners can find a full guide on how to buy Calvaria tokens (RIA) here.

Buy RIA on Presale

5. Lucky Block - Crypto and NFT Gaming Project With Giveaways

Top NFT Competition ecosystem Lucky Block had one of the most successful crypto ICOs ever. Once it was listed, LBLOCK became the quickest token to hit a billion-dollar market capitalization. LBLOCK is among the best investments for NFT fans in the build-up to the next altcoin season.

Lucky Block creates the best NFTs that coincide with the platform's various competitions. Investors can take a look at the competition on offer, and then purchase the NFT specified to gain entry.

One of the most noteworthy Lucky Block competition rewards includes $1 million worth of Bitcoin. To enter this one, investors can buy one or more BTC1M NFTs. Each represents a ticket.

Other prizes include NFT giveaways, a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, a 5-star vacation, and a $1 million house. Interested investors can buy a BAYC, 5HOLIDAY, and/or 1MHOUSE NFT respectively, from the Lucky Block platform to enter. The platform is also giving away a Lamborghini. In this case, investors must buy a Platinum Rollers Club (PRC) NFT for entry.

LBLOCK tokens come in two different versions, V1 is a BEP20 coin and is used for rewards, games, and DEX trading. On the other hand, V2 is built on Ethereum, which is more liquid, can be traded on CEX exchanges, and eliminates taxation charges.

The market cap of V1 is around $8.7 million. As of writing, LBLOCK V2 has a fully diluted market capitalization of around $850k.

A bridge was launched in October 2022, allowing investors to upgrade from V1 to V2 if they wish, while a rolling burn now sees 1% of tokens erased from supply every month.

Visit Lucky Block Now

6. Ethereum - Largest Altcoin by Market Cap With Smart Contracts

Ethereum is a well-known global software platform that uses blockchain technology to power various applications. This includes the verification and execution of smart contracts. There are also lots of P2E games built on Ethereum.

Ethereum is also a popular option for developers who want to create open-source dApps. Ether tokens, or ETH, were introduced in 2015. This large-cap cryptocurrency has been one of the preferred options during many altcoin seasons.

Ethereum was a proof-of-work cryptocurrency with high fees and slow transaction times compared with others. The network's algorithm has now been upgraded to 2.0. As such, ETH is now a proof-of-stake token. This allows it to be less energy intensive and means that 1,000 transactions can be completed in one second.

Previously, in the same timeframe, only 15 transactions were processed. Ethereum is the biggest altcoin by market capitalization. As of the time of writing, ETH has a market capitalization of about $179 billion.

Buy Ethereum on eToro

Your capital is at risk. Crypto asset investments are highly volatile and speculative.

7. Binance Coin - Digital Currency Fueling the World's Biggest Crypto Exchange

Binance Coin, or BNB, is the native cryptocurrency of the Binance exchange. Binance should need little introduction as it is the largest exchange in the world by trading volume. BNB is the native currency of the exchange and it was originally created utilizing the ERC-20 token standard. BNB now operates on its own blockchain network - the Binance Chain.

BNB is a popular option for investors during the altcoin season. A maximum of 200 million BNB tokens were created by Binance. However, this is a deflationary cryptocurrency as Binance regularly burns BNB tokens from the circulating supply.

Its main purpose is to support exchange operations while allowing traders to use the token for transaction fees on the platform.

BNB can also be used to invest in a range of other markets such as equities, as well as to pay for products and services (where accepted as a form of payment).

According to CoinMarketCap, BNB is the fourth largest crypto asset by market capitalization. At the time of writing, the market capitalization of Binance Coin is over $51 billion.

Buy Binance Coin on eToro

Your capital is at risk. Crypto asset investments are highly volatile and speculative.

8. Dogecoin - Original Meme Token With Strong Online Community

Thanks to a huge community of online supporters, including famous faces such as Elon Musk, Dogecoin is a popular investment during the altcoin season. DOGE became the first-ever meme token when it was released in 2013.

However, it wasn't until the short squeeze of stocks like Gamestop and AMC in late 2020/early 2021 that Dogecoin really gained mainstream attention.

Online retail investors rallied together to buy DOGE, turning it from a bit of a joke, into a top ten crypto asset. Dogecoin skyrocketed, going from a market capitalization of $1.3 billion to $16.5 billion between January and May 2021.

The value of DOGE tokens increased by thousands of percent, creating huge gains for those who cashed out at the right time. DOGE has no real use cases and there is no cap on its supply. However, it still has a sizable and loyal following on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter.

Dogecoin is among the top ten crypto assets by market capitalization. This stands at over $13 billion at the time of writing.

Buy Dogecoin on eToro

Your capital is at risk. Crypto asset investments are highly volatile and speculative.

9. Polkadot - Innovative Web3 Software Project on the Blockchain

Those looking to invest now for altcoin season 2023 should consider Polkadot. DOT powers an ecosystem whereby creators can develop blockchains and much more. The name comes from the network's ability to connect the dots, allowing blockchains to communicate with one another.

These specialized blockchains are referred to as parachains. Polkadot's development is future-proof and community-driven. Network updates are planned on-chain, implemented independently, and without forking the network.

In recent news, the company behind Polkadot, Web3 Foundation, has engaged with the SEC to make DOT a software product rather than a security. The DOT token's price increased, suggesting that it had positively reacted to the most recent announcement.

DOT started November 2022 with a market capitalization of just over $7 billion. Within a week it increased to a valuation of $8.5 billion.

Buy DOT on eToro

Your capital is at risk. Crypto asset investments are highly volatile and speculative.

10. Cardano - Third-Generation Proof of Stake Blockchain Platform

The native coin of the Cardano blockchain, ADA, is employed to support P2P transactions. Cardano is an open-source blockchain that uses the Ouroboros proof-of-stake model. Scalability, adherence to rules, voter fraud, and interoperability are just some of the issues the Cardano seeks to address.

The peer-reviewed technology used by the network gives it legitimacy and a technical edge over competitors, making it hugely popular in the run-up to the crypto alt season.

Moreover, Cardano is thought to be one of the pioneers of the proof-of-stake mechanism mentioned earlier. This means fast transactions, low fees, and enhanced security. Cardano's market capitalization at the time of writing is almost $14 billion.

Buy Cardano on eToro

Your capital is at risk. Crypto asset investments are highly volatile and speculative.

11. XRP - Underlying Currency of Payment Processing Network Ripple

A well-known digital payment network and protocol built on the blockchain called Ripple has its own currency, XRP. This is one to watch for the next altcoin season.

Similar to the SWIFT system for international money and security transfers, the primary purpose of Ripple is payment settlements.

On the Ripple network, transactions are settled in a matter of seconds, and the platform can handle nearly 1,500 transfers per second. This is clearly preferable to traditional financial institutions, which may need days to complete a wire transfer.

The market capitalization of XRP is over $22 billion at the time of writing.

Buy XRP on eToro

Your capital is at risk. Crypto asset investments are highly volatile and speculative.

What is an Altcoin Season?

Those who invest in cryptocurrencies are typically interested in the idea of 'timing the market' for the best gains.

This entails identifying patterns and trends to guide their entry and departure points when placing an order.

Like with equities, investors have declared different 'seasons' in the crypto markets.

See below:

Better-known seasons include crypto winter and summer

Winter brings market-wide prolonged depressed prices for digital currencies

Meanwhile, DeFi Summer was coined in 2020, with reference to a surge in the popularity of decentralized finance projects

So what exactly is a crypto altcoin season?

Altcoins are digital currencies outside of Bitcoin

This season refers to a shorter period of time when altcoins are on an upward trajectory

This does not include stablecoins such as USDT, BUSD, or PAX, or those pegged to physical assets

Once investors identify the start of an altcoin season, they begin to buy Bitcoin alternatives. The overarching goal is to find altcoins likely to blow up.

In some cases they outperform Bitcoin. On the other hand, it gives investors the chance to enter and make gains from the crypto market without forking out thousands of dollars on a single BTC token.

Altcoin seasons are also a good time for early-bird investors to diversify and find new presale and ICO projects like Dash 2 Trade.

Is it Alt Season Now?

According to the altcoin season index provided by BlockchainCenter, the time has not arrived just yet. To clarify, the index is based on the performance of altcoins in comparison to Bitcoin.

In a nutshell:

If 75% or more of crypto assets have performed better than Bitcoin, it is officially crypto alt season

At the time of writing, only 43% of altcoins have outperformed BTC tokens

As such, this presents early investors with an opportunity to build their portfolio before the next alt season.

As we mentioned earlier, Dash 2 Trade is currently on presale at a discounted price. D2T tokens can be purchased for only $0.0513 each as of writing. This offers a superb entry point before the next altcoin season.

Will There be Another Altcoin Season?

It is inevitable that there will be another altcoin season. As with stock trading and other markets, altcoin prices tend to move in cycles.

As we said, investors refer to these trading cycles as seasons.

As such, investors can be all but sure that at some point, altcoin season will begin. When the market seems to be bullish for Bitcoin, this is usually a sign that an altcoin season is on the horizon.

This is because investors who might not have the funds for a BTC token opt for more affordable cryptocurrencies for fear of missing out. That said, outside influences can always affect the crypto market, so investors will need to conduct thorough research.

On a side note: some investors consider trading signals for tips if they don't understand how to read technical indicators and charts. This is something that will be offered on the upcoming Dash 2 Trade terminal.

When is the Next Altcoin Season?

As we touched on, the next altcoin season will likely be triggered by a Bitcoin pump. That said, an accurate date of when the next altcoin season begins is unknown. The cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and unpredictable for the most part.

That said, as well as checking an alt season index, investors can also look at charts that illustrate Bitcoin's dominance themselves. Bitcoin's overall market capitalization is relative to the rest of the crypto market, and this is one of the best tools for identifying an altcoin season.

Consider that at the time of writing, TradingView's Bitcoin Dominance Index illustrates 40.1%. This indicates that 40.1% of the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is held by Bitcoin. To put this into perspective, Bitcoin's market dominance was over 70% at the end of 2020.

As such, investors might identify an upcoming altcoin season by spotting a significant, long-lasting decline in Bitcoin's market dominance over a period of weeks or months. Another way to identify a potential altcoin season is large-scale hype like that seen in 2020/2021.

Should You Invest Before Altcoin Season?

It's common for investors to start entering positions before altcoin season, although many place orders during too. One of the hardest parts about trading crypto assets is timing the markets.

That is to say, unless the crypto asset is bought and sold at the right time, the investor can make a loss when they close their position.

Investors can look for blockchain trends on various social media sites and exchanges to try and identify the next alt season

For example, this might include an increased interest in analytics platforms, cryptos that can be swapped for carbon credits, or P2E projects like Calvaria

As we said, another signal of a potential altcoin season is when Bitcoin is in the midst of a bull run

At this time, the price of large-cap altcoins tends to increase as well

There is no right or wrong answer to the question of 'should I invest before altcoin season?'. Investors should consider their own interests and goals. It's also important to create a realistic budget and consider diversifying a portfolio to try and mitigate risk.

Another option is to find the best crypto VC firms, such as Block Media Labs, and research their portfolios to see which crypto projects they deem promising and profitable.

Conclusion

Today, we've reviewed the top trending cryptos to buy ahead of the next altcoin season. This includes a range of established and presale Bitcoin alternatives that many believe are a worthy addition to any portfolio.

The best thing about the D2T presale is that tokens can currently be locked in at a price of $0.0513. Once they go live on an exchange, holders of D2T can head over to Dash 2 Trade to claim their tokens.

Furthermore, D2T tokens can be used to pay for a subscription to access a slew of benefits including trading signals and other tools to aid profitability.

Visit Dash 2 Trade Presale Now

FAQs

Will there be an altcoin season in 2023?

It's hard to say whether there will be an altcoin season in 2023. Some market commentators think an alt season is around the corner. That said, investors should make their own decision based on metrics like Bitcoin market dominance charts, and altcoin index data. When 75% of altcoins have outperformed BTC, the alt season begins for most investors.

What is meant by altcoin season?

An altcoin season is what investors call a period of time whereby altcoins experience a short-term bull run. This is usually down to a Bitcoin rally which leads to FOMO, causing smaller investors to buy upcoming or cheaper altcoins. Altcoin season can also be kickstarted by a meme rally or another sharp increase in interest.

What altcoins should I buy in 2022?

Some of the best altcoins to buy in 2022 are Dash 2 Trade's native token D2T, IMPT, and Calvaria's RIA. D2T is on presale and can be used to pay for Dash 2 Trade subscriptions for market insights and analytics. IMPT tokens can be used to buy tradable carbon credit NFTs. Meanwhile, RobotEra (TARO) is a newly launched presale that provides various ways to earn in its P2E and metaverse game.
The German government has blocked the sale of a chip factory to a Swedish subsidiary of a Chinese company. The decision Wednesday comes as Berlin grapples with its future approach to Beijing. The move by the Cabinet follows a recent compromise over a Chinese shipping firms investment in a German container terminal and a visit to Beijing last week by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The governments red light was anticipated after German company Elmos said this week that it had been informed the sale of its chip factory in Dortmund to Chinese-owned Silex Microsystems would likely be prohibited. Germany's economy minister said the government also blocked a second planned investment but wouldnt give more details.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations warned that global food security depends on renewing the U.N.-brokered deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports, saying Tuesday that 828 million people in the world are going to bed hungry every night.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that makes it imperative that the agreement enabling Ukrainian shipments through the Black Sea be extended beyond its scheduled expiration in 11 days.

She said at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that Ukraine has long been a breadbasket for much of the developing world, but Russias invasion turned Ukraines rolling wheat fields into battlefields, and Russian forces have deliberately attacked so much of Ukraines agricultural infrastructure.

Thomas-Greenfield said she told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that food security is a personal priority at a meeting where she also reiterated the United States steadfast support for Ukraine for as long as it takes.

During her day-long visit, the diplomat also announced an additional $25 million to help Ukrainians survive the coming winter as Russian troops bombard their infrastructure. And she discussed ways to ensure accountability for the war crimes and atrocities perpetrated on the Ukrainian people.

At a grain storage facility, Thomas-Greenfield told farmers that she still sees Ukraine as the breadbasket of the world and that extending the wartime deal to facilitate Black Sea shipments of Ukrainian grain which expires on Nov. 18 is a priority for the U.N.

This (war) really has had an impact on the entire global food market, Thomas-Greenfield said.

She said at the news conference that the Russians have spoiled fields, theyve bombed grain silos, and literally stolen tractors.

These are not only horrific attacks on civilian infrastructure, they are also attacks on the worlds food supply, and they have exacerbated the worst food security crisis any of us have ever seen, Thomas-Greenfield said. This extensive sabotage campaign has made matters worse for countries like Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, all of whom are facing famine. And starvation and acute malnutrition are taking other countries by storm.

Major cuts in food and fertilizer shipments from Ukraine and Russia have contributed to global food shortages and higher prices.

U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who is overseeing the Russian side of the grain deal, told the U.N. Security Council last week that Ukraine and Russia provide around 30% of the worlds exported wheat and barley, 20% of its maize, and over 50% of its sunflower oil. Russia is also the worlds largest exporter of fertilizers, accounting for 15% share of global exports.

Russias deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko, said Tuesday that the Kremlin has not yet decided whether to extend its agreement with Turkey and the U.N.

We still have time. We are looking at how this deal is being implemented, following the restoration of our participation, Rudenko said. We are very dissatisfied with how the Russian part is being implemented.

Russia briefly suspended its participation in the deal last week, alleging a Ukrainian drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in Crimea on Oct. 29. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements on July 22 for a Black Sea corridor that cleared the way for the export of grain out of three Ukrainian ports, as well as for shipments of Russian grain and fertilizer. The deal, which established an inspection and monitoring system, will expire Nov. 19 unless it is renewed.

Russias U.N. representatives said last month that a renewed agreement must allow for increased Russian exports of food and fertilizer. Although international sanctions did not target those goods, shipping and insurance companies have been reluctant to deal with Russia following its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Rudenko said Moscow has not yet seen progress in the implementation of the deals provisions regarding Russian food and fertilizer.

Ukrainian farmers told Thomas-Greenfield they wanted milled wheat to be part of any renewed deal. Currently, only unmilled grains are covered. Sergii Kurdytskyi, executive director for Gospodar, a grain and dairy cooperative, told The Associated Press that production and market confidence would suffer if the grain export deal does not continue.

The grain initiative was a rare example of cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian ports were blockaded and mined early in the war, but more than 10 million tons of grain have left the Ukrainian ports for destinations in Africa, Asia and Europe since the Black Sea corridor was established in July.

Ukraines infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, wrote on Twitter that seven more ships were to berth Tuesday in Ukrainian ports, to be loaded with 140,000 tons of grain. But his deputy, Yuri Vaskov, charged that Russia has slowed down the pace of shipments.

Today we have returned to the same problems. Joint inspections have resumed. All four parties participate in the inspection. But now they are planned on average only 12 per day, of which eight or nine are actually completed, Vaslov told the Ukrainian news outlet LIGA.net. The need is 25-30 per day.

According to the Joint Coordination Center, the Turkey-based body established to oversee the inspections of participating ships, 77 vessels were awaiting permission to enter Ukrainian ports while 15 other ships loaded with food were preparing for checks in Turkish waters.

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine and on the food crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/food-crisis
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Allentown Planning Commission advanced a preliminary/final land development plan for an apartment complex at the former headquarters of a daily newspaper Wednesday afternoon at City Hall.

The project, offered by City Center Investment Corporation, calls for a five-story, 248,000 square-foot building with 231 apartment units at the former Morning Call building at 101 N. Sixth Street. The developer is calling for the construction of a pedestrian bridge spanning Sixth Street to an existing parking deck featuring about 320 parking spaces. The firm is planning also to erect 41 parking spaces.

Robert DeLorenzo, senior project manager with City Center, noted studios would rent for $1,300 monthly, with one-bedrooms at $1,500 per month and two-bedrooms at $1,800 per month. He told planners the company's agenda is to subdivide the property into three lots. The company plans to demolish a portion of the existing structure, specifically the newspaper's former printing press.

The new site will feature various amenities, such as a pool, outdoor fire pits, yard games and grills. The proposal calls for the building to have three elevators.

From a design standpoint Jane Heft, vice president of project design and corporate branding, said the building would "pay homage to The Morning Call building."

However, City Center has not yet named the project.

"We have something fun, but we will wait," DeLorenzo said.

The project gained approval from all planning commission members save one.

"I'm going to be voting against the project because of the precedence of the pedestrian bridge over a primary street," Planner Damien Brown said. "The decision about the pedestrian bridge is not one we should gloss over."
Republican Jarrett Coleman appears to have won Pennsylvania's newly redrawn 16th Senate district, which now covers parts of Lehigh County, including Allentown, and some of Bucks County.

Democrat Mark Pinsley conceded Wednesday morning, as Coleman held 55% of the votes, a lead of about 12,000 votes, with almost all precincts reporting.

"I want to congratulate Senator-Elect Coleman on his victory. I wish he and his family well on their new journey," Pinsley said in a statement. "I also want to thank all of my volunteers. I am so grateful for your tireless hours and support. Now we must help the new government succeed so that all Pennsylvanians can live a better life."

Coleman will take over the seat that has been held by fellow Republican Pat Browne since 2005.

Coleman is an airline pilot and a member of the Parkland School Board. Pinsley has been Lehigh County Controller since 2019, and previously served on the South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners.

During an interview with 69 News reporter Bo Koltnow just last week, education was one of the key issues that emerged for both candidates.

Pinsley had said he was in favor of increased spending, revamping the fair funding formula, more money for teachers and higher taxes on the state's fossil fuel industry.

"We know that we're subsidizing the fossil fuel industry by $4 billion, who currently see profits, I think, in excess of 200% of the prior year," Pinsley said. "Let's move that towards the kids."

Coleman, who's on the Parkland School Board, has a large financial backing from the state's richest resident, Jeff Yass  who's been called a single-issue donor  for school vouchers and charter schools.

Coleman says instead of traditional vouchers, he favors lifeline scholarships, where there's not as large of a funding hit for sponsoring schools.

"A competitive educational process, which would include vouchers like the lifeline scholarships, because this is the only industry where people try to tell me that competition isn't good," Coleman said.

On voting, Coleman wants complete uniformity across the state and voter identification. He's not a fan of drop boxes and would repeal the "no excuse" mail-in balloting. He says the pandemic is over, and it's a person's duty to vote in person.

"I would support maybe an early voting in person to allow more, you know, more access that way, if you want to say that," Coleman said, "but I just, I just don't support the unexcused mail in ballots." He said, however, he would be OK with traditional absentee balloting.

Pinsley wanted reinforced voting laws to reassure voters, but would rather have a rank-choice voting system.

"If your first choice doesn't win, then it goes to the second one, goes to the third one until you hit 50%," Pinsley explained. "I would much rather see something like that because then independents, Green Party, any party actually has a chance of winning."

The candidates also shared different views on finance and spending.

Pinsley said by cutting wasteful spending, the state could provide basic health care for all. He'd close the Delaware loophole, which allows corporations to skip out on paying taxes here. According to Keystone Research Center and Budget Policy Center, 76% of businesses don't pay taxes in the state.

Coleman wouldn't close the loophole, and he'd immediately lower the state corporate tax rate to 5%. He's also in favor of term limits and pension reform.

When the discussion turned to gun control during a WFMZ-TV Business Matters debate last month, Coleman said he supported the Second Amendment with "some common sense" provisions.

Pinsley accused Coleman of supporting weapons such as the AR-15. He noted these weapons "destroy people." Pinsley noted that he had served in the military and was more aware of what these weapons could do than Coleman.

The two men then argued with each other about who was, and who was not, an "election denier." Pinsley said Coleman denied President Joe Biden's 2020 victory, while Coleman said Pinsley denied former President Donald Trump's 2016 victory.

On abortion, Coleman said he was pro-life, "but I understand exceptions." He then said Pinsley was so "extreme that he will fight to have an abortion up to birth." Not only this, Coleman said, but he'd have taxpayers pay for it.

Pinsley denied that he was extreme, and said that he supported the Roe vs. Wade 1973 ruling.

When asked why they should be elected, Pinsley said "we are a creative people" and collectively we could end "toxic partisanship."

Coleman responded by saying also that people "needed to work together" but that voters "know what is working and what's not working" and needed courage to change the latter.

Get all the 2022 general election results at 69 News Election Central.
Democrat Nicholas Miller's campaign says Republican Dean Browning has conceded the race to represent Pennsylvania's 14th Senate District.

Browning confirmed that he congratulated Miller on the win and wished him well in his new position.

"Im honored to be the next Senator for the Lehigh Valley," Miller said in a statement Wednesday.

"Im committed to fighting for good schools, a strong local economy, and safe communities. Id like to thank all of my volunteers, the voters, and our community for stepping up to make this happen. I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis to serve the district and be an effective leader in Harrisburg."

Miller holds a 53% to 47% lead, with 118 of 120 precincts reporting.

The recently redistricted seat includes whole or sections of 20 municipalities in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

There is no incumbent.

Miller is a member of the Allentown School District Board of Directors.

Browning is a former chairman of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners.

Miller has categorized himself as a "moderate Democrat," and a "middle-of-the-road kind of guy." Miller said during a WFMZ-TV-Business Matters debate that he wanted to spend taxpayer money on infrastructure improvements and improving the public school system.

Browning said enough money has been spent on the public school system in Allentown. Those dollars have not produced the promised results and was "an unmitigated failure," he said.

"We need school choice," Browning said.

During the debate, when asked about school safety, both men agreed public safety is essential for a functioning society but diverged on how to accomplish it. Browning said "we need more police officers, not fewer."

Miller lamented what he called his opponents' "politicalization" of the police department, while acknowledging police officers are needed. He said additional public sector spending in mental health programs and instituting "reasonable gun control" would improve public safety.

During the debate, the candidates were asked about their thoughts on abortion. Both candidates responded along traditional party lines, with Browning saying he was pro-life and children "deserve to be protected," and Miller saying he was "pro-choice" and supports a woman's right to choose.

An industry important to Pennsylvania is fracking. Miller responded that while he was not against the business, he said the fracking industry must be "accountable." He added that it was important "to keep our environment clean" while we transition gradually toward more "renewable energy."

Browning's answer was direct, saying he favored fracking and "doing more of it. Everything we can."
A newly redrawn legislative district in Pennsylvania will have a Democratic representative.

Voters picked Josh Siegel to fill the 22nd House district spot, over Republican Robert Smith Jr.

Siegel was declared winner midday Wednesday, after holding on to 64% of the votes over Smith's 36%.

State Rep. Peter Schewyer currently holds the position, but is running in a different district after boundary lines were redrawn earlier this year, leaving no incumbent.

The new 22nd District covers a section of Lehigh County, including all of East Allentown, parts of Center City Allentown and Salisbury Township.

Siegel is a member of Allentown City Council and was the youngest ever elected to the body. He currently works in the Lehigh County Controller's office as chief of staff and assistant operations manager.

Smith works for a company that helps to rehabilitate individuals with brain injuries. He formerly served as a member of the Allentown School Board for 16 years and on Allentown City Council from 1998-2000.

Smith's campaign emphasized protecting family values, quality education and parents' rights, safe communities and energy independence to lower energy costs. He calls for repealing the state's gas tax, providing school choice and "fighting for strong borders where illegal drugs are coming in very easily now."

Siegel says he supports fully funding public education and "taking on the charter school industry," using land-use reform to create more rental and owner-occupied housing opportunities, raising the minimum wage and regulating campaign financing and spending.

In August, Siegel introduced to Allentown City Council four abortion-related ordinances that sought to prevent restrictions on abortion access.

Get all the 2022 general election results at 69 News Election Central.
Fake OneCoin-selling Surgeon and Businessman Jailed in Argentina

Source: Svetoslav Radkov/Adobe

A criminal court in Argentinas Cordoba has jailed two men  a businessman and a surgeon  for their part in developing a pyramid scheme based on selling fake tokens they claim were affiliated with the OneCoin crypto scam.

Clarin reported that the court sentenced the 33-year-old Adolfo Rodrigo Dominguez to three years and six months behind bars. Another man, Aldo Javier Leguizamon (53), was given a term of four years and three months at the same trial.

The court heard that the duo was part of an illicit association that carried out scams that involved selling OneCoin tokens, as well as Zeven Coin. However, the duo also made use of several other fake tokens they claimed could be swapped for OneCoin holdings.

Many of these coins were not actually real, the court heard. In fact, they were part of a ruse that the two men used to disguise a pyramid scheme that drew in victims from Argentina, as well as Uruguay and Panama.

Prosecutors explained that the duo encouraged new clients to take up membership in their project. This tiered membership program allowed new recruits to join a community of users of financial and commercial services.

And the more clients invested, the more privileged information and little-known tokens they could expect to receive. These coins, the men assured their victims, could be converted into OneCoin holdings.

All of their victims transactions, however, turned out to be fake  and were engineered to look as though they had actually taken place on crypto exchanges. In fact, these turned out to be non-existent trading platforms.

The duo also made use of the Deal Shaker e-commerce platform  an exchange that claims to accept payments in OneCoin.

Defendants: We Were OneCoin Victims, Too!

The court also heard that the defendants claimed that they themselves had been the victims of the wider OneCoin scam  and pleaded for clemency.

OneCoin is one of the most infamous crypto scams ever hatched, and is set to become the subject of a major Hollywood movie. It was masterminded by Ruja Ignatova, dubbed the missing cryptoqueen by a BBC podcast series of the same name.

Earlier this year, Ignatova was added to Europols list of most wanted fugitives. Her brother Konstantin Ignatov, another OneCoin kingpin, pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in the United States in 2019.
BELVIDERE, N.J.  Three candidates were competing to become Warren County's next surrogate, following the death of Kevin O'Neill earlier this year.

Republican state Sen. Michael Doherty took 61% of the votes, according to the county's unofficial results.

Democrat Maureen McCabe, former Lopatcong Township councilwoman, had 33% of votes, and Independent John Massaro took 5%.

Doherty currently represents District 23, which includes parts of Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren counties in New Jersey. Prior to joining the state Senate in 2009, Doherty served on the Warren County Board of Freeholders, now known as commissioners.

McCabe secured the nomination of the Warren County Democratic Committee in September. Then, John Massaro filed a nomination by petition and threw his hat into the ring for the seat a second time after losing to O'Neill as a Democrat in 2020.

According to the Warren County website, the surrogate is the judge of the Surrogate's Court and has three jobs: to preside over probating of wills; to receive, file and organize the paperwork for the state Superior Court if there is a challenge to a will, a dispute regarding the settlement or an estate or the need for a guardianship; and to serve as the custodian of funds for minors who have funds placed in the Surrogate's Court.

Doherty, the apparent winner of Tuesday's race, will serve the full five-year term as surrogate.

Get all the 2022 general election results at 69 News Election Central.
Federal health officials are conducting a new study to determine whether veterans once stationed at a now-shuttered California military base were exposed to dangerously high levels of cancer-causing toxins.

The decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes nine months after an Associated Press investigation found that drinking water at Fort Ord contained toxic chemicals and that hundreds of veterans who lived at the central California coast base in the 1980s and 1990s later developed rare and terminal blood cancers.

In a letter last Friday to Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., the director of the CDCs Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Patrick Breysse, wrote that there are sufficient data and scientific reasons for ATSDR to re-evaluate health risks related to historical drinking water exposures at Fort Ord. Porter had asked for a new study in February, two days after the AP published its story.

The agency did not immediately respond to a request seeking further details about the new study.

Army veteran Julie Akey, who lived at Fort Ord and was diagnosed in 2016 at the age of 46 with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer, said she is confident that science will prove our high rate of cancers and illnesses are not a coincidence.

Akey started a Facebook group for Fort Ord veterans with cancer. The number has grown to nearly 1,000.

In 1990, four years before it began the process of closing as an active military base, Fort Ord was added to the Environmental Protection Agencys list of the most polluted places in the nation. Included in that pollution were dozens of chemicals, some now known to cause cancer, that were found in the bases drinking water and soil.

The APs review of public documents showed the Army knew that chemicals had been improperly dumped at Fort Ord for decades. Even after the contamination was documented, the Army played down the risks.

One of those chemicals was trichloroethylene, or TCE, which was known as a miracle degreaser and was widely used at Fort Ord. The Army found TCE in Fort Ords wells 43 separate times from 1985 to 1994, and 18 of those tests showed TCE exceeded legal safety limits.

The new health study will update one conducted more than 25 years ago. The previous ATSDR public health study, published in 1996, found that toxins in the soil and in the aquifers below Fort Ord were not likely to pose a past, present or future threat to those living there.

But that conclusion was based on limited data supplied by the military and before medical science understood the relationship between some of the chemical exposures and cancer, particularly TCE. Four years after the ATSDRs assessment, in 2000, the Department of Health and Human Services added TCE to its roster of chemicals known to cause cancer.

Its unclear how long and at what concentrations TCE may have been in the water before 1985, when hundreds of thousands of people lived on the base. And TCE wasnt the only problem. The EPA identified more than 40 chemicals of concern in soil and groundwater.

The Department of Veterans Affairs told the AP earlier this year that the contamination was within the allowable safe range in areas that provided drinking water.

Veterans who lived at Fort Ord and have since tried to get medical care or disability benefits through the VA based on their cancers have repeatedly been denied. Akey and others hope the new study will find a link between their cancers and their time at Fort Ord, allowing them to get care and benefits.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta grew up next to Fort Ord, went through basic training on the base and now runs a nonprofit institute there. He said a new health study is an important next step for veterans.

They were willing to serve their country and put their lives on the line, and as a result of their willingness to serve, I think we really owe it to them, he said.

Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.
ROME (AP)  A moderate earthquake shook Italys northeastern coast early Wednesday, causing some cracks in buildings and prompting at least one health clinic to evacuate. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Premier Giorgia Meloni was in constant contact with Italys civil protection agency monitoring the situation, her office said in a statement.

Italys vulcanology institute said the 5.7-magnitude temblor struck at 7:07 a.m. (0507GMT) with an epicenter in the Adriatic Sea off Ancona, in the north-central Le Marche region. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.6 and added it was at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).

Italian news reports said Anconas private Villa Igea clinic evacuated patients as a precaution.
READING, Pa.  Reading's lone member of Congress, Chrissy Houlahan, will be returning to Washington for another two years.

With 55% of the vote, Houlahan was declared the winner at 2:33 a.m. Wednesday over her Republican challenger, Guy Ciarrocchi, in her bid to win a third term as the representative of Pennsylvania's 6th District.

That district includes all of the state's fourth most populous city, as well as its southern suburbs in Berks County and most of Chester County.

Houlahan is a U.S. Air Force veteran whose first election in the 2018 midterm helped the Democrats regain control of the House halfway through then-President Donald Trump's time in the White House. She replaced U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican who chose not to seek reelection.

Houlahan has served on the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Small Business committees.

Ciarrocchi, who lives in Paoli, Chester County, has been the CEO of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry since 2014. He previously served as chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, and state Sen. Melissa Hart.

In addition to Reading, the 6th District includes the Berks boroughs of Birdsboro, Kenhorst, Mohnton, Mt. Penn, New Morgan, Shillington, Sinking Spring, St. Lawrence, West Reading, and Wyomissing as well as the county's portion of Adamstown and many of those borough's surrounding townships.
READING, Pa.  Winners have been declared in some of the races for the Pennsylvania House of Representative districts that include Berks County; others remained undeclared Wednesday morning.

In the 99th District, which is new to Berks County, Republican incumbent Dave Zimmerman, with 72% of the vote, was declared the winner over Democrat Joshua Caltagirone.

The district includes Adamstown and Mohnton boroughs and parts of Cumru and Spring townships as well as several municipalities in neighboring Lancaster County.

In the 124th District, Republican Jamie Barton, with 69% of the vote, was declared the winner over Democrat Tina Burns.

Barton will take the seat held by fellow Republican Jerry Knowles, who announced earlier this year that he would not be seeking another term.

The district consists of the Berks boroughs of Hamburg, Kutztown, and Lenhartsville along with several surrounding townships and part of Schuylkill County, including Auburn, Deer Lake, Orwigsburg, and Port Clinton.

In the 126th District, incumbent Democrat Mark Rozzi, with 63% of the vote, was declared the winner over Republican James Oswald.

The district consists of part of Reading and the boroughs of Laureldale, Mt. Penn, and St. Lawrence as well as Lower Alsace and Muhlenberg townships and part of Exeter Township.

In the 127th District, incumbent Democrat Manny Guzman, with 66% of the vote, was declared the winner over Republican Vincent Gagliardo Jr.

The district consists of part of Reading, the boroughs of Kenhorst and Shillington, and part of Cumru Township.

In the 129th District, Democrat Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, with 58% of the vote, was declared the winner over Republican Barry Llewellyn.

Cepeda-Freytiz will replace Republican Jim Cox, who announced in March that he would not seek another term. He first took office in 2007.

The district consists of part of Reading, the boroughs of Sinking Spring, West Reading, and Wyomissing and part of Spring Township.
NORRISTOWN, Pa.  Democrat U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean emerged victorious over Republican Christian Nascimento in her bid for a third term in Pennsylvania's 4th District.

The Associated Press declared Dean the race's winner at 11:26 p.m. Tuesday.

Dean joined Congress after winning the last midterm election 2018, halfway through then-President Trump's time in the White House. She has served on the House judiciary and financial services committees.

Dean previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She and her husband have three grown sons and four grandchildren and live in Abington Township, Montgomery County.

Nascimento lives with his wife and their four children in Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County. He is the vice president of product for Comcast.

The 4th District was redrawn since the last election to take in a larger chunk of Berks County. It now extends from Topton to the border between Montgomery and Philadelphia counties and includes the Berks boroughs of Bally, Bechtelsville, Boyertown, Fleetwood, Kutztown, Laureldale, Leesport, Lenhartsville, Lyons, and Topton and many of their surrounding townships.
"Collaboration, in essence, is kind of a definition of community, right," Nicole Deary said. "It's the idea that we're all here for each other and we're in it together.
BANGKOK (AP)  Southeast Asian leaders convene in the Cambodian capital Thursday, faced with the challenge of trying to curtail escalating violence in Myanmar while the countrys military-led government shows no signs of complying with the groups peace plan.

U.S. President Joe Biden will be on hand for the Phnom Penh summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which comes as Washington and Beijing are increasingly jockeying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region. It sets the stage for the Group of 20 meetings in Bali, Indonesia, that immediately follow and are expected to include Chinese President Xi Jinping and possibly Russian President Vladimir Putin, then the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bangkok.

In addition to Myanmar, the meetings, which run through the weekend, are expected to focus on ongoing disputes in the South China Sea, pandemic recovery issues, regional trade and climate change.

Neither Xi nor Putin is expected to attend the ASEAN talks or the parallel East Asia Summit, though both China and Russia are thought to be sending high-level delegations headed by Prime Minister Li Keqiang and possibly Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Looming large over ASEAN, the G-20 and APEC are the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Russia's consequent search for new markets for its energy resources, as well as resulting supply chain and food security issues, China's increasingly aggressive saber-rattling over Taiwan, and rising tension in the Korean Peninsula.

By attending the ASEAN summit in person, Biden will be able to push American interests and also visibly demonstrate Washington's renewed commitment to the region, said Thomas Daniel, an expert with Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump skipped the summits after 2017 and left the 2017 meetings early, before the plenary session of the East Asia Summit, a key regional strategic dialogue, leaving then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to stand in for him.

For Southeast Asia it's really important to physically show up, and I think the Americans are very aware of this, Daniel said. I cannot emphasize how much damage was done by the Trump administration not showing up  and it's not just not showing up, it's sending representatives that are seen as just further downgrades.

ASEAN this year is elevating the U.S. to a comprehensive strategic partnership status  a largely symbolic enhancement of their relationship but one that puts Washington on the same level as China, which was granted the distinction last year.

Ahead of the summit, Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the talks would be an opportunity to work on a broad range of diplomatic priorities across the region" and to focus on carrying out everything we've promised rather than coming forward with another long list of new initiatives.

A high-level U.S. presence at these summits will demonstrate our strong and enduring commitment to the region, he said at a late October roundtable hosted by Washingtons Center for Strategic and International Studies.

From the president to the secretary of state, throughout the entire U.S. government, we know that Americas future security and prosperity are entirely dependent on what happens in the Indo-Pacific, he said.

China's Foreign Ministry did not mention the U.S. when outlining details of Li Keqiang's upcoming appearance, saying only that the country is committed to its foreign policy of maintaining world peace and promoting common developments.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose country has the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, has invited Ukraine to participate in the summit and the country's foreign minister met with Hun Sen ahead of the event on Wednesday.

Hun Sen's office said he spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone at the start of the month, and that the Ukrainian leader had requested to address the summit by video, but it was not immediately clear if that had been approved.

Kritenbrink applauded the inclusion of Ukraine, and said the U.S. was working with its ASEAN friends to ensure that Ukraine meaningfully participates and that the (East Asia Summit) partners send a strong message that big countries cannot simply take what they want from smaller neighbors.

He added that the U.S. would talk with ASEAN nations about additional steps to put pressure on Myanmar's regime to push it to stop the killings and move toward a democratic path.

We are not going to sit idly by while this violence continues, Kritenbrink said.

ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, has tried to play a peacemaking role since shortly after the countrys military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in February 2021.

At a special meeting at the end of October, the foreign ministers of ASEAN's other members  Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei  acknowledged their efforts to bring peace hadn't succeeded and called for concrete, practical and time-bound actions to support the implementation of its five-point peace plan.

It calls for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all sides.

Myanmars government initially agreed to it but has made little effort to implement it, aside from seeking humanitarian aid and allowing ASEANs envoy, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, to visit. But it refused to allow him to meet with Suu Kyi, who was arrested and is being tried on a variety of charges that critics say are meant to sideline her from politics.

In response, ASEAN has not allowed Myanmars leaders to participate in its official meetings, and Myanmar has rejected the idea of sending non-political representation to the summit, though working-level officials have joined some pre-summit meetings.

ASEAN foreign ministers in August concluded a meeting with a joint statement criticizing Myanmar for its lack of progress, but little more, deciding to instead leave the issue for the leaders to decide in Phnom Penh.

It could be, however, that the leaders also choose to wait until Indonesia, which has taken a tougher stand on Myanmar, takes the chair of the bloc in 2023, before taking more decisive action.

There is every chance that they might choose to delay and kick this down the road again, Daniel, the analyst, said.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are likely to make significant gains in the chamber, and some even see hope they could retake the majority once smoke clears from the Tuesday election they began with a 23-seat gap behind the Republicans.

With vote counting still underway, Democrats were facing a couple of potential losses in western Pennsylvania and one in Wilkes-Barre, while Republicans were trailing in key races outside Philadelphia and others near Harrisburg, the Poconos and the Pittsburgh area.

Democratic House leaders said at a Wednesday news conference in Philadelphia that their survey of county election results and analysis of how uncounted mail-in and provisional ballots are likely to shake out gave them confidence they will return to the majority for the first time in 12 years.

"Here, in the birthplace of our nation, in the birthplace of our democracy, it is much more than symbolic that we will finally have a woman that has the gavel in the Pennsylvania House, said Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, in line to become speaker if her party's predictions are correct.

Republicans hold the chamber 113-90, so Democrats would need a net pickup of 12 to retake the majority for the first time in 12 years. House Republican spokesperson Jason Gottesman cast doubt on McClinton's prediction.

We believe the Democrats claiming the majority at this time is premature, and were continuing to monitor several close races across the commonwealth," Gottesman said.

More favorable district maps and wins by Democrats in high-profile races for governor and U.S. Senate, along with Republican retirements, contributed to the shift.

Redistricting had an effect, but I mean the biggest thing was having fair districts, said Trevor Southerland, executive director of the House Democratic Campaign Committee. Pennsylvania, its a purple state and everybody knows that. Its absurd to think our state House shouldnt be competitive, and it was very competitive last night."

With more members in the House, the GOP had more targets to defend. The state Senate is expected to remain in Republican control.

Democrats won three House races in Allegheny County districts in which their candidates are not expected to serve. State Rep. Summer Lee was unopposed for another term but was also elected Tuesday to Congress. Rep. Austin Davis won reelection but was also elected lieutenant governor, on the ticket with Attorney General Josh Shapiro. And Rep. Tony Deluca easily won another term a month after his death from cancer.

Democratic leaders said Lee and Davis will be available to vote at the very start of the 2023-24 session in January, helping their party take over. It will be up to House speaker to schedule special elections to fill those vacancies next year.

Rep. Chris Sainato conceded his race in the Lawrence County district he has represented in Harrisburg for 28 years. Sainato, a Democrat, said his opponent won by going after his use of legislative expenses in television ads and direct mail. He was among a dwindling number of rural Democratic lawmakers from western Pennsylvania.

Demographics have changed in western Pennsylvania, Sainato said in a phone interview Wednesday. There was only four of us left when there used to be 20. I usually survive this thing.

A Democratic House majority would be a major boost to Josh Shapiro, the Democratic attorney general who was just elected governor. House Democrats said they would stick together to maintain a governing majority even if it's narrow, pointing to their repeated votes to uphold vetoes of GOP bills during eight years under outgoing Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

Rep. Matt Bradford, of Montgomery County, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said at the news conference that a priority will be to give counties more advance time to start processing mail-in ballots before elections.

Majority status would also give Democrats greater leverage in dividing up billions in budget surplus, stimulus money and reserves, and would allow them to block five constitutional amendments that legislative Republicans have positioned for final votes early next year that could put them before voters in the May primary.
The Democratic Partys most powerful voices are warning that abortion, Social Security and democracy itself are at risk as they labor to overcome fierce political headwinds over the final weekend of the 2022 campaign. At a rally in Pittsburgh, former President Barack Obama told several hundred voters that sulking and moping is not an option. Looking ahead to Election Day on Tuesday, he said, The only way to save democracy is if we, together, fight for it. In Philadelphia, President Joe Biden joined Obama at another rally. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump campaigned in southwest Pennsylvania to boost Republicans, calling the U.S. "a country in decline under Democrats.
BRUSSELS (AP)  U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will hold their next scheduled summit in Lithuania next July, the military alliances top civilian official said Wednesday, as Russias war on Ukraine fuels security tensions in Europe and the North Atlantic region.

We face the most complex and unpredictable security environment since the Cold War, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, as he announced that heads of state and government from the 30 member nations would meet in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on July 11-12, 2023.

Stoltenberg said the leaders would discuss ways to boost the defenses of NATO member countries near Russia and Ukraine, and continue their support to the war-ravaged country.

They will also review defense spending, which increased steadily after Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014 but then rose steeply after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February.
NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP)  A Texas jury sentenced a woman to death Wednesday for killing a pregnant woman she knew to take her unborn daughter.

Jurors returned with the sentence for Taylor Parker, 29, after deliberating for just over an hour, the Texarkana Gazette reported. The same Bowie County jury convicted Parker on Oct. 3 of capital murder in the 2020 slaying of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, whose baby was cut from her womb and did not survive.

In a statement to the court, Simmons-Hancocks mother addressed Parker as an evil piece of flesh demon.

My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach, Jessica Brooks said.

Simmons-Hancocks body was found Oct. 9, 2020, at her home in New Boston, a city of about 4,600 people that's 160 miles (258 kilometers) northeast of Dallas. Her 3-year-old daughter was at home when her mother was killed.

Later that morning, Parker claimed shed just given birth after being pulled over by a state trooper for speeding and driving erratically. The baby, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, was taken to a hospital in Oklahoma, where she was pronounced dead.

Prosecutors have said that in an attempt to keep her boyfriend, Parker made herself look pregnant, faked ultrasounds and even had a gender-reveal party.

Homer Hancock, Simmons-Hancocks husband, testified that Parker and his wife were somewhat friends, and that Parker had taken their engagement and wedding photos.

In closing statements, prosecutor Kelley Crisp showed jurors a crime scene photo of Simmons-Hancock soaked in blood on the floor. She told jurors that Parker needed to be sentenced to death because she's a danger. She said that in addition to having her baby ripped from her womb, Simmons-Hancock was slashed hundreds of times and beaten.

Parker's attorney, Jeff Harrelson, told jurors in closing statements that words can be used to dehumanize," and said that there are layers and shades of gray to peoples lives.

She is a human, he said.

Harrelson also said Parker was let down by her friends and family, who didn't confront her about the fake pregnancy.

There was no safety net when everyone saw the wheels were off," he said.
Over half of Cumberland Countys $49 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds were set aside Wednesday afternoon to cover general fund expenditures and future capital improvement projects.

County commissioners voted 2-1 to allocate $25 million toward eventual facility upgrades and to offset county revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioners Jean Foschi and Vince DiFilippo voted in favor of the allocation while Commissioner Gary Eichelberger voted against it.

That decision came just minutes after the same majority voted to award $1.2 million in ARPA grants to eight projects spearheaded by local nonprofit organizations.

ARPA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. The legislation includes $350 billion for eligible state, county and local governments. Of that, the county received $49,214,152.

In September 2021, the commissioners approved the allocation of $2.5 million of ARPA money to three local higher education institutions, awarding $1.4 million to Central Penn College, $600,000 to Messiah University and $500,000 to Shippensburg University.

Since then, the county has developed a process on how to allocate the remaining $46.7 million by making grants available to support physical health and mental health initiatives, infrastructure projects and business/nonprofit COVID-19 recovery efforts.

The commissioners voted unanimously on Oct. 12 to award 17 organizations $7.1 million in grants for health initiatives. Two weeks later, on Oct. 26, the commissioners voted 2-1 to award 21 projects $6.34 million in grants for infrastructure upgrades throughout the county. Eichelberger voted against that allocation.

Total grant awards Wednesday came out to $1,210,718.

Below is the list of the ARPA grants to local nonprofit organizations:

New Hope Ministries Inc. of Hampden Township

$350,000

To renovate and improve its Enola Center service site

Joseph T. Simpson Public Library in Mechanicsburg

$318,850

To acquire and renovate the Agway building at 45 W. Allen St.

Employment Skills Center in Carlisle

$133,441

To provide a nurse aide training site and to provide for greater staff security.

United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County

$129,645

To renovate the interior of the United Way building at 125 S. Hanover St.

Cleve J. Fredricksen Library in Camp Hill

$79,843

To create a courtyard for outdoor childrens programming

Coy Public Library in Shippensburg

$78,252

To support a multiphase project to its outdoor meeting and program space.

Carlisle Tool Library

$66,500

To purchase the property the nonprofit currently rents

Maranatha-Carlisle

$54,187

To help support a financial literacy course and to accept additional charitable clients who are in need of services
The dust has settled after the Arts Council's brutal redistribution of its national portfolio funding  but my fury remains. There's so much to be angry about in the aftermath of Friday's announcement, it's hard to know where to start.

You can't precisely blame Arts Council chairman Nicholas Serota or chief executive Darren Henley for carrying out the instructions of a hostile culture secretary  Nadine Dorries  who demanded that 24 million of funding was moved outside London. They are, I suppose, doing their jobs. Nor can you begrudge the fantastic organisations who have moved inside the portfolio for 2023-26. There are some fabulous newcomers (260 in all), doing exciting work, and hats off to them.

Nor can you really blame people who are going hungry, and worrying about feeding their children, heating their homes and paying their mortgages and rents in the grip of the worst cost of living crisis in a generation to fail to take to the streets in outrage about a few theatres and opera companies having their state support taken away.

Yet it's still possible to feel rage that the Arts Council's announcement, long feared, was met with such acquiescence. It's as if, as a country, we are so used to expecting the worst, that fight has ebbed away even from our public statements. The entire national portfolio budget is 446 million. In 2020, our current prime minister Rishi Sunak spent 849 million in a single month on Eat Out to Help Out, a scheme now generally regarded as a wasteful disaster.

One month of that money would have meant that it would have been entirely possible for the Arts Council to support all of the new organisations it has kept in the portfolio, while continuing to support the majority of those it has cut. Hell, they could even have given a few more top-performing organisations extra money.

This is a government prepared to throw money about when it suits them. They wasted 120 million on Unboxed, a post-Brexit festival that has been so ill-conceived and so under-attended that no-one actually remembers that it is still going on.

It is all about priorities. The arts and culture industry generates nearly 11 billion in income for the Exchequer every year. Yet the sector will continue to be treated with suspicion and contempt by a government that does not really believe in their transformative powers  and perhaps distrusts their tendency to promote debate and discussion. This distrust of one of the areas that has made Britain a world-beater has been a scandal for 12 years and does not get any less scandalous just because the entire economy is collapsing. The arts lives on crumbs already.

I think, in the midst of all this, I want to note three things. Every decision to cut funding for an organisation is a choice to take a living away from people. The arts sector is already reeling from the fact that during the pandemic so many of the freelancers who built its sets, who ran its lighting, and who crewed its stages, were forced to take their very adaptable skills elsewhere. They couldn't survive in the places they wanted to work.

The blows to the artistic infrastructure caused by the NPOs announcement, particularly in London, will continue that process. Trained, skilled and talented people will simply walk away from a career to which they have devoted their entire adult lives. The expertise loss will be huge.

The experience drain will be equally notable; talented theatre-makers and dance-makers now in their 60s, who have lost funding, will be tempted to walk away rather than continue to struggle. The guidance and inspiration that young talent gains from working alongside people who have already built their careers will be lost. Withdrawing funding from established venues and artists is like throwing away years of investment, particularly if they only lost funding because they no longer ticked the required boxes.

Secondly, it is a complete fallacy to think that London is separated from the rest of the country. I grew up in Manchester and began work in the Midlands. I am thrilled by every penny of arts spending that ends up outside London. I know just how important it is for local communities to have access to the arts. But it is just idiotic of the government not to notice the ways that London and its organisations nurture the work that happens outside the capital.

To take one obvious example: the new writers supported by Hampstead, the Gate, and the Donmar (all dropped from the portfolio) make an impact well beyond London, providing work for regional stages. Just as invidiously, Papatango, which exists to support new writing through its productions and its prize, failed to be included because it didn't meet the Levelling Up for Culture criteria. It's based in the South, yet its excellence spreads.

The London Coliseum

 User:Colin / Wikimedia Commons

This is a ridiculous way to treat an arts eco-structure, just as it is ill-considered to believe that any of the problems afflicting English National Opera will be solved by a move to Manchester, which is now the plan. Ironically, that will leave the North arguably over-provisioned with opera while the South sees cuts to the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne as well as ENO.

It's also true that companies who are based in one place, often tour to others or allow others to create work. It's the Glyndebourne touring arm that was supported and has now been cut; English National Ballet which is facing a reduction in grant is a touring company with all the costs that incurs. Sadler's Wells, which also had a funding cut, supports work across the country and in Europe, a valuable sign of soft power. The National Theatre has made it a priority in recent years to collaborate with theatres in the regions in a succession of successful co-productions, which has enriched the work in both places. Its funding reduction also seems not to notice NT Live, which is one way in which every part of the country has access to hit shows.

My final source of concern is that underlying this round of awards, is a final breach with the post-war consensus on arts funding. There's no doubt that opera and classical music are the big losers in this funding round; but so are theatres that the Council clearly judges can raise funds from other sources such as the Donmar (trendy, well-to-do patrons), Hampstead (ditto) and the Watermill in leafy Newbury.

At some levels, the assumption in a time of poverty that these organisations will find a way to continue, is possibly fair. But the Keynesian idea was that all art should be available to everybody. On this level playing field, you'd support the work of Company Three (which allows teenagers to tell their own stories and is now  hurrah  an NPO) and the Royal Ballet, which faces a cut, but which represents excellence in its field.

Subsidy used to be a way of opening up opportunities both for on-the-ground talent, devising new work, and for increased access to traditional art forms that might conceivably inspire that young endeavour. I am not very fond of opera and ignorant about classical music though I adore ballet and dance. But whatever my personal view, I recognise that a country that does not value high art is a country in danger of turning its back on the idea of culture for all.

This Arts Council funding round skirts dangerously close to an assumption that if people want a certain type of culture, then they can pay for it; a two-tier approach that says the rich get one thing and the less-well-off can have another. That divisiveness bothers me in my soul.
Following a postponement in 2020, Martin McDonagh's Olivier Award-winning play The Pillowman will come into the West End in 2023.

Directed by Matthew Dunster (Hangmen, A Very Very Very Dark Matter), the play tells the story of a writer questioned by authorities about a series of murders that bear similarities to her short stories.

This production will star WhatsOnStage Award-winner Lily Allen as Katurian, with Steve Pemberton as Tupolski. The show marks Allen's return to the stage after appearing in the world premiere of 2:22 A Ghost Story last summer.

The piece will have set and costume design by Anna Fleischle, sound design by Ian Dickinson and casting by Amy Ballfur. Further casting is to be announced at a later date.

McDonagh commented: "I'm thrilled that The Pillowman is finally making its West End premiere. It's a play that's always been very close to my heart, in terms of its combination of dark comedy with its exploration of the nature of story-telling itself and the role of the artist in society. With so many personal freedoms under attack by governments and religions around the world I think it's a perfect time to put this play on.

"I am a huge admirer of both Steve Pemberton and Lily Allen - their intelligence, their wit, their fun - and having Lily play Katurian, the first time this role has been played by a woman in an English-speaking version, is just so, so exciting to me."

The West End show will run at the Duke of York's Theatre from 10 June 2023 to 2 September 2023. Tickets will go on general sale from 11 November, though previous purchasers will be contacted ahead of time.

Allen commented: "One of our most inventive playwrights, Martin McDonagh, is renowned for pushing boundaries and it's a privilege to join this show. Together with my incredible 2.22 director Matthew Dunster, I am excited to help create a production of The Pillowman that is sorely needed right now in these unprecedented times. I can't wait to bring it to life each night on stage and for audiences to get to experience it."

McDonagh's work includes The Banshees of Inisherin, which is currently in cinemas and the Academy Award-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

His previous play The Cripple of Inishmaan won Daniel Radcliffe a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play, while The Pillowman's first run was at the National Theatre in 2003  it was then revived in 2009 in Leicester.
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Sunny this morning then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High 67F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely late. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Today, three new partners - Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Masdar and Swiss Re - have officially joined the Energy Transition Accelerator Financing Platform (ETAF), Irenas global climate finance platform aimed at mobilising capital to scale up renewable project funding in developing countries by 2030.

The ETAF Platform, managed by Irena, leverages its partners proven track record in innovative financial solutions to deliver impact to Irenas member countries.

It also benefits from the UAEs climate investment leadership in the run-up to COP28 hosted by the UAE in 2023.

Cooperation agreements with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Masdar and Swiss Re were signed on-site at the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. AIIB intends to deploy $300 million as part of the relationship.

Masdar intends to contribute a potential investment of up to $200 million in the programme. Swiss Re can help de-risk these critical investments, with insurance solutions and risk insights.

Joining the founding partner and pioneer investor Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) who already anchored an investment of $400 million, ETAF closes on securing a minimum of $1 billion in total funding to start Calls for Projects as of today.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced its interest in becoming a partner in ETAF and endeavour to co-finance up to $100 million of ETAF projects in renewable energy and decarbonisation technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region.

The official announcement was made in the presence of Irenas Director-General Francesco La Camera; Majid Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the UAE-hosted COP28; Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director-General of ADFD; AIIB President Liqun Jin; Masdars CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi; Swiss Re Chair of Public Sector Solutions Veronica Scotti and IDBs Graham Watkins, Division Chief, Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

La Camera said: "Todays pledges will allow Irena to facilitate capital mobilisation to accelerate the energy transition in developing countries. As a truly global finance platform, ETAF will change the investment landscape in emerging markets in response to the climate crisis."

"Together with our partners, we can channel international financing to scale renewable energy projects to secure energy to people and communities in most need on the ground and advance the transition to foster socioeconomic impact and climate resilience," he stated.

Majid Al Suwaidi said: "We are encouraged to see new partners join the Irena-led Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF) Platform. Developing and emerging markets account for only one fifth of clean energy investment, and the ETAF is helping to address this critical gap in the global energy transition."

"The UAE is proud to have provided the $400 million in anchor funding for the ETAF at COP26, and we look forward to working with our partners to see this Platform deliver clean energy, climate action, and economic prosperity for emerging markets in the Global South," he stated.

Saif Al Suwaidi said: "We are proud to be part of the ETAF initiative, as it supports the UAEs strategic vision to unite global efforts to address climate change through the promotion of renewable energy."

"Greater support to this cause will accelerate mobilisation of green financing, which in turn will hasten the pace of energy transformation in the developing world," he noted.

Jin said: "Our collaboration with ETAF marks an important step forward for AIIB. This collaboration reflects our commitment to unlock new capital through innovative financing tools, advance the climate agenda, and deliver value to our most vulnerable member economies."

"As a climate-centric partnerships-focused Bank, we eagerly anticipate an impactful relationship with fellow members of the platform, and look forward to financing a greener, more sustainable future for all," he noted.

Al Ramahi said the ETAF platform will leverage Masdars technical and commercial expertise and capital, with a potential investment from Masdar of up to $200 million in the programme, to deliver clean energy to developing countries.
Election legal challenges were playing out Tuesday as voters cast ballots across the country in the midterm elections. And more bruising court fights are expected in the coming days that could draw out how long it takes for votes to be counted in some races.

More than 100 lawsuits were filed before Tuesday's elections, targeting rules for things like mail-in voting, voting machines and access for partisan poll watchers.

And observers are bracing for a deluge of challenges after polls close as some Republican candidates have already said they will not accept a loss or have planted doubt on the election process despite no evidence of fraud.

The avalanche of election cases follows Republican Donald Trump's failed effort to get courts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Trump and his Republican allies brought roughly 60 lawsuits challenging the election that were roundly rejected by judges appointed to the bench by presidents of both political parties.

Here's a look at at the legal challenges playing out in some states:

PENNSYLVANIA

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fettermans campaign went to court late Monday in a bid to have mail-in ballots that lack accurate handwritten dates on the exterior envelopes counted. Fetterman's legal action followed a state Supreme Court ruling that said the ballots could not be counted and another over the weekend clarifying what constituted an incorrect date.

Fetterman's campaign  in partnership with national congressional and senatorial Democratic campaign organizations and two voters  sued county boards of election across the state, arguing that throwing out ballots that lack proper envelope dates would violate a provision in the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act that says people cant be kept from voting based on what the lawsuit calls needless technical requirements.

In Philadelphia, voters who had missing or incorrect dates on their mail-in ballots were being allowed to file replacement ballots at City Hall or vote provisionally at their regular precincts Tuesday.

Its unclear how many ballots would be affected by the decision across the state, but thousands were flagged by election officials in Philadelphia and Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh.. The number of mail-in ballots is large enough that they might matter in a close race, such as the U.S. Senate contest between Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz.

The Philadelphia City Commissioners also voted in an emergency meeting early Tuesday to reinstate a process to reconcile the poll books while the count is happening, rather than waiting until after the count. The procedure has been used to weed out possible double votes in the past, but has not found any issues during the past three elections and is slower than reconciling after the count. The final ballots are likely to be counted Friday.

The vote came after a judge issued an order denying Republicans request for an injunction that would have forced the city to reinstate the process. But the judges opinion, which had admonished the citys decision to remove the process, raised concerns for commissioners.

TEXAS

A federal judge in Texas has barred election volunteers and workers at a polling location in a predominantly Black neighborhood from asking voters to publicly recite their address before allowing them to cast a ballot in the midterm elections.

The Monday night order came after the Beaumont chapter of the NAACP and voter Jessica Daye sued, alleging that Black voters were harassed and intimidated during early voting at the John Paul Davis Community Center polling location, where 90% of voters are Black.

U.S. District Judge Michael Truncale also barred workers and volunteers from shadowing voters as they cast ballots.

The complaint also alleged that poll workers, who are partisans brought on by political parties, helped white voters insert or scan ballots into voting machines but not Black voters, and the judge's order barred that activity as well.

Beaumont is a city of about 112,000 people near the Louisiana border thats about 80 miles (125 kilometers) east of Houston. In 2020, Jefferson County  where Beaumont is the county seat  voters narrowly backed Donald Trump, with 50.2% favoring the former president and 48.6% backing Joe Biden.
Tonight, voters from Gen Z to our seniors, voters from all walks of life, have given me the honor of a lifetime, given me the chance to serve you as Pennsylvanias next governor, Shapiro told a cheering crowd
HARRISBURG  Democrat John Fetterman won Pennsylvania's race for U.S. Senate, flipping a Republican-held seat as he recovered from a stroke during the bare-knuckled campaign and giving Democrats hope they can retain control of the closely divided chamber to boost President Joe Biden's agenda for two more years.

Fetterman, Pennsylvania's towering and plainspoken lieutenant governor, who became a progressive hero as mayor of a downtrodden steel town, defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz, the smooth-talking and wealthy heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity who had just moved to the state to run for Senate.

Fetterman credited his "every county, every vote" campaign strategy, in which the tattooed and hoodie-wearing candidate sought to bring the Democratic Party back to predominantly white working-class areas that have increasingly rejected it, even as he ran on a progressive platform.

"And that's exactly what happened," Fetterman, 53, told a cheering crowd early Wednesday at a concert venue in Pittsburgh. "We jammed them up. We held the line. I never expected that we would turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do and we had that conversation across every one of those counties."

Oz conceded the race in a phone call to Fetterman at 9:30 a.m., the campaigns said.

In a statement, Oz said he congratulated Fetterman, but gave no other details about their conversation. Oz also wished Fetterman well, thanked his supporters and urged unity.

We are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done, Oz said.

Fetterman spent much of the campaign fending off attacks by Oz that questioned whether he was honest about the stroke's effects and was fit to serve.

He vowed to be the Democrats' "51st vote" to pass foundational legislation to protect rights to abortion, health care, same-sex marriage, unions and voting, as well as to raise the minimum wage.

Fetterman has likened his May 13 stroke  which left him unable to speak fluidly and quickly process spoken conversation into meaning, a common effect called auditory processing disorder  to getting knocked down and adopted that as a campaign mission.

He ran for "anyone that ever got knocked down that got back up," he told the crowd. "This race is for the future of every community across Pennsylvania, for every small town or person that felt left behind, for every job that has been lost, for every factory that was ever closed and for every person that worked hard but never gets ahead."

Fetterman spoke smoothly early Wednesday but required closed captioning during media interviews and, two weeks ago, during the lone debate between the men. He turned in a rocky performance in which he struggled to complete sentences, jumbled words and fueled concern inside his party that it had doomed the race.

To underscore the importance of the race, Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania for Fetterman three times in the final three weeks, while former President Donald Trump came in, as well, to hold a rally for Oz, his endorsed candidate.

In brief remarks to his election night party crowd at a fitness center in suburban Philadelphia, Oz thanked supporters and exuded optimism.

"When all the ballots are counted, we believe we will win this race," Oz told the jubilant crowd late Tuesday.

Oz carried heavy baggage, including having just moved from his mansion in New Jersey and barely winning a primary in which opponents cast him as an out-of-touch Hollywood liberal.

Throughout, Oz  a political novice with no roots in Pennsylvania politics  struggled to connect with some Republican voters, including those who thought he was too close to Trump, too liberal or too inauthentic.

Fetterman won despite national political headwinds for Democrats, such as rising inflation. He will succeed retiring second-term Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

Fetterman sought to harness outrage over the Supreme Court's abortion decision and promised to vote to abolish the filibuster.

Polls had shown a close race, with the economy and abortion rights weighing heavily on voters.

About half the state's voters say the economy and jobs are the most important issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,100 voters in the state. Among that group of voters, Oz had a lead over Fetterman.

The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade also played a role in most voters' decisions, with about 8 in 10 calling it a factor. About a quarter called it the single most important factor, with more of those voters casting a ballot for Fetterman.

Roughly half said they were confident Fetterman is healthy enough to serve effectively, and half said they had reservations, according to the survey.

More voters said they are not confident Oz is familiar enough with Pennsylvania to serve effectively as senator than those who expressed confidence, according to the poll.

Fetterman characterized a vote for Oz as a vote to outlaw abortion  ridiculing Oz's comment during the debate that he wants "women, doctors, local political leaders" to decide the fate of abortion  and painted Oz as a soulless TV salesman who hawked useless health supplements for money and would say or do anything to get elected.

Fetterman was forced to explain away progressive stances to a swing-state electorate, including a flip-flop on natural gas drilling and pardons for state inmates convicted of murder.

Ultimately, Fetterman's everyman appeal won out over Oz's celebrity as the host of daytime TV's "The Dr. Oz Show." In the final days of the race, Oprah Winfrey  who launched Oz's TV career  endorsed Fetterman.

Fetterman is irreverent, cusses casually on social media and looks more like an aging professional wrestler. At 6 feet 8, he is tattooed, goateed and glowering, with a clean-shaven head and casual dress that often involves shorts  even in winter.

Democrats came to see him as someone who might normalize the party with disillusioned voters in the age of Trump.

He revolutionized the use of social media in campaigns, bringing in a torrent of small-dollar donations and relentlessly trolling Oz 's gaffes, wealth and status as a recent transplant.

Oz was whipsawed between a primary in which he tried to fend off attacks that he was secretly liberal and a general election contest against Fetterman in which he tried to appeal to moderates and Black voters.

Even with Trump's endorsement, he won the primary by barely 900 votes in a contest that went to a statewide recount. Trump was a longtime friend and fellow entertainer whom Oz had come to know through New York City's social and charity fundraising circles.

The election was the most expensive for a U.S. Senate seat in this campaign cycle, surpassing $300 million. Money from national groups poured in, and Oz spent more than $25 million of his own fortune on the race.

Much of the Republican money for TV ads dwelled on crime, suggesting Democrats have failed to protect people from violence and drugs and aiming to undercut one of Fetterman's avenues of appeal to Black voters: his efforts as lieutenant governor to free the over-incarcerated, rehabilitated or innocent.

Fetterman, the former mayor for 13 years of Braddock, near Pittsburgh, used his time there to establish credentials with the Black community in the majority Black town, in fighting gun violence and to keep a hospital in the crime-wracked community.

He is tattooed with Braddock's ZIP code  15104  on one forearm and, while he was mayor, the date of every slaying in the town as he worked to prevent crime.

Posted at 1:55 a.m. on Cumberlink:

Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman has defeated Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz to flip a highly competitive Senate seat and sustain Democratic hopes of maintaining control of the upper chamber.

The win gives the party breathing room as it seeks to keep hold of its narrow Senate majority. It also serves as a major rebuke to former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Oz in his competitive GOP primary despite concerns over the celebrity heart surgeons limited ties to the state.

In his winning campaign, Fetterman overcame questions about his fitness for office after suffering a stroke just days before the states primary and struggling through his debate with Oz. He still has issues with auditory processing and uses closed-captioning technology to understand spoken words.

Im so humbled, Fetterman, wearing his signature hoodie, told his supporters early Wednesday morning. This campaign has always been about fighting for everyone whose ever been knocked down that ever got back up.

Posted earlier on Cumberlink:

Control of the U.S. Senate could depend on whether Pennsylvanians elect Democrat John Fetterman or Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, capping a bare-knuckled and extraordinary campaign for an open seat.

Fetterman, Pennsylvanias towering and plainspoken lieutenant governor, spent much of the campaign recovering from a stroke in May, while fending off attacks by Oz that questioned whether he was honest about its effects and fit to serve.

In a tweet at 12:57 a.m. Fetterman said Its official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. We bet on the people of Pennsylvania  and you didnt let us down. And I wont let you down.

With 91% of the vote counted, Fetterman had 49.8 % of the vote to Ozs 47.7 %, a lead that led CNN, NBC and Fox News to call the race for Fetterman.

As of 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, The Associated Press had not called the race.

In brief remarks to his election night party crowd at a fitness center in suburban Philadelphia, Oz thanked supporters and exuded optimism.

When all the ballots are counted, we believe we will win this race," Oz told the jubilant crowd.

Posted earlier on Cumberlink:

Control of the U.S. Senate could depend on whether Pennsylvanians elect Democrat John Fetterman or Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, capping a bare-knuckled and extraordinary campaign for an open seat.

Fetterman, Pennsylvanias towering and plainspoken lieutenant governor, spent much of the campaign recovering from a stroke in May, while fending off attacks by Oz that questioned whether he was honest about its effects and fit to serve.

As of early Wednesday, The Associated Press had not called the race. In brief remarks to his election night party crowd at a fitness center in suburban Philadelphia, Oz thanked supporters and predicted victory.

When all the ballots are counted, we believe we will win this race," Oz told the jubilant crowd.

Posted earlier on Cumberlink:

American are deciding heated midterm elections that will determine which party controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

With some mail-in ballots still yet to be counted in Pennsylvania as of 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, the race for the U.S. Senate seat was too early to call by press deadline.

Democratic nominee and lieutenant governor John Fetterman and Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz are vying to replace Sen. Pat Toomey. Fetterman held 2,235,084 votes compared to 2,185,528 votes for Oz.

Oz was leading Fetterman in the in-person and mail-in ballots that had been counted by 10 p.m. Tuesday. However, more mail-in ballots, which have largely been requested by Democratic voters, may be key for the winner of the election.

According to the latest data from the Pennsylvania Department of State, a total of 1.44 million ballots were requested for the election, and 986,500 of those ballots were requested by Democratic voters.

In Cumberland County, 29,554 ballots were requested, and of those, 17,391 were requested by Democratic voters. Cumberland County on Tuesday evening reported the results of 25,795 mail-in ballots, with most of them  21,377 supporting Fetterman.

Mail-in ballots that are returned without dates have been a source of discourse in the last month, with the state Supreme Court ordering that undated mail-in ballots not be counted and instead be separated from the other ballots. Fettermans campaign went to court late Monday in a bid to have those mail-in ballots counted.

According to the Associated Press, Fettermans campaign  in partnership with national congressional and senatorial Democratic campaign organizations and two voters  sued county boards of election across the state, arguing that throwing out ballots that lack proper envelope dates would violate a provision in the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act that says people cant be kept from voting based on what the lawsuit calls needless technical requirements.

Its unclear how many ballots would be affected by the decision across the state, but thousands were flagged by election officials in Philadelphia and Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh. The number of mail-in ballots is large enough that they might matter in a close race, such as the contest between Fetterman and Oz.

In Philadelphia, voters who had missing or incorrect dates on their mail-in ballots were allowed to file replacement ballots at City Hall or vote provisionally at their polling places Tuesday. Cumberland County reported Monday that voters locally also were allowed to vote provisionally at their precincts if they believed they may have forgotten to sign or date their mail-in ballots. Voters were also able to surrender their mail-in ballots at the polls and vote by provisional ballot.
A Wisconsin Dells man is accused of sexual assault following a reported incident in Columbia County in October.

Cristobal Portillo, 35, has been charged with second degree sexual assault and strangulation and suffocation.

If convicted of sexual assault, Portillo could face up to 25 years in prison followed by 15 years of extended supervision and three years in prison followed by three years of extended supervision if convicted on the strangulation count.

Portillo also faces misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property, battery and disorderly conduct.

Online court records show Portillo is no longer in custody after posting his $2,000 cash bond that was set during his initial appearance on Nov. 4.

According to the criminal complaint filed on Nov. 4:

A Columbia County Sheriffs Deputy spoke with someone identified as victim 1 in the complaint. The victim told the deputy about an incident with Portillo on Oct. 30.

The victim said Portillo was sleeping in his car outside of the victims home and the victim helped Portillo inside and allow him to sleep on the couch.

At one point Portillo allegedly confronted the victim. Portillo allegedly pinned the victim down and was slapping the victim. The deputy reported bruising on the victims arms.

The victim told the deputy Portillo put his hands around their throat and squeezed. The victim could not breathe and Portillo eventually stopped.

The complaint alleges Portillo told the victim, I could have killed you.

The victim attempted to get their phone and call 911 when Portillo allegedly wrapped his hands around the victims throat.

The victim was able to strike Portillo in the head with a hair dryer and then was able to run into the bathroom.

Portillo followed the victim into the bathroom. He allegedly kicked a mirror and broke it in the bathroom.

The victim told an officer that Portillo touched and kissed their genitals.

A sheriffs deputy spoke with Portillo who admitted to being at the victims residence and that he was intoxicated. He also admitted to pinning the victim down and breaking glass in the bathroom. Portillo allegedly told the deputy that by kissing and touching the victims genitals they would make up.

Portillo also allegedly admitted that the victim told him to stop during the incident.

Portillo is scheduled to be back in Columbia County Court next month for a pre-trial conference.
The Wisconsin Dells area favored the Republican Party during the midterms.

All six municipalities in the areacity of Wisconsin Dells, village of Lake Delton, towns of Newport, Delton, Dellona, and Dell Prairiewere carried by the GOP candidates in the five statewide elections which were on the ballot in all communities.

Tim Michels, who lost the statewide vote in the gubernatorial election to Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, carried the area with a 299 vote advantage (2,793 to 2,494). Evers won in Wisconsin Dells, 574-543, for the Democrats lone municipality win in the area.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who narrowly won a third six-year term, carried the area by 661 votes, with a margin of 2,991 to 2,330 over Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes.

Ron Johnson wins third term in U.S. Senate The Oshkosh Republican was reelected Tuesday with a margin of about 30,000 votes, defeating Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes after a hard-fought race.

Barnes was the Lt. Gov. under Evers prior to his Senate candidacy. Sara Rodriguez, a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, will take Barness place for Everss second term.

Eric Toney, the Fond du Lac County District Attorney and Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent Attorney General Josh Kaul, lost the statewide election but carried the Dells area by 570 (2,934 to 2,364).

Attorney General Josh Kaul defeats Eric Toney in bid for second term In a race centered around abortion and his public safety record, Kaul's showing notched Democrats another statewide win Tuesday night.

Amy Lynn Loudenbeck, the 31st District member of the Wisconsin State Assembly since 2010, was trailing by a razor-thin margin to Democratic incumbent Doug La Follette in the Secretary of State election, which had not been called yet at the time of print editions. Loudenbeck carried the Dells municipalities in a 2,802 to 2,305 vote.

Republican John Leiber holds a narrow lead in a still-undeclared race for State Treasurer over Democrat Aaron Richardson. Leiber won the Dells communities by just over 650 votes (2,894 to 2,239). Democrat Sarah Godlewski, who ran in the Democratic primary of the U.S. Senate race, is vacating the seat after one term.

The five Dells area municipalities lie in three different congressional districts for the U.S. House of Representatives. Delton, Dellona, the Sauk County portion of Wisconsin Dells, and Lake Delton are in District 2, which was won easily by Democratic incumbent Mark Pocan. However, Republican challenger Erik Olsen carried the four communities in a 1,677 to 1,414 vote.

Democrat Mark Pocan wins reelection to U.S. House Democrat Mark Pocan was reelected to the U.S. House in the 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday.

Derrick Van Orden, who gained a Republican congressional pickup with his victory over Democratic challenger Brad Pfaff in District 3, won Dell Prairie and the Adams County portion of Wisconsin Dells easily with a 523-302 margin. Van Orden is replacing outgoing Democrat Ron Kind, who will have served 26 years in the seat.

Republican Derrick Van Orden wins election to U.S. House in Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District WASHINGTON (AP)  Republican Derrick Van Orden wins election to U.S. House in Wisconsin's 3r

Republican Glenn Grothman went unchallenged in his re-election bid for U.S. House District 6 and easily carried the Columbia County portion of Wisconsin Dells and the Town of Newport.
An electric company in the Dells area recently opened a new facility.

Wisconsin Electric, an electrical service in Wisconsin Dells, held a grand opening ceremony for its new facility on Business Park Road in the city on Oct. 28. The new facility, which broke ground in March, is replacing the companys former site on Birchwood Road in the city, which company owner Tom Roll said had been outgrown.

I designed this facility to showcase our abilities and to demonstrate to clients all the new technologies in this industry, said Roll in an email. We are fully automated with the latest and greatest Smart Technologies from Lutron, Leviton, Ring and more. This gives us the ability to monitor energy consumption, create lighting scenes and schedules, and fully control the facility from anywhere in the world. These systems are integrated and work with each other and can be expanded to work with nearly all other Smart technologies and manufacturers.

Roll added that the facility is slated to expand in late 2023. Through a partnership with Wisconsin Focus on Energy, an organization which fosters partnerships between home buyers and utility companies for more energy efficient construction, Roll said customers are able to save on their utility bills each year through rebates.

This facility will allow us to continue our grown with future plans on expanding our commercial division & start our campaign to offer Solar, Wind and Battery Backup power options to our customers, said Roll.

Services provided by Wisconsin Electric include residential and commercial trenching, upgrades in LED lighting, sale and installation of standby generators, and locating underground power lines. According to the companys website, the company installs eight to 10 generators per week, the highest volume in Wisconsin.

The company serves healthcare facilities, schools, residences, manufacturing plants, churches, storage facilities, commercial buildings, aircraft hangars, among others.

Roll said that the company was started out of his residential garage in March of 2018 from income he generated installing backup generators for Home Backup Systems, a power company in Fort Atkinson. After information of his services spread throughout the community, Roll eventually hired his first employee and began marketing in 2019. Wisconsin Electric now has 10 full-time employees.

Wisconsin Electric is proud of our reputation and rating, said Roll, who mentioned his companys 11 five-star Google ratings. We attribute this success to our wonderful community and our staff who continue to put our customers needs first and strive for customer satisfaction.
Work and economic security in the 21st Century: What we can learn from Ela Bhatt?

Eddie Webster pays tribute to Ela Bhatt, the founder of the Self-Employed Womens Association of India, who died on 2 November at the age of 89.

1. ELA BHATT AND THE ORIGINS OF SEWA: GANDHISM AND BEYOND

Ela Bhatt was born in 1933 in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, the home of Mahatma Gandhi after he returned from South Africa in 1915. Her parents were from the professional Brahmin elite. My father, she describes in her autobiography, was a successful lawyer with a thriving practice and a prominent position in society. My mother was more progressive; her father wasa freedom fighter who had gone with Mahatma Gandhi on the Salt March2 (Bhatt, 2006:5). Her maternal grandfather was a medical doctor strongly influenced by Gandhi. This led him to changing his life style and sleeping the rest of his life on a mat. He was jailed three times for his anti-British activities (Bhatt, Interview, Ahmedabad, 5th December 2010). All her fathers brothers were lawyers. She described her father as a very modern man who appreciated British education and thinking (Bhatt, Interview, 2010).

She was brought up in the neighbouring city of Surat at a time of high idealism. While I was at school my country was fighting for freedom. Our teachers taught us the importance of decentralising the economy at the village, local and district level (Bhatt, Interview, 2010). She went on to study for a BA degree at the University of Gujarat in English literature where she met her future husband, Ramesh Bhatt. Ramesh opened my eyes to the world. It was 1949, and I was a shy and studious university student, who admired Ramesh at a distance. He was a fearless, handsome student leader and an active member of the Youth Congress. He was collecting primary data on slum families for independent Indias first census of 1951. When he invited me to accompany him on his rounds, I timidly agreed. I knew my parents would disapprove of their daughter wandering in dirty neighbourhoods with a young man whose family one knew nothing about (Bhatt 2006; 5).

Her parents were to resist her marrying Ramesh and warned her that she would live the rest of her life in poverty if she married him. To prove her commitment, she lived for a year in a slum in conditions of poverty. In 1955 they were married in what was to become a lifelong partnership. Ramesh was hardly ever on the scene with me in my public life  he was a private man  but we were partners in life. He was my best friend his insight and analysis were critical in helping me come up with unconventional solutions to old-age problems Ramesh supported me every step of the way; that generosity of spirit allowed me to gain self-confidence and trust in myself (Bhatt, 2010; 6).3

The young Ela Bhatt had become a determined woman, with no doubts as to what to do with her life. In 1952 she completed her BA degree and in 1954 her Bachelor of Laws (LLB). India was a newly independent country at the time. Mahatma Gandhis spirit encouraged the youth to live and work with the poor, to build village republics as basic units of a foundation on which Indian democracy could prosper. We saw our task as rebuilding the nation and Gandhism taught us to look at things from the perspective of the masses (Bhatt, Interview, 2010). Politics, she wrote, was idealistic; it had the power to inspire and stimulate action. Ramesh gave me the writings of Gandhi and of J.C.Kumaarappa on the economics of selfreliance and we read and discussed avidly (Bhatt, 2010:6). It was these Gandhian ideas on the simplicity and dignity, or even sanctity of labour that were the decisive influence on the early Ela Bhatt. It was logical, therefore, for her to join in 1955, the legal department of the Textile Labour Association (TLA), a union founded by Gandhi in the twenties.

You can read the full tribute in Work and economic security in the 21st century. What can we learn from Ela Bhatt? published in Ela Bhatt ICDD Working Paper No,1
Republican state Rep. Greg Rothman will be a state senator next year after Tuesday's election.

The Silver Spring Township man defeated Democratic candidate Jim Massey for the 34th Senatorial District seat, which opened up through redistricting and did not have an incumbent already living in that district. The district includes most of the Carlisle area and western Cumberland County, as well as upper Dauphin County and all of Perry County.

The remainder of Cumberland County falls under Sen. Mike Regans 31st District.

According to unofficial state numbers as of midnight Tuesday, Rothman received 63.62% of votes (74,125) while Massey received 36.38% (42,383 votes) across the district.

Of these, Rothman saw 66,599 election day votes and 7,526 mail-in votes while Massey carried 26,556 election day votes and 15,827 mail-in votes.

It was a closer race in among Cumberland County voters than it was in upper Dauphin or Perry County.

Rothman edged ahead in Cumberland County with 59.06% of the votes (50,632 votes) compared to 40.94% (35,094 votes) for Massey.

As of midnight Tuesday, Rothman had 77.13% of the votes in upper Dauphin (8,523 votes), while Massey had 22.87% of the votes (2,527 votes).

Rothman likewise won by a wide margin in Perry County, taking 75.87% of the votes tallied by midnight Tuesday, taking 14,970 votes compared to Massey's 4,762 votes.

Provisional ballots were not counted by press deadline.

Rothman, 55, of Silver Spring Township, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and works as a legislator, real estate broker and appraiser. He won the May 17 primary against Michael Gossert, a member of the Cumberland Valley School Board.

Massey, 74, of East Pennsboro Township, retired from the U.S. Army and from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In the May 17 primary, Massey was the only candidate on his ballot.

State legislators take office in January.
People watch video collection of Chinese film and television works at the launching ceremony of the 2022 Audio-Visual China  Excellent Audio-Visual Program Indonesia exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nov. 7, 2022. At the launching ceremony, film and television production and dissemination agencies from the two countries reached the cooperation intention of having China's popular TV series such as "Minning Town", "Nothing But Thirty" and other excellent Chinese film and television products broadcast in Indonesia. [Xinhua]

JAKARTA, Nov. 7 (Xinhua)  The 2022 Audio-Visual China  Excellent Audio-Visual Program Indonesia exhibition was launched in Jakarta on Monday.

The director of the International Cooperation Department of China's National Radio and Television Administration, Yan Chengsheng, announced the launch of the exhibition via video link.

The General Secretariat and the Department of International Cooperation of Indonesia's Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology extended congratulations.

Yan said in his speech that China and Indonesia have carried out a series of fruitful exchanges and cooperation in the fields of radio, television and online audio-visual in recent years, which uphold the principles of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and have made positive contributions to promoting people-to-people bonds and bilateral relations.

China and Indonesia should further strengthen policy communication, content cooperation and technical exchanges, he said.

"Today, we launched the exhibition and broadcasting of China's excellent audio-visual programs. We also warmly welcome our Indonesian counterparts to actively recommend their programs to be broadcast on China's TV and online audio-visual media," said Yan.

At the launching ceremony, film and television production and dissemination agencies from the two countries reached the cooperation intention of having China's popular TV series such as "Minning Town", "Nothing But Thirty" and other excellent Chinese film and television products broadcast in Indonesia.

People watch video collection of Chinese film and television works at the launching ceremony of the 2022 Audio-Visual China  Excellent Audio-Visual Program Indonesia exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nov. 7, 2022. At the launching ceremony, film and television production and dissemination agencies from the two countries reached the cooperation intention of having China's popular TV series such as "Minning Town", "Nothing But Thirty" and other excellent Chinese film and television products broadcast in Indonesia. [Xinhua]

(Source: Xinhua)
Rivers are a vital natural resource for food, drinking water, energy, and, foremost, host to wildlife habitats with many threatened and endangered species. With waters already heating up from climate change, human development and careless actions debilitate the integrity of the rivers to a critical state. Rivers now depend on people to be brought back to life or face extinction.

These ten extremely endangered rivers in the US (according to American Rivers require immediate restorative efforts and powerful movement to preserve the essential waters for a shared future on the planet.

Read More6 US Regions That Could Disappear Underwater By 2050

1. Colorado River

A dried up section of the Colorado River at Lake Powell 's Hite Bridge crossing.

The most endangered river in the United States stretches for 1,450 miles. Colorado River supports over 40 million people in the West with drinking water, irrigation, and electricity. It is also the region's backbone for agriculture and a cultural focal point of faith.

The two largest reservoirs of this river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are dried-up to a record low from climate change. Unprecedented water shortage in the Colorado River forced the government to ration consumption, with seven affected states in the Southwest and Mexico.

The Colorado River Basin is "ground zero" for climate change-induced water crisis. At current trends, the region will have to adapt in lifestyle and economy to the "hotter, drier reality in the Colorado River."

The biggest cities affected are Denver, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tijuana. There are also nine national parks with over a dozen endangered species suffering from habitat loss and a source of drinking water. Underestimated assumptions and outdated water management made the government overlook the critical situation that there wasn't enough water to meet everyone's needs. The whole river, Lake Powell and Lake Mead may never recover.

Read MoreColorado River

2. Snake River

A dam on the Snake River.

Snake River traverses three Western states (Oregon, Idaho, and Washington), and two Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. It is considered the most endangered river in the US because of dams. Its four federal dams in the lower reaches threaten the livelihood and future of native salmon population. Half of all the Pacific Salmon in the lower 48 states originates in the Snake River Basin, while the region's fishing industry hanks up $5 billion on an annual basis and covets 36,000 jobs.

The four reservoirs retain and overheat waters that harm salmon's delicate skin and significantly shorten their lifespan. With fishing as a mainstay and plummeting salmon population, the region is teetering economic crisis with a loss of jobs and exports. Moreover, there is a significant Native American population along the Snake River, dependent on salmon for fishing and food. Removing the dams should remedy the situation for wildlife and people.

Read MoreSnake River

3. Mobile River

The heavily industrialized and urbanized zones along the banks of the Mobile River are responsible for adding a variety of pollutants to the river.

Mobile River flows from the Coosa River through the heart of Alabama and empties into the Mobile Bay Basin in the Gulf of Mexico. The basin houses 14 percent of the US' fresh-water flows and provides most of Alabama's drinking water. The biggest threat to the Mobile River, an abundant biodiversity watershed, is severe mismanagement through pollution and over-usage. The river is plagued by a leak-off from a coal ash pond at Alabama Power's Plant Barry, housing 21 million tons of toxic coal ash. Contaminated waters endanger the health and safety of the habitat, as well as the populace in four states.

The pollution is most threatening to the communities around Mobile-Tensaw Delta, Mobile Bay, the historic Africatown, the City of Mobile, and the Port of Mobile. Upon facing a recent summer drought, Alabama was blamed for "mismanagement" and "waste" of water. Although the state plans to employ water rationing, environmental protectionists are doubtful. Moreover, to remedy the catastrophic pollution and return the river to its clean state, coal ash must be removed from the waters, and the site thoroughly cleaned.

4. Maine's Atlantic Salmon Rivers

Maine's Kennebec River is heavily dammed that adversely affects the salmon migration in the river.

The state, famous for seafood, may soon stop serving fresh-water fish. The state's largest Kennebec, Penobscot, and Union rivers are home to wild, self-sustaining runs of Atlantic Salmon. The rivers and streams in their natural state provide "substantial amounts of climate-resilient, high-quality habitat," where the fish thrives if it can move upstream. The dams block free movement, with once-thriving populations of Atlantic salmon now a threatened species.

Despite the suffering wildlife and fishing industry, Maine and federal agencies are considering renewing dam permits. The rivers must be restored to their healthy state to save the last of the salmon by re-connecting the flow. Removing the dams will save the economy's backbone while ensuring the well-being of those who depend on salmon for income and food.

5. Coosa River

The Coosa River flowing past agricultural land, the source of agricultural run-off contaminating the river.

The Coosa River houses a significant chunk of the South's rich biodiversity. It is mainly impacted by dams and further debilitated by pollution from the agricultural sector and surrounding poultry farms. At present, the Coosa River, along with its tributaries, is chock-full of waste run-off from the industry around.

The pollution is threatening the health of habitat and communities around, with contaminated drinking waters affecting Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. With so much at stake, the state's authorities are teetering over enforcing the Clean Water Act safeguards. These would provide crucial protection for the river and maintain clean waters for the future well-being of the fish, wildlife, and public health.

6. Mississippi River

An oil refinery along the banks of the Mississippi River. The heavily industrialized zones along the river are responsible for high levels of water pollution.

The Upper Mississippi River traverses 1,250 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to join with the Ohio River in Cairo, Illinois, forming the Lower Mississippi River. Normally, the river hosts a hospitable habitat and provides drinking source for millions of people and wildlife. It is facing persistently unchecked sources of contamination that make the waters no longer health-safe.

Wetlands draining and floods further destabilize the region around. The river can soon face irreversible damage from habitat loss and pollution that will affect ten states. To preserve the valuable river, there must be a non-regulatory act for restoring the healthy state, and ongoing conservation program to safeguard the waters for wildlife and drinking.

Read MoreMississippi River

7. Lower Kern River

The Kern River in a sorrowful state as it passes through Interstate 5 in Bakersfield, California.

The Kern River runs off the mountains in Central California into the San Joaquin Valley and through Bakersfield. The valley and city are home to vast agricultural plains, diverging the waters to feed crops. Significant water diversions have dried up much of the river's length, making the former beautiful river and recreation galore into a lifeless and dusty riverbed.

The situation is critical for the habitat of several threatened and endangered species of plants and animals in the river. It is possible to bring the river back to life through an act that requires water districts to reduce river usage for agriculture. By adhering to minimum flow requirements, the river can replenish itself and keep providing for the people, fish, and wildlife, or otherwise risk disappearing.

Read MoreKern River

8. San Pedro River

Aerial view of the San Pedro River as it passes through Arizona.

San Pedro River in Arizona is home to one of North America's most biodiverse ecosystems. It is also one of the few major free-flowing rivers remaining in Southwest's desert. The river is affected by excessive groundwater pumping that dried up 94 percent of its waterways, edging San Pedro to meet the same fate. Planned development further depletes the water volume, with the vulnerable river now on the brink of extinction.

Surrounding industries are taking advantage of the recently removed protections over seasonal and intermittent streams, by foolishly withdrawing from the limited water supply. There must be enforced groundwater control to restore the river and a clean-water act to maintain healthy habitat and drinking supply for the surrounding communities.

9. Los Angeles River

The Los Angeles River loaded with concrete waste.

The Los Angeles River, or "LA River," is chockfull of polluted concrete from development along the shoreline. It has already lost 95 percent of its natural breadth and appeal, looking at the world with a dredged face of a flood control channel within an urban scape. The river's critical condition essentially removes benefits from the communities in favor of urbanizing efforts.

Despite its seemingly-hopeless state, LA River stands a chance if the state prioritizes restoring the water flow over concrete and development. With the river facing imminent extinction, this should be a no-brainer that will make the region more climate resilient, save a valuable habitat, and provide equitable community access.

10. Tar Creek

Oklahoma's Tar Creek traverses through the state's Southern Plains, once home to luscious grasslands. The sad-looking dryscape today is one of the US' largest "Superfund" sites calling for immediate remedy. Many decades of mining operations, from the 1880s to the 1960s, left heavy metals in the creek today. The heavily-contaminated Tar Creek requires serious clean-up efforts to restore the river and replenish the dried-up region.

Tar Creek's worsening state greatly concerns the Indigenous and other communities as a drinking source. It is not enough to hang the "Superfund site" title without action on improving the water's quality while the creek is slowly inching to extinction. Communities must work together with the state to galvanize the best solution for cleaning the creek from pollution to safeguard public health.

Rank River Threat 1 Colorado River Climate change, poor water management 2 Snake River Four federal dams on the river 3 Mobile River Contamination by coal ash 4 Maine's Atlantic Salmon Rivers Construction of dams 5 Coosa River Run-off from agriculture polluting the river 6 Mississippi River Pollution 7 Lower Kern River Excessive withdrawal of water 8 San Pedro River Excessive pumping water, loss of protection 9 Los Angeles River Pollution, developmental activities 10 Tar Creek Pollution

Unfortunately, people have "shot themselves in the foot" with climate change, piled on by selfish and careless actions towards river habitats. From development to pollution and over-usage, these rivers face near-future extinction, with relevant economies and a priceless environment at stake.

Read MoreThese 9 Cities Could Disappear By 2030

Leaders must work alongside communities to immediately revitalize the beautiful rivers into thriving and healthy habitats with clean water. Rivers are interdependent lifelines requiring long-term maintenance to save the environment and safeguard public health.
Weather Alert

...Gusty South Winds Today And Tonight... Winds will increase from the south this morning to between 15 and 25 mph. Wind gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range are likely from midday today through tonight. Locally higher gusts are possible in thunderstorms this evening. Drive with caution today and tonight. Handling of high profile vehicles could become more difficult. Loose objects such as trash cans and holiday ornaments may be blown into roadways.
Missouri Department of Conservation recently stocked Giessing Lake at the park in Farmington. This stocking is part of a much bigger program all across the state of Missouri. MDC stocks rainbow trout in somewhere around 41 lakes across Missouri. Farmington received around 1,200 fish that are stocker size and around four that are lunker sized. That means there are around four that are over three pounds. That is a trophy in anyones book.

Between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31, some lakes are catch and release  others are catch and keep. The lake in Farmington is catch and release until Feb 1, 2023. Anglers can find information on specific trout lakes across the state on the MDC website. You can also check the regulations on the same site. All trout anglers between 16 and 64 must have a valid fishing permit from the state to participate. If you so decide to catch and keep trout, you must possess a trout permit regardless of age. You can call 636-300-9651 to get information on stocking.

Last year, when they stocked Giessing lake, my cousin and I caught every bit of 50 fish a piece within the first hour, we were there. They will continue to be catchable throughout the winter. The colder, the better when it comes to trout. When its cold outside, it means the water is cold, and that is when trout are at their best. They are born and raised in springs that stay cold year-round. So, when all the warm water species are slowing down dramatically, trout are going strong.

Some recommendations for catching trout in these ponds. For people who like to use a spinning rod, make sure you use a light line. When I say light, I mean nothing over four pounds. You can catch trout spinners, such as rooster tails or something similar. Again, make sure you are using smaller rooster tails as well. You can use marabou jigs in a wide variety of colors, but white, olive or black. My preferred method is to use a fly rod. You can catch a lot using dry flies, which is a super good time to use them. Nymphs are very a very good option if used under an indicator or bobber, as most people call them. You can cast them with a spinning rod if you have a decent-sized indicator with it. So, you have lots of options.

These lakes, being stocked in the areas they are, are giving people opportunities to catch fish they normally wouldnt. I personally fish for trout all over the country, and this makes a difference. Getting kids out to catch trout fish, which they normally dont have the chance to do, turns into a tradition that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

We have four trout parks in the state of Missouri that are a whole lot of fun. The closest one is Meramec Springs Park. There, you can camp, fish, hike, and just enjoy the outdoors. The Meramec River below the park has a very healthy population of trout  both brown and rainbow trout. If you ever have the opportunity, take it. I hope that you all have a wonderful week. If you are interested in trout fishing in Missouri, check out my website, the Facebook page www.missourionthefly.com or Missouri on the Fly on Facebook.
Former Gov. Bill Sheffield on July 14, 2000, when he was president of the Alaska Railroad.

Bill Sheffield, who served as Alaska's fifth governor and survived a brush with impeachment during a decades-long career in public service, died Nov. 4 at his Anchorage home after a long illness. He was 94.

Sheffield was born in 1928 to a poor family on a small farm in Spokane, Washington, and he grew up during the Great Depression. After serving as a radar technician with the U.S. Army, he got a job with Sears Roebuck and was sent to the territory of Alaska.

"So that's how I got here in 1953," Sheffield said to Alaska Public Media in 2019 for the release of his memoir. "Come by steamship f...
The state sued the federal government one week before Election Day, seeking ownership of part of Alaskas most-visited tourist destination.

Filed Nov. 1 at U.S. District Court in Anchorage, the case asks a federal judge to award ownership of the land beneath Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River to the state. Located in Juneaus residential Mendenhall Valley, the lake rests at the base of the Mendenhall Glacier, within the Tongass National Forest, and is seen by more than 700,000 tourists annually, more than Denali National Park and Preserve.

The lake is currently under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service, and a successful lawsuit could bring significant changes.

For example, motorboats and snowmachines are barred from the lake. The state has no ban in place, and earlier this year, Gov. Mike Dunleavy suggested the state would legally defend someone who uses a motorized vehicle in the area.

The Forest Service is also planning a major expansion of visitor facilities at the site. It was not immediately clear whether that expansion will be postponed by the lawsuit.

Erica Keene, a spokesperson for the Forest Service Alaska region, said the agency cannot comment on topics under litigation and that the federal government will respond to the lawsuit in court.

State officials, who announced the lawsuit by email, said it is part of a broader campaign by Dunleavy, whose administration filed a similar lawsuit over waterways in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve earlier this year. Another lawsuit was filed in October 2021.

The broader campaign, announced as Unlocking Alaska in 2021, is a multimillion-dollar effort to claim state ownership of areas currently controlled by the federal government.

Critics, including some of Dunleavys opponents in this years election, have said the campaign amounts to state-paid grandstanding ahead of this years vote. Dunleavy is running for reelection.

Prior governors have directed similar cases, including one involving the Chena River, which runs through downtown Fairbanks. The state won that case. Last weeks lawsuit is the first in the Unlocking Alaska campaign to involve a river running through a major city.

Environmental groups have expressed concern about the initiative; administration officials said in 2021 that the state plans to seek ownership of river bottoms along the route of the proposed Ambler Road to mining claims in Western Alaska and other development projects in an effort to speed their progress.

A unanimous 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision acknowledged Alaskas right to manage navigable waterways, but the federal government and state government continue to disagree on the definition of navigability.

Last weeks lawsuit, and the cases that have preceded it, hinge on that definition.

If a river or lake was navigable at the time of statehood in 1959, ownership of the land beneath it should have been transferred to state control, unless it had already been transferred to another owner.

The state claims both the Mendenhall River and lake have not been improved to allow better transportation since statehood, and that since they are navigable today  capable of use by wooden and skin boats, log and inflatable rafts, power and jet boats, and canoes providing transportation for individuals and supplies, for subsistence and recreational guided and non-guided hunting and fishing activities  they should be considered navigable.

The suit also claims that even though the adjoining glacier has retreated, exposing more of the lake since statehood, the court should award the entire lake, including portions that remain below the glacier. The glacier is expected to melt past the lakes edge sometime before 2050.

The federal government sought to dismiss the October 2021 case, which deals with portions of the Koyukuk River and two tributaries, in part on the grounds that the rivers were not navigable at statehood.

Judge Sharon Gleason rejected most of the federal governments dismissal request on Aug. 16, except for small portions of rivers that flow through Native allotments.

That case, along with the case dealing with Lake Clark, remains unresolved.

The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
New project launched to boost biodiversity at Minera country Park

A new project aimed at enhancing the biodiversity of a local country park has been announced.

Groundwork North Wales will launch the scheme at Minera Country Park after receiving a funding boost from the Landfill Disposals Tax Community Scheme, which is administered by the WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action)

This project will improve the natural habitats and biodiversity of the area with support from the surrounding local community.

It will also will offer sociable volunteering sessions with the opportunity to meet new people and enjoy the natural environment, help wildlife and learn new skills.

The grant funding program that enabled this project helps communities living within five miles of certain landfill sites to take action for their local environment.

Richard Aram, Head of Contracts and Project Delivery said, This new project is a great opportunity to work with volunteers to improve the wild spaces and encourage the local community to get involved.

We will be offering regular weekly volunteer sessions on Tuesdays, with tasks including the cutting of grassland, installation of bat and bird boxes in woodland, accumulation of dead wood to provide refuge habitats, and clearance of vegetation from pond areas  all with the aim of improving the biodiversity of this country park.

This project will also host learning events, such as school visits and talks, as well as family events held at Minera Country Park  sharing the value of the new habitats created and the value of maintaining natural areas such as this.

Anyone wanting to join the Tuesday volunteer team or to find out more about Minera Country Park Project should contact Groundwork North Wales on 01978 757524 or email info@groundworknorthwales.org.uk
Nurses in North Wales set to strike this winter after union members backed industrial action

Nursing staff at the majority of NHS employers in Wales have voted to take strike action over pay levels and patient safety concerns, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has confirmed.

Action will take place in the NHS trusts or health boards that have met the relevant legal requirements.

Nurses employed by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have voted to take industrial action.

All but one of the NHS employers in Wales voted to take strike action.

RCN Wales confirmed that the first period of industrial action can be expected in December and the RCNs mandate to organise strikes runs until early May 2023, six months after members finished voting.

RCN Wales said, This is the first statutory ballot on industrial action across the UK in the 106-year history of the Royal College of Nursing.

The results for each NHS employer are analysed individually in what is known as a disaggregated ballot.

RCN Wales remains in a pay dispute with Welsh Government since October 2021 over its 3% pay award for NHS Wales nursing staff.

Helen Whyley, Director, RCN Wales, said: Today is a historic day for the nursing profession, our patients, and the future of nursing but ultimately one born of desperation. The decision to strike, has in not been taken lightly, and has passed to demand change where no other solution has been possible.

Our members have spoken on what is an incredibly difficult decision both professionally and personally. The result of this ballot shows just how much nursing staff put the safety of their patients above all else.

Over the last few weeks of our campaign I have been overwhelmed by the support our members and the public have shown.

I have visited hospitals and workplaces throughout Wales. I have heard first hand of nurses who are struggling to pay their household bills, of the extra hours they have worked for free to subsidise the NHS, the shifts they have gone without any breaks. They have told me of their constant worry and despair for the safety of their patients due to short staffing.

There is currently no escape for staff, worry and guilt for their patients at work, worry and guilt for their families at home. This is not sustainable. Many have told me that they cannot continue in their beloved profession without change.

The message is loud and clear. Enough is enough. It is time to take decisive action against a spiralling workforce crisis that is putting patients lives in danger and has no regard for nursing staff wellbeing.

Richard Jones, RCN Wales Board Chair, said:

I want to say a huge thank you to each and every member who not only voted in this ballot, but who championed our campaign to ensure as many members voted as possible.

Every nurse wants to deliver the highest quality patient care in a lifelong career whilst being able to support themselves and their families.

Our members decisions are paramount in everything we do, so now we will deliver. We will do everything in our power in the next steps for the fight for fair pay and safe staffing levels which nursing staff so desperately deserve.

The Royal College of Nursing Wales, in a letter, told the Health Minister Eluned Morgan MS, that RCN Wales is ready and waiting to open discussions as soon as the Welsh Government wants to make a genuine commitment to improve the current NHS Wales pay award.

Strike action will be carried out legally and safely at all times, and the RCN will announce detailed plans and timelines for strike action soon.

NHS employers who met the threshold include:



Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board



Cardiff and Vale University Health Board



Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board



Digital Health and Care Wales



Health Education and Improvement Wales



Hywel Dda University Health Board
Over 600 worth of perfume stolen from large retail store in Wrexham

Over 600 worth of perfume has been stolen from a major retailer in Wrexham.

In his daily police update, Insp Luke Hughes said the incident at a large chemist in Plas Coch shopping area took place at 10:06am yesterday.

A lone male reportedly entered the premises and stole perfume to the value of 650.

Insp Hughes said: As mentioned previously this is a national issue with organised criminals travelling around the UK and stealing large volumes of perfume / alcohol and other items to be resold.

I had a conversation last week with another department who have kindly agreed to support our Christmas retail crime initiative, with plain clothes officers to target this sort of crime and also focus on some of the local repeat offenders.
Targeting sexual predators and domestic abusers top priorities for new chief constable of North Wales Police

Bringing sexual predators and domestic abusers to justice will be some of the top priorities for the new chief constable of North Wales Police.

Amanda Blakeman made history in September when the police and crime panel appointed her the regions top cop.

Ms Blakeman took over from Carl Foulkes who retired last week after 30 years in uniform. She has been a senior officer for a number of years, serving as deputy chief constable of the West Mercia force in 2017 and most recently as deputy chief constable at Gwent in 2019.

Ms Blakeman has a background in fighting organised crime and as a tactical and strategic firearms commander.

Last year figures showed that rates of crime overall in North Wales were down. But the force faced challenges with sexual offences up 8.3%; violent crime (against a person) up 11.2% and robbery rates up 23.4%.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service Ms Blakeman committed to focusing on these areas

How does it feel being North Wales Polices first female chief constable?

Its incredibly humbling and a privilege.

Ive worked with lots of male and female colleagues throughout my 30-year career who have been outstanding  and some really outstanding female colleagues, so to be in this position to lead lots of colleagues to pave the way for future chief constables is a privilege, and I dont take that lightly.

Whats your first impressions of North Wales and how does it differ from your previous role?

I was really struck by, and it is a very tangible feeling, the officers and staff who work in North Wales being very connected to their communities, and that is very evident when I speak to police officers and staff and community members.

And that passion, in terms of being able to deliver to the communities for the communities, is evident. That doesnt mean Im saying it isnt present in Gwent where I was previously, but it feels very connected here because lots of our staff and officers come from the local community, so they know it very well because they have been born here, grown up here, so they very much care what happens in their local community, and I think thats really valuable.

How will you tackle so called county lines gangs to stop drugs and crime from being imported from the cities?

There has been some really good work courtesy of officers and partners to be able to tackle that particular issue, but also done jointly with colleagues in forces across our region.

They tend to work very collaboratively to prevent the problems from moving out of one area and into another and preventing those sorts of issues, and thats something weve got to keep constant pressure on because we know that type of criminality exploits peoples vulnerabilities, and it causes a real issue in our communities.

So from that point of view, it is an ongoing mission to tackle that with intelligence, (using) good use of stop and search and good operations that seek to tackle, reduce, and hold back that opportunity for North Wales to become a place where that can happen. That is an ongoing part of what we do in policing and keeping our communities safe by ensuring that doesnt get a grip or (take) hold of a local community.

I dont think it is unique here. It is a way of being able to move drugs and sell drugs, and that market extends to exploit, really cruelly I think, vulnerability and cause that fear in communities, and I think as a whole policing service, along with the national crime agency, we take a whole system approach so we can reduce it, and it is understanding where those opportunities lie and keeping that pressure up, but I dont think it is particular to North Wales, but it is something weve got to keep a close eye on and make sure we keep on top of.

What will be your main focus as Chief Constable of North Wales Police?

I think delivering on what the public expects from policing is what I want to be able to focus on.

That reaches across the board. It is not just about rural communities and county lines; it is also around the service that we deliver, particularly to victims of domestic and sexual abuse, sexual violence, all those areas.

With the vast array of the types of incidents that we as police get called to respond to, it is about making sure we give a really good service and where crimes happen we investigate and bring that offender to justice and that we have the ability to prevent crime from happening.

So I really want to focus on our role in policing the community and, at the same time, build on that trust and confidence that communities have in us and should have in us to be able to police them fairly and inclusively.

Is North Wales a safe place?

I think North Wales is a safe place to live, but I think we cant be complacent about that, and we need to continue to make sure that we take the opportunities to prevent; we take the opportunities to ensure where there is a criminal group that we target it before it starts to increase.

Certainly my position is about making sure intelligence is good and preventing crime before it happens, and where we arent able to prevent it before it happens that we work hard to bring those causing that misery to justice and prevent it from happening further.

As we look across North Wales, communities differ, so within our rural communities, certainly, I know our rural communities worry about burglaries, thefts, the loss of their machinery and equipment and in terms of that ability to be able to prevent that from happening, and that makes a real difference in our communities that are struggling at the moment financially.

Thats really important for our rural communities. Across our communities, no matter where you are, domestic abuse is a very key factor that makes a huge impact on victims lives.

That is important across the board. Across our more urban areas, things like antisocial behaviour, county lines, the impact of the night-time economy, all of those things are really important to our communities, and it is about understanding those in the context of that local community and delivering on that.

Sexual and domestic abuse figures are comparatively high in North Wales. Why is that?

From my perspective, reporting to us is a good thing because we know, particularly for domestic abuse victims, that will have happened a number of times before they had the confidence to come to the police and potentially for sexual abuse victims (too).

So from my point of view, I want people to tell us about it, and I want them to have the confidence to contact us, and weve certainly got specialist officers in place to respond and deal with that, and to support the victim.

Whilst North Wales is higher in terms of the amount of people who have the confidence to report it to us, I would continue to encourage people to tell us if they have been the victim of any type of sexual violence or abuse because those perpetrators could go on to cause further misery, and we want to prevent that from happening.

I havent got any cast-iron reasoning behind that (abuse figures being higher). It is something Im going to be looking at to understand in more detail. But my message to the public would be dont hold back from telling us. Let us know because we would want to know about it. Im looking to prevent those abusers who seek to target victims, and the only way we are going to do that is by more reporting.

The country is going through a cost-of-living crisis. Is this having an impact on crime in North Wales?

We are monitoring it at this moment in time to see whether or not we are getting changes in the type of crimes that are happening.

Certainly, we are very alive to it, and we are aware of ensuring that we are able to respond to that. From a local position, looking across North Wales, it hasnt been that we are seeing any changes in criminality, but the opportunity is there because of exploiting communities and from an opportunity to make a profit from others positions.

With money so tight and after years of cuts in policing, how do you feel about the amount of money North Wales Police has to work with and how will you best use those funds?

Nationally, with other chiefs, we are looking at that in terms of what the current situation means for us across policing.

We are very aware that local communities pay towards policing, and we make sure we are focusing on the things that make a difference to our communities. Im responsible for delivering on those priority areas, but also, what I want to make sure of, in terms of that additionally in terms of money coming, is that it is focused on the things that are relevant to our communities.

Would you support a one-Wales police force?

My position is that we deliver policing to our local communities, and I want to deliver what is right for our local community. In terms of a one-Wales police force, I think thats very much a political position to take.

From my position, policing is about delivering local communities and the priorities that are relevant to them to reduce crime and to prevent it, and Im going to be fully focused on that.

By Richard Evans  BBC Local Democracy Reporter
Millions of people across the United States voted in the 2022 midterm elections, the first national elections held since former president Donald Trumps failed coup on January 6, 2021.

With votes still being counted in several key states, it is not yet determined which party will control the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. The widely predicted red wave failed to materialize, demonstrating broad popular opposition to the fascistic politics of Donald Trump. At the same time, the closeness of the vote shows a lack of support for the Democrats and growing disgust with the entire two-party framework through which the capitalist class has ruled for the past century and a half.

Democrats control Senate, Republicans hold narrow lead in House

The midterm US election seems headed toward a stalemated result, with the Democratic Party retaining its narrow majority in the Senate, and the Republican Party likely to win an equally narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

The result is a political setback for Republicans, who had expected to win a sizable majority in the House, with the outcome in the Senate uncertain. Instead the result is the opposite: the Democratic Party controls the Senate and the outcome in the House is uncertain, although the Republican Party is narrowly ahead.

The Capitol is seen in Washington, Nov. 11, 2022. [AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File]

In the last-decided Senate contest, in Nevada, US Senator Catherine Cortez Masto defeated former state attorney-general Adam Laxalt by a margin of just under 7,000 votes out of nearly 1 million cast. This gave the Democrats 50 seats in the Senate, assuring control since Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tie-breaking vote.

The Democrats could hold a 51-49 majority if incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock defeats Republican Herschel Walker in the Georgia runoff election on December 6. Warnock led Walker by 35,000 votes out of just under 2 million cast, but failed to reach the 50 percent mark required for election under Georgia law. Warnock won a previous runoff election two years ago, when he had actually trailed in the first round.

A Republican takeover of the House of Representatives is not guaranteed, and a failure to win the lower house would turn electoral setback into electoral disaster, given that both Republican and Democratic Party politicians and media pundits had declared a Republican victory inevitable.

The consensus media tally, based on races called by the Associated Press, found the Republicans leading by 212 seats to 209 for the Democrats, with a six-seat swing required to win a majority. This assumes the Democrats win both seats going to ranked-choice runoffs, in Maine and Alaska. They are well ahead in both contests.

Of the other 14 races still undecided, Republican candidates had significant leads in eight while Democrats led in four, although shifts were possible in either direction. Democrats would have to win all the seats in which they hold leads, and the two that are effectively tied, and overturn several Republican leads in order to retain control of the House. This is unlikely but certainly not impossible.

In Oregon and California, which account for 10 of the 14 seats, state law requires counting mail ballots which arrive as late as Tuesday, November 15, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. In effect, those elections are not over, as ballots are still arriving, making it impossible to determine a final result in any closely contested race.

Based on vote trends so far, according to media analysts, Democrats were likely to win three seats in California and the one in Oregon. Republicans were likely to win four seats in California, while in two more neither party had an advantage.

In the four seats where all mail ballots have been received, but many remain to be counted, Republican candidates are slightly ahead in each (two in Arizona, one in Colorado and one in New York).

Overall, the New York Times projected the most likely outcome as a Republican majority of 221-214, smaller than the Democratic majority of the last two years. The Washington Post projected six seats for the Democrats, four for the Republicans, and four too close to call, giving a current Republican lead of 216-215 and the final outcome dependent on a handful of marginal seats.

The indeterminate outcome has already led to back-biting within both capitalist parties. In the Republican Party, there are bitter recriminations over both the outright failure in the Senate and in the near-failure in the House, with much of the venom directed towards ex-president Donald Trump for backing ultra-right candidates who embraced his stolen election lies.

It was significant that in the six battleground states where Trump attempted to overturn a Biden victory and hijack the electoral votes in 2020Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and WisconsinDemocratic candidates defeated Republican election denialists in every contest for state government positions like governor and secretary of state, which are critical to overseeing conduct of the elections and certifying the results.

Republicans won only in Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger were particular targets of Trump because they rebuffed his entreaties in 2020 to find the number of votes required to give him a victory in the state. The gubernatorial race in Arizona was still not called by the media Monday evening, but the Democratic candidate, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, had a significant lead over Republican Kari Lake, a former local television news figure who is one of the most strident advocates of Trumps election lies.

Republican Party infighting intensifies after midterms

The defeat of several Republican candidates for federal and state offices who were hand-picked by former President Donald Trump has exacerbated tensions within the Republican Party.



Tuesdays election results demonstrated that there is no mass popular support for Trumps fascistic policies and his false claims of a stolen 2020 election.



While votes are still being tallied in several states, such as Nevada, Arizona and California, nearly all of Trumps major election-denying candidates who were in competitive races have lost or are losing, including Trumps slate of America First secretary of state candidates.



At the same time, the tightness of the election, with the Republicans in a position to take control of one, if not both, houses of Congress, testifies to the widespread alienation, disaffection and disgust in the population for both capitalist parties.



An analysis by the Washington Post and Associated Press indicates that voter turnout was lower than the record midterm turnout in 2018, when just under 50 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. Overall voter participation in the 2022 midterms is currently estimated at slightly above 46 percent.



According to the Post/AP analysis, only 11 states exceeded 2018s turnout, two of those being Pennsylvania and Michigan. Trump endorsed election deniers Doug Mastriano and Tudor Dixon in the Pennsylvania and Michigan gubernatorial races, respectively. Both were soundly defeated, along with the rest of the Republican tickets.



Following the election, some pro-Republican media outlets, Republican politicians and even high-level donors are demanding that the party abandon Trump as the presumptive 2024 presidential nominee and back Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was reelected by a 20-point margin.

In two articles published on Wednesday, Trump Is the Republican Partys Biggest Loser, and The GOPs Midterm Failure, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, the leading mouthpiece of the financial oligarchy, directly laid the blame for Tuesdays lackluster performance by Republicans at the feet of the ex-president.



Trump Republican candidates failed at the ballot box in states that were clearly winnable, wrote the Journal, pointing as examples to the loss by Trump-backed election denier Don Bolduc in New Hampshire and the likely defeat of Peter Thiel-funded and Trump-endorsed Blake Masters in Arizona.



In a third editorial published on Wednesday, headlined The DeSantis Florida Tsunami, the newspaper heaped praised on the fascistic governor, saying his victory was a vindication of his campaign against school closures and other mitigation measures at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Journal made no mention of the seven million COVID infections and over 82,000 COVID deaths in Florida as of this writing.



The Wall Street Journal is owned by Australian-American billionaire Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News and News Corp, which controls publisher HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.



On Wednesday, the front page of the New York Post featured a photo of DeSantis and his family with a headline hailing him as DeFUTURE.



Its time the GOP dumped Trump the Grump and ran with DeSantis read another headline in the Post, attributed to British broadcaster and former editor of the Daily Mirror, Piers Morgan.

Republican politicians, previously silent as Trump incited violence against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, decided to speak up following Tuesdays poor showing.



In an interview Wednesday on CNN, retiring Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey blamed Trump for inserting himself in the races. There is a high correlation between MAGA [Make America Great Again] candidates and big losses, Toomey said.



Toomeys seat will be occupied by Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, after Fetterman bested Trump-endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz on Tuesday.



On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal opinion section featured recent comments by Republican Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears. In an interview with Fox, Sears said she could not support Trump for president if he ran in 2024, adding that it was time to move on. Sears was previously a close ally of Trump and chair of Black Americans to Re-elect President Trump during the 2020 campaign.

Other prominent Republican politicians who have echoed these sentiments include former House Speaker New Gingrich and Mike Lawler, who defeated the incumbent Democrat in New Yorks 17th Congressional District, Sean Patrick Maloney.

In an interview published by Politco, billionaire Republican donor Ken Griffin of Citadel investments said it time to move on to the next generation. Griffin, who gave over $65 million to Republicans this cycle, said that DeSantis had a tremendous record as governor of Florida, and our country would be well-served by him as president.

That sections of the ruling class are ready to dispense with Trump and his election denialism and elevate DeSantis as leader of the Republican Party does not signify a retreat from far-right, fascistic politics in favor of moderation. Nor is Trumps future in the party by any means a settled matter. He retains significant support and he evidently intends to announce that he will run for president in 2024 from his Mar-a-Lago, Florida estate this coming Tuesday.

DeSantis is allied to fascistic and anti-Semitic forces and presents himself as a right-wing populist. He indulges in racist, anti-immigrant agitation and his set up a voting police force to arrest people, including immigrants and released felons, who cast ballots not knowing they are deemed ineligible.

However, he has distanced himself from Trumps claims that the 2020 election was stolen in order to establish himself as a far-right alternative to Trump.

Trump has responded to calls for him to step back with attacks on Ron DeSanctimonious on his Truth Social media platform. In a rambling post Thursday, Trump took credit for DeSantis winning his 2018 gubernatorial race, in the course of which Trump seemed to admit that he interfered in that election on behalf of DeSantis by sending FBI agents to Florida to stop the counting of votes.



After the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, Trump wrote, I sent in the FBI and the US Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen

Control of US House and Senate still undetermined

After three days of vote-counting, it is still uncertain which capitalist party controls the US Senate and the House of Representatives. Based on the current trends, the Democratic Party appears likely to control the narrowest of majorities in the Senate, either 50 or 51 seats, depending on the outcome of a runoff election December 6 in Georgia.

The media consensus, based on figures produced by state election officials, is that the Democrats have so far won 48 seats and the Republicans 49, with Democrats likely to win both the seats, in Arizona and Nevada, where counting of mail-in ballots is continuing.

Election workers process ballots at the Clark County Election Department, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, in Las Vegas. [AP Photo/Gregory Bull]

In Arizona, Senator Mark Kelly was more than 100,000 votes ahead of his Republican challenger, venture capitalist Blake Masters, with about 500,000 votes still to be counted, mainly in Maricopa County (Phoenix), home to more than 60 percent of the states population. Tallies of recently counted ballots have tended to increase Kellys lead, and there is little possibility of Masters making up the gap.

In Nevada, the contest is much closer, with the Republican, former state attorney general Adam Laxalt, clinging to a lead of less than 9,000 votes over the incumbent Democrat, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Most of the remaining uncounted vote is in Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno), both of them carried by Cortez Masto.

Local media pundits predict that Cortez Masto will overtake Laxalt if she receives 55 percent or more of the votes still to be counted, and so far she has been getting 65 percent. It is well known that many more Democratic voters send their ballots in by mail, while more Republican voters went to the polls November 8 and their votes have already been counted.

If the Democrats win both Arizona and Nevada, the Georgia runoff cannot give control of the Senate to the Republicans, but would leave the upper house divided 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. If Arizona and Nevada go opposite ways, then the Georgia runoff will decide which party controls the Senate.

The House of Representatives, despite claims by Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and much of the media, is only leaning towards the Republicans, but their majority is far from certain. As of Friday afternoon, based on multiple media tallies, it appears that the Republicans can claim 211 seats and the Democrats 203. The majority in the House is 218 out of 435 seats.

There are 21 seats not yet decided or projected. Of these, 19 seats are in the West: 12 of them in California, two each in Oregon and Arizona, and one each in Washington, Nevada, and Colorado. The remaining two undecided seats are in Maryland and New York. There are no undecided seats in either the Midwest or the South.

Democrats would have to win 15 out of 21 seats to gain a majority, Republicans only seven, but all the seats are closely contested, so a Republican majority in the House is likely but not a certainty. Currently, Republicans lead in 11 of the undecided seats and Democrats lead in 10.

There is nothing at all suspicious in the slow vote-counting which has delayed a determination of which party controls the House. Mail-in voting is the sole method in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Colorado, and is used to a considerable extent in Arizona. Voters may still go to the polls to turn in the ballot they received in the mail, but they usually cannot obtain a ballot at the polls.

Mail-in vote counting is inherently slower because the ballots are enclosed in a protective sleeve which must be removed before the ballot can be opened and run through a tabulator. Because of wear-and-tear in handling, mail ballots are far more likely to jam in tabulators and require hand-counting. In California and several other states, ballots postmarked by Election Day, November 8, are counted if they are received by this weekend. In these states, it is impossible to forecast exactly how many ballots are uncounted since more may still be in transit.

The figures released so far show that neither capitalist party made significant inroads at the expense of the other, contrary to the expectation in official political and media circles of a red wave favoring the Republican Party. Republicans have defeated only five Democratic incumbents, Democrats have defeated three Republican incumbents. The bulk of the seat changes stem from retirements and redistricting, not the defeat of incumbents.

By comparison, the Republicans defeated 52 Democratic incumbents when they took control in 2010, while the Democrats defeated 30 Republican incumbents when they regained control in 2018.

The result is a likely shift from a narrow Democratic majority (223-212 before the fall campaign began) to an even narrower Republican majority, currently estimated by NBC News at 220-215. Such a margin would mean that the defection of any three Republican congressmen could threaten passage of legislation, or even the election of the Speaker.

Four new CIA Democrats elected in 2022

The number of Democratic members of the House of Representatives drawn from the military, State Department and intelligence agencies continues to increase, with four new members added, while two of the original eleven CIA Democrats, as we dubbed them in 2018, were defeated November 8.

The four new additions came in New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Pat Ryan, a West Point graduate with two tours in Iraq as an Army intelligence officer, was elected to fill a vacancy in New Yorks 19th Congressional District in August. With boundaries shifting due to reapportionment, he ran for and won the neighboring 18th District seat this past Tuesday.

Chris DeLuzio won the western Pennsylvania seat being vacated by another military-intelligence Democrat, Conor Lamb, who sought the Democratic Senate nomination but lost to Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, the eventual winner of the seat Tuesday. DeLuzio is a Naval Academy graduate who was a surface warfare officer in the Navy and then a civil affairs officer in Iraq.

In North Carolina, two state senators with military careers behind them were elected to House seats. Dan Davis succeeded longtime representative and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, G. K. Butterfield, who retired after the boundaries of his northeast North Carolina district were shifted to make it less heavily Democratic. Davis graduated from the Air Force Academy, and was an operations officer at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington DCa key position since it is the nexus of presidential travelbefore entering politics.

Career Army officer Jeff Jackson won a seat in the Charlotte suburbs, newly created because of population growth and reapportionment. Jackson enlisted after the 9/11 attacks, was deployed to Afghanistan, and is now in his 20th year in the military, having risen to the rank of major in the Army National Guard. Even after entering the state Senate, he continues regular reserve duties.

Three other Democratic congressional candidates with military or intelligence backgrounds are in races that have not yet been decided, although all are slightly behind in the vote count: naval intelligence officer Francis Conole, in New Yorks 22nd Congressional District, flight surgeon and White House fellow Kermit Jones, in Californias Third Congressional District, and military intelligence officer Jay Chen in Californias 45th Congressional District.

The election of these four more than offsets the defeat of two military-intelligence Democrats first elected in 2018.

Elaine Luria, a former Navy commander and member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, lost the race for her seat in the Norfolk, Virginia to Republican State Senator Jen Kiggans by a relatively narrow margin.

In New Jersey, Tom Malinowski, a State Department assistant secretary in the Obama administration, was defeated for reelection by Tom Kean Jr., former leader of the Republicans in the state legislature and son of former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean.

The net gain of two (at least) brings the total number of CIA Democrats to 13, or as many as 16 depending on the outcome of mail-in balloting and recounts. The CIA Democrat caucus continues to grow, even in a year where the overall Democratic Party caucus declined.

The 13 representatives now include the four newly elected members, as well as nine reelected members: seven holdovers from the class of 2018, Jason Crow, Jared Golden, Chrissy Houlahan, Andy Kim, Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin, and Abigail Spanberger, and two additions in 2020, Jake Auchincloss and Sara Jacobs.

Trump-aligned candidates, operatives stoke right-wing anger against election workers

As vote-counting continues in the pivotal Western states of Nevada and Arizona, Trump-aligned candidates and operatives are inciting anger against election workers and calling into question the veracity of the election results.



In an appearance on the Charlie Kirk Show Thursday morning, Trump-endorsed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake attributed still incomplete vote totals showing her trailing her Democratic opponent to manipulation by election officials, naming in particular Maricopa County officials Bill Gates and Stephen Richer. Lake is running behind Katie Hobbs by over 12,000 votes as of this writing.

Kirk, a pro-Trump fascist, is the founder and president of Turning Point USA, a far-right campus organization.

Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Elections Department, is a self-described life-long Republican. Stephen Richer explained in a video Tuesday that a problem with about 20 percent of vote tabulators in the county, which includes Phoenix, had caused delays at election sites. Gates said this technical issue in no way affected the ability of voters to cast their ballots.



Speaking to Kirk Thursday, Lake claimed, without evidence, that Gates and Richer were withholding and slow rolling the results to make it look like Hobbs was winning.



I am not talking about the big rich one, Lake said, referring to Gates. I am talking about the poorer one that is trying to mess with our elections here.



Poorer, shorter one, Kirk chimed in.



They are controlling the narrative of election night... And withholding and slow-rolling results. I think its despicable. Get the job done guys, Lake hissed. She added, Katie Hobbs is not winning. She has never been winning. They are just not counting votes.



In her baseless right-wing attacks on fellow Republicans, Lake is deliberately channeling Donald Trumps lie that the 2020 election was stolen and that any Trump or Trump-endorsed Republican defeat is due to fraud, cheating or subterfuge.



The former president joined Lake in casting doubt on the election, writing on his social media platform Thursday, Arizona They want more time to cheat! Kari Lake MUST win!



In a Wednesday night appearance on Fox News Tucker Carlson program, Lake said she was going to win and that as governor she would get rid of voting machines and institute paper ballots.



Referring to her support for Trumps lie that the 2020 election was stolen, Lake said she had been sounding the alarm on 2020, November 3rd, which she characterized as disastrous.



And now, she continued, we are having the same problems.



On his War Room program Thursday morning, former Trump advisor and January 6 co-conspirator Stephen Bannon thanked Charlie Kirk for all the work he was doing in Arizona and reiterated Lakes unsubstantiated claims.



Referring to the still-undecided Nevada races, Bannon launched into a tirade against the Culinary Union and the Harry Reid machine, the latter a reference to former Nevada Democratic Senator Reid. These two forces, according to Bannon, were trying to steal the election from secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant and US Senate candidate Adam Laxalt, both of whom have been endorsed by Trump.



According to the New York Times, as of this writing Marchant is leading his Democratic opponent, Cisco Aguilar, by 2,000 votes. Laxalt is currently ahead of incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto by just over 14,000 votes, with an estimated 83 percent of the vote counted.



Given the razor thin margins, it is likely that the winners will not be known until next week, possibly as late as Friday, November 18, according to Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria. In Nevada, mail-in ballots continue to be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day (November 8 this year).



In an update Thursday afternoon, Gloria said that Clark County received 56,900 mail-in ballots. These are ballots that were dropped into mail boxes or dropped off at polling sites on Election Day throughout Las Vegas.



In addition to the outstanding Clark County ballots, there are thousands more votes yet to be counted in Democratic-leaning Washoe county, where Reno is located.



Bannons claims that the delay in counting votes in Nevada is due to fraudulent or nefarious activity on the part of the Culinary Union is a lie made of whole cloth. It is aimed at denigrating the largely immigrant and Hispanic membership of the 60,000 workers in the Culinary Workers Union (CWU).



Due to the treachery of the CWU bureaucracy, which, like most unions in the US, is tied by a thousand strings to the Democratic Party (current Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen is a former member of the CWU), rank-and-file members of the union have been forced to labor in COVID-19 infested restaurants, bars, casinos and hotels, which form the backbone of Nevadas tourist-based economy.



Of the over 11,000 COVID-19 deaths reported in Nevada since 2020, 1,278 were reported in Washoe County (Reno), while 9,040 were reported in Clark County (Las Vegas), including 10 more yesterday.



Trumps attempt to install election-denying loyalists in key battleground states falls short

In a number of races for secretary of state, the defining characteristic of the Republican candidates was their adherence to Trumps lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and their promise to assist Trump and other Republicans in overturning future elections, regardless of vote totals.



In Michigan, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for secretary of state was Kristina Karamo, an election-denying Christian nationalist.



Karamo earned Trumps early endorsement for her efforts in assisting his attempt to overturn the vote in Michigan in 2020. As an election observer in 2020, Karamo advanced conspiracy theories that voting machines in Michigan flipped votes from Trump to Biden.



On Tuesday, Karamo was handily defeated by incumbent Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.



Lesser known Republican candidates for secretary of state who denied the 2020 election results and lost their races included Kim Crockett in Minnesota, Audrey Trujillo in New Mexico and Dominic Rapini in Connecticut.



As of Wednesday afternoon, it appeared that only two election-denying secretary of state candidates, Nevadas Jim Marchant and Arizonas Mark Finchem, had a chance at winning.



Marchant was leading his Democratic opponent, Cisco Aguilar, by just over a percentage point, with 80 percent of the vote counted.



Results in Nevadas election are not expected to be finalized until the weekend. In Clark County, Nevada, home of Las Vegas and the majority of the states 3.1 million residents, thousands of ballots have yet to be counted.



Marchant is the leader of the America First coalition of candidates running to head state election offices. He is a regular on Stephen Bannons fascistic War Room podcast.



Emboldened by Trumps example, in 2020 Marchant unsuccessfully sued to overturn his own five-point congressional election loss. He has pledged that if he is elected, he will fix future elections for Trump and get rid of mail-in ballots.



In Arizona, the America First secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem is losing to his Democratic opponent Adrian Fontes by over 70,000 votes, with an estimated 72 percent of the vote counted, according to NBC News.



Finchem is an admitted member of the Oath Keepers militia group. The founder of the group, Stewart Rhodes, is currently on trial, facing seditious conspiracy charges for his role in Trumps failed coup.



Video footage from January 6, 2021 shows that Finchem was in Washington D.C. and near the Capitol when it was being overrun by Oath Keepers and other far-right elements seeking to capture and/or kill lawmakers in order to block the Electoral College certification of Joe Bidens election victory.



Finchem has been interviewed by the Department of Justice and the January 6 House Select Committee investigating the attack, but he has yet to be charged with a crime.



While the efforts of Trump and the Republicans to install their preferred candidates to high-level election offices in several battleground states seems to have fallen short, the new Congress will be chock full of election denying Republicans.



As of this writing, over 170 congressional Republicans who either voted against certifying the 2020 election after the attack on the Capitol or have since questioned the results of the 2020 election will be in the newly elected Congress. This includes the current House minority leader and possible future speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Referendum results demonstrate widespread support for expanding democratic rights, increasing workers pay

Results from a series of referendums demonstrate widespread popular support among voters for both big business parties for expanding democratic rights and improving the wages and social conditions of workers.



In Michigan, voters overwhelmingly cast a ballot in favor of Proposal 3, which would incorporate into the state constitution provisions guaranteeing abortion rights and safeguarding freedom of choice about all matters relating to pregnancy, including the use of contraceptives.



Support for the constitutional amendment exceeded the vote for the incumbent and reelected Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, with 2,240,961 Michiganders voting in favor of Proposal 3 compared to 2,221,539 who voted for Whitmer.



Michiganders also voted in favor of proposals to expand early voting and increase financial disclosures by candidates running for office.



Amendments enshrining the right to an abortion also passed by large majorities in Vermont and California.



In Kentucky, where Republicans appear to have expanded their majority in the states General Assembly, voters rejected an amendment to the Kentucky constitution stating that nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion. As of this writing, the measure has failed by a margin of nearly 60,000 votes.



After the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year, a previously enacted trigger law banning abortion, which had been passed by the Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature, went into effect. The law prohibits abortions under virtually all circumstances and is currently being challenged in court, with the Kentucky State Supreme Court set to begin hearing the case on November 15.



Nationwide polling conducted by the Associated Press indicates that roughly two-thirds of the population agrees that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while only one in 10 supports a complete ban on the medical procedure.



Seeking to counter attacks on workers living standards and beat back sky-high inflation, voters in Nevada have passed an amendment to the state constitution increasing the states minimum wage to $12 an hour beginning on July 1, 2024. While this is still a poverty-level wage, the very fact that voters made clear they support an increase is politically significant in a state where Republican candidates for governor, senator and secretary of state currently lead their Democratic opponents.

In blood-red Nebraska, voters passed a measure to increase the state minimum wage by 66 percent by 2026. The measure would increase the minimum wage from the current $9 hour to $10.50 beginning January 2023, with yearly increases bringing the wage to $15 an hour by 2026.

Voters in Washington, D.C. passed Initiative 82, which will increase the tipped minimum wage to match the pay rate of non-tipped workers by 2027. The measure passed by an overwhelming margin, with 215,000 voting in favor, nearly three times as many as the 75,000 who voted against.



Supporters of the measure said that tipped restaurant workers should see their pay rise from $5.35 hour to $16.10 an hour by 2027.

According to MITs Living Wage Calculator, a living wage, that is, the amount needed to support two adults and one child, is over $68,000 a year, or roughly $34 an hour, in Washington, D.C.

Two Cheney-backed CIA Democrats win reelection

Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, both Democrats, won reelection victories by narrow margins Tuesday, Spanberger by 10,559 votes, or four percent, Slotkin by 18,561 votes, or five percent.

The two congresswomen have other things in common: both are former CIA agents and were profiled in 2018 in the WSWS series on the CIA Democrats, exposing the number of former military officers, State Department officials and intelligence agents being plugged into top positions in the Democratic Party.

These reelection contests were the two most expensive House races in the country, with Spanberger and Republican Yesli Vega raising and spending a combined $37 million and Slotkin and Republican Tom Barrett raising and spending $34 million. The two Democrats substantially outraised and outspent the two Republicans.

These are vast sums, given that each congressional district has somewhat less than 800,000 people. Projected across all 435 congressional districts, this would add up to an expenditure of $15.2 billion, more than the total cost of the last presidential election campaign.

Both Spanberger and Slotkin were endorsed by Representative Liz Cheney, the warhawk Republican who is vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. It was the first time that Cheney has ever endorsed a Democratic member of the House of Representatives for reelection, and these were the only two she endorsed.

Both Cheneys endorsement and the vast sums raised demonstrate that the rise of the CIA Democrats is vital to the US military-intelligence apparatus and to the financial aristocracy which it serves.



Initial results: Neither party receives political mandate in midterm elections

With vote counting in the US midterm elections resuming in many states this morning, the results indicate that neither of the two corporate-controlled parties can claim a genuine mandate. The Republican Party appears likely to gain control the House of Representatives, but only by a narrow margin, largely due to reapportionment and gerrymandering, which shifted at least a half dozen seats in its direction, more than the net gain of five that it needed to achieve. The Wednesday morning media projections suggested a Republican gain of 10 seats or less, far from the 20-30 predicted in the week leading up to the vote.

The Democratic Party was narrowly ahead in the US Senate, capturing one Republican seat in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz, the only seat in the 50-50 Senate that has so far changed parties. Republican challenges to incumbent Democrats in New Hampshire, Colorado and Washington fell short, as did Democratic efforts to win Republican-held seats in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.

Four seats remain contested between the parties: Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and Georgia, with Democrats leading in Arizona and Georgia and Republicans in Wisconsin and Nevada. Georgia has already scheduled a runoff election for December 6 because neither Democrat Raphael Warnock, the incumbent, nor Republican Herschel Walker will reach the required 50 percent of the vote.

In gubernatorial races, Democrats captured Republican-held offices in Massachusetts and Maryland and were leading in Arizona, while retaining control or leading in closely contested states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas and Oregon. Republicans were leading in only one Democratic-held state, Nevada.

Among the largest and most populous states, Republicans retained control easily in Ohio, Georgia, Florida and Texas, and Democrats won California, New York and Illinois.

The results demonstrated the failure of the Republicans to capitalize on the disastrous economic situation facing the bulk of the American population, and the failure of the Democrats to make gains from the assault on democratic forms of rule spearheaded by Republican ex-president Donald Trump and backed by the vast majority of Republican candidates.

The results also pose a challenge to Trumps personal control over the Republican Party, with the equally fascistic governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, winning a landslide reelection, while Trump-backed candidates went down to defeat, particularly in Pennsylvania.

While President Biden raised the question of Trumps attack on democracy in the final week of the campaign, this was done half-heartedly, while the real focus of the administration remains on stoking up the war with Russia in Ukraine and intensifying the US conflict with China in the Pacific.

On the basic class issues of war and attacks on jobs, living standards and social benefits, both parties are committed to doing the bidding of the financial aristocracy.

Although there is enormous political confusion engendered by the lies and demagogy of both parties, reinforced by a media barrage of immense proportions, neither party is seen by American working people as a credible vehicle for advancing their social and political interests.

The results of the election shed light on the shift to the left in the working class in one important aspect: every referendum to defend abortion rights was passed by comfortable majorities; every referendum to further restrict abortion rights was defeated, including in the supposedly conservative stronghold of Kentucky.

Initial midterm results show stagnating support for both parties

As of late Tuesday evening Eastern Time, the Republican Party appeared to be within reach of winning the House of Representatives in the first nationwide election held since it supported Trumps January 6, 2021 coup attempt.

The results in many House races remain very close, however, and control over the Senate will likely not be known for days. The narrowness of the margins and the length of time required to count all votes set the stage for a protracted period of crisis, with a potential for violence. Trump is falsely claiming that the Democratic Party is engaged in fraud in states like Arizona, where a technical glitch caused a delay in vote tabulation.

Though Republicans will win seats from the Democrats, results do not indicate a substantial increase in support for the Republicans, whose hopes for a 30+ seat shift in the House do not seem to be materializing.

On the contrary, the national picture that emerges from the results so far is one of popular disinterest in what both parties have to offer. Republicans are performing well in Ohio and Florida but poorly in the Northeast, where they had expected to make gains.

Beyond Ohio and Florida, Democrats are also underperforming in Wisconsin and have been unable to deliver clear victories in Georgia and Pennsylvania, though the Senate races there remain undecided. Democratic Campaign Committee Chair Sean Maloney is presently losing his election for Congress in New Yorks 17th District in what would be a substantial defeat for a Democratic leader.

The election also shows that Trump is not having success at expanding his base of support beyond a relatively narrow core. Many of the candidates most closely associated with Trump appear headed for defeat, including in gubernatorial races in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three battleground states, though these results could still change as more votes are counted.

The results of a number of state ballot referendums also make clear the election does not reflect a shift to the right in popular consciousness. In Vermont, Kentucky and Michigan voters appear likely to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution, and a similar measure will be voted on in California. Referendums in favor of legalizing marijuana are also passing in Maryland and Missouri, and voters in heavily Republican South Dakota are voting by a substantial margin to expand Medicaid for the states impoverished residents.

Three former Proud Boys hired as poll workers by Miami-Dade County Election Department

Three former members of the fascistic Proud Boys militia group have been hired on as poll workers by the Miami-Dade County Election Department in Florida.



On October 31, Miami New Times reported that Gabriel Garcia, an ex-Vice City Proud Boys leader who is currently facing six federal charges related to his actions on January 6, 2021 was hired on as a poll worker. The paper cited a video posted to the Floridians FIRST Telegram channel by Garcia in which he boasted, Thats right, you heard it right, Im working the poll. Cry some more, liberals. Enjoy your day.



The Miami New Times, noted that Garcia, a former US Army captain was wearing a hat that read F*ck Biden during his video rant.



At the urging of Donald Trump and his Republican co-conspirators, the Proud Boys, along with the Oath Keepers, spearheaded the violent assault on Congress on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to delay the certification of the electoral college vote and install Trump as president-dictator.



In their statement of facts, the FBI notes that video footage from inside the Capitol on January 6, showed Garcia saying loudly, Nancy come out and play, a reference to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Pelosis husband, Paul, is still recovering after getting his skull bashed in with a hammer by a deranged Trump supporter last month.



In addition to Garcia, Miami New Times and WPLG ABC Local 10 News, reported that Christopher Barcenas and Nowell Salgueiro, both former members of the Vice City Proud Boys were also approved by the Miami-Dade County Election Department to be election workers.



According to the New York Times, Barcenas was also in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, but did not enter the Capitol. All three men, Garcia, Bacenas and Salgueiro, are current members of the Miami-Dade GOP [Republican] Executive Committee.



After the initial publication of the Miami New Times story on October 31, the Miami-Dade County Elections Department issued a statement saying that Garcia would not be assigned to a polling station, due to his indictment. The department made no statement regarding Barcenas or Salgueiro.



On Tuesday morning, the Miami Against Fascism Twitter account reported that Barcenas, will be posted at a Coral Gables fire station today. In their Twitter post @MIAagainstFash attached a photo Barcenas had uploaded from his Telegram account. Barcenas captioned the photo of himself standing in front of a fire truck, The greatest precinct 614.



Trump prepares to claim credit if Republicans win, plans to push party further to right

In the days leading up to the election, Donald Trump has given a series of speeches and interviews indicating he plans to claim credit if the Republican Party wins the election and push the party even further to the right.



In an interview with Fox News published Tuesday, Trump claimed he will not support current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell if the Republicans win back control of the Senate. Trump called McConnell a lousy leader because he has given insufficient support to him. I think Rick Scott is a likely candidate, Trump added, referencing the Florida senator who last Sunday refused to say he would support McConnells candidacy for majority leader in the event the Republicans flip the upper house.



Hes toughhes tough, and I think he would probably go for it, Trump said. Hed have a lot of support. McConnell has been very bad for our nation. He has been very bad for the Republican Party. I would be in favor of somebody elseMcConnell has done a very bad job.



Trumps support for Scott explodes Trumps false attempt to posture as a defender of Social Security and Medicare. Scott is an extreme right-wing Republican who has openly called for massive cuts to the programs.



In a fascist speech Monday night, Trump made clear that if the Republicans win the House or Senate, he will see to it that the party carry out a vicious assault on the rights of immigrants and on all democratic rights. He pledged to essentially abolish the Bill of Rights by executing those suspected of certain crimes, like drug trafficking, without a trial. Trump is not a popular figure, but he is taking advantage of the political vacuum caused by the widespread lack of support for the Democratic Partys pro-corporate, pro-war program.

Theres a lot of bad things going on: Trump calls on supporters to rally in Maricopa County, Arizona and Detroit, Michigan

As millions of people continue to vote throughout the country, former president Donald Trump has released a video on his social media platform calling on his supporters in Maricopa County, Arizona to not leave the polling station because theres a lot of bad things going on.



In a video posted shortly before 5 p.m. EST, Trump called on the great people of Arizona, Maricopa county in particular to stay where you are. Using a previously reported issue with a small number of tabulators in Maricopa County, Trump baselessly claimed that election officials were deliberately trying to suppress the Republican vote in the fourth largest county in the United States.



They say that the machines arent working, they say that they are running out of paper in different locations throughout different states, Trump said, without naming any specific locations or states. Laying the foundations to claim that any Republican loss was due to deliberate sabotage, Trump declared, Theres a lot of bad things going on.



Stoking violence against election workers, Trump said, They want to delay you out of voting. And you cannot let them delay you out of voting. So to the people of Arizona in particular, because that is the one that has come up right now, stay online. Dont leave.



Already a lot of people have left and its very very unfair what is going on, Trump added.

Former president Donald Trump said, Theres a lot of bad things going on," in a video posted on his social media platform Tuesday, November 8, 2022. [Photo: Donald J. Trump/@realDonaldTrump]

Prior to releasing the video Trump posted: People of Arizona: Dont get out of line until you cast your vote. They are trying to steal the election with bad Machines and DELAY. Dont let it happen!



While Trump has centered his fascistic incitements on Maricopa county, he has also published several posts on Truth Social casting doubt on the elections in heavily Democratic areas of Michigan and Pennsylvania.



Appealing to racists, Trump wrote, again without evidence, Absentee Ballot situation in Detroit is REALLY BAD. People are showing up to Vote only to be told, sorry, you have already voted.



He claimed that this was happening in large numbers, elsewhere as well.



The former president, who has yet to be charged for attempting to overthrow the government over 22 months ago, called on his supporters to Protest, Protest, Protest!

Exit polls reveal voters confront widespread, worsening economic hardship

Exit polls show that the vast majority of Americans confront worsening economic hardship as inflation remains high and wages stagnate.



According to exit poll data released by CNN, 78 percent of voters say the economy is not good or poor. Nearly half of all voters say their economic situation is worsening, while 35 percent say their economic situation is staying the same, compared to only 18 percent who say it has improved. Seventy-eight percent of voters say inflation has increased the level of economic hardship they confront.



Under these conditions, dissatisfaction with both big business parties and their leading representatives is also growing. Only 36 percent of voters said they believed Bidens policies had helped their economic situation. However, Donald Trumps popularity is only decreasing, with only 39 percent of voters approving of Trump compared with 58 percent who disapprove of him.



Both Trump and Biden are widely unpopular in battleground Pennsylvania, though Trump is slightly more unpopular than Biden. A quarter of voters said they voted today to oppose Trump, versus 18 percent who said they voted to oppose Biden. It is difficult to know how reliable exit polling data is because exit polls cannot accurately predict the proportion of voters who vote by mail, who tend to vote for Democrats, versus those who vote in person on election day, who tend to support Republicans.

Trump, Republicans incite violence against election officials after tabulation issues reported in Maricopa County, Arizona



The threat of fascist violence hangs over the election. As they did in 2020, Trump and his Republican allies have seized on a reported tabulation issue, in this case in heavily populated Maricopa County, Arizona, to undermine the election results ahead of time and incite political violence.



Responding to a viral video posted Tuesday morning by Charlie Kirk (founder and president of the fascist Turning Point USA) showing an election worker acknowledging an issue with two tabulators in Maricopa County, Chairman Bill Gates of the Maricopa County Elections Department posted a video response.



In the video Gates acknowledged that 20 percent of the polling locations were reporting an issue with the tabulator. The Washington Post reported that officials confirmed to them that 20 percent of the 223 voting locations in Maricopa county, or nearly 50, were experiencing problems.





The officials explained that the tabulating, or counting, of votes does not in any way prevent voters from casting their ballot. The only change, as Gates explained, would be that ballots would have to be counted at a central processing facility, along with mail-in and early voting ballots, once the polls close at 7 p.m. In no way did the technical problem relate to an effort to suppress the vote.



However, in an attempt to further his election conspiracy lies and political violence, Trump posted on his social media network Tuesday afternoon: Reports are coming in from Arizona that the Voting Machines are not properly working in predominately Republican/Conservative areas. Can this possibly be true when a vast majority of Republicans waited for today to Vote? Here we go again?



Inciting right-wing militia elements, Trump added, The people will not stand for it!!!



Georgia Congresswoman and potential Trump vice presidential candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene boosted Kirks original video to her followers and demanded, Get rid of the machines! Donald Trump Jr. also retweeted Kirks video.



Jack Posobiec, a protege of Trump crony and long-time election provocateur Roger Stone, tweeted Tuesday afternoon: Gitmo has opening for the people behind the Maricopa County disaster. This was a reference to the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Earlier in the day, using language appealing to QAnon fascists, Posobiec wrote on Twitter: Storm the polls.
The New York Times recently reported that Washington is promoting Canadas deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, as its prime candidate to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary-general when the Norwegians term expires in September 2023.

Freeland is being backed by US imperialism to head the aggressive military alliance because she is a war hawk with extensive personal and political ties with Ukrainian fascism, which has emerged as a key proxy for the Western powers predatory war against Russia.

The selection of the next head of the US-led alliance is seen as a crucial issue in Washington and European capitals. The next secretary-general will oversee some 300,000 NATO high readiness forces in Europe and will therefore be instrumental in the prosecution of the imperialist powers war, aimed at subjugating Russia to the status of a semi-colony and seizing control of its natural resources.

In a manner typical of a newspaper that has deceitfully propagandized for every US war of aggression over the past three decades, the Times shamelessly covered up Freelands personal and political ties to far-right and outright fascist forces in its November 4 report.

After noting Freelands presence in Kiev in 2014 to celebrate the fascist-led coup that overthrew elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, the Times observes, (H)er Ukrainian grandfather, a grateful immigrant to Canada, was as a younger man involved with a Ukrainian nationalist movement that saw the Nazis as useful foils to counter the Soviets.

Contrary to this anodyne portrayal of Freelands grandfather as a young man led astray, the fact of the matter is that Mykhailo Chomiak was a high-level Nazi collaborator. From the beginning of 1940 to the early months of 1945, he served as managing editor of the only Ukrainian-language newspaper permitted to publish in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Krakivski Visti (Krakow News), which was produced on a printing press stolen from a Jew who perished in a Nazi death camp, published a steady stream of anti-Semitic and anti-Polish racist filth, regularly lauded Adolf Hitler as a leader of a new Europe and an ally of Ukraine, and actively campaigned for recruits to the 14th Division of the Waffen SS, the so-called Galicia Division. The Galicia Division participated in horrific massacres of Jews and Poles during 1943 and 1944.

Chomiak was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated closely with the Nazis, joined in the war of extermination against the Soviet Union, and was implicated in hundreds of thousands of deaths of Poles and Jews in the Holocaust. The OUN was an explicitly fascist organization that set as its goal the creation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state.

The faction to which Chomiak belonged, the OUN Melnyk (M), directly served the Nazi occupiers by integrating itself into the administrative and security apparatus in the General Government (Nazi-occupied Poland). The other faction, led by Stepan Bandera, the OUN (B), focused on embedding its forces into the military and claimed to act more independently of the Nazis. The activities of both factions and their push for an independent Ukrainian state were in reality entirely dependent upon the patronage of Nazi German imperialism.

After the downfall of the Third Reich, Chomiak found refuge together with thousands of Nazi collaborators in Canada and the United States. Former members of the fascist OUN were among the first recruits of the newly established CIA, which was above all concerned with recruiting anti-communist forces amid the Cold War.

Canada emerged as a key player in enabling Hitlers accomplices to whitewash their history and write a new narrative, according to which Ukrainian nationalism fought for liberation against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time. In addition to allowing tens of thousands of former SS members and other Nazi collaborators to settle in Canada, Ottawa provided financial support for an ideological campaign to legitimize far-right Ukrainian nationalism, including through its sponsorship of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and creation of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

The state intervened to help far-right forces associated with the OUN gain control of property and other assets owned by groups representing the Ukrainian diaspora that had been strongholds of socialism and left-wing politics prior to the Second World War. (This history is presented in detail in the WSWS series Canadian imperialisms fascist friends).

Freeland emerged out of this milieu. After working as a student on the so-called Encyclopedia of Ukraine, a project aimed at concealing the Ukrainian nationalists active support for Hitler and the Nazis led by Krakivski Vistis publisher, Volodymyr Kubiyovych, Freeland traveled to Soviet Ukraine in the late 1980s to stoke the far-right Ukrainian nationalism in which she had been schooled.

The Canadian state facilitated the return to Ukraine of large numbers of exiles and their descendants with ties to far-right nationalist groups over subsequent years, many of whom emerged as important figures in the establishment of an independent capitalist Ukraine following the Stalinists dissolution of the Soviet Union. Halyna Chomiak, Freelands mother, returned to Ukraine to establish the Ukrainian Legal Foundation, which was involved in drafting the countrys constitution.

The most significant import these forces brought back to Ukraine was a virulent strain of far-right nationalism. As Freeland observed in a 2015 essay entitled My Ukraine, Putins big lie: Ukraines national consciousness was weak. The Canadian state, supported by the politically influential Ukrainian Canadian Congress, made a significant contribution over the following years to revive the cult of Stepan Bandera, with the result that dozens of statues and other memorials to the fascist leader sprang up across western Ukraine.

This history goes a long way to explaining why Freeland has secured such a prominent position in Canadian imperialisms preparation for and waging of the US-led war against Russia. After the fascist-led Maidan coup brought to power a pro-Western regime in Kiev in 2014, prompting Russia to annex Crimea in response, Washington and Ottawa took the lead in reorganizing Ukraines armed forces.

They oversaw the integration of fascist militias like the notorious Azov Battalion into its ranks. Canadian troops involved in a military training mission in Ukraine provided instruction to members of Azov and Centuria, an elite group of fascist army officers. Canada simultaneously joined in NATOs massive build-up of military forces on Russias western border by leading one of the alliances forward battalions in Latvia. The deployment of similar battalions to Estonia, Lithuania and Poland continued the eastward march of the aggressive military alliance aimed at encircling Russia, which began in the aftermath of the restoration of capitalism by the Stalinists in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Freeland served as foreign minister throughout much of this period, before being promoted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the position of deputy prime minister and finance minister following the 2019 federal election. When the US and its NATO allies succeeded in goading Putin into his reactionary invasion of Ukraine in February, Freeland emerged as one of the leading voices for ruthless economic sanctions, including the removal of Russia from the SWIFT global payments network. She has also served as a key interlocutor between the Ukrainian government and its imperialist masters, boasting earlier this year that she has daily conversations with Ukraines prime minister and finance minister.

The fact that Freeland is now being mooted for the top job in NATO underscores the predatory character of the imperialist war waged by the US and NATO against Russia. Far from the Western powers intervening to defend Ukraines sovereignty and democracy, as publications like the Times incessantly claim, the conflict is about plundering Russias rich natural resources and seizing control of the geostrategically crucial Eurasian landmass.

These goals demand the deployment of ruthless military force abroad, threatening the world with a nuclear conflagration, and no less brutal methods of state repression at home to crush popular opposition to the subordination of societys resources to imperialist war and conquest. This is why the imperialists have cultivated intimate ties with fascist forces.

The political utility of Freeland for the Times and its predominantly upper-middle class readership, which makes up a key constituency of support for imperialist war, is that she unites her close ties to Ukrainian fascism with the requisite dose of identity politics.

For these social layers, it is of far greater significance that Freeland could become NATOs first female secretary-general than the fact that she is an avowed war hawk and far-right Ukrainian nationalist who describes an important Nazi collaborator as one of her heroes. Confronted with her grandfathers Nazi collaborationist record in 2017, Freeland dismissed it as Russian disinformation. She has repeatedly paid tribute to Chomiak for teaching her about Ukrainian culture and nationalism.

During her time as Canadas foreign minister, Freeland proclaimed that Ottawa was pursuing a feminist foreign policy as it deployed troops to Latvia, trained neo-Nazis in Ukraine, and participated in freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea. In 2017, Freeland announced a military spending hike of over 70 percent within a decade, and delivered a keynote address on Canadas new defence strategy that cited both Russia and China as threats to national security.

Freeland also maintains close ties to the trade union bureaucracy, which Canadas Liberal government views as a key partner in enforcing austerity to pay for war and suppressing the class struggle. Since the war broke out, Freeland has been invited to address several union conventions, including the 2022 Teamsters convention in June.

Freelands appointment to NATOs top job is by no means guaranteed. Since its formation in 1949, the alliance has traditionally been headed by a European, while a US general typically holds the position of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

The prospect of a Canadian and an American occupying NATOs two top positions would undoubtedly raise eyebrows among the European imperialists, especially under conditions in which Germany has seized on the war to revive its global great power ambitions. These geopolitical tensions aside, the war-mongers in Washington, Ottawa, Berlin and Brussels could hardly find a more politically appropriate figure to head their military alliance of death and destruction than Chrystia Freeland.
On Saturday, November 5, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke at the University of Michigan (UM) as part of his nationwide Our Future Is Now tour promoting Democratic candidates in the midterm elections.

Addressing some 1,000 attendees in the universitys Rackham Auditorium, Sanders argued that all young people and students had to turn out on Election Day, November 8, to vote up and down against Republicans and for Democrats because the election was uniquely consequential.

Sanders cited the attack on abortion rights, climate change and the ongoing assault on democracy by Trump and the Republicans as reasons to vote for the Democrats. At the same time, he hypocritically claimed that his blanket endorsement by no means suggested that Biden and the Democrats were doing nearly enough.

Sanders called climate change an existential question, warning that continued failure to address global warming threatened all of humanity in the coming decades. This, of course, is true, as is the fact that, apart from giving lip service, Biden and the Democrats have done no more than any other government to address the problem.

Nowhere in the course of his 45-minute speech did Sanders mention an even more immediate existential threatthe US-led war against Russia in Ukraine, which threatens to trigger a nuclear world war.

This was not an oversight. Sanders, for all his left-sounding demagogy, is not a socialist. He is a critical part of the Democratic Party and, like all Democratic and Republican politicians, a loyal defender of American capitalism and imperialism and its wars of aggression, including the US/NATO-provoked proxy war against nuclear-armed Russia. In recent days, Sanders has directly intervened to oppose peace negotiations and demand war until victory for Ukraine, increasing the danger of a nuclear holocaust.

Vice President Biden congratulates Sen. Bernie Sanders during a re-enactment of the swearing-in ceremony for his second term in the U.S. Senate. [Photo: sanders.senate.gov]

Last month, 30 members of the House Progressive Caucus published an open letter to Biden calling for peace talks with Russia, citing the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation and worldwide hunger as a result of food supply chain disruptions. The letter sparked a savage response from the leadership of the Democratic Party.

The Biden administration does not want an end to the war. Its overriding concern is neither the defense of democracywhether in Europe or the USnor Ukrainian self-determination, but rather the weakening and eventual dismemberment of Russia, which is seen by the Pentagon, CIA and Wall Street as an obstacle to taking on and defeating China and establishing US hegemony over the Eurasian continent. To this end, Biden is prepared to sacrifice the lives of countless Ukrainians and Russians, and risk the death of millions of even billions of people worldwide.

Within 24 hours of the appearance of the letter, in a demonstration of rank cowardice and subordination to the military/intelligence apparatus, the so-called progressives withdrew it and affirmed their support for prosecuting the war until Ukrainian victory.

The following day, Sanders, asked by a reporter about the letter and its withdrawal, said, I dont agree with that, and they dont agree with it, apparently. It was withdrawn today, so it becomes a non-issue. Thus the Vermont senator began his pre-election tour to hustle votes for the Democrats by declaring his support for war until victory.

Full support for the US-NATO war against Russia and its further escalation is the position not only of Sanders, the hero of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the pseudo-left more generally, but of the DSA itself. None of the four DSA members of the House Progressive CaucusAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)has made a statement about the withdrawal of the letter.

Last March, all of the congressional DSA members unanimously voted for a $40 billion military aid package for the Ukraine war. DSA members were present at Saturdays rally at UM to promote Sanders and the fiction that the Democratic Party can be pressured to the left. Sanders made a point during his remarks of pointing out the presence of DSA Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in the audience.

The administration has plowed over $50 billion in military aid into Ukraine since Russia invaded the country last February. That is more than four times the annual cost of Bidens totally inadequate student debt relief programcurrently held up in the courts.

Putins invasion was a reactionary and disastrously miscalculated response by the capitalist oligarchic regime he heads to decades of US-led provocations, including the eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance to Russias very borders. The US backed the regime-change operation in Ukraine in 2014 that brought in a far-right, rabidly nationalistic government in Kiev that glorifies Stepan Bandera, the nationalist leader who collaborated with the Nazis in the mass murder of Jews and Poles during World War II. The US and NATO massively armed the Ukrainian government and its fascist allies such as the Azov Battalion, turning Ukraine into an instrument for war against Russia.

Sanders support for imperialism is not new. For decades, he has supported Washingtons international war drive, including the Obama administrations destruction of Iraq and Syria under the guise of defeating ISIS. Sanders militarism goes hand in hand with his economic nationalism, which the ruling class and the trade union bureaucracies employ to pit US workers against their class brothers and sisters in China, Mexico and other countries.

Sanders services to the ruling class have involved repeated interventions aimed at propping up the trade union bureaucracies as they sold out and betrayed one strike after another. He made a point at UM of falsely identifying the working class with the corporatist and pro-imperialist unions. Ive been involved in several strikes, standing up for workers, he boasted.

The workers he stood up for include 2,000 New York University graduate students, whose strike in the summer of 2021 was sold out by the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC), an affiliate of the United Auto Workers (UAW).

In November of that year, Sanders hosted a virtual forum to cover for the UAW's sell-out contract imposed on striking workers at farm equipment maker John Deere.

This year he backed the concessions contract imposed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union on 8,400 King Soopers supermarket workers, and traveled to Britain to promote the Rail, Maritime and Transport union as it worked to isolate and suppress strikes by rail workers amid a wave of walkouts by health care workers, bus workers and others.

Now he is backing the attempt of the Biden administration, the rail companies and Congress to impose a sellout contract on 120,000 US rail workers.

In speaking with WSWS reporters and members of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality before Saturdays event, students and young workers aired concerns over the attacks on democratic rights such as abortion and the threat of far-right forces in and around the Republican Party. But neither Sanders nor his DSA promoters could offer any policies to address these or any of the critical issues facing youth and students.

IYSSE members distributed leaflets and spoke to attendees about the role of Sanders and the DSA in supporting the war in Ukraine. In opposition to the demagogy of Sanders, the IYSSE explained its fight to build an international anti-war movement of youth and students based on the working class and the fight for socialism. Many students expressed interest and signed up to find out more.

Last week, the IYSSE published a statement calling for the building of this movement and announcing a global online meeting to be held Saturday, December 10. Workers and youth can register for the meeting here.
QUESADA, Spain  An extremely hot, dry summer that shrank reservoirs and sparked forest fires is now threatening the heartiest of Spains staple crops: the olives that make the European country the worlds leading producer and exporter of the tiny green fruits that are pressed into golden oil.

Industry experts and authorities predict Spains fall olive harvest will be nearly half the size of last years, another casualty of global weather shifts caused by climate change.

I am 57 years old and I have never seen a year like this one, farmer Juan Antonio Delgado said as he walked past his rows of olive trees in the southeast town of Quesada. My intention is to hang on as long as I can, but when the costs rise above what I make from production, we will all be out of a job.

High temperatures in May killed many of the blossoms on the olive trees in Spanish orchards. The ones that survived produced fruits that were small and thin because of not enough water. A little less moisture can actually yield better olive oil, but the recent drought is proving too much for them.

This year has been the third-driest in Spain since records were started in 1964. The Mediterranean country also had its hottest summer on record.

Spains 350,000 olive farmers typically harvest their crops in early October, ahead of their full ripeness, in order to produce the olive oil. But with his olives still too puny to pick, Delgado left most of the fruit on his trees, hoping for rain. So far, no luck.

If the wished-for rain doesnt arrive soon, the country will produce nearly half as many olives as it did last year, according to Spains agriculture minister.

Our forecast for this harvest season is notoriously low, Agriculture Minister Luis Planas told The Associated Press. The ministry predicts that it wont even reach 800,000 tonnes (882,000 U.S. tons), compared with 1.47 million tonnes (1.62 million U.S. tons) in 2021.

Olive trees cover 2.7 million hectares (6.8 million acres) of Spains soil, with a full 37% of them found in Jaen province, which is known for its sea of olives and where Delgado farms.

On average, Spain grows more than three times as many olives as Italy and Greece, which also are seeing smaller yields.

Olive oil production in the European Union as a whole is forecast to fall drastically compared with last year, according to the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations and the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives,

The European farming organizations, known by the acronyms COPA and COGECA, warned in September that the yield could drop by 35% due to drought and high temperatures. The two groups called the situation in Spain particularly worrying.

The smaller harvest is driving up prices, according to Italian olive oil producer Filippo Berio. The company said the price of European olives for extra virgin oil has soared from 500 euros per tonne ($495) to 4,985 euros ($4,938) per tonne.

Along with warmer than usual weather, the drought is affecting Spanish olives in other ways. Farming method consultant Antonio Bernal is witnessing the return of long-forgotten diseases during his visits to Quesada. He believes that milder winters are helping fungi to proliferate.

Bernal also fears that the most widespread variety of olive cultivated in Jaen wont be able to adapt to such a quickly changing climate.

The solution is to stop climate change: Olive groves cannot adapt at a pace to assume such a fast change, Bernal said.

Besides the olive branch being the universal symbol of peace, the olive is a symbol of the Mediterranean. Plato was said to have dispensed his wisdom under an olive tree and the olives widespread cultivation in Spain goes back to the Romans.

When it got too dry for orange and lemon trees, olive trees were counted on to continue thriving. The short, gnarly trees cling to dry, rocky ground and seem not to mind when the sun comes pounding down. Under torrid midday conditions, microscopic pores on their leaves close to reduce water loss.

For Jaen, the olive has been our culture, our way of subsisting and feeding our families, said olive farmer Manuel Garcia.

Yet even the hearty olive has limits. These days, the fruit represents the challenges communities face in a hotter, dryer world.

Researcher Virginia Hernandez is an olive expert based at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology in Seville, Spain. She is studying how to adapt irrigation practices to drought, specifically the point at which sub-optimum quantities of water can be used to promote sustainability.

With less rain likely to become a norm, using water sparingly is critical, Hernandez said. She thinks a more intelligent use of high-tech irrigation systems combined with more drought-resistant varieties of trees could save the industry as the planet warms.

According to climate experts, the Mediterranean is expected to be one of the fastest warming regions of the world in the coming years. The trick is convincing farmers that reducing their output some today might save their livelihoods tomorrow, the kind of adaptability at which olives are particularly adept, Hernandez said.

The truth is that the olive is the paradigmatic species when it comes to resisting a lack of water, she said. I cant think of another that can hold up like the olive. ... It knows how to suffer.
The beginning of the United Nations climate summit COP27, being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, has been overshadowed by the drive to increase oil and natural gas production in the United States and Europe as a result of the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. Since the war began, the Biden administration in particular has pledged to deliver tens of billions of cubic meters of natural gas to Europe, promising a corresponding increase of greenhouse gas emissions and exposing the environmentalist pretensions of his administration and the American government as a whole.

As has been known for decades, and what was again made clear during the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there is an urgent need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to abate and reverse global warming. Thousands of workers and toilers die and millions are displaced around the world each year, especially in the most impoverished regions, as a result of the more or less unregulated release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as the worlds corporations and nations compete with one another for global dominance.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, speaks during the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. [AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty]

The colossal floods that began across Pakistan in June are among the most advanced expression of the climate crisis. Torrents of water that came from glacial melting in the Himalayas and unusually heavy rain have killed at least 1,700, injured more than 12,000 and displaced at least 33,000,000.

Climate models predict that such disasters will become increasingly regular if the current warming trend continues. And floods, hurricanes, wildfires, polar vortexes and other forms of extreme weather are known to be the precursors to even more lethal climate-induced catastrophes.

None of these issues, however, are being seriously addressed at COP27. There have been many speeches by various figures, including heads of state, calling for climate justice, code for increased funding to combat the effects of climate change in developing nations. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the world is on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.

But as with all previous climate summits, from last years COP26 at Glasgow, Scotland to the 2015 Paris Accord and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, none of the various speeches and agreements deal with the underlying cause of the climate crisis: capitalism and the drive for private profit.

The ongoing war in Ukraine serves as an example of this process. Just one day after the Russian military was provoked into its invasion, a US-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) lobbying group, called LNG Allies, wrote a letter to the Biden administration demanding at least $300 million in new infrastructure to establish virtual transatlantic gas pipelines in order to bolster domestic production.

The letter also called on the Department of Energy to immediately approve applications to further export LNG under the guise of helping to prevent energy insecurity in Europe. The administration moved swiftly, approving two such applications in March and a further two in April. It noted then that it expected US exports of the commodity to increase by 20 percent by the end of 2022.

These shifts were paralleled by an announcement between Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the US would provide an additional 15 billion cubic meters of LNG in 2022 to help end [the European Unions] dependence on Russian fossil fuels. According to an article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, about half of US gas production will be used as exports when the ongoing fossil fuel infrastructure plans are complete.

This has resulted in a financial bonanza for gas companies. Cheniere, which is based out of Houston, Texas, has so far increased its profits by $3.8 billion this year. Sempra, which provides natural gas to nearly 40 million people in California, Texas and Mexico, had its stock value spike by more than 25 percent in the weeks after the war began.

Militaries themselves are also immense emitters of greenhouse gases. A report from Boston University published in 2019 entitled Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War by Neta Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War project, found that the US military is among the largest polluters in the world, releasing more greenhouse gases than whole countries, including Sweden and Denmark. It explicitly noted that the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Syria have released at least 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, about a third of the total released by the Pentagon since 2001.

No reference was made to these facts, however, at COP27. Instead, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky provided a diatribe against Russia, claiming that deliberate Russian actions have brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation. He continued, again referring to Russia, There are still many for whom climate change is just rhetoric or marketing, not real action.

In reality, no government, from Russia, to Ukraine, to the United States, has a plan of real action to deal with climate change.Recent estimates suggest that $100 billion is needed each year to reverse global warming, a number which has never been achieved. Yet tens of billions of dollars have been provided to fund the Ukrainian militarys purchase of advanced weapons from the US and its allies needed to fight against Russia. And that is nothing to say of the trillions that have been used to bail out US banks and corporations since 2008.

These staggering sums being spent on war and bailouts did not stop John Kerry, former Democratic presidential candidate and current Special Presidential Envoy for Climate under Biden, from stating Tuesday that No government in the world has enough money to affect the transition. He continued, The entity that could help the most is the private sector with the right structure.

Kerry, in two sentences, expresses the orientation of the entire capitalist social order. There is no money to deal with the vast pressing social problems of the dayclimate change, social inequality, COVID-19but unending sums for war and the enrichment of the financial oligarchy. And any initiatives that are set up to ostensibly deal with these issues must be subordinated to private profit.
Australians Against COVID spokesperson Craig Wallace spoke to the World Socialist Web Site last week about Facebooks suspension of his account following his posting of a John Snow Project video (see: Facebook censors Australians Against Covid spokesperson Craig Wallace and a Sydney health worker).

Craig Wallace [Photo: CraigWtweets]

Nothing in this video is highly contested information, Wallace told the WSWS. Issued in the lead up to Halloween, a potential super-spreader event globally, the video explained the importance of N95 masks to reduce the incidence of COVID infections.

Craig Wallace: My post was highly on topic, and clear and scientifically based health advice. If governments were in the right mind, they should be producing and disseminating material like the John Snow Project in order to tell the public how to protect themselves.

The Facebook ban raises questions in mind as to who has the time, motivation and resources to run around trying to silence advocates and activists on social media. Ive been targeted by extreme-right elements before, but Im not alone, others are being singled out.

Is it anti-vaxxers or are state actors involved? These are questions that need to be investigated. It feels like asymmetrical warfare and it seems to be just one way. If you look at the Department of Health Facebook, for example, it is literally carpet-bombed by people spreading all kinds of ridiculous disinformation and yet Facebook allows it.

WSWS: How has this impacted on your work?

CW: I use Facebook as a space where disability activists, who have been isolated physically during the pandemic, can congregate to organise, share information and plan. It is generally accessible and openor at least it used to bewhere people, including people with disability who dont have IT resources, can share.

There seems to be a concerted attempt to shut down this kind of organising.

WSWS: What was the reaction to the Facebook ban by your social media followers?

CW: Hundreds of people denounced it as an outrageous denial of freedom of speech and suppression of accurate information. The John Snow Project also reached out to say that they had had issues with their Facebook presence. Ive got no intention of stepping back from my COVID safety messaging and the rights of the disabled. It might mean that my social media messaging has to be delivered in different ways.



WSWS: You raised concerns in a recent tweet about the Australian Capital Territory governments response to COVID safety and for a monitoring group of disabled people to ensure proper support. Could you expand on that?

CW: Our local territory government has been persistently trying to say that the COVID pandemic is over, that theres no longer a need for a dedicated group monitoring the support for disabled people here.

Weve been consistently resisting these claims, pointing out that the other high-level committees that report to government on health issues need to have disabled people on them or being involved. Theres still a lot of work to do to support people through the pandemic.

The bureaucrats clearly want to disengage with us. Ive been meeting with ministers and senior officials and others through advocacy for inclusion that I work for. Were urging for every avenue of communication for the disabled to be kept open.

Disabled people are still trapped in their homes and still getting ill. Theres also a lack of clarity around core issues such as the availability of antivirals for people who become sick. The process is really opaque. You cant just say you have disabilities in order to get the antivirals. You have to have various comorbidities, theres got to be a GPs judgement involved.

Believe it or not Im not eligible. Im a 53-year-old obese man with a congenital neuro-muscular condition and have been in a wheelchair since 1984. If Im not eligible for anti-virals, then who is?

The whole business is problematic and is combined with the government abandoning all protections or providing safe spaces for people with disabilities. Were still not guaranteeing the rights of people to work from home and get employment from home as the crisis continues. We need to have more conversations about poverty and cost of living impacts for people with disabilities in this situation.

It is, quite frankly, disgusting that the government is trying to shut down its communications with a highly vulnerable community during this crisis. Governments are pretending the pandemic is all over and doesnt exist, but its a human rights issue, a poverty issue, its about ableism and eugenics.
Facebook has placed restrictions on the account of Craig Wallace, spokesperson for Australians Against Covid and longtime campaigner for the rights of the disabled, after he shared on October 29 a John Snow Project video titled, Which Halloween mask is best? The video, which currently has well over 100,000 views on Twitter, explained the necessity of using appropriate respirators, especially during the Halloween festivities, to protect against COVID-19.

The censorship of Wallace is one of many examples highlighting the suppression on social media of those who share scientifically backed information in opposition to the Let it Rip policies of governments internationally and their false claim that the pandemic is over.

In Australia, the Labor government of Anthony Albanese and the unconstitutional National Cabinet, made up of the mostly Labor state governments, have led this homicidal charge.

Wallaces Facebook account was restricted for two days starting on the morning of October 29. Facebook claimed that his John Snow Project post repeats false information about vaccines that goes against our Community Standards.

In fact, the video makes only one mention of vaccines, stating: Treat yourself to a mask that actually filters virusesa well-fitting respiratorand wear it, because current vaccines alone are not enough. We need all our defences, but were not using them.

Nothing about this statement is false. It makes the scientifically proven point that respirator wearing, testing, social distancing and adequate ventilation, in addition to vaccines, are needed to halt the viruss spread.

In a tweet announcing the restriction on his Facebook account, Wallace wrote: Yikes! My @facebook account was just restricted for two days for sharing the excellent and accurate @JohnSnowProject video on masks & COVID. The censorship of people urging a precautionary response is really ramping up.

Scores of workers, youth and professionals on social media spoke out against the Facebook ban on Wallace, who lodged an official complaint with the social media company.

On October 30, Wallace tweeted that Facebook had reversed its decision to restrict his account and restored the video post, saying: Were sorry that we got this wrong. Weve reviewed your post again and it does follow our Community Standards.

In his tweet announcing the lifting of restrictions on his Facebook account, Wallace said: Im still very interested in understanding who has the time, motivation and resources to lodge mass fake complaints against people sharing accurate information warning of the flawed #COVID19 response.

On November 1, Wallace tweeted that Facebook had again restricted his account, this time because he shared a post on Facebooks decision to reverse its previous restriction. The post was again falsely flagged for false information about vaccines.

While the immediate cause of the restrictions on Wallaces Facebook are unclear, the targeting of an outspoken advocate for COVID-19 safety measures to protect the disabled and immunocompromised is significant.

Prior to his ban, Wallace had spoken out in support of the analysis presented on the World Socialist Web Site and its reportage of a well-attended online public meeting organised by Australians Against Covid.

On October 8, he tweeted a link to the WSWS report of the meeting held by Australians Against Covid. Participants in the meeting strenuously opposed the unanimous decision by Australian state and federal governments to remove all compulsory isolation periods for those infected with COVID-19 and the ending of pandemic leave payments.

I cant sugar coat this, Wallace tweeted. As some other progressives abandon us, socialists are seeing reality and articulating how COVID is being weaponised against us.

Soon after, the WSWS published an interview with Craig Wallace which has been shared widely, including by Wallace himself. In one such tweet, Wallace commented: Socialists are now among the only people amplifying the voices of disabled people, workers, unemployed, the aged and sick.

Facebooks restriction of Wallaces account is one example of the censorship levelled against those campaigning in opposition to the murderous COVID policies of governments around the world.

Last month, a Sydney health worker and member of the Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee in Australia shared Wallaces WSWS interview in several Facebook groups. In one group, Student Midwives of Australia, the health workers post was flagged, leading to the workers account being subjected to harsh restrictions by the social media giant.

Screenshot showing Facebook block on Sydney health workers account [Photo: WSWS]

The health workers post included the following quote from Wallaces WSWS interview: Were constantly told that its only old people, the disabled, people with underlying health issues that die from COVID. This is eugenics. Its what Hitler said, albeit in a new form. Its morally injurious and needs to be opposed by any and every means possible.

Facebook claimed that the workers post violated their Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organisations. These standards are supposedly in place to prevent symbols, praise or support of dangerous individuals and organisations. Under their definition of dangerous are terrorist activity, organised hate or violence, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, and criminal or harmful activity.

It hardly bears mentioning that an interview with an advocate for the safety of the most vulnerable sections of the working class amid a pandemic does not fit into any of the above categories.

On October 30, the worker was informed by Facebook that their account was subject to extensions on the multiple restrictions on their account. They were told that their account was restricted for 6 days, their group activity restricted and their posts moved lower in Facebooks feed for 87 days.

The attacks on the health worker and Craig Wallace also come after the censorship of respected Australian remote area general practitioner and principled advocate for Zero-COVID, Dr David Berger.

Berger has been targeted by the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) and the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency for his opposition to the let it rip programs of Australian governments. On June 7, Berger was ordered to undertake a disciplining education program or be deregistered.

Hundreds of workers, youth, health professionals and medical experts have come out on social media, signed petitions, and released statements denouncing the attack on Berger and the democratic right to access accurate scientific information amid the pandemic.

In a significant act of political censorship, Twitter locked the account of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) for a week in July, rendering it unable to post content, issue replies or send messages.

The ban was incurred after the SEP shared a video defending Dr David Berger, persecuted journalist and WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, and free speech. Twitter claimed the video violated the Twitter rules on the absurd and false grounds that it shared privately produced/distributed intimate media of someone without their express consent.

The lock only ended because of a campaign waged by the SEP in opposition to the political attack.

These attacks on democratic rights amid the pandemic highlight the fact that the ruling elite is determined to suppress oppositional voices to its criminal policies.



The COVID-19 pandemic has not only seen death on a mass scale in the interests of profit, but has also intensified the attacks on workers wages, access to the essentials of life, and working and living conditions. This program has been promoted by all the capitalist parties and their defenders in the trade union bureaucracies.

To defend their interests, workers must develop their own independent organisationsrank-and-file committees completely separate from the pro-corporate trade unions.

While unions, social media giants and governments seek to stifle opposition and suppress information, rank-and-file committees will provide a framework whereby workers can have democratic discussion and share accurate information on their working and living conditions, and scientific material on the COVID-19 pandemic, including the necessary program to eliminate the virus and save lives.

As part of this struggle, the Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee and Committee For Public Education in Australia are holding a joint online public meeting on Sunday, November 20 at 3 p.m. (AEDT), titled Unite educators and health workers: Oppose the ending of COVID protection measures! Lives before profit!

The meeting will provide a political perspective to unify health workers, educators and other sections of workers in the fight against the pandemic and for decent wages and conditions. Register for the meeting here.
As voting heads into its final stages in the historic first United Auto Workers direct election for national officers, statements of support continue to come in for rank-and-file Mack Trucks worker Will Lehman, who is running for UAW president. Lehman is calling for the restoration of power to the workers on the factory floor and the abolition of the corrupt apparatus.

Lehman campaigner speaks to KTP worker [Photo: WSWS]

Supporters of Will Lehman continue to spread the word about the campaign and counter the efforts of the UAW to keep members in the dark about the election, the right of all dues-paying UAW memberstemp, retiree or full-timeto vote, as well as their right to information on the candidates in order to suppress the turnout. The UAW apparatus above all fears that Lehmans campaign will win powerful support from younger workers, temp workers and lower tiered workers, who have been saddled with low pay and denied basic benefits and job protections.

A team of supporters of Will Lehman recently visited the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant outside Louisville. The plant builds the highly profitable Ford Super Duty pickup truck, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator SUVs. The plant has also been slated for $700 million in investment to produce an updated version of the Super Duty. Ford is also building two new battery plants in Kentucky as part of its transition to electric vehicles.

However, the companys nearby Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP) has no vehicle slated to replace the Ford Eclipse and the Lincoln Corsair crossover vehicles, which are currently built at the facility. This raises the possibility that the plant could be closed or that Ford will use the fate of the jobs at LAP as a bargaining chip in the 2023 contract negotiations.

General Motors threatened the closure of five plants ahead of the 2019 contract talks and ended up closing three, including the historic Lordstown Assembly Plant in northeast Ohio.

One analyst told Automotive News that the closure of LAP cannot be ruled out since Ford is building a new electric vehicle assembly plant in Tennessee as part of its Blue Oval complex outside Memphis. The company has not stated publicly whether it plans to recognize the UAW at the new facility.

Lehman has issued a statement calling for the full mobilization of UAW members, including a national strike, to oppose job cut threats at LAP and other factories.

When you add capacity, it always puts an older plant at risk, the analyst said. Louisville is a large plant, and it has an established work force. But on the negative side, its approaching its 70th birthday.

Im voting for Will because hes not part of the establishment, a veteran KTP worker told campaigners. [UAW President] Ray Currys team and the Team United are part of the establishment and are not going to do anything for us. We need pretty much everything [Will] has posted in this flyer: cost of living, get rid of the two-tier, pay raise and pensions for everybody.

We need the stuff we gave away. We need someone to fight for us to help get it back. We need to help one another. People are working at Ford who are homeless. I know people who are going through a rough patch, and we need people to have better pay, equal pay. ... I have family who are losing their homes. ... Its ridiculous, especially here in Louisville.

Ford is a multibillion-dollar company, and there is no way anybody should be here who is homeless or going through a rough patch in their finances. We need to have a 50 percent pay increase and COLA. If thats what we are wanting back, then [Will] is a good guy to be put in charge.

A young Kentucky Truck Plant worker said, The biggest issues for me are the overloading of jobs and the tier system. The UAW gave away so much for second-tier workers like pensions. There are no real safety regulations on the jobs. I was injured because of the overloading of my job.

I agree with Wills call for pay raises and COLA. Workers at Amazon are making more than what a new worker is paid at Ford. In the last contract, even the Tier One workers lost out on raises.

The attendance policy is very bad too. People are working even if they have COVID because they cant afford a leave of absence. The point system is used to keep workers from taking a day off.

I been following the railroad workers. They are fighting for higher pay and for sick days. They had to work throughout the pandemic. Now management and Biden are trying to keep them from striking. They called all of us essential workers, railroad workers, semi-truck drivers, health care and manufacturing workers. After the short lockdown, they say its ok now, go back to work, catch COVID.

Ford workers in Detroit have also responded powerfully to Will Lehmans campaign.

Ed, a young worker at the Dearborn Truck Assembly Plant outside of Detroit, has worked at the plant since October 2021. He told Lehmans supporters that although he is full-time, he earns only $18 an hour.

He has already been bumped around to different crews and different jobs three times. He started out on the A Crew but was bumped to the C Crew, where he lost his previous job because it was already occupied. After some time he asked to be shifted back to the A Crew, where once again his old job was taken by another worker.

Ed said he was considering voting for Will Lehman saying, My biggest complaint is that they dont give you any real training to do a job. They just throw you onto a job. Theres no communication with the workers, either from the company or the union.

Carl, a worker at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in the Detroit suburb of Wayne, said he is full-time, second tier and on the third shift. He had received a ballot and was planning to send it in last weekend.

Im all for what Will is saying, including setting up rank-and-file committees and putting the power in the hands of the workers. Nobody will do it for us, he said.

One of my buddies recommended me for this job at Ford. Im not from a Ford family. I thought, great! With a job at Ford my problems are solved. In the old days, the autoworkers set the standard for the middle class.

But thats not the case now. The wages are too low. People with families have a hard time keeping their head above water. They have to think about getting second jobs.

I just transferred to the paint shop. You never know when you are working and when you are off.
Directed by Lorenzo Vigas: written by Vigas, Paula Markovitch and Laura Santullo

The Box (La Caja) is a film about life in northern Mexico, directed by Venezuela-born Lorenzo Vigas (From Afar, 2015). A teenage boy latches on to a man he claims is his father, someone who hires impoverished workers for garment factories. The youth undergoes disturbing, eye-opening experiences and receives a cruel education in the ways of the free enterprise system.

Venezuelas submission to the 2023 Academy Awards opens in New York City on November 11.

Vigas film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2021.

As we noted at the time, The Box and other socially oriented films were exceptions. The Toronto festival and other such events have become officially mesmerized in recent years by race and gender politics.

The Box

Social inequality, accelerated and amplified by a horrific pandemic, dominates every corner of the globe, and a handful of conglomerates and billionaires relentlessly strengthens its grip on economic life. A new world war threatens. However, to a certain comfortably off, aspiring social layer, the crucial questions involve personal identity. In effect, de facto quotas along racial and gender lines have increasingly been established.

The Toronto festival has launched various initiatives aimed, it asserts, at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in film. Share Her Journey, begun in 2017, is a campaign and commitment to address gender parity and championing women in front of and behind the camera. Festival organizers envision it as part of a global movement  dedicated to building frameworks, empowering creators, and forging paths for women to succeed as storytellers who help shape our cultural landscape.

The festival boasted this year that since 2016, we have had an equal 50/50 gender split in selected participants for our Talent Development initiatives such as TIFF Filmmaker Lab, TIFF Writers Studio, and TIFF Rising Stars. 64 percent of the speakers at our 2021 Industry Conference were women.

Women and Hollywood, which Educates, Advocates, and Agitates for Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Hollywood and the Global Film Industry, enthused in August 2022 that TIFF announcements continue to flood in, and the filmmaker gender stats are getting better and better. The festival has confirmed the 2022 slates for its Discovery, Midnight Madness, and Wavelengths sections, and, overall, women, femme, non-binary, and/or genderfluid directors helmed a whopping 59 percent (24) of the 41 feature-length films.

There is no evidence that the slightest improvement in the breadth and depth of filmmaking has occurred as a result of these efforts. This is a struggle going on within a layer of the affluent middle class for positions and privilege.

In 2021 the Toronto festival announced Every Story, a fund to support and celebrate films under-represented voices and audiences. It was intended to create opportunities for equity-seeking creators. A press release explained that 76 of this years Festival selections were either created or co-created by cisgender or transgender women, or non-binary or two-spirit filmmakers. Seventy-five percent of Industry Conference speakers identify as Black, Indigenous, or a person of colour. This is the beginning of a journey to highlight the stories that may have previously been untold and address the reasons for their erasure. We cannot be the only ones to find this type of language insufferable.

One of the three primary pillars of this program, along with celebrating diverse storytellers and audiences; and creating opportunities for creators who are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, is said to be challenging the status quo.

The establishment of racial and gender goals does nothing to challenge the status quo. The film festival itself is very much part of the status quo, its officialdom enmeshed in that wing of the Ontario and Canadian establishment that promotes identity politics, racial, ethnic and gender divisions, as part of its strategy for remaining in power.

The great barrier making it possible for some stories to be told while others go untold remains, above all, social class. The lives and problems of the vast majority of laboring, suffering humanity arouse little interest in leading industry circles, and nothing about the various film festival initiatives will alteror are intended to alterthat situation.

Filmmakers worldwide feel these pressures as well. Some respond to the present crisis of society in a narrow, self-centered manner and thus disqualify themselves from the ranks of serious artistic figures. There are more than enough identity politics-obsessed films to go around, if one seeks them out. Other writers and directors look beyond their noses at the general state of society and consider the dilemmas of those whose conditions are far worse, and in some cases tragically worse, than their own.

In The Box, a teenager, Hatzin (Hatzin Navarrete) travels north to the state of Chihuahua to collect the remains of his father, who died in a mining accident. On the street, Hatzin spots a man he believes to be his supposedly deceased father and begins to dog the latters tracks. Eventually, Mario (Hernan Mendoza), who claims the boy is mistaken, hires the persistent Hatzin as his assistant.

Mario works for the management of various maquiladoras and other factories recruiting workers from villages and towns. In every location, Marios other helper recites the same spiel, something like this: Were at war  were at war with the fucking Chinese. Chinese women and girls, he tells the crowd, have tiny hands.  What happens if theyre faster than us? We lose our jobs. Are we going to let them take our jobs? Mario and his crew deliver busloads of desperate workers to the gates of giant plants.

Hatzin discovers that Mario is cheating the workers in various ways. One girl, Laura Morales, speaks up. She complains that the factory is making her and the rest of the workers work 14 hours instead of the promised 12. Laura confronts Hatzin with the fact that the workers were actually charged for their bus trip to the factory, again, contrary to what was promised them. Mario shouts at her for riling people up. Then, Laura suddenly goes missing. Her mother, who comes looking for the girl, is threatened with a note: If you go back to the police, well kill the rest of your family. At first an enthusiastic and adept apprentice, Hatzin ultimately develops a conscience.

Mario has other means of accumulating the capital necessary for the business he wants to start, including stealing a truckload of sewing machines.

The Box is not flawless, at times a little drab, but Vigas places his finger squarely on a vital matter.

The director, the son of a painter, was born in Merida, Venezuela in 1967 and now lives in Mexico City. He studied molecular biology at the University of Tampa in Florida and film at New York University. The new work is the last in a rough trilogy of films about fathers and sons, including From Afar and a documentary, The Orchid Seller (2016).

Variety noted that The Box, which was shot over 10 weeks in 10 different locations across the Mexico state of Chihuahua, also explores the riptide effects of poverty on violence, specifically regarding migrant and factory workers who risk their lives every day to earn a wage on which most Americansand most people worldwidecould not survive.

Its not just happening in Mexico, but across the whole Latin Americayou have so many kids growing up alone, without their father, Vigas told Variety. Thats the main theme of the film. But, its also about the disappearance of women in the north of Mexico, which is terrible. Its something like 100,000 women have disappeared, for unknown reasons. Women working for these big factories in Mexico. And I got very interested in that story.

He told Reuters, Everyone in the north of Mexico depends on the factories.  I am not saying that all the factories treat people badly, but you have factories that imprison their workers, much worse than what you see in La Caja.

Vigas has created a valuable film.
Freedom Caucus member Bob Good is going back to Congress.

The Associated Press declared Good, an election denier and a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, the winner a few minutes past 9 p.m. in his re-election effort to represent Virginia's 5th congressional district.

Good's district includes Charlottesville, which historically votes Democratic, and most of Albemarle County.

Good did not have a public victory party or issue a statement by print press time.

His challenger, political newcomer Josh Throneburg, conceded and congratulated Good.

"Ive looked at the numbers and it appears that tonight, weve come up short," Throneburg said in a statement. "It has been a long, hard-fought race, but I have just called Bob Good and congratulated him on his election to a second term in office. Im so grateful to the people who supported me through this campaign  the tireless volunteers, the local committees, the grassroots donors who helped us do everything from gassing up our cars to putting commercials up on television."

Throneburg, a minister, said that he will pray for Good.

"I will pray for Bob Good, and pray that he can rise to the challenge of being a representative who helps those people build the world they seek," Throneburg said in his statement.

Throneburg was still fighting just hours earlier. Throneburg arrived at Johnson Elementary School a little before 6:30 p.m. He made a total of 11 stops at precincts throughout the district.

There was definitely a lot of energy everywhere we went, Throneburg said. I think turnout is pretty strong for a midterm election where we have no senators and no president on the ballot.

Turnout for early voting in Charlottesville and Albemarle County has been unusually high. In the county, almost triple the number of people have voted early this election as in 2018; early voting in the city is more than double what it was in 2018, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

The Daily Progress contacted Representative Bob Goods campaign to see whether he would stop at any precincts or have a public election party. A representative for Goods campaign said Goods event was restricted to key volunteers, supporters and GOP chairs.

Throneburg appeared popular in Charlottesville on Tuesday, as most voters exiting polls who were interviewed by The Daily Progress reporters told reporters that they had voted for Throneburg.

I dont want any more of my rights taken away," said Torrance Malone. "I want a safer environment to live in. I was just full of liberal rage.

She wasnt the only one. Liam Kelly said he has voted every year since he became eligible to cast a ballot, motivated by a sense of civic duty.

More affordable housing, more affordable health care, more affordable schools would be amazing, Kelly said.
In an election season marked by wide ideological divisions but narrow margins of victory, we think Virginians and all Americans can profit from understanding how reliable the U.S. election system is. Even the most contentious disputes can be settled, so long as losers trust the system and accept evidence of their defeat.

The model we chose to demonstrate that Americas electoral system works is the Nov. 4, 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate contest between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. It led to the longest election dispute in the states history and one of the longest in U.S. history. It took eight months to reach a concession. It could have ended six months earlier if the people involved trusted the system.

As the smoke clears from Tuesdays election battles, we hope politicians, election officials and voters in Virginia and across the country find the faith to avoid very many standoffs like Coleman-Franken.

After 2.92 million Minnesotans cast ballots, Coleman claimed victory based on an unofficial election night count that showed him up by 725 votes. A second unofficial tally showed Colemans margin had shrunk to 214 votes. Either number triggered an automatic state-funded hand recount because the margin of victory was less than half of 1%. In public view, state officials in 80 counties and 30 cities conducted the hand recount. They examined individual ballots. Representatives for Coleman and Franken monitored the counting at every site and challenged ballot determinations if they disagreed. The candidates representatives agreed with 99.97% of the recount boards decisions. The candidates eventually whittled 6,555 disputed ballots down to fewer than 1,000.

The State Canvassing Board then began its determination of the remaining challenged ballots. The canvassing board reviewed and ruled on each disputed ballot by consensus. Only 14 ballots were decided on a 3-2 split decision, and those included votes for both Coleman and Franken.

Then the canvassing board moved to specific charges made by each campaign. The Minnesota Attorney General issued an opinion that machine counts would be official in a Minneapolis precinct where 132 back-up paper ballots were missing, but allowed that decision to be taken to court. The board said charges of double counting votes were beyond its authority.

Frankens campaign alleged that some local election officials improperly rejected absentee ballots. The board asked local officials to voluntarily recheck rejected absentee votes. The review proved that the vast majority of rejected absentee ballots failed to meet legal requirements.

Local officials eventually forwarded 933 improperly rejected votes to the Secretary of State to count. In January 2009, the Secretary of State announced that Franken officially led Coleman by 225 votes.

Coleman exercised his right to take his case to a three-judge panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. That panel looked at 1,717 exhibits and heard from 142 witnesses who discussed rejected absentee ballots and Colemans argument that no statewide legal criteria existed for when to reject absentee ballots.

The result was a decision that Franken now led by 312 votes.

As part of its ruling, the three-judge panel noted that election officials did their best to count every legal vote and there is no systemic problem of disenfranchisement in the states election system, including its absentee balloting procedures.

After seven weeks of trial, the factual record is devoid of any allegations of fraud, tampering, or security breaches on Election Day, during the recount process, or during the election contest [in court], the judges said in a unanimous decision.

Saying he wanted to see the appeals process through, Coleman went to the Minnesota Supreme Court. The justices heard Colemans arguments on June 1, 2009. On June 30, they ruled unanimously that Franken had received the most votes and was entitled to a certificate of election.

At last, Coleman conceded. He did so graciously. Then-Vice President Joe Biden swore in Franken on July 7, 2009.

This story has two morals. The first is that the American electoral system contains built-in checks that make it very hard to cheat so pervasively that you change the outcome of an election.

The second lesson, the one still lost on Americans who embrace former President Donald Trumps Big Lie about voter fraud, is simply this:

In a properly functioning democratic republic, election denial is ultimately a fools errand.
A $1 million windfall to Corvallis is a recipe for funding waste.

News coverage announcing the onetime grant of $1 million to the city of Corvallis via passage of Oregon Senate Bill 5561 provides an invitation to wasted funding. Heres why.

The Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 5561 last December when 14 cities primarily throughout the I-5 corridor were surprised with an unexpected $1 million allocation from the state to address shelter and housing projects related to COVID-19-impacted underserved populations.

After more than six months, Corvallis acknowledged this surprise allocation in an Oct. 4 article ("Corvallis has $1M for shelter, housing projects"), announcing a request for project proposals to be submitted Oct. 19 to address shelter or people experiencing houselessness in our community. All project funds must be spent by June.

SB 5561 came as funding from the federal COVID-19 relief funds specifically to be used for emergency rental assistance programs and their services, eviction prevention and diversion services  with all related to offsetting COVID-19 impacts.

Nothing in SB 5561 references allocation of funding to the homeless outside the scope detailed above. Many not unhoused yet economically-disadvantaged in our community (elderly on fixed incomes now homebound due to COVID-19) continue to experience living cost pressures, yet Corvallis narrows focus on the homeless. Is it warranted?

The official point-in-time homeless survey conducted in January in all counties in Oregon suggests otherwise. In 2019, the data shows that 173 homeless individuals were sheltered in Benton County while 158 were unsheltered.

By 2022, the amount of sheltered homeless in the county shrank to 114, leaving a 28% underused shelter capacity in the county. Benton County also experienced a 15% reduction in unsheltered homeless since 2019.

Fourteen cities in Oregon each received this $1 million one-time funding for COVID-19-related emergency shelter projects  all in counties with increased homeless populations since 2019, save for Corvallis. Statewide data show that Benton Countys homeless population barely cracks 1% of the states total, where Linn, Lane and Marion counties each have between 4% and 7.5%.

To be sure, Corvallis has made commendable strides in housing the homeless, with a year-round cold-weather mens shelter and a daily sanitation center at the same location. But the chronically homeless in Corvallis (60% of the citys unsheltered homeless population), prefer living outside or in mobile RVs  both now subject to illegal camping violations enforced by the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

While its nonproductive to offer works of mercy to those who repeatedly choose to be unsheltered homeless yet demand free services be given to them, other innovative options exist that serve populations in need affected by COVID. Heres my list:

$400,000 to technically evaluate the 10-acre parcel of industry land owned by the city immediately across the Van Buren Bridge and parallel to the Highway 34 bypass (aka the Flomatcher site). The city owns the acreage along with an empty 18,000-square-foot building with industrial septic sewer systems, industrial power, heating and a potable-water storage structure. The site could serve as an unsheltered homeless village. With a single council vote, the acreage could be annexed into the city as the states first homeless zone for micro-shelters, RV parking and tent-sheltered homeless, with extra building space for job retraining and a centralized medical check and vaccination center. $300,000 for a plan to consolidate duplicative social services that serve economically depressed populations affected by COVID-19 (low-income, elderly etc.) $300,000 allocated to mental health organizations that have documented performance on the ground in dealing with COVID-impacted marginalized populations and their living conditions.

We should all keep a close eye on this one!
Tanmiah Food Company has seen its nine-month (9M) net profit soar 144.9% YoY from SR25.9 million to SR63.5 million ($17 million), underpinned by a continued increase in sales volumes backed by its sustained production capacity expansion.

A market-leading provider of fresh and processed poultry and other meat products, animal feed and health products, and a foods brand franchise operator, has increased its revenue 35.6% year-on-year (YoY) to SR1,525.4 million.

Meanwhile, the gross margin improved to 24.1%, up from 22.5% during the same period last year, while EBITDA of SR185.9 million (+61% YoY) yielded a margin of 12.2%.

Growth in topline

The growth in the topline performance was predominantly due to the expansion of sales volumes across the companys portfolio of product and service lines, particularly fresh poultry and feed and animal health segments.

Fresh Poultry sales, the most significant contributor to Tanmiahs revenues (69%), increased 36.3% YoY in 9M22 to SR1,057.6 million from SR775.8 million during the same period last year. The segments positive performance is supported by Tanmiahs sustained production capacity expansion plans, which are underpinned by strategic government initiatives to enhance poultry production and a continuous rise in local consumer demand for fresh poultry.

Further Processed Products, representing 19% of the Companys total revenues, increased by 16.9% YoY to SR290.1 million during 9M22. This comes on the back of growth in demand from the food service channel, which thus led to an increase in sales volumes.

Animal Feed and Health

Animal Feed and Health revenues grew by 60% YoY to SR161.1 million from SR100.7 million, primarily due to increased demand for animal health products and equipment.

Food franchise operator revenues amounted to SR16.5 million in 9M22, with Q3 representing the third full quarter since the launch of the companys food franchise vertical. During the quarter, Tanmiah opened 3 POPEYES stores in the kingdom, bringing the total to 13 operational outlets as of 30 September 2022.

Zulfiqar Hamadani CEO of Tanmiah, commented: We concluded the third quarter with a robust growth in both the top and bottom line, thanks to our sustained capacity expansion plans and favorable market conditions, in addition to our ability to meet customers changing demands through the diversity of offerings within Tanmiahs extensive portfolio.

Leading regional poultry player

Our position as a leading regional poultry player, the rising popularity of many of our products, and the governments continuous support towards promoting domestic food production and self-sufficiency have cushioned us from turbulent changes in commodity prices. It has also enabled us to firmly control our pricing structures, thus improving margins for the third consecutive quarter.

With the recent completion of our landmark deal with Tyson Foods, we look forward to beginning the next exciting chapter in Tanmiahs story. This strategic partnership will not only open doors to many future growth opportunities and create significant value for all stakeholders but will also further solidify our leadership in the market by promoting substantial improvements in scale, geographical presence, and operating efficiencies, as well as provide us with access to advanced and innovative production techniques.

Ahmed Osilan, Executive Board Member & Managing Director of Tanmiah said: Tanmiahs rapid growth within the food sector reflects our ambitious goals to become the pioneering company in promoting food security and self-sufficiency to support Vision 2030, and the objectives of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, by implementing the best practices in terms of production and sustainability. Furthermore, our entry into the global Halal market, by attracting global investments to the kingdom, will enable the transfer of knowledge, localise jobs and local content, and contribute to enhancing the sectors competitiveness, and the competitive advantages of local products, that are Halal and Saudi Made for export of our products, capturing opportunities in growing global halal market. This will contribute to our sustainability goals and maximise profit for shareholders, whilst providing the highest level of quality for customers and consumers.

EBITDA surge

The companys EBITDA surged to SR78.4 million in 3Q22, compared to SR35.6 million in 3Q21. For 9M22, EBITDA increased to SR185.9 million, compared to SR115.5 million in 9M21, despite the 33.7% YoY rise in selling, general, and administrative expenses.

Net Income climbed to SR31.7 million in 3Q22, a 755.53% increase YoY from SR3.7 million in 3Q21. For 9M22, net income rose by 144.9% YoY to SR63.5 million from SR25.9 million as a result of the substantial topline growth during the period, as fresh poultry sales conti

Tanmiah ended the period with SR125.4 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Total borrowings amounted to SR395.7 million as of 30 September 2022, up from SR321 million at the end of June 2022.

Capex decreased from SR87.8 million in 9M21 to SR82.7 million in 9M22. The planned capital expenditure in the next five years will focus on ramping up feed milling, primary processing, and further processing capacities, enabling the Company to seize new growth opportunities.

Growth strategy

Tanmiah remains on track to achieving its ambitious growth plans, which include expanding its production capacity for fresh poultry and further processed products and developing new and innovative products and services that cater to the changing demands of domestic and international consumers.

The Saudi government continues to implement various initiatives to reinforce the local poultry sector and achieve self-sufficiency in food production. For instance, according to the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, the kingdom is looking to localise 85% of the domestic food industry by 2030.

The Public Investment Fund has also recently announced the launch of Halal Products Development Co, which targets localising the halal industry in the kingdom, covering sectors such as food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics while enabling Saudi companies to expand into global halal markets.

In addition, the government is planning to invest SR17 billion towards expanding domestic poultry production to achieve a targeted capacity of 1.3 million tonnes of broiler chickens annually.

In light of such strategic measures, Tanmiah is firmly positioned to unlock several growth opportunities and further reinforce its competitiveness in the regional poultry market.-- TradeArabia News Service
The effort of a Republican upstart who challenged an incumbent Democrat in very blue Benton County appears to have failed.

As of deadline, incumbent Pat Malone led by 32.8 percentage points, 66.8% to 32.9% against challenger Bill Kughn.

Malone has run as a senior candidate, a single-term incumbent with a back catalog of roles on county advisory committees, state Department of Agriculture and as a fire chief.

He took the Democratic nomination in May, defeating Helen Higgins, CEO of a local Boys & Girls Club 61.5% to 38% to defend his Position 1 seat on the Benton County Board of Commissioners. He raised $28,094 in cash contributions and debated challenger Kughn about county budgetary responsibility in the run-up to November.

The campaign of U.S. House hopeful Val Hoyle, Democratic candidate for Oregons 4th Congressional District, was among those making the largest single payments to Malones campaign  $1,000.

The Benton County Democratic Central Committee contributed $1,500.

Kughn appeared over the summer to run instead of Bill Currier, Adair Village mayor and former Oregon Republican Party chairman who butted heads with state House Republicans over election credibility in 2021.

A retired builder and business owner, Kughn conveyed a skeptical view of political fundraising and county government process. He told Mid-Valley Media in August he wants to cut county taxes and county spending.

Democrats have held all three seats on the countys executive board for 26 years.

Orville R. (Bob) Adams was the last Republican to hold a county commission seat, besting Democrat Gene Belhumeur by 4.5 percentage points in 1996 for the Position 2 seat.

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Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer appeared to be leading Oregons tightest congressional race, one that could help determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives, according to early returns in Tuesdays General Election.

By Wednesday, Nov. 9, that lead held. With about half of the statewide mailed-in ballots returned and counted, Chevez-DeRemer had the lead, 51.4% to Terrebonne Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinners 48.4%.

The 5th Congressional District race between Happy Valley Republican Chavez-DeRemer and McLeod-Skinner went back and forth as results dripped in from six different counties throughout the evening.

Oregons 5th includes most of Linn County.

The first returns, all from Multnomah County, showed McLeod-Skinner leading, but Chavez-DeRemer began to take the lead as results came in from more rural counties. The Republican had about 52% of the vote to McLeod-Skinners 47% as of 10:30 p.m.

Wearing her signature purple collared shirt, McLeod-Skinner hugged her wife, Cass McLeod-Skinner, as the pair watched initial returns roll in just after 8 p.m. on a screen at Silver Moon Brewing, where about 100 Deschutes County Democratic candidates and supporters were gathered for an election night celebration.

McLeod-Skinner, who would be Oregons first openly LGBTQ member of Congress, told The Bulletin after the initial results came in that she was waiting for more votes to be counted before coming to any conclusions. She expressed gratitude for the support she found on the campaign trail.

Its very humbling, but people have been just really excited about this vision weve laid out of bringing people together to address the challenges that were facing, and thats the job, McLeod-Skinner said. And I would be honored to do that job for Oregonians, and thats really what I think voters want.

Chavez-DeRemer, who would be Oregons first Latina in Congress if elected, did not respond by press time to multiple requests for comment.

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.

Tuesdays general election was the first for the newly redrawn 5th District, which stretches from the outskirts of the Portland metro area, skirting around Salem south to Albany and east over the Cascades to include a small swath of Central Oregon, from Terrebonne to Sunriver.

The race for the new district was blown open after the May primary, when McLeod-Skinner, an attorney and emergency coordinator, defied expectations and ousted incumbent Rep. Kurt Schrader, a conservative Democrat who had President Joe Bidens endorsement. McLeod-Skinner ran as a progressive alternative to Schrader, who drew criticism for his lack of support for some Democratic priorities.

Chavez-DeRemer, a business owner and former Happy Valley mayor, handily beat four other candidates in the May primary. Her general election attracted support from national Republican campaign organizations, which saw the seat as one vulnerable to being flipped due to McLeod-Skinners liberal bent.
After a three-year hiatus from releasing new music, Alex Anwandter has reemerged more built looking like a sex idol, and armed with an anthem for weekend reveries. Maricoteca is a risky wide-eyed NSFW statement, where spectators can see Anwandter fortifying his identity politics with a side of mischief  an alluring-yet-provocative queer artist with an unmatched talent for glimmering dance music. The single, however, is an excitingly pervasive dance cut that sinks into the sins of party culture and BDSM and cautions, like the song affirms in Spanish, Dont look for your mother, nobody will save you here.

The video for Maricoteca was co-directed by himself and Josefina Alen and filmed in Buenos Aires. I wrote Maricoteca as an ode to losing yourself on the dancefloor, a place where you might find love, heartbreak, and the perversion of society, he explains in a statement. Maricoteca is also the first song of a new album coming next year, which will explore dance culture and discotheques as the ultimate world where you can become who you really want to be.

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The Chilean multi-hyphenate artist broke into the spotlight at the start of the 2010s with the cult classic album Rebeldes, at a time when Chilean indie pop acts with a passion for electronic productions began to rise  the beloved Javiera Mena, Denver, Adrianigual, and Astro. Anwandter has always displayed his insatiable knack for dancefloor music persuasions with a riveting queer perspective  look no further than his 2011 breakout single Como puedes vivir contigo mismo, which highlights New York ball culture a la Paris Is Burning, or to the iridescent synths and glowing production throughout his discography, including albums like Amiga (2016) and Latinoamericana (2018).

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Recently, Anwandter teamed up with Argentinas Juliana Gattas of electro-pop duo Miranda! fame as the producer for her upcoming debut solo album, due out next year. The dance electronic artist is also the beatmaker behind Mexicos esteemed Julieta Venegas highly anticipated eighth studio album Tu Historia, out Friday, Nov. 11. Billboard caught up with the now Brooklyn-based provocateur to discuss his recent rendezvous.

Warning! NSFW. Press play with caution.

Maricoteca is your first single in three years  what did you do during that break?

The break had to do with the pandemic, obviously  but it wasnt so much of a break because I was making this new album, and Im going to start releasing singles; I was also producing two other albums, one for Julieta Venegas which comes out this Friday, and the debut album of Juliana Gattas of Miranda! which is coming out next year. So between these two albums, and my album, [its been] a lot.

Then break is the wrong word.

All good. The world stopped and I stopped doing shows too. For me it is very important to be with people physically. I didnt feel like doing shows on Zoom either.

Well, thank you for having this Zoom call with me and talking about your single. Its a dance track about wildly partying, and indulging in pleasures. What inspired it?

Part of it was moving to New York, which put me in more direct contact with a subculture in dance music that have always been interested in. Ive made dance music before, but I found it stimulating to be here, and experiencing it as well.

You helped spearhead the Chilean indie-pop wave of the 2010s. Talk to me about that transition  from having participated in that movement in your native country to now mixing new sounds with New York influences.

It was a quite natural expansion actually. Being Chilean is not the only thing I am. Im also Latino, and Im part of the, quote unquote, queer community. Those identities are beginning to blur. For me it is a purpose to transcend identity politics in music. To be honest, I wanted to make a very entertaining record that was about having a good time, feeling pleasure  which is a pretty close thing to me  and in my case, in dance music. Its a less cerebral and more corporeal record.

You bring to the forefront topics of identity that can feel profound because they are associated with a political movement. But at the same time the music is playful, and ready for the dance floor. How do you balance expressing your identity politics while making music to release?

Thats a good question. On the one hand, [its important for me] to make music that I find entertaining, music that really makes me dance and have a good time  and on the other hand, to be genuine, which I always tried to cultivate. Sincerity is very important in my art. And when you combine those two things, you can read an identity, but Im not trying to sell it.

I find it a bit tiring that at this point in time identities have been commodified. This music has to do a little bit with getting away from discourses that dont mean much anymore. Its a little more abstract, but at the same time its much more entertaining, dark and mysterious.

Can you share some details about your upcoming album?

Its an album that will explore dance music and dance culture as a place of expression and pleasure.

I heard you moved to Brooklyn  what brought you to New York?

I moved to the U.S. five years ago. I lived two years in L.A. and moved three years ago to New York. Its very crazy here, but its very crazy everywhere. Life is very crazy. [Laughs.] Chile is far away, but its still intense. I think the world is an intense place, and you just have to get used to the idea. [New York] is very entertaining and I have met very special people. I really like being in a place where people from all over the world live. Thats very nice for me.

Julieta Venegas next album, which you produced, maintains her unmistakable style, but your essence and impulse is also noticeable.

The collaboration was a dream for me, in the sense that I have always admired Julieta very much. She is one of the most talented musicians we have had in Latin America. It was a dream in the sense that we had a great time. We have been friends for ten years. I feel that this took our friendship to a different artistic level.

It was a really beautiful experience. As a composer and producer, it was incredible to see someone of Julietas level working. When I was with her in the studio, I was thinking, Wow, thats why Julieta is doing amazingly well  because shes a genius. To see a genius working for me was very impressive. I had a great time.

The minimalist guitar on Venegas La Nostalgia is beautiful. Her love letter to Tijuana is very poetic, a reflection on her hometown. In your case, do you feel nostalgia for Chile?

I think I go there too much to feel nostalgic. Im there all the time  I mean, not all the time, but I travel a lot to do shows. But Im not a person who looks back, for now, maybe because Ill feel nostalgic.

Aside from the crazy partying shown in the video for Maricoteca, it looks like youve been working out. Can you tell me a bit about your fitness routine?

Is this also going to be in GQ Magazine? I do normal types of exercise, but nothing crazy. I think the music video has that gymnasium imagery  a prison for physical standards and stuff like that. Its a very gay world, and [the video is] about being a fan of that.

This interview was originally conducted in Spanish.

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The third season of Ramy Youssefs award-winning show Ramy, which dropped on Hulu at the end of September, saw the titular American-Egyptian protagonist head to Jerusalem to cut a business deal with a tough-talking diamond dealing clan in an episode entitled Egyptian Cigarettes.

Naive to the realities of the 74-year Middle East conflict, he gets a taste of life on both sides of Israels controversial separation wall.

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In between meetings with his new Israeli partners at a luxury villa, he squeezes in a date with a Palestinian girl in East Jerusalem on the other side of a checkpoint, where his actions will result in a local teenager being detained by the Israeli army.

International productions set in Israel and the West Bank rarely shoot in either territory. Most head to neighboring Jordan, and sometimes Morocco, deterred by the possibility of a flare-up in the conflict, in which both Israelis and Palestinians have resorted to violence.

Youssef and his producers opted, however, to film the episode on location in Jerusalem, with leading Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir in the directors seat.

Jacir, who is best known internationally for her feature films Salt Of This Sea, When I Saw You and Wajib, said a key factor in her agreeing to come aboard the project was the way Youssef and co-writer Maytha Alhassen chose to show the everyday reality of Palestinians against the backdrop of the conflict.

The script was really funny, but it was also something I hadnt seen before, she explains.

Weve never seen a mainstream American show that captures how brutal the Israeli army is, especially to kids; or Palestinians getting denied entry and interrogated, which happens all the time, simply for being Palestinians. And of course, Americans rarely see the Apartheid wall and the checkpoints, or kids getting arrested. I couldnt believe that an American network was ok with it.

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Jacir is a mover and shaker on the independent Palestinian cinema scene. Alongside making her own films, she also co-runs Palestine and Jordan-based production company Philistine Film with producer husband Ossama Bawardi, which over the years has steadily developed a local pool of trained and experienced crew.

The company has collaborated on a raft of other Arab-language features including most recently Hany Abu Assads Bethlehem-set psychological thriller Hudas Salon, Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalafs Syrian revolution drama The Translator, and is also involved in U.S. director Brandt Andersons upcoming drama The Strangers Case, starring Omar Sy.

With artist sister Emily Jacir, the filmmaker is also the co-founder of the Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art & Research Centre in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, based in a traditional 19th-Century Stone house that has been in their family for generations.

The Ramy shoot in May 2022, was due to film mainly in Jerusalem but tensions in the city ratcheted up following the killing by Israeli forces of veteran American-Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank city of Jenin on May 11.

The decision was taken to move most of the filming to Haifa, with Jacirs long-time art director Nael Kanj and crew building two sets, one a reconstruction of a checkpoint, the other, a section of the separation wall. Filming also took place against the backdrop of the actual wall in a village outside the port city.

New Jersey-raised, American-Egyptian stand-up comedian, actor and Ramy creator Youssef is credited with breaking fresh ground with the shows authentic depiction of the realities of the Arab diaspora in the U.S., particularly those of Muslim faith.

Did he manage to hit the same level of authenticity with his Middle Eastern episode? Jacir thinks yes.

Its ultimately a story about a naive Arab American character who thinks what hes doing, that flying to Israel with Orthodox guys, is normal and to an American audience, it is normal. But once hes on the ground here, it becomes very clear how completely abnormal the situation is, she says.

Ramy in the show is a very naive guy. He misreads situations. Hes constantly putting his foot in his mouth, saying inappropriate things, and just taking it too far. Its the source of both the comedy and darkness in the show. Hes so naive that he tells the Palestinian girl on his date that going through the checkpoint is like going through the Lincoln Tunnel, only you dont have to pay The real Ramy, on the other hand, is super smart. Hes a really, lovely guy, but hes not naive. Hes very familiar with what is going on here.

Although Jacir was ultimately directing from Youssef and Alhassens script, they discussed the storyline and cultural details in-depth before agreeing to work together.

I had to make sure we were on the same page. Ramy knows exactly what he wants to do but hes also very open. He said, Look, Im not Palestinian. Im not from there, thats why Im coming to you, recounts Jacir.

The date in the episode is based on a personal event of his own when he did pass through checkpoints to meet a girl. We talked a lot about that scene. Rasha is a great character, says Jacir, noting the role is played by rising local actress Yara Jarrar.

We discussed the idea of religious identity. Its very important when Rasha says the situation is not about religion. For me, she speaks for most of us Palestinians in that scene, and the fact that what is happening here is about land and absolutely not about religion, she explains.

We dont like to put religion in the middle of things because were living in a place where youre allowed to do things or not allowed to do things on the basis of whether youre Jewish or not Jewish, adds Jacir, who as a Palestinian living in Israel is subject to the countrys 2018 Jewish Nation-State Basic Law.

Annemarie Jacir on the set of Ramy

One key non-negotiable ground rule for Jacir is that none of her crew members be current or recent members of the Israeli army.

I work in a very specific way here. I have my own Palestinian crew here. There are a lot of things that are not OK for me. There is a military occupation here. I dont participate in government-sponsored things. I dont want to have a set where there are people serving in the army, she explains.

This is a live military occupation. Its not something of the past, its something of now and things are very tense here, she continues. To have a film set where you have crew members who are Israeli, and who are in the army or have just served in the army, on one side, and Palestinians, on the other, thats not a normal way to work for me. Our house (Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir) was ransacked by the Israeli army less than a year ago. I cant work with a crew, where I think one of them could have been involved.

Jacir emphasized she is not categorically against working with Israelis, noting the presence of Israelis on debut feature Salt Of This Sea.

Ramy is also available to Middle East and North African audiences via OSN+. Jacir reveals she has had different reactions from different Palestinian communities to the show.

Palestinian friends in the U.S., she recounts, have expressed discomfort at some of the scenes in the episode.

I had some feedback from people saying maybe the show needs a trigger warning. I said, What do you mean by that? They replied, For us Palestinians, its really disturbing to see that kind of violence on screen, to see kids getting arrested, recounts Jacir.

I found that interesting. For me, the violence I experience here in its various degrees, from its very mundane forms to the really violent situations that I have been trapped in, I find it really important to make work about it and to talk about it, she continues.

The scene in which a Palestinian teenager is bundled off by an Israeli army patrol unit touches on the sensitive issue of child arrests by the Israeli army and their detention in adult jails. Jacir refutes a suggestion the scene trivializes the phenomenon.

If you watch to the end of the season, youll see its not making light of it. Its drawing attention to what is going on, she says.

The two young actors, who play the (arrested) boy, and his friend, are from Jenin. I know they feel like me. Theyve had their friends arrested in that way. They could be arrested like that any day. Nobodys safe. Its very personal for them. Theyre very proud of the fact that theyve been able to tell that story.

In terms of the actual shoot, Jacir says the process was not radically different for the crew from working on a feature.

Weve done many co-productions over the years, so were used to working with international crews who come in for a short period to shoot with us. What was different for me, was that Ramy was the showrunner. Hes the creator of the show and ultimately all the creative decisions were his, not mine. In TV, the director is more a technician like any other crew member, she says.

The other difference was that all the producers were there on set. Ive never worked on a production before where all the producers were there sitting with headphones behind a monitor. They were lovely people and easy going but you normally dont have that on set. Independent Palestinian cinema is a very different ball game.

The speed at which the episode was shot was also an eye-opener for the director, who admits to liking to take her time.

The episode is around 30 minutes. My directors cut came in at 43 minutes and we shot that in five days, she says. That is insane. I normally take six weeks to shoot an hour and a half. I prefer a slower pace. I also really like rehearsals. I really need that time and I enjoy that time. And I feel like a lot comes out of that time.

Jacir reveals she would love to work with the Ramy team again if the show returns to the Middle East in future seasons but admits her first love remains cinema.

I love that team. I love them. I love how they worked. I love the collaboration. If they came back with another episode and I love the episode, definitely I would do it, she said.

Im a feature film person but Im not closed to TV. If there is something, I feel I can make mine, that feels close to me, I would definitely do it, she adds.

Of course, TV, and streaming bring a bigger audience, but theres nothing as satisfying to me as being in a cinema and watching films with people and seeing something on a big screen. The pace of that and the experience of watching something as a collective. I dont think anything can replace that.

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Kyle Viljoen is getting ready to say "I do!"

The Below Deck Mediterranean star, 30, announced that he is engaged to his boyfriend, Dr. Zachary Riley.

Viljoen shared photos of the romantic proposal, including a snap of him down one knee and several shots of the pair embracing atop Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, on Instagram Tuesday.

"11/08/2022 He said YES! " Viljoen captioned the post. "Zachary & I are officially engaged and to my universe I want to thank you for loving me unconditionally, desirably and with full intent to be my forever and always."

RELATED: The Celebrity Engagements of 2022

The reality star went to reminisce about the pair's love story and share details about the proposal.

"We have walked a rocky but loving road, you have made my heart full and I found home in not materialistic things but in my soul you have your place," he wrote.

He continued, "Flying to South Africa on Table Mountain was the point I wanted to scream highest to say we have our place in this universe and surrounded by his and my family was a sacred energy that we could only have wished for and more! "

RELATED: Below Deck Sailing Yacht's Paget Berry Engaged to Girlfriend Johana Mills: 'I Am Super Stoked'

Viljoen's costars and friends celebrated his engagement news in the comment section.

"This makes my heart so full  I can't wait to be your best man  lots of love Stash   ," Below Deck Mediterranean's Natasha Webb shared while Courtney Veale added, "Congratulations angel boys! So happy for you both . Xxxxxxxxx"

"Congratulations to both of you!," Below Deck Med's Roy Obison Jr. wrote.

RELATED: Captain Lee Is Back and Below Deck Has a Fan-Favorite Chief Stew in Season 10 Trailer!

In July, Viljoen went public with relationship with Riley during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live.

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"Right now, I am taken," he shared at the time. "I am so happy. That is my loving boyfriend. He's a really good man. He's a doctor, he's a physical therapist, he knows how to work the hands."

Following the interview, Viljoen shared a birthday tribute to his now fiance, writing, "To the love of my life and eternal heart HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY MY BABY You are and will forever be the most amazing human."

"You are so intelligent, intellectual, caring, loving and supporting is but only a few I can mention," he shared. "I am so blessed and honored to have you as mine to love. I've gone through many hardships in my life yet you make them seem all worth it now that you in my heart. You make me feel like I am 'normal', like I am the only!"

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"From that first kiss in the rain on 47th and 10th in Manhattan I could not bare the thought of not having you in my life forever however long that be for me," he added. "I never understood romance until I met you I now knew how it feels! May you share years years of birthdays with me!"He concluded, "My favorite part of you is your smile and that always makes me feel like nothing in the world would ever matter! I love you my @dr.zriles "
Menthol cigarettes

Packs of menthol cigarettes are displayed for sale in a smoke shop on in Los Angeles on April 28, 2022. Credit - Mario TamaGetty Images

California became the largest U.S. state to ban flavored tobacco products on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports, with voters upholding a law that restricts the sale of products including menthol cigarettes and fruit-flavored vaping liquids.

As of Wednesday morning, 41% of Californians ballots had been counted. Within that group, almost two-thirds voted in favor of the ban, according to the Associated Press, which was enough to declare a win. The policy does not apply to hookah, premium cigars, or loose-leaf tobacco.

It was a long and expensive road to reach that outcome. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the sale of flavored tobacco in 2020, but it was met with strong pushback from the tobacco industry. More than 620,000 verified voters signed on to a Big Tobacco-backed initiative to reverse the law, landing the issue on ballots this year as Proposition 31. Voters could either opt to uphold or repeal the law.

Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to ban flavored-tobacco sales in 2019, and several other statesincluding New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Islandhave placed similar restrictions on some flavored products. Historically, California has favored tobacco regulation. In 2019, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban vaping products, and the cities of Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach have since outlawed almost all tobacco salesflavored or unflavored.

Still, Proposition 31 turned the countrys most populous state into a battleground. Tobacco companies including Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds reportedly spent more than $20 million on their campaign to reverse the bana figure dwarfed by the funding provided by billionaire anti-tobacco advocate Michael Bloomberg in support of the law. According to Politico, Bloomberg personally contributed most of the $71 million spent in support of the ban.

Bloomberg and other anti-tobacco advocates have fought for years to limit the availability of flavored tobacco. They notched a big win earlier this year, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its intent to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes, citing their role in hooking new smokers and keeping current users addicted. But opponents argue that menthol bans only push users to non-flavored tobacco products and could add to discriminatory policing issues, since menthol cigarettes are disproportionately used by Black Americans.

Theres also plenty of debate over the role of flavors in e-cigarettes. Flavor-ban proponents point to data that show underage vapers overwhelmingly choose flavored products instead of those that taste like tobacco. They argue that prohibiting flavored vaping liquids could dissuade young people from picking up the habit and potentially becoming addicted to nicotine. Meanwhile, some researchers and vaping advocates note that adults who use e-cigarettes to transition away from deadly combustible cigarettes also like flavored products and might not make the switch if palatable flavors werent available.
Incumbent Michelle Duncan's sizeable lead over opponent Deputy Jon Raymond in the race for Linn County sheriff appears to be insurmountable in unofficial results from the Tuesday, Nov. 8 General Election.

Duncan was in the lead after the first round of unofficial results and held on to that lead throughout the night.

As of around 1 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, more than 57,000 ballots had been counted.

The latest results show Duncan receiving 56.3% of the votes while Raymond receiving 43.4%. This is an ever-so-slight shift from the first round of results in which Duncan received 56.6% of the votes and Raymond received 43%.

"I'm feeling really good," Duncan said Tuesday night. "I think the voters went with the integrity I showed during the campaign and the experience needed to run the sheriff's office."

This was the first contested General Election sheriffs race in Linn County in 26 years.

A heated race

The race for Linn County Sheriff has been highly contentious, with former and current Linn County Sheriff's Office employees taking sides, and a state police organization filing an election violation complaint against the incumbent.

"We'll have a lot of healing to do," Duncan said Tuesday night. "It's going to take some time."

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She added that she believes a lot of agency employees just want the election to be over. She acknowledged that while employees who supported her opponent may be disappointed, she will still listen to their concerns.

The community has also been deeply invested in the election, as residents have attended debates and helped contribute to the more than $250,000 donated in 2022 to both campaigns.

"I'm super thankful to the voters of Linn County, and I promise to give them my best for the next four years," Duncan said.

Keeping her job

Duncan was sworn in as sheriff in January after former Sheriff Jim Yon stepped down and retired early. That's a path many sheriffs before her tread and a point of contention to Raymond, who called that system an "old boys' club."

Duncan worked her way through the ranks, starting as a deputy in 1997. She was endorsed by the five previous sheriffs.

During her campaign, Duncan emphasized her leadership experience and her self-described commitment to always taking the high road despite her opponents supporters allegedly making untruthful and ugly comments about her and her campaign.

Some of her main goals for the upcoming term include bolstering hiring efforts, improving staff morale, opening up the jail to full capacity and addressing the mental health crisis in the county.

The challenger's campaign

Raymond ran his campaign on promises of change. He called for better leadership and questioned Duncans ability to lead the office through difficult times. He has been a deputy at the agency since 1999.

Supporters of Raymonds campaign included many former Linn County Sheriff's Office employees as well as the deputies' union. Local farms and small businesses backed the deputy, and his campaign raked in more than $130,000 in contributions in 2022 alone.

During candidate forums, Raymond promised to open the jail to full capacity, even at the risk of breaking statewide health guidelines, and also emphasized his commitment to the Constitution and the rights of citizens.

He said morale is extremely low at the agency, and he intended to be the one to make change happen by trusting his employees to do their jobs.

During a September interview with Mid-Valley Media, Raymond said should he not win, he would hope to continue on as a deputy.

Raymond did not return multiple phone calls for comment Tuesday night.

In a statement posted to his campaign Facebook page Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, Raymond appeared to acknowledge defeat.

"Thank you to everyone who came out in our support! This was a long hard battle and worth every second," he said in the post. "We appreciate every one of our supporters and wish you the best. We can all hold our heads high knowing we supported what we believe in. We never sold out our beliefs or backed down to the popular opinion in the room."

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People head to the polls housed inside Christ the King School on East Livingston Avenue in Berwick on the morning of Election Day, Tuesday.

With 100% of Franklin County precincts reporting, Democrats appear to be taking a majority of the county's Ohio House seats and one race in a virtual tie, according to final, unofficial election results.

There were eight contested races in these midterms. Four races had 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 are the candidates ahead in Franklin County's seats in the Ohio House of Representatives, according to final unofficial poll results, which elections officials will certify in the coming days:

District 3: Democrat Ismail Mohamed comfortably ahead of Republican J. Josiah Lanning

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, one of the city's first Somali-born attorneys licensed to practice in the state, is ahead of his opponent, Republican J. Josiah Lanning, 80% to 20% of the vote.

Mohamed joins fellow Democrat Munira Yasin Abdullahi, who ran unopposed for the 9th House District seat, as one of Ohio's first Somalian House representatives.

District 4: Democrat Mary Lightbody beats Republican Jill Rudler

Democratic state Rep. Mary Lightbody is more confident about holding the Westerville-area seat that she flipped in 2018.

This district covers the northeast corner of Franklin County, including parts of Westerville, Gahanna, New Albany and parts of the Blacklick mailing address.

Incumbent Democrat Mary Lightbody beat her opponent Jill Rudler, a Realtor from New Albany and Republican newcomer, in the race for Ohio's 4th House District, 55% to 45%.

Lightbody flipped her previous House seat in 2018 and was reelected in 2020. This will be her third term.

District 5: Republican Ronald Beach IV and Democrat Richard Brown vitually tied

This district covers a swath of southern Franklin County, including Galloway, Darbydale, Lockbourne, Obetz, parts of Canal Winchester and Reynoldsburg.

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Republican newcomer and Ohio State University graduate student Ronald Beach IV and Richard Brown, the incumbent Democrat from Canal Winchester, are in a tight race for Ohio's 5th House District.

Beach had the narrowest of leads over Brown with all precincts counted, a total of 112 votes between them late Tuesday night. That gap had narrowed by Monday morning with just 96 votes separating the two.

According to the Ohio Revised Code, if the number of votes cast in any district election for the declared winning candidate does not exceed the number of votes cast for the declared defeated candidate by a margin of one-half of 1% or more of the total vote, the Secretary of State orders a recount.

District 6: Democrat Adam Miller defeats Republican Joe Wharton

This district includes parts of the Hilltop, Lincoln Village and the Far West Side.

Incumbent Democrat Adam Miller had a decisive lead over Republican challenger Joe Wharton, 57% to 43% for Ohio's 6th House District.

This will be Miller's fourth term in the Ohio House.

District 8: Democrat Beth Liston well ahead of Republican Zully Truemper

This district includes the Northwest Side, Far Northwest Side, Worthington and parts of Clintonville.

Incumbent Democrat Dr. Beth Liston had a comfortable lead over her opponent, Republican newcomer Zully Truemper, for Ohio's 8th House District, 68% to 32%.

This will be Liston's third term in the Ohio House of Representatives.

District 10: Republican David Dobos defeats Democrat Russell Harris

This district includes parts of the Hilltop, Southwest Columbus, Grove City and parts of the Far South Side.

Republican David Dobos, a former Columbus City school board president, outpaced Democrat Russell Harris, a longtime government relations consultant and lobbyist for the Ohio Education Association, in the race for Ohio's 10th House District, 53% to 47%.

District 11: Democrat Anita Somani well ahead of Republican Omar Tarazi

This district covers the northwest corner of Franklin County, including Hilliard and Dublin.

Democrat Dr. Anita Somani, an OB-GYN from Columbus, beat Republican Omar Tarazi, an attorney and Hilliard City Council vice president, in the race for Ohio's 11th House District, 56% to 44%.

District 12: Republican Brian Stewart beats Independent Matthew Briner

BrIan Stewart

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, is projected to win his second term serving as an Ohio House representative, now in District 12, according to unofficial election results.

Stewart won against Matthew Briner, an Independent write-in candidate, with 94% of Franklin County's vote, 98% of Madison County's vote and 98% of Pickaway County's vote.

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: Election 2022 results: Here's who won in local Ohio House seats
Voters in every county and city in the Mid-Willamette Valley that put a ban on psilocybin growing and service centers on the ballot were supporting the bans, according to early election results.

Marion and Polk counties, Aumsville, Dallas, Gates, Hubbard, Independence, Jefferson, Keizer, Lyons, Mill City, Sublimity, St. Paul, Stayton, Turner, Willamina and Woodburn all were voting to ban the substance in their cities, many by wide margins in the initial results.

The measures in Marion and Polk counties would cover unincorporated parts of their counties, but not in city limits.

The bans in Gates, Hubbard and Jefferson are temporary and would sunset in 2024. The others would be permanent.

If voters choose to ban the psychedelic substance, which is found in certain strains of mushrooms, it would prohibit service centers, where people would receive the substance, as well as the commercial growing of the mushrooms.

Tom Eckert and his wife, Sheri, are the co-sponsors of the Psilocybin Service Initiative. They are in private practice together where they counsel couples and men who've been required to attend a domestic violence program.

Voters in Oregon opted to legalize the use of psilocybin in clinical settings under Measure 109 in the 2020 election. But cities and counties were given the ability to ask voters to opt out.

Other ballot measures in local cities

Detroit city charter

Detroit residents were narrowly voting down a new charter for the city, according to early returns.

The new charter would change residency requirements, remove gender-exclusive references and make other changes, including correcting misspellings and formatting.

Currently, the charter limits the number of non-primary residents on the seven-member council to two.

The city was hard hit in the 2020 wildfires. About 80% of the homes in the town burned down and all of its residents were displaced at one time.

Keizer library fee

Voters were rejecting a measure to impose a fee for a public library.

The city asked residents to approve a $2.50 per month fee for each home and apartment to pay for a public library. The current library, which has existed since 1988, is a non-profit and doesnt receive public funds.

Story continues

Keizer is the only city in the state larger than 3,500 people without a public library.

Aumsville marijuana

Voters were voting down a measure that would allow marijuana businesses in the city, but were strongly supporting a measure to allow the city to tax retailers for marijuana sales.

In 2016, Aumsville voters opted to prohibit marijuana dispensaries.

If the first measure is passed, dispensaries, retailers, processors and wholesalers would be allowed to operate in Aumsville.

The second measure would allow the city to tax retailers for each marijuana sale, provided the first measure passes.

Silverton pool levy

Voters in Silverton were overwhelmingly supporting an operations levy for the citys pool.

The tax would cost homeowners 28 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

The current levy was last passed in 2017 and expires June 30. That levy cost residents 45 cents per $1,000 of assessed value of their homes.

Falls City operation levy

Falls City residents were narrowly passing a $1 per $1,000 of assessed value, five-year levy that would fund emergency equipment.

The levy, which would start July 1, would go to update emergency equipment. It would raise approximately $256,179 over five years.

Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Voters in 14 Mid-Valley cities, 2 counties support banning psilocybin
Election Day in Delaware was largely uneventful Tuesday, though at least 10 Delaware polling places saw temporary voting delays after the locations briefly ran out of the "activation slips that pull up the electronic ballot on the machine," according to state Election Day spokesperson Mat Marshall.

In most cases, Marshall said, more activation slips were delivered within 10 minutes, allowing voting to resume. By the time polls closed at 8 p.m., more than 320,000 votes had been cast statewide.

About 77,000 of those came from early voting.

While the election is an important one nationally with Republicans expected to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives  as of 11 p.m. Tuesday, it remained a tossup which party will control the U.S. Senate  races in the First State this year were largely uncontroversial.

A handful of people wait outside of a polling site at Harlan Elementary School in Wilmington to vote on Tuesday.

This differed from the 2020 election, where a Delaware man was vying for the presidency and Lauren Witzke attempted to unseat U.S. Sen. Chris Coons. (Only one of them was successful).

Incumbents U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Attorney General Kathy Jennings and State Treasurer Colleen Davis all won by at least seven percentage points on Tuesday, and Democrat Lydia York was elected as state auditor, according to the state elections website.

While every lawmaker in the General Assembly was up for reelection this year due to redistricting, the political makeup of Delaware's legislature didn't change much.

With Delaware such a blue state, there may be some insulation for a lot of these races, Paul Brewer, a University of Delaware political science professor, told Delaware Online/The News Journal ahead of Tuesday.

Delaware Online/The News Journal kept track of election happenings in the First State on Tuesday:

WHERE TO FIND ELECTION RESULTS:2022 Delaware Election Results

Democratic Kent County Sheriff loses to Republican opponent

Kent County Democratic Sheriff Brian Lewis was upset by his Republican challenger in a three-way race on Tuesday, according to the state election website.

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Norman Barlow received about 53% of the vote. Lewis received 44% and non-Partisan candidate Aarika Nelson received just under 2%.

Democrats predicted to win in Delaware statewide offices

Three Democrats are predicted to win the statewide offices of Delaware attorney general, auditor of accounts and state treasurer.

As of 10:30 p.m., with 511 of Delaware's 516 precincts reporting, incumbent Attorney General Kathy Jennings, auditor candidate Lydia York and treasurer incumbent Colleen Davis are all leading their Republican opponents by at least seven percentage points.

MORE ABOUT THE RACES:Democrats declare victory in Delaware attorney general, auditor and treasurer races

At a Democratic watch party in downtown Wilmington, all declared victory.

Attorney General Kathy Jennings, her husband Dave White, at left, and team members arrive to cast their votes in the midterm elections at Immanuel Church Highlands in Wilmington, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Gov. John Carney and other elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, praised the female representation among the statewide races, including state auditor, attorney general and treasurer.

We call this the woman wave, Carney said at the watch party.

Two hours after Delaware polls close, only one race called

Two hours after the polls closed in Delaware, the only race called was the U.S. House of Representatives  for incumbent Lisa Blunt Rochester.

As of 10 p.m., 469 of 516 precincts had reported and about 303,500 votes had been counted.

Maryland elects first Black governor

Bestselling author Wes Moore has become Maryland's first Black governor.

He faced Trump endorsee Dan Cox. Cox has also promoted the former presidents lies about the election. During the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Cox tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence was a traitor.

Moores victory flips a governors office from Republican to Democratic.

Maryland voters also voted to legalize marijuana for those 21 and older on Tuesday. It's now the 20th state to legalize week for adult use.

Associated Press calls Delaware U.S. House race for incumbent

Lisa Blunt Rochester will serve a fourth term as Delaware's lone representative in the U.S. House after defeating Republican Lee Murphy in Tuesday's election.

Blunt Rochester, who became Delaware's first federal representative of color and first woman in Congress in 2016, was the projected winner as polls closed in Delaware.

U.S. Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (right) poses for a picture with a voter outside of a polling site in Wilmington.

The Congresswoman billed herself to voters as a problem solver invested in her community and someone who can find common ground with opponents. Among her legislative priorities are reversing climate change and providing affordable health care. She also campaigned on codifying abortion rights and hailed her role in passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which she says will help Delaware families by lowering prescription drug prices and energy costs.

 Brandon Holveck

Polls close in Delaware, elsewhere across the country

Polls in Delaware and elsewhere nationwide closed at 8 p.m., though as of 8:20 p.m., only Delaware early votes (both absentee and in-person) had been reported.

The early votes show U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester clinching the seat as expected, with 66% of the early vote. Her Republican opponent, Lee Murphy, received 33% of early votes.

In a similar percentage breakdown, incumbent Attorney General Kathy Jennings received 64% of the early vote while Republican Julianne Murray received 36%.

Democrat candidate for State Auditor Lydia York stops by to greet the Pike Creek Delaware Democrats headquarters.

State auditor Democratic candidate Lydia York is leading over her Republican opponent Janice Lorrah in early voting, 65% to 35%, respectively.

State auditor candidate makes her rounds on Tuesday, some voting machines acting up

Before stopping by the Skyline Middle School polling location, Democratic candidate for state auditor Lydia York visited one of the Delaware Democrats offices in Pike Creek to thank volunteers who were running the phones Tuesday.

York said while she is still anxious to know the results, shes been encouraged by the high voter turnout as she visited polling sites up and down the state.

That turnout was represented at the nearby Skyline Middle School, where candidates and volunteers said they saw lines extending along the sidewalk until about 11 a.m. The wait time could be about an hour at its longest Tuesday morning, but voters were in and out quickly around 4:30 p.m.

Morgan Wright (left) and Christine DeBrabander represented Common Cause Delaware at the Skyline Middle School in Pike Creek. Part of the Election Protection Program, Wright and DeBrabander helped voters throughout the evening to make sure they didn't face any barriers to voting, including technical challenges, on Nov. 8, 2022.

Morgan Wright, an intern with Common Cause Delaware  which leads the Election Protection Program to make sure everyone can vote without any barriers  said the morning backup was due in part to technical difficulties. When someone touched a candidates name on the screen, it would highlight a different name. Usually that name was under the same party, Wright said, but navigating that technical challenge still resulted in some delays.

Wright and volunteer Christine DeBrabander will stay at Skyline until the polls close at 8 p.m. to ensure everyone can vote and the doors stay open until closing time.

One of the voters who showed up at Skyline as dusk was arriving was Adam Woo, who said he's been bringing his children with him to vote since they were newborns.

He always comes out to vote, but politics today have especially motivated him to vote Democrat.

The Republican Party has just gone full fascist and, whether you're leftist or liberal, you have to just fight that. So it's not about any issues anymore, he said.

 Emily Lytle

What to watch for in New Castle County

The two legislative races to keep an eye on in New Castle County are the county sheriff and county council District 2 positions.

Vying for sheriff are incumbent Scott Philips, a Democrat, and non-partisan affiliate John Machurek.

Machurek previously ran as a libertarian candidate for governor in 2020, Delaware attorney general in 2014 and for District 16 of the state House of Representatives in 2012. Machurek lost all of the races in landslide numbers.

Phillips has served as New Castle County Sheriff since 2019. Prior to being elected, he had 13 years of experience as deputy sheriff and another 10 years in law enforcement with New Castle County police as a patrol officer and detective.

From left, Attorney General Kathy Jennings and her husband Dave White exit the voting site after casting their votes in the midterm elections at Immanuel Church Highlands in Wilmington, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

In the New Castle County Council District 2 race, Republican Jamie Collins is challenging Democratic incumbent Dee Durham.

Durham has held the seat since 2018. A long-standing conservationist, the Democrat has sponsored legislative action aimed at getting Delaware closer to its energy goals, including requiring new homes in New Castle County to be equipped with electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

According to Collins website, the Republican challenger is running on a campaign advocating for job creation and projects to energize the County while respecting the environment. Collins also plans to propose a resolution for the state to begin capturing revenue from online sports gambling.

Collins is known partly for his late father, Richard T. Collins. The elder Collins was elected state auditor in 1974 and New Castle County Executive in 1980.

 Molly McVety

Residents reiterate: Voting is 'our civic duty'

A slow but steady trickle of voters came out to cast their ballots at the Route 9 Library and Innovation Center in New Castle on Tuesday.

"It's our civic duty and it's necessary, especially with what's going on in our country today," one voter said.

Dionne Daniels, 47, felt this urgency when she came out to vote. She hasn't voted in a general election since Barack Obama was on the ballot, but said it's important now that she makes her voice heard.

Daniels said Delawareans should come out to vote, even though it's not a presidential election. If not, someone may be elected who doesn't look out for "everyone's best interests."

At the nearby polling place of DeLaWarr State Service Center, one Black voter said she's casting her ballot because "our people died for it."

A handful of people wait outside of a polling site at Harlan Elementary School in Wilmington to vote on Tuesday.

Both the library and the state service center had lines of paint or tape in the parking lot 50 feet away from the doors. Non-voters, including pollsters, media or potential voter intimidators, had to stay behind them. However, no one else was waiting outside.

In Elsmere, it was relatively quiet outside the fire hall and Baltz Elementary School, but a small and contingent of individuals streamed into and out of Town Hall.

After voting, Abar Brown walked out with a look of determination and a message: Everybody needs to vote today.

Was there any particular issue that concerned the seven-year resident of the town? No, just everything that is making headlines, including abortion, he said.

Brittany Christian, 37, moved to Elsmere almost a year ago from Philadelphia and said she was voting to have a voice.

"I don't want to be in the position where I'm complaining about things going on around me, but not actively participating and making it better," she said. "I'm not really one to complain, but I love to do my part. I'm just excited to participate.

 Hannah Edelman and Anitra Johnson

Nearly 200,000 votes cast by midday Tuesday

As of 12:30 p.m. on Election Day, 195,955 Delawareans had voted in the election, with 116,549 people voting in person on Tuesday, according to state officials.

So far, New Castle County, the most populated county in Delaware, is leading the number of people who have cast ballots. Registered Democrats are also outpacing their Republican counterparts. So far, 51,262 registered Democrats have voted compared to 42,843 Republicans.

Nearly 77,000 ballots were cast during early voting in Delaware, according to election data.

Election officials reported that 76,977 Delawareans voted from Oct. 28 to Nov. 6  both in the form of absentee ballot and in-person early voting. This makes up roughly 10% of registered voters.

This is the first election in which the state allowed for early voting. A total of 55,532 ballots were cast in person during this voting period, with the most taking place in Sussex County. Democrats also outnumbered Republicans by about 12,000 votes.

Two voters head in to a polling place in Penny Hill to vote in Tuesday's midterm election.

The only option available to Delawareans is to vote in person, either early or on Election Day, or vote by absentee ballot. In order to vote absentee, a resident must provide a valid excuse as to why they cannot vote in person.

Earlier this fall, the Delaware Supreme Court found voting by mail and registering to vote on Election Day to be unconstitutional. Both of these were previously allowed during the primary in September but are now no longer options for Delawareans.

Unlike other states, Delaware is expected to tally its votes quickly. In the 2020 election, results were first reported about 15 minutes after polls closed. About 90% of results were in by 10:15 p.m., according to the Associated Press.

Election officials can start counting absentee ballots the Friday before Election Day, but the state cannot release counts until after the polls close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

 Meredith Newman

Sussex County voter turns heads in military truck

Voters trickled in steadily at Georgetown Elementary School around noon on Tuesday, with at least one making a head-turning entrance.

Tim Collard of Milton pulled up to the location in a military truck with flags that said "Biden Sucks" and "Trump 2024." He said he bought it from a government surplus sale.

"It's been in parades but it's also a work truck, sort of," Collard said. "At least I tell my wife that."

Tim Collard of Milton drove this vehicle to vote at Georgetown Elementary School.

Also voting at Georgetown Elementary  though for the other party  was 69-year-old Michael Makowski, who said he feels the country is at a "crossroads."

"We can either take the bad route and become more authoritarian or try to maintain the democracy we have," Makowski said. "I voted Democratic because I think the Democrats are more concerned with preserving the democracy than Republicans."

The future of the country was also top-of-mind for voters in Brandywine Hundred in New Castle County.

Shelly Towler, who cast her vote at Brandywine High School, said the direction the Republican Party took under former President Donald Trump led her to recently re-register, changing her party from Republican to Independent.

The party stands for nothing that I used to think it stood for, Towler said.

She came to the polls with the Supreme Courts recent reversal of abortion rights on her mind. Shes also discouraged by the Republican partys attitude toward voting rights and the integrity of democracy.

Its a huge embarrassment. We are supposed to be the example? Towler said. Its just going backwards in time.

A steady stream of voters followed Towler to the polls on a brisk morning as crunchy leaves blown by the wind scratched the school parking lot. The school is one of several polling places in the fifth state senate district, which a Democrat won in 2020 for the first time in more than 40 years.

At nearby Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, Dennis Quill said he voted for Democrats down the ballot. The country needs to ensure individuals right to an abortion, Quill said, and hes disappointed by the partisan justices on the Supreme Court, a body he is in favor of broadening or term limits.

I wouldnt vote for a Republican if my life depended on it, Quill said.

Quill said he hopes voters realize things arent as bad as people think and are motivated to support candidates who can keep the nation from a deeper slide. But hes more focused on races in neighboring states and the national landscape than Delaware, where he expects Democrats to win easily.

U.S. Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (left) shakes hands with Randell Knight (right) outside of a polling site in Wilmington.

Paul Donohue will just be happy when political ads are off his TV. Like Quill, he says it doesnt really feel like Delaware has any impact races. But that hasnt kept other races, like the battle between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz for Pennsylvanias Senate seat, off his screen.

I find it pretty upsetting that theyre all mean, Donohue said. They dont talk about the issues much, they just attack each other. Ill be thankful when its over.

 Brandon Holveck, Shannon Marvel McNaught

What to watch for in Sussex County

The most-watched races in Sussex this year will likely be the Senate District 6 and Representative District 20 races.

District 6 Republican Sen. Ernie Lopez is retiring this year, and District 20 Republican Rep. Steve Smyk is giving up his seat to run for Lopezs. Both seats are longtime Republican strongholds in a county where only one legislator, House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, is a Democrat.

Smyk faces Democrat Russ Huxtable and Gwendolyn Jones (Non-Partisan Delaware) in the Senate District 6 race. In the Representative District 20 race, Democrat Stell Parker Selby and Republican Dallas Wingate are running.

In Representative District 20, as of this month, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 8,423 to 7,742. There are also 5,444 independents. Thats compared to 9,802 Democrats, 9,591 Republicans and 6,430 independents in 2020.

Cindy Erickson, of Wilmington, shows off her 'I Voted' sticker on Tuesday.

In Senate District 6, there are 18,942 Democrats, 15,770 Republicans and 11,471 independents. In 2020, there were 10,282 Democrats, 8,229 Republicans and 5,751 independents.

Senate District 6 includes Rehoboth Beach, Lewes and Milton. Representative District 20 includes most of Lewes, Milton and parts of Georgetown.

 Shannon Marvel McNaught

Voters struggle to get to polling location due to road blockage

Voters near Townsend were unable to get to Blackbird Community Center Tuesday morning due to Verizon blocking the road.

An election day spokesperson later told Delaware Online/The News Journal that "elections has indicated that it is aware and is in the process of addressing the blockage."

Steady turnout at the polls Tuesday morning

Across the state Tuesday morning, polling locations saw a steady stream of voters.

There was a line outside Clayton Fire Company just before the polls opened at 7 a.m. Among the first voters was Diana Dede.

She said the issue shes been following the most has been the debate about guns, saying its just important to me to vote.

Voters line up outside the Clayton Fire Company a few minutes before 7 a.m., awaiting the opening of the polling site today, Nov. 8.

Paul Skreenock, also one of the first in line, said he didnt come to the polls for a specific issue or candidate but because its my civic duty.

In Wilmington, there was only one voter at the Delaware Technical Community College polling place just after 8 a.m. On the outside, the only sign that it was Election Day was the red poster indicating the entrance to the polling place.

Two seniors walked out of the voting area as a reporter walked in. According to a poll worker, this was the calm after a morning rush when the polls opened at 7 a.m. There were no issues with the voting machines, as the process took less than a minute.

About an hour later in Dover, the parking lot at East Dover Elementary wasn't busy as residents turned out to cast their vote. Yolanda Poe, 53, of Dover, said her decision to vote was, in part, to set a precedent for her grandchildren.

For centuries as Black people, we couldn't vote and women couldn't do anything," Poe said after casting her vote. "Now we have the right to, so it's important that we do something."

In front of the elementary school, she took a selfie with Kerri Evelyn Harris, a candidate for Delaware State Representative. Harris, shivering from the cold, was the only candidate greeting voters outside the school at 9 a.m.

An older woman who slowly walked toward the schools entrance to vote told Harris: Keep warm!

Bill Buxton puts up campaign signs on Election Day outside of Harlan Elementary School in Wilmington.

To the north in Talleyville, a handful of residents were voting at Springer Middle School at 10 a.m.

One poll worker said about 170 people had voted so far Tuesday morning, but about a half-dozen more walked in less than five minutes after the poll worker gave his estimate.

 Ben Mace, Isabel Hughes, Andre Lamar, Meredith Newman

Why Lee Murphy thinks he can upset Lisa Blunt Rochester

A Republican hasnt represented Delaware in Congress since 2011, but Lee Murphy, the partys challenger to Lisa Blunt Rochester, is confident that will soon change.

Ive lived here a long time, Murphy said by phone Monday. Ive seen Democrats rule the state, Republicans be in power. For many years in this state, Republicans and Democrats worked together, but that recently hasnt been the case. I just believe one-party rule, especially over a long period of time, isn't healthy for everyone.

Murphy, who voted Tuesday morning at Hillcrest-Bellefont Methodist Church off Marsh Road just outside of Wilmington, said his No. 1 issue is the economy. Voters hes spoken with are hurting from record inflation and are concerned about oil prices ahead of the winter months, he said.

READ:3 takeaways from the Blunt Rochester-Murphy U.S House debate

Its an issue he hopes energizes voters to seek change.

Blunt Rochester won Delawares lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016 after fellow Democrat John Carney left the office to seek the governorship. Murphy has run in each election since, challenging Scott Walker unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2018 before losing to Blunt Rochester in the general election in 2020.

The indicators once again point in Blunt Rochesters favor.

A poll conducted by the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication published in October found 50% of registered voters plan to vote for Blunt Rochester and 33% support Murphy.

Blunt Rochesters campaign has raised almost $2.7 million, about nine times as much as Murphys.

Murphy pointed to the Delaware Supreme Courts ruling against vote-by-mail and same-day voter registration as a reason for optimism. Without the COVID-19 measures that expanded absentee voting by mailing ballots to registered voters in 2020 and the following two years of Joe Biden's presidency, Murphy believes hes better positioned this year compared to previous runs.

This election is very much a referendum on Joe Biden, which is bad for the Democrats, Murphy said. The landscape has definitely changed.

 Brandon Holveck

What to watch for on Tuesday

While Delaware races may be lower-stakes this year than in past years, elsewhere across the country there are a number of hot races that many are watching.

Here are some that will determine what the country looks like moving forward:

Pennsylvania races to watch

In neighboring Pennsylvania, all eyes are on the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races.

The outcome of the Senate race, between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz, could determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, ultimately affecting issues like abortion rights and the economy, among others.

This combination of file photos shows Democratic Senate candidate, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, left, and Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz.

For the governors race, Democratic candidate and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro faces Doug Mastriano, a far-right Trump-endorsee who has supported the former presidents lies that the election was stolen.

MIDTERMS ARE HERE:Midterms are less than a week away. Here are the key races in Delaware

Maryland races to watch

In Maryland, bestselling author Wes Moore, who would become the states first Black governor if elected, is facing another Trump endorsee, Dan Cox. Cox has also promoted the former presidents lies about the election. During the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Cox tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence was a traitor.

Moore is seen as the favorite to clinch the gubernatorial election in Maryland.

New York races to watch

To Delaware's north, it's unlikely that the traditionally blue state of New York will look much different after Tuesday. Still, the governor's race between Gov. Kathy Hochul  the state's first female governor who took over following disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation last year  and Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin isn't a shoo-in.

Hochul's lead over Trump-backed Zeldin has narrowed in recent weeks, according to Politico's election forecast.

Georgia races to watch

Many eyes are on Georgia's governor's race this year, a repeat matchup between Gov. Brian Kemp and gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams.

Recent polls show Kemp  no longer the overseer of Georgia's elections as he was during the 2018 race  leading by seven percentage points. Still, Abrams was able to mobilize many voters in 2018, something she hopes to carry with her this year.

KEMP VS ABRAMS:In second debate, Georgia candidates Kemp and Abrams argue over abortion, gun control

Just as anticipated, though slightly more contentious, is Georgia's U.S. Senate race.

Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock is facing Trump-backed Herschel Walker, an anti-abortion advocate who, in recent weeks, has repeatedly denied that he paid for two women to have abortions years ago. The women recently came forward with the claims that Walker impregnated them and then paid for the medical procedures.

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) shakes hands with Republican candidate Herschel Walker prior to the Nexstar Georgia Senate Debate at District Live at Plant Riverside District in Savannah, Ga., on Friday, October 14, 2022.

Earlier in his campaign, Walker revealed that he fathered four children by four different women, a striking contrast to his public admonishments about absentee fathers and his previous contention that he had three children, USA Today reported.

According to FiveThirtyEight, the race is quite close, with Walker leading Warnock by about one percentage point.

Arizona races to watch

Arizona's gubernatorial race remains a toss-up, but it will be closely watched.

Polls are showing election denier Kari Lake slightly ahead of incumbent Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, though that may not mean much. The veracity of polls often depends on what entity is conducting them, what their methods are and whether they have a partisan lean.

POLLS AREN'T ALWAYS ACCURATE:Polls in Arizona's Senate and governor's races: Don't count on them

The outcome of the gubernatorial race will have important implications ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Lake, a former local Fox News anchor who now markets herself as an anti-media Republican, has repeatedly reiterated the baseless claim that Trump won the 2020 election in Arizona. She's also said she would not have certified President Joe Biden's election if she were governor at the time.

Florida races to watch

As in many other states, Florida's key contests are the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

Incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will likely be a presidential contender in 2024, is facing off against Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor-turned-Democrat who represented Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives until August of this year. He resigned to focus on the governor's race.

DELAWARE'S MIGRANT PLANE THAT WASN'T:'No reports of anyone arriving' after rumors of DeSantis' incoming migrant plane

On the U.S. Senate side of the midterms, Republican Marco Rubio, a senator since 2011, is facing off against Democrat Val Demings. Polls show Rubio with a more than eight percentage point lead.

Ohio races to watch

This election cycle, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan  who is vying for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat  has out-raised many other Senate hopefuls across the nation.

READ:Tim Ryan is raising more than J.D. Vance. Can he counter national GOP spending?

Yet it remains to be seen whether Ryan's cash flow will be enough to secure him the race against Trump-backed Republican J.D. Vance.

Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Election Day 2022 in Delaware: Race results tallied as polls close
Leer en espanol

Polls opened for in-person voting from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday as Arizona and the nation wrap up a contentious midterm election.

Republican Kari Lake, the Trump-backed former TV news anchor, is squaring off against Democrat Katie Hobbs, Arizona's secretary of state, in a high-profile race for who will become governor. Trump-endorsed Republican Blake Masters and Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly also are locked in a tight contest for a U.S. Senate seat.

Looking for the latest updates? Follow Wednesday's coverage of Arizona's midterm election by Republic reporters.

It all turns on Maricopa County: Takeaways from a day of glitches, conspiracies and a lawsuit

Lessons learned: GOP defections, Democratic spending among the midterm standouts

What's left: Major races in Arizona that don't yet have a winner

Here is a recap of Tuesday's election events.

Hobbs leading Lake in early results for governors race

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Katie Hobbs was ahead of Republican Kari Lake in early election results released Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

The race between Lake, the former Fox 10 news anchor, and Hobbs, the outgoing secretary of state and former lawmaker, had been labeled a toss-up by some polls and analysts.

2:30 a.m.: Maricopa County ballot drop shows tightening races

Maricopa County posted a large number of additional ballot results between 1 and 2 a.m. Wednesday. Some race outlooks tightened or changed with the new additions.

Gubernatorial hopeful Republican Kari Lake gained ground on Democrat Katie Hobbs, who still led following the latest returns.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., remained ahead over Republican challenger Blake Masters, though that margin also lessened.

Maricopa County has reported results from Election Day ballots from all 223 vote sites, according to the county. Staff early Wednesday morning were preparing to signature verify the many early ballots dropped off Tuesday.

Story continues

The race for Maricopa County Attorney flipped with the latest update. Rachel Mitchell, who was appointed to the position in April, was leading by a narrow margin over Democrat Julie Gunnigle after the early morning ballot additions.

Five U.S. House races remained undecided as of Wednesday morning.

In the 1st Congressional District, Democrat Jevin Hodge led incumbent Republican David Schweikert.

In the 2nd Congressional District, Republican Eli Crane was ahead of incumbent Democrat Tom O'Halleran.

Incumbent Democrat Greg Stanton was well ahead of Republican Kelly Cooper in the 4th Congressional District.

In the 5th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Rep. Andy Biggs had a sizable lead over Democrat Javier Ramos and independent Clint Smith.

And Democrat Kirsten Engel led Republican Juan Ciscomani in the 6th Congressional District.

In Arizonas Corporation Commission race, Republicans Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers overtook incumbent Democrat Sandra Kennedy and Democrat Lauren Kuby, though with tight margins. The Democrats led after initial results Tuesday evening for two seats on the state commission.

Early race results flipped for Proposition 132 in the latest update. Yes was just narrowly ahead of no votes as of Wednesday morning. The proposition would require 60% of voters to approve any new tax via a ballot measure.

Result tallies so far are available here.

1:20 a.m.: South Phoenix sees horses and enthusiasm on Election Day

The attendees of "Cabalgata a Las Urnas," a horse procession with community partners including ACLU Arizona that will lead voters to the polls, gather on the road to Rancho Ochoa to begin moving toward the polls in Phoenix on Nov. 8, 2022.

On Tuesday afternoon in south Phoenix, the national group Poder Latinx kicked off its "Cabalgata a Las Urnas" as a final push to mobilize Latino voters in Arizona before the polls closed.

Dozens of horses and charros paraded from a ranch to Westridge Baptist Church in west Phoenix, across the street from the Fowler Elementary School polling site. The celebration outside the church featured a free taco truck and horses moving to music played by La Banda Xplosiva.

The event was part of Poder Latinxs efforts to build political power among the Latino community in Arizona by reaching residents in a cultural manner, said Executive Director Yadira Sanchez. The group also organizes in Florida, Georgia and Washington  places where Latino political representation is not where it could be, she said.

We chose activities that our community is familiar with, Sanchez said. La Cabalgata is a very popular activity that resonates not only in Mexican culture but other cultures in Latin America.

The event was intended to be a celebration of democracy as well. In Latin America, you go sometimes on a weekend, not Tuesday, and its a big party, a big fiesta, Sanchez said. So were trying to replicate that on a Tuesday evening.

Sanchez said they planned to knock on doors around the Fowler Elementary polling site to let people know they still had time before the polls closed and that the group would "be there waiting for them with tacos and music after they vote."

Elsewhere in south Phoenix, Benjamin Tarango and Rosa Sanchez Tarango cast their ballots at Moose Lodge near the foot of South Mountain.

Both Democrats, they said the most important issue to them this election was the improvement of south Phoenix, where they have lived for almost 40 years.

Benjamin Tarango said he wanted to see improved streets, infrastructure, houses and local education.

Its important that we make ourselves counted because were in this country, Rosa Sanchez Tarango said in Spanish.

Benjamin Tarango hoped que no los abandonan a los Hispanos, he said. That they do not abandon the Hispanics.

 Madeleine Parrish

12:50 a.m.: Arizonans vote against Prop. 128; Legislature can't change ballot measures

Arizonans voted against Proposition 128, which would have allowed the Legislature to change ballot measures that voters approved or divert funds from them if either the Arizona Supreme Court or U.S. Supreme Court deemed a measure unconstitutional.

12:40 a.m.: Phoenix sees close City Council races

Phoenix's two competitive City Council contests were too close to call based on early ballot counts Tuesday, but the unofficial tallies showed tight races that could lead to runoff contests.

District 8 incumbent Carlos Garcia was in a dead heat with challenger Kesha Hodge Washington to represent part of south Phoenix.

Kevin Robinson narrowly pulled ahead in the open field of eight candidates vying to replace term-limited Sal DiCiccio in District 6. Trailing by a small margin behind Robinson in early results was Joan Greene and Sam Stone.

If early return trends hold, the two top candidates in both races will head to a runoff in March. Runoffs occur when no single candidate gets more than 50% of the vote.

 Taylor Seely

12:30 a.m.: Republican confident in comeback for Corporation Commission

Crowds were thinning at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch as midnight approached, but candidates at the GOP Election Day celebration remained upbeat.

Kevin Thompson, a Mesa councilman running for one of two seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, was trailing two Democrats in his race by a few percentage points.

But like other GOP candidates, he said he expects things to change as more rural county votes are reported, as well as votes cast on Tuesday, which are expected to favor Republicans.

We did really well in the rural counties, he said of his campaign. For the race, he teamed up with Nick Myers, a Republican policy adviser at the commission, traveling the state together to reach voters. Myers is also behind the Democrats in early returns.

Should he win, Thompson said his first order of business at the commission would be to improve the regulatory environment for utilities, which he said face higher borrowing costs because of the unpredictable decisions that Arizona regulators have made for utilities. When utilities face higher borrowing costs, they pass it on to customers.

It is costing us money as consumers, Thompson said.

 Ryan Randazzo

12:20 a.m.: Attorney general candidates talk election outlook

Democrat Kris Mayes is leading Republican Abe Hamadeh for Arizona attorney general in early returns.

Mayes expressed optimism in a phone interview with The Republic about 11:40 p.m. on election night.

Its going to take a few days to get the final results, but Im cautiously optimistic. Arizona showed tonight that it does not want election deniers in office. Arizona wants an attorney general that is concerned about abortion rights, democracy and water conservation, Mayes said.

At the Republican election night party in Scottsdale, Hamadeh addressed the crowd shortly before midnight.

The biggest threat to democracy is incompetent election officials. All we are asking for are free, fair, and transparent, competent elections. But Arizona, once every vote is counted  I assure you, we will be victorious, Hamadeh said.

 Tara Kavaler

12:10 a.m.: Navajo Nation president loses reelection

Buu Nygren has been elected as Navajo Nation president and Richelle Montoya will serve as vice president, the first woman to serve in that office. The unofficial results were released Tuesday from the Navajo Nation Election Administration.

Nygren defeated incumbent President Jonathan Nez, who was seeking a second term in office. He had started the evening with the lead, but Nygren soon took over and finally won enough votes to secure the victory.

 Arlyssa D. Becenti

12 a.m.: Prescott's LGBTQ community concerned about election results

Among some of the voters who have expressed concern about the pending results of Tuesday's election: Prescotts queer community.

Though a conservative city, Prescott has a hefty LGBTQ community. But many would never know it because politics has forced people back into the closet, LGBTQ leaders said.

John Duncan, who helps run the Prism Network that connects gay communities among northern Arizona cities and towns, has lived in Prescott his entire life. He said the political tenor has made the area unsafe for queer people, especially transgender people.

We have a pride event, but we dont call it a pride event because were worried about what will happen to people if we do, said Teresa Landreth, an organizer for transgender communities in the region. We have a lot of people who are trans here, and they just want to live their lives. They dont want to fight battles. Theyve gone through it.

Molly Frieburg, executive director of Prism Network, said the politics is oppressive for LGBTQ people.

The politics has amped up around here to the point where even among our community organizations weve worked with in the past, Im having people feel comfortable saying, We dont want you, Frieburg said.

We want people to know that this discrimination is happening, she said. But we also have to protect our community.

 Joseph Darius Jaafari

11:45 p.m.: Voters pass Prop. 211, choosing more transparency in political spending

Voters pulled back the curtain on anonymous campaign spending Tuesday, passing a law that requires public disclosure of big-dollar donors to political committees.

Proposition 211 jumped to an early and big lead and never let up, winning in all 15 counties.

The measure will require so-called dark money groups to name the donors who contribute at least $5,000 to a political committee, in a move that will provide more transparency in political spending.

 Mary Jo Pitzl

11:35 p.m.: Arizona voters opt to lower maximum medical debt interest rates

Arizonans voted to lower maximum interest rates on medical debt and change rules on general debt collection after passing Proposition 209.

11:30 p.m.: Few gather outside Maricopa County tabulation center

"I'm pleading the blood of Jesus over our nation," said Lesley Taylor as she walked up and down the sidewalk reciting prayers outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Nov. 8, 2022.

At least 30 journalists from across the country and around the world waited for hours outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix on a gradually cooling Tuesday night to see if crowds gathered. They didn't.

At first, there were only two self-described patriots camped outside.

About an hour later, they were joined by two women who danced as they called on Jesus to help with ballot counting inside.

"I'm pleading the blood of Jesus over our nation," said Leslie Taylor, with tears in her eyes. "We already won. The election is ours. There is no one who can take it back to the evil side."

Her friend, Michele Gordon, lamented the 2020 election and said that her vote wasn't counted. Times have gotten tumultuous, she said.

"We want fair elections," she said. "What is going on right now is wrong and corrupt.

 Jose Gonzalez

11:20 p.m.: Maricopa County provides more details on ballot counting plan

Ballots dropped by voters into door 3 blue tubs at polling places will be tabulated Wednesday, according to Rey Valenzuela, co-elections director for Maricopa County.

The counting process for these ballots will be similar to the early ballots dropped off on Election Day, though early ballots go through signature verification.

All ballots successfully processed by polling place tabulator machines will be included in Tuesday evening results, Valenzuela said. Other ballots will be counted later in the week alongside the early ballots dropped off Tuesday.

Door 3 refers to a secure ballot box at polling places. Voters whose ballots werent accepted by malfunctioning machines were told to place their ballots in the door 3 box to be counted later or else vote at a different location.

 Sasha Hupka

10:50 p.m. Hobbs, Lake address supporters as vote counting continues

Gubernatorial candidates Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake addressed their supporters after early results showed Hobbs ahead of Lake.

Lake, the Republican and former Fox 10 news anchor, struck an optimistic tone and criticized the election process in a speech at a watch party shortly after 10 p.m.

Hobbs, the Democrat and outgoing secretary of state, spoke to supporters earlier in the evening and said shes feeling good about the early results.

She said county election officials are hard at work tallying votes and will be tabulating for the next few days.

We need to be patient and wait for every vote to be counted because every single vote matters and every single vote counts equally, Hobbs said.

Lake took a critical tone toward the vote-counting process, saying when we win, the first course of action will be to restore honesty to Arizona elections.

She said she expects to declare victory and then will get to work to root out incompetency and corruption in Arizona elections. Lake said the current election system does not work and that people should know the winner and loser on election night.

We will take the victory when it comes, and we will turn this around, Lake told a cheering crowd of GOP supporters.

 Alison Steinbach

10:10 p.m.: Gallego, Grijalva win reelection

Incumbent Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego and Raul Grijalva will keep their seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after winning reelection Tuesday.

The Associated Press called the races for both candidates, who had sizable leads over their Republican challengers in early results.

Gallego was up against political newcomer Jeff Zink in Arizonas 3rd Congressional District. Grijalva faced first-time candidate Luis Pozzolo in the 7th Congressional District.

 Alison Steinbach

10 p.m.: Democrats leading Republicans in key Arizona Senate and House races in early results

Democratic candidates in crucial state Senate and House races led their Republican opponents in initial ballot results released Tuesday.

Only a handful of 30 state Senate races will determine control of the chamber.

And Democrats plan to capture six crucial seats in the state House of Representatives was still in play after the release of the first batch of early voting results released Tuesday night.

 Ray Stern

9:50 p.m.: Candidate leading in Page justice of peace race recently died

Over a month after his death on Sept. 30, Donald G. Roberts is leading in the race for justice of the peace in Page, according to preliminary election results.

Roberts was first elected to the role in 1987 and served through 1994. Almost a decade later, in 2003, Roberts was again elected to serve as the justice of the peace for the Page Precinct, a role he held until his death.

After his passing, the Coconino County Elections Department began accepting nominations for write-in candidates for the position. Ultimately five candidates entered the race, but preliminary results show that Roberts still earned more votes than the rest of the candidates combined.

 Lacey Latch

9:30 p.m.: Supporters of in-state tuition for Dreamers optimistic

Supporters of Proposition 308 expressed optimism that their lead in the first batch of voting results would hold as more votes are counted.

The ballot measure would grant in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Carlos Alfaro, campaign manager for Yes on 308, said the early results showed the influence of a bipartisan coalition of community and elected leaders to promote the initiative.

Im confident because not only is it a big margin that we started out with, but as we went around to the different polling locations that our volunteers were at, we saw Republican, Democrat and Independent voters and heard back from them that they were voting yes, Alfaro said.

Progressive groups, including the organizations supporting Proposition 308, gathered at Xico Inc. in downtown Phoenix to watch the news as results are tabulated.

Alfaro credited the work of undocumented students, also known as Dreamers, in helping get the word out, especially given the ballot's len

Our campaign tried to take every single opportunity to tell Arizona voters that this was on the ballot, he said. Because it was such a busy ballot with 10 ballot initiatives on there, even though most Arizonans agree, it was hard to get awareness out.

 Rafael Carranza

Supporters of Proposition 308, which would grant in-state tuition to undocumented students, were optimistic their early lead would hold in the Nov. 8, 2022, election.

9:20 p.m.: Early results on the 10 ballot measures

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 1: Hodge leading Schweikert in early results

Democrat Jevin Hodge led incumbent Republican David Schweikert in early ballot results released at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 2: OHalleran and Crane nearly even in early results

Incumbent Democrat Tom OHalleran and Republican Eli Crane were neck and neck in early results posted Tuesday evening, with Crane just slightly ahead.

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 3: Gallego leading over Zink

Incumbent Democrat Ruben Gallego had a sizable lead over Republican challenger Jeff Zink, per early ballot results posted Tuesday at 8 p.m.

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 4: Stanton leading Cooper

Incumbent Democrat Greg Stanton was well ahead of Republican Kelly Cooper in early ballot results released Tuesday evening.

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 5: Biggs and Ramos in close race

Incumbent Republican Andy Biggs had a slight lead on Democrat Javier Ramos in the first batch of results released Tuesday evening. Independent Clint Smith trailed.

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 6: Close race between Ciscomani and Engel

Republican Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel were in a tight race, though few ballots were released in the first drop of results at 8 p.m.

8:30 p.m.: Congressional District 7: Grijalva ahead over Pozzolo

Incumbent Democrat Raul Grijalva had a sizable lead over Republican Luis Pozzolo in early results released by the state at 8 p.m.

8:30 p.m.: Lesko wins reelection in 8th Congressional District

Incumbent Rep. Debbie Lesko won reelection in Arizonas 8th Congressional District. Lesko, R-Ariz., ran unopposed in the general election.

8:30 p.m.: Gosar wins reelection in 9th Congressional District

Incumbent Rep. Paul Gosar won reelection in Arizonas 9th Congressional District. Gosar, R-Ariz., ran unopposed in the general election.

8 p.m.: Kelly leading Masters for U.S. Senate seat in early results

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., was ahead over Republican challenger for U.S. Senate Blake Masters in the first drop of results released by the state shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The race had tightened in recent weeks and was expected to be very close.

8 p.m.: Adrian Fontes ahead early over Mark Finchem for secretary of state

Democrat Adrian Fontes led Republican Mark Finchem in their contest for secretary of state, per first results.

The race has pitted Fontes, who oversaw the 2020 presidential election as Maricopa County recorder, against Finchem, a four-term state lawmaker and arguably the loudest election denier in the state.

The winner would also be next in line to succeed the governor if that office is vacated for any reason.

8 p.m.: Democrat Kris Mayes leading in early results over Abe Hamadeh for attorney general

First ballots showed Democrat Kris Mayes led Republican Abe Hamadeh in their contest to become Arizona's next attorney general.

Mayes, a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, and Hamadeh, a former prosecutor at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, have hit each other with tough rhetoric on social media and at campaign events in a heated race where abortion and election integrity were top issues.

8 p.m.: Julie Gunnigle leading Rachel Mitchell for Maricopa County attorney in early results

Democrat Julie Gunnigle led Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell in their race to lead the prosecutorial agency, according to first ballots.

Mitchell, a Republican and longtime agency employee, was appointed to fill the position in April. Gunnigle, a reform-minded Democrat, ran as an outsider and critic of the agency.

8 p.m.: Yee ahead over Quezada in treasurers race early results

Kimberly Yee, the incumbent treasurer and a former state lawmaker, was ahead in early results over Democrat Martin Quezada, a state senator.

Yee was seeking another four years in office. She was the first Asian American candidate to win statewide office in Arizona when she was elected in 2018. Quezada has said he ran to improve a statewide office that is too often used as a stepping stone for politicians.

8 p.m.: Kathy Hoffman leading in bid for reelection as schools superintendent per initial results

Incumbent Democrat Kathy Hoffman was leading in early results over Republican challenger Tom Horne for superintendent of public instruction.

Hoffman was running for a second term and Horne was seeking what would be his third term as state superintendent.

8 p.m.: Kennedy and Kuby leading in early results for Arizona Corporation Commission

Democrats Sandra Kennedy and Lauren Kuby held narrow leads over Republicans Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers in the race to fill two seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, the body that decides things like rate hikes for electric, water and gas utilities.

Kennedy was the only incumbent on the ballot for the commission.

7:50 p.m.: GOP strategy to vote more on Election Day stressed system

Republican suspicions about mail-in ballots meant many GOP voters waited for Election Day to vote. It was a strategy pushed by party leaders and one that always carries some risk.

On Tuesday, that risk materialized with glitches and long lines.

Badly printed ballots affected about 60 voting centers in Maricopa County, roughly 30% of the total. Voters whose ballots werent accepted by machines were told to place their ballots in a secure ballot box labeled door 3 to be counted later or go to a different voting location.

Some people in metro Phoenix waited in line for a half-hour or more, too.

No ones vote was disenfranchised because of the issues, county officials said. But hiccups at the polls were just another example of why voting by mail is better, said Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political consultant.

That is the problem, you tell people to wait for Election Day, you put a lot of stress on mechanical machines  and machines break, Coughlin said. Maybe people will vote by mail next time.

Most people already do, even Republicans. But this election cycle, far more Democrats voted early than Republicans. Democratic strategist Sam Almy noted on Twitter after 5 p.m. that of ballots returned on Tuesday, Republicans outnumbered Democrats 3.5 to 1.

Republican political consultant Constantin Querard said that because his job is to make sure his candidates win, I like knowing my votes are already nice and warm, all safe in the ballot box  hopefully, days ahead of the election.

Snow or rain can also be a problem for someone who waited until Election Day to vote, though not so much in Arizona, Querard said.

 Ray Stern

7:35 p.m.: New translation options for Hopi speakers on reservation

Hopi-speaking voters casting ballots on the Hopi reservation had several options for voting in their tribal language on Tuesday.

They could use earphones to hear voting instructions and choices in Hopi or use a touchscreen to read the same information in Hopi.

I am going to vote in person just so I can hear it, Hopi Elections Registrar Karen Shupla said. Its exciting that were up to time on the machines.

In addition, this is the first year that Hopi translators were hired to work the polls on the Hopi reservation, Shupla said.

Maxine Wadsworth was hired by Navajo County to ensure that all Hopi language speakers were accommodated at the polls. She said that a Hopi language speaker was available at each polling site on Hopi land to accommodate Hopi language speakers.

The voters are amazed, and now they can vote on the propositions that they had trouble understanding, she said. For so long, the Hopi voters felt left out of the loop on language issues. Its exciting that they can vote in a way that any Hopi voter can understand.

 Stan Bindell, reporting supported by the Pulitzer Center

A ballot dropbox in Kykotsmovi on the Hopi Nation with translator Maxine Wadworth (left), and Hopi Elections Registrar Karen Shupla (right).

7:20 p.m.: Polls close across Arizona

Polls closed at 7 p.m. for the Arizona general election.

A last-minute hearing wrapped up just before 7 p.m. with a Maricopa County judge denying a Republican request to extend voting hours in the county by three hours because of issues at some polling places.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Tim Ryan rejected arguments that voters were denied the right to cast ballots due to glitches with equipment at 30% of voting centers.

"The court doesn't have any evidence that any voter was precluded from their right to vote," Ryan said during a hearing.

Voters who were in line by 7 p.m. can still cast their ballots.

The first results were expected to be available just after 8 p.m., with updates throughout the evening and into the coming days. Full election results may not be available for several days. Early results can flip as later votes are counted. The preferences of early voters, in-person Election Day voters and those who drop off their ballots at the polls all could differ.

Follow along on this page for live updates on key races, and see all results at this link.

 Alison Steinbach and Robert Anglen

6:55 p.m.: Hearing underway for GOP request to extend voting hours

A hearing is underway in Maricopa County Superior Court for the Republican committee and candidates seeking to extend polling hours to 10 p.m. Without legal action, the polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m.

A Maricopa County Superior Court hearing for the Republican committee and candidates seeking to extend polling hours to 10 p.m. is streamed.

The Republican National Committee and others filed a lawsuit shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday calling for polls to stay open for three extra hours in Maricopa County, alleging that problems at polling stations across the county prevented some voters from casting their ballots.

In addition to the RNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters and gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake were listed as plaintiffs.

 Alison Steinbach

6:45 p.m.: Steady flow of voters at Brophy Prep

The flow of voters trickled slowly in and out of the polling site at Brophy Prep in Phoenix on Tuesday evening.

A volunteer at the polling site said they had not had any issues so far, and staff was expecting more voters as the workday ended.

The volunteer said the votes cast at Brophy seemed closely split between those filling their ballots out in person at the site and those dropping off their early ballots.

Rafael Lores Cabrera from Phoenix said he voted for Republican candidates because hes unhappy with the state of the economy.

The high prices, insecurity, the border is in chaos. The high prices with inflation, gas, food, there had to be a change, he said.

Staci Ryder, an independent voter from Phoenix, said her top issue was abortion rights and said she cast her ballot for Democratic candidates.

A couple years ago, we kind of flipped our state a little bit. We became a purple state, and I am hopeful that we can keep that progression going, she said.

 Rafael Carranza

Brophy Prep in Phoenix saw a steady flow of voters for the Nov. 8, 2022, midterm election.

6:25 p.m.: Tucson voter says No. 1 issue is faith in election process

Tucson voters cast their ballots as part of a constant flow of people at Donna R. Liggins Recreation Center.

Poll inspector Carolyn Eisner said Pima County voting was running smoothly. She has been working at the polls for 20 years and said preparation among her team for this election was not different than previous elections. She said she and her team felt safe going into this election.

Eisner said voting is easier since the county switched to a central voting station model during the last election. In this model, anyone can vote anywhere. Voters have their IDs scanned, then poll workers verify their information and give them their ballots.

Molly Armstrong, a University of Arizona student, said she was a first-time voter and thought the process went smoothly, with no wait in line. Armstrong said she came out to vote to have my voice heard.

Asha Grey Eyes, an intern at the State Historic Preservation Office, said she felt the voting process was secure. She said she was concerned that so many people who dont trust the election process got on the ballot.

The number one issue is making sure people who dont take our election process seriously, specifically anyone affiliated with Trump, are not elected, she said.

Its not cool to fearmonger in hopes that will get them in seats of power, she said.

 Sarah Lapidus

6 p.m.: Views diverge among Mesa, Glendale voters

Some voters on Tuesday said they werent particularly passionate about any candidates, but were just happy to exercise their right to vote.

Regardless of how it comes out, were glad to see the line and the turnout, said 57-year-old Shellie Snow of Queen Creek, who voted with her husband at the ASU Polytechnic Campus in Mesa.

The polling place had moderate wait times but no other issues.

Michelle Francis, a 44-year-old Gilbert resident, said she voted for Democrats Katie Hobbs for governor and Mark Kelly for U.S. Senate.

I just think theyre more sensible, she said.

Mesa resident Rob Rucker disagreed. He said he has faith in Republicans Kari Lake and Blake Masters.

They have key information needed to focus on the state of Arizona, the 54-year-old said.

David Schrimpf, a 38-year-old customer service manager, said he used to vote Republican but was voting 100% for Democrats today. He was most focused on abortion rights, inflation, climate change and election deniers, he said.

Im fearing that Lake is going to win, but Im keeping my fingers crossed, he said.

In Glendale, voters at the Mission and Ministry Center saw mild wait times Tuesday afternoon.

Jon Landavaso, a health care worker from Glendale, said he is most concerned with high inflation and taxes. He said he hopes his vote matters and he prays to God that we can have someone that will actually make a difference.

Landavaso, who cast his vote after about 30 minutes in line, said the machine jammed up when he submitted his ballot and needed a worker to intercede. That was pretty sketchy to me, he said.

Andrew Ruelas, also of Glendale, brought his wife to the polling station so she could vote for the first time. Ruelas, who waited in the parking lot, said the past few years showed him that state government is more important than we thought it was.

Ruelas said many people lost their jobs during COVID-19 and that unprecedented mistakes were made.

 Juliette Rihl and Eryka Forquer

5:45 p.m.: Native voters cast ballots at Salt River

A steady stream of voters came to Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's polling place at the tribe's recreation center to vote, drop off early ballots or just visit and pick up swag like T-shirts and mugs.

But not everything was happy inside. At least one tabulation machine had problems, with at least one voter having to submit their ballot three times before it was accepted.

Salt River Councilwoman Diane Enos, an attorney who volunteers frequently with Arizona Native Vote Election Protection Project, said the group had received calls about problems with the tabulation from across the Phoenix metro area. In some cases, she said, voters' ballots were "spoiled," a process where poll workers place a special mark on a ballot as invalid if it is damaged or otherwise unusable. The voter is given another fresh ballot to mark again.

"I saw one person vote but who couldn't get it into the machine," she said.

Enos also advised voters dropping off early ballots to sign and date the envelope so poll workers would know the ballot was received on Election Day.

Diedre Goodluck, a Navajo who lives nearby, said she always votes.

Its important for us to do our civic duty because our grandparents werent able to, she said.

Goodluck said she voted a straight Democratic ticket. "It's important to make sure we have judicial and representatives who have the best interests of tribes in mind," she said.

Salt River Vice President Ricardo Leonard dropped off his early ballot along with Dustin Burke, a tribal member.

Leonard said the current political climate could be attributed to giving extremist groups, like white supremacists, a break.

"When you have politicians who support these groups, you're opening the door," he said. The current Republican Party isn't the same as when it concentrated on fiscal responsibility and other such issues, he said.

"But when you have a great number of people who say the election was rigged, it's hard to get past that," Leonard said. "It's a scary thing, especially for Natives."

 Debra Krol

5:25 p.m.: Republicans want to extend voting hours in Maricopa County

The Republican National Committee and others filed a lawsuit Tuesday evening calling for polls to stay open for three extra hours in Maricopa County.

The suit, filed just after 5 p.m., seeks an emergency ruling from a judge and alleges that problems at polling stations across the county prevented some voters from casting their ballots.

At least 36% of all voting centers across Maricopa County have been afflicted with pervasive and systemic malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers, which has burdened voters with excessive delays and long lines, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed against the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the county recorder.

Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Gates said Monday it would take a court order to extend hours.

"The only way that this county would extend the voting hours beyond those who arrive at 7 p.m. is from a court order. Period, he said.

RNC lawyer Kory Langhofer said Tuesday the party wants to ensure voters have a chance to vote.

We want to make sure our voters rights are protected, he said.

In addition to the RNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters and gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake were listed as plaintiffs.

 Robert Anglen and Alison Steinbach

5 p.m.: One voter wants to take us back; another motivated by TikTok

Clara Tedrick voted in person early Tuesday morning at the Surprise Senior Center.

"Voting is extremely important to help make any changes and to speak our voice and exercise our right," she said, adding that changes must start from the bottom.

"I'm a firm believer that you can't sit here and complain about problems if you don't do your due diligence to try to help make changes," she said.

Tedrick, who said shes a self-declared lesbian, is particularly concerned about issues that affect women's rights.

Clara Tedrick voted on the morning on Nov. 8, 2022, at the Surprise Senior Center.

At Worship & Word in Peoria, some voters said morning voting was delayed by faulty tabulators, which a poll worker said had been working intermittently.

Kathleen Hebert, a Sun City resident who is a realtor and investor, said she did extremely thorough research before dropping off her ballot, taking more time to vote than she had in the past.

"There's just too many radical people trying to change our children's minds, and Kari Lake's going to take us there  take us back to where we were," Hebert said.

Ron LaPlante, a 55-year-old construction worker, said content on TikTok motivated him to vote in person on Tuesday.

He said hes been voting by mail his whole life, but decided to vote in person for the first time after watching a TikTok video. He said the video showed a person who went to vote, only to discover that someone else had cast their ballot.

Ron LaPlante voted in person at Worship & Word in Peoria on Nov. 8, 2022.

"It could have been a little smoother," said LaPlante. He said the process took about 30 minutes. LaPlante said hes curious why Powerball results are available within a few hours, yet there were issues with voting tabulators.

LaPlante said he put his ballot in several different machines before it registered.

LaPlante said he's most interested in following the governor's race. He voted for Kari Lake.

"She seems to want to bring the truth," said LaPlante.

 Alexandra Hardle

4:30 p.m.: Phoenix, Scottsdale voters explain their choices

Lisa Sandoval and Rosita Salway cast their ballots at Academies at South Mountain in south Phoenix early Tuesday.

The most important vote we cast today was just to maintain our democracy, said Sandoval, who works in medical administration.

I do have concerns regarding Kari Lake, Sandoval said. I dont have a problem with a candidate being conservative or liberal. To me, its never about whether theyre a Republican or Democrat. It's about their core values," she said.

Salway and Sandoval said they showed up for propositions on the ballot as well, especially to vote against the propositions that aim to change ballot initiative rules. Sandoval said that Proposition 129 specifically was "a bit concerning if it passes."

Sandoval has seen firsthand the problems with the rising cost of health care, she said. She said she voted yes for Proposition 209, which would limit interest rates on medical debt and increase property protections for debt collection.

Sandoval was both surprised and happy that medical debt was on the ballot, she said.

Medical debt is so massive for people, especially when youre dealing with long-term care or chronic illness or terminal illness, she said. Not only are you fighting for your life, but you end up fighting for your home or your stability because it can be absolutely crippling.

Larry Dillie, 76, voted in person at the Islamic Center in Scottsdale on Tuesday. He said his top issues were inflation, crime and the border.

Dillie said he felt the election was very secure, but only because he waited to fill out his ballot in person. He said he doesnt like voting by mail.

Heather Pratt also voted at the Islamic Center polling place and said it was just very stressful, as machines were acting up.

And they pulled apart the machines in front of me and made it sound like everybody's ballot wasn't being taken, Pratt said.

 Madeleine Parrish and Emily Sacia

4:10 p.m.: Trump urges Arizonans to stay in line

Former President Donald Trump posted a video message to Truth Social at 3 p.m. on Tuesday urging Arizona voters to stay in line at the polls, despite any issues with tabulators or long wait times.

Truth Social is a social media platform created by Trump Media & Technology Group.

To the great people of Arizona  Maricopa County, in particular  dont leave your line. Stay where you are, Trump said.

The sentiments echo what GOP candidates in Arizona told their supporters: vote in person and dont leave long lines.

They say that the machines arent working, they say that theyre running out of paper in different locations throughout different states, Trump said. Theres a lot of bad things going on. Stay on line, do not leave.

Already, a lot of people have left and its very, very unfair whats going on. Maricopa County, dont leave. Stay there.

 Lillian Boyd

3:50 p.m.: Passing out pizza to student voters in Tempe

At Escalante Community Center in Tempe, voters were split on both the candidates and the priority issues. Several voters said abortion rights, the economy and water conservation were top of mind as they cast their ballots.

Brothers Thomas and Steven Womack said inflation and border security were the most important issues to them. They both voted for Kari Lake for governor.

I think she focuses on issues really well, said Steven Womack, 60.

Software engineer Saif Azharuddin said he was motivated to vote because not enough young people do.

I feel like most younger people are too online, and I dont want to be part of the problem, the 25-year-old said. Hes passionate about school funding, water conservation and lowering medical debt, and said he mostly voted for Democrats.

Arizona State University students line up to vote in the Nov. 8, 2022, general election.

Elsewhere in Tempe, students at Arizona State University waited around 40 minutes to cast their vote on Tuesday afternoon.

The line at the polling site, located in a gymnasium at the fitness center, moved slowly as it stretched around the building.

Jacob Eslick, a 22-year-old senior at ASU, said he did not encounter any issues in the voting process. He said he was motivated to vote by abortion rights, casting ballots for pro-choice candidates.

When it comes to actual rights to people, I think that everyone should have a right to choose. I feel abortion was like the main issue, so just wanted to make sure women have that right, he said.

Dozens of volunteers canvassing for candidates and propositions walked up and down the line to talk to voters, some even handing out pizza to people waiting in line.

 Juliette Rihl and Rafael Carranza

3:40 p.m.: Election denial group calls for protests

An election denial group is calling for dual rallies on Tuesday in Maricopa and Pima counties to protest voting machines.

The group, 2020 Is Nullified, issued a call on social media for supporters to gather at 8 p.m. outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix and at the Pima County Recorders Office in Tucson.

Stand in solidarity with fellow Americans to demand a hand count of ballots, the group said.

The group maintains voting machines are not legal and have not been certified.

Election officials say the tabulation machines are certified by state and federal inspectors, which is required under the law.

 Robert Anglen

3:30 p.m.: Flagstaff voters say ballots have impact in battleground Arizona

Voting across Flagstaff was proceeding smoothly on Tuesday.

Brad Dorman, 44, turned out to cast a ballot because, in competitive battleground states like Arizona, voters have an opportunity to make a clear difference, he said.

States tend to have gone in one direction or stayed in one direction to where you may feel like, Does it really count if I go in and vote? Dorman said. In a battleground state, thats where really the majority of the money is being poured.

While the midterms historically have a lower voter turnout than presidential election years, Damon pointed out that many of the issues represented on the 2022 ballot will have local effects.

I feel like its the local stuff and even state that has a more direct impact on voters lives, he said.

Jim Ellis has lived in Flagstaff for 56 years and cast his ballot at Flagstaff High School on Tuesday afternoon, just down the street from his home.

So many things are at stake, primarily our democracy, he said.

When you got people that are well-educated, and theyre denying that Biden is the president, you know somethings wrong, Ellis said.

 Lacey Latch

3:15 p.m.: Maricopa County identifies tabulator issue

Maricopa County has identified a solution to solve ongoing problems with tabulators at voting locations across the county, officials said.

The issues, which impacted about 60 polling places  30% of sites  were related to timing marks on ballots.

In Maricopa County, printers at polling sites produce ballots on demand so that voters can vote at any location in the county, rather than being assigned a polling place. The formatting marks on the ballots produced by some printers werent printing dark enough for the tabulators to read, officials said.

Technological support staff have already resolved the issue at 17 locations, according to county officials.

"I am very sorry for any voter who has been frustrated or inconvenienced today in Maricopa County," Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said in a statement. Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.

Richer said per state statute, the county recorder is generally responsible for voter registration and early voting, and the county board of supervisors for emergency voting, Election Day and tabulation.

Voters who are running into issues with tabulators can place their ballots in a secure ballot box labeled drawer 3 to be counted or can go to a different voting location. Most locations are unaffected by tabulator issues, according to the county. Locations are listed at locations.maricopa.vote.

 Sasha Hupka and Alison Steinbach

3 p.m.: Voters report smooth process in Tucson

Jessie Jensen and Eric Rahn stopped to vote at the Sam Lena Public Library polling center in south Tucson because it was on their way home.

Voting was really easy, Jensen said, adding that it was just nice to be able to vote anywhere.

Every vote is important. The world has gone crazy lately, Jensen said. Jensen usually votes with a mail-in ballot, but she didnt receive one this election, she said.

Rahn said womens rights were an important issue for him during this election.

A poll inspector at the site said other than printer jam issues, which are typical, things have been running smoothly.

Luz Acosta said the voting process was quick, with no lines or issues. She said she felt the process was secure and was turning out because of many issues.

Im a single mom, she said. Its all important.

 Sarah Lapidus

Luz Acosta cast her ballot in south Tucson in the Nov. 8, 2022, general election.

2:45 p.m.: Cybersecurity officials say still no threat to disrupt elections

Two senior U.S. cybersecurity officials said Tuesday afternoon that the Department of Homeland Security continues to see no specific or credible threat to disrupt election infrastructure or Election Day operations and that it remains vigilant to protect against foreign nation disinformation and malign influence operations.

The officials, both with DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA, noted that there have been a few isolated issues arising from within the 8,800 or so individual election jurisdictions in the U.S., including Maricopa County. But they described them as nothing out of the ordinary and said CISA was in close touch with elected officials in Maricopa County and elsewhere across the country in order to understand and respond to any Election Day problems if needed.

The officials, both speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing cybersecurity operations, referred questions about Maricopa County to local officials there, who have released statements and a video explaining how the voting machinery works.

One of the CISA officials specifically cautioned against some efforts to politicize what appears to be a fairly routine technical glitch, saying Maricopa County voters should have confidence in their systems because they are fully transparent and open to bipartisan observers. Also, one of the officials said, Arizona has a process that uses paper ballots for all votes, so there will be opportunities to verify  and audit  them if necessary.

 Josh Meyer, USA TODAY

2:30 p.m.: Kari Lake casts vote in person

Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake went to vote at Phoenixs downtown post office at noon on Tuesday with her husband, son and daughter.

Afterward, she spoke to a throng of local, national and international press, alleging problems with ballot tabulators in conservative areas, prompting her to vote in the heart of liberal Phoenix instead of in Paradise Valley as she had planned.

Maricopa County has not released a list of locations with issues, saying that about 20% of over 220 voting locations were impacted.

We have had problems after problems, Lake told reporters. And there's a reason we decided to change locations."

Kari Lake, candidate for Arizona Governor, exits a post office on First Avenue with her son and daughter after casting her vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in downtown Phoenix.

Lake has made election reforms a key part of her campaign platform, including false claims that Donald Trump won the state in 2020. She has refused to say if shed accept a loss, telling ABC News in October she would do so if the election was fair, honest and transparent.

This is incompetency," Lake said Tuesday standing next to GOP lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican National Committee member from California who has represented Trump. Lakes campaign brought on Dhillon last month.

"I hope it's not malice, but we're going to fix it, Lake said. We're going to win. And when we win there is going to be a come to Jesus for elections in Arizona.

As Lake cast her vote, Democratic nominee for governor Katie Hobbs wrapped up visits to several polling locations in Tempe and Phoenix. Hobbs voted early on Nov. 1.

 Stacey Barchenger

2:15 p.m. Voting machine issues also reported in New Jersey

Like Maricopa County, there were reports of issues with voting machines in Mercer County, New Jersey.

Poll workers in Mercer County discovered an issue with the voting machine scanners soon after polls opened, said Nathaniel Walker, superintendent of elections.

"Every ballot that has been cast will be counted, no voter will be disenfranchised, and the integrity of the election is intact and secure," Walker said.

Voters are to fill out paper ballots as they normally would, Walker said.

"A contingency plan is in place for all ballots cast at all locations to be scanned at the secure Board of Elections office," Walker said. "Again, ballots will be scanned just as they would at the polling location."

The county said in a Facebook post that the board of elections "is working with Dominion, the machine maker, to resolve the issue."

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin tweeted, "Attention all Mercer County voters  paper ballots are available in your precinct, and all polling locations are open. Rest assured: paper ballots are safe and secure, and your vote will be counted."

The issues were likely to delay vote counts in the 3rd and 12th Congressional District races, as well as local races.

 Liam Quinn

1:55 p.m.: Some Maricopa County polling locations reporting long lines

Some Maricopa County polling locations were reporting wait times of more than 30 minutes as of early afternoon on Tuesday. Keep in mind that wait times are fluid and can change frequently throughout the day.

As of 1:45 p.m., the Outlets at Anthem had the longest wait time among county polling locations at 64 minutes followed by Mesa Community College at Red Mountain at 56 minutes. Asante Library in Surprise reported a 56-minute wait time.

Earlier this week, Maricopa County officials said the busiest time at the polls is generally from 5 to 7 p.m.

You can check wait times on the county's website: https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/where-to-vote.html.

 Anne Ryman

Voters wait 2 hours in line to cast their vote at Mesa Community College Red Mountain Campus on Nov. 8, 2022.

1:40 p.m. Political activist criticizes Maricopa County over machine glitches

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, the influential Phoenix-based nonprofit aimed at engaging young conservatives, sent a Tweet to his 1.8 million followers calling for arrests related to election issues in Arizonas most populous county.

People need to be arrested for what is happening in Maricopa County, Kirk wrote at about 12:15 p.m. on Election Day. Its criminal.

Although the Tweet wasnt specific about why Kirk thought arrests were warranted, it came amid a stream of Tweets about lines and machine glitches throughout metro Phoenix.

Kirk urged Republicans to vote in person, saying he did not trust the early voting mechanisms. He said that he expected the number of in-person voters to be so immense they will not be able to do what they normally do, the kind of nonsense shenanigans.

 Richard Ruelas

1:30 p.m.: Cochise County may appeal ruling on hand count

A day after a judge shot down an attempt to hand count every Cochise County ballot in Tuesday's election, officials signaled they want to appeal.

The board of supervisors called an emergency meeting for Wednesday to consider hiring outside counsel Bryan Blehm to represent not only the three-person board, but also the county recorder and the elections director.

Supervisor Peggy Judd said she was hoping to get support for an appeal, arguing, along with supervisor Tom Crosby, that their hand count plan was legal. A Pima County judge late Monday ruled it was not.

Judd, a Republican, blamed the ruling on political bias.

Pima County is our most liberal county in Arizona, she said in an email to The Arizona Republic. It was in our judges DNA to side with the plaintiff.

 Mary Jo Pitzl

1:15 p.m.: On Tohono Oodham Nation, employees distribute shirts, more

In Sells, employees of the Tohono Oodham Nations Sells District Administration Office distributed T-shirts, water bottles, clip boards, storage containers and first aid kits to tribal members who voted Tuesday.

The employees set up a large white tent in the office parking lot.

Sells District Chairman Juan Buendia, 36, said the giveaways are a way to encourage voter participation among tribal members. Voter turnout was steady.

The text on the gray T-shirts said, Our Voice  Our Vote, Since 1948.

Sells is the Tohono Oodham nations capital. It is one of the nations 11 political districts and is the most populous on the reservation, which stretches across south-central Arizona and borders Mexico.

 Noel Lyn Smith, reporting supported by the Pulitzer Center

Carline Lopez, an employee with Komckud E-waosidk Ceksan/Sells District Administration Office, gives T-shirts to voters who cast their ballots at the district office in Sells on Nov. 8.

1 p.m.: Yavapai County responds to social media messages about voting

Yavapai County Interim Recorder Michelle M. Burchill responded to what she said was a rapid spread of misinformation online.

She said Tuesday afternoon that there were no issues with printers or voting machines. On Tuesday morning, she said a printer at a Chino Valley polling location was not working correctly, but the issue was solved in 30 minutes.

That didnt stop social media messages saying that there were broken machines, bad printers, and people waiting hours with lines of over 200 people.

That wasnt the case, Burchill said, explaining that lines have been running smoothly  albeit slowly  all morning.

She asked that people remain calm and stay in line, and not get heated over waiting times: They wanted to come out and vote in person today rather than take advantage of other opportunities. Just  please cut us a little slack.

Deputy County Recorder Karen McCracken said earlier Tuesday that ballots will be dropped off at the recorder's office by 8 p.m., but not to expect any initial results until late in the evening, likely after midnight.

 Joseph Darius Jaafari

12:45 p.m.: Voter reports being juggled between sites to cast ballot

At Madison Baptist Church in central Phoenix, Carol Harder said a tabulator wouldnt count her ballot. They tried some 20 times before issuing her another ballot, which also couldnt be counted, she said.

She was told to go to another location since this site couldnt issue her a third ballot. At the next polling location, she was told the system showed she had counted. She returned to Madison Baptist Church where her only option was to file a provisional ballot.

Now I have to trust that part of the system.  I totally have no faith in this, she said walking away.

Maricopa County has reported technical issues with ballot tabulators at some 40 voting locations. Under typical circumstances, county voters fill out paper ballots and then insert their ballots into on-site tabulators. The tabulators count the votes and save both the ballots and the results.

 Taylor Seely

Voters wait in line outside a polling station on Nov. 8, 2022, in Tempe, Ariz.

Noon: More frustration at the ballot box in Maricopa County

At Desert Christian Fellowship Church in central Phoenix, many voters were frustrated with tabulators at the site not taking their ballots.

"I watched about 12 people insert their ballots into the tabulator and it not take their scans," Missy Art said. "The workers are instructing them to insert them into the box that is so full they need to be shook to receive more ballots."

Other voters have decided to try and spoil their ballot and vote at another site. But some have had issues with the spoil process as well.

Voters who experienced issues with the tabulators at the Desert Christian Fellowship Church location decided to try again at the Beatitudes Campus, a retirement community.

"We have two ballots floating," Bill Mason said. "We went over the Beatitudes  they're still showing we voted over here. We can't vote now."

Maricopa County officials reported problems with ballot tabulators at 20% of voting centers on Tuesday morning. At polling sites, Maricopa County voters fill out paper ballots and then insert their ballots into on-site tabulators. The tabulators count the votes and save both the ballots and the results.

 Brenda Munoz Murguia

11 a.m.: Voters frustrated with Maricopa County voting

Sandra Tufel, a Queen Creek resident, went to cast her ballot at the Queen Creek Library at around 7 a.m. Tuesday but said the tabulator would not scan her ballot.

She said she was given a choice of waiting or putting her ballot in a drop box for later scanning.

Im going to have to trust the system and trust my ballot will be counted.  It was a frustrating experience, Tufel said.

But I feel so sorry for the poll workers. No one was aggressive but people werent happy and (poll workers) have to answer to everyone.

Maricopa County officials reported problems with ballot tabulators at 20% of voting centers on Tuesday morning. At polling sites, Maricopa County voters fill out paper ballots and then insert their ballots into on-site tabulators. The tabulators count the votes and save both the ballots and the results.

 Lillian Boyd

10:30 a.m.: Techs trying to determine why tabulators not working

Maricopa County officials said technicians were trying to determine why ballot tabulators at about 20% of voting locations  about 40 of 223 voting centers  are experiencing problems.

"We have techs out there. Were doing what we can to get them back online," said Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates during an impromptu news conference Tuesday morning.

Gates said the issues were not centered in one particular geographical area but were "dispersed" throughout the state's most populous county.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said the county has not experienced this particular issue with tabulators in previous elections.

County officials are advising voters to place their ballots in a secure drop box called "Door No. 3" at the polling site if the tabulator is not working. Those ballots will remain secure and will be taken when voting ends after 7 p.m. and delivered by a bipartisan team to the county's election tabulation center.

Richer said this is similar to the process used by other Arizona counties.

"Everyone is still getting to vote," Gates said. "Nobody is being disenfranchised, and weve got redundancies in place."

At polling sites, Maricopa County voters fill out paper ballots and then insert their ballots into on-site tabulators. The tabulators count the votes and save both the ballots and the results.

 Anne Ryman

9:30 a.m. Voters report problems with tabulators

Maricopa County officials say 20% of voting locations are experiencing issues with the tabulators.

At the Mountain Park Health Center Baseline Clinic in south Phoenix, some voters leaving the polling place around 7 a.m. said the tabulators were not scanning some ballots.

One voter said he showed up at 6 a.m. and stayed for over an hour until his ballot finally scanned.

Some voters leaving the polling place said they dropped off their ballot in a box at the site. That's what Jimmy R. Smith did when his ballot didn't scan.

I was informed that some of the votes arent being taken, and that you can go ahead and vote, and if it doesnt, you can put it in a box and theyre going to come back and tabulate it later, he said. But you also have people sitting around, waiting, because they want to make sure that their vote is tabulated.

Others chose not to leave their ballot in the ballot box.

Josh Erb said he plans to come back to the same site later this afternoon once he gets off work.

He also chose not to attempt to use the tabulators once he heard they were having problems. They said that we can slide it in the machine, but I dont want to risk it. If its not working, Im not going to place my vote, Erb said.

 Madeleine Parrish

Voters wait in line on Nov. 8, 2022, at the Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix.

9 a.m.: Maricopa County now says 20% voting locations having issues

Maricopa County Elections officials say 20% of the county's voting locations are experiencing issues as of Tuesday morning. This is greater than the earlier 10% estimate the county gave.

"Were doing what we can to get these back online. Its not like both of the tabulators are having these issues. It may only be one (at a location)," Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday morning during an impromptu news conference.

Maricopa County has 223 voting centers.

County officials advised voters that if a tabulator is not working at a site, they can still vote. They have the option of casting their ballot and placing it into a secure ballot box. Those boxes will then be taken to the county's election center for tabulation.

At polling sites, Maricopa County voters fill out paper ballots and then insert their ballots into on-site tabulators. The tabulators count the votes and save both the ballots and the results. Once voting ends, a bipartisan team of poll workers transports the ballots to the county's election headquarters and ballot receiving sites so that they can be securely stored.

 Anne Ryman

8:30 a.m.: Maricopa County experiencing issues at 10% of locations

As Maricopa County experienced issues at roughly 10% of voting locations Tuesday morning, officials sought to assure voters that they can still cast ballots.

Voters at impacted sites have two options: to cast their ballot via a secure box to be counted later or to go vote at a different location. Elections Department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson said poll workers are best equipped to help voters ensure their ballot is successfully cast.

Its important for voters to talk to the poll workers on site, Gilbertson said.

Officials confirmed the issues were with the on-site tabulators.

As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, nearly 30,000 Maricopa County voters had cast a ballot, Gilbertson said.

 Sasha Hupka

Voters are greeted as they arrive on Nov. 8, 2022, at the Tempe History Museum.

8 a.m.: Pinal County reports no problems at polling sites

Months after a disastrous primary election, Pinal County polling sites opened without a hitch on Election Day.

County spokesperson James Daniels said officials received just nine calls within the first few hours of voting, compared with hundreds each hour in August, when the county ran out of ballots at one-quarter of its voting locations.

All of Tuesdays calls were related to general requests for voter information, such as polling locations, Daniels said.

They are just voter-type questions, which is what the contact center should be for, he said.

 Sasha Hupka

Election guide: November 2022

7:20 a.m.: Rural voting site reports steady stream of voters

At the voting site north of Prescott in Williamson Valley, a fire and medical building was already bustling by 6 a.m. as a line formed outside.

Outside the 75-foot perimeter, where campaigners and activists can stand, a large red tent was propped up with signs supporting Senate candidate Blake Masters, while others stood outside holding signs to raise money for a proposition to raise firemens budgets.

By 6:30, poll workers were tending to about 20 people  which, for this area, is a lot, said Dawn Casey, the inspector at the poll site. Ive been here when 10 people show up, adding that this years election feels different.

This is a very rural area, lots of cowboys and farmers, she said. But were seeing a good turnout so far.

 Joseph Darius Jaafari

7 a.m.: Burton Barr Library tabulator machine back online

Maricopa County officials said Burton Barr Library is only doing drop-off ballots as of 6 a.m. after there were issues with a ballot tabulator machine. The issue was fixed as of 7:30 a.m. County officials said the password was entered too many times, triggering built-in security measures that locked the machine. County officials said the issue was being addressed.

In the meantime, voters have three options: Drop off ballots, wait for the tabulator to come online or go to another location nearby. Find locations at http://Locations.Maricopa.vote.

 Anne Ryman

6 a.m.: Where to cast a ballot on Tuesday

Maricopa County will have 223 voting centers open Tuesday, and registered voters can cast a ballot at any of those locations. Find a list of voting locations at https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/where-to-vote.html. Wait times will be displayed on the website.

Elections officials in the state's most populous county said lines at the polls are anticipated, with the most voter activity expected between 5 and 7 p.m.

Maricopa County officials estimate that about 250,000 to 350,000 people will vote in person in the county on Election Day,

 Anne Ryman

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Election Day recap: Voting updates across the state
Senate Impeachment Trial Of President Trump Continues - Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Virginia Giuffre, who has spent more than a decade pursuing legal action against the late Jeffrey Epstein and his associates for sexually trafficking her as a minor, today, Nov. 8, settled a federal defamation suit against the lawyer Alan Dershowitz. In a joint statement, the two announced that they have dismissed with prejudice all pending litigation, with no payment on either side. A court filing obtained by Rolling Stone confirmed that all parties also waived the right to appeal.

Since 2014, Giuffre had maintained that Epstein trafficked her to Dershowitz for sex at least six times, beginning when she was just 16 years old. Now she says she may have made a mistake in identifying him as one of her abusers. I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment, she wrote in her statement, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations. She added that the suit  and Dershowitzs countersuit  had been burdensome for her family, and we believe it is time to bring it to an end and move on with our lives.

More from Rolling Stone

Dershowitz, for his part, said that Giuffre was to be commended for admitting her possible error. He is also expected to drop a separate defamation suit against her former lawyer, David Boies, whom he had successfully motioned to have removed from the case in 2019.

HERE'S HOW IT ENDS: In Virginia Giuffre Case Against Alan Dershowitz Dismissal Sought and 3 Agreed Statements Issued  Inner City Press story: https://t.co/okRt2y7bpV Patreon with all 3 full statements and filing https://t.co/3PQyJ3Vs48 pic.twitter.com/wnkavmk8W3  Inner City Press (@innercitypress) November 8, 2022

Dershowitz  who, aside from being friends with Epstein, served on his legal defense team when the financier was charged with procuring a minor for prostitution, and later helped negotiate the infamous sweetheart plea deal that prevented the FBI from further investigating his trafficking ring  also celebrated with a livestream of his series The Dershow on the right-wing video website Rumble. In the 30-minute recording, he criticized what he called the #MeToo at any cost movement, saying he would like to start his own movement called #MeToo, Ive been falsely accused.

Story continues

Look, dont have any sympathy for me, he continued, Im gonna live through this. Im not going to jail, no prosecutor ever even implied that I was guilty of anything. Its just that one person who said  and now she says shes not sure, and she recognizes she may have made a mistake. So dont have sympathy for me, have sympathy for person whos serving a prison term, based on somebody who might not have been sure, but who expressed certainty on the witness stand, and was believed. Thats the real victim of our system of injustice now, particularly when it comes to women accusing men.

BIG NEWS! Virginia Giuffre now recognizes she may have erred in accusing me. Watch the Dershow live on IN 10 MINUTES Rumble @ 5:30est to hear it from the horses mouth. Leave comments and questions in the chat.This is exciting. https://t.co/J5sbbRwVqq  Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) November 8, 2022

Giuffres suit against Dershowitz stemmed from a 2014 court filing she made in a challenge brought by two other Epstein victims against the non-prosecution agreement that had, unbeknownst to survivors, shielded the sex offender from a federal probe since 2007. In that document, Giuffre described Epstein lending her to Dershowitz for sex. When that claim resurfaced in a 2018 series of Miami Herald articles exposing Epsteins legal maneuverings, Dershowitz accused her of perjury and attempted extortion. In response, she sued him for defamation in 2019.

Earlier this year, Giuffre settled her suit against disgraced British royal Prince Andrew, another Epstein pal shed accused of raping her when she was underage. That resolution involved a donation of 12 million ($16 million) to Giuffres sex trafficking survivor charity, Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR). The sum was to be paid in part by Andrews mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

One remaining legal battle for Giuffre is a defamation suit filed in 2021 by a fellow Epstein accuser, Rina Oh. The suit references tweets made by Giuffre in October 2020 that allege Oh was Epsteins girlfriend and co-conspirator, not a victim, and recruited young women into his trafficking ring. Giuffres counterclaim holds that Oh slashed her leg during a sadomasochistic act performed for Epsteins pleasure, while Oh maintains that it was Giuffre and Epstein who together sexually assaulted her.

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Click here to read the full article.
The polls closed and supervisor of elections offices released results Tuesday evening.

TCPalm updated this story as winners were announced.

FLORIDA ELECTION RESULTS 2022: CLICK HERE to see results from local and statewide races

See timestamp updates below the graphic.

11 p.m. | St. Lucie County Commission turns red; Republicans Jamie Fowler, Larry Leet elected

Two new faces, both political newcomers, will be joining the County Commission, one taking over the reins of retiring commissioner Frannie Hutchinson while the other upset Democrat incumbent Sean Mitchell, who was seeking a second term.

Republicans Jamie Fowler and Larry Leet won the the District 4 and 2 races, respectively, Tuesday.

Jamie Fowler, St. Lucie County Commission District 4 candidate, gives her victory speech to her supporters while celebrates with friends and family at 12A Buoy a Fisherman's Wharf on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 in Fort Pierce. "I feel as though we put in the work, and I'm super excited, and honestly I am ready to get to work on the 22nd," Fowler said. "I want to work on increasing accountability and transparency to our voters, with our county commission."

10:25 p.m. | Voters reject two Vero Beach incumbents; Carroll, Moore, Zudans elected

Voters rejected City Council incumbents Bob McCabe and Honey Minuse from a crowded ballot Tuesday, choosing John Carroll, Linda Moore and Tracey Zudans to serve in the next term.

It was a close race among most of the eight candidates. The top five came within 400 votes of one another.

Linda Moore laughs with bar guests at her restaurant the Kilted Mermaid as election results come in Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Vero Beach. I am honored by the faith of the City of Vero Beach, Moore said. I will do my very best to guide the city in a direction that is good for everyone.

10:10 p.m. | Trabulsy reelected to second term representing St. Lucie County in Florida House

Florida Rep. Dana Trabulsy won a second term representing District 84 in the Florida House Tuesday, beating Forest Blanton in the Nov. 8 election.

Trabulsy, a Fort Pierce Republican, will be sworn in Jan. 3 for a two-year term that pays $29,697 a year to represent St. Lucie County.

10:03 p.m. | Toby Overdorf beats Chris Tucker for Florida House District 85 seat

Florida House Rep. Toby Overdorf was reelected to a third term Tuesday, beating Chris Tucker for the District 85 seat.

In Martin County, Overdorf won 71.3% of the votes. In St. Lucie County, he won 56.69% of the votes, with all but one precinct reporting by 10 p.m. Tuesday.

10 p.m. | Growth by annexation appears top concern in Sebastian voters' choices for City Council

The possibility that Sebastian could grow by 20% through annexation seemed primary in voters minds as they headed to the polls Tuesday, with incumbent Ed Dodd and newcomer Kelly Dixon elected to the City Council.

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Dodd, 75, and Dixon, 39, led the field of seven for the two open seats on the council, collecting the most votes in a race that included former Councilman Damien Gilliams, who was removed from office two years ago after a recall election.

9:57 p.m. | Indian River County voters OK tax increase to purchase, protect sensitive environmental land

The county will borrow $50 million to purchase and preserve environmentally sensitive land, voters decided Tuesday. The loan will be repaid by a property-tax increase.

The ballot issue, initiated by the Indian River Land Trust, asked the county to purchase lands west of Blue Cypress Lake, Interstate 95 and along the Indian River Lagoon. For the owner of a $250,000 home, the tax hike will be about $44 a year for 20 years.

9:40 p.m. | Brackett's win shows continued GOP strength in Indian River County

Robbie Brackett's win Tuesday night continues the local Republican party's dominance in Indian River County for sending politicians to Tallahassee.

Whether it was fundraising, the issues or the prominence of the GOP nominee, Democrats couldn't break the hold for the state House District 34 race.

Brackett, outgoing mayor of Vero Beach, defeated Democrat Karen Greb winning 68.22% of the vote to her 31.78%.

9:35 p.m. | Fraudulent ballot found in St. Lucie County

The St. Lucie County canvassing board came across at least one possible fraudulent ballot on Tuesday night during the general election.

St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker said her office was informed about people printing ballots and bringing them into polling locations.

Her office was contacted by one of the Port St. Lucie precincts about people bringing in ballots in their hands into the polling place, and the poll workers are required to take the ballots.

8:53 p.m. | U.S. Rep. Mast wins reelection

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast won a fourth term representing House District 21, in the Nov. 8 election against Corinna Balderramos Robinson.

Mast, 42, a Fort Pierce Republican, will be sworn in Jan. 3 for a two-year term that pays $174,000 a year to represent Martin, St. Lucie and parts of Palm Beach counties in Congress.

8:30 p.m. | Vero Beach voters approve Three Corners plan, what's next?

The long-discussed Three Corners project will move forward with commercial development, voters decided Tuesday.

The 38-acre site of the city's former power plant, at Indian River Drive and 17th Street, has for years been considered for development. The City Council approved a master plan in February.

8:27 p.m. | Martin County has "busy day" at the polls

Vicki Davis, Martin County Supervisor of Elections, said voters flocked to the polls on Election Day.

Today was a really busy day with our voters getting out and voting in person, in spite of the storm. And it was a smooth day but a very, very busy day at our precincts," Davis said. "Total voter turnout was 65.4%, which was a few percentages short of 2018, but it was still a great turnout. Everything was smooth sailing.

Unofficial vote results on Tuesday show 77,873 ballots were cast in the general election in Martin County. There are 119,066 registered voters in the county. About 26,551 voters cast ballots on Tuesday, another 24,943 voted during early voting period and 26,388 voters used vote-by-mail, election records show.

8:17 p.m. | Snyder reelected to House District 86

Running on his first-term record and sitting on a pile of campaign cash, GOP state Rep. John Snyder easily won reelection to his House District 86 seat in Tuesdays general election, unofficial election results show.

Once again Snyder, 35, a Palm City Marine Corps veteran and son of Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, proved voters want to keep the redrawn House District 86 in his conservative Republican hands over his Democratic challenger Ray Denzel, who was trounced by a significant margin.

8:06 p.m. | Jackie Rosario wins Indian River County School Board seat

School Board District 2 incumbent Jackie Rosario retained her seat Tuesday, thanks in part to heavy endorsements from conservative groups and Republican leaders.

Rosario defeated challenger Cindy Gibbs, a former teacher within the school district, in runoff to win her second term.

8:05 p.m. | Broderick wins Fort Pierce commission seat

Michael Broderick beat James Clasby in a runoff election for the District 2 seat on the Fort Pierce City Commission. With early voting and results from all 8 precincts reporting, Broderick had about 58% of the vote, to Clasby's 42%.

Broderick, who was endorsed by his predecessor in office, Thomas Perona, had 3,827 votes, compared to Clasby's 2,820, according to the St. Lucie County Elections Office.

Broderick and Clasby were the two highest vote-getters in a three-way race in August, but neither won a majority in that election, forcing Tuesday's runoff.

7:47 p.m. | Judge throws out Vero Beach marina expansion referendum

A judge Tuesday night blocked release of the votes on an issue that would have limited expansions on city marina and park properties.

Minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m., Circuit Court Judge Laurie Buchanan released her decision, throwing out a referendum placed on the ballot by the Vero Beach Preservation Alliance.

7:40 p.m. | U.S. Rep. Mast's lead soars

In the race for the District 21 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbent Republican Brian Mast jumped out to a commanding early lead over Democratic challenger Corinna Balderramos Robinson in St. Lucie and Martin counties.

In St. Lucie County, Mast had more than 58% of the vote with early vote totals and 18 of 60 precincts reporting. In Martin County, Mast had a 2-to-1 lead in early voting.

7:36 p.m. | Indian River County overview

Republican-backed candidates running in nonpartisan races were faring well as Indian River County announced its initial election results based on early and mail-in voting.

With Gov. Ron DeSantis recommendation, School Board, District 2 incumbent Jackie Rosario had almost 52% of the vote against challenger Cynthia Gibbs, and Paul Westcott, running for Indian River County Hospital District, was trouncing incumbent Allen Jones, the boards treasurer, 57% to 43%.

Republicans seemed poised to do even better as Election Day votes came in because GOP registrants outvoted Democrats more than three to one on election day.

Early results showed Vero Beach voters might not have been pleased with decisions by city council incumbents Bob McCabe and Honey Minuse to expand the city marina dry storage facility. While voters sought to give themselves more control over development of the marina and other parks, McCabe and Minuse sat in fourth and fifth place early in a race to elect three council members. Linda Moore, John Carroll and Tracey Zudans led the way early.

 Lauren Reisman

7:30 p.m. | State reps Overdorf and Snyder take lead

In Martin County, incumbent Republican state Reps. Toby Overdorf and John Snyder had comfortable leads over their Democratic challengers after the early voting totals were released.

7:26 p.m. | Initial St. Lucie County takeaways

Historically, St. Lucie County has been sort of an oasis for Democratic voters on the Treasure Coast, but early returns suggest that might not be the case this year.

With only the early voting totals reported, the two Republicans running for seats on the St. Lucie County Commission had leads over their Democratic challengers.

Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Mast was leading his Democratic challenger in St. Lucie County - and Republicans were leading all the state races there, too.

All five amendments proposed for the Port St. Lucie charter appeared headed for approval, based on the early voting totals, including one which would eliminate roll call votes for the City Council.

 Blake Fontenay

7 p.m. | Polls close

The final voters have left polling locations. See real-time totals as they are released.

3:45 p.m. | 'Going gangbusters'

Indian River County Supervisor of Elections Leslie Swan said, so far, no issues have been reported at any precinct and the longest average wait time reported was roughly 15 minutes.

Its going gangbusters, said Swan, referencing a high number of in-person voters.

The approaching tropical storm, she said, is a potential cause for concern regarding the certification of the vote totals especially for provisional ballots, which can be certified 48 hours after Election Day.

She said the office was seeking guidance from the state since the storm has already led to the closure of several county offices.

3:05 p.m. | 59 percent

Vicki Davis, supervisor of elections in Martin County, said some lines were experienced at polling places, especially early in the morning, but said 10 to 15 minutes was about the longest wait.

So far, she said, there had been 19,180 votes cast Tuesday, and that things had been going smoothly, given the turnout.

She said there was about 59 percent turnout for this election, including early voting.

In 2018, we had 68 percent, Davis said. Hopefully, we'll keep getting closer to that level.

Gertrude Walker, supervisor of elections in St. Lucie County could not be reached.

2:20 p.m. | Long line, long wait

About 50 people waited outside the St. Lucie County Precinct 71 polling place at Crosstown Fellowship Church in the 1800 block of Southwest Del Rio Boulevard in Port St. Lucie.

The parking lot was jammed and vehicles spilled out onto nearby roadways.

Nicole McAllister, who had 7-month-old Evelynn strapped to her torso in a baby carrier, said she waited about 90 minutes to vote.

She said there were many people, and things moved slow. Still, she said everyone in line was nice.

At the same location, Christy Agard reported waiting about 75 minutes to vote -- the longest shes ever waited to cast a ballot.

There were no problems with the machines, but she thought more staff were needed.

There's just so many people here now, she said. This was a long line.

She thought a larger space was needed.

Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker couldn't be reached Tuesday morning or afternoon.

12:45 p.m. | Authorities say no issues reported at IRC polls

Law enforcement officials and spokespersons for Fellsmere, Sebastian, Vero Beach police departments and Indian River County Sheriff's Office said, so far, there were no reports of issues requiring police or deputies at any polling place throughout Indian River County.

11 a.m. | Steady traffic at 58th Ave. IRC church polling place

From roughly 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. there was a regular exchange of vehicles along with people entering and exiting the precinct 25 polling place at Freedom Church, at 455 58th Avenue SW west of Vero Beach.

10:30 a.m. | Very brisk turnout in Martin County

Vicki Davis, supervisor of elections in Martin County, said there is a very brisk turnout with 9,634 votes cast countywide in Martin as of 10:30 a.m.

All the polls opened on time and immediately started processing voters, Davis said. By the first hour of the morning, over 3,000 votes had been cast.

Davis said they were prepared for a significant turnout.

Our voters are, in spite of the weather and the weather reports, turning out to cast their votes, she said.

Theres been a steady line of voters all day waiting to cast their ballot at Precinct 6 in Stuart at the Covenant Fellowship Baptist Church, 2880 SE Aster Lane. There was a crowd of people waiting to vote Nov. 8, 2022, when polls opened at 7 a.m., election officials said.

9:45 a.m. | Indian River County IG Center busy

Dozens of voters filtered in and out of one of the main polling places in Southwest Indian River County from roughly 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Rows of parking were nearly filled outside the Intergenerational (IG) Recreation Center at 1590 9th Street Southwest and there was a steady exchange of vehicles as voters entered and exited the polling place.

Most voters who spoke with TCPalm said they wanted to cast a ballot in-person with a special interest for the governor's race.

Dan Zaharia, 73, was among those aiming to cast a vote for governor but also for state Supreme Court justice seats.

Dozens of people were entering and exiting the Intergenerational Recreation Center polling place off 9th Street SW in southwest Indian River County between roughly 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Tuesday Nov. 8, 2022.

"(It's) very important for me," said Zaharia. "I don't want to have too many changes in the American way."

John Whittaker, 50, said he was a self-employed veteran with a family of five and voted "straight-lined" for Republicans and stated his support of incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"I didn't realize how important the governor was (until) the past few years," said Whittaker.

Along with Whittaker, local real estate agent Ralph Wnuk, 54, said "I came out to support DeSantis" and voted "across the board" Republican.

Heather Jordan, 51, said she chose to vote at a polling place despite the approaching tropical storm saying it was "exciting."

"I'm always an in-person voter," said Jordan, who also cited support of DeSantis.

9:45 a.m. | Woman's Club of Stuart parking lot packed

Sherry Piasecki, of Stuart, cast her ballot at the Womans Club of Stuart polling place where the parking lot was jammed about 9:45 a.m.

She said time constraints influenced her decision to cast her ballot on election day.

I've been out of town until yesterday (Monday)  and then I wanted to get a sample ballot and read everything over before I walked in and make sure I understand who's who and what's what, Piasecki said.

Sherry Piasecki voted Nov. 8, 2022, in Stuart at the Woman's Club of Stuart.

Piasecki said it wasnt crowded inside and the voting process was efficient. The most important issues on the ballot for her were the governor and representatives.

I want to make sure Gov. DeSantis stays in office, she said. He's doing a great job.

She said the impending Subtropical Storm Nicole didnt deter her, and that she cast votes for DeSantis and U.S. Congressman Brian Mast.

A line of voters is seen waiting to vote along with voters exiting after casting their ballots at Precinct 47, the Windmill Point clubhouse, 490 SW Kentwood Road, within the first hour after the polls opened on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Port St. Lucie.

7 a.m. | Polls are open. What to know if you're voting in St. Lucie, Indian River or Martin County

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will remain open till 7 p.m. See polling locations in Florida.

Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be permitted to cast a ballot.

Voters can vote at their assigned polling location. A full list is available on county websites:

Support local journalism by subscribing to Treasure Coast Newspapers.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Election Day 2022 in Florida: Live updates from Treasure Coast voting
It's Election Day in Florida. Voters across the Sunshine State headed to the polls to cast ballots in local, statewide and federal races in the 2022 midterm elections.

In the governor's race, Gov. Ron DeSantis won against Democratic challenger and former governor Charlie Crist. In a key U.S. Senate race, Sen. Marco Rubio won against Val Demings.

Various local races in Lee County were also on the ballot. Learn more about them here.

Fisher, Jordan and Langford-Fleming leading for seats on Lee County school board

With results still rolling in, Sam Fisher, Debbie Jordan and Jada Langford-Fleming are in the lead to become members of the Lee County School Board.

As of 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, Fanny was in the lead with over 50% of the vote, while Jordan lead with nearly 56% of the vote and Langford-Fleming had received over 52% of the vote.

Results were still being tabulated.

Four of the seven school board seats in Lee County were up for grabs this year, with Armor Persons beating out incumbent Gwynetta Gittens in the primary election for the District 5 seat.

District 6 was the only at-large race, which meant that anyone in the county could vote for the winner.

Lee County School Board members make $40,500 a year and serve staggered four-year terms and oversee more than 90,000 students.

Gunter leading in Cape mayor's race

Mayor John Gunter is leading against challenger Tom Shadrach in the race for Cape Coral mayor as of nearly 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Gunter had 21,525 votes, or 62.2 percent, compared to 13,099 votes, or 37.8 percent, for Shadrach.

Results in hard-hit Fort Myers Beach still coming in, Woodson leads

With about a third of reported votes so far Tuesday night, political newcomer Karen Woodson appeared on her way to claim one of two spots on the five-member Fort Myers Beach Town Council.

Incumbent Mayor Ray Murphy and John R. King, also in his first local election, were separated by a few ballots for the other slot, well ahead of a fourth candidate, Patrick J. Romcoe, for a four-year term. Murphy led King by 51 votes in early results by 7:30 p.m., then 40 votes shortly after 8:30 p.m. before falling behind by 3 votes as of 9 p.m. and then 73 votes by 9:45 p.m.

Story continues

The focus of the four in the non-partisan race: Leading Estero Island out of a cataclysmic chapter in its history after the one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the United States in September.

Voters still in line after 9 p.m. on election night

Voters were still in line at two voting sites Tuesday after 9 p.m., while voting was wrapping up at the other 10 voting sites.

Shortly after 9 pm., Vicki Collins, communications director for the Lee County Supervisor of Elections, said that there were lines still at the Estero Recreation Center and the Northwest Reginal Library in Cape Coral.

Anybody who was in line at by the scheduled 7 p.m. poll closing was allowed to vote.

Collins did not know how many people were in line at the various polling place.

Lee opened just 12 polling places rather than the normal 90-plus precincts because of damage and lack of poll workers due to Hurricane Ian.

Watkins Brown, Watson hold leads

City council members Teresa Watkins Brown and Terolyn Watson held leads in their campaigns for reelection to the Fort Myers City Council, holding strong leads as of 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in their bids for a new term.

Watkins Brown had a seemingly insurmountable lead over Martin Byrd, taking 70% of the vote to just under 30% for Byrd.

In her race against Chantel Rhodes, Watson had received more than 56% of the votes.

Incumbent easily defeats challenger for the Senate 27 seat

Incumbent Sen. Ben Albritton (R) easily defeated challenger Christopher Proia for the Senate 27 seat, which includes much of Lee County.

Albritton held the Senate 26 seat but ran for the 27th district as voting districts changed.

Albritton received 101,381 votes. Proia received 42,000 votes in Collier.

Nelson, Long, Steinke leading in Cape Coral council races

Cape Coral council members Jennifer Nelson and Keith Long are leading in the polls, while Bill Steinke is leading to win the empty District 1 seat, as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Steinke has 11,731 votes, or 53.87 percent, compared to 10,045 votes, or 46.13 percent, for Carol Rae Culliton.

Nelson has 11,521 votes, or 54.92 percent, compared to 9,457 votes, or 45.08 percent, for Patty Cummings.

Long has 11,360 votes, or 56.28 percent, compared to 8,826 votes, or 43.72 percent, for Wayne Hecht.

Anderson wins reelection as Fort Myers mayor

Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson has won his first full term in office as he defeated David Ruffin, a community activist who based his campaign on issues that involve the city's working people.

At 9 p.m., Anderson had 14,253 votes, or 80% of those that had been counted. Ruffin had 3,554 votes, or just under 20%.

[8:57 p.m.] Person wins second term to state House District 78

Republican incumbent Jenna Persons-Mulicka handily won a second term to the state House District 78 seat against Democratic challenger Howard Sapp.

Persons-Mulicka took 58.4% of the vote, with 21,416 ballots cast in her favor. Sapp garnered 41.5% of the vote with 15,209 ballots.v

Martin wins Florida Senate District 33 with 94 percent of vote

Republican Jonathan Martin will represent the Florida Senate District 33 for the next four years after he defeated write-in candidate Robert Valenta at the polls.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Martin, of Fort Myers, took 94.15% of the vote.

Republican incumbent wins U.S. House District 26 seat

Republican incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, retains U.S. House District 26 seat, securing 11th term in office.

He handily defeated Democratic challenger Christine Olivo in Tuesday's race for the 26th Congressional District, securing an 11th term in office. With 90 percent of the votes counted, Diaz-Balart had 71 percent.

Naples Republican Donalds easily wins congressional seat

Naples Republican Congressman Byron Donalds is now a sophomore, easily defending his District 19 seat against two-time Democratic challenger Cindy Banyai of Fort Myers to win a second term.

Donalds, 44, received 64% of the reported votes, compared to 36% votes for Banyai, 42.

Incumbents run away with campaign victories for Lee County Commission

Lee County voters continued their decade-long streak of keeping incumbent members of the Board of County Commissioners in office, reelecting Cecil Pendergrass and Brian Hamman while electing Commissioner Mike Greenwell to his first full term.

Pendergrass and Hamman won easy victories Tuesday night for a third term over write-in candidates whose names did not appear on the ballot. Both received more than 90 percent omf the vote.

Greenwell had 60% of the vote to win his first full term, defeating Democratic challenger Matt Wood. Greenwell was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last summer following the death of Lee County political icon Frank Mann.

Visit our election results page: news-press.com/elections/results/local

Florida election results: See results from local and statewide races

6:30 pm. | Line, traffic at some polling places

Around 6 p.m., a traffic jam had formed on the Corkscrew Road route to the Estero Recreation Center, one of 12 polling places in Lee County. Voters must be in line before the 7 p.m. in order to vote.

Cars cram the small parking lot of the Lee County Elections Center during the final hour of the 2022 Midterm Elections in Fort Myers.

Getting down to the wire, voters at the Lee County Elections Center in Fort Myers cram the parking lot before the 7 p.m. deadline.

Cars piled in one after another onto the small, two-lane road as groups of people hurried to the center to secure their vote in time.

Fort Myers local Katherine Morris left the ballot box with barely an hour to spare. Admittedly, she said she felt frustrated with challenges and changes of Election Day.

I felt like there was a lot about how you can vote at any of these 97 places and all this stuff, but then there wasn't a lot about all the regular places being closed for today, Morris said.

While she admits she may have received some information on what locations were closed, she just wants to know exactly why so many were closed, making it more difficult for residents to come out to vote. She said these challenges can easily make the difference between whether a candidate wins.

3:30 p.m. | Poll wait times

As 7 p.m. and polling place closing time creeps closer, here are current wait times for all 12 Lee County polling locations, according to the Lee County elections supervisor.

Cape Coral Lee County Library - More than 30 minutes

East County Regional Library - More than 30 minutes

Estero Recreation Center - More than 30 minutes

Fort Myers Regional Library - More than 30 minutes

Lee County Elections - Bonita Springs Branch Office - More than 30 minutes

Lee County Elections - Cape Coral Branch Office - More than 30 Minutes

Lee County Elections Center - Less than 30 minutes

North Fort Myers Recreation Center - Less than 15 minutes

Northwest Regional Library - More than 30 minutes

Schandler Park, Suarez Hall - Less than 30 minutes

Veterans Park Recreation Center - Less than 15 minutes

Wa-ke Hatchee Park Recreation Center - Less than 30 minutes

"Things are moving along smoothly," spokeswoman Vicki Collins said earlier Tuesday. "We do have lines but we expected that."

The Lee Supervisor of Elections was able to open only about 12 percent of the usual 97 polling places because of a shortage of poll workers in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

2 p.m. | Voters divided between DeSantis and Crist

Residents lined the sidewalk of the Lee County Elections Office in Cape Coral, some of them waiting nearly an hours to vote by mid-afternoon.

As voters exited the polling site, many expressed to The News-Press that the top race they were watching is the battle for the governor's seat.

Current Gov. Ron DeSantis is going head-to-head with former Florida governor, Democrat Charlie Crist.

Recent Cape Coral resident Geoff Allard said DeSantis was an easy pick for him. After moving to the Southwest Florida region in August from San Diego, he began researching the different candidates and saw who aligned with issues he is passionate about.

The nearly hour-long line to vote for the 2022 Midterm Elections at the Lee County Elections Office in Cape Coral pictured Nov. 8.

Allard said he likes that DeSantis supports critical issues, such as education and lowering property taxes.

"I like how he handles the pandemic. Also, soon as I moved here, I noticed, it's a really weird thing, all the roads here are great compared to what I was driving on in California for the last five years," Allard said. "There's no state tax, not as high of a gas tax  It's like how is he keeping the state so clean and nice here without taxing the heck out of their constituents. I'd say 'Hey, (California Gov.) Gavin Newsom, take a lesson from this guy, maybe.'"

Longtime Cape Coral resident, Adrian Martin, shared similar sentiments. Martin dropped off his absentee ballot, telling The News-Press he continued his support for DeSantis.

"He's installing conservative judges, which is always very, very important  maybe more so than the average person thinks," Martin said. "Basically, all that he does has a conservative background to it and that's basically what what I like."

When marking his ballot, Martin shared some of the issues that concern him, such as securing Second Amendment rights and installing more conservative judges to Florida's Supreme Court  issues he said DeSantis takes very seriously, unlike his challenger.

"I know that there are good Democratic candidates across all different spaces but the one that's most important to me, which is the governor, Crist doesn't even come close, he's some sort of a joke candidate," Martin said. "You know, they probably could've put up somebody better, but they didn't. They're gonna ride with what they did."

However, some residents shared their support for the former two-term governor.

Mary Starkloff waited about an hour in line, sharing her support for Crist due to his stance on reproductive rights  a stance Starkloff said is extremely personal to her.

"Women's bodies and rights to our bodies are gonna be thoroughly taken away because (DeSantis) doesn't believe in abortion. This is huge to me because I was raped, I was almost forced to have a child  that's very important to me," Starkloff said.

Starkloff said she was disgusted by DeSantis' position on limiting reproductive rights for those in Florida.

Other issues she is passionate about included LGBTQ rights, medical marijuana and women's rights.

Additionally, as someone who lives with chronic pain, she is also advocating for those with disabilities.

"I waited about an hour to get in there, I am disabled as well  I live with chronic pain every single day in my life and it was very important for me to get in there either way," Starkloff said. "That's another thing that's important to me is having someone in office that does support people with disabilities because disabled people need more (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant places in this country  not even just in the state of Florida, but in this country."

Allard said due to censorship and corruption, he believes the country could be headed in a bad direction and thinks it's critical to get out to vote.

"The economy is like  I can't even say (the government is) screwing it up, I think they're doing exactly what they intended to do," Allard said. "We need to change."

For Starkloff, she agrees it's especially important for the younger generation to get out and make their voices heard among the older generations.

"It's very important that we keep our rights and love and care for one another," Starkloff said. "Most people our age get that because we all grew up in the same time. And I haven't met a single person my age that does not agree with me about basic human rights."

9:30 a.m. | Voters line up early

As polls opened across the county Tuesday, lines formed fast but moved even quicker.

Voters at the Fort Myers Regional Library on 2450 First Street filled the parking lot early to fill in their ballot.

Chene Thompsom of Fort Myers, joined by her family members, said she wanted to vote earlier but made it a priority to vote this morning.

As for the top candidates on her ballot, she said she voted for Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Generally speaking, I like Ron DeSantis," she said. "I think he's a straight shooter  I think what you see is what you get, and I think he really genuinely cares about children and as a mom, that's a big priority for me.

Thompsom elaborated on her supported for the current governor, saying he was a good speaker for the entire state of Florida, as well as Lee County.

Lee County particularly benefited from a lot of his decisions because we do have such a heavy tourism industry and we're kind of proud of that. And so the things that he did to continue to make that accessible to the rest of the country, we received the benefit of that.

She said she had concerns about taxes and the economy, considering that in her voting decisions.

I think the amount of money that we give to the government every day that they waste is sickening," Thompsom said. "Any opportunity that I have to express my feeling that people should get to keep the money that they make or as much of the money that they make, that was a big deciding factor for me and will continue to do so I'm pretty sure for the rest of my life.

7 a.m. | Polls are open. What to know if you're voting in Lee County

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will remain open until 7 p.m. See polling locations in Florida.

Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be permitted to cast a ballot.

Voters can vote at their assigned polling location.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Election Day 2022 in Florida: Live updates in Lee County
Grant Gilchrist has called on Scotland to seize their chance to make history against New Zealand this weekend.

The Scots have never beaten the All Blacks, although they came mighty close in their last meeting in 2017 when a strong fightback brought Gregor Townsends team within a score of victory before they succumbed to a 22-17 defeat.

Edinburgh lock Gilchrist played in that match and believes the current team are equipped to go a step further and record a victory if they can put all the positive aspects of their game together on Sunday.

Scotland go into the game on the back of a victory over Fiji (Jane Barlow/PA)

It was one of the highlights of my career, that game, he said. It was so special. We came so close.

We know the amount of effort and the level of performance it will take but what an opportunity it is to play them at home and try to make history. Its something the team will relish this week.

If we put everything into our training week, make a few fixes and put on our best performance on Sunday, we believe we can win.

Gilchrist believes BT Murrayfield can play a part in helping the Scots flourish this weekend.

I love playing at Murrayfield any time I get the opportunity, but that game against the All Blacks, the atmosphere felt like a Calcutta Cup game where every decision was roared either way, he said. Were going to need that on Sunday because it makes a big difference when our fans are behind us.

Gilchrist is hoping for an atmosphere like a Calcutta Cup clash (Jane Barlow/PA)

Its going to be a special day. Naturally, theres an extra level of excitement for a game like this because you know youre playing against the best.

You try and prepare to play at the same intensity every week but there is an extra added spice this week because weve got the opportunity to do something thats never been done before. Thats exciting for everyone.

Scotland have had a mixed 2022 but  despite being competitive in most of their matches  have not truly fired on all cylinders.

On Saturday, in their 28-12 victory over Fiji, they showed two sides to their game as they conceded two tries in a grim first half before tightening things up after the break and keeping the visitors at bay in a more assured second-half performance.

Were working every week to try and produce that complete performance, said Gilchrist. The foundations are there. We just need to put it all together, and what an opportunity weve got to do it on the biggest stage this week.

It felt like Fijis only chances last weekend were from our own ill-discipline. Weve got a strong defence and were going to need that over the next two weekends, especially this weekend.
With about half the mail-in ballots counted, Christina Stephenson holds a dominant lead over Cheri Helt in the race for Oregon state labor commissioner.

Preliminary election results posted updated by Wednesday late afternoon, Nov. 9, showed Stephenson with 60.4% of the vote and Helt with 39%.

They are seeking to succeed Val Hoyle of Springfield, who is vacating the office in a bid for the 4th District seat in the U.S. House.

Because there were just two candidates, the contest for commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries was scheduled for the General Election.

In a 10:30 p.m. election night press release, Stephenson thanked the voters.

I know that we all believe in a shared vision of what Oregons economy can be. Im ready to roll up my sleeves on day one: expanding apprenticeship and job training opportunities; ensuring small businesses get the support they need; and working through the backlog of potential civil rights and wage violations, so that every Oregon worker can confidently access their rights in the workplace.

Oregon should be the best place to live and work in this country, and Im going to do everything within my power at the Bureau of Labor and Industries to make that a reality.

Stephenson sought an Oregon House seat as a Democrat in 2020, and Helt was a one-term Republican representative from Bend who lost a re-election bid in 2020.

Stephenson has the endorsement of all five former or current labor commissioners, including Jack Roberts, who was elected as a Republican in 1994. The 1995 Legislature made the office nonpartisan, and Roberts was re-elected in 1998. Stephenson, 38, is a Portland lawyer who specializes in civil rights, one of the bureaus chief responsibilities, along with enforcement of wage and hour laws and supervision of apprenticeships.

Helt, 52, is a restaurant owner and former Bend-La Pine School Board member. She promoted her experience in small business and elected office as assets for the job.

Because any mail-in ballot postmarked by today will be counted, the unofficial results wont be known for several days.
Florida and South Carolina are bracing for their second hurricane in five weeks, and local film and TV production is being affected again.

Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to hit the Sunshine States Atlantic Coast as a Category 1 hurricane by tonight, bringing coastal floods, strong winds, drenching rain and possibly tornadoes that could last into early Saturday. Movie and television productions on Floridas east coast, Southern Georgia and South Carolina are bracing for impact as the National Hurricane Center warns that hazards will affect much of the Florida peninsula and portions of the southeast United States.

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Currently, the Orlando Film Office is working to reschedule some commercial and short film filming dates for some productions in the area, Brooke Hill, coordinator of innovation & technology at the Orlando Film Commission, told Deadline.

Alberto Jordat, director of operations at the Palm Beach County Film & Television Commission in Florida, told Deadline that some of the six projects that just finished shooting there wrapped in anticipation of the storm to get done early. He said there are no productions pending now but noted that the film office is ready to issue new film permits as soon as Monday. County offices are closed today and Thursday in anticipation of the coming storm.

Story continues

Beth Nelson, executive director of the Savannah Film Commission, told Deadline: Productions are preparing. I think its just going to be a one-day thing, and then theyll will be back up and running as the storm passes through. Right now, she said, were watching things. Its a little early to tell.

The preparations come after Hurricane Ian decimated parts of Florida, causing widespread damage and destruction. Ian, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane September 28 on the Gulf Coast, is tied for the fifth-strongest storm ever to hit the contiguous United States. Recovery is expected to take many months.

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.

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PROVIDENCE  Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos will keep her job for the next four years, after an initial appointment by Gov. Dan McKee.

After a close race for much of the night, a Democrat, pulled ahead with a commanding lead over Republican challenger Aaron Guckian. Early results gave Matos a slim lead over Guckian at the same time as McKee had a much larger lead over his challenger, Ashley Kalus.

Guckian said he conceded the race to Matos, and that she ran a great campaign. WPRI declared Matos the winner of the race with 96% of precincts reporting.

With nearly 98.6% of precincts reporting, Matos' lead over Guckian was significant, 50.9%, or 174,326 votes, to 43.4%, or 148,790 votes.

In her victory speech, Matos said her story is an important one, an immigrant whose family came to the United States, and was able to take advantage of unique opportunities, but her story is not unique in the country.

In an interview after she declared victory, Matos said her heart is filled with gratitude, to McKee and to the people of Rhode Island.

Matos said for the next four years, she plans to focus her energy on housing, high-speed internet access and to see how she can transform the lieutenant governor's office into a champion for tourism. Matos said she is looking to the example of the lieutenant governor of Louisiana, where touting tourism is an official job duty.

Matos said she was concerned come election day because Guckian had more resources than she did in the general election and everyone seemed to be complacent, convinced that she was a shoo-in and the lack of city races to bring out Providence voters, where much of her support is from.

Mail-in ballots, when added to the totals, solidified her lead, she said.

Matos, the incumbent, took the post after her predecessor fulfilled his top duty of replacing the governor, and a Republican who is no stranger to the governor's office.

Matos held 51.1% of the vote to Guckian's 43.2% as of 9:50 p.m. Tuesday night.

Story continues

Matos, the incumbent, took the post after her predecessor fulfilled his top duty of replacing the governor, and a Republican who is no stranger to the governor's office.

Guckian said Matos is a great person and that once he realized he had lost, he conceded graciously. He said he was surprised he did not do better in some times.

"Obviously, Rhode Island voters made a statement tonight," he said.

All of the results are also available on the dedicated Providence Journal election page.

What does RI's lieutenant governor do?

The Rhode Island lieutenant governor's biggest job is to become the governor in case of resignation or incapacitation, which happened last year when Lt. Gov. Dan McKee ascended to the governorship following Gina Raimondo's resignation to become the U.S. secretary of commerce.

Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos

McKee's ascension to the role was the first time that had happened in Rhode Island since 1950, when John O. Pastore resigned to become a member of the U.S. Senate, and the lieutenant governor, John S. McKiernan, took over for the final few weeks until newly elected Dennis Roberts took office. Five years earlier, in 1945, Pastore had taken over from Howard McGrath, who took a job as the U.S. solicitor general under President Harry Truman.

More:Three Democrats make the case for becoming RI's lieutenant governor

Each lieutenant governor in recent years has found his or her own niche, as McKee did in advocating for the small-business community, and his predecessor, Elizabeth Roberts, did in helping to create Rhode Island's Obamacare program.

The lieutenant governor also serves as chairman of four boards: the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the Alzheimer's State Plan Executive Board, the Emergency Management Advisory Council and the Small Business Advocacy Council.

Sabina Matos: Providence City Council president, lieutenant governor

While McKee and Raimondo had a frosty relationship, Matos and McKee are practically running together, appearing at events together and operating as a single administration, supporting the same projects.

Who is Sabina Matos?Sabina Matos officially launches bid for lieutenant governor

Before McKee appointed Matos to fill the post he vacated to become governor, she was the term-limited Providence City Council president.

Aaron Guckian, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, spent a year on tour in Italy as a singer.

Matos' journey to the lieutenant governor's office started when her family came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1994 and soon moved to Providence's Olneyville neighborhood from New York City.

If elected, Matos previously said she would work toward helping the state create more affordable housing.

'Bittersweet moment:'Latino politicians reflect on primary wins and losses at gathering

Aaron Guckian: Opera singer, political aide

During the campaign, on billboards and on his leaflets and pamphlets, Guckian had a unified message: to turn the lieutenant governor's office into a super-charged constituent services center, helping people navigate through the red tape of state and local government.

Guckian previously said he would then take the data collected from acting as a help center to propose changes to the state legislature, and to work with state agencies to solve common problems.

Guckian is no stranger to the governor's office, as he was a special assistant to then-Gov. Donald Carcieri, a job that started in his role as a support staffer on the campaign trail. He drove Carcieri on the campaign trail at night as he worked as an elementary school teacher. After leaving the governor's office, he worked at two banks, then at the Rhode Island Foundation as a fundraiser.

Before becoming a teacher or working in the statehouse, Guckian trained as an opera singer before touring in Italy.

Both candidates made it through primary challenges

Matos and Guckian each won their respective primary races.

Matos went up against two women, Sen. Cynthia Mendes, who was running on a ticket with Matt Brown, who lost in his gubernatorial primary, and Rep. Deborah Ruggiero. Although she was in a three-way race, Matos, the incumbent, garnered 47% of the primary vote.

More:Republican Aaron Guckian wants to make the RI lieutenant governor's office a help center

Guckian won 68% of the Republican primary vote against Paul Pence.

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Providence Journal subscription. Here's our latest offer.

Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI's Lieutenant Governor race: Matos wins race over Guckian
John Fetterman

Justin Merriman/Getty

Democrat John Fetterman is making headlines after winning the Pennsylvania Senate race over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, according to several news network projections.

After one of the most hotly contested campaigns in the country, Fetterman flipped a Senate seat blue  becoming the first Democrat to win the seat since 1962 as he defeated the Trump-endorsed celebrity doctor in the race.

"It's official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania," Fetterman tweeted upon his victory. "We bet on the people of Pennsylvania  and you didn't let us down. And I won't let you down. Thank you."

The Senate seat was vacated by outgoing Sen. Pat Toomey, creating the first open Senate seat in Pennsylvania in over a decade. Fetterman's win helps the Democratic Party as they look to secure bigger margins on Capitol Hill.

Between his viral campaigning moments and family background, here's everything to know about Fetterman.

RELATED: John Fetterman Defeats Dr. Oz in Critical Pennsylvania Senate Race, Huge Win for Democrats

He is the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Fetterman served as the mayor of Braddock from 2006 to 2019 before being elected the 34th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2018. During his tenure, he amassed national attention for his efforts to legalize cannabis statewide in addition to countering President Donald Trump's claims of election fraud in Pennsylvania.

His Pennsylvania Senate win is pretty historic

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bonnie Biess/Getty John Fetterman, Mehmet Oz

Last year, Fetterman announced his candidacy in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania  and after one of the most hotly contested campaigns in the country, he defeated Republican Dr. Oz in the race. Flipping a Senate seat blue, Fetterman became the first Democrat to win this seat since 1962.

Despite Oz's sudden momentum in the weeks leading up to the election (with some polls calling him the frontrunner), Fetterman led early. He often took to social media to call out the former television personality for gaffes, including his widely shared shopping trip for "crudites."

Story continues

Issues like raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform, abortion access, voting rights, and protections for LGBTQ+ people are all issues Fetterman has reportedly campaigned on, often in rural counties filled with working-class voters who supported Trump.

RELATED: Pa. Senate Candidate John Fetterman Trolls Opponent Dr. Oz with 'Welcome Home' Banner Flying over Jersey Shore

He suffered a stroke days before the primary election

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, D-Pa., speaks during a rally at the UFCW Local 1776 KS headquarters in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., on Saturday, April 16, 2022.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

Just days before the primary election in May, Fetterman suffered a stroke and later underwent a procedure to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator. Ultimately, Fetterman won the primary  from a hospital bed  handily. His doctor later revealed he has atrial fibrillation, which caused the stroke, and cardiomyopathy, which is why he got the implant.

In August, he hopped back on the campaign trail, saying in an emotional speech that he felt "better than I have in years."

RELATED: Pa. Senate Candidate John Fetterman Reveals Heart Condition Following Stroke, Democratic Primary Win

His tattoos have special meanings

John Fetterman, lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and Democratic senate candidate, center, and his wife Gisele Fetterman, center left, walk with the United Steelworkers District 10 union during a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022. Pennsylvania is holding a number of high-profile election contests, including the open Senate seat race that is pitting Fetterman against Republican Mehmet Oz.

Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty

In an op-ed published by NBC News in September, Fetterman opened up about the personal meaning behind some of his tattoos.

The Democrat has nine tattoos on his right forearm and wrote that they each represent "a day on which someone died violently while I was mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania." He explained that the ink reading "01.16.06." is the date when Christopher Williams was shot dead while delivering pizzas.

He went on to detail the other dates memorialized by his tattoos, writing that they all serve as "reminders of the people we have lost and what I am fighting for." He added: "My decision to mark these deaths with tattoos was inspired in part by their permanence  the fact that these people, their stories and my town will be with me forever."

RELATED: John Fetterman Reveals the Story Behind His Tattoos After Tucker Carlson Called Them 'Fake'

He earned his master's from Harvard University

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, greets supporters following a discussion event at Stolen Sun Craft Brewing Company in Exton, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022.

Joe Lamberti/AP Photo Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman

Prior to his political endeavors, Fetterman pursued a profession in the insurance industry, having studied finance at Albright College before earning an MBA from the University of Connecticut.

After graduating, he joined AmeriCorps and earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School (the school of public policy and government of Harvard University) in 1999. He moved to Braddock in 2004 and was elected mayor the following year.

RELATED: Sen. Candidate John Fetterman Uses Dr. Oz's Viral Supermarket Gaffe to Call Out the Celebrity's Privilege

He's married and is a father to three kids

john fetterman, gisele fetterman

Gisele Fetterman Gisele and John Fetterman (left and center) with their children

The politician married Gisele Fetterman in 2008 and they share three kids together: Karl, Gracie and August. The two first connected after Gisele wrote him a letter inquiring about Braddock and the efforts to revitalize the community.

Originally from Brazil, the First Lady of Pennsylvania received her green card in 2004, four years before her marriage, and became a U.S. citizen in 2009. She has devoted her life to helping others, with a focus on nutrition, food equity and meeting Pennsylvanians' basic needs.

The parents have tried to preserve their kids' childhoods to an extent, though. "We do talk about the race around the house a bit and the kids will come to rallies when they can, but they also have their own lives," Gisele told PEOPLE. "They go to school every day, they go over to their friends' houses, they have homework to do. Their calendars are very full already."
Getty Images; Insider

Proposition 131 would create a lieutenant governor position within the governor's office.

A candidate for lieutenant governor would run on a joint ticket with a gubernatorial candidate.

Proponents say that the measure would help assure a line of succession that aligns with voters' ideals.

A "yes" on Proposition 131 would create a lieutenant governor position in the state of Arizona. Polls closed in the state at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

2022 General Embeds

Ballot measure details

Arizona is one of five states in the country that does not have a lieutenant governor. Proposition 131 would create this position and require that candidates for lieutenant governor run on a joint ticket with candidates for governor. The gubernatorial candidate would have to announce their choice for running mate 60 days prior to the general election.

The position would alter the order of succession should the governor die or leave office by making the lieutenant governor next in line. Historically, the secretary of state has succeeded the governor in the state of Arizona

Under this measure, the legislature would define the role of the lieutenant governor. The first election to select a lieutenant governor would be in 2026.

The law made its way to the ballot after the Republican-led Arizona Legislature passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 1024 in June of this year.

Support and opposition

Support for this measure comes from the Republican Party of Arizona, the League of Women Voters, and the National Lieutenant Governors Association.

Supporters argue that adding a lieutenant governor position will keep Arizona in line with most of the country. Additionally, the role will establish a clear line of succession that stays within the governor's elected party.

There are no major groups opposing this.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo; Crystal Vander Weit/TCPalm.com via AP; Insider

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist.

DeSantis broke a gubernatorial record in fundraising, per a nonpartisan politics research organization.

This win could set DeSantis up for a Republican presidential primary in 2024.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, defeated Democrat Charlie Crist, who resigned his congressional seat in August after his primary victory.

Florida's gubernatorial candidates

DeSantis has been governor of Florida since 2018 and is the youngest governor in the United States. Before that, he was a congressman representing Florida's 6th District for five years.

DeSantis was an unexpected winner in the 2018 GOP primary, running against better-known Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. But DeSantis was able to score the nomination in large part thanks to an endorsement by then-President Donald Trump.

Still, DeSantis won the 2018 gubernatorial race against Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democrat, by only half a percentage point, or less than 34,000 votes. He's expected to win by far larger margins on November 8.

Crist held the role of governor from 2007 to 2011, albeit as a Republican. He also unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate and to get his old job back. He became a Democrat in 2012 and endorsed former President Barack Obama for re-election. In 2016, he was elected to the US House, where his district included St. Petersburg.

Voting history for Florida

Florida went twice for Obama, and then twice for Trump. The Sunshine State has long been known as the largest swing state in the United States, but that may be changing.

DeSantis is popular in Florida after bucking advice from federal health officials during the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has developed national name recognition, with many in the GOP wondering whether he'll be the Trump successor to the MAGA movement.

Crist is the underdog in the race largely because Republicans have out-registered Democrats by roughly 270,000 Floridians.

Story continues

The money race

DeSantis has raised an astounding amount of cash for a gubernatorial race, which is one of the reasons that the political world is abuzz over whether he'll run for president in 2024.

DeSantis broke a gubernatorial record in fundraising, according to the nonpartisan money-in-politics research organization OpenSecrets. His political action committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, raised nearly $206 million as of November 2, according to the Florida Department of State Division of Elections. DeSantis through his campaign raised roughly another $108,000.

Crist has raised almost one-seventh the amount of his challenger. He reported raising $31 million through his campaign and PAC, according to the Miami Herald.

What experts say

The Cook Political Report classified the race as "likely Republican."

Read the original article on Business Insider
LM Otero/AP Photo; Insider

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been reelected to a third term as governor of Texas.

Abbott faced former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat.

In 2018, Abbott beat Democratic gubernatorial nominee Lupe Valdez by 7 percentage points.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has defeated former US Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat, and was reelected to a third term.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time. Given the state has multiple timezones, the first polls closed at 8 p.m. EST and the last polls closed at 9 p.m. EST.

Texas gubernatorial candidates

Abbott, a conservative first elected in 2014, has been in the political arena since running for a district court judge post in 1992 and was later appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by former Republican governor-turned-President George W. Bush.

Abbott is no stranger to controversy, having presided over the Lone Star state during a raft of mass shootings, crippling energy crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, and partisan clashes over immigration at the Southern border. Abbott reportedly spent more than $12 million of taxpayer funds busing asylum-seekers from ruby-red Texas to liberal bastions such as Washington, DC, New York City, and Chicago in order to torment Democratic leaders.

O'Rourke was running his second statewide campaign since serving three terms in the US House. He tried unsuccessfully to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, losing by 2 points. O'Rourke also briefly ran for president in 2019, dropping out after seven months on the campaign trail when his campaign failed to gain traction in early primary states.

O'Rourke made combating gun violence and preserving abortion rights cornerstones of his bid to replace Abbott.

Texas' voting history

Texas trends Republican in federal races. The state went to President Donald Trump by 5 points during the 2020 presidential election. More recently, Republican Rep. Mayra Flores won by 7 points in the June 2022 special election to replace Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, who resigned midway through his term.

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The congressional delegation is predominantly Republican, retaining control of both US Senate seats since 1993 and holding two-thirds of the delegation's current US House seats.

The Texas governor's race involved a lot of the culture war issues both parties have used the bash the other side around the country, including abortion.

Abbott got out ahead of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade this summer, signing into law last fall a statewide ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy coupled with a $10,000 bounty on anyone who "aids and abets" in any such procedure after the month-and-half window. The Roe reversal activated a corresponding state trigger law that makes performing abortions in Texas a felony punishable by life in prison.

The money race

According to Transparency USA, Abbott had raised $94.3 million, spent $120.5 million, and had $16.4 million of cash on hand, as of September 30. His opponent, O'Rourke, had raised $65.7 million, spent $45.8 million, and had $16.5 million of cash still left to spend, as of September 30.

The Texas Tribune reported that O'Rourke set a new campaign fundraising record this year, hauling in $27.6 million in less than five months.

What the experts say

Texas' gubernatorial race was rated as "Likely Republican" by The Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and "Solid Republican" by Inside Elections.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Win McNamee/Getty Images; Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo; Insider

Rep. Ashley Hinson defeated Democratic state Sen. Liz Mathis in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District.

The 2nd District covers 22 counties in Iowa's northeast corner.

Hinson has significantly out-fundraised and out-spent Mathis.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson defeated Democratic state Sen. Liz Mathis in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Iowa's 2nd Congressional District candidates

Hinson is a former anchor and reporter for KCRG-TV 9 in Cedar Rapids, while Mathis is a former anchor and reporter at both KCRG-TV 9 and KWWL News 7 in Waterloo.

Hinson, first elected in 2020, serves on the House Committees on Appropriations and Budget. She has been accused by Mathis of supporting a nationwide ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the mother's life. However, Hinson, during her time in the Iowa State House, supported such exemptions when voting in favor of the "fetal heartbeat law" in May 2018.

Prior to her time in the US House, Hinson served the 67th District in the Iowa State House from 2017 to 2021, the first woman to represent the district. She and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks  running for reelection in Iowa's 1st Congressional District  are the first Republican women to represent Iowa in the US House.

Mathis, Hinson's challenger, has been an Iowa state senator since 2011. She serves on the Senate Agriculture and Appropriations Committees and serves as the legislative liaison to the Iowa Department of Public Health. In an interview with a local radio station, Mathis said she will work to support abortion rights and codify Roe v. Wade if she is elected.

Voting history for Iowa's 2nd Congressional District

Iowa's 2nd Congressional District covers 22 counties in Iowa's northeast corner, including Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Dubuque, and Mason City.

President Donald Trump had a 3.4 percentage point margin of victory over Joe Biden under the district's previous boundaries in 2020  before the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 Census made it slightly more Republican.

Story continues

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Hinson has raised $6.7 million, spent more than $5.9 million, and has $881,000 cash on hand, as of October 19.

Her challenger, Mathis, has raised nearly $4 million, spent about $3.3 million, and has $668,000 still left to spend, as of October 19.

As of November 4, a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent about $3.1 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.

Almost all the money has benefitted Hinson. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican hybrid PAC that backs Hinson, has alone accounted for about two-thirds of the race's outside spending.

What experts say

The race between Hinson and Mathis is rated as "tilt Republican" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Susan Walsh/AP Photo; Brian Bengs' campaign; Insider

Sen. John Thune defeated Democrat Brian Bengs to represent South Dakota in the US Senate.

Bengs told a local news outlet that the January 6 attack on the Capitol inspired him to run for office.

The state was projected to go "solidly Republican."

Republican incumbent Sen. John Thune defeated Democrat Brian Bengs in South Dakota, a victory that could become even more important if Republicans retake the chamber.

South Dakota's Senate race candidates

Thune has served as ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband and ranking member of the Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. Thune also served as the Senate minority whip.

Also a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Thune introduced and co-sponsored legislation on conservation, forest protection and restoration, agricultural disaster assistance, and energy security.

Before being elected to the Senate, Thune served three terms representing South Dakota's at-large congressional district in the US House.

Challenger Bengs is a Navy and Air Force veteran who has also taught at the US Air Force Academy. In an interview with KELOLAND News, he said the January 6 attack on the Capitol inspired him to run for office. In the same interview, he criticized President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program, calling it a "Band-Aid."

"Like so many political things we do in this country, we address the symptoms rather than the problem," Bengs told KELOLAND.

South Dakota's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of 26 percentage points in the 2020 election. South Dakota is a ruby-red state; it only voted Democratic four times, most recently in 1964 when Lyndon B. Johnson handily defeated Barry Goldwater.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Thune raised $12.5 million, spent $6 million, and had $17.2 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

His challenger, Bengs, raised $422,908, spent $355,062, and had $67,846 cash on hand, as of October 19.

Story continues

What experts say

The race between Thune and Bengs was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Guys have a tendency to fall back on muted colors in the fallbut Marnis new exclusive drop wants to change that.

On Wednesday, the Italian clothing brand released an exclusive menswear capsule collection with the German retailer MyTheresa. The 19-piece assortment includes playful yet sophisticated crewneck jumpers, cardigans, vests and cargo pants made from cotton gabardine. Accessories like matching Fussbett slides and striped beanies crafted from mohair round out the drop, which turns up the volume with a palette of blue, purple, orange and yellow.

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Striped and geometric-print knits from the capsule, alongside a pair of cotton gabardine cargo pants.

Each piece is made in Italy with slightly oversized silhouettes that range from drop shoulders on mohair-blend crewnecks and cardigans to the trousers wide-cut leg designs. The cozy vests offer a hint of stretchincredibly important during Q4s onslaught of cocktail parties and calorie-laden meals.

Three fuzzy, striped beanies in the capsule match some of the other knitwear offerings. The two Fussbett slides are crafted from buttery smooth leather with mohair-like straps and insoles embossed with Marni lettering.

Mytheresa x Marni capsule collection beanie, vest and slides

Marni is no stranger to zany collabs, having produced successful apparel and footwear capsules with Veja and Uniqlo this year alone. The Italian fashion label debuted in Milan, Italy back in 1994 and has since been acquired by Italian fashion group OTB, the parent company of Maison Margiela, Jil Sander, Diesel and Viktor & Rolf. MyTheresa has been famous for offering a number of luxe brands online, from Loro Piana to Gucci, since 2006. In 2022, the brand expanded its luxury offerings to home decor and lifestyle products with the launch of its Life category.

To get your hands on the colorful new Mytheresa x Marni capsule collection items, visit the retailers website. Prices range from $318 beanies to $1,140 intarsia knits.

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The Willamette Valley Concert Band will present its annual Veterans Day Concert on two different days in the auditorium of Lebanon High School, 1700 S. Fifth St.

The program is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, and 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12. The concerts are free; donations will be accepted and will be used to defray costs of presenting the program, and a portion will go to the Lebanon High School music program.

The band will present a selection of music for Veterans Day. The Lebanon High School Choir, directed by Eric Zittel, will join the band for 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.

The band will play several patriotic tunes and marches, plus music from "Band on Brothers."

For further information, visit www.wvcband.org or Facebook.
Kevin McCarthy delayed a victory speech to what was supposed to be a jubilant party of Republicans until 2 a.m. Wednesday. By that time, a sizable number of attendees had already left.

And the GOP leader kept his speech brief, as he still didnt have a firm call that his party had won the House.

When you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority, McCarthy said to a ballroom that quickly filled up with staffers after it had thinned in the early morning hours.

A year ago, McCarthy had predicted the GOP would pick up more than 60 seats in the chamber in a historic red wave. While that was before the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Republicans were still eagerly expecting dozens of House seats to swing in their favor after a campaign centered on economic woes and the underwater ratings of President Joe Biden.

Instead, election night saw a slow burn of those hopes, though party leaders were quick to point out they still had reason to celebrate.



McCarthy, flanked by RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and House GOP campaign arm chief Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), claimed that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) lost his race and would be the first Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair to be ousted in 40 years, and that Republican candidate Anthony DEsposito had won his seat in New York. Neither race had been called.

The sleepy event was not the victory rager Republicans had envisioned. In downtown D.C. at the Westin Hotel, GOP staffers and lobbyists had flocked to different open bars scattered around the downstairs ballroom around 9 p.m., keenly awaiting election results to start rolling in from TVs tuned to Fox News.

However, in the hours leading up to McCarthys appearance, there were few cheers as the room watched as competitive races rolled in with mixed results.

Oh no, exclaimed a woman, as Fox News showed John Fetterman triumphing over Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race, hours after Republicans had started to acknowledge they wouldnt get their red tsunami.

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The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART! tweeted Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas), who won her district in a June special election but lost the seat to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (R-Texas) Tuesday after redistricting.

Echoing this sentiment, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) proclaimed on NBC News: "Definitely not a Republican wave, that's for darn sure."

A number of seats targeted by Republicans had already been called for Democrats or looked likely to be won by them. Among them was Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who staved off a challenge from GOP candidate Yesli Vega in what was considered one of the most competitive races in the Commonwealth.

GOP hopes of flipping a district in deep-blue Rhode Island were also dashed as Democrat Seth Magaziner defeated GOP candidate Allan Fung. And Wiley Nickel held an edge against GOP candidate Bo Hines in North Carolina early Wednesday, though the race had yet to be officially called.

Despite Democrats holding their ground in some areas, some House Republicans were still publicly cheerful. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told reporters after midnight that he was just as happy with a slim majority. Then he illustrated why that narrow majority would benefit him but be tough on McCarthy and other Republican leaders.

I mean, look at what Joe Manchin has done in the Senate as the one deciding vote, right? I would love for the Massie caucus to be relevant. If there's a one seat majority, my caucus has one person. It's me. So I can decide whether a bill passes or not, Massie said, noting that 218 seats means they have subpoena power. Id be the wrong guy if you're trying to find somebody who's heartbroken that we don't have a 40-seat majority.



Apart from Massie, the only other GOP lawmaker found at the flagship GOP election-night party in Washington was Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), who made an appearance in the early hours.

For much of the evening, the ballroom was relatively quiet and attendees were somewhat scant or scattered before McCarthy took the stage, which was emblazoned with the words TAKE BACK THE HOUSE. Planners apparently hadn't anticipated such a late night, as they sought to figure out how to ensure guests would still have access to alcohol after 1 a.m.

The muted affair contrasted with stood in stark contrast to an exultant private party beforehand, hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which included McCarthy and McDaniel as they prepared for the results.

Democrats, meanwhile, took their own victory lap of sorts, despite projections that theyll still lose the House.

While many races remain too close to call, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement at 1:30 a.m., it is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misspelled Anthony DEsposito's last name.
It's Election Day in New Mexico, and voters across the state are headed to the polls to cast their ballots in the state's midterm election.

As the state tallies up the votes, this is where you can find live results and real-time data on the statewide races. You can also review the Farmington Daily Times' voter guide of state, San Juan County and Farmington-area races.

Polls close at 7 p.m. in New Mexico.

Please check back here for updates.

A guide to voter rights in New Mexico. What you need to know before you cast a ballot

What's on the ballot?

New Mexico voters are will be voting on Governor of New Mexico , Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico, Attorney General of New Mexico and other key state offices.

Governor of New Mexico

Michelle Lujan Grisham (Incumbent), Democratic Party

Mark Ronchetti, Republican Party

Karen Bedonie, Libertarian Party

Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico

Howie Morales (Incumbent), Democratic Party

Anthony Thornton, Republican Party

Travis Sanchez, Libertarian Party

Attorney General of New Mexico

Raul Torrez, Democratic Party

Jeremy Gay, Republican Party

New Mexico Secretary of State

Maggie Toulouse Oliver (Incumbent), Democratic Party

Audrey Mendonca-Trujillo, Republican Party

Mayna Myers, Libertarian Party

New Mexico Treasurer

Laura Montoya, Democratic Party

Harry Montoya, Republican Party

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Get live San Juan County, Farmington, New Mexico election results
Voters fill out ballots during the midterm election on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, at the Las Cruces City Hall.

New Mexico voters weighed in on three statewide general obligation bonds in this year's midterm election. The three bond questions  totaling nearly $260 million  will fund numerous projects, including senior centers, libraries across the state, tribal colleges and universities and more.

All three of the bonds were approved by voters, according to unofficial results available late Tuesday.

General obligation bonds result in public debt paid for by property taxes. However, approval of this years three bond questions, however, would not result in a statewide tax increase; the states Department of Finance and Administration indicates the current rate is high enough to cover the new debt as older debt expires.

General obligation bond 1: Senior centers

General obligation bond 1 authorizes $24.5 million for designing, renovating, or equipping centers across 21 counties and six pueblos. It will also help several senior centers purchase and equip ADA-accessible vehicles, and equipment for making meals for seniors.

The package also includes more than $1.7 million that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham requested for tribal senior centers, according to the Legislative Finance Committee, as well as nearly $5.5 million to help fund a brand new senior center in Gallup, which borders the Navajo Nation in northwest New Mexico.

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, unofficial results indicated it had received the support of 67% of New Mexico voters.

General obligation bond 2: Libraries

General obligation bond 2 will provide about $19.2 million to improve resources available at the state's public and school-based libraries. That makes it the largest-ever statewide library bond.

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, unofficial results indicated it had received the support of 63% of New Mexico voters.

The funds will be split up, with $6 million each going to public libraries, K-12 school libraries, and academic libraries at colleges and universities, and another $1 million going to the 17 libraries on tribal lands.

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With local government oversight, the libraries can use their portion of the bond for books, other print and electronic media and equipment.

The academic libraries distribute their allotment of library bonds based on student enrollment. Therefore, the larger universities  such as the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University  get the bulk of the funds. Before they divvy it up, however, they pool a third of it and buy a suite of shared electronic resources that some smaller colleges may not be able to otherwise afford.

General obligation bond 3: Higher education, special schools and tribal schools

The largest of the three bonds  by far  was general obligation bond 3, which will allocate nearly $216 million to public and tribal colleges and universities, along with schools that serve specialized populations for capital improvements and acquisitions.

Capital projects are long-term investments like buildings or equipment; those are paid for separately from operating expenses like staff wages.

Most of the funds would go to the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and their branch campuses. But 20 other community colleges and public universities would get a share too. Also on the list are Navajo Technical University and a branch of Dine College  both tribal land-grant schools  and three specialty schools: the New Mexico Military Institute, the New Mexico School for the Deaf, and the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, according to Source New Mexico and KUNM News.

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, unofficial results indicated GO Bond 3 had received the support of 62% of New Mexico voters.

All results remain unofficial until after their certification by the state canvass board later in November.

Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.

More from Election Day:

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico voters approve all three general obligation bonds
In his debut feature film, The Sparrow, writer-director Michael Kinirons explores the psychological struggle of a teenage boy dealing with unbearable guilt and the exacerbation of his quandary caused by his dysfunctional family situation.

The Sparrow, which screens out of competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, centers on Kevin (Ollie West), a melancholic boy still grieving for his late mother and finding little consolation from his tough, emotionally distant father (David OHara) or from his older brother (Eanna Hardwicke).

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Produced by Tiger Darling, the production shingle Kinirons runs with wife, producer Alicia Ni Ghrainne, the film is set in and around the picturesque West Cork fishing village of Baltimore, located near the southern tip of Ireland.

For Kinirons, whose writing credits include Kim Farrants 2015 Australian outback drama Strangerland, starring Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes and Hugo Weaving, the unique and beautiful landscape partly inspired his idea for a very human story that echoed the ancient tragedies of myth.

The spectacular coastal landscape  in particular Lough Hyne, Irelands only saltwater lake  plays an integral role in the film. Its a very beautiful place, Kinirons says of Lough Hyne. Theres something about that place  its got an essence thats really interesting.

It was at the scenic location that Kinirons saw a dream-like image of two boys getting into a fight in a boat, giving rise to the notion that even in Eden terrible things happen. I wanted to try and get this sort of East of Eden feel. Theres something primal about these landscapes where biblical tragedies can happen. This is where Cain and Abel can happen.

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Weaving its way into the material was also the lasting impact of Francois Truffauts 1959 coming-of-age drama The 400 Blows.

When I first saw that in my late teens it just totally opened my mind about what cinema could be.

Recalling his own rebellious youth, Kinirons sought to make the story both personal and universal.

Im the youngest of seven kids and I was pretty feral growing up, shall we say. I was in trouble a lot. And just trying to think back on one of the most important experiences of your life  that feeling of being in trouble all the time was something I knew very well, and I kind of wanted to write about that.

The film examines the impact a broken family can have on a young person, specifically dysfunctional male relationships and the absence of the feminine in a household.

Contemplating the enormity of his transgression, young Kevin finds himself in a nightmare situation, so much so that Kinirons and cinematographer Richard Kendrick sought to imbue the film with elements of atmospheric horror.

For me, thats the key to any cinematic experience: the dream  and trying to find stories that are dreamlike in a way. And this was very much a nightmare dream. It has the horrible knot of tension, that feeling in your stomach. We all know what its like to have done something really terrible, no matter who we are, and knowing we should own up to it and not being able to is a very relatable but gut-wrenching experience.

In West, Kinirons found his ideal Kevin. Ollie was the second kid I saw and he stayed in my mind. He just instinctively knew what to do with his eyes. He instinctively has the kind of thing I like in an actor: he doesnt want to be an actor. He has no interest in being an actor; he wants to be a musician. But he has this innate confidence. I think it helps that his mom is a theater director and his dad is a playwright, so he has sort of the gene, you know?

The camera loves some people. He just has that naturalness, which youre looking for. Theres no tension. Hes just a very chilled human being.

Kinirons and Ni Ghrainne have a number of projects in the works at Tiger Darling, including the tentatively titled The Cellist, which the director aims to shoot next year.

Describing it as a kind of companion piece to The Sparrow, Kinirons says: Its much more a, shall we say, Chabrol-esque type film. Its more ironic, more of a psychological thriller. Its kind of like The Talented Mr. Ripley meets The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Its about a young man who grew up with nothing who encounters a young man who grew up with everything and theres a kind of cuckoo-like attempt to take over his life.

Kinirons is also co-creating with French writer Arnaud Benoliel the fact-based historical TV series The Pretender, about con-artist Perkin Warbeck, who in 1490 managed to pass himself off as the rightful heir to the English throne, becoming an existential threat to the newly established Tudor dynasty.

Its basically House of Cards meets Catch Me If You Can in the 15th century.

Tiger Darling is developing and set to co-produce the series with Dublin-based Ripple World Pictures.

In addition, Kinirons has completed a screenplay about Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce, for Irish director Aisling Walsh (Maudie).

Lucia Joyce I think is starting to get her due now, Kinirons says. While nearly forgotten, she was a young amazing dancer and choreographer who had a very beautiful, tormented relationship with her dad and ended up in an asylum, very tragically. Its a story of, again, a thwarted young female artist trying to discover her identity.

In addition, Tiger Darling joined Lithuanias Studio Uljana Kim and Latvias Studio Locomotive to produce 5 & 12 Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania, the forthcoming episodic film by Lithuanian director Tomas Vengris (Motherland).

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ASHEVILLE  Democrats have won in all but one of local North Carolina Senate and House races in the Nov. 8 general election.

In the North Carolina Senate, Democratic incumbent state Sen. Julie Mayfield has beaten Republican John Anderson in the District 49 race. The district covers Asheville and the rest of western Buncombe County. Mayfield had 65.53% percent of the vote with a 55,630 ballot count at press time. All precincts have been reported.

She beat out Republican John Anderson, a career environmental scientist who advocated for infrastructure improvements, greater broadband access and "measured spending," among other things.

Results won't be official until after the canvasing period ends on Nov. 18.

One of Mayfield's two priorities going into the next session will be bringing a Wilmington program to Asheville that trains citizens to respond to crashes rather than police officers, she said. She also is working on a bill that would give the attorney general more authority over hospital mergers and consolidations.

Other elections:NC election results: Buncombe County commission all Democrats with Martin Moore victory

More:Republican Edwards cruises to 11th District US House seat win over Democrat Beach-Ferrara

More:Madison County county commission flips to Republican majority

More:Asheville's 1st elected school board: Ray wins night with Thornburg, Strimer, English-Kelly

Julie Mayfield

Mayfield was first elected to the state senate in 2020, and before that she served as a member of Asheville's city council. This election, she touted her role in the adoption of House Bill 951, an energy solutions bill; a wide ranging support for greater health and equity; and the introduction of multiple bills to lessen the General Assembly's power over local government.

Incumbent Republican state Sen. Warren Daniel beat Democrat Billy Martin, a longtime Marion City Council Member, in the race for District 46. As of press time, Daniel had a ballot count of 47,520, or 60.40%.

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"I thank God, my wife and my family for their support throughout this election," as well as volunteers, Daniel said.

"We're going to have to meet as a caucus and decide what our priorities are," Daniel said of his next term. "So, I don't want to speak for the group of us before we even know what the election results are. But I'd like to see our caucus continue to go in the direction we have, to make North Carolina among the top states to do business. I want to continue to improve our university and K-12 education systems, as well as the community college (system), and just look for the needs we have. We've got some challenges in our prison systems that need to be fixed, and also probably in our mental health systems, so I think there's some big things we need to address, and just need to collaborate and see what the best way to work on those is."

More:Asheville council race: Ullman wins night, incumbents Smith and Mosley retain seats

More:Election Day 2022: Asheville-area updates on midterm voting

More:Miller victorious for 2nd term in Buncombe County Sheriff's race

After recent redistricting, District 46 covers eastern Buncombe County, excluding Asheville, as well as McDowell and Burke counties.

Daniel has served in the state senate since 2011. During the 2022 campaign, he touted his conservative credentials by voicing his support for cutting taxes and regulations on businesses, implementing voter ID law, anti-abortion policy and referencing his "A" rating from the National Rifle Association, among other things.

Martin told the News & Observer in an October voting guide that, if elected, some of his priorities would be higher teacher pay and retention, Medicaid expansion and providing broadband and internet service throughout the state.

Warren Daniel

More:Schools without teachers: What candidates say about NC teacher pay, lowest in region

More:NC House candidates on COVID policies, Asheville homelessness, student loan forgiveness

Democrat Eric Ager, a a former naval aviator and foreign area officer, has beaten Republican Everett Pittillo, a heating and air conditioning mechanic from the Broad River community, in the race for District 114 in the North Carolina House of Representatives. Ager has 68.62% with a ballot count of 28,631. The district covers East Buncombe County, including central and East Asheville.

In addition to thanking volunteers and voters, Ager said he was grateful to the organizing network that had been built by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, the Democratic candidate for the United States House.

His priorities now will be "accessible and affordable mental healthcare for veterans and others," spreading high-speed internet to rural areas and bringing farmers and environmentalists together to "help us have a better, cleaner place to live."

Democrat Lindsey Prather, a former teacher who went on to work at UNC Asheville, has beaten Republican Pratik Bhakta, a South Asheville hotelier, in the race for District 115. The district covers south and southwest Buncombe County, including West and South Asheville. Prather has a ballot count of 20,719, or 57.36%.

"I'm incredibly grateful for all the support that I've gotten," Prather said. "I've worked really hard to build a reputation in the community of someone who cares and wants to listen, and I think people heard that."

"I have spent my entire adult life in our public schools, and so I'm going to continue working for them," she said.

In the race for District 116, Democratic state Rep. Caleb Rudow unofficially to have beaten Mollie Rose. Rudow, who was first appointed to represent District 114 in February, has 62.22% of the vote with a ballot count of 24,884. The district covers north and northwest Buncombe County, including West Asheville.

"This is before we really know what the party leaning is going to be in Raleigh, but I really think we can make some real progress on affordable housing. We're really focused on trying to get some funding and help for the French Broad River, and trying to increase funding for public education."

Finding shared goals across the political aisle will be a priority for him, he said.

Rudow was appointed to the District 114 seat in February after former state Rep. Susan Fisher announced her resignation.

Ryan Oehrli covers public safety for the Citizen Times. Send tips to coehrli@citizentimes.com or 828-232-5907.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: NC House, Senate races: Mayfield, Ager, Prather, Rudow, Daniel take wins
Maura-Healey - Credit: (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Voters in Tuesdays midterms delivered a series of historic firsts for minorities and marginalized people. Minority candidates, women, and members of the LGBTQ community will be taking up the mantle of elected office in their states for the first time.

In both local and national races, LGBTQ individuals will be occupying seats and offices for the first time, overcoming an election cycle marked by vicious attacks against the LGBTQ community.

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In Massachusetts, Maura Healey defeated Republican Geoff Diehl to become both the first woman and first open lesbian to hold the states governorship. Shes also the first open lesbian to to be elected governor of any state. One cross-country red eye away in Oregon, Democrat Tina Kotek is in a tight race become the second. If Kotek wins, shed replace the states current historic governor Kate Brown, the nations first openly bisexual governor.

At the congressional level, Becca Balint won a landslide victory to become the first lesbian, and first woman, to occupy Vermonts single seat in the House of Representatives. Balint previously became the states first lesbian state senator in 2014. Its such an incredible honor, Balint said in an interview shortly after her election, celebrating that people in Vermont can finally see themselves in elected office.

Becca Balint (@BeccaBalintVT) will be the first woman and first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in the U.S. House of Representatives.



Watch our election night livestream: https://t.co/V30s2vE2ge pic.twitter.com/ujUIeiX4w3  Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 9, 2022

New Hampshire elected James Roesener and became the first state in the country to elect a transgender man into their legislature. From safeguarding reproductive rights to increasing investment in New Hampshires education and health care systems, James is well prepared to enact legislation that will deliver lasting results for his community, Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund and a former mayor of Houston, wrote in a statement. Trans people  and trans men in particular  remain severely underrepresented in government at every level, but we are confident his win will inspire many more trans people to run for office.

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The historic firsts didnt end with the LGBTQ community. Maryland elected Wes Moore as the states first Black governor. In his acceptance speech, Moore thanked voters for believing in the son of an immigrant.

It is not lost on me that Ive made some history here tonight, wrote Moore in a statement on Twitter. But I also know Im not the first one to try. This is just more proof that progress is possible in Maryland. And I am humbled to be a part of this legacy.

"You believed in a son of an immigrant," Wes Moore said to supporters after his historic win in Maryland.



Moore will become Maryland's first Black governor, reclaiming the office from the GOP in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1. https://t.co/3a2umb7bgf pic.twitter.com/eQ6hhz0E2B  NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) November 9, 2022

In Florida, the youth claimed a victory, with Maxwell Alejandro Frost securing a victory as the first member of Gen-Z to be elected to the House of Representatives. WE WON!!!! the 25-year-old wrote on Twitter. History was made tonight. We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the United States Congress.

Frost, a prolific organizer and activist who has worked with both the ACLU and the March for Our Lives, ran on a progressive platform that promises to end gun violence, win Medicare For All, transform our racist criminal justice system, and end the climate crisis. In a tweet following the announcement of his victory, Frost wrote that his campaign had for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.

TODAY, GEN-Z IS GOING TO CONGRESS BAYBEEEE, he added later.

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The first comprehensive online catalogue listing looted artworks from the Kingdom of Benin is now live, with the potential to profoundly impact the restitution of such items from institutions worldwide.

The database, called Digital Benin, identifies the location of more than 5,000 African artifacts that have become flash points in the debate over whether Western cultural institutions should return cultural heritage taken during periods of colonization.

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The Benin Bronzes are a group of thousands of historic objects that were taken from the Royal Palace of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, during a violent 1897 expedition by British troops.

Digital Benin currently identifies 131 institutions across 20 countries with Benin cultural heritage in their collections. Entries include provenance details provided by participating institutions, high-resolution images, and the title of the work in the English and Edo languages. Visitors to the website can also access a collection of oral histories narrated by Benin artists and elders that expand on the significance of the artworks to local art and culture.

The website also includes a disclaimer that says it is important to underline that the quality of provenance data provided by museums varies considerably from one institution and from one object to another. The number of objects associated with these names is thus merely an indication of what has been documented by museums and not of the actual number of objects related to or indeed looted by them.

The initiative is led by Barbara Plankensteiner, director of the Museum am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Kunste der Welt (MARKK) in Hamburg and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation in Munich. Digital Benins 14-person project team, which includes experts based in Nigeria, Kenya, and the U.S., conducted scientific outreach with museums across the globe for some two years before the launch. Among the participating museums are Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art in the U.S., the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, the National Gallery of Australia, the Benin City National Museum, and the Royal Ontario Museum.

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The Benin Bronzes have faced calls for their return, both within Nigeria and outside it, for decades, however only in recent years have substantial repatriations been made. In the past two years, the Glasgow Museums, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have either returned Benin works in their collections or begun the process of deaccessioning looted bronze holdings. This summer, the German government signed an agreement transferring ownership of more than 1,100 bronzes to Nigeria.

Germany will also contribute to the construction of the Edo Museum of West African Art. The new museum is being designed by architect David Adjaye and is currently set to open in 2025 in Benin City. It is expected to host the most comprehensive collection of Benin Bronzes to date.

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MILAN  Pomellato is acquiring a minority stake in Costanzo & Rizzetto, a Valenza, Italy-based goldsmith company.

Through this long-term partnership, the goal of Pomellato, controlled by Kering, is to strengthen its production capacity.

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This is the first such deal for the Milan-based jewelry firm. Financial details were not disclosed.

This is a fundamental step for the development of Pomellato, said chief executive officer Sabina Belli. We are very happy that Davide Costanzo and Gregorio Rizzetto have become our partners. The path ahead of us is exciting and each of our expertise tied to the future synergies will contribute to take a step forward in all of our production processes.

Pomellato is eyeing further growth through the experience of Costanzo & Rizzettos team, joining forces to enhance its jewelry made by hand.

Costanzo and Rizzettos parents were the owners of two companies that produced and set precious jewelry pieces in the 70s in Valenza, a key jewelry manufacturing hub in Italy.

In 1994, Davide Costanzo married Elena Rizzetto, who is Gregorios sister and in 2008, Davide and Gregorio decided to set up a business venture called Costanzo e Rizzetto srl, combining craftsmanship and technological innovation. The company has been working with some of the most prestigious international jewelry houses. The production cycle is carried out entirely in-house.

Within its workshop, artisans cast and manufacture gold pieces  using 18-karat, 14k and 9k gold in any color  and items in silver, platinum and palladium. Costanzo & Rizzetto has a special competence in creating enamel work, applying geometrical or pictorial motifs.

For years, Belli has highlighted the craftsmanship of Pomellato and the Italian goldsmith tradition.

In 2018, Pomellato unveiled its partnership with the Galdus Goldsmith Academy, whereby the company supported the school financially, all the while providing experts to teach at the school, structuring seminars and offering apprenticeships to students.

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The high-education programs aimed at training the next generation of goldsmiths  spanning three to seven years  secured the support of the Lombardy region and recognizes the students with a certificate as Specialized Craftsmanship Technicians for Manufactured Goldsmith Goods. The latter is recognized not only in Italy but also throughout Europe.

Italy has seen a wave of merger and acquisition activity of late, as luxury brands are aiming to protect the countrys manufacturing pipeline and ensure business continuity. Most recently, wool mill Gruppo Piacenza SpA bought the storied Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, which marked its 140th anniversary last year.

Pomellato was founded by the late Pino Rabolini in 1967, translating the concept of ready-to-wear into jewelry, introducing the idea of pieces chosen by women for themselves.

Kering took control of Pomellato in 2013, further building the brands storied collections such as Montenapoleone; Iconica  the first ring introduced by Rabolini; Sabbia; MAma Non MAma and Nudo and leveraging its colored gems, sleek designs  cocooning rings, chain bracelets and necklaces in gold or pink gold  and Milanese goldsmith tradition and craftsmanship. In 1995, Rabolini launched the more accessible label Dodo, a fun collection of animal-shaped charms.

Pomellato is gearing up to next year celebrate the 20th anniversary of Vincenzo Castaldo as creative director of the brand.
Rep. Sean Casten speech

Congressman Sean Casten/facebook Kara, Sean, Audrey and Gwen Casten

Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois tearfully celebrated a bittersweet win for reelection on Tuesday night, five months after the death of his teenage daughter Gwen Casten by sudden cardiac arrhythmia.

"This has been a really, really hard five months," Casten, 50, told supporters at a returns-watching party at a union hall in the Chicago-area suburb of Burr Ridge. Casten's wife, Kara, and younger daughter, Audrey, 14, stood nearby, holding hands.

"The last time I did an election in a room this big, Gwen was up here with us," said Casten, his voice choked by emotion.

"I have a picture on my desk of all of us in that moment and there's such joy on her face, it's hard not to have her here," continued the businessman and scientist who was elected to his first term in the U.S. House in 2018.

Wiping tears from his eyes, he looked to his left  at his wife and Audrey  and went on: "I'm so lucky to have you two."

RELATED: U.S. Rep. Sean Casten's 17-Year-Old Daughter Has Died: 'She Was So Loved'

Gwen Casten, daughter of Rep. Sean Casten

VoteCasten/Twitter Gwen Casten

Gwen was 17, freshly graduated from high school and preparing to study environmental science at Vermont University this fall, when she went to sleep on June 12 and never woke up. Her mother found her unresponsive in her bed the next morning. The family later released the cause of death as sudden cardiac arrhythmia, explaining in an Instagram post: "in layman's terms, she was fine, and then her heart stopped. ... We don't know what caused the arrhythmia, and likely never will."

An honor student, Gwen was known as a compassionate activist at Downers Grove North High School, where she founded the Empowerment Club. Shortly before her death, she appeared in one of her father's campaign ads, talking about how she would turn 18 this year.

"Lots of milestones," Gwen said in the ad. "Like voting for the first time. But not just for anyone ... Sean Casten. My congressman. But I just call him Dad."

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Rep. Sean Casten speech

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On Tuesday night, that dad asked his team of staff, volunteers and supporters to carry on Gwen's legacy.

"Tonight is not a night to dunk on the other team. It's not a night to conclude that some parts of our community are good and other parts are irredeemable. It's a night to reflect on how tonight happened," Casten said.

"On a personal level, I can't stand here tonight without [Kara] and Audrey. We've spent the last five months doing our best to be each other's rocks  to give stability when we could and space when we couldn't, doing our best to remind ourselves as much as we could by reminding each other that life is fleeting and we had better make the most of the time that we have together because when the sadness and the fear and the pain finally washes away, the one thing that's left is love.

"Let's all do everything we can to shore that up," he continued. "First with each other and then by expanding that circle of love because that's where you find the hope."
Jim Pillen's campaign; Carol Blood's campaign; Insider

Republican Jim Pillen defeated Democratic state Sen. Carol Blood in Nebraska's gubernatorial race.

Both candidates were campaigning on addressing the state's workforce shortage.

The race was pegged as "solid Republican."

Republican Jim Pillen defeated Democrat Carol Blood in Nebraska's gubernatorial election. Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts was unable to run for reelection due to term limits.

Nebraska's gubernatorial candidates

Pillen currently represents the 3rd District on the University Board of Regents. He's also a pig farmer, veterinarian, and founder of Pillen Family Farms and DNA Genetics.

Pillen was campaigning on addressing the state's workforce shortage, state aid for public schools, and opportunities for students in community colleges and trade schools. He advanced from the crowded nine-way Republican primary with over 30% of the vote.

Blood, Pillen's opponent, served on the Nebraska State Senate representing the 3rd District. She also campaigned on addressing Nebraska's dramatic workforce shortage that deeply affected blue-collar jobs.

Her plan includes giving high school seniors the opportunity to take community college courses free of charge through a public-private partnership.

Prior to being elected to the state senate, Blood served two terms on the Bellevue City Council as the at-large representative.

Nebraska's voting history

Nebraska backed former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in a 19 percentage point margin of victory in 2020. The state is reliably Republican, having last voted for a Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1964.

What experts say

The race between Pillen and Blood was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/

Rep. Angie Craig defeated Republican Tyler Kistner in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District.

The 2nd District is located south of the Twin Cities.

Republican and Democrat House campaign arms both targeted the race as a priority.

Second-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig defeated Republican Tyler Kistner.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District candidates

Craig is a member of House committees on Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Small Business. She is the state's first openly gay member of Congress, and she co-chairs the LGBTQ Equality Caucus. She's also a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of centrists who are pro-business and fiscally moderate or conservative.

She is a former newspaper reporter and former medical device executive.

Kistner served nine years on active duty in the Marine Corps before transitioning to the reserves. He describes himself as a small business owner and consultant on his LinkedIn profile.

Republican and Democratic House campaign arms have both targeted the race as a priority.

Voting history for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District

Minnesota's 2nd District includes rural and suburban counties south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

The district backed President Joe Biden by nearly 7 percentage points under its previous boundaries in 2020 and former President Donald Trump by 1.2 percentage points in 2016, Daily Kos data shows.

The district was redrawn by a panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. The new map is "nearly identical in competitiveness" to the old one, and Craig's district is still considered highly competitive, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Craig flipped the seat from red to blue in 2018 after a rematch campaign against former Republican Rep. Jason Lewis. She defeated Kistner, her current opponent, in 2020 by about 2 percentage points.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Craig had raised $7.2 million, spent $6.5 million, and had $1.8 million on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Kistner, had raised $3.1 million, spent $2.7 million, and had $419,710 left to spend, as of October 19.

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Super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups together spent almost $18 million as of November 3 to advocate for or against the two candidates. The pro-Republican super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund led all spenders through mid-October.

What experts say

The race between Craig and Kistner was rated as a "toss up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Republican strategists have blamed former president Donald Trump for the fact that a supposed red tsunami failed to materialise as midterm results began to roll in on Tuesday evening.

Throughout the country, races that were thought to be layups for Republicans instead favoured Democratic candidates. In New Hampshire, retired brigadier general Don Bolduc lost handily to Senator Maggie Hassan.

While Ted Budd won North Carolinas Senate seat, Bo Hines, Mr Trumps preferred candidate in the congressional seat Mr Budd was vacating, lost to Democrat Wiley Nickel. In addition, Sandy Smith, whom Mr Trump also backed, lost to Don Davis in North Carolinas 1st district.

Elsewhere, Tim Michels, Mr Trumps anointed pick to run for governor of Wisconsin, lost to incumbent Governor Tony Evers, while Mehmet Oz, the former television host and physician, lost Pennsylvanias Republican-held Senate seat to Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.

Tonight's results lie squarely at the feet of Donald J Trump, a Republican strategist who requested anonymity told The Independent. Had he not endorsed extremely flawed candidates in the primary, we would be having an amazing night tonight. Instead, we are losing very winnable races.

Similarly, Republicans failed to flip seats in Virginias 7th and 10th district, while Republican Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio lost his race on election night. Republicans also came up short in Rhode Islands 2nd district, which they hoped to flip.

Meanwhile, even though all of Arizonas votes have yet to be counted, pro-Trump former news anchor Kari Lake trailed significantly behind Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the gubernatorial race. In addition, Senator Mark Kelly, held a significant lead against Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters.

Former President Donald Trump greats guests at Mar-a-lago on the day of the 2022 midterm elections (AP)

Mike Madrid, a co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told The Independent that Republican strategists who were upset did not have room to complain.

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You cant complain against what you enable, he said over direct message.

Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee spokesperson, said that Mr Trump held some blame but there were other larger factors in play, such as the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade in its Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organisation. He added that it was tough to blame Mr Trump for the Dobbs decision in that most Republicans wouldve nominated similar justices. But candidate quality? Thats Trump.

In addition, Representative Lauren Boebert, one of Mr Trumps biggest apologists, looked to be on the verge or losing, if not facing a closer-than-expected race as of Wednesday morning.

At the same time, not all Republicans whom Mr Trump backed lost. Along with Mr Budd in North Carolinas Senate race, JD Vance won Ohios open Senate race and Senator Marco Rubio, a former critic of Mr Trump when they ran against each other for president, handily won re-election.

But elsewhere, Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker in Georgia is locked in a tight race with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock. Mr Trump pushed Mr Walker, a legendary former running back and Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Georgia, to run and readily endorsed him. Mr Walker may have to face Mr Warnock in a runoff race.

Conversely, some of the Republicans who irritate the former president performed better. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who rebuffed Mr Trumps entreaties to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, easily did away with former state legislator and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams.

Mr Trump had endorsed former Senator David Perdue in the gubernatorial primary, but Mr Perdue severely underperformed.

Similarly, Governor Ron DeSantis, whom Mr Trump endorsed in 2018 but whom he sees as a potential threat for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, handily beat former Democratic congressman Charlie Crist.

The election results come as Mr Trump has hinted that he will announce a candidacy to seek a second term for president in 2024. The race would come when eight Democratic Senators are up for re-election.
Statehouse Democrats had a successful night in Springfield on Tuesday, flipping a House seat and holding both of their sitting members' House seats  including their caucus leader's. Republicans managed to hold onto an open House seat, while sending the likely next Senate budget chair back for a second term.

House District 132: Crystal Quade wins a final term

The leader of the House Democrats faced a more harrowing race this fall in an altered Springfield district but won re-election for a final two-year term Tuesday night.

Crystal Quade will return to Jefferson City for her fourth term representing the 132nd district, and will also return as the head of the Democratic caucus in the House. First elected in 2016 and voted into leadership in 2018 and 2020, Quade will term out of the chamber in 2024.

Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade is seeking a final term as the leader of the Democratic caucus.

With all but a small number of overseas ballots counted, Quade earned more than 56% of the vote in the district representing parts of downtown and northwest Springfield, against about 44% for Republican challenger Stephanos Freeman.

As minority leader, Quade has served as a key messenger in opposition to many Republican priorities, while also aiming to work across the aisle to accomplish some of her own party's proposals. She's been a vocal opponent of Missouri's abortion ban, holding community town halls after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and filing legislation during a special session that would repeal the state ban.

Election 2022:Springfield's sitting lawmakers face shifting district lines, well-funded challengers in 2022 election

House District 135: Betsy Fogle wins another two years in toss-up district

Democrat Betsy Fogle also will return for another term in Jefferson City, keeping her seat in a toss-up district she narrowly flipped last election.

Fogle, who won the 135th district in northeast Springfield by a few dozen votes in 2020, posted a more sizable lead over Republican challenger AJ Exner. Late results showed Fogle with 56% to Exner's 44% of votes.

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She'll enter her second term having established herself as a Democratic voice on the House budget committee, and an outspoken advocate for health and child care access as a former public health programming leader. While often voting for and supporting Democratic priorities, Fogle has also toed the lines between parties in her district, including a vote in support of a recent Republican-led tax cut.

Her victory in one of the few toss-up statehouse districts is a key one for Democrats, who entered the cycle hoping to at least hold their current minority numbers in both chambers. Fogle was the only candidate to flip a district from one party to another in 2020, and staved off Exner's challenge Tuesday to keep the seat blue for another two years.

Election 2022:This Missouri House district was decided by 79 votes in 2020. All eyes are on it again.

House District 136: Stephanie Hein narrowly defeats incumbent Craig Fishel

Stephanie Hein

Democrat Stephanie Hein led by 202 votes to flip a southeast Springfield state House seat held by Republican Craig Fishel on Tuesday.

Hein, a Missouri State University professor, raised upwards of $100,000 in her challenge to Fishel, a former Springfield city councilman who was seeking his third term in the House.

Hein held just shy of 51% of the vote to Fishel's 49% at the latest count and represented the narrowest margin of any Springfield contest. Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller said in a message to the News-Leader he did not anticipate the small number of forthcoming military and overseas ballots would impact the outcome in Hein and Fishel's race.

On the campaign trail and in an interview, Hein said she was focused on fully funding government services to give Missourians easier access to health care, education and quality infrastructure, while criticizing a recent tax cut and other GOP-led measures.

Hein's apparent victory marks a significant win for Democrats, who were granted an opportunity to strike after the previously Republican-favored 136th district became more competitive through redistricting (Fishel won by 17 percentage points, or around 4,000 votes, in 2020). It is the second Springfield-area district to flip Democratic over the last two election cycles.

Election 2022:Springfield's sitting lawmakers face shifting district lines, well-funded challengers in 2022 election

House District 133: Melanie Stinnett keeps southwest Springfield red

Republican Melanie Stinnett won the race for an open state House seat in southwest Springfield by a wider margin on Tuesday night, as she defeated Democrat Amy Blansit and kept the district in Republican hands.

Stinnett, the founder of speech therapy business TheraCare, will go to Jefferson City representing a district previously held by Republican Rep. Curtis Trent, who won a seat in the state Senate on Tuesday.

She led Blansit, the CEO and founder of the nonprofit Drew Lewis Foundation, with 52% of the vote.

Stinnett's victory represents a win for Republicans in the 133rd House district, which after redistricting became competitive. The majority party was able to keep it from flipping as Democrats have aimed to gain ground in the Springfield area in recent election cycles. Stinnett has focused her campaign on health care and de-regulation to assist small businesses.

Election 2022:Two women, both active in Springfield advocacy, vie for a toss-up state House seat

House District 134: Alex Riley beats Battlefield councilwoman in new southern district

Alex Riley

Republican Alex Riley easily won a second term in a radically different 134th district, now representing Battlefield and communities in southern Springfield. That district remains favorable to Republicans, but Riley faced a local challenge from Democrat Samantha Deaton, a Battlefield city councilwoman.

In the latest count, Riley was up 63% to Deaton's 37%, with more than 3,600 votes separating the two.

Riley, an attorney who also serves on the House budget committee, focused on issues of business and the economy as voters raise concerns about the cost of living. Deaton, who ran a longshot campaign, focused on hearing voters' top concerns, which she says includes access to affordable child care.

State Senate: Lincoln Hough wins second term, aiming to be budget chair

Republican Lincoln Hough, who fended off a primary challenge from former Springfield city councilwoman Angela Romine, defeated Democrat Raymond Lampert. He'll return to Jefferson City as the chair of the Senate budget committee. He notched a legislative victory in spearheading efforts to pass an income tax cut earlier this fall, and is likely to hold significant sway in crafting the state's annual spending plan.

Hough held 57% of the vote to Lampert's 42% in the latest tally.

Lampert, a Springfield attorney who previously mounted an unsuccessful campaign against Republican Rep. John Black of Marshfield, voiced support for public schools in Springfield and opposition to the state's abortion ban. Lampert has done little fundraising or spending in comparison to Hough.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

Susan Szuch is the health and public policy reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on Twitter @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Election 2022 results for Springfield state House and Senate districts
One of several fires set overnight completely destroys Epiphany Lutheran Church in Jackson, Miss., November 8, 2022.

Authorities say a suspect was arrested Tuesday in a string of fires that were deliberately set across Jackson, Mississippi that left two historically Black churches damaged  including one that was completely destroyed.

Hinds County Sheriff's Office deputies say the arson suspect, Delvin McLaurin, was arrested after seven fires were intentionally set early Tuesday morning in the area of Jackson State University, a historically Black public university.

A spokesperson for the Jackson Police Department said he is being charged with felony malicious mischief. He is being questioned by the FBI and may face additional charges.

The locations of the seven fires were:

Greater Bethlehem Temple Church at 1505 Robinson Road

Epiphany Lutheran Church at 1230 Isaiah Montgomery Street

Baseball Field on Jackson State University campus

Gas Station on Terry Road

Central Street and Dalton

1101 Pascagoula Street

Terry Road and Cherry Street

Officials started to receive calls about several fires starting around 2:45 a.m. Officials said six of the seven fires were put out by 6 a.m. Epiphany Lutheran Church, one of the oldest predominately Black Lutheran churches in Mississippi, burned for more than four hours before the fire was extinguished.

Lloyd Caston, 73, an elder at Epiphany, was awoken around 4 a.m. by a call from a family member who lives in the churchs neighborhood. Alerted to the fire, he left his home and arrived at the church around 4:30 a.m. to find the building fully enflamed.

I was hurt, Caston said as he thought back to seeing the church on fire.

The fire department was on the scene attempting to put out the fire when Caston arrived. He stayed about an hour and left before the fire was extinguished. There wasnt nothing we could do but sit and watch, Caston said. That was it.

It destroyed the church and everything in it, Caston said. The church is 85 years old, and renovations to the buildings interior had just been completed in March.

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The fire at Greater Bethlehem Temple Church also left damage. Ervin Ricks, communications director for the church, told ABC 16 the area of the church that housed Sunday school for children was damaged in the blaze.

"We can't always understand why people do evil, but we know that it's our job. It's our job to overcome evil with good. That's why we're committed to continue to help this community," Ricks told the outlet.

Patrick Armon, assistant Jackson fire chief, said he received the news about the fires around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Jackson police, investigating the crimes as arson, identified McLaurin as a suspect. Police spokesman Sam Brown said McLaurin was in the area of the fires during the hours they were set.

The city and police department posted his image on social media, and they warned that the suspect was considered dangerous but not armed. He was captured several hours later.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said at Tuesday's city council meeting that the fires are "believed to be arson."

Responding to speculation that the timing may be election related Lumumba said, "it is too early in the investigation to know what the motive may be."

No polling places were affected, Armon said.

Democratic congressional candidate Shuwaski Young of District 3 released a statement early Tuesday morning, calling the fires acts of "terrorism."

Greater Bethlehem Temple is where a lot of us JSU students attended church back in the 90's. I assume still. It's a historic church! It has been destroyed. They are saying it may or may not be election motivated. 7 structures set fire around JSU last night https://t.co/MsfAr62ypA  GlassBones (@GlassBones4) November 8, 2022

"This morning several churches were burned in Jackson, Mississippi on Election Day," the statement read. "These cowardly actions invoke historical acts of terrorism when people are fighting for their right to vote and live peacefully as Americans and Mississippians. We will not be deterred and will not be intimidated. We will not allow domestic terrorists to suppress our right to vote. I ask all Mississippians to go vote regardless of this decades old intimidation tactic to suppress our votes today. Just go vote."

Jackson officials did not connect the fires with an attempt to affect Tuesday's election.

Contributing: Freelance writer Ed Inman; Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jackson, Mississippi arson suspect arrested in fires at Black churches
Tennessee-voters.jpg - Credit: Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian/AP

Slavery was on the ballot in five states on Tuesday, with four of them  Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont, and Oregon  approving constitutional amendments to abolish the use of involuntary labor as a form of punishment. The fifth, Louisiana, rejected the measure after the Democratic state lawmaker who proposed it wound up telling voters to oppose it over an issue with the wording on the ballot.

BREAKING: Slavery has officially been banned as punishment in Tennessee. https://t.co/AadakHWGdh pic.twitter.com/T4HzSGHlkU More from Rolling Stone  FOX13 Memphis (@FOX13Memphis) November 9, 2022

The ballot measures address a caveat in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. The loophole was exploited by many former slaveholding states, including Louisiana, to criminalize newly freed former slaves and create involuntarily held workforces during Reconstruction. Louisiana has long been home to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a sprawling prison-farm nicknamed Angola. Malcolm Alexander, a former inmate who was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for almost four decades and exonerated in 2018, described working at Angola as something like you see in old pictures of slavery  we even had a quota we had to meet at the end of the day.

The amendment in Louisiana, submitted by state Rep. Edmond Jordan, would have abolished both slavery and involuntary servitude in the state. The language of the amendment was changed, however, in order to exempt prison sentences, resulting in confusion and Jordan ultimately urging voters to reject the measure, promising to resubmit a clean version to voters.

Before Tuesdays midterms, only four other states had barred slavery as a form of punishment, Colorado, Rhode Island, and as of 2020, Nebraska and Utah. It is time for all Americans to come together and say that it must be struck from the U.S. Constitution, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told the Associated Press. There should be no exceptions to a ban on slavery.

The votes this week are a major step in establishing labor rights for incarcerated people. Incarcerated workers are under the complete control of their employers, and they have been stripped of even the most minimal protections against labor exploitation and abuse, reads an ACLU report published in June. The ACLU has advocated for a total repeal of federal and state constitutional exception clauses allowing slavery and involuntary servitude to be used as punishment for a criminal conviction.

This piece has been updated to reflect Rep. Edmond Jordans call for voters to reject the slavery amendment in Louisiana.

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Former President Donald Trump is spending election day trying to undermine Americans trust in the election process on Truth Social.

Mr Trump used his social media platform to baselessly insinuate that voter fraud was occurring in several states during the midterm elections and encouraged voters to protest, protest, protest.

"The Absentee Ballot situation in Detroit is REALLY BAD. People are showing up to Vote only to be told, sorry, you have already voted. This is happening in large numbers, elsewhere as well. Protest, Protest, Protest," he wrote on his social media platform.

What Mr Trump is referring to is an incident in which some Detroit voters who went to cast a ballot in-person were told they had already voted absentee. What he leaves out from his post is that no one was told they could not vote, and their ballots were still counted.

"Some voters in Detroit who voted in person were told they had already voted absentee. The department of elections is aware of the problem  hard lists will be used not electronic ones  and everyone will be allowed to vote," Charlie Langton, an attorney and legal analyst for Fox 2 Detroit, reported.

A lawsuit brought by Michigans Republican candidate for Secretary of State, Kristina Karamo seeking to force voters who cast absentee ballots to either vote in person or obtain an absentee ballot by visiting the Detroit City Clerks office was thrown out on Monday. The lawsuit, has it succeeded, likely would have invalidated thousands of absentee ballots that had already been cast during early voting.

Mr Trump also claimed that voting machine malfunctions in Maricopa County are "greatly harming" Republicans like gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Senate candidate Blake Masters.

In a video bulletin to Arizona voters posted on Truth Social, Mr Trump said: "To the great people of Arizona, Maricopa County in particular: don't leave your line. Stay where you are.

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They say that the machines arent working, they say that they're running out of paper in diferent locations throughout different states  there's a lot of bad things going on...

Stay in line. Do not leave. They want to delay you out of voting, and you cannot let them delay you out of voting..,, already a lot of people have left, and it's very, very unfair what's going on. Maricopa County, don't leave  stay there."

While approximately 20 per cent of the counting machines in Maricopa County did experience malfunctions, Bill Gates, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman, released a video explaining the situation and assured voters that everyones vote would be counted.

He said that Maricopa County voters could vote anywhere in the county and that those who did vote at the sites with malfunctioning machines would still have their votes counted, though they would first have to be transferred to a balloting location with functional counters.

In a third post, Mr Trump claimed that the "same thing is happening with Voter Fraud as happened in 2020???"

As no widespread voter fraud was found to have occurred in the 2020 election, Mr Trump appears to have shared correct information.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

Republican Sen. Mike Lee secured a third term Tuesday after defeating independent challenger Evan McMullin.

Lees re-election bid was the most unusual of his career so far, with Utah Democrats scrapping their own nominee for the race in favor of McMullin, giving voters only those two options.

By backing McMullin at their convention and foregoing a Democratic candidate, the race became more competitive with polling showing a persistently high number of undecided voters. The gap between Lee and McMullin settled around 10 points in the closing weeks, according to FiveThirtyEights model.

Lee delivered a strong debate performance against McMullin, but he struggled to address his connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection and his texts with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. While Lee ultimately voted to certify the election, he heavily downplayed the text messages, which showed him engaged in an intensive effort just days before the riot to find a way Trump could be declared the winner.

If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path, Lee told Meadows on Dec. 8, 2020.

McMullin campaigned heavily on saving democracy in addition to presenting himself as Utahs own version of a Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin.

"If we prevail in this race, it will make Utah the most influential state in the union because nothing will get through the Senate without Utahs support, McMullin said in the debate.

That wont be happening anytime soon, and with McMullin falling short even in the absence of a Democratic nominee, its unclear where Utah Democrats will go from here.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Elijah Behnke

Republican Elijah Behnke easily held off the challenge of Democrat Jane Benson to win reelection Tuesday to represent the 89th Assembly District in the Wisconsin Legislature.

With 82% of precincts reporting, Behnke, R-Oconto, had garnered 12,540 votes, 65.9% of those cast, to 6,498 (34.1%) for Benson, D-Suamico, who was seeking political office for the first time.

This is the second time Behnke won an election for the seat, but it will be for his first full two-year term in office. He earned the seat in April 2021 by winning a special election to replace former Rep. John Nygren, who resigned in December 2020. Behnke beat four other candidates in a GOP primary election in February 2021 with 44.75% of the vote, then defeated Democratic Party candidate Karl Jaeger with more than 63% of the vote in the April 2021 special election.

Behnke's win continues a 30-year Republican Party hold on the seat in the 89th District, which covers the eastern part of Oconto County, southern Marinette County and a small portion of northwestern Brown County. John Gard held the seat from 1992 to 2006, and Nygren held it from 2006 until his resignation in 2020.

More:Green Bay-area election results

Benson is a website developer who has been involved in local politics, serving as a poll worker in Suamico and previously working with the League of Women Voters and other groups on voting and legislative issues.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin election, 89th Assembly: Behnke rolls to re-election
From the most recent Sexiest Man Alive crowning, to all the fuss about the Powerball, here's the top stories from the past week.
The French style muse also shares her thoughts on the "different emotion" Virginie Viard brings to the house.

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

The most recent Chanel collections have all been hits to brand ambassador, frequent model and perennial muse Caroline de Maigret.

Obviously, there's the new direction the luxury fashion house has taken under Virginie Viard, who worked at the company for 30 years (and quite closely with her predecessor, Karl Lagerfeld). But it goes deeper than just having a different person  and a woman  at the helm.

"It's a different emotion," de Maigret tells me in Miami, where Chanel had just re-staged its Cruise 2023 collection to an audience of clients, VIPs, press and friends of the Maison, like herself. "I find it very feminine. The silhouettes have changed. The proportions have changed. There's a sexiness that I love, but still very smart and elegant. I think Virginie loves movement  it was interesting because there was a lot of wind [at the Replica show], and the clothes were taking their whole interest of going on holiday. Some of the dresses were taking the wind, like, 'Yeah. I want to be that drama queen.' It's so cool."

The Spring 2023 ready-to-wear was her favorite, she says: "There's something very alive in [Viard's] work. I'm wearing it a lot, so I feel the difference."

De Maigret had already seen Cruise at the Monte Carlo debut back in May. But seeing it again, this time on Miami Beach, "worked really well," she says. "It was sporty, it was fun, it was fresh  that's how I see Miami. We had the chance of having the sea behind It was different from Monaco because that was carrying the history of Chanel: Gabrielle Chanel used to go there, Karl Lagerfeld used to live there. Here, it was just very fresh."

She's been to her fair share of Chanel shows since becoming a brand ambassador in 2013 (and walking its runway before that). What she appreciates about the spectacle is how it's not really about a trend, but more about a feeling.

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"I always feel that poetry when I see a Chanel show," she says. "There's something always a bit intellectual. It's really a special house because there's a kindness, a faithfulness in the house that I believe I can find watching the clothes. There's something very respectful of the whole work, the respect they have for the people working for the house."

When she sees something on a Chanel runway, de Maigret explains, she knows it's something "extraordinary" and "made to last forever."

"When you buy a piece of Chanel, you have it for life." she says. "You'll pass it to your children."

De Maigret knows this intimately: One of her favorite pieces in what I can only imagine is an extensive personal Chanel archive is a little black tweed jacket that Lagerfeld designed for her, which she still wears: "It works 24 hours  I wear it with jeans, I wear it with a nightgown. Either it makes it more elegant or it pulls it down."

For a weekend in Miami, though, she stuck with classics: white trousers (which she wore to the show), tank tops, T-shirts. It's all about "pieces that are really good to mix and match"  much like what we might see in a Cruise collection. Then, there's the trifecta of Chanel beauty products she knows she can depend on.

"I always take the mascara  I like the Revolution one; it's a bit heavy, but I like it thick because I like to attract people to my eyes. The foundation is so thin; it's a great cover, and it takes the light really well. And I love the eyeliner, because I'm not a very good makeup artist, and it's really easy. I like to do a little cateye  especially in Miami. It's kind of glamorous."

Disclosure: Chanel paid for Fashionista's travel and accommodations to attend the Cruise 2023 Replica show.

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In the November 8th general election Rhode Islanders will cast their vote for Governor, ballot issues and a host of other important races. Here's everything you need to know before you vote.

Polls will open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every city and town except New Shoreham, where poll hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Voters can look up their designated polling station  and, as Election Day draws closer, view sample ballots  by logging into the Voter Information Center: https://vote.sos.ri.gov/

For Live Results:Rhode Island Live Election Results

RI General Election Voting Guide: Everything you need to know to get your ballot

Democrat Seth Magaziner wins US House seat in Rhode Island

With 98% of polling places reporting Democrat Seth Magaziner held the lead over Republican Allan Fung as of 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. In his concession speech, Fung offered congratulations to Magaziner on the race. The Associated Press called the race for Seth Magaziner late Tuesday night.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

What about the three ballot questions? Did they pass?

Rhode Islanders voted Tuesday to have the state borrow $400 million in three ballot questions that will help refurbish the University of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay Campus, replenish the state's school construction fund and fund a host of environmental and recreational projects.

With 98% of precincts reporting, "yes" votes on the three referendums were leading by double digit percentage points.

More:RI voters approve all three ballot questions

Fung gives concession speech

With 98% of polling places reporting Democrat Seth Magaziner held the lead over Republican Allan Fung as of 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. In his concession speech, Fung offered congratulations to Magaziner on the race.

Magaziner had 50.1% of the vote in Rhode Island's Second Congressional District, while Fung was at 47%.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Story continues

Cicilline wins reelection campaign

David Cicilline, a Democrat who's been in Congress for a dozen years, has won a seventh term, beating Republican Allen Waters by a wide margin in Tuesday's general election.

Cicilline has taken home 64% of the vote to 36% for Waters with 191 of 195 of polling places counted, according to results from the Board of Elections.

More:Election 2022: Cicilline wins reelection to RI's 1st Congressional District

Ashley Kalus concedes to Dan McKee in gubernatorial race

Gov. Dan McKee was on his way to a decisive victory on Tuesday night after beating back an aggressive challenge from Rhode Island newcomer Ashley Kalus in his battle to keep the office he inherited a year ago.

With 96% of 414 polling places reporting, Democrat McKee had 58% of the vote, and Republican Kalus 38.8%.

Kalus called McKee Tuesday night to concede the race, and told supporters at a Republican gathering in Warwick: "When we started this campaign nine months ago, we did it to advocate for a better Rhode Island, a Rhode Island that people can be proud of."

AP had previously projected McKee as the winner of the governor's race, and with 96% of precincts reporting, McKee had a commanding lead of 58% of the vote to the 38.8% for Kalus.

'Thank you Rhode Island': McKee declares victory in the race for governor

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Matos pulls ahead in Lt. Governor race

After a close race for much of the night, incumbent Lt. Governor Sabina Matos, a Democrat, pulled ahead with a commanding lead over Republican challenger Aaron Guckian.

WPRI declared Matos the winner of the race with 96% of precincts reporting.

Matos held 51.1% of the vote to Guckian's 43.2% as of 9:50 p.m. Tuesday night.

Well be updating this story as results come inthroughout the night.

Secretary of State race has a commanding lead

Democratic Rep. Gregg Amore has a commanding lead in the race for secretary of state against Republican Pat Cortellessa.

As of results available around 9 p.m., Amore had 59.5% of the vote while Cortellessa had 40.3%.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Magaziner retakes lead in race with Fung for RI's second congressional district

With 94% of polling places reporting, Democrat Seth Magaziner held a narrow lead over Republican Allan Fung as of 9:20 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Magaziner had 50.6% of the vote in Rhode Island's second congressional district, while Fung was at 46.6%.

Moderate Bill Gilbert had 2.7% of the vote.

Though Fung received more in-person votes on the day of the election, Magaziner had about three times as many mail ballot votes. WPRI called the race for Magaziner a few minutes after 9 p.m.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Gov. Dan McKee claims lead with 90% of polling places reporting

Gov. Dan McKee claimed an early lead Tuesday in his battle against Rhode Island newcomer Ashley Kalus to keep the office he inherited a year ago when his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, left mid-term for a Biden cabinet post. And he held on.

With 90% of 441 polling places reporting, Democrat McKee had 56.1% of the vote, and Kalus 41.5%.

Additionally, NBC and ABC have called the race for Democrat Dan McKee.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Neronha sits on comfortable lead with 92% of precincts reporting

As polls closed Tuesday, Attorney General Peter F. Neronha had taken a decisive lead over his Republican challenger Charles Chas Calenda, presumably sending Neronha on to his second term as one of Rhode Islands top law enforcement officers.

With 92% of precincts reporting Neronha had 59.5% of the vote while Calenda had 40.4% of the vote.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Fung holds narrow lead in race with Magaziner

With 90% of polling places reporting, Republican Allan Fung had a narrow lead over Democrat Seth Magaziner in Rhode Island's second congressional district as of 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Fung had 49% of the vote, while Magaziner was at 48.2%.

Moderate Bill Gilbert had 2.7% of the vote.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

When will the Board of Elections start counting mail-in ballots?

Robert Rapoza, executive director of Rhode Island's Board of Elections, told the board that the states voting operations haven't hit any major snags so far today. Rapoza says results from the state's mail-in ballots should post on the boards website between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m.

Mark Reynolds, Journal Staff

Early results in Fung and Magaziner race

With 11% of polling places reporting, Democrat Seth Magaziner had an early lead over Republican Allan Fung in Rhode Island's second congressional district as of 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Magaziner had 57.3% of the vote, while Fung was at 39.8%.

Moderate Bill Gilbert had 2.8% of the vote.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Antonia Farzan, Journal Staff

In the race for general treasurer, Diossa takes the lead

With 95% of precincts reporting at around 9:30 p.m., Democrat James A. Diossa claimed victory as the state's first Latino treasurer over Republican James L. Lathrop.

Diossa had 54.3% of the vote to Lathrop's 45.5%. That was with 397 of 414 precincts reporting.

Well be updating this story as results come in throughout the night.

Paul Parker, Journal Staff

Polls close and election results for RI start coming in:

For a full breakdown of election results as they come in check out: https://election.providencejournal.com/

Robocalls go out to voters

A robocall from former President Barack Obama went out to voters throughout the state on Monday night, ahead of the election.

"Hi, this is President Barack Obama calling. Election Day is tomorrow and I'm asking you to help elect Democrat Seth Magaziner to Congress," said the call that went out to voters in the second congressional district. "This year your vote is more important than ever. If we elect Seth Magaziner and keep the Democratic majority, we can keep fighting to lower costs for families and protect a woman's right to choose."

Voters in the first congressional district received a similar message that did not name specific candidates. "Election Day is November 8th, and I'm asking you to help elect Democrats to the House of Representatives," that message said. A disclosure at the end of the message said it was "paid for by the Cicilline committee." (The Magaziner robocall was paid for by Magaziner for Congress.)

Antonia Farzan, Journal Staff

Voter turnout in Rhode Island varies wildly between communities

Voter turnout by mid-afternoon Tuesday was steady and roughly in line with 2018 -- the last midterm election year -- but varied widely from community to community.

At 3 p.m., 251,495 people had cast a ballot, including mail-in and early votes, according to the secretary of state's office. At the same time in 2018, 255,076 people had voted (if you count the 26,560 mail ballots eventually counted.)

In general, voters in cities and towns west of Narragansett Bay in the 2nd Congressional District, where Allan Fung and Seth Magaziner were locked in a high-profile race, were coming out in higher numbers than those to the east.

As of 3 p.m., 22,633 people had voted in Warwick, more than any other municipality in Rhode Island, despite it being only the third largest city. Providence, which has 108,111 more residents than Warwick, had 21,644 votes cast at 3 p.m. (Providence is the only community in the state split between the 1st and 2nd congressional districts.)

In addition to the hotly-contested congressional race, Warwick voters were also deciding on a $350 million school bond.

But the 1st Congressional District in Pawtucket, the fourth largest city in the state, had the ninth most votes cast at 3 p.m., despite having a $330 million school bond on the ballot.

After Warwick and Providence, the next highest vote totals by community at 3 p.m. were Cranston, East Providence, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Coventry, Cumberland, Pawtucket and Johnston.

For voters in Providence, 'defense of democracy' is a key issue

Mid-morning, voters tricked into the Providence Water Supply Board poll sit on Academy Ave.  many citing reproductive rights as a concern.

Cindy Holt said she feels gubernatorial candidate Ashley Kalus has been vague on her stance on abortion. Holt said healthcare and environmental issues were also top-of-mind for her as she cast her ballot.

With her was Brian Holt, who raised concerns about the fate of democracy, describing election deniers as a bunch of crazy people.

Similarly, while walking in to vote, Linda Skibski said she is worried about the potential for political violence in the future and believes the January 6 Capitol riots could be repeated.

Robert M., who shared an initial in place of his last name, called reproductive rights the biggest thing that got me down here to vote. He backed Democrat Seth Magaziner in the race for congressional district 2.

Luis Astudillo, a Classical High School teacher, said the defense of democracy is among his top issues, and like other voters, said he is concerned about rights being taken away from women when it comes to abortion.

Also on his mind was the Providence ballot initiative on whether to expand the school board and make it partially elected. He voted against that.

More:Providence council sends question on partially-elected school board to voters

Ballot initiatives were also important to voters at Nathan Bishop Middle School. Aliya Sabharwal, a progressive who was on her way out of the polling site, knew she didnt want the school board to become politicized but wasnt sure what impact elected members might have. Ultimately, Sabharwal said she didnt feel educated enough on the matter.

While many voters may be motivated by other issues such as abortion rights and the state of democracy, Alex Winder, who was with Sabharwal, said he felt those two issues werent being fought out in Rhode Island. Instead, he was more interested in affordable housing, and spending on schools and public transit.

Voters lining up at the Aspray Boathouse in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick

Voters lining up at the Aspray Boathouse in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick at 10:15 am Tuesday.

WARWICK  About two dozen voters snaked in a line outside the Aspray Boat House in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick Tuesday morning, in what seemed an unusually strong turnout.

Its extremely busy, even with the early voting, longtime elections clerk Denise Hainey said.

The numbers were higher than had been forecasted, surprising those working the polls. By 10:30 a.m., 350 people had cast a ballot.

There is a lot of contention, Hainey said. I think its the negative ads.

Up the road, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge, 32-year-old Sarah Fleischer voted Democrat.

For me, its womens rights on the ballot, and our voices need to be heard, she said.

Rosemary Tregar, 73, credited Allan Fung as being a fairly good mayor but said she too voted Democrat, given national politics.

He has aligned with Trump and the way the Republican party is now, they intend to do things that harm people, Tregar said.

As a clinical social worker, she said she knew firsthand the damage anti-abortion policies could inflict on women.

Still, she said she isnt surprised that polls show Fung neck and neck with state Treasurer Seth Magaziner for the Congress 2 seat due to Fungs strong support in conservative western Cranston.

When will votes cast before election day -- including mail ballots -- be counted and added to the totals?

The Board of Elections tabulates mail ballots as they come in from cities and towns, but they will not be added to the publicly-reported vote total until sometime after the polls close at 8 p.m. The Board expects to count all mail ballots before the end of Tuesday -- except some late-arriving ballots cast in drop boxes on election day.

Votes cast in-person before election day are also being counted as they come in and will only be reported to the public sometime after the polls close.

Who voted early? The answer may surprise you

PROVIDENCE - Before the polls opened on Tuesday, 12.4% of the state's registered voters had cast early in-person or mail ballot votes for candidates up and down Rhode Island's mid-term ballot.

The numbers as of 4:30 p.m. on Monday: A total of 101,283 out of a potential 815,417, voters cast their ballots early either in-person at their local city and town halls during R.I.'s 20-day early-voting period, or by mail ballot. Of that number, 70,796 voted in-person and another 30,487 by mail ballot under R.I.'s no-excuse absentee voting rules.

By way of comparison: the Board of Elections had received only 21,440 mail ballots by election eve in 2018, for the last big statewide election before legislators formalized early in-person voting as an option.

The vote-heavy cities that usually go Democratic - such as Providence and Pawtucket - did not lead the pack in early voting this year, suggesting higher voter interest in the western half of the state where state Treasurer Seth Magaziner, a Democrat, is battling former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, a Republican, for R.I. 2nd Congressional District seat. And that could go either way.

More:Congressional District 2: Fung, Magaziner, Gilbert reveal where they stand on key issues

The leaders of the pack this year in terms of early voters were Rhode Island's second and third largest cities - Cranston and Warwick - which are considered crucial to the outcome of the heavily contested - and nationally watched - contest for the 2nd District seat long-time Congressman Jim Langevin, a Democrat, is vacating.

Warwick led with 8,100 early and mail ballot votes so far, followed by Cranston with 6,734, the majority coming from people who voted early in-person, rather than by mail ballot.

The state's largest city - the vote-rich Providence - came in third with 6,317 early and mail ballot voters, in a year when the hotly contested mayor's race was effectively decided in the primary, and there are few other big draws on the local ballot.

Another Democratic stronghold - Pawtucket - did not even make the top ten, with 2,893 pre-election day votes.

When will votes cast before election day be counted and added to the totals?

The Board of Elections tabulates mail ballots as they come in from cities and towns, but they will not be added to the publicly-reported vote totals for each race until sometime after the polls close at 8 p.m.

The Board expects to count all mail ballots before the end of Tuesday -- except some late-arriving ballots cast in drop boxes on election day.

Votes cast in-person before election day are also being counted as they come in and will not be reported to the public until sometime after the polls close.

On Monday, the citizens advocacy group Common Cause Rhode Island reminded voters that the Election 2022 winners and losers may not be known in all cases on election day.

Rhode Island is one of 38 states that allow elections officials to begin counting mail ballots prior to the close of polls, but mail ballots returned on Election Day to any one of the 41 drop boxes across the state - as well as the temporary receptacles at all polling places -still need to be qualified before being counted.

Its crucial every voice is heard in this election and that means counting every single vote, said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. It takes time to count every vote accurately and thats why Election Day is not results day. Even though we may not know the election winners when we go to bed, what matters most is making sure every voters ballot is counted accurately.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m (except New Shoreham which opens at 9 a.m).

When do polls close

Polls are open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every city and town except New Shoreham, where poll hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Where can I find my polling location?

Voters can look up their designated polling station  and, as Election Day draws closer, view sample ballots  by logging into the Voter Information Center: vote.sos.ri.gov

Will I need an ID to vote in Rhode Island?

Yes. Voters need to present an ID, which can be a driver's license, passport, Rhode Island Voter ID Card or another form of identification listed here: vote.sos.ri.gov/Content/Pdfs/voter_id_information.pdf

Whats on my ballot

You can view a sample ballot by entering your address in the secretary of state's Voter Information Center at https://vote.sos.ri.gov/Home/PollingPlaces?ActiveFlag=2

When are polls open on Election Day?

Polls are open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every city and town except New Shoreham, where poll hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The 2022 race for RI's Governor:

After winning a crowded Democratic primary field in September, incumbent Governor Dan McKee faces Republican candidate Ashley Kalus in the 2022 general election.

Republican Ashley Kalus aims to shake up political status quoas RI governor: Ashley Kalus is the Republican nominee, and many Rhode Islanders are still wondering who she is as the Nov. 8 election approaches. Here's how she earned the Republican nomination after moving to Rhode Island in 2021

In his bid for reelection, Governor Dan McKee leans on accomplishments and allies: In January of 2021, Dan McKee took over the role of Rhode Island Governor after President Joe Biden selected Gina Raimondo as Secretary of Commerce. Since then the former Cumberland mayor has been serving as Rhode Island's governor.

Ready for round II?Ready for round II? What the Gov. Dan McKee versus Ashley Kalus race might look like

3 independent candidates for RI governor reach for the brass ring: Mckee and Kalus are not the only ones on the gubernatorial ballot, of course. Rhode Island has three independent candidates running for governor. Who are they? One led protest rallies against the COVID vaccination mandate for health-care workers. Another is a University of Rhode Island freshman. And the third is a Libertarian candidate who fought hard to get on the ballot to try to establish a toehold for his party.

Live Election Results: Check out the map of how your city or town voted

Rhode Island Voter Guide:Everything you need know to about the candidates

Race to replace Jim Langevin for Congressional District 2 seat

If youre just tuning in, a quick recap: Back in February, Jim Langevin unexpectedly announced that he would not seek reelection. It briefly felt like every politician whod ever set foot in Rhode Islands 2nd Congressional District, which covers the western half of the state, was floating the idea of running for the open seat. The field as since narrowed to two major candidates: Allan Fung and Seth Magaziner

Recent polls have suggested that Fung's emphasis on economic concerns is working: He's either held a slight lead or been neck-in-neck with Magaziner in a district that Biden won by almost 14 points in 2020 and that hasnt been represented by a Republican in almost 30 years. And he's drawing support from independent voters and some Democrats who consider the economy to be their main concern.

For a full breakdown of the candidates and the race: Will inflation woes convince Rhode Islanders to send a Republican to Congress in CD2?

What about Congressional District 1? In RI's other House race, Cicilline banks on momentum, Waters runs as an everyman

Watch the recap: How 2nd Congressional District candidates answer voter questions

3 statewide ballot questions: What you need to know:

Question 1:The URI Bay Campus referendum  Question 1  is one of three statewide ballot questions in this year's election that combined ask for permission to borrow $400 million.

Question 2 asks to put another $250-million installment into the state fund that pays for school construction.

And Question 3 would borrow $50 million for a host of environmental and recreational projects from brownfield remediation to improvements at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. It is known as the "Green Bond."

What's on the ballot? Breaking down RI's 3 statewide ballot questions

RI's Lt. Governor's race pits Aaron Guckian against Sabina Matos:

The lieutenant governor does not have many constitutional duties.

The lieutenant governor chairs four boards: the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the Alzheimer's State Plan Executive Board, the Emergency Management Advisory Council and the Small Business Advocacy Council.

The office's most important role came to the fore in March 2021, when Gov. Gina Raimondo resigned after being confirmed by the Senate as U.S. commerce secretary and McKee was sworn in to replace her.

So who's running?

Republican Aaron Guckian wants to make the RI lieutenant governor's office a help center

Aaron Guckian has big ideas about what to do with the little office and budget of the lieutenant governor's office, an elected role that carries few responsibilities until something happens to the governor...

Will lieutenant governor's office be next stop on Sabina Matos's political journey?

Sabina Matos's story begins in the Dominican Republic, where her mother was a teacher and her father "the mayor of our hometown of Paraiso in the province of Barahona."...

The race for RI General Treasurer:

The state general treasurer is responsible for managing the state's financial accounts and, perhaps most prominently, oversees the state employee retirement system, which includes some municipal employees, and manages the $10-billion investment fund that pays those pensions.

The treasurer runs the Crime Victim Compensation Program, which reimburses people for certain expenses in the aftermath of crimes and returns millions in "unclaimed property" such as money in dormant bank and business accounts.

The treasurer also can influence policy in areas such as school construction, housing, student loans and infrastructure improvements as a member of several state boards dealing with those areas.

Republican James Lathrop wants to bring financial expertise into the treasurer's office

James Diossa wants to be state treasurer. Here's how he' do the job

The race for RI Attorney General:

The top legal official in Rhode Island, the Attorney General's office is tasked with prosecuting criminal cases, protecting civil rights, protecting open and transparent government, helping consumers resolve complaints against businesses and serving as a regulatory authority in major hospital transactions. The incumbent, Peter Neronha has been in office for nearly four years and is being challenged by former prosecutor Charles Calenda.

GOP attorney general candidate Charles Calenda wants the office to 'do justice'

In his bid for reelection, Democratic AG Peter Neronha leans on his record for Rhode Islanders

The race for RI Secretary of State

The race for the secretary of states office may not bring the political thrill of the race for governor or the 2nd Congressional District, but the ballot holds big implications for the future of voting in Rhode Island.

Voters will choose between two candidates: one who has worked to ease restrictions on voting, and one who would seek to add them. Running on the Democratic slate is Rep. Gregg Amore, running on the Republican side is Pat Cortellessa, a longtime politico who works in security for a hospitality group.

More: Secretary of state race puts fight over voting rights on the ballot

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Election 2022 Live: McKee wins governor race, Magaziner leads Fung
Three Americans found dead at a rented apartment in Mexico City last month likely died of gas inhalation, police said Tuesday.

The city police department said security guards at the apartment building called after detecting an "intense smell of gas in an apartment" in an upscale neighborhood on the city's west side. Three tourists were found unresponsive on Oct. 30 and port-mortem examinations suggest they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY the tourists were U.S. citizens who were visiting Mexico.

"We are closely monitoring local authorities investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance," the statement said. "Out of respect for the privacy of the families, we have nothing further to add at this time."

Family members identified the tourists as Kandace Florence, 28, and New Orleans teacher Jordan Marshall, 28, according to WAVY, which first reported the deaths. Deanna Reddick, principal of KIPP Morial Middle School in New Orleans, confirmed the death of Courtez Hall, a 7th-grade history teacher, and said counselors would provide support to students and staff.

Relatives said the group rented an Airbnb in Mexico City to celebrate Day of the Dead last month.

On Oct. 30, Florence, who founded a candle business in 2020, told her boyfriend she was feeling sick and he contacted her Airbnb host to conduct a welfare check, WAVY reported. Authorities later found Florence, Marshall and Hall dead, according to the outlet.

Police: 3 Americans died of carbon monoxide poisoning at Bahamas Sandals resort

State Department, CDC: US travelers urged to 'avoid travel to Mexico' and 'exercise increased caution' in hot spots

"This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones as they grieve such an unimaginable loss," Elle Wye, a spokesperson for Airbnb, said in a statement to USA TODAY. "Our priority right now is supporting those impacted as the authorities investigate what happened, and we stand ready to assist with their inquiries however we can."

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Relatives of Florence, including her sister-in-law Amy Green said they have had trouble getting information about the cause of the deaths.

We thought that going to the embassy first would aid us in that regard, but they didnt have translators that could accompany us to the various places like the forensics office or police station, Green told WAVY.

Ceola Hall also said she's gotten little information on how her son died, WDSU reported.

"It's been so hard," Hall told the outlet. "We tried calling back over there for the funeral homes. Because of the language barrier and stuff you cannot get anything through or really understand."

Jennifer Marshall told WTKR her family traveled to Mexico but is still waiting for information on how her son died. She said his body has been returned to Virginia.

The Mexican police were not very forthcoming with information, she said. Also, the language barrier was incredibly difficult, as well.

Marshall's funeral is scheduled for Friday, according to WAVY and a Virginia funeral home website.

Tourists dying of gas inhalation has been a persistent problem in Mexico and other vacation destinations. Police said three Americans who were staying at a Bahamas Sandals resort in May died due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

In 2018, a gas leak in a water heater caused the deaths of an American couple and their two children in the resort town of Tulum, south of Playa del Carmen.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Contact Breaking News Reporter N'dea Yancey-Bragg at nyanceybra@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @NdeaYanceyBragg

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 3 Americans die of gas inhalation in Mexico City Airbnb
Stunning stretches of Caribbean and Pacific coastline await.

Kryssia Campos/Getty Images

With 763 miles of oceanfront real estate on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, the Central American nation of Costa Rica is a dream world for surfing, swimming, and sunbathing. Its also worth noting that all beaches are public, so travelers truly have an endless array of options. Yes, its a bit more complicated to access the sandy crescents that are backed by hotels and fronted by the ocean, but with so many incredible spots to spread out a towel and take a dip, that doesnt matter much. (Speaking of lodging, if youre looking for a place to stay thats steps from the sand, check out our list of the best Costa Rica beach resorts.)

Whether the goal is surfing, snorkeling, exploring tidal pools, or simply soaking up the sunshine, theres a Costa Rica beach  well, likely many  thats sure to live up to your idealized version of a palm-fringed paradise. Save these sun-drenched stretches so that once the plane touches down, you can just throw on your swimsuit and take full advantage of every last pura vida-filled second. Here are nine of the best beaches in Costa Rica.

Playa Santa Teresa

Deddeda/Getty Images

The crown jewel of the small, laid-back town of Santa Teresa on Costa Ricas Nicoya Peninsula, Playa Santa Teresa is an off-the-beaten-path gem thats favored by surfers and vacationers alike. During the day, it offers great waves, and in the early evening, locals and visitors gather on the sand to watch the sunset over the water. Its also edged by a handful of chill beach hotels and restaurants.

Playa Conchal

DEA/V. GIANNELLA/Getty Images

Situated on the Gold Coast in the north of Guanacaste, Playa Conchal is one of the most versatile and photogenic beaches in Costa Rica," says Carly Patane Moss, travel expert at Black Tomato. "The golden sand mixes with tiny shells that seem to glisten alongside the turquoise tides. Ideal for those who arent totally surf-obsessed, its a great spot for swimming, snorkeling with tropical fish and stingrays, and seaside picnics.

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Playa Hermosa

Kryssia Campos/Getty Images

A standout among a sea of gorgeous coastal spots in the Gulf of Papagayo, part of the Guanacaste province, Playa Hermosa (which translates to "beautiful beach" in Spanish) shows off dark sand and clear, blue water. A Blue Flag-awarded destination, its particularly well-suited for swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Plus, the early morning sunrises and sunsets really wow.

Playa Garza

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Seeking a true sense of pura vida? Head to Playa Garza, a crescent-shaped stretch of soft sand south of the popular yoga and surf town of Nosara on the Nicoya Peninsula. Whether its spending the day admiring the local atmosphere, splashing in the crystalline waters, or watching local fisherman in the bay, you really cant go wrong, says Patane Moss.

Playa Ostional

Mario Arana Garcia/Getty Images

Some beaches shine for surfing and swimming, while others are remarkable habitats filled with natural wonder. Playa Ostional on the Nicoya Peninsula falls into the latter category. A paradise for wildlife lovers, its a renowned nesting ground for the olive ridley sea turtle. Witnessing thousands of green hatchlings make their way to the water is a pretty incredible sight. The swells also draw surfers from near and far.

Playa Manuel Antonio

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An easy walk from the Manuel Antonio National Park entrance gives way to the splendor of Playa Manuel Antonio. Patane Moss advises travelers to keep their eyes peeled for wildlife  namely, adorable sloths and curious monkeys. "When coming up to the Pacific Ocean, youll be greeted by unparalleled views of ivory sand, palm trees, and endless natural beauty," she says..

Playa Biesanz

Margarita Almpanezou/Getty Images

Tucked away at the end of a trail that starts near Parador Resort & Spa and leads through the jungle, Playa Biesanz in Manuel Antonio isnt necessarily easy to reach. The effort and sure-footedness required to navigate the dense vegetation, hill, and pebbly terrain does make the payoff  in this case, arriving at a tranquil secret beach with sun in the morning and shade for afternoon naps  that much sweeter.

Playa Tortuguero

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The name likely already gave away the fact that Playa Tortuguero is a turtle-watching haven. In between seeing the majestic creatures lay eggs and scurry about  an experience that Patane Moss likens to stumbling into a David Attenborough documentary  travelers visiting this little patch of paradise can look forward to flopping on the golden sand and cooling off in the crystal waters.

Playa Guiones

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Playa Guiones, a four-mile slice of coastal utopia in the Nosara area, supplies prime breaks on vast stretches of sugar-fine sand. Another selling point? Its hardly ever crowded. That really lets the natural glory take center stage without droves of tourists packing the shore. The people you might see? Surfers, runners, and yogis practicing downward dog by the ocean.

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Control of Congress hangs in the balance of Novembers general election, and Oregon has seats that could swing it either way. According to early results, many Democrats running for Oregon seats in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate were leading.

More:Oregon election: Voters decide on governor, Senate, more

There were no incumbents running in the states fourth, fifth and sixth districts in the U.S. House of Representatives, and each race  including ones drawn to favor the Democratic candidates  was a virtual toss-up going into Election Day.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden speaks during a democratic election night party on Nov. 8. Wyden won a sixth term, defeating Republican Jo Rae Perkins.

Senate

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, won his race for a sixth term as a U.S. senator, defeating Republican Jo Rae Perkins.

Pacific Green candidate Dan Pulju and Progressive candidate Chris Henry came in a distant third and fourth places.

Wyden has been in Congress for more than 40 years, since being elected to the House in 1980. The 73-year-old has been in the U.S. Senate since 1996.

He sits on committees for energy and natural resources, finance, budget, taxation and intelligence.

4th District

Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle speaks during a demonstration for International Women's Day at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem on Friday, March 8, 2019. Many during the rally voiced their support for a state-run family and medical leave insurance program in Oregon. "If we really do value life, and if we really do value families, then we really need paid family leave," Hoyle said.

Democrat Val Hoyle took a commanding lead against Republican Alek Skarlatos in the race for Oregons fourth district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The district has been a stronghold of the Democratic Party with Rep. Peter DeFazio holding the House seat since 1987. But the states longest-tenured representative did not runfor reelection.

In this May 15, 2018 file photo, Alek Skarlatos, right, speaks at the Douglas County Republican Party headquarters in Roseburg.

The redrawn 4th District includes Eugene, Corvallis, Coos Bay and much of the central coast, including Lincoln County, Lane County and Coos County.

Hoyle is the most experienced politically among the candidates. She has been Oregons labor commissioner since 2018 and served in the state Legislature from 2009 to 2015.

Skarlatos is the most well-known of the candidates. He rose to prominence as one of the Marines who stopped a terrorist attack on a train in France in 2015. He unsuccessfully ran for the seat in 2020.

5th District

Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer was leading Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the race to represent Oregons fifth district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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The district was redrawn to include Willamette Valley locales such as Silverton, Stayton, Detroit and Linn County; part of the metro area including Portland, Lake Oswego and Oregon City; and central Oregon cities such as Bend, Redmond and Sisters.

It formerly was looked at as a Democratic stronghold.

Chavez-DeRemer, co-owner of Anesthesia Associates Northwest, formerly served as mayor and city councilor of Happy Valley.

McLeod-Skinner, an attorney and emergency manager for the state, upset seven-term incumbent Kurt Schrader in Mays primary election.

6th District

Democrat Andrea Salinas held a lead against Republican Mike Erickson in the race to represent Oregons new sixth district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The district was drawn with a strong advantage for Democrats.

It includes Salem, Woodburn and Polk County cities including Dallas, Monmouth and Independence, Yamhill County cities including McMinnville and Newberg as well as Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

Salinas, a state representative since 2017, won a heavily contested primary, including defeating more well-funded candidates Carrick Flynn and Steven Cody Reynolds.

Erickson, owner of AFMS Logistics Management Group in Tigard, unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006 and 2008.

Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Election 2022: Wyden wins; some congressional races too close to call
The contest to fill a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives held for decades by the retiring Rep. Peter DeFazio pitted his chosen successor against his most recent opponent, as well as several minor party candidates eager to have their voices heard.

Oregon's 4th Congressional District is still up for grabs as of Wednesday afternoon, with Democrat Val Hoyle and Republican Alek Skarlatos as the prime contenders to claim the seat DeFazio will vacate. Though the district has been firmly under DeFazio's Democratic control since the late 1980s, Republicans are hopeful for breakthrough that could help them retake power in the House.

As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Hoyle was leading with 51.2% of the votes counted. Skarlatos trailed with 43% of the vote.

Incumbents win 3 Oregon House races, others too soon to call

Democratic and Republican incumbents in Oregon's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts won reelection Tuesday to the U.S. House of Representatives, with the state's other three seats still up for grabs.

Democrats Suzanne Bonamici in the 1st and Earl Blumenauer in the 3rd held their districts, which both include parts of Portland, while Republican Cliff Bentz was reelected in the 2nd, which covers the state's eastern half and much of the south.

Hours after partial returns were released by Oregon's secretary of state, it was too early to call the other races.

A toss-up in the 5th District and a closer-than-expected race in the 6th have Democrats battling to maintain their advantage in the state as Republicans seek to capitalize on concerns about inflation and crime.

Democrats controlled four of the state's five previous U.S. House seats and are hoping to claim its newly created sixth one as well. Oregon was one of just six states to gain a seat after the 2020 census.

The most hotly contested race is in the 5th, which stretches from Portland's affluent southern suburbs to the central high desert city of Bend and includes the rural, mountainous areas in between.

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Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a businesswoman and former mayor of the Portland suburb of Happy Valley, is hoping to flip the district red for the first time in over two decades. The super PAC linked to House Republicans, the Congressional Leadership Fund, has spent more than $2.7 million on several ads there.

She's facing off against Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner, an emergency preparedness coordinator. The progressive candidate ousted moderate seven-term incumbent Kurt Schrader in the party's primary.

As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Chavez-DeRemer has a slight lead with 51.7% of the votes counted, and McLeod-Skinner trails with 48.3%.

Chavez-DeRemer is one of two candidates running to be Oregon's first Latina elected to Congress, along with Democrat Andrea Salinas in the state's new 6th District.

The 6th also includes parts of Portland's southern suburbs, along with the state capital, Salem, and more rural areas. Many analysts view it as leaning Democratic.

Salinas, a state representative and former congressional staffer, is up against Republican Mike Erickson, a businessman who is running for Congress for a third time.

As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Salinas was leading with 50.1% of the vote and Erickson trails with 47.7%.

About the District 4 candidates:

Val Hoyle

Val Hoyle, 57, is Oregons statewide Labor Commissioner, elected in 2018. She was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2009 to represent west Eugene and Junction City, and she won reelection in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Hoyle stepped down as majority leader in 2015 to run for secretary of state but lost in the primary.

Hoyle announced her candidacy shortly after DeFazio announced his retirement plans. DeFazio later endorsed Hoyle.

Hoyle said many potential voters she's spoken to over the course of the campaign have raised the issues of access to abortion services after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the effects of climate change on Oregon.

Alek Skarlatos

Alek Skarlatos, 29, first ran for the 4th District seat in 2020. He lost, but gave DeFazio a challenging reelection fight.

DeFazio, who has held the 4th District seat longer than any other occupant, won the 2020 general election with nearly 52% of the vote, his narrowest-ever victory. Skarlatos outraised DeFazio by about $700,000 during that election cycle.

Skarlatos is a former Oregon National Guardsman who gained fame in 2015 for stopping a gunman on a Paris-bound train. In 2018, Skarlatos portrayed himself in a movie about the attack directed by Clint Eastwood, "The 15:17 to Paris."

Skarlatos didn't face an opponent in the 2022 primary.

Skarlatos said he's spent much of the year touring the 4th District, including with a recent road trip up the Interstate 5 corridor and down the coast. He said winning over coastal and rural communities is critical for his campaign strategy.

Mike Beilstein

Mike Beilstein, running on the Pacific Green Party of Oregon and Oregon Progressive Party tickets, is a retired chemist and was a nutrition researcher at Oregon State University for 30 years. He formerly served on the Corvallis City Council.

This is his sixth bid for the 4th District seat, though his first time in a contest for the seat that doesn't include DeFazio.

Beilstein said he primarily is an anti-militarist, having begun his political career in response to the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Beilstein believes the Russian invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the United States and its allies. He believes Russia is committing war crimes there, but opposes sending weapons to Ukraine and supports negotiations to end the conflict.

Levi Leatherberry

Levi Leatherberry, running as an independent and a Libertarian Party of Oregon candidate, is making his first bid for elected office in the 4th District race. He is a farmer in Eugene and participated in humanitarian work around the world.

Leatherberry does not have a campaign staff and is not taking political donations. His campaign issues are focused on things that he believes could be realistically accomplished during a two-year term and inspired by community input.

Leatherberry said he built his platform based on soliciting what issues potential voters want him to support, rather than coming to them with his ideas. That platform now includes a smattering of policy positions and plans, including audits of government agencies to rein in spending; creating a committee to investigate members of Congress so as to shrink housing costs by rooting out illicit practices he says drive high prices; and using technology to find political corruption.

Jim Howard

Jim Howard, a former Pleasant Hill School District superintendent, will appear on the ballot as an Oregon Constitution Party candidate. But Howard said he is endorsing Skarlatos and encouraging his supporters to vote for the Republican.

 CLAIRE RUSH of Associated Press/Report for America, contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Election results for Oregon House district congressional seats
Russian oligarchs cannot seem to catch a break these days. First, they cant lounge on their megayachtand now, other luxury goods are getting caught up in the sanctions.

German authorities have impounded 30 paintingsincluding works by French Surrealist Marc Chagallfrom Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanovs $600 million superyacht Dilbar, according to Radio Free Europe, as US-backed news agency. The gigayacht, measuring 511 feet, is considered the worlds largest by volume. The government seized the vessel in March because of ongoing sanctions over Russias invasion of Ukraine. The art collection is estimated to be worth around $5 million.

More from Robb Report

The superyacht initially came to Germanys port of Hamburg in the fall of 2021 for repairs, with the paintings stored in a separate depot. Once Russias invasion began, German officials sanctioned the ship, stating the billionaire allegedly did not declare all his belongings, including the paintings and property, upon entering the country.

Usmanovs spokesperson told Robb Report that the paintings did not belong to him and are the property of discretionary trusts not under his control, therefore he did not need to declare them when entering the country.

In September, German authorities announced they would investigate allegations of tax evasion and money laundering against Usmanov. Officials raided the billionaires homes and discovered four Faberge eggs. While the true value of the eggs, which were confiscated, has been undisclosed, some have estimated the value at $33 million.

According to officials, its believed that the billionaire has escaped paying over $550 million in taxes to Germany. Swiss bank USB has also confirmed that authorities searched its branches in Munich and Frankfurt as part of the investigation. Usmanovs spokesperson also denied any allegations of tax evasion.

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The investigations are not directed against the banking institution concerned or its employees, a USB spokesperson told Reuters about the investigation. The search measures are taking place in the same preliminary proceedings in which searches have already been carried out at the defendants residence in the district of Miesbach and at his yacht.

More countries across the EU are beginning to come down harder on Russian oligarchs fleeing Western sanctions in light of the ongoing war. Earlier this year, Finland seized 21 yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs. France and Italy have also worked to sanction vessels entering its shores. While the yachts are stuck in limbo, some countries are passing the bill on its owners for maintenance and upkeep, at least until the fighting in Ukraine ceases.

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City Winery's three wine and food concepts will be a welcome refuge for the thousands of travelers who pass through the historic New York station everyday.

Courtesy of City Winery

Manhattans only working winery won a bid to open its 13th location in the historic Grand Central Station, where the brand will debut a wine growler exchange system for commuters on November 21.

The news brings a much needed wine bar to the transit hub for 250,000 commuters daily, nearly 70% of whom depend on Metro-North to travel to and from the city  including me recently. I can attest that despite its 35 food vendors, the station has few options for a worthwhile glass of wine when youve missed your train by two seconds.

By lack of choice, beer has become the easiest vessel to fill, put a brown bag around it, and take on a train, said City Winery founder Michael Dorf of considering these commuters when he landed the coveted space. Everyday you have people lug that glass of something to drink as they transition from work to home.

RELATED: Caroline Schiff's New York City Guide

His team imagined that it would be ideal to offer mini wine bottles as an alternative and researched cans and other vessel options. The problem with the American wine industrys vessels is none of it is truly sustainable or really reusable, said Dorf. Thats how we came up with this growler program.

The music fan who opened his original urban winery in Manhattan in 2008 has plenty of experience testing new ideas. His original vision for selling barrels to bankers who could be part of the process and develop their own label was thwarted by the financial crisis that year.

That evolved and morphed quickly into both a concert space, which was my backup to sell booze, but then to really move it into a by-the-glass program, explained Dorf. Its not officially straight from the barrel  we move it into stainless steel kegs and then we mask the tap behind beautiful wooden barrel heads, but the idea is: Its never seen a bottle. Were able to serve wine very fresh, very efficiently, and frankly very sustainably. In 14 years across 12 locations, he estimated they've served 2 million glasses of wine that didnt use glass bottles.

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RELATED: This Will Street Steakhouse Is Secretly NYC's Best Place for Wine

Dorf explained that this saves dozens of semi loads of glass from being shipped from Mexico or Germany to California, and while concertgoers tip the scales going through a nonstop supply of Riedel glassware, the format reduces carbon consumption. He admitted the United States 5-cent incentive isnt enough to stop people from throwing away glass bottles so City Winery is offering $5 for returns. The 375 mL bottles fit about two glasses of wine for about $15 each so if commuters catch on, theyll have two $5 glasses of wine to enjoy on the ride.

You return three of them and you have a free bottle of wine. Grand Central offers us this opportunity to make a pick up and return  a true filling station  concept, said Dorf, noting that regulations prevent alcohol container refills, but City Winery will sanitize and reuse returned bottles. Nine varieties of wine, including Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir, will be available in 375 mL and 750 mL bottles for $15-$35.

Were really the first serious reuse bottle program in the country, said Dorf. And while were a small, tiny wine company, hopefully this concept can catch on with bigger companies and distributors and other locations. A transit hub certainly is a real easy one to get the model to work.

RELATED: 19 of the Best Sustainably Farmed Wines to Drink Now

Not to mention a great place for the wine on tap format, which will accommodate 190 guests at City Winery Grand Central with two tasting bars among the venues signature live music (and events like Bordeaux and burger pairings). Perhaps most appealing to locals whove seen many concepts (like Claus Meyers Great Northern Food Hall and fine dining restaurant Agern) come and go in this space is the inclusion of housemade grab-and-go offerings at breakfast, lunch, and dinner venue City Jams, and dinner at a 75-seat farm-to-table, reservation-only restaurant called Cornelius.

Were trying to be utilitarian and utilize the space thats been given to us, said Dorf. Not everyone can sit and have a glass of wine everyday, but maybe they want to take a growler to go and a bag of corn nuts and risotto balls. Im super excited about my homemade protein bar. Thats what I want for breakfast with a cup of coffee.

Courtesy of City Winery

After many early morning train rides, alternating between the three or four breakfast vendors with long lines and service thats seemingly oblivious to the reality that customers are racing train times, I cannot express how welcome this is. City Jams will open at 6 a.m. on weekdays and Dorf assured me there will be a sense of urgency. Weve never really been in a transit hub, but the City Winery concert facility is closer to a transit hub than a relaxing setting anyway. You get 350 people coming in within an hour of showtime  thats rush hour in our venues. So were used to pushing a lot of food out, a lot of wine and drink, and having as quick a service as we possibly can. Were pretty well-suited for a transit hub and a rush hour mentality.

RELATED: NYC Gets Its First Hawker Center  with Vendors Straight from Singapore

The whole concept will celebrate Grand Central history, a treat for locals and visitors alike. The MTA was looking for us to take down some of the obstruction so you could see the beauty of the old waiting room. We actually have re-created and utilized some of the waiting room furniture so that it has that, described Dorf, adding that the restaurant  named after Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon who pioneered Grand Central Depot  will feature art from former eras.

We looked at the space that we were able to win and said, OK the previous users put a lot of money into a huge, world-class kitchen. They spent many millions of dollars building a kitchen that connects to a pretty intimate restaurant, said Dorf. Cornelius is certainly a more relaxed experience; its a sit-down, destination restaurant.

Executive chef Zachary Bondy is developing dishes that pay homage to what he calls first class train travel at the turn of the 20th century, such as oysters Vanderbilt and filet Oscar, using local ingredients like Hudson Valley Ranch. The restaurant will have a wine list of about 200 bottles from City Winerys cellars to complement its proprietary wines that arent made to age.

RELATED: How to Taste Wine Like a Pro

Were a company thats focused on terroir. When youre getting a glass of Pinot Noir, were telling you where exactly its from, said Dorf. We source from three main areas in the United States for Pinot: Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, and Willamette Valley. We work with really great farmers, vineyards, and wineries. Were privileged to be able to purchase their grapes.

And that AVA will be displayed on each growler label. The self-proclaimed scrappy entrepreneur using hydropower in the Hudson Valley and saving the planet from millions of corks has yet to see if New Yorkers will return the glass bottles, but hes betting on like-mindedness.

Fifteen years ago, I wanted a music joint where I could hold my Rolling Rock in one hand and enjoy some music, Dorf reflected on his original concept, the Knitting Factory. When I go to a grab and go, I prefer to have that homemade, really good looking protein granola bar thats hand wrapped vs. the packaged processed one. Thats going to be my go-to. I want my hand crafted wine from a place that actually knows where the grapes come from vs. a cup with a foil top thats maybe really convenient and Im going to throw away Im hoping there are enough people that care about these things similar to me and that it connects.

He has this wine deprived commuter on board.
Photo: Ono Kosuki

Black students at Grinnell College are calling for the school to respond to a string of racist incidents that have occurred on campus, per the Des Moines Register. Just last month, 14 cars parked on campus were vandalized with white supremacist graffiti. Black students fear for their safety claiming theyve been the target for most of the attacks.



Ive been harassed by multiple white women yelling at me from their cars. We have students (taunted with) monkey noises on campus. We had a student get called a monkey just off over by the gas station. And one of our good friends got told: Dont think I wont smoke you, you stupid f n-word as they spun the block on him twice to say that  all right in front of and on campus, said Loyal Terry, co-spokesperson for the Black Student Union, via Des Moines Register.

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In response to the outcry for help, school administrators denounced the incidents and implemented a safety plan distributing self-defense kits consisting of flashlights and whistles. How will that prevent a racist attack? No clue. Terry and other Black students say they dont feel its enough, considering the legacy racism has at the college.

Read more from the Des Moines Register:

Rhonda Stuart, a 1986 Grinnell College graduate, remembered run-ins with individuals who shouted the n-word at her and her peers while driving through campus. Its a story many Black alumni share. Even her son, who graduated 33 years later, had a similar experience. Apart from the recent racial incidents, Terry and Coffie said the murder of Michael Williams still weighs on them. Coffie, now a college junior, said she was a freshman when Williams, a Black man, was killed, his body burned and left in a ditch in rural Jasper County. The four Grinnell residents charged with his death  Steven Vogel, Julia Cox, Roy Garner and Cody Johnson  are all white. Vogel, 32, was found guilty last November of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, while the others were charged with abuse of a corpse, destruction of evidence and accessory after the fact.

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Terry told the Des Moines Register the college is often seen as a bubble, being isolated in a rural area. However, he said the bubbles burst after the latest string of racist terrorism. The BSU launched a GoFundMe to provide recourses for students traumatized from the incidents.

Once again, when a school fails to meet the needs of their Black students, they must help themselves. Parents are known to remind their kids they go to school to get an education. Not once were we prepared to fight 1950s-level racism while balancing the stress of our academics.

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MILAN  After calling off its repeat show in South Korea earlier this month following the tragic Halloween crowd crush in Seoul, Gucci announced Wednesday it is pledging a three-year donation geared at restoring and preserving the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The house did not disclose the donation amount, but highlighted that its contribution will help restore multiple areas within the site.

More from WWD

The 1935 Seoul landmark, also known as The Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven and built during the Joseon dynasty, was the venue of choice for Guccis Cosmogonie show, a repeat display of the collection unveiled last May in Apulia.

It was supposed to be held on Nov. 1, but was canceled in respect of the national mourning after more than 150 people were killed and dozens were injured after being crushed in a large crowd in Seouls Itaewon nightlife district.

According to the Italian luxury house, Gucci president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri inked an agreement on Nov. 1 with South Koreas head of the cultural heritage administration Choi Eung-Cheon committing to the preservation of the palace.

Beauty is a constant source of inspiration for Gucci, but it also needs constant care and attention. We are delighted to confirm our commitment to the cultural heritage of this country. Our collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Administration will help preserve the rich historical and artistic heritage of this unique site, Bizzarri said in a statement.

Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci, and Choi Eung-Cheon, South Korean Head of the Cultural Heritage Administration.

The pledge marks a further step in Guccis commitment to the preservation of culturally relevant and storied sites across the world, often places picked by creative director Alessandro Michele to showcase his fashion spectacles.

As reported, the Kering-owned house pledged support to Castel del Monte, the storied castle in Italys Apulia region dating back to the 1240s where the Cosmogonie collection was originally presented; the Dia Art Foundation in New York City; The Cloisters of Westminster Abbey in London; the Palatine Gallery at Pitti Palace in Florence; the Promenade Des Alyscamps in Arles; the Capitoline Museums in Rome, and Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

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Gyeongbokgung Palace was selected to pay homage to South Korean cultural heritage and in light of its links with astronomy research, a reference echoed in the Cosmogonie collection. In the 15th century, the palace housed a highly regarded astronomy center including Ganuidae, the Royal Observatory.

Guccis link with South Korea was further cemented in recent months.

In the leadup to the canceled show, Gucci signed Hanni, lead singer of NewJeans, as its newest brand ambassador. The K-pop star joined other local ambassadors including Squid Game actor Lee Jung-Jae and musical artist Kai.

Earlier this year Gucci also opened its fourth Gucci Osteria outpost in the Korean capital, on the top floor of its Gaok flagship located in the Itaewon district.

Click here to read the full article.
Photo: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto (Getty Images)

To no surprise, hate crimes are still very prominent in the United States, and unfortunately, Black people still happen to be some of the biggest victims of race-related crimes. But, in one particular U.S. city, hate crimes against Black people are rising at an enormous rate.

We must remember, incidents are not considered hate crimes if the suspect is white and the victim is Black. They are acts of bigotry that are done because of the victims membership to a certain group and it has to be proven, according to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR).

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According to WTTW, Nancy Andrade, Commissioner of the CCHR, said that hate crimes against Black Chicago residents are up 50% in 2022, with the agency reporting 16 hate crimes against Black people in October and the Chicago Police Department receiving 27 reports for anti-Black crimes.

More from WTTW:

The consequences of unreported hate crimes is that you see more hate crimes, more hate speech, more actions against people who are different and you have more victimization, Freeman-Wilson said. Victims and survivors of hate crimes might choose to not report because of fear and mistrust of the police, Bell said. If the police are not showing themselves as open to the investigation of hate crimes and catching perpetrators, if the police department does not show they are willing to help victims, individuals who are targeted by hate crimes, then there is little impetus to report, Bell said.

While this is a huge problem in Chicago, this is also a nationwide issue, especially for Black people. The latest FBI Hate Crime Statistics reported that the total number of number hate crimes committed based on someones race, ethnicity or ancestry increased by more than 1200 incidents than the previous year.

Among those, anti-Black crimes had by far the highest number of incidents compared to other groups, nearly 2,000 more than the next group.

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The most infamous hate crime this year was the horrific mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, but there are still a plethora of anti-Black crimes occurring way too often than anyone would like. The next step is discovering how we make those incidents go down. I dont have the answer, but someone smarter than me may.

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All the Historic Firsts of the 2022 Midterm Elections

Two years after Kamala Harris became the first woman and first person of color (she is Black and South Asian) to occupy the office of vice president, barriers have been broken on the state level: New York, Massachusetts, and Arkansas elected their first female governors.

Believe it or not, the United States has never had a Black female governor, but two made it to the ballot this midterm season: Georgia's Stacey Abrams and Deidre DeJear in Iowa. Both lost their races, but will continue to fight for the Democratic party.

I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to ensure that the people of Georgia have a voice, Abrams said after conceding to incumbent governor Brian Kemp, per Axios. While we might not write the story today, there is always another chapter.

The country may still be waiting on its first Black woman governor, but there were still plenty of historic firsts at the 2022 midterm elections. Here are all the candidates who broke barriers on election night:

Governor Kathy Hochul is the first woman elected governor in New York.

NY Governor Hochul And Former Mayor Bloomberg Pays Their Respects At 9/11 Memorial Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Hochul previously served as lieutenant governor of New York for six years. She assumed office as governor of New York following Andrew Cuomo's resignation amid scandal in August 2021.

Maura Healey is the first woman elected governor in Massachusetts. She is also the first openly lesbian governor in the country.

Primary Day 2022 Boston Globe/Getty Images

The Massachusetts attorney general beat Republican Geoff Diehl for the governorship.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the first woman elected governor in Arkansas.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Daily Press Briefing Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

She follows in the footsteps of her father, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. She previously served as the White House press secretary under President Donald Trump.

Wes Moore is the first Black man elected governor in Maryland. He is only the third Black man to be elected governor in the country.

President Biden Holds DNC Rally In Maryland Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Moore beat his Republican challenger Dan Cox for the governorship.

At 25, Maxwell Frost is the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress.

Maxwell Frost - Uber driver and Gen Z candidate for Florida's 10th congressional district The Washington Post/Getty Images

Frost is an activist and the former national organizing director of the March for Our Lives. He is also a Harry Styles fan.

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Summer Lee is the first Black woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress.

Pennsylvania Holds Midterm Primary Elections Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Lee beat Republican challenger Mike Doyle for the House seat.

Becca Balint is the first woman and the first lesbian to represent the state of Vermont in Congress.

BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT - OCTOBER 5: Vermont State Senator Becca B The Washington Post/Getty Images

With Balint's win, Vermont is the last state to send a woman to Congress.

James Roesener is the first out transgender man to be elected to a state legislature in the country.

Roesener was elected to serve New Hampshire's 22nd House District, Ward 8.

This post will be updated.

Originally Appeared on Glamour
John Fetterman has defeated Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race, giving Democrats a crucial pickup in the fight for Senate control.

The Keystone States Senate race has been one of the most bizarre playing out across the country this midterm cycle, pitting two potent personalities against each other.

In the Republican corner, theres TV personality and physician Dr Oz, who managed to slowly build support from the GOP after a rough start.

In the Democratic corner is Mr Fetterman, Pennsylvanias lieutenant governor whose campaign has been dogged by health concerns after he suffered a stroke.

TV networks projected Mr Fetterman as the winner around 1am ET on Wednesday. Its by far one of the best pieces of news for Democrats following the midterms elections, as it means that they are positioned to pick up a Senate seat.

In the states race to be governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro emerged victorious over Republican Doug Mastriano. That race was called shortly after midnight.

Seventeen districts are also picking a representative for the House.

Key Points

Oz and Fetterman turn out to vote for themselves

Overview: Fetterman and Oz face off over Pennsylvania Senate seat

Follow election results through the day with The Independent

When will we know results?

Don Jr continues attacks on Fetterman

Analysis: Summer Lee tries to flip the script on crime in Pennsylvania

Listen: The Independents Eric Garcia gives midterm readout

14:05 , Andrew Naughtie

The Independents lead Washington correspondent, Eric Garcia, is joining The Recount for a live discussion on the outcome of the midterm elections. You can listen live below:

Were back and LIVE on Twitter Spaces with @EricMGarcia!  https://t.co/khl4COFRLc  The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2022

Kari Lake trails Katie Hobbs as Arizona governors race too close to call

13:50 , Johanna Chisholm

Story continues

The race to be Arizonas next governor remains too close to call one day after the 2022 midterm elections.

Arizona officials have said the full results could take up to five days to deliver as election workers open and count late-arriving ballots delivered by mail and deposited in drop boxes by Grand Canyon State voters.

As of Wednesday morning, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, leads her GOP challenger, former TV news anchor and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake, by a margin of 50.9 per cent to 49.1 per cent. The difference between the two candidates was just over 30,000 votes.

Officials plan to release updated vote totals once per day, at approximately 9.00 pm ET.

Andrew Feinberg has more details here.

Kari Lake trails Katie Hobbs as Arizona governors race too close to call

Kentucky voters reject constitutional amendment on abortion

13:45 , Johanna Chisholm

Kentucky voters have rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have made it harder to challenge abortion laws in the deeply red state, The Associated Press reported.

The rejection of the amendment means language that would make clear there is no right to an abortion protected under the Kentucky constitution will not be added to the states constitution, proving to be a rare boon for abortion rights advocates.

If anti abortion bans can't win in Kentucky, where the hell can they win? https://t.co/gKeXZSF3tA  Aidan Ryan (@aidanryan1317) November 9, 2022

Under Amendment 2, the following language wouldve been added to the southern states constitution: To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.

Analysis: Republicans are already lying about results

13:40 , Andrew Naughtie

Writing for The Independent, Ahmed Baba takes a look at the early proliferation of right-wing misinformation about the midterm results and the way theyre being tallied:

Lets address this grand conspiracy theory about how delays in ballot-counting are part of an effort to steal the election. Such wait times are normal. In a system where large amounts of mail-in ballots are being counted, it takes time to accurately parse the results. Ironically enough, these delays in some key states were actually engineered by Republicans themselves. Republican-controlled legislatures in key battleground states like Pennsylvania prevented election workers from pre-canvassing mail-in ballots. Under the law, they have to wait until Election Day to begin counting mail-in ballots. And just this week, Philadelphia City Commissioners voted to reinstate a lengthy process called Poll Book Reconciliation in response to a Republican lawsuit. In other words, Republicans are causing the delays theyre complaining about.

Read the full article below.

Republicans are already spreading lies about the midterm election results

When a loss isnt (entirely) a loss

13:20 , Andrew Naughtie

Tim Ryan may have lost the Ohio Senate race to Trump-backed Republican JD Vance, but he ran it more closely than many hoped in a state that Mr Trump easily won twice  and as many are pointing out, high-profile candidates who raise enthusiasm among the Democratic base have a record of lifting up downballot candidates, something particularly crucial in a year where the party is working hard to minimise the GOPs chances in the House:

Very similar to how Beto ORourke led to tons of downballot Democrats winning in 2018 even though he lost and Cynthia Nixon helping progressives knock off IDC senators. https://t.co/S4s4yrVJe5  Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) November 9, 2022

The Kremlins take on the midterms

13:00 , Andrew Naughtie

The Kremlin has said that the US midterm elections will not improve the bad relations between Moscow and Washington, as it dismissed allegations Russia was meddling in the US vote, reports say.

These elections are important, but its not necessary to exaggerate their importance in the short and medium-term for our relations, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters.

These elections cannot change anything essential. Relations still are, and will remain, bad, he added.

Emily Atkinson reports:

Russia say US midterms wont improve bad relations with Washington

Fox Hosts struggle with results: How do you explain this country?"

12:40 , Andrew Naughtie

Fox Newss election results coverage has been a maudlin affair, with overnight hosts struggling to explain to viewers  and to each other  why the country they are convinced is falling apart hasnt voted decisively to dispose of the Democrats. Take a look at a sample exchange below.

How do you explain this country? I heard last night that this is in indictment on the Republican Party. Is it? How is this not a red wave? pic.twitter.com/8Q1kW6xx2O  Acyn (@Acyn) November 9, 2022

The same three hosts are still grappling with whats happened this morning, ashen-facedly picking apart exit polls from John Fettermans victory in Pennsylvania to detail how it defied the entire Republican narrative of what the election was about.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? Well, according to the exit polls, its because Fetterman won pic.twitter.com/pBfYAyjDxk  Acyn (@Acyn) November 9, 2022

In an echo of the 2020 election, where the Republican-aligned network was famously the first major news outlet to call Arizona for Joe Biden, the head of Fox Newss Decision Desk insisted on air that contrary to conspiracy theories being put about by Donald Trump and some of his followers, there is nothing nefarious about vote counts coming in at a slow pace. Richard Hall reports.

Head of Fox News Decision Desk says nothing nefarious about vote counting delays

Lauren Boebert in trouble

12:13 , Andrew Naughtie

With more than 90 per cent of votes now counted, far-right Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is continuing to trail in the House race for Colorados 3rd Congressional District.

Elected to Congress in 2020, she has cultivated a national reputation as a hardcore culture warrior, proud gun-carrier and 2020 election denier. But it appears that her Democratic rival Adam Frisch may yet unseat her, which would count as a major upset in a year where every seat counts in the battle for the House.

With 93 per cent of votes now counted in the district, Mr Frisch is leading with 50.9 per cent of the vote to the incumbent congresswomans 49.1 per cent.

Rachel Sharp writes:

Trump declares great evening - despite no red wave

12:00 , Rachel Sharp

Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Wednesday to claim that it had been a great evening  despite the fact that a red wave failed to unfold in the midterm elections.

174 wins and 9 losses, A GREAT EVENING, and the Fake News Media, together with their partner in crime, the Democrats, are doing everything possible to play it down, he wrote.

Amazing job by some really fantastic candidates!

The former presidents comments come as the House and Senate continue to hang in the balance, with many crucial races still too close to call.

The expected red wave has failed to materialise and Democrats have so far flipped a Senate seat, with John Fetterman defeating Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

Other Republicans have admitted that the night did not go as planned for the GOP, with Senator Lindsey Graham telling NBC: Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump admitted his plan to take credit if the Republicans won big but to refuse any blame if they lost.

Vermont sends woman to Congress for first time

11:40 , Rachel Sharp

Vermont is sending a woman to DC for the first time, ending its streak as the last state in the US to elect a female member of Congress.

Democrat Becca Blint sailed to victory over Republican Liam Madden for the states lone seat in the House of Representatives, taking 62.8 per cent of the vote with 99 per cent of votes counted.

For the past 234 years, Vermont has only elected men to Congress.

As well as being the first woman to represent Vermont in the House, Ms Blint is also the states first LGBTQ House member.

Thank you, Vermonters! Thank you for your confidence in me. Thank you for giving me this incredible honor and opportunity to serve this state I love so much, she tweeted late on Tuesday.

Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible.

John Fetterman thanks wife for saving life following Pennsylvania win

11:20 , Rachel Sharp

John Fetterman, the Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, thanked his wife for saving his life after he defeated Republican TV personality Dr Oz in this years midterms.

The former mayor of Braddock suffered a stroke shortly after winning the Democrat primary in May.

Taking to the stage after winning the Senate race, Mr Fetterman paid tribute to his family.

I really wanna thank my family... My mother, my father... Gisele, who six months ago, she saved my life, Mr Fetterman said.

John Fetterman thanks wife for saving his life following Pennsylvania win

Jen Psaki says Biden administration is giddy and gleeful about results

11:00 , Rachel Sharp

President Joe Bidens former press secretary Jen Psaki has revealed that the White House is feeling giddy and gleeful about the results of the midterm election  after a red wave failed to materialise and Democrats performed better than expected.

Ive been in touch with the White House, Ms Psaki said on MSNBC, where she now works as a contributor.

They are giddy and gleeful, as they should be, about where things are sitting right now.

She went on to say that she believes the results so far indicate that abortion was high on the ballot to Americans.

The takeaway to me is this is the right agenda,she said.

The Democrats ran on this agenda, it was the right agenda. And I think a lot of these fights include abortion.

What will happen if Georgias Senate race heads to runoff?

10:40 , Rachel Sharp

Under Georgia state law, if no candidate for the US Senate wins more than 50 per cent, there is a second round of voting between the top two candidates.

In this case, the runoff would take place on 6 December between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker  essentially a second bout of the same fight.

This is a worrying prospect for Democrats, because there is usually a drop-off in voter turnout between first rounds and second rounds that tends to favour Republicans.

Mr Warnock did win a similar runoff against his predecessor Kelly Loeffler in January 2021, but that was a fairly exceptional situation.

Donald Trump's bellicose reaction to the previous year's George Floyd protests and his increasingly fevered attempts to overturn the election result led to a massive Black turnout in the former slave state, which Democrats managed to sustain in both rounds.

Mr Trump's election fraud conspiracy theories also appeared to have backfired for some Republican voters, persuading them that there was no point turning out to participate in a rigged vote.

Moreover, Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock told FiveThirtyEight that in a runoff election, GOP voters might already know that control of the Senate is at stake, focusing their minds and pushing them to hold their nose despite Mr Walker's numerous scandals.

Abortion rights advocates count seismic victories in midterm elections across US

10:20 , Rachel Sharp

Five months after the US Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to abortion, voters in three states were the first to enshrine an explicit right to abortion care in their state constitutions.

During a historic sweep of abortion rights referendums across the US in midterm elections, voters in Michigan approved a hard-fought state constitutional amendment that affirms a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, effectively overturning the states ban on abortion.

The referendum also ensures that the state continues to serve as a critical point of access for midwesterners in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn the half-century precedent in Roe v Wade.

This is a seismic win for abortion rights in a battleground state, Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said in a statement. This victory is also a win for people in the neighbouring states of Indiana and Ohio, where abortion is banned.

Voters in Michigan joined Vermont and California to enshrine protections for abortion care in their state constitutions, while voters in Kentucky and Montana appear to have shot down anti-abortion measures in their states.

The Independents Alex Woodward has the full story:

Abortion rights advocates count seismic victories in US elections

Analysis: What did we learn tonight? America is bitterly divided  and that is no surprise

10:00 , John Bowden

Things could have been better for Republicans, but they could have been a lot worse for Democrats, writes Andrew Buncombe.

All we learned tonight is Americas bitterly divided  and thats is no surprise

No evidence of election hacking, says US cyber chief

09:43 , Io Dodds

There is no evidence of any attempt to disrupt or hack the vote, the US government's cybersecurity chief said on Tuesday.

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa), said there was "no specific or credible threat" to election infrastructure as of 5pm Eastern Time on Tuesday.

"Here at Cisa, we are huddled in the Election Day Operations Center and connected with other partners in the field virtually," she said.

"We continue to see no specific or credible threat to disrupt election infrastructure or election day operations, and we have seen no activity that should cause anyone to question the security, integrity, or resilience of our election infrastructure."

We continue to see no specific or credible threat to disrupt election infrastructure or Election Day operations & we have seen no activity that should cause anyone to question the security, integrity, or resilience of our election infrastructure.  JenEasterly (@CISAJen) November 8, 2022

Referencing voting glitches in Arizona and Michigan, she said: "When you have 8,800 individual election jurisdictions, youre going to see a few issues. We have seen a few of these today as happens every election day. Its important that we not make the normal out to be nefarious."

In an update at 8:43pm Eastern Time, Ms Easterly  a former US Army lieutenant colonel who helped set up the Pentagon's Cyber Command  again urged patience, saying that unpredictable changes in vote counts as various different kinds of ballots are tabulated.

With no red tsunami, shocked Republicans blame Trump

09:20 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican strategists have blamed former president Donald Trump for the fact that a supposed red tsunami failed to materialise as midterm results began to roll in on Tuesday evening.

Throughout the country, races that were thought to be layups for Republicans instead favoured Democratic candidates.

Eric Garcia, The Independents Washington bureau chief, takes a look at the results of the midterms.

Shocked Republicans lay blame at Trumps feet as red tsunami fails to materialise

Pro-Trump online communities in disbelief as red tsunami fails to materialise

09:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Pro-Trump online communities have reacted with dismay and disbelief to early results in Tuesdays US midterm elections, blaming voter fraud for the lack of a red wave.

Before many races had even been called, users in far-right Telegram channels and bulletin boards had begun accusing Democrats and establishment Republicans of fixing the race.

Io Dodds had a look at what Trump fans are posting about Tuesdays election.

We got cheated: Pro-Trump online forums in disbelief over lack of a red tsunami

Raphael Warnock calls it a night

08:40 , Io Dodds

Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidate for Georgia's open US Senate seat, has addressed supporters at a witching-hour rally.

"Good evening, Georgia! Or maybe I should say good morning," he said as he took the stage around 1:30am local time. "Here's where we are. We're not sure if this journey is over tonight, or if there's still a little work left to do.

"But here's what we do know. We know that when they're finished counting the votes from today's election, we're going to have received more votes than my opponent.

"Once again, the people of Georgia showed up and said loud and clear that you want a senator who's going to do the work for Georgia... somebody who understand that we, in the words of Dr [Martin Luther] King, are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality... in other words, we are all in this together.

"And so I understand that in this late hour, you may be a little tired..." At that point, several people in the crowd loudly begged to differ, with one woman shouting: "I'm ready to go!"

Heres a video of his speech, courtesy of Atlanta broadcaster 11 Alive.

Emotional John Fetterman lost for words after winning Pennsylvania Senate race

08:20 , John Bowden

An emotional John Fetterman was lost for words after defeating Dr Mehmet Oz for the US Senate seat in Pennsylvania before telling his supporters he was humbled for their backing.

Im not sure what to say right now, he told supporters cheering his victory as he finally emerged onstage.

This campaign has always been about fighting for everyone who has ever been knocked down that ever got back up, he continued.

Watch video of the moment below:

Stacey Abrams: Though my fight came up short, we stand tall

08:12 , Io Dodds

Here's what defeated Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams said in her concession speech on Tuesday night.

"Even though my fight  our fight  for the governors mansion may have come up short, Im pretty tall.

"I am here because this is a moment where, despite every obstacle, we are still standing strong and standing tall and standing resolute and standing in our values, and we know Georgia deserves more.

"Whether we do it from the governors mansion or from the streets, whether we do it from the Capitol or from our communities, we are going to fight for more for the state of Georgia. That is what were here for."

It is the second such disappointment for Ms Abrams, a Democrat who attempted in both 2018 and 2022 to unseat Republican Brian Kemp and become Georgia's first ever Black governor.

GOP midterm red wave hopes evaporate as House and Senate remain too close to call

08:00 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden started his day on Tuesday expecting American voters to deliver a stunning rebuke to his administration and his handling of the US economy by putting Republicans firmly in control of at least one half of the US Congress.

House and Senate Democrats started their days expecting to begin hearing bad news as soon as in-person voting wrapped up on the east coast of the United States.

And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy expected to deliver a victory speech by 11pm on Tuesday night, once it became clear that voters had given Republicans a firm majority in the House of Representatives.

No ones day went the way theyd expected it to go, writes Andrew Feinberg.

Republican red wave hopes evaporate as House and Senate remain too close to call

Analyst spells out GOP nightmare scenario unfolding in PA

07:52 , John Bowden

An NBC News reporter has spelled out succinctly the scope of the Republican Partys failure in Pennsylvania, following the loss of Doug Mastriano in the gubernatorial contest and John Fettermans capture of a previously GOP-held Senate seat.

What would've been an unthinkable result in PA is now in play: Dems winning the Gov. and Senate battles, winning all three of the swing House seats, and taking control of the state House for the first time in more than a decade, wrote Allan Smith.

What would've been an unthinkable result in PA is now in play: Dems winning the Gov. and Senate battles, winning all three of the swing House seats, and taking control of the state House for the first time in more than a decade https://t.co/axcbbqpCrj  Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) November 9, 2022

Republicans poured millions into saving Dr Mehmet Ozs US Senate campaign and now see their influence evaporating in the Rust Belt state even as it appears to persist in neighbouring Ohio.

Trump taunts candidate he endorsed for losing Senate bid

07:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump has taunted a defeated Republican candidate that he had endorsed for a US Senate seat.

Conspiracy theorist Don Bolduc, a retired US Army General, was beaten by incumbent Maggie Hassan for New Hampshires Senate seat.

Mr Trump showed no sympathy for his chosen candidate when he took to Truth Social on Tuesday night and mocked him for not pushing the one-term presidents 2020 election Big Lie hard enough.

Graeme Massie reports.

Trump taunts one of the Republicans he endorsed for losing in Senate bid

Ron Johnson sends supporters home as Wisconsin Senate race neck-and-neck

07:30 , Oliver O'Connell

With no projected winner in the Wisconsin Senate race between Democrat Mandela Barnes and incumbent Republican Ron Johnson, the senator snet his supporters home from his Election Night Watch party, telling them the campaign plans to wait for all the numbers come in, and then well declare victory tomorrow morning.

He lamented that no outlet has called the race, which remains neck-and-neck, telling supporters: "but I don't see torturing you guys anymore by staying up till, you know, for a couple more hour, because who knows how long they'll take to actually call this race?"

Johnson laments that no outlet has called the race, which remains neck-and-neck, telling supporters here, "but I don't see torturing you guys anymore by staying up till, you know, for a couple more hour, because who knows how long they'll take to actually call this race?" https://t.co/RDBVRQ1ekC  DJ Judd (@DJJudd) November 9, 2022

Safe too say therell be a runoff here in Georgia'

07:30 , Io Dodds

Georgias Senate election is now all but certain to end in a runoff, says a top aide to secretary of state Brad Raffensberger.

While county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff, said Gabriel Sterling, Mr Raffensbergers chief operating officer.

That means Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will tussle once again in a second round, just as we saw between Mr Warnock and Kelly Loeffler back in 2020-2021.

While county officials are still doing the detailed work on counting the votes, we feel it is safe to say there will be a runoff for the US Senate here in Georgia slated for December 6. #gapol pic.twitter.com/uwMF2EoDzO  Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) November 9, 2022

AOC brands Tucker Carlson a terrorist

07:20 , John Bowden

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branded right-wing Fox News host Tucker Carlson a terrorist and said that he plays a massive role in political violence in the United States.

Like, I can tell you 110 per cent, one of the largest sources of death threats that I get is Tucker Carlson, the congresswoman from New York told The Breakfast Club radio show on Tuesday.

There is a major media outlet out there, a major news channel, that is fueling political violence in this country and we are acting like it is normal. It is not normal.

Graeme Massie reports.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brands Tucker Carlson a terrorist

Watch: Lack of red wave searing indictment of GOP and an absolute disaster on Fox News

07:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Fox Newss Marc Thiessen: The midterm results are a searing indictment of the Republican Party ... The Republican Party needs to do a really deep introspection look in the mirror right now because this is an absolute disaster.

Fox News' Marc Thiessen: The midterm results are a searing indictment of the Republican Party ... The Republican Party needs to do a really deep introspection look in the mirror right now because this is an absolute disaster." pic.twitter.com/m4aOfLTjLG  The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2022

McCarthy: Clear we are going to take the House back'

07:04 , Oliver O'Connell

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is speaking now at the Republican victory party.

It is clear we are going to take the House back, Mr McCarthy says, pointing to wins in New York.

He points to wins in New York, Iowa, and Florida. It is clear that we are going to take the House back, he says.

When we wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority.

It is clear that we are going to take the House back.



 House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, with heavy uncertainty still surrounding House control, declares victory. pic.twitter.com/uDYO2qRt0z  The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2022

Fetterman gets text from Biden after PA victory

07:00 , John Bowden

John Fetterman has received a congratulatory text from Joe Biden, according to a White House pool report.

The pool report came just before 2 am et, indicating that the president is up and watching election night returns come in, even late into the evening.

Latest AP calls in Senate and gubernatorial races

06:56 , Oliver O'Connell

Governor races

Democrat Janet Mills wins reelection for governor in Maine.

Democrat Kathy Hochul wins reelection for governor in New York.

Democrat Ned Lamont wins reelection for governor in Connecticut.

Democrat Gretchen Whitmer wins reelection for governor in Michigan.

Senate races

Republican Mike Lee wins reelection to US Senate from Utah.

Democrat John Fetterman wins election to US Senate from Pennsylvania.

Pelosi: House members strongly outperforming expectations'

06:51 , Oliver O'Connell

In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says: While many races remain too close to call, it is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country.

Pelosi says in a statement: While many races remain too close to call, it is clear that House Democratic Members and candidates are strongly outperforming expectations across the country.  Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 9, 2022

Biden texts congratulations to Fetterman

06:47 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden, who earlier made more than 30 calls congratulating victorious Democrats, test his congratulations to Senator-elect John Fetterman when the Pennsylvania race was called.

President Biden texted John Fetterman congratulations after the race was called, WH source adds.  Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) November 9, 2022

Charlie Crist drowned by Democrat groans giving concession speech

06:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Florida governor hopeful Charlie Crist has conceded to his Republican opponent Ron DeSantis, to the dismay of his supporters.

Mr Crist, a Democrat, prompted a chorus of groans and boos from his supporters when he stood up on Tuesday night to congratulate Mr DeSantis on his victory.

First and foremost, I want to give a good congratulations to Governor DeSantis on his re-election, said the 66-year-old, before pausing while the crowd expressed their disappointment.

Io Dodds watched Mr Crists speech.

Charlie Crist drowned by Democrat groans as he concedes to Ron DeSantis in Florida

Brad Raffensberger to remain Georgia secretary of state

06:44 , Io Dodds

The Associated Press has called the race to be Georgias secretary of state for Republican incumbent Brad Raffensberger.

Mr Raffensberger has 53 per cent of the votes to Democrat Bee Nguyens 43.9 per cent with more than 95 per cent of the votes now counted, giving him an unsurpassable margin.

The 67-year-old civil engineer achieved national fame in 2020 when he refused to collaborate with Donald Trumps demands to "find" an extra 11,780 red votes in the state.

Fetterman: Every vote, every county

06:38 , Oliver O'Connell

Pennsylvanias Senator-elect John Fetterman thanked his supporters Tuesday evening at an election night watch party, and reminded them that the campaigns strategy of reaching voters in red districts had made the difference.

We launched this campaign almost two years ago. And we had our slogan, its on every one of those signs right now: Every county, every vote, he said.

And tonight, thats why Ill be the next US senator from Pennsylvania, Mr Fetterman concluded, to applause.

Fetterman: We jammed them up. We held the line. pic.twitter.com/S40jBaUwCb  Acyn (@Acyn) November 9, 2022

Lindsey Graham: Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure

06:32 , Oliver O'Connell

Senator Lindsey Graham has admitted that Republicans have failed to generate a red wave of support at the polls in the midterm elections.

Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure, Mr Graham said during an appearance on NBCs election coverage on Tuesday night. I think were going to be at 51, 52 when its all said and done in the Senate.

Mr Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, admitted that nominating pro-Trump candidate Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, who lost to incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan, had been a costly error.

Graeme Massie reports.

Lindsey Graham admits no Republican red wave in midterm elections

Fetterman: We bet on the people of Pennsylvania - and you didnt let us down

06:22 , Oliver O'Connell

John Fetterman has claimed victory over TV personality Mehmet Oz in one of the closest watched races for the Senate in this years midterms..

After months of campaigning and particularly personal attacks lobbed back and forth between the two candidates, the battle between Mr Fetterman and Dr Oz appears to have ended as one of the most expensive races of the 2022 cycle.

The Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania tweeted: Its official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. We bet on the people of Pennsylvania  and you didnt let us down And I wont let you down. Thank you.

John Bowden reports.

John Fetterman claims he has defeated Trump-backed Dr Oz for Pennsylvania Senate seat

Party is over at Herschel Walkers campaign HQ

06:16 , Lauren Io Dodds

Georgia remains a toss-up as the clocks pass 1am in the Peach State.

As of 1:15am local time, the state's official count puts Mr Warnock very slightly in the lead with 1.89m votes against Mr Walker's 1.85m, with 148 out of 159 precinct counts complete.

But according to The New York Times, staffers at Mr Walker's election night party have begun packing up and emptying the room, telling supporters they should not expect any answers tonight.

Watch live: John Fetterman to speak soon

06:16 , David Taintor

John Fetterman is scheduled to address supporters shortly, after multiple TV networks projected that he would win the crucial Pennsylvania Senate race over GOP candidate Dr Mehmet Oz.

Watch Mr Fettermans speech live below:

Watch live: Fetterman beats Dr Oz in Pennsylvania

https://t.co/465EvvXe4W  The Independent (@Independent) November 9, 2022

Hochul defeats Trump-backed Zeldin in New York governors race

06:15 , Oliver O'Connell

New Yorkers have elected Governor Kathy Hochul to a full term, becoming the first woman in the states history to be voted into the governors office, according to Associated Press projections.

She defeated Republican candidate Lee Zeldin, the Long Island congressman endorsed by Donald Trump, in a closely watched race with polls predicting Ms Hochuls victory on relatively slim margins in a state with a large Democratic electorate.

Alex Woodward has the story.

Kathy Hochul defeats Trump-backed Republican Lee Zeldin in New York governors race

Could the Democrats retain control of the House?

06:10 , Oliver O'Connell

MSNBCs Steve Kornacki believes there is still a path for the Democrats to retain control of the House of Representatives.

MSNBC's Steve Kornacki: "The Democrats have a chance at retaining the House." pic.twitter.com/bPpkygJSVh  The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2022

Networks project Fetterman defeats Oz

06:06 , David Taintor

Multiple TV networks have projected that John Fetterman has defeated Mehmet Oz in the crucial Pennsylvania Senate race.

Abortion rights advocates count seismic win in Michigan

06:05 , Alex Woodward

Voters in Michigan have approved a state constitutional amendment to affirm the right to abortion, among several abortion-related measures on midterm election ballots this year.

Michigan voters agreed that every person has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which involves the right to make and carry out decisions without political interference about all matters relating to pregnancy, including birth control, abortion, prenatal care, and childbirth.

Advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All collected more than 750,000 signatures to petition for the measure to go on November ballots.

The referendum assures the state continues to serve as a critical point of access for midwesterners in the wake of the US Supreme Courts decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion.

This is a seismic win for abortion rights in a battleground state, Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said in a statement. This victory is also a win for people in the neighboring states of Indiana and Ohio, where abortion is banned. Until there is national legislation that protects abortion rights across the country, we will continue to work to ensure that state constitutions protect the right to abortion.

North Carolinas Senate race: Budd beats Beasley

06:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican Representative Ted Budd staved off Democrat Cheri Beasley in North Carolinas Senate race to keep the seat in the GOPs column.

Mr Budd replaces Senator Richard Burr, a Republican who chose retire. But the two staunchly differ otherwise.

Mr Burr voted to convict Trump for his role in the January 6 riot and led the Senate Intelligence Committee during its probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, both of which earned him the respect of Democrats.

Eric Garcia has the details.

Ted Budd beats Cheri Beasley in North Carolinas Senate race

Biden completes congratulatory calls for the night

05:57 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden has completed congratulatory calls to California Governor Gavin Newsom, Representative Marcy Kaptur, Representative Mikie Sherrill, Representative Josh Gottheimer, and Representative-elect Greg Landsman.

The President has completed calls for tonight.

Watch: Tudor Dixon refuses to concede Michigan governors race

05:55 , Oliver O'Connell

Head of Fox News Decision Desk says nothing nefarious about vote counting delays

05:50 , Oliver O'Connell

The head of the Fox News Decision Desk said on Tuesday that there was nothing nefarious about delays in counting votes in battleground states.

Arnon Mishkin, talking to Fox News anchor Martha MacCallums podcast, refuted the claim often made by former president Donald Trump and many Fox contributors.

It absolutely leads to questions, he said, The Hill reported. And people can exploit those differences for whatever reason. Theres nothing to it other than that these election officials are counting based on the rules in place.

Richard Hall reports.

Head of Fox News Decision Desk says nothing nefarious about vote counting delays

Meanwhile at the Dr Oz victory party...

05:45 , Oliver O'Connell

CBS is reporting that Dr. Oz has asked reporters to leave his victory party. Where he has not spoken.  Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 9, 2022

No sign of Kevin McCarthy at GOP election party

05:42 , Oliver O'Connell

With the promised red wave appearing as more of a red ripple, there has been no sign yet of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at tonights Republican Party election night celebration.

Still no sign of Kevin McCarthy at the GOP Election Night party here in DC pic.twitter.com/19dR72sDUk  Max Cohen (@maxpcohen) November 9, 2022

Latest Senate and Governor race calls from AP

05:37 , Oliver O'Connell

These are the latest race calls from the Associated Press:

Governor races

Republican Jim Pillen wins election for governor in Nebraska.

Democrat Josh Green wins election for governor in Hawaii.

Democrat Josh Shapiro wins election for governor in Pennsylvania.

Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham wins reelection for governor in New Mexico.

Republican Brian Kemp wins reelection for governor in Georgia.

Senate races

Republican Ted Budd wins election to US Senate from North Carolina.

Democrat Brian Schatz wins reelection to US Senate from Hawaii.

Democrat Patty Murray wins reelection to US Senate from Washington.

Louisiana voters reject slavery bill over confusing language

05:33 , Alex Woodward

Following widespread concerns about its vague language, Louisiana voters have shot down a state constitutional amendment that would have closed a loophole that allows for slavery as punishment for a crime.

Voters have appeared to approve similar constitutional amendments in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont, a victory for a renewed slavery abolition movement seeking to end forced prison labour.

The ballot measure in Louisiana was the only one that drew any recognisable opposition. One of the original sponsors of the bill that drafted the referendum told voters to reject it. Critics have warned that the measure could have unintended consequences and end up doing the opposite of what sets out to do. Opponents called on state lawmakers to rewrite the proposals language and reintroduce the measure at another time.

DeSantis supporters chant two more years in nod to possible 2024 run

05:30 , Oliver O'Connell

After his projected victory in the Florida governors race, Ron DeSantis said voters have rewritten the political map by solidifying Republican control in the state, a bellwether for right-wing politics that has rocketed the governors national profile and signalled 2024 presidential election ambitions.

His supporters chanted two more years  a nod to the possibility that he could step away from the governors office to seek the GOP nomination in 2024.

Alex Woodward reports.

DeSantis supporters chant two more years in nod to possible 2024 run

They are 100% about to steal Georgia'

05:30 , Lauren Io Dodds

Some people in pro-Trump internet communities are already furious that Herschel Walker hasn't emerged the clear winner in Georgia, and are blaming election fraud.

"They are 100 per cent about to steal GA for Warnock," said one user on The Donald, a successor to Reddit's banned TheDonald board. "It's done. Georgia is blue," predicted another.

Other users claimed that victorious Republican governor Brian Kemp was "in on it", or that the state's swing from red to blue between 2016 and 2020 "makes no f***ing sense".

No concession yet from Zeldin in New York

05:26 , Oliver O'Connell

We hope as the votes come in we will prevail



Zeldin refusing to concede NYS gubernatorial race despite the numbers showing he will lose to Kathy Hochul, who has already declared victory pic.twitter.com/32dYfs5wnF  Zach Williams (@ZachReports) November 9, 2022

A win for progressives in Pennsylvania

05:22 , Oliver O'Connell

In Pennsylvania news: CNN has called #PA12 for @SummerForPa, despite groups like AIPAC spending large amounts of money. I interviewed her this weekend when I was in Pittsburgh. https://t.co/4wToAsMkA8  Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) November 9, 2022

Biden continues to congratulate winning Democrats

05:21 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden has completed more congratulatory calls to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Maryland Governor-elect Wes Moore, and Representative-elect Emilia Sykes of Ohio.

Voices: Red wave? Blue firewall? What to watch now

05:19 , Oliver O'Connell

Eric Garcia writes:

Earlier today, I finally tapped out and said I didnt know what was going to happen in the midterms. But that admission doesnt mean I gave up altogether. Instead, it triggered my curiosity.

Some states are too tricky to focus on immediately. As much as voters may want to see results in Pennsylvania or Georgias Senate races, those will take time because of how long it takes to count the votes. Similarly, while I am obsessed with Nevada, the number of mail-in votes means we will need to be in for the long haul. So I spoke to experts and asked which races they were watching.

The unexpected midterm races that actually matter, according to political pros

Democrats must win two our of three close Senate races

05:14 , Oliver O'Connell

The three tossup races are now Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. Democrats need to win two of these to retain control of the Senate.



Nevada looks difficult for Dems at the moment. May come down to a run-off in Georgia, again. pic.twitter.com/ra5D69Df4N  Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) November 9, 2022

The murders of 21 children and teachers in Uvalde werent enough to bring down Greg Abbott

04:59 , Oliver O'Connell

On the Texas ballot were the lives of the 19 young students and two heroic teachers killed during the 24 May mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, writes Rachel Sharp.

The 21 murders in Uvalde werent enough to bring down Greg Abbott

Georgia gubernatorial race: Brian Kemp defeats Stacey Abrams

04:56 , Oliver O'Connell

Georgia voters have re-elected Republican Brian Kemp in the race for the states governor, defeating Democratic candidate and prominent voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams a second time after their first matchup in 2018.

Ms Abrams has called Governor Kemp to concede.

Biden spends evening congratulating Democrat winners

04:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Joe Biden congratulating successful Democratic candidates in the midterm elections (White House)

Republican Cory Mills flips House seat vacated by January 6 committee member

04:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The House seat currently held by Democrat Stephanie Murphy will be in Republican hands when the 118th Congress convenes in January 2023.

Republican candidate Cory Mills, a US Army veteran turned defence contractor, defeated Democratic challenger Karen Green to flip the seat representing Floridas Seventh Congressional District. It had been in Democratic hands since 2016 when Ms Murphy first won election to Congress.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Republican Cory Mills flips seat vacated by Jan 6 committee member Stephanie Murphy

Watch: Maricopa County officials hold news conference after polls close

04:39 , Oliver O'Connell

JD Vance wins Ohio Senate race in crucial victory for GOP

04:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican JD Vance has won the race for US senator in Ohio, a crucial battleground in the war for control of the upper chamber of Congress.

Mr Vance was leading his opponent, Congressman Tim Ryan, by 7 points when the race was called Tuesday evening. Held currently by retiring Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, Democrats ranked Ohio on a list of top targets for the night as they sought to expand a majority and potentially build the numbers to challenge the filibuster in the Senate.

John Bowden reports.

Republican JD Vance wins Ohio Senate race in crucial victory for GOP

Latest gubernatorial and Senate race calls from AP

04:22 , Oliver O'Connell

The Associated Press has made the following calls:

Governor races

Democrat Gavin Newsom wins reelection for governor in California.

Republican Brad Little wins reelection for governor in Idaho.

Democrat Tim Walz wins reelection for governor in Minnesota.

Senate races

Democrat Alex Padilla wins reelection to US Senate from California.

Republican Mike Crapo wins reelection to US Senate from Idaho.

Republican Chuck Grassley wins reelection to US Senate from Iowa.

Republican JD Vance wins election to US Senate from Ohio.

Democrat Maggie Hassan wins reelection to US Senate from New Hampshire.

Democrat Ron Wyden wins reelection to US Senate from Oregon.

The only place Dr Oz is outperforming Trump is a county on the New Jersey border

04:20 , Oliver O'Connell

An interesting story is developing in Pennsylvanias senate race. John Fetterman, who campaigned on a slogan of every county, every vote, and made a point of searching for votes in ruby red parts of the state, appears to be outperforming Joe Bidens 2020 margins in Republican areas.

Fetterman is now outperforming Biden's numbers in 17 of the 18 Pennsylvania counties are reporting >95% of their vote.



The only county where Oz is outperforming Trump is Pike County, a county along the New Jersey border, where he's outperforming Trump by 0.9 points.#PASEN pic.twitter.com/XZzQ1t4UZe  Ryan Matsumoto (@ryanmatsumoto1) November 9, 2022

Dr Oz, meanwhile, is underperforming Trump in every county reporting more than 95 per cent of their vote apart from one  Pike County  which happens to be on the New Jersey on border.

Anyone who has followed this campaign will know that one of the main lines of attack against Dr Oz was that he is a carpet bagger, not from Pennsylvania, and actually lives in New Jersey.

Voices: Republicans are already spreading lies about the midterm election results

04:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Ahmed Baba writes:

As ballot-counting delays were announced in Arizona, Trump and his acolytes began repeating the same old lies from 2020. But the truth is that they knew all along about the early-night red mirage that tricks Republicans into thinking theyre doing better than they are  because they created it.

Republicans are already spreading lies about the midterm election results

Chris Christie: Herschel Walker in big trouble in US Senate race

04:11 , Oliver O'Connell

Chris Christie says that Herschel Walker could be in big trouble in his US Senate race in Georgia, where he appears to be lagging behind fellow-Republican governor Brian Kemp at the polls.

The former New Jersey Governor told ABC News that the pro-Trump ex-football star appeared to be underperforming among Republicans against incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.

Graeme Massie reports.

Herschel Walker in big trouble in US Senate race, says Chris Christie

Vermont enshrines right to abortion in Constitution

04:06 , Alex Woodward

Vermont is the first state in the US to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution, after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that protects residents right to make their own reproductive health decisions, including abortion care and birth control.

Vermont is among five states with abortion-related measures on the ballot during midterm elections this year in the wake of the US Supreme Courts decision to revoke the constitutional right to abortion by overturning precedent in Roe v Wade.

The Vermont for Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee, which campaigned for the amendment, said Vermont voters made history tonight.

Vermonters support reproductive freedom in all four corners of the state, the committee said in a message to voters. They believe that our reproductive decisions are ours to make without interference from politicians.

Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said in a statement that Vermont has set an example of what is possible for other states.

Watch: DeSantis supporters chant two more years at campaign party

03:58 , Oliver O'Connell

Latest AP-confirmed calls for Senate and Governor race

03:53 , Oliver O'Connell

The Associated Press has made the following calls:

Governor races

Republican Phil Scott wins reelection for governor in Vermont.

Democrat Jared Polis wins reelection for governor in Colorado.

Republican Kevin Stitt wins reelection for governor in Oklahoma.

Republican Kristi Noem wins reelection for governor in South Dakota.

Republican Greg Abbott wins reelection for governor in Texas.

Senate races

Democrat Michael Bennet wins reelection to US Senate from Colorado.

Republican Eric Schmitt wins election to US Senate from Missouri.

Republican John Kennedy wins reelection to US Senate from Louisiana.

Democrats hold onto key House seats in Virginia

03:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Democrats received an early break on Tuesday evening when they held two seats in Virginia that they flipped in 2018, a sign that they might be able to stave off a red wave in the House.

Eric Garcia reports.

Democrats hold onto key House seats in Virginia in early positive sign for party

Tucker Carlson told viewers Arizona voting machines didnt let people vote... Heres what actually happened

03:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Tucker Carlson falsely claimed on his nightly show that electronic voting machines in Arizona didnt allow people to vote.

Mr Carlson said a huge percentage of electronic voting machines were faulty, calling it an actual threat to democracy.

His claims, broadcast to millions of viewers on his Fox News show, were false.

The Independents Richard Hall explains what actually happened.

Tucker Carlson falsely claims Arizona voting machines didnt allow people to vote

Biden making more congratulatory calls

03:44 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden has called Senator Chris Van Hollen, Senator Michael Bennet, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and Representative Jennifer Wexton to offer his congratulations on their wins in the midterm elections.

Josh Shapiro wins Pennsylvania gubernatorial race

03:43 , Oliver O'Connell

Josh Shapiro is the next governor of Pennsylvania. pic.twitter.com/QdxbsIpWWQ  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) November 9, 2022

Hassan holds New Hampshire Senate seat

03:41 , Oliver O'Connell

Decision Desk HQ projects Maggie Hassan (D) wins re-election to the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire.#DecisionMade: 10:30pm EST



Follow more results here: https://t.co/ogd3AkeoyM pic.twitter.com/ZCnFzUSspD  Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022

Watch: Marco Rubio speaks following midterms victory

03:39 , Oliver O'Connell
Jeffrey Collins/AP Photo; Mic Smith/AP Photo; Insider

Sen. Tim Scott defeated Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews to represent South Carolina in the US Senate.

Scott, the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction, had an enormous fundraising advantage over Matthews.

Scott's name is routinely mentioned among those who could run for president, or be considered for VP, in 2024.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott came out on top against Democrat Krystle Matthews in South Carolina to represent the state in the US Senate.

South Carolina's Senate race candidates

Scott joined the US Senate in 2013 and ran for another term to represent South Carolina in the US Senate. He was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley to serve the remainder of Sen. Jim DeMint's term after he stepped down to become president of the Heritage Foundation.

This marked him the first Black senator and Black Republican to serve in the upper chamber since the 1970s. Scott also became the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction.

He serves on several Senate Committees, including Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Prior to being elected to the US Senate, Scott served on the Charleston City Council, the South Carolina House of Representatives, and represented South Carolina's 1st Congressional District in the US House.

Scott's name is routinely mentioned among those who could run for president, or be considered as a vice presidential candidate, in 2024.

Matthews, Scott's challenger, was elected in 2018 to represent Berkeley and Charleston counties in the South Carolina House of Representatives. She ran for two seats this midterm cycle: US Senate and state house.

South Carolina's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of 12 percentage points in the 2020 election. South Carolina has voted Republican candidate since 1964, except in 1976 when it voted for fellow southerner Jimmy Carter.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Scott raised $49.3 million, spent $31.8 million, and had $21.4 million cash on hand, as of October 19. His challenger, Matthews, raised $136,208, spent $89,183, and had $17,792 cash on hand, as of October 19.

Story continues

As of late October, a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups combined to spend about $3 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. Most of this spending has benefitted Scott.

What experts say

The race between Scott and Matthews was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Charlie Riedel/AP Photo; Insider

Republican state attorney general Eric Schmitt won against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine to represent Missouri in the US Senate.

Schmitt's win will keep a red Senate seat red in the footsteps of his predecessor Sen. Roy Blunt.

Republican Eric Schmitt won the Missouri Senate seat against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine. Polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the red state.

Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, who has represented Missouri in the US Senate since 2011, announced he would not seek reelection to a third term, leaving the seat vacant. Schmitt's win means the red Senate seat will stay in GOP hands.

Missouri's US Senate race candidates

Schmitt serves as the attorney general of Missouri, a position he was appointed to by Republican Gov. Mike Parsons following former Attorney General Josh Hawley's election to the US Senate.

Prior to being appointed attorney general, Schmitt served as state treasurer and state senator.

Valentine, Schmitt's opponent, is an heiress of the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune. She was among 22 self-funding candidates who together pumped more than $435 million into 2022 midterm races.

Valentine personally invested significant amounts of her wealth in health insurance companies while pledging to "stand up" to health insurers, as Insider reported in July.

Missouri's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden by a margin of about 15 percentage points in the 2020 election. Missouri has consecutively voted Republican in the last six presidential elections.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Schmitt raised $5.7 million, spent $5.4 million, and had $279,234 cash on hand, as of October 19.

His opponent, Valentine, raised $12 million, spent $11.6 million, and had $327,578 cash on hand, as of October 19. Valentine has mostly self-funded her campaign.

As of November 7, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $31.4 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's highly contested primary phase.

Story continues

What experts say

The race between Schmitt and Valentine was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call; Insider

Rep. Steve Horsford defeated Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District.

The 4th District covers most of northern Clark County and southern Lyon County.

More than 80% of its population resides in Clark County, which is heavily Democratic.

Democratic Rep. Steve Horsford defeated Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 10 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

Nevada's 4th Congressional District candidates

Horsford has been an elected official in Nevada for more than 15 years. In 2004, he was elected to the Nevada State Senate and, five years later, became Nevada's youngest and first Black majority leader of the state's Senate. In 2012, the now-49-year-old congressman ran for Congress and defeated Republican businessman Danny Tarkanian, making him the first Black person to represent Nevada in Congress.

A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Horsford has spoken out against former President Donald Trump's immigration policies, has shown support for universal healthcare, and is for an increase in the federal minimum wage.

Peters, Horsford's challenger, is a retired US Air Force major and Bronze Star recipient.

He won a three-way GOP primary, narrowly defeating second-place finisher Annie Black, by securing 48% of the vote to her 41.1.%.

Voting history for Nevada's 4th Congressional District

Nevada's 4th Congressional District covers most of northern Clark County and southern Lyon County, but over 80% of its population resides in Clark County, which is heavily Democratic.

President Joe Biden had a near 4 percentage point margin of victory under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before it was redrawn to concede largely rural White Pine County to the 2nd Congressional District in redistricting following the 2020 Census, making it more Democratic.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Horsford raised $4.6 million, spent $4.5 million, and had $621,206 of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Peters, raised $1.8 million, spent $1.7 million, and had $113,987 of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.

Story continues

Through early November, super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups together spent about $8 million to advocate for or against the candidates. More than 40% of that spending has come from one source: Democrat-backing hybrid PAC House Majority PAC.

What experts say

The race between Horsford and Peters was rated as "lean Democratic" by Inside Elections, "lean Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Visit the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation and Flying Museum and you can even take to the skies with these American heroes.

This is Visit Henry County

Founded in 1997 in Hampton, Georgia, the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation and Flying Museum as a way for veterans to remain involved while teaching civilians about the aircraft used in the wars.



It was a vision of an airline entrepreneur and his father, who was a retired Army two-star general, said Fred Edwards, interim operations manager for the foundation. They founded [it] to promote army aviation and to support veteran's causes in a lot of ways.



The burgeoning organization started with a collection of Army aircraft that were lovingly restored, including Vietnam era Army aircraft like the AH-1 Cobra helicopter and the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, often called the Huey. Some of the foundations aircraft were flown until the nineties and early aughts before being retired.



[When the foundation started], you had a bunch of Vietnam veterans that were still in their forties, fifties. They were young enough to have the energy and the enthusiasm and the willingness to stand this organization up.



These volunteers, including veterans and non-veterans with specific knowledge, remain at the core of the foundations operations, maintaining the fleet in the hangar south of Atlanta.



This is Visit Henry County

As an all volunteer organization that does all their own maintenance, and compliance procedures, and flying, and training, and parts management, and all those things that go into running an aviation organization. That's a significant undertaking, says Edwards.



The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation has expanded to additional chapters in St. Louis, Missouri and in Phoenix, Arizona, each with its own flyable aircraft and volunteers.



But what makes the foundation so unique is the interactive experience visitors can have. Most months, the volunteers open their doors so people can ride in one of the aircrafts, taking in views of Atlanta Motor Speedway and the citys suburbs as the breeze rolls into the open windows.



Story continues

The foundations aircraft can accommodate between two and six passengers depending on the size.



This is Visit Henry County

We also give rides in the AH-1 Cobra helicopter. It's an attack helicopter and can only seat two people at a time. So the rider will sit in the front seat, which is the gunner station. It's a unique experience. We're the only ones in the world that give rides in the Cobra.



Army Aviation also participates in air shows across the country that are attended by upwards of 20,000 people, only spreading awareness of the organization, especially to younger generations whose relatives flew the aircraft.



We went to Dayton, Ohio, in late July this year, and we flew over 800 people in a weekend in the Huey.



Edwards himself is a retired military officer, flying helicopters in the 1980s before retiring in 1999. A friend who was a member of the foundation reached out in 2015, which gave him the chance to fly again.



Some retired people like myself come here, and this is a worthy effort and a worthy cause if you want to be a part of a non-profit. I can't think of one better than this one, he says.

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.
Voters will consider Constitutional Amendment 2 on the November 2022 ballot which could change whether Kentucky's constitution will allow abortions in the commonwealth.

Opponents claimed victory early Wednesday in their battle to defeat an amendment to eliminate the right to abortion from the state constitution, which would make Kentucky the second state since Kansas to reject such an effort.

"This is a historic win for the people of Kentucky," Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Protect Kentucky Access, said in a statement released just after midnight. "Not only does it represent a win against government overreach and government interference in the people of Kentuckys personal medical decisions, it represents the first time so many different organizations have come together with such an intense single-minded purpose to defeat a threat of this magnitude."

The Associated Press called the race Wednesday morning after about 86% of votes had been counted, with about 53% of voters against it and about 47% for it.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and Planned Parenthood, partners in Protect Kentucky Access, also released statements after midnight Tuesday declaring victory in the effort to defeat Constitutional Amendment 2.

To every Kentuckian who fought for reproductive freedom this election cycle, this win is for you," said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

"The people of Kentucky have spoken, and their answer is no  no to extremist politicians banning abortion and making private medical decisions on their behalf," the ACLU said in a statement.

Yes for Life, the campaign organized in support of the amendment, did not immediately comment on the outcome.

But David OBryan, 73, an amendment supporter who was waiting on election results at Kentucky Right to Life headquarters in Louisville on Tuesday, said he was disappointed.

I'm disappointed in Kentucky," O'Bryan said. "People misunderstood the amendment, what it means to Kentucky and what it means for Right to Life and pro life issues.

Story continues

The vote followed a high-stakes campaign where abortion rights supporters spent more than $5 million to try to defeat Constitutional Amendment 2 and abortion opponents spent nearly $1 million for its passage.

Abortion has been outlawed in Kentucky, except for medical emergencies, since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June.

2022 Kentucky election results: See all the election results in one spot

Kentucky's GOP-controlled General Assembly, which put the constitutional amendment on the ballot, and Yes for Life which campaigned for it, had consistently predicted a win, arguing Kentucky is one of the most "pro-life" states in the country. The ballot measure was among more than a dozen bills approved by Kentucky lawmakers in recent years to restrict or ban abortion.

But opponents, led by Protect Kentucky Access, argued the measure was too extreme and would allow current laws to remain in place that ban abortion even in cases of rape, incest or fetal anomalies. Abortion is allowed in Kentucky only to save the life of or prevent a disabling injury to a pregnant patient.

Kentucky's vote followed the defeat in August of a similar measure in Kansas to eliminate abortion rights from that state's constitution, a vote that reverberated nationwide coming just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the federal right to abortion.

In Kansas, the ballot measure was rejected by about 18 percentage points. Sweet, the manager of Kentucky's campaign against the amendment, also managed the opponents' campaign in Kansas.

In Kentucky, the vote appeared closer, with the win about 6 percentage points. And the vote divided largely along urban and rural lines, with votes against the amendment concentrated in urban areas while in most other counties a majority favored it. In Jefferson County, 71% of voters, and in Fayette, 73% of voters, voted against the measure.

Passage of the measure would have guaranteed there is no state right to abortion in Kentucky's constitution and would put an end to legal challenges seeking to overturn state laws that restrict or ban abortion.

Defeat of the amendment means that reproductive rights supporters may still seek to have abortion declared a state right through legal challenges to existing laws.

Louisville mayor election: Democrat Craig Greenberg defeats Republican Bill Dieruf

The ballot measure took on new importance in Kentucky when the Supreme Court on June 24 struck down Roe v. Wade. Kentucky was among about a dozen states with "trigger laws" to ban abortion in the event of such a ruling.

And it is one of multiple states where abortion rights supporters have gone to state courts, seeking to establish abortion as a right under state constitutions.

The state's two abortion providers, Planned Parenthood and EMW Women's Surgical Center, the latter represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed suit seeking to have abortion declared a state right. Abortion, except for a medical emergency, remains banned while the case is pending.

Abortion services, except in the event of medical emergency, have not been available since the state's two abortion providers, both in Louisville, were forced to suspend those services.

Protect Kentucky Access included abortion rights supporters and several social justice groups. Yes for Life members included Kentucky Right to Life, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky and the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Kentucky Amendment 2 states: "To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion."

After the federal right to abortion ended, advocates took a legal challenge to state court in Kentucky, seeking to establish it as a state right.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry in July ruled in favor of abortion rights, issuing a temporary injunction against Kentucky's trigger law and another banning abortion after six weeks.

But Attorney General Daniel Cameron, an anti-abortion Republican, appealed that order, and it was suspended while the state Supreme Court considers the case. Meanwhile, no abortions have been available in the state, except for medical emergencies.

The Supreme Court has set Nov. 15 for a hearing in the case.

Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @d_yetter. Reporters Caleb Stultz and Connor Giffin contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky election results: Constitutional abortion Amendment 2 fails
Russia has likely lost half its tanks, used up most of its precision-guided weapons and suffered tens of thousands of casualties so far in its war against Ukraine, the Pentagons top policy official said Tuesday.

Russia President Vladimir Putin has failed, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters Tuesday.

Russia will emerge from this war weaker than it went in, he predicted. They have suffered tens of thousands of casualties in eight months  orders of magnitude more than [the Soviet Union] experienced in Afghanistan in 10 years.

Kahl added that Russian forces have probably lost half of their main battle tanks in the entire Russian military, and theyve bogged down more than 80 percent of their land force in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has also spent down a majority of their precision guided munitions in Ukraine, and the sanctions and export controls will make it very difficult for them to rebuild their military to what it looked like before the war, Kahl said.

Russia has struggled in its land war with Ukraine since it first began on Feb. 24, with Kahl calling the invasion a massive strategic failure.

In its most recent setback, the countrys top defense official announced Wednesday that Kremlin troops would retreat from the strategic city of Kherson in Ukraines south.

The West, however, is still watching as to whether Russia will make good on its claims of withdrawal.

We have seen the announcement, but we will of course wait and see what actually happens on the ground, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday, as reported by CNN.

What we do know is that Russia has been pushed back, first from the north around Kyiv, then in the east around Kharkiv and then actually we see, slowly, how Ukrainians are able to push back the Russian forces in the south around Kherson, Stoltenberg said after meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London. So, it is encouraging to see how the brave Ukrainian forces are able to liberate more Ukrainian territory.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Iowans have made their choices for governor, senator, Congress, the Iowa Legislature, county offices and more. Read on for a compilation of election results on key races across Iowa.

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Iowa's US House 3rd Congressional District goes to Republican Zach Nunn

Republican Zach Nunn won election to Iowa's 3rd District seat in the U.S. House, unseating two-term incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne.

The Associated Press called the race for Nunn Wednesday afternoon shortly after 2 p.m.. Iowa's 3rd District includes Polk and Dallas counties, as well as areas to the south and west.

Nunn declared victory at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, before the race was officially called. Nunn won with 50.3% of the vote to Axne's 49.7%, a separation of slightly more than 2,000 votes.

With Nunns victory, Republicans will represent all four of Iowas districts in the U.S. House. Both of Iowas senators are also Republican.

More:Zach Nunn wins election in Iowas 3rd District for Republican sweep of Congressional races

Election results updates from Wednesday

Democrat Rob Sand holds narrow lead in bid for re-election as Iowa auditor

GOP challenger Roby Smith beats Democrat Michael Fitzgerald in close Iowa treasurer's race

Republicans appear poised to expand majorities in Iowa Legislature after election red wave

Iowa's US House 3rd Congressional District too close to call

The Associated Press still has not yet declared a winner in a closely competitive 3rd District race between incumbent Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne and Republican challenger Zach Nunn.

Story continues

Unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State's office showed Nunn leading Axne by less than a percentage point at midnight on Tuesday.

Regardless, Nunn declared victory in the race around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Axne has not conceded.

Reaction so far:Zach Nunn, Cindy Axne locked in close 3rd District race

Iowa secretary of state orders recounts in two counties

11:54 a.m. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is demanding the county auditors of Des Moines and Warren counties hold an emergency meeting with their respective board of supervisors and proceed with administrative recounts affecting thousands of ballots.

Pate said his office is "still investigating what happened" after he said Tuesday night the state is waiting on unofficial election results to be reported from Des Moines and Warren counties. Linn County also had outstanding absentee ballots that have since been counted.

Due to technical problems, I am calling on Des Moines and Warren County to conduct administrative recounts immediately. Those results will not be available tonight, Pate said in a statement posted to Twitter late Tuesday night. These delays in total affect approximately 30,000 ballots. I will ensure the ballots will be counted and the integrity of Iowas elections will be maintained.

'Keep and bear arms' Iowa constitutional amendment approved

Iowa voters approved an amendment to the Iowa Constitution adding the right "to keep and bear arms."

Details:Iowans approve right 'to keep and bear arms' in state's constitution

The language of the proposal goes beyond the protections contained in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

Supporters say the amendment is necessary to protect Iowans' rights from infringement, while opponents say passing the amendment would make it easier to strike down existing gun laws and make it harder to pass new regulations.

The language of the proposed amendment states: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny."

US senator Iowa election results: Chuck Grassley

Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley won an eighth term in the Senate this year. He faced Democrat Mike Franken, a retired U.S. Navy admiral.

The win fortifies Republican efforts to defend incumbents while fighting to flip seats in key battleground states as they battle for control of the Senate.

Details:Republican Chuck Grassley wins eighth term, defeats Mike Franken in Iowa US Senate race

US Congress: Iowa districts election results

Iowa's four congressional districts were on the ballot this year, with new boundaries after last year's redistricting process.

1st District

In southeast Iowa, Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Christina Bohannan.

Details:Miller-Meeks wins by thousands of more votes than the historically slim six-vote margin she had in 2020

2nd District

In northeast Iowa, Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson defeated Democrat Liz Mathis.

More:Republican Ashley Hinson says 'We embraced common sense'

3rd District

In central and southern Iowa, the Associated Press has not yet declared a winner in a closely competitive 3rd District race between incumbent Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne and Republican challenger Zach Nunn.

More:Zach Nunn, Cindy Axne locked in close 3rd District race

4th District

In northwest Iowa, Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra defeated Democrat Ryan Melton and Liberty Caucus candidate Bryan Jack Holder.

Details: Feenstra holds onto seat for second term

Statewide races:Find county-by-county results for Iowa governor, U.S. House and more

National balance of power: Definitely not a Republican wave, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham says

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said a red wave election didnt appear to be materializing after Republicans were projected to lose Senate races in New Hampshire and Colorado, but he still predicted Republicans would take control of the upper chamber.

Definitely not a Republican wave, Graham told NBC. I think were going to be at 51, 52 when its all said and done.

National updates: Fetterman wins: Democrats flip Pennsylvania Senate seat

Key midterm ballot measures to watch:Maryland legalizes recreational weed, Kentucky votes on abortion

Iowa governor election results: Kim Reynolds

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds earned a second full term this year after winning her first full term in 2018, according to early AP results. She's joined on the ticket by Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg. See county-by-county results.

Iowa governor:Gov. Kim Reynolds secures second term, promises policies to let Iowans 'keep more of your money'

Reynolds faced a challenge from Democrat Deidre DeJear, a Des Moines business owner and political organizer, and her running mate, Clinton County Auditor Eric Van Lancker.

Libertarians Rick Stewart and Marco Battaglia also ran for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.

Iowa state House and Senate election results

All 100 Iowa House seats were up for two-year terms, and 34 of the state's 50 Senate seats were on the ballot this year for four-year terms. Before the election, Republicans held a 60-40 advantage over Democrats in the House and a 32-18 majority in the Senate.

Significant turnover for lawmakers was expected after last year's redistricting process changed the legislative district boundaries to account for changes in population. Many lawmakers decided to retire or move, and some face challenges from political newcomers or fellow incumbents.

Statewide races:Find county-by-county results for Iowa statehouse races

Iowas statewide races election results

Iowa county office election results

A range of county offices appeared on Iowans' ballots, including races for county supervisor, county attorney, treasurer and recorder.

Polk County attorney: In Polk County, the only contested race among those was for county attorney, where Democrat Kimberly Graham defeated Republican Allan Richards to replace retiring 32-year-incumbent John Sarcone.

Details:Kimberly Graham elected Polk County attorney, turning page after 30 years of Jon Sarcone's leadership

Broadlawns board: Candidates Kathleen "Kacey" Davis, Marc Ward and Shaimaa Aly will join the board of Polk County's public hospital, beating out Wayne Ford, Thaddeus Franklin Jr. and Bruce Schmiedlin. Broadlawns is a Des Moines-based public hospital funded by Polk County taxpayer dollars.

Details:These people will serve on Polk County hospital's next board

County races: Iowans also voted for nonpartisan county races for offices like county hospital trustee, soil and water commissioner and county agricultural extension council. Here's a compilation of those results:

County results:Find election results for Polk, Dallas, Warren, Story counties and more

Judicial retention elections

In Iowa, judges and justices are appointed by the governor. But they face periodic retention elections where the public can vote on whether they should remain on the bench.

This year, voters had the choice to retain or dismiss two Supreme Court justices, two appellate judges and 61 district-level judges across the state.

Results:All judges on course for retention, including pair of Iowa Supreme Court justices

Find Iowa election results by county

The Des Moines Register has extensive county-by-county election results:

Statewide races:Find county-by-county results for Iowa governor, U.S. Senate and more

Metro Des Moines:Find election results for Polk, Dallas, Warren, Story counties and more

Use the links above to browse results on the key races, including county-by-county results, or check back to DesMoinesRegister.com or download the free Des Moines Register app for iPhone or Android for instant access to results and coverage. Turn on breaking news notifications to get alerts as key races are called and get the latest analysis Wednesday from across the nation.

Support our journalism and year-round politics coverage by subscribing to the Des Moines Register. Subscribers get unlimited access to our content, including live results and subscriber-only analysis. We also encourage you to sign up for our Iowa Politics Insider newsletter for weekly behind the scenes looks at the political landscape and extended coverage of the Iowa legislature when it resumes session in January.

9:06 p.m.: Iowa Dems celebrate chance for "blue wave"

The ballroom of the Hotel Fort Des Moines filled with a loud cheer just after polls closed as Iowa Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, the House minority leader, told the gathered to settle in for a blue wave.

Konfrst, who hopes to be elected in House District 32, said her fellow Democratic candidates  Deidre DeJear running for Iowa governor; Cindy Axne running in the third district; and Adm. Michael Franken running for U.S. Senate  put people over politics.

We know Iowans are with us on the issues, Konfrst said. We can't control everything that happens tonight. We're going to have some successes. We're going to have some sadness. But the thing we have to do is continue to fight because there are women out there who will die if they can't make their own healthcare decisions, and weve got to have their backs.

While reproductive rights were on the minds of many of the gathered at the Iowa Democrats official victory party, most were also excited by the partys field of candidates of color.

A self-proclaimed political nerd, William Sims, 42, of Des Moines, said hes thrilled to be part of what could be a historic night for Deidre DeJear, who is first Black nominee for Iowa governor.

Similarly, Nataly Espinoza, 36, of Des Moines, who runs a community program that works with immigrants to attain their U.S. citizenship, said her phone hasnt stopped ringing with calls from those shes helped gain their citizenship who are now eligible to vote.

Espinoza said immigrants often feel they dont deserve to be here, or they dont deserve a lot of things, but the ability to vote serves as a reminder that they do have a say and that they belong.

Brenda Schumann and her husband, Carl, came to the Democratic watch party to support Senate candidate Mike Franken. The couple, who are both in their 80s, volunteered for Frankens political campaign, knocking on doors and talking with residents.

(Franken) is just so knowledgeable, so experienced. He has over 38 years in the navy. Hes been in D.C. He has fresh ideas, said Brenda, 81, who donned in a dark blue T-shirt with one of Frankens campaign slogan: Underestimate me. Thatll be fun.

For Franken, Tuesday wasnt just Election Day, it was also his birthday, an occasion celebrated by the party with a big cake decorated in Navy yellow and blue.

Spirit in the room didnt seem to dimmish with the early call of Gov. Kim Reynolds projected win. Most wanted to wait and see how the rest of the night played out.

In 12 hours, we're gonna wake up and I don't care what happens tonight, we're gonna keep fighting, Konfrst said.

 F. Amanda Tugade and Courtney Crowder

5:38 Johnson County Auditor says Election Day turnout is exceeding 2018 midterm numbers as Iowa City voting heads into final hours

Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert told the Press-Citizen that Election Day voting this year is outpacing Election Day voting in 2018, the last midterm election. While early voting turnout was down this year by several thousand voters, 3,000 more people voted at the polls as of 3 p.m. compared to the same time four years ago.

Im starting to wonder that in the next 20 minutes or 30 minutes everybody will be leaving work, were really going to find out how many. If the numbers continue how they are, I can see that at least getting within range of 2018 easily, he said. It is crazy to see 3,000 more people vote at the sites, which puts a lot of pressure on us.

Weipert said he thinks a lot of people waited until the last minute to vote and multiple factors may have impacted peoples decision not to vote early, like recent changes to Iowas voting laws. He said, while knocking on wood, that Johnson Countys elections have had little to no problems this year.

I have the most amazing staff. I have a 7-day-old (child) at home and I have been reliant on grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles helping out and its awesome that the staff here hasnt missed a beat, Weipert said.

Jesse Vega is a senior at the University of Iowa studying sport and recreation management and voted at the Iowa City precinct at Terry Trueblood Recreation Center in the south part of town. Vega said he's from the Washington D.C. area, but his dad is from the Mason City area, which was a big draw for him to come to UI.

Vega said his voting experience Tuesday was straightforward and efficient and it wasnt overcrowded when he voted around 4:00 p.m. He said he was motivated to vote mostly because voting is a civic responsibility and his duty as a U.S. citizen.

I was able to vote in the 2020 election as well and this is kind of my second opportunity now. It is a right given to each citizen to be able to have some sort of a say in all the levels of government, Vega said.

Summer Gadola brought her child Grayson to the same polling place and also said voting went quickly Tuesday. She picked up two extra voting stickers for her son and his brother.

Gadola said having children and voting for issues that impact children is what brought her to the polls.

Pro-life and things like that, she said.

Gadola said Republican Jacob Onken who is running for Iowa House District 89 knocked on her door to ask for her support and is interested to see how that race turns out. Onken is running against Democrat Elinor Levin in one of Iowa Citys two house seats.

George Shillcock, Iowa City Press-Citizen

5:25 p.m. Names of two candidates left off ballot in Linn County supervisor race in Putnam Township

The names of two candidates vying against each other for an open Linn County supervisor seat were left off ballots in Putnam Township on Tuesday, a mistake that Secretary of State Paul Pate said was "very serious" and prevented voters there from making their voices heard.

The District 1 supervisors' race was between longtime state Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, a Democrat, and Republican Mark Banowetz, a Christmas tree farmer. They both hoped to fill a seat held by Stacey Walker, who opted not to seek reelection.

"The Secretary of State's Office is closely monitoring this situation, and has been in touch with the Linn County Attorney, Iowa Attorney General and representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties," a release from Pate's office said. "No other races on the ballot were impacted."

Voters in the district were encouraged to continue to vote until 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

Lee Rood, Des Moines Register

3:45 p.m. Johnson County Election Day voter turnout exceeding 2018 numbers, early voting lags far behind that year

Early voting turnout in Johnson County, which is typically strong among Democrats, lagged far behind totals from 2020 and 2018.

As of Monday, the day before Election Day, 25,411 ballots were returned to the county auditor for mail-in and other forms of absentee voting. In 2018, over 34,000 total voters voted early while in 2020, a year of abnormally high absentee voting rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a presidential election, over 60,000 total voters in Johnson County cast ballots early.

However, so far on Election Day this year, 20,305 voters have cast their ballot or 22.33% of all registered voters in the county. Auditor Travis Weipert said on Twitter that Election Day turnout earlier in the day at 11 a.m. was exceeding 2018 when the last midterm election was held.

11 AM Election Day turnout 11,931 (13.12%). Compares to 10,471 (11.13%) 2018. Does not include early vote. https://t.co/81LixSHNDi  Travis Weipert (@jcauditor) November 8, 2022

Johnson County has 90,948 registered voters.

The precincts with the highest turnout are in Johnson Countys rural areas, in Cedar Township and in and around the cities of Swisher and Shueyville in the northern part of the county. The precincts with the lowest turnout are mostly in Iowa Citys precincts.

George Shillcock, Iowa City Press-Citizen

2:45 p.m. Reproductive rights, economic issues drive voters to polls at Roosevelt High School

Brooklyn Powers, 24, was one of two people who voted at Des Moines Roosevelt High School Tuesday morning that said the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade and leave abortion rights up to the state to decide drove them to come out and vote.

Powers, who works in the hospitality industry, said she considers herself 'pro-choice.'

I think that everybody should have the right to choose, Powers said. Anybody who is being put in a position to have to choose, they deserve to have that choice and not someone who it will never affect.

Brooklyn Powers is ready to make her selections as Polk County residents vote at Roosevelt High School, 4419 Center St, in Des Moines

Chris LoRang, who works for a Des Moines chiropractic clinic, said that, like Powers, gun violence and access to reproductive rights drove him to the polls.

LoRang said he voted for Democrats to prevent Iowa from enacting further restrictions on abortion access, but considers himself both pro-choice and pro-life, he said.

Arguments on all sides of the abortion rights debate have gotten too partisan and too simplified, LoRang said.

As a physician, if abortions are not available in a clinical setting, theyre going to happen in unsafe areas, LoRang said. Im pro-educated decisions.

Chris LoRang feeds the machine his completed ballot as Polk County residents vote at Roosevelt High School, 4419 Center St, in Des Moines on Tuesday

LoRang is worried about access to abortions for women with troubled pregnancies. His own mom had health problems caused by her pregnancy with LoRang and had him against the advice of her doctor, he said.

Her decision to have me was against her physicians advice, but thats her decision to have it or not have it, LoRang said. She was able to make an educated decision about what she wanted to do.

Other Des Moines Residents said they came out for several reasons.

Chris Wion, 70, said she's concerned about various issues, including Russias war in Ukraine. Society seems to be fraying and, Weve fell apart, lost our way, Wion said.

I cant complain if I dont vote, Wion said.

Tom Swedberg, 70, is retired from a career working at Hy-Vee stores. Swedberg came to vote for Zach Nunn.

I wanted Axne out of here, Swedberg said.

Swedberg liked Nunns history, serving in the U.S. Air Force and Iowa Air National Guard.

Swedberg worried that politics is getting less civil. He likes Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and approved of the job done by former president Donald Trump.

We need to get back to a solid party system, and get everybody pretty much on the same page, instead of everybody at each others throats, Swedberg said.

Economic issues were also important to Swedberg. As a retired person, higher grocery prices are harder because stores offer fewer discounts, he said.

None of the four people interviewed by a Des Moines Register reporter outside Roosevelt High School had any trouble voting. Most were in and out in about 20 minutes.

Philip Joens, Des Moines Register

1:40 p.m. Turnout in Iowa's fastest-growing city increases as afternoon wears on

Tiffin, a small but rapidly growing suburb of Iowa City, has its precinct next to the Clear Creek Amana Middle School. As of 11:42 a.m., more than 300 people had voted there. Tiffin a city of 4,512, was Iowa's fastest-growing city, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Ernestine Dedrick, like many of those residing in Tiffin, hasnt been in town for long. She moved to town from Long Beach, California two years ago and voted Tuesday afternoon.

Im a Democrat in a very Republican area. (Voting) was really easy to do, she said.

Dedrick said she's concerned about homelessness and social security. She said while she's not happy with Democrats in office right now, she feels Republicans would handle issues in the U.S. worse if they are put in power.

Brad Buser also voted at the Tiffin precinct Tuesday. He said voting was quick and easy and took less than 20 minutes, but was surprised that the voting precinct wasnt very busy during the lunch hour.

Buser said the economy has been a big issue for him. His grocery bills and gas costs have been high and it impacts him a lot since he commutes to Cedar Rapids for work. He said he is a Democrat and a gun owner and did vote in favor of the gun rights amendment to the Iowa Constitution, saying he believes it is a right for people to own firearms.

Basic politics and the economy the way it is, and the COVID thing that has happened over the last couple years are the big driving thing for me voting, Buser said.

He said he is most interested in the race for Iowa Governor and U.S. Senate. He said he thinks U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley has been in office long enough and likes Democrat Mike Franken enough to vote for him. He said he doesnt think Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has done enough to warrant a second term in office.

And I dont think (Reynolds) handled the pandemic quite as well as what could have been, he said.

George Shillcock, Iowa City Press-Citizen

1:30 p.m. Fewer early, absentee votes cast, secretary of state says

Fewer Iowans voted early or by absentee ballot this year compared to some recent election years, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said Tuesday morning.

About 368,000 Iowans voted early or absentee, which is down about 60,000 to 70,000 votes compared to most general elections, Pate said. In 2017, the Iowa State Legislature shortened the early voting period from 40 days to about 30 and shortened the early voting period again last year to 20 days. The bill also moved up the cutoff to request a mail-in ballot.

Pate hesitated to blame the lower early turnout on those changes. Both Republican and Democratic parties have not encouraged absentee voting as much this year as in past years, Pate said.

"We really didn't see a dramatic difference when we shifted the first time," Pate said. "I'm not sure that we're ready to put the assumption that a change in the number of days reduces the number of people voting that way."

Pate, a Republican, is up for reelection this year. His Democratic opponent, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, said last week that the new deadlines are "problematic."

"Most people werent paying attention to early voting until we actually started early voting," Miller said last week. "And then very quickly, the deadline to request an absentee ballot was five days later, and they got caught by that, surprised by that."

Past coverage:Iowa early voting is lower than in past midterm elections; impact on final turnout unclear

Overall, out of 381,451 absentee ballots requested, 96.49% of them have already been returned, Pate said Tuesday. He considered that a "pretty high percentage."

Overall 76% of Iowa voters voted in the 2020 general election, which was a presidential election year. During the 2018 midterm election, 39.6% of people voted, according to Pate's office. Pate said he expected strong turnout Tuesday, around 60%.

"I'm not sure we're going to be able to hold on to the huge numbers we've seen during COVID," Pate said. "It's always driven by candidates and messaging."

Philip Joens, Des Moines Register

1:30 p.m. Quiet, quick voting in Polk County precincts

Pate visited precincts at the Saylor Township Fire Department, a Lutheran church in Ankeny, the Ankeny Public Library and Merrill Middle School in Des Moines. Overall the precincts had brisk traffic and few problems.

"Poll workers were processing people through very quickly," Pate said.

Precincts in Polk County reported few problems Tuesday morning, according to Pate. Elsewhere there were a few complaints about political signs too close to a polling site or other small things that didn't impede voting, but can be improved upon, he said. Later on Tuesday, Pate will head to Camp Dodge in Johnston where he will monitor cybersecurity threats and election results.

"It's been pretty quiet, which is where you want to be," Pate said.

Philip Joens, Des Moines Register

11:40 a.m. Absentee voting strong in Polk County

Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald said early Tuesday that absentee voting was strong heading into the midterm elections. Of more than 56,000 ballots requested, including those who did early voting, roughly 53,000 ballots had been returned, he said.

By about 11 a.m. Tuesday, about 41,000 of 286,820 active voters in Polk County also had voted at the polls.

He said while redistricting led to some voters being confused about their polling sites, workers were redirecting them to the right polling place. All the information needed to vote remains on the auditors website, he said.

Fitzgerald said workers also are going to audit voting in one Polk County precinct chosen by the state as an added form of checks and balances.

Its been really quiet to tell you the truth, he said.

Lee Rood, Des Moines Register

11:04 a.m. Economy, abortion and inflation on minds of voters in Williamsburg

In Williamsburg, at the community recreation center just to the south of town, over 300 people had voted by 10 a.m. where two precincts were set up in the same building. One upstairs for the city and another downstairs for Pilot, Troy and York townships in Iowa County.

William Fetzer is a retired U.S. Air Force veteran from Williamsburg and voted just after 9:30 a.m. He's lived in Williamsburg all his life, not counting the six years he spent in England while serving. He said he has never voted straight ticket before Tuesday, when he voted for only Republicans, but has been a registered Republican forever.

Fetzer, like many other voters in the country, is motivated to vote by inflation and the economy. He said prices are astronomical in some respects and it hurts those on a fixed income, like him.

In Williamsburg in Iowa County at the Community Rec Center. So far (as of 9:41 am) 314 people have voted at this morning



Keep up with our live blog here: https://t.co/7eZPx5zfG2 https://t.co/4OGW4Eg2RZ pic.twitter.com/LrLk4MLXiZ  George Shillcock (@ShillcockGeorge) November 8, 2022

Linda and Donald Hiner from Troy Township described themselves as more liberal but said they voted split ticket because they are disappointed in the job President Joe Biden has done while in office. Donald Hiner said hed like to see control of Congress split evenly between Republicans and Democrats to force the two parties to compromise.

Linda Hiner said she's motivated by the economy and inflation too and is concerned about spending. She said she is also worried that Biden isn't strong enough on the international stage.

A kindergartner knows that inflation is caused by the spending of money and Biden just keeps wanting to make it and keep spending it, she said.

Stephanie Timm, an OB-GYN from Williamsburg said her experience went well Tuesday and said she wanted to cast her ballot in support of access to abortion.

The right to be in control of your own body is important to me and I respect the federal decision of wanting the states to be in charge, but Im not sure the state needs to be in charge of a womans body. Its her body for a reason or anybodys body to do what they want with, she said.

Timm, who was recently engaged, said education and community matter to people like her living in Williamsburg. She said she thinks Williamsburg will go for Republicans, like in recent history, but says people having that choice is important to democracy.

George Shillcock, Iowa City Press-Citizen

8:34 a.m. Democratic voters say democracy, abortion and gun rights amendment motivates them

Stella Hart and Addison Benzshawel arrived together and voted just after 8 a.m. at the Iowa City Community School District Administration building, their assigned voting precinct. Both said abortion, the judicial retention elections and the proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution to protect gun rights are what was top of their mind as they cast their ballots.

Hart, a Democrat, said she voted on Election Day because recent changes to Iowa law for early voting have been hard to keep up with. She said voting is the minimum that people should do.

I always vote on Election Day now... honestly, its kind of fun also to come to the polling station and vote with our neighbors, she said.

More:2022 Iowa local election results

Benzshawel, who's also a Democrat, said he doesnt want to give up the fight and said to him, it seems that with rules around elections changing and other states gerrymandering, it's becoming more difficult to vote everywhere in the country.

I wanted to support (Democratic candidate for Governor Deidre) DeJear, as well and support the Democratic Party across the board, Benzshawel said.,

Jack Fain, a 22-year-old who recently moved to Iowa City for work, said he is concerned about people who are denying the legitimacy of elections and the results of the 2020 election. He said it's getting on his nerves and feels strongly about electing people who will respect the transition of power.

This is one of those times where Ive been motivated a lot more on issues than individual person, if that makes sense, Fain said.

George Shillcock, Iowa City Press-Citizen

7:30 a.m. Iowa City voters, including congressional candidate Christina Bohannan, begin casting ballots

Its Election Day in Iowa City. At 1725 N. Dodge St., Iowa Citys 23rd precinct, 31 voters cast ballots in the first 30 minutes of voting, including Democratic state Rep. Christina Bohannan, who is running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowas 1st Congressional District.

Jean Willard of Iowa City was among the voters and said she came out to vote because she views the 2022 midterms as a very important election. Bohannan cast her ballot just as Willard, who said she leans towards voting for Democrats, was entering to cast her own ballot.

Right now for me its an approach to deciding how we want to be governed, Willard said.

Democrat Christina Bohannan, running for Congress in Iowas 1st District #IA01 voted today at 1725 N Dodge Street in Iowa City@BohannanIowa told me shes feeling really good about her campaign. She is running against incumbent US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks pic.twitter.com/rPwXrZKKUB  George Shillcock (@ShillcockGeorge) November 8, 2022

Bohannan said she feels really good on the last day of voting after months of running her first congressional campaign.

Weve run a really strong campaign and I think weve made the contrast between me and my opponent very clear, Bohannan said. I am focused on what is best for the people of Iowa.

Bohannan and many other local candidates in Johnson County plan to gather at Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City for a watch party later today as results roll in.

George Shillcock, Iowa City Press-Citizen

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Voting problems? See something suspicious at your precinct? Let us know

If you run into troubles when voting, such as if you find exceedingly long lines, youre turned away at the polls, a poll watcher makes you feel uncomfortable or anything else feels out of the ordinary, email the Des Moines Register at IowaVotingIssues@gannett.com.

We will be monitoring the inbox and may contact you for more information, which could be included in a story. You can also call Register reporter Lee Rood at (515) 778-6670.

To inform officials about any problems you experience, contact your county auditor or the Iowa secretary of state at 888-SOS-VOTE.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa election results: Updates for 2022 midterms, US Senate, governor
Katie Boulter lost to Kazakhstans Yulia Putintseva in Glasgow (Steve Welsh/PA) (PA Wire)

Katie Boulter was beaten by Kazakhstans Yulia Putintseva as Great Britain suffered a losing start to their Billie Jean King Cup Finals campaign in Glasgow.

Boulter, the British number two for the event, made a strong start and took the opening set but Putintseva fought back to claim a 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory at the Emirates Arena.

It was only Boulters second loss in 11 matches in the competition, with her first coming against the same player in a tie at Londons Copper Box in 2019.

She took a medical time-out after three games of the decider for treatment to her left calf, which will be a concern for captain Anne Keothavong ahead of Thursdays clash with Spain.

Although Boulter is ranked nearly 80 places below Putintseva at 130, she has been a consistent big-match performer and this appeared Britains best chance of a point in a tie they went into as heavy underdogs.

Harriet Dart will now need to beat Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to keep the contest alive.

The Emirates Arena has been the de facto home of Britains Davis Cup team for nearly a decade but there was nothing like the atmosphere that has made some of those ties so memorable, with a sparse crowd and the enthusiastic band of Kazakhstan fans making most of the noise.

Boulter made the perfect start, breaking the Putintseva serve twice to love either side of dropping serve herself.

The 26-year-old from Leicestershire should have secured a second break at 4-2 but put that behind her, saving break points in the next game and clinching the set on her second opportunity.

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Putintseva had lost six of her last seven matches but she is known as one of the feistiest characters on tour and has a fine record playing for her country.

She began to get on top from the baseline, coping better with Boulters big groundstrokes, and deservedly took the second set, securing the only break of serve in the sixth game.

Boulter then lost the opening four games of the third set and, although she managed some late resistance, it was too little, too late.
Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty and Wikimedia Commons

The Russian Navy is still sheltering in its base in Crimea after a sweeping Ukrainian drone attack last week.

On Oct. 29, Ukraine launched 16 air and naval drones at Russian ships in the bay of Sevastopol, causing damage to at least one ship and leading Russia to temporarily pull out of the lauded grain export deal in retaliation. According to a recent analysis by the U.S. Naval Institute, Russias fleet in the Black Sea has been timid since the attack, which is the latest in a series of setbacks since the invasion in February.

Russias Black Sea Fleet dwarfs the remnants of the Ukrainian Navy and should by all accounts be able to launch missiles and amphibious landings off Ukrainian shores with relative impunity. But for all their strength on paper, the Russian navy has gone from disaster to disaster since the start of the war.

In March, Ukraine hit a Russian landing ship in the port of Berdyansk with a ballistic missile, forcing the crew to scuttle the vessel. Ukrainian forces also sank the Russian flagship Moskva with two anti-ship missiles in mid-April. While not as spectacular as sinking a flagship, Ukrainian missiles and drones destroyed smaller Russian naval vessels throughout the conflict.

Russia has a large navy, but its losses in the Black Sea are difficult to replace.

Thread 3 (short one) about the Sevastopol attack.



One of the Ukrainian USVs penetrated the harbor so deep, that it was able to attack a ship at the missile loading dock. It even had time to pick a target.



Very special thanks to @romankappa for good investigative work!



1/ pic.twitter.com/MvffJH5lHH  GeoConfirmed (@GeoConfirmed) November 3, 2022

Moscow cannot simply send more ships to the Black Sea, since Turkey controls the straits leading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and has the legal right to restrict access during wartime. Turkeys refusal to let naval vessels through means that the vessels currently there are all Russia has in the short term, and is why the Oct. 29 drone attack was so detrimental. Ukraine was able to put a large number of explosive drones near Russias prized vessels, including one Kilo-class submarine. While it isnt clear how much damage was inflicted, that any of the drones were able to penetrate Russian defenses makes it uncertain if Russias ships are truly safe when not in port.

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Watch: Infighting between Russian troops leads to deadly friendly fire, reports say

That drone attack was the first time air and sea drones attacked simultaneously in this conflict, but both had been used in the area separately. Ukraines one-way attack drones, which have seen infrequent use since June against Russian military and oil facilities, targeted the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in mid-August. In September, a previously unseen Ukrainian Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) washed up on a Crimean beach. Using both at once was an attempt to overwhelm Russian defenses and complicate future efforts to defend Crimea.

***UPDATE***



Now beyond any reasonable doubt that the type of surface drones used by #Ukraine to attack Russian Navy in Sevastopol today were same as one previous found near the base. #OSINT



Reference https://t.co/vpJFzEniD6

And https://t.co/YWqnJzWTqc pic.twitter.com/bX0vZvC1Hk  H I Sutton (@CovertShores) October 29, 2022

USVs, even if they dont end up doing much damage, are a tricky problem for navies to deal with. In the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia has struggled to prevent USVs operated by Houthi rebels from reaching their ports. The need to defend ships and ports from cheap USVs and other fast-attack craft is part of the reason the U.S. Navy has invested so heavily in directed energy weapons and why the U.K. procured Martlet missiles for its ships and helicopters.

To make matters worse for Russia, Ukraines Navy is slowly starting to grow again. Ukraine is receiving patrol boats from the United States and the Royal Navy is training Ukrainian sailors. The patrol boats are small and lightly armed, but they can still help Ukrainian naval and Special Operations forces along Ukraines rivers and coastline. Given Ukraines unexpected successes at sea, its partners are likely to continue and increase their support. And considering Russias struggles to adjust to new threats on land and sea, Moscow will struggle to cope with the growing threat of Ukraines missiles, drones, and new vessels.

Ukraines innovative use of missiles and drones to fight the Russian Navy has made it challenging for Russia to operate at sea. The strategy has helped Ukrainian soldiers and civilians on land while keeping the grain export deal alive. Without good options for preventing future attacks and an eroding grip on the Black Sea, the Russian Navy will likely stay cautious.

Topical -> https://t.co/YWqnJAeuhK#Ukrainian explosive drone boat (USV) size comparison to other explosive boats pic.twitter.com/3VRYewq7No  H I Sutton (@CovertShores) October 29, 2022

The U.S. Naval Institute analysis notes that Russias smaller patrol boats have recently been replaced by larger vessels more capable of stopping attacks, and some vessels have been moved from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, which is further from the fighting.

The naval war is nowhere near won. Russia still has a much larger navy and can still launch missiles such as the Kalibr at Ukrainian cities from its vessels. Ukrainian missiles and drones might be able to seriously damage Russian ships, but sinking Russian ships will be difficult if Moscow decides to keep them out of range of Ukraines missiles at sea, and defended from drones when in port.

Still, for all Russias advantages, its unlikely that Putin and his admirals will find an easy answer to Ukraines strikes any time soon.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Taconganas food truck on Summer Ave.

Rev. Greg Diaz is one of the most prominent Hispanic religious and business leaders in Memphis, known for his popular TACOnganas food trucks. But he has faced criticism on social media in recent weeks amid allegations that he recruited dozens of taco workers from Mexico - possibly illegally - then made them work long hours for low wages.

The business is now under federal investigation. Diaz and a top manager didn't respond to multiple interview requests.

Here are the top takeaways from The Commercial Appeal's in-depth investigation on the labor situation at one of Memphis' hottest popular restaurant groups.

The U.S. Department of Labor has opened an investigation

In response to The Commercial Appeal's questions about Diaz and the TACOnganas businesses, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesman, Eric Lucero, confirmed that the agency's Wage and Hour Division is conducting an investigation. He said the agency couldn't comment further.

Diaz is one of the most prominent Hispanic leaders in Memphis

The investigation is a surprising turn for one of the best-known Hispanic leaders in Memphis. Diaz was born in Mexico, came to the United States as a child and is fluent in Spanish and English. He's built relationships with impoverished immigrants and the city's elite.

For years, Diaz has led a church congregation in southeast Memphis called Nueva Direccion and has appeared at high-profile panels and news conferences related to immigration and Hispanic affairs. He formerly served on the board for Compass Community Schools, the charter school group that took over the Memphis Jubilee Catholic Schools Network.

In addition to his work as a religious and community leader, Diaz has also run high-profile businesses, including the popular TACOnganas taco trucks and a new high-end Mexican restaurant in Germantown called Uncle Goyo's.

A leaked video in a Spanish-language forum sparked hundreds of reactions

The social media outcry appears to have begun in September, when someone posted a leaked video in a popular Spanish-language Facebook group in Memphis.

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In the video, Diaz told TACOnganas employees that they had the right to one meal and one soda a day, and that if they took more without permission, then they were stealing - even if they took just one soda or one avocado.

In the video, Diaz threatened to fire the employees or even pursue them legally.

People immediately began criticizing Diaz over his tone and his policy.

In response, Diaz wrote that he recorded this video for employees, not for the general public, that he distributed the video through an internal WhatsApp chat group, and that he did it because employees had stolen cases of food and drinks from the business.

Still, many people took offense. People began making memes and videos mocking and criticizing Diaz.

Job ads surface - "The trip is not with a visa, but 100% safe."

Most of the criticism was in Spanish, but outrage spread to English-speaking social media too. People began to circulate job ads that Diaz appeared to have posted on Facebook last year and this year in forums for taco workers, many of whom live in Mexico.

The text of the advertisements urged experienced taco workers living in Mexico to come to Memphis and work with Diaz in the TACOnganas businesses.

The ads have since been deleted, but The Commercial Appeal copied several of the ads while they were still online and active. One advertisement was accompanied by a video of Diaz talking about the job opportunity.

Some of the ads said employees would work 12 hours a day, six days a week, and earn 13,000 pesos, the equivalent of about $656.

A key sentence appears in the text of at least three of the ads: "El viaje no es con visa pero 100% seguro," which means "The trip is not with a visa, but 100% safe."

In Spanish-language Facebook and beyond, the ads were widely read as an offer to bring Mexican workers to the United States illegally, make them work long hours and pay them low wages. Some social media users tagged law enforcement agencies to draw attention to the Facebook posts.

Experts say ads could cause legal problems for Diaz

It is not clear if Diaz broke the law.

However, experts interviewed by The Commercial Appeal said the advertisements could cause legal problems for Diaz.

Memphis immigration attorney Alicia Triche said said she didn't want to judge the pastor's actions, but she said the situation "raises flags."

She said federal law makes it illegal for anyone to encourage or induce an immigrant to enter the United States if they know that that person's entry or residence will be in violation of the law.

Federal law also makes it illegal for anyone to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants, she said.

In the event of a human trafficking investigation, the advertisements could be used as evidence against Diaz, said Vinh Ho, a human trafficking expert at South Texas College of Law Houston.

Job schedules showed employees at TACOnganas routinely working long hours

The Commercial Appeal was unable to interview any workers who said they were recruited by Diaz in Mexico and brought to Memphis.

However, the newspaper interviewed three former TACOnganas employees who said they met Mexican cooks who seemed to work all the time. The newspaper also obtained job schedules that showed multiple employees scheduled to work six days a week, 12 hours a day - that's 72 hours a week, not counting breaks.

At certain times, some employees were scheduled to work even more than that. During the week of May 10-16, 2021, for example, three workers were scheduled to work seven days a week.

One of those employees was scheduled to work from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. all seven days- a total of 91 hours, not counting breaks.

It is not clear if these workers were receiving overtime pay as the law usually requires.

Diaz announced the company would take a portion of tips

In February, Diaz distributed a memo telling TACOnganas workers that beginning in March, the company would take 30% of all tips left on credit cards.

Diaz wrote that the businesses intended to distribute money from the cashiers, who received tips, to other employees who did not receive tips.

However, the former employee who provided this memo to The Commercial Appeal, Isaac Goldring, said Diaz never told employees where the money was going.

Federal law allows business owners to set up "tip pools" which share tips among tipped workers and those who don't receive tips - but owners can't take any of the money.

As long as everybody is earning the applicable federal minimum wage of $7.25, there can be a valid tip pool where the tips are pooled and redistributed to other non-tipped employees, said Gus Tarantino, assistant district director for the the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division in the Nashville office.

What is not allowed in that situation if a manager or a supervisor or an owner or something along those lines is included in that tip pool and their tips are being diverted to a manager or supervisor.

It is not clear if the policy was ever implemented as written, nor is it clear that Diaz ever broke the law in his handling of tips.

Goldring said he quit before the new tip policy was implemented.

Workers brought from Mexico might obtain legal visas, might file lawsuits

In the event that a human trafficking investigation takes place, workers who assist in the investigation should become eligible to receive visas to remain in the United States, legal experts said.

In addition, these workers could file civil lawsuits for damages and back pay.

Read the full investigation: Pastor, restauranteur Greg Diaz posted job ads implying hed bring Mexican cooks to U.S. illegally

Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 901-300-0682 or danieljamesconnolly@gmail.com. Yo hablo espanol.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Top takeaways from TACOnganas and Greg Diaz investigation
Celebrate National Native American Heritage Month in these four fantastic places.

Courtesy of Museum of the Cherokee Indian

The United States is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, landscapes that people travel from all over the globe to see. From standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon to witnessing the power of Niagara Falls, it's all too easy to get lost in the nation's beauty and forget about the history of the land.

But long before the Going-to-the-Sun Road traversed Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet, Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai hunted, fished, and gathered there. And before the iconic observation tower was built atop Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky National Park, the land was home to the Cherokee, who had developed permanent towns, created an extensive network of trails, and cultivated croplands.

The reality is that no matter where in the United States you go, you'll be visiting the ancestral land of Indigenous people. And it's critical that as travelers, we both know the names of the groups that came before us and understand their significant cultural histories.

"Travel can be transformative when it takes us to places we haven't been, and 'places' applies to the mind and spirit as well as locations. You might know about the Trail of Tears, but when you connect with Cherokee life and culture, you expand your understanding of what was taken, of all that was lost and the lifeblood that remains," Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit North Carolina, shared with Travel + Leisure via email. "Travel has a unique power to help us connect, understand, and respect what lies beyond our immediate lives. By opening our worldview, these cultural experiences can change us in positive ways."

To fill the gap in traveler awareness and honor the Indigenous peoples who were forcefully separated from their homelands, many U.S. states are offering cultural activities and events during November, which is National Native American Heritage Month, and beyond.

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Below is a rundown of what four American states known for Indigenous history are doing to connect modern-day travelers with those who called these lands home long before the U.S. became a country.

Oklahoma

Getty Images The Little Niagara falls in Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma

With the second-highest percentage of American Indian and Alaska Native residents in the U.S. and 39 federally recognized tribes, the state of Oklahoma is all about celebrating its Indigenous culture and honoring those who came before.



This year, in honor of National Native American Heritage Month, the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City is offering a screening of "Choctaw Code Talkers" on Nov. 12. The documentary shows how the Choctaw soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces (who, at that time, were not yet considered U.S. citizens) used their Native language to communicate in a way that German forces couldn't decode.



Throughout November, the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma, will host almost daily events, including Chickasaw stomp dance demonstrations. Meanwhile, at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, an exhibit titled "It's Corn!" will showcase how corn plays an important role in Indigenous culture.



Nature lovers will also want to visit the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur. The beautiful, lush landscape was once inhabited by nomadic peoples who came to the area to enjoy the cool waters.



North Carolina

Courtesy of The Museum of the Cherokee Indian

North Carolina has the largest American Indian population east of the Mississippi River and the eighth largest in the country. The state of North Carolina recognizes eight tribes today: the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Occaneechi, Meherrin, Sappony, and Waccamaw-Siouan.



In honor of Indigenous peoples and cultures, November is jam-packed with events. On Nov. 9, theres a giant American Indian Heritage Celebration in Raleigh with music, dance, art, and stories.

All eight recognized tribes  the Cherokee and Lumbee plus the Coharie, the Meherrin, the Waccamaw Siouan, and three Saponi tribes  participate, which underscores the diversity as well as the common ground across a broad expanse of mountains, rivers, lakes, and other geographic areas, said Tuttell of the event.

The celebration continues in the community of Cherokee near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Travelers can visit sites like the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the Oconaluftee Indian Village and shop handicrafts made by Cherokee craftspeople at the Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual. For an outdoor excursion, head to the Quanassee Path in Hayesville. The two-mile walk is studded with Indigenous sites and activities, including the Cherokee Cultural Center, Cherokee Homestead Exhibit, Cherokee Botanical Sanctuary, Old Jail Museum, and Quanassee Village.



New Mexico

Robert Alexander/Getty Images The Sky City Cultural Center and Haak'u Museum is at Sky City, one of three Native American villages which make up Acoma Pueblo west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The village, built mostly atop a mesa, has been continuously occupied by members of the Acoma tribe for more than 800 years.

New Mexico is home to 23 pueblos, tribes, and nations and more than 1,000 years of Native culture. The state is also the place to go for some of the country's most authentic and well-loved Indigenous experiences.



One of the most popular is Acoma Sky City, the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America. Travelers can take a Native-guided tour to the ancient pueblo, which sits on top of a mesa. The well-preserved, multi-story buildings of Taos Pueblo are another must-visit. It remains unchanged from what Spanish explorers came upon long ago, and the site is the only Indigenous community designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark.

Meanwhile, elaborate cliff dwellings at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Mimbres, New Mexico, offer visitors a glimpse into the daily lives of ancient humans. Similarly, at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, travelers can see first-hand the engineering abilities of the Ancestral Puebloan people.

Travelers looking to support the Indigenous peoples of New Mexico financially should visit the Crownpoint Navajo Rug Auction, which takes place on the second Friday of the month. The auction is renowned for its genuine, hand-woven Navajo rugs, a tradition passed from mother to daughter.

Alaska

John Elk/Getty Images

According to the 2020 census, Alaska has the highest population of Indigenous peoples, with American Indian and Alaskan Natives accounting for 22% of the states population. There are also 229 federally and state recognized tribes in the state.

To properly acknowledge the Alaska Natives who call (or called) the state home, the Alaska Travel Industry Association recently released the first Alaska Native Culture Guide.

Its a fantastic introduction to what travelers can learn and experience when they come to Alaska. Reading a few of the traditional stories gives a taste of what they can learn from meeting Alaska Native peoples across the state, Sarah Leonard, president and CEO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, shared in an email.

The overarching goal of the guide is to help visitors understand how they can be better, more informed travelers. The guide includes practical information, like a regional map of Alaskas recognized tribes, a list of Alaska Native events, and common greetings in several Native languages. Perhaps most importantly, Leonard said, theres a travelers etiquette and a section on how to practice Alaska Native values in the guide, which is so important for travelers who are coming to engage with our cultures.



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Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.
Donald Trump said Don Bolduc, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate he backed in New Hampshire, lost Tuesday because he eventually disavowed the former presidents false election fraud claims.

Despite a recent endorsement from Trump, Bolduc fell to Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan on a night when Republicans hopes of dominating fizzled.

Trump did his dancing best to distance himself from the defeat.

Don Bolduc was a very nice guy, but he lost tonight when he disavowed, after his big primary win, his longstanding stance on Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Primary, Trump wrote on Truth Social, per Mediaite. Had he stayed strong and true, he would have won easily. Lessons Learned!!!

Bolduc claimed the election was stolen and later retracted the baseless assertion, earning this lukewarm endorsement from Trump late last month:

General Don Bolduc has run a great campaign to be the U.S. Senator from the beautiful State of New Hampshire. He was a strong and proud Election Denier, a big reason that he won the Nomination, but he then disavowed, Trump wrote. He has since come back, at least on busing, but that is only a small part of N.H. Election Fraud. Nevertheless, Don Bolduc has asked for my Endorsement, and hes got it, Complete & Total.

Trump also seemed to take pleasure in the sound defeat of GOP Senate hopeful Joe ODea, who was endorsed by Trumps emerging rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). ODea lost to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado.

Joe ODea lost BIG! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! he wrote, per Mediaite.

Trump had previously called ODea a RINO, or Republican in name only, and told followers not to vote for him, Axios reported.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
It's time to brush up on your Thanksgiving trivia! On November 24, impress your guests with your knowledge of everyone's favorite centerpiece: the cornucopia. You've likely seen a cornucopia beforeyou know, one of these hollow, horn-shaped baskets that's ubiquitous in late November. In fact, as you read this, you might even be preparing to fill one with gourds and flowers for your Thanksgiving centerpiece, setting a delightful, eye-catching scene for your family and friends. After all, cornucopias and Thanksgiving dinner go together like pie and pumpkin spice, roasted turkey and homemade gravy, and cranberry sauce and leftover turkey sandwiches. It's just expected.

But have you ever wondered about the meaning and symbolism behind this classic Thanksgiving symbollet alone how it became associated with the holiday in the first place?

Here, we're sharing the fascinating and, yes, magical history of the horn of plenty that so many of us have come to recognize as a harbinger of the fall season. The decorative cornucopia, after all, is much more than just a ritualistic object associated with Thanksgiving; it's also got an exciting history all its ownone that's totally separate from the story of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving. (Believe it or not, there was probably no cornucopia present on that table: This now-beloved centerpiece has roots in ancient Greek and Roman history!)

You can find the full history and meaning of the Thanksgiving cornucopia below, along with answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about it. Here's to a more knowledgeable, informed Turkey Dayand a fun conversation starter to share with your guests (right along with the most interesting Thanksgiving facts you might not know).

Getty Images

What's the history of the Thanksgiving cornucopia?

The word "cornucopia" is derived from two Latin words: Cornu, meaning "horn," and Copia, meaning "plenty." A frequent presence in Greek and Roman folklore, the overflowing cornucopia was often depicted as a symbolic accessory carried by gods and goddesses like Hercules, Fortuna, and Demeter. It was first described as an actual animal "horn" taken from Amalthea, the goat nurse of Zeus. According to the ancient Greeks, baby Zeus was being cared for and fed by Amalthea when he broke off one of her horns, which began to emit a constant supply of food for him. That's how this "horn of plenty" first came to symbolize prosperity, wealth, and abundance.

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The pagan symbol was later adopted by Christians and used often in European harvest festivals to celebrate lush, bountiful crops. It was also used on currencies, coats of arms, and in church decorations.

Getty Images

Why is the cornucopia a symbol of Thanksgiving? And was there a cornucopia at the first Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving has always been an ode to harvest time, and it's always taken place in the fallso it's natural that the holiday would feature the cornucopia, which historically embodies those things. Beyond that hypothesis though, it's unknown when or why the cornucopia became associated with the American holiday. Historians have long surmised that it may have been a nod back to those European harvest festivals, but that must have happened sometime after the first Thanksgiving. There's no formal record of a cornucopia appearing there.

What is the purpose of a cornucopia?

Today, the cornucopia is used purely for Thanksgiving decorations. It continues to symbolize abundance, a bountiful harvest, and, by extension, an appreciation for both of those things. It makes sense, then, that Americans today still use the decorations as centerpieces for their Thanksgiving table. They're also widely used in children's crafts.

How do you fill a cornucopiaand where should you display it?

You might want to start by putting something in it. Just about anything and everything can be placed in a cornucopia, of course, but in the U.S., it's typically filled to the point of overflowing with a variety of fruits, veggies, grains, and pumpkins, all of which share a color scheme or are specific to the autumn season. As for where to put it, the possibilities are endless: Place the filled cornucopia in the center of your Thanksgiving table for a lush-looking centerpiece, add it to a kitchen counter or island for a splash of festive charm all season long, or even display it on a bureau or other tabletop surface anywhere in your home.

How should you style a cornucopia?

There are no rules when it comes to styling cornucopias. But we're partial to an organic, relaxed vibeand a cornucopia that's brimming with fresh produce is an easy way to get there. Instead of arranging your gourds in a carefully considered pattern or ensuring that they're placed just so, allow them to spill out of the inner cavern and onto your table for a look that's as effortless and natural as it is beautiful.

Of course, you don't have to stick to mini pumpkins and squash. Try adding succulents to your cornucopias as demonstrated in the above video. Or, play around with fresh flowers and wrapped candies. If the cornucopia will be displayed at a kids' table, you could even add some small trinkets or toys for the little ones. The choice is yours!

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Tyson Foods, one of the world's largest meatpacking companies, is shuttering multiple corporate offices, including one in metro Sioux City.

Tyson on Oct. 5 announced its plan to shut down its office in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, on the west side of the metro, as well as ones in Downers Grove, Illinois, and Chicago, and transfer the employees to the international meatpacker's world headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas. The move could come as soon as early 2023.

About 1,000 Tyson Foods employees between the Illinois and Dakota Dunes offices will be affected, according to an e-mail to the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Argus Leader from Derek Burleson, public relations director of Tyson Foods. Burleson also wrote that no layoffs are associated with the announcement and the company will provide workers relocation assistance. The Sioux City Journal reported the move will affect about 500 Dakota Dunes employees.

A sign stands in front of the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa.

More:Rancher sentenced for ghost cattle fraud against Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods will expand its world headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas to bring together all of its domestic corporate team members from Chicago and Downers Grove, Ill. and Dakota Dunes, South Dakota into one location," the company said in its announcement. "The multi-year project, the details of which will be rolled out over the next several months, will include a number of features to enable connectivity, collaboration, and innovation through sustainable and dynamic spaces including state-of-the-art technology.

Tyson has meatpacking plants across Iowa.

More:Ex-union leader acknowledges defending company as COVID-19 ravaged Iowa meatpacking plant workforce

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux City-area Tyson office shutting down as employees move to Arkansas
cobra snake file pic

getty

A venomous snake was killed last week after an 8-year-old boy bit it twice, the New Indian Express reports.

In a small village about 215 miles northeast of Raipur, Deepak was playing in his backyard when he was attacked by a snake, according to the newspaper.

After wrapping itself around the child's hand and not letting go, the boy bit it twice, killing it.

A cobra is seen in Yang Hangchang's snake farm in Zisiqiao village, Shilin township, Deqing County, Huzhou city, Zhejiang province, on June 26, 2011. 26JUN11 Photo by Simon Song

Simon Song/South China Morning Post via Getty

RELATED: Australian Hero Dog Bit By Snake While Protecting Puppy Brother from Venomous Reptile

"The snake got wrapped around my hand and bit me," the boy reportedly told the local media, via New Indian Express. "I was in great pain. As the reptile didn't budge when I tried to shake it off, I bit it hard twice. It all happened in a flash."

Deepak was taken to a local urgent care facility where he was seen and released one day later, according to the outlet.

RELATED VIDEO: Body of Missing Woman Found Inside 23-Ft. Python Near Plantation in Indonesia: Reports

"He was quickly administered anti-snake venom and kept under observation for the entire day and discharged," Dr. Jems Minj, block medical officer, reportedly said after the visit.

It was later determined by local experts to be a "dry bite."

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

"Deepak didn't show any symptoms and recovered fast owing to the dry bite when the poisonous snake strikes but no venom is released," local snake expert Qaiser Hussain said, according to the New Indian Express.

"Such snakebites are painful and may show only local symptoms around the area of bite," he said.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) is projected to win reelection in Ohios 9th Congressional District, fighting off a challenge from embattled Republican J.R. Majewski.

The Associated Press called the race around 11 p.m. ET.

It is a key win for House Democrats trying to keep control of the chamber. The Toledo-area district became more Republican-leaning after redistricting due to the 2020 census. President Biden lost voters in the new lines by nearly 3 points in 2020, according to data from Daily Kos, making the seat a top target for Republicans at the start of the midterm season.

But Majewski, who defeated multiple establishment candidates in his primary, was abandoned by national Republicans after an Associated Press investigation found that he misrepresented his military service and was never stationed in Afghanistan as he had claimed. Majewski maintained he traveled to Afghanistan multiple times while he was based in Qatar.

After the report, the National Republican Congressional Committee slashed nearly $1 million in ad reservations for Majewski.

Kaptur and the House Majority PAC, which is aligned with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), ran ads highlighting that Majewski was part of the rally outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Majewski also tweeted references to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Kaptur, 76, is the longest-serving woman in Congress, having first been elected to Congress in 1982. With her reelection, she is set to become the longest-serving woman in congressional history. Kaptur sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Electrician working at solar farm

Companies from a range of sectors have backed calls from the solar industry for urgent changes to Scottish planning law and tax rules.

More than 20 firms and trade bodies have written to ministers arguing that business rates and permitted development rights must be reformed.

A joint letter states that businesses are currently "unable to deploy solar energy at the necessary speed".

It argues changes would help firms cut energy costs and decarbonise.

The signatories include representatives from agriculture, warehousing, distilling, food and solar.

The letter calls on the Scottish government to allow the installation of solar panels with up to 5MW capacity without having to seek planning permission. The current "permitted development" threshold is 50kW.

It states: "This limit artificially constrains the potential for commercial rooftop solar.

"The space of a roof will automatically constrain the maximum size of a solar power project, which in any case will be subject to all other relevant planning requirements."

The letter, which was drawn up by trade body Solar Energy Scotland, also calls on ministers to exempt firms from paying non-domestic rates on new solar panels on a 12-year rolling basis, as is the case in England.

"Business owners who install solar should not pay a premium for decarbonising their business," it says.

"The Scottish government risks its own ambitious climate mitigation goals by effectively penalising Scottish businesses who wish to install affordable, reliable and renewable onsite energy."

solar panel fitter

The signatories include Aberdeenshire-based shortbread maker Dean's.

Managing director Bill Dean said: "We have put off investing on solar PV panels for more than six years, entirely because the business rating system penalises businesses for trying to help themselves control their energy cost.

"If this matter had been addressed years ago, businesses would more than likely have invested in fully covering their roofs with solar panels and would have been in a much better position to face the energy price crisis."

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Other signatories include Black Isle Brewery, Browns Food Group, Uddingston-based Emtec Group, animal feed firm Harbro, Edinburgh-based The Scottish Salmon Company, the Scottish Timber Trade Association, the Federation of Small Businesses and the UK Warehousing Association.

'Simple changes'

Solar Energy Scotland chairman Thomas McMillan said: "Solar energy is now the cheapest energy source available to Scottish businesses, and can be deployed rapidly, improving our energy security and reducing our carbon emissions.

"Given we face growing climate breakdown, geopolitical instability and sharply rising costs, I hope these simple changes can be delivered before the end of the year."

The Scottish government said it provided non-domestic rates relief for small-scale solar energy producers and supported microgeneration producers and businesses that retrofitted micro-renewable schemes to meet part of their energy needs.

A spokesman said: "We will continue to consider how this support can develop.

"Decisions on any non-domestic rates policies will be set out in the Scottish budget alongside other government priorities in light of affordability."

He added: "We have been working closely with industry in recent months on developing the solar vision which will be published in our Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan later this year and provide the certainty needed for investment in our energy transition.

"We are also bringing forward our consideration of permitted development rights for domestic and non-domestic renewable energy equipment, including non-domestic solar panels, and intend to consult on this in early 2023."
Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images; Jay Chen's campaign; Insider

Rep. Michelle Steel ran against Democrat Jay Chen in California's 45th Congressional District.

The 45th District is home to Little Saigon, which contains the largest Vietnamese population in the nation.

The Vietnamese American vote was instrumental to Steel's success in 2020.

Republican Rep. Michelle Steel defeated Democrat Jay Chen in California's 45th Congressional District.

Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.

2022 General Embeds

California's 45th Congressional District Candidates

Steel sits on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Education and Labor. In 2020, Steel, fellow California Republican Rep. Young Kim, and Democratic Rep. Marilyn Strickland of Washington made history as the first Korean American women ever elected to Congress.

Steel narrowly defeated incumbent Harley Rouda in that election by just over 2 percentage points, flipping a House seat Republicans lost in 2018.

Prior to her time in Congress, Steel, 67, served on the California State Board of Equalization, the nation's only publicly-elected tax board. Elected in 2006, she served more than nine million residents as the highest-ranking Korean American elected official in the country. In 2011, Steel was named vice chair of the board. After her tenure, she served for several years on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Chen, Steel's challenger, is a lieutenant commander in the US Navy Reserve and a small business owner. He also serves as president on the board of trustees for Mt. San Antonio College, a local community college located in the 38th District, east of the 45th.

Steel and Chen, who are both Asian American, battled in one of the most heavily Asian American districts in the country, where a quarter of eligible voters were Asian.

With just over one week left before election night, a political action committee that supports Asian American and Pacific Islander candidates pulled its endorsement of Steel, citing the "accusations, negative advertisement, and red baiting that are coming from the 45th congressional race," as the reason.

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Steel's campaign had sent flyers to Orange County Vietnamese American voters  many of whom settled in the area after escaping from Communism  that portrayed Chen as a Communist sympathizer.

Earlier in 2022, Chen got himself in hot water with some members of the Asian American community over comments he made that appeared to mock the South Korean-born congresswoman's accent. Insider also revealed that Chen failed to properly disclose investments he made in two pharmaceutical giants that manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

Voting history for California's 45th Congressional District

California's 45th Congressional District straddles Los Angeles County and Orange County  the third largest in the state  and includes Little Saigon, home to the largest Vietnamese population in the United States.

Vietnamese American voters, on balance a conservative voting bloc, were instrumental to Steel's success in 2020. On a national scale, the Vietnamese American voting bloc was the only one of the six biggest Asian groups  Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese  that was under 50% for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

After the district lines were finalized in the decennial redistricting process following the 2020 Census, Steel announced she would switch districts to run in the 45th District.

Had Steel stayed in her coastal district, the new 47th, she would have had to face Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, one of the most powerful fundraisers in the House. The new 45th District, which includes more middle and working-class areas, as well as large immigrant and refugee communities, was a sharp contrast to her old political turf which was conservative, wealthy, and 70% white.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Steel raised $6.7 million, spent $5.8 million, and had about $1 million on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Chen, raised $4.5 million, spent $4.2 million, and had about $429,000 cash on hand.

As of early November 2022, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had together spent more than $5.7 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. The pro-Republican Congressional Leadership Fund alone accounted for more than half of that spending, with the National Republican Congressional Committee accounting for much of the rest.

What experts say

The race between Steel and Chen was rated as "lean Republican" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "leans Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  A man facing a potential death penalty in the killing of three people who were shot at an Alabama church dinner in June is fighting a court-ordered mental evaluation requested by prosecutors.

Robert Findlay Smith, 70, hasn't told a court he plans to use a defense of insanity or mental illness and shouldn't have to undergo psychological testing at a state facility unless he does so, the defense argued in a brief objection filed Friday.

Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam, who approved prosecutors' request for an outpatient mental evaluation the day before, hadn't ruled on Smith's motion on Monday. Pulliam's order said she had received information indicating the man may not be able to help with his defense.

A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Smith on capital murder charges in the shootings of Walter Bart Rainey, 84, of Irondale; Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham; and Jane Pounds, 84, of Hoover. They were killed during a potluck dinner at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills on June 16.

After sitting by himself at the event, Smith pulled out a gun and started shooting without explanation, authorities have said. A longtime church member intervened by hitting the shooter with a chair and restraining him until police arrived, police said.

The district attorney's office sought mental testing for Smith, citing the fact that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and what they called Smith's bizarre behavior of shooting innocent persons who had not harmed him in any way. State law allows reviews in such instances, prosecutors said in asking for the evaluation.

While Smith filed court papers last month indicating he would use an insanity defense, his attorney later said the document was submitted by mistake, prosecutors argued. The defense has said it is compiling a cost estimate for a private mental evaluation of Smith, who is being held without bond, records show.
In this episode of In The Know: Walks of Life, a 19-year-old man reflects on the changes hes undergone since leaving his small-town Montana hometown for college in Southern California. Now back in Montana for the summer after his freshman year, he contemplates the people who have stayed there and how it feels to have left.

The subject shares that throughout his life in rural Montana, he never really clicked with anybody, but immediately met great friends in college who even decorated a whole dorm for his birthday one month into the semester. It was the best birthday Id ever had, he remarks. I couldnt believe Id gotten so close with so many people so quickly.

Now hes thinking about those friends at college compared to the ones hes had in his hometownparticularly the ones that have stayed in Montana. Its such a different environment here. I hate to say it but its kind of sad, he says.

But hes quick to sympathize with those who want to leave Montana, but cant or dont. He notes that even for himself, leaving for college was very challenging. But once he did, he had no regrets.

Its so hard to leave behind something so familiar, he says. I was an important person in my community. People knew who I was, and I was leaving to go to a school I couldnt even afford to visit before I committed. So Id never been. [I was] just planning on uprooting my life and going to where I knew nobody. I didnt know anyone in Southern California. But once I got on the plane, actually left, and came in and was landing in sunny Southern California, all those fears went away and almost all of it was a very pleasant experience.

Having now lived in both rural Montana and Southern California, the subject shares some of the differences hes noticed between the environments, as well as some of the similarities.

Political correctness is one big difference between the two places. Some of the conversations that are had just casually in Montana would set somebody off [in California] probably, he shares. I cant imagine some of the reactions some of my friends would have to some of the things said. And California doesnt have it perfected [either], thats for sure.

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But one big similarity he sees across the board is that people are good at speaking out about what they believe in, while not so good at listening to differing opinions. When you disagree with someone, its really important to listen because its gonna teach you something, he notes. Maybe the only thing I learn is where the gaps are in communicating facts, or I could learn where the mistrust isThats valuable to have that information.

The experience of saying his thoughts out loud to himself has only reinforced his belief that listening is just as important as being vocal about ones opinions. Creating a space for people to share any of their thoughts without judgment is a great idea, he remarks. If people get the opportunity to share how they feel, were gonna learn so much more, and they wont feel like they have to hide that.

In The Know: Walks of Life is available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

The post This 19-year-old finds peace and nostalgia in his small Montana hometown appeared first on In The Know.

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VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 8, 2022 /CNW/ - (TSX: AOI) (Nasdaq-Stockholm: AOI)  Africa Oil Corp. ("Africa Oil", "AOC" or the "Company") will publish its financial and operating results and related management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended September 30, 2022, after Toronto market close on Monday, November 14, 2022. View PDF version

Senior management will hold a conference call to discuss the results on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 09:00 (ET) / 14:00 (GMT) / 15:00 (CET). The conference call may be accessed by dial in or via webcast.

Participants should use the following link to register for the live webcast:

https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/QReg/ShowUUID=4A84DE51-3FE1-4372-AEF3-D443264C1A53

Please note that for optimal viewing, it is best not to connect to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) but instead to connect directly to the Internet.

Participants can also join via telephone with the instructions available on the following link:

https://register.vevent.com/register/BI546559802eb54189b97a63f66553d054

Please join the event conference 5 minutes prior to the start time. A recording of the webcast will be available on the Company's website after the event.

About Africa Oil

Africa Oil Corp. is a Canadian oil and gas company with producing and development assets in deepwater Nigeria; development assets in Kenya; and an exploration/appraisal portfolio in Africa and Guyana. The Company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq Stockholm under the symbol "AOI".

Forward Looking Statements This press release contains statements and information which constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (within the meaning of applicable securities legislation). Such statements and information (together, "forward-looking statements") relate to future events, including the Corporation's future performance, business prospects or opportunities. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, unless otherwise indicated. Africa Oil does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

Story continues

All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, forecasts, guidance, budgets, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "forecast", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe", "budget" and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements".

AFRICA OIL TO RELEASE THIRD QUARTER 2022 FINANCIAL RESULTS ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2022 (CNW Group/Africa Oil Corp.)

SOURCE Africa Oil Corp.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2022/08/c3030.html
Caruso GmbH

A car dealer filled a complaint for the theft of a brand-new Peugeot 208. With the help of connected car data, the car was located in an industrial zone in the Paris suburbs. Only one day later, the police seized the vehicle.

With the help of CARUSO -- a connected car marketplace -- the car was located and seized within a few days.

If the consent of the vehicle owner is given, car data of the respective vehicle, such as position, can easily be accessed via CARUSOs standardized interface, independent of the car brand.

MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Car theft is, unfortunately, a phenomenon that is frequent in big metropolitan areas such as Paris. Only a few years ago, it still would have been unimaginable to get the accurate location of a stolen vehicle over the air. Law enforcement agencies could sometimes do very little as they were working in the dark due to limited information. According to GIE ARGOS, only 38% of vehicles stolen in France in 2021 were found, which leads to high costs for the damaged parties.



However, since 2018, an increasing number of cars are equipped with vehicle generated data technology. For companies like GIE ARGOS that search, identify, and recover stolen vehicles, this is a huge benefit. Early September, a car dealer filed a complaint for the theft of a new car, which was already insured by one of the GIE ARGOS members. When talking about stolen cars, time is critical. With the help of CARUSO -- a connected car marketplace -- the car was located and seized within a few days. If the consent of the vehicle owner is given, car data of the respective vehicle, such as position, can easily be accessed via CARUSOs standardized interface, independent of the car brand.

Im really proud of the whole team that reacted so fast and showed that connected car data is a powerful instrument to recover stolen vehicles, says Benoit Leclair, Chief Executive Officer at ARGOS.

We started our cooperation with GIE ARGOS in September this year and already we can see how this partnership bears fruits. More and more companies are becoming aware of connected car data and its benefits, says Norbert Dohmen, Managing Director of Caruso GmbH.

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About GIE ARGOS

Founded in 1984, GIE ARGOS is a professional non-profit insurance organization. It acts in the public interest to search, identify and recover stolen vehicles. To this day, almost all insurance companies operating in the French market are members. More information is at https://www.gieargos.org/en.

About CARUSO

From Connected Cars to Connected Business. CARUSO is a neutral, open, and secure mobility data marketplace. The platform enables third parties to consume data standardized across multiple vehicle manufacturers. Additionally, their built-in consent management technology ensures data privacy by giving vehicle end-users full control over data sharing. CARUSO empowers its customers to easily build life-improving solutions based on data from connected cars. This makes the Germany-based company one of the leading platforms for vehicle data in Europe.

More information at www.caruso-dataplace.com

Company Contact

Tina Rauschenbach

Head of Customer Experience

customerexperience@caruso-dataplace.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/928e19e4-ebd2-477d-a362-c088c553507d




Ohio State coach Ryan Day compared trying to throw the ball during last weeks 50 mph gusts in Evanston, Illinois, to a golfer trying to play in similar wind. Well continue the golf theme by pointing out how the Buckeyes bogeyed against Northwestern 21-7, which opened the door for Michigan to move atop the rankings.

It could have been worse for Ohio State  at least it wasnt a quadruple bogey  but struggling against a 38-point underdog that was 1-7 is no way to impress the BTPR.

Want to keep up with Ohio State? Don't miss a single Buckeyes story. Get a great deal by subscribing to the Dispatch today at www.dispatch.com/subscribenow/.

Illinois, meanwhile, fell back to earth in the West, which is a sea of mediocrity. Having suddenly found some offense, Iowa may be the best of the bunch.

1. Michigan (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten)

Last week: 2

This week: Nebraska

What to know: Smooth sailing this week for the Wolverines, who need only to avoid getting tripped up by Illinois next week to enter The Game atop the rankings. Then hope it blows like crazy Nov. 26 in Columbus.

Nov 5, 2022; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Zach Harrison (9) looks to the scoreboard during the first half of the NCAA football game against the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus Dispatch

2. Ohio State (9-0, 6-0)

Last week: 1

This week: Indiana

What to know: No truth to the rumor that Ryan Day is adding a meteorologist to his staff. Regardless, windy weather wont be a factor against the Hoosiers.

3. Penn State (7-2, 4-2)

Last week: 4

This week: Maryland

What to know: Penn State is confused, and rightfully so. People talk about Marylands passing offense as if it is special, but the Nittany Lions are ranked higher in passing yards per game (38th) than the Terps (44th).

Matthew Bailey (2) of the Illinois Fighting Illini makes the hit on Jalen Berger (8) of the Michigan State Spartans during the second half at Memorial Stadium on November 5, 2022 in Champaign, Illinois.

4. Illinois (7-2, 4-2)

Last week: 3

This week: Purdue

What to know: How do the Illini respond to losing to dysfunctional Michigan State? By rebounding nicely against a Purdue squad that has lost two in a row.

5. Minnesota (6-3, 3-3)

Last week: 7

This week: Northwestern

What to know: Gophers tailback Mohamed Ibrahim should have no trouble extending his FBS-leading string of 100-yard games to 18.

Iowa Hawkeyes defensive back Kaevon Merriweather (26) celebrates after intercepting a ball meant for Purdue Boilermakers wide receiver Tyrone Tracy Jr. (3) during the NCAA football game against the Purdue Boilermakers, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind.

6. Iowa (5-4, 3-3)

Last week: 9

Story continues

This week: Wisconsin

What to know: It took only half the season, but the Hawkeyes finally got their offensive GPS working well enough to locate the end zone. Their 57 points over the past two games matches how many they scored against the previous four opponents combined.

Wisconsin offensive lineman Riley Mahlman (71) and linebacker Kaden Johnson (52) celebrate after a replay review confirms a Badgers touchdown against Maryland on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.

7. Wisconsin (5-4, 3-3)

Last week: 8

This week: at Iowa

What to know: If the Badgers were playing the Hawkeyes at home, the outcome might be different, but Iowa City is no place to take a team that is still learning how to win.

8. Maryland (6-3, 3-3)

Last week: 5

This week: at Penn State

What to know: Talk about seasonal free fall. The Terps are like the house painter who quits halfway through the job, leaving ugliness for all to see. Since 2012 they are 8-33 (.195) in November.

9. Michigan State (4-5, 2-4)

Last week: 10

This week: Rutgers

What to know: MSU made clear in knocking off Illinois last week that it did not want to be known as an out-of-control program. But more proof is needed, by stacking uneventful wins like this one against the Scarlet Knights.

Purdue Boilermakers defensive line tackles Iowa Hawkeyes running back Kaleb Johnson (2) during the NCAA football game, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind.

10. Purdue (5-4, 3-3)

Last week: 6

This week: at Illinois

What to know: The Boilermakers face a separator game against the surprising Illini. Are they West division contenders or pretenders? We lean toward the latter.

Nebraska Cornhuskers defensive back Malcolm Hartzog (13) celebrates after catching an interception during the NCAA football game against the Purdue Boilermaker, at Ross-Ade Stadium, on Oct. 15, 2022, in West Lafayette, Ind

11. Nebraska (3-6, 2-4)

Last week: 11

This week: at Michigan

What to know: The once-admired Nebraska Black Shirt defense has become a heap of rags. The Cornhuskers rank 108th against the run. Michigans run offense is No. 4. This could get ugly fast.

12. Rutgers (4-5 1-5)

Last week: 12

This week: at Michigan State

What to know: The Scarlet Knights keep claiming they arent the same old Rutgers that struggled to walk and chew gum at the same time. But clearly coordination issues remain.

Nov 5, 2022; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Northwestern Wildcats quarterback Brendan Sullivan (10) throws during the first half of the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ryan Field. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus Dispatch

13. Northwestern (1-8, 1-5)

Last week: 14

This week: at Minnesota

What to know: You hold Ohio State to 21 points, you escape the basement. Yes, the Chicago wind tunnel helped hold the Buckeyes down, but Fitzs guys showed spunk in the loss.

Cincinnati Bearcats linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. (0) dives toward Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Connor Bazelak (9) for a sack during the first quarter of the NCAA football game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Indiana Hoosiers at Nippert Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.

14. Indiana (3-6, 1-5)

Last week: 13

This week: at Ohio State

What to know: Looking  looking  looking for something the Hoosiers do as well or better than the Buckeyes. Ah, found it. Both teams have recovered six fumbles. Thats all we got. IU more resembles the ICU.

roller@dispatch.com

@rollerCD

Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football falls behind Michigan in Big Ten Power Rankings
A warehouse at the Agility Logistics Park complex in Riyadh is the first building in Saudi Arabia as well as the first warehouse in the GCC to receive Edge Advanced certification as a green building.

Edge (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) is the global standard for energy-efficient buildings, a certification system overseen by the International Finance Corp (IFC), an arm of the World Bank.

Basic certification requires a minimum projected reduction of 20% energy use, water use and embodied energy in materials as benchmarked against a standard local building.

Edge Advanced certification

Agility received Edge Advanced certification for a warehouse at its 870,000 sq m Riyadh park. Edge Advanced buildings are zero-carbon ready structures that are at least 40% more energy efficient than others in the market.

Agility is determined to lead the way in development of modern, energy-efficient logistics infrastructure. We want to help drive Saudi growth, generate jobs, conserve resources and be an example for others in the area of sustainability, said Michel Saab, CEO of Agility Logistics Parks/Global Operations.

Agility Logistics Parks are secure, connected, 24/7 complexes with Grade A, international-standard warehouses designed with advanced engineering and sustainability features. In addition to its Riyadh complex, Agility Logistics Parks operates a 200,000 sq m facility in Dammam and recently announced plans to invest SR611 million ($163 million) to build a 576,000 sq m warehouse park near Jeddah.

Tenants

Tenants at Agility Logistics Parks include international and local businesses in the retail, consumer goods, technology, automotive, energy and e-commerce sectors.

We believe Agility has an important role to play in helping the kingdom achieve its ambition to be a key link in global supply chains and to meet the goals outlined in its broader Vision 2030 plan, Saab said.-- TradeArabia News Service
Republicans in South Carolina failed to enact new abortion restrictions Wednesday.

GOP members of the state House and Senate were unable to agree on how far to go, almost certainly dooming the chances for any new bills to be enacted this year and leaving access to the procedure legal in the state  for now.

During a conference committee meeting Wednesday morning, members of the House refused to budge on their proposal to ban abortion starting at conception with exceptions for rape, incest and if the life of the pregnant person is in danger, while Senate leadership reiterated its chamber only had the votes to prohibit the procedure starting around six weeks of pregnancy. South Carolinas most ardently anti-abortion lawmakers, who argued such a proposal was insufficiently pro-life, still sent the bill to the Senate floor, where lawmakers voted 23-21 to table the measure.

The vote represents what is almost assuredly the final say on the bill in 2022 as lawmakers come up against a statutorily imposed Sunday deadline for the legislature to finish its work for the year.

The impasse is the latest example of the growing chasm among Republican lawmakers who are wrestling with how to legislate abortion rights after the fall of Roe. It also comes as Democrats take a victory lap on abortion rights in the wake of Tuesdays election.

Republican backers of both the near-total ban and the six-week proposal traded barbs on Wednesday both in conference committee and on the Senate floor with lawmakers accusing one another of not doing enough to limit abortion access.

When Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey tried to reconvene the conference committee Wednesday afternoon to again bring up the six-week proposal for a vote, House members didnt show up. Massey accused House members of not acting in good faith and said the vote was always a show to them.

What has been proposed as a compromise wasn't a compromise on the issue that everybody knew was the issue. What I've gotten from the House is, It's our way or no way, and if you don't give us what we want, we're not going to work anymore, Massey said. They left. They wont even talk to us anymore. I am extremely frustrated by that.

Near-total ban advocates, meanwhile, continued to argue the Senates so-called heartbeat bill  an updated version of an existing state law that prohibits abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy and has been blocked in court  didnt go far enough.

What is wrong with the Republicans who all claim, every last one, to be pro-life? Well, Ill tell you whats wrong. Some people are trying to redefine what it means to be pro-life. Im not going to let that happen. Not on my watch, said Sen. Richard Cash, a Republican. I am never going to accept pro-life as meaning its OK to kill the unborn baby in the first trimester or its OK to kill the unborn baby in the first six weeks.
Outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaros two sons on Tuesday visited the Italian Embassy in Brasilia to request Italian citizenship, just days after their father lost reelection to President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator, and his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, a member of Congress, are expected to continue serving as legislators. Flavio Bolsonaro was elected to an eight-year term in 2018, and Eduardo Bolsonaro was reelected this year to a third four-year term.

I am a senator of the republic for four more years, I intend to run for reelection, and before anyone starts to create far-fetched theories, leaving the country is not an option for me, Flavio Bolsonaro said, according to Brazilian news outlet Metropoles.

Still, Flavio Bolsonaro confirmed he began the process of seeking Italian citizenship in 2019.

Many European countries grant citizenship to descendants of nationals who emigrated from Europe, and it is common in Latin America to seek European citizenship.

Still, the Bolsonaros appeal for Italian citizenship comes as Brazil gets ready to drop their fathers far-right government in favor of Lulas left-leaning policies.

And Brazil has often prosecuted accusations of corruption against former elected officials at all levels.

Lula, a former two-term president, spent nearly two years in jail after a conviction on charges of money laundering and corruption. The conviction was later dropped by a Supreme Court decision that invalidated the jurisdiction of the court that convicted him.

The judge who originally convicted Lula, Sergio Moro, was later Jair Bolsonaros minister of justice and public security from 2019 to 2020. Moro was elected to the Brazilian Senate in this years legislative election.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
This flier targeting Republican Rep. Jim Allard of Pittsfield was sent out by Cornerstone, a Christian advocacy group. Allard, who opposed right to work, was ousted in last months primary.

Brodie Deshaies saw unions give a voice to his family members, helping them negotiate a fair contract at work. So when he was elected to represent Wolfeboro in the New Hampshire House, he knew he would vote against right-to-work legislation, a perennial attempt to prevent private-sector unions from requiring non-union members to pay dues. For Deshaies, that no vote also aligns with his free-market Republican values: The government shouldnt meddle in private-sector contracts.

There have been at least 30 attempts to pass a right-to-work bill in New Hampshire, none of which have succeeded. Even with a 50-seat Republican majority in 2017, the measure failed, with 32 party members voting with Democrats. In 2021, the bill was voted down by 24 votes. Proponents have argued that more businesses would come to New Hampshire if their workers werent forced to pay union dues. Opponents have countered with predictions that weaker unions would cost workers needed protections.

But the libertarian conservative group Americans for Prosperity, founded in 2004 by conservative billionaires David and Charles Koch, disagrees. The organization wants New Hampshire to become a right-to-work state, and in the last two years it has spent over $1 million promoting candidates who share that view. Both Americans for Prosperity and the Republicans it has ousted agree: Theyre succeeding.

Of the 21 Republicans who voted against right-to-work legislation in 2021, fewer than half have a shot at returning to the State House. Eight decided not to run again, and four were defeated in the primary, including Deshaies, who blames his defeat on Americans for Prosperitys involvement. He believes outside money in campaigns could continue to shape the states stance on right to work moving forward.

There are a lot of outside groups  and this is true in both parties  that are realizing how inexpensive it is to buy a seat, he said. I use that term very directly: to buy a seat in the state Legislature. And they realize how effective it can be in changing the states policy.

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With a dwindling percentage of the Republican caucus opposing right-to-work legislation, this session could yield a different outcome. Gov. Chris Sununu, a right-to-work proponent, would not stand in the way. And the Legislature is poised to take up the issue in 2023 if preliminary legislation seeking to reintroduce the bill moves forward.

In an article for the Guardian, three university professors wrote that Americans for Prosperitys focus on anti-union legislation is both in line with libertarian free-market ideology and a strategy for building conservative power. AFP has recognized that to make lasting change in US politics, the Koch network would need to permanently weaken the organizations that support liberal candidates and causes  and above all, the labor movement, they wrote in 2018.

According to campaign finance filings, Americans for Prosperity spent $6,750.45 to support Deshaies opponent, Katy Peternel. Her successful bid for the Republican nomination was aided by thousands of dollars in paid canvassing and eight mailers, according to the filings. Peternel raised $7,934.03 on top of that. Thats $14,684.48 between what Peternel raised and what AFP independently spent to support her campaign. Theres no search function on the Secretary of States campaign finance website that shows whether other groups also independently supported Peternel. Deshaies outspent her, spending $24,652.92, but still lost.

He wasnt the only anti-right-to-work Republican to lose his primary to a candidate supported by Americans for Prosperity.

Certainly my right-to-work stance brought Americans for Prosperity after me, said Rep. Dennis Acton, a Fremont Republican. Im getting absolutely bombarded right now, he said ahead of the primary.

He lost to Emily Phillips, who was endorsed by Americans for Prosperity. The organization reported spending $6,399 on mailers, paid canvassing, and digital ads to support her.

You cant beat that, Acton said. He had not filed his campaign expenditures with the Secretary of State at the time of publication but said he raised around $2,250, enough for one limited mailing to 750 households.

Some Republicans say these efforts are not only reducing Republican opposition to right to work but changing the identity of their party.

It used to be the Republicans were the working mans party, said Rep. John Klose, an Epsom Republican, who voted against right to work last year. Things have changed.

Klose lost his primary to Dan McGuire, who was endorsed by Americans for Prosperity.

Rep. Jim Allard, a Pittsfield Republican who opposed right to work and was also ousted in the primary, believes outside money is pushing the party further to the right. Allard was targeted by an anti-abortion group, Cornerstone Action, which paid for negative mailers against him.

Assuming the current majority is maintained, I think we will see increasingly radical legislation, said Allard, who sees this effort as an outgrowth of whats happened with the libertarian Free State Movement. The number of Free Staters occupying seats in the House has grown steadily, and its now a significant block that can both generate legislation and certainly can pass or defeat legislation.

When you look at how many other very experienced legislators opted not to run this time, it just opened the floodgates of opportunity for more radical views to come to the fore, Allard said.

Replacing moderate Republicans with those who are further right would also affect other policy fights.

Allard had supported an exception to the states 24-week abortion ban, while Acton advocated for state spending and programs for mental health and addiction, as well as more state action on climate change. Both were defeated in the primary. Allard blamed campaign spending, which sponsored negative mailers targeting him. He wasnt entirely sure who was footing the bill, and campaign finance is difficult to track.

Americans for Prosperity state director Greg Moore said the organization did not pay for any negative mail.

Unprecedented amounts of money were spent in this small New Hampshire rural district in order to unseat me, Allard said. Were talking major expenditures.

Americans for Prosperity has roughly doubled the $79,588 it spent on the 2020 primary, spending $171,505 in 2022 so far. In 2020, Americans for Prosperity reported spending a total of $847,217 between the primary and general election.

Were willing to try any idea as far as whats going to help us achieve our policy goals, Moore said. We felt as though candidates and elected office holders were more responsive with the prospect of an endorsement  and thats true. Its working.

While Americans for Prosperity has had a presence in New Hampshire since 2010, it was only in 2020 that the organization began endorsing candidates and spending money on campaigns. Prior to that, the organization endorsed policies, not candidates, according to Moore.

Our view is, OK, what is it going to take to get this person elected? Moore said. So the amount of money we put in is what we think we need to spend in order in to be successful.

Twenty-one of the 25 candidates Americans for Prosperity endorsed won their primaries, according to Moore. Moore said the organization does not believe right to work is union busting, but rather makes unions more representative by forcing them to earn members.

Twenty-seven states have right-to-work laws, according to Moore. Five have adopted right-to-work legislation since 2004.

This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Campaign spending in support of right to work in NH paying dividends
What 'The Crown' gets right and wrong about Princess Diana and Prince Charles' 'second honeymoon' that reportedly marked a breaking point in their relationship

The first episode of "The Crown" season five shows Princess Diana and Charles on summer vacation.

The Italy trip, known as their "second honeymoon," happened in real life.

However, there were some differences between the show's portrayal and the actual event.

"The Crown" returned to Netflix on Wednesday, and the historical drama opens its fifth season with Prince Charles and Diana's "second honeymoon" that ends in disaster.

In episode one, titled "Queen Victoria Syndrome," which takes place in the summer of 1991, Charles (Dominic West) and Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) sail on a private yacht around Italy with their children and a group of family friends.

The vacation, which Diana and Charles refer to as a "second honeymoon" in the episode, begins with the couple smiling and posing for photographs before departing on their journey.

The couple appear to have tension from the outset of the episode, as they initially debate over which activities to partake in during their trip. Things end in disaster, as Charles tells Diana he has to cut the trip short due to scheduling conflicts  which leads to a heated argument between the pair.

How the show's portrayal of Charles and Diana's Italy vacation compared to real life

Charles and Diana did go on a vacation to Italy in August 1991, although little is known about the private details of the trip.

It is true that the couple were accompanied by Prince William and Prince Harry, as shown in photos published by Reuters and Shutterstock in August 1991 and again by People in October 2021.

In the show, Debicki is dressed similarly to how Diana dressed in the Shutterstock photos, wearing a floral dress and sunglasses.

Princess Diana and Prince Charles swim in the Tyrrenian Sea off the coast of Sardinia on August 11, 1991. Reuters

According to the Shutterstock photo captions, the couple boarded the Alexandra Yacht and the trip was in celebration of Charles and Diana's 10th wedding anniversary, described as a "second honeymoon."

Charles and Diana were also joined by his cousin, Norton Knatchbull, his wife Penny Knatchbull, and their children Alexandra and Leonora, who was said to be in cancer remission during the episode.

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Prince Charles and Penny Romsey at a polo match in 1979. Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

In real life, Leonora died at the age of 5 in October 1991  less than two months after the vacation  according to an article published in The Herald Scotland at the time.

According to the article, Leonora's condition became worse shortly after returning home from their "summer Mediterranean cruise" with the Prince and Princess of Wales. Diana visited Leonora in the hospital before she died, The Herald reports.

It's unclear if the couple thought of the trip as a 'second honeymoon' in real life

The trip was referred to as a "second honeymoon" by the press at the time, although it's unclear whether the couple thought of it with the same sentimentality.

Kinsey Schofield, a royal commentator, told Insider that Diana would have only used this term to describe the time period during which Prince Harry was conceived and before his birth, on September 15, 1984.

"It was a much happier time for the couple than the pregnancy of William," Kinsey, founder of "To Di For Daily," told Insider.

In audio tapes of Diana that were shared in the documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words," after her death, the princess described the time before Harry's birth as "the closest we've ever, ever been and the closest we'll ever be."

In addition, it is not known whether Charles cut the trip short in real life. Nonetheless, the couple were known to be going through a difficult time, and the trip was thought to have been a "breaking point" in their marriage, People's Stephanie Petit reported.

It was also one of their final trips before they announced their separation in 1992, Vanity Fair reports. They divorced in 1996, one year before Diana died.

Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
Democratic incumbent Janet Mills is projected to win Maines race for governor, defeating Republican former Gov. Paul LePage in his attempt to make a comeback.

In her first term as governor, Mills expanded health care and pre-K programs for Mainers, embraced renewable energy as a way to fight climate change, and delivered relief checks to residents to fight inflation. The incumbent campaigned on protecting abortion rights, investing in education, and making health care affordable.

LePage, who previously led the state from 2011 to 2019, has frequently made national headlines for his inflammatory comments on a range of issues including the LGBTQ community, immigrants and race.

In 2012, LePage compared the IRS, in its enforcement of Obamacare, to the Gestapo, the secret police force of Nazi Germany. He later said he didnt mean to insult anyone, but added, If someones offended, then they ought to be goddamned mad at the federal government.

At a town hall meeting in 2016, LePage drew criticism from both sides of the aisle after implying that drug dealers with names like D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty were traveling to Maine and impregnating young white women. He later denied that his comments had anything to do with race.

However, several months later he said he had a binder full of drug dealers and that more than 90% of them were either Black or Hispanic. When a local reporter asked to see the binder, LePage responded with, Black people come up the highway and they kill Mainers. You ought to look into that. You make me so sick.

The saga continued when a reporter implied that Democratic state Rep. Drew Gattine said LePage was a racist. He proceeded to leave Gattine a voicemail saying, I want you to prove that Im a racist. Ive spent my life helping Black people and you little son of a bitch, socialist cocksucker.

Former Gov. Paul LePage (above) lost his bid for a comeback to Gov. Janet Mills in Maine. (Photo: Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

Former Gov. Paul LePage (above) lost his bid for a comeback to Gov. Janet Mills in Maine. (Photo: Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

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At another town hall in 2016, LePage baselessly claimed that asylum-seekers were bringing diseases to Maine. Asylum-seekers  I think the biggest problem in our state  and Ill explain that to you, he said. He added that asylum-seekers do not get any medical screenings. And what happens is you get hepatitis C, tuberculosis, AIDS, HIV, the ziki fly, he said in a reference to Zika, and all these other foreign type of diseases that find a way to our land.

LePage opposes same-sex marriage, banning conversion therapy, and allowing transgender students to go to public schools. During this most recent election cycle, he vowed to implement a parental rights bill, a thinly veiled attempt to attack trans parents and their families.

It is child abuse to take a 14-year-old and try to put him into a transgender reform without the parents knowledge, he said in September.

Though LePage lost, his extreme beliefs about LGBTQ people and transgender students have only become more mainstream in the GOP. The party has made the culture wars and right-wing extremism its main talking points. Across the country, many midterm candidates focused on parental rights, code for exclusively catering to conservative parents, as the cornerstone of their campaigns.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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John Fetterman won the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, beating Trump-backed celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and overcoming concerns that his stroke recovery had foreclosed his chances at victory.

Fetterman, the states lieutenant governor, had been leading in the polls by significant margins over the summer, but television host Oz started to close the gap in recent weeks, particularly after the rocky debate performance by Fetterman.

The lieutenant governor had a stroke just before the primary in May and has relied on closed captioning in recent interviews and the debate.

Independent analysts had predicted the Pennsylvania race would be the best chance for Democrats to pick up a Republican-held Senate seat. Fetterman and Oz have been vying for the open seat created by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey's retirement.

The political universe of Pennsylvania: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama pay visits

A key test of Trump influence

Fettermans campaign released a letter from his doctor ahead of the debate in October, saying his communication skills had significantly improved since the stroke with help from speech therapy. But he struggled to complete sentences during the debate, leading some Democrats to question whether he should have participated in the first place.

The faceoff between Fetterman and Oz was seen as a key test of former President Donald Trumps sway. Trump had endorsed Oz during the crowded Republican primary, saying in a statement that Pennsylvania voters had "a tremendous opportunity to Save America by electing the brilliant and well-known" Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and TV host known as Dr. Oz.

Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz rallies supporters in Bensalem, Pa., on Nov. 1.

The former president said he had known the doctor "for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show" and noted Oz's medical advice: "He even said that I was in extraordinary health, which made me like him even more (although he also said I should lose a couple of pounds!)."

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Oprah endorses Fetterman: The TV host who helped make Dr. Oz famous backs his opponent in Pennsylvania Senate race

Fetterman said after his halting debate performance that he knew it wasnt going to be easy after having a stroke and I got knocked down but I got back up. Im going to fight for everyone in PA who ever got knocked down that ever had to get back up.

Who is John Fetterman?

The onetime mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, Fetterman has advocated for expanding vocational education, making public universities more affordable, supporting and expanding Social Security, and decriminalizing marijuana. He has lashed out at Ozs lack of political experience.

All he's done is just put a plan up on his website.  He has no experience. He has never made any attempt to try to address crime, Fetterman said in the debate last month.

Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman speaks at a campaign event at the headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 88 on Nov. 3, 2022, in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

Oz supported boosting domestic energy production by reducing fossil fuel industry regulation. He said the United States should be tougher on Chinese trade policies and militarism. And he asserted that government regulation and policies caused unnecessary suffering during COVID-19.

Dr. Oz allies blast Fetterman in ads

The race was also one of the core four for Republicans to take over the Senate. Republicans and aligned political action committees poured millions into Pennsylvania in the run-up to the election.

The resulting barrage of ads  $47 million worth from the Senate Leadership Fund alone  accused Fetterman of being soft on crime and too liberal for Pennsylvania. They helped drive up his unfavorable rating 17 points, to 44%, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll last month.

Oz also had a high unfavorable rating  51%, worse than Fettermans.

If you cant get people to like you, get them to dislike your opponent, David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk Political Research Center, told USA TODAY at the time. This is a textbook strategy of Oz driving up his opponents unfavorability to make the race closer.

More: Midterm election races will determine who controls the Senate: Here are 8 to watch

Senate races: Which party will control the Senate? Here's every seat up for grabs in the 2022 midterms

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pennsylvania Senate race: Dem John Fetterman beats Republican Dr. Oz
Vice President Candidates

Getty Images New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan has retained her seat, with the Associated Press projecting she beats her Republican challenger, retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc.

Recent polls had suggested an unexpectedly close race, unnerving Democrats who need to keep at least 50 Senate seats to keep the majority. Instead, Hassan won handily, leading with 55% of the votes at the time the race was called.

Hassan, a former New Hampshire governor and first-term senator, was found to be the most bipartisan Senator in the country by a Georgetown University public policy index  fitting for her state's moderate politics. Still, a once nine-point lead held by the Democrat evaporated in recent weeks, as Republican Senate nominee Bolduc received an influx in funding from GOP donors.

In the days leading up to the midterm election, Hassan was joined on the campaign trail by several big names in a bid to boost her chances.

First lady Jill Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg all joined Hassan at recent events.

RELATED: Arizona Republican Kari Lake Booted from Gubernatorial Town Hall Audience: She 'Brought the Drama'

Bolduc's rise was surprising to even some in his own party, particularly as the far-right candidate embraced a number of bizarre conspiracy theories in a state often noted for its moderate politics.

During an October debate with Hassan, Bolduc falsely claimed that school buses full of illegal, out-of-state voters were being ferried to New Hampshire. He also previously claimed that students in the heavily Republican town of Derry, N.H., were self-identifying as "furries and fuzzies" in classrooms, where he falsely said they were using litter boxes and licking themselves as if they were cats.

"Guess what? We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms," Bolduc said, in audio obtained by CNN. "They lick themselves, they're cats. When they don't like something, they hiss  people walk down the hallway and jump out.

He continued: "And get this, get this. They're putting litter boxes, right?  These are the same people that are concerned about spreading germs. Yet they let children lick themselves and then touch everything. And they're starting to lick each other."

In response, one of the schools mentioned by the candidate issued a statement saying, "Mr. Bolduc's statements are entirely untrue," further calling the allegations "disturbing."
BALTIMORE  Wes Moore, whose vibrant and organized campaign catapulted him from outsider candidate to a rising star in Democratic politics, will be Marylands next governor, the first Black person to lead the state and only the third Black elected governor in U.S. history, based on The Associated Press call of the race as the polls closed.

Moore defeated Republican Del. Dan Cox to return the state capital to full Democratic control after eight years of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, setting the stage for a new progressive era in Annapolis and a potentially bright political future for the ambitious Moore.

In early returns at 9:20 p.m., Moore led Cox 67% to 30%. Campaign spokespeople for both Moore and Cox declined to comment after the AP call, though attendees at Moores party at the Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore were celebrating.

I could not be more thrilled about whats happening tonight, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said.

His counterpart, House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, the first Black leader of either of Marylands legislative chambers, said, We made history.

Hogan, who refused to endorse Cox, said in a statement Tuesday night that he had spoken to Moore and congratulated him on his victory.

Our team is committed to ensuring a smooth and orderly transition to the next administration, and I look forward to meeting with the governor-elect in the coming days, Hogan added.

At Coxs party in Annapolis, Ted Bryant, chair of the Dorchester County GOP Central Committee, said he wasnt concerned the race had been called for Moore.

Its a ploy, Bryant said. These elections arent always what they make it out to be.

Moore, of Baltimore, has traveled a winding path to the peak of state politics.

Moore is a graduate of Valley Forge Military School in Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins and then Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. He worked as an investment banker in London and New York City, spent a year at the State Department as a White House fellow, led paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, became a bestselling author, started a production company and a business to help students, and ran one of the countrys largest anti-poverty nonprofits.

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After attempts to recruit him for offices such as Baltimore mayor and U.S. representative since he returned to Baltimore a decade ago, Moore has said he felt he could make the largest impact as governor.

His platform has included plans to invest heavily in child care, job retraining and apprenticeship programs, public transportation, education and more. With slogans like work, wages and wealth and leave no one behind, he sought to appeal to a wide range of voters, who often cited his charisma and energy as reasons they supported him.

He also proved to be a prolific fundraiser, raising and spending millions as he garnered national media attention for his campaign and his potential future in national politics.

Cox, a 48-year-old first-term delegate from Frederick County, offered voters a conservative platform of reducing taxes, giving parents more control over school curriculum and vowing not to restore pandemic protections such as business shutdowns or mask and vaccine requirements. After eight years of Hogans brand of moderate conservatism, Coxs stances and his loyal support of former President Donald Trump made winning statewide  where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1  an unlikely outcome.

Cox, who had not committed to accepting the results of the election, had not conceded as of 9:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Moore will likely enter Annapolis next year with Democrats retaining a supermajority in the General Assembly, giving his party significant powers to pass legislation they support. All 188 seats were on ballots across the state this week.

At Moores party in Baltimore, a vast ballroom was packed shoulder to shoulder, and hundreds of people erupted in cheers and danced to Celebrate when the AP call was announced.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, Del. Brooke Lierman and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen  whom AP also dubbed a winner against Republican challenger Chris Chaffee to another six-year term  were also there.

This has been a good, good day for Maryland and all Marylanders and every part of our state, Van Hollen said.

U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told the crowd, Millions of Marylanders saw Wes Moore as somebody who will lift us up, someone who will lead us.

While the final turnout numbers wont be available for days, roughly 1 in 5 registered active voters used early in-person voting or mail-in ballots before Election Day.

Maryland election officials were planning on a faster ballot-counting process than in the primary, when local election workers were barred from processing mail-in ballots until two days after primary day  delaying results in some races by days or weeks.

A judges ruling last month allowed election workers to begin processing those ballots when they received them. Eleven of the states 24 voting jurisdictions opted to take advantage of the early processing, including in the large jurisdictions of Baltimore City and the counties of Baltimore, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery and Prince Georges.

Results will continue to be updated for weeks as mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday can be received until Nov. 18, and the canvassing of provisional ballots will begin Nov. 16. The results cannot be certified before Nov. 18, according to the State Board of Elections.

(Baltimore Sun Media reporters Hannah Gaskill, Lee O. Sanderlin and Lorraine Mirabella contributed to this report.)
Ted S. Warren/AP Photo; Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo; Insider

Sen. Patty Murray is running against Republican Tiffany Smiley to represent Washington in the US Senate.

Murray has been representing solidly blue Washington for nearly three decades.

If elected, Smiley would become the state's first GOP senator since 2001.

Longtime Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray faces off against political newcomer Tiffany Smiley in Washington to represent the state in the US Senate.

The polls closed at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Washington's US Senate race candidates

Murray, who's represented the state of Washington in the US Senate for nearly three decades, serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations and chairs the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

In addition to being the first female senator from Washington, Murray served as the first female chair of the Veterans' Affairs Committee during the 112th Congress and served as the first female chair of the Budget Committee during the 113th Congress. Prior to her time in the US Senate, Murray served in thw Washington State Senate for a single term.

Smiley, a political newcomer seeking to unseat the longtime senator, is a veterans advocate and former nurse. Her husband, Scotty, who was injured in Iraq when a car bomb sent shrapnel into his eyes, became the US military's first-ever blind active duty officer.

If elected, she would become the state's first Republican US senator since 2001.

Washington's voting history

The state voted for Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump by a margin of 19 percentage points in the 2020 election. In Washington, Democratic candidates have been victorious in presidential races during the last nine elections.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Murray has raised $18.5 million, spent $20.7 million, and has $1.6 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

Her challenger, Smiley, has raised $16.4 million, spent $14.7 million, and has $1.7 million cash on hand, as of October 19.

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As of late October, over a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $20 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. Here, Murray has a slight advantage.

What experts say

The race between Murray and Smiley is rated as "likely Democratic" by Inside Elections, "likely Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Capitol Dome - Credit: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

Voters did not deliver Republicans the decisive House and Senate victories the GOP anticipated on Tuesday night. Democratic House candidates held onto seats the GOP had been certain to capture. The only Senate seat that changed partisan hands as of Wednesday morning flipped turned blue, not red. For now, the outcome in dozens of House races and a handful of Senate seats remain uncertain, leaving the reins of each chamber unclaimed.

The results of four U.S. Senate races remain outstanding. A fifth race, Wisconsins Senate contest between incumbent Republican Ron Johnson and challenger Mandela Barnes, had been in play on Wednesday morning. But by midday, the Republican had been declared the winner. Johnson, true to form, accused the media of intentionally delaying the call. Truth has prevailed over lies, he said of his contest with Barnes.

More from Rolling Stone

With Barnes out, Democrats are, for now, stuck on 48 Senate seats, and need at least 2 more to hold on.

In Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly (D) has a steady lead over GOP challenger Blake Masters, but more than 30 percent of the vote remains uncounted. In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt has a narrow lead over Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, but who wins that nailbiter may come down to outstanding absentee ballots, which the state will continue to count in the days that follow. The Senate race in Alaska has also not been called, but the contest between two Republicans  Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Donald Trump-endorsed challenger Kelly Tshibaka  guarantees the seat will remain in GOP hands.

So, in a familiar rerun of the 2020 election, the fate of the Senate majority likely remains in Georgias hands. Neither Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock nor GOP candidate Herschel Walker secured the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff election. That means control of the Senate may not be known until Georgia holds a runoff election until early December.

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Control of the House will likely be known sooner, but not soon. The winner of roughly a dozen congressional races along the East coast, all currently within a margin of just a few thousand votes, will offer some hints. The deciding races, however, are in Western states, where the outcomes of 18 competitive contests hang in the balance  and could for days, if not weeks. California, host of 12 of such races, didnt begin counting ballots until the polls closed on Tuesday and will count any mail-in ballots received through next Tuesday, provided they were postmarked by Election Day. Nevada, Washington, and Oregon, too, count mailed ballots received through that deadline, and those votes will likely determine which party wins a half dozen House seats.

House incumbents in both parties suffered blows few could have predicted.

In New York, Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney conceded to his GOP challenger midday Wednesday, an ironic twist for the head of the House Democrats campaign arm charged with seeing his party to electoral victory. Maloney had done everything at his disposal to avoid that fate  including running in a district more favorable to Democrats than his own became redder post-redistricting. (Yikes tweeted Rep. Mondaire Jones, the first-term House Democrat who represented the region where Maloney ran. Jones is headed out of office as well: Hed run in a different New York district but lost in the primary.)

On the Republican side, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), an ultra Trump loyalist who elevated QAnon conspiracies during her two years in the House, is staring down a likely upset in a district so red it wasnt even viewed as competitive.

What happens if the GOP takes back the House? A laundry list of investigations into President Joe Biden and his administration, to start. Rep. Jim Comer (R-Ky.), who will take over the House Oversight Committee if his party wins the chamber, has floated hearings on the administrations 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan  as well as Hunter Bidens business dealings abroad. The latter harkens back Trumps first impeachment, a memory not lost to the former presidents loyalists in the House. (Trump, for his part, has been hounding the would-be GOP leaders on their plans for impeachment.)

Should impeachment in the House come to pass, a vote to convict would almost certainly fail in the Senate, even if Republicans regain control. But that GOP majority would almost certainly railroad the confirmation of Biden administration appointees and judges. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has previously said hed be picky about which Biden nominees would clear the chamber if he were in charge, though he has refused to announce precisely how hed handle Democrat-picked appointments.

Republican control of both chambers would surely wreak havoc on Bidens ambitions for the remainder of his term, but Democratic control of the White House offers a check on untamed power. Biden previewed that flex of power during a press conference on Wednesday, when he vowed to veto any GOP attempts to ban abortion nationwide.

Such veto power was nearly lost at the state level this cycle. In Wisconsin, Republicans looked positioned to win both the governorship and a supermajority of both state house chambers and, in turn, lock in power so Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin, as GOP gubernatorial nominee Tim Michels said before the election. But those ambitions both failed last night. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers squeaked by Michels, and Democrats won enough seats to deny the GOP a veto-proof majority.

It had been a good night for Democratic governors in close races. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won a second term, buoyed on her fight to keep abortion rights in the state, as did Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Democrats won gubernatorial races in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania against GOP election deniers who had been financially bolstered in their primary by Democratic groups assuming that would lead to easier contests. Those victories vindicated the risky method in all but one race: Arizona, where MAGA megastar Kari Lake may still win.

Despite the dismal outcomes for the MAGA faithful, the results have reportedly not dissuaded Trump from announcing his third run for the presidency next Tuesday. Trump even took an early shot at Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), his likely top 2024 rival. Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldnt it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? he noted on Truth Social, his social media site. Just asking?

And what of Bidens reelection campaign? Our intention is to run again, Biden told reporters during his Wednesday press conference. He added that hes a great respecter of fate and that ultimately, this is a family decision hell sort out over the winter holidays. I dont feel any hurry, no matter what my predecessor does, Biden said of his timeline. My guess will be early next year, we make that judgment.

A reporter asked Biden about recent polling that found two-thirds of Democrats dont want him to run again. Would that factor into his decision? It doesnt, he replied staunchly. Watch me.

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.
Nov. 9SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  Proponents of an amendment to the South Dakota Constitution that would make the state join 39 others in expanding Medicaid eligibility declared victory in their campaign late Tuesday, Nov. 8, saying they "are grateful to the people of South Dakota for their support tonight."

South Dakotans Decide Healthcare, the organization that spearheaded the coalition in favor of the amendment, sent out a press release titled "South Dakotans say Yes to Medicaid Expansion" just after 11:30 p.m.

"We're glad that South Dakota voters saw that helping our neighbors get health care is the right thing to do," Dave Kapaska, a retired hospital executive and co-chair of the American Heart Association's volunteer cabinet for Medicaid expansion, wrote in the release.

South Dakotans were supporting Initiated Amendment D by a margin of 54.9%  45.1%, according to ongoing vote counting at 11:30 p.m.

If approved, the ballot measure would raise the eligibility for Medicaid to 138.5% of the federal poverty level.

"Had Amendment C passed in June, we would have stopped Medicaid Expansion, and 17,000 South Dakotans wouldn't be losing their healthcare," John Wiik, a state senator who led the No on Amendment D committee, wrote in a statement to Forum News Service. "Now to figure out how to pay for it."

Amendment C, which was defeated with 67% of the vote in June, would have required a 60% vote margin for ballot measures that would require the state to appropriate $10 million or more in the first five fiscal years.

The 17,000 figure, which the opposition has used to refer to the number of working adults that would be forced off of subsidized healthcare exchange plans and onto Medicaid, has been disputed by the proponents of Amendment D.

Currently, South Dakotans between 18 and 64 with dependent children

qualify for Medicaid

if they earn less than $1,001 per month, less than half of the federal poverty line.

Story continues

The

proponents

of the measure, which include major hospital systems, the state chamber of commerce, the American Cancer Society and more, argued that the passage of Amendment D would lower health care costs and improve access for thousands of South Dakotans in the so-called "coverage gap."

"The bottom line is that there are thousands of people in South Dakota who are stuck in the middle," said Zach Marcus, the campaign manager for South Dakotans Decide Healthcare. "They're people who are making too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but still don't make enough money to qualify for insurance on their own."

Wiik and others opposed to the measure believe that over-enrollment and related cost overruns are inevitable.

"When you start talking money in something like this, it's Monopoly money," Wiik said. "I can just tell you this: North Dakota came in well over budget; Montana was double what they thought it was going to be."

In the most recent campaign finance filing, No on Amendment D

reported

just $3,646 in donated goods and services, a drop in the bucket compared to the more than $2.1 million

spent

by South Dakotans Decide Healthcare between May 22 and Oct. 19.

The nonpartisan Legislative Research Council estimates that 42,500 South Dakotans would be newly eligible for health care through Medicaid if Amendment D passes.

During the first two years, the LRC

estimates

that the program would save the state a net total of $64 million due to federal incentives. After that, net costs to the state are estimated at $22 million annually.

However, opponents of the measure such as Keith Moore, the head of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, argue that this analysis assumes no change to the federal cost-sharing of Medicaid. If the federal government rolled back its 90% cost share of this expansion, Moore says, holding up the state's end of the bargain could get expensive quickly.

"For us, there's the piece of financial sustainability and the long-term viability of rural resources," said Shelly Ten Napel, chief executive of the Community Healthcare Association of the Dakotas, another medical group that pushed for the amendment to pass. "But there's also the fact that these are our patients, our friends or neighbors. Whatever the impact is on our bottom line, it's hard to see people struggling."

Jason Harward is a

Report for America

corps reporter who writes about state politics in South Dakota. Contact him at

605-301-0496

or

jharward@forumcomm.com.
Erie County voters have cast their votes in the Nov. 8 Pennsylvania General Election.

Follow our live results for the governor and U.S. Senate races here.

Erie County results will be available here.

Live Pennsylvania election coverage: All eyes are on Pennsylvania as voters head to the polls today

Election guide:Erie 2022 general election: Everything you need to know before heading to the polls Nov. 8

Voting in PA:A guide to voter rights in Pennsylvania. What you need to know before you cast a ballot

Josh Shapiro vs Doug Mastriano PA Governor race

Current Pennsylvania attorney general Democrat Josh Shapiro faces off against state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican.

Shapiro has served a state representative along with his current role as attorney general. He also served as a Montgomery County commissioner.

Mastriano before winning a seat in the state senate he served time in the military he retired as a colonel after three decades in the Army.

ShapiroA third term for Wolf? How Josh Shapiro contrasts with his opponent & current Pa. governor

MastrianoCOVID created Doug Mastrianos governor candidacy in PA. Now we cant take our eyes off it

John Fetterman vs Dr. Mehmet Oz U.S. Senate race

Current Lt. governor Democrat John Fetterman will face television doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican.

Fetterman spent 13 years as Braddock's mayor before becoming Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor in 2019. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2016.

Dr. Oz worked as a cardiothoracic surgeon before launching "The Dr. Oz Show," an Emmy-winning daytime TV talk show focused on health and wellness in 2009.

FettermanJohn Fetterman has reforged every political office hes held. Now what?

Dr Oz:Americans trusted Dr. Oz on health. But will PA voters trust him on politics?

Erie County local races

Here are the local races we are following:

Democratic State Rep. Bob Merski wants another two years in Harrisburg and will face Michael Pace in the 2nd Legislative District race

Story continues

2nd District:Dem incumbent Merski, GOP challenger Pace battle in 2nd District state House race

Democrat Oliver vying for PA House seat long held by Sonney, GOP

Democrat Chelsea Oliver will face Republican Jake Banta to replace longtime state Rep. Curt Sonney in the 4th Legislative District.

4th Legislative District:Democrat Oliver vying for PA House seat long held by Sonney, GOP

4th Legislative District:Banta, fueled by discredited conspiracies, eyes Pa. House 4th District seat

Democrat Ryan Bizzarro is seeking a sixth term in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, but first will need to defeat Republican Joe Kujawa is a former Millcreek Township supervisor.

3rd District:Millcreek, Fairview voters will elect Ryan Bizzarro or Joe Kujawa for state representative

In the 1st District Democrat Pat Harkins is seeking a ninth two-year term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. But first he will need to defeat Libertarian candidate Michael G. Thomas.

1st Legislative District:Dem incumbent Harkins, Libertarian Thomas square off for 1st District state House seat

In-person polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those who are in line by 8 p.m. are entitled to vote.

What time are polls open in Pennsylvania?

If you received a mail-in ballot but choose to vote in person, bring your ballot and envelope to the polls, where you can vote. If you applied for a mail-in ballot but didnt receive one, you can still vote in person at the polls by provisional ballot.

Where do I vote in PA?

If you haven't sent in a mail-in ballot, but aren't sure where to vote, you can find your polling place here.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA 2022 general election results
Election Day in Georgia is all over but the countin'.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. across the state, bringing to a close a contentious midterm election driven by interest in a governor's race rematch, a U.S. Senate contest pitting Sen. Raphael Warnock against UGA football icon and Republican Herschel Walker, and a local transportation-related sales tax, known as TSPLOST.

Various local races in Chatham and Bryan counties are also on the ballot. Learn more about them here.

Election 2022 in Georgia: Here are the midterm races to watch

What to know: How Georgia voters can cast their ballots for the Nov. 8 midterms

Barriers to the ballot: Georgia voters with disabilities working to improve access to the polls

11 p.m. | Reports: Stacey Abrams calls Brian Kemp to concede, earning him re-election

The much-publicized 2018 Georgia governor's re-match has come to an end.

Just after 11 p.m. on Tuesday night, multiple state and national media report that Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams called Gov. Brian Kemp to offer her concession. As of this posting, Kemp holds 53.8% of the votes versus Abrams' 45.5%.

10:30 p.m. | Mallow to move from Georgia House to Senate; Watson wins again

Georgia House Rep. Derek Mallow (D-Savannah) won his Georgia Senate bid on Tuesday and will succeed Sen. Lester Jackson in the District 1 seat. Mallow joined the Georgia General Assembly two years ago, winning an open Georgia House seat.

In another Georgia Senate race, incumbent Ben Watson (R-Savannah) topped challenger Jay Jones (D-Savannah). Watson has now won seven consecutive elections, three in the Georgia House and now four in the Georgia Senate.

Derek Mallow, candidate of Georgia State Senate finds a little shade form the hot sun while waiting in line at Randy's Bar B Q on Tuesday November 8, 2022.

9:30 p.m. | Rep. Carter wins a fifth term

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) has been declared the winner in his U.S. House race against challenger Wade Herring. Carter had 59% of the vote with 49% counted.

With the win, Carter is positioned to vie for chair of the U.S. House Budget Committee, should Republicans reclaim majority control of the House in Tuesday's elections.

Story continues

Herring, a Savannah lawyer, was making his first bid for elected office.

First District results: Buddy Carter wins re-election over Wade Herring, securing Congress seat

7 p.m. | Polls close

Savannah-area voting locations closed on time, although voters who were at the precincts or in line at 7 p.m. were allowed to cast their ballots. Vote counting was to begin immediately following closure of the polls. Local results can be found here.

6:50 p.m. | First-time voter at the West Broad YMCA

At the YMCA on West Broad, a mother and son just finished casting their ballots together. Its 19-year-old Michael Boltons first time voting and hes hoping it can bring about real change.

For the high school senior, gun violence and crime hits too close to home.

We stay where the crime at, said Bolton, At night we can hear gunshots going off.

His mother, Lakeisha Davis, said she just wants to see the world change for the better for her son. What exactly those changes are, she struggles to put into words.

I cant really explain it, said Davis, Hes young and Black and thats scary right now.

Davis said she wants the right people to lead, but politics can be sticky. Sometimes you dont know who has your back, she says.

But she still votes with one thought in mind: I want my kids to be happy, healthy and striving.

5:44 p.m. | The pull of 'local' issues in Morningside

At the Christ Community Church at Morningside polling precinct, about 500 voters cast their ballots before 5 p.m. Poll manager Sharalyn Williams said theyre expecting more voters as the work day ends.

One of them was Charles Norwood, who biked up to the church with TSPLOST on his mind.

The ballot referendum would increase sales tax in the county by 1% to fund transportation-related infrastructure projects, including making roads more pedestrian and bike-friendly.

Local issues are probably more important to me, said Norwood, So, what is the city doing about infrastructure projects? Are they looking to develop neighborhoods? Id like to be able to bike, walk and run.

Marquee races like the governors and US senate races are still important to Norwood, but he feels more influence at the local level.

I feel like I have more of a way to contribute to whats going on, he said.

4:50 p.m. | New residents cast first Georgia ballot

Jessie and Earth Hankins Schwartz were among more than 400 voters who cast their ballots at the Thunderbolt Senior Citizens Complex, where residents of the small waterfront municipality voted this election.

Recently moved from California, they were excited to vote in Georgia elections, where LGBTQ and abortion rights were top of mind for the married duo.

I mean, for us, I think as queer people and people with uteruses, we want to make sure that we have the right to choose. So No. 1, that's huge, Jessie said. And we like doing our part to make Georgia a little bluer.

Jessie and Earth Hankins Schwartz

The two were also surprised at the efficiency and friendliness of the precinct, which they said was at-odds with their California voting experiences.

"The gentleman (at the ballot machine) made sure to count my number. He was like, make sure your number was counted," Earth said. It felt like they had an intention of making sure the vote was counted properly. And I've never had someone say that to me before. So that was important.

The Thunderbolt residents said they were excited to do their civic duty, turning their voting time into date night.

Were not just transplants either. We have moved here to live here to make this our home, Earth said. And we've heard people say, Oh, please don't bring too much California with you. But we really are loving it here. So we are treating this like our home.

4:45 p.m. | 'Want my vote to count' on Savannah's East Side

At around 4:45 p.m., the sunlight cast a warm glow across the Whitney Industrial Complex on the east side of Savannah.

Francine King shielded her eyes as she walked out of the polling precinct after casting her ballot.

King, a nurse and grandmother, said she comes out to vote every election, and this year is no different.

I want my vote to count, said King.

She uses her vote to better the world for her grandchildren. She wants them to get an education and to have a decent life. King mentions how rising crime and school shootings across the U.S. are making her worry about the young generations future.

Theres just so much going on, said King.

4:15 p.m. | Smooth sailing at Wilmington Island

As the clock ticked towards 4 p.m., two of Wilmington Island's voting precincts -- situated inside neighboring churches on North Cromwell Road -- began to fill up with voters.

Faye Williams expected more of a crowd at Wilmington Island United Methodist Church, but was "in and out in minutes."

Compared to the 2020 election, she said, turnout seemed "lax."

"There was bigger crowds and more people was very energetic to get to the polls," she said of the 2020 election, which included two U.S. Senate races and the presidential race. "I don't think this year they were (as energetic.) I think everybody is kind of laid back."

While early and absentee voting has climbed higher than ever before in Georgia, precinct managers on Wilmington Island said in-person voter turnout was on-par with other election seasons.

At Wilmington Island Presbyterian Church, more than 615 people had cast their vote before 4 pm, poll manager Ashley Reed said. She said 900 registered voters in her precinct, 4-08, voted early and another 90 mailed in absentee ballots.

"Its pretty good, but we hope to have at least 1,000 (ballots cast)," she said. "I would rather have 1,200..."

Reed added that the precinct had not had any issues, "because I don't allow them."

Across the street at precinct 4-07, poll manager Norma Canicatti said all but two of their machines had not been properly programmed with today's date and time, but her team solved the issue before doors opened at 7 a.m.

"We had about 30 (people) in line at 7, and we cleared them right out. And its been a steady stream since," Canicatti said around 4 p.m. "Well probably have another little spurt but (voters) seem to be separating themselves throughout the day."

3:45 p.m. | Quiet morning becomes more active afternoon for Springfield church

Bethel Lutheran Church in Springfield was relatively quiet until mid-afternoon when voters began to pour in. The church just off Georgia 21 has seen around 175 voters.

Ellen Gehrke said this years election is especially important as she is concerned about the state of small business owners.

Im passionate about getting our economy under control, said Gehrke. People dont have money for extra spending. In general, voting for people who have small communities and business owners at heart is who I voted for. Gas prices are high and that impacts how people spend with us and what we can do as a family.

With her daughter in tow, Gehrke cast her ballot and explained to her youngster the importance of having a voice in this election, saying the number of voters have declined in recent years.

Voters cast their ballots on Tuesday November 8, 2022 at the Progressive Recreation Center in Garden City, Georgia.

I was explaining to her this is important because those that lead us are the ones that make decisions for us, said Gehrke. I went over the process with her and I think it was important for her to see that.

Jordan Callais was eager to cast his vote at Bethel Luthe Church in Springfield. He is leaning more towards Gov. Brian Kemp because of his investment in local communities, as well as protecting Georgians rights to carry.

I like Kemp, said Callais. I think there are things he could have done better but I prefer him over Miss Abrams because I feel like he understands more about the agriculture side of things. Being born and raised here, when it comes to gun laws, I agree more with Kemp on that. I think he has more of what Im interested in.

Callais said voting integrity is always on the back of his mind when he casts his vote, citing the 2020 presidential election.

The media talks about it a lot so I do think about it, said Callais. Your thinking about it and questioning it. But Ive never been worried too much about our state becoming like that.

3:05 p.m. | Hopeful voter turned away at Tybee precinct after registering too late

This section has been updated to reflect that Tybee Island has two voting precincts, not one, as previously reported. We regret the error.

Lily Heines showed up to vote at the Tybee Island precinct, 4-11, but was turned away.

I registered (to vote) three days ago, the island native said. In hindsight, its way too soon.

While defeated she wasnt able to vote  Georgia required all voters to register by Oct. 11, four weeks before Election Day  she did not begrudge the poll workers at the Tybee YMCA who turned her away.

Its not their fault, theyre just messengers, she said. I learned my lesson.

The YMCA where Heines sought to cast her ballot is one of two voting precincts on Tybee Island. By 2:45 pm, 545 people had cast their ballots in-person at precinct 4-11.

2:52 p.m. | The 'A-Team' on Talahi Island is fielding an efficient polling location

The A-Team of poll workers at Lighthouse Baptist Church on Talahi Island  precinct 4-04  welcomed Election Day with a line of 30 people before doors opened, according to manager Dave King.

By 7:20 a.m., the line was cleared, King said.

The precinct is in unincorporated county and seen 468 voters cast their ballots by 2 p.m., according to King, who credited his team of about eight volunteers with the efficiency of their operation.

Im blessed to have them, theyve made my day easier, the first-time poll manager said.

Debbi Reid was in and out in seconds when she voted at 2:15 Tuesday afternoon. On a break from work, she said shes been voting at the church for 15 years and has never had an issue.

Reid said she was not well-versed on the TSPLOST referendum but knew which candidates she wanted to vote for.

I wanna see the right people in the right office, Reid said.

2:30 p.m. | Steady flow of voters showing up in Guyton

Pineora Baptist Church in Guyton has seen a steady flow of voters throughout the day but more than expected, according to poll manager Sue Payne. The site has been free of any hiccups related to faulty machines or other technical issues.

We have had about 350 people come through today, which is a lot for this precinct, said Payne.

Lameisha Hunter-Kelly has been overwhelmed by this years election, saying each partys political strategy in ad campaigns can divide communities. We are being saturated with political commercials and Im tired of the negativity, said Hunter-Kelly.

She went on to say she is not concerned about voting integrity. As a former poll worker, she understands the hard work that goes into getting everything prepped for the big day.

I believe some of that is perceived and made up, said Hunter-Kelly. I know what its like from the inside and the steps it entails to make sure all votes are counted.

U.S. House of Representatives candidate Wade Herring talks with voters on Tuesday November 8, 2022 while in line at Randy's Bar B Q in Savannah.

2:22 p.m. | Democrat candidates Wade Herring and Derek Mallow share lunch at Randy's BBQ

As Chatham, Bryan, Effingham and Liberty County residents head to the polls to vote for the next U.S. House Rep. for the 1st District, Democratic candidate Wade Herring talked to Chatham voters outside Randy's BBQ in Savannah at lunchtime on Tuesday.

Herring was joined by Georgia Senate candidate Derek Mallow, who is running against Republican candidate Clinton Young for the state senate seat held by Lester Jackson. Jackson gave up the seat to run for the Democratic nomination for the state Labor commissioner post, but lost in the primary.

Herring is trying to unseat U.S. House Rep. Buddy Carter, who has held the position since 2015.

Derek Mallow, candidate for Georgia State Senate, right0 talks with U.S. House of Representatives candidate Wade Herring on Tuesday November 8, 2022 while in line at Randy's Bar B Q in Savannah.

1:47 p.m. | Savannah State students head to the polls despite lack of options on campus

I think the importance of voting is controlling your future, Savannah State University student Jadon Adams said. [With] the lawmakers, you dont want to be put in a bad position, so if you want to control that, you should go vote.

The 2022 Election season was one of Adams first voting experiences, which was very enjoyable for him.

Savannah State student Jadon Adams

It was very fun because it was one of my first times voting. I thought it was going to take a long time, but it didnt. It was very productive.

...If you want to see change happen, you have to vote for the people you want in office, student Nadiri Morrison says.

His second time voting was a smooth-sailing process. To students who are interested in voting, but may not know where to start, Morrison suggests: Ask your parents [or] an adult who is either eligible to vote or has been voting for a long time so they can help you with that process.

Savannah State student Naidri Morrison

Morgan Usher hasnt voted yet but considers voting to be very important.

Its important because you want the right people in office on a local level, its very important to have the right people in office to help the [community].

Usher voted in the 2016 elections and didnt enjoy the experience as much as she expected to. It was a long line [and] we were cold outside but it was smooth after that.

She plans to vote in the next major election.

Savannah State student Morgan Usher

Hope Tennison wanted to vote but wasnt able to due to the lack of polling access on campus.

Im not voting because there really arent facilities to vote at now that I can get to easily without access to a car or taking a bus I cant vote because I dont have transportation.

Despite the lack of voting resources, Tennison still considers voting to be very important for the younger generation. I do believe voting is important for students, she said.

We are going to be the ones who are growing up in the world that the [government officials] have control over. Of course, our opinion does matter because were going to be the ones stepping into that world."

Savannah State student Hope Tennison

Jamari Rice is going to his hometown of Atlanta to participate in the election season.

For me the importance of voting is what you see in the future, he says. People you can count on and rely on and who can help you with your needs and wants having your voice heard.

Rice believes that the students who are active voters are the resources for students who are becoming interested in their civic responsibility. We have to pass [our knowledge] down to people [younger] than us or those who are starting to get into voting People may not realize how important it is.

Savannah State student Jamari Rice

1:37 p.m. | New voters at Georgia Southern Armstrong exercise their right

I do believe that voting is important because that is a way for us just as a people and a race to express the way that we feel and to get into politics, Georgia Southern student DaJah Moore says.

That is also a way for us to have a voice. We get to speak up and say what we do agree with and what we do disagree with, by also being proactive in our country.

Moore plans to vote later on during the day and considers herself a consistent voter.

 I do try to get out and exercise my right, and to just have a say-so. There are some people that are aligned with my morals, my values and the things that I do believe in. Thats why I do try to get out and be proactive, and I spread the word so we can all be proactive.

Student Jocelyn Fitzpatrick is considerably new to the voting world but understands its importance. My parents were never really big on politics so I never really had the chance to vote, but I would like to start sometime soon, Fitzpatrick says.

Its our country as well. We are people of the country, and we should have a say in what gets done.

Georgia Southern student Jocelyn Fitzpatrick

I think that in the grand scheme of things, if everyone votes If its something that everyone decides is important and everyone is actually doing their research and looking into it, everyone could make a big difference, student Olivia Forrest says.

Regardless of your opinions, just having that option to be able to voice what you believe is super powerful. I think taking advantage of that is crucial to seeing the America we want to live in.

Georgia Southern student Olivia Forrest

Georgia Southern student David Trappio

David Trappio just turned 18 and cannot wait to register and begin voting.

I do think that voting is absolutely important, especially if you have a general concept of what you want to happen, whether its in your general area or just in the world, period, he says.

With all the things that are going on in our society, its huge. I think that for our generation, our voices matter. For years in the past, they havent, but now that we have the platform, I think its important that we should vote, says student Maya Brown, a new voter.

Georgia Southern student Maya Brown

I think its important to vote because everyone has a voice. If you want to see what you want out of your country, then its your duty to vote. Thats how you see change, Hugh Markowsky said.

Markowsky voted at one of the polling precincts in Downtown Savannah.

Georgia Southern student Hugh Markowsky

11:42 a.m. | Process 'rolling along' after 'heavy early voting'

Voting at precinct 2-03 was smooth sailing Tuesday morning, according to poll manager Neota McMora.

"We're just rolling along," she said.

McMora has been working at the same precinct for 15 years, and said this year's turnout was average, "but after such heavy early voting, we expected that," she said.

Across Savannah's eastside, poll workers said machines were working well and there had been no major issues during the first half of Election Day.

For McMora and her crew, Election Day serves as a way to interact with the community. She said she has watched kids come in with parents voting, "and now they're coming to vote themselves."

Several precincts reported average "or slightly above" turnout. McMora said she expects the day to continue in much the same way.

"Weve been steady and not had any problems. Now, we got about ... " McMora said as she glanced at her watch, seeing there was eight hours left of voting. "So we'll see."

Voters exit the Progressive Recreation Center in Garden City after casting their ballots on Tuesday.

10:58 a.m. | Still no Bruno, but 'Bruno Jr.' makes his debut

As far as local Election Day folklore in Savannah goes, there are not many recurring oddities.

But at Precinct 1-05, the Jewish Educational Alliance, poll manager Jeannette Cooper, who has been doing this for almost two decades, has contributed plenty to the mythos.

In 2019, when Georgia rolled out the Dominion voting system, Cooper and her poll workers came to love an especially bulky scanner, who they affectionately named "Bruno." Bruno was larger than the other scanners, which accept paper copies of the ballots in each polling place.

Bruno was special. Brurno was unique. And since 2019, Bruno has been missing.

During the primary, it wasn't Bruno providing voters with a paper audit. It was another scanner, of regular size, which Cooper named "Dummy."

This year, Cooper and the election workers at the JEA missed Bruno again, but this time, they were feeding the ballots to a machine, also of regular size, that Cooper called "Bruno Jr."

Some poll workers said this machine was Bruno's stepson, and Cooper said it was performing well. About 200 voters had been through by 10 a.m.

"Junior's doing good, he's really doing it all today," Cooper said. "Everything is going good, it's beautiful, we had no line. There were a bunch of people waiting on that door to open, and once that door opened, piece of cake."

Otherwise, Cooper said things were shipshape at the JEA. Cooper said there hadn't been any issues to speak of earlier in the day. Cooper, the poll workers and yes, Bruno Jr., were working hard to make sure voters got in and out quickly.

Voters cast their ballots on Tuesday at the Progressive Recreation Center in Garden City.

10:51 a.m. | Voters mull issues such as TSPLOST, abortion rights

Elizabeth Williams, 57, was among the first group of people to cast their ballots at the Moses Jackson Community Center. The most important thing that brought the West Savannah resident out that morning?

"Change," Williams said. "Make sure those Democrats stay in office."

One of the biggest decisions on the ballot is the Transportation Local Options Sales Tax, which is a penny sales tax that would go toward transportation projects in the county. Just a few miles down the street was a sign that urged residents to vote "no" on TSPLOST.

"I won't be voting (for TSPLOST)," Williams said as she gestured toward the road. "I don't see any improvements. Not in this neighborhood."

Roman Hughes, 51, was on his way to work when he decided to stop by the community center to cast his ballot beforehand. In West Savannah, he wants to see the city cleaned up. In Georgia and beyond, abortion is an issue that weighs on his mind.

Television advertisements attacking both Republican candidate Herschel Walker and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, have dominated the Georgia airwaves in the past few months. Hughes noted the allegations made against Walker and said that while he's "not sure if all the stuff they're saying about him are correct," he believes most are, sharing the same sentiment with Williams about keeping the Democrats in office.

At Resurrection of our Lord Catholic Church in West Savannah, Uncle Rodney Middleton, as his niece affectionately called him, turned out to vote around 8 a.m. Tuesday to make sure the next generation has "better power."

At Rothwell Baptist Church in Pooler, the 2022 midterm elections marked 18-year-old Taylor Rexroat's first time being able to vote. While she felt nervous going into the polling station, the process was easier and faster than she had imagined.

Stacey Collins, 49, is turning 50 on Wednesday. But before she ushers in a new age, the Pooler resident welcomed this year's Election Day by performing her civic duty at the Pooler Recreation Park gymnasium.

"There's so many important issues that we're facing right now ... the economy, inflation, education."

All was calm at there on Tuesday morning as voters got in and out of the gym with ease, "I voted" stickers in their hands.

"I would just shout out to Chatham County, especially this location," Collins said. "I mean, they're running it professionally. It was easy. It took me less than five minutes to get through the whole process and I'm used to longer lines where I came from when I moved to this area.

"I've been pleasantly surprised by how well it's run, especially for such a fairly-heavily populated area."

A voter picks up their "I'm a Georgia Voter" sticker after casting their ballot on Tuesday at Coastal Cathedral Church in Savannah.

10:42 a.m. | A college student's perspective on voting in Georgia

Asher Freidberg, an Illinois native, became a Georgia voter this year ahead of the midterm elections. The Savannah College of Art and Design senior was excited to cast his vote and make his voice heard Tuesday morning at his precinct, the W.W. Law Community Center on East Bolton Street.

I'm just not a fan of a lot of focus on election denying and stuff like that, Freidberg said. I try to keep my head out of that. My vote counts.

While it was his first time voting in Georgia, he said the process was streamlined and the poll workers at Precinct 2-03 were helpful.

The college student said his top issue was protecting a womans right to choose whether she wants an abortion or not, but he was not prepared to vote on TSPLOST, the transportation penny sales tax referendum that would approve $600 million in tax revenue for roadway improvements, sidewalk construction and other transportation-related projects across the county.

I have to admit, I didn't know that. I read about them. It was interesting. I have to admit, I wish I had more time to look it up in advance, but reading it, I feel like I made the right choice, Freidberg said of his vote.

Freidberg said registering in Georgia was important to him, particularly when it comes to key battleground races, including the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Herschel Walker, a Republican.

I'd like to say that I think Herschel Walker has no chance but it's kind of scary, Freidberg said, referencing the latest polls showing Warnock with less than a 1-point lead over the former UGA running back. I'm a big supporter of Raphael Warnock, so it'd be a real shame if it got to a run-off. I swear, comparing these two men ... it's almost an insult.

10:30 a.m.| An issue with a printer  we've all been there

Savannah High School's precinct, 3-03, was down one voting booth as of 9:30 a.m.

The printer was not working, according to a poll worker, but a county technician has already been by to pick up the broken printer and a new one was on the way.

The precinct was operating with three of its four voting booths, but voters were slowly trickling in  there were 55 ballots cast by 9:30  so it didn't cause a problem.

Trinity Lutheran Church

9:51 a.m. | 'Eventful' start smoothed over at Trinity Lutheran Church

Southside locations were mostly running smoothly, with small technological issues here and there, but no long delays.

At the polling location at Windsor Forest Church, there were a huge chunk of early votes, but still a 20-foot line out of the door at 7 a.m., said poll manager Emily Wise.

Meanwhile, at the polling location at Trinity Lutheran Church, voting started off eventful, said poll officer Napoleon Martin. The Ballot Marking Device (BMD) wasnt working, causing a 10-15-minute delay for voters who came in around 7:30 a.m.

They could have switched to paper ballots, but chose not to, Martin added. Other than that, everything ran smoothly.

At around 9 a.m., however, the voting process was perfect, said voter Rachel Westfall. She said she has voted four times at Trinity Lutheran.

It was easy, people were really nice, absolutely no complaints, Westfall said.

Georgetown Elementary School.

Georgetown Elementary, on 1516 King George Blvd., was busy, but it was also marked by early voting. According to poll manager Bobbie Torres, about 40% of voters were early voters. Still, at 7 a.m., 60 people waited in line inside, while 40 waited outside.

Torres noted that she thinks one out of 10 people were new voters in Chatham County  either having just moved to the area or young, first-time eligible voters.

Two voters who voted together agreed that it was easy to vote at Georgetown Elementary. Both of them, who declined to provide their names because they didnt want people knocking on their doors, voted Republican.

The female voter said she was motivated to vote because she wants to retake the house and senate. The male voter said he was motivated by two main issues: crime and inflation.

I foresee a runoff, said the male voter.

9:45 a.m. | Busy is 'lovely' at the polls

Over at First Presbyterian Church (Precinct 1-01), poll manager Katherine Simmons said things were running smoothly.

Tuesday marked Simmons' second year serving as poll manager for the precinct, and she said she felt prepared. She had seen 283 voters come and go since the day started, and it was only 9:15 a.m.

"It's been very busy, which is lovely," Simmons said. "There was a mad rush in the beginning, and now it's going pretty steady."

Simmons said she is getting a handle on poll managing, with her first foray into the field coming during the primary over the summer.

"They train us really well. Before every election we get training (and) in case things change, a refresher," Simmons said. "There's always going to be crazy stuff that happens, and we just try to problem solve, call the office if we need help."

A woman holds a young child as she casts her ballot on Tuesday at the Progressive Recreation Center in Garden City.

9:42 a.m. | No reported issues at Morningside Baptist Church

It was business as usual at Precinct 2-07 at Morningside Baptist Church on West Gwinnett Street.

By 9 a.m., there had been no reported issues with voting machines or processes.

Voters Andre and Kesha Baxter were in and out in less than five minutes. They said the intense scrutiny on Georgia's voting procedures was for naught.

"It's definitely a bunch of fearmongering, but we understand," Andre Baxter said. "We've been voting the same way for how many presidential elections? It's been done the same way for I don't know how long  mail-in ballots, stuff like that. So, what's the issue now?"

The 2021 Georgia law restricted the number of drop-off ballot boxes, the length of time to request a mail-in ballot and established a statewide, nonpartisan position to oversee the validity of elections. Many have called the bill a move to restrict votes by the Republican Party, while the GOP said the measures are an attempt to safeguard elections.

For voters like the Baxters, a Black couple who live on Savannah's Eastside, the changes had no impact on their in-person voting plans. "It's quick and easy," they said.

8:51 a.m. | Abortion rights issue impacts midterm elections

Abortion rights were top of mind for Shekita Hendrix at the Salvation Army, where she cast her vote in person around 8:25 Tuesday morning.

"That's one of the main issues being a woman myself and having a daughter," Hendrix said as she left her voting precinct, 2-09. "I think most people should be able to control what goes on with their body without the government having any say so in it."

Abortion rights have been a crucial issue for many voters across the political spectrum and country, as America takes to the polls for midterm elections. And in Georgia, key races have turned the Peach State into a battleground for control of the U.S. Congress yet again.

The national spotlight on Georgia  and endless tide of political ads and fundraising  didn't do much to sway Hendrix toward one candidate. She stuck to the issues.

"My mind was pretty much made up of who I wanted to vote for, so it didn't sway me or change my mind about who I wanted to vote for. I kept it straightforward: looked at the Democrats and what they had to offer and voted from that," Hendrix said.

And while the state already has seen a record number of early voters, in-person voting for the midterms far outpaced morning turnout during the June primaries.

Hendrix was one of 115 people to cast their vote before 8:30 a.m., where poll workers said there had been no issues with machinery or processes.

8:43 a.m. | Status report from Chatham Board of Elections Supervisor: Smooth start

It's the busiest day of the year for Chatham Board of Elections Supervisor Billy Wooten, but this ain't his first rodeo.

Wooten's first year at the helm of the BOE was last year, and he's got two decades of poll managing experience before that. He said, as far as he could tell, it was a smooth start to the day.

Wooten said as of about 8:20 a.m. Tuesday morning, no polls in Chatham County had seen issues that caused them to delay their opening time  a good sign, as a poll opening late can lead to extensions to polling hours later Tuesday evening.

Chatham Board of Elections Supervisor Billy Wooten.

"We had some power issues, a few polls had connectivity issues, or too much plugged into one circuit," Wooten said. "But we've got all that resolved right now, as far as I know."

Wooten said the only issues seen so far this morning involved plugging too many voting machines into a single electrical outlet cluster, a common issue since the implementation of the Dominion Voting System in 2020. But Wooten says these issues were cleared out quickly by technicians. On Election Day, voting machine technicians field reports of equipment errors throughout the county, going from precinct to precinct solving issues. Wooten said there are 16 countywide today.

Overall, he said the day is off to a good start as far as Election Day goes, but they're remaining vigilant.

"I think it's a good start so far, but there's always gonna be issues. Always," Wooten said.

Voters line up outside Holy Spirit Lutheran Church (Precinct 2-05) on Election Day on Tuesday morning.

7:57 a.m. | Questions on the TSPLOST funding

Election day rose over Savannah on Tuesday morning, and the air was cool.

Outside Holy Spirit Lutheran Church (Precinct 2-05) on East 37th Street, a line of about 10 people had formed by 7:15 a.m.

Kristin Harward-Grant was in line, looking over a printed list of constitutional amendment questions tacked onto the bottom of the ballot.

She was talking to her neighbors in line about the Transportation Local Options Sales Tax, or TSPLOST, and noted that while she supports the idea of using tax dollars to improve roads, she questioned the vagueness of the project lists.

"I like the idea of it, but I just think it's going to hurt those who live here," Harward-Grant said. "I just don't think it's going to go where they say it's going to go."

By 7:45 a.m. the line had moved through into the poll, with no one waiting outside. 48 people had voted by then.

Signs that read simply "Bacon $10.99" are a reference to inflation in the grocery store and a condemnation of the political party in power, the Democrats.

7:30 a.m. | Inflation disinformation?

Campaign signs always seem to proliferate even more in the days right before an election. The 11th-hour popups this year? Signs that read simply "Bacon $10.99," a reference to inflation in the grocery store and a condemnation of the political party in power, the Democrats.

A quick run to Kroger showed the signs to be misleading: A pound of Smithfield bacon is on sale for $4.49 today. So two packages of bacon costs less than $10.99.

A pound of Smithfield bacon is on sale for $4.49 today at Kroger. So two packages of bacon costs less than the $10.99 in the signs.

7 a.m. | Early (Election Day) voting

Georgia saw midterm record high turnout for early in-person and absentee voting, with more than 2.5 million ballots submitted as of early in-person voting's close on Friday. Election Day voters were out early, too, with lines stretching outside of several precincts prior to the 7 a.m. opening of polls.

Dozens of voters snaked outside neighboring churches that are used as polling places on Wilmington Island as the sun came up. The same went for a polling place adjacent to Islands High School, much to the chagrin of arriving students. More than 100 voters waited in line to vote outside Coastal Cathedral in West Chatham.

The early rush is not unusual as many voters choose to complete their ballot before heading to work.

7 a.m. | Polls are open. What to know if you're voting in Chatham or Bryan County

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will remain open till 7 p.m. See polling locations in Georgia.

Voters in line by 7 p.m. will be permitted to cast a ballot.

Voters can vote at their assigned polling place. A full list is available on the county's elections website:

How and where to vote in today's elections

Here's what's required to cast your ballot in today's Georgia midterm general elections:

You must be registered to vote. The deadline to register for this election was Oct. 11.

Voters must show a valid photo ID when voting in person

Go to your assigned polling place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Those in line by 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote.

Sample ballot, polling places

Want to know where to vote and who's on the ballot? You can find sample ballots and polling location on the My Voter Page on the Secretary of State website.

Support local journalism by subscribing to the Savannah Morning News.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Election Day 2022 in Georgia: Live updates from Chatham, Bryan voting
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden publicly savored the results of the midterm elections on Wednesday after Democrats defied expectations and held off a Republican red wave that pollsters and analysts had been forecasting for weeks.

With several races still too close to call, Biden said at a White House news conference that voters spoke clearly. They're still frustrated about the economy, but they like the progress Democrats have made. They voted "to preserve our democracy and protect the right to chose."

"It was a good day for America, he said.

Regardless of which party ends up controlling Congress, Biden said, hes ready to compromise with Republicans where it makes sense." He said he will invite the leaders of both parties to the White House after he returns from a multi-nation foreign trip.

But Biden also made clear he's not looking for a course correction.

"Im not going to change anything in any fundamental way," he said.

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, said his party will move a bold conservative agenda when it retakes the House.

People in very different places of America said they don't want big government socialism, Scalise said on Fox News, and they're going to give us the House to be that check and balance.

Biden repeated his past assertions that he intends to seek reelection in 2024, but said he likely wont make a final decision until early next year.

That's been our intention, regardless of what the outcome of this election was," Biden said. "I'm a great respecter of fate. And this is a family decision. I think everybody wants me to run. But we're going to have conversations about that."

Morgan Jones, an Atlanta mortician, who eagerly supported Georgias Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, said she cant think of a Democrat other than Biden who would be in a good position to run for president.

"The other side is he is a bit elderly, Jones said. I really don't know how he could fare another four years as president. It might be too stressful for him."

Story continues

Biden turns 80 later this month.

"I think there should be an age limit," Gregory Ewing, a financial adviser and retired Navy veteran from Georgia who has been voting increasingly for Democrats in recent years, told USA TODAY. "When you get into your mid-to-upper 70s there is cognitive loss. You're not as sharp as you used to be."

President Joe Biden responds to a question from a reporter during a press conference a day after the US midterm elections.

As Biden spoke, elections officials were still counting ballots in several key races and warned that the results of some key races may not be known for days or even weeks.

Republicans are still projected to win control of the House, although with a much smaller majority than expected. Control of the Senate is up in the air, with close races in Georgia, Nevada and Arizona still undecided.

But for Biden, the election results were a validation of his strategy to frame the election as a battle for democracy, to restore abortion rights and build on legislative victories.

"Democrats ran and won on his agenda," former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on MSNBC.

While the AP VoteCast Survey of the electorate showed inflation was the driving issue, seven in ten voters said the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was important to their vote. One quarter called it the single most important factor, half as many as said the same about inflation.

Duke University professor Asher Hildebrand said the election results defy two fundamental laws of American politics.

First, that voters tend to punish the party in power in the midterm elections, he said. And second, that when economic concerns predominate in voters minds that that's bad for incumbents.

Contributing: Phillip M. Bailey.

'Not a repudiation': Joe Biden holds off red wave, gets unexpected boost from midterm election

House election recap: Democrats run stronger than expected but may yet lose majority

How marquee races ended: Democrat John Fetterman flips U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, beating Republican Mehmet Oz

Governor races recap: Arizona, Oregon too close to call; Whitmer, Kemp win reelection

Key midterm ballot measures: Missouri legalizes weed, Kentucky rejects anti-abortion amendment

'No ceiling you can't break': The LGBTQ midterm 2022 candidates who had historic wins

'Unlawful' and 'un-American': Amid midterm voting, Biden warns of 'chaos,' fears of political violence ahead of Nov. 8 election

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden: Midterm election results are good for America, democracy
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has won another term in office, after defeating Republican challenger Tim Michels in their neck-and-neck contest, according to three major networks.

Speaking from Milwaukee in the early hours of Wednesday, Michels said he had called Evers to concede. Unfortunately the math doesnt add up, he said, adding that he wished the Evers family well.

Evers first won the seat in a 2018 upset after ousting incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Heading into 2022, he needed to recreate that same magic, with Wisconsin remaining one of the most purple states in the nationwith both Donald Trump and Joe Biden carrying the state by less than a point in 2016 and 2020 respectively.

Wisconsin Governor Says Hell Stop State Abortion Ban From Being Enforced

Since he was first elected, Evers has remained at war with Republican lawmakers in his state. The GOP-led state legislature has lobbed conservative policies his way en masse, leading Evers to veto more bills than any other governor in the states history. Hes also drawn backlash from Wisconsin conservatives for his handling of the COVID pandemic, in addition to Black Lives Matters protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020 after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, was caught on camera and made public.

Yet Evers attempted to draw a clear contrast between himself and Michels: a recipient of Trumps endorsement. Abortion became one of the leading issues of the race, with Evers wanting to overturn an abortion ban in the state that went into effect via a trigger law, while Michels wanted abortion to remain banned with exceptions for rape and life of the mother.

The duo also clashed at a recent debate over election administration, with Michels promising to enact heightened restrictions on voting in future elections.

Wisconsin governors do not have term limits, meaning Evers is free to run again in 2026.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Illinois voters are heading to the polls today to determine who they want to represent them on levels of government, among them Congress, Illinois governor, state representatives, and county offices.

Polls opened across the state at 6 a.m.

Illinois election results:Follow along here as local and statewide results are announced

12:17 a.m. Associated Press: Budzinski carries 13th Congressional District

For the first time in 12 years, Springfield will have a member of the Democratic Party as one of its congressmen.

Nikki Budzinski, a former chief of staff to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and former JB Pritzker advisor, won the race in the 13th Congressional District, defeating Republican Regan Deering, a small business owner and philanthropist.

With 83.4% of votes counted according to the Associated Press, Budzinski leads Deering 54.3% to 45.7%. Budzinski got big majorities in Champaign and St. Clair counties, getting nearly 70% out of the former and 61.3% out of the latter. She also was ahead in Sangamon County, with 51.4% and Madison County with 50.5%. Deering won in rural areas, getting 63.3% in Macoupin County and 61.1% in Piatt County. Macon County is separated by hundreds of votes, with Deering leading Budzinski in that county 50.9% to 49.1%; however, it will likely make no difference.

Budzinski was the favorite to win the minute Illinois legislative Democrats drew the district in order to favor their party; President Joe Biden would have won the district by 11 points had the congressional map been in place in 2020.

7:05 p.m.: Associated Press: Pritzker, Duckworth win

Illinois will keep its blue hue for at least another election cycle.

The Associated Press is reporting that Gov. JB Pritzker and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, have won their respective races, defeating underdog Republican challengers despite a tough year for their party nationally.

The AP called both races just after polls closed at 7 p.m. before votes have been counted in either race. Neither was expected to lose, but Pritzker was under fire by the campaign of Republican challenger Darren Bailey for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and mandates associated with it.

Story continues

Duckworth earned only a token challenge from Republican Kathy Salvi and was considered one of the safest bets on the board to win for Democrats in what is shaping up to be a challenging evening on many fronts for them nationally.

No other races have been called by the AP yet, including the other constitutional offices, Amendment 1, and other legislative races.

7 p.m. Polls close

Polls across Illinois are now closed. Persons in line at 7 p.m. will still have a chance to vote.

Check the SJ-R website for election results.

6 p.m. 'Souls to the Polls' payoff

Teresa Haley, president of the Springfield chapter and state conference of the NAACP, said the organization worked with Springfield area churches and Black sororities and fraternities on the "Souls to the Polls" campaign to get people to do early voting and mail-in voting.

The movement didn't talk about which particular candidates to vote for, but rather "remind people we must vote. People fought, bled and died for us to vote, so if we can encourage people to go as a family, as a congregation to the polls, we found more people who look like me will go out," Haley said.

Haley said about a dozen branch members served as election judges and poll watchers Tuesday. Haley was a poll watcher.

As state president, Haley said she was on several Zoom calls with colleagues from around the state. While there were some problems in the Chicagoland area with voting machines, Haley said there were no statewide reports of voter intimidation.

Sangamon County voting:More than 1,000 poll workers prepared to maintain election integrity

6 p.m. 'The dirtiest election I ever remember'

Ask Robert Nation what kinds of issues he was considering, emerging from Holy City Church where he voted Tuesday, and he will tell you it is an issue every time he goes to the grocery store.

"There are a lot of issues when you go to the store and a piece of meat costs you $27 or a package of hamburger costs you $15," Nation offered. "Or paying $5 a gallon gasoline. As they always say, 'Everything goes up except your pay.'

Nation, who voted along with his wife, Dolores, called it "the dirtiest election I ever remember."

Dolores Nation said she was also tired of "the negative energy" the candidates gave off.

Amy Arcand, who also voted at Holy City, said there weren't particular issues driving her to the poll Tuesday, but more habit.

One thing Arcand is worried about: getting her 25-year-old daughter out to vote for the first time.

"I vote because I think it's the right thing to do," Arcand said.

4:30 p.m. Closing time reminder

Polls in Sangamon County close at 7 p.m. You can still vote if you are in line before 7 p.m.

That is the closing time for the two ballot drop boxes at 200 S. Ninth St. and 2201 S. Dirksen Parkway.

2 p.m. Factors for the turnout

Voters can sometimes be a fickle bunch, so, yes, Election Day weather can be a factor for turnout.

"It's been gorgeous weather throughout the early voting process in advance of Election Day," said Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray, "and that does play into the overall scenario for participation, so it's nice to see that we have a great day."

Election Day voters were greeted with clear conditions and temperatures in the low 60s.

Tuesday marks the first time Election Day has been a holiday in Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill in June 2021 establishing the holiday temporarily. Now, 19 states have some form of Election Day holiday.

That means state and county workers had the day off, as did area schools.

Whether that is a factor for brisk voting traffic Tuesday is a possibility, but Gray believes that theory needs to be tested a little more with future elections.

Whatever the reasons, the Springfield Masonic Center was one of the polling places that had to request more polling booths, six to be exact, Gray confirmed. Three precincts  Capital 42, 66 and 80  vote at the center.

1 p.m. 'You can't criticize the process unless you have been part of the process'

Chris Bennett of Springfield is a state worker, but Tuesday found him in another role at Triad Industrial Supply Corp. in the 2700 block of South 13th Street: an election official.

Bennett worked the June 28 primary in a similar capacity, though he hadn't done it for a few years.

"My motivation (to work as an election official) was dispel the myth that your vote isn't safe," Bennett said. "You can't criticize the process unless you have been part of the process."

Bennett knows there are skeptics out there, but "people's votes here are secure and counted like they should be."

1 p.m. Selfies at the polls

With it being Election Day, your social media feed is likely inundated with photos of people at the polls or dawning a I voted sticker. What should not be showing up there, however, are photos or videos of respective ballots.

The matter came to attention after a Tik Tok by Riley Craig, Attorney General Thomas DeVores girlfriend, showed her circling in her votes for Republican candidates on her Bond County ballot. As of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the video had garnered more than 285,000 views.

Matt Dietrich, public information officer with the Illinois State Board of Elections, advises voters to not do this as it violates the Illinois election code.

To his knowledge, no one has ever been prosecuted for taking a ballot selfie but still sees a photo of a sticker as a better option.

12:30 p.m. Sangamon County clerk stays vigilant

Reports Tuesday that Champaign County clerk's office had been the apparent target of cyber attacks was a cautionary reminder to Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray.

Champaign has been dealing with connectivity and server performance on Tuesday.

Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray speaks with poll workers Ralph Lewis and Sharon Haynes on Tuesday at Union Baptist Church in Springfield.

The clerk's office website has been the target of attacks over the past month, but its IT team has been successful in preventing the attacks and the clerk's website has remained secure.

"This is something we take seriously. It's a big part of who we are in election administration," said Gray, who talked to the clerk in Champaign, Aaron Ammons, on Tuesday.

Gray said Sangamon County was not experiencing any troubles like Champaign, though the clerk's office there was "differently structured" than here.

"(Champaign) is fully electronic," Gray said. "He's having connection problems from his resources in the polling places to process voters."

"We're not experiencing anything (critical) here, but we're going to keep an eye on it."

11:30 a.m.: Turnout steady at Westminster Presbyterian Church

At Westminster Presbyterian Church, registrar Jan Van Qualen said turnout was steady and felt that it was satisfactory for a midterm election.

"For a midterm, it's good turnout," Van Qualen said. "It's quite subjective, though."

Voters streaming out of the church's main hall said they felt the process was smooth.

Paul Diezman said voting is among the most important things a citizen can do. He put an emphasis on affirming the work that Gov. JB Pritzker did in running the state over his first four years.

"I like what the governor's been doing," Diezman said. "I was really looking at retaining our governor."

Amber and Tony Lozzi and their children, Henry and Aurelia, stand in the main lobby of Westminster Presbyterian Church after voting Tuesday..

Amber and Tony Lozzi brought their children, Aurelia and Henry, with them to Westminster where they voted. Amber said she was focused on voting to protect abortion rights in Illinois, as she was concerned about a potential nationwide abortion ban from a Republican Congress.

"As a woman, the chance of a nationwide abortion ban is absolutely horrifying," Amber said. "That's something where I'm definitely voting with that in mind, not just for myself, but for my kids and all future generations."

Tony agreed with Amber, saying it was unreasonable to vote for people who would vote to take that right away. In addition, he said he was focused on Amendment 1, which would enshrine various labor rights in the Illinois Constitution. Amber said they wanted to vote for candidates who would have the best interests of everyone in mind.

Nathan Armbruster, right, throws his hands up in celebration after being told by election judge Brian Deslue that he is the 100th voter in Precinct 22 at Lakeside Christian Church in Springfield on Tuesday.

"In general, (I want to) make sure that we're voting with all humans' best rights in mind and making sure that we choose officials that genuinely work in our best interests and not for the select few," Amber said.

10:15 a.m.: How the candidates in the 13th Congressional District started their day

Regan Deering (center), Republican candidate for Illinois Congressional District 13, voted on Election Day, Nov. 8 at the Macon County Office Building.

Nikki Budzinski spent her day on the trail with the intention of hitting seven counties in her district stretching from Metro East to Champaign. Her day is set to conclude in Springfield, where she will be holding a watch party at the Hoogland Center For the Arts.

One of her stops included Decatur, which is where Budzinskis Republican opponent Regan Deering started her day by casting her vote.

Good morning Piatt County Democrats! It was great to share some coffee and Aneeda biscotti with you on Election Day! Vote Kathleen Piatt for County Board and @Nikki4Congress today! pic.twitter.com/VawDKLHpQI  Nikki Budzinski (@Nikki4Congress) November 8, 2022

Deering told reporters at the Macon County Office Building that she was confident in a successful election and was ready to be a force of change in Washington.

I think this is going to be a very close race, she said. It was clearly mapped for a Democrat, but we have shown up and worked hard and the people of central Illinois are ready for someone who is going to work for them.

Polls open in less than 15 minutes! Make sure you have your plan to vote ready for today. Its your last day to vote for CHANGE, by casting your ballot for me, Regan Deering! #IL13  Regan Deering (@Regan4Congress) November 8, 2022

8:15 a.m.: What the major candidates have to say as voting commences

First, messages from the two major gubernatorial candidates to get out the vote:

Good morning and happy #ElectionDay, Illinois! Polls are open until 7 PM  get out and VOTE!



 https://t.co/jaCQcRNYTh  https://t.co/8WxV1AsqFK  JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) November 8, 2022

Are you ready to fire JB? We need you to vote today. Lets make Illinois safer and more affordable for everyone. pic.twitter.com/vDnaJS7d6c  Darren Bailey for Governor (@DarrenBaileyIL) November 8, 2022

Now, from the Senate candidates:

Today is the day, Illinois! 



Polls are open until 7PM. Find your polling place at https://t.co/UvFp5rCHiG and make your voice heard.



And if youre in line by 7PMstay in line. Lets bring it home. #ElectionDay  Tammy Duckworth (@TammyDuckworth) November 8, 2022

Democracy isnt at risk. Its thriving on this democracys day. Free and fair elections are our hallmark. Exercise your freedom and vote. Vote to change the direction of our state and nation. Id be honored to have your vote. #govote pic.twitter.com/rXr0RnnI9C  Kathy Salvi (@salviforsenate) November 8, 2022

7:06 a.m.: Good morning!

Shortly after the polls opened at Union Baptist Church on Springfield's east side, Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray said he was encouraged by early voting turnout. He said he believes between 65% to 70% of the county's registered voters will cast ballots.

"We've got a lot of local contests that are garnering attention between the 13th Congressional District (for the U.S. House of Representatives) (and) the 48th (Illinois) Senate District," Gray said. "There's been a lot of money spent and people are certainly aware that there's an election. (It's) reflected in the increase in early voting and I hope to see that same momentum here on election day."

According to Gray, 24,290 people cast their ballots early, whether it was through mail voting or at the clerk's office in the Sangamon County Complex. More than 16,000 mail ballots have arrived at Gray's office, with 3,675 of those ballots still outstanding.

The expectation for Gray is that 105,000-108,000 ballots are cast by 7 p.m., when the counting process begins. Early and mail votes will be counted before any precinct votes.

Gray thinks the process should be rather quick, with counting finished by 10 p.m. at the latest.

Poll workers Whitney Harper, Dorothy Holmes, Timothy Wright and Alyce Lyle prepare to welcome voters Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 at Union Baptist Church.

To help with smoothing out the process, Gray has enlisted more than 1,000 poll workers and has trained them in order to make the voting process comfortable for everyone.

"We train them in advance of every election, not just once every two years," Gray said. "We have video courses, in-person courses, we give them manuals (and) highlights of things specific to the election that we are in now. Everything you can think of, we go through and that's really a critical piece of having a well-run, successful election.

Working alongside the dedicated poll workers were a few poll watchers checking in to see how things were going. Irma Cooper was working as an observer for the very first time and admitted that she was nervous and "in the line of fire". Even so, she was excited to get to see the process and to cast her ballot for the candidates she felt had her best interests in mind.

"I just wanted to get my feet wet to see what they do," Cooper said. "If your number doesn't count, it's not going to count to make decisions in the things that you are favorable for."

It's 6 a.m. Polls are open.

It's 6 a.m. Election Day and the polls are open.

Illinois poll times: When do the polls close?

Voting ends at 7 p.m.

Where do I find Springfield, Illinois, election results?

We'll be providing live results at sj-r.com/elections/results/local throughout the night.

Is there same day voter registration in Illinois on Election Day?

You can register in-person at the county clerk's office on Election Day.

Voters need two forms of identification to register, both must show the voter's name and at least one must have the voter's current address. Most voters can use a state ID card or driver's license and a credit card or utility bill. Voters can use their phones to provide identification, such as by pulling up their electricity or gas utility account information.

If I'm registered, what do I need to bring to vote in Illinois?

Voters do not need to provide identification but must be registered to vote in the county where they live.

How do I find out where to vote?

Voters can report to their precinct voting location on Nov. 8. To find out your precinct, check the back of your voter's registration card, the state's elections website, or call the county clerk.

What if I forgot to mail my early ballot?

Mailed ballot can be returned by U.S. Postal Service but they must be postmarked by Nov. 8 and received no later than two weeks after Tuesday.

They also can be returned by using one of the secure ballot drop boxes on the south end of the County Building at Ninth and Monroe streets or at the Sangamon County Juvenile Detention Center, 2201 S. Dirksen Parkway.

A mailed ballot also can be hand delivered to the clerk's office.

Need help? Who to call

In Sangamon County, if you have problems or questions about voting, call (217) 753-8683 or go to the clerk's website at www.sangamoncountyclerk.com/elections.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield Illinois Election Day 2022: Live updates from the polls
On Tuesday, voters get a final day to cast their ballots. Along with dozens of local, state and federal races, the election will decide what could be one of the most crucial Ventura County supervisor's races in years.

A councilwoman in Thousand Oaks and a former Republican state legislator are seeking a seat that hasn't turned over in 20 years.

We will be there until vote centers close at 8 p.m.

Hot races:

 Refresh for the latest news and photos from around the county.

In Santa Paula City Council race, results for 3 seats show 2 incumbents among leaders

9:55 p.m.: Incumbents Jenny Crosswhite and Carlos Juarez and candidate Pedro Chavez took early leads in the race for Santa Paula City Council, initial results from the county's Election Division showed Tuesday night.

Irwin takes decisive lead in race for Assembly District 42

9:55 p.m.: Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin was on track Tuesday to win a fifth term in the state legislature for the newly redrawn Assembly District 42.

Ojai mayor's race shows Anson Williams leading in early results

9:55 p.m.: Initial results in the race for Ojai mayor show Anson Williams ahead of incumbent Mayor Betsy Stix Tuesday night.

Ojai City Council elections results for 3 seats

9:55 p.m.: Initial results Tuesday night show how races are shaping up in Ojai, where three of four City Council seats are in play.

Early returns show Judge, Rhodes ahead in races for two Simi Valley City Council seats

9:50 p.m.: Simi Valley City Council incumbent Mike Judge took an early lead Tuesday night over challenger Sean Weisman for a four-year term on the five-member council.

Story continues

Salud Carbajal gains commanding lead in 24th Congressional District

9:50 p.m.: Incumbent Salud Carbajal jumped to a commanding lead over challenger Dr. Brad Allen in early returns Tuesday night for the 24th Congressional District.

Incumbent Brownley jumps to lead over Jacobs in 26th Congressional District

9:50 p.m.: Incumbent Julia Brownley jumped to an early lead Tuesday over challenger Matt Jacobs in a 26th Congressional District race that has attracted national attention as Democrats and Republicans vie for control of the House.

In Port Hueneme, name-change measure lags while City Council race takes shape

9:50 p.m.: In Port Hueneme, early elections returns show residents rejecting a possible change to the city's name, while two of three incumbent City Council members posted early leads.

Ventura City Council race posts early results for 4 seats

9:45 p.m.: Liz Campos, Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios, Marie Lakin and Jim Duran were leading in their respective districts in the race for Ventura City Council, according to the first set of results from the county's Election Division Tuesday night.

Parvin posts large lead against Perez for supervisor's seat

9:45 p.m.: Moorpark Mayor Janice Parvin was leading college trustee Bernardo Perez by more than 20 percentage points in the first returns posted Tuesday night for the Simi Valley-based seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

In Oxnard City Council races, incumbents take early leads

9:45 p.m.: Incumbents Bert Perello, Gabriel Teran and Gabriela Basua have took early leads in a race for three seats on the Oxnard City Council, according to Tuesday night's initial results.

Bill-de la Pena leading in early returns in quest to succeed Parks

9:40 p.m.: Claudia Bill-de la Pena was leading Jeff Gorell by a little over 5 percentage points in early returns Tuesday night in the race to succeed Supervisor Linda Parks on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

Moorpark City Council results show former councilmember Mikos in lead for 1st District

9:40 p.m.: In Moorpark's District 1 City Council race  the council's only competitive seat in the general election  Roseann Mikos took the early lead over two other contenders after Tuesday's initial results.

Thomas takes early lead in Simi Valley mayor race

9:35 p.m.: Simi Valley mayoral candidate Fred Thomas took an early lead Tuesday night.

Bennett takes lead over Brocato in state Assembly race

9:30 p.m.: Early returns showed Steve Bennett with 64% of the votes in the 38th Assembly District in Tuesday's election, leading opponent Cole Brocato.

Preliminary results to be unveiled shortly

8:10 p.m.: The first returns are expected to be released shortly after polls close at 8 p.m.

Officials say the first batch of results reflects ballots received and processed by Election Day, including those mailed, cast at vote centers and deposited in drop boxes. By the last update Election Night, all votes cast in person Tuesday are expected to be added to the tally.

Additional updates are expected to be released Thursday. The elections office has until Dec. 8 to certify the final vote, but usually does so before that.

- Kathleen Wilson

Voters in Camarillo want different qualities in a leader

7:30 p.m.: At least 45 people were waiting in line to vote at the Camarillo Community Center with some holding differing views on who should lead the country.

Yolanda Salvas of Camarillo usually doesnt vote along party lines, calling herself undeclared. But she voted Republican across the ballot on Tuesday. I think Im ready for a change, she said.

Desteni Lebrant, a Republican from Camarillo, wants leaders who unify people. You dont have to believe the way I do but lets find common ground, she said.

Karin Moon worries about the consequences of a nationwide red wave. I just feel that will give (Donald) Trump the go-ahead to run for office again, she said after dropping off her ballot.

Those who arrive after 8 p.m. will not be able to vote.

- Tom Kisken

More than 500 vote in-person in Newbury Park

6:45 p.m.: A Vietnam veteran was among more than 500 people who voted in person at the Borchard Community Center on the corner of Borchard and Reino Roads in Newbury Park.

Over 500 people have voted in-person so far at the Borchard Community Center. Dan Collins, a Vietnam veteran, was delivering his mail-in ballot alongside those of his 91-year-old in-laws. pic.twitter.com/5pUcJQkI35  Dawn Megli (@ReporterDawn) November 9, 2022

Veteran Dan Collins delivered his mail-in ballot alongside those of his 91-year-old in-laws. Voter James Kim brought his two sons, Tyler, 19, and Kenny, 20, to cast their ballots. Kim said he tries to instill a sense of civic duty in his kids and afterward they left to celebrate with carnitas burritos from nearby Establos Meat Market.

- Dawn Megli

Power outage at Oxnard church

6:05 p.m.; A power outage at Iglesia Del Dios Vivo La Luz Del Mundo on Nyeland Avenue in Oxnard resulted in the lights and machines going dark but election workers continued to collect ballots and paper votes.

A power outage in Nyeland Acres took out the lights and machines at this polling place, but the workers are still rolling, collecting drop off mail ballots and paper votes via one ballot marking machine in the dark church sanctuary.



No word on when power will be back. #vcvotes pic.twitter.com/P2nGztFc5J  Isaiah Murtaugh  (@isaiahmurtaugh) November 9, 2022

Election officials sent battery packs and lights to the church that were estimated to arrive before 6 p.m., said Simone Seydoux, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder, Registrar of Voters. Power was eventually restored, she said.

- Isaiah Murtaugh and Wes Woods II

Election night forecast calls for showers

5:30 p.m.: After some heavy downpours Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service says the storm front has moved past Ventura County.

That may be welcome news for those headed to cast their ballots Tuesday night. But the rain isnt quite over.

We do have a little bit of showers over Santa Barbara County right now that can move in, said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist with the National Weather Services Oxnard office.

The forecast also calls for isolated showers that still could bring moderate to heavy rainfall in some areas.

Prop.1 gets support

4:45 p.m.: Voter Laura Sanchez said she wants to protect abortion rights, which would be added to the state constitution if Prop. 1 is OKd.

Sanchez was one of about 75 people who had voted by mid-afternoon at the Ventura County Community College District administration building in Camarillo.

- Kathleen Wilson

Looking for a 'red wave'

4:30 p.m.: Lawrence De La Cruz wants a red wave. At the National Guard Armory in Ventura, he voted against Democrats and for change.

Take a look around you. Are you satisfied? Im not, he said.

- Tom Kisken

James Harrington takes his time voting on Election Day at the Goebel Adult Community Center in Thousand Oaks on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Drop boxes filling up

4:15 p.m.: Elections staff is having to empty some drop boxes more often then expected as voters cast their ballots Tuesday.

"We're getting reports that they are filling up," Assistant Clerk-Recorder Michelle Ascencion said Tuesday afternoon.

She sees that as a positive  that people are voting and using the drop boxes. Signs on the official boxes have a phone number to call if voters have any issues.

Most voters 'in the middle'

4 p.m.: Josh Hamilton wants positive change.

The Republican from Ventura voted against Gov. Gavin Newsom, for Assembly candidate Cole Brocato and no on everything for the the propositions, he said. He complained people are painted as far right or far left when most are in the middle.

Im not anti-Democrat or anything like that, said Hamilton, who voted at the National Guard Armory in Ventura Tuesday. We want people to do the right job.

- Tom Kisken

Early turnout lags behind 2020, 2021 figures

3:45 p.m.: As of Monday, elections officials reported more than 143,000 of the county's nearly 506,000 registered voters had cast ballots in the midterm.

That figure includes ballots received by mail or dropped off as well as those cast in-person at vote centers, which opened Oct. 29.

By comparison, almost 225,000 voters had cast ballots one day before the governor's recall election in September. Nearly 325,000 had returned ballots one day before the November 2020 presidential election, which had record high 85.9% voter turnout.

'absolutely insane'

3:15 p.m.: Lynda Martin of Ventura has never seen the country so divided.

After voting at the National Guard Armory in Ventura, she cited the attack on Paul Pelosi in San Francisco and alleged voter intimidation in Arizona. To her, it seems like a threat to democracy.

Its insane, absolutely insane, she said.

- Tom Kisken

In line at 8 p.m.? Vote centers will stay open

2:15 p.m.: County elections chief Mark Lunn said vote centers close at 8 p.m., but anyone in line at that time will get a chance to cast a ballot.

"I dont anticipate long lines, but if you are in line at 8 p.m., you will be allowed to vote," Lunn said.

The same is true at drop boxes, he said. As long as voters are there by 8 p.m., they can drop their ballot in the box.

Avocado rancher Mike Nunez chatted with Diana Rollins, a Tek Systems contractor on hand to help with any issues related to the ballot marking devices if they arise. Nunez, 64, waited 40 minutes for his wife to vote after issues arose related to the spelling of her first name. pic.twitter.com/vNJDi5bUML  Dawn Megli (@ReporterDawn) November 8, 2022

More: Election 2022: What you need to know about Rep. Salud Carbajal v. Dr. Brad Allen race for Congress

Port Hueneme voters take sides on city's name

2 p.m.: Kevin Brannon, 43, and Jenni Rivas, 42, waited out the rain at a vote center in Port Hueneme, a, voters are being asked whether to change the name of their city.

Brannon voted to keep the name Port Hueneme, saying there more important things the city can do to boost tourism, such as cleaning up the beach.

I dont think the juice is worth the squeeze, said Brannon, a fourth generation Port Hueneme resident.

Rivas voted in favor of changing the name to Hueneme Beach, but said she didn't feel strongly either way.

- Brian Varela

Voters drop off ballots in Oxnard

1:45 p.m.: In Oxnard, Patrick and Aimee Morrison rushed into a vote center at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme to drop off ballots and escape the rain.

Aimee Morrison said she supported abortion rights and voted in favor of Prop. 1, which would add the right to abortion to Californias constitution.

Roughly 100 voters had cast ballots at the location by 1 p.m. Tuesday.

- Brian Varela

About 100 people have cast their votes at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme vote center by 1 p.m., said Krysta Munoz, lead election worker. #vcvotes @vcstar pic.twitter.com/NevXQROsv4  Brian Varela (@BrianVarela805) November 8, 2022

Ojai voters take advantage of rain breaks

1:15 p.m.: A vote center at the Ojai United Methodist Church had 253 voters by 1 p.m.

It was slow the first few days, but its definitely picked up today," elections worker Rebecca Sanchez said.

People rush in to vote when there is a lull in the rain, she said.

- Wes Woods

At Ojai United Methodist Church in Ojai voting site where the rain and wind is coming down. Was told by elections official here this sign in support of Renee Roth for City Council is not violating any laws. #vcvotes pic.twitter.com/1radC8KDMN  Wes Woods II (@JournoWes) November 8, 2022

More: Ventura County election: Bill-de la Pena, Gorell close in money chase as campaign nears end

Some voters report intimidation

1 p.m.: Officials said they have had some reports of voters feeling intimidated by observers during the midterm election.

Those reports included a Monday night call from a voter who was concerned about a person standing nearby and watching a Simi Valley drop box. The elections office responded and the situation was resolved, said county elections chief Mark Lunn.

Elections stir up a lot of emotions, said Lunn, who urged people to report any problems to election workers.

Voters turning up despite windy, wet weather

12:45 a.m.: By mid-day, this week's winter storm didnt seem to slowing down voting, said Mark Lunn, the countys elections chief.

"We've got scattered rain throughout the county. I don't know how that's going to impact things, but we're busy, Lunn said. People are voting today, and I'm happy to see that things are going so well.

A full house in Moorpark

12:30 p.m.: Joseph Tovar, 33, of Moorpark, said development was one of his top issues in this election.

I want Moorpark to stay small, the new homeowner said. Theres a certain charm that me and my family moved here for."

He cast his ballot at the vote center at the Moorpark Community Center, which had a full house shortly before noon.

- Mike Harris

More: Port Hueneme or Hueneme Beach? Residents to decide city's name on Election Day 2022

In-person voting doubles

11:40 a.m.: Around 60 people have voted so far on Tuesday at Oxnard Colleges Performing Arts Center.

It really picked up this morning. Thats double from yesterday," said Joe Belmont, the lead election worker at the vote center. "We had maybe 30 people yesterday.

Joe Belmont sets up a flag outside of the vote center at Oxnard College's Performing Arts Center on Nov. 8, 2022.

- Anthony Plascencia

Weather could affect turnout

11:20 a.m.: With rain in the forecast, those who waited to vote may skip the election, said Tim Allison, a political scientist at CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo.

"You may have some voters that waited because they wanted to make sure they were casting an informed ballot," he said. "That waiting  combined with the fact that we could see rain on Election Day  might mean some of those voters just decide to sit it out."

Full house at the Moorpark Community Center voting center. #vcvotes pic.twitter.com/J7AlH9Lnml  Mike Harris (@Mike___Harris) November 8, 2022

First batch of results expected shortly after polls close

10:45 a.m.: Initial results will be released shortly after vote centers close at 8 p.m., according to county elections chief Mark Lunn. That tally is expected to include ballots received and processed by Election Day.

Then, elections staff will count ballots that were cast in-person at vote centers on Tuesday and update the results throughout the night.

Additional vote updates are expected Thursday.

More: Election: 2 vie for Ojai mayor's seat share thoughts on water, housing and more

Election Day voting: Slow, but steady

10:30 a.m.: In Ventura, a few dozen had voted in person at the Ventura Avenue Adult Center by mid-morning.

Across the county, a line of voters was picking up at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Slow but steady, poll worker Kelly Beeby said at the library.

About 32-35 people have voted in person this morning at the Ventura Ave. Adult Center. They all said they were happy to vote, said first-time poll worker Clark Hubbard. #vcvotes pic.twitter.com/w2TbwM0Kqo  Stacie N. Galang (@SN_Galang) November 8, 2022

- Stacie Galang and Mike Harris

Local, national issues energize voters

10:10 a.m.: Mike Silverstein, 60, of Simi Valley, said one of his top issues is law enforcement.

"I want to make sure that Simi Valley police do what they have to do, which I think is an awesome job," said Silverstein, a Republican who voted at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday.

On a national level, he said he believes the country is in bad shape.

- Mike Harris

Patagonia closes for Election Day

10 a.m.: Patagonia closed Tuesday for Election Day. The Ventura company said it gave employees the day off to vote in the midterm election.

When the polls open, we close. We will be closed November 8 so our employees have the day off to vote and work the polls. #Vote pic.twitter.com/QIhHMjCUIG  Patagonia (@patagonia) November 7, 2022

More: Appeals court hands down ruling in Godspeak church fight over COVID lockdown

Turnout inches close to 30%

9:45 a.m.: As of Monday, elections officials reported more than 143,000 of the county's nearly 506,000 registered voters had cast ballots in the midterm.

That figure includes ballots received by mail or dropped off as well as those cast in-person at vote centers, which opened Oct. 29.

The line of voters picking up at the #ReaganLibrary in #Simi. Slow but steady, poll worker Kelly Beeby said. #vcvotes pic.twitter.com/57x1tU7v6i  Mike Harris (@Mike___Harris) November 8, 2022

Rain expected to pick up by noon

9:30 a.m.: The National Weather Service forecast calls for moderate to heavy rainfall to start soaking Ventura County in the next couple of hours.

Much of the county recorded a quarter to a half-inch of rainfall since Monday. In all, the storm is expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of rain in coastal and valley areas.

No long line at Reagan Library

9:15 a.m.: While one of the more popular voting spots in the county, no long lines were reported at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library early Tuesday. Voters can cast ballots in person or drop them off at the Simi Valley location.

As opposed to the primaries, there is no long line to vote at the #ReaganLibrary in #Simi. But its early and maybe the overcast weather is a factor. #vcvotes pic.twitter.com/qROREjjEVs  Mike Harris (@Mike___Harris) November 8, 2022

- Mike Harris

More: 5 candidates vie to succeed retiring Simi Valley Mayor Mashburn in November election

Dozens line up to vote in T.O.

9:10 a.m.: Around 60 people stood in line waiting to vote at the Goebel Adult Community Center in Thousand Oaks by 9 a.m. on Election Day. The center is one of eight locations in the city.

Find a full list of vote centers here.

By 9 a.m., dozens had lined up to the vote at the Goebel Adult Community Center in Thousand Oaks on Nov. 8, 2022.

- Juan Carlo

California allows same-day registration

9 a.m.: If you have yet to register to vote, there's still time. Eligible voters can fill out a ballot and a registration form at the same time.

As of Monday morning, more than 100 Ventura County residents had done so at local voting centers, which opened Oct. 29.

The conditional voter's ballot comes back to the elections office in a different envelope allowing staff to review the information to make sure the person is eligible to vote.

City council seats to be decided

8:45 a.m.: Voters in all of the county's 10 cities will choose from candidates vying for a council seat or to be mayor. Here are the races:

Camarillo: 11 candidates vie for three Camarillo City Council seat

Fillmore: 6 vie for Fillmore City Council seats

Moorpark: 5 candidates seek office on Moorpark City Council

Ojai: 7 candidates seek Ojai City Council seats, 2 vie for Ojai mayor's seat

Oxnard: 9 vie for Oxnard City Council seats

Port Hueneme: 8 candidates seek Port Hueneme City Council posts

Santa Paula: 5 candidates eye Santa Paula City Council seats

Simi Valley: 6 candidates running for 2 Simi Valley City Council seats, 5 candidates vie to succeed retiring Simi Valley mayor

Thousand Oaks: 10 candidates run for Thousand Oaks City Council seats

Ventura: 12 candidates run for Ventura City Council

More: Election central: Your guide to Ventura County races

Vote centers open

8 a.m.: The county's 51 vote centers opened at 7 a.m. for the final day to cast ballots in the midterm election.

The centers will stay open until 8 p.m. Voters can cast ballots at any location in the county, not just those closest to them. Election officials urged voters to bring their mail-in ballot with them for a quicker process.

More: Brownley, Jacobs square off in volatile race in the 26th Congressional District

Turnout reaches 25%

Voter turnout had reached more than 25% in Ventura County as of Monday morning.

The Elections Division had received roughly 130,000 ballots from the county's nearly 506,000 registered voters. That figure includes ballots received by mail, dropped off at vote centers or left in drop boxes.

As of Monday, around 3,700 had cast ballots in person at local vote centers, which first opened Oct. 29.

Port Hueneme or Hueneme Beach?:Residents to decide city's name on Election Day 2022

Last day to vote

No matter how voters choose to cast their ballots, Tuesday is the last day to do so in Ventura County's midterm election.

Vote centers will close at 8 p.m. and vote-by-mail ballots also must be dropped off no later than 8 p.m. whether at a vote center or one of the county's official drop boxes.

If sent by mail, ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and received by the elections division no later than Nov. 15.

Find a full list of drop box locations and vote centers at venturavote.org.

Cheri Carlson covers the environment for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0260.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: California election: Follow live updates on Election Day in Ventura County
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckrw_HztyTR/?hl=en madiprew Verified Best honeymoon with my HUSBAND (still not over it!!!!!) 20h

Madison Prewett Troutt/Instagram

Madison Prewett is already missing her recent romantic getaway with husband Grant Troutt.

On Monday, the Bachelor alum, 26, shared a carousel of photos from her honeymoon trip with the former college athlete to Los Cabos, Mexico, following their wedding last month.

"Best honeymoon with my HUSBAND (still not over it!!!!!)," she wrote in the Instagram caption.

In one snap, the newlyweds can be seen sharing a kiss while sporting their swimsuits as they stood by an infinity pool overlooking the scenic blue ocean in the background.

RELATED: 10 Stunning Photos from Madison Prewett and Grant Troutt's Weekend Wedding

Another photo shows the pair holding each other's hands while sitting at a beachside dinner table by a tree covered in lights and heart-shaped ornaments.

The post also featured a sweet picture of the couple standing in front of a heart-shaped candle arrangement on the beach.

On Oct. 29, Prewett and Troutt, 26, exchanged vows in front of 400 friends and family members, including Bachelor Nation favorites Victoria Fuller, Hannah Ann Sluss and Kelley Flanagan, at the groom's parents' home in Dallas, Texas.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckrw_HztyTR/?hl=en madiprew Verified Best honeymoon with my HUSBAND (still not over it!!!!!) 20h

Madison Prewett Troutt/Instagram

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

"We chose this location because it's unique and special to us and having all our friends and family there means so much," Prewett exclusively told PEOPLE of the celebration. "I have always wanted to get married in the fall and we wanted a short engagement, so it couldn't be more perfect."

Prewett walked down the aisle to "When God Made You" by NewSong, wearing a custom-made dress by Nardos Design. The brand specially created all her wedding weekend looks. (Musical duo Caleb and Kelsey sang during the ceremony.)

Jordan Kahn served as the reception band. But when they shared their first dance, Prewett and Troutt danced to "Set of 2" by Brandon Lake.

Story continues

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckrw_HztyTR/?hl=en madiprew Verified Best honeymoon with my HUSBAND (still not over it!!!!!) 20h

Madison Prewett Troutt/Instagram

RELATED: Madison Prewett on Saving Intimacy for Marriage to Grant Troutt: 'Not Trying to Have a Super Long Engagement!'

The nuptials came three months after Prewett and Troutt's whirlwind engagement, which occurred just eight months into their relationship.

Prior to their big day, the former reality star opened up to PEOPLE about her and Troutt's decision to enter premarital couples counseling.

RELATED VIDEO: Bachelor Alum Madison Prewett Is Engaged to Boyfriend Grant Troutt: 'Definitely Worth the Wait'

Given the couple's Christian faith, she revealed their counselor was "also a person of faith and believes what we believe."

"That's been helpful to be able to talk about our faith and our beliefs and have that be a large part of the conversation," Prewett explained at the time. "She's a licensed counselor, and so it brings also the practical side of things, whereas I feel like if we would've just gone through a church, we would've maybe missed some of that."

Prewett said she thinks the duo "probably will" continue to seek counseling after marriage but it will "probably not as frequent."

"I think a lot of times people can take measures after something has happened, but I'm a big believer in being preventative," she explained. "Let's set up things to prevent there being this big catastrophe. And so for us, I think we always want to stay on the offensive side of things. We want to be on offense instead of defense trying to catch up."
Prohibitive favorite and incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Miller will return to Congress, easily outdistancing Democrat challenger Paul Lange Tuesday in the Illinois 15th District race.

With nearly 91.69% of the votes counted, Miller had 71.4% of the vote to 28.6% for Lange.

Miller, a 63-year-old Oakland cattle and grain farmer backed by former President Donald Trump, all but ignored Lange in the general election after a brutal six-month Republican primary in which she ousted five-time incumbent, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville.

The win sends Miller to a second term.

Mary Miller:Trump-backed Miller, off hotly-contested primary, takes on Lange for 15th District seat

Miller was at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield with Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey Tuesday. The Associated Press called the governor's race for incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker shortly after the polls closed.

Miller did not make remarks to the media.

Miller portrayed Davis as "a Republican in name only" and the two jostled about who was more conservative before a late primary visit from Trump to the Adams County Fairgrounds all but handed her the nomination.

Davis was ensconced in the Illinois 13th District and rebuffed overtures to run for Illinois governor before challenging Miller in the redrawn and largely rural 15th, which includes parts of Springfield and encompasses 35 counties running the entirety of the state from Quincy to the Indiana border and north to the Iowa border.

Miller, who resides just outside District 15, refused to acknowledge Lange's request to debate on Oct. 18 on WGEM-TV in Quincy. Miller also refused to debate Davis during the primary.

Mary Miller

Quincy is the largest city in the congressional district. Lange, a 67-year-old former commodities trader, is from nearby Mendon.

In the months after the primary, Miller continued to challenge President Joe Biden's policies, including voting against additional funding for Ukraine's war with Russia "while our own border remains wide open for terrorists, fentanyl smugglers (and) human traffickers to walk freely across."

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Miller, who voted against certifying Biden's election, continues to support articles of impeachment against the president.

Miller was cited in an Oct. 22 New York Times article showing current House representatives who fought the election certification used polarizing language on Twitter "about 55 percent more often than other Republicans, and nearly triple the rate of Democrats."

Paul Lange

John T. Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, told The State Journal-Register that Miller had decided on "a tone of speech and a way of talking about politics that she's going to take and run with. I don't doubt that it's going to resonate with some parts of the Republican base. What I do doubt is that it's an effective strategy for solving problems and making the country better."

Miller also took to Twitter to back Bailey's gubernatorial run against Pritzker and called for a repeal of the Pritzker-backed SAFE-T Act.

Lange lost twice in bids to unseat Illinois state Rep. Art Tenhouse, a popular Quincy-area farmer, in 1994 and 1996.

Lange ran a grassroots campaign, attending fairs, local meet-and-greets and town square rallies, but it never caught traction issues-wise or financially.

"We fought so hard," Lange said, in a statement to The State Journal-Register. "We visited every county in this district. We put in a lot of miles. The best part of that is the people we met.

"I challenge Mary Miller to indeed represent all constituents. Not to merely represent an ideology but represent the people of the 15th District of Illinois."

Lange said he supported abortion and "a woman's right to choose her own health care." Lange also favored a single-payer health care system.

Miller received $1.8 million in contributions while Lange received just under $34,000, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

THANK YOU to the voters in Illinois' 15th District for putting your faith in me with a resounding victory tonight. I will uphold my promise to defend FAMILY, FAITH & FREEDOM by opposing the disastrous Biden Agenda. pic.twitter.com/kpOEEaVRVQ  Mary Miller (@Miller_Congress) November 9, 2022

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Mary Miller beats Paul Lange in Illinois 15th District race
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated the GOP conspiracy theorist in her projected win for a second term as the states top elections official.

The Associated Press called the race for Benson on Wednesday morning. She held a 55%-42% lead with more than 87% of votes cast.

Benson oversaw the 2020 election that former U.S. President Donald Trump lost and defended the state from Trumps lies that widespread fraud had marred the result. Her opponent, Kristina Karamo, rose to prominence by spreading those lies: Shortly after Trumps defeat, she claimed to have witnessed fraud at an absentee ballot processing center in Detroit.

The assertions were baseless but forced Benson and Michigan officials to wage a public campaign to reassure voters that the elections had been conducted fairly. Her victory will ensure that Karamo, one of nearly 300 election deniers running for offices nationwide on Tuesday, will not hold the states top elections office during the 2024 presidential contest, when Trump may be on the ballot again.

Bensons victory added to the list of defeats for GOP election deniers in battleground secretary of state races. Democrats in Minnesota and New Mexico are projected to defeat Republican candidates who spread lies about the 2020 election. Secretary of state races in Nevada and Arizona, where GOP election deniers were also on the ballot, were too close to call as of Wednesday morning.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated GOP election denier Kristina Karamo to win a second term in the key battleground state on Tuesday. (Photo: SOPA Images via Getty Images)

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated GOP election denier Kristina Karamo to win a second term in the key battleground state on Tuesday. (Photo: SOPA Images via Getty Images)

Karamo was part of a slate of similar candidates that ran for secretary of state positions in key swing states in the hopes of taking control of the countrys election system: The America First Secretary of State Coalition, as the group is known, made it clear that it intended to exert partisan influence over the 2024 election.

Bensons office and the state of Michigan conducted over 250 routine audits and revealed no evidence of widespread fraud.

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Benson raised record sums for the race and led Karamo, whose election denialism earned her an enthusiastic endorsement from Trump, in polls throughout the year.

Trump campaigned for Karamo and the rest of the GOP ticket in Michigan, where all three statewide Republican candidates spread lies about the 2020 election results or sought to overturn them.

A week before Election Day, Karamo sought to invalidate mail-in ballots cast by voters in Detroit, the states largest city and a Democratic bastion.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Ballot approval of marijuana business licenses was one of the provisions in the Rhode Island Cannabis Act, which Gov. Dan McKee signed into law in May. The provision was designed for municipalities who may want to opt out of licensing these types of businesses.

Voters in every Newport County municipality except Portsmouth were asked:

"Shall new cannabis related licenses for businesses involved in the cultivation, manufacture, laboratory testing and for the retail sale of adult recreational use cannabis be issued in the city (or town)?"

2022 RI Election Live coverage:What you need to know (and more)

The legalization of retail pot sales and subsequent licensing of retail stores to sell marijuana to recreational users figured most prominently in the question.

Portsmouths citizens had no option to opt-out of legalizing recreational marijuana sales, as the town already has a medical marijuana facility which is currently in the process of acquiring a hybrid license to legally sell marijuana to both medical patients and recreational consumers.

Please note the tallies below are unofficial totals and could change slightly between now and the final ballot certification after Nov. 15.

Approve recreational marijuana sales

Newport  4,253 (60.8%)

Middletown  3,281 (56.9%)

Tiverton  3,230 (54.8%)

Reject recreational marijuana sales

Jamestown  1,608 (52.6%)

Little Compton  1,141 (57.1%)

What happens next for the towns which voted to legalize retail pot sales?

The states Office of Cannabis Regulation has divided Rhode Island into six geographical zones, with a maximum of four recreational sales licenses available in each zone. Of the four retail licenses in each geographic zone, one shall be reserved for a workers' cooperative applicant and one shall be reserved for a social equity applicant, leaving two licenses per zone open to competitors on the free market. The licenses will be awarded by a three-member cannabis control commission appointed by the governor.

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Newport County is entirely within zone 6, which consists of the towns of Barrington, Bristol, Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, New Shoreham, Portsmouth, Tiverton and Warren and the cities of East Providence, Newport and Pawtucket. This means in practice, even with Barrington, Jamestown and Little Compton rejecting legalization, not every municipality that approved recreational sales is guaranteed to end up with its own local weed shop.

School regionalization:Are Newport and Middletown going to regionalize schools? How they voted.

Adult recreational use marijuana sales will be taxed at a rate of 20%, broken down as follows: the standard sales tax of 7%, a retail excise tax of 10% and a 3% local sales tax going to the town.

The 7% sales tax will go into the state's general fund, while the 10% excise tax will go into a "marijuana trust fund" within the general fund aimed at supporting the marijuana program like administration, enforcement, awareness campaigns, treatment programs and police training.

WJAR in June reported the Rhode Island Department of Administrations projections for recreational marijuana sales, which say the state would haul in about $7 million in sales and excise taxes through the first seven months of legalization  although startup costs are projected at approximately $5.9 million.

While the state is projecting to make only $368,000 of profit in the period from Dec. 1 to July 1, 2023, a look at neighboring Massachusetts gives an idea of how lucrative the marijuana industry can be. Five years into legalization and just over three years since its first dispensaries opened, WJAR reported Massachusetts is now home to 65 dispensaries generating more than $1 billion a year in revenue, with more than $110 million in tax dollars last year going to the commonwealth.

Going to the RI Statehouse:Incumbents find success across Newport County in state senate, rep. races

In a legal guide to the new marijuana legislation, local law firm Partridge, Snow & Hahn indicated the cities and towns which opted out of recreational marijuana sales by voting no on the referendum question will not be able to participate in the revenue from recreational sales. Cities and towns which have voted to opt-out can only raise a vote to opt back in with a joint resolution of the General Assembly approving the measure.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: RI pot ballot question: How Newport, Middletown, Tiverton voted
A truck moves down flooded Avenida Menendez in the in Saint Augustine's historic district Wednesday after storm driven high tides flooded low lying areas of the city.

The Florida Times-Union has made this article free of charge for all readers in the interest of public safety. Please consider supporting local journalism with a digital subscription.

Schools in Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties will close Thursday to stay clear of Tropical Storm Nicoles impact, which the National Weather Service said could trigger tornados and life-threatening storm surge in Northeast Florida.

Jacksonville City Hall and state and county courts across the region will also be closed Thursday and were already scheduled to be closed Friday for Veterans Day.

No evacuations are planned in Jacksonville, but Mayor Lenny Curry said shelters will open at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Legends Center, 5130 Soutel Drive, and at Landmark Middle School, 101 N. Kernan Blvd. to house people choosing to leave vulnerable properties.

People in flood-prone areas "ought to be alert. They ought to have an exit strategy," Curry said.

Chris Tyler, kitchen manager at Harry's Seafood Bar and Grill in St. Augustine shores up his flood wall at the Avenida Menendez restaurant as storm-driven high tide flooding receded Wednesday. His barricade, made of lumber, sandbags and plastic sheeting needed reinforcing after after the first wave of flooding in the morning but "I already had 700 sandbags from Hurricane Ian," Tyler said. St. Johns County officials had declared a voluntary evacuation for St. Augustine and other flood-prone coastal areas ahead of Tropical Storm Nicole.

Forecasters have predicted Nicole could be accompanied by a storm surge of three to five feet above ground level in the Intracoastal Waterway and the St. Johns River between Mayport and Jacksonville. South of Jacksonville, a surge of two to four feet is expected in the St. Johns basin, with effects being felt stronger along the river's west bank, the Weather Service said.

Nicole is expected to reach Florida's east coast far south of Jacksonville early Thursday, then cross the peninsula and move into Georgia early Friday.

That path will expose Jacksonville to the storm's right-front, or northeast, quadrant. While Nicole isn't an extraordinary hurricane, that position is bad news because it increases Northeast Florida's risks from storm surge and tornadoes, said Ben Nelson, a Weather Service meteorologist.

"We really think that the St. Johns River around downtown is going to have some issues with inundation," Nelson said.

City officials expect water levels in many areas "could be a little bit higher than we saw in Ian, Jacksonville Public Works Director Steve Long told reporters during a briefing Wednesday, referencing the hurricane that brushed past Jacksonville after devastating other parts of the state in late September. He said city crews have been clearing drainage systems to help avoid water buildups.

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Three to four inches of rain are expected in Clay and most of Duval and St Johns counties, with up to six inches in southern St. Johns and lighter rainfall in Nassau and northern Duval counties.

Tropical Storm Nicole is projected to rake across the Florida peninsula starting just after midnight Thursday. It's expected to reach the Georgia border by 1 a.m. Friday.

Collections of trash, yard waste and recycling that are normally done on Thursday will be rescheduled to Saturday, Curry said.

The storm is also expected to cause harmful erosion along some beaches and create deadly rip currents and dangerous conditions for boaters. Three to four inches of rain is expected across Northeast Florida by Friday.

Officials in Clay and Nassau counties announced evacuation orders for vulnerable areas  Evacuation Zone A hugging the Clay waterfront and Nassau's zones A and D in Amelia Island, Nassauville, Blackrock and neighboring areas.

St. Johns government offices, libraries and parks closed at noon Wednesday, hours after the start of a voluntary evacuation the county announced for St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach and waterfront or flood-prone parts of the county's coastal areas. Despite the closures, St. Johns election officials will stay at work "to meet statutory deadlines for voters to provide cure affidavits" and evidence for provisional ballots to be counted, election officials said.

An elections canvassing board meeting planned for Thursday was dropped but the board will meet Friday to review and count provisional ballots from Tuesday's general election, elections worker Jennifer Reis said in an email on behalf of Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes.

Spectators take in the flooding along Avenida Menendez in St. Augustine's historic district Wednesday ahead of Tropical Storm Nicole's arrival in Florida adding the potential for new storm surge.

A storm shelter is set to open at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Solomon Calhoun Community Center, 1300 Duval St. in St. Augustine, and a shelter for people with special medical needs will open at 200 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine.

Underscoring the area's vulnerability to flooding, high tides covered low-lying parts of St. Augustine on Wednesday, while Nicole was still hundreds of miles away.

Nassau County offices will be closed Thursday too, but will also continue elections and canvassing board work.

Self-fill sandbags are being distributed to Clay County residents Wednesday until 5 p.m. at 4387 Lakeshore Dr. in Fleming Island; 25 Roderigo Ave. in Green Cove Springs; 1086 Fromhart St. in Orange Park; and at Keystone Heights City Hall, where bags will be available for sand that will be at Keystone Beach.

The White House said early Wednesday that President Joe Biden had authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief in a swath of counties including Duval, Nassau, Clay, St. Johns, Putnam and Bradford.

FEMA is authorized to  provide[,] at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency, a White House announcement said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: On Nicoles bad side, First Coast braces for storm surge, tornado risk
NEW YORK  Dominick Reyes feels like a new man.

The former UFC title challenger feels reinvigorated and much improved ahead of his return to the octagon. Reyes (12-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) takes on Ryan Spann (20-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC) on the preliminary card of Saturdays UFC 281. And in preparation for this return, Reyes made some radical changes to his fighting career.

The 32-year-old switched training camps and went from California to Connecticut to train with former UFC champion Glover Teixeira. Reyes feels the change has massively had an impact on his game and that will be seen on Saturday.

Skill-wise, Im Dom 2.0, Reyes told reporters at the UFC 281 media day. My defense is heavily upgraded, my offense is even better than before. Yeah, I think my timing and my speed its faster than its ever been, but my defense is heavily upgraded.

Related

Video: Smiling Cain Velasquez leaves jail, tells supporters he'll 'make something positive of this whole situation' Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya full fights, knockout videos: Watch what laid groundwork for UFC 281 main event

Reyes enters UFC 281 on a three-fight losing skid, which are the only losses of his professional MMA career. Reyes has dropped consecutive bouts to former champions Jon Jones, Jan Blachowicz, and current titleholder Jiri Prochazka.

Reyes believes it was key to make the change to train with Teixeria and Alex Pereira, who challenges middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 281.

It was really good being out of my comfort zone, Reyes said. I never trained out of California, and I went out to Connecticut and trained with those guys. I was the new guy, I took a step back, you know. Alex is fighting for the title. Its Glovers gym, you know. It was kind of cool being a student again and yeah, man, Im ready to go.

He later added,

Absolutely (it added to my game), my defense is crazy now. You guys are going to see. When Alex and Glover and everybody is like, Bro, its really having a hard time getting close to you and touching you. That says a lot. Im very confident and happy.

Story continues

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkies event hub for UFC 281.

Reyes vs. Spann: Going the distance? - Powered By PickUp

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) was projected to win reelection Tuesday, easily overcoming a robust bid from state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt was projected to win a second term, turning back challenger Joy Hofmeister, the chief of the state's public schools, who had switched to the Democratic Party. (Photo: Associated Press)

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt was projected to win a second term, turning back challenger Joy Hofmeister, the chief of the state's public schools, who had switched to the Democratic Party. (Photo: Associated Press)

Though the state has a reputation for being deeply conservative, giving Donald Trump 65% of its presidential vote in 2020, for example, Hofmeister had raised hopes for an underdog victory by attacking Stitt over a series of ethics scandals and accusing him of wanting to shutter rural schools because of his support for school vouchers.

With 509 independent school districts in the states 77 counties, the attack led Stitt to post a video on Twitter extolling his support for rural schools.

But Stitt, who became wealthy after founding a mortgage company, also fought back, calling Hofmeister a hostage to special interests because of outside dark money spent on her behalf and dipping into his own bank account to lend his campaign $1.9 million.

Joy Hofmeister, the Democratic candidate for Oklahoma governor, had built a political coalition centered on schoolteachers and Native American tribes. (Photo: Associated Press)

Joy Hofmeister, the Democratic candidate for Oklahoma governor, had built a political coalition centered on schoolteachers and Native American tribes. (Photo: Associated Press)

In the closing week of the campaign, he also aired an ad attacking Hofmeister for saying she supported sanctuary cities and linked her to President Joe Biden, saying she was soft on immigration.

Hofmeister had stitched together a coalition built around teachers upset over a school voucher bill but also many of the states 39 federally recognized Native American tribes, who felt Stitt didnt respect their sovereignty.

The five biggest  the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw and Great Seminole nations  issued an unprecedented joint endorsement of Hofmeister.

Hofmeisters fight was an uphill one. No Oklahoma governor who sought reelection had lost since 1974. In that case, Democratic Gov. David Hall was indicted three days after leaving office for violating anti-racketeering laws while in office.

The Oklahoma Legislature is dominated by Republicans. Prior to Tuesdays election, the GOP held an 82-18 margin in the House and a 39-9 majority in the Senate.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
IWCriticsPick

What do you want when you already have paradise?

That question looms over Albert Serras singularly mysterious cinematic immersion into Tahiti, Pacifiction. The indigenous Polynesians living there would likely argue that this paradise hasnt been theirs in a long time. Serra, the Catalan filmmaker behind such boundary-pushing works of experiential filmmaking as Honor of the Knights and Story of My Death, is yet another outsider coming to their shores, but he avoids the touristic travel-porn cliches of most movies set in some tropical locale. Pacifiction is not a vicarious experience of luxury; it is an experience of life. Set to its own tidal rhythm, it is , a film that makes you deeply ponder the fate of humanity itself.

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Benoit Magimel plays De Roller, the High Commissioner for French Polynesia, still one of the overseas territories ruled from Paris as a vestige of Frances empire. Hes in virtually every one of the 163 minutes that make up Pacifiction, and hes into everything: meeting with activist leaders, twisting the arm of a priest to endorse the opening of a casino, overseeing a surfing contest, giving advice to the dancers at a nightclub, serving as the welcoming committee for a visiting French admiral. Hes all awkward charm, trying to be one of the people even as he serves a different master. De Roller wears his white suit, flowered shirt, and horn-rimmed sunglasses like armor: casual enough not to stand out too much in Tahiti but formal enough to show he means business. When an indigenous politician on another island tells him he should embrace the local culture more and wear a pareo, its obvious he will never do so. In another place, our High Commissioner would be wearing a pith helmet.

De Roller also becomes something else before long: an amateur detective. That admiral (Marc Susini) who showed up? The rumor is that hes there because the French government wants to resume nuclear weapons testing nearby, something that, for 30 years ending in 1996, it did about 780 miles southeast of Tahiti. Some of the nearly 200 warheads detonated during that time were even exploded above ground in atmosphere. Lets go to the most beautiful part of the world, and destroy it.

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A noticeable rise in thyroid cancer cases among the citizens of French Polynesia followed, so there are multiple reasons for the people here to be horrified by this. Even De Roller is aghast, and he starts to follow the admiral around or use his binoculars to scan the blue surf to see if a nuclear submarine is lurking nearby. Hes pretty sure there is: The Naval officers have been shipping beautiful young women working as escorts out to sea on little skiffs, apparently to meet the sub, and they return in pretty rough shape. Thats grim, and then the admiral makes his intentions for all of the islands even more plain: If wed treat our own people like this, imagine what our enemies will think of how wed treat them.

Serra has invoked the 70s conspiracy thrillers of Alan J. Pakula when talking about Pacifiction, but the specter of nuclear weapons testing isnt what the film is about as much as it contributes to an atmosphere of uncertainty and fragility. Its a narrative throughline on which Serra hangs other issues and ideas in this very episodic movie. Think of a Frederick Wiseman documentary but as a narrative feature; Serra almost made it like a documentary, filming 180 hours of footage (via three cameras at once for each scene, so really 540 hours of footage), and with the script revised and improvised on the fly. Serra made Magimel wear an earpiece into which the director would recite lines, the actor expected to repeat them with flair and nuance in real time.

Its rare to have a starkly formalist work in which a personality makes such an impression. Serras concern is often with the way pastel neon rays shoot through smoky nightclub air, how the running lights of a boat illuminate the water at night, or, during the unforgettable surfing scene, how the immense swells of the ocean cause people and boats to bob like bath toys. But he never loses sight of the people hes filming. Magimel, famously the student of The Piano Teacher in Hanekes film and a winner this year of a Cesar Award for Best Actor for Peaceful, is the latest example of Serra making use of a star in a central role (after Jean-Pierre Leaud in The Death of Louis XIV and Helmut Berger in Liberte): Imagine a work of gallery video art  and Pacifiction, with the way it centers its style and the deliberate pace it gives the audience to contemplate that style, is a cousin to Serras actual gallery work such as his 101-hour Three Little Pigs  that also has a captivating star turn.

And Magimel isnt the only one. Theres also Pahoa Mahagafanau, a trans Polynesian actor who plays the femme-presenting Shannah, a kind of aide and muse to De Roller. There are many third-gender traditions around the world, and Mahagafanau belongs to a unique Polynesian one: mahu is the term for those born male who then express their gender, and are accepted by the society, as female. Her Shannah is the kind of local whos trying to have a dialogue about their future but is uniquely vulnerable to forces outside of her control. Shes the conscience of the movie. Shannah occupies different spaces at once, and shes an ideal avatar for the many roles everyone living in a tropical paradise has to adopt.

If youre a local in any tourist destination, your home never will be quite your own. You depend on outsiders for your cash flow, without which your economy would collapse; but those outsiders can gobble up all the goods, real estate, services, and amenities that cash flow is meant to provide. Theres an element of colonialism in any place that lives off tourism, and then theres the outright ongoing colonialism in Polynesia. Everyone comes to you to partake in paradise; what if they also decide, because of its remoteness, to make it a dumping ground for their worst refuse?

Serra is sensitive to these concerns without ever making Pacifiction a didactic film, which hes said he finds too many films today to be. To be didactic ultimately means to hammer home one view and embrace being one thing, and Pacifiction embodies too many overlapping concerns and identities to be considered as such. Maybe we cant hold two thoughts (or more) in our head at once, but Pacifiction makes the case that you can feel those ideas simultaneously, even if you cant fully think them through. As Marianne Renoir once said, There are ideas in feelings. And Pacifiction is Vibes the Movie.

One of those feelings: The tension between the actual expression of Polynesian culture and the perception of that culture. This comes across most strongly at Mortons, the nightclub catering to white outsiders in which Polynesian locals, male and female, barely wear anything while serving drinks, and hip-shaking tamure shows are a spectacle. When theyre not performing, theres piped-in steel guitar music to add just the right stereotypical allure for tourists who wouldnt want anything else. At one moment, De Roller adds his own directorial critique to the tamure show, urging the male performers to add more violence to their performance. As always in colonialism, the colonizer thinks they understand the culture of the colonized better than they do.

Pacifiction is far too oblique to be fully an heir to the Pakula conspiracy thriller tradition. Thomas Pynchon and the conspiracy thats just out of reach and never quite defined feels a more apt comparison. After all, its possible weapons testing will never resume here. But isnt it disturbing enough that its considered at all? Pacifiction is vital because its a movie for a culture constantly patting itself on the back but in desperate risk of repeating all its previous mistakes. Where every little bit of progress is imperiled. We delude ourselves in thinking colonial exploitation was left behind in the 20th century (along with nuclear tests). Or maybe we choose to ignore whats right in front of us.

What do you want next when you already have paradise? Well, its only a paradise if you can keep it.

Grade: A

Pacifiction will be released by Grasshopper Film and Gratitude Films on a date to be announced.

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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP)  Pakistan's foreign minister repeated calls for compensation for the unprecedented destruction caused to the country by this summer's flooding, saying debt relief could be a mechanism for doing so.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari told The Associated Press on Wednesday at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt that the world is unequipped to deal with weather-related disasters of this scale and urged countries to find ways to address the issue.

Theres no pot of gold sitting anywhere or no financial international mechanism really available to deal with the tragedy of this scale, he said.

His comment comes as Pakistan races against time to arrange tents, food and other supplies for the flood victims ahead of winter just weeks away. Climate-induced flooding killed 1,739 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused around $40 billion in damages, according to the World Bank.

Many months on from the initial flooding and rainfall, there are still many areas that are underwater," said Bhutto-Zardari, adding that the World Health Organization warned that the country faces a health crisis because of waterborne diseases.

He added that instead of charity or reparations to pay for climate damage, nations should consider "out-of-the-box solutions that we could propose that can be a win-win for developing countries and developing countries.

One of these is for debts owed by developing countries to rich countries to be written off, allowing nations to spend that money on clean energy and adapting to worsening weather caused by climate change.

Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4% of the worlds historic emissions that are blamed for climate change. The U.S. is responsible for 21.5%, China for 16.5% and the European Union for 15%.

Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan will hold an international donor conference early next year to seek financial assistance to start the much-needed rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the flood-hit areas, where thousands of people still live in tents and makeshift homes.

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Bhutto-Zardari's comments come more than a month after the United Nations issued a revised appeal, seeking five times more international aid for Pakistan amid a surge in deaths from waterborne and other diseases. The U.N. in October raised its request to $816 million from $160 million, saying recent assessments pointed to the urgent need for long-term help lasting into next year.

Doctors in Pakistan's worst-hit southern Sindh province and southern Baluchistan are still trying to contain the outbreak of waterborne diseases, which have caused nearly 400 deaths in flood-affected areas since July. According to the World Health Organization, about 10% of Pakistans health facilities were damaged in the floods, leaving millions without access to care.

However, most of the people displaced by floods have returned to their homes.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited flood-hit areas in Pakistan in September, assuring Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif his maximum support in highlighting the ordeal of flood victims. Sharif this week also attended the climate change conference in Egypt and sought help in tackling the flood damage.

Bhutto-Zardari said Guterres has been talking about debt relief for climate-hit nations. Pakistan is the eighth most climate-stressed country on the planet, but most climate-stressed countries on the planet are also debt stressed, and that debt is owed to developed countries," Bhutto-Zardari said.

So far, China and Washington have been the largest contributors in response to the floods in Pakistan, although several other countries also sent planeloads of aid, many flood victims in Pakistan say they were still without any help or they received too little aid from the government or aid agencies.

China's leader is not attending this year's climate summit, nor is the leader of India, Pakistan's top rival as well as one of the top polluting countries.

Bhutto-Zardari said "it would have been helpful had India participated at an appropriate level.

And we do hope that our neighbors also take this issue seriously, he said. "This is truly something that we can only combat if we were together across the world and take our responsibilities seriously.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's appointee to the Otero County Commission District 2 seat Democrat Stephanie DuBois, was defeated in the Nov. 8 general election by Republican Amy Barela.

According to unofficial results reported to the New Mexico Secretary of State, Barela received 63 percent of the 5,164 votes cast in the election. DuBois received just 37 percent - 1,898 votes.

Elections 2022:Your guide to what's on the Otero County Election 2022 ballot, where to vote on Nov. 8

"I want to thank everyone that came out and supported me, that helped me through this process," Barela told the Alamogordo Daily News.

"It's very humbling after the election occurs and what the outcome is is what the constituents want."

Barela said she was proud to have been elected to the position and planned to focus on policy that could unite the County, as well as promote its growth.

DuBois was appointed to the Otero County Commission by Lujan Grisham just weeks ago to the vacancy created by the removal of Couy Griffin. With Barela's election, DuBois will serve in that seat only until Dec. 31.

Incumbent Commissioner for District 1 Gerald Matherly, who was unopposed in the race, was reelected to the seat with 3,397 votes.

According to the Secretary of State, there are 37,638 registered voters in the County.

Data from the Secretary of State indicated that as of 6 p.m. Nov. 8 - one hour before voting locations closed - 15,055 voters had cast ballots. Of those, 8,617 were and 4,144 Democrats. Data showed that in Otero County a little over half - 8,041 voters - chose to cast a ballot in person.

Unopposed Republicans to lead Otero County

Unofficial results from the Otero County Clerk showed several Republicans seeking county seats were elected to office.

Sheriff David Black will serve another term, receiving 13,594 votes in the general election.

James Bowman was elected county assessor with 13,435 votes, and Latanya Boyce was elected probate Judge with 13,313 votes.

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Jessen unopposed in District Court Division 2 race

Ellen Jessen was unopposed in the Nov. 8 general election.

She defeated James Dickens in the primary to hold the seat she was appointed to in July 2020.

Jessen is the third judge to preside over that court since 1979, according to a statement emailed to the Ruidoso News.

" Robert M. Doughty, II presided over Division II from 1979 until 1999, followed by James Waylon Counts who presided over Division II until he retired from the bench in 2020," the statement read.

"Judge Jessen holds her predecessors in the highest esteem and will strive to carry on their tradition of excellence."

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Barela defeats DuBois for Otero Commission District 2 seat
Republican Eric Schmitt is projected to win the Missouri Senate race, defeating Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine.

Republicans perceived the Senate seat to be reliably red. Schmitt was a frontrunner in the race, holding a double-digit lead in most polls in the week leading up to Election Day.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Schmitt in August, saying he trusted Missourians to make up their own minds, much as they did when they gave me landslide victories in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Schmitt, whos served as Missouris attorney general since 2019, issued an opinion mere moments after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June that notoriously triggered an abortion ban, making Missouri one of the first states to enact trigger laws in a post-Roe era.

I will continue to fight to protect all life, born and unborn, he said in a statement following the release of the opinion.

Abortions have been a focus of Busch Valentines campaign. She argues politicians have no place in criminalizing and limiting health care that doctors can provide and has vowed to work with the Senate to restore abortion protection.

Busch Valentine had criticized Schmitt for his votes as a state senator, and the two sparred over the rules and format of debates leading up to the election.

Schmitt did not attend the first forum of Senate candidates, which was not televised, in September, as he said he only wanted to participate in nationally televised debates during prime time. On Sept. 6, Missouri news outlet FOX4 invited the candidates to a prime time debate with Missouris Nexstar stations.

The two continued to spar over debate participation, ultimately failing to face off publicly one last time before Election Day.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Russian bank Otkritie is seen on a board

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's government has submitted a draft law to parliament that would extend the central bank's right to sell bailed-out lender Otkritie to Russia's no. 2 bank VTB without a tender for another year.

The bill, published on the State Duma's online portal on Wednesday, would give the banks and the regulator until the end of 2023 to complete the deal without needing to hold a competitive tender or seek approval from Russia's competition authorities.

Russia's parliament set a deadline for the deal of the end of this year when it approved legislation in March to help it pass with minimum bureaucracy.

VTB declined to comment. The central bank and Otkritie did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Both VTB and Otkritie have been targeted by Western sanctions this year.

The central bank bailed out Otkritie, once Russia's largest private lender, in 2017 as part of a years-long campaign to clean up Russia's banking sector.

Following the bail-out and an asset review, the central bank had been looking to offload Otkritie, with Italy's UniCredit rumoured as a suitor for the bank.

That possible tie-up fell apart just weeks before Moscow sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, and VTB later emerged as the frontrunner to take over Otkritie.

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Jake Cordell; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jan Harvey)
Ryan Walters, Republican candidate for state schools superintendent, gestures Tuesday, Nov 8, 2022, as he arrives at a GOP watch party during an election night watch party in Oklahoma City.

Ryan Walters, a Republican who promoted school choice and decried left-wing indoctrination, captured Oklahomas top education office in Tuesdays general election.

Walters, 37, led Democrat Jena Nelson 57% to 43% to win a four-year term as state schools superintendent. He will lead the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

"It feels great to see Oklahomans stand up for Oklahoma values and fight back against the radical Biden agenda," Walters said as he took a commanding lead at the polls. "I've heard it all over the state. Oklahomans want parent empowerment in education. They want radical left-wing ideology from the Biden Administration out, and they want accountability and transparency. That's exactly what I'm going to bring to state government."

Several polls predicted the superintendent contest to be a tight race, some even suggesting Nelson could take the lead. But, almost twice as many Oklahomans are registered as Republicans than Democrats, a fact that ensured Walters entered the race as the frontrunner.

Walters, a McAlester native now living in Edmond, is the education secretary on Gov. Kevin Stitts cabinet and the executive director of the pro-school choice organization Every Kid Counts Oklahoma. He and his wife, Katie, have four children, two of whom attend public schools.

More:State superintendent debate: Ryan Walters, Jena Nelson clash on numerous issues

His platform focusing on culture-war issues echoed national Republican messaging. He was a leading voice in Oklahoma against woke ideology, critical race theory and transgender identities.

"We have to continue to stay vigilant as the far left has decided that theyre going to launch a war for our kids minds and convince our young people that they are racist," Walters said in an Oct. 25 debate. "Theyre going to inject this division into the classroom. Theyre going to inject this hatred of the Constitution and the values this country was founded on."

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Del City resident Suzanne Job, 49, said she voted for Walters because she wanted to ensure "gender issues," critical race theory and sexually explicit books are kept out of schools.

"I believe that Ryan Walters is a conservative Christian for our education, which is important to me," Job said while attending the Oklahoma Republican Party election night event.

More:Public education saved Jena Nelson's life, now she vows to protect Oklahoma schools

His views starkly contrasted those of Nelson, who suggested Oklahomans put aside us-versus-them rhetoric and focus on better financial support for schools and teachers.

Nelson, 44, teaches English at Classen Middle School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City. She was the 2020 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year.

"We came closer than anyone thought was possible," Nelson said to the audience at her election night watch party in Oklahoma City. "I think that that speaks a lot about the kind of people we have in Oklahomans. While we didn't get the result that we were hoping for tonight, we sent a message loud and clear that teachers belong anywhere decisions are being made about education."

Democratic candidate for state schools superintendent Jena Nelson gives her concession speech at her watch party on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Oklahoma City.

Walters, a former high school history teacher and 2016 state Teacher of the Year finalist, became widely unpopular among many educators, who said they felt his rhetoric inappropriately painted them as indoctrinators and misconstrued what they teach in public schools.

The Republicans reluctance to accept federal funding, his suggestion that all history teachers take patriotic education training and his call to revoke a former Norman teachers certification only deepened the chasm between him and the education establishment.

The divide showed in campaign finance reports. Both Nelson and April Grace, Walters Republican runoff opponent, counted dozens of teachers and school leaders among their donors.

More:Kevin Stitt reelected governor of Oklahoma

Teacher unions and pro-public education political action committees contributed thousands of dollars to Nelsons campaign, along with hundreds of individual citizens and three tribal nations.

Walters said he has support from teachers all over Oklahoma and called the notion he is anti-teacher an outrageous lie that unions and his political opponents perpetuated.

Theyre going to spend all this money to lie about me across the state, he previously told The Oklahoman. But you know what? If theyre threatened by someone whos going to go out and defend parents and defend kids, so be it. Im not going to back down because they see me pushing for kids instead of their power structure.

Ryan Walters, the Republican candidate for state schools superintendent, speaks Nov. 1, 2022, at a rally in support of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's reelection at Crossroads Church in Oklahoma City.

More:Replay: Jena Nelson and Ryan Walters debate for Oklahoma state superintendent

Donations to Nelson exploded after Walters secured the Republican nomination in the Aug. 23 runoff. The Edmond mother of two outraised her opponent by $201,400 from August through October, collecting over $473,200 in that period. She raised only $75,000 before August.

Walters has raised over $690,000 since he announced his bid for office, but he spent much of that on a competitive Republican primary. He raised about $271,000, mostly from Oklahomas business community, in the run-up to the general election.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into the race from dark money groups, who dont have to disclose their donors, supporting and opposing both superintendent candidates.

Walters overcame not only opposition from educators and dark money groups but also controversy over his handling of federal pandemic relief funds.

A U.S. Department of Education audit found recipients of an $8 million grant program misspent $652,700 on non-educational expenses because Walters and the Stitt Administration declined to put proper guardrails on spending. The program had distributed $1,500 grants directly to families to put toward their childrens education needs.

Walters and Stitt said the blame for the misspent funds lies with the company Oklahoma contracted to operate the program.

More:What will history say about Oklahoma superintendent candidate Ryan Walters? He aims to find out.

On top of choosing Walters for superintendent, voters also re-elected Stitt on Tuesday, clearing the way for the governors and Walters education policies. Those policies could include school vouchers, a concept both of their Democratic opponents attacked as a rural school killer.

Stitt and Walters advocated for a voucher bill this year that would have spent $128.5 million in state funds to send more students to private schools. The proposal failed earlier this year in the state Legislature, but the bills author, Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, indicated a Stitt victory in the general election could give voucher legislation new life at the Capitol.

"In Oklahoma, we're going to do more than any state in the country to empower parents," Walters said to an election night watch party crowd.

Contributing: Reporters Carmen Forman, Jack Money and Aspen Ford

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nurias work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters beat Jena Nelson to take Oklahoma schools superintendent
FILE - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman prepares to greet French President Emmanuel Macron as he arrives for a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, July 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON (AP)  Saudi Arabia has taken into custody an American woman who has been locked in a yearslong struggle to take her young daughter back out of the kingdom over the objections of her Saudi ex-husband, according to U.S. officials and a U.S.-based advocacy group Tuesday.

Carly Morris was summoned to a police station in the north-central city of Buraidah on Monday, and has yet to be released by Saudi authorities, according to the Washington-based Freedom Initiative. The group advocates for people it believes wrongfully detained in the Middle East.

U.S. officials said Saudi authorities had confirmed the detention of Morris, whose efforts to leave the kingdom with her now 8-year-old daughter have been made more difficult by Saudi Arabia's strict male guardianship laws. Morris in recent months had spoken to reporters and tweeted about her circumstances.

Our embassy in Riyadh is very engaged on this case, and theyre following the situation very closely, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington on Tuesday.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly has been including U.S. citizens and Western-based Saudis in a general crackdown on those the government sees as rivals or critics.

In August, a Saudi court gave a 16-year prison sentence to a 72-year-old Saudi-American, Saad al Madi, for critical tweets he had posted over the years from his home in Florida.

Morris had traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2019 for what was intended to be a short stay to allow her daughter, also an American citizen, to meet the family of the Saudi father, said Bethany Al-Haidari, Freedom Initiative's Saudi Arabia case manager.

Saudi Arabia's code of male guardianship served to keep the daughter in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia allegedly placed Morris herself under one of its widely imposed travel bans, barring her from leaving the country.

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Morris recently tweeted warnings to other women with children abroad about Saudi Arabia, al Haidari said.

President Joe Biden had vowed as a candidate to isolate Prince Mohammed, the kingdom's de facto ruler, over rights abuses. The Biden administration hopes now to persuade the kingdom to pump more oil for the global market, and has worked to close the rift between the two strategic partners.

The American woman's detention was yet another sign that Saudi Arabia simply does not value the U.S. as an ally, said Allison McManus, the Freedom Initiatives Director of Research.

Related video: Saudi government says Iran planning attack on Saudi Arabia
(Fayette County Jail)

A University of Kentucky student who hurled racial slurs at a student worker has been fired from her internship and plans to withdraw from the school.

The news comes in the aftermath of a drunken episode in which 22-year-old Sophia Rosing was recorded using racial slurs against Kylah Spring, a Black student who was working an overnight shift at the Lexington campus on Sunday. Ms Rosing allegedly assaulted Ms Spring after being denied entry to Boyd Hall for failing to show her ID.

The brazen attack has since become viral, with students decrying Ms Rosings actions. As calls on University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto to expel her keep mounting, more details have emerged about Ms Rosing and her role in the university.

Ms Rosings attorney, Fred Peters, told NBC that Ms Rosing plans to withdraw from the school, adding that his client is deeply embarrassed and that she will be entering rehab, where she plans to participate in a sensitivity programme to help her through this situation.

She is going to withdraw from the university today or tomorrow, Mr Peters told the outlet on Tuesday. Shes a very, very embarrassed and humiliated young lady.

According to local news station WKYT, Ms Rosing is a business and marketing major at the university. A since-deleted LinkedIn page stated that she was double majoring in merchandising, apparel and textiles, and worked as a brand ambassador at the Dillards department store.

Sophia Rosing, 22, faces charges of public intoxication, third-degree assault on a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct (Fayette County Jail)

Early this morning, a disturbing incident was captured on video in a residence hall. The video is deeply offensive, and we take it very seriously.  University of Kentucky (@universityofky) November 6, 2022

Dillards official Twitter account replied to questions about Ms Rosings ties with the company, saying that, Dillards does not condone this behavior [and] her relationship with Dillards has been terminated immediately. The company has yet to issue a formal statement.

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CollegeFashionista, a community of students from different campuses who are passionate about fashion, also revealed that Ms Rosing had been removed as a member and her affiliation with the groups programs had been terminated.

We strive to ensure all of our members reflect our values, but in this case we failed, a LinkedIn post read. Sophia Rosing was removed from the College Fashionista community effective immediately... We will be conducting an immediate detailed review of our member management practices, including our vetting processes, internal training, and beyond.

Meanwhile, Ms Rosing is facing charges of public intoxication, third-degree assault on a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct.

Dillards does not condone this behavior. Her relationship with Dillards has been terminated immediately.  Dillard's (@Dillards) November 6, 2022

After the now-viral incident, Ms Rosing was booked into the Fayette County Jail. She posted a $10,000 bond and was released on Monday.

She has pleaded not guilty to her charges and as part of her bail requirements, she has been banned from the Boyd residence hall and from contacting Ms Spring.

Calls are mounting for Ms Rosing to face hate crime charges after video of the attack spread like wildfire on social media.

Could you stop? Ms Spring asks in the clip that she captioned, what I had to deal with at work. Ms Spring was working an overnight shift on campus, per NBC.

Nope, Ms Rosing responded after being asked to stop by the Black student. Youre a n***** and youre a b****, said Ms Rosing, a racial slur that the arrest citation claims she would go on to use 200 times over the course of the arrest.

Ms Rosing allegedly assaulted Ms Spring (Twitter/video screengrab)

I do not get paid enough for this, says the victim, as she attempts to fight off the 22-year-olds attempts to strike her.

The senior at the Kentucky school reportedly told arresting officers as she was being taken to the Fayette County Detention Center shortly after the early morning call was placed that she has lots of money and gets special treatment, according to the arrest citation, Fox 19 reported.

After attempting to get the intoxicated student to sit in a chair, the arrest citation notes that she then kicked the arresting officer and bit their hand.

On Monday, Ms Rosing pleaded not guilty to all of the charges brought against her as she appeared via video link to her first court appearance from the Fayette County Detention Center, WKYT reported.

Jane Doe (Sophia Rosing) has made a brief virtual appearance in court.



Judge Bell told the jail we are waiting for Rosings parents to arrive before continuing with her arraignment. #WKYT pic.twitter.com/5iDm4PqKnT  Samantha Valentino (@SamanthaWKYT) November 7, 2022

Kylah Spring, center, speaks at a march against racism on University of Kentuckys campus on Monday (Lexington Herald-Leader)

Ms Rosings parents, Jill and Don Rosing, attended their daughters hearing and by Monday evening, the bail for the 22-year-old northern Kentucky native had been posted as she was seen leaving the detention centre, the Daily Mail reported.

The University of Kentucky has responded to the incident by stating that they are in the midst of carrying out a review as they reach out to potential victims impacted by the altercation, Mr Capilouto said in a statement.

To be clear: we condemn this behaviour and will not tolerate it under any circumstance. The safety and well-being of our community has been  and will continue to be  our top priority, he said.

In reviewing the footage of the video that appears to show the assault, Mr Capilouto defended the victim, noting that she acted with professionalism, restraint and discretion while he condemned the actions of the attacker.

The video images I have seen do not honor our responsibilities to each other. They reflect violence, which is never acceptable, and a denial of the humanity of members of our community. They do not reflect civil discourse. They are deeply antithetical to what we are and what we always want to be as a community, the universitys president said.
The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of one of its buildings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad

By Uditha Jayasinghe

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's largest port began on Wednesday construction of a $700 million terminal project, partly funded by India's Adani Group, an official said, marking the first foray by an Indian company into the sector.

India has this year provided the most financial support to its southern neighbour, which is facing its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. India is now keen to see long-term projects by Indian companies take off in Sri Lanka.

"Dredging commenced in the morning," Upul Jayatissa, managing director of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), told Reuters.

"The first stage is expected to be done in the third quarter of 2024 and the full project will be completed by 2025-end."

Ports-to-edible oils group Adani, controlled by Asia's richest person, Gautam Adani, holds a 51% stake in the West Container Terminal (WCT) of the port, which also has a terminal run by China Merchants Port Holdings Co Ltd.

India and China vie for influence in the island nation of 22 million, located near busy shipping routes.

Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings owns 34% of the WCT and the rest is held by the SLPA.

The Adani Group's plans to invest in Sri Lanka's ports ran into controversy last year after powerful port unions pushed for the East Container Terminal (ECT) to be built by the state. Subsequently, the government excluded the company from construction of the ECT.

However, in September the Sri Lankan government of Ranil Wickremesinghe, who became president in July, signed a new deal with the group for the west terminal in a different part of the port.

The ECT is now being constructed by SLPA and will be completed in December 2024, Jayatissa said.

India has extend about $4 billion including swaps and multiple credit lines to Sri Lanka, amid an acute shortage of dollars and essentials.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Steve Clarke has expressed disappointment over Celtics decision not to make their players available for Scotlands friendly in Turkey next week.

The Hoops are heading to Australia for a tournament during the World Cup break and have made it clear that, as they are not obliged to do so, they will not be releasing any of their players for international friendlies during this period.

With Celtic captain Callum McGregor injured in any case, that means Clarke has been unable to call up Greg Taylor and Anthony Ralston  both of whom featured in the last batch of Scotland fixtures in September  for the match in Diyarbakir next Wednesday.

 Steve Clarke has named his Scotland squad for our upcoming friendly against Turkiye.  Read more: https://t.co/zg00EsuF42#TURSCO pic.twitter.com/psWVX9gUzc  Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 9, 2022

The base-line is that its not an official international window, said Clarke, explaining the situation at Hampden after naming his 23-man squad on Wednesday. I dont know why because theres a World Cup window going on. That sounds pretty official to me.

The clubs dont have to release their players and Celtic have chosen not to release their players for this game. Im disappointed with that decision but we have to take it on the chin.

Clarke has had no personal dialogue with anyone at Celtic over their stance.

It was just a blanket decision, he said. Celtic have said none of their players are available for any international games for all the countries affected.

The biggest issue for me is that its not a recognised FIFA international window. I cant get my head round that one. Its disappointing but well deal with it.

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The unavailability of full-backs Taylor and Ralston, as well as injury to Brentfords Aaron Hickey, has opened the door for teenage Liverpool right-back Calvin Ramsay to be given his maiden Scotland call-up.

The 19-year-old, who moved to Anfield from Aberdeen in the summer, is the only new face in the squad.

I want to have a look at Calvin, said Clarke. I know what he did at Aberdeen, he got a fantastic move to Liverpool and he made his debut at Anfield in the Champions League, which is not a bad start.

He had an interrupted start to his Liverpool career because they found an injury but theyve treated it well and hes had time to come through it.

Im missing a couple of players in that position anyway, so its a chance to get Calvin in and have a look.

Anthony Ralston featured during the last international break (Steve Welsh/PA)

Ramsays Liverpool team-mate Andy Robertson returns to the squad after missing the September internationals through injury, while Grant Hanley and Ryan Jack are also included after injury.

Its always good to have your key players back, said Clarke.

The match takes place in southern Turkey, 400km from the Syrian border, and Clarke is expecting a good test.

Well jump on the plane, well get over there, stay in a hotel, do our training, play the game and get out, he said, reflecting on the venue.

It might be a more difficult place for our supporters to get to, which is unfortunate, but Turkey are the home team, they choose the venue and we just go and play.

Theyre expecting a good crowd so the atmosphere will be hostile.

Theyve got good players and will be disappointed  like we are  at not making the World Cup. Were ranked similar in the FIFA world rankings so I expect a really tough game.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with a 1978 law that prioritizes Native American families for the custody of Native children, a response to a decades long effort to assimilate those children by removing them from their tribes.

The plaintiffs, which include non-Native families who have sought to adopt Native American children, say the law violates the 14th Amendment because it gives a preference to one race over others. Proponents of the law say its preferences are based not on race, but rather on the fact that Native American tribes are sovereign entities.

During more than three hours of oral argument, several members of the court's conservative wing indicated that they were inclined to view the preference as a racial one. Among a litany of hypotheticals raised by that side of the debate: Whether Congress could pass a law prioritizing Native Americans for COVID-19 vaccines. Or whether lawmakers could make similar preferences for other races.

"You would agree, I think, but tell me if you disagree, that Congress couldn't give a preference for white families for white children, for Black families for Black children," Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, quizzing the attorney representing the Department of the Interior. "And this is different because?"

The attorney, Edwin Kneedler, responded that the difference was because Native Americans have a different political relationship with the United States government.

The high court's three-member liberal wing and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has often broken with his conservative colleagues on tribal issues, signaled their support for the law. That support was based in part on Congress' broad power to regulate the government's relationship with tribes without interference from individual states. The law, they said, was in part intended to ensure the long-term viability of the nation's tribes.

"The first thing you need for self government is a functioning polity," Associate Justice Elena Kagan said. "And Congress is very clear in this statute that it thinks that this statute is critical to the continuing existence of the tribe as a political entity."

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Matthew McGill, the lawyer representing the non-Native families, countered that the placement of a child does not affect the child's tribal membership. In other words, he said, placing a Native child with a white family wouldn't diminish the size of a tribe.

At times some of the justices appeared to be searching for a narrow outcome, focusing on specific provisions or debating if the correct parties were involved in the case.

Before Congress approved the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes  sometimes forcibly  by adoption agencies and placed with non-Native families or in boarding schools.

Alarmed by the practice, Congress required people seeking to terminate parental rights in cases involving a Native American child to notify the biological parents and the tribe. The law also requires that preference be given to Native American families when a Native American child is placed for adoption.

The appeal follows a deeply fractured opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which split evenly on several of the laws provisions. The result upheld a federal district courts determination that some provisions of the law are unconstitutional.

The law has in the past divided the Supreme Court in unpredictable ways. In 2013, a 5-4 majority sided with a 3-year-old girl's non-Native adoptive parents over a claim made by her biological father, who was a member of the Cherokee Nation and had objected to the adoption after the fact. In an opinion written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, the court ruled that a noncustodial parent could not invoke the law.

A decision is expected by June.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court wrestles with law on custody of Native American children
Democrat Emilia Sykes defeated Republican political newcomer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in the hard-fought and closely watched 13th Congressional District race.

Sykes, an Akron native following in her parents' footsteps, climbed the political ladder of Ohio Democratic politics, serving as minority leader in the Ohio House of Representatives before stepping aside to run for this open seat in Congress.

She says that experience not only taught her how to serve her constituents, but how to legislate and make the government work for them.

More results:Greater Akron, Summit County election results: Here's who won

Her challenger had never sought any elected office, though she's worked as a pundit defending former U.S. President Donald Trump.

"I am so excited to be a representative of this community that raised me...the least I can do is serve you and continue to serve you," Sykes said.

Sykes defeated Gesiotto Gilbert with 52.6% of the vote (146,621 to 132,181).

Results:Updated results for Ohio's 13th Congressional District

This is the first time in about 50 years the city of nearly 200,000 people will be represented by a single member of the U.S. House of Representatives. For generations, the city's power has been diluted because lawmakers carved the city into as many as four separate districts, diluting its power.

Now, all of Akron and all of Summit County are in the 13th, along with the northern half of Stark County and a tiny corner of Portage County.

Cheers erupted after 10 p.m. at the Gesiotto Gilbert campaign's watch party at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Akron Canton Airport in Jackson Township when it was announced she won Portage County and was leading in Stark County. However, Sykes won big in her home Summit County to maintain the lead she held throughout the night.

More than 100 supporters  including many Akron Democratic leaders  gathered at Sykes watch party at the Akron Civic Theatre awaiting election returns. Among those in attendance: Akron City Council members Lindia Omobien, Shammas Malik, Russ Neal and Tara Mosley; Summit County Councilwoman Veronica Sims; former Akron Deputy Mayor James Hardy; and Akron attorney Eddie Sipplen.

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Sykes told the crowd her race was the 12th-most expensive in the country and featured ads against her that were tough to watch.

"Guess what, they messed with a kid from Akron," Sykes said. "And I bet they won't do it again."

In her short concession speech, Gesiotto Gilbert thanked her supporters.

This is obviously not the result we were hoping for or expecting tonight, but the fight goes on, she said.

Earlier in the evening, Summit County Councilwoman Elizabeth Walters, chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, told the crowd, Its going to be a long night, but its going to be a fun night right here in Summit County.

I think before the night is over, Ill be calling her my congresswoman, Walters correctly predicted of Sykes.

What voters had to say about the Sykes-Gesiotto Gilbert race

At the Woodlawn Church polling location in Jackson Township on Thursday evening, voters were split between Gesiotto Gilbert and Sykes.

Denny Pellegrini, 67, of Jackson Township said he voted Republican pretty much all around this year.

I don't like the direction of the country, where it's been heading, he said, listing the transgender thing, immigration and gas prices as among the issues he blames on Democrats.

Deanne James, a hairdresser for more than 40 years who lives in Jackson Township, also voted all Republican candidates on the ballot, including Gesiotto Gilbert. She did not immediately recall her name but checked a sheet that her friend gave her to see whom she voted for for Congress.

"It's the one they advised us to," James said, referring to a friend. "I basically voted all Republican... because I don't like the way the Democrats are running things.

Cullen Patel, 34, of Jackson Township, a solutions engineer for an information-technology company and Perry High School and Ohio State University graduate, said he voted for Tim Ryan for senator and Sykes for Congress.

"I didn't like Gilbert's sort of more radical stances...how much she sucks up to Trump and stuff, Patel said. So it was mostly against a vote against her as opposed to for Sykes.

I figure she (Sykes) is probably going to support the Democratic ticket pretty much on point. But I'm OK with that as long as ... we have less far-right Republicans.

He said the one thing he liked about Sykes is that "she's going to fight against Trump mostly or Trump-type Republicans, I guess."

About the candidates

The only thing certain about Ohio's 13th Congressional District race on Election Day was that a woman from the millennial generation is sure to win.

Running for Ohio's 13th wasn't Gesiotto Gilbert's first choice. She initially filed paperwork to run for Ohio's 9th District in the northwest party of the state, providing a Sandusky address.

She pivoted to the 13th District during redistricting and after Democrat Tim Ryan left the seat open so he could run for U.S. Senate. Gesiotto Gilbert won the crowded GOP primary earlier this year after being endorsed by Trump, whom she first met while competing in beauty pageants.

The Massillon native, who now lives in North Canton, avoided interviews with The Akron Beacon Journal, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, The Washington Post and some other traditional forms of media, often saying she's too busy to answer anything but written questions.

She instead appeared on television and in the conservative media universe of Fox News, the Blaze and other outlets where she first made a name for herself in the era of Make America Great Again politics.

Gesiotto Gilbert billed herself as "cancel culture's worst nightmare" and was identified by The Washington Post as one of 299 Republicans who falsely claim without evidence that Trump won the 2020 election.

She and Sykes viewed the other's experience, or lack thereof, as evidence that the other won't be able to accomplish anything meaningful for the Ohio 13th, where Akron is in a unique position to finally have its voice heard in Congress.

Some pundits suggested the race for the 13th is a localized repeat of Joe Biden versus Trump, with a moderate Democrat taking on a Make America Great Again Republican.

The two women's world views differ on everything from abortion and labor unions to climate change and how to tackle gun violence.

Most pollsters in recent days noted the 13th was too close to call even though many suspected Republicans would win enough seats to take control of Congress.

When Democrats took control of the House in 2018, they started a flurry of investigations into then-President Donald Trumps administration and his business dealings, including probes of his tax returns and later, the role he played in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The Cook Political report Tuesday highlighted the 13th as a race to watch.

"If Republicans are going to have a good night, they have to be able to win" in competitive districts like the 13, Cook's Amy Walter wrote.

"If Republicans aren't winning in districts that Biden narrowly carried (he won here by 3 points in 2020), it's hard to see how they win in much bluer territory," Walter wrote.

Ohio's 7th and 14th Congressional District races

Another area U.S. House race in the area where Trump loomed large was Ohio's 7th District, which includes Medina and Wayne counties, northern Holmes County and southwest Cuyahoga County.

Trump loyalist Max Miller defeated Democrat Matthew Diemer, a high school dropout turned restaurant executive turned owner of a successful media company.

Miller, who comes from a wealthy and politically powerful Cuyahoga County family, once served as a Trump aide whose job included playing show tunes to calm the former president.

Trump later endorsed Miller despite his former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accusing Miller of physical abuse while there were dating. Miller has denied the allegations and sued Grisham.

Diemer tried to turn Miller's ties to Trump to his advantage, sometimes reminding them that Miller was working for Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, and that Miller received a subpoena by the House committee investigating the attack.

To the northeast, the 14th Congressional District has shifted and no longer includes any part of Summit or Cuyahoga counties.

The new configuration includes northern Portage County, along with Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake and Trumbull counties.

Incumbent Republican Dave Joyce, who has represented the 14th since 2013, defeated Democrat and Ravenna native Matt Kilboy, a U.S. Navy veteran, who said he was prompted to run, in party, because of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Both the 7th and 14th lean heavily Republican and were not considered as competitive as the 13th.

The Canton Repository reporter Robert Wang and USA Today contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Sykes defeats Gesiotto Gilbert in 13th Congressional district race
The head of the Texas Republican Party suggested on Wednesday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) may present a winning brand for the GOP, following what he characterized as a wave election for Republicans in the Sunshine State.

Ron DeSantis and his optimistic brand of bold and unapologetic conservatism is a winning brand and the GOP should take note, Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi said on Twitter.

Though Republicans appear likely to take control of the House, Tuesdays midterm elections were disappointing for the GOP, for which a red wave largely failed to materialize. However, DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio (R) easily sailed to victory in Florida.

Ron DeSantis created a FL wave because his optimistic, bold & unapologetic conservatism won hearts & minds, Rinaldi added. He led, rather than followed polls. He stood for something. He took risks. He rejected moderation. He inspired people. This is the path forward for the GOP.

Rinaldis comments are a notable show of support for the Florida governor, who is widely considered a potential presidential contender for 2024.

DeSantis is seen as former President Trumps biggest competition for the Republican nomination in the upcoming presidential election should they both decide to enter the race. Trump has gone on the offensive against DeSantis in recent weeks, taking jabs at the governor and even explicitly telling him not to run.

The former president on Monday night warned DeSantis to stay out of the 2024 presidential race, saying he doesnt think it would be good for the party. Trump also complained on Tuesday that DeSantis was not gracious enough for the former presidents support in his 2018 run for governor.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
This week on "Intelligence Matters," host Michael Morell sits down with Markus Garlauskas, who formerly led the U.S. intelligence community's strategic analysis on North Korea issues. Garlauskas shares his assessment of North Korea's missile tests and the threat of nuclear weapons under Kim Jong Un's regime. Garlauskas also lays out how the U.S. can deter North Korea, even as China works as an enabler for the regime.

Highlights:

North Korea and use of nuclear weapons: "North Korea is not claiming their weapons are just for deterrent purposes, as they have on occasion. Now, they're saying that they'll be used for operational missions to repulse hostile forces, aggression and attack, and to achieve decisive victory in war if deterrence fails. They say that they're going to retaliate with a nuclear strike if their command and control system and their state leadership is put under threat. That they can be justified in using nuclear weapons if they've come under a nuclear or non-nuclear attack on important strategic targets and even if such an attack is on the horizon. So they're saying that they could use them preemptively."

How U.S. should deter North Korea: "The typical approach of trying to prevent, deter the use of a nuclear weapon is the traditional Cold War thinking of mutually assured destruction, or in this case, a variation. Not mutually assured, because North Korea can't destroy us, but basically assuring them that if they use a nuclear weapon, that's going to lead to the destruction of the regime. And that's actually been the declared policy of the United States, essentially put out in public in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, the idea that essentially if the North Korean regime were to use a nuclear weapon, then that would lead to the end of the regime. That's paraphrasing the statement that's been our policy. But I would argue that that's going to be a harder statement to remain credible as North Korea considers these different limited options and capabilities. And then also because of the concern about how China might react if we were to go after the North Korean regime in such a scenario."

Story continues

China as North Korea enabler: "China has been an enabler of North Korea's bad behavior for a very long time. And it's not because the Chinese necessarily are out there to see North Korea engage in aggression or that they're particularly happy about North Korea's nuclear program, but that ultimately their goal of avoiding a war or chaos on their doorstep means that they're very sensitive to the potential of backing North Korea into the corner or causing the collapse of the North Korean regime. And so when they look at how can they restrain the situation from spiraling into conflict, how can they restrain the situation from getting to the point where the North Korean regime's control collapses, it's ultimately easier to try and restrain South Korea and the United States."

HIGHLIGHTS

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INTELLIGENCE MATTERS WITH MARKUS GARLAUSKAS

PRODUCER: PAULINA SMOLINSKI

MICHAEL MORELL: Marcus, welcome to the show. Welcome to Intelligence Matters. It's very nice to have you with us.

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: Michael, thank you so much for this opportunity.

MICHAEL MORELL: Markus, I want to certainly get to North Korea and to your insights on everything that has been going on there recently. But I actually want to start with a little bit about your career. And the question I want to ask you is what got you interested in North Korea and what was your path to becoming the intelligence community's top analyst on North Korea?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I definitely did not plan to be the NIO for North Korea early in my career. I actually started with a regional focus more on Europe when I was an undergraduate, and it wasn't until later on when I was in the Security Studies program at Georgetown getting my master's that I did my pivot to Asia long before Kurt Campbell ever coined that term, to focus on on East Asia, because I realized that the role that East Asia would play for the future of American security in the 21st century be very similar to the importance of Europe for U.S. national security in the 20th. And then I specifically started to zero in on Korea, because even back then over two decades ago, I saw Korea as being the central nexus point in the coming competition with China and really a key both metaphorical and literal potential battleground in East Asia. So that's what led me to focus on Korea. And thenI really got bit by the Korea bug, so to speak, when I was first stationed there in 2002. That was in the intelligence estimate shop in the the G2 in U.S. forces Korea and the combined command there. And that really got me even more interested in focusing on Korea. And that was where I really learned a lot about estimative, forward looking intelligence. And that's where I learned about the history of national intelligence officers in the National Intelligence Council.

That's when I made up my mind. I wanted to be a national intelligence officer someday, if I could. But back then, they didn't even have a national intelligence officer for North Korea, it was the national intelligence officer for East Asia. That was where it started. I spent 12 years at the USFK and my last five years there, I wasn't even in the intelligence community. I had left the IC to become the the chief of the the strategy division and focusing on not so much just understanding the challenges posed by North Korea and in the region, but coming up with the the strategic approaches and the recommendations for how to deal with them for the four star there and for the for the policy and strategy community in Washington, and then working a lot with our allies. And so I never thought I would go back into intelligence. But as it turned out, it was the perfect preparation for me to be able to be the national intelligence officer. So when I was offered the opportunity then at the end of my time there in Korea, bringing an end to my time there in Korea in 2014, I jumped at the chance.

MICHAEL MORELL: I want to get a baseline from you on North Korea's strategic weapons programs. And let's start with nuclear weapons. What types do they have? Roughly how many? I know you're constrained somewhat on how you can talk about that. And how well do they work?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: Overall, the start, it's important to note that North Korea's nuclear weapons program began as a plutonium program, and it was very limited by the fact that they can only produce the fissile material at the Yongbyon reactor. And so relatively small amounts of this fissile material it could be used for nuclear warheads was really where the program started. And that was the initial focus of our negotiations to try and halt and roll back North Korea's nuclear program, the plutonium program. But then over time, they also developed a uranium based program, enriched uranium based weapons. And so that's added tremendously to North Korea's ability to continue to grow their stockpile. So I'm not going to get into the numbers, but the typical estimate is that they can produce somewhere between five or six of these a year when you look at what a lot of these institutions that study this are saying.

The stockpile continues to grow, particularly again because of the uranium enrichment program that North Korea has.

Now, as far as the types of weapons, we've seen them do six nuclear tests and one of those tests was claimed to be with a 2 stage hydrogen weapon. What's known as an H-bomb, a fusion weapon. What's been put out there by the U.S. government is that the yield of this this weapon or this test was large enough to be consistent with with the hydrogen bomb. So you've got that. And that's referred to colloquially as the peanut. It's this big silver peanut shaped thing that looks like it could fit onto the end of North Korea's ICBMs and even their intermediate range missile. And then you've got a smaller device, a fusion implosion device that is spherical. It's dubbed the disco ball. And that one, again, looks like it can fit on a whole range of different missiles from North Korea. You've got here at least two different types of warhead that look like they could be used on missiles. One that has a much higher yield that could basically- we're talking about destroying cities, not just a limited use. And then we see the approach. There's a lot of talk about the potential for North Korea to conduct a seventh nuclear test. And much of the discussion that you see on this is the concern that it will be a tactical, much smaller device that could fit on a on a smaller missile and that would have a lower yield, but that would make it much more useful for a limited strike or for battlefield use, what they would call a tactical nuclear weapon. We don't know how big the arsenal is, but it's growing, it's diversifying. It's becoming more sophisticated over time. There's this concern about an imminent seventh nuclear test. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I'm certainly expecting that it's going to come soon.

MICHAEL MORELL: Let's do exactly the same thing with ICBMs capable of hitting the United States. What's the story there?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: For the longest time, the concern about ICBMs for North Korea was that they were going to use this large, cumbersome, essentially space launch vehicle,the Taepodong, as an ICBM. For so much of the time that there was focus on North Korea's missile program that was the concern. That all started to rapidly change in 2017 when you saw that North Korea was testing mobile ICBMs, what they called the Hwasong-14 and then later 15. And this marked a fundamental change in the nature of the ICBM threat. So you saw instead of a notional system that based on a space launch vehicle, that would take a long time to stack up and be very visible out in the open. Now, you had a system that could really have military utility that was being tested in such a way that it was not just a notional ICBM capability, but that showed the potential to be able to lift a payload consistent with the size of what you'd expect from a North Korean nuclear weapon to be able to reach the United States.

The only thing that left some ambiguity was the fact that they were launching these things on a very high trajectory. So they weren't imitating the pathway that they would take to get to the United States. And so the conditions for which the reentry vehicle will be going through the atmosphere are not the same as they would be fired on a flatter trajectory. There's still some debate and some question about what the reliability and capability there is to really strike the United States. But I think I would air on the side of caution and say that they've established that capability to some degree. And then they had this pause in an ICBM testing associated with the negotiations in 2018 and 2019. But then they resumed their ICBM testing earlier this year with an even larger mobile ICBM system. So they've continued to make progress. But I think that progress has been accelerating. And the testing program has really shown that North Korea is willing to take some risks and push the envelope. But at the end of the day, we're talking about a technology that was developed in the 1960s and had really become mature by the seventies or eighties. So the fact that North Korea is making all this progress in ICBMs, given how long these technologies have been out there and how much progress there's been made in things like material science and how much the North Koreans can learn from the other's missile programs. It shouldn't be a surprise that they've made this much progress.

MICHAEL MORELL: Right. You mentioned earlier the idea that these weapons can fit on top of these missiles. But they've never actually tested that. Is that correct? And so what's our confidence level that they can actually make a nuclear device to a missile and deliver it where they want and make it work? What's your sense on that question?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: This question of confidence levels is really tough. And a lot of it's a matter of personal opinion. I'm just speaking for myself here. But I would say, just my personal assessment, is that we have to make the assumption that they have that capability. And so my confidence level would still be relatively low but confident enough to be able to make the call that that's what we should be basing our thinking on. That's what I've written on, what I published on since I've left the government. But I think there's always going to be skepticism until North Korea conducts a full end to end test with a missile, and then there is a nuclear yield detonation at the other end of that launch. But I'd like to point out, this is not a typical test profile. This is something that's been very rare in the history of nuclear weapons testing and for other countries, the bar has not really been set that high, that you have to have a fully realistic end to end test with a nuclear detonation at the end to consider that country to be nuclear armed. And so I don't think we should apply that standard to North Korea either. We can really delude ourselves into a sort of false sense of security if that's the standard we're going to hold them to.

MICHAEL MORELL: You mentioned tactical nuclear weapons earlier. How long have they been working on those and what kind of weapons are those? Are those mines or those warheads for very short range rockets? What do those actually look like?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I couldn't tell you exactly when they started it, but it's very clear that North Korea has been looking at the potential for battlefield use of weapons for a long time. And in particular, when you look at what Kim Jong-un had to say in his remarks in the party Congress in 2021, he had said that North Korea had actually successfully developed nuclear weapons and turned them into tactical ones. And so I think we can say that the North Koreans have been doing this effort for a while. If you take Kim Jong-Un at his word. I think this is a concern not just because they've been working on warheads and potentially you could see a smaller warhead tested, but also because they've been working on delivery systems that they're billing as providing a tactical nuclear capability. So we're talking about shorter range missiles, solid fuel missiles, very mobile, very hard to track, and very much of battlefield utility, not these big cumbersome things. So shorter range, yes, but there are a lot of potential options for North Korea to put this on a range of different weapons systems. And that's one of the reasons why it's a concern. Because in that case, you might not be able to distinguish a particular missile system from carrying a nuclear weapon or not?

MICHAEL MORELL: Let's switch to maybe the hardest question, which is doctrine and use. And I'm wondering in your mind, under what circumstances do you think Kim Jong-un would actually consider using nuclear weapons, either strategic or those tactical battlefield weapons?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: So actually, Kim Jong-un has been kind enough to actually give us a bit of a sense of the conditions for nuclear weapons use. They just promulgated a new law from North Korea very publicly on the conditions for use of nuclear weapons, and overall, on the role of nuclear weapons in North Korea's security. And so I think you can take from this some very important conclusions. One is that North Korea is not claiming their weapons are just for deterrent purposes, as they have on occasion. Now, they're saying that they'll be used for operational missions to repulse hostile forces, aggression and attack, and to achieve decisive victory in war if deterrence fails. They say that they're going to retaliate with a nuclear strike if their command and control system and their state leadership is put under threat. That they can be justified in using nuclear weapons if they've come under a nuclear or non-nuclear attack on important strategic targets and even if such an attack on the horizon. So they're saying that they could use them preemptively.

They're also saying in this document that they could use nuclear weapons to prevent the expansion and protection of a war and to retake the initiative. And then, of course, they have an open ended any number of other other situations. And the emphasis in this document is that they're going to be able to use them on very short notice. There's not a lengthy preparation period. The military units are being directed in this document. If they receive the order, they need to be able to be ready for action to use them. And so I've done some analysis and some work since leaving the government on this question of the mindsets that North Korea could have in mind that would lead to nuclear use. And you could see it in a circumstance, maybe in a limited way that's very opportunistic at the start of a conflict. But I think it's more likely, as you get to the point where the regime is losing the initiative or as the document says, where you see North Korea's regime is under threat, then to retake the initiative and to try and bring the conflict to a conclusion on favorable terms for North Korea. I could definitely see the potential for them to use weapons to both operationally blunt alliance counterattack against North Korean aggression, but also for the strategic purpose of forcing the U.S. to think very carefully about going any further at risk of other nuclear escalation, going beyond just a tactical use. So it's a way for North Korea to achieve some practical effects, but also strategically put us back on our heels and make us concerned about further nuclear escalation.

MICHAEL MORELL: You were the strategy guy at USFK so if you think about what you just said in terms of how Kim Jong-un might be thinking about this, what should our response be? What should we signal to them in terms of how we would deal with such a situation in order to deter them?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I think what's called for is a much greater focus on what we call deterrence by denial, deterrence by punishment. So the typical approach of trying to prevent, deter the use of a nuclear weapon is the traditional Cold War sort of thinking of mutually assured destruction, or in this case, a variation. Not mutually assured, because North Korea can't destroy us, but basically assuring them that if they use a nuclear weapon, that's going to lead to the destruction of the regime. And that's actually been the declared policy of the United States, essentially put out in public in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, the idea that essentially if the North Korean regime were to use a nuclear weapon, then that would lead to the end of the regime. That's paraphrasing the statement that's been our policy. But I would argue that that's going to be a harder statement to remain credible as North Korea considers these different limited options and capabilities. And then also because of the concern about how China might react if we were to go after the North Korean regime in such a scenario. And so focusing on deterrence by denial, essentially denying them success or advantage from being able to use nuclear weapons, I think is really key.

So things like making our missile defenses better, making our forces more resilient and basically coming to grips with the idea that North Korea may use a nuclear weapon in the event of a conflict. And being prepared to, as the saying goes, fight through and still achieve victory, that North Korea can't gain any advantage by limited nuclear use. That is just going to make the situation worse for them. It's not going to get them an advantage. Those are some of the military things that I would consider. And then also, I think another big element is to really emphasize alliance, cohesion and coordination, to make it clear that we will have a unified alliance response and there won't be a break in the alliance if North Korea engages in nuclear escalation, that that will push the ROK and the U.S. together and the U.S. and Japan together. It won't really create a dilemma that North Korea might be hoping for by using such a weapon.

MICHAEL MORELL: And what's the state of the alliance today? How healthy is it?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I think it's on the mend. But there certainly were some rough spots in the last few years, some pretty significant differences of focus and some very public disagreements. But I still think it can't be taken for granted. I think there's a lot of work to be done all the time in an alliance like the important one that we have with the Republic of Korea. And so even though things I think are improving and certainly the overall relationship between the ROK and the US is good, we have to very carefully work with what the South Koreans to reassure them and recognize that more than just providing military support to each other and the U.S. providing its so-called nuclear umbrella to South Korea, that political, economic informational coordination between the ROK and the U.S. is is important as well. And so when I see things like friction over trade issues or I see different messages to North Korea and to Beijing coming from Seoul and Washington, that tells me that we have some more work to do to get the alliance more closely aligned.

MICHAEL MORELL: Let me ask about all the recent activity we've seen in the last several months, the missile tests. You talked about a coming possible nuclear test. How much of this is actually driven by military necessity in terms of testing? How much is driven by domestic politics in North Korea? How much is coercive diplomacy? And to the extent that it's the latter, what do they want?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I think it's a great question. And the bottom line answer that is often the case with analysts, I'm sure you've heard it many times before. It's complicated and it depends. So it's a bit of each. But let me say first, I'm really glad that you didn't include the hypothesis of they're just doing it to get attention because that's the I think, the most mistaken case that we often see. But looking at some of these other possibilities, I do think it's a combination. And I think some of it depends on the individual profile. But overall, I think you've seen a fundamental change from the era of Kim Jong-il, where he was really testing weapons for political signaling and the actual progress of the weapons systems was a secondary or maybe even an irrelevant component in some cases.

Whereas Kim Jong-un, I think we have very good reason to believe that he's genuinely trying to advance not just the credibility of his nuclear and missile arsenal, but also its actual capability, qualitative improvements in the arsenal. I think that's a big part of it. And certainly, is there political signaling involved there, other domestic political considerations? Sure. But I think a lot of times those things come into play in terms of the messaging and the timing of these particular launches as opposed to really completely driving and dictating what's going to be tested or what sort of weapons are going to be pursued. Because to have an effective weapons program, you need to do testing. To have an operationally effective military. You need to do training, and you need to ensure that you can operationally employ these systems. And so I think I would weight this much more toward the advancement of the programs. To some degree, yes, coercion and messaging involved. But overall that's more related to how it's messaged and the timing more so than the big picture of the direction where those tests and demonstrations are headed.

MICHAEL MORELL: And then back to your strategy hat, how should we respond to all of this? And particularly if there's another nuclear test. How do you think about that?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: This is a real challenge to be quite blunt, there's really no good option that's really going to put us in a really great place after North Korea conducts a weapons test, in part because China has been so uncooperative in holding North Korea accountable. And ultimately, if China is not fully on board in holding North Korea accountable and applying economic sanctions on North Korea and making sure the international community is united, not to forget Russia who is also pretty uncooperative, but ultimately much less economically and politically important to North Korea than China.

I think that the focus really needs to be on improving the deterrence capability of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, even more so than focusing on trying to apply some sort of economic pressure or punishment after launches. I think it should be part of the equation. We can do a lot more to tighten up enforcement of sanctions. I think we should be doing more to go after different institutions that are doing business with North Korea in violation of sanctions. I think we should be willing to go after a broad range of Chinese companies that are doing business with North Korea in violation of sanctions or other other different means that we can use to hold North Korea accountable to inflict some economic punishment, particularly as it relates to the currency generation for the regime.

But ultimately, we have to recognize that each time North Korea moves forward with demonstrating and improving its capabilities, that we have to be sure we're doing the right things on the military side, the defense side, to make sure that we're ready to be able to counter that. And we can be often very risk averse, both in terms of how we approach sanctions and how we approach military readiness. And I think the key is not to feel like you have to make a public demonstration every time North Korea fires a weapon, tests a weapon. But you do have to think through how we can improve the posture of our forces? How can we improve their readiness level? What changes do we need to make that we've been reluctant to make because they might be considered provocative that ultimately are necessary to shore up deterrence as North Korea's capabilities improve and ultimately may be the thing that gets China's attention. Because if China sees that the military posture on the peninsula is changing, like for example, the deployment of the fad missile defense battery a few years ago in response to North Korean missile tests. That might be the very thing that actually gets the Chinese to do more to actually put some pressure on North Korea. But at the end of the day, I think it's tightening the sanctions enforcement as best we can on those really key areas where we've been reluctant to accept risk and then being willing to to improve the posture of the U.S.-South Korea alliance to be able to to to deal with aggression by North Korea.

MICHAEL MORELL: And to do those things that you talked about earlier in terms of our strategic response to what they're doing overall. It sounds like that's a whole package.

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: Absolutely. Yes. So it all fits within how do we improve the deterrence by denial.

MICHAEL MORELL: You just mentioned China, which I think is a great place to pivot here to China. What's China's role in North Korea's behavior and could they be more helpful? Would the North Koreans be responsive? How do you think about that whole question?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: China has been an enabler of North Korea's bad behavior for a very long time. And it's not because the Chinese necessarily are out there to see North Korea engage in aggression or that they're particularly happy about North Korea's nuclear program, but that ultimately their goal of avoiding a war or chaos on their doorstep means that they're very sensitive to the potential of backing North Korea into the corner or causing the collapse of the North Korean regime. And so when they look at how can they restrain the situation from spiraling into conflict, how can they restrain the situation from getting to the point where the North Korean regime's control collapses, it's ultimately easier to to try and restrain South Korea and the United States. So when you look at the situation now, the added factor is the strategic competition, strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington is really affecting China's thinking as well. I think the level of cooperation that we can expect from China going forward is definitely going to be even less than it was before. And so I do see the potential, even if the Chinese are not actually going to encourage intentionally North Korea to escalate. That's always a possibility, right. If there's a U.S.-China conflict going on over Taiwan. Who knows? They might actually want the North Koreans to escalate to tie down our forces and maybe even open a second front.

But even if China is not intentionally encouraging the North Koreans to escalate, that push back against ROK and U.S. military activities, that constant shielding of Pyongyang from the consequences of its actions, I think unintentionally encourages North Korea to believe that it can escalate further and essentially has a lot more space to do to continue to conduct not just testing in demonstrations of weapons, but even in the future to conduct some limited aggression against South Korea like it has in the past, and really push the envelope of its coercive approach against South Korea and its push back against the United States. And so I really think the prospects for close cooperation with China on North Korea were never really that great as it appeared. But they're getting worse. And I think ultimately it's more about making it in China's interest to restrain North Korea, to pressure North Korea into trying to try to pull it back from aggression, to make it in China's interest rather than expecting through open cooperation and trust that that's going to happen. And to be fair, there's limits to probably how far China actually can go to restrain North Korea without putting itself in the situation where it does destabilize North Korea or it does push North Korea into a position where it decides that it's worth the risk to go against what China is looking for. I think there are practical limits to what China can accomplish, even if we could get them to be more in line with our approach of restraining and pressuring North Korea.

MICHAEL MORELL: It also seems that we have more room today to bring some pain to China with regard to its behavior vis-a-vis North Korea, because the relationship is in this strategic rivalry point. And we're not having to worry about undermining the US-China relationship the way we used to.

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: Michael, I think you're right. And it's my personal view that we do need to do a lot more to hold Chinese individuals and institutions, businesses accountable for their role in aiding and abetting North Korean sanctions evasion.

MICHAEL MORELL: And do you have any sense what the relationship is like between Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping? I know it's a tough question.

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS:Certainly it's something that's evolved. When Kim Jong-un came into power, you really had no relationship between him and Xi Jinping. And it took years before they met in their status as leaders. And then you saw this very rapid shift into a much more positive relationship after the North Koreans paused their weapons testing for a while. And then you had these summits with Xi. Remember, the summit with Xi took place before the first summit with President Trump. And so Kim was in some ways, I think, setting conditions to make sure that Xi Jinping was in his corner and that he had Xi's view on how to approach this. And so I think that that has shown in a much more positive relationship with North Korea. Even though it's resumed the weapons testing, that hasn't resulted in a setback in the relationship at the national level.

I can imagine maybe Xi Jinping might be a little bit irritated with Kim Jong-un in some ways. But more broadly, they seem to have a much more positive relationship, certainly than earlier in Kim Jong-un's tenure. But as far as the level of personal warmth or that sort of thing between the two, I just couldn't say. But certainly I think you see some positive body language in Kim Jong-un being willing to show deference to Xi Jinping, which I imagine makes a positive impression on Xi.

MICHAEL MORELL: Two more questions. One is, you frequently hear, how do the Chinese look at the Russia-Ukraine war and what are the lessons they might be learning from it? Have you given any thought to how the North Koreans might be looking at it and what lessons they might be drawing from it?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I think that's a great question. And I have thought about that. And there's a whole range of different theories about what North Korea could be learning. But the thing that concerns me the most is the potential for North Korea to take the lesson that nuclear threats and nuclear coercion will lead to restraint on the part of the U.S. and its allies. And certainly that's the impression I think a lot of people have about how the United States and NATO are reacting to Putin's nuclear threats, that it is giving us pause that we might be doing more if it were not for that, we might be doing more to support Ukraine. So I hope that's not the lesson that the North Koreans take away at the end of the day. I hope the North Koreans pay close attention to the fact that simply bombarding a democratic society with missiles is not going to lead them to surrender. And then certainly conducting an offensive with ground forces against a determined opposition, particularly armed with anti-tank missiles and in urbanized terrain is not going to be very, very successful. It's going to be very hard. So it could go either way. And I think it will probably take years for all of this to play out to the point where you can really see how it's affected North Korean thinking. Because I think we need to watch changes in force structure, changes in doctrine, bigger picture things. And we can focus a lot on what the North Koreans are saying in public about this. But that might not give us really deep insights into what they're really learning.

MICHAEL MORELL: I guess the other thing is the war is not over yet and we don't know the result. So that's important here in terms of the lessons learned. Last question, I worked on North Korea 25 years ago. And at that time, we in the intelligence community would say this regime can't last. This is not possible. This runs against the currents of history. What's your reaction to the possibility of regime change there, or a collapse of the regime? What would that take? Is that even possible?

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: I certainly think it's possible. And I think any system that's based around one man rule and it's important to keep in mind it's even more stark than that is that Kim Jong-un has no clearly defined successor at this point. They've got this publicly announced position, essentially, that would allow for a successor, but they haven't announced anybody that's in it. And so I think that the sudden death of Kim Jong-un from an accident, say from a lone assassin, someone who's wronged by Kim Jong-un, who decides to go out fighting. I think those are possibilities that could very easily lead to disruption with the North Korean system to the point where it could collapse. But these are not black swans, but the term gray rhino is right. These are low probability, high impact events.

I think the more likely scenario is that a future generation, that the succession of Kim Jong-un to another leader, maybe even if it's prepared over time, doesn't go well. And that's what causes the system to finally collapse. And certainly we've seen a lot of change internally in North Korea in the last 20 years. The access to information, the changes in attitudes, the really entrenchment of the markets into North Korea, despite the regime's efforts to constrain them and roll them back. And so I am cautiously optimistic that over time, particularly if the international community really with South Korea and the United States in the lead, encourage those bottom up changes in North Korea, do more to get information into North Korean society, do more to to shape attitudes that I could see some some change over time and ultimately leading to to building pressure that fundamentally changes the system. Again, particularly if there is a key moment like, say, the sudden death of Kim Jong-un or a generation from now a gradual change of successor. So I wouldn't rule it out. But I think the system is so artificially imposed against human nature on the North Korean people that eventually that regime is going to fall. But it could take a very long time.

MICHAEL MORELL: Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for the conversation. It's been terrific.

MARKUS GARLAUSKAS: Thank you, Michael. I appreciate the opportunity.

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Tropical Storm Nicole is forecasted to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane before it reaches Florida.

As of late Wednesday morning, Nicole, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, made landfall on Great Abaco, an island in the Bahamas about 185 miles east of West Palm Beach, according to the National Hurricane Center.

According to the NHC, the storm is expected to strengthen Wednesday and "become a hurricane near the northwestern Bahamas and remain a hurricane when it reaches the east coast of Florida [Thursday night]."

Nicole is expected to weaken while moving across Florida and the southeastern United States, per the weather service, which adds that the storm is "likely to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday night over the Mid-Atlantic states."

Hurricane conditions are expected for the northwest Bahamas and the east coast of Florida as Tropical Storm Nicole gathers strength on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. In its 4 a.m. EST update on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said that Nicole was approximately 90 miles east-northeast of Great Abaco Island in the northwestern Bahamas and about 270 miles east of West Palm Beach on Florida's east coast. Nicole's maximum sustained winds are picking up at 70 mph with higher gusts. NOAA/UPI Tropical Storm Nicole Nears Hurricane Strength Approaching Florida, Washington, United States - 09 Nov 2022

Noaa/UPI/Shutterstock

RELATED: Florida Residents Warned as Subtropical Storm Nicole Could Make Landfall as Rare November Hurricane

In a conference about storm preparations Wednesday morning, newly re-elected Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declared a state of emergency for 34 counties on Monday, shared that the storm may reach as far north as Jacksonville.

DeSantis said "winds are the main concern" and could "contribute to continued beach erosion that have already seen erosion from Hurricane Ian."

DeSantis added that "heavy rains, the potential for flash flooding and three to five feet of storm surge" are also expected in some regions. Additionally, there is potential for tornadoes in the region, per the NHC.

In the conference, the Florida governor warned that power outages are expected, but that 16,000 utility linemen are prepared to immediately start restoring service. 600 National Guard troops will also be available to help.

Tropical Storm Nicole is seen in this NOAA satellite image taken at 6:30 Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. In its 4 a.m. EST update on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said that Nicole was approximately 90 miles east-northeast of Great Abaco Island in the northwestern Bahamas and about 270 miles east of West Palm Beach on Florida's east coast. Nicole's maximum sustained winds are picking up at 70 mph with higher gusts. NOAA/UPI Tropical Storm Nicole Nears Hurricane Strength Approaching Florida, Washington, United States - 09 Nov 2022

Noaa/UPI/Shutterstock

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On Wednesday morning, Orlando International Airport announced that all commercial operations will stop by 4 p.m., and Palm Beach International Airport issued a travel advisory, announcing that all flights in and out of the airport are canceled.

There are several watches and warnings in effect for various regions of Florida, including a hurricane watch from Hallandale Beach to Boca Raton Florida, as well as Lake Okeechobee.
Vermonters head to the polls to choose leadership in a year of open seats

Becca Balint made Vermont history Tuesday night, becoming the state's first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and headlining a year of significant turnover in Vermont's leadership. Balint is also the first openly gay person to represent the state in Congress.

"Tonight we reaffirm that Vermont and the nation is still a place where anything is possible," Balint said at a victory party Tuesday night. "We are all still capable of change and promise and progress, and tonight, after 231 years, Vermonters are sending a woman to Congress."

Phil Scott won a fourth term as Vermont's governor, according to the Associated Press. Scott, a Republican, easily defeated his Democratic challenger, Brenda Siegel, with more than 70% of the vote, according to unofficial results being reported by the Vermont Secretary of State.

Seconds after the polls closed at 7 p.m., the Associated Press declared Peter Welch the winner in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Patrick Leahy, who is retiring. Welch received nearly 67% of the vote, according to the Secretary of State, defeating Republican challenger Gerald Malloy.

Welch issued a statement, saying he was "excited and honored to have received such broad support from Vermonters."

"It's been an incredible privilege to have served Vermont in the U.S. House for the past 16 years where I've worked to bring the 'Vermont Way' of mutual respect, civility, and finding common ground to Washington, D.C.," Welch added. "I am ready to bring that approach and get to work on Day One in the Senate to address the urgent challenges we face  higher prices hurting our working families, a climate in crisis, reproductive rights under threat, and an imperiled democracy."

By Wednesday morning, the Associated Press had also confirmed that two proposed changes to the state constitution that would protect abortion rights and fully ban slavery had passed, and that Democrat Charity Clark won the race for state attorney general; Democrat Doug Hoffer won the race for state auditor; Democrat Mike Pieciak won the race for state treasurer; Progressive/Democrat Dave Zuckerman won the race for lieutenant governor; and Democrat Sarah Copeland Hanzas won the race for Secretary of State.

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Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund celebrated the passage of the reproductive liberty amendment protecting abortion in a statement made before the AP made its call: "Vermonters have spoken, and they have been clear about their support for reproductive rights."

Here are details of key races using unofficial results from the Vermont Secretary of State's website reflecting 282 of 283 districts reporting.

Local bond result:Burlington voters say yes to new high school

U.S. House

Becca Balint, 54, president of the Vermont Senate and a former teacher, defeated Republican Liam Madden, a 38-year-old Marine Corps veteran and antiwar activist, who describes himself as an independent, and who did not have the backing of the state GOP.

Balint is the first woman and the first openly gay person to represent Vermont in Congress. Vermont had been the only remaining U.S. state that has never sent a woman to Congress. Reflecting on her campaign Tuesday night, Balint said she heard from many Vermonters who said they didn't want to hate or fear their neighbors, and she said "everyday courage" could knit the nation back together.

"We have to find our strength, we have to lift each other up," Balint said to supporters Tuesday night, "Because even if we get good news in the midterms, the work is not over. We have a democracy to save."

Balint came to Vermont to be a rock-climbing instructor in 1994 and moved to the Green Mountain State permanently in 1997, according to Associated Press reporting. She taught history and social studies in the rural communities of Londonderry, Marlboro, Guilford and Washington, as well as at the Community College of Vermont. She has a master's degree in education from Harvard University and a master's degree in history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was elected to the Vermont Senate in 2014.

Full candidate list:

Becca Balint, Brattleboro (Democrat)  winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 60% with 282 of 283 districts reporting.

Liam Madden, Rockingham (Republican)  27%

Ericka Redic, Burlington (Libertarian)  4%

Matt Druzba, Burlington (Independent)  2%

Luke Talbot, Brighton (Independent)  2%

Adam Ortiz, Rutland City (Independent)  1%

U.S. Senate

Rep. Peter Welch, who was first elected to Congress in 2006, won the U.S. Senate seat and will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, according to the Associated Press, which called the race immediately after polls closed.

Welch, 75, of Norwich, said before the election that if elected to the Senate, he would continue to try to find common ground with Republicans despite the current hyperpartisan political climate.

Welch was born in Massachusetts and moved to Vermont in 1974, where he first worked as a public defender. He was a longtime member of the Vermont Senate, and was its first Democratic Senate president pro tempore. In 2006, he won the U.S. House seat, which became vacant when Bernie Sanders moved from the House to the Senate.

Welch's Republican opponent was retired U.S. Army officer and political newcomer Gerald Malloy, of Perkinsville, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Full candidate list:

Peter Welch, Norwich (Democrat) - winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 67% of the vote with 282 of 283 districts reporting.

Gerald Malloy, Weathersfield (Republican)  27%

Dawn Marie Ellis, Burlington (Independent)  1%

Kerry Patrick Raheb, Bennington (Independent)  1%

Natasha Diamondstone-Kohout, Dummerston (Green Mountain)  1%

Mark Coester, Westminster (Independent)  0.48%

Stephen Duke, Calais (Independent)  0.41%

Ms. Cris Ericson, Chester (Independent)  0.38%

Governor

Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, was first elected in 2016 and won a fourth term.

Brenda Siegel, Scott's Democratic challenger, is an activist who has most recently advocated for Vermonters experiencing homelessness.

Full candidate list:

Phil Scott, Berlin (Republican, incumbent) - winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 70% with 282 of 283 districts reporting.

Brenda Siegel, Newfane (Progressive/Democrat)  23%

Kevin Hoyt, Bennington (Independent)  2%

Peter Duval, Underhill (Independent)  2%

Bernard Peters, Irasburg (Independent)  1%

Lieutenant governor

Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman defeated Republican state Sen. Joe Benning for the lieutenant governor's office, according to the Associated Press. Zuckerman previously served four years as lieutenant governor and ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2020.

Full candidate list:

David Zuckerman, Hinesburg (Progressive/Democrat)  winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 54% of the vote at 282 of 283 districts reporting.

Joe Benning, Lyndon (Republican)  41%

Ian G. Diamondstone, Putney (Green Mountain)  3%

Attorney general

Full candidate list:

Charity R. Clark, Williston (Democrat)  winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 65% of the vote at 282 of 283 towns reporting.

Michael Tagliavia, Corinth (Republican)  33%

Treasurer

Full candidate list:

Mike Pieciak, Winooski (Democrat)  winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 66% of the vote with 282 of 283 districts reporting.

H. Brooke Paige, Washington (Republican)  33%

Auditor

Full candidate list:

Doug Hoffer, Burlington (Democrat/Progressive, incumbent)  winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 65% of the vote with 282 of 283 districts reporting.

Richard "Rick" Morton, Brattleboro (Republican)  32%

Secretary of state

Full candidate list:

Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Bradford (Democrat)  winner, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results showed 65% with 282 of 283 districts reporting.

H. Brook Paige, Washington (Republican)  33%

Chittenden County states attorney

Sarah George of Williston ran unopposed for reelection. In an interview on Town Meeting TV, George said she hopes to change the way she interacts with the community in the coming two-year term.

"The challenge that I faced was disinformation," George said of her contested Democratic primary election in August, "so I think that something I really want to focus on going forward is finding ways to be more accessible to the community, to fact-check things that they hear."

Constitutional amendment: slavery

Proposal 2 amends the state Constitution to add language saying slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited. It would repeal language that allows enslavement of people under the age of 21 and those bound by their own consent, according to Abolish Slavery Vermont. An exception clause currently in the constitution permits the enslavement of those bound for payment of debts, damages, fines, costs or the like.

The Associated Press reported the amendment had passed at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Constitutional amendment: abortion and reproductive autonomy

The second statewide ballot item, Proposal 5, adds language to the state constitution saying "an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means."

The Associated Press confirmed the amendment had passed at 12:26 a.m. Wednesday morning.

More:Why Vermonters are voting to prohibit slavery and codify abortion rights in 2022

Chittenden Solid Waste District bond vote

Towns within Chittenden County were asked whether to approve spending for a new recycling center. The Chittenden Solid Waste District asked voters to approve a $22 million bond for a new materials recovery facility that would be paid for using the district's own budget.

Unofficial results provided by CSWD showed that the measure passed with 82% voting in favor. In all, 24,848 voted yes with 5,354 voting no. The ballot item had substantially fewer voters participating, a turnout of about 24%, likely due to the fact that municipal district items were not included on the ballots voters received in the mail. The number of registered voters making up the district was 127,312; the number who voted was 30,202.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont 2022 election results: Peter Welch wins Senate race
Viking Jewelry Discovered in Sweden Looks Almost Completely New at 1,000 Years Old All press photos and film clips are free to use for media and in publications. Byline for photos taking during the excavation is "The Archaeologists" or "The Archaeologists, NHM". (National Historical Museums). The photos of the coins, the ring being cleaned and the collected treasure with a white background are from "Acta Konserveringscentrum". A conservatory company in Stockholm.

The Archaeologists

Talk about antiques!

Archeologists in Sweden have uncovered a stockpile of silver that they believe is approximately 1,000 years old.

The items  which include torque-style neck rings, arm rings and coins  were found inside a ceramic pot in Viggbyholm, Taby, a "Viking Age settlement" located outside Stockholm, according to a press release from The Archaeologists at the National Historical Museums in Sweden.

"They looked almost completely new," said archaeologist Maria Lingstrom.

Viking Jewelry Discovered in Sweden Looks Almost Completely New at 1,000 Years Old All press photos and film clips are free to use for media and in publications. Byline for photos taking during the excavation is "The Archaeologists" or "The Archaeologists, NHM". (National Historical Museums). The photos of the coins, the ring being cleaned and the collected treasure with a white background are from "Acta Konserveringscentrum". A conservatory company in Stockholm.

The Archaeologists

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The artifacts were buried underneath the floor of a building in the settlement, where the Vikings are believed to have lived "for several hundred years."

However, the silver discovery was "somewhat unexpected," according to the press release.

Viking Jewelry Discovered in Sweden Looks Almost Completely New at 1,000 Years Old All press photos and film clips are free to use for media and in publications. Byline for photos taking during the excavation is "The Archaeologists" or "The Archaeologists, NHM". (National Historical Museums). The photos of the coins, the ring being cleaned and the collected treasure with a white background are from "Acta Konserveringscentrum". A conservatory company in Stockholm.

Acta Konserveringscentrum

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A ring, two pearls and 12 coin pendants "used as jewelry" were also found in the pot, according to The Archeologists. Some of the coins in the bag came from countries such as England, Bohemia and Bavaria.

Viking Jewelry Discovered in Sweden Looks Almost Completely New at 1,000 Years Old All press photos and film clips are free to use for media and in publications. Byline for photos taking during the excavation is "The Archaeologists" or "The Archaeologists, NHM". (National Historical Museums). The photos of the coins, the ring being cleaned and the collected treasure with a white background are from "Acta Konserveringscentrum". A conservatory company in Stockholm.

Acta Konserveringscentrum

Arrows, quernstones, and amulet rings were also found "within the area," per the press release.

One coin, described by The Archaeologists as "extremely rare," is believed to have been minted in the city of Rouen, in Normandy, France around 10th century A.D.

Professor Jens Christian Moesgaard of Stockholm University, said the French coin has only been identified in 18th century drawings.

Viking Jewelry Discovered in Sweden Looks Almost Completely New at 1,000 Years Old All press photos and film clips are free to use for media and in publications. Byline for photos taking during the excavation is "The Archaeologists" or "The Archaeologists, NHM". (National Historical Museums). The photos of the coins, the ring being cleaned and the collected treasure with a white background are from "Acta Konserveringscentrum". A conservatory company in Stockholm.

Acta Konserveringscentrum

RELATED: Rare First Printing of U.S. Constitution to Be Sold at Auction for an Estimated $30 Million

It's unclear why the objects were hidden in this manner, though one theory suggests it was done during "difficult and tumultuous times," per the press release, although as archaeologist John Hamilton noted, "we have yet to see if that was the case here."

"This is something you probably only experience once in a lifetime," added Lingstrom.
The biggest bond issue in Oklahoma City Public Schools history, worth $955 million in total, passed Tuesday, inching past the 60% threshold for approval.

Proposition 1, which asked for $936 million for school improvements, received 64% of the vote from district residents. The second proposition, requesting $19 million for school buses and vehicles, gained 62%.

Oklahoma City Public Schools' administration is house at the Clara Luper Center for Educational Services in Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma City district pledged to build two new high schools, expand Taft Middle School and consolidate four south-side schools in new buildings, among numerous other projects.

School district voters agreed to raise the mill levy on their property taxes to 26 mills, or $26 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. This is the district's first mill levy increase since 2001 when voters set it at $18 for every $1,000 of assessed value.

Superintendent Sean McDaniel said Oklahoma City Public Schools is grateful for the support and encouraged voters to "continue holding us accountable."

"I'm grateful that the focus for them, for us, is our kids, that they saw something in the two propositions, that they see something in the district, they see something in the children that attend our schools that compelled them to go and vote the way they did," McDaniel said at an election watch party at the district's administration building. "Continue engaging because we've got much more to come. We certainly aren't anywhere near where we'd like to be in a lot of different areas, but our arrows are starting to align."

More:Proposed OKC district bond will touch every school. Here's what would happen at your school.

The districts last bond issue passed in 2016 and generated $180 million. The 2016 issue was the districts second bond in 15 years.

Meanwhile, peer school districts have passed bond issues with greater regularity and at higher mill levies than the Oklahoma City district. Since 2010, Edmond Public Schools poured $476 million into its district through six bond elections. Its mill levy sits between 24 and 25 mills.

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Tulsa Public Schools, with a 26.63 mill levy, passed $1.2 billion in bond issues in the past 12 years. Moore Public Schools charges 26.31 mills while Deer Creek Public Schools leads the metro area by charging $32.13 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

Oklahoma Citys near-$1 billion bond would cover renovations, maintenance and equipment at every school in the district, where the average school building is 72 years old. It also would support the cost of maintenance for charter schools that occupy buildings owned by Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Bond takes criticism on behalf of charter schools

Criticism of the bond issue ramped up shortly before the election. Recent mailers and digital advertisements urged district residents to vote down the bond and not feed the tax monster. The flyers and ads did not include any information of who paid for them.

Some suggested the bond should fail because it didnt offer money to all charter schools operating within the Oklahoma City districts boundaries, even ones not affiliated with the school district. Charter schools, under state law, cannot issue bonds of their own.

All students living within the OKC district's boundaries  regardless of the type of public school they attend  deserve to benefit from a $1 billion tax increase on all OKC district residents; they sure will be paying for it, Raul Font, president of the Latino Community Development Agency, wrote in an opinion column submitted to The Oklahoman.

McDaniel called it a "curious argument, and it's just not one that I buy."

"In addition to OKCPS, we have six charter schools that we sponsor," he said. "That's really the extent, as I see it, of the OKCPS banner. It's our schools, 62 of them, and it's the six schools that we sponsor."

Superintendent Sean McDaniel speaks during an Oklahoma City Public School Board meeting on April 12, 2021.

Only charter schools that lease buildings from the school district would receive any financial help  in this case, in the form of maintenance and lower rent fees.

To do so for any other charter school would be a gift of public funds and a violation of state law, the district said.

According to Oklahoma law, OKCPS legally cannot invest bond dollars into any building, including a charter school building, that the district does not own, general counsel Jessica Sherrill said in a statement.

More:Northeast High School alumni recreate historic march in support of 1970 school bond

OKCPS students: The $955 million bond is 'essential'

A group of Oklahoma City high school seniors said they eagerly hoped the bond would pass.

While hosting a small forum discussion in their school library on Friday, the seven classmates said other students should have the same resources they enjoy at Classen High School of Advanced Studies at Northeast, one of the top high schools in Oklahoma for academic performance.

We recognize our school is very privileged in our access to fine arts and a very good-quality education, Student Council President Semony Shah, 17, said. Thats why I think the bond is so essential not only to our school, but to the community because those two things have definitely made my high school experience so worthwhile. I really want every student in OKCPS to have those opportunities.

Classen SAS senior Ameia Booker, 17, feared what would happen if the bond failed.

If we dont get this bond, we will see a deterioration in our buildings and our available education, Ameia said. Further down the line, thats just going to harm the students rather than help them.

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nurias work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City Public Schools passes $955 million bond
Where the US Races for Governor Stand Now

(Bloomberg) -- A pair of incumbent governors thought to have eyes on the White House -- Republican Ron DeSantis in Florida and Democrat Gavin Newsom in California -- both handily won re-election Tuesday, giving their parties a glimpse into the future on a night when statehouse executives generally held off their challengers.

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Along with DeSantis and Newsom, New Yorks first female governor, Kathy Hochul, won election to a full term. Republicans in Texas and Georgia also emerged victorious, as did Democrats in Illinois and Connecticut. Two states -- Maryland and Massachusetts -- traded moderate Republican governors for pioneering Democratic contenders.

Some races still hung in the balance -- including Arizona, where Republican Kari Lake, a vocal 2020 election denier with support from former president Donald Trump, is running against Democrat Katie Hobbs.

Oregons all mail-in balloting meant the state would have to wait to find out if it would have its first Republican governor in 20 years.

But the nights gubernatorial headliners were DeSantis and Newsom, two men who have sparred coast-to-coast as they position themselves for possible presidential runs in 2024.

DeSantis beat Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by 60% to 40% in the Florida, according to the Associated Press. In California, Newsom easily defeated his Republican challenger, Brian Dahle, to win a second term.

DeSantis, 44, hasnt said he plans to run in 2024 and avoided questions about the presidential race during his debate with Crist. Still, he has constantly popped up in polls as GOP voters preferred standard-bearer should Trump decide against making another run. DeSantis has also secured the support of big-ticket donors, including billionaire Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel.

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Newsom, 55, largely ignored his opponent and instead spent much of his campaign building his national profile and promoting progressive causes. That has fueled speculation that he is considering a presidential run, though he has repeatedly denied interest.

The races were among 36 gubernatorial contests across the US Tuesday. Theyve taken on added significance this year after the Supreme Court put the issue of abortion in the hands of state governments and limited what they can do to regulate guns. Those topics were front and center in Texas and Georgia, where incumbents Greg Abbott and Brian Kemp won.

In Democratic-led states, candidates also fared well. In New York, Hochul held off a surprisingly tough challenge from Republican Lee Zeldin in a race that focused heavily on crime in the closing days. In Illinois, Democratic billionaire J.B. Pritzker won his re-election as expected, beating Trump-backed Republican opponent Darren Bailey. In Connecticut, incumbent Ned Lamont won.

NY Governor Hochul Beats Zeldin in Close Race Dominated by Crime

Begun to Fight

Back in Florida, DeSantis thanked voters for what he called a historic, landslide victory in a speech in Tampa. He didnt mention Trump or speculation that he will run for president, but he did say, I have only begun to fight.

Trump escalated his rivalry with DeSantis, warning that he would expose damaging information if the Florida governor were to challenge him for the Republican presidential nomination.

If he runs, he could hurt himself very badly, Trump said in an interview with Fox News and other outlets. I would tell you things about him that wont be very flattering -- I know more about him than anybody, other than, perhaps, his wife.

DeSantiss victory is also a win for the conservative, headline-grabbing brand of politics he carried out during his first term. The Republican incumbent won the important Latino vote in Florida, according to exit polls conducted by CBS News that found 56% of Latinos voted for DeSantis. The number represents a big swing in Hispanic support toward Florida Republicans over the last four to six years. DeSantis lost the Latino vote in his previous election.

He clashed with President Joe Biden over vaccine and mask mandates, blasting him for establishing a biomedical security state. He then shifted his focus to culture-war issues, especially a law limiting school instruction about gender identity. A couple of months ago, he used taxpayers dollars to fly dozens of Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts.

The strategy was key in raising DeSantiss profile as a potential Republican presidential candidate. Trump has teased for months that he plans to run again in 2024, and while hes still the favored pick among GOP voters, his political baggage and legal troubles could prove an obstacle for another run.

Abbott, Kemp Win

Abbott beat Democratic candidate Beto ORourke to win re-election for a third term as governor of Texas, signaling voters approved of his hardline conservative views.

Abbott was favored to win, with polls showing the incumbent having anywhere from a five to 11 percentage point lead. The results suggest Texans still trust Abbott to lead the state on issues like immigration and the economy -- the top concerns among voters. Abbotts stances favoring a ban on abortions with very few exceptions and loose gun policies were popular with his base.

Abbotts healthy margin of victory may empower GOP lawmakers to take a more rightward slant in their policy proposals. During his campaign, Abbott spoke frequently about strengthening border security and providing property tax relief, which are two areas likely to be a focal point in next years session.

In Georgia, Republican Governor Kemp easily won re-election, fending off voting-rights organizer Stacey Abrams for a second time and cementing the power of the states GOP-dominated legislature.

Kemp, 59, won 54% of the vote to the Democrats 45% in unofficial AP results, more than quadrupling his victory margin over Abrams in 2018.

The rematch between Abrams, 48, and Kemp was one of the most closely watched races in the US, in large part because of Abramss national stature as a voting activist and her role in delivering Georgia to Democrats in 2020 and 2021.

Whitmer Wins

Michigans Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer won-relection against Republican Tudor Dixon.

In Illinois, Pritzker, 57, campaigned on his support for abortion rights and improvements in state finances and had led in the polls in a state largely controlled by Democrats.

Heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, Pritzker contributed more than $100 million of his own money to campaign against Bailey, a state senator and anti-abortion downstate farmer who ran on concerns about rising crime, property taxes and the economy.

In Massachusetts, Attorney General Maura Healey sailed to victory, defeating Republican rival Geoffrey Diehl, who was backed by Trump. The 51-year-old Democrat vowed to become the nations most aggressive governor on climate change, and to help the state develop a climate corridor for innovative green technology. Her plans include appointing a cabinet-level climate czar and spurring the installation of 1 million heat pumps statewide by 2030.

Shes also making history as the states first woman to be elected governor.

In Maryland, Democratic nominee Wes Moore defeated Republican and election denier Dan Cox, making him the first Black governor of the state. Moore, a Rhodes Scholar who served in combat in Afghanistan, is the former chief executive officer of the Robin Hood Foundation, an organization that fights poverty in New York City and is backed by many on Wall Street.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary during the Trump presidency, won the governorship in Arkansas. Republican Governor Kevin Stitt won re-election in Oklahoma, defeating Democrat Joy Hofmeister, a former Republican and the states superintendent of public instruction.

--With assistance from Christian Hall, Margaret Newkirk, Airielle Lowe, Zach C. Cohen, Gregory Korte, Shruti Date Singh, Tarso Veloso, Alyce Andres, Brendan Walsh, Keshia Clukey, Emma Court, Amanda Albright, Karen Breslau, Tiffany Stecker, Ryan Teague Beckwith, Jack Gillum and Felipe Marques.

(A previous version of this story corrected the spelling of Florida in the sixth paragraph.)

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A white University of Kentucky student caught on video hurling racial slurs in a disturbing attack against a Black student plans to withdraw from the school, her attorney said on Tuesday.

Sophia Rosing, a senior at the school, was arrested on Sunday after an altercation with freshman Kylah Spring took place at a residence hall on campus.

She is very embarrassed about what happened, Fred Peters, Rosings attorney, told HuffPost.

She is very remorseful as well, he added.

A spokesperson for the University of Kentucky said that the school could not provide any additional information at the moment.

On Monday, Rosing, 22, was charged with first and second offenses of public intoxication, third-degree assault of a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct, the Associated Press reported. She pleaded not guilty and bonded out of jail later that day.

A viral video shared on multiple social media platforms shows Spring, who is Black, trying to restrain Rosing, who repeatedly calls her the N-word throughout the physical and verbal attack. Spring can be heard asking Rosing, who is white, to stop more than once.

I dont get paid enough for this, Spring said in the video. She was working an overnight shift as a desk clerk at the residence hall.

In a video recounting the incident on TikTok, Spring accused Rosing of kicking, biting and punching her. She claimed Rosing also attacked another student during the ordeal. Another video shared online shows Rosing repeatedly singing the N-word while being detained by a police officer.

An officer said in an arrest affidavit that Rosing said at one point that she has lots of money and (gets) special treatment, the AP reported.

When I told her to sit back in the chair, she kicked me and bit my hand, the officer said.

Students gathered to condemn the incident in a rally on Monday organized by the universitys chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., NBC News reported.

Story continues

You will not break my spirit, and you will be held accountable for your actions, Spring said in a speech directed at Rosing, according to a rally clip. I only pray that you open your heart to love and try to experience life differently and more positively after this.

(3/4): We must, therefore, be accountable. We must never shrink from our responsibility to shine a light on racism and hate where it exists."  University of Kentucky (@universityofky) November 8, 2022

Eli Capilouto, the president of the University of Kentucky, wrote in an e-mail to the campus community on Monday that the school must be accountable for the incident. He called the video of the attack repulsive and violent.

We must never shrink from our responsibility to shine a light on racism and hate where it exists, he said.

The university said in another statement that the incident is under disciplinary review and that the school is following its Code of Student Conduct process. School officials will continue to share updates as we know more, the statement read.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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A pilgrimage organised by the defence ministry was paid to commemorate Hungarian soldiers who had fallen at the Doberdo and Isonzo battlefields in northern Italy in the first world war, marking All Souls Day, a state secretary of the ministry said.

The pilgrims paid their tribute at a chapel at Redipuglia and later in the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery in Fogliano, Tamas Vargha told MTI.



At the Capella Ungherese Hungarian chapel in the village of Visintini in Doberdo Del Lago, Antal Spanyi, the bishop of Szekesfehervar, consecrated a new bell prepared from donations of Szekesfehervar residents, he said.



They also paid their tribute to Hungarian soldiers who died at the front on the Isonzo and at Doberdo, Vargha added.



The state secretary expressed thanks to his Italian and Slovene colleagues over the maintenance of the memorial sites set up near the battlefields where several tens of thousands of soldiers serving in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchys army died.



The Battle of Doberdo was one of the bloodiest battles of the first world war. Some 100,000 Hungarian soldiers were killed in battles along the Isonzo river in 1915-16.
Lawmakers voted on Tuesday to establish a Central Information Public Data Registry of key budget data of central and local government institutions accessible to the general public.

The draft amendment was submitted by the government with the aim of reaching an agreement with the European Commission over rule-of-law issues.



The registry will contain key budget data of central and local government institutions and minority self-governments.



The legislation also modifies rules to streamline legal procedures in cases where the provision of public information is contested.



MTI Photo: Szilard Koszticsak



The law was passed with 128 votes in favour, 23 against and 12 abstentions.
YORK  All the York County elected officials have been selected for the next four years, as well as two county commissioners.

All of them ran unopposed in the General Election; however, there were aspects of this years process that hadnt been seen before in York County and they continued in several waves.

A unique situation was in regards to the county treasurer position. Longtime York County Treasurer Brenda Scavo had filed to seek reelection and ran unopposed; unfortunately, she passed away this fall and her name was subsequently removed from the ballot. The county commissioners appointed Deputy York County Treasurer Megan Williams as the York County Treasurer, to fulfill Scavos term which officially ends at the end of this calendar year. Williams also filed as a write-in candidate for the position, before the Oct. 28 deadline, and received 1,081 votes in this weeks General Election. That means Williams will be sworn in, again, in January, for a four-year term as treasurer. As she has been elected now, the commissioners will not have to reappoint her or consider anyone else to appoint.

Another unique scenario this year was that longtime York County Assessor Ann Charlton announced she was not going to be seeking reelection. Sitting York County Commissioner Kurt Bulgrin filed his candidacy to run for assessor. He is the only person who filed to run. Then, at mid-year, Charlton announced she would be retiring and did so with several months left in her current term. At the time of Charltons retirement, then-Deputy York County Assessor Tami Norquest was sworn in as the assessor and will fulfill the rest of Charltons term which is until the end of the calendar year. Meanwhile, Bulgrin received 4,119 votes in Tuesdays General Election and will take the oath of office, as the county assessor, in January. It is assumed that Norquest will again serve as the deputy assessor when January arrives. It should also be noted that when Bulgrin officially becomes assessor, someone will have to be appointed to fulfill the remaining two years of his current commissioner term.

And yet another unique scenario this year involved the York County Attorneys office. Jon Lyons was the county attorney until a Nebraska high court determined the county commissioners had the ability to terminate his position after a legal battle had ensued. It should be noted Lyons had not filed to run for election. However, there was one lone candidate seeking the position  Gary Olson. Upon Lyons termination, Olson was appointed by the commissioners to fulfill the term until the end of this calendar year. As the lone candidate for the position in this years election cycle, York County voters cast 4,136 ballots in favor of Olson and he will take the oath of office in January as the county attorney for the next four years.

Commissioners Randy Obermier and Daniel Grotz ran unopposed for their positions.

Grotz was appointed in 2020 after the death of then-commissioner Paul Buller and is fulfilling that term. He chose to run as an incumbent and with 747 votes, he will be sworn in, in January, to a four-year term.

Obermier has been a member of the board of commissioners for a number of years and is currently serving as the commissioner chairman. He received 588 votes this week.

Earlier this year, longtime York County Commissioner Bill Bamesberger announced he would not be seeking reelection. There were numerous candidates  all Republicans  who ran against each other in the Primary Election. Stan Boehr emerged as the victor in the Primary race and ran unopposed in the General Election. This week, he received 1,051 votes and will take the seat currently held by Bamesberger, in January.

York County Sheriff Paul Vrbka will serve another four years. He was opposed in the Primary Election but came away with the Republican nomination in May. He ran unopposed in the General Election and received 4,404 votes.

Longtime York County Clerk of the District Court Sharilyn Stuebe received 4,180 votes and continue in her position. She ran unopposed.

York County Clerk Kelly Turner received 4,228 votes and will continue in her position. She ran unopposed.

York County Public Defender Dave Michel received 2,539 votes and will continue in his position. He ran unopposed.

York County Surveyor Rex Heiden received 4,205 votes and will continue in his position. He ran unopposed.
YORK  This year, there were four seats up for election on the York City Council  the ones currently being held by Jeff Pieper, Scott VanEsch, Christi Lones and Sheila Hubbard.

Hubbard chose not to seek reelection.

Pieper, VanEsch and Lones all filed as candidates.

Also seeking election were non-incumbents Vicki Northrop, Jeff McGregor and Steve Postier.

The top four vote-getters among the six, in this weeks General Election, were Pieper, VanEsch, Northrop and Postier. The unofficial results were presented by the clerks office following a late night of ballot counting, which ended at 12:30 a.m.

The following were the total number of votes for each:

Pieper: 1,662

VanEsch: 1,315

Northrop: 1,220

Postier: 1,177

Lones: 1,130

McGregor: 1,130

Prior to the election, the candidates were asked what they would like to see accomplished in York, if they were to be elected.

VanEsch said hed like to see the city develop new approaches to promote York and help it reach its full potential.

Northrop responded, As a community, we have made progress while facing some difficult financial, economic, and philosophical challenges. I want to see the City of York engaged and focused while continuing to work together toward a common goal using our diverse strengths, backgrounds, and experiences. I want to see young families find opportunities here that set us apart from other communities. I want to see our business community continue to be successful while welcoming future economic growth. Heritage and Hope is my campaign slogan. I want to serve the people of York through my passion, care, and concern for the continued strength and longevity of York while maintaining our current assets.

Lones said, I feel like my four years on the City Council have not been enough. If elected, I plan to continue to dedicate my time, energy, and voice to strengthen and improve the community and its assets. I am proud to call York home and I look forward to helping it be the best it can be.

Postier responded, In all the groups/committees I serve on, my goal is to Grow York. That can mean something different for each group, but overall, its working towards a better York for our future. That means working with YCDC to bring new jobs, people, and housing into our community. It means working with the York Childcare Alliance to address childcare needs. It means working with passionate community members and Four Corners Health Department, to address the walkability needs of our community, so we have safe pedestrian access for everyone. It means working with the York County Health Coalition to make sure peoples basic needs are met, especially if theyre going through a crisis. It means working with individuals on ways to start/expand a business, and fulfill their lifelong dream. It means working with our state and federal lawmakers to improve the opportunities, and access to resources, for our community. It means putting on a Christmas Light Show each year at our house/business, so families can bring their kids and build memories together. It means serving in many roles through Rotary in our town. It means creating opportunities, through the York Young Professionals group, to connect people in our community. And if elected to the York City Council, it will mean doing my best to Grow York. Growing York isnt just about adding more people to our population. Its also about making life better for those that chose to call York home.

Pieper said, Whether I am elected or not, I would love to see York continue to be a great place to grow up in, live, work, and thrive. I am proud to be a citizen of York and a resident of the great state of Nebraska. I believe this will be the case regardless of this race and I am not at all concerned at the outcome of the local political races as they all have qualified candidates vowing for the available positions. I am hoping and praying that our country will vote red and put control of the House and Senate in the hands of the Republican Party. This is necessary to hamstring the current fiscal policy of our countrys administration and the wasteful spending in Washington, as well as our current horrific and embarrassing foreign policy in effect by our nations leaders. Let us unite as one nation under God.

McGregor responded, I would like to see growth and prosperity guided by a government that is not too big for itself and provides its citizens all the rights and privileges they are entitled to and deserve. I would love to see continued revitalization of the downtown area that includes the addition of businesses and continued refacing projects. I would also like to see growth at the north end of the city and the building/opening of the new Fire Station. I believe these things would play a significant role in drawing families to our city and boosting its population. While I would be happy enough just to see these things happen, I would be honored to play a part in it.

Pieper, VanEsch, Northrop and Postier will be sworn into office as York City Councilmembers in early December.
On the day after his probation GPS monitor was removed, Dech Gach was picked up from Sioux City, Iowa, by a fellow gang member and went to Omaha to shoot people, an Omaha police detective testified Monday.

After driving around Omaha for a few hours, they picked someone  59-year-old Larry Thompson, who was sitting on the porch of his North Omaha home.

Omaha Police Detective Brandon Hahn testified Monday that Thompson was approached by the three gang members and Gach shot Thompson seven times.

Gach, 16, of Omaha, has been charged as an adult and will stand trial on charges of first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy and use of a firearm to commit a felony.

Thompson was fatally shot about 8:15 p.m. March 12, 2021, outside his apartment near 28th Avenue and Spencer Street.

Investigators watched video surveillance from the Omaha Housing Authority and saw a black Chevy Cruze drive through the Spencer West neighborhood. The car parked, three people got out and ran to Thompson. Thompson then was shot and the three left.

Video showed that the car had driven through the area a total of three times, Hahn said. Detectives determined that the owners of the vehicle were the parents of Christopher Trejo.

Trejo, 17, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder in September and is awaiting sentencing. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped two other felony charges.

According to data on Trejo's phone, Hahn said, Trejo had been messaging Gach in the days leading up to the shooting, coordinating when Trejo could pick Gach up in Sioux City. Gach had said that his GPS monitor was going to be removed, so he would be able to travel to Omaha "to go shoot people," Hahn testified.

The two teens chatted about which guns they planned to use, whether they should use a stolen car and their plan to turn off their cellphones just before the shooting, Hahn said.

The two had used their cellphones in the hours prior. After Trejo picked up Gach and Gatluak Jiel at a Family Dollar store in Sioux City, they headed to a gas station, where they filmed a video in which they flashed gang signs, Hahn said. Jiel, now 16, is awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder, use of a weapon to commit a felony and criminal conspiracy. His public defender has filed a motion to transfer the case to juvenile court.

The car returned to Omaha about 5:30 p.m. and headed to Spencer West housing.

Thompson's daughter, Shelrina Thompson of Kansas City, has questioned why anyone would want to shoot her father.

"I'm not sure what's going on in the world today," she told The World-Herald in June 2021. "There are kids driving around just randomly looking to shoot people."
Anna Feilen was 17 and on the run when she got into a van with her brother and a second man before dawn Feb. 23, 2021, headed to James Shekie's Lincoln trailer to rob him of marijuana.

By the start of the second week of Deonte Rush's murder trial Monday, jurors already had seen texts where Rush said he'd messed up and was looking at prison time if he got caught and that he was getting out of town to lay low before law enforcement scooped him up in Chicago for murder.

And they'd seen video of the three people investigators came to believe were involved shortly before and after Shekie's killing.

But on the stand Monday, Feilen offered the most potentially damning evidence yet in the case: the first eye-witness account.

On direct examination, she admitted she'd sent her brother, Marquez Moten, videos of the pot. But she said she was just trying to get him to come from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Lincoln to give her a ride.

She and Moten are facing charges of conspiracy to commit robbery.

Prosecutors say Moten, a paraplegic whose spine was severed in a 2014 shooting, grew intent on stealing the drugs. And, though Feilen denies it, texts make it appear she was on board.

Early Feb. 23, 2021, Moten came to Lincoln and brought Rush along.

Feilen, on the stand, said Rush was the shooter.

She said she had met Shekie through the dating app Tagged she sometimes used to meet men who paid her for sex.

On Feb. 1, 2021, roughly three weeks before he was shot and killed in his trailer near North 20th and Superior streets, Shekie picked her up from a friend's house in Omaha for a date.

"The vibe was pretty much like I was going to eat and go home. But I never did," said Feilen, who is now 19.

She said she ended up staying with Shekie for 2 weeks. They had sex a half-dozen times, hung out and smoked marijuana.

Feilen said Shekie had asked her to try to help him sell the marijuana. So she posted photos on Snapchat, including one with buds in her hand saying "come shop."

She sent the photos to her brother, too.

In calls and texts in the two days leading up to Shekie's killing, the two talked about how to get it. Feilen said it became clear her brother just wanted to take it.

"Like, all of it?" Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Eric Miller asked her.

"Yes," she said.

By then, Feilen had moved out.

She denied she'd left on bad terms. But texts show Shekie had kicked her out and she wasn't welcome back.

Early Feb. 23, Feilen said she didn't want to go when Moten and Rush showed up at her biological mother's apartment, where she was staying after running away from her adopted parents' home in Bellevue.

She said she tried to convince Moten there was never as much weed as she said there was. She just wanted a ride.

"He didn't believe me and ended up pulling a gun out on me, and that kind of like scared me," she said.

So she ended up going with them. When they got to Shekie's trailer, she said they sat outside for a while. Feilen said Rush tried to talk her into going inside since she knew where the marijuana was.

She said she refused. Eventually, Rush got out and walked up to the trailer.

"And that's when he went and kicked the door down," Feilen said. "I start freaking out."

She said Moten told her not to worry, he was handling it.

"That's when I heard a couple gunshots and then I heard James screaming," Feilen said.

She and Moten took off without Rush, who she said ran out of the trailer in another direction.

When they met up soon after to pick Rush up at the nearby FedEx parking lot, Feilen said she asked him "What happened, what happened?"

She said he told them Shekie was "squirming" so he shot in the air.

On March 2, 2021, after police found Shekie's body, Rush texted Feilen, telling her "shhh you got me?" Which she took to mean to keep quiet. Not to talk to the cops.

And he said he would make up for the mistake "because we came away empty-handed."

"You guys had nothing to show for this robbery?" Miller asked Feilen.

"Correct," she said.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, during a public speech on Wednesday, apologised to citizens over the condition of the roads in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla. The whole video of the speech was shared online and is now making headlines for the gesture. During his speech, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways not only apologised for the poorly built stretch of highway but also ordered a new contract for the project. This action received public affirmation in the form of applause following the public speech. The speech came during the Minister's visit to Mandala to give a start to five road projects worth Rs 1,261 crore.

During his speech, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "If there is a mistake... one should apologise. Part of the road stretch from Mandla to Jabalpur - a two-lane project from Barela to Mandla - is being built at the cost of 400 crore, but I am not satisfied with it." Followed by which the public applauded the humble gesture.

Also read: 'Trying best to reduce accidents by 50 percent...' Nitin Gadkari says Road Ministry focusing on THESE measures

Ensuring that the road will be in a better condition, Nitin Gadkari said, "You are facing difficulties. I have spoken to the authorities in this matter. Whatever work is left would be suspended after a mutual discussion, and the work done previously will be repaired."

During his trip to Madhya Pradesh, Gadkari inaugurated 13 road projects in the districts of Jabalpur and Mandla, totaling 5315 crore. He unveiled eight 214 km of road projects totaling 4,054 crores in Jabalpur. Shivraj Chouhan, the chief minister, welcomed the union minister and urged the centre to accept fresh plans to link the region near Kanha to major routes.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister is also going to inaugurate Bihar's first expressway on November 14. The 189-km expressway will start from Amas in Aurangabad district, located on Delhi-Kolkata NH-19, and will go all the way to NH-27 at the Nawada village in Darbhanga district, crossing seven districts, including Arwal, Jehanabad, Patna, Vaishali, and Samastipur.
There are several expressways in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, but people will soon be able to travel on the first expressway specifically for Bihar. Bihar will shortly begin building of the 189-kilometer Amas-Darbhanga expressway. Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, will travel to Bihar on November 14 to take part in the "Sant Samagam" in the Buxar district, where he will lay the cornerstone for this expressway project.

The 189-km expressway will start from Amas in Aurangabad district, located on Delhi-Kolkata NH-19, and will go all the way to NH-27 at the Nawada village in Darbhanga district, crossing seven districts, including Arwal, Jehanabad, Patna, Vaishali, and Samastipur.

Also read: Maruti Suzuki Brezza CNG starts reaching dealerships, hinting at imminent launch: WATCH

The land acquisition of this ambitious project is almost completed and will be constructed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The project will be constructed in four packages, and the first package starts from Amas to Shivrampur at 55 km, the second package from Shivrampur to Ramnagar at 54.3 km, the third package from Rampur to Pal Dashara of 45 km, and the fourth package from Pal Dashara to Nawada of 44.1 km. The project's expected cost is Rs 6,000 crore, and NHAI has allotted the tender to three construction companies.

NHAI has set a deadline to complete the project by 2024. After the completion of this expressway project, it will connect north to south Bihar with a travel time of less than four hours. NHAI has notified this expressway as NH-119D.

Meanwhile, talking about the road safety issues Union Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari pointed out that one important problem is that there's no fear of the law among some sort of people, which has led to an increase in accidents. Further, the Minister stated that people should obey rules as the Ministry aims to reduce accidents by 50 percent.

"People should obey the rules, one important problem is that there's no fear of the law among some sort of people. We aim to reduce 50% of accidents," Union minister Nitin Gadkari said in a statement. Gadkari also pointed out that there are around 5 lakh accidents and most victims belong to the age group of 18-34.

With inputs from IANS
IndiGo will start operating commercial flights from the newly built Donyi Polo Airport, Arunachal Pradesh's first civil airport, on November 28. Except on Wednesday, flights will run every day from Hollongi, which is around 15 kilometres from Itanagar, to Mumbai and Kolkata. On Wednesdays, a weekly flight service will launch on December 3 between Hollongi and Kolkata. It is to be noted that the airport in the North Eastern region of India was recently completed and is now set to begin flight operations to connect metro cities.

"We are pleased to announce Itanagar (Hollongi), s the 75th destination on the 6E network. This will be IndiGo's first destination in Arunachal Pradesh," Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer of IndiGo, Sanjay Kumar, said in a statement.

Also read: Airbus, Boeing's China-based rival COMAC receives order for 300 C919 long-range aircraft

This is in line with the carrier's vision to enhance connectivity in the Northeast, it said. These flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options to access destinations that are known for their tourist attractions, Kumar said.

Developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at an estimated cost of Rs 645 crore, the Donyi Polo Airport is designed to be a greenfield one with eight check-in counters, and it will be able to accommodate 200 passengers during peak hours.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely inaugurate the airport in November. At present, there is no airport near Itanagar, the closest one being Lilabari Airport, 80 km away in Assam's North Lakhimpur district. There are a few advanced landing grounds (ALGs) in the state, including in Pasighat and Tezu.

The Donyi Polo Airport will have a 2,300-metres-long runway suitable for landing and take-off of Boeing 747. Spread over a 4,100 sq m area, the airport will be equipped with all modern facilities for passengers. The airport's naming reflects the indigenous people's reverence or of the Sun (Donyi) and the Moon (Polo), symbolising the rich cultural heritage of the tribal-dominated state.
The Indian Air Force and French Air Force are taking part in a joint air exercise called Garuda 2022 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Under the combined exercise, General Stephane Mille, Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force (AAE), flew a sortie in the Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet. On the other hand, Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari flew a sortie in the IAF Rafale fighter jet. Both the fighter jets are part of the Indian Air Force and also the most advanced jets with the defence forces in the country.

The second phase of the ongoing Garuda 22 exercise saw participation from Indian and French Air Force pilots flying Rafale and Tejas fighter jets. The French Air Force chief also held discussions on issues of strategic significance and on avenues for further broadening the bilateral defence cooperation with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan.

At the Jodhpur air base, the second phase of the 'Exercise Garuda' began in earnest after completion of phase 1 of manoeuvres between the Indian Air Force and the French Air that had kicked off on October 26.

#WATCH | Showcasing close Indian & French Air Force ties, French Air & Space Force chief Gen Stephane Mille flew in an Indian Russian-origin Su-30 fighter while IAF chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari took off in a French Air Force Rafale jet during 'Garuda' exercise in Jodhpur pic.twitter.com/NcoIJse0qs  ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2022

From now on until November 14, large-scale missions will be carried out bringing together more than 30 aircraft, including Rafale, Su-30 and also Made-in-India Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas fighter. With both forces flying Rafale jets now, things have changed drastically since the last time French crews landed in India for Garuda 2014.

The AAE has deployed a contingent of 220 personnel, five Rafales and state-of-the-art Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) Phenix for the bilateral exercise this time as the edition focuses on 'Large Force Employment' with a predominance of fighter aviation. The IAF, on the other hand, is participating with Su-30 MKI, Rafale, LCA Tejas and Jaguar fighter aircraft, as well as the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and Mi-17 helicopters.

The IAF contingent also includes Combat Enabling Assets like Flight Refuelling Aircraft, AWACS and Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system. "During the second phase, with the presence of our A330 MRTT, we will be able to carry out cross-refuelling. We are fortunate to be able to work with many IAF assets: SU-30, Rafale, LCA Tejas, Jaguar, Awacs, IL78, helicopters, etc. Exotic material compared to what we are used to," said AAE Commander Pierre Cagnac, Director of the exercise.

Besides exchanging experiences, enhancing operational knowledge and strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries, Garuda 22 is also a way for French airmen to cross cultures. Crews engaged must plan, execute and debrief missions in a realistic tactical environment.

"India is a major strategic partner which has acquired the Rafale. We must learn to work together so that we can conduct joint operations if necessary. Especially since our procedures are different, because India is not a member of NATO," adds Cagnac.

Mille's visit to New Delhi gave further depth and strength to the India-France Strategic Partnership, the exercise over the deserts of the western sector continues to increase in intensity.

"It's a real pleasure to be here more than 6,000 kilometers from home, rediscovering the same fighting spirit with our Indian partners," Cagnac was quoted as saying by the French Air and Space Force in Jodhpur over the weekend.
The Antonov An-225, the world's largest plane, was one of the most important things in the Ukrainian aviation sector that the country lost in the early phase of the Russia-Ukraine war. Since, Mriya's (meaning dream in the Ukrainian language) destruction in February, the Ukrainians have shown resolve to rebuild the 'Dream,' and now the company is rolling ahead with the plans. In other words, Antonov has announced that the company will be working on building a second Antonov An-22 cargo plane. According to a statement by the company on social media platforms, "Currently, design works in this direction have begun."

The news was reinforced by Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba. The minister said in a statement, "Russia may have destroyed our Mriya, but they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free, and democratic European state. We shall prevail!" However, the exact details of the world's largest plane construction will only be confirmed once the war between the two countries ends.

Also read: Tata-owned Air India leases six A320 Neo planes from China Development Bank Aviation

Sharing the information on Twitter, the manufacturer Antonov said, "In the presentation of information with reference to acting of the General Director of the "ANTONOV" State Enterprise regarding the construction of the new "Mriya," published by the "Bild" publication and some Ukrainian mass media, an inaccuracy was admitted." Giving a clarification, they said, "Currently, design work in this direction has begun."

However, the construction of a new Antonov An-225 is surrounded by multiple problems. The primary concern after the ongoing war is the financial backing needed to build the plane. As per the statement by Antonov, the company needs something in the vicinity of 500 million Euros to build the world's biggest plane. Though the company also said, "it is too early to talk about a specific amount."

When the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022, the aeroplane was being stored at Hostomel Airport, the location of the Antonov Company. The airport, which is close to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, was bombed on the first day of the invasion. Russian paratroopers were supposedly ordered to the area to create a bridgehead so that more forces could be airlifted in. Mriya suffered severe harm during the struggle for Hostomel's authority.
New Delhi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali has officially started a British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) campaign for his acclaimed film Gangubai Kathiawadi, starring Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt in the lead role.

The 76th British Academy Film Awards, the UKs biggest celebration of global excellence in film, will take place at the Royal Festival Hall in London in February 2023. As part of the campaign, Gangubai Kathiawadi will be submitted for BAFTA members consideration in all categories, including Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Leading Actress, and Film Not in the English Language.

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali while speaking about the film and the love that is still pouring in, shared, We are immensely blessed to have received so much appreciation for our film globally and were very excited to be part of the conversation this awards season amongst BAFTA voters.

Alia Bhatt who was lauded for her performance in the film said It is a great honour to take Gangubai Kathiawadi to the world stage and it gives me nothing but joy to be on this journey with Sanjay Sir. The world has shown the film a lot of love and appreciation and we are excited to receive this love in the UK as well

Gangubai Kathiawadi had its world premiere at the 72nd Berlinale International Film Festival in February earlier this year, where it received a standing ovation and rave reviews. Following a successful worldwide theatrical run, the film premiered on Netflix, where it debuted at No. 1 (Non-English Film) in the first week.

To date, it has become the second-most-watched non-English language film on Netflix.

No stranger to the coveted awards ceremony, Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Devdas, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, was previously nominated at the 56th BAFTA Awards as the best foreign language film. Gangubai Kathiawadi was added to the official screening calendar for BAFTA voting members in October. Sanjay Leela Bhansali will be visiting the British capital for numerous events to support the campaign. He will share valuable insights into his three-decade-long career at a BAFTA Masterclass on the 28th of November.

The critically acclaimed Gangubai Kathiawadi is based on the book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai.' The movie honours the success of a straightforward young woman who was tricked and sold to a brothel. She was forced to accept fate's course and try to make it work in her favour. She takes on the role of the voice of the silenced and makes it her goal to attempt to legitimize a contaminated profession with a long history.
New Delhi: Three-time National Film Awardee, Manoj Bajpayee recently announced his upcoming untitled courtroom drama. Backed by Vinod Bhanushalis Bhanushali Studios Limited, Suparn S Varma, and Zee Studios, the pictures from the sets of this courtroom drama have started to take rounds on the internet.

As the shooting for this courtroom drama had begun in the initial weeks of last month, some glimpses of its current shooting in Mumbai have started to come out. The pictures are from the Mumbai schedule that will shoot some intense courtroom scenes. Moreover, from the start to finish, the schedule will be shot in Mumbai at various locations.

Recently, the team has just ended a shooting schedule in Jodhpur which came as a great experience for the cast. Manoj Bajpayee also expressed his gratitude for the amazing hospitality of the city he experienced during the visit. Moreover, While the shoot for the film is proceeding further well, the makers are looking at a 2023 release.

This hard-hitting story marks the debut of director Apoorv Singh Karki in Hindi films who has helmed popular OTT shows like Aspirants, Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt Ltd, Flames, etc. The film brings back Suparn S Varma and Manoj Bajpayee together after their award-winning series The Family Man. The film also comprises of an outstanding ensemble cast that adds gravitas to the film.

A Zee Studios and Bhanushali Studios Limited presentation, Suparn S Varmas courtroom drama directed by Apoorv Singh Karki, is produced by Vinod Bhanushali, Kamlesh Bhanushali, Asif Sheikh & Vishal Gurnani.
New Delhi: Gold price in the national capital fell Rs 141 to Rs 51,747 per 10 grams on Wednesday amid rupee appreciation, according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, the yellow metal had settled at Rs 51,888 per 10 grams.

Silver, however, climbed Rs 132 to Rs 62,400 per kilogram.

The rupee appreciated 50 paise to 81.42 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday on broad dollar weakness and improving global risk sentiments.

"Gold price inched higher hovering near their one-month high, trading above the psychological USD 1,680 mark. Dollar index slipped to its one and half month lows, falling below 110 level; while the US 10Y yield was down by 2 per cent in the yesterday's session supporting the move in gold and silver prices," Navneet Damani, Senior VP ? Commodity Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said.

In the international market, gold was trading higher at USD 1,713 per ounce while silver was down at USD 21.25 per ounce.

"Comex Gold prices jumped to a one-month high today, benefiting from resurgent safe haven demand and a weakening dollar as investors awaited the results of the US midterm elections, with broader metal prices also gaining," said Vinay Rajani, Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.
New Delhi: Mark Zuckerberg confirmed on Wednesday to lay off 13% of its staff which is around 11,000 globally. He wrote down a letter for Meta employees informing about the lay off process starting from Wednesday.

ALSO READ | Meta to lay off 11,000 employees globally, confirms Mark Zuckerberg

Today Im sharing some of the most difficult changes weve made in Metas history. Ive decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1. Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

ALSO READ | US-software company Salesforce lays off hundreds of employees: Report

He said hed predicted the surge in e-commerce that eventually led to outsized revenue growth. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than Id expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.

He further said that in the new environment it need to become more capital efficient. Meta has shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high priority growth areas  like AI discovery engine, our ads, and business platforms and our long-term vision for the metaverse.

Weve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. Were restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone wont bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so Ive also made the hard decision to let people go. Zuckerberg said in the blog post.

However, he announced through the letter to give employees 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap. The company will bear the cost the healthcare for people and their families for six months. Moreover, it will provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.

He further said in the blog to implement more cost cutting ways to rein in other sources of costs including shrinking real estate footprint, meaning transitioning to desk sharing for people who already spend most of their outside the office.

Were also extending our hiring freeze through Q1 with a small number of exceptions. Im going to watch our business performance, operational efficiency, and other macroeconomic factors to determine whether and how much we should resume hiring at that point. This will give us the ability to control our cost structure in the event of a continued economic downturn. It will also put us on a path to achieve a more efficient cost structure than we outlined to investors recently.

Im currently in the middle of a thorough review of our infrastructure spending. As we build our AI infrastructure, were focused on becoming even more efficient with our capacity. Our infrastructure will continue to be an important advantage for Meta, and I believe we can achieve this while spending less.

Fundamentally, were making all these changes for two reasons: our revenue outlook is lower than we expected at the beginning of this year, and we want to make sure were operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs.
New Delhi: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter on Wednesday confirmed to start laying off 11,000 employees globally which accounts around 13% staff. The layoff decision has been come amid faltering revenue growth and a slump of its shares in recent weeks.

ALSO READ | Losing THIS video game could be DEADLY for you! 'Killer' VR set blasts if...

While sharing the annoucement of layoff, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, oday Im sharing some of the most difficult changes weve made in Metas history. Ive decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.

ALSO READ | LG unveils world's first stretchable display; Can stretch from 12 to 14-inch

However, the company has announced some compensation for fired employees.

What are all compensations for firing employees?

As for severance allowance, Meta will pay 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap. Moreover, the company will cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.

The company is planning to provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unplublised job leads. To provide immigration support, therea notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status.

Zuckerberg mentioned that outside the US, the company will provide the similar support along with separate processes that take inot account local employement laws.

What other changes is Meta making?

Mark said that layoff was the last resort to club down the companys expenses. Meta has decided to shrink down real estate footprint by transitioning to desk sharing for people who already spend most of their time outside the office. There are more cost-cutting plans in the coming months.

It is also freezing hiring with a small number of exceptions.

Mark said, were making all these changes for two reasons: our revenue outlook is lower than we expected at the beginning of this year, and we want to make sure were operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs.
New Delhi: Elon Musk has sold additional Tesla stock worth $3.4 billion towards financing the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal, revealed the latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). With this, he has offloaded almost $20 billion in Tesla shares this year. The world's richest man sold $8.4 billion in Tesla shares in April and another $6.9 billion in August.

The tech billionaire earlier said on social media that he had "no further Tesla sales planned" after April 28. For the Twitter deal, Musk pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing, which covered the $44 billion deal and closing costs. (Also Read: Flipkart Mobile Bonanza Sale: Get iPhone XR 64GB at just Rs 39,999, check other top deals)

Banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, provided $13 billion in debt financing while Musk's $33.5 billion equity commitment included his 9.6 per cent Twitter stake worth $4 billion. He secured $7.1 billion from equity investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. (Also Read: Twitter to roll out 'Blue Tick Subscription' in THIS month in India; Check what Elon Musk said)

However, he still needed to raise an additional $2-$3 billion to complete the financing and the latest share sell-off may be in that direction. Twitter is struggling as several major advertisers like Volkswagen Group and Danish brewing company Carlsberg Group have paused spending on the platform siren Musk took over.

The company has told advertisers that its daily user growth has hit an "all-time high" after Musk's takeover. Twitter last reported 237.8 million mDAUs and a 16.6 per cent annual growth for its second quarter.

Musk said last week that Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue as activist groups were putting undue pressure on its advertisers.
Cassava Technologies group deputy executive chairman Nic Rudnick (pictured) called for more rapid deployment of fibre, to deliver uncapped and affordable connectivity to enable Africans to participate in the fourth industrial revolution.

In his keynote speech at Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town, Rudnick pointed out 70% of data consumed in developed nations is over fixed lines, according to Statista and Telegeography data.

The average UK household consumes over 500GB per month over fixed lines while in Africa only 3% of homes have access to broadband. Data on fixed line is faster, affordable and uncapped, which enables subscribers to be creators rather than consumers, a point he brings to showcase that Africans can do more to develop their countries if given the connectivity.

Senegal currently has the highest penetration of fixed lines with a rate of 10% of its population, followed by Kenya and the Ivory coast lingering around 6% while other nations hover around 2-4%. In OECD countries, 90% of homes have fixed broadband connections.

There are only eight countries in Africa where consumers are expected to spend 8% of their income on connectivity: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria.

OECD countries spend on average 1.5% of income for services which include unlimited and affordable data, for comparison 1.5% of median income will only deliver 100MB of mobile data or less in half of African countries. In only five African nations will this deliver a minimum of 1GB of data.

Because of poor mobile data affordability, this leads to data rationing. People are simply not using networks in the way we anticipated, said Rudnick.

I think that is the key challenge, which we as an industry need to overcome if we want people to move from being simple consumers to being creators in the fourth industrial revolution.

He also pointed out that there is a lack of unicorn technology companies in Africa and this is in part due to the lack of widespread high-speed connectivity.
New Delhi: Recession is around the corner according to experts and the tech industry can become the biggest victim. Tech companies around the world is laying off its workers in order to be better prepared for the imminent recession. Now another tech company Salesforce has announced to lay off hundreds of employees this week to cut excessive expenditure. According to the reports, it laid off around 1000 people globally.

ALSO READ | Archean Chemical Industries IPO; Check GMP, Price band, and other key details

Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition. Salesforces official statement on the layoffs.

ALSO READ | 'Noise Two' wireless headphones launched in India; Check price, specs, more

Salesforce CFO Amy Weaver said in an Investor Day presentation last month the company was shooting for $50 billion in reveunue by FY26, it was also looking to get more profitable by aiming for a 25% operating margin in the same time period. The path to that goal is of course via cost cutting.

Meta begins MASSIVE lay off

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg spoke to hundreds of executives on Tuesday (local time) and confirmed about laying off employees on Wednesday morning. Zuckerberg appeared downcast in Tuesday`s meeting and said he was accountable for the company`s missteps. His over-optimism about growth had led to overstaffing, according to people present in the meeting, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The company is expected to cut thousands of employees beginning Wednesday, and this will likely be the largest of the year to date in the tech sector, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people in the know about the matter.

Employees who are to be laid off will receive at least four months of salary, the newspaper reported. According to the report, Zuckerberg mentioned recruiting and business teams as among those facing layoffs. An internal announcement of the layoff plan is expected at about 6 am Wednesday, reported Fox News.
Mumbai: After `Death on the Nile` and `Kandahar`, actor Ali Fazal has been roped in for a new Hollywood movie `Afghan Dreamers`, which is being directed by two-time Oscar-winning director Bill Guttentag for his shorts `You Don`t Have To Die` and `Twin Towers. Just last year it was announced that the actor has been roped in to play one of the leads alongside Gerard Butler in the action-packed film `Kandahar`, which is set to release in 2023. Now he will next be seen in `Afghan Dreamers`.

The `Fukrey` actor is set to essay one of the leads in the film based on the inspiring true story of the all girls robotics team from Afghanistan. The shoot for `Afghan Dreamers` recently began in Morocco and will be a 50 days schedule, with majority of the film being shot across Morocco and Budapest. The film is the true story about the program that was started by Afghan tech entrepreneur, Roya Mahboob in 2017 as a way to help young women develop their skills in the field of science and technology, despite a heavily patriarchal society in the country they hail from.

The film throws light on chaotic, sometimes dangerous backdrop of the country`s politics. The story tells the tale of the team of the Afghan girls who traveled across the world and participated in competitions, garnered global media attention and even met leading politicians from across the globe. The role of Roya will be essayed by The Bold Type famed Nikohl Boosheri. Ali gathered immense appreciation for his role in the Hollywood film `Death on the Nile`. The film which also starred Gal Gadot, Kenneth Branagh, Armie Hammer, Tom Bateman, Letitia Wright, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Emma Mackey, and Rose Leslie, was released worldwide on February 11 2022.

Speaking about `Afghan Dreamers`, Ali said, "Excited and humbled to be sharing notes and being directed by Bill who has an impeccable body of work. Afghan Dreamers is a very important story to be told and I`m happy to be part of its cinematic retelling". The film is being produced by Laura Overdeck, Samudrika Arora and Bill Guttentag.
Krishnanagar (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was "using" the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) with an eye on the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo asserted that she will never allow the implementation of CAA in West Bengal. Banerjee also accused the saffron camp of trying to fan separatism in West Bengal by raking up statehood demands and iterated she will never allow the division of the state. "Whenever any election approaches, the BJP speaks of implementing CAA and NRC. With upcoming Gujarat assembly polls later this year, and Lok Sabha elections just a year-and-half away, it has again started to flare up the CAA issue. Will the BJP decide who is a citizen and who is not? Matuas are very much citizens of this country," Banerjee said, while addressing party workers in Krishnanagar.

The politically powerful Matua community has its origin in East Bengal or present-day Bangladesh. Many of them reside in the districts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

Also Read: Mamata Banerjee's BIG WARNING to Centre on CAA: 'Lives more important than...'

"The BJP is fanning separatism in West Bengal by instigating Rajbanshis and Gorkhas in northern parts of the state. We will never allow the division of West Bengal," she said.

BJP speaks of implementing CAA, NRC whenever any election approaches: Mamata Banerjee in Matua-inhabited Nadia district  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 9, 2022

Iterating that the BJP won't return to power after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee said that the political situation of the country was different in 2019 and it has changed since then.

"In 2019, the political situation of the country was different; BJP was in power in Bihar, Jharkhand and many other states. But now, its political presence has diminished across the country; it is no longer in power in many states.

"The BJP has already reached a saturation point in many states. That is why it is attacking opposition parties and arresting opposition leaders by maligning them," she said.
CAT 2022: Indian Institute of Management, IIM Bangalore has released the Common Admissions Test, CAT 2022 Mock test. The practise test, questions, and more can be downloaded from the official website, iimcat.ac.in, by candidates who have enrolled for the CAT 2022 exam. According to IIM Bangalore, the CAT Exam mock test will include questions from past year's question papers to help candidates comprehend the format of the test. The CAT 2022 test will be given on November 27, 2022, at IIM Bangalore. The exam will be administered in three shifts: from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM in the morning, from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM in the afternoon, and from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM in the evening.

CAT 2022 Mock test: Heres how to take the test

Visit the official website for the CAT 2022 exam at iimcat.ac.in

On the homepage, click on the link provided for the CAT 2022 Mock test

Enter your log-in credentials such as User ID and password

Log in and take the mock test

IIMCAT.AC.IN has already made the CAT 2022 admit card available. It is advised that candidates print their admission cards and bring them to their designated exam centres.
New Delhi: Days after a federation of central government employees wrote to the Cabinet Secretary regarding bringing back of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for the retiring employees at old age, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, announced to implement the scheme if Congress gets voted to power in Himachal Pradesh. Baghel assured the people of fulfilling all the poll promises such as the restoration of OPS, 300 units of free power and giving Rs 1,500 to women.

OPS (Old Pension Scheme) will be implemented if Congress wins HP elections. Once OPS will be implemented in state, funds will be given by the state govt...Funds aren't of Centre, it is employee's money and it will be availed to people, Baghel said in a rally in Shimla.

OPS (Old Pension Scheme) will be implemented if Congress wins HP elections. Once OPS will be implemented in state, funds will be given by the state govt...Funds aren't of Centre, it is employee's money and it will be availed to people: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel in Shimla pic.twitter.com/NEQBewMeLF  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

'Jai Ram' to Jai Ram Thakur-led government

Addressing a rally in favour of Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh here, he appeals to the Himachal Pradesh's voters to say 'Jai Ram' (goodbye) to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and elect a Congress government following the tradition of voting out the incumbent.

"You have seen BJP's five years and they have nothing to say to people. No jobs have been given, no airport by Jai Ram ji and time has come to say 'Jai Ram' (goodbye) to Jai Ram Thakur," he said.

OPS to be restored

"The Congress does what it says. All promises will be fulfilled in Himachal as has been done in Chhattisgarh. Old pension scheme (OPS) is being implemented in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand, and Himachal will be the fourth state to implement it," he told the gathering.

Also Read: 'Himachal already had many facilities': Kharge on BJP's 'What has Congress done in 70 yrs'

Questioning the Centre for not releasing the funds of state government employees deposited in the national pension scheme, he said, "How can the Centre hold on to the funds as the money belongs to the employees of the state and the state government."

The Centre will not be able to stop the release of pension funds for long and the old pension scheme will be restored, he asserted. The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the hill state, where the Congress and the BJP have governed alternately for the past many decades.

Congress manifesto

Restoration of the old pension scheme, 300 units of free power, a Rs 680-crore StartUp fund, one lakh jobs and Rs 1,500 per month for women aged between 18 and 60 years are among the promises the Congress has made in its manifesto for the Himachal Pradesh polls.

Baghel said the Congress gives money to people and the BJP siphons off the money from their pockets by raising taxes on petrol and diesel and prices of essential commodities.

"Have faith in the Congress, you will get free power, OPS and Rs 1,500 to women to help increase your incomes," he said while urging people to elect Singh from the Shimla Rural constituency.

"All issues are before the people and only a few hours are left for the elections. All have made up their mind, whatever the BJP may say," he said.

Democracy is in Congress, not in BJP

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was present at the poll meeting. Baghel said everyone knows Kharge became the Congress president after an election, but nobody knows when J P Nadda became the BJP president twice. Notably, BJP president Nadda hails from Himachal Pradesh.

"Democracy is in the Congress and not in the BJP and people also know that," he said. He cited a video that went viral on social media where the prime minister was urging a BJP rebel to step aside, claiming that the BJP has 21 rebels in the fray.

Central Government employees writes to Cabinet Secretary

The National Pension System (NPS) is a disaster for retiring personnel in their old age, according to a federation of Central Government Employees' Unions in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary. According to the federation, a Defence establishment official who retired recently after more than 13 years of service received barely 15% of the assured pension he would have received under the OPS.

Polling in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November 12 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

(With agency inputs)
It's a joyous moment in Maitri Bagh Zoo in Chhattisgarh's Bhilai city as a 2-month-old white tiger cub named 'Singham' was released there on Tuesday (Nov 8). The baby white tiger became a huge attraction as visitors came to get a sneak peek. The total number of white tigers in the zoo now stands at 7. In terms of tiger breeding, this is a move forward as the process was halted for the past 2 years due to the pandemic. Maitri Bagh Zoo in charge N K Jain told ANI, "There is a wave of happiness in the zoo with the birth of the baby tiger. The breeding among the tiger was stopped for the last two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Six months ago, we brought Roma (tigress) and Sultan (Tiger) as a result of which, we got a new baby tiger on September 5. We named him Singham. The cub is very healthy and all the tourists are very happy after taking a look at it."

The white tiger cub Singham has finally entered the zoo. He had been separated from his mother for health concerns as he was very weak after his birth.

#WATCH | A two-month-old white tiger cub was released in Maitribagh zoon in Chhattisgarh's Bhilai district on Tuesday. The cub is named Singham. pic.twitter.com/4vckiFd4GV  ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) November 8, 2022

Jain further said that a tiger couple Tarun and Taapsee were brought from Nandankanan in Bhubaneswar in 1997. As a result of which the number of tigers reached 19 to 20. Out of these tigers, 12 were given to different zoos in the county; currently, there were seven tigers in Maitribagh. "Maitri Bagh is known for its white tigers. The cage has been given a natural look. Special care of the food is being taken here. The same environment therapy is also taken care of. Due to this, the breeding of tigers becomes easy," Jain added.

(With ANI inputs)
New Delhi: The district magistrates of 31 districts and the home secretaries of nine states have been given powers to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming to the country from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act, 1955. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for 2021-22, from April 1 to December 31, 2021, a total of 1,414 foreigners belonging to these minority communities of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan were given Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

The move to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming to the country from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and not under the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) bears significance. The CAA also provides for granting Indian citizenship to these non-Muslims coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, the rules under the CAA have not been framed by the government yet and hence, no one so far has been granted Indian citizenship under it.

The annual report of the MHA said the Centre delegated its powers to grant Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation in respect of foreigners belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian or Parsi communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to the collectors of 13 more districts and the home secretaries of two more states in 2021-22.

Also read: Mamata Banerjee's BIG WARNING to Centre on CAA: 'Lives more important than...'

"With this, collectors of 29 districts and home secretaries of nine states have been authorised to grant citizenship in respect of the aforesaid category of migrants," the report said. The district magistrates of Gujarat's Anand and Mehsana were also given similar powers last month.

Also read: Supreme Court to here to hear pleas challenging validity of CAA on December 6

The nine states where Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation is given under the Citizenship Act, 1955 to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra.

Interestingly, the authorities of none of the districts of Assam and West Bengal, where the issue is politically sensitive, has been given the powers so far.

The delegation of powers, the report said, will speed up the process of granting Indian citizenship to the aforesaid category of migrants as the decision would be taken at the local level.

"From April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021, a total of 1,414 citizenship certificates have been granted by all authorities including this ministry. Out of this, 1,120 were granted by registration under section 5 and 294 were granted by naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955," the report said.

Under the CAA, the Narendra Modi government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- who came to India till December 31, 2014.

Also read: CAA protests against unjust law; not against Sovereign: Umar Khalid in HC

There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and the subsequent presidential nod.

More than a hundred people lost their lives during the protests or in police action. However, the law is yet to be implemented as rules under the CAA are yet to be framed. Rules under a law have to be framed for its implementation.

According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of the presidential assent or an extension has to be sought from the committees on subordinate legislation in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

In January 2020, the home ministry notified that the Act would come into force from January 10, 2020, but it later requested the parliamentary committees in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to give it some more time to frame the rules as the country was going through its worst ever health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The MHA was granted yet another extension last month by the parliamentary committees on subordinate legislation in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to frame the rules under the CAA. While the permission was granted by the Rajya Sabha till December 31, 2022, the Lok Sabha granted time till January 9, 2023.

This was the seventh extension given to the MHA to frame the rules under the CAA.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress Working President Satish Jarkiholi, who is in the eye of a political storm for his statement on the origins of the word Hindu and its "dirty meaning", on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, withdrew the remark and expressed "regret" if it has hurt anyone's sentiments. Pointing out that his statement was only referring to what has been written and published, the MLA from Yamakanmardi constituency wrote a letter addressed to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai alleging that some vested interests were trying to project him as "anti-Hindu", and sought an inquiry into it.

Jarkiholi is under intense criticism, including from his own party, for his remarks, and the ruling BJP on Wednesday held statewide protests condemning him and the Congress.

Noting that his statement was based on Wikipedia, books, dictionaries, and writings by historians, the former minister said in the letter, "Some vested interests are trying to project me as anti Hindu and are conspiring to destroy my image. I request you to conduct an inquiry into all this, and against those who are trying to create a scene, without explaining the reality."

He has urged Bommai to immediately constitute an inquiry committee to look into it. Further, stating that his statement has created a controversy, Jarkiholi said, "As his remarks have been misconstrued and wrongly presented, I'm withdrawing my statement with a good intention that it should not create confusion among the public. If that statement has hurt anyone's feelings, I express my regret."

Also Read: Go to PAKISTAN if... : MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra SLAMS Congress over Hindu' remark row

Jarkiholi, while speaking at Nippani in Belagavi district during an event organised by "Manav Bandhutva Vedike' on Sunday, had claimed that the word 'Hindu' is Persian and has a very dirty meaning. He had also said that a word and a religion from elsewhere are being forcefully imposed on people here, and demanded that there should be a proper debate in this regard.

Unfazed over the widespread criticism, including from his own party, for his remarks, Jarkiholi on Tuesday had said he was only referring to what has been written and published. Defending himself and ruling out any apology, he had said he wants a debate on the issue and if proved wrong, would resign as a legislator. Soon after Jarkiholi's statement had gone viral on Monday, the Congress on its part had rejected it with AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala condemning it on behalf of the party.

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Karnataka PCC chief D K Shivakumar said, "Our party condemns Jarkiholi's statement, BJP may use the issue for politics, we are not bothered. As the President I'm saying -- what he has said is wrong, I will contact him."

Pointing out that Jarkiholi has tried to defend himself by stating that he was referring to a book, he said, "I don't know which book. Our party's stand on our religion and culture has been made clear by AICC General Secretary Surjewala, Siddaramaiah and me. There is no change in it."

The BJP today held a statewide protest condemning Jarkiholi for his controversial statement, and also attacked the Congress party. At Mysuru Bank circle in Bengaluru, BJP workers staged a demonstration waving saffron flags and shouting slogans "Navella Hindu, Navella Ondu ' (We are all Hindus and are united). They burnt an effigy of Jarkiholi. Similar protests by burning the Congress leader's effigy were held in Jarkiholi's home district of Belagavi.

There were reports of protests from various parts of the state including Chamarajanagar, Tumakuru, Karwar, Yadgir, Raichur, Shivamogga, Gadag, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Bagalkote among other places.

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters in Davangere, Chief Minister Bommai said, "He (Jarkiholi) is saying that his claims were after referring to some books and Wikipedia, whose trustworthiness is questionable. There are several cases. Believing them, if he is making such statements, what to say?"

Hitting out at Congress for taking shelter by stating that the remarks were not made at a party meeting or forum, he said, "The content is important. In an open public meeting, he has clearly said what he had to. Congress has to come out clear, Siddaramaiah (Congress Legislature Party leader) comments on every other thing, why is he silent on this? He has to say what his opinion is."

BJP Parliamentary Board Member and former chief minister Yediyurappa said Jarkiholi's statement "humiliating Hindus is unpardonable". He urged the Congress leader to apologise stating that he won't repeat it. "If not, people will teach a lesson."

Home Minister Araga Jnanendra too hit out at Jarkiholi and called Congress "dirty", while accusing it of minority appeasement by humiliating Hindus, for the sake of votes. Challenging Shivakumar, the minister further said, "If he has guts, let him remove Jarkiholi. Both -- supporting such acts and condemning the same -- cannot go hand in hand. Let Congress act similarly as BJP did against Nupur Sharma (for her controversial remarks about Prophet Mohammed)."
NEW DELHI: Senior Supreme Court judge Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, after assuming office as Chief Justice of India (CJI), announced his plan of action with a message. Chandrachud whose father Y V Chandrachud had also served as the CJI took the oath administered by President Droupadi Murmu. After taking oath, he visited the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Supreme Court to pay tribute to it. While doing so, he said he aims to, "serve the nation is my priority. We'll protect all the citizens of India, be it in terms of technology or registry reforms, or judicial reforms."

Justice Chandrachud will serve as the CJI for two years till November 10, 2024. Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65. He succeeds Uday Umesh Lalit, who had recommended him as his successor to the Centre on October 11. President Draupadi Murmu had appointed him as the next CJI on October 17.

Also Read: Justice D Y Chandrachud, the seniormost Supreme Court judge, takes oath as 50th Chief Justice of India

Justice Chandrachud, born on November 11, 1959, was elevated to the top court on May 13, 2016. He has been part of several Constitution benches and landmark verdicts of the top court including on matters relating to the Ayodhya land dispute, the right to privacy and adultery.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud pays tribute to the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Supreme Court, after taking the oath



Says, "to serve the nation is my priority. We'll protect all the citizens of India, be it in terms of technology or registry reforms, or judicial reforms." pic.twitter.com/mzz9fAasiQ  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

Chandrachud was also part of the benches which delivered path-breaking judgements on decriminalising same-sex relations after it partially struck down Section 377 of the IPC, the validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the Sabarimala issue.

(With PTI inputs)
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the appeal by Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Thursday seeking cancellation of the bail order given by a special court to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut. A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday granted bail to Sanjay Raut in a money laundering case pertaining to the Patra Chawl redevelopment project. The court rejected the Enforcement Directorate's plea urging it not to give effect to the bail order till Friday, paving the way for the release of Rajya Sabha member Raut, who was arrested on July 31 this year and is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. The ED approached the Bombay High Court seeking cancellation of the bail order and an interim order for a stay on the same, even as a lawyer of Raut said they will try to complete the formalities by Wednesday evening to facilitate his release from the prison.

The court also granted bail to the parliamentarian's associate and co-accused Pravin Raut. A lawyer representing the ED said, "We are in the process of filing an appeal seeking cancellation of the bail order. We will be mentioning it before a single bench of the high court this evening, seeking interim stay on the order."

Also Read: 'Everyone needs to THINK...': Aaditya Thackeray gives FIRST REACTION after Sanjay Raut gets BAIL

Raut's lawyer, however, said they would go ahead with the formalities to ensure the Sena leader walks out of the jail on Wednesday. Earlier, special Judge M G Deshpande, designated to hear cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), allowed the bail plea of Raut after hearing arguments from both sides. The ED, however, pleaded before the court not to give effect to the bail order till Friday.

#UPDATE | Patra Chawl land scam case: Mumbai's PMLA court grants bail to Shiv Sena leader & MP Sanjay Raut https://t.co/upyL10h3pR  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

"We need time to read the order, it is not an unreasonable request. It is the court order, it has the power to give effect to the order on a later date. I must be given some chance and opportunity by the court," Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the ED, submitted before the court. But, the court rejected the ED's plea.

The ED had arrested Sanjay Raut for his alleged role in financial irregularities in connection with the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl (row tenement) in suburban Goregaon. The Sena MP had in his bail plea claimed the case against him was a perfect example of "abuse of power" and "political vendetta".

However, the central probe agency had opposed the politician's plea, saying he played a major role in the money laundering case related to the Patra Chawl redevelopment and acted "behind the curtains" to avoid the money trail.

The ED's probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl and related financial transactions involving Sanjay Raut's wife and associates.

Siddharth Nagar, popularly known as the Patra Chawl, in Goregaon is spread over 47 acres and houses 672 tenant families.

In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), a government agency, assigned a redevelopment contract for the Chawl to Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL), a sister company of the Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL).

The GACPL was supposed to build 672 flats for the tenants and also give some flats to MHADA. It was free to sell the remaining land to private developers.

But the tenants did not get a single flat in the last 14 years as the company did not redevelop the Patra Chawl and sold land parcels and Floor Space Index (FSI) to other builders for Rs 1,034 crore, as per the ED played a major role in the money laundering case.
Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) has become the regions preferred destination for F&B manufacturing, with a customer base of 600 companies from 70 countries, accounting for 20 per cent of Dubai's total F&B trade.

Offering multimodal transportation, the dedicated F&B cluster consisting of quayside, pre-built warehouses, and cool and cold storage spreads over 1.7 million sq m.

Three factors underpin the success of Jafzas local and global customers -- innovation, scalable technology and partnerships, it said.

F&B manufacturers can reduce lead time through the free zones thermal insulated, purpose-built Light Industrial Units (LIUs) and warehouses. They can also achieve competitiveness by taking advantage of incentives such as zero corporate tax and VAT exemptions.

Another major benefit is access to digital trade platforms like ZADI via Dubai Trade. Launched in 2020, ZADI is a unified food import platform which has been key to facilitating the import and re-export of food shipments throughout Dubai ports, safeguarding the food supply chain from monopoly and disruption, it said.

DP Worlds smart technologies also make logistics operations more sustainable and seamless for its customers. Through DP World Cargoes, customers can ensure transparent and simplified supply chains via 4PL solutions and services such as track and trace technology, trade financing, reverse logistics, feeder services and more.

Access to the GCC and beyond

Jafza, along with Jebel Ali Port, forms the Jebel Ali hub that offers unmatched one-stop-shop solutions, multimodal connectivity, and last-mile delivery. The free zones proximity to the port -- connected to over 150 ports and over 80 weekly services -- gives F&B companies access to 3.5 billion consumers globally.

The port acts as a gateway to high-growth markets in the Middle East, Africa, South and East Asia and the CIS Countries. DP World's ecosystem offers shorter transit times to larger markets, logistics to value-added solutions, and investment to end-to-end solutions. The companys comprehensive range of products and services covers every link of the integrated supply chain  from maritime and inland terminals to marine services and industrial parks as well as technology-driven customer solutions.

DP World delivers these services through an interconnected global network of 295 business units in 78 countries across six continents, with a significant presence both in high-growth and mature markets.

Dedicated F&B Terminal

Further boosting the local and regional F&B industry is Jebel Ali Ports Food and Agriculture Terminal. The 1 million sqm quayside terminal strengthens Dubais status as a key gateway for global F&B trade. It is equipped to process cereals, meat, and seafood products, bottled water, and dairy products with specialised facilities for oil, tea, coffee, cacao, spices, and various primal food products.

This year in July, two new development projects with Adroit Canada and Al Amir Foods at Food and Agriculture Terminal were announced to ensure a reliable, consistent, and safe agricultural value chain within the region. With an estimated investment of AED200 million, the facilities will have a singular ecosystem for bulk silo storage and agri-processing.

The facilities are expected to account for annual trade of more than AED900 million, contributing to Dubais strategic plan of boosting foreign trade to AED2 trillion.

DP World will also invest in the most versatile, technologically advanced and automated grains and pulses material handling and ferrying systems as part of the project, it said. -TradeArabia News Service
Orange Cote dIvoire has announced a partnership with Vanu to provide connectivity in rural areas of the country.

The project will focus on uncovered areas in Cote dIvoire as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Liberia. The partnership between Orange and Vanu will provide technology upgrades with a Network-as-a-Service model to an initial 1070 sites, of which 700 will be in Cote dIvoire, 170 in Burkina Faso, and 200 in Liberia.

The firms plan to use mobile technology to accelerate the development of digital projects in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education and financial services, helping Orange to improve its customer experience.

Nafy Coulibaly, the Deputy Director General of Orange Cote dIvoire Group, said: In order to provide digital services for all, Orange will deploy its services by strategically improving/increasing its network coverage so that no one will be left behind. This will be achieved by ensuring that we provide, to as many people as possible, free and unfettered access to digital services everywhere.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister and hardline BJP leader Narottam Mishra has strongly condemned Karnataka Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi's remarks claiming the word 'Hindu' is Persian and has a very dirty meaning and demanded an apology from the Congress party. Mishra has also demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi over the issue and said that he will write a letter in this regard to him.

Reacting to Jarkiholi's statement, MP Home Minister Mishra while talking to reporters here said Rahul Gandhi had tried to define 'Hindu' and 'Hindutva' during a rally in Rajasthan and now Congress leaders were making controversial comments during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Rahul Gandhi should apologise for the derogatory remarks made by Jarkiholi on the word 'Hindu. I will write a letter to him to clarify what Congress thinks about 'Hindu' and 'Hindutva', said Mishra, who is also the MP government's spokesperson.

Targeting Jarkiholi over his controversial remark, Mishra said, Those who have problems with Hindus and Hindutva can go to Pakistan. Such people are needed in Pakistan considering the present political situation in the neighbouring country.

Addressing an event in Nippani on Sunday, Karnataka Congress Working President Jarkiholi said, "They speak about Hindu Dharm...This that, where did the Hindu word come from? Is it ours? It is Persian. Persian is from Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. What is Bharat's relationship with it? Then, how did Hindu become yours? There should be a debate on this."

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) later termed it as deeply unfortunate and rejected it "unequivocally".
Shimla: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said that They (BJP) have a common slogan- 'What has Congress done in 70 years'? - Himachal Pradesh already had many facilities like colleges, electricity, and roads. Were they all developed in the last 7 years? Addressing a poll meeting at Banuti in Shimla, Kharge came down heavily on BJP and its president JP Nadda, he said "I have been elected as Congress President with a fair voting system but nobody knows how was JP Nadda appointed. They (BJP) always allege that there is no democracy in Congress." Newly elected party president, Kharge on Tuesday arrived here on a two-day visit to poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and held a meeting of top party leaders. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was also present during the meeting, where the party's election strategy was discussed, sources said.

Kharge will address a poll meeting in Panjhera in Nalagarh on Wednesday before returning to Delhi.

Also Read: 'Congress is a guarantee of instability...: PM Narendra Modi's BIG ATTACK in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh

Kharge would be campaigning in favour of party candidates for the first time as the Congress chief. Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat will be the first challenge for Kharge, who has assumed the new role of Congress president taking over from Sonia Gandhi who held the top post for over two decades.

They (BJP) have a common slogan - What has Congress done in 70 years? - Himachal Pradesh already had many facilities like colleges, electricity, and roads. Were they all developed in the last 7 years?: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge#HimachalPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/95Y7lswSTm  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

The Congress has lost several states after losing the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to the BJP. It is also struggling to find prominence in the opposition space amid expanding regional players like AAP and TMC. A number of prominent faces in the Congress have also left the party in recent times.

(With agency inputs)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously holding rallies for the campaign for the Himachal Pradesh elections. Today there are many programs in Himachal. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's convoy stopped for some time on Wednesday before an election rally. This development was seen in Kangra, where PM Modi himself stopped his convoy to give way to an ambulance. Ahead of the Hamirpur rally in Himachal Pradesh today, while going to the meeting place, people were surprised when Prime Minister Modi's convoy suddenly stopped. During this Himachal visit, the humanitarian side of PM Modi was once again seen.

Let us tell you that this was not the first time that the PM had stopped his convoy to give way to an ambulance. A similar incident came to the fore last month as well. Then PM Modi was on a Gujarat tour. During that time, too, he had given a similar order to give way to an ambulance. Then the Gujarat unit of the BJP said in a statement, "Prime Minister Modi's convoy stopped to give way to an ambulance while going from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar."

Before Hamirpur, while addressing the election rally in Chambi, Kangra, PM Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and said, "Wherever it goes from somewhere, the Congress does not return there again." He also said that the land of Kangra is the land of Shaktipeeths. It is a pilgrimage of India's faith and spirituality. From Baijnath to Kathgarh, in this land, the infinite grace of Baba Bhole always remains on all of us. Himchal will have a strong government and will have the power of a double engine, so it will also overcome the challenges and will achieve new heights equally fast.
New Delhi: With several senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders being lodged in jails in various cases, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (November 9, 2022) said that those who have committed mistakes should be "given a chance to rectify them". Addressing a TMC workers' meeting in West Bengal's Nadia district, she also said that the entire party should not be blamed if one or two persons commit a mistake. Mamata also claimed that allegations of corruption against TMC leaders have been blown out of proportion.

"If one or two persons commit a mistake, the entire party should not be blamed. There is an attempt to tarnish the entire party - as if everyone is a thief," she said.

"If someone has committed any mistake, the person should be given a chance to rectify those mistakes," Banerjee said.

The leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the biggest thieves, the TMC supremo added.

Banerjee also alleged that the saffron party was influencing media trials of her leaders to malign them.

Our Hon'ble Chairperson Smt @MamataOfficial received a heartwarming welcome at Krishnanagar ahead of the public meeting.



We are elated to receive the love and blessings of people!



Few glimpses pic.twitter.com/hNVzQEhZop  All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) November 9, 2022

Mamata's comments come in the backdrop of the recent arrest of Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya for his alleged involvement in 'irregularities' in recruiting primary school teachers.

Earlier in August this year, the CBI had arrested TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal for allegedly being involved in cattle smuggling. A month before that, the ED had arrested former education minister Partha Chatterjee in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam.

Those involved in infighting would be thrown out of TMC

Mamata Banerjee also cautioned party MLAs in the faction-ridden Nadia district saying that those who are involved in infighting would be thrown out of the party.

"I will request all MLAs in the region to stop fighting among themselves. If you don't stop infighting, you have no place in this party. If you have an ego, you better stay at home; you won't be needed. If you want to serve people, then go out and work for the people," she said.

She added that infighting sends out a wrong message and provides an advantage to the opposition forces.

"I will be setting up a coordination committee, in which the MP of the region, MLAs of the region, and the Zilla Parishad president will be there. We will work together for the betterment of the region. If the TMC stays united, no BJP, CPI(M), or Congress will be able to fight against us," she said.

Referring to the panchayat poll in the state due next year, the chief minister claimed that all these opposition parties come together whenever the elections approach.

"The CPI (M) and the BJP have a secret understanding. This is the truth that everyone should know," she said.

Banerjee wondered what the public representatives of the saffron camp have done for the district.

Out of the two Lok Sabha seats in Nadia district, the BJP snatched the Ranghat constituency from the TMC in 2019.

"I request the people of Ranaghat not to listen to the lies perpetuated by the BJP. Before every election, these BJP leaders begin lying only to secure your vote and then vanish for the rest of their tenure. The TMC stands by you through thick and thin," she said.

BJP 'using' CAA with eye on Gujarat Assembly elections

The West Bengal Chief Minister also alleged that the BJP was "using" the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) with an eye on the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections. She asserted that she will never allow the implementation of CAA or NRC in West Bengal.

"Whenever any election approaches, the BJP speaks of implementing CAA and NRC. With upcoming Gujarat assembly polls later this year, and Lok Sabha elections just a year-and-a-half away, it again started to flare up the CAA issue.

"Will the BJP decide who is a citizen and who is not? Matuas are very much citizens of this country," Banerjee said.

Matuas, who make up a large chunk of the state's Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to West Bengal from present-day Bangladesh since the 1950s, ostensibly due to religious persecution.

"If Matuas are not citizens of this country, then how are they casting their votes in elections? If Matuas are illegal citizens, then the BJP MPs and MLAs who have been elected with Matua votes should resign as their election is also illegal," she said.

The promise of implementing the controversial CAA had been a major poll plank of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha and the 2021 assembly polls.

"The BJP's plan is to use the CAA to grant citizenship to its supporters from other states and make them residents of West Bengal. They will then snatch away the rights of the permanent citizens residing here thus depriving you of various welfare schemes of the state government such as Lakhsmir Bhandar," she said.

Mamata accused the saffron camp of trying to "bring in its supporters from other states and make them voters of West Bengal while snatching the rights of the permanent residents of the eastern state".

Banerjee also accused the saffron camp of trying to fan separatism in West Bengal by raking up statehood demands and iterated she will never allow the division of the state.

"The BJP is fanning separatism in West Bengal by instigating Rajbanshis and Gorkhas in northern parts of the state. We will never allow the division of West Bengal," she said.

BJP won't return to power after 2024 Lok Sabha elections

Mamata Banerjee also claimed that the BJP won't return to power after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said that the country's political situation was changing fast, and it is very different from that of 2019.

"In 2019, the country's political situation was different; the BJP was in power in Bihar, Jharkhand, and many other states. But now, its political presence has diminished across the country; it is no longer in control in many states.

"The BJP has already reached a saturation point in many states. The political situation of the country is changing very fast. That is why it is attacking opposition parties and arresting opposition leaders by maligning them," Banerjee said.

She wondered from where the saffron camp was getting crores of rupees to spend in assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

"From where does the BJP get so much money to spend thousands of crores during elections? How many BJP ministers were arrested (in Madhya Pradesh)? What about the Vyapam scam? They are threatening our leaders so that they cannot work in the panchayat elections," she said.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: After a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court granted bail to Shiv Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case, Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant said that it is not appropriate to comment on the decision taken by the court.

"It is not appropriate to speak on the decision taken by the court. The court has decided after listening to both parties. It is not right to speak to outsiders in a court case and I am a minister. It is not right to speak on this," said Samant.

Sanjay Raut got bail today after about 102 days. After he was granted bail Raut bowed down in the court and said, "I`m thankful to the court," to which the court responded that it was nothing to be thankful about.

"Sanjay Raut has been granted bail on merit. If it hadn`t been on merit, he wouldn`t have got the bail," the court observed.

Also Read: 'TIGER IS BACK': Twitter FLOODED with memes after Sanjay Raut's bail, Shiv Sena MP says 'Now I will FIGHT...'

Meanwhile, the NCP leader Rohit Pawar welcomed the court`s decision of granting bail to MP Sanjay Raut and said that this matter should have been decided earlier, but the decision is welcomed.

"Sanjay Raut has been trying continuously for 100 days for bail. This matter should have been decided earlier, but we welcome whatever decision came," Rohit Pawar said.

Raut was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 1 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl in suburban Goregaon in Mumbai.

When the court pronounced the order, family members and supporters of the Shiv Sena MP clapped inside the courtroom and corridor of the court. Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General has sought a stay on the execution of the bail order for a short period so that ED can appeal in a higher court against the order of Mumbai`s PMLA court. Mumbai`s PMLA court will pronounce the order on demand of stay on the execution of bail order to Sanjay Raut at 3 pm today.

Also Read: Sanjay Raut walks out of Mumbai jail after over 3 months, waves at Shiv Sena supporters

The Shiv Sena leader is accused of receiving a part of the money from middleman Praveen Raut, who had allegedly earned it illegally in the case of the redevelopment of Patra Chawl, located in Mumbai`s Goregaon. It is also alleged that Sanjay Raut bought properties in Dadar and Alibaug with that money.

Sanjay Raut was continuously lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai since August 1. Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and former minister Nawab Malik are also lodged in this jail. This news is being considered a relief for the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance before the municipal elections.

Sanjay Raut is an aggressive Shiv Sena spokesperson and has a good hold on his party cadre. On June 28 this year, Sanjay Raut was summoned by the ED in connection with the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Back in August, the wife of Shiv Sena MP was also summoned by the agency in connection with the Patra Chawl land case.
Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted a terror module by arresting three persons including two terror associates in Jammu. It also recovered huge consignment of Arms and ammunition possible. A police spokesman stated, "the terror module was busted in a chance operation and the arms and ammunition, including three AK assault rifles, one pistol and six grenades, were recovered from an oil tanker in the Narwal area of the winter capital."After sustained interrogation the driver Mohd Yaseen disclosed that they have come to Jammu to pick up weapons on behest of Shahbaaz, a handler of JeM who is in Pakistan and was asked to handover to a terrorist in Valley. He also confessed that he has concealed a consignment of arms and ammunition in the oil tanker.

The police team was managing traffic on the highway. All three are residents of Pampore area in south kashmir's Pulwama district.

Also Read: Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti to not contest elections until Centre restores statehood in J&K

The trio were taken to the Bahu Fort police station and a signal was sent to the police stations from where the accused hailed regarding their involvement in any other case, the spokesperson said.

J&K | A Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) module busted and three people arrested. 3 AK 56 rifles, one pistol, 9 magazines, 6 grenades and 191 bullets recovered. pic.twitter.com/tjnSVdFj5P  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

"It came to the notice that the driver (Yaseen) is involved in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act registered at Awantipora police station and is associated with JeM.

He said they were assigned the task to transport and hand over the weapons to a terrorist in Kashmir.

"Yaseen also confessed that he had concealed a consignment of arms and ammunition in the oil tanker. Upon this the tanker was again searched in the presence of a magistrate and the recoveries made thereof include three AK-56 rifles, one pistol, nine magazines, 191 rounds of ammunition and six grenades," the spokesman said.
National Legal Services Day 2022: To commemorate the beginning of the Legal Services Authorities Act, of 1987, National Legal Services Day is observed on November 9 every year. On the same day in 1995, this law went into effect. Legal education programmes are offered to increase public awareness of free legal aid on National Legal Services Day.

National Legal Services Day 2022: History

The Supreme Court of India established National Legal Services Day in 1995. Their mission was to aid the less fortunate members of society by offering free legal assistance and support. The Legal Services Authorities Act was passed, and the Supreme Court sought to honour that achievement.

The Legal Services Authorities Act, of 1987 was enacted on October 11, 1987. It came into effect on November 9, 1995.

National Legal Services Day: Significance

The purpose of celebrating Legal Service Day is to educate the public about the various sections of the Legal Services Authorities Act. Additionally, it serves as a reminder of the petitioners' rights.

The State Legal Services Authorities' (NALSA) First Annual Meeting was held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on September 12, 1998. Examining the development of ongoing NALSA-initiated schemes was the goal. Along with it, choices were made to improve and restructure the nation's legal aid programmes.

Institutions that provide 'Free Legal Services' in India

1. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA). It was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. The Chief Justice of India is the Patron-in-Chief.

2. State Legal Services Authority. It is headed by the Chief Justice of the State High Court who is its Patron-in-Chief.

3. District Legal Services Authority. The District Judge of the District is its ex-officio Chairman.

4. Taluka/Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committee. It is headed by a senior Civil Judge.

5. High Court: High Court Legal Services Committee

6. Supreme Court: Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.

Who is eligible for availing free legal services?

- Women and children

- Members of SC/ST

- Industrial workmen

- Victims of mass disaster, violence, flood, drought, earthquake, industrial disaster.

- Disabled persons

- Persons in custody

- Those persons who have annual income of less than the amount prescribed by the respective State Government, if the case is before any court other than the Supreme Court, and less than Rs. 5 Lakhs, if the case is before the Supreme Court.

- Victims of Trafficking in Human beings or begar.
Noida: A 22-year-old woman died after being allegedly pushed off the third floor of her office building here by a colleague with whom she had broken up after learning that he was already married. The man, identified as Gaurav, came down from the building and put the woman in an autorickshaw, telling people who had gathered around that he was her brother and was taking her to the hospital. Instead, he took her to the Lal Kuan area on Noida's border with Ghaziabad. He booked an ambulance there to take her to Meerut, police said Wednesday, a day after the incident.

The accused had entered Meerut district along with the woman's body in the ambulance but was traced by a police team around 4.30 PM, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ashutosh Dwivedi said.

Both worked at an insurance company. She had called off their relationship after getting to know his marital status. However, the accused continued to pester her, the official said. Police said the woman complained to police about this on September 29. The man was then called to the police station on September 29.

The families of both were also present at the police station and Gaurav assured in writing that he would stop bothering her, Dwivedi said.

According to a preliminary investigation, he met the woman in the office again on Tuesday and tried to force her into remaining in the relationship. He then allegedly pushed her off the building. The sector-49 police station was alerted by local people about a woman jumping off the office building and being taken to a hospital by her family.

Gaurav was not responding to any phone calls. He was tracked through electronic surveillance and caught by a police team, which was accompanied by the woman's family, Dwivedi said. Police claimed that Gaurav then narrated the entire episode and confessed to the crime.
New Delhi: In view of President Droupadi Murmus official visit to Odisha, the state government has ordered to shut all government offices, schools and colleges (both government and private) coming under the Bhubaneshwar Municipal Corporation after 1 PM on November 10, 2022. The state police have made tight security arrangements in the capital city Bhubaneshwar and Puri for President Murmus two-day official visit starting tomorrow.

Odisha | All government offices, schools & colleges (government & private) coming under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will remain closed after 1 PM on 10.11.2022 in view of the visit of President Droupadi Murmu to Odisha.  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

President Droupadi Murmu will visit Odisha from November 10 to 11, 2022 which will be her first visit to the state after being sworn in as President of India. According to Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Murmu will offer her prayers to Lord Jagannath at Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri on November 10, 2022.

Thereafter, she will reach Bhubaneswar where she will pay her tributes before the statues of prominent freedom fighters and leaders. In the same evening, the President will attend the civic reception to be hosted in her honour at Raj Bhavan Bhubaneswar, sources said.

On November 11, 2022, the President will visit Tapoban High School, Government Girls High School Unit-II and Kuntala Kumari Sabat Adivasi Girls Hostel Unit-II in Bhubaneswar and interact with students and teachers. On the same day, she will launch various projects of the Union Ministry of Education from Jayadev Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.

Earlier on Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu paid homage to Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh Guru, on Gurpurab at the President`s Estate. The President also participated in the President`s Bodyguard Regimental Gurudwara with devotees.

(With ANI imputs)
Washington: The US State Department on Tuesday (local time) said that the messages passed on to Moscow during External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar's recent visit to Russia are not dissimilar to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said earlier that "this is not an era of war." Responding to a query on Jaishankar`s visit, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, "The messages we heard from Foreign Minister Jaishankar in Russia were not dissimilar in some ways from what we heard from Prime Minister Modi at the United Nations when he made it very clear that this is not an era of war."

"India reaffirms that it stands against this war (Russia-Ukraine war), it wants to see diplomacy, dialogue and an end to this war. It is important that the Russians hear that message from countries like India with economic, diplomatic, social and political might," added Price.

Also Read: Russia-Ukraine war: Experts looking at India's possible role in brokering peace between 2 warring nations

Responding to India becoming the largest oil customer - Russian oil customer after China and expanding their trade ties and why the US is not able to convince India to stay away from Russia in this difficult hour, he said, "We`ve had a number of high-level engagements with our Indian counterparts in recent weeks and recent months. Just yesterday Deputy Secretary Sherman met with Indian Foreign Secretary Kwatra and had a wide-ranging discussion about the US-India relationship. Secretary Blinken met with Foreign Minister Jaishankar here in this building just a couple of months ago. And there have been a number of conversations in between."

#WATCH | The messages we heard from Foreign Minister Jaishankar in Russia were not dissimilar in some ways from what we heard from PM Modi at the UN, when he made it very clear that this is not an era of war: US Department of State Spox Ned Price



(Source: US Dept of State) pic.twitter.com/ScKamrUa8S  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

The US has consistently made the point that it is a relationship (India and Russia), that developed and was cemented over the course of decades.

"When it comes to India`s relationship with Russia, we`ve consistently made the point that it`s a relationship that developed and was cemented over the course of decades, really came to be during the Cold War at a time when the United States was not in a position to be an economic partner, a security partner, a military partner to India."

US-India relationship

However, Price said that US and India`s relations have changed in the past 25 years.

"That has changed. That`s changed over the past 25 or so years. It`s really a legacy - a bipartisan legacy - that this country has achieved over the course of the past quarter century. President George W. Bush`s administration was really the first to put this into effect," said Price.

"We have sought to deepen our partnership with India in every sector, including when it comes to economics, including when it comes to our security ties, including when it comes to our military cooperation as well," he added.

Transition in bilateral ties

Talking about the US transition in the relationship with India, he said, "Now, this is a transition that we`ve always been clear-eyed will not take place overnight, over the course even a few months or probably even over the course of a couple of years. India is a large country, a vast country, with a large economy that has demanding needs. And so the transition and the reorientation that we hope to see from India is something that this administration will be committed to working with India on. But this will likely be a task for this administration and administrations to come."
New Delhi: In a response to Congress comment on lotus featuring in the upcoming G20 summit logo, Bhartiya Janata Party on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, hits out at the national party and said that their comment is an insult to Hinduism as the flower is associated with deities Lakshmi and Saraswati. He also clarified that being a national flower selected by the Congress government, the current generation of leaders should have some respect for their ancestors decision.

"The opposition party should know that lotus is the national flower and it was selected by the Congress government. So, the current generation of its leaders should have some respect for their ancestors' decision," BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said.

The use of the lotus, the BJP's party symbol, in the logo for India's G20 presidency sparked outrage from the opposition Congress party, which accused the ruling party of "shamelessly" advertising itself. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had rejected a similar move of making the Congress flag the national flag of India.

"Over 70 years ago, Nehru rejected the proposal to make Congress flag the flag of India. Now, BJP's election symbol has become official logo for India's presidency of G20! While shocking, we know by now that Mr.Modi & BJP won't lose any opportunity to promote themselves shamelessly!" Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

Over 70 years ago, Nehru rejected the proposal to make Congress flag the flag of India. Now,BJP's election symbol has become official logo for India's presidency of G20! While shocking,we know by now that Mr.Modi & BJP wont lose any opportunity to promote themselves shamelessly!  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 9, 2022

Trivedi also launched a fresh attack on the Congress and the AAP over some controversial remarks by their leaders about religion, saying secularism for them meant expressing hatred towards Hinduism.

Trivedi also sought to know the Congress' credentials from Rahul Gandhi, after the party's Karnataka working president Satish Jarkiholi allegedly remarked that the word 'Hindu' was derived from Persian and it meant "dirty".

The saffron party also highlighted a mass conversion in Chattisgarh's Rajanandgaon, in which the city mayor from the Congress reportedly participated.

"What mantra is Rahul ji blowing in the ears of the people during his Bharat Jodo Yatra?...Not to hesitate to hurt Hindu sentiments if that fetches votes?" Trivedi said during a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

He claimed that Congress had once termed Hindus "terrorists", and now leaders of the "newest party" (AAP), too, were hurting the sentiments of Hindus.

"Both these (AAP and Congress) proponents of secular politics express hatred and disrespect towards Hinduism and the feelings of Hindus. That for them is the meaning of secularism," Trivedi said.

"Now what do young politician (Rahul Gandhi) and 'bagula bhagat' (pretentious devout Arvind Kejriwal) have to say about the insensitive remarks of their party leaders? It shows their double character," he said.

The BJP leader also sought to know why the Bharat Jodo Yatra was not taken out in Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
PATNA: Former Bihar chief minister and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi has asked the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar to spare tipplers taking just a quarter of liquor. Manjhi, who has earlier suggested the people of Bihar to take only two pegs of liquor after 10 PM, had urged the Bihar government not to take any action against those buying or consuming just a quarter of liquor bottle.

The veteran Bihar politician further said that he is not against liquor prohibition, but the way it is being enforced in the state. He alleged that the government rarely takes any action against the powerful liquor mafia but it arrests only poor people who consume 100-250 grams of liquor. The government should not arrest those poor people, Manjhi said.

The former Bihar Chief Minister also called for a review of the liquor prohibition policy in Bihar. He stated that the breath analyzer test often gives wrong results due to which poor people face humiliation.

Manjhi made these remarks during a meeting of the party's national executive held at the Constitution Club of Delhi. It may be noted that the HAM chief had earlier created a stir by claiming that taking alcohol in moderate quantities has 'medicinal benefits'.

Jitan Ram Manjhi has questioned Nitish Kumar's alcohol ban in Bihar and requested him to rethink the implementation of the prohibition laws.

"Only poor people are being caught and harassed. Those who are involved in the illegal liquor trade racket are not being arrested. I have a difference of opinion with Nitish Ji on this issue. 70 % of the people who are being caught are poor," he said.

The Nitish Kumar government had enforced liquor prohibition in Bihar in April 2016.
New Delhi: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday (November 9, 2022) stepped out of jail after a special court in Mumbai granted him bail in a money laundering case related to the Patra Chawl redevelopment project. Raut, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 1, left the Arthur Road jail in central Mumbai as hundreds of Shiv Sena workers assembled outside the jail and burst into celebration and raised slogans hailing him. Firecrackers were also set off near the jail by his supporters.

While granting him and co-accused Pravin Raut bail, the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court judge M G Deshpande questioned why the ED did not arrest the main accused, Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan of realty firm HDIL. The court also rejected ED lawyer Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh's plea urging it not to give effect to the bail order till Friday. The ED then moved the HC. But the high court refused to grant an urgent stay, stating that it can not pass such an order without hearing both parties and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.

#WATCH | Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader Sanjay Raut released from Arthur Road jail after Mumbai's PMLA court granted him bail in Patra Chawl land scam case earlier today. pic.twitter.com/9LnLnmV3aI  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

After his release, the key leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena visited the Siddhivinayak Temple and sought the blessings of Lord Ganesh.

Raut was accompanied by his brother, MLA Sunil Raut, and party leaders during his visit to the iconic temple in Prabhadevi in central Mumbai.

Talking to reporters, Raut said the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray was the "real" party that was founded by the late Bal Thackeray.

"The only Sena which is real is the one which was founded by Balasaheb Thackeray and is now being led by Uddhav Thackeray," he said.

He said the current political scenario in the state, where a revolt in the Shiv Sena led to a change in government in June this year, was "temporary".

"The saffron flag which has been fluttering atop the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) for the last 30 to 35 years will continue. Those who dare to touch it will be reduced to ashes with the 'maashal' (Uddhav Thackeray faction's symbol of flaming torch)," he warned.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: Attacking the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala, after the reports of replacing the Governor with Chancellor of Universities in the state came forth, the incumbent Governor of the state, Arif Mohammad Khan on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, alleged that the vice-chancellors in Kerala universities are appointed not on merit but on the recommendations of the CPIM party, and that is why LDF controls them.

"They were all time interfering in matters of universities which I resented. The interference wasn't related to the development of the universities. It was mostly about the relatives of CPIM leaders in different positions. All of their interest lied in appointments," Khan said.

Vice-chancellors in universities are appointed not on merit but on the recommendation of the party (CPIM) that's why LDF controls them: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan pic.twitter.com/NjRYRp7duI  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

The LDF government's move came amidst its ongoing tussle with Governor Arif Mohammad Khan over the functioning of universities, including the appointment of Vice Chancellors, in the state.

This comes after the Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to bring an ordinance to remove Governor Arif Mohammad Khan from the post of Chancellor. However, the State Cabinet is planning to bring in an expert in place of the Chancellor. The decision came after Governor Arif Mohammad Khan sought the resignations of vice-chancellors of all nine universities in the state.

As per an order issued by the Kerala Governor- Vice-Chancellors 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 Technological University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, University of Calicut and Thunachath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University have been asked to resign from their posts.

Later the VCs of nine universities moved the High Court challenging the Governor`s order to tender their resignations. The Governor had also appointed Ciza Thomas as Vice Chancellor in charge of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) in Thiruvananthapuram.

Meanwhile, CM Pinarayi Vijayan government had requested the High Court to stay the appointment that was ordered by Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan, chancellor of the state universities which the court on Tuesday declined.

The Supreme Court in October sacked Dr Rajasree MS from the Vice Chancellor post citing a violation of UGC norms. 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.

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.

(With agency inputs)
San Francisco: Elon Musk on Tuesday said that politics is war and truth is first casualty, as he attacked Democrats and supported Republicans during the US mid-term election.

"While it's true that I've been under unfair and misleading attack for some time by leading Democrats, my motivation here is for centrist governance, which matches the interests of most Americans," he tweeted.

Musk responded to Pranay Pathole who said Elon has always been a Democratic supporter but "the hate he has been receiving by the Democratic senators is awful".

"Politics is war and truth is the first casualty," said the Tesla CEO.

He further said that Twitter is the most interesting place on the Internet.

"Twitter is the worst! But also the best," Musk further commented.

Musk on Monday said that Americans should vote for Republicans in the midterm election.

He told independent-minded voters that shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties.

"Therefore, I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic," the Twitter CEO posted to his nearly 115 million followers.

"Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge," Musk added.

Musk had long been advocating free speech on the platform, creating apprehensions for many as they fear the site will be left without regulations.
Mumbai: A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday granted bail to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in a money laundering case pertaining to the Patra Chawl redevelopment project. Special Judge M G Deshpande, designated to hear cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), allowed the bail plea of Raut after hearing arguments from both sides. The Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP got bail after spending nearly 101 days in jail.

#UPDATE | Patra Chawl land scam case: Mumbai's PMLA court grants bail to Shiv Sena leader & MP Sanjay Raut https://t.co/upyL10h3pR  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

However, the Additional Solicitor General has sought a stay on the execution of the bail order for a short period so that ED can appeal in a higher court against the order of Mumbai's PMLA court. Responding to it, the Special PMLA court said that it will pronounce order on demand of stay on the execution of bail order to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut at 3 PM today.

Mumbai's PMLA court to pronounce order on demand of stay on the execution of bail order to ShivSena MP Sanjay Raut at 3pm today. November 9, 2022

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Rajya Sabha member Raut in July this year for his alleged role in financial irregularities in connection with the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl (row tenement) in suburban Goregaon. He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

Raut had in his bail plea claimed the case against him was a perfect example of "abuse of power" and "political vendetta". The ED had opposed Raut's plea, saying he played a major role in the money laundering case related to the Patra Chawl redevelopment and acted "behind the curtains" to avoid the money trail.

The ED's probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl and related financial transactions involving his wife and associates.
New Delhi: IPO season is in spree. The market has been watching back to back IPOs despite global uncertainty for the past two weeks. Now Archean Chemial Industries is going to open its IPOs on November 9, 2022 for a fresh issue of Rs 1,462 crore.

ALSO READ | Forbes releases Asia's Businesswomen 2022 list; Three Indian women featured

According to the red herring prospectus, the company has fixed the price band in the range of Rs 386 to Rs 407 per share. The three-day subscription period will close on Friday, November 11, 2022.

According to the experts, GMP for Archean Chemical IPO can be between Rs 60 to 72.

ALSO READ | Elon Musk appointed engineer Sriram Krishnan defends $8 charge for blue tick

Heres everything you need to know

Archean Chemical shares are expected to list on leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE on Monday, November 21, 2022.

The company has kept the lot size of minimum 36 equity shares and multiplier by 36 thereafter. IIFL Securities, ICICI securities, and JM Financial are the lead manangers.

About Archean Chemical Industries Limited

The company is an India-based leading specialty chemical manufacturing with a wide presence in the global markets. It is the first of its kind integrated plant in India to produce Industrial salt, Bromine, and Sulfate of Potash. The company manufactures products from brine reserves in the Rann of Kutch, located on the coast of Gujarat.

In 2013, the company commenced Industrial salt operation and exports to Japan and South Korea. In 2014, the company commenced production of Bromine and exports to China.
Washington: British actor Leslie Phillips, who is known for his roles in films like `Harry Potter` and `Carry On`, passed away at 98 following a long illness. According to Variety, Phillips, who was the voice of the Sorting Hat in the `Harry Potter` films, starred in over 200 movies, and TV and radio series during a career that spanned more than 80 years.

Phillips is survived by his wife Zara, as per the reports of Variety.According to Deadline, Born in 1924, Phillips became well-known in the UK and the US thanks to his distinctive voice, roles as slick upper-class British characters, and sassy catchphrases like `Ding Dong,` `Heee-llo,` and `I Say` from movies like Carry On Teacher, Carry On Columbus, and Carry On Nurse.

Phillips also appeared with Angelina Jolie in 2001 featuring Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. As per the report of Variety, along with his appearance in the `Doctor` series, Phillips is most known for his 17-year stint as a dumb officer on the BBC radio programme `The Navy Lark,` which he shared with Ronnie Barker and Jon Pertwee.

He was nominated for a BAFTA and received a British Independent Film Award for his supporting performance alongside Peter O`Toole in the 2006 film `Venus.` Additionally, he made cameos in movies like Steven Spielberg`s `Empire of the Sun` and Sydney Pollack`s `Out of Africa.`One of his most well-received stage appearances was as Falstaff in the Stratford production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, a comedy by William Shakespeare.
New Delhi: Bigg Boss fame Nikki Tamboli, who had been keeping a low profile after her name popped up in a controversy related to conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, is back at the pap game. Recently, she was spotted in and around the city, happily posing for the shutterbugs. A day back, she was clicked at the airport and while getting out from her car managed to avert an oops moment.

Nikki Tamboli wore a dress with a thigh-high slit and smartly avoided an embarrassing moment as she stepped out from her car. She posed for the paps on duty and headed for her destination. Meanwhile, netizens trolled her for 'going under the knife' and also on recent conman controversy. One user wrote: "Has she also gone under the knife...looks different", another one commented: "Sukesh se milne ja rahi"

For the unversed, probe into the Rs 200 crore extortion case involving multimillionaire conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar has found that four models/actresses met him in Tihar Jail and were given money and expensive gifts, sources told IANS. According to the sources, "Big Boss" fame Nikki Tamboli, "Bade Achche Lagte Hai" fame Chahat Khanna, Sophia Singh, and Arusha Patil met Chandrashekhar in the jail premises and he introduced himself as a producer of southern film industry.

A source said that Chandrashekhar's aide Pinky Irani, who was arrested later, had facilitated their meetings with Chandrashekhar. All these four actresses were given expensive gifts of renowned brands such as Gucci, Versace, and Louis Vuitton.

Sukesh Chandrashekhar has been accused of running an extortion racket worth Rs 200 crore when he was lodged in Rohini jail, as he tried to extort money from Aditi Singh, the wife of jailed former Ranbaxy owner Shivinder Singh, posing as an official from the union law ministry and the PMO, on the pretext of getting her husband out on bail, as per ANI.
Mumbai: After her brief stint in India, Priyanka Chopra is off to Los Angeles. Priyanka shared a photo of herself on her Instagram story revealing that she is flying back to Los Angeles. Priyanka was in India to promote her haircare brand alongside a visit to some rural areas in Uttar Pradesh as a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. On Monday, Priyanka visited Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh to see the work being done by UNICEF and its partners to end violence and discrimination against girls in the state.

Priyanka also shared several images and videos of herself visiting several UNICEF centers. She visited Composite School Aurangabad in Lucknow where she met little boys and girls. She also visited `Anganwadi` in Lalpur. During her visit, Priyanka also praised CM Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for its responsible attitude towards women and improvement in their condition in the state. She said, "during the last two days of the visit, I saw a big change here. In fact, Uttar Pradesh needed this change."

Priyanka also mentioned the positive change in violence against women in the state. She said that "I got an opportunity to visit the One Stop Center (Asha Jyoti Centre) here. Here I met and talked to many women victims of violence. "The actor further praised the schemes being run for the education of children as well as the schemes for the children who were orphaned during Covid. Along with this, Priyanka also appealed to take the schemes to needy people and make them aware of them.

Talking about movies, Priyanka will next be seen in international projects such as `It`s All Coming Back To Me`, and the series `Citadel`. Produced by Russo Brothers, `Citadel` will hit the OTT on Prime Video. The upcoming sci-fi drama series is being directed by Patrick Morgan and stars Richard Madden alongside Priyanka.
New Delhi: Model-actress Urvashi Rautela's popularity is on a rise and the stunner never fails to grab the limelight with her scintillating looks and persona. The actress has made her way into the hearts of the audience and is now making her way in the Tollywood industry big time. She will be seen in Waltair Veerayyaa, the actioner will be directed by Bobby Kolli.

As per the sources, the actress is going to be seen playing the character of a Navy Office to which the source reveals, "Urvashi has been roped in or the film by the makers of Pushpa 2, and the actress has been offered the character of a Navy officer, where she will be seen doing a strong yet very intense role. She will be seen along with Chiranjeevi and Ravi Teja . Urvashi has started shooting for her role".

The close source has confirmed the news and we just can't wait to see her in an intense role-playing of a Navy Officer.

The film has all the masala that it hopes to have as an action entertainer. The film is largely produced by Naveen Yerneni and Y Ravi Shankar, while GK Mohan is its co-producer.

Walter Veeraiah is planned to release next year.
Mumbai: If reports are to believed, contestant Archana Gautam has been expelled from the ongoing season of `Bigg Boss` after involving into a physical fight with fellow mate Shiv Thakare. A source close to the show revealed that during a heated conversation between Shiv and Archana, Shiv made personal remarks against Archana, and the fight further escalated when Archana, in return retaliated.

Archana reportedly turned violent and forced Bigg Boss to evict her from the show. After learning about this update, netizens ave been expressing their different opinions regarding the same."#ArchanaGautam agar physical hui tho evict hona munasif hai! Kisi bhi taran ka bal ka prayog galat hai. Muje yeh dhekna hai ke Archana ne kaise zakmi kiya #ShivThakare ko? Kya Archana ne utta ke pattka usko? Season 15 mein voh allowed tha," former Bigg Boss contestant Andy Kumar tweeted.

"Archana Gautam left no stone unturned and continued to character assassinate #ShivThakare despite Soundarya clearing all the baseless accusations herself. And then she hit a new low SHE HIT HIM ..Guess what, these kinda women always know how to play a women card. #BiggBoss16," a social media user wrote on Twitter.

Archana has been in limelight ever since she appeared in `Bigg Boss 16`. A few weeks ago, she was in news over her fight with co-contestant Shalin Bhanot.
New Delhi: &TVs 'Happu Ki Ultan Paltan,' is one of the most loved comedy shows on Indian television. The funny potbellied Daroga Happu Singh (Yogesh Tripathi) has made viewers laugh like no other, from his oil-slicked hair that perfectly twirls on his forehead to his goofy paan-stained grin that highlights his atypical moustache. The show narrates the escapades of Daroga Happu Singh, his Dabangg Dulhaniya Rajesh (Kamna Pathak), an obstinate mother, Katori Amma (Himani Shivpuri) and his nine notorious children.

The immensely popular Dabangg Jodi visited Kashi Nagri to enjoy the local festive fervour of Dev Deepawali, explore several ghats, enjoy boat rides at the banks of the Ganga river, gorge on finger-licking street food, and shop at the citys famous stores.

Yogesh Tripathi, aka Daroga Happu Singh while talking about his visit to Varanasi, said, Sabhi Kashi Vaasiyon Ko Dev Deepawali Ke Afsar Par Hardik Shubhkamanayein. Our show, Happu Ki Ultan Paltan, enjoys a loyal fanbase in Uttar Pradesh, which is why we decided to visit Varanasi, the city of Ghats, to meet and interact with our audience here. Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in India and home to world-famous temples, which attract millions of devotees. And what better time than Dev Deepawali, as one can witness unique and mesmerizing celebrations."

He further added, "Wherever we travel, our fans greet us with our funny dialogues and my catchphrases  Arre Dada! which makes me very happy. I feel grateful to the audience for always appreciating our work, and we wish to continue amusing all our viewers with many more hilarious tracks. We had a great time interacting with our audience during our visit to famous temples here, local hot spots for street food and shopping, and the memorable boat ride to the ghats. We binged on the citys mouth-watering delicacies, such as Tamatar chaat and Litti Chokha with Kulhad Ki Chai. Shiv ki Nagri ne mujhe ek baar phir mohit kar diya. However, it was my second visit to the city in years. I can never get enough of it. And I will keep coming back here for more. Har Har Mahadev!.

Talking about her first-ever visit to Varanasi, Kamna Pathak, aka Rajesh Singh, shared, Dev Deepawali Ki Humare Sabhi Darshakon Ko Bahut Saari Shubh Kamanayein! Our show, Happu Ki Ultan Paltan, with its funny potbellied Happu Singh, his Dabangg Dulhaniya, Rajjo, and their incredible comic timing and fun banters with Kanpuria quirks and dialect, has struck a chord with the audience, making it one of their most favourite shows. So, this year, to give an extra dose of laughter and witness the citys festive fervour, we decided to visit Kashi to meet and interact with our audience."

She further said, "I had heard so much about Varanasi but never had an opportunity to visit. It was my first visit, and I was mesmerized by its culture, people, food, shopping, and overall vibe. Theres much to see in Varanasi, from the ghats to palaces, and all this sightseeing goes hand-in-hand with an early morning boat ride. Varanasi is a paradise for vegetarians with its pocket-friendly, flavourful street food, especially Kachori-sabzi, jalebi, golgappe, and thandai are must-try dishes. I was in awe of the citys beauty and the celebration's magnitude. I am so delighted that we got this opportunity to visit Kashi. People on the streets instantly recognized us and greeted us. I was so overwhelmed by their love and affection. It is one experience that I will always cherish and remember for a long time.

Catch Yogesh Tripathi as Daroga Happu Singh and Kamna Pathak as Rajesh Singh in &TVs Happu Ki Ultan Paltan, airing every Monday to Friday at 10:00 pm.
Kathmandu: An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 hit Nepal in the early hours of Wednesday. The death toll due to the earthquake is at least 6 people as per ANI. Moreover, 5 people were injured and have been taken to hospital. Owing to the strong earthquake, dozens of houses were damaged by landslides at various locations across the district. According to the National Seismological Center (NSC) of Nepal, the far-west region of Nepal witnessed three tremors - 2 earthquakes and 1 aftershock. It was the third jolt that led to the loss of lives after a house collapsed.

The first quake of 5.7 magnitude was recorded at 9:07 PM (Local Time) on Tuesday followed by another at 9:56 PM (Local Time) measuring 4.1 magnitudes.

"The third-strong jolt measuring 6.6 magnitude which struck at around 2:12 AM (Local Time) on Wednesday resulted in loss of three lives after a house collapsed. The deaths are reported from Gairagaun," Ram Prasad Upadhyay, Chairman of Purbichauki Village Council-03 of Doti District told ANI over phone. Later, the police informed that the death toll increased to 6 people.

Update | Death toll after a house collapse in Doti district of Nepal after earthquake last night now at 6: Police https://t.co/iibsAfAF9j  ANI (@ANI) November 9, 2022

The tremors were also felt in India's capital New Delhi and its surrounding areas.

Previous earthquakes in Nepal

Earlier on October 19, an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 shook Kathmandu. As per NCS, the earthquake occurred 53 kilometres east of Kathmandu at around 2:52 pm. The depth of the earthquake was 10 km below the ground.

On July 31, an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 took place 147 km ESE of Kathmandu, Nepal at 8.13 am IST around Martim Birta of Khotang district, according to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre (NEMRC).

The depth of the epicentre was monitored at 10 km in eastern Nepal, determined to be at 27.14 degrees North latitude and 86.67 degrees east longitude.Earlier in 2015, a high-intensity earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale struck central Nepal between its capital Kathmandu and city of Pokhara. It is estimated to have killed 8,964 people and injured close to 22,000 people.

The earthquake, known as the Gorkha earthquake, also shook several cities across north India; tremors were also felt in Lahore, Pakistan, Lhasa in Tibet, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The recent earthquakes in Nepal have caused unprecedented damage to lives and property and have necessitated the demand for well-framed policy measures to manage such disasters.

The worst earthquake in Nepal

Nepal suffered its worst recorded earthquake in 1934. It was measured at 8.0 and destroyed the cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan. It has been established that the Indian plate is getting subducted under the Eurasian plate at 5 cm a year. This is responsible for the formation and increasing height of young fold mountains of the Himalayas and also makes the region prone to earthquakes. Disasters like quakes can wreak havoc if preparedness is not ample.
Kyiv: Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak has said that Kiev could resume dialogue with Moscow only after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the presidential press service reported. In an interview with an Italian daily, Podolyak on Tuesday added that a potential ceasefire deal at the current stage of the conflict would provide Russia with time to strengthen its positions. "The ceasefire for Russia is a tactical pause for reinforcement," he said.

While commenting on the reports that the representatives of the US Pentagon and the Russian Defence Ministry are involved in talks, Podolyak added that "there are no negotiations between Russia and Western countries regarding Ukraine".

"Our partners adhere to the principle of `nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine`. Neither side will be able to ensure the implementation of agreements without the support of the Ukrainian people," he said.

"If the Russians retreat and admit that they have made a terrible mistake  if one could talk about any mistake against the backdrop of all these developments  then we will be able to find a format for dialogue," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Zelenskyy said that further deaths of Ukrainians fighting for their land will only delay the negotiation process, possibly for years. He also stated that the last straw that negated the possibility of dialogue with Russia were the sham referendums staged in the occupied territories. These actions preclude any sort of negotiation, Zelenskyy noted. "We see a clear determination to occupy and destroy Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president on Oct. 4 enacted a decision taken by the National Security and Defense Council to outlaw any negotiations with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The President's Office said that Kyiv would be ready for negotiations when the Russian leader changes. In turn, Putin said on November 1 that he was prepared to wait for Ukraine's consent to participate in the talks.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict started on February 24, Xinhua news agency reported. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators held the latest round of face-to-face peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29.
Lahore: Terming as "farcical" the FIR registered in the case in the assassination attempt on him, Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said he would give his position through his lawyers. The FIR registered by Punjab Police named Naveed Mohammad Basheer as the prime accused in the case. Police said they nabbed Basheer from the crime scene after confessed to his crime. In a confessional video, Basheer said he attacked Khan because he was "misleading the public". However, it does not mention the names of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and senior Pakistan Army official Major General Faisal Naseer, three people who Khan had accused of hatching a plot to assassinate him.

Taking to Twitter, Khan said, "On the issue of the farcical FIR my lawyers will give my position."

"All my life I dreamt of seeing my country as a prospering welfare state & my struggle throughout has been to make this dream a reality for my nation. Today the nation has awakened, understood & risen in support of my message of justice, freedom & national sovereignty.

On the issue of the farcical FIR my lawyers will give my position. All my life I dreamt of seeing my country as a prospering welfare state & my struggle throughout has been to make this dream a reality for my nation. Today the nation has awakened, understood & risen  Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) November 8, 2022

"When we are so close to our goal no fear or threat of death can stop my struggle. Our peaceful.Protests & dialogue are only for Pakistan's Haqeeqi Azadi," he added.

Khan said for the future of Pakistan, the doors of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are open to all democratic loving forces to join its struggle for justice, rule of law and freedom from foreign subservience.

For the future of Pakistan the doors of PTI are open to all democratic loving forces to join our struggle for Justice, rule of law & freedom from foreign subservience - our goal of Haqeeqi Azadi  Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) November 8, 2022

The FIR was registered after the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Punjab government to file a First Information Report on the assassination bid on Khan within 24 hours.

On Sunday, Khan had said that an FIR has not been registered on the botched "assassination attempt" on his life as authorities are refusing to file the case unless he removes an Army general's name from the complaint.

The 70-year-old PTI chief suffered bullet injuries in the right leg on last Thursday when two gunmen fired a volley of bullets at him and others in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province, where he was leading a protest march against the Shehbaz Sharif government.

During the interrogation, Basheer admitted to opening fire on the container of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief. Basheer told the investigators that he did it because he was frustrated as Khan was misleading the nation and had also uttered blasphemous words.

However, the police believe that Basheer was a drug addict and his statements regarding the incident were "doubtful".
London: Diamond merchant Nirav Modi on Wednesday lost his appeal against extradition on mental health grounds as the High Court here ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who presided over the appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year, said in their verdict that District Judge Sam Goozee's Westminster Magistrates' Court order from last year in favour of extradition was "sound".

The leave to appeal in the High Court had been granted on two grounds - under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to hear arguments if it would "unjust or oppressive" to extradite 51-year-old Modi due to his mental state and Section 91 of the Extradition Act 2003, also related to mental health.

"Pulling these various strands together and weighing them in the balance so as to reach an overall evaluative judgment on the question raised by Section 91, we are far from satisfied that Mr Modi's mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him," the ruling states.

"It may be that the main benefit of the appeal has been to obtain the extensive further [Indian government] assurances that we have identified in the course of this judgment, which render the position clear to Mr Modi's advantage and the District Judge's decision supportable," the judges ruled.

As he has lost this appeal hearing, Modi can approach the Supreme Court on a point of law of public importance, to be applied for to the Supreme Court against the High Court's decision within 14 days of a High Court verdict. However, this involves a high threshold as appeals to the Supreme Court can only be made if the High Court has certified that the case involves a point of law of general public importance.

Finally, after all, avenues in the UK courts are exhausted, the diamantaire could still seek a so-called Rule 39 injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Therefore, the process of bringing him back to India to be lodged at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and stand trial for fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated USD 2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case still has some way to go.

His legal team is yet to comment on any plans to appeal the High Court verdict. Meanwhile, Modi remains at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019.

Modi is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.

He also faces two additional charges of "causing the disappearance of evidence" and intimidating witnesses or "criminal intimidation to cause death", which were added to the CBI case.
London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing pressure from the Opposition on Wednesday as one of his close allies and embattled ministers resigned from the Cabinet pending an investigation into allegations of bullying against him. Sir Gavin Williamson, who was minister of state without portfolio as of yet was accused of abusive behaviour towards fellow Conservative Party colleagues and civil servants after which he posted his resignation on Twitter. Sunak said he accepted Williamson's resignation "with great sadness" and thanked him for his "personal support and loyalty". "Your commitment to successive Conservative governments and the party over the years has been unwavering," he said. However, the Opposition has branded the episode as a sign of "poor judgement and leadership" by Sunak, and Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer will use the weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons to pile on further pressure over the issue.

The row over Williamson's conduct has been brewing since the weekend, with reports that outgoing Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry told the newly-appointed Prime Minister about the 'bullying' complaint against Williamson on October 24, a day before his appointment to the Sunak Cabinet.

Also Read: 'Resign IMMEDIATELY...', Rishi Sunak's BOLD step just after becoming UK Prime Minister -Check HERE

Downing Street has maintained the new Prime Minister "knew there was a disagreement" but that he didn't know the "substance" of the messages until they were published by 'The Sunday Times' newspaper.

"This is a damning reflection of a weak Prime Minister," said Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner. "Rishi Sunak appointed Gavin Williamson with full knowledge of serious allegations about his conduct and repeatedly expressed confidence in him. This is yet another example of Rishi Sunak's poor judgement and weak leadership. It is clear that he is trapped by the grubby backroom deals he made to dodge a vote, and is incapable of putting country before party," she said.

The reference to yet another is to the reappointed Suella Braverman as UK Home Secretary just weeks after she was forced to resign for breaking ministerial rules by sending an official document from her personal email. The Opposition has branded it a sign of an internal agreement to ensure the support of her Tory wing for his position as Prime Minister.

"Rishi Sunak has serious questions to answer about why he appointed Gavin Williamson, then stood by him instead of sacking him. His promise to lead a government of integrity has now been left in tatters," said Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper.

Also Read: Rishi Sunak brings back Indian-origin Suella Braverman as Home Secretary; here's a look at his cabinet

Williamson is believed to have been instrumental in working behind the scenes to dissuade Boris Johnson from contesting in the leadership election against Sunak in the days after Liz Truss resigned as prime minister last month.

Refuting the allegations, Williamson in his resignation letter, said he refutes the "characterisation" of the claims about his "past conduct" but felt they had become a "distraction from the good work the government is doing". It referred to some expletive-laden text messages he reportedly sent to the former Tory party whip, Wendy Morton, over being overlooked during Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

These were published in 'The Sunday Times' and since then others have come forward to allege intimidating behaviour while Williamson was a Cabinet minister under previous prime ministers.

He has since been reported to the parliamentary bullying watchdog, the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, and says he has apologised to the recipient of the text messages and would comply with the complaints process to "clear my name of any wrongdoing".
Kyiv: Russia's military announced Wednesday that it's withdrawing from Ukraine's southern city of Kherson and nearby areas, in what would be another in a series of humiliating setbacks for Moscow's forces in the 8-month-old war. Ukrainian authorities did not immediately confirm the move and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested in recent days that 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. The top Russian military commander in Ukraine, Gen Sergei Surovikin, reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to deliver supplies to the city of Kherson and other areas on the western bank of the Dnieper River that it lies on.

Shoigu agreed with his proposal to retreat and set up defenses on the eastern bank. The withdrawal from Kherson which sits in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed would be another significant setback.

Also Read: Dialogue with Russia possible ONLY AFTER ...: Ukraine warns Moscow

The city, with a prewar population of 280,000, is the only regional capital to be captured by Russian forces since the Feb. 24 invasion began. Ukrainian forces had zeroed in on the strategic industrial city, which sits on the Dnieper River that divides the region and the country itself.

During the summer, Ukrainian troops launched relentless attacks to reclaim parts of the larger province. More than 70,000 residents were evacuated in late October, along with members of the Kremlin-installed regional government, according to the Moscow-appointed officials, although Ukrainian officials questioned the claim.

The remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the 18th century, also were reportedly moved from the city's St. Catherine's Church.

Also Read: Buying Russian oil is to India's advantage, says EAM S Jaishankar

The city and parts of the surrounding region were seized in the opening days of the conflict as Russian troops pushed their attack north from Crimea, the area illegally annexed by the Kremlin in 2014.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to repeatedly hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that also were targeted by Ukraine.

The Russian announcement came as villages and towns in Ukraine saw more heavy fighting and shelling Wednesday.

At least nine civilians were killed and 24 others were wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian president's office said. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the country's southeast.

Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight over Snihurivka, a town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the southern city of Kherson.

Also Read: Jaishankar meets Russian counterpart, says world seeing 'consequences' of Ukraine conflict

The president's office said widespread Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy system continued. Two cities not far from Europe's largest nuclear power plant were shelled overnight, it said. More than 20 residential buildings, an industrial plant, a gas pipeline and a power line were reportedly damaged in Nikopol, which lies across the Dnieper River from the the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Further west, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian governor reported 'massive' overnight strikes with exploding Iranian-made drones that wounded four energy company workers in the city of Dnipro.

Attacks on civilian infrastructure are war crimes in themselves. The Kremlin is at war with Ukrainian civilians, trying to leave millions of people without water and light (for them) to freeze in the winter, Gov Valentyn Reznichenko said on Ukrainian TV.
World Freedom Day 2022: Germany was divided into East and West Germany following the end of World War II. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom took control of West Germany, while the Soviet Union took control of East Germany. Berlin joined Soviet-controlled Germany in 1949, the same year that East Germany attained independence.

To block migrants from crossing from East Berlin to West Berlin and the rest of Western Europe, 'A WALL' was built. An estimated 5,000 individuals are thought to have crossed the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. In the process, about 100 people were killed.

World Freedom Day 2022: Date

The breaking of the great Berlin wall brought about freedom day which is celebrated worldwide on November 9 every year since 2001.

World Freedom Day 2022: History

Economic conditions were prosperous in capitalist West Germany. In East Germany under communist rule, the opposite occurred. Many Germans defected to West Germany to escape the harsh conditions of communist rule. East Germany had lost a large portion of its population by the late 1960s, including the majority of its labour force.

Nearly 3 million individuals fled East Germany between 1949 and 1961. In a desperate effort to seize control of West Germany, including West Berlin, the Soviet Union threatened to deploy nuclear weapons.

Soldiers constructed concrete towers and barbed wire between East and West Berlin on August 1213, 1961. In the dead of night, this action was carried out. The next morning, when Berlin citizens woke, they were unable to travel to the opposite side of the city.

Berliners were unable to go over, regardless of whether they had a job or a family on the opposite side. For decades, they were confined to their side of Berlin. A sturdier wall was constructed a few days later by soldiers.

The 'Berlin Wall' became a symbol of the Cold War.

World Freedom Day 2022: Significance

President Ronald Reagan visited Berlin in June 1982 and addressed the wall issue, the arms race, and the Cold War. He returned to the Berlin Wall in 1987 and delivered his now-renowned speech, "Tear down this wall!"

Thousands of Berliners rushed on the wall on November 9th, 1989, after realising the borders were open. With chisels and hammers, they started to break down the wall. The wall collapsed in sections. Germany became whole as one nation on October 3, 1990, combining East and West Germany.

The freedom of people is still in danger everywhere. Many want to rule over entire populations. These dictators continue to exist, whether as a result of political, social, or violent pressures.

This day acknowledges the need to keep working toward universal freedom and peace.
Beijing [China]: Amid tensions with Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday said that Beijing will strengthen military training and prepare for any war as the nation`s "security is increasingly unstable and uncertain."The Chinese President made the declaration during a visit to the joint operations command centre of the Central Military Commission in Beijing, reported Sky News Australia. China will now comprehensively strengthen its military training and preparation for any war, Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

"The entire military should devote all its energy to and carry out all its work for combat readiness, enhance its capability to fight and win," Xi was quoted as saying by the state-owned media outlet, Xinhua.

"Xi instructed the armed forces to thoroughly study, publicize and implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and take concrete actions to further modernize national defence and the military," the report continued.

The Chinese leader "also instructed them to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, and successfully complete various tasks entrusted by the Party and the people," reported Sky News Australia.

His warning comes after Xi last month called for faster military development, `self-reliance and strength` in technology and defence of China`s interests abroad, raising the likelihood of further conflict. Xi, wearing army fatigues while addressing soldiers at China`s Central Military Commission, has made similar remarks in the past, but his comments, broadcast on state television, come as tensions with the United States over Taiwan continue to escalate.

Under Xi, China has taken a more hard-line approach to Taiwan, claiming the island is a breakaway province that will eventually be "reunified" with the country. The strong position has put it at odds with the United States and its Western allies, who maintain strategic ambiguity, but escalated tensions in August following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

China perceived the visit as a challenge to its sovereignty over the nation and retaliated with a show of strength and force by conducting large-scale military drills and firing ballistic missiles over Taiwan.

The 69-year-old secured a historic third term as China`s President last month while stacking the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists, cementing his role as the most powerful leader since Communist Party founder Mao Zedong.

Investors and analysts feared the unveiling of the new leadership team, which had traditionally been made up of representatives from all factions of the party, was a signal that Beijing was pivoting towards military and state power rather than business-friendly policies, reported New Zealand Herald.
To bathe or not to batheridiculous question? Maybe not.

The whole idea of cleanliness has changed with some unusual twists and turns. The Romans were zealous about bathing, but the Black Death in 14th century Europe altered that passion.

After the death of 25 million in France, the belief that hot baths left people susceptible to illness held firm in Europe for the next 200 years. Bad things entered through pores, they thought, so it was better to keep them clogged.

Englands first Queen Elizabeth made it clear that she opposed the practice of a yearly bath. She shocked the British with her confession, I take a bath once a month whether I need it or not. But when her brother James took the throne, he had other ideas  he washed only his fingers.

Im sorry to report that the early Americans were grimy Europeans, and the Native Americans began the thankless, tedious task of teaching them how to become civilized. The newcomers who were accustomed to seeing people being burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, or beheaded, were appalled at the natives habit of taking a daily bath.

When they did bathe, it was a family affair. Theyd fill a big tub with clean water for the man of the house. When he got out, the sons each had a turn, then the mother and daughters, in order of age. Last came the baby, and by that time the water was so dirty you could lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Dont throw the baby out with the bath water.

Some of our wedding customs stem from the yearly bathing ritual. Most folks bathed in May because the snow had melted and it was warm. But the bride and groom had to wait for the itinerant preacher to get there, and that was usually sometime in June. By then, body odors were back, so the bride carried a bouquet of posies to cover the smell.

During the last years of the Civil War, medics found that cleanliness could actually prevent disease. Seems the Confederate army ran out of most everything, including thread to suture wounds. Rebel doctors figured they could substitute hair from horsetail if they boiled it to make it more pliable. Turned out, the gashes stitched with sterilized horsetail healed much better than those sewn with unwashed thread.

Once Americans learned about hygiene, there was no turning back. But the evolution of cleanliness was slow. Mum claims they made the first deodorant in 1885, but most folks didnt use it till the late 1950s.

In her book The Dirt on Clean, Katherine Ashenburg says that today Americans are obsessed with cleanliness. Ashenburg claims we bathe too much, with soaps that have too many antibacterial properties, and shampoos so strong that the old idea of needing to soap your hair twice is outdated.

Im no dermatologist, but this one thing I know  a body without a bath would not smell as sweet.
As the polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, word went out immediately that incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey had won re-election, and that GOP candidate and Enterprise native Katie Britt would replace her mentor, Richard Shelby, in the United States Senate.

How is it possible that a winner can be declared immediately upon the close of balloting? Or two winners? In some scenarios, thered be a great hue and cry about rigged elections.

In Alabama, anyone denying those results would be laughed out of the state. The Ivey and Britt wins were foregone conclusions, because the Republican base is so strong that elections are decided in the GOP primary, where both women won their respective races handily.

Thats attributable in large part to the ineptitude of the states Democratic Party leadership. Alabama Democrats have suffered from infighting in the upper ranks; power grabs and playground animosity have made individual races all but impossible to mount, to the disservice of otherwise viable candidates whove been unable to get their messages out to a wide audience. Through no fault of their own, Democratic office-seekers in our state have become also-ran candidates. For all practical purposes, Alabama is a one-party state.

The danger is that states dominated by one party often elect extremists like Georgias Marjorie Taylor Greene, New Yorks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Colorados Lauren Boebert.

Alabama is fortunate in that Kay Ivey has been a steady governor whose record suggests four more years of well-grounded leadership. Britt, having served as Shelbys right hand before a successful tenure at the helm of the Alabama Business Council, should bring no unwelcome surprises in taking the reins of the U.S. Senate office.

Congratulations on the wins. Were eager to see what you can do for the people of Alabama.
Beyon Connect has joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact Initiative, the worlds largest initiative to drive corporate sustainability.

The UN Global Compact is a non-binding pact to encourage organisations worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation.

Beyon Connects innovative products, OneBox digital postbox solutions, and OneID digital identity platform, have been designed to deliver innovative digital services for Bahrain and the MENA region, with the development of a sustainable and paperless future an integral part of the product design.

By joining the UN Global Compact Initiative Beyon Connect is stating its commitment to meet fundamental responsibilities in four key areas  human rights, labour, anti-corruption and environment, in line with best-in-class business practices. Beyon Connect will incorporate the ten principles of the UN Global Compact into the companys strategies, policies and procedures, and establish a culture of integrity to ensure responsibilities are met towards people and planet, supporting the companys long-term success.

Beyon Connect CEO Christian Rasmussen said: We are proud to be part of this worldwide initiative and join over 17,000 companies from 177 countries that are already working hand in hand with the UN Global Compact.

Beyon Connect has already established a clear focus on sustainability with care for the environment being high on our agenda and borne out by our products and services OneBox and OneID. By making the principles of the UN Global Compact an integral part of Beyon Connects business strategy, day to day operations and culture, we can become a more sustainable and responsible company and help towards the attainment of the UN Global Compact goals.

The concept of replacing physical mail and documents with validated digital equivalents has been highly successful and sustainable in Northern Europe, which is seen as a global leader in digitally integrated societies. We are keen to replicate this digital movement as part of our commitment to enable a greener, safer, and connected world, Rasmussen concluded.  TradeArabia News Service
Artist Le The Anh has accused his peer Pham Hong Minh of putting his signature on replicas of the formers paintings and demanded a public apology.

The Anh said a few days ago, one of his students told him that Pham Hong Minh, who has achieved fame for doing live paintings, had a copy of his painting called "Li Xi Nhe" (Lucky Money) but with the latters signature on it.

Later, The Anh found out that the same thing had been done to another one of his paintings, "Co Gai Dao Do" (Red Yao Girl).

Anh said making copies of paintings was normal practice in the country, but Minh had no right to put his own signature on it

He contacted Minh but received no response, so he put the story out on his Facebook and attracted the attention of many people. Minh then contacted The Anh and said that he had purchased the replicas at a shop in Hanoi and signed them because he "liked them."

The original "Li Xi Nhe" painting (L) and its replica. Photo courtesy of Le The Anh

"I have never seen anyone sign a painting after buying it. The issue is not buying or not buying the painting, the main point is that if you signed a painting, you claim to be its author.

"I cannot accept that. My works have been copyrighted, displayed and sold to collectors."

The Anh said his original oil painting "Li Xi Nhe" was completed in 2016 and displayed at an exhibition in 2017, while "Co Gai Dao Do was painted in 2013. Both paintings have copyright certificates and have been sold to collectors.

Minh said he hadnt copied the paintings because he had bought them. Once purchased, the paintings belonged to him. Therefore, it was his personal right to write and draw on it or resell it to someone else.

"Saying that I copied his paintings is slander. I have texted and asked to meet him but he hasnt agreed," Minh said.

The Anh has requested Minh to apologize publicly in the press and destroy the two falsely signed replicas, failing which he will take legal action.

Artist Tran Lam Binh, who has seven art exhibitions under his belt, said he disagreed with a person copying another artists work and signing his name on it. He said his own works were copied many times by others without permission, but the copiers didnt put their own signatures so them, so he had chosen not to make a big deal of it.

Binh said the reproduction of paintings was allowed by intellectual property law under two conditions. Firstly, the one who copied the painting had to ask the author for permission.

Secondly, a painting can be reproduced without permission if it was over 50 years old and its copyright duration had expired.

However, no one had a right to put their signature on a painting if they were not its author.

The original "Co Gai Dao Do" (L) and its replica. Photo courtesy of Le The Anh

Art expert Ngo Kim Khoi said The Anh should take legal action to protect his rights and interests. Authorities should also penalize anyone who copies paintings without asking their authors for permission.

"The act of signing on a replica of a painting and thinking that the owner can sign or edit anything on it after purchasing it is wrong. Pham Hong Minh should know better, because he has also studied art and has a brand related to art," Khoi said.

Painter Le The Anh, 44, is currently a lecturer at the Hanoi University of Theater and Performing Arts. Hes also a member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association. He has hosted many individual art exhibitions and won several domestic awards.

Pham Hong Minh, 31, is a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the HCMC University of Architecture of HCMC. He achieved viral fame in 2013 with his performances of painting with glitter and fire in Vietnams Got Talent reality show.

In 2017, he was recognized as the first live painting artist in Vietnam. He has been developing a career in performing live paintings of various styles and genres.
Thuy Lien had just recovered from Covid-19 for a second time and gone back to work when another bout of fever and sore throat began.

She had got Covid at the beginning of October, got better and then became infected again. She went back to work when she felt better, but the next day she had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius.

Lien, 31, from Hanoi's Tay Ho District, had to ask her boss to let her work from home.

Her husband was already in hospital with the flu. Her fever did not go away after two days of treatment, and so was also taken to the hospital and placed in the same room as her husband.

Their son missed his parents and cried all night, preventing his grandparents from sleeping.

Lien's father-in-law, nearly 70, had to take his grandson to school every morning for the next several days as the hapless couple lay in the hospital, exhausted and impatient but helpless.

People wait with kids for checkups at the Vietnam National Children's Hospital in Hanoi in late October. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Nga

With dengue fever, influenza A and B and Covid all hitting Hanoi simultaneously, many families are struggling to cope just like hers.

According to data from the Hanoi Center for Disease Control, the number of dengue fever cases has risen dramatically since the beginning of October. Every district is infected, and there are an average of more than 1,000 new cases a week, or 3.2 times the number a year ago and more than the average number since 2019.

Lien had to request for sick leave for a third time in a month but intended to take her computer to the hospital because she had too much work to do.

But since her voice was still weak because of the flu and her job requires her to talk frequently, she had to put the work on hold.

"I feel like someone grabbed my hair and drowned me in a river, then pulled me up and drowned me again," she says.

Nguyen Thu Hoai of Thanh Hoa Province is also stressed after both her children fell sick at the same time.

Since her husband works at night the 31-year-old has to take care of them by herself when he is away.

She has to constantly wipe her older son's body to cool down his 40-degree fever and also soothe her crying younger child.

"I stayed up all night five nights in a row though I had the flu as well," she says.

Hoai says she has three sisters but cannot seek their help because they are also busy taking care of their own sick children.

Dr Truong Huu Khanh, an epidemiologist and former head of the Department of Infection and Neurology at the Children's Hospital I in HCMC, says flu and dengue fever come around every year, but people had remained at home for two years because of Covid and did not contract them. But with things reopening now people are likely to contract not only them but also other illnesses, he warns.

"This problem affects many countries throughout the world and not just Vietnam."

A nurse measures the blood pressure of an influenza A patient at the Thanh Nhan General Hospital in Hanoi on July 6, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Chi Le

Khanh said people are likely to get influenza A, influenza B, or dengue fever at this time of the year unless they have a very strong immune system, and should be reconciled to the idea that they could get sick.

After staying in the hospital for a week Lien is back at work but still tired and with a huge backlog to clear.

"If I get sick again, it might not be because of a virus but because I have a lot of work to do and a deadline to meet," she says.
On October 31, 2000, the United Nations adopted Resolution 1325, which called on member states to acknowledge and address the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls. The resolution made clear the need to adopt a gender perspective with respect to the disproportionate effects of conflict and its aftermath on women and girls, including prevention and response to conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, repatriation, and resettlement, as well as post-conflict reconstruction and the need to meaningfully include women and girls in designing and proposing gender-sensitive solutions.



Today, twenty-two years after the adoption of Resolution 1325, women continue to be excluded from peace and security decision-making processes, which in turn leaves them more vulnerable to disproportionate rates of violence, targeted repression and exclusion from reconstruction, reintegration, and rebuilding decisions post conflict. We see these same patterns around the world, and especially in areas affected by conflict, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the UN Security Councils annual open debate on Women, Peace, and Security.



Right now we face a pivotal moment for the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. Around the world, women and girls are under threat from conflict and repressive regimes. Under threat from climate and under threat from poverty. Risks have gone up, including the threat of kidnapping, torture, killing, and gender-based violence. Women leaders, human rights defenders and activists are particularly targeted by online threats and harassment and abuse. They are often the subject of disinformation campaigns, designed to intimidate, discredit, and silence their calls for peace.



The Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, as outlined by Resolution 1325, offers a transformational vision: A world where women and girls are protected, included, and play an essential role for forging peace, said Ambassador Thomas Greenfield. Our charge is to make this vision a reality. Not just in words, but in deeds and actions.



We must promote womans leadership, whether its in their villages, its in their capitals, or its on the international stage, as we five women members of this Security Council here promote, and the many other women see around this room today.



We need to make this critical moment to band together as a global community to not just wear pink today as a sign of our support but raise our voices; raise our voices to demand the change that we know that the women of this world need, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.



We have to do it for the girls, and for the women, and for the peace and security that they will bring the world, but also the peace and security that they need to have from the world.
ELKO  Snowfall returned to northeastern Nevada late Wednesday morning as reports of adverse driving conditions continued across the region.

Elko County Fire Protection District reported that its station in Wells has been responding to vehicle accidents on U.S. Highway 93 north of Wells this morning. They posted photos of two vehicles that ran off the road.

Be careful out there, the weather will be sticking with us for a few more days, cautioned the ECFPD.

Nevada State Police also responded to an injury crash on U.S. Highway 50 in Eureka shortly before 9 a.m.

Hazardous driving conditions will remain possible from both new snow and freezing of melted snow, stated National Weather Service forecasters.

Wednesdays snow follows two days of record snow in Elko totaling more than 10 inches.

After a slow start to the water year on Oct. 1, Elko has now received nearly double the average amount of precipitation. The total of 1.91 inches at the airport compares with an average mark of .98 of an inch.

The NWS forecast calls for snow to end Wednesday but patchy ice and fog is expected overnight into Thursday.

Mostly sunny skies and sub-freezing temperatures begin Thursday. According to extended forecasts, the mercury could stay below 32 degrees for at least the next 10 days.
ELKO  Unofficial election results for Elko County are in, and they include one school board race that may be too close to call.

Parents of Elko County founder Misty Atkins trailed incumbent Susan Neal by 128 votes in District 1, while other incumbents soundly defeated their challengers.

At the end of Election Day, 13,785 people had voted in person, by mail or in early voting. Thats just under 50% of eligible voters.

Mail-in ballots that were placed in the mail by Election Day will still be counted after allowing time for them to move through the post office.

School board appointee Susan Neal received 6,141 votes. She is a former teacher who retired from the district in 2012.

Neal said she ran for election to the post because I am passionate about the education and well-being of the students.  I believe it is important to build strong relationships and work collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure the success of our children.

Misty Atkins had 6,013 votes. She moved to Elko in 2012 and got involved with the board due to the governors COVID-19 restrictions on students, such as face mask requirements. I was truly concerned by what I witnessed within our school district, she said during her campaign.

Atkins said the school district needed more transparency and that she would strive to make things work for everyone without taking away the rights of parents and students.

She was not the only candidate known for publicly opposing the pandemic restrictions. Robert Leonhardt was a board member who resigned and then unsuccessfully attempted to rescind his resignation.

Leonhardt pulled in 4,724 votes, while incumbent Dr. Joshua Byers had 7,334 for the District 2 seat.

Byers is an Elko native who owns Ignite Life Chiropractic. His three children attended Elko schools and one is now in college.

Byers said during his campaign that he wanted to bring continuity to the district.

It has been a big priority to make sure we have that stability in the district so we can help those kids grow from kindergarten through high school and go out into the world and become community leaders, wherever they go, not just in Elko County but throughout the nation, he said.

Another anti-mask challenger, Brian Gale of Wells, received 4,084 votes compared with 7,850 for incumbent Jeff Durham of West Wendover.

Gale was a potential target of litigation by the school district on election night after writing a letter to the Elko Daily Free Press about the trustee resignation controversy. The school district said Gale made several false and defamatory statements about the superintendent and the board, resulting in personal and professional damage. They discussed filing a defamation lawsuit against Gale when they met Tuesday evening in Carlin.

Jeff Durham, the winner in District 6, owns Fratelli Pizza in West Wendover, where he has lived for 20 years. He has said that the district should look outside the box at how other industries recruit employees.

Durham recently spearheaded an effort to increase compensation to rural parents who drive their children to school, noting that the mileage rate was far below the actual cost of transportation.

He looks forward to lobbying the Nevada Legislature for more funding from the states budget surplus to improve education.

In District 3, incumbent Matt McCarty defeated challenger Lincoln Litchfield of Carlin. McCarty received 8,300 votes and Litchfield 3,825.

Matt McCarty grew up in Elko, attending Great Basin College and earning a Bachelors of Applied Science degree in Management in Technology. He is currently executive director of the Terrace at Ruby View Elko Senior Center. The McCartys have three children.

I think the kids need support. They need people up there that dont have an agenda and are looking at what is best for them and the district, McCarty said in March.

He publicly called out challengers in an October candidate forum, saying they want to divide the county and generate hostility.

The District 7 race was to replace trustee Ira Wines, who did not file for re-election.

Brooke Ballard had 6,427 votes compared with 5,447 for Brent Kelly.

Ballard is a native Nevadan who grew up in Elko and is the mother of four boys. She said her children were among the reasons she filed for office.

I want to make sure they and all the students have programs and curriculum available that will help them be workforce ready and college ready when they graduate, she said, adding that she would advocate for special education, knowing firsthand the challenges that parents face.

I want to make sure that all the children who have special education needs and other challenges are provided the support, programs and tools to be successful, she said.
CARLIN  After a closed session on election night, Elko County school trustees are still considering whether to pursue a defamation lawsuit against Brian Gale, who was a candidate for school board but lost in the Nov. 8 balloting.

The board received the requested information and continues to weigh its options. The only action taken was a move into an open session to adjourn the meeting, the Elko County School District said in a statement issued Nov. 9.

Trustees voted unanimously during open session to hold the closed meeting, but they werent in agreement on the timing of the proposal.

Trustee Jeff Durham of West Wendover, who was on the ballot with Gale and won, voted against approving the board agenda at the beginning of the public session in Carlin because he had issues with the potential lawsuit not only because he didnt know about it in advance, but he felt more time was needed for consideration.

Today isnt the day, he said, because it was Election Day, and he felt there should be a cooling off period before action. However, he said that he has received more clarity on the item, and I dont disagree that it should be there.

Durham later said in board comments that when he saw Gales letter and the news about the lawsuit, it hit me pretty hard, explaining that the trustees are careful not to talk in advance about agenda items or violate open meeting laws.

Ive got to tell you its been a hard year regarding all this, he said. Regarding the current board members, he said everyone has their heart in the right place.

Trustee Matt McCarty, who also won the election, said he felt the timing of consideration of the defamation suit was about perfect since the election was over by the time the board would be considering it in the closed session, but he also agreed with a public comment letter from Lee Hoffman.

Hoffman, who is chairman of the Elko County Republican Party and attends board meetings as a concerned citizen, encouraged the school board to think long and hard about filing a lawsuit that would cause possible damage to our school district by continuing to fan the flames.

Gale said in comments to the board that his accusations are mainly against the districts attorney, Rob Salyer, and he didnt say anything against current trustees. He argued that he didnt believe a lawsuit would have merit.

I ask you not to waste taxpayer money, he wrote.

He also said that I do hereby rescind and unreservedly apologize for any and all statements I might have made that have been misconstrued as false or might be interpreted to defame or disparage in any way the persons of Teresa Dastrup, Ira Wines, Susan Neal, Josh Byers, Matt McCarty or Jeff Durham.

Gale said that to his knowledge he had never made any such statement, but if one exists, I do hereby withdraw it.

Trustee Dr. Joshua Byer, also elected on Nov. 8, said he wanted to see the past be in the past and let it go, regarding controversies over the boards past and present  but that hasnt happened.

ECSD released a statement on Nov. 7 that reported Superintendent Clayton Anderson and school board President Dastrup chose to place the potential lawsuit on the agenda in response to a letter to the editor of the Elko Daily Free Press that Gale wrote on the story behind school board resignations.

The district wrote that Gale made several false and defamatory statements about Anderson and the school board, accusing the superintendent of violating confidentiality and sabotaging the board for personal gain, and accusing the board of abuse of power at taxpayer expense.

According to the statement, Anderson and trustees have suffered personal and professional damage as a result of Gales false statements, and those who make baseless, dangerous accusations toward school employees and elected officials should be held accountable.

In Gales letter to the editor, he said that the much of the recent upheaval in our local government, the coerced resignations of three duly-elected school board members, was done entirely out of the public view, behind closed doors.

Much of the controversy harks back to a large group of parents objecting to Gov. Steve Sisolaks mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Salyers legal opinion at that time stated that disregarding the state mandate could result in dire consequences for the school district and school trustees who vote against requiring masks.

Trustees voted anyway to make masks optional, and two school board members resigned that week and three the following week. The only two trustees remaining then reinstated the mask mandate.

A group of school administrators had written a letter alleging collusion between some trustees and anti-mask parents and asking the Nevada Department of Education and state education superintendent to intervene.

New trustees were then appointed, including McCarty, Byers, Durham and Susan Neal, while Dastrup and Ira Wines remained on the board.

Neals election was tight against Misty Atkins, who has actively criticized the school board and co-founded Parents of Elko County. Neal was ahead by 128 votes, but mail-in ballots sent on election day were yet to be counted.

Wines didnt file for re-election, so he will be replaced by Brooke Ballard. Adriana Lara ran unopposed for the fifth district board seat, which wasnt filled during the appointments last year. Dastrup wasnt up for election.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha

Minister Tran is leading a Vietnamese delegation to the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), which is taking place in Egypt from November 6 to November 18.

Minister Tran said that Viet Nam and other countries to the conference will strive to perfect mechanisms and policies to mobilize resources from developed nations for the implementation of the commitments.

Resources should therefore be allocated transparently and equally to developing and underdeveloped nations that are making great efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, the Minister noted.

He highlighted energy transition as a solution to the impact of climate change, of which Viet Nam has set out a specific roadmap to follow.

The Vietnamese Government has issued a strategy relating to climate change and assigned specific tasks to ministries, agencies, and localities, Minister Tran added.

Viet Nam is working hard to materialize the commitments using its internal resources, as well as support from the international community, especially through mechanisms of the COP26 agreement reached in the UK last year, he said.

Three major tasks

According to the Minister, the Vietnamese delegation came to COP27 with three major tasks.

First, Viet Nam works with other UNFCCC members to figure out ways to realize these commitments and mechanisms, along with raising new initiatives, mechanisms, and policies to conduct energy transition.

Second, Viet Nam upholds the countrys pioneering role in energy transition, green transition, and digital transformation.

Third, Viet Nam mobilizes resources and learn from developed partners experience, as well as joining more initiatives, especially those on financial mobilization and energy transition.

Moving forward, the delegation is scheduled to carry out a range of bilateral activities with international organizations and businesses relating to energy transition, in addition to holding meetings with major financial institutions such as the World Bank.

Mr. Tran described COP27 as an opportunity for the Vietnamese delegation to meet with leading international organizations and financial institutions to discuss financial mechanisms and policies, as well as assessing how to mobilize resources for Viet Nam.

Within the framework of COP27, the country will continue to hold discussions with partners from the G7 relating to energy transition, as well as helping the country to utilize opportunities in preferential financing and technology transfer to fulfill its net-zero commitments./.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh consoles a patient as he visit the Cho Ray Phnom Penh Hospital in Phnom Penh capital, Cambodia, November 9, 2022. Photo: VGP

Pham, who is on a two-day official visit to Cambodia, made the above statement on Wednesday morning while visiting the hospital in Phnom Penh capital, Cambodia.



According to Ton Thanh Tra, Director of the Cho Ray Phnom Penh Hospital, the hospital came into operation in 2014. This is the first healthcare cooperation project between the two countries.

The 500-bed hospital has total investment capital of US$47 million, of which around US36 million has been spent on the hospital's first phase with 200 beds.

It is managed and operated by Cho Ray-Phnom Penh Joint Venture Co Ltd., jointly set up by Saigon Medical Investment Joint Stock Company and Sokimex Co of Cambodia.

During its operation, the hospital will be given assistance from Vietnamese doctors at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The hospital is expected to help ease patient overload in hospitals in Cambodia and better meet the demand for medical examination and treatment of residents in Phnom Penh and its neighboring localities.

Ton said the hospital has become a reliable treatment facility in Cambodia. The number of patients increased rapidly in recent years and reached 117,000 in the first ten months this year, up 37 percent from 2021.

It has 25 departments such as surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, cardiology, trauma, orthopedics, emergency aid, imaging diagnosis, medical testing, general examination, and treatment for out-patients. All departments are equipped with advanced medical equipment and facilities that meet European standards./.
Metaverse represents a major new market for Middle Eastern telcos with early estimates of the overall size of the Metaverse opportunity to be around $13 trillion by 2030.

For example, Ericsson estimates the opportunity presented by 5G fixed wireless access at $5 billion in 2022, growing to $21 billion in 2025 and $53 billion by 2030, said Arthur D. Little (ADL), which has published The Metaverse: Whats In It For Telcos? exploring how telcos can capture value by leveraging the metaverse.

Three related forces drive the imperative for telcos to be proactive in their Metaverse strategies and tactics. First, the demand is likely to be too large to ignore. Second, the risk of failure or non-participation could be existential: hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure will be close on the heels of those telco players that fail to guarantee the infrastructure the Metaverse necessitates.

Well into the mainstream

Third, consumer behaviour, particularly from Gen Z, shows that demand for Metaverse products is already well into the mainstream. For example, according to a recent study by Obsess, 75% of Gen Z virtual shoppers have already purchased a digital product within a video game. To connect with this generation of consumers, telcos must invest in Metaverse offerings and capabilities.

Given these three factors, telcos should explore how they can benefit from the Metaverses rise, both with infrastructure and through direct participation. By engaging effectively with this new market, benefits for telcos include growth from increased revenues and retention and new efficiency gains along multiple axes, including carbon usage and workforce outsourcing.

Thomas Kuruvilla, Managing Partner, Arthur D. Little, Middle East, said: The expected acceleration in Metaverse prospects is driven by a real convergence of multiple factors: internet connectivity, technology related to sensors to collect data, digitalisation and AI  and the value of a reliable communication is obvious. As highlighted in the report, the Metaverse will add tremendous value to all and this should allow telcos to share a part of the benefit, as increased revenue which can be spend on network infrastructure and addressing the challenge of ultra-low-latency requirements.

A good connectivity will enable Healthcare and Education providers to deliver services to disadvantaged and remote communities  and at an overall lower cost  democratising access and care for citizens worldwide. Going forward, the % increase in adoption of digital services/Metaverse will be higher with the lower income population ADL estimates the total addressable market will grow at a 33% CAGR from 20222025 (excluding infrastructure and enabling technologies).

Tech-driven world

Dr Albert Meige, Director of Blue Shift at Arthur D. Little, said: The Metaverse provide a vision for the transition to a more connected, immersive and tech-driven world. It could also be a crucial accelerator in the search for tools that support the individual lifestyle of the next generation of consumers. It is increasingly clear that speeding up infrastructure enhancements to meet demand is not only essential but urgent, and the telecommunications sector is at the heart of this challenge. The aim of this Viewpoint is to spotlight key enablers and provide recommendations for telcos to unlock the potential of the Metaverse opportunity and help them enact a fast and equitable digital transition.

ADL Viewpoint explores the multifold benefits for telcos, from leveraging infrastructure to building new business models to capturing downstream value through active participation in the Metaverse as a single point of service. The Viewpoint underlines that speed is important in capturing the Metaverse opportunity, and spotlights that the Metaverse necessitates structural changes to the telecom industry on an infrastructure level and offers valuable economic and strategic benefits for those telcos that actively participate in it.

Enabling technologies

Telcos will need to develop key enabling technologies  from infrastructure to artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics  to fully participate in the Metaverse, including the following:

*Local compute for a truly immersive experience

*Ultra-low-latency communications for a lag-free experience

*Enhanced cloud computing for interactions on a mass scale

*Analytics & AI capabilities to facilitate telcos activities

*Privacy & trust infrastructure to tame the regulatory Wild West

New business models

ADL Viewpoint explores the multifold benefits for telcos, from leveraging infrastructure to building new business models to capturing downstream value through active participation in the Metaverse as a single point of service. With excellent customer understanding and trust alongside a fundamental role in enabling the Metaverse (infrastructure), telcos are well positioned to move through the value chain to capture a greater slice of the pie.-- TradeArabia News Service
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (left) meets with Cambodian Senate President Samdech Say Chhum. (Photo: VNA)

During the meeting, the Vietnamese PM congratulated Cambodia over the successful organization of the commune elections in June this year, and the countrys important achievements.

He expressed a belief that under the reign of King Norodom Sihamoni and the leadership of the Senate, National Assembly and Royal Government, Cambodia will continue to reap new achievements in the cause of national construction and development as well as unceasingly enhance the countrys position in the region and international arena.

For his part, the Cambodian Senate leader said the visit of PM Chinh not only contributes to strengthening the neighbourly friendship and comprehensive cooperation between Cambodia and Vietnam but also demonstrates Vietnams strong support of Cambodia as Chair of ASEAN in 2022.

He recalled his successful visit to Vietnam last October and said he believes under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam will realise the goal of becoming a high-income developed country by 2045.

The two leaders valued the maintenance of regular contact and exchanges at high level across all channels between the two countries, and the coordination in organising significant activities during the Vietnam-Cambodia, Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Year 2022 to mark the 55th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship. They also appreciated the effective operation of bilateral cooperative mechanisms and good coordination of the two countries at international, regional and sub-regional frameworks, including multilateral parliamentary forums.

PM Chinh asked the Cambodian Senate to continue support the promotion of the friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, and pay attention to assisting Cambodian of Vietnamese origin in stabilising their lives and integrating into the host society.

He also proposed that the Senate help create a legal framework for Vietnamese firms long-term investment and business in Cambodia for the practical interests of the people of both countries./.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (L) and King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni (Photo: VNA)

PM Chinh expressed his delight at visiting Cambodia on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of its National Day (November 9) and the 100th birth anniversary of late King Norodom Sihanouk (October 31).

He congratulated the Cambodian people on their recent achievements as well as success in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, and believed that under the sound reign of King Sihamoni, Cambodia will increasingly thrive with a higher international role and position.

King Sihamoni, for his part, highlighted the significance of the visit in the Cambodia-Vietnam, Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Year 2022, marking the 55th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.

He highly appreciated sentiments that Vietnamese leaders offered to Cambodia, especially the late King and Queen Mother, as well as invaluable support and assistance to the Cambodian people in overthrowing the genocidal regime in the past and the process of national construction and development at present.

The King congratulated Vietnam on its important achievements in various areas and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in socio-economic recovery and development.

The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the development of the fine neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia in recent years.

The Cambodian King spoke highly of the two governments efforts to reinforce the bilateral comprehensive cooperation to bring practical benefits to the people and contribute to peace and prosperity in the region and ASEAN Community.

PM Chinh affirmed that leaders and the people of Vietnam always treasure profound sentiments and valuable support and assistance that late King Sihanouk, King Sihamoni and generations of leaders and people of Cambodia have reserved for Vietnam in the past struggle for national liberation as well as the present process of national construction and development.

He expressed his wish that in his noble role, the King would continue fostering the fine relations between the two nations and creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Cambodia to settle down their lives and make positive contributions to Cambodias socio-economic development and the bilateral relationship.

On this occasion, PM Chinh reiterated President Nguyen Xuan Phucs invitation to King Sihamoni to visit Vietnam at appropriate time next year. The King thanked and accepted the invitation with pleasure.

The same day, PM Chinh called on Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk and conveyed regards of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and high-ranking Vietnamese leaders to her on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of late King Norodom Sihanouk./.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcomes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara, Trkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Trkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Trkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO.

"We will fully implement the trilateral memorandum," Kristersson said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara.

"Sweden will take important steps with regards to the fight against terror," he added.

Sweden plans to introduce new legislation by 2023 to fight terror groups, whether they pose risk to Sweden or Trkiye, the Swedish leader noted.

Kristersson said his country has designated the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization and his government was willing to support Trkiye in its fight against the group.

"Joining this alliance is a vital security issue for us. Being a NATO member means taking (security) responsibility for other allies," he added.

Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO.

"Sweden wants NATO membership for its own security, and we want to see a Sweden that supports our own security concerns," Erdogan said.

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

On June 28, Trkiye, Sweden and Finland reached a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO Madrid summit.

Sweden and Finland pledged to support Trkiye's fight against terrorism and agreed to address Ankara's pending deportation or extradition requests for terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly.

Trkiye remains one of the two NATO members yet to ratify their accession, as Ankara has been complaining that the two countries have moved too slowly in fulfilling their commitments over the Turkish security concerns.

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

The Gulen movement, led by the U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, has been accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the 2016 failed coup to topple Erdogan's rule.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attends a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen in the picture) in Ankara, Trkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Trkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attend a joint press conference in Ankara, Trkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Trkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attend a joint press conference in Ankara, Trkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Trkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

Editor: WXL
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said exemption from VAT and duties on energy equipment will simplify and reduce the cost of its supplies to Ukraine.

"Today, the government of Ukraine made an important decision that will help pass the winter period. Imports of goods needed during the heating season will be exempt from VAT and import duties," he said in a video statement on Tuesday.

According to him, "this should simplify and reduce the cost of supplies to Ukraine. Generators, batteries, transformers and other similar equipment for energy and heat supply."

"It is also important that sufficient volumes of gas and coal are being accumulated to provide for the Ukrainians. We clearly understand that turning winter into a weapon is the plan of a terrorist state against our state, as well as against all of Europe. But we are doing our best to ensure that this Russian plan experienced a failure, like different previous ones," he said.
Hungary told EU finance ministers at a meeting in Brussels that it would not support the necessary changes to prepare an EUR 18 billion aid package for Ukraine next year, Bloomberg said citing sources.

According to the agency, the European Commission will propose on Wednesday to provide Ukraine with preferential loans on a more stable basis, but this initiative will require the use of additional space in the EU budget.

Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga told his colleagues that he would not support such an option, which requires the unanimous support of 27 governments.
The European Commission has officially unveiled a proposal to provide Ukraine in 2023 with up to EUR 18 billion in a new format of Macro-Financial Assistance+ (MFA+) for the stable maintenance of state functions during the war waged by Russia against the country.

The decision was announced by Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis on Wednesday in Brussels at a press conference.

Commenting on this decision, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on her Twitter page: "The EU continues to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. We propose an EUR18 billion support package for 2023. Funding in regular tranches to help recovery in the short-term and strengthen institutions. Preparing the ground for a reconstruction of Ukraine progressing on the EU path."

"The Commission has proposed an unprecedented support package for Ukraine of up to EUR18 billion for 2023. This will come in the form of highly concessional loans, disbursed in regular instalments as of 2023. This stable, regular and predictable financial assistance  averaging EUR1.5 billion per month  will help cover a significant part of Ukraine's short-term funding needs for 2023, which the Ukrainian authorities and the International Monetary Fund estimate at EUR3 billion to EUR4 billion per month. The support put forward by the EU would need to be matched by similar efforts by other major donors in order to cover all of Ukraine's funding needs for 2023," the EC said.

"The MFA+ instrument will be accompanied by reforms to help Ukraine advance on its path to becoming a member of the EU. This means that the Ukrainian government will have to complement the financial support with sectoral and institutional reforms, including anti-corruption and judicial reforms, respect of the rule of law, good governance, and modernization of the national and local institutions. We will check that these reforms have been effectively put in place when paying out the instalments," the report says.
Finland will provide assistance to the World Food Program (WFP) and allocate it almost EUR 7 million for the transportation of Ukrainian grain crops to the Horn of Africa, in particular Somalia, where more than 20 million people need food aid.

The relevant humanitarian assistance will be provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, according to the website of the Finnish broadcasting portal Yle.

According to it, Finland will allocate EUR 15.7 million in total to African countries, especially those dependent on grain imports and Ukraine, which are particularly strongly affected by the negative consequences of Russian military aggression. It is specified that about EUR 7 million of this amount will go to support grain transportation through the WPF, and the rest will be directed to increasing humanitarian assistance for the Horn of Africa countries.

The ezine also recalled that Finnish humanitarian aid to other countries besides WFP is also delivered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Finnish Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Metinvest pays almost UAH 18 bln in taxes over nine months of 2022

In January-September of this year, Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group, owned by Rinat Akhmetov and Vadym Novinsky, including associated companies and joint ventures, transferred almost UAH 18 billion in taxes and fees to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine.

"Despite the shutdown of several enterprises in Mariupol and Avdiyivka, Metinvest remains one of the largest taxpayers and a reliable pillar of the Ukrainian economy," Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of the group, is quoted in a press release.

At the same time, it is clarified that the largest payment is income tax. In January-September, Ukrainian enterprises of Metinvest paid more than UAH 6 billion to the state and local budgets.

The second largest amount of payments is single social security tax, amounting to UAH 3.3 billion.

This is followed by personal income tax and payment for the subsoil use  more than UAH 3 billion of each tax was paid to the treasury of Ukraine.

Despite the Russian aggression, over the nine months of 2022, Metinvest enterprises and the group's joint ventures increased the payment of iron ore royalty by 40% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 2.9 billion, and land fees by 35%, to UAH 856 million, the message says.

Also, a significant source of filling the state and local budgets of Ukraine was environmental tax  UAH 511 million.

The group's CEO noted that in these difficult times, the company is trying to support the country's economy in any way possible.

"The closure of the Black Sea ports due to the war leads to a difficult situation with the logistics of the products of our mining and processing plants in Kryvy Rih, a decrease in the level of workload, downtime of enterprises. However, we are looking for alternative ways to export products, improve operational efficiency, help the army and the population quickly bring Ukraine's victory closer," the top manager stressed.

Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. The group's enterprises are located mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Zelensky: We clearly understand what enemy plans in Kherson region, so we act accordingly

The Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kherson region are strengthening their positions, breaking Russian logistics, consistently destroying the enemy's potential to keep the south of our country in occupation, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video statement on Tuesday.

"Kherson region: we clearly understand what the enemy plans, therefore we act accordingly. Carefully, thoughtfully and in the interests of liberating our entire territory: we strengthen our positions, break Russian logistics, consistently destroy the enemy's potential to keep the south of our country in occupation," he said.

According to him, "in the information space, there is still a slight decrease in the amount of news from the front  there are fewer messages than, for example, at the beginning of autumn."

"But this does not mean that the intensity of the fighting has become less. The situation is difficult along the entire frontline. In some areas, fierce positional battles continue. to go to the administrative border of Donetsk region  they have not changed," he also said.

Zelensky said "we are not renting a single centimeter of our land there  and I thank all our heroes who hold positions in Donbas."

"East: step by step we are moving towards the return of the Ukrainian flag to all our cities and communities. We are also actively strengthening the border," the president said.
Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak called for establishing cooperation with international humanitarian organizations, ombudsmen and governments of other countries in order to join the mission to return Ukrainian children whom Russia illegally brought to its territory, the presidential press service said.

"Russia continues to commit its crimes related to Ukrainian children. Children are being taken out. Unfortunately, due to the very passive position of international organizations, in particular the ICRC, today we are not able to fix the exact figure of how many and where our children are," Yermak said at a meeting of the Coordinating Council for the Protection and Safety of Children on Tuesday.

According to Yermak, Ukraine can count on the help of the United Nations, which can support the creation of new sites.

"We must rely on ourselves, but also involve those partners who have demonstrated their readiness to help us," the head of the President's Office said.

Yermak said Ukraine, independently and in cooperation with international partners, is trying to obtain comprehensive information about Ukrainian children.

It is reported that thousands of reports of forced transfer or deportation of Ukrainian minors are received through the Children of War portal alone.

It is noted that among the participants were government representatives, law enforcement officers, the ombudsman, MPs, experts and members of the public.

In turn, Adviser-President of Ukraine for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation Daria Herasymchuk announced the start of a dialogue with other international organizations and global platforms on assistance in establishing data on children deported or taken to Russia and temporarily occupied territories.

Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereschuk said at present Ukraine has managed to return only 96 children, of which 69 from the territory of Russia and 27 from the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Meanwhile, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets is convinced that the forced deportation of children is a direct sign of the genocide of the Ukrainian people.

According to him, Ukraine collects and records evidence of criminal offenses against minor Ukrainians. The Ombudsman also said that representatives of the EU countries and his colleagues from other countries are interested in the fate of Ukrainian children deported to Russia and the issue of their return, and the commissioners are ready to assist in establishing information about such children.
Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, has appointed Simmi Dhamija as the Chief Operating Officer of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) strategic market unit.

Dhamija will lead delivery and operations of the strategic market unit across its different regions and effectively support its profitable growth ambitions, the company said.

She is a seasoned leader with over two decades of experience in the technology industry. She joins Wipro from Tech Mahindra, where she was the Chief Transformation Officer leading strategic initiatives across digital transformation, M&A synergy, profit improvement, delivery modernisation, key customer engagements, and managing 360-degree relationships with partners and ecosystem stakeholders. Prior to that, she has held various global leadership roles in strategy, delivery, operations, and talent development.

I am glad to have Simmi on board to drive our ambitious agenda across APMEA. She has a critical mission  to lead the evolution of our operating model towards maximizing client centricity and employee empowerment, while continuously improving our financial performance and bringing simplicity, agility and efficiency to the way we work. She has all the professional skills and personal traits to succeed in this mission brilliantly, said Anis Chenchah, member of the Wipro Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer, APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa), Wipro Limited.

Dhamija is an industry thought leader, sought-after speaker, and the recipient of many awards and accolades. She also serves on the advisory board of the Pinkishe foundation, a non-government organisation focused on the development, well-being, pride, and happiness of girls and women. She is a part of the FICCI  WISE Council. Dhamija holds a management degree from IMT Ghaziabad, India.  TradeArabia News Service
Ireland supports Ukraine's speedy accession to the EU, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said, according to Bild.

"Many Ukrainians are motivated by the dream of having a different future. This is the future we have in the EU today, in terms of peace, stability, prosperity, democracy and everything that follows from this," the publication quoted the minister as saying on Wednesday, November 9.

He also emphasized that a country, which is literally fighting for its survival against a military superpower today, "should be able to hope for full EU membership, not some partial membership or neighborhood agreement".

Coveney also said that besides Ukraine, other countries, such as the Balkan states or the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia, should benefit from expansion.

"We have been dragging out the process of accepting some Balkan countries for too long," he said.

The minister also noted there should be mandatory standards which relevant candidate countries should stick to.

"Also, we should praise progress when we can see it," Coveney said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is impressed by the skills of Ukrainian soldiers acquired only in a few weeks of exercises in the UK.

He shared such impressions on Wednesday after visiting the training program center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at Lydd Army Camp, which took place during a visit to the UK.

I'm impressed about what I've seen. I've seen the skills, the dedication, the commitment of the Ukrainian soldiers who are trained here and that is encouraging to see how much they learn, how much they are able to achieve from only some weeks there, and I'm confident that this will make a difference on the battleground in Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.

In this regard, he expressed gratitude to the United Kingdom, Canada, Lithuania and " to other countries that are participating into these training efforts to support Ukraine defending their own country." "NATO allies and partners are supporting Ukraine at an unprecedented level. But United Kingdom has been a lead nation for these efforts for many, many months," the NATO Secretary General said.

In addition, he thanked the United Kingdom and Defense Minister Ben Wallace for hosting me here today. This is an important example of how the United Kingdom is a highly valued NATO ally, making a real difference when it comes to providing training support to Ukraine, Stoltenberg added.
Tehran and Baghdad Tuesday identified fighting "terrorism", maintaining mutual security and extending economic cooperation as key priorities during the new Iraqi prime minister's first official visit to Iran.
A Palestinian teenager was killed Wednesday in clashes with Israeli occupation army that erupted during a visit by right-wing politicians to a sensitive religious site in the occupied West Bank, multiple sources said.

The Palestinian health ministry said: "Mahdi Mohammad Hashash died of serious wounds caused by shrapnel that hit different parts of his body during the occupation's incursion into Nablus," the largest city in the northern West Bank.

The ministry said he was 15. It was not immediately clear if he was killed by an explosive he was carrying, or by Israeli fire.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah movement, issued a statement claiming the minor as one of its members.

The Israeli occupation army said troops were in the area to secure "the entrance of worshippers to Joseph's Tomb", believed to be the last resting place of the biblical patriarch Joseph and a flashpoint for occupied West Bank violence.

A Jewish settler organisation told AFP that eight Israeli politicians -- current lawmakers and others elected on November 1 who have yet to be sworn in -- were visiting Joseph's Tomb.

The group included members of veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and allies from the extreme right Religious Zionism bloc.

A surge in support for the far right in last week's general election sealed victory for Netanyahu over centrist incumbent Yair Lapid, setting him up to form what may be the most right-wing government in Israel's history.

The Israeli occupation army said "shots were heard" at the site and troops "shot towards a terrorist who placed a bomb in the area".

"A hit was identified," it added, without directly commenting on Hashash's death.

The occupation army declined to confirm that the troops were guarding lawmakers, identifying the group only as "worshippers".

The Palestinian office of religious sites considers Joseph's Tomb to be an Islamic archaeological monument.

The Israeli occupation army organises monthly escorted pilgrimages to the site but prohibits civilians entering on their own.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people were also wounded in the clashes.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. This year is on track to be the deadliest in the territory since 2015.

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EU member states have come to an agreement with MEPs on how to share out the effort of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The union plans to cut emissions from road transport, building heating, farming, light industry and waste management by 40 percent by 2030, compared to their level in 1990.

But not all member states will face the same targets and, with the COP27 climate talks underway in Egypt, officials and lawmakers met late Monday in Brussels to divide the task.

These targets vary depending on a member state's GDP per capita and the cost-effectiveness of the cuts it is proposing.

The lowest goal is a 10 percent reduction in the targeted sectors for Bulgaria, while Denmark, Germany, Finland and Sweden must bring their emissions down by half.

There will also be a system for trading emissions allowances between member states and countries that exceed annual targets and can save unused allowances for later years.

"The new rules for national emission cuts ensure that all member states contribute and that existing loopholes are closed," said MEP Jessica Polfjard.

"This allows us to go to COP27 with a clear signal that the EU is serious about being the global champion for a competitive and efficient climate agenda."

The economic sectors covered by the agreement represented 60 percent of the total EU greenhouse emissions, with the rest subject to the EU carbon market and other regulations.

The EU climate plan aims to slash all emissions, across all sectors, by 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi underlined on Wednesday the crucial role played by Tanzania as one of the countries active in promoting security and stability in Africa.

These remarks came during the president's meeting with Tanzanian President Samia Hassan on the sidelines of the 27th session of the UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Presidential spokesman Bassam Rady stated that President El-Sisi said that Egypt was keen on strengthening ties with Tanzania on all levels. Egypt, the president said, gave importance to investing in vital sectors in Tanzania. The greatest example of these investments is the construction of the Tanzanian Julius Nyerere Dam.

During the meeting, President Sisi underlined the close ties between Egypt and Tanzania. He welcomed the Tanzanian president in Egypt.

El-Sisi offered condolences to Tanzania for the victims of the plane that crashed into Lake Victoria while trying to land in Bukoba airport located in the northwest of Tanzania, added the spokesman.



The Tanzanian president, for her part, thanked President Sisi for his sincere brotherly feelings toward the victims of the plane crash.



She also hailed as deeply rooted the relations between Egypt and Tanzania, affirming her keenness on further strengthening ties with Egypt, according to the spokesman.

The Tanzanian president also said that there were prospects for developing cooperation between the two countries in numerous fields, particularly in the field of economy.



Hassan also extended thanks to Egypt for its distinguished contribution to development efforts in Tanzania, emphasising Egyptian efforts in the construction of Tanzania's Julius Nyerere Dam, said Rady.

A consortium of Egyptian companies, namely Arab Contractors and El-Sewedy Electric, finished the construction of the main body of Julius Nyerere Dam located in Rufiji River in Tanzania in October.

The two leaders also discussed the latest developments in Africa. Both leaders agreed on the importance of integration between African countries, especially in the fields of economy and trade, the Presidential spokesman said.



Furthermore, the two leaders discussed efforts to combat terrorism, which is considered one of the major challenges facing Africa.



According to Rady, the talks broached the issue of the water of the Nile, with both sides agreeing to support the Nile Basin countries' path toward development.

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Egypts Ambassador to Lebanon Yasser Elwy announced that a new batch of medical aid including medicine and vaccines arrived in Beirut earlier Wednesday.

According to Elwy, Egypt sent 27 tons of cholera vaccines and medicines only one week following Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati's request. Mikati had requested Egypt's assistance during his meeting with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Algiers last week.

Ambassador Yasser Elwy reiterated Egypts commitment to supporting Lebanon in the face of its crisis. Egypt, he said, recognises the importance of Lebanon and will not forsake it.

The new batch of medical aid was received by the Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad who expressed the Lebanese governments appreciation and thanks for Egypt's prompt response. He also thanked Egypt for fully supporting Lebanon in all respects.

Abiad stated that Egypt had already sent over 500 tons of medical aid supplies during the coronavirus pandemic and in the aftermath of the explosion of Beirut port.

The Lebanese minister added that the distribution of Egyptian medical aid to Lebanese public and field hospitals will begin on Thursday.

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Uganda's veteran President Yoweri Museveni accused Europe on Wednesday of "brazen double standards" towards Africa in its climate and energy policies.

He lashed out at Europe's return to coal-fired power plants in the face of the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine while at the same time telling African nations not to use fossil fuels.

"We will not accept one rule for them and another rule for us," Museveni wrote in a blog published Wednesday that coincides with the UN's COP27 climate summit taking place in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"Europe's failure to meet its climate goals should not be Africa's problem," he added.

Museveni's comments follow warnings from African leaders at COP27 about the damage climate change is already wreaking on the continent.

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.

Wealthy nations have failed to provide a pledged $100 billion a year from 2020 to developing nations to help them build resilience and green their economies, reaching just $83 billion according to the UN.

Africa's carbon footprint is the lowest of any continent, accounting for around three percent of global CO2 emissions.

"We will not allow African progress to be the victim of Europe's failure to meet its own climate goals," said Museveni, one of Africa's longest serving leaders.

"It is morally bankrupt for Europeans to expect to take Africa's fossil fuels for their own energy production but refuse to countenance African use of those same fuels for theirs."

Museveni said European nations needed to end their "brazen double standards" and "hypocrisy", and took aim at what he said were conditions that Western investment in fossil fuels in Africa was possible only for oil and gas that would be sent to Europe.

Earlier this year, France's TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation signed a $10-billion agreement to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship the crude through a 1,445-kilometre (900-mile) pipeline to a Tanzanian port on the Indian Ocean.

The project, which includes drilling in Murchison Falls, Uganda's largest national park, has run into strong opposition from activists and environmental groups that say it threatens the region's fragile ecosystem and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.

The European Parliament in September adopted a resolution calling for the project to be delayed over "rights violations", infuriating Kampala.

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When it comes to helping poor nations cope with climate change, the United States government left its wallet at home. So it hopes its friend, big business, can help pick up the tab.

Unable to persuade Congress or the American public to spend billions of dollars more a year in climate financial aid, the US government is trying to make it easier for private corporations to send cash to the developing world in exchange for looking green at home.

The plan, announced Wednesday by US climate envoy John Kerry at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, essentially amounts to tapping private funds to finance developing nations' transition to clean energy by selling "high quality" carbon credits to companies trying to make their carbon emissions "net zero.''

"Our intention is to put the carbon market to work, to deploy capital otherwise unemployable, to speed the transition from dirty to clean power,'' and replace dirty coal-fired power plants with renewable energy sources, Kerry said at a launch event.

But the idea faced stiff resistance from environmental groups and climate experts, who said it would give polluters a license to keep polluting.

It came a day after the United Nations warned about shady carbon credits that businesses count on to meet their net-zero targets.

Underscoring the opposition, an activist heckled Kerry as he launched the plan, accusing him of "promoting false solutions,'' before security guards pushed him away. At this year's COP summit, poorer nations have lambasted wealthier ones for not putting up enough money to finance their so-called green transition.

The developed world needs hundreds of billions of dollars to help them ditch coal, oil and natural gas, but the United States Congress has been reluctant to spend much in financial aid.

"If we don't find more money ... we ain't going to get this done,'' Kerry said of the fight against climate change.

Kerry's proposal is dubbed the Energy Transition Accelerator and is backed by two major philanthropies, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund.

They hope it could unlock $100 billion or more in financing for green projects by 2030. Kerry said he wants to have it up and running by next year's COP meeting.

Details about how it will work are still sparse, but under the plan, verified greenhouse gas emission reductions would be generated that could then be sold as carbon credits. Kerry said there's been ``strong interest'' to buy them from corporations including PepsiCo and Microsoft.

There would be "strong safeguards'' on who could buy the credits, Kerry said. Buyers, "not including fossil fuel companies,'' will need a goal for getting to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions and a science-based interim target on the way to meeting that goal, he said.

The credits can't be used as substitutes for making deep cuts to their own emissions but as an extra boost to those efforts.

Unlike other carbon credits criticized as prone to abuse, these credits would only be allowed to be used to phase out coal power plants in developing nations and creating more renewable power and would be time limited, Kerry said. That, he said, would be "guardrails against abuse.''

Carbon credits have evolved into a multibillion-dollar market for companies, governments and individuals who want to reduce their carbon footprint.

But they've also become a source of controversy among environmental and climate activists, who say they're problematic because there's no guarantee they'll deliver on reducing emissions.

The basic idea is that emissions from polluting human activities can be offset elsewhere, either through farming practices that store carbon, planting trees, or by capturing climate-changing gases from smokestacks and other equipment.

These activities are monetized and sold as offsets and are popular with companies making them a part of their net-zero plans.

On Tuesday, a UN expert panel warned that tougher standards were needed to fight back against greenwash by companies and investors making net-zero pledges, including a ban on businesses and local governments buying cheap carbon credits that lack integrity instead of deeply cutting their own emissions.

The idea proposed Wednesday faced plenty of skepticism.

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank, called carbon offsets an "accounting trick" that paves the way for big polluters to carry on polluting.

Big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in both wealthy Northern nations and developing countries in the global South are what's needed, Adow said, "not rich polluting companies in the north paying for the privilege of continuing to destroy the planet."

"John Kerry knows the science on climate, he knows what is at stake for people, and yet what he's proposing with his offsets threatens to badly undermine global efforts to cut emissions,"Adow said.

Climate scientist Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, who was on the United Nations expert panel, said the proposal shocked people at the climate summit and upset many governments.

"The reason why is because we're at that stage of history now where everyone has to reduce emissions. And the implications of John Kerry's proposal is that companies would not actually have to reduce emissions if they buy offsets.''

A senior European official voiced skepticism at the US proposal ahead of the launch.

"I think there's, in some circles, massive concerns,'' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Micah Carpenter-Lott, the activist who heckled Kerry, said he wanted to call attention to inaction by big polluters and wealthy nations and the "false solutions'' presented by Kerry's plan.

"We do not need to be partnering with polluters," Carpenter-Lott, an indigenous justice activist from the Northern Arapaho tribe in the US, told The Associated Press moments after he was booted out of the US pavilion.

"Polluters shouldn't even be in this space, and they shouldn't be allowed to create partnerships with governments because that is not going to solve the climate crisis.''

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Egyptian Embassy in Athens has been in contact with Egyptian authorities to facilitate performing DNA tests to families of irregular migrants who drowned in Athens to help identify the victims and bring their bodies back home for burial.

Seventeen young men from Beheira governorate drowned before the shores of Greece on Friday. They had been on board a boat carrying irregular migrants to Greece, according to a press release by the embassy.

The embassy said that only the parents of a victim should go to the Egyptian Forensic Authority (EMA) on Thursday to undergo DNA tests.

The results of the tests will be sent to the Egyptian embassy in Athens which will notify Greek authorities to release the bodies so that they can be sent home.

The embassy said it continues to be in contact with Greek authorities to ensure that the bodies are sent once they are identified.

The embassy offered its sincere condolences to victims of the families over the loss of their sons in this tragic accident.

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The first B2B exhibition for Saudi Arabia's airport industry -- Saudi Airport Exhibition -- attracted 44 hosted buyers.

Saudi Airport Exhibition that concluded at Al Faisaliah Hotel after a two-day run focused on expansion, innovation and collaboration in one of the worlds top five airport growth markets. The kingdom has 29 international and domestic airports.

The airports in the Kingdom are working their way to expand and upgrade while serving 330 million travellers by 2030, most by the mega hubs in Riyadh and Jeddah.

As the Middle Easts largest aviation market will see the fastest passenger traffic growth until 2040, the stakeholders have to work out the most head-turning services for passengers who will be travelling the world as the Kingdom's connectivity rise gradually to 250 destinations by 2030.

Saudi Arabia expects the contribution of its aviation sector to the GDP to more than triple, from $21.3 billion in 2018 to $74.6 billion by 2030.

Matarat, a holding company that operates and handles the investments of the General Authority of Civil Aviation, stole the show by becoming the Platinum Sponsor of the exhibition that brought over 150 companies from more than 25 countries from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Arabian Gulf.

Goldhofer, SITA, Siemens, CCM Airports, Fraport, ADB Safegate, Egis, TLD, Serco, Swissport, Bechtel, IHSE and Nuctech were among those who put up pavilions. Saudi Ground Services, Saudi Air Navigation Services, PPMDC, Ground Handling Logistics, Nesma United Industries, AQESA, Trans Cities Trading, Hoshan Aviation & Defense, MAFA, made it to the only airports-dedicated show in the Kingdoms history.

A good barometer of the airport industrys high levels of enthusiasm to ensure a better tomorrow is the success of hosted buyers programme. In the very debut edition, the SAE logged the best results with unheard-of business success, remarked officials at Niche Ideas, a Dubai-based company that organised the Saudi Airport Exhibition.

Airports are among the largest investments in countries making for a cascading effect on their economic growth and infrastructure development. The Kingdom is a future-forward economy that offers untapped potential and unique business opportunities.

The General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) is undertaking the largest transformation of the aviation sector in the 21st century through targeting regulatory reforms, airport expansions, the launch of new airlines, connecting new routes and enhancing the passenger experience. The kingdom is slated to convert 22 airport operators into holding companies as part of a privatization process. -TradeArabia News Service
Egyptian MPs and major political parties teamed up on Wednesday to condemn what they called the politicisation of the agenda of human rights during the COP 27 climate change summit which is being held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The MPs remarks came in response to statements released by some members of the UN Human Rights Council in which those members raised concerns about the treatment of jailed activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah.

MPs and political parties also condemned what they termed "the uncivilised reaction" of UN officials towards MP Amr Drawish, who was forbidden to provide clarifications on the case of Alaa Abdel-Fattah.

The parliamentary majority party of Mostaqbal Watan (the Nation's Future) said that it stands against all attempts to use the COP 27 summit to politicise Egypt's agenda on human rights. "The question whether to release or not to release Alaa Abdel-Fattah is a purely internal matter. We reject how some officials have made use of this issue to meddle with the country's justice system," said the party's statement.

"We also reject violating the sovereignty of independent states like Egypt in the name of human rights. No one can decide to release Alaa Abdel-Fattah except the Egyptian judiciary."

The statement also indicated that the Presidential Pardon Committee, which is responsible for submitting recommendations on political activists eligible to receive pardon, is doing a great job.

The statement pointed out, however, that the committee's work is bound by certain rules; most importantly, that it was extremely difficult to release political activists who have been otherwise convicted of inciting violence or terrorism, or who have blood on their hands.

The statement recalled that the Presidential Pardon Committee has released more than 1,000 jailed activists since April. "Most of these were secular opposition figures who were not involved in any terrorist activities or in inciting violence against policemen and the military  unlike Alaa Abdel-Fattah," said the statement.

The statement noted that "one of the country's major political opposition figures  lawyer Ziad El-Oleimi  was released last month as he was not involved in any terrorist or violence-inciting activities."

El-Oleimi was granted a personal pardon by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi who is authorised by the constitution to give special pardons to jailed persons.

A Mostaqbal Watan party delegation led by its parliamentary spokesperson and deputy chairman Asharaf Rashad left Cairo for Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday to discuss climate and human rights issues.

MP and television host Youssef El-Husseini said in a statement that the UN Human Rights Council officials' decision to bar MP Amr Darwish from giving clarifications on the case of jailed activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah violates the basic principles of democracy and freedom of speech.

"These officials should have listened to what MP Darwish had to say on the case of Abdel-Fattah. This clearly demonstrates an attempt to politicise the human rights agenda and reflects the partiality of these officials ," said El-Husseini.

On Tuesday, El-Husseini, who hosts a TV programme on Egypt's Channel One, adduced tweets that Alaa Abdel-Fattah had written in which he praised the burning of police stations and the slaughtering of police officers.

"This is clear evidence that Abdel-Fattah was involved in acts of inciting violence," said El-Husseini.

Magdi Morshed, deputy chairman of the Congress Party, also criticised the decision of UN human rights officials to expel MP Amr Darwish from a press conference on jailed activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah."This is uncivilized behavior on the part of UN officials. It shows that they use their positions to politicise the human rights agenda and exert pressure on sovereign states," said Morshed.

He added that what happened during the press conference on Abdel-Fattah "raises serious questions on the neutrality and objectivity of the UN Human Rights Council."

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Fish, rice, mangrove trees and the lush delta wetlands where the massive Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers drain into the Bay of Bengal.

It's not luxury. But for the farmers and fishermen who live by the world's largest mangrove forest, it's more than enough. Now, the environment is at risk.

A power plant will start burning coal near the Sundarbans this year as part of Bangladesh's plan to meet its energy needs and improve living standards, officials say. Home to 168 million people, Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Once the power plant begins functioning at its full capacity, it will generate 1,320 megawatts of power, as much as Bangladesh's largest coal power plant generates now.

The developing world needs its people to live better. But fossil fuel-powered economic growth can create environmental problems and make lives worse.

Popularly called the Rampal coal power plant, the Maitree Super Thermal Power Project will burn some 4.7 million tons of coal annually, emitting about 15 million tons of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases. Plus, some 12,000 tons of coal will be shipped by boat through the Sundarbans each day, prompting fears of water pollution.

Low-lying Bangladesh is already hit by tropical cyclones and rising seas and millions are at risk of being displaced by flooding and other extreme weather. Just two weeks ago, 24 people died, 20,000 people were marooned, 10,000 people lost their homes and 15,000 acres of crops were destroyed by the tropical cyclone Sitrang.

``If it turns out bad, we will have to sell our properties and migrate,'' farmer Luftar Rahman said.

Top scientists say there can be no new fossil fuel projects if the world is going to limit warming to the 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) temperature goal set in the Paris Agreement. Even though it is among the lowest-emitting nations in the world, Bangladesh has pledged to reduce its overall emissions by 22% by 2030. The building of this coal spewing power plant is likely to hinder the nation's efforts to reduce its emissions.

But in October, around 80% of the country suffered a blackout for seven hours as a result of the country's power grid collapsing. Such blackouts and long power cuts, sometimes for as long as 10 hours a day, affect businesses including the garment industry, which accounts for 80% of exports. Bangladesh is the world's second-largest garment exporter, after China.

``We are desperately waiting to start generating power at Rampal. This plant will definitely help ease our energy woes,''said Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, an energy advisor to the Bangladesh Prime Minister.

Bangladesh wants poor nations to receive funds to help adapt to the devastating effects of a warmer world. Until May of this year, Bangladesh was the chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of countries highly vulnerable to warming. With much of its land at or just below sea level, the country has already suffered heavy flooding and erratic rainfall. A World Bank report estimated that Bangladesh could suffer $570 million in damage annually from climate change-related extreme weather events.

In June, Bangladesh stopped running diesel power plants because of rising fuel prices. Bangladesh has two active coal-powered plants, and some experts say another isn't needed.

``We need to be investing in power transmission and distribution systems. That would be much more beneficial for the country at this moment,'' said Khondaker Golam Moazzem of the Dhaka-based economic think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue

The country also has cleaner resources at home.

``Bangladesh has huge potential for natural gas. Onshore and offshore exploration and production of gas resources can be a better option compared to coal,'' said Dhaka-based economist and environmental activist Anu Mohammad.

And renewable energy already powers millions of Bangladeshi homes.

``Bangladesh has actually got one of the fastest growing solar home systems,'' said Saleemul Huq, director of the Dhaka-based International Centre for Climate Change and Development. ``Another option is offshore wind power. With the latest technologies available, it is conceivable that wind power generated in the Bay of Bengal can provide for the needs of not only Bangladesh but also for regions in neighbouring India as well as Myanmar.''

The Rampal coal mine will be funded by the governments of Bangladesh and India. The Sundarbans was chosen because of available water and navigation facilities, officials said. The coal for the power plant will come from India as well.

The Sundarbans, ``beautiful forest'' in Bengali, evolved over millennia out of the Indian subcontinent's mighty rivers. The Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna dump rich sediments that they collect over thousands of miles from the Himalayas to the Indian ocean.

``The mangrove forests are a natural barrier to the ill effects of climate change and if they are affected, then the 10 million people who live in this coastal delta region will also suffer,'' Mohammad, the Dhaka-based economist and environmental activist, said. ``There are many alternatives to power generation. But there is no alternative to the Sundarbans.''

Mangrove forests are more effective than terrestrial forests at sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

``During my grandfather's time, all the rice we needed was harvested from our land. There was enough rice and fish for everyone,'' said 60-year-old Abul Kalam, who has lived his entire life in the Sundarbans. ``If this power plant comes up, there will be no fish in our region. How can we grow crops when they dump toxic wastewater here?''

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Pakistan's foreign minister repeated calls for compensation for the unprecedented destruction caused to the country by this summer's flooding, saying debt relief could be a mechanism for doing so.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari told The Associated Press on Wednesday at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt that the world is unequipped to deal with weather-related disasters of this scale and urged countries to find ways to address the issue.

``There's no pot of gold sitting anywhere or no financial international mechanism really available to deal with the tragedy of this scale,'' he said.

His comment comes as Pakistan races against time to arrange tents, food and other supplies for the flood victims ahead of winter just weeks away. Climate-induced flooding killed 1,739 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused around $40 billion in damages, according to the World Bank.

``Many months on from the initial flooding and rainfall, there are still many areas that are underwater,`` said Bhutto-Zardari, adding that the World Health Organization warned that the country faces a health crisis because of waterborne diseases.

He added that instead of ``charity'' or ``reparations'' to pay for climate damage, nations should consider ``out-of-the-box solutions that we could propose that can be a win-win for developing countries and developing countries''.

One of these is for debts owed by developing countries to rich countries to be written off, allowing nations to spend that money on clean energy and adapting to worsening weather caused by climate change.

Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4% of the world's historic emissions that are blamed for climate change. The U.S. is responsible for 21.5%, China for 16.5% and the European Union for 15%.

Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan will hold an international donor conference early next year to seek financial assistance to start the much-needed rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the flood-hit areas, where thousands of people still live in tents and makeshift homes.

Bhutto-Zardari's comments come more than a month after the United Nations issued a revised appeal, seeking five times more international aid for Pakistan amid a surge in deaths from waterborne and other diseases.

The U.N. in October raised its request to $816 million from $160 million, saying recent assessments pointed to the urgent need for long-term help lasting into next year.

Doctors in Pakistan's worst-hit southern Sindh province and southern Baluchistan are still trying to contain the outbreak of waterborne diseases, which have caused nearly 400 deaths in flood-affected areas since July.

According to the World Health Organization, about 10% of Pakistan's health facilities were damaged in the floods, leaving millions without access to care.

However, most of the people displaced by floods have returned to their homes.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited flood-hit areas in Pakistan in September, assuring Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif his maximum support in highlighting the ordeal of flood victims. Sharif this week also attended the climate change conference in Egypt and sought help in tackling the flood damage.

Bhutto-Zardari said Guterres has been talking about debt relief for climate-hit nations. ``Pakistan is the eighth most climate-stressed country on the planet, but most climate-stressed countries on the planet are also debt stressed, and that debt is owed to developed countries,`` Bhutto-Zardari said.

So far, China and Washington have been the largest contributors in response to the floods in Pakistan, although several other countries also sent planeloads of aid, many flood victims in Pakistan say they were still without any help or they received too little aid from the government or aid agencies.

China's leader is not attending this year's climate summit, nor is the leader of India, Pakistan's top rival as well as one of the top polluting countries.

Bhutto-Zardari said ``it would have been helpful had India participated at an appropriate level.''

``And we do hope that our neighbours also take this issue seriously,'' he said. ``This is truly something that we can only combat if we were together across the world and take our responsibilities seriously.''

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Mohamed Al-Jasser, President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, said on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh that climate change continues to pose a major threat to social and economic development and to the general well-being of people and societies, noting that the bank's collective goal is to promote a just, inclusive and equitable transition.

He pointed out that the Arab Coordination Group announced today a $24 billion financing package for climate action over the next eight years.

The Islamic Development Bank Group, he said, will contribute $13 billion of the total amount. The purpose of this money, which will be paid between 2023 and 2030, is to assist in financing adaptation and mitigation.

The President of the Islamic Development Bank said that as partners in the Arab Coordination Group," [they] must move forward with the talks and commit to standing by the participating member states in addressing the multidimensional challenges posed by climate change."

He noted that financing transformative climate action was "vital to achieving comprehensive development and to supporting the most vulnerable people, particularly in the least developed countries and in developing small island states."

Our collective commitment today will help member countries, including the least developed countries, enhance their resilience in food systems, clean transportation, urban systems, and energy security," he said.

He pointed out that countries will benefit from financing tools, noting that this involves removing risks and accelerating private sector investments in areas that are in dire need of these investments.

"We stand by our member states and the global community as we strive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly using clean energy sources and creating a greener world for all," he said.

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A number of activists and politicians sent a petition on Wednesday to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres calling on him to intervene to stop the misuse of the 27th UN Climate Change Summit (COP27) by some international groups and organisations to serve goals that have nothing to do with environmental issues.





Unfortunately, just 48 hours after the start of the conference, the signatories of this statement were surprised to find some international groups and organisations trying to hijack the conference and to distance it from its real goals. These groups and organisations want to use the conference to serve goals that have nothing to do with environmental issues or the dangers of climate change, they said.

Therefore, they called on Guterres to intervene to set the conference back on track so that it focuses exclusively on achieving international consensus on the protection of the environment and the climate.

This petition was launched in three languages: Arabic, English, and French.

It was launched a day after the removal of an Egyptian MP by UN security from a news conference held to discuss the status of imprisoned Egyptian political activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah.

The conference was being held on the sidelines of the 27th UN Climate Change Summit (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh.

During the news conference, at which Abdel-Fattahs sister Sanaa was speaking to the press, security removed MP Amr Darwish after the parliamentarian, who was allowed an audience question, started criticising the allegations made by Sanaa regarding her brother's treatment in prison.

Abdel-Fattah has been serving a five-year sentence since 2019 for joining a terrorist group and spreading false news inside and outside the country.

Sanaa completed her own 18-month-long prison sentence in December after being convicted of spreading false news.

During the session, which was organised by the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, Darwish criticised Abdel-Fattah family for calling on other countries to put pressure on the Egyptian government to release an Egyptian citizen. He described such pressures as interference in Egyptian affairs," saying that they shall neither be accepted nor tolerated.

Contrary to the claims of his family, Abdel-Fattah is not a political prisoner, but faces criminal charges punishable by Egyptian law, Darwish said. He added that Abdel-Fattah is hence unqualified to be recommended by the Presidential Pardon Committee to receive a pardon.

Sanaa and the news conference organisers interrupted Darwish and demanded that he ask his question, shortly before UN security removed the MP from the room.

Later that day, Darwish released a video saying he was surprised by the strange treatment [he had] received from the UN and the organisers of the conference, which contradicts Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights on freedom of speech.

We cannot call on foreign entities and the international community to solve Egyptian matters, especially by using false evidence and allegations to exonerate a proven criminal who committed felonies. In the end, I said that anyone can approach the Presidential Pardon Committee, Darwish said in the video statement.

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During the COP27 being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, the World Bank launched the Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) for Egypt that provide recommendations on how the country can attain its development goals while mitigating and/or adapting to the repercussions of climate change.

The report sets three key growing climate and development challenges Egypt is facing, which, if not addressed, will deeply affect the poor and vulnerable and can put Egypts development goals at risk.

These challenges include the high uncertainty about the amount of the countrys available water resources.

The Nile River provides about 97 percent of freshwater resources in Egypt. Climate change has significantly increased uncertainty around the availability of that water. Assuming available water resources and population growth remain constant, Egypt will reach the threshold for extreme water scarcity in 2033, the report explained.

Moreover, climate vulnerabilities lie in densely populated cities and coastal areas, according to the report.

In Egypts 14 major cities (including several coastal cities), over 80 percent of the population is exposed to at least one major climate or environmental risk, including flooding, heat stress, air pollution, desertification, and sea level rise, the report noted.

The report pointed out that Egypts shift to a green and low-carbon development path is not on pace with global markets, which may affect competitiveness.

While Egypts contribution to global emissions is not high, economic growth is still tightly linked to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Three sectors in Egypt (energy, transport, and industry) account for 80 percent of the countrys GHG emissions, and transport and industry account for 58 percent of total energy consumption. At the same time, preferences in international markets are shifting to greener and lower-carbon products, an area in which Egypt will be less competitive unless it moves towards a low-carbon development path, according to the report.

Tackling these challenges, the report outlined policy actions and investment opportunities that, if implemented over five years, could make the use and allocation of natural resources more efficient, reduce the impacts of climate change on people and businesses, and boost Egypts competitiveness in global markets.

Accordingly, the report proposed preparing for compound climate risks by strengthening resilience and adaptation through reducing water losses to the 20 percent level and revising water supply norms to 80 percent of current levels.

This could help Egypt save over two billion cubic metres of water annually and improve the spatial management of urban growth, which could preserve nearly 39,000 hectares of green areas and avoid growth in high-risk areas, the report added.

In agriculture, the report recommended improving water allocation policies and introducing institutional changes to enable the management, allocation, and distribution of the water saved through modern irrigation systems.

It also called for investing in expanding and improving information systems that share climate- and hydrology-related information with affected stakeholders, which would help mitigate risks and reduce the costs of flooding.

Meanwhile, the report proposed strengthening the countrys competitiveness while achieving stated development goals by transitioning to a low-emission path through reducing emissions in the oil and gas production chain, and reducing inefficiencies in the use of energy for electricity generation and industry.

In addition, reducing emissions in the transport sector through demand management via pricing interventions and awareness-raising programmes could help achieve a reduction of 65 percent of GHG emissions by 2050, according to the report.

It also called for key policy changes to alleviate investors perceived policy, regulatory, and technical risks that are needed to mobilise the private investment required for this transformation.

The report advised "focus on low-carbon cities to accelerate the fulfillment of GHG mitigation goals and enhance livability and productivity, which can deliver benefits valued at an estimated four times the required investments."

Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad said the report is in line with the goals of Egypts National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS).

The report reflects the countrys plans and priorities and emphasises the best strategies for parties negatively affected by climate change, especially in terms of funding and compensation, she added.

Fouad said that Egypts report should be taken as a model for creating a favourable climate.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly concurred, asserting Egypts commitment to integrating the climate and development report in its national strategies.

Madbouly said the report sheds light on the different aspects of climate challenges and opportunities in Egypt, such as water security, climate flexibility, adaptation, and low-carbon development.

It also reflects COP27s main theme of "shifting from commitments to implementation, he added.

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The removal of an Egyptian MP by UN security from a news conference held to discuss the status of imprisoned Egyptian political activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah has caused controversy.

The conference was being held on the sidelines of the 27th UN Climate Change Summit (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh.

During the news conference, at which Abdel-Fattahs sister Sanaa was speaking to the press, security removed MP Amr Darwish after the parliamentarian, who was allowed an audience question, started criticising the allegations made by Sanaa regarding her brother's treatment in prison.

Abdel-Fattah has been serving a five-year sentence since 2019 for joining a terrorist group and spreading false news inside and outside the country. Sanaa completed her own 18-month-long prison sentence in December after being convicted of spreading false news.

During the session, which was organised by the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, Darwish criticised the Abdel-Fattah family for calling on other countries to put pressure on the Egyptian government to release an Egyptian citizen, which he described as unacceptable interference in Egyptian affairs and will not be allowed in any way.

Abdel-Fattah is not imprisoned in a political case, but faced criminal charges punishable by Egyptian law, as opposed to what is being alleged by his family, Darwish said, adding that this fact makes him ineligible for pardon by the Presidential Pardon Committee.

Sanaa and the news conference organisers interrupted Darwish and demanded that he ask his question, shortly before UN security removed the MP from the room.

Later that day, Darwish released a video saying he was surprised by the strange treatment I received from the UN and the organisers of the conference, which contradicts Article 19 of the UN Human Rights Declaration of Human Rights related to freedom of speech.

We cannot call on foreign entities and the international community to solve Egyptian matters, especially with fraudulent facts and allegations about a proven criminal who committed felonies. In the end I said that anyone can approach the Presidential Pardon Committee, Darwish said in the video statement.

Since the re-activation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April and the launch of preparations for the National Political Dialogue in May, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has pardoned many high-profile political activists who had received final sentences.

This includes Hossam Mones, Yahia Abdel-Hady, Hisham Fouad and others.

In recent months, the Public Prosecution has also ordered the release of hundreds of pretrial detainees in groups, including Ahmed El-Nagdy, a journalist for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV channel, and prominent leftist activist and lawyer Haitham Mohamadein.

UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Turk appealed in a statement on Tuesday for Egypt to free Abdel-Fattah, saying that his life is in imminent danger following a seven-month hunger strike that has escalated with the start of the COP27 climate summit being hosted there.

I urge the government to immediately release Abdel-Fattah from prison and provide him with the necessary medical treatment, Turk said in the statement.

In response, the Egyptian permanent mission to the UN in Geneva released a statement saying it rejects Turks comments, asserting that Abdel-Fattah is an Egyptian citizen who has been tried, convicted and is currently serving his sentence.

The mission said that the UN Commissioner's statement deliberately undermines the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law as an indispensable cornerstone for the protection and promotion of human rights, and that describing a judicial decision as "unfair" was an unacceptable insult.

Egyptian MPs and major political parties also teamed up on Wednesday to condemn what they called the politicisation of the human rights agenda at COP27.

The MPs and political parties denounced the uncivilised reaction by UN officials towards Drawish, who they said they refused to allow the MP to clarify details about the Abdel-Fattah case.

In November, the Court of Cassation upheld a ruling placing Abdel-Fattah and 26 others on the countrys terrorism list for a five-year period.

In June and July, Abdel-Fattah made headlines when his family alleged that he was being mistreated in prison and that he had gone on hunger strike, claims that have been denied by the prosecution and interior ministry.

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior said in June that it has submitted to the prosecution footage recorded from inside Abdel-Fattahs prison cell that it said disproves the false claim of the imprisoned activists hunger strike.

The ministry added that the footage also refutes the claim that no books have been allowed in his prison cell. The ministrys remarks come after Abdel-Fattah's family asserted that he was still on a hunger strike that started more than 60 days earlier.

A month later, Egypts public prosecution said in a statement that Abdel-Fattah denied being mistreated in prison, adding that it investigated claims made by Abdel-Fattah's family that the activist had been subjected to torture and that they were denied visitations with him.

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The United States announced Wednesday that it will give $80.5 million in aid for food assistance and solar-powered water pumping stations in the crisis-battered country of Lebanon.

The announcement was made by USAID chief Samantha Power during a visit to Lebanon ahead of a trip to Egypt for the COP27 UN climate conference.

During the visit, Power is set to meet with Lebanese political leaders to push for a resolution to the country's political vacuum and for leaders to carry out a slate of political and economic reforms required by the International Monetary Fund to clinch a $3 billion aid package.

The visit comes as Lebanon is in the grip of its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. On Oct. 31, the six-year term of President Michel Aoun ended with no replacement elected.

Power declined to say, however, whether any US assistance would be contingent on Lebanon taking these measures.

"We are not focused on what happens if those reforms don't happen. The reforms have to happen,'' she told The Associated Press.

The prospect of an IMF deal "should be enough to end the infighting and bickering and do what is needed for the sake of the country,'' Power said.

USAID has provided about $260 million to Lebanon in 2022 to date. On Wednesday, Power announced an additional $72 million for food assistance to some 650,000 people over five months as part of a $2 billion global food security initiative.

Lebanon, which relies heavily on imported food and has historically imported the majority of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia, has faced increased food security anxieties in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Power also announced $8.5 million to fund 22 new solar-powered pumping stations. Lebanon has been dealing with a crippling electricity crisis that has also led to water shortages due to lack of power at pumping stations.

The shortages in public water supply are fueling a cholera outbreak, the first Lebanon has seen in three decades. Most Lebanese now rely on water trucked in by private suppliers, which is often not tested for safety.

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The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatars sovereign wealth fund, has deposit $1 billion into the Central Bank of Egypt, which paves the way for the authority to pump new investments into the Egyptian market, Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

According to reports in October, QIA is looking to purchase the states stakes in mobile network operator Vodafone (20 percent), one of the biggest mobile network operators in the country, with total of some $2.5 billion

It has also been reported that QIA plans to buy state-held stakes in other companies.

During Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis visit to Qatar in September, Egypt and Qatar inked three MoUs, including one signed between the two countries sovereign wealth funds.

The visit was the first since the two sides restored relations in 2021 following a regional diplomatic rift.

Qatar has said that it is committed to investing $5 billion in Egypt.

Moreover, Egypt and Qatar signed an MoU in Doha on financial policy coordination between their finance ministries on the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Forum held in June.

Egypt and Qatar have moved to strengthen their newly-restored relations and reach common ground on regional issues since Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) inked the Al-Ula Declaration with Qatar in January 2021.

In the wake of the agreement, Egypt and Qatar held rounds of talks to develop relations, eventually forming the Egyptian-Qatari Joint Committee to foster and strengthen these ties.

The QIAs assets under management record $445 billion in 2022, according to Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

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Many had predicted that outgoing Lebanese president Michel Aoun would not leave Beiruts Baabda Palace easily, pointing to his time in office in 1988-1990 at the head of a military government, his opposition to the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese Civil War, and his attempts to expand the powers of the presidency at the expense of the prime minister during his last term in office.

The general belief was that he would refuse to leave until a successor was elected. However, instead, Aoun left the presidential Palace without handing over power to another president or a fully competent government. Najib Mikati, who has been serving as Lebanons caretaker prime minister, now serves as its acting president.

Since the parliamentary elections in May 2022, Mikati has been unable to form a government, to a large extent due to Aouns attempts to impose rigid criteria for the selection of cabinet members. While Aoun defied accusations that he was exceeding the powers of his office, the negotiating stalemate continued and the personal antagonism between him and Mikati festered.

On the eve of the end of his term in office, Aoun signed a decree dismissing the caretaker government in order to avoid handing over power to Mikati, leaving Lebanon with a void in both the presidency and the premiership.

Aouns dismissal of Mikati marks a precedent even for Lebanons unique, complicated, and tension-riddled political system. Under Article 62 of the Lebanese Constitution, if the office of the president falls vacant for any reason, the council of ministers assumes the authority of the president.

However, the authors of the Constitution had a fully empowered government in mind. They had not anticipated a situation involving a caretaker government headed by a prime minister who had won a parliamentary vote of confidence to form a government but whose slate of ministers would not do so.

Lebanons lawmakers have argued that the Constitution did not stipulate the character of the government and therefore that its caretake capacity makes no difference. To complicate matters further, another legitimacy problem presents itself if, as is currently the case, a government (caretaker or not) assumes the authority of the president after it has been formally dismissed.

The same lawmakers have argued that the former presidents decree has no constitutional validity since the dismissal of a government must be accompanied by a decree to form a new one. The commentators have thus described the current situation as constitutional anarchy.

The current impasse was embodied in two speeches made before parliament on 30 October. The first, by Aoun, accused Mikati of being remiss in his duty to form a government and urged parliament to convene an urgent session to withdraw confidence from the prime minister and designate a new one.

The second, by Mikati, denied the outgoing presidents claim and vowed that the council of ministers would continue to perform its duties as a caretaker government in accordance with the Constitution so as to avert institutional paralysis and the collapse of the state.

The prime minister had earlier refused to yield to the former presidents insistence on filling the key ministerial positions of defence and the judiciary with his or his movements political allies, which would guarantee him continued influence in government after leaving office.

Some members of the current government from Aouns camp have since intimated that they will boycott forthcoming sessions of the council of ministers or even resign, causing the government to collapse.

The controversy surrounding the executive makes it difficult to assess what lies in store for Lebanon in future, what with an already existing economic and fiscal crisis and the governmental and political crisis aggravated by the latest constitutional crisis presented by a caretaker government assuming the authority of the vacated presidency.

The way out will depend on the relative strength of the existing political alliances. In the light of the current stalemate, a shift needs to happen through realignments or new alliances in order to break the political paralysis.

One of the weakest links is that between the Amal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement, both key allies of the Shia group Hizbullah. This alliance has lasted since 2006, largely due to Hizbullahs ability to persuade the two incompatible allies to stick together in the interest of sustaining the resistance front.

Now, however, the Free Patriotic Movement wants to nominate its leader, Gibril Bassel, as president, while Nabih Berri of Amal favours Suleiman Franjieh, which puts the two movements on a collision course.

Hizbullah will have to work hard to avert a rupture. It needs Amal in order to keep the largest Shia groups behind it, and it needs a strong Christian ally in order to counter pressures to disarm. These are expected to increase following Lebanons recent maritime border agreement with Israel, which nullifies the excuse of maintaining a militia outside the framework of the state.

On the other end of the political spectrum, there is a likelihood that Lebanons pro-change and moderate blocs will broaden their alliance in order to promote a candidate of their own for president or prime minister. This could change the balance of political forces in parliament and open the way to deals. They might agree to support Franjieh as president in exchange for support for a pro-change candidate as prime minister, such as Nawaf Salam, for example.

Some have floated the idea of nominating an army commander as the countrys president. This would require a constitutional amendment, but it might be viewed as a last resort in order to prevent the collapse of the state and Civil War. Many of the countrys political forces might prefer a general as president if it means keeping Bassel out of office, as there are few that he has not alienated during the Aoun presidency.

The regional and international dimension is a second factor that will determine the way out of Lebanons predicament. The war in Ukraine, rising energy prices, the protest movement in Iran, and the Congressional elections in the US have all diverted attention away from Lebanons plight.

Proposals have been aired calling for a conference sponsored by France, Saudi Arabia, or both to get the Lebanese parliamentary blocs to agree on a president, prime minister, and central bank governor, as well as on a number of economic and structural reforms in order for Lebanon to receive loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and pledges of financial aid from the Gulf countries.

One view, supported by Riyadh, supports such a conference on the condition that it reaffirms the principles and confessional power-sharing formulas of the Taif Agreement. Another view, espoused mainly by the Free Patriotic Movement, favours a French-sponsored process that would revise the Taif Agreement to provide for a stronger presidency and reduced powers for the council of ministers, as was the case before the Civil War.

It is unlikely that this option will gain support among Lebanons regional and international backers.

A third trend would like to minimise the confessional arrangements in the Lebanese system in order to steer the country closer to being a secular and civil state. This trend is advocated primarily by the pro-change camp, but it could receive support among moderates and Saudi Arabia if it paved the way to activating points of the Taif Agreement, such as the provision calling for the creation of a commission to abolish political sectarianism.

It appears that the idea of a kind of constituent assembly has also gained traction. Last week, the Saudi Embassy in Beirut hosted a conference to mark the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Taif Agreement and signalling Riyadhs return as a guarantor of the agreement and the motivator of action on previously unimplemented provisions such as those calling for the abolition of political sectarianism and the decentralisation of the government.

The third factor is stability. The Banque du Liban, the Lebanese Central Bank, is expected to introduce a unified exchange rate to end the current anarchy in the Lebanese money market. As this would compel the average Lebanese to bear the brunt of the losses sustained by the banking system, it could trigger another wave of the mass protests that Lebanon has experienced since 2019.

In such a scenario, the pro-change MPs, who control around 10 per cent of the seats in parliament, could acquire enough leverage to persuade the other parliamentary blocs to introduce amendments to the system of government.

On the other hand, if the protests degenerate into violence and skirmishes of a sectarian nature, the traditional elites will gain the upper hand because of their ability to ramp down tensions. They would then be in a position to impose their conditions for a solution to the crisis.

Meanwhile, any deterioration in border security or any threat on the part of the new Israeli government to the recently concluded maritime border agreement would play into the hands of Hizbullah. In addition to having a greater say in any solution to the crisis, the Lebanese resistance movement would then be better able to strengthen its domestic position, satisfy its allies, and eliminate its adversaries.

In such a scenario, Hizbullahs main ally, the Free Patriotic Party, would have a greater shot at the presidency.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 November, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Leading delegates and business leaders discussed the future of supply chain opportunities in a post-pandemic world at a roundtable held on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) 2022.

The attendees included representatives from leading UK-based industrial companies including: AISUS Group; Aquaterra Energy; Cargostore; Elmac Technologies; EthosEnergy; Evoqua Water Technologies; Kent; MRDS; Norco Group Limited; Central Wire Industries UK, Energy Industries Council, Precision Impulse; Proserv; Safelift Offshore; Saturn FE; Scottish Development International (SDI); Shipham Valves; and Whittaker Engineering.

The business roundtable was hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology.

During the session, senior business leaders held meetings with Omar Al Suwaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology.

As well as networking with stakeholders, Al Suwaidi introduced them to the 'Make it in the Emirates' campaign, an open invitation to industrials, investors, innovators, and entrepreneurs to benefit from the UAEs exceptional value proposition.

Al Suwaidi later gave a presentation on the UAEs FDI value proposition including the incentives and enablement solutions under the Make it in the Emirates initiative.

Representatives from Adnoc, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, Abu Dhabi Investment Office, and Taziz also delivered presentations ahead of a general discussion between delegates.-TradeArabia News Service
How do you view the Sharm El-Sheikh summit in light of the repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine war?

The global energy crisis  worsened by the war in Ukraine  has seen a dangerous doubling down on fossil fuels. As countries continue to pursue strategies to replace Russian fossil fuels, short-term measures might create long-term fossil fuel dependence and close the window on limiting temperature increases to the targeted 1.5 C [above pre-industrial levels].

We have also seen backsliding in some areas of the private sector  namely, around fossil fuels  while the most dynamic climate actors in the business world continue to be hampered by obsolete regulatory frameworks, red tape, and harmful subsidies that send the wrong signals to markets.

Every government, every business, every investor, every institution must step up with concrete climate actions for net zero. They should not go back to investing in the very thing that led us to climate disasters. Its important that we learn from whats happening, that investment in renewables is vital, and accelerating the transition to renewables  and ensuring it is just and inclusive  is absolutely vital. Another thing which is clear is that it is absolutely immoral for oil and gas companies to be making record profits from this energy crisis on the backs of the poorest people and communities and at a massive cost to the climate. This is why I have urged all governments to tax these excessive profits and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.

How can we reduce the effects of climate change on developing countries unable to cope with the challenge?

First, we need to recognise that developing countries are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Two months ago I travelled to Pakistan and witnessed one-third of the country under water  with lost lives, lost crops, lost hope. There is no way anyone can argue there is no loss and no damage. And its not just Pakistan. The drought in the Sahel, the rising waters in the Pacific islands and the extreme hurricanes in the Caribbean are all examples of the extremes that are being caused by climate change.

The largest historical greenhouse gas emitters in the world have a moral responsibility to support the most vulnerable communities  those that have done least to cause the climate crisis. Ive called on all developed economies to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies. Those funds should be re-directed in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.

Failure to act on loss and damage will lead to more loss of trust and more climate damage. This is a moral imperative that cannot be ignored and the litmus test of countries to come together to get results at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

This is one of the biggest tasks we have at COP27: to rebuild this trust between developed and developing countries. Developed countries need to get serious about the finance that developing countries need. They told us in Glasgow that $100 billion will be delivered in full in 2023. At the COP in Sharm El-Sheikh they need to get concrete on its delivery and ensure that those who need funding most can access it. We also need to see evidence of how they will double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion by 2025, as set out in the Glasgow Pact last year, and pledges made to fill the Adaptation Fund. This must be just a starting point. We know adaptation funding needs are set to rise to at least $340 billion annually.

How can the UN bridge the gap between the US and China and encourage them to cooperate in reducing carbon dioxide emissions given that, together, they are the source of 40 per cent of emissions?

At COP27, all countries must show the world that they are in this fight, and that they are in it together. My strong appeal here to everyone is to put aside all the geopolitical divides, to put aside all the difficulties, and to come to Egypt ready to work in the safe space provided by the UN. As the worlds two largest-emitting countries, of course the US and China must play a leadership role and work together. We have seen this is possible in the past and we must see it again. But no two countries  no matter how large  can overcome this global climate crisis alone. We need all countries, and indeed all companies, investors, cities, and regions, to step up climate action.

What efforts is the UN making to settle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in order to spare the world the catastrophe of nuclear weapons being used?

I have repeatedly expressed grave concern regarding the threat or any possibility of the use of nuclear weapons, including in the context of the war in Ukraine. Such dangerous rhetoric is totally unacceptable and must end. All states must take the nuclear option off the table  for good.

How can the UN face global challenges such as nuclear terrorism and the rapid spread of infectious diseases?

I have pushed for collective solutions to the shared problems we face, such as the unified response the international community forged in the fight against the spread of Covid-19. Effective multilateralism is the only way of solving problems that truly have no borders. It is vital that every member state of the United Nations recommits itself to multilateralism.

What are the prospects for settling current crises in Libya, Yemen, and Syria?

With the right amount of political will, these crises can be solved and have to be solved for the sake of people who have suffered for too long. In Libya, Yemen, and Syria my special representatives are at work with the parties and with the key involved nations to broker long-lasting peace.

In Libya, we have a new special representative, Abdoulaye Bathily, who is working to help unify national institutions and move forward to elections as soon as possible. In Yemen, Special Envoy Hans Grundberg is working with all the parties to extend the earlier truce and progress towards a lasting peace agreement. The calm we have seen in the last few months has already benefited many civilians in Yemen. And in Syria, Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy, continues to work with all sides to push for a resumption of constitutional talks. Only a political solution will solve this conflict.

In the meantime, we continue delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to millions of Syrian men, women, and children through cross-border and cross-line operations.

Why has the Palestinian cause dropped from international priorities?

The Palestinian cause has never fallen from the UNs priorities. We continue to channel our energies towards a two-state solution for the people of Israel and Palestine. I underscore the UNs commitment to work with Israelis and Palestinians to return to meaningful negotiations to end the occupation.

My special coordinator, Tor Wennesland, continues to work with the parties to bring them back to meaningful negotiations. The United Nations remains actively engaged with all relevant parties and is committed to supporting Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict by ending the occupation and realise a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 lines, in line with relevant United Nations resolutions, international law, and bilateral agreements.

Meanwhile, we have on the ground the biggest operational UN agency in the world, UNRWA. The agency has been working on the ground for more than 70 years and it is a testament to the UNs continued commitment to the plight of Palestinian refugees.

Although UNRWA struggles with unprecedented challenges of funding and constraints, our staff on the ground continue to deliver assistance and provide education and health services.

Its a lifeline to many refugees, especially in the Gaza Strip where a 15-year blockade is ongoing, restricting peoples movement and access to jobs and livelihoods. We have to continue supporting UNRWA and the Palestinian refugees until a just solution is found to their plight.

How do you see the agreement on the demarcation of the borders between Lebanon and Israel and the formation of a new government in Iraq?

I welcome the signing of the historic agreement to delineate the maritime boundary between Lebanon and Israel. It can serve as a confidence-building measure that promotes security and stability in the region and provides economic benefits for both Lebanon, Israel, and the wider region.

I have welcomed the formation of a new government in Iraq, led by Prime Minister Mohamed S. Al-Sudani. I urge the new government to deliver on the long-standing demands of the people of Iraq for reform, accountability and a better future. We have a strong political mission in Iraq and I can tell you that we remain fully committed to supporting the government and people of Iraq.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 10 November, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Even though there has been an increase in the proportion of donors in their 30s in the last three years, from 21.9 percent to 28.8 percent, there is still a big imbalance of age groups.

Donors in their teens and 20s account for 71.2 percent of blood donations, according to the Korean Red Cross -- 31.3 percent for teenagers and 39.9 percent for 20-somethings.

Most blood donors in Korea are in their teens or 20s, and if this trend continues, blood shortage is likely to become a chronic problem.

As of 2016, people who are 30 or older made up 78 percent of the blood donors in Japan and 67 percent in Taiwan. In France, over-40s made up half.

"It is a bleak situation as we have a decreasing young population due to the low birthrate and an increase in the older population," a Red Cross spokesman said.

Korea already experiences blood shortage during the summer and winter vacations, when the young donors are away. Blood donation centers hand out gifts to attract more donors such as movie tickets or drink vouchers.

The Red Cross aims to have five days' worth of blood packs at all times in accordance with guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, but last year stocks fell below the threshold on 205 days.

The goal is to increase proportion of blood donors over 30 to 42 percent, but it is uncertain whether that is attainable. Many people with jobs find it hard to make time to donate blood, and those who travel abroad cannot donate for a month after returning to Korea. Many others are on medication.

Civil servants are allowed to take time off to donate blood, but not many of them know it.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is the only Korean university in the top 10 of the latest Asian University Rankings. KAIST came eighth in the tally by the Chosun Ilbo and U.K. ranking firm Quacquarelli Symonds, and China's Peking University ranked first.

The rankings of three out of four Korean universities slipped this year, the first year that a Chinese university has topped the list since the rankings began in 2009. Peking University ranked seventh in 2020 and second last year.

The National University of Singapore relinquished its first place after three years, while Beijing's Tsinghua University rose from fifth to third place.

The University of Hong Kong came fourth, Singapore's Nanyang Technological University fifth, China's Fudan University and Zhejiang University tied for sixth, Universiti Malaya of Malaysia ninth, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University 10th. That brings the total of mainland Chinese universities in the top 10 to five for the second year running.
Korea's current account balance returned to a small surplus in September after slipping into the red in August, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday.

With the exception of April, when most dividends are paid, Korea suffered a current account deficit in August for the first time in 10 years and six months. Although it shifted back into the black, September's surplus amounted to a paltry US$1.61 billion, which is less than one-sixth of the amount a year ago.

The small size of the rebound is attributed to weakening exports in a slowing global economy and sky-high costs of importing raw materials.

The commodity balance, which accounts for the biggest portion of the current account balance, achieved a $490 million surplus, a mere five percent of the surplus seen a year ago.

Exports to the U.S. rose 16 percent and to Japan 2.4 percent, but shipments to China, which is Korea's biggest market, plunged 6.5 percent.

Imports increased 18 percent on-year to $56.6 billion due to rising prices amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine compounded by a weak Korean won. Imports of gas jumped 165.1 percent on-year and crude oil 57.4 percent.
Actor Lee Jung-jae will appear in an installment of the "Star Wars" franchise streamed on Disney+.

Disney+ on Tuesday confirmed that the "Squid Game" star joins the cast for the upcoming series "The Acolyte" alongside Amandla Stenberg, Dafne Keen and Manny Jacinto.

But it is not yet known which role he will play in the spinoff, which is being filmed in the U.K.

"The Acolyte" is set in the final days of the High Republic era, about a century before "The Phantom Menace" from the prequel trilogy.

It will "take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers," according to production company Lucasfilm.

Lee won outstanding lead actor in a drama series for "Squid Game" at the Primetime Emmy Awards in September, a first for a Korean.
A series of South Korean missiles misfired when they were launched in response to recent North Korean provocations, leaving the military with egg on its face at a time when the country can ill afford it. After North Korea fired two ballistic missiles on Nov. 2 over the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, South Korea responded by firing five missiles from fighter jets that aimed north. But two of them misfired. One was a SPICE 2000 precision-guided missile launched from a KF-16 and the other a SLAM-ER long-range, air-to-surface missile fired from an F-15K in the same formation. The failures were apparently due to faulty mounting of the missiles under the aircraft. But the military announced only that its retaliatory move was a success.

When North Korea fired a mid-range ballistic missile last month, South Korea responded by launching a Hyunmu-2 missile that ended up veering in the opposite direction and crashing dangerously close to a military base in Gangwon Province. One of two Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles that were launched shortly afterwards got lost after the signal disappeared. But again the military announced that the missiles delivered precision attacks against an imaginary target.

When North Korea fired 25 missiles on Nov. 2, South Korea held a target shooting contest of guided missiles. The homegrown Cheongung-1 surface-to-air missile flew about 25 km and exploded in midair after the signal was lost. Out of six missiles that were fired, only two hit their intended targets, while the remaining four either misfired, got lost or exploded at the wrong time. If the two failed air-to-surface missile launches are included, six out of 11 missiles failed. That is a sorry 45 percent success rate and not much better than Russia's humiliating 40 percent success rate of missiles used against Ukraine. How can it hope to thwart North Korean missile attacks at this rate?
KYODO NEWS - Nov 9, 2022 - 08:10 | All, Japan

Japan is considering downsizing two destroyers to be built with the Aegis ballistic missile interceptor system from their original design in a bid to increase their mobility, government sources said Tuesday.

While the destroyers were principally designed to protect against ballistic missiles, the government also plans to make them multipurpose vessels capable of carrying the U.S.-developed Tomahawk cruise missile, which it is considering introducing, according to the sources.

The government originally planned to build destroyers with a standard displacement of about 20,000 tons, almost the same as the Maritime Self-Defense Force's largest ship, the carrier Izumo. But now they will be scaled down to nearly on par with the 8,200-ton Maya, the nation's biggest Aegis-equipped vessel, the sources said.

After internal discussions, the MSDF has concluded that the new destroyers can be downsized while maintaining the necessary air defense capabilities, according to the sources.

Through the remodeling, the government aims to improve the two ships' interoperability with other MSDF vessels, including the existing eight MSDF Aegis destroyers, and enable their swift deployment to waters such as those off Okinawa, where tensions have grown over the Taiwan Strait, the sources said.

To deal with North Korea, which has a robust ballistic missile program, Japan initially intended to build large destroyers to add stability to their hulls while they remain on alert for an extended period for possible ballistic missile launches.

But it was feared the size would slow them down and make it difficult for them to work seamlessly with other MSDF ships.

Japan decided in 2020 to build the two Aegis destroyers as an offshore alternative to the U.S.-developed Aegis Ashore missile defense systems it had planned to deploy in northeastern and western Japan. The plan to build the land-based systems was ditched following technical problems, ballooning costs and public opposition.

The government aims to commission one of the destroyers at the end of the fiscal year through March 2028 and the other at the end of the subsequent fiscal year, according to the sources.

The plan to purchase U.S.-made sea-launched Tomahawks, which have a range of up to 2,500 kilometers and can travel at a relatively low altitude, has emerged as Japan aims to articulate plans to acquire a "counterstrike capability" in its key long-term diplomatic and security policy guidelines to be updated by the end of this year.

In its budget request for the new fiscal year from April, the Defense Ministry has requested funding for designing new Aegis destroyers and procuring their engines without specifying their amount.

The ministry also aims to use Lockheed Martin Corp.'s SPY-7 radar, which was supposed to be used for the land-based Aegis Ashore system, on the new destroyers while adding the ability for them to respond to hypersonic glide weapons, the sources said.

Hypersonic glide weapons travel at many times the speed of sound and are thought to be difficult to intercept with existing anti-missile systems. They are being developed by countries such as China and Russia.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 9, 2022 - 17:21 | All, World, Japan

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday, and it has already fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, the Japanese government said, as Pyongyang continues with a flurry of weapons tests that have raised regional tensions.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile from around South Pyongan Province around 3:31 p.m. off the east coast. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile flew about 250 kilometers at a maximum altitude of around 50 km, and no damage to aircraft or ships has been reported.

The test-firing comes as South Korea carries out computer-simulated war games from Monday through Thursday.

Japan lodged a protest with Pyongyang via the Japanese Embassy in Beijing over the latest ballistic missile launch, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed officials to do their utmost to swiftly provide necessary information to the public, ensure the safety of aircraft and ships and prepare for contingencies, according to his office.

Since the start of this year, Pyongyang has repeatedly test-fired ballistic missiles, including what is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month, apparently a Hwasong-17, which the South's military presumes failed.

Fears are also growing that the North may conduct its seventh nuclear test, the first since September 2017.

Related coverage:

U.S. sanctions North Korea airline officials for aiding weapons programs

U.S. eyes aircraft carrier deployment if North Korea conducts nuke test

North Korea vows "overwhelming" military steps to counter drills
KYODO NEWS - Nov 9, 2022 - 20:57 | All, Japan

Japan and the United States eye holding "two-plus-two" security talks between their foreign and defense ministers soon, possibly in January, diplomatic sources said Wednesday, with the allies facing greater security challenges from China, North Korea and Russia.

The first talks being held in that format between the two nations in about a year would follow a planned revision to Japan's National Security Strategy by the end of the year. The nation's long-term security and diplomacy policy guidelines are slated to be updated along with two other key defense documents.

With U.S. President Joe Biden's administration releasing its first National Security Strategy last month, the two governments will discuss how they can further improve deterrence provided by the alliance and their response capabilities, according to the sources.

In a joint statement issued after their last security talks in January, which were held online, the ministers agreed to "ensure alignment of alliance visions and priorities" through the two governments' key national security strategy documents to address an "increasingly challenging regional security environment."

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, and their U.S. counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin are expected to attend the planned in-person meeting.

Against the backdrop of China's increasing assertiveness in regional waters, North Korea's repeated missile testing and Russia's war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to significantly strengthen Japan's defense capabilities. The government aims to articulate plans to acquire a so-called enemy base strike capability in the upcoming security strategy.

Such a capability could alter the long-standing division of roles within the alliance, under which Washington has served as an offensive "spear" and Tokyo as a defensive "shield."

The sources said the ministers would discuss what the roles should be under the revised security strategies of both countries.

The two countries are also likely to discuss ways to maintain stability across the Taiwan Strait, defend the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, and deepen bilateral cooperation in new security domains, such as space and cyberspace, the sources said.

Tensions over Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province, remain elevated. Last month Chinese President Xi Jinping said the mainland will never renounce the right to use force to bring the democratically governed island under its control.

The White House's National Security Strategy defined China as "the only competitor" with the intent to reshape the international order and the Indo-Pacific region as "the epicenter of 21st-century geopolitics."

Related coverage:

Japan, U.S. forces hold joint air drills as North Korea tensions rise

Japan, U.S. diplomats agree to monitor China upon Xi's 3rd term

Kishida, Biden to boost Japan-U.S. deterrence over North Korea launch
KYODO NEWS - Nov 9, 2022 - 19:50 | All, Japan

The U.N. chief for refugee affairs on Wednesday praised Japan for accepting Ukrainian evacuees and requested that Tokyo take in more displaced people from around the world.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi attributed Japan's welcoming of evacuees from war-hit Ukraine to the "sympathy that the Japanese people have felt for Ukraine."

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi speaks at a press conference to conclude his official visit to Japan, at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Nov. 9, 2022. (Kyodo)

"This is positive. We need to build on that," Grandi said as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Japan for meetings with Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi, whose ministry oversees the country's immigration policy, and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Currently, 1,986 Ukrainian evacuees were in Japan as of Nov. 1, of whom 1,792 were issued a "designated activities" visa, according to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.

"Much more must be done, in my opinion, for Japan to become a truly welcoming country for refugees," Grandi said at a news conference in Tokyo, adding, "There have to be better laws, better practices, better systems, better coordination between government departments."

With the total number of displaced people worldwide reaching a record 103 million, Japan should not forget refugee crises in other hotspots such as the coup-hit Myanmar, according to Grandi.

Japan's status as a major developed nation in a globalized world, he said, came with certain humanitarian responsibilities toward greater inclusion for refugees.

"I'm not talking huge numbers, but I am talking more than 60 refugees per year," said Grandi, an Italian national.

Historically, Japan has granted refugee status at a far lower rate than other Group of Seven nations. Its 74 refugee recognitions in 2021 represent a record high total.

The G-7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States plus the European Union.

In a meeting earlier Wednesday, Grandi and Hayashi affirmed cooperation in increasing assistance to refugees and displaced people in the world who are affected by surging global food and energy prices propelled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Related coverage:

Over 200 Ukrainian evacuees find work in Japan: labor ministry

40% of evacuees from Afghanistan have left Japan over poor support

FOCUS: How Japan's Justice Ministry led moves to accept Ukrainian evacuees
11 Vietnamese universities listed in QS Asia University Rankings 2023

Vietnam has 11 representatives listed in QS Asia University Rankings 2023 released by UK-based education organisation Quacquarelli Symonds.





Vietnam National University-Hanoi is placed 162nd in QS Asia University Rankings 2023 released by UK-based education organisation Quacquarelli Symonds. (Photo: www.vnu.edu.vn)



The highest ranking in Vietnam went to Ton Duc Thang Univerisity, at 138th place, closely followed by the Duy Tan Univerisity, Vietnam National University-Hanoi and Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City at 145th, 162nd and 167th position, respectively.



Hanoi University of Science and Technology is placed 248th. Hue University ranks in the 351-400 group, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City in 401-450 and University of Da Nang in 501-550.



The remaining Vietnamese universities in the 2022 rankings are Can Tho University and Hanoi National University of Education in the group of 551-600 and the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in the 651-700 group.



Featuring 760 Asian universities, the 2023 rankings of the top Asian universities are the biggest to date, QS stated.



This year, Peking University takes the top spot. It is followed by National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University of China.



Published annually since 2009, QS Asia University Rankings highlights the top universities in Asia each year using 11 indicators: academic reputation (30 percent), employer reputation (20 percent), faculty/student ratio (10 percent), international research network (10 percent), citations per paper (10 percent) and papers per faculty (5 percent), staff with a PhD (5 percent), proportion of international faculty (2.5 percent) and proportion of international students (2.5 percent), proportion of inbound exchange students (2.5 percent) and proportion of outbound exchange students (2.5 percent).
The Saudi Water Partnerships Company (SWPC) has announced that work is moving at a steady pace on the Jubail 3A Water Desalination Project - said to be the largest facility in the world to run on renewable energy - which is set to launch commercial operations by year-end.

A greenfield sea water reverse osmosis desalination project, Jubail 3A is being set up at an investment of $650 million in the Eastern Province of the kingdom, said SWPC in its statement.

The facility contains tanks with a capacity of 600,000 cu m and also has a solar unit to produce 44 MW power, thus greatly contributing to Saudi efforts to ensure water security.

A consortium led by Acwa Power, a leading Saudi developer, investor and operator of power generation and desalinated water plants, in association with Gulf Investment Company (GIC) and Al Bawani Water and Power Company (AWP), is developing the project.

The key independent water project (IWP) is located 18 km south of Jubail Industrial City along the Arabian Gulf coast, adjacent to the existing plant units (Jubail Phase 1, Jubail Phase 2 and Jubail RO plants).

It had in 2020 won the project with a world-record tariff of 41 US cents per cu m for desalinated potable water.

The Acwa Power-led consortium has signed a 25-year water purchase agreement with SWPC under which it will design, construct, commission, operate and maintain the desalination plant as well as associated potable water storage and electrical special facilities. Work is in full swing on the facility and it is likely to kick off commercial operations as per schedule by year-end, said Khaled Alqureshi, the CEO of Saudi Water Partnerships Company, after an inspection tour of the project site.

Accompanied by senior officials of the projects team, Alqureshi did a follow up on the operational tests of the station.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work is being handled by a consortium of Sepco III, Power China and Abengoa. The operations and maintenance agreement was signed with an affiliate of First National Operations & Maintenance Company (Nomac).-TradeArabia News Service
KYODO NEWS - Nov 9, 2022 - 13:48 | All, Japan

A high court in Japan upheld on Wednesday a sentence of 5 years in prison given to a 40-year-old woman for starving her 5-year-old son to death in 2020 under a friend's influence.

Rie Ikari had received the sentence from the Fukuoka District Court in June after being convicted of causing death through negligence as a parent.

Fukuoka High Court Presiding Judge Toshiya Matsuda said in rejecting the appeal that the lower court's ruling was "reasonable."

Prosecutors had sought 10 years imprisonment at the lower court, but Ikari told the high court she had filed the appeal "in the slim hope" that she could rejoin her other children sooner.

According to the lower court's ruling, she met Emiko Akahori around April 2016 and conspired with her beginning around August 2019 to reduce food given to her third son Shojiro, who died on April 18, 2020 after becoming severely malnourished.

Ikari's defense lawyers did not dispute that she had a hand in starving her child but argued in the appeal that she was a victim of mind control by Akahori.

The lower court had recognized that Ikari was also a victim in the case but said she could have asked for help from relatives to save her son.

Akahori, 49, who is separately on a trial for negligence resulting in death, has pleaded not guilty and is appealing her 15-year-setence, which was handed down in September.

She was also found guilty of defrauding or stealing a sum of around 2 million yen ($13,600) from Ikari.

Related coverage:

Friend of mother who starved son to death sentenced to 15 years
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen (1st L) and visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (2nd L) inspect the guard of honor in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Nov. 8, 2022. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Vietnam on Tuesday signed 11 documents aiming at further promoting their bilateral ties and cooperation, a senior Cambodian official said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh witnessed the signing ceremony of the documents after their meeting at the Peace Palace, said Eang Sophalleth, a personal assistant to Hun Sen.

The documents covered bilateral cooperation in cross-border transport, agriculture, trade promotion along the border, media, telecommunication, information and communications technology, religions, labor and banking, among others, he said.

Sophalleth said during the talks, the two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation and exchanged their views on some regional and international issues of common concern and interest.

The Vietnamese prime minister arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning for a two-day official visit. 
JERUSALEM, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- London-based company Energean on Monday announced the discovery of 13 billion cubic meters of recoverable natural gas reserves in an exploration drilling in the Mediterranean Sea, off the northern shores of Israel.

In addition to the discovery from the Zeus well, where pre-drill estimate ranged between 10 and 12 billion cubic meters, post-well analysis also showed a reserve increase at the adjacent Athena exploration well from 8 billion cubic meters to 11.75 billion, the company said in a statement.

The new results from the Zeus and Athena wells provide Energean with additional confidence about the volumes and commerciality of the area, and it is now progressing a field development plan, according to the statement.

In late October, Energean began production at the nearby Karish rig after receiving Israel's government approval.

Israel and Lebanon reached a deal on Oct. 27 to settle a maritime border dispute in the Mediterranean, opening the way for energy exploration in fields near the disputed area. 
Emmah Peloetletse, Permanent Secretary to the President and chairperson of the National Coordinating Committee on Financial Intelligence, speaks at the launch ceremony in Gaborone, Botswana on Nov. 7, 2022. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)

Botswana has launched its second National Risk Assessment on money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing.

GABORONE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Botswana has launched its second National Risk Assessment (NRA) on money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing.

At the launch in Gaborone on Monday, Emmah Peloetletse, Permanent Secretary to the President and chairperson of the National Coordinating Committee on Financial Intelligence, stated that she believes the report will be completed on time and within budget.

"This project needs the commitment and support of all the stakeholders, and although the assessment modules have increased from nine to fifteen this time around, with the improved tools we are determined more than ever, to get done within a year, as opposed to the two years we took to complete the first NRA," she said.

She also stated that if the NRA is properly implemented, it will assist the southern African country in meeting international standards and avoiding being "grey-listed."

Botswana completed its first national risk assessment in 2017 and is now working on the second, which is expected to be completed by August 2023. In October 2018, Botswana was grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for shortcomings in it's financial regulation. Botswana was removed from the FATF's grey list after improvements to money laundering regulations were made in October 2021.

The FAFT is an intergovernmental organization tasked with developing standards to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing. According to FATF rules, member countries must identify, assess, and comprehend the risks of money laundering and terrorism financing that they face.
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni inspects the guard of honor during the Independence Day celebration in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2022. Cambodia on Wednesday celebrated the 69th anniversary of its independence from France in an hour-long ceremony held at the Independence Monument here in the capital. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Wednesday celebrated the 69th anniversary of its independence from France in an hour-long ceremony held at the Independence Monument here in the capital.

King Norodom Sihamoni, accompanied by Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and other government officials, laid a wreath and lit the ceremonial victory fire inside the Independence Monument to symbolize the country's independence.

The ceremony was also attended by foreign diplomats, armed forces, civil servants, citizens and students.

Hun Sen said Nov. 9 reminded the people of a noble mission launched by the late Cambodian King Father Norodom Sihanouk to demand independence from France.

"King Norodom Sihanouk, the Father of Independence, had sacrificed both physical and mental energies in his royal crusade to gain full independence for Cambodia," the prime minister wrote on social media.

At the end of the celebration, doves and balloons were released as a sign of independence and freedom.

The Southeast Asian nation gained its independence on Nov. 9, 1953, after 90 years of French colonial rule. 




Twenty-three out of 24 people who were rescued from a plane crash into Lake Victoria on Sunday morning in Tanzania have been discharged from hospital, an official said Tuesday.



DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-three out of 24 people who were rescued from a plane crash into Lake Victoria on Sunday morning in Tanzania have been discharged from hospital, an official said Tuesday.

The Deputy Minister for Health Godwin Mollel said the 23 people who were admitted to the state-run Kagera regional hospital have been discharged and collected by relatives, adding one other passenger remains under medical care.

Mollel said President Samia Suluhu Hassan had directed that all the rescued should receive medical treatment wherever in the country under government expenses.

On Monday, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said that 17 passengers and two pilots were killed after Precision Air's ATR-48 aircraft crash-landed in Lake Victoria on Sunday at around 8:20 a.m. local time as it approached Bukoba airport from the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam.

The statement meanwhile said a total of 24 people, including 22 passengers and two cabin crew members, were rescued.




WUHAN, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Yan Jun, head of the Wuhan Birdwatching Association, is on the way to the Baoxie Lake to observe Baer's Pochard (Aythya baeri), a national first-class protected diving duck in China.

The migratory species mainly breeds in Russia's Far East and eastern China, and spends winters in southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, India and Japan.

Since the 1990s, the population of Baer's Pochard has dropped sharply due to habitat loss, over-hunting, human interference and other factors.

They have been listed as "critically endangered" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"Richard Heron, an international conservation expert on Baer's Pochard, once said pessimistically that Baer's Pochard was on the verge of extinction," said Yan.

In 2014, Lu Qun, a member of the Wuhan Birdwatching Association, shared with other members a photo of a duck that he'd never seen before.

"Some experts said it couldn't be Baer's Pochard, as they should have migrated to northeast China in April and May. But Lu Qun was not convinced. He insisted that it was Baer's Pochard, and went to search for it again," said Yan.

Lu's efforts paid off. He finally found a hatching area of Baer's Pochard, and managed to record their entire incubation process.

International bird experts then confirmed that Baer's Pochard had "settled down" in Wuhan, the currently known southernmost breeding site for the species.

Thanks to the significant improvement of wetlands and the ecosystem in Wuhan in recent years, more and more Baer's Pochards have been spotted in the city.

"In March this year, 110 Baer's Pochards were found at the Baoxie Lake. Once we find a new habitat for Baer's Pochard, which gathers over 10 Baer's Pochards, we will regard the place as an important monitoring site. One of our members will be there for daily monitoring and patrol operations," added Yan.

So far in Wuhan, there are three major breeding areas for Baer's Pochard, with a total population of over 600.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
This file photo shows Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde addressing the General Debate of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Africa's current vast infrastructure deficit is a big constraint to continental development, Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said.

ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Africa's current vast infrastructure deficit is a big constraint to continental development, Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said Tuesday.

The president made the remarks during the joint opening session of the eighth edition of the African Engineering Week and the sixth Africa Engineering Conference, which is underway in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"Our continent Africa has a number of priority areas for its development. But there is one that clearly stands above the others and that is infrastructure. Africa has a vast infrastructure deficit. It is a big constraint in its growth," Zewde said.

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 19, 2021, shows the Lekki Deep Sea Port under construction in Lagos, Nigeria. (China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd./Handout via Xinhua)

"We have seen, one year into its implementation, that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement holds much potential for the future of African trade and cooperation," the Ethiopian president said. "It has a great potential to contribute to the realization of structural transformation of our continent. But the connection within our respective countries as well as intra-Africa relations is far from being at the required level."

According to Zwede, the African continent should invest in infrastructure connectivity so as to realize the continent's flagship development aspirations. She emphasized the need to invest heavily in infrastructure development and regional connectivity as a mainstay for socioeconomic development in Africa.

"There is a need of important investment to fill the gap. The effort in infrastructure needs to be supported by the development of soft skills through engineering education and enhancement of technical skills," she added.
This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the scene of an aircraft emergency exercise at the Malta International Airport in Luqa, Malta. Firefighters, medical crews and other responders got themselves busy on Tuesday night as they responded to an aircraft emergency exercise designed to test preparedness levels in case of a real-life emergency at the Malta International Airport. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the scene of an aircraft emergency exercise at the Malta International Airport in Luqa, Malta. Firefighters, medical crews and other responders got themselves busy on Tuesday night as they responded to an aircraft emergency exercise designed to test preparedness levels in case of a real-life emergency at the Malta International Airport. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the scene of an aircraft emergency exercise at the Malta International Airport in Luqa, Malta. Firefighters, medical crews and other responders got themselves busy on Tuesday night as they responded to an aircraft emergency exercise designed to test preparedness levels in case of a real-life emergency at the Malta International Airport. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the scene of an aircraft emergency exercise at the Malta International Airport in Luqa, Malta. Firefighters, medical crews and other responders got themselves busy on Tuesday night as they responded to an aircraft emergency exercise designed to test preparedness levels in case of a real-life emergency at the Malta International Airport. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the scene of an aircraft emergency exercise at the Malta International Airport in Luqa, Malta. Firefighters, medical crews and other responders got themselves busy on Tuesday night as they responded to an aircraft emergency exercise designed to test preparedness levels in case of a real-life emergency at the Malta International Airport. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)
Photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the site of the discovery of bronze statues from an ancient thermal spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Hidden beneath bubbling mud in an ancient thermal spa, the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues dating back more than 2,000 years could "rewrite history," the Italian Ministry of Culture said Tuesday. (Str/Xinhua)

ROME, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Hidden beneath bubbling mud in an ancient thermal spa, the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues dating back more than 2,000 years could "rewrite history," the Italian Ministry of Culture said Tuesday.

The discovery was made two weeks ago while archaeologists were searching for the original basin of the spa situated in the village of San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany.

They were surprised to first find a statue's hands sticking out of the mud, and later on a whole group of them, all dating back to the second century B.C.

One of the findings was depicting Hygieia, the Roman goddess of health, along with statues of other deities and emperors popular during the times of the Roman empire.

"This is the most important discovery since the Riace Bronzes and certainly one of the most significant bronzes ever made in the history of the ancient Mediterranean world," said Massimo Osanna, director general responsible for museums at Italy's Ministry of Culture.

Osanna said the village of San Casciano dei Bagni will exhibit the treasures in a purpose-made museum to be created in a 500-year-old villa. It will also recount the history of the discovery.

The statues were once buried with thousands of coins, household objects, and other artifacts bearing inscriptions in both Latin and Etruscan. They formed part of a religious site and were not intended to be ever found.

Experts said the excavation was the first of its kind in Italy. Jacopo Tabolli from the University of Siena in Tuscany was quoted in local media reports as calling the find "an absolute unique treasure" that "will rewrite history ... (as) the greatest (collection) of statues from ancient Italy and in any case the only one where we can fully reconstruct the history."

The baths at San Casciano dei Bagni were popular with Roman emperors and other high-ranking officials. They operated for around 800 years starting in the third century B.C., until they were outlawed. They were reopened in the 16th century for tourists and locals, but gradually fell into disuse before being refurbished again in recent decades.

The news of the find made front page news in Italy, a country steeped in historical and cultural heritage. Italy is home to 58 world heritage sites recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

The undated photo shows a bronze statue from an ancient thermal spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Hidden beneath bubbling mud in an ancient thermal spa, the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues dating back more than 2,000 years could "rewrite history," the Italian Ministry of Culture said on Nov. 8, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the site of the discovery of bronze statues from an ancient thermal spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Hidden beneath bubbling mud in an ancient thermal spa, the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues dating back more than 2,000 years could "rewrite history," the Italian Ministry of Culture said Tuesday. (Str/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows the site of the discovery of bronze statues from an ancient thermal spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Hidden beneath bubbling mud in an ancient thermal spa, the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues dating back more than 2,000 years could "rewrite history," the Italian Ministry of Culture said Tuesday. (Str/Xinhua)

The undated photo shows a bronze statue from an ancient thermal spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. Hidden beneath bubbling mud in an ancient thermal spa, the discovery of 24 well-preserved bronze statues dating back more than 2,000 years could "rewrite history," the Italian Ministry of Culture said on Nov. 8, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)
Emirates has begun its massive 2-year retrofit programme with work starting on the first of 120 aircraft earmarked for a full cabin interior upgrade and the installation of the airlines latest Premium Economy seats.



This ambitious project represents a multi-billion dollar investment to ensure Emirates customers fly better for the coming years.



After completing flight EK928 from Cairo to Dubai on Monday, A6-EVM was steered to Hanger E at the Emirates Engineering Centre where a team of specialised engineers began prepping the aircraft for its makeover.



In addition to recruiting 190 additional staff for the project, Emirates is also engaged with 62 key partners and suppliers who have hired hundreds more skilled hands for the biggest-known aircraft retrofit programme in modern commercial aviation.



After months of meticulous planning, and months of detailed test runs on an actual A380 aircraft, engineers took stock and requested 2,200 part numbers. In turn, Emirates procurement team went into overdrive and raised 12,600 purchase orders for the initial phase of the programme. At the Emirates Engineering Centre, purpose-built workshops have been set up and stocked with parts and equipment for the project.



Overview of the process

For the next 16 days, round the clock, teams of engineers and technicians will take apart the entire cabin interior of the A380 and put it back together again in a carefully planned and tested sequence.



Thousands of parts will be removed, replaced, or receive a facelift. Even Emirates famous Shower Spa will feature new colour tones with a hand-stencilled motif of a Ghaf tree.



Trained teams will implement a consistent process for every aircraft - a team of engineers will first remove the window seats in Economy class, freeing up space for another team to remove the side panels of the cabin interiors. These panels will go straight to one of three purpose-built workshops to be laminated with Emirates latest colour tones. To make room for the 56 Premium Economy class seats, 88 Economy seats at the front of the main deck will be removed.



On the upper deck, Business and First Class seats will be dismantled and loaded onto a modified catering truck to lower them to the ground where other vehicles will shuttle them to bespoke workshops. Business Class seats will be repainted and re-upholstered with new leather at Emirates Engineering, while First Class seats will be sent to a specialist at Dubai World Central (DWC) for refurbishing.



All carpets and floorings throughout the aircraft cabins will be replaced before the refurbished seats are re-installed.



Health and safety

All processes were designed to the highest health and safety standards. No detail was too small to review, for instance, the decision to invest in the latest equipment to protect workers from harmful vapours in the cabin while the First Class shower spa gets a hand-painted makeover.



Once the refit work is completed, the aircraft will be inspected and certified by aviation authorities before it re-enters service.



Programme pace

The second aircraft scheduled for a makeover, A6-EUW, will roll into Emirates Engineering Centre on 01 December.



As the programme goes into full swing, engineers will work simultaneously on two aircraft. This means, every eight days, one aircraft will be grounded and towed to Emirates Engineering for retrofitting. By 23May 2024, all 67 A380s earmarked for the retrofit programme will be back in service and Emirates will then begin work on 53 of its Boeing 777s. By March 2025, all 120 retrofitted aircraft will be back in service.



Emirates new Premium Economy cabin class, which offers luxurious seats, more legroom, and a service to rival many airlines Business Class offering, is currently available to customers travelling on popular A380 routes to London, Paris and Sydney. More customers will be able to experience Emirates Premium Economy cabins as the retrofit programme picks up pace.



The airline has announced plans to introduce Premium Economy service on its routes to New York JFK, San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore, by end March 2023.  TradeArabia News Service
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 9, 2022.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the summit, and it was read out by Li on the occasion. (Xinhua/Li He)

HANGZHOU, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to work with countries around the world to jointly create a bright digital future, a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official said Wednesday at a global internet event.

Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks in a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit held in east China's Zhejiang.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the summit, and it was read out by Li on the occasion.

He said Xi's letter showed China's sincere desire to work with other countries to blaze a global digital development path with a promising future. The proposals raised by Xi provide the direction for promoting digital cooperation and building a community with a shared future in cyberspace, Li added.

Li noted China is willing to strengthen exchange and practical cooperation with other countries to build a vigorous digital economy, cultivate an integrated ecosystem of technology with mutual benefits, and enhance cyberspace security, among others.

Yuan Jiajun, a member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, also attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Themed "Towards a Shared Digital Future in a Connected World -- Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," this year's summit was attended by more than 2,100 guests from over 120 countries and regions, both in person and online. 
TAIYUAN, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Sixty-nine-year-old Duan Zhu in north China's Shanxi Province has kept the hobby of winter swimming for over two decades as he believes an icy dip is good for his physical health. Still, it was not always easy for him to find a river clean enough to swim in until the recent decade.

Duan lives near Fenhe River in Taiyuan, the capital of coal-rich Shanxi. "I usually swam in small ponds near Fenhe River as the water was clearer and safer," said Duan.

As the second-largest tributary of the Yellow River, the river stretches over 710 km, feeding a quarter of the population of Shanxi, thus known as the "mother river" of Shanxi.

But since the 1970s, the groundwater level in the Fenhe River basin has dropped significantly, and the water quality in the mainstream has deteriorated due to pollution.

Changes and water treatment efforts along the river began in 1998, and today, the Taiyuan section of the river has become a popular tourist site, attracting swimmers like Duan and visitors.

Zhang Yuhong, 49, a local in Taiyuan, participated in the pollution treatment.

"To improve the flood control capacity, the first phase of the project started with reinforcing and expanding the embankment," said Zhang.

He recalled that the watercourse was overgrown with weeds then, and over 1,000 residents volunteered to remove the weeds to expand the water storage.

In August 2000, the river's Taiyuan section began to retain water, and residents swarmed onto the river bank to cheer for it.

Ecological restoration of the Taiyuan section was completed in Autumn 2021, after more than two decades of efforts in pollution control, sludge dredging, water diversion, and greening of the banks.

"These efforts have been very helpful to flood control, solving urban waterlogging, and increasing air humidity," said Zhang, now in charge of flood control of the scenic spot of Fenhe's Taiyuan section.

Taiyuan pioneered the overall treatment of the Fenhe River.

Linfen, which sits along the river, was previously known as a heavily polluted city. The local government shut down many seriously polluting enterprises and made efforts to restore the river channels.

In addition to environmental and social benefits, the cleanup also brought economic benefits.

In Quwo County, administered by Linfen, mushrooms and flowers are harvested on farmland covering 2,500 mu (about 166.7 hectares). Before treatment, it was saline land. The farmland is now the city's largest seedling nursery base.

"The annual profit is about 35 million yuan (about 4.8 million U.S. dollars), and local farmers also profit from it by renting their farmland to and working in the company," said Yang Xu, general manager of the company which runs the farmland.

In recent years, Shanxi has rolled out a series of rules and regulations to accelerate the treatment and protection of rivers and lakes. Many wetland parks were set up along rivers, benefiting millions of people. 
HONG KONG, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Over 1,000 Hong Kong young people have found jobs in mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) thanks to a government-backed youth employment scheme.

Known as the GBA Youth Employment Scheme, or GBA YES, the program attracted more than 400 companies in various sectors offering job vacancies and has been warmly received by participating companies and young people, John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said Wednesday.

The historic opportunities of GBA construction enable Hong Kong youths to broaden their horizons and integrate into the development of the country, Lee said at an event about the recruitment program.

He said the HKSAR government will launch the regularized GBA YES in the first half of 2023 to encourage more university graduates from Hong Kong to pursue their careers in mainland cities in the GBA.

According to Lee's policy address in October, the HKSAR government will continue to provide the young people of Hong Kong with entrepreneurial support and incubation services in the GBA through two funding schemes under the Youth Development Fund, helping them to address initial capital needs for their business.

GBA YES was launched by the HKSAR government in January 2021. 
The scenery of snow-covered mountains in Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region on Oct. 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

"The world has become a small place and any negative development like natural or manmade disasters taking place in one part of the world would affect countries all around the globe," said Pakistani President Arif Alvi, urging the international community to work together to minimize the negative impacts of climate change.

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Arif Alvi said on Tuesday that the adverse impacts of climate change are not limited at national borders and will affect the whole world, urging the international community to work together for the common interest.

"The world has become a small place and any negative development like natural or manmade disasters taking place in one part of the world would affect countries all around the globe," the president said while addressing a conference here.

Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent to global warming, but it is amongst the top 10 most affected countries by climate change and global warming, he said, adding that Pakistan would become one of the most vulnerable countries to bear the brunt of climate change by 2050.

A flooded area in Jamshoro district, Sindh province, Pakistan on Sept. 18, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)

To counter the negative fallouts of climate change, the president said that the entire nation and relevant organizations must work with the help of the international community to minimize the negative impacts, highlighting that the incumbent government has been taking special measures in this regard.

He said the recent climate-induced floods in Pakistan had affected over 33 million people, adding that concerted efforts by all the local and international stakeholders are needed to employ all available resources for rehabilitating the floods-affected population.
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's great efforts to develop renewable energy to replace fossil fuels has been a "story of hope" in fighting climate change, an official and environmentalist has told Xinhua in an interview.

"China for us is a good example of the types of investment that need to be made. China is showing the world hope," said Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) being held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

He was referring to the efforts made by China to increase the production of renewable energy in a bid to reduce the use of fossil fuels and save forests.

Conrad believes that developing renewable energy is one of the major solutions to stop global warming. "Renewable energy is becoming cheaper than other sources and it has less environmental damage, but we need to make it happen faster," he said.

China has made remarkable progress toward its goals of reaching peak carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutralization before 2060, said China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua on Sunday while attending a side event at the COP27 on introducing China's green actions to tackle climate change.

Xie said China has actively implemented the Paris Agreement, and further enhanced its nationally determined contribution, aiming to reach carbon peak and achieve carbon neutralization in a strong, orderly and effective manner.

According to preliminary calculations, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions China produces per unit of GDP in 2021 is 3.8 percent lower than that in 2020 and 50.8 percent lower than in 2005, he noted.

"(We should) bring down fossil fuels by developing renewable energy. China is doing the first step and now we need to do the second step," Conrad said.

"That's where you find hope. China is leading. They're showing that investing in renewable energy works. And now the challenge is to continue to scale it up, so they can scale down the fossil fuels," Conrad added.

During a meeting with the Chinese delegation to the COP27 on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also praised China's pragmatic actions in accelerating green transformation and China's efforts to develop renewable energy.

At the Papua New Guinea pavilion, a huge slogan on the wall - "We need 100 billion (U.S. dollars) annually to save our rainforests" - attracted great attention.

Conrad, also director of the pavilion, told Xinhua that the slogan aims to mock the failure of developed countries to deliver the 100 billion dollars in climate finance promised to developing countries back in 2009.

"In 2022, they still haven't delivered," Conrad said. "What we are trying to say is that 100 billion dollars are not enough only for protecting the rainforests. We need more than that."

He emphasized the significance of protecting rainforests in the global battle against imminent global warming. "There's more carbon in the rainforests. If we lose rainforests, even if we stop all the carbon emissions, we still lose (the climate battle)," he said.

Conrad said China has been very helpful to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations by sending experts years ago to help it protect rainforests. 
BEIRUT, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Oman will invest 20 million U.S. dollars to build an opera house in the downtown of Lebanese capital Beirut, Lebanon's caretaker Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has persuaded Solidere, the Lebanese company that developed the Beirut Central District, to offer a plot of land in downtown Beirut for the project, which Oman will entirely fund, said Mortada.

"Omani authorities wished to start the building of the project shortly after a blueprint and design is drawn," Mortada added.

Mortada highlighted the importance of building an opera house in Beirut, which he believes will boost cultural tourism and generate revenues for the country hit hard by a protracted financial crisis.

Mortada met with an Omani delegation on Monday and agreed to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries and organize an Omani cultural week in Lebanon. 
LUSAKA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Zambia on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the European Union aimed at partnering in the sustainable management of the forestry sector.

The MoU seeks to promote sustainable forestry management for improved livelihoods.

President Hakainde Hichilema said the MoU was signed on the sidelines of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Nov. 6-18.

In a statement on his Facebook page, he said the forestry partnerships agreement will address challenges aimed at preserving forests in the wake of climate change while safeguarding livelihoods and incomes created through the forestry sector.

The Zambian president added that sustainable management of forestry resources will lead to the creation of jobs and wealth. 
People gather at the site of a collapsed building in Giza, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2022. At least three people were killed and another four wounded after a building collapsed in the Egyptian province of Giza, the Egyptian Health Ministry said on Wednesday. (Photo by Mohamed Asad/Xinhua)

CAIRO, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and another four wounded after a building collapsed in the Egyptian province of Giza, the Egyptian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The five-storey residential building came down on Tuesday night in Imbaba, a densely populated neighborhood in the southwestern part of the Greater Cairo metropolitan area, the ministry said in a statement, adding that five ambulances rushed to the scene and transferred the injured to nearby hospitals.

An eyewitness told Xinhua that the collapsed building also destroyed balconies from neighboring buildings.

The police said in a statement that they have evacuated residents in the neighboring buildings over the fear of more collapses, adding that the cause of the tragedy was not immediately clear. 

People gather at the site of a collapsed building in Giza, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2022. At least three people were killed and another four wounded after a building collapsed in the Egyptian province of Giza, the Egyptian Health Ministry said on Wednesday. (Photo by Mohamed Asad/Xinhua)

People gather at the site of a collapsed building in Giza, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2022. At least three people were killed and another four wounded after a building collapsed in the Egyptian province of Giza, the Egyptian Health Ministry said on Wednesday. (Photo by Mohamed Asad/Xinhua)
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over the 129th meeting of the Council of Chairpersons of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Council of Chairpersons of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee discussed draft revisions to an existing law and the draft of a new law at a Wednesday meeting.

The meeting, which was presided over by Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, heard reports on changes made to a draft revision of the Wildlife Protection Law and a draft of the reservist law.

During the discussions, lawmakers urged greater efforts in soliciting opinions from all parties to further improve the drafts. 
* China now boasts 56.35 million hectares of wetlands.



* During the ongoing 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14), China called for enhancing people's well-being globally by leveraging the role of wetlands in promoting sustainable development, tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, and delivering more benefits to people around the world.

* China's wetlands conservation efforts have illustrated its genuine commitment to ensuring harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

CHANGSHA/XINING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Yang Chunlin, a shutterbug in northwest China's Qinghai Province, visits a wetland bordering the Yellow River every October to meet his long-acquainted friends: whooper swans. Yang is very happy to have seen the number of the swans surge to over 100 from 30-plus when he first came to the area.

The wetland is located in Hualong Hui Autonomous County, where the Yellow River swirls and becomes gentle, and aquatic plants are abundant, creating a unique ecosystem.

"The wetland provides an ideal living environment for whooper swans. The beautiful 'swan lake' has become a place for photography lovers to linger," Yang said.

This aerial photo taken on July 18, 2020 shows a view of Buh River wetland at Qinghai Lake in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Photo by Yang Tao/Xinhua)

Known as the "kidneys of the Earth," wetlands can help safeguard biodiversity and cope with climate change. China's wetlands conservation efforts have illustrated its genuine commitment to ensuring harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

During the ongoing 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14), held in Wuhan and Switzerland's Geneva, China called for enhancing people's well-being globally by leveraging the role of wetlands in promoting sustainable development, tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, and delivering more benefits to people around the world.

China has made relentless efforts in wetlands protection and restoration and witnessed remarkable progress over the past decade. China now boasts 56.35 million hectares of wetlands, including marshes, beaches and lakes, according to the latest land resource surveys.

The flag handover ceremony is held during the opening ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Nov. 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun)

It has set up over 600 wetland nature reserves, and more than 1,600 wetland parks, and it is home to 64 wetlands of international importance and 29 wetlands of national importance. China's first specialized law governing wetland protection took effect in June 2022.

China will designate a number of national parks, covering about 10 percent of the country's land area, and incorporate about 11 million hectares of wetlands into the national park system.

Qinghai is the source of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lancang River, and is known as the "Water Tower of China."

The two large lakes -- Gyaring and Ngoring -- in the Yellow River's headwaters region, saw their surface areas increase by 74.6 and 117.4 square km respectively from 2015. The number of lakes in Madoi, dubbed "the county of a thousand lakes," increased from 4,077 to 5,849.

The province has designated a public welfare post called wetland ecological conservator since 2015. So far, there are 963 such conservators across Qinghai, with a monthly income of 1,800 yuan (249 U.S. dollars).

This photo taken on April 2, 2019 shows wild yaks foraging in a wetland in the Altun Mountains National Nature Reserve in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

Since 2016, Qinghai has invested over 1 billion yuan in the implementation of a series of wetlands protection projects, restoring a number of degraded wetlands, improving the ecological condition of some important wetlands, and effectively enhancing the water conservation capacity of alpine plateau wetlands and river headwaters, according to Ma Jianhai, head of the wetland management office under the provincial forestry and grassland department.

Rich in reeds, Dongting Lake in the middle reaches of the Yangtze in central China's Hunan Province once gave rise to many paper-making and pulp-making mills. While contributing to taxes and employment, such mills also caused water pollution. In 2018, the provincial authorities ordered the shutdown of all pulp-making and outdated paper-making capacity around the lake, and now all paper mills in this area have been closed.

In addition to factories, over 17,000 fishermen and nearly 12,000 boats at Dongting have also been phased out. Meanwhile, a fishermen relocation project with an investment of 998 million yuan is underway, which will accommodate over 1,200 households from three fishing villages.

Little swans and bean geese are seen at the Dongting Lake in central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Ga)

Many wetlands have thus regained their former beauty, while industries such as ecological breeding and ecological tourism have increased incomes for local residents.

"I shall move into my new house by the end of this year. With the help of the government, I have found a job as a security guard as part of the relocation project. Now I have an income of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan every month," said 60-year-old Tu Xiaonian, a former fisherman.

Data provided by Hunan's environmental authority showed that with the continuous improvement of water conditions, the number of wintering waterbirds in Dongting reached 404,000 in the period from 2021 to 2022 -- a record high.

"Through a series of ecological protection actions, China has demonstrated the positive role of wetlands conservation in coping with climate change, preserving biodiversity and improving the living environment of humans, and contributed more wisdom and solutions to building a community of all life on Earth," said Lei Guangchun, a professor at Beijing Forestry University.

(Reporting by Cao Bin, Cheng Lu, Li Linhai, Shi Weiyan, Zhang Yujie and Sun Yi; Video reporters: Wang Yan, Hong Ling, Shi Weiyan and Li Linhai; Video editors: Wu Yao and Wei Yin.)
Saudi Arabia has been announced as Premier Partner of World Travel Market London 2022, taking place from today (November 7) till Wednesday, for the second year running.



Saudis Vision 2030 strategy is an ambitious blueprint for the future that is transforming Saudi, creating prosperity and opportunity, with tourism at the heart. Driving forward aims of welcoming 100 million visitors by 2030, Saudi joins partners and delegates at WTM to showcase an unparalleled destination offering.



Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO and Member of the Board at Saudi Tourism Authority said: Saudi is the worlds fastest growing tourism destination in the G20 and presents incomparable new business opportunities for partners looking to offer experiences in the last unexplored leisure tourism frontier. Returning to London as WTMs Premier Partner for the second year in a row, Saudi will capture the hearts, minds, and imaginations of travellers at the worlds leading industry event.



Senior figures from the Saudi delegation will be taking part in debates during WTM London. Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO and Member of the Board at Saudi Tourism Authority, will join feature trends expert Rohit Talwar, CEO, Fast Future, on the Future Stage for The Future of Travel Starts Now. On the Sustainability Stage, leaders from Saudi will showcase ways in which it is increasing reliance on clean energy, offsetting emissions, and protecting the environment, in line with Vision 2030 goals.



Players in the hospitality industry are investing in Saudi, showing strong confidence in the future of Saudis tourism sector. As the worlds biggest investor in tourism, delegates at WTM will learn more about how Saudi is working with partners to create incomparable offerings and packages for travellers. Today, it is easier than ever for visitors to explore the authentic home of Arabia. Recently, Saudi extended eVisa regulations to enable residents of the UK, US, and EU to apply for a Visa on Arrival.



Additionally, Saudi Arabia is working with trade partners and Saudis Air Connectivity Program to increase international flight connectivity from 99 to 250+ destinations by 2030. Earlier this year, Wizz Air launched 20 new routes from Europe to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi, offering affordable travel for tourists and residents in Europe and Saudi.



Juliette Losardo, Exhibition Director at World Travel Market London, said: WTM London is pleased to welcome Saudi as its Premier Partner for the second year in a row, building on the successes of 2021. Saudi has ambitious targets to grow its tourism sector and WTM offers an unparalleled opportunity for Saudi to share its diverse range of tourism products and investment opportunities with key trade buyers and media from around the world.



This November, World Travel Market welcomes visitors from around the world to the 42nd edition  a community event that drives critical business conversations and deals  fuelling a thriving sector. World Travel Market is embracing the opportunity to work with Saudi on their journey to develop, promote and enable an internationally competitive tourism sector as a key pillar of Vision 2030.  TradeArabia News Service
BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday sent a congratulatory letter to the 2022 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, which opened in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province.

In the letter, Xi noted that digital technology is being increasingly integrated into all domains and the whole process of economic and social development, bringing profound changes to people's approaches to work, daily life, and social governance.

Xi called on the international community, faced with the opportunities and challenges brought by digitalization, to jointly build a cyberspace that is fairer and more equitable, more open and inclusive, safer and more stable, and more vibrant.

China is willing to work with countries around the world to blaze a global digital development path that features joint building and sharing of digital resources, vibrant digital economy, efficient digital governance, flourishing digital culture, effectively guaranteed digital security, and mutually beneficial digital cooperation, according to Xi.

Accelerated efforts should be made to build a community with a shared future in cyberspace, contributing wisdom and strength to world peace and development as well as to the progress of human civilization, Xi added.

The summit opened Wednesday with the theme of "Towards a Shared Digital Future in a Connected World -- Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace." 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcomes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara, Turkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Turkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Turkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO.

"We will fully implement the trilateral memorandum," Kristersson said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara.

"Sweden will take important steps with regards to the fight against terror," he added.

Sweden plans to introduce new legislation by 2023 to fight terror groups, whether they pose risk to Sweden or Turkiye, the Swedish leader noted.

Kristersson said his country has designated the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization and his government was willing to support Turkiye in its fight against the group.

"Joining this alliance is a vital security issue for us. Being a NATO member means taking (security) responsibility for other allies," he added.

Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO.

"Sweden wants NATO membership for its own security, and we want to see a Sweden that supports our own security concerns," Erdogan said.

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

On June 28, Turkiye, Sweden and Finland reached a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO Madrid summit.

Sweden and Finland pledged to support Turkiye's fight against terrorism and agreed to address Ankara's pending deportation or extradition requests for terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly.

Turkiye remains one of the two NATO members yet to ratify their accession, as Ankara has been complaining that the two countries have moved too slowly in fulfilling their commitments over the Turkish security concerns.

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

The Gulen movement, led by the U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, has been accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the 2016 failed coup to topple Erdogan's rule. 

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attends a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen in the picture) in Ankara, Turkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Turkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attend a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Turkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attend a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkiye, on Nov. 8, 2022. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday promised to meet Turkish security demands in an effort to get Turkiye's approval of his country's bid to join the NATO. Kristersson held talks with Erdogan on Tuesday in a bid to convince the Turkish leader to approve Sweden's bid to join the NATO. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)
ANKARA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkish authorities on Wednesday detained at least 19 people with alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

Anti-terror police in the Turkish capital of Ankara have launched raids on 15 foreign nationals over alleged ties with the IS, some of whom had been active inside the group in past years, the state-run TRT television reported.

At least 12 of the suspects were detained in the raids, the TRT stated.

Meanwhile, the Turkish security forces detained four IS suspects in southeastern Batman province, Ihlas News Agency reported.

Two Syrians in southeastern Sanliurfa province and another Syrian in central Kayseri province were also detained for their alleged links to the IS, Demiroren News Agency reported.

The Turkish government designated the IS a terrorist organization in 2013, blaming it for a spate of deadly attacks in Turkiye since 2015.

Turkiye's southern border with Syria has been a popular crossing point for Syrians and foreign fighters since Syria's civil war broke out in 2011. 
A night heron flies above the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

A grebe chick swims in a lake in the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

An egret is pictured in the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

An eastern spot-billed duck flies above the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

Falcated ducks fly above the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

People visit the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

A cormorant perches on a branch in the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

Moorhens sport in a lake in the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

People visit the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

A coot swims in a lake in the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows wetlands in Lirang Town of Liangping District in southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows wetlands in Zhushan Town of Liangping District in southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 8, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

An egret is about to fly in the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing, Nov. 7, 2022.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 shows the Shuanggui Lake national wetland park in Liangping District of southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows mini wetlands in Lirang Town of Liangping District in southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2022 shows wetlands in Lirang Town of Liangping District in southwest China's Chongqing.

Liangping District won the "International Wetland City" from the Ramsar Convention this year.

The district has built a national-level wetland park, Shuanggui Lake national wetland park.

It also shines in the protection and utilization of small and micro wetlands. Farmers grew rice, vegetables, lotus, fish, and shrimps in small and micro wetlands, including the district's many ponds and rice paddies.

Organic agriculture in such mini wetlands helped reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The scenic views also boosted ecological tourism to raise farmers' incomes. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)
TIANJIN, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- European aircraft manufacturer Airbus started to produce A321 aircraft at its Final Assembly Line Asia (FALA) facility in north China's Tianjin on Wednesday -- confirmation that China is capable of delivering all models of Airbus' A320 family aircraft.

"The A321 is currently one of the most popular aircraft in the A320 family," said George Xu, CEO of Airbus China. "This is our latest step in China, showing our unwavering support for the Chinese market."

The first A321 aircraft assembled in Tianjin is expected to be delivered early next year.

At present, the company's backlog of A321 aircraft accounts for around 60 percent of its total global backlog for the A320 family aircraft range.

Able to seat more than 200 passengers, the single-aisle A321 model is capable of flying long routes matching the capacity of a wide-bodied aircraft, but at more economical operational costs. 
BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese prosecutors approved the arrest of 7,594 individuals and sued 8,516 in a nationwide crackdown on fraud in elderly care programs, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Wednesday.

Most of the crimes took the form of illegal fund-raising, scams, and manufacturing and sales of counterfeit or inferior products, said prosecutors at a press conference on the latest progress of the crackdown campaign.

Originally a six-month special campaign launched in April, the operation has become part of day-to-day law enforcement, according to authorities.

Prosecutors vowed a continued tough stance against such crimes and more help to bring more order to the sector. They will also take more efficacious measures to raise public awareness of the law and the danger of falling victim to such crimes. 
People visit the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on March 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Over 4,300 influenza patients were admitted to hospitals in the week ending Oct. 29, the highest for that time period in a decade and nearly double the prior week, according to the U.S. CDC.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States continues to see an unusual and early spike in flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections on top of a new wave of COVID-19 cases, which overwhelm healthcare facilities nationwide.

Over 4,300 influenza patients were admitted to hospitals in the week ending Oct. 29, the highest for that time period in a decade and nearly double the prior week, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While flu season is usually between October and May, peaking in December and January, this year's flu season began six weeks earlier, at a level not seen since the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, according to the CDC.

There have been at least 1,600,000 illnesses, 13,000 hospitalizations, and 730 deaths from flu so far this season in the United States, CDC data showed.

"It's unusual, but we're coming out of an unusual COVID pandemic that has really affected influenza and other respiratory viruses that are circulating," said Lynnette Brammer, an epidemiologist who heads the CDC's domestic influenza surveillance team.

Flu activity continue to increase nationwide, according to the CDC. The southeastern and south-central areas of the country are reporting the highest levels of activity followed by the Mid-Atlantic and the south-central West Coast regions.

Meanwhile, RSV, a common cause of cold-like symptoms in children, continues to rise nationally and strain children's hospitals.

Experts are concerned about the confluence of influenza, RSV and coronavirus, warning grim threats from a "tripledemic."

People shop at a supermarket in San Mateo, California, the United States, Sept. 13, 2022. (Photo by Li Jianguo/Xinhua)

Health officials are bracing for the possibility that COVID-19 again overwhelms hospitals, depending on which new variants become dominant, "because governments have abandoned efforts to limit transmission and few senior citizens, who are most susceptible to severe disease, are up-to-date on their shots," said a report of The Washington Post.

New Omicron subvariants have led to increasing COVID-19 infections in the United States, with BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounting for over 35 percent of new cases last week, according to the latest CDC data.

The two new variants have been growing especially fast since October. At the beginning of October, each one accounted for about 1 percent of new infections in the United States, but they have been roughly doubling in prevalence each week.

Across the country, pediatric bed occupancy is the highest it's been in two years, with 78 percent of the estimated 40,000 beds filled with patients, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"With increased RSV infections, a rising number of flu cases and the ongoing burden of COVID-19 in our communities, there's no doubt we will face some challenges this winter," said Dawn O'Connell, assistant HHS secretary for preparedness and response. 
BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has recently released a guideline to facilitate the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The guideline calls for the creation of digital applications for instant communication, long-distance collaboration and project management in order to better meet the needs of such companies during the transformation.

Digital service providers and internet platforms have been asked to develop more convenient solutions for the issues faced by SMEs in advancing digital transformation.

To step up policy support for the companies, relevant departments should offer more guidance, increase financial assistance, expand pilot programs and improve services, according to the guideline.

The ministry has also published the 2022 list of standards for assessing the digital capability of SMEs. 
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The world body continues to conduct consultations in an effort to have the Black Sea Grain Initiative renewed, said a UN spokeswoman on Wednesday.

"We continue to urge parties to continue exerting full and good faith in the implementation of the initiative and to facilitate the timely, safe and unimpeded movement of vessels," said Stephanie Tremblay, an associate spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "As we mentioned before, this is a critical supply line, and it needs to continue delivering more and much-needed food to the world."

The head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Rebeca Grynspan, and UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths will be meeting with a high-level delegation from Russia on Friday in Geneva, she said. "So, this is a new development on the negotiations."

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.

Russia on Oct. 29 announced the suspension of its participation in the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkiye following an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Moscow agreed to resume its participation days later following intense diplomatic engagement.

Along with the Black Sea Grain Initiative, there was a concurrent agreement on the facilitation of the export of Russian food products and fertilizer. Moscow has repeatedly complained about the lack of progress concerning Russian exports.

Asked whether the United Nations has received any information from Russia regarding its intentions on the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Tremblay said negotiations are ongoing.

"There's going to be this meeting (in Geneva) in two days. So let's not prejudge what will happen at this meeting," she said. 
Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of Red Cross, is interviewed with Xinhua during the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 8, 2022. Countries enduring conflicts are highly vulnerable to climate risks due to their limited adaptive capacity, said Mardini in a recent interview with Xinhua. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Countries enduring conflicts are highly vulnerable to climate risks due to their limited adaptive capacity, said a senior Red Cross official in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"People affected by armed conflict and violence are among the most vulnerable to climate change, yet remain largely excluded from efforts to adapt to its consequences," said Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).

Mardini made the remarks on the sidelines of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, currently being held in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The ICRC seeks to draw attention to the humanitarian consequences of climate risks and environmental degradation on conflict-affected populations, the Red Cross official told Xinhua.

He explained that the vast majority of the countries enduring armed conflict and other violence are among the world's least developed countries, describing some of them as "the most vulnerable to the climate crisis."

Among these countries are Afghanistan, Somalia, Mali, and Yemen, Mardini cited, noting that such countries are vulnerable to droughts, floods, insect plagues, and changing rainfall patterns.

"People enduring conflict are not only among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis, but they are also among those most neglected by climate actions," said the ICRC director-general.

Climate is changing everywhere, and climate shocks become more severe, "but it is people living in fragile contexts who will be most severely impacted," he emphasized.

The ICRC chief stressed that climate risks create health needs through the multiplication of respiratory problems, greater food insecurity, and the rise of certain diseases.

He called on world leaders through COP27 to live up to their commitments under the Paris Agreement to ensure that vulnerable and conflict-affected people are adequately supported to adapt to a changing climate.

They should ensure that this action is adequately supported by fit-for-purpose climate finance, he added.

"A greater proportion of climate finance must reach communities affected by conflict and violence to reduce people's double vulnerability to climate risks," said Mardini.

He lamented the current "gap" between stable countries and fragile ones in access to funding for climate action.

Adaptation in the countries affected by conflict and violence in which the ICRC works remains "underfunded and deprioritized," he pointed out.

Mardini added that conflicts disrupt the foundations of societies by affecting governance and institutions, the economy, social cohesion, and the environment, limiting people's capacity to cope with any climate shocks and changes, including heatwaves.

The ICRC official called for efforts to pull climate finance in the direction of conflict-torn communities, to mobilize donor states and other actors towards more ambitious climate action, and to increase their support for climate change adaptation in conflict-affected countries.

Climate finance should also be more evenly allocated between climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, according to Mardini.

"Together with partner organizations, we have made recommendations in our latest paper on climate finance in fragile settings towards such action," he noted.

"We will continue to share this message with climate actors who are not present or have limited visibility into areas affected by armed conflict," Mardini said.

The ICRC, as a humanitarian organization that seeks to alleviate suffering in situations of conflict, pushes for climate finance and action in communities affected by conflict and violence.

"No one can address these challenges alone. We must work together across the humanitarian sector and beyond to strengthen climate action," he said.

"We must collectively find solutions and ensure access to adequate climate finance in challenging environments. Leaving people behind is not an option," Mardini told Xinhua. 

Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of Red Cross, is interviewed with Xinhua during the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 8, 2022. Countries enduring conflicts are highly vulnerable to climate risks due to their limited adaptive capacity, said Mardini in a recent interview with Xinhua. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)


The case has now been postponed until November 14.

Afnan Habib | TwoCircles.net

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NEW DELHI  A fast-track court in Varanasi on Tuesday postponed the announcement of its decision about the maintainability of a petition seeking to prohibit Muslims from entering the grounds of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier reports stated that the judgment would be delivered on November 8. However, the case has now been postponed until November 14. On October 27, the Fast Track Court of Civil judge (senior division) reserved a decision in the case.

According to the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh (VVSS) lawsuit, the plaintiffs should be permitted to pray to Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar and worship the Shiva Linga, which was allegedly discovered inside the Gyanvapi complex, and the court should grant the Hindus possession of the entire complex.

The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC), which oversees the mosque, challenged the viability of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sanghs (VVSS) lawsuit, filed by Kiran Singh, who is the international general secretary of VVSS, for the prohibition and control of the property. According to the argument, the mosque is listed as a waqf (charitable endowment) property. Hence the civil court lacks the authority to consider the case.

In another plea, a group of Hindu women argued that the mosque should be allowed to be used for religious purposes because a Hindu temple once stood there. The women were represented by attorney Vishnu Shankar Jain, who asked the top court to take up the case before the protection period expired on November 12.

After a trial court permitted a videographic examination of the mosque complex next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the top court ordered the protection of the area where the Shivling was alleged to have been discovered.

If Carbon Dating or Ground Penetrating Radar is permitted and if any damage is caused to the Shiva Linga then it would be a violation of the Supreme Court order to protect it, and it might also hurt the religious sentiments of the general public, the court remarked.

On the other hand, the Muslim side has insisted that the object was a component of the water fountain system at the wazookhana reservoir, where devotees clean themselves with water before offering the namaz.

Afnan Habib is a freelance journalist based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. He tweets at @afnanhabib_
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen holds a grand welcome ceremony for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang prior to their meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen here on Wednesday on deepening mutually beneficial cooperation.

Li noted that China and Cambodia enjoy a deep traditional friendship, a high degree of political mutual trust, and fruitful practical cooperation in various fields.

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a successful visit to Cambodia. In 2020, Xi awarded Cambodian Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk the Friendship Medal of the People's Republic of China, Li said, noting that both events marked new chapters in China-Cambodia friendship.

Pointing out that Hun Sen was the first foreign leader to visit China after the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, Li said that it has left a deep impression on the Chinese people, adding that he is very glad that his first trip abroad in the almost three years during the pandemic is to Phnom Penh to attend the East Asia leaders' meetings and pay an official visit to Cambodia.

China congratulates Cambodia on its new progress in economic and social development, Li said, adding that China views all countries, regardless of their size, as equals and maintains that all countries should observe the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

China supports Cambodia in taking a development path that meets its national context and playing a more important role on international and regional platforms, Li said.

China stands ready to enhance high-level interaction and communication with Cambodia, support each other on respective core interests and major concerns, and promote continued and sound development of China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation to the benefit of their people, Li said.

Li pointed out that next year will mark the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, adding that it will be a good opportunity for the two countries to make the multiple events under the China-Cambodia Year of Friendship a success.

China is ready to support Cambodia in promoting technology-driven and industrialized agriculture, and will increase imports of fine Cambodian agricultural products, push forward major projects, and support Cambodia in accelerating industrialization, he said.

China will also assist Cambodia in its demining efforts, deliver on the assistance projects of road construction, health care and water supply in its best efforts to help Cambodia improve people's lives, Li said.

The two countries will deepen cooperation on science and technology, education and culture, and increase direct flights, Li said, adding that China welcomes Cambodian students to study in China.

Stressing that a stable and prosperous Cambodia has great significance for regional stability, development and the growth of China-ASEAN relations, Li said that China fully supports Cambodia in hosting the leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation as the current ASEAN Chair, firmly supports ASEAN unity and centrality, support the ASEAN-led regional cooperation architecture as well as a bigger role of ASEAN in promoting international and regional peace and development.

For his part, Hun Sen said that Cambodia and China are iron-clad friends and the bilateral friendship is endorsed and supported by the Cambodian people, adding that there is a lot more to do in advancing Cambodia-China cooperation.

Noting that Cambodia firmly upholds the one-China policy and supports building the Cambodia-China community with a shared future, Hun Sen said that Cambodia will work with China to stage successful commemorations next year for the 65th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, enhance interaction and cooperation on trade, investment, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, public health, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and deepen bilateral relations and cooperation.

Cambodia respects the principles set out in the UN Charter about upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states and stands ready to enhance coordination with China under multilateral frameworks to jointly safeguard international and regional peace, stability and development, said Hun Sen.

The two sides also had an in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of mutual interest.

After the meeting, Li and Hun Sen jointly witnessed the signing of more than 10 bilateral cooperation documents on agriculture, infrastructure, education, traditional Chinese medicine, customs, science and technology and climate response, among others.

They inaugurated the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway and attended the handover ceremony of its supporting livelihood project. The two sides will issue a joint communique.

Prior to the meeting, Hun Sen held a grand welcome ceremony for Li at the Peace Palace. After they stepped onto the review stand, the military band played the national anthems of the two countries. Accompanied by Hun Sen, Li then reviewed the guard of honor.

On Wednesday afternoon, Li laid wreathes at the Independence Monument of Cambodia and the Statue of King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

Xiao Jie also attended the events. 

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang holds a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen inaugurate the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway and attend the handover ceremony of its supporting livelihood project after their meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang lays a wreath at the Statue of King Father Norodom Sihanouk before meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
CARACAS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela welcomed Wednesday the first Colombian flight from Satena Airline, after the reestablishment of diplomatic and commercial relations between the two nations in August.

Venezuelan Transport Minister Ramon Velasquez met the flight at the Simon Bolivar International Airport, where he noted that a flight from the Venezuelan airline Turpial landed in Colombia on Monday.

Accompanied by his Colombian counterpart Guillermo Reyes, the minister highlighted that this was a victory for presidents Nicolas Maduro and Gustavo Petro of Venezuela and Colombia, respectively.

He stressed the importance of resuming flights "since we are formalizing air connectivity between two great fraternal peoples" that allows travel between Caracas and Bogota in less than two hours.

For his part, Reyes celebrated the flight landing and commented that Satena "for the first time in history conducted an international flight" and did so to "reestablish the brotherhood between Colombia and Venezuela."

The two countries restored diplomatic relations after Petro assumed the presidency, which led to the reopening of border crossings and the strengthening of commercial ties. 
Csaba Korosi (C, front), president of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, speaks at the 46th Annual Meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 and China at the UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

"The tendency is frightening: the world is faced with risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear catastrophe not seen in decades," UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi said.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi warned Wednesday that the world is facing risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear catastrophe not seen in decades.

In remarks at a General Assembly plenary meeting on the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for 2021, Korosi called on member states to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog to ensure nuclear safety.

International events last year had a substantial impact on the work of the IAEA. Grave developments have been compelling it to respond to a whole new set of adverse circumstances, he said. "The tendency is frightening: the world is faced with risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear catastrophe not seen in decades."

The conflict in Ukraine has heightened these concerns and sparked a global energy crisis, sending prices soaring. The IAEA strives to meet the demands of this moment with expert resolve to bring about nuclear safety and stability in this time of interlocking crises, he said.

Korosi noted that an IAEA mission in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is working around the clock to ensure the safety and security of the nuclear power plant there -- the largest in Europe -- and to prevent a nuclear disaster.

"We simply cannot allow nuclear safety in Ukraine and beyond to be jeopardized," he said, adding that IAEA experts are in a unique position to provide up-to-date and credible information from the ground.

A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission arrives at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)

Korosi urged all parties to cooperate fully with the IAEA to ensure nuclear safety, and reiterated the importance of impartial, factual information that IAEA provides about the many nuclear issues.

Concerns over nuclear energy are not limited to one region. Moves to erode nuclear non-proliferation regimes are very dangerous and constitute a major threat to peace and security, he said.

As more countries turn to nuclear energy to meet their needs, especially when faced with drastic energy shortages, the IAEA's responsibility to ensure that nuclear technologies are safe, secure and peacefully used has only grown, said Korosi.

At last year's UN Climate Change Conference, nuclear energy was high on the global climate agenda, and the IAEA opened new opportunities for the use of nuclear techniques in tackling pollution and other environmental challenges, he noted.

With this year's UN Climate Change Conference under way, he encouraged member states, businesses and civil society to engage with the IAEA in answering two crucial questions: which are the available options when climate change meets an energy supply crisis? what does science say about the connection between nuclear energy and the environment?

"So far, we have only scratched the surface of these questions," he said. 
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is greatly concerned by the recent escalation of violence in Northwest Syria, including shelling and airstrikes, which has resulted in civilian deaths and casualties in and around camps for internally displaced persons in Idlib governorate, said a spokeswoman on Wednesday.

Guterres calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from escalating the situation, said Stephanie Tremblay, an associate spokesperson for the secretary-general.

Guterres calls for calm and reaffirms the need for a nationwide cease-fire as called for in Security Council Resolution 2254, she told a daily press briefing.

On Tuesday, Tremblay said that at least 121 civilians had been killed and 210 others injured in Northwest Syria this year. Humanitarian conditions continue to decline due to ongoing hostilities and a deepening economic crisis. Some 4.1 million people -- 80 percent of them women and children -- rely on UN aid to meet their most basic needs. 
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) is helping national authorities in preventing and reducing violence at the community level, a UN spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The mission, known by its French acronym as MINUSCA, is also helping to organize the Bangui Court of Appeal's second criminal session of the year, said Stephanie Tremblay, an associate spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

MINUSCA says that preparations for the next phase of a program to reduce violence at the community level are under way. The program offers people, including young people, an alternative to violence through vocational training, income-generating activities, and voluntary surrender of weapons, she said.

The mission has registered more than half of the 4,300 people, including 1,200 women, who will take part in the program, she added.

Overall, the security situation in the country has remained relatively calm in the past few days, though tense in certain parts of the country, she told a daily press briefing.

UN peacekeepers are patrolling to protect the population and to secure fragile areas, with nearly 1,700 patrols carried out over the past week, including some jointly done with the Central African armed forces, said Tremblay.

The CAR, one of the poorest African countries, has suffered violence at the hands of armed groups, affecting civilian institutions. 
TRIPOLI, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday called for collective action against unexploded ordnance in Libya following the death of a child in the south of Libyan capital Tripoli.

"The UNICEF is deeply shocked about the death of a 13-year-old boy yesterday succumbing to his injuries after a tragic incident on October 16 when he came in contact with explosive remnants of war (ERW) in the south of Ain Zara," Michele Servadei, the UNICEF representative in Libya, said in a statement.

"We need to take collective action to address the devastating impact of unexploded ordnance on children and families in Libya," he said.

The UN representative stressed the importance of increased awareness of the risks of explosive hazards for the safety of people living in areas that had been hit by armed conflict.

The UNICEF "urges all parties to accelerate every effort to clear existing mines and unexploded ordnance and promote victim assistance, and to uphold children's right to a safe and protective environment," Servadei said.

Violent clashes erupted in April 2019 between the eastern-based army and the former UN-backed government of national accord in and around Tripoli and lasted for over a year before the eastern-based army retreating from the area.

The conflict has killed and injured many civilians, caused great destruction of property, and left much unexploded ordnance.

Libya has been in a state of insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. 
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The deep-rooted relations between Pakistan and China are based on solid foundations of mutual trust, respect and win-win cooperation, a Pakistani senator said on Tuesday.

"Pakistan's foreign policy towards China is not ideological. It is realistic and pragmatic based on safeguarding its national interests and sustaining its friendship with China," Mushahid Hussain Syed, chairman of the Pakistani Senate's Defense Committee, said at a seminar organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, a local think tank.

The all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries has touched new heights, the senator said, adding that China has never undermined Pakistan's core national interests and Pakistan reciprocated the same by supporting China on its important issues.

Syed said China played a vital role in strengthening Pakistan's economy under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by constructing road networks from south to north, adding thousands of megawatts of electricity to the national grid, thus helping the country overcome its severe energy crisis.

The CPEC has now entered its second phase after successfully completing the first phase. The second phase will bring socio-economic development and boost Pakistan's economic status in the longer term, he said.

Masood Khalid, former Pakistani ambassador to China, told Xinhua that the ties between the two countries stood the test of time and are exemplary in the world.

Adhering to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and respect for every country's sovereignty and territorial integrity helped forge an exceptionally stronger bond between the two countries, Khalid said.

He noted that China has always extended a helping hand whenever Pakistan needed the most, adding that China's assistance to Pakistan comes with no strings attached.

China assisted Pakistan in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic by providing much-needed medical supplies and vaccines, and now when the country is bearing the brunt of climate change in the form of unprecedented floods recently, China provided relief and rehabilitation aid for flood victims, he said. 
KATHMANDU, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- A strong earthquake hit the Doti district in far-western Nepal early Wednesday morning, leaving six people dead and five others injured, a local official said.

Several buildings collapsed in the tremor measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale that struck at 2:12 a.m. local time Wednesday.

"The dead bodies were recovered from the debris of the collapsed structures," Kalpana Shrestha, Doti's chief district officer, told Xinhua.

"The injured are receiving treatment in a local hospital," she added.

The epicenter is in the Khaptad National Park area, Shrestha said, noting security personnel has been mobilized as well in the search and rescue operations.

Nepal is prone to earthquakes. Over 9,000 people were killed in the massive 2015 quake. 
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Arif Alvi said on Tuesday that the adverse impacts of climate change are not limited at national borders and will affect the whole world, urging the international community to work together for the common interest.

"The world has become a small place and any negative development like natural or manmade disasters taking place in one part of the world would affect countries all around the globe," the president said while addressing a conference here.

Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent to global warming, but it is amongst the top 10 most affected countries by climate change and global warming, he said, adding that Pakistan would become one of the most vulnerable countries to bear the brunt of climate change by 2050.

To counter the negative fallouts of climate change, the president said that the entire nation and relevant organizations must work with the help of the international community to minimize the negative impacts, highlighting that the incumbent government has been taking special measures in this regard.

He said the recent climate-induced floods in Pakistan had affected over 33 million people, adding that concerted efforts by all the local and international stakeholders are needed to employ all available resources for rehabilitating the floods-affected population. 
KIEV, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join the Group of 20 (G20) upcoming summit in Indonesia's Bali, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported Tuesday, citing the presidential spokesman Sergii Nykyforov.

"In some format, of course, Volodymyr Zelensky will take part in the G20 summit," Nykyforov said.

Most likely, the Ukrainian leader will join the summit in the online format, the spokesman added.

The 17th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit, which is scheduled for Nov. 15-16, will focus on the theme "Recover Together, Recover Stronger." 
LISBON, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Swedish furniture giant IKEA is excited about new business opportunities emerging from the Chinese market, which features rapidly changing dynamics and Chinese consumers' behavioral shifts, an IKEA senior executive told Xinhua recently.

"There is a fundamental change happening in China with people moving more into health and wellness, people looking into how to create a community balance," said Parag Parekh, co-chief digital officer and chief technology officer with IKEA Retail, owned by Ingka Group, which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, selling household goods.

During the interview on the sidelines of the Web Summit held here last week before IKEA showing its pavillon at the fifth China International Import Expo, which runs through Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai, Parekh stressed he was bullish on growing market share in China and expanding business in the world's second-largest economy.

As Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to purchase home decor to improve their living conditions, IKEA has spotted opportunities in China's growing furniture market.

In 2021, 910 million pieces of furniture were produced in China, showed data from Daxue Consulting. The Beijing-based market research and consulting firm also expected a strong growth in China's furniture market, projecting a compound annual growth rate of 11.6 percent from 2022 onwards.

"We are reading some of these trends to understand what the shift is going to be in terms of people's engagement with the brand, and that will help us design and define what our product range and what our engagement in China will be," Parekh said.

Meanwhile, the tech executive took note of "one of the biggest digital transformation" in IKEA's nearly-80-year-long history, saying, "we are transforming from being a physical retailer into being an omnichannel retailer."

"On the digital side in China, we are present with the website and our app. We have had the first pilots with WeChat mini programs and the first engagements with Tmall," he said. "We are looking into how we can grow and engage our physical versus the digital footprint. It's still in the makings." 
KIEV, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kiev could resume dialogue with Moscow only after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the presidential press service reported Tuesday.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Podolyak said that a potential ceasefire deal at the current stage of the conflict would provide Russia with time to strengthen its positions.

"The ceasefire for Russia is a tactical pause for reinforcement," Podolyak said.

While commenting on the reports that the representatives of the U.S. Pentagon and the Russian Defense Ministry are involved in talks, Podolyak said that "there are no negotiations between Russia and Western countries regarding Ukraine."

"Our partners adhere to the principle of 'nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.' Neither side will be able to ensure the implementation of agreements without the support of the Ukrainian people," he said.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict started on Feb. 24.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators held the latest round of face-to-face peace talks in Istanbul, Turkiye, on March 29. 
LONDON, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- A new study showed the cost-of-living crisis facing the United Kingdom (UK) is disproportionately affecting ethnic minority workers, with them at a greater risk of redundancies, debt, and poor mental health, The Independent reported on Tuesday.

Among professionals surveyed from Black, Asian, mixed race and minority ethnic backgrounds, 52 percent said government support will not see them through the next six months, 7 percentage points higher than their white counterparts, according to research published by the non-profit organization People Like Us.

Financial concerns are causing them to dip into savings at a greater rate, with ethnic minority professionals' savings declining faster than their white colleagues, the study revealed.

Redundancy worries are also worse for workers from Black, Asian, mixed race and minority ethnic backgrounds, with 41 percent worried that they will lose their job in the wake of increased costs, compared to 27 percent of those from a white British background.

Such concerns have caused over half of the workers from a racially diverse background to feel despair about rising costs, the study added. 
President of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies Fernand Etgen (R) and Chinese Ambassador to Luxembourg Hua Ning attend the inauguration ceremony of the China Culture Center in Luxembourg, Nov. 8, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Luxembourg was inaugurated here Tuesday in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

LUXEMBOURG, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The China Cultural Center in Luxembourg (CCCL) was inaugurated here Tuesday in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Luxembourg Hua Ning and President of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies Fernand Etgen were present at the center's inauguration.

Hua said the center, unveiled after three years of hard work against the difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, will leave yet another mark in the history of friendly exchanges between the two countries.

It will become a new window for friends in Luxembourg to understand the Chinese culture and carry out exchanges and interactions, he said.

Etgen hailed the centre as a venue for people to meet and exchange ideas, to discover the rich and fascinating Chinese culture, and to travel through China and its centuries of history.

On the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony was the opening of a photo exhibition, which tells the history of the development of bilateral ties, as well as the cooperation between the two countries in diverse fields including economy, trade, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

China and Luxembourg established diplomatic relations on Nov. 16, 1972. 

People visit a photo show at the China Culture Center in Luxembourg, Nov. 8, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Luxembourg was inaugurated here Tuesday in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

President of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies Fernand Etgen addresses the inauguration ceremony of the China Culture Center in Luxembourg, Nov. 8, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Luxembourg was inaugurated here Tuesday in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Chinese Ambassador to Luxembourg Hua Ning addresses the inauguration ceremony of the China Culture Center in Luxembourg, Nov. 8, 2022. The China Cultural Center in Luxembourg was inaugurated here Tuesday in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)
HELSINKI, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish government said on Wednesday it has expanded the provision of state-funded COVID-19 booster vaccines and will let municipalities decide whether to offer booster shots to people of all ages.

The booster shots, voluntary and free of charge, can be recommended by a public or private healthcare institution, or a general practitioner, said Krista Kiuru, minister for basic services and family matters.

"The protective effect of all COVID-19 vaccines is good against serious coronavirus disease," she said at a press conference, adding that vaccinations can effectively reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and severe cases, prevent hospital overcrowding and avoid lockdowns.

According to Kiuru, the Finnish government will cover the cost of the vaccination and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM) will give detailed instructions on the vaccination practice later in the fall.

STM official Taneli Puumalainen said his ministry had proposed the expansion of booster vaccination in order to protect more people from COVID-19. 
NEW YORK, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices fell on Tuesday as market participants awaited data on U.S. fuel stockpiles.

The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery lost 2.88 U.S. dollars, or 3.1 percent, to settle at 88.91 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery decreased 2.56 dollars, or 2.6 percent, to close at 95.36 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Traders continued to assess the prospects for energy demand in the backdrop of major central banks' policy tightening.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly petroleum status report on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights expect the report to show a decline of 0.7 million barrels in U.S. crude supplies during the week ending Nov. 4. 
Ukrainian intelligence names countries assisting Russias full-scale war 9 November, 06:05 PM Vadym Skibitsky (Photo:General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine via Facebook)

Russia appealed to a number of nations to assist in their full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Vadym Skibitsky said in an interview with Italian publication La Repubblica, published on Oct. 31.

The regime of dictator Vladimir Putin approached Iran, China, and North Korea, with requests for arms and equipment, the spokesperson said. In addition, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are assisting Russian companies avoid Western sanctions, he added.

Read also: North Korea making winter uniforms for Russian soldiers in Ukraine

"They also appealed to China and North Korea, possibly to Kyrgyzstan, for the supply of weapons, in particular, ammunition for MLRS  Smerch and Uragan, he stated.

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There are countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that help Russia circumvent sanctions by selling them American and Japanese civilian components needed to construct rockets.

The intelligence official noted that the Russians do not have the cutting-edge weapons that they demonstrate at military parades.

"This is just make-believe, added Skibitsky.

Moscow cannot produce high-tech weapons on its own, so it turns to other countries.

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Lithuania to host 2023 NATO summit, says Stoltenberg 9 November, 02:05 PM The next NATO summit will be held in Lithuania (Photo:REUTERS/Yves Herman)

The next meeting of NATO heads of state and government will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter on Nov. 9.

I thank our valued ally Lithuania for hosting the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 next year, Stoltenberg tweeted.

This will be an opportunity to further strengthen our alliance, step up support to Ukraine, and address key security matters at this critical time.

NATO heads of state at the last NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on June 29 approved a new Strategic Concept for the alliance, in which they identified Russia as the most significant and direct threat to the allies security.

Video of day

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke before the leaders of NATO countries, calling on the alliance to respond to Russian threats.

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NATOs Stoltenberg impressed by Ukrainian troops training in UK 9 November, 10:34 PM Jens Stoltenberg visited military base in the UK where defenders of Ukraine are trained (Photo:REUTERS/Chris Radburn)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was impressed by professional skills of Ukrainian soldiers currently training in the UK, the alliance said in a message on its website on Nov. 9.

After visiting the Lydd Army Camp military base  where the UK army is helping train Ukrainian troops  Stoltenberg thanked the UK, Canada, Lithuania, and other countries that contribute to the effort. He also noted Londons leading role in helping Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion.

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"...I am impressed with what I saw, said Stoltenberg.

I saw the skills and dedication of the Ukrainian soldiers who are trained here. How much they learn, how much they can achieve in just a few weeks, is inspiring, and I am sure that it will have a great importance at the front in Ukraine."

In September, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that about 5,000 Ukrainian servicemen had already been trained in the UK to effectively fight invading Russian forces. Instructors from Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine, and the UK itself help train Ukrainian defenders.

During a visit to Kyiv in June, then-PM Boris Johnson announced a program for Ukrainian troops that would train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days.

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Russian security official arrives in Iran for negotiations 9 November, 11:45 AM It is not known for certain what exactly Nikolai Patrushev's trip to Iran is connected with (Photo:kremlin.ru)

Russias Secretary of the National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev arrived in Tehran, Iran, on Nov. 8 for negotiations, Iranian state-run outlet Nour News Agency reported on Twitter.

With the official invitation of Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Russia, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening, November 8, the agency tweeted.

Later, this information was confirmed by the Kremlin-controlled media outlets, however, the topic of the discussion is not yet known.

Video of day

At the same time, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Iranian state-run outlet Nour News Agency announced Patrushevs arrival in an English-language tweet, stating Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Shamkhani invited Patrushev and noted that Patrushev will also meet with other high-ranking Iranian political and economic officials to discuss Russo-Iranian cooperation. Nour News Agency is affiliated with the SNSC, it said.

According to ISW analysts, the SNSC likely announced Patrushevs arrival in Iran to highlight the deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran to an international audience (rather than domestically), as well as to implicitly highlight that a high-ranking Russian official turned to Iran for help in Ukraine.

Russian troops are using Iranian suicide drones to attack Ukraines civilian infrastructure.

About 40% of the countrys power plants were damaged due to such attacks, resulting in several regions being forced to introduce blackout schedules.

Despite overwhelming evidence, Moscow continues to deny using Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.

At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted for the first time on Nov. 5 that Tehran had handed over drones to Russia, but claimed that this happened before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

However, evidence from shot-down Iranian drones, which contain components made in February of this year, indicates that Iran probably supplied weapons to Russia after the start of its full-scale invasion and war against Ukraine.

The United States has also refuted Irans claims, and emphasized that Iran transferred drones to Russia in the summer of 2022, and also sent its military specialists to occupied Ukrainian territories to train Russian troops in operating the Iranian-made weapons.

Read also: Iran denies sending military instructors to occupied Crimea

The Washington Post reported on Oct. 16 that Iran has agreed to supply Russia with two types of surface-to-surface missiles  the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar. These short-range ballistic missiles can strike targets up to 300 kilometres and 700 kilometers away respectively, the newspaper reported.

U.S. news channel CNN reported on Nov. 1 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 kamikaze drones.

In turn, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Nov. 8 the United States will vigorously enforce all sanctions on both Russian and Iranian arms trade to make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia.

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Uzbekistan lobbies to lift EU sanctions on Russian oligarch Usmanov  FT 9 November, 02:53 PM Alisher Usmanov (Photo:Wikimedia)

Uzbek authorities are lobbying the European Union to lift sanctions on one of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs Alisher Usmanov, the Financial Times reported on Nov. 9, citing two people familiar with the discussions.

Tashkent is also lobbying the bloc to ease sanctions on Usmanovs sister.

Read also: US slaps new sanctions on Russia for annexation of Ukrainian territories

Usmanov was one of 26 Russians who fell under EU sanctions. Europe claims that Usmanov was one of the "favorite oligarchs" of the Russian president.

Usmanov's sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova, was also sanctioned on the grounds that she was the legal owner of some of the oligarch's assets, including the $600 million superyacht Dilbar.

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According to the newspaper's interlocutors, Tashkent used recent meetings between Uzbek and EU officials to express concerns about the sanctions.

Uzbekistan is also providing legal assistance to Usmanov in possible legal proceedings against Brussels if the bloc rejects requests to lift the restrictions.

Usmanov maintains close ties with Uzbekistan, where he was born. Tashkent argues that sanctions against him, including an asset freeze and travel ban, have limited the billionaire's ability to invest some of his wealth in the country.

Both Usmanov and his sister Ismailova have filed formal appeals against the European sanctions, along with more than a dozen other Russian oligarchs.

According to the FT, the lobbying comes as the European Union seeks to forge closer ties with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries as the region reassesses its relationship with Moscow in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: UK arrests associate of Russian oligarch Deripaska

Any move to lift sanctions against Usmanov and Ismailova would require the unanimous support of all 27 EU members.

A day earlier, German police raided branches of a major Swiss bank linked to Russian oligarch Usmanov.

The searches included private client service units at the head office of UBS in Frankfurt am Main and a branch in Munich.

Read also: Germany to back sanctions against Iran for shipping drones to Russia

German police also confiscated paintings worth EUR 5 million from Usmanovs yacht.

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PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund ("ASGI" or the "Acquiring Fund") adjourned its special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") held on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 to Wednesday, November 23, 2022 at 11:00am eastern time to allow for the solicitation of additional proxies for the Meeting to achieve the requisite quorum.

The August 11, 2022 record date for shareholders entitled to vote at the Meeting remains unchanged. ASGI shareholders who have already voted do not need to take further action. abrdn encourages all shareholders of record of ASGI on August 11, 2022 who have not yet voted to do so as soon as possible.

The Meeting is to approve the issuance of additional common shares of beneficial interest of ASGI in connection with the reorganization of Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc. ("MGU"), which is advised by Delaware Management Company, with and into ASGI (the "Reorganization"). The proposed Reorganization is subject to the receipt of necessary shareholder approvals by each Fund. The stockholders of MGU approved the Reorganization at a special stockholder meeting held on November 9, 2022, subject to the approval of the share issuance proposal by shareholders of ASGI.

The combination of ASGI and MGU will help ensure the viability of the Funds, increasing scale, liquidity and marketability changes that may lead to a tighter discount or a premium to NAV over time. Following the Reorganization, shareholders of ASGI will experience an increase in the assets under management and a reduction in total expense ratio. There are no proposed changes to the current objectives or policies of ASGI as a result of the Reorganization, including ASGI's monthly distribution policies and approach as to the use of leverage. ASGI's Board of Trustees believes that the Reorganization is in the best interest of ASGI's shareholders recognizing the strategic objective of creating scale for the benefit of shareholders.

It is currently expected that the Reorganization will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 subject to (i) approval by the ASGI shareholders of the issuance of shares in connection with the Reorganization, and (ii) the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Additional information regarding the Reorganization was presented in a proxy statement sent to ASGI's shareholders.

Important Information

In the United States, abrdn is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., abrdn Australia Limited, abrdn Asia Limited, Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, abrdn ETFs Advisors LLC and Aberdeen Standard Alternative Funds Limited.

The information in this press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to or in connection with the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

In connection with the proposed combination, ASGI filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") a proxy statement. Shareholders are advised to read the proxy statement because it contains important information about the proposed transaction and related matters. The proxy statement is available for free at the Commission's website www.sec.gov.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Acquiring Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Acquiring Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact Investor.Relations@abrdn.com

https://www.abrdnasgi.com/en-us

For More Information Contact:

abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds

Investor Relations

1-800-522-5465

Investor.Relations@abrdn.com

SOURCE: abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund





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https://www.accesswire.com/724895/abrdn-Global-Infrastructure-Income-Fund-Announces-Adjournment-of-Special-Shareholder-Meeting-Relating-to-Proposed-Acquisition-of-Assets-of-Macquarie-Global-Infrastructure-Total-Return-Fund-Inc




New products announced in luxury brand's annual sustainability report

Alcantara certified 13 years in a row as Carbon Neutral by TUV SUD

MILAN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcantara plans to increase the use of recycled post-consumer polymers in its luxury "Made in Italy" material for the fashion, consumer-electronics and automotive industries, according to the company's annual sustainability report.

Alcantara Logo (PRNewsfoto/Alcantara S.p.A.)

Alcantara Chairman and CEO Andrea Boragno said the company is introducing new material with greater proportions of recycled polymers that could lead to products that rely solely on recycled material within the next three to five years.

The new material is certified to be from 68 percent post-consumer recycled polyester produced in Europe and covered by the RCS (Recycled Claim Standard). The recycled polymers are obtained from waste material to prevent plastic from being sent to landfills, incinerated or discharged into the ocean.

A corporate leader in the implementation of environmental initiatives, Alcantara was certified as Carbon Neutral in 2009. It is the first Italian industrial company and one of the world's first companies to achieve Carbon Neutrality status.

Alcantara's recently issued sustainability report ( https://sustainabilityreport.alcantara.com/ ) notes that its offset emissions amounted to 42,461 tons of CO emissions during the last fiscal year.

Over the past 13 years Alcantara has supported 50 offset projects, including programs involving wind power, solar and hydroelectric in countries such as India, Turkey and Uganda.

The company also was able to avoid 15,272 tons in CO emissions thanks to trigeneration and cogeneration systems in place at its facilities in Italy.

"Sustainability is the most critical issue of our times," Boragno says. "That's why it is a core value deeply rooted in our corporate culture and an important growth driver of our business strategy development."

He adds that Alcantara is a member of the United Nations Global Compact and is committed to advancing the United Nations sustainable development goals.

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Alcantara's cradle to grave approach involves the measurement of all CO emissions at every stage of its product life cycle from raw materials and production processes up to the product's use and end-of-life.

Today the company also provides its automotive customers with specially customized products developed by its Complex Manufacturing Department at Alcantara's production plant in Nera Montoro, Italy. The department provides uniquely branded and customized seating, headliners, floor mats and other products for companies such as Lamborghini, Ford, Maserati, McLaren, Jaguar and Alfa Romeo.

Alcantara, a "Made in Italy" lifestyle brand, was founded in 1972. Today Alcantara can be found on leading brands in a variety of fields, including the auto industry, the world of fashion and accessories, interior design, home decor and consumer- electronics.

Note to Editors: High-resolution photos are available on request.

For further information:

www.alcantara.com

twitter.com/alcantaraspa

facebook.com/alcantara.company

youtube.com/alcantaracompany

instagram.com/alcantara_company

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alcantara-is-increasing-its-use-of-recycled-materials-301673166.html

SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A.
ApartmentLove Inc.

CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ApartmentLove Inc. (CSE: APLV) (ApartmentLove or the Company), a leading provider of online home, apartment, and vacation rental marketing services to owners, renters, and vacationers from around the world is pleased to announce that it has executed an Asset Purchase Agreement (the Purchase Agreement) with an Ontario based internet listing services company (the Seller) to purchase the internet listing services business of the Seller (the "Acquired Business") for a cash purchase price of $940,000, subject to customary working capital adjustments (the Acquisition).



The Canadian rental market remains very active as would-be homeowners are turning away from the unattainably high cost of homeownership in favor of the freedom and flexibility afforded to renters, said Trevor Davidson  President & CEO of ApartmentLove Inc. Mr. Davidson added, the Acquired Business has been at the forefront of the Canadian listing space and is an especially well-known and celebrated brand in southern Ontario. The acquisition provides us with many new and additional paying customers and their rental listings many of which are in the greater Toronto area (the GTA), the nations most populated region, while also providing hundreds of thousands of new Monthly Active Users (MAUs) greatly expanding the scope and capacity of our Canadian offering.

The Acquisition is expected to close on or about November 30, 2022, subject to completion of customary closing conditions contained in the Purchase Agreement for transactions of this nature. Following the closing of the Acquisition, ApartmentLove expects to retain the existing front-line operating team currently driving the Acquired Business in addition to preserving the domain as a standalone asset under the expanding ApartmentLove Inc. umbrella. Management believes these post-closing procedures will help ensure a smooth transition for all customers, clients, MAUs, and cash flows.

Following the completion of the Acquisition, management believes new and continuous investments in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital marketing, and other advertising and promotional strategies targeting renters in the GTA will restore the Acquired Business top-line sales to pre-pandemic levels and anticipates earning in excess of a 50% EBITDA margin. In the short term, the incremental revenue and net cash generated from the Acquired Business operations will support the Companys recurring cash flows and contribute to managements aim of becoming cash flow positive as quickly as possible.

The Acquisition exemplifies the type and kind of established, scalable, and high-margin business ApartmentLove seeks to acquire while consolidating the deeply fragmented internet listing industry.

About ApartmentLove Inc.

ApartmentLove Inc. (CSE: APLV) is a leading provider of online rental marketing services to property owners, renters, and vacationers in more than 30-countries around the world. Having proven its ability to scale as a fast-growing "PropTech" in todays complex and dynamic market environments, ApartmentLove is actioning its growth through acquisition program  purchasing complementing businesses that have many monthly active users, a history of recurring revenues, positive cashflows, and custom technologies that both accelerate and destress the renting experience while simultaneously advancing its own organic growth strategies in key markets around the world. ApartmentLove Inc. is a publicly traded company with its common shares listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE: APLV).

For more information visit https://apartmentlove.com/investors or contact:

Trevor Davidson

President & CEO

ApartmentLove Inc.

tdavidson@apartmentlove.com

(647) 272-9702

Reader Advisory

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements include but are not limited to the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition and the ability of the Company to realize the benefits of the Acquisition; the Company realizing the benefits of its growth by acquisition mandate; the ability of the Company to become cashflow positive; and the ability of the Company to successfully integrate the Acquired Business. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Risk factors can be found in the Companys continuous disclosure documents which have been filed on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com.

To the extent any forward-looking information in this press release constitutes "future-oriented financial information" or "financial outlooks" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, such information is being provided to demonstrate the anticipated product sales of the Company and the reader is cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose and the reader should not place undue reliance on such future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks. Future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks, as with forward-looking information generally, are, without limitation, based on the assumptions and subject to the risks set out above under the heading "Reader Advisory". The Company's actual financial position and results of operations may differ materially from its managements current expectations and, as a result, the Company's actual revenue may differ materially from the prospective revenue projections provided in this press release. Such information is presented for illustrative purposes only and may not be an indication of the Companys actual financial position or results of operations.

Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) does not have any standardized meaning as prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, and, therefore, is considered a non-IFRS measure and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. ApartmentLove believes the non-IFRS measure of EBITDA, combined with IFRS measures, such as revenue and net income (loss), are useful measures to its shareholders as management relies on such measures to provide insight into future operations. Notwithstanding the foregoing, readers are cautioned, however, that EBITDA should not be construed as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of the Company's financial performance.

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ApartmentLove | the feeling of home




ATHENS, Greece, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This evening in Athens, Arturo Burzio from the United Kingdom representing Scarfes Bar at Rosewood was crowned elit Vodka's Martini Master 2022, as he 'shook off' impressive competition from bartenders representing 9 other countries.

ARTURO BURZIO FROM THE UK, REPRESENTING SCARFS BAR, IS CROWNED THE 2022 ELIT MARTINI MASTER

As a 10-time platinum award-winning vodka and advocate of social responsibility, elit Vodka paired the best bartenders in the industry from 10 countries (United Kingdom, France, Austria, Spain, Italy, Greece, Israel, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Mexico) to bring the perfect sustainable martini to life and unearth the future of the classic cocktail.

The finals, held at two Michelin starred restaurant Delta, saw some of the best bartenders in the world compete in challenges designed to showcase and test their cocktail skills, knowledge and creativity.

Each of the 10 finalists showcased their interpretation of the perfect sustainable martini presented to a panel of esteemed judges, including Ago Perrone of The Connaught Bar, Sandrae Lawrence from Cocktail Lovers, Maserati MSG Racing's Edoardo Mortara, and elit brand ambassador and awards winning bartender Jack Sotti.

Upon winning, Arturo said: "This has been an incredible experience, I can't believe I'm the 2022 elit Martini Master! There were so many amazing drinks it could have been any one of us who won. I'm looking forward to celebrating and excited for the next 12 months."

Damian McKinney, CEO of Stoli Group commented: "All of our finalists showcased incredible talent, initiative and innovation. They truly blew us away with their creativity and craft, but Arturo really nailed the brief. We're delighted to have him become our 2022 elit Martini Master and we're really looking forward to working with them in the year ahead."

To learn more about elit Martini Masters, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @elitvodka and #elitMartiniMasters across social channels. For more information about elit Vodka visit https://elitvodka.com/.

Story continues

About Stoli Group

Stoli Group was established in 2013 and is responsible for the production, management, and distribution of a global spirits and wines portfolio. Mainly known for the Stoli Vodka brand, Stoli Group has expanded to appeal to luxury on-premise and more sophisticated global consumers. Signature brands are: Stoli Vodka, elit Vodka, Bayou Rum, Kentucky Owl, Villa One, Gator Bite Rum Liquers, Cenote Tequila, Tulchan Gin, Se Busca Mezcal and Stoli Group's wine division, Tenute del Mondo. With a presence across a network of more than 176 markets, Stoli Group works with a passionate team of 200 distributors around the world. Headquartered in Luxembourg, Stoli has production facilities in Spain, Italy, Argentina, and the United States, some of which are steeped in history dating back to the early part of the last century.

About elit Vodka

Part of the Stoli Group's brands, elit Vodka is one of the highest-rated white spirits in the world, receiving 10 platinum awards and has been named as the best vodka of the year on 10 occasions by the Beverage Tasting Institute, Chicago, USA.

SOURCE elit Vodka
Winklevoss speaks at a New York State Department of Financial Services virtual currency hearing in the Manhattan borough of New York

(Reuters) - Gemini cofounder Cameron Winklevoss assured investors that the crypto exchange has no exposure to FTX, digital coin FTT and crypto trading platform Alameda, as a liquidity crunch at FTX sparks concerns of another crypto contagion.

FTX, which developed a penchant for bailing out troubled crypto firms, saw investors express concerns about its financial health that led its token FTT to shed another 50% on Wednesday after wiping out 72% a day earlier.

"For the avoidance of doubt, Gemini has no exposure to FTT tokens or Alameda and no material exposure to FTX," Winklevoss wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.

Gemini joins cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc which also pacified investors on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
The rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX exchange has already had a profound impact on the industry. Bankman-Fried is among the most influential political dealers in crypto, and so regulators and politicians will likely notice that the exchange he built has collapsed.

That FTX may (or may not) be bought by Binance, its largest rival and earliest backer, is significant. While Binance has made serious steps towards transparency in recent years, it is also a stand-in for cryptos seeming intransigence.

No one knows, for instance, where Binance is officially located or how wealthy is its founder, Changpeng Zhao. If Binance acquires FTX  preventing a bank run that it helped foment  questions will be raised. Regulators are already hyper-sensitive to monopolistic behavior in tech, and wasnt crypto supposed to provide an alternative model?

If there is one lesson from this ongoing crisis, its the need for transparency. The irony that Bankman-Fried has advocated for reducing financial privacy and abstruse licensing models for crypto should not be lost  SBFs Alameda Research and FTX were tied up in dangerous, unsustainable ways the world is only beginning to understand.

See also: The Story of Sam Bankman-Fried's Backroom Deal With Binance

This is a dynamic situation, to steal Zhaos phrase, and can change by the hour. CoinDesk reached out to a number of regulatory, financial and technological experts for their take on what it all means. In short, whatever happens, the effects will be wide-reaching.

The Blockchain Associations Kristin Smith discusses conversations likely happening on Capitol Hill while former New York State Department of Financial Services regulator Matt Homer breaks down the challenges of global enforcement. Others examine using zero-knowledge proofs to show exchanges are solvent, while some others discuss buying opportunities.

Foreign buyouts

The ultimate meltdown of the internet market [around] 2001 demonstrated a lot of the interconnections that you might not have predicted, which may be at play here in the possible merger.  Whenever there's a question of Chinese investment in a technologically innovative business, a lot of antennas go up. On the one hand, there's no question the Biden administration has been much more aggressive about antitrust enforcement than we've seen. We saw this with the rejection of Penguin Simon Schuster publishing deal.

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[Crypto] is such an immature market that I don't know what the conversations might be inside the FTC [Federal Trading Commission] or inside the Department of Justice. I dont know how traditional antitrust actors would think about a market that is this volatile [and] that is changing this rapidly.

 U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), on CoinDesk TV

The Congress conversation

It's important to remember that Binance.US and FTX.US are not part of this deal. So U.S. retail customers should not at least, at this stage, be caught up in the deal that is being negotiated.

That being said, lawmakers are very much paying attention to this because Sam [Bankman-Fried] has spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C., and does personally know a lot of the policymakers. And so its going to invite a lot of scrutiny into how centralized exchanges should be regulated. Its interesting, because what happened with FTX may not be able to be addressed by U.S. regulation.

Congress is very interested, as we've seen this past year, in finding a way to regulate the spot markets and exchanges registered with the CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] and potentially the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission]. Part of that could mean having some sort of proof of reserves and guidelines around what you're supposed to do with customer deposits.

Theres an expectation with crypto customers when they're keeping their crypto on exchanges that its not being taken and lent out and doing something else, like it would be with a bank. This is going to open up a more robust debate around exchange regulation.

 Kristin Smith, executive director of Blockchain Association, on CoinDesk TV

Regulatory questions

While the FTX story is still unfolding, one of the most important lessons we might eventually take from it is that prudential regulation and supervision matters. Lets break that down. Regulation means rules and requirements. Supervision means ongoing oversight through means such as examinations and reporting. And prudential means safety and soundness, or financial condition.

In contrast to conduct regulators, who care primarily about how you conduct yourself in the marketplace (Are you providing appropriate disclosures? Are you treating customers fairly? etc.), prudential regulators are concerned with the financial health of your company (Are you solvent? Do you have sufficient capital reserves? How susceptible are you to market contagion?).

This type of regulation is especially needed for opaque market actors. And if theres one thing weve learned several times over this year its that the centralized crypto players are a pretty opaque bunch. And theyre global, making the web of lines connecting them to each other difficult to determine.

See also: Does the US Government Have a Monopoly on Trust? | Matt Homer

It turns out that for these types of centralized actors having a regulator examine their books and set capital requirements that are commensurate with the risks posed is pretty important. While theres a lot of talk over which conduct regulator in Washington, D.C., should rule the roost, it seems weve forgotten about a more foundational element of regulation and supervision: ensuring a company is financially sound.

 Matt Homer, venture capitalist, crypto adviser and former NYDFS regulator

Discount what SBF has said

It's incredible how quickly these things can spiral out of control. FTX was the crypto giant offering to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto platforms (like Voyager Digital) and signing loans to other entities (BlockFi) not that long ago, and now they're sinking.

It was hard not to notice how [Binance CEO] CZ really seemed to be hedging things in his tweets:

"we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire FTX."

"we will be conducting a full DD in the coming days."

"This is a highly dynamic situation, and we are assessing the situation in real time. Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time."

I'm giving it decent odds that the deal doesn't go through, or that Binance threatens to pull out if they're not given very friendly terms. It's remarkable, again and again, how crypto personalities like SBF will claim that everything is fine up until the very second they have to admit it isn't. I think it's because so much of crypto is dependent on the belief that things are going well  as evidenced by the fact that FTX was floating along for quite some time with this overinflated balance sheet until it suddenly became apparent to the public that things were not OK behind the scenes.

Sam's last tweet before the acquisition deal announcement was him saying "A competitor [Binance] is trying to go after us with false rumors. FTX is fine. Assets are fine." It's all very reminiscent of Do Kwon's tweets as Terra was collapsing all around him. "So, is this $UST depeg in the room with us right now?" "Deploying more capital - steady lads"

I'm curious what will happen to Alameda, which as far as I can tell is not included in the Binance deal. They are almost certainly in trouble, and the cascading effects from [the hedge funds] insolvency could be massive. I am also curious what effect this will have on crypto legislation. SBF has spent a lot of time in D.C. schmoozing with lawmakers and giving recommendations on possible crypto regulation, acting as the "adult in the room" and the liaison from the crypto industry.

If I was those legislators, I would be questioning a lot of his suggestions after seeing what was happening behind the scenes at FTX that whole time, and it would be another blow to my trust of the crypto industry to see a prominent member of it that I potentially trusted had been on such shaky ground.

 Molly White, crypto skeptic, founder of Web3 Is Going Just Great

Crypto cronyism

Perhaps its time we take seriously the blatant and obvious conflicts of interest that dominate the cryptocurrency industry.

 Bennett Tomlin, co-host of the Crypto Critics' Corner podcast

Privacy-preserving proof of reserves

Exchanges not adequately safeguarding customers deposits has been a recurring theme within crypto. From the early days of Mt. Gox to the recent troubles of FTX (and innumerable events in between), hacks and thefts have occurred leaving consumers holding empty bags.

Transparency and openness have always been the key to operating an exchange. While many exchanges have started the process of providing on-chain proof of reserves, such proofs alone cannot completely solve the problem as exchanges may not necessarily disclose to the public the balances of all their clients.

Even if exchanges redacted private customer information and displayed account balances publicly or, better yet, used secure computing techniques to conceal their clients data but proved the sum of the balances, the skeptic could rightfully say an exchange may not be including all information. This scenario reflects the adage of garbage-in, garbage-out.

 Matthew Niemerg, co-founder at Aleph Zero

On self-custody

Cases like this further emphasize the need for self custody and infrastructure that is built to support decentralization. The near-collapse of FTX also highlights the urgency to hold centralized entities, like [centralized exchanges], accountable for any damage done in such instances.Thats because theyre failing to deliver under its promise to safeguard users' funds. In [decentralized finance] this problem is solved by code. We have self-custody to make sure users arent vulnerable when those in charge are being reckless.

 Paulina Joskow, head of business development at Ramp

Dont conflate DeFi with CeFi

One of the main reasons we have regulation is to prevent people from being defrauded before it happens. Without regulation, wed have to rely solely on deterrence by after-the-fact civil and criminal litigation. One inherent problem with this prevention approach, though, is that its an enormous amount of work! In the extreme, its obviously impossible for an agency to check everything and everyone.

The people most likely to mislead the public are also the most likely to mislead regulators, so a dynamic is created wherein do-gooders bear an increasing regulatory burden while the actual targets of regulation simply lie about adhering to the same regulations.

No doubt, FTX is going to increase regulatory scrutiny of crypto. Thats sad, because the best form of prevention is transparency to the public. Crowdsourcing audits is inherently more scalable than a centralized review, and thus decentralized finance (DeFi) is a long-term answer to this core problem of regulation.

Hopefully, regulators will avoid conflating DeFi crypto with CeFi crypto so they dont hamstring the solution to the very problem they are trying to solve.

 Mark Lurie, CEO of Shipyard Software

Never use your own token for collateral

The last year has taught the crypto industry, and those investing in it, some harsh lessons about the future of digital currencies  FTXs troubles only underline them further.

Firstly, never use a token you created as collateral, as FTX, Celsius Network and [Terra] all did. If you create a token, you have to have the cash available behind it for withdrawals. Tether is continually being asked about the assets backing [its stablecoin]. Relatively recently, USDT had 17% of its token redeemed  the cash has to be there instantly.

Secondly, we heard a lot in the run-up to these events about using capital efficiently. The liquidity pressures that ultimately led to the situations at these brokers and lenders means all crypto businesses should have large reserves to draw on and certainly shouldnt rely on borrowing to fund themselves.

Binances acquisition of FTX marks a fulcrum for the digital asset industry. This acquisition may have prevented a black swan event, but will it help the industry in the long term? Consolidation of exchanges may be necessary but, as ever, fewer players means less competition.

See also: Why Is Crypto Tanking: The FTX-Binance Drama Explained

Markets have obviously dropped significantly on the back of the news about FTX, but that was to be expected. You wouldnt rule out further bad news to come. Subsequently, I expect there to be further falls in the value of BTC and ETH, as there will be massive losses from this latest debacle.

 Temple Melville, CEO of Scotcoin

Another great financial crisis

Ill be very happy to see Binance help individual customers avoid losing out from the hubris and bad decisions made by another centralized exchange that positioned itself as a sensible and trustworthy operator.

However, this, like the financial crisis of 2008, demonstrates the need for transparency to ensure that participants in the financial system can make decisions with their eyes open, and for self-custody to ensure that no person or company has to place their assets at risk in order to access financial products and services.

That is the promise and benefit of DeFi, and the reason that DeFi will succeed over the long term.

 Barney Mannerings, co-founder of Vega Protocol

When off-chain activity becomes public

The FTX/Binance situation highlights the risks of poor disclosure. When off-chain activities unexpectedly become public, market participants will be shocked. In other financial markets, intermediaries entrusted with client assets are required to regularly file statements of financial condition, which clarify to customers and counterparties the risks they are assuming when transacting with that party.

In DeFi protocols, these requirements are primarily satisfied by the protocols' in-built transparency. Potential users of these protocols can compare protocol transparency and make informed choices. We believe that eventually, intermediaries such as exchanges, brokers and over-the-counter trading providers will use visibility into their financial condition as a competitive differentiator, independent of any regulatory action or requirement.

 Dan Hoover, director at Castle Funds

The deal is not a win for Binance

It's highly unlikely that Binance will eventually succeed in acquiring FTX. It looks like CZ had a complete victory, but Binance will eventually pay the price for damaging the long-term interests of the industry. The joint statement tells us one fact: FTX has serious liquidity problems or even insolvency, so serious that it can no longer find people willing to save it, and can only turn to the opponents who started this war.

Why would Binance spend money to acquire it? FTX doesn't have a U.S. license (so it's nonsense to acquire FTX to get a regulatory advantage). Acquiring its users or the tech system? Huh. FTX is dead, and its users will naturally choose to go to Binance regardless.

Acquiring FTX isn't a valuable trade, and CZ's goal is already achieved. Even if Binance buys FTX, it's damaging to the industry and a humiliation to decentralization. For Binance, it might be a short term victory written into a case study, but will backfire Binance in the long term.

 Gracy Chen, managing director of Bitget

How to ensure long-term stability

Liquidity and access to capital is the foundation of a financial ecosystem. Every investor and every innovator who is banking on cryptocurrencies needs to feel secure that there are trustworthy on and off-ramps. We are encouraged by this preemptive move by two titans in the industry to ensure ongoing stability for further, stable innovation.

 Anna Becker, CEO of EndoTech

Another point for Bitcoin

FTXs overnight implosion and subsequent forced acquisition by Binance highlights the danger of highly centralized, opaque operations that continue to govern the crypto ecosystem.

Crypto has the potential to change the world in a positive way but will only be able to unlock its full potential to give everyone in the world access to secure digital money once crypto companies start to consistently uphold strong, transparent business practices. Centralized companies like FTX that have tied their fortunes to coins without proven value will ultimately only wrong their consumers and disadvantage themselves.

Bitcoin was created to serve as a secure, independent store of value that is not reliant on any one centralized power. Bitcoin thereby solves the problems that countless companies like FTX continue to encounter by relying on their own tokens. We will continue to see this effect in crypto until companies recognize that they cannot secure their or their clients wealth in centralized assets that are ultimately baseless stores of value.

 Alex Adelman, CEO of Lolli

The competitive effect

A deal between Binance and FTX may strengthen the monopoly of certain trading platforms. At the same time, the importance of checking exchange reserves is also clearly being emphasized  this will be a top-of-mind topic at least in the nearest month. As a result, weaker players will leave the competition.

 Serhii Zhdanov, CEO of EXMO.com
A watchdog group has said Elon Musk's Twitter took little action against election posts they flagged, per Reuters. Alex Kantrowitz

A watchdog group has said Musk's Twitter took no action against election posts they flagged.

The group said tweets by some Republican politicians should have included a warning under Twitter's current policy.

Elon Musk has said there have been no changes to content moderation on the platform since he took over.

A watchdog group has said Elon Musk's Twitter took little action against high-profile election posts they flagged as problematic, Reuters reported.

Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that monitors social media for voter suppression, told Reuters that posts from some Republican candidates should have included warning labels under Twitter's current policy.

False claims and conspiracy theories have already been emerging around Maricopa County in Arizona, where voting machines experienced a "technical glitch" that led to some votes not being correctly tabulated, CNN reported. Some people took to social media to blame Democrats for the technical difficulties.

Common Cause said tweets by candidates such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also publicized the glitch on Twitter, should have been marked with a warning under Twitter's civic integrity policy, per Reuters.

The watchdog also told the news outlet that Twitter's response time had decreased since mass layoffs last Friday saw 50% of staff axed.

The group said Twitter's response time used to be around one to three hours, but now the company was "hopeless" and "going dark on it for days."

There has been concern over how Musk's Twitter will approach content moderation. The self-proclaimed "free-speech absolutist" has already seen some advertisers turn away from the platform over fears of loosening content moderation.

Musk and Twitter's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth have both said there were no changes made to Twitter's content moderation before the midterms. Along with a link to Twitter's current rules, Musk tweeted: "Twitter rules will evolve over time, but they're currently the following."

Twitter's communication team did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- Scientists say reducing emissions of methane, which has 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere, is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to cool the planet. For the first nine days of COP27, Bloomberg Green published new satellite images of methane releases around the world, provided by emissions monitoring firm GHGSat Inc. The Montreal-based firm excluded data under contract to its customers  companies, governments and institutions looking to monitor emissions  from examples provided to Bloomberg.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Near Amman, Jordan, Nov. 10, 1:58 pm local time

A methane plume was spotted near Jordans capital of Amman. GHGSat attributed the plume to the waste sector and estimated its emissions rate at 4,876 kilograms an hour.

Garbage and landfills can generate the potent greenhouse gas when organic material such as food scraps break down in the absence of oxygen. Landfills and wastewater are responsible for about 20% of the methane emissions generated from human activity, and failing to curb releases from the sector could derail global climate goals.

Jordans Ministry of Environment didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Near Lahore, Pakistan, Nov. 10, 1:35 pm local time

The growth of South Asian megacities has spawned regional methane hotspots linked to landfills. GHGSat attributed the latest observation, outside of Lahore, to the waste sector and estimated the plumes emissions rate at 1,403 kilograms per hour.

The source of emissions in South Asia observed by satellite are different from major emitters such as the US or Russia, where the lions share of releases are linked to oil, gas and coal operations. Last year, more than half of all methane emissions measured globally from landfills by GHGSat were in Asia.

Story continues

Read more: The Trash Mountains of South Asia That Threaten the Climate

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency didnt immediately respond to an email sent outside normal business hours over the weekend. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Climate Change acknowledged a WhatsApp message seeking comment but did not immediately provide one. Diverting food scraps and other organics before they enter a landfill is crucial to limiting future emissions. The impact of legacy dumps can be mitigated through aerating piles of trash and gas capture systems.

Eastern Turkmenistan, Nov. 10, 2:21 pm local time

A large methane cloud has been observed in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, a global hotspot for the potent greenhouse gas. GHGSat attributed the plume to the nations oil and gas sector and estimated the emissions rate at about 8,501 kilograms per hour.

Turkmenistan has the worlds fourth largest natural gas reserves and offers one of the biggest global opportunities to cut back on leaks of methane. Earlier this year, researchers identified 29 pieces of oil and gas infrastructure spewing enough methane each year to rival the annual emissions from all the cars in the US state of Alabama. The report found that the releases were mostly the result of poorly maintained or leaky equipment  and largely avoidable.

Read more: Asia's Secretive Gas Dictatorship Hides a Climate Catastrophe

The countrys fossil fuel production is dominated by two state-owned companies, Turkmennebit and Turkmengaz. Neither company, nor its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, immediately responded to emails requesting comment outside of normal business hours over the weekend.

Methane emissions are routinely observed in Turkmenistans western Caspian basin leaking from old Soviet infrastructure, and in the nations east, which is home to the large Galkynysh gas field, and where China National Petroleum Corp. has built new infrastructure to ship the fossil gas to the worlds most populous country.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas and responsible for about 30% of the Earths warming. Turkmenistan has so far declined to join the Global Methane Pledgee, a group of more than 120 countries that are aiming to cut releases of the gas 30% by the end of this decade from 2020 levels.

Quebec, Canada, Nov. 9, 1:36 pm local time

A cloud of methane was observed near a suburb of Montreal that GHGSat attributed to the waste sector. The satellite company estimated an emissions rate for the plume of 1,185 kilograms per hour.

Environment and Climate Change Canada spokesperson Cecelia Parsons said in an emailed statement that as part of the countrys 2030 emissions reduction goals Canada is developing new regulations to increase the number of landfills that collect and treat their methane. A spokesperson for Quebecs ministry of environment also acknowledged a request for comment.

The release offers yet another disconnect between Canadas climate ambitions and its emissions. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pitched the country as a global environmental leader but the nations methane and carbon dioxide releases have climbed more than any other G-7 country, relative to a 1990 baseline, according to European Commission data through early 2021.

Last month Bloomberg News reported on a methane plume near oil and gas production and pipelines that Canadian regulators said they were unaware of.

Canada was an inaugural member of the Global Methane Pledge that launched in 2021 and now includes more than 120 nations that are aiming to slash global emissions of the gas from all sectors at least 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade. This fall, Canada announced it is aiming to reduce methane emissions more than 35% from 2020 levels by 2030. Environment minister Steven Guilbeault has said the country is on track to cut methane emissions more than 40% by 2025, relative to a 2012 baseline.

Read more: A Methane Cloud Highlights Cracks in Canadas Climate Ambitions

Diverting food scraps and other organics before they enter a landfill is crucial to limiting future emissions. The impact of legacy dumps can be mitigated through aerating piles of trash and gas capture systems.

Pszczyna County, Poland, Nov. 8, 1:25 pm local time

Two distinct methane plumes were observed in southern Poland near the border with the Czech Republic by a GHGSat satellite on Nov. 8. The emissions monitoring firm attributed the concentrations of methane to the coal sector and estimated the combined rate for the two plumes at 3,410 kilograms per hour.

Polands Ministry of Climate and Environment didnt immediately respond to an emailed request for comment sent outside normal business hours.

Methane can leak from coal mines when sedimentary rocks are crushed or coal seams are exposed. Miners often attempt to drain methane from coal seams before mining the fossil fuel to reduce the risk of explosions and fires. The sector is responsible for about 30% of the total emissions of the potent greenhouse gas coming from the energy sector. Halting intentional venting of methane and accidental leaks from coal mines and oil and gas infrastructure is viewed by scientists as some of the lowest hanging fruit in the fight against climate change.

Both plumes were near Polands KWK Pniowek coal mine, according to Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based non-profit that catalogs global fossil fuel infrastructure. Vents for large underground mines can be several kilometers from where coal is coming is coming out of the ground.

The KWK Pniowek mine was highlighted in a 2015 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Coalbed Methane Outreach Program that works with mines in the U.S. and internationally to encourage the economic use of coal mine methane that is otherwise vented to the atmosphere.

Poland remains heavily reliant on coal for home heating and the country is home to 40 of the 100 cities with the worst air quality in the European Union. The nation has one of the continents highest prevalence of premature deaths linked to contaminated air.

Fars Province, Iran, Nov. 6, 9:25 am local time

A GHGSat satellite observed methane emissions near fossil fuel facilities Nov. 6 in a remote corner of Fars Province, in southern Iran. The emissions monitoring company attributed the plume to the oil and gas sector and estimated methane was spewing at a rate of 795 kilograms an hour at the time of the observation.

Officials with the National Iranian Oil Co., the countrys government-owned oil and natural gas producer, didnt immediately respond to an email sent outside normal business hours.

The emissions occurred near the Arsanjan-Kheirgoo Gas Compressor Station. The sites three compressors help ship as much as 110 million cubic meters of gas a day from the South Pars field 1,050 kilometers (650 miles) north to Tehran and were designed to increase transmission capacity during the winter heating season, according to a promotional video from the site's operating subsidiary Sekafco.

National Iranian Oil spews more methane than any other global energy producer, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor. The non-profit group found that that just 30 fossil fuel companies account for nearly half of the sectors emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas and responsible for about 30% of the Earths warming. Leaks can occur during extraction and transport of the fossil fuel.

The potent greenhouse gas, which has 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere, is also routinely generated as a byproduct of oil or coal production and if operators dont have infrastructure to get the gas to market they may release it into the atmosphere. The International Energy Agency has called for oil and gas operators to halt all non-emergency methane venting.

Near Kirtland, New Mexico, USA, Nov. 6, 1:48 pm local time

A GHGSat satellite observed methane emissions near a coal mine Nov. 6 in New Mexico that the emissions monitoring firm said was coming from a mine vent. The company estimated the release was spewing at a rate of 440.4 kilograms per hour.

Operational coal mines often vent methane to reduce the risk of explosion. Closed or abandoned coal mines can leak methane for years if they aren't properly sealed.

GHGSat said they first detected emissions from the site through a demonstrator satellite in 2016. An official with the New Mexico Environment Department said Westmoreland Mining LLC is the operator of the facility near the plume. An official at Westmoreland didn't immediately respond to a request for comment after normal business hours.Matthew Maez, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department said that fugitive emissions from coal mines are not subject to the departments air quality rules.

Near Lucknow, India, Nov. 5, 1:28 pm local time

The satellite image was taken on Nov. 5 and shows a plume of methane that GHGSat attributed to a landfill in India. The estimated emissions rate was 1,328 kilograms per hour of methane. Landfills tend to be persistent emitters, according to the Montreal-based company.

The detection highlights how waste is triggering some of the worlds strongest and most persistent methane emissions.

In India, more than 60% of waste is composed of organics that often originate from markets where vegetables, meat and poultry and other food are sold, according to the non-profit group Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, known as GAIA. Prime Minister Narendra Modis Clean India campaign aims to spend 41.52 billion rupees ($519 million) to clean up legacy waste at landfills in more than 600 cities by 2026.

Near Daqing, China, Nov. 4 at 1:15pm local time

On Nov. 4 a satellite identified six methane releases in northeast China near the Daqing oilfield, according to GHGSat. Estimated emissions rates ranged between 446 and 884 kilograms per hour and the cumulative rate was 4,477 kilograms an hour. If the releases lasted for an hour at that rate they would have the same short-term climate impact as the annual emissions from about 81 US cars.

 Read more: Countries Set to Bolster Global Methane Pledge at Climate Summit

The detections highlight the rapidly expanding ability of satellites to identify and track methane almost anywhere in the world that is driving a new era of climate transparency in which greenhouse gases will be quantified and attributed in near real-time to individual assets and companies.

More companies and institutions are launching multi-spectral satellites that can detect methanes unique signature. GHGSat has six satellites in orbit now dedicated to monitoring industrial methane and aims to launch another five by the end of next year. US non-profit Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch its MethaneSAT in 2023 and a consortium including Carbon Mapper, the state of California, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Planet Labs expects to launch two satellites next year.

In 2021, concentrations of methane in the atmosphere had the biggest year-on-year jump since measurements began four decades ago, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

(Clarifies data provided to Bloomberg and adds Canada regulator comment.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Hello again, tech fans. Writing to you from New York, I'm your host, Jordan Parker Erb. First things first: results from the 2022 midterm elections are still coming in  follow Insider's live coverage here.

But in the tech world: There's one thing we can't seem to escape  layoffs. This morning Meta announced it will lay off more than 11,000 employees. Salesforce is reportedly planning to cut as many as 2,500 jobs. Elon Musk's Twitter is asking some laid-off workers if they want to come back.

Meanwhile, some tech workers who have been laid off are taking to TikTok to post "get ready with me" videos wherein they film themselves  you guessed it  getting ready to be laid off.

Therapists recently told us that using TikTok to grieve a relationship may actually be helpful, which makes me think that posting GRWMs may be the hottest new trend in coping with layoffs.

With all the heavy news this week, today's newsletter is a bit of a doozy. Hang in there.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta.

Alex Wong/Getty Images; Rachel Mendelson/Insider

1. Few departments will be spared in Meta's layoffs. Facing slowing growth and a shareholder rebellion, Facebook has responded with plans to slash staff  and even Mark Zuckerberg's beloved metaverse division is expected to feel the heat.

Meta said Wednesday it plans to lay off more than 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce. Read the memo Mark Zuckerberg sent to employees.

According to people familiar with the company, divisions including marketing, partnerships, HR, and engineering will be among the hardest hit.

Some employees from Reality Labs, the division responsible for the company's metaverse efforts  which one person described as "Mark's baby"  will likely lose their jobs, these people said.

Everything we know about layoffs at Facebook.

In other news:

This is a photo of Sam Bankman-Fried looking to the side.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of crypto exchange FTX.Tom Williams/Getty Images

2. Crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his fortune overnight, marking the biggest one-day wealth collapse among billionaires on record. His crypto-exchange platform, FTX, was seemingly on the verge of collapse before Binance agreed to buy it on Tuesday  days after he and the founder of Binance into a very public spat on Twitter. Here's how SBF and FTX got here.

Story continues

3. Elon Musk is looking to rehire Twitter workers. Internal messages viewed by Insider show that managers and directors who survived last week's mass layoffs were informed they "had the opportunity" to ask people who lost their jobs "if they will come back." What we learned from the internal messages.

4. Prime members are complaining that Amazon Music is "unusable." Amazon Music recently added 98 million songs to the platform, but Prime members can only play individual songs if they upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited for $9 a month  and some are taking to social media to criticize the update. Why Prime members are so frustrated.

5. Carvana was hailed as a pandemic era success story. Now its fortunes have soured. Over the last year, 98% of the company's market value has evaporated. So what gives? The online used-car retailer chalks it up to a challenging economy and slowing demand. Get the details here.

6. VCs share their best advice for startup founders. As the tech industry heads for a historic slump and thousands of workers lose their jobs, investors from 7wire, Interplay, and Menlo shared what founders should do to withstand the downturn. Read their advice here.

7. Elizabeth Holmes faces sentencing in a matter of days. The Theranos founder has been denied three requests seeking a new trial. She faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the four counts on which she was convicted. Get the latest here.

8. Google is quietly working on a wearable device for preteens. Internally code-named "Project Eleven," the wearable is designed to help older kids form healthy relationships with their phones and social media, employees told us. Everything we know about Project Eleven.

Odds and ends:

The Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 (top) and Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo.

The Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 (top) and Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo.Tim Levin/Insider

9. We put two EVs from Porsche and Mercedes head to head. Insider's transportation reporter tested out two six-figure cars  the Porsche Taycan and the Mercedes EQS  and shares which one he'd buy, and why. Read his decision here.

10. The founder of Oculus said he created a VR headset that kills users in real life if they die in a video game. Palmer Luckey, who was later fired by Facebook, said he's always been fascinated by "the idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar," upping the stakes of losing in video games to a startling degree.

What we're watching today:

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Lisa Ryan (tweet @lisarya) in New York and Shona Ghosh (tweet @shonaghosh) in London.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Fortune Business Insights

Companies covered in flat steel market are ArcelorMittal (Luxembourg), NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION (Japan), Ezz Steel (Egypt), Tata Steel (India), HBIS Group (China), Voestalpine Group (Austria), ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (Germany), Metals USA (U.S.), POSCO (South Korea), Yieh Corp. (Taiwan), and more players profiled.

Pune, India, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global flat steel market size was valued at USD 504.46 billion in 2021. The market is expected to grow from USD 526.89 billion in 2022 to USD 783.71 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period. Increasing adoption of flat steel from several industries is expected to enhance market growth. Fortune Business Insights shares this information in its report titled Flat Steel Market, 2022-2029.

COVID-19 Impact

Disruptions in Supply Chain Hindered the Materials Sales During the Pandemic

This market was negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic due to disruptions in supply chain. The alarming spike in COVID-19 infections resulted in stringent restrictions on manufacturing and mining activities, thereby hindering material sales. Furthermore, the restrictions imposed on transport and travel resulted in a substantial shortage of raw materials, thereby hampering the markets progress. However, lockdown relaxations allowed major players to enhance their operations, balance costs, and boost sales.

Get a Sample Copy of the Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/flat-steel-market-102911

List of Key Players Profiled in the Report

ArcelorMittal (Luxembourg)

NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION (Japan)

Ezz Steel (Egypt)

Tata Steel (India)

HBIS Group (China)

Voestalpine Group (Austria)

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (Germany)

Metals USA (U.S.)

POSCO (South Korea)

Yieh Corp. (Taiwan)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2022-2029 Forecast CAGR 5.8% 2029 Value Projection USD 783.71 Billion Base Year 2021 Flat Steel Market Size in 2021 USD 504.46 Billion Historical Data 2018-2020 No. of Pages 300 Segments Covered By Type, By Application and Regional Flat Steel Market Growth Drivers Construction Segment to Lead Attributable to Rising Flat Steel Demand Rising Applications in Construction Sector to Facilitate Market Growth

Segments

HRC Segment to Dominate the Market Attributable to Increasing Equipment and Machinery Applications

By type, the market is segmented into Hot Rolled Coil (HRC), Cold Rolled Coil (CRC), sheets, and others. The HRC segment is expected to dominate due to its rising equipment and machinery applications.

Story continues

Construction Segment to Lead Attributable to Rising Flat Steel Demand

Based on application, the market is classified into construction, automotive & transportation, mechanical equipment, and others. The construction segment is expected to lead due to rising flat steel applications in the construction industry.

Regionally, the market is studied across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Inquire Before Buying This Research Report:



https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/queries/flat-steel-market-102911

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.

Drivers and Restraints

Rising Applications in Construction Sector to Facilitate Market Growth

Flat steel is made using iron ore, scrap steel, and coal and enhances end product's quality. Increasing application in the construction sector is expected to enhance the demand for the material. Furthermore, rising demand for strong-quality materials from the construction sector is expected to enhance the adoption of the product. Moreover, the emergence of several construction programs is likely to elevate the product adoption. Also, rising innovation in the construction industry is expected to boost this industrys progress. These factors may drive the flat steel market growth.

However, fluctuation in steel prices is expected to hamper the markets growth.

Regional Insights

Rapid Industrialization to Fuel Market Growth in Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the flat steel market share due to rising technological advancements in steel. The market in Asia Pacific stood at USD 255.81 billion in 2021 and is expected to gain a huge portion of the global market share in the coming years. Furthermore, the increasing consumption of consumer goods metal products and mechanical products is expected to foster the industrys growth.

In Europe, strong demand for the product from the automotive industry is likely to elevate the markets progress. Furthermore, increasing steel sheets and HRC adoption is expected to elevate this industrys progress.

In North America, the rising demand for CRC from engineering and electronic applications is expected to elevate the industrys growth prospects. Also, its greater strength and temperature-resistant characteristics are expected to enhance the industrys progress.

Competitive Landscape

Major Players Invest in Crucial Strategies to Enhance their Brand Image

Prominent companies operating in the market announce crucial strategies to enhance their brand image. For example, ArcelorMittal launched its XCarb initiative to reduce CO2 emissions during steel production and focus on gaining noticeable progress on producing carbon-neutral steel options. Furthermore, major players deploy acquisitions, mergers, partnerships, novel product launches, innovations, research and developments, and industrial automation to enhance their market position and achieve organizational goals.

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:



https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/flat-steel-market-102911

Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Key Emerging Trends  For Major Regions Key Developments: Capacity Expansions, Acquisitions, Partnerships, etc. Latest Technological Advancement Insights on Regulatory Scenario Porters Five Forces Analysis

Qualitative Insights on Impact of COVID-19 on Global Flat Steel Market Supply Chain Analysis & Challenges due to Covid-19 Steps taken by Government / Companies to Overcome this Impact Potential Challenges and Opportunities due to COVID-19 Outbreak

Global Flat Steel Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary By Type (Value and Volume) HRC CRC Sheets Others By Application (Value and Volume) Construction Automotive & Transportation Mechanical Equipment Others By Region (Value and Volume) North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa

North America Flat Steel Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2029 Key Findings / Summary By Type (Value and Volume) HRC CRC Sheets Others By Application (Value and Volume) Construction Automotive & Transportation Mechanical Equipment Others By Country (Value and Volume) U.S By Application (Value and Volume) Construction Automotive & Transportation Mechanical Equipment Others



TOC Continued!

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Stainless Steel Market Estimated to Reach USD 298.85 Million by 2029 | CAGR Excepted to Hit 5.6%

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Galenfeha Inc

West Palm Beach, Florida, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galenfeha, Inc. (OTC: GLFH) has been engaged by New Green Holdings, Inc. to work on several items related to the Hemp growing and sales business. As part of the transaction, the Company has taken a 10% position in New Green Holdings.

New Green Holdings, Inc. plans to cultivate, process and sell Hemp based products throughout the United States by acquiring new and established operations in each division of the process.

The company, New Green Holdings, is headed by Tracy S. Anderson, a serial entrepreneur who has been the main driver of two other corporations in the medical fields. One was successfully sold a number of years ago, and the other is based in Miami, with sales over $70.0 million.  I have been following the progress of the Hemp industry since 2018 and am impressed by the wide range of products that can be developed from CBD to oil and diesel products among many other products, Mr. Anderson stated. He went on to say that: I have assembled a team of professionals that have a passion for the growing and development of hemp products and that will help individuals and the environment.

New Green Holdings has initiated a web-site to begin the process of educating people on the company and the product(s) along with the research devoted to the development of all things HEMP. The website is www.newgreenholdingsinc.com.

Additionally, the company has initiated fundraising activities to provide capital for the companys initiatives.

Galenfeha, Inc. has acquired two other clients, unrelated to Hemp, and will discuss them separately at the appropriate time.

About Galenfeha, Inc.:

We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada. We are a publicly traded company focused on developing and acquiring and consulting businesses that fit into our disruptive DSF business model of Developing, Scaling and Financing synergistic industry-focused business groups. Our focus is on how the adaptation of informational technologies, even in the brick and mortar businesses, can drive scalable growth and innovation. (Website: www.galenfeha.com)

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This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.



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Galenfeha, Inc.

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DUBLIN, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive Regenerative Braking System Market By Vehicle Type, By System, By Propulsion Type: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

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According to this report the automotive regenerative braking system market was valued at $5.66 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $23.2 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 15.5% from 2021 to 2030.

Asia-Pacific dominates the market in terms of revenue, followed by Europe, North America, and LAMEA. China dominated the market 2020. However, Europe is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period, due to technological developments across the region.

The automotive regenerative braking system is a kinetic energy recovery system employed in energy-saving vehicles that recovers the energy lost during braking and then uses this energy to recharge the battery of vehicle. The amount of recoverable energy depends upon vehicle speed & stopping pattern. Furthermore, 5%-10% of transmitted energy can be saved by using a regenerative braking system. Presently, energy recovery systems in vehicles are used in passenger as well as commercial vehicles to improve fuel economy & reduce vehicular emissions. As a result, the need for regenerative braking system market has evolved to develop a better fuel economy, gaining significant growth in the global automotive industry.

In addition, the automotive regenerative braking system market has witnessed significant growth in recent years, owing to adoption of regenerative braking systems in every automobile, increase in sales of electric cars, and proliferation of component manufacturers in Asia-Pacific.

Asia-Pacific held over 75% of the market revenue share in 2020, which was driven by multiple electric vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota, SAIC, BAIC, and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation & Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Furthermore, industry participants expand their production facilities in India, Japan, and China to serve a more extensive consumer base. For instance, in 2021, the AISIN Corporation announced its business expansion plan by 2025 with the investment of 110 billion yen to ensure the target of reducing carbon emissions by developing the economy of EVs with the improvements in electric units, thermal management, cooperative regenerative braking system, and body products. Thus, increase in adoption and implementation of strategies to enhance vehicle efficiency significantly boost the growth of regenerative braking system during the forecast period.

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Factors such as stringent vehicular emission norms & regulations and rise in the number of electric vehicles & EV infrastructure are expected to drive the growth of the automotive regenerative braking system market. However, factors such as increase in overall cost & weight of vehicles and high repair & maintenance costs hinder the market growth. Moreover, technological advancement in the two-wheeler-based regenerative braking system and the adoption of the regenerative braking system in heavy vehicles is expected to provide ample opportunities for the growth of the market across the globe.

Key Market Segments

By Vehicle Type

Two Wheeler

Passenger Car

Commercial Vehicle

By System

Electric

Hydraulics

Others

By Propulsion Type

BEV

HEV

PHEV

By Region

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

U.K.

Germany

France

Netherlands

Norway

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Rest Of Asia Pacific

LAMEA

Latin America

Middle East

Africa

Key Market Players

ADVICS CO. LTD

AISIN Corporation

Continental AG

DENSO CORPORATION

robert bosch gmbh

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Mazda Motor Corporation

faurecia

Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd

Maxwell Technologies

Key Topics Covered:

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CHAPTER 3: MARKET OVERVIEW

CHAPTER 4: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY SYSTEM

CHAPTER 5: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPE

CHAPTER 6: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY PROPULSION TYPE

CHAPTER 7: AUTOMOTIVE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM MARKET, BY REGION

CHAPTER 8: COMPANY LANDSCAPE

CHAPTER 9: COMPANY PROFILES

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rnol3p

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MarketsandMarkets Research Pvt. Ltd.

Chicago, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Electrical Insulation Materials Market size is projected to grow from USD 10.6 billion in 2022 to USD 14.3 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 6.2% between 2022 and 2027, as per the recent study by MarketsandMarkets. Electrical insulation materials are used in electrical systems to prevent unwanted flow of current to the earth from the supporting points. These materials have different properties and thus exhibit unique abilities. Electrical insulation materials prevent or limit the flow of current on their surfaces due to low conductivity. These are useful when safety is to be provided from open electric systems or the flow of current is to be regulated. The rising use of electrical insulation materials owing to high growth in automation in construction industry and rise in sales of electric vehicles (EVs), drives the electrical insulation materials market.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=3599030

Browse In-Depth TOC on "Electrical Insulation Materials Market

218 - Market Data Tables

47 - Figures

198 - Pages

List of Key Players in Electrical Insulation Materials Market:

DuPont (US) Elantas (Germany) Krempel GMBH (Germany) Nitto Denko (Japan) Von Roll (Switzerland) ITW Formex (US) 3M (US) Haysite Reinforced Plastics (US) Vitar (China) Tesa SE (Germany) Teijin DuPont Films (Japan) NGK Insulator (Japan).

Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Challenges in Electrical Insulation Materials Market:

Driver: Growing demand for electric vehicles (EVs) Restraint: Rising number of low-quality grey market products Opportunity: HVDC transmission for long distance transmission lines Challenge: Volatile raw material prices

Key Findings of the Study:

The thermoplastics segment is estimated to lead the electrical insulation materials market during the forecast period. The power systems application is expected to have the fastest growth in the electrical insulation materials market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest market for electrical insulation materials during the forecast period.





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The thermoplastics segment is estimated to lead the electrical insulation materials market during the forecast period.

Based on type, the thermoplastics based electrical insulation materials accounted for the largest market share in 2021 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% in terms of value, during the forecast period. Some of the important thermoplastics are PE, PP, and PVC. These materials are available in different forms - crystalline, amorphous, and semi-crystalline. Due to the rising energy consumption from developing economies such as India and China, the demand for thermoplastics is expanding throughout the Asia Pacific region. The rise in demand for thermoplastics for electrical insulation can also be attributed to their low cost, easy manufacturing process, and availability.

The power systems application is expected to have the fastest growth in the electrical insulation materials market during the forecast period.

Based on application, the power systems segment in the electrical insulation materials market accounted for the fastest growth in 2021 with a CAGR of 6.5%, in terms of value, during the forecast period. This is attributed to the growing demand for electrical insulation materials in power systems such as generators, relays, and power electronics due to the necessity of these materials for the optimum operating efficiency of equipment. Rapid urbanization in emerging economies, modernization of aging electricity infrastructure in developed economies, and growing population are also leading to the high demand for electrical insulation materials.

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Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest market for electrical insulation materials during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific leads the overall electrical insulation materials market in terms of both value and volume, followed by North America and Europe. The increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and the availability of low-cost raw materials and labor, coupled with increasing domestic demand, makes Asia Pacific an attractive investment destination for electrical insulation materials manufacturers. These are some of the factors expected to drive the electrical insulation materials market in this region.

Browse Adjacent Markets Foam and Insulation Market Research Reports & Consulting

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CONTACT: 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. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarketss flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com




Bonafide Research & Marketing Pvt. Ltd.

Supportive government policies, growing adoption of renewable energy, smart city projects, real time usage readings and innovation in technology are driving the global smart meter market.

Clifton, New Jersey, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The report published by Bonafide Research, "Global Smart Meter Market Outlook, 2027", reveals that the smart electric metre market contributes over 55% of the market share in 2021. High investments in digital electricity infrastructure and the varied connectivity technologies used by smart electric metres are fuelling the growth. The installation of smart electric metres in residential areas helps in reducing the dependence on fossil fuels as it enables consumers to monitor, regularize, and reduce their consumption from the grid, generators, and solar installations. Because Asia-Pacific is the world's most populous region, there is a high demand for electricity.The rise in investments in smart grid technologies and smart cities, the increase in the number of data centres, and a surge in IT hubs and commercial institutions drive the smart electric metre market in the region.

Drivers and Challenges

Smart metres provide reduced metre reading costs, prevent disconnection, improve efficient metre readings, and wave-off reconnection costs to both the utility provider and end user. Utility providers' large-scale installations have strengthened the distribution network of smart meters. Additionally, governments' focus on reducing AT & C losses in power grids to reduce carbon emissions is likely to drive the market ahead. The complex metre design demands highly skilled manpower to resolve minor issues. The large volumes of consumer data collected by smart metres have to be safeguarded against antisocial elements. The rising adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles by consumers is further expected to create demand for smart meters. Integration of AI and machine learning technologies into smart metres would offer lucrative demand. Maintenance, integrity, and dependency on reliable connections to achieve highly accurate data are key challenges faced by smart metering systems.

Key Takeaways

Global Smart Meter Market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 8.71% during the forecast period 2022-2027.

In 2021, Residential users constitute over 80% market share.

The Asia-Pacific region dominates the global smart meters market with more than 38% in 2021.

The top five companies in the smart meter market have captured nearly 25% of the market.

The Software & Services segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.41% in the forecast period.

The Cellular Technology is expected to reach a market share of over 37% by the end of the forecast period 2027.

The industrial sector is expected to grow over the forecast period.

Opportunities & Restraints

Increased investment interest in the digitalization of electrical systems and efforts to expand grid infrastructures are expected to create growth opportunities for the smart electricity metre market. An increase in electricity demand from commercial and residential sectors also provides opportunities for the market's growth. The restraints to the smart metre market are the high cost of the initial instalment to be borne by end users, data privacy, and high capital investment by utilities to set up smart metres to replace traditional meters. However, automatic metre reading with real-time usage monitoring and bill generation is expected to fuel market growth over the forecast period. In the forecast period, smart metre deployments in developing economies are expected to provide lucrative opportunities for market participants.

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Covid-19 effect: The pandemic has adverse effects on industries related to the smart metre market as the industry comes under non-essential businesses. The imposition of lockdowns resulted in delayed start-ups for power distribution systems across the globe. The shipments and installations of smart metres also witnessed a downfall. Companies and governments postponed their power infrastructure plans and investments. However, it has shifted to contactless and remote metering solutions with enhanced investments. Reduced infrastructure development investment and a low return on investment delayed smart metering.During the pandemic, the demand for smart electric metres decreased. There was limited supply of smart metres as the manufacturers faced supply problems owing to halted production. Consequently, the manufacturing and supply of smart metres is returning to normal levels. Several manufacturers have started to witness a recovery in sales.

The smart meter's main advantages include the detection of any leaks in the supply; continuous monitoring of the electricity, gas, and water flow; and detection of any theft in the supply. Smart metres also assist in the elimination of manual monthly metre readings and the optimization of profit with existing resources. Smart meter adoption reduces blackouts and failures of utility systems and helps achieve carbon neutrality.

By component, software and services are expected to grow rapidly over the forecast period. The software and cloud computing revolution has resulted in massive growth for smart devices, making smart metering systems an absolute requirement.Improved communication between consumers and service utilities, vast data management with multiple users, smart payment options using mobile phones, and increased billing transparency are propelling market growth.

By communication type, the cellular segment is expected to lead the market growth with large scale applications. GPRS, 3G, or 4G networks are used for quick service, low investment costs, and good performance. Since this is wireless technology, it can be easily used in remote areas across small towns and villages. The key factors driving this technology are: no maintenance costs for communication networks; data transmission is faster; and good network reach.

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By technology, AMI leads the market with over 60% as it enables the gathering and transfer of energy and utility usage information in near real-time. The main distinction between the two technologies is the two modes of communication.The new roll out plans are mainly of AMI metre technology to maintain transparency between the utility provider and the end user with precise readings. AMR technology metres are being replaced by AMI technology rapidly by reducing equipment and maintenance costs, as thefts can be detected easily and power outages can be restored more quickly.

By end-user, the residential sector accounted for the largest share of the smart metre market. This is driven by the increased use of smart home appliances in residential buildings. Smart metres help in integrating distributed energy resources, energy storage technologies, and EV charging facilities. In the future, the commercial sector is rapidly replacing smart metres for efficient electricity usage and renewable energy integration into the grid. While the industrial sector is expected to replace existing metres for effective load management and forecasting and reduce energy thefts.

Regions covered

The Asia Pacific smart meter market dominates the smart metre market and is expected to continue its position over the forecast period due to government mandates, higher investments towards the digitization of grids and public-private partnerships. China is expected to be a leader with a value of USD 7 billion by 2027. APAC has a huge population and corresponding electricity demands, as well as significant numbers of unauthorised electricity connections. The increase in smart grid investments, demand for power quality, energy efficiency targets, and the reliability of the power system are the prominent factors for the growth of smart electric metering in the region.

The North America region is a very mature market for smart electricity metres and now focuses on smart water metres to reduce wastage or overuse of water. The US is the leading market and is expected to reach USD 6 billion by the end of 2027. The deployment of smart metres in the United States is overseen by individual states and territories rather than the federal government. Providers are rapidly innovating to be at par with smart metre technology. Moreover, the adoption of smart appliances, smart homes, shared mobility, and 3D printing is enabling the growth of smart electric meters.

Increased adoption of energy efficient and low maintenance equipments will be noticeable across healthcare, retail, and hospitality sector which will drive the future Europe Smart Meter Market growth. Germany is expected to reach value of USD 1.23 Billion by 2027. Three phase electric metering systems boosts industry dynamics with sustainable energy systems. Leading companies in the region are likely to invest in AMI technology meters over the forecast period.

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The increasing per capita consumption of electricity is pushing the need for smart meters in the Middle East & Africa region at forecast CAGR of 10.86%. However, the absence of clear governmental policy is dissuading investments in the sector. The region is also witnessing major international players entering the market through various partnerships or mergers and acquisitions to increase their global presence and gain a stronghold in burgeoning markets, like Saudi Arabia. South Africa market is expected to grow to reduce utility debt is driving market for smart meters

The Latin America smart meter market growth is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.07%. The growth can be attributed to operate remote and time based pricing policies of smart meters. Utilities in Brazil have experimented with smart meters ranging from prototypes to multimillion meter deployments. The smart water meter market is still in its infancy stage with no large scale deployments and water shortages and has started with experimental basis.

Considered in this report

Geography: Global

Historic Year: 2016

Base year: 2021

Estimated year: 2022

Forecast year: 2027

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Report Methodology

3. Market Structure

4. Economic /Demographic Snapshot

5. Global Smart Meter Market Outlook

5.1. Market Size By Value

5.2. Market Share

5.2.1. By Region

5.2.2. By Country

5.2.3. By Company

5.2.4. By Type

5.2.5. By End User

5.2.6. By Communication Type

5.2.7. By Phase

5.2.8. By Technology

5.2.9. By Component

6. North America Smart Meter Market Outlook

6.1. Market Size By Value

6.2. Market Share

6.2.1. By Country

6.2.2. By Type

6.2.3. By End User

6.2.4. By Technology

6.3. US Smart Meter Market Outlook

6.3.1. Market Size By Value

6.3.2. Market Share

To be continued..

Market Segmentation Details By Smart Meter Type Electric Meter

Water Meter

Gas Meter By Technology Type AMI

AMR By End-user Type Industrial

Commercial

Residential By Component Hardware

Software & Services By Region North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East By Country US , Canada , Mexico,

United Kingdom , Germany , France, Italy, Spain , Russia ,

China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia,

Brazil , Columbia, Argentina ,

Saudi Arabia, UAE , South Africa , By Company Itron Inc.

Landis+Gyr

Sensus (Xylem Inc.)

Schneider Electric

Siemens AG

Smart Energy (Honeywell International Inc.)

Kamstrup A/S

Badger meter, inc.

Wasion Holdings Limited Company profile of other Players Osaki Electric Co. (Edmi),

Holley Technology Ltd,

ZPA Smart Energy,

Secure Meter Limited,

Xemex,

EDMI Limited,

EMH Metering GmbH & Co. KG,

Neptune Technology Group Inc.,

Shenzhen Kaifa Technology Co. Ltd.,

Suntront Tech Co.,Ltd.,

Aichi Tokei Denki Co. Ltd.,

Aclara Technologies Llc,

Diehl Stiftung& Co. KG,

Zenner International GmbH & Co. KG. Other Market Details Key Drivers & Key Challenges,

Market Trends and Developments,

Strategic Recommendations

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Related Report:

India Smart Home Market Outlook, 2026 published by Bonafide Research is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 35% during the forecast period.Many households in India now have smart Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home through which they can control their smart home appliances. The market penetration in India is less as compared to other developing nations, owing to the limited connectivity and lower average bandwidth. Furthermore, the lack of standardization of products and components in smart home may lead to failure of the system. The government of India programs such as Make in India, and Digital India are expected to bolster market growth.

Global Smart Agriculture Market is driven by rising pressure on the food supply system owing to a rapidly growing population; surging use of modern technologies in agricultural products; rising income levels and demand for protein-rich aqua food; governmental support; and the growing focus of farmers on livestock monitoring and disease detection. Cultivators across the globe adopt smart agriculture to increase crop yield and better their returns with quality produce. They use LED lighting in spite of increased costs as it is an ideal option in terms of energy efficiency. Increased greenhouse vegetable production has also led to a rise in demand for smart agriculture. Increasing automation of commercial greenhouses and growing implementation of the controlled environment agriculture concept in greenhouses to obtain high yields under optimum growing conditions further propel market growth. Livestock monitoring in real time is another major driving force for the smart agriculture market.

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Bonafide Research is the fastest growing global market research and consulting company, providing syndicated research reports, customised research reports, and consulting services to a range of verticals. They have been closely working with a wide client base ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to small and medium enterprises, helping them track the constantly changing market scenario. Bonafide has continuously made efforts to evolve and enhance the report quality with each passing day. Bonafide Research has a strong base of analysts and consultants from assorted areas of expertise who track the latest economic, demographic, trade, and market data globally and help clients make informed business decisions. They periodically update their market research studies to ensure that their clients get the most recent, relevant, actionable, and valuable information for strategy development and to extract tangible results.





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HRB Tax Group, Inc.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) today announced its Featured Franchisees of the Year at the companys One Team Convention. Every year, the company recognizes the top franchisees for business performance across a series of key metrics, honoring three Featured Franchisees of the Year for their success, community involvement and brand ambassadorship.



Our franchisees resilient and bold behaviors were instrumental to our success in the 2022 tax season, said Bob Moretti, Senior Vice President of Franchise Operations at H&R Block. We are honored to recognize our associates and franchisees who demonstrate a daily commitment to clients, while also giving back to their communities.

H&R Block's Featured Franchisees of the Year, Elite 25 and Top 100 include:

Featured Franchisees of the Year

Mary K. Harris, Illinois

Nathan Cour, Connecticut

Dan Dever & Nikki Sundstedt, California



Elite 25

Bonnie Arnold, Indiana

Vickie Croteau, Maine

Lori Dagenhart, Maryland

James M. Floyd Jr., Georgia

Tran Forbes, Virginia

Roberta Gann, Michigan

Teri Golibart & Jason Rogers, Texas

Dawn M. Grode, Wisconsin

Terri Henson, Texas

Sue L. Kies, Illinois

Joanne Kopanski & Tina Atkinson, North Carolina

Lillie Lecher, Nebraska

Tracy Lee, Colorado

Cathy & Eric Linder, Florida

Amanda Rhoton, Indiana

Karol Saritas, California

Johnnie Smith Jr., Florida

Roger Sorensen, Nebraska

Jason Suchland, Michigan



Top 100

John Alexander Alba, EA CCA, California

Tamara & Dean Ammerman, Kentucky

Keri Amos-Sorenson, Idaho

Mark & Sharlene Bell, Utah

Armando Belmudez, California

Joan Bengford, Iowa

Michael Beovides & Peggy Herrera Beovides, Florida

Kathy J. Bollone & Misty R. Bollone, Michigan

Edward Bonaccorsi II, Massachusetts

Denise Borchard & Tina Candy, Michigan

Athena Bradley, Oklahoma

Maura Breslin, Vermont

Greg Bruley, Minnesota

Charles Buck, Michigan

Kay Cain, Missouri

Becky L. Carney, Tennessee

Laura Corder, Colorado

Sang Chang, CPA & Jongsoon Kim, California

Justin Davidson & Zaneta Davidson, Arkansas

Wanda DeLong, Virginia

Scott Derwick, New York & Pennsylvania

Kim Dorion, Wisconsin

Dawn K. Every & Christy Field, New York

Kim Foister & Cindy Bullington, Georgia

Amie & Rob Fuller, Utah

Paula Geschwind, Michigan

James Gobeli & Jody Gobeli, Iowa

Andrea Gouchenour, Montana

Jennifer Grant & Francis Grant, South Carolina

Debra Gruzosky, Indiana

Fatima Guadri, CPA EA, New York

Dawn Heisler, Minnesota

Debra Henning, Pennsylvania

Eric & Ann Himschoot, Florida

Sheryl Holliday, Ohio

Catherine Hope, Maine

Teresa House, Minnesota

Elizabeth Houston, Indiana

Sybil Keach & Gregory Hanville, Indiana

Birgit Klockmann, Arizona & California

Lisa Knepp, Indiana

Eileen A. Kopaczewski, Wisconsin

Samantha Larney, Kansas

John & Maureen La Rose, Florida

Corey Lee, Minnesota

Deborah Luginbuh, Ohio

Olivia Ly, Massachusetts

Angela Martin, Hometown

Michael Martin & Kelly Holmes, South Carolina

Carlos Martinez, Florida

Karen Mehta, California

Mary Ann Mullen, Missouri

Elizabeth Norris, New Jersey

Lisa Norstrom, Ohio

Kevin Olson, Oregon

Stephen & Claudia Parker, North Carolina

Kathy Raymond, Texas

Jennifer & Travis Reckinger, Kentucky

Rick Renzelman, New Hampshire

Chuck Riggs, Missouri

Keith Robertson & Bliss Ballew, Texas

Cheri Forbis, Kansas

Sue Ann Strobel Sanders, Indiana

Lori Scallon, Iowa

Leo J. Schlangen, Minnesota

Amanda Sells, Iowa

Keith Shearrer, Texas

Roosvelt Simil, Georgia

Rebecca Smith, North Carolina

Mark Sternberg, New Jersey

Paula Strasheim, Nebraska

Aaron Taylor, Utah

Alan Twombly, Oregon

Timothy & Adela Walsleben, Texas

Tonjia Willis, Oklahoma

Chris Wilson, North Carolina & Virginia

Denise Zaharoff & Patrick Zaharoff, Georgia



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About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) provides help and inspires confidence in its clients and communities everywhere through global tax preparation services, financial products, and small-business solutions. The company blends digital innovation with human expertise and care as it helps people get the best outcome at tax time and also be better with money using its mobile banking app, Spruce. Through Block Advisors and Wave, the company helps small-business owners thrive with innovative products like Wave Money, a mobile-first, small-business bank account and bookkeeping solution, that manages bookkeeping automatically. For more information, visit H&R Block News or follow @HRBlockNews on Twitter.

CONTACT: For Further Information Investor Relations: Michaella Gallina, (816) 854-3022, michaella.gallina@hrblock.com Jordyn Eskijian, (816) 854-5674, jordyn.eskijian@hrblock.com Media Relations: Angela Davied, (816) 854-5798, angela.davied@hrblock.com




Imperial Metals Corporation

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Metals Corporation (the Company) (TSX:III) reports financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, as summarized in this news release and discussed in detail in the Managements Discussion & Analysis. The Companys financial results are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The reporting currency of the Company is the Canadian (CDN) Dollar.

QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

FINANCIAL

Total revenue increased to $41.7 million in the September 2022 quarter compared to $37.1 million in the 2021 comparative quarter, an increase of $4.6 million.

In the September 2022 quarter, the Red Chris mine (100% basis) had 4.4 concentrate shipments (2021 - 4.0 concentrate shipments), and Mount Polley mine had 0.3 concentrate shipments (2021- nil concentrate shipments). Variations in revenue are impacted by the timing and quantity of concentrate shipments, metal prices and exchange rates, and period end revaluations of revenue attributed to concentrate shipments where copper and gold prices will settle at a future date.

The London Metals Exchange cash settlement copper price per pound averaged US$3.51 in the September 2022 quarter compared to US$4.25 in the 2021 comparative quarter. London Bullion Market Association, London gold price per troy ounce averaged US$1,729 in the September 2022 quarter compared to US$1,789 in the 2021 comparative quarter. The average US/CDN Dollar exchange rate was 1.306 in the September 2022 quarter, 3.6% higher than the exchange rate of 1.260 in the 2021 comparative quarter. In CDN Dollar terms the average copper price in the September 2022 quarter was CDN$4.59 per pound compared to CDN$5.36 per pound in the 2021 comparative quarter, and the average gold price in the September 2022 quarter was CDN$2,258 per ounce compared to CDN$2,254 per ounce in the 2021 comparative quarter.

A negative revenue revaluation in the September 2022 quarter was $4.6 million as compared to a $0.8 million negative revenue revaluation in the 2021 comparative quarter. Revenue revaluations are the result of the metal price on the settlement date and/or the current period balance sheet date being higher or lower than when the revenue was initially recorded or the metal price at the last balance sheet date and finalization of contained metal as a result of final assays.

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Net loss for the September 2022 quarter was $27.9 million ($0.18 per share) compared to net loss of $3.8 million ($0.03 per share) in the 2021 comparative quarter. The increase in net loss of $24.1 million was primarily due to the following factors:

Mine operations went from an income of $4.9 million in September 2021 to a loss of $9.2 million in September 2022, increasing net loss by $14.1 million.

Mount Polley restart costs went from $1.6 million in September 2021 to $12.2 million in September 2022, increasing net loss by $10.6 million.

Idle mine costs went from $6.2 million in September 2021 to $1.4 million in September 2022, decreasing net loss by $4.8 million.

Interest expenses went from $0.2 million in September 2021 to $2.4 million in September 2022, increasing net loss by $2.2 million.

Capital expenditures including finance leases were $41.2 million in the September 2022 quarter, an increase from $33.8 million in the 2021 comparative quarter. The September 2022 expenditures included $12.2 million in exploration, $15.0 million for tailings dam construction and $14.0 million on stripping costs and other capital.

At September 30, 2022, the Company had not hedged any copper, gold or US/CDN Dollar exchange. Quarterly revenues will fluctuate depending on copper and gold prices, the US/CDN Dollar exchange rate, and the timing of concentrate sales, which is dependent on concentrate production and the availability and scheduling of transportation.

OPERATIONS

The current impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business is described under Significant Events and Liquidity in the Managements Discussion & Analysis. The Companys plans for 2022 and beyond could be adversely impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The continuing impact of COVID-19 could materially and adversely impact the Companys current plans by causing a temporary closure of the Red Chris mine, suspending planned exploration work, causing an economic slowdown resulting in a decrease in the demand for copper and gold, negatively impacting copper and gold prices, impacting the Companys ability to transport or market the Companys concentrate or causing disruptions in the Companys supply chains.

Red Chris Mine

Red Chris metal production (100% basis) for the third quarter of 2022 was 19.2 million pounds copper and 17,512 ounces gold, down by 13% and 10% respectively from the 22.0 million pounds copper and 19,540 ounces gold produced during the second quarter of 2022.

Gold production for the third quarter of 2022 was lower than the second quarter of 2022 due to lower recovery and lower throughput. Recovery is expected to improve in the December 2022 quarter with various improvement initiatives nearing completion including the cleaner column expansion project. Gold head grade was consistent with the second quarter of 2022. Copper production was down by 13% on lower throughput and grade. Mined grades for copper and gold are expected to decrease with mining now complete in Phase 5.

Imperials 30% portion of Red Chris mine third quarter production was 5.8 million pounds copper and 5,254 ounces gold.

Three Months Ended

September 30* Nine Months Ended

September 30* 2022 2021 2022 2021 Ore milled -tonnes 2,465,653 2,543,495 7,067,219 7,199,572 Ore milled per calendar day -tonnes 26,801 27,647 25,887 26,372 Grade % - copper 0.446 0.389 0.449 0.407 Grade g/t - gold 0.391 0.336 0.381 0.365 Recovery % - copper 79.1 79.0 77.9 78.5 Recovery % - gold 56.5 55.6 56.8 55.1 Copper -000s pounds 19,181 17,244 54,497 50,704 Gold -ounces 17,512 15,249 49,140 46,550

* 100% Red Chris mine production

During the third quarter of 2022, there were up to seven diamond drill rigs in operation. A further 20,926 metres of drilling has been completed from 27 drill holes, with all drill holes intersecting mineralization. Approximately 50,000 metres of drilling is planned for the second half of 2022 from eight drill rigs. Two of the rigs are drilling from underground stations along the exploration decline. Drilling from underground will reduce the meterage required to further test the East Ridge and the surface disturbance required to construct drill pads and roads.

Jim Miller-Tait, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration with Imperial Metals, is the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the Red Chris exploration program.

Imperials 30% share of exploration, development, and capital expenditures were $31.2 million in the September 2022 quarter compared to $28.2 million in the 2021 comparative quarter.

Mount Polley Mine

Production at Mount Polley was 2.4 million pounds copper and 5,084 ounces gold for the third quarter of 2022. During this third quarter, 984,814 tonnes were milled. There has been a steady increase in throughput from 7,268 tonnes per day in July to 11,079 tonnes per day in August and 13,868 tonnes per day in September. Further increases in throughput were hampered by the trunnion machining that was required to repair Pebble Mill 3. This work is complete and Pebble Mill 3 was put into operation in early October. All eight mills in the grinding circuit are now operational, and we look forward to increasing the mill throughput.

Exploration, development, and capital expenditures in the September 2022 quarter were $8.1 million compared to $1.3 million in the 2021 comparative quarter.



Huckleberry Mine

Huckleberry operations ceased in August 2016 and the mine remains on care and maintenance status. The Company anticipates working towards the restart of Huckleberry following the start of operations at Mount Polley.

Site personnel continue to focus on maintaining site access, water management (treatment and release of mine contact water into Tahtsa Reach), maintenance of site infrastructure and equipment, mine permit compliance, environmental compliance monitoring and monitoring tailings management facilities.

Geotechnical programs conducted in 2021 have indicated that some work is required to upgrade the existing facility and provided information required to update the tailings facility design for future operations. A program of geotechnical and de-pressurization drilling has been completed and information collected is being assessed.

For the September 2022 quarter, Huckleberry incurred idle mine costs comprised of $1.2 million in operating costs and $0.2 million in depreciation expense.

Exploration, development, and capital expenditures in the September 2022 quarter were $1.8 million compared to $1.8 million in the 2021 comparative quarter.

EARNINGS AND CASH FLOW

Select Quarter Financial Information

expressed in thousands of dollars, except share and per share amounts







Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended September 30 September 30 2022 2021 2022 2021 Operations: Total revenues $41,688 $37,064 $111,197 $104,329 Net loss $(27,943) $(3,772) $(64,143) $(11,389) Net loss per share $(0.18) $(0.03) $(0.44) $(0.09) Diluted loss per share $(0.18) $(0.03) $(0.44) $(0.09) Adjusted net loss (1) $(27,990) $(3,489) $(76,450) $(11,165) Adjusted net loss per share (1) $(0.18) $(0.02) $(0.52) $(0.08) Adjusted EBITDA (1) $(13,035) $8,136 $(49,365) $19,050 Cash earnings (1)(2) $(12,531) $7,780 $(48,992) $18,408 Cash earnings per share (1)(2) $(0.08) $0.06 $(0.33) $0.14 Working capital (deficiency)

deficiency $(70,388) $21,950 $(70,388) $21,950 Total assets $1,271,719 $1,122,484 $1,271,719 $1,122,484 Total debt (including current portion) (3) $145,127 $4,850 $145,127 $4,850 (1) Refer to Non-IFRS Financial Measures for further details. (2) Cash earnings is defined as the cash flow from operations before the net change in non-cash working capital balances, income and mining taxes, and interest paid. Cash earnings per share is defined as cash earnings divided by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the year.

(3) Total debt consists of bankers acceptances, convertible debentures, and equipment leases.

NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES

The Company reports four non-IFRS financial measures: adjusted net loss, adjusted EBITDA, cash earnings and cash cost per pound of copper produced which are described in detail below. The Company believes these measures are useful to investors because they are included in the measures that are used by management in assessing the financial performance of the Company.

Adjusted net loss, adjusted EBITDA, cash earnings and cash cost per pound of copper are not standardized financial measures under IFRS and might not be comparable to similar financial measures disclosed by other issuers.

Adjusted Net Loss and Adjusted Net Loss Per Share

Adjusted net loss is derived from operating net loss by removing the gains or loss, resulting from acquisition and disposal of property, mark to market revaluation of derivative instruments not related to the current period, net of tax, unrealized foreign exchange gains or losses on non-current debt, net of tax and other non-recurring items. Adjusted net loss in the September 2022 quarter was $28.0 million ($0.18 per share) compared to an adjusted net loss of $3.5 million ($0.02 per share) in the 2021 comparative quarter. We believe that the presentation of adjusted net loss helps investors better understand the results of our normal operating activities and the ongoing cash generating potential of our business.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA in the September 2022 quarter was negative $13.0 million compared to positive $8.1 million in the 2021 comparative quarter. We define adjusted EBITDA as net loss before interest expense, taxes, depletion, and depreciation, and as adjusted for certain other items.

We believe that the presentation of adjusted EBITDA is appropriate to provide additional information to investors about certain non-cash items and is useful to investors as an important indicator of our operations and the performance of our core business.

Cash Earnings and Cash Earnings Per Share

Cash earnings in the September 2022 quarter was negative $12.5 million compared to positive $7.8 million in the 2021 comparative quarter. Cash earnings per share was negative $0.08 in the September 2022 quarter compared to positive $0.06 in the 2021 comparative quarter.

Cash earnings and cash earnings per share are measures used by the Company to evaluate its performance however they are not terms recognized under IFRS. We believe that the presentation of cash earnings and cash earnings per share is appropriate to provide additional information to investors about how well the Company can earn cash to pay its debts and manage its operating expenses and investment. Cash earnings is defined as cash flow from operations before the net change in non-cash working capital balances, income and mining taxes paid, and interest paid. Cash earnings per share is the same measure divided by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the year.

Cash Cost Per Pound of Copper Produced

Company is primarily a copper producer and therefore calculates this non-IFRS financial measure individually for its three copper mines, Red Chris (30% share), Mount Polley and Huckleberry, and on a composite basis for these mines.

Variations from period to period in the cash cost per pound of copper produced are the result of many factors including: grade, metal recoveries, amount of stripping charged to operations, mine and mill operating conditions, labour and other cost inputs, transportation and warehousing costs, treatment and refining costs, the amount of by-product and other revenues, the US$ to CDN$ exchange rate and the amount of copper produced.

Idle mine and mine restart costs during the periods when the Huckleberry and Mount Polley mines are not in operation have been excluded from the cash cost per pound of copper produced.

expressed in thousands, except cash cost per pound of copper produced Three Months Ended September 30, 2022 Red Chris Mount Polley(1) Composite Cash cost of copper produced in US$ $12,847 $12,527 $25,374 Copper produced  pounds 5,754 2,420 8,174 Cash cost per lb copper produced in US$ $2.23 $5.18 $3.10 Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 Red Chris Mount Polley(1) Composite Cash cost of copper produced in US$ $10,007 $- $10,007 Copper produced  pounds 5,173 - 5,173 Cash cost per lb copper produced in US$ $1.93 $- $1.93





expressed in thousands, except cash cost per pound of copper produced Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022 Red Chris Mount Polley(1) Composite Cash cost of copper produced in US$ $33,637 $12,527 $46,164 Copper produced  pounds 16,349 2,420 18,769 Cash cost per lb copper produced in US$ $2.06 $5.18 $2.46 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 Red Chris Mount Polley(1) Composite Cash cost of copper produced in US$ $35,332 $- $35,332 Copper produced  pounds 15,210 - 15,210 Cash cost per lb copper produced in US$ $2.32 $- $2.32

(1) Mount Polley mine operations were suspended in May 2019, and the mine restarted operations in late June 2022.

For detailed information, refer to Imperials 2022 Third Quarter Report available on imperialmetals.com and sedar.com

About Imperial

Imperial is a Vancouver based exploration, mine development and operating company with holdings that include the Mount Polley mine (100%), the Huckleberry mine (100%), the Red Chris mine (30%). Imperial also holds a portfolio of 23 greenfield exploration properties in British Columbia.

Company Contacts

Brian Kynoch | President | 604.669.8959

Darb Dhillon | Chief Financial Officer | 604.669.8959

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this news release are not statements of historical fact and are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company managements expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Companys expectations with respect to the impact of COVID-19 on the Companys business and operations; metal pricing and demand; fluctuation of revenues; potential development plans and mining methods at Red Chris and Mount Polley; progress and advancement of the exploration decline; expectations regarding care and maintenance activities at Huckleberry; expectations regarding metal production guidance and estimates; expectations and timing regarding current and future exploration and drilling programs; expectations regarding recovery, throughput and mined grades for copper and gold; and expectations regarding the usefulness of non-IFRS financial measures including adjusted net loss, adjusted EBITDA, cash earnings and cash cost per pound of copper.

In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "outlook", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. By their very nature 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 expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on information currently available to the Company as well as the Companys current beliefs and assumptions. These factors and assumptions and beliefs and assumptions include, the risk factors detailed from time to time in the Companys interim and annual financial statements and managements discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict. 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, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and all forward-looking statements in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements.








Virtual Investor Conferences

NEW YORK, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Deutsche Bank today announced the lineup for its Depositary Receipts Virtual Investor Conference (dbVIC) on Wednesday, November 16 and Thursday, November 17, featuring live webcast presentations from international companies with American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programs in the US.

Representatives from participating companies based in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Germany, and Switzerland will respond to questions during formal presentations and will also interact with investors via virtual trade booths. The conference is targeted to all categories of investors and analysts interested in non-US companies.

There is no fee for participants to log in, attend live presentations and/or ask questions.

Please register via this link: www.adr.db.com/dbvic

Pre-registration is suggested.

November 16 Agenda (US Eastern Standard Time):

8:00 AM: First Pacific Company Limited (HKEX: 142, OTC: FPAFY)

9:00 AM: Puyi Inc. (NASDAQ: PUYI)

9:30 AM: Vection Technologies Ltd (ASX: VR1, OTC: VCTNY)

10:00 AM: Deutsche Lufthansa AG (FRA: LHA, OTC: DLAKY)

November 17 Agenda (US Eastern Standard Time):

8:00 AM: Hywin Holdings Ltd (Nasdaq: HYW)

8:30 AM: 51Talk Online Education Group (NYSE: COE)

9:00 AM: European Metals Holdings Ltd (ASX: EMH, OTC: EMHXY)

9:30 AM: Lizhi Inc. (NASDAQ: LIZI)

10:30 AM: Swiss Re Ltd (SWX: SREN, OTC: SSREY)

11:00 AM: HUTCHMED (China) Ltd (HKEX:13, NASDAQ: HCM)

The presentations will be available for replay after the Conference.

In addition to specializing in administering cross-border equity structures such as American and Global Depositary Receipts, Deutsche Bank provides corporates, financial institutions, hedge funds and supranational agencies around the world with trustee, agency, escrow and related services. The Bank offers a broad range of services for diverse products, from complex securitizations and project finance to syndicated loans, debt exchanges and restructurings.

For further information, please contact:

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Deutsche Bank AG

Press & Media Relations

Jon Laycock

Phone: +1 212 250-9504

E-Mail: jon.laycock@db.com

Deutsche Bank provides commercial and investment banking, retail banking, transaction banking and asset and wealth management products and services to corporations, governments, institutional investors, small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals. Deutsche Bank is Germanys leading bank, with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Deutsche Bank is sponsoring the Deutsche Bank Depositary Receipt Investor Conference solely for informational purposes. Deutsche Bank does not prepare, review, approve or edit any presentations, statements, documents or other information or materials, whether in written, electronic or verbal form, provided by any company participating in such conference, and disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of any such information or materials. Deutsche Bank is not promoting, endorsing or recommending any company participating in the conference.

The Depositary Receipts have been registered pursuant to the US Securities Act of 1933 (the "Act"). The investment or investment service which is the subject of this notice is not available to retail clients as defined by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. This notice has been approved and/or communicated by Deutsche Bank AG New York. The services described in this notice are provided by Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (Deutsche Bank) or by its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in accordance with appropriate local registration and regulation. Deutsche Bank is providing the attached notice strictly for information purposes and makes no claims or statement, nor does it warrant or in any way represent, as to the accuracy or completeness of the details contained herein or therein. This announcement appears as a matter of record only. Neither this announcement nor the information contained herein constitutes an offer or solicitation by Deutsche Bank or any other issuer or entity for the purchase or sale of any securities nor does it constitute a solicitation to any person in any jurisdiction where solicitation would be unlawful. No part of this notice may be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior written consent of Deutsche Bank. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Copyright November 2022 Deutsche Bank AG. All rights reserved.




Know what SOFi hates?

MIAMI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Toxic chemicals are commonplace in the world of food and beverage.

Save space with the SOFi Cup Carrier.

The widespread use of PFAS-based packaging, aka "forever chemicals," means people are unknowingly ingesting dangerous chemicals, harming the environment, and perpetuating the system that enables their use.

PFAS are linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes, including reproductive harm, cancer, liver damage, and other ailments.

That's why SOFi is excited to introduce its latest product for food and beverage businesses: The SOFi Cup Carrier.

This 100% compostable cup carrier is made from spunlace cotton  the same material as flushable wipes  and biodegrades in less than 180 days in a landfill or marine environment.

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The SOFi Cup Carrier also offers business owners a space-economical alternative: They come in packs of 100 and sit on the counter like a pack of napkins. Bulky pulp or cardboard carriers take up significant space in small cafes or restaurants and often require customers to use two hands.

SOFi's lightweight, durable cup carriers can hold beverages large and small, and their eco-chic design will prompt Instagram posts and conversations wherever they're used.

The SOFi Cup Carrier is also customizable, allowing businesses to design cup carriers to create a seamless brand experience.

For a product that's used for such a short period, traditional cup carriers carry a significant environmental impact.

Those dull, brown cup carriers that are common in fast food are made from PFAS-based molded pulp, which takes years to biodegrade. When they eventually break down, PFAS chemicals seep into soil and waterways, contaminating water and wildlife.

And when consumed, PFAS can stay in fish, wildlife, and people's bodies for years. For example, one study found that fish in the Great Lakes region routinely contain PFAS chemicals in their tissue, which ultimately land on dinner tables. Another found that PFAS chemicals tend to concentrate in human lungs.

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The SOFi Cup Carrier joins a lineup of other compostable products, including the SOFi Cold Cup and SOFi Straws.

SOFi is thrilled to release this product and to live its mission of creating a more environmentally-friendly world.

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View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/introducing-the-new-fabric-based-sofi-cup-carrier-301673220.html

SOURCE SOFi Products
Elon Musk doesnt just wear a lot of hats when it comes to juggling his many roles  hes more like a hat rack overflowing with headwear.

Following the close of his deal to acquire Twitter (TWTR), Musk appointed himself the CEO of the company, as well as its lone board member.

Adding that his other day jobs as CEO of Tesla, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, in addition to his role as founder of companies like The Boring Company, Neuralink, and OpenAI, the question has arisen whether the mercurial and lone wolf Elon Musk has taken more than he can chew.

This is especially a concern for Tesla (TSLA), which is the biggest source of his net worth and has taken up much of his bandwidth of the past decade and a half. As the automaker gears up for its next phase of growth, many believe a focused Musk will be key for its success.

Even prior to the deal closing, several analysts and investors were already getting prickly about what they saw as Musks distractions potentially getting the better of him.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 31: Elon Musk attends Heidi Klum's 2022 Hallowe'en Party at Sake No Hana at Moxy LES on October 31, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

I think it's fair to say he will be fairly distracted with probably putting more time behind Twitter and putting less time behind other things," MKM Partners senior analyst Rohit Kulkarni said on Yahoo Finance Live prior to the deal's close. Kulkarni said that Musk needs to put together a top-level C-suite team to run Twitter  and not run Twitter himself.

Mirabaud Equity Research analyst Neil Campling said that although Musk isnt a one man show and has significant help at his companies, the issues at Twitter might be so demanding that they draw him in more than he would like.

Twitter lacks direction, strategy and has no unique selling point. Now Musk is financially geared to Twitter so he needs to find a way to monetize a product that has never been able to successfully generate sustainable revenue growth, profit metrics or user growth before, Campling said to London-based financial publication CityWire.

On top of that, Tesla has its own issues to deal with. It has maintained its 50% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for global deliveries indefinitely. Tesla is now facing increased competition in the U.S., Europe, and China, all the while trying to navigate economic headwinds stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain shortages, and a rising rate environment.

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There are also two huge product offerings coming soon, with the Tesla Semi slated to start deliveries on December 1st, and the Cybertruck on schedule to begin production in mid-2023, with full production reportedly beginning near the end of 2023.

Sanlam Globals Chris Ford isnt happy about recent developments with Musk and Twitter. Fords fund holds a $4.1% stake in Tesla.

Am I delighted? No. Would I prefer that [Musk] was clearly focused on the many things he already has to focus on? I suppose, at the margin, yes, Ford said.

Tesla investor Gary Black of the Future Fund is a noted Tesla bull  and he also isnt happy either about Musk's foray into Twitter.

Last month, Black tweeted he was concerned that, Elons core competency is engineering/tech; TWTR is an ad biz, and also a loss in electric vehicle SOV, or share of voice, meaning media coverage is on Twitter and not EVs and Tesla at an important time.

Black also tweeted that if Musk doesnt appoint an ad CEO, this could be the worst deal since [TimeWarner]-AOL.

I was against him doing this deal, and still I think it's going to be a bad deal for him, Black told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.

From a Tesla shareholder point of view, Black says Musk lending himself as CEO to another company is something hes done in the past and isnt such a bad thing, but the case with Twitter is a different story.

At the end of the day he needs to hire a CEO to run the business, it's going to take 80 hours a week or something like that to turn it around, he says.

Will Musk return to his first love?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (L) is seen as he uses his mobile device in the car arriving to the construction site for the new plant, the so-called "Giga Factory", of US electric carmaker Tesla, in Gruenheide near Berlin, northeastern Germany. - The site still has only provisional construction permits, but Tesla has been authorised by local officials to begin work at its own risk. Tesla is aiming to produce 500,000 electric vehicles a year at the plant, which will also be home to "the largest battery factory in the world", according to group boss Elon Musk. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP) (Photo by ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)

The issues even extend to Tesla itself, with resources like engineers and tech that Musk uses for when he sees fit. CNBC reported that not only were 50 Tesla engineers dragged into Twitter to help review code of Twitter engineers, but also that these Tesla engineers would be doing this in addition to their regular jobs in divisions like Tesla Autopilot and AI, and likely not be getting paid for the extra work. In addition, Tesla is known to code in Python, whereas Twitter engineers use Scala, the CNBC report said, meaning a tougher challenge for the engineers.

Perception is reality. Everyone sees Elon Musk turning Twitter upside down overnight and believes he will lose sight of Tesla and his other complex businesses, said Alyssa Altman, transportation and mobility lead at Publicis Sapient to Yahoo Finance.

Though the distraction fear is somewhat real at the moment, it may only be a short-term issue, Altman said. The Twitter takeover is happening quickly, and he is setting the stage for how it will be run in days. Twitter will be a short-term distraction while he reshapes the leadership and then he will go back to Tesla.

He will keep his focus on building the Tesla platform business in the long-term, she said. The Tesla brand will sustain its prominence through the perceived Twitter distraction although the market may see it differently in the short-term.

Future Funds Gary Black also sees Musks foray into Twitter as nothing but a short-term concern for Tesla shareholders. Tesla has extraordinary fundamentals right now, looks cheap from a valuation standpoint, and the Twitter overhang is now over. Soon Musk will return to his first love, as he calls it, which is Tesla.

It will take a few weeks, then [Musk will] realize hell have to focus back on running the EV business, Black says.



Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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JACKSON, Miss., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jackson State University's College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) welcomed 15 graduate students into their first Mississippi Teacher Residency (MTR) program this fall. The MTR program aims to prepare educators for teaching in geographical critical shortage areas. To celebrate the inaugural group, the COEHD, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) and the Jackson Public School District (JPS) celebrated the students' admittance with a signing day similar to when prospective athletes commit to a sports organization.

Jackson State University's College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) welcomed 15 graduate students into their first Mississippi Teacher Residency (MTR) program this fall. (Photo courtesy of JSU Communications)

"We are excited for you. This is a great opportunity that you've taken advantage of, and we want to see you through by providing the support you need, coaching, and love you need so that you can be successful in this program and go out and do what you were trained to doteach all students," said Jerri Haynes, Ed.D., COEHD dean.

In December 2021, JSU received $2,038,589, a $9.8 million grant from MDE, to address elementary and special education teacher shortages. The program is supported by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.

JSU is one of five participating universities. Funds will be used over two years to cover tuition and expenses for graduate students participating in the program. MDE recently expanded the residency program from three to five universities servicing over 20 school districts statewide. JSU is in partnership with JPS. Each institution is partnered with one or more school districts experiencing critical teacher shortages. The goal is to ensure all Mississippi students have access to licensed, diverse, and effective teachers.

Tommy Nalls, Ed.D., director of recruitment, describes this opportunity as mutually beneficial for the residents and the district.

"Many of our teachers attended Jackson Public Schools, graduated from JPS, then attended Jackson State University. Once they got their bachelor's degrees in education, many came back to serve in the schools they attended," Nalls explained. "We want to grow that because who would have a better investment in JPS than people who attended schools in JPS and are from the city of Jackson?"

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The MTR program is designed to provide holistic support for aspiring teachers seeking a degree in elementary and special education. Nalls said the MTR program has resulted in JPS certifying 34 teachers in the last four years, simultaneously decreasing vacancies in the district and improving teacher retention. According to Nalls, an estimated 65% of teachers working for JPS have a JSU background.

Upon completion of the residency, the graduate students may earn a master's degree along with a dual certification in elementary and special education.

JPS currently employs students in the MTR program as educators and more.

Kimberly Armstrong, a Pre-K teacher at Smith Elementary School, has been working in education for nearly two decades. This opportunity has been a godsend for the aspiring special education teacher.

"I want to touch students' lives, to see them grow and reach their full potential. I've always wanted to teach special education. When I saw this, it was my cue to continue to teach special education," said Armstrong.

A teacher at Dawson Elementary School's Lower Elementary Alternative Placement (LEAP), Jonah Thomas is the first and only male student in JSU's inaugural MTR program. He decided to follow in his mother's footsteps to become an educator.

"I would like to return to Provine High School, where I attended school, and teach economics and coach football on the side, and this program places me in a great position to achieve my goal. We can earn our master's in a year without going into debt along with the other materials they are paying for. I'm glad I was able to get into the program," Thomas said.

Jackson State University Logo (PRNewsfoto/Jackson State University)

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SOURCE Jackson State University
The whiskey world can be susceptible to fads and hypeindeed, a certain degree of gimmickry is to be expected in a market as crowded as this one. The current obsession, as youll no doubt be aware, is cask finishing, where the liquid is transferred to a different barrel after its initial agingone that previously held a fortified wine such as sherry or a spirit such as rumto impart another layer of flavor. But this is where things get interesting: Of late, a particular type of wood, the finicky Japanese oak tree known as mizunara, has become the flavor of the month, so to speak. And this time, its actually worth the hype.

Like cask finishing itself, which the Balvenie pioneered decades ago, mizunara oak isnt exactly new to whiskey, at least in Japan. For instance, since its launch in 1984, one of the foundational components of Suntorys the Yamazaki Single Malt has been whisky aged in mizunara casks. The trees use can be traced back to World War II, when bans on exports to Japan meant that the nation had to rely on its own trees despite the fact that mizunara oak can be frustratingly difficult to work with. The name translates to water oak, due to the high moisture content of the wood, so it needs extensive drying before being turned into barrels. The trees come from the Hokkaido region, where theyre a protected species, thus the Japanese government regulates how many can be logged. On top of all that, the price of mizunara barrels has skyrocketed in recent years.

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But according to Glendalough Distillery co-founder Donal OGallachoir, these challenges are worth it. Glendalough has released several mizunara-finished whiskeys, the most recent of which is a 7-year-old single malt. In all reality, no one should make a cask from mizunara, ever, OGallachoir tells Robb Report. The trees take so long to grow, they dont grow straight; the staves are prone to cracking and leaking; it takes three years to dry them out before we can make a barrel.

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Opened nearly a century ago, Yamazaki Distillery is one of Japans most celebrated. Since 1984, mizunara has been integral to the Yamazaki Single Malt, with one of the whiskys four components spending time in the Japanese-oak casks.

When Glendalough finished a 13-year-old whiskey in mizunara oak a few years ago, it leaked so badly that the Japanese supplier sent over fermented persimmon juice to coat the outside of the barrels to organically seal them. According to OGallachoir, the wood was so dry when the barrels were filled that instead of angels share there was actually devils share; 8 to 10 percent of the liquid soaked into the wood in the first week.

Despite all this, producers and distilleries continue to use the oak because of the intense and wonderful flavor it can impart. Typical notes are often described as incense, sandalwood, cedar, tropical fruit and coconut. (OGallachoir says mizunara is sometimes called temple whiskey in Japan.) Its not just whiskey anymore either, as other spirits are getting the mizunara-finish treatment: Recent examples include Courvoisier Cognac, Monkey 47 gin and Sake Hundred.

While theres certainly a bit of cachet that comes with being able to say your spirit spent time in mizunara as evidenced by its high cost and limited availability, its really all about intent and purpose. Finish a whiskey for too long and the wood might overpower it, too short and the meaning is lost. The good news is that there are some excellent mizunara-finished bottles available now that really highlight how this rare and delicate wood can transform a whiskey.

1. The Yamazaki Mizunara Japanese Oak Cask 2022 Edition

This new release is part of the 2022 Yamazaki Limited Edition Tsukuriwake Selection, a quartet of whiskies that deconstruct the individual components that go into the Yamazaki Single Malt. The mizunara expression is fantastic, with elegant notes of caramel, tropical fruit, vanilla and some sandalwood on the palate.

Buy Now: $6,000

2. Rabbit Hole Founders Collection 15-Year-Old Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished In Japanese Oak

This whiskey was released as the second entry in this Louisville distillerys Founders Collection. Its a blend of 10 barrels of 15-year-old bourbons that was then aged in mizunara oak for an additional year and bottled at cask strength of 114.2 proof. This bottle is very hard to find but worth seeking out for its unique palate of tobacco, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon and a whiff of fading smoke.

3. Glendalough 7 Year Old Mizunara Cask

Glendalough claims to be the first Irish whiskey brand to use mizunara oak and specifically wants to highlight how it affects the Irish single-malt category. This whiskey comes after 13- and 17-year-old mizunara-finished releases and stands tall with these prior bottles. After seven years in bourbon barrels and just a few months in mizunara oak, the liquid is transformed with notes of chocolate, cedar, incense and fruit on the palate.

Buy Now: $95

4. Writers Tears Japanese Cask Finish Irish Whiskey

This is another Irish whiskey finished in mizunara but one that offers something very different. The liquid is a blend of Irish single-malt and single-pot-still whiskey, a single-cask release bottled at cask strength with no chill filtration. The fruity notes are amplified here with a bit of sandalwood, pear and vanilla on the palate. And at 55 percent ABV, this packs a bit of a punch.

Buy Now: $120

5. Angels Envy Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Mizunara Casks

This bourbon is a blend of liquids aged for four and nine years, respectively, that was then put into new charred mizunara oak barrels for a full two yearsa long time by any standard. Angels Envy is a brand known for cask finishing, but this was a first. The bourbon is rich and complex, with notes of black pepper, banana, cherry, chocolate and a bit of smoke on the palate.

Buy Now: $3,333

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Jushi Holdings Inc.

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jushi Holdings Inc. (Jushi or the Company) (CSE: JUSH ) (OTCMKTS: JUSHF ), a vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator, issued a statement on the gubernatorial race in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.



Commenting on the recent election, Jim Cacioppo, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Founder of Jushi said:



On behalf of Jushi, I would like to extend our congratulations to Josh Shapiro on his election victory.

As the Commonwealths next executive, we look forward to working with Governor-elect Shapiro as he pursues his vision for cannabis-related policy reform. Like Mr. Shapiro and the vast majority of Pennsylvanians, we believe addressing harms and inequities associated with prohibition is long overdue. This effort necessarily includes expunging records for Pennsylvanians with non-violent, low-level cannabis possession convictions as well as looking forward to a diverse, equitable, legal cannabis industry in the Commonwealth.

In this respect, we are pleased that Governor-elect Shapiro stands with the nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvanians who support cannabis legalization and the significantly larger portion of his constituents who prefer a legal, regulated, and taxed cannabis market over the status quo. A legal, regulated market for adult-use cannabis in Pennsylvania will open the doors to economic growth, create thousands of mortgage-paying jobs, drive hundreds of millions in taxable infrastructure development and generate tens of millions in new tax dollars.

So often when we discuss cannabis policy, we hear the phrase its when, not if we will see a broader legal cannabis market. The Commonwealths citizens have spoken on the issue: every day of delay in adopting common sense cannabis reform is another day of lost tax revenue, illicit sales and potential danger to public health and safety. This is why the team at Jushi is committed to advocating for sound policy to make safe, regulated and taxed cannabis available to Pennsylvanians and we look forward to seeing sound policy implemented under Governor-elect Shapiros Administration.

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About Jushi Holdings Inc.

We are a vertically integrated cannabis company led by an industry-leading management team. In the United States, Jushi is focused on building a multi-state portfolio of branded cannabis assets through opportunistic acquisitions, distressed workouts, and competitive applications. Jushi strives to maximize shareholder value while delivering high-quality products across all levels of the cannabis ecosystem. For more information, visit jushico.com or our social media channels, Instagram , Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn .

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation as well as statements that may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995 Section 27 A of the Securities Act, and Section 21 E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, intended expansion of our retail operations and production capacity, intended expansion of our cultivation facilities, future financial position, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, including without limitation Q4 2022 annualized guidance, as well as expected filings, materiality or significance and effects of errors on current or prior period financial statements, and any anticipated conclusions of the Company, the Audit Committee or the Companys management related thereto, are forward-looking statements. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, will continue, will occur or will be achieved.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein may include but are not limited to, information concerning the expectations regarding Jushi, or the ability of Jushi to successfully achieve business objectives, and expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including risks related to the ability of Jushi to successfully and/or timely achieve business objectives, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated, or expected. The foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of Jushi Holding Inc.s prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on August 12, 2022, its Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on September 26, 2022, its Management Discussion & Analysis filed on SEDAR on September 26, 2022, and other documents filed or to be filed with the SEC ( www.sec.gov ) and/or on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ).

There may be additional risks that Jushi Holdings Inc. does not presently know or that Jushi Holdings Inc. currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Jushi Holdings Inc. assumes no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Jushi Holdings Inc. does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations. All written forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Contact:

Michael Perlman

Executive Vice President of Investor Relations

561-281-0247

investors@jushico.com

Media Contact:

Ellen Mellody

570-209-2947

ellen@mattio.com




The growing Southeast home services company expands into the Kentucky market

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leap Partners, a home services company with HVAC and plumbing businesses across the Southeast, recently expanded into the Kentucky market through its acquisition of Hornback Plumbing. In addition to Hornback Plumbing, based in Elizabethtown, Ky., Leap Partners' growing business portfolio currently includes companies located in Alabama and Tennessee.

Leap Partners (PRNewsfoto/Leap Partners)

"Over the course of nearly 20 years, Hornback Plumbing has built its brand on quality, reliable service," Leap Partners CEO John Cerasuolo said. "Leap Partners is thrilled to have the opportunity to help Hornback take its services to a new level, and we are actively looking for more companies to join our expanding network."

Under its new ownership, the Elizabethtown plumbing company will still operate as Hornback Plumbing, and former owners Donnie and Kim Hornback will continue to lead their team.

"Leap Partners was a great company for us to join because they know the importance of helping local businesses like ours grow while continuing to maintain strong ties to the community," Donnie Hornback said. "They will offer us operational support that will help us better serve our customers, employees and community."

Established in 2005, Hornback Plumbing serves Elizabethtown and surrounding communities, including Brandenburg. They offer services in the areas of plumbing and drain cleaning and are available 24/7 for emergency services. They also sell and install water heaters, softeners and filters.

About Leap Partners

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Leap Partners is working to connect the best small and medium-sized HVAC, plumbing and electrical service businesses in the Southeast to build a world-class service provider. The company's family of service businesses currently includes Conditioned Air Solutions (Huntsville, Ala.), Drain Werks (Birmingham, Ala.), George Plumbing (Hartselle, Ala.), Hornback Plumbing (Elizabethtown, Ky.), and Scenic City Heating & AC (Chattanooga, Tenn.). Under Leap Partners' ownership, these businesses are committed to providing industry-leading customer satisfaction and employee engagement. For more information and to read partner testimonials, visit theleappartners.com and theleappartners.com/testimonials.

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SOURCE Leap Partners
C$ unless otherwise stated

TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945

TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - Manulife's Board of Directors today announced quarterly shareholders' dividends on the following non-cumulative preferred shares of Manulife Financial Corporation, payable on or after December 19, 2022, to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 22, 2022:

Manulife (CNW Group/Manulife Financial Corporation)

Class A Shares Series 2 - $0.29063 per share

Class A Shares Series 3 - $0.28125 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 3 - $0.14675 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 4 - $0.273873 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 9 - $0.373625 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 11 - $0.295688 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 13 - $0.275875 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 15 - $0.236625 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 17 - $0.2375 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 19 - $0.229688 per share

Class 1 Shares Series 25 - $0.29375 per share



About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we provide financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. Through Manulife Investment Management, the global brand for our Global Wealth and Asset Management segment, we serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2021, we had more than 38,000 employees, over 119,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 33 million customers. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.

Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulife.com.

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation

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Global Market Insights Inc.

Key players in oil-free air compressor market are Zen Air Tech Pvt. Ltd., Air Squared, Frank Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Quincy Compressor LLC, Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems Co., Ltd., Hubei Teweite Power Technology Co., Ltd., Sullivan-Palatek, Inc., Doosan Group among others.

Selbyville, Delaware,, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Oil-free Air Compressor Market is expected to cross a valuation of USD 27 billion by 2032, according to the latest research study by Global Market Insights Inc. The introduction of stringent environmental regulations will act as a major factor propelling the industry demand.

The increasing shift toward sustainability worldwide is encouraging several businesses to opt for more environmentally friendly systems such as oil-free air compressors, that can curb the release of harmful pollutants. The report claims that the products capability to lower the production of impurities during manufacturing processes will also augment device production.

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Oil-free air compressor market share from the portable product type is anticipated to register revenue worth USD 200 million by 2032, owing to the rising construction and industrial manufacturing projects. For instance, in November 2022, Samsung unveiled plans to construct a semiconductor fabrication facility in Texas. The introduction of new construction projects such as these will escalate the need for compressed air to power drills, hammers, and other tools. The recovery in drug supply following COVID-19 disruptions will also boost the adoption of portable oil-free air compressors to run conveyor systems, among other applications.





The 55 kW - 160 kW power air compressor segment is set to cross USD 4.5 billion by 2032. Oil-free air compressors in this power range are considered ideal for high-volume applications or manufacturing units in the chemical, food & beverage, and automotive sectors. The chemical manufacturers have also been emphasizing facility expansion. In July 2022, BASF announced the final phase of the USD 780 million expansion project for its methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) facility. Developments such as these will proliferate the usage of 55 kW - 160 kW air compressors for chemical transport applications.

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Oil-free air compressor market revenue share from the rotary technology segment is projected to record more than USD 12 billion by 2032. As compared to their counterparts, rotary technology-powered compressors are gaining increased acceptance due to their lower installation and maintenance costs and high efficiency. The rapid development of coal mines, especially in developing nations such as India, to meet growing energy requirements will therefore fuel product consumption.

The manufacturing application sector will register more than 4.5% CAGR during 2023-2032. The adoption of oil-free air compressors in the manufacturing industry is increasing due to its use as cutting and welding equipment, feed and roller machinery adjustment, metal finishing, and sandblasting. Several manufacturing facilities also have portable air compressors for use as backup units, to enable smoother operations. These attributes will encourage manufacturers to install more oil-free air compressors in their facilities, bolstering the industry outlook.

The North America oil-free air compressor market is poised to attain 3% gains through 2032. The mounting number of packaging and refrigerated food warehouses is one of the key drivers for industry growth. For example, in April 2022, U.S.-based GreenSeed Contract Packaging included 20,000 square feet of additional space at its headquarters to address the evolving demand for raw material warehousing. Furthermore, the increase in oil and gas exploration in the U.S. will further promote the use of oil-free air compressors in the region.

The strategic landscape of the oil-free air compressor industry is inclusive of contenders such as Gardner Denver, Inc., Boge Compressors (Boge Kompressoren Otto Boge GmbH & Co. KG), Air Squared, Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH (Aerzen), Ciasons Industrial Inc., Sullivan-Palatek, Inc., and Kaeser Kompressoren SE, among others. These companies are focusing on initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions to expand their footprint in the market.

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Partial Table of Contents (ToC) of the report:

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Oil-free Air Compressor industry 3600 synopsis, 2018  2032

2.1.1 Business trends

2.1.2 Packaging type trends

2.1.3 Material trends

2.1.4 Regional trends

Chapter 3 Oil-free Air Compressor Industry Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Industry size and forecast, 2018  2032

3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.4 Raw material analysis

3.5 Industry impact forces

3.5.1 Growth drivers

3.5.1.1 Growing demand for energy-efficient air compressors

3.5.1.2 Increasing high purity air demand for critical application

3.5.1.3 Environmental regulations compliance

3.5.1.4 Shifting focus toward robotics and automation

3.5.2 Industry pitfalls and challenges

3.5.2.1 High initial cost of oil-free air compressor

3.5.2.2 Risk of wear & tear and sound pollution

3.6 Regulatory landscape

3.7 Growth potential analysis

3.8 Pricing analysis

3.9 Porters analysis

3.10 PESTLE analysis

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About Global Market Insights Inc.

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

CONTACT: Contact Us: Aashit Tiwari Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights Inc. Toll Free: +1-888-689-0688 USA: +1-302-846-7766 Europe: +44-742-759-8484 APAC: +65-3129-7718 Email: sales@gminsights.com




Osisko Metals Incorporated

Pine Point Surface Map

Pine Point Surface Map

MONTREAL, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Osisko Metals Incorporated (the "Company" or "Osisko Metals") ( TSX-V: OM ; OTCQX: OMZNF ; FRANKFURT: 0B51 ) is pleased to announce results from the 2022 definition drilling program at its Pine Point Project, located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. This continuous drill program is designed to achieve an average drill spacing of approximately 30 metres within current mineral resources to upgrade resources presently classified as Inferred to the Indicated category so they can be included in the upcoming feasibility study.

In August of this year, the Company filed the 2022 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) that included higher commodity prices and reduced dewatering costs. All intercepts reported below were within, or immediately adjacent to, the currently modelled and proposed open pit shells included in the PEA. Further assay results are pending.

The results reported in Tables 1 & 2 below are within expectations for the infill program needed to convert the North Zone deposits (Y68, Y65, and X71) to the Indicated Mineral Resource category. Shallow zinc and lead sulphides were intersected between 18 and 95 metres vertical depth and occurred as continuous, flat-lying, and relatively thin, Tabular-style mineralization. Prismatic-style mineralization, with more vertical continuity, was locally encountered within the Tabular-style mineralization.

Highlights Include:

Drill hole X71-22-PP-036 intersected 13.00 metres, grading 6.80% Zn and 2.58% Pb (9.38% Zn+Pb)

Drill hole X71-22-PP-040 intersected 12.00 metres, grading 25.80% Zn and 6.84% Pb (32.65% Zn+Pb)

Drill hole Y65-22-PP-009 intersected 6.00 metres, grading 12.87% Zn and 1.32% Pb (14.19% Zn+Pb)

Drill hole Y68-22-PP-019 intersected 6.00 metres, grading 9.94% Zn and 13.66% Pb (23.61% Zn+Pb)

Jeff Hussey, President & COO, commented: We are pleased to report more positive definition drilling results as we prepare for the winter drilling campaign, expected to start in January 2023. Following the 2020 and 2022 PEA studies and further drilling, we will initiate the feasibility phase of the project in H2 2023. In parallel, we are continuing to advance the Environmental Assessment process which will continue into 2023.

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Table 1: Drill Hole Composites.

Hole Name



Zone



Deposit



From To Drill Width True Width Zn Pb ZN+PB (m) (m) (m) (m) % % % HG-22-PP-001** Hgeol X68 Area 65.00 66.00 1.00 0.97 6.25 0.73 6.98 HG-22-PP-003** Hgeol Y65 area 21.00 22.00 1.00 1.00 0.21 0.06 0.27 X71-22-PP-001 N1 X71 39.00 40.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 X71-22-PP-001A N1 X71 94.20 95.30 1.10 1.04 0.46 0.04 0.50 X71-22-PP-002 N1 X71 52.00 53.00 1.00 1.00 0.33 0.01 0.35 X71-22-PP-003 N1 X71 52.00 53.00 1.00 1.00 6.53 1.80 8.33 X71-22-PP-004 N1 X71 52.00 53.00 1.00 1.00 4.85 1.57 6.42 X71-22-PP-005 N1 X71 65.15 66.50 1.35 1.35 11.90 1.71 13.60 X71-22-PP-005 N1 X71 47.00 53.00 6.00 6.00 4.90 5.40 10.30 X71-22-PP-006* N1 X71 53.00 54.50 1.50 1.50 10.08 17.64 27.72 X71-22-PP-007 N1 X71 56.00 56.20 0.20 0.20 6.83 4.77 11.60 X71-22-PP-008 N1 X71 56.00 56.50 0.50 0.50 7.50 25.54 33.04 X71-22-PP-009 N1 X71 57.00 57.75 0.75 0.75 2.05 0.98 3.03 X71-22-PP-010 N1 X71 49.00 51.00 2.00 2.00 7.28 6.13 13.41 X71-22-PP-011 N1 X71 63.00 64.00 1.00 1.00 2.50 1.51 4.01 X71-22-PP-012 N1 X71 59.00 60.00 1.00 1.00 5.32 15.40 20.72 X71-22-PP-013 N1 X71 21.20 24.20 3.00 3.00 0.65 15.43 16.08 X71-22-PP-013 N1 X71 50.65 55.65 5.00 5.00 11.20 6.24 17.44 X71-22-PP-014 N1 X71 56.00 58.00 2.00 2.00 5.37 2.41 7.78 X71-22-PP-014 N1 X71 68.00 70.00 2.00 2.00 0.81 7.50 8.31 X71-22-PP-015 N1 X71 55.00 56.00 1.00 1.00 4.31 1.04 5.35 X71-22-PP-016 N1 X71 51.00 58.00 7.00 7.00 13.68 6.00 19.68 X71-22-PP-017 N1 X71 57.00 58.00 1.00 1.00 2.92 17.80 20.72 X71-22-PP-017 N1 X71 38.00 49.00 11.00 11.00 4.39 3.44 7.84 X71-22-PP-018 N1 X71 78.00 81.00 3.00 3.00 4.51 1.59 6.10 X71-22-PP-019 N1 X71 55.00 56.00 1.00 1.00 4.74 1.02 5.76 X71-22-PP-020 N1 X71 43.00 44.00 1.00 1.00 0.73 0.15 0.88 X71-22-PP-021 N1 X71 56.65 57.65 1.00 1.00 1.10 4.30 5.40 X71-22-PP-022 N1 X71 74.00 75.00 1.00 1.00 0.25 3.84 4.09 X71-22-PP-023 N1 X71 50.00 55.00 5.00 5.00 6.25 2.41 8.66 X71-22-PP-024 N1 X71 53.00 53.40 0.40 0.40 3.44 0.77 4.21 X71-22-PP-025 N1 X71 18.00 26.00 8.00 8.00 3.62 10.34 13.95 X71-22-PP-025 N1 X71 53.50 63.50 10.00 10.00 5.38 4.53 9.91 X71-22-PP-026 N1 X71 19.00 24.00 5.00 5.00 3.75 6.17 9.92 X71-22-PP-026 N1 X71 51.90 57.00 5.10 5.10 4.06 2.76 6.82 X71-22-PP-027 N1 X71 36.33 37.33 1.00 1.00 0.50 11.85 12.35 X71-22-PP-027 N1 X71 48.44 49.44 1.00 1.00 7.02 15.30 22.32 X71-22-PP-027 N1 X71 19.50 20.50 1.00 1.00 1.08 23.23 24.31 X71-22-PP-028 N1 X71 49.00 50.00 1.00 1.00 1.37 0.26 1.63 X71-22-PP-029 N1 X71 47.50 51.55 4.05 4.05 11.85 16.26 28.10 X71-22-PP-030 N1 X71 67.00 68.00 1.00 1.00 3.79 15.90 19.69 X71-22-PP-030 N1 X71 20.60 23.60 3.00 3.00 0.60 6.11 6.71 X71-22-PP-031 N1 X71 50.65 51.65 1.00 1.00 3.99 0.21 4.20 X71-22-PP-032 N1 X71 50.00 51.00 1.00 1.00 1.45 0.08 1.52 X71-22-PP-033 N1 X71 54.00 57.00 3.00 3.00 21.90 11.15 33.05 X71-22-PP-034 N1 X71 51.00 57.00 6.00 6.00 4.19 1.64 5.83 X71-22-PP-035 N1 X71 46.50 47.50 1.00 1.00 18.15 27.01 45.16 X71-22-PP-035 N1 X71 53.50 58.35 4.85 4.85 7.17 1.18 8.36 X71-22-PP-036 N1 X71 76.00 89.00 13.00 13.00 6.80 2.58 9.38 X71-22-PP-037 N1 X71 41.40 42.00 0.60 0.60 26.30 9.18 35.48 X71-22-PP-038 N1 X71 58.00 59.00 1.00 1.00 3.53 0.21 3.74 X71-22-PP-039 N1 X71 52.69 53.69 1.00 1.00 0.71 0.19 0.90 X71-22-PP-040 N1 X71 59.00 71.00 12.00 12.00 25.80 6.84 32.65 X71-22-PP-041 N1 X71 63.00 64.00 1.00 1.00 7.21 0.22 7.43 X71-22-PP-041 N1 X71 51.00 61.00 10.00 10.00 4.05 1.42 5.47 X71-22-PP-042 N1 X71 55.00 58.00 3.00 3.00 6.90 1.71 8.61 X71-22-PP-043 N1 X71 66.00 67.00 1.00 1.00 1.77 0.28 2.05 X71-22-PP-045 N1 X71 59.50 62.50 3.00 3.00 12.94 4.06 17.00 X71-22-PP-045 N1 X71 68.50 73.50 5.00 5.00 7.42 5.94 13.36 X71-22-PP-046 N1 X71 84.00 85.00 1.00 1.00 6.19 1.26 7.45 X71-22-PP-046 N1 X71 57.00 58.00 1.00 1.00 4.87 3.24 8.11 X71-22-PP-046 N1 X71 81.00 82.00 1.00 1.00 5.32 2.98 8.30 X71-22-PP-046 N1 X71 76.00 78.00 2.00 2.00 4.37 3.54 7.91 X71-22-PP-047 N1 X71 57.20 58.10 0.90 0.90 1.97 0.03 2.00 X71-22-PP-048 N1 X71 61.00 67.00 6.00 6.00 8.02 1.12 9.14 X71-22-PP-049 N1 X71 71.00 72.00 1.00 1.00 0.67 0.48 1.14 X71-22-PP-050 N1 X71 54.00 58.00 4.00 4.00 10.27 6.31 16.58 X71-22-PP-051* N1 X71 55.00 58.00 3.00 3.00 8.98 0.35 9.33 X71-22-PP-052 N1 X71 53.00 54.00 1.00 1.00 4.23 4.71 8.94 X71-22-PP-053 N1 X71 49.00 50.00 1.00 1.00 0.44 0.06 0.50 X71-22-PP-054 N1 X71 68.00 69.00 1.00 1.00 1.05 0.54 1.59 X71-22-PP-055 N1 X71 51.00 53.00 2.00 2.00 8.93 4.56 13.49 X71-22-PP-056 N1 X71 52.00 53.00 1.00 1.00 1.73 0.12 1.85 Y65-22-PP-001 N1 Y65 18.00 19.00 1.00 1.00 13.10 1.87 14.97 Y65-22-PP-002 N1 Y65 22.00 23.00 1.00 1.00 0.52 0.99 1.51 Y65-22-PP-003 N1 Y65 23.00 24.00 1.00 1.00 11.30 0.08 11.38 Y65-22-PP-003 N1 Y65 29.00 31.00 2.00 2.00 6.30 3.49 9.79 Y65-22-PP-003 N1 Y65 40.00 43.00 3.00 3.00 21.50 4.75 26.25 Y65-22-PP-004 N1 Y65 24.00 25.00 1.00 1.00 0.79 0.59 1.37 Y65-22-PP-005 N1 Y65 27.00 31.00 4.00 4.00 16.63 8.00 24.62 Y65-22-PP-006 N1 Y65 22.00 23.00 1.00 1.00 13.85 1.01 14.86 Y65-22-PP-007 N1 Y65 27.00 29.00 2.00 2.00 15.72 15.09 30.81 Y65-22-PP-007 N1 Y65 31.00 34.00 3.00 3.00 4.63 0.68 5.32 Y65-22-PP-008 N1 Y65 35.00 36.00 1.00 1.00 5.18 1.05 6.23 Y65-22-PP-009* N1 Y65 51.00 57.00 6.00 6.00 12.87 1.32 14.19 Y65-22-PP-010 N1 Y65 35.00 36.00 1.00 1.00 0.74 0.15 0.89 Y65-22-PP-011 N1 Y65 40.00 41.00 1.00 1.00 2.91 2.36 5.27 Y65-22-PP-012 N1 Y65 33.00 37.00 4.00 4.00 7.30 0.32 7.63 Y65-22-PP-013 N1 Y65 30.00 38.00 8.00 8.00 6.39 1.02 7.41 Y65-22-PP-014 N1 Y65 31.00 34.00 3.00 3.00 5.29 1.14 6.44 Y65-22-PP-015 N1 Y65 31.00 32.00 1.00 1.00 0.79 0.09 0.88 Y68-22-PP-003 N1 Y68 31.20 32.00 0.80 0.80 2.76 0.42 3.18 Y68-22-PP-004 N1 Y68 35.00 35.50 0.50 0.50 4.02 0.00 4.02 Y68-22-PP-006 N1 Y68 30.00 31.00 1.00 1.00 0.01 0.00 0.01 Y68-22-PP-007 N1 Y68 28.00 35.00 7.00 7.00 7.87 0.62 8.48 Y68-22-PP-008 N1 Y68 23.00 24.00 1.00 1.00 3.28 0.90 4.18 Y68-22-PP-009 N1 Y68 24.00 31.00 7.00 7.00 3.87 0.70 4.56 Y68-22-PP-010 N1 Y68 32.00 33.00 1.00 1.00 6.04 0.04 6.08 Y68-22-PP-012 N1 Y68 26.00 27.00 1.00 1.00 3.61 1.06 4.67 Y68-22-PP-013 N1 Y68 28.00 29.00 1.00 1.00 2.77 4.25 7.02 Y68-22-PP-013 N1 Y68 21.00 25.00 4.00 4.00 4.31 0.05 4.36 Y68-22-PP-014 N1 Y68 22.45 26.00 3.55 3.55 7.07 0.83 7.90 Y68-22-PP-019 N1 Y68 25.00 31.00 6.00 6.00 9.94 13.66 23.61 Y68-22-PP-021 N1 Y68 42.00 43.25 1.25 1.25 0.96 0.14 1.10 Y68-22-PP-022 N1 Y68 23.00 24.00 1.00 1.00 4.54 0.76 5.30 Y68-22-PP-023 N1 Y68 23.00 24.00 1.00 1.00 4.07 6.87 10.94 Y68-22-PP-024 N1 Y68 25.00 26.00 1.00 1.00 1.86 0.24 2.09 Y68-22-PP-025 N1 Y68 27.00 28.00 1.00 1.00 0.56 0.12 0.69 Y68-22-PP-027 N1 Y68 23.70 24.70 1.00 1.00 1.41 0.14 1.55 Y68-22-PP-028 N1 Y68 26.00 27.00 1.00 1.00 0.49 0.01 0.50 Y68-22-PP-030 N1 Y68 39.00 40.00 1.00 1.00 2.23 0.01 2.24 Y68-22-PP-031 N1 Y68 22.00 23.00 1.00 1.00 0.43 0.07 0.49 Y68-22-PP-032 N1 Y68 23.20 24.00 0.80 0.80 4.36 2.30 6.66 Y68-22-PP-032 N1 Y68 29.00 30.00 1.00 1.00 4.06 2.79 6.85 Y68-22-PP-034 N1 Y68 37.00 39.00 2.00 2.00 5.55 1.11 6.66 Y68-22-PP-035 N1 Y68 27.00 28.00 1.00 1.00 3.93 0.58 4.51 Y68-22-PP-037 N1 Y68 47.00 48.00 1.00 1.00 5.32 2.92 8.24 Y68-22-PP-037 N1 Y68 35.00 38.00 3.00 3.00 15.21 4.11 19.32 Y68-22-PP-045 N1 Y68 32.00 33.00 1.00 1.00 2.20 0.06 2.26

* Within deposit hydrogeological drill hole

** Off-deposit hydrogeological drill hole

Hydrogeological Program Update

Upcoming hydrogeological testing of some recent exploration drill holes will consist of 1) Profile Tracer Tests that measure water flow and conductivity of the bedrock stratigraphy within these drill holes and 2) injection tests to better understand the aquifer characteristics. These new datasets will be added to the hydrogeological modelling process as we prepare for the feasibility study phase of the Pine Point Project.

Qualified Person

Mr. Robin Adair is the Qualified Person and the Vice President of Exploration for Osisko Metals Incorporated. He is responsible for the technical data reported in this news release, and he is a Professional Geologist registered in the Northwest Territories.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

Osisko Metals adheres to a strict QA/QC program for core handling, sampling, sample transportation, and analyses. Drill core samples from the Pine Point project area are securely transported to its core facility on site, where they were logged and sampled. Samples selected for assay are shipped to ALS Canada Ltd.'s preparation facility in Yellowknife. Pulps are analyzed at the ALS Canada Ltd. facility in North Vancouver, BC. All samples are analyzed by four acid digestion followed by both ICP-AES and ICP-MS for a multi-element suite with a 1% upper detection limit for base metals. Samples reporting over 1% for Zn and 1% for Pb are analyzed by assay grade, four acid digestion and ICPAES analysis with an upper detection limit of 30% and 20% respectively. Samples reporting Zn >30% and or Pb >20% are analyzed by traditional titration.

Table 2: Drill Hole Collar Locations (NAD83 (CSRS) Zone 11)

Hole Name Zone Deposit Easting Northing Elev. (m) Azm. Dip Length (m) HG-22-PP-001** N-1 X71-X68 626833.5 6749138.3 179.4 155 -75 81.0 HG-22-PP-003** N-1 Y65-Z64 628935.3 6750030.9 181.4 0 -90 50.0 X71-22-PP-001 N-1 X71 625428.4 6748928.1 178.1 0 -90 60.0 X71-22-PP-001A N-1 X71 625452.7 6748941.2 178.3 248 -70 124.0 X71-22-PP-002 N-1 X71 625460.7 6748925.1 178.5 0 -90 63.0 X71-22-PP-003 N-1 X71 625443.7 6748959.0 178.5 0 -90 65.0 X71-22-PP-004 N-1 X71 625421.2 6748973.4 178.6 0 -90 65.0 X71-22-PP-005 N-1 X71 625555.0 6748939.9 178.1 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-006* N-1 X71 625509.8 6748919.6 178.3 0 -90 81.0 X71-22-PP-007 N-1 X71 625494.2 6748954.3 178.1 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-008 N-1 X71 625475.4 6748989.1 177.5 0 -90 69.0 X71-22-PP-009 N-1 X71 625501.4 6749038.1 178.1 0 -90 69.0 X71-22-PP-010 N-1 X71 625522.9 6748999.7 178.0 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-011 N-1 X71 625550.1 6749047.9 177.8 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-012 N-1 X71 625607.0 6748944.3 177.9 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-013 N-1 X71 625588.8 6748979.3 177.9 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-014 N-1 X71 625562.3 6749017.6 177.9 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-015 N-1 X71 625592.9 6749054.4 177.8 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-016 N-1 X71 625645.2 6748954.0 178.2 0 -90 66.0 X71-22-PP-017 N-1 X71 625624.2 6748987.7 178.0 0 -90 81.0 X71-22-PP-018 N-1 X71 625612.0 6749021.6 177.9 0 -90 84.0 X71-22-PP-019 N-1 X71 625630.2 6749070.8 177.8 0 -90 66.0 X71-22-PP-020 N-1 X71 625680.1 6748960.7 178.1 0 -90 66.0 X71-22-PP-021 N-1 X71 625665.5 6749002.2 178.0 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-022 N-1 X71 625649.3 6749032.2 178.0 0 -90 81.0 X71-22-PP-023 N-1 X71 625674.3 6749079.2 177.8 0 -90 69.0 X71-22-PP-024 N-1 X71 625717.3 6748978.6 178.1 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-025 N-1 X71 625705.1 6749013.5 178.2 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-026 N-1 X71 625685.7 6749047.4 177.9 0 -90 81.0 X71-22-PP-027 N-1 X71 625712.0 6749082.8 177.9 0 -90 65.0 X71-22-PP-028 N-1 X71 625760.9 6748981.2 178.4 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-029 N-1 X71 625746.9 6749014.8 178.2 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-030 N-1 X71 625729.8 6749048.7 178.0 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-031 N-1 X71 625736.4 6749121.5 177.9 0 -90 60.0 X71-22-PP-032 N-1 X71 625778.8 6749044.5 178.1 0 -90 69.0 X71-22-PP-033 N-1 X71 625760.3 6749081.4 178.1 0 -90 69.0 X71-22-PP-034 N-1 X71 625812.0 6749058.3 178.0 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-035 N-1 X71 625788.3 6749096.1 177.6 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-036 N-1 X71 625769.3 6749152.0 177.7 0 -90 96.0 X71-22-PP-037 N-1 X71 625780.7 6749179.5 177.6 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-038 N-1 X71 625807.3 6749147.0 177.8 0 -90 69.0 X71-22-PP-039 N-1 X71 625885.8 6749002.9 178.1 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-040 N-1 X71 625866.6 6749039.9 177.8 0 -90 78.0 X71-22-PP-041 N-1 X71 625848.1 6749075.7 177.9 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-042 N-1 X71 625828.1 6749105.3 177.8 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-043 N-1 X71 625839.1 6749168.1 177.5 0 -90 81.0 X71-22-PP-045 N-1 X71 625878.6 6749091.4 177.6 0 -90 81.0 X71-22-PP-046 N-1 X71 625857.8 6749129.8 177.3 0 -90 96.0 X71-22-PP-047 N-1 X71 625863.9 6749195.0 177.5 0 -90 60.0 X71-22-PP-048 N-1 X71 625941.8 6749050.7 177.8 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-049 N-1 X71 625928.5 6749082.7 177.8 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-050 N-1 X71 625912.7 6749118.9 177.3 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-051* N-1 X71 625892.1 6749155.8 178.3 0 -90 79.5 X71-22-PP-052 N-1 X71 625912.7 6749204.5 177.7 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-053 N-1 X71 625982.9 6749064.5 178.1 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-054 N-1 X71 625963.5 6749089.5 177.8 0 -90 75.0 X71-22-PP-055 N-1 X71 625946.3 6749128.4 177.8 0 -90 72.0 X71-22-PP-056 N-1 X71 625922.8 6749171.1 177.1 0 -90 66.0 Y65-22-PP-001 N-1 Y65 628783.2 6750150.0 178.9 0 -90 51.0 Y65-22-PP-002 N-1 Y65 628710.8 6750201.0 178.6 0 -90 42.0 Y65-22-PP-003 N-1 Y65 628691.1 6750160.2 178.9 0 -90 45.0 Y65-22-PP-004 N-1 Y65 628674.1 6750109.7 179.1 0 -90 30.0 Y65-22-PP-005 N-1 Y65 628660.9 6750137.4 178.9 0 -90 36.0 Y65-22-PP-006 N-1 Y65 628640.0 6750088.4 179.0 0 -90 33.0 Y65-22-PP-007 N-1 Y65 628619.6 6750122.3 178.9 0 -90 39.0 Y65-22-PP-008 N-1 Y65 628587.0 6750100.0 178.7 0 -90 39.0 Y65-22-PP-009* N-1 Y65 628536.2 6750112.5 178.8 0 -90 61.0 Y65-22-PP-010 N-1 Y65 628549.3 6750087.7 179.0 0 -90 45.0 Y65-22-PP-011 N-1 Y65 628523.8 6750050.6 179.5 0 -90 43.0 Y65-22-PP-012 N-1 Y65 628486.7 6750042.4 179.4 0 -90 39.0 Y65-22-PP-013 N-1 Y65 628440.6 6750046.4 179.3 0 -90 54.0 Y65-22-PP-014 N-1 Y65 628446.4 6750105.8 178.9 0 -90 44.0 Y65-22-PP-015 N-1 Y65 628412.5 6750020.4 179.2 0 -90 39.0 Y68-22-PP-003 N-1 Y68 627410.9 6749681.8 178.9 0 -90 39.0 Y68-22-PP-004 N-1 Y68 627382.7 6749660.6 178.9 0 -90 39.0 Y68-22-PP-006 N-1 Y68 627386.1 6749628.6 178.9 0 -90 36.0 Y68-22-PP-007 N-1 Y68 627434.1 6749645.8 179.3 0 -90 39.0 Y68-22-PP-008 N-1 Y68 627445.8 6749605.0 179.1 0 -90 32.0 Y68-22-PP-009 N-1 Y68 627467.8 6749649.3 179.1 0 -90 48.0 Y68-22-PP-010 N-1 Y68 627452.6 6749681.4 178.9 0 -90 42.0 Y68-22-PP-012 N-1 Y68 627550.8 6749675.2 179.1 0 -90 35.0 Y68-22-PP-013 N-1 Y68 627527.9 6749704.5 179.2 0 -90 33.0 Y68-22-PP-014 N-1 Y68 627579.7 6749700.5 179.1 0 -90 30.0 Y68-22-PP-019 N-1 Y68 627646.3 6749760.8 179.1 0 -90 51.0 Y68-22-PP-021 N-1 Y68 627664.5 6749711.4 179.3 0 -90 48.0 Y68-22-PP-022 N-1 Y68 627699.5 6749736.4 179.3 0 -90 39.0 Y68-22-PP-023 N-1 Y68 627678.8 6749771.3 179.2 0 -90 45.0 Y68-22-PP-024 N-1 Y68 627714.3 6749779.0 179.2 0 -90 45.0 Y68-22-PP-025 N-1 Y68 627640.2 6749836.4 178.9 0 -90 45.0 Y68-22-PP-027 N-1 Y68 627659.3 6749809.8 179.2 0 -90 39.0 Y68-22-PP-028 N-1 Y68 627695.0 6749849.0 179.2 0 -90 42.0 Y68-22-PP-030 N-1 Y68 627739.2 6749813.8 179.2 0 -90 45.0 Y68-22-PP-031 N-1 Y68 627754.7 6749708.1 179.3 0 -90 30.0 Y68-22-PP-032 N-1 Y68 627766.4 6749733.5 179.4 0 -90 30.0 Y68-22-PP-034 N-1 Y68 627754.5 6749779.7 179.3 0 -90 45.0 Y68-22-PP-035 N-1 Y68 627813.3 6749747.4 179.3 0 -90 33.0 Y68-22-PP-037 N-1 Y68 627827.4 6749870.0 178.9 0 -90 54.0 Y68-22-PP-045 N-1 Y68 628156.1 6749905.5 179.4 0 -90 40.0

* Within deposit hydrogeological drill hole

** Off-deposit hydrogeological drill hole

About Osisko Metals

Osisko Metals Incorporated is a Canadian exploration and development company creating value in the critical metals space. The Company controls one of Canadas premier past-producing zinc mining camps, the Pine Point Project, located in the Northwest Territories for which the 2022 PEA has indicated an after-tax NPV of $603M and an IRR of 25% is based on the current Mineral Resource Estimates that are amenable to open pit and shallow underground mining and consist of 15.7Mt grading 5.55% ZnEq of Indicated Mineral Resources and 47.2Mt grading 5.94% ZnEq of Inferred Mineral Resources. Please refer to the technical report entitled Preliminary Economic Assessment, Pine Point Project, Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada dated July 30, which has been filed on SEDAR. The Pine Point Project is located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, near infrastructure, and paved highway access, and also has an electrical substation as well as 100 kilometres of viable haulage roads already in place.

The Company is also in the process of acquiring, from Glencore Canada, a 100% interest in the past-producing Gaspe Copper Mine, located near Murdochville in the Gaspe peninsula of Quebec. The Company is currently focused on resource evaluation of the Mount Copper Expansion Project that hosts a NI43-101 Inferred Resource of 456Mt grading 0.31% Cu (see April 28, 2022 press release). Gaspe Copper hosts the largest undeveloped copper resource in Eastern North America, strategically located near existing infrastructure in the mining-friendly province of Quebec.

For further information on this press release, visit www.osiskometals.com or contact:

Robert Wares, CEO Osisko Metals Incorporated

Email: info@osiskometals.com

www.osiskometals.com

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves predictions, expectations, interpretations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and constitute forward-looking information. This news release may contain forward-looking information pertaining to the Pine Point Project, including, among other things, the results of the PEA and the IRR, NPV and estimated costs, production, production rate and mine life; the expectation that the Pine Point Project will be an robust operation and profitable at a variety of prices and assumptions; the expected high quality of the Pine Point concentrates; the potential impact of the Pine Point Project in the Northwest Territories, including but not limited to the potential generation of tax revenue and contribution of jobs; and the Pine Point Project having the potential for mineral resource expansion and new discoveries. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management, in light of managements experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, including, without limitation, assumptions about: favourable equity and debt capital markets; the ability to raise additional capital on reasonable terms to advance the development of its projects and pursue planned exploration; future prices of zinc and lead; the timing and results of exploration and drilling programs; the accuracy of mineral resource estimates; production costs; operating conditions being favourable; political and regulatory stability; the receipt of governmental and third party approvals; licenses and permits being received on favourable terms; sustained labour stability; stability in financial and capital markets; availability of equipment; and positive relations with local groups. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information are set out in the Companys public documents filed at www.sedar.com . Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies 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. 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, 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 TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9b0fcf64-357f-4e48-9c6b-c9a77d770ea2




CANBERRA, Australia and PERTH, Australia, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Palantir Technologies Inc. (Palantir, NYSE: PLTR), a leading builder of operating systems for the modern enterprise, and WesTrac, a leading provider of heavy mobile equipment and aftermarket services to the Australian mining and construction sectors, today announced a partnership to deploy Palantir Foundry across WesTrac's servicing and rebuild operations centres in Perth, Western Australia.

An instance of Palantirs Foundry operating system, as used by Australias WesTrac

The agreement further expands Palantir's work in the Australian industrial sector, adding to its long-term flagship partnership with Rio Tinto. Palantir's Foundry operating system, designed to leverage data for better decision-making across organisations of all sizes, will be used to drive digital transformation and help improve performance at WesTrac workshops, including by reducing work order delays and increasing work order velocity.

WesTrac and Palantir first began collaboration in 2021, and the current formal agreement will eventually expand to include WesTrac workshops in New South Wales.

The use of Palantir's technology will help improve visibility of scheduled work, expand WesTrac's digital twin, improve data discovery across multiple data sources and scale solutions to be delivered across multiple WesTrac workshops. Foundry allows for the integration of siloed data sources into a common operating picture and bridges the full spectrum of data operations. At WesTrac, the technology will for example allow it to anticipate workshop bottlenecks, improve labour allocation, and provide possible solutions or recommendations.

"We are excited to partner with WesTrac on their digital transformation journey and bring Palantir's proven, cutting-edge technology to another emblematic Australian company" said Ashwin Rajan, Head of Commercial for Australia at Palantir. "Palantir Foundry will help transform WesTrac by providing unique insight into its critical operational and manufacturing decisions."

Story continues

"The WesTrac team are delighted to be working with Palantir on a project that will further digitalise our rebuild operations" said Jarvas Croome, Chief Executive Officer of WesTrac. "The solution will unlock capacity and improve work efficiency by optimising steps in the workflow via near real-time information on job status, and by recommending next steps to improve job outcomes. We see this as a key step in the continuation of our journey to deploy data and advanced analytics across our business."

Palantir's software is currently deployed in more than 50 industries, and helps power decisions in some of the most complex data environments in the world including natural resources, manufacturing, finance, and government. Palantir employs more than 50 people in Australia.

About Palantir

Foundational software of tomorrow. Delivered today. Additional information is available at https://www.palantir.com.

About WesTrac

As one of the largest authorised Cat equipment dealers in the world, WesTrac provides customers with a wide range of machinery and construction equipment as well as comprehensive whole-of-life management solutions designed to make owning and operating equipment as easy, profitable and safe as possible. With more than 4,000 team members, WesTrac is dedicated to creating and delivering outstanding value for our team, customers, shareholders and the community. We are committed to excellence and are focused on long-term customer relationships and a dedication to customer service, safety, quality and the environment. Community involvement is an important part of the WesTrac philosophy, and we are proud to support local activities, events and charities in the regions in which we are based. As part of Seven Group Holdings Ltd, WesTrac also has strong alliances with other leading Australian businesses, including Seven West Media, Coates and SITECH.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press 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. These statements may relate to, but are not limited to, Palantir's expectations regarding the amount and the terms of the contract and the expected benefits of our software platforms. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and were based on current expectations as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management as of that time with respect to future events. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties include our ability to meet the unique needs of our customer; the failure of our platforms to satisfy our customer or perform as desired; the frequency or severity of any software and implementation errors; our platforms' reliability; and our customer's ability to modify or terminate the contract. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.

Contacts



Palantir

Lisa Gordon

media@palantir.com

WesTrac

Simon Shepherdson

simon@spokecorporate.com

Palantir logo (PRNewsfoto/Palantir Technologies)

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/palantir-continues-expansion-in-australia-with-westrac-partnership-301670972.html

SOURCE PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Supporters of former president Donald Trump at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Nov. 7, 2022. (Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times)

No, America, there will be no break from politics after Tuesdays results.

That was the takeaway from Donald Trumps announcement Monday that he would be making a very big announcement  almost certainly of a third White House run  next week at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida.

I am terrified, said Liz Lambert, 57, a marketing manager in Scottsdale, Arizona, clutching a coffee cup as she headed to work after casting her ballot at a polling site in Phoenix on Tuesday. This country has been through enough. We need stability and maturity and leadership.

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Walking out behind her just a few minutes later, Vito Corso, 58, a retired business owner originally from California, said he saw the announcement coming and believed another Trump run for the White House will be a good thing.

I think he did a good thing the last time, and I think hell do the right thing this time  again, Corso said.

At polling sites across the country, voters Tuesday reacted with a polarized mix of apprehension, disdain, relief and elation at the news.

In Warren, Michigan, Mike Smith, 58, who voted for Trump in 2016, said he has been anxiously awaiting his return to office.

I hope he comes back sooner than 2024, said Smith, who votes Republican. I still dont accept 2020. Dont call me an election denier, either. Like the man or not, this country was cruising on all cylinders when he was in office. And if you do, thats your right, but I dont think its intellectually honest.

Rick Lombardo, a member of the Democratic State Committee in the Wissinoming section of northeast Philadelphia, said part of him would be indifferent to an announcement that Trump was running again. But he also argued that Trump had damaged the country.

He unleashed the dogs of hate, and now were dealing with that, Lombardo said. If he wants to run thats his perfect right, but I hope he loses and loses bad.

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In Haymarket, Virginia, Gloria Ugbaja, 47, who works in health care management, called the news a simple distraction. She declined to identify her political leanings, only saying that she votes for the lesser of the two, a reference to the phrase lesser of the two evils.

Whether he tries to run or not, it indirectly does not affect what the average American has to do on a daily basis, she said.

Trump has long teased a potential third campaign for president. At recent rallies for Republican candidates in heated battleground races, he has spent much of his time talking up his achievements as president, painting a picture of a nation in chaos since he left office and denouncing the handful of investigations now underway against him.

In Ohio on Monday, Trump foreshadowed his announcement and overshadowed J.D. Vance, the Republican Senate candidate he was there to promote. Im going to be making a very big announcement on Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, he said in the final minutes of his 100-minute speech.

Throughout the midterm campaign, Republican candidates have been running in Trumps mold across the country, advancing his lies that the 2020 election was stolen and ratcheting up his rhetoric against immigrants as well as racial history, gender and sex education in schools. Many hard-fought races could prove a test of the endurance of his brand of no-holds-barred politics.

Amid this landscape, some advisers urged the former president to wait on announcing his run until after Tuesdays election. Other Republicans have expressed support for other potential presidential contenders, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Back outside a polling station in northeast Philadelphia on Monday, Dennis Maragliano, 81, said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, and would do so again in 2024 if Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president.

But Maragliano said he would prefer that DeSantis become the GOP nominee because he has concerns about Trumps political style.

I like the kid from Florida  DeSantis, Maragliano said. He might be a junior Trump, but hes got a little bit more decorum.

 2022 The New York Times Company
FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a mask walks by the Shanghai Stock Exchange building at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) unit said on Wednesday a market data system had resumed normal service following a temporary glitch that had led to abnormal data being supplied to information providers.

In early trading on Wednesday, some investors complained in social media of abnormal data on various stock trading platforms, which affected their investment.

The SSE InfoNet Ltd, which provides data services to SSE, brokerages, and investors, said in a statement that following warning signals generated by its "Level-2" market data system at 9:45 a.m. local time (0145 GMT), the company switched to an emergency backup system, and the services turned normal before afternoon trading.

The "Level-2" system provides more rich and frequent trading information than the traditional "Level-1" system, which the InfoNet said was not affected.

The InfoNet also said that Shanghai market trading was not affected by the system switch, after checking with the SSE.

However, many investors reported their trading platforms crashed or showed abnormal market data in the morning and complained about losses caused by the breakdown. "Indeed, I realized there was a problem after several times of failure to recall my order," commented one user on the Weibo social media platform.

"Can I get my losses refunded?" asked another Weibo user.

This technical glitch came a day after a fat-finger incident in China's financial futures market.

On Tuesday, a CSI 1000 stock index futures contract maturing in November plunged 10% at open.

"After checking, it was due to one customer's unfamiliarity with their trading software," the China Financial Futures Exchange said in a statement.

(Reporting by Jason Xue and Brenda Goh; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
(Adds Kool Boreas) Nov 9 (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 Al Mafyar 261,000 Nov. 6 (A) Qatar South Hook Umm Slal 261,000 Nov. 9 Qatar South Hook Methane Mickie Harper 167,000 Nov. 10 United States Dragon Gaslog Windsor 176,000 Nov. 10 United States Isle of Grain Kool Boreas Nov. 11 N/A 167,000 Dragon Al Khattiya Nov. 12 Qatar 206,000 South Hook Bilbao Knutsen 136,000 Nov. 12 N/A Dragon Gaslog Sydney 154,000 Nov. 13 United States Milford Haven Kool Boreas 167,000 Nov. 13 Chile Dragon LNG Schneeweisschen 177,000 Nov. 14 United States Isle of Grain LNG Enterprise 174,000 Nov. 15 United States South Hook Grace Dahlia 174,000 Nov. 17 United States Milford Haven Qogir 174,000 Nov. 17 United States Isle of Grain LNG Bonny II 173,000 Nov. 18 United States Milford Haven Traiano Knutsen 180,000 Nov. 19 United States Milford Haven Seapeak Bahrain 170,000 Nov. 22 United States Isle of Grain BW Pavilion Leeara 161,000 Nov. 26 United States Isle of Grain LNG Sakura 177,000 Nov. 29 United States Milford Haven Flex Ranger Dec. 3 United 174,000 States South Hook BELGIUM Al Marrouna 149,000 Nov. 9 Qatar Zeebrugge Yenisei River 152,000 Nov. 9 (A) Russia Zeebrugge Yakov Gakkel Nov. 10 Russia 172,000 Zeebrugge Energy Pacific LNG 173,000 Nov. 11 Qatar Zeebrugge Hellas Diana Nov. 14 United 173,000 States Zeebrugge Al Khattiya 206,000 Nov. 17 Qatar Zeebrugge Al Mayeda 262,000 Nov. 19 Qatar Zeebrugge Yari Lng Nov. 23 India Zeebrugge Marvel Pelican 155,000 Nov. 24 Qatar Zeebrugge NETHERLANDS Energy Integrity 170,000 Nov. 8 (STS) Cameroon Gate Stena Crystal Sky 173,000 Nov. 8 Gate Maran Gas Achilles 172,000 Nov. 8 (A) United States Eemshaven Energy Glory 165,000 Nov. 9 (A) United States Gate Lng Dubhe Nov. 9 N/A Gate 174,000 Maran Gas Olympias 173,000 Nov. 10 United States Gate Cubal 160,000 Nov. 14 Angola Gate Seapeak Hispania 137,000 Nov. 19 N/A Gate Maran Gas Ulysses 172,000 Nov. 21 United States Gate Sources: Ports, AIS Live ship tracking, Refinitiv Eikon data. (^) Partial unload (*) Arrival date estimated based on flows data (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin)
TAIPEI, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Taipei Entrepreneurs Hub (TEH) will be hosting its 2022 Demo Day on November 18th at Taipei Expo Park's MAJI Square during the Taipei International Startup Week in which the ten finalists from the two corporate pitch contests will attend. They are: Hepta Protocol (United States), Stratiphy (United Kingdom), Motions Cloud (Germany), Ensuro (Italy), Rootie Robot (Israel), Choose-Eat (Peru), Tsunagaru Edutech (Japan), Hedge SPA (Singapore), TUBUDD (Vietnam), and Soft Solvers Solutions (Malaysia).

Taipei Entrepreneurs Hub Demo Day 2.0

The Department of Economic Development at Taipei City Government stated that in order to assist the city's industrial upgrading with key technologies and research and development energy, and to attract international startups to communicate and collaborate with local enterprises, the "international startup soft landing program was initiated with "TEH" the brand community service platform. Its main purposes are to promote Taipei's startup environment and resources to the global startup community and to strengthen the connections between international startups and enterprises, investors, government, and other related organizations in Taipei. It is hoped that by inviting international startups to Taipei for a Demo Day, the startups could explore potential collaboration opportunities and soft land in Taipei.

Asides from the ten international startup teams, Taipei-registered fintech startup CoolBitX, real estate tech startup JGB Smart Property, and travel tech startup Like It Formosa, will also join for firsthand interactions with the international startups.

The corporate judges believe that the finalists fully demonstrated market potential. Nicholas Yang, Head of Blockchain at Cathay Financial Holdings said that whether it's Hedge SPA's asset management solution, Soft Solvers Solutions' risk assessment solution, or Stratiphy's applications in the field of ESG, and Motion Cloud's solution to digitize the automobile insurance claiming process, all are relevant with what Cathay Financial Holdings are trying to tap into.

Story continues

Ryan Shen, Chief Investment Officer of Lion Travel said that these international teams, such as Rootie Robot and Tsunagaru Edutech, have demonstrated their product value and solid business models through existing case studies; most importantly, the teams' enthusiasm convinced the judges to believe in the visions they painted. Daniel Cheng, Managing Director of NextT Accelerator, also commented that TUBUDD presented a clear value proposition and a strong product, and showed their determination to expand overseas, and that Lion Travel looks forward to collaboration and will be happy to assist in connecting with the Taiwanese tourism community.

Enterprises and investors are welcome to join the Demo Day to see for opportunities. Sign-up now and follow TEH's Facebook page and LinkedIn Profile for the latest information!

SOURCE Taipei Entrepreneurs Hub
Abel Ortiz, a 19-year-old from Panama City, received two life sentences on Tuesday for the 2019 killing of Edward Ross of Panama City Beach.

PANAMA CITY BEACH  A local teen could spend the rest of his life in prison for the first-degree murder and attempted robbery of a Panama City Beach man.

According to a press release from the State Attorney's Office of the 14th Judicial Circuit, 19-year-old Abel Ortiz of Panama City was sentenced Tuesday to serve two life sentences.

Ortiz was found guilty Sept. 22 of being involved in the 2019 murder of 30-year-old Edward Ross of Panama City Beach.

"He was one of three gunman who burst into the Ross home Dec. 29, armed and seeking to rob the victim," the release reads. "Instead, all three shot at (Ross), with (Ortiz) shooting seven times and hitting (Ross) with three bullets, including a final shot to the back."

Ortiz found guilty: Panama City teen found guilty in 2019 murder of Panama City Beach man

Also: Panama City Beach murder trial continues: Another gunman testifies victim grabbed gun

The State Attorney's Office notes Ortiz was armed with a .22-caliber pistol.

The two co-defendants have admitted their roles in the killing, entered pleas and testified against Ortiz. Evidence showed their plan was to rob Ross of money and marijuana. It also showed the three men fired 11 shots, seven of which came from Ortiz.

After the shots were fired, Ortiz and the two others ran to waiting vehicles and fled. It took investigators with the Bay County Sheriff's Office about six weeks to solve the case.

Testimony showed Ortiz told a teacher he killed a man in Panama City Beach before his arrest in February 2020. He also confessed to another witness, along with BCSO investigators.

"Out of the accomplices and shooters, (Ortiz) is the most vicious," Bay County Chief Prosecutor Mark Graham said in the release. "The defendant deserves the same mercy that he showed Edward Ross that night when he leaned over the couch and shot him in the back as he lay helpless on the floor."

Since Ortiz was a juvenile at the time of the crime, he will be eligible for a sentencing review after 25 years, meaning his sentence might be reduced then.

Story continues

The release states Ortiz has a lengthy criminal history, with 13 arrests prior to Ross' killing. Since his arrest in 2020 and turning 18 years old, he has garnered 15 disciplinary actions at the Bay County Jail.

"(Ortiz) continues to demonstrate that he cannot comply with rules and/or direction," Graham said in the release. "(His) extensive juvenile history and the number of juvenile sanctions that were imposed on (him) clearly shows that he has little or no chance to be rehabilitated."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Abel Ortiz of Panama City receives two life sentences for 2019 killing
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2022 / U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank, Wednesday, November 9, 2022, Press release picture

In both military and civilian life, Scott Lippert believes in the power of teamwork. It comes as no surprise, then, that he doesn't take any personal credit for being named to the Twin Cities Business 2022 Notable Military Veteran Executive list.

"What this award truly reflects is the work of the Proud to Serve team and what we've all accomplished," said Lippert, executive vice president for Payment Services Operations, who also leads the U.S. Bank Proud to Serve business resource group (BRG).

Proud to Serve, an employee-led group, plays a leading role in shaping how the company supports military and veteran employees, customers and community members. The group has more than 5,000 members across the country, and its partnership with human resources led to U.S. Bank enhancing its military-related leave for U.S.-based employees earlier this year. The strength of Proud to Serve is one of several reasons cited by Military Times when ranking U.S. Bank as one of the Best for Vets" employers each year since the list debuted in 2010.

The collaboration with Lippert and the Proud to Serve BRG "has enabled us to deliver an optimal experience for our active duty, veteran employees, as well as those who are now retired from the military," said Elcio Barcelos, chief human resources officer at U.S. Bank.

The Twin Cities Business list features "veterans who have forged remarkable civilian careers following their military service." Lippert, a former submarine officer in the Navy, joined U.S. Bank in 2020 to lead the Payment Services Operations team. His team is responsible for customer experience and operations across three lines of business - Retail Payment Solutions, Elavon and Corporate Payments and Treasury Services in the U.S. and Europe.

Lippert's military roots run deep. His father is a retired Vice Admiral who served 38 years in the Navy and his grandfather fought on an aircraft carrier in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of World War II. Lippert's military career included five deployments on the U.S.S. MAINE (SSBN-741), a ballistic missile, nuclear-powered submarine, and a shore tour of teaching nuclear physics at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command.

Story continues

"There are so many practices that I learned and used in the submarine force I use in my day-to-day work, especially in operations," he said.

Lippert's military service has prepared him for the unexpected, like a global pandemic. In March 2020, he wrote a piece for LinkedIn that applied his lessons as a submarine officer on long undersea deployments to the sudden shift people faced in social distancing.

Under Lippert's leadership, Proud to Serve provides personal welcome emails for new veteran and military employees from leaders who are also veterans or servicemembers and a checklist to help them acclimate and connect. The group also provides input into the specialized products and services for veteran and military customers, as well as community initiatives such as partnering with military service organizations to donate off-lease vehicles to veterans and mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans.

It's important to create a work environment that's attractive to veterans and active military, Lippert said, because "veterans bring a diversity of thought that is driven by their unique set of experiences.

"When you have that diversity of thought, you come up with better outcomes for our employees and customers," he said.

Learn more about U.S. Bank here

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from U.S. Bank on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: U.S. Bank

Website: https://www.usbank.com/index.html

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: U.S. Bank





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/724747/US-Bank-Exec-Honored-for-Forging-Remarkable-Career-After-Serving-in-Navy




NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global venous blood collection market size is set to grow by USD 868.11 million from 2021 to 2026, according to Technavio. Moreover, the growth momentum of the market will accelerate at a CAGR of 7.73% during the forecast period. The year-over-year growth rate of the market in 2022 is 5.3%. Use our analysis and insights for effective decision making. Download FREE Sample Report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Venous Blood Collection Market 2022-2026

Market Drivers and Challenges

The increasing prevalence of chronic conditions is driving the venous blood collection market growth. The prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases is growing across the world. The incidence of various types of cancers is also increasing. The number of diagnosed cancer cases is expected to rise from around 16.5 million to 21.3 million between 2017 and 2025. The high incidence of cancer is fueling the demand for cancer screening and diagnoses, which is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period.

The lack of trained professionals is impeding the venous blood collection market growth. The processes involved in blood testing require accurate interpretation of results. Therefore, the process of blood collection should be performed by highly skilled personnel. However, most laboratory technicians are not trained adequately on the latest technologies. As a result, there is a shortage of trained professionals, which increases the probability of incorrect diagnoses. Hence, the shortage of trained professionals will challenge the growth of the venous blood collection market during the forecast period.

Technavio has identified key trends, drivers, and challenges in the market, which will help vendors improve their strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. Buy Now for detailed vendor information

Major Five Venous Blood Collection Companies

Becton Dickinson and Co. - The company offers BD Vacutainer for venous blood collection. The portfolio includes blood collection tubes, needles, holders, and other devices for collecting blood samples.

Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. - The company offers Hemoglobin Capillary Collection System (HCCS) to collect adult capillary blood, additionally adult venous blood, and others.

FL MEDICAL srl Unipersonale - The company offers VACUMED blood collection system for venous blood collection.

Greiner Bio One International GmbH - The company offers VACUETTE for venous blood collection.

ICU Medical Inc. - The company offers Saf-T Wing blood collection set for venous blood collection.

Aptaca Spa

Cardinal Health Inc.

DBO Preanalytical System

Fresenius Kabi AG

Jiangsu KANGJIAN Medical Apparatus Co. Ltd.

Medtronic Plc

Narang Medical Ltd.

Nipro Pharma Packaging International NV

Owen Mumford Ltd.

PreQ Systems

Retractable Technologies Inc.

SARSTEDT AG and Co. KG

Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd.

Terumo Medical Corp.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Story continues

Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights! Subscribe to our Basic Plan billed annually at USD 5000

Venous Blood Collection Market Application Outlook (Revenue, USD mn, 2021-2026)

Vein blood gas sampling - size and forecast 2021-2026

Intraoperative blood salvage - size and forecast 2021-2026

Venous Blood Collection Market Geography Outlook (Revenue, USD mn, 2021-2026)

North America - size and forecast 2021-2026

Asia - size and forecast 2021-2026

Europe - size and forecast 2021-2026

Rest of World (ROW) - size and forecast 2021-2026

Learn about the contribution of each segment summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View a FREE PDF Sample Report

Related Reports

Blood Market by Product, End user, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027: The rising number of hospitals and blood banks is driving the global blood market growth. The number of healthcare providers is increasing. The rising incidence of chronic diseases, medical emergencies, and disease outbreaks due to population growth worldwide is also supporting the expansion of hospitals and patient care centers.

Stem Cell Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The rising prevalence of several chronic disorders is driving the market growth. Chronic diseases are one of the major causes of disability and death globally. Four major chronic diseases are cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Venous Blood Collection Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 7.73% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 868.11 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.3 Regional analysis North America, Asia, Europe, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 37% Key consumer countries US, Canada, Germany, China, and India Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Aptaca Spa, Becton Dickinson and Co., Bio Rad Laboratories Inc., Cardinal Health Inc., DBO Preanalytical System, FL MEDICAL srl Unipersonale, Fresenius Kabi AG, Greiner Bio One International GmbH, ICU Medical Inc., Jiangsu KANGJIAN Medical Apparatus Co. Ltd., Medtronic Plc, Narang Medical Ltd., Nipro Pharma Packaging International NV, Owen Mumford Ltd., PreQ Systems, Retractable Technologies Inc., SARSTEDT AG and Co. KG, Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd., Terumo Medical Corp., and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, 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 Health Care Market Reports

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 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

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 Vein blood gas sampling - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

5.4 Intraoperative blood salvage - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

5.5 Market opportunity by Application

6 Customer Landscape

6.1 Customer landscape overview

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

7.2 Geographic comparison

7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.4 Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.8 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.9 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.10 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.11 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

7.12 Market opportunity by geography

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

9.3 Landscape disruption

9.4 Industry risks

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

10.3 Becton Dickinson and Co.

10.4 Bio Rad Laboratories Inc.

10.5 FL MEDICAL srl Unipersonale

10.6 Greiner Bio One International GmbH

10.7 ICU Medical Inc.

10.8 Medtronic Plc

10.9 Nipro Pharma Packaging International NV

10.10 Owen Mumford Ltd.

10.11 SARSTEDT AG and Co. KG

10.12 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

11.5 List of abbreviations

About Technavio

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.

Contacts

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Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

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Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/

Global Venous Blood Collection Market 2022-2026

Cision

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(UNAUDITED DATA  AUDIT IN PROCESS)

REVENUE AND EBITDA GROWTH ACCELERATION IN Q3

VERY STRONG REVENUE AND RESULTS GROWTH IN THE FIRST 9 MONTHS OF 2022

INTEGRATION OF SUEZ AND EXECUTION OF THE 500M SYNERGY PLAN AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

CONFIRMATION OF ALL 2022 OBJECTIVES WITH AN EBITDA GROWTH AT THE UPPER END OF THE +4% TO +6% GUIDANCE RANGE

9 MONTH REVENUE OF 30 713 M, A VERY STRONG ORGANIC GROWTH OF +13.2 %1, AND OF +7.1 %1 EXCLUDING THE IMPACT OF ENERGY PRICES.

 3rd QUARTER ORGANIC REVENUE GROWTH OF +13.7 %1

 INCREASED VOLUMES IN OUR 3 BUSINESSES, WATER, WASTE, ENERGY

 FAVORABLE IMPACT OF TARIFF INDEXATIONS AND OF OUR PROACTIVE PRICING POLICY

EBITDA OF 4 533 M, UP +5.2 %, AT THE TOP OF THE GUIDANCE RANGE OF +4 % TO +6 % THANKS TO REVENUE GROWTH AND SYNERGY DELIVERY AHEAD OF PLAN :

 98 M OF SYNERGIES ALREADY REGISTERED IN THE 9 MONTHS, vs. AN ANNUAL TARGET OF 100 M

 264 M OF EFFICIENCY GAINS, vs. AN ANNUAL OBJECTIVE OF 350 M

 Q3 ORGANIC EBITDA GROWTH OF +9.4 %2, EXCLUDING Q3 2021 ONE OFF OF 83 M.

CURRENT EBIT OF 2 217 M, VERY STRONG ORGANIC GROWTH OF +19.4 %1

NET FINANCIAL DEBT DOWN BY 351 M AT 30 SEPTEMBER vs. 30 JUNE 2022 EXCLUDING FOREX, THANKS TO 337 M NET FREE CASH FLOW GENERATION IN Q3

CONFIRMATION OF ALL 2022 OBJECTIVES

1 at constant scope and forex

2 at constant scope and forex, excluding the 83M one off OFA reimbursement in Q3 2021 (Valaubia)

PARIS, November 09, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

Veolia Environnement (Paris:VIE):

Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of the Group commented :  After an excellent first half of the year, showing both very strong revenue and EBITDA growth, Veolia continued in Q3 with a similar trajectory with continued very strong growth of all its activities, water, waste and energy. Our tariff indexation business models with municipal clients as well as our strict pricing discipline with industrial clients have enabled us to absorb cost inflation and deliver strong earnings growth. This very good performance is also the result of an integration of Suez ahead of schedule. The implementation of the synergies is a good illustration : with 98 million euros delivered in 9 months, we have already reached our annual target. The speed and fluidity with which the teams of Veolia and Suez have come together and are working together is a great satisfaction. I want to thank all of them for the energy and enthusiasm they show every day in the service of our great ambition to become the world leader of the ecological transformation. These very good results allow us to fully confirm all our 2022 objectives and to be very well positioned for another year of strong growth in 2023. 

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Detailed Key figures as of 30 September 2022

Revenue of 30 713 M in the 9 months 2022, up 49.1 % at constant forex vs. 9M 2021 reported. This very strong growth is derived primarily from the acquisition of Suez, which contributed to revenue growth for 7 128 M.

Compared to 9M 2021 combined Veolia + Suez, organic growth was+13.2 %.

Revenue evolution by effect was as follows :

The following analysis of the Groups activity is based on the combined figures of Veolia and Suez' assets.

Exchange rate effect was +681 M (+2.5 % of combined revenue) reflecting mainly the evolution of the US dollar, Australian dollar, Sterling pound and Chinese Renminbi, partially offset by a decrease of the Polish zloty, Hungarian forint and Latin American currencies1.

Scope effect of -472 M (-1.8 %) included mainly the asset divestitures in Scandinavia in 2021 (-217 M) and, on the Suez side, the asset divestitures in Australia in 2021 and the remedies in the EU (hazardous waste business in France accounted as asset for sale). These negative items were partially offset by the integration of Osis by Sarp (+91 M) in 2021.

The Commerce / Volumes / Works effect reached +763 M (+2.8 %) thanks to good volumes in all businesses, notably in Energy and strong Water technologies and construction activities which strongly accelerated in Q3.

The weather impact was -91 M (-0.3 %). Energy in Central and Eastern Europe was impacted by a milder winter than in 2021, and to a lesser extent, Water in Chile was impacted by a cool summer leading to lower water volumes in Q1.

The energy price impact was +1 658 M (+6.1 %), due to the increase in heat and electricity prices mainly in Central and Eastern Europe.

The recycled materials price impact was +288M, after 244 M in the first half, and came mainly from the increase of recycled papers in France, Germany and the UK.

Service prices continued to be well oriented , leading to a favorable impact of 935 M (+3.5 %), mostly due to tariff indexation mechanisms and service price increases by an average of +4.3 % in waste and +3.4 % in Water.

Revenue at 30 September 2022 progressed across all segments compared with combined figures at September 30, 2021, as in the first half: Revenue for the France and Special Waste Europe segment totaled 7 135 M, with organic growth of +3.2 % compared with September 30, 2021 combined : France Water revenue increased by +1.4 %, due to the positive impact of tariff revisions of +3.8 % at 30 September 2022 and the good level of activity in Q3 with billed volumes up 0.8% compared with +0.3% in the 1st half. France Waste revenue increased by +2.3 %, continuing to benefit from high recyclate prices and the positive impact of tariff revisions, despite a slight decline in volumes year-on-year. Hazardous Waste activities in Europe grew by +5.7 %, with strong commercial development in sanitation and industrial maintenance activities (+4 %),higher prices in oil and lubricant treatment activities in a context of increased oil prices and the positive impact of tariff revisions. SADE reported growth of +4.2 %, thanks to strong commercial momentum in France. Revenue for Europe excluding France totaled 12 498 M at 30 September 2022, an organic growth of +23.4 %, the same pace as in the first half, thanks to energy price increases and good tariff indexations in water in Central and Eastern Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, revenue rose by +34% to 6 185 M. Following on from the first half, activity remained robust in this region driven by: greater positive tariff indexation in energy (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic Slovakia and Romania, and in water (Czech Republic and Romania), and higher (+1.5%) water volumes distributed (Poland and Czech Republic), despite an unfavorable weather effect in Energy in the 1st half 2022 (-91 M). an increase in recycled materials prices and in energy prices in Germany. In Northern Europe , revenue rose +10.7% to 3 760 M. This increase was primarily driven by the United Kingdom and Ireland , which reported revenue growth at constant scope and forex of +10.3% with the favorable impact of recycled materials price (paper and plastics), the increase of electricity prices, the good tariff indexation of PFIs (+7 % on average) and the strong performance of the incinerators (availability rate of 93 %). In Belgium organic growth was +14.5 %, fueled by good operating performances. In Italy , organic revenue growth reached +43 % following the start-up of contracts won in 2021 and the highly favorable effect of energy prices. In Iberia, revenue increased +13.8 %, driven primarily by strong water activities in Spain (Agbar) which enjoyed increased volumes (+2.6 %), as well as by energy activities. In Rest of the World, revenue totaled 8 156 M, representing organic growth of +8.5 % across all geographies, including Asia despite the slowdown in China due to the lockdown policy : Revenue increased +16.1 % in Latin America , driven notably by Chile (+13.8 %) which benefited from favorable water tariff indexations, and by Argentina (+80%). In Africa/Middle East , revenue increased +9.9 %, mainly driven by growth in water contracts in Morocco, thanks to higher volumes and the positive impact of tariff revisions, and the very strong growth of Enova in the Middle East in energy efficiency services. In North America , revenue rose +11.4% to 2 498 M. The growth was mainly driven by robust hazardous waste activities with higher volumes processed and double digit price increases, and in water, by favorable tariff indexation particularly in regulated water activities, good summer volumes and good construction volumes. Revenue increased +2.2% in Asia . The slowdown in growth in China due to the Covid lockdown policy negatively impacted activities, with lower hazardous waste volumes and reduced activity in energy and industrial services. This slowdown was offset by strong growth in other countries and particularly Taiwan (+11.9 %), South Korea (+5 %) and Japan (+5 %). In the Pacific, revenue rose +5.5 %, marked by higher waste collection and landfill volumes. The Water Technologies activity reported accelerated growth of +10.7 %, after +5.3 % in the first half. Veolia Water Technologies recorded a similar growth as in the first half (+6.8 %) and Water Technologies Services grew strongly by +13.1 %, thanks to a good level of activity and price increases notably in chemical products.



The main changes by business compared with combined figures at 30 september 2021 break down as follows:

Water operations revenue increased +7.6 %, to 9 233 M, with good volumes in all geographies and higher tariffs.

Technology and Construction revenue grew +9.4 %, to 4 074 M

Waste revenue increased +8.2 % at constant scope and forex to 11 864 M, benefiting from the continued high levels of recycled material prices (+2.6 % impact after +3.4 % in the first half) for papers and plastics. The upward trend in oil prices and good activity levels had a favorable impact on hazardous waste activities in Europe and North America. Electricity revenues generated by incineration activities increased and favorable tariff revisions were recorded across all geographies (+4.3 % impact after +3.2 % in the first half). The commerce / volume effect is slightly positive. The Group continues its policy of contract selectivity and strict pricing of its offers.

Energy revenue rose +38.5 % at constant scope and forex to 5 943 M. The strong activity growth is driven by positive price effect (+30.3 % after +29.4 % in the first half), notably in Europe, higher volumes distributed, tariff increases in Central and Eastern Europe and strong commercial development, particularly in Italy and the Middle East . The weather effect was slightly unfavorable, at -1.7 % due to a mild winter.

Strong EBITDA growth of +5.2% at constant scope and forex to 4 533 M vs. 4 311 M in 9M 2021 combined: The exchange rate effect was +91 M, +2.1 %, offset by negative scope effect of -92 M (-2.1 %). The strong EBITDA growth was driven by activity growth for +57 M , by efficiency gains for 264 M , in line with the annual target of 350 M, by the merger synergies for 98 M . The synergy delivery is ahead of schedule. The annual target was reached in 9 months. The impact of price increases net of cost inflation and contract renegotiations was -133 M . The weather effect was slightly negative, -40 M . Recycled material prices impact was favorable by +79 M. As a reminder, Q3 2021 EBITDA benefited from a positive one-off of 83 M. In Q3 standalone, EBITDA grew by +9.4 % excluding the 2021 one-off



Very strong growth of Current EBIT, +19,4 % to 2 217 M, at constant scope and forex. The exchange rate effect was +38 M The strong Current EBIT growth (+306 M) was driven by : Increase of EBITDA (+222 M) D&A and provisions (including operating financial assets reimbursements) up 27 M. A favorable impact coming from industrial capital gains net of asset impairments of +88 M vs.+63 M in 2021. IFRS 2 impact of -29 M, stable Share of current net income of JV and associates of +105 M vs. +97 M in 2021.



Net Financial Debt was 22 154 M at 30 September 2022. Free Cash Flow in Q3 generation reached 337 M. Net financial debt is down by 351 M excluding forex compared with 30 June 2022. Controlled net industrial capex of 2 125 M.



******************

Guidance 2022 fully confirmed (1)(2) Solid organic revenue growth Efficiency gains above 350M complemented by 100M of synergies coming from the 1 st year of integration of Suez Organic growth of EBITDA between +4% and +6% Current net income group share around 1.1bn, a growth of more than 20%, confirming the earning per share accretion of around 10% (3) Confirmed 2024 EPS accretion of 40% (3) Leverage ratio around 3x Dividend growth in line with current EPS growth



At constant forex and without extension of the conflict beyond the Ukrainian territory and without significant change in the energy supply conditions in Europe Before PPA Current net income per share after hybrid costs and before PPA

About Veolia

Veolia Group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 220,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2021, the Veolia group provided 79 million inhabitants with drinking water and 61 million with sanitation, produced nearly 48 million megawatt hours and recovered 48 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 28,508 billion euros in 2021. www.veolia.com

Important disclaimer

As the changes in the health crisis are difficult to estimate, we draw your attention to the "forward-looking statements" that may appear in this press release and relating to the consequences of this crisis which may affect the future performance of the Company.

Veolia Environnement is a corporation listed on the Euronext Paris. This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, including but not limited to: the risk of suffering reduced profits or losses as a result of intense competition, the risk that changes in energy prices and taxes may reduce Veolia Environnements profits, the risk that governmental authorities could terminate or modify some of Veolia Environnements contracts, the risk that acquisitions may not provide the benefits that Veolia Environnement hopes to achieve, the risks related to customary provisions of divesture transactions, the risk that Veolia Environnements compliance with environmental laws may become more costly in the future, the risk that currency exchange rate fluctuations may negatively affect Veolia Environnements financial results and the price of its shares, the risk that Veolia Environnement may incur environmental liability in connection with its past, present and future operations, as well as the other risks described in the documents Veolia Environnement has filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers (French securities regulator). Veolia Environnement does not undertake, nor does it have, any obligation to provide updates or to revise any forward looking statements. Investors and security holders may obtain from Veolia Environnement a free copy of documents it filed (www.veolia.com) with the Autorites des Marches Financiers.

This document contains "nonGAAP financial measures". These "nonGAAP financial measures" might be defined differently from similar financial measures made public by other groups and should not replace GAAP financial measures prepared pursuant to IFRS standards.

1Main exchange rate impacts : US $ (+256 M), Australian dollar (+65 M), Sterling pound (+55 M), Czech corona (+56 M), Chinese RenMinBi (+59 M), Polish zloty (-36M), Hungarian forint (-51 M), chilean peso (-18 M), argentine peso (-34).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221108005962/en/

Contacts

Group Media Relations

Laurent Obadia

Evgeniya Mazalova

Tel : + 33 (0)1 85 57 86 25

Investor Relations

Ronald Wasylec - Ariane de Lamaze

Tel. : + 33 (0)1 85 57 84 76 / 84 80
Vision Hydrogen Corporation

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vision Energy Corporation (OTCQB:VIHDD) (Vision Energy or the Company) provides an update on the companys pioneering Green Energy Hub in North Sea Port of Vlissingen, the Netherlands.



Vision Energy, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Evolution Terminals BV, is in the advanced stages of planning for the construction and delivery of Northwestern Europes first import, storage and handling terminal designed exclusively for hydrogen carriers, renewable energy products and low-carbon fuels.

The Company is in advanced development of its 16.4 hectare Vlissingen site, with the Phase 1 development plan investment estimated at EUR 450 million for up to 400,000 cubic meters (CBM) of storage for green and low-carbon products and fuels. The project will include investment in a new deep-water jetty, quay wall redevelopment, truck and rail loading facilities.

Evolution Terminals substantial redevelopment will adopt industry leading sustainable operating practices to reduce emissions from terminal activities. The development, situated on a remediated brownfield site, brings a green and renewable energy business model to the Netherlands at an opportune moment.

The Companys project will be a significant investment in the Port of Vlissingen providing local and regional contractor and employment opportunities for decades. The project also supports North Sea Port Authoritys ambition to become a leader in green and sustainable port operations.

The Company will further assess the feasibility to integrate an Ammonia Cracking Facility at the site, to be connected to the Companys Green Ammonia storage infrastructure, for cracking Green Ammonia to Hydrogen and exploiting the sites close proximity to the future European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB).

The Company would like to thank North Sea Port for their continued support throughout the projects development stages. The Company is scheduled to submit all remaining permits by December 2022, with FID expected towards the end of 2023.

Story continues

About Vision Energy

Vision Energy is an integrated energy company developing assets and solutions for the commercial, industrial and transportation sectors. Leveraging its proven track-record in site and asset procurement, accelerating development and permitting processes, plant design, and grid integration to facilitate low-carbon energy production, supply and distribution. The Company pursues reliable offtake relationships and operating partnerships with energy industry participants and end users seeking carbon abatements across feedstock and fuels. Vision Energy is committed to providing low carbon energy solutions with the highest yield, and where possible, projects are designed to leverage existing gas and power infrastructure to integrate and facilitate import and or distribution of reduced-carbon energy to domestic and global supply chains.

Forward Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as forecast, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect and intend, among others. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and actual results could differ materially. The Company does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date hereof.

Vision Hydrogen Corporation/Investor Relations

95 Christopher Columbus Drive, 16th Floor

Jersey City, NJ 07302

551-298-3600 USA

https://visionh2.com/




Company Logo

Global Food Traceability Market

Global Food Traceability Market

Dublin, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Food Traceability Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global food traceability market reached a value of US$ 16.46 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach a value of US$ 29.22 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 10.04% during 2021-2027.

Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use industries. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Food traceability helps track the movement of a food product and its ingredients through all steps in the supply chain, forward and backward. It involves documenting and linking the production, processing, and distribution of different food products and ingredients. It helps governing authorities in product tracing during the outbreak of a foodborne illness to find the source of the product rapidly and where the contamination may have occurred. This enables faster removal of the affected product from the marketplace, thereby reducing incidences of foodborne illnesses.



Food Traceability Market Trends:



With the growing global supply chain, food safety is becoming a significant concern for consumers and regulators. This, coupled with the increasing number of deaths on account of food contamination, represents one of the key factors bolstering the growth of the market.

Moreover, food traceability is a part of an overall cost-effective quality management system that can also aid in the continuous minimization of the impact of safety hazards. It also facilitates the rapid recall of products and the determination and settlement of liabilities.

Besides this, food traceability aids in building trust and increasing certainty in food processing operations. This, along with the rising requirement for transparent information about the entire food chain, supported by modern tracking and tracing methods, is fueling the growth of the market.

Story continues

Furthermore, there is a rise in the adoption of blockchain technologies in food traceability, which enhances the ability to validate and authenticate food origin and improves brand credibility. Additionally, they help prevent fraud, enhance the capacity to better tackle outbreaks, minimize food testing expenses, and increase margins. This is projected to drive the market in the upcoming years.

Competitive Landscape:



The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Bar Code Integrators Inc., C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., Carlisle Technology, Cognex Corporation, FoodLogiQ, Honeywell International Inc., Impinj Inc., International Business Machines Corporation, MASS Group, OPTEL Group, SGS S.A. and Zebra Technologies Corporation.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global food traceability market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global food traceability market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the technology?

What is the breakup of the market based on the equipment?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global food traceability market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Food Traceability Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Technology

6.1 RFID/RTLS

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Global Positioning System (GPS)

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Barcode

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Infrared

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast

6.5 Biometrics

6.5.1 Market Trends

6.5.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Equipment

7.1 PDA with GPS

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Thermal Printers

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 2D and 1D Scanners

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Tags and Labels

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Sensors

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast

7.6 Others

7.6.1 Market Trends

7.6.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Application

8.1 Meat and Livestock

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Fresh Produce and Seeds

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Dairy Products

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Beverage Products

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast

8.5 Fisheries

8.5.1 Market Trends

8.5.2 Market Forecast

8.6 Others

8.6.1 Market Trends

8.6.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by End User

9.1 Food Manufacturers

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Warehouse/Pack Farms

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Food Retailers

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast

9.4 Government Departments

9.4.1 Market Trends

9.4.2 Market Forecast

9.5 Others

9.5.1 Market Trends

9.5.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Region

11 SWOT Analysis

12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis



14 Price Analysis



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 Bar Code Integrators Inc.

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2 C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.

15.3.2.1 Company Overview

15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2.3 Financials

15.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.3 Carlisle Technology

15.3.3.1 Company Overview

15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.4 Cognex Corporation

15.3.4.1 Company Overview

15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.4.3 Financials

15.3.5 FoodLogiQ

15.3.5.1 Company Overview

15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.6 Honeywell International Inc.

15.3.6.1 Company Overview

15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.6.3 Financials

15.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.7 Impinj Inc.

15.3.7.1 Company Overview

15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.7.3 Financials

15.3.8 International Business Machines Corporation

15.3.8.1 Company Overview

15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.8.3 Financials

15.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.9 MASS Group

15.3.9.1 Company Overview

15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.10 OPTEL Group

15.3.10.1 Company Overview

15.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.11 SGS S.A.

15.3.11.1 Company Overview

15.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.11.3 Financials

15.3.12 Zebra Technologies Corporation

15.3.12.1 Company Overview

15.3.12.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.12.3 Financials

15.3.12.4 SWOT Analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/a8hn40

Attachment

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




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Fredericksburg City Council on Tuesday approved a comprehensive agreement paving the way for construction of a new middle school to begin this spring, with an anticipated opening in August 2025.

The agreement is a contract between the School Board and First Choice, LLC, the public-private partnership selected by the school division to design and build the new school. City Council, as the elected body that appropriates funding for the school division, must formally approve the agreement.

Deputy school superintendent Matt Eberhardt said the new school is critical to supporting our students and their families.

According to recent Census data, Fredericksburg is the 11th fastest growing locality in Virginia, he said. This growth is putting a great deal of pressure on our school system and its facilities. Without a new school, we will not be able to serve our citizens adequately or provide a 21st-century education to our students. 

Council voted 61 to approve the agreement, with at-large member Matt Kelly voting against it.

Kelly has voiced concerns about the cost of the school throughout the process of negotiating the comprehensive agreement and determining funding sources.

On Tuesday he said he still doesnt feel he has all the information he needs about the fiscal impact of the project, including the operating and transportation costs of the new school.

I am not saying there is not a capacity issue, Kelly said. I am not in any way jumping on our teachers, but they have some significant challenges, and those challenges are not going to be dealt with in bricks and mortar. Going down this road is going to tie our hands on being able to deal with these issues.

The other six council members expressed their support for the new middle school, which will allow WalkerGrant Middle School to be converted into a third elementary school.

This is a necessary step for our elementary school-aged children, said Jason Graham, who was a member of the joint city-schools task force that in 2021 recommended building a new middle school to meet capacity challenges. This new middle school is to provide us with a third elementary school. We currently have two of the largest elementary schools in the state.

Graham said that studies show the learning environment matters at the elementary age.

One of the things [council member Kerry Devine] and I learned is that specifically, the size of the school has a material and significant impact on student performance in grades K5, he said. That is the problem we are looking to solve right off the bat, which the size of a school has been shown to do.

The new 140,000-square-foot school, which will be located in the Idlewild neighborhood, will accommodate 1,100 students.

As part of the comprehensive agreement, City Council approved a contract cost limit of $77 million. Assistant city manager Mark Whitley told council members that a guaranteed maximum price will be determined based on 90 percent of the design being completed and the numberwhich will be equal to or lower than the contract cost limitwill be available in April.

Council has approved issuing bonds to pay for $58 million of the construction cost. The remainder will come from city and school funds.

One source of funding is still unclear. Staff initially built in an estimate of about $7 million from a new statewide grant program for school construction and modernization.

Whitley said staff were originally confident the project would be eligible to receive 10% of the total cost from the grant program, based on language in the state budget approved by the General Assembly. However, the Board of Education in October released draft guidelines for grant eligibility that muddied the waters, he said.

School division deputy superintendent Matt Eberhardt said both the city and schools are putting on a full court press, enlisting lobbyists, two former secretaries of education, local legislators and the Virginia Association of School Superintendents to raise concerns about the draft guidelines and position [the middle school] project to receive funding this year or next year.

Whitley said city staff are working on a plan to make good on that $7 million if state funding does not come in.
Riding a wave of Northern Virginia votes, Rep. Abigail Spanberger won the 7th District election Tuesday.

With 98% of the vote in Wednesday afternoon, Spanberger held a 4% lead140,183 to 129,370, according to unofficial results.

Republican candidate Yesli Vega conceded the election early Wednesday afternoon.

Vega, a Prince William County supervisor, tweeted her thanks to supporters and congratulated Spanberger for a hard fought win, adding that she looks forward to working with the congresswoman.

In her victory speech late Tuesday at the Old Silk Mill in Fredericksburg, Spanberger thanked her supporters, staff and family.

She told them the nation was built on an idea, a dream, a promise. And our nation has faced challenges, shortcomings and hardships. But the quality of the American people and the strength of our abiding character and institutions have carried us through.

Spanbergers supporters started arriving at the Old Silk Mill when the polls closed Tuesday at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

They were hoping to see Spanberger repeat her 2018 win for the 7th District, this time against a different Republican opponent and in a completely different district.

This 7th District was redrawn after the Census, and now includes a large portion of Prince William, Fredericksburg, and all of Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline, Orange, Culpeper, Madison and Greene counties, as well as a small northwestern slice of Albemarle County.

The showdown between Spanberger and Vega was considered a bellwether for the political fortunes of each party. The Cook Political Report rated Virginias 7th District as a tossup.

Vega led most of the night, but the late counts swept Spanberger to the win.

The Republican challenger won six of the Fredericksburg areas seven precincts, with a total of 95,359 votes, according to the unofficial results. The city was the lone precinct won by Spanberger.

While Spanberger didnt win over a majority of voters in Stafford and Spotsylvania, the margins proved closer than expected.

Some in the crowd at the Old Silk Mill expressed surprise with Staffords results in particular, where Vega picked up 28,494 votes to Spanbergers 28,013. In Spotsylvania, Vega earned 29,103 votes and Spanbergers pulled in 25,040.

Prince William, where Vega is a supervisor, decided the race for Spanberger. She tallied 52,445 votes in the county compared to Vegas 24,795, according to the unofficial results.

Fredericksburg-area voters head to the polls to select 7th District representative Cool temperatures and a total lunar eclipse greeted the first voters to arrive at the polls 

As the vote tallies came in Tuesday, the crowd grew at the silk mill. Attendees started to pay more attention to election coverage on the big screen and on their phones.

Despite Spanberger trailing Vega early on, the mood remained upbeat at the gathering, with occasional cheers for Democrats leading or winning other races across the country.

About 10 p.m., whoops started popping up as Spanberger caught and passed Vega in the vote count.

Marcy Edwards made the trip with her husband from Culpeper to attend the Fredericksburg event. She held a Spanberger sign as she milled about with friends. Like many others in the crowd, she started to hear the buzz that Spanberger had won, according to the unofficial results.

Edwards said the country needs someone like Spanberger, whom she called an independent, someone who works across the aisle.  Thats whats gonna make America great again.

Former 28th District House of Delegates representative Joshua Cole was in attendance, saying he was there to see Spanberger win the seat.

Im a little surprised, but Im excited about the surprise. It was tight, but it was right, Cole said, who added that her bipartisanship will help her get key work done for Virginia, even if were not in the majority.

In her victory speech, Spanberger cited a quote attributed to Ben Franklin, who said the Continental Congress had given America a republic if you can keep it.

We must all work hard to keep it through our actions, through our votes, through our volunteerism and through our participation as citizens, Spanberger said.

We must commit ourselves to the cause of our country, to the communities we live in and our neighbors, whether they align with us politically or not, and to our great country, she added. Our children and our grandchildren deserve that.
A Spotsylvania County man pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge Monday for his role in a scheme in which hundreds of thousands of dollars was fraudulently obtained from the government and others, court records show.

Eric Wilhoit II, 28, will face the possibility of up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 25 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

According to federal court records, Wilhoit and several codefendants engaged in a complicated scheme that netted between $550,000 and $3.5 million dollars. The scheme involved mail theft, bank fraud and pandemic unemployment benefits.

Wilhoits siblings, Odyssey Wilhoit, 23, and Jeremiah Wilhoit, 26, and his cousin, 26-year-old Jeremiah Wilhoit, were all been indicted as part of the scheme. Jaleai Morrison, 23, of Temple, Ga. pleaded guilty and will also be sentenced Jan. 25.

Court records state that between December 2020 and March 2021, Eric Wilhoit fraudulently applied for and received pandemic benefits by using the names and information of identity theft victims. The conspirators used illegally obtained arrow keys to open mailboxes in Northern Virginia and elsewhere and stole such things as checks, bank records and tax information. The group altered the checks and deposited them in accounts the money was not intended for and used ill-gotten information to apply for and receive benefits.

Odyssey Wilhoit continued her bank fraud scheme at least through July of this year, court records allege.

Eric Wilhoit admitted in court that he instructed the others on how to make the phony claims and used anonymous email addresses as part of the scheme. He said he and others made significant cash withdrawals and bought luxury goods with the benefits, such as a diamond ring.

Court records state that Wilhoit led law enforcement on a high-speed chase when they were attempting to arrest him, resulting in a crash with his minor children in the backseat.

Between May 2020 and January of this year, court records state, the Virginia Employment Commission paid at least $665,000 to the defendants. Seized from an apartment in McLean in March 2021 as part of the investigation were checks, bank and tax records belonging to others, a stolen USPS arrow key and $50,000 in cash.
All three of the cities in Burt County will see new mayors take office soon.

Voters in Tekamah, Oakland and Lyons chose new leadership through the electoral process Nov. 8.

The changeover started early. Following the count of early voted ballots, challenger Jane Walford held an 82-38 lead over Tekamahs incumbent mayor Ron Grass. The lead stood up throughout the night as Walford emerged with a 435-247 win.

Walford said the nearly 2-to-1 majority represents a group who are excited to see where we can go.

She also said she knows she also represents the people who didnt vote for her.

My job is to get them to trust us and get behind whats happening, she said. They voted, too. I wont be ignoring them.

She said effective communication is the number-one thing to help establish that kind of trust. She said she plans to be in the city office often. Her e-mail address and phone number both are readily available to the public.

Walford is scheduled to take office Dec. 8. She said her number-one priority is to get control of meetings and set a better, positive tone.

It wont be a free-for-all. It wont be a yell-fest, she said. Were going to sit and talk about issues like adults.

Expectations on how the city administration and the citys workforce conduct themselves in public also will be addressed.

We have such an amazing city crew, she said. We have terrific people working for us. I just want to reinforce where were going and how we can all help get us there.

In Oakland, Dan Jake Jacobs defeated incumbent mayor Ted Beckner 334-200. The two had faced each other four years ago with Beckner claiming a narrow 298-282 win.

Former Lyons City Council member Kyle Brink stepped up to mayor, defeating Erin Mockler 228-104. Longtime mayor Andy Fuston declined to seek a fifth term.

The county saw 2,858 of its 4,926 registered voters, 58 percent, cast ballots through the close of business on election day.

Election officials saw 348 ballots cast prior to the opening of the polls Tuesday morning. More than one-third of that count, 120, voted in Tekamahs mayoral race.

The county exceeded the 53 percent statewide turnout Tuesday night and pushed the nearly 62 percent who showed up locally four years ago. The turnout trailed the 2012 elections when nearly two-thirds of the countys voters flocked to the polls. In 2016, when a school consolidation issue drove the voting, 73 percent of the electorate cast ballots.

Vote totals remain unofficial until the canvassing board meets in the next week to certify the results.

Walfords run for mayor vacated a seat representing the West Ward on Tekamahs city council. That seat will be filled by newcomer Joel Bacon who posted a 262-63 win over challenger Jessica Russell. The results mirrored the primary election when Bacon was a 151-28 winner in a race that trimmed the field from three candidates down to two.

On the east side of town, incumbent Kelly Adamson turned back a write-in challenge from Lisa Thompson, 212-66.

Tekamah-Hermans Board of Education will see all three incumbents return when a new board is seated in January.

In Ward 2, representing the districts voters in rural Burt County, Paul Potadle and Bill Skinner kept their seat despite a challenge from write-in candidate Donnette Smith. Skinner, led the voting with 952 votes, including 158 cast in Washington County. Seats on the board are nominated by ward but elected at-large. Potadle tallied 788 while Smith was credited with 21 of the 52 write votes recorded.

In the race for the Ward 3 seat, representing Tekamah city voters, Sheryl Stansberry easily defeated write-in challenger Shawn Qualley, 1,044-22. That race saw 34 write-in votes cast.

Voters in the countys Supervisor District 1 unseated incumbent Democrat Kevin Tobin in favor of Republican Sam Titus. 263-151. Tobin was appointed to the seat in February following the death of longtime supervisor Cliff Morrow.

Titus wont be the only new face on the county board.

District 5, the area around Lyons, will be represented by Jeff Kutchera. A newcomer, Kutchera was unopposed for the seat after winning the Republican primary in the spring. He will replace incumbent Democrat Dale Webster who chose not to seek a second term.

In District 3, Democrat Ted Connealy ran without opposition for his third term. In Supervisor District 7, which mostly covers south-central Burt County, incumbent Republican Carl Pearson was unopposed in his bid for a second term.

Elsewhere in the courthouse, all seven of the countys officers ran without opposition.

The most senior official, County Surveyor Fred Franklin, a Republican, won his sixth term. District Court Clerk Michele Quick, a Democrat, won her fifth term in office.

Another Republican, County Clerk Sarah Freidel, won her third term. County Treasurer Robin Olson, also a Republican, won her second term as County Treasurer.

County Assessor Katie Hart, Sheriff Eric Nick and County Attorney Edmond Talbot, all Republicans, won their first terms in office.

Incumbent Mike Williams was returned to the Burt County Public Power District Board of Directors after earning 1,449 votes, including 1,068 in the county. Challenger John Helzers bid to unseated the other incumbent in the pick-two race, Greg Johnson, came up just short, 1,421-1,343. Helzer held a 1,011-937 lead inside Burt County, but returns from the rest of the district pushed Johnson back in front.

Diane Pelan-Johnson, Marilee Groth, Aaron Anderson and Brett Johnson all were expected to win seats on the Oakland-Craig school board. Tuesday nights results did not include vote counts from O-C patrons in Cuming and Dodge counties. Pelan-Johnson led all candidates with 636 votes; Johnson picked up 598 votes in the pick-four race. Groth netted 589 votes and Anderson 588.

On Oaklands city council, Scott Swenson earned one of the two available seats with 435 votes. Amy Denker Rost won the other as one of five write-in candidates in the race. She netted 83 votes, eight votes clear of the next closest candidate, Michael Blanc.

Chad Brehmer, Evan Myers, Jim Vlach, Jaime Bacon and April Archer all were re-elected to the Lyons-Decatur school board.

Tyler Vacha and Kyle Phillips won the two open seats on the Lyons City Council. Vacha led the four candidates in the running with 191 votes.

Voters in Decatur returned incumbent Wayne Hightree to the village board. He polled 128 votes in the pick-two race. The only other candidate in the race, Michael Klatt, was second with 109.

Craig voters sent political newcomer Elizabeth Moseman and incumbent Jean Meyer to the village board. They were the only candidates in the pick-two race.

In Herman, voters sent Larry Hansen, LJ Hawkins and Levi Wofford to the village board.

Voters in Burt County helped send District 16 State Sen. Ben Hansen back to the Unicameral by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. Hansen, a Blair businessman, was a 1,515-692 winner over challenger Connie Petersen. Throughout the district, which also includes Washington, Cuming and part of Stanton counties, Hansen was a 9,718-4,108 winner.

The county also went havily in favor of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Pillen. County voters cast 2,019 votes for Pillen compared to the 635 cast for Democrat challenger Carol Blood. Statewide, Pillen won 387,662-228,094.
Gigi Jensen could see a difference between numbers of voters casting ballots during the Midterm Elections on Tuesday and those who voted during the May primaries.

By 11:50 a.m., 120 voters in the Platte West precinct had already cast ballots, said Jensen, a poll worker at Christensen Field on the west end of Fremont.

Across town, poll workers at First Lutheran Church were busy, too. Voters from three precincts  4D, C1 and Elkhorn  quietly filed into a room in the church.

At the present time, weve had 157 at Precinct 4D, said poll worker Marv Steffensmeier, noting that it was 11:11 a.m. It was very steady all morning.

Steffensmeier said voter turnout had been good.

Its an amazing turnout, agreed fellow poll worker Mary Prokop.

In the center of town, poll worker Mollie Brown said 68 voters in Precinct 3E had cast ballots in the annex building of Salem Lutheran Church.

Its been real steady, said poll worker Donna Church Tuesday morning.

Poll worker Linda Woodman pointed out another factor affecting voter turnout at Salem.

I think we had close to 70 absentees (early voting) ballots, Woodman said.

Jensen pointed out the difference between voter turnout for the Midterm Elections compared to the primaries last spring.

There was such an abysmal turnout that we were reading books to try to keep busy to pass the time, Jensen said of the primaries. Weve had as many people thus far at 11:50, than we had almost in the whole of the Election Day in May.

Information from the Dodge County clerks website indicated that 31% of voters turned out for the Primary Election.

Jensen believes its important for people to vote.

If you have an opinion on whats going on in your country, you need to vote to try to get the people in office that you think can do the best job or to get the people out of office that you think are not doing a good job, Jensen said.

Steffensmeier told why he thought Midterm Election voter turnout had been good.

I think its because politics are in the news all the time and I think theres a lot of controversies going on, Steffensmeier said.

Jensen expressed similar thoughts.

Theres a lot of hot button issues, Jensen said.

In Nebraska, voters were casting ballots to decide whether U.S. Rep Mike Flood, a Republican, would retain his 1st Congressional seat or if challenger Patty Pansing Brooks, a Democrat, would claim it.

Nebraska voters also were deciding whether the next governor would be Republican Jim Pillen or Democrat Carol Blood or Libertarian Scott Zimmerman.

Voters in Dodge County were casting ballots in the county attorney and county clerk races. They also cast ballots in county supervisor races, one of which was contested. In Fremont, candidates were vying for spots in four city council races.

Also on the ballot was Initiative 432 asking if the states constitution be amended to require voters to present valid photographic identification and Initiative 433 asking that the minimum wage be incrementally increased from the current $9 an hour to $15 by January 2026.

The ballot also included a constitutional amendment authorizing political subdivisions owning or operating an airport to expand revenues to encourage development of new or expanded regularly scheduled commercial passenger air service.

Poll workers continued to smile and hand out ballots to voters throughout the day.

For those like Charlotte Young, serving as a poll worker was a new experience.

Young enjoyed serving alongside Jensen and other poll workers at Christensen Field.

I think its pretty exciting, Young said as she watched voters come to the polls. Its good to see people believe its important to be here.
CIIE turns more exhibitors into investors

15:39, November 08, 2022 By Ge Mengchao ( People's Daily

At a "From Exhibitors to Investors" subsection of the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), German cleaning manufacturer Karcher showcased how and why it has been attracted to the Chinese market.

In 2019, the German company set up its Chinese headquarters in Changshu, east China's Jiangsu Province, with an investment of 380 million yuan ($52.47 million). A year later, it inked a strategic investment and cooperation agreement with its Chinese partners and jointly built an R&D and production base.

This year, it invested another 100 million yuan in building a global research center that covers 13,000 square meters in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, for better development in the Chinese market.

Photo taken on Nov. 5, 2022 shows the Intelligent Industry and Information Technology exhibition area of the fifth China International Import Expo. (People's Daily/Zhang Wujun)

The CIIE led Karcher to the Chinese market, said Tang Xiaodong, president of Karcher Greater China. The huge dividends and spillover effect of the event are a major reason for the German company to have joined all the five sessions of the exhibition and expanded its exhibition area year by year, he added.

The company will establish an experienced team of battery development and work closely with its headquarters to provide more professional and competitive battery solutions for global consumers, according to Tang.

The "From Exhibitors to Investors" subsection, which is set up for the first time this year at the CIIE, covers a total area of over 6,000 square meters and is joined by more than 30 exhibitors, including many globally renowned enterprises.

Gu Wenqian, a CIIE staff member at the new subsection, told People's Daily that the newly established exhibition area comprehensively showcases the CIIE's spillover effect of how exhibits have turned into hot commodities and how exhibitors have turned into investors and business partners. The subsection reviews the common progress of exhibitors and the CIIE over the past five years, she noted.

More and more CIIE exhibitors are turning into investors and taking root in the investment hotspot of China.

A model of the Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines program is exhibited at the booth of General Motors at the fifth China International Import Expo, Nov. 5, 2022. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

Apart from setting up a thematic exhibition booth, Japanese beauty company Shiseido is also showcasing its investment and innovation results it has achieved in China over the past 40 years at the "From Exhibitors to Investors" subsection.

"The CIIE is unquestionably the best platform where we showcase our core strategies and important innovation achievements. It has created a huge space for communication and a huge spillover effect for enterprises," said Shiseido China CEO Kentaro Fujiwara.

He noted that the Chinese market will play a more and more important role in leading the beauty company's innovation and growth in its mid- and long-term development, expressing his hope that the company can keep showcasing its frontier technologies, new products and new brands at the CIIE.

A visitor takes photos of a humanoid robot developed by Tesla at the automobile exhibition section of the fifth China International Import Expo, Nov. 5, 2022. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

Danish multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, from joining the first CIIE, has so far completed a number of investments and optimized its industrial chains in China. Between 2019 and 2021, it invested over 500 million yuan in its factory in north China's Tianjin municipality, introducing three production lines for pre-filled pen injectors. Last year, it invested another $150 million in China to expand its production capacity and build a digital factory.

"As an old friend of the CIIE, Novo Nordisk benefits from the spillover effect of the CIIE. Our innovative medicines have turned from exhibits to commodities, and the company also turned from an exhibitor to an investor," said Zhou Xiaping, senior vice president of Novo Nordisk.

According to her, the company is displaying 18 innovative drugs and 10 injector devices at the fifth CIIE. It hopes to expand its "circle of friends" and better serve Chinese patients of diabetes and other chronic diseases through the important platform.

"Our determination to develop in the Chinese market and invest in China will never change," she said.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Du Mingming)
Erik Kuhn and Jennifer Gimbel are Terry J. Stevinson Fellows at Common Sense Institute, a non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Colorados economy.
A ballot question asking to legalize recreational marijuana sales in Cripple Creek was passing by growing margins Wednesday.

Unofficial voting results last posted on the Colorado secretary of state's website just after 3 p.m. Wednesday showed the question that would allow retail marijuana shops to open was passing with 244 votes to 169 against. The question also was tied to additional taxes and fees that must be approved for new shops to open, which was passing with 218 votes to 193 votes against.

Votes in favor of both initiatives were steadily gaining throughout the day on Wednesday after the question was too close to call Tuesday night.

The Cripple Creek Casino Association backed the legalization of retail pot sales in Cripple Creek to help boost and diversify the city's revenue so it wouldn't have to rely so heavily on its casinos, Kyle Blakely, a spokesman for the campaign, has previously said. Cripple Creek's budget depends heavily on revenue from tourism and its casinos, and money from gaming device fees hasn't rebounded back to pre-pandemic levels, even though the City Council increased device fees in April.

Opponents of legalizing recreational marijuana in Cripple Creek have said the city is too small to address the emergency, law enforcement and public health needs they say would follow if voters approved the measure.

If voters in the small gold-mining and casino community of around 1,200 residents approve the initiative, Cripple Creek would be the first Teller County municipality to allow marijuana sales.

Meanwhile, voters in Colorado Springs rejected recreational marijuana and Palmer Lake approved it, according to the latest unofficial results.
Voters appeared poised to give new terms to nearly all of the 135 judges who stood for retention this year across the state.
After a campaign clouded with controversy, Republican and El Paso County Undersheriff Joe Roybal pulled ahead in a midterm race for the new El Paso County Sheriff.

Preliminary results showed Roybal with 59.11% of the vote in the county, outpacing Democrat John Foley comfortably, with Foley garnering 40.89% of the total vote.

"I am feeling very excited," Roybal said. "We expect that lead to grow as the votes are counted."

Roybal will replace current El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder who has served as the county's sheriff since 2014. Roybal has been a member of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office since 1995.

During Roybal's campaign, he was called upon by El Paso County Republican Party Chairwoman Vickie Tonkins to withdraw from the race for violating Colorado election law when he allowed a local shooting range owner in February to offer a $5 discount at his shooting range to entice voters to sign Roybals petition to get onto the GOP primary ballot.

Ultimately, Roybal was permitted to stay in the election despite the campaign violation.

Roybal's campaign focused on adding new programs and incentives to bolster the number of deputies in the department, and on the quality of those deputies, and to expand the facilities and equipment used by the department.

"The increasing population of El Paso County must have an equally increasing law enforcement presence and service," Roybal told The Gazette in October.

Roybal stated an additional goal of his if elected would be to "address bad legislation such as reducing penalties for fentanyl and efforts to discredit and disarm our police forces."

In recent years, the sheriff's office has been peppered with lawsuits at a time of shifting public opinion about law enforcement.

One of the foremost lawsuits involved a $65,000 settlement in a federal class-action from the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado on behalf of six El Paso County jail inmates who alleged Elders disordered, mismanaged policies led to a COVID-19 outbreak that sickened more than 1,000 inmates and was the largest outbreak among Colorado jails and prisons.

As for Foley, his campaign centered around changing how the department recruits new deputies to the department and implementing programs to retain deputies within the department.

"Recruitment and retention are fundamentally broken in the Sheriffs Department," Foley told The Gazette. "As a leader, I will use my decades of experience as a senior leader in Army recruiting to fix this issue."

Another priority Foley intended to address was the county jail and its operating procedures.

"As for the jail, its turned into the largest mental health facility in Colorado, and this needs to change," Foley said. "We need to get out of the mental health business and focus on fighting crimes and illegal drug networks."
Republican incumbent Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs will represent Colorado's 5th congressional district for another term, according to an Associated Press race call Tuesday night.

Lamborn, who first assumed the office in 2007, garnered 55.9% of the vote compared to Democratic challenger David Torres' 40.9%, Libertarian Brian Flanagan's 2.2% and American Constitution candidate Christopher Mitchell's 1%, unofficial voting results from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office showed.

On his campaign website, Lamborn described himself as "a strong voice for the conservative values of his district," saying he will advocate for the free market and "has never voted for a tax increase."

Lamborn has also said he will defend the Second Amendment as well as religious freedom, supports the military, wants to use American energy to create jobs and lower energy bills and cut government spending.

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"I will continue to fight for conservative, constitutional and traditional values," Lamborn wrote on his campaign website. "I will work hard for the people of the 5th congressional district, for our men and women in uniform, and for a bright and prosperous future for America."
Voters rejected recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs, allowed them in Palmer Lake and it was too close to call in Cripple Creek, in early returns Tuesday night.

In Colorado Springs it was a victory for recreational marijuana opponents with 57% of city voters opposing a measure that would have allowed existing medical marijuana shops to transition to selling recreational cannabis if they choose.

Voters approved a special 5% tax on recreational marijuana sales in the city, with 52% of voters supporting the tax. The revenue from the tax would have funded veterans services, mental health supports and public safety. The city would have distributed those funds to other agencies because it does not provide them directly.

In Palmer Lake, the vote was 55% to 45% in favor of allowing the two existing medical marijuana shops to transition to recreational sales.

While in Cripple Creek, the race was too close to call. It was failing 90 votes to 81 close to 10 p.m. The question was is also tied to additional taxes and fees that must be approved for new shops to open, which were also failing, 102 votes to 68.

Mayor John Suthers said initial polling showed the marijuana question in Colorado Springs would pass by a significant margin, but a voter education campaign on high potency marijuana and its connection to homelessness was highly effective and helped change minds particularly among those over 40 years old.

"I am very proud of the voters. I think they are very discerning," he said.

He said the defeat of recreational marijuana sales would put the city on a better trajectory and help avoid some of the negative impacts that Denver has seen. He also expected medical marijuana shops in town to close in the coming years.

The opposition to the marijuana question in Colorado Springs saw a flood of spending late in the campaign season with a committee called Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition raising $721,000 to oppose the question and spending $695,900 on it, campaign filings with the city show. A large portion of the spending, at least $350,000, went into television ads. The campaign also spent heavily on digital and radio ads, as well as door-to-door canvassing. The committee had not reported any fundraising or spending until Nov. 4.

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Proponents of the marijuana question raised about $376,016.57 and spent about $308,140 on the campaign. The campaign spent at least $194,500 on television and media ads, city campaign filings show. Proponents of the question also expected medical marijuana shops to close if the questions didn't pass because of a new state law limiting the quantity of medical marijuana concentrate that can be purchased in one day, revising the limit down from 40 grams to 8 grams, among other changes.

In Palmer Lake, after voters defeated a string of questions asking to legalize recreational marijuana sales in recent years, the sales finally won voter approval.

Dino Salvatori, owner of Palmer Lake Wellness Center, a medical marijuana shop, called the victory in Palmer Lake "surreal" after a handful of losses. This time the message was focused on needed revenue for the town and Salvatori said he felt that made the difference.

"Everybody stuck to the message and made it about revenue," he said.

Town board members sent the marijuana question to voters to help support basic services. The community tied the marijuana question to its property tax question, promising if they both passed that property tax increases would be far lower. In a previous election, a special tax on recreational marijuana was approved that will contribute to town coffers.

The property tax failed in Palmer Lake, meaning the town will likely have to work harder on economic development to support the quality of life that people expect, such as snow plowing, said Darin Dawson, an outgoing town board member.

"Can we still be us but raise our economic standing a little bit so we can (be) more self sufficient?" he asked.

In Cripple Creek, the question was backed by the Cripple Creek Casino Association to help diversify the town's revenue so the community wouldn't have to rely so heavily on the casinos, said Kyle Blakely, a spokesman for the campaign. Ahead of early returns Blakely said he didn't have any polling to rely on to show how the small electorate was feeling.

The town tied a question asking voters to raise taxes and fees on marijuana to another question allowing for marijuana shops to open. At about 10 p.m., the additional taxes and fees were failing by 34 votes.

The question that would allow for two medical marijuana shop licenses and two recreational shop licenses was also failing 90 votes to 81 votes, in early returns.

Blakely said he expected hundreds of more votes to be tallied in town based on the last gubernatorial race and those could swing the outcome.
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As Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet celebrated reelection, incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert remained locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger Adam Fisch for the states 3rd Congressional District.

Frisch held a 2.5 percentage point lead over Boebert with 51.25% of the vote to the Republican's 48.75%. The race remained tight, separated by fewer than 7,000 votes as of 11:30 p.m. Read more here.

Meanwhile, El Paso County voters split regionally on recreational marijuana use. Colorado Springs voters rejected the measure that would have allowed existing medical marijuana shops to sell recreational cannabis while Palmer Lake was in favor, early returns show. The race in Cripple Creek remains too close to call.

Polis, a Democrat, won the race with 58.2% to Republican Ganahl's 39.8% with two-thirds of the votes counted. Read more here.

Bennet, also a Democrat, unofficially won his race against challenger Joe O'Dea with 55.5% of the vote to O'Dea's 42%. Read more here.

The Associated Press called victories for Polis and Bennet relatively early Tuesday night, and also called a victory for incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado's 5th Congressional District, which includes Colorado Springs. Lamborn had 55.8% of early return votes. Read more here.

Click or tap here for the latest results

Follow this thread for live updates on each race: #Election2022 pic.twitter.com/KDIdNewhN2  The Gazette (@csgazette) November 9, 2022

Here are more updates.

Weiser holds double-digit lead in Colorado attorney general's race

Voters on Tuesday appear poised to give Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser a second term, based on the unofficial results.

As of 10:49 p.m., Weiser has just under an 11 percentage point lead over his Republican challenger, John Kellner, for the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

Colorado Treasurer Dave Young leading race for re-election

Democrat Dave Young is on course to serve a second four-year term as Colorado State Treasurer, the unofficial election results on Tuesday night show.

Young is leading against his Republican challenger, former state Rep. Lang Sias, in a 53.6% to 43.5% vote with an estimated 64% of ballots counted as of 10:38 p.m. Tuesday, according to the AP. Libertarian candidate Anthony Delgado is in third place with 2.9% of votes.

El Paso County voters split regionally on recreational marijuana sales

Voters rejected recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs, allowed them in Palmer Lake and it was too close to call in Cripple Creek, in early returns Tuesday night.

In Colorado Springs it was a victory for recreational marijuana opponents with 57% of city voters opposing a measure that would have allowed existing medical marijuana shops to transition to selling recreational cannabis if they choose.

Voters approved a special 5% tax on recreational marijuana sales in the city, with 52% of voters supporting the tax. The revenue from the tax would have funded veterans services, mental health supports and public safety. The city would have distributed those funds to other agencies because it does not provide them directly.

Dems hold lead in 3 of 4 Colorado Board Education races

Democrats held leads in three of the four seats up for grabs on the State Board of Education this year as of 9 p.m. on Election Day.

- Democrat Kathy Plomer leads the at-large race with 52.88% of votes.

- Republican incumbent Steve Durham leads the District 5 race with 57.65% of the vote.

- Democrat incumbent Rebecca McClellan leads the District 6 race with 58.55% of the vote.

- Democrat Rhonda Solis leads the District 8 race with 50.36% of the vote.

Board members serve six-year terms. The board was comprised of seven seats, with members representing each congressional district.

Magic mushroom ballot measure barely passing

A measure to decriminalize hallucinogenic compounds in magic mushrooms was barely passing, according to unofficial election returns early Wednesday morning. The proposition had earned 50.9% of the vote in favor compared to 49.1% of the vote against it as of 12:17 a.m. Wednesday.

If voters approve it, Prop 122 will make "magic mushrooms"  more specifically the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin and psilocin  legally accessible to individuals 21 years or older, to be administered mostly at state licensed healing centers, under rules to be promulgated by the state Department of Regulatory Agencies.

Boebert still trailing in tight race

Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is still trailing challenger Adam Fisch in a nearly neck-and-neck race for Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, according to early returns.

Frisch leads with 51.66% of votes to Boebert's 48.34%.

Republicans appear to sweep El Paso County Commisioners race

The Republican stronghold looks as though it's likely to stay in the Board of El Paso County Commissioners for at least the next couple of years.

Unofficial voting results on Tuesday night show incumbent county Commissioners Holly Williams and Cami Bremer, both Republicans, were winning reelection to represent El Paso County Commission Districts 1 and 5, respectively.

If Williams and Bremer win Tuesday then Republicans would effectively maintain their unanimous majority on the five-member administrative and policy-making board for at least another two years. A Democrat has not held an elected local office in El Paso County for nearly 50 years.

Jena Griswold set to win second term as Colorado Secretary of State

Democrat Jena Griswold is headed for a second term, handily defeating her Republican opponent, former Jeffco Clerk Pam Anderson, the early and unofficial election returns on Tuesday night show.

As of 9:30 p.m., Griswold held a 12-percentage point lead over Anderson, with all but three small counties left to report in.

Flutcher, Schleiker and Broerman leading in early returns for El Paso County

- Republican Chuck Broerman, swept election night results with 64.60% of the vote against political newcomer and Democrat Richard Williams, who earned 35.40% of the vote in the race for El Paso County treasurer.

- Republican Mark Flutcher pulled ahead of Democrat Renee Reif in a race for El Paso County assessor with 59.37% of the vote, while Reif came in with 40.63% of the vote the night of the election.

- Steve Schleiker led election night results with 59.34% of the vote against Democratic candidate Lisa Wilkes, who garnered 40.66% of the vote, in a race for El Paso County clerk and recorder.

Early returns in on measures to expand alcohol delivery, sales

Two of the campaigns to expand the sale and delivery of alcohol appear to be flailing, the early and unofficial results on Tuesday night show.

Propositions 126, 125 and 124 aim to, respectively, allow third-party companies to deliver alcohol from restaurants, bars and liquor stores; permit grocery and convenience stores that sell beer to also sell wine; and, gradually eliminate the limit on liquor stores operated by one person or business.

So far Propositions 124 and 126 are trailing, while Proposition 125 is virtually tied with supporters holding a slight lead.

Associated Press calls races for Colorado incumbents, Pettersen retains CD7 for Dems

Nearly two hours after polls closed in Colorado, the Associated Press called a handful of races on behalf of congressional incumbents.

Voters chose to send U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Doug Lamborn and Ken Buck back to Washington. State Sen. Brittany Pettersen was also declared victorious by the AP, keeping the district held by retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter under Democratic control.

Lamborn poised to win reelection

Republican incumbent Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs was on his way to another term representing Colorado's 5th congressional district, according to unofficial voting results Tuesday night. With more than two-thirds of votes counted, Lamborn leads Democratic opponent David Torres 55.7% to 41.1%.

Burton Brown concedes results 'not what we wanted to see', O'Dea addresses GOP crowd

"The results tonight are not what we wanted to see," said GOP Chair Kristi Burton Brown in addressing the the Republican watch party at the Doubletree Hotel in Greenwood Village.

O'Dea told the crowd, this isn't the speech he planned on giving.

"It's been an incredibly rewarding journey. We are very disapointed with tonight's results.

The outcome is a tough pill to swallow. But that's life in the big city. We fought hard. We stayed true to our core, beliefs and values. It didn't work out. But I don't have any regrets.

I hope Bennet will lean into his commitments he made during the campaign.

People are struggling. Our leaders need to elevate themselves. I hope Bennet will use his seat for the good of this state, all four corners. Colorado matters."

8:30 p.m. UPDATE

- Challenger Tony Exum, Democrat, leads incumbent State Sen. Dennis Hisey 50.9% to 43.9%.

- Incumbent Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Democrat, leads challenger Pam Anderson 55.3% to 42.4%.

- Incumbent State Treasurer Dave Young, Democrat, leads challenger Lang Sias 54.1% to 43%.

- Incumbent State Attorney General Phil Weiser, Democrat, leads challenger John Kellner 54.9% to 43.3%.

O'Dea calls Bennet to concede U.S. Senate race

The O'Dea campaign tells Colorado Politics its candidate has called Sen. Michael Bennet to concede: "He congratulated him on the hard race and asked Bennet to embrace some of the themes of the campaign, specifically immigration reform."

Democrats poised to hold onto state Senate majority

While Democrats were expected to lose a few State senate seats on Tuesday night, early election returns show they will likely hang onto their majority with no trouble.

In Senate District 20, for one, state Rep. Lisa Cutter of Littleton, who was the first Democrat ever elected to House District 25, appears headed to the state Senate to represent this Jefferson County district.

As of 8 p.m., Cutter held a 12-percentage point lead over her opponent, Tim Walsh of Golden.

Frisch expands lead over Boebert in latest round of updates

Democratic challenger Adam Frisch expanded his lead over Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, with the gap between the candidates growing from roughly 5 points to 15 points in the latest round of updates.

Just over a quarter of ballots in the district have been counted. Read more here.

8 p.m. UPDATE

- In El Paso County, Rep. Tony Exum, D-Colorado Springs was leading Sen. Dennis Hisey, R-Colorado Springs, in the race for a state senate seat in southeast Colorado Springs that is expected to play a pivotal role in which party controls the upper chamber.

In three local house races, Rep. Marc Snyder, D-Manitou Springs; community activist Stephanie Vigil and Harrison School District 2 Board of Education member Regina English were all leading after most mail-in ballots were counted Tuesday. Democrats were expected to hold onto control of the lower chamber after holding a 17-seat advantage before Tuesdays election, but Republicans could gain control of the state senate by flipping four seats. Read more here.

7:45 p.m. UPDATE

Also in early voting, with about a third of the ballots counted in Colorado:

- Bennet, Democrat, leads challenger Joe O'Dea 58.42% to 39.35%.

- Incumbent Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Democrat, leads challenger Pam Anderson 57.56% to 40.22%.

- Incumbent State Treasurer Dave Young, Democrat, leads challenger Lang Sias 56.61% to 40.64%.

- Incumbent State Attorney General Phil Weiser, Democrat, leads challenger John Kellner 57.36% to 40.83%.

Coloradans  and Americans across the country  are deciding the fate of campaigns, notably the races for U.S. Senate and governor, and decide which party controls the government's legislative branches.

Today's elections will define the next policy agenda in Washington, D.C., as well as at the Colorado state Capitol. In addition, a number of local races and ballot questions will determine the direction of Colorado Springs and El Paso County.

NBC calls governor's race for Polis

Nearly an hour after polls closed in Colorado, NBC News became the latest media outlet to call the state's governor's race for incumbent Democrat Jared Polis.

Colorado Politics only declares races decided after the Associated Press makes a call. More information on that organization's process can be found here.

Media calls of races are unofficial.

Magic mushroom poised to pass

The battle to decriminalize hallucinogenic compounds in magic mushrooms is ahead, the early and unofficial election returns on Tuesday night show.

About 40,000 votes separated the yes and no campaigns, with plenty of votes still left to be counted.

If passed by voters, Prop 122 would make "magic mushrooms"  more specifically the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin and psilocin  legally accessible to individuals 21 years or older, to be administered mostly at state licensed healing centers, under rules to be promulgated by the state Department of Regulatory Agencies.

So far, 512,855 voters said yes, while 471,011 voted no to Proposition 122.

Boebert trails Frisch in Colorados 3rd CD

Incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican, is trailing Adam Frisch in early returns with about 30% of the votes reported.

Frisch leads by just under 3 points, 52.98% of the vote, as of 7:42 p.m. Boebert has 47.02% of the votes.

Alcohol-related campaigns struggle

Two of the campaigns to expand the sale and delivery of alcohol appear to be flailing, the early and unofficial results on Tuesday night show.

Propositions 126, 125 and 124 aim to, respectively, allow third-party companies to deliver alcohol from restaurants, bars and liquor stores; permit grocery and convenience stores that sell beer to also sell wine; and, gradually eliminate the limit on liquor stores operated by one person or business.

So far, Propositions 124 and 126 are trailing, while Proposition 125 is slightly ahead.

Here's the vote breakdown so far:

Prop 124: 331,725 yes, 497,203 no

Prop 125: 422,152 yes, 413,134 no

Prop 126: 403,360 yes, 429,962 no

Brittany Petersen leads over Erik Aadland in Colorado's 7th CD

Democratic State Sen. Brittany Pettersen jumped out to a commanding lead over Republican Erik Aadland shortly after polls closed in Colorado.

As of 7:22 p.m. with 63% of the ballots counted, Pettersen led by 23 points, with 60.6% of the vote as compared to 37.6% for Aadland.

Polis, Bennet lead early count

Both U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis jumped to an early lead over Republican challengers Joe O'Dea and Heidi Ganahl, respectively, the early and unofficial results on Tuesday night show.

Bennet so far secured roughly 312,000 votes, compared to O'Dea's 166,000.

Polis also led with 325,000 votes, while Ganahl so far secured 154,000.

Results coming in

Early results are pouring in. Click or tap here for the latest numbers.

Races called

The Associated Press has called several U.S. Senate, U.S. House and gubernatorial races nationwide. Click or tap here for a complete list.

Lines forming around El Paso County late in the day

El Paso Count Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman said shortly after 5 p.m. that a few lines were forming at voter service centers, such as the El Paso County Citizens Service Center and Centennial Hall, and at some drop boxes. The late surge in turnout could help the county reach a turn out of 270,000 ballots, a significant bump up from Monday, he said.

Long lines await voters at the Centennial Hall voting location on South Cascade. One voter estimates he has moved about one step per minute. Polls close at 7 p.m. #ElectionDay #Election2022 @csgazette pic.twitter.com/rI61jJ6pEe  Nick Sullivan (@_sullivn) November 9, 2022

Ballot tally clears 2 million

The Colorado Secretary of State's Office reports that as of 3:30 p.m., 2,039,527 ballots have been returned.

That means just over 53.2% of Colorado's 3.83 million active registered voters have cast a ballot so far. Around 39.1% of ballots returned are from unaffiliated voters, followed by 30.8% from Democrats and 28.8% from Republicans.

Making sure it counts

Making sure they knew their vote was going to be counted is one reason many El Paso County voters waited until the last day to deliver their ballots or vote in person.

The last couple of years there has been a lot of fraud, so I decided to vote on voting day, said Epifanio Maestas.

El Paso County returns lagging

El Paso Countys return rate was still in the 30% range Monday at mid-day, with roughly 149,000 ballots in the hands of the election department, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman said. Thats about 50,000 to 60,000 behind the 2018 midterm election.

LATEST: No major problems at voting centers

The election so far appears to be going smoothly, according to state election officials.

"We are not aware of any (problems) at this time," Jack Todd, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office, said.

A blue island?

The results tonight will affirm whether Colorado is, indeed, the blue island in what many expect to be a red wave. Some, like veteran politico Dick Wadhams, are skeptical of the polling data. "I suppose that these polls have shown that Democrats will win. They might be right," he said. "I just dont think they are."

Latinos' unrealized potential

This story delves into the potential of the Latino vote to shape elections.

There's still a lot of unrealized potential, Celeste Montoya, a University of Colorado professor researching how marginalized communities mobilize to enact change, said. While they have the potential to make a substantial difference in elections, an important means of doing that is making sure that they're engaged, that they're mobilized, that they make it to the polls.

Voter guide

As a public service, we compiled this guide to help you and hope that you find this guide informative and useful in your electoral decisions this November.

El Paso GOP censures local group

The rift within El Paso Paso County's Republican Party surfaced Saturday when the county GOP formally rebuked dozens of fellow party members and demanded they stop using the word "Republican" to describe an enterprise that urges voters to support Republican candidates.

Results for El Paso County offices show Mark Flutcher, Steve Schleiker and Chuck Broerman in the lead

As Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet celebrate reelection, incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert remains locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger Adam Fisch for Colorados 3rd Congressional District.

Meanwhile, El Paso County voters split regionally on recreational marijuana use. Colorado Springs voters rejected the measure while Palmer Lake was in favor, early returns show. The race in Cripple Creek remains too close to call.
More than 2.4 million ballots have been returned in Colorado, narrowing the gap between voter turnout during the 2022 and 2018 midterm elections after weeks of underperformance.

As of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, 2,444,585 ballots were returned, according to the Secretary of States Office.

This number is expected to increase as counting continues in county clerk offices throughout the state, with additional updates scheduled to be released on Thursday and Monday.

Ballot returns jumped by nearly 760,000 in only 24 hours, inching this year's voter turnout closer to 2018 numbers. In 2018, 2,566,784 ballots were cast in Colorado, meaning this years voter turnout is only around 122,000 ballots short. On Monday, the 2022 turnout was over 277,000 ballots below turnout at the same date in 2018.

So far, 63.7% of Colorados 3.84 million active registered voters have returned a ballot. In 2018, 74.9% of active registered voters submitted a ballot.

The biggest increase in voter turnout came from unaffiliated voters, who casted over 335,000 ballots between Monday and Tuesday night  accounting for 44.2% of the 24-hour jump. Democrats returned nearly 208,000 additional ballots and Republicans returned around 202,000.

In total, 40.2% of Colorado ballots came from unaffiliated voters, followed by Democrats with 30.4% and Republicans with 28.1%.

This ranking was the same in 2018, but with much closer splits: 31.8% unaffiliated, 31.0% Democrat and 30.6% Republican. This year, unaffiliated voters have returned over 166,000 more ballots than they did in 2018. Turnout is slightly below 2018 numbers for both Democrats and Republicans.

Over 95% of ballots cast were mailed in, with only 120,000 people voting in person.

Voters aged 65 and over returned 29.36% of Colorados ballots, voters aged 45 to 64 returned 34.84% of ballots, and voters younger than 45 returned 35.80% of ballots.

Jefferson County residents made up the biggest chunk of voters, submitting over 302,000 ballots. Rounding out the top five: El Paso, Denver, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, with returned ballots ranging from 291,339 to 193,508.
Petitions for an initiative to allow for 3rd party delivery of alcohol, ready for signature review by the Secretary of State's Elections Division.
Colorado voters are poised to decriminalize hallucinogenic compounds in magic mushrooms, the early and unofficial election returns on Tuesday night show. The proposition captured just over 52% of the vote after 7:30 Tuesday night.

If passed by voters, Prop 122 would make "magic mushrooms"  more specifically the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin and psilocin  legally accessible to individuals 21 years or older, to be administered mostly at state licensed healing centers, under rules to be promulgated by the state Department of Regulatory Agencies.

And while the measure would not legalize the retail sale of mushrooms, it would allow growing mushrooms for personal use and consuming them without legal penalty. A home grower would also be able to give away the product to those 21 years of age or older so long as its not being sold.

Behind the measure are Natural Medicine Colorado, which is funded by the New Approach PAC of Washington, D.C., whose largest donor is Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps of California, and, Citizens for Natural Medicine, a committee funded by local cannabis businesses.

Leading the opposition is Protect Colorado's Kids, a group launched by Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of the anti-marijuana group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. Also opposed to the measure is the Native Coalition Against Prop 122, which, according to Indian Country Today, is a "collective of intertribal Indigenous Native American people."

In a recent town hall, Niforatos argued that the measure would open the door for people to gift mushrooms to others by charging them high prices for unrelated products, such as clothing or souvenirs.

Its by design, Niforatos said. While its not explicitly retail sales, what this measure does is create a retail market.

Natural Medicine Colorado argued that Prop 122 would give Coloradans access to psychedelic therapies to treat mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The pro-Prop 122 group has raised over $4.5 million in support of the measure. Of that money, nearly $3.6 million is from the Washington D.C.-based political action committee, New Approach. New Approach has poured millions of dollars into efforts to legalize medical and recreational marijuana in at least 10 states.

Proposition 121: statutory, requires 50% plus one vote to pass

Just after 7:45 p.m., the measure has garnered 63.5% of the vote, enough to pass.

The measure, backed by the libertarian Independence Institutes Jon Caldara and state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, would permanently lower the states income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.40%.

Who supports it? Americans for Prosperity Colorado Issue Committee, Advance Colorado, Path 2 Zero and Colorado Character. These issue committees are all tied to "dark money" groups that do not disclose their donors. Other supporters include Colorado Rising Action and Defend Colorado, also dark money-funded groups.

Who opposes it? Issue committees Coloradans Coming Together and Keeping Colorado Great, which is also funded by teachers unions, and the Bell Policy Center.

Proposition 123: statutory, requires 50% plus one vote to pass

Voters appear willing to support the measure; just after 7:45 p.m., it has nearly 52% of the vote.

This ballot measure would reduce taxpayer refunds arising from the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) by about $300 million per year, with the revenue going to a variety of affordable housing initiatives.

Who supports it? Coloradans for Affordable Housing Now, which is funded by the nonprofit Gary Ventures, Colorado Low Income Housing Campaign, and Habitat for Humanity, among others.

Who opposes it? Path 2 Zero and Advance Colorado Action.
Rep. Sharon Steckman has secured her eighth term in the Iowa House of Representatives. She will represent House District 59 when the Legislature convenes in January.

"I'm glad that the people of North Iowa still have the confidence in me," said Steckman.

Democrat Steckman won 6,236 votes, or 53% of the 11,917 ballots cast in the race, to Republican Doug Campbell's 5,586 votes, or 47%. There were five write-in votes.

Previously serving District 53, the census-driven realignment of Iowa's political maps will now have Steckman serving District 59, which includes the eastern portion of Cerro Gordo County and Mason City.

Steckman began serving in the Iowa House in 2009. She has previously served on the Appropriations Committee and the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee, ending her tenure on both in December.

She said one of her top priorities is public education and opposition to Gov. Kim Reynolds' push for vouchers for private school. She said she hopes to find Republican allies to work with to stop it.

"There's a lot to do, and I'm anxious to get to Des Moines and get to work on it," said Steckman.
The money from Caesars will enable Averett to begin offering the program to its students next fall. It will be one of only a handful such programs in the state, according to officials.

As our regions hometown university, we are thrilled to have this opportunity to develop a much-needed program in support of building a future workforce to help meet the hospitality and tourism needs right here in our community, Averett President Tiffany Franks said during an event held at Cottontail Weddings and Events on Craghead Street on Wednesday afternoon.

Averett hosted the announcement honoring Caesars for its contribution. Guests included leadership from Caesars Virginia, city leaders and regional hospitality and tourism industry professionals, as well as Averett trustees, employees, students, alumni and friends.

Averetts new concentration and minor in hospitality management and tourism will be housed under the universitys existing undergraduate business management program.

The program will include courses such as introduction to the hospitality and tourism industry; lodging operations; food and beverage management, with electives such as casino, resort and club management; and facility design. Students will end the program with an internship opportunity with local hospitality businesses.

Officials intend for the program to provide a pipeline for students hoping to establish a career at Ceasars Virginia or other business in the tourism and hospitality industry.

The partnership between Averett and Caesars means a pipeline, a pipeline for a prepared workforce in hospitality management and tourism which will result in improved, I repeat, improved employment and talent retention for our region, said Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones.

Caesars helps its employees interested in attending college and studying hospitality and tourism.

We provide tuition reimbursement to our team members, said Chris Albrecht, who will be general manager at Caesars Virginia. We provide opportunities for student loans for our team members.

Franks also announced the selection of hospitality industry veteran Thomas Perugini as the programs inaugural director.

Perugini, during his remarks, said the hospitality and tourism industry is in a state of resurgence and in desperate need of talented workers.

Im very confident that Averett is going to be the pipeline for that talent, Perugini said.

In addition, Franks announced that three Averett graduates have been hired to work for Caesars Virginia  Jennifer Holley, Dean Hairston and Kunal Patel.

Hairston, the former Danville deputy police chief who recently retired, will be director of security. Holley, who has worked as assistant director of finance for the city of Danville, will be director of finance.

Patel will be Caesars Virginias compliance manager.

Perugini has 25 years of hospitality industry experience as a leader in food and beverage as well as hotel and resort operations throughout Florida, as well as nearly a decade of teaching hospitality management. He started with Averett last month.

Caesars Entertainment and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are partnering in the $650 million Caesars Virginia casino resort project being built at the former Dan River Inc. site in Schoolfield.

The casino is expected to be complete in late 2024. A temporary casino that will operate until the Caesars Virginia project is finished is expected to open at Schoolfield in mid-2023.

Caesars and Averett bonded early in the discussions around bringing the Caesars Virginia resort to Danville.

Caesars Virginia selected Averett as its educational partner to develop the academic program and create internship and employment pipelines for Averett students.

Franks served as a co-chair of the 2020 Caesars for Danville campaign referendum committee, and Averett hosted the signing event in which the Danville Industrial Development Authority, the City of Danville and Caesars signed an agreement outlining the future plans of the casino project.
A year after failing by only 14 votes, Pittsylvania County residents approved a 1% sales tax referendum to fund school renovations.

The measure was still close with 930 votes tipping the balance. Based on unofficial results as of Wednesday, 12,294 residents voted in favor of the sales tax while 11,364 were opposed. With less than 300 absentee ballots out, its not enough to change the outcome, according to Pittsylvania County Registrar Kelly Keesee.

More than 50% of registered voters turned out in Tuesdays election.

I would like to thank the residents of the County for supporting the referendum, Pittsylvania County Schools Superintendent Mark Jones told the Register & Bee via email Wednesday. Appreciation is also expressed to the Pittsylvanians for a Brighter Future, the School Board, the Board of Supervisors, School Division staff, the Danville Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce, and business and industry leaders for their leadership and endorsements of this referendum.

The money from the sales tax will help pay for renovations to elementary schools in the county. Local leaders pushed this method of revenue collection as a way to drive funding from residents outside of Pittsylvania County who pass through to make purchases.

The beauty of this 1% sales tax ... is that we are allowing others that pass through that dont live here to help pay for the renovations of our schools, Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Chairman Vic Ingram said last week.

The official question on the ballot said: Should Pittsylvania County be authorized to levy a general retail sales tax at a rate not to exceed one percent (1%), provided the revenue from the sales tax shall be used solely for capital projects for the construction or renovation of schools in Pittsylvania County and that the sales tax shall expire by September 30, 2042?

Danville residents voted in favor of the sales tax last year. Halifax County was one of the first localities in the state to approved the tax in a 2019 ballot measure.

The funds generated by the referendum will be used to cover expenses to renovate the divisions oldest elementary schools in need of roof and window replacements and HVAC repairs, Jones said. It will be used to eliminate the need for the 26 mobile units that currently serve as classrooms and will place these students in brick and mortar classrooms.

Marking the second year of the referendum, it was a do-or-die situation Tuesday night as leaders pointed to the fact it was the last time it could go on the ballot.

Increasing the sales tax will bring it up to 6.3%, which is less than the 6.75% to 7.5% charged in North Carolina and on par with that of Danville.

In addition to upgrades, the funding from the tax will allow the division to build safety vestibules in the schools as a security measure. Also, offerings at the Career and Technical Center will be able to grow, thanks to the approval by voters.

Other races

Elsewhere in the county, the race for Chatham mayor was separated by only 22 votes with Alisa Bradford Davis capturing 350 compared to Irvin Perrys 328.

I doubt there are enough ballots let to affect this town election, Keesee said, referring to absente ballots that still may be out.

All votes are unofficial until certified, a process expected to happen by Monday.

Although voter notices were mailed to all residence, voters went to their old location were frustrated, Keesee pointed out, noting a recent redistricting process several thousand residents and moved them to another polling location.

The November 8, 2022, election in Pittsylvania County was yet another successful election, she told the Register & Bee. I am thankful to all those that served at the polling locations as well as all those that voted. The Elections Departments core value is servitude to the citizens of this County, we are honored to serve you.

In the race for three seats on Chatham Town Council, Teresa Easley, who previously served on council, was the top vote-getter at 348 followed by incumbents Janet Royster Bishop at 332 and William Black with 249. Tommie-Jo Lewis was edged out of the race with 211 votes.

In Gretna, Mayor Keith Motley, who ran unopposed, captured 309 votes. Three incumbents  also unopposed  Michael L. Bond, Deborah P. Moran and Michael D. Burnette kept their seats. Moran led the votes with 248, Bond received 211 and Burnett got 205.

Hurt Town Council incumbents Gary N. Poindexter and Shirley M. Barksdale-Hill keep their seats with 39 and 38 votes respectively. A third seat held by Donney Johnson, who did not run for reelection, was won by Robert W. Majure with 30 votes.

Christopher L. Perdieu, an incumbent, won a special election to serve out the remainder of the previous office holders term on Hurt Town Council with 49 votes.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a handwritten note to apologize for a quip he made at a political rally after an intruder attacked her husband with a hammer at their California home.

My full intention on my comments was to categorically state that violence and the kind of violence that was perpetrated against Speaker Pelosis husband is not just unacceptable, it's atrocious," Youngkin said in a statement released by the governor's office.

"And I didnt do a great job with that. And so listen, it was a personal note and it was one between me and the speaker, just to reflect those sentiments.

Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News first reported that Youngkin sent the note to the Speaker.

During an Oct. 28 rally in Northern Virginia with 7th District congressional candidate Yesli Vega, Youngkin said: Speaker Pelosis husband  they had a break-in last night in their house, and he was assaulted. Theres no room for violence anywhere, but were gonna send her back to be with him in California. Thats what were gonna go do.

Democrats rebuked Youngkin for seemingly making light of the attack, after which Paul Pelosi underwent surgery on his fractured skull.

In an interview later Oct. 28 with Newsmax, a conservative media outlet, Youngkin more forcefully condemned the attack and said he hopes Paul Pelosi makes a full recovery.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, said in a statement at the time: A father, grandfather and husband is in brain surgery after an act of heinous political violence and at a political rally for my opponent, our Governor taunts his wife because he disagrees with her politics?

I hope hell apologize and show humanity towards the Pelosi family.
RALEIGH  Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Budd won North Carolinas open Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating Cheri Beasley while extending a losing streak for state Democrats seeking a spot in that chamber.

Budd, a three-term congressman, will succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr, who entered the Senate in 2005.

As a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump and ready to embrace the former presidents support, Budd will provide a more hardline, conservative voice in the Senate than Burr, who voted in 2021 to convict Trump at his impeachment trial related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Beasley, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court attempting to be the states first Black senator, fell short despite having a significant fundraising advantage over Budds campaign. But national Republicans came to Budds defense with a large wave of spending attacking her judicial record and support for President Joe Bidens policies.

It's time now to put the brakes on the Biden agenda of reckless spending, overregulation and higher taxes, Budd during his speech to supporters late Tuesday night in Winston-Salem. Its time to fully support the men and women of law enforcement who keep us safe each and every day.

Beasleys defeat means Democrats have now lost eight of the states nine Senate elections this century; their only victory coming in 2008. While North Carolina statewide elections are usually closely divided affairs, Democrats have won all but one gubernatorial election since 1992.

The Senate Leadership Fund, which is linked to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., alone spent $38 million against Beasley, along with other conservative groups whose spending effectively canceled out her fundraising edge. The Democrats Senate Majority PAC committed to spending well less than half of that amount.

Budd was relentless during the fall campaign in attempting to link Beasley to Biden, saying last month that she would be an absolute rubber stamp for everything thats led to this country being on the wrong track.

It was Trumps June 2021 endorsement in the GOP primary that over time helped him win the nomination in 34-point rout over former Gov. Pat McCrory. The former president held rallies on Budds behalf in April and September, designed to intensify the candidates conservative base. Budd thanked Trump briefly in his speech Tuesday night.

During his only televised debate with Beasley, Budd said Biden was the legitimately elected president but defended voting in the House in early 2021 to attempt to delay the 2020 presidential election certification.

Beasley said Budd aligned himself with somebody who is truly extremist by embracing Trump. But Budd said the ex-president had a lot of wins here in the state, including for our economy.

Budd said he had spoken on the phone with Beasley earlier Tuesday evening. He thanked her for her service to our state and for running a spirited race.

Beasley attempted to generate support from unaffiliated and Republican women who were fearful of Budds anti-abortion stance in light of the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in June striking down Roe v. Wade. Budd has signed on to many restrictive abortion measures since coming to Washington, including a recently proposed 15-week national ban. She also said his congressional voting record was out-of-step with North Carolina voters by opposing legislation designed to control health care costs and to build infrastructure.

Budd, 51, grew up in Davie County and previously worked in the familys janitorial and landscaping business. He and his father also created a company to invest in agricultural businesses. Today he owns a gun store and range.

Budd had never run for public office in 2016 when he won a 17-candidate Republican primary for the 13th Congressional District seat and later the general election. He benefited from support from the Club for Growth super PAC, which also helped him in this years Senate primary.

As a U.S. House member, Budd has served on the Financial Services Committee  an important panel for North Carolina, the home of Bank of America Corp.s headquarters.
Lewis and Clark County Attorney candidate Kevin Downs took a narrow lead over opponent Dan Guzynski as early election results began coming in Tuesday night.

As of about 8:30 p.m., the Montana Secretary of State's Office reported that Downs tallied 8,589 votes (51%) and Guzynski had 8,252 (49%). Additional ballots were still being counted at press time.

The candidates are vying for the position being vacated by retiring County Attorney Leo Gallagher, who held the office for 22 years.

A criminal prosecutor for 22 years, Guzynski came to Montana for law school in 1997 and later worked as a deputy county attorney in Cascade and Flathead counties. He joined the Montana Department of Justice in 2007 and now manages a team of 13 criminal prosecutors and support staff as chief of the DOJs Prosecution Services Bureau.

Downs has worked for the Montana Attorney Generals Office, the Montana Supreme Court, the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington state and New York, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in New York during his law career, and he spent the last two years as a deputy county attorney for the Lewis and Clark County Attorneys Office.
Several Helena-area legislative seats were up for election Tuesday.

Early election results were released around 8:30 p.m. Additional ballots were still being counted at press time.

Senate District 41

Democratic incumbent Janet Ellis, who is retired from Montana Audubon, was leading against Republican Dave Galt, a government affairs consultant and former head of the Montana Department of Transportation, in the Senate District 41 race.

Ellis had 3,161, or 60% of the vote with 10 of 10 precincts partially reporting and Galt had 2,122, or 40%.

Senate District 42

In Senate District 42, Democrat Mary Ann Dunwell, a state representative and retired public information officer for the state, was leading against Republican businessman Matt Olson, former owner of the Dairy Queen on Prospect Avenue.

Dunwell, with 9 of 9 precincts partially reporting, had 3,214 votes, or 61% and Olson had 2,011 votes, or 38%.

House District 17

In House District 17, Republican incumbent Ross Fitzgerald, a business broker and real estate agent from Power, was leading against Democrat Barnett G. Sporkin-Morrison, an agricultural and applied economist from Choteau.

Fitzgerald had 3,086 votes, or 76%, with 9 of 11 precincts fully reporting and Sporkin-Morrison had 974 votes, or 24%.

House District 70

In House District 70, Republican incumbent Julie Dooling of Helena, a financial professional/para-planner and co-owner of Cedar Creek Land & Livestock, was winning against Democrat Jonathan R. Jackson of Helena, who retired from the military and now works at Capital City Health Club.

Dooling had 3,846 votes, or 76% with 5 of 8 precincts fully reporting and Jackson had 1,232 votes, or 24%.

House District 75

In House District 75, GOP Rep. Marta Bertoglio ran unopposed.

House District 79

In House District 79, Democrat Laura Smith of Helena, an attorney, small business owner and former deputy director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, was winning against Republican Keith Pigman, a building contractor from East Helena.

Smith had 2,108 votes with 4 of 4 precincts partially reporting, for 68%, and Pigman had 990 votes, for 32%.

House District 80

In House District 80, GOP Rep. Becky Beard was unopposed.

House District 81

In House District 81, Democrat Melissa Romano, a public school teacher from Helena, was winning against Republican Jill Sark of Helena, a retired state employee.

Romano had 1,632 votes, or 62%, with 5 of 5 precincts partially reporting, and Sark had 982 votes for 38%.

House District 82

Democrat Mary Caferro of Helena, a state representative and direct care worker, was winning Tuesday in early results for House District 82 against Republican Alden Tonkay, a communications professional from Helena.

Caferro had 1,724 votes, or 66%, with 5 of 5 precincts partially reporting, and Tonkay had 883 votes, or 34%.

House District 83

In House District 83, Democratic incumbent Kim Abbott of Helena, a policy consultant, was winning against Republican challenger Bob Leach of East Helena, who is retired but had worked as a maintenance engineer and was a department head.

Abbott had 1,423 votes, or 65%, with 5 of 5 precincts partially reporting and Leach had 779 votes, or 35%.

House District 84

In House District 84, Democrat Jill Cohenour, a state senator and chemist from East Helena, was leading against Republican Kaitlyn Ruch, a student from Helena.

Cohenour had 1,811 votes, or 60%, with 4 of 4 precincts partially reporting and Ruch had 1,179 votes, or 38%.
Lewis and Clark County Commission hopeful Candace Payne took an early lead over challenger Curt Dallas, according to preliminary election results Wednesday morning.

The Montana Secretary of State's Office reported that Payne had 13,118 votes (55%) and Dallas had 10,546 (44%), with 33 of 33 precincts partially reporting. Additional ballots were still being counted.

The county commission seat is being vacated by Chairman Jim McCormick, who decided not to run for a second six-year term due to health reasons.

Payne was a partner at a local law firm for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2018. Payne, who put herself through law school in Missoula, worked as a lobbyist in the Montana Legislature beginning in 1993, representing various groups from the Montana Stockgrowers Association to the Montana Alliance of YMCAs.

She previously told the Independent Record "I think there's kooks on both sides, but there is a core of good people who are trying to do the right thing, and I want to be a part of that core."

"I'm not willing to follow a party line because I think for myself," she said.

Dallas, a state government employee the past 25 years, took a hard stance against recently enacted Helena Valley zoning regulations. He said that if elected, he would immediately work to repeal the 10-acre lot size minimum in rural zones.

"When people complain about the 10-acre minimum, that's the end of what they want to talk about," he said. "There are some things in that zoning document that probably aren't bad, but it all starts with that 10-acre minimum."
BILLINGS -- A skilled nursing home in Columbus is the latest to announce a voluntary closure, making 10 nursing home closures across the state this year.

Beartooth Manor, a Lantis Enterprises property with 37 residents, will cease operations on Jan. 7, according to Wendy Soulek, COO of Lantis Enterprises. Residents and staff were notified on Monday.

Most recently, South Dakota-based Lantis announced Oct. 25 it was closing the Rocky Mountain Care Center in Helena, attached to the old St. Johns Hospital at 30 S. Rodney St. Officials said they would help relocate its 25 residents.

The Columbus closure notice was sudden and unexpected, having mostly to do with unaffordable agency staff, said Soulek.

To bring on a licensed practical nurse through an agency the wages alone were more than $80 an hour. Then, the workers travel expenses and housing costs would also have to be carved from the nursing homes budget that is already bare bones.

Not to mention, housing prices in the rural community have surpassed the working persons wage, Soulek said. Even if she could find permanent health care workers, there would be nowhere for them to live.

We cant afford agency staff. There is no Medicaid reimbursement for agency workers, Soulek said, adding that after talking with nurses, she knew the facility wouldnt make it through another holiday season.

Historical discrepancies in Medicaid reimbursement has lead nearly 15% of Montana's nursing homes to close. The facilities that are struggling most serve rural Montanans.

Leadership at the Department of Public Health and Human Services have refused pleas from administrators for short-term financial support that would see them through, at least until the 2023 Legislature can address Medicaid reimbursement.

Im so floored that Montana has chosen this path. The governor ... (expects people) will move to more populated areas, but their families cant. Thats the most heart-wrenching and cruel part of this whole thing, Soulek said. They cant just let rural communities go down like this.

This is the fifth Lantis Enterprises property to close in Montana this year, and Soulek has helped facilitate each one.

It is killing me, Soulek said through suppressed tears.

With the holidays coming, Soulek expects families will move quickly to transfer their loved ones. But not all residents know where theyll end up yet or when theyll be moved.

Ive been told not to worry about it, said Gary Morton, a resident at Beartooth Manor.

Morton has lived at Beartooth Manor for three years after being moved from a Billings facility that couldnt accommodate his particular needs. He is bedridden, invalid and has cancer.

In Billings, Morton had a handful of friends who would visit, but when he was transferred to Columbus, an 80-mile trek round-trip, his visitors came much less often.

I dont get to see anybody, Morton said.

Hes nervous about moving to a new facility after finally finding his routine in Columbus.

I dont want to get moved into a bad situation, he said. Its kind of like a kid who gets sent to a new school. You make it or you dont make it depending on how they treat you.

Staff Writer Phil Drake contributed to this story.
Montana Republicans appeared to have a lock on a supermajority in the state Legislature by Wednesday morning, although enough uncounted votes remain to leave several races up in the air.

The GOP currently holds 98 seats between the state House and Senate, and needs two more for a supermajority. That would allow Republican lawmakers to propose constitutional amendments on the ballot in the absence of Democratic support.

Two more seats in the Senate would also give them a two-thirds majority in both chambers, allowing them to unilaterally pass certain types of legislation that need a higher threshold of votes.

Republicans easily retained control of both the state House and Senate Tuesday night, and have picked up at least five Democratic seats, according to unofficial results. Democrats appeared to have flipped two Republican seats. Uncounted votes could still tip the balance of several other tight races, however.

Republicans have maintained sizable majorities in both the House and Senate over the past decade, and Democrats have failed to capture either chamber since 2007. If the GOP reaches up a supermajority, it will be the first time a single party has wielded those sorts of numbers since the 1940s. Gov. Greg Gianforte is also a Republican, the first in 16 years when he took office in 2021.

Sen. Greg Hertz, chairman of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, said he expects Republicans will have a supermajority in the 2023 session based on the results available Wednesday.

The committees messaging to GOP candidates this year focused on economic issues like the price of gas and groceries.

Its the pocketbook issues that people are really concerned about in Great Falls and much of the state, he said Wednesday afternoon.  Thats what our constituents are really concerned about.

Democrats appear to have at flipped a couple seats currently held by Republicans: Rep. Kathy Whitman's seat in Missoula and Rep. Ed Hills seat in Havre. Rep. Mallerie Stromswold (R-Billings) is also in a close race, with no precincts are fully reported as of noon Wednesday.

Notably, Democrats have now lost all six of the seats they held in Great Falls just two years ago. The GOP this year held onto all four of the city's House seats that it wrested from Democrats in 2020, while picking off the two remaining Democratic seats in the Senate. Sen. Tom Jacobsen (D-Great Falls) has lost to his challenger, while Sen. Carlie Bolands (D-Great Falls) open seat was won by Rep. Wendy McKamey (R), with Cascade County fully reported.

"I think we could still compete in Great Falls," said Scott McNeil, director of the Montana Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. "... We were competing in districts and taking it to the wire in districts that Donald Trump had won by double digits two years ago, so the swing we're seeing is pretty incredible, and I think that's a testament to our candidates."

McNeil previously said the party could take back some of those seats in Great Falls, but acknowledged the margins would likely be thin.

One of those Democratic Great Falls incumbents, Sen. Tom Jacobsen, fell to a relative newcomer to politics, Daniel Emrich. A self-employed contractor who previously ran a write-in campaign for a local city office, Emrich said he feels Republicans have made inroads in the area by focusing on personal freedoms.

"We saw it during COVID, mandating masks, mandating vaccines, making them not be able to work and provide for their families," Emrich said. "I think that hit home with everybody."

The GOP also flipped the seats of late Sen. Mark Sweeney (D-Philipsburg), Rep. Sara Novak (D-Anaconda) and Rep. Rynalea Whiteman Pena (D-Lame Deer). Results show Rep. Marvin Weatherwax (D-Browning) losing by a thin enough margin to request a recall.

And precincts have yet to fully report in Democratic Rep. Jessica Karjalas open Billings district. The Republican candidate holds a 40-vote lead there.

Democrats were likely able to hold several high-profile seats that were targeted by both parties, however. Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, had a 52% to 48% lead over his Republican challenger, though no precincts had fully reported by noon Wednesday. Flowers narrowly won the seat in 2018, flipping a district that had been comfortably won by a Republican four years earlier.

And Rep. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, appeared to have defeated Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, for the vacancy left by termed-out Sen. Diane Sands, D-Missoula. Sands won the districts by razor-thin margins in 2014 and 2018, and early results showed Curdy expanding that margin to a 10-percentage-point lead.

But Democrats this year faced some strong challenges in districts with large Native populations, many of which had never been contested since the current legislative map went into effect in 2014. In addition to Whiteman Pena's loss in her Northern Cheyenne-centric district, Rep. Sharon Stewart-Peregoy faced a competitive race in the neighboring House district covering much of the Crow Reservation. With most precincts fully reported, she held a 53% to 47% lead by early Wednesday afternoon.

Headed into the general election, 31 of the 100 House races and eight of the 27 Senate races were already decided. Across both chambers, 36 Republicans and 3 Democrats were unopposed.

No election results in Montana are official until they are canvassed, audited and certified by the Secretary of State.
Its the day after the election. Some people are pleased as punch. High-fives. Happy dances.

They are overjoyed that political conservatives, the MAGA crowd, and some independents with single-issue priorities all voted red. And they are looking forward to a red future in Washington. And even looking forward to a Trump declaration that he will be president again.

Others dont want to engage in conversation with anyone, about anything, much less the election outcome, and prospects for the future. For them it is a bleak day, signaling a bleak future, fearing the worst will happen, whatever that may be.

Where is the farm crowd in all of this? Farmers appreciate the highest grain prices they have seen in a decade. The past two years, and likely next year, will give them opportunities for profitability that have allowed them to replace old machinery with new, educate their kids, buy health insurance for the family, and give their farming partner a new dress.

What they dont like is the fact it takes $1,000 to fuel the tractor and the combine every day. They dont like the fact that fertilizer is priced to the point they are reducing their application and expecting to see lower yields. And they dont like the fact that the Mississippi has dried up and cant handle southbound grain barges and northbound fertilizer and fuel. (One reason for those high prices.)

The river issue is climate-related. More of the United States has a drought designation than ever before. About 85% of the United States is anywhere from abnormally dry to being in an exceptional drought, the labels given by the National Drought Mitigation Center.

Ten to 15 years ago, nearly all farmers did not buy into the warnings about the climate changing. But that has changed over time to a majority expressing concern. They dont like the growing drought without beneficial rains. And they certainly dont like torrential rains that create floods. Crops dont grow well even in $20,000-an-acre farm ground when it either floods or bakes.

In the past few years there has been a surprising movement toward agronomic practices designed to respond to changing climatic conditions. It's hard to believe, but surveys indicate 40% of farmland has a cover crop designed to mitigate adverse impacts of the weather. A generation ago, that would have been labeled as foolishness.

In the past two years, numerous government programs have been implemented to help agriculture survive climatic adversity. And dozens of non-governmental programs have been implemented to entice farmers toward such practices by offering from corporate funding, if they can offset carbon generated within the U.S. economy, by retaining it in their soil.

There has been a significant movement within, and for agriculture, to respond to weather adversities. But how will that mesh with the new Congress, which will write a new Farm Bill over the next 11 months. The soon-to-be new chair of the House Agriculture Committee recently expressed disdain for USDA funding for climate-smart programs.

Maybe there is a double meaning to the winds of political change.
DECATUR  Following an election season dominated by debate over Illinois SAFE-T Act, incumbent State Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, has won reelection over her opponent in the race for the 96th Illinois House District.

With 100% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, unofficial results showed Scherer defeating political newcomer Lisa Smith by nearly 5,000 votes. Scherer earned 17,828 votes, compared to Smith's 12,916.

Scherer spent election night with family and supporters at her own home rather than somewhere having a watch party as results came in.

I'm very happy, she said. I don't like all that big hoopla stuff.

Her son sent her a text when it was clear she'd won, she said.

He said he was so proud of me for continuing to fight to make the community a better place, and I think that says it all, Scherer said.

The 96th District was drawn to favor Democrats.

Illinois Democrats, who controlled the states post-Census redistricting process, carved down the district so it stretched from the urban cores of Springfield to Decatur and excluded rural communities such as Kincaid, Edinburg, Stonington and Blue Mound.

The 96th was also 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 all ran unopposed.

A full-time legislator, Scherer has served in the Illinois House since January 2013. She previously worked as a teacher in the Decatur and Maroa-Forsyth public school districts for over 30 years.

Scherer serves on multiple education committees, including Elementary & Secondary Education Appropriations and Higher Education.

Scherer faced criticisms from Smith and from other local Republicans for her vote in support of the SAFE-T Act in 2021. As one of just 60 House members who voted for the act, and as one of the final representatives to cast her vote, Scherer was one of the bills deciding votes.

Smith said it was Scherers SAFE-T Act vote that helped convince her to run.

Smith is a pediatric nurse practitioner from Auburn. She spent much of her campaign rallying against the SAFE-T Act, arguing that it should be repealed and replaced.

In an interview earlier this month, Scherer told the Herald & Review she stood by her vote. The elimination of Illinois cash bail system could stand to help certain minority populations, she said.

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.

Scherer said would support trailer bills amending the SAFE-T Act but declined to specify which changes shed like to see. Democratic SAFE-T Act discussions are ongoing leading up to the legislatures veto session Nov. 15-17.
SPRINGFIELD  Following a closely watched and expensive race, State Sen. Doris Turner has declared a narrow victory over State Rep. Sandy Hamilton in Illinois 48th State Senate District.

According to unofficial results from Tuesday's election collected by Lee Enterprises staff, Turner, D-Springfield, earned 38,947 votes to Hamilton's 37,654.

Dana Strogoer, Turner's campaign manager, said the win was the result of major grassroots efforts by Turner's campaign.

"Doris did it," Strogoer said. "She pulled this win out. We put in the work."

Matt Butcher, a representative from the Hamilton campaign, told the Herald & Review that Hamilton called Turner and congratulated her on her win shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday.

In a statement released later Tuesday evening, Hamilton said she wishes Turner well as she continues representing Central Illinois.

"Tonight was what our democracy was founded on," Hamilton's statement read. "While the results are disappointing for me, now it's time to put the election behind us and find a way for Republicans and Democrats to unite this country and state to solve the major issues we face."

Turner's victory is a greater loss for Illinois Republicans, who saw the district as key to pulling the GOP out of superminority status in the Illinois Senate. Before Election Day, Republicans held just 18 out of 59 seats in the Senate.

Under Illinois new legislative maps, Hamilton, R-Springfield, was drawn into the same district as state Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield. But her House district overlapped with the new 48th Senate District.

Illinois Democrats, who controlled the states redistricting process, drew the new 48th District to be more urban than the one Turner currently represents. The new 48th primarily includes the urban portions of Springfield and Decatur, as well as suburban communities like Chatham and Rochester and some rural areas in Christian, Macon and Sangamon counties.

Still, the new district was one of few purely tossup legislative races in Illinois. The district voted for President Joe Biden by a four-point margin in 2020, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker won it in 2018. But Democrat Attorney General Kwame Raoul lost it by about six points that same year.

The battle for the 48th thus proved the most expensive state legislative race in Illinois. Turner raised more than $3.3 million, and Hamilton raised over $1.3 million.

The race quickly grew heated leading up to November, with the candidates campaigns hurling insults across the aisle in nasty television ads. Hamiltons campaign labeled Turner a corrupt and incompetent career politician. Turners campaign nicknamed Hamilton sellout Sandy.

Both Hamilton and Turner are new to the legislature.

Turner was appointed in February 2021 to replace state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, who took a job as a top adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Turner had an extensive history serving in various public offices and in other state government roles before serving in the legislature.

Hamilton was appointed in December 2021 to replace state Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield, who left to serve as CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Hamilton was a political newcomer when she was first tapped for the Statehouse.
DECATUR  A former student who sent a Snapchat message saying Eisenhower High School will die along with every staff member was sentenced to 24 months probation on Wednesday.

Casey N. Garner, now aged 21, had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. She was also sentenced to 40 days in the Macon County jail but received credit for time previously spent in custody. Jail records show the defendant was released Wednesday.

Macon County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Geisler also ordered Garner to undergo a mental health evaluation within 90 days and to complete any recommended treatment by May of 2024.

A sworn Decatur police affidavit about the case said Garner had been arrested in March of 2020 after police were alerted by Eisenhower High School Assistant Principal Nathan Sheppard.

The affidavit, signed by Officer Klinton Babb, said Sheppard had been sent a screenshot of the Snapchat post made by Garner.

Babb quoted the post as making the death threat and then adding: ... I hope yall get (expletive) bombed over vacation And ps for the (expletive) who wanted to fight Im not at school anymore so you wanna go now?

Nathan advised he was alarmed and disturbed by Caseys post and that he had a criminal complaint, Babb added.

The officer said he had arrested Garner the same day and that she admitted making the threat. Casey advised she did not directly say she was going to bomb the school, but the individuals at the school were going to get what they deserve and get it in the end, Babb said.

Casey stated she did not harm anyone or the school and did not know why her statement was so serious.

Court records show Garner had repeatedly failed to show up for court hearings and warrants for her had been issued at least three times since her arrest. She had last failed to show for a court appearance in January of 2021 and jail records indicate she was found and arrested Saturday and remained held in custody until her Wednesday court appearance.

Judge Geisler further ordered that Garner pay a $250 fee to have her DNA added to a criminal database maintained by the Illinois State Police.
SPRINGFIELD  Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker will enter his second term with more power in Springfield following his blowout win over Republican Darren Bailey, a romp that will undoubtedly fuel speculation over a possible presidential run in 2024.

Pritzker easily dispatched Bailey, taking 55% of the vote versus Bailey's 43% with 90% of precincts reporting as of Wednesday afternoon. Pritzker carried Cook County and all the suburban "collar" counties besides McHenry. Bailey was ahead across downstate except in Champaign, McLean, Peoria and Rock Island counties.

The result is a validation of Pritzker, whose tenure as governor began with a frenetic flurry of legislating but would come to be defined by his handling of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, which thrusted the billionaire into a role akin to a wartime leader.

Bailey, a downstate farmer, first gained celebrity and notoriety by challenging Pritzker's COVID-19 emergency powers in 2020. He was a favorite of conservatives who propelled him to a landslide victory over more moderate challengers in the Republican primary in June.

However, Bailey was long viewed as an underdog. He was vastly outspent by the billionaire incumbent, whose campaign produced a relentless barrage of advertisements highlighting the Republican's conservative views on issues like abortion and guns.

Bailey also had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, a boost in a Republican primary that quickly became a detriment in a general election in a state that voted for President Joe Biden by 17 percentage points in 2020.

Pritzker made little mention of Bailey in his victory speech Tuesday night. Instead, he turned the focus decidedly national, saying that "a cancer has spread through one ideological wing of this nation," referring to Trump and the Republican elected officials who support him.

"Theres no nice or easy way to say this  but until the Republican Party is ready to expel the extremists in their midst, we need to do it for them  at the ballot box," Pritzker said.

Pritzker added that "GOP politicians, with the exception of only a few souls, are too cowardly, too simpering to support the best interests of the nation because theyre afraid of being called insulting nicknames by a whiny bully.

"To the fake patriots and their enablers: You dont love the United States if you're not willing to defend it against a man who would destroy it," Pritzker said. "Donald Trump is the modern embodiment of tyranny that our founders feared the most."

The fighting words and national focus from Pritzker fueled speculation that the billionaire is considering a 2024 presidential bid.

The governor has said he intends to serve out his four-year term in Springfield but has not definitively promised that he would. He has, however, confirmed that he will support a second-term bid from Biden, who will turn 80 on Nov. 20.

Pritzker dismissed the speculation when asked by reporters in Chicago on Wednesday, saying that he was "not focused on that at all" and simply expressing his values in his victory speech.

"I am focused on serving as governor for the next four years," he said. "It's really the most important thing to me as we have a lot of challenges that Illinois needs to overcome. We've got to work hard on it and I'll be doing that."

With Bailey dispatched, Pritzker will immediately turn his focus to the upcoming veto session, which starts next week, and the regular spring session that begins in January.

Pritzker will enter his new term with more political room to maneuver. Democrats appear likely to pick up a net of at least four seats in the state House, which would lead to a 77-41 majority.

Though Democrats in the state Senate may lose a seat or two, the caucus, currently with a 41-18 advantage, will maintain its supermajority.

This gives Pritzker and Democrats more votes to spare and may allow for more liberal policy initiatives to pass in the upcoming session.

Two immediate priorities for Pritzker and legislative Democrats: an assault weapons ban and additional protection for abortion rights.

House Democrats have been meeting privately for months in working groups to craft proposals on those topics and others that can be addressed in the next few weeks or months.

"The fact is, whether we get it done in November or we get it done in January (or) early in the session, whenever that may be, we are going to work on passing an assault weapon ban and making sure that we are protecting women's reproductive rights by expanding capacity and in making the investments that are necessary here in our state to protect women," Pritzker said.

Pritzker said he will "be watching carefully" what proposals legislative Democrats bring from those working groups.

"I've made my thoughts clear and we'll see if we can get something done during the veto session to address the changes that we ought to be making," Pritzker said.

This veto session will be Bailey's last as a state lawmaker following his defeat.

"Friends, I can promise you this: I may not be going to Springfield as your next governor. But I will never stop fighting for you," Bailey told supporters after conceding the race Tuesday night.

"Republicans need to be the loyal opposition in Springfield  loyal to our state, loyal to our country, loyal to our Constitution," Bailey continued. "But in opposition to the radical policies of the Democrats."

A campaign spokesman did not return a request for comment Wednesday on Bailey's plans once he is out of office in January.

For Republicans, the night could not get much worse.

The party, as expected, lost all races for statewide office. But it also came up short in several congressional races that were expected to be competitive, lost both Supreme Court elections and will lose seats in the Illinois General Assembly.

How widespread the consequences for the party's losses will go has yet to be determined, but the first domino fell Wednesday morning when House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, announced that he would stand down as the chamber's Republican leader, a post he's held since 2014.

Durkin said that "it's time for the Illinois Republican Party to rebuild with new leaders who can bring independents back to the party that are needed to bring change to the state."

Former Gov. Jim Edgar, the last Republican to serve more than one term in that role, told Lee Enterprises that "the top of the ticket just in the suburbs didn't play and it drugged down people down the ballot. And that's unfortunate, because I want to see a vital two party system."

"To ever have a chance in Illinois, we've got to move back to the center as a party and diversify, bring in more people, hopefully, someday get back to where this is a two-party state," Edgar, who was at a watch party for Democratic Congresswoman-elect Nikki Budzinski, said.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Morning clouds will give way to afternoon sunshine. High 78F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A clear sky. Low around 45F. NW winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
The Bristol Tennessee City Council will remain the same next year while the Bristol Tennessee Board of Education gets two new members in 2023, as a result of Tuesdays election.

In the two contested City Council races, incumbent Margaret Feierabend (3,284 votes, 54.74%) defeated David Warren (2,715 votes, 45.26%) by 569 votes to retain the South District seat while incumbent Mark Hutton (3,819 votes, 65.33%) topped Eric Spicer (2,027 votes, 34.67%) by 1,792 votes in the East District.

Councilwoman Lea Powers was also reelected without opposition in the West District.

I am humbled and very appreciative of the opportunity to again serve the citizens of Bristol, Tennessee, as the West District representative of our City Council, Powers said in a statement. As a council and community, we are well positioned to continue our positive progression of growth and development, all the while working together for an even Better Bristol.

Feierabend, Hutton and Powers will continue to serve alongside Mayor Mahlon Luttrell and Vice Mayor Vince Turner, whose seats will be up for election in 2024.

Darnell, Henson join Butcher on school board

Debbie Darnell and Jennifer Henson will join incumbent Jim Butcher on the Bristol Tennessee Board of Education next year after all three were elected Tuesday without opposition.

Darnell is set to replace Nelson Pyle in the South District as Henson takes Jill Harrisons seat in the East District.

Thank you to the citizens of Bristol, Tennessee for your support in electing me to the school board, Henson said in a statement. I will work hard in the coming years to represent the parents, students, teachers and community in continuing the tradition of excellence in Bristol Tennessee City Schools.

I appreciate the encouragement and support Ive received and look forward to serving with a team dedicated to public education, Darnell said. There are many challenges facing schools locally, statewide, and nationally. We will work to meet those challenges to make the Bristol Tennessee City Schools the best they can be.

Butcher, who retained his seat in the West District, also thanked the voters.

I am thankful for the people who placed their confidence in me through electing me again to represent them and their children going forward, Butcher said. There has been a great deal accomplished in the past and a great deal yet to be undertaken. With the support of our stakeholders, our school board is dedicated to ensuring that the Bristol Tennessee City School System maximizes education for the citizens of Bristol.

School board seats held by Chair Derek Linkous and Vice Chair Eric Cuddy will be up for election in November 2024.

Tuesdays victors will serve four-year terms and be sworn in in January. Election results are unofficial until certified by the election commission.
Katie Lamb held on to the mayor post in the Damascus Town Council election on Tuesday, but, with a large number of write-in votes, it may not be known who is actually on the Town Council until Wednesday or later.

Lamb grabbed 164 votes and defeated the write-in campaign of Vice Mayor Mitchel Greer, as the number of write-in votes totaled 114.

Officially, five names appeared on Tuesdays Town Council ballot, though Scott Smith dropped out of the race and endorsed Jeff Buckley, a write-in candidate.

Smith won 34 votes, coming in last place for the five-man contest to win three seats.

In all, a total of 164 write-in votes were collected, Washington County Registrar Derek Lyall said.

Still, even with the large number of write-in votes, Charles Fields has secured his spot on the council with 188 votes, according to the unofficial results.

Former Mayor Jack McCrady won 150 votes, though that does not necessarily mean he has won the second of three seats available, due to the write-in vote count. McCrady, 74, has served on the council, off and on, since 1986.

Jesse Kokotek, 45, may have possibly secured his post on the council with 132 votes. But, like McCrady, he will have to wait until at least Wednesday when the countys Electoral Board determines the results of the write-in votes, Lyall said.

Newcomer Thomas Foltz 69, finished in fourth place with 82 votes and did not win a position on the council.
Michelle Teague, the grandparent who challenged 24 public school library books this year while admitting she had not read them, is now on the board that sets policy for the system.

Teague, 54, will be joined by 68-year-old pastor, Don Sigmon, 50-year-old fleet technical analyst Tim Settlemyre and 70-year-old incumbent and retired educator Leslie Barnette.

"I'm incredibly humbled and excited to be on the board," Teague said. "I don't know what to say. I'm still in shock."

Teague received the most votes of any school board candidate with a total of 15,099. Sigmon was second with 14,732. Settlemyre was third with 11,802. Barnette was fourth with 11,061.

I just want to be able to make a difference for our kids, Teague said. That was my whole goal. That was my passion the whole time. Ive been running. Im here for the kids, the teachers and Catawba County. I just really want to make a difference.

Teague's book challenge pushed the issue front and center during the school board race.

At a school board meeting in June, Teague said she is not prejudiced or homophobic. She said as a Christian conservative she feels there are certain topics that children should not be exposed to at certain ages.

I am not trying to ban books, Teague said. But what I am trying to express is that I have an opposition, or that I feel, that the books are not appropriate for the age of the children, for the kids, that are reading these books.

Teague also addressed the process of challenging books in June.

The process that goes along with this book situation, with the challenges, it is a little bit time-consuming on both ends, Teague said. I didnt want to sit here and try to challenge these books to cost money for the school system in general. So I wonder if theres a way to maybe streamline the process or look at the policy in some way to figure out if there may be a better way to work this out.

Don Sigmon has been the pastor at Eastside Baptist Church for 20 years.

Im against pornography of any sort, Sigmon said during a school board forum in October. Im against it being in our schools. The red flag, I dont think will work because my friend can check it out and I can go read his book.

At the same forum, Settlemyre said, I find the best option is let the parents do the raising of their children and keep the books that are in question at the public library so they can be checked out by parents and students together.

Incumbent Leslie Barnette said she supports the existing policies.

I dont think that all books are appropriate for all students and thats where parent decision comes in. But which parents get to decide? Barnette said at the October forum. Each parent gets to decide, I think.

The results are unofficial until the Catawba County Board of Elections certifies them during canvassing.
Earlier this year, the Spring Edition of Pee Dee Life was delivered along with my Herald Advocate Newspaper. I commend Mr. Heath Milligan for the excellent selection of feature articles, the professional penmanship and high quality of descriptive photos which broadens the minds of the readers. As I read the feature articles, I decided to dovetail some of the Pee Dee Life Profiles, which sent me back to earlier years of my life.

In 1955, a close friend and I were stationed at Francis E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming. One Sunday, we attended a Baptist church downtown and were introduced as guests from Bennettsville, South Carolina. When the services were over, a couple of local men welcomed us and told us they had attended flight training at Palmer Field near our hometown.

They indicated it was a long way from Cheyenne, but they really enjoyed the friendliness of the people and how we made them feel like they were part of us. It would have been interesting to know the stories of more of those Army Air Corps Cadets and their World War II experiences.

There was also an article about A Gathering Place in Pageland, South Carolina, which was of interest to me. My daddys store, Davis Cut-Rate Furniture, handled new, used and antique furniture. My dad attended many auctions in search of second-hand stuff (Dad called it junk.).

He learned the value of antique pieces sales appeal if they were made of the right vintage and wood. Before the sales began, he scraped many coats of paint or varnish to get to the bare wood to determine which pieces were bid-worthy. When he returned home, my job was to strip off those many coats of color. The profit made it worth the effort.

Having been a railroad enthusiast since childhood, The Hamlet Depot and Museum piece was a good read as my mind returned to the past when I caught a train from that location. In 1957, I was on leave from my duty station in England and had flown from London to New York to make the last leg of my trip via Grand Central Station to Hamlet, North Carolina.

After my stay at home for 30 days, I returned to England. I will never forget that on the return trip, my mother had packed a grocery bag of Southern fried chicken. I was a little embarrassed but knew I had to eat something. When it came time to eat, I opened the bag and asked those around me if they would like to share with me. You guessed it, my chicken was gone in a Brooklyn minute. I learned from that day that if God gives you food, thank God, eat it and enjoy it.

The Lewis Hine Project about child abuse in the different industries caught my eye because one of the elderly couples in my church had explained in detail what they faced while working in the cotton mills in North Carolina.

Mr. and Mrs. Dancy had been working in different cotton mills across our state since they were small children. Mr. Dancy started at age 10. I think they said they married at 14 years old and both stayed in the mills until retirement. I cannot remember all the details, but it was too horrible to imagine.

This couple did not complain but thanked God for having employment for all those years. Mr. and Mrs. Dancy would ask me to take their tithes to the church and said they had been giving God his share since they became Christians. After each visit, she asked me to sing her favorite hymn with her, with these words: Wait a little longer, please Jesus, there are so many wandering out in sin, just a little longer, please Jesus, a few more days to let our loved ones in.
CHARLOTTE  Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute is celebrating a 10-year partnership with the main hospital in Belize, providing expertise, training and equipment to patients and providers living in the country.

Previously, residents of the Caribbean country on the northeastern coast of Central America had to travel to another country to have a cardiac catheterization or open-heart surgery.

Over the past decade, the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute team has performed 289 cardiac catheterizations, 36 interventional procedures to correct serious heart problems and 28 open heart surgeries for Belizean patients.

It is very rewarding to know we are making a difference for people who had no other options, except to travel to other countries where, for most, the cost would have been prohibitive, said Dr. Glen Kowalchuk, an interventional cardiologist at Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, who is part of the team that has traveled to Belize. Everyone wants to receive care close to home near family and friends. We are providing the means for them to have their conditions diagnosed and treated in their community.

The collaboration began in 2009 when Atrium Health formed a partnership with the Heineman-Robicsek Foundation to develop the International Medical Outreach Program. Through that partnership, the team provided the equipment, supplies and the expertise to finally enable residents of Belize to receive necessary cardiac care. In 2011, cardiologists from Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute performed the first cardiac catheterizations in Belize and they have been going back ever since.

All of our doctors volunteer their time and expertise on these trips, said Theresa Johnson, director of International Medical Outreach at Atrium Health and executive director of the Heineman-Robicsek Foundation. I admire their dedication to helping people who otherwise could not get advanced cardiac care.

Johnson says Atrium Health teams usually make six trips each year to Belize to care for patients and provide training  a pace that is expected to increase in 2023.

More than 1 million cardiac catheterization procedures are performed each year in the U.S. to diagnose and treat a variety of common heart conditions including heart vessel blockages, irregular heartbeats or heart valve problems. It is a procedure that is often taken for granted in the U.S. But it was unavailable to Belizes 400,000 residents until Atrium Health stepped in.

Until 10 years ago, there were no catheterization labs or cardiac surgery facilities in Belize. The countrys only cardiac surgeon, Dr. Adrian Coye, could not offer specialized cardiac care to patients overseas due to a lack of equipment and support staff. With proper equipment and assistance from Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute surgeons, Coye is now about to offer lifesaving open heart procedures. In September 2022, the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute team helped Coye perform heart valve replacement surgeries for three patients.

Our work there is also a training mission, said Dr. Eric Skipper, chief of adult cardiac surgery at Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute. We are sharing the most advanced techniques and approaches and, in doing so, we are helping train Dr. Coyes associates so he can build his program to help more patients. It is a very collaborative relationship.

According to Coye, the team from Atrium Health is helping his facility, Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital  which is the nations flagship hospital, build a comprehensive system of health care delivery.

The partnership was initiated by the late Dr. Francis Robicsek, founder of Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute. He was a well-known humanitarian with a love of Central America and a passion for helping the most vulnerable populations. While visiting his friend, the late Sir Barry Bowen, in Belize, Robicsek learned of the absence of cardiac care there and subsequently met Coye.

Robicsek then turned to Atrium Health to help supply equipment and asked his cardiovascular colleagues to lend their support. That early commitment has blossomed over the years to bring advanced cardiac care to hundreds of residents of Belize.
CONCORD  Kick off the holiday season in Downtown Concord with the 25th Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony sponsored by Uwharrie Bank on Friday, Nov. 18, and the TrueCare Pharmacy 94th Concord Christmas Parade on Saturday, Nov. 19.

These annual traditions are free to the public and feature childrens activities, live music and dance, and fireworks on Friday night. Special guests Diane Honeycutt and Amos McClorey will be honored during the Concord Christmas Parade  North Carolinas longest continually running Christmas parade.

25th Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, Friday, Nov. 18, 6-8:30 p.m.

Sponsored by Uwharrie Bank, the annual tree lighting ceremony and visits with Santa Claus will take place in Rotary Square at the corner of Union Street South and Corban Avenue Southwest. Along Union Street, there will be food trucks and a kids zone featuring inflatables, a balloon artist, trackless kids train, coloring crafts, glitter tattoos, and a snow machine. New this year, visitors will enjoy an illuminated vehicle display as they make their way from Rotary Square to Bicentennial Lot on Church Street to watch the fireworks display.

Event Highlights:6 p.m. Opening ceremony, visits with Santa in Rotary Square, childrens activities begin.

6 p.m. Performance by Irvin and Pitts School Road Elementary School Chorus.

6:20 p.m. Performance from Motion Dance Studio.

6:40 p.m. Performance from Dance Expressions.

7:10 p.m. Performance by Gabriel Bello.

8 p.m. Tree Lighting.

8:20 p.m. Fireworks (Best viewing from Bicentennial Lot on Church Street).

Road closures:12 p.m.

No parking on Union Street after 12 p.m.

1 p.m.

Union Street between Cabarrus Avenue and Foard Avenue Southwest

Corban Avenue Southwest between the County Parking Deck and Church Street

Corban Avenue Southeast at McCachern Boulevard Southeast

2 p.m.

Bicentennial Parking Lot closes, all vehicles must be moved by 3 p.m.

4 p.m.

Means Avenue Southeast at Church Street

Church Street between Means Avenue Southeast and Cabarrus Avenue East

7:45 p.m.

McCachern Boulevard at the intersections of Means Avenue Southeast and Cabarrus Avenue East

Event and road closure maps are available online at concordnc.gov/Christmas.

TrueCare Pharmacy 94th Concord Christmas Parade, Saturday, Nov. 19, at 2:30 p.m.

The annual Concord Christmas Parade is one of the oldest and continuously running Christmas parades in North Carolina. The TrueCare Pharmacy 94th Concord Christmas Parade route begins at the intersection of Church Street North and Lake Concord Road, and continues over two miles along Church Street, Buffalo Avenue, and Union Street, ending at the intersection of Union Street and Corban Avenue.

Roads along the parade route will be closed from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. However, Union Street between Kilarney Avenue Northeast and the Cabarrus County Library parking lot entrance will close between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Each year, special guests are chosen from the local community for their leadership and contributions to Concord. This years parade welcomes special guests Amos McClorey and Diane Honeycutt.

McClorey is a graduate of Logan High School and served in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he earned a Purple Heart. He has long been active in many community organizations throughout Cabarrus County, including the Logan Community Child Development Center, Logan Shankletown Schools Association, Academic Learning Center, Cabarrus Partnership for Young Children, Healthy Cabarrus, and the Concord United Committee. Through his lifelong service, McClorey improved the lives of thousands of his coworkers and the citizens of Cabarrus County.

Diane Honeycutt, a Concord native and prominent real estate agent, has been closely involved with many nonprofits and community organizations throughout the community, including serving as Cabarrus County Commissioner since 2014, chair and 22 year-veteran of the NorthEast Foundation for Atrium Health Cabarrus, president of the Concord Rotary Club, chair of the American Red Cross board, leader for Habitat for Humanity Womens Build Home, board member of the Cabarrus County Economic Development board, and chair of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber board and Leadership Cabarrus Program.

The city of Concord would like to recognize TrueCare Pharmacy for sponsoring the 94th Annual Concord Christmas Parade, and thank additional sponsors: Subaru Concord, Omega Graphics, and PB&J Catering for their contributions.

Santa Scramble 5K race

Also returning this year is the annual Santa Scramble 5K road race. The race follows the parade route and finishes at McGee Park.

To accommodate the race, the parking lot at McGee Park will be closed on Saturday, Nov. 19. The park will remain open to the public; however, it will only be accessible by the Downtown Connector and McEachern Greenways.

More information about the tree lighting ceremony and parade are available online at concordnc.gov/Christmas.
Fort Dobbs State Historic Site will honor North Carolinas military history with a Military Timeline on Nov. 12-13.

Visitors will learn about the experiences of soldiers and support personnel from the past 450 years.

Its important for us to remember the men and women who have sacrificed to make us who we are today as a country, site manager Scott Douglas said.

The educational program will offer a sample of soldier life through history.

Reenactors dressed as soldiers and support personnel from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, the American Revolution and other time periods will present historic weapons firing demonstrations, along with ongoing displays of camp life, equipment and cooking.

Event hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2 per guest age 5 and older. Veterans and active military are admitted free with government ID.

For information, call 704-873-5882 or visit fortdobbs.org.
COMPANY NEWS: Nintex, the global standard for process intelligence and automation, today announces that it has appointed Intrepid Solutions as a Nintex partner in Papua New Guinea.

Earlier this year, the Papua New Guinea Ministry for Information and Communications Technology issued its draft Digital Government Plan for 2023-2027 which sets out to transform the public service and grow the economy through systematic digitisation of government. Its vision is to make government more efficient, improve service delivery and foster inclusive social and economic development by providing for a wider range of citizen-facing services.

"Intrepid Solutions are a trusted organisation among the government and private sector here in Papua New Guinea and we were looking for a user-friendly process automation platform to support the country's transition to cloud and the digitisation of services," said Intrepid Solutions founder and managing director David Doig.

"In Nintex we found a company whose technology is widely used and trusted by public sector organisations not just in Australia and New Zealand, but globally. At the same time, it is user friendly, modular and flexible with great drag-and-drop functionality. As a result, we believe the business benefits of working together will result in the delivery of optimal performance for our customers and a great user experience for organisations."

Nintex customers in Papua New Guinea include the Bank of South Pacific, the largest bank in Papua New Guinea, with 35 branches throughout the country and servicing over 650,000 business banking customers throughout the Pacific.

Nintex chief customer officer Jet Theuerkauf said "We are very excited about this new partnership and look forward to developing mutual business success with Intrepid Solutions in the years ahead. Their deep industry experience coupled with a focus on automation and digitisation will be of major benefit and provide a positive impact as well as resilience to the country's public sector and private enterprises at this time. Together, there is an opportunity for us to develop strong synergies between our businesses."

"We believe that our relationship with Nintex will bring additional market momentum to our business through their strong support, reputation and track record of achievement," said Doig.

Nintex is the global standard for process intelligence and automation. More than 10,000 public and private sector organisations across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Process Platform to accelerate progress on their digital transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing, automating and optimising business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of intelligent process automation.

About Intrepid Solutions

Based in Port Moresby, Intrepid Solutions has a track record of success in supplying identity authentication and verification services and expertise in access automation.
CHARLESTON  Voters were still lining up early Tuesday afternoon during a busy Election Day at the First Presbyterian Church polling place in Mattoon, including voter Tabitha Knupp and her two children.

Knupp said she votes on every Election Day, with the governor's race being a top interest for her this time, and she often brings 9-year-old Caleb and 6-year-old Madilyn along with her.

"They get to come and see what voting is all about," Knupp said, adding that they had extra time available Tuesday because Mattoon classes were closed on Election Day. "They have some energy going on, so we are going to take them to the park afterwards and let them run it off."

Election judge Robin Reed said there were voters lined up at First Presbyterian before polling places there and elsewhere in Coles County opened at 6 a.m. She said First Presbyterian, which served three precincts, stayed busy through early afternoon with only brief lulls.

At the Newman Catholic Center in Charleston, voters from four precincts gathered to cast their ballots.

Connor Mellott, executive vice president of Eastern Illinois Universitys Student Senate, said he came out because he wants his voice to be heard.

As an executive on the universitys student government, Mellott was involved with various events to prepare students for the election by helping them register to vote and explain the process.

I just think that there's a lot of students that could be kind of confused about the process, especially in college because a lot of the students are around the age when they can start to vote and havent yet, Mellott said.

By having the events, he hoped to give students that extra edge so that they could be more aware.

He said he personally finds it important to vote so there is more diversity in the opinions of those who elect their representatives.

The more people that vote, the more diversity of opinions that you can have, Mellott said.

Lake Land College agriculture transfer sophomore Jordan Oliver from Buncombe in Southern Illinois said the admissions office helped him change his address and get registered to vote locally when he moved to Mattoon, so he wanted to make sure to vote Tuesday. He and a friend, who is a first-time voter, cast their ballots at the Paradise Township polling place in rural Mattoon.

"I enjoyed voting and I look forward to doing it next time," Oliver said, adding the election judges were friendly. Oliver said he was particularly interested in the governor's race but knew he would miss seeing the names of familiar Johnson County candidates, so he made sure to research local issues before voting in Coles County.

Dorothy Macy, who served for the second time as an election judge Tuesday, said she felt the day was going smoothly, especially because of the training the election judges had.

I'm very thankful the election judges have been trained before they come so we can answer most of (the voters) questions, Macy said.

At the Grace Fellowship Church polling place in Mattoon, election judge Paige Campbell said they also had a line at 6 a.m. and saw a steady stream of voters through early afternoon. Campbell said she has worked at Grace Fellowship, which served two precincts, and three other polling places since becoming an election judge in 2020.

"I like working with people and thought it was a great civic opportunity really," Campbell said. "They always need election judges. If you have the time and are willing to do it, I would recommend doing it."

Voter April Eveland said she has cast ballots on Election Day at Grace Fellowship for several years now, with education, immigration and public safety issues being top concerns for her Tuesday. Eveland said she prefers to vote on election day because its spot on the calendar is a good reminder to vote.

"If I can't make it in to vote on lunch, I will come in after work," Eveland said.

A slower polling place at Easterns Martin Luther King Jr. University Union saw some newcomer election judges who were ready to get to work.

Daiva Markelis, a retired EIU English professor and first-time election judge, said it was hard waking up at 4 a.m. to get ready for the day but she wanted to get involved because she grew up with an emphasis on the importance of voting.

My parents were immigrants to this country and when I was growing up, they always stressed voting, Markelis said. They said you have to do things to support your country.
SPRINGFIELD  The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will offer free admission to military veterans on Veterans Day, this Friday, Nov. 11.

The day will feature a performance by a military band, the Airlifter Brass, and a memorial flame burning outside the museum.

Military veterans and active-duty personnel are asked to bring a form of ID.

President Lincoln wrote that we should give honor to the soldier and the sailor everywhere who bears his countrys cause. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is proud to do its small part in giving that honor, said Christina Shutt, the ALPLMs executive director. We hope everyone who visits us that day will reflect on the sacrifices made by Americas veterans.

The Airlifter Brass band will perform from 1 to 2 p.m., and is part of the Mid-America Air Force Band at Scott Air Force Base. The band includes two trumpets, a French horn, a trombone, a tuba and percussion.

The memorial flame outside the museum will feature the emblems of America's military branches and quotes from Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address."

Visit PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov for more information.
For the first time in nearly two dozen years, Illinois residents  and Illinois drivers, perhaps most significantly  elected a new secretary of state Tuesday.

With 57% of precincts reporting, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias led Republican Dan Brady in his bid to replace Jesse White, the beloved politician who has overseen the secretary of states office since 1999. Giannoulias had 57% of the vote to Bradys 41%.

Libertarian Party candidate Jon Stewart, a former professional wrestler from Deerfield, had about 2% of the vote.

An emotional Giannoulias claimed victory over Brady, marking a political comeback a dozen years after losing a bid for U.S. Senate.

Dont ever let anyone say youre finished, Giannoulias told the crowd. Dont ever let anyone tell you stay down on the mat, ever. The trials you face in life will introduce you to your strengths, but tonight is not about my comeback.

Brady, deputy minority leader in the Illinois House, said he called Giannoulias to concede and wish him well shortly before 8:45 p.m.

This is certainly not the outcome we hoped for. But the hard work, dedicated volunteers ... always make me feel like a winner no matter what the numbers show, Brady said. Tonight starts an unknown chapter in public life for me.

Giannoulias will head a sprawling operation with over 4,000 employees that arguably has the most interaction with the public of any state agency. It oversees drivers licenses and vehicle registrations, keeps track of business registrations, maintains an organ and tissue donation registry and operates state libraries, among other services.

Both candidates have a good relationship with White, though both said they would modernize and streamline the often time-consuming process of license renewals and other business overseen by the office.

White, the first Black politician to hold the position, regularly outperformed the rest of the Democratic ticket in statewide elections during his six consecutive terms.

Ive had the great pleasure of serving in this capacity for the past 24 years, White told the Tribune shortly before the polls closed. And Ive enjoyed every moment of it, especially at a time when I first said that I was going to run for this office, I was told by Mike Madigan and the Democratic Party not to waste my time, not to waste anyone elses time or their money because someone else is going to be the next secretary of state. And so I decided that I was not going to take my ball and go back home. I averaged 14 to 16 events every day, traveling all over the state of Illinois. And thanks to the people of the state of Illinois, they gave me the opportunity to serve in this capacity.

White endorsed Giannoulias, a fellow Chicago Democrat, during the general election, though the 88-year-old politician did not back him during the primary earlier this year. He also offered praise for Brady, whom he has worked with for decades.

Giannoulias, who was Illinois treasurer from 2007 to 2011, was seen as a political up-and-comer before stepping away from electoral politics after losing a race to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.

He easily won the June primary over Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia, who was backed by White and Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The general election campaign was far less contentious than the Democratic primary in which Giannoulias and Valencia accused each other of ethical shortcomings.

Giannoulias attacked Valencia for her husbands lobbying activities, which seemed even more problematic given the secretary of state oversees lobbying in Illinois. As part of his campaign platform, Giannoulias promised to ban spouses from lobbying their partners offices, block politicians from receiving money from people who work for them and curtail unregistered lobbying.

Valencia had raised questions about Giannoulias involvement in his familys failed bank.

Broadway Bank failed in 2010, roughly four years after Giannoulias left his position there as a senior loan officer. Loans given to crime figures during his tenure have hung over his political career. Former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk made it a campaign issue in his successful bid for U.S. Senate in 2010 and Valencia tried to make it one this spring.

Detractors also argue Giannoulias made missteps while treasurer in dealing with the states Bright Start college savings program.

The program lost about $150 million after the fund manager used by Giannoulias, OppenheimerFunds Inc., invested in volatile securities tied to the unstable housing market. He was able to recover about $77 million from OppenheimerFunds for more than 65,000 Bright Start investors and, in defending his approach to the Tribune, said that financial analysts gave his administration generally high marks for how it ran Bright Start.

Since leaving the state treasurers office in 2011, Giannoulias has held positions on nonprofit and public agency boards. He headed the Illinois Community College Board, overseeing policies of the states two-year colleges from 2011 to 2015, and sat on the Chicago Public Library Board from 2018 until last year with some of the citys civic elite.

Giannoulias also taught a political science course at Northwestern University, invested in a handful of restaurants and worked for about seven years as a wealth manager in the Chicago office of Bank of New York Mellon.

Brady had tried to become the first Republican secretary of state since White took over from George Ryan, who went on to become governor before going to prison for corruption that occurred during his time as secretary of state.

A funeral director and part-owner of a funeral home in Bloomington, Brady has been a state representative since 2001 and was the McLean County coroner from 1992 to 2000.

In announcing his endorsement of Brady last month, former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar  who preceded Ryan as secretary of state  said he believed that Brady had the best chance of any GOP candidate to win a race for statewide office.

In campaigning for the seat, Brady collected nearly $830,000 since announcing his bid last November, a fraction of the nearly $9 million his opponent amassed during the same period. During the primary, former Illinois billionaire Ken Griffin backed one of Bradys primary opponents, former prosecutor John Milhiser.

On the campaign trail, Giannoulias promised technology reforms that include electronic vehicle titles, digital Real IDs and a skip the line program for drivers license services.

In an effort to grab voters attention, Giannoulias TV ads have ignored these nuts-and-bolts issues in favor of commercials promoting his support for abortion rights and voting rights  two issues central to the national Democratic platform that the secretary of states office has limited or no control over.

Brady voted against pro-abortion rights measures in the legislature such as the 2019 Reproductive Health Act  enshrining abortion as a human right  and the repeal of a requirement for abortion providers to notify the parents of minors seeking the procedure. His candidacy was endorsed by the Illinois Federation for Right to Life.

He didnt focus on social issues like Giannoulias had, saying voters dont seem to care about those issues when it comes to who would be able to provide the best services as secretary of state.
Republican incumbent Mike Bost won reelection for a fifth term in Congress on Tuesday.

Bost, of Murphysboro, defeated Democrat Homer Chip Markel in the race to represent the newly drawn district. The new district covers most of Southern Illinois from Bond County to portions of Fayette and Effingham Counties, and all the way to the southern tip of the state.

Bost has served in Congress since 2015. He previously served in the Illinois House from 1995 to 2015.

He spent most of Election Day traveling throughout the district including stops in Casey, Effingham, Marion, Murphysboro and Steeleville.

"I visited 11 of the 34 counties today and I am grateful for the voters support," he said Tuesday night. "The numbers are not official yet, but they are leading our way and I thank them for their votes."

Bost said he was still watching for results from St. Clair County as well as Jackson County, which he expected would come in "late in the night."

His opponent, Markel, is a former correctional officer at Tamms and Menard prisons and served in the U.S. Navy. In a post on his Facebook page yesterday, Markel said he was pleased with his campaign.

I feel satisfied. Weve run a good race, with integrity and transparency. I have said what I needed to say, he wrote.

With just roughly 78% of precincts reporting, Bost had 165,742 votes to Markel's 48,155, according to unofficial results.
California voters have approved a proposition to ban most menthol and other flavored tobacco products in the state.

With 95% of precincts reporting, Proposition 31 was being passed by a 62.3% to 37.7% margin, or 3.3 million to 2.02 million votes.

Barclays analyst Jain Gaurav projected in September that if the ban is approved, it could go into effect as early as Dec. 21.

The potential statewide ban is especially noteworthy because California smokers represent 7% to 8% of U.S. tobacco volume.

We believe this ban would serve as the perfect case study on flavor bans, Gaurav wrote.

California would join Massachusetts as the only states with such flavored tobacco-product bans. The California prohibition does carve out exceptions for flavored cigars and loose-leaf tobacco.

The message from this vote is unmistakable: Its time for policymakers at every level to stop the tobacco industry from using flavored, nicotine-loaded products to addict another generation of kids, said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Its also time to end the industrys predatory targeting of Black and other communities with menthol cigarettes, which has had a devastating toll on Black lives and is a major contributor to health disparities.

The prohibition is projected to cost California at least $100 million in state tobacco-tax revenue, according to the independent Legislative Analysts Office.

The outcome was expected, even though pro-tobacco groups raised more than $22 million for marketing efforts during the campaign.

That includes, according to Gauravs report, at least $10.6 million in cash and in-kind contributions from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., along with $10.2 million in similar contributions from Philip Morris USA Inc., and $500,000 each from Swedish Match North America LLC and ITG Brands LLC.

Reynolds said in a statement that it is disappointed in the outcome of the referendum.

We believe that adult nicotine consumers deserve product choice, and that prohibition laws-like State Bill 793 do not work in achieving their intended results.

Altria Group Inc. said in a statement it opposed Proposition 31 because we believe it is important to preserve the ability to make tobacco harm reduction a reality.

It is clear many voters shared our concerns about this flawed initiative, including that California law already requires a person to be 21 to purchase tobacco products.

Background

The proposition is an attempt to uphold a California law passed in August 2020 that prohibited the sale of most flavored tobacco products. Gov. Gavin Newson signed the bill on Aug. 28, 2020.

The proposition represents the tobacco industrys attempt to overturn the law.

The law was focused primarily on concerns that flavored tobacco products, in particular e-cigarettes, would contribute to another generation of new users becoming addicted to nicotine.

The official ballot description said the ban protects kids by ending the sale of candy-flavored tobacco, including e-cigarettes and minty-menthol cigarettes. 80% of kids whove used tobacco started with a flavored tobacco product. A yes on 31 vote will save lives and save taxpayers money by preventing tobacco-related healthcare expenses.

Meanwhile, Proposition 31 opponents said in their ballot description that it is adult prohibition. It is already illegal to sell any tobacco products  including vapes  to anyone under 21. Prop. 31 costs taxpayers $1 billion over four years, while criminal gangs benefit by controlling increased smuggling and underground markets, leading to more neighborhood crime.

Gaurav said non-combustible products, such as Swedish Match Inc.s Zyn and R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.s Vuse electronic cigarette, could be the main beneficiaries of the flavored tobacco ban.

Swedish Match is in the process of being sold to Philip Morris International for $16 billion.

Swedish Match made industry history in October 2019 when eight General Snus styles made it through the Food and Drug Administrations lengthy gauntlet for gaining authorization as a modified-risk product.

Its Zyn oral nicotine product holds the top U.S. market share.

Meanwhile, Vuse has climbed in recent months to become the top-selling e-cigarette in the U.S.

We think the ban could accelerate Zyns growth in California ... based on precedent in Massachusetts where flavored tobacco was banned in the second quarter of 2020, Gaurav wrote.

Vuses tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes could gain from traditional cigarette smokers making a switch because of the ban.
COVID-19 cases fell slightly last week in Lancaster County, reversing a trend of recent increases.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department reported 210 confirmed cases for the week ending Saturday, down from 225 the previous week. That reversed a trend of three straight weeks of rising case numbers.

However, that number was likely influenced by a lack of testing, as the positivity rate of tests that were performed jumped from 11.4% to 13.8%, the highest level in nearly two months.

Hospitalization numbers also rose, with the seven-day average of hospitalized patients climbing from 35 to 40, and the amount of virus particles found in wastewater sampling up from previous weeks.

The county also had a virus-related death last week for the first time in more than a month. The Health Department said a vaccinated woman in her 80s who was hospitalized died of the disease.

Health officials kept the county's COVID-19 risk dial in the low-yellow range for the fourth week in a row.

Lancaster County's decline in cases was in stark contrast to numbers from the rest of the state.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 1,783 new virus cases last week in Nebraska, a nearly 30% increase from the previous week.

Statewide hospitalizations for COVID-19 stayed steady, with a daily average last week of 137, down from 138 the previous week.

While hospitalizations for COVID-19 remain well below levels reached last fall and winter, overall hospitalizations remain high, in part thanks to an increase in cases of flu and respiratory syncytial virus.

Lincoln hit 700 total hospital patients last Wednesday, the first time it's topped that level since November 2021.

Statewide, emergency room visits for COVID-19, RSV and flu all rose last week. COVID-19 visits are at their highest level since early August, flu visits are at their highest level since early January and RSV visits are at their highest level since at least 2019.
A former Lincoln Police officer who in October 2020 shoved a 51-year-old man to the ground while working off-duty in the emergency room of a local hospital has been found guilty of third-degree assault.

Benjamin Rieker, now 34, was also convicted of false reporting for providing knowingly false information to Lancaster County Sheriff's deputies who investigated the incident. He resigned from the department in January 2021.

In a written order issued Tuesday, Lancaster County Judge Matthew Acton found Rieker guilty of both misdemeanors following a 2-day bench trial last week, during which Rieker's attorney, Carlos Monzon, argued that his client acted in self-defense when he shoved the man Oct. 31, 2020.

Rieker confronted the 51-year-old after the man, an emergency room patient, 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.

In his reports detailing the event, Rieker wrote that the man had clenched his fists, squared his shoulders, began to stare at Rieker'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.

His eyes did shift downward, though Minary said he couldn't definitively say whether the man was staring at Rieker's gun.

"There's nothing  that would show that he's clenching his fists as the defendant later reported," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Tyson Moodie said amid closing arguments last week.

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 footage  along with the former officer's communications with fellow officers amid the investigation  amounted to false reporting.

Monzon, though, cast the case as prosecutorial overreach and warned of the precedent it might set, arguing that only Rieker's perceptions as he encountered the man mattered  not what the video evidence would come to show.

"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."

Acton disagreed, finding the 34-year-old guilty on both counts. The judge will sentence Rieker  who faces a maximum of two years in jail and a maximum $2,000 fine  at a hearing next month.
More than nine months after he turned his Chevrolet Suburban left onto Salt Creek Roadway and into the path of an 18-year-old motorcyclist, a Lancaster County jury Tuesday found a 20-year-old Lincoln man not guilty of motor vehicle homicide.

The six-member jury deliberated for about two hours Tuesday afternoon before acquitting Jackson E. Watters, who faced up to a year in jail when prosecutors in March charged him with misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide for his role in the Jan. 28 crash.

Watters, then 19, was driving north on Antelope Valley Parkway at about 9:15 a.m. that morning before he began to turn left, across three southbound lanes, according to police and prosecutors.

That's when he collided with Austin Kinser, who had been riding his Kawasaki motorcycle south on Antelope Valley Parkway at an unknown rate of speed.

Kinser, a 2020 graduate of Lincoln Southwest High School and a sophomore engineering student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died three days later.

In a two-day trial this week, prosecutors  pointing to testimony from a witness who was in traffic behind Watters and saw Kinser approaching  argued that Watters' left turn across the southbound lanes of Antelope Valley Parkway amounted to negligence.

"That slow turn cost Austin Kinser his life," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Dan Zieg said during closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. "That turn alone."

To prove all required elements of motor vehicle homicide, prosecutors had to show Watters was driving carelessly or negligently that morning. Zieg argued he had.

"Call it momentary inattention, or whatever it was," Zieg told the jury. "But this crash was entirely Mr. Watters' fault. And it could have been avoided."

Tim Noerrlinger, Watters' attorney, mounted much of his defense on the basis of reasonable doubt, describing the crash that killed Kinser as "a tragic accident," but one where the fault is unclear.

Michael and Melissa Lammli testified that they were driving the posted speed limit  40 mph  as they approached the intersection from the north, and Kinser passed them as they neared Salt Creek Roadway.

Prosecutors dismissed the potential impact of the speed of the motorcycle, speculating that Kinser had been going 41, 42 or 43 mph.

Crash investigators never determined how fast Kinser had been riding.

Noerrlinger argued that Kinser's speed played enough of a role in the crash to lead the jury to a not-guilty verdict.

"It's tragic that Mr. Kisner is dead. However, that is not the issue in this courtroom today," Noerrlinger said, before reciting portions of four different witness accounts that suggested Kinser's speed played a role.

"So what's the proximate cause of this accident?" he asked. "Is it the left-hand turn or is the speed of the motor vehicle?"

The jury ultimately sided with Noerrlinger, unanimously concluding that Watters' actions that day did not amount to criminal negligence, acquitting him of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide.
Five firms have cleared the first hurdle to lead the search for Nebraskas next commissioner of education, a state official said Friday.

Five proposals were submitted and all five met the minimum submission requirements to move forward in the process, said Nebraska State Board of Education member Patti Gubbels, who is chairing the boards ad hoc search committee.

The firms are:

* Hazard Young Attea Associates.

* GR Recruiting.

* McPherson & Jacobson.

* National Association of State Boards of Education.

* Nebraska Association of School Boards.

Committee members are slated to meet this week to narrow the list to the top three or four firms, Gubbels said. Those firms will then make a presentation to the full board at its December meeting.

The board will select one to lead the search.

The Omaha World-Herald requested copies of the five proposals, but a department spokesman said procurement rules prevent it from sharing those at this point in the process.

Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt announced in September that he will be resigning Jan. 3 after nine years as education commissioner.

Deborah Frison, one of the states two deputy commissioners, was selected by the State Board of Education to serve in place of Blomstedt, once he leaves, until the next commissioner is hired.

In the request for proposals, the board reserved the right to nominate and select its own applicants for the position in addition to the applicants who are recommended by the selected firm.

The ad hoc committee was formed by board President Patsy Koch Johns to lead the search and hiring process. Koch Johns and board member Jacquelyn Morrison are also on the committee.

The proposals were not to exceed $49,900.

In seeking proposals, the board indicated it is looking for a firm with extensive experience in conducting searches for educational entities, preferably with specific experience in recruiting state commissioners of education or chief state school officers, and leaders for larger school districts.

The request stated the firms must have an understanding of pre-K-12 education, vocational rehabilitation and the commissioner search process.

In addition, the request said, the firms must have a proven regional or national presence and the capability to identify and recruit individuals who may be actively or passively searching for a new position.
Flanked by his grandchildren, an at-times emotion Jim Pillen addressed supporters on Tuesday evening, saying the way he ran his campaign for governor has prepared him to lead the state come January.

Pillen, the heavy favorite over Democrat Carol Blood in the race for governor, did not participate in any one-on-one debates, instead focusing his interactions with voters in town hall meetings across the state.

"That is what has equipped me to be the governor of the great state of Nebraska, and together we can have a great impact on this state," Pillen said, noting the energy in the room filled with supporters at the Cornhusker Marriott in downtown Lincoln.

Pillen, a pork producer from Columbus who emerged from a hotly contested Republican primary, led Democrat Carol Blood by a 59%-37% margin in results posted at 11:45 p.m.

CNN called the race for Pillen as he addressed supporters. Nebraskans haven't elected a Democrat as governor since 1994.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Flood took control of the race for the 1st District House seat as more votes came in from rural areas.

Flood, who edged Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks in a special election this summer, led the 1st District race with 57% of the vote. In Omaha's 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Republican Don Bacon led Democrat Tony Vargas with 51.3% of the vote.

Locally, the race for Lancaster County Attorney emerged as the most hotly contested local campaign.

In results posted just before midnight, incumbent Republican Pat Condon led Democrat Adam Morfeld by 2,000 votes with as many as 7,350 votes still to be counted.

In the race for sheriff, Republican Terry Wagner, a seven-term incumbent, emerged with a comfortable lead over challenger Jay Pitts. Democrat Dan Nolte held the lead in his bid to unseat County Assessor Rob Ogden.

In Lincoln Legislative districts, George Dungan (District 26), Jane Raybould (District 28) and Danielle Conrad (District 46) held leads.

In statewide ballot measures, results favored the gradual increase of the minimum wage in Nebraska and charging the Legislature with writing a voter ID law in next year's session.
Three conservative candidates won seats on the Nebraska State Board of Education out of four races up for grabs Tuesday, removing an incumbent in the process and shifting the balance of power after a contentious election cycle.

Kirk Penner, who won reelection to a full four-year term Tuesday representing Southeast Nebraska, will be joined by two like-minded colleagues backed by the Protect Nebraska Children conservative political action committee.

But thanks to Democrat Deborah Nearys narrow victory over Marni Hodgen in Omahas District 8, the eight-person board avoided a 4-4 split that would have likely led to gridlock next year.

Neary, the lone candidate backed by the states teachers union to win, edged out Hodgen by about 2,000 votes, according to Wednesdays final results.

Its bittersweet, Neary told the Journal Star. The work ahead is not going to be easy or fun.  I think it helps that the majority of the board members care about public schools and care about teachers.

Penner, an Aurora businessman, defeated retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Helen Raikes of Ashland by nearly 8,000 votes in the race for District 5, which covers Southeast Nebraska, including southern Lancaster County and south Lincoln.

After his appointment to the board last December, Penner soon emerged as an outlier of sorts, often finding himself stacked against the rest of the board, including when he put forward an unsuccessful motion to permanently abandon writing health education standards.

But come January, hell have two allies on the board in Elizabeth Tegtmeier and Sherry Jones, who won their races in commanding fashion Tuesday.

Its exciting to get another four years on the board after being appointed, Penner said. Obviously we would have liked to see Marni win but 5-3 is quite an improvement.

Tegtmeier, a Republican from North Platte, knocked off incumbent and fellow Republican Robin Stevens of Gothenburg in western Nebraskas District 7, winning more than 70% of the vote.

Tegtmeier was heavily bankrolled by Ricketts and joined the race on the heels of the controversy over the board's proposed health education standards.

On her website, she said her campaign was partly about protecting children from sexually inappropriate and racially divisive material.

Meanwhile, Republican Jones trumped Democrat Danielle Helzer by more than 20,000 votes in the race for District 6 in central Nebraska. The two Grand Island women were vying for the seat vacated by Maureen Nickels, who declined to seek another term.

Tuesday closed the book on an election cycle that centered largely on cultural issues and pitted candidates who held sharply contrasting views.

It also marked the first time voters were able to appraise the board at the ballot box in a general election since the health education standards controversy, which spun up a firestorm of criticism after the standards were unveiled in March 2021.

The standards in their original draft contained references to gender identity, same-sex family structures and other topics critics called age-inappropriate and inserted for ideological reasons.

The Nebraska Department of Education eventually rewrote the draft, largely stripping the controversial topics, before shelving the standards altogether last year.

The 5-3 political makeup of the board could have implications for efforts to revive the standards, which have been dormant ever since.

The three conservatives, however, would likely not have the votes to pass a similar motion to Penners earlier this year that would have prevented the board from ever revisiting them.

They will have significant say on the hiring of the next state education commissioner when Matthew Blomstedt steps down in January.

Penner has concerns about conducting a national search when he feels the board can find a candidate in Nebraska who has had experience as a superintendent and teacher. The board is expected to narrow down a list of search firms at its December meeting.

Board President Patsy Koch-Johns said she was sad to lose Stevens, who she says has done a really good job during his time on the board, but is glad the board avoided a 4-4 split.

We could be at gridlock, but we avoided that, Koch-Johns told the Journal Star. I would have been worried about that.

Neary said she has always worked to find a middle ground with people she might not necessarily agree with, like Stevens. But she fears that consensus-building may be more difficult when the board seats its new members in January.

Weve always had conservatives on the board and we still do, she said. The difference is we have extremists on the board, and thats not the same as a conservative.

Penner, however, said there can be consensus built on things like increasing funding for career and technical education even if the board will be split 5-3 on other issues.

I think theres a lot of things all eight will agree on, he said.

There are now four Democrats currently on the nonpartisan board  Koch-Johns, Neary, Jacquelyn Morrison and Lisa Fricke. Patti Gubbels, a registered Republican, has generally sided with them, too.

In the end, Penner said the health standards and COVID-19s impact on the classroom opened eyes and led to more parental involvement in whats being taught in schools.

Penner himself has led that charge. At a board meeting earlier this year, he read snippets from books he deemed pornographic and which he claimed were available in Nebraskas public schools.

Penner, the president of Penner Bathing, which manufactures bath equipment for assisted living facilities, nursing homes and hospitals, served for 16 years on the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education.
Crescent Tucker pushes wheelchairs at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

He pushes prisoners older than him through the prison yard. He wheels them to pick up daily medications.

One day, that might be me, and I hope somebody helps me, Tucker said.

Tucker shot and killed a woman during a robbery when he was 21. Hes now 62.

Hes seen plenty of death over those 40 years. Nurses running alongside gurneys, trying to revive prisoners. Inmates collapsing before his eyes.

When you know you are aging inside of a prison, you are basically waiting on death, Tucker said.

Nebraskas prison population is becoming older  and sicker, too. Prisoners over 60 are the fastest-growing age demographic. Over the past 30 years, that segment of the prison population grew tenfold.

In October, the state incarcerated 398 Nebraskans aged 60 and above, many of them serving life or virtually life sentences. Roughly one of every 14 Nebraska prisoners is at or near senior citizen age.

The increasingly geriatric population is costing taxpayers. In 2021, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services spent $43 million on prison health care. Thats more than double what it spent in 2006.

The cost of drugs has nearly tripled in that time. And specific costs have ballooned at eye-widening rates. For example: The cost of dialysis inside the State Penitentiary has spiraled 15-fold in the past dozen years.

The lions share of the increased spending goes toward the states oldest and sickest prisoners, who pose little risk of committing new crimes, says Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha.

Medicare and Medicaid are suspended when a person is incarcerated, so Nebraska taxpayers foot the bill.

Last session, the Legislature debated LB920, a criminal justice reform bill that could have slowed prison growth and made it easier for the prisons sick and elderly to get paroled. But state senators couldnt agree on key parts of the bill, and it failed.

Our No. 1 responsibility is to keep innocent people safe, said Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln, an opponent of the original bill. We have compassion for those who are rehabilitated  and yet, we have to also be careful that they are not let out before theyre ready to thrive in society.

More senior citizen prisoners should be given that chance to reenter society, said Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, who sponsored legislation last session to allow prisoners sentenced to life to seek geriatric and medical parole.

Youve got to ask yourself, is this person a threat to society? McKinney said. And would it cost the state less to house them somewhere else? Not to excuse why theyre in there  just looking at it from a holistic perspective.

At the State Penitentiary, there are now three housing units dedicated to the prisons elderly.

Men with graying hair roll oxygen tanks into their cells, McKinney described. The units have been retrofitted with ramps to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers in the 153-year-old building.

Fifty-three prisoners across the prison system now work as medical porters, helping older prisoners get out of bed, brush their teeth and eat their meals.

Its a stark contrast from three decades ago. In 1992, Nebraska only had a few dozen prisoners over 60  just 1.4% of the total population. Then, the typical Nebraska prisoner was about 31 years old. Now: 38.

Prisoners with a life sentence skew older  the average lifer in the state is 50.

Prison leaders recently announced plans for an additional 32-bed geriatric unit at the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln.

The demographic shifts, both in Nebraska and nationwide, were largely fueled by '80s and '90s tough on crime sentencing policies, several experts said. State legislatures  including the Nebraska Legislature  passed mandatory minimum laws and increased penalties. Judges became more likely to hand down longer sentences and life sentences, filling prisons.

In recent years, other states have found ways to shrink their incarceration numbers, even closing prisons. But in Nebraska, the prison population has continued to climb, and is expected to keep growing.

Life without parole, consecutive sentences and mandatory minimums are factors fueling the continued prison growth, said Ryan Spohn, director of the University of Nebraska at Omahas Nebraska Center for Justice Research.

Of course this is happening, said Lathrop, outgoing chair of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee. We decided as policymakers over the years to increase penalties, so people are going to stay longer. As a consequence, were going to have an older population.

That older population comes with a higher likelihood of chronic health conditions, terminal illness and pricey health care.

In letters to the Flatwater Free Press, current prisoners in their 70s and 80s described cancer diagnoses, joint replacements and heart surgery. They take multiple medications a day, have failing vision, hepatitis and kidney failure. Some have watched their cellmates suffer strokes and seizures.

The Department of Correctional Services hinted at growing health costs as far back as 2008.

The inmate population is becoming older and sicker, and treatment and prescription costs continue to increase, officials wrote in a budget request.

Since then, medical expenses and the number of geriatric prisoners have continued to grow in tandem, year after year.

In 2006, the department spent $19.5 million on health care. By 2021, that number more than doubled to $43.2 million. That is partly because health care costs have in general ballooned. But its in large part because of the explosion of elderly Nebraskans getting care inside prisons.

Medical spending appeared to decrease slightly in 2022, only because the state used federal COVID-19 funds to pay salary increases.

The 2023 appropriation for prison health care: $48.9 million.

Older adults have specific health challenges, needs and concerns, said department spokeswoman Laura Strimple. As people live longer, the cost of care goes up. Thats true in NDCS as well as in the community.

In 2010, the department started in-house dialysis at the State Penitentiary. That year, it spent $20,130 on dialysis. By 2022, that cost had skyrocketed to $314,291, according to budget documents. The department also now spends $6.6 million on drugs, which has nearly tripled since 2006.

Its an expense that you have more difficulty justifying as this person ages into a wheelchair, or where they have to be fed, said former state ombudsman Marshall Lux. The real question we should be asking ourselves: When is enough enough  of the punitive part of keeping them in prison? When is this person no longer really dangerous?

Researchers have found that recidivism  a persons likelihood to reoffend  drops dramatically with age. In 2017, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that older offenders were substantially less likely to commit new crimes. Thirteen percent of 65-and-older prisoners were re-arrested in the eight years after release. Thats compared with 67% of offenders 21 and younger.

For some in the Legislature, that risk is still too much.

Public safety would always override the fiscal part of it for me, Geist said. Financially  its difficult to calculate the cost that someone could cost society if theyre let out too soon. And thats always the balancing act.

Other states have adopted policies, like creating geriatric parole for aging prisoners and making lifers eligible for medical parole, that the Legislature ultimately discarded last session.

Nebraskas existing medical parole program has been called impracticable by the Nebraska Correctional Systems Inspector General.

Prison officials can refer individuals to the Board of Parole if theyre deemed terminally ill. In 22 years, the parole board has granted parole for two such prisoners.

For lifers, like Tucker, the only way out is a commutation  when the Board of Pardons decides to shorten a persons sentence. Tucker has asked for his life sentence to be commuted four times. Four times, the pardons board has said no.

Its been five years since the board commuted a sentence. In 20 years, only nine people have been granted a commutation.

Gov. Pete Ricketts pointed to Laddie Dittrich as a reason not to release elderly prisoners. Dittrich was sentenced to life for a 1973 murder. In 2013, the pardons board commuted his sentence. Months later, the 69-year-old was arrested for sexual assaulting a child.

Inmates incarcerated for serious and violent crimes  should not be released from prison after just 15 years simply because of their age, Ricketts said when the Legislature was considering geriatric parole.

But bills considered last session wouldnt have automatically released old prisoners, McKinney said. The Nebraska Board of Parole, with the final say on release, could have tried to ensure the state was releasing only sick or elderly prisoners who posed no threat.

After 40 years in prison, Tucker has participated in countless programs and mental health classes. He helps with peer support and is a member of a program working to reduce recidivism. His hopes to be a community anchor  outside of prison.

If I walk out of prison today, I know from the start that Ive got to be an excellent civilian, Tucker said. I cant make another mistake in my life. Its not allowed.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Voters in reliably red Kentucky rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any state constitutional protections for abortion while voters in battleground Michigan enshrined abortion rights in their state's constitution  joining Democratic California and Vermont in taking that step.

The Kentucky result bucked the states Republican-led Legislature, which had imposed a near-total ban on the procedure and put the proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot. It also mirrored what happened in another red state, Kansas, where voters in August rejected changing that states constitution to let lawmakers tighten restrictions or ban abortions.

The Tuesday ballot measures came months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion it guaranteed to women nationwide. The decision in June has led to near-total bans in a dozen states.

Supporters of the push to protect abortion rights in Michigan collected more signatures than any other ballot initiative in state history to get it before the voters. It puts a definitive end to a 1931 ban on abortion that had been blocked in court but could have been revived. It also affirms the right to make pregnancy-related decisions about abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control without interference.

On Michigan State Universitys campus, junior Devin Roberts said that students seemed fired up and that he had seen lines of voters spilling out of the school's polling places throughout the day. The ballot measure was one of the main drivers of the high turnout, he said.

Theres a lot of energy for Prop 3 on campus right now, whether you agree with abortion or not, Roberts said. I think students want to have the same rights that their parents had when they were younger.

Nationally, about two-thirds of voters say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of over 90,000 voters across the country. Only about 1 in 10 say abortion should be illegal in all cases.

About 6 in 10 also say the Supreme Courts abortion decision made them dissatisfied or angry, compared with fewer who say they were happy or satisfied. Full coverage:

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Nebraska and a collection of other states have received two settlements worth more than $16 million over data breaches that compromised millions of Americans personal information.

Nebraska will receive $139,279 from the settlements, Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a news release.

The bigger settlement pertains to a 2015 breach. In September of that year, credit reporting firm Experian reported it had experienced the data breach when an unauthorized person gained access to part of its network storing personal information on behalf of cellphone company T-Mobile. More than 15 million people, including 4,790 Nebraskans, who submitted credit applications with T-Mobile were affected.

Experian settled with the states for $12.67 million, while T-Mobile settled for $2.43 million. Both companies also agreed to several measures to increase their oversight and security measures.

Under the terms of the settlement, Experian also will be required to offer five years of free credit monitoring services to affected consumers, as well as two free copies of their credit reports annually during that period.

Experian will also pay $1 million to resolve the multistate lawsuit pertaining to the 2012 breach. The news release said that breach occurred when subsidiary Experian Data Corp. failed to prevent or provide notice that occurred when an identity thief posing as a private investigator was given access to sensitive personal information stored in the subsidiarys commercial databases.

The T-Mobile settlement is unrelated to a separate data breach the company announced in August 2021. That incident is still under investigation.
Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon appeared to eke out a victory over state Sen. Adam Morfeld Tuesday in a hotly contested race for the county's top prosecutor.

Condon ended the night with 2,000 more votes than Morfeld, though the county election commissioner still had to count about 3,500 early vote ballots, 2,000 resolution ballots and 1,850 provisional ballots. They will be counted in the next week to 10 days.

For much of the night, it appeared that for the first time in six decades, a Democrat  and an attorney who did not rise through the ranks of the office  was poised to be the next Lancaster County attorney.

By the end of the night -- when the county election commissioner posted unofficial final results, Condon had 54,132 votes to Morfeld's 52,132.

More than an hour earlier, when Morfeld was ahead of Condon by more than 3,900 votes, both candidates said they remained cautiously optimistic.

We always knew it was going to be a close race, said Morfeld, noting that his opponent spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads against him.

Condon was counting on many of the still-to-be-counted rural votes, where he hoped he'd perform strongly.

We did everything we wanted to, he said. We are hoping it will pay off.

Morfeld, 37, a term-limited state senator and executive director of the nonprofit Civic Nebraska, challenged Condon, 60, who has been a prosecutor for 34 years  32 of them in Lancaster County.

Condon, who was appointed county attorney in 2018, then won an uncontested race later that year, touted his experience and said many of Morfelds attacks showed that he didnt understand how the system worked.

Even before campaigning began in earnest, the GOP filed a lawsuit alleging Morfeld didnt meet the qualifications for running for office because he hadnt practiced actively for two years. The Nebraska Supreme Court sided with Morfeld.

Morfeld promised to bring transparency and accountability to the office, as well as making criminal justice reform a priority. He attacked Condon on a number of issues, including charging simple drug and marijuana possession as felonies rather than misdemeanors, untested rape kits, and Condons position on abortion and medical marijuana  a ballot issue Morfeld led.

Morfeld spent more than $418,000 and Condon spent more than $108,000 on the race, and Together Nebraska, a conservative political action committee, spent well more than $300,000 in ads opposing Morfeld.

The campaign got ugly: Morfeld ran an ad featuring the father of an alleged rape victim who accused Condon of ignoring the victim, alleging Condon wasnt going to arrest the suspects until police forced his hand, which Condon said wasnt true.
Nebraska voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved making voters show identification in future elections.

Initiative 432, which amends the state constitution to require voters to "present valid photographic identification before casting a ballot, passed easily, with more than six in 10 voters supporting it as of 10:45 p.m. Tuesday.

It's unclear yet, however, how the law will affect voters, because the initiative's language leaves most of the details up to the Nebraska Legislature.

Nebraskans for Free and Fair Elections, which opposed the initiative, said in a statement Tuesday that it expects legislators who supported it to "work to impose one of the most restrictive voter ID mandates in the country."

But Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, who sponsored the petition drive that gathered more than 172,000 signatures, said she plans to work with senators, election commissioners and others to "craft a bill that we can get across the finish line that fulfills the will of the voters of Nebraska."

Slama, who will introduce the legislation, didn't offer any specifics Tuesday, instead saying she would wait to see how the legislative races shake out.

She called the win a "team effort from beginning to finish."

Another initiative on the ballot also passed, with a surprisingly large margin.

Voters approved Initiative 433, which will gradually raise Nebraska's minimum wage from the current $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2026.

The wage will move to $10.50 on Jan. 1, then will increase by $1.50 a year until 2026, after which it will be adjusted annually based on the cost of living.

Supporters, which include hundreds of the state's small businesses, said the higher wage will lift people out of poverty.

"Initiative 433 passed tonight because Nebraskans understand that raising the minimum wage is about respecting and rewarding hard work" said Kate Wolfe, campaign manager for Raise the Wage Nebraska.

The big winner of the night was Amendment 1, which would allow Lincoln and other cities in the state with commercial airports to offer incentives to attract additional passenger service. It got support from nearly 4 of every 5 voters.
Nebraska Medicaid officials have delayed signing new contracts with private companies to manage most of the states $1.8 billion Medicaid services until a protest filed by a losing bidder is resolved.

But the Department of Health and Human Services said last week that there should be plenty of time for the three winning bidders to prepare before the planned Jan. 1, 2024, start date for the contracts.

Community Care Plan of Nebraska, doing business as Healthy Blue, filed a protest last month of the departments announced intent to award new Medicaid managed care contracts to three other companies. Healthy Blue currently holds one of the contracts.

HHS officials announced plans in September to award the new contracts to Molina Healthcare of Nebraska, Nebraska Total Care and United HealthCare of the Midlands. Two of those, Nebraska Total Care and United HealthCare, have current contracts. Molina Healthcare is new to Nebraska but provides Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act marketplace plans in several other states.

The three companies will be responsible for managing physical and behavioral health care, pharmacy services and dental benefits for almost all Medicaid patients in a program called Heritage Health. Together, they will oversee the care of some 347,000 Nebraskans.

State Medicaid Director Kevin Bagley told state lawmakers Friday that Healthy Blue had been in third place after evaluators reviewed and scored all of the bids.

But he said the margin between the third- and fourth-place companies was very small, prompting officials to add oral interviews with all the bidders. Molina moved up in the rankings after those interviews, which focused on the companies plans for innovation, integration and access to care for marginalized communities.

Larry Kahl, the HHS chief operating officer, denied the companys protest in a letter dated Oct. 24. Healthy Blue now has the option to request a meeting with Dannette Smith, the HHS CEO. The company also can pursue the issue in court.

Bagley said he was not part of the initial scoring and is not involved with the protest. But he defended the bidding process that the state has followed.

We believe this has been a very robust and clean process, he said in a briefing for the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee.

Nebraskas procurement process has come under scrutiny after a series of cases in which officials wound up choosing a low-cost bidder that failed to do the job. The most recent case was the selection of Saint Francis Ministries, a Kansas-based nonprofit, to manage Omaha-area child welfare cases.

Saint Francis got the job after bidding 40% less than the previous contractor, the Omaha-based PromiseShip. Although the agency fell short on key contract requirements, the state was forced to sign an emergency rate increase in January 2021. By December, state officials announced an early termination of the contract.

Bagley said Friday that the Medicaid managed care bidders were not competing on cost. Rather, each was required to accept the per-member, per-month payment rates set by the state and to compete on other factors, such as being able to produce better health care results.

The winning bidders were selected from among five contenders. The fifth bidder, Medica Community Health Plan, which currently offers health coverage to Nebraskans through the ACA marketplace, has not filed a protest.

The current Heritage Health contracts date to 2017, when the state signed with three private companies to administer what was then $1.2 billion worth of Medicaid services. Since then, two of the original three companies merged, which led to the state signing a contract with Healthy Blue.

Heritage Health does not cover nursing home care and other long-term support and services for the elderly and people with disabilities.
The Florida Board of Governors on Wednesday enthusiastically approved the appointment of Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse to become president of the University of Florida effective on Feb. 6.

The board's action came during a meeting in Tampa that was moved up a day because of the threat of Tropical Storm Nicole, resulting in Sasse's participation via Zoom and a subsequent motion to approve his selection by acclamation.

Sasse's contract is for a five-year term, beginning with an annual base salary of $1 million subject to annual raises along with potential bonuses based on performance and accumulation of an annual accrued retention fund.

The effective date of Sasse's transition from a seat in the U.S. Senate to the university presidency in Gainesville would allow Sasse to continue to represent Nebraska in the Senate until a successor has been appointed.

Signs point to the appointment of Gov. Pete Ricketts to the Senate seat after Gov.-elect Jim Pillen is sworn into office to succeed Ricketts in early January. Ricketts has not yet signaled whether he would seek the appointment, but he unsuccessfully sought a Senate seat in 2006.

"Thrilled to join Gator Nation in February  very excited about the work ahead," Sasse subsequently tweeted.

"Melissa and I have had the great honor of serving Nebraskans in the Senate these 8 years  I will finish out the upcoming session and resign in the first week of January."

Action by the Florida Board of Governors confirmed the appointment of Sasse by the University of Florida's Board of Trustees last month.

Sasse told the board that he is "passionate about the power and the potential of the University of Florida," which recently won recognition as one of the top five public universities in the country.

Answering questions about opposition aimed at him by some students and faculty members at the university, many of whom were concerned about his position on LGBTQ rights, Sasse said he welcomes "an open exchange of ideas."

But he also noted that the concerns voiced by most of the faculty members with whom he has visited centered on deferred maintenance of buildings.

Both the student and faculty representatives on the Board of Trustees questioned him about his views during his earlier interview, but were satisfied with his answers and voted to hire him.

Lauren Lemasters, president of the student body, is currently facing possible impeachment by the student senate because of her vote.

Sasse said he will work with members of the LGBTQ student community, telling the governing board on Wednesday that he believes "every single member of the community should feel respected."

Board member Charlie Lydecker of Daytona Beach said he believes Sasse can be "a game-changer, a once-in-a-generation leader we were hoping for."

"We've got a lot of stuff to do together," Sasse said.
BURLINGTON  Voters signaled a preference Tuesday for a scenario that includes saving Echo Lake, in a citywide referendum that highlighted sharp disagreement on the issue.

Of nearly 4,500 people who cast ballots, the choice for keeping the lake was selected by 2,664 voters, or 59.6%, while the alternative of removing the lake was selected by 1,805, or 40.4%.

The city conducted the advisory referendum as a deadline looms for elected leaders to decide whether to maintain or remove Burlingtons beloved manmade lake.

As a non-binding advisory measure, the referendum does not obligate Burlington City Council members to follow the wishes of the voters. Council members have not set a timetable for deciding the matter.

What voters said

Voters participating in the referendum held inside the Veterans Terrace polling place Tuesday voiced strong feelings on both sides of the question.

Voter C.J. Moser said he voted to remove a dam and drain the lake, because the manmade impoundment, he said, has become overrun with muck, and does not even allow for good fishing any more.

Moser said he wants the city to restore the White River and create a new riverfront attraction in place of the lake.

I think itd be a much nicer place, he said.

Another voter, Carol Krupski, said she cast her ballot to keep the dam. Krupski said she has grown accustomed to having Echo Lake as part of the community.

I know its probably going to cost more, she said. I dont believe that taking it out will help the lake.

Echo Lake has been part of the community since the 1800s when business owners built a dam on the White River to power a mill. The mill is long gone, but the 70-acre lake remains.

Water quality has deteriorated, and the city-owned dam no longer meets state safety standards.

The state Department of Natural Resources has set a 2025 deadline to either expand and upgrade the dam, or remove the dam and drain the lake. Without the dam, engineers have forecasted that a restored White River would flow naturally through the area, spanning 50 to 100 feet across and with an average water depth of 1 to 2 feet.

Mayor Jeannie Hefty says she wants to keep the lake. BURLINGTON HAS SPOKEN, she wrote in all capital letters Wednesday morning in reaction to the referendum results.

The Burlington Park Board had recommended removing the dam and letting Echo Lake vanish into the history books.

City engineers estimate that maintaining the lake would cost more than $5 million to both improve the dam and dredge the lake bottom. Removing the dam and draining the lake would cost about $1.5 million.

Borrowing $5 million to maintain the lake would increase property taxes for the average homeowner by $68 a year over 20 years, or a total of $1,368. Borrowing $1.5 million to remove the lake would cost the same homeowner $20 a year, or a total of $409.

The city has secured a $1 million state grant, and officials hope to find other outside funding to ease the burden on local taxpayers.

Adding boardwalks, fishing docks or other amenities would be optional considerations later. For the referendum, aldermen decided to include many potential add-ons to the question on the ballot. Voters were asked to choose between two hypothetical choices of spending $7.7 million to remove the lake or spending $8.1 million to keep the lake.

The Burlington City Council in August decided not to hold a referendum strictly on whether to save Echo Lake, despite some concerns that the results might otherwise be difficult to interpret.

Voters leaving Veterans Terrace voiced strong feelings on a topic that has become emotional for many.

Ruth Sullivan said she assumes there will be costs involved no matter what the city decides. But she voted to save Echo Lake because, she said, the lake is one of Burlingtons most beautiful spots.

Its a natural beautiful park  the best in the city, she said.

Andrew Karnes said he voted to drain the lake, because the cost of dam repairs and dredging is much higher, and also because the dam presents an increased risk of flooding.

Invoking the Wisconsin state motto of Forward, Karnes said he is ready to see Burlington move into the future without Echo Lake.

Its just not necessary any more, he said.

Another voter, Jim McCann, said he selected the option of removing the lake, too. McCann said the dam is a manmade impediment, and he favors allowing the White River to resume flowing unobstructed.

McCann said he recognizes Echo Lakes place in local history. But, he said, Its more important to let Mother Nature takes its course.
MOUNT PLEASANT  A Case High School student was arrested Tuesday afternoon after stabbing a classmate, the Mount Pleasant Police Department said.

A 15-year-old student with significant cognitive delays is suspected of stabbing a 16-year-old male student in the back with a knife brought from home.

It appears to be a random event, according to the MPPD.

Case High School, 7345 Washington Ave., went into a soft lockdown as a result of the incident, meaning students stayed in class and didn't change classes or go in the halls.

Mount Pleasant Police, the school resource officer and school staff located the suspect without incident, and the knife was recovered.

The press release did not include information about the health condition of the student who was stabbed.

The investigation is ongoing. More information may be released at a later date.

Stacy Tapp, Racine Unified chief of communications and community engagement, said the students guardian gave RUSD permission to share that the student has "significant cognitive delays."

"We are working to be as transparent as possible while adhering to privacy laws," Tapp wrote. "We are focused on our student's recovery and ensuring we support all of our Case High School students, staff and families."
RACINE  Two nonbinding referendums on the ballots for voters in the City of Racine, one for the legalization of marijuana and the other for overturning the states anti-abortion law, have passed.

Impact Neither of the City of Racine's Tuesday referendums have any real effect, but were a way to show the levels of community support on these two issues. Democrats have said they are a good way to pressure state legislators to pass laws that better reflect what their constituencies want, while Republicans have said the referendums were attempts to increase voter turnout in a Democratic stronghold.

Marijuana

Should marijuana be legalized for adult-use, taxed, and regulated like alcohol? received 16,229 Yes votes vs. 5,130 No votes, according to unofficial results published by Racine County Tuesday night.

The results echo a 2018 countywide referendum in which nearly 59% of Racine County residents said marijuana should be legalized for recreational use for adults.

Also on Tuesday, the states of Maryland and Missouri voted to legalize recreational marijuana, while North Dakota, South Dakota and Arkansas voted against legalizing pot.

A nonbinding referendum in the City of Kenosha Tuesday mirrored Racines. In Kenosha, residents voted 71.93% (23,952 votes) to 28.07% (9,347 votes) in support of marijuana being legalized and taxed like alcohol.

Abortion

In Racine, 15,098 voters said Wisconsins abortion ban should be repealed while 6,086 voters said it should stay in effect.

Also on Tuesday, Kentuckians voted that their state constitution should not be amended to say there would be no right to abortion in their state while Vermont overwhelming voted in support of adding the right to personal reproductive autonomy to the states constitution. Likewise, Michigan and California voted that there should be a constitutional right to reproductive freedom.

A proposal in Montana failed that would have made criminal the actions of health care providers who, as The New York Times reported, do not make every effort to save the life of an infant born during an attempted abortion or after labor or C-section after doctors raised concerns that the law will limit palliative care for infants who are born but will not survive. The Montana proposal that voters rejected also would have enacted a born alive law, making anyone born at any gestational age legally a person; the proposal was essentially redundant, since a 20-year-old federal law already does that.
RACINE  In statewide races on Tuesday, Wisconsins voters again showed themselves to be incredibly purple. According to the unofficial preliminary counts, Wisconsin elected two Democrats (Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul) and two Republicans (U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and state Treasurer-to-be John S. Leiber, a Racine native) in narrowly decided statewide races; the secretary of states race is still too close to call.

Ron Johnson beats Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race "Unfortunately, we didn't get over the finish line this time," Barnes said in conceding the race Wednesday.

But in Wisconsins Assembly, made up of 99 state representatives all of whom were up for election Tuesday, the state looks much redder. After Tuesdays votes were counted, it appears 64 Republicans and 35 Democrats were elected  although several races are within the margin where recounts could be coming. In the state Senate, Republicans will likely have a supermajority, winning 22 of 33 seats.

This disparity is the result of what Democrats and voting rights advocates have been saying is gerrymandering for more than a decade. How could a state populated roughly by 50% right-leaning voters and 50% by left-leaning voters elect a legislature that leans more than 64.6% to the right?

This happens from time to time, so its not particularly unusual," Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Mark Jefferson said in an interview Thursday. He said the reason Republicans have such a majority in the legislature is because "the Democrats are not organized, pointing to several districts where only a Republican was on the ballot. Legislative Republicans have out-organized and out-funded these campaigns. Theyve out-recruited Democrats in all these races as well.

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, in a phone interview Wednesday morning, took the opposite point of view. Every election at the state level was decided by a few percentage points. Wisconsin is a 50-50 state. But we have heavily gerrymandered legislative maps."

Wisconsin's Republicans have argued they simply have put candidates on the ballot that have better connected with voters in their districts, giving them the advantage over Democrats in the Legislature.

"Democrats focus mostly on Madison and Milwaukee, and ignore the rest of the state," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. "It's not about the district boundaries. It's about the candidates and the message."

Democrats do not have any current challenges to the status quo of the maps active right now, but they could be coming, especially if a Democrat-backed judge or two are elected to the state Supreme Court in the coming years. The next Wisconsin Supreme Court election will be in April, when conservative Patience Roggensack's term expires; she is not seeking reelection.

They (Democrats) are not interested in an even playing field. Theyre interested in power, said Jefferson, pointing to how Democrats had a majority in the Legislature under Gov. Jim Doyle more than a decade ago but did not pass legislation that would have taken the power to draw maps out of partisan lawmakers hands.

Three seats lost, but treating it like a win

Despite losing three currently held seats, Assembly Democrats are considering Tuesday a victory because Republicans did not secure enough seats to have a veto-proof supermajority. Had Republicans won 66 Assembly seats, they could have unilaterally passed any legislation without having to worry about whether Evers would veto it.

We prevented a Republican supermajority in the Legislature, Wisconsin! Neubauer tweeted at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday. Big f**king deal. (The Journal Times censored the curse word; Neubauer spelled it out.)

Without the supermajority, Republicans and Evers will either be forced to come to more compromises in order to govern the state, or more stalemates could be on the horizon. In 2021-22, Evers set a Wisconsin gubernatorial record by vetoing more than 120 bills.

To prevent Republicans gaining a veto-proof supermajority, Neubauer said in a phone interview, We knew it was going to be a real challenge. And we knew that was going to be our No. 1 priority for this (election) cycle, to stop Republicans from overriding the will of the people in Wisconsin.

Definition Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating the boundaries of voting districts in order to unfairly to gain an advantage or to disadvantage opponents. The term is named after Eldridge Gerry, who had been vice president under President James Madison. When Gerry was governor of Massachusetts in the early 1800s, one of the districts he approved resembled a salamander because of how it curved through the Boston area  gerrymander thus is a portmanteau of salamander and Gerry's surname. Gerry had been a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, which no longer exists.

The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee, in a statement Wednesday, said that Under the recently adopted, highly gerrymandered legislative maps, President (Joe) Bidens winning vote total in 2020 would have won only 35 of 99 state Assembly seats. Biden defeated Donald Trump by 20,682 votes in Wisconsin in 2020. Despite the fact that Republicans have rigged the system in their favor to lock in political power, the ADCC mounted a winning effort to overcome some of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation.

Vos noted there are still a number of competitive races on the ballot that Democrats were unable to win, such as in District 33 which includes Fort Atkinson and part of Whitewater, where Republican Scott Johnson appears to have won by fewer than 300 votes over Democrat Don Vruwink. Neubauer pointed to that same district as an example of gerrymandering, as Vruwink did not move but his house was placed in District 33 while he is currently still representing District 43, which had until this year included all of Whitewater; under the maps put in place within the last year, Whitewater's left-leaning electorate is now split in two.

The big races Democrats currently hold 38 of Wisconsins 99 Assembly seats. In January, when those elected Tuesday are sworn in, they will hold 35 seats. Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said she was particularly pleased to see Democrat Steve Doyle of Onalaska hold off a challenge from Republican Ryan Huebsch in western Wisconsins District 94, and see state Rep. Tip McGuire, who represents northern Kenosha and southern Racine, overcome more than $100,000 in Republican ad spending in just the final two weeks of the election and handily defeat Republican challenger Ed Hibsch in District 64; McGuire received nearly 57% of the vote in the district.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which analyzes voting maps nationwide, gave Wisconsins current legislative maps the grade of an F last year  although there have been allegations that the head of the Princeton project, Sam Wang, has allowed his research to unduly favor Democrats.
Population

While the City of Racine is still considered a stronghold for Democrats, its political power has fallen as its population has fallen, from around 85,700 in 1992 down to 77,816 in the 2020 U.S. Census.

Across that same time, the rest of Racine County's population has grown. From 1992-2020, Racine County's population minus the City of Racine has gone from 91,928 to 119,911.

Similarly, Wisconsin's population has a whole has grown from around 5,005,000 in 1992 to 5,893,718 in 2020.
KENOSHA  State Reps. Tip McGuire and Tod Ohnstad, Democratic incumbents in Wisconsin Assembly Districts 64 and 65, respectively, won reelection on Tuesday.

Republicans had hoped they could use lasting anxiety and concern from 2020s riots in Kenosha to flip those districts red.

McGuire and Ohnstad each addressed supporters at a Democratic election night event Tuesday at the Fireside Restaurant and Lounge in Kenosha.

For McGuire, whose district includes southeastern Racine and a slice of Mount Pleasant, this years election was largely a repeat of 2020, when he first ran against Republican challenger Ed Hibsch. McGuire won this year by essentially the same margin, 56.78%, with a collective 12,873 voters between Kenosha and Racine counties versus Hibschs 9,798.

Racine County voters preferred McGuire to Hibsch. McGuire received 2,583 votes in Racine County while Hibsch received 1,896.

McGuire, of Kenosha, pointed to his positive track record in the area as the reason for his win.

Once youve worked for your community for a while, it comes down to what kind of confidence people have in the job that youve done and the work that youre doing, McGuire said. This is a local office. Im from here. I hope Ive built the trust and faith with those in the community.

Hibsch, a Village of Somers resident, could not be reached for comment.

Ohnstad faced Frank Petrick, who kept a low profile throughout the campaign season for the District 65 seat. Ohnstad won 61.78% of the vote versus Petricks 38.08%. Ohnstad received 11,035 votes to Petricks 6,803 votes.

In his victory speech, Ohnstad said he looked forward to continuing to serve his constituents and the people of Wisconsin. Ohnstad also pointed to his track record as a reason for his victory.

People recognize that Im a hardworking representative who has the interests of my constituents at heart, Ohnstad said. I worked harder than my opponent. After 10 years of being in the legislature, this has been a referendum on the job Ive done here.

Petrick did not respond to a request for comments.

District 64 of the State Assembly encompasses the City of Kenoshas north side, eastern Somers and extends into the southeastern portion of Racine County, including all of the Village of Elmwood Park, a portion of Mount Pleasant and a small portion of the City of Racine.

District 65 encompasses the City of Kenoshas downtown and central area.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Wisconsin Assembly District 62 reelected Republican state Rep. Robert Wittke Tuesday.

Wittke received 18,202 votes, a 22 percentage point victory over Democrat Anthony Hammes who received 11,417 votes.

In victory, Wittke said he ran for state office to solve problems and find solutions to issues, and he hopes that can happen in the upcoming two-year term. He said his focus will again be on improving reading scores in Wisconsin's schools.

Wittke told a reporter Tuesday night that he was proud of the 14 bills he authored or co-authored that "made it across the line" and were passed during has last term. He told the Racine County Eye before Election Day that he still supports passing a "Parental Bill of Rights" to expand parents' rights in public school classrooms in Wisconsin, something that Republicans passed last session but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed.

In a statement, Hammes conceded the race.

We fought a good, clean campaign and in this day and age, that is critical. Weve addressed the issues with respect and are solution oriented, Hammes said. While this has been my first time on this specific political stage, by no means will my involvement in the success of the democracy of our area and finding solutions that are effective, both by outcomes and costs. So, while we may not currently have the outcome we wanted, we do have our commitment to keeping the flame alive; embers become flames. Always keep that in mind."

District 62 includes Wind Point, most of Caledonia, Raymond and Wind Lake.

Wittke was first elected in 2018, after serving as president of the Racine Unified School Board.
Vos not counting Trump out

After Donald Trump called him a "horrendous RINO" in a robocall supporting Adam Steen, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he might still be open to supporting Trump on a 2024 presidential ticket as Trump gears up to possibly announce his candidacy within the next week.

"I would start by saying," Vos said, "I hope that we (Republicans) have better alternatives to show voters than Donald Trump, but I think time will tell ... I think there are probably going to be better people running and can connect with folks."

Regarding Trump's rhetoric toward Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another potential GOP nominee for president in 2024, Vos said "It's all personal attacks, and I don't think that's what voters want anymore."
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, won a third term in U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday night.

Steil, who attended an election night watch party at Parkway Chateau, 12304 75th St., in Kenosha while returns were being counted, expressed his appreciation to the public for supporting him for another term.

I am grateful for the continued support of the voters of Wisconsins First District. I will continue working for the people of Wisconsin, Steil said in a statement. It is harder and harder for families to get by as workers and seniors are clobbered by rising costs. Communities have become less safe. Its time to get our country back on track. Im focused on bringing costs down and making our communities safe.

Steil handily defeated first-time Democratic candidate Ann Roe, of Janesville.

By 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, with 89.5% of precincts reporting in the district, Steil had received 160,049 of the votes counted, or 54.9%, compared to Roe with 129,366 votes, or 44.4%. Independent Charles Barman had 2,202 votes, or 0.8% of the vote.

In Kenosha County, Steil won 54.29% (35,694) of the vote, according to unofficial results. Roe won 45% (29,589) of the vote in the county.

The Associated Press called the race at 11:30 p.m. with 65% of the votes counted. At that time, Steil had over 157,000 votes, or around 55% of the votes counted.

Steil was first elected to represent the area in 2018. He succeeded former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan after Ryan retired.

The First Congressional District covers Kenosha and Racine counties, as well as parts of Milwaukee, Waukesha and Rock counties.
China to further promote green growth in building materials

Xinhua) 16:13, November 08, 2022

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has released a plan to advance low-carbon development in the building materials sector, a large producer of industrial carbon emissions, vowing to secure a carbon peak target in the industry by 2030.

Considerable headway should occur in adjusting the industrial structure of the sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), according to the plan jointly unveiled by four government organs, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Efforts will go into further promoting energy-saving and low-carbon technologies and reducing the energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in key products, including cement, glass, and ceramics, during the period, the document said.

In the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), vital breakthroughs should take place in the industrial application of green and low-carbon technologies, with an industrial system featuring green, low-carbon, and circular development established, as per the plan.

China has announced peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Liang Jun)
At the beginning of the school year, Margret Hinze was both a special education teacher for grades six to 12, and a contestant in the Miss Racine Scholarship Competition.

One of her students joked that if she did not win, Miss Hinze could not be their teacher anymore.

It looks like they get to keep their teacher.
Breaking from historic trends that spell out challenges for the party holding the White House, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers secured a second term in Tuesdays midterm election after defeating Republican challenger Tim Michels.

Buoyed by high turnout in liberal strongholds like Madison and Milwaukee, paired with Michels underperformance in GOP counties that went handedly to former Gov. Scott Walker four years ago, Evers successfully secured a second term in office, dashing GOP hopes of reclaiming a trifecta of Republican control in Wisconsin.

Speaking to supporters shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, where he celebrated his 2018 victory over then-incumbent Walker, Evers said he was "jazzed as hell to tell you that on Jan 3, 2023, I will still be the 46th governor of the great state of Wisconsin.

"Holy mackerel folks, how about that?" Evers added. He was joined on stage by former state Rep. Sara Rodriguez, who joins Evers as lieutenant governor.

Evers held a 3-point lead over Michels with 92% of votes counted as of about 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, numbers that led to Michels' concession at an election night party in Milwaukee. About 1% of votes have gone to Independent Joan Beglinger, who dropped out of the race and endorsed Michels.

"Unfortunately the math doesnt add up," Michels told supporters about 20 minutes before Evers' victory speech. "I just called Gov. Evers and I conceded."

Election results are considered unofficial until they're formally canvassed, but The Associated Press declares victors when a winner is certain. The Associated Press called the race for Evers at 1:12 a.m. Wednesday.

Michels entered the race in late-April and withstood a tough August primary to go on to face incumbent Evers, who positioned himself as the "last line of defense" against GOP policies. Tuesdays election is expected to have far-reaching impacts on state policy for the next four years, including how the 2024 presidential election is conducted in the state.

Michels surged to a primary victory thanks in part to an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, who still holds considerable sway in the state. The co-owner of Brownsville-based Michels Corp. also spent more than $18 million of his own money on his campaign, the most in state history.

With his victory, Evers becomes the first Wisconsin governor in 32 years who was the same party as the sitting president to win reelection in a midterm, according to The Associated Press.

As precincts started to report results Tuesday, it became evident that, while Michels was winning key GOP strongholds, the co-owner of Brownsville-based Michels Corp. was not securing the margins needed to defeat Evers.

In Brookfield, for example, Michels won the Waukesha County city by 7%, falling more than 20 points below Walkers 28-point win in 2018. Michels also won the city of Waukesha by about 4 points, compared to a 15-point victory by Walker four years ago.

Evers also improved on his 2018 performance in all three of the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, which wrap around Milwaukee and include the state's largest concentration of Republican voters.

In Dane County, Evers held a more than 172,000 vote lead over Michels with all but one precinct reporting results. Evers won the county by less than 151,000 votes in his 2018 matchup against Walker.

Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said Tuesday's results in the gubernatorial race, as well as state legislative elections, "represent a stunning victory, not just for Democrats in Wisconsin, but for democracy in America."

"These wins transcend history in a state that almost always denies the governorship to the party that controls the White House," Wikler said. "More than that, Governor Evers win  and the preservation of his power to veto legislation  ensures that free and fair elections can continue to prevail in the most pivotal state in the Electoral College."

Everss victory all but ensures the ongoing gridlock in the state Capitol, with the Democratic governor pledging to stand in the way of Republican proposals including abortion restrictions, changes to how state elections are conducted and calls for expanded school choice.

"Policy creation during the last several years has been dysfunctional because Evers and legislative leaders have found almost no common ground," UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said. "Many of the policy battles have taken place via lawsuits in the courts rather than through a legislative negotiation with the executive branch."

Evers has been able to largely control how to spend millions of dollars of federal COVID-19 funds allocated to the state. At the same time, Republicans in the Legislature have rejected all special sessions called by the governor for matters ranging from abortion access to gun control measures.

With Evers' victory, Burden said the next four years "are likely to remain acrimonious and see many more vetoes of Republican proposals."

A Michels victory would have returned the state Capitol to a trifecta Republican control in Wisconsin, creating a scenario where there would be "little holding back Republicans from an aggressive policy agenda, Burden said.

Michels had expressed plans to sign into law several Republican-authored bills including measures that Evers has vetoed, including bills to add restrictions to elections in the state and expand school choice offerings.

Some proposals touted by Michels include universal school choice, mandatory minimum sentencing for felons convicted of gun possession and "massive tax reform," though he has not provided specifics on the proposal.

"In hindsight, looking back, I dont know what I would have done differently, it was a very spirited effort," Michels said in his brief speech. "The enthusiasm was just off the charts, but it wasnt our night tonight and I thank everybody for all of your support."

Evers and Michels have tangled over a multitude of issues leading up to Tuesdays election, with Evers focusing largely on the issue of reproductive health following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer.

Michels had previously said the states 1849 abortion ban, which remains on the books and does not provide exceptions for rape or incest, was an exact mirror of my position." But in September, Michels said he would sign a bill providing those exceptions if the ban is upheld in court. Evers, who has sought to codify Roe v. Wade, has said he would not support such exceptions if it means leaving Wisconsin's 1849 law in place.

Margaret Keuler, chair of College Democrats of Wisconsin, who was attending Evers election night party Tuesday, said abortion was her biggest concern heading into the election.

Absolutely abortion, and thats what weve heard the most on-campus  it's really (Evers) veto power and being strong against people who are trying to restrict that access thats important.

I dont really trust someone who is not really sure if I should have the right to do what I want with my body, Keuler said of Michels. Thats my biggest fear with having Michels in office.

While he has said the 2020 election was "maybe" stolen, Michels said decertifying the results of the 2020 election  something that is legally and constitutionally impossible  is "not a priority" if he's elected governor. Michels also said last month he would "certainly" accept the outcome of Tuesday's election after initially refusing to commit to doing so.

With regard to future elections in the state, Michels had signaled plans to sign into law a handful of bills that were passed by the Republican-led Legislature but ultimately vetoed by Evers, who said such proposals would make voting harder in the state.

Michels has also called for dismantling the Wisconsin Elections Commission and replacing the agency with a commission consisting of members representing the state's eight congressional districts, though he has not said who would appoint the new agency's members. Five of Wisconsin's eight congressional districts are held by Republicans, while the elections commission is evenly split between appointees from both parties.

State law triggers a free recount of the results if the margin between the candidates is 0.25 percent or less and the candidate who lost the initial count by that margin requests one. If margin is more than 0.25 percent but no more than 1 percent, the losing candidate may petition and pay for a recount.

State Journal reporter Melissa Renee Perry contributed to this report.
Were puzzled and dismayed why the village of Raymond is going to court to appeal a Wisconsin Election Commission ruling that told them to reinstate Jillian and Mitchell Berman on the voter rolls.

The Bermans, newcomers to the community, sold their previous home and stated their address was at a home they were in the process of building in Raymond on Eight Mile Road  but that construction was delayed by COVID and supply chain disruptions. The couple has been staying with relatives. They enrolled their children in Raymond schools, signed up for utilities, got new drivers licenses and licensed their pets at the new address.

Jillian Berman filed to run for the Raymond School Board; thats when their voter registration was challenged by another school board candidate, Gwen Keller, and that stirred debate during the spring election. Two board members distributed fliers that questioned Bermans legitimacy as a candidate. Berman ultimately lost her bid to be on the Raymond School Board, while Keller won.

The village clerk last February  following Kellers complaint invalidated the Bermans voter registration. The Bermans appealed to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which ruled in their favor and ordered the village to allow them to vote on Oct. 3.

The WEC found that the village clerk had wrongfully stripped the Bermans of their status as registered voters and directed the village to reinstate them.

Noting that even homeless people in Wisconsin have a right to vote, the commission held that denying the Bermans registration would make it virtually impossible for them to vote anywhere.

Three days later the village board voted to try to overturn that ruling and filed suit in Racine County Circuit Court after hiring the Waukesha law firm of Arenz Molter Macy and Riffle to represent the village.

Village President Kari Morgan said, The board is a big proponent of voting integrity and we are ensuring that the laws of the state are being followed as listed in the state statutes and not being interpreted by a commission that is not elected by the people.

Thats the reddest of red herrings. If Raymonds fight is over the validity of the WEC to implement election laws, then their fight is with the state Legislature, which set up the bipartisan panel with three Republican and three Democrat appointees.

For Morgan to cast shade on the WEC because their board is not elected is disingenuous and belittles the efforts not only of state workers, but municipal, village and town workers as well. If government decisions could only be made by elected workers our whole government would bog down.

The Bermans have already been disenfranchised in one election.

Village officials should ask themselves where, exactly, did they expect the Bermans to vote?

They might also want to ask themselves why they are rolling out the unwelcome mat to a young couple, both professionals, who are investing in a new home in the community, enrolling their children in Raymond schools and seeking to serve the community by serving on the school board. That seems to us the kind of people the village would be encouraging and seeking out to make their home in Raymond.

And Raymond voters might want to ask the board members what exactly are they hoping to gain by running up taxpayers legal bills for the sole purpose of stripping two newcomers to the village of their right to vote.
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
GIBBON  Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol arrested a North Dakota woman after finding nearly 1,000 suspected fentanyl pills during a traffic stop on Interstate 80.

At approximately 9:05 p.m. Monday, a trooper performed a traffic stop on a Chrysler 200 that was parked on the shoulder of I-80 near Gibbon, at mile marker 289. The patrol said the trooper observed drug paraphernalia in plain view inside the vehicle.

The patrol said troopers found a pouch containing approximately 950 suspected fentanyl pills, a smaller amount of methamphetamine and several items of drug paraphernalia on the driver, Brittany Beeter, 30, of Fargo, North Dakota.

Beeter was arrested on suspicion of possession of an extremely hazardous substance, possession with intent to deliver, possession of methamphetamine, imitation of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was held in Buffalo County Jail.
Deb Petersen said that making it through her husbands journey to a new heart would have been impossible without the support they and their family received.
Two separate ballot measures, one to implement photo ID for voting in future elections and another to gradually raise the minimum wage in Nebraska, passed Tuesday night.

Voters approved Initiative 433, which will annually increase the states minimum up to $15 per hour by 2026, and Initiative 432, which will require voter ID.

Support for increasing the minimum wage was strong Tuesday night, garnering 58% approval, according to unofficial results from the Nebraska Secretary of States Office.

Raise the Wage Nebraska campaign manager Kate Wolfe said she was encouraged by the results.

Wolfe said she believes the minimum wage issue resonates with Nebraskans. In 2014 the states voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of raising the minimum wage from the federal minimum rate of $7.25 per hour. The minimum wage has been $9 per hour since 2016.

As Nebraskans, we are people who care deeply about the well-being of our neighbors, friends and family. That often translates in these ballot initiatives where the citizens get to participate in probably the closest action of direct democracy as we have, she said.

One voter, Norah Morris, said Tuesday she was motivated to vote in favor of raising the minimum wage.

I think thats important, she said.

Leading up to the election, supporters argued that raising wages would be a boon to the states economy. Joey Adler Ruane, policy director at Open Sky Institute, previously said the initiative would be enough to lift more than 10,000 Nebraskans out of poverty.

Wolfe cited research from the National Employment Law Project stating that 75% of the Nebraska workers who would benefit from the wage increases are over 20 years old, and a majority of them are women.

Critics, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, contended the measure would, among other things, hurt small businesses. Ricketts has argued the market should determine wages, not the government.

Initiative 433 will annually increase the states minimum up to $15 per hour by 2026 and provide cost of living increases starting in 2027.

Nebraska voters also signaled strong support for enacting voter ID. After trailing in early results, Initiative 432 jumped to a sizeable lead and finished with 66% approval. The initiative will put Nebraska among a majority of states to require people to present photo ID to vote in future elections.

Were thrilled to see the results of tonight, said State Sen. Julie Slama, who led the petition effort to get the initiative on the ballot. Its no surprise to me that Nebraska voters have overwhelmingly decided to support a commonsense election security measure.

Critics argued the measure was unnecessary and sought to address a nonexistent problem. They also said the photo requirement would make it more difficult for some groups to vote.

In a statement, Civic Nebraska, which opposed Initiative 432, said efforts to show Nebraskans the consequences of the initiative did not overcome the persistence of The Big Lie and repeated assaults on the reputation of our elections.

Nebraskans should expect the same politicians who spent so much time and money to sell this vague bill of goods to now work to impose one of the most restrictive voter ID mandates in the country, the organization said.

It will be up to the Nebraska Legislature to approve implementation language during the next legislative session. Slama said she is looking forward to leading that effort.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who supported the initiative, previously acknowledged that Nebraska has not had a problem with voter fraud generally, let alone any cases of people trying to impersonate others to vote  the type of fraud that voter ID would prevent.

The voter ID initiative was a source of motivation for several voters who spoke with The World-Herald Tuesday.

Amanda Frampton, 35, voted in favor of Initiative 432 Tuesday.

You should have a photo ID to vote, she said.

On the other side, Don and Janet Busenbark, who are in their 50s, took the opposite stance. Both said the current registration and voting system is working.

It just doesnt seem like theres a record of fraud to justify the expense, Janet Busenbark said.

Voters also overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution that will allow local governments with airports more financial leeway to attract or retain commercial passenger airlines.
It began as a fight between two women in the parking lot of a North Omaha convenience store, just after midnight on Aug. 12.

In a feeble attempt to break up the fight, authorities say, Wuanya Smith pulled one woman back by her hair. But then he pulled out a gun and fired five shots into the crowd that had formed around the fight.

One of those bullets struck the chest of 22-year-old Anthony Collins III, a man who had no prior conflicts with Smith, an Omaha police detective testified Monday. Collins died hours later.

Smith, 21, of Omaha, will stand trial on charges of second-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Prosecutors allege Smith intentionally killed Collins but without premeditation.

Smith had been sought on a warrant days after the shooting and was arrested in Benton, Arkansas, in September. He escaped custody there from the Saline County Jail by climbing over fences topped with razor and barbed wires, but was caught the next day.

Omaha Police Detective Aneta Nelson testified Monday that according to witnesses and video surveillance, a blue Chevrolet Silverado parked in the northeast corner of the parking lot of the Hamilton Food Mart near 49th and Hamilton Streets.

A woman approached the passenger side of the truck, where Smith was sitting, and spoke to him. Another woman confronted her and the two started fighting in front of the blue truck, Nelson said.

Smith got out of the truck and pulled the second woman away by her hair. Then, he fired five shots toward the front area of the truck, Nelson said, according to the driver of the truck.

By this point, a small gathering of the roughly 20 people who were hanging out in the parking lot had circled around the women who were fighting. They ran when they heard the gunshots. Collins was hit and taken by the three women he arrived with in a maroon Jeep to Childrens Hospital & Medical Center. He was then taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he died.

The driver of the blue truck told police that he heard Smith say just before the shooting, Dont walk up on me.

Police recovered three 9mm casings at the scene and determined that they were all fired from the same gun but never found the gun that was used in the homicide.
The Viroqua Chamber Main Street is hosting its 26th annual Twinklefest Parade on Viroquas Main Street, Friday, Nov. 25 at 6 p.m. The Twinklefest Parade is a celebration of the holiday season and features festively adorned floats with an abundance of sparkling lights and is capped off by a visit from Santa Claus.

New this year is the addition of Christmas on Court Street starting at 2 p.m. and featuring pictures with Santa, toy, winter clothes and food drives, a wreath sale, hot cocoa station, Christmas carols and activities for children. Chris Clemens, executive director for the Viroqua Chamber Main Street states, The spirit of Christmas is about sharing time with loved ones and giving to those in need, and were excited to create an opportunity for folks to do both during this holiday season.

The Twinklefest Parade is a much-loved community event that draws revelers from all over the region. Weve moved the parade start-time ahead one hour to 6 p.m. this year to make it easier for parents of young children to enjoy the celebration, says Clemens. The addition of Christmas on Court will add not only more fun activities for parents and children, but also plenty of opportunities for folks to give to those most in need and that feels really good.

Returning this year as master of ceremonies for the Twinklefest Parade is Luke Zahm, co-owner of Viroquas Drifltess Cafe and the host of PBSs Wisconsin Foodie. The parades Grand Marshals will be frontline staff from Vernon Memorial Healthcare in recognition of their hard work and dedication working through the challenges of the previous few years.

More information about the Twinklefest parade can be found at www.viroqua-wisconsin.com/chamber-mainstreet/twinklefest-2022 or by calling the Viroqua Chamber Main Street at 608-637-2575.
Vernon County meetings

Infrastructure Committee meets 9:30 a.m. November 9th, 2022, County Board Room and Zoom. Review of Infrastructure Bills; Department Head Reports/ Project Updates; any other business.

The Board of Health will meet on Tuesday, November 9th, 2022, at the Vernon County Sheriffs Department, Training Room. Meeting collaboration via Zoom for members to attend. Coroners Report; Public Health Preparedness; WIC Program; Environmental Health Activities and Programs; meeting date.

Public Safety Committee meets on Thursday, November 10, 2022, at 9:30 a.m., Conference Room of the Sheriffs Office and via ZOOM Conference Call. Review minutes, Review and vote on invoices  Sheriff and Emergency Management, Sheriffs Activity Report, Emergency Management Directors Report, Opioid Epidemic Abatement Funds  Discussion, Chief Deputy Benefits  Action Item. If during any possible discussion the body intends to discuss employment, promotion, compensation, or any other benefits of the Chief Deputy position, the Chair will entertain a motion to enter into closed session, pursuant to Wis. Stat. 19.85(1). (Roll call vote if motion is not unanimous.) Enter into closed session, if a motion is made and passed. Reconvene in open session pursuant to Wis. Stat. 19.85(2). (Roll call if motion is not unanimous.), Item Consideration for Next Meeting, Confirm Next Meeting Date, and Adjournment.

Conservation & Education Committee meets Thursday, November 10th at 10:45 am Zoom Meeting: https://vernoncounty-org.zoom.us/j/87957497844?pwd=MmliSTBwMXBMcjFMK2kvZUpqcUowZz09 Meeting ID: 847 5749 7844 Passcode: 188915 Phone: 1-312-626-6799 Review and Approve Minutes from previous Meeting, Review and Approve UW-Extension Bills for Payment, Educator Reports-4-H and Foodwise, Review and Approve Land & Water Bills for Payment, Parks Update, Amendment to the Wildlife Damage Budget-Action Item, Approval of the Forestry Annual Work Plan-Action Item.

Vernon County Board of Election Canvass Pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes, Section 7.60, the Vernon County Board of Election Canvass will meet at 12:00 P.M. on Monday, November 14, 2022, in Room 102, in the Courthouse Annex in Viroqua, Wisconsin, to conduct the official canvass of the November 8, 2022, General Election Results.

The County Board of Supervisors meets at 9:30 am on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, in the County Board Room of the Courthouse Annex and by Zoom. Action may be taken on the following items. Approve minutes from prior meetings; Audience to visitors; Announcements; Special Order of BusinessA. Committee of the Whole to conduct the informal reading of the proposed 2023 County Budget, B.11:00 am Public Hearing for proposed 2023 County Budget, followed by County Board vote for Resolution on formal adoption of the 2022 Tax Levy for the 2023 Budget and Resolution for Transfer of Funds; Administrators Report; Resolutions (Action Items): A. Ho- Chunk Funds  Approval of Use; Ordinance  Wheel Tax, Date Amendment; Memorials; Remonstrance; Reports of Standing or Special Committees; Any other unfinished business; Next Meeting Date; Agenda Items for Next Meeting; Adjournment.
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will. That was the slogan of the labor movement back in 1886, when workers were organizing around the idea of a work day being eight hours rather than 10 to 14 hours.

Jeremiah Rusk of Viroqua was governor of Wisconsin at that time, and a small new exhibit at the museum explores the story of Rusk and the Milwaukee labor strike of 1886. Rusk moved to Viroqua in the early 1850s and maintained a home here for the rest of his life, even when he was serving as Wisconsin governor (1882-1889) and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1889-1893). He died in Viroqua in 1893.

In 1886, while Rusk was governor, workers around the U.S. campaigned for an eight-hour work day. This campaign reached a critical moment in early May, when thousands of people across the country, including Milwaukee, went on strike. The Bay View Rolling Mills plant was the largest factory in Milwaukee still operating, and the protesters marched there to encourage its workers to join them.

Gov. Rusk called up the militia, the Wisconsin National Guard, and sent it to Milwaukee to quell the strikes.

The militia fired on the crowd outside the Bay View Rolling Mills, injuring and killing several people. This incident is remembered and commemorated in Milwaukee every year.

The new exhibit is an addition to our current exhibit about Jeremiah Rusk and his family. All the Rusk displays are located on the stairway landings between second and third floors at the museum. The inspiration for the new exhibit came from a visitor who, upon seeing the Rusk display, remarked that Rusk was his least-favorite Wisconsin governor, because of the Bay View shooting. It is a story that still resonates today.

The Vernon County Historical Societys archives contain an abundance of information about Rusk and his family, including many articles about the labor strike. You can also learn about Rusks ancestors, his Civil War service, and his entire political career.

Visit any of the exhibits during regular winter public hours of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, noon to 4 p.m.

The museum and archives are also open by appointment, if those hours arent convenient. Contact us at 608-637-7396 or museum@vernoncountyhistory.org to make an appointment.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Voters approved recreational marijuana in Maryland and Missouri but rejected it in three other states, signaling support gradually growing for legalization even in conservative parts of the country.

The results mean that 21 states have now approved marijuanas recreational use. Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota voters rejected legalization proposals in Tuesday's elections.

Advocates said the results send a message to lawmakers in Washington about support around the country for legalization.

A growing number of voters recognize that cannabis policy reform is in the best interest of public health and safety, criminal justice reform, social equity, and personal freedom, Toi Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. State-level legalization victories are whats necessary to move the needle forward at the federal level."

The state voting follows moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

Advocates of the marijuana initiatives have said Biden's announcement could give a boost to their efforts.

Missouris measure will legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offenses, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence.

It just shows that this is not a partisan issue, said John Payne, who led the Missouri campaign to legalize marijuana use. This is something that transcends partisan divides.

Payne said he expected recreational sales to start in Missouri early next year.

Opponents said they would be working to limit the implementation of Missouri's legalization, such as working with cities and towns to opt out of allowing dispensaries.

The devil is in the details, and we will remain actively involved in Missouri implementation because we dont need another Big Tobacco industry harming kids in Missouri," said Kevin Sabet, president of SAM Action, an anti-legalization group.

Maryland will also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.

Heading into the election, recreational marijuana was legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalization softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

About 6 in 10 voters support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, according to VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 90,000 voters nationwide conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Support for ending marijuana prohibition in the states is spreading much like it did at the end of alcohol prohibition," said Mason Tvert, a partner at VS Strategies, a cannabis policy and public affairs firm. 

The five states that held votes on Tuesday have legal medical marijuana programs. That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical marijuana. The state's dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.

The legalization campaigns raised about $23 million in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85% of contributions in those two states came from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.

In Arkansas, supporters ran upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they said would be created by the measure. Opponents ran more ominous spots, warning voters to protect Arkansas from big marijuana.

The marijuana industry spent millions of dollars trying to write itself into the Arkansas Constitution," said Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council Action Committee, one of the groups opposing the measure. Now they know that Arkansans do not support that kind of crony politics."

The initiative drew the criticism of traditional legalization opponents as well as some medical marijuana advocates, who said the Arkansas proposal placed too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, also opposed the measure.

Supporters indicated they planned to try again in Arkansas.

Tonight, we made history by putting adult-use cannabis on the ballot for the first time, Although we fell short, we look forward to continuing this effort to build this momentum to 2024," said Robert McLarty, campaign director for Responsible Growth Arkansas.

David Owen, who led North Dakota's legalization effort, said he wasn't sure another effort would be made after the proposal was rejected.

Tonight was not what we wanted, but the people have spoken and we have to prepare for the next steps, Owen said.

North Dakota's proposal would have allowed people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would have established policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators and other types of marijuana businesses.

Its pretty clear North Dakota families dont want marijuana across the state, said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a Virginia-based political organization against marijuana legalization, which helped fight the measure in North Dakota.

South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, recreational pot stood by itself as it went before voters.

Pot legalization advocates in South Dakota were vowing to try again in two years as their measure failed. Matt Schweich, who led legalization campaigns in the state in 2020 and this year, pointed out that the midterm electorate was less amenable and argued that pot legalization would eventually happen.

But opponents hoped that the proposals defeat sent a message.

I like to think that this country is going to turn around and South Dakota set a good example, said Rhonda Milstead, a Republican legislator who helped organize the opposition campaign.

In Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday took up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step. The vote was too early to call early Wednesday.

Melody Finley, a Republican in Little Rock, Arkansas, said she voted for the state's legalization measure because she thinks it can help some people for certain conditions.

If you can buy alcohol, you can buy that, too," Finley, 47, a dance instructor, said.

But Rick Huffman, a voter in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, voted against that state's legalization proposal, two years after supporting recreational marijuana on South Dakota's ballot in 2020.

Ive got a kid thats a teenager now, he said. So I think itll eventually happen, but maybe Ill wait until my kids grow up.

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri; James MacPherson in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

Follow the APs coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.
RACINE  In statewide races on Tuesday, Wisconsins voters again showed themselves to be incredibly purple. According to the unofficial preliminary counts, Wisconsin elected two Democrats (Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul) and one Republican (U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson) in narrowly decided statewide races; the state treasurers and secretary of states races are still too close to call.

But in Wisconsins Assembly, made up of 99 state representatives all of whom were up for election Tuesday, the state looks much redder. After Tuesdays votes were counted, it appears 64 Republicans and 35 Democrats were elected  although several races are within the margin where recounts could be coming.

This disparity is the result of what Democrats and voting rights advocates have been saying is gerrymandering for more than a decade. How could a state populated roughly by 50% right-leaning voters and 50% by left-leaning voters elect a legislature that leans more than 64.6% to the right?

Every election at the state level was decided by a few percentage points. Wisconsin is a 50-50 state. But we have heavily gerrymandered legislative maps, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said in a phone interview Wednesday morning.

Wisconsin's Republicans have argued they simply have put candidates on the ballot that have better connected with voters in their districts, giving them the advantage over Democrats in the Legislature.

Three seats lost, but a win

Despite losing three currently held seats, Assembly Democrats are considering Tuesday a victory because Republicans did not secure enough seats to have a veto-proof supermajority. Had Republicans won 66 Assembly seats, they could have unilaterally passed any legislation without having to worry about whether Evers would veto it.

We prevented a Republican supermajority in the Legislature, Wisconsin! Neubauer tweeted at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday. Big f**king deal. (The Journal Times censored the curse word; Neubauer spelled it out.)

Without the supermajority, Republicans and Evers will either be forced to come to more compromises in order to govern the state, or more stalemates could be on the horizon. In 2021-22, Evers set a Wisconsin gubernatorial record by vetoing more than 120 bills.

To prevent Republicans gaining a veto-proof supermajority, Neubauer said in a phone interview, We knew it was going to be a real challenge. And we knew that was going to be our No. 1 priority for this (election) cycle, to stop Republicans from overriding the will of the people in Wisconsin.

Definition Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating the boundaries of voting districts in order to unfairly to gain an advantage or to disadvantage opponents. The term is named after Eldridge Gerry, who had been vice president under President James Madison. When Gerry was governor of Massachusetts in the early 1800s, one of the districts he approved resembled a salamander because of how it curved through the Boston area  gerrymander thus is a portmanteau of salamander and Gerry's surname. Gerry had been a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, which no longer exists.

The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee, in a statement Wednesday, said that Under the recently adopted, highly gerrymandered legislative maps, President (Joe) Bidens winning vote total in 2020 would have won only 35 of 99 state Assembly seats. Biden defeated Donald Trump by 20,682 votes in Wisconsin in 2020. Despite the fact that Republicans have rigged the system in their favor to lock in political power, the ADCC mounted a winning effort to overcome some of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation.

The big races Democrats currently hold 38 of Wisconsins 99 Assembly seats. In January, when those elected Tuesday are sworn in, they will hold 35 seats. Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said she was particularly pleased to see Democrat Steve Doyle of Onalaska hold off a challenge from Republican Ryan Huebsch in western Wisconsins District 94, and see state Rep. Tip McGuire, who represents northern Kenosha and southern Racine, overcome more than $100,000 in Republican ad spending in just the final two weeks of the election and handily defeat Republican challenger Ed Hibsch in District 64; McGuire received nearly 57% of the vote in the district.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which analyzes voting maps nationwide, gave Wisconsins legislative maps the grade of an F last year  although there have been allegations that the head of the Princeton project, Sam Wang, has allowed his research to unduly favor Democrats.
Holmen area residents made decisions on spending referendums Tuesday.

Voters approved the public safety referendum in unofficial results. In Holmen village, 3,034 or 67% voted yes, and in the town of Holland, 1,352 or 57% voted yes.

The public safety referendum involves the village of Holmen and town of Holland. The village asked voters to approved the cost of hiring four to five police officers. The Holmen Fire Department, which covers the village and town of Holland, asked voters for funding to staff four to five firefighters/EMTs per shift. The referendum was expected to increase taxes in the village by $138 per $100,000 of property value. The tax impact in the town of Holland is estimated at $135 per $100,000.

Holmen village president Patrick Barlow anticipates the new positions to be filled sometime next year.

"The positive vote of the community will help the village to meet the growing demands for police and fire/EMS services in our community," Barlow said. "We are thankful for the support and will make the best use of these new resources.

"I also believe the vote will aid us by showing that our residents support our police officers and firefighter/EMTs, which will aid in the recruitment process."

Voters in the Holmen School District approved a pair of spending referendums. In unofficial results with all seven precincts reporting, the first referendum had 6,390 in favor and the second 6,212, both over 60%

The school referendum asked voters to approve renovations and mechanical upgrades to Holmen Middle School and Viking and Evergreen elementary schools. During an October meeting with the Tribune Editorial Board, Superintendent Kristi Mueller said the renovations would leave the district "in a very good situation with our facilities for a very long time.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Robin Vos overcame verbal and social media thrashings from Donald Trump as well as two write-in challengers to be elected to represent Wisconsin Assembly District 63 for the 11th time.

With seven of 14 precincts reporting as of 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Vos had received 8,802 votes, while the combined total of write-in votes against him was 3,533.

I think what we have learned is that hard work, telling the truth and doing the right thing almost always win, Vos said in a victory speech at a watch party at the Mount Pleasant Delta-Marriott hotel.

Running against Vos were Adam Steen, a conservative who was endorsed by Trump, and Democrat Joel Jacobsen.

Without reliable polling in Assembly races, it was unclear if the states most powerful legislator would perform better than he did in the Aug. 9 primary in which Steen came within 300 votes of defeating Vos.

Tuesday nights results indicate that actually having his name being on the ballot, Vos track record as one of the most effective conservative legislators in state history and his dedication to door-knocking were enough to overcome two challengers and the influence of a former president.

Steen was gathered with supporters at Integrity Celebrations Center in Burlington. As of 10:10 p.m., he said he was waiting for more results to be reported before making a statement.

Trump went on the attack against Vos after the speaker refused to support Trumps ongoing unconstitutional efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which numerous recounts and reviews have shown was rightly called in favor of President Joe Biden. Trump had recorded a robocall supporting Steen in the final week of the campaign in which the former president called Vos a "horrendous RINO."

District 63, which Vos has represented since 2005, generally includes all of southwestern Racine County west of Interstate 94, including much of Mount Pleasant and all of Sturtevant, Burlington and Union Grove. The district's voters strongly favored Trump in 2016 and 2020.
After a close race, Derrick Van Orden (R) will head to Washington, D.C., to represent western Wisconsinites in the 3rd Congressional District. Van Orden addressed his supporters early this morning.

With 95% of votes counted, Van Orden had 52% and Brad Pfaff (D) had 48% in unofficial votes.

I want to speak to Brad Pfaff right now, Van Orden said in a speech early Wednesday morning. You are my sitting (state) senator, and I am looking forward to having a working relationship with you when I get to U.S. Congress. When I say Ill work with anyone regardless of what you said during this campaign  I will work with you if you put the state of Wisconsin above your own personal political wants and needs.

Pfaff received a majority of votes in La Crosse County, Eau Claire County and Portage County. But Van Orden swept the remaining 16 counties in the 3rd District.

Im very proud of the work that we did, Pfaff said. It was an honor of a lifetime to be a candidate for political office for the United States House of Representatives in the community that I grew up in.

Thank you everyone so much for standing with me, for fighting for our shared values and for this campaign. Whether its as your state senator, or a born-and-raised member of this community, you can be damn sure that despite this outcome, Ill never stop being a voice and a fighter for you and your family, Pfaff said.

Since the election results, Pfaff called Van Orden to offer his congratulations and extended an open door for Van Orden to reach out.

Its very, very important that he realizes that not all of us share the same political ideologies. Not all others share the same views. But we all care deeply about our communities and the people in this district, Pfaff said.

He has an opportunity to rise above and to demonstrate that he can represent all of us, Pfaff continued.

Throughout this race, Van Ordens team was massively outspending the Pfaff campaign. By election day, Van Orden outspent Pfaff 4 to 1. National Democratic Party groups spent little on Pfaffs campaign, while the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee supported Van Orden with campaign donations and TV ads.

All I can say is that there was a real missed opportunity, Pfaff said. The national Democrats will have to look themselves in the mirror, now that theyre in the minority in the House of Representatives, and theyre going to have to make some of their own decisions on [campaign money]. But I know that the people this district deserved better.

Van Orden ran unsuccessfully in 2020 against longtime U.S. Rep. Ron Kind. Kind, who held the seat for 13 terms, announced his retirement last August. Van Orden came under fire last year when a complaint was filed with the Federal Elections Commission for his use of campaign funds to travel to Washington, D.C., where he attended the Jan. 6 protest-turned-insurrection.

Pfaff was elected as state senator in 2020 for the 32nd district, covering all or parts of La Crosse, Monroe, Vernon and Crawford counties.

Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District covers most of southwestern and western Wisconsin. The district stretches over 19 counties and includes the cities of La Crosse, Eau Claire and Stevens Point, as well as many Wisconsin-based exurbs of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

This article was updated at 3:15 p.m. and will continue to be updated as information is made available. (tncms-asset)c1c3115b-1545-5755-95d0-bdabc6e0df42[2](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)818ee6f5-17b4-5f31-b159-993126ad2e95[3](/tncms-asset)
Its back to the drawing board for the La Crosse School District, after voters soundly rejected the $194.7 million referendum calling for creating a single, more modern high school on the South Side.

With all of the citys 34 precincts reporting, the vote was 8,433 for and 18,875, or 69%, against.

First introduced in spring 2022, the referendum was proposed as solution to the districts declining enrollment, aging buildings and limited state funding for education. Under the plan, Central High School and Logan High School students would move into a new building on the former Trane site at 3600 Pammel Creek Road, and the districts three middle schools would be moved into the two vacant high school buildings.

Board of Education president Juan Jimenez said Wednesday morning that he was disappointed the referendum didnt pass and that the board will soon examine alternatives.

We are grateful that the community has now given us a direction, said Jimenez. In the end, I think we have been able to educate the community for them to understand that the status quo is something we can no longer maintain moving forward. ... The community now knows the challenges.

Some teachers, district families, former Logan staff and residents  especially those in the North Side  voiced concerns about the closure of Logan, viewing it as a loss to those who live in the neighborhood, attend the school or have worked there, and for businesses that may lose a customer base. Alternate ideas from the community included moving sixth graders into the elementary schools and seventh and eighth graders in the high school buildings.

Some residents and local educators spoke in favor of the consolidation, preferring to combine students into one updated building due to the possibility that Logan, according to the district, would likely close at some point regardless, with all high school students to be housed at Central. Supporters said the new school would invite new opportunities and solve budget issues.

Superintendent Aaron Engel said the district needs to regroup and reassess.

We generated a long-range facilities plan last year, and thats something well have to rely on moving forward, Engel said. The election has given us new information to work with.

Neither Jimenez nor Engel would commit to placing another referendum on the April 2023 ballot.

The time frame for that is relatively short, Engel said.

If the district does not put forward a spring 2023 referendum, it will have to wait until spring 2024. State law requires referendums to held in conjunction with regularly scheduled elections.

In the short term, Engel said the district staff will continue to make the three middle schools viable as long as they need to be. All three buildings are over 80 years old.

Our maintenance staff does an amazing job of keeping buildings running every single day, Engel said. Theyre clean, theyre safe, but they are aging; they dont meet all of our needs any longer. 

Engel said its unlikely that the district would recover the $300,000 earnest money it put down for the Trane site. He said it was worth risking the funds for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a new high school on a 40-acre property within the city limits.
Editors note: This is the second of a two-part series on Safe Families.

Were experiencing a mental health crisis among children, said Stephanie Mancuso, a social worker for the La Crosse School District who was a keynote speaker at a recent Safe Families open house.

She said that in 12 months beginning in July 2021, La Crosse police logged over 1,500 mental health calls, nearly 300 of which were for children. In addition, 60% of La Crosse high school students missed at least 10 days of classes. And 162 students were considered homeless.

According to Mancuso, these are indicators of a rising rate of families in trouble. Families are in need and the church needs to step up, she continued. We need to come shoulder to shoulder with the most vulnerable and that is what Safe Families does.

One life touched

On a frigid day last January when Anika Hadley trudged to Logan High, her next exam was the least of her worries. The then 17-year-old had become homeless. She was one of 27 unaccompanied homeless students in the La Crosse School District last year.

Anikas living situation had deteriorated into abuse. It was toxic, I just couldnt live there anymore, she recalled. I was just numb. So Anika reached out to her school social worker. The next few weeks spun a web of support from individuals and agencies that ultimately led Anika to Safe Families of La Crosse. And a home filled with love and hope.

Safe Families of La Crosse opened its doors two years ago with the goal of protecting children by providing them with stable, temporary homes until family issues can be resolved. According to Tracy Trussoni, development director, 70% of children helped by Safe Families are 6 years old or younger. So not all volunteers are equipped to handle older students. Providentially, one family was  Rod and Milli Popp of Onalaska.

I was trained as a volunteer with Safe Families but being retired, having young ones around just wouldnt work, explained Milli. But when Safe Families requested housing for a teenager, Milli and Rob responded.

It didnt take long to become a family, recalled Anika. They didnt overstep. I felt safe there. And she and Poppy, the family dog, became immediate friends.

According to Trussoni, when people reach out to Safe Families, they are fully aware that its faith-based  a fact that proved fortunate for Anika, who was still wrestling with her past.

I hit rock bottom this summer, explained Anika. So Milli and Rob gently shared their faith and watched church services with her on television. I met two friends from Safe Families, and they encouraged me to go to church, said Anika. So she did, and eventually gave her life to God.

Anika went on to graduate high school and enrolled in Western Techs general studies program. She plans to study filmmaking at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

It takes a village

I cant give La Crosse enough credit. Its a big, big network, observed Milli. It really does take a village.

Since its beginning, Safe Families has collaborated with other local agencies, acting on referrals from schools, Head-Start, the County Human Services Department and others. Lila Barlow, supervisor at La Crosse Countys foster care program, was on the design team for Safe Families. She says that La Crosse County was perhaps one of the first governmental agencies to partner with a faith-based agency in the planning and implementation process.

We really worked together, she said. One of the big questions was, How do we incorporate this into the community? So they began to reach out to churches and community organizations.

Barlow said that she sometimes uses Safe Families as a referral when children return home after foster care, but more importantly is its emphasis on prevention. We use Safe Families at the front end for support to keep kids from entering the system, Barlow said. These are real people who just want to help.

Early collaborations

One of the major steps in the early formation of Safe Families came three years ago when Jason Witt, director of La Crosse County Human Services, pitched the idea to Dave Konkol, one of the pastors at First Free Church in Onalaska.

He had a state memo giving permission for government agencies to engage with faith based organizations, recalled Konkol. According to Konkol, Witt hoped to find an option to foster care.

So with the help of Gundersen, the Family and Childrens Center, the school district, and several other stakeholders, they formed the Community United for Families along with a Safe Families advisory board. With a seed grant from the La Crosse County Foundation, they were ready to hire a director by 2022. Today, funding comes exclusively from churches and individuals.

We need more evangelical churches to step up; its perfect for them, said Konkol. People know that the families are Christians, but its all volunteer. They want to do whats best for the kids.
Democrat Josh Kaul defeated Republican challenger Eric Toney in Tuesdays contest for Attorney General, setting up Kaul to continue to push for legal challenges to Wisconsin's 1849 abortion ban and his budget priorities at the Department of Justice in a race that saw nonstop attacks on his public safety record.

Kaul expressed his gratitude on Twitter for voters to handing him a second term as the state's top law enforcement official.

"I look forward to the work ahead of us as we continue to deliver results and work to build safer and stronger communities across the state," Kaul said.

First elected in 2018, Kaul centered his campaign on the uncertain future of abortion rights in Wisconsin.

Under Kaul, the Department of Justice is leading the legal challenge to Wisconsins 1849 near-total abortion ban, arguing that it is unenforceable and conflicts with other state abortion laws.

The lawsuit will likely be decided by the states Supreme Court.

On abortion, Kaul and Democratic allies painted Toney as a radical on the issue, claiming he would prosecute medical professionals for performing abortions. Toney, Fond du Lac Countys District Attorney, vowed to enforce the 1849 ban but offered few specifics on how that would work.

As Republicans regularly tried to put fear around crime front and center this election cycle, Kaul withstood near daily attacks from Toney on his public safety record. Kaul rebuked those attacks by saying Toney was either lying or misunderstood how the DOJ works.

Kaul often put his experience as attorney general and a federal prosecutor up against Toney, who managed a district attorneys office exponentially smaller than the Department of Justice.

The son of former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, Kaul appears set to continue promoting his Safer Wisconsin Plan, a $115 million public safety spending package and more than 10% increase in the DOJs budget.

Kaul has lamented the reluctance of Republican state legislators to take up elements of the plan, which would pour millions into police training, grants and victim services, among other items.

How Kaul will work with Republicans going forward remains an open question. Their relationship is tense. Before Kaul took office in 2019, Republicans passed lame-duck legislation that restricted the DOJ's ability to spend settlements it wins in court.

But there is common ground between Kaul and Republicans on bail reform, which Kaul thinks should be changed so that judges can consider the future danger defendants pose when setting bail.

Even without Republican support, Kaul can continue to involve the DOJ in environmental and consumer protection litigation, areas of focus hes expanded compared to his Republican predecessors.

In July, Kaul sued over a dozen companies for their role in PFAS contamination.
Republicans were poised to pick up a few legislative seats previously held by Democrats but were short of obtaining a supermajority in both chambers Wednesday morning.

Additionally, some of the Democrats were leading early Wednesday in the key legislative races Republicans were hoping to win, though GOP candidates were successful in a few previously Democratic districts.

"Through our efforts, we not only succeeded tonight, but also laid the groundwork to compete for the majority in elections to come," Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said in a statement.

Still, Republicans appear poised to win races in the northern 73rd and 74th districts, which were previously held by Democrats. A Republican also had a lead in the 13th Assembly District, also previously held by a Democrat.

Republicans needed just one pick-up in the Senate to obtain a supermajority in that chamber, which is highly likely with the GOP candidate all but certain to win the previously Democratic-held 25th Senate District. The incumbent Democrat had a 1-point lead late Wednesday morning in the competitive 31st Senate District with about 99% of votes counted.

Experts have said Republicans obtaining a two-thirds majority in both chambers is possible but unlikely. Whats especially unlikely is that Republicans reach a two-thirds majority but hangs on to his seat, UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said.

In the off-chance that second scenario happens, a supermajority would empower Republicans to enact into law the dozens of election- and education-related bills that Evers vetoed this past session. Veto-proof majorities would only be significant if achieved in both chambers, as both are needed to successfully override a governors veto.

The new 10-year legislative maps  which the Wisconsin Supreme Court chose after a court battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court  favors Republicans to a large degree.

If half of the voters statewide went for Democrats and the other half went for Republicans, Democratic candidates could expect to win just 36 of the Assemblys 99 seats and 10 of the Senates 33 seats, according to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow in the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education at Marquette Law School.
Voters in Dane County will have the chance to give their views on a trio of advisory ballot referendums on marijuana and abortion this Election Day.

The referendums will ask voters if they support legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana for people 21 and older and whether convictions for possession of small amounts of pot should be expunged.

Another referendum asks if voters support repealing Wisconsins 1849 abortion ban.

The questions are merely advisory and have no legal ability to change state law.

Dane County voters already had a referendum question on the legalization of marijuana in 2018. Seventy-six percent of voters said then they support legalizing the drug for recreational use.

At the municipal level, voters will see the following referendums:

Town of Medina voters will decide whether the town treasurer can be appointed to the Town Board.

Shorewood Hills voters will be asked to increase the villages levy to fund new staff and technological needs and establish competitive wage rates.

Middleton voters will be asked to increase the citys levy to hire more police, parks and communications staff.

Waunakee voters will decide whether to construct a public outdoor aquatics facility at a cost of $9.4 million.

There are also 10 school district referendums this election.

Three of the referendums, in Waunakee and Stoughton, ask voters to authorize more borrowing to pay for construction projects. Two of the referendums, in Mount Horeb and Waunakee, ask voters to let districts temporarily exceed their state-imposed revenue limits. Five referendums are recurring, or permanent, expansions of the revenue limit, covering operational costs such as staffing and utilities. Those are in Sun Prairie, Oregon, Verona, Belleville and Middleton-Cross Plains.
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.
Tuesday, Nov. 8, voters had the chance to go to the polls to vote on state and federal races, including the big governor race.

To see how Walworth County voted results are available at the county clerk's website: www.co.walworth.wi.us/199/Election-Results

The race for Walworth County Sheriff was also on the ballot. Dave Gerber, who won the August Republican primary, was the only candidate listed on the ballot. Craig Konopski registered as a write-in candidate. But he didn't come close to beating Gerber.

According to county results, with all wards reporting, Gerber had 34,889 votes and there were only 3,382 write-in votes.

At the municipal level there were also many referendums. In Walworth County there were multiple referendums throughout the county. Here is how residents voted:

Town of Linn Referendum

Shall the person holding the office of Town Clerk in the Town of Linn be appointed by the town board?

YES: 539

NO: 758 X

With all wards reporting

Town of Troy Referendum

Shall the Town of Troy adopt an ordinance that permits individuals to operate ATV/UTVs on Town roads which are those roads in the Town not designated as federal, state, or county highways?

YES: 944 X

NO: 427

With all wards reporting

Under state law, the increase in the levy of the Village of Fontana for the tax to be imposed for the next fiscal year, 2023, is limited to .999%, which results in a levy of $4,196,047. Shall the Village of Fontana be allowed to exceed this limit and increase the levy for the next fiscal year, 2023, for the purpose of providing the Village with 24-hour emergency medical services, by a total of 16.160% which results in a levy of $4,874,124, and on an ongoing basis, include the increase of $678,077 for each fiscal year going forward?

YES: 747 X

NO: 303

With all wards reporting

Under state law, the increase in the levy of the Village of Williams Bay for the tax to be imposed for the next fiscal year, 2023, is limited to 1.674%, which results in a levy of $2,982,296. Shall the Village of Williams Bay be allowed to exceed this limit and increase the levy for the next fiscal year, 2023, for the purpose of providing the Village with 24-hour emergency medical services, by a total of 31.120% which results in a levy of $3,910,373, and on an ongoing basis, include the increase of $928,077 for each fiscal year going forward?

YES: 985 X

NO: 595

With all wards reporting

City of Burlington Referendum

Please answer the following questions to assist the Common Council in determining the level of interest and commitment that City of Burlington taxpayers have in the following proposed project. This information will be used by the Common Council to assist in making a decision on this issue. This referendum is advisory only:

Echo Lake Dam needs significant repairs in order to make the dam comply with state law. The city has received one million dollars ($1,000,000) in grant funding and additional dollars may still be available to reduce the overall estimated project costs. In order to remedy this situation, should the City of Burlington:

Option 1Remove the dam, draining Echo Lake, and restoring the resulting natural stream area with new park amenities, which is currently estimated to cost taxpayers $7.7 million?

OR,

Option 2Repair the dam, keep and dredge Echo Lake, and expand existing park amenities, which is currently estimated to cost taxpayers $8.1 million?

Option 1 remove: 1,805

Option 2 repair: 2,664 X

With all wards reporting

City of Whitewater Referendum

Under state law, the increase in the levy of the City of Whitewater for the tax to be imposed for the next fiscal year 2023 is limited to 7.673%, which results in a levy of $4,656,852. Shall the City of Whitewater be allowed to exceed this limit and increase the levy for the next fiscal year 2023 for the purpose of establishing, staffing and operating a City of Whitewater Municipal Government Fire and Emergency Services Department (Municipal Department), by a total of 23.621%, which results in a levy of $5,756,852, and on an ongoing basis, include the increase of $1,100,000 for each fiscal year going forward?

YES: 2,053 X

NO: 1,121

With all wards reporting

Woods Elementary-Geneva Jt. 4 Referendum

Shall the Geneva Jt. 4 School District, Town of Geneva and Town of Linn, Walworth County, be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91(2m), Wisconsin Statutes, by $750,000 in the 2023-2024 school year, by $1,000,000 in the 2024-2025 school year, by $1,250,000 in the 2025-2026 school year, and by $1,500,000 in the 2026-2027 school year for non-recurring purposes of paying the ongoing operational expenses of the school district.

YES: 288 X

NO: 275

With all wards reporting

School District of Delavan-Darien Referendum

Shall the School District of Delavan-Darien, Walworth and Rock Counties, Wisconsin be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $3,800,000 per year beginning with the 2023-2024 school year and ending with the 2026-2027 school year, for non-recurring purposes consisting of operational costs to maintain class sizes, employ School Resource Officers, and support curriculum and instruction?

YES: 2,323 X

NO: 2,091

With all wards reporting

Whitewater Unified School District Referendum

Question: Shall the Whitewater Unified School District, Walworth, Jefferson and Rock Counties, Wisconsin be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $4,400,000 per year beginning with the 2023-2024 school year and ending with the 2026-2027 school year, for non-recurring purposes consisting of the following: maintaining targeted class sizes, maintaining student support and mental health services, maintaining comprehensive instructional and co-curricular programs, and maintaining technology, safety, and facilities infrastructure?

YES: 2,968

NO: 2,262

(Still checking to see if there are any wards outside the county)

In other elections

Governor's race

Walworth County overwhelmingly voted for Republican Tim Michels over incumbent Democrat Gov. Tony Evers. Walworth County cast 26,695 ballots for Michels and 18,565 for Evers.

Similarly, Walworth County cast 27,990 ballots for Ron Johnson for U.S. Senate compared to 17,820 for Mandela Barnes.

However as of 11:30 p.m. both of those races were too close to call.
Global Times Editors Recommend To Discard Illusions That Washington Could Promote Peace for Ukraine

Nov. 8, 2022 (EIRNS)The Global Times editors take aim at the duplicity of U.S. President Bidens National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who has claimed that he has engaged on senior levels with the Russians to communicate, to reduce risks, as Sullivan said in a Nov. 7 presentation to the Council of Foreign Relations. A Nov. 5 report in the Washington Post indicates that Sullivan, who was in Kiev on Nov. 4, is privately encouraging Ukraines leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia, and to drop public refusal to engage in peace talks unless Russian President Vladimir Putin is removed from power.

The editors of Global Times arent buying it.

What Washington is concerned about isnt the peace of Europe and Ukraine, but how to bring down Russia using Ukraine as a pawn and taking advantage of Europe, as well as how to consolidate its hegemony in Europe and across the whole world. The international community should discard any illusions about any of the U.S. moves which appear to promote peace.

The Global Times observes that political and economic turbulence in the United States is making further support for Ukraine more difficult, which will likely be hastened after the Nov. 8 midtermsregardless of the election results. The paper asserts that Washingtons diplomatic moves, designed to fail, are to get Europe to foot the bill instead.

Under U.S. instigation, if Ukraine talks with Russia, the negotiations will end up as a failure as Ukraine can use the pretext that Russia could not meet Ukraines conditions, and then the blame of the long-standing conflict between Russia and Ukraine can be passed to Russia. In this scenario, Ukraine will be regarded as the constructive side to the Ukraine crisis, while Russia the destructive one. As a result, Ukraine will gain more firm support and aid from U.S. European allies. The Biden administration hopes its European allies to fill in the gap resulted from U.S. reduction, according to a Beijing-based expert who asked for anonymity.

The editors conclude:
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2022

On U.S. Election Day 2022, the World Faces Choices

Nov. 8, 2022 (EIRNS)As the U.S. faces a choice today (or over the next several days ... or weeks) in its elections, the world as a whole is increasingly choosing to reject the Cold War thinking of democracies vs. autocracies in favor of prioritizing development.

As the population-reduction COP27 unfolds in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, a well-written article appeared in Foreign Policy, which plainly states the obvious: Economic growth and technological innovation have saved tens of millions of lives from climate extremes over the last century. But anti-fossil-fuel ideology shifts the focus away from proven development pathways, transforming a wildly successful global development project into a zero-sum conflict that pits climate mitigation [CO2 reduction] against adaptation [economic development] and rich countries against poor.

Meanwhile, the claims that U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is pursuing meaningful dialogue and negotiation with Russia is undermined by reports from the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal that the intent is to give the appearance of negotiations for political reasons. Global Times rejects the premise that the U.S. is interested in resolving the situation. Ongoing conflict harms Russia and Europe, while the U.S. sells natural gas and weapons.

Excitement in new forms of international relations has led to some dozen nations expressing interest in joining the BRICS format. Sergey Lavrov said one of the topics of discussion with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, who is in Moscow, is to move towards solidifying and formalizing the accession process for other nations to join.

Transforming the United States to abandon its currently pathetic role as assistant to British imperial designs of a unipolar world, into the anti-imperial development-oriented nation it won a revolution to become, requires, in the connected world of today, an international contexta view of the world as a whole.

The world needs a future of developing the productive powers of labor, of expanding the power of human reason to shape the Earth and its biosphere to better support the development of reason itself.

This Saturday, Nov. 12, the Schiller Institute is holding a conference devoted to realizing the concepts of biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadskya member of the Ukrainian, Russian, and Soviet Academies of Science and developer of the terms biosphere and noosphereand Lyndon LaRouche, the great American economist.

Spread the word of The Physical Economy of the Noosphere: Reviving the Heritage of Vladimir Vernadsky, held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST) Nov. 12.
The approval of marijuana legalization in the two biggest states considering ballot initiatives this election cycle  Maryland and Missouri  means that a lot more people voted for than against legalization this Fall. But reform opponents are surely pleased that voters in three other states  Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota  rejected legalization initiatives. This MJBizDaily piece, headlined "US marijuana industry wins in Maryland and likely Missouri but suffers losses elsewhere," reviews the details and starts this way:

Marijuana legalizations yearslong winning streak finally stopped at a red wall in conservative states in the South and West on Tuesday, but the 2022 election still brought a solid win in Maryland  and legalization advocates declared victory in Missouri early Wednesday, too. Together, the two states could lead to nearly $2 billion in adult-use sales within a few years of their launch.

Voters in Maryland approved the 20th adult-use market, one that is projected to generate as much as $600 million in its first year and up to $1 billion by year four.

Recreational marijuana legalization in Missouri was too close to call for most of election night, but with yes votes ahead by about 6 percentage points with more than 90% of the votes counted, both the statewide campaign and national advocacy groups claimed victory. First-year sales of an adult-use marijuana market in Missouri could reach up to $550 million, according to MJBizDaily estimates, with fourth-year sales projected to be $800 million-$900 million.

Elsewhere, recreational legalization measures in Arkansas as well as in North Dakota and South Dakota were defeated.
Cambridge University Press and Assessment is partnering with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on a new English language assessment. The goal of the new assessment is to improve understanding of how English is taught and learned as a foreign language.

The assessment will be a part of the OECDs Program for International Student Assessment, called PISA. PISA is a worldwide study every three years that measures student performance in math, science and reading in the native language. About 80 countries take part in the study.

PISA will be adding a foreign language assessment in 2025 as part of the study. So far, English is the only foreign language that will be used in the assessment.

Its a fact that English is the language of communication of study, of work, spoken by billions of people, Hanan Khalifa told VOA. Khalifa is a language learning and teaching expert with Cambridge, and one of the leading experts on the PISA foreign language assessment. So it wasnt surprising to use English as a foreign language to start with, she said.

Khalifa calls the new test groundbreaking.

She said large studies of English language teaching and learning have been limited. There was a study in the 1970s by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden looking at English as a foreign language. And Cambridge was involved in a 2000s study among some European Union countries that assessed teaching and learning foreign languages. Cambridge has tested English teaching and learning in individual countries, but never on a worldwide level.

The PISA assessment administered all over the world with participating countries gives us really, really rich data, Khalifa said. Until now there has not been a reliable  data source about the levels of the abilities of people who would speak English.

She said the data will help countries make decisions about how to use resources. Without good data it can be hard to know whether countries should center their efforts on developing study programs, training teachers, or introducing students to the language earlier, she said.

The PISA study is only given out to 15-year-old students who attend the school system. The test will center on assessing real-world, everyday English communication.

Khalifa said the test is not about whether your grammar is accurate and whether your vocabulary is spot on. She added: It's about whether your message has actually been communicated to the other side or not.

The test will be entirely online and through a computer. Students will be assessed based on their English language ability. Students will speak into microphones for the spoken parts of the test.

OECD piloted the assessment in five countries in 2021, and Khalifa said it was a success.

Catalina Covacevich is with OECD and was involved with the pilot program.

She said in a statement that we were concerned that students with low levels of speaking skills may have found the pilot stressful, but one school enjoyed it so much, they clapped after the speaking assessment.

Khalifa said the test is not meant to trick students or be overly difficult.

We try to minimize the anxiety as much as possible, she said.

But the countries involved take the results seriously. Khalifa said that countries that have been helped by PISA have changed their education policies. Some countries have decided to hire more teachers or introduce foreign languages at a younger age, she said.

And that is one of the key reasons why we partnered with OECD, Khalifa said. It is about that influence [of PISA].

Im Dan Novak.

Dan Novak wrote this story for VOA Learning English.

Quiz- New English Assessment as Part of PISA Study Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

assessment  n. the act of making a judgment about something

groundbreaking  adj. introducing new ideas or methods

administer  v. to manage the operation of

participate  v. to be involved with others in doing something

reliable  adj. able to be trusted to do or provide what is needed

pilot  adj. done as a test to see if a larger program, study, etc., should be done

clap  v. to hit the palms of your hands together usually more than once

minimize  v. to make something bad or not wanted as small as possible

anxiety  n. fear or nervousness about what might happen

influence  n. the power to change or affect someone or something
Russia and China have again blocked plans to protect large areas of ocean waters around Antarctica from fishing. These plans are supported by the European Union, the United States, and 23 other nations.

The action came at the two-week international meeting on the future of Antarcticas waters that ended in Australia last week.

However, conservationists said some good points came out of that meeting.

They included an agreement on new protections for krill fishing. And they included a promise, or commitment, to meet in the South American country of Chile next year to further discuss a proposal for new protected areas. Those areas combined would cover an area of ocean larger than the South Asian nation of India.

Many countries are not happy with the ability of Russia and China to effectively veto proposals. That is because the rules of the group require that every nation is in agreement, called reaching a consensus, before taking action.

The U.S. has been trying to find common ground with China. And it laid the blame for this years disagreements on Russia. The U.S. said the country was undermining the group.

Russias repeated rejection of the best available scientific information amounts to an abuse of its commitment to participate in consensus-based decision-making, the State Department said in a statement.

Russian officials did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.

The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project works with local and government leaders, scientists, and other organizations to establish protected ocean areas. The organization said it was pleased the group agreed on some measures around krill fishing. The small creatures are eaten by animals and seabirds like penguins, seals, and whales.

Andrea Kavanagh is director of the Projects Antarctic and Southern Ocean work. She said,  the krill conservation measure is a good first step But she added that new information shows the best method for Southern Ocean conservation uses both ecosystem-based fishery administration and ocean-protected areas.

The group which met is called the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (or CCAMLR). Finding consensus among the group has always been hard. But it has become even more difficult after Russia invaded Ukraine. Both countries are members of the group.

The meeting began last week with a mass walkout when the Russian officials started speaking.

Kostiantyn Demianenko led Ukraines delegations. Last week, he told The Associated Press that Russia had no right to be at the table.

A state that kills the civilian population, destroys the air and ground civilian infrastructure of another country should definitely be limited in its right to participate in the activities of international organizations such as CCAMLR, Demianenko wrote in an online message.

Im Gregory Stachel.

Nick Perry reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

__________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

krill  n. very small creatures in the ocean that are the main food of some whales

commitment  n. a promise to do or give something

participate  v. to be involved with others in doing something: to take part in an activity or event with others

ecosystem  n. everything that exists in a particular environment

infrastructure  n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

definitely  adv. without doubt

__________________________________________________________________

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that last month's attack on her husband last month will affect her decision on whether to remain in Congress after the midterm election.

The midterm elections were held Tuesday.

The Democratic leader also called on Republicans to stop the misinformation that is fueling political violence. And she urged Americans to vote to defend our democracy.

In an interview with CNN, Pelosi did not say what her plans would be if her party loses the House majority. But many believe Pelosi and others would step down.

Pelosi was filled with emotion when she described the attack on her 82-year-old husband and the sadness she felt for the country.

Im sad because of my husband, but Im also sad for our country, Pelosi said. I just want people to vote and we will respect the outcome of the election, and I would hope that the other side would do that as well.

Pelosi spoke about her husband for the first time publicly on the day before the midterm elections. Democrats are struggling to keep control of Congress at a time of rising threats of violence against lawmakers and concerns over the U.S. election.

Pelosi was asked whether she had made a decision about remaining in Congress. I have to say my decision will be affected about what happened in the last week or two, Pelosi said on CNN.

Some Republicans, including the son of former president Donald Trump and even new Twitter owner Elon Musk, have made fun of the attack, despite the seriousness of it.

There has to be some message to the Republicans to stop the disinformation, Pelosi said. We want the country to heal.

Pelosis husband Paul was attacked 11 days before the election by a man who broke into their home in San Francisco, California. Officials said he was looking for the speaker before hitting Paul in the head with a hammer. The attacker told police he wanted to talk to Speaker Pelosi and would break her kneecaps as a lesson to other Democrats. Paul Pelosi suffered a broken skull and other injuries in what officials call a planned political attack.

Pelosi said the hammer hit her husband in two places but did not enter his brain. Pelosi said he would have a long recovery.

She said the attack on her husband of nearly 60 years was fueled by misinformation that has no place in our democracy.

Pelosi told CNN that she was very scared when she learned about the attack early on the morning of October 28. Im thinking my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul, she said.

The attacker

David DePape is being held in San Francisco jail. He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges. He also faces federal charges of attempted kidnapping of an elected official.

Officials said DePape allegedly broke into the Pelosi home, woke up Paul Pelosi, and demanded to talk to Nancy. When Paul Pelosi told the man his wife was out of town, DePape said he would wait. After Paul Pelosi called 911, the phone number for reporting an emergency, officers arrived to see the two men struggling over a hammer. Then DePape hit Paul Pelosi at least once in the head with the hammer.

DePape later told police he wanted to kidnap the speaker. He threatened to injure her "to show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions."

Pelosi has said little since the attack on her husband. But she spoke in an online call to activists late last week after her husband was released from the hospital.

People say to me, What can I do to make you feel better? I say: Vote! Pelosi told those on the call.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.

__________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

interview  n. a meeting at which people talk to each other in order to ask questions and get information:

hammer  n. a tool that has a heavy metal head attached to a handle and that is used for hitting nails or breaking things apart

allege  v. to state without definite proof that someone has done something wrong or illegal

consequence  n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions
Early reports say one winning ticket for the largest lottery prize in United States history has been sold to someone in Southern California. The record jackpot is worth $2.04 billion.

Lottery officials said the jackpot ticket was sold at a business called Joes Service Center in Altadena, a community northeast of Los Angeles.

The latest drawing for the lottery winnings, known as the jackpot, was held Tuesday morning. That drawing had been delayed Monday night because of a sales processing problem.

The lottery is called Powerball. It is played by people in 45 U.S. states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The jackpot was estimated to be $1.9 billion on Monday. But the prize was increased to $2.04 billion on Tuesday morning.

Tuesdays drawing followed one on Saturday that was the 40th in a row without a winner of the big prize. The jackpot grows larger each time it goes unclaimed.

A winning ticket must match all six numbers that are drawn. The numbers in the latest drawing were 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and 10.

The current jackpot is more than $400 million larger than past record jackpots. Only four in the past have been larger than $1 billion, but none of those were close to the current prize. The current jackpot started at $20 million on August 6. No one has won the jackpot since August 3.

The $2.04 billion prize is for a winner who chooses to receive yearly payments over 29 years. However, nearly all winners instead choose to be paid in cash, which greatly lowers the amount. Lottery officials did not immediately provide a value for the one-time cash payment, but it was likely to be around $1 billion.

The odds of winning the current jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

The previous record for a Powerball jackpot was set in 2016 when three ticket holders from California, Florida and Tennessee shared a $1.59 billion top prize.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press and Reuters reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for Learning English.

___________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

lottery  n. a contest that involves selling number tickets to people who have a chance at winning a prize if their number is chosen

drawing  n. a competition that is decided by choosing a particular ticket number

match  v. to be equal in quality or strength

in a row phrase following one after the other without anything else in between

cash  n. money in the form of coins or notes

odds  n. the probability that something will happen

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The race for mayor and three City Council seats pits LGBTQ+ allies against a PAC funded by and supporting four candidates who want Lebanon to stick to small-town values.
So the big news is there was no Republican wave (although the Repugs will probably take the House), and the polls (which in 2016 and 2020) underestimated support for Trump and sometimes Republicans more generally, this time overstated their support. The polls had the Pennsylvania Senate race basically tied, but in the end Fetterman, the social democrat in the mode of Bernie Sanders, looks to have beaten the absurd Dr. Oz by three percentage points. Even more striking is the Wisconsin Governor race, where the Democratic incumbent beat the Trump-annointed Republican by more than three points despite polls showing a dead heat or the Republican ahead. (This is important because the Repug legislature in Wisconsin has gerrymandered itself into permanent control.) Even the awful incumbent Senator in Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, beat his Democratic challenge by only 1 point, despite polls showing a much bigger lead.

The only Senate loss for the Democrats looks to be in Nevada, where the incumbent will probably lose to a Republican from a brand-name family in Nevada politics. (UPDATE: I jumped the gun on this one, the Democratic incumbent is now leading, but there's still more than one third of the vote to be reported.)
A 21-year-old woman was killed over the weekend in northwest Nebraska when she was hit by a minivan as she walked along a highway.

Arrow Merrita Long, a South Dakota resident, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred before 8 p.m. Saturday, the Nebraska State Patrol said.

A preliminary investigation found that Long was walking in the northbound lane of traffic on Nebraska 87 about two miles north of Rushville. The driver of a Honda Odyssey tried to slow down and avoid hitting her but was unable to.

The two people in the van suffered minor injuries, the patrol said.
Raff Donelson (Chicago-Kent College of Law - Illinois Institute of Technology) has posted The Inherent Problem with Mass Incarceration (Oklahoma Law Review, Vol. 75, No. 1, 2022) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

For more than a decade, activists, scholars, journalists, and politicians of various stripes have been discussing and decrying mass incarceration. This collection of voices has mostly focused on contingent features of the phenomenon. Critics mention racial disparities, poor prison conditions, and spiraling costs. Some critics have alleged broader problems: they have called for an end to all incarceration, even all punishment. Lost in this conversation is a focus on what is inherently wrong with mass incarceration specifically. This essay fills that void and supplies an answer, drawing on the early modern English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. On the Hobbesian account developed here, mass incarceration is always wrong because it is always inconsistent with having a free society.

Highly recommended.
Paperback Picks is back  now a once-a-month compilation. Here are 10 great books just out in paperback; some of which I've read and enjoyed, and some I can't wait to get to. Happy fall reading!

"Fledgling"

by Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central Publishing, $16.99).

Butler, who died in 2006 (and lived in the Seattle area during her last years), was a pioneering Black female writer in science fiction. This reissue of her acclaimed 2005 vampire novel  in which a 53-year-old vampire presents as a 10-year-old Black girl  makes appropriate reading for this shadowy season. "In charged, erotic prose, Butler weaves a mystery that's as titillating as it is disturbing," wrote a New York Times reviewer.

"The Family Chao"

by Lan Samantha Chang (W.W. Norton, $16.99).

Chang's 2021 novel is at once multigenerational family story, immigrant saga, coming-of-age tale, whodunit mystery and literary pastiche (inspired by "The Brothers Karamazov"). And, like in the multicourse Chinese dinners featured in the plot, each element contributes to a hugely satisfying whole.

"Cloud Cuckoo Land"

by Anthony Doerr (Scribner, $20).

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "All the Light We Cannot See" returns with a very different kind of novel: one that spans multiple times and places  from mid-15th century Constantinople to a futuristic spaceship, with several stops in between  to form an intricate love letter to books and libraries.

"The Sentence"

by Louise Erdrich (Harper Perennial, $18).

Erdrich, a National Book Award-winning author, sets this novel in Birchbark Books, a Minneapolis bookstore that she owns in real life; it's a story of ghosts, on the page and off. "The joy of Erdrich's novels lies in the way her characters live so richly, and are as present to the reader as our own friends and relatives are," wrote a reviewer in The Guardian.

"The Book of Magic"

by Alice Hoffman (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99).

Hoffman concludes her popular series about a family with supernatural powers, following "Practical Magic," "The Rules of Magic" and "Magic Lessons." A New York Times reviewer noted that, "like the witches who populate her stories, Hoffman certainly knows how to enchant."

"Empire of Pain"

by Patrick Radden Keefe (Anchor, $18).

If this book were a novel, people would say it was too far-fetched. Keefe, a longtime journalist for The New Yorker, crafts a mesmerizing/horrifying tale of greed and tragedy in this profile of the ultrarich family whose pharmaceutical company became a key player in the public health crisis around opioids. This was one of the best books I read in 2021.

"Anywhere You Run"

by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow Paperbacks, $17.99).

I was a big fan of Morris' 2021 debut, "All Her Little Secrets"; Morris, an attorney, masterfully combined elements of legal thriller, whodunit, character study and portrait of being a Black woman in a corporate world. Her new novel, involving two Black sisters and a murder in the Jim Crow South, was called "stunning" by Publishers Weekly.

"Music Is History"

by Questlove (Abrams, $17.99).

In his sixth book, the leader of the hip-hop crew The Roots chooses and analyzes one or more songs from each year from 1971 to 2021. A Washington Post reviewer wrote that in this book "Questlove ultimately does what he has always done, what he does best: shares great music, tells great stories about musicians (many of whom he knows personally, as he doesn't hesitate to mention), and serves as a sort of music ambassador, by encouraging an appreciation for the importance of songs."

"The Magician"

by Colm Toibin (Scribner, $20).

Named as one of 2021's best books by multiple publications, Toibin's latest is a biographical novel of the writer Thomas Mann, set in wartime Europe. "At 500-plus pages, 'The Magician' is Mann-sized, but it canters along not only on the strength of Toibin's graceful prose, but also because the reader can hardly wait for the next bon mot from a family member or guest," wrote a Washington Post reviewer.

"The Answer Is ..."

by Alex Trebek (Simon & Schuster, $17.99).

If you, like me, have vivid memories of watching "Jeopardy!" with your dad (or anyone else), Trebek's slim autobiography, written shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in 2020, might make for sweet reading.
"Small Mercies" by Dennis Lehane; Harper (320 pages, $28.99)



Starting with A Drink Before the War in 1994, Boston-born writer Dennis Lehane turned out 13 searing and irresistible novels that rocketed him into the top ranks of crime fiction writers.

Five of them  Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone, Live by Night and The Drop  became movies. And, it seems, the show biz bug bit Lehane.

He got a taste of writing for high-quality TV series working on The Wire. He soon found himself in high demand, working as a writer and producer on Boardwalk Empire, Bloodline, Mr. Mercedes, The Outsider and, most recently, the darkly gripping Black Bird.

He even moved a few years back from his part-time home in St. Petersburg  yes, hes very much identified with Boston, but hes an Eckerd College alum and co-founded its Writers in Paradise program  to live in Los Angeles.

And the last novel he published was Since We Fell  in 2017.

The last time I talked to him, a couple of years ago, he said he wasnt sure whether hed write another book. I was depressed for days.

But I am purely delighted to report that he has written one, and that it is a marvel well worth the wait.

Which is good, because youll have to wait a little longer. Small Mercies will be published in April, about six years since his last novel. But I got an early review copy to read when Lehane agreed to be the headliner at the Times Festival of Reading, and I could not put it down.

Its set, like most of his novels, on Lehanes home turf in Boston. He was born and raised in Dorchester; Small Mercies takes place nearby amid the housing projects of South Boston, aka Southie, at the time the book is set a fiercely insular Irish Catholic enclave. Its indelible main character, Mary Pat Fennessey, has never lived anyplace else.

When we meet her, Mary Pat seems like a familiar figure. At 42, shes lost two husbands, one to death and one to divorce, and a son to an overdose after he returned from service in Vietnam.

Born into a big brawling (literally) family, Mary Pat has a dead-end job as an aide at an old folks home. The only reliable joy in her life is her 17-year-old daughter, Jules. Shes a typical teenager, brimming with sarcasm and rebellion, but shes also funny and, beyond the sparring, devoted to her mother.

Jules is tall, willowy, such a pretty girl, and her mother worries about her every day, being all too aware of the toxic masculinity (although she wouldnt call it that) of the neighborhood culture.

And that neighborhood feels even more dangerous than usual. Its the summer of 1974, a few weeks after Nixon helicoptered off the White House lawn amid a fractured and angry nation, and just a few weeks before school desegregation is set to begin, under court order, in Bostons public schools. Southie is seething with resentment and racism, and everyone is on edge. Before long, history tells us, that rage would explode, with more than 40 riots breaking out in the city in the next two years.

Then Jules disappears. She goes out one evening with her bonehead boyfriend, her trouble-on-wheels best friend and the friends boyfriend, whos the local drug dealer and the son of the mistress of the boss of the Irish mob in Boston. And she doesnt come home.

The friends all swear they saw Jules walking toward home just before midnight, but theyre hardly reliable witnesses. Mary Pats panic grows as days pass and she checks in with anyone who might know Jules whereabouts  even going to an Irish mobster she has connections with to ask for help.

Now, you might think Mary Pat will be one of those passive characters found in lots of crime fiction, the desperate but helpless relative who puts the real hero, the detective or the cop, in motion, because Lehane, in the early chapters, has skillfully led us that way.

You would be wrong.

Theres a glorious and gobsmacking moment when Mary Pats true nature is revealed. And when she goes after whoever took her daughter, even Jack Reacher had best get out of the way.

There is a cop in the story, a detective named Bobby Coyne, but he quickly realizes hes not there to be Mary Pats hero. He just stands back and admires her, telling a friend, Shes a piece of work. If Id had half a dozen of her in my platoon at the beginning of Vietnam, we probably would have staved off the whole fking war.

I dont want to spoil any of the twists in Mary Pats quest, but Lehane does tie it into the historic events going on around her. The same night that Jules disappears, just across the street from the park where she was last seen, a young Black man dies under suspicious circumstances.

His mother, it turns out, is a co-worker of Mary Pats, and Mary Pat finds she cant easily accept her neighbors dismissal of the dead man as a drug dealer who came into a place he didnt belong and got what he deserved.

Lehane pulls no punches with the bone-deep racism of most of his characters (or with the language they use to express it). Its the water Mary Pat swims in, and shes not immune to it.

But she does begin to notice things, like the irony that a fiery speech given at an anti-busing rally, attacking desegregation as against Gods plan, is made by a white woman whose husband is a hitman for the Irish mob whos killed so many people his nickname is Tombstone.

Mary Pat, Lehane writes, moving along the fringe of the crowd on the far side of the street, catches herself thinking that a woman whose husband kills people for a living might want to lay off the God talk.

Despite its tension and violence, there is plenty of Lehanes wry humor in this book. And Mary Pats relationships, with her siblings, her ex-husband and others, are convincingly drawn.

No surprise, the style of Small Mercies is strikingly cinematic, and Ill confess I was casting the miniseries in my head. Lehane will probably write it himself, and it will be great, but I hope it doesnt keep him from writing more novels as terrific as this one.

Release date April 25, 2023
"The Third Reconstruction: Americas Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-first Century" by Peniel Joseph; Basic Books (288 pages, $27)



One reason we read history is that it brings order to the past. The best history reveals patterns, explains cause and effect, helps us to understand what has happened and why. Cool analysis requires distance, ours and the historians, from events.

The present, by contrast, can seem chaotic. We are often too close, and too emotionally invested, to see order in the world around us clearly.

In his new book, distinguished historian Peniel Joseph takes up the challenging task of writing history in the present tense, with enlightening results.

Joseph holds the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and is founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, and professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of several award-winning books on African American history, including The Sword and the Shield and Stokely: A Life.

His new book is The Third Reconstruction: Americas Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-first Century. In it, he uses the past as a lens to understand the present, to answer some of the questions that make us say, How could that happen?

Prominent among them is the question of how a nation that elected Barack Obama as president by a wide margin in 2008 turned around eight years later and elected, albeit by a narrow edge, Donald Trump. As Joseph notes, the flip from an administration that exemplified progress in racial attitudes to one that was overtly racist was disorienting, to say the least.

Joseph sees it, though, in the context of cycles in the history of race in America, cycles in which two groups alternately rise and fall in power. He takes his title from the first Reconstruction, the years right after the Civil War when Black people first gained political power  power that was emphatically wrested away by the rise of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the era of Jim Crow.

He posits that the second reconstruction was the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, when Black people once again organized for their citizenship and dignity. Joseph writes that, when he was a boy growing up in New York in the 1980s, his schools taught the history of the civil rights movement as a completed achievement  telling kids that America had reached racial justice.

But he saw too many news stories about Black people dying at the hands of police and experienced too much racism in his own life for him to believe that. The dismantling of the very real achievements of the civil rights movement was more subtle than Jim Crow but no less damaging.

The third reconstruction, the books main subject, is going on around us. It includes Obamas presidency, the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement and the defeat of Trump in the 2020 election.

The deep roots of the present day extend into the nations past, Joseph writes, and this is a process that will continue: we are only at the beginning of the beginning of coming to terms with a new American founding in the aftermath of 2020s racial and political reckoning.

The two groups Joseph sees as moving in and out of power are reconstructionists  people of every race who fervently believed in a vision of multiracial democracy  and redemptionists. Of them he writes, Out of the blood and ruins of the Confederate rebellion came a vow among white supremacists to redeem the South of Negro domination or perish.

The redemptionists ambitions now extend beyond the South to the entire nation; the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, Joseph writes, was a particularly stark example. He also writes about political efforts in several states (including this one) to compel schools to whitewash the history of race in America rather than telling children the truth.

But Joseph sees reasons for hope, among them the achievements of Black Lives Matter. Flowering unexpectedly within Americas unforgiving racial climate, BLM sprang like a concrete rose from the yawning chasm between the bursting optimism of 2008 and the reality that killed Trayvon Martin in 2012.

In the wake of George Floyds murder in 2020, he writes, BLM marches moved through 2,000 cities and towns, with marchers of all races. More than 90% of those protests were peaceful.

Gracefully written, clearly argued and rich in research and detail, The Third Reconstruction gives us a path to understand the past and make sense of the present.
The Minnesota icon riffs about 66 songs and his philosophies on war, marriage and money.

"The Philosophy of Modern Song" by Bob Dylan; Simon & Schuster (338 pages, $45)



Bob Dylan has thrown us another curveball.

Surprise! Surprise!

His just-published third book, "The Philosophy of Modern Song" (Simon & Schuster, $45), promised to offer Dylan's insights into the nature of popular music. Actually, the breezy book is more like a late-night, old-school, once-hipster DJ riffing on dozens of songs you may or may not know.

The Nobel Prize winner for literature (for his songs, not his prose) has given us a 338-page, photo-heavy hodgepodge that is part criticism, part social commentary, part pulp fiction, part comedy, part rebaked Wikipedia, and, indeed, part philosophy.

It's informative, sometimes fascinating, occasionally insightful, generally entertaining and, of course, totally Dylanesque.

In the book, contemporary music's greatest songwriter offers his take on 66 tunes, ranging from Stephen Foster's not-exactly-modern "Nelly Was a Lady" (1849) to Warren Zevon's "Dirty Life and Times" (2003). Dylan tackles pieces by big names like Little Richard, Ray Charles, the Who, the Clash and Cher, as well as standards and blues, bluegrass and country numbers.

Dylan's short essays sometimes read like pulpy two-page movie treatments inspired by the lyrics. But that kind of imaginer is probably not what readers expect from this book.

The Hall of Famer riffing in prose is often as appealing  and enigmatic  as his riffing in music.

Commenting on the Eagles' "Witchy Woman," he warns whoever encounters her: "Let me tell you brother, better watch yourself. You were once a diamond in the rough, had a clear conscience and clean hands  now you're a self-admiring unchivalrous worthless fellow with an evil nature  the scum of the earth and she's had it up to here with you. What are the odds you'll survive?"

Oftentimes the Minnesota icon offers background on the artist, sometimes relevant and sometimes not, gleaned by his researchers. (This feels like what he did with his "Theme Time Radio Hour" program on SiriusXM from 2006-09.) For example, in a chapter on Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" (1958), Dylan mentions various songs about fools and then talks about Nelson's showbiz background in TV but never really discusses "Poor Little Fool."

Occasionally Dylan gets distractingly off-key, such as when he turns a discussion of "Mack the Knife," the Brecht-Weill song made into a smash by Bobby Darin in 1959, into a declaration on the greatness of Frank Sinatra, whom he says "just about invented the Roman Catholic Church" while Darin was an altar boy. Or when Dylan's discourse on "Viva Las Vegas" becomes all about Elvis Presley's conniving manager, Colonel Tom Parker, instead of the song.

Sometimes, though, Dylan actually analyzes a tune or the recorded version of it. For instance, he explains that Johnny Cash's "Big River" (1957) is a takeoff on Woody Guthrie's "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done," and the key element to Cash's ditty is "the chain-gang thump of the acoustic rhythm guitar."

In his critique of "Blue Moon," (the Rodgers & Hart piece recorded by Dean Martin in 1964), the bard observes "the simplicity of the lyrics makes it universal with enough detail to rescue it from being generic."

Dylan, a noted borrower of melodies from folk and blues, offers lists of pop songs based on classical melodies, including "Can't Help Falling in Love," and songs with English lyrics based on foreign melodies, including "Beyond the Sea."

In his randomly arranged, freewheeling book, Dylan makes all kinds of curious observations.

 "Volare" (1958) could have been the first hallucinogenic song.

 "Ball of Confusion" (1970) was "one of the few non-embarrassing songs of social awareness."

 Hank Williams can sing anything and make the song his own. Willie Nelson would be "the only one who could be considered even in the same neighborhood."

 Jerry Garcia plays guitar "like Charlie Christian and Doc Watson at the same time."

 Putting melodies to diaries doesn't guarantee a heartfelt song.

 Few songs made during the video age went on to become standards "because we are locked into someone else's messaging of the lyrics."

 "Like any other piece of art, songs are not seeking to be understood."

 "Bluegrass is the other side of heavy metal. Both are musical forms steeped in tradition. They are two forms of music that visually and audibly have not changed in decades."

Dylan, the critic, is mostly polite toward the artists but takes a few shots like positing that Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" (1978) exhausted people. "Too many thoughts, way too wordy," writes Dylan, who has often been accused of being too wordy himself.

The Jokerman isn't above cracking wise. After gushing that Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" (1963) is a spectacular song and record, Dylan points out that when former Minnesota Twins announcer Herb Carneal saw a fastball that "blew by you" for a called strike, he declared, "Thank you, Roy Orbison."

There's philosophizing here, though not necessarily about a particular song. Dylan uses the chapter on Edwin Starr's "War" (1970) as an opportunity to preach about war in what's his longest soliloquy in the book.

Dylan turns his chapter on Elvis Presley's "Money Honey" (1956) into a treatise on money and wealth, concluding: "Money don't matter. Nor do the things it can buy. Because no matter how many chairs you have, you only have one ass."

Throughout the book, the master wordsmith pens some indelible lines.

Discussing the traditional tune "Jesse James" (1928), he proclaims: "Criminals can wear badges, army uniforms or even sit in the House of Representatives."

Writing about Johnnie Taylor's "Cheaper to Keep Her" (1973), he opines: "Marriage without kids is two 'friends with benefits and insurance coverage.'"

Waxing on Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" (1956), he predicts: "Carl wrote this song, but if Elvis [Presley] was alive today, he'd be the one to have a deal with Nike."

"The Philosophy of Modern Song" is not the long-promised sequel to 2004's "Chronicles: Volume One," Dylan's formidable but not comprehensive, scattershot memoir. (His first book was the prose poem "Tarantula," published in 1971.) And this new effort is not likely to lead to any distinguished literature awards. But it could take Dylan back to the top of the charts  the bestselling book lists, that is.
FICTION: A Catholic teacher and Protestant barrister fall in love in 1970s Northern Ireland. This cannot end well.

"Trespasses" by Louise Kennedy; Riverhead (304 pages, $27)



Louise Kennedy, whose 2021 collection of short stories, "The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac," has won the John McGahern Prize for a debut book of Irish fiction, now gives us "Trespasses," her first novel. Set in and around Belfast in 1975, in the midst of the Troubles, it follows the course of a passionate affair between Cushla Lavery, a 24-year-old Catholic primary school teacher, and Michael Agnew, a married Protestant barrister in his 50s.

Running alongside that entanglement  and joining it in tragedy toward the end  is Cushla's unlucky effort to help and protect one of her students, 7-year-old Davy. The boy is bullied at school and lives a persecuted existence with his brother, sister, Protestant mother and Catholic father in a hardline Protestant council-house development.

Cushla lives with her widowed, alcoholic mother and regularly helps out in the family's pub. It is there that she meets Michael, a man infamous for taking on the defense of young Catholic men accused of crimes against the state, including murder. Michael asks Cushla to tutor him and a few of his well-heeled, liberal-minded Protestant friends who meet weekly to learn the Irish language  or, as one of Cushla's friends would have it, playing "at being Irish once a week."

Kennedy describes their upper-middle-class bohemian way of life in perfect detail, the delicious, casually presented meals, the vintage doodads that ornament the kitchen, the polite, but condescending manner of most of them toward Cushla.

If the world of Michael and his friends is distant from hers, it is unimaginably so from young Davy's. The family's Protestant neighbors constantly vandalize their house and yard; his father has been badly beaten and left for dead; and his older brother, a gifted student, leaves school, infected by nihilistic hopelessness and sectarian hatred. This is the reality of the Troubles, of beatings, revenge killings, executions, bombed out buildings, barricaded streets, aggressively hostile soldiers in armored vehicles, and wasted lives. That, too, Kennedy conjures in all its pervasive horror and fear.

This is a deeply evocative novel in the particularity of social description and ambiance, in its atmosphere of menace, and in the urgency of the emotions portrayed  sexual passion, guilt, shame, fear, hatred and compassion. Kennedy is masterly in conveying the nature of Cushla's predicament: Her efforts to help Davy's family backfire; social workers show up threatening to take the children from their mother  as if she were the problem and not the viciousness of the neighborhood.

Consumed with illicit desire, she puts Michael's wife out of her mind to stave off guilt, but when she sees the two of them together she is shocked and humiliated. As events culminate in tragedy, Cushla is appalled, feeling responsible for the calamities her "trespasses" may well have set in train.

This is a moving, hard-hitting book grounded in the basic fact of Northern Ireland's Troubles: "It's not about what you do here. ... It's about what you are."



Katherine A. Powers, a Minnesota native, also reviews for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
FICTION: An idealistic college student plans to drop out to focus on community organizing, while his old-school Asian activist parents try to dissuade him.

"Which Side Are You On" by Ryan Lee Wong; Catapult (192 pages, $26)



Ryan Lee Wong's original debut novel, "Which Side Are You On," opens with its 20-year-old protagonist, Reed, at a crossroads. He's on academic probation at Columbia, formerly the college of his dreams, when he flies home to Los Angeles to visit his dying grandmother. His grades tanked as he became a community organizer, working to obtain justice for the family of Akai Gurley, an unarmed Black man fatally shot by Chinese American New York City police officer Peter Liang in 2014.

Full of youthful idealism and righteousness, Reed wants to ameliorate the historical conflicts between Asian and Black people in America. To do so, he plans to drop out and become a full-time organizer; as he tells his parents, "everything in college is designed to insulate us from the world, so we can patch over the neoliberal order without challenging anything structural."

Reed's parents react, as you might guess, with alarm. But they're not just any Asian parents who have supported their son toward Ivy League dreams. They were leftist activists in the '70s and still work on campaigns such as an effort to boost the minimum wage. So when they advise Reed not to drop out, they do so based on hard-won experience.

Still, they've never been forthcoming about their past. "You won't pass down what you learned, and yet you think our analysis is naive," Reed says, "So maybe you could actually tell me?"

From the moment Reed declares his dropout plans at a strip-mall barbecue joint in Koreatown, the novel unfolds like a Socratic dialogue, if Plato had chronicled Socrates visiting yoga studios, dance clubs and Korean spas while teasing out his interlocutor's logical flaws.

Just as Socrates presents himself as a humble, know-nothing guy, questioning people who believe themselves to be experts until they realize the inconsistencies in their own arguments, Reed's parents humor him, let him express his views, and then show him there's more in heaven and earth than he's dreamed of in his philosophy.

Reed's mother, a Korean immigrant, reveals the difficult work she did trying unite Asian and Black communities before and after the police beating of Rodney King sparked riots. When Reed disdains her excursions to spas and yoga studios, she says, "Organizing is person-to-person, right? And do most people like to sit around in meetings talking about blah-blah racial capitalism? Or do fun things, like sharing food, or exercising, or listening to music?"

Meanwhile, Reed's Chinese American dad displays his evolution from demanding ideological purity to embracing compromise and incremental change. "His pragmatism was its own kind of ideology," Reed thinks.

Wong handles the characterization of Reed perfectly to make the novel fun to read. He puts Reed's social justice jargon-laden thoughts in dialogue, never in narration. Other characters challenge Reed's ideas and make fun of his vocabulary. This introduces playfulness to a story with heavy themes, and allows Reed to grow toward an authentic moment of transformation as he realizes there usually isn't just one right side to be on.



Jenny Shank's story collection, "Mixed Company," won the Colorado Book Award and the George Garrett Fiction Prize and her novel, "The Ringer," won the High Plains Book Award.
The fifth season of The Crown introduces a new cast taking Queen Elizabeth II into her turbulent twilight years. Alan Jackson receives a Lifetime Achievement Awards at the CMAs in Nashville. The Handmaids Tale wraps its next-to-last season with more trauma for ex-handmaid June. Historys long-running Pawn Stars spins off for an eight-episode road trip across America.

Season Premiere

8/7c

Season Finale

Elisabeth Moss directs the dystopian dramas Season 5 finale, staging yet another harrowing ordeal for her character of ex-handmaid June. She concedes, We have to run after violent events convince her that Toronto, now hostile to refugees, is no longer a safe haven. As her family prepares to flee amid a tidal exodus, the imagery is more relevant than ever. And so is her warning that no government is immune from totalitarian influence if people let it happen: America wasnt Gileaduntil it was.

Series Premiere 8/7c

If you cant bring your treasures to the Las Vegas pawn shop immortalized on the long-running Pawn Stars, then maybe they can bring their business to you. Thats the impetus of this eight-week spinoff, consisting of two-hour episodes in which Rick Harrison, son Corey and the irrepressible Austin Chumlee Russell leave the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop to hit the road and assess items of infinite coolness while taking local field trips. The journey begins in Denver, where experts help determine the worth of objects including a Roman cauldron handle and JFK signatures. In their spare time, Corey and Chumlee hope to strike it rich in a local gold mine. Future stops include Austin, Savannah, Seattle, Valley Forge, Winston-Salem, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

10/9c

In the most broadly hilarious episode of the new season, My Monkey Grifter (inspired by the Oscar-winning My Octopus Teacher), an obsessive filmmaker (The Afterpartys Jamie Demetriou) falls under the spell of Lulu, a zoo monkey, reading way too much into the animals possibly malicious inscrutability. I put myself on her level and it was beautiful, he says, shedding his clothes in front her cage. No way this ends well.

Inside Wednesday TV:
Voters in Dane County Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a trio of advisory ballot referendums on marijuana and abortion.

The referendums asked voters if they support legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana for people 21 and older and whether convictions for possession of small amounts of pot should be expunged.

Another referendum asks if voters support repealing Wisconsins 1849 abortion ban.

The questions, which are merely advisory and have no legal ability to change state law, were passing by a four-to-one margin, with 87% of precincts reporting.

Dane County voters already had a referendum question on the legalization of marijuana in 2018. Seventy-six percent of voters said then they support legalizing the drug for recreational use.

At the municipal level, voters also saw the following referendums:

Town of Medina voters authorized making the position of town treasurer an appointed position.

Shorewood Hills voters approved increasing the villages levy to fund new staff and technological needs and establish competitive wage rates.

Middleton voters were asked to increase the citys levy to hire more police, parks and communications staff. Results were still pending late Tuesday.

Waunakee voters, by a resounding margin, rejected a proposal to construct a public outdoor aquatics facility at a cost of $9.4 million.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Minnesota Democrats defied expectations in a midterm election that had been expected to go well for Republicans, winning the governor's race and completing a trifecta Wednesday by winning both houses of the Legislature to take full control of state government for the first time in eight years.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller conceded Wednesday morning that his party had lost its majority to Senate Democrats. That followed a concession earlier Wednesday from GOP House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt and the re-election of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday night.

Tim Walz is the governor for four more years, GOP challenger Scott Jensen told supporters in a concession speech. Republicans, quite frankly, we didnt have a red wave. It was a blue wave. And we need to stop, we need to recalibrate, we need to ask ourselves: OK, what can we learn from this? What can we do better? How do we go forward? 

While several legislative races were yet to be called as of Wednesday morning, Democrats appeared to exceed the 68 seats they need to preserve their majority in the House, while Democrats appeared to have the 34 seats they need to control the Senate.

The only other time that Minnesota saw single-party control in the past 30 years was when Democrats held full power in 2013-14, and the last time any Minnesota Republican won statewide office was in 2006, when Gov. Tim Pawlenty was reelected.

Democrats also appeared poised to keep Minnesota's three other constitutional offices. Secretary of State Steve Simon defeated Republican election skeptic Kim Crockett, winning more votes than any other Democratic statewide candidate including Walz.

Attorney General Keith Ellison and State Auditor Julie Blaha held narrow leads over GOP challengers Jim Schultz and Ryan Wilson in races that had yet to be called Wednesday morning.

Amy Koch, a former Republican Senate majority leader turned political strategist, said weakness at the top of the GOP ticket and and the party's alienation of women were major factors in the Democratic sweep.

We should have wiped the floor with the DFL. We didn't. We lost, Koch said in an interview.

She said a stronger showing by Jensen could have lifted other statewide Republicans. And she said she heard from many women, and many Republicans, angry over comments by Jensen running mate Matt Birk against abortion rights and women having careers, including accusing abortion rights supporters of playing the rape card by demanding exceptions to abortion bans for rape and incest.

Many women responded by quietly going to the polls and voting for Democrats, she said, and that's why everybody is in shock this morning.
Worries on the left about aggressive poll watchers interfering with voting appeared as unfounded as doubts on the right about ballot tampering, with election officials reporting only a few hiccups so far from Tuesdays balloting.

And based on how many of them took part in the 2022 midterms, Wisconsinites still have plenty of confidence that their votes matter and will be counted accurately.

The Madison city and Dane County clerks reported no major problems with equipment, fraud or intimidation at the polls. A line forcing some voters to wait as long as three hours to vote in the town of Middleton was blamed Tuesday on nothing more than high turnout and slow poll workers.

From the point of view of the voter, yes it was smooth with some lines like Middleton, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission similarly had nothing major to report as of midday Wednesday, save for an incident in the city of West Bend in which a 38-year-old knife-wielding man who was out on bail demanded stop the voting at the polling place at the citys library at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

He was arrested without incident, police said in a statement, and voting was paused for just over 30 minutes while the scene was secured and the initial investigation was conducted. No one was injured.

There was also at least one unfounded allegation of election fraud that briefly went semi-viral Tuesday night when an anonymous and now-suspended Twitter account posted a video showing a Madison poll-worker marking ballots. Masked man cheating in front of the cameras on the mainstream media, read the tweet with the video.

But the worker was simply initialing and indicating the ward number on the back of the ballot, according to Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl. A second poll worker would then add their initials to each ballot before handing them to voters  a routine part of the Election Day process, McDonell said.

Preliminary turnout based on the race for governor, which had the most votes of any statewide race, was about 56.6% of the voting-age population. Thats only slightly lower than official turnout in the last midterm election in 2018 of about 59.4%. But its higher than every other midterm for all races going back at least to 2002.

Dane County turnout was about 64.8%, less than the 70.5% in the 2018 midterm but more than the 63.8% in 2014.

Positive reviews

In the high turnout specifically, moderate former Republican state Sen. Dale Schultz saw evidence of an electorate pushing back against the extremes of both major political parties.

Too many people in Wisconsin have gone crazy, he said, and the most valuable players in Tuesdays elections were the ticket-splitters who care about schools and other kitchen-table issues and who take the view that I might be proud of my party, but Im tired of having it shoveled at me.

Former Democratic state party chairman Mike Tate was also happy with the turnout and predicted it would be especially high among young people.

We knew that turnout was going to be really high, and it was, he said. We want an engaged citizenry.

Tate said he woke up Wednesday disappointed that Republican Ron Johnson was re-elected to the U.S. Senate. But given the repeated false claims from Trump acolytes about a stolen 2020 presidential election and baseless concerns about election integrity, he also felt a little more hopeful about the future because early indications are that voting in the state was largely problem-free.

Facing charges

West Bend police were not releasing the name of the man in the incident there, but in an update posted on the departments Facebook page, police said an investigation found the man intentionally created a disturbance with the intent to provoke a police response.

The man made statements to investigators that he was aware the library was a polling place and disrupting the election process would ensure an immediate police response, the statement said. The man has not made statements in this investigation identifying a political motive or affiliation.

Police said the man was out on bail in connection with a previous investigation involving the posting of fliers in the downtown West Bend area that contained threatening political and racial language. He faces multiple tentative charges, including endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon and making election threats.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Robin Vos overcame verbal and social media thrashings from Donald Trump as well as two write-in challengers to be elected to represent Wisconsin Assembly District 63 for the 11th time.

With seven of 14 precincts reporting as of 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Vos had received 8,802 votes, while the combined total of write-in votes against him was 3,533.

I think what we have learned is that hard work, telling the truth and doing the right thing almost always win, Vos said in a victory speech at a watch party at the Mount Pleasant Delta-Marriott hotel.

Running against Vos were Adam Steen, a conservative who was endorsed by Trump, and Democrat Joel Jacobsen.

Without reliable polling in Assembly races, it was unclear if the states most powerful legislator would perform better than he did in the Aug. 9 primary in which Steen came within 300 votes of defeating Vos.

Tuesday nights results indicate that actually having his name being on the ballot, Vos track record as one of the most effective conservative legislators in state history and his dedication to door-knocking were enough to overcome two challengers and the influence of a former president.

Steen was gathered with supporters at Integrity Celebrations Center in Burlington. As of 10:10 p.m., he said he was waiting for more results to be reported before making a statement.

Trump went on the attack against Vos after the speaker refused to support Trumps ongoing unconstitutional efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which numerous recounts and reviews have shown was rightly called in favor of President Joe Biden. Trump had recorded a robocall supporting Steen in the final week of the campaign in which the former president called Vos a "horrendous RINO."

District 63, which Vos has represented since 2005, generally includes all of southwestern Racine County west of Interstate 94, including much of Mount Pleasant and all of Sturtevant, Burlington and Union Grove. The district's voters strongly favored Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Get all the election results we know so far Energized Republicans hoped to break Democrats one-party hold in Washington as results emerged Tuesday night. Find all the latest local and n
Tuesdays midterm election left Wisconsins four-year status quo  with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers at odds with near-overwhelming Republican majorities in the Legislature  largely unchanged.

Despite millions of dollars spent by campaigns and outside groups, a deluge of online and television ads, and historical trends that spell trouble for the party in power in the White House, Wisconsins statewide Democratic candidates saw relatively successful results.

Democrats won in the races for governor and attorney general, while Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Republican state treasurer candidate John Leiber won their races. Incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette was 0.3 points ahead of Republican challenger Amy Loudenbeck Wednesday with all precincts reporting, but The Associated Press had still not called the race.

After all is said and done, we really get the same type of state government that weve had for the last four years going into the next two years, UW-La Crosse political science assistant professor Anthony Chergosky said.

But maintaining the status quo required Democrats to perform better than many analysts predicted, Chergosky said, noting that liberals did particularly well among Dane Countys growing population. He added that Democrats also continued to make gains in traditionally Republican suburbs, like those surrounding Milwaukee.

Evers and Johnson did better than their partisan counterparts. Evers outperformed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes by just under 2 points statewide, while Johnson outperformed Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels by just under 3 points.

Evers veto safe for now

Republicans in the Legislature added to their strong majorities, but the party fell two seats short of achieving a two-thirds majority in both chambers, which would have allowed them to override Evers vetoes in the next legislative session.

It returns us to pretty much the status quo here, where Evers has the governorship and the power of the veto pen in his hand, so Republicans are not going to be able to ram through the agenda that they were fantasizing about, Matthew Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said of Tuesdays results.

Some of those GOP-authored proposals include bills aimed at adding restrictions to how Wisconsin elections are conducted, limits to unemployment benefits and expanded school choice  all measures that Michels had signaled support for, but have been largely opposed by Evers.

In the state Senate, GOP candidate Romaine Robert Quinn successfully flipped the previously Democratic-held 25th Senate District, giving Republicans a two-thirds majority in that chamber.

In the Assembly, GOP candidates flipped the 73rd and 74th districts, which were previously held by Democrats. They also took a previously Democratic seat in the 13th Assembly District, which was left open with Sara Rodriguez  who will join Evers as lieutenant governor  not seeking another term in the Assembly. But Republicans needed to pick up five seats in the Assembly and one in the Senate to override the governor.

Well do the best we can

Speaking with reporters at Madisons OKeeffe Middle School Wednesday, Evers said he plans to do everything we can to push forward efforts for increased spending on public schools and infrastructure, as well as liberal policies like marijuana legalization.

Im not all that foolish. I understand theres a whole bunch of Republicans in the Legislature and we need to work with them, but well do the best we can, Evers said. Well stand tall when we have to and we will cooperate the best that we can.

Evers also didnt rule out plans to continue his ongoing calls for the Legislature to convene in special session for a variety of issues, including gun safety measures. Such sessions have been rejected by the Republican-led Legislature.

At some point in time, the will of the people will become the law of the land, Evers said.

Proud that her party prevented Republicans from achieving a supermajority in both chambers, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said Republicans are still willing to stake out positions that are not supported by the majority of Wisconsinites because they feel insulated by the gerrymander.

In April, the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted legislative boundaries drawn by state Republicans, reversing the courts previous decision after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected maps drawn by Evers. Those maps would have maintained, but reduced, GOP majorities in the Legislature.

The current maps make it harder than the old ones for Democrats to win a majority, but Neubauer said she hopes Republicans consider the stances of liberal lawmakers after this weeks election results dispelled hopes of a big GOP wave.

Still sidelined

Another potential impasse between the Democratic governor and Republican-controlled state Senate relates to Evers appointees to cabinet positions and commission members. Several of Evers appointees, including some on the UW Board of Regents and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) governing boards, as well as the Department of Natural Resources Board, remain unconfirmed.

While all of the Regents appointees are serving and casting votes in an unofficial capacity, three members of the WTCS board  Kelly Tourdot, Mary Williams and Becky Levzow  appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker have refused to vacate their seats, even though their terms have ended.

The state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that political appointees can stay past their terms if a successor hasnt been confirmed. Unless the state Senate or Supreme Court reverse course, Evers WTCS appointees still wont have voting power in a second Evers term.

The states high court in June ruled in favor of Fred Prehn, a Wausau dentist appointed to the Natural Resources Board in 2015 by former Gov. Scott Walker. Prehn refused to step down when his term expired more than a year ago.

The courts conservative majority said the expiration of Prehns six-year term, by itself, did not create a vacancy for the governor to fill.

My message is this: Sen. (Devin) LeMahieu, tell me what I can do to get you to move on these issues, Evers said of his unconfirmed appointees. He needs to tell me.

The offices of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, the Senate Majority Leader, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. A spokesperson for Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, said he was not available for comment.

Abortion policy

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin president and CEO Tanya Atkinson said Wisconsinites have reelected candidates up and down the ballot who value womens health and freedom.

Reproductive health became a pivotal campaign talking point for Democratic candidates following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. The decision left the states 1849 abortion ban, which does not provide exceptions for rape or incest, still on the books, although legal challenges seek to determine whether the long-dormant law is in force.

Abortion access was on the ballot this election, Atkinson said. Voters saw the harm being done by the criminal abortion ban that is blocking women and Wisconsinites from accessing abortion care, forcing them to travel across state lines or remain pregnant against their will.

Democrats, including Attorney General Josh Kaul, who also won a second term Tuesday, have sued on the matter, arguing the 170-year-old statute conflicts with other state abortion statutes and is unenforceable.

We certainly are going to continue pursuing that lawsuit, Evers said.

Asked about the possibility for a statewide referendum on abortion rights, Michelle Velasquez, director of legal advocacy and services for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, noted it would take approval in two consecutive legislative sessions. Velasquez said thats unlikely to happen, but statewide polling suggests there would be overwhelming support for it.

State Journal reporter David Wahlberg contributed to this report.

STATE AND LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS  CONTESTED RACES

Results reflect outcomes in all precincts unless otherwise noted.

US SENATE

 Ron Johnson, GOP (i) 1,334,68051 percent

Mandela Barnes, Dem 1,307,28249 percent

US HOUSE

Dist. 1

 Bryan Steil, GOP (i) 162,56254 percent

Ann Roe, Dem 135,78845 percent

Charles Barman, Ind 2,2471 percent

Dist. 2

 Mark Pocan, Dem (i) 268,66171 percent

Erik Olsen, GOP 101,85527 percent

Douglas Alexander, Ind 7,6822 percent

Dist. 3

 Derrick Van Orden, GOP 162,49252 percent

Brad Pfaff, Dem 149,79448 percent

Dist. 4

 Gwen Moore, Dem (i) 192,22675 percent

Tim Rogers, GOP 57,66023 percent

Robert Raymond, Ind 5,1652 percent

Dist. 5

 Scott Fitzgerald, GOP (i) 243,71864 percent

Mike Van Someren, Dem 134,55836 percent

Dist. 7

 Tom Tiffany, GOP (i) 209,26962 percent

Richard Ausman, Dem 128,87938 percent

Dist. 8

 Mike Gallagher, GOP (i) 223,77973 percent

Paul Boucher, Ind 48,71716 percent

Jacob VandenPlas, Lib 32,02111 percent

GOVERNOR

 Tony Evers, Dem (i) 1,355,40951 percent

Tim Michels, GOP 1,266,12648 percent

Joan Ellis Beglinger, Ind 26,9201 percent

ATTORNEY GENERAL

 Josh Kaul, Dem (i) 1,329,85251 percent

Eric Toney, GOP 1,295,70749 percent

SECRETARY OF STATE

 Doug La Follette, Dem (i) 1,265,55948 percent

Amy Loudenbeck, GOP 1,258,51648 percent

Neil Harmon, Lib 54,2292 percent

Sharyl McFarland, Grn 41,1252 percent

TREASURER

 John Leiber, GOP 1,291,05550 percent

Aaron Richardson, Dem 1,251,83048 percent

Andrew Zuelke, CST 57,0962 percent

STATE SENATE

Dist. 1

 Andre Jacque, GOP (i) 52,00960 percent

Andrea Gage-Michaels, Dem 35,35940 percent

Dist. 3

 Tim Carpenter, Dem (i) 27,95369 percent

Angel Sanchez, GOP 12,53231 percent

Dist. 5

 Rob Hutton, GOP 49,02353 percent

Jessica Katzenmeyer, Dem 42,95747 percent

Dist. 7

 Chris Larson, Dem (i) 54,22667 percent

Peter Gilbert, GOP 26,33333 percent

Dist. 11

 Steve Nass, GOP (i) 44,96758 percent

Steven Doelder, Dem 32,08342 percent

Dist. 15

 Mark Spreitzer, Dem 46,17661 percent

Mark Trofimchuck, GOP 28,97639 percent

Dist. 17

 Howard Marklein, GOP (i) 45,03460 percent

Pat Skogen, Dem 29,42940 percent

Dist. 19

 Rachael Cabral-Guevara, GOP 42,85754 percent

Kristin Alfheim, Dem 36,44746 percent

Dist. 25

 Romaine Robert Quinn, GOP 47,29357 percent

Kelly Westlund, Dem 35,66743 percent

Dist. 27

 Dianne Hesselbein, Dem 65,60368 percent

Robert Relph, GOP 30,86032 percent

Dist. 29

 Cory Tomczyk, GOP 49,60462 percent

Bob Look, Dem 29,78938 percent

Dist. 31

 Jeff Smith, Dem (i) 38,91550 percent

David Estenson, GOP 38,23750 percent

STATE ASSEMBLY

Dist. 1

 Joel Kitchens, GOP (i) 19,86463 percent

Roberta Thelen, Dem 11,91537 percent

Dist. 2

 Shae Sortwell, GOP (i) 16,11259 percent

Renee Gasch, Dem 11,09041 percent

Dist. 4

 David Steffen, GOP (i) 15,34856 percent

Derek Teague, Dem 12,28944 percent

Dist. 5

 Joy Goeben, GOP 15,28060 percent

Joseph Van Deurzen, Dem 10,25840 percent

Dist. 6

 Peter Schmidt, GOP 14,71166 percent

William Switalla, Dem 7,69434 percent

Dist. 7

 Daniel Riemer, Dem (i) 12,47462 percent

Zachary Marshall, GOP 7,69038 percent

Dist. 9

 Marisabel Cabrera, Dem (i) 8,64172 percent

Ryan Antczak, GOP 3,34228 percent

Dist. 12

 LaKeshia Myers, Dem (i) 13,77079 percent

Greg Canady, GOP 3,68821 percent

Dist. 13

 Tom Michalski, GOP 18,71256 percent

Sarah Harrison, Dem 14,52144 percent

Dist. 14

 Robyn Vining, Dem (i) 17,70063 percent

Keva Turner, GOP 10,21937 percent

Dist. 17

 Supreme Moore Omokunde, Dem (i) 18,07084 percent

Abie Eisenbach, GOP 3,41016 percent

Dist. 20

 Christine Sinicki, Dem (i) 17,86266 percent

Scott Hermann, GOP 9,04334 percent

Dist. 21

 Jessie Rodriguez, GOP (i) 13,71254 percent

Nathan Jurowski, Dem 11,58046 percent

Dist. 22

 Janel Brandtjen, GOP (i) 22,27765 percent

Matt Brown, Dem 12,20735 percent

Dist. 23

 Deb Andraca, Dem (i) 21,23463 percent

Purnima Nath, GOP 12,58937 percent

Dist. 24

 Dan Knodl, GOP (i) 19,39361 percent

Bob Tatterson, Dem 12,30639 percent

Dist. 26

 Terry Katsma, GOP (i) 16,06063 percent

Lisa Salgado, Dem 9,49137 percent

Dist. 27

 Amy Binsfeld, GOP 17,12065 percent

Chet Gerlach, Ind 9,38835 percent

Dist. 28

 Gae Magnafici, GOP (i) 16,49462 percent

Patty Schachtner, Dem 9,90038 percent

Dist. 29

 Clint Moses, GOP (i) 12,08265 percent

Danielle Johnson, Dem 6,45135 percent

Dist. 30

 Shannon Zimmerman, GOP (i) 17,71859 percent

Sarah Yacoub, Dem 12,55641 percent

Dist. 31

 Ellen Schutt, GOP 14,70459 percent

Brienne Brown, Dem 10,13441 percent

Dist. 32

 Tyler August, GOP (i) 15,75263 percent

Adam Jaramillo, Dem 9,26637 percent

Dist. 33

 Scott Johnson, GOP 13,70750 percent

Don Vruwink, Dem (i) 13,46150 percent

Dist. 34

 Rob Swearingen, GOP (i) 20,00362 percent

Eileen Daniel, Dem 12,37138 percent

Dist. 35

72 of 73 precincts99 percent

Calvin Callahan, GOP (i) 19,27170 percent

Todd Frederick, Ind 8,35830 percent

Dist. 36

 Jeffrey Mursau, GOP (i) 19,68871 percent

Ben Murray, Dem 8,13929 percent

Dist. 37

 William Penterman, GOP (i) 15,34256 percent

Maureen McCarville, Dem 12,15444 percent

Dist. 40

 Kevin Petersen, GOP (i) 19,35675 percent

Henry Fries, Ind 6,29125 percent

Dist. 42

 Jon Plumer, GOP (i) 16,60860 percent

Theresa Valencia, Dem 10,95940 percent

Dist. 43

 Jenna Jacobson, Dem 19,66662 percent

Marisa Voelkel, GOP 11,87338 percent

Dist. 44

 Sue Conley, Dem (i) 14,19262 percent

Spencer Zimmerman, GOP 8,52438 percent

Dist. 45

 Clinton Anderson, Dem 11,63556 percent

Jeff Klett, GOP 9,22144 percent

Dist. 46

 Melissa Ratcliff, Dem 20,70870 percent

Andrew McKinney, GOP 8,99730 percent

Dist. 47

 Jimmy Anderson, Dem (i) 23,83580 percent

Lamonte Newsom, GOP 5,97520 percent

Dist. 49

 Travis Tranel, GOP (i) 14,62663 percent

Lynne Parrott, Dem 8,72437 percent

Dist. 50

 Tony Kurtz, GOP (i) 15,51465 percent

Michael Leuth, Dem 8,42435 percent

Dist. 51

 Todd Novak, GOP (i) 14,75956 percent

Leah Spicer, Dem 11,54644 percent

Dist. 52

 Jerry OConnor, GOP 15,05362 percent

Joe Lavrenz, Dem 9,10638 percent

Dist. 54

 Lori Palmeri, Dem 12,12454 percent

Donnie Herman, GOP 10,38246 percent

Dist. 55

 Nate Gustafson, GOP 15,09755 percent

Stefanie Holt, Dem 12,57145 percent

Dist. 56

 Dave Murphy, GOP (i) 16,87559 percent

Patrick Hayden, Dem 11,71041 percent

Dist. 57

 Lee Snodgrass, Dem (i) 13,57659 percent

Andrew Fox, GOP 9,28241 percent

Dist. 58

 Rick Gundrum, GOP (i) 21,37970 percent

Mary Ann Rzeszutek, Dem 9,04330 percent

Dist. 60

 Robert Brooks, GOP (i) 21,39565 percent

Daniel Larsen, Dem 11,63635 percent

Dist. 61

 Amanda Nedweski, GOP 17,53864 percent

Max Winkels, Dem 9,84836 percent

Dist. 62

 Robert Wittke, GOP (i) 18,20261 percent

Anthony Hammes, Dem 11,41739 percent

Dist. 63

 Robin Vos, GOP (i) 16,97773 percent

Total Write-Ins, Oth 6,28527 percent

Dist. 64

 Tip McGuire, Dem (i) 12,87357 percent

Ed Hibsch, GOP 9,79843 percent

Dist. 65

 Tod Ohnstad, Dem (i) 11,03562 percent

Frank Petrick, GOP 6,80338 percent

Dist. 66

 Greta Neubauer, Dem (i) 11,25977 percent

Carl Hutton, Lib 3,33823 percent

Dist. 67

 Rob Summerfield, GOP (i) 16,87863 percent

Jason Bennett, Dem 9,80737 percent

Dist. 68

 Karen Hurd, GOP 14,33861 percent

Nate Otto, Dem 9,28139 percent

Dist. 69

 Donna Rozar, GOP (i) 14,93564 percent

Lisa Boero, Dem 8,33436 percent

Dist. 70

 Nancy VanderMeer, GOP (i) 16,83266 percent

Remy Gomez, Dem 8,66334 percent

Dist. 71

 Katrina Shankland, Dem (i) 15,92857 percent

Scott Soik, GOP 11,97643 percent

Dist. 72

 Scott Krug, GOP (i) 16,46762 percent

Criste Greening, Dem 10,02438 percent

Dist. 73

 Angie Sapik, GOP 13,26851 percent

Laura Gapske, Dem 12,74049 percent

Dist. 74

 Chanz Green, GOP 15,95653 percent

John Adams, Dem 14,27247 percent

Dist. 78

 Lisa Subeck, Dem (i) 26,81082 percent

Matt Neuhaus, GOP 5,84518 percent

Dist. 79

 Alex Joers, Dem 24,46374 percent

Victoria Fueger, GOP 8,51326 percent

Dist. 80

 Mike Bare, Dem 23,37370 percent

Jacob Luginbuhl, GOP 10,15530 percent

Dist. 81

 David Considine, Dem (i) 17,48859 percent

Shellie Benish, GOP 12,19141 percent

Dist. 82

 Chuck Wichgers, GOP (i) 16,70457 percent

Deborah Davis, Dem 12,71543 percent

Dist. 83

 Nik Rettinger, GOP 24,14179 percent

Chaz Self, Ind 6,40821 percent

Dist. 84

 Bob Donovan, GOP 13,17851 percent

Lu Ann Bird, Dem 12,65349 percent

Dist. 85

 Patrick Snyder, GOP (i) 13,68756 percent

Kristin Conway, Dem 10,65144 percent

Dist. 87

 James Edming, GOP (i) 18,53270 percent

Elizabeth Riley, Dem 8,12530 percent

Dist. 88

John Macco, GOP (i) 14,45158 percent

Hannah Beauchamp-Pope, Dem 10,38142 percent

Dist. 89

 Elijah Behnke, GOP (i) 15,55364 percent

Jane Benson, Dem 8,77136 percent

Dist. 90

 Kristina Shelton, Dem (i) 9,88559 percent

Micah Behnke, GOP 6,81841 percent

Dist. 91

 Jodi Emerson, Dem (i) 16,46365 percent

Josh Stanley, GOP 8,99435 percent

Dist. 92

 Treig Pronschinske, GOP (i) 15,68063 percent

Maria Bamonti, Dem 9,05637 percent

Dist. 93

 Warren Petryk, GOP (i) 16,00260 percent

Alison Page, Dem 10,77540 percent

Dist. 94

 Steve Doyle, Dem (i) 14,82651 percent

Ryan Huebsch, GOP 14,06949 percent

Dist. 95

 Jill Billings, Dem (i) 16,89567 percent

Chris Woodard, GOP 8,36633 percent

Dist. 96

 Loren Oldenburg, GOP (i) 14,77759 percent

Jayne Swiggum, Dem 10,46741 percent

Dist. 98

 Adam Neylon, GOP (i) 16,43959 percent

Christina Barry, Dem 11,30441 percent

Dist. 99

 Cindi Duchow, GOP (i) 24,19570 percent

Alec Dahms, Dem 10,55830 percent

DANE COUNTY SHERIFF

 Kalvin Barrett, Dem 225,62076%

Anthony D. Hamilton, GOP 69,53124%

DANE COUNTY REFERENDUMS

Legalization of marijuana

 Yes 244,83082%

No 53,93018%

Expungement of marijuana convictions

 Yes 244,40482%

No 52,94518%

Repeal of 1849 abortion law

 Yes 254,11685%

No 43,16915%

MUNICIPAL REFERENDUMS

Town of Medina

Appointment of town treasurer

 Yes 46265%

No 25435%

Village of Shorewood Hills

Exceed levy limit

 Yes 78555%

No 63045%

Village of Waunakee

Construction of outdoor aquatics facility

 No 5,06160%

Yes 3,32940%

City of Middleton

Exceed levy limit

 Yes 7,15362%

No 4,40638%

SCHOOL REFERENDUMS

Belleville

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 1,89760%

No 1,24040%

Fort Atkinson

Exceed revenue limit, recurring and nonrecurring

 No 4,16253%

Yes 3,64447%

Construction borrowing

 Yes 4,15453%

No 3,69647%

Jefferson

Athletic complex

 Yes 2,93553%

No 2,65547%

Safety & security updates

 No 3,23258%

Yes 2,32942%

Lake Mills

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 No 2,98757%

Yes 2,21343%

Intermediate school construction

 No 2,89456%

Yes 2,30144%

Middleton-CP

Exceed revenue limit, 4 years

 Yes 14,59263%

No 8,60637%

Monroe

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 3,74155%

No 3,12145%

Mount Horeb

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 4,70765%

No 2,52535%

North Crawford

Facility improvement

 Yes 95668%

No 44732%

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 87362%

No 52938%

Oregon

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 7,96960%

No 5,34840%

Parkview

$15.4M borrowing

 No 1,55352%

Yes 1,43448%

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 No 1,51151%

Yes 1,47949%

Stoughton

Question 1: Borrowing for construction, remodeling

 Yes 7,44166%

No 3,86534%

Question 2: Gymnasium addition

 Yes 7,06763%

No 4,23237%

Sun Prairie

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 1419960.5%

No 9,28039.5%

Verona

Exceed revenue limit, recurring

 Yes 10,66370%

No 4,59730%

Waterloo

Exceed revenue limit, 5 years

 No 58358%

Yes 42742%

Waunakee

Question 1: Borrowing for construction, remodeling

 Yes 6,51853%

No 5,86647%

Question 2: Exceed revenue limit, 3 years

 Yes 7,46960%

No 4,92340%
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A powerful storm pounded California with rain and snow Tuesday, leaving one person dead and two others missing after they were swept away by floodwaters in a canal, while a tornado touched down in Sacramento County.

The National Weather Service said the tornado touched down at 1:40 p.m. a few miles outside the town of Galt. NBC affiliate KCRA in Sacramento reported that a tin roof on a barn was blown off and took down utility lines. No other damage was reported.

The stormy weather raised concerns it could keep people from voting on Election Day with flash flood warnings in effect in some areas.

In Southern California a current in a canal in the city of Ontario, swept six people away, killing one, the Ontario Fire Department said. Three others were rescued by firefighters and were being treated at a nearby hospital. Crews continued searching for two others amid the downpour.

Heavy rain drenched Orange County, where several very close U.S. House races could determine which party controls Congress. The Republican Party of Orange County urged members to vote early and avoid getting stuck in the rain on Election Day.

Election day lines are long and typically one to two hours long. Dont risk getting caught waiting in the rain to cast your ballot, an email sent by the party Monday said.

The storm, which arrived Monday and was forecast to continue through Wednesday, prompted evacution orders in parts of Southern California, including in the Santa Ana Mountains' Bond Fire burn scar area.

In Northern California, meterologists warned the heavy rainfall could lead to debris flows and flash flooding in the burn scars of the Colorado and River wildfires.

Between 1 and 3 inches (2.54 and 7.62 centimeters) of rainfall are expected through Wednesday in the Los Angeles area's coast and valleys. The foothills and mountains could see up to 5 inches (12.70 centimeters).

Meanwhile, in the mountains, peaks above 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) elevation could get 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snowfall, with 20 inches (50 centimeters) possible locally.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the greater Lake Tahoe area on Tuesday as heavy snow fell in the region, causing backups in major highways in the area. The agency warned driving in the region would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Be prepared for whiteout conditions and sub-zero wind chills along ridgelines and near the mountain passes, the agency said in its alert, adding that the hazardous conditions will affect motorists during peak commute times.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP)  Spains interior minister is coming under increased pressure to be more transparent about how Spanish security forces responded to a June storming of its border with Morocco that led to the deaths of at least 23 migrants in the North African enclave of Melilla.

Spanish members of parliament across the political spectrum are pushing for the opening of a parliamentary investigation, with some calling for Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska's resignation.

The actions of Spanish authorities in Melilla on June 24 have been brought back to the spotlight following a report by BBC Africa Eye, an investigative program of the British public broadcaster, that claims the lifeless bodies of migrants were dragged from the Spanish-controlled territory of Melilla to Morocco.

Grande-Marlaska has also been accused of withholding evidence, namely security footage, from investigators.

New video of the border clash that leaked and was published Tuesday in Spanish media showed hundreds of men storming into a border post from the Moroccan side. At some point inside the gated area between the two countries, the crowd funnels as it tries to pass through to Spanish soil, causing a stampede. Among the migrants were many refugees from Sudan, according to human rights activists and interviews in Spanish media.

(Grande-)Marlaska must appear and stop denying the evidence, as he has done in the past four months, said Jon Inarritu, a hard-left lawmaker from the Basque region who visited Melilla with a parliamentary committee and had access to some of the footage previously withheld.

We are now sure, with the images and evidence, that much of the events undoubtedly took place in Spanish territory," Inarritu said.

Opposition politicians, including members of the conservative, far-right and Catalan separatist parties, have called for the minister to resign.

Grande-Marlaska has denied the allegations, claiming that none of the deaths occurred on Spanish territory but rather on the Moroccan side and in a no man's land between the two countries.

Speaking to lawmakers a month ago he described the migrant's attempts to enter Melilla as violent and said Spain's actions had been proportional. On Monday, he repeatedly stood by his previous comments.

There were no dead on Spanish territory, the minister said.

Isabel Rodriguez, the spokesperson for Spain's left-wing government, said the government was collaborating with Spanish prosecutors' investigation into what happened that day in June..

We have been giving explanations since the beginning, she said.

Video of the aftermath on social media at the time showed scores of motionless Black men on the ground as Moroccan guards stood by them. Other videos allegedly showed Spanish officers taking migrants back to Morocco in what human rights activists and lawyers say were illegal pushbacks. Spains ombudsman found that as many as 470 migrants were forcibly returned to Morocco, including many who were injured.

Human rights organizations say the official death toll of 23 is an undercount, with dozens more still missing.

Follow APs coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Editor's note: The headline was changed to reflect an outcome reversal after discrepancies were found between Jerome's vote count and the Secretary of State's Office count. The vote count in this article reflect the results as of Wednesday.

TWIN FALLS  A small selection of competitive races for the state legislature were decided by Tuesdays election, with the vote count nearly complete by midday Wednesday.

In the eight counties of the Magic Valley, a majority of elected offices had already been decided during Aprils primary election, leaving many candidates without challengers in the general election.

In District 26, where traditionally left-leaning Blaine County has merged with Lincoln and Jerome counties by redistricting, the GOP saw a chance to flip the district and add to their supermajority in the legislature.

All three Democratic candidates prevailed. Democrat Ron Taylor emerged with the lead in the race for state senate, capturing 53.36% of votes over Rep. Laura Lickley of Jerome.

On Wednesday, Taylor released a statement vowing to represent all constituents of Blaine, Lincoln and Jerome counties.

I have spent my life in public service and I consider it the highest privilege to get to now continue that service as your Senator, Taylor said in the statement. Whether you voted for me or you did not, I consider it my honor and duty now to represent each and all of you to the best of my abilities.

Lickley, with 46.64% of votes, conceded to Taylor midday Wednesday.

In a statement on her Facebook page, Lickley pledged to support whatever advances the cause of a better Idaho, because that is what this race was all about, a better Idaho.

In the House, Rep. Ned Burns from Bellevue, kept his seat in the state Legislature, holding off Republican Mike Pohanka, with 51.83% of votes.

On Wednesday, Burns credited volunteers and supporters in a statement on his Facebook page.

Its been the honor of my life to show up for the people of this district, this big wonderful district that Im so proud to call home, Burns said in the statement. In just a few weeks, Ill be back in our statehouse, hard at work for every one of you.

Shoshone Democrat Karma Metzler Fitzgerald beat Jerome Republican Jack Nelsen by 383 votes for 51.277%.

Fitzgerald said she received a call from Nelsen congratulating her on Wednesday morning. In a post to her Facebook page, Fitzgerald said she was humbled to be elected.

I will serve with honesty and compassion, Fitzgerald said in the post. People often say Election Day is the end of the journey. But its not, its the beginning. Now the work begins!

In Twin Falls, Republicans Linda Wright Hartgen and Greg Lanting each won their respective races. Hartgen came away with an easy victory in her bid to become the next state senator for District 25, representing most of municipal Twin Falls.

By the time all votes were counted, unofficial totals put Hartgen at over 75% of the vote compared with Constitution party candidate Pastor Paul Thompson with about 24%.

In a post to her Facebook page, Hartgen said she would continue to listen and work with all of you and ask the hard questions.

In the race for representative seat B, Republican Greg Lanting held a similar lead over Independent candidate Liyah Babayan, earning 72.4% of the vote to Babayans 27.6%.

Here are the unofficial election results as of Wednesday:

District 24 Senate

Glenneda Zuiderveld (R) 13,144

District 24 Representative seat A

Chenele Dixon (R) 13,280

District 24 Representative seat B

Steve Miller (R) 13,290

District 25 Senate

Linda Wright Hartgen (R) 8,213

Paul Thompson (C) 2,716

District 25 Representative seat A

Lance Clow (R) 9,314

District 25 Representative seat B

Liyah Babayan (I) 3,155

Greg Lanting (R) 8,278

District 26 Senate

Laurie Lickley (R) 7,009

Ron Taylor (D) 8,018

District 26 Representative seat A

Ned Burns (D) 7,870

Mike Pohanka (R) 7,315

District 26 Representative seat B

Karma Metzler Fitzgerald (D) 7,719

Jack Nelsen (R) 7,336

District 27 Senate

Kelly Anthon (R) 10,645

Bill Drury (I) 1,310

District 27 Representative seat A

Douglas T Pickett (R) 11,220

District 27 Representative seat B

Clay Handy (R) 11,052

Rock Creek Rural Fire District Temporary Override Levy

Yes 1,913

No 1,212

Hagerman Bond Election for Water System Improvements

Yes 195

No 196

Twin Falls County CommissionerSecond District4 Year Term

Don Hall (R) 18,797

Twin Falls County CommissionerThird District2 Year Term

Jack Johnson (R) 18,664

Twin Falls County Clerk of the District Court

Kristina Glascock (R) 19,062

Twin Falls County Treasurer

Rebecca Petersen (R) 18,796

Twin Falls County Assessor

Bradford J. Wills (R) 18,545

Twin Falls County Coroner

Gene Turley (R) 18,976

College Of Southern Idaho Trustee Zone 1

Anna Germana Scholes 21,330

College Of Southern Idaho Trustee Zone 5

Scott F. McClure 21,347

Cassia County CommissionerSecond District

Robert J Kunau (R) 5,341

Cassia County CommissionerThird District

Kent R. Searle (R) 5,409

Cassia County Clerk of the District Court

Joseph W. Larsen (R) 5,361

Cassia County Treasurer

Laura S Greener (R) 5,448

Cassia County Assessor

Martin K. Adams (R) 5,386

Cassia County Coroner

Craig J. Rinehart (R) 5,428

Jerome County CommissionerSecond District

Charles M Howell (R) 3,671

Jerome County CommissionerThird District

John P. Crozier (R) 3,801

Jerome Clerk of the District Court

Michelle Emerson (R) 3,794

Jerome County Treasurer

Tevian L. Kober (R) 3,782

Jerome County Assessor

Mark Swenson (R) 3,759

Jerome County Coroner

Dan Chatterton (R) 2,662

Minidoka County CommissionerSecond District4 Year Term

Dan Schaeffer (R) 4,300

Minidoka County CommissionerThird District2 Year Term

Jared Berkeley Orton (R) 4,208

Minidoka County Sheriff

David C Pinther (R) 4,343

Minidoka Clerk of District Court

Tonya Page (R) 4,289

Minidoka County Treasurer

Lavonna Dayley (R) 4,288

Minidoka County Assessor

Janice West (R) 4,300

Minidoka County Coroner

C.V. Lucky Bourn (R) 4,201

Minidoka Soil & Water Conservation District District Supervisor

Aaron Firth 369

Gooding County CommissionerSecond District

Mark E Bolduc (Rep) 3,617

Gooding County CommissionerThird District

Ron Buhler (R) 3,612Gooding Clerk of the District Court

Denise M. Gill (R) 3,609

Gooding County Treasurer

Christina Tine Wines (R) 3,685

Gooding County Assessor

Justin L. Baldwin (R) 3,633

Gooding County Coroner

Patrick J. Curtis (R) 3,632

Lincoln County CommissionerSecond District4 Year Term

Rebecca Wood (R) 1,066

Lincoln County CommissionerThird District2 Year Term

Nathan W. Schutte (R) 1,174

Lincoln County Clerk of the District Court

Cindi Sievers (R) 1,122

Cieara Davis (I) 46

Lincoln County Treasurer

Ann Youts (R) 1,186

Lincoln County Assessor

Linda D. Jones (R) 1,091

Lincoln County Coroner

Mike Piper (R) 1,161

Camas County CommissionerSecond District

Marshall Ralph (R) 469

Camas County CommissionerThird District

Travis Kramer (R) 477

Camas County Clerk of the District Court

Brianna Walter (R) 476

Camas County Treasurer

Deanna L. Hoskinson (R) 466

Camas County Assessor

Lynn Mcguire (R) 477

Camas County Coroner

Wesley A. Walker (R) 480
The judicial officers of Angola will paralyze the courts and the processes from Thursday, 10, in another protest against what they say are the precarious conditions of the justice facilities, lack of transportation and health insurance, and for the revision of the remuneration status.

The announcement comes after several failed attempts at negotiations between the Union of Justice Officials (SOJA) and the Supreme Judicial Council. The general secretary of SOJA, Joaquim de Brito Teixeira, said that negotiations had begun in May 2021 and we never left the negotiating table with a concrete solution and that worries us.

The reason for our strike is the non-response of our claim booklet that begins on the 10th and goes to the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, he said, adding that the Superior Council of the Magistracy of Angola refuses to receive the strike declaration.

They are saying that we should deliver it to the Ministry of Justice and human rights, how do they want that if the employer is the Superior Council of the Magistracy, he questioned.

Contacted, the heads of the Superior Council of the Magistracy did not make any declaration.
The Judicial Police (PJ) of Cape Verde announced yesterday the seizure and destruction, in several locations on the island of Santiago, in recent days, of almost 8.5 tons of cannabis.

In a statement, the PJ said the operations were carried out in fields of cultivation in the municipality of Ribeira Grande by elements of the Central Investigation Section of Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime, and also had the support of the Armed Forces.

In Belem, 1,322 kilos of cannabis were seized, and in Mosquito de Horta more than 2,258 kilos were seized, both on October 28. On November 4th, 3,668 kilos of cannabis were seized in Belem and 1,225 kilos in Encosta de Santa Clara.

It should be noted that all the drugs seized in those locations were incinerated after the Judicial Police had weighed them, the note said, without specifying whether any arrests were made in these operations.

In another operation, held on 07 October, the PJ had seized 717 kilos of that product, in Tronco, also in the municipality of Ribeira Grande de Santiago and arrested a suspect.

The PJ has been carrying out several operations of this kind within the island of Santiago and in five field actions alone, in the last quarter of 2020, seized and destroyed more than 27,000 tons of cannabis found in cultivation fields.
The President of Sao Tome, Carlos Vila Nova dismissed on Tuesday the government led by Jorge Bom Jesus, given the results of the legislative elections of September 25, in which the Independent Democratic Action (ADI) won with an absolute majority, announced the Presidency of the Republic.

Through Presidential Decree No. 25/2022, the President of the Republic, Carlos Vila Nova, dismissed on November 8, the XVII Constitutional Government, headed by Dr. Jorge Lopes de Bom Jesus, who had been appointed through Presidential Decrees Nos. 25 and 26/ 2018, of November 29 and December 3, respectively, reads a post on the Facebook of the Presidency of the Republic of Sao Tome.

The publication states that the Presidential Decree that comes into force immediately, comes in light of the results of the legislative elections held on September 25, 2022 and, consequently, the election of new deputies to the National Assembly, the beginning of a new legislature and the need for the appointment of the new Prime Minister and head of the XVIII Constitutional Government.

The leader of Independent Democratic Action (ADI), Patrice Trovoada, will be sworn in as Prime Minister of Sao Tome on Friday, and the new government will take office three days later, he said last week after a meeting with the President of the Republic.

The leader of ADI, who won the legislative elections held last September 25 with an absolute majority of 30 (five more than in the current legislature) out of 55 deputies, said that the party has already been formally invited by the President of the Republic to present the proposal of the name for Prime Minister, which was formalized on Friday, according to the Presidency.

The XII parliamentary term began Tuesday with the deputy and vice president of the Independent Democratic Action (ADI), Celmira Sacramento, to be elected president of the National Assembly, with 52 of 55 votes.

Carlos Vila Nova believes that no political party or movement should arrogate to itself the sense of being in a position to face alone, or with just a few, the great challenges of the country in terms of legislation, climate change, pandemics, economic and financial crises, terrorism, insecurity and other diverse scourges.

The ADI, of former Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada, was the party with the most votes, winning an absolute majority 30 parliamentary seats, five more than in the previous legislature.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday admitted an optimistic framework for signing a financial program with Guinea-Bissau in January 2023, the Guinean Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The statement was issued at the end of a meeting between the head of the IMF mission, Jose Gijon, who today began the economic assessment of the country with a view to signing a financial program, and after a press conference by Finance Minister Ilidio Te.

If these negotiations are satisfactory, the IMF Executive Board will meet in January 2023 to include Guinea-Bissau in the Extended Credit Facility, the statement said.

The IMF also expressed its readiness to continue to support the country to resolve its economic and financial problems.

At the meeting with the IMF, the Finance Minister outlined a favorable picture from the perspective of containing public spending, stressing that measures have been taken, including the reduction of advisors and consultants in the sovereign bodies.

In relation to the Guinea-Bissau Electricity and Water Company, Ilidio Te, acknowledged that it continues to be a fiscal risk, but that the Government will not inject funds into the company and that it continues to monitor its management.

The minister also addressed the corrective measures taken in the health and education sectors, where irregular entries were pointed out and that led to the exponential increase of the wage bill.

At the meeting, the situation of commercial banking and the management of the covid-19 fund were also addressed.

An IMF mission started today contacts with Guinea-Bissau authorities to analyze the economic situation and the conditions to negotiate a financial program. The first part of the IMF mission, led by Jose Gijon, will take place virtually and the second part will take place in Bissau between November 14 and November 22.

The IMF announced in June that it would soon resume financial assistance to Guinea-Bissau under the Extended Credit Facility and stressed in the Article IV consultations that sustainable fiscal management is a priority and that fiscal consolidation must continue in 2022 to contain the high risk of increasing public debt.

In the latest World Economic Forecast report, released in October, the IMF forecasts Guinea-Bissau economic growth of 3.8% in 2022 and 4.5% in 2023.
An international symposium held this Wednesday at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on the sidelines of the 41st session of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism has decried the dire situation prevailing in the Polisario-controlled Tindouf camps, in Algeria, as abnormal.

Addressing the symposium, Dutch expert Hans Noot, decried the abnormal situation in the Tindouf camps and the gap recorded in relation to the standards of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, a situation, he said, that deviates from the rules of international law.

The Tindouf camps represent an exception in which the population is deprived of censuses, protection reports and refugee cards, the Dutch expert in organizational behavior and organizational anthropology and member of the board of Human Rights without Borders in Brussels said.

The camps population is victim of serious human rights violations, some of which amount to war crimes, far from the eyes and international vigilance and this by giving, on the part of the host country, the full mandate to an armed group to manage the camps and provide immunity, he deplored.

The symposium that was moderated by Swedish political advisor and expert in African affairs, Bjorn Holtin, was also an opportunity for Hans Noot to address the issue of large-scale embezzlement of humanitarian aid, which has been exposed by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF, several NGOs and numerous UN reports. He explained the extent to which this looting has affected the living conditions of the camps residents, previously severely affected by the void left by the host countrys failure to meet its commitments to connect the camps to basic services, posing another challenge to the access of economic and social rights within the camps.

The moderator of the symposium Bjorn Holtin pointed out that Algeria represents a model that has shirked its duties and obligations, due to numerous pending cases and unanswered special procedures correspondences, as well as suspended or obstructed international visits.

Another participants, Oualid Kebir, an Algerian political and human rights activist and president of the Maghreb Association for Peace, Cooperation and Development, addressed the challenges posed to the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Algeria, describing the current situation as dangerous.

He denounced the abusive arrest of demonstrators and activists of the movement, as well as the alarming resurgence of violations in the public and civil space in Algeria, explaining that the Algerian military regime added several amendments to the laws to legitimize abuses against human rights defenders, activists and journalists.

The Algerian regime has gone further, as Oualid Kebir asserts, by expanding the definition of the crime of terrorism, regardless of the states obligations under international law, to harass human rights activists and bloggers and prosecute them on various charges such as incitement to assembly, intelligence with a foreign country, or contempt of state institutions.

The symposium was organized by the International Observatory IOPDHR- GENEVA, in partnership with the international PDES-NGO (Promotion of Economic and Social Development) having a consultative status at the UNHRC, which presented the results of their joint report regarding the degree of compliance by the Algerian state with its international obligations under the Universal Periodic Review  the fourth cycle  in light of the recommendations made in May 2017.
Rheological and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) analyses of FmocFF/hyaluronic acid (HA) composite hydrogel. (a) FTIR spectra of FmocFF/HA, FmocFF and HA. (b) In situ time-sweep oscillation measurements of the FmocFF, HA, and the composite FmocFF/HA hydrogel. (c) Viscosity versus shear rate of the FmocFF/HA composite hydrogel. (d) Time sweep when alternate step strain switched from 0.1% to 100%. (e and f) Digital images demonstrating the self-healing properties of separate layers of the composite hydrogel. (g) Inverted test tube showing the self-healing property of the hydrogel after mechanical breaking. Credit: Journal of Clinical Periodontology (2022). DOI: 10.1111/jcpe.13725

An innovative technology developed at Tel Aviv University may enable bone regeneration to correct large bone defects by means of a special hydrogel. Following successful tests in an animal model, the researchers now plan to move forward to clinical trials.

The study was conducted by experts from TAU's Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, led by Prof. Lihi Adler-Abramovich and Dr. Michal Halperin-Sternfeld, in collaboration with Prof. Itzhak Binderman, Dr. Rachel Sarig, Dr. Moran Aviv, and researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The paper was published in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology.

Prof. Adler-Abramovich says that "small bone defects, such as fractures, heal spontaneously, with the body restoring the lost bone tissue. The problem begins with large bone defects."

"In many cases, when substantial bone loss results from tumor resection (removal by surgery), physical trauma, tooth extraction, gum disease or inflammation around dental implants, the bone is unable to renew itself. In the current study, we developed a hydrogel that mimics the natural substances in the extracellular matrix of bones, stimulating bone growth and reactivating the immune system to accelerate the healing process."

The researchers explain that the extracellular matrix is the substance surrounding our cells, providing them with structural support. Every type of tissue in our body has a specific extracellular matrix consisting of suitable substances with the right mechanical properties. The new hydrogel has a fibrillary structure that mimics that of the extracellular matrix of the natural bone. Furthermore, it is rigid, thus enabling the patient's cells to differentiate into bone-forming cells.

"As can be expected, the extracellular matrix of our bones is quite rigid," says Prof. Adler-Abramovich. "In our study, we produced a hydrogel that mimics this specific matrix in both chemical and physical properties. At the nanometric level, the cell can attach itself to the gel, gaining structural support and receiving relevant mechanical signals from the fibers."

"At first, to test these properties, we grew cells in a 3D model of the gel. Then we examined the impact of the hydrogel on model animals with large bone defects that could not heal spontaneously. We monitored them for two months with various methods, including Micro C.T. To our delight, the bone defects were fully corrected through regeneration, with the bones regaining their original thickness, and generating new blood vessels."

According to Prof. Adler-Abramovich, the innovative gel has extensive clinical applications in both orthopedic and dental medicine. "When we lose teeth due to extensive damage or bacterial infections, the standard treatment is dental implants. Implants, however, must be anchored in a sufficient amount of bone, and when bone loss is too substantial, physicians implant additional bone from a healthy part of the bodya complex medical procedure."

"Another option is adding bone substitutes from either human or animal sources, but these might generate an immune response. I hope that in the future the hydrogel we have developed will enable faster, safer, and simpler bone restoration."

More information: Michal HalperinSternfeld et al, Immunomodulatory fibrous hyaluronic acid Fmoc diphenylalaninebased hydrogel induces bone regeneration, Journal of Clinical Periodontology (2022). Michal HalperinSternfeld et al, Immunomodulatory fibrous hyaluronic acid Fmoc diphenylalaninebased hydrogel induces bone regeneration,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/jcpe.13725
Pre-processing of a thermal image collected from a participant: (a) raw image; (b) normalized image; (c) background mask; and (d) masked image or extracted wound bed. Credit: Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-20835-y

A thermal-imaging tool to screen for chronic wounds could enable nurses to identify these hard-to-heal sores during the first assessment at a person's home.

Nearly half a million Australians live with chronic wounds, which greatly affect their quality of life and cost the nation's health system around $3 billion each year.

The latest innovation by researchers at RMIT University and Bolton Clarke Research Institute builds on their team's work published last year, which enabled the identification of chronic leg sores by the second week after the baseline assessment.

Their latest published results allow the identification of these wounds a week earlier and represents a significant leap forward, the team says.

Lead researcher Professor Dinesh Kumar said their latest clinical study, published in Scientific Reports, presents an AI-powered system to predict how leg ulcers will heal based on thermal images from the first assessment.

"Our new work that identifies chronic leg wounds during the first visit is a world-first achievement," said Kumar, from RMIT's School of Engineering.

"This means that specialized treatment for slow-healing leg ulcers can begin up to four weeks earlier than the current gold standard."

Co-researcher, RMIT's Dr. Quoc Cuong Ngo, said while thermal imaging had previously been considered for detecting chronic wounds, the team's methods enabled significantly earlier detection than other approaches that have been researched.

"Our innovation is not sensitive to changes in ambient temperature and light, so it is effective for nurses to use during their regular visits to people's homes.

"It is also effective in tropical environments, not just here in Melbourne."

How the innovation works

The new method provides information on spatial heat distribution in a wound and predicts, with 78% accuracy, whether leg ulcers would heal in 12 weeks without specialized treatment.

Wounds change significantly over the healing trajectoryhigher temperatures signal potential inflammation or infection, while lower temperatures can indicate a slower healing rate due to decreased oxygen in the region.

The research was based on thermal images collected from 56 clients with venous leg ulcersa type of ulcer associated with poor vein function. This type of ulcer is the most common chronic wound in Australia.

The current gold-standard approach requires taking tracings of the wound size after four weeks, involving physical contact with the wound, which delays identification of slow-healing wounds.

Bolton Clarke Research Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr. Rajna Ogrin said the non-contact method reduces infection risk by minimizing physical contact.

"Clinical care is provided in many different locations, including specialist clinics, general practices and in people's homes," she said.

"This method provides a quick, objective, non-invasive way to determine the wound-healing potential of chronic leg wounds that can be used by healthcare providers, irrespective of the setting.

"This means specialized treatments, including advanced wound-cleaning techniques and therapies, can be implemented immediately for problematic leg woundsup to four weeks earlier than the current gold standard."

Next steps

Kumar said, now that the method has been successfully demonstrated in controlled trials with partner clinicians, the next step is to adapt it for a busy nurse or doctor to have this thermal imaging and rapid assessment capability on their mobile phones.

"With the funding we have received from the Medical Research Future Fund, we are now working towards that," he said.

"We are keen to work with prospective partners with different expertise to help us achieve this goal within the next few years."

The team will also assess whether their method can predict healing of diabetes-related foot ulcers. Untreated chronic wounds in people living with diabetes are the leading cause of limb amputation in Western countries.

More information: Quoc Cuong Ngo et al, Computerised prediction of healing for venous leg ulcers, Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Quoc Cuong Ngo et al, Computerised prediction of healing for venous leg ulcers,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-20835-y
Demographic differences in one-way drive times to the nearest COVID-19 test to treat site. The percentage of the population with shorter than (ie, left of 0% on the x-axis) or longer than (ie, right of 0% on the x-axis) a 60-minute drive time to the nearest Test to Treat site is shown. For each sociodemographic subgroup, the median and 95% CIs are displayed to the right of the bar. Credit: JAMA Network Open (2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.41144

A new study from investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and the University of Pittsburgh, finds that COVID-19 "Test to Treat" sitesclinical centers launched based on a federal initiative to provide free testing, diagnosis, and immediate access to COVID-19 antiviral treatment with Paxlovidmay not be accessible to those who need it most.

The study's findings highlight major disparities in geographical access to these treatment centers, disproportionally affecting rural and American Indian and Alaskan Native communities. Results are published in JAMA Network Open.

"There are clear disparities in spatial access to Test to Treat sites, most notably in several communities which have experienced worse outcomes throughout the pandemic," said lead author Rohan Khazanchi, MD, MPH, a resident in the Brigham's Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program. "These findings challenge us to consider what opportunities exist for strategic placement of Test to Treat sites in closer proximity to the communities that may need this program most."

This research extends from the Biden administration's March 2022 announcement of the Test to Treat initiative, a public health program which launched one-stop locations where people can receive a COVID-19 test, speak to a clinician, obtain an antiviral prescription, and fill their prescription for free.

While the Test to Treat initiative aims to increase access to care, this research suggests that geography may play a vital role in achieving equity.

"Paxlovid is an oral antiviral which can reduce the risk of hospitalization or death among people with COVID-19 who have key risk factors like elderly age, being unvaccinated or not being up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations, or having one or more high-risk medical conditions," said senior author Kathleen McManus, MD, MSc, an assistant professor of medicine in the UVA Health's Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health.

"Notably, these risk factors are disproportionately prevalent among minoritized and rural communitiessome of which, as our study found, may have the poorest geographic access to Paxlovid treatment through Test to Treat sites."

Investigators analyzed published geolocations of 2,227 unique COVID-19 Test to Treat sites from the healthdata.gov website, listed as of May 4, 2022. They then calculated the shortest travel time required from the population center of every census tract to reach one of the ten geographically closest sites. Finally, they linked census tract demographic characteristics with calculated driving distances to determine the national proportions of each demographic subgroup residing within a certain driving distance to each site.

Their results revealed that 15% of the United States population and 59% of rural residents lived more than a 60-minute drive from the nearest Test to Treat site. Further breakdown by age and race/ethnicity revealed that 17% of elderly people, 30% of American Indian and Alaskan Native people, 17% of white people, 8% of Hispanic people, and 8% of Black people lived more than 60 minutes away from the nearest site.

American Indian and Alaskan Native populations had persistently longer drive times after accounting for rurality, suggesting they are uniquely isolated from antiviral access despite bearing a disproportionate COVID-19 burden.

Researchers also found that Asian, Black, and Hispanic populations live closer to Test to Treat sites on average than white, American Indian or Alaskan Native populations, suggesting that these populations had better geographic access. Khazanchi emphasizes, however, that this is not necessarily a sign of equity, given the clear national data showing that these same populations are still less likely to receive outpatient COVID-19 therapeutics compared to white individuals.

"I think this speaks to a broader point that, to really achieve equity, solely placing a site in the right community doesn't automatically solve problems with access to care," said Khazanchi. "There's still intentional education, outreach and communication that you have to do on top of that to build trust in marginalized communities and ensure that medications are getting to the people who need them most."

"This study is our team's second that examines the geographic accessibility of interventions related to the COVID-19 pandemic," said McManus.

"Our first study [in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in 2021] examined geographic access to COVID-19 biomedical therapeutic clinical trials, and we found a similar issue: geographic accessibility for subpopulations did not translate into representation in clinical trials. Black and Hispanic people were underrepresented in COVID-19 therapeutic trials, which was striking given their relative geographic proximity to trial sites and disproportionate hospitalization rates for COVID-19."

While measuring driving time offered researchers a concrete tool to assess an individual's proximity to Test to Treat sites, Khazanchi stresses that driving time is not a universal measurement of access. He explains that in urban areas, where many people depend on public transportation or may not own a vehicle, measuring spatial accessibility becomes much more complicated.

As COVID-19 disparities persist and new and existing variants surge, researchers continue to investigate how to advance health equity across multiple dimensions, with a shared goal of bringing testing and treatment to those who need it most. An example of this can be found in the work being done at Mass General Brigham, where data from the Community Care Vans initiative demonstrated the effectiveness of bringing COVID-19 health care services to where people need them most.

"The latest CDC data reaffirms that racial and ethnic disparities in treating COVID-19 with Paxlovid have persisted despite well-intentioned policies," said Utibe Essien, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-author of the study. "Our findings, and these continued disparities, show that we have to address long-standing structural barriers to achieving pharmacoequity, including Internet access for telemedicine services, limited transportation, and language barriers."
Heat Map of Mean Transfer Ratio by Gestational Age vs. Time From SARS-CoV-2 Infection or First Vaccine Dose to Delivery. Each box displays the mean transfer ratio for the corresponding gestational age vs time from infection or first vaccine dose to delivery category among all persons contributing data (eFigure 3 in the Supplement). PCR indicates polymerase chain reaction. Credit: JAMA Network Open (2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40993

Pregnant people who received one of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines had 10-fold higher antibody concentrations than those who were naturally infected with SARS-CoV-2, a finding that was also observed in their babies, according to a new study by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania.

The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, also found that vaccine timing played an important role in maximizing the transfer of antibodies, with antibodies detected as early as 15 days after the first vaccine dose and increasing for several weeks after.

"These findings suggest that COVID-19 vaccination not only provides robust protection for mothers during pregnancyit also provides higher concentrations of antibodies to babies than COVID-19 infection," said first author Dustin D. Flannery, DO, MSCE, an attending neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. "Given that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe COVID-19, this study suggests pregnant people should prioritize getting vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies."

To compare antibody responses in pregnant people who had been vaccinated versus naturally infected, the researchers analyzed a unique timeframe: patients who gave birth at Pennsylvania Hospital between August 9, 2020 and April 25, 2021. COVID-19 vaccines were not widely available until December 2020, and booster shots were not available until September 2021, so by focusing on a period within the pandemic that shouldered the introduction of the first vaccines, the researchers could more easily tease out the origin of the patients' antibodies.

Dr. Scott Hensley's laboratory in the Penn Department of Microbiology has taken a leading role in evaluating antibody responses to COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic. In collaboration with CHOP researchers, his laboratory evaluated cord blood serum from 585 pregnant people who had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

Of the 585 pregnancies, they identified 169 patients who had been vaccinated but never infected and 408 who had been infected but not vaccinated. They found that antibody levels among vaccine recipients were approximately 10-times higher than in people who had been naturally infected.

The researchers detected IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in the cord blood from more than 95% of newborns (557 of 585) in the study. Of those newborns with detectable antibodies, the researchers found that levels were 10-times higher in the vaccinated group than in the naturally infected group.

However, they also observed that transfer ratiosthat is, the extent to which the antibody levels in the cord blood match the antibody levels in the motherwere slightly lower in the vaccinated group compared with the naturally infected group. The researchers analyzed a variety of factors that might influence the transfer ratio, including gestational age at birth and maternal medical issues such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity.

"Our study suggests that time from infection or vaccination to delivery was the most important factor in transfer efficiency, and these findings can inform optimal COVID-19 vaccination strategy during pregnancy," said senior author Karen M. Puopolo MD, Ph.D., an attending neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Chief of the Section on Newborn Medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital. "Patients should plan to get vaccinated with ample time before their due date, so that theyand their babiescan benefit from a robust immune response."

More information: Flannery et al, Comparison of Maternal and Neonatal Antibody Levels After COVID-19 Vaccination vs SARS-CoV-2 Infection, JAMA Network Open (2022). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Flannery et al, Comparison of Maternal and Neonatal Antibody Levels After COVID-19 Vaccination vs SARS-CoV-2 Infection,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40993
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Every year, the Great American Smokeout draws attention to preventing deaths and chronic illness caused by smoking. Almost 38 million Americans, including nearly one million in New Jersey, still smoke tobacco and about half of all smokers die from smoking-related illnesses.

Here, Michael Steinberg, professor and chief in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Medical Director of the Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies, which operates the Tobacco Dependence Program to help people quit tobacco, and Andrea Villanti, associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Deputy Director of the Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies, discuss challenges to change smoking rates.

Smoking rates have significantly dropped over time. Why should we still be concerned about trends in tobacco use?

Villanti: While the rates of cigarette smoking have declined over the past several decades, we know those gains have been inconsistent. In a study published in JAMA Network Open, we found high smoking prevalence and lower quit ratios in rural versus urban areas. In addition to where people live, other research shows there are disparities in tobacco use based on social and demographic factors such as race and ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability status, socioeconomic status and/or behavioral health status.

Steinberg: Related to this, we know there still a lot of work to be done to decrease tobacco use in patients with substance use disorder, depression and other psychiatric conditions, who continue to use tobacco at much higher rates than the general public. In our own research, we found that while most psychiatrists ask patients if they smoke, advise quitting and assess willingness to quit, a much smaller percent of psychiatrists assist patients with establishing quit plans or arranging for follow up. There are many competing priorities for health professionals; we want them to know they can refer patients to quitting resources like the Rutgers' Tobacco Dependence Program or any of New Jersey's 11 Quit Centers.

Why is now a good time to quit?

Steinberg: In addition to providing a time for people to quit during the Great American Smokeout on November 17, fall and winter can bring a surge of flu and COVID-19 cases, which are contagious respiratory illnesses. Smoking reduces lung capacity and increases the risk for respiratory infections. Quitting smoking can result in immediate benefits to health.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted tobacco treatment delivery?

Steinberg: The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to all types of health care delivery but it also resulted in new opportunities. In a study conducted across 34 National Cancer Institutedesignated cancer centers, including Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, we found that centers that adopted telehealth practices were able to maintain tobacco treatment for patients who smoke. Here at Rutgers, we continue to offer one-on-one and group counseling in both virtually and in-person.

Villanti: Text messaging interventions can also be another way to help people quit smoking, particularly people not currently accessing tobacco treatment. In a randomized controlled trial, we found that low-income young adults engaging in a 12-week tailored text message smoking cessation intervention produced greater smoking abstinence than referral to online quit resources. Smokefree.gov offers a variety of free and tailored text messaging programs that provide help on-demand and around the clock. Some states also provide text messaging assistance through their tobacco quitlines.

What advice do you have for people who want to quit using tobacco?

Steinberg: We encourage people with an interest in quitting to reach out. Whether it is for your health, your wallet, your family or just not wanting to be addicted any longer, this is a great time to make the effort to stopand we can help!

Villanti: Use every tool in the toolbox! Counseling, medication, support from friends and family, quitlines and above all, the willingness to keep trying even if you slip. It's hard to quit using tobacco, but every try counts.
After helping Ms. Quesada to sit down, Benoit tried to put the robot on the ladys lap, asking her to take it, but she declined in an upset and nervous voice, repeating "No, no, dont put it here." The same had happened that morning: Ms. Quesada had refused to be in direct contact with Paro, as I had explained to Benoit. He then removed the robot from her lap and kept it in his arms (upon his chest), and this time, he was successful in asking the lady to stroke it. Credit: Martin Chevallier.

In recent years, many roboticists and psychologists have been assessing the value of social robots as companions and assistants for older adults. Although some findings suggest that they could be useful, so far, they have only been implemented in a few elderly care settings.

Martin Chevallier, a researcher at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale in Paris, has recently carried out a study directly exploring the potential of Paro, a seal-shaped robot designed to alleviate symptoms of dementia, in an elderly care home in France. His paper, published in SAGE Social Studies of Science, suggests that while social robots could have interesting applications in geriatric care, human care takers still play a key role in helping older adults to get acquainted with these robots.

"My paper is based on the ethnography of a two-week trial of the best seller care robot Paro in a French public care home near Paris," Chevallier told Medical Xpress. "I was very lucky to successfully conduct this research just before the lockdown in March 2020, and thus apprehend the socio-material thickness of the daily use of Paro by older adults and their caregivers."

In one of his previous research studies, conducted between February and April 2019, Chevallier explored the potential use of social robots as customer assistants in a luxury department store. Interestingly, he found that as they interacted with the robot, customers greatly benefitted from the additional support of third-party human actors, such as shop assistants or hostesses.

"These third-party actors (a few people employed by the store and especially a hostess), often compensated for the failures of the voice recognition system in various ways, even if they struggled to debug the system when the robot was voiceless or when its arm was frozen," Chevallier said. "They also seemed to make the robot more appealing, as they invited passersby to come closer to the robot and engage with it."

Inspired by his previous findings, Chevallier set out to investigate the value of care givers as mediators of the interactions between older adults and robots. While many social robots are designed to be used without a human mediator present, he wished to explore the hypothesis that these human agents play a crucial role in some settings.

"I spent two weeks in the care home dementia ward before the trial even started, to get to know the residents and their caregivers (chatting with them, observing encounters, meals, etc.) and, more broadly, the spatio-temporal routines of the unit," Chevallier explained. "I then observed and video recorded interactions between Paro, the residents and one or several caregivers. From my very first observations, I was struck by the effort deployed by caregivers to overcome the resident's passivity."

As soon as he was given the robot, Mr. Reys (the older adult holding Paro) asked Benoit, the caregiver sitting on his right, what its name was, but he didnt manage to hear the answer he provided ("Paro"). Based on her knowledge of the older adults life course, Maria, the caregiver standing on the left, came up with the idea of suggesting a name that sounded familiar to Mr. Rey (i.e., his dogs name). As a result, the resident held Paro noticeably closer to his lap and embraced it gently, adding in a tender voice "Oh, its name is Stump." Credit: Martin Chevallier.

During his experiment, Chevallier observed that placing the Paro robot in front of or on the lap of elderly home residents was often not enough to prompt them to interact with it. Moreover, the robot elicited a wide range of reactions from the older adults participating in the study, ranging from curiosity to distress.

The Paro robot integrates a state-of-the-art algorithm that allows it to interact with users in various ways. It is also designed to be appealing, cute and user-friendly. Despite these advantageous features, Chevallier found that without support from care givers, the interactions between the care home residents and the robot did not run smoothly.

"I noticed that caregivers had to provide an interactional support, consisting in a verbal and/or tactile guidance, to foster, sustain and co-construct the meaning of the encounter between Paro and its final user," Chevallier explained. "These observations suggests that the mainstream, biomedical approach of Paro's psychosocial benefits neglects the crucial role of caregivers in more-than-dualistic human-robot interactions. Specifically, this approach overestimates the robot's autonomy (it only reacts to environmental stimuli, then it doesn't really engage with the resident), and doing so, it maintains the illusion of 'care' or 'social robots,' decreasing the workload of human workers."

Interestingly, Chevallier observed that even the less-educated and low-ranking care givers in the home he visited could provide subtle but rich, dynamic and personalized guidance during interactions between their residents and Paro. This guidance included both repetitive and situation-specific behaviors, which were aligned with the initial reaction of each older adult, such as a lack of attention or interest, as well as different fears (i.e., fear of being bitten, of touching the robot, etc.).

"In a few situations, a fine knowledge of residents' biography and tastes proved decisive in finding the right tone and turn the robot into an appealing interactional partner," Chevallier said. "A somehow natural implication of my findings is to take this 'interactional framing' work seriously and stop believing that care robots can compensate for a lack of human care takers or can autonomously provide good quality (and cheaper) care. On the contrary, an effective use of such devices rests on the availability of human carers and their willingness to use them, which are far from being self-evident in a context of chronic overwork."

Overall, Chevallier's observations highlight the crucial role that human caregivers play in safely and successfully introducing social robots in elderly care settings. In the future, his recent work could inspire healthcare and elderly care professionals to devise more effective strategies to share social robots with their patients, which also entail the presence of a human mediator.

"After completion of my Ph.D. thesis, I plan to conduct a post-doctoral study in Japan, which would be a cross-national study of the development and implementation of care robots in both Japan and France," Chevallier added. "Comparative works in this area are almost inexistant, and I would like to relate similarities and differences in the diffusion of care robots in France and Japan to common or distinct imaginaries of a robot 'revolution,' public policies relative to research and funding, and the management of projects in situ (in hospitals and geriatric facilities) by local actors and frontline care takers."

More information: Martin Chevallier, Staging Paro: The care of making robot(s) care, Social Studies of Science (2022). Martin Chevallier, Staging Paro: The care of making robot(s) care,(2022). DOI: 10.1177/03063127221126148

 2022 Science X Network
Development and validation of bioluminescent imaging (BLI) to assess transplanted human neural stem cell (hNSC) graft viability in vivo. (A) Fluorescence microscopy of green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression in hNSCs modified to express a dual reporter luc+/GFP+ vector at increasing multiplicity of infection (MOI) 48 h post-transduction. Luciferase assay (B) and trypan blue exclusion viability assay (C) of hNSC-luc+/GFP+ performed at 72 h post-transduction. (D) In vitro BLI of hNSC-luc+/GFP+ cells at concentrations ranging from 3  106 to 5  102 per well, with no luciferin and media only controls. (E) In vitro BLI of unlabelled hNSC and dead hNSC-luc+/GFP+ (DC), with hNSC-luc+/GFP+ cells as a positive control. (F) In vivo BLI detection of transplanted hNSC-luc+/GFP+ in 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice on post-operative day (POD) 2 after bilateral injection of 3.6  105 hNSC-luc+/GFP+, or unilateral injection of 1.8  105 hNSC-luc+/GFP+ (L: left side) with contralateral injection of 1.8  105 DC or unlabelled hNSC transplants (n = 2 per group). (G) Representative POD 2 immunohistochemical (IHC) images showing the fimbria fornix target area in C57BL/6J mice, with hNSC-luc+/GFP+ grafts expressing GFP (green) and human-specific nuclear antibody HuNu (red), with contralateral staining of DC or unlabelled hNSC. Data presented as mean  standard error of the mean (S.E.M.) for luciferase activity and cell viability analysed by ANOVA with Tukey's post-test for comparisons of multiple groups. **p < .01; ****p < .0001. DC, dead cells; POD, post-operative day. Credit: Clinical and Translational Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1002/ctm2.1046

A new approach to stem cell therapy that uses antibodies instead of traditional immunosuppressant drugs robustly preserves cells in mouse brains and has potential to fast-track trials in humans, a Michigan Medicine study suggests.

For this study, researchers used monoclonal antibodies to suppress the immune system in mice and compared the results to traditional immunosuppression with the medications tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. They tracked implanted human neural stem cell survival using luciferase, the protein that makes fireflies glow.

Results published in Clinical and Translational Medicine reveal that suppression with monoclonal antibodies enabled long-term survival of human stem cell transplants in mouse brains for at least six to eight months, while the cell grafts did not survive more than two weeks in most animals when using standard immunosuppressant drugs.

"This study makes it clear that using monoclonal antibodies is better for the study of stem cell transplants in the brain and spinal cord over the long term," said lead author Kevin Chen, M.D., a neurosurgeon at University of Michigan Health and clinical assistant professor of neurosurgery at U-M Medical School.

"The cells survived for so long with fewer injections and less toxicity from immunosuppression when using monoclonal antibodies. This will enable more experiments and studies of stem cell therapies, bringing more promise for their future in the neurosciences."

Researchers sought to combat a longstanding obstacle for stem cell therapy in neurological disease of keeping cells alive when testing them in pre-clinical animal models. Many scientists have relied on immunosuppressant medications to keep the animals' immune systems from rejecting stem cells, Chen says, but they eventually fail and torpedo the process.

"In many of these experiments, we would only see around a third of animals have cells survive and have no way to interpret the results," he said. "It gets expensive in stem cell therapy to conduct these experiments and not have the cells survive."

Traditional immunosuppressant drugs are less selective than monoclonal antibodies, which, in this study, targeted two immune proteins. The antibodies have only been analyzed in a handful of stem cell therapy studies for the nervous system. However, this study tracked cell survival for as long as eight monthsone of the longest time points published for stem cells in the brain and spinal cord.

"This study lays the groundwork for understanding how transplanted stem cells integrate into the brain," says senior author Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., James W. Albers Distinguished Professor at U-M, the Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology and director of the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies at Michigan Medicine.

"Our new findings continue to support advancing stem cell therapies into human clinical trials," Feldman said. "Stem cell therapy remains a beacon of hope for neurological diseases."

More information: Lisa M. McGinley et al, Monoclonal antibodymediated immunosuppression enables longterm survival of transplanted human neural stem cells in mouse brain, Clinical and Translational Medicine (2022). Lisa M. McGinley et al, Monoclonal antibodymediated immunosuppression enables longterm survival of transplanted human neural stem cells in mouse brain,(2022). DOI: 10.1002/ctm2.1046
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Racial and ethnic disparities in pain prevalence in the U.S. are far larger than previously realized, according to the results of a new study co-written by a University at Buffalo medical sociologist.

The current research represents the first portrait of U.S. pain prevalence across six major racial and ethnic groups, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. While earlier studies of pain disparities have focused on Black, white and Hispanic groups, the current study also includes Native Americans (American Indians/Alaska Natives), Asian Americans, and the "multiracial" category. The study also uses six measures of increasing severity of pain to test whether the findings are sensitive to a specific definition of pain.

The findings, based on data provided by nearly 274,000 participants and published in the journal Pain, indicate that Native Americans and multiracial Americans have by far the highest pain prevalence, while Asian Americans have the lowest pain prevalence, regardless of which specific pain measure is being assessed.

For example, compared to Asian Americans, Native Americans are over four times as likely to experience severe pain, and multiracial Americans are over three times as likely. Meanwhile, those who self-identify as white, Black or Hispanic have intermediate levels of severe pain. Similar racial/ethnic patterns are observed across other pain measures as well.

The findings on pain prevalence among Native Americans, multiracial Americans and Asian Americans substantially expand the limited previous research documenting pain levels for these groups.

"This research identifies the groups that have the highest unmet need for pain prevention and management," says Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, and co-author of the study, which was led by Anna Zajacova, Ph.D., professor of sociology at Western University in Canada.

"We also want to learn from the groups that are doing well in terms of pain in order to understand why they're doing well. We want to identify protective factors like good health practices, medical care and social support, and conduct further research to determine why these groups are not experiencing chronic pain as much as other groups."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which the researchers used for their analysis, estimates that more than 50 million people reported pain on most days or every day. That's slightly more than 1 out of every 5 American adults, with a cost to the economy greater than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined.

"There is growing literature showing that pain reflects both physical and mental health," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "A mix of factors might be at play, some having to do with health behaviors, physical fitness and quality of medical care, but some having to do with social stress, financial stress and other things that are negatively impacting people's psychological well-being."

Yet most research on pain prevalence has focused on comparisons between Black and white people. More limited research attention has been given to Hispanic people, despite being the country's largest non-white group, representing about 21% of the population. Even less research on pain prevalence has been devoted to Asian American and Native American adults, while pain among multiracial Americans, a population expected to double by 2050 to more than 20 million people, has never been systematically studied.

The current study uses NHIS data from 2010the first survey wave to include global pain questionsto 2018, the most recent year data were available at the time the paper was being written. A different group of participants was surveyed each year.

Because of its large sample size, the study was able to include a representative sample of more racial and ethnic groups than previous research, which relied on smaller samples.

"Our results can be useful for both clinicians and public health researchers, now that we realize that Native Americans and multiracial adults, groups neglected in previous research, have extremely high rates of pain," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "We recommend further research in this area to help better understand the factors driving pain prevalence."

More information: Anna Zajacova et al, Beyond Black vs White: racial/ethnic disparities in chronic pain including Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and multiracial US adults, Pain (2022). Journal information: Pain Anna Zajacova et al, Beyond Black vs White: racial/ethnic disparities in chronic pain including Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and multiracial US adults,(2022). DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002574
Missoula County Public Schools expects to name its next superintendent in February with the help of McPherson & Jacobson LLC, a Nebraska-based consulting firm.

Two consultants with the firm presented an overview of the timeline to trustees at a board work session on Monday evening, and began discussions with trustees of their expectations for the districts new leader.

Its a very competitive field, said Steve Joel, a national recruiter with McPherson & Jacobson. There were 900 vacancies in the country last year; were seeing a whole bunch of superintendent positions that are opening in the United States. And with the election on Tuesday, I have a feeling theres going to be a whole bunch more superintendents from other states that are going to be looking for other positions, too.

Due to the nature of the administrative job market, Joel recommended the trustees make haste and launch their search. A job listing for the vacant MCPS superintendent position is expected to be posted midweek and will close on Dec. 28.

In the meantime, the consultants will meet with various stakeholder groups later this month to learn the needs of the district and community. Some suggested focus groups outside of the board and administrators include students, civic clubs, mental health groups, nonprofit leaders and elected officials.

The consultants advised board members not to attend those meetings.

This is one that you stay away from because you give people an opportunity to be really open and honest and candid, Joel said. Remember, were going to report this to you as well.

After the listing closes in late December, the consulting firm will launch into background checks and initial interviews, which will wrap up by Jan. 10. Two weeks later the board will hold a special meeting where shortlisted candidates will be presented to the trustees before holding their own interviews with the finalists.

The announcement of the new superintendent will be made sometime in February, based on the timeline approved by trustees Monday night.

Its a pretty aggressive schedule, but it involves everybody in your district, Joel said.

Joel, a retired superintendent who spent the last 12 years in Lincoln, Nebraska, has aided in 70 administrative searches with the firm in the last 25 years. He was accompanied to Mondays meeting by Montana recruiter Sharla Johns, a retired administrator from California who recently relocated to the Bitterroot Valley.

He recently spoke with a group of superintendents in Idaho while on another consulting job and multiple administrators told Joel that working in Missoula would be a dream job. Recently, the firm has been averaging 20 to 30 completed applications for vacant superintendent positions, he said.

My guess is Missoula is going to continue to draw good people just because of location and reputation, Joel said.

During the work session trustees listed their top characteristics of the districts next leader to inform the consultants search.

Trustee Jeff Avgeris valued strong leadership skills with a goal to unify, vice-chair Arlene Walker Andrews noted she wanted someone calm in the face of a storm. Other traits the trustees are looking for include innovation, transparency, good listening skills and a positive relationship with staff.

Former district superintendent Rob Watson left his position at the end of June to become executive director for the School Administrators of Montana. Russ Lodge, who previously served as assistant superintendent, currently serves as interim superintendent.

The timeline may seem short, but trustees hope it will be an improvement from the last time the board opened a search in 2019. At that time, the board approved a consultant for the search in late January and didnt first discuss the hiring process until February.
From now until Nov. 22, all donors who choose to give blood will receive a $10 gift card to a merchant of their choosing. Donating healthy blood before flu season hits will greatly help patients in need.

Those who can donate blood during Thanksgiving, from Nov. 23-27, will get a Red Cross beanie, while supplies last. All those who come and donate between Nov. 28-Dec. 15 will receive a $10 Amazon gift card.

The CDC predicts a serious spread of flu this year and is already reporting an early spike in cases in several states. When seasonal illnesses increase, the number of healthy blood donors tends to decrease. The American Red Cross is asking people to give now to help ensure blood is available when patients need it.

The American Red Cross urges blood donors to give now and help fight the potential impact of seasonal illnesses and a potentially severe flu season on the blood supply. Paired with busy holiday schedules, seasonal illnesses may make it harder to collect the blood hospital patients require this winter. Donors  especially those with type O blood and those giving platelets  can help bolster the blood supply now by making an appointment to give in the coming weeks.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Missoula County will be on Nov. 18 from 1-6 p.m. at PEAK Health and Wellness at 5000 Blue Mountain Road and on Nov. 30 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Missoula Seventh-day Adventist Church at 800 South Ave. W.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Flathead County include Bigfork, Nov. 16 from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Pope John Paul II Catholic Church, 195 Coverdell; Columbia Falls, Nov. 23, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Bad Rock Fire Department, 23 Columbia Pines Court; Kalispell Nov. 21, 1-6 p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church, 400 W. California St. and Nov. 30, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Kalispell Elks Lodge, 1820 Highway 93S; Whitefish, Nov. 17, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., The Wave, 1250 Baker Ave.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Lake County include Polson, Nov. 22, 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., New Life Church, 1414 2nd St. W.; and Nov. 29, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., St. Joseph Medical Center, 6 13th Ave. E.; Saint Ignatius, Nov. 22, noon-6:15 p.m., the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Main and Highway 93.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Lincoln County include Fortine, Nov. 22, noon-5 p.m., Fortine Community Church, 332 Meadow Creek Road.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Ravalli County include Florence, Nov. 21, noon-4 p.m., Florence-Carlton Community Church, 20075 Old Highway 93; and Hamilton, Nov. 23, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Marcus Daly Hospital, 1200 Westwood Drive.
PABLO  Phones pinged with texts, calls and Facebook messages from people asking when, where and how to vote on the cold, cloudy morning of Election Day.

Voting organizers sat huddled in a small room at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Complex, giving directions to the last-minute swarm.

Erica Shelby, a Get Out The Vote coordinator for the tribes, helps organize all voting efforts on the reservation. Shelby made cold calls, she messaged people on Facebook, and she organized rides to the polls. Western Native Voice volunteers and folks from Red Medicine, a group that contracted with the Montana Democratic Party, did the same.

This year, the tribes partnered with Lake, Sanders and Missoula counties to establish accessible satellite voting offices across the reservation.

Native organizers were working around the clock on Election Day to get out the vote. In the months leading up to the election, many organizers said they feared Native turnout would be low, as there didnt seem to be much voter engagement and participation as in years past.

Hey, Patrick? Shelby said to Red Medicine Co-Founder Patrick Yawakie-Peltier, barely looking up from her phone. Can you go pick someone up?

Yawakie-Peltier nodded and walked outside to his gray GMC Acadia.

He drove across the snow-covered street to Salish Kootenai College to give Ginger Morigeau, a tribal preservation instructor, a ride to a polling place in Ronan.

I just told my students to go vote, Morigeau said, as she hopped in the back seat of his car.

Morigeau said she hasn't been a regular voter. But in 2008, when former President Barack Obama ran, she remembers Yawakie-Peltier and Shelby helped inform her.

I never believed voting would make a difference, she said. But then I saw that when minorities show up, they really can make a difference. Most people around here dont vote. Most people I know dont think it matters. But we do have an impact.

This year, Morigeau said she learned about candidates and relevant issues through the tribes Get Out The Vote effort and through Red Medicine. She said Monica Tranel, a candidate for Montanas western congressional district, visited the tribal college campus recently, so she was able to learn about Tranels platform in-person.

Yawakie-Peltier pulled up to the Ronan Community Center, and he and Morigeau stepped out of the car.

Wait, Morigeau said to Yawakie-Peltier before going inside the polling place. Whats the abortion thing on the ballot, again?

Its LR-131, Yawakie-Peltier said, referencing the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, which would require health care providers to take necessary actions to preserve the life of a born-alive infant and comes with penalties of up to 20 years in jail and a $50,000 fine.

Morigeau nodded, took a ballot and filled it out. Yawakie-Peltier waited by the door of the community center. Morigeau turned her ballot in, and as she and Yawakie-Peltier exited the community center, they high-fived.

Hey, he said. You upheld democracy today.

Same country, different votes

Political divisions on the reservation clashed at some polling locations.

Dan and Lynnaya Mullin, a non-Native couple from Polson, brought their two young children to the polls.

When asked what motivated him to vote, Dan answered, the state of our country. He said he gets most of his news from NPR (which he called "biased"), Blaze Media and the Mark Levin Show. Hes concerned about the nation's dependency on foreign oil, the war in Ukraine and the economy.

Lynnaya said an issue that brought her to the polls was abortion.

We want to stand up for life, she said, as she rocked her 3-month-old, Waverley, in a baby carrier.

Rebecca McDonald, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, was also at the polling place in Polson.

McDonald, who usually votes Democrat, said she gets her election information from national media outlets, and she Googles different candidates to compare their stances on issues. Like Lynnaya, abortion was a top priority for McDonald.

Abortion was a motivator for me, she said. I want to support a womans right to choose.

When asked why she came to vote, she said the same thing as Dan: The state of our country.

Every vote counts

The Flathead Reservation is unique in that non-Native people outnumber Native people. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are 19,617 white people living on the reservation and 8,029 Natives. Yawakie-Peltier said the population difference is only getting wider, as wealthy white people continue to move there.

Its homesteading 2.0 around here, he said.

Montana polls dont track Native voters, though majority-Native counties in the state typically support Democratic candidates. But the Flathead Reservation is different. It overlaps primarily with Lake and Sanders counties, where Republican candidates typically dominate, and has a small slice of Missoula County, which typically goes blue.

Because Native Americans are outnumbered on their own reservation, Indigenous organizers said its especially important for Native people to turn out and make their voices heard.

Every vote counts, said Thompson Smith, a staff member at the Selis-Qlispe Culture Committee, who has assisted Get Out The Vote efforts for years. Weve had local elections literally decided by a handful of votes."

Yawakie-Peltier said if Natives dont vote, they risk being represented by someone who doesnt have their best interests in mind.

He offered the example of Rep. Joe Read, R-Ronan, who proposed a bill in the last legislative session to revise hunting laws related to tribal boundaries, allowing non-Natives to hunt on fee land within reservations. Read is up for reelection in House District 93, which overlaps with the Flathead Reservation. While the bill died, Yawakie-Peltier said Reads sponsorship alone motivated some people to vote this year.

Lee Montana journalists Nora Mabie and Antonio Ibarra are 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.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Gov. J.B. Pritzker sailed to reelection Tuesday but in a triumphant victory speech, sounded more like a candidate for president with the clarion call, Are you ready to fight? in warning against extremism and former President Donald Trumps treasonous insurrection, which he said too many Republicans embrace.

The Democrat seized a second term over Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey, who eagerly sought Trump's endorsement, and in a Chicago speech underscored by frequent chants of J.B.! J.B.! J.B.! he hinted at pursuit of an agenda that is far larger than Springfield.

Ever the student of history, Pritzker, Illinois' third Jewish governor, noted that the state's first, Henry Horner, took office in 1933 in the darkest days of the Great Depression and with European fascism spawning.

Horner said, We all realize that we are living in abnormal and unusual times, times requiring unusually clear thinking and sacrificial action ...  Pritzker recalled. That was Henry Horner's way of asking his audience, Are you ready for the fight?

Pritzker boosted his national profile this year with a trip to the early primary state of New Hampshire and by raising millions of dollars for Democrats nationwide. When pressed by Bailey, he said if elected, he intended to serve the entire four years and supported President Joe Biden for reelection in 2024.

On Tuesday, Pritzker sounded like a different candidate. Mere paragraphs were reserved for his Prairie State pursuits including a comfortable living wage, robust health care, and virtually unfettered access to abortion, despite the Supreme Court's upending the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Instead, he warned of a cancer that has spread through one ideological wing" of his rival Republican party, lead by Trump, who has suggested he'll attempt a comeback.

Theyve had ample opportunity to treat the disease and they have refused to do so at every turn. The result has been treasonous insurrectionists tearing down the doors of the U.S. Capitol, the maiming of Capitol Police and an attack on the 82-year-old husband of the speaker of the House with a hammer in his own home," Pritzker said, referring to last month's attack on Paul Pelosi.

In a brief concession speech in Springfield, Bailey, who has served single two-year terms in both the House and Senate, promised his career in public service is not ending, but I'm going back to work to protect freedom, create jobs and safeguard the streets.

Republicans need to be the loyal opposition in Springfield: Loyal to our state, loyal to our country, loyal to our Constitution, but in opposition to the radical policies of the Democrats, Bailey said.

Mentioning he had just congratulated Pritzker by phone, he continued, Friends, we must work together to find solutions for all the people of Illinois. Illinois, we can be better. Illinois must be better. Our leaders must be better and J.B. Pritzker, you need to be better.

The campaign was one of almost continuous acrimony between the rivals who each claimed the other was out of touch with voters and the needs of the state. Pritzker, 57, a billionaire equity investor and philanthropist, pounded the airwaves with ads labeling Bailey as too extreme on issues such as abortion, which he opposes except in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother, and access to guns.

Bailey, 56, from the southern Illinois town of Xenia, played to the strong support for Trump that remains in large parts of central and southern Illinois and claimed Pritzker's drive to be  the most radical leftist governor in America is decimating the state by coddling criminals, offering abortion without restriction and spending too much.

Bailey made crime in Chicago a centerpiece of his campaign and was buffeted by ridicule when he called the nation's third-largest city a crime-ridden corrupt hellhole." Pritzker countered that Bailey had voted against the Democratic Legislature's investments in police cadets and crime-lab investigative tools and offered no concrete solutions.

Bailey vowed to repeal a Democratic criminal justice overhaul adopted last year that includes ending cash bail for violent offenders. Bailey claims that when it takes effect in January 2023, it will be a revolving door for criminals to return to the street while Pritzker said the current system allows wealthy suspects to buy their way to pretrial freedom.

The Republican softened his approach on abortion, saying curbing its availability would not be a priority in his administration and that he expected strong Democratic control of the General Assembly would make it unlikely such legislation would reach the governor's desk.

This story has been corrected to show that Paul Pelosi is 82 years old, not 83.

Follow John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor

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.
U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale took an early lead in Montanas Eastern U.S. House District, where the Republican has been heavily favored to win.

With 66.6% of the statewide vote counted by Wednesday morning, Rosendale led with 114,570 votes, 57% of the votes counted so far.

His three lesser-funded challengers were unevenly splitting what remained. Democrat Penny Ronning had 20% of the vote with 40,570 votes. Independent Gary Buchanan had 22% of the vote with 44,512 votes, and Libertarian Sam Rankin 1% with 2,756 votes.

The 41 counties of the Montana U.S. District 2 have in the past collectively delivered 60% of the vote in congressional elections to the Republican candidate, including Rosendale in 2020 when the state had just one at-large House district. There is no Democratic committee structure in 21 of those 41 counties.

Democrats have invested very little in the eastern district. Ronnings total fundraising for the election through Oct. 19 amounted to $157,365, less than a third of what Buchanan raised.

Consequently, Rosendale rarely debated his opponents, or ran ads on radio or television. He stuck primarily with conservative AM talk radio and rightwing cable news appealing to his base supporters.

Voters were more exposed to Ronning and Buchanan, who debated frequently without Rosendale and took risks, namely by not screening the voters with which they met, manning card tables at county fairs and taking the questions from all-comers. Rankin was less visible.

Buchanan, a career financial adviser and long-time public servant, entered the race late, prompted, he has said, by his disgust with Rosendale being one of three House members to vote against supporting Ukraine after the Russian invasion. That Montanas only vote in the U.S. House would go against a democracy being sacked by the Russian Federation was embarrassing, he said. Buchanan was already frustrated that Rosendale introduced a bill to deny Ukraine aid unless the United States first built a steel wall, 30-feet-tall, along the U.S. border with Mexico.

To run as an Independent, Buchanan needed to gather signatures from at least 8,700 voters. He produced 13,000, officially becoming a candidate in late June. He also received endorsements from key Republicans and Democrats, including former GOP Gov. Marc Racicot and former legislator Dorothy Bradley. Racicot told voters the Republicans had become too extreme and that an independent like Buchanan was an alternative.

Ronning entered the race in late 2021. She had been a member of the Billings City Council and opted not to seek reelection. She has campaigned for U.S. House as a centrist, the daughter of a Republican father and Democratic mother.

Ronning made a name for herself as an organizer against human trafficking. In 2016, she formed the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force with Stephanie Baucus, focusing on massage parlors.
Rural counties on Tuesday continued approving local option taxes on recreational marijuana sales by huge margins, a trend that's played out over every election since the state legalized weed in 2020.

Granite County, meanwhile, upheld a ban on recreational pot sales that passed in the June primary. West Yellowstone and Manhattan both rejected local proposals to ban recreational sales.

Deer Lodge affirmed permission of recreational marijuana within city limits by 53% of the vote, a difference of about 70 ballots. County commissioners there had put the matter to a vote after hearing concerns from local opponents earlier this year.

Fifty-two percent of Great Falls voters went against a proposed ban on "any marijuana business," and Cascade County at large approved local option marijuana taxes.

The state caps the local option sales tax on recreational and, separately, medical marijuana sales, at 3%. Those generated funds are split largely between the county (50%) and the municipalities (45%) while the state takes 5% of the revenue to defray the administrative costs of administering the tax revenues to local governments.

Gallatin, Madison, Mineral, Sanders, Hill, Valley and Sheridan counties each approved local taxes on recreational and medical marijuana sales Tuesday, in some cases by 70% or 80% margins of support.

Beaverhead County approved its own tax on recreational and medical sales although recreational pot sales remain banned in the county. County commissioners put the question to voters due to a citizen effort to allow recreational cannabis sales, but that campaign failed to gather enough signatures to reach the general election ballot.

Flathead County approved a tax on recreational cannabis sales by 73% but 51% of voters rejected the tax on medical cannabis.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the results of proposed bans on recreational sales in Manhattan and West Yellowstone. Recreational marijuana sales were approved by voters in both towns.